"The acts of the parents should not reflect on their children, but sometimes humans don't realize that, and that is when you get society."

Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia.

…..

"Come on you three, not tired yet I hope?" My teasing tone coaxed my opponents back into action, the Gekka and Spartan taking the lead with the Guren following behind, the Perseus had only taken light damage, the greatest being a hit to its left leg thruster that reduced its efficiency to half. The three facing me were worse off, the Gekka down an arm, the modified Spartan III sporting multiple deep gashes, and the Guren having a few scrapes to its paint.

Huh, Kallen was good, I had not had the time to pay attention to her piloting, but being able to avoid damage from all the attacks I threw her way was damned impressive. I blocked their three swords with the shaft of my spear, the metal snapping under their pressure, still it had enough leverage to push them away, the spear parts still sizzling as I threw them at the still approaching Guren as if they were Javelin's. The first half was deflected on the jousting lance the machine was holding, but the second hit her in the Landspinner, making her machine stumble, still mobile but slower now.

One lance left I extended it while backing away, ready to continue my defensive stance when a pair of machines crested the ridge to join me, I recognized the Hercules instantly as it rushed towards the blue Gekka, Marius ready to bash it into the ground, while the Gloucester, Guilford's I noted, rushed towards the Damaged Spartan.

"Took you long enough Marius! You know I get bored when I'm on the defensive!"

"Those Black-knights are tougher than expected my prince, it took some time to get through them."

I turned to the Guren, the machine and its pilot filled with anger, doubt and a sliver of respect, deciding that I wanted a good fight I used my geass and tugged the anger to the forefront, the Guren charging forward in response. Her lance and my spear met, she was good with that thing, better then Nelly even, as she slid it along my spear to land a sneaky strike to my hand, before she went for another grab with the surger claw.

Using my thrusters to jump away I fired my shoulder guns mid-air, a move that had won me more battles then I have cared to count, the Guren simply blocked the attack with a burst of its radiation claw.

"Impressive..." I could not help but mutter, feeling the pilot, no Kallen, she had earned the right to be called by name, feeling Kallen's twinge of anger at my words, did I sound condescending? Not my intention, but I suppose it's too late for that. She rushed me again, lance ready to ruin my leg, I dodged to her side and thrust, expecting that attack to pierce her own leg, yet she dodged. "Good instincts."

"Burn Britannian!" Okay she was really pissed, fair enough, I have been told fighting me is rather frustrating. Her next attack was faster and more vicious, seems I tickled the dragon, the Guren's claw latched on to my shoulder gun barrel, ready to burn me in my own machine before I fired it at half power. The two weapons reacting explosively, both of us sent back ten meters, my upper arms armor was melted and the shoulder gun was ruined, the Guren's claw survived intact, but her chest armor was slagged slightly.

"You are good, little Dragoness, honestly, but as Saint George did before, I shall bring the dragon down!"

"Not if I gut you first pussy cat!" The words made a smile light up on my face, it's been a while since I had an opponent or sparring partner who loved banter, it was oddly refreshing.

…..

Rai's opponent was good, his bulky frame using its armor to simply tank swipes from his sword, and without the surger Ria had no weapon that could do much more damage than that. Meanwhile the his opponent threw blows that shook him in his cockpit, the electrified fists denting armor and frying electronics every time they connected. Still his Gekka was faster by far, more agile and manoeuvrable, hitting five times for every one the Hercules landed.

Still Rai was on the back foot most of the time, he knew not his opponents name, but he was becoming an issue. Rai had to think of something to get rid of him and quickly, so he could support his allies. Dodging another swing of the bulky machines fists Rai left two cuts in the black Knightmares chest armor, another haymaker came his way and was dodged, he was unable to retaliate this time either.

Growling Rai shot forward, blade set to a tiny gap in the enemies armor below its head, the Gekka was not able to jump high but the black Knightmares down swing brought it into range. His blade stabbed out, hitting its mark, but the machine simply twisted, grabbing the Gekka with its massive hands, beginning to squeeze.

…..

Kallen panted as she and her opponent stood back for a moment, the Guren was at eleven percent power, its claw glowing and near overheating, her lance broken and discarded, her armor potmarked, slagged and scratched with dozens of marks where the Lion's spear had connected. The Perseus look a better off, but its thrusters had run out of fuel, and its non-damaged shoulder gun's barrel sagged from overheating, its armor scratched and in some places burning red hot.

"This has been a hell of a fight, dear Dragoness." The Lion said, his voice having become familiar to her, she smiled at his words, she had been going all out for nearly twenty minutes now, first against Cornelia then against the Perseus. Having impressed a pilot as renown as the Lion was a nice measurement, even if she was going to lose, she had put up her best fight possible. "Honestly, I have not had to go down to low battery in a very long time..."

"Thanks, I think..."

"Now it's time to end this I think, feel free to eject if you wish." The Perseus stabbed its spears into the ground, reaching for its sword, Kallen decided that if she was going to go down fighting she was going to do it properly, and charged at him. The Lion deflected her claw with his sword, his parry placing the sword at her machines cockpit ready to stab forward, her hand reached for the ejection handle before she heard a sound.

The Lion must have heard it too, for he stopped his attack to look, the trees were being thrown away at a rapid pace, a blast of pure energy tearing through them, the ground below began to sag as the earth shook. The Perseus in front of her sunk down, its sword dropping and the Guren safely away for it, until a uprooted tree hit the Guren, she reached out the claw in panic and a feeling of adrenalin, feeling more than noting the Perseus grabbing it to pull itself way from a suddenly collapsing cliffside.

The ground below the two frame sagged further as she saw a familiar white Knightmare appear through the path cleared by the blast, then the ground rumbled.

"Cave-in!" She heard the Lion shout, for some reason the Perseus, taller than her machine by a few meters, bent itself over the Guren as they sank into the earth, protecting her nearly broken armor with its own untouched back. The sagging ground threw her around in the cockpit, Kallen felt her leg wound from a few days prior flash in pain right before she hit her head on the console in front of her and the world went black.

….

"Black-Knights, Retreat!" Lelouch heard C.C shout, the voice modulator making her sound exactly like Zero, he agreed with her order as well, the battle had gotten out of hand, and with the arrival of the new machine they were outnumbered. His shogun had been damaged heavily, the Gekka was dented to hell and back, the Guren was buried under, the Shinobi was almost out of power, only the Burai Zero was untouched.

He pulled away from Cornelia's battered Gloucester, angry at his inability to take her out fully, but knowing that the only chance for them was to retreat.

"What about Q-1?!" he heard Rai shout as he disengaged from his own opponent, Lelouch felt a shiver run through him, Kallen was stuck for now, likely to become a prisoner, but probably guaranteed her life being the daughter of a Noble. If she could get out it would be great but there was nothing he or anybody with him could do for her now.

"We have no choice, we have to leave her for now, either she will return to us or we will have to try and rescue her later! Pop chaff smoke!"

…

Pulling herself up Kallen looked around, the Guren's cockpit was lit only by the emergency lights, less than 5 percent power left then, she pulled the lever to pop open her machines hatch, it was clear now that she was underground with the utter darkness around her. She stumbled back to grab a flashlight from within the cockpit, her head hurt and blood was dripping down from the wound in her leg, her stiches from a few days ago ripped.

Once again outside the Guren she shined her flashlight around the space she found herself in, a cave, no sign of exits, and a large golden machine embedded into the wall. Her mind snapped to attention at that, the machine was stuck with its cockpit within the wall and its pilot, the Lion, was likely unable to get out, not a good way to go...

She approached it dragging her paining leg behind her, shining her flashlight over it she took in its form properly, armor damaged yet solid, weapons buried in the earth, thrusters sputtering as it tried to propel itself forward yet unable to without fuel. She was about to return to the Guren when a sound echoed around the cave, a hatch on the front of the Perseus she had not seen popped open, a tall, muscular man crawled out.

She made herself as ready for a fight as she could in her current state, reaching for an absent pistol then readying her flashlight to bash. The Lion stumbled to his feet, briefly blocking his eyes from her flashlight before standing tall and dusting his shirtless form off, why was he shirtless?

"It gets incredibly hot in that cockpit, mind aiming that light somewhere else?" So, she was likely a bit more shook by the cave in then she taught, because she did not mean to say that out loud. She acquiesced to his request, taking the flashlight off of him and aiming it at the wall besides them, the Lion blinked for a few moments before looking at her and speaking. "Holy mother of god, you are hot!"

Shocked she did not respond, it was the exact opposite of what she had expected the man to say, the man in question blinked a few more times before rubbing his head, hand coming away lightly red with blood.

"My apologies, our fall must have knocked more loose then I expected..."

"Don't worry too much, I get that a lot, I was just shocked."

"Thank you."

They stood silent for a few minutes, neither of them sure about what to say...

"Want me to stitch up that leg wound?" The man's question shook her from her scrambled thoughts, she looked at him as he walked back to his Knightmare to pull a med kit from it. Walking back to her she frowned, unsure about his question.

"Why? Aren't we enemies?"

The Lion smiled, a sight she expected to be more vicious then it was, it was almost pleasant in fact, he sat down on the rocky floor, patting the floor besides him to signal her to sit as well. She surprised herself when she chose to sit down, then again the blood loss may be effecting her judgement as well. When she was seated the Lion pulled her wounded leg onto his lap, opening the med kit and spraying her wound with a large dose of anti-infectant stuff, then a spray of pain killers, she frowned at the grizzly sight of her wound as he pushed a needle and medical thread through her flesh.

"We might have been enemies up there, but we were both fighting for our goals, with the battle over why should I fight my only company?"

"Fighting for our goals? I killed several royal guards up there, men under your command."

"And I killed hundreds of rebels over the years, we have both fought and killed for our beliefs, but that was on the fields of battle, now the battle is over and I don't have to fight." The Lion's stitching was near and well-practised, equal stitches being sown into her flesh to close the bleeding wound off. "To be honest with you, I am impressed with your skill and potential, and I am unlikely to get as good an opportunity to talk to you as now for a long while."

"But why am I so interesting to you..."

"Please call me Andre, as long as I may know your name too?"

"Its Kallen, now answer my question."

"Commanding, I like it." He chuckled as she glared at him, Kallen found his dismissive attitude of her anger would not do, it forced her to punch him on the shoulder after he finished his final stitch. Looking down she found her lower leg marked with a perfect line that was likely to form a long scar. "Ouch, alright, alright, I have had exactly three sparing partners that could keep up with me, Bismark in our one spar, the pilot of the white frame that caused our current state and..."

"Me?" the compliment was clear even to her likely concussed self, yet she felt that she had not really earned such praise, even with the damage done to the Perseus by her friends Kallen had just barely kept up with him.

"Quit thinking like that Kallen, you have incredible potential as a pilot, you known what-" the man paused for a moment, likely for dramatic effect she realized, why did she meet so many hams these days? "If you are still alive by the time I win this conflict, I will have you and your friends pardoned, as long as you agree to spar with me."

"Hah, you are amusing at the very least Lion. But I am likely to get shot as soon as they come to rescue you."

"Not if they want to live themselves."

"Why so protective?" Kallen said, smirking slightly, maybe Milly had a point, teasing boys could be pretty amusing, or maybe her concussion was even worse then she thought. The Lion paused for a moment before looking at her in utter confusion, she could not help her own reaction, she broke out laughing, the Lion, no, Andre, staring for a few moments before laughing himself.

"Okay, how about a deal?" He asked a few minutes later, the two of them now reclining against the leg of the golden Knightmare, her head leant against it. She looked at him again, her blue eyes meeting his purple ones, huh, purple, same as Lelouch... "You are free to leave after they dig us up, as long as you tell me your full name."

She considered it for a moment, frowning at the ridiculousness of the situation she found herself in, before deciding.

"Kallen Kozuki, that's my full name."

"A pleasure then, my lady Stadfeldt."

It took her a few moments to register what exactly he had said, she stiffened when she did, turning to look at Andre with a look of surprise and fear.

"Don't worry, the only reason I know is because of your brothers file."

"He was captured during the operation leading up to the death of your brother..."

"Yes, nice guy by the way, that Naoto, refused to talk, only information we got out of him was via DNA testing."

"He's alive then?"

"Yes, unlike popular belief I am not a savage."

"Good, that's really good to hear."

…

"Talking with my opponents became something of a hobby of mine after that day, all because that girl saved my life and I saved hers. What a strange turn of events."

Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia.