A/N: Okay, you can all hate us for this. So, almost to the end of the line. I feel so . . . sorrowful. But all good things come to an end. And now everything is reaching the climax.
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Kali watched as Cornelia fell to the earth. What use to be so powerful and strong, what use to hold this world in an iron grasp, was gone. Falling part right before her eyes. She suddenly felt pressure coming off of her. A victory here would open up the world to reform. Would end the world that the Emperor made through the tears and blood of the innocent and weak. The weight she had lived with since making the contract with A.A. lifted. The princess felt lightheaded at the freeness she now could find around her. A masterpiece of freewill and chance. If she was ever to make a difference in the world, this would be the way she would do it: Staining her hands in blood!
She began to giggle aloud, attempting to restrain the psychotic giddiness that threatened to break free. But suddenly an urgent beeping flared on her screen. Unidentified enemy aircraft was heading her way. She closed in on it: Alex's knightmare. She scowled, "You stupid bastard!" she hissed, "This time, I won't go easy on you. I swear on the name of Euphemia le Britannia, I'll kill you and all in the Imperial Family! I'll soak the earth in your blood!"
"Zero," she contacted the resistance leader through audio only, "I found Prince Alexander of Britannia. I'll be going to engage him."
"As you wish Shade, but you'll be on your own."
She grinned sadistically and plowed ahead to confront her brother, "Just the way I like it."
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Alex pushed his Knightmare to full throttle towards the Gawain. If he was in a Jet fighter like the F-22 Raptor or the F-15 Eagle, he could have fired a few missile shots at it. But in a Knightmare, he had to rely on close combat methods.
'Note to self: Make possible a knightmare equipped with some missiles for long-range attacks,' Alex mental stated as he filed that thought away for a later project, if he survived this fight. As the distance between him and Zero decreased, his warning systems began blaring; warning him that an enemy unit was coming at him.
"Damn it!" He cursed as he broke left to have the enemy overshoot him. When he looked at the monitor to look at the attacking knightmare, he saw that it was the same one from the pier that took out his Lupus frame. "You again!"
He began to climb and prepared to make a diving pass at Shade with the moon behind him and hopefully get a shot into her frame, knowing that she had a powerful modified version of the Blaze Luminous. But when one relied heavily on energy shields, usually meant that their own armor was weaker than a normal frame.
"Let's hope my guess is right," he stated as went into a dive.
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Kali saw her brother climb, obviously going for a pass sweep at her. The idiot didn't know what he was getting himself into. It was a chess game to him, except he still needed to grasp the concept that a checkmate here meant the grave. And who better to disserve the end as much as Alex and herself? They had done nothing but kill and murder. Not to protect someone like Lelouch. Not to revive their stolen pride like Kallen. But they did it all for one thing. One trivial thing: The thrill. And, boy, did it rattle through her body now. Adrenaline and power flowed through her and recycled back, stronger than ever. Tension building.
If she died here and Lelouch was successful, she would've aided in the coming of a new, more peaceful world. If she died and Lelouch failed, she'd at least be in good company. But if she lived and was successful, she would watch the world change and know that she had accomplished one pure thing in her life. That was what she had always wanted, to use her blood stained hands for the good of others. Then maybe, just maybe, she could finally find peace with herself. Maybe even love in another.
But only if she lived through this.
Amaturasu took out her sword and charged at her brother, "DEATH TO BRITANNIA!!!!!!!!!!"
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As Alex dived, he saw that his opponent had pulled out an MVS sword and was speeding towards him.
'Damn it, I don't have enough time to revert back to Knight Form!' he thought angrily and pushed the control stick forward, forcing him into a steep dive and making it look like he was plummeting to the ground.
Now he had two enemies he had to fight against, the Amaturasu and gravity. His sudden steep dive meant he only had seconds till he could pull out to get to level flight, and with a hothead enemy pilot on his tail, he needed to find a way to get her to break from him so that he could fight her.
"Let's see how brave you are to fight me on the deck," he stated as he dove within the building wreckage of the outer-perimeter of the Tokyo Settlement. In Alex's confidence, he was a deck fighter when it came to air vehicles. Problem was when he flew that close to the ground, 60% of the time he crashed into it.
"Here's hoping this is one of the 40% times I don't crash."
The Black Knights that were on the ground had spotted him, trying to take pot-shots at him, but he was going too fast for them to get a complete lock on him as he began making random paths within the rubble, hoping to lose his pursuer.
"How much confidence do you have to chase a crazy pilot Shade?"
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Tetsu was flying with the rest of Pellinore Squadron as they defended the bombers to the best of their abilities.
Erling and Lada were taking the lead in the attack against the ground forces with strafing runs, slowing down their pursuit to the Government building and giving the Britannian ground forces enough time to get away. While Tetsu was still flying with Scarlet and Adrian in their attack against the Gawain once they found out that Alex was now facing Shade. She had to restrain herself from chasing after him to get Shade off his tail, but Adrian was able to get her to focus on the mission Alex gave to them.
'I'll follow orders Alex, but once I'm done here, I'll be there for you.'
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Kali smirked as Alex dove to the deck. She knew he had a disadvantage here, while her knightmare was lithe to fit into most situations. And being a ground/air war machine, she was right at home in between. She thrust forward with that wicked smile on her face, "Alex, you wouldn't have done this if you knew who it really was you were facing. Then again, would you have continued this fight if you DID know?"
They passed over a few Black Knights, missing Alex entirely, they accidentally hit her. She was lucky she had all the Blaze Luminouses. Her armor was thin for movement, but defenses strong for combat. She continued after her annoying elder kin. This game becoming increasingly prolonged and unneeded. She fired three Slash Harkens at the opponent, impacting the left wing with one. Kali rested her head on her fist, "You use to be better than this Alex. What happened to you? Forgot how to kill?"
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Alex felt the impact from a Slash Harken hit his left wing. His damage indicators showed that it was minor damage as the harken didn't hit anything critical, but it could have taken out his float unit and he be plummeting down to the Earth in an untimely death.
"No you don't," Alex stated as he pulled the stick towards him and began to climb. 'I only have three choices: flee from this fight, try to outmaneuver her and get on her tail, or take her head on. I can't run from her, and I doubt I could outmaneuver her, so head on it is!'
He pushed full throttle to reach the stall point. Once he did, he went into a tight loop and performed a tight reversal. Screaming down at his opponent with his 30mm cannons blazing at her, hoping he took her by surprise and was able to hit her before her shields came up.
'Alright Shade, it's time that I focused all my attention on you! And I won't let you get out of my sights!'
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"That's right Alex," she smiled satanically, "Come at me so we can finish this. Today determines which of us die!" She laughed as she charged back at him with the sword in a thrust position. The bullets bounced off her shields as the gap between them closed. She sliced at his frame, but a part of her kept from making too much damage.
'Damn it! Even if he is my brother, he must die!! He stands between me and MY dreams!!!'
They passed each other. Kali continued on for a few seconds before stopping and falling back to the earth. She redirected the view so she faced the direction she was falling. Alex was transforming from Fortress mode to Knightmare. Obviously he saw that he wasn't going to win with his jet pilot skills.
"You're not bad Shade," he commented grudgingly, turning to look at her, as well as pulling out an MVS sword of his own. They stood their suspended in air as they gauged each other.
Kali's smile widened terrifyingly, "Naruhodo kikei oite Go ka!!"* She once more charged at him, as did her brother. In midair they connected in a lock, neither gaining a better hold over the other. The princess gritted her teeth and pushed harder on the controls, coercing it to break the stalemate and destroy her opponent's machine, but she just couldn't achieve it.
"This is getting us nowhere!" she growled. Her Slash Harken on her right side shot forward and sliced off the left arm of her brother's new Knightmare.
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"Sie japanisches Schwein!" Alex shouted in frustration as he fired his slash harkens at his opponent. The fact her Blaze Luminous shield was able to still come up when she was in combat was the last thing on his mind, but he fired them and went to fire his mounted 30 mm cannons at her. The Blaze Luminouses activated, but he continued to hammer them.
'Die damn it!!' he thought in frustration. Suddenly the red and gold knightmare spun, pushing him back, but he was able to get a hit on her. It was so close to her energy filler compartment. If only an inch to the left, this would've been over! It then came to him that his own knightmare's float system was failing and he was losing altitude fast. He'd need to land for repairs. "Damn you Shade!"
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Tetsu saw Alex falling. At the height he was at, he'd be safe to land, but if he did, that woman would kill him! Ignoring her love's commands from earlier, she dived to help him. The red knightmare was still, not detecting her approach. Her own knightmare withdrawing its MVS sword.
"DIE YOU VILLAIN!!!" she screamed her arrival.
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Kali checked over her status. Her Energy Filler wasn't hit badly. Damn Alex, he skinned it. Now the filler was leaking. "Fuck," she growled. Her fight was luckily cut short by Alex's knightmare getting injured. She had a good amount of power left, so she could swoop in, be rid of Alex, and retreat temporarily to change her filler. But a scream in the air caught her attention. She turned sharply to find another knightmare, a dull green-blue one, diving right for her with an MVS sword. Kali pulled up her's as quickly as she could, catching it just in time.
Sparks flew as they made contact, the other pilot obviously not very well trained as they continued pushing against her. They came to Alex's rescue but failed to realize that they were making the same mistake as him. Once more, she spun, knocking back the pilot. They flew back out of reach of her sword. Maybe they did see something.
"Yuku akki ikeike!! " the pilot shouted in a familiar voice. It was Tetsu.
'I'm sorry,' she thought to herself, then charged at the woman. She knew Tetsu wasn't trained well in knightmare combat; all she had to do was use her Geass on her and have Tetsu kill herself. That would end the fight, but with the amount of energy that she was leaking, her knightmare wouldn't have enough time to go after Alex before running out of power. That would leave herself and Amaturasu defenseless to her elder brother. But if she didn't do this, the Japanese maid would kill her.
Her right eye activated with the power of Geass. She knew just were the woman would be, "ZAMAMIRO TETSU-SAMA!!! #"
She stood in Tetsu's world. Her mind was filled with pain and hurt from what Britannia did to her, but also with much joy and happiness. She saw memories of when Tetsu, Alex, and she had all met together. That was so long ago, she had almost forgotten. They had been close for a long time since then, and now it all climaxed to this. As she kept shifting through the past from Tetsu's point of view, she saw how much the maid really did love Alex . . . even her. Yes, Tetsu loved her. And this . . . this was how she would repay her?
"I'll do this with little pain," she whispered softly and took up all the memories in the Japanese woman's mind. All of them were crushed into oblivion. The physical reaction: Instantaneous Death. She was practically shoved out of the woman's head as her mind was no longer existent. The Knightmare hovered in the air for a moment before Kali slashed through the Energy Filler inside, causing the knightmare to explode.
"Washi mikomi meifuku tameni jijo."
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Alex reentered his machine after repairing the float system and looked at his screen that gave him the statistics of his squadron's knightmares, but one blinked out right away. It was Tetsu's knightmare! Not indication of ejection. He launched in the air to see what was going on.
He had saw that Shade cut through one of his new knightmares somehow with no reaction from the pilot.
"No, she couldn't have . . ." Alex mumbled to himself in disbelief. Somehow, Shade was able to kill Tetsu with no effort.
"SHADE!" he shouted as his machine gripped the MVS sword tightly in its right hand, he sped towards her with as much speed as he could put in.
Shade apparently saw the attack and rose her sword to block it, but a gun shot had hit her Blaze Luminous that she decided to fall back from both attackers. Alex looked on his radar and saw that it was the rest of Pellinore Squadron with Scarlet in the lead, giving him some cover fire.
"Scarlet, what are you doing here?!" Alex demanded.
"Doing our job sir," she kindly retorted to him.
At that moment, another knightmare appeared.
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A.A. had been watching his contractee the entire time, but he couldn't tell that Kali was losing power until she backed away. No way would she have done that if she had no fear of the Blaze Luminouses failing. Alex must've hit her. And now there was a gang fight going on. This was insane. Couldn't Alex do this like a man? The knightmare in the lead landed a few direct hits on Amaturasu, making his anger boil. He launched into the air and fired at the leader with a Slash Harken. A direct hit! He smirked as the machine burst into flames.
"Kali, I'll hold off the Pellinore Squadron, you finish off Alex," he exclaimed to her over private chat.
She nodded, "You stay on them A." He noticed tears beading down her smiling face. It scared him, "If this is the last time we talk, I want to thank you A.A. For everything you have done for me."
He gasped, "Kali-."
"A.A., you are now in charge of the White Shadows. Go, fight!" Then the link was disconnected. He stared at the screen for a few seconds before gritting his teeth. He would hold off Alex's troops, even if he had to kill every one of them.
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Alex saw the horror of another one of his own friends dying, this time from the other knightmare that apparently played as second in command for the White Shadows.
"No …, not Scarlet too," Alex said in disbelief. His grief soon turned into anger, wanting nothing more than revenge for the death of his friends, comrades, and his love. Remembering the words Adrian once told him when he taught him the basics of combat.
'Alex, you will have to fully express and embrace who you are if you are to succeed. Hiding behind masks, will only make you weak and cause suffering for others.'
He never knew how true that was, until now.
"I… will … KILL YOU!!!" he shouted turning back to Shade. Suddenly he realized how defenseless the rebellion leader looked. He noticed how the float system was wavering; someone must've skimmed her Energy Filler. A ruthless leer spanned his face. He would kill her easily now.
He caught hold of the red and gold knightmare and pulled it behind him; she would die with fear, knowing that it was coming, but not when. He climbed in altitude, the hostage in his grasp losing power by the second, and Shade put up no resistance. Finally they reached the stars. The settlement was so small now; this would be the perfect height to ensure the demon woman's death.
A beep came on his screen, an incoming private transmission. He turned it on to see . . . Kali garbed in Shad's uniform!
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Kali smiled sadly at her brother's shocked face. "Yes Alex, it really is me. I killed Tetsu and countless others of Britannia. Many of whom you know very well. I needed to say this to you before it was too late: For all the things I've done, I regret killing Tetsu the most, and I am sorry. But that will not bring her back."
"K-Kali . . . !!?? H-How!?"
Her eye activated with red Geass, "Good-bye."
She edited the most recent of his memories. She changed the audio. Changed the face. He only saw the mask. He only heard taunting words. He would never remember a word she said. Never remember her true feelings for him and Tetsu. This was really her: The girl who could bare the weight of the world and lived with the shadow of death close on her heels.
She extracted herself from him, her knightmare completely dark. The filler had finally run dry. She felt herself falling. She didn't know how high she had been with Alex, but knew that he would've ensured her death somehow. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She pictured her bed back at the academy. Nunnally. Lelouch. Suzaku. Kallen. Milly. Rivalz. Even Shirley. The Student Council room. All the parties. All the fun. She felt Euphie in her arms again. Heard her voice.
EUPHIE!!!" she shouted as she ran up to her older half sister.
"KALI!!!" the pink haired sub-viceroy exclaimed. The two girls hugged.
"You will be back soon, right Kali?" Euphie asked for the hundredth time.
Kali sighed and rolled her sapphire blue eyes, "Yes. It's not like I'll be gone for twenty years and you'll be Viceroy of Area 11. Just in a week or two. Something came up and we gotta go back for a bit."
Euphie nodded with a smile, "I'll be waiting then."
Kali stepped in front of her big sister in a self defense stance. "How come you're more popular than I am?" she joked.
Euphie was in a bloodied dress, her eyes glazed with death. The sweet little smile she shown so brightly gone forever.
Kali continued stroking the pink locks as she swallowed the sobs. Euphemia held out her hand to Suzaku and he took it in both of his. "Keep going . . . to school. I had to stop . . . before I - . . . before I had the chance to finish."
"Euphie," Suzaku said as tears streamed down his face, "You can still go yourself. I know, why don't we go to Ashford Academy together?"
"Yes. The Student Council is so much fun," Kali added. Her tears were creating small pools on the tiled floor.
Euphie smiled, "You have to do it . . . for me . . . okay?" She seemed to know what was going on.
Kali smiled softly as she relaxed, tears flowing freely, "I'll see you there Euphie." She never felt the impact.
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Alex looked down as he saw his prey fall to her doom thousands of feet below him. He immediately checked the status of his Knightmares and the remaining forces of Pellinore Squadron's knightmares. They still had enough energy to last a few more hours of combat, but were getting heavily damaged from the battle. And his Knightmare needed new parts before it went back into the battle.
Alexander went to his comm. channel to give his final orders for the first half of the battle.
"Captain Adrian, prepare to fallback!"
"Yes sir!" Adrian replied.
"I'll return to take you down next A.A.," Alex said to himself with venom in his voice, "I may not be able to kill you as the law we in the EU follow, but I will make you suffer, just as much as Scarlet's family and friends have suffered."
He then dived towards the government building to recharge and restock in ammunition and replace the missing limbs on his knightmare for the next battle.
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Amaturasu lay in fragments on the ground. Landing from thousands of feet in the air, the knightmare had no hope of being salvaged. The red and gold machine was gone, for now and forever. The pilot inside was nowhere to be found, the cockpit had not ejected so . . .
A.A. stared in horror at the wreckage. She was gone. Kali had finally faced off against the evil of Britannia as a whole, and she failed. Never had he the thought that she would end buried under the wreckage of her own masterpiece: The one thing that she loved more than the fight. Her ultimate killing machine hadn't died fairly. The whole battle was a victory from luck. And from cruel luck she was gone from him, forever.
Tears filled his eyes. Tears of sadness and grief, of anger and hate. He banged on the console, "DAMN YOU!!! DAMN YOU ALEX!!!!" The salty tears flowed freely down his face as he watched Alex's fleeing knightmare and the remainder of his squadron. With wrath controlling his mind and body, the red head sped after them. "All White Shadows, FALL BACK!"
He felt his mind going undone, "I swear to you Kali, I will avenge you," his eyes widened demonically, "IN ALEXANDER'S BLOOD!"
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*Literal Translation: "I see you (elder brother) in Hellfire!"
^Literal Translation: "Die demon bitch!!"
#Literal Translation: "You'll get what you disserve Tetsu!"
Literal Translation: "I hope happiness in the next world for you."
A/N: There is going to be 22 chapters because Alex is picky about even numbers. . But Kali dead is so . . . sad. *cries* Okay, you may all hate me. Now I hate Alex too. That bastard. Can't wait for the final installment? . . . Neither can I!!!!