Update time, we are back with a new chapter. This chapter will have another time skip, not a large one but a time skip none the less. The main reason was to be able to move this story along as I would like to set the main events to happen at the same time they occurred in the first movie, so by then, our boy will be in his 20s and a career veteran of the PPDC. The other reason as to get back to some action.

(BE WARNED: THERE IS A RANT UP AHEAD!)

Perseus12: Well they chose the lesser of the two evils as even though most would hate them for being Britannian, it's much better then Pendragon as they actually have a family that cares and good friends.

ChimaTigon: You really want to see Godzilla get in on this, don't you?

Vein Bloodborne: Why thank you, I did enjoy writing it as like the episodes based around Ashford in cannon, it shows what their lives are like outside the battlefield. As for the li and vi Britannia's not clearing the air, there is a reason for that. The first one is that Lelouch wants nothing to do with them so getting him to a point where they can explain themselves would be quite hard. Secondly is that if Cornelia tried, it would create more problems than solve as think about it, she recalls Marianne sending all the guard, including herself away that night for unexplained reasons, which makes no sense as from the flashbacks we see in season 1, Lelouch and Nunnally recalls the night differently than how it happened.

They remember there being quests and that their mother and Nunna were shot from multiple points through different windows. So the question will arise, why did she send them away when she looked to be hosting some kind of gathering? Did she plan the attack and the assassins merely missed their target? If she knew that something would happened, why were her own children present? And with no geass, there is no way for the siblings to verify this information, the odds of Lelouch or even Nunnally believing in at this point are….slim at best.

Hell, in cannon, when Lelouch finds out that his mother was the one to call off her escort, he immediately suspected that she must have known that she would be attacked but then denied such a thing since as far as he knows, she loved him and Nunnally and would have gotten them out of there if that was true, she could have easily have sent them to maybe stay with Clovis, Schneizel or even Cornelia and Euphemia for the night but she didn't, hinting that the attack wasn't something she saw coming(There is also the fact that at the time, she is holding her daughter, if she knew about the strike, why was she so close to the girl?).

That's one of the reason geass is so dangerous as now the entire thing could only be solved by someone with knowledge on geass otherwise none of it would make sense.

extremeninja09: The Kaiju have changed the game as this throws everyone plans out the window, hell even Schneizel can't really go forward with Damocles as people would already not want to fight anymore, at least in large scale wars and engagements-which could lead to their world starting to resemble our world with all these terrorists and proxy wars being waged across the globe, it isn't perfect, not by a longshot but it's a hell of lot better then what it used to be. The two are to be wed and from how they interact in cannon, get along just fine. Here they have more interactions which is leading to them developing deeper feelings for one another.

Luckily, the two of them are receiving the love and help they need to properly cope with things Lelouch had to do and see things that would give an adult soldier PSTD, add in the fact he comes from a broken home and was all but kicked out as a kid, it wouldn't be too strange if there was something wrong with him which for the most part, seems to be his untrusting nature, which at times, it proven to be necessary as say what you want about the Black knights betrayal, they did him dirty.

They were in no position to even make that deal with Schneizel in the first place as they weren't representatives of the UFN, Kaguya was and she wasn't present. Even then, by trading Zero for Japan, without trial or a UFN decision to do so, its them basically saying that they don't care for the rest of the world, only Japan and their own interests as without Zero to lead them, they shot themselves in the foot for when, not if, when Britannia would have attacked them as Tohdoh isn't proactive but more along the lines of reactive, Xingke health is in question as he may or may not be fit to lead if he's finds himself bedridden from his unnamed illness as even his own assistant states that he doesn't have a lot of time because of it. Leila isn't even a character in the main universe but that spin-off Akito of the Exiled.

When they did turn on him, they didn't even try to take him into custody like the law abiding order they claim to be but rather tried to kill him. It doesn't matter if he was gloating, that isn't a reason to kill him(not that they were willing to listen as they would have shot him and Kallen if she had stayed with him)

The evidence that Schneizel brought forward wasn't even very strong in the first place as Diethard pocks hole after hole in it as:

When he brought up Zero's real identity, oddly enough it's Diethard tried to state it didn't matter his heritage as Zero was someone had had gone on record as never caring for such things and accepted anyone so long as they were loyal and capable so his own shouldn't matter. Even then, Tohdoh knew the boy and his circumstances but didn't say anything? He knew the boy had no love for his nation or at the very least, his family.

When Schneizel calls his miracles tricks, why are they so surprised? Once more, Tohdoh should have not been fazed by that as his own 'miracle' was due to excellent intelligence work, not some act of God.

When Schneizel reveals geass to them….with no actual proof besides a questionable recording(but I'll get to that soon enough). Tamaki asks for actual proof of this, what do they get? Ohgi siding with the prince….that's not proof, that a vote of confidence because Ohgi had actually never seen someone use geass.

When Ohgi says that they were pawns, once more Diethard steps in and states it doesn't matter as he still is an important figure to the Black Knights and the UFN and has done many things for them, like giving them a fighting chance, does it really matter if he'll cry if one of dies or not? And then no-one points out how he acted when Kallen was captured, that wasn't the reaction of a man who viewed her as pawns.

When Schneizel brings up the recording, Diethard, being the media man-could have cast doubt on it as for one thing, Sayako(who worked under him) made use of a voice modifier to make herself sound like Lelouch whenever she had to cover for him, Rolo used one to impersonate a Britannian pilot so that he could steal his Vincent-would it be so hard for Schneizel to get someone to do the same for him? It wouldn't take much of an effort, just some audio software and maybe an hour of your time(Once more, oddly enough, it's Tamaki that calls them out the validity of the recording) He may not be the brightest but it seemed like he was only one willing to look at that with an unbiased eye.

When they present people they think he used his geass on(which again, they have provided no actual proof that he even has such a power in the first place. They were basically were able to convince then he had magic….I still don't know how they bought it) that isn't proof, it speculation.

Then they drop the fact he knew about FLEJA. Here is a good argument. The battle was taking place over Tokyo settlement, the Britannian regional capital of area 11, which is populated with mostly Britanniancitizens, would YOU believe that your enemy would be willing to nuke their own city, murder millions of their own people, just to keep you from taking it? Even Stalin wouldn't throw away 35 million in a single strike like that, over a campaign sure but not just to keep one city in their hands when most of that city was reduced to a crater by FLEJA and is now nothing but useless land. Please we all know that Schneizel knew Lelouch wouldn't believe Zero because of the ambush that he set up and made look like it was Suzaku's handiwork which broke any notion of trust that Lelouch had for his former friend.

Long story short, they chose to betray their own leader on the words of their enemies because they got to retake Japan.

Sorry got into a rant there, anyway, knightmare development slowed to a halt when Trespasser came along as Glasgows, which at the time are state of art, were all but useless. Yes something like the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N and Lancelot Albion would be much more useful but those two took eight years of development to even become feasible ideas. So when this threat is dealt with….eventually, everyone would still think the Glasgows are still the best and with the further fact that the large wars Britannia needs to obtain the thought elevators would be near impossible to justify to their own people, there will be no real way for people like Lloyd and Rakshata to collect the combat and real world performance data they need to make such leaps and bounds.

But on the other hand, Jaegers could sure make good use of those features.

YuukiAsuna-Chan: The only light novel I can think of is Nightmare of Nunnally which doesn't count it as takes place in its own separate universe. If there others that don't but expend on her character, I would appreciate if you can send me their names or links to sites I can view them on.

jetslinger333: It's the sad truth but xenophobia and racism run especially rampant when two countries fight each other. It's one of the reasons that during and after the First World War, many Germans in the US had to basically abandon their heritage or risk being targeted. Sadly this applies here the two estranged siblings can't just go for a walk in a public park, not without armed escort.

Blaze1992: You just said it, 'later models'. Remember that Trespasser rolled into the picture when Glasgows were still considered the crème of the crop. From what model variants of the Glasgow we know of, they would have been next to useless against a Kaiju as you would need to arm all of them with anti-tank rockets just to piss it one off. Remember it took tanks, jets, missiles and knightmares four whole days to kill just one, that only shaves off two days from the cannon time and that was with the full support of everything else the Britannian armed forces could bring to bear, so they wouldn't even be that big a deal besides luring the damn thing away or drawing attention.

Knightmares are too small as even the Lancelot with the VARIS(even them the VARIS is basically a equivalent to a tank cannon and we all know how useless tanks cannons are against them) and a float pack(season 1) would have trouble killing one and could take hours to do so if all those shots land, especially since the float pack drained a lot of power limiting the knightmare to engaging from land or ship. The Guren would have it worse as it needs to get in close and personal, something he can't do without a float pack of its own, there is also the issue of how much radiation those things can take as the Guren is a fraction of size of a category three(only around 5%) so can its claw even produce enough power to be a threat to one without burning through its entire reserve.

Lastly, Britannia can't carry on with that weapons program as they don't control the sakuradite mining in Japan after what the empire did to them, there would be no way Japan wouldn't hike up the price of Sakuradite triple fold out of spite for anything other than the PPDC and Jaeger construction. And being the only world power with them as they didn't have enough time to really show themselves as the future of modern warfare, it wouldn't be like other countries would spend time, resources and money on developing their own. Not when they have literal bigger things to worry about.

Chapter 4: Getting to know the newbies

23rd February 2018 a.t.b.

Off the coast of Manila

"Is everyone ready?" Warrant Officer Kirihara asked over the squad line as Burai Black along with two other machines slowly moved through the water towards where they expected to meet their prey.

"Yes sir." A young commoner from Britannia by the name of Private First Class Yancy Beckett replied for his jaeger, which was the relatively newly launched Gipsy Danger, a Britannian built MK III.

"Yes sir." Private Kallen Stadtfeld replied for her team, which was made up of herself and another child of nobility, the blonde named Gino Weinberg, a private like her. Their model was an older MK II by the name of Bradford, which like Burai had been used in the past but due to both pilots dying in a house fire some weeks prior, they were made the new pilots.

"Beckett, Stadtfeld, Weinberg. Relax, you two are just the back-up. Gipsy, you're on me. Bradford, you are to hold the line." Viktoriya, now a 20 year old career soldier instructed the other two as they all scanned for their target. It had already eluded them before, they refused to let this damn thing get past them. Now that she and her partner were the highest ranking rangers present, she held back her more cheerful attitude to ensure things went as smoothly as possible, she wouldn't be able to live with herself if someone were to die on her first ran as the commanding officer.

"Sucks to be you." The second pilot of Gipsy, joked. The younger brother to Yancy and known trouble maker and middle school brawler extraordinaire, Raleigh Beckett, who like his brother, was a Private First Class.

"Sir, with all due respect, we are combat trained and equipped, we can-" Kallen tried to get them a better spot for the coming fight but found herself cut off.

"You are rookies so until you have a good understanding of how to fight outside the simulator, you will remain by the rear. Is that understood?" Warrant Officer Kirihara ordered them over the line, showcasing that now regular combat discipline he was known for.

"Yes sir, we're just sit tight." Gino replied before Kallen could try and argue some more, having noted that unlike most girls their age, she really didn't care for their commanding officer.

'Someone's in a bad mood.' Gino thought with a smirk as he looked over to his partner who glared back at him as they slowed to a stop and watched the other two keep on moving forward.

'This is bullshit and you know it.' Kallen shot back, pissed that even after finishing training in the top five of her class, she was reduced to 'the rear lines.'

'Hey, we are the rookies here, I mean Burai Black already has 3 kills and 7 assists to their name, what do we have?' Gino said to calm down her rather short fused temper as even if he didn't like being left here, they didn't have any combat experience as even the Beckett Boys had one kill and an assist to their name. 'Besides, you know that in this part of the world, they don't really take to foreigners all that well.' He added in as Britannia expansionist and well….racist policies and feelings didn't make them any friends on the international stage, and how they countries didn't have to fear them invading just for breathing wrong, they let them know it.

'And how are you so peppy? It's creeping me out.' Kallen finally asked as ever since they were assigned to the same unit, she hadn't seen the guy not smiling.

'Oh well, I just heard that Burai Black is being retired soon.' Gino replied as he nodded their shared metallic head towards the forward unit.

'Really, but the thing has never taken serious damage, what gives?' Kallen asked, she didn't hear anything about that. Retiring a jaeger should be big news.

'Oh well, there's a rumour that India is getting into the jaeger game and they want to start building Mk III.' Gino stated as he had heard some ground crew whispering about it earlier that day. It was in interesting topic so he joined in to learn more. Apparently, India was incorporating the former MZI into its own state owned military industrial complex which didn't sit well with some who instead opted to form an R&D team for Jaeger development. According to the rumours, one of the members of this new team would be the famed Rakshata Chawla.

'And they're just gonna give them to Japan?' Kallen asked, seeing something fishy there. No way would a country hand over a multi-billion pound weapon, not unless they thought there was something of equal and greater worth to be gained.

'Well no but it will be their new one, you gotta admit, you can't say you're not curious about whatever they cook up.' Gino said, showing his own excitement as the MZI and more importantly, Rakshata was known for several advancements in the field of medical cybernetics, some of her work was even used in the control set-up used by all jaegers.

'What's gonna happen to the thing, is it going to be sold for scrap?' She had to ask, she couldn't see the thing being preserved in some museum, maybe some parts but not the entire structure.

'Most likely, it's a shame that such a beauty will wind up being recycled into a couple thousands cans.' Gino joked, getting a little chuckle out of his partner.

'Okay, Okay, you win. That's a funny picture.' She conceded before they heard chatter.

"Jaeger spotted, distance 5km." Viktoriya stated over the comms as both Gino and Kallen turned their attention ahead and true to the Russian's call, they could make out the shape of their prey coming towards them, swimming to increase its speed.

"Copy, Gipsy, on me. We're engaging." Lelouch ordered as they both moved in to engage, with the two units coming along towards it side by side in a formation that will force the thing to try and attack one or risk being attacked by both.

"Roger that." Raleigh replied before he turned his attention to Bradford. "Wish us luck."

"We will." Gino joked as they two went in to engage.

"Sir?" Kallen asked, this time speaking with command directly.

"What is it, Bradford?" Their ranking commanding officer replied, most likely in the observation room.

"Why are we engaging the Kaiju here, the city we're defending has been abandoned for the past three years?" She asked as they had been deployed to a section of the country that was ling since been abandoned by man. There was even unconfirmed stories that the city had been taken back by nature and wild animals now roamed the deserted streets.

"The creature eluded detection in Indonesia so we must kill it here before it can make land fall." The commander replied to them, his tome telling them that the conversation was over.

"Roger that." Kallen replied before they turned their attention to the fight.

(With said fight)

"Slippery little bastard, ain't it?" Yancy asked as the Kaiju managed to slip past him, only to meet Burai who pulled the thing from the water and punched it straight in the face.

"Cut the chatter and kill the damn thing." Lelouch stated his machine dodged a swipe from the beast before landing a right jab to the neck, getting the thing to make a choking sound, showing that its neck was a weak point they could exploit.

"Nice try!" Viktoriya said as they sidestepped the thing and once they were behind it, they landed a double clap to the sides of its head, making the monster scream in pain and confusion as they noted it started to lose it footing.

"That'll mess with your sense of balance." Lelouch commented as he kicked the thing towards the other waiting jaeger. "Gipsy, it's coming your way!"

"We see it. Ready to bag our second kill?" Raleigh asked his brother.

"You know it." Yancy replied as they ran to meet the recovering Kaiju but they didn't give it time to do so as he punched it right across the face, getting a satisfying crack as something broke.

"Come on, put some muscle into it!" Raleigh yelled as they started to exchange blows with the beast, shaking off damage to their unit as it wasn't something important. "Give this thing a welcoming gesture." He added in as they landed a left cross to its cheek.

"Only you would consider attacking someone to be welcoming." Yancy chuckled as they two caught both the creature's arm as it tried to claw them with a downward motion. Luckily for them, their machine was the strongest of the three present and had more than enough power to muscle with the larger Kaiju.

"Hey, they did it to us when he transferred to a new middle school." Raleigh shot back as he broke the lock before going for a quick double punch to the kaiju's shoulders.

"That was because you threw a water-balloon at the biggest kid's face." Yancy reminded him of that fun memory as their strike landed, causing the creature what they hoped was great pain. It didn't help that that same kid was the youngest son of the local lord.

"What? He started it, he called me short." Raleigh showed that care free nature of his as they once more grappled with the Kaiju, which was now a little weaker, most likely from the shoulder blows.

"If you two are quite done, finish the thing. I know you have a new weapon." Lelouch told them as he came up behind the thing and pulled it loose from the grapple, only to punch the thing in the back of the head with all their might, stunning the thing as the scaly armour there was left cracked from the blow.

"Roger, ready plasma cannon!" Raleigh replied as he geared up his plasma cannon, the hand shifting into position as the weapon.

"Come on!" Lelouch called out as he avoided a strike that would have dug into their chest as he fired off his machine's missiles, raining death onto their prey which took the chance to dive, avoiding the worst of it as only a couple hit home.

"It's still charging!" Yancy called back as he looked back and saw the charge count was only at 65%. The thing was still being tested so the mechanics had put in locks to keep the charge rate slower than normal. As this happened, Burai fought off the Kaiju as it went for a bite aimed for their head. It narrowly missed and with its back to them again, he landed a punch, this time to the base of the neck as the creature roared in anger and pain.

"It's charged, get out of the way!" Raleigh yelled at them as they started to charge the kaiju with their plasma cannon ready. It was only at 82% but that would just have to do it. Hearing their work, Burai broke off from the Kaiju but not before landing another, final blow to the face which sent its head to the side in pain, allowing the creature to see Gipsy coming.

"Eat this, monster!" Raleigh yelled as Yancy was able to grab its arm to give them the opening they needed to point the plasma cannon right into the thing's face and fire. Blowing off most of its face and destroying muscle and bone further in.

With that single blow though, the fight was over the Kaiju didn't even have time to moan before death, it just simply fell into water, leaving a trail of blue and light yellow blood in its wake.

"Damn, we could see it from here, what you do? Blow its head off?" Gino called out over the coms from their position away from the fighting.

"Close, they blew most of its face off." Viktoriya replied as she breathed out a sigh of relief before she heard command say something over their own line. "Command just confirmed, no signature, the thing is dead." She relayed to the rest of them. They did it, they killed it with no major incidents.

"Well them, that's a job well done, and we got our second kill." Yancy bragged as the two units started to make their way back. They would leave it to cleaning units to get rid of the mess.

"Hooray for you." Kallen sarcastically replied as the Bradford turned to head back to their drop point.

"Don't feel bad Bradford, your time will come soon enough, you just have to be patient." Viktoriya spoke up to try and make them feel better, now that they were out of the combat atmosphere, she could show off her caring side.

"Be patient back at base, we're done here." Lelouch cut in as he looked over some of their screens to make sure they were alright. It may not have been apparent in the fight but the fact was they had to work extra hard to keep up, their machine was starting to show its age.

"Sir." They all replied as they made their back to where they would be picked up.

24rd February 2018 a.t.b.

Manila Shatterdome

"Hey guys!" Both Kallen and Gino, who were in the middle of discussing something near their cleaned ready machine, turned when they heard someone call out to them.

"Hmmm, Warrant Officer." Gino replied as he jumped up to salute the girl but she waved him off as she approached.

"Not that, we're not on duty so right now, call me Viktoriya. Would you like to join us for lunch?" She asked of them, her sweet, kind smile on full display. It was odd that even after her partner explained to her that people found her attractive, she would frequently forget that. Added to the fact that at age 20, she had only grown from the pretty girl she once was to the stunning woman. The effect her smile had on Gino, and anyone other male who saw it, was notable.

"Lunch?" Kallen spoke up, knocking aside are gawking teammate so that he could reboot in peace. They may have been here only a couple days but this was the first time anyone had offer them the courtesy.

"Yeah, Lelouch and I are going to sit with some of the ground crew and the Beckett brothers, would you like to join?" Viktoriya asked them as she pointed towards to one of the door which led to the mess hall.

"I don't know-" Kallen started as she was quite nervous about being seated at a table where they basically knew no-one. This wasn't some high school drama so she couldn't count on some plot armour or teachers stepping.

"We're love to! Always a good day to make new friends, right Kallen?" Unfortunately for her, Gino chose that moment to finish his reboot after seeing a pretty female.

"…Right." Kallen agreed as she didn't really have much of a choice now, Gino was the only other person here she knew and she couldn't stick around the launch bay forever. So with that, they all left the bay and made their way to the mess hall.

"So what are your names?" Viktoriya asked, having realised she didn't even know their full names.

"Gino Weinberg, born and raised in Pendragon, attended West Point Jaeger School of Piloting." Gino introduced himself, throwing in his school as a little extra. Leaving Kallen to follow in his footsteps.

"Kallen Stadtfeld, Chicago. I went to Miami Jaeger Academy." The young red head stated, wishing that she was posted with her brother but he was medical leave right now after breaking his arm in a motorcycle accident.

"Viktoriya Serebryakov, it's a pleasure to meet you. I was born in Moscow but grew up in St. Petersburg, it's also where I attended the National Combat and Tactics Academy." She smiled as she gave them some information on her.

"So you're the hot Russian everyone has been talking about." Gino dumb comment earned him an elbow to the side from his now irritated partner.

"It didn't occur to you that she was the girl, she's like the only Russian here." Kallen stated as they had yet to run into another, hell from the looks of things, Viktoriya was the only European present.

"I didn't know that, they didn't have to be a pilot you know." Gino defended his comment as he rubbed at his side with a pout.

"I'm not that attractive, am I?" Viktoriya said to herself as she played with a strand her back length hair, before she blushed when she recalled something she heard her partner think during a really bad fight.

'Focus on anything other than Viktoriya's body. You're better that that, keep your hormones in control.' Was what Lelouch was thinking back then, even he thought she was pretty, oh lord, she wasn't used to this!

"Viktoriya, you alright?" Kallen asked the girl as she started to blush up a storm and mutter to herself in Russian, so they didn't have the slightest clue as to what she said.

"Just fine!" She choked out as she covered her mouth in a sudden fit of shyness. It was at that moment that they reached the mess hall and like normal meal times, it was packed, filled with hundreds of people either in line to get some food, already seated or just hanging out using their meal break to cool off and relax before they got back to work. The small group quickly joined the line and after each getting their meal tray filled with green beans, rice, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, they made their way around, searching for the guy she normally sat at.

"Vicky! Over here!" They all heard someone call out to them. They turned and in the far corner and saw Raleigh calling out to them from a table near the back. Seated with him was his brother, Yancy, Viktoriya's partner, Lelouch who like the elder Beckett was eating his meal quietly. Lastly, there were some ground mechanics there as well who were waving them over.

"Who's this?" Lelouch asked as he looked over to the approaching trio, immediately focussing on the other two.

"This is Kallen and Gino, its fine if they sit here, right?" Viktoriya asked as she took a seat next to the dark haired teen, who still was looking them like a hawk, making them feel rather uncomfortable before he let up.

"There's a couple free spots so why not. Welcome to the table." He stated as used his fork to point towards the empty seat opposite them that the duo quickly took.

"Thank you." Kallen replied, keeping her manners as she took a bite out of her meatloaf.

"Yeah, it would have been weird looking for another." Gino answered as he took a spoonful of mashed potatoes and ate it, finding the taste to be much better than what they ate during basic training. "Food looks good though."

"Shatterdomes tend to get first pick of food imports. Command thinks they can keep spirits up with good food." Lelouch told them as they included spices, sure you wouldn't find a five star meal here, but it was still great stuff. Being so close to India also helped with that whole spice thing.

"Does it work?" Gino asked, having swallowed the food he was eating first, the last thing he needed was to come off as childish.

"A man with a full stomach can fight a hell of a lot better than one who hasn't, so yes, I believe it's effective." Lelouch answered, keeping his answers crisp and professional, something that his partner noted wasn't like him. Was he on guard around these new pilots? Why? "So, what made you want to join the PPDC, to become jaeger pilots?" He asked them, looking at the two of them with a bored frown and half open eyes.

"I've always been loyal to my country, so these things showed up, I figured that I could do my part in a jaeger." Gino answered as truth be told, he was always planning on joining the army, maybe even became a knightmare pilot after hearing about them during their development phase but with the world as it was, he thought it best to try and aim for something higher. Seemingly satisfied with his answer, the prince in exile turned his calculating gaze towards the second newbie.

"And you?" He asked her, his question garnering the attention of the whole table.

"I wanted to do my part." Kallen answered him as she took a sip of her water.

.

.

.

"Bullshit."

"What?" Kallen asked, facing the man calling her a liar, who for his part, hadn't changed his posture at all.

"Lelouch." Viktoriya reminded him, this wasn't the time to pick fights.

"That's a load of crap and you know it, what's the real reason you joined?" Lelouch asked her again, having spent his younger years in Pendragon, he learned at an early age that smelling out lies could save your life and though he was no-where his sperm donor of a father or his strategic mastermind of an elder brother, he liked to think he was a step above the average guy. That being said, it was easy for him to pick up the clues to the deceit in Kallen's statement.

"To defend what I have…." She eventually answered him, keeping her answer vague but as truthful as she could as she could tell that him calling out raised question as Raleigh was now also looking at her while his brother did the same, but was more discreet about it.

"That's not the full story, but it's your story to tell." Lelouch lucky for her, let her off the hook. "Though I don't know why you feel the need to lie." He added in as an afterthought as he went back to eating.

"We all have secrets we would like to keep to ourselves." Kallen stated in Japanese, officially putting this guy in her 'asshole' column. She didn't know where he got off on her but she wasn't going to let him do that again.

"A Britannian that speaks Japanese, what are the odds?" Lelouch responded, also speaking Japanese but with a smirk as his face, leaving only Viktoriya able to follow the conversation as Gino could only catch words here and there having not drifted with Kallen enough to gain anymore.

"Seeing how you speak it, not as bad as you think." Kallen shot back, now openly frowning.

"Hehehe, I like you, you have a backbone. You're gonna need it in this profession." Lelouch responded in English, conceding the victory to her as they both went back to their meals.

"Says the rebel prince." Yancy added as he ate a spoonful of potatoes.

"And speaking of…" Raleigh started as both he and Gino turned their attention towards the dark haired teen, who rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Here we go again." HE muttered to himself, if these two proved to be fan-boys or haters, he'll leave the table.

"Lelouch, play nice." Viktoriya, knowing how her partner thinks, chastised him before he could do anything reckless.

"What's it like, being a prince and all?" Raleigh asked him, curious to the life of something born into status. He along with his brother was farm boys, never really had much but they had enough to be happy, still one would wonder about life on the other side of the spectrum.

"Seeing how I haven't been treated like one for the past 9 years, I wouldn't be able to give you an accurate answer." Lelouch answered his question as he hadn't been treated like royalty since he was banished from Pendragon. The first three years he lived in Japan, he was either treated with distrust or barely hidden distain for what he was. But rather than focus on that, he turned to look at Gino. "You look like a noble, wouldn't you know?"

"That obvious?" Gino chuckled, seeing that the jig was up.

"The look in your eyes isn't one of a commoner. That along with your braid, tells me you're a Weinberg." Lelouch started to them, which was surprising as he didn't even know who they were before they sat, only that they were two new pilots from Britannia.

"Well what can I say, it's tradition for us Weinbergs to braid our hair like this, don't know why though." Gino stated, proving him right as he held one of his hair braids.

"And yet, only the men ever do." Lelouch muttered as he never really cared to know why they did that, it wasn't the strangest thing he had seen so why poke the bear? "So why the hell did you do get stationed here? They're plenty of shatterdomes along the American west coast." Now that was the question as Britannia had the largest coastline to defend that more often than not, foreign machines were assigned to it. In fact, last he had heard-Cornelia was transferring into the PPDC Britannian Division.

"Well…..let's just say, my family wasn't too thrilled about me joining. They wanted me to join the Air-force like my father." Gino answered as he saw no reason to hide his family drama, most of Pendragon already knew about it, seeing how he chose to announce this at a gala in the hopes his father would keep his cool and roll with it…..he did not.

"My old man didn't want me to join period. Had to work my ass off and get in via scholarship." Kallen answered as she never got approval from the bastard, he just told her to get in with her own money and skill in the hope that she would fail, too bad for him he didn't raise a loser or an idiot so finishing high school a year early wasn't too hard.

"And I'm guessing you both requested a post as far away from home as possible?" Lelouch asked/stated as he knew what it was like not to have the most….supportive parents.

"Yup, I'm still waiting on my folks to cool down about my choice before I talk to them again." Gino said as his relationship with his father was….tense to say the least, at least his uncle was supportive of his goals. "What about you, speak with your folks lately?" He asked, not picking up the prince freezing for a moment.

"I recently received a letter from my grandparents and sister. I plan on sending my own later today." Lelouch answered him, keeping himself calm and collected as he had found reporters clamouring for information ever since it was leaked that his relationship with his family was a poor one. Kaguya spent two weeks tracking down the foolish maid who let it slip, she quickly found herself fired.

"Grandparents, you mean Kirihara?" Kallen asked him, having known that the old goat was one of the if not the richest man in Japan, as the imperial family didn't have that much due to the fact they couldn't access state funds for themselves.

"Yes." Lelouch answered as he reached for his own water.

"What about your old man." And Gino had to ask. He found himself trying to calm himself down, even to this day, the mere mention of Charles could boil his blood.

.

.

.

"We don't speak." He curtly answered, his tone leaking ice as he quickly finished up his meal.

"Oh." The blonde stated to himself, having picked up that he may have hit a sore spot.

"Yeah, I'm done. I'll be in my room, writing the letter. See you all later." Lelouch said with a different frown from before as he stood up and took his empty tray to the side where he placed it along with the rest that needed to be cleaned and left the hall.

"OW!" Gino yelped as he was hit by Kallen.

"The hell were you thinking? It's an open secret he and his father don't like each other." Kallen whispered yelled at her partner, who was nursing his side after getting another, even harder elbow.

"Sorry, sorry. It just kinda came out. He didn't look that mad." Gino said as sure the guy didn't look like a ray of sun shine but he didn't look that pissed.

"He's good at keeping his feelings to himself. But he was furious." Viktoriya filled him in as the guy would rarely wear his emotions on his sleeve, most of the time he couldn't tell what was going on his head.

"Oh….." Okay, now Gino felt like crap.

"It's not your fault. Though I would advise caution next time." Viktoriya said to assure him before she changed the subject. "But let's focus on something else, how was regular high school, I'm dying to know." She asked having never gone to normal high school, meaning she missed so much of what she saw on the screen like prom, crushing on boy….girls, sub teachers.

"Oh well it was great, I was able to get my parents to let me attend Ashford and I can tell you that it was the best, there was this one girl, Anya…" And with that Gino, started to tell her of his time at Ashford, the first and so far, only school in the empire that not only accepted commoners and children of nobility but also honorary Britannians. Sure it was mess most of the time, but during her tenure, Milly Ashford was able to bring order and fun to it all.

(Later)

"You're serious?" Gino said, surprised as he along with Kallen and Viktoriya walked down the halls. They had since finished their meal and opted to stay together to chat about things, forming a sort of friendly bound with one another.

"I am, we're both candidates for officer training." The Russian girl repeated as she and her own partner was due to start their officer training soon.

"Then why aren't you known as Officer cadets instead of Warrant Officers?" Kallen asked her. Only to receive a chuckle instead.

"Well Officer Cadet isn't really a title, it's more of a term for a student studying to be a cadet." Viktoriya informed her as next to no armed force actually used it as rank. "If we work really hard, we can be made into First Lieutenants."

"So when are you to leave?" Gino asked her, curious as to where she would have to depart.

"We're leaving when they officially decommissioned Burai. While we wait for them to finish up the trials with our new jaeger, we'll be in officer school in Japan." She started they turned down another corridor on their way to the barracks.

"Japan?" Now that caught Kallen's attention. She hadn't been to the country in almost eight years now.

"Yeah, it's the closest school, besides we're spent most of our active tours based in Southern Japan." Viktoriya elaborated for her as she thought back to her own service record and other then the two months they spent in Vladivostok, they had spent almost all their time in Japan.

"So you get to stay in Japan? For how long?" Gino asked her, now fully excited as he heard a lot about the place but for obvious reason, never had the chance to go there.

"Around 2 mouths, the officer school in is Tokyo." She told him. "When we have time off, we can stay with his grandparents."

"What's in like, in Japan I mean?" Gino inquired, curious for knowledge on the country known as the 'Land of the Rising Sun'.

"I wouldn't really know, whenever I'm in the country, I spend just about all my time at base, I've never really taken the time to sight see." Sadly for him, Viktoriya didn't give him any details, thought she did knew more about the country than most but not because she had toured it.

'Though that could be because I already have the memories who had, even after all this time, that's still weird.' She said to herself as there were some memories of his she wished she never had to see. Though…. the ones surrounding Lelouch's mother's death and his sister injuries was….blurry, unfocused…conflicting compared to the others. She didn't know why but for some reason, that single night was an unclear mess as some memories play out like a different night while others play it like he had describe to her in the past. At first, she just suspected it was because of the trauma associated with it that his mind blocked out details.

Still….it was one thing to block out details, it was another to have contradicting ones as there were times when she couldn't tell which from which. Sadly, she never had the time to really scrutinise them as the one thing you must never do was hold on to a memory in the drift. "Have the two of you been partners long?" She asked the two, wishing to distract herself from the puzzle that was her partner's mind.

"Only a couple of weeks." Kallen replied as they had been paired up rather quickly before their departure. She wasn't even sure how that happened as they were different schools to begin with.

"Well we all have to start somewhere, I'll get use to him because chances are, you two will be joined at the hip soon." Viktoriya joked, having been uncomfortable herself when she was told that years prior.

"Wait, what? What do you mean, 'joined at the hip'? I don't even like him that much!" Kallen yelled, pointing over to a 'heartbroken' Gino as he cried crocodile tears at her harsh words.

"Well jaegers pilots join minds on multiple occasions, we know things about our partners no one else does, what they like, interest, childhood experiences, things they did they now regret or are embarrassed by, what they fear, their disgusts, former lovers. It's weird, I know but that's how it is." She told them as many often didn't comprehend just how deep their connections will get. It was for that reason that pairing up someone with a new pilot after their old partner died or had to retire was….difficult as if one spends enough time with another, they end up carrying large chunks of each other's memories, making it harder for a third party to join in once one person is no longer in the picture.

"So do you know everything about Lelouch?" Gino asked, thinking that this girl might have more info on the guy than anyone else. Maybe she knew a way he could apologise, he wasn't too sure but Lelouch didn't seem like the kinda of guy to respond to his usual methods.

"There isn't a secret or detail about him I don't know." Viktoriya proudly boasted, confident that she knew him better than he knew himself.

"So then," He leaned in to whisper to her, though Kallen could still hear him. "What's up with him and the rest of his family? Whenever I saw princess Euphemia on campus, whenever it was brought up, it looked like she wanted to cry." That was an Ashford mystery no-one knew the answer to. He suspected Milly knew something but she never let anything slip, only helping the girl whenever she got too emotional about it, well her and Anya but Anya was as much a mystery as she was fun to be around, at least in his opinion. At his question, Viktoriya looked visible uneasy about it, he suspected she must have known, seen whatever was the issue from her partner POVs but what the hell was it to make her so…on edge?

"That's not my secret to tell, sorry." She refused with a sad but firm smile, she had promised him she would never speak of his secrets to anyone without permission, the same promise he made with her. Kallen was right, they all had secrets that they wanted to stay secrets. Lucky for her, Gino didn't look nearly as disappointed as she thought he would.

"Nay, it's cool. Kinda respect that about you, still I hope that Kallen can keep my secrets as well as you do his. OW!" Gino started but found himself in pain when Kallen tugged on his ear like he was a child being scolded for bad behaviour.

"Idiot, you're the one that always gossiping." Kallen told the taller man as she had caught him more than once gossiping about anything and everything with others.

"I do not." Gino denied such accusations. Guys don't gossip.

"Really, you're going to argue with someone who's seen your memories?" Kallen didn't look amused at his comment, already catching what he must have been thinking and wanting to slap him now.

"…Point taken." Okay, one of these days, one of these days he'll win an argument. As he said this though, Viktoriya noticed a familiar person walked across from them, about to disappear down another path.

"Lelouch?" Viktoriya called out to him, catching his attention as he guy turned to face them, appearing calmer than he was when he left the table.

"Hmm?" He sounded as he caught sight of them.

"What are you doing out and about?" Viktoriya asked him, he was never the curious type so this was odd behaviour for him.

"I finished writing my letter and handed it to the mail service. I was on my way to the dojo for a training session." Lelouch answered as he gestured down the path he was on with his head. The one she recalled did lead to one of the training areas.

"Training session, that sounds like fun." Gino spoke up, though he did pass a apologetic look to the prince who waved him off, it wasn't too bad and he understood that he was wound up tight sometimes.

"It isn't." Lelouch stated as he sighed out in annoyance.

"You're just saying that because you hate work." Viktoriya teased him as he pocked his chest. She recalled how ever since they had met, the guy did the bare minimum to keep his figure, never more.

"You know me well, I'm lazy but I have to keep in shape if I am to be an effective fighter." Lelouch didn't even bother to deny it, anyone who knew him could tell you that.

"Haha, well its get fit or die. Wanna spar me?" Gino stated, wanting to see where he stood against a veteran, even if he was the taller of the two.

"Actually," Lelouch proposed as his eyes landed on Kallen who looked like she was not expecting it. "I would like to fight you."

"Me?" She asked him, why the hell would he want that? He didn't seem like that kind of scumbag, an ass sure, but not a scumbag so she was sure he wasn't a pervert or something.

"Hmm, you will find that people are at their most honest when they fight. How you act and react will fill in some blanks." He explained as they all recalled him noted that during lunch.

"And what make you sure I will accept?" Kallen asked him, she wasn't going to waste her time just cause he asked her, he would have to make it worth her while. Fortunately for him, Lelouch already had a plan in the works.

"Hmm, I don't particularly care but you don't seem like the type to back down from a challenge, or will you turn tail and ran." And that plan was to not just play on her pride as a fighter but her short temperament. All things he had picked up in the first few minutes of meeting her and from how she conducted herself during their mission the previous day.

"Why you little-Alright, you're on. I'm gonna kick your ass into next week!" Kallen yelled at him as she brushed right on passed him, bumping into his shoulder with her own though Gino did secretly find it amusing that she did that as she was shorter than him, meaning his shoulders were higher up then hers.

"Oh boy, he did it now." Gino muttered to himself, having seen first-hand how much of a spitfire Kallen was. Hell, he was able to track down footage of her during her rugby days and jeez, that girl had a lot more strength then her body showed. She could tackle the both of them inside out and he was dumb enough to piss her off. His higher rank won't save him this time around.

"Sometimes he just loves to mess with people, I just hope he doesn't end up in the infirmary." Viktoriya said as she sighed in exhaustion but also fondness as she wouldn't have her partner be any other way.

"Well then, follow me." Lelouch started as he quickly caught up with the redhead and took the lead of the group as they walked on towards the training area. He was hoping to get a new sparring partner as though Viktoriya knew him better than anyone else, it was always good to go up against someone you weren't familiar with, kept you on your toes.

And that is chapter. Once more, I know that the Pacific Rim stuff is supposed to be the main focus on this but once more, the fights between jaegers and Kaiju are realistic in how long they last, so I can't stretch them out unless a good reason, which I do have in the works for a future chapter, no spoilers.

The Beckett boys have made their on screen debut and this will not be the last of them before Yancy's death so expect to see them again. I did add to their background as we don't know much about them in cannon(as far as the movie is concerned anyway) so taking into account their personalities, I made them commoners who are the sons of farmers.

Before you all start to light the torches and look for your pitchforks, let me explain. I get that we all wanted to see Kallen in action but please remember she is a rookie at this point. With Lelouch and Viktoriya, it was different because if they didn't step in, a jaeger would have been destroyed and a team lost but in this instance, Kallen and Gino's assistance was not needed. Like with the Beckett, she'll get more time in the sun, don't worry about that.

As for the whole Kallen/Gino partnership. I needed one that would have a good chance of working out as the first thing you need is to be able to get along with your partner and even when she was imprisoned in Tokyo, we see that Kallen and Gino could get along as he wasn't like most nobles for soldiers she had met and she intrigued him. Hell, they were joking about during the second battle of Tokyo even though they would no doubt try and kill each other if needs be. So yeah, that the partnership. If it turns into a pairing, IDK that is still up in the air and I'll wait for your opinion and thoughts on the issue in the reviews.

Speaking of Gino, I added a little something to his character, showing that he would have become a knightmare pilot and maybe a knight of round but as a member of the PPDC, he isn't affiliated with any one nation, not even his own so he would first need to leave the PPDC and then rank up some points as soldier for Britannia which might prove hard for him at this time. Speaking of Britannians, we will hear of Cornelia soon enough now that she too joined the PPDC.

Lastly, we also see that the truth behind Marianne death might not be lost in this story as Viktoriya has seen glimpses of both the fake memory Charles gave Lelouch and the his real memory of the event. The reason. As far as we know, Charles's geass allows him to suppress, rewrite and create memories but not destroy them. Meaning that the people he uses his geass still have the real memory in their heads, just locked away where they can't access it. Which means that the time is coming when she bring this up and along with other pieces of evidence they gather as the story goes, he'll find the truth.