A/n: Well...finally had time to get a chapter done...Surprisingly...I have more time in college to write than in high school...XD

"Lightning, target acquired," I said into the mic of my helmet. I zoomed in on the subject Zero from my 5-stories rooftop position and linked the helmet image to the rest of the capture team.

"Lightning, proceed with capture."

"Understood Hunter."

The look-a-like Prince Clovis's carriage Zero was standing in front of burst open, revealing the bomb the Britannians had reported missing the day of the ghetto attack. "Lightning, hold off on the attack. A new situation has developed."

"Hunter, is that...a bomb?" Lightning asked me.

"No," I told her. "It just looks like one. However, the majority of the Britannian army has no knowledge of this. The Britannian higher ups want to keep it on the down low. Something about a secret experiment or something like that." I knew the entire truth, but orders restricted me from saying it. I continued observing Zero, who was still giving his monologue. "Okay, move in. Take Zero a-"

"ALL FORCES! AID ZERO! LET HIM ESCAPE!"

"Who the fuck..." I looked back at the vehicle holding Suzaku. "Shit..." I swore under my breath. Down below, Jeremiah Gottwald, the guy running the Britannian forces at this event, was pointing his sidearm at a Britannian soldier.

"IF ANYONE IMPEDES ZERO'S ESCAPE, I WILL PERSONALLY EXECUTE YOU!" Jeremiah waved his gun around, acting crazy.

"Quick Light. Go-" I stared to say.

"Hold it right there!" I turned around, slowly, and stared at the end of an Britannian assault rifle's barrel. "Get up!" the soldier ordered me. Slowly, with my hands in the air, I stood up. The soldier aimed unsteadily, leading me to believe the soldier was a rookie. I prepared my elbows, and then whipped it around, knocking the rifle to the side, and then did a side kick to the soldier's chest, knocking his breath out. I moved in quick, grabbing the soldier's head, and then twisted it hard and swiftly, snapping the neck, killing the soldier instantly. I dropped the body to the floor and then proceeded to regroup with my men.

"Lightning, gather the men. We move in now! Eliminate any resistance!" I grabbed my rifle and jumped off the rooftop, hitting the cement sidewalk rolling to avoid injuries. Then again, I probably should have just landed on my feet...Would have been off running faster and my armor and surgically enhanced bones would have absorbed the shock completely.

Anyway, I ran to the street where all hell was breaking loose. A thick cloud of smoke decreased visibility, forcing me to switch to anti-smoke mode in my helmet. I saw a mech ambushing Britannian forces, taking out several mechs in Zero's way, who was making his escape with Suzaku.

"Lightning, get a rocket on that mech!" I ordered. "I want it taken out now!" A rocket flew from one of the rooftops and slammed into the enemy mech's hip, crippling it. The enemy pilot blasted off in an ejection pod, instinctively causing some of my men to go after it. "Do not chase after that pilot!" I said. "I repeat, do not go after the mech pilot. Refocus all efforts in capturing Zero. I want him alive!" I was not going to lose Zero, not when he was THIS close.

I began running after Zero, when I was interrupted by a beep from my comm unit. "Shit!" I swore. The call was coming from my commanding officer, General Shepard. "General, I'm in pursuit of Zero right now!"

"Your orders have changed Captain," the general said. "I want you to cease your pursuit of enemy commander Zero and head back to Republic Command."

"What kind of bullshit order is that?! We're too close to catching the son of a bitch now to stop!" I argued.

"There has been a new development in this situation, which is why you and your team need to head back to base."

"And what of Suzaku Kurarugi?"

"What of him? Let Zero take him. We may be able to glean more info on Zero than we already have." The general sighed. "Do not forget, Kurarugi is a tool. A very useful tool, but a tool nonetheless. He'll lose his importance soon enough."

"I understand, General."

"Good...Now get back to base." With that, the general cut the link.

"This development had better be good," I thought to myself. I opened up a link to the rest of the Republic team. "Alpha Team, new orders. Cease pursuit of Zero and head back to base."

Lightning started to ask, "What-"

"Don't question it. Just get back to Republic Command. Understood?"

"Understood, Hunter. Heading back now," Lightning replied.

I turned around and started running away from the battle. The bang of gunfire was soon only a distant sound as I moved further away from the battlefield.

"This is gonna be a big mess for the Britannians tomorrow," I muttered to myself.

It's been ten hours since Zero's escape. Kurarugi had returned from being taken from Zero and was standing in front of General Shepard, who was sitting behind his desk. I stood next to Shepard, both of us prepared to debrief Kurarugi.

"Well, that was awfully quick," the general began. He started tapping his desk with his fingers, staring intently at Kurarugi. "Want to explain what happened, son?"

"Zero and Britannian commander Jeremiah Gottwald engaged in some dialogue," Suzaku started. "They were discussing about my release. It was going nowhere. So then, Lelouch revealed that spherical container."

"Why did Gottwald turn on us?" I asked Kurarugi.

He just shrugged. "I don't know. It was just an unexpected change."

The general interjected, "Hunter, we're currently looking into it. I'll talk more about it later." It seemed like he knew more than he wanted to say in front of Kurarugi. "Anyway, you may continue," the general said to Kurarugi.

"The container released smoke, and then Lelouch and another person, female I believe, came and released me."

"Could you get any details on the female?" I asked.

"She mostly kept her head down and she was wearing a black hat, but I could tell she had red hair."

I made a mental note of that. "Interesting," I muttered.

"They used the smokescreen as cover, and led me to their escape vehicle."

"Could you make out any details of the vehicle?" I asked. "We may be able to track down the vehicle."

Kurarugi shook his head. "The smoke was too dense. It was too hard to see. When they pushed me into the vehicle, they put a black bag over my head. We drove for about thirty minutes before we came to a stop. Someone pulled me out of the vehicle and guided me somewhere. They took the bag off my head, and I saw I was standing in front of Zero."

"What did he say to you?" I asked Kurarugi.

"He offered me a position in his private army, the Black Knights, to which I declined unless he showed the world who was under the mask. Zero refused. He believed this war needed a symbol, a symbol for justice, and that he needed to be the symbol the Japanese can look up to."

"Isn't that why you joined the Britannian army? To be a symbol of internal change?" Shepard wondered.

Kurarugi looked down. "Zero and I...We're not so different. His methods are just more extreme. He doesn't want to work with the system. He works against it. He'd rather destroy the system before ever cooperating with it."

"And you, son? Would you ever break the rules, knowing that if you did, you would succeed?" Shepard asked.

"No...The rules are the only things that keep anything working. You break the rules, you unleash chaos."

If he only knew the realities of the universe...Chaos is the only constant in the universe. No matter how much you fight to deny it, it will still exist. Trying to fight against it is futile. In war, you fight fire with fire, never with water, for you will never have enough water to extinguish the towering flames. Kurarugi is the water...and if he doesn't smarten up fast, then the flames will destroy him.

Of courses, I didn't say any of that out loud. Every soldier needs to figure it out by themselves. Kurarugi was no different. They all learn the realities of war soon enough...

"Zero didn't stop me from leaving, but I could feel that it was not the decision he expected," Kurarugi continued. "I walked away and only then did I realize Zero had brought me to the Shinjiku ghettos."

"The place where you faced each other for the first time," I remarked. "Interesting..."

"Yeah," agreed Kurarugi. "I managed to make my way back to Britannian-controlled territory from the ghettos, and then finally ended up here at Republic Command." With that, Kurarugi finished telling us about what happened after Zero got away.

The general sighed and clasped his hands together. "You're dismissed, son," he said to Kurarugi. "Go home, get some rest. We'll call you when we need you." Kurarugi saluted, and then turned and walked out of the room. When the doors slid closed behind Kurarugi, Shepard turned to me. "He knows very little."

"Sir?"

"I received a message yesterday from the Britannian Emperor himself. Do you know what he said?"

"No."

"'Zero is my son. Let the Britannian army handle Zero. The Republic should deal with the other rebel factions.'"

"How is he so sure?"

"That doesn't concern me as much as the fact the Emperor didn't share the info that he had a son in Japan. That missing detail puts a bit of delay on our plan."

"Operation Lion Head sir?"

"Yes. We will need to include Zero in the brief of that op. He is a threat, and if Operation Lion Head commences without the inclusion of Zero, that may have terrible repercussions for the Republic later on."

"How far back will we need to push the operation date, sir?"

"It'll still commence during the time when Princess Euphemia and her older sister Princess Cornelia are here in Japan, just a bit later. On that note, both princesses are expect to arrive in Japan today."

"It shouldn't be too hard to include Zero in Lion Head," I mused. "Either way, the Britannians won't know what's coming." I thought for a couple of minutes, then remembered something. "Sir, you said something about Gottwald's treachery."

"Indeed. The Emperor mentions that his son had a special power, called Geass. I believe that Zero used his Geass on Gottwald, manipulating Gottwald into obeying him."

"So, Zero has proven to be a greater threat and Gottwald is innocent."

"Gottwald is innocent, but he could later be a nuisance for us, so I'll just continue to let the Britannians believe he's a problem to them."

I nodded in agreement. "Is there anything you want me to do now sir?"

"Well, Captain, I want you to go and greet the two princesses when they arrive. And keep an eye out on Cornelia. She will be trouble for us."

"Yes sir." I saluted the general, who saluted back, and then I left his office. I was walking toward the exit of the base when I saw a familiar female face with blue hair talking to a group of Republic troopers. I changed directions and walked towards her, trying to be stealthy in my approach, hoping not to alert her. I gently tapped her on her shoulder, causing her to turn around, and then smile.

"Hunter!" she said surprised. "What are you doing here? I thought you would be on Earth"

"Hello Aqua," I said with a smirk on my face. "Nice to see here. It's been a long time."

"You didn't answer my question," she said with a smile.

"I didn't?" I grinned. "Well, I was assigned here to hunt down the rebel leader Zero. Took some time convincing the doctors I was fit for duty, but it wasn't too hard."

"Yeah..."

"What about you? What are you doing here?"

"The Republic Knights sent me here to protect Princesses Cornelia and Euphemia when they arrive. Apparently, Emperor Charles zi Britannia requested our assistance in the matter."

"Interesting..." Damn it Aqua...Couldn't they have sent someone else?...This would mean that I would have to possibly go against you...Why the fuck must this happen to us...After all the shit that has happened to us already...

"What's the matter?"

I shook my head and lied. "Nothing...It's nothing." I didn't want her to know that there was going to be a huge conflict of interest between the Republic military and the Republic Knights. I didn't need to ruin a moment like this, a meeting between friends who had not seen each other in a long time. She was the reason I was still alive, after getting blown apart by a rebel bomb at the beginning of the fighting between Britannia and Japan. She kept me alive in the middle of that bloody battlefield, when bullets were whizzing by and soldiers were dying in pools of their own blood all around us. Hell, I was dying in a pool of my own blood that day. But Aqua saved me, and for that, I was indebted to her.

"Where you going now?" Aqua asked me.

"I'm heading over to the spaceport. Expecting an arrival of two princesses."

"Cornelia and Euphemia?"

"Yeah."

"I'll go with you."

I nodded. "Sure." We walked outside and headed for a gunship. I got on first and then reached out a hand for Aqua. She grabbed it and I pulled her up.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem."

When the gunship landed at the spaceport and Aqua and I got off, Princesses Cornelia and Euphemia were in a conversation with a male Britannian officer, and apparently, Cornelia was angry at him, because she ended up pointing a gun at him. When things between the Britannians had died down a bit, Aqua and I decided to approach the princesses.

Aqua was the one to bow to the princesses. I just stood straight, not saying a word yet. "Your Highnesses," Aqua said while bowing. "I'm Republic Knight Aqua, and this is Captain Hunter of the Republic Army," she said, gesturing at me.

"So you're the one the Knights sent to protect us?" Cornelia bluntly asked.

"Yes, your Highness."

"And what about you?" Cornelia addressed to me.

I just raise an eyebrow. "I'm here as a presence of the Republic Army. You might call me a liaison."

"Humph! You and your sticking army. The Republic is full of bull!" Cornelia exclaimed, making her dislike of us very clear. "I don't understand why Father need your aid. We did fine during the war."

"Cornelia!" Euphemia finally spoke up. "Please, big sister, give them some respect! They're here to help us and we should be grateful for it."

Cornelia glared at Euphemia, and then turned back to us. "I apologize for my behavior. I'll do better in holding in my emotions." She gave a slight bow.

"Don't worry, your Highness," Aqua said to Cornelia. "I'll do my best at staying inconspicuous during your time here."

"Thank you Aqua," Euphemia said. She bowed at Aqua.

"Is there any news on the hunt for Zero?" Cornelia asked me. "My men have not been getting any headway on the issue."

Interesting...you would think a father would tell his family. "The Republic does, but I'm not at liberty to say."

"How dare you! This could be important information and you keep it from me?"

"Does it look like I give a damn about what you do or do not get? If you want the information, you go through the proper chain of command to get it." I glared at her. "Piss me off one more time Cornelia, and I will personally put a bullet through your fucking brain."

"Hunter!" Aqua tried to calm the situation. "Anyway, shall we head to your residence, your Highnesses?" Aqua asked, trying to get away from the military talk.

"Very well," Cornelia said, still giving me a death glare

"Thank you Aqua," Euphemia said.

"No problem. It's my duty to do so." Aqua gave me an angry look as she passed by me. She had every right to be. Especially with Lion Head coming soon.

And the general was right. Cornelia was a pain in the fucking ass.

A/n: By the way, if you haven't guess, I have cameos/actually story plots from other video game characters and characters from my first fanfic. Aqua is from Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, and Lightning is from Final Fantasy XIII.