Disclaimer: Gundam SEED does not belong to me and I do not stand any monetary gains in writing this fan-fiction.

A/N: another short one. Well, at least I'm updating…

1/1/2006: minor changes made with grammar and spelling

Phase Shift Down

Part 3

Kira was escorted to a really empty room. There was a cot at the corner and a small wash area. The ZAFT personnel that had escorted him there had key in a very complicated sequence, which Kira had promptly memorized. It would probably come in handy, he had thought.

The room was little more than a cell actually, and the cot was secured tightly to the floor, as in many battleships. The place was unfortunately devoid of any potential weapons. The four walls were a metallic grey, and there wasn't much heating there. Kira was very sure the Archangel was warmer at least.

At a loss as to what to do, Kira shuffled to the cot. He shivered and curled up on the hard mattress, and let out a dissatisfied grunt. He'd never slept on such an uncomfortable bed before. He'd been pampered after all; his parents were pretty well off. Sure, they weren't rich, but they certainly hadn't had him sleeping on a rock-hard bed.

Time seemed to pass at a crawl and as the door hissed, Kira jumped out of the bed in shock.

" Athrun…"

The blue-haired young man looked very uneasy. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but later seemed to decide against it.

"Anou… I just wanted you to know… sorry. Especially for the way everybody here as been treating you so far… but, that's just it. It's for the best anyway… The Naturals were only making use of you. You're really better off here."

Kira was at a loss for words, so he just sat on the bed and stared at Athrun, who felt really terrible and uncomfortable under his gaze.

"Yeah, that's all." Then he awkwardly bolted out of the room. The door almost immediately hissed shut again after he left.

flash to Archangel

"I can't believe you just gave up on Kira like that!" shouted Milliaria, her hands were clenched in a fist.

"We had no choice." Murrue said softly. The best decisions often hurt. Of course they could have tried to save Kira, by rushing head-first into concentration of Mobile suits, but it was too risky. A battleship was not agile enough to doge attacks from 3 mobile suits AND another battleship. It would be too much to handle. 'And the boy is not even one of us' her mind whispered.

Milliaria huffed and ran to Tolle who hugged her and glared daggers at Murrue.

"I guess I thought wrong of you. I'm disappointed." Sai said quietly. He walked out of the control room. Tolle, Kazui and Milliaria followed soon after and the control room descended into uncomfortable silence.

"They are children. I think you made the right decision." Nartelu affirmed. She sighed at the antics of the 'children'.

XXXXX flash to hangar of Gamou XXXXX

"Lucia, is 157 connected?" shouted a mechanic from his workstation.

"No not yet. It haven't been able to unlock the code." 'Lucia' shouted clearly very frustrated.

"Do you need help?"

" Hella, How about to trying connection 34 first, restart the system, and look at the 51st code to make sure the sequence we tried was correct."

The Mechanical Crew of Gamou was already very frustrated. They had been working on unlocking the system of Strike for hours already but they've had no progress.

"This OS is nothing like the other Earth Alliance Mobile Suits…" Lucia muttered under his breath. He was very annoyed at the error window that kept appearing on the screen.

"Do you need any help?"

Hella looked up from her screen. Ah! One of the Reds!

"If you don't mind… we're having trouble unlocking the OS of GAT X-105."

Nichol looked surprised. He had but, taken only a few seconds to unlock the OS of his Blitz right after… acquiring it. He had not expected the Strike to be any different.

"Okay, so what can I help with?" he asked. One of the mechanics directed him to a work station.

…

One hour later, Nichol was frustrated beyond belief already. He was nearly on the verge of tearing out his hair, banging his head on the table, and just stomping out of the room. But, it would've been very childish, so he refrained from doing any of those.

'I wonder who set up this OS, he certainly is very skilled.' Nichol thought with more than a whiff of admiration.

"I'll tell the commander of the difficulties we're having." Nichol said. He didn't want to be anywhere near computers and wires for the time being, they were making his head hurt.

The crew visibly sighed in relief.