You know, the beauty of designing or putting your spin on mythical monsters is that you can pull from multiple sources and design one that you either think is nice, or downright terrifying. The Ancients Greeks were experts at that as Red from OSP put it, 'If you're ever having trouble designing a monster, just smash two or more animals and/or humans together and give the result as many legs, arms, heads or other appendages as you like, not like you have to care about how it came to be, or how the primordial genetics work as they certainly didn't.' This chapter was a bit delayed as I was watching the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Chapter 18: Our Unrecognisable Home Part 2

The footage started up, showing off the London crater as the river Thames fed into it in the distance, which along with the rains had created a small lake where the city centre once stood. Inside the slowly filling crater was a makeshift dock that locals had built which was swarmed with white cloaks, with one of them standing to the side. His uniform was clean and finely pressed with the mark of his rank clear on his collar. The officer looked to the side, watching as another approached him.

'Chief Inspector De la Garza, so you finally arrived. I'm been calling you all morning.' The woman signed, seemingly annoyed with his blasé tone but not doing much else. Unlike the rest, while she wore the same white cloak, hers had more details to it, while she also had her rank's symbol on her collar, she also had a golden badge pinned to her chest, right above her heart.

'I'm in no mood for your shit, Inspector Keshawarz, what was so important that you insisted that I bar the police from getting near here?' She asked him, getting a hmm in response as he pointed towards the water, where there 6 cables leading into the water, cables that slowly moved as they were dragged further out and deeper into the water-all connected to tow trucks brought in for this purpose.

'It's another one of those.' The woman cursed at the reply.

'Shit, this is getting ridiculous, didn't we just finish handling the clean-up of one of these up in Uppingham last month.' She turned to observe him out of the corner of her eye.

'Trust me, I would rather be in the office filing paperwork than dealing with this weird stuff.' The man replied as he drank his flash of coffee.

'What is it this time around?' The woman didn't drop any names, treating this as an annoyingly common occurrence.

'A sea monster if the report's legit.' She stared at him when she heard that, thinking he was insane for a moment before she recalled that it wouldn't be the strangest thing they'd seen in their time stationed in England.

'Sea monster?' She asked, and when he nodded his head, she groaned as she rubbed her forehead. 'Great, as if this place wasn't depressing enough.'

'Inspector! We just got word from the divers!' Someone ran up to the two, saluting them once close enough before he pointed to the water where 12 divers surfaced and waved their way. 'They're managed to place the hooks around the beast.'

'And the beast?' The Chief Inspector asked him, but the man didn't immediately respond, as if he didn't have the right words to do so.

'They said you need to see it to believe it, sir.' Knowing that he might be true, she nodded her head before she turned to the rest of them, particularly, those manning the tows.

'Then proceed, and make sure to keep the public away from here, I'm not going to be the one whose branch let this leak first, is that understood?' She called out to them, all of them saluting her.

'Yes, mam!' With that said, they got to work as they all started to slowly reel in their cables. At first, there was nothing as the lines must have taken further than was needed, then she noted that there was a jolt in the tows as their lines went taunt but continued to move as they dragged out whatever it was, they were attached to. The two waited in silence as more of the wet cables were retracted as they pulled in their target, that silence not breaking even as the prize in question was finally pulled close enough to the surface for them to finally see it. As its body broke the surface, there was a gasp of surprise and horror from the man as they, along with the rest finally got to see the monster under the light of day.

Whatever they were expected, this monster's remains certainly weren't it as the beast was an unholy amalgamation of a hairy man, a horse and a fish, with its horse hind legs gone and replaced with a large brown finned tail, though one of the fins was missing, cut off by whatever killed the beast. Its horse-like body was just brown, like its tail but far larger than any horse any of them had seen, being closer in size to a small elephant than an Equidae, its body while scarred and covered with deep cuts was nevertheless packed full of muscle making it clear its bulk wasn't for show. At last, there was the human part, or to be more accurate, the humanoid part. Like a centaur, it was the upper body of a man, a large muscular and hairy one at that, though they didn't know what their face looked like on the account that its head, along with its right arm past the elbow, was gone, presumable still in the water awaiting discovery.

'My God…' Inspector Keshawarz muttered as he, along with most of the white cloaks gathered, couldn't help but stare at the remains of a creature they never thought could exist. 'Just what in the hell is it?'

'That's not all, Inspector Keshawarz. While the dive team secured the hooks, they reported that they found human remains, at least 30 sets.' Both turned to the man, with Chief Inspector's eyes narrowing at the implications of that.

'So, what, this place was once a bustling city with millions of people, there are bound to still be remains.' At her subordinate's idiotic words, she smacked him over the head hard enough to send him to his knees with a yelp of pain.

'And how, Inspector Keshawarz,' She stretched out his name and title, watching as fear seeped into his eyes as she glared him down. 'Would there still be remains after a F.L.E.I.J.A. strike?' He moved to answer before his brain caught up with the situation.

'Right…sorry.' Bowing in apology to her, she paid him no heed as she turned her attention back as she turned back to the grunt that had been speaking.

'Continue.'

'Yes man, some have stayed behind but they reported that they didn't look any older than a few weeks.' She nodded her head at that, whatever she was thinking about being confirmed.

'Well, I suppose we know why people have to vanish in the general area then. That thing,' She looked at the remains slowly being moved away from the water, some of her men acting jumpy as if the dead monster would move. 'Was killing them…somehow.' She would have to wait for the autopsy report to know more, such as if the beast was merely killing people, or if it was devouring them as a food source as she highly doubted this place had enough fish in it to sustain something that large.

'Yeah, but leaves to other questions. A, how it did that, this place is a dead zone, no one comes here. Sure, the odd mourner shows up, but we would have noticed if they never came back, right?' Inspector Keshawarz asked a good question, though she was concerned with the question of how the damned thing managed to move out of the water.

'That's an issue that would have been the local police's job, one that I'm personally check up on to ensure they aren't a bunch of fools. As for your second question, I also would like an answer to that.' Oh, she would, she didn't care that the governor would have issues with her getting too involved with local affairs, but it was because of his insistence that they remained in their lane and didn't use their full power and influence that was part of the reason she was so overworked if the Grand Inquisitor heard this and assumed she was slacking…

'Right, cause if this thing was running, or in this case, swimming about and killing by the dozen, then what could have possibly killed it?' Another good question but she wasn't given time to answer it as another one of her people rushed towards her, stopping for a quick salute.

'Mam! We have a witness!' The woman stated, instantly grabbing her attention as she stepped towards her.

'Bring them over.' She ordered the white cloak who nodded her head and rushed off, and she was back before too long passed, with the two civilians standing before her, a father and son pair if their age difference but similar features told her anything. Standing in her presence, the two bowed low, though the father went lower than his son as he started to speak, fear in every word he said-good, that lowered the odds of him lying to her.

'F-forgive me, mam, I wasn't trying to break any laws, honest! I was just here to check the fishing you see, as the river has been diverted here-' She raised her hand, and he fell silent, sweating.

'Enough, just tell me what you saw.' She wasn't in the mood or business to hear long-winded stories or half-baked explanations, if it was important, she'll read the report about it later.

'O-of course, mam. Well, as I said, I was here to check out its fishing status, you know, sail around a little bit with my boy over here, see if it was worth coming back in a week with the rest of the group.' As he spoke, his son lifted with shaking hands a camera, the kind that was worn on the head to leave their heads free.

'You had a camera?' She didn't ask, but the boy answered regardless.

'Y-yes, mam. He wanted to video it, show it to his friends.' His voice broke a little near the end though she wasn't sure if that was the fear or the fact, he was entering puberty's embarrassing embrace.

'Show me the footage.' She ordered as the boy quickly nodded his head as he fiddled with the device to turn it on and select the footage in question.

'Y-yes, mam.' The video they were shown was of poor quality, captured using an older model of camera but it was enough for them to see what had happened. It started simple enough, with the two on their boat with some small talk about the depth, fish and plant life. It shifted as the father noticed something in the distance, the monster that they had fished out of the water, and in the video, it was very much alive and capable. They remained silent as they watched them rush to escape it, with the father scoring a lucky shot over the thing's head with their oar while the boy manned the motor. Both screamed in terror when the motor, an old thing, broke down shy of the dock with the two jumping over and swimming for the shallows.

They had just made it when the beast nearly fell on them, ready to kill them but it was stopped when a figure slammed into them, sending it back. The quality wasn't good enough to see exact details, but the figure seemed to be adorned in bulky magenta and gold armour, with two shield-like additions attached at her shoulders. In their hands, they were wielding a strange battle axe that didn't seem to be made from normal steel. At first glance, it just looked like a knightmare, but it was far too small, looking less like a mech and more like an armoured suit. The knight turned to them but didn't answer when asked if they were part of the World Police, they-she merely told them to run as she swung at the monster once more, this time taking its arm clean off as it roared in pain. Neither stayed long to watch the fight as they continued to swim to shore, with the son, the one wearing the camera only turning back once to check up on things, seeing that the fight had moved further out and to his shock, those two shoulder shields shifted, coming together and forming a cannon of some kind which then fired a blast towards the beast, he didn't stick around to see if it hit as his father dragged him away.

'And that's all we got. We listen to her and get away as fast as could, then rushed back to our lodging.' The father stated as the footage ended there. The two white cloak commanders eyed one another for a moment before the Chief Inspector spoke.

'Have you told anyone else about this?' She asked the two, both shaking their heads at the question.

'N-no, mam. We wouldn't know what to say.' The boy replied, his father moved to add something but she cut him off.

'Then don't, not a word to this to anyone, is that understood?' She looked at the both of them, making it clear she wasn't joking and if they broke her order, they wouldn't find the bodies she eyed the waters behind her, it'll be easy to mix them in with the rest.

Seeing where she was looking, both paled as they bowed once more. 'Yes, mam!'

Observing them for a moment longer, she turned to the one that had brought them to her. 'Escort them home, and make sure they sign an NDA.' The woman saluted her as she led them away, the son looking back at her and the lake every so often but he was soon gone, leaving her alone with her second in command and her thoughts.

'This is troubling, really troubling.' She muttered; a hand moved to her chin.

'No kidding, an unknown actor operating in our neck of the woods isn't going to look good.' She looked at him, her concerns being greater than just an idea that there was a radical, that wasn't anything new.

'A radical by itself would be a problem, but the model of that machine is what has me concerned. I served in Tokyo 5 years back, and had the honour of fighting under our Lord Schneizel.' She smiled at that; she had been given the honour to fight in his forces in her newly obtained Vincent. Though it was a chaotic battle, to say the least.

'You think that it was Black Knight remnants?' Inspector Keshawarz asked her.

'No, that machine, that armour' She looked him in the eye. 'That was based on one of ours, the Mordred.' His eye widened at that. She didn't spare him any time to think as she turned to walk away.

'Send word to central command, we'll need help with this.' She ordered over her shoulder as the man followed after her, confused.

'But shouldn't we contact the Governor?' She glared at him for that, the man freezing mid-step.

'His involvement is a courtesy, not an obligation. We don't have time to play politics and blame games with him.' She told him as she turned away from him, walking up the hill towards where her car was waiting for her.

'Understood. Make sure you get that thing out of here in the hour, I want it contained for study in 3, am I clear?' She ordered as she moved.

'Yes, sir!'

It was there that the video ended, with the three lucky that Milly was able to get her hands on the bodycam footage of the Inspector, but none focused on that and rather, they focused on the suit they had seen. It was smaller and had gone through some heavy modifications, but Kallen had battled against it long enough to know that design, to know that voice.

'Anya…' Kallen voiced, she hadn't heard her deadpan voice in years, and it seems that the girl had changed in that time, not just with age but her words didn't sound as dry as they once did, they carried much more emotion in that one short clip then she had ever heard in all their encounters on the field.

'She was last scene looking for Zero as ordered,' Kaguya spoke up, drawing their attention as she took a seat, leaning into it from the exhaustion. 'I've spoken with Cornelia about it, she and Schneizel at the time believed that he had something to do with her disappearance.'

'Why?' Milly asked.

'Because in the same burnt-out fire where they found Zero's destroyed mask, they also found the remains of Anya's uniform.' Both women's eye's widened at that.

Milly was the first to react. 'They're dropped off the face of the earth for years, but now appear fighting against these monsters, there has to be a connection, something we're not seeing.'

'You think that she wasn't taken then and that if she's made her appearance, he'll be close by?' Kaguya asked Kaguya, who nodded her head as she rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache coming in.

'That is the idea, though even if all the rumours I've heard, I haven't picked up any that could match him, just his followers.' She had kept an ear out for them, but aside from rumours of people that might be Sayoko and Jeremiah popping up now and then, there was nothing.

'The theory that he is in the know of what's going on isn't the only reason we're interested in finding him, Kallen.' Kaguya said, turning the attention back to the redhead in disguise. 'The other is that we need him, because as things are right now, we'll never win.' It was a bitter pill to swallow for many reasons. Without that one person, all you're doing was sending hundreds if not thousands to their deaths, either in battle, prison or the work camps.

'The only issue is how to convince him to fight. He's been silent as a ghost for years now, something I can't imagine him doing as even without credit or recognition, he wasn't one to just sit back and watch injustice.' Milly looked at the dry ceiling of the old underground, she recalled as she had seen him do acts of good all the time, seemingly without thinking and for no reward. Would that kind of person stand by as Schneizel placed the entire world into a police state?

'Not unless he believed it would do more harm than good.' Kallen answered. 'Or if he was forced to fight someone, he loved…' She also recalled how she found him after the news of Nunnally's intentions of restarting the SAZ broke, frankly, her actions that day were appalling. She didn't stop to think how it felt to consider fighting his little sister, and how hypocritical it was to ask that of him, demand it even when if asked to do the same-she would falter.

Both women looked away at that, as even if one didn't know all there was to him, they could all agree that he loved his sister. And now, she was part of the regime, she was one of its highest leaders and no doubt played a major role in its day-to-day. Kallen saw how he fell apart once when he thought she was dead, could he fight knowing that he might have to kill her? She was far from innocent, most likely more guilty than Clovis but…she was still his little sister.

'True, he proved he couldn't fight Nunnally once, and now,' Kaguya started but stopped herself, shaking her head to clear the thought. 'It doesn't matter, finding him was Xingke's final, and we'll carry them out.' Kallen looked at her sadly, knowing that she had been with him in the final weeks, despite their best efforts and his empress ordering him to remain bedridden, he had passed 3 years ago, and since then, Kaguya had never spoken about it.

'Were…were his final moments peaceful?' She asked the woman, who turned to her with a tired look in her eyes.

'They were…Jiang stayed with him till he breathed his last with a smile on his face.' That broke her heart, her friend tried so hard to be strong for him, talked to him about all the things they could do together once Schneizel was defeated and China was saved, he had smiled the entire time and went along with it, even though he would never live to see any of it.

'He never liked Zer-Lelouch, though to be fair he didn't help his case by pointing a gun at Jiang's head to make a point.' She let a small smile appear on her face, but one that didn't last. 'But he was one of the aces, our strategic mastermind. He never stopped thinking that if we had him that day…'

'I can't say that I don't spend time wondering the same thing.' Kaguya muttered, as she had spent more than a few sleepless nights wondering about that day, if she had been present if she could have stopped the idiocy that was their Black Knight command from effectively signing their death certificates.

'His final orders as the head of the Black Knights were to find him. Find him and pray that he'll help us one more time.' Xingke had begged her to do it, using the brief time that her friend, Jiang wasn't at his bedside and pleaded that they find him, find their demon. When she agreed, he smiled as he finally surrendered himself to the inevitable.

'I'll go. Who else will be coming as I doubt it's just going to me?' Kallen stated, not needing to think about it as while she had her feelings for the man, she also saw that they needed him, now more than ever.

'Milly will be accompanying you, as she's the one who has the contacts necessary to have even a chance of you tracking him down.' Milly nodded her head at that.

'Along with that will be Cornelia, Guilford and Gino-all three will meet you there once they made the crossing from mainland Europe. And from here, it'll be Tamaki and Chiba once she gets back from her assignment as my stand-ins.' Kallen frowned at that, having her doubts.

Cornelia may have led their European cells, but she wasn't the most…stable when it came to family, not with one as bloodstained and complicated as hers. She didn't hold any ill-will towards her, having grown a healthy respect for the woman, but that respect came with concern as she hadn't recovered emotionally from the grief of the loss of close to all her siblings, Nunnally's defection to Schneizel and her miscarriage 2 years prior. It was like she was a different person at times, as she was still aggressive, still competent but somewhat…hollow.

'Why them?' Kaguya made a face at that.

'She was the better pick than Kaname, even if he wasn't swamped with work here in Japan. Tamaki,' Never let it be said that the Kaguya's opinions of Ohgi ever recovered after the Zero affair, the woman having mused more than once to have him ousted, more so when it came out part of his reasoning stemmed from his feelings towards a Britannian spy who had shot him, but alas, he still had just enough usefulness to keep around, in a diminished capacity where he couldn't do much harm. Kallen only hoped his kids took more from their mother, oddly enough.

'Tamaki isn't going to do anything foolish, that I'm sure of.' She nodded towards the door.

'And Chiba won't? She was never a fan of his, antagonistic at times.' Chiba was and still was a critic of Lelouch, even if it had mellowed over the years, it was still there as she connected her grief at the loss of her entire time and Tohdoh to him which Kallen couldn't completely deny as Urabe gave his life for him, Senba wouldn't have died if he hadn't wished to recover Nunnally rather than kill her, same with Tohdoh as before the first Black Rebellion, he never truly tried to kill Suzaku.

'I had a long chat with her, she'll behave.' Kaguya replied, having sat the woman down and explained this to her to ensure no hiccups with this search and recovery mission.

'It's not like you can't knock sense into the both of them, Kallen.' Milly joked as she playfully jabbed Kallen's shoulder, one that packed more muscle than it had back in their high school days as the woman didn't need to worry about physically appearing weak.

'I don't want to waste time with it if I can help it.' Kallen replied.

'And you won't. Tamaki volunteered for this for the expressed purpose of being helpful, those months he spent in recovery did him some good, and gave him time to introspect.' Kaguya informed her as the man had spent months after their last battle recovering and had changed for lack of a better word because of it.

'Gino I can imagine it due to the fact this is Anya related?' Kallen asked the question, to which Kaguya snorted.

'Why else. He's never stopped looking for her, when we forwarded the footage to Cornelia, he was in the room at the time and insisted on this, begged even.' The man had grown quite a lot over the years, become more of a catch as she could admit, but when it came to his old friend, his longing to find her had only grown stronger.

As the rebels made their final plans to leave for England, another event was happening in Tokyo. The city had been rebuilt since its destruction at the hands of its new ruler, but even 5 years on, its population remained small as while people were forced to live there, others were merely forced to live in other cities. If this was a sign of compassion from its governor or merely a sign of his lack of care no one could say.

But what could be said was that he made himself known as his residence, and the base of operations of the World Police was an imposing fortress, built overlooking the crater that now dominated the centre of the city, the fortress could withstand all any could hope to bring to its but most stayed well away from it, as Kyōshiro or as it was known among the English speakers, Dolorous Guard, was not a place any wished to visit or meet its lord.

Within its walls, there was silence as while dozens of servants carried out their respective tasks and hundreds of soldiers patrolled the grounds, none dared to speak as one could never know when a casual conversation could be overheard by the Grand Inquisitor or one of his dreaded white cloaks as while the keep was kept spotless, its dungeons were another story and many had found themselves thrown into them, never heard from again for merely speaking ill of the castle's lord.

It was this oppressive silence, this air of fear and death that made the servant jumpier as he approached his lord's preferred study and picked up the slow, steady sound of raspy and harsh breathing. Outside the doors, stood 2 white cloaks, silent and unmoving as they stood ready to meet any threat that dared to strike at their lord and master. The servant came up to them and bowed low, not wishing to look either in their eyes, a quick word and they allowed him in, the door closing behind him.

There, seated in his chair next to a fire, sat the lord of the castle, the Grand Inquisitor of the World Police, the governor of Japan the sword and hammer of the regime. There sat Suzaku Kururugi.

For a man that had a reputation as prolific as his, he didn't look like someone that could tear through armies, or inspire dread by the mere mention of his name, instead, he was like he should have been in a hospital. The years hadn't been kind to him as while he had grown taller and bulkier, his skin was a sickly yellow, veins visible wherever skin wasn't covered by the black and blue body glove he had taken to wear near constantly, his shining white, gold and blue armour absent and rather placed on an armour rack a ways away in the corner, alongside his blade. His hair, while kept somewhat properly trimmed, had lost most of its brown, with many strands being grey, though if it was stress or the lingering effects of being caught in the blast of the Guren's power wasn't something for the servant to know. He sat with a mask covering his mouth and nose which connected to a machine at his side that aided his damaged lungs while another connected to him via tubes in his arm helped clean his radiated blood.

He appeared to be sleeping as his eyes remained closed, and he hadn't moved even as the servant entered but they knew better than to assume, so they bowed low to him, lower then with his guards and spoke up. 'Grand Inquisitor, there is a call for you.' There was no response, which scared the servant as the only sound in the room he could hear were his own beating heart and that raspy breathing.

'Grand Inquisitor?' He repeated, with Suzaku slowly opened his eyes, the green within seemingly having gone toxic and malevolent as they gazed on the man who while not looking at him, felt his heart skip a beat at its intensity, as if his gaze alone could reach him and burn him as he was burned.

'Who is it, or did you think I would just answer?' He spoke softly, but it carried the same feeling of seeing a snake coil up in preparation to kill, not out of malice or hate, but just as an instinctive act.

'F-forgive me, Grand Inquisitor. It-its's the Prime Minister, line 1.' The servant cursed himself as he relayed what he knew faster, wishing he was anywhere but here at the moment. Suzaku appraised him for a moment, one that felt like decades before he spoke once more.

'Be gone.' The man didn't need any more incentive as he fled the room with as much decorum as he could, when the door closed behind him, Suzaku reached for the remote on his side and pressed a button. From above the fireplace, a tv screen was lowered from the ceiling, one that quickly turned on and shifted to connect with the previously mentioned line. Once it did, the picture came in, showing him an office on Damocles, a fact made clear by the fact the pressurised, reinforced window behind the person revealed the open, cold and dark expense of space. A rather fitting backdrop to the woman that had called him as she sat with her hands on the table, fingers crossed with only her cold, absent violet eyes gazing at him like a hawk.

'Grand Inquisitor, I trust you're in good health.' Suzaku didn't react to the dig at his condition with anything more than his hand tightening its grip on his remote.

'I'm capable.' He responded as the woman hummed as she uncrossed her fingers and reached for some paperwork that had been on her desk, multi-tasking as she spoke with him.

'Good. Have you looked over the footage from London?' She didn't look up to her screen as he nodded his head, as he had received the footage when it was still fresh the week before.

'I have, the design shares a resemblance. And it aligns with the other incidents we're encountered.' Suzaku replied as this latest incident, one that involved a missing person, was only one of many that had been a major annoyance for around 16 months now, with increased incidents across the board making it a challenge to ensure as little about them leak to the general public

'Yes, with her appearance, that makes 3. Jeremiah in Siberia, Sayoko in the Congo. And all at locations where these strange beasts were sighted and shortly killed before your men could get there.' He narrowed his eyes at that jab, his agents had more responsibilities to handle than hunting monsters, it was his men that ensured that the regime-maintained control by taking care of troublesome actors.

'Our people have identified most of them, they are near-perfect matches for mythical creatures, specifically myths from the area. As for why they're appearing, we don't know yet.' The Prime Minister replied, placing one of her papers down and reaching for another, an annoyed look to her.

'And with the order's destruction, there are no real archives where we could hope to gain what we need to figure this out,' She continued before she paused, her gaze turning back to him. 'But there is someone out there that would the best chance to have these answers.' Suzaku felt his blood start to boil at the implication, as the mere mention of…him.

Either not seeing his anger, or more likely not caring, the Prime Minister continued. 'Argus has had better success than you, as they managed to snap up this image from French, it was taken shortly before the 4th mass disappearance.' She moved her hand off the side, where he couldn't see as her feed split, with her remaining on the one side but on the other, was a blurred image of someone that made his eyes narrow, his breathing increasing a little in his fury.

'The witch,' It wasn't the best picture, but he would recognise C.C. anywhere, and if she was in a play once more, then her dammed partner wasn't far behind. 'Why wasn't I informed of this?' He demanded, his angered gaze turning back to the Prime Minister.

'It was deemed that you didn't need to know, Grand Inquisitor.' The Prime Minister told him, her gaze hardening to meet his own, to remind him of his place. That, along with her sandy brown styled in curls, made her look so much like Charles that it was unnerving, almost as much as the fact she was nothing like the girl he once knew. However, who was he to talk?

'But that has changed recently. As this is the only time another image matches a woman fitting Sayoko and Anya's description for the 5th, Jeremiah's to the 7th and his to the 9th.' The images changed to the people as they were mentioned, with each just as blurred.

'If Kanon's shadow-walkers have known about this for so long, why haven't they produced results?' Suzaku asked while he carried some disdain for Schneizel's most loyal, he knew that he was good at what he did.

'The targets have proven to be…especially difficult to track down. But Lord Schneizel suspects there is a connection between the mythical beasts and the mass disappearances.' The Prime Minister slowly replied, her irritation at the fact Argus couldn't dig up anything further visible to him. 'Regardless, your new orders as are follows: You are to head for England and take over the investigation, and to find and capture either the criminal Lelouch vi Britannia or one of his pawns.'

'Capture?'

'Yes, we need him alive if he's to help us deal with this problem, or will that be an issue, Grand Inquisitor?' She knew he would murder the two if he had the chance, even if he knew it wouldn't stick with one of them, but they wished to pick both their brains for whatever it was they knew, with Lord Schneizel even prepared to offer them a generous deal for, one which would see his wanted status revoked, along with other benefits.

'…I'll depart in the morning; preparations need to be made.' Suzaku eventually replied, ending his call with Prime Minister Nunnally as he sat back in his chair, while his anger grew, so did his excitement.

'Finally, a challenge. You better make this worth my time, Lelouch. I want this hunt to be fun.'

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