Chapter 37
Jeremiah Gottwald had been on his way to Prince Lelouch's welcoming party – late, but someone had to take care of the Tokyo Base in the General's absence and he was next in line, therefore the task was dumped on him – when he'd received an irate phone call from Bartley. The good General wanted to know just how in the hell terrorists had stolen Prince Clovis' precious Code-R project when everyone who knew about it was supposed to be dead.
Jeremiah was at a loss.
All of those damned terrorists should have been dead. He'd systematically swept that warehouse from top to bottom and mercilessly executed anyone he'd come across. And of course he'd made sure that all possible exits were covered. No one had escaped that warehouse alive.
So how then?
A second party? But why wouldn't they have been present at the general briefing? Unless they'd been briefed in advance. But why? What had they been doing when the others had been dying under his unit's gunfire.
Jeremiah had always prided himself on the excellence of his command. Simply spoken, he was a perfectionist. So when something went wrong, he took it as a personal affront. When something went this wrong, he guaranteed to set things straight.
He didn't even bother changing out of his flashy tux before heading back to the base where his squad members were still waiting to mobilize – the carrier already loaded and ready to go. Efficiency was one of the things he'd drilled into his squad and it was just one of the things that made them amongst the best in Area Eleven.
"Where are they?" He asked Villetta brusquely as he strode onto the carrier and approved the vessel for take off.
"The terrorists are headed west along the freeway. Just one truck, as far as we're aware, but we can't simply destroy it. If we hit the poison gas, we'll end up killing countless Britannian civilians in the Settlement." She answered quickly.
"So we have to force them to surrender." Jeremiah growled as he strapped himself into his Sutherland via an access point in the hull of the carrier. He'd be ready for a drop at a moment's notice.
"Yes. Though it's unlikely they'll comply." Villetta answered via the radio from her own machine.
"Of course not. They're Elevens."
Once again, he cursed the damnable pride of the native inhabitants of this land. Few of the armed resistance members of this nation had surrendered to Britannia since the invasion. The more likely scenario was that they'd fight to the death. Or they'd set up an ambush and try to take their oppressors with them in a flashy suicide attack. And with a poison gas bomb at their disposable, such an approach would be deadly.
Vaguely, he wondered just how airtight his Sutherland was.
It didn't take long for them to rendezvous with a squad of Prince Clovis' Royal Guard who were tracking the runaway semi and firing indiscriminately on the vehicle below.
"Idiots." Villetta hissed into her radio.
"Well if Clovis chose his Royal Guards for their intelligence rather than their blind loyalty, this wouldn't have been a problem in the first place." Kewell said, needlessly adding his two cents. They all knew that he'd applied to join the Royal Guard multiple times and had failed to make the cut. Not for a lack of skill, but rather due to personality compatibility.
But Jeremiah ignored him, already making contact with the Royal Guard and wresting command from them. Clovis' personal guard they might be, but Jeremiah was second in command only to Bartley (and, he supposed, Prince Lelouch now) and this was clearly a military matter – not a matter of the Viceroy's health.
Furthermore, it was a matter dealing with terrorists. He wondered just what Prince Lelouch was up to by letting the Royal Guard run amok of the situation, but it wasn't his place to ask. He'd simply do his job and make sure this time that all of Kouzuki's damnable little band of terrorists were dead.
"Surrender now and you'll be given a fair trial, you arrogant Elevens." He called. Honestly, the gall of these miscreants was astounding. Rising up against Britannia was bad enough, but using the distraction the Kenshiki Faction was causing to their own advantage was worse.
It hadn't been made public, but a large number of the soldiers from the Tokyo Base had been reassigned to the Osaka garrison last week to help bolster their defense against the Kenshiki. Tokyo was running on the bare minimum and even Jeremiah's squad had been scheduled to deploy to Osaka until Prince Lelouch had made his appearance.
Jeremiah hated to admit it, but this terrorist attack couldn't have come at a worse time.
He reinforced that thought a moment later when a refurbished Glasgow broke it's way out of the truck and took down the nearest of the Royal Guard's military helicopters.
"Damn it. I'll deal with this cretin. The rest of you take the transport and get ahead of the truck. Shut down all exits to the freeway and force that truck to stop." Jeremiah ordered as he triggered the release mechanism and sent his Sutherland plummeting to the earth.
He had to admit that the pilot was good. The fact that the Glasgow had been able to evade his first attack was a testament to their reflex speed. That they survived his second attack was nothing short of miraculous. Obviously, he was dealing with an ace.
Jeremiah was not a fool. He knew he was a good Knightmare pilot, but he also knew he was not an ace. It was only a slim percentage of Britannia's Knights who could claim that title and they usually ended up finding themselves in the service of one member of royalty or another instead of fighting on the front lines.
In an even fight, he had a sneaking suspicion that he'd have had no chance against this particular pilot. Luckily, it wasn't an even fight.
He continued to attack relentlessly, using the Sutherland's superior speed to pressure the slower rogue model until defense was it's only option. He had this fight. He'd taken the Glasgow's arm in his second attack and the strike seemed to have damaged the shoulder-mounted slash harken on that side as well.
So not only was he faster, but the Glasgow was working with only half of it's arsenal. He fired indiscriminately with his KMF rifle and watched, vaguely impressed, as the pilot struggled to make the Glasgow evade. It was almost entertaining, like toying with an insect before killing it.
"Lord Jeremiah." Villetta said through the radio just as the Glasgow decided to go on the offensive.
"What is it?" He growled as he launched his slash harkens, hoping to take out the arrogant upstart.
"We've lost the truck." She answered.
"What do you mean you lost the truck? You were supposed to be covering all the exits." He demanded harshly, jumping back from the Glasgow's suddenly fierce onslaught. He'd never seen any Knightmare move so gracefully before, let alone a Glasgow.
His Sutherland slammed into something – the bridge? - as he tried to counter the attack and failed. Both the Glasgow's stun tonfa and it's remaining slash harken made contact with his machine (but in non-lethal areas for some reason) and pushed him head first over the side.
He cursed loudly and colorfully to himself for letting himself get distracted as he released his harkens into the underside of the bridge and halted his free fall. One of the first things recruits learned in Knightmare training was how to recover from a fall, so if the Glasgow pilot thought this was enough to get rid of him, they were going to be unpleasantly surprised in a moment.
"We were covering all known roads, but it turned into the old subway line. The tunnel's too small to accommodate Knightmares. Should we proceed on foot?" Villetta asked.
"No. The Royal Guard is deploying Expendables into the tunnels as we speak." He answered as he hardly spared a glance at the memo he'd just been sent from the helicopters still circling above him. "Take the others and find out where that tunnel ends. Don't let the truck get past you again. Cover all of the exits. Requisition more men from the Knightmare Police if you have to since they're nearby."
"What about you, sir?" She asked.
"I've still got some garbage to take care of." He growled as he pulled himself back up onto the bridge's surface and spied the retreating form of the Glasgow rushing down the freeway away from him.
Oh no, he wasn't going to let the bastard get away. Not after humiliating him like that by pushing him off the bridge. He was going to take that machine apart piece by piece. And only then would he kill the pilot for daring to stand against Prince Clovis and, by extension, the Britannian Empire.
He raced after the Glasgow, steadily gaining inch by inch over the miles as they wove through bewildered traffic and, occasionally, brushed vehicles out of the way. The Glasgow seemed to be taking more care than he was, but he wasn't going to complain because it was letting him catch up more quickly.
When he finally got within range, he hefted his KMF rifle and began firing again. The Glasgow was considerably less careful with the civilian vehicles after that, as it dodged the lethal rounds and lost more speed and more ground to his Sutherland.
By the time he got within harken range, the Glasgow had given up on flight and turned around, firing a harken at him that he easily dodged. A single harken was easy to evade, it was when multiple harkens were fired at the same time that it became more difficult. He demonstrated the difference by firing both of his slash harkens at the Glasgow – one taking the machine's archaic 'head' completely off while the other was brushed aside by a stun tonfa.
Well at least he'd destroyed it's factspheres. It would be running half blind from now on, relying only on it's cockpit mounted cameras. He would use that to his benefit as he knew they only faced forward. All sense of what was behind the Glasgow was now lost.
He grinned ferally as he moved in on the derelict machine and released his stun tonfas. The pilot had severely underestimated him if they thought he was shoddy at close range combat. Knights of Britannia were trained to excel in all fields of Knightmare combat.
He would show this arrogant Eleven the true might of the Knightmare Corps.
The Glasgow managed to block one of his attacks with it's tonfa, but the Glasgow only had one arm and Jeremiah had two. His second tonfa drove into the machine's hip joint, damaging the mobility of it's left leg.
He'd said he was going to take the machine apart piece by piece and that was exactly what he intended to do.
The Glasgow pushed away, balancing impressively on it's undamaged leg as it attempted to put distance between them. It fired it's slash harken at his Sutherland, aiming for the cockpit in a vain attempt to take him out, but he brushed the projectile away with one of his tonfas and closed the distance again – this time completely ready to immobilize the unit.
"Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald, this is Lelouch vi Britannia. My life has been put in peril and I request your service and protection as a Knight of Britannia. Do you accept?"
He cut off his charge in surprise and put space between himself and the badly damaged Glasgow. "Your highness! Where are you? I'll be right there." He gasped in surprise.
"Put yourself into my service first." The prince ordered through the radio, causing Jeremiah to feel a trickle of dread. Something had to be wrong for the prince to refuse aid immediately.
"Of course, your highness. I will protect you with my life." He promised, recalling oaths he'd sworn to the boy's mother years ago – to protect the vi Britannia line from any threat.
"Then meet me where the old subway tunnel comes out in Shinjuku." Prince Lelouch ordered.
"Sir, that's near where I am now." Villetta suggested and Jeremiah realized the request had been shared with the rest of his squad mates.
"No." The prince said firmly. "I don't need your subordinates, Gottwald. I requested you."
He felt a little pride at being singled out by the prince. Apparently, the teen hadn't forgotten his loyalty to the vi Britannia family. He would be sure not to let the prince down. This time, he wouldn't fail. Both for the memory of Empress Marianne and for the sake of the young prince himself.
"I understand, your highness. Villetta, I've been requested for service elsewhere. I leave the command of this squad in your capable hands." He said calmly before – much as he hated to do it – he turned his back on the damaged Glasgow and took off at full speed towards the location the prince had mentioned on the map.
If Prince Lelouch was in danger, there was no time to waste. Even the precious few minutes it would take to completely dispose of the pesky pilot could put Prince Lelouch at needless risk. Instead, he sent the last coordinates of the rogue Knightmare to Villetta and trusted to his squad to finish cleaning up this mess.
Lelouch's mind was racing as he waited in the mouth of the subway for his escort to arrive. A hundred and fifty meters behind him in the dark tunnel lay the bodies of the boy he'd once considered his closest friend in the world, a girl who had granted him a godlike power, and nine members of the Royal Guard.
Lelouch had seen a lot of death in the seventeen short years of his life. He'd been having occasional nightmares about corpses since he was ten years old. But those corpses had never been people that he'd known or cared about.
The only person's body that he'd seen that he'd actually loved had been his mother's. And even then, he hadn't seen her face. Not then, when she'd been covered in blood and collapsed over Nunnally. But seeing Suzaku like that . . . seeing the slackness of his face and the graying pallor of his skin and all of that blood painting the ground red all around him . . .
He'd vomited twice, leaving a mucussy puddle of half-digested hors d'ouvers and expensive champagne on the concrete, before he'd been left dry heaving. He couldn't. . .
Until that day, he'd always suspected that Suzaku was dead. That some bastard Britannian soldier had killed him during the invasion and that he'd been shoved into an unmarked grave like so many others. But today, hope had been rekindled. Suzaku wasn't dead – hadn't been dead.
All that time he'd been despairing in vain only to have to watch with his own eyes as his friend was shot downright in front of him. He should have been nicer to him. He recalled with disgust that, instead of a happy reunion, Lelouch had accused Suzaku of being a terrorist and proceeded to argue with and insult him.
It should have been a happy reunion. He should have simply been overjoyed to see his friend had survived, instead of angry that Suzaku hadn't done what he'd expected. He'd never regret his words more. He wished he could take them back and just tell Suzaku that he was glad he'd been alive.
But it was too late for that now.
Too late, and once again all he was left with was regrets and revenge. But this time he'd make sure it didn't years to avenge the fallen. His retribution would be swift and merciless.
He heard the familiar whine of landspinners arrive in the ruins of the above ground station. He'd checked it out earlier to confirm his location before calling Gottwald. He didn't, however, move from his location in the shadows, unwilling to risk to chance that it was someone else up there in a Knightmare.
One of Gottwald's subordinates had been suspiciously eager to find him – for a member of the Purist Faction, that is – and it had sounded like the woman was closer to him than Gottwald was. So he wasn't about to go running into the open at the first sign of aid. Not in his current situation.
"Your highness? I'm at the exit but I don't see you. Are you alright?" Gottwald asked.
"I'm still in the tunnel. Come down here." Lelouch ordered, knowing that the dimensions of the tunnel were too small for a Sutherland to fit. It was the only reason he'd decided to stay in the dark down there. If Gottwald had been given orders from Clovis – which he hadn't heard whilst monitoring the communications from all nine of the radios in the tunnel set to a different channel – then he'd be dead if he revealed himself to a Knightmare. At least with the man unmounted, Lelouch stood a chance in hell of taking him down.
And if he had to, he'd use it. That power. That Geass that that girl had given him. He didn't know anything about it, so he was wary of using it, but he would if he had to in order to survive.
He heard hurried footsteps a moment later and tightened his grip on his gun. "Stop there." Lelouch ordered the second the man came into view, dressed in a tux of all things. He raised his gun as he continued to address the man, still hidden in the shadows as much as he could. "Tell me what your orders were."
"We were ordered to force the terrorists to surrender and to recover the poison gas at all costs. I also took it upon myself to pursue a rogue Knightmare." Jeremiah answered, his tone obviously confused.
"Poison gas?" Lelouch asked. Had only the Royal Guard been made away of the true contents of the capsule then? He'd thought the poison gas story had only been fed to the Honorary Britannians, but no, he supposed it made sense for only a select few to know. If Clovis was willing to murder his own brother to keep that girl a secret, he doubted she'd be common knowledge to the rest of the military.
"Yes, your highness. I was sent to eliminate the terrorists who had been receiving leaked information about the project months ago, but apparently I missed a few in the clean up." Gottwald answered.
"I see." Lelouch mused as he stepped out of the shadows, his gun never diverging from it's target at the center of the man's chest. It seemed the Jeremiah Gottwald was clueless to the true nature of this fiasco, but that didn't make him any less dangerous. He still remembered Clovis boastfully declaring Gottwald as one of his most trusted and efficient subordinates.
Gottwald sucked in a hiss of surprise and took a step towards him before noticing the gun trained on him. "Are you injured, your highness? You're covered in blood."
He remained mute, barely sparing a glance at the state of his borrowed attire, trying to determine whether or not the concern was genuine. Gottwald frowned at him, eyes straying to the gun. "What happened to you?" He asked warily.
Lelouch ignored the question. "I've reconsidered that offer you made to me all those months ago, Gottwald. You offered to swear yourself to me, didn't you?"
Gottwald's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Uh, yes, your highness." He hesitated.
"Then do so." Lelouch ordered. "Forsake Clovis and swear yourself to my service. If you had any love for my mother, or if you have any hope for your redemption, you will take me as your liege."
Maybe he was laying it on a bit thick, but he really wanted to bind Gottwald to him as firmly as he could without using Geass. He had no idea what the long term effects of his power were, and a man like Gottwald would be useful even after this incident, provided they both survived, so he'd rather not risk damaging him. Especially before he could be made useful in this scenario.
Gottwald stared at him mutely for a moment. The fact that he was being held at gunpoint was probably a factor, but after a few seconds of silence, Gottwald sank to his knee and crossed his arm over his chest in fealty and obeisance.
"My prince, please allow me to serve you. As sword or shield, in the protection of your life and the pursuit of your goals. Let your whims become my purpose and your will become my law." Gottwald said solemnly.
"And Clovis?" Lelouch demanded.
"Forsaken, my prince, even though I'll be branded a traitor." The Margrave answered immediately, without even the slightest hint of hesitation.
Lelouch sighed in relief, letting the gun fall to his side as he slumped against the wall and shock and fatigue caught up with him. It was like half of the burden he'd been stressing over had just been removed. He wasn't completely alone. He had an ally.
An ally he had stolen from underneath Clovis. And the man who would play the part of the source of the Viceroy's despair. It was not enough to simply steal the man's loyalty. No, not by a long shot.
"Prince Lelouch!" Gottwald exclaimed as he rushed to Lelouch's side and began prodding the bloodiest parts of his clothing.
"It's not my blood." Lelouch said, batting the man's hands away.
"What happened to you?" Gottwald asked softly.
"Let's just say that if things go badly, you won't be the first person to die for me today." He said bitterly before stooping to pick up the armful of stolen radios he'd had arrayed around him. He was headed towards the stairs and Gottwald's Knightmare with his newly appointed subordinate hovering worriedly at his shoulder, when one of the radios cradled at his chest crackled to life.
"Iverson! Report! Did you get him? Is Lelouch dead?"
Lelouch froze, turning warily to meet Jeremiah's gaze. They both knew that voice. This was the true test. The man had switched sides so quickly it was hard to know just how loyal he could be. He prepared to use his Geass power, just in case.
But the man had gone rigid, staring at Lelouch in shock, then pity. He didn't move to fulfill the orders Clovis had obviously given his Royal Guard. Instead, he took a step back and held his hands up in a gesture of peace.
"Clovis! So that's what happened." Gottwald said softly. "I suspected that you'd somehow lost faith in the military's loyalty, but I never expected this. My prince, I've sworn myself to you, and I swore to your mother that I would protect the vi Britannia line. I will never harm you, this I swear. My oaths to the vi Britannias have always taken precedence over any other duty."
Lelouch frowned, studying the man for any trace of deception, but found none. In fact, he seemed almost painfully earnest. "I have no choice but to trust you for now. Just know that I'll be watching for the knife aimed at my back."
"As will I, my prince. And I swear I will stop it." Gottwald promised.
He smiled slightly and continued on his way up to the Knightmare. It felt strange having someone declare this kind of blind loyalty to him. Everyone else who had sworn themselves to him were his friends and squad mates first. This man owed him nothing. Hell, he didn't even particularly like the man, but he'd still dropped everything at a single word from Lelouch.
It was empowering. A type of control that was dizzying and distinctly different from the absolute obedience his Geass power granted him. It was his power. The unique combination of authority that stemmed from his heritage and his reputation.
"Iverson! Report!" The radio demanded again.
Lelouch shifted the armful of radios he had commandeered and found the one that Clovis was shrieking into. "That man is dead." He said coldly.
Clovis gasped into the radio, "Lel-Lelouch?"
"Let me carry those for you." Gottwald suggested, gesturing towards the radios, but Lelouch shook his head as he stuffed the one relaying with Clovis back into the pile. He had nothing else to say to the Viceroy.
"You'll need to pilot." He said as he gestured for the man to precede him into the Knightmare. He climbed in after and immediately deposited the radios on the floor before reaching over Gottwald's shoulder to reach the console controls, bringing up a display of all of the Britannian forces over an outdated map of the area.
"I see." He murmured, brushing his fingers over the formations of dots on the screen before finally landing on a large one indicative of a G-1 mobile command center hidden at the back. Their IFF transmitter was both a blessing and a curse. Clovis was bound to notice one of his units breaking formation and coming after him. By the same token, if they turned the IFF off, they were likely to get shot by their own forces as suspected terrorists. They had to know that the terrorists had at least one Knightmare by now.
What he needed was a diversion.
As if by divine providence, one of the radio's crackled to life in the confines of the cockpit.
"Kallen? Are you guys alright?"
"Ohgi! You guys got out okay? How's that dumb shit Tamaki?"
Lelouch frowned at the pile of radios on the floor – that didn't sound like the kind of language he'd expect from a Britannian soldier – then he remembered the terrorist radio he'd stuffed in his pocket and pulled it out.
"Tamaki?" Gottwald grumbled under his breath. "So I missed him. Should have checked the bodies more carefully."
"He's still alive. We're both still alive, for the moment along with all the others. But that's likely to change soon. We're getting the shit kicked out of us here at the train depot. How's Nagata? Did you guys get the gas away?" The man named Ohgi inquired.
"We were separated. I told him to get into the old subway tunnels. I think he made it. He should be coming out in Shinjuku any time now if he didn't run into trouble. I'm not sure if the tunnel will have radio reception though."
"You mean you had to launch the Glasgow?"
"Yeah. They were probably going to hit the gas with all the shooting they were doing if I didn't." Kallen said. "It's in pretty rough shape. Some asshole Britannian did quite a number on it with his Sutherland before running off."
"I was fighting a girl?" Gottwald demanded incredulously. Lelouch smirked at the disgust in the man's voice but was similarly surprised. Statistically speaking, woman were less likely to participate in armed dissent than men were.
"Can you move it?"
"Yeah, it still moves, but not very quickly. I'm hiding in an old warehouse on the outskirts of the ghetto to keep it out of sight at the moment. I'll come to the train depot to back you up."
Lelouch pointed towards the train depot on his map and wordlessly gestured for Gottwald to begin making their way there.
"Lord Jeremiah!" A voice said loudly over the internal speakers of the cockpit, drowning out Ohgi's reply to the suggestion.
"Villetta? What are you doing?" Gottwald demanded as he turned the machine to face a quickly approaching unit.
"It's Kewell, sir. He usurped my command and went after the Glasgow with the others." The woman answered quickly.
"You mean your the only one with a scrap of honest loyalty in my entire squad?" The pilot demanded harshly.
"It's seems that way, sir. I ordered the Knight Police to watch the exits and came back to assist you in case the snake decided to take advantage of the confusion." Villetta explained.
"Seems today is ripe with betrayal." Lelouch muttered. "Order that woman to give me her Knightmare. This will work better if I have two Knightmares anyway."
The demand didn't go over very well.
"But . . . but, your highness, how am I supposed to fight the terrorists without my Knightmare?" Villetta demanded.
"I'm sure you're quite capable with your sidearm." Lelouch said, unable to let his suspicion of the woman die. "It wasn't a request, it was an order. No questions. Or do I have to formally proclaim every little demand I have like Clovis does? Lelouch vi Britannia commands you to surrender your Knightmare. Now."
The woman hesitated for a moment before sighing loudly. "Yes, your highness." She said as she released her cockpit and lowered herself to the ground.
"You'll come out with me." Lelouch ordered softly as he pulled the cockpit release.
"Villetta would never -"
"I didn't think Clovis would either." Lelouch said, cutting him off. "You'll come out with me."
"Of course." Gottwald said sympathetically before leading the way out of the machine to the altogether uneventful transfer of the activation key and code.
They left Villetta standing in the run down ruins of the subway station, radioing for a pick up, as Lelouch familiarized himself with the personalized settings the woman had configured and began making his way towards the train depot where the terrorists were rendezvousing. He needed a distraction to get close to Clovis and the terrorists had so kindly interrupted his thought processes and volunteered.
"Before you say anything, Lord Gottwald, yes, I fully appreciate the irony of the upcoming situation." Lelouch said into his radio as he fingered the terrorist's old school walkie-talkie thoughtfully.
This situation had long since ceased being about terrorists and poison gas. This was a struggle for supremacy between two children of the Imperial family. Lelouch fully intended to follow out the Emperor's orders and show his treacherous half-brother just what a true prince of Britannia was capable of. And he'd use whatever pieces he could get his hands on to do it.
"It's my place to follow you, you highness, not to question your judgment." Gottwald replied confidently.
"Good, because this is probably going to get weird." Lelouch said.
They were almost to the train depot when Clovis decided to make his next move. It wasn't one Lelouch had been expecting, nor one he had even considered. Clovis had always liked to present a benevolent face and this move was anything but.
"As Third Prince of the Empire and Viceroy of Area Eleven, I, Clovis la Britannia, order you to destroy Shinjuku ghetto. Use extreme prejudice and leave no one alive."
Was this supposed to be revenge? Lelouch had killed his men so Clovis would kill . . . everyone? No. The Wolf of Britannia didn't care about civilian casualties, so why would Clovis think this would stall him?
Ah, right, he'd let that mask – the ruthless Wolf of Britannia – fall after his petty verbal victory. Clovis knew that he hadn't changed that much. That he hadn't become that ruthless. The Wolf of Britannia might not have cared about civilian casualties, but Lelouch did.
He grimaced, knowing that right now, everywhere around him, innocent Japanese were reliving the horrors of the invasion. Civilians. Innocent civilians who had done nothing wrong, they'd just been caught living in the wrong neighborhood when his demented brother decided to go on a power trip.
Attempting to assassinate him was bad enough, but sanctioning the wholesale slaughter of an entire community was absolutely inexcusable. It was monstrous. There weren't enough words in the human language to justify such a massacre.
Clovis couldn't possibly have hoped to actually kill him using such a ploy, could he? Even using extreme prejudice, and even if he hadn't met up with Gottwald and had been stranded on foot, Lelouch would have been unlikely to let himself be seen by the Britannian forces. He hadn't survived the invasion of Japan by being careless.
No, that couldn't possible have been Clovis' motivation for doing this. Something else then? Was he simply trying to get a rise out of him. Lelouch cursed himself because he knew it was working. He was angry. He needed to do something to stop this.
He wisely picked up one of the radios he'd taken with him instead of using the traceable one installed in the Knightmare. "This is Lelouch vi Britannia, Chief of Internal Defense. In the name of the Emperor, I order you all to cease fire and withdraw immediately."
It was the only card he could pull. However incompetent Clovis was, he still outranked Lelouch. He was both closer to the throne and in a higher civic office. It was only by claiming the Emperor's will that he could possibly trump his half-brother.
"Disregard Prince Lelouch vi Britannia. Furthermore, he has been stripped of his position as Chief of Internal Defense." Clovis said immediately. "Destroy Shinjuku!"
Ah, this was a far more harrowing display of Clovis' authority than the stupid party he had hosted earlier that day. The party that many of the guests were probably still attending despite the fact that the host and guest of honor were currently striving to kill each other in a completely different part of the city.
Stripping him of his position would also serve to discredit him in the eyes of the soldiers participating in this massacre. God damn Clovis to hell and back. The office of the Chief of Internal Defense had been created by them the other day. It did nothing to lessen his authority to act from the Emperor, but it had shown solidarity between himself and his brother.
Obviously that solidarity was fake.
Growling in frustration he let the radio fall to the floor of the cockpit, rattling around with the others, as he continued on course for the train depot. Continuing to try to persuade the forces in the area would likely just devolve into petty bickering between himself and Clovis over a highly public open channel.
"What's our next course of action?" Gottwald asked. "Do we . . . try to blend in?"
"No." Lelouch snarled. No, even to protect his current anonymity he wouldn't participate in the slaughter of civilians. "There, see that building coming up on your left? I think it's an old parkade. We're going up there."
"Yes, my prince." Gottwald replied, expertly piloting his Knightmare through the wreckage of an old building to reach Lelouch's intended target. They made their way up to the top floor and looked down onto the battle ensuing below them.
From this vantage he could see about a dozen armed Elevens taking cover interspersed between the trains of the train depot. They were lucky they were only dealing with infantry troops. If they'd been dealing with Knightmares, just a single machine would likely have been enough to completely destroy them.
Damn these terrorists and their shoddy equipment. Did they only have the one Knightmare, then? A Knightmare that, judging from the conversation earlier, Gottwald had left as little more than mobile scrap.
He cast his gaze over the train yard and the multitude of parked train cars waiting for loading or unloading and frowned. He knew that one of these tracks supplied the Tokyo Base. He also knew that he'd ordered the shipment of three dozen new Sutherlands to equip his anti-terrorist militia's arsenal before he'd even left Pendragon.
They ought to have been arriving any day now.
Pulling out his cellphone, he turned it back on and found that he had a dozen messages all from the same number. He called Edith back. She answered with a relieved sigh.
"Lelouch."
"I don't have much time to talk. Check the delivery date on those Sutherlands I ordered. When do they come in?" He ordered quickly.
"Are you alright?" She asked, but he could tell from the background noise that she was quickly moving to a new location, no doubt to find the information he'd requested.
"I'm fine. Completely unharmed. Have you been watching the news?" Lelouch asked.
"Yes. There's no mention of the military being mobilized, however."
"No, I doubted there would be. He's trying to keep this quiet."
"Ah, I found the tracking number. They were supposed to come in yesterday but were delayed. I'm not sure where they are now, but they haven't been delivered to the base yet." She answered.
"Thank you very much, Edith. Also, I'd like for you to lock down the house. No one goes in or out, and put the security team on alert." He ordered. It wasn't extremely likely, but there was a slim possibility that Clovis would target his home in retaliation. He'd protect them as well as he could from his current location.
"Alright. Are you sure you're okay? Where are you? I can send a team to get you."
"No. I'm fine. Keep everyone at the house." Lelouch commanded. "There's still things I need to do here."
He hung up the phone and examined his map closer. If his Sutherlands were in the train depot, they'd either been on the tracks leading towards the base, or the track towards Kyoto where he'd ordered them from.
"Gottwald, check the contents of the trains on the fifth track in from the west." Lelouch ordered.
"Yes, sir." Gottwald answered and immediately sent his Sutherland into a free fall towards the ground, landing roughly below before racing off towards the specified train.
The terrorists had finally taken note of the presence of Knightmares and had quickly hidden themselves from view. Not that that would have saved them if he'd been gunning for their deaths.
"Looks like industrial equipment." Gottwald answered a moment later.
"Then check the track eight to your right." Lelouch ordered.
He knew he'd hit the jackpot when he heard Gottwald's startled intake of breath. "You're going to give the bastards Sutherlands?" Jeremiah demanded.
"I told you it would get weird. Get back here. I want you with me for this just in case." Lelouch replied before hefting up the walkie-talkie and pressing the button. "Listen up! If you want to win, you'll follow my orders."
"What? Who are you?" A voice demanded gruffly. "How did you get this frequency?"
"My name is of little consequence, though if you must call me something, you may call me L.L." Lelouch replied with a smirk. They had to be desperate by now and any bone of hope would be appealing. They'd be easy to manipulate. "And if you must know, I picked this walkie-talkie up from an empty truck in the subway."
"An empty truck?" A voice demanded and he recognized it as the girl he'd heard earlier. The pilot of that Glasgow.
"Yes. Well there was a dead guy nearby, but the trailer was empty." Lelouch prodded, and allowed them to digest the information. Without the hope that the 'poison gas' was getting away safely, they had only two options. Either give up conpletely, or try to take it back.
"You said we can win?" The first voice asked after a moment of silence.
"If you follow my orders without hesitation, definitely." He said confidently.
"Hold on!" Another voice interrupted. "How do we know we can trust this guy? We don't know a thing about him. For all we know, he could be one of them trying to lead us into a trap."
"I doubt the Britannians would need to resort to such methods to take you out." Lelouch said. "I don't care who you people are or what it is you're doing. What I do care about is the fact that the Viceroy has just ordered the extermination of all life in Shinjuku. This is you people's fault, so you'd better do something to fix it before we all die." Lelouch pressed. They were being more stubborn than he'd expected.
There was a long moment of silence as, he suspected, those who were grouped together discussed the situation privately. "Fine . . . L.L. Tell us what we need to do."
Lelouch smirked. "Excellent. Then let me direct your attention to the contents of the train on track thirteen. I hacked into the shipping database and happened to find some goodies." He lied. "I'll cover your retreat to the train. By the way, the two stolen Sutherlands on the parking garage are myself and my friend. I'd appreciate if you didn't shoot at us the second you're properly armed."
"Properly . . . armed?" One of the terrorists asked in alarm as Lelouch gestured for Gottwald to follow his lead and laid down a barrage into the advancing formation of Britannian soldiers. A one-sided massacre.
He felt bad for firing on his own troops. Most likely, they weren't being deliberately insubordinate, but he'd given orders for all soldiers to cease fire and retreat almost fifteen minutes ago. They'd had plenty of time to disengage and follow his orders. Instead, they had chosen to align themselves with Clovis and Clovis had made himself Lelouch's enemy.
He just hoped to hell that no one ever found out about this.
AN:
Well, I discovered that it's possible to write an entire chapter in a day if I don't have any other distractions, am really motivated to write, know exactly where I want it to go, and get to check all of your wonderful reviews whilst writing it. I technically finished this last night, but I didn't get to editing it before I went to bed. So here it is now instead.
Also, to all of you who read this thing in it's entirety in one go, I salute your endurance. That's right folks, with this chapter we have crested the 300 page mark (and that of course doesn't include any of the authors notes).
Oh, and I'll put your fears at rest now, since many of your reviews were wondering if I was just going to be regurgitating a slightly different canon to you - the answer is no. Some events will be the same (or rather similar) because Lelouch had no control over them. But eventually it will completely diverge from canon. Once again, I will ask you to be patient with me.
Thank you so much for reading and reviewing. I love each and every one of them (even if many of you were malevolently pleased by my favorite character Susaku's fall). I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much - or more!
Allora