They'd given it a paintjob, Zealous thought with distaste. Until recently his mech had been an imposing black, the colour of fear and night. Menacing. he'd liked it that way. But now, with the refit, these east-Indian techs had coloured it with a sky-blue motif. Baby-blue, almost. There were stripes of gunmetal grey down the arms, sure, and the factsphere still glowed red. But most of the frame was this airy blue colour.

He stood with his arms crossed in the centre of the warehouse, watching as the technicians disconnected their wires and hoses from the mech and finished up some final tests. C.C. was next to him, also observing. The girl pulled vibrant green hair over one shoulder and asked: "Are you satisfied?"

"Well," Zealous grimaced. "I haven't seen the final specifications, yet. But it's... it's blue."

C.C.'s yellow eyes turned coolly on him. "I hardly think colour should be the main issue here."

"It's," he winced in distaste. He could barely bring himself to say it. "It's baby blue, woman."

"Well," C.C. shrugged away his complaint. "Traditionally, blue signifies a masculine baby. Would you rather they'd painted it pink?"

Zealous scratched in his hair. "Well let me tell you, sky blue may be masculine, but it's not nearly as masculine as jet-black. When I was born, the nurses gave me a jet-black blanket, to signify badassery." As if to emphasize the point, Zealous reached into his breast pocket and withdrew his aviators, setting them on his nose.

There was no suitable response for this. C.C. crossed her arms and solemnly turned aside.

Now the lead tech came over to them bearing as large binder full of paper. He began speaking rapidly in Hindi. Many of the best Indian engineers spoke no Britannian, almost as a point of pride. Zealous knew only the tiniest bit of Hindi but was almost fluent in Bengali. So once he had slowed the guy down a bit they could nearly understand each other.

The tech, whose name was Deepak, pushed the binder of info upon Zealous, who took it. Turned out to be a kind of owner's manual for the advancements they'd made to his mech. Deepak was going on and on about how they'd replaced the whole core and sakuradite systems of the original frame. To Zealous it sounded like he was saying they'd upgraded the 'circulatory system' and 'nipples', but to be fair he hadn't used his Bengali in years.

As Deepak explained, Zealous nodded politely and went over the specifications. He was troubled to learn that the new Knightmare didn't have any conventional weapons; no SMGs or rifles. The only weapon systems left over from before the refit were the slash-harkens, which had been re-tipped with some kind of modern molecular cutting system, it seemed.

Well, that shouldn't have been surprising. From his little skirmish against the Guren he had seen that regular firearms were no longer the standard for Knightmare combat. Maybe they'd given him a laser gun or something.

Deepak was getting excited about some new weapon that sounded like an 'overweight chauffeur' until Zealous came to that part of the manual (which was bilingual).

"Ah," Zealous turned grinning to C.C. "A mass-driver, he's calling it. Railgun. Very nice. Haven't seen one of these on a Knightmare before. Very powerful. Very difficult to dodge."

C.C. shrugged.

Zealous was glad to hear of the railgun. It was a weapon that ran large slugs of ammunition down an unrifled barrel, using rails of supermagnets instead of the usual EMP as a propellant. Thus the ammo was huge, probably 60-70mm in diameter, and destructive, and moved so quickly it arrived at its target almost instantaneously. The perfect anti-Knightmare weapon. Not to mention the fact that it fired physical ammo, a trait which Zealous found instantly endearing.

Deepak said that they had also given him an MVS, a single-edged straight sword, almost like an elongated ninjato. A part of Zealous was tickled by this touch; for being able to bisect enemy Knightmares with a two-handed blade almost made up for the lapse in coolness incurred by the colour.

Not only that, but there seemed to be some further usefulness pertaining to the sword; Deepak kept calling the weapon a 'Marut', which was an unfamiliar word. Zealous was having difficulty understanding him, so he asked for clarification. The guy ripped the binder from Zealous' hands in frustration and started flipping through pages. Eventually he found what he wanted, thrust the page at Zealous, and tapped the specs with his calloused brown fingers.

C.C. was reading over Zealous' arm. "Storm Edge?"

"Hold on a sec," he read for a moment longer, then looked up at Deepak in wonder. "Seriously?"

The other man grinned widely.

The specifications said that the Marut maser vibration sword had the ability to 'project' its edge through the air to a degree, via some kind of energy field Zealous had never heard of and would never understand. The result of this seemed to be that he could cut things without actually hitting them with the sword.

Zealous smirked down at the specs. He was starting to get excited about this. The range of the Marut sword was untested, it said. Estimated at somewhere between thirty and forty meters depending on the charge left in the wielding Knightmare's Yggdrasil drive. The sword's energy could also function defensively, deploying as a shield to deflect incoming fire. This would be crucial in the fight against many opponents, Zealous knew.

The float device had also been given a slight refit--and repainted light blue, of course. He doubted he would be able to keep up with the Guren even now, but the new floats could (according to their specifications) break the speed of sound. They were at least as good as those on a Vincent, so he would probably be able to flee successfully, if necessary. Kallen would still leave him in her dust, but at least he'd be able to hold his own.

Now Zealous said, in Britannian: "I don't suppose it has a giant silver hand of radioactive death?"

Deepak couldn't understand him, of course. Dark eyebrows just raised, and then he went back to grinning and telling Zealous what a good investment he had made.

C.C. said impatiently, "Well?"

"It's good," Zealous nodded down at the binder in his hands. Then he flipped over to the first page and saw the name of the new Knightmare.

"Shiva," he muttered. "Well, that explains the colour."

C.C.'s eyebrows lifted curtly. "I suppose. But sometimes Shiva is white."

Zealous glanced up in surprise. He would not have guessed that a woman like her would know much about Hindu gods, of all things. He winked at her. "Though I suppose to really fit the image of Shiva they should have given it another two arms."

"Not all depictions of Shiva have four arms," C.C. said nonchalantly.

Zealous' eyes narrowed mischievously as he pursed his lips. "Then I guess Shiva is a good name for it. They call him 'the Destroyer'. I like that."

One of C.C.'s shoulders shrugged negligently. "Not necessarily. Shiva both creates and destroys the world. Both a monk and a family man. He is full of contradiction. Besides, if they'd truly intended the Knightmare to be Shiva, they'd have given it a trident instead of a sword."

Now Zealous snorted in amusement. " I knew you must have a deep dark secret. Well! My fears are assuaged. Between my ability to sport sunglasses, and your extensive knowledge of world mythology, this mission cannot fail."

Finally another smile from her. Very faint, very cold. Like a bracing gust of winter. It vanished as quickly as it came. Her eyelids drooped sleepily again. But Zealous just kept on grinning.

All of them met together in the hotel in uptown Chiba that night, and another joined them.

Zealous and Thieving had occupied the leather sofa by the window. They were deeply engaged in a discussion about women they knew or had known in the past. Kallen was sitting in a chair at the suite's dining room, poring over a magazine and pretending not to listen to them. At least, Zealous assumed that she was pretending. He had never met a girl who could resist listening to guy talk when it was available.

At that moment, the door opened and C.C. walked in. Behind her came a young man Zealous had not met yet. He was slim and reasonably tall, his hair long and black. The irises of his eyes fixed dully on them, like identical pewter discs, flat and inorganic. Zealous shifted under the scrutiny, rocking forward to put his elbows on his thighs. He returned the stare for a moment before it moved on to Thieving. Thieving smoked and seemed to consider the newcomer.

Meanwhile Kallen stared at this man with a strange raptness. Her lips were pressed tensely on each other and her eyes unblinking. Zealous had seen this expression before on other women. She stood, shifted her chair further into the room with the others, and sat again, waiting--clearly the newcomer was about to speak.

He did. His voice was deep but youthful. "I am in command of this operation. I am revealing myself to you now because I must, if everything is to go according to plan. When we reach Britannia you will all follow my orders. Is that understood?"

Zealous looked briefly at C.C., then shrugged. Thieving's look was unfathomable, icy eyes staring out, cigar burning forgotten in his fingers. Zealous knew that Thieving had intended to assume in large part the mission's leadership role, despite C.C.'s position as backer. That was always how he operated. Thieving did not like to trust a thing like strategy to anyone but himself. In many ways it was what he most enjoyed about all of this.

For a moment Zealous feared that Thieving would turn to him, and give him a look, and the look would mean that they would leave. But after a moment's hesitation, Thieving slouched further into the sofa and raised his cigar in a smoky wisp of greeting to the pewter-eyed man.

Zealous smirked. Thieving would wait and see what this new person was about.

The man continued as though everyone had agreed with him: "In the next few days, arrangements will be made to transport our equipment. Then, on Friday, we board an airship and head across the Pacific to Britannia."

Thieving's eyebrows raised and he put his cigar back in his mouth. "An airship?"

"Yes," the man nodded. "Our accommodations will be luxurious. The trip will take three days, of course, but that's the cost of luxury. It also means we will be able to ship our equipment with us, in the cargo bay." He gestured, "C.C. has your tickets, and forged travel documents for each of you."

Thieving and Zealous reluctantly stood and went over to C.C. The green-haired girl opened a briefcase and began solemnly handing out the papers. Kallen took hers first and flopped down on the couch the Shads had just vacated, lying down across the whole thing. When they turned to look, she stuck out her tongue at them and leered. Thieving scowled at her and languidly scratched in his curling hair. "You shouldn't lie there. We are filthy men."

"Right," she ignored this and began to read through her documents.

Thieving looked up morosely from his passport. After further examination, it became apparent that the two of them shared the same fake surname. "What are we, brothers?" Thieving complained.

"Married, maybe," Kallen teased from the couch.

C.C. said, "I don't see the problem. Your real fake surnames are the same, after all."

Zealous shook his head. "'Shadow' is a unit designation, not a surname."

Thieving was nodding. "Big difference."

Kallen looked up from the couch with a new curiosity, propping up on an elbow. "A unit? A military unit? So are there more of you guys?"

Thieving and Zealous looked at each other. There was a long silence. Then Zealous said simply: "No."

After ensuring that their documents were in order, they began to disperse back to their own hotel rooms. It was apparent that C.C. and the new man were going to share the same room. Kallen had already left. Thieving lit a new cigar, puffed on it, and turned to leave.

But Zealous paused before the pewter-eyed man. They were of nearly the same height. Zealous looked an inch or two down into the odd eyes. "So, what's your name?" And he offered up his hand and a smile.

"For the mission, my callsign will be L.L.," momentarily he looked down into Zealous' hand, and then he briefly and limply shook it. The fingers were wiry, the hand cold.

Of course, thought Zealous Shadow, grimly. It was as he'd expected.

We are born without names, and we die without them.

Hey everybody. Yes, I'm back at long last.

Summer turned out to be more time consuming than I'd thought. Having fun is difficult work and I'm glad to get a breather from it to do some writing.

I think I'll address a couple of things:

First of all, I know this chapter is hot on the heels of the last one, and short. I was going to move on directly to the longer chapter I had planned, but I realized I needed some in between stuff. Next chapter should be soon, as I've been planning it and looking forward to it for months.

Questions from people:

Lt. Zander:

Q: "Great job, the only thing I dislike is the slightly editted timeline.

Also, didn't the Knight of Round call Albilon a 9th Generation-KnightMare? So wouldn't that make the mass-produced Vincent a 9th Generation or are Lancelot and Albilon two different things entirely? "

A: I'm pretty certain the edited timeline is exactly what they have in the show. That's why I was explaining it, because the show never really goes into detail but it's important to the history of it. I found that info on the Code geass wiki.

As for the Vincent, I'm pretty sure it is an Eighth Generation. The Ninth is the Albion and the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N., with the development of energy wings (The Albion is the latest version of Lancelot, while I think Vincents are based on an older model).

cHiMer:

Q: "Independent State of Primorskiy Kray" well... doesn't sound too good. "Kray" literally means a province, and a country calling itself province is kind of weird. "Independent State of Primorye" sounds much better (Primorye being a noun instead of an adjective).

A: That's absolutely true, in fact I learned my mistake about fifteen minutes after I wrote the chapter. But I was too lazy to go back and fix it. Maybe soon I'll go back and edit things. Thanks, I was wondering if someone would catch that.

Q:Second, Russia fragmenting into several states. While not completely impossible, it wouldn't fall apart into states that small for Primorye to be its own country. There's simply no reason to. Ethnic, economic, you name it but still no. Of course everything I just said may be rendered redundant because if I remember right, the map o' the world in CG depicted most of Russian Far East under Chinese control.

A: Also true I guess. I was thinking maybe a much larger area of Russia could have seceded and called itself Primorye after the original Kray, but it still doesn't make a lot of sense. Oh well. Plot device.

Q: P.S. Vincent sucks.

A: Hmmm yes, true. Compared to the Guren or Lancelot or any of the really crazy Knightmares the Vincent isn't special. However, Zealous sees them as very good because as a mere mercenary he is used to much older Knightmares like Sutherland or whatever.

Wynster McG:

Q: I am curious as to how the car got away from the villa. With Orange and Zero II busted out of prison, wouldn't the authorities have expected them to return? That sounds like an adventure in itself, stealing and hotwiring your own car out of your own garage. [Can Jeremiah have a conversation with his car if it has a computer inside?]

A: I considered depicting this scene, but after giving it some thought I decided to leave it up to the readers' imagination. Mostly I just didn't want to work out some crazy plan for how they did it. I knew it would take up a large portion of the chapter if I was going to do it right.

Incidentally, anybody reading this should go and check out Wynster's CG stories, which are awesome.

That's all for now. Hope to be uploading again soon.

JDCT