Author's Note: I don't own or profit off of Gundam Seed.

Hot.

The lean youth shivered, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

"Hey, Kid-"

Mu La Flaga abruptly bit off the cheerful greeting as he looked at the tired face of the young coordinator. The usually brilliant amethyst eyes where unfocused, and the deceptively delicate fingers seemed to type rather awkwardly on the keyboard compared to its usual confident and swift movements whenever Kira updated his Strike Gundam.

"Kira."

"What? Oh, hello Mu." The words were soft and breathy, as if Kira couldn't get enough air into his lungs to speak properly.

His suspicions aroused, the blond officer reached out a hand and placed it on the young coordinator's forehead. His concerned frown deepened as he felt the intense heat radiating from Kira's flushed skin.

"You're sick, aren't you?"

"Huh?" Kira responded, trying to focus on the stream of information on the screen. Why was the screen so blurry? Perhaps he needed to clean it…

Mu reached over and pushed the screen out the way.

"Mu!" Kira protested, a bit irked. He'd been working on that program for two torturous hours already and it was almost done. The blond pilot simply grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the cockpit. "Stop that-"

"Damn it, Kid," Mu looked stern and disapproving as they slowly floated down towards the walkway. "you're burning up with fever. The least you can do for your health is to rest a bit."

"Coordinators don't get sick." Kira said, hating himself immediately afterwards for how it sounded so arrogant coming out from his mouth.

"And I suppose you're feeling absolutely vibrant today?" The blond said dryly as he punched in the access code to the sealed door.

The coordinator flushed, his silence offering the answer.

They walked towards the medical center in comfortable silence. Kira was a bit alarmed when he realized that his legs trembled slightly in exhaustion from the short walk. The headache he'd been suffering was now a full-blown monster, making him nauseous at any quick movements.

"Sit." Mu indicated absently as he rummaged through the medical cabinets. Kira obliged, grateful for the support that the sterile white bed offered.

"I can't give you any serious pills, I'm afraid." The blond pilot said, emerging with a bottle. "But a bit of aspirin and a nice cool cloth would probably be comfortable to you right now."

"Thanks." Kira managed to say. Was it his imagination, or was the world starting to look a bit blurry?

He silently accepted a glass of water and swallowed some aspirin down, then lay down, closing his eyes as he felt a wonderfully cool damp towel placed gently on his forehead.

"Sleep well, Kid." Mu said softly, then quietly exited the room.

Kira soon fell into the deep abyss of dreams, where his dark nightmares chased after him.

(0)(0)(0)

'Why Kira?' The mangled corpse of an innocent young girl reached for him, fingers holding a yellow origami flower. The flower was splashed with crimson blood. 'You lied. You said you would protect us…'

"No!" The coordinator shot up in his bed, silvery tears gleaming on his long brown eyelashes. Suddenly, a force slammed into the ship and Kira groaned as he was suddenly thrown against the wall.

All nightmares momentarily put aside, Kira scrambled to his feet, biting back an urge to vomit. That had clearly been an explosion, which could only mean that the Archangel was engaged in battle. Why didn't someone wake him? He was not too sick to defend the ship and its precious crew.

Kira stumbled out of the medical center, glad that he'd forgotten to take off his flight suit, and made his way to the hanger, fighting to keep his balance from the occasional blasts that rocked the ship. His unsteady, fever-induced, legs were burning with exertion when he finally managed to slip inside the Strike Gundam. Accepting his helmet from a worker, the young coordinator sealed the hatch and powered up his Gundam. The giant mecha came to life as Kira connected to the main network.

"This is Kira Yamato. Requesting launch for Strike Gundam."

"Acknowledged, Kira Yamato. Strike Gundam. Please standby."

Kira gritted his teeth as a wave of dizziness swept through him as he launched, the G-forces battering his frail body.

He emerged into a chaotic fight, barely managing to dodge stray blasts as he scanned for SkyGrasper. It was in the middle of the chaos, smoke streaming from one engine as it desperately tried to shake off a tail. A dodge, and a quick, calculated blast of the trigger, and Strike forced the pilot away from SkyGrasper.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Kid?"

Mu La Flaga appeared on the screen, looking battered but anxious and annoyed at seeing Kira in battle.

"I can't just sit there and watch as they attack us!" Kira explained as he maneuvered to shield SkyGrasper from the furious swarm of mobile suits. "Go back, your fighter is in critical condition."

"You can't fight this many by yourself in your condition! You could barely-"

Kira cancelled the videophone connection and shoved SkyGrasper towards the direction of the Archangel as he shot into the furious barrage of enemy fire. Strike dodged, the agility of the advanced suit allowing Kira to avoid hits at the last minute. His breath came in short gasps as a fiery pain seized his chest.

Maybe Mu was right. Maybe he couldn't handle this many suits alone.

Strike engaged full power to its rear thrusters and brought out the laser sword. The deadly weapon glowed, blurring as it moved with lightning quick laser-precision. ZAFT soldiers barely had time to scream denial at their fate before their mobile suits exploded in angry fireballs, torn apart by the explosion into millions of blackened, twisted shards of metal that sliced through the cold bleak darkness of space.

Dull violet eyes stared impassively at the cold data flickering down his monitors.