AN: It has happened my children, I have updated. Bask in the glory of it!

You guys miss me? Of course you did! It's been a long time coming but here it finally is! The last installment of the Narita Chapters! Another year has gone by since I first started writing this story! So, even though this chapter is late beyond all reason what better way to celebrate the story's very very very belated (one very for each month) second anniversary than with the climax of Narita?

Why is it so late you ask? Well, I have a list of pretty valid reasons actually. I had to take a little hiatus from writing this story to write a huge term paper for one of my evil classes last semester. And then, one day just out of the blue the hard drive on my HP died so I had to get that fixed. Once again thanks to my compulsive (bordering on the obsessive) habit of backing everything up nothing was lost. Lucky you people! ;)

I also have big news, which also happens to be another reason temporarily I dropped off the face of the earth. You see, your loveable author has earned her Associate's of Applied Science Degree in Commercial Art Technology! HAZZA! –(Victory cry) I have to say though, transferring from community college to Bowling Green State University is a bigger adjustment than I thought it would be, but I did get a new MacBook Pro as a graduation gift. So that's really awesome. ^_^

I do not own Code Geass.

Ch. 51 Narita pt. 3

"The JLF will most likely try to obstruct any reinforcements trying to get to Cornelia. So we will have to be prepared to fight in order to break through their encirclement. They shouldn't be too much of a challenge though." Lelouch informed as he and Suzaku sat in the open cockpits of their Knightmares, waiting as they were prepped for deployment. "It shouldn't be too much trouble. Whatever is left of their Knightmare teams will most likely be fighting Cornelia's squad, so I expect their hold to be other types of artillery."

Suzaku nodded in understanding. The Japanese boy looked like he was about to say something but was interrupted by Lloyd's grinning face appearing on their monitors.

"Hello there your highness, may I take this opportunity to thank you for giving us a chance."

"I'm not doing this for you Asplund." Lelouch said coldly. "It was either deploy special corps or move the G-1, something I was not inclined to do considering the nearby field hospital currently housing the civilians we evacuated."

"Ah, well…to each his own I guess." Lloyd shrugged, not really caring about the circumstances one way or the other. "Suzaku there is one thing I've been meaning to ask you."

"What's that?"

"More than anything you hate when people die. Yet you're in the military why is that?" Lloyd asked with his trademark a hint of snideness that was only covered up by genuine curiously.

"I'm in the military to stop people from dying." Suzaku answered in complete sincerity.

"And that self contradiction will get you killed someday…Gah!..."

Lelouch abruptly cut off the transmission as Cecile's hand came into view and violently grabbed Lloyd by the collar of his lab coat. "I've had quite enough of him."

Suzaku frowned, at the action, "Lelouch, are you alright?"

Lelouch paused in thought for a moment. So, Suzaku was walking contradiction not unlike himself. Perhaps what CC was saying earlier held some relevance after all. "Suzaku, can I count on you?"

Suzaku could sense there was more to the question. "What do you mean Lelouch?" Lelouch turned his amethyst gaze towards Suzaku and locked eyes with him. Suzaku was once again treated to an expression that he had never seen before on his best friend's face that instantly reminded him of the mad grin that had been carved into his features at the lake hotel. Except this one was the mirror opposite. It was cold, unfeeling, without a trace of expression, and held absolutely no compromise. Suzaku felt his blood run cold and some ancient part of his mind flinched away from Lelouch in fear. It was like staring at a tombstone, with lifeless but beautiful gems where his eyes should have been.

"I'm asking you, Major Kururugi, if you can kill the enemy without an ounce of consideration for their well being."

Back in the control center of the G-1 Euphie kept an eye out the window, watching as Suzaku and her brother prepared to launch their Knightmares from afar. She discreetly made her way over to the auxiliary radio while Cornelia's cronies grumbled amongst themselves over the indignity of having to follow Lelouch's orders. They were far too busy agreeing with each other to notice her.

"Our whole army is out there. Does he seriously think two units are going to make a difference?"

"One of them with an Eleven pilot too…"

She ignored whatever snide comments they had to say and turned the radio on, not taking her eyes off the boys outside. Taking a deep breath as she searched for the right signal all she could think of was how Lelouch had really begun to scare her in recent times. Just the look on his face when she had watched him execute Kusakabe in Kawaguchi was terrifying enough. She hated thinking about it; that twisted expression that didn't even belong on a human face…it was as if his very soul was being consumed by coldness so black and infernal that it could only be described as demonic. It was ugly, it was terrifying, and she had hoped to never have to see that look on anyone's face ever again.

00000000000

Point Eleven

The JLF were closing in on the area making things increasingly difficult for the Britannians, and Darlton's team, being so close to the JLF's main base, was getting hammered by the enemy. The JLF threw whatever they had left to throw at the Britannians, raining ammunition down on them with howitzers being manned from the gun emplacements carved in the rock.

"At a time like this? Darlton groaned, cursing their luck that the enemy had somehow managed to regroup so quickly after the devastation left behind by the mudslide.

"General Darlton, what do we do?" one of his men frantically asked.

"Fall back." Darlton ordered as he began firing back with a grenade launcher, "We have to find a way to link up with Viceroy Cornelia!"

"But sir! Their main base is right in front of us! And if we are hit from behind we'll be wiped out!"

"You fool!" Darlton bellowed in frustration, "If Princess Cornelia is taken by these Elevens this entire battle is lost!"

"Yes sir!" The man answered back before sustaining a blow from the enemy and crying out in both surprise and pain.

0000000000000

Point Twelve

Still on the trial of the Guren and its cohort Jeremiah and Nonette burst into a clearing, having once again caught site of the unmistakable red Knightmare, which spun around and shot a grenade at the both of them. The two Britannians dove into opposite directions, splitting up as the Todoh moved for Jeremiah, but he was forced back with the latter's stream of gunfire. Leaping backward Todoh noticed the wide, shallow riverbed as he landed, complete with ankle-deep water. Placing the Radiant Wave Surger palm down in the water he activated it, creating a proverbial explosion of steam shooting out in all directions.

Unable to see Nonette and Jeremiah paused for a brief moment before hearing the sound of land spinners revving up and moving away from them. "Son of a bitch! They're using the steam for an escape!" Nonette cursed. "Resume pursuit!" The two of them raced for the cloud, but as Jeremiah approached the edge the Guren's long sliver arm shot out from the cloud of steam, grabbing his Gloucester by the head.

Jeremiah didn't even have time to react as the radiation immediately began blasting out of the claw like hand and into his Knightmare. The pain was unlike anything he'd felt before; his body felt like it was on fire. He could taste the distinct flavor of iron as his blood filled his mouth and began running out of his nose. He couldn't even cry out from all the pressure he felt that seemed to crush and burn him at the same time. In a moment of dreadful lucidity he could barely make out the sound of Nonette's voice screaming out for him eject before it was too late, what she didn't realize was that his control console had already shorted out. The only thing he could do now was watch the picture he kept of Empress Marianne began scorch at the edges until he finally lost vision, as things grew completely red.

The heat and force of the radiation blast caused the steam to blow away, revealing the Guren standing alone. No later than that Nonette realized that it was the Burai that temporarily sped away in order to fool them with the sounds of retreating land spinners. It was that moment when the frightful Crimson Knightmare released Jeremiah's grotesquely distorted Gloucester from its fatal grip while it still blistered and warped. It fell to its knees and into the riverbed with a splash. There was a horrible searing noise as the distorted scorching hot metal made contact with the cool water of the riverbed where the Knightmare remained immobile. Nonette could only watch in dismay as blood began seeping through small cracks in the now twisted armor surrounding the cockpit, slowly turning the water beneath it a deep red.

"You…Damn you!" the Knight of Round seethed, as she turned on the offending Knightmare, now far beyond the point of pure rage, "I pride myself on making men beg for death…!" She screeched in a banshee like howl as she threw herself at the Guren with her lance outstretched.

Todoh barely managed to jerk backwards in an effort to let the lance pass in front of him. Unfortunately for him, the Britannian knight was moving too fast and the lance still pierced through the front of the Guren's chest, destroying the slash-harken and leaving a deep tear in the armor. "And you…" She continued as she caught her opponent in a body slam, "You will die only when I've grown weary of your screams!" she used the chest of her Gloucester to continue to force him back several yards before he could wrench back to separate from her. Todoh swiped at her with the claw-like arm, but she ducked under the attack and spun around to face him again as she skidded to a halt and opened fire with her remaining pistol, but the JLF leader used the Guren's Radiant Wave Surger as a shield to block the bullets.

Realizing her attack would only exhaust her ammo Nonette stopped firing and prepared to make another charge with her lance, but at that same moment Chiba burst from the trees and cut off the right arm of Nonette's Knightmare with a two-handed upward slash of the chain-sword. Chiba adjusted her grip on the sword in preparation to bring down another slash on Nonette's cockpit, but the knight speed backwards and out of the way. Before Nonette could get too far however, she registered that the red Knightmare was on her left. Before she could react it grabbed her Knightmare by the head with the deadly silver arm much like it had done to Jeremiah. She braced herself for the blast. But in never came, instead in that split second another burst of gunfire came from out of nowhere and forced the Todoh to release his rival and speed backwards, lest the risk of getting his most valuable weapon shot off. Everyone looked to the sky to see another dark Knightmare with eerie glowing eyes lowering itself from a glide craft with its slash-harkens.

"The Bellatrix!" Nonette gasped, both surprised and relieved at the unexpected aid.

From the VTOL Villetta had a bird's eye view of the battlefield, including Jeremiah's Gloucester lying limp in the river, the water pooling red around it. Her eyes widened, "Jeremiah…no!" The bastards had got him, and they were going to pay. Releasing the Bellatrix's slash-harkens from the craft she hit the ground speeding forward and using the Armfeuer to send another barrage of gunfire at the two JLF "I will see you suffer for this!" she cried as she drew her MVS with her right arm.

Todoh and Chiba split up and Chiba charged at their new opponent. With her chain-sword raised she weaved to the Bellatrix's left on the assumption that since the Britannian Knightmare's heavy artillery on that side it would be less protected. As the Japanese pilot brought the sword down in the hopes of making a devastating blow Villetta activated her left shoulder's energy shield, allowing her to easily deflect the strike.

"A Blaze Luminous?" Chiba gasped in astonishment as the revolving blade of her weapon shattered into tinny shards.

Villetta shot past the surprised Four-Holy-Swords-woman and opened fire with the Armfeuer once more as she closed in on the Guren. Todoh threw up the Radiant Wave Surger to block her bullets much like he'd done before, only this time the ammunition much heavier.

"Nu! Watch out for the right arm! It's what got Jeremiah!" Nonette hastily warned.

"Right!" Villetta answered back. Taking the warning to heart she stopped shooting, as she got close, opting to use her standard MVS instead. She slashed at the red Knightmare a number of times; effectively driving it back but failed to land any blows thanks to the Guren's agility. In retaliation Todoh attempted to grab the Mace Unit's right arm with its claw-like hand but the wily Major triggered her Blaze Luminous once more, blacking the radiation and causing her adversary to jump back in surprise. Seizing her chance, Villetta raised her MVS intending to come down on the Guren with a vertical slash but the red enemy Knightmare was too fast. Todoh managed to grab the sword in her Knightmare's hand and began pumping radiation through it. Villetta immediately released the sword and unsheathed the shorter MVG; she then hurled it at the Guren, piercing its right shoulder. At that same moment Nonette joined in, firing at Todoh with her pistol she destroyed the custom handgun on the Guren's left arm and its left land-spinner.

Todoh leaped backwards and Chiba came up beside him. He checked his weapons systems, the Radiant wave Surger itself was still functional but the right shoulder had been destroyed by the sword the Advanced Britannian Knightmare had pierced it with, leaving him unable to aim him main weapon adequately enough to use it in any effective way. Both he and Chiba had been disarmed, but then he noticed that by good fortune he had landed in the river again. Activating the Surger one last time he once again used the river to create another smoke screen of steam, causing Nonette and Villetta to go on guard. This time however, they heard the unmistakable sound of a cockpit ejecting and a set of land-spinners driving off from inside the steam; it would seem the two had retreated for real this time.

0000000000000

Point Nine

After having dispatched of another Burai Guilford took a look around, surveying chaotic the landscape. Despite the earlier trick by the one known as Senba their unit had managed to do away with most of the JLF units, the last remaining few had taken to defensively surrounding their leader's cockpit.

"Take them down!" Cornelia bellowed with raging gusto, the very moment the words had left her mouth her men obediently had their guns leveled at the lingering JLF, preparing to wipe them all out completely.

"Fate is not on our side today, but we die for Japan." Senba said in comfort to his men. With the realization that their ammo was exhausted and that the Britannians were surrounding them they silently readied themselves to meet their maker. There was simply no other way out, the fight had become futile the moment the Guren had gone offline. Right as the Britannians were about to fire a beam shot out of the trees to their right, obliterating the Britannian Knightmares on the edge of their formation.

Cornelia and her men barely had time to react before a strange blue Knightmare emerged from the trees and charged at them, expertly bounding down the rocky wall of the large trench they were in. The Knightmare banked to the left as the surviving team members opened fire on it and activated its spinning harkens to block the incoming bullets.

"Zero!" Cornelia snarled upon seeing the bizarre looking Knightmare as it began weaving its way toward them, jerking to the side of the formation that had been collapsed by the earlier attack.

"Think again!" A distinctively female voice called out as the new enemy unit charged right into the formation at the princess, taking advantage of the fact that there were fewer units to guard her on that side.

Kallen began charging up her Baryon Cannon again as she plowed the Shen-Hu into Cornelia's Gloucester and pushed her out of the formation. She gave the formidable princess one final shove, knocking her off balance before spinning around and firing the cannon, raking the blast across the group of Britannians in an effort to finish them all off now that Cornelia was out of the line of fire. All but Guilford and a few others were decimated by her attack.

Guilford and the three other remaining Gloucesters all charged at her, but Kallen responded in kind by advancing the Shen-Hu on them. Rather than meeting the first Gloucester in a weapon lock she leapt over it, twisting about in what could only be described as a midair cartwheel, landing facing the back of the infortune Britannian and bringing her sword down on the cockpit. She then immediately turned and lunged at Guilford with her sword raised. He tried to block the strike by holding up his lance horizontally, but the enemy Knightmare's swing was too powerful. Kallen cleaved through the lance and left a deep gash in the Gloucester's chest.

"Dammit, what is this thing?" Guilford grumbled in alarm as he backpedaled and dropped the two halves of the destroyed lance in favor of reaching for his gun instead, but Kallen stayed on him and destroyed the gun with another violent slash of the Shen-Hu's sword and then fired one of her slash-harkens into his right shoulder pauldron. Before she could send a wave of electricity through the harken Cornelia rushed in with her lance, forcing Kallen to retract the harken from Guilford's Gloucester and leap away. Two of the other lingering Gloucesters advanced on the Shen-Hu from behind with their lances drawn and a cry of "Protect the Princess!"

Kallen activated her slash-harken shields, not only deflecting their lances but tearing off the arms that had been holding them as well. With the arms they had left the two reached for their rifles, but before they were able to fire a hail of bullets, destroying them both. They all looked in the direction where the bullets had come from to see a group of Burais emerging from the trees, however it was quite obvious they were not JLF.

"We she should take this opportunity to retreat." Senba reasoned while the enemy was distracted, "We have nothing left to offer this battle."

"But Sir!" one of the lingering JLF tried to protest.

"We live to fight another day." Senba said as they made a hasty exit, leaving the battered remains of their Knightmares behind them.

"Viceroy Cornelia, surrender now and you will not be harmed!" Zero called out over the loud speaker.

"Zero…" Cornelia seethed rising her lance in his direction, "YOU DARE TO THREATEN ME?"

"You and your lackeys are likely low on power princess." Zero contended coolly, "Not to mention your opponent is the pilot who has not only been decimating your forces today, but was the one who took on one of your Knights of Round in recent history."

Cornelia looked back to the unusual Knightmare. 'So that's the same pilot that fought Nonette at that warehouse?' she thought, 'They obviously have rounds level capabilities then, nonetheless…' she lowered her weapon and pointed it back at the Shen-Hu. "It would seem that you are the only obstacle that I must clear!" She charged at the opposing Knightmare intending to run it through with her lance, Kallen merely responded by firing the Baryon Cannon ever so slightly to her Gloucester's side, rendering what eve may have been left of the lance and the arm the wielded it in to scarp.

Cornelia, for once listening to her better judgment, moved away. Guilford came up beside her and took a brief moment to observe their situation. Both he and his princess had lost their lances and had taken significant damage, and were losing to a single Knightmare, not to mention that they were outnumbered with the rest of the Black Knights waiting to take pot shots to further weaken them. There was a ray of hope however, Cornelia's earlier assessment about this behemoth of a Knightmare being their only obstacle to escape was indeed correct. Taking into account the position the rest of the Black Knights were in on the edge of the battlefield and the inferior speed of their Burais when compared to their Gloucesters they did have a very good chance of escaping, if and only if they could bypass the blue Knightmare. The problem with that being of course that the Knightmare in question was in a league far above their combined power. Even it they could somehow get the better hand, the rest of the Black Knights could still come down and incapacitate them before they could win the fight and escape. It was a rather dire situation in the end.

"Guilford my knight," Cornelia suddenly said, "if the worst should happen I want you and Darlton to assist Lelouch with Area Eleven."

His eyes widened, what was she saying? She couldn't possibly mean to actually fight this thing on her own! "Your Highness, if you are so concerned with your brother then why are you willing to let more family be taken from him?" he pleaded, it was a low blow but he'd say just about anything to get her to change her mind and flee to safety, not to mention his concern with leaving the area in Lelouch's control.

"I refuse to surrender! As an imperial princess, I'll fight to my last breath! I won't be taken alive!" She stubbornly declared.

"PRINCESS CORNELIA!" he cried. He could not help be recall his last discussion with Gottwald, the words of self sacrifice echoed in his mind. "How can you of all people possibly sit there in judgment of me? Wouldn't you have done the same if Princess Cornelia was about to get blasted to hell?" Guilford sighed, either he must be going insane himself or their current situation was truly grim if the advice of Orange was looking good to him. Nonetheless, as much as he loathed admitting it, Gottwald had been right and he knew what he had to do. So, without further consideration he tore after the Shen-Hu at full speed.

"Guilford, what…!" Cornelia didn't even have time to demand an explanation before he gave her one.

"As a Knight of Britannia it is my duty to cut down all enemies to my charge! NO MATTER THE COST!" he shouted, as he activated the chaos mines affixed to his Gloucester's hips. The chaos mines extended upwards from their compartments, coming nearly level with the Gloucester's waist. It didn't take long for both the Black Knights and Cornelia to recognize that he was planning a suicide charge to allow for a window of escape.

"Guilford STOP!" Cornelia screamed in protest. But his mind was made up, and in his blind determination he'd tuned her out.

Ohgi and a few others moved to try to help their comrade, but Zero put up his Burai's arm motioning for them to stop.

"But Zero!" Ohgi objected.

"He is nothing to her." Zero stated almost tranquilly. They watched, as Kallen remained motionless in the Shen-Hu as the bespectacled knight closed in on her and grabbed her Knightmare by the red crest on its head with his right hand and her shoulder with his left.

"If I must die then I shall take the enemy with me!" he proclaimed just as the chaos mines both opened up and prepared to fire. A blur passed along the bottom of his screen for a split second. There was a confused silence as Guilford realized that the Blue Knightmare's right arm was now extended outward and that there had been no silence at all, as a matter of fact he distinctively heard the sound of metal being cut through moments ago, and then his diagnostics started flashing emergency status. His screen was telling him that his Gloucester had been nearly sliced in two at the waist, damaging his Yggdrasil drive and making it go critical, the crafty enemy pilot had also cut both the chaos mines in half in the same strike, rendering the totally worthless.

"You didn't think it would be that easy did you?" the cold girlish voice from before asked as his Knightmare began to fall back with smoke and sparks issuing from the gash in its midsection.

All Guilford could do was sit stunned in disbelief. He couldn't win. He couldn't give the monster in front of him a single scratch, even at the cost of his own life. "Princess…forgive me." He whispered, but then he heard a commanding voice call out to him.

"Guilford! Eject now!" the voice cut through the air just as a red sword shot through the cloak of Guilford's Gloucester, stabbing the seemingly invincible enemy Knightmare square in the chest and shattering the large lens in the middle. In a split second pause everyone stared in disbelief at the sight before them, crouched directly behind the ruined Gloucester with and MVS thrust through the sturdy material that had once been its cape was none other then the Merlin.

000000000000

Point Twelve

Once the steam had cleared Villetta had retrieved her MVG from the Guren's body and then she and Nonette hastily went after the red Knightmare's pilot and and its compatriot. The two women had eventually found the cockpit, abandoned much to their dismay somewhere near Point Eleven, the pilot it belonged to and the Burai long gone.

"Dammit!" Villetta nearly sobbed, "Those bastards got away!" She felt so useless, Jeremiah had done so much for her in the past and she couldn't even catch the people that that blasted him.

"There's nothing we can do about it then." Nonette said matter of factually; "At least we managed to stop them from getting to the Viceroy. Nu, try to find route to Point Nine so you can back up Princess Cornelia's Unit."

"What about you?"

"I'm going back for Jeremiah; we can't just leave him there like that, and I'm getting low on power anyway." She answered as she turned her Gloucester around and took off in the direction from which they came.

Making her way back to the scene of the crime she found the deformed remains of what had once been a Knightmare frame sitting in the stream where they had left it, stewing in the now murky red water of diluted Britannian blood. She pried open the cockpit with her Gloucester to reveal the gory mess inside. Hopping out of her own cockpit she went to inspect the damage. There was blood, and lot of it. It ran down his face, and his neck. His left arm lay limply at his side, his Chest slowly moved up and down with labored breaths…wait, labored breaths?

Nonette gasped; the son of a bitch was still alive! "What the hell do you think you're doing Gottwald?" she exploded, "YOU DON'T NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO DIE YOU SOUTHERN FRIED FUCK UP!" he could only responded to the tirade by turning his head in her direction and cracking his right eye open to look at her, acknowledgement that he knew she was there beside him. "So your still conscious too huh? I'm going to call for help, try not to move." She said hastily as she got back on her radio she tried making contact with the G-1 "This is Nonette Enneagram, we need medical teams in Point Ten!" There was no response from the other end, only static. So she tried again. "Medical teams to Point Ten now! It's an emergency!" Still nothing. Communication with the G-1 had been cut off. "DAMMIT! NOT AT A TIME LIKE THIS!" Nonette cried desperately, smashing her headpiece onto the twisted wreck in frustration.

She glanced back at him still lying there, helplessly bleeding to death. She knew what she had to do, and with only a few minutes of power left her Knightmare wasn't going to do them much good. Unconcerned with getting her pristine white piloting suit stained with blood she pulled Jeremiah up with all her strength. He cried out in pain from the sudden rough movement. "Suck it up Orange-boy! We've got a long walk ahead of us." With any luck there would be a road nearby.

000000000000

Somewhere Near Point Nine

The moment Guilford had heard the authoritative voice his training as a soldier had kicked in, causing him to instinctively pull his ejection levers before he could cognitively process anything that had just happened. The cockpit flew off a short distance just as the Shen-Hu kicked the husk of the Gloucester backwards at the Merlin as it exploded from the damaged done to the Yggdrasil drive.

Lelouch put the Merlin's arms up and powered his Blaze Luminous shields down, laughing as he moved slowly through the smoke. "It doesn't matter how fast you are, you cannot dodge what you can't see!"

"Why you arrogant…!" Kallen started but then in that moment another frame entered the battlefield. The Lancelot had sailed in over a ledge, like a ramp soring high above the other combatants. It twisted momentarily upside down as it unleashed its VARIS rifle and snapped off three shots at both the terrorist group at the edge of the mountain forest and the Shen-Hu, pushing Kallen back. Before she had a chance to right herself Suzaku landed close to Cornelia and once again leveled his VARIS at Zero's group.

"Just what do you think you're doing Lelouch?" Cornelia viciously demanded at once. "Your orders were to stay in the G-1 and…"

"SHUT UP AND LET ME PROTECT YOU CORNELIA!" Lelouch roared with so much ferocity that, much to the elder Princess' mortification, she actually caught herself gasping and speechless. "You're in no position to argue!" What the hell did that shrew think she was doing? She was going to get herself killed! He'd thrust Suzaku and himself into this conflict expecting to meet the Guren but what he found instead was far more jarring. When he saw Guilford attempt to sacrifice himself for the sake of his Princess Lelouch knew that he had to intervene, because Cornelia simply would not be taken alive.

He cursed his luck that through all his careful planning his sister's obstinance had forced his hand like this, and turned his attention to the Black Knights, "Zero, I am placing you under arrest for acts of terrorism and crimes against the Britannian crown."

Ohgi like many others was shocked by the turn of events. "What? I thought Lelouch was on our side." He breathed to himself in his Burai.

"I knew trusting that filthy Brit was a mistake." Tamaki spitefully grumbled. Just what exactly did this royal bastard think he was doing?

Zero, however was completely unfazed by the bold statement, "Your Highness, I hadn't expected to encounter you on the battle field today."

"Well I suppose that even the best laid of plans can go wrong." Lelouch answered back smoothly.

Despite having to listen to the angry rantings of several black knights over their radio channel CC had thankfully gotten the hint right away. 'Is that's how it is then?' She thought apathetically.

"Zero what do we do?" Ohgi asked, eagerly awaiting a plan of action from the masked leader.

"Our mission has been compromised." Zero announced. "Q-1, delay those two while we make our withdrawal."

"Right!" Without needing further instruction or explanation Kallen immediately put the Shen-Hu between the Merlin and Zero in an aggressive stance as every single one of the Black Knights including their red-haired prodigy zeroed their attention on the black Knightmare before them. Momentarily allowing the Lancelot to go overlooked.

Lelouch stared down the Shen-Hu, he thought better than to automatically go on the offensive. The last thing he wanted to do today was fight Kallen, but he knew that if he didn't Cornelia in all her willfulness would, and she was surely no match for the surly half-breed. Yes, he knew what he had to do; she had said she wanted to wipe the floor with him after all. Hadn't she? "Why the hesitation? Afraid to face me?" he called out in provocation as he unsheathed his second Messer Vibration Sword.

"I'm going to enjoy tearing you apart." Kallen hissed. As a VARIS shot was fired at her from the almost forgotten Lancelot. "You and your partner over there!" she growled, tearing after the Merlin as she drew her sword and fired her right slash harken at the black Knightmare. Lelouch countered the attack by using his right shield to block, she then fired the Shen-Hu's other harken into the ground near its own feet just as it leapt into the air over the Merlin. Kallen twisted in the air as she electrified the slash harken, attempting to use the heated wore to slice through the black Knightmare.

Lelouch threw up both of his MVS' in an X to stop the cable from descending upon him, but this defense left him with his back exposed to the blue menace. The instant Kallen landed, she again charged at the Merlin, targeting the unprotected cockpit. She retracted her slash harken to keep the tension on the cable, preventing Lelouch from acting to counter. However, Lelouch realized what she was doing and activated his hip harkens, causing the both to face behind him and fire at the Shen-Hu. Kallen simply swatted them aside by spinning her free slash harken in a shield Just as she was about to strike Lelouch's Knightmare a second shot from a VARIS gun stopped her advance, just before the Lancelot plowed into the Shen-Hu with a shoulder slam.

"Not good enough!" Kallen mocked as she blocked a diagonal slash with from the Lancelot's right hand MVS with her own sword. Suzaku jerked the Lancelot back pointing his VARIS at the Shen-Hu he fired once again, but the blue Knightmare ducked under the shot and sliced upward. Kallen almost managed to cleave the offending VARIS gun in half, if Suzaku had not been quick enough to pull it out of the way. Suzaku raised his MVS to make a vertical slash as Lelouch rushed to the Shen-Hu from the right. The Prince crossed his Knightmare's arms intending to make a scissor slash on the crouching frame.

Kallen reached up with her left and grabbed the Lancelot's sword arm by the wrist, twisting it to throw the white Knightmare between herself and the Merlin. Lelouch was forced to brake immediately, so as not to collide with his best friend. Kallen raised her sword to strike the Lancelot, but Suzaku was quick enough to steady himself and slash at the enemy Knightmare to keep it back before following up with another VARIS blast to push it back even further. "Damn, this thing is as fast as the Lancelot." Suzaku said becoming vexed with the enemy unit, nonetheless he kept his guard up and continued to fire the VARIS at it from a distance.

"Pathetic!" Kallen scoffed as she fired her slash-harkens at both of the opposing Knightmare's feet. The ground around the harkens erupted in two burst of rock and dust.

The plume of rubble momentarily bewildered Lelouch. As the prince recovered he began to realize that Kallen has used a full power electric charge to super heat and expand the air around the harkens, causing a drastic rise in air pressure and subsequently, the explosion of dirt. The girl was clever; he'd give her that.

"Lelouch! It's behind you!" Suzaku suddenly yelled.

Lelouch immediately jerked to the side, barely dodging a diagonal slash from the Shen-Hu. However, Kallen still managed to take off the extension on his right shoulder. The girl didn't let up for an instant, charging after the prince with a relentless barrage of slashes and thrusts with her sword. Lelouch crossed his MVS' and got her in a blade-lock as Suzaku came up from behind with one of his own MVS swords drawn, having forgone the VARIS gun in order to avoid hitting the Merlin. Kallen fired her slash harkens into the ground between her own Knightmare and the Merlin before leaping over and behind the black Knightmare and again activation the electric charge in order to temporarily blind the two Britannian units with a cloud of dirt.

"You're slow!" The red-head taunted as the Shen-Hu landed behind the prince and spun around to strike him from behind with a horizontal slash, but when she landed the blow she didn't get the stratifying feeling of her blade slicing through armor. As the dust cleared she saw that Lelouch had merely held his left arm behind the Merlin's headpiece, blocking her strike with his sword.

"And you're predictable!" he smugly growled out as he swung his arm back up, knocking her back, before spinning around for a follow up strike with his other sword on the right. The twofold strike managed to knock the Shen-Hu's sword out of its hand and over a cliff, just as Suzaku moved around him in an attempt to make his own attack on the blue Knightmare.

'Damn him! He anticipated my move!' Kallen thought as she backpedalled with both of the twin Knightmares on her toes. Even in reverse the Shen-Hu was capable of matching its opponents' speed, and was able to keep enough distance to engage them both while racing out of the immediate area.

Lelouch knew what she was trying to do right off the bat, "Trying to draw us away form Cornelia and distract them from going after Zero are we?" mused as the Shen-Hu slowed to engage them. Lelouch and Suzaku simultaneously attempted to thrust their swords, but Kallen was too quick. The Black Knight activated the Shen-Hu's left harken, both using it as a shield her from their attack but also to knock the offending swords out of each of her assailants' hands.

Having been temporarily disarmed the boys came to an abrupt stop in their pursuit. They did not hesitate as they both pulled out their VARIS rifles and promptly opened fire on the blue monster. Kallen maneuvered the Shen-Hu to leap to the left, dodging their fire and preforming another midair cartwheel as she fired her slash harkens into the ground; positioning one harken below her Knightmare to change its downward trajectory, and the other at the feet of her two current adversaries. Sure enough, the second harken created another explosion of earth. Lelouch and Suzaku both moved back to avoid being blinded again by the now familiar attack.

"Like I said, you're predictable!" Lelouch called out, almost in a scolding manner. But then he saw a light behind the dissipating cloud of dirt. He suddenly felt his mouth go dry the very moment he saw just what that light was; she was charging up the Shen-Hu's Baryon Cannon the one he'd smashed only a moment ago. How was that thing still functional? She couldn't possibly be crazy enough too actually try to use that thing with out anything to harness its power, could she? He drew a sharp intake of breath, "DON'T TRY TO BLOCK IT!" He frantically warned his friend, just as the cannon let lose with its mighty power.

Lelouch and Suzaku immediately took evasive action as the blast swept across the rocky landscape, trailing after Lelouch. Just before the beam reached the Merlin Lelouch he made it leap into the air and twist around as he fired his right arm and hip harkens into the ground behind the ray of energy. As soon as they embedded themselves in the ground he retracted them to abruptly pull himself to the opposite direction of the deadly blast. Thanks to his jarring movements Kallen's aim became confused and he took this opportunity to snap off a VARIS shot with his left arm.

The Shen-Hu jerked to its right to dodge Lelouch's shot, but the Lancelot lunged at the blue Knightmare through the burst of dirt thrown up when the bullet hit the ground. Suzaku aimed and fired his own VARIS, but the Shen-Hu dodged the shot and threw itself at the white Knightmare before he could get off another shot, coming in under the tip of the VARIS' barrel before he could get off a second shot. The Japanese boy was surprised was surprised when his opponent made a palm thrust with it's left. He put up his right arm's Blaze Luminous just as the Shen-Hu's attack connected. A blast of electricity coursed in an arc across the green shield and Suzaku noticed that the slash harken on its left writs was partially extended, just short of ready to fire position, placing the tip about as far out as the enemy Knightmare's palm. His eyes widened when realization hit him that this must have been the rival pilot's plan, to get within range of his VARIS and to occupy his sword arm with the strike.

Kallen reached up with the Shen-Hu's right and grabbed the barrel of the Lancelot's VARIS gun, intending to destroy it with another burst of electricity just as her left hand's electric attack breached it's Blaze Luminous, allowing her to grab onto and crush his harken fixture. "Kuso!" Suzaku swore as he instinctually retaliated by jerking back the VARIS as fast as he could and then swung it back to strike his attacker's headpiece, the pistol wiping grazed its right side and leaving a small gash as the blue Knightmare jerked its head away and raced backwards from the Lancelot.

Lelouch lead the Shen-hu further down the trench for a time, trying to think of something to give him an edge, but then he came up to a curve. With Kallen still at a distance he swung the Merlin up along the rocky outside wall of the trench, riding along it with centrifugal force. Suzaku moved to follow him, but their opponent had other ideas. Firing both slash harkens into the inside wall of the curve, Kallen used them to swing the Shen-Hu through the turn. Whether it was due to superior technology allowing the harkens to penetrate the rock deeper or because she had fired them into a lower, firmer part of the trench wall, the bold maneuver worked, allowing the Shen-Hu to ride through the curve. As Kallen disengaged her harkens from the wall she used the momentum swinging the Shen-Hu around to launch her Knightmare at the Merlin in a midair kick.

Lelouch narrowly dodged the attack as the blue monster speed up again, looking to rush him, but much to his surprise at the very last moment the Shen-Hu swung wide to the right, passing the Merlin and running up along the trench wall. Lelouch's questioned the universe's feelings towards him as he looked on ahead in curiosity, ahead of him he saw the Shen-Hu's sword that he had knocked away earlier sticking out of the trench wall. It suddenly dawned on him that they were now passing under the cliff it had been thrown off of. Taking his chance he shot at the sword with his VARIS, but it was too late, as Kallen was even faster at retrieving the sword. Despite this set back the young prince did see a ray of hope, the surrounding walls in this area were low enough for the Merlin to jump out of the stony trench. As he did so Suzaku followed him in the Lancelot, but the Shen-Hu hot on their heels. Kallen readied the Shen-Hu's newly recovered sword in one hand and activated its harken-shield on the other. Lelouch smirked, 'Now that I'm free of rocks I suppose now all I have to worry about is the hard place.' He thought to himself as all three Knightmares charged at each other once more.

000000000000

The Outskirts of Point Nine

Cornelia moved swiftly through the devastated forest on her way back to the Britannian lines, passing by ruined Burais and other machinery along the way courtesy of her brother. The Princess was feeling rather confident that he had successfully eluded all those trying to capture her and had tried contacting the G-1 for more support, but when she received no response she knew she had no choice but to come back. It was never a good situation when communications were cut off between a command center and those on the field. She grudgingly pressed on over the rocky and mud encrusted tertian until she was surprised by a strike for a slash harken that forced her to drop her gun. She swung her Gloucester around what she saw was not the lingering JLF she had been expecting to see.

"We meet again Princess." Zero greeted once more. Yes, the Black Knights had returned for the second princess of the empire.

"Zero! I thought you ran off with your tail between your legs!" Cornelia viciously snarled back.

"A ruse to isolate you again your highness." The so-called terrorist leader explained. The minute Lelouch came flying in with his sword drawn CC immediately knew what he was trying to do, it was all the more obvious when he started dropping hints in his little speech back there. She swore, sometimes that boy was to just soft for his own good. "You must be dangerously low on power," she continued as Zero, "I doubt you could even make it back to your mobile base let alone fight the Black Knights off on your own. Surrender now and you will not be harmed." Tamaki was one of the first to make a move as several of the Black Knights advanced on her in their Burais.

"You hide your inferior numbers behind a landslide and then plan to capture a weakened enemy when it is low on power? You, Zero, are nothing more than a vulture, and I'll surrender my life before I surrender my pride to the likes of you!" She roared as they moved in to capture her. She tore off one of her Gloucester's antennae and used it like a dagger on the first Burai to reach her, and stabbed Tamaki's Yggdrasil Drive.

"Gah! Ama!" Tamaki yelled as he barely managed to eject before the princess used her Gloucester to kick his Knightmare at another one of his comrades just as it exploded. Cornelia used the distraction to grab the machinegun she had dropped earlier and promptly opened fire on the terrorist group.

"How is it that she's still able to fight?" Ohgi asked as he and the other Black Knights blocked the hail of gunfire as best they could.

"Someone I had great respect for once told me to never give weak-minded men what they want but to make them work for it, and I intended to do that till my dying breath!"

"My goodness, what did you teach these children?" CC asked in a low murmur, "…I see, so Cornelia add the weak-minded part herself then." Her connection was abruptly cut when a brash voice sharply cut through the air. "ZERO!" On instinct CC tried to dodge a surprise attack from an MVG, but ended up losing her Burai's left arm anyway.

Ohgi's eyes widened as an odd looking frame came from behind and ferociously cut through their leader's Knightmare, several others quickly retaliated with several rounds from their assault rifles but their still moving target easily blocked their counter attack with its Blaze Luminous shield. "Just what is that supposed to be?" he asked himself. His eyes were immediately drawn to the large crest centered prominently on its torso.

"The Bellatrix?" Cornelia gasped.

"Viceroy Cornelia, are you alright?" Villetta asked, skidding to a halt next to the princess's Gloucester.

Cornelia's lips pulled themselves into a smirk, "Yes, I'm fine. These swine haven't beaten me yet."

000000000000

Elsewhere

Kallen charged towards the Lancelot as Suzaku and Lelouch both fired at her with their VARIS guns as she closed in. Throwing the Shen-Hu at full speed, she all but crashed into the Merlin, with Lelouch only barely managing to hold her sword in lock with his own MVS. He dug his land-spinners into the earth as best he could but all he succeeded in doing was deepening the skid marks as the Shen-Hu shoved him back like a bulldozer. The prince finally succeeded in steadying the Merlin enough to halt Kallen's press, gritting his teeth he swung his MVS up, breaking their blade lock and driving the Shen-Hu to lean back from the force of his swing.

Not being idle, Suzaku had been racing behind the two combatants and now that he had caught up to them. He prepared to thrust his own MVS in the blue Knightmare's cockpit. Kallen however, saw this coming, "Think again!" Kallen boomed as she made the Shen-Hu leap backwards high into the air over the Lancelot's head, performing a flip just before she fired her left slash-harken at it feet. Suzaku turned the white Knightmare around just in time to see the Shen-Hu flying at him like a meteor as it pulled itself forward by its retracting harken. The honorary Britannian threw up both of his blaze luminous shields over his head to block, however the Lancelot was still brought down onto its knee by the sheer force of the attack. "How is it possible for something to have this type of strength?" Suzaku asked under the strain.

Suddenly the behemoth Knightmare jerked back as a VARIS blast from the Merlin nearly blasted off its legs. Lelouch was already closing in on the enemy unit with his MVS in the Merlin's right hand, and he thrust his sword at the Shen-Hu's chest once more. Kallen sidestepped the thrust, letting the blade pass just mere feet in front of her Knightmare's chest and immediately grabbed the Merlin's sword arm just below the elbow with her right, "You are so annoying!" she growled as she swung the Black Knightmare around her, tossing it away in order to refocus her attention on the Lancelot. Unfortunately for her, Suzaku used the momentary distraction to get the Lancelot back on its feet, he charged at the Shen-Hu with both of his MVS ready. Kallen managed to block when he swung at her with his left but his right sword shot along the top of the Shen-Hu's torso, just left of the neck, even managing to graze the left side of the cockpit. A slight wave of panic ran through Kallen as she jerked the blue Knightmare to the right "That was to close." However, Suzaku was not yet finished with his attack; he brought his MVS down, slicing off the corner of the Shen-Hu's left shoulder, along with its silver armguard.

An automatic damage report popped up on Kallen's screen, she sneered, "Damn him!" but before she could exact any sort of revenge on the white Knightmare, Lelouch was all but on top of her in the Merlin.

"Miss me?" The Prince snarled as he made a wide horizontal slash at the Shen-Hu's headpiece in an attempt to decapitate it. In response she turned the Shen-Hu to face him an leaned backward, letting the swing pass overhead, as the Lancelot again charged at her in an attempt to strike the Knightmare's legs and cockpit with his swords.

While still partially bent over, the Shen-Hu leapt away from the attack, spinning twice while almost parallel to the ground, before righting itself in mid air and landing on its feet. The moment she landed Kallen saw that the Lancelot had replaced one of its MVS' with its VARIS. She jolted right to avoid the incoming shot, countering by shooting her right slash harken into the rifle, finally destroying it with an electrical surge. "Take that you Brit bastard!" she yelled in triumph, but the small victory was short lived. "Take this you Jap bitch!" Lelouch mocked as he and Suzaku seized the opportunity to simultaneously launch all their remaining slash-harkens at their enemy, using the harken boosters to strike her from every angle. With her right harken still retracting from its strike, and her left side turned away from her adversaries, Kallen was unable to bring either of the Shen-Hu's flail-shields up in time to block the barrage of seven slash-harkens coming at her.

She kicked the Shen-Hu into full reverse, but the harkens still managed to strike their target in the shoulder, chest, midsection, and thighs. The Merlin's arm Harken that was aimed at the Shen-Hu's head however, was caught in midair by Kallen with her Knightmare's right arm and crushed. Despite the devastating scope of the attack, the Shen-Hu's systems remained largely intact, which Kallen personally attributed to the quality of the armor.

With her right slash-harken retracted, Kallen fired both of the Shen-Hu's harkens into the ground directly in front of it and electrifies them, producing yet another explosion of dirt. The two boys expected the Shen-Hu to emerge from either side of the column of smoke, but were surprised when a slash-harken lands between them from above. The looked up to see the Shen-Hu being pulled towards them by the retracting cable. The instant Kallen landed between them, she swung at the Merlin with her sword in her left hand and made a sweeping kick at the Lancelot with her right foot, spinning her Knightmare in place.

The two Britannian units lurched away as their enemy completed its spin to face the Lancelot and kicked off the ground at it, clasping her sword to her right with both hands. Suzaku Brought up both his shields as the sword came at his torso with incredible force, slamming the white Knightmare back as though it were struck by a great hammer, rather than a sword. The Shen-Hu continued to press the Lancelot in similar fashion, forcing the honorary Britannian to keep moving backwards towards another cliff ledge. Not wanting a repeat of their earlier experience, Suzaku made a desperate swing at the blue Knightmare's head, which seemingly made it relent in its assault. His relief was painfully short lived as he noticed that the enemy unit had launched both of its slash-harkens into the ground on either side of the Lancelot's feet. Before he could even notice his confusion, the harkens electrified, causing two eruptions of rock and dirt to go up wither side of the Lancelot, prompting Suzaku to try to bring up his shields.

Unfortunately for him, this was not the focus of Kallen's efforts, as the two explosions so near the cliff's edge destabilized the chunk of ground the Lancelot was standing on, collapsing it underneath the white Knightmare's feet and seeming dropping the Lancelot into the valley below. Thoroughly satisfied that the white Knightmare was no longer an obstacle, Kallen once more turned to face the Merlin. "Now that he's out of the way, I guess we'll just have to play on our own." She said vindictively. Before Lelouch could even call out in surprise the Shen-Hu was right in his face, its sword clasped above its head with both hand gripping the hilt. Kallen wasted no time and brought the sword down onto the Merlin's head with full force. Lelouch brought up his own sword to block, and once again, the two squared off in a test of strength. Eventually, Kallen removed the Shen-Hu's left hand from its sword and made a palm strike for the Merlin's face, causing Lelouch to take his right hand off his MVS and activate his Blaze Luminous to stop whatever it was Kallen was planning. The moment the Shen-Hu's hand struck his shield, electricity coursed across the green energy barrier in brilliant blue arcs, courtesy of the slash harken extended beneath the blue Knightmare's palm. Kallen pressed forward on the Merlin, forcing it down onto its left knee just as her the left hand's electric attack finally breached his Blaze Luminous, allowing her to grab onto the shield generator and crush it.

Lelouch stumbled backwards in the Merlin in a daze, Kallen used this moment to sweep its left foot out and trip the black Knightmare as it tried to backpedal, forcing it to drop onto its rear end. The Shen-Hu raised its right arm overhead, blade at the ready, preparing to end the fight, but to Lelouch's surprise, Kallen hesitated for some reason. In that instant a red sword streaked through the air between them and pierced the Shen-Hu's right arm, burying itself all the way to the hilt, causing Kallen to drop the sword and step back in surprise. She looked in the direction where the sword came from only to see the Lancelot, kneeling on the edge of the cliff it had fallen from only a minute ago, its left arm still extended, apparently from throwing the sword, and retracting a slash-harken it had deceptively used to anchor itself to the cliff wall and climb back up.

That thought snapped Kallen back to the task at hand, and she refocused herself on the Merlin just in time to see the Black Knightmare moving to its feet as it grabbed the very sword she dropped just moments before and prepared to strike. She tried to backpedal and get out of dodge, but it was too late, she was too close to evade the Merlin's attack. In and ironic reversal of roles, Kallen found herself on the receiving end of a diagonal slash, carving a deep gashacrossthe Shen-Hu's chest. A quick glance at her diagnostics confirmed that both the Baryon cannon and her right slash-harken were now inoperable, "Kisama!" she yelled in frustration as she withdrew the MVS from the Shen-Hu's right arm she was about to counter attack when a voice came on over a public channel.

"Calling all units…" It was Guilford; the man must have kept in contact with the princess after he ejected. "Viceroy Cornelia has been ambushed by Zero at point nine. All able Britannian units move into aid her highness immediately!" To Kallen's surprise Lelouch tossed the white Knightmare his VARIS gun.

"You heard the man. Go help Cornelia." Lelouch commanded nonchalantly.

"But I…" Suzaku began to debate; he didn't want to leave Lelouch alone with the enemy Knightmare, whose pilot had proved to be a more formidable combatant.

"That's an order!" Lelouch snapped back. "The Viceroy takes priority! Don't worry about me, I can handle this thing on my own now, given its disabilities."

"Yes your highness" Suzaku relented as he took the VARIS gun and raced back to where Cornelia was supposedly trapped by the terrorist group. The moment he was out of sight Lelouch opened a privet channel between himself and Kallen.

"Unfortunately my compatriot will be tragically too late." He proclaimed smugly.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing you psychopath?" Kallen immediately demanded. "I almost had Cornelia before you showed up!"

"A Gloucester is no match for the Shen-Hu Kallen, even the Merlin is hardly a match for it! She was prepared to fight you till the very end and she would have gotten herself slaughtered!" Lelouch barked back, "Cornelia is of no use to anyone dead. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to have to protect someone from themself? Despite what you may think, I'm not a total stone cold bastard. I may have arranged her capture but she's still my sister dammit. When I saw Guilford trying to sacrifice himself I knew we had to go to plan-B, distract you and Isolate Cornelia once more once she was nearly completely drained of power so she couldn't fight back."

Kallen's mouth hung open, this guy was fucking unbelievable. "Are you saying you fought me so your sister wouldn't?"

A haughty laugh left Lelouch's mouth, "You should take this time to escape now, since you know…you obviously can't beat me."

000000000000

The Outskirts of Point Nine

The Cornelia held her own against Zero as she and Villetta kept the fight at a stalemate. The Black Knights certainly out numbered them, but they had skill and technology on their side.

"How can it be that you haven't run out of power?" Zero asked, blocking a strike from Cornelia while the Bellatrix continued its assault on the rest of the Black Knights.

"Hahaha, Seemed a little distracted by my brother back there didn't you?" the Princess jeered back. The fact was that they had been distracted, so much so that no one had noticed that the white Knightmare had moved towards her Gloucester.

As the Lancelot moved closer to her, the princess could see that the Eleven pilot, as she called him, had some extra cargo with him. "Your highness, Princess Euphemia requested that I bring this too you." Suzaku said as he offered the Viceroy a spare battery.

"Euphie asked you to bring this to me?" Cornelia asked tentatively.

"Yes Viceroy Cornelia, she seemed rather worried about you," the Japanese boy answered.

CC signed in annoyance as the information flooded into her mind, so that Suzaku kid brought her a fresh power pack, nothing could be done the easy way could it? She briefly turned her head up, not looking at anything particular. "I bet you think this is real funny don't you?"

"You must remain ever vigilant if you ever wish to defeat The Witch of Britannia!" Cornelia continued to boast as she fired her left slash-harken, which Zero expertly deflected with the Burai's reaming hand guard. CC retaliated by trying to shoot her landspinners out from under her with the machinegun; Cornelia was quick to back pedal in a zigzag motion to avoid the barrage of bullets. "Nonette was right, Zero must have some sort of training." The Princess mussed as the Bellatrix came at Zero from the right, wielding its MVG in an attempt to slash the offending Burai across the torso. CC fired a slash harken with great precision directly at the Bellatrix's hand, crushing the mechanical appendage and knocking the sword away. With a quick spin she fired another barrage from her machinegun at Cornelia who was swooping back in on the fight, this time taking out one of the Gloucester's knees.

"Perhaps that will help put an end to your tenacity." CC said in her trademark monotone.

She took this opportunity to contact Lelouch via private channel, "Lelouch, Cornelia hasn't lost power, and the Bellatrix has shown up as well."

"WHAT? CC you need to get out of there now!"

"Its alright, I disabled Cornelia's Gloucester, and we can probably take the Bellatrix…"

"No!" Lelouch insisted, suddenly cutting her off, "You don't understand! You're going to have all of the Britannian forces on top of you in a matter of minutes! This has become a war of attrition! You need to retreat now!" As soon as he finished that last sentence something very large came twisting though the air and cast its shadow over them. The Lancelot landed in between her and the downed Gloucester VARIS gun at the ready.

For some reason when she saw the Merlin's twin land in front of her all the memories of being imprisoned in a lab and having grotesque experiments done on her suddenly came flooding back into CC's memory. With the ominous possibility of what her existence could return to if captured herself she wasted no time in complying with Lelouch's order. "Retreat! All black Knights move to your escape points!" She and the others hastily pulled back leaving the three Britannian units in the dust, and hopefully evading the ones that were on their way to their position.

"Viceroy!" Suzaku said as he moved to try an assist Cornelia, but she vehemently refused.

"Go after Zero." She immediately ordered of the honorary Britannian.

"But…"

She abruptly cut him off, not willing to hear of anything he may have had to say, "I'm fine, I'm just immobilized! Now go!" she heatedly demanded.

"Right!" without further hesitation Suzaku obeyed the command and speed off in the same direction he'd seen Zero withdraw in. He could vaguely make out Princess Cornelia's voice telling Major Nu to go after the others as he focused his attention on the task at hand. He soon spotted the Burai in question through the trees as it moved back up the mountain.

CC turned and began shooting at the Lancelot with her assault rifle as she continued to try and escape the white Knightmare, but it did little good. He managed to hit the Burai with a slash-harken and tear the remaining arm off at the elbow. "Nah!" the green-haired witch yelled out as another strike from a slash-harken blew off her right leg. She had no other choice to eject, her cockpit crashed in the dirt, up against a large pile of rocks, kicking up a large cloud of dirt and debris in the process. This was how Lelouch found them. As the dust settled the prince froze at the sight of Suzaku coming Knightmare to mask with Zero who was now standing on top of the ejected cockpit, seemingly staring him down.

"Special corps head trailer; found Zero, going in for capture." Suzaku calmly called over the radio. 'Zero, I know a lot of Elevens are supporting you from the shadows. However, your methods are very wrong.' He thought as he raised the VARIS, just incase the masked terrorist leader had something else up his sleeve. But to his surprise Zero only jumped down to the ground and steadily walked toward him. Was Zero finally giving himself up?

'What is she doing?' Lelouch thought frantically as he watch her move closer the Lancelot. He desperately wanted to know what she was planning but he bit his tongue, he couldn't seem friendly to Zero, 'She's challenging a Knightmare? Is she crazy?' To his surprise she merely took off her right glove and rested it on the Lancelot's leg, the Lancelot then seemed to tremble violently and then come to a complete standstill. What the hell was she doing to him? He got on his radio, "Suzaku, Suzaku are you all right?" when he got no answer from his friend he tried again. "Suzaku can you hear me?" only disjointed whimpering sounds come back to him from the other end.

Sensing Lelouch's confusion CC finally spoke "Relax, he can't see or hear us."

"What doing to him? Are you using Geass?" Lelouch asked in an accusatory tone as he exited the Merlin's cockpit to approach her, he couldn't exactly have her scrambling Suzaku's brain or anything.

"I'm just sending him some shock images, I can't tell what he's seeing though. You should get back into your Knightmare and leave. I can't move yet but I should have enough time to get away when I'm done."

"What are you talking about? I can't just leave the two of you here like this." Lelouch argued grabbing her shoulder. The moment his hand made contact light began to flash before his eyes he was sucked into another world.

"No not now!" CC cried feeling him inside her mind.

Lelouch didn't understand what he was seeing. It was far different from what he had seen the last time. Medieval peasants storming the church, a nun with the same mark CC had at prayer, CC bathing in the lake near a village, the scar on her breast, Nazi soldiers attacking civilians.

"Stop it! Stay out of my mind!" She sobbed as her consciousness became like an open book to him showing him things that she alone was meant to bear. "Why now? You're unveiling me!"

Suddenly the images changed, the smelling face of his mother past before Lelouch's eyes, followed by the scowling face of the former Japanese prime minister. And then he saw Suzaku…he was screaming. "NO! I HAD TO DO IT!" his friend just kept screaming and screaming as scenes of death flashed around the both of them. What the hell was all this? Was Suzaku seeing the same things? And what was he yelling about? What was it he had to do? Lelouch was suddenly brought back to reality when the connection broke by the Lancelot moving backward. Suzaku began wildly firing the VARIS gun in every direction imaginable.

"What's happening to him?" Lelouch asked as the Lancelot began going completely berserk.

"Idiot! Get out of here now!" CC yelled as a jagged rock flew up from the VARIS blasts and impaled her chest.

00000000000000

Somewhere Near Point Twelve

"Are those two still on our tail?" Chiba asked as she and Todoh retreated back to the base.

"No, they're long gone. I think they might have given up when found the Guren's cockpit." Todoh answered from his cramped position behind her seat. Due to the damage the Guren had sustained they had been forced to leave the it, there was little to no chance of them being able to get away in it with one of the landspinners damaged.

"Damn those Britannians!" the Japanese woman seethed. "And now Zero has shown up."

"That doesn't matter now." Todoh said coolly, "I have no idea what Zero is trying to do but our only course of action now is to get to the General and get him out of here."

000000000000000

Outskirts of Point Nine

"Nu, status report." Cornelia demanded via radio.

"I'm afraid the other Black Knights got away." Villetta answered back sounding out of breath. "And I can't seem to get a response form Major Kururugi or Prince Lelouch."

Cornelia's brow furled "No response form Lelouch?" she questioned slowly, "…Guilford, Nu, relay this message to all units: Prepare to retreat."

"Princess?" Guilford asked.

"There is no more reason to waste the lives of anymore of our men. Tell them to stay in formation and fall back cautiously."

"Yes your highness."

"We have to face facts, we've been defeated this time." The princess wearily sighed.

000000000000000

Black Knights Escape Point

Ruckus cheering filled the air as the Black Knights gathered at their escape point. Although they had failed to capture their target the Britannians were retreating, which they counted as a win in their books, but most were just happy to still be alive.

"You see! Britannia sure had its hands full just dealing with the liberation front!" Tamaki shouted.

"Yeah, but some of us nearly didn't get away from that one Knightmare though." Ohgi panted, completely out of breath from the adrenalin.

"Hay, where's Zero?" Kallen interrupted worriedly, "I can't seem to raise his Burai. You don't think he's been captured do you?"

000000000000000

Near Point Nine

Suzaku had seemed unreachable while he went completely out of control, so Lelouch had little other choice but to grab CC and get the Merlin out of the line of fire as fast as he could. He had eventually come upon an opening to a cave and decided that it was as good a place as any to stop. He picked CC up bridal style and gingerly laid her down on a smooth portion of the cave floor. He began to undress her in order to get to her wound. He carefully removed each article of the Zero costume so as not to touch anything he probably shouldn't and flooded them into a tidy pile, which he then used to prop her head up. Once that task was accomplished he began to clean the wound in between her breasts, he was shocked to find that once he removed the jagged rocks and dirt the injury seem to begin to close on it's own. With nothing else left to do he covered her with Zero's cape while she slept, all the sounds he heard now were that of water droplets dripping from the stalagmites as they resonated through the cave and his own thoughts.

'She can't be human; she recovers from wounds in ways that are beyond normal. She was shot in the head in Shinjuku, and yet…and Clovis confined her for his private experiments, he was willing to kill me over her, so she's obviously not connected with Britannia.' He gently pressed his hand to the making on her forehead, 'Her vital signs are at normal levels.' He then looked at the bloody cloth that he had used to treat her wound in his hand. Maybe he should have a blood sample analyzed? His thoughts were interrupted when CC stirred in her sleep and let out a small whimper. His eyes widened when he leaned in close to her to hear what she was saying. He could just barely hear it over the echoing sound of the dripping water. Was she saying a name?

"You finally called me by my real name." she whispered softly in her unconscious state. Lelouch sat back down near her feet, so she had a human name after all. An innocent, tender smile graced lips, something Lelouch really hadn't seen before. She seemed so at peace right now. He could hardly believe this was the same CC. What was it that she was dreaming about exactly? Of course it wasn't too long until she awoke to find herself laying on the cool stone floor with nothing but Zero's cloak covering her nude form.

Lelouch quickly tossed the cloth he'd been scrutinizing earlier into the nearby subterranean water table. "I removed the shrapnel and cleaned the wound." He explained hastily.

CC tightly wrapped the cloak around herself and looked up at him, "That wasn't necessary."

"Apparently not."

"So there was no point in protecting me at all. Your pride gets in the way at the most ridiculous moments."

"But I learned something from it…" The resounding sound of droplets falling into the water below nearly overpowered his voice when he said her name, but it made her gasp all the same. "That's your name isn't?"

"You have a bad habit of eavesdropping." She accused.

"I think it's a nice name. It's a lot more human than CC."

"That's a joke." she scoffed bitterly. "As if I want to be more human! After all I…" her voice trembled helplessly as she pressed her hand to the scar on her breast, "I've forgotten everything…every sing thing. So what's the use of it?" Lelouch watched in disbelief as tears filled her eyes and began to spill over. "A name? But why?

"It's a good time to say this," Lelouch said as he kneeled down beside her, "You saved me today. If you had been captured than I would have been found out and executed. You did that before, when you gave me Geass. Thank you."

"I was so scared," she admitted. "I was terrified of being captured and made a test subject again." Lelouch wrapped his arms around her.

"I wont let that happen to you again." He reassured as she leaned into the embrace.

"You know, no one has ever thanked me before." She whispered softly as her tears began to fall once more, "Please, say it again."

"Thank you…"

Drip…Drip…Drip…

Ah, there it was…her name again, and he said it perfectly.

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Elsewhere

A truck rushed through the back roads of Narita. The three men in lab coats were nervous about their cargo being discovered so naturally they avoided any and all checkpoints as they hurried to exit the devastated town. That was until they saw a man and woman slowly trudged out into the middle of the road up ahead.

"More soldiers?" one of the men in the truck asked as the two nearly collapsed in the middle of the road.

"No wonder all the battalions fell apart." Another sneered. Rather than try and help either of them the men of science were content to simply blare their horn at the two. Much to their surprise the woman pulled out a pistol from a holster strapped to her leg and pointed in at them through the windshield.

"Take us to the hospital now!"

!

AN: I told you guys I was working on it now didn't I?

Yes the part with Guilford was an homage to Fullmetal Alchemist.

I know I'm probably going to get a lot of flames for blasting Jeremiah, but trust me it had to be done. If everything always went Lelouch's way this story would get boring real fast. You'll see why in the near future. Also, if you can't handle some racial slurs or racism in general then maybe Code Geass isn't the best fandom for you, so don't go flaming me for any of that. And no, Kallen doesn't know its Suzaku in the Lancelot.

Vocabulary:

Kuso- a Japanese interjection roughly translating into "Shit!"

Ama- A Japanese expletive, which literally translates into "Nun" but is ironically used as "Bitch", "Cunt", or "Slut"

Kisama- another Japanese expletive which as I understand it means "Bastard" or "Asshole" when used as a term of abuse (those of you who actually know Japanese feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any of this)

Super extra special thanks to Velshard and to All that is Left unsaid for practically writing these past few chapters for me, especially All that is left unsaid for their massive contribution to the epic battle, and letting me bother them at all hours. Love you guys! ^_^ And lastly Ghost Writer Orange-Kun…they know why ;)

And lastly I'd like close out this chapter by saying that my heart goes out to all the victims of the recent earthquake/tsunami in Japan and their families.