Hey guys I'm back with another chapter, I've don't got much to say here. So, after I show you guys the results of the votes, I'm just going to jump straight into it! A lot of people sent me PMs for their votes (and I mean a lot, like, thanks for the support!) and here are the results so far:

C.C. - 22

Kallen - 16

Milly - 25

Shirley - 13

Etc. - 8

No pairing - 23

As of the time writing, I've got to say that I'm shocked characters who don't really have much of an impact on the main show are getting so much love here! I'm not sure why this is, but hey, that doesn't really matter, now does it? Also, recently, do to the relatively large amount of people voting "no pairing" even if I do add a pairing in, do know that IT WILL NOT BE THE MAIN STORY FOCUS. Like, if there is an Allenxsomeone in this story, it'll be more of a side thing (as I'm sure all of you guys expect.) After all, if you couldn't tell already, I've already got a plan on where exactly I want this story to go. So, without further adieu, let's cut this introduction off and get right into it! I hope you guys enjoy it, cause this is the first of the many summer chapters I'll be adding to this story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass or -man, all rights go to their respective owners.

Chapter 9: Saint

Gunfire filled the air as Kallen swooped down and took out another pair of knightmares. As artillery shells shot past her cockpit, she bit her lip and braced herself for impact. The force of the explosions rocked her body and slammed her head against the back of her chair. In that small opening, another group of Britannians charged towards her, their blades hungrily waiting to dig into her Guren's metal hide.

"We've got you now, Black Knight scum!" One of the soldiers yelled as he lunged towards her. Without breaking a sweat, Kallen effortlessly leaned back and throttled the gas pedal. Instantly, like a puppet whose strings had been cut, her Guren's legs collapsed, causing the massive knightmare to come tumbling down towards the ground. "What?!" She heard the soldier frantically scream out as his blade harmlessly passed over her head. Not giving them a moments rest, the Black Knight's ace grinned and pressed her thumb hard into the Guren's main control wheel.

"Take this, you Britannian bastard!" She yelled as she activated her knightmare's Radiant Wave Surger. In seconds, the assaulting knightmare was reduced to a pile of ash and rubble. The explosion the attack caused knocked a cloud of dust into the air, creating a wall of fog between her and the rest of the soldiers. As the smoke steadily rouse up into the night sky, Kallen sighed and cracked her knuckles.

"I'm assuming that explosion just now was your doing?" She heard Sugiyama say as the radio crackled to life. In the background, she could hear the faint sound of bullets clinking against the man's knightmare.

"Yeah..." Kallen started as an empty casing from the Radiant Wave Surger fell unceremoniously onto the ground. "There are still a couple knightmares over here, after I take them out, I'll head over to where you and Inoue are." As she spoke, Kallen listened as her Guren groaned and creaked as a new shell was loaded into her weapon. The second it was ready, she flung herself out of the cloud of dust and back into the fray. As expected, multiple knightmares were waiting for her. If it wasn't for her quick reflexes, the Gurren's protective layer would've been ripped to shreds by their armor-piercing rounds. The soldiers kept on firing until their magazines were spent, and when she heard the satisfying click of their empty barrels, she smiled and pounced. "Take this!" She screamed as she sent her knightmare's claw-like arm rocketing into the nearest soldier's cockpit. Like a hot knife through butter, her Guren smashed through the knightmare's hull, causing a hail of glass and debris to be strewn across the battlefield.

"Dammit! It got Freud!" Another soldier yelped as Kallen moved on to her next target. It took her Gurren mere moments to tear through the wall of steel and iron. By the time her claw finally wrapped around the commanding officer's knightmare, the ground was completely covered in a thick layer of oil and bent metal.

"That was the last one..." she thought as she let out a sigh and stared at her Gurren's monitor. "Hey, Sugiyama, how're things looking over at your end?" She asked the man as she watched explosions fill the night sky. As if to answer her question, a massive shockwave came from the front of the train, sending the hulking metal transport to a sudden stop. As soon as the shaking stopped, her radio crackled to life, and Zero's voice came through.

"Black Knights, from here on out regroup and head towards the target. Those in the vanguard hurry to the front of the train, that's where the enemy's main force will be." As quickly as his voice appeared, it vanished, causing an uneasy wave of silence to wash over Kallen's cockpit.

"Hmm..." she thought as she nervously bit her right thumbnail. "I don't know why, but I've got a bad feeling about this." Ever since the fighting started, a sense of dread had been hanging over her like a swarm of locusts. "Oh, don't worry about that now!" She said as she gently slapped the sides of her cheeks. "Right now you just need to focus on following Zero's orders. If you do that, then everything will be okay." With a new look of determination blazing in her eyes, Kallen turned the Guren around and headed towards the front of the train. Eventually, she joined up with Sugiyama, Inoue, and the rest of the main force.

"Ah, good, you're back." Kallen heard Inoue say over the crackling intercom. "Somebody go and notify Zero! Also, does anyone know when Diethard is going to make his statement? If we want this plan to work he'll have to start the broadcast soon." As she spoke, Kallen watched as several platoons of knightmares circled around her and the rest of the vanguard, forming a perimeter.

"Is there something we should be worried about?" She asked them over the radio as her eyebrows narrowed. In response, the speaker crackled to life, and Zero's voice came through.

"Some of our scouts reported a strange white knightmare near the back of the transport. Immediately after the initial assault, they went in to see if they could neutralize it. They haven't reported back since then." The Black Knight's leader said as Kallen gritted her teeth together. That could only mean one thing.

"It appears that my old student is here." She heard Tohdoh say over the intercoms as he and the Four Holy Swords emerged out of the forest. "That boy always had a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Zero, I recommend that we allocate more troops to the rearguard. When Kururugi starts his attack, we'll have to be ready."

"I agree with you, Tohdoh. Sugiyama, Inoue, you two leave the front and assume battle formation Theta Sigma. If either one of you spot Kururugi, try to surround him and push him back. Focus on delaying his movements, this isn't an assassination mission." If all went according to plan, infecting the sakuradite fuel would only take a few minutes. And with their numbers and overwhelming tactical advantage, Suzaku wouldn't be able to stop them, the boy was only human, after all.

"Roger that." Kallen heard Sugiyama say as the man drove his knightmare to the back of the group. Once they were all in formation, Zero gave the command to commence the final phase of the operation. Like a colony of ants, Kallen and the rest of the knights swiftly moved up towards the front of the train. Those in the rearguard hung a few hundred meters back from the main group, and had their weapons drawn in case an enemy emerged out of the dark forest. Every so often, Kallen could hear the distant sound of gunfire erupting from that dense wall of trees.

"That's probably Suzaku's doing..." she thought as she watched their scouts identification signals start to go out.

"Guys, my radar is picking up something, brace for impact!" Inoue yelled as shockwaves from numerous nearby explosions rocked their formation. In an effort to distract the Britannians main force, the Black Knights' leader had deployed several knightmare companies into the surrounding area. The strategy was a reliable one, however, it was also risky. Since there were only a few units tasked with distracting the Britannian's main force, all it would take for the plan to crumble would be one well-timed shot. To minimize this risk, Lelouch made sure to give the mission to only their best scouts.

"As I expected, all of my pieces are still on the board..." Lelouch thought as his lips curled into a smug grin. Since the operation began, not a single unit on the distraction team had been taken out. Like a swarm of flies, they danced around the Britannian soldiers with relative ease. "When fighting in wooded areas like these, the Britannians large numbers become their greatest weakness." Even though the scouts he assigned were grossly outnumbered, the Britannians tendency to prefer a dense soldier layout provided them with ample opportunities to strike. However, even with all of their carefully-calculated advantages, that didn't mean that everything went perfectly according to plan.

"Zero! We've got a problem!" He heard one of the scouts say as a large explosion shook the area. Immediately afterwards, about a mile to the west, Lelouch watched as a gigantic pillar of black smoke billowed up into the air. "An unidentified knightmare just took out one of our support teams and is heading this way!"

"That must be Suzaku…" Lelouch thought as he pinched the bridge of his nose and pressed a small button on his knightmare's dashboard. "Kallen, Tohdoh, we've got company. I'm sure you can guess who it is." Immediately after those words left his lips, another large plume of fire exploded out of the forest, completely enveloping Lelouch and the nearby soldiers in its burning grasp. "Tch! He's not giving us a moment to think!" He yelled as he watched Suzaku's Lancelot bolt out of the cloud of smoke.

"It's Kururugi! Quickly! Get into formation and surround him!" One of the privates yelled as he, and several other glory hunting rookies, rushed to take down the infamous knightmare pilot. However, in the blink of an eye, the Lancelot tore each and every one of them to pieces. It took only twenty seconds for Suzaku to deal with them all, and by the time the rookies cockpits ejected into the sky, most of their knightmares were completely destroyed.

"Tch… he's gotten better." Lelouch thought as his front teeth dug into his bottom lip. As a small trickle of blood seeped onto his tongue from the fresh wound he had made; the leader of the Black Knights sighed and manually moved his knightmare to the front of the formation. "Tohdoh, have any of our reserve teams reported back yet?" He asked the leader of the Four Holy Swords.

"No... their radios have been silent for the past fifteen minutes. I'm guessing that's my old student's doing." When Lelouch heard that, he frowned and furrowed his brow. Casualties were always going to be a problem in battle, and he was prepared for that, however, he was never one-hundred percent certain on how the others would handle it. Tamaki, in particular, became a loose cannon whenever someone he knew paid the ultimate price. In chess, a pawn or a rook wouldn't care if one of its brothers or sisters was taken, but, in reality, the wrong person dying could lead to the entire army taking a vital hit in morale. A good example of such a valued soldier would be Kallen, if she died, he had no idea what Ohgi and the others would do. If he had to hazard a guess, their actions would probably become a lot more erratic. Just like how Suzaku was acting right now. "Our initial assault must've done more than I thought..." it was hard to see in the dark, but there were several pieces of bent purple metal strewn across the surrounding area, most likely belonging to destroyed Britannian knightmares. Not only that, but, with every passing moment, Suzaku's attacks became stronger, quicker, and more predictable. "When it came to protecting someone, you always were the spitting image of a shining, yet feral, knight." When they were kids, Suzaku would go to similar extremes to protect him and Nunnally.

"Zero, should we send a few troops to search for any injured?" Inoue asked him as bullets whizzed past his cockpit, some of the Britannian's main force must've gotten through. Not wasting a moment, Lelouch turned his knightmare towards the forest and fired the entirety of his magazine into the wall of trees. He didn't hit anything, but it was enough to delay the Britannians advance.

"No, we can't afford to send in more troops, not when we're so close." Lelouch said, refusing Inoue's call for aid. "Besides, they're all equipped with Rakshata's emergency vests. So, unless they get themselves captured, they should be fine." That was a lie, Lelouch knew that Rakshata wasn't a miracle worker. If the damage was great enough, nothing could save those men and women, even with all of their safety precautions. However, at the moment, what they needed to focus on was the mission. If they got sidetracked trying to save people that may already be dead, they could risk losing everything. However, he knew that paltry excuse wouldn't be enough to sway Inoue and Sugiyama. "Attention all Black Knights, after we achieve our objective, we'll begin an emergency rescue mission for our missing comrades, understand?" When he said that, he heard a noticeable sigh of relief coming from Kallen's radio.

"I hear you loud and clear, Zero!" She yelled as she charged towards Suzaku. As the two knightmares crossed blades, Lelouch input a few commands into his console and brought up his radar, which displayed the signals of each and every one of his troops. The fallen soldiers that Inoue was talking about were nearly two kilometers away, and their signals were fading fast.

"Hmm... some stray bullets must've damaged their mapping systems." Yet again, Lelouch bit his lip. As much as he hated to say it, he'd probably have to abandon these soldiers to meet his goals. All of them were probably dead, or dying, anyway. "I may have lost some pawns, but the battle is still going in my favor." Now wasn't the time for him to hesitate. So, with a fiery determination filling his eyes, he leaned back and spoke into his microphone. "All units, charge! It's time for us to finish this!" He'd pay those fallen soldiers back with a pile of Britannian corpses. As the sound of gunfire once again filled the night sky, Lelouch and the platoon that was with him charged towards the front of the train. While the battle raged on, no one noticed as a shadowy figure flew over their heads, rocketing towards the large plumes of smoke that were filling the woods.

The stench of burnt metal and flesh filled Allen's nostrils as he landed in the middle of the blazing inferno. He could feel his lungs start to fry with every breath he took, if it wasn't for his healing factor, he would've passed out already. As the fire licked greedily at his clothes, Allen crouched down, and started to look for any survivors. Like a moth to a bright light, he instantly identified four fallen bodies, and started the arduous task of dragging them out of their knightmares. "You guys sure did a number to this place." He mumbled as he hoisted one of the soldiers up onto his right shoulder. As he did this, he stared at some of the gigantic weapons that were still stuck in the knightmares hands and frowned. "These cannons... they almost look like the ones that were used by akuma." They were certainly large enough to be considered as such.

"Ugh... Zero..." Allen heard another soldier say as she lay unconscious next to a deer's burning body. Across her stomach was a massive gash that was spewing out blood, and she appeared to have a serious concussion. Not wasting a moment, Allen leaned over and gently picked the woman up before bolting out of the burning forest. On his back he carried a total of six people, all of them critically injured.

"I'm going to have to get these guys to a safe spot..." there was no way that any of them could make it to a hospital, their injuries were simply too severe. Hell, it was a miracle that none of them had died by the time he reached them. "Don't worry..." he mumbled as he stared at the Black Knight and Britannian sigils sewn onto their uniforms, "I'll get you back to your comrades, I promise." After about a minute of running, he finally made it out of the burning forest, and started looking for a place to house the injured soldiers he was carrying. It didn't take him long to find a small cave to setup his makeshift clinic in. Five minutes later, he had all six of the injured soldiers lying peacefully on the ground. "Now then, what do I do?" He wasn't particularly skilled in first aid or medicine. In fact, if he tried to heal them via traditional methods, there was a good chance that he'd actually end up doing more harm than good. "I guess... I can always use my left arm." He thought as he stared at his deformed appendage. "I mean, all I needed to do to heal Ikuko's injuries was just touch her, so maybe..." acting on instinct, Allen took off his left glove and lightly pressed his palm against one of the injured Black Knights forehead. Like with Ikuko, a faint light started to radiate off of the soldier's flesh, and then their injuries started to fade away.

"Watch out! One of those Britannian knightmares is firing heavy artillery!" He heard the distant voice of a Black Knight yell right before a tremor shook the cave he was in. Dust and specks of dirt fell off of the ceiling and right into the soldiers wounds. Thank God they were all unconscious, or else he was certain that they'd all be screaming out in pain.

"Okay, I guess it's your turn next." Allen mumbled as he turned to his next patient, a man in his early thirties, and wiped some sweat off of his brow. "You Britannians should really thank the people who design your suits, if it wasn't for them expanding and blocking your wounds, you'd have bled out by now." After taking a moment to make sure the man's head was elevated, Allen pressed his exposed left hand against the soldier's bicep, healing the Britannian's wounds. From there he turned his focus to healing the other four, and soon all of them were resting peacefully. Being careful not to disturb their slumber, Allen moved all of them to the leftmost edge of the cave, and then headed out to find more survivors. The main battle had moved up towards the front of the train, away from him and the others. "Good, now I have more room to move around." Of course, the longer this conflict raged on, the more casualties there would be. If he wanted to avoid unnecessary deaths, he'd have to work fast. "Hopefully, this will come in handy." He mumbled to himself as he took out a portable radar, which he had borrowed from one of the unconscious soldiers, and frowned. There were multiple fading signals scattered throughout the entire area, far more than he initially expected. "These idiots sure love shooting at each other," he thought with a sigh. With that, he slipped the radar back into his pocket, and rushed towards the nearest signal.

Thanks to the multiple walls of fire and smoke, Allen had to make quite a few detours before he finally arrived at his destination. The place the radar had led him to was a large clearing, which was completely littered with the charred remains of multiple knightmares and dying soldiers. The signal itself was coming from one of the few knightmares that was still mostly intact. Its legs had been completely torn to shreds by artillery, and was leaning against a nearby cliff face. The cockpit was hanging crookedly out of the back of the machine, its emergency parachutes having fired prematurely into a nearby tree. The wind was carrying the hot smoke from the fires directly into the main cabin, if he didn't do anything, the knightmare's pilot would soon suffocate. "Ouch, that stings!" Allen cried out as he swiftly clambered up the side of the giant machine, its metal armor scorching hot thanks to the smoke. Once he made it to the cockpit, he dug his fingers into the steel roof of the chamber, which had been knocked loose during the battle, and ripped it off. As he expected, the interior of the cockpit was completely full of smoke. The pilot, who was clearly unconscious, was covered in serious burns and multiple lacerations. "His injuries are too severe for me to risk carrying him back to the cave like this, I'll have to heal him now." Allen thought as he reached down into the cockpit and grabbed the man's belt. However, something was holding the soldier down, preventing him from being able to remove the man from the smoke-filled chamber. After waving some of the smoke out of the way, Allen discovered that the cause of this little snag was a large iron rod, which had driven itself through the soldier's leg, literally nailing the man to his seat.

The top end of the rod was twisted and bent, so simply lifting the man up to remove it wasn't an option. If he wanted to save him, Allen would either have to safely amputate the soldier's leg, or find a way to remove the top portion of the rod. Obviously, he went with the latter of the two options, and thankfully, he had the tools to accomplish such a task. With a flick of his wrists, he activated the blades he had hidden in his sleeves, causing them to come shooting out in one fluid motion. "Thanks Link..." he thought as he swiftly slashed at the top of the rod, splitting it in two. With that done, he easily lifted the pilot out of his seat and carried him down to the ground. Being careful not to cut the man, he retracted his blades, and pressed his left hand against the pilot's back. Just like the rest, his wounds were soon healed, and his breathing returned to normal. "Thank God..." for a second there, he thought he was too late. "I guess I should carry him and the rest back to the cave." Allen mumbled to himself as he looked around the clearing, there had to be at least thirty people there. Most of them were already on death's door, however, if he was quick, he could get them all back to the cave before they succumbed to their injuries. Of course, he could just heal them now, but that would waste valuable time that he didn't have. The clearing they were in was slowly starting to fill with heated smoke, and if he wanted to make sure that he had enough time to get to every one of the soldiers, he'd have to move them all to a cooler area first. However, before he could get started on relocating the injured, he felt a sudden twinge of pain shoot through his forehead. "Ow!" He cried out as the searing pain forced him down to his knees, however, as quickly as it appeared, the migraine vanished. Sadly, since Allen only had one pair of eyes, he didn't notice as a few wisps of dark purple energy wafted out of his back and up into the air. Like the headache, the strange energy disappeared after only a few seconds, Allen completely unaware of its presence. "I guess I must've inhaled too much smoke..." he thought as he tried to rationalize what had just happened to him. Sadly, he didn't get any time to ponder over his mysterious headache, as the sound of artillery fire was starting to get uncomfortably close. "Tch, I need to move these guys now!" With that, Allen pushed his personal health to the back of his mind, and rushed to start moving the injured soldiers. For him, this long night had only just begun.

Lelouch tapped his dashboard as he watched his troops rush to push back Suzaku and the Britannians main force. In the chaos, he had a few soldiers sneak past the remaining guards and complete their objective. Now the only issue was getting out. Some of Cornelia's personal troops had joined the fray, and they were putting up a defense that was proving to be a rather tough nut to crack. "Hmm... we might be spending a bit more time here than I expected, but it doesn't matter." The sakuradite fuel had been infected, now it was simply a matter of patience.

"Zero, our right flank is being pushed back, do you want us to act as support?" Tohdoh asked him as Kallen impaled one of the assaulting knightmares, its cockpit rocketing off into the distance. After taking a few moments to think, Lelouch nodded and lifted his microphone up to his mouth.

"Go ahead, but stay vigilant and be ready to move at my command." With that, the Four Holy Swords bolted past him, and immediately started to tear into the Britannians vanguard. As chunks of metal flew through the air, Lelouch stared at his radar and sighed.

"I should probably get started on my statement..." he thought as he frustratingly rubbed his temples. He had lost a few more men than he initially anticipated, and he was certain that Ohgi and the rest would want him to notify the dead's families. "I guess I can make a public statement in their honor, that should be enough to satisfy them." He'd have Diethard write up a rough draft later. "It's the little things like this that are always the hardest, aren't they, my dear sister?" Cornelia was probably experiencing the exact same dilemma right now. After all, someone had to answer for all of these casualties. "Knowing her, she's probably going to pin all of the blame on me and the Black Knights, and when she does, I'll be ready with my statement." Cornelia was a warrior, when it came to subtleties like this, she might as well be a fish drowning on dry land. "Inoue, as soon as you are able send out a search party. We'll try to save as many as we can." He said as he stared out of his knightmare's window, at this point, he was certain that all of those people were dead. But he definitely couldn't say that over the radio. Zero was a symbol of hope and justice, after all. With that, Lelouch leaned back into his chair, and closed his eyes. From here the battle would unfold exactly as he'd predicted, well... for the most part.

"Z-Zero!" Lelouch's eyelids shot open when he heard Inoue's panicked voice come out of his radio. "The missing soldiers! Their signals have come back!" When he heard that, Lelouch raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes. Each and every one of his troops was equipped with a personal locator, so them suddenly appearing on the radar wasn't all that strange. However, when he finally looked at his own radar, he couldn't help but gasp. As something very strange had indeed happened.

"Why are they all in one place?!" He thought as he stared at his knightmare's display. Near the northern edge of the forest, all of his missing troops were located in the exact same area. But that wasn't the most confusing part, for, if his intel was correct, they weren't alone. "And why are Britannian soldiers there?!"

Author's Note

Hey guys I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! With summer rolling in, and the huge chapter I got out last month in my other -man story, I'm planning on putting this one on as my main focus for the time being. For my other readers, I hope you guys will support this decision, as we're finally getting into the interesting part of this story. Anyways, before I close this off, I have some things I want to tell you all, as well as a few questions.

First off, for the pairings, do know that I'm reading your votes. If you don't know, I'm going to stop the voting by the time the 10th chapter comes out! So, get your votes in if you do/don't want a pairing!

And finally, for the question, I want to know what you guys think about Ikuko. It's my first time writing a character that's like her, so I'm really interested to hear what you guys think! Anyways, that's all for me. So, without further delay, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day, and I'll see you guys in the next chapter of A New Dawn!

Chapter 10: Butterfly