Opps! Sorry. Accidently replaced chapter 19 with Chapter 20. Corrected already, though spelling and other errors maybe there. Please let me know if there are. Thanks :)

Finally feeling better so I'm going to update both stories ASAP. Hope you enjoy them! ^^

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Iowa Purist Base

The base commander watched with growing horror as the crimson and silver Vincent caused chaos and flame in the battlefield.

It was only one knightmare against many and there was not a large gap in tech difference either!

The Vincent was also leading and directing the remnants of the loyalist forces against the damaged targets in the base and it was already bad enough that a number of their infantry had gone through.

"Surround him! Spread out and surround him!"

Their auto turrets fired covering fire attempting to move the crimson Knightmare into their massed Wards but the red knight would flick here, firing then disappear again into another area attacking their Knightmare from behind their back.

The loyalist forces took advantage of it, using their VTOL gunships and tanks to shoot down any of the rebels that were distracted.

The commander could not believe his eyes. Here were some of the best troops of the Purist Alliance and they were being slaughtered by a single Knightmare and a bunch of ragged tag fools with outdated weapons?

It was insane. He watched haplessly as three Vincent Wards engaged the red knight. The first one swung his MVS blades and which the Vincent just merely avoided then drove in a kick at the second Ward.

The third Ward activated its stun-tonfa and swung hard in which its crimson opponent just disappeared in a flash.

A Gareth joined the fray firing its missiles as it came. The missiles burst out in and as if with intelligence of their own, chased after the red Knightmare.

The red and silver Vincent danced around them letting them explode harmlessly charging towards the Gareth. It fired its assault rifle at the grey and gold machine but other than scratching its armour, it did very little damage. The massive Knightmare then brought up one arm Hadron cannon and showed how to do real damage.

The crimson-black beam missed the Vincent by a few inches and it was right behind the Gareth. The rebel pilot barked a surprise and swung one arm, using its bulk to smash the red knight until it could get a better shot. With swiftness akin to a real human, the Vincent avoided it and kept on firing its assault rifle then let loose a grenade.

The grenade struck the Gareth's head and chest denting its armour. With a roar of anger, the rebel charged after the annoying red Knightmare, raining machine gun rounds at it.

"There's something about this knight." Lord Wilde commented watching the dog fight with interest.

The base commander nodded. "He's the same irritating bastard that blew up the cannon."

"Perhaps." The white-coated aristocratic murmured. Wilde noticed that there was something different about this pilot. Something that doesn't seem too right.

A soldier dressed in black and grey armour appeared at the door.

"My lord! The enemy! They've taken the Engineering bay!"

The base commander cursed but Wilde only nodded. "Gather my Guards, Aaron."

With that the gold laced nobleman went out.

The base commander forgot all about Wilde and focused on the battle at hand when he saw two explosions blooming.

From the purple parts, he guessed they were the Wards engaging the red knight. The last one crossed blades with the Vincent who had drawn one of its MVS blades using it like a short sword.

With a swift swing, the Vincent had scattered the Ward's lances. The purple Knightmare withdrew its weapons and brought up its stun tonfas. Before the Ward had any chances, a grey wedged shape passed them letting loose of a stream of sabot rounds that tore the purple machine into pieces.

The fighter jet flew about as the Gareth turned its guns on the plane. As it raised its Hadron cannon, a missile flew and struck it with a boom ruining it completely.

Then suddenly a flight of more Vampire fighters wheeled firing missile after missile at the bulky Knightmare. With one hand gone, the Gareth pulled itself out of the line of fire but the fighters came in too quickly and it shook from the missile impacts until one of them struck its head and ending the rebel pilot's life.

Before the base commander knew it, the customised Vincent appeared right in front of their tower window.

"Oh Fuc..."

The red Knightmare raised its rifle and pressed the trigger.

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The force of Knightmares hovered above the King's Daughter like a pack of vultures. Their commanders the three Vincent Commanders Models in green and maroon led the assault in three different groups.

The first group made its move the violet mass of Gloucesters descended down...and all exploded as a crimson wave overwhelmed them.

The Vincent Commander of the group leapt out drawing its MVS lances. Two Wards flanked him.

"What the heck was...?" A violet and red light flashed out from the horizon and darted towards them. The Wards charged forward to meet it...and exploded as they touched it scattering into pieces.

The Vincent pulled back and raised its double swords high and braced itself. The red MVS blades swung...and shattered.

Before the smoky explosions, a violet and red light glowed blinding the skies. A metallic crimson sheen materialised in the middle.

The 7th generation Knightmare watched haplessly as a metallic silver arm appeared on his video screen and skewered him.

The arm continued its flight, running through Knightmare after Knightmare. As if satisfied with its hunger, the arm returned to its body.

The Guren SEITEN's eyes glowed in challenge to its enemies as explosions illuminated around it.

The second group of Knightmares charged forward to avenge their comrades' deaths. Their commander slashed his MVS down. As one, the Gloucesters and Vincent Wards fired their rifles, cannons and missiles.

The barrage of sabot rounds, cannon shells and missiles flew on the red glowing figure.

Kallen smirked. "Oh, please."

With but a raise of her right hand, she blocked the entire fearsome barrage with her radiant shield.

Through the smoke, Kallen charged out screaming at her enemies. She raised her arm and fired a burst of radiant energy boiling them until their armour bubbled, destroying its Yggdrasil Drive, and causing the entire frame to explode.

The blast took down almost half of the entire group, littering the skies with orange fire balls.

With that, she drew out her MVS fork Knife and plunged herself into the fray. Kallen twisted the Guren SEITEN around and let loose a radiant wave stream towards a pair of Gloucesters who were still switching their rifles over their lances. They both boiled and exploded.

Kallen twisted and dodged a lance thrust then decapitate the Gloucester wielding it and thrust the violet blade into the Knightmare's Yggdrasil Drive. As the Knightmare exploded, a Vincent Ward with an MVS lance charged swung at her but Kallen sliced the blue-purple machine in half with a flick of her energy wings.

Kallen then lowered her slash harkens and fired at a pair of Gloucesters right in their cockpits. She then turned around and with her MVS sliced a Ward who was trying to back stab her in the torso cutting the Knightmare into two.

A pair of Gloucesters led by a Ward charged at her from three different directions. Despite the dark ambitions of these rebels, Kallen had to admit that they were brave men. Or was it that they had completely no idea who they were dealing with? Britannian arrogance? She pouted her lips in distaste.

A most likely answer.

With that Kallen closed her wings together, forming a protective energy shield as the lances and MVS blade struck.

The wings flickered in electricity as the weapons touched it and they lashed back out. The weapons were back out, a golden lance broken in two while its companion's head was completely melted.

As for the Master Vibration Sword, the crimson weapon was sent flying pass the Vincent Commander. Its wielder, the Vincent Ward along with the two Gloucesters was now in three separate burning pieces dropping down in free fall.

Her system suddenly screamed in warning and Kallen instinctively brought one wing to block an exploding shell in the sky. Before she knew it, the Knight of Two was facing two dozen surface-to-air missiles flying towards her.

Changing her radiant surger to spray mode, Kallen unleashed a wave of radiant blast down the bombardment, pre-detonating them, leaving her only a barrage of tiny metal pieces.

"There're more of them?" Kallen muttered as she activated her long range scanners. On the ground, new targets had appeared. Sutherlands, Gloucesters, Glasglows even Knight Police frames appeared on the ground in large groups.

As Kallen was busy taken by the surprise attack, she belatedly saw a group of Gloucesters flying towards the King's Daughter.

"Damn..." She cursed and was about to turn her arm when some of the purple Knightmares exploded.

A flash of silver and blue swept past the sky leaving the purple figures scattering in its wake. Kallen zoomed in to take a closer look.

It was a customised Vincent, the same Vincent as the one Arthur had used only silver and blue. Its head however was a similar version of a Gloucester, a single horned helm with a V-visor. Its arms were built differently as well. The right arm was armed with the needle blazer like the Vincent but its left arm was built with a bracer like arm like the Lancelot's blaze luminous shield.

Three Gloucesters charged at the new Knightmare their lances at the ready. The silver machine's visor glowed crimson and charged to meet the violet Knightmares' attack. A golden lance struck the emerald shield with a shower of sparks and sent the weapon flying back. Its wielder then threw a heavy fisted punch that contacted with blue electric sparks sending the Gloucester staggering back with a dented chest plate.

The Knightmare then swung its Blaze Luminous armoured arm right to smash a lance thrust down then suddenly grabbed the machine around and pulled it in the way of the lance of the last charging Gloucester. The golden weapon skewered through the purple the Gloucester pilot tried to recover from the shock of killing a comrade, the Vincent-like machine turned pulling its needle blazer up and blasted a hole into the machine.

Whoever it was Kallen nodded in awe about the sheer fighting strength of the silver Knightmare.

"Don't worry, milady." Gordon's voice came in. "We'll protect the ship."

As the Gloucester dropped lifelessly down, the first Gloucester came back up the pilot's heart filled with vengeance. But before it could even think about attacking, it exploded as a green beam pierce through its chest. A second beam struck its companion blasting its Float system then a third at its destroying it as well.

Kallen blinked. Was that a VARIS rifle?

Before they knew it, a red, green and grey wedge form swept through the carnage firing its green coloured beam again and again with rapid accuracy. It resembled the Tristan and its successor's fortress mode but was shaped more like a jet fighter. Under its head or what Kallen assumed to be the cockpit it had a long barrelled weapon.

The enemy Wards and Gloucesters returned fire with assault rifles, grenades and cannon but the machine was far too fast. It retaliated with back with its green beam weapon. A Ward used its MVS to block a blast letting it be destroyed as well then lunged forward with its stun-tonfas. That was when Kallen knew she was correct about the VARIS rifle for at the mouth of the red and grey machine's weapon a glowing green sphere formed and fired blasting the Ward into pieces with a single blast.

The Vincent Commander decided to deal with the interlopers with its own hands and charged head on at Gordon. Being an advance model, it reached its target in mere seconds.

The silver machine fired out chest-slash harkens at the Vincent but the Commander Model dodged them at ease and brought out its needle blazer.

Kallen wanted to shout a warning to the machine as a large electronic explosion lashed out. To her relief, the silver Knightmare was left unharmed. Gordon brought out his own needle blazer and showed how it was done by blasting a hole in the Vincent.

Gordon chuckled. "Have to do better than that ye bastard. The Alymere will hold up to anything."

"He's mine!" Nelson's voice shouted. "Fight me you bugger!"

The rebel Vincent turned to face the red and grey machine and fired its slash harkens. Nelson dodged both attacks with ease where it body suddenly shifted and started to transform. Its body became more humanoid and legs and arms jutted out. Its wings folded down along the cockpit and the jet's head folded down to its chest where its head jutted out. The head was a smooth humanoid black fore head with a red line down the centre with an emerald visor. One hand which extended from an arm reached to its shoulder and drew out a slim straight sabre with an emerald blade.

In a flash of red and grey, the green sabre sliced diagonally through the body of the Vincent and the machine exploded.

"So that's how the Britannians fight?" Nelson asked with a snide. "Didn't even scratch my Rhyl after all that flying. That's British ingenuity you bloody pommies!"

Kallen smiled in amusement.

"Don't celebrate now, lad." Gordon warned. The Alymere hovered around the mass of tanks on the ground. "There're more bastards appearing on the ground."

The former Black Knight smothered her grin and with the two British knights charged down towards the raining barrage of hell.

The only question was where was Arthur...?

Jeremiah grimaced as he smacked a thrusting dagger away with his sword and sliced back. Knife long nails clawed and thick rune daggers sawed at him and he knew only the upgraded full armour was protecting even his cybernetic body.

"Damn, Shadow Striders!" Dunford shouted as he fired his carbine in full auto. The Arfon troopers followed suit forming a defensive ring around them.

Remembering the experiences of the Royal Guard against these foes, the Arfons fought them with rank and file knowing that in this darkness that they were at a huge disadvantage.

Not only that there were only but a handful of them against heaven knows how many.

Jeremiah was the only one amongst them who could fight them on par and the tide here was too much that even his titanic strength and speed could get overwhelmed. Daggers flew at the cyborg at will which Jeremiah expertly deflected with his twin blades.

He brought a blade around and slashed down in the red eyed darkness meeting flesh and blood. As the Strider cowered, a bullet finished the Geass user off in the forehead.

It seems that they weren't the only ones as on their radio, the Arfons could hear shouts of confusion and help from the other units including outside and reports of Loyalist troops turning on their own.

"My Lord! Unidentified Knightmare!"

"What is it?" Jeremiah demanded as he disembowelled another Strider. A powerful kick struck the side of his face, sending him staggering.

The blow had actually managed to dent his armour. Roaring in rage, Jeremiah responded by splitting the Strider's skullcap from his head.

"Sir, it's like a centaur...agrah!"

"Beginning counter-attack, brother." Castor Rui Britannia replied, his eyes flaring with the Geass symbol.

Without warning, a flash of black mass swamped an area where a unit of loyalist Glassglows and Sutherlands were engaging a fire fight. A Glassglow was sent flying into the air. The others turned to see what could have hurled an entire Knightmare into the sky. The first to turn received a clawed thrust into its Yggdrasil Drive then was tossed on to its comrades. The hapless machine landed on a trio while the others moved out of the way to face their enemy.

The other Knightmares turned and final saw the figure only to be stunned. It was all Castor needed and the Hadron crimson orbs struck the rest ending the fight quickly.

Two Sutherlands came at it with lances lowered, this time the Knightmare reached for its back and pulled out what looked like a giant hammer. With a single swing, the centaur like machine had smashed the upper body of one Sutherland flying in the air.

It turned and brought the weapon down on the last one crushing it's down having the Sutherland face flat on the ground. Then brought the hammer down again, again and again until the machine looked nothing like its original form, ignoring the screams of mercy and agony of the pilot.

"I really don't like violence." Castor muttered, his blue eyes showed no emotion.

His Knightmare, the Equus was one of the strangest Knightmares that was made. For one it did not have the trade mark slash harkens and the landspinners like that of the others. Neither did it have the Float system.

Instead the machine, jet black with red and gold trims was only half humanoid. Its lower body had four legs which all ended with four crimson hooves. It had two matching crimson gauntlets and two horn like features around its Sutherland styled head with a red face.

The Equus' face sphere opened and scanned the entire battlefield.

"All squads begin counter attack."

"Yes, your highness!"

Suddenly tunnels begun to opened up from the ground, swallowing any hapless soldier or machine in the battlefield.

The loyalist commander on the G-1 Base watched in shock as the entire battle ground had changed consuming many of his men with them.

Then it happened.

It was like a nightmare, a terrible terrible nightmare...only that it was far too real. Loyalist soldiers who had just been winning the uneven battle against the rebels found themselves under attack by the likes they had experience before save in their dreams.

Comrades turning on their own allies, shadows appearing everywhere and overwhelming masses of men. Strange looking creatures from legends emerging from the darkness, bodies and limbs being hacked away in the brink of the eye, Knightmares and firearms malfunctioning at will.

In the skies, midnight blue Knightmares with silver trimmings and horns and crimson orbs dominated everything around it, using drill like slash harkens and MVS swords.

There were also new Knightmares too. White plated machines with crimson trims with an avian symbol on their shoulder plates.

One machine appeared on the ground in the middle of a group of Sutherlands and their Gloucester commander.

"Charge it!" The machine facesphere suddenly opened up and revealed a glowing avian symbol.

With that the Knightmare had suddenly disappeared.

"What the..." The Gloucester commander muttered raising its lance in question only to realise the lance disappeared from its hand and that its tip was buried on its own chest.

The other Sutherlands turned to face it only to be destroyed in the brink of the eye. One Sutherland's cockpit was ripped into two different pieces leaving the pilot to be in a more gruesome state.

More Knightmare and other loyalist units suffered the same fate, radios screaming in pain and agony while the battlefield was littered with almost only loyalist fatalities.

Defeat was certain when a voice called out.

"I surrender."

The red and silver Vincent hovered above the skies.

"Cease your attack and I will turn myself in."

Wilde smiled. "I don't know why we should do that. It appears that we control the battleground now."

"Because..." The cockpit of the Vincent opened up revealing a slim figure in a white and red pilot suit and a black visored helmet.

"While you chase down these men, I can destroy you and everything here. This Vincent is filled with explosives. And on the corpses of men in your base with fully functional bombs, activated only with this." He pulled out a switch.

"I can blow you all to hell."

In a single press of a button, the armour of two dozen tanks bubbled up and burst into flames. Kallen then wheeled about and squeezed another burst of radiant energy at a second group.

VARIS rounds fired from the Rhyl as it swept through the land again and again. The Alymere's shoulders opened up with missiles and fired a barrage across the land.

As Gordon watched the ground units exploded, he found new figures appearing on his IFF display.

"Incoming Knightmares in sector 5." The Scotsman warned.

Kallen turned to regard her new adversaries. "Vincents. Four of them."

Nelson turned the Rhyl about. "I'll take care of them."

But Kallen injected an arm before the red and grey Knightmare. "No, I'll do it. You two guard the ship."

With that Kallen sent her Guren SEITEN forward in full speed. The Vincents were of pink colour scheme like those that she had engaged during the war against that crazy bastard Bradley.

The Vincents scattered into a staggered formation and fired their machine guns down at her. Kallen activated her radiant shield to block their attacks but the pink machines on the corners turned about and were suddenly at her flank.

"What...?" She quickly banked left to avoid the flanking attack.

A Vincent suddenly came down its MVS blades drawn in both hands and brought one blade down on her.

Kallen raised her wing to block the attack when a second one came at her other side with a needle blazer

"You caught the Valkyrie Squadron off guard last time, Red Lotus!" A female voice spat.

"But not this time!" A second voice remarked.

Kallen flapped her wings like an angry eagle and flew out of their grasp.

"Damn, they're good!"

Just as she did another Vincent came down on her back its MVS in double blade ready to stab down at her cockpit.

The Knight of Two quickly shot a radiant blast at the Knightmare which it dodged. A fourth Vincent appeared but Kallen was ready and fired her slash harkens at it knocking it off the sky.

She turned and fired her radiant beam to finish it off but the glowing crimson blast only bounced off when it struck a bright gold figure.

"We meet again, Kallen." A very familiar voice chirped. Then before her was a dark blue and red colour schemed Percival with gold energy wings.

"That is your name isn't it?" She chirped again.

Kallen glared at the newcomer. "So it's you, Bradley. I should have known."

The other woman smiled. "Glad to see me?"

"You bet. Changed her your dress?" Kallen launched a large burst of radiant wave which the Percival easily avoided.

"Haha, Orange doesn't seem to match my colour." The new Knightmare returned fire with its shield missiles.

Kallen blocked them with a radiant shield and fired another radiant wave.

As the Percival avoided the blast, Luna Bradley turned to her body guards.

"Valkyrie One and Two, go after that ship. It may contain the package."

"Yes, Lady Lunamaria."

"Three and Four, corner this bitch!"

"Yes, milady." With that Lunamaria charged forward with activating her MSV particle lance.

Kallen raised her MVS fork to break the lance thrust which to her surprise only managed to block it. Her weapon should have been able to cut through the MSV shield.

Lunamaria must have sensed her confusion as the red hair woman heard her laughed.

"Please, Kally. This isn't like the old Percival. I had never told you its name. This is the Morgana."

"Named after that witch...suits you." Kallen swung her radiant arm at the Knightmare which it avoided and thrust again where the Black knight ace parried so she could grab the Morgana and blast it to dust but it was too fast.

"Damn it!" Kallen cursed as she tried to catch the dark blue Knightmare but being installed with the same energy wing system, Bradley could move in the blinding speed as she could.

The two Vincents pestered her all the way, firing grenade launchers at will then retreating out of range. If she tried to pursue them, Bradley would intervene and attack her. Being caught on two fronts, Kallen could barely defend herself let alone mount a proper attack.

"So," Bradley started as she fired a Hadron blast which Kallen blocked with her shield and they clashed blades again.

"Where is your white knight? Or should I say Red Knight?"

"I don't need him here!" Kallen growled back, swinging a kick in. "I don't need that arrogant bastard here!"

Lunamaria grinned maliciously. "Oh...a lover's quarrel?" She brought her shield up to block the kick and returned with a lance thrust.

"It's a real shame. We were ordered to be taking the red knight. Looks like he dumped you."

Her words angered Kallen even more as the Black Knight and Knight of Two swung a broad swipe of her MVS knife.

In anger, Kallen fired out a particularly large radiant blast which almost overwhelmed the customised Percival and her Vincent escorts. One Valkyrie's leg was caught in the blast and bubbled into ashes.

But that did not end her taunts. "Ohh...Did I touched a sensitive spot?"

"Damn you bitch!" The half-Britannian pilot snarled and unleashed another blast of radiant energy.

"Hahaha!" The Vampire's sister laughed. "Oh, I can see you're still in love with him! Don't worry, now since he's not here I'll happily tear you apart in his stead!"

Kallen roared with her namesake and charged in full speed turning into a violet light. The Valkyries charged in to intercept her firing their grenades as they came but her speed was too fast and she had swept pass them in seconds and although Kallen had merely speeded pass her enemies; the speed of her Guren SEITEN left the two stumbling in the air uncontrollably.

With the SEITEN's arm glowing deep crimson, the Knight of Two fired a string of radiant disks. The Morgana brought her shield up to block the first few disks and used her lance to parry the last few. Using the distraction, Kallen span around in a fashion to Suzaku's trade mark roundhouse kick and landed a double kick into Lunamaria's Knightmare. The first kick struck the shield but the second hit the head of the Morgana head on sending it staggering away.

She pressed on to her advantage and sent a radiant blast at point blank range which only the rebel knight's exceptional piloting skills had kept her alive by moving aside at the last minute. Kallen continued with two short brutal strokes of her MVS knife hammering down on the shield.

The Mograna then countered by thrusting its lance but Kallen was prepared and sent a stopping kick, the Guren SEITEN's foot striking the lance arm down back and likely damaging the arm joint slightly.

Growling in pain, Bradley fired her three slash harkens at point blank range but Kallen only smirked and caught all three with her MVS and snapping them.

"Impossible!" Lunamaria cried out.

Kallen felt a grim smile forming and lunged forward with her radiant arm at the opening she created.

She was about to pressed the trigger when something struck her on the side.

"Agrah!" Kallen cried as she was knocked to the corner of her cockpit and her head struck the ceiling. The attack had sent her flying away from her opponent into open space.

Pulling herself back, Kallen saw that the attack had dented her Guren SEITEN's side and its armour was badly scrapped on the right. Angered Kallen turned to regard her attack and watched in shock.

"A Siegfried? Here?"

Kallen had remembered the attack on New Pendragon that there were three Siegfrieds. She had assumed that the assassins had them prepared to fight the Imperial Guard forces but what was one of those Knight Giga Fortresses doing in this battlefield? Was Geass involved here too? Was that why Lelouch/Arthur came here for?

"Sorry, Kally." The noblewoman called. "Unfortunately for you, my friend the Fomoire here wants to play with you and he's been all bored with killing just a few peasants. So I suggested a Black Knight who happens to be a Knight of the Round as well."

The Morgana's eyes glimmered. "Well, I'm going to go play with your two friends there. Cheerio, Kally! I'll make sure I tear your friends to pieces."

With that the dark blue Knightmare disappeared in a flash of yellow light. Before Kallen could blink she was facing a large shadow.

Kallen closed her wings around her as shields to brace the attack and while they were a strong shield the impact struck her like as if she had been struck by a thunderbolt.

"Agrah!" Kallen screamed as she was sent flying off like a baseball. With her expert piloting skills, Kallen barely managed to hold herself back opening her wings wide so they could balance her back.

It was in a nick of time too as the machine had continued its charge and Kallen just narrowly dodged a spinning spike that would have tore through her armour despite its hardness.

As the massive Knightmare swept pass her, the red haired pilot activated her radiant beam and fired it at the huge violet object. The crimson beam bounced off the machine like a water hose off a car windshield.

The thing had stopped spinning and fired out a Hadron beam that almost caught Kallen unshielded.

"Oh my god, what the hell is that?" Kallen muttered.

She was wrong. It was not a Siegfried. It was a large machine about a third larger than the Gawain in size with similar features. It was based on the machine that was for sure. It was huge and looked something like a giant demon with over sized bear-like hand with sharp white claws that could be fired out like slash harkens like her surger arm. Again who were these people? They have the weapons of almost every military faction in the world!

Just as she was wondering what to do, she saw Lunamaria Bradley's Knightmare flying towards the Rhyl and Alymere who were both engaged to the other Valkyries who were sent to harass them and the what remained of the ground forces.

They were being played. Kallen realised. The whole battle...the whole attack had been a trap since the beginning.

To make things worse, behind the Fomoire was a large mass of dark clouds...no...Air-ships...rebel air-ships.

Wilde watched the red and silver Vincent closely as the pilot came out of his cockpit. He was only a young man in his early twenties from his body figure. The white-coated nobleman tried to figure out if it was the man was bluffing. His helmet preventing Wilde from reading the man's facial expression and his body features betrayed nothing.

He also knew that there was fighting in the cells and while the Shadow Striders were likely slaughtering anyone in the way that means there's hardly anyone alive down there.

But if what the knight said was true, those bodies would be filled with explosives. He thought the man was bluffing. If there were explosives, they would have been blown up in the fire fight. Still there was something really wrong.

The nobleman watched the areas of the attacks and saw that the knight had purposely attacked and led his troops through the exterior of the underground and its centre. If those bodies were indeed rigged with explosives, the entire compound would be buried in the earth along with everyone in the base.

As for the battlefield, Wilde noted that there was barely any loyalist left other than a handful of Knightmares and vehicles.

Well, the trade off wasn't so bad then.

Wilde smiled. "Name your terms then, knight."

"All forces withdraw from the field." The Red Knight ordered his forces. "Your forces must not give chase, including your bloody hounds."

"In turn what do we get?"

"I offer myself."

"Very well. But first you must show me your face."

The knight hesitated and a brief moment, he quickly reached for his helmet and took it off.

Silence fell to the entire area. No one could make a noise as the face of Lelouch Vi Britannia, the dreaded Demon Emperor came in view. It was the same face, save for the white hair and the blue eyes. An uncomfortable tension filled all those who saw him.

"I am Arthur Peregrine. A Knight of Lelouch Vi Britannia."

It was a generous offer and Wilde accepted it.

The orders were given and it took fifteen minutes for all surviving loyalists to surrender. Some complained and cursed at the luck that took them but the rest stayed quiet not wanting the nightmares to come back.

Seeing the troops going out of enemy range, Arthur released his Knightmare's weapons and lowered the machine down to the flanks of two Vipers and a Vincent Commander.

Wilde could not believe his luck that the thorn on the Purist side had just been laid on his very hands. The knight then surrendered his possessions and offered himself to the hands of the rebel troops.

"Bring him here." Wilde commanded. "I want him to be at my side as he watched his men get torn into pieces."

The nobleman did not notice the small smirk that formed on Arthur's lips as he left.

"Lord Wilde, enemy forces approaching Sector 82. We have reports of an airship and three Knightmares."

"So they're here?"

"Yes, milord." The aide replied. "Lord Meadus has sent his men to capture the red knight."

"Ha! Won't he be surprised to see him in our hands!"

A second officer joined them. "Sir, Lord Meadus has sent out the prototype Fomoire and two squadrons of Vipers to Sector 82."

Wilde grinned in amusement. "Let them. They want blood. Let them have it. After they're done with them then inform the bastards."

"What the hell is he doing?" Dunford cursed to Jeremiah as the bronze skinned knight threw away his empty rifle and pulled out a pistol.

"Master Lelouch knows what he's doing." Was all what Orange replied as the cyborg clashed blades with two Shadow Striders.

Dunford did not answer knowing that he would not get proper response from the man. Instead, the former Britannian army soldier emptied a few rounds into the darkness where some of those shadowy bastards were attacking.

They had retreated into a barricaded platform in the Engineering Bay where two other squads had been holding the line against Shadow Striders, rebel shock troops as well as their own men. Several of their own soldiers had turned against their comrades and from what Dunford had seen had been due to Geass.

The hallway was blocked by men with ballistic shields forming a solid shield wall manned by sharp shooters.

Shadow Striders appeared here and there, leaving dead behind, mainly loyalist dead.

Dunford, Jeremiah and the two remaining Arfon troopers fought their way through the hectic gun fire.

"Over here, sir!" An officer waved his pistol.

The shield wall opened up where two more shield wielding men with carbines appeared and covered them.

A loyalist soldier lunged at Dunford knocking him off balance.

Dunford stumbled as he fell and raised his hands to block a knife thrust by the said soldier. His eyes were ringed crimson.

Seeing that the man had been Geassed, Dunford jabbed at the man's unprotected throat and turned the knife back to the soldier as he was stunned.

"Dunford, look out!" Jeremiah shouted as a Shadow Strider appeared from the darkness Geass symboled eyes glee with blood lust.

There was a flash of silver then a gust of blood and for a second it was thought the former army captain had fallen but as the bloody mist faded away, it was Dunford who stood up. In his hands was a short curved sabre.

The bronze skinned man glared at the attackers taking off his helmet and then suddenly gripped his face and pulled it off. The Shadow Strider leapt back, blood flowing from his arm.

Long dark hair flowed and his face which seemed to be a mixture of Asian and Oceanian became more that of a Middle Easterner. More specifically that of Arabic features.

Jeremiah watched the man in surprise. 'Dunford' snarled and brought his short curved sword into play against his opponent.

The Shadow Strider quickly met the blade and in a blur of motion brought down in a barrage of thrusts and stabs but the bronze skinned knight parried and blocked with the speed and skill that Jeremiah had never seen before.

The Geass user then leapt forward to tackle his enemy but instead met the sword guard of Dunford's sabre and stumbled back. The sabre arced about and removed the creature's head and it pitched forward, the weapons falling from its now-lifeless fingers.

Dunford then grasped Jeremiah's extending hand and retreated to the safety of their men.

"Are you alright?" Jeremiah asked.

"They just damaged my pride." Dunford replied with a nod.

Jeremiah studied the man closely. He was clearly of Middle Eastern blood.

"Who are you really?" The Britannian knight asked, although he expected him to tell him off. To his surprised, Dunford nodded.

"My real name is Percales, descendent of Sir Palamede, Knight of the Round Table. Long have I worn the guise of Henry Dunford to protect my identity, I have been part of the Arfon Knight since I was born."

Jeremiah looked at his companion in a new light. A descendent of a real Arthurian knight! What an honour!

"It...is an honour." The cyborg managed.

Percales Harry Dunford waved his hand. "It's nothing. I grew up in Britannia like you did and I have served in the Britannian army as well. There's little difference. And I am still Harry Dunford."

Suddenly the fighting and explosions stopped. "What's happening now?"

Jeremiah smiled. "It's begun."

Ripple after ripple appeared on her radiant shield as cannon shot, missiles, Hadron beams and bullets struck her and that was even with Kallen's Guren SEITEN's incredible speed.

Barrage after barrage bombarded Kallen over and over again. It was as if the entire battle group had focused their fire power on Guren SEITEN alone. It was not a huge problem for the red haired warrior but each time she had tried to attack the ships, the Fomoire would appear out of nowhere and strike her. And when Kallen turned to focus on the massive machine, the rebel ships would launch another bombardment.

They're trying to drain my power cells. Kallen realised as she destroyed a volley of missiles with a radiant burst. Even as she tried to block a lance-slash harken from the Fomoire, the Black Knight ace could see Knightmares being prepared in the three Logres ships that led the battle group. Its escort, Caerleons were already launching their own small groups of Knightmares out.

In a matter of minutes, at least two hundred Knightmares were flying around the air-fleet. Kallen knew that she was not going to win this battle, not even with her Guren SEITEN.

On her scanners, squadrons of rebel Knightmares had advanced to the King's Daughter and the two Arfon knights who were busy fighting the pink Vincents.

The Alymere shoved a Valkyrie away then advanced to meet a group of Gloucesters. From his back, the Scottish knight drew out what looked like a massively long sword with a V shaped hand-guard.

The sword glittered white in the sun then glowed gold.

"Taste the steel of a Scottish claymore!" Gordon remarked and gave out a cry in his native language, the calm face of the older pilot had turned vicious wild and met his Britannian adversaries head on.

With a single swing, Gordon had sliced two Gloucesters and two lances of their comrades with his huge sword. The knight swung back and cut through another trio. The silver and blue Knightmare turned and fired its hip slash harkens at another two.

The other Gloucesters exploded as green beams struck them both. Nelson in the Rhyl fired from a distance to support his comrade with the VARIS rifle in one hand and his green bladed sabre in the other.

The English knight fired another few more rounds at another group before turning back into his fortress mode and swept about firing as he went along.

"Bloody hell, they're all over the place!"

Nelson fired another round that turned a flying Knightmare into a ball of fire. A full squadron suddenly appeared and dove to meet him. Two Wards drew blades and tried to flank him.

"Oh come on, lads. All of you against me? Doesn't sound fair." He sighed as he idly avoided a barrage of missiles from the shoulders of a Gloucester. "Looks like I'll have to make it even!"

The grey and red Knightmare then burst into full speed and charged in amongst them, spinning like a drill firing as he went shattering the squadron's formation. Two Gloucesters tried to intercept him with their lances but Nelson was too quick and they pierced only air. He saw a red and brown Vincent directing their efforts.

Shells exploded in front of him as a pair of Sutherlands fired their cannons at him but other than dirtying his paintjob the attacks did not harm the Rhyl.

Nelson fired his two slash harkens which struck their commander, the Vincent. The Knightmare's armour was tougher than its subordinates and while they did not manage a strong dent, the attack knocked the Vincent off balance in the air as they hooked around the Commander Model's shoulders. Using its speed and momentum, the Rhyl turned around and turned the machine back to Knightmare mode, drawing his green-bladed sabre.

Nelson had brought his machine down like a diving falcon and he slashed his way down through the surprised Knightmares. He severed a Gloucester from the torso, buried his blade into the head of a Sutherland and cut down another in half from the shoulder.

In a matter of seconds, half of the squadron had been slaughtered and the emerald visor of the Rhyl glinted as if winking.

The surviving units tried to form up and flank the lithe red and grey machine but they disappeared in a torrent of crimson wave from Kallen's radiant blast and Gordon's missiles.

Even with this done, there was still a lot of enemies to fight.

"So this is the famous Red knight?" Wilde asked as the prisoner in a red and white Knightmare pilot suit entered. His face was as they say, an exact replica of Emperor Lelouch save for the hair and eye colour. He might have been his twin brother. The young soldier's hands were tied and were under constant watch from the nobleman's Household Guards. The white and gold coated soldiers alongside their armoured companions watched warily and guns trained down on the knight.

The boy did not seem to mind the threat but met his eye evenly and calmly.

"Lord Theodore Wilde, formerly the Margrave of Nova Scotia, the chief 'Inquisitor' and spymaster of the Emperor's Royal Guard, you are well known to me. I had a feeling that you'd appear again."

Wilde chuckled in amusement. "I have to admit your master had almost gotten my head at New London." The nobleman let his handsome features basked in the light of his video screens. "But I AM the spymaster of Charles Zi Britannia."

At that the Red knight just smirked. "I can see that."

"Watch your mouth!" The Guard captain snarled and smacked the prisoner on the head with his gauntlet hand.

"Enough." Wilde said. "Come now. We must respect a proper soldier. As I said, Sir Arthur, you are a worthy opponent. You have somehow managed to fight your way against a veteran black operation commander and managed to score a deadly blow to my forces." The nobleman smiled. "And for that you have my respect."

Arthur scoffed in reply. "Typical Britannian nobles."

"Silence!" The captain struck the white haired version of the late Emperor.

Wilde frowned and let out a soft sigh. "Good with weapons but lack proper manners."

The knight gritting his teeth in pain gave a sardonic grin. "I'm sorry. I just can't stand bluebloods."

The Household officer snarled again but was held back by the voice of Arthur's new tone.

"Well, my lord, I have a question. Have you heard of the Valiant of old Britain?"

The white-coated noble raised an eyebrow. "You want to discuss about that old legend?"

"It is more than a legend." Arthur reassured him. "In the Dark Ages when King Uther fell, the British Isles were in chaos. Kingdoms waged war upon another. Brother fought brother. Nobles like you, fought each other to be king. And in the mist of this turmoil, the mighty Roman Empire had come as well."

Wilde's eyes narrowed. "What nonsense are you spouting?"

But the knight continued. "In the fighting between Britons and Romans, who was there to protect the people, the innocents? There was such a warrior, a mysterious warrior who brought peace back to the land and fought the Imperial invaders off the Island and established the greatest kingdom mankind had ever made! His name was Knight Valiant, who would one day be King Arthur himself!"

The nobleman laughed and laughed hard while his men chuckled between their helmet visors.

"So," Wilde said, pausing to sip his wine. "You're saying that because you share the same name as King Arthur you think you can get out of here? That your Knights would come and save you?"

The younger man grinned wider. "No, my lord. I do my own killing. For in the past, by the Knight's old code...path of the warrior..."

As the knight's lips moved, Wilde noticed that the voice was getting louder and louder and too different to have come from that of the man's mouth.

"For he is sworn to valour and that his heart has only virtue..."

The chanting was getting louder and everyone in the room was visibly getting shaking.

"His blade defends the hapless and his might uphold the weak...his honour guides the sword..."

Wilde decided that the knight was getting too dangerous raised his hand to order the shooting when the video screen appeared behind him.

The white haired Lelouch spoke with his eyes glowing blue with a bird like symbol, grinning maliciously at the nobleman and his men.

"What the hell? You're not here? Then who..." Wilde turned to see the 'Arthur' standing up with the bodies of his guards around him wielding two black bladed knifes.

The real Arthur's smile only grew. "His wrath undoes the wicked! And if be true that the king..."

"Kill him!" And the Guards around him fired their guns but a figure dropped from above blocking the imposter. The bullets bounced harmlessly off it.

"Sorry, I was late." Jeremiah remarked, drawing his swords.

"Not to worry," Sayoko replied taking off the mask and brandishing her kunai and throwing one into the skull of a guard and hurling a trio of shuriken with deadly accuracy.

Another man dressed in the Britannian army body armour with red shoulder guards charged in with a curved sword, beheading another guard.

As he spoke the words, they sounded...they sounded like...like...Lelouch?

"...holds true to these ideals...His will and might give the knights the strength to vanquish the evil."

"Damn!" Wilde drew his pistol to return fire but his firearm was knocked out by a kunai and the armoured soldier leapt upon him.

"You are finished..." The soldier said, pointing his sword at the nobleman's chest.

"My name is Arthur Peregrine and from the spirits of the ancient order..."

Wilde suddenly had a realisation of the name. "Arthur Peregrine...Arthur...Pen...!"

"And thus I summon thee! KNIGHT VALIANT!"

In the video screen, a bright scarlet and gold Knightmare appeared in the horizon.

Then a massive explosion rocked the room and suddenly everything went black.

They had outsmarted them. Bradley and her cronies had been playing with Kallen into drawing her out from the two knights.

They intent to capture her. Of course, Kallen was after all a Knight of the Round as well as a Black Knight commander and one of the most dangerous pilots in the world. To capture her would be a large blow to the Empire and the UFN and would be leverage for the rebels.

If she were to die, then it would take away another obstacle from the Empress. Kallen wanted to die to see her brother and Lelouch but not without seeing to the world they both died for.

"Come on! I'll take you all!" Kallen screamed as she sent a blast of radiant beam to the charging Knightmares. The crimson beam lanced towards the coming machines, a Sutherland squadron and the beam scattered as the spinning orange figure appeared.

"Damn!" Kallen cursed as she watched the beam just bounced off the electromagnetic shield. Behind the Fomoire, two Gareths appeared and fired their Hadron cannons.

The two blood red beams tore through the sky. Kallen brought her wings together as makeshift shields and the beams bounced off striking the violet energy wings. The half-Britannian knight then lunged forward, radiant arm glowing and MVS knife at the ready.

Four Sutherlands and Gloucesters charged forward with lances. Kallen parried a thrust and stabbed one in the chest and used her wing to rip a Gloucester's entire front open. The Knight of Two just fired a radiant burst to boil the two remaining Knightmares to dust.

Even as the two machines burst into two great fireballs, a Sutherland suddenly appeared from the smoke and thrust a heavy lance at her. The lance barely scratched the Guren SEITEN's thick armour but the impact shoved her back. From above a Vincent Ward dove down and slammed a stun tonfa down on the crimson violet Knightmare's back.

"Arg!" Kallen shouted in pain as she pulled herself together. She had been fighting for so long already and while her Knightmare was still functioning, Kallen's physical body was now aching from exhaustion.

A dark blue Knightmare suddenly appeared with a red-visor. One of those Vipers Kallen recognised and it lunged down firing two of its slash harkens. To Kallen's surprise, they resemble the Shenhu's slash harkens before they had struck her chest cockpit. Even more surprising was that fact that they had dented her armour.

With a snarl, Kallen swung her MVS knife which was met by the Viper's own sword. She quickly caught the blade between the fork of the knife and twisted the weapon free and she finally finished it off with a radiant blast.

The red-haired knight sighed in exhaustion. Sweat covered her entire body.

This can't end here. Kallen thought. Brother...Mother...I promise I would create this perfect world...

The Morgana wheeled about. "Capture her!"

"Yes, milord!" The rebel Knightmares shouted in unison and lunged forward. They swarmed over the clouds and the explosions of the battle and including a green crystal hovering in the middle of them.

Kallen blinked. "Crystal?" She zoomed in and saw a crystal hovering. Then suddenly a pink and white beam struck it.

The crystal glowed bright and soon dozens of beams suddenly fired out, cutting through the sky as well as machine and suddenly the sky was littered with explosions.

"What the..." Kallen's eyes widen in awe and amazement at how so many of her enemies were gone in a split second. She could not believe it. It was a miracle...

Only one name came to Kallen's mind...

Lelouch...

With that from the skies a glittering and gleaming humanoid figure came down like an angel from heaven.

Its armour was red unlike Kallen's Guren SEITEN was a brilliant scarlet blood red and had gold trims all over it. At a glance, one would have thought it was related to the Lancelot. It was certainly built like the Lancelot but its armour was much more ornate and the armour continued to its arms to until the golden fists. The arms were armed with twin heavy spikes ended gold bracers. Two metallic golden wings jutted out from its back and they had a green glow which meant that it was the Knightmare's flight system.

A scabbard hung on the machine's left hip while a kite shield, red and gold trimmed hung on its left arm.

Its head was like of the Lancelot and the Shinkiro combined together with the former being more prominent with two gold horns and sky blue-eyes while it was shaped more like the latter.

"Lord Arthur!" Gordon called out raising his claymore in salute.

"It's about time!" Nelson joined in.

Lunamaria wheeled her Knightmare around.

"What the hell is that? Doesn't matter. Destroy it!"

With that the Vincent Commander drew his sword and pointed. At once a dozen Knightmares charged at the new machine.

The red and gold machine glared at his enemies.

"ARTORIOUS!" The Red Knight shouted as he drove his knightmare down into battle.

"Kill him! All fire focus on the new machine!" The Vincent commander ordered and all remaining Knightmares and ships shifted their weapons to Arthur.

The barrage of missiles and shells came at him from all sides as Arthur dove down in. He banked left and right avoiding the attacks.

"Damn! He's fast!" The Vincent commander cursed as his own missile launcher missed its target. "B squad on me!"

Two Wards and three Gloucesters joined his side in a wedge formation and started firing a more concentrated barrage on the single unit. The crimson-gold machine avoided them just as they did the others.

Then he dove down in with a blur and charged into their formation.

"Now!" The Vincent Commander shouted and a Gareth suddenly appeared in front of the squadron and fired its Hadron cannon. The black and crimson beam lanced straight towards the Red Knight.

The knight suddenly brought its shield up and blocked the beam which dispersed the moment it touched it. The shield glowed green as the blast faded away.

"What the...!" The Vincent commander had brought his needle blazer when the red and gold Knightmare was upon them. It pulled out a glittering golden long sword and swept passed them slashing as it went. In a few seconds, the Gareth, the two Wards and a Gloucester had exploded.

The Vincent and the two Gloucesters fired their weapons at the gold and red Knightmare as it came about. The Knightmare stretched out its sword arm where the golden spikes lowered and fired out like a slash harken. But instead of aiming at them, the Red knight fired it into mid-air then swung it back like a frail which struck them in a line and had them smashing into each other.

As the harken returned to the arm, Arthur brought his golden sword around and slash down on a stunned Gloucester slicing it neatly in half from the head to torso. He turned his machine around and smashed his shield into the second Gloucester then thrust the blade into its chest.

"Damn you!" The Vincent charged out swinging his MVS double sword, thrusting one of the blades at the red Knightmare which it dodged.

Arthur moved a bit back and slashed down with his long sword which bit into the shaft of the double swords, separating them. The rebel officer turned them to duel blades and played in but the red knight smashed one MVS aside with his shield and sliced the other hand off.

Although disarmed, the Vincent refused to give up and brought about its needle blazer and discharged the focused energy blast.

"You won't survive that!" The rebel remarked. But as the energy had faded away, the attack had landed on the knight's shield which remained unscratched.

As the officer bit his astonishment, Arthur thrust the sword into the Vincent's chest and brought it back out.

Kallen took the interruption to lay waste to the enemies around her. Switching her surger arm to burst mode, she literally surrounded herself with the radiant energy boiling and blasting anything within the radius.

With that she burst out of their lines spinning her machine with the energy wings extended so they would act like a large drill. The second wave of rebel knightmares who were supposed to support the first wave should it fail took the blunt of the attack.

A Vincent Ward was literally torn to nothing but scrap metals when it foolishly tried to bury its MVS blade into the Guren SEITEN's head. Its companion Gloucester ended up in the same fate along with a lot more.

The Knight of Two pulled her machine back up on its feet and fired out her surger arm at the next wave this one made up of white and blue Vincent and Vincent Wards. They scattered in the arm's wake and as the squadron tried to close in on the crimson machine the arm came back skewering the Vincent Wards in the rear.

As the last one's chest scattered, Kallen activated her radiant wave and unleashed the blast on the ranks of blue of white machines. One of the leading Vincents flew high then dove down bringing his crimson swords down on Kallen.

She easily deflected the strike with her knife then lashed through the machine's torso while a second Vincent lunged with a needle blazer. Kallen grabbed the offending Knightmare's arm before it could discharge the energy and after kneeing the Vincent, she grabbed it by its leg and arm and tossed it flying into the surviving companions.

Kallen then let out a blast of radiant energy as the Vincent flew and finished off the rest of the squadron.

A stray Gloucester threw a lance at the Black knight captain but the golden polearm was knocked off its course by a large pincer like slash harken which then whipped back and knocked the Gloucester's head off with a returning swing.

Kallen saw her rescuer's red and gold machine bringing back its slash harkens which returned to its red and gold kite shield.

"Pull back!" Arthur ordered. "K-1 and K-2, pull back to the King's Daughter. They're preparing a second mass barrage."

"The bastards are blocking the way!" Nelson shouted. "How the hell are we supposed to get past that blockade!"

"You don't need to. I'll create a diversion and on my signal head straight towards the base."

"But my lord," Gordon protested. "The Valiant is not suited to deal with three capital class ships on its own."

"He's right, mate. You'll need us. Our Knightmares are Commander Models for the Commonwealth Army."

But Arthur shook his head. "No. You two are needed with the Task Force. Rally the remnants and take control of the area. For Artorious!"

"For Artorious!"

As the red Knightmare moved to engage the enemy, the Guren SEITEN barred its way.

"Go back with them." Arthur said.

"I'm staying with you." Kallen said defiantly.

"No, you're not. Last thing I need is a Black Knight hussy to get in my way."

As the Valiant tried to move around, the Guren SEITEN had struck the other Knightmare. The blow had actually struck home.

"Who're you calling a hussy?" Kallen snarled anger evident in her voice.

"Damn woman! Get out of my way!" In response Arthur swung his shield at the Black Knight who avoided it and drew her MVS knife.

Gritting his teeth, Arthur lowered his sword but before the two red Knightmares could come to actual blows the Alymere came in between them.

"Enough!" Gordon shouted, in his thick Scottish accent. "Ye two can fight all ye want later! Right now we gotta battle to win here!" The older knight's voice broke no dispute disregarding their ranks.

The Rhyl hovered near them.

"I say, you two should really get yourself in a room together and..." Nelson remarked.

"HEY!" Kallen shouted her face red with anger and embarrassment.

"Nelson!" Arthur snarled.

The young English knight grinned at the two. "See? Haha, even the same response. Cheerio then!"

Gordon gave them a final glance. "For the sake of your love ones, put aside your differences and fight together."

As the two Britons left, leaving the Britannians alone, the pair stared at each other for a moment though it felt like an eternity.

Lelouch...is it really you? Or are you really a knight like me? Kallen wondered as her feelings become more and more confusing. Or are you some idiot trying to be Lelouch? Finally she couldn't stand it anymore.

"I don't care if you believe me or not. But I fight to maintain the world Lelouch wants. I've always fought to honour his memory."

Not bothering to wait for a reply, Kallen led her Knightmare into the enemy formation.

After a moment, the Valiant followed up.

"Hit them head on." Was all he said.

At the head of the rebel formation, Lunamaria and her Valkyries formed up along with about a hundred and fifty Knightmares in front of the rebel fleet in a wedge formation.

Lunamaria grinned. "I see the two have made up. Right, Valkyries One and Two, lead the left flank. Three and Four, right flank. Surround them. The rest of you lot forward!"

She readied her lance and pointed at the two red machines and at once the fleet launched their barrage.

Cannon shells blanket the entire space in front of the rebel lines. Missiles flew and detonated at the two red machines: one bright scarlet, one violet-crimson. But as the smoke faded away, the two Knightmares were still intact, the Valiant's shield glowing bright green while the Guren SEITEN glowed crimson as missiles and shells detonate around them.

"Open fire!" Bradley ordered as she fired her Hadron blasters as three dozen Knightmares fired machine guns, missiles and Hadron blasts at the duo.

Kallen dodged the incoming attacks and adjusted her radiant arm to disk mode. One of the upgrades other than expanding her radiant energy capacity was to allow her to fire her radiant disks in rapid mode like a machine gun.

So she decided to use it now and launched a volley of the disks into the enemy as a reply while Arthur brought his sword arm and fired Hadron blasts from the blaster on his gauntlet like that of the Shinkiro.

For a brief second, the crimson scheme of the Knightmare turned jet black.

"No." Kallen shook her head and continued her assault as the radiant disks tore through the rebel ranks.

A grey and green Vincent lost its arm and both legs before losing its head as well. A Vincent Ward and its Sutherland companion join its commander's side but before they could do anything, the Ward lost its head to a disk then a second one cut through its torso. The Sutherland did not fare any better taking two disks in its chest.

At the same time Arthur sent out a burst of multiple Hadron blasts that struck their targets with deadly accuracy. The Valiant then charged at a Gareth who had opened its Hadron cannon and fired. The Red knight suddenly adjusted his shield and the weapon glittered green as the black and red beam lance on the Knightmare.

The beam surprisingly bounced off the shield at a certain angle and Arthur took advantage of it and used the deflected beam to cut down an entire line of enemy Knightmare. Then the Arfon knight readied its Hadron blaster and fired a few crimson orbs at the bulky machine blasting its head off.

Then spreading out its arms, the Valiant opened its chest plate and fired out the Shinkiro's trademark beam cannon. The beam blasted through another rank of rebels and he dragged it down the line and cut through their lines like a sword.

Kallen watched at him surprise and admiration and confusion. He fought somewhat similarly to Suzaku in terms of close combat but there was a strategy in them and he often manipulates the enemy's attacks against themselves rather than using his own.

The Black knight commander did not have time to think further as the rebels were starting to scatter. She quickly switched her disk mode into burst mode and unleashed a wave of radiant energy into the rebel lines before they could form up.

Then Kallen lunged forward firing as she go. Two Wards attacked her but Kallen cut through one with her MVS knife and boiled the other with her radiant arm.

A pair of Vincents in light green and gold lunged forward, one of them fired a grenade at Arthur who just moved aside from the shell as it exploded behind the red and gold machine.

The second one threw a chaos mine at Kallen which detonated on her energy wings. In response, Kallen fired out her surger arm and skewer the pilot inside.

Angered by its companion's death, the remaining Vincent lunged at the Knight Valiant with a needle blazer but in a quick move Arthur used his slash harken's edge and arched the angle of the blazer where the energy discharged into thin air. Then he brought his sword arm but instead of using the weapon, he fired a Hadron blast into the chest of the Vincent at close range leaving a burning hole in the machine.

As he discarded the exploding machine, Kallen thought she saw the Valiant nodding at her in approval.

If he was going to say something, she didn't hear it as they came under fire from the ships again. While the two took evasive actions to avoid getting hit, a pink form suddenly loomed over her and Kallen raised her right wing right in time to block the crimson sword from striking her.

The machine quickly avoided her return swing and before Kallen could continue on a second barrage struck her this time from the Vincent's companions.

"Damn, they just keep coming!" Kallen snarled as she fired a burst of radiant wave which caught some machines in the blast though not all.

Just then suddenly, the Valiant burst out high and far ahead from the battlefield. Everyone was so focused on fighting the pair and particularly the Guren SEITEN that the red and gold machine slipped pass them if only for a few seconds.

"What?" Kallen thought. Was he leaving her for dead? The red haired knight could feel her heart hurt and anger. So Lelouch was abandoning her again?

The machine moved further then faced the main fleet and suddenly opened its chest plate and launched its crystal.

The entire sky was suddenly filled with violet and white beams from the crystal. Surprisingly or rather not surprisingly the beams struck fleet and they all hit the engines and gun turrets on the ships of the left flank.

"NOW!" Arthur shouted as he angled to the side and fired another burst of beam. Kallen then realised that he was risking fire to protect the King's Daughter. At once, the green ship appeared with its two escorts and started to get pass the distracted blockade. Some ships tried to turn and fire but the beams from the Valiant distracted them and the Knightmares engaging the Guren SEITEN were too far to reach in time not even the right flanking force.

That's when the thought forgotten Fomoire appeared and charged at the Valiant.

Kallen then suddenly realised that this was the moment she was waiting for and the Black knight shifted all her remaining energy into her wings and sped pass her adversaries with her blinding speed.

The huge Knightmare had begun moving itself towards Arthur who was still firing the beam now from the rear of the fleet covering the King's Daughter. The Rhys came about giving Arthur a hand firing its VARIS in fortress mode although it did little damage to the Logres.

Then at range, the Fomoire fired its claw-slash harken. Arthur turned to block with his shield but it was too late and it came and struck the red and gold Knightmare on the shoulder taking a thick portion of its shoulder plate.

A Ward tried to block Kallen's way but she would not be stopped and tore through the machine with sheer speed alone.

Spreading her wings out, Kallen spin her machine around like a drill and smashed her way through a light Avalon then fired a radiant beam into another ship.

The Fomoire was suddenly upon the Valiant who had finally withdrawn the crystal and fought to prevent him from getting skewered the large bladed cyclone's various claws.

"Agrah!" Kallen screamed as she fired a radiant disk at one of the claw slash harkens' wire preventing it from reaching the red and gold Knightmare, slicing off the wire and arm. The Fomoire turned and fired another at Kallen which she avoided and then lunged in close to the damn machine.

"Die already!" Kallen shouted and gripped on the machine's scarlet head with her radiant surger arm when suddenly electricity surged through her body.

"AHH!" She screamed in pain. She had forgotten the machine's electromagnetic shield.

And now while the infamous Guren SEITEN was stuck on the spider's web, the Morgana who had been stalking the Red Lotus throughout the entire battle appeared before her.

"Well, well what do we have here?" The noblewoman gave her an evil grin. "Well, Kally? What do you value most? Your life?"

Kallen snarled as electricity burnt her.

Chuckling, Bradley readied her lance. "I guess not. For my brother!"

The emerald lance came straight into machine.

NO!

Arthur froze again. It was just like back at the palace.

It felt like as if he's been struck by lightning and his body suddenly froze. He felt a great flow enter his mind, to the point where he struggled to contain it. Clutching his head, Arthur let out a silent scream as his mind became flooded with images. But unlike before this was clear and centred around a young woman with red hair.

"Don't look at me you pervert!" She screamed at him, dressed in a rather revealing pink suit.

"What is going on...?" Arthur felt as if his head was about to burst.

"Tell me Lelouch...why did you come back?" The red haired woman asked, staring at him with deep blue eyes.

"No...What's happening to me?" Arthur shouted and turned to see the Guren SEITEN trapped by the Fomoire's electromagnetic field and was now facing the Morgana at lance point.

Kallen! A dark haired figure shouted in his mind.

Arthur's eyes glowed crimson and suddenly the only thing that mattered to him now was the safety of the fiery red haired woman. Gone was the hostility he felt, gone was the feeling of betrayal, now only a sense of desperation filled him.

He charged at the scene like a raging bull and fired his shield slash harken. The pincer-like harken struck the Morgana in the chest sending it back.

"Agrah!" He raised his golden sword and slashed down leaving a deep gnash on the large Knightmare's red head and the attack stopped the electric attack on the Guren SEITEN's pilot.

The scarlet machine then grabbed its crimson counter-part and dragged it away from the Fomoire. To Arthur's relief, the Guren SEITEN's autopilot system was keeping it floating.

"You stole my kill again!" Bradley shouted as she lunged with her lance to skewer the red and gold Knightmare while it was distracted.

Eyes narrowing, Arthur blocked it with his shield and thrust with his sword which stabbed deep into the Morgana's dented shield. The blue and red machine tossed the shield away and the red knight barely had time to withdraw before the blade falls with it. Bradley slashed with her energy wing but the Valiant moved back to avoid the cut and slashed with his sword to cut off the lance arm.

Then Arthur activated his second sword from the shield's triangular end. A second golden blade appeared out and Arthur brought the blade down on one of the Morgana's back energy wings. The blade scratched the yellow energy wings and cut through the metal and destroyed one of the wings.

"Argrah!" Bradley shouted as she dropped down losing her machine's stability. A Valkyrie broke off from the formation and flew to catch her master while its sister in deep rage raised its MVS in an attack on the red and gold Knightmare.

The Valiant readied both of its blades and met the pink Vincent's charge with a shield bash which shoved the swinging MVSs back to its wielder. He brought his long-sword in a slashing arc which missed the Valkyrie. The pink machine turned about and brought its needle blazer up but the red knight was already bringing his shield blade down and sliced off the Vincent's arm.

Before the Valkyrie could realise what happened, a second golden blade had sliced through its chest and cockpit.

"Sister!" A female voice snarled in open channel. "You bastard!" A second pink Vincent with two white and blue Vincents and a couple of Wards charged at the red machine.

Blood covered the golden sword from the dead female pilot as the Valiant glared at its new enemies with its sky blue eyes. It raised pointed its sword in warning at the new invaders while its shield covered the Guren SEITEN.

Finally Kallen stirred and found her machine behind the crimson and gold Valiant.

"Lelouch...?" Kallen muttered.

"Touch her..." Arthur began his tone dangerous. "And I will make sure you die a painful death..."A golden haired Lelouch said, pointing his sword at the hooded armoured guards that surrounded the chained red haired female.

He was as himself but dressed in a black and red armour gold trimmed completed with a scarlet cloak.

"Beware! The Knights of Pendragon are upon us!"A Cultist had screamed as the red uniformed soldiers stormed the cavern. "The Dragon's Knights are upon us!"

The black-cloaked figure had turned and wailed as the sky rained arrows on them. The guards had no time to react and fell with shafts in their throats and chests.

In the next moment, armoured figures poured in from all sides wielding swords and lances and fell upon the crowd, hacking them apart like sheep.

Meliek shouted. "Finish the summoning!"

The high priest shook his head. "The moment has passed! Get out! Take the Relics and get out!"

"He's right." The female cultist agreed. "There are more like her! We need to make sure the Order survi...!" Before the woman could finish her sentence a spear struck her chest.

"No!" Meliek glared at the gold dragon uniformed soldier who dared to attack a high priest of the Order gestured.

The soldier looked back and before he could draw his sword, his mouth spitted blood suddenly and fell back coughing as if an invisible hand had just crushed his heart.

"No, sister." The man went to his colleague who was clearly dying.

Neclois went to her side. "She'll be fine." He put his hand on her forehead and his forehead glowed with Geass-sigil.

"Now take her." The older man told him.

"What about you?"

"I will finish this." He glanced at Kallen and readied his blade.

He marched towards Kallen and for all what she did, she could not move.

Neclois stared at her with cold eyes.

"Be grateful. You are dying for the good of the lord." He raised his dagger and suddenly a sword point came out from his chest.

A knight in white armour shoved the high priest off, in the mean time the armoured Lelouch arrived to her side as he beheaded a cultist. He turned to block a sword then twisted his hands and cut down the guard.

He thrust his sword into the ground and reached for her.

Kallen's eyes shone in tears.

"Lelouch?" She asked.

Arthur however did not hear her. He found himself looking into an explosion of a pink Vincent where its debris showered on him and the Guren SEITEN.

"What exactly happened?" He suddenly asked himself. Why had he suddenly gone off like that? The knight did not understand why he had acted like that. Was it Lelouch? Was it the late Emperor's Geass command?

But why would he want him to protect a Black knight? Unless what the girl said was true...

"Lelouch..." She muttered again and Arthur frowned. Maybe he had been wrong.

"Let's talk about this later." Arthur said. "The others have gotten away."

Kallen nodded, using her military training to get back on the task. "All we have now is this bunch to take care of."

Arthur nodded. "Let's do this!"

With that the Guren SEITEN and Valiant readied their weapons in fighting stance at the enemy who seemed startled by their renew vigour.

The final Valkyrie and her squadron was the only unit left and as they guard the ships, the survivors of the earlier units lunged forward.

Kallen turned her radiant arm to disk mode while Arthur activated his chest beam and arm mounted Hadron blaster ready.

They came towards the two like a swarm of bees and met the duo's barrage. Radiant disks sliced through limbs and bodies tearing Knightmares apart. Beams and Hadron blasts turned machines to dust and explosions.

Kallen suddenly felt a sense of trust from Arthur as the Valiant glance at her. Trusting her instincts, Kallen lunged forward with her superior speed, slashing a Gloucester and a Ward with her MVS knife then blasted a trio of Sutherlands into dust with a radiant wave.

The pair of Gareth they met earlier appeared as the last of the group with the Valkyrie. The pink Vincent gestured and the two bulky Knightmare lurched forward.

Kallen brought her slash harkens down and fired at the Gareth on the left where they halted the machine's charge then lunged herself on the larger machine with a kick then finally finishing it off with a radiant burst on it.

The second Gareth fired its Hadron cannon at Arthur who let it pass aside and then the gold and grey Knightmare slammed a huge fist at the Valiant and tried to fire point blank range. However, the red knight was ready and grabbed the cannon arm with his shield's pincer edge slash harken and pointed the cannon at a different direction letting the beam follow a different direction. A burst from his chest beam tore a hole in the Gareth and Arthur released the machine as it fell back.

His shield, the Aegis was armed with a variety of weapons, the MSV shield, the pincer arm from the sides that was also a slash harken and the blade.

The fleet then suddenly started their bombardment again this time more furiously there was now almost nothing between them and the two demons.

The last squadron in a wedge formation launched their final attack at the duo with the Valkyrie at their head.

Arthur pulled himself at Kallen's rear and she remembered one of the battles she fought earlier under Lelouch.

Arthur nodded in acknowledgement.

"Do it! For Lelouch."

"For Lelouch!" Kallen cried out as she charged in full speed, firing a blast of radiant beam into the wedge's centre. The beam took down a line of Knightmares and Kallen scattered through them, slashing or blasting anything in her way and the ships.

That left Arthur alone with the rest and he let out his shield blade, meeting the attack head on. He swung with his long sword first and sliced a Ward in half then brought his shield blade to cut down a Gloucester then split opened the chest of another Ward with his long sword then brought down his second blade down on the head of a Vincent until it pierced through its torso.

He fired out his right gauntlet mounted spike slash harken at a Sutherland's neck beheading it then swung it around like a mace and the harken hit a trio of the enemy machines. He brought his shield up, withdrawing the blade and fired his pincer slash harken as well then swung it around as he did with his right arm.

The harkens scattered the enemy formation until they were badly scattered.

"You're going to pay for hurting the mistress!" The Valkyrie lunged forward and moved through the swinging slash harkens with practiced ease and lunged at the red and gold Knightmare with its needle blazer while it was still open.

Arthur did not answer and simply brought the slash harkens back and they came back just as the pink Vincent had reached him and they struck the machine and wrapped themselves around the machine's head and torso.

With a twist of his controls, Arthur snapped the Vincent in half from chest and torso. He quickly discarded the machine, the knight activated his Gejun disturber on his shield based to the technology of the disrupter cannon he used on the Vincent Mark V stunning all surrounding machines. He then fired his chest crystal out and fired a beam where they scattered and struck all Knightmares around with precise accuracy.

Meanwhile Kallen had blasted her way through three Caerleons and had left the already damaged Logres sinking down.

She faced the second Logres which fired furiously at her and their ferocity of the attack forced Kallen turned turn around, firing radiant disks at the gun turrets and missile launchers. The former Black knight then fired her surger arm beam at their engines, destroying them with steel and radiant beam.

Crew already panicked as their mighty forces were laid wasted by two Knightmares and turned to chaos. The captain tried to stem order with gun shots but no one would listen and he could only watched in horror as the red and gold Knightmare appeared on their bridge and fired out a pincer slash harken from its shield into their screen.

Finally the Fomoire reappeared baring the path between the two knights and the final ship. The massive Knightmare glared at the two and lunged forward with spinning its arms.

"Don't worry about it." Arthur told Kallen. "It's just a prototype. It probably has no other weapons other than its claws and armour."

Kallen saw otherwise and the figure looked like a hungry monster from hell but she found herself trusting Arthur...or Lelouch...whoever he was and Kallen lunged forward to meet the machine.

"I will cover you." Arthur stated and started firing his chest beam which bounced off the Fomoire's electromagnetic armour. Kallen now saw that it was supposed to be another Knight Giga Fortress based on the Siegfried but was incomplete and saw it from the clawed hands where only one of them had a Hadron cannon while the other did not.

It was not un-dangerous though as a slash of those claws would tear her Guren SEITEN apart as easy as an MVS blade.

The machine stopped spinning and shot out one of its arms, the Hadron cannon armed one at Kallen but she avoided the blow and beam then fired a radiant disk. Not at the machine but at the wire of the arm harken. The spinning blade stuck the wire and snapped off the arm.

The second arm struck Kallen hard sending her flying away but the hit was worth it, the Fomoire was without one arm and it suddenly started malfunctioning losing a part of itself.

"So it is just a prototype." Kallen said to herself, remembering the problem Gawain's Hadron cannons when she and Lelouch told the machine.

Kallen glanced at Arthur who then suddenly fired a large blast of the Valiant's chest beam which struck the Fomoire full in the chest and this time the beam had broken through the electromagnetic shielding.

The red and gold machine nodded and Kallen charged forward again as the pink and white beams fired around her raining on the purple and white machine. The Fomoire made a last desperate attack and lunged its slash harken at Kallen but the Knight of Two had flew forward up.

Kallen deactivated her energy wings and let her drop on the Fomoire free fall spinning. Even as the Black Knight commander was hovering, a beam from the Valiant hit the Fomoire hard on the chest destroying what was left of its armour and leaving its engine open. She raised her MVS knife high and slammed the purple blade down hard on the opening.

She withdrew the blade and flew out of range as the machine exploded.

Castor Rui Britannia rode in the Equus beside his twin brother's machine the Aquila as it flew beside it.

"What happened?" He had muttered out too no one in particular. The Britannian prince tried to think. He and the rest of the Order had attacked the loyalist forces surrounding the base as they retreated and they were punishing them when suddenly the ground exploded.

Despite the Geass possessed by his unit, they were completely unprepared for it and the Equus and the Alphas were buried in the ground.

Then before they knew it, the loyalist forces had returned this time with an entire legion of Arfon knights in new heavily customised Knightmares with based on the red and silver Vincent. The rust red coloured machines were as fast as the customised Vincent that had attacked them earlier.

Castor threw his machine into that akin a gallop and jumped high and brought his hammer down a hapless Knightmare to smash it apart but its companions were upon the Equus at the last moment and he was forced to move the centaur Knightmare aside as the Arfons turned to attack. However at that moment the white and red Alphas attacked them.

While the two groups engaged each other, Castor engaged a group of loyalist Gloucesters when one of the Light Avalons suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started firing down on the ground units. With his machine being a ground base attacking, Castor was forced to pull back when a silver and blue machine of those Arfon knightmares attacked him with a huge sword.

At the same time, a fast machine in grey and red had swept upon him with VARIS rounds. While he had managed avoid all attacks, the machine then destroyed two recon Alphas who were coordinating the attacks and he finally decided to retreat.

The Geass Directorate could ill-afford to lose the surviving Alphas in Central Britannia and warned his brother to pull back out.

Damn, how could that happen? Pollux complained as they waded into the shadows.

"No one could have predicted that, brother." Castor replied, calmly through his Geass.

We can't lose anymore. The Primus is losing his patience and the time is almost coming.

"So what do we do now?" The twin asked.

We're going to have to talk to the Cardinal and report everything...everything...this Arthur Peregrine could be him you know.

"You mean..."

Yes...we have much to do brother.

On Board the King's Daughter

Lieutenant Nathaniel Reeds of Her Majesty's Household Division or more commonly known as the Imperial Guard had watched the battle in the distance as the Guren SEITEN and the red and gold Knightmare had fought the enemy outnumbered and felt his suspensions of the Red knight.

He shivered as he remembered when the white haired Lelouch suddenly turned away with a drawn pistol.

The two of them and the Marines onboard had suddenly met an attack on board. A black hooded figure with glowing red eyes had attacked them and took out almost half the marines on board with relative ease and watched in shock as Arthur held off the assassin with the sword and pistol until he had blasted it with a small grenade then severed off the man's arms.

"Leave us." Sir Arthur Peregrine told him and the surviving marines as the knight proceeded to presumably interrogate the man. But the Guard officer was reluctant to do it and as he returned to give a report saw the Lelouch-look alike grabbing the assassin's head with a blue glowing left palm then his glowed blue as well.

At first, Reeds thought it was his mind playing tricks as Arthur came out to go to his Knightmare. But he had seen slight blue glow in the red knight's already sky blue eyes and saw it was true.

He had to report to his superiors...no. He had to report to the UFN and the Black Knights...

Jeremiah was surprised to find himself surprised about how the battle had turned out. He strode amongst what was left of the battlefield looking at the burning bodies and metal. As a veteran of the terrible Great War, Jeremiah had long used to the carnage and yet could feel unease watching everything.

He watched as the two crimson Knightmares landing alongside the Arfon Knight's new Knightmare the rust red coloured Alymeres who lined up in salute to the Knight Commander.

The Valiant landed near them and behind him to Jeremiah's surprise was the Guren SEITEN. Arthur got out of his machine first in a black and red pilot suit and landed down. Sayoko appeared behind him in the same pilot suit only red and white.

"Is that Miss Kallen?" She asked in surprise.

Jeremiah nodded. "I think so. Oh no, this may not be good."

Sayoko nodded. "Master Lelouch wouldn't want her here."

Kallen watched in awe as the rust red coloured Knightmares that formed around her and Arthur. They looked like Gordon's machine save for colour and wondered how much they'll perform in battle.

Arthur stood beside her.

"I have some things to attend. There are many wounded at the camp a mile here. A Knight of the Round in the area may ease their pain." He said cryptically, then walking off to join a group of soldiers with red shoulder guards.

He paused first then without turning spoke.

"You fought well." And that was all.

Despite the simple compliment, Kallen felt pride in her chest and she watched the red and black figure walking off.

"I'll see you in Pendragon?" Kallen despite herself shouted to the walking figure.

He paused at her answer then turned and nodded.

For the first time since that fateful day, Kallen felt her heartache at ease.

"Maybe...just maybe..." Kallen muttered to herself before returning to her cockpit.

Now the only question was...what was that vision she saw?

Dunford watched Arthur approaching him and the tied up Wilde flanked with Jeremiah and Sayoko.

"Sir Arthur." He nodded.

"Harry." Arthur nodded back and took a look at the kneeling Wilde. Then without warning, he drew his gold and black pistol and shot the nobleman in the head.

"What are you doing?" Dunford shouted in surprise.

"It's not him." Arthur said, returning his pistol to its holster.

That surprised everyone.

"What do you mean?"

"The real Wilde escaped hours ago. He is a master strategist, he knew he was compromised."

Jeremiah stared at him. "How did you know?"

Arthur flexed his left hand. "I had a discussion with a friend."

Dunford, despite himself glared at the white haired knight, finally losing patience.

"So all those lives that was sacrificed was all for nothing?"

"No." Arthur stated calmly. "They brought us something else. Have teams to recover what's left of the base."

With that the red knight left.

Dunford gritted his teeth and stormed off. "The real Arthur would have never let this happen!"

Jeremiah stared at the ancient knight in sympathy and pity. He did not know how his master was. A soft hand touched his cheek.

"You are hurt." Sayoko murmured.

Jeremiah regarded her smiling. "I am a cyborg. It's fine."

Sayoko grinned. "Not now." She grabbed his hand and let him away. Jeremiah despite himself felt heat rising to through both his organic and robotic organs as he realised what she meant.

Phew! Finally another chapter done. How was it? I think it was too long and kinda messy and a bit corny especially the Knight's Oath thing. Please let me know of your views in this and anyway to improve it.

PS: The Valiant is based on the Infinite Justice from Gundam Seed with the red and gold Lancelot from the magazine. I decided to use the name to further fit the story as the Knight Valiant based on the name Prince Valiant comics of the Arthurian Legend and will play a role later.

The Fomoire is based on the Regnant from Gundam 00.

Hope you enjoyed it. Read & Review.