Chapter 9
It was a warm night, which made Lelouch even bitterer about the intense amounts of physical activity he would have to partake in. Regardless, he had gotten some exercise in the past two years he spent travelling the world with C.C., so the running and climbing came as less of a challenge. Though he was much more fit than he was during the Black Rebellion, he still had the same attitude about physical activity.
"Mind over matter," Lelouch told himself over and over as he ran across the village in which ZF had set up a base of operations. He was struggling to keep up with Clemont, who had trained vigorously in the Imperial Academy.
"C'mon, Zero!" Clemont yelled. "I have a bullet hole in my side and I'm still moving faster than you!"
"This kind of crap is for soldiers!" Lelouch yelled back. "I'm a strategist, not a fighter!" A gunshot whizzed past Lelouch's ear, causing him to fall over in shock. Clemont looked back to see Lelouch on the ground, attempting to stay underneath the gunshots. To him, it looked like Lelouch had been shot, and he ran back to try and help.
"Zero!" Clemont barked. "Get up, a chopper is coming to take us to the Empress' airship!"
"I'm fine, I'm fine! I'm just a little tied up over here." Lelouch tried to stand up and find cover, but the heavy blanket of gunshots over his head made it impossible to move without army crawling out in the middle of the battlefield.
Clemont remembered when Lelouch first appeared in the room in which he was being imprisoned. "Hey, wait!" Clemont said. "How come you're ducking to avoid the gunfire when earlier you took an entire round of bullets to the chest without flinching?"
"It still hurt, I'm just a good-" Lelouch yelped in pain as a bullet struck his left calf. "Actor…" he finished.
"For god's sake," Clemont groaned. He began to crawl across the battlefield underneath the cloud of gunfire, holding on to Lelouch's heel and dragging his still bleeding companion. "Why is that thing taking so long to heal? I shot you twelve times earlier and-" Lelouch cut him off.
"Give it a minute!" Lelouch yelled. "It's almost-" He looked down at his wound. "Done!"