Hello, people, we are back with a new chapter. It's a brand-new year and so far, we don't have to deal with anything new, just some shit from last year but after the last 3, we NEED one year where something that messes up the world any more than it already is. I managed to find the time to write this, as I recently updated another one of my stories and I wanted to try and do this, and another chapter for it, as well as this, has been something I've been looking forward to for a long time, so I hope you all like it, please leave a review and I hope you all have a wonderful week(presuming Putin doesn't lose any more of his mind and decides to end the world as we know it through thermonuclear fire)

Chapter 15: Twilight of the Old World

20th July 2025

Pan Pacific Defence Corps Command – Hong Kong

"Professor Chawla, Professor Asplund, Dr. Croomy," Stacker spoke as he entered the bay area, walking towards the three scientists in question as they supervised the hasty modifications to their remaining combat-ready machines. "How goes the modifications?"

Lloyd, the closest to him turned to face him with his usual carefree smile, though the half-empty cup of coffee in his hands and the dark lines underneath his eyes told a different story. "Well, we're certainly moving faster than a tortoise." Both were so exhausted and stressed that he didn't even care to reprimand the man for his non-answer.

"Can't be helped, this is a rush job, to begin with, we may have some data on the EMP but I highly doubt that these otherworldly beings would use something similar enough to my design for us to be completely sure this will work." Rakshata gave him an actual response as she looked over some of the progress on her tablet, her assistant handing the woman her pipe which he suspects he just topped up for her.

"We need some good news if nothing these then to boast some morale among the troops," Stacker told them as he had seen it on the walk here from his room where he had been going through what they knew with Herc, their people were exhausted, both from how long they're been on the clock and from just how pointless their battle seems to be. It was easy to say they'll fight till the last in the first years, but after nearly 15 years of this war, with no real gains other than defensive victories to their name, their spirits were on their last legs.

"And the people?" Cecile asked him, handing the man a cup of coffee as she quickly downed her own. The question wasn't one that neither wanted the answer to or to really discuss but it was one that needed to be addressed.

"We have to leave them to the local police; we're stretched thin as is just keeping this place operational." The veteran felt like just going back to bed, as he had read the police report the HKPD had sent him about the aftermath of the battle, while the damage had been minor when considering what had happened, it was still the first kaiju-fall on the city since the invasions had begun and that, along with heavy restrictions on trade had made what was a tense situation already even worse, resulting in protests breaking out which they barely managed to suppress without needing to seriously harm or kill anyone.

"Quite the opposite, there was always discontent against the PPDC, mainly for how powerful and influential we were for a time, being able to override national laws and customs to suit the needs of the mission," Stacker noted with a sigh, though he kept his shoulders straight and stern if for nothing else to present a strong front to the dozens of people no doubt watching them as they talked.

"And now they're angry that the shell of our former selves isn't strong enough to keep them safe. Quite the predicament we find ourselves in." Lloyd laughed at how morbid their situation was, he would call it irony but he didn't think voicing what they all knew to be true would do any good, and he was frankly too tired to have to pacify any crew that decided that complaining instead of doing their job was a good idea.

"I'll leave that to the PR department, my expertise is with killing monsters, not pacifying the populace," Stacker replied as he had dealt with politicians enough to know that calling them out more often than not just made them double down, if not ignore you.

"As should we, we'll inform you if we make any sufficient progress, sir," Cecile told him as he finished his coffee and handed her the empty cup.

"All right then, I'll let you get back to it, I still need to head over to see how our other project is coming along." With that, he turned to go find his kaiju expects and hoped that they had damn good news for him.

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Near the other side of the shatterdome, in one of the many board rooms, Lelouch and Leila sat by the large ornate table, going through whatever reports and scientific papers on the kaiju that they could find. So tired were the two that when Lelouch's partner placed a hand on his shoulder, his reaction was merely a slow turn to face her concerned face. "You should rest," Viktoriya told him as she pushed a steaming cup of coffee into his hands, which he hoped was extra strong.

"I'll rest when I find something of use." He took a deep sip of the bitter gulp of the drink, placing aside proper manners as the rest of the pilots walked into the room, with Leila's partner handing her a cup of her own as the European woman gave her a grateful smile.

"You said it yourself; we have no way of knowing where they'll strike next," Viktoriya told him.

"All the more reason to prove him wrong, we don't have the luxury to wait and see with this," Leila spoke up as she placed down another pointless paper that tried to figure out their predatorial habits, but now that they know they aren't merely mindless beasts, it was an irrelevant point.

"We also don't have enough information for you to drive yourself into exhaustion, did you get any sleep last night?" Kallen asked him as both looked like hell.

"He didn't, tried to fake it." Before he could answer, Viktoriya punched him in the shoulder, her disapproval clear in her face.

"Wasn't faking it, just couldn't fall asleep with this problem rattling around my head." He tried to defend himself as he had always been someone that didn't like to leave a problem untouched, unchallenged but this one was far larger than anything else they had ever faced.

"Hey, you make us sound so callous by the fact we could." Suzaku took the seat next to him, his old friend looking just as annoyed with his behavior as his combat partner.

"That wasn't our intention, we just…" Leila started to continue defending themselves but she paused, losing most of her strength as she melted back into her seat, her coffee grasped in both of her shaky hands. "We need a win, we can't keep this game of whack a mole up."

"We know, but the best thing we can do is wait for the scientists to finish the upgrades." Xianglin reminded her, knowing the feeling of helplessness her partner was dealing with well but also knowing burning herself out trying to solve it won't do anything.

"She's right, no good if we can figure something out if our machines can just as easily be shut-down, and this time I doubt they'll just walk past us," Gino added in as he took a seat, his feet already on the table as they were all lucky that the last time they had been knocked out, the monsters didn't decide to end them then and there.

"Still," The newly arrived Sasha spoke as she and her partner walked into the room, some gauze still visible on them from their near-fatal battle. "It beats laying around doing nothing."

"You good?" Chuck asked the two who didn't even bat an eye.

"We can fight. That's all that matters right now." Aleksis replied, and the group decided to leave things at that.

"The triplets?" Raleigh asked the two, as they had been in the medical wing together but the two Russians only shook their heads.

"They were moved, and doctors concluded they were too injured to be considered in fighting shape." They had been shipped out not too long ago to a hospital further inland.

"Leaving us with just 6 machines to defend the entire pacific? Could things get any dire?" Lelouch muttered to himself as he laid his head in his arms.

"Let's focus on possible targets first, how likely is it for Honolulu to be hit? It's far away from any help and it would give them a foothold." Leila asked, wishing to get back to it and hopefully, make some meaningful progress now that they had more people to weigh in.

"Too small and far, sure they could take it but if push comes to shove, I have no doubt that we won't just bomb the place to hell." Aleksis took one look at the map and considering the distance from the Hawaii islands to either Britannia or Europe, it didn't seem like it would be worth the trouble.

"Civilian casualties?" Suzaku didn't like that kind of thinking; he could see the logic but he hoped that the sustained bombing of a civilian center with well over 200,000 people.

"Considering what casualties could arise if we allow them to take and hold the islands, within acceptable limitations," Nagisa answered his question, she didn't like the idea of leaving so many people to die, but they also couldn't allow their enemy even an inch of land to stage further attacks from, even if Hawaii was thousands of kilometers from any other population center.

"Doesn't help that the populace isn't that high, Hong Kong has far more people so the command would likely see it as the better option to defend if worst comes to worst," Herc added.

"Would Taipei be more likely? It gives them a much closer foothold to mainland China" Raleigh suggested as he and Mako looked through the papers that had been left on the desk.

"It wouldn't be impossible for them to take the place; we never had a shatterdome there, to begin with." Mako seemed to agree with him on that point.

"I don't know, wouldn't doing us in here in Hong Kong be the better bet? A successful battle means we're all dead and with it, any chance of effective counters against them." Kallen on the other hand rose a good counter to their argument, which was the reason that neither Lelouch nor Leila had been able to pin down anywhere as more or less likely than the others.

"That's what we're been going back and forth on for hours now, it makes sense to strike us while we're weak, to destroy our fighting force in one strike," Lelouch spoke up, looking at the group with tired eyes.

"But on the other hand, it's so logical that they could strike anywhere else while we're too fat away to do anything, which would be just as damaging to morale and public trust." He added with a sigh as even if they had more information, they were trying to plan for an enemy that wasn't even human, so who to say that they'll play by human conventions of what's logical?

"In us?"

"Partly, thanks to Chuck there," The man didn't even look at that embarrassed to have the spotlight on him, though they had bigger issues to worry about. "People know that we've been downsized by bureaucrats and career politicians, but they also have it in their heads that we weren't performing to the standards expected of us," Leila stated as one didn't need to keep up to date with the news to know that public support for both the PPDC and the measures taken by countries with borders on the pacific wasn't great, Britannia had it worst but it wasn't like Japan and China's governments were winning any votes from their own measures either.

"If we survive this, let's never let Chuck be in PR," Gino spoke up, getting a small laugh from the group, a short break from the tense situation but it was like a firework, it was short-lived.

"Alright, we're been asking about what if Asia is hit, I get that, through Asia they can hit Africa and Europe if they squash enough cities to get there, but what about Australia and the Americas?" Chuck asked as it seemed like the group was ignoring both his homeland and the entire continent on the other side of the ocean.

"The Australians have been keeping a good eye out for anything approaching their waters, both from them and the sea, so at least we'll get a couple hours to prepare and ship out while they get civilians way from wherever they could land," Herc replied as their government hadn't been sitting idle and been spending quite the sum of money on keeping an eye out for anything kaiju related coming within 1000km of their waters.

"And Britannia?" Viktoriya asked.

"I spoke with my sister about that," Lelouch started, his headache only growing more intense as he thought back to the conversation he had with Cornelia, she wasn't as pushy as Euphemia and clearly understood it was a work-related call, but he wished she didn't try to bring up her visiting her nephew and niece so much, he knows they're adorable, how could they not be when you consider who their parents are? "They're been increasing military presence on the west coast for months now. Everything from bomber squadrons to cruise missile platforms has been poured into the region."

He will say this about his bastard of a father, the man understands that he can't maintain power if he doesn't at least appear to be working to defend his empire.

"Bombs, tanks, and missiles took days to kill the first ones." Raleigh reminded them all, a fact made even worst when they considered that the first ones were the smallest and weakest of the bunch.

"I've been told that these bombs and missiles were designed with kaiju in mind, but how they're also meant to slow them down and make the damned things reconsider any protracted attacks on the west coast," Lelouch replied as it seemed like Britannia was hoping that like wild animals, they'll back off once a particular kill proves too exhausting to continue to pursue, but he hoped that they were prepared to bombard whatever monster appears as their enemy isn't likely to allow them to retreat, not when even their blood is a form of attack.

"You have any numbers?" Gino asked as he picked up a piece of paper and read its contents.

"425 Bombers, separated into 85 squadrons; 34 Destroyers and Frigates armed with depth charges and SSMs; 36 UAVs for early warning pick-up; 163 nearly recommissioned heavy coastal defense batteries around major cities; Over 3600 Mobile Missile systems and over 346,000 troops to man it all." Quite the impressive number there from what he could recall, that represented around a 3rd of their active fighting strength.

"There aren't any knightmares," Mako noted.

"What can they do? Even if they're equipped with anti-tank missiles, the best they can accomplish is nipping at their feet." Nagisa replied as in the years since the war began, knightmare development at slowed to a halt, it wasn't like Britannia could continue their wars, nor were early knightmares effectively against kaiju as while faster than a tank, the tank could at least utilize a more powerful main cannon then just any anti-armor rocket launcher. They continued to discuss the situation for another 20 minutes, and just as Lelouch was getting up to take a much-needed nap, the door opened as one of the ground soldiers quickly walked in and saluted them.

"Sir."

"What is it?" Herc as the man as he turned to face Lelouch.

"There's someone here to see you, they insist to talk to you." The man replied, getting the dark-haired man to groan in annoyance.

"We don't have time for his stupid fans, tell them to leave or be arrested." This wasn't the first time his 'fans' figured out which shatterdome he was stationed at, a fact that he hated as he's never entertained this nonsense but it seems like they never get the message, and of all times, this was one of the worse for someone to appear to 'ask to speak with him' or 'proclaim their love'. Matter of fact, he was close to snapping at this grunt as he should have known what to do without bringing this to his attention.

"We did, mam. But the thing is…" The man seems to pause, as if not sure how to phrase what had happened, did they have a weapon and injure someone?

"Spit it out," Kallen ordered the man as they had better things to think about than whatever the hell was happening with pretty boy's fanbase.

"She touched the guard trying to remove her from the main gate and he fell to the ground screaming, when several others tried to step in, they met the same fate." This caught them all off guard.

"She did what?" Aleksis wanted to be sure he heard that right as there was no way someone managed to do what he said they did, there must be a mistake.

"We don't know how she did it either, but she refused to leave and with things as they were, we had no choice but to escort her in, under heavy watch." The soldier replied as he had seen it with his own eyes as 3 of their number were seemingly trapped in some kind of nightmare, all of them needing to be restrained and taken away before they hurt themselves or someone else in their man panic.

"As if my day couldn't get any worse, where is she right now?" Lelouch muttered the first part out loud, wondering if he should get another cup of coffee before asking him where the hell this dangerous woman was.

"In the brig, sir. We've already informed the commander, he said he'll meet you down there." So Stacker was aware of this as well? Just swell, now he will have to deal with his commander questioning him about this as well.

"For the love of, fine. You all stay here and continue to talk, the more cities we can rule out, the better." He told them as he and Viktoriya walked out of the room, following the soldier as he led them to meet with this girl.

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"Sir." Lelouch and Viktoriya saluted Stacker as they walked into the observation room. The ranked officer walked the camera feed of their mysterious prisoner. As they've never dealt with many of the usual things that an armed organization of their size did, they lacked a dedicated holding area, for that reason, their guest was locked into one of the isolation medical rooms though from how she sat there, it was if she was bored of the entire situation.

"At ease, this situation is bizarre enough that we should skip right to that," Stacker told them as he was still puzzled about the gate incident.

"Is it true, sir?" Viktoriya asked as Lelouch looked at the feed of the woman as she played with her long green hair, by all appearances she was just some strange teenager but they all knew that there was something much more to her.

"Saw the men myself, they took 20 minutes to calm down and from what little the doctors could get from them, they all say someone about seeing nightmares made real." He replied, having been present when the mead had to be put under, their screams still ringing in his ears, digging up unpleasant memories of the final moments of many fallen comrades.

"What about her? What do we know?" Lelouch asked, his gaze still on the woman as she unnaturally turned to the camera, an act which wasn't strange in of itself considering it was very visible on her side, but what unnerved him was how her eyes seemed to find his own and stare right into them.

"Nothing, all we got is her alias," Stacker replied as he took out a small plastic bag that had everything, she had on her, which wasn't much.

"Alias?" Lelouch finally turned away from the feed to face the two.

"She goes by C.C., but her ID has her by the name of Rebecca Sanders. When pressed she doesn't give up anything else." Stacker told them as he handed Viktoriya the ID, which had all the standard info, and as he said, her yet-to-be-confirmed name was there, along with her date and place of birth which had her as a 17-year-old Australian.

"Fake?" She asked as she handed the ID off to Lelouch who started to look it over, not sure what he was trying to find.

"More than that, it was a near-perfect imitation, you can't just buy that off the dark web. The ID number even exists and belongs to a woman that appears to resemble her." It took some favors, but they managed to run her ID through the Australian consulate and they, at least for the moment, could confirm that it wasn't some fake.

"That what's the issue?" Lelouch placed the ID back into the bag.

"One of the people looking through it has a background intelligence, according to them, her passport is exactly like what would expect from someone in the employ of one of the superpowers." Stacker relayed to them. One of the perks of how quickly they were founded to meet their new threat was that they acquired talent from across the board, and while many had since left with the budget cuts, there were still enough people with the right talents remaining that one managed to look it over.

"So, she's connected to either the OSI, the old Chinese Intelligence Department for the E.U's GUO." Viktoriya surmised as she sighed, hoping that this wasn't some half-ass attempt for power for some pointless personal grudge. "The Chinese can be rooted out fairly easily, the former regime has been dead for years, and has no reason to target us or me."

"Same can be said about the E.U. Lelouch may be of the royal bloodline, but he's done a lot to distance yourself from your country and family," Stacker added, taking a pill for his headache which he sent down with a sip of the water he had with him.

"So that just leaves the OSI, has your father finally decided he's done tolerating your criticisms of him and Britannia?" Viktoriya asked her partner as she knew just about all there was to know about him and had been present for more than a few brief moments when the press managed to ring anything out of him, none of it ever painted Emperor Charles in a good light, as a father or a ruler.

"Could be, but it wouldn't be the smartest move on his part if I just happened to be killed, especially at his point. Most likely it's a member of the Old Nobility who hates the fact I'm not like them." Lelouch replied, he didn't think his father above trying to kill him, but he also had to admit it was no fool, how could he be when every noble wished to gain more power or plant themselves or an ally on the throne?

That being said, even when he was still living in Pendragon with his mother and sister, the old Nobility, those descended from the exiles that fled Europe before Napoléon could get to them, despised the vi Britannia family. Once his mother had been killed, it had been them that had taken all they had before her corpse could even be buried, and called for his imprisonment after his falling out with Charles. Of course, he hadn't made the target on his and his family's back any smaller when it was not only announced that he was taking a foreigner as a wife, as it would mean that he was 'further defiling their nation and principles by daring to bring orient blood into the imperial family'. The other was his open criticisms of both them and the emperor on a regular.

It didn't help that most of his half-siblings came from old noble houses so the odds of one of his many half-siblings whose names he didn't care to remember could be behind this, which only increased the suspect pool. Still, he could rule out a few names and houses off the bat as while they would certainly have the motive to want him, Kaguya, and their children dead-they wouldn't have the wealth or influence to contact anyone of the OSI as while officially controlled by the emperor and state if one had enough sway-they could 'borrow' OSI assets for personal reasons. Houses that had enough pull for such weren't that many, maybe around 20, maybe 24.

"Should we just hand her over to the police?" He asked his commander, while this caught his attention, they weren't investigators, at least not ones specializing in humans.

"Doubtful that will work, unless we kill her first as she's only in there because she allowed them to put her there." Stacker's response was what he expected, even if he didn't wish to hear as if she can drive a man insane with but a single touch, getting her to move without her clear consent would be…difficult.

"So, what, I should talk to her?" He asked his commander, seeing that they didn't have much in the way of options in this situation.

"Seems like our only option with her, but you can enter armed so if she tries anything, you have my permission to use lethal force." Stacker sighed.

"Understood."

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C.C. was beginning to wonder if they had actually done what she asked as she had been here in this room for at least 30 minutes. It was a simple thing, were they so obsessed with fighting monsters that her request was ignored, they hadn't even offered her anything to eat, though she doubted that such boring-looking people had some pizza laying around. She would have gotten up and tried to find her target herself if not for the door opening and Lelouch coming to her, at long last. "Took your sweet time getting here, did you not get the message about how urgent this is?"

"I have more important matters to tend you than to whatever some spy has to say to me." Lelouch's response told her much, besides the fact he had turned into quite the handsome lad since when she last saw him as some petulant child, he seemed to take after his father in terms of personality, a shame really as she would have preferred if he was playful as Marianne was, he did share more of a resemblance to her then his boring father.

"Is that what you think I am?" She asked him, not surprised by that as while the OSI worked fast, they couldn't create enough of a false background for her in mere hours, especially so with the organization so thoroughly compromised, limiting what resources the branch she approached could use.

"Let's skip the word games, I am not in the mood for them. Why are you here?" Lelouch asked her, starting with the questions he had been given before he entered the room, his hand still on his sidearm and ready to use it at a moment's notice.

"I needed to speak to you, to pass along some crucial information from your mother." C.C.'s response got the reaction she expected. First, it was a pause, as he processed her saying something so unpredictable and seemingly impossible.

"What?" Then the second was the growing rage she could see on his face, clearly, he shared his mother's dangerous temper but she couldn't play with him too much, not when there was too much happening at the moment for that, with the added annoyance of knowing that he would kill her if she kept messing with him.

"Did I stutter, I have some information that Marianne feels you need." She paused as he slowly rose his hand, the one gripping his pistol as tight as a snake's hold on its prey. Its barrel pointed right at her.

"Of all the disrespectful things I've dealt with, you might just be at the top of the damn list. Did you come all the way here just to insult me?" He nearly growled out, sounding so much like his mother that she felt some semblance of pity for the woman, for missing out on having her children at her side, though she had warned her about this fate so that's all she'll get from the immortal.

"Charles has been overthrown." C.C. dropped another surprise for him, getting enough of a pause of shock from him for her to continue. Time was of the essence. "Your uncle has risen up and overthrown him in a silent coup, what little remains of his supporters and allies are either on the run or dead." She added, telling him what she had been told. Lelouch would have disregarded this, he knew Britannian politics like the back of his hand, and any successful attempt to oust Charles would have made national and then international news. Whoever claimed the title of 99th emperor would have paraded his beaten body or bloody corpse through the streets of pendragon, he didn't have an uncle, and his father killed all his siblings years ago…right.

But then…he recalled when he first heard Viktoriya's theory about his mother's demise, he used to think that what happened that night was concrete, set in stone as well. But, if a cover-up like that could happen in Pendragon, who to say that his father didn't kill one of his brothers and that he slowly built up the power needed to overthrow him? Has he always been a threat, or did he kill his mother? A living relative would have posed a serious threat to Charles's rule as anyone of the many families that believed they weren't getting enough could easily back someone like that, someone who was announced to be the real culprit behind his mother's death, would have gained silent support of the old nobility and made his father out to be weak.

Would that be the reason for that bastard to create a whole new narrative? To have his daughter shot and then act like he didn't care about the entire thing, to make it seem like less of a blow against him than it was? All this seemed crazy, it should be crazy but along with the knowledge that his father implanted false memories in his head…he didn't know what counted as insane. Surely not this woman, she's real regardless of whatever impossible stunts she pulled. With that doubt, he lowered his weapon.

"And what, pray tell, has this to do with my mother? She's been dead for 15 years." Lelouch asked.

"Her body perhaps, but not her mind." C.C.'s response came out blandly as if she were reading off a script, not caring for what it sounded like but he was too stun and drunk to truly react.

"What do you mean by that?" Here, C.C sat a little straighter, appearing more invested in the conversation, she could see the doubt creeping up in him, he didn't know what to believe at the moment, and she could understand that she had spent years in that state and while largely indifferent, she could say that she tried to help others through bouts of it herself.

"There's a lot to say, but I try to make this easier to stomach." She told him before, as Marianne has asked of her, and started to explain everything.

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"I can't even…" Lelouch sat, unresponsive as his partner tried to comfort him, though she was nearly as stunned as he was, having heard the entire conversation, and the truths that came with it.

"If monsters from other worlds weren't a thing, I would call that…C.C woman crazy, but as things stand…" Stacker was also in a similar state, his coat gone as he nursed a drink of his rarely touched whiskey, the three having retreated to his office in the aftermath of Lelouch's well over 2-hour long truth piece with C.C. What they had learned, it was ground-breaking, mind shattering as none of them could fully grasp what they had learned.

"A secret order of agents, each gifted with special powers of the mind, powers that are given to humans by code bearers, immortal beings," Lelouch whispered, wondering if his entire life was merely one big lie if he and his sister were pawns in a game they didn't even know existed. "It all sounds preposterous."

"She had you shoot her in the arm, and we all saw the wound seal itself in less than 20 seconds," Viktoriya stated. "If nothing else, I wouldn't call her human." The woman in question, C.C had been given one of the spare rooms to herself, and at her request, access to 'room service', a request so absurd that Viktoriya nearly laughed about it when she heard it, if just to give her sanity an outlet before it ruptured.

"And now, we have an immortal…my uncle out there in the world, apparently an agent to the creators of the Kaiju." Lelouch could at least take comfort in knowing that the expected attack was sure to hit Britannia, but it was a razor-thin silver lining in a monstrously massive dark cloud.

"Silver lining here is that if they had him oust Charles from power, but keep it secret, they have plans involving the empire, so we should try and pass on the message to people we can trust." Stacker tried to get his head back into things, even if it was merely a poorly made front.

"Surely Cornelia and Schneizel will do something, right?" Viktoriya asked Lelouch, who reached for one of the glasses the commander had out before he poured himself a glass of whiskey, downing it in a few gasping gulps, feeling it burn all the way down.

"Most likely, but we may a fair idea of the general area, we don't know when or where. Still, I'll speak with them later and see if they can look around for anything out of the ordinary." They now had to figure out which city is the real target, if they can figure that out, they can mount a much more resistant defense.

"What are we to do with her?" Lelouch asked.

"We keep giving her what she wants, within reason. If this is true, then she's one of the most important assets on the board right now, and our only link to Marianne who can still pass along additional information." Stacker replied if nothing else, having a ghost serving as their eyes and ears on the other side should prove to be incredibly useful.

"Yeah…" Lelouch replied half-heartedly, reaching to pour himself another glass before he paused, and placed his empty glass down. "I have…I have to go." He didn't even wait for dismissal before he left the room, with no destination in mind. Viktoriya would have gone after him, but Stacker shook his head.

"Leave him be, this isn't something that one can prepare themselves for." Stacker wouldn't pretend to understand just how emotionally confused Lelouch must be at the moment, how could he not be after all they learned about his family, his parents, and what has happened since?

21st July 2025

Pendragon Imperial Palace – Britannia

"How are things?" V.V. asked some of the gathered agents as he watched the city from Charles's old office.

"Everything's been finished and have reached the final stages."

"It will be another hour before the final team is in position."

"The pre-recorded broadcast has been finished; the human did prove to be remarkedly stubborn for someone so old."

"Old by human standards, you mean?" He asked, turning to the last one who spoke who quickly bowed his head.

"Of course," With that corrected, his gaze turned back to the city, the blue of his eyes reflecting off the glass back at him as he watched the ants going about their days, so-called nobles showing off their meager wealth to the masses.

"Let the humans enjoy the day, for it will be the last before we finally claim this world as ours." He spoke, his smile cracking as he felt the soul of the poor human trying to retake control, this wasn't the first time, nor would it be the last but he had been in control of this body for far too long at this point, and he would not allow the human to have it back. As he basked in the light of the sun, one of the members of the geass order he had disguised as a palace staff member walked into the office.

"Something has come up, sir."

"What?" He turned to address this new issue.

"It seems that Princess Cornelia and Prime Minister Schneizel are investigating our plans, they haven't found anything but it's only a matter of time till they do." While the other 3 seemed to be concerned about this, V.V. stayed silent, letting them mummer about it before speaking, his face the same as it had been before he heard the news of those two.

"So…they managed to spread the word out, did they?" He said, as if speaking to himself as he wondered if they could still snatch them, they had tried in the past but one was rarely in the capital, having remained as the Empire's sole commanding officer in those damned PPDC. The other was constantly traveling from city to city, and when he was in the capital, his own guards kept theirs from getting close. It was a pity, but they had reached a stage where it mattered little.

"Let them be." He ordered them, it was a pain that they couldn't capture Charles's last supporters, but they had lost them shortly after their attempted assassination. They knew that Bismarck was somewhere in the Caribbean, and Anya…or was it Marianne? Regardless, the strange woman was last seen flying south but could have doubled back using other means. Then there was this C.C woman that both Charles and the Order has files on, but neither knew where she was, he wished to gift his masters with both known human immortals but alas, he knew that he couldn't expect to take it all.

"Sir? But, the plans…" He rose his stolen hand, silencing the man.

"Will proceed without change. I doubt that these humans will be able to figure out anything in time to make any meaningful change, in fact, this will be wonderful to watch." He smiled, nuclear blue glowing even brighter as he watched the sun, and in his heart, knew that with its setting, this world will enter a new age, its rightful age.

The day went on like any other, it was peaceful in the city of San Francisco, even with the increased presence of the military in the last few months, it wasn't as if they acted like they were in charge, with the added checkpoints and screenings that slowed things down, people were annoyed by the decreasing crime made up for it. In the years since the first Kaiju attack, an event which left over 300,000 people dead and 1.1 million more homeless, the city had made a real return, greater than ever mainly thanks to the presence of one of the Ashford family's Jaeger factories which attracted many people back in, along with investment.

The factory had closed down a long time ago, but the city had recovered and thrived with a population back in the 1.5 million range. Nonetheless, the continued threat of the Kaiju pushed many to abandon the city, despite the numerous defensive measures in place, and flee to the safe zones. Euphemia delivered on her promise, as these zones welcomed anyone and everyone, and help them settle into these fortified hubs. They varied in size, but these 201 hubs all housed over 2 million people living under its protective aegis. It was on this fine July day, that several trucks drove through the city, clearing all checkpoints without issue as they made their way toward the golden gate bridge. It was at this moment that across the empire, and the world an announcement was made.

All at once, using the state emergency broadcast system, the image of emperor Charles appeared on every device in the empire, and through clever hacking, throughout the world. Few knew that this wasn't the emperor, and even fewer knew why he would pull such a state at the present moment. "All men…are not created equal!" Even in his advanced age, his voice still carried the same strength that it had when he first took the throne through blood and lies. "Some men are born swifter of foot, some of greater beauty, some are born to great wealth and strong, healthy bodies. Both in birth and upbringing, in sheer scope of ability, every human is inherently different." The rhetoric that had been a staple of his reign was nothing new, his people have come to accept it, whereas the rest of the world took this as a slight against them.

Still, Charles was never known to be a man that cared for the opinions of others, he kept on with his speech, having the world's attention on him. "It is because of this that we discriminate, why we struggle, compete, and succeed in the never-ending march of progress. This is something we embrace in Britannia because that is the natural order of the world! We embrace competition, innovation, evolution, and to the victor, the spoils. To the defeated and outdated, they receive nothing but blood and dirt!" He rose his fist to the sky, some amongst his Britannian audience mimicking him out of habit as they stood proud of their nation, and its many achievements while the tens of millions of numbers who had only recently gained any semblance of rights glared at his image on their screens.

"It is because of that fact, that culture that has made Britannia strong that I have an announcement to make to the entire world, the coming of a new era in this world's history!" Marianne, who was in control of Anya's body, watched the broadcast from the small Manauara café she had been resting in. Her grief had been her norm for the past few days as she watched either her husband being forced to give this speech or an imposter using his name.

"It's starting. We should move." She uttered to herself as she left the cash on her table and walked out the door, pulling her hoodie on to mask her face as she made her way back to where…they were staying with Dorothea, who had been out getting them another car as they couldn't afford to use the same one too long, not when their names and faces were marked for elimination.

'Oh, now my opinion matters, parasite?' Anya's voice, rung in…her head, Marianne had explained things to the girl who by her word, wasn't helping her because he had any choice as she didn't think the dead empress would just give her back her body which was sadly true, it wasn't like she could as she had to jump back to her own first, which wasn't an option.

"Yeah, I deserve that." Still, she wasn't expecting anything less than the bitter, infuriated girl. How could she when she had robbed her of her life for almost 15 years?

"Humanity has reached its limit; it has done all it can ever hope to do. We as a species, have outlived our usefulness to this planet." Here, Stacker and the rest of the staff in the Hong Kong shatterdome continued to monitor the breach, their pilots absent as both their brain dive and jaeger modifications were still unfinished, forcing them to keep a fleet of cargo planes on standby, ready to deliver whatever men and materials they could spare to any hotspot that arose.

"What is the situation?" Stacker kept firm control of the situation while many had been told of what they had learned, the rank and file did not so he couldn't afford to let the broadcast spread confusion amongst their ranks.

"The entire Pacific East coast is on high alert, but we still don't have anything from the breech," Tendo replied as both he and 3 others watched their different monitors for even a slight increase in activity from the breech, but they couldn't detect anything.

"The defenses?" Stacker turned to someone else.

"All fully operational, sir." They confirmed with their counterpart on the other side of the ocean.

"What's your endgame here?" He asked himself, having taken some time to rest before brainstorming with the rest of his trusted people, which allowed them to narrow down possible targets to just two, information which was quickly shared with the Britannians who moved to adjust their plans to better suit the situation.

"For today, is the day of Ragnarök!" With that said, Charles signed off, the feeds returning to normal as people the world over wondered about his intentions, with many suspecting that he had merely gone senile with old age. Most had no idea that this would be the last time that Charles spoke, and would serve as the day the Britannian empire died.

With the message sent out to the world, it also served as the commencement of the operation as over half of the missile defense network went offline, Cornelia had been warned ahead of time of this and moved quickly to engage separate, hastily assembled missile sites to defend the city lest the Kaiju attack but with nothing occurring with the breach, and no kaiju seen for hundreds of kilometers out to see, she didn't know to expect. What she and everyone else could never have foreseen was that it wasn't the kaiju who would be the vanguard of the assault, the humans.

All the sites that went down, had been the furthest to the city and the nearest safe zone. Armed with the newly created long-range anti-kaiju missiles, these missiles had a range of well over 1,500km and packed 550kg high explosive warheads. Their relatively isolated locations meant that it would be too late to stop them as portions of their crews, after killing the rest of the operators not under their sway, began to input the targeting data into each of them. The targets in question were soon made clear as dozens of missiles took to the skies at near sonic speeds, not flying out to sea, but rather sticking to the coast or heading inland.

All the missiles were picked up, by air traffic controllers detecting high-speed unknown objects, to the Britannian army and air force operators, and lastly the PPDC themselves as their systems registered that their missiles had fired without authorization from sites that were still down. It would be just under 1 minute and 20 seconds that the first missile impacted, hitting the crowded mall in the center of San Francisco, the impact and subsequent explosion killing over 200 people before they could even realize their fates. Before anyone could even scream in panic, or even attempt to flee, another strike hit the same mall, this one hitting a different part of it and killing even more people. More missiles came crashing down, like lightning bolts from an enraged Zeus as they struck bridges, roads, hospitals, and skyscrapers whose burning, shattered remains would fall to earth, damaging nearby buildings and only further increasing the body count.

It was pandemonium as no one knew what was happening, who was firing missiles, and if they were at war-which which only fed into the confusion and hysteria as thousands run, many with no destination in mind other than as far away from where they were possible. As buildings and public works were torn asunder by high explosive warheads crashing down at over trice the speed of sound, the men of metal began to move as sleeper agents of the order, placed into the city over the last 7 months killed their comrades in the knight police, boarded their Glasgows and rushed into the street, what little hope that they were there to aid the people was crushed by they began to fire their tear gas, and machine guns into the mobs of fleeing people. Other emergency services weren't spared this fate as ambulances, police cruisers, and fire trucks; at random these vehicles blew up thanks to hidden explosives, word traveling too slow that while it was a relatively low number that had bombed attached to their underbellies, many didn't realize this when they boarded them to head out to fight this crisis.

San Francisco wasn't the only target of this apocalypse. As those who observed this missile strike, either from a distance or on the dozens of monitors went pale from the shock, other missiles fired in this first volley found their targets, the target-rich safe zones which had no form of air-defense whatsoever, as they were build to ward off land and sea-based monsters, such measures were never implemented, thought that the defenders must have thought before they were consumed in great balls of fire and shrapnel, leaving nothing by ash in their wakes. The people they were charged with defending suffered the same fate as panic spread through the camps which were hit. Same as the city, Glasgows-only baring the colors of Princess Euphemia's own royal guard, activated and fired on the people they had been meant to protect as bombs planted throughout killed people by the dozen. Bedlam flowed through their newly built, now ruined streets like the blood from the hundreds of torn and dismembered corpses and men, women, and children.

As the second volley of missiles took to the skies, Charles's message came back on the air, repeating the second half as he denounces humanity, making it clear to the world that he was behind this but to those who knew, it was a clear attempt to frame the man but despite knowing that, they couldn't do anything. In tearful fury at the loss of so many of the people she swore to protect, Cornelia alongside her military attaché ordered bomb strikes on the rouge SSM sites but before pilots could even board their fighters, across over a dozen airstrips, bombs went off. Destroying or otherwise grounding many fighters and damaging infrastructure which as runways or fuel depots. Same as many of the poor souls blasting through the 5 safe zones already hit, and San Francisco itself, some groundcrew, office workers, engineers, mechanics, and even pilots themselves who had been brainwashed beforehand had their programming kick in thanks to Charles's announcement and went on the rampage, fighting anyone and everyone they could get their hands on like rabid animals, a few getting their hands on weapons from the pens from their desks, and tools from their toolkits to pistols and submachine guns.

It didn't matter how, and no two incidents were the same, all that mattered was that for all intents and purposes, the air force wouldn't be able to help anyone, not unless they called in reinforcements from bases further inland, but those would take time, and reports and sabotage, traitors and madmen leaking through, many wouldn't be able to do anything as they first carried out thorough inspections of aircraft, personal and equipment. As thousands died, and the images of events got out to the stunned silent world, 9 trucks that had carried on like nothing was out of the ordinary, reached their destination on the Golden Gate Bridge, right above where the San Andreas Fault lap, deep beneath the bay's waters. Having stopped, and with quirk, practiced fashion, they began to unload their cargos. As the third volley came down on the now burning city, they finished their set-up, which appeared sleek, advanced, and oh so very alien. With this completed and wide smiles on all their faces, they began to activate the massive device. As they input the instructions into it, the machine came to life with a deafening bellow, stream shooting out of release valves while sakuradite flowed through its metal and rubber veins.

Many trapped on the bridge tried to rush past them as they fled for their lives but found themselves shot without mercy as a line of soldiers who had been riding with the trucks formed and unloaded their clips into the charging crowd who kept their distance in terror. Some took out their phones to record this, others to call loved ones and say their goodbyes or plead for help. It didn't matter the purpose, what was important, what would go down in history as one of humanity's darkest days, if not the darkest since K-day was what came next. As the machine reached its apex, it fired a massive laser through the bridge, into the water-striking the fault line with the force of a monster of myth. This wasn't meant to cause some kind of seismic event, but rather it was to open a new portal, one that had been worked on from both sides to make this possible. To the terrified masses, both watching this in person, and across the world, a second rife opened and from it, they heard the bone-chilling roars and screeches of beasts and monsters they wished never existed.

Ragnarök had come, and with it, the twilight of the old world.

Ladies and gentlemen…you may now shit your pants, because now all those mad, naked people who scream and rage that the world is ending, we all owe them an apology. This was a bit hard to write, not because I didn't have any ideas or motivation, but because the 'O' on my laptop's keyboard came loose, and following the advice of my father, instead of taking it to expects to fix it, I glued it back into place, which has left it much less sensitive than it used to be. The OG plan I had going was for the Kaiju to come through this new rift first and then V.V reveals just how thorough and widespread his agents and puppets have been spread, but that didn't seem right, so I swapped things around as it was not only would be the least expected thing but also to paint the most powerful nation in this universe as the complicit in the attack to sow more seeds of chaos. Why would the precursors waste effort killing humans when they can get them to kill each other, after all?

Reviews:

Perseus12: Well, it wasn't like V.V. was in control of himself…so this is the one instance where he isn't at fault.

Blaze1992: End of the movie, I never said I would adapt, hmmm!

Command Unit: Thanks.

G271102: Maybe, but that would still leave the issue of Charles needing to work with him to alter everyone's memories of the incident, and since Charles admits to doing this, it must have been his doing.