And welcome back everyone! Before we get started, a few notes:

A/N: I own nothing...as always

A/N 2: To answer some comments, both Villeta and Rollo are dead. Their death's were mentioned in passing during previous chapters (Ch.7 and Ch. 11).

A/N 3: I'm trying out one or two new things with the chapter. In particular, I'm beginning with a POV from Arthur, which is something I haven't tried before. All I can ask is for your continued patience and support (as well as your reviews, to let me know how I'm doing).

A/N 4: Alright, we've passed 500 followers! High fives for all of you!

...Aright, I don't think I have anything else to add here. On with the show!

Chapter 13: Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky (Part 3: Save Me from The Waltz)

The universe isn't obligated to make sense to you – Neil DeGrasse Tyson

The flames are all long gone/But the pain lingers on – Pink Floyd

I have a new name for pain…The Obliterator. Because when you're in pain, nothing else can exist. Not thought. Not emotion. Only the drive to escape the pain. When it is strong enough, the Obliterator strips of everything that makes us who we are, until we're reduced to creatures less than animals, creatures with a single desire and goal: escape – Eragon Shadeslayer

Brackentail sat on the inside of a window ledge and looked over his new home, the strange Twoleg place that was called "Ash-ferd Ah-kah-deh-mee". And his name was still Brackentail, or at least that's what he referred to himself as instead of the kittypet name that he had been given: "Are-tur". He could still remember his childhood in Thunderclan; playing with his littermates in the den, patrolling the forest with his mentor Ferntooth, and especially the Gatherings that were held at FourTrees under the full moon. However, his somewhat peaceful existence was cut brutally short. It had not even been a moon after gaining his warrior name when the great birds that hover came and rained fire and death onto the forest. They seemed to be primarily focused on the Twoleg compound that was located in the forest, but the fires and ashes spread to the clans and the cats were all scattered. Brackentail still wondered what became of his clan. He wondered whether any of them, or if any other clan cat, had lived.

After that, Brackentail was forced to become a loner, scrounging after half-starved rats and rotten Twoleg garbage. His only respite was for a brief two moons when he fell under the care of what he imagined to be the Twoleg equivalent of a loner. He called himself "Nah-kah-ta" and he called Brackentail "Neh-ko". Brackentail was distrustful of this Twoleg at first, but he grew accustomed to him. It was during this time that the Twolegs were themselves broken into clans: there were the ones who looked like Nah-kah-ta that were called "Nee-hon-gin", and there the paler ones who were called "Brits". It was a group of these Brits who killed Nah-kah-ta; they cornered him one night and proceed to viciously beat him before setting him on fire. Brackentail felt the urge to help, but he knew that he was powerless to stop them, just as he was powerless to stop any Twoleg. From there Brackentail resumed the life of a loner, until he was picked up two new Twolegs called "Yu-fee" and "Sue-zah-ku". Brackentail was always wary, but they took him to the Ash-ferd Ah-cah-de-mee, where he met new Twolegs like "Mill-ee", "Riv-all", and "Lulu". He was basically a kittypet now, but he was happy since he was now being fed and kept safe. Or at least as safe as one can be around Twolegs.

It was on this that Brackentail was meditating on when he heard a familiar whine. A loud boom followed, and as he turned his head he saw a large mass of flames that hadn't previously been there. Looking up into the sky, he could see the hovering birds of death, silhouetted against the stars and the moon. Hearing another whine, he quickly moved and made for the outside. They have returned, he thought as he ran, they've come to take my home from me again. But as he was making his out that there was an explosion he was knocked off his feet. Picking himself up, he realized that his hearing seemed a bit off, his eyesight was a bit woozy, and he was surrounded by fire. In the blazing flames in front of him, Brackentail could've sworn he saw a face; a malicious, evil face. A face that was taunting him. I killed your clan, the face seemed to say, I killed Nah-kah-ta, and now I'm going kill you. As he pulled himself away from the face, Brackentail saw that there was a small opening to the outdoors. Driven by an almost-irrational desire to deny the face in the flames, he rushed through it. It singed his fur, but he was now outside and alive.

Looking around the courtyard, he saw that the whole place was in chaos. Twolegs were running around scared and confused, no one seeming to head in a general direction. Brackentail eventually saw what he thought was familiar looking Twoleg and he headed in that direction, doing his best to avoid the swift legs of others as he made his way over there. His hunch turned out to be correct as he came upon Mill-ee. The yellow-haired Twoleg picked up Brackentail and embraced him, an embrace which he accepted. But even as he curled into the arms of the Twolegs, he could still feel the heat in his fur and see the bright orange flames through his closed eyes.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Late in the night, as fires of Ashford were dying down, a message was sent out. It reached every TV, phone, and computer in Area 11, Britannian and Japanese alike. It was also uploaded to a number of popular websites, and soon it had gone viral across the world. Here's how it went:

The screen lost signal for a second, showing nothing but static. It was then replaced by an image of Zero sitting at a desk in a non-descript room with the banner of the Black Knights behind him. He sat there in silence for a few seconds, before speaking:

Things have gone too far.

The goal of the Black Knights has always been simple: Justice. Justice for the downtrodden. Justice for the disenfranchised. Justice for the wrongfully wrong. Justice for those who have no voice. Justice for the weak. Justice for the maligned. Justice for all.

We fought injustice wherever we found it. We fought when we found it in the ruins of Shinjuku, as thousands of Japanese were being massacred. We fought when hundreds of innocents were held hostage at Lake Kawaguchi. We have fought wherever we have found injustice. And we will continue to do so.

However, there appears to be an increasing source for these injustices. One from which a number of atrocities and cruelties have recently emerged. I of course refer to the Britannian Empire. We attempt to make peace with the empire by means of the Special Administration Zone. This turned out to be a false hope, as a peaceful celebration was turned into a massacre its very first night by forces that directly report to the Emperor. Soon after, its architects were removed, and we were given Princess Carine ne Britannia as Viceroy, as well as Ser Luciano Bradley to oversee matters. Within days of their appointment, a whole new host of horrors was unleashed upon Japan. Troops went through the ghettos in Ikkebukuro and and Takadonababa and killed anyone who was living there. A set of Knightmares were set loose on the Tokyo Settlement, attacking a school and killing the students who were simply hosting a dance. And across Japan, Britannian men, women, and children were dragged out of their homes and shot like dogs. Why? Because either they were sympathetic to our cause, they were critical of Britannian policies, or simply because they were in bad standing with the Empire.

Are we to accept this? That our lives are beheld to the mere whims of overpowered authority figures that isolate themselves from the world? I say no. I say that we must take up arms against these unnatural tyrants and fight! And I urge those of you out there to join us in our fight! For if we fail, or if we remain silent, then it will count as a victory for the Carines and Lucianos of the world. And it will send a message that they are the only ones that can get results; which will result in the emergence of imitators who will copy their barbarity and their cruelty.

And so, whether you join us in our fight or not, I will make you a promise: I promise that I will see to it that Princess Carine and Luciano Bradley will pay for the crimes they have wrought upon the land. And then, when Japan is free from the travesties that have been inflicted on it, I will go the Britannian homeland and see to it that the Charles zi Britannia pays for his crimes and the crimes of his subordinates. He will say that he can kill whatever comes for him, but he is wrong; for this time, justice is coming for him.

And justice can never die.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Justice may not be able to die, Kallen thought with drunken bitterness, but everything else sure can.

This had to have been the roughest week in her life in both timelines. The attack on Ashford had been bad enough; there was almost no warning and it was humiliating that the Ace of the Black Knights was reduced to fleeing the school like the rest of them. Then the morning after revealed the casualties: 50 students were dead, with 30 more were wounded. Amongst the dead was Shirley, who had been struck through the neck with a piece of debris, killed in the same place where Kallen had left in order to go and dance with Lelouch. This fact was haunting her, but it wasn't what had sent her over the edge.

No, what had done that were the raids that occurred around Tokyo at the same time, the ones that were designed to target "persons with views and beliefs that were incongruous with those of the Holy Britannian Empire". It appeared that her father counted as one such person, due to some comments he had made about Prince Clovis' tax plan and his previous marriage to a Number. The raid had been swift; a five-man team had burst into the house and killed Lord Patrick Stadtfeld and his wife in a manner of eight minutes. Just for good measure, they also killed the only other witness in the house: a maid by the name of Hori Kozuki.

Kallen couldn't remember what she felt when she found her mother's body on the floor in a pool of blood. As a matter of fact, she could barely remember the past couple of days: All she could remember was talking to someone at the morgue, a series of attempts at consolation and comfort, signing some documents that confirmed her as the new Lady Stadtfeld, and a string of funerals that included her mother's. She wasn't sure about all the details, as Lelouch and Ohgi had handled all of that. She had mostly coasted through it all, only marked by a sense of shell-shocked numbness, trying desperately to work out what she had done wrong in this timeline, why this had to happen. Eventually, as they covered the grave with dirt, she excused herself for air as the tears were beginning to flow down her face. The next thing she knew, she was back in her house, a thin veneer of dust already beginning to coat the place. It was there that her fragile state finally broke, and she began to search for any form of release, anything to take her mind off what was happening. Refrain was no longer an option, as her mother had made good on her promise to quit, something that made this turn of events even worse for Kallen.

However, another form of escape was much more readily available: alcohol.

The Stadtfeld family first came to prominence brewing whiskey in the southern part of the Homeland, becoming a favored choice amongst the nobility at the time. From there, they had been able to parlay that success into a noble title of their own, which they then used to parlay into other, more lucrative measures. But the Stadtfeld family never truly gave up their ties to what had gained them success in the first place. Even his mansion in Area 11, which was little more than an outpost for their foreign interests, held an impressive cellar replete with a number of fine vintages.

It was one such vintage, a hundred-year-old whiskey, that Kallen was sloshing over herself as she rode in a taxi towards Ashford Academy. She couldn't remember opening the bottle, she couldn't remember deciding to go to Ashford, she definitely couldn't remember calling the cab. She couldn't even remember how much she had drunk before deciding to leave the house. It was at some point that she became lucid enough to perceive that she was in a cab on its way to her school. I wonder how many drunken Brit teens this poor guy has had to drive she thought, looking out the window. Probably more than he would care to count.

Soon enough, they arrived at Ashford and Kallen paid the driver before stumbling towards the Student Council building, the only building to escape most of the damage. The school looked like a blasted ruin of itself, there was no telling how long it would take to fix everything. Soon enough, she was at the door, knocking at the door, the door opening to show Sayoko who looked upon Kallen with a look of surprise. "Ah the great ninja maid!" Kallen said, staggering through the door, "able to sneak into any goddamn place on earth, except into another man's heart. Or his pants."

"Master Lelouch, Mistress Kozuki has arrived!" Sayoko shouted up the stairs, a slight edge of worriedness creeping into her voice.

Soon enough, Lelouch was at the top of the staircase, clearly in the middle of a call, and a look of pure shock on his face. "There he is!" Kallen shouted, "Lelouch vi Britannia, Emperor of Britannia, Defender of the Vale, Chess Grand Master, and The Chosen Boy who lived!"

"Ohgi, I've found her" Lelouch spoke into phone, the shock on his face bleeding into his words.

"Is that Ohgi? He's worried about me, isn't he? Tell him if he's so intent on being my mother, a vacancy just opened up!"

"I have to call you back" Lelouch said, before closing his phone and descending the staircase. "Kallen, what's gotten into you?"

"Really Lulu? You can't tell? How the hell did you become a chess mastermind with people reading skills like that? I just lost my mother! You know what that's like, unless the Royal Family is so messed up that death doesn't matter anymore."

That was a low blow, and somewhere in the back of her mind Kallen knew that. But the whiskey was more or less in complete control of her mind at this time, so there wasn't much she could do.

"It seems that you need a lesson in love then," she continued, moving closer to Lelouch. "And since this is a school, then it's the perfect place for it. Now come show the teacher what you're made of." And with that, she pulled Lelouch into a passionate kiss while her hands started to move from his back to a lower position on his body…

She felt the kiss being broken off, and Lelouch was holding her at arms-length. Her makeup had smeared on his face, which was now filled with a mixture of stunned shock and worried terror. "Kallen, what's going on?"

"It's springtime isn't it? Let's sing a gay little spring song! This is the season to sing! This is the season of love, life, and birth, no? So, as Lady Stadtfeld, it is my duty to see to it that there is an heir to the Stadfelt empire, and for that I need a baby. Do you see what you need to do, or do I have to spell it out for you?"

"Kallen" Lelouch said, clearly picking his words carefully, "you're not thinking properly-"

"Of course I'm not thinking properly! I skipped out on my mother's funeral and I'm drunk as hell! Now put a baby in me and let's hit the bad decision trifecta, finally proving what a disappointment I am! So come on Lulu! Let me feel it!" Suddenly, Kallen felt her the energy drain out of her like water in a bucket full of holes. "Let me feel something" were the last words whispered before she dropped the bottle of whiskey, its contents spreading across the floor as the bottle landed with a crash. Fitting, since I've lost control of everything else Kallen thought as she lost consciousness and collapsed into what she hoped were Lelouch's arms.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nunnally was enjoying her eyesight, but there were times where she half wished she was blind again. That desire often had been brought in brief seconds on by the sights of the aftermath of battles, but now that it had been invoked more strongly by something she hadn't been overly familiar with before: funerals.

Over the week or so since the attack on Ashford, Nunnally had lost track of the number of funerals she had to attend or hear about: funerals for her classmates, classmates' siblings, classmate's parents, comrades, comrades' family…the list never seemed to end. In particular, three funerals stood out more than anything. The first was that for old Principal Ashford and his son (who had oddly been visiting at the time), both dead from the bombing during the dance; this stood out because Milly, now the new Lady Ashford, collapsed midway through the service into a waterfall of tears and had to be carried away by Rivalz. The second was Shirley's funeral, where Ms. Fenette had viciously berated Mr. Fenette, screaming in her grief that it was his fault that her baby girl was dead and that they should never have come to this godforsaken place. Finally, there had been the one for Ms. Kozuki yesterday, where Kallen had vanished from right after the service only to appear at their house as part of a spectacular drunken meltdown.

With all that, it's no wonder this place seems so morose Nunnally thought as she looked looked around the table. Euphie, Suzaku, and Lelouch were all sitting there, picking at their food and looking morose. She couldn't blame any of them for doing so; after all, she was doing the exact same thing. Nunnally knew she should eat something; Milly had suddenly called for a Student Council meeting, and she would need to be able to focus for whatever Milly had planned. But she still couldn't, as the events of the past week still weighed heavily on her. Nunnally then heard a door close and saw Nelly come in with her knight Guilford and take a seat at the table. She was grateful her half-sister had been around since she had proven to be a stabilizing force. Everyone here had seen their fair share of battle, but the past few days had rocked them all to their core. Cornelia was the only one at the table who had seen more battles than anyone, with the sole exception of C.C, who was eating another pizza.

"I just checked, it'll be done in about 5 minutes" Nelly said, looking towards Lelouch, who nodded in her direction as a way of thanks.

"What are you making?" Nunnally asked. Whatever it was, she could smell it from here, the aromas of bacon, cheese, eggs, and a whole host of other things wafting into her nose.

"The Regimental Hangover Casserole. I learned it from my CO during my first tour in Brazil, when I was about Lelouch's age. It's proven more useful than you could imagine."

"Do you think that Kallen is okay?" Euphie asked, speaking the question that was on everyone's mind. While Nunnally, Suzaku, and Lelouch were all more familiar with Kallen (due to their experience with time travel), none of them had ever seen her lose control like this.

"Honestly, I would've been more worried if this hadn't been her reaction" was Cornelia's response. "She's clearly a skilled fighter who's seen a fair amount of battle. But everyone has a breaking point, and given all that's happened this week, this isn't surprising. If the result is her getting drunk and trying to jump Lelouch's bones, then she'll be fine."

"You sound confident about this" C.C said, taking another slice.

"I'm a soldier; a larger portion of my time is dealing with drunks, pervs, and pervy drunks. Any soldier who never tries to release his feelings via bottle or bed tends to go insane pretty quickly. The only thing is to not let it become a regular habit."

"Did either you ever hit a breaking point?" Euphie asked Cornelia and Guilford, a mark of concerned curiosity forming on her face.

Cornelia sat back in thought for a few seconds before answering. "I hit the breaking point once. It was in Toledo, after I lost...a comrade close to me. I threw myself into battle for a few days, letting nothing else distract me; but when we had finally won, the grief caught up and I just felt...hollow. I sat down at the bar and I just started drinking. The next thing I can remember, I wake up in my room with a sprained ankle, a horse, and a pineapple. I can't remember how I wound up with any of them."

"A horse?"

"Apparently, I declared that I was going to name it my knight and have it protect me in my barracks. I'm still not a hundred percent sure that's what happened, but I have no reason to dispute it."

"As for myself" Guildford said, "My own breaking point came after my brother died. I'm afraid I also got drunk and... behaved rather unprofessionally."

"Meaning…?" Euphie prompted.

"I may have… gorged myself on a buffet and tried to flirt with a wooden statue. I was chastised by both her highness and the bar owner the next morning."

"I know what you mean about getting yelled out by bar owner after getting sloppy drunk" C.C commented, drawing everyone's attention.

"C.C, when did this happen?" Nunnally asked, intrigued.

"This was ….in Bavaria, in 1879, I believe."

"I thought you wouldn't be able to get drunk, due to your code."

"You're right. Ordinarily, my code means I can hold my drink. However, I tried to hold all the drinks one night. The result was I woke up amongst a bunch of empty casks with a raging headache where my memory of the previous night should've been. I will say this: I lost the fear of death since I got my code, but getting yelled out by an angry German publican is the closest that I've come to re-experiencing that sensation."

"Why were you getting that drunk?" Lelouch asked, surprised at C.C's loss of control.

"Same reason why the Princess, her knight, and your girlfriend were getting that drunk: I had reached a breaking point."

"Really? What caused that?"

"I never told you?"

"No."
"...At any time?"

"No." Lelouch answered again, deflecting the subtle reference to his time travel.

"Well, just pray I don't have a reason to tell you" C.C said, leaning back in her chair, "because if I do, that means things have really gone off the deep end."

Just then, a timer went off. "Ah, the casserole is done!" Cornelia said, springing out of her chair. "Lelouch, can you see if get Kallen up? She could do with some food."

Lelouch nodded and moved to the bedroom to wake up Kallen while Nelly moved to kitchen to get the casserole out of the oven, leaving the table to ponder the limits of the human heart.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lelouch walked over to the bundle of sheets crouched in the bed and gently shook it. "Wake up Kallen" he said in a gentle voice.

"Go away" a groggy voice spoke from sheets.

"Come on" Lelouch said, shaking the sheets a little more forcefully.

Kallen got up, her eyes looking sleepy and her hair a mess. For some reason, she seemed to be avoiding eye contact with Lelouch. "Whassgoingon?" she slurred out, clearly hungover.

"Cornelia cooked up something especially for you. She says it's perfect for helping you recover from last night."

At that, Kallen suddenly burst into tears. "Kallen? What's wrong?" asked a bewildered Lelouch.

"I screwed up so much last night" Kallen replied, her voice crawling through her tears. "You were talking about fighting back and being strong, and what do I do? I go and get drunk and act like a fool and now you're going to break up with me and -"

"Kallen, slow down!" Lelouch interrupted, growing even more bewildered. "I'm not sure what's going through your head, but none of that is going to happen."

"Really? Even after what I did last night?"

"Do you really think I care so little for you?" Lelouch said, pulling her into a hug. "Everyone has a breaking point; and you are handling yours better than I handled mine. You're one of the strongest people I know, and I'm going to need your strength, whether it's physical or emotional, in this upcoming fight against the Empire."

Kallen didn't have a response, only returning the hug through her tears. But to Lelouch, he didn't need one. They sat embraced for about a minute before Kallen broke it and started to wipe the tears from her eyes. "By the way, why didn't you sleep with me last night?" she asked.

"You didn't mean it. You were feeling hollow and were trying to fill the void in your soul with first a drug and then sex, which was the last thing you need."

"How do you know?"

"I was once in a similar position like you and tried to do the same thing. However, I was denied, and I wound up all the better for it."

"Really? How did that happen?"

"You slapped the Refrain injector out of my hands, before slapping me."

This finally brought a smile to Kallen's face. "What happens now?"

"As far as what happens with the Black Knights, I'm still working on that. Carne has made things a right mess of things, so it'll take a little bit to figure out our next move. As far as today goes, you're going to get up and have a military casserole that will help you function for a emergency Student Council meeting that was called about an hour ago."

"Okay" Kallen said, trying to get out of bed. She managed to leave on her own two feet, but the piercing rays of sunlight threw her off balance. She wobbled for a bit before being caught by Lelouch. "I don't suppose you'd be able to Geass the sun into toning it down, would you?" she asked.

Lelouch smiled sadly. "Unfortunately no, I can't. I do have the next best thing" he said, pressing a pair of sunglasses he had brought along. Kallen smiled, and happily took them.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Breakfast was a quick affair that found Kallen able to function slightly better, though she still needed the sunglasses to see as the sun refused to tone itself down. Soon enough, she had walked into the Student Council room with Lelouch, Suzaku, and Nunnally. It was when they walked in that Lelouch noticed that there was a much different atmosphere in the room than what it usually was. Ordinarily, it'd have been filled with a sunny energy of the President eager to engage the student population. Today, it just felt like the party before a funeral. That in of itself was not surprising, given how many of those damn things they had attended over the past few days. But what was more interesting to Lelouch was the faces of everyone there. Nina and Rivalz had looks of nervous concern etched into their faces. Gino (who's appearance here was surprising enough, given all that had happened) bore a mask of stoic concentration. But it was Milly's face whose stood out the most; her expression was a mixture of serious determination and intense energy, the kind that usually came in her smile as she described one of her bizarre schemes to engage the student population. Yet there was no smile when she greeted them. "Mr. Lamprouge. Ms. Lamprouge. Lady Stadtfeld. Ser Kururugi. Thank you coming."

"No problem, Lady Ashford" Lelouch said as he took his seat, returning the formal edge that accompanied the greeting.

"How's Rickon?" Nunnally asked Nina.

"He's fine…He might be deaf in one ear and have a limp for the rest of his life, but the doctors say he'll recover."

"If we could begin?" Milly said, her voice still infused with a serious tone. Silence fell over the room, signaling their attention. "Given…all that has happened" she continued, quietly glancing at the empty seat where Shirley usually sat, "I think that we all can agree that our main business needs to be our response to…the bombing."

There was around of murmuring assents. "I propose a memorial" Lelouch said, taking out his notes. "It'll take a while to contact the parents and relatives, but –"

"Actually" Milly interrupted, "I had something else in mind."

"I'm sorry. What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that we all join the Black Knights."

"…WHAT?" Lelouch asked, his shocked tone matching the surprise running through the other time travelers in the room.

"You heard me. I said we're joining the Black Knights."

Lelouch looked around the room, seeking out the faces of the rest of the council. To his greater surprise, no one seemed to disagree with Milly. "All of you agree with her?" he asked to no one to particular, which got him a round of nods from around the room. He turned his attention to perhaps the most surprising of the assenters. "Gino," he began as he turned towards the blonde-haired knight, "you're a Knight of the Round. Surely, you –"

"I intend to go along with this plan" Gino said, his interruption laced with an intense bitterness. "I've resigned my position as the Knight of Three. I had to, after what happened." He paused for a minute before continuing. "I was called back to the base the night of the dance. I thought there was some emergency or other, but what it was…was far worse than I could've imagined. I was ushered to a room, where I was told by a smirking Bradley that I was in for a very exciting show. Then I see an aerial shot of the school…along with a cavalcade of Knightmares led by Anya. All I tried to get over here to save who I could but…but by the time I go here, they were all gone. I may not have been able to save anyone…but at the very least I can try to avenge them."

"Well, I don't doubt anyone else's conviction if someone like you has been swayed" Lelouch said with an impressed sigh, before returning his attention to Milly. "But just how are you planning to join the Black Knights?"

"Simple: I plan to ask Zero?"

"That's all good and well Milly, but how do you plan to ask Zero?"

"I'm asking you right now."

"…What?"

"I'm asking you right now: Can we join the Black Knights?"

Shock was threating to take over his brain, so it took everything he had ask the only question that could come to his mind: "W-What are you talking about?"

"Oh, don't play dumb, Lelouch!" Milly snapped, slamming her hand on the table as anger suddenly flooded her face. "Do you think I'm blind or stupid? I've noticed the communication that Nunnally has had set up a few doors down. I've noticed that you can never be accounted for whenever the Black Knights are doing something. Including when you disappeared into Shinjuku the same day Clovis was killed. You forget Lelouch, I know you better than almost anyone in this room. And the more you think about it, the more it makes sense that you're Zero."

Lelouch mulled over Milly's words for a few seconds, before realizing there was only one option available to him. "Yes, I'm Zero. What of it?"

Before he knew what was happening, Lelouch found himself on the floor with a sharp pain in his cheek, courtesy of Milly's palm. The rest of the room was still from the shock of both the revelations and the slap. As for Milly herself, she was holding her hand in pain, not expecting the force of her slap to sting that much. But before long, she had redirected her attention and fury back to Lelouch. "How could you? This all your fault!" she shouted, rage dripping from her voice.

"How is this my fault?" Lelouch answered, staggering as he stood up.

"Why else would they have attacked here? You have got god knows how much communication equipment here. You got two, three princesses hiding out here. You –"

"Alright Milly, Enough! Think for a minute!" Lelouch shouted, placing an emphasis of authority in his voice to regain control of the situation. "I've been waging a war with the Britannian Empire in secret for several months now. I have sources inside the Viceroy's government, and I've been hacking their coms with the equipment you just mentioned. Do you really think I would really keep Nunnally or anyone or anything else around if I had even an inkling this place being compromised? Do you really think I would be anywhere near here now?"

Lelouch suddenly turned to Gino. "Gino, did you hear anything about me, Nunnally, Princesses Euphemia or Cornelia, or anything at all related to the Black Knight when you were still on base during the course of the strike?"

"N-No," Gino said, a stammer developing out of his surprise at the sudden focus on him. "I-I even swiped the mission briefing on my way out. No mention of you or anything Black Knight- related mentioned. Just that the school was filled with … 'undesirables'."

"You see Milly? It wasn't because of me. You know that, otherwise we wouldn't be talking about you joining the Black Knights. You're just lashing out at me because I'm the closest one around."

There was a moment of silence while Lelouch and Milly caught their breaths, while the rest of the room still reeled from the shock of the argument unfolding in front of them. "So?" Milly finally asked?"

"So, what?"

"So, do we get to join the Black Knights?"

"…No."

"NO?" Milly responded, her face incredulous.
"Milly, I don't think you, or anyone else here, seems to understand what you're signing up for" Lelouch said, his voice becoming low as he leaned forward with an intent face. "This not just be seamless victories and grand speeches. There will be setbacks. There will be losses. There will be deaths. You'll be seeing scenes like the ones we've seen over the past week on a near regular basis. You will need to show no mercy because you'll receive none from our enemies. I cannot guarantee you'll come out of this alive. And if you do…you won't be same."

"I don't care" Milly said, her voice infused with steel. "I'm willing to put up with that all of that if it means that no one ever has to go through what we've gone through again."

Lelouch nodded, then looked around the room. "If anyone else here doesn't agree with that, then walk out the door right now."

No one left. Instead, they all stiffened their backs and adopted looks of determination and confidence. "I guess that's that" Lelouch said with a sigh, a sense of disbelief building in him from having to say the next words. "Welcome to the Black Knights everyone."

There was a brief moment as everyone let the information sink in. Milly then looked at Lelouch and asked intently "What happens now?"

Suddenly, Lelouch's cellphone went off. "The answer to that" he said with a sigh, "will likely depend on what I hear from this call."

Lelouch then answered the phone and asked "What is it?" There were a few seconds of silence before he said "Slow down Ohgi, slow down. What was that?" There were a second or two more of silence before Lelouch said something that no one had ever expected.

"What do you mean the E.U is invading Japan?"

... And on that note, I'll think we'll end it there.

Thanks everyone for reading! Please be sure to leave a review

P.S: There's one Bambi reference in this chapter. First reviewer to spot it gets an imaginary cookie (Sorry, I'm on a budget here ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) (Hint: Check Kallen's dialogue.)