Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass.

"Kallen"-Speech

'Lelouch'-Thought/mental communication

"{Die}"-Geass Command

"Halt!"-Loudspeaker

"Roger."-Radio/Walkie-Talkie

Interlude 4: Tarnished Knight vs. Black King

Tetsuya cursed as the slippery bastard dodged his Battle Rifle's bullets again. Zero hadn't even fired a single bullet in return, just dodged and moved between buildings using his Slash Harken.

"Damn you!" he barked though the radio, "Stop dancing and fight me like a man!"

"Coming from someone who tried to blindside me that really isn't convincing." Zero replied. The bastard sounded amused by him!

"Dammit!" Tetsuya snarled and fired another burst of fire at the purple Knightmare, which just dodged him again.

The rogue Japanese man wished he hadn't been off selling Refrain when Naoto had held a training session on how to use a Glasgow. As the controls for both the Sutherland and the Glasgow were similar, that would have been really useful right now.

All the experience that Tetsuya had was operating civilian Knightmare Frames, and they had very different controls. No Landspinners or Slash Harken for a start. Moreover, the Battle Rifle had one bitch of a recoil.

'Whatever. I'll kill the bastard one way or another.' Tetsuya thought as he lined up another shot, 'The bastard's a chicken. He hasn't even bothered to return fire since that first one. Cowardly bastard.'

Lelouch, on the other hand, was using this opportunity to fully acquaint himself with how a Sutherland operated in combat. Simulations were all very fine and dandy, but actual combat was a whole other kettle of fish, so much so that it was common to refer to a person's first actual combat as a trial by fire.

The lucky ones passed, keeping their lives. The less said about those who failed the better.

'That should be enough of a warm-up.' Lelouch thought with a smile, 'Time to teach this idiot a lesson in manners.'

He fired his Slash Harken into the next building over and used it as a swing as he had been doing for the last couple of minutes. This time however, he swung towards Tetsuya, catching him off guard and allowing Lelouch to aim his own Battle Rifle at Tetsuya's Sutherland.

It barked once, twice and thrice, each single shot slamming into the desired target that had been aimed for. First, Tetsuya's rifle was destroyed, swiftly followed by severe damage to both elbow joints, making the lower arm parts flop uselessly.

"Damn you! What the hell are you?!" Tetsuya bellowed in rage and panic, "No one could aim and shoot while swinging in midair like that!"

Lelouch grunted as his stolen Knightmare slammed onto the same building that the traitor had occupied this entire time. Britannia really had to invest more money into improving the shock absorbers. His tailbone had been jarred by that landing.

"Kindly don't put me on the same level as yourself, Tetsuya-san." Lelouch replied coldly in Japanese, "Unlike you, I've actually trained for combat."

"Bastaaaard!" Tetsuya roared as he fired the only weapons left to him with his arms disabled; his Slash Harkens. Fortunately for Lelouch, the previous pilot of his Sutherland had had Stun Tonfa equipped to the Knightmare, which he used to block one of the jet-propelled anchors after dodging the other one.

Lelouch quickly fired his own Slash Harken before Tetsuya could retract his ones, smashing the auto-reeling systems into scrap metal before Lelouch retracted them.

Tetsuya was in shock. In less than two minutes, he had been literally disarmed. He was totally helpless before Zero.

'Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit!' Tetsuya cursed as he did the only thing he could do in this situation: run. Without Landspinners though, Zero's Knightmare caught him easily, smashing the legs of his Knightmare with the Stun Tonfa.

"Fuck!" Tetsuya snarled as he pulled on the leaver that should activate his last hope, the ejection system. However, nothing happened. He looked at the screen and saw an error message stating that the ejection system was damaged to the point of inoperability.

"FUCK!" Tetsuya bellowed, slamming his hands onto the console helplessly. He was trapped inside his cockpit, which immediately began to feel like a prison…or a tomb.

Lelouch glared at the image on the screen, wondering why Tetsuya hadn't activated the ejection system. Recalling Kallen's report that the Landspinners had been damaged, he deduced that Tetsuya had come across a seemingly lightly damaged Sutherland from the first part of the battle and had coerced the access code from the former pilot.

Evidently, it had been damaged worse than it first appeared, crippling the traitor's ability to flee from him.

Now Lelouch had to decide what to do with him. Tetsuya was a fool, but his death could be useful if he played it right. The Yamato Alliance had acted with more discipline than he had expected, likely to do with Mamoru's influence, so it would be to his advantage if he could mould them into the beginnings of an army.

Killing Tetsuya here would be satisfying and he doubted anyone in the Yamato Alliance would argue that the foolish man didn't deserve it. The more intelligent thing to do however would be to make them judge and sentence him.

By doing that, he would show that he cared for justice to be done, rather than simply killing him out of hand, which would appeal to the members of the Yamato Alliance that cared about justice, as well as those who were just the other side of shady, who would be reassured he wouldn't similarly kill them for some misdemeanour.

Reluctantly, the exiled prince decided to let the maggot live. For now.

"Tetsuya, this is Zero." he said coldly, "If you wish to live past today, open the cockpit and step out. Do not attempt to run, or you'll be dead before you take four steps. If you do not emerge in five minutes, I will kill you in your cockpit."

As he waited for the idiot to emerge, he absently deactivated his IFF beacon and broke the IFF on Tetsuya's machine with a well-placed swipe of a Stun Tonfa.

"Ah, there he is." Lelouch breathed as the cockpit hatch creaked open and a sour looking Tetsuya Ichigyōmon emerged and glared up at the Knightmare that towered over him.

Lelouch was surprised when his black Sutherland landed on the roof and levelled its own Battle Rifle at Tetsuya. Only one person could sneak up on him with this kind of ease, even in a Knightmare.

"Aegis? I do not recall ordering you to come to my aid." Lelouch said in a resigned voice.

"I was ordered to aid you by the Red Queen, Goshujin-sama." Sayoko replied with a hint of mirth in her voice, "She seemed very concerned for your safety; concern that seems to be ill-founded, it would seem."

"Just so." Lelouch fought down the urge to blush at the thought that Kallen had been worried about him, and then turned his attention back to Sayoko, "Grab the traitor. We'll head back to the rally point as best speed."

"By your command." Sayoko replied as she grabbed Tetsuya without hesitating, making the man draw his pistol and pull the trigger. To Lelouch's surprise, it worked fine, but the low-calibre bullets bounced off the Sutherland's armour.

"Kindly don't bother shooting my Knightmare, Tetsuya-san." Lelouch recommended over the loudspeaker, "All you will accomplish in doing so is scratching the paintwork."

Tetsuya screamed and ranted in a positive frenzy after that.

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