Don't bother this is a dead fic

by unknown-otaku709

This is a dead fic that I wish to read (listen to from the fanfiction app) while i'm at work. This is not my work and the author is someone who has amazing stories he's created. I just really love this story which is why im reposting it. Not taking or wanting any form of credit for this story

2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything belonging to Code: Geass or Naruto. I have adopted this story from Kamen Rider Fourze after asking permission because I thought it was too interesting to be left unfinished so I will try continuing this story my way. I also acknowledge that most of work in the beginning of this story belongs to Fourze. The first four chapters will be generally the same as the original but I've added some of my own work to accommodate the recent Naruto chapters and to show my own ideas.

Hope you all enjoy reading it and finding out if it is as good as what was Kamen Rider Fourze intended.

"General Bartley, we have loaded the subject onto the truck. Will you be personally delivering her to His Majesty?"

"No," the large and balding Britannian general denied. "We have lower, less important people to do that. In fact let's bring them in now. The faster we can get her delivered, the better."

"But sir!" the scientist protested. "What will we tell the drivers they're delivering?"

Bartley rubbed a hand across his chin as he considered his answer. He looked over at the now sealed capsule and snapped his fingers. "We'll call it a chemical weapon, poison gas."

"Wouldn't that negatively affect His Majesty's reputation though, having poison gas delivered to him?"

"Don't be stupid! He's not going to be seen receiving it! We're just sending it to the Viceroy's Palace where some no-name soldier will discretely take it inside. No one needs to know that His Majesty was involved in any way. Send in the drivers!" Bartley called out to the guards.

The door to the garage opened up and two people wearing large blue coats and caps walked in. The one on the right was significantly shorter than her partner, and a hint of crimson red hair could be seen peeking out from underneath her cap.

The man on the left was taller than Bartley by a full head, and long black hair could be seen reaching halfway down his back. "We're here to deliver the… ah we weren't briefed on what the package was, sir."

Bartley could have sworn he heard a hint of bitter sarcasm on that sir, but passed it off as his imagination from the stress of handling this project. "It's a specially designed chemical weapon. A new type of poison gas, to be more specific, that the viceroy is considering testing on one of the slums those Elevens live in."

The woman clenched her fist tightly and made to move forward, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder from her partner. "She's just eager to get going. We don't get paid until we complete our delivery after all."

Bartley nodded in understanding.

People who did their jobs solely for money were easier to keep in line. "I'll ensure you receive a bonus upon completion."

"Ah, thank you for your… kindness sir. But we really must be going." The two drivers hopped into the truck, as the cargo door was closed around the capsule.

The woman glanced at the man behind the wheel and received a nod of confirmation. The 'extra equipment' had been successfully snuck inside as well. As soon as the garage doors opened, the truck bolted out relatively quickly, bringing out a chuckle from Bartley.

"They must really need that money it seems."

The door to garage banged open by a panting guard. Bartley was just about to berate the man for this, as the common guards weren't meant to be in areas that could lead to them discovering about Project R, but was stopped short by the man's statement.

"Sir, we found the two truck drivers dead outside with their uniforms missing."

"What? That means those two were imposters and they stole… get someone in the air and follow them. I'm going to inform His Majesty about this!" Bartley demanded angrily.

" This is a video of yesterday's terrorist bombing in Osaka. Eight Britannians and fifty-one others were killed in this horrible incident ."

The news being played was completely ignored by all in the room, as the main point of interest was the chess match being played by a Britannian noble against an elderly man. Before the man could make his move, a beeping from the chess timer indicated that his time was up.

"Your time is up," said the man overseeing the match. "From here on, I'd like it to be one move every twenty seconds."

"Very well," the noble agreed, as he was casually filing down his nails with a solid gold nail file.

The elderly man on the other hand, looked shocked and nervous at the new imposed time limit on his game. He knew he couldn't win this match, but his substitute wasn't here yet. And if he didn't move, the game would be lost by default. He slowly moved his hand up towards one of his pieces when the door to the room pushed open, letting in a ray of bright light and two people.

"Hm? Has your substitute arrived?" The noble asked, amused.

"I'm saved. Are things okay at school?" The man asked as he stood up from his seat to greet the two people, now revealed as students.

"What's this? Students?" The nobleman asked, arrogance shining through on his face.

The taller boy stepped into the light around the chessboard, revealing a lean elegant face that could belong to the son of any Britannian with a dignified title. The boy had smooth black hair that hung down to his neck, with a few locks framing his face. They boy's eyes were a deep purple, and shone with a vast intellect that few could match. Though the boy was tall, he was also very thin, with almost no muscle on him.

"Hmph! A nobleman, huh?" he asked with scorn and derision in his voice.

The nobleman slammed down the tip of his file onto the table in irritation, as he regarded this student in a new light, as a possible challenge. "I envy the young. They have so much time on their hands. So much time for regrets… your name?"

"Lelouch Lamperouge."

"Whoa! Whoa! You can't win this no matter what you do, right?" The other boy asked as he inspected the board position.

"Rivalz, in how many minutes should we leave here in order to make our next class?" Lelouch asked the boy with blue hair still wearing his motorcycle helmet and goggles.

"Um, if we really haul ass, about twenty minutes." Rivalz answered after thinking about the shortest possible route back to Ashford Academy.

"In that case, I'll ask you to drive safely on the way back." Lelouch stated confidently. "I'll need nine minutes. Owner, about yesterday's matter…"

"Understood. We'll discuss it," the elderly man said.

"Nine minutes? You have twenty seconds per move." The nobleman said doubtfully.

Lelouch calmly picked up the king and stared the nobleman straight into the eyes. "More than enough."

This brought a look of confusion on his opponent's face. "Hm? You're starting with the king?"

Such a ridiculous and unheard of action caused the nobleman to laugh uproariously, as Lelouch simply smiled and moved the black king into position.

"Damn it! After we finally steal this thing! It's all because Tamaki couldn't stick to Naoto's plan and left the bodies right in front of the facility!" The truck driver said, as he changed routes once more to try and avoid those damned gunships.

"I love playing nobles! Their pride ensures they pay what they owe you. Besides that, eight minutes, thirty-two seconds is a new record!" Rivalz exclaimed cheerfully as they walked out of the building with a wad of bills being stuffed into his wallet.

"He didn't have much time either," Lelouch stated. "Besides, nobility make such tepid opponents. Their privileged lives just make them parasites."

"So why not try one of the Elevens?" Rivalz asked his friend curiously. "They're not like us Britannians."

He was stopped however, when he heard people around him muttering about some incident. As he turned around, he saw a large screen showing the results of the terrorist bombing until it was replaced with a picture of the Britannian flag.

" Forgive the delay. It's now time for an address by His Royal Highness Prince Clovis, third prince of the Britannian Empire ." A female announcer declared.

The image of the flag faded away to be replaced by one of the emperor's children, and the viceroy of Area 11, Clovis La Britannia. " To my imperial subjects !"

Lelouch narrowed his eyes in hatred and disgust.

" And of course to the many Elevens who cooperate with us !"

The woman in the stolen Britannian truck narrowed her eyes at the racist term forced upon her people. "We're not Elevens, we're Japanese!"

" Do you not see? Right now my heart is torn in half! Into a heart filled with sadness and a heart filled with rage! However, as ruler of Area 11, I will not allow terrorism of any kind! The reason being that the battle we fight is a righteous one! A righteous battle to protect the happiness of all! Now then, everyone! Won't you join me in grieving for the eight who died in the line of duty for justice? "

" And now a moment of silence ."

"Oh? Not gonna join in?" Rivalz asked Lelouch who was currently paying the meter that kept Rivalz's biked locked in their parking space.

"Will you?" Lelouch countered.

Rivalz chuckled slightly and got onto his bike. "I'd be embarrassed."

"Exactly," Lelouch agreed. "Besides, our crying for them won't bring the dead back to life. In the end, it's all just self-satisfaction. No matter how hard you may try, there's no way you can ever change the world."

Clovis finally allowed himself to relax upon receiving confirmation that the cameras had shut off.

"You were wonderful, Your Highness! One would never guess you were just enjoying yourself at a party!" A beautiful woman praised.

"The viceroy is the face of Area 11." Clovis responded as two men came to his sides and started removing the cloak he wore for official purposes. "You need to be able to switch roles quickly."

"My, such self-confidence you have!" Another woman said flirtatiously.

"I'm prepared," he corrected her. "Self-confidence? I'm just trying to please the media people."

He glanced over to the left wall where several prominent news reporters were standing to accentuate his point.

"Oh no, no! We're pleased to be of any assistance in your reign, Prince Clovis!" The head journalist denied.

Leaning against the wall by the exit, was a tall man with long blond hair tied back in a ponytail, save the portion hanging down over the left side of his face.

"A sham of a reign." He muttered. Just then, a rather fat soldier came rushing in through the door, heading towards the viceroy with a sense of urgency. "A soldier?" he muttered.

"How boorish of you," Clovis chastised the general running up to him in the middle of the party. Did this man not understand that events like this were critical to gain supporters?

"I beg your pardon Your Highness, but…"

"Another special? I hope the subject matter will be better." The blond man said as he started to exit until he heard the viceroy berate the soldier, and quite angrily too.

Perhaps this might be something quite interesting after all.

"Th-The police have been told it's just medical equipment." General Bartley explained nervously. "If we scramble our entire army, there'll be records…"

"Send out my personal forces! Knightmares as well!" Clovis ordered.

"That first move you made… why'd you start with the king?" Rivalz finally asked.

That one move had been stuck in his mind ever since they left. He'd never seen anyone do it before, and Lelouch had actually lost his rook in the process. Still, to pull out victory with the king, two knights and a pawn was amazing.

"If the king doesn't lead, how can he expect his subordinates to follow?" Lelouch asked in response.

"About that…" Rivalz trailed off.

"What?" Lelouch asked.

"Do you want to run a corporation or something?" Rivalz asked bluntly.

"No way. Weird dreams like that will ruin your life…" Lelouch was interrupted by a loud honking behind him, and turned around to see a large truck trying to get past them.

"Whoa! What the hell?" Rivalz exclaimed, as he started speeding up to avoid getting rammed by that monster of a vehicle.

"People just driving along, not a care in the world!" The man inside the truck cursed as he turned the wheel to the left sharply.

"Stop! Not that way!" The girl beside him yelled, but it was too late as the truck rammed through a road block and crashed into a construction zone, kicking up dirt everywhere.

Rivalz, thankful to have a few moments to catch his breath, stopped the motorcycle and glanced over to the left, trying to spot the truck through the thick cloud. "Um… was that our fault?"

"I doubt it…" Lelouch answered back.

He hopped out of the sidecar and glanced over the railing at the crashed truck, expecting to see someone injured coming out of it. What he saw instead were bright blue wisps of some kind of energy leaking out of the hole in the truck's trailer.

"Hey, Lelouch! It looks like our energy line's been cut." Rivalz called out to his friend.

"Right… say, what's that?" Lelouch asked more to himself than to Rivalz. He was distracted from the truck by the loud mutterings of Britannians rushing over to stare at it like some sort of free show.

"What, was there some kind of accident?"

"Probably a drunk driver."

"Idiot!"

"Hey, maybe someone should go help them.

Lelouch narrowed his eyes as he stared at these pathetic people. ' All these fools !'

Not one of them deserved the life they had. After having lived in Area 11 for so long, constantly looking down on the Elevens, no the Japanese he corrected himself, he highly doubted even one of them remembered how to help someone else out with no thought of good publicity or reward. He tossed his helmet into the sidecar and started running down to the truck, hoping to find someone still alive inside it. He'd also want to find out what that blue energy leaking out was.

"Look! The student rescue team has arrived!"

"Could someone call the police or something" A woman taking pictures with her cell phone asked the crowd.

"Hey! Are you alright?" Lelouch called out to the people inside the truck.

Though a large metal beam had fallen and blocked his path to the doors, he could see two people inside the truck through the windows. Acknowledging that trying to move the beam was futile, he turned around and started climbing up the ladder on the trailer instead.

"Nagata? Nagata!" The woman called out to her unconscious partner just as the airbags finally deflated. The man known as Nagata merely groaned in pain as a reply.

"Hey! Can you hear me in there?" Lelouch called out to the people driving the truck from on top of the trailer.

He looked down through the opening in the trailer and saw a large capsule inside with that same blue energy shining through the cracks on top of it. Likely, it was meant to be opened from the top into four different pieces as he counted the separate sections out. Suddenly the truck sped out in reverse, sending him falling into the truck, where he managed to keep himself upright by bracing against the capsule.

The truck rushed past the rest of the construction zone and back onto the highway, where it was quickly spotted and pursued by Britannian VTOL Gunships. "Warning! Surrender now and you still have a chance to defend yourself in court! Surrender at once!"

Despite saying so, the lead gunship lowered its ventral-mounted machine gun and fired rounds at the truck, forcing it to swerve erratically.

"The next rounds will hit you! Surrender at once!"

"They've called out the army! Now what?" Nagata asked his partner desperately.

"That's why I'm here, isn't it?" She asked, pulling off her cap and revealing a head of dark crimson red hair and deep blue eyes.

Lelouch had only managed to keep himself stable by standing atop a portion of the capsule itself and wrapping his arms around a large black tube jutting out from it.

"It's dangerous to get out. Sounds like there's trouble out there," Lelouch muttered quietly to himself. "Maybe I can use my cell phone…"

A sudden hissing sound caught his attention, and he hid himself further behind the capsule as a woman came walking out, shedding her blue jacket to reveal a brown sleeveless vest over a red turtleneck sweater also missing its sleeves, and a pair of matching brown shorts.

"Can you enter the subway via the Azabu route?" She asked someone, presumably the man still driving the truck.

"Kallen! Let's use it here!" A voice called out to her.

"That'd mean a slaughter!" She yelled back angrily, as she climbed up a small ladder into some kind of machine in front of the capsule.

"Yeah, you're right," the voice conceded.

Lelouch narrowed his eyes as he stared at that woman, before glancing to her coat and spotted a discarded, or more likely forgotten, handheld transceiver.

"The target's moving from the settlement area to the ghetto."

" Right! Corner them !"

"Understood!" The lead gunship lowered its main gun once more to fire upon the truck, but was suddenly impaled straight through by a weapon attached to a long cable.

"A slash Harken?" The next pilot exclaimed in surprise.

The door to the back of the truck opened up to reveal a dark red Glasgow model Knightmare, which was already retracting the slash Harken back into the right side of its chest.

"A Knightmare!"

The dark red Knightmare charged out from the back of the truck and onto the road, deploying its landspinners to keep moving.

"You guys know full well how powerful this thing is!" Kallen declared furiously as she skillfully manoeuvred her Glasgow across the highway, dodging machine gun fire from the gunship as she sent one of her slash harkens straight into the cockpit, destroying it completely.

"The rest of you, back off. I'll take this guy." A voice projected out through speakers. It came from within the Knightmare being airlifted over the highway by a Knightmare VTOL. "I don't know where you got that thing, but an old Glasgow will never be able to stop this Sutherland!"

The drop-ship quickly released the purple and red Knightmare, which fired off its own slash Harken to deflect the oncoming one from the Glasgow, as it activated its landspinners and started charging forward.

"Much less a damned Eleven who can't appreciate our Emperor's affection!" The Sutherland fired off a round from its assault rifle into the left shoulder of the red Glasgow before it.

"Kallen, we need to split up! We can't both get killed! Run for it!" Nagata called out to Kallen over the transceiver he held in a vice-like grip.

"But!"

Any further reply Nagata might have made was cut off as another Sutherland rose up from the side of the highway and landed directly in his path. It fired off a few warning shots, one of which pierced the windshield and right through his left shoulder, causing him to swerve a sharp left into the subway tunnels to avoid crashing into it completely.

Kallen tried to fire off her left slash Harken, but a repeated whirring sound informed her that was now impossible. "What's wrong? Damn it!"

"Second hand junk!" The Sutherland raised its stun Tonfa to smash into the Glasgow, until Kallen desperately ejected the entire left arm into the Sutherland, creating an explosion of smoke.

She used the distraction to escape into the subway tunnels and hopefully regroup with Ohgi and the others.

Jeremiah Gottwald smirked in amusement at the Glasgow's desperate ploy. "Oh ho! I like your spirit. However…"

Lelouch clicked his tongue in annoyance as the light radiating out from his cell phone showed him zero bars. 'I'm outside my cell phone's range. This darkness and the road surface… we must be speeding along the old subway lines. They're headed for a ghetto somewhere. Exiting will be dangerous. Still… okay I've got it. The conditions are clear. I may not like army protection much, but if I give them a terrorist communicator…'

Lelouch was snapped out of his thoughts as the truck jerked forward so suddenly that he was thrown around inside the trailer. "An accident? Unless it was Britannian forces…"

Try as he might, Nagata could not push the truck further, as the front wheels were now in the empty space separating the track. "N-No good… Please, Ohgi… find me!"

He weakly flipped a switch beneath the dashboard, opening up the side of the trailer.

A soldier hidden in the tunnel glanced over at the truck ahead of him as it opened up its compartment. When he zoomed in and spotted the large metal canister, he clicked into his com three times, the three bursts of static being the code for target located. That was until he spotted someone else examining the canister. Without hesitation, he ran in and delivered a powerful spinning kick, which the man before him only just managed to block with his forearms.

"A… A Britannian," Lelouch muttered as the soldier gripped the front of his uniform and pinned him to the ground.

"Enough with the killing!" The soldier said as he disengaged his gas mask, letting it hang down below his chin. "I can't believe you people would use poison gas!"

"I'm telling you!" Lelouch finally screamed out, as he kicked his right leg out at the soldier atop him, only for said soldier to leap back himself, landing at the opposite end of the trainer. "If there's any poison gas here, it was Britannia that made it, right? You don't want any more deaths? Then obliterate Britannia!"

"Lelouch?" The soldier asked as he removed his helmet, revealing a head of messy brown hair and emerald green eyes. "It's me, Suzaku."

Lelouch blinked in shock as the Japanese boy he had befriended as a child was now standing before him in military garb. "You became a Britannian soldier?"

"And you?" Suzaku countered. "Don't tell me you're… !"

"What are you saying?" Lelouch asked.

Suddenly the capsule between them started hissing, as the locks keeping it sealed were being disengaged. Before he could utter a word of surprise, Lelouch was tackled to the ground with a gas mask being pressed onto his face by Suzaku.

Just as he'd predicted earlier, the canister split open into four pieces, revealing it had not actually contained poison gas as everyone had believed. Inside was a large amount of green liquid and a girl with long green hair, wearing some sort of white suit that bound her arms and legs together. As her eyes made contact with Lelouch's they briefly flashed purple with some sort of design in them, but faded before he could get a definitive look.

"It's not poison gas?" Suzaku asked confusedly, staring at the girl that emerged from the canister.

Lelouch stood up and walked over to the girl, pulling her up and leaning her against his chest. "Answer me, Suzaku. Poison gas? This girl?"

"But that's what we were told in the briefing." Suzaku explained as he unzipped the portion of the suit that was keeping her legs held together.

Suddenly a spotlight flashed on behind them, causing them both to turn around.

"Damn monkey!"

There standing behind them was the entire royal guard.

"Even an honorary Britannian doesn't have the authority to do what you've done!" The commander berated.

"But I was told this was poison gas!" Suzaku protested as he ran over to them.

"You have no right to protest!"

'We're in trouble. This is definitely poison. A deadly poison that will endanger Suzaku's masters if it gets out.' Lelouch concluded as he watched the exchange between Suzaku and the commander.

"However, in reward for your great achievements, I'll be merciful." The commander said, pulling out a standard military pistol from within his jacket. "Private Kururugi, use this to execute the terrorist."

"He's not a terrorist! He's a civilian who got caught up in all this!" Suzaku protested.

"You little! That's an order! Didn't you swear loyalty to Britannia?"

"But… I can't. I won't do it. I won't shoot a civilian. Not him." Suzaku declared firmly, turning around to smile at Lelouch, his brother in all but blood.

"Then die." Suzaku turned his head, but couldn't stop the bullet fired into his side by the commander.

The last thing he heard as everything around him was fading into darkness was Lelouch calling out his name.

"You look like a Britannian student, but it's just not your day," The commander said unapologetically. "After you've retaken the girl, kill the student!"

"Yes, my lord!" The other soldiers replied.

Nagata, lying across the bench seat in the truck, losing himself to blood loss rapidly, scowled as he heard Britannians right outside. "God damned… Britannians…" He moved his right arm over to a small black box, which he pulled down to reveal a silver button. "Long live… Japan."

Nagata pushed the button, and his world went up in flames.

"They got away? You call yourselves the royal guard?" Bartley yelled into the com scornfully.

"Forgive me, my lord. The blast was mainly directed upwards, but the bedrock…"

"Do you understand why I only told you people about this?" Bartley demanded, his face developing a fiery red hue, as his fists clenched tightly on the digital map table.

"W-We'll continue the investigation," the commander responded dutifully before cutting off the link.

"The plan has moved to the next phase," Clovis said from his throne behind General Bartley and his other advisers.

"But, Your Highness!"

"If knowledge of this gets out, I'll be disinherited." Clovis said, cutting Bartley off. "Tell them back home we're carrying out a planned urban renewal. As Clovis, third prince of the empire, I order you! Destroy the Shinjuku ghetto!"

The G1 base launched all available Sutherlands into the ghetto, their pilots moving through the area quickly and decisively, eliminating every man, woman, and child they found. Soldiers were dropped in to deal with the Elevens hiding inside buildings that the Knightmares might not be able to accurately deal with, while gunships and tanks were used to herd people running away back into the line of fire.

"Supervisor Jeremiah, General Bartley wants you to take command of area 2…"

"He's got staff officers, right?" Jeremiah interrupted the man speaking to him over the comlink. "It's been ages since I've had this much fun on the front lines!"

He punctuated his statement whist a burst of fire from his Sutherland's machine gun into a group of Elevens hiding behind the rubble from a destroyed building.

Lelouch and the girl he had found ran down the subway tunnel as explosions outside shook the walls around them. Lelouch suddenly stopped and glared at girl before him angrily. "What the hell are you? This chaos is all your fault, isn't it? But besides that, Britannia has… they even killed Suzaku!"

"You are Britannian, yet you seem to hate them with a passion. Why is that?"

Lelouch looked up, startled that the formerly silent person beside him had finally spoken up. "They are a cancer on this world, slowly destroying it country by country. You see how they invade, conquer, and rewrite the country and its people to suit their needs! They kill indiscriminately, and breed racism as showing loyalty. Britannia needs to be destroyed, or true peace will never be obtainable!"

"And you believe you could do this? You believe you will be the one to end their reign and bring about an age of peace?" The girl pressed on urgently, as if desperate to hear his answer.

Lelouch didn't even need a second to contemplate that. "If I had the power to end Britannia, I would be the one to destroy them."

"And if you could be granted such a power, you would accept it under the terms of a contract?"

Lelouch would have normally said no right then and there. Things like contracts enforced restrictions and obligations upon a person they were bound to until freed from it. However, to be given the power to make a difference, to bring about change to the current world, was not something he'd pass up. "I would accept your contract."

"Excellent." This time, Lelouch was definitely not seeing things.

The girl's eyes flashed to purple and he now noticed it had several rings moving out from the pupil. An exact duplicate formed beside her, save for the fact that this one had the girl's normal yellow eyes.

"Boss, I wish to summon forth C.C. here, to Area 11. This boy… he's different. I see in him, what people saw in us. He would be worthy of receiving a Geass."

With her message received, the clone dispersed itself in a cloud of smoke, startling Lelouch.

'How did she do that? That second girl literally appeared out of nowhere, as if rising from the shadows. Then the message… it wasn't meant for that duplicate, but for someone else. Somehow this girl used her duplicate as a way to transmit the message across a great distance, considering she had to specifically mention Area 11. She said something about summoning… could she bring in another person like she did with that duplicate? The possibilities with such a power are limitless!'

"Come, we have to keep moving. This tunnel could collapse from damage thanks to those Knightmares, and we don't want to be here when or if it happens." Lelouch nodded wordlessly, silently contemplating the mysterious girl before him as they made their way out of the subway tunnel. They came upon a set of stairs leading up, and started crawling up them slowly to avoid being seen. "Okay… wait here."

Moving at a snail's pace to avoid making a sound, Lelouch moved up the stairs just enough to peek around the corner, where he spotted the royal guard waiting and gunning down any Japanese running inside here to hide.

"Well?" The commander asked as he entered after his soldiers.

"Only looks like Elevens here, sir," one of them answered respectfully.

"Hm." Try as he might, the commander couldn't make anything out in the darkness of the warehouse. "You're sure? The exit comes out here?"

"Yes, sir. It matches up with our map of the old city."

Lelouch was about to turn back around and try to find another exit until he heard the crying of a baby. His eyes widened in shock. Surely they wouldn't kill a baby. But the sound of gunfire a moment later answered that question for him. Just as it seemed the soldiers might be leaving, his phone rang out from his pocket. He snapped his hand down and instantly hung up on the caller but it was too late.

The soldiers rushed over and hauled both him and the girl out, throwing him against the wall even as they kept her back.

"An appropriate location for a terrorist to meet his end, isn't it?" The commander asked the boy mockingly.

"You people!" Lelouch uttered through gritted teeth.

"Still, you did well for a student. As expected of a Britannian! However, your future ends right here." The commander raised the same pistol he had killed Suzaku with and leveled it straight at the boy's heart.

"Like I'll let you!" The girl forced her way through the guards, her hands moving through several intricate motions, before she slammed the palm of her right hand on the ground.

" Kuchiyose no jutsu ( Summoning Jutsu )!"

Just as the gun was fired, a large cloud of smoke appeared between Lelouch and the soldiers, the bullet impacting against something in the smoke that made a loud clang sound. As the smoke finally started to dissipate, it revealed a massive black and green Knightmare standing in front of the soldiers, with the same purple and black ringed eyes the girl had displayed.

Lelouch took a step back as he stared up at this Knightmare. 'It's no Sutherland. It looks far too advanced, and if Britannia had something like this, they wouldn't hesitate to use it. That girl said Kuchiyose… summoning? She actually summoned this thing here? But the expression on her face implies she didn't expect this result either. That means she likely only intended to bring the pilot inside that Knightmare here.'

The massive Knightmare looked around until it spotted the soldiers below it. If Lelouch had to put a word to it, he would have said the Knightmare was looking almost amused at the sight of them, as it literally walked all over them. As soon as they were dead, the Knightmare shut down, and the back hatch opened up, releasing the pilot. It was a girl, another exact copy of the girl beside him.

She took the lift down and walked over to him, inspecting him as if looking for something specific.

"What's so special about you? Why was I told you are deserving of a Geass?" She asked in boredom.

Lelouch glanced at the person standing to his right, hoping the original would answer some questions, but where the girl once was, now stood a blond haired man wearing black orange clothing and a long red coat with flames trailing at the bottom.

The man remained silent, but his dark purple eyes bore into Lelouch's and he realized he'd have to convince this girl himself. "I want to crush Britannia."

"Lots of people want to do that," she said dismissively. "Why you specifically?"

Lelouch clenched his hands tightly as he thought of his sister, that night his mother had died, and being sent here as political prisoners by his father. "Because I know better than anyone else the type of filth Britannia creates. The people who are led to believe they are superior by right of birth. They kill and oppress endlessly, unsatisfied until there is no opposition to their rule. They keep the weak down and only give power to those who would abuse it. The world is dying, and the cause is Britannia! I can do it. I can bring about Britannia's destruction! I just need the power to help me."

C.C. made a show of thinking about it, even though she had already decided.

"Alright, I've decided. I'll grant you the power of Geass and see what you make of it. In exchange, you will form a contract with me, and fulfill a wish of mine to be determined at a later date. At the very least, it will be amusing for me to watch." She reached up with her right hand and pressed two fingers against Lelouch's forehead, a glowing red Geass symbol appearing briefly before it faded away.

The effect was instantaneous, as Lelouch hissed in pain and grabbed his left eye. It felt as if something was searing itself onto his pupil and his screams echoed in the empty warehouse. As the pain slowly dwindled away, Lelouch was left sweating and panting as if he had just run a marathon. As soon as he felt he could, he stood up and dropped his hand away, revealing the red bird-like sigil beneath his left pupil.

Two words repeated themselves in his mind.

Absolute.

Obedience.

A loud explosion blasted through the warehouse door, as a Sutherland smashed its way inside. C.C. took the opportunity created by the convenient smokescreen that pilot had unwittingly created, and got back inside Shinryoku. Naruto's Shadow Clone quickly ran through the same set of hand signs while the cover of smoke was still up.

" Kuchiyose no jutsu ( Summoning Technique )!"

Villetta Nu activated her Factsphere, trying to get a visual on the warehouse she had just blasted into. If she knew her Sutherland was going to create this much smoke, she would have ripped the entrance open with her Knightmare's hands instead of using her rifle. She moved forward cautiously as the smoke was clearing out through the many holes in the roof, but stopped suddenly at what her Factsphere now revealed to her.

There on the ground was the entire royal guard, all dead. In front of them was a Britannian student and two of the most elegant and powerful Knightmares she'd ever seen. Were these new experimental models? Why were they here with this student in the ghetto of all places?

She quickly clicked on her Knightmare's external speakers, but made a show of having her Knightmare lower its rifle. She didn't think she'd survive a fight against those two. "What happened? What's a Britannian student doing here? Answer me, or else I'll… !"

Lelouch scoffed at her implied threat.

"Come out of there. At once!" He ordered, bringing the Geass symbol up in his left eye.

Villetta narrowed her eyes, and wanted to fire a few warning shots to scare this boy, but one glance at the two Knightmares by his side was enough to remind her why this would be stupid. "Who do you think you are?"

Lelouch deactivated his Geass as he came to a realization. 'I see. It doesn't work unless she sees it directly.' "My name is Alan Spacer. My father is a duke, and ordered his personal Knightmares to protect me. My I.D. card's in my breast pocket. After you confirm my identity, I ask for your escort out of the ghetto. These two would be too busy eliminating any terrorists that might bring harm to me."

"A duke!" Villetta muttered in surprise.

And one with enough money and influence to have custom Knightmares built just for his protection. Not to mention the fact that, he had ordered them away to protect his son so easily. That kind of power could be just the thing she needed to fast track her way to a baroness title. The duke would happily do so if she 'selflessly protected a young innocent student from terrorists in the ghetto'.

That had a nice ring to it. She shut down her Sutherland and pulled out the key as her seat slid out the back. She pulled out her sidearm and held it loosely by her side as she descended down to the ground. No need to have the boy report to his father that she threatened him.

"Just wait there. I'll take out your I.D."

"Now hand over your Knightmare to me." Lelouch ordered, catching her eyes with his as he instantly activated his Geass.

A second later, he spotted a red ring around her eyes, a sign that his command had taken hold in her mind.

"Understood. Its number is XG2-IG2D4." She said as she tossed over the key to him.

"Very well." Catching the key, Lelouch walked straight past the woman and climbed into her Sutherland, as the large Knightmares behind him followed his path. The blue and black Knightmare that had also been summoned towered over his Sutherland drastically, but was only just taller than the green and black Knightmare that had saved him. "Will you two be helping me obtain my goals?"

A burst of static filled his new cockpit as they tried to find his com channel.

"Our goal is the end of Britannia. So long as you aim to do that, we'll be fighting with you. My Knightmare is Seizan, and hers is Shinryoku. By the way, that's a very interesting ability your Geass manifested into." That male voice must have belonged to the man who had summoned the other here.

Apparently he not only possessed the ability to summon his partner and their Knightmares, but also to disguise himself perfectly as her. Reminding himself to ponder the usefulness of those abilities later, he moved out into the ghetto using the buildings as cover to avoid being spotted by other Britannian forces.

Villetta blinked slowly, unaware that a red glow had just left her eyes. She was standing alone in a warehouse, and her Sutherland was missing. Hadn't there also been someone else here?

"I… what was I…?"

"Having a bad day, are we?"

Suzaku blinked his eyes open and was met with a bright white light above him. For a moment, he thought he was dead, but then a flash of pain hit his side and he realized he was still alive.

"Lost your chance to go to heaven, Private Kururugi?" Suzaku glanced at the person who asked him this question and saw a man with light blue hair and glasses smiling amusedly at him.

Standing beside the man was a woman in a dark orange coat with dark purple hair, holding something wrapped in a small cloth.

"Um… where am I?" He asked, trying to sit up, but the pain his side wouldn't allow it.

"Hm? Ah. Still in the Shinjuku ghetto." The man answered.

"With Prince Clovis near, it's probably the safest place there is. This is what protected you, Mr. Suzaku." The woman said, holding out a broken pocket watch to him.

"It deflected the bullet from inside your protective suit." The man explained to Suzaku, who took the watch from her.

This was his father's watch. The one he'd taken for himself when he was ten.

"Is it valuable?" She asked.

"Y-Yeah…" Suzaku answered her quietly.

"Elevens say that gods live inside of objects, don't you? I guess this one…" the man trailed off.

"Is Lelou… what's the situation?" Suzaku mentally cursed himself for his near slip-up.

If the soldiers from before reacted that way to a Britannian student being in the wrong place at the wrong time, then it would be better not to mention him again.

"It looks like the poison gas was released. They say there have been massive casualties among the elevens." The man replied unflinchingly.

"They don't seem to have found the perpetrators yet," the woman added in.

"I see. Not yet…" Suzaku muttered. He now knew from experience that there was no poison gas at all. So if there really had been massive casualties, someone or something else must have caused it.

"Private Kururugi, how much experience do you have in piloting a Knightmare frame?" the man suddenly asked.

Suzaku's eyes widened in shock at the question. He glanced up at the man grinning down at him, as if he had misheard the question. "There's no way an Eleven would be made a knight."

In response, the man lifted up his right hand where a golden key has hanging off his pointer finger. "What if you could?"

Suzaku stared at the key in shock. If this was true, he'd be the first Eleven that would ever be offered a Knightmare of his own. He was ordered to quickly get dressed and follow the duo out of the medical trailer he was now in. As soon as he was out, he was led to a large Knightmare covered by a large black cloth strapped onto a metal stand. Just by looking at it, he could tell this Knightmare easily dwarfed the standard Sutherlands.

"Congratulations! The only Knightmare of its type in the world awaits you! Mount it, and it'll all change. You and your world." The man exclaimed with glee and… pride.

"Whether you want it to or not." The woman finished solemnly.

"Lulu? What have you been up to? Where are you now? If you keep cutting class you'll get held back…"

"Are you near a TV?" Lelouch asked, cutting off another pointless lecture on the evils of gambling from his fellow student council member, Shirley Fenette.

" A TV ?"

"Sorry, this is important." Lelouch edged his Sutherland around the corner, but ducked back quickly as two tanks moved down the road.

He could simply take them out here, but then he'd be discovered, and his Sutherland could not take on all the other Britannian forces alone. He could have one of those two advanced Knightmares do it, but he told them to hold back on the fighting. As far as they knew, Britannia had no knowledge of them or the capabilities of their Knightmares. Lelouch wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

"Jeez. Hang on. Sorry, can I change the channel?"

"Huh? To what?"

"The news. Is there anything about Shinjuku?"

Lelouch punched in codes for the Knightmare's Factsphere to increase its range. This would give him a more accurate reading on the enemy's positioning and numbers across the entire Shinjuku ghetto.

"The news? Let's see… Nothing on except stuff about traffic restrictions."

"Why is it restricted?" Lelouch asked.

"Dunno. They're not saying anything special."

'I see. They'll finish everyone off, then just release whatever story they want.' He blinked as he picked up an image of several discarded items on the ground before him, probably left behind to escape.

There on the ground was a full chess set, with the black king being the only piece on the board. All the others were simply scattered on the ground around it.

"You're gambling again, aren't you? I told you before how dangerous that is!"

"Yeah, I know." Lelouch cut her off.

There was definitely no time or desire to hear that again.

"Oh, and tell my sister I'm going to be late coming home. Bye." He hung up his phone and replaced it in his pocket as he disengaged the cockpit, allowing him to descend to the ground.

"Where are you going now?" C.C. asked through the com.

Lelouch merely picked up all the black chess pieces and held them up in the air for the green Knightmare's eyes to see.

" You got out for some chess pieces? You're either really stupid, or overly obsessed with that game." Naruto remarked as casually as one would discuss the weather.

"I'll admit it's most likely the latter, but it's not obsession. It's just a hobby of mine." Lelouch stored the pieces in his breast pocket as he re-entered his Knightmare. "Listen up. As long as they're trying to suppress this information, it'll be hard for them to call in reinforcements. In short, they have to work with the pieces they now have on the board."

" You're planning to fight a war, but treating it like a game. Don't do that ." Naruto scolded the teen. " Real war has unpredictable circumstances that can't be planned for, uneven or unfair odds, and all sorts of other variables that can really fuck up your day. Don't take the situation lightly, and treat this like a real war. "

Lelouch took a moment to consider the man's words and reluctantly admitted he had a point. After all, in chess the only unpredictable element was the human one. And this had nothing but humans fighting in it. He was sure he could get the terrorists to fight for him, but only if he gave them a reason to listen to him.

He had to first prove his worth then. "I acknowledge your point. Follow me up to that building. It's time to recruit my soldiers."

Kallen took down yet another gunship, but it didn't seem to matter. No matter how many enemies she eliminated, several more arrived to take their place. She wouldn't be able to save the ghetto alone in just her one-armed Glasgow. It had already been proven that her sole slash Harken was not going to be enough to deal with those damned Sutherlands.

Her Factsphere picked up movement behind her, which turned out to be a pair of Sutherlands, rifles aimed squarely at her back. She started moving just as they started to fire at her. She kept moving through the slums she knew for sure had no innocents in the way, but understood she couldn't keep running forever.

She glanced at her energy bar and cursed. "Only thirty minutes left!"

" The west entrance !" A voice called out through her transceiver. She didn't recognize the voice, and she knew Ohgi and the others would be too busy using this time to evacuate civilians. " Use the train tracks to move over to the west entrance! "

"Who is this? How do you know this code?" She demanded.

While she realized it might be a trap, surely the Britannian forces knew that such a thing wouldn't be needed against her at this point.

" It doesn't matter who I am! If you want to win, then trust me !"

"Win?" Such a notion seemed so utterly impossible that even now, she was questioning this man's sanity.

Still, what other option did she have besides following this stranger's advice or getting herself killed by those Knightmares. She jumped her Knightmare straight up and onto the train tracks he had mentioned, frowning when she saw the two Sutherlands mimic her action.

"Hey! What do I do now?" She looked up as she heard the screeching of a train coming straight at her.

" Since you trusted me, you get to win. Jump onto the train! "

"Understood!" She had her Glasgow jump into the air once more, and started leaping forward atop the train cars, as the Sutherland directly behind her was stopped by the train.

The second one made to leap onto the train after her, but was shot out of the air by a pair of slash harkens coming from a hole blasted into the side of the building. Glancing over, she saw a Sutherland, crouched and watching the tracks.

"F-Friendly fire? What's your unit? The enemy is the one-armed one!" Jeremiah Gottwald received a spray of gunfire at his Knightmare in response. "Can it be… a terrorist?"

The landspinner on his Knightmare's right leg was blown off, halting his retreat and leaving him a sitting duck for the red Glasgow that was now charging back at him atop the train. Left with no other option, he activated his cockpit's ejection system and shot out of his Knightmare, the small rocket boosters taking him far out of the fight, before the parachutes deployed.

"You saved me! But how did you get a Sutherland?" She glanced over to the building where her savior was hiding, but found the spot deserted now. "What? Where did he?"

"Hey! Kallen! What was with that radio message before?"

Kallen glanced down and spotted Ohgi and the others running along the tracks towards her. "Huh? He contacted you, too?"

"Yeah! Yoshida's group should be here soon, too…" Static came out of the transceiver Ohgi held in his hand, causing him to look at it in anticipation.

"You're the leader?"

Ohgi was startled that Kallen's mysterious savior would contact him directly instead of relaying the message to her as he already had, but he was technically in charge of the group with Naoto's passing. "Huh? Yeah."

" The cargo of the train that's stopped is my gift to you. They're tools for your victory. If you wish to use them and win, then follow my orders ."

Kallen opened up one of the cars with her Knightmare and gasped in surprise. It was filled with inactivated Sutherlands and stockpiles of energy fillers!

"Knightmares!"

"There's more over here!"

"Here, too!"

"This is amazing! Let's hear what he has to say."

'All this? But how?' Kallen thought as she counted six cars with two Sutherlands each. That was enough to outfit them all in fresh new Knightmares. It was a start, but the others weren't as skilled piloting a Knightmare as she was.

" The woman in the Glasgow."

The man's voice snapped her into focus once more.

"Y-Yeah?" She asked tentatively, as if disappointing him would suddenly cause all these Sutherlands to vanish before their eyes.

" Stay where you are. That unit's going to run decoy since the Britannians are already aware there is a red Glasgow opposing them ."

Kallen nodded, already seeing the man's point. "Understood."

" Energy filler status ?"

"About fifteen minute's worth," she responded after checking her meter once more.

" Then load a new one in. In ten minutes, I'll contact you with your next instructions ."

Lelouch clicked off the transceiver and leaned back against his seat. "This is kind of nerve-wracking." 'Still, I need the determination to succeed. I'm betting not only my life in this battle, but the lives of those people. If I do this right, I should be able to drastically minimize lives lost on our side, if not cut them out altogether.' What he had now was not an army. What he had was a fledgling resistance group that would have to grow to epic proportions if he was to make any significant progress in his goal to crush Britannia.

" Are you sure you don't want us fighting ?" Naruto asked.

He could see the logic in Lelouch's argument for keeping their presence a secret from their enemy. That didn't mean he had to like it.

"I need you two to position yourselves in the ghetto at the coordinates I'm sending you. Disable your I.F.F tags and take out any opposition you can discretely." Lelouch punched in the coordinates Seizan would be waiting at, followed by Shinryoku's coordinates.

He paused for a moment and clicked on the com once more. "And it's your own fault that you're not fighting, Seizan. Had you not told me to treat this like a real war instead of a game, I wouldn't be holding back my trump cards. Why waste pieces when you're sure just two can get the job done?"

Lelouch shut off communications with him before a reply could be made.

No one scolded him and got away with it

"The terrorists are mixed among the general Eleven populace and are mounting a bit of a resistance against us, but it hasn't affected our army's overwhelming superiority." General Bartley reported after having examined the digital map of the settlement they were now currently destroying.

"Of course it hasn't. Besides that…" Clovis trailed off, already knowing his general knew what response he wanted to hear.

Bartley nodded. "Understood. The gas capsule will be…"

"Just as the public thinks," Clovis finished.

"Right. And we'll keep looking for the girl."

Clovis held up a white-gloved hand to his forehead, already feeling the beginning of a migraine coming on. Why was one girl causing him such trouble. It seemed his fate depended heavily on retrieving her before she was found by anyone. Let alone, discover the things she could do. "Yes. Dead or alive, you must find her."

"Hey, are you sure about this? Their I.F.F.'s have been stripped. You sure this isn't an enemy trap?" Tamaki Shin'ichiro asked his leader, while he was getting settled inside one of the new Sutherlands.

"The other side has the total advantage in this war. They don't need to set any traps," Ohgi responded through his Knightmare's speakers. "You guys get to your assigned points too."

" P-1, can you move? The fundamentals shouldn't be different than what you're used to."

Ohgi quickly grabbed the transceiver before the man decided to cut communications suddenly. "Who are you? At least tell us your name."

" I can't do that. What if these signals are being intercepted? Anyway, if Q-1 is on schedule, enemy Sutherlands will be reaching you in twenty-three seconds. Probably two of them. Shoot them through the wall ."

Tamaki scoffed at the orders being given to them by a guy too cowardly to reveal his name. "What's he talking about?"

Ohgi set down the transceiver and slotted his Knightmare key in. They really had no choice but to trust this man, and what harm could actually come from shooting through a wall? If there were any civilians left in the area, Britannians would have been here much sooner than this to finish them off.

"Everyone, double check your weapons."

"Hey, are you serious?" Tamaki demanded angrily.

"Just do it Tamaki. We have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Unless you'd like to just give up now and be killed?" Ohgi asked sarcastically.

All around him, the rest of the group powered up their Knightmares, and quickly loaded the powerful assault rifles they carried. Even Tamaki begrudgingly got into his own Knightmare and leveled his rifle at the wall in front of them.

" 3… 2… 1… Fire! " At his command, Ohgi and the others to fired through the wall, grinning in triumph when he spotted a flash of metal on the other side of the concrete wall.

They kept firing until it was painstakingly obvious both Knightmares had been destroyed. The wall before them had been made into Swiss cheese from the multitude of rounds penetrating it.

Lelouch chuckled as his tactical map readout indicated two Knightmares had just been lost. It was fortunate he had received a Knightmare with the Britannian forces clearly labeled as allies. It made it so much easier to manipulate them that way.

'An I.D. can be a double-edged sword,' He mused, holding up a black knight piece. 'Besides, if the terrorists follow my commands, then the path to Clovis will be left clear to me.'

He set down the knight and picked up the transceiver again, clicking it on briefly to relay his message. He highly doubted their signals were being intercepted, but just in case they were, he always turned his off after each message. No need for his voice to be recognized by chance.

" P-1, P-4, P-7! Move 100 meters to the right and fire your slash harkens towards three o'clock. "

"Alright! Do what the voice says people!" Ohgi ordered.

He wasn't sure how, but this man was either predicting the enemy's movements or dictating them himself to ensure their defeat at the hands of his group. Either suited him, and he was starting to believe they could and would come out of this, not only alive, but victorious. The three indicated Knightmares in the group traveled down the road and turned the corner, impaling an oncoming Knightmare with a total of six different slash harkens. Even Tamaki had to grin, dealing such destruction to a Britannian pilot who had been officially trained to use his Knightmare.

Kallen used her own slash Harken to pull her Glasgow up over a roof and land back down on the other side of the building, where she rammed her fist into a Knightmare that had just opened up the protection around its Factsphere.

"Sir Glaube has ejected! Frame has been lost!"

"Change codes! They're intercepting our transmissions!" Bartley ordered.

This was bad. He'd been watching signal after signal read out as lost on the battlefield. How could these terrorists be putting up this difficult of a fight?

"We have! Four times already!"

"Do it again!" he ordered.

"This failure is unacceptable!" Clovis yelled out in the command center, outraged.

A bunch of Elevens were getting the best of the highly trained Britannian military.

Worse, it was making him look foolish!

" Hello there !"

Directly on the screen in front of him, a video call from Lloyd Asplund, the head of the Britannian Special Research Division, or Camelot, covered up the tactical map he'd been observing, where his forces were shown to be dwindling. He wasn't sure this image was an improvement, especially with that annoying smile on the man's face.

"What is it? We're in the middle of an operation!" Bartley exclaimed in frustration.

" Then it's time to deploy the A.S.E.E.C's special weapon ." Lloyd reasoned.

"This isn't the time!" Clovis wasn't about to let his older brother's pet project steal all the glory from his area. This battle would be won by the forces under his command.

Naruto watched on amusedly as another one of the resistance members fired a shot straight through a tank, utterly destroying it. He could have done that from here, but apparently Lelouch didn't even want these people to know about him or C.C. unless absolutely necessary.

So far, all he'd managed to take out was a single tank and a pair of gunships. "Gah! I need some action! I need a good fight!"

C.C. sent one of the blades from her right Harken fan into a gunship passing overhead, making sure to wait until she could destroy it from behind to avoid being seen. "I have to agree. I'm not finding any challenge in fighting cannon fodder. Look at the bright side though, Naruto."

"Oh and what possible bright side could there be to not being allowed into the fight?" Naruto asked sullenly.

"All this frustration on my part will need to be relieved in some other way. Tonight. By you." C.C. said as if speaking to a mentally deficient child.

"I gathered that much, thank you. You're as subtle as a rhino when you're asking for sex. No wait, you never ask, you just demand." Naruto said dryly with a roll of his eyes that he knew she could see.

"I didn't hear you complaining on your birthday." She remarked teasingly as she retracted both fans into the slots beneath Shinryoku's wrists.

Naruto smirked and moved Seizan further back behind the ruined building. "What can I say? It was practically beat into my head that I shouldn't talk with my mouth full."

"Now then, the enemy has five options." Lelouch remarked as he watched Knightmare after Knightmare get wiped out by his tactical advantage and the people following his orders without hesitation. His eyes were drawn to the screen as a ring of enemy Sutherlands started closing in around the position he'd predicted. "Well now, they made an even stupider move than I expected."

"Q-1, your map is accurate, right?" Lelouch asked.

" Right. For the old town," Kallen confirmed. " But, without any current landmarks…"

"It'll do. Mission number 3." Lelouch ordered.

" Understood. " Kallen quickly navigated her Glasgow through the ghetto following the basic path from her map and into position where she'd been told to wait.

She looked around and frowned. The area was entirely open, with no cover around her at all. What was she supposed to do here?"

"Surround them and concentrate our forces there!" Clovis ordered, tapping a finger on the singular red dot in the middle of the ghetto. It wasn't moving from its position, so he assumed they were lying in wait, ready to ambush his Knightmares. No matter, they would fail when faced with the onslaught of his overwhelming numbers. "The enemy's main force is where the center dot is! Finish them!

Just as his Knightmares were closing in, the red dot suddenly vanished from the map.

"What? The enemy isn't there?" Clovis asked in shock.

Kallen counted down the meters her Glasgow was to move forward until she was in position. It had actually taken her a few moments before she finally figured out what the purpose of her moving underground and sending her slash Harken up at the top of the tunnel was. She'd voiced her complaints about being crushed under tons of rubble, but the man had calmly informed her she'd have four seconds to get her Knightmare back above ground at the end of the tunnel.

The man had called it easy.

She finally stopped and turned around, sending her slash Harken into the top of the tunnel, creating a multitude of cracks resembling a spider's web. She immediately retracted it, and started rushing to the end of the tunnel, even as she heard the ground the Sutherlands had been standing on crashing down into the tunnel behind her.

Three seconds, two… at the last second, she sent her Harken shooting into the side of a building and pulled herself up with it, avoiding a quick, and highly embarrassing death being crushed by rubble. If she was going to die, it was going to be either by battle or by age, not by an accident.

Lelouch started laughing victoriously as a wave of destruction started spreading out from the point he had sent Q-1 to, taking out almost fifty Knightmares. He couldn't have planned it any more perfectly.

"It worked, didn't it? I can do it! I can! I can defeat Britannia!" He continued laughing at feeling his very first victory.

"He's a little messed up isn't he?" Naruto asked as he and C.C. listened to Lelouch's laughing.

C.C. shrugged with a small smile. "He's just enjoying himself."

Clovis stepped back in shock, having witnessed the majority of his forces eliminated in a single instant. 'Who… who in God's name am I fighting? Can he be even better than Tohdoh?'

"Lloyd!" Clovis called out seriously.

" Hmm? Yes, your highness ?"

"Can it win? Will your toy beat them?" Clovis asked desperately.

The least he could hope for now was a Britannian victory. Never mind that he wouldn't get the credit for it, if the Elevens won here, the loss would be placed squarely at his feet.

Lloyd chuckled softly and plastered a confident smirk on his face for the crown prince. " Your Highness… Please call it Lancelot ."

" Advanced unit weapon Z-0-1 Lancelot, now activating. Lancelot activating. Releasing hatch ." The automated voice rang across the Britannian defensive line, alerting all around to move away from the Camelot truck.

The specialized equipment truck slowly slid out the stand that the Lancelot was attached to, the black sheet fluttering in the wind as it was brought outside for the first time since its creation.

" Z-0-1 Lancelot, stand by for activation. Pallet extension, initiating ."

"Did you read the manual?" Cecile Croomy, Lloyd's assistant and the main technical engineer working on the prototype Lancelot KMF, asked.

"More or less," Suzaku answered as he started donning the special pilot suit he'd been given. As soon as it was fully zipped up, he felt the suit re-size itself to fit him snugly, but not uncomfortably.

"Well done. You scored in the top class in the simulator."

"Look… About what you said before…" Suzaku started walking out of the medical trailer and out to the equipment truck where he would enter his new Knightmare.

Even now, he couldn't believe this was happening.

"It's possible," Cecile admitted hesitantly. "But the possibility's still close to zero."

"But not actually zero, right?" Suzaku asked hopefully,

"I'm afraid that's true. Still, I don't want you doing anything reckless. The new system doesn't have a cockpit ejection system installed yet." Cecile warned the young honorary Britannian.

"Right. I understand, Miss Cecile." He stared up in awe as the metal clamps holding the sheet over the Knightmare were released, allowing the sheet to be blown off from the wind. "This is it?"

The Knightmare was huge. It was primarily white, but had golden armor pieces around the head, chest, arms and legs. And it actually had a distinctly human-like face, rather than just a covered Factsphere for a head.

"Right. The experimental weapon developed by us in the Advanced Special Envoy Engineering Corps. Lancelot." Cecil exclaimed with a calmer sense of pride than her superior. "The world's first 7th generation Knightmare Frame."

"Alright then Suzaku, shall we proceed with the initial start-up?" Lloyd asked impatiently, eager to finally see his masterpiece in action.

"Initial start-up proceeding from phase 20. Equipping energy filler." Cecil dictated to the other engineers and mechanics around the Lancelot.

"Confirm pre-start. Energy filler now at normal output. Thirty seconds to reach critical voltage."

"Core Luminous, shifting phase. Yggdrassil Drive operational."

"Devicer, set up," Cecil called out to Suzaku, who nodded and sat down in the seat, which was then inserted back into the cockpit.

"Confirming entry of Devicer to Z-0-1. Individual I.D. Registration complete. Confirm establishment of man-machine interface. Yggdrassil resonance, confirmed. Rejection response, weak. Devicer stress response, weak. All readings, normal."

"It's all going according to the data so far," Lloyd remarked calmly.

Suzaku punched in his activation code, and quickly had the launch pad beneath the Lancelot's feet split apart into two separate pads, one for each foot. The landspinners attached to each leg swung down, resting on the back of the truck, as the Lancelot bent over, resting one hand lightly on the ground before it. "Lancelot… M.E. Boost!"

The core Luminous began filling the entire frame with power, as the landspinners started moving rapidly before the Knightmare had even moved.

"Lancelot… LAUNCH!" Cecile called out.

Immediately, Suzaku blasted off from the truck and into the ghetto, moving both quickly and agilely to avoid wreckage of destroyed buildings and Sutherlands.

"Full throttle, right out of the gate, huh?" Lloyd said as he laughed in joy that his prized creation was working amazingly.

"Huh? What's that? Tamaki asked, as his Sutherland's Factsphere was showing him an image of some white Knightmare approaching rapidly. "It doesn't look like a Suther…"

He didn't get to finish as the Knightmare smashed a fist into his Sutherland's head, forcing the Knightmare to activate the automatic pilot ejection.

Lelouch chuckled as he counted up the remaining opposition left between him and his opponent. "Another push and the way will be clear…"

" This is B-group! Confirm signs of the enemy !"

"Hm? Reinforcements?" Lelouch asked. "I suppose Seizan was right. I didn't expect them to push back so soon, but that would be human impatience taking place here. Perhaps he was a soldier before Japan fell." He picked up the transceiver, having decided to leave it on after his plan came to fruition. "Status?"

" Everyone ejected, but they took out four units in no time at all !"

"Number of enemies?' Lelouch queried.

" One! Just one!" That shocked Lelouch.

One Knightmare took out four units solo? Typing rapidly with his left hand, he connected the signal from his handheld transceiver to the com system in his Knightmare, relaying the message to Seizan and Shinryoku.

" I think it's a new model. Never seen anything like… ! "

The message was cut off from static, but he let out a relieved sigh that his two aces had received the message first.

"Did you two get that?" Lelouch asked urgently.

" You bet we did. Sounds like Britannia has a Knightmare that might come close to matching ours. Did you get a lock on its position? " Naruto asked eagerly.

"Negative. It doesn't seem to have an I.F.F. installed either, because my readout is not showing any Britannian Knightmare moving within our position. You'll have to find it on your own. Should I order a retreat to the terrorists?"

" I would recommend that. No use wasting their lives in a fight they can't seem to win. Meanwhile, we're going hunting. Seizan, if I win, you're buying me pizza tonight ." C.C. informed Naruto, already prepping Shinryoku to go searching for this new enemy.

" Like hell I'm letting you blow what little money I have left on that crap! " Seizan cut off the communication, but had the good sense to reactivate his I.F.F., as did Shinryoku.

At least now, when they found him, he'd know for sure.

Lelouch shook his head, slightly amused at the, apparently, romantically involved Knightmare pilots. "All forces retreat. The Britannians have apparently released some kind of ace, a Knightmare that took out four frames alone. Do not engage. I repeat, do not engage. There's no point fighting a battle you'll lose."

" Like hell we're gonna run away from this thing!" Two Sutherlands raised their rifles and started firing at the large white Knightmare directly across from them, only for it to activate some kind of glowing green energy shield on its right forearm, deflecting the bullets away with ease. " Oi, this thing has some kind of deflector! The bullets are bouncing off of it! "

"What? The bullets are bouncing off of it?" Lelouch asked.

" Yeah! What do we do? Ishida !"

Another burst of static was his response, causing him to frown in annoyance. It'd be so much easier to let them stubbornly fight on and get defeated easily, but he had to show others he could lead even a ragtag group like this to victory. "All forces retreat. I have two of my own aces charging in to hunt this enemy down! If you see a large black and green or black and blue Knightmare, do not attack. They are going to take this enemy of ours down. Hide out with the civilians, but ditch the Sutherlands away from your destination. Leave the Glasgow with them as well. The more attention you pull away from your exit point, the safer you'll be."

" Understood. We'll pull back and let your men deal with this. Kallen! Grab Ishida's group and meet up with us at the west outskirts. We're ditching the Knightmares and waiting in the safe house! "

" Got it, Ohgi! " Kallen clicked off the communication and sped along predetermined routes to evacuate, spotting Tamaki, Ishida and both their respective groups running just ahead of her.

She followed after them in her Glasgow, despite having to significantly reduce her speed to avoid running them over, and stopped it just outside the entrance to one of the older subway tunnels. She left the Knightmare running, but got out of the cockpit just as Ohgi and his group arrived, quickly evacuating from their respective Knightmares as well. Tamaki quickly set charges around the large group of Knightmares, before they all started running back to the safe house they had hid the Shinjuku survivors in.

Suzaku moved the Lancelot through the ghetto at a much slower pace now than before. After he had dispatched that first group of terrorists, he hadn't seen any more of them at all. It was actually so calm, that he was expecting an ambush at any moment. Suddenly his Factsphere picked up two unidentified Knightmares approaching his position very rapidly from opposite directions. He was about to position himself atop the building to his left and let both arrive before he took action, but that decision was taken out of his hands when a large violet dagger pierced through his left arm, destroying the Blaze Luminous shield attached to it.

He spun around quickly as the dagger was retracted, and ended up looking at a large black and deep navy blue Knightmare. It stood just a bit taller than his Lancelot, and was holding a deep purple kodachi in its right hand, with a three-pronged violet dagger in the left.

This Knightmare also had a human-like face, and even had eyes with pupils and rings expanding out from the pupils in a ripple like pattern he noticed, though they must have been designed that intricately on purpose. "You must be the leader of those terrorists, right?"

Naruto stared at the white Knightmare the Britannians had created. It was mildly impressive, and even more so, that they had created it using sakuradite alone. There was no type of flight system attached to it however, and it seemed quite limited in its armaments. At least Seizan had ninjutsu to fall back on if melee combat proved ineffective.

But this thing only had a pair of swords and four slash harkens by his count.

With no other ranged capabilities, a piss-poor defensive system, and a limit to ground confrontations, this Knightmare was far inferior to theirs. If he so desired, Naruto could simply activate his wings and strike down the poor bastard from the sky, but where was the fun in that?

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not a leader, I'm a fighter. And you might be the only challenge I'll see all day. I don't mean to offend, but I have to beat you before my partner to win, so I'm going to end things quickly." Naruto tossed his MVS kunai straight at the white Knightmare, but sent a burst of chakra and fukushahado radiation through the cable and into the kunai, as it approached the Knightmare.

Suzaku frowned and contemplated his course of action. That dagger had pierced through and destroyed his left Blaze Luminous. But it hadn't been active at the time, and it was destroyed from behind. Even so, Suzaku wasn't sure the Blaze Luminous could stop that dagger even if it was activated. It was approaching him rapidly, so he made a snap decision and brought up his right arm, the iridescent green Blaze Luminous meeting the projectile head on.

The Blaze Luminous was successful in stopping the dagger, however, he was getting warnings and alerts indicating that the Blaze Luminous was overloading. He wanted to bat away the dagger with his arm and charge straight in at his enemy, but apparently the Blaze Luminous was being… force-fed some type of energy that was slowly neutralizing it.

"Can't stop it…" Desperately, Suzaku launched three slash harkens at his enemy.

None of them actually connected, but it was enough to get the Knightmare to back off, pulling the dagger back as well. He inspected the readout from the Lancelot's display and frowned. The Blaze Luminous system was utterly fried. Frankly, he was lucky both of the Lancelot's arms still worked after the beating they'd just taken. With no other choice, he pulled out the pair of MVS swords attached to the sides of his cockpit, their glowing red blades a stark contrast to his opponent's dark violet.

Before he could move to settle the fight in close quarters, a second Knightmare landed between them, this one a dark forest green and black. It had the same set of eyes as the other, but this one was holding a pair of violet fans.

"Could they be… used for melee?"

Suzaku got his answer as the Knightmare charged in, using its rotating wrists to try and slice apart his Knightmare with the razor sharp edge on those fans. When he brought his swords in to clash, the Knightmare simply allowed the blades to land on the flat of the fans, and turned them aside with a quick spin and continued its offense. If he wasn't so frustrated that he couldn't land a single blow against his opponent, he'd be very impressed with the graceful and deadly dance-like movements this Knightmare was displaying.

C.C. smirked as she continued her attack, pushing the Knightmare back with each swing of her Harken Fans. Her opponent was admittedly, a decent swordsman, but he was nothing compared to Naruto, and subsequently nothing compared to her. It was a bit awkward using these fans as blades, and she was forced to rely more on her Knightmare's capabilities than her own skill.

"I'm going to have to get some practice in, otherwise these might as well remain slash harkens."

Her opportune moment arrived when she managed to successfully deflect both of her opponent's swords out wide and brought both her fans slashing down, destroying the two Factspheres located in its chest. Not breaking her momentum, she reversed the direction of Shinryoku's wrists and brought the fans back up, cutting the hands of the white Knightmare completely off, and thus disarming her opponent.

Suzaku stared shocked as this green Knightmare cut straight through the Lancelot's wrists, preventing him from using the Lancelot's MVS swords anymore. "W-Who are these two? How do they have Knightmares that surpass the Lancelot?"

" Suzaku, what's wrong? I'm getting damage readouts from several different systems in the Lancelot. What happened ?"Cecile's worried voice was nearly drowned out by the frantic screaming coming from somewhere behind her.

Suzaku could only assume Lloyd had also found about the damage. "There are two Knightmares, as advanced or even more so, than the Lancelot. Both Blaze Luminous shields have been destroyed, the Factspheres are gone, and the Lancelot's hands have been cut off. Also…"

He was forced to cut the communication short as the blue Knightmare apparently stepped back into the game, now wielding a pair of the violet kodachi. Now that he suspected those weapons had MVS technology, he had to assume that they were built with more advancements than the Lancelot. Judging by the designs of the weapons as well, they were likely created in Japan.

He might be able to buy himself time by attacking with his slash harkens, but he highly doubted it, especially with two opponents. All he could do now was escape. He turned around and started navigating away from the duo, deeper into the ghetto in hopes he could circle around and retreat to the Britannian defensive line. He turned the Lancelot's head over his shoulder, but only spotted the green Knightmare.

"What? Where did the blue one go?"

His movement came to an abrupt halt, despite the fact that his landspinners were still running. He glanced down at the Lancelot's legs and saw a pair of hands rising out of the ground and gripping onto them.

"What is this…?"

" Earth Style: Double Decapitation Technique !" A voice called out through a set of Knightmare speakers, before the Lancelot was pulled down into the ground until only its head was sticking out.

The blue Knightmare inexplicably rose out of the ground before him, and made a show of clapping its hands together, as if getting dirt off of them. He didn't know how this Knightmare did that, but he couldn't move the arms or legs of the Lancelot at all. Neither could he leave the Lancelot, as the cockpit was buried underground and did not have an ejection system.

Even if he had a cockpit ejection system, he highly doubted it could push through solid concrete. "You terrorists! You're willing to go this far to kill innocent people?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but it wasn't the terrorists that started murdering innocent people in this settlement. That was Britannia. Now be a good boy and sit here quietly while thinking about how poorly you fight." Naruto grinned to himself as he left the Knightmare there, content with a humiliating defeat of his opponent rather than an outright death. It wasn't actually needed, and that Knightmare would not be seeing combat again for a while. "Oi, C.C.! I beat him first! That means you have to eat ramen with me tonight!"

"Hmph. Fine, we might as well get moving anyways. That boy said he wanted us to meet him near the Britannian defensive line. I doubt he actually wants us to just destroy the lot of them, so he probably needs an escort out of the area or something."

"T-They buried my Lancelot? How did they? How could they? No other Knightmare could surpass the Lancelot, let alone two! T-T-They defiled my precious creation!" Lloyd had to be physically held back by the other engineers and scientists to prevent him from running out and digging up the Knightmare by hand.

Cecile on the other hand, was contemplating who else besides them would have not only the knowledge, but the funds, to build two amazing Knightmares like that.

And then it came to her. "Rakshata…"

"Rakshata? Rakshata Chawla?" Lloyd asked, the name having an odd calming effect on him. "Yes, I understand. I don't know how she not only developed, but improved upon MVS technology by herself, but if those Knightmares were hers, I… begrudgingly… see how the Lancelot might have been… in a disadvantageous situation."

"You mean that it lost right?"

"THE LANCELOT DID NOT LOSE! IT WAS TWO ON ONE!"

"It's your fault this happened for opposing the Britannians!"

"What? Why, you spineless coward!" Tamaki angrily retorted.

"Do you know how many people died because of this?"

"Shut up! Do you know how many of us were captured or killed?" Tamaki asked the woman, waving his rifle in her face threateningly.

Ohgi and Kallen walked inside the safe house solemnly, Tamaki's point having validity. However, it could have been much worse had it not been for that mysterious man helping them and those two Knightmares he had sent in. She had caught a glimpse of the large black and blue one, rushing through the ghetto and was amazed by it. The pilot had obviously been quite skilled, and she could only wonder about that Knightmare's capabilities and what she'd do with a Knightmare that powerful.

"Ohgi, what about that guy we heard before?"

"I don't know. He doesn't answer when I call. He could be dead, but it's more likely that he retreated after that big white Knightmare was dealt with."

The doors to the safe house were blasted apart, allowing in a tank and several armed Britannian foot soldiers to enter, guns trained on the several hundred surviving Japanese people hiding out here. "So this is where you Elevens scurried off to. Prepare to fire!"

" Attention, all forces! Cease fire at once! In the name of Clovis la Britannia, third prince and royal viceroy of Area 11, you are so ordered! All forces cease fire at once! You shall also cease all destruction of buildings here! All casualties, either Britannian or Eleven, shall be treated without prejudice! In the name of Clovis la Britannia, you are so ordered! Cease fire at once! I shall allow no further fighting! "

Kallen watched on in shock as the Britannian soldiers, who had been moments away from murdering her and everyone else hidden here, retreated and left them all alive. "What just happened?"

"Satisfied?"

"Yes, well done."

"What now? A round of songs?" Clovis asked disdainfully. "Or perhaps a nice game of chess?"

"That has a familiar ring." The soldier standing in the darkened command center of the G1 base took off his helmet and tossed it aside, having no need for it now. "Don't you remember? You used to play chess with me. Of course, I always won."

"What?"

"Remember? At the Aries Villa?"

"You… who are you?" Clovis asked the soldier fiercely.

No one got away with mentioning that place to him.

"It's been a long time, big brother." The man walked into the light, revealing it to be Lelouch.

Clovis' eyes widened in shock, as he leaned forward, staring at that face as if seeing a ghost. How could this be? It couldn't be him, but he'd recognize that face anywhere.

"The eldest son of the late empress Marianne, and 17th in line to the imperial throne. Lelouch vi Britannia, at your service." Lelouch held his left arm across his chest, as he knelt down on one knee before his older brother.

"Lelouch? But, I thought…"

"That I was dead?" Lelouch finished. "I have returned, Your Highness. To change everything."

He finished his declaration by pulling out a pistol and holding it level with the viceroy's forehead.

"I… I'm so glad, Lelouch. I heard you died during the capture of Japan. What good news that you're alive! Why don't you come back to the homeland with me?" Clovis said nervously, as he backed himself against his throne as much as possible.

"You intend to use me as a tool of diplomacy again?" Lelouch asked, his hand never wavering as he stepped closer, the gun almost touching Clovis' forehead now. "It seems you've forgotten why we were used as tools in the first place."

This drew a choked gasp from Clovis.

"Right. Because my mother was killed." Lelouch kept replaying the memory of that night in his mind, and his grip on the pistol only tightened further. "Mother held the title of Knight of Honor, but she was originally a commoner. No doubt the other empresses held her in contempt. Even so… even though you made it look like the work of terrorists… you people killed my mother!"

"It wasn't me! I swear it wasn't!" Clovis protested emphatically.

"Then tell me what you know. No one can lie to me now! Who killed her?" Lelouch asked, the Geass symbol flaring to life within his left eye, and taking hold within Clovis' mind.

The signature red ring around the eyes told him Clovis was affected. The third prince relaxed within his seat and seemed to lose all trace of emotions. "Schneizel, the second prince, and Cornelia, the second princess. They know."

This caused Lelouch to recoil in shock. The two most formidable siblings in the royal family.

"They're the ringleaders?" he asked, requiring clarification on their specific role.

Did they actually pull the triggers or hire the people who did?

All he received in response from Clovis was silence. "That's all you know, huh?"

He allowed the eye contact to break, as he deactivated the Geass, returning his left eye to its original purple color.

The effect was instantaneous, as Clovis instantly grew alarmed with the gun in his face once more. "It… It wasn't me, I swear! I didn't kill her! I didn't have her killed!"

"I understand." Lelouch lowered his right arm, allowing his brother to breathe a sigh of relief. "However…"

He took a step forward up the steps, and held the gun squarely between Clovis' eyes.

"No, don't! We may have different mothers, but I'm still your brother!" Clovis pleaded desperately.

"You can't change the world without getting your hands dirty." Lelouch unflinchingly pulled the trigger, watching the bullet pierce straight through his brother's head.

The life faded from his eyes rapidly, as Lelouch stared at the now deceased viceroy apathetically. He dropped the gun on the ground and simply walked out of the G1 base. There, as planned, were his escorts out of here.

" So, what do you plan to do now? " Naruto asked through his speakers at the boy, whose stolen Britannian armor was splashed with a fair amount of blood.

"As I am now, I will not be able to influence people and draw them to my cause. Lelouch Lamperouge is not a leader. No… I need to be reborn. Where do all things begin, and where do all things end?" He asked the two Knightmare pilots.

" A riddle? Damn, I'm not good with those. " Naruto complained childishly.

C.C. smiled amusingly at Naruto's deficiency at mental challenges. " That's actually an easy one, Naruto. The answer… is Zero. "

I admit there are not a lot of changes here but that's only because that this is the start of the battle which actually needed very little changes because it's happening from Lelouch's point of view. I guarantee there will be a lot differences in the next chapter with me adding in some twists that I believe should happen. Hope you all enjoy reading this(even if you've read it before) and wait for the next chapter. It won't take too long.