'The Ashford Academy and its satellite university in Paris is one of the few international schools that still exist in the socio-political climate today. Due to the rigorous educational standards, Earl Ruben Ashford has managed to convince the emperor that allowing the Numbers to attain education would provide harsher competition for normally complacent nobles. The old traditions were no longer followed, for under Emperor Charles's rule, anyone with an education would be able to make something of themselves, it just so happened that the racism and bias forced Numbers down the line.

The Ashford's educational system has also provided a highly skilled workforce for their partner company Hyperion, in which Earl Ashford is also a main partner of. With Jeremiah Gottwald at its head and his son William being groomed in the ownership of the business as well as political intrigue, Ashford Academy and the other schools under the Athena Group are secure under Hyperion for the foreseeable future due to the tolerance shown by Margrave Gottwald and Earl Ashford towards Numbers.'

Britannia Business Inquirer, "A Look Into Hyperion"

Britannia Publishing, 2026


Thirty minutes into the battle, Naoto's Ashigaru emptied its clip for the fifth time, pitching over what he thought to be his fifteenth Sutherland as he ducked behind a building as rifle fire whizzed through the air around him. He engaged the anti-knightmare hammer, more commonly known as a thunder hammer, and the telescoping staff extended. The head that released a blast of energy that short circuited the delicate inner workings of most knightmares came on a second later and Naoto shifted the shotgun to its holster before charging a reloading Sutherland, striking the chest of the machine and depressing the firing stud that sent the current, forcing the Sutherland to its knees as it went into diagnostics checks. He spun around and struck two more, one with each end of the staff, and sent them down to follow the first. "Red Captain, move down two blocks and fire the slash harkens at your five o'clock and raise sixty degrees." Lelouch ordered, Naoto instinctively following and the slash harkens smashing into a pair of gunships.

From inside the command bunker under the headquarters of Hyperion's Tokyo base, Lelouch smirked. "Just like chess." He said to himself to calm down. "Blue 3, advance to point E7 and fire UN ordinance at point E6 on the right quadrant." He said, as the squad of four Glasgow moved back and shot at the Sutherlands that had appeared behind them as Kallen zipped by, the combat knife dragging through the cockpit block of a Sutherland as she darted from view to immolate a particularly nasty mobile artillery piece with the radiant surge.

Lelouch nodded as he watched the screen and the dance of death unfold. He passed along several more orders and frowned when he came to the notice that the G1 was staying far away from the combat zone. He calculated and realized he had done too well, Clovis would be alive, since it would be too risky to reveal the Guren at this junction and the Liberators weren't green lit by him and the science division, not to mention the rest of his allies. Running a rebellion is a lot easier than managing a black-ops division, he thought.

"Sir, all remaining enemy forces are withdrawing, Clovis's G1 has already exited the allowed combat area for our intervention." Shinozaki reported, the image of the G1 leaving filled the screen along with retreating Britannian forces, as a cheer came up from the command group as the maestro of the symphony simply sat in silence. "We've won, Mr. Gottwald." She sighed

Lelouch shook his head, "Not won, we failed to kill the enemy commander. The ghetto is mostly destroyed though there's thankfully few casualties. This is only the beginning. We haven't heard the end from Clovis yet. Have all forces retreat using exfiltration pattern Sigma Three and the underground route three-three-ten." He said grimly, curling his hand into a fist. We're stuck with Clovis, which means Cornelia won't have to appear, but Euphemia . . . she may already be here. Lelouch grumbled inwardly, glancing to the screen where Clovis's image was now preparing to speak to everyone in Japan.

His hand was clenched over his heart and he had tears in his eyes that Lelouch was pretty sure was fake, he seemed dishevelled, but then he was never quite the best chess tactician. "My fellow Britannians, it is with great sorrow that I announce that fifty-seven of our brave knights fell to the terrorists, and of those only seventeen will ever see active service again. For their sacrifice was made to protect you, the citizens, from the foul weapons the terrorists would have otherwise set upon you all. Their bravery will never be forgotten, and we shall never see their likeness in this world again." He said, filled with emotion that Lelouch had to admire, he was just an actor, but a very good one to be sure.

Naoto walked up to Lelouch and smirked. "If one good thing comes out of this, at least he won't be replaced by a more competent commander."

Standing, Lelouch turned to return to his offices in the upper floors. "That's true. Though I expect we'll still have more problems to deal with. We haven't heard the last of Shinjuku and Clovis."

A courier, marked by the blue armband on his shoulder ran up and saluted. "A message for you, sir." He said, handing the tablet to Lelouch as he ran back to wherever he was stationed. Network traffic was still unreliable, sometimes a human touch was still needed, not to mention Lelouch hand-picked each of the couriers and they had more than enough fail safes to prevent any hacking attempts.

"Looks like Trojan Three's picked up Suzaku." Lelouch mused as Naoto turned to follow. His eyes widened slightly at the report and he sighed heavily. "And it looks like he brought a guest along with him."

Naoto took the pad from Lelouch and looked at it, where a woman with green hair sat next to Suzaku in the transport. "Who's she?" he asked.

Shaking his head, Lelouch sighed again, "She's Code R."


The special operations team Trojan Three had easily located Suzaku, the GPS device on his person made that the easy part. The hard part was discovering just how Suzaku had managed to subdue Clovis La Britannia's entire royal guard alone. The young man was grinning ruefully as CC sat down beside him, sure he had been freaked out at first, but then again stranger things have happened today.

"I can't die here." Suzaku thought, and suddenly, everything seemed to be clear. He saw a flicker, then he had moved out of the way as they began firing. He knew what they would do next, and managed to duck in time for their second volley of shots. Something was up, he thought, the world around him was in red and grey, but afterimages gave him ideas on what they would do next.

The entire incident was over in as many seconds as there were guards after that point. Weaving through their hail of bullets was like that game his sister played with brightly coloured bullets and not getting hit, Touhou if he recalled. In any event, he had managed to deftly pull the pins on the grenades on their belts without missing a beat and dove behind a wall as a loud wail came up from the soldiers as they were shredded by their own anti-personnel grenades.

He returned to CC and slumped down next to her body. The first thing he noticed is that she didn't lose much colour, and in fact the blood was returning to her body. Suzaku found the fragment slowly inch out of her chest. He paled as she sat up and with a soft cry removed the piece entirely. "I'm guessing some answers are in order." She said coyly as Suzaku didn't have even the slightest activity in his mind at the moment.

That was where the men of Trojan Three found him, sitting next to her as she was about to tell her story. The leader, a man named John Price if Suzaku recalled, nodded to Suzaku and helped him up. "What the hell happened here?" he asked, glancing towards the dead soldiers. "Actually, maybe I'd rather not know. William wants to know his best friend's alive and his sister's been driving Roach mad." He said, grinning at the expense of one of his men who was still currently answering someone on his personal com.

Suzaku glanced back at CC and took her by the arm and they all piled into the ancient van that Trojan Three was using. The ride back was rather uneventful, at least until Price tossed out part of CC's clothing, explaining that the collar was a tracker device by Clovis. "Prancing little dandy will be hunting her down, we don't need his attack dog purists on our tails just yet." He said, firing the collar from his grenade launcher and watched as it soared into the settlement.


Omake: A Day in Council

Ashford Academy sat in one of the middling levels of the Settlement, and was a black mark for more traditional Britannians. The fact that the first four years of their primary school was free and their best and brightest among the Eleven population were given free schooling up till high school then allowed to join Hyperion or complete college. Many choose the former to support their families, but some go on to their satellite campus in Paris, much to the anger of the nobility, but then again as Ruben Ashford had said. "They are the top of their class, they've fought the best of the nobility and other Numbers to get where they are. Survival of the fittest, and giving them the opportunity to show their loyalty isn't such a bad thing. Willing servants are always easier to deal with than resentful slaves."

It had always escaped Alice how a noble like Millicent Ashford, affectionately called Milly by her younger sister and most of the school in fact, could act so casually. She sat at the middle school council, having gotten her way to the vice president seat in their elections, wondering these things for the fifth or sixth time when a hand tapped her shoulder, making her jump. "Sorry Alice, err, vice president, we're just about to start." Their secretary, an Eleven boy named Hitoshi, was shaking her from her thoughts.

She shook herself awake and nodded, "Sorry. Just thinking about what happened the other day." Alice said, rather carelessly as she was indeed still thinking about how the prince had announced the deaths of several dozen Britannian servicemen and knights after a terrorist attack in the Shinjuku ghettos. "I don't get it. Why were that many knights in the ghettos in the first place, and not even Knight-Police from what I hear." She mused.

Hitoshi didn't grace her with a response as their president, a boy from a few classes over, Jonathan Stark, one of the other families in the knightmare business, spoke. "Alright everyone, settle down. The middle school division is supposed to host the fair in two weeks, and before that, we need to plan a memorial event for the fallen soldiers." He said easily, but glared at Hitoshi, the only non-Britannian member of the council. Despite having over half the student population made of Numbers, majority of the council members that had been elected were Britannian. Alice had all but forced Hitoshi to join the council, as a favour to her sister, and because she wanted to see Jonathan Stark squirm when a Number was given a position of power.

Being forced to both not be racist to the Numbers or glorify Britannia's warmongering, Jonathan was going to have his work cut out for him. Life was good, she smirked.


A/N:

Sorry for the late update everyone, my computer needed a little TLC after my little sister downloaded one too many One Direction songs and let a virus into the system. I didn't lose too much thankfully, still got most of my notes and my story outlines and thankfully my school notes are safe. (On the other hand, I'll need to teach her how to download properly so this doesn't happen again. A project for another time.)

That aside, I've started another project or two so look forward to that. One idea of mine is Hunters of Remnant, a RWBY-HALO crossover where the Spartans are Hunters and the Grimm are far more numerous and evil. (Yes it will have *snicker* Jaune-117, but he won't be the main focus.) The other doesn't have a name quite yet but it's a story of two of my Skyrim characters and their take on the events of Skyrim and possibly beyond. (Just watched episode ten of season five . . . I'm looking at you Westeros. I mean, I read the books . . . but YOU KNOW NOTHING JON SNOW!)

Sorry for the fangirl moment there. Finally, thank you all for your continued support of this story and I hope to hear more from you as this and my other projects take off. On the other hand, if you're all Harry Potter fans, check out White Squirrel's "The Arithmancer." It's an interesting take on the story and basically goes AU from day one. A very fun read all in all.

Until Tomorrow Comes,

ZE out!