"Hey! You sure about this?" Tamaki snapped, glaring up the Sutherland Oghi had claimed. "All their IEF's have been disabled. What if this is a trap?"

"The other side has total advantage in this," Oghi explained calmly, not for the first time in these past 20 minutes, as he fiddled with some of the controls. "They don't need to set any traps."

"Argh! I still don't trust this!" Tamaki turned away, scratching the back of his head as he grumbled to himself.

Oghi ignored him. Tamaki could complain all he wanted, so long as he followed Oghi's direction. They didn't need another screw up like this morning. "Alright everyone. Let's get to our assigned points and-"

"P-1."

Oghi stiffened.

He was pretty sure he recognized these names as being chess references. He had never played the game before, but when he had been a teacher he had taught his students about many different kinds of games all over the world. Chess, he knew, was a particularly popular game in Britannia and the E.U.

The voice had called not that long ago to give them the code names, explaining that if he had gotten onto this channel, it was likely the Britannian's could also hack into them.

When Tamaki had demanded why the voice didn't just leave out their names, Oghi almost swore he heard the man call him an idiot, a not uncommon nickname the rest of the group had given the red haired man.

Oghi understood the reasoning though. It was pretty simple. The walkie-talkies were all connected to a group; while he could direct the group by tuning into their individual channels, if he wanted only one of them to move he would still be talking to all of them. That would get confusing fast.

"Can you move? I assume you've at least tried out the Glasgow. It will operate pretty much the same."

It was just like the voice said. He had tried out the Glasgow before. It has been a bit to confusing for him, but he at least knew the controls.

"If Q-1 is on schedule, enemy Sutherlands, probably two of them, will reach you in 22 seconds."

22 seconds? Why so precise?

"Shoot them through the wall."

"Arh! He's out of his mind!" Tamaki snapped, still pacing around the Sutherlands. "Oghi, are you really going to listen to this guy? Come on man, we have the Sutherlands, why not just attack the Viceroys base? We could kill him!"

"Everyone, double check your weapons."

"What? Are you serious!?"

He ignored Tamaki's shouts of protest and moved the Sutherland into position. It was hard, he was in no way used to this kind of work and even just moving the Sutherland took muscles he didn't have, but he had to stay determined. His group was doing the best they could in their own machines. He had to do his best too.

10…

"Come on man!"

9…

8…

Tamaki muttered insults at him, but the rest of the group did as the voice had directed, turning their Sutherlands to face the wall beside them and lifting their guns.

5…

The wall would be like butter to the Knightmare's rounds.

4…

"3… 2… 1… Fire!"

For a moment, nothing seemed to be happening, before the wall finally began to crumble under the barrage of bullets, destroying the Sutherlands beyond it.

He could hear the cheers from the others, and after a moment to wet his patched throat, he joined in.

22 seconds. Exactly 22 seconds… Oghi didn't think anything else the voice could do would surprise him now.

…..

Suzaku sat on the edge of the cot he had woken up on, trying to sound out and understand at the same time the words on the pages in front of him.

The back of the medical vehicle had been opened so that the bespectacled man, that Suzaku had now learned was named Lloyd, could have his people come in and run a few tests on Suzaku. He wasn't quite sure what they were meant to do or if he had even passed by their standers, no one told him anything, but at least Lloyd seemed happy.

"Looks like they've got the Prince on the ropes~" said man laughed, spinning round once again as a group of Sutherlands left the convoy for the front lines. "Cecil! Is everything ready?"

Cecil, the blue haired woman who had been with him when Suzaku awoke, looked up from where she sat on the cot beside Suzaku, attempting to help him understand the Britannian in the Knightmares Manual. "Yes, Lloyd. It's all set up."

"Excellent! Excellent! Then lets not waste any time. Raise the Prince! We've got Royalty to save!"

Suzaku grimaced. Lloyd was… eccentric, to say the least.

Cecil at least seemed used to it, as she stood quickly, telling him to do his best and ask around if he didn't know any words, before hurrying to do as her boss had directed.

He got stuck on the second word after she left.

He could speak Britannian fine, reading and writing it on the other hands…. He had joined the military as soon as could, which for an Honorary Britannin was 14, and before than he had been in hiding with his family, so he had never really continued with school. He only had a 5th grade understanding of the language.

He considered for a moment asking someone around him for some help, but he had seen they way they looked at him when Lloyd had introduced him. He was an Eleven, being allowed to piolet the special Knightmare they had worked so hard on. They definitely weren't happy about it.

A large part of him felt guilty, but a bit of him also gloated at the looks on their faces. He was an Eleven, who could do something none of them could.

He wasn't about to give them an excuse to say that he wasn't suitable for the part.

As best he could, he skimmed through the rest of the manual, relying heavily on the pictures and diagrams to understand.

"It's all ready, Lloyd!"

He looked up as Cecil called out to the man, who he swore, nearly danced over to her. "Good, good! Suzaku, get ready! We're about to change the world~"

He gulped. He really hopped this didn't change the world. For one thing, he didn't think he was prepared to be part of that, and for another… This was a Britannian war machine. As much as he wanted to piolet one and prove himself, if this thing was as good as they claimed, it was possible Britannia was planning to go to war again with the E.U. or Chinese Federation.

He wanted to stop the wars, change the way Britannia thought, not subjugate more people to Britannia's rule.

"Good afternoon!" Lloyd called and Suzaku turned to watch the man talk to the laptop in Cecil's arms.

He thought he could hear panic in the voice of the man who responded. "What is it!? We're in the middle of an operation!"

"I say it's high time to deploy the ASEEC's special weapon~"

"We have no time for this!" Another man's voice joined the first. "Bartley! Cut the line!"

Lloyd's face fell as Suzaku assumed the channel was cut. "Well that was rude. Call them again!"

Cecil sighed, but did as he asked, attempting to raise the Viceroy and his people once more.

Suzaku turned back to the manual. Despite Lloyd words, it didn't look like the Viceroy was to keen for them to help out. He just hopped the choice made today was the right one.

…..

"We've got word that the terrorists are using Sutherlands!"

"The enemies moving towards G-28!"

"Send Lazlo Squad- I mean Gloubell Squad!"

Bartley was panicking, his brow slick with sweat. Sometimes Clovis didn't understand why he kept the man around. He was a disgusting pig, and not a very competent one at that.

Bartley swung around to face him, wiping his brow with a handkerchief. Some of his sweat dripped onto the floor and Clovis scowled, mentally taking note of having the whole place scrubbed top to bottom when this was done.

"I'm sorry your Highness! I-I'm not sure how this happened!"

"Sir Glowly has just been ejected!"

"His Units been lost!"

"Change our codes! They're intercepting our transmissions!" Bartley demanded, turning away from Clovis and back to the command table, banging his fist on the table as the display showed two more Units being destroyed.

"We already have sir. 4 times!"

"Do it again!"

"This failure is unacceptable!" Clovis finally snapped at them. They were making him look bad.

Bartley flinched violently, spinning once more to face Clovis. "F-Forgive me!"

"Good afternoon~"

The screen was taken up by a live feed of Lloyd Asplund's face. Clovis' scowl deepened. What was his brother's lackeys doing here? Who had let them come along?

"What is it!?" Bartley demanded. "We're in the middle of an operation!"

"I'd say its time to deploy the ASEEC special weapon~"

"We've no time for this right now!" Clovis snapped again, finally rising from his chair and moving towards the command table. "Bartley! Cut the line!"

The ASEEC continued to try and raise them on the communicator, but he ordered them to ignore it. He didn't need his brother's lackeys helping him. He didn't need his brothers help. He could do this himself.

"We just lost Lazlo Squad."

Prince Clovis lifted his chin high, smoothing out his kerchief. "I see I'll have to take this into my own hands. Bring up Quinces Squad."

"My Lord, that will break the encirclement!"

"Reinforce the breach with some of the Units guarding me. All we know for certain is that enemy forces are here." He pointed at the red dot in the middle of the map that was the lone red Knightmare. "As long as we keep them trapped in there, they won't have anywhere to run too. Charge in! Don't let any of them escape!"

The men moved to do as he commanded, sending units of men after the red dot.

As the Knightmares closed in the ranks, Clovis felt the thrill of victory. It was so close he could taste it!

"Alright, send in Bert and the others too! Concentrate our forces there. Surround them! The enemies main force is that center dot. Finish everyone of them off!"

The dot disappeared.

"Sir, there's nothing here."

Clovis started. "What? Where's the enemy?"

There was a shout and a scream and the communication cut out.

A red circle expanded from where the red dot had once been. As it passed over the other Knightmare locations, they disappeared, replaced with the word 'LOST'.

Almost a hundred of his men suddenly just disappeared.

Clovis took a step back, body shaking. What was this? How had that happened? What was going on?!

"Who-Who in the hell am I up against…" Clovis didn't realize he was speaking aloud. "What… What if he's even better that Thodo?!"

Something struck Clovis then, a thought he hadn't even entertained. Was it possible…. Was it possible that Leloucia could be doing this? These strategies… these moves…. No matter what he did, he had never been able to beat her before. Could it be…?

Could she have escaped somehow? The Royal Guards had told him they shot her point blank, but they had also lost her body in the rubble after the explosion. What if… What if that creature had done something? What if they were working together!?

He had thought her dead once, could she have duped him a second time?

No. It was impossible. It had to be impossible. No matter what they did to that girl, she never told them how to achieve her powers. She wouldn't just give it to someone random, would she?

"My Lord…"

Once again the ringing of the communication systems filled the room, the ASECC's number flashing in the bottom left of the screen.

He hit the communicator as though his life depended on it, calling the Earl's face to the screen once more.

"Lloyd!" he commanded, trying to sound more in control than he felt.

The man hardly seemed fazed at the Prince's anger, simply smiling like he knew it would come to this. If anything that made Clovis even madder. "Yes, Your Highness~"

"Can it win? Will your toy beat them?"

"My Lord, please be so kind as to call it Lancelot."

"Can it win!?"

Lloyd smiled. A self assured smile than almost seemed to taunt him. Him?! He was a Prince for god sakes! If this man didn't have the protection of his older brother, Clovis would have had him executed for his insubordination.

"I grantee it, Your Highness."

…..

Leloucia almost couldn't believe how easy this had been. Every single trap she laid for Clovis, he stumbled into like a blind man. Of course, she had been forced to sacrifice a few of her own pawns to achieve this, but that was necessary to ensure victory.

Leloucia couldn't help herself. She threw back her head and laughed, ignoring the pain in favour of the absolute joy filling her.

She was actually doing it. Her plan was actually working.

She could defeat Britannia!

…

The back of the vehicle had been closed once again to give him some privacy as he changed.

The bandages the doctor said had to stay. Even though he wasn't bleeding, the tightness of the wrappings was supposed to help somehow. It didn't do a lot to suppress the pain though.

Suzaku slipped on the crisp, white Knight uniform, trying to be careful of his side. It was… strange to be wearing one. He had seen plenty of Knights with them around the base, but wearing it himself felt…. Felt somehow like he was defying the Empire.

Both joy and guilt bubbled in his stomach again.

He squared his shoulders, readjusting the suite.

The communicator in his ear clicked, singling someone was about to speak.

"Were you able to get through the rest of the manual alright?"

Cecil's voice filled his ear. He had been with her for less than half an hour, but he already felt a sort of comfort with her. She was kind to him, never angry when he couldn't read the manual, and had years more patient than anyone he had ever met. She was… sort of like a mother.

"I skimmed what I could," he admitted, inflating the shoulder pads. They would inflate even more in times of crisis, to protect his vital areas. That part he knew at least.

"Well done. You scored at the top of your class in the simulator."

He felt pride swell in him. They had run him through a smaller version of the simulators they had back at the base, to see if he would be a good match with the Lancelot. Unlike with the simulators back at the base though, he had actually won this time.

"Miss Cecil… About what you told me earlier."

"It's… possible. But, like Lloyd said, the possibility is nearly zero, you've got to understand. Your best bet is to stop the terrorists and hope she somehow made it out."

While going over the manual, he had questioned Cecil about Leloucia. She hadn't wanted to tell him much at first, but he pressed and finally she caved. Leloucia had been shot in the abdomen and after they had patched her up, she had fled to god knows where. They had done the best they could with her injury, but Cecil feared any amount of movement Leloucia did now, especially in a warzone, might reopen the wound and cause her to bleed out.

His best bet was stopping the terrorist as quickly as he could so they could do a proper search for her, he knew that, but there was no way he was about to let Leloucia bleed out in a place like this. Or any place, really. He would do his best to stop the terrorist, but his conditions were that his top priority was going to be looking for her.

Lloyd had complained, telling him the chances she was still alive were close to zero. That had been his first glimpse of how violent Cecil could get, as she clocked the scientist (not a doctor he found out) in the head.

"There's still a chance though. Even if it's the smallest of chances, I have to take it, you understand, don't you Miss Cecil?"

The other end was silent for a long time before Cecil finally spoke again. "Don't do anything reckless, alright? This is a new system; one we didn't think we'd be sending out into the field so soon. It hasn't been equipped with an ejection mechanism yet and… knowing Lloyd, it probably wont, ever. I know you want to help your, uh, your girl friend." She was very deliberate in how she separated the two words. "But… don't get yourself killed in the process, alright? I know she wouldn't be happy about that."

Suzaku smiled. "Thank you, Miss Cecil."

"P-Please, just Cecil, Suzaku. You make me feel so old."

The convoy had moved out of the way to make room for the ASEEC's vehicle by the time he stepped out of the medical vehicle. It was large, much larger than the other vehicles, but still smaller than Suzaku had expected. In front of it stood a strangely human shaped figure covered by a dark cloth. The Knightmare, obviously. He had, once again, thought it would be bigger.

Outside of his com system now, Cecil's voice filled the safe zone.

"Z-01 Lancelot, now activating. Lancelot, activating. Releasing hatch. Z-01 Lancelot, standing by for activation."

The claw like mechanisms on either side of the Knightmare released, and the dark cloth over it was pulled away.

Suzaku could only stare in amazement.

It was a bit bigger than a Sutherland, though sleeker by far and more human like in appearance. If anything, it looked like those Knights of old from Nunnally's bedtime stories, wearing armour of gold and white.

And he was to going pilot it.

"That's…"

Cecil had returned. "Yes. This is the Advanced weapon developed by us in the Advance Special Envoy Engineering Core. Lancelot. The worlds first Seventh Generation Knightmare Frame."

The Lancelot….

"Well, if you're ready, Suzaku, shale we proceed with the initial start up?"

Lloyds cackling voice was a jarring change from Cecil's soft, feminine one, and Suzaku did his best not to flinch. The man was practically shouting in his ear.

It appeared they didn't require an answer from him though as they began the start up process without a word from him.

"Initial start up now proceeding from phase 20. Equipping energy filler."

Suzaku was directed to climb the stairs placed just behind the Knightmare, behind which stood Lloyd, Cecil and another man Suzaku didn't know the name of, each one bent over a desk, seemingly working on the start up.

"Confirm pre-start. Energy filler now at normal output. 30 seconds to reach critical voltage."

"Core luminous, shifting phase."

"Yggdrasil Drive up and running."

"Initiating Devicer set up."

That was Suzaku's cue. The hatch of the cockpit opened up and the Knightmares seat moved back, allowing him to take it.

"Confirming entry of Devicer to Z-01."

The seat moved forward into the Knightmare and the hatch closed behind him, momentarily dosing him in darkness.

"Individual I.D. registration, completed."

A small light came on in the cockpit, allowing him to see what he was doing as he put the gold activation key Lloyd had given him, into the start drive.

"Confirmed man-machine interface engaged. Yggdrasil resonance, confirmed. Rejection response, weak."

The Knightmare hummed to life, like the purring of a cat. The tinted windows lost their darkness and the small light shut off as the cockpit was filled with natural light. Suzaku reached forward, grabbing the joysticks of the Lancelot. The gloves he wore felt strange against the cool metal. He felt almost distanced from it.

"Devicer stress response, weak. All readings nominal."

He took a deep breath, repeating the code Cecil had told him over in his head to make sure he got it right, and typed it into the keypad.

"Statues all green. Status of back-up tactical bank, authorized. Secondary conformation given."

The controls moved smoothly now that the code had unlocked them, and Suzaku directed the Knightmare into a launch position. This was just like the simulator, if not a bit more jarring.

It was… exhilarating. His heart was pounding with excitement and his nerves felt like they were on fire, like electricity coursed through his veins.

He could do this. This was his dream come true. He was ready.

He reached out, pressing the smooth, slightly sticky from disuse, button. "Lancelot, activating M.E. boost."

The Landspinnders roared to life, kicking up dust as they prepared to propel the Knightmare across the battlefield. All he needed now was confirmation…

"Lancelot… Launch!"

Suzaku and the Lancelot took off like the wind, moving faster than he ever thought possible for such a heavy machine. Even the slightest presser from him made the Lancelot respond, and the agility of the thing… it was like an extension of himself. He had never felt anything like this before. It was amazing!

He started laughing, but was quickly cut short as pain blossomed from his side. Right, no time to get caught up in how cool this was. He had a job to do.

Wait for me, Lelocuia. I promise I'll find you.

...

Update: See kids, this is what happens when you don't eat your vegetables. You end up a horrible speller and embarrass yourself all over the internet.