Holy crap. I almost forgot to upload this, due to my already having uploaded chapter 17.

Gregor is still talking to Milly when Kallen tears down the stairs, murder on her mind.

Kallen springs at him, and he barely steps aside in time. "Hello Kallen. Good morning."

Kallen swipes at his with her fingers curled into talons.

Gregor bobs and weaves to avoid the frenzied attacks. "Any particular reason you are attacking me this morning?"

Milly retreats to a corner.

"You know very well why, pretender!" Kallen's voice is almost a shriek.

"Pretender?"

"The person you call Gregor is just another mask. I want to see your true face!"

Gregor ducks under another one of her blows. "So you think I'm someone besides who I claim to be?" He suddenly stands stock still. "Then remove my mask."

Kallen warily steps nearer to the man. She slowly puts her hand up to the face and attempts to find a seam. After a few tense seconds of searching, she switches to plan b. she digs her nails into the face. She draws blood.

She couldn't tell if there was any latex under the cut before the blood obscured everything, but it sure felt like real skin.

"Now that you just gave me another scar for your troubles, can I ask you what made you think I had a disguise on?"

Kallen pulls the USB drive out of her pocket and tosses it at him. "I found this in your lab before we blew it up."

Gregor turns the drive over in his hand. "I believe you were told to destroy everything. This is certainly part of everything."

C2 walks down the stairs, followed by Lady Kaguya and Suzaku. "What's wrong, Gregor?"

Wordlessly, Gregor flips the drive over his shoulder. C2 snags it out of the air. "Is this the disguise drive?"

"That's what Kallen says." Gregor keeps his eyes trained on the redhead.

"Wait, did she looks at it?"

Gregor finally looks away. "I believe it had a file of my face on it, and she decided the best way to ascertain my true identity was an attack."

C2 purses her lips. "Kallen, where did you get this?"

"It was on a table on the way out when we were rigging you equipment to blow. I grabbed it in case it was important."

"Then why did you feel the need to look at it's contents? If you have just handed it to one of us, we could have told you it's value to us."

Kallen looks down at her feet as she mumbles "I was curious."

Suzaku looks between Kallen and Gregor. Kallen seems ashamed of herself, but for some reason, Gregor is still rigid, with a very aggressive posture. Suzaku finds himself getting a creeping feeling he hadn't had in a very long time...

o-o-o-o

After everyone had calmed down, Milly sets out breakfast for everyone who hasn't eaten yet.

"C2," Gregor turns to his partner. "Milly has decided what she wants us to do as favors. First, she wants an interview. Then she wants us to take care of Rivalz' little girlfriend."

C2 continues munching. "Take care of how?"

"Get her fired."

"Alright. What about the interview?"

Suzaku puts down his spoon. "Wait, that's it? Just get the girl fired? No actual planning?"

"First things first, Suzaku." C2 turns to the boy. "Once our interview is over, we can deal with planning that."

Suzaku grumbles but goes back to his cereal.

"Milly says that we should be fine in here as long as we decorate the place to give it the look of somewhere else. She has a news camera here, don't ask me why, so she can stream it once she goes to work."

"Are we still dressing you up as Zero?"

Gregor nods. "And each of you will be there as well."

C2 briefly informs Suzaku, Kallen and Lady Kaguya about their plan.

Milly eventually looks at the clock and says she has to go. "I'll call Rivalz over. He can help you guys set up the living area to look different. I would like to get you on around five thirty if I can, so you have nine and a half hours to prepare. I will inform my producer that we might get a transmission from an unknown location."

The party agrees to the set time and get busy about the chores. Kallen can't help but glance at Gregor every once in a while. He seemed to be alright. Her fingers made a deep scar, the tanned flesh healed over to a white color. Something bugged her about the scar but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Time flys by as the designated area slowly transforms from a cozy living room to what looks like a plain gray box with Rivalz' help. Rivalz shows them how to operate the camera, then decides to stick around to operate it during their interview.

As the clock ticks down the time until they are supposed to make an appearance, C2's phone rings.

Gregor steps right next to Kallen, now dressed in a Zero suit. "I thought she had gotten rid of her cell phone. I guess she decided it was more useful to bring along." He looks at the phone, clearly annoyed.

"Hello? Oh, hi Milly. Yeah, we're ready for-"

C2 listens intently while Milly says a long string of words on the other end.

"Yeah. With Rivalz here, we shouldn't have a problem."

C2 hangs up. "Rivalz, Milly would like you to get the spare camera she keeps in her closet and drive it to a warehouse in Shinjiko. She's being forced by the fake Lelouch's regime to get the broadcasting camera's data, but there is a technical loophole where she doesn't need to give them the same camera's coordinates. She will give them Rivalz's camera's location."

C2 turns back to the blue haired boy. "Obviously, if you get caught on camera, when they review the data later you will be persecuted. Avoid that at all costs."

Rivalz tightens his jaw and nods. "Any particular warehouse?"

"Milly said that there is a large vitrified warehouse in the southern section that's pretty hard to miss."

Rivalz turns and heads for Milly's room, presumably to get the secondary camera.

"Alright! Since Rivalz is unable to operate the camera, I want Anya or Orange to take care of it." Gregor swings his arm out as if he was making a grand proclamation. The gesture combined with his Zero suit brings back a lot of memories, both good and bad.

Anya steps up behind the camera. "All I have to do is hit the red button, correct?"

C2 walks behind the camera to help the quite girl.

Gregor stares down into the helmet and sighs. "Why does it feel like once I put this on, I will not be able to take it off?"

Suzaku steps up beside him. "It's a curse, being Zero. You don't get to take it off. Someone else has to. Lelouch was never publicly unmasked, but every time anyone figured him out, they ended up dead or working at his side, with the exception of the Black Rebellion."

Gregor brings the mask to his face and hits a switch, causing the shutter-like back to unfold to fully encapsulate his head.

"Alright," he says in Zero's mechanically edged voice. "Let's get this show on the road."

o-o-o-o

"Welcome to the Thursday evening news. I'm Milly Ashford, and I'll be your anchor tonight.

"In light of Emperor Lelouch's apparent return, a small group of resistance fighters has decided to fight what they believe is a false claim to the throne. I have them on video now."

"Thank you, Milly."

Zero sits in the center of a semicircle of chairs. On either side of him sit the rest of his group sans Anya.

Milly does her best to look surprised at his company. "Excuse me, but is that both former Empress Nunnally and Lady Kaguya, as well as Suzaku Kururugi?"

Zero nods. "Every member of my group is loyal to me."

"And who are your other compatriots?"

"Kallen Stadtfeld, former Black Knight pilot. People should remember her from the wanted posters. The woman with the green hair is C2. She has been with Zero since the very first day he appeared, working behind the scenes. The man on the far right is Orange, a man that I fancy as my cleanup crew."

Milly shuffles around some papers on her desk. "According to your statement, you do not believe that the man claiming to be Lelouch vi Brittania is really the emperor?"

"First of all, Suzaku and Nunnally were both there at the time of his death. Suzaku was the killer, and Nunnally was there holding him as he passed on. I would assume that they would know better than anyone else that he is dead. Secondly I know the name of the imposter. Drexel ri Brittania. He idolized Lelouch during his reign of terror. In fact, some of his polices seem worse. The public in general seems to be overlooking his various misdeeds because of a recent deceleration."

"Are you talking about his and Zero's plan to unite the world?"

Zero leans back. "Yes, exactly. Until less than a month ago, the entire world reviled the man. Then a single revelation later, people are rewriting history." Zero stands up and strides forward to fill the camera's view. "This does not wash away his past deeds. He was an evil, sadistic man who managed to convince himself he was doing good by the world while murdering and admittedly corrupt regime."

Milly is genuinely surprised by the vehemence in his tone. "What are your plans from this point on?" she reads off the teleprompter.

"Without going into specifics, we are going to end Drexel's false reign-"

Milly cuts him off. "I'm sorry, but can you hang on a second? We have something else..."

Her eyes go wide as she sees Rivalz being escorted by two guards, his face bloody. "It... It seems like one of the conspirators has been captured." Milly can't pull her eyes away from the screen.

Zero laughs. For the viewers, Zero's group, Milly, and the footage from the arrest all share a screen. "Who is that? Is the corrupt organization targeting civilians now?"

Milly glances at her prompter. "Are you sure he isn't a member of your organization?"

Zero crosses his arms. "If he was, he would be with me. It would be suicide to let my members go off on their own." Suddenly, Zero tilts his head. "Wait, does the boy have blue hair?"

Milly wonders what on earth Gregor is thinking, but audibly confirms this.

Zero laughs slightly evilly. "I threatened him with his friend's death and jumped at the chance to give me a hand. By the way, you might want to inform the police the the camera they tried to find me at is filled with explosives."

Less than ten seconds later, police officers vacate the premises, running away from the camera. Rivalz, still handcuffed, stumbles out of the squad car and walks as fast as he can.

Milly narrates this mostly for Zero's benefit.

"Hmm." Zero finally says something. "I hope the boy makes it out alive. He was useful and easy to manipulate."

Just then, a giant form crashes down in front of Rivalz. The Mordred, standing to it's full height, picks up the relatively small boy and takes back to the air.

"Who just picked that boy up?" Milly's mouth is just running on autopilot at this point.

I really need a career change, she thinks to herself.

"That would bee the eighth member of my little group, Orange's daughter. She's good with the Knightmares. I would have had her with us but she was needed to save an innocent from the police."

Zero leans into the camera. "You see, I act heartless and cruel, but I don't harm those I don't have to. There is no bomb in the camera. The boy is safe. I never actually had his friend in captivity. My job is to bring peace, and I will do it saving as many lives as possible.

"I realize that my tactics make me just as bad as Drexel. I acknowledge this, and so have a standing order to all under my command. Should we ever succeed, I will be executed for my crimes against our world. Also, none of those present are allowed to ever become politicians aside from Lady Kaguya, who will be free to resume her former position if she so desires.

"We are the Black assassins, and our goal is to restore the peace we had for twelve years."

With that, the broadcast ends.