3: Reunion

Jeremiah Gottwald was a man of great honor and integrity. He prided himself as the leader of the Purist Faction, and his hard handed tactics when dealing with the lowly Numbers of any area he had the displeasure of being in. His second in command, Villetta Nu, was equally harsh with her tactics, which is why she was his right hand subordinate.

Both of them were superior soldiers, himself having the title of Margrave, in essence a border protector. Villetta was grasping at becoming a Baroness herself since she was common-born, but that hadn't stopped her.

Nothing would stop them. Least of all the obstacle in front of them, this so-called Guren Type-01.

Villetta, though she didn't know why, was wary of the machine, however. It was unlike any Knightmare she had seen, or heard of, save for the EU's Alexander, which was a dangerous piece of work any way one looked at it.

"It doesn't matter what your machine is called," Jeremiah said haughtily, targeting the machine with his chest-mounted machine guns, "That hunk of iron will do you no good against a member of the Purists!" The purple Sutherland shot forward, his guns blazing as he raised his tonfa to strike.

The Guren shielded itself with the lance it carried and surged forward faster than Jeremiah thought possible and whipped around, the left leg sweeping under Jeremiah's machine, and knocking its legs out from under it. Villetta let loose a blast from her assault rifle only for the Guren to jump out of line of fire as nimbly as a cat, speeding toward her with the lance primed.

Villetta blocked with her tonfa coming online not a moment too soon as the Guren collided with her, pushing her back easily Jeremiah was up in a moment, speeding to the woman's aid.

Clara saw this and whipped her lance into the midsection of Villetta's frame, using the momentum from the strike to force the Sutherland around, and slammed her right into Jeremiah. Both crashed to the ground as the young teen, smiled inside her machine, while it struck a arrogant pose not unlike how she'd seen Cornelia li Britannia do whenever she took an Area, hand on one hip, and her lance held in hand as she observed her playmates.

"Secondhand junk," she snarked, smirking inside her Knightmare, "A Sutherland is no match for a Guren."

"Why you little rat!" Jeremiah roared, taking up Villetta's rifle and letting loose a blast. Clara lept into the air, and arrowed down on them from above, her lance ready to pierce right through them. Jeremiah saw this and shoved Villetta out of the way, and rolled his own Sutherland out of the danger zone as she crashed into the street, lance shattering concrete, "That thing's as nimble as a Gloucester!"

"What type of Knightmare is that?" Villetta demanded as Clara righted herself with a flip, landing as gracefully as a dancer. "It's not even using artillery!"

Clara giggled delightedly from inside her Guren, "Oh, I thought I told you," she said in an almost sultry tone, "This the Guren Type-01, an MZI-MP Seventh Generation Knightmare!"

Jeremiah's eyes widened, "S-Seventh!?"

"Impossible!" Villetta yelled.

Clara giggled again, licking her lips, "Nothing's impossible," she said, raising the left arm of her machine, revealing a type of weapon, "Just like how you guys are barely worth fighting inside those Fifth Generation relics!"

She fired off two small canisters from her right left arm.

"Grenades!" Jeremiah shouted, and pushed Villetta back as the first of the missiles exploded against his right shoulder, the other hitting the Knightmare right in the factsphere. Jeremiah was forced to eject as his Knightmare shut down.

"Lord Jeremiah!" Villetta yelled in dismay.

Clara pouted, "Aw, no more?" She complained, "That barely got me warmed up." The Guren then looked at the remaining Knightmare, "What about you? Think you can do any better than your friend?"

"YOU BITCH!" Villetta charged the red Knightmare...and was impaled below the cockpit by the lance she carried.

She ejected moments later as the Knightmare exploded due to a self-destruct code entered just before Villetta charged. The Guren was engulfed in the blast, and Villetta smirked, thinking that she'd gotten one over on the monstrosity. But as the smoke cleared, the Guren Type-01 still stood, covered in soot and grime, but unharmed by the explosion.

"That was such a tease," Clara complained to no on in particular, "This fight left me totally hot and bothered!"

"What did you expect?" Rai's voice said over the radio, "You were up against Fifth Generation Knightmares with a Seventh Generation." She huffed at his voice, but conceded the point, "Lelouch's turned on his tracker, so you'd better get over there. I'm on my way."

"What's the plan?" Clara asked.

"From the sounds of things, Clovis himself is coming into the ghetto," Rai said, sounding pleased, "Bet'cha anything that Lelouch is gonna be gunning for him."

Clara nodded, looking up as she spotted a fleet of VTOLs coming her way, "Hey, I've got aircrafts coming in," she said, "Want me to get rid of them?"

"No, get your ass over here," Rai said, "those are probably nothing but ground troops, and we're gonna need you over here. Lelouch spotted a G1 Base moving into the area, and think that there's a good chance that Clovis will order a massacre inside the ghetto over that canister our new friends stole."

A vision of a yard filled with dead bodies flashed through the girl's mind as she paled. "Over my dead body."

Rai chuckled, "Let's not go that far."

=x=

Kallen was speeding along the subway system following the signal being transmitted to her by Nagata while her thoughts kept turning to the Knightmare that had saved her on the road. 'Chances are that my brother will give you one of these babies, too.' The pilot had said to her, but where the hell did she even get such a machine?

"Kallen!"

Kallen started at the voice, "Ohgi, is that you?" She said into the radio, "Where are you guys?"

"Well, we're with Nagata, actually," the man said, and she could hear a frown in his voice, "And...well, there's a Britannian kid here...says he knows you." Kallen raised her brow at this. No one knew about her activities in the resistance. "It's crazy, because Nagata said the two of them made a deal."

'That explains why he's still alive,' the girl thought as she sped to Nagata location, overly curious now. "What kind of deal did he make?" She pulled off into the ghetto area where she saw Nagata's truck pulled into an old tunnel. The cargo trailer was sitting open, where she could see Nagata, bandaged up, and one other person fiddling with the gas canister. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS DOING!?" She roared over the Glasgow's PA system. "That's dangerous!"

Nagata waved her off as she neared them, and skidded to a halt, kicking up a cloud of dust. She ejected from the cockpit and hit the ground running. The one sitting with Nagata was obviously Britannian, judging by the Ashford Academy uniform he was wearing, and was paying her yelling no mind as he punched in a code on the canister. The canister began to glow.

"GET OUT OF THERE!" Kallen screamed as the canister broke open...but it wasn't the deadly gas that they had all thought it to be. Instead, out of the blinding light of the canister came a girl...a girl with beautiful lime-green hair, wrapped in a straight jacket.

Ohgi and the others had all hung back just in case the boy was wrong, but it appeared that he was indeed right when he told them that the canister was a prison instead of a simple container for chemicals.

Lelouch smiled as the girl turned her head and looked at him. It was her. From seven years ago, what seemed like an eternity. He reached out and took her from the canister, holding her gently in his arms. She looked at him with those same lovely amber orbs he remembered had looked up his sister with such kindness and pity, and had brought back her sight. "Hello again." He said, smiling at her as he began to unbuckle and unzip her restraints.

She looked at him with a smile in those eyes.

Kallen went up to Ohgi, "What the hell's going on?" She demanded, "Who is that guy?"

Ohgi shrugged, "Dunno," he said, slightly freaked out, "But I think whatever we stole...it's gonna lead to one hell of a shit storm." He said, looking over at Tamaki, who was staring just as much as he was. It was certainly something when his friend was brought up to be speechless. He looked back at Kallen, "What about the one that helped you escape?"

"She stayed behind to take care of the two Sutherlands that got dropped on me," Kallen said, looking around, "Where's everyone else?"

Ohgi shook his head, frowning as he ran his hand through his hair, "Yoshida's group went to check out a lead the kid there mentioned about a supply train he heard about when he tapped into the Britannian's frequency. Inoue and Sugiyama are scouting the area to make sure we aren't found. Minami's keeping his ears on that radio the kid hooked up, and keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn't try anything."

The 'kid' in question was helping the girl to her feet. It was then that she got a really good look at him. "No way!" Kallen breathed out, and marched forward. "Lelouch Lamperouge!?"

Finally, Lelouch turned around to face the red-head, "Ah, hello, Kallen."

"What the hell are you doing here?!" She demanded, climbing up into the trailer with them. "And what the hell's with this girl?! Why was she inside that container?!"

Nagata stepped between them, warding her off a little bit, knowing the girl's temper. "Easy, Kallen, the kid's not a threat," he said, looking back at the young man, "At least, not to us. He saved my life, after all."

Kallen frowned as she looked around her friend to see Lelouch helping the mysterious girl to stand up, "Easy, there," he said as the girl staggered, "They really had you doped up, didn't they?" He growled, and looked at Kallen, "And to answer your first question, I saw you crash into the construction site earlier, and went down to help. I was on top of the trailer when Nagata put it in reverse and threw me in."

Kallen looked at Nagata who shrugged stiffly, "Hey, I didn't know about him until he came up and started bandaging my mounds," he said, frowning as he rotated his left shoulder, "Probably would've bled to death by now if not for him."

Kallen crossed her arms in irritation, "Okay, but why the hell are you helping us now?" She asked, "The Lelouch Lamperouge I know is a lazy good-for-nothing that spends more time gambling than he does in class."

"And the Kallen Stadtfeld I know is a quiet, sickly girl who, although she gets top marks in class, is almost always absent from school because of her poor health," Lelouch pointed out, smirking at her as she blushed. "I'm not who I appear to be, just as you are not who you appear to be, Kallen. Simple as that." He said, "As to why I'm helping you now? I feel like Clovis will do something drastic if he doesn't get this girl back. And as it happens, I was having my friend transporting India's Seventh Generation Knightmare, the Guren Type-01, to a bunker where I've been storing all of my hard earned war funds and equipment."

Kallen felt her jaw drop as Ohgi and Tamaki came up to them, the latter shouting, "Did you just say you've got Seventh Gen Knightmares!?"

"Tamaki, keep it down, will you?" Ohgi sighed, looking at the teen, "But I have to ask, how the hell did you get a hold of those?"

Lelouch sighed dramatically, "Gambling," he said, "Lots and lots of gambling." He said, looking toward the cab of the truck, "Mister Minami, have you heard anything about what Clovis is planning, yet?"

Minami poked his head out the window, "Nothing, yet," he said, looking cross, "What are you expecting from this, anyway? Is that girl there really that important?"

Lelouch looked at the girl he was holding, "I know that she saved my life seven years ago, and somehow gave my sister back her sight," he said, seeing looks of disbelief crossing their faces, "It's fine if you don't believe me; I could hardly believe it myself."

"Hey, I think she's finally coming out of it," Nagata said as the girl blinked a few times, clearing her eyes of the glazed look she had before.

She looked around herself for a moment before her eyes landed back on Lelouch, and that smile came back. "You...you've grown a bit, haven't you, Petit?" She asked, her voice slightly weak, but it was indeed the same as Lelouch remembered.

"And you haven't changed at all, mon ange gardien." Lelouch smiled softly, settling her on her feet, "Can you tell us what happened to you? Like why you were inside this thing?" He said, gesturing to the canister.

"I'd like to know that as well," Ohgi said, "We were told that this thing contained a deadly poison gas, but it was you, instead."

The girl shook her head slightly, clearing out the fuzz that still hung over her, "I was...detained by that...wretch of a prince!" She snarled suddenly, her amber eyes blazing, "He wanted something from me, but I wouldn't give it to him." She growled, "I was captured, and...experimented on."

Kallen frowned at this, "Human experimentation?" She sneered, "That violates every law that the Emperor set forth in the science division." She suddenly smiled, "If people knew about this, then - "

"Clovis would be executed without a trial," Lelouch smiled as well. A wicked, evil smile that was reserved for only the most idiotic of foes when played his games. He picked up his phone, "I'm going to tell Rai to get his butt over here. If Clovis is afraid, then he's liable to make some huge mistakes. Especially when it's his neck on the chopping block."

"The girl you sent to help me said that you'd set me up with one of those Knightmares," Kallen said, her glared pointed, meaning that if she was denied what she was promised, there would be hell to pay.

Before he could respond, Minami stuck his head out the window again, "Hey, I've got something!"

Lelouch was immediately on the move as he hurried into the cab, and Kallen noticed that he walked very lightly. Light enough that his shoes made no noise as me moved. "What's the word?"

Minami listened for a moment, frowning, "Sounds like you were right. The Royal Guard's being deployed right now, as well as a squadron of Honorary Britannians." He said, looking at the boy, "They want this container bad."

Lelouch nodded, "Is there any word on Clovis?"

Minami nodded, and smirked, "The G1 Base that's moving through the ghetto right now has him on board." He said, making Lelouch grin, but then the man grew furious, "SON OF A BITCH!" He roared, throwing the headset off as the other moved in to see what the problem was.

"What's wrong!?" Ohgi asked.

"That bastard!" Minami slammed his hand down in the dashboard, "He's not taking any chances of letting this things get out of the ghetto!" He snarled, "He's ordering the slaughter of everyone inside the ghetto! No survivors!"

Lelouch started a rant in French, and nobody needed to speak the language to know he was swearing up a storm as he dialed out a number on his phone. "Rai, where the hell are you?!" He snapped into the phone, "You should've been here by now!"

Meanwhile Ohgi was radioing in on Yoshida about the supply train that Lelouch had mention, and smiled, "Good news, the supply train's filled with Sutherlands, along with assault rifles, and energy fillers!"

"Great, at least we've got a way to stop this!" Kallen smiled, and looked at Lelouch, "What's going on with your guy?"

Lelouch was about to answer when a truck's horn roared to life as Rai skidded to a halt in front of the tunnel with a Knightmare right behind him. "Rai, Clara!" Lelouch yelled, running out to meet them, "It's about time! What happened to you?!" He demanded as he saw some scratches on the truck and the Guren Clara piloted. Rai, however, jumped out of the truck, gesturing wildly.

"No time to explain!" He yelled, looking at Ohgi's group, "We need to get everyone armed up! Like yesterday!"

Lelouch nodded, and went about opening the truck. Kallen and Ohgi helped him as the Gurens were unloaded and given pilots. Before Lelouch took up his own, he tore off his left sleeve and wrapped it around his face, concealing as much as he could just in case he had the misfortune of being ejected. He looked down at his phone, a picture of his little sister and himself sitting on the screen.

A growl of resolve rumbled in his chest, "Alright," he said, "Ohgi, will you follow my lead?"

"Why the hell should we follow you?!" Tamaki roared in outrage, "You're just some Britannian punk that just showed up out of the blue, and now you want to give us orders?!"

Ohgi looked at him, "He has a point, kid," he said, "We're grateful, but we really don't have any reason to trust you."

Lelouch frowned. They didn't have any time to waste for him to try to convince them of his intentions. Luckily he was saved from doing so.

"If you don't wanna trust the kid, then trust me," Nagata said, coming up beside Ohgi, "He hates Britannia more than anyone I've seen yet 'cept maybe Kallen," he said, looking at the Guren's assembled. "And he's given us these Knightmares. We may have a chance of pulling off a miracle with this kid around."

"You're just feeling guilty 'cause the brat saved your ass, Nagata!" Tamaki roared.

"And he wouldn't have had to if you'd just stuck with the fucking plan, you lard mouth!" Nagata roared right back, "Now I can't even fight, much as I'd like to, so just this once, trust the kid. If we don't, we're probably all dead, anyway!"

Clara looked on from inside her machine, "Well that's a dim outlook," she sighed, pressing the PA system, "Lelouch, I'm following your lead in this. Let these guys do what they want if they don't wanna listen to you. It's their funeral."

"Wha'd you say, ya bitch!?" Tamaki snapped.

Clara growled, leveling her lance at the man who yelped, "I said shut the hell up, big mouth!"

Ohgi shook his head, scrubbing his hands through his hair, "I don't like this. Not one bit...but I have a good feeling about you, kid." He said, looking up at the boy who was mounting his Knightmare. "We'll follow you. I'll have Yoshida's group mount up in the Sutherlands you led them to."

"That gives us a fighting force of just about thirty Knightmares," Lelouch smiled, wishing he had his custom unit. "Have at least two of the Gurens with three to four Sutherlands." He said, "While I don't know if it's of consequence, Camelot's trailer has been known to follow Clovis around to gather data from any and all skirmishes that rise up. That could have an advanced Knightmare on hand."

"We'll arm up with what weapons and ammo we can from the train," Ohgi nodded, holding out his hand, "I suppose, since we'll be working together, we should know each other's names. I'm Ohgi Kaname, surname Ohgi."

Lelouch gladly reached out and shook his hand, "Lelouch Lamperouge. Just so you know, you're dealing with a demon."

"If I can save the people of the ghetto, then I think I'd make a deal with the devil himself." Ohgi smiled.

Lelouch nodded, "Then let's go give Clovis what he deserves."

The green-haired woman came up to the boy as he was climbing into his Knightmare, "Do you have room for one more?" She asked, climbing up beside him, "I'd like to be there when you hand Clovis his defeat."

Lelouch looked at her for a moment, and sighed, "Just hold on tight." He said, and the girl climbed in, "So, you lied to us."

"About not giving Clovis what he wanted?" The woman asked, and shook her head, "No, I didn't lie about that. It's that I couldn't give him what he wanted, much as I wanted to get rid of it." She looked at him with a fierce glare, "But we have more important matters to attend to, do we not?"

Lelouch nodded in understanding, "Perhaps when this is over you'll tell me." He said hopefully, "Now, we have a war to start."

Not such a nice turnout for the last chapter. Hopefully you guys like this one more. So please review if you liked it. Next time things get wild!