The sound of crackling gunfire and booming explosives was ever present when I re-entered the, now hollow, and crumbling ghetto. It was like something seen in action-filled war movies but instead of witnessing the scene of carnage and destruction behind the safety of a television screen, I was now among it and traversing the dangerous environment with only a single pistol as my only form of protection.

Because of my lack of protection, I was forced to tread lightly among the ruins but the process was slow going and unlikely to get me to where I needed in a timely manner. With no other choice of transportation besides my long abandoned and stolen bike, I had no room to complain about it as it was my own choice to forgo the loud vehicle in hope of finding the terrorist and civilians without being spotted.

Climbing over rocks, shimmying along the walls of building, peaking along corners, and going prone at the sound of soldiers closing towards me was a harrowing amount of work for someone such as myself but I persevered as well as I could with the little training I actually had, I.E. being none, and tried to keep my focus. It was hard to do so though as my mind continued to return to its unanswered questions of as to why Cornelia and her forces were moving so quickly when she had just arrived the previous night before.

"I get that she wants to stop the terrorist quickly but less than a week after the first massacre in Shinjuku seems just absurd. Why didn't more people rise up after something horrible as that? A couple of weeks I could understand but 5 days?" Realizing I had devolved back to questioning the reason as to why everything was moving so fast, I focused back on my surroundings. Just in time too as the sound of soldiers running by caught my attention.

Acting fast, I pushed myself against the wall as far as I could and waited for the sound to disappear. When it seemed like I was in the clear I tried to relax but it was for naught as I heard the talking coming from nearby. "Sir, I think I saw movement in the alleyway; permission to investigate?"

"Fine but hurry so you can catch up. Take Ohara with you as well just in case."

"Yes, sir." Panicking, I held no idea as to what I could do and looked for some kind of exit to my situation. Nothing could come to mind except to run but that would prove to be fruitless as I was in a long and narrow alley that would leave me to simply be a fish in a barrel for the soldiers to gun down. My only choice of action was to try and enter one of the two buildings but the only entrance to be seen as a single set of windows right across from me.

Wishing there was some other way, I took a deep breath and charged the windows, feeding the glass break under the weight of my impact and shattering beneath me as I fell inwards. Ignoring the scapes that could be felt on my arms, I quickly got up and moved further inwards and hid among some nearby rubble to wait.

"You see anything?" It was the soldiers and they seemed to have reached my previous hiding spot of the alleyway now as they began searching nearby.

"Just this shattered widow."

"Think someone broke in this way?"

"No…. wait, I think I see something…. Yeah, I see flecks of blood on the shards. Someone must have come through here. Come on, we gotta find'em; it might be one of the terrorists."

'Shit, shit, shit, shit!' That was the only word that went through my mind as the sound of glass pieces clattering nearby could be heard and the curses of the soldiers as they sounded as though they had been hindered by the sharp pieces.

With no other choice, I simply waited as I listened to the clatter of shards subsided leaving only the clatter of boots on the concrete to be heard as they grew closer and closer. Fearing for the worst and cursing my own stupidity for running right into an active war zone on purpose, I covered my face and waited for the end.

"What the? Hey, Ohara, get over here." I didn't move, hoping they had found something else to catch their attention but the feeling of someone grabbing my shoulder and pulling me to my feet dismissed the notion right away.

"What the hell, what's Britannian kid doing here?" Hearing Ohara's question I became confused and lowered my arms only slightly so as to see what was going on.

What I saw was a pair of soldiers wielding machine guns but holding them loosely in their arms, while the two just stared at me with their masked faces. My looking didn't last long though as the unnamed soldier pulled my hands away from my face to look directly in my eyes.

What are you doing here kid? You shouldn't be here." Hearing the concern in his muffled voice, I couldn't help but becoming slightly calmer to his question and began thinking much more rationally as to what was happening.

I wasn't in the middle of Clovis' active purging of the Shinjuku, I was in the middle of the unknown, and unexpected recreation made by Cornelia. I wasn't going to killed on sight just for being here, at least not yet. Thinking quickly, I gave my best impression of relief and gratitude.

"Oh thank god, Britannian soldiers. I was dared by my friends to go into these stupid ghettos. I had no idea the military was purging them. I was so afraid I would be killed that I tried hiding." Short and to the point with just a hint of rambling, just like a real traumatized person would act. Being as I was almost traumatized already, I kind of had an idea of how it went.

It was Ohara who spoke up first, "Stupid kid, you should've stayed in the settlement. Now we have to escort you back to the G1" At his words, I began to panic as that would ruin my hodgepodge of a plan to try and rally the terrorists, but the panic only increased at the sound of my phone going off.

Fumbling erratically at the unplanned call, I tried to hang up but it fell from my hand and to the ground at the feet of the unnamed soldier who had picked it up and answered it. Hearing the click of the phone accepting the call as the soldier held it to his ear, I couldn't help but swallow the last of my saliva nervously.

"Who is this?... I'll be the one asking the questions here. ...Lelouch, you say, well Lelouch I gotta say, that you almost got your friend here killed If it wasn't for noticing him, he might have been. … yeah yeah, save your gratitude for later. Right now I'm dealing with the mess you created so what do you want. … talk to your friend you say well I hate to break it to…. Important, fine but only a minute so hurry it up." The unnamed soldier handed the phone back to me and I took it carefully from his hands before pressing it my ear.

"Hello, Lelouch."

"You should have told me this was happening today. I thought you said it was happening in the next few." I would have loved to argue with Lelouch at the moment but considering the nature of it, I acted like the relieved friend.

"I'm safe, these soldiers say if I go with them, I can be at the G1 safe and sound."

I could almost hear the sound of Lelouch's gears turning as he tried to come up with a plan on the spot before he finally answered back, "Go with them and do what you can to hinder the G1 but make sure you're not seen by Cornelia. If she sees you I can't be sure I can get you out."

"Of course, everything's going to be fine." Saying that I pulled the phone away from my face and clicked it off began following the soldiers as they beckoned for me to follow them. Moving without a word, I gave a quick pat to my pocket where the pistol could be found and gave a short sigh of relief before nodding and doing so.

Being the last to exit the building, I saw that the one called Ohara was pressing the side of his helmet and speaking but it was too muffled for me to make out. When Ohara was finished, he pulled his fingers away and held his gun much more tightly. "The commander says we can escort the Civilian but we have to be quick about it and meet back up with them with the bravo squad when they deploy." The still unnamed soldier nodded in conformation and beckoned for me to follow after before taking off suddenly at a jogging pace.

Surprised by the sudden start, I quickly tried to follow after and could already feel the burning of my lungs as I did so thanks to the previous act of traversing the ghetto. Ignoring the pain though, I found that I could keep up with the two soldiers but that was most likely because they were keeping themselves slow so as to not lose me in the in any unexpected crossfire that might happen. Recognizing this, I made sure not to say anything about the pace and get on the soldier's bad sides as there was a chance I could keep the soldier's pity if I didn't cause them any annoyance.

After some time of doing this though, my legs began to feel like lead and my brow was extremely sweaty. This sweat was, unfortunately, getting in my eyes and upsetting my contact forcing me to remove it, though not without poking myself in the eyes a few times, when the soldiers weren't looking. After doing so, I noticed the slowing of my pace and the further gap between me and the soldiers.

"Hey wait; I can't keep up much longer!" Seeming to have heard my pleas for them to slow down, the two did so, looking no worse for wear from what I could tell and it made me somewhat annoyed to see it. "Not everyone trains like a soldier does, you know."

At this, one of the two soldiers laughed but I couldn't tell who as neither made a move besides the movement of their chest as they breathed. "What are you talking about, we aren't even going that fast. Hell, we were going fast enough that even an untrained teen could keep up with us; or rather, should be able to keep up with us."

"Yeah well, I don't exercise much; or in general really." Another laugh but this time between the two of them and one moved over to slap me on the back heartedly.

"Well, when you get back you can try hitting the gym once and a while. It wouldn't kill you after all." Too tired to speak much more I simply nodded to the man's suggestion while gasping for air. While I did so, I noticed the two were much closer to each other and seemingly speaking but I didn't care. When the two were finished with their private conversation, the other soldier came and set me up straight as I had been hunched over with my hands on my knees.

"Come on, we only have a little more to go and then you can rest as much as you like." Not waiting for a reply, the two took off once more and I could only groan while forcing myself to follow after them no matter how much it hurt. After some time of this torture, I could vaguely see in the distance the color purple on an object that was getting larger and larger as we jogged. Seeing this, the heavily armed, and fully stocked G1 command center sitting off in the distance. I felt my second wind arrive and pushed my legs to go as fast as they could go. It wasn't much as I was still behind the two soldiers but it was welcomed as we soon got closer and closer.

Before I knew it, I suddenly overtook the two as they had stopped jogging for no apparent reason and were now simply walking. Confused, I tried to stop and wait but the act only caused me to stumble from the unexpected change and speed as well as my numb legs not responding as quickly as I had wanted them too.

"Calm down there kid, we may want to get there fast but we still have to walk up in an orderly fashion like we're trained." Feeling embarrassed for not knowing such a fact, I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment and waiting to get behind them while we walked closer to the G1. After some time of doing this, I could see the soldiers and Knightmares standing at attention around the base of the large transport waiting for their order to storm the leftover of the destroyed ghetto, among them I could see the personal guard of Cornelia herself, the Glaston Knights, already at working order and waiting for their commands.

Finally reaching the large perimeter we came to a halt as a single soldier came up to us bearing the minimum of equipment, as well as no face mask. "Halt, we received word from Alpha squad that you found an unidentified civilian in the ruins of the ghettos."

"Yessir."

"We've been ordered to take him off your hands so that you can head out with bravo squad."

"Thank you, sir." The two soldiers gave a sharp salute and headed off leaving me by myself with the soldier who seemed to be smiling for some reason.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

The man simply waved his hand, "Don't worry about it, you should worry more about yourself." At his words, I started to get nervous.

"Why?"

"Well, it's not every day that an ordinary civilian like yourself gets to meet Viceroy, especially one so well known as the Goddess of Battle." Remembering Lelouch words, I gulped but no saliva could be felt in my already dry mouth.

"Uh, do you think we could not meet her?" In saying this, the soldier's eyes gained the ring of red and his face went blank.

"Sure thing, where do you want to go?"

"How about the G1 to start off with?" Nodding at my suggestion, the man turned around, leading the way among the groups of soldiers who now stared at me in curiosity. As we moved among them though, a thought came to mind. "Before we go in, do you mind carrying something for me?" receiving a nod, I moved up to stand by the man and carefully handed him my pocketed weapon so as to not be caught with it while I was still out in the open of hundreds of dangerous, and large looking guns that could turn my body into swiss cheese with a blood filling.

No longer feeling as nervous as I had been, we quickly came upon the heavily guarded side entrance of the large, purple command center, and with a quick word explaining he had been ordered to take me inside, we were soon within the halls of the enemy base with not a guard in sight.

"Huh, I would've thought the inside would be just as guarded as the outside?"

Not expecting an answer, I jumped at the sound of my escort's voice, "Why would we need guards on the inside, nobody's ever been able to penetrate our defenses before and all the major areas are filled with military staff and personnel." Nodding to his explanation, I couldn't help smile a little, making note of how easy this would actually be. Before I could do anything though I would need a quick change.

Hey everyone, I couldn't help myself and decided to write this chapter a little early so don't expect this to become a usual thing with me. Otherwise, enjoy this new chapter I made for you all to enjoy.

As always, Follow, Favorite, and Review this chapter and I'll see you all in the next one.