Code Geass: Lelouch of the Digidestined

by Demon of Zero

Digimon were created as an artificial life, their original purpose lost to humanity with the death of their creators. And so the world gave them a purpose, horrible though it may be. Those that emerged in the human world were captured and enslaved, used as soldiers and weapons. And despite these changes, still some things remain the same. Zero will rise and the world will change.

7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer:

Woo! Hurray for not owning anything of value!

On that note, I wish I still had my old Greymon plushy. Cannot find it. Sadness. So much sadness.

C.C.: Poor dear. I'd be devastated if I lost Cheese-kun. *She cuddles said doll closely.*

Lelouch:*A sinister smirk appears on his lips, unseen by anyone.* Really now...

---

Lunch had ended without any fuss, thankfully. Sayoko's cooking was divine as per the norm, idle chatter between Nunnally and Anya ensued with Nunnally trying her hardest to get Anya to take an active role in the conversation as opposed to her normal reactive role.

Needless to say, his darling little sister's face was scrunched up in frustration by this point. Whenever she asked Anya about something open ended, the girl would give a very brief reply before sending the ball back into Nunnally's court so to speak.

"Hmmm..." Nunnally hummed, attempting to think of something that Anya wouldn't be able to answer in a few words. She was, of course, unable to find any guaranteed way to get the desired result. "Do you have any friends in the military, Anya?" She eventually settled for a simple question that could lead to a better opportunity to get Anya talking.

"Gino. And Hyokkomon." Anya replied, before gesturing over towards the floating form of her digital companion. "And Missimon."

Seeing the opportunity present itself, Nunnally jumped on it. "Oh! Tell us about them." Finally, something Anya couldn't reasonably answer in only a few words.

"Gino is nice. Hyokkomon is strange. Missimon is..." Anya trailed off, moving to glance at her partner. "My partner."

Anya was not someone who was good at putting words to feelings, considering she hardly knew what feelings were. Just calling Missimon her "partner" meant a lot more than it may seem at first glance.

Missimon had been by her side for years now. And he was always by her side. He had been her constant companion, through anything that she had done. The bond between them was something she just couldn't adequately describe with words.

But it didn't need to be described by words. Missimon had always known how much he meant to Anya. She meant just as much to him. They were partners, for as long as they both lived.

While Missimon simply felt the meaning behind her description, Lelouch could tell a different way.

Anya's eyes seemed to light up, losing their dull gaze for a brief moment, as she glanced towards her digital companion. In that brief moment, Lelouch could practically see the myriad of emotions trapped behind those ruby eyes.

If he were to be honest, it somewhat unnerved him. Lelouch was very good at reading people, based upon various tells he could pick up on to associate with certain moods and so on.

He had heard of "the eyes being windows to the soul", and all that. How sometimes, people could read you just by staring into your eyes as though it revealed your true intentions. On some level, he supposed, it was true. Looking into someone's eyes could give a major hint as to how they feel.

What he had seen just then was something so much more. Just a glance into her eyes hadn't shown him any hints, no, he was certain beyond any shadow of a doubt that he knew exactly how Anya felt towards Missimon.

That was not normal. At all. Never before had he been able to do that. That was more along Nunnally's particular skillset.

Nunnally could tell a lot just by taking a person's hand in her own. It was very surprising just how accurately she could judge someone's character just by the simplest of touches.

Lelouch had never gained that particular ability. No, rather than simply knowing like his little sister, Lelouch had to carefully inspect and break down every little thing about a person in order to get an accurate read on their character. He took everything from their stance, to their speech patterns, to their body language, and carefully broke it down into data and translated it all into usable data to accurately determine personality. More often than not, he was right in his own inspections and judgement of character, but sometimes it was tinted by suspicion and thusly biased against the subject. Or perhaps the opposite.

What this is to say, is that his ability to judge character was nowhere near flawless. At no point in time did he simply know someone's feelings without them telling him or otherwise making it apparent. Nunnally could do that.

He couldn't. But just now, he had. He knew without a single doubt in his mind and it made him uncomfortable since the only person this had ever happened with was a pink haired girl he hadn't seen in years.

He'd heard of people growing so close over the years that they could tell what was on the other's mind with relative ease. Lelouch had that kind of bond with Milly, sometimes he just knew how she was feeling on an empathetic level.

And now apparently he had that type of bond with Anya, because she was basically an open book to him. It was really quite concerning considering that she had been out of his life for seven years and had just reentered it.

But still, the atmosphere was comfortable. Anya and Nunnally were still going back and forth, with Nunnally trying her hardest to get Anya talking. Sayoko was simply looking over the whole ordeal with a smile, seemingly happy just to see Nunnally so happy. Perhaps him, too. Sayoko was good at guessing his feelings.

Lelouch himself was smiling a small smile, one hand propping up his head as he looked between the two girls. Just looking at them, he could tell both were extremely happy. His little sister was positively ecstatic to see her old friend, and even more so after being told that their secret was safe with no strings attached. In addition to that, Lelouch had told her about Suzaku and she had promptly demanded that he get the brown haired boy to visit them at his first opportunity.

It was so nice, peaceful. This was something he had lost seven years ago, just watching his sister interact with the girl who had practically become another sister to them at one point.

When they had been sent to Japan at first, the hardest thing to get used to for his little sister had been the fact that Anya didn't live with them anymore. While she had missed Euphemia, Cornelia, Clovis, and Schneizel, none of them had actually lived with them in the Aries villa. She loved them dearly, but they didn't often end up sneaking into the same bedroom to sleep.

That bedroom, of course, being his. He had lost track of the amount of times he had woken up with his arms trapped beneath the two of them.

Anya had been a constant presence in their home for a time. While her time with them had been just under a year and a half, she had been intended to stay for two and a half years with them.

Her parents, in addition to wanting her to learn etiquette, or perhaps in place of that considering just who his mother had been, had wanted Anya to have a relatively normal family life. Both her mother and father had been extremely busy people, with very little time on their hands for their daughter.

The Alstreim's had managed to make friends with his mother at one point. During a chat with them, his mother had heard of their daughter's situation and had offered to give her etiquette lessons, while allowing her to stay with their family.

Looking back on it now, Lelouch realized that the lessons had probably just been a front so that his mother had an excuse to give Anya a bit of a normal family upbringing as opposed to being raised by hired caretakers and the like. It would be like her, after all. His mother had been a kind woman, always trying to help others if she could. He had admired that about her, perhaps that was where his own desire to help people originated.

He wondered just how life for Anya must have been, after his mother's assassination. From what he was aware of, her own parents had been killed in an accident hardly a year after his mother. Details on it were sketchy, at best, but he knew she had been practically alone.

Sure, the family's funds had gone directly to her, and the servants had been around to cater to her every need, but she had been alone. Lelouch would be the first to admit that it sounded like a terrible fate.

To have your closest friends and your idol ripped from you in one night, and then learning of the demise of the only two family members you had left just a year later... it had to have been hard on her.

According to Anya, her memory loss had begun on the night of his mother's death. However, over the years, it had gotten progressively worse. Perhaps living the way she had for so long had more negative effects than he had originally suspected.

Despite the fact that Lelouch had little to no trouble reading Anya's moods now, for whatever reason, he could easily tell that she was far from that energetic, if somewhat shy, little girl that had been brought to the Aries villa so long ago.

---

The Aries villa had a beautiful garden, a young Lelouch noted not for the first time. It was simply breathtaking, nearly each and every time he saw it. He knew every nook and cranny of this wonderful haven like the back of his hands, and was using that knowledge for a very specific purpose on this day.

To find his terror of a younger sister. As much as he loved her, and no one would dare argue to him that he didn't love his little sister, even he could be annoyed at times by her antics.

Especially when said antics involved him having to chase her down, something his young body was just not made for. And so in order to cope with his inability to simply catch Nunnally, Lelouch had completely mapped out the Aries Villa, specifically the garden, in his head. Every little detail was taken into consideration when he created his mental map, from what types of flowers populated the area to how high the tallest tree was, and he used that to generate a rough estimate of how likely it was for Nunnally to be in any given area based on her own likes and dislikes.

So any place with high trees and suitably colorful flowers ranked highest, with the dark leafy forest area ranking next. And within each of those areas, he further generate a more accurate estimate of his little sister's location based mainly on where he had found her previously. She would no doubt be in an area different than those he had found her in in the past week, narrowing down his choices even more.

And as with any calculations made by Lelouch, these allowed him to accomplish his goal with relative ease, locating Nunnally seated happily beneath a tree, surrounded on all sides by a myriad of colorful flowers. Beside her sat the newest resident of their home, Anya Alstreim, who was looking over Nunnally's handiwork with silent appreciation.

The pink haired girl raised her phone, a pink device with a flip top, and took a picture of the flower crown his sister made. "It's pretty, Nunna."

As with any other praise she received, Nunnally beamed towards her newest friend. "Really? Thanks! Here, put it on!" She excitedly pushed the flower crown towards Anya, who accepted it carefully after setting her phone down even more carefully.

The pinkette slipped the crown onto her head, realizing that Nunnally had probably intended to put it on her in the first place due to the fact that all of the flowers were pink. Nunnally herself would likely have used yellows and pinks, but Anya didn't really like yellow that much.

Nunnally clapped happily, looking Anya over. "You look even prettier now, Anya!" She announced with no small amount of certainty.

Said girl blushed at the compliment, obviously unused to interacting with people her age. "T-thank you."

It was then that Lelouch made himself known, striding into the little clearing with his usual grace. "So that's where you got off to this time." He noted, giving his little sister a false chiding look. "You do know you're not supposed to go running off without me, right? You could hurt yourself." Despite saying this, his voice held no real intent. He knew she would just ignore him anyway.

Nunnally would be having none of that anyway. "Hmph! You're too slow, big brother! If we waited on you we'd never even get here!"

Ouch. That one had injured his pride quite a bit. "Obviously that's not the case, since I'm here right now." Ignoring the fact that it had taken him half an hour to get there while they had likely taken ten minutes or less, and only partially because he was making an educated guess as to where they were.

He looked over towards Anya, who had sunken in on herself slightly after he arrived. From the looks of it, she actually thought they were in some sort of trouble. Lelouch nearly snorted at that. Nunnally? In trouble? And from her big brother no less? That was a good one, perhaps he'd tell it to Clovis next time he beat him at chess to lighten his mood.

But, still, Anya was new around these parts and probably didn't realize that his scowl was just for show. May as well clear up the illusion now, it wouldn't do for their new resident to be afraid of him. "Anya, you're not in trouble. Don't worry."

She looked up at him, seemingly shocked. "B-but... you said we weren't supposed to go ahead..." The girl replied, paraphrasing his earlier statement.

Lelouch rolled his eyes. "And you're not. But I knew Nunnally would. She always does. So I've stopped even bothering." He glanced over at his sister, who was sticking her tongue out at him cutely, before turning his gaze back to the other girl. "And now that she has a partner in crime, I'm going to bother even less with trying to get her to follow the rules. She'll be too busy trying to corrupt you to even pay attention to me." The prince allowed himself a brief snicker when he noticed the pinkette glance warily at his grinning sister, before scooting a few inches away from her. "So, flower crowns?" He asked, glancing pointedly at the interlocked flowers atop Anya's head.

"Yes! They're so pretty!" Came the enthusiastic reply he had expected from his sibling.

"U-uh huh. They're nice." Was the, also as expected, reply from Anya.

It had only been a few days since she had arrived, and this was pretty much her first day actually dealing with Nunnally's brand of mischief. She'd be up to speed in no time, and then he'd have two terrors to keep an eye on.

Lelouch could only imagine the horrors they could unleash if they began working separately rather than the duo he was dearly hoping they become. Between balancing his own mischief with Clovis, his studies, and keeping his dear little sister occupied his schedule was pretty much full. He couldn't imagine having to deal with another Nunnally, his poor brain would overload from stress.

Until then, Lelouch would take solace in the docility of the young girl before him. It wouldn't last long, but he would cherish it for sure. With this in mind, he made his way over to the two of them and took a seat of his own, idly reaching out for one of the many flowers scattered around the immediate area.

"You're going to make flower crowns too, big brother?" Nunnally asked, eyes wide in wonderment. Her big brother was actually going to make pretty flower crowns with them? He usually only did boring things like play chess or read. Lelouch was certain those thoughts were going through her mind.

Lelouch smiled back at her warmly. "Yes, I am. Or are boys not allowed to?" He inquired, weaving the small purple flowers together with one another until he had what vaguely resembled a violet jewel.

Nunnally gave him a skeptical glance. "I thought Clovis was the only boy who could make pretty things."

He gave her a dead-pan look. "I take that as a challenge, Nunnally." And with that, he returned to his work.

Off to his side, Anya was looking at him intently, watching as his fingers deftly worked the stems of the surrounding flowers into the framework for a crown. Soon enough, he had a flower crown with several dandelions decorating it's sides, and a mock gemstone in the form of the several small flowers he had worked together originally.

For something that had just been put together at a moments notice, the girls couldn't help but feel it was extremely pretty. The way the dandelions had been arranged made it look like there were no stems holding the crown together, just the pretty flowers of the weed lined up side by side. And, of course, the bunch of tiny violet flowers all woven together into an imitation jewel made it look beautiful, to their young minds. Just because Lelouch wasn't an artist did not mean he didn't have the ability to be one.

After placing the crown atop his little sister's head, Lelouch spotted the tiniest flash of jealousy in the pink haired girl. Unseen by either girl, he rolled his eyes before deciding upon a way to include Anya in the fun.

"Anya, since Nunnally made you a crown and I made Nunnally a crown, how about you make me one? I'm feeling left out." Lelouch smiled warmly at the girl as he said this, seeing her blink in surprise.

It seemed as though the girl had thought she would just be left out now that he had arrived and Nunnally had her beloved big brother to play with. He certainly couldn't allow that, now could he?

After a few minutes of fiddling with various flowers scattered about the area, Anya had managed to put together a flower crown as well. It was clear that she had never done this before, judging by how she clumsily threaded the stems together. For a beginner, her crown turned out very well.

She presented the crown to him, looking anywhere but at him as she did so, and blushed as he took the crown and settled it atop his head. "How do I look?" Lelouch asked, smiling brightly towards the two of them.

"Big brother looks pretty!" Nunnally exclaimed, her smile even brighter than his own.

"It's nice..." Anya was much more tame in her response, though her own lips were tilted upwards.

After that day, it all just fell into place.

---

It really had been a long time. After being shipped off to Japan all those years ago, Lelouch had nearly forgotten about her. No, not so much forgotten as it was that he realized they would likely never meet again. He had resigned himself to losing her.

With the rest of his siblings, there was always the chance they would meet again if he failed and they were found. Even in that worst case scenario, however, they would likely never have met Anya again.

But then she had gone and become Knight of Six. That had changed things somewhat. If they were found in hiding after all these years, they might have been able to see Anya again.

Of course, that was a moot point now that the girl had managed to find her way to Area Eleven.

A sudden ringing interrupted the peace, originating from Anya herself. After a moment, it became clear that her phone was ringing. Anya blinked, before flipping the top of her phone up and answering the call with a lackluster "Hello."

Moments later, Anya closed the phone and looked over the table towards them. "Princess Cornelia needs me for an operation to purge Saitama ghetto in three hours." She informed them, as if she was talking about the weather.

Lelouch practically choked, and Nunnally gasped loudly. Missimon palmed his face. "Anya, you probably shouldn't have said that..." He chided, clearly worried that blatantly admitting that you would have part in a racial purge would adversely effect her friendship. Not to mention the fact that it was probably classified information in the first place. Common sense was not her strongest point.

Anya herself didn't seem to realize that, though. "Sorry, but I need to leave now."

With that, she stood up and left with Missimon in tow.

The mind of our resident genius was working quickly. 'Saitama Ghetto, purged? Shit. I've got three hours to work with. I need to call Ohgi, this is our opening!' Those were the thoughts that ran through his head as he calmly stood, glancing at Sayoko for a moment and sending her a reassuring smile. "I just remembered, I need to speak with Rivalz about something. I'll be back in a bit!" And with that hastily thought up excuse, he was off. He'd need to visit Rivalz on his way back to get him to go along with the story, but that was fine. He'd been meaning to speak with Rivalz about the giant insect digimon that had appeared anyway.

Lelouch quickly looked himself over, as he made his way back to his room. 'I just need to pick up my Zero outfit and my gun.' He had obviously not bothered to take either with him while dining. Tsumemon's bag was slung over his shoulders as usual, with said Digimon lounging about within. "Tsumemon." Lelouch called lightly, getting the attention of his partner. "Get ready. This is the big one."

"I got'cha. I'm fully rested and ready to go, Lelouch." Tsumemon confirmed.

"Good." He replied, just as he opened the door to his room.

C.C. looked up from her position on his bed, blinking once. "You seem to be in a hurry. Something wrong?" She asked, looking him over. It seemed she had been checking off another box on that card of hers. What was the reward for that again? A doll or something.

"Cornelia intends to purge Saitama Ghetto. I'm going to stop her." Lelouch replied, throwing open his closet and retrieving the case that held Zero's costume.

Now all he needed was his...

Click.

... gun. Which was in his nightstand. Which was directly beside his bed. Where C.C. was.

"I can't let you get yourself killed doing this, Lelouch. This is the first time since Shinjuku, and the second time ever, that a Ghetto in Area Eleven is set to be purged. It's obviously a trap." C.C. explained dryly, pointing his own gun at him. Surely he had to realize this was a trap.

Lelouch frowned, turning to face her. "Notice that what you're saying and what you're doing seem to conflict with one another." He noted, stone faced. Yes, he did realize it was a trap. Of course he did. That wasn't going to deter him, though.

She smiled lightly. "I don't intend to kill you. I'll just shoot you in the leg to quiet you down." Her smile disappeared as he pulled a knife from his sleeve, taking aim at her head. "You and I both know that won't kill me, and I can pull the trigger either way. What will that accomplish other than getting more blood on your carpet?" Had he really forgotten that she had taken a bullet to the head and gotten back up?

He grinned widely. "It'll accomplish what I need it to." And with that, the boy flipped the knife into a reverse grip and held it to his own neck.

C.C.'s eyes widened. "You wouldn't." But she knew, by the look in his eye, he meant it. This was not a bluff.

"Every day." He began, knife firmly in hand. "I'd been living this worthless life of mine, gradually sinking further and further into this society I despise so much. I've been in hiding for the past seven years, always having to be cautious, always festering with a burning desire to accomplish something. I wanted to destroy this nation. I still do. But it can wait." Lelouch allowed himself a deep, calming breath after bringing up his promise to Suzaku, seven years before. "Now I fully intend to free Japan or die trying. And from there, I'll continue to oppose Britannia or die trying. And once I've finally erased this corrupt nation and built it anew, I'll turn to the rest of the world. I have the power to do this now."

He paused, glancing pointedly at her. "Before, during these past seven years, I've lived lie after lie. My life has been meaningless, every day I simply went through the motions of living without truly experiencing it. A life like that... without meaning... is no life at all." His eyes met her own, cold amethyst matching her own steadily weakening amber gaze. "But then you gave me that power, the power to bend other's will to my own. With that, and with Keramon by my side, I will be victorious today. Or..." His knife inched closer to his throat, the cool metal pressing ever so slightly on the soft skin. "I. Will. Die. Trying."

"Enough!" C.C. shouted, throwing the gun down. "Just.. just go. But try not to die. This is serious, Lelouch. Cornelia is not Clovis, she will not be easily defeated. Overconfidence will get you killed, and then who will take care of your sister?" She nearly pleaded.

Lelouch smiled reassuringly at her, walking over to her. "I will stay alive, C.C.. Cornelia is a powerful adversary, but I will be victorious today." He knelt down, retrieving the fallen weapon. "Thank you for your concern." He finished, tucking the gun into his jacket.

With that, he picked up the case containing his costume and set off under the watchful gaze of the green haired witch.

"A life without meaning, huh..." She whispered, shaking her head. "I've been chasing death for so long I guess I didn't notice myself die."

---

"Something happen, Zero?" Ohgi asked, announcing the name of their benefactor loudly enough to capture the attention of the rest of his group.

The entire group was present at the moment, even Kallen since school had been canceled for the week and she despised remaining at home for extended periods of time, and their attention quickly shifted from whatever they had been doing previously.

Ohgi's eyes suddenly went wide, a brief shout of "What!" escaping his lips. "Cornelia intends to purge Saitama!? Not just launch an offensive, but actually PURGE?" Surely they wouldn't purge an entire ghetto just to eliminate the terrorists hiding within, right? The Yamato Alliance wasn't even that large of a group, most of the Saitama residents were civilians.

Generally, when dealing with terrorists cells using the ghettos as their base of operations, the military would send out sentries to seek out likely hiding places. Then, there would be groups searching each prospective area for traces of life or recent use. If any were found, they would assault the location, wiping out or driving back the hiding rebels.

This method, in theory, would have little to no civilian casualties. In reality, the casualties amounted to anyone who didn't give the sentries the answer they were looking for, anyone who was found in one of the prospective hideouts, and anything that moved during an assault. Britannians typically didn't give a damn if Elevens were slaughtered by the droves, though they didn't go out of their way to publicly announce it or actively target them

Somehow, Zero had learned of an honest-to-god PURGE of Saitama Ghetto. That was a terrifying thought. Shinjuku was ordered to be purged due to their hiding out within the ghetto while stealing the poisonous gas Clovis had been harboring.

Saitama was set for a purge just because Cornelia was too impatient to use the typical method, it seemed. But, when he mentioned that to Zero...

"Ohgi, do not believe for even a second that this is simply Cornelia being impatient. She is doing this to lure me out into the open, but in doing so she has given me the opening I need." A brief pause, and a low sigh echoed over the phone. "In addition to that, I simply cannot allow her to purge Saitama without striking back. Do you have any contacts in the Yamato Alliance, or any way to get a message through to them? I want them to be warned and the civilians must be evacuated asap."

The leader of the Kozuki group looked over his assembled cell, taking in their individual expressions.

Kallen seemed appalled. For good reason, he had just brought it to their attention that an entire Ghetto, the last refuge for their people, was going to be purged completely. Down to the last man, woman, and child. She was still in high school and here she was, knee deep in these kinds of things. It really said something about her character.

Inoue and Sugiyama were both calm outwardly, though their minds were likely racing. Sugiyama was the one with an aquaintance in the Yamato Alliance, a man by the name of Hiroki. "Kento, get word to your pal in the Yamato Alliance. Tell him to get as many civilians out as possible. Make sure he knows that this is as serious as it gets." Ohgi stopped for a moment, listening to something Zero said over the phone. "Three hours, huh? Let's hope it's enough. You hear that? Tell them they've got three hours to get everyone to safety."

He didn't need to even look to see Tamaki's reaction, the redhead was absolutely furious if the litany of curses was anything to go by. Minami was unreadable, as per the norm, but something seemed slightly off about Yoshida.

Normally, Yoshida was rather laid back. Of course, he hadn't expected him to be entirely calm in this situation, but the look in his eyes was something Ohgi hadn't seen in quite some time.

Yoshida Toru was positively boiling with rage.

---

Lelouch hung up after delivering all the information he had to Ohgi and his band of misfits, reaching the door that would lead to Ashford's underground access tunnels and grant him his unnoticed escape as per the usual.

However, he was stopped by a sudden call of "Lelouch?" from a few feet away.

Under normal circumstances, he would wave the speaker off, especially considering just what he had to deal with at the moment, but because of just who it was and what this person knew he had to take a few more moments and speak with her.

"Oh, hello Nina. I'm sorry, but I've got something really important to take care of right now." Lelouch replied, giving her an apologetic look.

Nina frowned, looking him over. The case he carried was a new addition, and she had a feeling she knew what it held. "Something for Lelouch to take care of, or something for... him?" Nina refrained from using his alias' name aloud, thankfully. It meant she was taking her pledge not to tell anyone seriously, at the very least.

His smile turned guilty, all but confirming her thoughts. "Him." And from there, the smile disappeared entirely. "This is something... really important, Nina." He told her with a serious look. "A lot... a lot of people are going to be counting on me now... you'll probably see why on the news." Lelouch added the last part in a whisper, before accessing the elevator that would take him underground.

After a few more moments, Nina was left alone with her thoughts. 'Just what did he mean when he said I would see it on the news? The news has been full of terrorist cells being located and stomped out... is he going to save one of them?' It would make sense. Zero's eventual goal, Lelouch's eventual goal, was to reclaim Japan for the Japanese. What he did after that was irrelevant until he actually accomplished that monumental feat.

Monumental because not once had a rebellion even come close to freeing a captured Area from Britannia. At this point, Nina was more afraid that Lelouch would die trying to free Japan from Britannia than she was afraid of him succeeding.

And, really, if Lelouch did succeed in freeing Japan, how would it adversely affect her? Granted, the inevitable conflict between Lelouch and his allies and Britannia would probably cause some sort of change to her life. If the situation became too volatile here, people may be relocated back to the mainland. That wouldn't be too terrible.

But him dying in the process? There was where the problems started. Not only did Nina have her crush to think about, but Lelouch was one of her closest friends. Only Milly was closer to her than Lelouch.

It had been said before, but it was worth repeating. Nina simply did not want him to die. But he was one man trying to take on a country that ruled a third of the world. Sure, he was rallying his own army of sorts with these rebels, but in the end he would only have a fraction of Britannia's forces.

And that was without counting Digimon. Britannia had more Digimon than any other country. No rebels were in possession of a Digimon, either, to her knowledge.

Just how was he going to compete with that kind of overwhelming force? Even with Knightmares, there was no way for him to match a Champion of any real strength.

Lelouch's enemy had superior forces in both quantity and quality, from what Nina could see.

So why was he so confident? Why could he smile at her warmly, before going off and playing the part of a man who was wanted by a third of the world for his crimes?

Why did he seem so much more alive, now? It seemed as though he was more... interested, more so than she had ever seen him. He had always been so detached from the world, it seemed, but now he wasn't.

It seemed as though becoming the masked rebel Zero had lifted a great weight off of Lelouch's shoulders, despite the fact that he had firmly set the full weight of Britannia's ire upon his back.

He was completely at ease, even with the anger of one of the world's super powers settled directly on him.

... And if Nina was being completely honest, that sort of turned her on.

---

Within the G1 mobile defense base, Cornelia li Britannia looked over the ghetto once more with a pair of hard eyes. Today, Saitama ghetto would be purged of all life.

And it was all a ploy to goad Zero into the open so that she could finish him. Cornelia knew Zero's type, more arrogant than they were clever. He would show up. She had personally invited him, after all.

Cornelia turned to the line of men standing at attention behind her. Formerly under the command of Clovis, these men were some of the few who survived the Shinjuku incident.

One of them, the highest ranking, stepped forward. "My lady, we would like to thank you for your generosity in-" He was cut off by the purple haired woman.

"I don't care about that. Tell me, are the conditions similar?" Her eyes gleamed, as she turned once more to the ghetto. "To Shinjuku, I mean."

If the casual dismissal of his gratitude rankled him at all, the soldier didn't show it. "Yes, mi'lady. The only difference is that in Shinjuku we were searching for something in the process." He replied.

Hearing this, Cornelia frowned for a brief moment, before shaking her head. "It doesn't matter. Darlton, what will the effects on productivity be?"

Andreas Darlton, a tall, rugged man with blond hair and a large scar across his face, beginning just above his right eye and ending beneath his left, replied to her. "Primary sector output should decrease by 0.2 percent."

She smirked. "Within expectations, you mean."

And with that taken care of, Cornelia swung her gaze towards the youngest person on the G1.

Youngest, but also most dangerous. Anya Alstreim, the Knight of Six.

A prodigy in Knightmare combat, and partnered with a Digimon capable of reaching ultimate level. A beast that could demolish anything in a 30 kilometer radius. It would be simple to order her to use this digimon's ultimate form to demolish the Ghetto easily, but that would defeat the purpose of this entire operation. Not to mention the possible repercussions from said form.

While the Tankdramon was a terribly powerful weapon, actually using that particular ability was quite costly. An entire week of being bound to Rookie level at best due to the sheer amount of energy it took.

Potentially crippling their most powerful weapon for an entire week? Not an idea Cornelia was keen on. And speaking of things she wasn't keen on...

Cornelia disliked Anya Alstreim. She had no purpose. Nothing this girl ever did was done with any real intent behind it. A person like that, being so powerful... on some deeper level, Cornelia resented that. Not that she had power, no. Cornelia was a warrior, and any self respecting warrior would not resent another just for their power. It was the fact that Anya was not a warrior. She was not a soldier. She was just a girl who couldn't remember anything and didn't care about anything.

If Anya Alstreim were to be captured by enemy forces, held until she underwent one of her "memory wipes", and then told she was an enemy of Britannia she would believe it. Because Anya Alstreim had no loyalty to their nation other than what was planted in her every time she awoke without her memories.

And this was without taking into account the way she actually acted. Cornelia despised the fact that this girl was completely lackadaisical despite the fact that they would be in a battle soon. Even in battle, she would remain nonchalant with that dull look on her face.

"War is a struggle between pride and life.", Cornelia often said. This girl had no pride and practically no life. She had nothing to fight for, she simply fought because she was told to.

In Cornelia's mind, a warrior was someone who had beliefs and a purpose they would fight for until the end. Anya Alstreim was the exact opposite of this.

Repressing a sigh, Cornelia addressed the pink haired girl who was currently fiddling with her phone. "Lady Alstreim, be prepared to deploy at a moments notice."

Ignoring the dead-pan affirmative from the girl, she turned her gaze to her partner.

"You as well, Agumon. I want to crush Zero the moment he appears."

The yellow, bipedal reptile gave a salute, his green eyes lighting up in anticipation. "Yes, my lady."

With that, Cornelia looked back towards the soon to be battlefield of Saitama Ghetto.

The Ghetto was surrounded. The news was out. Zero had two hours to make his move.

It was all going according to plan.

While Cornelia was thinking heavily on the upcoming battle, there was another person on the G1 who couldn't have cared less.

'I actually don't want here. Normally I wouldn't care, but right now I just don't want to be here.' Anya wanted to be back at Ashford, talking with Nunnally under the watchful eyes of her big brother. She had been enjoying that. Actually, honestly, and undeniably enjoying herself and she had to leave it behind for this.

Standing beside her was Commandramon, calmly staring at the ceiling. He was worried about earlier, for good reason.

Anya didn't know any better, he knew that. But she had announced, openly, that she was taking part in what amounted to a massacre. Not only did she potentially give away classified military information, but she had possibly damaged her standing with those two quite a bit. Despite all his worrying, though, Commandramon knew there was nothing he could do about it. After all, what is done is done. He simply shook his head, allowing his tail to swish about behind him.

That was one reason he preferred being Commandramon, honestly. It may seem silly to some, but he loved having his tail. Just having the limb casually swish back and forth was calming. The closest example he could give would be rubbing one's temples in times of stress, or taking a deep breath.

To put it simply? It was nice.

He certainly needed the calming effect at the moment, as apprehensive as he was over the coming battle. While most Britannian assaults on terrorist hideouts didn't bother taking civilian safety into consideration, civilians were not explicitly targeted. That was not the case here.

While Commandramon didn't know what percentage of this ghetto's residents were actual, completely innocent, civilians, he was certain there were more than a few. And they were marked for death.

And that included men, women, the elderly, and children.

Children. Some the same age or younger than his partner, or his partner's crippled friend. Some of these children may even be crippled, or otherwise sick. And these soldiers were supposed to kill them in cold blood. And they would do it, he knew, and more than a few of them would enjoy it.

Some would find it distasteful. Some would be horrified by the atrocities they were committing. Some would even resent their leader for forcing them into this horrible act.

But each and every soldier under Princess Cornelia li Britannia would dutifully slaughter an entire orphanage of innocent children if she ordered them to.

The only thing worse than realizing that would be realizing the Cornelia li Britannia would order said slaughter if it served her purposes. She might regret it. She might resent herself for it. She may find her willingness to order the murder of helpless civilians distasteful.

Despite all that? She would still be willing to do it.

If he were being quite honest, that disgusted him. Commandramon did not support this Empire and it's methods, or it's conquests. But he would remain silent and he would remain loyal to this rotten empire.

All for her, his partner. The one person he cared for more than any other. He would remain by her side through whatever decisions she made, protecting her with all his might.

Commandramon sometimes wondered what would happen if his partner sided with Zero. While the masked terrorist had drawn the ire of Britannia for executing one of their princes, he couldn't find it in himself to condemn this man for doing it.

So far, the man had stopped the purging of a ghetto filled with civilians, and rescued a boy who had been falsely accused of regicide, while pulling the blame for said crime onto himself. The masked man had done nothing to turn Commandramon's view against him. If anything, the digimon held some respect for him.

Hence this line of thinking. It was, of course, just him pondering over something impossible. It helped keep his mind off the horrors that would no doubt be occurring within the next few hours.

As much as he despised Britannia, Anya saw fit to remain on their side. That was all he needed to know in order to fight for them.

No, not for them.

He fought for her and her alone.

---

Keramon sat quietly in the cockpit of a Sutherland, coiled up behind the seat. There was time before the battle began, and he was spending it in thought.

He had agreed to help Lelouch, his partner, in any of his endeavors. That was why he was fighting today.

That was the catalyst for his joining this battle. But how did he feel about the entire thing? That was the most important thing. Keramon was well aware of how the Digivices worked. Strong emotions meant more power. He could just fight alongside his partner, not caring who or what he was fighting for, but it wouldn't be complete. And that was what he had been doing so far; fighting just because Lelouch asked him to.

Or, rather, he had been sticking with Lelouch and doing as he asked because they were partners. He genuinely liked Lelouch, but that hadn't actually been at the forefront of his mind.

So, now, he was going to get his thoughts together on just how he felt about the things going on around him. Before, he'd merged with Lelouch to defeat Angemon and then done so again to defeat Birdramon. The first had been in order to survive, and the second served a similar purpose. But now, he didn't have to fight to survive. His own well being wouldn't be at risk unless he, himself, decided to fight. And he would, for Lelouch. But that wasn't enough. Keramon wanted this to be for himself just as much as it was for his partner.

Firstly, Britannia. They were a nation that forcefully expanded, growing to take over a third of the world. Most of the areas under their control became just that; Areas, designated by numbers. Stripped of their cultures, their rights, and even their names.

He could say, without a doubt, he despised them out of principle. So that was one reason to fight, aside from his bond with Lelouch. He couldn't hate Britannia just because Lelouch did, but the nations ideals made it rather easy to dislike them.

What of the Japanese? These people, trampled underfoot by the nation he who's ideals sickened him? He felt pity for them, at first. But then he met the group working with Ohgi Kaname.

Those were not people to be pitied. They had no need for something as trivial as that. Pity was for those who had given up, but these rebels were far from that. He liked them. They had fire in their hearts, and they fought for a noble cause. Freeing their homeland from the tyrannical rule of Britannia.

What they intended to do afterwards? He was sure none of them had thought that far ahead. As much as they fought and had the fire to do so, just freeing their land was practically a dream to them all.

Until his partner had shown up and shook things up with a shot heard round the world.

Lelouch had given these people something to rally behind, displaying his prowess by trouncing the military in Shinjuku with ease, and later by rescuing Kururugi as though it was a cake walk. Miracles, some would call them, but in reality they were just excellent planning.

But still, his partner was trying to be this country's messiah it seemed. And like a messiah, he would have to keep delivering miracles.

Keramon would help with that. These people deserved to have a rallying point. They deserved to have their hope, and they deserved their freedom.

Yes, that was it. He despised the ideals of Britannia, and he empathized with the oppressed Japanese. In addition to that, his partner felt strongly about both of these things. What he was doing, the decisions he was making, he believed in them.

A wide, manic grin spread across his face. Yeah, that was it... strong emotions. He could feel it. The Digivice was reacting to it, if only just.

In order to stand by his beliefs, protect his partner, and help these oppressed people, Keramon would need to truly believe in every action he took. Today, he knew who he was fighting and why. He knew who he was fighting for, and why. And he knew who he wanted to save.

Today, in this fight, the first true battle he had entered with his partner, Keramon would show his foes the strength of the Digidestined.

The cockpit opened. Zero stepped into the Knightmare, and began situating himself.

"You know, Keramon." He began, as the knightmare's hatch closed. "I originally thought about disguising myself as a Britannian soldier again for this battle, and communicating with the Yamato Alliance via radio."

Keramon perked up, curious as to why his partner had deviated so far from that plan. And when, for that matter, seeing as how he hadn't even bothered to pack the stolen soldier guise. "Why didn't you, then?"

Lelouch removed his mask, setting it off to the side for the moment. "Because that plan was centered around getting to Cornelia." He revealed, frowning to himself. "Not only was it risky to attempt, but it would leave the Yamato Alliance in the dark, potentially getting them killed in the process."

"I think I get it. You're choosing between an attempt on Cornelia, or gathering more forces?" Keramon asked, thinking there was more to it than that.

A moment later, his suspicions were answered by Lelouch. "I'm choosing between more than that. I don't want to use these people and throw them away like trash. I'm not above manipulation, I'm not adverse to using people for my own purposes, but at the same time..." He sighed. "It's not that I couldn't throw away the lives of these people to serve my purpose, because I could. I just don't want to. Suppose that's better than nothing, huh?" At this point, a smile touched his lips.

His partner grinned. "Yeah, I s'pose it is. One bit of advice I've got for you, Lelouch, is to always keep your emotions strong, but keep them in check. With the Digivice especially, you can draw a lot of power from raw emotion. But too much of the wrong kinds of emotions could bring disastrous results."

"How disastrous are we talking here, Keramon?" Lelouch asked, humorously.

"One example that comes to mind is "A Greymon partnered with a child digivolving into a rampaging Skullgreymon from sheer anger, desperation, and a desire to be victorious." That kind of disastrous." He replied, fingers placed beneath his chin. Or, where his chin would be if he had one.

Lelouch blinked, a bit surprised at how specific that scenario was, before shaking his head. "Right. That would not be good at all. I'll be sure to watch out for that."

Keramon shrugged. "Say, Lelouch, what would you say the conditions for victory are today?"

"I'm going to humiliate Cornelia in combat. And then, I'm going to humiliate her further by escaping her encirclement without her being the wiser."

At least, that was plan A.

If that didn't work, he could always fall back on plans B through E.

---

It was a good thing he had backup plans, Lelouch noted as he looked over the situation.

Ohgi's group had been in charge of securing the escape route, for the civilians and the Yamato alliance. Thankfully, that had gone as planned. Cornelia was unaware of this particular sewer exit, which let out quite some ways away from the ghetto itself.

The reason being that it wasn't something that was supposed to be there. Digimon bio-emerged sometimes with very few people knowing it, sometimes. It just so happened that one of those times had been in Saitama.

Drimogemon liked to dig. It was one of their favorite things to do. It took little encouragement from the locals to convince the friendly creature to dig a new tunnel to be used in case an evacuation was ever necessary.

Shortly after digging the tunnel, the Drimogemon who had done so found his way back to the Digital World and that was that.

That entire incident was a miracle in and of itself. It meant that he didn't need to go out of his way to Geass any of her soldiers, or more importantly leave the ghetto in order to do so.

All of the civilians had been evacuated. Objective one was successful. He had ordered Ohgi's group to escort them to a safe place, and that had been that.

This had left him with the Yamato Alliance, who's morale was at an all time high. The fact that they had averted a disaster like Shinjuku, and had gotten all of the noncombatants out of harms way, took a weight off of their shoulders. In addition to that, they had the mind behind the Battle of Shinjuku and the Kururugi Break-out on their side.

And if that wasn't enough? They had Knightmares on their side. Not as many as Cornelia's forces, but still, they had them. With Zero, Knightmares, and no worries for civilian casualties, the Yamato Alliance was absolutely ready to go.

That had been going well, too. Under his direction, the Yamato Alliance made quick work of most of Cornelia's forces, which forced her to retreat.

But then the Sutherland equipped rebels began getting picked off, with the survivors left clueless as to how it had happened.

This was where Lelouch was now. "Retreat. We've done enough here. Cornelia has deployed the Knight of Six's Digimon into the Ghetto. It is a stealthy Champion level digimon and will be impossible to defeat with Sutherlands."

"So she's got the robo-dino out in the field, huh?" Keramon muttered as the comm. shut off, recalling his brief interaction with the digimon during the Mass Breach.

Lelouch nodded. "Seems that way. We'll need to fall back, ourselves. With Sealsdramon in the field it's only a matter of time before Cornelia deploys her elites, including GeoGreymon."

Of course, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. It didn't get much more awry than having one of the enemies most powerful units appear out of thin air directly in front of you.

And even worse, this elite unit was actually smart. Sealsdramon readied his knife, his mechanical faceplate staring face to face with the Sutherland. "I've observed you for long enough to tell that you're likely the commander." He noted.

"Shit." Lelouch growled, hastily retrieving his mask and placing it on his head. With that done, he retrieved his digivice. "We'll need to hold him off until the Yamato Alliance has fully retreated. Think we can manage, Keramon?"

His question was answered by maniacal giggles. "Kekekeke... Yeah. I think we got this."

Beneath his mask, Lelouch grinned widely. "Good. Then let's do this."

"Digivolution."

---

Sealsdramon didn't know what to think right now.

He had been ordered to stealthily inspect the situation in the ghetto, and eliminate any enemy forces he located. Since there was no way to communicate with him out in the field, he was free to do so in his own way.

That is, of course, by disabling the enemy Knightmare Frames. Cornelia couldn't see what he was doing and so he didn't need to kill these people to please her.

But then he had located a single frame remaining stationary. It had done so long enough that he was led to believe it was either empty or, more likely, the commander of this ragtag bunch of rebels.

Zero.

So he had gone to confront that unit, expecting to easily overtake it and bring the masked man in for questioning.

That did not happen. At all.

Instead of taking in Zero with little fuss, Sealsdramon was now facing down another Digimon.

Which had burst from the Sutherland, demolishing it's upper half in the process, and landed a surprise attack on him.

But could anyone really blame him for being shocked by the arrival of another Digimon? Sealsdramon had been under the impression that the terrorists did not possess any digital monsters.

And here was proof that they were dead wrong.

Possibly the worst part of this startling discovery was the fact that this red and white spider thing was actually strong.

Not just strong. It was also fast. And it was moderately durable, if the shell was as hard as it seemed.

All in all, whatever he was fighting, it was not some pushover. It was a legitimate threat.

Even more startling than this, though, was the fact that someone had apparently predicted his interference in this battle. A Sutherland in a high vantage point, stationary, and not involved in the combat below? It was either empty, or the commander's unit.

Or a trap. But there was no reason to set a trap like that for Cornelia's regular forces. None of them had even gotten this far into the Ghetto.

Someone had anticipated the arrival of a unit able to get deep into enemy territory, and set a trap specifically for them.

Sealsdramon leaped back, grasping a canister that had been strapped to his lower back. With a quick motion, the digimon activated the red smoke signal inside of it without taking his eyes off his opponent.

Said opponent growled. "Brilliant. They gave him one of those. Of course they did. Now we've got to deal with a two giant lizards instead of one."

"I apologize, but you'll have to be deleted." Sealsdramon announced, readying both of his knives. "Working with the terrorists is a serious offense, and you're too powerful to remain active."

Infermon growled back to him. "I doubt you can manage that, robo-dino." The spider enjoyed the brief pause in his enemy, as he mulled that nick-name over.

"I think I want to delete you now just out of principle." Sealsdramon said after a few moments, nodding to himself. And with that, he lunged at his foe once again, only to leap back at the last second.

Just in time to avoid a stabbing strike from one of Infermon's legs. As a follow up, the ultimate digimon launched a destructive blast of energy from his maw. "Hell's Grenade!"

Dodging quickly, Sealsdramon rushed in again to probe for any weaknesses he could abuse. It seemed his enemy was vulnerable for a moment immediately after launching his attack. He would have to capitalize on it the next time he used his projectile ability.

It wouldn't be long. Sealsdramon had learned quickly that approaching this foe in melee range was risky, as he could control all six of those limbs easily in addition to the use of that rather menacing horn. While the metallic horn didn't have much in the way of reach, it was sturdy and it was sharp. Something he did not want to be hit by. In addition to that, he didn't quite like the look of the golden stinger on his foe's back end. It was longer than the front horn, had a very sharp tip, and was otherwise an unknown. It could be ornamental, but he wasn't quite sure of it.

With all that in mind, Sealsdramon was just waiting out this battle until his reinforcements arrived. It had been around three minutes since he had let off the flare, so GeoGreymon should be arriving any minute now.

As if called by the mere thought of his name, a brilliant gout of flame signaled the arrival of said champion. "Mega Flame!" He roared, bathing half of the rooftop in fire.

Infermon had been standing on that half of the rooftop beforehand. But now he was nowhere to be found.

"Visual on enemy is lost." Sealsdramon pointed out, dully. "Smooth move, flamebrain." He so loved technically being outside of the command chain, and thusly allowed to insult GeoGreymon who was also outside of said chain.

"Can it, scrap-heap." GeoGreymon snarled, taking a deep whiff of the air. "Shit. I can't smell anything but burnin' metal and melting stone."

Sealdsramon would have palmed his face if he wasn't holding a knife. "And who's fault is that?" He asked, rhetorically.

"Shut up." Came the eloquent reply.

The cyborg digimon sighed, before looking off into the distance. "From my calculations, that digimon was buying time for his allies to retreat. If that is allowed, then this battle will be a loss on all parts for us. We need to hunt them down." And since GeoGreymon was here, it would likely result in many deaths. Sealsdramon wasn't keen on that, but there was only so much he could do to skirt the rules.

A snort, carrying with it a small blast of fire, was GeoGreymon's reply. "There shouldn't be anywhere for them to retreat. The entire Ghetto is encircled, and even the sewer exits are covered."

"Even so, they have to have an escape route somewhere since there were no civilians spotted during the battle or beforehand." Sealsdramon pointed out, getting a begrudging nod from the orange lizard. "We just need to locate it. With so many Knightmares retreating it should be easy to follow the trail." He was, of course, referencing the moderately powerful sense of smell that GeoGreymon possessed. Due to his familiarity with Knightmare Frames, in addition to his senses, he should be able to track them down before they could fully escape.

"Right, let's get to it then!" GeoGreymon prepared to leap onto the roads below, only for a red and white blur to ram into him and send him flying.

As GeoGreymon slammed into another building at high speed, bringing the crumbling structure down on his head, Infermon allowed his limbs to extend from his body once more, landing one the side of an adjacent building and remaining attached to it with ease.

'His body can contract on itself to increase aerodynamics, possibly durability, and he can scale walls like a spider. This one is becoming more and more dangerous the more I learn about him.' Sealsdramon thought, somewhat worriedly.

It wasn't so much he was worried about being defeated, though that possibility was there, it was mainly that he was concerned with such a powerful digimon being in enemy hands. If there was one, how many more were there?

As of now, the only Britannia affiliated Digimon in Area Eleven were GeoGreymon, a Coronamon with the ability to reach Champion, and himself. Two Champion enabled and one Ultimate enabled digimon in an already claimed Area was unusual, but it may be necessary now.

And without contact with Anya, Sealsdramon couldn't reach Ultimate level. Hell, the fact that he was even considering Digivolving to Ultimate showed that he was somewhat unnerved by this new foe.

Sealsdramon quickly jumped way from his prior position, narrowly avoiding another blast from the enemy's maw. 'This is it! He's vulnerable!' Before the thought could even finish in his mind, Sealsdramon was at his foe's side and preparing to drive both of his weapons into them.

But he was not facing a vulnerable foe at all. Instead he saw the gleaming yellow-green eyes of his enemy and was met with the muzzle of Infermon's mouth-cannon.

He had been played. "Hell's Grenade." The attack came before the name could even be uttered, and as he had fired it silently before Sealsdramon figured this was just him taking satisfaction at pulling one over on his enemy.

A blast of orange energy slammed into Sealsdramon, exploding into a ball of light as he flew away at high speed and into another building. And, once again, the building collapsed atop him.

For a Digimon like Sealsdramon, reliant on speed over brute strength, that would keep him down for a decent amount of time. Long enough for Infermon to deal with GeoGreymon, hopefully, as the champion had just burst from the wreckage holding him down.

"You dropped a building on my head! I'm gonna burn you alive!" And boy was he pissed.

Infermon decided to play with fire, hopefully without being burnt. "Your own fault for not paying attention. And for trying to catch me aflame."

GeoGreymon roared into the sky, producing a fearsome pillar of flame. "BURN! Mega Flame!" And this time, the pillar of flame was aimed at Infermon.

The weakened ultimate deftly avoided the powerful blast of fire, before lobbing his own Hell's Grenade barrage back at GeoGreymon. He wasn't surprised as his foe avoided the attack.

GeoGreymon was much, much more lithe and agile than Greymon. However, he sacrificed a bit of brute strength and firepower. With that in mind, Infermon began to plot.

'He's durable. We'll need to chip him down with attacks before launching a finishing blow.' Lelouch noted. Within his own sphere of light in an expanse of darkness, the boy floated gently.

In another sphere of light, the only other color against the backdrop of black, Keramon was situated. 'Yeah. We can try to blast Hell's Grenades at him, and then try that new trick we picked up.'

'It could work.' Lelouch decided, even as Infermon dodged another blast of fire from his enemy.

Explaining how this entire situation worked was beyond him, though. This inner state where he and Keramon existed as two separate entities, despite the fact that they were both Infermon at the same time, and how they could think separately here but Infermon's thoughts were both of theirs...

Frankly, if Lelouch was asked to describe this phenomenon, it would be like explaining colors to a man who had been blind at birth. He could fumble around, searching for some clumsy way to explain it, but in the end it just was and that was all there is to it.

Infermon once again dodged his foe, this time GeoGreymon had tried for a melee attack with his horns. It had missed, and Infermon landed a trio of Hell's Grenades on his back for the trouble.

Geogreymon lurched forward, snarling in anger and pain. "MEGA BURST!"

This time, when the blast of fire was unleashed, Infermon couldn't easily avoid it. The brilliant sphere of flame was positively massive, larger than some of the nearby buildings even! And it was hot, he could tell, he could see the road literally melting beneath it's heat.

He was NOT getting hit with that. With what little time he had, Infermon shot his legs into the ground and shot himself away at high speed, slamming through a building and bringing it down behind him in his attempt to escape the raging inferno behind him.

It was then that Infermon realized what had been happening. GeoGreymon had been leading him with Mega Flame's until he could switch their positions, leaving his back to the building in which Sealsdramon was trapped and securing his ally's safety before unleashing that torrent of fire.

Which meant...

"Death Behind." Sealsdramon's voice confirmed his suspicions, as the cyborg brought down his knives once more in an attempt to end the battle then and there.

The only things that saved Infermon was the durability of his back armor and the fact that the collapsing building had significantly dulled the blades of Sealsdramon's chosen weapons. As it was, he managed to escape without too much injury.

But that was something of a wake-up call for him. He was fighting two extremely dangerous Champion level digimon, while he himself was a single champion. At the moment, he was about as strong as either one of them. It was only through surprise and his own intellect that he'd been handling either of them, separately, as well as he had been.

Both of them together presented a major issue, possibly life threatening. As he had just learned by the potentially lethal shot from Sealsdramon mere moments before.

Infermon could not defeat the two of them alone. He would have to escape. But Sealsdramon would make that difficult, bordering on impossible.

He was running out of time and running out of luck, if the sliced back of his carapace was any indication.

His foes were both looking worse for the wear, but still capable of fighting. Sealsdramon's armor was dented, and his movements were slightly sluggish. GeoGreymon had noticeable injuries along his back and left flank, as well as a slight limp.

That attack from Sealsdramon had been his only significant injury throughout the fight, and even then it was little more than a scrape. But now Sealsdramon had a new pair of combat knives, sharpened and ready for combat. He had been too hasty to check his equipment upon being freed, looking to take the opening he had been given and it had been something of a waste.

Facing down two powerful champions, worn as they were, was not a good decision. But retreat was not an option either, not with Sealsdramon free to give chase. He would need to take him out and then he could retreat.

Or... perhaps he could pull a repeat of his earlier disappearance.

The standoff between the three ended with Infermon rushing quickly into a dilapidated building.

Sealsdramon, quickly catching on to the tactic, rushed in afterwards.

This cut off GeoGreymon, who had been charging up a Mega Flame to incinerate the entire building. After a brief moment, he realized just how large a mistake that would have been, and silently applauded his ally for rushing in afterwards.

That insect had managed to get him riled up, so much so that he was making mistakes. It had been a long time since he had been in an actual, serious fight and he was seeing what that stagnancy had wrought. He was so used to quickly stomping out his foes through sheer force that it was becoming a habit, overwriting his hard-learned fighting skills and tactical intellect.

GeoGreymon had just had his own wake-up call, coming face-to-face with his own actions jeopardizing the mission.

But now the battle had moved, and he couldn't follow without running the risk of bringing the whole place down. That building lead to a large series of underground tunnels, and they didn't support his size.

For now, he would need to rely on Sealsdramon to flush the bug out.

---

'Step one, complete.' Infermon noted to himself, having successfully lured Sealsdramon into the building with him.

He had seen three probable outcomes from his decision to rush into the building.

One, Sealsdramon would follow him in, and GeoGreymon would remain outside because his size made moving impossible in this area.

Two, Sealsdramon would follow him in, and GeoGreymon would destroy the building either by catching it aflame or by following them inside in a berserk state, bringing the building down and leaving him to escape in the distraction provided.

Or three, GeoGreymon would set the building aflame and prevent Sealsdramon from chasing him.

Out of those, three would have been best, but one was what he expected most.

Even so, he was playing a dangerous game now. Sealsdramon was an assassin, and now he was in the perfect environment for it. It was dark, there wasn't terribly large amounts of space, and there were enough pillars and tunnel entrances for him to hide himself easily.

All in all, Infermon was a a major disadvantage here.

Quick movements in the dark alerted him to the enemy's advance, and he quickly shifted back to avoid the incoming attack, taking a swipe with his claw in retaliation.

"This is my ideal battlefield." Sealsdramon noted, his voice seeming to come from every direction at once. "It's a matter of time before you're defeated, thrust back above ground or deleted." The digimon snickered for a moment, seemingly amused by his unintentional rhyme.

"We'll just see about that, won't we?" Infermon shot back, moving once again to avoid the slash of a knife. Before he could retaliate this time, Sealsdramon had faded back into the shadows.

"You won't trick me with false vulnerability this time." He announced, obviously still sour over being tricked so easily.

Another slash, and another swipe of his claws in retaliation. That seemed to be the pace of this battle. Until one of them got a lucky hit, it would likely continue. "I've many other tricks."

As though that phrase was the trigger for one of said tricks, Infermon found a perfect opening for it.

Sealsdramon had appeared above him, aiming for his neck this time. It was a big mistake, as he would soon find. The four golden spikes on Infermon's back suddenly shot out, attached to cables of their own, all aiming for the attacker.

Faced with such an unexpected attack, Sealsdramon could only throw up a minor defense. The attack was, otherwise, a direct hit.

Or not. The Sealsdramon that had been struck disappeared, fading out of existence, as Infermon found himself flying outside of the building from an extremely powerful kick.

His exit from the building alerted GeoGreymon, who quickly lobbed a ball of fire at the seemingly defenseless digimon.

Quick reactions saved Infermon from being roasted, as he latched onto a building and pulled himself from harm's way. "Urhk..." That kick had been devastating.

The white underside of his carapace was visibly dented, and it was causing a lot of pain. One of his lower spines had been broken off from the impact, and the others were shunted around by it.

It felt like he had been hit by a car, to put it lightly. Looked like it too.

GeoGreymon too notice. "He got you with a kick, didn't he? Looks like it hurt." He'd heard, vaguely, about just what kind of power hits Sealsdramon could bring to the table. Apparently, he had a monstrously powerful kick that he liked to use. From what GeoGreymon could see, that little tidbit of information was irrevocably true. Good lord did that look nasty.

"Yeah. That really, really hurt. No point in lying about it." Infermon replied, on alert. He couldn't see Sealsdramon, which was never a good thing.

He could, however, see a news chopper in the air above the ghetto. How long had they been there? He couldn't stop to concentrate on that, though, he had to keep his attention on the fight.

And it was a good thing he did, too, because Sealsdramon chose that moment to reappear with another devastating kick that demolished the roof of the building he had been standing on.

"You're fast, but I'm faster." Sealsdramon taunted, pleased with himself for catching one of his foe's tricks and trumping it with one of his own.

He had no intention of telling the enemy how he had avoided his attack, but it wasn't necessary. Because Infermon had figured it out already. "Afterimages. You moved so quickly that it appeared you were still there." He noted, referring to the ability Sealsdramon had used to get the drop on him moments before.

Sealsdramon's shock was hidden by his mechanical faceplate, or so he had thought, but it seemed like his foe picked up on the subtle tensing that gave his surprise away. "You could tell from just seeing it once..." That was somewhat unnerving. He didn't use Afterimage often, as it was a very taxing ability to work with. It was simple, in theory; move fast enough and suddenly enough to make an afterimage. But in practice it took a lot of energy to manage, and a lot of time to learn the proper motions. Even more time went in to actually getting fast enough to use it.

It wasn't actually an "attack" that could be used by Sealsdramon. He was just forcing that particular effect to happen by meeting the required conditions, something that some other Digimon could do out of instinct, and there was no way that he could have been expected to use that particular trick.

So he was either dealing with something extremely intelligent, which was highly likely as the digimon had set up multiple traps for them throughout the fight, or this bizarre digimon had seen afterimages before.

Tossing that line of though to the backburner, Sealsdramon spoke. "GeoGreymon, the spines on his back can be used as projectiles attached to cables. I suspect the spine on his back end can be used the same way."

"Understood." Came the gruff reply from the largest of the three, as he settled himself into a fighting stance. "Ready for round three, bug?"

"Round three? What are we using to differentiate rounds?" Infermon pondered, remaining highly alert despite his cheeky reply.

"Times someone's gotten the drop on you." Sealsdramon guessed. "So far I'm the only one doing it though." Was it somewhat strange that they were having semi-friendly banter with someone marked for death at their hands? Probably. It was kinda fun though. There was no real resentment for this digimon, to him. Sealsdramon was simply doing what he had to in order to remain by Anya's side.

GeoGreymon snarled, his maw lighting up with fire once again. In response, Sealsdramon shifted himself to prepare for a lunge, and Infermon opened his own mouth wide and fired off a blast of orange energy directly into GeoGreymon's opening mouth.

Fun time was over.

---

Up in the news chopper high above the battle, Diethard Ried was having the time of his life.

Some would be wondering just how this situation came to be. Diethard was a high ranking member of the staff of Hi-TV, and also one of the most respected among his field. Originally, he had been Clovis's go-to for anything involving the public.

These connections had, of course, made him Cornelia's first choice for this particular event. Once it had gotten back to him that there was an honest to God battle between three powerful Digimon, which had occurred once the fight became visible to the G-1 base, he immediately set up everything he could feasibly want to cover it.

Including a helicopter. So here he was, practically leaning out of the chopper and recording the battle below like it was the most important thing he had ever done.

And to be quite honest, it very well may be. Battles between Digimon were not commonly captured on camera. Either they were onesided slaughters brought about by the Knights of the Round, or they were too deep into the fray for anyone to safely record them.

He had been terribly annoyed when the Mass Breach had gone down at Ashford, with not a soul able to get any footage. Not just one, not two, not even three, no, fifty plus confirmed Digimon sightings and a major battle between three Digimon and a small army. That was practically gold, but it had gone unrecorded for a myriad of reasons.

But this! This was a two on one battle between the Digimon of Princess Cornelia, Anya Alstreim, and a mystery digimon who had been fending the two other champions off admirably thus far.

This was a story! This got Diethard's blood pumping, had him watching every last bit with rapt attention and practically leaping out of his skin in suspense.

"For those of us just tuning in, here is a brief rundown of the situation going on below. Princess Cornelia has set Saitama Ghetto to be purged, and conflict has boiled down to these three juggernauts battling it out. I'm sure most of you will recognize Lady Anya Alstreim's partner digimon Sealsdramon, as well as the menacing figure of Princess Cornelia li Britannia's GeoGreymon, but the two of them are currently locked in a fierce battle with a mysterious monster." Diethard zoomed in directly onto the form of the red and white digimon, attempting to keep the camera on it as it leaped around. It was quite difficult, but Diethard Ried was not one to be outdone and he managed to keep the camera zoomed in on the moving creature long enough for viewers to memorize it's form.

"As of now, this digimon is a complete unknown. It's origins, abilities, and even it's name are complete mysteries to us, though it is almost certainly working with the terrorists." As if they hadn't known that from the pitched battle, but hey, it sounded dramatic. Probably got a gasp or two from the younger audience. "So far it has been holding it's own against these two elite members of Britannia's army, Sealsdramon and GeoGreymon, through deceit and trickery. It has attempted to split up the duo, separating them by trapping the physically weakest beneath the rubble of a collapsed building. It has done so again by retreating into a building connected to underground tunnels, forcing GeoGreymon to remain outside or risk allowing it's escape. But now it seems that no tricks or traps will save this cunning foe from it's timely demise."

And much to Diethard's delight, the mystery monster had taken a brutal tail strike from GeoGreymon as though to punctuate his statement.

"This is the first time that terrorists in Area Eleven have gained the support of a digital monster." Diethard announced, watching as the spider like digimon dodged a strike from Sealsdramon before landing a strike with one of it's clawed legs, sending the champion into retreat. "And as you can see, it is a powerful adversary to have fought for several minutes against these two powerhouses, even on the defensive." The camera shifted to view the moderately battered GeoGreymon, since catching up to Sealsdramon was a complete impossibility for Diethard. "For a creature like GeoGreymon to be injured from a battle, it shows that this enemy is a dangerous one."

Suddenly, a massive burst of flame struck at the area the mystery digimon had been, torching several buildings around it's impact point. "Thankfully, it will not be a threat much longer. That, viewers, was Mega Burst! An extremely powerful attack, anything hit directly by that will be severely injured if not outright destroyed!"

Diethard was right on that note. The mystery Digimon had, in fact, been injured. Though, not as severely as he had expected.

It was missing it's horn, and seemed to be noticeably shaking while standing, as though to do so pained it.

"Well, folks at home, it looks like this battle is over." Diethard hid his regret behind a sarcastically regretful tone. "Even if that mystery Digimon can still fight, it's hardly able to stand on it's own six legs. Against something with speed like that of Sealsdramon, only this one's own speed had prolonged the battle. Unless this unknown Digimon can pull off something incredible, the outcome is certain." Diethard wondered, briefly, if anyone could tell that he was hoping for that "something incredible", before shaking his head.

All that was left was to capture the finishing blow.

Little did he know, he was going to get his "something incredible."

---

Infermon was in dire straits at the moment. 'We can barely stand. It's over. While we can keep on fighting, there's no way Sealsdramon won't be able to take us down now that we can't dodge as easily.' And it wasn't even easy to begin with. He had to remain constantly on alert for Sealsdramon just to avoid him by a hair.

Looking back on what had been his undoing, Infermon would definitely say that it was not realizing GeoGreymon intended to free Sealsdramon. Sealsdramon would have been out of commission for another five minutes at least, and in that time he could have escaped.

But there just hadn't been enough time to do anything about it. He couldn't go through that Mega Burst, and in the time he had taken to dodge GeoGreymon had already freed Sealsdramon.

As petulant as it was, Infermon was certain he could have won this battle easily if it wasn't so... unfair. Two on one, they had the advantage. It was just such an overwhelming advantage, one prevented the other from being harmed almost every time he had actually managed to make an opening. If there hadn't been two of them, this would have been easy.

It sucked to admit that, because it was childish. And the Lelouch part of Infermon hated being childish.

Either way, it didn't matter. Sealsdramon was bearing down on him and he could hardly move, it was over.

Said Champion moved off to the side, eyeing him carefully, as GeoGreymon lumbered into a position in front of him.

"You put up a good fight." The fire breather complimented, looking down at him with a measure of respect. "And you taught me a valuable lesson in this battle, that I was stagnating from easy conquests. I thank you for that." He truly did feel grateful for this wake-up call. What would have happened if he had been alone today? Would he have failed the mission? The answer was almost guaranteed to be yes.

With that said, he stomped his foot. "However, it comes to an end here. You'll not be forgotten, and you will serve as an example."

Fire began welling up in his throat, and Sealsdramon leaped behind his ally so as to be far out of the line of fire.

So this was how he went? It was pretty close to a formal execution, come to think of it. He wasn't happy with this end, but he couldn't do anything. No matter how much he struggled to move, it just wasn't happening.

He had been wrong about his injuries, it seemed. No, he couldn't continue to fight. He'd used all his energy. Truly, just to remain standing right now was merely because he didn't have the strength to fall over.

It was all over, wasn't it? "...nn..lly." His last word came out mangled, harsh breaths interfering. Undeterred, he tried once more, something more ambitious than just his little sister's name.

"I will... create the world... they deserve... ob-bliterate... Britannia." Simply forcing those words out renewed Infermon's will to fight, but his body simply was not having it.

Despite the fire in his maw, GeoGreymon spoke. He had been holding back for his adversary's last words, and now that he heard them he offered him one reply. "You have failed."

With his reply delivered, GeoGreymon finished charging what was likely his strongest Mega Flare yet. As an execution for such a powerful foe, nothing less would be right.

'No! I will NOT fail here! I CAN NOT FAIL! MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!' Lelouch shouted so loudly in his mind that it briefly overtook the meld.

And against all odds, Infermon moved.

And against even more odds, so did GeoGreymon.

"Get away from him!" Something roared as it threw GeoGreymon several yards away, his Mega Burst being released into the air harmlessly.

The news crew was quite lucky the were in the other direction, or it would have been notably less harmless.

Sealsdramon, along with anyone else watching the news feed, looked on in shock as another creature entered the fray.

Unlike the first, however, this creature was no mystery.

A Kuwagamon had arrived in time to save their foe from destruction.

And even worse was the fact that said foe seemed to have gained his second wind, standing proud and glaring at his foes.

Or rather, foe. Because GeoGreymon was completely wiped out. Not only had he fired off his Mega Flare, uselessly, but he had taken a powerful strike from another champion level digimon. It was clear after a few moments that GeoGreymon was out of the fight, because he had actually degenerated back into Agumon.

Facing down a fresh Champion level and a haggard but still able Digimon of an unknown level was not an intelligent decision.

With that in mind, Sealsdramon quickly gathered his fallen ally and retreated.

---

Now left alone with the Kuwagamon that had saved his life, seeing as how he could hardly move and would still have been incinerated by that Mega Burst had it launched successfully, Infermon slumped slightly.

That battle was close. Far, far too close. He had nearly died.

... What would happen if he died, or was deleted, or whatever, while merged? Would he just revert to human and digimon? Or would he actually die? Not worth the risk of testing it.

He noticed the Kuwagamon look up at the news chopper, before spreading it's wings and roaring menacingly.

The message was quite clear, and the news crew most certainly got it. Go away, I can fly. The were gone as fast as the chopped could move.

With that, the Kuwagamon spoke. "We need to get out of here without being seen. The civilians and rebels escaped somehow, so lead the way."

After saying that, the giant red beetle crouched down and with a brief glow, returned to rookie level.

With Nina standing beside the rookie, glancing around nervously. She was wearing a hooded jacket, with baggy pants and a pair of tennis shoes, but he could tell it was her.

And it shocked him. So much so that he dropped his own transformation, returning to Lelouch and Keramon. Or, rather, Zero and Keramon.

Either way, it wasn't time for pleasantries. That could be done later, but for now they had to get out of the ghetto.

"Follow me." Lelouch ordered, quickly turning and making a run for the sewage tunnels. He ignored the pain in his muscles as he did so, or the sheer exhaustion permeating his form. It seemed as though some effects lingered as the two of them split apart.

Nina nodded, making sure to tighten her hood over her face as she did so.

But as they ran, Nina came to a conclusion.

Today would not be the last time Nina Einstein followed Zero.

---

And boom. It. Is. Done.

That took a long. Long. LONG. Time. I took forever writing Saitama and I don't know why. Hopefully Kawaguchi and other events move faster. I've got some fun ideas for Kawaguchi, actually.

For those of you thinking C.C. is OOC? You're completely right. It'll be explained later. I couldn't find a good opportunity to do so in this chapter, but it's going to be explained.

But hey! Moving away from my possible writing ineptitude, who here expected Nina to come and save Lulu's ass? Probably someone, I can't be that unpredictable.

Also, the fight scenes... are they dull? To be quite honest, I'm not sure if my fight scenes are good. Any advice you have would be great!

Oh, and seriously, reviews make me happy. I don't mean the little dinky ones that are like "Good work, keep on truckin'!" because while those make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, the don't make me think. I like reviews that give me things to think about, like the one talking about Hyokomon and how he becomes Chronomon and its OP as balls and did I really give that to GINO?

And in response to that review, I'll answer with this: I'm not going to say "I know what I'm doing, no worries!" because in all actuality I have no idea what I'm doing at any given point in time.

But hey. If we ever get to a point where Super Ultimates start appearing? THEN it'll be a something to think about. I'm sure as hell not bringing a monster like that into the fold until a point where it's needed.