Good news, this time it didn't take me a year to update this, and I consider that a win. But for real, I will try and update this more frequently as I've noticed that I've drastically slowed down how frequently I update…well, anything. Sure, studies and life, in general, are part of the reason, but I really need to stop reading other people's stuff and focus on working on my own stories. I won't waste any more of your time; I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 14: Shifting Conflict.

19th July 2025

Pan Pacific Defence Corps Command – Hong Kong

It had been hours since the attack was halted, and while they had dispatched assets into the city to help with the clean-up, at least to the point where regular traffic could resume, they found themselves with bigger issues. Once they had all been allowed time to sleep, Stacker had called all his pilots for an emergency meeting, the crews of the two units would have been present-but medical wanted to keep them under observation for a little longer. "If there is one thing you can say about those kaiju, they sure know how to mess up your plans." Gino's attempt at a joke was appreciated, but at the same time-not welcome.

"It can't be helped until our machines have all been fitted with counter gefjun disturbers, it would be suicide to try and fight them." Herc pointed out, being just as frustrated with this delay. The news that these monsters are acting under orders only made the mood in the Stacker's office all the tenser.

"I get that, but what are the odds of them having another one like that? Everyone one of them was unique." Before the conversation could continue down that rabbit hole 'should we try anyway', Stacker spoke up.

"As good a point that is, Mr. Weinberg, I'm not risking one of your few machines on it. We need certainties now more than ever." His words sealed that discussion tight.

"But how long will it take Rakshata to even make one? I heard that whatever that damned monster used was better than anything she ever created." Trying to get things back on track, Kallen asked the one question they all wanted to know.

"As much time as we can buy her. With two machines still down, we don't have the luxury of a second shot." Stacker's reply didn't inspire much confidence but none could object to it.

"At least the crews were recovered. I've been to too many funerals as is." Chuck spoke up, bringing up one of the few silver linings that came from the previous night's events, which was that they didn't lose anyone.

"As we all." His father spoke up in agreement as they were more than willing to take the little victories when the larger ones were so scarce. Still, despite that, it was clear to anyone with working eyes that neither Crimson nor Cherno would be ready to go for some time, with Crimson's damages being the least egregious of the two. That being said, their engineers gave them a conservative repair period of 2 weeks. Cherno…it was considered a lost cause as with how much damage it had suffered, it wouldn't be feasible to even try to repair the damages, so Stacker ordered that they salvage what they could for spare parts.

"Alright, but if all goes well, when will our mission commence?" Viktoriya asked another question, one that she hoped would have a more uplifting answer.

"If we get some good fortune for a change, the jaegers will all but fitted with gefjun disturbers countermeasures in a little over a week." At least that that news, Stacker's shoulders seemed less tense as while a setback, it wasn't as much as he feared.

"But if Hermann is correct about how their attack frequency, then," However, there was still that little blade hanging over their heads as while not as long as it could have been they didn't have that kind of time.

"Then the next attack will hit in the next 48 hours." Gino finished the thought as he crossed his arms. As the group discussed how they might need to inform the Chinese navy and air force to be at the ready, Viktoriya noticed that her partner hadn't said a word since they arrived, only standing near the back-lost in thought.

"Lelouch, do you have something on your mind?" Her question drew the group's attention to him, and also surprised him as he shook where he stood. Once back on earth, he spoke up.

"It's what Gino just said, that the kaiju are all different from one another." Lelouch started as he had been going over what they had learned in his head for a while, barely getting any sleep because of it.

"What about it?" Chuck asked him, to which he moved towards the side where a map of the entire pacific was hung over the wall, it has the location of the breach, major cities-shipping lanes, and locations of all their shatterdomes-but with the recent events-all but the Hong Kong location had their shatterdomes crossed out. Once at the map, he tapped the location of the breach. As he spoke, his finger traced from it towards San Francisco, the location of the first attack.

"These…master, the masterminds behind them. They can build them on what must be supersized factory lines, and the resources of God-knows how many worlds, so why only send one at a time?" His finger kept moving from city to city, in the exact order they were hit by their mysterious foe before coming to a halt right on top of them, in Hong Kong.

"It's only now that they send one with a specific jaeger counter, and that has me concerned." He told them as it didn't make sense, why only the single ones for so long? It could have been clear after the first 3 that single units wouldn't cut it, that they could and would kill them as fast as possible. If they had sent even just two before the first jaegers could have been launched, the damages would have been catastrophic. Which leads back to the question-why holdback?

"You think they'll send more like it?" Herc asked him, moving toward the map as well, only for Lelouch to shake his head, what he suspected was far worse.

"No…worse, I think they're been studying us." Lelouch said, pausing as a shiver run down his back.

"You mean from how we fight?" Gino asked, the entire group fully focused on him as he spelled out what could very well be their worst nightmare.

"How we build them. They sent a specially designed kaiju which could knock out all our machines, except gispy-an older model. Shouldn't be the other way around, where they would only know how older, more used equipment worked?" That was something he picked up as he dissected the battle in his head. With that question in the air, it didn't take long for the group to catch on.

"Jesus. They knew that we were phasing out older machines, and planned for the newer models." Viktoriya breathed as she fell into a seat, her legs having lost all strength.

"How the fuck would they know that?" Kallen asked, both furious and terrified at the notion that these…things had somehow learned how their best defense against the functioned and had created counters for it.

"That's what worries me. I have no idea." Lelouch was a cocky man, but he knew when to throw in the towel and this entire thing only left him with more questions than answers.

"If they can do all that, why haven't they?" Chuck asked, it all sounded like doom and gloom, and to frank, that was nothing new-but if they could have done this sooner, why waste time and drag this out? for the shits and giggles?

"It's a solid tactic. Get yourself into a good spot and force your enemies to burn through their resources and materials till they got nothing left to throw at you. Then you could stomp them into the dirt with minimal losses to your own forces, though I never thought I'll see siege warfare used on a planetary scale." Herc's words gave some kind of reason to this madness, after-all they were dealing with a foe with more resources than they ever thought possible, so at least in theory-they could afford to waste both time and the resources required to make one of those kaiju.

"Or they could be massing for a large-scale assault across the entire pacific. Even if we used Gispy and reactivated as many nuclear-powered machines as we can get our hands-on, that'll give us what? 4-5? They could hit every major city on the Pacific coast and we'll only be able to defend 3, maybe 4 of them." Viktoriya offered up an alternative theory as if they knew about their latest machines, they most likely also knew about the fact they were at their most vulnerable thanks to their losses in materials, pilots, and funding.

"Damned if we do, damned if we don't," Lelouch muttered to himself, holding back the mad laughter at the corner they found themselves in.

.

.

.

(Somewhere in central America)

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean things weren't much better as Bismarck rode in the back of a supply truck down a muddy country road. Along with his truck, there were 8 other cars, all of them bulletproof with false license plates. They would have been knightmares with them as well, but their matter of retreat from the capital had left them…unprepared. 'I can't believe such a catastrophe has occurred.' The aged soldier through to himself, not caring for the bandages sticking out from under his torn uniform, recent events keeping his attention away from his own health. 'Why now of all times, why would he betray his majesty?'

It had happened out of nowhere, one minute-everything was fine-the next, he was attacked, nearly killed if not for his skills and a healthy dose of luck saving him. He didn't even have time to get a good picture of the situation before he realized that V.V had turned traitor. His lord had planned for such an event, and had confided in him how much he pained him to even consider it but, in any case, he followed the protocol and contacted those chosen for their loyalty. Of only he had managed to grab even a 4th of them, the rest had already been killed or otherwise couldn't be contacted. He didn't even have time to get his cutting-edge Gloucester in the confusion, having only the time to get himself out of Pendragon and towards a private airstrip that flew him to Tegucigalpa.

He had laid low for the first 18 hours before they had received an encrypted message which requested that he met with an unknown in some rundown village two hours drive from the settlement. He would have ignored such, considering the situation, but he knew that only a handful knew of that messaging system's existence, with even less knowing how to use it. If he had been contacted using it just after V.V's coup-it must be someone he needed to meet with.

"My Lord, we're reached the safe-house." Before he could once more ask himself why his lord's closest confidante would have stabbed him in the back, one of the troops he had with him informed him that they had reached their destination. He looked out towards it, the interior of the truck being made from a specially designed bulletproof one-way glass designed to look like metal, towards the small village home, it was the only one in the immediate area, with a small wooded area of around 100m to the west, and the closest other house being well over 500m away, a perk of this being a farming community he supposed.

"Did you do a perimeter check?" He asked, reaching for his blade and a pistol all the while.

"Yes, my lord. There is just the one person inside, just as their transmission said." The soldier replied as while he could see the single source coming from the home, that didn't mean only one person.

"Stay out here and keep watch, you there!" He pointed towards another one of his troops with him, the woman standing over the tied-up body of one of the traitors he had managed to grab in their rush to get out of Pendragon alive. Their clock was torn, and they already had a black eye, and missing teeth from his early attempts to get information from them, but they were alive, which meant he could try to interrogate them again later. "Join me, bring the prisoner with you."

"Yes, my lord!" The soldier said as he hauled the prisoner to their feet as the three got out from the back of the truck, not minding how the mud ruined his white uniform-it was already covered in cuts and blood, as they made their way towards the house. As the reached the front door, he noticed it was open when he reached to knock-sure they were expecting a friendly face, but one could never be careful.

"Watch yourself." He told his second as he carefully walked into the home, his pistol at the ready. He quickly reached the living room, the room with the only light one to find someone he didn't expect.

"As diligent as ever, Lord Bismarck." The sole occupant spoke up from their seat, their attention still on the handheld device in their hands.

"Dame Alstreim, what is this?" Bismarck found himself stunned as he recognized the person that had called them here, at his question-Anya didn't even look up from her phone-though he did detect more emotion in her voice than he had ever heard from the girl.

"Whatever do you mean, Lord Bismarck? You received my coded message, did you not?" That didn't calm him down as he now pointed his weapon square at his head, his open eye narrowing into a glare.

"Do not play games with me, child. Not even Knights of Round would have known about that particular coded message system." The Knights of the Round might have been the best Britannia had to offer, but that didn't mean Emperor Charles just gave them everything. He and he alone knew of that particular communication system, or at least he thought he did.

"Only those Charles considered being his closest allies know of it, except for V.V of course." Anya finally put her phone away as he looked towards him, revealing her eyes had the oh so familiar red rings to them, so she had been compromised then? Did he mean that he had been lured into a trap? Either way, he wasn't about to just roll over and die.

Seeing this, 'Anya' sighed as she put her phone down and stood up, revealing she had no weapon as her gun was resting on the coffee table, far out of her reach. "Calm down, we don't have much time so I'll cut to the chase, I'm not Anya right now, you're speaking with Marianne." 'Anya told him, not a single hint of deceit in her voice or present on her face as she stared down his gun barrel.

"Marianne? Don't be absurd! She is dead and you would dare use her name?" He was sick of hearing the nobility disrespect his former colleague and friend, he, of course, knew why his master took the actions he did that fateful night-but he could barely hold himself back whenever one of those parasites spoke of her death as if she had it coming, or was a commoner whore that was finally dealt with. He was fortunate that the knights of the round if they had such opinions kept them to themselves after he humiliated Bradley in a duel for such views, but it seemed that old saying was true about the quiet one.

"Do I need to give you a play-by-play on how Charles and I lost our 2nd battle together due to a combination of bad weather, my arrogance, and Charles misreading the maps? Or do I need to remind you of how our first date went, you know, the one where we had dinner in the burnt-up remains of one of his elder brother's castles? Cease your nonsense, Bismarck, we don't have the time for it." That gave him pause, while Marianne's life had been somewhat well documented for propaganda-those were details that few knew of. Not even that wretch, V.V knew of their first date.

"But…how?" He lowered his weapon, disbelief coursing through him as Marianne…or was it, Anya? Sat back down, and crossed her legs in annoyance.

"My geass allowed me to jump ship into Anya's body, Charles knew about it, hence why he fast-tracked the girl's climb through the ranks." That explained a lot. "Now, how about you tell me what has happened?" But that only left him in another poor position as if she was still calm…

"You don't know?" That was the only reason for this. He knew of their love, he saw Charles rage when news of her 'death' reached him. He had seen how fiercely she defended him during his climb to the throne if that love hadn't diminished…

"I just got a message from one of Charles's aides to enact plan 3-F. It hasn't been 72 hours yet, so I haven't contacted Charles yet." He decided to try to approach this carefully, lest she tries to take his head off as while he could easily defeat Anya, Marianne was a foe you didn't want to close the gap.

Hearing that plan had been enacted, Marianne froze in her seat. She knew every single one of her husband's contingencies, and most had him almost glued to his faithful knight of one, including this one. So where was he? "Your highness…"

"Bismarck…what happened to my husband?" She looked into his eyes, hoping that he was just playing a poor joke on her and was just outside. She would take her husband's poor sense of humor any day, especially over what this meant. Bismarck's eyes falling to the floor, and his stance losing that strength she had always seen in him only confirmed her fears.

"I don't know. V.V…he betrayed hi-us. I was inside the imperial palace, on my way to speak with his majesty when I was ambushed by geass order assassins. I managed to fight my way through them, but by the time I made it to the throne room… no one was there." Bismarck revealed and, if she wasn't already seated, she would have fallen to her knees from the shock. His Charles was missing?! How could this happen?!

"What do you mean, no one was there? Did you not investigate? Try to find your lord and master?!" Marianne nearly jumped to her feet to wring Bismarck's neck. He was supposed to be Charles's sword and shield, and when he needed him-where was he?! How DARE he stand here as if he didn't fail like a fool?!

"There was no time, your highness. It was clear there was a struggle, but the palace was quickly falling, so I made the choice to gather those still loyal and flee. Unfortunately, those I've brought with me are the only ones that could respond-the rest were dead." His excuses didn't help her mood, nor did they lower the odds of her leaping for her gun and giving him a real reason to need an eyepatch. But, she decided he wasn't at fault, not all that lay with the troll that did all this.

"V.V If only I had killed him when I had the chance…But, but Charles insisted that I held back, he wanted to give his brother a chance, and look where that got us! My husband could be dead, and if that half-baked troll had his way-he'll try and pull out of the Kaiju defense pact and restart our wars of conquest!" If only Charles had listened to her, she understood that he didn't wish to kill his older brother, she even loved him more for it since he had killed or imprisoned the rest of his siblings-but she also saw him as a liability.

First, he killed for just because she gave Charles another reason to care for besides him, then she heard how he argued for them to continue weapons development and infiltration of foreign governments despite the monsters destroying whole cities. V.V, despite being an immortal-was extremely impatient with their plan's delays and was vocal in trying to set up the board for when they were dealt with. She loved that he loved his brother, but she saw him as a loose cannon that needed to be dealt with, and now she had to accept the fact she was right! First her life, then the chance to be a family with her beloved children, now this? Now he takes her husband from here?!

"My highness, forgive me if I came off as disrespectful, but you need to calm down. None of this makes sense." Bismarck spoke into her ear while holding her to ensure she didn't break more of the furniture, when did she start to do that? It didn't matter, she wasn't nearly calm enough to care about that right now.

"Nothing that little troll ever does makes sense!" Marianne screamed at him, tears in her eyes as everything she loved, all she had worked for was going up in smoke and she couldn't even get revenge on the bastard that had been the match and fuel to the flames, so if she couldn't incinerate V.V-she'll damn well break everything she could get her hands on till she was too exhausted to maintain control over Anya's body.

"To an adult yes, bus there was always a reason to his madness. So why now. Why would he overthrow his brother now? Surely, he knows the people would never follow him, now more so than before thanks to the threat of these kaiju." Bismarck was thankful she wasn't in her true body, even if the blows he was receiving from the grief-stricken woman hurt like hell, it could have been worse as at her best, Marianne could knock men out with a single blow.

Hearing this, she recalled how no announcements had been made, not even the still loyal OSI spies observing the high nobility had reported any rumors of upsets in the capital. As far as the world was concerned, nothing had happened. Marianne calmed down, at least enough that Bismarck didn't need to hold her back from destroying any more of the room as he allowed her the last remaining usable chair.

"Your highness, the reason that emperor Charles was meeting with V.V alone was that he had uncovered the truth of V.V's recent actions. He wanted to speak with him and try to understand why he took them." Bismarck at least knew that much, having been part of the investigation that had uncovered some of the facts.

"What actions?" He wasn't looking forward to explaining what he knew, but he was a man of honor and duty, so he would answer any questions she may have.

"He did all that?" Sometime later, after he had fully explained the situation-Marianne looked like she was going to break even more stuff, and most likely shoot someone while she was at.

"Yes, at first, we believed it was some foolish attempt on her son's life, but that theory quickly fell through. All we did know was that for whatever reason, V.V was undermining the war effort." Bismarck confirmed as the original idea was based on Charles picking up how much V.V seemed to resent anything relating to Marianne. But if he truly wanted to kill her kids, they both came to the conclusion he would have sent a hit squad after them and made it look like they were killed by the Japanese, which was a foolish idea but V.V had long since lost the assumption of intelligence.

"That's crazy, what could he possibly gain from such? It's not as if he could control the kaiju, there was as much a threat to us as they are to everyone else." Despite that, he was in the same boat as his empress as they could never figure that part out. Geass was a possible option, but command type geass' were rare and they had no way of even knowing it would work on them, seeing how it was random on if it even worked on animals as his own worked for just about anything, while Charles could only use his own on people.

"That's the big question, one that I, unfortunately, couldn't get any answers from this traitor." That leads them back toward the tied-up individual in their midst. They had already woken up but had refrained from speaking. Still, their injured state did little to appease Marianne as she stood up from her chair, her entire body radiating with a deathly calm.

"Leave them with me, I'll get them talking, even if she spends the rest of her short life eating through a tube," Marianne spoke as she grabbed one of the table's legs and placed its jagged end by the injured, and tied up woman's neck. However, before she could even begin the process, the prisoner began to spasm, their eyes losing focus as they rolled back.

"What the-what did you do?" Bismarck demanded of his agent who looked just as dumbfounded as he felt as they tried to stop the prisoner from hurting themselves.

"N-nothing! She was fine just a second ago!" The situation wasn't made better when the cloth gag they had stuffed into her month started to turn red, seeing the situation for what it was-Marianne ripped it right off as the woman started to cough up copious amounts of her own lifeblood.

"I thought we checked her for suicide pills," Bismarck asked her again as this could only mean one thing. As the prisoner began losing strength, their fate was already sealed. However, in the confusion, all but one of them noticed she was trying to say something in her dying moments.

"We did, I don't-!"

"Quiet!" Marianne yelled at the two, before turning back towards the woman, turning her head to the side so she could breathe easier in these final moments, allowing her words to not come out as garbled and quiet. Though in the process, she noticed something in her eyes, a familiar ring-only, it was nuclear blue and not the red she had always seen. "Geass, but how?"

"Everything for our true masters, death to humanity." That was all she could make out before the blue rings faded from her eyes, along with the light in them as she stilled. None of them needed to check to know she was dead.

"True masters? Death to humanity? Just what the hell is going on?" The unknown woman that Bismarck had brought along asked, no doubt she had been informed on some of their plans, but not much. She was actually impressed that she hadn't spoken up till now, but she would let that pass considering the circumstances. Still, that raised a good question as she had never seen a blue geass effect before. Hell, she didn't even know what these true masters were as V.V was loyal to the idea of Charles, he couldn't stand the reality anymore, so the only way someone could get him to act in such a way would be to geass him which would be impossible, C.C in her literal centuries had never fallen prey to geass as it had no effect on those with code.

But…that was normal geass….this was, it was blue…it somehow compelled this woman to die despite geass supposedly having no effect on the more crucial aspects of the brain. Then the fact they were crippling their defenses…true masters.

"Oh, God." Marianne threw up a little in her mouth at the implications of what she just learned, only barely managing to cover it with her free hand as she stepped away from the still-warm corpse.

"Your highness?" She ignored Bismarck's concerns for her health, they didn't have time for that.

"Bismarck, we can't stay here. We need to leave, now!" Marianne yelled at him as she raced over for her gun and phone, checking the device to see that she still had a signal, it was weak but she could call it in.

"But-"

"Do as your ordered!" Her glare silenced the man, but seeing how he was still waiting for a response, she merely growled to herself, cursing that they had been caught with their pants down. It now made perfect sense why V.V did what he did, why he made a move against his own brother. "You know what forgot it."

"Your highness, what is happening? Does V.V know where we are?" Bismarck finally caught on to part of the reason for their panic, but she could explain the rest of it later as she went back to the ruined chair she had been seated on when they arrived, close by was a small backup she had brought along with her with some essential survival staff. She opened it up and quickly found the two things she was looking for.

"Worse. Take this and get out of here. It's an encrypted phone. Get as far from here as possible and call me in 24 hours once you do, no later-no earlier. Do you understand?" She instructed him as she throw him an old-looking brick phone, she didn't turn to see his reaction to it, trusting he would pocket the thing and follow her league as she zipped up the back and got it around her shoulders. Once that was done, she made her way toward the other side of the room.

"Y-yes, your highness," Bismarck responded as he started preparing to leave, turning for a second to wonder what to do about the body before he decided to cut his losses, stripping her of her clock as the brown would blend in much more than the white and gold of his ruined uniform, he was just lucky it wasn't too much of a squeeze as he was much larger than its former owner.

"I can't go with you, we'll need to split up before they-!" Marianne had almost reached the cellar doors when she was tackled to the ground by the as of yet to be name woman.

"Get down!" The bark of gunfire answered her question about her reasons for doing what she did, but she was grateful that she was observant enough to pick up on that where she did not. She quickly looked to the side where Bismarck was crouched behind the half wall between the kitchen and living room as gunfire seem to come from every direction, the thin brick walls only offering partial protection as the high-powered rounds tore through it.

"How?!" Bismarck screamed over the gunfire as Marianne got out from under the woman and crawled towards a window to try and get a peek at just how screwed they were.

"That agent had more than just a kill switch, they had been feeding them your and now, my location since you grabbed them. I wouldn't put it past them to have planned for you to grab one of them." Marianne just went with the most logical, however, how crazy, theory she could as that prisoner didn't have a wire of some kind on her, but if whatever geass she was under was similar to her own, it stood to reason that one could use people as unknowing cameras and microphones.

Looking out the window, while being careful not to draw too much attention to her head-she saw that of the 9-11 people Bismarck had left to guard the perimeter, 7 were already dead with just two returning fire with their SMGs but they were too far to be able to aide them, or try and close the gap. She could make out at least 2 dozen people in the treeline "Looks like most of our people are already dead."

"They're firing from the treeline to the west, I also see a group making their way up the road." That wasn't good as on the road, three SUVs were making their way towards them, all three having machine gun turrets which had someone manning them. Once they got close enough, they would no doubt fire on the house till they were dead, or it fell in on them-killing them.

"Pincer, is there an escape route you can take?" Bismarck asked as he looked out a second window, firing a few shots before having to duck to avoid the hail of lead that was fired in response.

"Yes, but we need to take care of the immediate problem first. Lest any survivors manage to follow us. You there!" Marianne turned towards the woman who had been firing out from a spot close to the door into the woods. Once she heard herself being called, she quickly crawled towards her…empress while reloading her smgs, she wasn't sure she even wanted to know what was going on.

"Y-yes, your highness? How can I serve you?" She asked as the storm of bullets hadn't let up, only growing in intensity as two SUVs arrived and contributed their support in the assault using their light machine guns while the third ran over where the two remaining loyalists had been, killing one and leaving the other open for the vehicle's driver to blow a hole through his neck.

"There is a minigun gun upstairs, along with two rockets. Use the rockets to take out those vehicles and the machine gun to mow down as many as you can." Marianne instructed her, patting her back as she got back to firing, drawing their fire away from the stairs.

"Yes, your highness!" Seeing her chance once they stopped focusing on the doorway, she bolted for the stairs, barely escaping a shot that would have hit her leg from someone who had noticed her. Marianne quickly made her way towards where Bismarck was, silently cursing the fact she was down to her last clip.

"Did you think this safehouse wouldn't have some gear prepared?" She gave him a smirk as Bismarck's confused face melted away as he chuckled, the stitches holding his eye closed breaking.

"No, be honest. I would have imagined it would be a knightmare. You always preferred them." With his geass open to him, he used it to predict the movements of their attackers, managing to pick up three of them thanks to seeing when they'll stick their heads out of cover. But he had to dive to the side to avoid being turned into human Swiss cheese as one of the machine guns turned to where he had just been-its fired blowing so many holes into the brick that it looked more like one single thing had struck the spot.

"Not this safehouse, unfortunately." Marianne joked as she fired into the woods before her clip run dry. Lucky for them, the roar of a rocket engine came as a welcomed relief as one of the cars went up in flames. It was clear that they didn't know what just happened but not even 20 seconds later, another rocket was fired from the arctic, flying right under another car, launching it into the air before it came down on its side-its gone silent.

The final one had realized what was going on and had turned its gun towards the artic and started firing, but that meant its gun shield rose with its new line of sight. Bismarck didn't hesitate to put a bullet through the gunner's exposed midriff and while they weren't sure if it killed them. It did stop them long enough for their own machine gun to open up. It's rounds tore through the armored SUV within seconds, massacring anyone unlucky enough to be inside of it before moving towards the treeline. There was return fire, but it didn't last long as within around 90 seconds, resistance had ceased but the mini-gun kept on firing in short bursts for another 2 minutes before its operator came down the damaged stairs.

"I never thought I would fire something that like?" The woman said as she wiped away a smidge of blood from her brow, her clothes covered in sawdust and paint chips.

"You alright?" Marianne asked her as she went over to the cellar that she tried to reach before their guests arrived.

"Y-yes, your highness. It's just a scratch, I was lucky to avoid the worst of it." That was an understatement, it was even more fortunate that the machine gun wasn't hit by any stray rounds.

"No doubt they'll send more, we need to move. Now." Bismarck cut that off as he looked out the window at the field of corpses and fire.

"Yes, we do," Marianne agreed as she unlocked the cellar before lifting the heavy steel doors. "But in two separate directions."

"But you high-!"

"I don't want to hear it. They know we're here; they most likely also know that Anya's more than she appears. We need to split up and met up somewhere far, far away from here before we can plan anything." Marianne told him over her shoulder as she walked down the stairs, only turning on a small light once she got to the bottom, revealing that the cellar was a veritable armory with the walls having hooks for an assortment of weapons. Everything from knives to machine guns was down here.

"How would you even get out of here, car?" Bismarck's voice echoed down the stairs towards her as she collected a fresh clip for her pistol as well as some spares for later.

"There's a private airstrip not too far from here, there's a small plane that should be fully fuelled for me to take. There should be some vehicles for you to choose to escape with, but we need to be gone within the hour." Marianne replied as she equipped a couple knives as well as a bullpup rifle. Once that was done, she was back up the stairs in a flash to see the resigned face on the knight's face. Good, he wasn't going to waste time arguing.

"I...I understand, your highness. But please at least take her with you. You need someone to protect you." Bismarck pleaded with her, she would have refused, citing that she could move much faster without the tag-along, but then recalled that she didn't have much time left in control and she would need someone to help her settle some things.

"Fine. There is a weapons cache in the cellar, get what you can for the two of you and then rig the explosive charge down there to blow in 10 minutes. The less evidence we leave of our whereabouts the better." She nodded towards her new…partner as Bismarck quickly went down to gather his own supplies.

"Always worrying about his job, and never himself," Marianne remarked as she wasn't sure if any of them will survive long if things didn't change. Turning to the woman, he looked her up and down to really get a look at her. She was rather young, late 20s at best, and taller than average. She was pretty, no doubt she would turn heads no matter where she went, even among the more traditional nobles. "So, what's your name?"

"Your highness, forgive me for not introduci-" The woman started before her unimpressed gaze ceased her pointless chatter. "Lieutenant Commander Dorothea Ernst, formerly of the Royal Marines, now serving in Special Operations Command: Division 1."

"Division 1, is it? No wonder Bismarck brought you along. Your first job, head out there and take care of any survivors." Marianne knew of that division, not as infamous as Pluton-or as wide-reaching as the OSI-they were good at what they did, which was protecting the empire's more sensitive secrets. Charles had been using them with more frequency now V.V.'s calling his capability into account.

"Yes, mam." Dorothea nodded her head as Marianne handed over her sidearm and watched as she left the make sure no one but them left here alive.

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"Report." V.V's voice carried over the phone.

"They're gone, sir. We got here within 10 minutes of the extermination team's arrival-but the only thing here are bodies." The agent replied as he looked over the area while another 30 did a much more thorough look around. The building that the targets had most likely been in was nothing but burning timber and brick at the moment, though he doubted that they'll find their bodies somewhere in the rubble.

"How did they manage to defeat so many of our agents? Was there a knightmare present?" V.V's anger was palpable as this was supposed to be an easy thing. Bismarck was a tricky one, but he was at his best in close quarters, hence he passed along specific instructions to NOT let him get close and to keep him at a distance. Or perhaps it was this…Anya?

"Not likely, however as the agent was already dead before the firefight started." He already knew that having been the one to give the kill command, but what she had seen beforehand was something that he needed to look into.

"Leave a third of your people there to search around the local area, question anyone you can find for details-no matter how small they think it is. We'll put out a kill-on sight directive for this… Anya Alstreim girl, we can't afford to have unknown factors now of all times." If that girl truly was the thought to be deceased Flash, their plans could be in danger. That couldn't happen.

"Sir. For the masters." The agent's eyes flashed with their rings of nuclear blue before he ended the call and got to dealing out his new orders. Only two days left till it all came to fruition, they couldn't let anything or anyone stop it now.

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"Lieutenant, you know how to fly a plane, correct?" Meanwhile, having just taken off into the air, Marianne asked a question of her ally. The plane they were flying, like with other clandestine vehicles was marked to belong to a front company, being small enough that it could fly below the typical radar detection range, but also having been modified to have a more fuel-efficient engine for an increased range.

"Yes, your highness. Though I'm afraid my skills should be somewhat rusty." Dorothea replied from the co-pilot's seat. She had no military training with planes, but her parents had been avid flight enthusiasts and made sure she knew about to fly before she knew how to drive. Still, it had been years since she last made use of those skills.

"Just don't crash the plane yet and I'll consider it a win, keep flying south. I need some time alone." Once they had leveled off, Marianne handed the controls over to her before she moved to the back of the plane, taking a seat once there.

'What does she mean by "yet"' Dorothea thought to herself after hearing that peculiar choice of words. "Yes, your highness." She replied, just being grateful they weren't flying over open water as they only had another hour, maybe an hour and a half worth of light left.

In the back, Marianne made sure to buckle herself down, after placing her weapons out of reach. Even now she could feel Anya fighting to regain control over herself, she had gone far past her usual limits with her procession. 'I don't have much time left before Anya regains control, I need to make this quick.' She closed her eyes and let her control weaken to the lowest she could while still keeping Anya's body from moving, she reached out with her geass towards the one other person she could trust.

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"What is it today? Or did you contact me to actually chat?" C.C found herself pulled into their own little corner of their shared minds. Paintings of their past hung on the clear walls. Of course, C.C's paintings had clothes covering the majority of them, the ones being visible only being of things she had already told her annoyance of a contractor. She had only allowed the connection to form as it was still rather early where she was, and she was just relaxing in a motel while she waited for the gullible manager to get her pizza.

"Afraid not, so I'll just cut to the chase. Charles is missing and Pendragon is lost to us." Marianne spoke up from behind her, though she wasn't surprised by this seeing how in this space, one could go from one place to another with but a thought.

"So, V.V.'s finally gone and done it, can't say I'm surprised, that boy had a serious brother complex-" C.C was about to question if she had pestered Charles enough, but Marianne cut her off.

"He and the rest of the order have somehow fallen under the control of the Kaiju. They used him and his agents to systematically dismantle and PPDC and most likely has something big planned if they took Charles out of the picture." Marianne's response got her to pause as she turned to face her, seeing for what felt like the first time in years, her face void of any amusement, teasing smile, or some joke.

"You have my attention." She turned around fully to face her.

"I don't know what their plan is, or when it will take place but I'm willing to bet whatever it is will happen soon. I need you to get your pizza-loving ass out of Australia and bring this information to the PPDC." Marianne's words got a surprised gasp from her.

"I'm at least 6 hours away from the nearest airport, and where would I even go? Didn't they shut down all the 'shatterdomes'?" C.C's answer was a question in and of itself as this wasn't an easy thing to do.

"Hong Kong, I'll do my best to find whatever loyal assets we still have in Australia and get them to assist you with this. A private jet will cover the distance 1, maybe 2 hours faster than a commercial jet." Marianne already knew it would be a hassle to get into contact with them. She just prayed, as ironic as it was, that V.V's coup was localized for the time being.

"And what am I to do once I get there? Just walk up to their front door, ask to speak to wherever's in charge, who would just have the time and desire to meet with some strange girl, and then after all that, what would I tell him?" She could appreciate that things were extremely bad, but the issue was that so few people knew about her that they would be crazy to even entertain her, and she wasn't in the mood to be locked up in an asylum…again, breaking out of the last one was hard enough.

"Ask for my son, he's stationed there along with the remaining pilots and their machines. Do something that gets you inside, I don't care if it's as a guest or a prisoner-just do that and tell them, someone, only you would know about his past. It'll draw attention." That was something she hoped not to do. If he was anything like his parents…

"Great, I thought I could go a couple decades without getting killed. You owe me for this." And just when she got herself a nice new dress. She couldn't carry an entire wardrobe with her, and because of that, she liked to dress nice with whatever she could bring with her on her travels. Maybe she should buy some clothes once in Hong Kong, that way she won't have to ruin her good ones.

"Thank you, really…thank you." That drew another pause from her. Marianne may have been pleasant, and even fun to be around at times, but she had never thanked her for anything.

"Alright, once I have him in the same room. What should I tell him? That I knew his mother? You and I both know he wouldn't buy that." She figured it wouldn't take much to attract his interest, not if he was invested in his mother's demise as she believed he was.

"Everything." It seemed like her contractor was on a roll with giving her pauses.

"Excuse me." C.C rose her brow at that. Of all the things she could have asked of her, that was a pretty big one.

"Tell him everything, the truth of what really happened that night, what we were doing, what we're still doing, why we…we had Nunna shot. Leave nothing out." Marianne choked out that last part, even though she found that was a step too far, but the lie needed to be held. She walked closer to her contractor who looked like she was barely holding back the tears as she reached for the taller woman's face.

"You understand what you're asking of me, don't you? Almost 15 years of secrecy, even asking me to back off after first asking me to look over them in Japan." C.C asked her, to make sure she knew what she was getting into with this as she wiped away the tears.

"I do." Despite that, Marianne confirmed what she had asked of her, even as she gave her a bitter smile, one that spoke of failure, self-loathing and

"Any particular reason? I could easily grab his interest in other ways." She offered an alternative, but it seems that Marianne's mind was set. She moved away from her touch, hugging herself as more tears poured.

"Because we were wrong…so oh very wrong. In our pointless pursuit of their dreams-they lost their children and whatever time they had left with them." Marianne whispered though it hit like a yell with all the raw emotions her words carried. How much resignation that rung with her words. She paused, trying to gather herself as she looked towards her hands, the same as they had been 15 years ago, smooth and full of youth, not a speck of dirt or grime to them.

They both know that was a falsehood. These hands had killed, they had destroyed. They had neglected her own family. They weren't the hands of someone with children in their 20s. Not the hands of someone who helped her children through puberty, not the hands of someone that held her children on their graduation days.

Just like everything else, they were fake. The hands of a fraud, a failure.

"I have no right to claim them as my children, not after hurting them so badly, and then just watching as they left. If this proves to be my last act, I at least want them to know….that I'm sorry I was such a terrible mother, that I'm sorry for tricking them into thinking otherwise." She spoke, her voice soft despite what she had just admitted. =

"Marianne." C.C had mixed feelings about this, she had lost many contractors, and would most likely lose more, but she had never wished for anyone to die such a death-one of regret and depression. She wanted to die, but she wanted her death to be one that could put a smile on her face-she wanted that for others as well. But this, this was the furthest thing from that as Marianne's smile was a brittle, weak thing, one more there to keep herself together than any joy.

"I have to go…Anya's about to regain control and I have to…prepare to explain things to her." Marianne cut the connection, leaving C.C alone.

(Somewhere in Queensland, Australia)

"So, things are that bad, are they?" C.C opened her eyes to find herself in the motel room. Lying about on the bed in the nude with her precious cheese-kun at her side. "Hard to believe it, but after centuries of life, something new has happened. But it had to be something bad, didn't it? It's not like it's the first-time gifts life tosses my way have been curses in disguise." She gave out a bitter laugh as it tracked that the first new thing that happens has to be a threat to the entire world.

She would have to ignore that for now, much like she was ignoring the heartbreak and hopeless look of her contractor and annoying friend on her face. She quickly got dressed, grabbing her sun-hat and cheese-kun along the way as she left the motel. Exiting her room into the hot Australian sun, she quickly made her way down the stairs, looking for a ride as she was hours from Brisbane. She was lucky to spot some college boys along with their clearly hand-me-down 90s convertible. None of them looked particularly interesting, but she found her marks.

'I hate when I have to do this, but I don't have time for my usual methods.' C.C said to herself as she took a deep breath, before falling into character as she run over to them.

"Hey, sorry to bother you, but could I ask a favor, I'm in a really bad pinch right now." C.C's sexy and friendly persona was in place, and as she spun them a tale on how her deadbeat of a boyfriend just took her without her and how she needed a ride back to her parent's place, her mind was in other places.

'If V.V's fallen…then it means not even a code can protect you from whatever they have, could they…kill me?' That thought send a chill down her spine as she easily managed to sway the three boys to her needs, all three of them falling over to try and impress her, though it wasn't like they wanted in her pants since she looked like a teenager and more along the lines of trying to outdo the other. She didn't care about that, so long as the one with the keys was willing to break some speed limits.

(Three hours later – Back in Hong Kong)

"I know this is hard, but we need to be fast about this, but treat those brains like they're you…supersized gross babies…that you plan to-just hurry up!" The only good thing that Newton could say about the current moment was that there wasn't an attack coming after them, or him-he didn't know at the moment and had too much work and fear to think about it. Much like the other scientists, they had been given their own space in one of the unused jaeger hangers to work, but it was a slow process as most of their engineers were still working on the jaegers themselves.

"How are things progressing?" Dr. Gottlieb walked up beside him, watching as the two dozen or so spare hands they could get moved the large containers housing the kaiju brains into what looked to be a supersized abomination of a fridge.

"Slowly. We managed to get some jury-rigged storage units set up for them, so at least they won't turn to mush on us, but that's the only win we got right now." Newton scratched at his head as he looked down at the tablet, he had to see how much more stuff they needed to get done.

"I would have thought you would have tried to drift with one by now." Dr. Gottlieb's words got him to actually chuckle, something he appreciated seeing how he had been up since the previous day was really needed his 12th cup of coffee.

"I wanted to, but the boss man was clear that I'm not to 'pull such an insane stunt like then again without his permission'. His words, not mine." Newton reply got Gottlied to scoff.

"Of course, they are. So, if not you, who's going to do it?" Newton pointed towards the other side where some other people helped the mechanics, they didn't look like the rest-more like office staff or other personnel from around the facility.

"We got some volunteers that will drift with the two recovered brains, that way any neural feedback will be kept limited." It was left unsaid that the real reason was that they were chosen so that if one or both died, it wouldn't be a big loss. And if they were found to be compromised or otherwise lost their minds-a bullet to the brain awaited them.

"They're guinea pigs, don't sugar coat it. I know it, you know it, and if they somehow haven't realized it and accepted it, I'll question their sanity." Dr. Gottlieb could respect that about them. But they needed to preserve their intellectuals, now more than ever seeing how this threat was not just random attacks through some rip in space-time.

"I just don't like thinking that they're more…expendable than me." Newton signed as he reached for his face, removing his glasses and massaging the bridge of his nose.

"Well, against what I would have thought, you are. How long till you get the rigs up and ready? Even chilled, those brains are still decomposing so we have a limited time window." An aide walked up to them and handed him a much-needed cup of coffee while Dr. Gottlieb took the juice.

"Well, if I had to do it by myself, I would say about a 3 to set up some proper drifting equipment. But if some help," Newton's answer took a pause as he looked towards his fellow scientist. "I can cut them down to around 38 hours if we only stop for 4-hour naps and skip a few meals."

"Can't we speed things up?" Dr. Gottlieb knew more than anyone just how little time they had, they needed this up and running as fast as humanly possible, and if that meant skipping some steps about safety-so be it.

"That is the sped-up version. It took me two weeks to build the last rig, yes, I had to do it in secret which really slowed me down, but my point is this isn't a simple process, we're flying blind here as we know little about the brains of Kaiju." Newton understood the time crunch, but they couldn't afford to do anything that could damage the brains, if that happened-they would have even less information to work with.

"I hate that this is necessary, and as much as it pains me…where do you need me to start?" Newton's big smile only made Dr. Gottlieb want to strike him right over the head with his cane, but again…

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

And just like that, the chapter is done! And much like I wanted-it didn't take me a full year to write this out, only the better part of two weeks…man I need to write faster. Anywho! As the chapter's name suggests, I'm shifting away from the blind Jaeger/Kaiju battle to the next phase of the precursors' plans to eliminate mankind's resistance and claim the earth. Because of that, this was mostly a Marianne chapter for me as I wanted to build on the fact in this timeline, that she's lost faith in Ragnarök, and has realized the mistakes she and Charles made regarding their broken family.

Marianne's realization that only one group would benefit from V.V's surprise betrayal was me trying to show off that intelligence the wiki says she has, but unlike her husband and son-she intelligence is more in how she can read a situation and analyses it for all it's worth. Much like how Tanya in Saga Tanya the evil isn't smart like a chess grandmaster but can read the situation and people to figure out what they'll do.

When it came to the firefight, I based it on how such things would play out in Modern Warfare 2 and 3, without the crazier elements as they really were caught with their pants down, the place was just geared up to be a short-term defensive hold-up/surprise slaughter machine thanks to that heavy machine gun stored upstairs. Also, before any of you question why they didn't send knightmares, the simple reason is that V.V didn't think he needed to, I mean, would you?

The two brains recovered came from the kaiju that Gispy killed(The one whose chest they blew to bits) and the baby as they would have been the fastest to retrieve for their purposes. It's getting really cold where I am so I'm not going to write out the replies to the reviews this time around as my fingers are starting to freeze over.