PHASE-09: THE FADING LIGHT

The Archangel crew eagerly anticipate their rendezvous with the 8th Fleet advance force - none more than Flay, the daughter of an Alliance minister, whose father insisted on accompanying the fleet to greet her. However, their impending reunion is disrupted as Le Creuset dispatches his mobile suits to intercept the advance force.

Kira and Mu set off to aid the advance fleet, but the ZAFT mobile suits hold them at bay. Aboard the Archangel, Flay comes up with a desperate scheme to save her father by holding Lacus hostage. While the Archangel crew try to calm her down, Le Creuset's Vesalius finishes off the advance fleet flagship, and with it Flay's beloved father. Natarle, the Archangel's combat commander, carries out Flay's plan and forces the Vesalius to withdraw.

PHASE-10: CROSSROADS

By threatening Lacus's life, the Archangel crew have saved themselves from Le Creuset's forces, but they're troubled by their own craven tactics. Flay is inconsolable after witnessing her father's fate, and blames Kira for failing to save him.

Learning that Lacus is engaged to his childhood friend Athrun, Kira decides to make amends by helping her escape from the Archangel. With the aid of his friends, Kira arranges to hand Lacus over to her fiancé. The Coordinator idol is returned to her people, but Kira again rejects Athrun's pleas to change sides, and the two old friends part ways as sworn enemies.

PHASE-11: THE AWAKENING SWORD

The Archangel's officers conduct an ad hoc court-martial to discipline Kira for releasing their hostage, and acting captain Murrue decides to let him off with a stern warning. Meanwhile, taking no chances after the loss of the advance force, the Alliance's 8th Fleet is coming in its entirety to escort the Archangel.

Le Creuset has called in reinforcements of his own - the warship Gamow, from which Yzak and his fellow Gundam pilots launch a surprise attack on the Archangel just before it joins the 8th Fleet. Kira and Mu struggle to defend the Archangel, and the stress of battle triggers a strange reaction in Kira; with the vision of a bursting seed, he enters a berserker state and cripples Yzak's Duel Gundam. The ZAFT pilots retreat as the 8th Fleet approaches.

PHASE-12: FLAY'S DECISION

The Archangel has successfully joined the Earth Alliance's 8th Fleet, and its crew are warmly greeted by Admiral Halberton, the chief proponent of the Gundam development program. Halberton and his fleet will now escort the Archangel down to Earth, so that it can complete its journey to the Alliance headquarters in Alaska.

For Kira and his friends, the struggle appears to be over; they can now leave the military and return to Earth with the other Heliopolis refugees. But Flay, intent on avenging her father, decides to enlist in the Alliance forces. One by one, Kira's friends tear up their discharge orders and follow suit, and at the last minute Kira decides to remain aboard the Archangel in order to continue protecting them.