Chapter 6:-The Folly of the once-mighty Lords (part 2)

"Quickly, this way." Anya guided the inhabitants of her designated sector through the safe path cleared by them earlier. It lead through the main market area set up by the Japanese and then went down through the newly made and to be used sewers underground which led the people to the water catchment area outside the society. As she led them closer, she turned on her headset.

"Athena, I trust you take them from here."

No sooner she said that, a knightmare frame appeared from the tunnel. It identity and colours noticeable despite the poor lighting. This however didn`t stop a crazed frenzy from spreading among the evacuees. Struck with fear on the appearance of the giant, some started screaming in fear, most jostled about in the crowd to safer grounds. Still others threw themselves in from of their loved ones. The horrors committed by the said machines resurfacing in their memories resulting in their behavior. It hurt the young paladin to see them like this.

"Don`t be afraid." Anya went up to them. "We will not harm you."

"How can we be so sure?" One of the Japanese men spoke up.

"How many more must die in order to please you?" supported a distraught office lady.

"You may be part of the ethnic cleansing squad sent by Laurus. We won`t give up our pals that easily" A Britannian man supplemented. She found it a bit touching to see the two peoples standing together without any prejudice.

The knightmare in question ahead of them deactivated as it rested onto the ground. The pod opened to enable the exit of the pilot. Once again due to poor light, the pilot couldn`t be recognized easily by the general public.

"Fear not, we come in peace. We are part of the Holy Paladins." The familiar voice was heard as the figure moved closer to them. The faint hue of purple in the darkness and the ornamental battle suit revealed who was in their presence.

"It`s the Princess Cornelia!" they wept in joy.

"The empress never abandoned us after all!"

"We should have never doubted her majesty to break her promise."

The crowd slowly sobered down at the thought and organized themselves up once again. In the time it took for reorganization, Cornelia walked up to the pinkette who was browsing through their schedule for the mission.

"What is the status, Anya?"

The said girl sighed "Gino and Jeremiah have done must of the cleanup operation and are heading here with their groups. After that, while you lead the people out of the society a false attack will be mounted out."

"So, by the time I hand these people over to the Black Knight`s care we will have moved onto the final phase. Correct?" the princess browsed through her own.

"True. We should finish this by evening and report to the Empress. After all we did this without her knowledge."

Cornelia eyes softened a bit "Don`t worry. I will take responsibilities for any adverse consequences." She then turned about and headed back to her frame.

"Oh, keep me updated with the positions of our other paladins. I would like to finish this phase as soon as possible."

In a non-descriptive main street which went along the borders, the squires and the knight commanders charged down to find the 'troublemakers' and apprehend them. Their fact-spheres picked up their heat and UV signatures and had pin pointed them down their current location.

Now…. Where the little, little rodents could be hiding?

"Alpha, secure the perimeter. Beta search through the abandoned buildings. Delta assist with sweep up behind beta. You all have orders to shoot at will and take necessary action. Is that understood? Just destroy those imbecile Paladins!"

"Yes my lord!" came the collective reply.

From one of the abandoned roof tops, a certain teal haired cyborg was surveying the scene by hacking into the closed circuit cameras set up in the neighborhood. Next to him, Gino was going over some things as well as monitoring the status of the knightmares of the paladins via his laptop.

"It seems that the diversion worked pretty well." The blonde spoke having done the needful and rested his back against the railing of the terrace. Below, frantic orders were being passed all around the block as the squires broke into the nearby buildings.

"It has all gone as planned. Hopefully this will keep them occupied for about another 30 minutes." He then shut down his in built computers and turned to his comrade. "I trust that you did the needful?"

A smile graced the younger one`s face. "Ever the grounded one, Jerry?"

"I have sworn an oath and I intend to keep it." He returned in kind.

Gino got up from his seat and started packing up their equipment into the travel bags they had hidden before. They had to move and fast, so they elected to carry the essential kit with them. The events and troop behavior were all within the expectation of their plan. This would be the last squads to be contained before they could concretely move on to phase 2.

"Hurry along, young man. This is the last of the mundane work before the serious stuff begins."

Gino couldn`t suppress his smile from widening. Sir Jeremiah, the most stable and rational thinking among the paladins and of unquestionable loyalty. He had an interesting history behind him, but deep down he was a gem of a person. Ever the elder among them, he reined them-including Zero in certain instances-back, in difficult situations and lightened the mood when necessary. Currently, he just finished taking care of the last of the equipment to be left back, checking if valuable intel was left back.

"Well, hopefully we have no more hitches." Gino grunted. Both of them did sustain injuries due to the nearly 4 hours of non-stop hand combat. Though, one of them had the advantage of being part machine…

Anyway, that would be for another time. Now then, to work….

The Black Knight`s camp, 40 minutes later.

Zero strode quickly into the medical area of the black knight`s camp. Apparently, a huge ruckus occurred there while he was discussing with the now conscious Tohdoh, in his room. If what he heard was true, the paladins were now in Tokyo.

As he exited their temporary settlements, he was greeted by the sight nearly 10,000 people being organized around by black knights. The unmistakable figure in the middle of all this ordered chaos, supervising it caught his attention.

"Lady Cornelia." He said simply to the lady as she was ordering for medical assistance and further transportation.

Said warrior princess didn`t need to turn around as the enigmatic figure stood next to her to take stock of the situation.

"The paladins had gotten Intel of someone trying to take the society hostage to cripple the relationship between our 2 countries. We came undercover only to see our worst fears came true."

"Why wasn`t this information shared with me?" His tone was acidic.

"Zero, we got the information just 4 hours before the commencement of the empress`s meeting and we were to brief you as soon as we landed here. But the situation called for us to take action." She faced him while he kept staring forward.

"… I understand." Suzaku finally let out. Zero wasn`t supposed to bend down to others, but take everyone along with him. A beacon of hope, if you will.

Cornelia sighed and turned to leave. "The situation here is under control. We got all the civilians out of the line of fire. I suggest you make your way to Shinkiro L. We need you in the field, Zero."

In the Ebisu-Jude Society.

The buildings crumbled forth to reveal the Agravains which charged through them in their search for the 2 paladins who were currently in their way to fulfill their plans. The hostages in the complex which had been 'cleansed'- to demonstrate their resolve- had escaped. They were 'numbers' which his highness wanted to 'train' into their 'attendants'. If His highness heard about this….

"Squire! Status report!"

"We have screened through the entire street my lord. There is not even a heat signature of the perpetrators." He reported to his commander.

"I don`t care if we have to level this place down to get them. I need them skewered up and done with before his majesty gets wind of this!" the contingent recoiled at this and hastily went back to their duties.

The screening was continued for another 30 minutes before they all converged to their leader with the same results.

"Curse them to the very depths of Hell! Where could those vermin's be hiding?" He roared.

There was the slick sound of a clean metal cut. On turning to see the source of this, the commander noticed that around half his squad was leveled down for no apparent reason.

"What`s going on? Who did this?"

"We aren`t detecting any residue or signature left behind sir." One of the squires reported.

"Tch.. So if that is how they want to play…." The remaining squad gathered round themselves to self-assemble 10 Uranus cannons.

"Okay Paladins." The commander bellowed through the communication systems. "This is the last warning, surrender now or be prepared to be mowed down!"

Seeing that his 'compassion' had no takers, the commander activated the sequence to fire. The 6 quad-barreled cannons charged up an ominous bluish green aura within themselves before being unleashed on the neighborhood. A cloud of dust engulfed the small party. As soon as the dust curtain fell, a crater stood in place of a once thriving street. The destruction and mess was heart wrenching to witness if any of the inhabitants were still there.

To the soldiers, it was heart wrenching that their targets were still on the loose despite their best attempts.

"WHERE ARE YOU, CRETINS?" the knight roared as his squad dwindled in size to 4. Each time the cannons fired up low intensity shots at their fast moving targets, one of the Agravain`s would go down. Thus reducing them to their current number.

"FINE! IF THAT IS THE WAY YOU WANT TO PLAY." The 4 knightmares faced back to back about their axis to form a 4 directional gun system which rotated slowly like a top, while charging themselves up. "WE WILL JUST HAVE TO SLICE THIS PLACE DOWN WITH YOU."

The rotating 'Venus' slicer was just a low powered Uranus. Unlike the cannon, however it could give precision strikes and in bloom configuration could slice through most materials.

Lady luck didn`t seem to be with them today. Venus had cut down all the remaining skeleton of the street. Despite this, the paladins remained elusive to the dwindling squad. Blinded by rage he had never experienced before, the commander increased the intensity of the weapon. Due to the extra energy, the barrels started to melt. The terrified squires begged him to see reason and reign back, but the man wasn`t having any of this.

The display and the squire`s misery were cut short when a blur whisked past them, leaving the gun frames in two pieces. The pilots managed to escape due to the self-ejection system but their superior had no such luck. The force with which he was hit had damaged the processing unit. As he frantically tried to restore control, 4 slash harkens fatally disarmed the knight while launching him to a nearby wall due to sheer force. The Agravain crashed through the wall, into the building and slumped into a pile of scrap near the far end. The knight blacked out within the cockpit due to the impact of the severe assault.

The Roland along with the Siegfried cleared a path to reach to the fallen frame. Once within proximity, Jeremiah wirelessly accessed the data within the knightmare to see if there was a shred of evidence to locate the signal generator. Thank Lloyd for making Siegfried a powerhouse for cyber warfare as well.

"…Any news, Jerry?" Roland`s pilot inquired after a while.

"I have gathered up something which may be useful but it is all scattered. Some are corrupted but most are encrypted. Just give me a while…"

Gino raised his arm to rest it on the veteran paladin`s shoulder. "Take your time…" He then faced towards the temporary entrance which he made through the wall. From the minor alarm buzzing within his cockpit to the faint movement along the horizon, he knew that they wouldn`t be left unperturbed for long. On a lighter note, they really should do something on the knightmare`s exterior design. He mentally chuckled for being like a child in the middle of an operation.

"…. I have got your back." Roland`s motors were rearing to go.

Back in the throne room.

"My lord, it seems we have close to capturing the Roland and Siegfried." The guard bowed low while conveying the message to his emperor.

"That`s good news. Please make yourself scarce now." He gave him a dismissive flick of his wrist and returned his gaze to the tablet in his hand to continue his conference with Hugo.

"I must admit, I underestimated the 100th empress." He sighed while running his hand through his hair. "I didn`t think she would have kept the paladins within the zone under reconnaissance. This indeed is troublesome." He sighed in exasperation.

"How does this alter your plans, my emperor?"

Fredric just rested his arm on his hand, a smirk on creeping. "This changes nothing. It is just a minor bug in my path. What is the status of the rounds?"

"They should be over there within an hour. I doubt any of the paladins will survive by then." Hugo stated with an amused smirk.

"Even if they did, they will be shredded to oblivion."

"Squire, execute Code 2X2 to evacuate all operatives in the society. Looks like we have an opening."

"As you wish, my lord."

Back on the battlefield.

Gino just managed to pull down his cape in the nick of time for it to take the impact of the spears. While the piloted frames were easy enough to handle, it were the drone frames- which made around 75% of the reinforcements- that were giving him trouble. In isolation, they were sitting ducks, but they were beasts when they attacked as a group. They seemed been programmed with his fight style as most of his attacks were expertly waived off.

'Damn, these are some tough nuts to crack!' Gino thought wearily. He quickly put some space with his opponents to get a head count of the remaining drones. He could only use his radar tracker due to the signal generator still being in operation.

'Let`s see, we have…70 of them… Not bad.' He cursed mentally '…it will take a bit more of our time even with Jerry.' the veteran knight was engaged in his own battle by leading the enemy to strategic points and promptly disposing them. The good part, Jerry took a sizable chunk of them. The bad part, there were still 70 of them.

'Well, looks like it is time to use my party trick.' A sad smile crept on his face. Returning to a battlefield was not something he wanted, even now. After all that had happened, he among many others did not want the young empress to deal with the old ways of deceit and war. She was strained, weary and exhausted despite her strong façade in a way no teenage girl should. How was she to explain their actions today to the world? The media anyway would distort the facts and quickly blame the former empire, despite Nunnally`s efforts of image building and tireless works.

'These are one of the few times feel like I understand the Demon.'

Taking out his twin MVS swords, Gino boosted his thrusters to maximum output, catapulted out of his safe zone and into the converging barrage of the enemy. Having built a speed of around Mach 2, he sliced through them with ease and finesse befitting his stature. The swords did not once receive resistance of any sort as the paladin flew on. The poor automation were still coming in terms of his actions until they dropped down into various segments due to 'blades of speed.'

After his little performance, Gino took shelter in one of the many abandoned complexes. Taking refuge in the parking lot, he slouched forward to get his breadth back. Travelling at supersonic speed, within city bounds, with a sword to defeat a whole regiment of bots is no joke. After he was done, he had raised his swords in the air and couldn`t help but say.

"C`est fini."

However, it seemed his enemies would be having the last laugh. Undetected by him, there were some of them stationed within the complex he was taking refuge in and now had surrounded him. As his sphere remained down, snipers were set up on all floors ready to blast their target. He raised his head only to be met with rifles at the ready and a small group were having Uranus ready to fire.

'This…is not my lucky day.' came the grim thought.

Sure he had enough power to take all their hits, but he would like to as minimum damage as possible from the minions….

As if answering, the entire encirclement was rained with a familiar pinpoint red rays of death. He had enough time to activate his shield system to protect himself from the flying debris. There was no doubt as to who was responsible for that.

"Oliver, it`s good to have you back."

"Even Roland can`t do things alone." Slight taunting creeping in the young girl`s voice. She landed her frame next to their leader and did a status check on him. Fortunately, the damage was not significant and energy readings were at 65%.

"The princess will be here along Siegfried, shortly."

"Till then, tell me the status of our operation."

At this, the displays in Roland and Oliver flared up "On breaching within the walls of the society, the security had been systematically taken down about the boundaries. Using the Public works department storage as our rally point, we secured the civilians and have now kept them under the protection of the black knights. Thus ensuring minimal casualties and no hostage situation. Enemy behavior within expectations and nothing out of the new." Anya concluded.

Gino rubbed his chin "This means all that is left is to take down the signal generator, destroy Jupiter to let the Black Knights take over and take Fredric into custody."

At that, the remaining 2 paladins joined them. The next course of action was going to be difficult as someone had to alert the Black Knights or specifically Zero when the shield was taken down.

"Your majesty, has Zero been made aware of the situation?" Jeremiah clarified for the others. Any information is valuable at this point.

"I told to remain in stand-by along with the Shikigami squad. I see no troubles from that end." She replied crisply.

"Okay, let`s move to the final phase." Gino replied while syncing some maps with the other 3 frame. "This is what we managed to recover from the enemy forces. Your majesty and Jeremiah will be in charge of taking down the cannon or keep the forces occupied until the shield is offline. Once that is done, you two will facilitate the Black knight`s entry and co-ordinate with them for further action."

"Sounds fair enough." Cornelia sounded pretty pleased.

"Meanwhile, I will go with Anya to take down that menace of a disruptor."

"Good riddance, the Morse system was taking too much power." The cyborg snorted. Since all signals were meddled with, the 4 of them were using an offshoot of the Morse code system-though it is totally automated.

"There is no time to waste. We had sworn to resolve this before the matter goes to out of hand for the Empress." Cornelia boomed through their lines "Remember for what we fight for."

With that, they split up to their respective missions.

Same time, Black Knights camp.

The Shikigami squad as well as a good chunk of the troops were camouflaged in the vegetation present near the crater created by Jupiter that morning. From what Cornelia told them, they would create an opening for them from the front gates. All that was needed was a message from Roland and a flare from Oliver to roll out.

"Kallen, Tohdoh. Are you absolutely sure you two are ready for deployment?" the robotic voice of the masked messiah went through their private lines.

"With due respect sir, we have sustained much worse damage and faced even bleaker odds. This was just an insect bite to what we have faced before." Kallen fiery voice blazed through.

"Besides, the Paladins will need all the back-up they can get. From what I gather, they have been doing this since just before the UFN situation."

Zero couldn`t help but agree on that. Right now, fresh hands would be needed to bring a speedy end to the operation. His comrades were working overtly and covertly for around 10 hours to ensure minimal damage within the society. His mind however was trapped in the personal thoughts of Suzaku. He still couldn`t wrap around the fact their sacrifices may come to naught just…just because of some people`s desire for power.

For the first time in 2 years, he had the urge to snap someone`s neck.

That however would be dealt later. Now he could wait and watch for his turn….

The society, 30 minutes after the above events.

Anya had to admit, the security around the generator was pretty much full proof. An initial barrage of drones and missiles followed by the drone Agravains which were more customized than the ones they faced earlier and linear cannons. In the heart of all this was their target.

Anya was pushed back to the wall when 4 drones ganged up on her. There was no room for her to use her rifles and the pin-point hadron cannon were damaged beyond use due to the aerial wave they had encountered. From the corner of her screen she could see a linear cannon ready to take a shot.

Said muzzle was destroyed and two of her adversaries were taken care of by Gino. Seeing her opening, she fired up her rifle and blew the them to oblivion.

"Geez, do they have a factory producing them as we fight? They just keep coming." Gino tried to ease the tension despite his ragged breaths. At that moment, his MVS sword was knocked from his hand by a drone managed to counter it, but had no means of recovering his sword. Seeing an opening, Anya broke away from the melee she was engaged in and threw one of her rifles to her compatriot who caught. As soon as he recovered it, they opted for a strategic withdrawal to catch their breaths.

The sound of land-spinners scouring through the metal broke the silence of the zone. The two pilots managed rested themselves as well as they could in 5 minutes before once again, analyzing their situation.

"The only way to do it is the bait and stick policy." She said simply after going through all the scenarios they could think of. Gino understood what she meant and was oddly happy. Maybe his fighting blood hadn`t cooled down after all. A minute later, the Paladins roared out of their retreat splitting themselves before making contact. Anya went head on into enemy lines. Sensing the need to curtail a zealous opponent, all the Agravains converged to where she was fighting, not noticing that a few of their 'automated' sentries were being taken down.

Gino roared forth to the target which was now lightly guarded. The window to strike was narrow and judging from the missiles coming out once again, it just became narrower.

He took a steep climb into the air to ascertain what missile types they were. As expected, they were target seeking ones which just didn`t seem to leave his back. Out maneuvering them also wasn`t helping. Anya was doing pretty well, but it wouldn`t last much longer.

The missiles seemed to be moving at sonic speed to aid their handling and direction changes. Taking that into account, Gino did the most outrageous thing he could.

Hitting the boosters back to max power, he soared into the upper reaches of the sky. As expected, the missiles still had time to catch up. Switching to VARIS mode, he took pinpoint and area shots to deal with them.

He re-entered the shield once again and before the AI defense system sent more reinforcements, he took the final shot at the signal generator. The target was not missed.

"Princess, the target has been eliminated. What is the situation back there?" Gino asked as soon as he was done.

"Not too good. It was as we feared, reinforcements are too many, but we can keep them at bay for a good 20 minutes."

"That` way more than what we need." He grinned "Clear exit routes for yourselves within 2 minutes, I will get Zero to do the needful." With that, the young paladin signed off.

Seeing the objective was done, Anya slashed her way through the last of the drones and finished of the rest with an area burst. Finally, she sent up a volley of VARIS, Hadron and Baryon beams to signal their allies to enter the fray.

Administrative block.

"Your highness, enemy has destroyed the signal generator."

"What are you doing scumbags? Send in more forces to destroy them!" Fredric roared. This couldn`t be happening, all dreams were slipping away from them.

"Enemy has cleansed of 70% of our forces my lord."

He banged his fist onto the table in frustration and fear. "Where are the knights of the Round? They were supposed to be here an hour ago. Why haven`t they arrived?"

"They need another 10 minutes." Someone shouted from the monitors.

Before Fredric could break into another tirade, some of the squires and 'royal guard' rushed through the doors of the control room. "Your majesty, we have been instructed by Sir Hugo to take you to a secure location within the building. Please, follow us." Relieved that some people still realized their priorities (i.e. his safety and well-being), Fredric turned around and ordered his staff.

"Remain here and keep me posted. Don`t get out or even dream of surrendering."

The officials and generals looked away from what they were doing and bowed before their lord "For the glory of neo-Britannia, we would never do that."

Reassured, the emperor left his Throne/control room. As he followed his them, he was a bit unnerved as to why the eyes of his guards were red rimmed….

Black Knights camp.

The black knights noticed the flares rising up in the sky. It was at that moment that an incoming friendly signal linked up with Shinkiro to reveal the blond paladin.

"Zero" he continued through ragged breaths alarming all who heard him "Jupiter temporarily been disabled. Activate the druid system and target all those around it except for friendlies. It`s time to gatecrash the party."

Suzaku needed no further initiative to act. Quickly activating the supercomputers within his frame, he locked on all the targets mentioned by Gino. Doing the necessary calculations, the system asked its pilot to grant the necessary permission to launch.

The Zero beam fired along with the prism to rain down terror on its foes. The second it fired, the black knights charged forward towards the main gate to take it down. If their estimates were right, Jupiter should have been offline for around 5 minutes.

No sooner than said targets were down, Shinkiro rose into the air and zipped within the zone ahead of his troops. From its elevated position, he could see the intricate and deadly canon that was a bane to them for a while now. From the looks of it, it seemed to be unmanned and the AI block was well concealed away from enemy fire.

Shinkiro L`s systems switched its rifles and cannons to dual Baryon-VARIS mode and reduced the beautiful serpent to ashes with a terrifying fireworks display. Meanwhile, a company of black knight had taken down the front gates and swarmed into the zone.

"Zero what are your orders?" Kallen came up to him. At that moment, a friendly communication connected with them, Princess Cornelia.

"Zero, split up the knight into groups and send them to these specific locations."

She fed the co-ordinates to the black king "This phase is mostly nullifying the remaining threats left here. Assign the Shikigami squad to take down the administrative block along with Roland."

Nodding his head in acknowledgment, he turned to faced his trusted squad "Tohdoh, you and the princess co-ordinate with the neutralization. Ensure enough back-up for surprises and cleanup. Kallen, come with me." He then turned his frame and locked it`s position to the throne room.

"We have to pay a visit to some 'relative'."

A smug voice replied "We sure have rough relatives."

Same time Administrative block.

"Enemy has destroyed 90% of the troops."

"Main squad heading towards the throne house!"

"Useless imbeciles!" Fredric hit the table with his fist for the god knows what time. The monitor seemed to be streaming the worst news it could ever since he left the throne room. Anger, frustration and more all, fear levels reached an all-time high within his body. He couldn`t bear to see the plan that he worked for so long be dismantled by the lowly numbers and….

"Knight of One, Bismarck Waldstein awaits your permission to enter." Said a familiar voice that somehow turned the emperor`s mood by 180 degrees. Fredric couldn`t have ordered the door to be opened fast enough. Through those doors of Salvation, Bismarck and Dorathea walked through.

"My knight! How long have I waited for you." He tried to be nonchalant of it, but the excitement crept into his overall manner.

The knight went down on their knees to execute the perfect mark of respect. "We highly apologies for the delay your highness." Dorathea explained "There were certain things that needed to be taken care of."

"I will look past them today." Fredric hastily made way towards the door "for now, follow me back to the throne room. We have some cockroaches that don`t want to be cleansed from my kingdom"

"You mean, My kingdom. Fredric." A sinister voice filled the room.

"What…."the monarch turned back from what he was doing, only to realize he was standing in a realm of nothingness with the said knights back towards him.

"Tch, tch, tch…. Humans indeed are such lousy things. Petty thoughts and flitting wishes." The voice boomed through the space.

"Bismarck!? What the hell is going on here?" fear was evident in his voice.

They disregarded him and bowed at the void ahead of them. All his question were met with silence. All orders met with disobedience of non-compliance. This was enough to push the fear laden man to the other extreme.

"How dare you disobey me? ME? You're sovereign King? Don`t you have any honour?"

This however was met by roaring laughter of the sinister voice. It was…. Human yet…. Inhuman? Had emotion yet… none? Who was this person who had power to induce such illusions on a collective gathering?

"Pardon me for that…" the voice returned, but it had a definite chill. At the same time a silhouette of a man could be seen from a distance. "I haven`t heard something this funny since…. A long time." The definite edge was evident.

Fredric recoiled onto the ground "What….are…. you?"

The silhouette became a bit clearer, the face seemed to be well chiseled and he had longish hair. That however was all that he could make out.

"I am….who I am." It said in a voice that was neither male nor female voice. It had an ethereal quality to it. "I am also the one who used you so well in all these years." Amusement was clear now.

"How can you say that? I have worked independently….."

"Did you really think you ran the show, Freddy?" the voice was positively leering.

Realization and piecing things together more often than not happens in very sticky situations.

"Ha Ha Ha…. That expression never gets old, you know?" he laughed off to what appeared to be his side before properly facing him.

"The KOR answer to me and me alone. The reason you have 'power' is that they just happened to follow my instructions. You were just…what should I say….a stop-gate at best in the game."

The entity finally-what seemed like- turned his back towards the terrified man and started fading into the nothingness.

"It was good knowing you, Fredric. Your wealth and 'expertise' in ruling a kingdom are well noted" He waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, and the two of you, be the dearies you are and clean up the mess."

They all returned back into the safe room that housed Fredric. The 2 knights got up from their positions and faced Fredric dead in the eye. On his side, Fredric was flailing on the ground, trying to put up a safe distance between the two of them. He had been deceived in all grand scheme of things. All that praise, grandeur of restoring the empire a sweet pretty lie! He wouldn`t go down without a fight or put some dent into this entity`s plan, but how? His survival instincts answered that as he pulled out his 0.45 Odin shotgun and aimed at his two assailants in shaky hands.

"Stay where…you…are…or…I`ll shoot." He looked anything but majestic right now.

Dorathea stayed where she was. Bismarck kept on walking towards him, his eyes glowing with some strange power. Unable to bear it, Fredric closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.

The footsteps didn`t cease. He eyes still remained closed until he heard the ringing sound of something falling near him. On opening his eyes, he saw the bullet he had just fired by his side. Bismarck fell to his knees and held his chin within his palms.

"In all this time, I thought you would change for the better." He said with a stone expression

"Please, don`t do this to me. I…I will… pay you double than that of your current master."

"….And yet, you beg for your life like a dog. The world we seek don`t need men like you." He forcefully pushed the man down and got up to walk away.

"Make it quick Dorathea. We have work to do." He retreated through the door.

"You swore…. You swore an oath Bismarck…"

Suddenly, he had lost control of his body. His arms were forced to his side and he lost control of his legs. Soon, he was suspending in the mid-air with the said knight in the room looking at him with a cruel smirk on her face. Her eyes-like the knight before-glowing with some strange power.

"It is as they say, Fredric."

He was clearly buckling trying to get his body back in his control. Instead, his shotgun was now placed on his forehead by his hand no less.

"Keep your friends close…"

The trigger was now at half position.

"…And your enemies closer"

The bullet did not miss it`s mark now.

Same Time, outside the Administrative Block.

The sole paladin and the two Shikigami soldiered on towards their goal. The defense systems were elaborate and pretty ingenious. No small thanks to Victor Hugo.

"Shinkiro, what is your status?" Roland pulled up next to him as they took cover from hail of metal and sulpher.

"Energy readings indicate 30 minutes of full power use." He said simply. The situation was reminiscent to that at Kyushu.

"Scan the terrain once again and feed them to my knightmare. That way we can finish them of efficiently together."

At that moment, they heard the familiar sound of metal boiling up due to an over boost of energy.

"Looks like someone doesn`t share our sentiment." Fondness crept in the blond paladin`s voice as he entered the fray once again.

Zero sighed as Shinkiro scanned through the terrain once again. It also calculated the most inconspicuous path to the building as he had tasked himself of getting Fredric into their custody.

He had to still learn to reel back his emotions, especially on the battle field.

The frame shared the necessary data with its compatriots and Zero guided it towards his target. He noticed some sort of phase distortion looming around the building but paid no heed to it. It may just have been his mind playing tricks on him after all the events…

BOOM!

The explosion rocketed everything in its path including the three frames. Thankfully, they managed to set their shields up just in time to save themselves from debris and aftershock.

The great black king stood speechless at the sight of the smoldering building. Through the flames, he could have sworn to have seen another….craft or two looking back at the sight before mysteriously disappearing from his view. Even the Druid system didn`t seem to pick it up. His still fragile mind was once again in chaos. There were so many clues, hints and possibly other things behind these recent chain of events. The main thoughts ringing clearly above all other thoughts in Suzaku`s mind were

'Who is my enemy?'

'Why?'

The next day, UFN conference hall.

The mood in the hall was somber as journalist from all over the world gathered to for a joint statement of the situation that arose yesterday. Tabling it was Chairwoman Kaguya, Empress Nunnally, Prime minister of Japan Ohgi, Gino Weinberg and Zero. The need for this at such short notice being the need to clear the air on the issue and reinstating Britannia`s will to be a peaceful state.

"The events of yesterday have shattered all of us here. Directly or indirectly, it has effected nearly everyone around the globe." Ohgi started of the briefing. It was painful for him that the incident happened under his watch. More shameful was the fact that they had been warned about it. "The attacks were conducted by a faction, known as 'The league'. The movement started around the time of the demon`s fall clinging to the archaic beliefs of the tyrant, Charles zi Britannia. Their main goal, the revival of the 'One, true empire' that we all rejected and fought against. Thus, the simultaneous strikes on our leaders on the symbol of unity for all people, The Ebisu-Jude Society. Despite our greatest efforts, there were casualties both civilian and armed. We deeply regret and apologize to the families of the deceased. If it is any consolation to them, it is that the entire group has been eliminated."

Ohgi waited for the applause to die down to continue.

"This series of notorious incidents however, will not affect our ties with Britannia. True, we will be cautious but not overbearing to the effect of slapping sanctions. Our nations need a chance to right all the wrongs that we have inflicted on one another over time." With that, the veteran Black knight concluded his statement.

Kaguya, who was presiding over the event opened the questioning session with the media.

"Lord Zero, in the view of the current incidents do you think it is still wise to align yourself with Britannia? Though the Japanese prime minister says otherwise, what is your take on it?"

"The past is done and cannot be changed. Lessons however, can be learnt from it. I haven`t aligned myself to anyone. My presence is to ensure these lessons are learnt as we move into the future. I am willing to give her majesty as much of an opportunity to attain our common goals." The reply was short, ambiguous and diplomatic enough. Nunnally felt a tiny bit of pride at how Suzaku had grown into his role.

"I would like to ask this question to all the esteemed people on the dais. Rumors have gone out that the attacks had indeed been preplanned and the black knights had taken over the case pertaining of the league. Given the context, could we say that there is a rift-however minor it may be- existing in our top brass?"

Kaguya was quick to pick up the mike "Any large organization will have some levels of mismanagement when dealing with counterparts of similar magnitude."

"Our you thus confirming these rumors?" the excitement behind the voice was all too evident.

"No, I am merely stating the fact. These hurdles may lead to unfortunate incidents. But, it doesn`t mean it will make us turn a blind eye to such intelligence. I for one, know that if this news was known to us from the beginning, it would be dealt in the most fitting manner."

Another hand went up.

"I would like to put forth my question to our Britannian counterparts. Reports from reliable sources have told us that the league was headed by none other than the representatives, Fredric Laurus and Victor Hugo. Judging from the actions of today, people on the street believe this is a passive conquest on the part of the Empress of Britannia. And since Zero now resides in the palace, it is fair to…."

She was stopped half way as Gino took the mike. " I can assure you that there is no underhand motives in the empress`s actions. Actually, she has a target now for the Darwinist radicals still present within our nation and one-third`s of the world-"

"Those attacks on her could have been engineered-"

"My lady, do you think that any sane person- much less a leader, would risk his life to put just for some petty thing like that?" Gino was really reigning in his temper.

"She is the demon`s sister after all." The reporter up front said aloud.

"Is it really possible for the people of Britannia to become prophets of peace when they were only merchants of death?"

"What good can come from that rot on earth? Much less from their monarch? Huh."

The murmurs in the hall were getting louder and more demeaning with each passing minute. No one had dared accused the empress of her families sins before. It stung Suzaku`s heart a bit more deeply than he had anticipated. According to them, all her work to reconcile the nations seemed to be part of some larger scheme of things she was doing in the interests of her brother. Wasn`t all the running around and initiatives she took not enough evidence of the contrary? Zero was about to give a fitting answer and from the looks of it, Ohgi and Gino were about to do the same only to be stopped when the empress put out her hand.

"I understand that the events of today has inserted a wedge between out nations that we thought had been removed. Rest assured, our actions have no ulterior motives behind them. We just wish to aid the lives of the people that our predecessors had wronged to unimaginable lengths. It is hard to forgive, even harder to initiate that process. Thus owing to these events, we will reduce our involvement in Japan." The crowd of reporters were on their feet and there was chaos in the room but she persisted on. "We will not reduce our financial and technological aid to the country, but we will pull back all our operatives here, have a background check on all of them again and send them back again. I hope this is a good step to restore our ties once again."

Kaguya quickly took stock of the situation as Zero and Gino escorted the young empress back to her quarters.

Tokyo, the imperial hotel.

Suzaku had changed Nunnally inspected for any injuries from the attacks as soon as they arrived. Seeing it was nothing but a few scratches, the doctor was dismissed. Sayako immediately served them their dinner and left the room. In the silence of their meal, she asked the elder boy to help her finish up. Feeling that warmth of protective affection, Suzaku helped her up. She would only ask him to do so if she was particularly disturbed over something.

As he helped her into bed, she didn`t let go of his hand.

"Suzaku, do you think I did the right thing?"

He patted her head gently with his other hand and smiled "You did well, Nunnally. It was pretty well thought out. It gives us time to reassess our information while inspiring confidence among the masses that we are firm in our promises."

She however didn`t seem to feel at rest at that and continued to stare at the ceiling. The silence was comfortable between them as he kept on patting her to sleep just as Lelouch had done to them when they were younger. As the troubled eyes of the empress started to close, she let out a small sigh.

"What is the true nature of man?"

Suzaku was taken aback at this innocent question. The wind was back once again, gently blowing the tresses of the girl in seeming order and putting her more at ease. It was relaxing for Suzaku too who also had certain thoughts plaguing his mind. He had no doubt as to who was the source of this calming wind.

After a while, he removed the young girl`s hand and got up from his station. Then as was the nightly custom, he kissed Nunnally on her forehead. She was entitled to these little indulgences no matter how childish they seemed. He looked on at her and whispered.

"From what I know, it is of goodness."

And he quietly made way to his chambers.

"What is the true nature of man, dear?" the silhouette of the man asked into the nothingness of the realm. He was seated on an elaborate throne placed on a grand platform. At the base of it, another silhouette, that of a women was seen. She was down on her one knee, a picture of perfect obedience to her lord.

"It is for man to decide, which path he chooses." Her voice was melodious, but had some hidden quality in it.

The being on the throne was pleased with her reply. "Then, it is time to aid man with his decisions."

"A leech had 2 daughters and both were named 'Give Me'."

-Book of Proverbs, the Holy Bible.

I am so sorry for the HUGE delay in releasing this chapter. One thing lead to another and it is completed at last. As I said before, this story will not be left incomplete and will run it`s full course. Thanks once again for your support and patience. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did penning it down.

As usual, Constructive criticism and encouraging words are always welcome. If you have any ideas, please let me know in the review column.

Thanks for your time, and once again

Enjoy!