Authors Note: Now that I have (finally) gotten rid of that thrice accursed 'Flu, I had better upload this chapter now, shouldn't I?
In celebration of me recovering from my small illness, my muse went into overdrive, resulting in an extra long chapter!
Now, the Poll has closed, and Euphy is officially in the Harem. Many thanks to all that voted. If you didn't vote, please keep in mind that it was your decision not to, not mine.
I've been asked by Wolfblood123 about how long this story will go on for. All I can answer is that the story ends at the end of the Black Rebellion, timeline-wise.
That is not to say that Lelouch will succeed in the timeline of the first season. There will be a sequel. The title for it, I have decided, will be 'Code Geass R2: The Rebellion Reforged'.
Not bad, eh? I'll be giving Code Geass a rest and write a different fan fic after I finish this one though-so many Ideas!
Anyhow, enough from me read on and enjoy the fic!
Disclaimer: Me? Owning Code Geass? Nope, Sorry. Flattering, but incorrect.
"Kallen"-Speech
'Lelouch'-Thought/mental communication
"{Die}"-Geass Command
"Halt!"-Loudspeaker
"Roger."-Radio/Walkie-Talkie
Chapter 4: Shinjuku Checkmate. The Victor….?
With Lelouch
"K-1, this is B-6! I've spotted an unknown Knightmare. It's proceeding along the old main street, seemingly towards where Q-1 was last spotted by Britannian forces!" came over the radio as Lelouch was waiting for Clovis' final gambit to be played.
"B-6, good work," Lelouch replied into the radio, "Description of Target?" B-6 was one of the scouts on foot Lelouch had deployed on the most likely routes to keep watch for the mysterious 'Prototype Knightmare', as it was unlikely an experimental Knightmare would have an IFF for Lelouch to conveniently track.
"K-1, it doesn't resemble any Knightmare in the Britannian forces. It's about the same height as a Sutherland, painted white and gold. I can't see any rifle or bazooka….that can't be right. Who in their right mind sends a Knightmare into combat without weapons?" B-6 sounded incredulous. "Anyway, the body-shape is more streamlined than either a Glasgow or a Sutherland. Definitely looks like this is a new model."
"Indeed it does." Lelouch muttered to himself before speaking into the radio again, ordering all scouts to fall back to their primary mission area, then called on P-1.
"P-1, evacuation status?"
Kaname Ohgi's voice came back over the radio, sounding tired. "Almost all civilians have been evacuated along the old Subway tunnels to other Ghettos. There are a few who are refusing to leave, however."
"Unfortunately, we'll have to leave them. Clovis has deployed his last card, and it's advancing towards the centre of Shinjuku as we speak." Lelouch told him, regret colouring his voice. He had ordered P-Group to aid the rest of the group in evacuating as many non-combatants as possible and they had exceeded his expectations.
'Some people are just too stubborn to leave, even in the face of clear and present danger.' Lelouch bemoaned to himself. He hated the idea of sacrificing innocents to achieve his plans, but in this case, he might have no choice.
"Damn!" Ohgi cursed.
"N-Group, are you ready?" Lelouch asked. N-group was to ambush the Knightmare from concealed positions. The fact that the mystery Knightmare seemingly had no long-distance weaponry was merely an added bonus.
"K-1, we are almost ready. Two more minutes, tops." came the reply from N-Group's commander.
"You had better be, because in five minutes the new model will be in your sights." Lelouch told them grimly. "It appears to be unarmed, but all Knightmares have -at least- a pair of Slash Harken as basic equipment, so be careful. There's no telling what a Seventh Generation Frame is capable of, so inform me of any enhancements you discover and pull out when you feel it's gotten too dangerous. K-1, Out."
Lelouch sighed as he gently massaged his temples. He had run through the major possibilities of what a prototype Knightmare could possibly be equipped with, albeit with no data to base anything off of, and was daunted by the sheer number of options.
With the bare bones the appearance of the Knightmare gave him, he swiftly eliminated about 60% of the possibilities. This left four possibilities: Command, Defence, Physical Enhancement and Close Combat.
Command Enhancements were fairly unlikely, as even a buffoon like Clovis wouldn't sent a Command Knightmare out on it's own as this one seemed to be.
B-6 would have mentioned any blades or lances equipped to the Knightmare, so most close combat enhancements were out.
Lelouch paused in his thinking. 'B-6 did have a point. Sending a Knightmare out alone, completely unarmed is not usually even considered, let alone implemented! The only way it would work is if it had a combination of the last two possibilities: Defence and Physical Enhancement.'
Lelouch massaged his eyes and, with a heavy sigh, once more reached for the radio.
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C.C.'s Perspective
The woman named C.C. watched the boy called Lelouch vi Britannia with narrowed eyes as he began issuing orders to the Japanese terrorists under his command.
'Marianne's child,' she mused to herself, 'He is very interesting. Highly intelligent, yet keenly aware of his limits. Confident, without being arrogant. And….,' she gave Lelouch a subtle once over, 'a strong, yet lithe, physique.'
C.C. licked her lips. Oh yes, Lelouch was a very interesting Contractor -for more than one reason. The immortal woman had been shocked when she had felt Mao pass on to C's World, no more than a mile away.
Mao had been one of her greatest errors and her new Contractor had dealt with him, although inadvertently, in less than ten minutes. That little fact, combined with the boy's obvious commanding aura, the purely physical attraction she felt for him and the fact she was a 700-year old virgin made him very attractive as a bedmate to C.C.
Once they made it out of this Ghetto, they would definitely have to have….a discussion.
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With Suzaku
"This is the Lancelot," Suzaku radioed to the Camelot trailer, "I'm just about to pass the old Joen-ji Temple and head towards the Kogakuin University Building. Over."
"Roger, Lancelot." Cecile replied, "Any sign of enemy activity?"
"Nothing." Suzaku replied. "Just a few pot-shots from isolated terrorists. I'd guess that the majority of the residents have been evacuated by the terrorists while their main forces engaged ours, judging by the total lack of movement on the Factspheres."
"I see." Cecile replied, "Still, keep alert. The enemy has the home-field advantage here."
"Roger." Suzaku replied as he piloted the Lancelot around the corner and towards the Kogakuin Building.
Suzaku sighed as he thought about the report he had been shown on casualties during this battle. Losses currently stood at 79% of all Sutherlands destroyed, 55% of all tanks destroyed and 40% of al VTOL's destroyed.
'How the hell did terrorists do this?' Suzaku wondered, 'Not even the defeat at Itsukushima had these kind of losses, and that was at the hands of Todoh-sensei!'
Suzaku was so lost in thought that he barely managed to dodge the first salvo from the concealed Knightmares.
"WHOA!" he yelled, making the Lancelot leap to the side in a graceful arc, avoiding the bullets. Suzaku activated the Blaze Luminous Shield mounted on the Lancelot's right arm and held it up to block the next volley from his concealed assailants.
"The Shinjuku Centre Building!" he snarled.
The Lancelot sped up to it's top speed, even as it continually dodged, blocked and deflected volley's of bullets from his unseen foes.
Suddenly, Suzaku spotted several falling objects dropping his way and magnified his view of them on his view screen.
Suzaku gaped at the computer's auto-identification of the objects: Chaos Mines. Each able to hurtle literally hundreds of needle-shaped pieces of metal at a target, they could shred any Knightmare into scrap metal almost instantly.
He immediately halted the Lancelot and activated the Blaze Luminous on both arms, enlarged the shield's size to maximum, then braced for impact.
The Lancelot shook as the green energy field absorbed the combined assault of five Chaos Mines, simultaneously. Gritting his teeth, Suzaku cranked up the strength of the shields from the standard 50% mark to 80%, the highest recommended output.
After what seemed like an eternity, the barrage withered, stuttered and faded to nothing. Suzaku deactivated the Blaze Luminous with a sigh of relief.
'That,' he decided, 'was entirely too close for comfort.'
"Lancelot, come in!" Cecile's worried voice sounded over the radio, "Suzaku-kun, do you read me?"
"I'm here, ms. Cecile." Suzaku responded, somewhat tiredly.
"What happened? Our instruments detected an abnormally large drain on the Core Luminous that lasted about a minute."
"I got ambushed by terrorist Knightmares. They attacked from the top of the Shinjuku Centre Building, so I was moving to take them out when they lobbed five Chaos Mines at me. I had to crank the power to 80% to withstand the barrage." Suzaku reported.
"My word!" Cecile exclaimed, "The shield could easily withstand a couple of Chaos Mines at the standard setting, but five? Looks like Lloyd and I are going to have to improve the Blaze Luminous somewhat if this is the kind of punishment actual combat entails. What's your energy status?"
"I'm still at 60%, so I'm good for another couple of hours." Suzaku said, after checking his Energy Filler Gauge.
"Alright, Suzaku-kun, but please be careful. Whoever is in charge of these terrorists is no-one to take lightly." she responded.
"Got it." Suzaku affirmed, before speeding off towards his original destination.
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With Lelouch
Lelouch gave a small smile when N-Group's commander reported the abilities of the enemy Knightmare AND that N-Group had fallen back without taking casualties. Just as he had suspected, a Defence/Physical Enhancement-type Knightmare.
What both intrigued him the most and irritated him the most was the shielding system. Any conventional ambush, as had just been demonstrated, would fail against such a powerful defence.
'Well then, an unconventional ambush it is.' Lelouch thought.
"Well done, N-Group. Fall back to the extraction point at point G-1." Lelouch told the terrorists. "Your job is done for now. P-Group, Q-1, B-Group and myself can handle things here."
"Roger K-1. Good hunting." came the reply.
Lelouch turned his head to look at his passenger with one eye.
"Considering what I suspect Clovis put you through, do you want to be there when I interrogate him?" Lelouch asked.
C.C. blinked owlishly at him for a second before an almost manic grin crossed her features.
"Oh, do I ever! That brat will regret all the things he ordered done to me!" she seethed in a silent fury.
"We won't torture him," Lelouch told her, sternly, "I simply refuse to lower myself to his level. You can be the one to kill him, but information can be extracted far easier with this."
Lelouch indicated his left eye, where his Geass had manifested.
C.C. pouted for a minute, and then nodded.
"Very well, boy. We shall do things your way." This simple sentence came out like blood from a stone from the green-haired woman.
They were interrupted by the radio squawking loudly.
"K-1, this is Q-1. All preparations have been completed." Kallen's voice sounded short and impatient.
Lelouch turned back and grabbed the radio.
"Very well. All units prepare to initiate Mission Number Eleven on my mark. Q-1, begin Mission Number Ten."
"Roger!" came back over the radio.
Lelouch grabbed the Sutherland's controls and began manoeuvring. He fired a Slash Harken into the ceiling before jumping out of the hole in the building he was in.
'Well now, lets see our mysterious White Knight deal with this plan.' Lelouch thought smugly, as his Knightmare abseiled down the outside of the husk of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, otherwise known as Tochō -Tokyo City Hall.
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With Suzaku
Suzaku caught sight of a red and white blur pass in front of him as he came up on the old Chuo-dori road and moved to follow it.
H moved in pursuit of the blur and finally identified it as an old Glasgow, presumably the one that had been running around before the ambush, since it was painted dark crimson.
What caught his eye though, was the oh-so familiar flag the Knightmare carried in it's only remaining arm: the Nisshōki -The Sun-Mark Flag, the Hinomaru -The Circle of the Sun. The once proud flag of the nation of Japan.
'Why can't they understand?! Japan lost!' Suzaku thought morosely as he sped his Knightmare up in order to catch up to the Glasgow.
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Meanwhile, with Kallen…
In the screen displaying her rear camera view, Kallen watched the white Knightmare steadily gain ground on her tail.
'C'mon, Ohgi, any time now would be good….' Kallen thought as she tried to nurse some measure of extra speed out of her outdated frame.
Suddenly, the white frame behind her dodged a volley of rifle fire and a bazooka round.
"Ohgi! Were you waiting for an invitation or something!?" Kallen railed at her elder brother's oldest friend.
"Sorry, Kallen. K-1 said to wait until just before he was within Slash Harken range." Ohgi's voice was sincerely apologetic.
"Fine!" Kallen huffed, "But at least give me some advanced warning next time! Jeez."
"Q-1, Proceed to Mission Area for Mission Eleven." K-1's voice came over her radio, as cool and collected as ever.
"Do I have to lose my Glasgow?" Kallen snarked at K-1, "It took me ages to engineer it and repair it to my specs!"
For all her ire and vitriol, she still headed towards her destination: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.
"Yes, you do." K-1 seemed to be unperturbed by Kallen's temper, "If all goes according to plan, I may even replace it. For now, concentrate of evading that Knightmare!"
"Roger." Kallen replied, still ticked off that she would lose her customised Glasgow, but somewhat mollified that K-1 had said it would be replaced if they made it out of there. A thought struck her as she coaxed more speed out of her Glasgow.
"By the way, where'd you get this flag?" she asked K-1.
"A storage room inside Tochō. They always kept spares in there, just in case." K-1 replied, giving Kallen something to think about.
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With Suzaku
Suzaku cursed as the rate of fire from those thrice-be-damned concealed terrorist Knightmares increased yet again.
'This Glasgow in front of me must have their leader as it's pilot! Why else go through so much trouble to defend a decoy?' Suzaku reasoned as he swerved, dodged and ducked a seemingly unending deluge of bullets and shells from atop buildings on both sides of the road.
Suddenly, the Glasgow swerved abruptly to the left and shot off like a bullet. At the same time the constant barrage of weaponry that assailed him stopped.
Wasting no time, Suzaku sent the Lancelot speeding ahead and found himself at the foot of the old city hall, Tochō. Standing at the foot of the building was the red Glasgow and an additional Knightmare, a Sutherland in the colours of the Purist or Pureblood Faction.
[KABOOM!], [KABOOM!], [KABOOM!], [KABOOM!], [KABOOM!], [KABOOM!], [KABOOM!], [KABOOM!].
Eight almost simultaneous blasts went off, collapsing buildings into the street and obstructing the most accessible ways out.
Suzaku was dumbstruck. 'Damn it all! It was a trap from the very beginning!'
The one-armed Glasgow passed the flag to the Sutherland, sped forward a few meters and then gave the Lancelot a 'Bring it on' gesture.
Suzaku considered himself an even-tempered man on most occasions, but this was the absolute limit!
"First you make me chase you, then you barricade me here, now you insult me by challenging the Lancelot in a clearly inferior Knightmare?!" Suzaku, enraged by the low handed tactics of his foes (as he saw them), shouted over the Lancelot's external speakers, "You WILL regret that!"
The Glasgow merely repeated it's 'come on' gesture.
"Rrrrgghh!" Suzaku growled as he threw the Lancelot into a headlong charge towards the Glasgow. Just before the Lancelot's fist impacted on the red Knightmare, the pilot ejected!
"Wha…?" Suzaku gaped as, unable to stop the Lancelot's forward momentum, the White Knightmare's fist smashed through the abandoned Glasgow.
"Damn it!" Suzaku gritted out through his clenched teeth.
On his main camera, the Pureblood Sutherland gave him an ironic salute, and then embedded the flagpole it was holding into the ground and sped off.
"Hold it!" Suzaku roared his temper completely on fire by this time. He wrenched the Lancelot's arm out of the wreck that had been the Glasgow and tore off in pursuit.
[KABOOM!]
The Lancelot shuddered as yet another bomb was set off, this time beneath the ground the Lancelot was speeding across!
Suzaku gaped as the across the entire plaza buckled, cracked and collapsed, rapidly approaching the speeding Lancelot.
Thinking quickly, Suzaku swerved the Lancelot towards the Tochō building and fired both Slash Harkens at the ledge above the entrance of the building, then leapt up and reeled them in, drawing the Lancelot away from the crumbling ground -and the fleeing Sutherland.
Landing on the ledge, Suzaku sighed in relief, but it seemed fate was not done throwing spanners in his works today, as he heard the oh-so familiar sound of chain explosions coming from above him.
'Sweet Kami, NOW what?!' Suzaku groaned to himself as he made the Lancelot look up. He went white with what he saw.
The two towers of the Tochō building were falling. Ripped from the main building by the explosions, they were falling. Not only were they falling, the explosives must have been placed in key positions throughout the towers' superstructure, both inside and out, in order to make them fall in the desired direction.
Precisely where Suzaku and the Lancelot stood.
"Even this was a trap…?!" Suzaku spoke in disbelief, "How could anyone predict such an unlikely place to be where the Lancelot would flee to after escaping the collapsing ground?! It's ridiculous!"
Suzaku spun the Lancelot around, to search for a way out of this mess.
'Most of the ground nearby has been destroyed by those bombs, there are no other buildings to leap to within range of the Slash Harkens…..wait, there!'
Suzaku saw that the explosions had accidentally opened the old Tochomae subway station tunnel.
Without hesitation, Suzaku made the Lancelot leap down and into the tunnel, just as the pair of falling towers smashed into the ground outside.
Suzaku gave thanks to all the Kami for their protection, something he hadn't done since he was a young child, then focused.
"Now I have to navigate through a maze of dark, crumbling tunnels that may or may not be swarming with terrorists and-" Suzaku checked his Energy Filler Gauge, "-I have barely forty-five minutes worth of power left, thanks to those sneak-attacking terrorists. Oh, the joy."
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With Kallen, Time Skip Twenty Minutes
Kallen was running through the ruins of Shinjuku towards the extraction point, located in an abandoned warehouse near the old Tokyo General Hospital.
Her mind was racing as she thought back to the conversation she had had with K-1 after she had ejected.
{Flashback}
Kallen's cockpit had just landed with a bump and she spent a moment mourning for her poor Glasgow. It hadn't been much, but it had been hers.
"Q-1, are you unharmed?" K-1 had enquired over the radio.
"Aside from a blow to my pride, I'm fine." She had replied, rather dryly.
"Good," He had replied, "It's not much consolation, I know, but the trap worked."
"Good." Kallen had spat out. Just thinking of the speed that white Knightmare possessed gave her chills. She had barely managed to eject in time.
"Knowing that fool Clovis, he's likely to order infantry in to slaughter any remaining civilians in Shinjuku." K-1 had told her bluntly.
"WHAT?!" Kallen had yelled in fury, "No, he can't! Order Ohgi and the rest to stop them!"
"P-1 and the rest have already handed their Knightmares over to B-group and have reached the extraction point, and B-Group has left via the tunnels to your backup hideout." K-1 had stated in a matter-of-fact manner, "Don't worry, though. All tasks at hand have been cleared for the end of violence today. Head for the extraction point."
"That's it?" Kallen had been incredulous. "You seriously expect me to just accept your word that 'something' is in the works?!"
"You trusted me to direct you in combat." K-1 had pointed out.
"That's different!" She had protested vehemently.
"Because it was only your life I was risking, correct?" K-1 asked rhetorically. Kallen had fallen silent at this, slightly taken aback at being read so easily by a complete stranger.
"I can assure you, I will succeed. I will not allow innocents to suffer at the hands of a power-mad fool." K-1's voice had been as hard as bedrock, so much so that Kallen wondered who and what had managed to make this guy hate Britannia and massacres so much.
"Alright, I guess I'll leave it up to you then, not that I have any choice anyway." Kallen had finally conceded defeat, albeit somewhat reluctantly.
"My thanks. Now, get to the extraction point, Q-1." K-1 ordered, before he apparently turned his radio off.
{Flashback End}
Kallen hoped that K-1 kept his promise. She was responsible for too many Japanese deaths as it was.
She finally saw the warehouse on her right and slipped inside, finding the rest of her Cell, sans those assigned to N-Group and B-Group.
"Kallen!" Ohgi shouted, rushing over and hugging her. She hugged him back. Knowing that a close friend was safe was one thing, seeing and touching them was quite another.
"Are you alright?" Ohgi asked her after he released her.
Kallen rolled her eyes. 'Ohgi is so like Naoto-nii in some things that it's scary.'
"I'm fine," she told him, "I had to sacrifice my Glasgow to take down that damn white and gold bastard though."
Tamaki shot her a look of disdain.
"Hah! If I had been the Glasgow's pilot-" He began to say, when Kallen interrupted him.
"It would have been destroyed long ago. I can trounce anyone here in a one-on-one situation and you know it Tamaki."
Tamaki spluttered and gobbled like a strangled turkey, then shut up with a childish pout (Once again, Temporarily).
Suddenly, the door burst open and a squad of Britannian soldiers burst in, machine-guns at the ready.
The leader sneered at the group and raised his pistol to aim it at Ohgi.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" The man feigned surprise at seeing the group of Japanese civilians, "A little nest of rats, I see. As any good homeowner knows, rats should be exterminated at the first opportunity!"
As one, the soldiers raised their weapons at the group in front of them.
Kallen, at the rear of the group, tensed. She knew that she stood no chance, unarmed as she was, against a squad of soldiers, but she was damned if she would go out without a fight!
'Naoto-nii-sama…!' Kallen thought of her brother as she prepared to do something, anything, to resist the soldier before her.
Just as the squad leader opened his mouth, an announcement over the loudspeakers made him gape.
"Attention all forces! Cease-fire at once! I, Clovis, Third Prince of Britannia and Royal Viceroy of Area 11, hereby command you! All forces are to cease-fire at once! All destruction of property shall also cease! The wounded, whether they be Eleven or Britannian, are to be treated with equal care and all casualties shall be treated without prejudice. In the name of Clovis la Britannia, you are to cease fire at once! I shall allow no further fighting!"
The Squad leader was flopping his jaw like a landed fish and looked incredulous at this turn of events. When his corporal nervously asked what they should do, the man snapped out of his daze.
"You heard his highness! I don't know about any of you, but I am not disobeying Prince Clovis' order. The last person who did that is on indefinite Latrine duty in Hokkaido and he was a general!" The man told his troops with a scowl.
As one, the squad about-faced themselves and left the warehouse.
Tamaki broke the silence by voicing what everyone was thinking.
"OK, what the hell?"
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With Clovis
In his dark and empty command centre, Clovis la Britannia finished his announcement and turned on his throne to the shadowy figure leaning against the wall with a pistol aimed at Clovis.
"Are you satisfied?" Clovis enquired archly, skilfully masking his own fear at having a weapon trained on him with all the acting skill he possessed.
"Indeed. You did very well." The figure told him condescendingly.
Clovis' right eye twitched at being treated like a simpleton by this man, although he quickly regained control and spoke again.
"So what shall we do now? Sing a few lively ballads? Or have a game of chess perhaps?" He made no effort to disguise the sarcasm in his voice.
To Clovis' surprise, the man chuckled.
"Chess, is it?" Humour coloured the shadow-clocked man's voice, "That brings back some memories." At Clovis' small frown, the man continued, as he reached up and, only using his free hand, removed his helmet.
"Don't you recall? As boys, we played chess all the time at the Aries Villa. I always won, of course."
Clovis sat up straight on his throne. "Who are you?!" The Third Prince whispered in fear.
"It's been a long time….Big Brother." The figure said as he walked forward to reveal Lelouch in a Britannian soldier's uniform.
Clovis' jaw dropped in shock.
"L-Lelouch?! Is-Is that really you?" Clovis gasped out, eyes bulging in disbelief.
"Indeed, it is I, my brother." Lelouch replied, mockingly giving a Britannian salute.
"Eldest son to the late consort Marianne vi Britannia and 17th in line to the Imperial Throne, Lelouch vi Britannia at your service." Lelouch spoke in a mockingly formal voice, his eyes boring into Clovis like a sniper's ranging scope.
"I have returned, Clovis, and I will change everything." This was spoken almost too soft to be heard, but in the tomb-like command centre, it was heard by Clovis as loud as a gunshot.
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Lelouch's Perspective
Lelouch gazed at his half-sibling in contempt. The man was only a short distance away from soiling his trousers and Lelouch hadn't even done anything overtly threatening yet.
"Now, brother, could you explain the meaning of all of this?" Lelouch asked, gesturing to indicate Shinjuku with his free hand, the pistol barrel still aimed at Clovis.
"L-Lelouch…" Clovis gulped loudly, "T-Terrorists stole a v-very dangerous canister, f-filled with poison gas. If Father found out about it, he would d-d-disinherit me!"
Lelouch struck a thinking pose, although the pistol's barrel still never wavered from it's target.
"This capsule, would it happen to be about a meter square, shaped like a flower bulb and coloured grey and white?"
Clovis' face went pasty white.
"Y-You've seen it?!" the Third Prince demanded.
"And opened it." Lelouch replied, eliciting a strangled gasp from his half-brother, "Come on in, C.C." He called into the hall.
The immortal regally strode in and glared silently at her former captor, hatred and contempt oozing from her every pore.
"Y-You!….How?….Why?….How?!" Clovis stammered, his own regal façade utterly crushed beyond all repair.
"Your brother was kind enough to free me." C.C replied, her voice quiet and as cold as a glacier, "In exchange I granted him the seed of what you sought."
Clovis switched his eyes to Lelouch, who merely smirked at his elder sibling. Clovis was, for once, struck speechless.
Lelouch then narrowed his eyes at Clovis and his smirk vanished. "Now then, brother, let us talk of seven and a half years ago. Let us talk of my mother's murder."
Clovis recoiled. "Wh-What?!" he cried in shock. Lelouch ignored this interruption and went on.
"Even although she held the rank of Knight of Honour and was one of the 108 Imperial Consorts, my mother was common-born and, thus, held in contempt by the nobility and -especially- the other Consorts." Lelouch stated with a calm he didn't feel. All the grief, rage and helplessness from seven years ago bubbled to the surface of his mind and his face twisted in anger.
"That's why one of them had my mother killed, ISNT IT!" Lelouch shouted at his now cowering brother.
"I-I didn't d-do anything! I d-don't know a-anything!" Clovis plead with Lelouch, sobbing in terror at the rage on Lelouch's face.
"No-one can hide the truth from me anymore! Now, {Answer my questions! Who killed my mother?!}" Lelouch demanded, activating his Geass and glaring at Clovis' eyes.
Almost instantly, Clovis ceased his sobbing, straightened in his chair and replied, "Schneizel, the Second Prince and Cornelia, the Second Princess. They know." His voice was a monotone, dull and lifeless.
Lelouch's eyes widened fractionally as he asked, "They are behind this?"
Clovis said nothing and merely looked at Lelouch.
"It would seem he cannot tell you what he does not know." C.C. remarked.
Lelouch scowled and continued his questioning. "Do you know that they know, or do you merely suspect?"
"I know."
"How and why?"
"Cornelia has been investigating Lady Marianne's death ever since Father exiled you, as she loved and respected her dearly. Father ordered Schneizel to take her body somewhere, I do not know why" Clovis answered.
"Fine." Lelouch sighed and changed his line of enquiry, "Do you feel any remorse whatsoever about the people you have murdered today?"
"No."
Lelouch bared his teeth in a snarl as he ground out, "Why not?"
"I am a Prince. Concern of those beneath me is unbecoming of a person of my rank." Clovis stated.
"Fool." was all C.C. said, with a shake of her head.
"What about the…experiments you had performed on this woman here?" Lelouch demanded, violently gesturing at C.C., who looked taken aback, "Do you feel any remorse for that?"
"No."
"For the same reason?"
"Yes."
"Any other reasons?"
"I could become the next emperor with the ability to distribute immortality to those who support me."
C.C. looked like an enraged cat at that.
"Can we please kill him now?" she snarled at Lelouch.
"Not yet. This is a priceless opportunity for information." He replied. Lelouch then addressed Clovis once again.
"Is there a backdoor to the security firewalls at the Area 11 Government Building?" Lelouch asked as he drew a handheld tape recorder he had picked up en-route to the command centre.
"Yes."
"What is required to access it remotely?" Lelouch turned on the tape recorder as he spoke.
Clovis then reeled of instructions on how to gain access to the backdoor. Once Clovis finished, Lelouch re-pocketed the recorder.
"Now, as to the experiments you conducted on C.C. here, who has access to the data?"
"Myself and General Bartley."
"Can you access it remotely from here?"
"No."
"Why?"
"The data is kept in a portable server that can be moved at a moment's notice. When the immortal was stolen, I ordered the project moved to their backup base." Clovis replied, "They should still be en-route now."
Lelouch scowled at this wrinkle. "Where is their backup base?"
"Only General Bartley knows that."
"Why do you not know the backup location of your most secret project!?" Lelouch asked in exasperation.
"I wouldn't need to know unless it got moved, so I saw no point in knowing unless it actually happens."
Lelouch's jaw dropped at his brother's absolute stupidity.
'I guess that old saying, about how the strongest swordsman need fear the worst swordsman as he doesn't know what the idiot will do applies here.' Lelouch thought as he gazed at Clovis.
"Alright then, do you have a copy of the current number, equipment and deployment of troops in Ja -Area Eleven." Lelouch corrected himself mid-word. Clovis wouldn't recognise Japan as existing anymore.
"Yes."
"Where is it?"
"On the G-1's computers." Clovis replied, gesturing at the computer consoles behind Lelouch and C.C.
Lelouch took a deep breath and let it out. He then spoke to C.C.
"Anything you need to ask?"
"No." Her voice was filled with barely suppressed rage. "Can I kill him now?"
"Once I release and arraign him." Lelouch replied. He looked at Clovis one final time and then disengaged his Geass.
Clovis, after a moment, started sobbing in terror again, protesting his innocence to having a hand in Lelouch's mother's murder.
"I believe you." Lelouch told Clovis and lowered his gun.
Clovis stopped sobbing and looked at Lelouch.
"R-Really?" he asked, voice filled with hope.
"Yes." Lelouch replied, then raised the gun again and said, "But still, you are guilty of mass murder, conspiracy to commitgenocide and crimes against humanity." Lelouch gazed stonily at the re-awakened terror in his brother's eyes.
"For these crimes, I hereby sentence you to death, to be carried out immediately."
At these words, Clovis started begging.
"Lelouch! Please, don't! We may not share the same mother, but we are still blood!"
Lelouch paused as if to consider his brother's words. "True." Lelouch admitted, reluctantly. "I have no desire to kill my siblings like Father encourages."
Clovis sagged back into his throne, boneless with relief.
Lelouch then passed the pistol to C.C.
"The wronged party is the one who deserves to do justice." Lelouch spoke softly. C.C. nodded back in gratitude.
"No! Please, no!" Clovis begged.
"Clovis, don't you know?" Lelouch spoke softly, "The world will not change for the better without being willing to get your hands dirty."
C.C. pulled the trigger.
A solitary pistol shot rang out, ending the life of Clovis la Britannia, a coward, egomaniac and heartless murderer.
Lelouch stared at the cooling body of his brother. Although an inept fool and a cowardly murderer, Clovis had still been a member of his family and it still hurt to see him dead, deserving or not.
A cool hand touched his cheek and he looked down into C.C.'s soft agate orbs.
"You may not feel like it now, but you did the right thing." She murmured quietly, "He had committed too many crimes to too many people to escape justice. If not by my hand or yours, someone would have ended him, and with far less mercy than you showed him."
Lelouch closed his eyes and slowly nodded, enjoying the soft touch of her hand. It felt…..comforting.
Lelouch opened his eyes and nodded again. Stepping away from C.C., he gently closed Clovis' eyelids.
'In victory, one must be gracious.' He reminded himself. A truism told to him by his mother so often, he had been told by his maids he had said it in his sleep back in the Aries Palace.
A short time later a pair of shadowy figures left the command centre and boarded a vacant Sutherland, which shortly disappeared into the Ghetto.
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With Kallen, Resistance Group Backup Hideout
Kallen sat and listened to the rest of her group debate what the hell had happened in Shinjuku. She was waiting for Ohgi to step in and calm Tamaki down once he started ranting again before she reveals who she thought was responsible.
Suddenly, the radio crackled and a familiar voice speaks over it.
"Q-1, this is K-1. Respond." Kallen was at the radio in a flash.
"This is Q-1." She said, "Was it you? Did you cause the cease-fire?"
All around her, conversation stopped and everyone's attention was riveted to the radio.
"Yes, it was." Tamaki gaped at the radio and Ohgi looked at Kallen with a raised eyebrow, clearly curious as to how she had suspected K-1 to have saved them.
Kallen gulped in a breath of air then let it out. "Thank you. Britannian soldiers were about to execute P-Group and myself when the order was broadcast."
"I did something slightly more useful and significant than merely cause a cease-fire, Q-1, although I am glad my timing was on target." K-1's voice sounded amused.
Tamaki opened his moth, probably to demand who K-1 thought he was to gamble with their lives like that, but Inoue and Yoshida both clapped hands over his mouth to shut him up.
"Eh?" Kallen let out a squeak of surprise. After all of the seeming miracles K-1 had caused, she was almost insatiably curious as to what else he had done.
"W-What did you do?" she asked, almost afraid to ask, which was ridiculous. She wanted to know, so why not ask?
"You'll see, in about a day." K-1 said, his amusement fading and a more serious tone replacing it. "Tell me, Q-1, why do you fight Britannia?"
"To free Japan." Kallen replied instantly.
"That is the ideal you pursue as a result of the reason, not the reason itself." K-1 admonishes her. Kallen blinked in surprise. K-1 continued talking.
"All humans fight for personal reasons, be it for money, love, power, honour, joy in battle or revenge, before a grand ideal. Tell me, Q-1, what is your true reason for fighting Britannia?"
Kallen gaped at the radio, shocked at being seen through so easily, by this person she had never even met, yet again!
Kallen shakes her head to clear it and considers. After all K-1 had done for her group today, she supposed an honest answer was not out of the question.
"Revenge." She spoke, anger's heat flickering in her voice, making all of her Resistance Cell flinch, "Britannia took my Onii-sama from me. Clovis ordered his death and disposed of the body as if it was trash! I wont rest until my brother's dream comes true- a Japan free of Britannian Tyranny!"
For a moment then there was silence from the radio then K-1 spoke again.
"I am sorry for your loss. It would seem that you and I have a similar reason to fight. One of them, anyway."
Before Kallen could wrap her head around that statement, K-1 had moved on.
"I will contact you later. In the meantime, you should return to Ashford…Miss Kallen Stadtfelt." The radio fell silent as Kallen's face blanched.
'H-He knows who I am.' Kallen thought somewhat numbly, her mind hit with far too many different surprises for one day to catch up with them all.
Tamaki, free of Yoshida and Inoue, looked at Kallen and smirked.
"Never thought that anyone could shut you up like that." he crowed.
Ten seconds later, Ohgi and the rest had to pull Kallen off of Tamaki as she tried to throttle the fool.
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Next Chapter: Chapter 5: Of Plans, Loyalty and Bargains.
Authors Note: All the building I mentioned by name, as well as roads and subway stations, are actual buildings, roads and stations in Shinjuku. Google a map if you want to see the route Suzaku took.
I had always thought that C.C. must have been furious with Clovis for what he had ordered done to her, indifferent mask aside, so I gave her a chance to get her own back, as well as Lelouch actually taking the opportunity to take advantage of having a veritable goldmine of information sitting in his lap. Quite why he never took advantage of that in canon outright boggles the mind.
Now, the Lemons begin in the next chapter. I say this now and will say it again at the start of the next Chapter as well, so there is no way you do not know about it. This fic is rated M for a reason, y'know.
There is a new Poll going up. It is basically asking what story I should write after I finish this and shall stay up until New Years Day.
See you on the 16th!