Lulu's Bizarre Rebellion

by Ezit Meti

Lelouch Lamperouge was a boy with an ambition; To one day bring down the corrupt nation of Britannia and create a peaceful world for his sister. However, a single arrow gifted him a power that will help him reach his ambition. Stands... Ripple... A feud between two bloodlines that transcends time... And that's only the beginning of this bizarre rebellion!

60. The Only Ones Who Should Kill

Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure belongs to Hirohiki Araki

Author's note: Sorry for being quiet of late. I'm actually quite a bit further ahead than is currently posted, so I'll be making up for that with daily updates over the next two weeks.

She's tiny. That's the first thing he thought when he saw his little sister. Peering into the crib with this tiny little person staring back. She burbles and squirms. That seemed to be about the extent of what she could do. Even so, he could watch her for hours and never get bored. His cute little baby sister. He had so much to show her, so much to tell her. Like how to ride a bike, how to hunt for bugs and - oh! He could hardly wait!

"Oh, there you are!" his mother said. As if she hadn't been lurking in the doorway watching the two of them for the past five minutes. She stepped into the room and stood next to him, staring down. He could feel her smile without even looking. "Young man, I hear you caused trouble with those Duke's sons again."

"They started it," mother and son said in unison. He turned up towards her for the first time. She wasn't smiling anymore. Her expression says something else now: It's asking him what they did to set him off.

"They were talking about you and father," he said. Ah yes. His father. The young boy unconsciously gripped his hands into a tighter fist. "They said you must have been lucky getting to marry above your social class."

"Is that why you tricked them into kicking that ball through the butler's window?"

His sister yawns. He's honestly not sure if he's smiling because that's so cute, or the memory of those jerks getting yelled at was so funny.

"Don't go getting others into trouble, young man. All you've done is get yourself into trouble."

"It was worth it," he muttered. "I'll eat the punishment so that they get theirs." He waited a moment, then asked the question that had been eating at his mind for a couple of weeks now. "When's father coming home?"

"He's busy with work," was the answer. "Your father is a very important man."

Yeah. Just like always. They never seemed to get to see father all that much anymore. He was always too busy with work. Whatever that was. Mother said that he was trying to 'provide a better future' for them, but that sounded pretty off to him. If he cared, why wasn't he here? Was he ashamed of them? Maybe that was it. All those jeers, all those taunts that he had to put up with... Looking down at the cute little baby lying there, all innocent and bright eyed, it made him feel a little bad. She'd have to put up with it too.

His thoughts were interrupted by his mother's hand resting atop his head. "You're just like him, you know. So much like him, it's scary." Eh? Was she talking about father? He couldn't see it. "What do I have in common with papa?" he asked

"I wasn't talking about your father. I was talking about..."

All of a sudden he was whirled around, and his mother had pulled him into a tight embrace. Now he was really confused! Where had this come from all of a sudden?

"Listen very carefully, my son. Teach your sister how to defend herself. Sh, I know. You want to be the big brother. You want to keep her safe. But you won't always be there for her. The only way to keep her safe is to ensure she can keep herself safe." The hug tightened. Wh-what had brought this on all of a sudden? "You understand, don't you? Make sure that she's strong enough. Help her become strong enough to endure the devil itself."

Tears? She's crying? "Is something wrong?" he asks. The question stumbles out of his mouth, and he's immediately kicking himself for it. He straightens up and looks over at the crib, where his little sister has started to cry. "If the devil comes after my sister, I'll kick him in the shins!"

Next to them, his sister starts to cry. It's not as ear splitting as he was expecting, but it sure does grab hold of his attention. His mother rises to her feet, smooths down her dress and carefully, oh so carefully picks up that tiny little person and lovingly cradles her. Cooing at her. Telling her that it would be alright in a calm and soothing voice. Yet the baby kept on crying.

"Maybe you should tell her a story?" he suggested. A silly idea perhaps, but it's all he could think of.

"Alright," his mother said after a moment's thought. "I'll tell you both a story. Listen closely now."

That weird feeling came into a sharp focus, but this young boy still didn't know how to put it into words. He was still at the age where the behaviour of adults was inexplicable and mysterious, so he gave up trying to work out what it was that was wrong. He expected that nobody would tell him anyway.

So he settled down and listened to an amazing tale. There were scary monsters and brave heroes who fought against them. There were evil tyrants, courageous rebels, mighty machines of war. There were spirits, there was magic, there was God and demons and heaven and hell. Time flew by. He barely noticed that his sister had gone back to sleep in the middle of it, though if he had he would have thought it a shame that she was missing out.

"The end. So? What did you think? Did you like that story?"

"It was alright, I guess," he cooly answered. "That Prince guy was kind of a jerk. Um..."

"Is something wrong?" his mother gently asked. Yeah actually. There was something wrong. He didn't like to admit it, but she'd used a word he'd never heard before. It was kind of important, especially towards the end. "You can tell me. Go ahead."

Alright, fine. It was kind of bothering him a little bit. Being looked at like this wasn't exactly making it easy for him either. Besides, in this lighting it almost made his mother's eyes look like they were glowing, and it was kind of freaking him out a little bit.

"What's a requiem?"

His mother smiled. "It's a sad song, but we can make it better."

Chapter 58: The Only Ones Who Should Kill...

====Nunnally====

It's a funny thing. For a long time there, Nunnally had lived a peaceful life. At Ashford Academy, with her brother and their friends on the student council. Some afternoons she and Sayoko would make some fresh orange juice and deliver it to them on a tray, brightening up what was probably a tough afternoon with a cheery smile. It was the best she could do.

Then she made the contract with C.C. and everything began to snowball from there. Nunnally took several deep, deep breaths, as much to steady herself as it was to ensure she had Ripple ready at a moment's notice. The two masked intruders further down the corridor hadn't taken any action yet. Her guards were all wearing helmets with miniature factspheres built in so they could see any Stand, and their guns were ready to fire out with Gleipnir energy to disrupt the Stand images the instant they appeared.

At once she felt prepared, and yet not nearly prepared enough.

"Please place your hands on your head," Nunnally instructed. To her surprise, the pair obeyed. "Who are you? Are you with the same people who attacked us with zombies?"

The pair shook their head. A different group using the stone mask. The guards progressed into the corridor. Nunnally pushed her chair forward to follow after them, but Sayoko held her back and shook her head. Letting others take care of her again. Alright.

"Then who sent you?" Nunnally asked.

The voice that came out was high pitched and rasping. It sounded like a voice changer of some sort. They were that desperate to avoid being recognised? Even so, there was no mistaking the tone of voice lying under it. Nunnally's hearing could easily pick out the anger, the hatred and the disdain. Though it didn't seem to be directed at her.

"We were sent to stop this farce."

The one that spoke slightly adjusted their hands atop their head - and a gale whipped up down the corridor, coming towards the two of them. A Stand! There was no mistaking it! The wind picked up little clouds of something or other that Nunnally only now noticed had been piled up in the corners of the hallway, billowing through the air.

"Chaffe!" Sayoko gasped. "Little bits of reflective metal. It's going to scramble the factspheres built into their helmets."

In other words, it had left them completely blind. They had prepared that in advance, anticipating the guards and the equipment they would be using! It made Nunnally wonder, what other preparations might they have taken?

In order to properly explain to herself what was going on and to keep up with the events around her, Nunnally internally named the two intruders. To the one that had spoken, she named that one 'Mister Green' and the other 'Mister Red'.

Mister Green and Mister Red split apart and then rushed forward, pulling out a pair of crackling rods from within their robes. Tasers! While the guards fumbled with their helmets for but a few seconds it was enough for the pair to cross the distance. Their movements were almost beautiful in how carefully coordinated they were, with a clear goal in mind: Maximise confusion and use their weapons to debilitate the guards one by one!

"Pathetic," Mister Red complained as he dropped the last of the guards into a twitching mess on the floor. "I would have expected better of her highness's personal guard."

"They weren't her personal guard," Sayoko interrupted, hurling a shuriken directly at Mister Green's chest. At the last moment it was deflected by a blade held in Mister Red's left hand. "I am!" Sayoko finished, triumphantly standing in front of Nunnally to keep her safe.

"An Eleven maid for a personal guard?" Mister Red asked. "Then the situation is even worse than I had thought."

"Stand aside!" Mister Green ordered. "We're not here to harm Princess Nunnally despite what you seem to believe."

"If you want me to move, then you will have to move me."

For a moment Nunnally was a little confused. They were still in the lift. They could easily go to another floor any time they wanted - but then she realised the folly in this line of thinking. No, they couldn't. There was a strange knightmare outside and intruders already in the building. They had to leave. Which meant they had to get through these two and retreat was not an option. All other routes were cut off to them.

Mister Red moved first. He tried to rush Sayoko, and ate a stern kick to the stomach for his troubles. Still, it didn't seem to him to faze him as he continued his attack with a remarkable degree of sword skill that pushed Sayoko into the lift, where the confined space inhibited her greater dexterity tremendously.

"As I was saying," Mister Green continued. "We didn't come to hurt you. Please come with us. It's in your best interest."

Is that so? In that case Nunnally saw little choice. She wheeled herself out. "If it's really in my best interests, then you should surrender so we can talk about it!" she commanded. Once, there was a time where all she had to do to get someone to do what she wanted was give them her best and most genuine smile. At least then, they still had the option of saying no. Even though she hated using this power, she kept finding herself in situations where she had to use it.

Mister Green tilted her head and continued walking forward. "I said surrender!" Nunnally repeated. No effect. Was it still working? Or was there something else going on...?

There was a burst of electricity beside her, and then a flurry of shuriken flew over Nunnally's head, striking Mister Green in the upper torso. Each of them landed with a metallic 'tchnk' and then fell to the ground. The intruder was wearing armour under their robe as well. That didn't deter Sayoko in the least, as the maid leaped into fray with both her own sword, and also Mister Red's taser. He was twitching in much the same way that the guards were, which rather explained what had just happened.

"If you think that I will allow you to lay a finger on Mistress Nunnally, or use her to let you harm Master Lelouch, then you had better think again."

Sayoko's sword was definitely cutting through the cloth, but it was strange. There wasn't any sign of armour underneath. In fact, when Sayoko stepped away to renew her strike it became crystal clear: There was nothing there but bare flesh. Not a hint of metal.

"Sayoko, their Stand is protecting them!" Nunnally yelled. The maid didn't flinch or hesitate. Her guard was up, the tip of her sword was pointed square at the enemy in front of her. But didn't that raise the question? Right now her enemy was a Stand user with an unknown power. What could Sayoko do against that kind of enemy?

The answer: Stand and fight, with unwavering bravery and courage! Sayoko leaped forward without hesitation, cutting at the enemy's arm and then leaping into the air to deliver an astounding somersault dropkick that sent Mister Green rolling back down the corridor until they were on their knees.

"You misunderstand," Mister Green rasped. "Hurt you? Hurt Lelouch?" Mister Green suddenly sprung forward, revealing shuriken in their hands. Sayoko was already in mid-air preparing for her next attack when the sharp metal projectiles whizzed right past her. "Nothing could be further from the truth, Eleven! Put down your sword!"

Think, Nunnally. Think! Sayoko is a skilled fighter, but against a Stand user with an unknown ability how long could she possibly last? She rolled out of the room, wondering to herself what she could possibly do to help. What would he do? What would big brother do in a situation like this?

Sayoko struck the masked stranger's neck. For some reason, they grasped hold of the same side of their head as though they had tried to grab hold of the sword but missed. A moment later Sayoko's sword snapped for no reason that Nunnally could readily see. Her Stand again! What kind of ability was this? Oh! If only there was something she could do to help Sayoko.

"I didn't come here to hurt either of you," Mister Green claimed, roughly pushing Sayoko back. "I came here to save you."

"Save her?" Sayoko spat, before quickly jumping into the air over her opponent. "Then why the disguise? Why don't you show us who you really are?"

"Silver chaffe overdrive!" Nunnally yelled, lying on the floor with the flat of her palms against the surface. The little bits of metal that had been used to scramble and confuse the guard's equipment levitated into the air, and as one flew out explosively striking the stranger. Individually not a problem. Put them together and they were greater than the sum of their parts!

This is what her brother would have done! He wouldn't be content letting someone else fight his battles for him! He'd stand up, he'd defend himself, he'd defend the people that he cared for. And he'd do it by thinking outside of the box! If this person wanted her, they'd have a fight on their hands!

"It's not you that I'm hiding from," the stranger said, reeling from Nunnally's attack and their hands reaching up to the side of their head. "But rather, we don't want anyone else to know who we are. Not yet."

Nunnally had been in the process of folding up a paper napkin she'd kept in her pocket when the mask was tossed. Sayoko had drawn another shuriken. Both of them had stopped cold as soon as they saw this person's face. What? What was this?

====Xingke====

Normally when a zombie is freshly risen their hunger for human flesh is ravenous and unyielding. They would consume any warm body they could get their hands on. For that reason Xingke was swallowing his nerves while heading down into this deep, dark cellar. He had heard after the fact that the High Eunuchs had sent down several orphan children to serve as this zombie's 'breakfast', and he wasn't quite sure what he'd dread more. That he would interrupt the monster mid-meal, or after he had already finished.

As he approached the room he heard strange noises. They were indistinct, muffled by the thick walls and thicker door barring the way. Xingke was a strong man with an stomach of iron, but he knew that whatever lay behind this door would leave him shocked to his core no matter what timing he had applied.

Little did he realise how right he was. When he swung the door open he froze in place at the sight before him. The newest zombie recruit, Naoto Kozuki, was there and so were the children who had been sent down to serve as his living meal. But, how to put it... Naoto was playing with his food.

"Giddyup!" laughed the carefree child on his back. "Giddyup horsie! Yay!"

The mighty zombie was on all fours with a young boy clinging to his neck, galloping around the room and making noises approximate to a galloping horse while other children clapped and watched with big happy smiles on their faces. This... was not what Xingke had anticipated. Not in the least.

"Ah!" Naoto said on noticing him standing there in the doorway. "Settle down kids, we have company. Say hello to Mister Xingke. Like I told you."

"Hello Mister Xingke!" the children all said in unison, bowing to him like students to their new teacher.

"Very good!" Naoto clapped. "Now, Mister Xingke is going to take you somewhere safe. You won't have to worry at all about those mean, scary High Eunuchs. Won't you, Xingke?"

"You're not like the other zombies, are you Naoto?" Xingke said. Yes. He would do his best to ensure these orphans were taken somewhere safe. It was a small act of rebellion that was of no consequence, save to these children and his own conscience.

"I am not a slave," Naoto evenly answered. "Not to Britannia. Not to my own instincts." The smile on his face wavered for a moment, and it was quite striking. While Xingke had been cognizant of the fact he was talking to a zombie this entire time, it wasn't until now that Naoto revealed his true and frightening nature. "And certainly not to Lelouch vi Britannia."

Now, that remark struck Xingke as immediately odd. "You hold animosity towards Lelouch in particular?"

"Trying to understand me a bit better?" Naoto replied, tapping the side of his head. "If you must know, then animosity is not what I feel towards him."

It was only his imagination, but to Xingke it felt like the shadows in the room were growing larger, darker and more menacing. Naoto had turned around so that Xingke could not see his face. There was no question to it, this zombie was nothing like the others. Was that good? Was it bad? The information they had on Naoto Kozuki was extremely minimal. The High Eunuchs had revived him for one reason, and one reason alone: The psychological effect on one of the most dangerous enemies they would have to face. Though now he was thinking, they needed more information on him. More than the meager scraps they had.

"I would like to hear more of your time in the resistance," Xingke said. "If you have the time."

"Why is that?" Naoto asked. "Do you have a passing interest in our feeble struggle? Where our enemy was more evil and twisted than even we could have guessed? Kukuku... I suppose in that sense we might have more in common than we first thought, wouldn't you agree?"

"Perhaps," Xingke answered. "Although I would assume that the Britannian Royalty are only life sucking monsters in a metaphorical sense."

That had been a test to see how Naoto would react. The result: A howling sincere laughter that seemed to brighten up the room. "Please Xingke. Take them to safety," Naoto said. It was unnerving the way he didn't need to stop for breath after laughing so hard, but it was one of those quirks Xingke had learned to deal with. "I may not be a slave to my appetite, but it is a most insistent tyrant."

"Of course," Xingke said. "Come with me, please. Stay quiet and stick together."

Kids being kids, one of them immediately slipped back to tug on Naoto's sleeve. "Mister Naoto?" the kid asked. "Um... That Lelouch guy? How do you feel towards him?"

Naoto crossed his arms and looked over his shoulder. He then gave a chilling one word answer that echoed off the walls, even as they left the room and crept out into the public square:

"Pity."

During that conversation Xingke had felt a terrible pressure at the back of his mind. His instincts were telling him, over and over and over again, the same thing: This is a good man. This is a noble and honourable man forced against his will into the body of a zombie. He had felt like someone Xingke could follow into battle. Someone who could set his mind at ease even in this most terrible circumstance he had found himself.

It was only later on that he noticed what felt off about him. The hunger that zombies felt. It was still shining brightly in his dead eyes! When he noticed that Xingke realised something terrible about Naoto Kozuki. A horrible hidden truth that he dare not put into words.

So instead he settled on a simpler concept: The Knightmare that represented the Golden Emperor of the Centre, the Knightmare that Naoto Kozuki called Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. was an existential threat to the ideals and improvements he had planned for the Chinese Federation.

"Naoto Kozuki, a warrior should make their intentions clear when they enter the battle zone," Xingke advised. "One careless move, and you may be attacked by your own allies."

"Ah, that approach was so diplomatic that I will forgive your intrusion into my attempt to catch up with my sister and my best friend." Naoto replied. "You want to know my intentions? It is to watch Britannia burn."

"At this moment in time, we are working alongside Britannia to eliminate the threat posed by the High Eunuchs," Xingke warned. "An attack upon them could be seen as an attack upon our sovereignty."

"Tsk... For such an intelligent man you have a terrible habit of interrupting. Please wait a little while, little sister. This won't take a moment."

That was the worrying part. One mistake against this demon and he'd be cut apart before he could even think to raise his guard. That's why Xingke struck first, and struck hard: "Heaven Frightening Particle Cannon!"

"Ku... I've seen heaven, Xingke. Believe me when I tell you –" Naoto began, lifting up Honglou's radiant wave arm, which was already glowing that ominous, deathly red. "Nothing about your baryon cannon frightens heaven!"

"Xingke, there was no call for that!" Kallen insisted. Xingke ignored her. She didn't understand, not yet. She was too caught up in her own bias, thinking that this is still her brother. "We could have talked him down."

"It's quite alright little sister," Naoto calmly said. The radiant wave arm thrust out and easily caught the incoming blast. Where other Knightmares would have been wiped out, Honglou did not so much as budge an inch. "Li Xingke is fully aware that this will not be enough to put a hair out of place."

That was true. Xingke was well familiar with how powerful the enemy Knightmare was. He had tried to run the simulations several times, and could never adjust to the ludicrous demands of its system. Still, he had seen the estimated effects and power output compared to other systems. He had seen it compared to estimates of the Guren Mark 2 and Shen Hu, and he knew that their primary weapons were of comparable power outputs.

That's how he knew that comparing the mighty baryon cannon to that golden menace's radiant wave surger was like comparing a rabid rottweiler to a starving grizzly bear. Both are intensely dangerous, but one is clearly the bigger threat. Which is why he had two dozen Gun Ru already in position, ready to attack the starving grizzly bear from behind!

They unleashed everything they had with precision aim while its most dangerous weapon was preoccupied blocking the baryon blast. Rockets and bullets soared through the sky with accuracy that should have ensured victory, and almost certainly would have against any other Knightmare.

Any Knightmare that was not equipped with energy wings.

For the first time in the battle the energy wings did more than glow menacingly. They moved to intercept the bullets and rockets, cutting them out of the air while the rest of the Honglou was still. It was as if he was absently swatting at flies while watching the television rather than engaged in a life or death battle.

"Is it my turn?" Naoto asked. He didn't wait for an answer. Once the baryon blast was dissipated, Honglou whirled around and fired out its harken arm, destroying Gun Ru after Gun Ru with the merest touch of that damnable claw! Some tried to circle around, but it was to no avail. Within mere seconds two dozen Gun Ru were reduced to scrap. All save one.

"Wh-What in the world?" that one gasped in horror when Honglou appeared before him in a blur of motion. "Y-You fiend! Die!"

"Been there. Done that."

He opened fire at close range, but Honglou's left hand punched clean through the cockpit in a single swift strike, coming out the other side with the pilot in its grip. The poor soul was crushed to death a moment later, his dead body and his Knightmare carelessly dropped to the ground. Discarded like trash. Xingke felt bile rise up in his throat. He'd sent those men to their deaths.

"Ah, but that's the interesting thing..." Naoto mused. "You knew that I was aware of that power difference, Xingke. Which means that the Gun Ru weren't the true attack. They were - The diversion!"

Honglou whipped around in time to see Shen Hu rapidly approaching from below, wrists spinning around and the green sparking afterimage of the harkens around them. Xingke seethed at himself for sending those soldiers to their death so he could have a chance at this, but at the same time he knew that there had been no choice. If he hadn't done that, hadn't ordered them to take that risky move then countless more innocent souls would be dragged into hell by Naoto Kozuki and his Guren S.E.I.T.E.N.

"Really now, Xingke! I am disappointed," Naoto said from behind him. "A strategy this feeble is quite beneath you."

Xingke's fists clenched. His breath hitched. He'd been looking right at it a moment ago, but the golden Knightmare had completely vanished before his eyes and taken his back with no issue at all. His guard had been raised. He had been ready for anything. Unbelievable! This was the level in difference? Shen Hu was a terrifying machine on its own right, but this... This was truly the devil clad in steel!

But even the devil had its weakness. Xingke had already noticed a long time ago how powerful and how fast this Knightmare was. He had watched with care as Naoto had run through the simulations, and his keen sense as a warrior had noticed an interesting habit that Naoto developed using this Knightmare.

He liked to take his opponent's back, just to prove that he could. Then he would return to their front to deliver the finishing blow. He would humiliate his opponent and show them how far beneath him they were, and only then would he kill them.

This tendency spoke volumes about the young man's thought process. In theory displaying that level of power should discourage others from attempting to attack him, downplaying the need for further conflicts. Even if others did rise up to fight the memory of that moment would linger in their mind, until the very idea that he was behind them would fill them with mortal dread. It was a mark of strength. It was a show of skill.

It would also be his downfall.

Shen Hu stopped spinning its wrists and dropped the electrified cables it had been carrying. He had no more use for them. In the same motion he flexed those arms - and in the process unhooked the slash harkens from where they had been attached to Shen Hu's flight enabler!

This was his true attack and his reason for rapidly spinning Shen Hu's wrists: He had been creating a tremendous amount of tension within the harken cables. Tension that was now coming undone. Couple this with the boosters attached to the small harkens, and just like that he was able to finish his trap! Honglou, S.E.I.T.E.N, whatever you wish to call it, the golden Knightmare that represented the mighty Emperor of the middle was now thoroughly ensnared within his cables!

"Now I have you where I want you," Xingke said. The radiant wave claw was even tied to the monster's own chest. If he attempted to use it now to defend himself from the electricity, he'd destroy himself first! "That Knightmare is far too strong to be allowed into the world."

"How foolish of me," Naoto lamented. "I forgot the golden rule of all combat."

Before Xingke could electrify his cables, Honglou lurched hard forward, so fast and with such strength that it dragged Shen Hu after him. Xingke's warrior instincts kicked in, and he tried to turn Shen Hu around and brought its arms into a cross formation - which he managed just in the nick of time as Honglou stopped and lashed out with a frightening kick at the same time that struck Shen Hu's crossed arms with a sickening crunch. Were this kind of attack delivered on a human being it would have shattered both of their arms, and broken at least two ribs in the most generous possible outcome.

Shen Hu's direction completely reversed in that instant and the mighty white Knightmare was sent to the ground so quickly it sounded like it was screaming. The cables it had used to tie up Honglou had completely snapped off. This strong...! How... how was this Knightmare this strong?

"Really now, Xingke? You thought I had been going all out in those simulations?" Naoto asked. Shen Hu rose to its knees, its pilot quickly taking stock of the damage. One kick... That one kick had severely damaged the armour in Shen Hu's arms, and the landing had rendered his flight enabler completely inoperable. On top of that in this condition he didn't feel that it would be remotely safe to fire the baryon cannon again. Unbelievable! That Knightmare was ludicrously strong! "Tsk, tsk. You're the sort who won't give up even when it's hopeless. Take it from me, I'm the same kind. If you're going to be this persistent, then..."

"Xingke! I will not allow you to die today!"

That voice... It couldn't be! Zhou! Her Gun Ru opened fire from the ground with everything it had. Machine guns, rockets, everything it had was being sent up in a futile effort to even slow this monster down. To no avail. It was too quick to be pinned down in this way.

"How touching," Naoto said. He'd already appeared behind her. "But you are not the one I am testing myself against."

Honglou blurred again, and he was directly in front of Shen Hu. His back turned as if mocking Xingke, he lifted his arm and threw a disc made of radiant wave energy directly into Zhou's Gun Ru.

"Zhou!" Xingke yelled. He drew Shen Hu's last weapon in a fit of rage. One of his truest allies, one of the few people he could rely upon! "Kozuki, there was no need for that!"

He rushed Honglou, while out of the corner of his eye Zhou's Knightmare began to bubble and melt and twist around. He hadn't even hit her with a full force attack!

"It's alright Commander," she said. "It's still in my head. Even though he's killed the High Eunuchs... I can already feel it eating away at my brain. It's starting to move on to the rest of my body, spreading like a cancer. Soon I won't even be human anymore. I'll be... Like that wretch."

Honglou blocked his attack, and then with a sweep of its hand sent the sword flying from Shen Hu's grip. It wasn't a matter of skill, the difference in strength made the point moot.

"Don't die... Xingke... You've still got work to –"

Her Knightmare exploded. Of all the attacks that Naoto had launched against him so far, that one had been by far the most crushing.

"You think that was too much?" Naoto asked. "No, No. Not at all! Not at all. That was a much kinder fate, don't you think? Ah... And that explosion wasn't too big. Her body should be intact. We could always revive her, later on."

"Devil!" Xingke yelled. Shen Hu was in no condition to fight and he knew it. "How dare you?!"

As if in response to that, Honglou lifted its claw and settled it atop Xingke's cockpit. Xingke began to cough and sputter. No, not now. He didn't need this. Not now! His instincts were correct. Naoto Kozuki and the Honglou... No, the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight Elements were a combination far too frightening to be allowed to exist.

In spite of what Zhou had said, Xingke was ready for death. If that death meant that everyone else would understand what he had noticed and made sure they rose up to fight this monster, put him down before he devoured the whole world, then his was a life worth living.

"By Decree of the Empress of the Chinese Federation, I command you to stop!"

Empress Tianzi! A fresh sense of dread took Xingke's heart. After what had just happened to Zhou... If the Empress intervened as well, then Naoto might kill her too! "No... Won't let you harm the Empress!"

"The Chinese Federation shall now... Formally surrender! Under the agreed rules of war, you must stop attacking our forces. That includes Li Xingke!"

"Is that so?" Naoto asked. Then, to Xingke's surprise, he removed his radiant wave arm. "Very well then. The Chinese Federation as a territory now belongs to the Black Knights! Or, it will once my good friend Kaname Ohgi signs the paperwork."

"You won't attack our forces anymore?" the Empress asked.

"Only in self defense," Honglou made a shrugging motion. "Speaking of which, it seems as though the Britannians have been busy. Xingke. Take your Empress and scurry back to your Forbidden City. We'll discuss terms once this is over with."

Looking around them now, Xingke could see quite clearly. There must be about twenty or so Sutherlands out there, surrounding S.E.I.T.E.N. The fools hadn't realised yet. Their formation was flawless. They had surrounded the enemy entirely, from numerous levels and left themselves plenty of room to attack without having to worry about hitting each other.

It was pointless. This many Sutherlands? Don't make him laugh. He ran through some hypothetical scenarios in his head and knew that they wouldn't stand a chance. Within perhaps two minutes of the battle starting, they would all be destroyed. That was in the best case scenario, but it ultimately depended on the strategy used by the Britannians...

Or by Xingke.

Yes, those hypothetical scenarios he had been developing were not the Sutherlands versus S.E.I.T.E.N. They were the Sutherlands versus Shen Hu. In terms of raw power and ability Shen Hu was a terrifyingly strong Knightmare in its own right, but S.E.I.T.E.N outclassed it in every sense.

For the time being he had no choice but to retreat. They would mourn the fallen later, for it was plain to see. By the time this day was done there would be many more to add to the list.

====Nina====

"Nina Einstein. Come with me."

This was it. This was her chance. Redemption. She could make up for her mistakes by buying her highness enough time to get away. She'd be useful. She'd have a purpose. While it was true that the freak standing in front of her was remarkably tall, Nina felt an odd sense of confidence, not least of which because confidence in herself was not an emotion she was used to feeling.

"Not on your life!" Nina yelled, and suddenly found herself being dragged back through the corridor by Milly Ashford. "Milly! It's okay! You need to be the one that hides. I have the power, I can fight him!"

"Like hell I'm letting one of my beloved council members fight someone like that!" Milly replied. Then, a moment later, "Maybe Suzaku. He'd probably win."

Nina bristled a little at that. Here she was trying to do a nice thing and Milly's upstaging her. Belittling her efforts. Running wasn't doing much of anything anyway - The freak back there was moving very quickly after them, no amount of running was going to let them get away!

"This is quite pointless, Miss Ashford. I can run much faster and further than either of you."

"That may be!" Milly called back. "But sweetie, there's a reason I've been running so close to the outer walls. Maybe you shouldn't have just been watching the pretty girls run away?"

This was when the giant looked to his left and saw that the windows he was running by didn't have any glass in their frames. As they had been running along the corridor, Nina had been pulling them out and making sure they followed along on the outside of the building.

Still. She kind of wanted to be the one that said something cool just before the attack. Whatever! She stopped running and took a deep breath, then deliberately made the glass fragment into a thousand sharp shards before she sent them down onto the intruder, sharp glass horizontally raining towards them!

If only it would be that easy. Before the first shards struck the intruder something burst out of their body, intercepting the shards of glass before they could do any damage at all. Nina knew what it was right away, even though she didn't get a good look at it before turning tail to continue running away: That was the enemy's unknown Stand!

"Miss Einstein! Miss Ashford! We have no intention of harming you!"

For whatever reason he'd stopped chasing them when blocking, so Nina kept grabbing glass from the windows as they passed by. Whenever she heard him start to barrel down the corridor at them, she tossed a few hundred shards to slow him down. Create some distance. She didn't need to fight him to win, only get away! That was the mistake she'd made the last time. Not again. Never again!

"Here we are!" Milly said, pounding the lift button with her fist. "Tada! We made it! Nina, I knew you could do it, you kept him away!"

Nina looked inside the lift for a moment, then back at the lumbering brute giving chase. The young genius shook her head, then shoved Milly inside the lift and used a shard of glass to press the button for the basement.

"Sorry Milly," Nina wiped a tear from her eye. Milly threw herself against the door, and Nina could almost see the panic on her face when she felt the lift start to go down. "But I'm an adult now. It's time you stopped treating me like a child, and for me to start taking responsibility for my own life."

"That was very honourable of you," the masked intruder said. "Putting the safety of your leige above your own." Nina turned around to face him. Slowly, with her eyes wide open. "Yet I can also tell that you will not come peacefully. This, too, I can respect."

"Stow your respect," Nina snapped, forming a large glass spear that she hurled at the brute. He nimbly stepped aside and - ah! Something that wasn't his hands grabbed her glass spear from behind his back and snapped it! Nina gulped and began to circle around him, trying to keep her distance as best she could. "It's me you're after, isn't it? You would have chased me whether Milly was with me or not. Right?"

"... Yes."

Nina summoned a cloud of broken glass and threw it at him. Rather than block, this time he dodged with a remarkable nimbleness considering his size. No matter. She'd grabbed lots of glass on the way here.

Suddenly, several long and thin black... things began to reach towards her. Acting on instinct Nina used glass to create a barrier in front of herself. The black things wrapped around the barrier and crushed it with ease. So Nina responded by cutting the threads to shreds. This must be his Stand at work!

"There's only one reason you'd chase me like this!" Nina yelled, still backing off and making sure that she had glass in between the two of them at all times. "You want my work. Well, you can't have it! There's no way I'd let you have it!"

"You mean your work on F.L.E.I.J.A.?" the man asked, a hint of solemnity creeping into his voice. "No. What we want is a defense against it." Nina threw more glass at him, this time trying to pincer him in place - but they bounced off his Stand. "Because you see, Britannia already has access to F.L.E.I.J.A. They've had it for years."

Wh-What? When she'd processed that statement Nina dropped the shards in front of her to the floor and began to laugh. "Hehehe... That's ridiculous!" Nina laughed. The giant began stepping forward now. Mindful of this, she still kept her distance. "What sort of nonsense are you saying? If Britannia had something like that for so long, then why are we still fighting Europe? Why haven't we used them yet? Where's the evidence? You can't answer because there is none. It's a lie! You're lying to me! Just like you lied when you said you wouldn't hurt me!"

"Please come with me, Miss Einstein," the giant said. "Our master will explain everything."

"I have a better idea," Nina sniffed. "Physics lesson. What do you know about refracting light?"

Nina lifted her hand into the air, and alongside it a handful of shards of glass. They hovered in the air, tilted ever so slightly. Then the room became a good deal brighter than it had been a moment before. The beams of light from the window opposite reflected off the shards of glass she was hovering, and travelled directly into pieces of glass that had been stuck in walls, ceilings, the floor all around the giant intruder. The light coming through the window was being magnified and focused all on a single point in the room thanks to the careful placement of glass shards!

"You'll find the answer too hot to handle," Nina mocked. She'd done it! She'd won! The intruder's robe was already catching fire, there was no way that he'd be able to survive an attack like this!

"You have more pluck than I had been told to expect," the intruder said, dropping to their knees. "Unfortunately... I have a biology question for you. What happens when you expose plants to natural daylight?"

Without warning a large bush began to fill the room. It was big. Ludicrously so. Full of thorny vines and pretty flowers. Nina gaped at it in disbelief, falling over and crawling backwards away from it. What... What was this?! But - But his Stand was those black threads, wasn't it? Where had this plant Stand come from?!

Ah! She didn't have the time to consider that! The black threads had somehow managed to sneak through the plants to grab hold of her wrists. She was being wrapped up in - This was hair. Yes, now that she got a good look at it, this was definitely hair!

"I have acquired the secondary target," the intruder said to someone. Probably some sort of phone. She couldn't see him anymore. The plants had totally covered him up. "However, to my shame I am in need of pickup."

"Let me go!" Nina yelled. "Let me go right now, or I'll - I'll!"

"Please do your best to relax Miss Einstein," the intruder calmly said. "I meant what I said before. We mean you no harm. You have my word on that. My oath as a Knight."

At this point it wasn't her that she was worried about. She'd seen the calculations. If these people got ahold of something like that, who knows what kind of damage they could do. So much for redemption. It somehow felt as though her very existence was making things worse for absolutely everybody! How was she supposed to live her life when that life caused so much trouble for others?

====Ohgi====

If someone had stuck a knife in his chest, he'd have an easier time breathing. Ohgi stared at the screen in front of him, watching with muted horror as his best friend had come back from the dead, piloting an absurdly powerful Knightmare. He didn't know how to react. He didn't know how to begin to react. Should he be happy that Naoto was back? Should he be sad that they might have to fight him? Some leader he was. All he could do was watch and listen to the conversation going on around them, as people who had never met him before talked about Naoto as if he were some abstract problem to be solved.

"It seems as though the High Eunuchs had more cards to play than we first realised," Diethard said. "Kallen's older brother, what an audacious attack."

"Oy, oy! No need to sound so impressed," Joseph grumbled.

Diethard shook his head. "Oh, I quite disagree. The psychological impact must be understood before we can properly overcome it."

"I'd be more worried about the machine than the pilot," Rakshata interjected. "It's a hybrid of my worst excesses and the Earl of Pudding's. Considering how much energy it is producing and how fast it's able to move, I shudder to think of what it is capable of."

"You're wrong," Tamaki said. "It is the pilot we need to worry about."

"N-Naoto..." Kallen's breathing was heavy. She adored her big brother more than the rest of them put together, and that was no small amount. She'd been crushed by his death and turned that emotion into first cold, then boiling hot fury aimed right at Britannia.

"Naoto wasn't just the leader of our cell," Ohgi explained, suddenly keenly aware of his own breathing, and more the trembling in his hands that he couldn't control. Anger? Fear? Both? He couldn't tell. Nor did he know which he'd rather be feeling. "He... Trained us in combat awareness."

"He taught me how to fire a rifle!" Tamaki added.

"He taught me how to pilot a Knightmare..." Kallen whispered.

It had to take some time to sink in. When they had referred to this in the past as "Naoto's cell," they had meant it about as literally as that can be taken in reality. He had organised it. He had led it. He had put his body and his soul into every single aspect of it.

"Maybe it's not what it seems?" Kallen suggested. "I mean, he started by attacking the Britannians, and he's only fighting the Chinese Federation out of self defense. Maybe... maybe he's still on our side?"

Joseph Joestar made a very uncomfortable sounding noise. On turning around to look, it seemed as though the Britannian had put his hand over his mouth.

"Is there something you want to share?" Ohgi asked.

"No, not yet," Joseph said. "I'm a Britannian, after all. This is a decision you have to make yourself. You are the leader here, aren't you?"

Tsk! That was the problem. For whatever reason, Zero's line had gone silent since the Chinese Federation started their attack against Naoto. Which meant that Ohgi was in command right now. He flexed his hands, it wasn't right. He shouldn't be trying to foist this decision off onto someone else. But could he really make the right call? Naoto was his best friend! Could he be impartial enough to pull the trigger if he had to? Could he... Kill Naoto?

"Kaname Ohgi, you old devil!" Naoto's voice cut through the inner turmoil. He snapped back into reality. S.E.I.T.E.N. was hovering in the air. "I always knew you had it in you to be a stellar leader. Well done! That's quite the military force you've formed."

"Naoto... What's going on?!" Kallen demanded. "Why... Why are you piloting that...?"

"Ah, my cute baby sis!" Naoto chuckled, warmly, kindly, just like Ohgi remembered. "You've become so strong in my absence. I hear that you have a quite frightening Stand ability as well. Ah, we have so much catching up to do. It's not the same, reading those dry reports they tried to spoon feed me. You know me. I've always been a people person. Now I guess I'll have to be a people zombie instead!"

That naturally soothing cadence, that carefree attitude... Even though he was completely surrounded by Sutherlands! This was the same can-do tone of voice he'd used the last time they'd talked when he had been alive!

"Naoto, those Sutherlands are out for your blood!" Ohgi yelled. If he had that human warmth, if he was using it to speak with them then surely he wasn't a bad guy! Either way, letting Britannia kill Naoto again... It wouldn't happen. He couldn't let that happen! "We might be able to persuade them to stand down, there's no need to keep on fighting today."

"Ku... That's such a nice thought my old friend. However... Today I'm fighting for more than the sake of liberating Japan."

The Sutherlands opened fire and S.E.I.T.E.N. sprang into action by quickly moving well outside of their range of fire.

"Don't get me wrong. We'll start by pushing Britannia out of Japan. Then we shall reassert our position on the grand stage. But this will not be enough to put a stop to Britannia's evil!"

S.E.I.T.E.N. stuck out its normal hand and slipped a little to the side, allowing a slash harken to pass by. That hand then grabbed hold of the cable and swung the Sutherland that had fired it around, using him as a flail against his own allies.

"Beatings. Rape. Murder. Buying and selling people like cattle. Selling addictive mind destroying drugs to control the already oppressed while lining their own pockets. A populace that turns a blind eye to these crimes and worse when they happen to a Number, while their media tells the population that the Numbers commit them. These crimes... Are nothing compared to the depths Britannia will sink to if they are left unchecked!"

"Naoto!" Kallen stepped in. "Tell me, right now! Is that really your only intention? To pick up where you left off?"

"Oh, little sister... Even death cannot hold back my sense of justice!"

The golden Guren suddenly whirled around, and produced a sword that seemed to be made out of radiant energy out of its generator. It intercepted a sword strike from a Sutherland who had been brave or foolish enough to think they could sneak up on the mighty Knightmare.

"The fight for freedom is forever lasting. There are tyrants being born every minute." As he spoke, the Sutherland pilots sword bubbled and burst, taking the Knightmare's hand with it. "If Japan is to keep its freedom, it must be prepared to do battle! With Britannia, with every world power that wants that accursed Sakuradite!"

It grabbed hold of the Sutherland by the cockpit, then shimmered and vanished, reappearing again among further Britannian units with the Knightmare held aloft, its metal exterior beginning to bubble warningly.

"That is, unless we take the fight to them first." The melting Sutherland was slammed into another causing both to explode. In that instant Ohgi could feel it, the creeping terror that the Britannians must be feeling from this display. A terror that must be born from a single terrible thought:

This machine was stronger than any Stand they had seen yet.

The first of the Black Knights to move was Kyoshiro Tohdoh, who approached the SEITEN with speed, but no aggressiveness in his movement.

"Naoto Kozuki. It is a genuine honour to meet you," Tohdoh said. "You are quite correct. We could not ask for a finer opportunity to rid the world of a nest of tyrants and despots."

"No, Tohdoh of Miracles! The honour is all mine. It is thanks to you that we had the will to fight in the first place. With this machine, we shall grind the Britannian Empire and the Chinese Federation into dust beneath our heels!"

"Man, thank goodness he's on our side after all!" Tamaki yelped. "Haha! Kallen, you must be thrilled to see your brother back."

"Yeah..." Kallen sighed. "I was worried for a moment there, but he's resisted their control. Lelouch! If you can hear me, you'd better surrender and make it quick!"

But Tohdhoh was not finished with Naoto quite yet. "That sounds like a good start. But from a military perspective we must be looking at the longer term strategy. Tell me, Naoto: What do you intend to do after we eliminate these two armies?"

"What next?" Naoto asked. "The answer is obvious! We return to Japan and rebuild our nation!"

A cheer came up from the Black Knights. All except for Joseph, who sunk back in his chair and closed his eyes. While it was his favourite trick to predict his opponent's next line, he had already forseen the entire conversation. He did not anticipate its end with any relish.

"Yes of course just as we have fought for all these years," Tohdoh said. "Finally within our grasp. And of course, it is as you said. We must take the fight to others first, to ensure our renewed sovereignty."

"We must push back the Britannian forces wherever they hide!" Naoto continued. "It is the only way to ensure our own safety."

"Pushing out their military forces will become trivial with this machine on our side," Tohdoh agreed. "And containing the civilian populations will be easy as well. Don't you think? They're bound to protest, after all." Tohdoh stopped for a brief moment to let what he was about to say have the maximum impact. "Therefore, it's only right that we eliminate all dissenters."

"Yes!"

"Make public examples of them."

"We can use them to test out our newest weapons!"

"Designed to kill Britannians, yes. They are rather inferior, aren't they?"

"They are! They are scum, worthless wastes of flesh!"

"It would be better for everyone if Japan was in charge of it all. If we purged the unclean from the planet, and set ourselves as rulers! Or at least everyone that mattered."

"Yes!" Naoto screeched with anticipation. "Japan will rise again stronger than before!"

And then Tohdoh delivered three simple words which illustrated his true thoughts on the matter. They were like a magic spell, or perhaps the words that would break one that had been cast over everyone on the battlefield.

"All hail Japan."

The battlefield fell an eerie silence for a heartbeat or two. The first sound to break it was the sound of a little sister's heart being broken. The second was the sound of Beast of Burden slamming into S.E.I.T.E.N.'S sides, the heavy impact not causing the Knightmare to budge an inch.

"Treachery, Tohdoh of Miracles?!" Naoto snarled. Tohdoh's Gekka held its brake sword in a defensive posture, for all the good it would do against this machine. "Will I have to defend myself against you, the same way I did against Xingke?!"

"Stop it! Both of you! Kallen yelled. The Guren - regular version - interjected between the two of them, hands out as if creating a barrier between them. "Tohdoh... I'm sure Naoto didn't mean it that way! Naoto, I'm sure that's just a misunderstanding –"

"No misunderstanding Kallen," Tohdoh said. "Tonight, I've met three people I knew very reminded me that we all have our light and our darkness."

"What does that have to do with Naoto?!" Ohgi insisted, desperate for a way out of this.

"Because the process of becoming undead heightens a person's evil intentions," Joseph explained. "Ambition. Pride. Greed. Lust. Urges that decent people feel, but repress. These things are unchained when a decent person becomes a zombie or a vampire!"

"Hmph! Are you going to listen to that Britannian try to slander me?" Naoto asked. "Ohgi... You know me better than that, right? They're trying to cast me as a slathering beast, when my only interest is in saving Japan –"

"By taking control and turning us into a tool of oppression! That is your goal, isn't it?"

"No! My goal is to protect Japan by any means necessary."

"And what if we don't want to follow your lead?"

"Then you will leave me no alternative. The stakes are too high for me to back down."

Ohgi stumbled back in disbelief at what he was hearing. Naoto... You'd go that far? Once there was a time where Ohgi had thought there was no line he wouldn't cross if it meant the freedom of his people, but now... Now he had found it. The line in the sand that he couldn't imagine crossing. The very idea of stepping over it brought in him a revulsion so intense it made him feel physically unclean.

"Rakshata?" he asked, head cast down to the floor. "Is the hadron cannon ready to fire again?"

"Hrm? Yes, it is."

"Good," Ohgi said, though it didn't feel that way. "In that case... Lock onto the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N.."

With tears in his eyes, and his heart aching in ways he never imagined it could, Ohgi lifted his head to stare at the screen. He didn't even notice that his eye was glowing with mystical power. Nor would he have much cared if he had.

"Fire."

====Rolo====

The very first thing that happened was Rivalz grabbing hold of his hand and hauling him away down the corridor. The Viceroy's palace had pretty long corridors, very spacious places to flee down. Which might be for the best. In almost any other hallway the masked man behind them would have his shoulders up against both walls. He would probably scrape away the plasterboard when he walked.

"I'd really love to have a Stand of my own right about now," Rivalz moaned.

"I don't know about that!" Rolo answered. "I hear those with Stands draw others to them."

"At this point I fail to see the difference!"

In much the same way that he could no longer tell the difference between an earthquake and the masked man running down the corridor after them. Rivalz stumbled from the sudden violent shaking of the floor, which forced Rolo to take the initiative and dash on ahead, hauling Rivalz after him instead of the other way around. The young assassin risked a look back at their pursuer. As expected, his massive size meant massive strides. It was like being pursued by a charging stallion. The only difference was that this man was much bigger than any horse.

Alright then. So be it. Rolo activated his Geass, which would have been his first course of action if Rivalz hadn't hauled him away like this. Was he surprised when the ogre didn't even slow down? No, he wasn't. With the recent undead activity, this man being a vampire or a zombie wasn't remotely surprising. It only meant he would have to get creative in how he killed them.

That brought a small smile to his face. He did so enjoy the chance to get creative.

Rolo grabbed a vase and tossed it at the intruder. Not entirely the most useful move by itself - until he used his other hand to fire a bullet from his special spin inducing gun. The vase shattered into sharp spinning pieces that would tear through that robe and expose the undead creature underneath to the bright light of the sun.

The expected outcome did not develop, unfortunately. Though it wasn't a terrible thing to learn that this big enemy was as fast and agile as he was bulky. Speaking from a purely professional perspective Rolo was genuinely impressed with how quickly and adeptly the mountain of a man was able to leap into the air, spreading his arms and legs out flat so that he could completely avoid the vase shards and the bullet.

Conclusion: This was no mere zombie he was up against. High probability this was a hardened warrior with years of extensive battle experience before he had died.

"Not bad," the ogre said. "Not good enough, little assassin!"

Interesting. Not something he could use currently. For the time being he needed to get Rivalz away somewhere safe so he could deal with this giant properly: The mission was top priority, after all. He unfroze time -

"Ronald, look out!"

And was promptly tackled to the ground for his trouble, with Rivalz on top of him. Combat amateurs! They always think they have the right instinct, when -

A shadow passed over the two of them. Looking up, Rolo could see the masked intruder soaring over, his hand drawn back as though he was going to punch them on the way over. The blow never came. Instead, he kept on going. Holding back for some reason when it would have been so easy to deliver a killing blow.

His body moved automatically as soon as he sensed the opening. Rolo rolled Rivalz aside and dragged him off in the opposite direction they had been running in before, while behind them the giant landed heavily and renewed his pursuit.

"Ronald! This way, come on!"

The fire door! Good thinking. While there would be enough space for the two of them to easily move, that guy would be so big that his robes would almost certainly catch on the metal handrails. As a zombie, this would easily lead to him being exposed to the sun! He'd be completely unable to move or attack them in that environment.

The two boys went down the stairs two at a time, gripping onto the metal handrails to keep themselves from toppling over.

"What's going on?" Rivalz asked. "Here, in the Viceroy's Palace? How did they even get here without being noticed!"

"Worry about that later," Rolo suggested. "Right now, let's get out of here!"

There was a terrible noise that seemed to shake the whole building. Ah! That Knightmare must be attacking the building! Both of them looked up, but there was no sign of the behemoth. Had he given up? Lost track of them? It didn't matter, they had to get to the basement if they wanted to get away from that giant and the mystery Knightmare outside. Still, what Rolo really wanted was the chance to kill this guy. Or at the very least interrogate him so they could work out his motives.

Out of nowhere part of the wall vanished, and was replaced by a giant robed arm. How the hell did he - That noise before wasn't the Knightmare! He must have jumped through the floor to beat them down here! Rolo reached into his pocket to draw out his gun but the fiend was a touch too fast. They grabbed hold of Rivalz right before his eyes, hauled him out of the stairway.

"Why are you chasing us?" Rivalz demanded.

"Not you," the giant answered. "The assassin."

Well, we could safely call his cover blown at this point. Assessing the situation. He's not hurting Rivalz, or making any threatening motions towards him. Therefore...

Rolo ran back into the stairwell as far as he could. What he'd thought before was still true: The metal handrails would make it extremely difficult for him to move without tearing his robes.

"You can't mean me, can you?" That's right. Act scared. It might only buy a second or two, but as he well knew time was a crucial factor in matters of life or death. "Why me?"

"There are two reasons," the giant intoned. His hand reached in, trying to grab for him. But he noticed in time that he couldn't quite reach without his suit getting torn, and held back. As expected, tremendous battlefield awareness from an obvious combat veteran. "The first is... You murdered a dear friend of my master."

Rolo considered that for a moment. He could see Rivalz still standing there, and used his Geass to freeze the boy in place. "Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?" he asked.

"Do you?"

"Couldn't even guess."

The giant grunted. "That... Is the second reason."

That seemed to be all the information he was getting. In which case it was time for him to get serious.

The question must have arisen in your mind by now, dear reader: How did Rolo get a gun into the singularly most secure building in the Area? The answer was simple. He abused his Geass power to pull it off. It wasn't too hard to do. When he went through the metal detector, he made sure that he had several coins in his pocket as well. All he had to do was freeze time for the guards and the others, hide the firearm out of sight and then let them discover the coins he had carried with him. He would walk through the metal detector a second time, they would find nothing, everything would appear to be above board.

But then one must ask the obvious question. If he could already sneak a gun into a secure building using this tactic, then why limit himself to just a gun? That's what made his Geass so dangerous, you see. He didn't need to use it on you in order to make it deadly.

With one hand Rolo drew his gun and fired at the zombie's chest with deadly precision. But that wasn't all he'd done. With his off hand he threw a grenade in the underhand style having ensnared the ring with his finger. As expected, the zombie identified the bullet's threat first and moved to block it with a piece of rubble, while being totally unaware of the real threat beneath!

Or so it had seemed until the zombie kicked the grenade right back at him.

"A real warrior does not get distracted on the battlefield that easily!" the zombie admonished.

Rolo caught the grenade and put it in his pocket. "Of course not," Rolo shrugged. "It's a dud anyway. My real weapon is the debris in your hands."

The bullet finally finished its work and caused that piece of rubble to crumble into pieces, each of them spinning in a precise clockwise manner. This is what he'd actually intended to do with the vase earlier on: Transfer the spin from the perfectly spherical bullet he had fired into another target, thus allowing the pieces to act as independent projectile weapons!

Normally the spin they would carry would be far too weak to be effective against an enemy this big, but Rolo's aim was singularly to shred his robes. To cut through cloth, this much spin would be more than sufficient!

That is, unless the debris bounced off some invisible barrier around the enemy giant.

"In life, I might have been slain by that attack," the giant admitted. "Just as surely as I was a knight, you truly are an assassin!"

Impossible! Unless... This giant was not just a zombie, but also a Stand user! In which case all Rolo had to do was lure him into using his Stand and then freezing him in place. If he could do that, then -

The stairwell twisted and warped around him. The giant was pulling it off the wall with his bare hands and folding it around the young assassin. Damn it! How could this be happening right as he had uncovered this monster's biggest weak spot?!

"Unfortunately for you, I am already long since dead," the giant intoned. "In my rebirth I have become mightier than I have ever been. Goodbye."

"Stop!"

Peering out between a gap in the metal, Rolo could barely see the source of that voice. Rivalz... and he was holding a shard of glass up against his throat! What was he doing? What was he thinking?!

"Leave him alone!" Rivalz yelled. "Get away from him! Right now! Or I'll - I'll do it!"

"You would end your own life for this killer?" the giant asked. "This young boy has ended more lives than you have ever known. He was an agent sent by the Emperor himself to watch over Lelouch's friends- and use you as hostages if he turned hostile. He would have killed you without a second thought, and you would risk your life for his sake?"

Rivalz gulped. It was noticeable. Extremely noticeable. You couldn't help but realise that he was frightened out of his mind. His hand was trembling, yet he held the glass firm. His legs were shaking, yet he stood his ground.

"Of course I would," Rivalz said. His voice sounded as dry as a desert. "He's... My friend. Whatever you say he is, I'm not going to stand by and watch you kill him!"

The giant rose to his considerably full height, completely blocking Rivalz from Rolo's view. Why? Why was he doing this? That reason made no sense at all! He should be running for his life like a scared dog. Not standing up to a man who could break him with his little finger alone!

"Yes?" the giant said all of a sudden. He put his hand up to the side of his head. "You were watching?" Another beat passes. "Very well."

And then... He started to walk away. Just like that, it was all over? Why? He'd been so determined to kill Rolo before! None of this made any sense to him! Why had Rivalz saved him - again?! Why was this giant monster leaving him alone at the moment of victory? Had their master changed their mind? Even though he'd apparently killed a close friend of theirs? It didn't make sense. It didn't make any sense!

"Hey, you okay in there?" Rivalz asked. He was forcing himself to smile. It was easy to see if you looked for the signs. He was sweating, shaking with fear, and when he naturally smiled his lips didn't quite go up that far. "That was a close one, huh? Wasn't sure that would work. Uh... Guess we gotta wait for rescue workers to cut you out of this. I'll keep you company until then, okay?"

====Kallen====

A roar of raw energy rushed through the air, a concentrated beam with the hitting force of a shooting star and the fury of a hundred defiant souls. And yet, sitting within her Guren's cockpit, the intensity of Kallen Kozuki's emotional turmoil was a storm that eclipsed this show of might. It may very well prove more turning to the battle as well.

"Now, now old friend. Haven't you been paying attention? An attack like that is far too slow to hope to hit me."

'Don't make me fight him.'

Ikaruga wasn't finished. It had more guns on it than the hadron cannon. The air was suddenly filled with bullets and artillery shells. Rockets, slash harkens, everything it had all aimed at one airborne Knightmare high in the sky.

"Ohgi! What are you doing?!" she yelled. "That's Naoto you're firing at!"

"No it isn't," Ohgi corrected her. His voice was weary and cracked, but no less determined for it. "Your brother is dead. That thing stole his body and his memory."

"How philosophical of you, old friend!" Naoto chirped. "Perhaps Descartes? Or does your argument draw more from the Ship of Theseus?"

That was just like him. In the heat of battle, making an intellectual joke that might only make sense to him. Lightening the mood in his own quirky, oddly charming way. Setting everyone's mind at ease in a tense situation with a naturally easygoing attitude.

'Don't make me fight him.'

There was something almost beautiful in it. S.E.I.T.E.N. was moving so quickly and precisely that nothing Ikaruga was throwing at it was hitting. It was like watching someone dodge through the falling rain without getting even slightly wet.

"As I was saying! This Knightmare is a touch too quick for you to hit like that from a distance. Kaname Ohgi! If you wish to fight me, then you will need to do so at a closer distance."

"No, we don't need to do that," Kallen protested, gripping the Guren's control's tightly. "We can talk this through. This is all a misunderstanding. We shouldn't be fighting each other."

"Is this the limit of your loyalty?"

A bolt of lightning struck down from the sky, blocked by S.E.I.T.E.N.'s radiant wave surger.

"Well, well. Is that Margrave Gottwald I see? The leader of the Purist faction is picking a fight he can't possibly win? Now really, I should try not to enjoy this moment so much."

Kallen looked down. Yes indeed. There he was. Jeremiah Gottwald, standing amidst a pile of wreckage. He had that weird thing over his eye, and electricity was crackling between his fingers. Was that a Stand a little behind him? Well, thank goodness, now Naoto could fight a Britannian! This was what they should be doing from the start.

... Was she really just feeling relief from the fact that a Stand using Pureblood picked a fight with her beloved big brother? What the hell kind of chain of events had led her life to this?

"You think that I will be an easy fight, even outside of a Knightmare?" Jeremiah asked. He raised his hand to the sky, pointing upwards with dramatic flare. His index finger extended as though he was aiming a gun. "Naoto Kozuki, was it? You underestimate the storm of my loyalty!"

Another bolt of lightning flew out, but it too was blocked with little difficulty. S.E.I.T.E.N. loomed ominously over him, and quickly moved forward before he could strike again.

"Much as you underestimate the depths of hell that I have crawled out of to see this day," Naoto coldly said. "Ku... It was one of your faction's Knightmares that got me killed in the end, you know."

Out of the corner of her eye Kallen caught sight of four Knightmares attempting to move in on S.E.I.T.E.N. from the rear. The Four Holy Swords! Trying to attack while he was distracted?

"Wait, don't!" she protested. "Tohdoh, I'm sure you've got this all wrong!"

"Stand aside, Kozuki!" Urabe requested. She didn't budge. Not one inch. Even for these legends of the Japanese resistance. Not when it was her brother on the line!

"That thing is not your brother! Please try to accept that!" Chiba demanded. But that was not something she could do so easily. Her brother... Her brother was the one member of her family that she had never thought of badly. Their father was always absent, and dropped their mother when it was no longer 'acceptable'. For a long time she thought her mother was weak, clinging desperately to the man she loved while enduring ritualistic humiliation. But her brother?

Her big brother was brave, intelligent, charming and so much more. He made friends so easily it seemed effortless. He could not abide cruelty, displayed a keen sense of honour in all his activities and worked tirelessly to ensure the rights and freedoms of others when it would have been so, so easy to change his name and hide among the Britannian population. Pretending to be one of them and living the easy life within the system. It would have been so easy for anyone to do. Easy for anyone that wasn't as caring and compassionate as Naoto Kozuki. Her role model. Her inspiration. Her guiding light.

'Don't make me fight him.'

A sudden tremendous 'clang' rang out through the air. For a moment Kallen thought it in her own mind, an internal projection of her own emotional state. But no, it was a very real noise. The sound of pieces of debris sticking onto S.E.I.T.E.N.'s leg!

"What's this?" Naoto asked just before another piece of what used to be a Gun Ru's manipulator arm latched onto S.E.I.T.E.N.'s front. "Magnetised metal?"

"Leftovers from Gui Mo's rampage!" Jeremiah explained. "Kill me if you must, but your rampage stops one way or the other! Tohdoh of Miracles! Bring this monster to an end before he consumes us all!"

Ah! He was slowing down S.E.I.T.E.N. by hitting it with magnetised metal! That Britannian bastard was slowing her brother down so that he'd be a sitting duck with all these hostile enemies around. Some of them should even be on the same side!

"Don't you dare!" Kallen warned, drawing the Guren's fork knife and waving it around at them. "You're not going to work with that Pureblood to kill my brother!"

"Kallen, see reason!" Urabe protested. "This fight is going to happen whatever you say!"

"Then you'll have to fight me too," Kallen warned. This was a gamble. Naoto would be bad enough, but fighting both of them at once? It was a play for time, long enough for her to talk them and her brother down.

"The love of one's family is a powerful motivator..." Senba mused. "Kallen, I can see that we need to work a little harder to make you understand the truth. Tohdoh, we should hold back for now."

There was a tense moment, which only ended when Tohdoh sheathed his brake sword. "Agreed," the man of miracles stated. "Kallen, please watch your brother carefully. Do not be taken in by the memory of the man he used to be."

"Don't talk like this is some kind of foregone conclusion!" Kallen yelled. "My brother... You think he's some kind of monster come back from the dead? Because of something he said in the heat of the moment? You'll condemn a good and decent person because he said the wrong thing? In what reality do you think I would accept something like that?"

"A nice trick, Lord Gottwald! But that is all it is. A mere trick with a meager Stand." S.E.I.T.E.N. pulled out a longer version of the Guren's fork knife. It began to glow with the same intense heat of an MVS blade. To the shock of everyone, especially Kallen, S.E.I.T.E.N. then turned this blade upon itself - plunging it into the chunk of metal magnetised to its chest without a moment's hesitation!

"You've given up so easily?" Jeremiah wondered.

"In a sense," Naoto smoothly answered. "I've given up this precious gift of magnetised metal, and would like to return it with extra credit!"

The blade was pulled out, and with it the chunk of metal came away. It slid off as though someone had stuck a red hot needle through an ice cube and attempted to hold it aloft. They crashed to the ground, forcing Jeremiah to hop quickly away, but he had little time to remain still as S.E.I.T.E.N. repeated the gesture to every bit of metal that Jeremiah had used magnetism to send into him.

The gesture reminded Kallen of a nature documentary where the team would cross through a river, and then they would have to remove leeches by burning them off with a cigarette. Ah! Of course! Now she remembered from physics class! Extreme heat can have a disruptive effect on magnetism! So, if he was extremely careful with how hard he stabbed with the knife, he could use its intense heat to burn off the magnetism, and let the debris do the rest!

In other words, Naoto had found a way to counteract Jeremiah's attempt to slow him down while simultaneously attacking him. Making those very same broken pieces of metal rain down upon Jeremiah as though he were little more than a pile of trash. Belittling the man in two different ways at the same time when he could have so easily eliminated him a dozen other ways!

'Don't make me fight him.'

"Woo, Naoto! You still got it, buddy!"

That was Tamaki! He was fast approaching S.E.I.T.E.N. in a Knightmare, with its arms spread wide open and the letters of his stupid Stand bouncing excitedly on top of its shoulders. S.E.I.T.E.N. turned towards him, but a little before coming in close Tamaki whirled around to turn his back so he could make a rude gesture to the ground where Gottwald was lying under a hunk of metal.

"Yeah! He had that coming and then some!" Tamaki yelled "You Purebloods were the worst of the lot of you! It's a joke you called yourselves pure when you were rotten to the core!"

Kallen's breath hitched a bit when S.E.I.T.E.N. put its normal hand on the shoulder of Tamaki's Knightmare. It was nothing to be worried about though, that was a friendly gesture. Not an attack. Which, of course it was! Naoto wouldn't attack Tamaki except in self defense.

"Shinichiro Tamaki, you sly dog! It's good to hear your voice again. I didn't recognise you at first, since you weren't complaining about my leadership decisions. How have you been?"

"Heh! Oh, you know. Same old same old! Oh yes, oh yes! I remember now. Went and got myself a Stand! It's useful, but also kind of noisy sometimes and gets on my nerves."

"Well, I hear that Stands take after their masters. Maybe if you reflected on your own behaviour a little more your Stand would act up less? Remember Tamaki, it's easy to point the finger and blame others, much harder to take responsibility for your own flaws."

Oh, what a relief. If anything this was an improvement over their old relationship. Tamaki did used to be a lot more argumentative with Naoto, preferring far more aggressive action against Britannia. Deep down even that hot head must have missed him and this was the proof. It was also proof that what she was saying was correct; Naoto hadn't turned bad just because he'd been risen from the dead in defiance of all natural law. He was still the same charming, likable person that he'd always been! He burned up in sunlight now, but they could work around that. No problem!

"Hey, how about this?" Tamaki asked. "Me and Kallen, we'll put in a good word for you. We'll get Ohgi and Tohdoh to back off a bit, let you tell your side of things. Then we can get down to fighting the real enemy, those lousy Brits. How does that sound?"

"Tamaki, Tamaki! That had been my intention from the start. First, I would demonstrate S.E.I.T.E.N.'s strength against the Britannian's finest. Then, I would surrender myself to the Black Knights so that I could petition to join."

"You see?" Kallen said, full of relief. "You jumped the gun and almost made a terrible mistake."

"After that I would explain the things that I had learned, what the Empire was truly up to!" Naoto continued, with S.E.I.T.E.N. patting Tamaki's Knightmare on the shoulder. "And in the process of doing so, I would lead you towards the only possible strategy we could take."

S.E.I.T.E.N.'s left leg lifted up so quickly that it was a blur. It struck Tamaki's Knightmare right in the side, causing its upper half to crumple over from the sheer force. Folding over a dotted line that had been quickly drawn around its waist by Satisfaction.

"Unfortunately, thanks to Tohdoh of Miracles, that door is now closed."

The next attack came from the front even as Tamaki attempted to right his Knightmare. This time, a right jab to the chest that caused his Knightmare to fold in two, vertically this time.

"The Black Knights will be far too wary of my motivations. They'll see through my attempts to guide them down the only path that will save the human race."

'Don't make me fight you.'

"Some stories say that the risen dead are stolen from God's gentle embrace. How right they are. It was my intention to use that fact to save the greater humanity, by making a small select few reject their own humanity."

'Don't make me fight you.'

"Kyaaaaaaaa!" Satisfaction screamed, rushing towards S.E.I.T.E.N. in an attempt to cover its surface with dotted lines - but the Knightmare simply blurred out of the way and elbowed the top of Tamaki's Knightmare, sending it down to the ground. It bounced exactly one time before S.E.I.T.E.N. was there too, planting its foot atop the Knightmare's chest.

"Naoto! What the hell is this?!"

"Ah, there we go!" Naoto said. With a flick of its wrist, S.E.I.T.E.N. had pulled out its elongated knife once again. "That's the complaining I'm used to hearing. Don't worry one bit, Tamaki. First I'm going to kill you. Then she will explain everything, and later on I'll bring you back to life so we can make it all better."

'Don't make me fight you!'

While she was distracted the Four Holy Swords flew right by her, Tohdoh leading the charge. His Stand Beast of Burden barrelling on ahead of him, making to tackle S.E.I.T.E.N. away from Tamaki before he could do anything. The Stand never met its mark. S.E.I.T.E.N. had already flown off and arrived behind Tohdoh.

"You see, this is exactly what I'm talking about," Naoto said. He added a condescending 'tsk, tsk' sound. "Any attempt I make to explain is sure to be –"

Tohdoh whirled around with his brake sword drawn, swinging it towards S.E.I.T.E.N. with a tremendous force. Simultaneously, the other three struck with their own blades from seemingly every angle. All four were blocked at once. By the radiant wave surger, by the elongated knife, or by the energy wings themselves. Naoto had already prepared to defend himself from all four of them at once.

"- interrupted."

The Four Holy Swords didn't stay still when their attacks failed. All four immediately pushed away in directions that looked random, but absolutely were not.

"How exciting! I get to cross swords with legends of the Japanese resistance!" Naoto said. S.E.I.T.E.N. lunged forward with its elongated knife, forcing Tohdoh to parry with his own specialised blade. "Please don't misunderstand, but I have to kill you now."

'Don't make me fight you.'

Chiba rushed in from above, firing a slash harken while screaming: "How are we supposed to misunderstand something like that?!"

The booster within the brake sword came to life, Tohdoh using it to quickly ascend away from S.E.I.T.E.N.. In the process rising above Chiba's slash harken - and the ofuda his Stand had placed upon it.

"Not much mystery behind it," Urabe quipped, firing his own ofuda laden harken.

"This is called 'survival instinct'," Senba noted while also firing his own. "Perhaps as a zombie you have forgotten what that means."

S.E.I.T.E.N. blurred away from their attacks, and was back up in the air hovering slightly above Tohdoh. Kallen knew that was where he was before she even looked. Naoto, please explain this! It was a mistake. You were joking with Tamaki before about killing him, weren't you? The two of you were bantering before like old friends, why would you want to kill him?

"I expected more, Tohdoh!" Naoto tsked. Tohdoh thrust his brake sword at him, even using the booster to change the direction of his attack mid-thrust. It didn't matter. It met with the elongated knife - and shattered like glass from the sheer strength of the parry. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice your attempt to slow me down with your Stand ability?"

Indeed, S.E.I.T.E.N.'s back was covered in the weight altering ofuda. Tohdoh backed away a little, holding the broken brake sword aloft as if in total disbelief.

"In my warrior's heart I had hoped you wouldn't," Tohdoh admitted. Then, he fired the harken built into the brake sword - straight downwards, revealing that it had ofuda on it as well. "But in my warrior's mind I knew that you would."

Tohdoh plummeted downwards as though being hauled down by an anchor, and he was quickly followed by S.E.I.T.E.N.. But this was no intentional pursuit! Both Knightmares were dropping like rocks.

"Kaah?!" Naoto screeched. "Ah! You attached both kinds of ofuda! That's right, isn't it?" As Naoto realised this, the other three Knightmares dashed upwards with greater than usual speed, having been made lighter by Beast of Burden. All three on an intercept course for the falling S.E.I.T.E.N.. "Just now, you deactivated the kind that makes me heavier when you are higher, but kept the kind that makes me heavier when you are lower! Yes... yes! This is what I wanted to see! Tohdoh of Miracles! The inspiration of Japan!"

"I'd rather not hear adulations from a monster!" Tohdoh answered.

"Monster?" Naoto replied. "Oh, no. I am the saviour of the human race. For I fight for the sake of tomorrow!"

He stuck out the radiant wave arm and fired a beam directly into the ground. Then, just before the Four Holy Swords reached him, a dust cloud picked up when the ground beneath exploded. The three Knightmares quickly backed off, keeping their distance. And they were wise to do so. As the dust settled a moment later, the ominous figure of the golden Knightmare became gradually more obvious.

"He used the dust cloud to blast off the ofuda!" Senba realised. "Open fire, hold nothing back!"

Too late. The radiant wave arm was already being fired out. It stopped a little distance away from them, and let loose a wide range attack that encompassed all three of them in a single hit. Ah! Kallen hadn't had the chance to use this herself yet, but Rakshata had mentioned it!

"I can't move!" Chiba complained. "That blast scrambled my Knightmare's controls!"

"He can do that?" Tohdoh wondered aloud, deactivating the ofuda on his harken. S.E.I.T.E.N. appeared behind him and repeated the procedure to him, leaving him stuck as well.

"In your warrior's heart, you hoped that I could not," Naoto said. "But in your warrior's head, you should have known better."

"Naoto!" Kallen called. What was she doing? It wasn't like her to get so paralysed with indecision! "Hold on, stop fighting! It's me, Kallen!"

"Kallen! Yes, of course I knew it was you. My sweet little sister, piloting her own personal Knightmare. Now that these distractions are out of the way, we can finally catch up. So? Tell me about your friends on the council?"

Ah! She'd forgotten that he liked to tease her sometimes. It's funny the way that memory plays tricks. Regardless, Kallen flew her Guren up towards him, her heart racing a mile a minute. 'Don't make me fight you,' she prayed.

"Naoto, you were joking before, right?" Kallen asked. "Killing us all, reviving us as zombies. That's not the sort of thing my brother would ever do. My big brother, he was kind. Not cruel. He fought for freedom, not power. Tohdoh's reading into something that isn't there, because - because some of friends were revived as zombies and - And he was so shocked that he's reading too much into what you're saying. Right?"

It was reaching, but it was all she had. She refused to believe it. She outright refused to believe that her big brother could possibly be so cold and wicked that he would plan to pick up where Genbu had left off. Turn Japan into an undead nation. Strip away the very freedoms worth fighting for in the sake of freedom! What kind of lousy paradox was that?

"Kallen, Kallen, Kallen," Naoto sighed. "You don't need to worry. Your big brother hasn't turned into an evil undead overlord, hell bent on ruling the world."

Yes, thank goodness. Of course he hadn't.

"All I want to do is to save the world from the four terrible fates our mother saw in its future."

What? Their - their mother?

"When she died, she sought me out in the afterlife," Naoto explained. "She told me everything, Kallen. She told me about Stands. She told me about Geass. And she told me about God."

S.E.I.T.E.N. pulsed with power. As though taking the hint, several flight enabled Burai that had been attempting an approach quickly backed away.

"God is... the collective unconsciousness of the entire human race. An amalgamation of the living and the dead that connects everyone in a way that most people would never even notice," Naoto said, with a great deal of patience as though trying to explain to a child why water is wet. "Two of those awful fates revolve around God."

He moved so fast Kallen could only barely follow him, and even with her fast reaction time she couldn't quite turn around fast enough before he was behind her.

"In the first instance, another picking up the plan that Kars had begun: To replace God with a single mind. One will. One superego imposed upon all of humanity, all at once."

He moved again, this time above her. How was it so fast?

"In the second, God shall be erased. The boundaries between all humans, living and dead... Will be completely eradicated. Either of these outcomes are completely unacceptable."

Once again, he blurred and was on the ground beneath her.

"That's why we must take such drastic steps, Kallen. Only the undead will be truly immune to either of these fates. They will be the most capable of resisting if the worst comes to worst. You see? To save the whole of humanity, a select few must reject their own!"

He moved back in front of her with his back turned. For a moment there Kallen had forgotten how to breath.

"As for the other two... They will be much simpler to stop before they begin. Please, help me stop them, Kallen. What I'm doing is not cruelty, but a kindness for the sake of this world's future. You've been listening, haven't you? You see what's at stake, right little sister?"

Kallen's fist clenched around her controls reflexively. "Naoto, I've listened very carefully to everything you have to say." She swallowed, closed her eyes. Then a moment later forced herself to open them wide. "I just have one question."

As quickly as she could, Kallen lunged forward with her Guren's radiant wave arm. It missed its mark, but that much she could partially credit to the tears in her eyes. Tears that left bitter trails down her face, more bitter than any ripe lemon.

"Why are you making me fight you?" she demanded.

"Even you don't understand?" Naoto sighed. "Oh, how sad. Mother didn't think you would. You're too hung up on that Prince, aren't you? Sending you to that school seemed like such a good idea at the time... I hoped you'd make friends and keep perspective about the people we were fighting. It seems a trifle too successful on that front."

"Shut up, imposter!" Kallen yelled. "I don't know what you are, but my brother would never use our mother to try to guilt me into committing an atrocity!"

Before she could round her own attack, Kallen pulled the Guren back. The Britannian's air carrier fired its own cannons right at S.E.I.T.E.N.'s back. Kallen heard the sound of her brother sighing a weary sigh before turning around to block it.

"I was wondering when they'd open fire," he mused. "They must have been waiting until they thought I was distracted... Oh, and Ikaruga's cannons are probably ready as well by now." S.E.I.T.E.N. lifted its claw into the air and produced an energy disk, hurling it towards the carrier, then whirling around to create another that was thrown right at Ikaruga. "You know me, Kallen. I'm always the type to be proactive in problem solving."

D-dammit! Kallen moved to block the disc, but suddenly S.E.I.T.E.N. was right there in front of her, wielding that damndable elongated knife. She had to block with her own, but even from the glancing blow she could tell the difference in sheer power. Dodging would be better than blocking here, no contest!

"Don't worry, it only hurts for a moment," Naoto assured her. Those disks... If they were made of radiant wave energy, they'd probably cause a chain reaction if they hit. Those aircraft carriers and everyone onboard would be killed! "Then you never feel anything. Ever again."

"Who'd want to feel nothing?" That voice... Suzaku? Kallen couldn't believe what she was seeing. Over there, in front of Camlan! It was Lancelot, with its blaze luminous raised! It must have blocked the disk.

"A human's best asset is his empathy for others!" Z-Zero? Yes, it was! In front of Ikaruga was that new Knightmare Shinkiro, covered with hexagonal energy fields! Both Knightmares immediately took to the air. "All Black Knights. Retreat from the battlefield. Take any wounded you can, and treat all equally."

That was over their own internal comms. It seemed as though the Britannians had received similar instructions, as they were also withdrawing. The thing pretending to be her brother laughed in seeming appreciation of some cosmic joke that only he understood. Though Kallen need not worry too much about that, for she didn't have to wait long before it was explained.

"How terribly amusing," the zombie said between chuckles. "To the north, Shinkiro. To the south, the Guren. To the west, Lancelot. Ah, not only is this a reunion of Kyushu, but also of the four divine beasts. Wouldn't you agree Lelouch?"

S.E.I.T.E.N. whirled around and fired its slash harkens directly to the east, where Gawain shimmered into existence within the mountain's shadow. Even Kallen hadn't noticed it was there!

"Hello your highness," the zombie said. "I've heard so much about you."

"You read my mind," Lelouch coldly answered. "Although hearsay never quite compares to meeting someone in the flesh."

"Ah, careful now!" the thing masquerading as Naoto laughed. Her brother never laughed that way. It wasn't his nature! "Hearing your damnable charming voice talking about flesh makes me hungry!"

This is it, Kallen. The fight of your life. Just remember. That thing isn't Naoto. It's something else. Something vile and cruel and merciless that has his body, his face, his voice and his memories. Whatever happens, whatever he says, don't let it under your skin.

"Then we'll begin..." said the faker.

====Milly====

Alone in the lift, Milly could let the mask slip. For the others, she had to be strong. She had to put on the brave face, give them the encouragement and the smile so they could forget their worries and get on with it. Most days that was easy. On days like this...

"Nina..." she sighed. "When did you grow up so much?"

Not just her either. It felt like the rest of the council had as well. Lelouch, Suzaku, Kallen, Shirley... Even Rivalz to an extent. Now she was the one playing catch up to their antics. It felt nice. Like a parent proud of their child the first time they won a game against them.

She straightened herself up and smiled, this time a genuine one. There was no way Nina would let anything happen to her! No way! If she stayed up there then all she'd do is worry Nina about keeping her safe. The best thing for her to do was run away and get out of danger.

That is something which must be understood about this young woman: For someone like Milly Ashford who put the wellbeing of those under her over her own, leaving Nina to do this by herself and running away was the most courageous act she could possibly do!

The lift landed. The door opened. But before Milly could step out into the corridor she heard a sound. A sob. A cry. No, more like the sob. The cry. The sound of ultimate despair. And the one who had made that sound was - She rushed out of the lift into the corridor, heedless of whatever danger she might find. Milly idly noticed Sayoko leaning on a wall, hand over her mouth as though she were trying to hold a profound emotion in. But Milly paid her little mind for now, as the source of that sound of despair was a cute girl sitting in a wheelchair, surrounded by unconscious guards.

"Nunnally?" Milly asked, immediately dashing past the fallen guards and wrapping her arms around the young Princess. "It's alright, I'm here. I'm sure they're all fine!"

"It's so cruel!" The poor thing was trembling! She was clutching onto her arms so tightly that her fingernails had scratched through her clothes. Tears were flowing down her cheeks like a raging river. Milly couldn't even see her beautiful eyes clearly because they were completely misted over. "Why? Why would they do this?! It - It's a lie! It's got to be a lie! None of it is true! Tell me that this isn't true!"

"What's not true?" Milly asked, but the Princess was inconsolable. She collapsed into Milly's shoulders and began to cry and cry and cry. "Nunnally, it's okay. Let it out. Whatever it is, we'll get through this."

"I very much doubt that," said a familiar voice. Milly's breath hitched. She hadn't even noticed, but lurking over there in the corner were two more of those robe wearing intruders... except that one of them had their mask off. Milly stared at them. She stared really hard. She tried to speak. The words wouldn't form. "She has only now learned the true nature of this world."

"But - but you're –" Milly sputtered, for once in her life unable to express herself the way she wanted. "This is insane. I thought the Chinese Federation sent you, but you're –"

"Here to share the truth," the unmasked intruder interrupted. "So Miss Ashford? How about it? Would you like to see the truth as well, or would you rather live in a world of comfortable lies?"

This was one of those rare occasions in her life where Milly Ashford was utterly without words. She stared at the unmasked woman with total confusion, a touch of outrage but mostly bafflement. All the while Nunnally was holding onto her, crying helplessly, endlessly into her shoulder. The wailing sound she was making seemed like it was echoing off the walls. Milly so desperately wanted to calm her down, tell her it would be alright. But how could she when she didn't understand anything to start with!

"Wha- what's going on?" she asked.

"It would be better if he told you personally."

"If who told me?" Milly demanded, pulling Nunnally into a tighter embrace and rubbing her shoulders. Anything to stop that crying, it was like nails on the chalkboard of her soul. Hearing someone so kind and caring as Nunnally sobbing and wailing like this made it seem like there was something wrong with reality itself. "I'd like to know that much at least."

They were silent for a moment as though considering how to explain. It seemed difficult for her, but eventually she did find a way to put it. A way that did next to nothing to answer, but spoken in a way that sent goosebumps dancing down Milly's spine.

"The enemy of the world."

[To Be Continued |\|]