Turn IV: Fire in the Sky.
(December 25th early morning, Tokyo airfield)
"You must not under estimate him, no matter how great the disadvantage to him, we are dealing with Todoh, he proved himself at Narita, during the train rescue and Shikinejima, and he will find some weakness." Guilford warned the Escort fleet commodore Nelson
"How pessimistic, and you are called the Vanguard Lancer of the Empire? Governor Euphemia and Vice-governor Nunnally are safe with me. You won't have any role" the commodore replied.
"But Todoh….."
"Lord Guilford, Todoh and the Slayers officially stopped being terrorists and that is the only reason they still live, if they attack the convoy then we will have an excuse to finally exterminate those pests, as you say he is a good general, would a good general actually make such a strategic blunder?" Nelson replied, which caught Guilford off guard.
"Sorry for being late!" Lloyd said cheerfully approaching them with Cecile, Nina was also with them.
"Packing all the equipment for the Lancelots took some time, eh?" Lloyd replied.
"It's has been a while Professor Lloyd." Guilford replied.
"Yeah, ever since becoming the Emp's direct subordinate-"
"How dare you address His Majesty in that manner!" Nelson cut Lloyd off.
"F-Forgive us. Earl Lloyd!" Cecile said.
"Hm? Was something wrong?" Lloyd said confused.
"The same as always! And about those machines you gave us." Guilford asked for himself and the Gladstone knights which were with him, their father Darlton though that Nunnally and Euphie would need all the help they could get.
"Oh those, well Prince Schneizell saw your performance and out u=you on the top of the waiting list!" Lloyd replied.
"Good grief…To think that this kind of dissipate noble is Princess Cornelia's right hand, he should take lessons from Lord Kururugi, I've seen him in action and he never fears or overestimates the enemy" Nelson said in his mind.
(Lelouch convoy several hours latter)
"My lord we will rendezvous with the escort in 20 minutes." Jeremiah said waking his Liege up.
"Thank you for informing me general, oh and by the way I forgot to ask but where's the Siegfried?" Lelouch asked as he got up and made his way to the hangar.
"I was told that it was swept away by the sea currents. I truly am sorry for losing the great weapon you entrusted me with!" Jeremiah said apologetically.
"Don't be, I would rather lose a thousand Siegfried's than lose you." Lelouch replied and it restored his confidence.
(Skies above the Pacific)
"Zero is moving to escort the Governor and Vice governor?" Gyno said to Odysseus who was left in command of the Black Knights while Lelouch was gone.
"Yes Lord Gyno, the Field Marshall may suspect an ambush on the convoy" Odysseus replied.
"Well it that's the case then we best go and help them, let's go Anya!" Gyno said and both Knights of Rounds went full throttle towards the rendezvous point.
(Nunnally and Euphie's escort ship)
"Where are the two princesses?" Nelson asked.
"They're in the garden" one of the bridge officers replied.
Just then the alarm went off.
"Enemy spotted in front of us, we estimate at least 300 boogies!" the radar operator said.
"The Slayers!" Nelson said in shock.
"All units listen up our objective is to capture the two princesses; they are not to be harmed under any circumstances!" Kaguya ordered her men.
"Understood !" they replied in unison.
The carrier launched its array of defensive fighter but Todoh and the Shiseiken quickly destroyed them with their Akatsukis, they then landed the Burai's on top of the carrier in order to get the two Princesses.
"All remaining units launch, also fire all guns at the enemy!" Nelson said
"But the enemy are aiming for the convoys float system and we cannot fire it our shields raised!" on officer said.
"Damn it! Lord Guilford's fears were justified; the Slayers are risking everything in this attack!" Nelson said in frustration.
The Slayers continued to hammer at the other escort vessels until only the transport carrier and one escort remained, the rest fell from the sky.
"Put up you shields as much as you want, once we are inside them they are useless!" Asahina said.
"If you get too excited, you'll end up like the naked rabbit of Inaba!" Senba warned him.
"Yes, yes I'll be careful!" Asahina replied, when suddenly a hail of bullets' surprised him.
"Reinforcements?" Chiba said confused.
"No! These are their rearguard!" Todoh looked behind and saw six Vincent's, Guilford and the Gladstone knights had arrived.
"Time to finish this!" Guilford said to himself.
The Gladstone knights and Guilford made a strafing pass on the Slayers Burai's and took at least twenty down.
"You son of a bitch!" Tamaki said before his knightmare was disabled and he was forced to eject.
"This is strange; the enemy has aerial units, why don't they pursue us?" Guilford said to himself, just then a large energy beam came towards them, they managed to dodge it in time, but Bart's, Geoffrey's and Alex's knightmares were all hit forcing the pilots to eject.
"What the devil?" Claudio said and they saw the Shen Hu in all its glory from where the blast came from.
"Damn that Guilford, moving on his own!" Nelson angrily said.
"But we are saved now!" one of the officers replied.
"And all the credit goes to him!" Nelson snapped back angrily.
(Lelouch's position)
" The enemy has already commenced its attack?" Lelouch asked his radar operator.
"Yes sir! Guilford and the Gladstone knight seem to be holding up, but there's simply to many of them !" he replied.
"All unit sortie! We must assist our comrades!" Lelouch ordered and prayed in his mind for them to hold out until they could manage to get there.
(Escort's position)
Guilford and his men were now attacked from all sides, they formed a circle and tried desperately to hold out, juts then a harken came from the west and destroyed two Burai's on the carrier.
"All Right, it's punishment time!" Gyno said as he and Anya entered the battle.
"That's a weird looking Jet fighter, however…." Asahina said and he attacked Gyno.
Gyno immediately transformed from jet form to knightmare form and disabled Asahina's frame.
"I'm sorry! It's up to you guys now!" Asahina replied.
Just then the remaining escort ship started to go on a collision course with the carrier and immediately Anya fired a blast of her cannon destroying it.
"Commander Todoh this is Xingke I will take care of the knights of rounds, send the Guren and the Gawain to retrieve the targets" Xingke said and they complied.
"Commodore Nelson, what are you doing?" One officer asked.
"I must earn merit….if I don't I will be demoted" he said and fired a blast from one of the few remaining cannons at Todoh, which he dodged and the blast hit the engines making the ship loosing it's flying capabilities.
(Slayers command submarine)
Kaguya was viewing the battle on the tactical map, and she saw that it was going well, for a moment she thought they could actually catch the two princesses until…
"Enemy sighted, at least six of them moving fast and at low altitude." One of the bridge officers said.
(Escort ship garden)
The door to the garden had just been opened by Kallen.
"Princesses Nunnally and Euphemia, you are coming with us" Kallen proclaimed.
"Hello Kallen-san it's been awhile." Nunnally replied which caught Kallen off guard.
"Kallen-san let me ask you this before you take us, isn't there a way to change things without bloodshed?" Euphemia asked.
Kallen and Inoue and Minami who were piloting the Gawain were both shocked at the princess's attitude.
"Guren and Gawain look out; enemy reinforcements are on their way!" Todoh's voice warned them.
Before they could react Lelouch and Suzaku along with Bradley and Omar burst onto the Garden from beneath the ship.
Lelouch tackled the Gawain and Suzaku the Guren and like sumo wrestlers push them through the roof and onto the top of the ship.
"George, Bradley, we will take care of these two get Nunnally and Euphie out of here" Lelouch ordered and they complied.
Todoh seeing this immediately rushed to aid them but was stopped by a harken which cut off his left arm.
"Todoh' let's finish what we started at Narita!" Jeremiah said to him and charged him and his Remaining three Holy swords with Viletta and Kewell.
Suzaku made his way towards Kallen, he smashed one Burai with a punch from his left arm and cut in two a second one with his sword , a third Burai charged him, he activated his energy shield, blocked the charge, pushed the Burai back and then Impaled him with his sword, he then charged Kallen and his sword clashed with her dagger and Kallen radiation wave with his shield pulling them into another tug of war
Lelouch Blocked one Burai who tried to stab with his sword and then gave him a kick in the head which send it flying, he then turned around and swung his word slicing another enemy Burai.
He then saw the Gawain was next to him and with his voice full of anger shouted through the speakers the following words.
"YOU'VE CROSSED THE LINE, THE ONE LINE YOU SHOULDN'T CROSS, COMMITTED THE ONE SIN I CANNOT FORGIVE, NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, WHAT YOU SAY I WILL NOT FROGIVE YOU FOR THIS, IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THEY AREN'T HURT, THE FACT THAT YOU TRIED TO HARM THEN IS REASON ENOUGH, I WILL HUNT YOU ALL DONW AND RIP OUT YOU GUTS WITH MY BARE HANDs!" this statement made every slayer tremble in fear.
Lelouch them launched a harken at the Gawain, but it caught it with his left arm and crushed it, the Gawain then drew a sword from its back like the one Todoh had and lashed at the Shinkiro, Lelouch blocked the first blow with his shield, the second he dodged by moving to the left, the third by ducking his head, the fourth blow was an upped slash which he blocked with his shield, the fifth blow he blocked one more with his shield and he squatted down, rolled his body to the right and with a roll of his body slashed the Gawain's right leg with his sword.
The Gawain fell back a meter tried to slash him again, but Lelouch rolled his body forward and impaled the Gawain sword arm in the center distance between his elbow and his shoulder, he then twisted the blade 45 degrees while it was still inside the Gawain blocking it, he then pulled himself forward using the sword towards the Gawain and gave him an double chest kick, which made the giant frame, fall down on its but, it was now heavily damaged and a visible crater was in its chest.
Lelouch then pulled the sword from the Gawain's arm.
"You reap *panting* what you sow!* panting" He then made a 360 degrees twist of his body and with a whirlwind slash of the sword decapitated the Gawain, forcing Inoue and Minami to eject, the Gawain now headless fell to the depts of the Pacific.
Lelouch then looked to his left, saw enemy Burai's and charged them the first he crashed into him with his shield so hard he shattered him to pieces, the second he cut in half with his sword, the third managed to impale him in the right arm with his spear disabling it, Lelouch then let go of the shield and with his remaining left arm grabbed the spear, pulled the knightmare closer and gave him a head but which shattered the Burai's head making the pilot eject.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Lelouch shouted and he charged what was left of the enemy.
Kallen despite being occupied with Suzaku, noticed this and upon seeing this was shocked, Lelouch was out for blood plain and simple, they tried to lay a hand on his sister and he was going to make them pay a devil's debt for it, for one moment she truly thought a monster, a dragon or demon was before her.
The same was true for Kaguya who witnessed the sheer anger, and savagery with which Lelouch threw himself at their troops.
"All units' withdrawal, we cannot win here!" Kaguya ordered her soldiers.
The unites complied, but it wasn't a withdraw, just then fire came from their left flank, it was Lloyd and Cecile inside the Avalon blocking their retreat, Todoh and Xingke units were too exhausted.
Behind them Lelouch and the others were gaining fast.
"Hello Kallen-chan!" the face of Laksharta popped on the screen.
"Sorry for the late arrival, but I've finished the upgrades to your Guren!" Laksharta said and she immediately launched the missile with the upgrades, Kallen then charged them to buy the Slayers time to reach the submarine
"Gyno, you Any and Suzaku take care of the Guren, the rest of us will eliminate the remaining Slayers !" Lelouch ordered, he then picked up the Guren now with its upgrades charging them.
"Watch out!" Lelouch said and Kallen blasted her now long range radiation wave surge at them, Lelouch frame was power drained, but thanks to its Druid system shields it survived the attack, But Guilford, Viletta, Kewell and The Gladstone knights were caught in it and forced to eject before the frames exploded.
"Suzaku guard Lelouch, me and Anya will take care of the Guren!" Gyno said and he turned his frame into its fighter mode and charged at the Guren.
"Eat this!" Kallen said as she gave another energy blast and the Tristan gave a barrel role to avoid it and fire its harken, The Guren also rolled to avoid the harken, Gyno the fired his machine gun, but Kallen speedily dodged the bullets.
"Hey hey, a pilot at the level of a Rounds member?" Gyno said caught off guard by Kallen's skill.
"But..with this…." Anya said as she aimed her cannon and fired and Kallen.
"Don't underestimate my Guren!" Kallen said as she dodged the blast and gave powerful kick to the Mordred's face.
"She stepped on me…" Anya said and activated her body energy blasters, making Kallen retreat and block them with the radiation wave.
"Take this!" Kallen said and used her special dispersed radiation wave blast which made the Tristan and the Mordred freeze in their tracks.
"What is that knightmare?" Anya asked curious.
"No, it's the pilot. I should've gone all out." Gyno replied.
"Lelouch get back!" Suzaku said as Kallen now charged him.
"Make him eat my Gefjun net!" Laksharta said and t
Laksharta said and Kallen fired the net it engulfed Suzaku.
"A counter measure for that has already been developed" Suzaku said to her and fired hi VARIS at her.
"But it slowed you down!" Kallen replied and dodged the shot and rushed Suzaku, he tried to draw his sword but Kallen managed to hit him with her radiation wave before he could do it.
Kallen now smiled to herself knowing she finally would destroy the original Lancelot, just then something rammed her and rammed her so hard that both her and whoever slammed himself into her flew all the way to the Slayers submarine hitting it hard and making it rock in the waves.
Kallen then looked and saw that it was the Colgrevance Shinkiro who did that.
Lelouch knowing that Suzaku's frames was heavily damaged and needed help could not continue his attack, so he scratched the Guren's chest plate with his remaining arm and then grabbed it by the neck brought it up to his knightmares face and said:
"See you at your funeral Kallen!" and the raced to help Suzaku who was losing altitude.
Kallen was shocked by what she just saw and heard.
The same man, who so gently made love to her and kissed her and whispered in her ear, now was the same man who fought like a demon, and talked to her with his voice filled with anger, bloodlust and pure and powerful hatred.
"The Niddhog, that wasn't Lelouch, it was the Niddhog, up until know….Oh God, what have we unleashed upon ourselves!" Kallen said to herself still in shock by what just happened.
"Kouzuki what are you doing hurry up and get inside!" Todoh ordered and Kallen snapped out of her daze and got in the submarine.
(Avalon, meeting room)
"An attack like this on the royal family cannot be overlooked; I say we go and smashed those Slayers to pieces!" Jeremiah said and everyone else in the room agreed.
"It's true that what they did was wrong, but killing them all is a far to harsher punishment! "Nunnally aid and this caught everyone off guard.
"What are you saying Princess! You and Princess Euphemia are the ones they tried to kidnap, and they'd try it again if they thought it would succeed!" Guilford replied.
"I stand by Nunnally in this matter, outright killing them is a too cruel of punishment!" Euphie replied which caught even Suzaku off guard, despite him loving Euphie's gentle and forgiving nature, he himself could not even dare to understand how they could overlook this attempt.
"I am afraid it's not that simple!" Diethard Reed intervened.
"What do you mean Mister Reed?"Viletta asked
"During the last year after the original SAZ ceremony the Slayers did not commit any terrorist activities in Brittannian Japan and in Kyushu the bombed small target buildings and ambushed insignificant convoys, but they were all highly publicized, so the people now consider them as Allies of justice and the majority of the population now support them, I am afraid that if we attack them we will lose the support of the people!" Reed replied.
"So what you are saying is that we can do nothing?" Suzaku angrily said and he greatly enraged slammed his fists into the table "No matter what crime they do, what sin they commit we can just idly stand by and let them roam free?" he angrily spat out.
Lelouch who was Leaning against a corner and playing with a king chest piece while eating a licorice stick suddenly said.
"Gentleman, ladies, I am sick and tired of hearing how Kaguya and her Slayers can go wherever they want, do whatever they want and say whatever they want without regards to the consequences, we will go and we will smash the Slayers into pieces!" Lelouch said to the approval of his subordinates.
"Brother you cannot mean you are going to kill them all!" Nunnally and Euphie said panicking and Lelouch sudden outburst of cruelty.
"No, like Mister Reed said we cannot kill them, so we will not do that, we will however capture them and shove them in a dungeon where they can't escape the law anymore!" Lelouch said and that calmed Nunnally and Euphie.
"But sir, how can we capture them if we don't even know where they are?" Kewell asked.
"Kaguya is a smart woman, she knows that after today I will hound her down like a hunting dog gets a fox, so she knows she has to evacuate the Slayers overseas, she won't use any major port since we would notice that, mister Reed you said that there where roomers of Kaguya being sighted in the Forbidden Fity?" Lelouch asked.
"Yes sir!" Reed replied.
"Then that's where she is headed, bring me a map of Japan!" Lelouch said and Bradley brought him one.
"She won't use the western coast since we have that area heavily guarded by ships, she will use the eastern one since from there she can reach the safety of international waters." Lelouch said and he looked at the map, what he searched for was the last possible place you'd expect a major evacuation to take place, Lelouch searched for a area with heavy traffic to conceal movements and where their navy was in the weakest present.
"Here! Shizuoka Prefecture, Suruga Bay, it's a major trade root and we wouldn't notice if they slipped away en masse, they probably started the evacuation so that mean we will have a fight on the open seas, there's no major fleet stationed there and we don't have time to bring one, so the Avalon and ships are stationed there is all we got, how long until we can arrive there?" Lelouch asked.
"It would take at least six hours to do so!" Lloyd replied.
"Even if they hurry they'd have to move the organization all at once in order to avoid detection, and we estimate there are between 100.000 and 200.000 members, so it will take them some time, we will wait just outside their detection range and when they start moving we will capture them and the whole rebels army all in one fell swoop" Lelouch replied.
"Even if we captured them alive, it will appear to the world that we are arresting people who agreed to disarm and we broke the truce!..." Reed replied.
"We will not be the one's breaking it since even if they claim that they did no attack us, the matter still remains that the Chinese used their equipment, meaning that they are guilty of selling weapons to the enemy's of the state!" Lelouch replied and at that no one could comment.
"I know how you two feel about Kallen, but we cannot simply allow her and the rest of them to do as they please without regards to the law or the consequences of their actions, we will try to capture them alive, but I must tell you that they may not want to be captured and will fight to the death and if that happens we will have no choice but to kill them, be it capture or execution we must uphold the law which the two of you as Governor and Vice –Governor are sworn to uphold, follow and obey!" Lelouch said and that put them in their place, he saw that and he left to play chest online, great anger was still in him and he had to get rid of it.
Nunnally for once was scared, but not of her brother, she had witnessed Lelouch change whenever someone tried to hurt her or Euphie and she could understand why he appeared so lack of compassion or mercy of a sudden towards the Kallen-san his lover at one point and the Slayers in general.
(Slayers submarine)
Kallen had rested in the cockpit for a few minutes from exhaustion from the battle, when she noticed that people gathered around the Guren and they looked at it with fear.
Ohgi, Tamaki, Todoh, Kaguya and everybody else all had the same expression horror on their faces
Curious and why they were doing so she jumped out and went to take a look and when finding out the reason of their fear she thought was gripped with terror, Lelouch had scratched a message on the Guren's chest.
Never forget
And never forgive
For your actions
None of you will live
Lelouch said to them that for trying to kidnap his sisters he would kill them all, without mercy, without shame and without pity.
And a sudden realization hit Todoh and Kaguya.
The Niddhog which brought Europe to its knees, slaughtered the army's of China, and eliminated all his opponents in Japan turning it into his own castle now bared it's fangs towards them, the die was cast and they lost and now there's going to be a devil to pay!
(Avalon, Nunnally's room)
A few hours later Nunnally went to sleep and prayed to God, usually she prayed for God to protect her brother on the field of battle, but tonight her prayer was different.
God almighty please save my brother and Suzaku-kun from the sea of anger which he had fallen since he is concerned for my safety, and please protect Kallen-san and the Slayers from my brother and Suzaku's fury" she said to God and then went to sleep.
Authors note read and review, let me know if I should continued