Author's note: Damn.

It's been 1 year I've been writing this. Well, technically not until the 17th, but whatever. I just want to thank anyon who still reads this, since I'm not a very good writer. I think I've improved a lot, but that's up for debate.

Either way, This is a double length chapter. I hope you all enjoy!

As Kallen sinks down to the bottom of the ocean, only one thought races through her head.

"Again?!"

For the second time, she was trapped in a non-responsive Knightmare plunging downwards. Only this time, not only is her escapes pod not working, nothing else is either!

"Damn it! Come on, Gurren! Eject!"

She yanks the levers twice more before she hits the water. It jerks her around and she loses her grip on the levers.

Actually, she thinks as she looks down at her left hand, she had only left go of the right. The left came with her.

"Alright, don't panic." She turns around in her seat and starts looking for the manual release lever. All her old Gurrens had one, even if she had found it unnecessary.

Water starts to trickle in. Kallen can hear the rush of liquid rising higher and higher as she frantically digs through some junk that she had tossed back there.

...Well, that was where the emergency handle had been on all her other Gurrens. All she could see was blank metal.

Kallen?

"Uh, hello?"

Oh good, you're okay. It's me. Kaguya. Everyone's alright for the moment.

Kallen smashes the door with her foot. The door doesn't budge. The water is starting to creep up to her ankles. "That's nice. Hey, why don't you ask Lelouch why he didn't install a emergency escape in this Gurren?"

Kaguya is silent a moment. He says he never thought you'd ever need it, and to shoot a hole in the door.

"What?"

He says it will let the water pressure equalize faster, and then you can get out by pushing the door off it's hinges.

"But... It's locked! There's no emergency release!"

Try ejecting. That should unlock it.

Kallen resists the urge to scream. It was already unlocked? She turns around and pulls as hard as she can on the remaining eject lever. She barely hears a clicking noise similar to what you hear if you try to unlock a car that's already unlocked.

"Okay, here goes nothing." She draws her pistol. "If I don't make it out-"

L2 tells me that if you don't make it out, he's going to be angry. So you better survive.

Kallen smiles despite herself. "Thanks Kaguya."

She fires the pistol. The sound waves crash into her skull threatening to split it open. She drops to her knees and immediately gets soaked by the new hole the bullet had punched in the armor. When she removes her hands from her ears, her left comes away bloody.

"Okay, water's coming in." she braces against the door and gives it a test shove. I feels like she's trying to push the entire Pacific ocean away.

The water, aided by the new hole, flows up her thighs, then up to her stomach and past her shoulder relatively quickly. She floats on top to get as much air as she can before crouching with her feet against the door and her back against her chair. Her left ear is complaining about the water, her lungs are already burning, and-

The door falls away by the pressure of her feet resting on it. It seems that it successfully equalized.

She quickly flips and starts heading for the surface which looks really far away. Around her, all of the enemy Knightmares are still sinking downwards into the depths. She swims as fast as she can for the surface but her lungs call out for a breath. She clamps her lips shut and refuses to let her breath escape her.

Her lungs are starting to rebel against her brain, and she knows that soon, way too soon, she was going to have to take a breath.

Her vision starts to get blurrier and blurrier, and kind of dark around the edges, when something grabs her arm.

She lets out an explosive breath in surprise, which turns out to be a terrible idea.

The something that grabs her starts pulling her quickly to the surface. She barely registers reaching the surface and breathing before losing consciousness completely.

o-o-o-o

When she wakes up, she's in a bed. A real bed, not something made from palm leaves or a slab of rock. She sits up and takes stock of her surroundings. Clean room, harsh lighting. Must be a hospital of some sort.

"Nice to see you up."

L2 smirks as she whirls around to see him.

"You had a pretty nasty ear infection from all the seawater and your burst eardrum, but the kind doctors here managed to fix it up without you having any permanent damage."

She nods. "What happened after you pulled me up?"

L2 raises an eyebrow. "I didn't get out until after you did. C2 and I had a much larger compartment. We had a rebreather on board, thankfully." he frowns. "I told C2 that we needed more safety features on those Knightmares. Either way, everyone is alive, but Jeremiah is in a critical state due to malfunctioning electronics."

Kallen shudders. "Yeah. Didn't you say that when you activates gefjun disturbers around him he almost died?"

L2 nods. "For some reason, he had airbags built into his mechanics, so once those went off, he stopped moving so he wouldn't bleed excessively. Like I said, he's still in critical condition, but if we can get some replacement parts on him as soon as we can, he should make it through."

Kallen lies back down and heaves a sigh. "Where are we?"

"Do you remember our old submarine?"

"What?"

"Yep. I managed to contact Rivalz and had got his hands on this sub. When we got to shore, we called him up and he immediately came to pick us up."

C2 walks in. "Glad to see you're awake, Kallen."

Kallen looks at C2. "You too."

C2 flicks her hair back. "It's to be expected of an immortal witch."

For some reason, L2 twitches as she says that.

"Anyway, Rivalz also managed to get us some other people that don't think we're in the wrong. We've been accused of launching a bomb at Japan and disturbing the peace."

Kallen's eyes go wide.

C2 nods. "The blast from that bomb is what knocked us all out of the sky. It had some kind of pulse associated with it the scrambles all electronic systems."

Kallen starts. "Does that mean the Gurren is completely dead?"

L2 and C2 exchange looks. "Er, we can build a new one on the old specifications, but yes, that one is now so much scrap metal at the bottom of the ocean."

Kallen sets her head in her hands. "Damn. Do we have any fighting force at all?"

L2 nods. "We have ten standard Knightmare frames, but since they don't all fit, we only have half assembled." At her look of disgust, he adds "It's better then nothing."

C2 suddenly touches her hand to her ear. "L2, you are needed in the war room."

"Can I go as well?" Kallen asks.

L2 looks at the equipment surrounding her. "I would rather you didn't. But since I know how stubborn you are, I'll let you until you start leaking fluids out of any orifice."

Kallen glares at him, but as she sits back up, she realizes what he means. Her ear is giving her weird balance orders, and she was starting to get seasick for the first time in her life. "Whoa, someone tell the driver to keep the sub steady." She stumbles and L2 catches her, then lifts her up to support her.

L2 smirks. "Let's get going."

As they walk through the hallways to the war room, Kallen sees lots of familiar faces. Not only from the Black Assassins, but from the former Black Knights and even those two Britannian scientists. What was that guys name? Pudding? That couldn't be right.

Kallen greets those she recognizes by name, and is relieved to see most of the Black Assassins that had been almost drowned were up. The notable exception was, of course, Jeremiah. Anya is siting by his side, holding his hand. Oddly, she has shed no tears. Nunnally, who had been sitting there, notices the trio passing by. She rushes up to Kallen and squeezes her in a bear hug. "I'm so glad you're alright!" she says, flinging tears everywhere. L2 staggers over the combined weight of his sister and Kallen.

It seems that being immortal and unchanging makes working out not very effective.

Nunnally lets go and L2 breathes a sigh of relief. "Where are two headed?"

"Lelouch, C2 and I are all headed for the war room." Kallen attempts a grin that comes out rather sickly.

"Oh, I see. I'll talk to you later then!" She smiles at Kallen, then ducks back into the room housing Jeremiah.

Kallen leans back on L2 as they walk. "So, what else happened while I was out?"

C2 answers. "The governments of the world are still trying to sort out who attacked Japan. Most of the blame has been pinned on us, but the more sensible heads have decided to debate it instead of just declaring us guilty. In the mean time, we're trying to gather recruits. Unfortunately for us, the press has decided we are criminals, and we're being hailed as terrorists. Many of the people approaching us are rather unsavory characters that we don't really want on a high tech, military sub. We are working on finding some more Knightmare parts as well, and since we have Rakshata's help, it's going pretty smoothly."

Kallen's eyes light up. "Were rebuilding a Gurren?"

L2 nods. "Right. We have o idea when, or if, we can make it here, but we're trying our best to find the parts so that once we have the capability we can put you back in the skies."

Kallen tries to jump for joy, but almost falls over. L2 catches her again.

"I'm so glad I'm going to be able to pilot again." Kallen sighs as they turn the corner. Above the doorway they are facing is the words "war room."

The three enter to find someone talking to a screen in front of her. She is furiously debating something or another, but doing it very quietly so as not to be overheard.

L2 coughs politely. The woman turns her head and recognizes Lelouch before turning back to her console. The other voice clicks off and the Woman turns around to face them.

Kallen almost reels as she recognizes the woman as Cornelia.

Cornelia narrow her eyes as she enters. "I only asked for Lelouch. Why are you two here?"

L2 answers. "These two have been my hands since I became Zero. They have earned their place here by my side."

Cornelia sighs and shakes her head. "Fine. Well, I must say it was a surprise to find you well after all these years, despite knowing about Geass. I should've known that you would find a way to become immortal."

L2 smirks. "It wasn't easy, and it involved the death of our father, who was also immortal at the time."

Cornelia looks genuinely baffled.

L2 chuckles. "I will explain in due time. First, why have you called us?"

Cornelia pushes a button on the remote in her hand and a display on the wall turns on, displaying a news report.

"-have been sighted off the coast of Mexico. These Knightmare units do not use the colors of any nation's flag, and seem to be attacking anything that comes within targeting range. All air and water traffic in those areas has been halted. This, along with the nuclear missile that landed in Japan, has led experts to believe that the Black Assassins have decided to declare war on the world. Why they would interrupt the past few years of peace is unknown but-"

Cornelia cuts off the broadcast. "There's more, but it's pretty much the same."

L2 nods and sits down. Kallen sits next to him.

"Those Knightmares, if the report was accurate, would probably be the Geass units." C2 notes.

"That means we are being blamed for the terrorist actions of the Geass order, and presumably they are trying to put themselves in charge." L2 folds his hands in front of him. He remains silent for a few seconds, then looks up. "I think that we are going to have to go along with the media on this."

All three girls look at him in shock.

"The Black Assassins are going to take the hit for this anyways. We need to fully destroy the Geass order before we go out. Right now, protecting the secret of Geass, even if we have to destroy everyone and anyone connected to it, is our top priority."

Silence meets this proclamation. C2 and Cornelia exchange looks, but say nothing.

Kallen breaks the silence after a few minutes. "Where are we going to start?"

Cornelia looks at Kallen in surprise. "You're just going to go along with his plans?"

"As far as I can tell, he's only lost one battle to you, one because Nunnally got kidnapped by the Emperor, and... Well, nothing else comes to mind right now. I think that if he has a plan, we should follow it."

Cornelia throws her hands up in frustration. "I can see you think that, but his actions got Euphemia killed!"

Silence descends again. L2's face has hardened.

"You think I wanted her to die? She was going to present us with a peaceful solution! I was against it at first, but-"

"It doesn't change the fact that your words doomed her, and it was your hand that ended her life."

L2 stands, throwing his chair backwards. "You think I wouldn't give anything to go back and fix that? If I had a time machine, I would fix several things! Euphemia wouldn't have died, Shirley and her father wouldn't have died, and maybe I could prevent the whole war from happening in the first place! I think about all those people I've killed over and over, and there's nothing I can do to fix it." L2 snarls at his half-sister. Kallen is leaning over in her chair at the intensity of his fury. He stomach threatens to come up, but she keeps it down.

Cornelia is growling as she stares down L2, who stare right back with a matching expression.

"Excuse me," Kallen says "but what's done is done. Everyone here knows how bad that day was, and getting angry over it isn't helping. Maybe we should get back on topic?"

Cornelia slowly relaxes, but keeps the scowl. L2 closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and composes himself.

C2 presses a few buttons and the tabletop turns into a screen that displays a world map. "Right, so we are currently here." She taps a blue symbol. "We need to figure out where the Geass base is. From what we monitored while in hiding, their old headquarters where Nunnally was being held has been stripped clean. Where is the most likely place for them to hide?"

L2, C2 and Cornelia start looking over the map. Kallen looks around and something clicks in her head. She activates her Geass and looks at the map.

"C2, can you bring up where the old locations of the Geass order have been?"

C2 keys in several spots. Kallen looks at them, and lines start tracing back and forth, creating a web-

And suddenly, a pattern comes out. Not a pattern like a star or some symbol, but a pattern of locations. On in inhabited areas, then one in uninhabited areas relatively close to a large supplier of goods.

Her Geass quickly narrows down the possibilities and produces-

"Let's see, they are probably either here, here or here." She points to three spots on the map.

C2 smiles. "Those do look like decent spots for the Order to build a base."

Cornelia just shakes her head. "I'm going to have to trust your judgement on this, but which of those three are we looking to go after? They're all pretty far apart."

L2 folds his hands again. "We need to go after the least visible target. The longer we aren't near any population centers, the better. Less actual Black Assassin influence means less ammunition they can use against us."

Kallen turns to L2. "Didn't you already say we were going to take the blame anyways?"

"We are. There is no reason not to discredit the Geass order as much as possible for the possibility of us failing. If we go down before we take them down, we're going to have to prove to the world that they can't be trusted."

"So," Kallen turns back to the map. "The least likely place for us to cause a disturbance... Is here." she pokes the map.

C2 smirks. "I'll order the winter gear."

L2 nods. "Antarctica it is."

o-o-o-o

Once the meeting is over (they called in more people once a plan was finalized) Kallen and L2 move through the sub together, heading for the mess hall. Kallen mostly has her balance back by now, but still stumbles around every now and again. They end up sitting at a table with today's meal on their trays.

"Lelouch, who are these people? As far as I can tell, they decided to start a war for no good reason."

L2 swallows a bite. "I wish you wouldn't call me that."

"We've been over this. I'm not calling you anything else, Lelouch."

He shakes his head. "As far as I can tell, they want to rule the world."

Kallen just stares at him with a spoon dangling out of her mouth. "Huh?"

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but the rest of the world was developing technologies at an astounding rate. I've been under the impression that until recently, the Order had trouble coming up with new things to test. Since it apparently has come to its own advances in knowledge, it seems to have expanded. I'm curious myself to see if someone survived my purge or if someone found out about it through some other means. Either way, they seem bent on making me out to be the bad guy. I can't see how that can help them other than our earlier assumption that they are trying to maneuver themselves into positions of power."

Kallen grabs her spoon and puts it back into the sludge that they call soup. "So, we don't know."

L2 nods. "We don't know."

She narrows her eyes. "You could've led with that."

He smiles. "Yes, I sure could have. But I didn't."

Kallen rolls her eyes. "So, Antarctica. What the game plan?"

"I'll have to think a bit more. We need to scout the area, and if we find something, we need to move in quickly. I'm not sure if we should use bombs to level any base we find or go in on foot. I want all record of Geass gone. It's already spread way too far than a secret can normally be held. It's practically a miracle Geass hasn't been leaked to the public already."

Kallen puts a comforting hand on his. "Don't worry. I'm pretty sure nobody will believe in Geass. It's kind of hard to believe you were mind controlling people to do your bidding, let alone all the other things we've discovered it can do."

L2 fidgets. "Don't you see? They've engineered to the point that the public is so confused over all the crazy things coming to light, my Zero Requiem, Zero's true face, and even my supposed comeback have started to condition the public towards believing a lot more than they normally would."

Kallen frowns. "Oh. Is that why this last month has been filled with crazy stuff?"

"It's my best guess." L2 shrugs. "I can't be sure, but it makes sense to me."

Kallen nods. "You know, I've been meaning to ask you- well, Gregor or C2 really, but I guess it was really you... Ahg, never mind. What was that weird dream I had about that informant choice I was given? I mean, I woke up from having from having that choice to actually having to make the choice in real life. How did you do that?"

L2 sighs. "We... We have a few other operatives under our employ that still don't know that I'm now masquerading as Zero. I maintain these networks even now. One of those agents is adept at infiltration. He planted a tiny speaker in that room next to your head, and we played some messages through it. I'm assuming your subconscious absorbed it like we intended and gave you a dream about it. It was supposed to make you have your answer ready immediately." L2 shift uncomfortably. "Honestly, it was an experiment. We wanted to know of that kind of technique would work. Apparently it did, but not quite as well as we hoped."

Kallen grimaces. "So, I'm a guinea pig?" she spits out.

L2's eyes widen. He starts to protest, but Kallen cuts him off. "Well then, maybe I don't want to be your guinea pig, ever thought about that?"

L2 splutters out something unintelligible. Internally, Kallen is grinning like an idiot. If she had known just how easy it was to push his buttons...

"I'm going back to my room. If you need me for more testing, leave me a message."

"Kallen, Wait-"

Kallen walks out the door and promptly trips over the lower flange. She hits her head on the way down.

L2 rushes over to her. "Are you alright?"

She rubs the back of her head. "Yeah." She looks at the deck number on the wall. "Great. Which floor was the barracks again?"

"Third deck, yours is E-7."

She glares back at him. "Is this another experiment?"

The look on his face is one of pure terror. "No! Why on earth-"

She turns on her heel and leaves him.

L2 walks back to his table and sits down heavily. He rests his head n his hands and stares at nothing.

Rivalz enters the cafeteria and walks over to him. "Hey, Lelou- L2. What's bugging you?"

L2 looks up. "I can't tell if Kallen's genuinely mad at me or playing games."

Rivalz smirks. "You always had trouble with the ladies, didn't you? See, women-"

L2 only half listens to what is undoubtedly a very sexist diatribe that Millie might slap him for if she heard it. In the meantime, he finishes his meal.

Suddenly, he realizes a mistake.

"Crap! I told Kallen that her room was the one I'm in! She's in E-8!"

He jumps out of his seat and tears out of the cafeteria, leaving a very confused Rivalz looking after him.

"Geez, how awkward can he get around women?" he comments to no one.

o-o-o-o

L2 catches up to Kallen right before she reaches the door. He pants for a second as she turns to him inquisitively. It takes her a second to conceal her grin, but she manages to put on a stern expression before he looks up.

"I made a mistake."

Kallen arches an eyebrow. "Come to apologize?"

He shakes his head, freezes, then opens his mouth. He doesn't say anything for a minute.

"Well? What was it? Apology or not?"

"Er, I came to tell you that I made a mistake."

"Exactly. I hope you're ashamed of yourself."

"No, I mean that your room is actually E-8. I'm in E-7."

"Oh." Kallen and L2 look at each other. "Is that it?"

He looks at her and carefully forms his next words. "Nnnnnnoooooo... I'm sorry I used you in experiments. That is what you're mad about right?"

Kallen looses her composure and starts laughing. This only makes L2 even more worried.

"What? What did I do wrong?"

Kallen takes a moment to try to stop laughing. She finally regains enough composure to speak after a few seconds. "I'm sorry. I'm not actually all that mad about it. It's just kind of fun to watch you get all flustered!"

Wait a second, is he blushing? He is! Kallen's delight kicks up another notch.

It's then when the submarine suddenly goes quiet. The hum of the engines goes away, and thoughts all turn off and are replaced by red beacons.

"What's going on?"

L2 looks upwards, as if he can see through the metal walls. "I think we may be in a bit of trouble."