"The aftermath of battle is a disgusting thing no matter what side you were on during it, nothing truly prepares you for the sight."

Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia.

….

It was nearly an hour later when the cave ceiling began to tremble, Kallen shot upright form the story she was lazily telling, and I was shook from my admittedly creepy staring. Standing the two of us looked towards the source of the sound, near centre of the cave, coming closer rapidly, Kallen looked at me in a moment of panic, clearly unsure if I was going to be keeping my promise.

"Get in your machine, don't let anyone see your face, I will hand you a power source before they enter so use your emergency power if needed." I ordered, Kallen taking a moment before nodding, wordlessly climbing into the dark cockpit of her half buried Guren, which started to whir to life. I climbed into the Perseus Medusa, engaging the emergency fuel override, allowing me to pull the golden titan out of the stone and dirt to kneel in the cave, reaching back and triggering the secondary battery release I pulled it out, handing the energy filler to the stuttering Guren, that quickly switched it out. "May we meet again dear Dragoness, this has been an interesting time."

"Surprisingly, I agree with you Lion."

The cave was suddenly bathed in light as a large hole opened up in one of the walls, a dozen soldiers and a Spartan II standing ready in the breach, I sent the Perseus forward, in the path of the Spartan that was head straight towards the Guren.

"Halt, I have made a promise to this pilot and I am a man of my word, let this machine go, do not follow it, make sure that everyone here knows that I will be very displeased if something were to happen."

Turning back I noted the Guren cautiously rolling forward, the damaged machine nodding its head at me, I returned the gesture, signalled the Spartan to stand aside.

"Wait a moment! You have earned this, Dragoness." I called out, pulling my spear from the ground collapsing it and throwing it to the Guren, Kallen caught it and sent me one last look before racing off heading up the ramp before disappearing into the forested mountains above.

"You alright Andre?" Marius asked, standing at the top of the ramp dug down into the cave, I dismounted the Perseus before answering him, my wounded form making my Knight frown.

"I am more than alright Brother, I am interested." What a surprising but welcome development, I was looking forward to facing her again.

"Oh great, he's in love..."

….

"Kallen! Your alive!" Rai's shout made Lelouch's eyes snap to the heavily damaged Knightmare driving into the hanger, clutching a familiar spear, the Guren parked before Kallen answered, the voice transmitter was likely damaged then. Kallen descended down from the machine, drenched in sweat and blood, he noticed the way her leg was freshly stitched, she also looked exhausted.

"I am, somehow..."

"What happened?" Lelouch asked running up to the two of them, Kallen sending him a small smile at his worry, before a frown rose on her face. He found himself curious about her escape, had she dug her way out, what the hell had happened after the cave in anyway.

"It's a little strange and I am still processing it myself, but I spent a few hours talking with Andre while we were stuck underground-"

"Andre?"

"The Lion, we were stuck underground and were both wounded and concussed, he stitched my leg up and let me leave, I have no idea why…"

"Maybe he has brain damage, that might be to our advantage." Rai's comment almost went over Lelouch's head, his Brother had let Kallen go? After fighting with her and the Black-knights? What the hell was the man thinking, that was a complete tactical mistake, maybe the man did have brain damage?

"I really don't know, it all still seems surreal to me, and I need to sleep before I even try to think about it further."

"Then get some rest, debrief tomorrow at 1PM." The redhead nodded and stumbled off to the sleeping area of the hanger, a smart idea, as going home in her state would be a terrible. Lelouch made for his office, C.C, already undressed, was reclined on the bed, eating a deepfreeze pizza with as much grace as she could manage. She saw him enter and pulled the blanket over her a slight bit more, great she was nude under there, add another distraction.

"So Lulu, this operation was a clusterfuck."

"Indeed, though Kallen just got back."

"She did?"

"Yeah, apparently my brother let her go, for some reason..."

"He's toying with you? How strange." The sarcasm in her voice was tangible, frowning at her he waited for her to swallow her last bite before she continued. "Its obvious boy, he likes the girl, not that I can judge, she is a little violent and a bit introverted but she's still got a good attitude."

"What."

"It's the most logical conclusion Lulu, either that or he has gone insane, the way you described your brother he would not let such an advantage go for any other reason, the girl perked his interest in more ways than one."

"What!"

"Oh poor Lulu, so unused to the ways of women..." C.C shook her head, pulling the blanket off to show her wearing nothing, standing up she walked towards him, she pulled him by his collar to his bed, despite his resistance. "Come on, you fought your sister to a standstill, more than I expected you could, you deserve a reward."

"Reward?" he parroted in complete confusion.

"Yes Lulu, come to bed."

….

"Tired Nelly?"

"Exceptionally."

"Same."

She sat on the other side of the sleeping Euphie between them, her sweet sister had been so worried about them she had sent Kururugi to 'Help', not that it had done much good with Andre being buried. At least he had a good time while she worried and egged on the rescue crews, having a pleasant conversation with the pilot he identified as the Red Dragoness. Why he would give such a name to an enemy was beyond her, but the girl had held out rather well against him in the few glimpses she managed to catch in the lulls of her own fight.

"I am going to have to step in now, you know that right." His words did not come as a shock to her, she knew it was coming, she had failed and now her little brother had to bail her out, she might have felt embarrassed. She would have felt embarrassed in fact, if not for the fact that she had lost nearly five hundred men and counting in a battle that should have been overwhelmingly in her favour, her reputation would be tarnished by this, and if Andre did not step in she was likely to be recalled.

"I do, promise me the chance for revenge brother, I want Zero's head on a pike for what he did..."

"I promise you that you will get your revenge, but we must show that we are better than them, no random slaughter of civilians, no witch hunt for members, we have to lure them out in other ways."

"And you have a plan for that I assume?"

"I always have a plan Nelly, the Lion always has a plan."

"Hah, what is this plan then?"

"Some thirty percent of the JLF escaped the mountain, including their general, who I believes plans to escape to the federation to rally more support now his backers are likely to turn to Zero."

"You will capture him then, and try to find out who those backers are."

"A threat that Zero can't ignore, without money and equipment he can't do anything. If you can't cut the head, then go for the food."

"Not your best analogy."

"True enough." The two of them laughed and Nelly found comfort in the fact she could spent more time with her sister now, with all combat command and planning falling under her brother.

….

The large meeting room the Black-knight commanders and leaders found themselves in was well lit, it had once been an office building for a Japanese gaming company but had been abandoned for years. Kallen leaned back in her chair as Zero, with Lelouch actually under the mask for once, waited for the rest of the staff to arrive, it had been a full day since the battle, originally Zero wanted to debrief in the morning, but the black knights had been dead tired.

"Sorry I am late, had to deal with some problems at the hanger." Kallen frowned as an unfamiliar Indian woman entered the room, tall and skinny wearing a provocative outfit covered by a labcoat. "One of your mechanics was abusing my children and had to be shown the proper way of working a servo motor, with a new bump on his head of course."

"I hope you did not abuse the poor man to much Rakshata, not everyone knows how to maintain a Knightmare as well as you do, hurting them for it is not going to help."

"But it is cathartic Zero."

"Fair enough. Everyone, this is Rakshata Chawla, the mind behind several of our ace machines and a great mechanic, she will be joining us as a technical advisor." Lelouch shook his head, Kallen wondered who the woman was for a few moments, before remembering who created her Knightmare, Rakshata Chawla, a master full mechanic and engineer. Kallen had taken the time to look into her yesterday, scoring above the man who made Andre, fuck, no, The Lion's Perseus at college. "Now we are all here, let's begin, as you all know two days ago we fought a battle against the Britannian military under command of Cornelia Li Britannia and Alexander Di Britannia, the battle was a minor victory at best and a draw at worst. Ohgi?"

"Our loses in men were minor, twelve dead and seventy odd wounded, equipment wise we lost over two thirds, ninety percent of our Knightmares were destroyed, most after the Spartans took the field."

"Regrettable, but the achieved objectives make up for it, I have received word that Kyoto is cutting support for the JLF and transferring it to us, it won't be long before JLF members start coming to us." She did not like the way that the blond ponce known as Diethard spoke about 'us', Kallen found him sleazy and completely untrustworthy, a vulture trying to get a good meal.

"True enough, as to the battle itself, the first stages of our attack were executed perfectly, we swept away the bulk of the Britannian Knightmare Corp, allowing the JLF to begin to organize a retreat. As to secondary objectives, our attempted capture of Cornelia ran into trouble."

"Yeah, her frame had some clear upgrades inspired by those new Brit frames." Rai said, the boy sporting a black eye from his fight with the Butcher, he had done pretty well in the battle, fighting his opponent to a standstill. The Butcher of Brunei was not as highly regarded as the Lion in Knightmare combat, but still a low rounds level pilot with a reputation for brutality.

"Such things can't be foreseen, still we were winning until the Lion arrived. The arrival of one frame stopped our plans in its tracks, my question is how?" Kallen frowned at the question Ohgi posed, slightly insulted, but the man had a point, how had he held his own against the three of them?

"Let's start with a simple explanation then, Rakshata, what is your analysis of the Perseus?"

"An excellent machine, 6th gen Knightmare frame upon which every future frame has been based, even my children have taken some influence from him, still even with its recent upgrades it should technically be inferior to any one of my machines."

"But it held us all off, three 7th gen machines against a single 6th gen and he still damn near won." Kallen said, frowning.

"That's experience girl, the Lion has over 8.000 hours experience in Knightmare combat, with 1247 confirmed Knightmare and vehicle kills, 99 percent of that in the Perseus."

The numbers boggled the mind, over a thousand Knightmares and tanks destroyed by one man and machine, 8000 hours of pilot experience as well. The only one that came close as far as she could remember was Luciano Bradley, with some 800 kills, and the Butcher of Brunei at 500, Kallen herself had just over 50 kills, the experience difference was rather clear now.

"The Lion's machine should not be functioning as well as it is, but the Lion somehow makes it work far better than it ever should, beyond just knowing his machine inside out he seems to analyse his opponents perfectly to the point of knowing their move before even they do. Of course with his knight by his side the Lion's threat increases, two ace pilots and a division of the most experienced Knightmare pilots in the empire, nothing to scoff at. Never mind that abomination the pudding earl has put together."

"Anything you can tell us about that frame Rakshata?" Lelouch was focused and his voice even, falling into the role of Zero as easy as an experienced actor.

"Not much currently I am afraid, unless you can get me an in with his division all I can do is speculate, it's probably an over engineered monster that stresses its pilot to no end."

"I will have a word with the Illusive man about that, don't expect too much, the man is rather frustrating regarding such things." Zero shook his head for a moment before continuing. "For now I think we can all agree that our current model won't work, with the Lion and his Spartan's deploying we can't rely on Burai's and stolen Britannian Knightmares, we will need a mass production machine that can match the Spartans, maybe something based on our four ace mac-"

"The Four-Dragons." Kallen said, when everyone's eyes turned towards her she raised an eyebrow. "It's what the Britannian media is calling us, rather catchy I think."

"Alright then, a mass produced design based on the four-dragons, something easy to learn to pilot but above a Gloucester in weapons load and performance, how possible is that Rakshata?"

"A design like that? It would have to be a 6 gen machine, a downgraded version of the Shogun as the base, add in the enhanced servo motors of the Gekka and Guren, all I would need to really invent would be its weapons, give me a week." The woman casually puffed on her strange cigarette as she spoke, "Manufacturing will be an issue in all likelihood, Knightmare production is too large scale with the Black-Knights current facilities."

"Kyoto should be able to provide the require factories, if not I have a few favours I can call in if needed. Kallen, would you work with Rakshata on this? You would be a perfect test pilot and the Guren will need a few days for repairs anyway."

"Sure Zero, it would be no problem."

….

"Your hosting a ball this Saturday! After we just lost a battle!" Nelly stomped around my headquarters, a large office at the Viceroy's palace I had remodelled to my liking. The Iron maiden raging and venting over the events of three days ago, she had been overseeing the recovery of the bodies buried in the landslide, after pulling 450 soldiers from the ground dead from suffocation or crushing it was understandable. "Why Andre?"

"We need to show strength to the nobles, if they sense weakness they are going to run amok, that is not something I can afford, a night spent talking to them is far more efficient." I paused for a moment and smirked, knowing just how to get to her now. "Euphie is looking forward to it as well, she is bringing Major Kururugi and Millicent Ashford is invited."

"Milly? She is in the area?"

"Yes, apparently her mother is trying to get her betrothed, the ball will be a nice chance for her to window shop before her parents make her choose." Nelly seemed to get a bit melancholic at that, and I knew I had made a mistake then.

"Remember when Milly and Euphie fought over Lelouch?"

"Yes, though I do remember Nunally participating as well."

"If he had survived he might have been Milly's betrothed now..."

"Maybe, but who can say what would have happened, maybe he would have met another girl, maybe he would have liked Euphie more..."

"No Andre, just no."

"Hah, knew that would get a rise out of you, makes Kururugi seems better doesn't it?" she frowned and I was afraid as I was about to get smacked before she fell down into a chair.

"That boy is far more trouble than he is worth, why did you promote him after he buried you?"

"Euphie asked me to."

…..

"What do you mean Father!"

"You have to go to the Ball Kallen, I have tolerated your excuses of sickness for long enough, this invitation comes directly from the Prince and I cannot attend myself." Her father had taken his place at the desk he had so long abandoned, she had not seen him for damn near a year and the first words he spoke to her were a command, no question about her mother or brother, no words of love or encouragement just a command to go to a bloody dance. "With your brother Nathan gone, it's up to you to shoulder the families honour, I have begun searching for possible husbands for you, and you are to show your charm to the men at the party."

"No." Her words made her father look up from his document briefly, his blue eyes cold and harsh and Kallen felt a brief flash of fear, like she did when she was still a child. "I will not whore myself out, just because it benefits you."

"You act like you have a choice?" His words made her flinch, her father was not an intimidating man in terms of size, being rather short and sporting a pair of round glasses, but he was a man who hated not getting his way and was vicious when trying to. "You will go to that ball, or you will never see your mother or brother again."

"What!"

"It's time you stop your childish antics with those Elevens and become a proper Britannian lady, if you don't there will be consequences, go to the ball or I will accept the proposal I received from Luciano Bradley."

…

"A draw is never fully balanced, no matter what, one side is always more or less ahead."

Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia.