Episode 2: Japan

Lelouch Lamperouge sat silently watching the monitor of one of the stolen Britannia Sutherlands he had amounted through the course of his campaign. In the storage docks near his, he had managed to amass a total of 51 Britannia Sutherlands including his that still contained the original identification codes, communication channels, and all data pertaining to the original pilots. For that matter Lelouch had 23 of the original pilots sitting inside their Sutherland under his Geass, and another 27 Britannia soldiers filling in the other Sutherlands also under command from his Geass.

"Todoh, turn left at your next intersection. C3, a small troop will be approaching you soon, ambush them from your right and make sure they don't get past, don't worry about reserving ammunition." Lelouch could clearly see both the enemy knightmares and those of the Black Knights. The stolen unit's original communication signals allowed him to synchronize the GPS system to the Britannia units, though only units who operated on an older model of the OS. While it did not provide everything, it gave Lelouch enough information along with the Black Knight's reports to put together a clear picture of the situation as soon as he arrived.

Lelouch moved his Sutherland forward and opened the hangar doors that led out into the docks, facing away from the battlefield but close enough to hear the explosions and gunfire. Lelouch switched his communications over to a private local channel, "Death Knights, formation 6."

"Yes your majesty!" The other side of the radio responded. Awkward that they called him that, Lelouch recalled no reason why they should have called him as such. Perhaps it had something to do with his subconscious desire to claim the throne once Charles was killed. Yet that was too far ahead in plans he hadn't yet made, first he needed to get Britannia's attention off E.U.

A merchant son becoming a king, Lelouch laughed at his own thoughts. "Then again a merchant son becoming the leader of a rebellion is strange enough in itself."

Hangar doors around Lelouch began simultaneously opening as knightmare frames ranging from a few fourth generation Glasgow to the royal guard Gloucesters began appearing from the hangars. They wheeled around the docks and came to formation on a main road, facing the Southwest side of the Viceroy palace.

"Death Knights, plan C." At his command, 15 of the units sped off towards the Viceroy building while the remaining 35 units started scattering themselves more slowly into the city. Lelouch checked the field map on screen again. Todoh's unit was almost where he needed to be, Asahina had managed to cut open a path for the Death Knights though he knew nothing of that himself. The Black Knights would not know the existence of Lelouch's Death Knights, he highly doubted they would have taken well to the idea of it. Sometimes people were so naive despite being willing to kill others for their ideals.

Lelouch moved his Sutherland closer to the Viceroy palace slowly himself, making sure that he fell behind the other units and most of the battle. He had sent Kallen off to help open up some pathways and to retrieve her backup arm from the moving headquarters, if Lelouch was ambushed at this point it would bring forth too many new problems.

Lelouch wished he had not lost possession of the Gawain, the fool Orange had forced him to plummet the two of them to the depths of the ocean. It was unlikely that he could retrieve it later on with it buried in the middle of the ocean along with Orange and-

"No that was it, Gawain was the only burial price I had to pay for Orange." Lelouch felt satisfied with his answer and continued on, looking occasionally at the battle map and giving out directions.

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Kallen waited as patiently as she could while Rakshata's crew moved a spare version of Guren's right arm to the cargo bay of the moving headquarters and began mounting it onto Kallen's Guren.

"This child isn't as powerful as the original, the power output is down approximately 14% and the stabilizer won't last more than 6 seconds." Rakshata was giving Kallen a quick briefing on the spare arm. "It should hold out against standard Sutherland equipment but maybe only a shot or two of that Lancelot's rifle. Anymore and you'll likely overload it."

Kallen nodded down to Rakshata from her cockpit. Zero had said he had a plan and could end this battle within the hour, she hoped she had made the right choice in listening to him and leaving him alone. If he decided to betray them at this point it would be a swift end to everyone in the Black Knights.

"It's done!"

"Thanks!" Kallen waved back to the technicians as she began closing the hatch to Guren.

Kallen made sure her meters were showing reasonable numbers before she let down Guren's landspinners. "Kallen Kouzuki, launching!"

Guren launched into the ruined landscape of Tokyo Settlement, Lelouch had sent her to join up with Todoh's forces in preparation to storm the Viceroy palace, though she had no clue how he intended to clear half the Britannia forces that now concentrated near the Viceroy palace.

She manage to clear good ground without moving into any of the enemy knightmares, most likely Todoh's actions had brought their movement closer towards the palace. She hurried on calmly through the streets, Todoh would need her assistance to hold out until whatever Lelouch was planning happened.

"Kallen!" A roar bellowed in the skies.

Kallen stopped Guren, it seemed she would not be accompanying Todoh too soon, though what she faced was primarily the reason Lelouch had sent her off. "Suzaku…"

Lancelot still carried the spare Sutherland left arm, it seemed he had not had an opportunity to re-equip himself, that or they had no spare arms for the Lancelot. Perhaps Kallen could count on that bullet wound she had made and his energy filler being lower if he had not managed a trip back to his flying fortress yet.

"Where is Lelouch?" Kallen could hear the soft rasps and pants in his voice. If he had managed to get his wound treated he was still in no better condition than before, she had gained an upper hand in that.

"Don't know and I wouldn't tell you if I did. You're in my way Suzaku, move!" She prepared her fingers for any signs that Suzaku would fire on her, Rakshata had said Guren might not handle Lancelot's rifle too well, Kallen trust that women with her knowledge of knightmares if nothing else.

"You're still trying to cover for him? After everything you know now? Can't you see it, that man will betray you, betray Japan! Everything!" Kallen could almost imagine Suzaku gripping the trigger to Lancelot's rifle as he screamed.

"Who he is doesn't matter, he's gotten us this far, and he'll liberate Japan. If I worry about his betrayal, I'll deal with it after I deal with you." In the distant, the sound of gunfire began erupting, something different had happened, was Lelouch's plan in action?

"Suzaku, get out of my way now!"

"Have you ever wondered why Euphy killed the Japanese? Why Kusakabe committed suicide? Why Jeremiah Gottwald betrayed the Britannian forces to help you escape?" He sounded calm all of a sudden, something about his voice made Kallen unnerve and grip her controls in nervousness.

"What are you trying to say Suzaku?"

"…" A sound of a large explosion muffled his voice as a fiery glow erupted near the Viceroy palace. Then a second explosion followed and a third and more until she imagined that the Viceroy palace must have already become a crater.

The wind from the explosion shook Guren as Kallen felt her entire body vibrate, yet she couldn't move any more than that as long as Suzaku towered above her with that rifle pointed at her. Surprisingly, the Lancelot's float system held up well in the backlash of the explosion, it only swayed slightly to the sides, not enough to force him to lose his aim.

"What do you mean Suzaku? What is that?" She had heard him, though muffled he had spoke of a foreign term to her.

"That is Lelouch's power, the power which warps the minds of people to his commands, the Geass." Another explosion sounded in the distance, yet Kallen's ears were now trained so intensely on Suzaku's words she could hear nothing else.

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Out of the 15 Death Knights he had sent to storm the entrance six had been able to make it as far as to the very doors of the palace while the other nine managed to decimate over half of the Britannia forces.

His plan had been surprisingly simple. He had garnered 50 Britannia knightmares and stocked them all with a large quantity of reactive Sakuradite to be used as a bomb. They were quite simply a suicidal bomb squad acting under the influence of his Geass. The fact that they were once friendly units with the respective identification code helped them get that much closer before the Britannia troops decided to open fire. At which point it was already too late.

"Now Todoh, take everyone across the east flank and swing right into the entrance, clear out all remaining Britannia forces within the palace and secure it." Lelouch could see victory now, there were only very few minor conditions that needed to be met. He checked his clock, time was one of them, he expected reinforcements soon, and likely those lead by Schneizel for that matter.

"What was that just now Zero?" Todoh sounded doubtful. Likely he already suspected some foul play on Zero's behalf.

"Now is not the time, secure the Viceroy palace. We need to win this war before Britannia reinforcements arrive." Todoh would grudgingly accept if he was told the truth, he was soldier enough to stand it though he would question too much about the details.

"…Understood Zero."

Lelouch turned his channel back towards the Death Knights as he instructed the remainder of the knights towards strategic locations to scatter and decimate Britannia troops that had not gathered at the palace's entrance during the first assault.

Lelouch had gotten his own Sutherland much closer to the palace now, as soon as Todoh's forces cleared the majority of the interior, he could make his way to securing Cornelia. If she was still where he had left her, his capture of her would end this battle, she had too much charisma and talent to be lost to the Britannians.

"Zero. Zero! Have you returned?" Diethard sounded surprisingly more desperate than Lelouch could remember the man in his impressions. It was interesting to know the bounds to which Diethard could be pushed to, likely Lelouch would need to do so in time.

"Ah, what's the matter?" Diethard's unit had been in charge of securing media outlets and backing up the temporary headquarters that they had established at Ashford academy. Lelouch had not expected problems with either of those tasks, but the vague reports he had been given on Ashford academy suggested otherwise.

"According to the reports I've been given, Ashford academy is still at a stand-still. The Avalon is still there."

Diethard emphasized Avalon's presence, he was right to do so. Avalon was a battle force that still posed a significant threat at this point. It had enough raw power to turn the tides of battle even now. Lelouch cursed under his breath, "Still!? What is that ship still doing there?"

"That seems to be the other problem Zero. It seems that the stand-still has been caused by a student who both Rakshata and the Britannian scientist Lloyd have claimed is armed with a prototype nuclear reactor rigged to detonate." Diethard sounded disbelieving at the last part of his report himself. Yet at the very least he suspected a situation of equivalent graveness to keep the Avalon harboured there for so long.

"A student!? That's impossible!" Lelouch had gone through the top minds of the academy to see if any could be useful to him. If someone had been brilliant enough to create a rigged nuclear reactor he would have already put them to use. For one his Death Knights would have been a lot more efficient.

"The reports say her name is Nina Einstein, this comes from my own personal agent."

Probably Sayoko…Lelouched muttered a curse, Nina was an anomaly, her academic abilities were above average at best, yet nothing she had done could have proved her capable of making such a device. "What does she want? She can't be holding up everyone with a bomb for nothing."

Diethard seemed to hesitate before he continued, "It seems she wants Zero in order to avenge the late princess Euphemia."

Lelouch swore, the stupid girl and her stupid obsessions, she was starting to remind him of Suzaku in their compulsion to avenge Euphemia. She would have just been another crazy lunatic if she hadn't been armed with a supposed nuclear bomb equivalent. "Who's the commanding officer on site?"

"…Tamaki."

Lelouch groaned and felt a headache coming on. He had been dealt the worst hand possible in this situation. Nina had often shown she was unstable to erratic situations and Tamaki had shown he was all too willing to create erratic situations. "Alright, make sure you have the broadcast station secured within 10 to 15 minutes, we need to make an announcement to the world as soon as all this is over."

"Understood Zero." He sounded very happy about the last part of Lelouch's command, no doubt he could see what kind of announcement Lelouch planned to make.

Lelouch switched his channel over to match Tamaki's personal communicator, "Tamaki?"

"Z…Zero? Thank you, I knew you wouldn't abandon us, my buddy!" Tamaki sounded erratic already, Lelouch was genuinely surprised this supposed bomb had not already gone off. Perhaps he had Rakshata and this Lloyd to thank for that.

"The situation?"

"Ah, this stupid student is here in front of the academy, we've pulled the majority of our men out slowly but she won't take her eyes off us in the front here. She's riding on some kind of blue knightmare with a big tube attached to its back. Rakshata says not to shoot, but…Zero, I can shoot right? She won't stop screaming, it's annoying." Lelouch could almost hear Nina's screams in the background of the communicator, she sounded very close to the edge, too close if she really had a bomb on her.

"Oi Zer-" Lelouch cut Tamaki off and patched himself through to Rakshata. Checking his monitor map, he saw no active knightmares nearby that could help the situation, Lelouch still didn't quite believe Nina had been capable of making what they had described.

"Rakshata, that bomb? Is it real?" Lelouch spoke before he confirmed her on the other line, Nina was wasting away his precious time though perhaps he should thank her for occupying the Avalon.

"Zero? Well…the pudding earl has explained the theory to me, and he said he's seen the girl with a nearly completed simulation of the design. The theory makes sense, and I trust his judgement, though whether the girl could have perfected it enough already is doubtful in my mind."

"Pudding earl?" Lelouch caught the rest of the details but the reference she made seemed a slight skew of Rakshata's image.

"That Lloyd Asplund, the Britannian scientist aboard the Avalon."

So it appeared Rakshata knew him on some personal level in the past at the very least, Lelouch kept a tab on that in the back of his mind, information sometimes became useful at unexpected moments.

Lelouch considered the option of simply ignoring Nina's threats and just letting Tamaki do as he pleased, though one problem was that he would probably kill her, and while Lelouch wouldn't miss her much he would rather not have left his friends to deal with Nina's death. The other issue was still the possibility of Nina's bomb being genuine. According to this Lloyd it seems the impact would be able to wipe everyone clean off the battlefield. It was humiliating to think that for all the battle and grandeur occurring around him, everything was being held up by a 17 year old girl with an unstable obsession.

"Rakshata, patch me through on some loud speakers and get me some feedback to the girl."

"Alright, give me some time, we're moved out a lot of our equipment." Rakshata proceeded to go off and order some of her technicians about preparing the setup.

"Zero! The Viceroy palace has been cleared!" Zero turned his attention on the other channel, Todoh's voice was the first good news since his return following strings of problems he received.

"Good, secure a route from the palace to Diethard's location." Lelouch moved his Sutherland out from the debris and cover, proceeding towards the entrance to the palace.

All he had to do was secure Cornelia, with her as a hostage he would force all remaining Britannia forces in Japan to surrender and then proclaim Japan's victory and independence to drive off Schneizel's reinforcements. Knowing Schneizel's personality, he would likely fall back from an unknown situation, though if he refused to do so, Lelouch still had a good dozen of his Death Knights left, they would dent his forces enough to make him change his mind.

Lelouch came to an open street right before the Viceroy palace, Cornelia would be on the roof, alive but likely unconscious with the injuries she suffered.

Then as Lelouch wheeled around about to enter the palace, everything changed at once.

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"A Lie." It was all Kallen could muster, what Suzaku said was impossible, for a human to have that kind of power, it was like something from an anime. But Suzaku's explanation fit too well for her to simply throw aside. It explained too many things she never could about Zero's behaviour, his actions, and his accomplishments.

"It is the truth." Lancelot still drifted in the air in that position, it made Kallen feel as though every word he delivered from above was some kind of divine truth.

"No it's all a lie! Zero wouldn't- Lelouch wouldn't do that!" Kallen felt her heartbeat rising, she tried to calm herself down to no avail. Regardless of whether he was telling the truth, Suzaku had managed to stir her up rather well. She had lost some of the advantage she had against him.

"Zero is a lie, and Lelouch is the one who created it."

Kallen could almost hear something crack inside her mind, a piece of reality that had been chipped ever since she found out Zero was Lelouch.

"Enough, where is Lelouch?"

Kallen held onto one single thread that had remained, a thin thread, one solitary ideal that she still stood behind. It reminded her that everything she had done had not been for Zero, her comrades had not died for some scheme in Lelouch's mind to help his mother and avenge his father, she…they had fought and died for their ideals, for Japan.

Kallen looked up at Suzaku from her display. Her eyes filled with renewed determination and the focus of someone who knew what they wanted. She stretched her fingers gentled and gripped them firmly on her controllers. "Sorry Suzaku, you can have him when we're done."

"Is that so Kallen." Lancelot opened fire with its rifle as Guren placed its right arm on the debris of a collapsed building that Kallen was next to the whole time.

Kallen set the surger to a high burst shield form and fired off two consecutive shots right into the debris. The result was a giant dust cloud bursting from the debris as Suzaku's fire disappeared within the brown torrent of dirt and stone.

Suzaku doubted he had managed to hit Kallen with that single shot. Seeing the dust cloud building bigger and gaining height, Suzaku pulled Lancelot higher and further up.

Moving in the torrent of dust Guren felt for what Kallen had seen was an abandoned building that still stood straight. Lancelot had been floating next to it the entire time and if she was fast enough, he still would be.

Finding a tall stiff wall for Guren's size in the torrent of dust, Kallen knew she had located the building she was looking for. Using Guren's right claw arm she stabbed into the building and flung herself up using the arm as a pivot. Using the landspinners, Guren gained temporary grip against the building as it continued to scale the structure. When Kallen felt the landspinners losing traction she kicked off the side of the building upwards, propelling her out of the dust cloud.

Suzaku had not gained enough height when he recognized Guren erupting through the dust clouds to his left, jumping even higher than his Lancelot was. He cursed as he flipped Lancelot to point upwards and aim his rifle at Kallen's Guren. Guren lacked any significant manner of propulsion to change directions in mid-air. She had given him a clear target.

"A pity Kallen." Suzaku opened two shots, one aimed at Guren's head and another at the chest.

Guren reached out with its right arm as Kallen turned on the radiation surger to the highest density shield it could muster. The first bullet aimed at Guren's chest was caught and stopped, yet the shot aimed towards the head pierced the shield with little resistance. The bullet was luckily deterred slightly from its course and only tore off half of Guren's head.

Its momentum maintained, Guren continued to fall right into Suzaku as the radiation shield caught another two bullets and let one rip off a large chunk of Guren's chest armor.

"Got you!" The radiation shield dispersed as Guren's right arm latched onto Lancelot's body.

LIVE!

Suzaku disengaged his float unit as the momentum of Guren's fall caused the two frames to spiral towards the ground.

Ignoring it, Kallen switched her radiation surger into assault mode as it charged up in what seemed to be the longest second of her life.

"You're mine!" Kallen fired the radiation pulse.

At the same time Suzaku fired his slash harkens into the building Guren had climbed up from. The harkens bit into the structure and the tension of the cables swung both Guren and Lancelot towards the building.

Just as Suzaku could hear the circuitry in his own cockpit explode from the radiation burst, his body shook violently as the two frames collided with the abandoned building.

The explosion around Suzaku seemed to die off along with the radiation charge. His wound had split open again from the collision, making him want to bend over and hurl.

Before Suzaku could gather his thoughts his heard the audible snap of concrete as the slash harkens ripped out the pillars they held onto. The weight of the two frames combined had put too much strain on the structure, buckling two of its main support pillars.

The two frames plummeted towards the earth with the building collapsing not on top but next to them. A giant dust cloud formed around the two as both Kallen and Suzaku impacted the ground.

Kallen's hands moved around as she fumbled for Guren's controls, she was no longer sure whether she was still even sitting on her seat. The spinning and falling had put a lot of damage on her; she could feel the dampness of her own blood in various parts of her body. She could still move her body, or at least she thought she was doing so, and her mind was too numb to be able to accept any of the pain that should have accompanied all the blood.

Opening her eyes as far as it allowed, she saw from a heavily damaged monitor that Guren had landed on the ground on top of Lancelot. Guren's damaged head could only produce half the image but she could make out that Lancelot had landed on its back, likely bringing Suzaku the brunt of the damage.

Taking no time to pause, Kallen moved Guren and mounted it on top of Lancelot. The rubble from the building had buried a good portion of Guren's lower body and the sensors showed that Guren's legs was likely not able to stand anyways.

She placed Guren's radiation surger on top and Lancelot and pulled the trigger. All she got in return was a spark and an error message on the sensors. She muttered as she used Guren's left arm to pull the melee knife out. She raised it and aimed straight at Suzaku's cockpit.

Suzaku watched helplessly through a cracked and static monitor as Guren attempted to use the radiation surger to finish him and failed. His geis screamed at him to find a way to live, to do whatever it took.

Yet all Suzaku could muster was holding onto his sides with his left arm as blood trickled through his fingers. His old wound had opened up further and some of his organs seemed to have punctured as he could taste blood gurgling up from his throat.

LIVE! LIVE! LIVE! LIVE! LIVE! LIVE!

There was nothing he could do, Lancelot was out of energy and his right hand had no feeling, he suspected he had broken it during the fall.

Suzaku seemed to breathe a sigh of relief even as the voice screamed in his mind. "I tried my best. Your victory Kallen." Suzaku lifted his left hand from his wound and searched for the Knight pin Euphy had given him. He lifted it in front of his face, it had managed to remain in one piece and clean from his blood except the stains from his hands. "Sorry Euphy, but…at least I'll finally be able to repent for my sins…and I can…see you…again…"

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"Where is Zero!? Where is he!? Where is he!?" Nina screamed, her fingers shaking violently, and her voice unsteady. It was very clear to everyone that she had become extremely unstable.

Lloyd seemed to be sweating bullets as he twice thought that Nina had pushed on the trigger. "Is it done yet Cecil?"

Cecil's face appeared on monitor and shook her head, "We need another 10 minutes at least, any imprecision and we might as well push the button now."

Cecil had started working on a custom EMP device that would be able to sever a physical connection between Nina's trigger and the reactor without affecting the reactor itself. The design and concept were simple enough to take Lloyd only a few moments to draft up but the amount of precision needed in actually making it was costing them time.

Lloyd opened a private channel to Rakshata, "Oi, can't you do something about that man down there? He looks like he's about to explode on her any second."

Rakshata looked down at who Lloyd was talking about, to find Tamaki standing there, truly appearing as though he was about to erupt. "Nope." She took a whiff of her pipe, rather evidently trying to taunt Lloyd even in a situation like this, "Haven't you been working on countermeasures yet? We're trying to put Zero on live feed over here."

"We need more time for the countermeasure, if Zero can buy that for us then it's best." Lloyd would feel no guilty conscience if participating with Zero meant that they would not be replaced with a huge crater at the end of the day.

"WHERE IS ZERO!!!" Nina screamed into the air, Lloyd muffled his own squeal at Nina's sudden outburst. Saying she was unstable was about to become an understatement.

"Ah shut up! Zero isn't coming for you, I know that cause I'm Zero's number one friend." Tamaki raised his automatic and pointed it at Nina, "I've had enough, get down from there before I shoot you!"

Lloyd stood open mouth staring at the ship's display as he slowly put on hand over his face and sighed in resignation. "Cecil, I'd like a cup of tea and some biscuits before we're reduced to dense energy matters."

On the other end, Rakshata shook her own head, once again she could not reason why Zero kept this man in the Black Knights much less in a position that gave him control of anything beyond his own limbs.

"It's done!" Cecil's image appeared on the monitor from a room housed with the setup for the Hardron cannon of the ship.

Lloyd felt hope gaze out from amidst despair. "Hurry, there's no time, activate it now!"

Cecil placed what appeared to be a palm sized square attachment into one of the panels of the room. In response a small shaft opened at the base of the Avalon revealing an antenna about the size of an adult.

"You're Zero's friend?" Nina asked Tamaki in a sudden and freakishly quiet tone.

"That's right, not just his friend, I'm Zero's number one comrade, his best buddy and his soul companion!" Tamaki boasted, it seemed with every relation he added between him and Zero the more he believed he truly was what he said he was.

"In that case if you die, Zero will be hurt right?"

"Eh?" Tamaki paused, something seemed to be trying to register in his mind.

"In that case Zero will feel so much pain. If he really won't show up then I'll just have to kill everyone here to make him regret it." She held out the trigger, her hands visibly less shaky but her expression beyond the state of unstable.

"You bitch, I'll shoot holes through your head before you try that!" Tamaki placed his hands on the trigger and fired.

The automatic was lacking in acute accuracy and the bullets strayed as they rained down over Ganymede's side.

"DIE!"

"Now Cecil!"

Everything seemed to happen at once. An invisible shock wave flowed out from the Avalon as electrical peripherals in the ship itself began shutting down or exploding. Down on the ground some of Rakshata's equipment sizzled and fried, particularly the live feed she was setting up for Zero.

Ganymede seemed to hum as the control panels dimmed down and the frame itself seemed to slouch. At the same time Nina Einstein's fingers pressed firmly down on her trigger.

It was a blanket of silence as Lloyd held his breath. There were too many uncertain variables, he had no clue behind that principle Nina had used to rig the reactor to explode, it was hard to say whether the EMP would detonate it.

Two seconds and what seemed to be a lifetime later Lloyd breathed in air. He sighed in relief, either Cecil's project had done the trick or Nina's creation was incomplete.

Three seconds later, Nina leaned back in her seat, disbelieving, she had failed. Euphemia-sama could not be revenged, she couldn't even cause Zero pain.

"Hah was that it! Now you're going to pay for wasting our time with that little stunt." Tamaki screamed at Nina victoriously, he began running up to the Ganymede ready to take Nina down.

Click.

"Eh?" Nina could have sworn she heard something to her left. Turning towards it, her vision was suddenly engulfed in a world of white.

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Rakshata watched as a beam exploded from the side of the Ganymede's tank. The beam erupted to about a diameter as wide as the Ganymede was tall so that one side of the beam practically grazed the ground in the direction it erupted.

The blast was so instantaneous that the Ganymede barely shook before the beam had traveled beyond sight. As soon as the beam disappeared beyond the horizon a raging wind roared from behind knocking Rakshata off her feet.

The beam had created a vacuum that threw the Black Knights, the Ganymede and even dragged the Avalon towards the center of the blast.

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Kallen brought her knife straight down at Lancelot, towards where Suzaku would be. Normally her knife would only make a deep mark, but with the radiation burst she had shot before into Lancelot, a large amount of his midsection armor was already deformed and weakened.

The knife pierced smoothly into Lancelot's chest, a meter, half a meter and it would pierce Suzaku himself. She regretted having to do this but Suzaku was too skilled, if he was allowed to live Kallen doubted she would have equivalent advantages again.

Suzaku's vision of the Guren's blade was matched by a tiny glimpse of Guren's red frame as it slid not far from his chest. In that moment as his geis screamed into his mind, Suzaku favoured the coming death. He could almost feel the sweet sensation of what he had always imagined as his release.

In the next moment time seemed to stop, Suzaku had caught what he thought was a glimpse of a wisp of light flash past. The light seemed to stop time itself as everything around Suzaku went silent. Slowly he heard the rumbling of an escape pod ejecting and crashing into debris.

"What…is this?" Saved by a flash of light which destroyed Guren. Rescued by the light which gave him a chance to live. Denied his repentance for his sins and denied his peace.

"Incredible…" Suzaku muttered. Guren's knife remained still in Lancelot's chest, just about half a meter away from his own, yet he was alive, he had lived again.

"What a curse Lelouch…your Geass denied me even like this." Suzaku seemed to whimper as his frustration mixed together with his innate relief at surviving. "I hurt you Lelouch, I hurt you…"

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Perhaps out of everyone in those moments, Lelouch had been the one who had caught the best and longest sight of the result of Nina's bomb. Lelouch later described it more as a blindingly bright cylinder no longer than perhaps a truck.

The beam rammed right in and through and the Viceroy palace almost at the same time as it had left the Ganymede. The beam vaporized approximately a quarter of the Viceroy palace's foundations leaving no sight of debris, scent of an explosion or anything that would have been attributed to a conventional weapon.

"What was-" The slow groan of tearing caught Lelouch's ears. Lelouch looked again at the vaporized portion of palace, everything he had just planned out had suddenly been thrown out the window and replaced with a pile of excrement.

"Todoh! Go to the roof, secure Cornelia, hurry, the building is collapsing!" Lelouch swore loudly as he began to move his Sutherland away from the direction the palace was collapsing in. "Diethard!"

"Yes Zero?"

"Move a film crew over and begin taping the Viceroy palace this instant! Capture every single second of what's happening, hurry!"

Lelouch twirled his Sutherland just in time to dodge a piece of falling debris, plans had to change now that the situation was different, he would have preferred to utilize his original plan if Todoh managed to capture Cornelia but if not Diethard's video was going to have to substitute.

The building had tilted in its collapse beyond the tension that the remaining foundation could provide, it would soon enter freefall. It was unfortunate but likely a good deal of the Black Knights left inside would not make it out.

"Zero, I've made it to the roof but Cornelia isn't anywhere in sight." Todoh responded, Lelouch pointed his scanners up towards the roof of the building and vaguely managed to pick out Todoh's Gekka.

"Fine, evacuate the building. Take as many of our people with you as you can." Lelouch turned his attention away from the falling Viceroy palace and headed towards Diethard's location. He didn't have much time left with Schneizel about to land soon, he needed to strike while he still had a chance, particularly since he no longer had Cornelia as a trump.

On his way over to the station he had tried to get in contact with Rakshata, Lelouch wasn't sure but it was likely that the change to his plans had been caused by Nina's disturbance over at the academy.

His attempts to connect to Rakshata were responded to with an error message on screen, her signal had been lost. Lelouch hoped the rest of his friends were still safe and had not been dragged into the mess.

His contact with Kallen also failed, which troubled him as he gave her no further orders then to assist Todoh and watch out for Suzaku. Her connection being closed prepared him for the worst outcome, though since Suzaku had not come hunting for Lelouch, it was hard to say what had occurred.

Lelouch arrived at the media station in a few minutes, he dismounted the Sutherland and headed to meet up with Diethard at the broadcasting station, he had ordered Diethard to make the preparations beforehand. The broadcast would be aimed towards the entire world, it would not be enough that Schneizel knew they had won, if they wanted to pull his attention away from Japan they needed to make sure the entire world knew they had won so that anyone who dreamed of it might now dare follow in Japan's footsteps.

"Diethard, start the recording, play the footage when I signal you."

"Understood." Diethard went to instructing his man as they began broadcasting live across the globe.

Zero stepped onto screen, behind him stood the insignia of the Black Knights and the symbol of Japan.

"Citizens of Japan, residents of the world, and enemies of Britannia, my name is Zero!" Lelouch paused to let the moment soak through. "For years Britannia has raged its tyranny across the world, seizing freedom from our very hands, but that will no longer be tolerated."

Lelouch signalled to Diethard as a square on one of the corners of the live broadcast began displaying the collapse of the Viceroy palace.

"We have stood up against Britannia, we have stood up for our freedom! Britannia has fallen, the empire has lost. We shall stand in Britannia's shadow of tyranny no more for we are the Black Knights and we bring justice to this world!"

Lelouch waved out one of his arms as an image of the Japanese flag flared on screen, waving strongly in the wind and a background of a blue sky. "We return this country to its freedom, we return Japan!"

Lelouch could see the excited faces of some of those who stood in the broadcast station, some of those who were Japanese themselves and the fear in the eyes of those who Diethard had held hostage. The effect he wished to achieve could be seen across these very people, he was getting the results he had wanted.

Lelouch decided to give the world one last message.

"World, listen to me! I am Zero, enemy of Britannia, leader of the Black Knights, defender of justice! Seek me out and together, we shall free this world!"