Gundam Fate, episode 8 - Gift from an Old Friend

Gift from an old friend
After the battle at the borders of Orb had ended, Ryubi and the others returned back to Orb with a victory in the defensive battle against ZAFT and the Earth Alliance and unpublically recieved medals of honor and bravery the next day. Two days later, Ryubi had gotten a message from Sabre from the Earth Alliance who had already died; since Sabre was already dead, he was suspicious. When Ryubi had answered the message, he found out that the message was recorded eight days before his death and one day before his betrayal; the message had told Ryubi that if his mobile suit was destroyed or if he just wanted a new one, he could have Sabre's Nova Gundam. After the message ended, an Earth Alliance general named Drake Wiser had sent another message about Sabre's dying wish, saying that if Ryubi wants Sabre to rest in peace, he should accept the gift and leave Orb to come to the Earth Alliance, Wiser would also had given Ryubi a higher rank if he joins them and then ended the message giving him five days to join them or the Nova will be rebuilt and given to another pilot. When the message had ended, Ryubi was just in a daze wondering what he should do, stay in the nation of hope? Or respect his friend's last wish? But during his message, he didn't notice that there was an Orb soldier at his door listening to everything that was said in the message. Back in space, the ship ReHOME had gotten closer to its destination and during that trip, Lacus was having a somewhat strange talk with George Glenn while Lowe was talking about his autograph that he wrote in the Archangel a few years ago to Kira (who never even noticed the signature).

Back in Orb, the soldier who was eavesdropping had started think of a plan to blackmail Ryubi into doing his work, but Ryubi declined it even if it'll cost him his position in the Orb military. Not too soon after, Ryubi went back into his room to think about the gift but is still undecided. The next day, the eavesdropper tried to blackmail him three more times and failed so he finally decided to tell Athrun about Ryubi's deal with the Earth Alliance but Ryubi did not care, all he cared about was trying to decide on if he should take the gift or not. At the end of the episode, Athrun is searching for Ryubi to talk about the deal but can't find him; the episode then ends with Ryubi at the front gate of Freya's house, wondering if he should talk to her about the gift.