"Never explain yourself. Your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe it." Beligica Howell

"So you fought my brother?" Iris said in the dark room.

"What…where am I?" Zero asked as he looked into the room.

Zero turned to see his old lover Iris looking at an apparition of him when he first entered the room. Zero looked as he watched himself look at Iris with his face down. She was holding the sphere of data that contained her brother's DNA.

"I'm so sorry." The apparition of him said.

"No…please….not this…" The real Zero said in the background.

"Then I guess this is goodbye." Iris said.

"No…" Zero said.

"Wait, Iris! Listen to me!" The apparition of Zero said.

Zero watched as Iris transformed into the power armor by using her brother's energy. He watched as the apparition of him activated his beam saber and began attacking the armored carrier.

"Please…not again…" Zero said.

Explosions raged all over the area as the two fought. Although the energy Iris' carrier was firing exceeded that of the Z-Buster, she could not use correctly and missed Zero often. Zero eventually destroyed the propulsion of the machine. He then watched as he himself raised his saber to strike the machine.

"No…" Zero said. "NO...NO!"

Zero got up from where he was and attempted to block the saber with his body. However he was considered nothing more than data and the saber went through him and sliced the armor carrier in half.

"IRIS!" Zero shouted.

His eyes suddenly grew wide as images of all the reploids he wasted appeared in his head. He tried to control them by grabbing his head applying pressure. But alas, he was trapped in a dream and could not stop the images. Once again, he saw the fated scene in his mind of when she died right in his hands.

"Iris!" Zero shouted as he ran towards her.

Iris looked up at him weakly. Her body was destabilizing and her life signs vanishing.

"Zero…stay…away…from Repliforce…" She said barely. Blood began to leak out of her mouth. "Let's go to a world where only Reploids exist."

"Iris…don't make go through this again…please..." Zero said. Pointless to make any different conversation. The memory continued exactly the same way it did before.

"I know…" She said as her eyes slowly began to close. "But I wanted to believe…live in a world like that. With you…"

Zero noticed her eyes were closing.

"No Iris! Don't die!" Zero said.

Zero grabbed her arm tightly. He began to search deep into his data core to find something, anything to help her. Even if she was just a dream, he wanted the memory to go different. He wanted it to stop plaguing him. Try as he might, he could not delay the inevitable. Iris stopped moving in his hands; again.

Zero could not believe it. Again he had to relive a memory he hated. Intense emotion built back up into him. Things he wanted to say left unsaid. Deeds that were done he wished he never committed. A life he was forced to live in that he hated. People he had wish had lived died. He couldn't take it. His brain rushed from one side to the other.

"Iris…NNNnooooooooo!" HE screamed at the top of his lungs. "This isn't happening! There's no reason for me to go on! What am I fighting for!"

"Iris!" Zero shouted as he woke up in his bed.

Zero looked at himself as he did. He was in total chaos. His hair was messed up from tossing and turning, his eyes bloodshot, and his whole body alternating from cold to hot every second. His mechanical heart pumped over 240 times per minute as he slowly tried to recover from the ordeal. Zero got out of his bed, stumbling a bit as he grabbed onto a wall of his room. He managed to get to a window and opened it up as he allowed the cool fall breeze to enter in. The cool air breezed onto his shirtless body.

"She's dead okay…?" Zero shouted as tears built up in his eyes. "Dead."

Zero began to sob as he recovered from the ordeal. No tears fell from his eyes, but he displayed similar emotions as he allowed the emotions that built up in the dream to be let out. Every day since her death, the same nightmare would occur on the day of it. Zero despised the day. He despised his life as a Maverick hunter, even though he enjoyed the thrill of battle.

"Why…?" He asked himself in complete disarray. "Why can't I let go… why can't I move on?"

He let another burst of emotion as he leaned on the wall, not knowing that Leviathan was up listening to his emotional outburst. However, as much as she wanted to say something, all she did was stay still and sob. She had never seen Zero like this and what had happened to him touched her heart completely.

"Zero…" she said as he looked up to realize he wasn't alone in the room. "I am so sorry. For everything…I had no idea what you were going through…"

Zero wiped his face, and looked at her.

"It doesn't matter…" He said. "It's over now…nothing more I can do. This is my curse to live with."

Leviathan got up, using her blanket to shield her body.

"Let me help you Zero…" She said, moving closer to him.

At first Zero didn't know where she was going with this…but soon he managed to inference what she was implying. He saw she was looking at him intently…keeping her eyes peeled onto his sculpted human body. For someone who just started using the simulation program, he looked like that of a body builder. And then she released the blankets, letting them fall into the floor. Of course she was naked…she always slept like that lately. Zero tried to avert his eyes…but he found that he couldn't…no matter how much he tried.

"I know that by doing this…" She said. "That your opinion of me will probably change. I want to help you Zero…so please…let me try…in this fashion…to help you forget."

Zero found himself reaching his arms around her, letting her nipples touch his body. Zero then reached with his head and began to suck on her neck. Leviathan stood there, pulling her head back, relishing in it. Zero could feel himself becoming hard as he began to caress her breasts. He felt disgusting at the same time, but the feelings of pleasure override his desire.

I feel like I am betraying both of them…but I can't help it…

Leviathan let him caress for over five minutes before she finally reached for Zero's sweat pants and pulled them down. She then leapt towards Zero, forcing himself into her. She wrapped her legs around him, attaching to him. And then he thrusted. Leviathan pulled her neck back as the first spasm hit her. She moaned loudly, but not enough for the whole house to here. Just enough for Zero to relish in it.

Zero found that he could not hate it…as the pleasure continued to build up, but the position was uncomfortable. Zero…with Leviathan still inside of him…moved to the bed and placed her on the bottom.

"Come on Zero…" She whispered. "I want you…let me help you forget them for one night…"

Zero gritted his death, full of human hormones from his simulated brain, and detest for Leviathan. Still…she was beautiful as she stood there with her chest exposed. He began first be fondling her breasts, feeling her as a man would milk a cow. The sweat from his body and hers were mixing into one. After a few minutes of caressing, he fell into her.

And they continued to have intercourse for the remainder of the night.

"Thanks for having me look over my homework X." Suzaku said as X typed on the computer for the R&D lab.

"No problem." X said. "You weren't attending any form of school when you first were in Britannia so it can't be helped. Besides, with the exception of military operations, they kind of let me do my own thing anyway. I guess they themselves are still unsure of my place here."

"I have the people at the student council helping me out to, but I can't get the hang of it." Suzaku said as X checked over his work.

"Well you came to the right guy when it comes with work like this." X said as he checked over Suzaku's math. "When I heard the news from Lloyd, I was worried."

"Worried?" Suzuka asked.

"Based on the people's opinion of the Japanese, I thought you wouldn't be able to fit in at such an informal school." X said.

"I was worried about that too." Suzaku asked. "But I ran into an old friend and he opened the door for me."

"Hold onto him." X said. "Friends, especially ones who go out of their way to help you and others and dear friends to hold onto."

Suzaku nodded. While X checked his work, he pressed something on his arm. A holographic screen popped up of the battle between him and the cloaked warrior. X moved the screen to eye view and began pressing more keys on his X-buster. All while he was doing that, he was checking Suzaku's math, marking the ones wrong and checking the right ones. X stopped at one point and then pressed a button on his arm cannon. X's body glowed brightly for a few seconds. Then bit by bit, his armor vanished into a series of Zeros and ones. Eventually he was wearing a Short sleeved blue shirt with yellow stripes on it, fingerless gloves, black jeans, and white sneakers. His hair was short in the front, but long in the back, stretching to his neck.

"Whoa…" Suzaku said.

"That was exactly what I was like when I first analyzed this." X said. "It's some sort of disguise program, but it works so well. It's supposed to make the Reploid look and feel like a human, thereby neutralizing any scanners on it. You can't even tell if a Reploid is a human or if the human is a Reploid."

"That's amazing!" Suzaku said.

"Yeah." X said. "But the drawback is this: somewhere out there that Reploid is using that same program. He's so well blended into society, you can't tell the difference between him and a human."

Suzaku nodded. He knew X was going to have his work cut out for him.

"Here try this." X said, handing Suzaku a rice cake.

"Thanks." Suzaku said as he grabbed and bit into it. He then looked to see blueberries in there.

"Cecile baked them this morning." X said. "She used fresh blueberries. I never got a chance to taste things before; I think this disguise mode is making me crave them; they taste so good."

"All right people!" Lloyd said as he walked into the room. "We don't have to show ourselves today! CON-GRAD-U-LATIONS! ...that is all."

Suzaku and X looked at each other wondering how much theatrics Lloyd knew.

The cat that Suzaku had captured yesterday was now an official member of the student council. Millay had decided to keep the cat as a pet since they had put it through such an ordeal. Since the cat was no going to live in the school, the student council members were working to get stuff for it (such as a cat box, scratching post, etc). Shirley and Kallen were the only ones there at the time.

"Hey Kallen." Shirley asked as the two worked.

"What is it Shirley?" She asked back.

"Are…are you hiding something from us?" She asked.

"What…?" Kallen asked. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Tell me." Shirley said. "I won't be surprised. The other day…I saw it."

As soon as she had heard that, Kallen grabbed her knife pouch and activated it. The cat, or Arthur as he was now called, flipped out as soon as the knife came to the surface.

"You're dating Lulu aren't you?" Shirley shouted.

Kallen quickly retracted the knife and wondered what Shirley meant.

"I saw you two in the courtyard." She shouted.

Kallen remembered that Lelouch had grabbed her face for some unknown reason. However, he made no physical contact with her. Judging from Shirley's possible perspective that Kallen tried to incorporate into her mind, it might have looked like the two were kissing.

KISSING!

"No, no, wait." Kallen said. "He was the one who made the advance and…"

"Lulu started it!" Shirley shouted. It was obvious she was becoming paranoid.

"No it's not like that!" Kallen shouted.

"But the other day you we're trying to catch that cat as well!" Shirley shouted.

"It wasn't for that!" Kallen said. "Besides it's only a mere kiss…"

"A mere kiss!" Shirley said. "So you two have done more?"

"Shirley shut up!" Kallen shouted. "Stop letting your imagination run wild!"

"Why can't you tell me?" Shirley shouted.

"Never explain yourself. Your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe it." Kallen shouted.

"So what you would do is distribute the numbers by taking this seven and multiplying it to the two numbers in the parenthesis." X said as he helped Suzaku with math. "Then you repeat the process with the number outside the bracket, dropping down any number before that one, and then…"

"Excuse me X." Cecile said.

"Yes Miss Cecile?" X asked.

"Viceroy Cornelia sent a message to you." Cecile said. "She has an operation that she needs your help with."

People all over Britannia were watching as a large amount of Knightmares, tanks, and or otherwise were using the main highway to enter into a nearby ghetto. More than half of the Britannian population watched as the military rode to their destination.

"We now have the Saitama Ghetto completely surrounded." General Dolton said as he and his troops went over the operation in the Britannian armored carrier. "The Fierce Yamata group is hiding somewhere in the city. More than half of the civilians are cooperating with them. In addition to the resistance, we also have intelligence about a very particular person. An Honorary Britannian has identified a young woman who is hiding among the rebels as a prisoner. There's not much about her other than the young lady seems to be directly linked to Zero. "

"What do we have about her?" Cornelia asked.

"Not much other than her name is Ciel." Dolton said.

"How does it go into controlling the civilian populace?" Cornelia asked.

"The first group will be ready in T-Minus two hours." Dolton said.

"We're ahead of schedule then." Cornelia asked.

Cornelia nodded her approval. She then turned her head towards a group of coated men.

"You men were involved in the incident at Shinjuku were you not?" She asked.

"Yes, and we are deeply grateful for your mercy…" they began.

"That's not what I mean!" Cornelia said.

All of them looked up in confusion of what Cornelia meant.

"Don't you think it looks similar?" She asked. "To what Shinjuku looked like?"

All of them looked at the governor in sheer confusion.

"Zero is a theatrical type of criminal." She said. "In order to draw him out, I am going to create a scenario similar to Shinjuku. I hope by doing this means that Zero will come out and try to kill me."

Everyone gasped when they had heard that.

"My lady…" A soldier said. "If that is the case, your life is in danger!"

"In battle, one must risk one's life, to take another's." She said. "There is another reason for this operation: Zero's bodyguards."

Everyone looked at each other in confusion.

"X, display the data." She said.

X entered the room and walked over the main computer terminal of the command center. His right arm turned into the X-buster and he inserted a USB jack into it. A holographic screen appeared that showed Zero and Leviathan wiping out the Knightmares at the ambush.

"There was an attempted assassination about a week ago of a rouge reploid named Leviathan; a female lance wielding reploid who has mastery over ice. However, the assassination failed. Britannian suffered critical casualties at the battle, because of the cloaked reploid. His skills matched that of the X weapon, almost exact. Of the units deployed at the fight, only a mere fifteen percent returned in one piece. This Reploid also took the lives of two soldiers when Zero first made his appearance. He is also believed to have destroyed a supply depot the day when Zero made his appearance, and several black op companies that were sent after Leviathan. We are assuming this cloaked warrior is a Reploid. We are hoping that when Zero makes his appearance, so will these two. That is where X and Harpuia will come in."

"Right." Harpuia said.

"When these Reploids appear, you will be deployed to attack them before they do any severe damage to our forces." Cornelia said. "Once the two are neutralized, you will secure the girl named Ciel and bring her to me unharmed. Inform all soldiers that the girl we are searching for will look similar to that of a Britannian. Tell them to check their fire before they unload any rounds."

"Are you really going to accept the enemies challenge?" C.C. asked Lelouch.

"They did go through all the trouble of inviting me." Lelouch said. "And they are things I would like to ask Cornelia."

"Destroying Britannia or finding your mother's murder?" C.C. asked

"Ah." Lelouch said. "Those are just two paths down the same road. Britannia is always being in conflict on who will succeed the throne. No…they are being forced into that conflict…by that man!"

Lelouch thought of his father. Thoughts of killing him swarmed his mind.

"But that is Britannia's strength." C.C. said. "The strongest one will win and be able to reign over the empire without fail."

"That is correct." Lelouch said, having trouble keeping his emotions under control. "The weak will lose everything and be forced to grovel. That is the world."

"Survival of the fittest is man's number one rule." C.C. said.

"Then what about Nunally?" Lelouch shouted. "Will she have to die because she is weak? I will never accept that! I will erase this world and…"

Lelouch heard a gun cock into place at the door. He looked up to see C.C. with a semi-automatic 12mm pointed right at him.

"Don't go Lelouch!" She said.

"Are so sure you want to do that?" Lelouch asked. "I for one thought you needed me alive in the first place?"

"I am not going to kill you." She said. "I will simply shoot you in the leg to prevent you from moving."

"I see." Lelouch said. "You can't use Geass can you?"

C.C. simply grunted.

"I figured as much." Lelouch said. "Suits my purposes."

Lelouch snapped his fingers. A second after he did, a silenced gunshot was heard. C.C.'s gun was shot straight out of her hands. She gripped her arm for the force that ensued had caused some pain, but none of it significant. She looked to the side to see Zero with his pistol pointed in the direction.

"Elpizo did say that Zero has his own will and mindset." Lelouch said. "He will be able to question and even refuse orders. Seeing as Zero has his own mindset, I am assuming that this concept also applies to you. You may have been the one who provided me with him, but you do not give him the final say in anything."

C.C. gripped her hand for a few more seconds as she got up.

"I was dead up until the moment I met you." Lelouch continued. "A powerless corpse pretending to be alive. A life that lives without doing anything; it is a slow death. If I were to live that life again, I would have rather you shot me."

"I see." C.C. said. "I guess you're right. A life like that would be meaningless. Fine, go Lelouch. March to your death."

Lelouch walked with the briefcase in hand and walked out the door. Zero soon followed.

"You look like hell." C.C. said.

"Yeah..maybe." Zero said.

Several gunshots bellowed out as a Britannian soldier attacked an innocent eleven. The man collapsed in his blood instantly from the shock.

"Why!" An Eleven shouted. "We have children here! We didn't do anything!"

"That is the point!" A soldier said. "Instead of reporting terrorists, you shielded them and protected them. That is high treason against the Britannian Empire!"

The guards rearmed their weapons and fired at all of the civilians.

"Well it seems the civilians have been taken care of." Dolton said to Cornelia after he got the confirmation.

"Very well." Cornelia said. "Begin the attack."

"Very well." Dolton said. "All units! Begin the destruction of the Saitama Ghetto. All troops line up in formation one."

Thus the attack began. It wasn't even really an attack. It was more like a slaughter. Everywhere, Elevens were hunted down mercilessly by the Britannian soldiers. People were blown to pieces by tanks, show up by soldiers, and hunted relentlessly.

"It's just the same." Lelouch said as he gazed out on a high altitude position to view the battle. "Even with Clovis gone, Britannia is just the same."

A Knightmare used its Slash Harken to grapple up where Lelouch was. It saw Lelouch and opened up its com link.

"What unit are you from?" The pilot said.

"I am Daniel Tolis from the 3rd recon team." Lelouch said. "I have recovered this from the terrorists."

"A Data disk eh?" The pilot said as he began to exit his Sutherland. "I'll need to check your Id before we can…ARGH!"

When the pilot got out, Zero kicked the guard from midair. The blow from Zero's kick was so hard that the pilot's ribcage had been fractured. The pilot slowly tried to get to on his feet, but feel in sheer fear when he saw the cloaked Reploid look at him.

"It's the cloaked Reploid!" He shouted. "Daniel, run!"

"Ah." Lelouch said looking at Zero. "Right on time. I was wondering where you were."

"Wait…" The pilot said. "He's your friend!"

"He's my bodyguard." Lelouch said.

"But…but… if that is the case, then you must be…"

Zero drew his saber and stuck in the pilot's stomach. The pilot only stayed alive for a few more seconds before being a lifeless corpse. He withdrew the saber and kicked the body off a cliff. Zero took the USB key to the pilot's Sutherland and scanned the contents of it with his scanners. Leviathan leaped down seconds later after Zero did the dirty work.

"You had to take all the fun." Leviathan said.

Zero ignored her and said to Lelouch while throwing the USB key to Lelouch. "Password is Q87. Doesn't look Britannia is upgrading their security in the least."

"Right." Lelouch said. "Are you ready to unleash hell on Britannia?"

"As much as I hate to say it…I really want to kill something right now." Zero said as he activated the Z-Saber in hand.