Chapter 8: Turning the Tables

Suzaku was in the middle of eating his lunch, and then he looked at his chess board, which he was using to demonstrate the war between him and Lelouch. It had been three days since Infinite took Ashford academy, and of course no one was allowed near it now, they couldn't risk someone being taken captive.

"Lord Zero," Lloyd spoke through a 'sound only' chat line. "The De-Charge and HyBreD installments are complete. Just as you requested, the Guren, Lancelot, Corneli MK, and Shen Hu have been given the equipment."

"Excellent work Professor Lloyd, tell the others we will depart for Ashford Academy in 1 hour." Suzaku replied.

"Of course," Lloyd said then cut his line.

Suzaku finished his meal, put on his mask and walked out of his room. His attendant was on her way back to the room.

"Throw the remains of my lunch away." He told her.

"Yes, Lord Zero." She said and entered the room.

Zero walked down the hall and entered Nunnally's room. Nunnally looked up at him and smiled, and as the door closed behind him, Suzaku removed his mask.

"In a few hours, Kallen, Cornelia, Xingke and I will be departing for the Ashford academy to try and take it back." He told her.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Nunnally asked.

"No, but with our new equipment, we may have a better chance of victory. Don't worry, I won't let any of them die." Suzaku assured her.

"I'm most worried about you." Nunnally said.

"You don't have any reason to worry about me, Lelouch's Geass command to 'live on' is still strong in me, I'm not going down anytime soon." Suzaku argued. "Meantime, we still need to get you back to Britannia."

"No, I want to stay here, where I know my brother is." Nunnally argued.

"I know how you must feel Nunnally, but you must understand you position. Everyone believes that while you are here, you are in grave danger, as Lelouch's sister. You can't stay in Japan for much longer." Suzaku reasoned.

Nunnally scowled. "Fine, but at least a couple weeks? Seeing your face again after a long year, it's comforting."

"OK, we'll keep you in Japan for a couple more weeks, but after that, you need to head for Britannia." Suzaku agreed somewhat reluctantly, but not completely. Seeing Nunnally like this brought back some joy to Suzaku as well.

Suzaku put the mask of Zero on again and left the room. He walked to an elevator and went down to the dispatch floor, where Lloyd and the prepared Knightmares were waiting. It took only a few more minutes for the other three to arrive, ready to depart.

"OK, the two aspects of this mission are to reclaim Ashford Academy and test out the new equipment. But of course Ashford takes priority, now let's go." Zero told the others.

The four pilots got into their cockpits and launched into the air. rather than using their energy wings, they used the base float system, that way they had enough energy to use the cloaking systems. They slowly crossed the area from the government building to Ashford Academy, in their invisible Knightmares.

When the four got past the gates of Ashford, Kallen turned on her scanner, and examined the building.

"It appears that that the major aspects, the Gawain, Tolecnal, Nerug, and Deirfgeis, are gone, only the other 21 identical Knightmares are defending the building." She whispered through her communicator to her group.

"OK, the plan here is to take them down one by one, try to be as silent as possible, and don't take them on if their is more than one other in the immediate area." Zero told them. "Move out."

The four of them, still cloaked with invisibility, floated slowly to the enemy they saw on their radars. Zero took the one that was closest to them at the moment, but did not strike immediately, he wanted to give the others time to find someone and get in position. It took a few minutes because they had to be slow and stealthy.

Once the four got in positions , Zero began the countdown.

"Five, four, three," The moment I take my blade out, the clocking goes down, so I have to take it out, slash him, put the blade away and reboot the cloaking system in practically the same instant. "Two, one, GO!" he said and at that moment all four of them struck down their target, killing them with incredible ease since they didn't have the slightest idea they were there, but their signal's were lost in the process, signaling to the other 17 still there someone had arrived.

"What the crap, four signal's were just lost in an instant! What's going on?" One man said as he took his KnightCrawler round to were one of the signals died.

A few other members of the Reverse Knights did the same, hoping to get some action while they were sitting around in this dirt hole.

One man swung around and flew toward the agent Zero killed, and seeing the rubble of his KnightCrawler, felt the need to call one man for back up before going any closer. as one more KnightCrawler began to move for him, Zero had already floated behind him, then as the next person got close, he took his blade again, releasing his cloaking and alarming the man in front of him, very briefly, before he too was destroyed in an instant.

Similar events accrued with the other three, two men had come to where the Corneli MK waited, and she shoot a pair of slash harkens strait into their cockpits, and destroying them as well. one man came to the Guren's position, and she caught it with her energy pulsar arm and extinguished it just as fast as it arrived. Three arrived at the Shun Hu's location, and with it's special slash harkens, it cut through all three in almost the same moment.

The one called by the man near Zero had just arrived after the man who called him was destroyed, his KnightCrawlers pieces still falling to the ground. The first thing that went through his head was to high-tail it out of there. It was also the last thing that went through his mind, as Zero cut him in half on the spot. This left nine people at Ashford.

The nine men had quickly agreed splitting up was the worst decision to make, so they would all move to the same area together. The worst decision they could have made though, was heading to where the Corneli MK was waiting, how the other three had also began to move, they believed that with her multiple slash harkens, Cornelia would be fine. They nine enemies approached the area slowly, with caution. The Corneli MK had a total of 8 slash harkens, which would be near perfect for this situation.

As they got in range, Cornelia struck, shutting off her cloaking and sending her weapon's flying. all 8 she had aimed for were destroyed, and the one that was left readied his Hydron Cannon, and fired it just as the slash harkens had come back in. Cornelia had no time to dodge or launch a counter Cannon as it was coming strait for her now. She had only one option, to use the HyBreD and save herself, assuming it worked. So she stretch out her hand toward the Hydron Cannon and pressed a button. A strange frequency sounded and as the cannon came within 5 inches of her hand, it snapped into nothing.

"What the heck!" The man screamed at this sight, and before having any clue what had happened, Zero tore off his cloaking and struck him down as well, and completely re-capturing the Ashford Academy.

They actually tried to avoid using the HyBreD function because it could have failed, and they would be destroyed. The others dropped their cloaking systems and joined with Cornelia.

"Now we know the HyBreD works." Cornelia said.

"Yes, and it's good news." Zero said. "But this was mostly a trail run of strategy, unless we get more upgrades, this Academy won't stay our for a week."

"Exactly, so let's start brainstorming." Kallen said, and the four left for the Government building again, and send defense troops back here.