Inspiration: This story was partially inspired by another story. In this case it's A Blast From the Past by Shadow At Midnight. Check it out if you want to see just how the hell this got up off the ground.

Phase 5

Pure Saitama

"How are you feeling, Private Kururugi?" Zero asked the young Japanese man. After rescuing Suzaku from the convoy and retreating to an abandoned theater, the masked man had made sure to treat the gunshot wound on Suzaku's left leg while the pilot of the Glasgow made sure that he didn't try to escape.

Suzaku stared at the masked man who rescued him and claimed to have been the one to kill Clovis. Which, if he was telling the truth, meant only one thing. He gently massaged his neck where that electric collar had been before answering. "I've been worse."

"Of course you have. You had to survive the war seven years ago as a child did you not?" Zero replied very matter-of-factly, "That wasn't my question though."

That was true, but even if this man saved his life he still killed a prince. So Zero wouldn't get the answer he wanted. Even if it is likely that this man is a prince himself. "Did you really kill Prince Clovis?"

"So that is how you want to play this Suzaku," Lelouch thought a little absentmindedly. "Of course. He was an enemy general and this is war."

"This is not war! The war ended seven years ago!" Whether this was his friend or not he would not let him start the fighting again. He remembered guiltily what he had done to stop the do or die resistance. To stop a mass genocide of his people because of his father's pride. "Let it go!"

A tense silence filled the space between them as their ideals collided. As these two unstoppable forces met each other. "I see. So you wouldn't join me even if I were extend the offer. Even though Britannia is a worthless dominion that framed you for murder you would prefer to continue being a soldier." Lelouch scowled beneath his mask and knew when to cut his losses, but nevertheless he was still curious.

"Yes."

"May I ask why?" With all that he knew Suzaku had experienced in the war the fact he was willing to become a soldier was mystifying. He had been there right beside him. What could possibly make his old friend so obstinate. So-

"The system might be rotten, but it can be changed from within!"

Terribly naive. Lelouch scoffed at what he was being told. Britannia? Changed from within? If it was possible at all it would certainly take longer than their lifetime. The problem was that this would surely only lead Suzaku to his death and hopelessly mired in the blood of his own people. So, despite himself, Lelouch laughed.

The booming laughter of the masked man in front of him threw Suzaku off. It didn't even sound mocking. It was as if Zero truly thought his belief was hilarious. "What's so funny?! You were the one who used gas to get away tonight! How is that better?!"

At that Lelouch laughed even harder. "You should have been a comedian instead Private Kururugi. It's been years since something made me laugh so much. " The prince smirked as Suzaku bristled at his comment. "That was colored smoke. Nothing toxic about it. The result? We escaped and no one was harmed."

"The result?" Suzaku frowned at such words meant. What was between the lines. "That is all that matters to you isn't it? Any ends gained through contemptible means aren't worth anything!" This man surely couldn't actually be Lelouch. Could he have truly changed so much in seven years? He spun around and began walking towards the hole in the wall. Ignoring the glasgow.

Lelouch narrowed his eyes as he clenched his fists, "Where are you off running to?"

"My court martial starts in an hour. I can make it if I start walking now."

"You fool! All that is awaiting you is your executioner!"

It was Suzaku's turn to laugh now as he stopped in front of the hole. "With your stunt I doubt it. Besides. If I don't show up then they will just use that as an excuse to punish those in the ghetto's needlessly." He walked out as if daring the knightmare frame to shoot him. Something it didn't do because they all knew he was right. Though he got out of there Suzaku wasn't happy. Zero called him a fool and he couldn't help but hear Lelouch in that insult.

Meanwhile with the Purist Faction at 01:30 hours, everyone was pissed at Kewell. Jeremiah had disavowed the orange-haired man and wouldn't defend him. "So what do we do about this idiothead Kewell then!?" a Purist asked.

"I say that we beat the tar out of him!" another Purist shouted.

Jeremiah felt a headache come in as Villetta stepped in with, "Woudl you cut it out!? This in-fighting is just what will motivate Terrorist groups into attacking us!"

"Bitch, you can't boss me around!" the second Purist remarked.

"Yeah, what he said!" the first Purist added.

Jeremiah was enraged now and he yelled, "ALL OF YOU, SHUT THE [EFF!] UP! I HAVE A NASTY HEADACHE RIGHT NOW AND YOU IDIOTS AREN'T MAKING IT BETTER!"

That made everyone quiet. "Because of this headache, if you guys want to go out and burn a Ghetto to the ground then I won't stop you but don't say that I didn't warn you." Jeremiah then said.

"Warn us about what?" the first Purist asked.

"Zero. He said that he'll kill anyone who attacks civilians, regardless of nationality."

"Meh, we'll burn Saitama first thing tomorrow morning." the second Purist then said.

Barely four hours have passed since then and the remaining members of the Purist Faction except for Jeremiah were ready to burn Saitama. Charging out the gate of their base, the Purists let out a battle holler as they went to Saitama.

At the same time with Lelouch, he had barely gotten six hours of sleep along with Nunnally when Ohgi and Sayoko came in and woke them up.

"What is it now?" Lelouch asked.

"The Purists are attacking Saitama." Ohgi explained.

"We need to scramble everyone and head there ASAP. The Yamato Alliance have no Knightmare Frames, so we'll have to be fast or they'll be destroyed."

After arriving at Saitama, Lelouch went off towards the makeshift base that the Purists had set up and noticed that one of the sentries was in his Knightmare and completely alone, not to mention that his cockpit was open while near a ruined building. From the snoring coming out of the loudspeakers Lelouch could hear that the idiot was also asleep. As he arrived and got behind the pilot he saw that the man also haad the activation key written on a sticky note on his left wrist.

Lelouch stole the man's side-arm and shot the sleeping Purist sentry in the head. The black-haired former prince then took the sticky note off the dead sentry before throwing him out of the cockpit and getting into the pilot's seat. The Knightmare was booted up as the activation key was entered and then Lelouch heard something about a trainload of Sutherlands before he changed radio frequencies to the resistance and said, "I've managed to steal one of the Purist Faction's Sutherlands. Keep quiet as you head for the trainyard. A trainload of Sutherlands is there and while it is lightly guarded I overheard the Purists talking about having a virus in the Operating System. Take out the guards, disable the viruses, and sweep those Knightmare for any other trouble before deploying them."

"Understood, Zero." Ohgi replied. Lelouch had made it clear that he was to be called either Zero or K-1 on the battlefield. Sayoko was with Nunnally in a fallback position in case things went wrong. Currently three sectors out of nine that composed the outer Ghetto had been destroyed by the Purists and another sector, close to where the fallback position was located, was in the process of being destroyed. Lelouch had sensed something occur while in transit, but he didn't pay much attention to it since the plan here is to stop the Purists.

Meanwhile in the Shinjuku Ghetto, C.C. was searching around for Lelouch as she wanted to keep him alive long enough to fulfill the contract. She thought that he would be at Ashford Academy, but when she got there Milly Ashford herself told the green-haired immortal woman that Lelouch was no longer staying in the Student Council Clubhouse ever since the military stormed the academy a few days ago. The escape route Lelouch took led C.C. to Shinjuku but none of the residents so far have given her any useful information about his location. Now she was talking to one of the older residents about the local terrorists.

"They've gone out to Saitama. That's all I know, miss." the resident told her.

Back with Lelouch, he had just heard from Ohgi that the viruses were gone and that the Knightmares had nothing else in them. Upon hearing this Lelouch had several members of his resistance group mount the stolen Sutherlands.

With several of the Purists, they had just finished killing a bunch of civilians and members of the Yamato Alliance. "Well, guess we should continue our hunt." One of the Purists said.

"Yeah, but we need to act quickly before-" a secon Purist began but was cut off by two Sutherlands without IFF beacons showing up and killing all of the Purists.

"This is P-1, K-1. Purists are dead, but this is kinda interesting. One of the bodies at my location isn't Japanese. It's a guy with albino hair. You think he could be a Chinese immigrant who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?" one of the Sutherlands asked.

"I wouldn't rule that out, Ohgi. In any case continue fighting off the Purists while I try to contact the Yamato Alliance." Zero replied.

Lelouch had just arrived at the ruin where the leaders of the Yamato Alliance were rumored to be. Noting that they were one of the worst resistance groups in the area, Lelouch was not surprised to see no guards even as he changed frequencies and said, "To the Yamato Alliance, this is Zero speaking. I plan to aid you by fighting off the Purists. What do you say?"

"We'll accept your help Zero, but we have no Knightmares. We'll begin evacuation." someone who sounded like a leader replied.

In the meantime Tamaki's group had taken down another group of Purists and were waiting for orders. Zero then transmitted, "We'll now attack that makeshift camp that the Purists have set up. Take out the sentries then move in and eliminate the remaining soldiers."

Meanwhile with Sayoko and Nunnally, the young girl was being taught how to fold origami by the maid-turned-bodyguard. The presently-blind princess was happy and enthusiastic to learn more about Japanese culture and it showed as she managed to fold a few cranes successfully. After a few minutes of more crane-making Sayoko heard her radio buzz and she picked it up before asking, "What is it, Goshijun-sama?"

"We've taken out the Purists that arrived to kill everyone. In the meantime the Yamato Alliance are evacuating and they've offered to join us. They got ahold of a few Sutherland simulators so this can help in training pilots. We're going to have a busy day ahead of us, so make sure to stay by Nunnally at all times." Lelouch transmitted.

Unknown to Lelouch though, an unmarked plane was entering Japanese airspace and onboard that very plane were the li Britannia sisters.