Chapter 11: "Initiation" IX – Guren Dances
Late at night, at a warehouse at the outskirt of the Tokyo Settlement, a group of new recruits of the Black Knights were admiring an array of Burai Knightmare Frames, the Japanese modification of the 5th generation Britannian Knightmare Frame Glasgow. They were exhilarated to see the group they had joined to have such a weaponry inventory, and they felt themselves belonging to a group of elites given how tough the interviewing and screening procedures had been for them to join the resistance group.
On the other side of the warehouse, Kallen, Tamaki and some other senior members of the Black Knights were also admiring something, but instead of an array of Burai Knightmare Frames, they were looking at a red Knightmare Frame that had never been seen on the battlefield. Indeed, it was a one-of-the-kind, entirely Japan-made Knightmare Frame, the Guren MK II.
"I'm really loving this," Tamaki massaged his nose while looking at Guren with pride, "The big shots in Kyoto are recognizing us. We've got their approval!"
"Senpai, would you show me how to use this equipment here?" a new recruit sounded out to the senior members, and all senior members except Kallen went to the new recruits to help them out.
"Huh?" Kallen heard footsteps coming out from the shadows and turned her head back. It was Zero.
"First Tamaki, and now Inoue and the rest are treating this like a party," Zero said with a tint of disappointment before he asked Kallen, "Kyoto is backing multiple resistance groups, correct?"
"Yes, which means that we finally made it in. They know that we're worthy…" Kallen smiled and responded in an uncharacteristically respective tone.
However, Zero cut her off. "No, you're wrong there, Kallen. This is merely a test they put to us."
"Still, to get them to think of us like that is incredible in itself," Kallen offered.
"You're optimistic," Zero said as he threw something to Kallen. It was the activation key to Guren MK II. "The Guren Mk-II is yours now, Kallen."
"Mine?" Kallen was surprised, "But we have a lot more people now, and we can't afford to lose you. We need the Guren's defense to protect you."
"You're our ace pilot, while I am the commander," Lelouch explained, "I'll use a Burai. But you're our only ace to play during a battle."
Kallen looked at the key with determination and accepted it from Zero. Right after that, Ohgi came and informed Zero that he got some peculiar information from a Britannian applicant to Black Knights. Ohgi wasn't sure whether to trust information obtained from a Britannian.
Zero read the file Ohgi handed to him for a brief moment and then closed it. "This weekend, we're going hiking," Zero announced, "to the Narita Mountains."
"Kallen, I never knew that you could have spoken in such respectful manner," Gino teases Kallen. Apparently he has never seen that side of Kallen besides the sickly girl persona the discs has shown a while ago, as well as her real, fiery persona.
"Oh shut up you flake!" Kallen is embarrassed. Why is this disc showing that side of her to the audience? The days when she blindly worshipped and followed a masked man whose identity wasn't even known to her…
"Tch! Zero was too pessimistic! What's wrong with celebrating when we got some nice Knightmare Frames sent to us?" Tamaki snorts. Ohgi nods, believing Zero should have at least been happy for the moments of achievement. After all, it won't hurt, right?
'You're wrong, Ohgi,' Kaguya muses as she sees Ohgi agreeing with Tamaki, 'Lelouch was right; it was a test to see if the Black Knights were worthy of Kyoto's support. While I have always had full faith in the Black Knights and it was my idea to supply the Black Knights with the Guren MK II, the other old men were much more sceptical; they would never put all eggs into the same basket. Ohgi, you're lucky not having to deal with those old farts now, or else you would be nothing but yet another puppet to those greedy bastards.'
It was Saturday and everything seemed normal at Narita Mountains. Two young JLF scouts at their woodhouse outpost were bored with their work and decided to play Go to kill time. Suddenly, a masked man barged into the woodhouse, and both scouts stood up in surprise. "I want you to ignore any unusual activity during your watch," Zero immediately cast his Geass on the two scouts, and they ignored Zero and went back to their game of Go.
The rest of the Black Knights slowly climbed the Narita Mountains with military supplies upon receiving Zero's signal from the outpost. Most of them were chit-chatting, but Kallen was focused on reading the Guren's operation manual.
On the other hand, Cornelia and her forces were also preparing their assault at JLF's Narita base. Darlton was doing a briefing to Cornelia, Euphemia, Guilford and everyone else in the G1 on the assault plan: the Britannian army were split into 7 teams to surround the entire base, and the JLF would be netted as all teams advanced to the top of the Narita Mountains.
"Will enemies not come from outside of the encirclement?" Euphemia pointed out after Darlton had finished his briefing.
"You mean Zero?" Cornelia sat on her throne, exuding nothing but confidence while Guilford was standing dutifully next to her.
"Have no fear about that," Darlton explained to Euphemia, "As the operation begins, we'll be blocking off the surrounding highways and mountain routes also."
"We also have reserve units on standby. If Zero is foolish enough to show up, it'll be the end of him," Cornelia assured her younger sister.
"How dare he geassed our comrades like that?" Chiba spats as she saw Lelouch casting his evil power on her comrades of the JLF. Tohdoh doesn't seem to take that quite well also, but he simply frowns and says nothing.
On the other side of the auditorium, Rakshata is pleased to see how Kallen treated her child with care. "I am so glad it was you who took custody of my Guren, Kallen. You seem to be the only one who would spend time reading the manual and take good care of my child; the others were just chit-chatting on their way," Rakshata smiles.
"Eh, well, I was quite nervous back then," Kallen responds, "after all, it was my first time to pilot something other than my old Glasgow."
"AHA! It must have taken you so much time and effort to read through that manual!" Lloyd suddenly barges into the conversation.
Rakshata narrows her eyes. "What are you suggesting, Earl of Pudding?"
Lloyd completely gives it a miss to Rakshata's dangerous tone and continues, "Isn't that obvious? I was saying that Lady Kouzuki must have had a hard time to understand how to operate your machine."
"At least mine is much less complicated than you Lancelot!" Rakshata retorts.
Cecile sighs and quickly intervenes the staring contest between the two geniuses. "Please, stop arguing like children before Her Majesty and Her Highness!"
Her Highness Princess Cornelia, however, pays no mind to the bickering of the scientists; instead, she is watching intently the scene where Darlton was briefing the plan to eliminate JLF.
"In retrospect, Euphy was spot on," Cornelia sighs. Looking at what happened from a third-person perspective, she realizes she had been overly confident and grossly underestimated the Black Knights.
"Sorry, Your Highness, I guess I was a bit full of myself back then as well," Guilford says in an apologetic tone.
"No, none of that, Guilford," Cornelia continues, "I was the commander and I alone shall take full responsibility for the result of the campaign. I was too proud to notice the warning Euphy voiced out. However, whining about the past is of little use; we should learn from this mistake and avoid making the same ones in the future."
Back at the outpost, Lelouch was sitting beside a desk to read the map of the Narita Mountains. Suddenly, he realized that someone was standing right outside the woodhouse. It was C.C., looking away from the outpost where Lelouch was in and towards the mountain ranges.
"C.C., what are you doing here?" Lelouch shouted as he got out of the woodhouse and walked towards the lime-haired woman.
"I said that I would protect you, didn't I?" C.C. turned back and answered.
"Don't pretend to be my guardian!" Lelouch snorted.
However, C.C. turned away again, asking Lelouch something completely different, "I've been wondering about something Lelouch, Why are you Lelouch?"
Lelouch didn't get it. Why did C.C. suddenly want to discuss philosophy on the battlefield?
C.C. continued. "You changed your family name to Lamperouge, but you still kept Lelouch, the name that was given to you at birth, as your personal mark. How sentimental - you can't let go of the past, can you?"
Lelouch immediately retorted. "Well, the name 'C.C.' swings to the other extreme, doesn't it? It's not even a human name."
That answer triggered C.C. She looked at Lelouch with a melancholic face as the wind blew across them, sending a few flakes of snow to the sky. The sad expression on C.C.'s face shocked Lelouch.
"Lelouch, do you know why snow is white?" C.C. asked with a soft tone, before answering the question herself with a sad smile, "That's because it's forgotten what colour it's supposed to be."
All the ladies present at the auditorium shake their head as they heard what Lelouch said to C.C. Not even Lelouch's childhood friend Milly takes Lelouch's way of treating C.C. well. "Lelouch was hopeless. Even if it were true, how could he tell right into C.C.'s face that her name was not a human name?" the blonde girl sighs.
Shirley, arguably Lelouch's most vehement supporter among the group except Nunnally, also frowns in disapproval. Sure, she may not like how C.C. had been getting so close with her darling Lulu in various ways that she could have hoped for herself, but even she finds Lelouch's way of treating C.C. senseless and lack of empathy. Next to her, Anya maintains her poker face, but she is also too upset this time that she's not even taking a photo of Shirley.
Kallen speaks up. "I'm not going to deny, but Lelouch's kind of a dick there, and I feel bad for C.C."
Cornelia frowns as well. "As his elder sister, I am glad that he didn't fool around with women, but as a woman, I am disappointed at how he treated C.C. I am even willing to bet that not even our heartless father would say such things to a woman." Next to her, Nunnally simply says nothing while staring at Lelouch on the screen with disapproval.
'Dick move, buddy. Dick move,' Rivalz mentally shakes his head, and decides to switch the topic of the conversation in order to mitigate the female hostility away from his best friend. "I wonder, why did Ms C.C. say she would protect Lelouch? I mean, their contract was that she would grant Lelouch power, and Lelouch would grant her one wish, correct?"
"Likely to make sure he would still survive to grant her the wish, no?" Gino replies.
"Right, but why did it have to be Lelouch? If I were Ms C.C., I would probably give this Geass power to as many people as possible and see who could grant my wish. Wouldn't that be a more sensible way to get whatever she wanted?" Rivalz reasons.
Gino ponders for a moment. "Yes, you may be right. Let's say C.C. also granted Princess Cornelia a Geass power, than she wouldn't need to take sides at all; whoever wins would be the one to grant her wish."
"I would never accept such evil power that corrupts people's mind!" Cornelia snorts at Gino's suggestion. How dare the tall blond man suggests she would have accepted the power that had caused the death of her dearest younger sister?
"I understand, Your Highness, but remember that Lelouch accepted the power when he was in a life-or-death situation. Your Highness, would you still insist not accepting C.C.'s contract had you been placed in a similar situation?" Gino elaborates.
Cornelia thinks for a moment. 'He's right. When Lelouch put me in a life-or-death situation and had me faced the Guren at Narita, if C.C. were to offer me that cursed power, I might have no choice but to accept it for the sake of Euphy, Guilford, Darlton and the Glaston Knights, and I don't see why C.C. couldn't do just that back then. So why did C.C. act in that way?' the purple princess is perplexed.
It was time and Cornelia ordered the commencement of the operation. Numerous Sutherlands suddenly appeared on JLF's radar map, showing the Britannian army, divided into 7 groups, had encircled the entire Narita Mountains area. In addition, the Britannians were also airdropping even more Sutherlands via VTOLs. JLF Major General Takewaki Katase apparently knew nothing about the assault beforehand and was shocked to see what was happening.
At the top of the mountains, the Black Knights were equally shocked; they were being completely besieged by the Britannian army, by Cornelia's elite army no less, with no way to get out of it! It would have to be a miracle to win such battle, and that's exactly what Zero wanted. "Even Messiahs need to perform miracles if they're to be acknowledged. Therefore, we have to produce our own miracle, don't we?" Zero proclaimed.
"Now look, pulling this off isn't gonna be cheap! The price could be our lives!" Tamaki shouted angrily as he was trying to get his machine gun on his hands, "I knew it wasn't sane to make you our leader! It should be me…! Huh?"
However, Zero was quicker: he pointed his handgun at Tamaki before Tamaki could do the same. Then, surprising everyone again, Lelouch turned his handgun 180 to point at himself.
"Our path of retreat has been cut off. If you think you can win without me, then shoot me! Anyone!" Zero exclaimed. Everyone was shocked and they turned back to Tamaki, who was flabbergasted, his mouth wide opened and his body frozen.
"Since you've joined the Black Knights, you have only two choices," Lelouch continued and bellowed, "You would either live with me, or you would perish with me!"
"Lelouch was essentially blackmailing the Black Knights into following him with all their lives being put on the line without their knowledge nor consent," Tohdoh narrows his eyes, concluding the scene the audience have just seen, "while it is fine for a military general to discipline his or her army to obey orders, such must be done on the premise that he or she also takes full responsibility of the results of his or her directions. Apparently, Lelouch did not meet this criteria because he hid his face under a mask, and he could have abandoned the army if he felt like it."
Tamaki immediately jumps in. "Yea that's right! I was too overwhelmed by the victory afterwards, I have forgot that we were being forced into that battle. Damn him to hell!"
Kallen is shaken by Tohdoh's summary of Lelouch's actions. She hasn't thought deeply about it back then due to her blind loyalty to Zero and also the taste of victory against one of Britannia's greatest generals, but seeing this whole exchange between Zero and the Black Knights again from a third-person perspective, she finds it deeply unsettling to realize that she and her comrades were essentially being coerced into putting their lives on the line to fight for a man that none of them knew anything about. 'I… I was nothing more than a chess piece on Lelouch's chessboard…' Kallen tightens her grip and tears was about to fall from her eyes, only to be stopped by a pat on her left shoulder. It is Milly.
"Kallen, I know what you are thinking, but please trust me on this one: Lelouch might appear cold outside and was utterly hopeless in dealing with woman, but he would never treat someone close to him as disposables."
"But Milly…" Kallen still feels down, only to be silenced when Milly put her left index finger on Kallen's lips.
"Trust me, Lelouch was cold and calculating when we first met at Ashford – it took time for him to finally see me as his friend. That battle at Narita was the first major battle you fought with him, right? I may not know much about your time as a member of the Black Knights, but I am pretty sure you two have fought together long enough for him to see you as someone more than a mere chess piece," Milly assures her red-haired friend with a warm smile.
Kallen nods and smiles back, "Thanks, Milly."
Cornelia, Darlton and other generals were leading their respective teams to climb up the mountains and tighten the encirclement. JLF started to gather its forces and sent them out to fight against them.
"It seems that they have turned this whole mountain into a fortress," Cornelia chided.
Guilford closely followed her liege and appealed to her, "Your Highness, please fall back."
However, that was really not how the princess operated in a battle. "Guilford, don't treat me as though I'm just another damsel in distress," the warrior princess hissed before she stepped on the accelerator paddle and had her Gloucester rushed in front of her team.
"It can't be!" a JLF soldier exclaimed.
"Don't panic! Take out their leader!" another exclaimed, trying to calm his comrades down.
"Insolent worms!" Cornelia roared as she swung her Knightmare Lance to hit the three JLF Burai Knightmare Frames in front of her, and then pierced one of the Burai Knightmare Frames and caused it to explode.
Guilford watched his princess dominating the battlefield and softly sighed, "Alright, I will cover you from the rear then."
Cornelia looked back with a mischievous smirk. Her Gloucester stood proudly as she announced her presence, "Well, Cornelia's here! Is there no one who will challenge me?"
At the top of the mountain, the standoff between Lelouch and Tamaki was still on. "Well, what's wrong? Come challenge me and take me down!" Lelouch exclaimed.
Tamaki gave up. "Tch, fine. Do what you want."
"Thank you very much, I appreciate it," Lelouch smirked as he had finally got what he wanted: being acknowledged as the undisputed leader of the Black Knights.
"Damn you, foul woman!" Chiba hammers the armrest hard as she shouts at Cornelia. "I was too focused on Lelouch that I forgot how horrible you were! How dare you called my comrades insolent warms and killed them so casually?"
Guilford is about to stand up and defend her princess' honour, but Cornelia is quick to hold his arm and signals him to sit back down. "Princess…" Guilford protests, but Cornelia gives him an assuring squeeze and turns back to face the furious Japanese woman.
"I regret what I said there about your comrades," Cornelia begins, "those were words spat out from my mouth during the heats of war. However, I would not apologize for killing your comrades: it was my job to fight against the JLF back then, and to apologize for such justified actions is no different than to spit on what my own comrades had risked their lives to fight for."
"You insolent…" Chiba is about to confront the warrior princess, but a firm, manly hand has pulled her back – It is her husband's.
"Kyoshirou!" Chiba pleads.
"Stop it, Nagisa," Tohdoh demands as he shakes his head. "I am as unsettling as you are in seeing these footages. However, Her Highness is right: we were enemies back then, and what she did was perfectly within the boundaries of being a good soldier – to fight the enemy and hunt them down. What's more, she was fighting us fair and square and did not use any underhanded tactics – no poison gas, no Geass, nothing but pure military strength. We may blame her for oppressing the Japanese, but we can't blame her for doing her job and, notably, doing it honourably."
Chiba grunts and sinks back to her seat unwillingly. She can't find fault in Tohdoh's reasoning, nor does she want to go against her husband and hurt his face in front of everyone – that's the last thing a Japanese nadeshiko would do to her husband. Cornelia and Guilford nod to Tohdoh, expressing their gratitude to the Japanese general's understanding on the matter; Tohdoh nods back in acknowledgement.
"Your Highness, you are really related to Lelouch," Gino suddenly chimes in and changes the topic.
"Huh?" Cornelia turns her attention to the former Knight of Three. Guilford is not happy with his princess being likened to the demon emperor and he is about to retort back, but Gino continues before Guilford can do so, "You both stood proudly on the battlefield and dared others to challenge you. I think that's pretty obvious."
Kallen sees the similarities between the two, but also notes an important difference. 'Her Highness was pointing her Lance at her enemies and dared them to challenge her; Lelouch was point his gun at his own people and dared us to challenge himself!' the red-haired girl scowls.
"Big Sister, you are so fortunate," Nunnally suddenly says, taking Cornelia by surprise.
"What do you mean?" Cornelia asks.
Nunnally giggles. "You have a loyal and handsome knight who is so accommodating to your fighting style."
Cornelia blushes hard. She has never thought of being teased by her younger sister!
Nunnally then turns to Guilford, "Thank you for being Big Sister's knight and shining armour, Lord Guilford. Big Sister may not be a damsel in distress, but she is definitely a damsel in quests that requires some understanding backups."
Guilford blushes as well. "Ah… Your Majesty, your… your words are too kind. I am merely doing my duty as my princess' personal knight." He quickly glances at the purple princess before looking down to the armrest.
Nunnally simply smiles and winks at her elder sister, who is still blushing and tries to hide it by focusing back onto the screen.
Cornelia and Darlton kept advancing their troops up the mountains gradually, and with their combat prowess and excellent leadership, the JLF was no match to them, their soldiers being gradually eliminated.
"Is that… Darlton?" Cornelia noticed a flare being shot up to the sky at where Darlton's team was at.
"It seems that's where the main enemy base is located," Guilford answered.
"Right. We'll be securing our position here then," Cornelia ordered.
Guilford grinned. "Are you sure about this?" he asked, knowing how his princess would answer.
"I don't have a habit of stealing achievements from my subordinates," Cornelia smirked as she ordered reinforcements to help her trusted general, "Send the reserve force to back up Darlton. Looks like he'll be getting yet another medal." As they continued to advance, JLF, the largest remaining resistance in Area 11, would soon be finished.
Far away from the main battlefield, Jeremiah, Villetta and their fellow purist comrades stationed as reserve force. Jeremiah was frustrated that despite Cornelia's order for reserve forces to back up Darlton, the purist faction had been specifically assigned to back up the Viceroy. How could he redeem his tarnished reputation if he couldn't even fight the enemies?
Inside JLF's mountain fortress, Katase didn't fare much better. His troops had been gradually taken out by Cornelia's forces, and he couldn't do a thing to reverse the situation. "Where's Tohdoh?" Katase muttered in his low, husky voice, "If only he were here, the divine wind would blow, and we'd have another miracle of Itsukushima!"
And the divine wind was indeed blowing towards the Narita Mountains: JLF Lieutenant Colonel Kyoshirou Tohdoh was bringing his trusted "Four Holy Swords" with him, rushing through the road blocks put up by the Britannian army and hurried to the battlefield.
"Sir, don't you think this is a little extreme?" Shougo Asahina, a young, bespectacled man and one of the "Holy Swords", voiced out his concern to his leader.
However, Tohdoh was unfazed and instead instructed his comrades, "Asahina, Chiba, prepare the custom Burai Knightmare Frames ASAP. Tell Urabe and Senba behind us to do the same. Traffic is blocked off all around Narita; the battle has already commenced."
Kaguya watches how events unfolded and she is disappointed at Katase's leadership. 'How incompetent Major General Katase was. He knew nothing about Britannia's planned assault at JLF's fortress, and as the Britannian army was about to overwhelm JLF's fortress, all he could do was to pray for another miracle to happen? What hope did Japan have if that's how the leader of the largest Japanese resistance group fought against its enemies?'
"Is there something wrong, Kaguya?" Tianzi sees her friend frowns and is concerned about her well-being.
"Oh… nothing. I was just thinking about the battle between JLF and Britannia," Kaguya assures her younger friend. Being the chairwoman of the largest international organization is demanding, and it is always nice to have a close friend who works in a similar capacity and who genuinely cares for her well-being. "I was thinking that we were fortunate to have the Black Knights to pick up where the JLF had left off in our struggle against Britannia."
"It was scary to fight against Cornelia's army," Tianzi shivers as she recalls the scene where the militaristic princess dominated the battlefield with apparent ease.
"Yes, but at the same time, it just shows how competent Cornelia was in leading her troops," Kaguya explains to Tianzi, "she even let Darlton to take the credit for finding JLF's main base. Not many commanders would do that."
"Really? Why?" Tianzi seems puzzled.
"A lot of people like to take credits for something they didn't do," Kaguya tells the Symbol of Unity of the United States of China, "they are clouded by pettiness and personal interest, lacking the pride and resolve to do the right thing. Princess Cornelia is certainly none of those people."
At the top of the Narita Mountains, the Black Knights had finally resolved their leadership crisis as Tamaki gave up challenging Lelouch. "Right! All preparations have now been completed," Lelouch announced, "Black Knights, prepare to move out!"
Unbeknownst to Cornelia, the Black Knights had been setting up explosives near the top of the mountains. It took them some time, but as everything was set, the Black Knights were ready to make their first debut in fighting against Britannia.
Lelouch went on to explain to his army. "We the Black Knights are going to launch a surprise attack on the Britannians from the summit of the mountain. Per my instructions, you will charge on down toward point 3. The objective of this operation is to capture Cornelia, 2nd Princess of Britannia. Our breakthrough route will be opened by the Guren Mk II."
Everyone was getting into their Burai Knightmare Frames or picking up their submachine guns, ready to go.
"Kallen, use penetrating electrode no.3. You can settle things with one blow, correct?" Lelouch instructed his ace pilot.
"Roger," Kallen answered respectfully as she controlled the Guren's giant metallic claw to connect to the said electrode. "Output confirmed; Wave Surger level is ready and holding," Kallen reported as she took a deep breath before confirming, "Activating gun bullet, now!"
Energy plunged into the ground through the electrode, quickly heating up the underground water. Not long after Kallen has taken her breath after ejecting the used energy filler out from the Guren's metallic claw, the ground started to shake vigorously. "It worked!" Kallen said in relieve.
"Ahem, so that's how the landslide was induced," Lloyd observes with narrowed eyes as he continues, "Rakshata, that's one nasty piece of technology you have brought into the battlefield."
"You are just jealous of my Guren," Rakshata hisses before she turns to Kallen with a smile, "By the way, well done, Kallen, you have made me proud."
"Emm… my pleasure?" Kallen scratches the back of her head, not knowing what to say exactly.
Cecile sighs as Lloyd and Rakshata are snorting at each other. 'I need a drink,' the tall, blue-haired beauty muses.
C.C. stood at the outpost and stared intently at the landslide. The earth was shaking vigorously and the wave of dirt quickly engulfed anything in its way, JLF and Britannian Knightmare Frames alike.
Inside the G1, Euphemia and the military advisors could not believe what they saw.
"Impossible! How could a landslide come out of nowhere?" a military advisor said incredulously. "At this rate, Generals Alex and Darlton's units will be wiped out!"
Back on the mountain, Cornelia and Darlton were trying their best to regroup their troops.
"Climb! Get to higher grounds!" Darlton roared as he used the slash harken to prevent his Gloucester from being washed away by the landslide.
On the other side, Cornelia was impatiently requesting status report from her officers. Guilford pleaded Cornelia to fall back from danger, but Cornelia was apparently more concerned about the safety of her troops than her own safety.
The screen showed that the entire town underneath the Narita Mountains was completely destroyed due to the artificial landslide. However, Lelouch showed no remorse at all and simply grinned evilly. 'Heh, it's even more destructive than I have anticipated… We did succeed in isolating Cornelia's unit but we could've been a bit more accurate. Perhaps I should've consulted a physics teacher or ask Nina to tutor me in probability.'
Back at Cornelia's team, officers reported that they have identified new enemy units from the top of the mountains, and Carius' units were moving in to engage them. The enemy was not JLF; it was Zero's Black Knights.
"What? Then…" Cornelia was shocked at the new information.
"'We could've been a bit more accurate?'" Chiba slams the armrest. "He instigated an artificial landslide, killed numerous of our JLF comrades who were fighting against Britannia because he couldn't do an accurate calculation, and he just smirked and treated it as if he was playing a video game? He's a monster! A psychopath!"
Next to Chiba, Tohdoh stares at the evil-grinning Lelouch full of fury. "Despicable," is Tohdoh's comment upon seeing how remorseless Lelouch was in treating the lives of Tohdoh's JLF comrades and the civilians in the town as mere expendables. He might have noticed the landslide was manmade and took advantage of it to fight against Cornelia's army, but the esteemed and honour-bound Japanese general still expects the one who used such strategy would at least be respectful to all the innocent lives lost during the process. Seeing Lelouch had absolutely zero respect for the lost lives simply causes Tohdoh to scowl at how lack of honour Lelouch, the leader of the Black Knights, really was.
Tamaki is about to follow Chiba and Tohdoh's lead, but Ohgi quickly stops him by tapping on his shoulder and shaking his head. "We won that battle thanks to that landslide," he whispers to his long-time friend. Tamaki gets-it-in-one and keeps his mouth shut. Kaguya says nothing, but it seems she is unhappy with what she saw on the screen as well.
Kallen cringes as she sees what happened on the screen. 'I never asked what happened during the landslide after the battle, and that was what happened?' She shudders to think how many innocent Japanese lives were claimed due to that landslide. 'I have always assumed Zero was right and followed his orders without question, since the Black Knights always fight for justice. Yet, my trust on him seemed to have been grossly misplaced, and my hands are full of the blood of innocent civilians…'
On the other side of the auditorium, the present Zero tightens his grip as he saw how his best friend reacted to the death of thousands of innocent lives. 'It's not that your miscalculation was the problem, Lelouch. Everybody makes mistakes, however its magnitude is; it was your lack of regard to those lost lives that is deeply disturbing. Shouldn't you be the one who knew best how it would feel like when losing your loved ones? How did you not feel the pain of the people who suffered like you did 8 years ago?'
Cornelia scowls at the scene. As an accomplished military general, Cornelia has no qualms about Lelouch using strategies to fight against her; in fact, now that she is watching it from a third person perspective, she thinks Lelouch's strategy was actually a pretty good one at paralyzing her forces. The only one thing that Cornelia frowns at was how Lelouch paid absolutely no mind to other people's lives, knowing full well that despite the best of Cornelia's effort in evacuating the civilians who lived in that town right underneath the Narita Mountains before the start of her military operation, there were still numerous civilians who were caught by the artificial landslide and died due to Lelouch's miscalculation. Cornelia may be merciless on the battlefield, but she is also a patriot who does care about the well-being of her fellow countrymen, unlike how Lelouch paid absolutely no mind to anyone else besides Nunnally.
Nunnally bites her lips and says nothing, but she is having an emotional turmoil inside her mind. 'Big Brother, I did regret calling you "demon" wrongly on the Damocles because I didn't understand what you were trying to do. However, what you were doing and thinking on the Narita Mountains… I can hardly justify them not to be acts and thoughts of a demon. Please, Big Brother… prove me wrong.'
"Zero! How dare you showed up!" Jeremiah started rushing towards the mountains as soon as he heard Zero was joining the fight.
"Lord Gottwald, you can't just abandon your post!" Villetta exclaimed.
However, Jeremiah considered this to be drastic situation requiring drastic measures: he would fight Zero to reclaim his glory and honour. Villetta decided to follow her leader as well.
As Jeremiah was rushing to where Zero and his soldiers were, the teal-haired man received an update from friendly units. "What? The enemy has taken out Carius' unit? Damnit, I must intervene before Zero can engage with Princess Cornelia…"
'Burn the bridges behind you and keep your back to the wall. Classical strategies remain effective ones, don't they?' Lelouch mused as he led his men rushing down the mountain. Suddenly, two of his accompanying Burai Knightmare Frames were shot and destroyed by incoming enemy.
"Zero! Is Zero here? If he is, then face me. Come forward and fight Jeremiah Gottwald!" Jeremiah shouted.
"Well, well, it's been a while Jeremiah. So you're still in the army?" Lelouch sneered with a condescending tone, "Sadly, I don't have the time to catch up with you, Orange Boy."
"O…O…Orange?" Jeremiah was furious. How dare Zero mocked someone as noble as him like that? "Die!" Jeremiah launched his attack. However, it was intercepted by a strange looking red Knightmare Frame, hitting off Jeremiah's Sutherland's machine gun. Jeremiah pulled his machine back and piloted his Sutherland into a battle position, with the two metal arm bars ready.
"Lord Gottwald!" Villetta exclaims.
"Stay out of this. This is my duel!" Jeremiah bellowed.
"But look at it, I've never seen a Knightmare Frame like that before," Villetta tried to warn her superior, "Is it possible that the Elevens have…"
"How could the Elevens be capable of such technology?" Jeremiah snorted as he started to launch his attack to the strange red Knightmare Frame. However, the red Knightmare Frame dodged his attack easily, despite Jeremiah being an ace pilot himself, and that he was piloting a 6th generation Sutherland model.
"It's fast. This thing… is this what destroyed Carius' units?" Jeremiah came to realization.
"Behold, Britannia!" Kallen exclaimed. "We can finally go up against you on equal footing head on. And our counter attack begins with this baby, the Guren Mk II!" She aimed Guren's metallic claw at Jeremiah's Sutherland.
'That's bad. There's something on its right hand,' as an ace pilot, Jeremiah was quick to deduce something was wrong with that peculiar metallic claw the enemy Knightmare Frame carried. He immediately piloted his machine away to pull some distance between him and the strange-looking claw. However, before he could get away, the right arm of the enemy unit extended and reached Jeremiah's Sutherland quicker than he could move away, the claw grapping Jeremiah's unit.
"My apologies," Kallen muttered before she pressed the "fire" button.
"What?" Jeremiah exclaimed in disbelief. The right claw was transmitting energy, heating up Jeremiah's Sutherland and caused it to swell at a horrible pace.
"Lord Gottwald, eject!" Villetta cried.
"How can I? Zero's right in front of me!" Jeremiah, however, couldn't take in his loyal subordinate's advice, being too obsessed with avenging for his name and honour. Blood streamed down his two nostrils as he was about to be microwaved alive by the Guren's Radiant Wave Surger.
Luckily, for Jeremiah, the auto-eject function comes to play. "Damn it! The auto-eject! Don't you dare activate! I can still get Zero! I know it! I know I can still get him...!" Jeremiah passed out as his cockpit, albeit having swelled considerably, ejected before his Sutherland exploded.
"Lord Gottwald… was defeated?" Villetta couldn't believe her eyes. Jeremiah, an ace pilot of the Britannian army who's piloting a 6th Generation Knighmare Frame, was defeated by a mere Eleven?
Lelouch smirked as he saw Jeremiah being fried alive. "All our tasks at hand have been cleared. The pieces are in position. The only thing left to do is to check my opponent's stronghold," he said.
Near the bottle of the mountains, Cornelia was shown perplexed of the situation gradually unfolded before her.
"So that's how Jerry got fried," Anya speaks with her usual poker face.
"That's… horrible!" Shirley can't believe what she has just seen. The kind and gentleman-like Jeremiah was being microwaved alive by her friend, under the order of her love interest? "Kallen, how could you? How could you be so cruel?"
Kallen doesn't know why Shirley is so concerned about Jeremiah, and simply assumes her orange-haired friend is shocked by the method of attack – indeed, it can be argued that it is crueler to microwave someone alive than to gun them down. However, knowing that Shirley habit of jumping to conclusion, Kallen isn't sure how to respond. "Look, Shirley, I…"
"Shirley, please don't blame Kallen too much," Gino steps in to rescue Kallen, "you may recall earlier how Her Highness wouldn't apologize for attacking Mrs Tohdoh's comrades because Her Highness was simply doing her job. This also applies in Kallen's case: she was merely fighting an enemy unit. I understand that the attack was arguably crueler than normal weapons and would cause unnecessary suffering to the enemy, but you would have noticed that Kallen had apologized right before she launched the Radiant Wave Surger," he reasons.
Shirley takes in Gino's response and sinks back to her seat, apparently accepting his explanation. Kallen is genuinely impressed by Gino's performance – that flake can actually appease her orange-haired friend with apparent ease?
Guilford, on the other hand, is musing over a different matter. 'So Lord Gottwald was not Lelouch's mole inside the military.' "Your Highness, you are right: Lord Gottwald did not leak our Narita Operation plan on purpose," he whispers.
Cornelia, however, seems more confused than before. "Gottwald could not be geassed into follow Lelouch, his military career was tarnished by Lelouch, and he almost got killed in an excruciating way when facing Lelouch at Narita. I am getting more and more confused on why he would eventually join Lelouch," she says in frustration.
Guilford can't think of a better answer, so he simply replies, "I guess we will have to keep watching the footages to find out the answer."
