Code Geass: Chronicles of Tartarus
Side Story Ten:
Pinky Promise
"I remember that song that Sayoko taught me back when we lived at Ashford. She called it a Japanese promise. Cross my heart, hope to die, eat a thousand needles, if I lie. The Pinky promise song. You remarked that it was scary and that you may have to eat a thousand needles someday. 'That's right,' I replied, 'so I'd better not catch you telling lies, okay? To which you answered, 'Don't you worry. I'll never lie, I swear. Not to you anyway.' If only that had been the case my dear brother, and you had not lied to me. I know I forgave you while you died in my arms, and that you had your reasons for what you did. Nevertheless, that doesn't change the fact that you continued to do it. Not just to me, but to others as well. Enoch once told me a saying from his world that I hope someday you really will take to heart. He told me that people 'Shouldn't let their mouth write checks their ass can't cash.' If anyone on Earth needs that advice...it's you Lelouch." --Excerpt of a letter from Earth Commonwealth President Nunnally vi Britannia to her brother Colonel Lelouch vi Britannia (Earth Space Forces, Geass Special-Operations Division) dated March 7th 2031 a.t.b.
"What's keeping them I wonder," Colonel Madd remarked to Nina as she finished typing away on the control console in front of her.
"I'm sure the Count will be along anytime now," she replied in a distracted tone. "I've unlocked the seventh seal."
"Pardon?" The Colonel inquired.
"The final protecting seal of the Operating system of this mobile planet's computer mainframe," she said with a dull smile as a section of the large structure they were in opened up directly behind the control-station they stood on.
"Oh...I see," Madd gave her a befuddled look, "why exactly did you do that?"
Nina seemed puzzled by the opening of the structure on their end of the vast metal building they were in, but said nothing of it. She could see down into the endless depths of the pit, which only radiated eerie light from some unknown source.
"Because I've found a file here within the vast memory-banks of this artificial planet that tells the location of where the source of Geass actually comes from," she responded with a glint in her eye.
"You can read the language of the ancients?" Madd knew there was a rudimentary understanding of their language in the Code-R files, and the Geass Order had information on the language, but none of them had cracked the code.
"No," Nina adjusted her glasses, "but this computer speaks a binary language, which can be translated from the soul-information it stores in its memory. You see, I don't need to know the language of the ancients since this system knows English from the spirits of the dead which reside within its data files."
"Soul-information?" The Colonel cocked his head in confusion.
Nina snickered at the dumbfounded look on Madd's face. "Nibiru stores the souls of people within its memory-banks. However, the sheer volume of soul-data became so large over the last twenty-thousand years that Nibiru had to compensate by using the electromagnetic field of a gas-giant as external storage. Its part of the reason it's in orbit around Jupiter. You see, this huge machine was designed to store souls as quantum-data in order for the ancients to escape the calamity that befell wherever they came from. I'm not sure if it was another planet in our solar system, or perhaps a galactic wide event, or maybe even an entirely different universe fading into oblivion. However, no matter what it was that brought them here, they needed a way to store their essence while they made the trip because their mortal bodies couldn't do it even using a Code."
"Ah," he said as he straightened up uncomfortably and looked towards the rim of the large crater-like terminal they were standing in. The apparatus was the size of a coliseum with various intricate systems where the rows of bleachers would normally be. Within the center of the bowl were the thousands upon thousands of blank-clone bodies within their cryogenic cylinders, and before them a bottomless pit that radiated an eerie multi-colored light that reminded Madd of the Aurora-Borealis.
"I wonder why this energy collection terminal opened up," Nina thought aloud to herself.
"You don't know," Madd inquired with an edge of concern creeping into his tone. A machine of the size and magnitude of Nibiru could reap unspeakable damage in Madd's mind, and he was growing uneasy with the Professor's level of knowledge with the machine. He knew she was a genius, but there is a fine line between that and madness.
A brilliant mass of blue-white orbs were sucked into the Aurora-Borealis from the sky overhead and into the depths of Nibiru.
Madd was awestruck, "What is that?"
Nina looked at the spectacle with an expression of intellectual curiosity on her face, "those are souls."
"What the heck is that?" Rai asked Enoch as they walked at a brisk pace along one of the lonely streets of the city.
Enoch looked up at the globes heading for the Aurora-Borealis in the distance nearby, "a bad sign," was all the amber-eyed man said in reply.
Rai turned to him and gave him a crooked smile, "you know more then you're letting on, don't you?"
"I know enough to be weary of what that is," Enoch replied with a frown. "If it's what I think it is then this Dyson Sphere is of a type I've encountered before."
"And that's a bad thing?" Rai asked as the two of them made their way to the open space surrounded a large coliseum shaped structure.
"Yeah...," Enoch said in a distant voice, "it's a soul collector."
Rai contemplated making a break for it while the cybernetic man was distracted, then thought better of it. Let the Count deal with this man. I'll not waste my second chance at life for Amontillado.
"C2 is within that building." Rai told Enoch as he started in the direction of one of the entrances at the base of the huge construct. "We should keep moving."
"Indeed we should Rai," Enoch responded as if coming out of a daze, "this situation just got a whole lot more complicated."
"What do you mean?" Rai asked.
Enoch gave him a boyish grin, "I believe I may have found what I've been searching for."
"What's that?" Euphie asked over the radio of her Hakodeshim as Kallen, Suzaku, and she followed behind Count Amontillado's Uther towards the radiant multicolored lights in the distance.
"I don't know," Count Amontillado confessed, "but I would imagine it has something to do with Professor Einstein."
"Would you like us to go on ahead and check it out sir?" Alice inquired while she and the other Irregulars flanked Suzaku and Euphie; Sancia and Lucretia's Vincent-Advanced units were flying at the rear and carrying the Guren, which held the unconscious Kallen.
"No, I wouldn't want to be rude to our guests," the Count said politely.
"How courteous of you," Suzaku grumbled.
"Please don't pre-judge me Knight of Zero," the Count replied softly, "you must understand that we are working towards the same goal."
"Be that as it may," Suzaku barked, "we don't go around kidnapping people to meet our goals. We work within the system, as much as possible, to help people. You anti-unification terrorists don't seem to understand that."
"Anti-unification terrorists? My dear Suzaku the world is not as Black-and-White as that. I see you haven't changed a bit," the Count tittered, "still as head-strong as ever. Cecile was right about you. You are an idealist."
"Cecile...Wha?" Suzaku was taken off guard, "how do you know Cecile?"
"Count Amontillado, you have a coded-communiqué coming in from the Intruder," Lucretia informed him.
"Pardon me Suzaku. We'll have to finish our conversation at another time. Lucretia, please put them through," the Count waited for Lucretia's signal.
"Yes," he asked into the private channel but his voice still carried over the radio, "I understand. Of course, I'll try to ensure her safety, but she may resist. No, I promise I'll do my best to take her peacefully." Amontillado paused then spoke, "Lelouch should be with Shirley as we speak."
"Shirley?" Suzaku blurt out upon hearing her name. "What do you mean Shirley?"
"One moment," Count Amontillado said, "I hadn't realized the channel was still open Suzaku, but would you please enhance your calm, all will be explained soon enough."
The masked man returned his attention to the person on the coded-channel, "I will do as you command, Amontillado out." The Count's tone became serious as he shut off the coded channel and addressed his troupe, "Irregulars there has been a change of plan. Right now we are to consider the plan as having gone into its final stage, due to the fact that our dear Nina has unfortunately found something she ought not to have."
"Does this mean we're no longer under Operation Antagonist?" Alice asked him.
"Yes, the clones we wanted have been completed and are being 'rescued' as we speak" the Count informed them with a snicker, "our new orders are to implement Operation Vindication, retrieve C2, and then apprehend Nina Einstein as per the original plan."
"What of the DNA donors?" Sancia asked.
The Count answered her as they all flew above the ring of open space that surrounded the coliseum-like building, "They're being held on the Intruder until the plan reaches its final phase and the Earth Commonwealth solidifies its power."
"What of Captain Kouzuki and her companions?" Lucretia inquired.
The Count laughed, "We've no reason to hold them any longer, provided they promise to leave in peace."
The Count's words shook Suzaku's opinion of him and his intensions. He certainly didn't trust Amontillado, much of the what the man said confused Kururugi, but he could not contemplate it for long as he knew Kallen's safety came first, "I give you my word as the Knight of Zero, that if you release us we will not interfere in your apprehension of Professor Einstein. However, I cannot promise anything after you've taken her prisoner. I came here to rescue my friends and I mean to do it."
Amontillado sighed as a myriad of blue-white orbs descended into the radiant Aurora-Borealis, "I understand Knight of Zero, that'll have to do for now as we've run out of time."
"Looks like Kallen, Suzaku, and Euphie followed me here," Lelouch said to Shirley absentmindedly as the Samael skimmed over the surface of the street they followed towards the kaleidoscope of color in the distance. They could see Amontillado's flight in the air ahead of them as it flew towards the coliseum.
"Euphie?" Shirley blurt out. She suddenly recalled that she had never met Lelouch's sister while in the afterlife. "Do you mean your sister isn't dead?"
"Didn't you already know that?" Lelouch teased her.
"Yeah...," She tried to recover while she blushed, "I just didn't realize that you knew."
Lelouch gave her a warm smile, "well to be honest I didn't know while I was with all of you in Eden Vital, but I learned that Euphemia is alive when I came back to the world of the living."
"Oh," Embarrassed, Shirley tried to change the subject. "What do you think that light is Lulu," Shirley asked as she sat on his lap within the cockpit of Samael.
"I was hoping you might know," he said with a weak smile.
"No, I've never seen anything like it before," She replied as she laid her head on his shoulder. She had a bad feeling about those lights, but did not share her dread with Lelouch.
"Well, looks like we'll find out what they are soon enough. I'll bet that's where C2 is being held," Lelouch maneuvered the Hakodeshim through the streets out into the open space that separated the city from the bowl shaped building the light emanated from, "so that's where we're going."
"What about Kallen and the others?" Shirley inquired. "We can't just leave them in the hands of those people can we?"
"No, we can't," he said with a sly smile, "I've got an idea."
"That's Count Amontillado," Rai informed Enoch as the flight of mecha flew over them.
"Looks like Kallen, Suzaku, and the Red Dragon are with them," Enoch said a bit disappointed at their capture.
"It would seem your friends were no match for us Irregulars," Rai jeered.
"If that's so Rai, then why is Amontillado letting them go?" Enoch retorted with a nod in the direction of the machines as the Hakodeshim and Guren-Phoenix dropped away from the group. Count Amontillado and his flight of KnightMares accelerated away from them and moved over the open roof of the building.
"Oh, that's the reason right there," Rai pointed to the Samael coming out of the metallic forest of buildings that lined the ring around the coliseum. "The assassin must have succeeded."
"Assassin!" Enoch grabbed Rai and lifted him off the ground by the shirt with one hand. "Talk."
Surprised, Rai blurt out, "Nina activated a clone of Shirley Finette and sent it after Lelouch."
Enoch contemplated Rai's words for only a moment, "you fool. Do you have any idea what could happen if Shirley's ghost finds her body again?"
"Yes I do," Rai replied, "Shirley could be resurrected."
"And you went ahead with it anyway?" Enoch asked.
"Please believe me Enoch when I say that Nina wasn't exactly happy with the whole situation," Rai said as Enoch set him on the ground. "She worried about the same thing, but Count Amontillado insisted she activate the clone made by the Geass Directive."
"Then Lelouch might be the one piloting the Samael," Enoch said aloud to himself.
"You mean you think that Shirley is with him?"
Enoch gave Rai a devilish smile, "it certainly is a possibility, but there's only one way to find out." He grabbed Rai by the arm and started in the direction of where the mecha were landing. "Let's move."
"Yes Count," Shirley said over a coded channel, "I have Lelouch's body with me here now."
"Well done," the Count complemented her, "but we've no need of Lelouch any longer. The plan has been accelerated to the next phase prematurely by Nina Einstein, and now we must deal with her."
Lelouch sat in silence listening to the audio conversation between Shirley and Amontillado. The man's voice was raspy, but something about it bothered Lelouch, yet he couldn't put his finger on what it was.
"I understand," Shirley replied as Lelouch typed a response for her on the control panel of Samael. "Shall I proceed to join with you to assist?"
"No, there's no need for that, we can handle the arrest of Nina Einstein," the Count paused for a moment, "however, you should return Lelouch to his comrades. Contact Suzaku and have him take charge of Lelouch."
Lelouch pondered the man's unusual level of concern, his calm demeanor, and ease at which he gave commands as he typed a new message to Shirley.
She recanted his silent words, "Very well Count, I will proceed to deliver Lelouch as per your instructions and await further orders."
"Very good, Amontillado out," the radio channel shut off.
"Shirley, patch me through to Suzaku," Lelouch told her since he couldn't reach the left hand controls with her in his lap.
Shirley found the simple controls easy to understand and gained a novice-proficiency with them quickly. "I've got a coded channel open to him."
"Lelouch? Is that you?" Suzaku inquired.
"Yes, it's me," Lelouch responded.
"Me too Suzaku," Shirley could not help herself upon hearing her friend's voice.
Her voice stunned Suzaku, "Who is that?"
"Uh..." Lelouch wasn't sure he should divulge Shirley's identity yet, but she had other ideas.
"It's me Suzaku...Shirley," she told him matter-of-factly over the radio.
"WHAT!" Suzaku nearly crashed the Gabriel into the tarmac as he suddenly realized that Count Amontillado's earlier comment meant Shirley Fenette was alive. "How the heck did that happen?"
"It's a long story," Lelouch responded with a sigh.
"I'll tell you when all of this is over," Shirley said with a laugh.
"Okay," Suzaku replied a bit unnerved.
Lelouch snickered, "Inform Kallen that we need to prepare to raid this structure and rescue C2."
"I can't do that Lelouch," Suzaku said, "Kallen was hit by an electrical attack. However, the sensors of Guren indicate that she's okay, but she's out cold as far as I can tell."
"As far as you can tell?" Lelouch growled. "Suzaku, we need to land immediately and make sure Kallen is okay."
"I realize that Lelouch, but we were just released by the Count, and haven't gotten a chance to check on her yet," Suzaku knew by the tone of Lelouch's voice that he wasn't going to take no for an answer.
"Released?" Lelouch inquired in a perplexed tone as he began to realize the Count had diverted them from following him intentionally.
"I thought it was unusual also, but-" Suzaku started to say.
Lelouch cut him off, "Suzaku, we've got to attend to Kallen immediately and wake her up."
"Dammn it Lelouch, I already told you that the Guren's sensors show her as being okay," Suzaku barked at him, "she's only unconscious."
"That's not the point," Lelouch barked back, "we're going to need her in this fight."
"You intend on fighting the Count?" Suzaku asked in an irritated tone.
"No Suzaku," Lelouch replied in a grave voice as he suddenly realized the implications of the Aurora-Borealis in the distance, "I think the Count is going to need our help against Nina."
"It would seem that the Count is returning," Nina said as she watched the five KMFs skim over the rim of the bowl shaped building towards where she and Colonel Madd stood at the control station.
"Huh?" The Colonel seemed confused, "I wonder why they're flying in formation...," his communicator buzzed in its belt harness.
He removed the device from its case. Madd opened the cellphone and spoke into it as Nina pulled a pistol from under her lab coat.
"Yes?" Madd asked the person on the other end of the line as Nina used her other hand to type away on the control panel in front of her.
"I understand Count Amontillado," the Colonel said in a sober tone, "I'll do so at once."
Colonel Madd drew his pistol from its holster, "I'm sorry Professor Einstein, but I have to "
A single shot rang out that cut the Colonel short as the round penetrated his left arm, forcing him to drop his weapon.
"Imbecile," Nina stated coldly, "did you actually think I was so naïve as to believe that the creation of a Geass Army would help me in my quest to destroy Geass itself?"
The Colonel only stared at her in horror.
Nina sneered at him from the control station, "I knew from the very beginning that you were using me Colonel, so in turn I used all of you to gain access to the mainframe of Nibiru."
"Be that as it may," Madd grimaced, "the game is up for you Professor. The Count has five KnightMare Frames at his disposal. You've lost."
Count Amontillado's machine flew closer as Nina continued, "Poor, ignorant, fool, you've no idea what this mobile planet is capable of." Nina tapped a few of the holographic keys on the control panel with her free hand, "with the Code bearer plugged into the system I unlocked its seals, and now there is no limit to my power."
A cylinder containing C.C. rose out of the floor of the Coliseum directly in front of the control station at the head of the endless rows of clones. C.C. lay within the cylindrical device unconscious.
"With the access key to this massive machine open, I can bend the laws of nature itself," She raised her voice in the direction of the Aurora-Borealis behind her, "RISE CHILDREN OF NIBIRU! RISE!"
From the glowing myriad of color rose a dozen machines that resembled futuristic, flying chariots. A top each machine rode a burly-pilot with a mask that Madd recognized as the Masks of C's World.
"What are they?" the Colonel asked as the long, rectangular structures that hung where wheels would be on a normal Chariot swung forward to face the approaching KMFs.
"They are the guardians of Nibiru," Nina smiled manically, "clones of the greatest warriors of this Dyson Sphere. I've resurrected them in order to protect the sphere from enemies like you."
"You're insane," Madd cursed at her.
"Perhaps," Nina cackled, "but all of you are doomed."
Nina turned towards her dark-riders, "Go now my Knights. Kill...Kill...KILL THEM ALL!"
"What the hell are those things?" Alice asked over the radio.
"I don't know," Count Amontillado said gravely, "but I doubt they mean us well. Irregulars, prepare to attack the new arrivals. View them as hostiles and attack with extreme prejudice."
"Yes sir," the girls said in unison as the first aerial-chariots got within range of their weapons.
"Let's see what these fools are made of," Dalque raged as she fired a full burst of autocannon rounds towards one of the chariots. Her Vincent-Advanced riddled the alien machine with rounds, which caused it to explode.
"Hah! They're not as tough as they look," Sancia bellowed as she unloaded her own barrage of autocannon rounds at another of the Knights of Nibiru.
Alice followed their lead and blasted two more of the machines into metallic confetti, "These guys are no challenge at all."
"Don't be so sure Alice," Lucretia warned her as the machines and their pilots regenerated out of the Aurora-Borealis effect.
"That's not good," Dalque said as the Children of Nibiru regrouped.
The Count assessed the situation quickly. "We need to get to Nina," Amontillado informed his troupe, "but we don't have enough KnightMares to outflank these sentinels. He flipped his radio over to Suzaku's frequency. "Knight of Zero, this is Count Amontillado, do you read me?"
"I understand Count," Suzaku said as the flashes of the battle lit up the sky over the coliseum, "but how do I know this isn't some kind of elaborate trap?"
"You don't," Amontillado said as he dodged a hail of ruby-red energy beams that shot forth from the side cannon-arms of one of the Chariots, "but you soon will if my Irregulars and I are defeated."
"I still find it hard to believe that Nina Einstein has somehow raised an army from nowhere," Suzaku said stubbornly.
"It would seem that Nina has learned the secrets of this alien sphere and is thus using her new found knowledge to her advantage," the Count said as he parried a hail of the red energy beams with Blaze-Luminous force field of the shield of Uther.
"I'm still not convinced," Suzaku stalled as he watched Lelouch and Shirley make their way to the cockpit of Guren.
"You will be when your friend Lelouch drops dead from his Code vanishing with Geass if Nina gets what she wants," the Count countered another beam attack.
Euphemia could not sit silent with that remark, "Suzaku, we have to take our chances and help him."
"The Knight of Draconis I presume?" The Count inquired over the channel.
"I am," she replied, "but do not mistake my desire to help as weakness Count. The world needs Zero for a short time longer in order to maintain this fragile cohesion that you have sought to disrupt."
"Disrupt?" Amontillado asked as he destroyed another pair of Nibiru Knights with the Kaon-Beam Lance of Uther. "On the contrary, we wish to ensure the creation of the Earth Commonwealth."
Lelouch had listened to Amontillado over the radio of the Guren-Phoenix as Amontillado recanted what was transpiring. He and Shirley worked to revive Kallen from her unconscious state with haste.
"Please help me hold her up while I break open this pack of smelling salts crystals," Lelouch asked hurriedly as he tore at the package.
Kallen's head rested on Shirley's lap as the harsh ammonia smell of the salts roused Captain Kouzuki, "What the...?" Kallen gasped upon looking up at the smiling face of Shirley.
"Hi Kallen," Shirley grinned.
"I guess the Count must have killed me," Kallen remarked wide-eyed.
"Nope," Lelouch snickered, "guess again."
"You're alive?" Kallen asked Shirley in a disappointed tone as she sat up and glared at Lelouch.
"Is this your doing?" Kallen growled at him.
"Wha? No!" He defended himself.
Shirley stood up and humpfed, "Aren't you happy to see me Kallen?"
"Of course I am Shirley," Kallen gave her a hug, "but look at me." Captain Kouzuki let her go gently and put her hands on her hips, "you body is like what? Seventeen at most, Lelouch is in his seventeen year old body, C2 is that way, and here I am an OLD LADY!"
"You look beautiful to me Kallen," Shirley said softly, "I really love your long hair."
"Honest?" Kallen asked.
"Yeah," Shirley nodded enthusiastically.
Lelouch put his face in his palm, "We don't have time for this."
"Oh stow it Big-Z!" Kallen chided him, "you've got some nerve flying off into danger without telling anybody-"
"Leave him alone Kallen," Enoch yelled over to her as he and Rai walked up towards where Guren sat on the metallic tarmac.
"Enoch," Kallen eyed him suspiciously, and then looked over at Lelouch, "oh I see what's going on here. You two scampered off together thinking you could rescue Pizza-Girl, since you've both got the hots for her."
"WHAT!" Shirley shot Lelouch a scowl, "what does she mean? Who've you got the HOTS FOR?" The sigil of Geass formed on her forehead.
"C2," Rai snickered. He was enjoying watching Lelouch squirm.
"The green-haired girl that used to live in his room at Ashford," Kallen added as a deer-eyed look crossed Lelouch's face.
"Oooooh!" Shirley's sigil glowed bright orange-red. "Lulu!"
"Ahem! I hate to be a party-pooper but we got bigger problems then this right now," Suzaku's voice boomed over the external loudspeaker of Gabriel.
An explosion overhead caused Shirley and the others to duck for cover: Shirley's Geass subsided immediately and the sigil faded. It was the left-arm of Lucretia's KMF as ruby-red beams from a flight of Nibiru Knights decimated it.
"They're not going to last much longer," Euphie informed them as she and Suzaku flew their Hakodeshim up to act as cover for their comrades on the ground.
"We need to do something now Lelouch!" Suzaku added.
"Enoch, we need you're Type-21Z for what I have in mind," Lelouch thought quickly as he spoke, "Kallen you need to take Enoch back to his machine."
Rai raised his hand, "Uh, mine too if you don't mind."
"I DO MIND!" Enoch barked at him, "I don't trust you Rai."
"Hey," Shirley looked Enoch over, "weren't you that guy in my music-class?"
"Huh?" The out of place question threw Enoch for a curve, "uh, yeah I used to play the guitar...why?"
Shirley snapped her fingers, "I knew it!"
"You play an instrument?" Rai asked with an intrigued look at Enoch.
"Yes, I play multiple instruments," Enoch said in an irritated tone as he ushered Rai and Shirley over to the Guren, "I'll tell you all about it while Kallen flies us back to our KnightMares."
"I thought you didn't trust me?" Rai asked.
"I don't," Enoch smiled, "but with Shirley baby-sitting you I can be sure you won't give us any trouble. You did say she was an assassin didn't you?"
"Yes," Rai griped, "I did."
"Hold them back!" Alice yelled as she used her The Speed to zip behind four Nibiru Knights and cut them down.
"I'm out of ammo," Dalque said in a distressed tone as she cut through two more enemy units with the Hadron-Blades of her Vincent-Advanced.
"We may have to withdraw," the Count lamented as the endless supply of Nibiru Knights continued to flow out of the Aurora-Borealis.
A hail of red beams rained through the Irregulars.
"Ahhhhhhh!" Sancia screamed as the bulk of the beams headed towards her Vincent-Advanced making escape impossible.
The shower passed over her machine harmlessly as a green energy field surrounded her KMF with the Uriel directly above her.
"Sorry we took so long," Euphemia apologized, "but we had to make sure this was the right move."
"I'm glad you chose to help," Amontillado said with relief, "although it may already be too late."
"It's never too late," Lelouch said over the radio as he unloaded a double blast from the forearm cannons of Samael. The golden-yellow twin beams cut a swath through the legion of Nibiru Knights destroying nearly all of them.
"NOW!" Lelouch yelled as the Gabriel flew over the lip of the bowl-shaped building with lightening speed towards the control station upon which Nina stood.
"It's not that easy!" Nina chuckled aloud at the Gabriel as the machine dove towards her with blinding speed. She tapped a few holographic keys on the screen and watched as the Gabriel slammed into a pinkish-purple force field that threw it back to the ground.
"Nina this is madness!" Suzaku's voice boomed from the loudspeaker of Gabriel. "Why are you doing this?"
"You of all people should know why Suzaku," she yelled back at him upon recognizing his voice. "Geass is EVIL!"
"No Nina," Suzaku tried to reason with her, "it's people's abuse of it that is evil, Geass is simply a tool."
"Stop deluding yourself Suzaku," Nina countered as another mass of Nibiru Knights flew up from the radiant pit. "Do you think this power I wield has any capacity for good?"
Suzaku was unable to answer her as the legion of Nibiru guardians sent a barrage of ruby-red bolts of energy at the Gabriel. He was barely able to raise the energy shield of his machine in time.
"Once I destroy all of you I will use this power to cause Nibiru to collapse in on itself and release the poor trapped souls from Jupiter," Nina waved her hand in the direction of the gas-giant that was just barely visible through the atmosphere of the Dyson Sphere.
"Souls trapped in Jupiter?" Suzaku asked her, "What do you mean?"
"You'll find out soon enough Suzaku Kururugi," Nina sniggered as she pressed another of the keys on the control station. Instantly a pinkish-purple sphere formed around the Gabriel and bolts of energy shot from it into the Hakodeshim.
"Ahhhhhhh!" Suzaku cried as the energy bolts overloaded the force field of Gabriel and bolts of energy arched within its cockpit.
"Suzaku!" Euphemia called out as she dodged through the fury of energy blasts coming from the increasing number of Nibiru Knights. She flew her machine as if the devil chased her towards the fallen Gabriel.
"Wait!" Lelouch yelled at her as he tried to maintain the cohesiveness of their formation. His first plan had ended in failure, and now Suzaku was in grave danger.
Count Amontillado radioed Lelouch, "Use those beam cannons of yours on the enemy mobile units to cover me. My Irregulars and I will flank Nina as a distraction for the Red Dragon to rescue Suzaku."
"Good idea," Lelouch saw the quick plan as the best option under the conditions, "but don't get yourselves killed in the process."
"We'll try not to," Amontillado said, "alright Irregulars, Charge!"
Amontillado and his flight of KnightMares flew to the left and right of Nina while Lelouch let loose another bombardment from the powerful cannons of Samael.
Lelouch's beam weapons incinerated nearly all of the Nibiru Knights while the Count's forces assaulted the force field from both sides.
"Now Red Dragon," Count Amontillado told her, but she was two moves ahead of him and on top of the Gabriel.
Euphie cut through the weakened globe of energy with the twin beam sabers of Uriel. "Suzaku can you hear me?"
"Yeah," he replied as he gnashed his teeth from the pain of the electrical burns on his hands. "I'm still alive."
"How pathetic," Nina scoffed as another battalion of Nibiru Knights reformed over the Aurora and drove back the Irregulars.
"Such a foolish attempt to rescue him will cost you all dearly," Professor Einstein snickered as she pressed a series of holographic keys.
Instantly tendrils of pinkish-purple lightening erupted form the atmosphere of Nibiru and lashed out at the Samael, Uriel, and Gabriel.
The energy smashed the three Hakodeshim to the ground where force fields pinned them with their eerie light.
"Destroy them!" Nina pointed towards the fallen archangels as she commanded her legion of Knights.
Her minions unleashed a barrage of ruby-red beams which tore into the Hakodeshim causing considerable damage to the three machines, but not enough to destroy them.
The Nibiru mecha flew up above the three archangels and aimed their weapons down at them to finish them off when a flash of brilliant superheated energy exploded in the midst of the Nibiru Knights and melted them into slag.
"Nina STOP!" Kallen yelled as the Guren-Phoenix, and Enoch's Type-21Z dove down towards the control platform.
"Come and make me," Professor Einstein spat at her manically.
"Fine, have it your way!" Kallen yelled at her as the wings of the Guren flew up and the machine accelerated at enormous speed towards Nina.
"Such arrogance!" Nina tittered as bolts of lightening rained down towards Guren, but Kallen rolled, dodged, and skimmed out of the way of the deadly energy with nearly unmatched precision.
"You're one to talk Professor," Enoch chuckled while his Type-21Z maneuvered around the energy discharges with ease as it slipped closer to the control station, "considering that you're playing with a device of which you've no comprehension."
"Are you questioning my intelligence?" Nina yelled at him wild eyed. "BASTARD!"
"In more ways then one," he laughed as he unloaded a hail of Kaon-beams from his gunpod at the force field around Nina. "Now Shirley!"
The Vincent-Advanced zipped up over the top of the coliseum with one of the Hadron-sniper beam rifles that Rai's unit had used against Enoch earlier over its left shoulder.
"You've got to shoot Rai," Shirley said as the sigil of Geass formed on her forehead.
She and Rai had been arguing about attacking Nina the whole trip from where they boarded Rai's KMF together.
Rai knew that Shirley's cloned body had been designed by V.V. to be immune to Geass and thus he couldn't charm her. Not only that, but her Geass power could kill him with a word.
Ria did not want Nina killed, but knew she had to be stopped, "I can't kill her."
"I don't want to hurt her either Rai," Shirley pleaded with him, "but we have to think of the others...we'll all die if you don't shoot now!"
He hesitated, "I...I owe her for my second chance at life. I can't just kill her."
"Then shoot the stupid control panel!" Shirley compromised, "at least take away her power."
Rai nodded as he aimed for the base of the control station and fired.
"Thank you Shirley," he said to her with a smile as the beam struck the metal of the control station.
"You're welcome"-Shirley started to say when the beam bounced off the metal and deflected into the midst of the cylinders in front of it "Oh no, it didn't work!"
"Hah!" Nina laughed, "as if your puny weapons could damage the work of a race thousands of light-years ahead of Earth's most advanced technology, what imbeciles you are."
The pain in Colonel Madd's arm was excruciating as he groped around for his pistol with his good arm. The impact of the Hadron cannon shook the control station violently and forced him back down on the ground. "Where is it?" he said aloud to himself as he looked desperately for the weapon.
"Now taste my fury," Nina rattled on as the Knights of Nibiru emerged from the crevice behind her yet again while lightening bolts rained down on the Guren and the Type-21Z with more intensity.
Try as they might Kallen and Enoch could not dodge their way through the downpour of energy that Nina sent at them.
"NO!" Kallen cried out as Guren was hit by one of the beams of energy and slammed into the ground: the only thing that prevented her machine's destruction was her instinctual activation of Guren's own energy shield.
"Dammn that psycho bitch," Enoch cursed as his Type-21Z was forced back away from the control station by a combination of the Nibiru Knights and the lightening.
"None of you will stop my revenge," Nina said triumphantly, "I WILL DESTROY GEASS!"
"No, you will not," a female voice said in a stone-cold tone as a bullet tore through Nina's chest.
Professor Einstein looked down at her chest and the rapidly expanding stain of blood on her blouse in disbelief.
"How?" She asked as she fell backwards into the endless shaft that led down to the bowels of Nibiru.
Madd looked up to see C.C. standing above him with his pistol in her hand, "I'm sorry Nina," C.C. whispered aloud to herself.
"Nina has fallen," Lysandra said to Kannon. "C2 was forced to deal with her."
"That is unfortunate," Kannon said to her as someone entered the lavish Victorian room behind him.
"The others are safe," Lysandra told the newcomer.
Kannon turned to their guest and asked with a courteous bow, "Should we inform Lelouch and his companions of the truth now that the operation is over?"
The young female arrival waved her hand as she shook her head silently in a "NO" gesture.
"She intends for him to pay for breaking his promise," Lysandra snickered.
"Pay?" Kannon asked with concern in his voice, "but I thought the only reason for this operation was to prepare for what both of you have foreseen."
"It has proceeded quite well," Lysandra informed him, "considering the many paths that lie before us and the lesson Lelouch must learn if he is to be the savior of our world. Isn't that right Empress?"
Nunnally smiled at her warmly and held up her curled pinky-finger. "Yes my sister, it is." She said with a wink.
Thanks for Reading :)