Lelouch Lamperuge, secretly Lelouch VI Britannia, sat in his room staring at the TV. On the screen was a reporter standing in some kind of park. In the background, several knightmares and a G-1 command centre were advancing on a bridge leading to the Saitama ghetto.
"The new viceroy, Princess Cornelia Li Britannia, has announced the pacification of a terrorist group in the Saitama ghetto. We were informed that the attack shall begin in an hour." The female reporter spoke in a loud and clear tone.
" What is this game you are playing, sister?" Mused the exiled prince to himself. "It is quite obvious that this is a trap."
A rustle of bed sheets could be heard. A green-haired girl in a white shirt sat up on the bed. "And what are you planning on doing about it, lelouch?" She asked.
"Well, I can't just leave those rebels to die; it would put Zero in a bad light." C.C.'s eyes narrowed, and she fingered the gun she appropriated from some unfortunate Britannian police officer.
"But." The green-haired witch paused. "I am not stupid enough to risk my life for them." The girl's face morphed in confusion.
Lelouch turned to her and, with an evil smile, he continued. "So, this is what we are going to do."
Cornelia sat in the command chair of the G-1's command bridge. She had ordered her men to leave no one alive. She was walking on eggshells as it was. It would be a tragedy if the general public caught wind of this. If Seriyus really was zero, she would hopefully capture him and make him stop the resistance in area 11. There was also the feeling of absolute despair in her stomach, appearing at the thought of him getting injured, or even killed.
But if Seriyus were to fight her, she would be on her best behaviour. He was always a better commander than she could ever hope to be.
At her sides, Guilford and Jeremiah stood, overlooking the big screen above the planning table.
Around said table stood a group of officers. Most notable among them was Andreas Darlton, the second in command of Cornelia's personal army. The second most notable officer there was Viletta Nu, Jeremiah's squire. One last notable person was Kewell Soresi, who was the one who stopped the massacre Zero was planning, sustaining an injury to his shoulder.
"My lady." Cornelia's loyal knight spoke up. "Is there a reason why you made sure none of us appear on the front line?" The princess grimaced.
"Because, Guilford, my Knight." She started with a low tone. "For all my military experience, I never commanded an anti-Gorilla army. And besides, if Zero's identity is what I think it is, I am no match for him. Therefore, we have to take every advantage we can. If we were to expose ourselves, he would kill us instantly. Only if I am sure I am mistaken as to his identity will I let you out on the field."
Despite the fact that she spoke very quietly, the wariness in her tone made it clear she was very cautious of charging in recklessly, and getting herself and her men killed.
'I hope he can forgive me.' Cornelia though, a painful knot yet again appearing in her stomach.
In the command centre of the Narita Mountains stood a figure. He was looking at a wall-sized screen. His azure kimono fluttered in the artificial wind created by the ventilation shafts above him. Seriyus Kururugi creased his eyebrows. He stood straight in an unflinching pose of authority.
His left hand was gripping the katana at his belt so hard that his knuckles turned white. Blood seeped from his right hand, clenched into a tight fist. The commander of the JLF stared, almost unblinkingly, at the screen showing the media broadcast.
"Cornelia." He ground out from beyond the clenched teeth. All that echoed in the room, beyond the broadcast, was the systematic dripping of blood from the clenched fist.
On the commander's left stood General Tohdoh. His face was set into an expressionless mask.
On Seriyus' right stood Chiba, who gazed upon her commanding officer with a hint of sadness.
Both she and the general stood a step behind their leader. Chiba wanted to comfort her commander, but a single look from her fellow holy sword member stopped her.
Instead, she spoke up. "What do we do?" Nagisa asked hesitantly. "My lord? " She added after a second.
The azure-haired man threw her an angry look over his shoulder. It was so intense that she almost staggered back.
"Nothing!" He spat with venom. "We stay here and pray that Zero brings us another miracle." His livid gaze returned to the screen.
The forces of the Holy Britannian Empire were encircling the Saitama ghetto. Ground soldiers were going house to house, slaughtering everyone inside.
The Yamato Alliance were scrambling in their hideout. A patrol member ran inside, screaming the leader's name. He handed a handheld radio over to him.
"I am Zero." Followed a commanding voice from said radio.
Shouts of happiness could be heard from the HQ.
Cornelia carefully looked over the tactical overhead display, awaiting an attack on her forces. The KMFs were spread out in squads of three, patrolling the ghetto for any sign of the rebels.
She was nervously scratching her chin in anxiety, with the only thing preventing her nails from drawing blood being her thick white gloves. The princess could easily hear the rapid beat of her panicked heart.
An ear-piercing signal from the map notified that one of the squads had been wiped out instantly. A slight narrowing of her eyes was the only way she reacted to such a thing happening.
A second later, a wing of VTOLs was torn to shreds by machine-gun fire from an unseen assailant, most likely a knightmare. Over the next few minutes, the frustration of her officers grew along with the number of losses their units were taking.
In every direction, fire from knightmare rifles could be heard. Cornelia watched the tactical display with a critical eye. 'No, it's not his tactic, so if he's not purposefully changing it, than... Seriyus is not Zero.' Suddenly, she felt a great pressure fall from her shoulders and heart. She didn't even notice it until it was gone.
Getting her head back into the game, Cornelia stood up from the command throne and ordered with a voice filled to the brim with charisma. "Withdraw our forces, it is quite easy to see that this is getting nowhere besides our defeat."
It was moments like this that reinforced the notion of not taking Clovis' officers to battle. They most likely would be rambling about fighting on, meanwhile even a fresh officer could see that pursuing such tactics would lead to even more losses of their own units. Self-entitled nobles truly are the scum of this earth.
"I believe it is time to go, Guildford, my knight." At her side, her loyal knight saluted and left the command deck. A second after that, the sound of knightmare catapults launching frames could be heard. She traced after Guilford, as he and a few members of her royal guard had left for battle.
They awaited in tense silence as their units scouted out the enemy-controlled territory.
"My lady, a single unit was unable to retreat from battle." Looking to Soresi, she took a second to analyse the current situation. It was an obvious ambush, the question was, what was she going to do about it?
Since the operation started, she had been considering Zero at least as dangerous as Seriyus was. Honestly, what was she thinking? She was a military general, ready to fight against armies. She wasn't her sister Marrybell; there was little to no chance fighting against experienced gorillas.
Never the less, she had to fight on, lest her father think her useless and does something with Euphemia. To be honest, Cornelia was disillusioned a long time ago. It wasn't loyalty that kept her from deserting to the British ales, to join the EU. Instead, it was the assurance that her father would have them killed the second they fled. There also wasn't any certainty that the Europeans wouldn't just shoot first ask questions never.
A loud explosion broke her out of her thoughts. The moment she looked at the display, her already pale face turned ashen. 'Oh no'.
Guildford cursed as he watched the forward two knightmares burst into a Sakuradite-fueled explosion. The moment they stopped to see if their comrades made it out, they were encircled by enemy knightmares from every direction.
The rain of rockets and chaos mines saw two more of his frames ripped apart, with only one of the cockpits making it out. It was only him and two more units holding against the relentless onslaught of explosive ordinance.
A flash of another explosion made him grimace. Make it him and only one more unit, with the second one being shredded into metal pieces.
If it continued like this, they wouldn't hold out long.
"All conditions have been met; now it is time to deal the finishing blow." C.C. stared, inwardly agape, at the exiled royal. Lelouch was good...very good.
As her contractor produced a detonator with a frankly terrifying smirk, she stared, ready to see Zero's latest scheme. If he continues like this, she might just side with him entirely, betraying Charles, Marianne, and that brat V.V.
The sound of the detonator being activated pulled her out of her musings. With a distant sound of an explosion, she watched as the bridge leading into Saitama stood in purple flames and, a second later, exploded. The forces on it tried to leave hastily with the help of slash harkens. All those attempts proved fruitless as the falling rubble turned the enemy units into scrap metal.
A low, menacing laugh escaped Lelouch. For all her seven hundred years of experience, she was unable to stop the involuntary shutter from running down her spine. This boy...this...demon in front of her, was terrifying.
"Now that my dear sister is lying, let's kick her, shall we?" Another click of the detonator rang out. Snapping her eyes to the screen, she blanched.
Lelouch could be very evil when he put his mind into it. And considering that all he did was out of sheer spite, it showed just how long he could hold a grudge.
Cornelia watched in horror as what remained of her knightmares was reduced to ash within a few seconds. Despite her caution, she was still outplayed. Kamikaze was, after all, the flag tactic of the Japanese during the war.
Now, because she forgot that little fact, all her soldiers were dead, gone in a second swallowed by a Sakuradite-fueled explosion.
This just really wasn't her day, was it?
She screamed bloody murder, tears streaming down her cheeks. The coppery taste of blood filled her mouth, not allowing for any other distraction. Her eyes were open, yet she could not see.
A hazy force at the back of her mind was causing an immeasurable amount of pain to flood her body, and with most of her senses cut off, the pain was only amplified.
She could not speak, yet a silent scream tried to leave her throat. Somewhere in her mind, she registered her nails breaking while trying to claw her skull wide open, blood flowing from her fingertips.
Pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain painpainpainpainpain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain painpain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain painpain pain pain pain pain pain pain
GoD mAKe iT StOp.
She fell. She fell and fell and just kept falling, descending further and further into the depths of insanity.
And then...nothing. As if the force that was just tugging at her a second ago simply vanished. She...felt... a cold surface beneath her, the cold penetrating her to the core. She silently curled up into a ball and started sobbing and whimpering pitifully, thankful it was over.
For now.