Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass

Dragon is working her way through the chapters I dumped on her so for now, the unbeta'd version.

"Facing the Brittanian military, one must remember the lessons of the Spanish Bullfighters. Much like the bull, it is strong, fast and fully capable of crushing anything that ends up under its hoofs. It has many of the same weaknesses as well. It is very easy to distract and once distracted, rarely sees the sword coming for it."

Zero

He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.

Sun Tzu

Lelouch sat at the desk in his room twirling a black chess king in his hand as he alternated between reviewing Black Knight recruitment data and glaring at C.C.. Once he'd recovered from the shock of learning his father had a geass combined with the casual reveal of his mother's murderer, he'd questioned C.C. about it repeatedly only to be continuously denied. It was intensely aggravating, but busy as he was, he couldn't devote all of his time into trying to pry her mouth open.

Sensing his gaze, C.C. looked up from her pizza and calmly met Lelouch's eyes until he shifted his gaze back to his computer. The immortal was a mystery, her actions made little sense to Lelouch and looking her in the eyes made him extremely uneasy. Still, if she wanted to be a pain in his ass, he could return the favor.

Pulling a folder from his desk drawer he tossed it over to C.C., smirking when it landed on her precious pizza. "I've come up with a solution to the problem of you living here," he said mildly, hiding his amusement. "Congratulations Miss Cecile Chaffee on your admittance to Ashford Academy as a sophomore student." The death glare C.C. leveled at him caused him to mentally cackle in glee though he managed to keep it from showing on his face.

Distastefully picking up the folder and skimming through it, C.C. was not amused. "You expect me to go to school? I have no need or wish to do this."

Lelouch allowed some of his amusement to show. "It's true that you might in fact be an old hag," he agreed amiably. "Still, you don't look like one and this solves any questions about why you're here on campus. You were the one who said you wanted to hide in plain sight." Gesturing at the folder, his smile had more than a bit of teeth showing. "I'm simply helping you to do so."

CC locked her eyes on Lelouch's until the boy shifted away uncomfortably. Putting the folder down, she picked up another piece of pizza and began methodically eating it without taking her eyes from him. She was well aware that he didn't like her watching him, so this petty revenge would have to do until she had time for something more elaborate.

Ignoring the glare as best he could, Lelouch turned back to his computer with a scowl. As well as things had gone with the Black Knights, problems had popped up. Several recruits had turned out to be unable to keep their mouths shut resulting in Lelouch dismissing them after using his geass to blank their memories of the Black Knights. He'd been expecting something like that but it was his own stupidity that was costing him the most.

After receiving the information about Cornelia's ambush from Viletta, he'd attempted to speed up the manufacturing of the latest batch of Gloucester frames. Instead of gaining him a day on the usual week-long construction schedule, the automated equipment had frozen up and broken down requiring almost two days to fix. In an ordinary situation, losing a day and a half of production wouldn't mean much but in this case, he was down five frames he'd intended to use for the days operation.

He clenched his fingers around the black chess king and scowled at it. He was very aware he was prone to arrogance but he typically managed to keep it in check. Sadly, it usually only surfaced at times extremely inconvenient for him and he wondered if perhaps there was something to the idea of Karma.

Relaxing his grip, he spun the chess piece though his fingers faster as he ran the plan for the day through his head. Despite the loss of the five Gloucesters, he'd refused to make good the shortage with Sutherlands. Since the goal was to steal the bait Sutherlands not full-out brawl with Cornelia, he didn't really need them, they'd just been his safety net.

A brief message from his earpiece radio informed him it was time to get moving and he stood up and grabbed his mask. Turning to leave, he paused when he found C.C. standing in his way.

"It seems foolish to deliberately enter a trap," she said, her odd golden eyes scanning his face. "I would be most upset were you to die."

Lelouch couldn't help a smug grin. "After my sister went to the trouble of such an elaborate invitation, how could I refuse." His smile became malicious. "Besides, it's not as if I'm not bringing friends along to play."

The green-haired immortal shook her head at his antics. "Your arrogance is causing you to make a mistake," she remarked coldly. "You stand to lose more than you gain with this fools errand. You don't need the knightmares, so why spring Cornelia's trap?"

Lelouch scowled and held up the chess piece in his hand. "If the king does not lead, how can he expect anyone to follow?" He asked the immortal. "In time, I will be able to simply order an operation like this and focus on other things but for now, I must prove that I am willing to take to the battlefield myself. Despite improvements in their skills, not a single one of my commanders can handle something like this now."

CC eyed the chess piece critically. "So, you see yourself as a king now Lelouch?"

"For the purposes of this, yes I do," he responded stiffly. "If you mean do I intend to take the throne, then no, I do not."

A ghost of a smile crossed C.C.'s face at the response. "Simply fascinating. Are we all chess pieces in your mind Lelouch? Are you willing to use all your pieces if you need to for the win?"

Lelouch ignored the knowing look C.C. gave him as she moved to the side to let him leave. At the moment, he simply didn't have the time to deal with whatever her little game was. The issue of his mother's killer wasn't something he was willing to let go of either. Sooner or later they were going to have a confrontation but not until he'd stacked the deck in his favor.

Exiting his room, he ran into Milly standing across the hall from his door waiting for him. Before he could ask what she was doing, the girl wrapped him up in a tight hug.

"Lelouch, be careful out there ok?" Milly whispered, unwilling to let her friend go.

Gently prying her arms from around him, Lelouch cupped her chin in his hand. "Don't worry Milly," he said with a gentle smile. "You've know the plan, I'm just there to command not fight directly."

Milly snorted at that. Lelouch had been the one to tell her that battlefields and plans mixed like oil and water. Leaning in close again, she kissed his cheek. "For luck," she told him.

With a smug grin, he pulled the mask of Zero on. "We make our own luck," Zero told her confidently before turning and striding off.

Closing her eyes, Milly said a brief prayer for her friends and comrades headed into harms way then headed off to find Nunnally and Sayoko. Hopefully dragging Nunnally into something silly with the rest of the student council would help her pass the time without worrying. She giggled at the idea that popped into her head for a new festival. Suzaku had brought that cat Arthur, perhaps a cat festival. If she was lucky, she might get to stuff Lelouch and Kallen into cat costumes. Worries set aside for the moment, Milly skipped down the hall with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Exiting the elevator, Zero paused a moment to pay his respects at the memorial wall. While only a few Black Knights had fallen so far, many members had placed pictures of their lost loved ones as he'd offered. He wasn't particularly religious but he figured that asking the fallen to watch over him and his men wouldn't harm him and it made him a more human figure for the Black Knights.

Nodding his greetings to the soldiers not being sent on the operation, Zero made his way to the customized command Sutherland set aside for his use. There hadn't been much they could do, but it did mount slightly more powerful sensors and communication gear than the standard Sutherland. In the future he hoped for something better but for now, it would do. Powering the machine up and exiting the base, Zero grinned under his mask. Well sister, let's see what sort of party you throw.

Under Oghi's command, the BK units in Saitama stopped the train carrying the bait Sutherlands exactly according to plan. Unloading the knightmares and arming them took only a few minutes but unlike Shinjuku, this train had only carried 20 knightmares so Oghi ordered the handful of left over pilots to retreat and get clear.

Following his own orders from Zero, Oghi split his forces into seven 4-man 'lances' leaving Kallen and himself in reserve. Giving the others orders to move to their jump-off positions, Oghi switched his knightmare's radio to a prearranged frequency leaving his earpiece on the BK tactical channel.

"So, Q-1, any idea why Zero is so insistent on calling the squads 'lances'?"

Kallen snorted and keyed her mic to respond. "Hell if I know. I asked him about it and he just said something about, 'be glad it's not five man stars.' I swear if it's from some game he likes, I'm gonna cause him a great deal of pain. Maybe up his weights or something, he'd hate that."

Oghi chuckled at the image of Kallen pounding on the stick-like Lelouch but under the chuckles he wondered exactly how close Kallen and Lelouch had become. Over the past several weeks she'd seemed to just accept that he was a Brittanian Prince and he couldn't shake his doubts so easily. Still, the boy had been true to his word so far, even if they'd mostly been hitting criminals. The logic of taking down the scum preying on the Japanese population and using their resources against Brittania was solid at least. Recruitment was high, discipline was good and today they were going to hurt the new viceroy. When viewed like that, his fears seemed misplaced but despite everything he still worried.

Kallen sat staring at her tactical screen when the Brittanian advance into the ghetto began. Despite the best efforts of the ground teams, she knew that they hadn't gotten everyone out. Some had even resisted with force causing several casualties on both sides. So it was with mixed feelings as those same civilians attacked the advancing Brittanians. Despite their actions, she longed to move forward and teach the Brittanian murderers a lesson, only Zero's orders held her back.

She sighed as she reviewed the plan for the day. Initially the individual lance commanders were to operate independently within their areas of the ghetto once Zero gave the command to engage. That was the part Kallen had some issues with. It was true the selected commanders had done well in the simulations and raids but against the Brittanian military, Kallen really wished Zero was giving the orders.

"Black Knights, Zero. I have arrived and am in position. Report status."

Kallen breathed a sigh of relief as the lance commanders reported in. Even if He wasn't suppose to take direct command until the latter stages of the plan, having him present and available to step in was a relief to the girl. As much as she respected and trusted her fellow Black Knights, no one had tactical skills even close to Zero's. Sending in her own readiness, she wondered when she'd become a Zero fan-girl. It was troubling to her how much she'd come to admire Zero, even when he was pretending to be Lelouch. And that was the crux of it, she mused. Having spent time with Zero in both of his persona, she was firmly convinced that Zero was Lelouch's true personality. I don't know, maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part, she thought checking her knightmare's status while Zero began a small speech over the radio.

Having stationed himself on the upper floor of a ruined building overlooking Kallen and Oghi's position, Lelouch gazed at his tactical map while his troops reported in. Unlike Shinjuku, he wasn't tied into the Brittanian tactical net but he'd had the evac teams placing passive sensors though out the ghetto over the past two days. Combined with his own upgraded sensors, he had a better take on the battlefield than anyone else, even Cornelia. Noting that he had maybe five minutes until the Brittanian forces would reach his units, he decided a speech was in order. With a strong mental reminder to keep it brief, he keyed his mic.

"Attention all Black Knights. Brittanian forces are inbound but we are prepared and ready for them. Stay calm and remember your training. Stick with your lance-mates and remember to never fight fair. Victory is in our grasp, we simply need to claim it. Nippon Banzai!" Listening to the cheers over the main net, he adjusted his knightmare's radio to Kallen and Oghi's frequency. "P-1, you have tactical command as planned. Just relax and do your best, I'll be on standby here if I'm needed."

Oghi blew out a breath and worked his neck to relieve some tension. Enlarging his tactical map, updated with the feed from Zero's machine, he did his best to remain clam as he began issuing orders to the lance commanders. According to the tactical doctrine Zero was drilling into the Black Knights, the lance commanders were responsible for the actions of their lances within their assigned area. His job was to keep an eye on the bigger picture and supply them with information. As the initial Brittanian units dropped without much fuss, Oghi smiled. It seemed there might be something to this independent command stuff.

Eyes glued to his tactical map, Lelouch had to constantly stop himself from stepping in and assuming direct command over the battle. While Oghi and the lance commanders weren't doing a bad job, in fact they were doing better than he expected, they were missing chances he would have taken. The only thing that kept him from doing so was that it was not in his best interest to micromanage them. In the long run, he would not be able to be at every battle or fight and his troops need both trained and blooded leaders and confidence in those same leaders. He needed soldiers, not mindless drones, even if it cost him losses he could have prevented.

Groaning when Oghi missed a chance to take out a squad of Sutherlands without the ensuing firefight, Lelouch massaged the bridge of his nose wearily. While an excellent lance leader, he was out of his depth at company command. Lelouch shuddered at the thought of Oghi taking tactical command of something larger than a company. Even with every new recruit being tested for tactical skill and with the ongoing command training, Oghi was still the best commander he had and it frustrated Lelouch immensely. I wonder if the JLF would mind if I kidnapped Todoh? I could certainly use his talents more than they do.

Sitting on her throne, head propped up on her hand, Cornelia watched the tactical map with a bored expression. When the first units into the ghetto reported encountering few civilians, she'd been worried about an ambush. Sure enough, not long after, her scouts had been destroyed by black painted knightmares as well as the bait Sutherlands. It was of some concern that the rebels had Gloucester frames in their possession but their actions were confusing to her. The reports from Shinjuku and the take-down of Gottwald's unit indicated Zero relied on precision and timing for his attacks. Currently, the rebels were using a variety of attacks and styles as if someone was just letting them run free and make things up as they went along. Scowling as another infantry squad was blotted from the map, Cornelia wondered if Zero had even bothered to show up.

Having been sent by Oghi to reinforce one of the flanks, Kallen used her slash harkens to climb to the rooftops. Accelerating her machine towards the end of the roof, she launched herself across the gap caused by the street and used her slash harkens and momentum to spin her around the side of the building sheltering a Brittanian knightmare squad. Opening fire on the startled Brittanians while still midair, she destroyed two of their knightmares before retracting her slash harkens and landing behind them. Rotating to face the enemy units, she weaved her knightmare back and forth as she retreated laying suppressing fire as she moved. Reaching an intersection, she skidded around the corner just as the lance she was assisting bounced a chaos mine into the enemy position. A brief confirmation from the lance caused Kallen to smile and head back to her reserve position by Oghi. Sometimes being in reserve could be fun.

For the Brittanians, trying to make headway through the ghetto was a nightmare. Unaccustomed to urban warfare, they were having a hell of a time against the Black Knights. Send a unit forward to scout, ambush. Try for lateral movement, ambush. Attack with knightmares, ambush again. The worst part was that they wouldn't even stand and fight. Every ambush was brief, the Bk's would simply drop the lead or rear units then fade back into the ghetto. A few units attempted to stop and consolidate with nearby allies but that stopped after the first few times chaos mines landed in the middle of the gatherings. The anger and frustration levels in the front-line Brittanian units was high and morale was shot when a withdrawal order was issued.

Oghi sighed in relief when the Brittanian units began to retreat. Unclenching his hands from his knightmare's controls, he called for a status report from his units. Listening with half an ear, he reviewed his commands during the battle and was pleased with himself. He hadn't been perfect and he'd had to use Kallen a few times to cover flaws in his plans but he'd avoided making any critical mistakes or freezing up with indecision. Since Zero hadn't taken command from him, he felt that the boy was satisfied with him as well though he suspected Zero had probably gagged himself to avoid saying anything. I don't think I did to badly for an old school teacher, he thought with some pride.

Ignoring the command staff's confusion, Cornelia turned to the thin glasses wearing man standing at attention next to her. "Ready to go, Guilford my knight," she asked warmly.

Guilford bowed, arm across his chest in salute. "It is my please to obey, my lady."

Cornelia smiled at her knight. "Then go and strike down my foes."

Guilford saluted again and left, leaving his Mistress to deal with the command staff.

Turning her attention to the assembled commanders, the warm expression vanished from her face to be replaced by an icy calm. "It is time we ended this farce," she declared. "It is uncertain if we lured Zero here but those are certainly his men out there. Regardless of his capture or death, the loss of men and material here will cripple him."

Watching the Brittanian retreat, Lelouch had the feeling that something was wrong. It was true that his forces had annihilated the initial assault units, by his estimation they'd lost perhaps two companies of mixed knightmare, armor and infantry. It was very unlike the sister he remembered to worry about casualties especially while sitting on at least a regiments worth of troops in reserve. The icons of six Gloucesters crossing through the lines and entering the ghetto gave him the answer though. I see, he mused. Use the regulars as scouts and then bring in your royal guard to destroy me. Well, it wouldn't be in my best interests to let you succeed sister.

Keying the BK frequency, he overrode the cheers of the troops. "Zero is assuming tactical command. N1 lance, R1 lance, withdraw to grid F-8 and assume over-watch positions in the buildings. N2 lance, R2 lance, head underground to grid F-7 and prepare to return to the surface facing grid F-8. B1 lance, hold position at grid C-6, B2 lance move to grid J-7 and hold. P-2 lance, regroup with P-1 and move to grid G-11 and guard our exit. Q-1, move to grid F-4." Waiting for his troops to confirm their orders, Lelouch keyed his mic again. "So far, you have done very well but now things get harder. It seems Cornelia has sent in her royal guard, Q-1 will be the bait, leading them into the trap at F-8. Once we defeat this attack, our job here is done and we will retreat." Looking up from his map, Lelouch noticed Kallen moving to her assigned position causing Lelouch to sigh. "Q-1, is there any reason your knightmare is red rather than black?" he asked over the open frequency to the muted laughter of the other Black Knights.

"Hey, I like red," she retorted, spinning her knightmare around to wave at him before turning back towards her destination.

Lelouch was saved from trying to find an appropriate retort when his cellphone rang. Checking the caller id, he was nonplussed to find it was from the student council room. Thinking it might be Milly with something she'd seen on tv, he mentally shrugged and accepted the call.

"Hello?"

"Hey Lelouch," Suzaku said. "We were discussing your relationships here and I need to ask do you like,"

"Noooooooooo!" There was a screech that sounded like Shirley followed by a muffled thud before the call abruptly ended.

Lelouch eyed his phone warily before putting it away. It wasn't hard too imagine what had happened but the timing was poor. Putting the whole teen romance mess out of his mind, he watched as Kallen intercepted the Royal Guard knightmares. Confident as he was in Kallen's skills, he was worried about sending her up against six veteran pilots. If the rest of his pilots were even close to her skill level, he wouldn't have even needed to ambush the Royal Guard but they didn't and so Kallen was sent out as the only one capable of surviving being bait.

Reaching her way-point, Kallen ducked her machine behind a nearby building and checked the tactical feed Zero was sending her. She had maybe a minute or two until the Gloucesters drew into engagement range. Closing her eyes and drawing a calming breath, she focused on the feel of her knightmare, the sounds from the equipment, the hum of the motor. Using these familiar things to drive her fear away, she slowly released the breath and opened her eyes.

Much more focused, her eyes darted around her controls as she quickly began planning how to survive six to one odds for four blocks. Sliding her knightmare over to get a visual of the approaching Royal Guard, she was struck by how arrogant they were. Even headed into a known combat zone, they were moving down the street as if on parade. To Kallen's delight, it didn't appear that any of them were carrying ranged weapons either. The only thing she was was those heavy lances designed for melee knightmare combat. Her odds of surviving this were looking better now.

Having decided how to deal with the Brittanians, Kallen armed her chaos mine but did a mental three-second count before whipping around the corner and launching it at the Royal Guard. She'd gotten the idea from an old war movie she'd seen where soldiers would 'cook' a grenade so that it couldn't be thrown back. In this case, the chaos mine had a small delay once activated that alert opponents would use to get clear.

For the Royal Guardsmen, the sheer insanity of having an already exploding chaos mine land in the middle of their formation delayed their reaction enough that several took hits before they could dodge. The damage was further compounded when the red Gloucester took advantage of the confusion to open fire on them before making it's escape.

Having gotten several hits in, Kallen began taking a round about route to the designated ambush coordinates. To her mind, fleeing in a straight line would only give the game away so she continued to keep the chasing knightmares under fire as she weaved in and out of the destroyed buildings.

Guilford had seen many things in his time-serving his Princess but the stubborn rearguard action of the red Gloucester was a very unpleasant surprise. His orders were to destroy Her Majesty's enemies and one knightmare was keeping him from fulfilling his duty. Certain the pilot was buying time for the other terrorists to escape, he drove the Royal Guard hard in pursuit.

Fleeing through the plaza at grid F-8, Kallen used her slash harkens to reach the rooftops, then spun her machine around to face the oncoming Brittanians. Her tactical map showed her comrades closing the trap and she couldn't help a wild smile from lighting up her face as the Royal Guard emerged into the plaza.

"Destroy them," Zero's orders blared from her radio.

All around the plaza and from behind them, 16 additional knightmares revealed themselves to the startled Royal Guard before concentrated fire ripped them apart.

Cornelia snarled in fury when her Royal Guard was ambushed and destroyed. Stiffly standing from her throne she stalked tot eh tactical map, her temper only barely appeased when she saw that Guilford and one other Guardsmen had managed to eject and get clear. Turning to General Dalton, she snapped out orders. "Tell the standby aircraft to strike. Tell them I wish this ghetto removed from my sight!"

Bowing to Cornelia, Dalton moved to the Air-force commander sitting nearby. "You heard her Highness," he said gruffly. "Initiate airstrikes immediately."

Satisfied with the days results, Lelouch issued orders for his units to withdraw when a new set of icons blinked into existence on his tactical map. Surprised, it took him a moment to realize what he was seeing before he keyed his mic hastily. "Airstrike! Get underground or under cover immediately!"

His warning was on time for most of his troops but B-2's lance was caught crossing an open area with no cover and the Merlin fighter/bombers landed a stick of 500 pound bombs almost in the middle of their lance.

Watching one of his lances disappear off the map drove Lelouch into a furious rage. After issuing orders for everyone to stay underground and get clear, he retreated himself, meeting up with Oghi's reinforced lance. Staying near the entrance to the underground until the rest of the Black Knights were at the rally point, he pulled out the detonator he'd kept nearby during the battle.

While some of the teams had evacuated the civilians, he'd had a few others planting explosives at logical choke points surrounding Saitama. The idea was that if problems happened in Saitama, Lelouch would detonate the explosives using the confusion to withdraw. Now, after losing some of his men, Lelouch was looking for revenge. With a grim smile, he held the remote up and viciously slammed his thumb down on the activator.

The command staff in Cornelia's G-1 were struggling to deal with the chaos of the airstrikes and demoralized troops when a series of shudders ran through the armored base. Seeing a great any units removed from the tactical map, some of them ran tot he windows and looked out with growing expressions of horror.

Still furious, Cornelia checked to see what was wrong only for the sight to further piss her off. Through a combination of luck and planning, one of the larger explosives had been set under the spot that she'd ordered the most mangled units to regroup on. From what the map said and what her eyes were telling her, she'd lost all of them.

Reaching the Ashford base, Zero climbed from his Sutherland and stalked across the hanger to his office, cloak fluttering behind him, his entire body radiating anger. Watching him, several of the members flinched when Zero slammed his door closed behind him hard enough to echo through the hanger. A faint shout of," That fucking BITCH!" could be heard even through the soundproofing.

Cornelia sat stone-faced as her officers reported the extent of the disaster to her. The only visible sign of her intense anger was the hand clamped in a death-grip on the arm of her chair. She'd thought Zero was just a terrorist, someone to easily manipulate and erase and it had cost her most of a regiment. She lost upwards of 50 knightmares, dozens of tanks and entire infantry companies on top of two-thirds of her Royal Guard. That last little 'fuck you,' from Zero had more than doubled her losses for the day. She'd underestimated him and she silently vowed to never do so again. From now on, she would assume he had the same sort of tactical mind her deceased brother Lelouch had shown before his exile.

Having taken his temper out on his desk, Lelouch was sitting slunk in his chair sulking over the loss of B-2 lance. He hadn't connected the dots before he'd pulled up the data, but the deceased lance leader had been Gorou, the escape driver from the rescue of Suzaku. He'd only exchanged a handful of words with the man, overseen some of his command training but it still put a human face on the war for Lelouch and he didn't like it.

The sound of the door opening caused him to glance at his mask but upset as he was, he decide to just ignore it. In a way, announcing his identity now would at least be interesting. 'Hey, the guy that screwed up and got your friends killed is a Brittianian Prince!' In a way, he was even more irritated by the fact that Cornelia had managed to out plan him in some respects then he was by the loss of his troops. He snorted at that. At least I paid her back in kind.

After several minutes, he looked up from his self-pity to see Kallen carefully watching him from where she was leaning against the closed door.

"It wasn't your fault," she bluntly told him once she had his attention. She held up her hand to forestall his response. "I think I've got a handle on how you think now Lelouch. You're blaming yourself for both the loss of Gorou's lance and for not seeing it coming. You're beating yourself up over the fact that Cornelia had a response you hadn't planned on. That's pathetic and it sickens me."

Lelouch jerked his gaze to hers furiously but averted his eyes from the anger he saw in hers.

"We just kicked the hell out of the so-called, 'Goddess of Victory.' We lost four knightmare pilots in the battle itself and five of our infantry trying to evacuate the civilians. Do you realize how incredible that is!?" Seeing that Lelouch was paying attention to her now, Kallen softened her tone. "You told us yourself that sometimes we were going to lose our own people, but we already knew that. This fight was hopeless before you came to lead us. Yeah, we lost nine good people but to inflict the sort of damage we just did, before you, we would have lost hundreds, if not thousands."

Lelouch hung his head, ashamed of pitying himself. Kallen was right but at the same time she was wrong and he tried to tell her. "Kallen, I should have seen the airstrike coming. I never considered it but it's standard Brittanian military tactics to have air power standing by. Cornelia didn't pull some sort of exotic tactic out, she pulled it straight from the handbook, and I didn't see it coming!"

Kallen continued to regard him calmly. "I asked around after we got back," she said slowly. "No one here ever remembers fighter/bombers being called in except during the war. The last time anyone remembers seeing them was during the invasion."

Lelouch sat back in his chair and rapidly drummed his fingers on the desk as he thought. Kallen's words had stirred some memories and he was trying to sort them out. Suddenly, it cleared up for him and he bite back a curse. Yes, it was standard policy to have air power standing by in a war situation but not a terrorist incident. Cornelia was most at home on the battlefield, he doubted she'd even bothered to consult the terrorist checklists. Now that he knew that, he actions made more sense and he could deal with her.

"Cornelia was using standard front-line policy today," he said tiredly. "I'd assumed she was going to use the standard playbook for dealing with terrorists and so I didn't consider the aircraft issue." Picking up his mask, he examined his face in the reflection for a moment. "Thank you for coming Kallen, you've helped me remember something important."

Kallen shifted uncomfortably. "What?"

Lelouch continued to examine the mask. "My duty," he said finally. "I believe it was best said by Colonel Lee before his execution by the rebels during the Western Uprising. He said 'Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should not do less.' My duty now is to lead, my duty now is to liberate Japan and my duty is to destroy the Brittanian Empire."

Kallen watched wide-eyed as she saw Zero manifest in Lelouch without the mask on. It seemed there was something to her theory that Zero was in fact his real personality. It was such a pity she had to deal with the other Lelouch at school, that one irritated the hell out of her.

Lelouch slid the mask over his face and smiled. He felt good, like he'd cleared something from his mind, something that would have held him back. Perhaps it was taking on the responsibility for destroying the Empire. Ever since the invasion he'd sworn that he would but today was the first time he'd declared it to be his duty.

Moving to the door, he motioned Kallen out of the way. Opening the door, Zero turned back to face her. "Come Kallen," he said warmly. "We have an AAR to conduct and a revolution to plan."

Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less.

Robert E. Lee

AN

Damn, thats a lot of horizontal lines. For those asking, yes, Lelouch was throwing himself a pity party cause he wasn't perfect. Read carefully, he is upset at the loss of his troops but mostly that Cornelia did something he didn't have a plan for. Keep in mind, he isn't a hardened combat commander at this point. No more whining from Lelouch now that he's snapped out of it. Ok, time to start alternating between this and Council's Folly again. I hope you guys have enjoyed this so far. Remember to please review, tell me what you like or dislike. I'm dying for feedback guys. O7

Omake

Lelouch sat in the study of the student council building with Milly and Kallen trying to get through the nightmare of paperwork running the Black Knights dumped on him. Rubbing his eyes tiredly, he blinked in surprise as he read the latest recruitment application.

"Hey, get this," he said drawing the girls attention as well as that of Sayoko. "Got an application from a guy that says he's a 5000 year old immortal."

Milly snorted a laugh. "Yeah, I saw that one, figured I'd send it to you since I suppose it is possible that he's telling the truth.

Lelouch nodded his understanding as he continued to read. "Well, I doubt it, He says something about being able to walk on water and being able to destroy knightmares with his bare hands."

Unnoticed by the others, Sayoko's hands began to shake as a cold feeling slid down her spine. The next thing Lelouch said confirmed her fears.

"Oh, get this, supposedly he has a massive fox demon sealed inside himself that he made friends with and gives him the power to destroy cities."

Sayoko gasped and dropped the tea set she was holding.

Lelouch, Kallen and Milly looked over to see Sayoko curled into the fetal position in the corner of the room. "Sayoko, whats wrong?"

Sayoko peeked out from underneath her arms in terror. "Lelouch-sama, do not hire that man," she pleaded. "He would wander into our village every year and we could never stop him. Our attempts to kill him amused him. So we tried just ignoring him, but if we did, he would go peeping on the woman's baths. Then he would write these horrible books about it, saying we inspired him. One day, I had enough and since he always called himself 'the Toad Sage' I began calling him Ero-Sennin and he just laughed! I tried to kill him and he just complimented me on my knife work."

Lelouch cleared his throat and traded gazes with the girls. "Sayoko, if he is that strong, don't you think he would be useful against the Brittanians?"

"NO! He only does things out of boredom. He'd cause chaos just to amuse himself. I beg you Lelouch-sama, reject the application."

Moving back to the computer, Lelouch deleted the application. "Ok, Sayoko, I deleted the application, it'll be ok. You won't have to deal with Uzumaki Naruto at all, ok?"