The Ghetto 11-C incident, better known as the Shinjuku Purge was one of the most major military disasters preceding the Rise. The events that would follow would usher in a time of great turmoil and strife that would let our glorious leader rise to power in Britannia. The appearance of the masked villain Zero that followed would pave the way to His ascension to the throne. In the time of strife, it was here that the reign of the True Emperor would begin to take shape.

On the Rise of the Empire, The Beginning of Neo-Britannia

Imperial Truth Press, 2046

Suzaku didn't know what happened, one minute he was in his Liberator chasing after an armoured car in the underground with Akira and Kasumi at his side, the next had him self-destructing the Liberator due in no small part to it being rendered damaged by a chaos grenade thrown by some Sutherland. He was just glad he was still alive and made sure no part of the Liberator existed for them to study by detonating the sakuradite battery.

Thusly stranded, with no idea where Akira and Kasumi had sped off to, the armoured car near him, Suzaku shook his head. "Karma's a mean mistress." he grinned as he depressed the detonator after extracting himself and a rifle from the machine, donning a hoodie, silently thanking Lelouch for his unbelievable paranoia.

The armoured car was a wreck, and he could make out two people arguing in the darkness. He also noted with some degree of concern that a third was sprawled on the ground, unmoving and likely dead. He snuck around, unwilling to get tangled with them, to where he found the container. What they were planning was beyond Suzaku, they'd get the gas canister, but with no way to secure it, they left themselves at the mercy of the 'what if Britannia has a remote detonator' scenario.

In any event, Suzaku pulled the wireless uplink as he heard gunfire in the tunnels and inserted it into the control panel. Suzaku turned just as he saw one of the terrorists pitch back with bullets riddling his chest. He shouldered his rifle and peered out, seven no twelve, the prince's royal guard. Suzaku cursed his luck and hunkered down as the guards made their way close.

The control panel clicked once and the transmitter beeped as the technician on the other end disarmed the device and Suzaku breathed a sigh of relief. At least until the canister decided to open and Suzaku nearly had a heart attack. He jumped out of the way and hid behind a wrecked portion of the car, covering his mouth and nose. Though the gas could probably enter through his eyes, ears and skin, he didn't think about that right at the moment.

One thing that registered was that neither he nor the royal guard were quite rolling about the ground clutching their heads in agony. He briefly thought he had died and went to heaven, for a woman with green hair appeared from the capsule. Then again, Gottwald had natural blue hair so it probably wasn't too far off to think someone had green. "Then again, Jeremiah's hair wasn't neon." He said absently to himself.

The royal guard got over their initial fear or hesitation and moved in. Suzaku depressed the trigger and automatic fire hosed down three of the men before the rest scattered. Suzaku dragged the woman as she stumbled out of the case, nothing about a green haired woman in a straightjacket in the report, he thought to himself. "Surrender, Eleven scum!" he heard the Britannian shout in english.

Suzaku fired again but grimaced as the rifle clicked empty and a fourth body hit the ground. Great, he thought, out of ammo, with a civilian against eight soldiers. He sighed, patting one of the dead terrorists for anything.

A switchblade came free off him as well as a pistol that Suzaku noted was half empty. The woman looked at him oddly, clearly she wasn't too surprised at having been freed but was wondering where she was at the moment. "Do you want to live?" she asked as the royal guard advanced and Suzaku managed to hit a fifth with three of the remaining six shots and the rest dove for cover as the remaining shots whizzed past them before discarding the now useless pistol.

"Who are you?" Suzaku asked, tossing one of the shoes the terrorist wore at the men. In the darkness, perhaps it seemed like a grenade and the royal guardsmen dove for cover. "Why were you inside the poison gas container?" he asked as the royal guard began firing once more.

"A witch." She said coyly, smirking at Suzaku's narrowed eyes. "That's a story for another time. You didn't answer. Do you want to live?" she asked, and at that moment, a bullet penetrated the armoured car and a piece of shrapnel went through the woman.

Suzaku could only stare, the woman who had been teasing him for all of two seconds was dead and there was a high likelihood that he would soon follow. He prepared himself in what way he could to die, thinking of Chihiro, Kenta, and Suzuki . . . Suzuki, who'd soon be alone in this world. The blade struck the neck of the first royal guard, and Suzaku managed to catch the gun and fire to kill another before it too clicked empty.

"I can't die here. Not like this." He growled, but a rifle butt to the chest sent him to the ground.

"The girl's dead. Too bad, looks like the terrorists tortured her." The royal guardsman spoke and raised his gun. "I'm afraid this is the end for you, terrorist scum." He grinned, and the woman's hand touched Suzaku's as if to reassure him. Then again she was dead, and Suzaku was about to die. You don't want to die, do you?

"No." Suzaku said, gritting his teeth, sitting up and glaring at the man about to shoot him. Then I propose a contract, you will fulfil my one wish, and I will grant you a power that may save your life. The power of a king, to change the world, it will force you into a life of solitude. Are you prepared? Images burned themselves into Suzaku's mind. He saw shadows crawling towards light, gas giants colliding, and rows of strange women in robes with the same symbol tattooed across their foreheads. Then he saw machines turn worlds to dust and humanity fighting against itself with machines not unlike the knightmares, but larger. He saw great onyx ships firing beams of death onto alien worlds.

"I accept your contract."

Lelouch put his face in one of his hands, "This can't be happening. It wasn't supposed to happen like this." He muttered, as Naoto began relaying orders for the few Ashigaru and Glasgow they had to be ready for action as the ultimatum of his insane half-brother Clovis.

The destruction of the ghetto had been televised as a reconstruction project and the warning sent by Hyperion was enough to send the people in a panic. "We aren't ready to reveal the Liberators yet, I can't believe we have to use the junk that we got from Kyoto. No offense of course, Kaguya." Naoto grumbled as Kaguya smiled apologetically.

"None taken. We only received word now, and Tohdoh is busy trying to get Katase to stop being an annoyance, you're on your own. Though I doubt Britannia would have a chance if your boss were using renaissance aged cannons." She smirked, making Naoto snort and Lelouch sigh.

"You people have too much faith in me." Lelouch said as Kaguya disconnected. "How many cells do we have ready to mobilize?" he asked as Naoto and several other of his captains worked the screens and numbers began to flow in from the district's cell leaders and various other holdouts that Legion possessed within the ghettos.

"Seven. We have eight Akatsuki frames, though their cannons have been removed in favour of close range knightmare shotguns and fifteen Glasgows with their standard loadout of anti-knightmare hammers and rifles. On the other hand, Asplund's new toy the Lancelot has been confirmed in Britannia's side. Good news is they don't have a pilot." Naoto said, bringing the numbers to Lelouch's console. The diagnostic notes and schematics on the Lancelot flowed through and was quickly noted by Lelouch who forwarded it to Rakshatta for further analysis.

"Let's see if we can get Suzaku to pilot it, have Lloyd be ready for our confirmation." He said, and another of the captains, Shinozaki if he recalled, raised his voice in the mic and Lelouch froze for a moment. "What do you mean they returned without Suzaku? Is he? No? Then have Trojan team three find him. The underground? They lost . . . for the love of . . . I'll speak with them later." Lelouch said and Naoto raised an eyebrow.

"Something wrong, boss?" Naoto asked worriedly. It was for the fact that Suzaku was one of the few remaining members of the Kururugi family that a good number of the other cells joined him, he was a rallying flag for the resistance and if he died, they'd lose a good bit of support. "I'll lead them personally." He said, standing as Kallen entered the command station.

"I got the news. Has Rakshatta managed to get the Guren's radiant wave running?" she asked, taking a seat near Lelouch, frowning when she saw his expression. "What's wrong?

"Suzaku's missing, he disappeared into the underground to go after Code R." Lelouch muttered, shaking his head. "His transmitter says he's stable, but the rise in adrenaline and brain activity concerns me." He muttered before shifting his attention to Naoto once more. "No. I need you commanding the forces on the ground. I'm no ace and with Suzaku missing, you and your sister are the only aces I can play with Tohdoh having troubles with the JLF."

Naoto looked like he wanted to argue, but then thought better of it. "I'll head out then. Clovis has begun closing off the roads, we need to act now. We've sent out the warnings and people are beginning to hide in the old Ashford clinics, we've at least managed to keep them in good repair."

Lelouch nodded and glanced at Kallen. "I know how much Suzaku means to all of us, we need to look past that for now. I need you up there as well. You're one of my best if not my best pilots. As to your earlier question, Rakshatta is finished with the Guren, though the radiant surge weapon has only four uses before the emitter burns out." He said before returning to managing the battle to come. Roughly sixty percent of the ghetto was clear already, well within the safety parameters that he'd expected.

He grimaced as he looked towards the west where Clovis's forces were deployed. Encircling the ghetto, so he really meant to destroy it, he shook his head sadly. The boy he remembered from Pendragon years ago was dead, time to let his body catch up. He'd done it before, and he remembered it so clearly, how the bullet entered and exited, how the blood pooled and turned his blonde hair dark. The memories he had tried to supress since the voice had told him it could no longer speak to him and had withdrawn.

The tactical map glowed, bathing the room in its cerulean light as the grid had the IFFs of his units and cells appearing as they began activating their trackers and knightmares. He stood and Lelouch breathed deeply. He couldn't afford a mistake, ever since Suzaku had discovered his father assassinated, back to when he was still a prince, since Nunnally disappeared from his life and though he knew she was only a few buildings away, he had to be strong. "All Legion forces, hear my words. The Britannian army led by Prince Clovis of the empire is preparing to destroy the ghettos. You all know who I am, Lelouch Vi Britannia, and I know you will all do your best to save your homes and the people within. You know what I am, you know who you all are. Let Britannia know that we will not die on our knees, Sic Semper Tyrannis."

Lelouch looked on as the timer counted down, and he closed his eyes and though he was not a religious man, he silently prayed to see his men through what would be his first major battle. "Give me strength." He whispered, thinking back to what the Collective Unconscious had said to him, that he was to be mankind's shepherd, its guide. "Time first to see if I can guide Legion to victory." He smirked. Let the games begin.

"All forces, prepare to engage on my mark."

A/N:

I'll bet nobody expected Suzaku to get geass. Ha ha! One of the main things I think I wanted to do. Suzaku was disgusted by geass mainly by his perception that the only geass that he knew of was Lelouch's and his use of the power was what drove the Black Knights away. Now that a new geass will appear, what do you all think will happen from this point onwards? Let me know what you all think. (That and its the reason Euphie betrayed and massacred the Elevens and that Lelouch killed her. Then again, Ohgi and the others never bothered to ask Lelouch for his side and all just assumed that Lelouch geassed them all but if he had then they wouldn't be having that conversation anyhow. Oh well. Some food for thought.)

Shout out to all the story's followers both new and old, hope you guys are enjoying this story as much as I am with writing it. I'm hoping to continue the story as a series, and with college starting up for me, I'm hoping a weekly update when possible. Wish me luck ;)

Meanwhile, new contest. Geass powers that you all might want to see used and descriptions of how the power works. Just know that geass is mind based, so I won't have any sudden superman superstrength (That's in the Irregulars and specialized cells, maybe I'll go that route, who knows, but for now, just geass powers). Examples is Lelouch's absolute obedience, Bismark's precognitive ability, and Mao's mind reading. Oh and Charlie's mental rewrite power, that must be complicated to use.

Until Tomorrow Comes,

ZE signing off.