Code Geass: The Grey Chessmen

by Generatedname

An unknown enemy encountered during a Refrain bust leads the newly formed Black Knights to a discovery that warns of a coming global catastrophe. The question is, will they be ready in time to face it?

2. Chapter 2

A/N: Here it is! The second chapter, which ended up being a fair bit longer than I'd initially expected. Even after cutting and combining a few less necessary scenes, the ones I didn't cut ended up making it half again as long as my usual 10k wordcount chapters. With that said, I hope you all enjoy.

---

Chapter 2:

Morning came all too soon for Lelouch Lamperouge as he tossed and turned in his bed, drifting in and out of consciousness until at last his alarm woke him for school. Its grating noise leads him to slowly roll out of bed, grumbling at the indignity of it all. Back before all this had started, before Shinjuku, the alarm had been unnecessary. Now though, the stress of leading a double life had forced him into a reluctant reliance on the infernal device to keep to his daily schedule.

Groaning softly, he rolls out of bed and heads off to shower, glancing back at it to see C.C. still fast asleep... Thank god for small wonders, he supposed. The green haired witch's nagging was not something that he wanted to deal with right now.

A few minutes later he walks out, feeling not much more awake, but at least no longer as dirty. He quickly gets dressed in his Ashford Academy uniform, glancing in the mirror to make sure he does not look disheveled. He has appearances to keep up, after all.

Heading out, he quickly realizes that he is not the first at the breakfast table.

"Onii-sama..." Nunnally calls out to him, her head turning as she hears him enter. She addresses him in Japanese, having picked up the quirk during their stay at the Kururugi Shrine.

"Good morning, Nunnally." Lelouch replies, feeling at least some of his exhaustion leaving him as he sees his sister, even if she is frowning.

"You were home very late last night, Onii-sama." Nunnally continues, her wheelchair reversing away from the table with a soft whirr of electric servos, before turning to face him.

"I'm getting worried... You've been coming home late a lot these past few months." She says softly.

In the background, Lelouch notices Sayoko pausing after setting his breakfast down on the table.

"Nunnally-sama stayed up late waiting for you." She says, her tone conveying just the tiniest hint of disapproval.

"I know... And I'm very sorry. I had to drive a friend of mine to the hospital last night..." Lelouch replies, walking over to kneel down in front of her, his sister gently placing her hands on top of his.

"... Oh no..." Nunnally breathes.

"Don't worry. He will be fine. Soon, he'll be up, good as new again." Lelouch reassures her. Indeed, the Geassed doctor had reported that Tamaki would make it... His hand could not be saved, but with a few creative applications of Geass, the doctors had happily agreed to requisition a military-grade replacement for a deep-cover counter-terror operative in the Ghetto, as well as to keep his treatment at the facility top-secret.

"I only hope that my beloved sister may forgive her humble brother for his transgression." He says, smiling gently as Nunnally reaches out to gently cup his cheek.

"... You haven't been sleeping well either." His sister replies.

"I... I suppose I haven't." Lelouch admits, causing his sister to sigh.

"... How much longer will this go on? Ever since Lake Kawaguchi..."

"Probably for a while yet. I can't say when I'll finally be done." Lelouch replies.

Nunnally looks downcast, before gently pulling him into a hug.

"... Please be careful out there, Lelouch. It's dangerous outside. I've been listening to the news, and it seems like every day there's fighting."

"Don't worry. I won't take any stupid risks." Lelouch replies, returning the hug.

The prince and princess in exile held each other for a few long moments, before Lelouch reluctantly lets go.

"As much as napping here with you all day sounds fun, we still have classes to get to." He says.

"Hehe... Onii-sama should be careful. Next time this happens, I will make sure you get your sleep, classes or not." Nunnally replies, smiling as she returns to the table.

"... I might have to take you up on that offer." Lelouch laughs as he too takes his seat and the two of them eat breakfast.

After finishing, Lelouch gives his sister a gentle pat on the head, wishing her a good day at school before heading back to his own room to gather his belongings.

Inside, he finds C.C. sitting on the bed, her arms wrapped around her knees, staring out the window.

"You were back late." The green-haired girl says, her voice quiet and level, betraying no emotion.

"... The situation has changed." Lelouch says after a few moments, stepping up to the window to stare up at the sky. It is blue now, with a light cover of clouds, no longer dark and foreboding.

C.C. looks at him, saying nothing, waiting for him to continue.

He stays there for a few moments before turning to her.

"Have you ever wondered if life existed on other worlds, around other stars?" He asks.

"I never gave it much thought. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't." C.C. replies with a shrug.

"It does." Lelouch replies with a frown, walking over to his table where a chessboard sits, set up and ready to play.

"Hm?"

"More importantly, they are here." He says, absentmindedly beginning to move the pieces about, black and white moving in turn, the lines being drawn, the two sides hesitant, feeling each other out, jockeying for position...

"You already know why I took up my role. Why I picked up my sword and raised it against Britannia." As Lelouch speaks, Black makes its move, taking a white bishop, and a brief exchange of pieces follows.

"You wish to destroy Britannia, to tear it down and replace it with a kinder, gentler place where your sister may live freely and happily." C.C. replies, idly observing as black's aggression is halted by the white queen, placing the black king in check, from where it hurriedly retreats, sacrificing a pawn to escape.

"Indeed... But last night, it... Everything has changed. Even if Britannia were to vanish tomorrow, and the world would be as I wish it, the fight would not be over now." Lelouch says quietly, stepping away from the board and walking to a nearby closet. C.C. says nothing, but quirks an eyebrow.

"Last night, we encountered an unknown enemy. Extraterrestrial in origin, and clearly hostile. Interrogation of several captured Britannian drug dealers revealed that these aliens were the source of their product." He says, pulling out a second chess set and bringing it over, opening the box to reveal another set of pieces.

"I have concluded that this is an operation meant to covertly weaken us before they strike." With those words, Lelouch pulls out a steel grey pawn and slams it onto the board, causing the table to shake and knocking over several pieces, black and white alike.

"They have already infiltrated Japan, and likely the rest of the world to an unknown extent. They are abducting our people, selling drugs, courting human pawns... And they seem to possess Geass as well." Lelouch says, mechanically placing down more grey pieces on the board, one after another, in advantageous positions, behind the lines of black and white, removing the knocked-over pieces from the board as well.

That last point causes C.C. to sit up.

"Geass?"

"Yes. Tamaki seemed to have been hit by one during the fight. One of the aliens seemed to have controlled him like a puppet until it was killed. If it wasn't for Ohgi, I would be dead." Lelouch replies.

"... I see." C.C. stands up.

"You are planning another raid soon." She states the obvious.

"Tomorrow night." Lelouch replies.

"I will be accompanying you." C.C. declares, and Lelouch nods. After she had pulled him out of the fire at Saitama, he'd quickly determined that the green-haired witch was no longer a liability to be managed, but an asset to be utilized. Her apparent disinterest in the drug busts up to that point had been understandable, but after this revelation?

"Very well. I take it you wish to gather information on their Geass?" He asks.

"Yes." C.C. says, in a calm tone that gives him the impression that much remains unsaid.

"Good. Just... Stay hidden for the time." Lelouch says.

"Very well." C.C. nods.

"I will need to head to class now. I will brief you further closer to the operation." Lelouch continues, suppressing a yawn as he grabs his bag and heads out the door.

There, he pauses.

"Oh... And C.C.?"

"Yes?"

"Anything you learn, you tell me. Understand? Don't keep secrets about this."

C.C. says nothing in response, though she does nod, before Lelouch exits the room, off to keep his cover going.

---

Cornelia li Britannia watched as another armored train pulled into the depot, slowing to a halt before its cars began to open, revealing transport racks for Sutherlands. As the troops nearby began loading them one by one, she looks over her shoulder at the depot entrance, and sighs as she sees nothing.

Euphie was probably deliberately late again. She frowns, and lets out a small sigh. Euphie had been furious with her after she found out what had happened at Saitama, and had been making her displeasure known ever since in her own little ways. Being late to meetings, not speaking with her during meals, or having them at alternate times, visiting the Settlement, evading her guard detail... Having thought about the matter, Cornelia didn't blame her, even if Euphie's casual disregard of her security made her want to grit her teeth in frustration.

Saitama had been the product of her own vengeful rage combining with bad intelligence, supplied to her by those with ulterior motives that she was all too willing to take at face value. The end result? An entire train of Sutherlands written off and destroyed after being given to the local terrorists. Of the force she then sent into the Ghetto as bait, in order to set the stage and draw Zero out? Eighty percent materiel losses, as well as a similar amount of casualties among the personnel, mostly concentrated among the infantry, as well as the force she had placed on the bridge that Zero had subsequently blown. Though a significant portion of her Knightmare pilots had managed to eject, the terrorist infantry had been ruthlessly efficient in finding the escape pod landing points and had likely taken no small amount of vindictive pleasure in killing their occupants.

Granted, most of the people lost had been Clovis' men, whom she'd sent in as much as punishment for their failure to protect her brother as to use as simple bait. More stupidity on her part, as those same men were far more familiar with Area 11 than her personal troops, and they were now lost. Only the Purist faction had been spared the indirect purge, as she had even less confidence in them and their leader. Her own personal troops had not exactly gotten away unscathed. Though she had kept them out of the initial fighting, a considerable amount of them had been on the bridge that Zero had blown, resulting in multiple Knightmares, tanks and infantry being thrown into the water where they had drowned.

What had the terrorists then lost in turn? A force of her own Knightmares and their pilots, plus a few old anti-tank guns. Manpower losses were likely in the double digits at best. The bulk of their force, the infantry, had turned and ran as soon as things began going against them, likely at Zero's command, vanishing into the Tokyo Underground, that infernal network of subway tunnels, basements and dugouts that littered the earth beneath her feet, a bastion of resistance that would likely take an entire dedicated campaign of its own to clear, with thousands of projected casualties. Zero had even showed up personally! Taunting her, not even a hundred meters from her command G1, as if to say 'You failed' before leaping off a building and vanishing into the underground as well.

Of course, the official statement was different. In all official news, Cornelia had met Zero in battle face to face, defeating him, destroying his forces, and forcing him to retreat out of Saitama Ghetto after taking heavy losses. All technically true, and certainly enough to maintain her reputation among the public, but the fact of the matter was that she entered into Saitama with the mission of baiting out Zero, destroying his forces, and killing or capturing him. Instead, he had played her like a fiddle, letting her sacrifice her own forces and materiel and then leaving instead of falling for what was, in hindsight, an obvious setup.

That, of course, was not even including the wider costs of the operation. The 0.2 percent estimated drop in local productivity had proven very optimistic, factoring in only the result of civilian deaths within the Saitama ghetto proper. It had not taken into account the result of word getting around to other Ghettos. Other resistance movements had seized on the opportunity to begin recruiting, their numbers swelling, and subsequently helping the Black Knights even further as they began snapping up resistance groups in the Tokyo area. More Elevens had decided to quit their jobs and risk starting an illegal livelihood in the Underground at the expense of local factories. Refrain sales had spiked in the weeks following Saitama as well, as more Elevens sought refuge in the arms of the drug. Terrorist groups, enraged and likely emboldened by Zero's victories against her, had come out of the woodwork and increased their attacks as well, causing problems in the Tokyo Settlement.

All in all, Tokyo area productivity had dropped by a staggering 2.7 percent in the immediate aftermath of the Saitama debacle, and while it had slowly risen again, it was still well below her initial optimistic projection.

In the aftermath, she had changed her strategy to be more surgical, striking at the terrorist cells that had exposed themselves. One by one the bastions of resistance had continued to fall, just as they had during her first campaign before Saitama, as Cornelia launched a second campaign, ranging further north than she had before, striking at rebel holdouts further from Tokyo. In truth though, she had done so as much to get away from Euphie and her clear disapproval as to cull the terrorist population.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spots a flash of bright pink and white.

There was her sister.

The two of them had finally had a chance to clear the air between them after Lake Kawaguchi, and while she was still upset...

"You're preparing for another campaign?" Euphemia asks as she approaches.

"Yes. Though this one will not be long." Cornelia replies.

"We have located the main base of operations for the JLF. By conventional means, they are the largest and most dangerous terrorist organization in Area 11. I will be leading an operation in Narita to wipe them out. I believe that they are also the primary source of the weaponry the rebels have been manufacturing for themselves. Hopefully, with them gone, the area will be stabilized enough for me to leave and return to the El Alamein front." Cornelia says.

As she spoke, the train behind her began to pull out. This would be part of the force under Darlton, which would be moved north by rail, only to then be diverted back southeast to Narita on the eve of the operation. General Alec, meanwhile, was under orders to move south towards Kobe, where an airlift was already waiting to take him and his forces to Narita on the day of the operation. That just left Cornelia herself, who would proceed directly to Narita from Tokyo aboard her Command G1.

Another train soon arrives, and the loading process repeats itself.

"Though there are several other matters I may need to address before I leave. In particular, the drug Refrain has spiked in popularity in Area 11, and I suspect the Chinese Federation is involved. I may need to personally move in and destroy that supply line."

"I understand." Euphemia nods, looking at her with a slightly worried expression. At least it was better than quiet disapproval.

"Please, be careful."

"You too. You should stop visiting the settlement. You have a target on your back now." Cornelia replies, causing Euphemia to look down.

"... What of the Black Knights? Are you worried about them?" She asks after a few moments.

"Their work in fighting Refrain smuggling and corruption within the Tokyo settlement has made them useful enough to keep around for now. That and they have saved your life, so I owe them some courtesy at least." Cornelia concedes.

"... But no. I worry more about the other gangs. The ones with less honor and principle than Zero. You are no longer anonymous, Euphie." Cornelia reaches up to cup Euphemia's cheek, and barely suppresses a small sigh of relief as her sister does not shy away from the contact.

"... In any case, Zero will face his reckoning soon enough, after I return. Then, once the area is clean, I will be ready to turn it over for you to rule as Viceroy proper. Don't do anything dangerous until then, alright Euphie?"

Her sister nods, and Cornelia smiles.

"Good. Though... I do have a task for you as well." She says.

"Hm?" Euphemia looks up, eyes widening.

"You will be viceroy of this Area soon, and that requires a certain familiarity with the political climate in order to successfully manage the nobility here. My military victories will help ease you in, but you will need to have some personal achievements to your name in order to keep you in a position of strength. I am beginning an investigation into corruption among the nobility here, but military requirements have kept me from being able to effectively carry it out. I want you to do it in my stead." Cornelia replies.

Euphemia's eyes widen even further, and a smile begins to grow on her face.

"I have compiled a list of names that should serve as a good starting point. I want you to gather evidence on them discreetly, and prepare a case but do not act. If we act against one or two, then the others will begin shredding files and doctoring ledgers and catching them will be exponentially more difficult. For best results, we should get them all at once, before they have a chance to talk. Understand?"

Euphemia nods, a lot more enthusiastically than before.

"Good. With Zero smashing the Refrain dealers, you going after the corrupt nobility, and me cleaning up the remaining terrorists, perhaps we can make something good out of this Area in due time." Cornelia smiles again, before returning her attention to the train.

"Cornelia...?" Euphemia asks hesitantly after a few moments.

"Yes, Euphie?" Cornelia turns back.

"I will do this for you, but... I wish to accompany you on your campaign as well." Euphemia replies.

Cornelia blinks.

"Euphie, I..."

"Please, Cornelia. You know why."

Cornelia closes her eyes, and sighs. She knew exactly why Euphemia wanted to come along this time.

"... Is there anything I can promise in order to dissuade you? The battlefield is dangerous. Even in the G1..."

Euphemia shakes her head.

"I... Very well. On the condition that you remain inside the G1, under armed guard at all times. Recent events have shown that our command posts are not impregnable. You may monitor the situation from the CIC, but you are forbidden from interfering or countermanding my orders. Understand?"

"Yes Cornelia." Euphie nods.

"Then... Against my better judgement, you may come along, even if I implore you to reconsider."

"Thank you, Cornelia." Euphemia nods, before turning and leaving the platform.

Cornelia looks after her for a few moments, before turning back to the loading process.

---

Miles away, in a secret boardroom near Mount Fuji, another meeting is taking place. On one side, four men and a woman in JLF uniforms were sitting in sieza, side by side. On the other, six figures sat in a row, their bodies and faces obscured by curtains to prevent any from identifying them. Granted, Toudoh knew them all by name, but certain formalities still had to be observed, just in case there were unwanted eyes and ears observing them.

Most would never be able to simply walk into Kyoto and demand a meeting with the Six Houses. Most, in fact, would have been executed on the spot simply for entering without prior authorization. Kyoshiro Toudoh was on the extremely short list of exceptions.

"That concludes our report." Toudoh finishes speaking, having briefed the Six Houses on his findings from the previous few weeks.

"That is... Indeed concerning." The low, rumbling voice of Taizou Kirihara replies after a few moments.

"It would certainly explain why one of my men vanished along with Kusakabe!" Tatsunori Osakabe exclaims.

"Then where does that leave you, Toudoh-san?" Tousai Munakata asks, his voice cultured and gentlemanly.

"As of this moment, our plans are to return to the JLF. Their leadership may be compromised, but I believe that the majority of the rank and file are simply following out of ignorance. My name still carries weight among them. If I can arrive and make my case, I may be able to lead some of them out." Toudoh replies.

"Hmm... To salvage something from this bad situation..." Hidenobu Kubouin muses.

"I would recommend against it." The youngest member of the Six Houses, Kaguya Sumeragi, interjects.

"Why is that?" Kirihara asks.

"As I see it, there are two potential scenarios, neither of them good. The first is that Toudoh's description of them being able to place large groups under some sort of compulsion is extrapolated to the maximum logical extent. This would place all JLF personnel at Narita under their direct control. In this scenario, going there is futile because there is nobody left to save." Kaguya continues.

"The second is that this is not the case, and they are only controlling a few key figures, with the rest of the JLF convinced to follow either through hierarchy or rhetoric. In this case you, as someone with both considerable influence and the potential to pull people away from their control, are going to be their number one target. They will likely be waiting for you as soon as you enter in order to place you under their influence. In this case, going there is futile because it is akin to simply giving yourself over to the enemy." Kaguyua finishes.

"... But there is a limit to what five men in Burai can accomplish, even with your backing. We must make at least some attempt to save the men of the JLF, who have devoted their lives to the cause of liberating Japan." Toudoh replies.

"I do not say that you should abandon them. Merely that you should not appear in person." Kaguya replies.

"How would I do that? By your logic, I cannot send anyone else in my place, and all radio communications are monitored."

"Then perhaps we can arrange for them to come to you. The JLF may not be able to directly ignore a summons from us. If we request some individuals you trust to come here, to us, we may be able to get them out of the aliens' influence long enough for you to sway them to your side."

"Or we may be opening the back door for them to come in and place us under their sway." Kirihara points out.

"... True. Perhaps set some sort of external meeting site." Kaguya concedes.

"We can sort this out over the next few days." Osakabe interjects.

"What matters now is, if the JLF is compromised, who do we back in the meantime?"

"That is true. Cornelia has been cutting through resistance movements in the country ever since she arrived. Years of work under Clovis' lax regime, undone in a little under two months." Munakata says.

"We should have acted more overtly. Centralized all resistance under one banner instead of allowing these disparate cells to compete with each other for scarce resources." Kubouin says.

"Be as it may, without the JLF, who remains? The Black Knights?" Osakabe points out.

"Those upstarts? You are not seriously suggesting we back them!" Kubouin says.

"On the contrary, Zero has gotten more done in a matter of months, with considerably less resources at his disposal, than much larger groups have done in seven years. Thanks to Zero, Clovis is dead, the Britannians have taken the most losses in Japan since Itsukishima, and for the first time a concerted effort has been made to stamp out the Refrain trade, at least in his area of operations. If we actually backed him, think of how much more he could accomplish!" Kaguya replies.

"More realistically, who else is there? The JLF is no longer an option, and for Toudoh, more materiel will be more a burden than a boon as he lacks the manpower needed to operate it. I motion that we redirect all aid towards the Black Knights for the near future, with further aid contingent on results." Kirihara adds.

"I concur. Either it rots away in a warehouse, or it goes to Zero. At this point, no other alternative exists." Munakata says.

Throughout all this discussion, Toudoh remains silent. Even as the Six Houses vote, ultimately deciding in favor of Kaguya and Kirihara's proposal, he says nothing. Instead, his mind works over Kaguya's words. The precocious young woman is right, of course. Given the power the Emissary had displayed during their brief meeting, walking into the Narita base would be suicide at best... It was true. He would have to lure the JLF out somehow to meet with him on his terms, but how to do so... Perhaps... Announce a campaign of his own? Gather recruits that way? His name had to have enough pull to draw the younger, more impulsive recruits, at least...

By the time the meeting ended, he was no closer to a solution. The Four Holy Swords departed soon after, Toudoh leading them out of the secret meeting room, towards the apartments that had been set aside for them during the days set aside for them to train in the use of the Burai Kai and their new weaponry.

"Toudoh-san. Kirihara-dono wishes to speak with you in private."

"Very well." Toudoh nodded.

"You four, move on ahead. I'll meet you at the apartment."

His subordinates nod, and he turns to follow his guide. He is led to a small meeting room, inside of which two others are waiting for him. The old, bald, hunched-over Taizo Kirihara, and the young, radiant Kaguya Sumeragi, the former dressed in simple black kimono, the latter in a more elaborate pink and purple dress, as well as a simple gold diadem to show her status.

Kirihara was the head of one of Japan's most powerul Zaibatsu before the war, which held a partial monopoly on Sakuradite extraction in Japan thanks to his close ties with the government. Unlike so many other Japanese businessmen, he had retained his power by switching sides near the end of the invasion, the Britannians deciding that leaving a Japanese consortium in charge of extraction operations was preferable to the alternative of him sabotaging them and forcing them to spend years if not decades to bring the mines back to their pre-war output. Among the Japanese, this had earned him the title of Kirihara the Traitor. In reality though, Kirihara had never betrayed his homeland, and had instead been an instruimental player behind the scenes in preventing the full disarmament and demilitarization of Japan. Thanks to him, parts of Japanese military industry had been preserved, moved underground, and resumed production. Thanks to him, Japanese scientists and engineers had successfully vanished amidst the chaos, and a few years later a successfully reverse-engineered clone of the Glasgow had rolled off a secret assembly line. Without a doubt, Kirihara was the most important of the Six Houses, and for good reason.

Kaguya, by contrast, was the youngest by far. The closest remaining descendant of the Japanese Emperor, albeit still quite distant at that. Officially, her role on the council was largely ceremonial, meant to grant the old men some additional legitimacy in the eyes of the Japanese people. Unofficially though, the girl was rapidly proving to be a charismatic and intelligent leader, and though nothing official had been said on the matter, Toudoh was certain that Kirihara had designated her as his successor.

"Please sit, Toudoh-san." Kirihara says as he enters the room.

Toudoh bows to the both of them, before obeying, the two of them sitting down across a small table from him.

"You have brought us incredibly grave tidings today, and I think that we both know that this is likely bigger than just the JLF." Kirihara begins without preamble.

"Indeed. Kirihara-sensei and I have discussed this at length, and we both came to the same conclusion. An alien force attempting to exert influence upon this world would not start or stop at the JLF." Kaguya says.

"My thoughts exactly. In the global scheme of things, the JLF would be next to irrelevant to them. Not unless they were only interested in Japan, and somehow I doubt they would come all this way for a single island chain." Toudoh replies.

"Unfortunately, we still know far, far too little about this threat to take any active measures against it. More pertinently, thanks to you we have learned that they have neutered our own army before we even knew they were there." Kirihara says.

"Yes... Sadly, that is the case. In terms of armed forces, you have five men in five Burai-Kai, as well as your personal security forces. Hardly a force capable of fighting an unknown, technologically advanced power." Toudoh answers.

"True. However, this does not mean we cannot make preparations in other fields. We have concluded that this will be a war of science and discovery as much as it is one of bullets. It is therefore imperative that we learn not only who and what they are, but also how their technology works, how to defeat it, and how to, perhaps, even grant us an edge over them. We already possess a small but capable research and development team, as well as a sizeable production facility here in the Fuji Mines." Kaguya says.

"However, while we have the capacity, this location is not suitable to such efforts. Any uptick in activity here, as well as suspicious cargos going in, risk tipping off the Britannian authorities. This is not a risk we can take, especially not now, with Cornelia having replaced Clovis. With this in mind, I request that you begin searching for a new spot where a base can be constructed. The utmost importance must be placed on secrecy. I care less about turning it into a fortress bristling with guns than about ensuring it cannot be spotted from the air, that the geology is conducive to underground expansion, and its ability to be easily supplied in secret. I trust you have a good eye for such things?" Kirihara says.

"Yes, Kirihara-sama. I have a few locations in mind already." Toudoh replies.

"Good... And one more thing." Kirihara says.

"What is it?"

"You have already heard our verdict that our resources are to be redirected to the Black Knights as they are, so to speak, the last of our horses still left in the race. However, we believe that Zero may need to be briefed on the situation. With this in mind, Sumeragi-hime has... Agreed to be our messenger in this respect." Kirihara's frown and Kaguya's smug grin tells Toudoh that the young princess hadn't so much agreed as persuaded Kirihara into letting her go.

"I... See." Toudoh nods. Zero was an unknown. While certainly effective, his motivations and means were still not entirely clear. Unfortunately, it was as Kirihara said. They were the last ones standing at this point, and thus they had to be informed.

"We therefore ask that when you depart, you provide an escort for her into the Tokyo Ghettos. She will then locate Zero and attempt to make contact. If retrieval is required, she will contact you. Similarly if, for whatever reason, she fails to make her regular check-ins without prior notice, you are to investigate immediately."

"Understood, Kirihara-sama." Toudoh salutes.

"Very well. Sumeragi-hime..." Kirihara turns to the clearly ecstatic girl.

"Yes, Kirihara-san?" Kaguya asks.

"... Stay safe out there. Don't take any unnecessary risks. You know how much you represent to the Six Houses."

Kaguya nods solemnly.

"I will."

"Good. Toudoh-san, you are dismissed. The guards have been instructed to let you take as much time as you wish in the Burai proving grounds. The seismic buffers have been checked this morning, the Britannians won't notice a thing. Treat them as roughly as you dare. We can even provide sparring partners. We will alert you when it is time for you to depart."

"Understood, Kirihara-sama." Toudoh salutes, and Kirihara bows in response.

"Thank you, Toudoh-san." Kaguya bows as well.

"I do my duty to Japan." Toudoh replies, returning the bow before leaving the room.

---

"Mistress Kallen? You have a visitor."

Kallen groaned softly, a part of her thinking that if she were to pretend to sleep, her mother would tell the unknown visitor to leave. She hadn't had much rest the night before after getting back, and her attempts to nap during the day had been unsuccessful. No matter what, her mind keeps returning to last night's events and revelations, and the conversation she'd had with Zero. It had gotten bad enough that during class she'd been startled by a teacher calling on her in the middle of class, and shouting out 'Aliens!' in response to a question about who was defeated at Hastings during their attempted invasion of Britannia in the early middle ages.

Suffice to say the entire class had broken down laughing at that.

"Mistress Kallen?"

"Nnhh..." She groans quietly, rolling out of bed, not dignifying her mother with a response as she slips out of her room, straightening her collar, before heading downstairs.

To her surprise, Milly is there, waiting for her with her usual cheerful smile on her face.

"... Prez?" Kallen asks.

"There is something I have to give you." Milly replies with a smile.

"Mistress Kallen... Should I take her to the guest room? Or-"

"Take her to my room." Kallen orders, her tone colder than before.

Milly looks at her for a moment, and seems to be considering something, but another voice interjects first.

"Oh my. And here I was thinking you had brought a boy over." Her stepmother's arrogant tone immediately causes rage to build up inside her.

"Coming home early, staying out of school... Even going in and out of the Ghettos while your father is away in the homeland. Truly, blood does call to blood." The blonde woman says, giving a disapproving glare at her mother, who looks down and backs away.

"You are one to talk about enjoying his absence. You-" Kallen snaps, only for a vase to shatter behind them.

"S-Sorry! Sorry! I-I... W-What should I-" Her mother exclaims, in that soft, helpless voice that makes Kallen's blood boil.

"Useless woman! What do you think you're doing?!" Her stepmother shouts.

In her mind, Kallen was screaming at her mother. Desperately begging her to stand up, to yell at her stepmother, to scream at her, to pick up a shard of pottery and go for the throat! To show, once and for all, that some tiny shred of her pride and dignity still remained...

"I-I'm sorry, madam... I-I'm so sorry!" As always though, Kallen's mental prayers were for nothing. Her mother kneels down and begins gathering up the shattered fragments and cleaning up them up.

"Useless woman! If it weren't for my husband's magnanimity, you would be spreading your legs in the Ghetto! You-"

"Come on. Let's go." Kallen growls, gesturing for Milly to follow her deeper into the house, unable to even look at her mother any longer.

Soon, the two of them are in Kallen's room, away from the shouting.

"... Quite the complicated home life you have." Milly says idly, a bit of concern leaking into her voice.

"So what is it you wanted to give me?" Kallen replies, desperately wishing for a change in subject.

"Ah... Right. This." Milly reaches into her pocket to produce an envelope.

"My grandfather requested I give this to you."

"Oh? The principal?"

"Yes. These are your grades since junior high." Milly says, handing the envelope over to her.

"He believed it would be... Imprudent to deliver it to you in school."

"... So you know, then? That I'm half Britannian and half Eleven?" Kallen leans back, concerned.

Milly nods, but says nothing.

Kallen is quiet for a few moments as well. She supposed it was stupid of her to assume otherwise. At least Milly's father had the courtesy to keep it private.

"... The blonde woman from earlier is my stepmother. My real mother is the foolish maid who knocked over the vase." She finally says.

"Your father is the head of the Stadtfeld family?" Milly asks. Kallen ignores her.

"She's being trampled on as a maid here... She can't do anything useful. No matter how much she's looked down on, berated, insulted, she just smiles weakly. There's no reason for her to even be here. Her former lover has moved on. He's barely even here, and yet she still stays in his house. Her family's given up on her. She's thrown away everything. Her money, her family, her dignity, all to be a servant of a man who barely notices her." She continues.

"... Do you hate her?" Milly asks, looking concerned.

"No. I just... It's hard for me to think of her." Kallen sighs.

"Well then. This is quite the heavy story you have then." Milly replies, as Kallen reaches forward to pour tea.

"To think... The wife, the adultress, and the daughter all living together under one roof."

"It's not all bad. Day-to-day life isn't that problematic. Three square meals a day, a roof over my head, a comfy bed... It's not much to endure in exchange for that." Kallen replies.

"... But even if you think you can handle it all now, it might slowly pile up until one day you collapse under it all." Milly warns.

"Hm?"

"... But don't worry. Though I have a reputation as a gossipmonger, I prefer to learn secrets rather than tell them. Your family troubles are safe with me." Milly gives her an encouraging smile.

Kallen tries to smile back, but then sighs, leaning forward, realizing just how tired she is.

"... Are you ok? You look like you need some rest." Milly notes.

"I... Haven't been sleeping too well lately. Some nights it's fine, but others... I dunno." Kallen sighs.

"Is it your illness?" Milly asks, concerned.

"N-No, it's... I've just been... Thinking. Worrying." Kallen replies.

"Oh? About what?" Milly replies.

About Aliens and Britannians in a competition to see who could make things worse for the Japanese, Kallen thinks, but doesn't say it for obvious reasons.

"... Politics." She sighs instead.

"Well, that's certainly something to lose sleep over. What's got you worried?" Milly asks.

That tomorrow, I'll be going into combat against things that can control my mind and blow a hole in my Glasgow with something the size of a handgun.

"... That our Emperor has way, way too many children, and that the laws of succession he set down have not been tested." Kallen says instead.

Milly blinks, just narrowly avoiding spitting out her tea, swallowing hurriedly before breaking down laughing.

"Hahaha! K-Kallen! Y-You... AHAHA!"

Kallen allows herself a smile as well.

"Y-Yeah, I know. Silly, isn't it? I guess our teacher's recent lecture on the Emblem of Blood really got to me..." She sighs.

"What about it specifically?" Milly asks.

"Well... Just... There is a social contract between the nobility and the commoners that underpins Britannian society. The commoners accept the rule of the nobility in exchange for the nobility guaranteeing the dominance of Britannia internationally, reaffirming Britannian superiority, and ensuring that their squabbles stay within the nobility. It's why the Emblem of Blood, while nobles and princes were dying left and right, never spilled over into civil war. By the time the EU and Chinese Federation realized what was actually going on, it was already too late for them to do anything. The commoners simply hailed Emperor Charles as their ruler once the dust settled and let the status quo continue as normal." Kallen says.

This was the crux of why Britannia could not be beaten peacefully. This much she knew. Its people, the commoners, were simply conditioned from birth to nod along and go ahead with whatever the nobility was saying. She'd seen it all too many times at Ashford. Students simply nodded and took the words of Clovis, or the interim Government, or whoever else was in charge at face value, even when they were patently ridiculous. To the average Britannian citizen, politics was a game for the nobility, that ordinary people were free from having to worry about as they lived their daily lives, content in their own superiority.

"... You're worried that if the Emperor dies, you will get pulled into a second Emblem of Blood?" Milly says.

"... Yes. Our Emperor is old, and I'm about the right age, no?" Kallen replies.

"Heh... Well, worst case scenario, you can elope and roam the countryside with me as part of a traveling circus!" Milly smiles, reaching out to pat Kallen, who can't help but laugh at the mental image.

"Ha! I might just take you up on that offer." She sighs.

"Just come to me in the student council building, and I shall prepare a carriage! We shall ride off into the sunset together! No worries, no concerns, no regrets... Just the purest love that can exist between two pure maidens~!" Milly declares.

That was it. Kallen doubles over laughing.

"N-Never change, Milly." She finally manages to get out.

"Don't plan on it!" The blonde grins back.

"Haha... hahaa... I... I needed that..." Kallen sighs happily.

"Well, if you need any more, you know where to find me." Milly replies, standing up.

"As much as I would love to stay though, I need to get going. I have a few more of these to deliver before the end of the day." She says, gesturing to the letters.

"Ah, right, right. Go on then! I'll see you in class tomorrow." Kallen smiles back, waving her out and walking her to the door.

As the student council president left, Kallen returns to her room, a smile on her face. Trust in Milly to lighten the mood, no matter what.

Her mother was nowhere to be seen as she headed back up to her room, but she paid that no mind.

That night, sleep came easily, and the following morning she woke up refreshed and ready for what that night had in store.

---

The night sky was black, not a single star visible. Any that might have been were blotted out by the light of the city burning down below. Tokyo was ablaze, an indiscriminate torrent of white phosphorus having set it alight as Britannia brutalized its latest victim into submission.

Lelouch vi Britannia stared down at the scene in horror from the mountainside, still not quite believing what was unfolding, the young former prince frozen in place as small glowing pinpricks of burning houses grow and grow until the entire city is one great carpet of uncontrollable fire. The sound of sirens and emergency responders can barely be heard over the howling winds as the hot air over the city rises only for more to rush in from all around, the fresh oxygen fueling the conflagration even further. Even at this distance he can feel the heat on his face.

He is thankful that he is alone here. Suzaku and Nunnally were in the small cave they'd found and sheltered in that evening, and he was the only one on watch. Suzaku didn't deserve to see this, and his sister... Even without her sight, there would have been no hiding what was happening from her.

Suddenly, the roar of jets causes him to look up, just as tracers begin to light up the night, the city's surviving defenders continuing to fight on, shooting at the indistinct shapes in the night... But these are not Britannian bombers, here to drop more bombs onto the firefighters who had just come out. The strange, saucer-like silhouettes zig-zagging through the sky did not match the profile of any aircraft he knew of...

Green fire rained down from the sky, reducing buildings to rubble, and as he looked back down to the city he saw it was different... He saw the Tokyo Settlement, burning and slowly crumbling as its support pillars were blown apart. He saw the Viceroy's palace reduced to ruins, the mansions of the nobles around it blazing cheerfully under the guns of this new enemy. He saw a green bolt strike Ashford Academy, blowing the school into pieces, and even from this distance he saw the tiny figures running out of it moments before a second bolt reduced them all to ash.

"Lelouch?" He hears Nunnally's voice and his heart sinks. Turning around, he sees his sister standing there, looking in horror at the city through wide-open, violet eyes...

"Nunnally?!" He exclaims.

"Lelouch!" His sister screams, and he turns just in time to see another bolt of green heading straight for them, too fast to do anything about-

CLUNK!

"Lelouch! A-Are you ok?" Suzaku gasps as Lelouch groans, nursing his head.

"Nnnhhh... What... Where...?" Lelouch groans as he looks up.

"You fell asleep while doing paperwork. Are you alright? You were... Moving a lot at the end..." His friend says, reaching down to help him up.

"... I'm fine." Lelouch sighs, pushing the hand away as he sits back up, rubbing his head.

"Just... Had a bad dream is all." Lelouch sighs.

"Lake Kawaguchi must have really worried you. You've seemed tired ever since then." Suzaku replies, concerned.

"It's... I guess so." Lelouch sighs, taking the easy way out.

"Cornelia doesn't exactly have a reputation for being deterred by hostages. When I first heard the news, I thought everyone was good as dead." He continues.

"She didn't seem that bad...?" Suzaku says, but his tone is weak.

"If it hadn't been for Zero showing up when he did, she would have probably made do with just rescuing her sister. Cornelia is the sort who would shoot through a hostage to kill the ones that took them, and justify it by saying that it deters future hostage taking. Crush the terrorists as ruthlessly as possible even if a few hostages die, and then future terrorists would be less likely to take hostages. If it had not been for Euphemia in there..." Lelouch trails off.

"But that does not mean Zero is right either!" Suzaku protests.

"He could have gotten everyone killed with his grandstanding! He had no idea the JLF would even let him in, or if they would take his approach as a provocation and shoot the hostages! It's like it's all one big game to him!" He says.

"Then he came in and from what I've heard, he pretended to negotiate with the JLF, only to then start shooting while they were talking?" Suzaku continues.

"I thought that the guy in charge killed himself? Besides, he rescued everyone, didn't he?" Lelouch quirks an eyebrow.

"Ends won through contemptible means are not worth it." Suzaku says firmly.

Lelouch takes a deep breath, fighting down the sudden burst of anger.

"Plus, look what he is doing in the ghettos, fighting drug dealers and acting as a vigilante! He's getting in the way of the police doing their jobs!"

"If the police had done their jobs, Suzaku, then there would be no drug dealers left for him to fight. The police either don't care, or they're in on the deal." Lelouch sighs.

"But they can change! If they get a chance, then they can take steps internally! Kick out the bad cops, reform their procedures..."

"... Or they could get bogged down in red tape by the people who don't want that change to happen." Lelouch sighs.

"Besides... At the end of the day, what matters is that everyone made it back. That Milly, Shirley, Nina... Nunnally... That all of them came back safe from this." He says, his tone final, carrying just a hint of warning.

Suzaku takes a few moments, then nods.

"You know... I couldn't tell you were sleeping at first. You looked like you were just concentrating." The Japanese boy changes the subject.

"It's an acquired skill." Lelouch says, giving him a grateful smile.

Just then, the door opens and Shirley walks inside, Nina following a few moments later. The smaller girl looks away as soon as she sees Suzaku, and Suzaku clearly notices. A moment later, he stands up.

"Ah... Well, I should get going. I have army work and all that..." He says, giving a small, nervous smile as he steps out of the room.

"Alright! Bye!" Shirley waves, while Nina breathes a small sigh of relief.

"So what were you doing here, Lulu?" Shirley continues, walking over to look over his shoulder.

"Approving club requests in our glorious leader's absence." Lelouch sighs, glancing over the ledger. As it turns out, the next item on the list was one and a half metric tons of sugar.

"... Who could possibly need this much sugar?" He blinks, reading over the request.

"The Ashford Rocketry Club? Are they throwing a party or something?" Shirley blinks, reading over his shoulder.

"A-Ah... Actually..." Nina begins, causing them both to look up.

"... Sugar is pretty rich in energy, and if you refine it right, you can turn it into rocket fuel." The green-haired girl says.

"... And from the request details, it looks like Milly owes them a favor." Lelouch sighs.

"Yeah, they're the only club on campus with a permit to manufacture pyrotechnics, so Milly uses them to get fireworks and stuff for her festivals in exchange for favors." Shirley says.

"... Ah." Lelouch sighs, and approves the request, mentally wincing as the budget dips further into the red. Still... Rocketry?

"I wasn't aware we had a club for that. What do they do?" He asks.

"Oh! They're trying to launch a rocket up into space!" Nina replies.

"Is that possible?" Lelouch quirks an eyebrow.

"Well... They think they can do it. It won't be anything big. Just a camera at the end of a rocket to take some video on the way up, then use a parachute to get down." Nina says.

"I see..." Lelouch muses. Given the problem at hand, it may be something worth looking into. A club dedicated to rocketry and space travel may be a good starting point, if nothing else.

That done, he continues his work, though his mind is, as always, on the coming operation.

---

The force converged upon the warehouse from three directions. Every single member of the Black Knights who could be mobilized for the operation was there, armed and ready as they emerged from the underground, or came in cars, trucks and even a few armored vehicles. Just a few days ago, Lelouch would have deemed such a massive concentration of force to be dangerous overkill. So much firepower moving around the ghetto for a simple drug bust would have risked alerting the Britannian authorities and bringing the army in on top of their heads. For a simple drug bust, even one with Knightpolice present, he would have normally been content with Kallen's Glasgow and a small squad of infantry to take care of a few crooked cops and hired thugs.

These, though, were not normal circumstances, and Lelouch was not taking any chances.

"You have done well, Ohgi. I am pleased to see that with vague instructions and total freedom you were able to accomplish this much." Lelouch says, one ear listening to the various groups report in over the radio.

"It certainly wasn't easy. I wasn't sure everything would come together for a while." Ohgi replies, looking down.

"Come on, accept the praise! You just moved more than a hundred guns, ammunition, energy fillers and men halfway across the city in two days, without a single Britannian being any wiser." Sugiyama grins.

"Well, I mean, I didn't do it alone... Inoue helped a lot, and really it was just moving some crates and people around the subway on draisines..." Ohgi protests.

"Good work deserves to be recognized. The logistics that allow an army to move are just as critical, if not more so, than its fighting edge. Just look at what we've brought to bear. If it wasn't for you moving those boxes, we could have only brought a fraction of this to bear." Lelouch replies as the car carrying them slows and stops.

"... Thank you." Ohgi nods in response, before getting out.

Looking around, Lelouch sees Inoue approaching him.

"Zero-sama?" She asks.

"Yes? What is it?"

"How is Tamaki? Is he going to make it?"

"Tamaki will be fine. He's in the hospital now, and Britannian medical science can be nothing short of miraculous. He'll be up and about in a few days' time." Lelouch replies.

"Ah... I am glad." Inoue sighs in relief, an action mirrored by the others nearby.

"Just how many nobles owe you favors? Britannian hospitals don't just casually accept Japanese. Even Honorary Britannians have to go through a lot of hoops." Sugiyama points out.

"You would be surprised by just how overworked and underpaid a lot of Britannian doctors are... And how many people enter the medical profession with a genuine desire to do good. The system has a way of beating down idealism, but rarely can it truly break it." Lelouch replies.

"... Oh." Sugiyama says.

"... That or I told a very convincing lie." Lelouch grins under his mask, eliciting laughter from the men around him.

Their spirits raised, he picks up his radio and begins to speak.

"B1, B2, are you in position?"

"Yes, Zero-sama." The two sniper teams reply, having been posted on opposite sides in adjacent buildings.

"Do you see any movement inside the building?"

"Yes. We have eyes on the main floor." B1 reports.

"Looks like it's just drug dealers and thugs in there. No aliens." B2 chimes in.

"Yeah... There's a pretty big tank inside though. Think we might have found their concentrated Refrain. Looks like they're diluting it for sale here." B1 adds.

"Good. N1, scale the fire escape ladder and engage from above on my command. R1, you will provide cover for P1 and P2 as we move in. Q1, you will move up with us as well and break down the front door. R2, stay in the back with P3, P4 and P5 to kill any stragglers. P6, P7, P8, you will act as a reserve. Stay outside with your vehicles and prepare to commit on my order." Lelouch says, reflecting on how he is rapidly running out of callsigns to cram onto his chessboard. He supposed it might be time to start looking to more obscure variants if this kept up... Add in some Es, Gs, Vs and others to spice up the mix.

Regardless, his forces quickly spread out. Three teams of infantry take up positions on the far side of the warehouse parking lot, with the help of a Britannian IFV salvaged from the ruins of Shinjuku and subsequently repaired. The two spotter-sniper teams in the adjacent buildings continue observing the situation, giving him the number of enemies inside the main warehouse floor, their positions, even the directions they are facing.

One of his teams scaled up the fire escape ladder, taking up positions on a gantry facing down over the warehouse, staying hidden for now, but already picking targets. Zero personally moved up with his infantry in P1 and P2, along with the heavily modified pickup truck armed with a turreted machine gun and a rack of four RPGs that made up R1. Kallen's Glasgow followed close behind, his Q1 reliable as ever. In less than a minute, all teams were in position.

Lelouch, however, takes a moment to switch his radio frequency and turn off his helmet's voice modulator.

"C.C, are you in?" He whispers.

"Yes. I went in through one of the side doors." The green-haired witch replies.

"Do you see anything?"

"No. Looks like I'm alone in here. I'll stick to the shadows for now."

Lelouch nods, before closing his eyes and switching back to his usual frequency.

"... Engage." He orders, and a moment later all hell breaks loose.

---

As soon as the order was given, the machine gun atop R1's pickup truck opened fire, joined a moment later by the assault rifles and submachine guns of P1, P2 and N1. In a matter of seconds, the warehouse is filled with panicked shouts and pained cries as the men inside are cut down.

For her part, Kallen grins, gripping her control sticks and charges ahead, shifting her Knightmare's legs apart just enough to pass on either side of the truck and avoid running over her allies before she smashes through the perforated garage door. Hastily aimed small arms fire pings off her Glasgow's armor, serving only to give away her shooters' positions and allowing her to return fire in turn. In a matter of seconds, the few surviving drug dealers are turning to run, only to be shot in the back by the advancing Black Knights. Entirely understandably, the simple presence of even one Knightmare in a battle like this gave the Black Knights an overwhelming advantage... But the hard part, she felt, was still to come.

"Cease fire. N1, stay on the upper walkways and start moving out deeper into the warehouse. Stay cautious. If you see anything unusual, report it immediately. P1, P2, with me. P6, move up to R1 and keep this room secure in case we need to retreat back through it. P7, scale the fire escape ladder and stand by to support N1. P8, stay back with your car for now. Q1, move up into the next area. If resistance is heavy, pull back." Zero issues orders as he too enters the warehouse, along with Ohgi, Inoue and Sugiyama, as well as the other Black Knights of P1 and P2.

"Roger!" Kallen shouts, bringing her Knightmare to a halt before punching down the door leading into the next section of the warehouse. Inside is a dark room, and she gasps as she sees people inside on her thermal sights. Immediately, she slams on the brakes and skids to a halt.

No gunfire greets her, but a part of her wishes it had. It would have been a better sight than this...

Twenty-odd people are milling about aimlessly, their voices intermingling.

"Japan! Japan! Come on, JAPAN! YES!" One man shouts, as if to encourage a football team.

"Yes! He said yes! I'm getting married next month, mother!"

"I just got that promotion! I'm off to Paris soon!"

"Come on! Let's go watch the fireworks together next week! Just you and me!"

"Just leave it to me! Japanese technology is the best in the world!"

"I'm off to study abroad! I did it!"

Refrain. Such a vile, cruel drug. Not simply inducing a pleasurable high, but trapping its victims inside a hallucination of their fondest memories. It was an allure that was all too appealing to the downtrodden Japanese, who had lost their jobs, their futures, their families and friends during the short, brutal invasion, and then lived for seven years under the cruel Britannian boot. Not everyone had the fortitude or courage to fight for the resistance, after all... And for many of those people, the allure of Refrain was a seductive alternative.

The sight made Kallen's stomach turn. It was a sickening reminder of why she fought. Why she chose to raise up her arms against Britannia rather than accept her other half and live in luxury. To make sure that-

"Kallen? Kallen! It's not safe to run like that!" Her heart plummets as she hears that familiar voice.

"M-Mother!?" She gasps, horrified, no longer paying attention to her surroundings. In the distance, she hears a few short bursts of gunfire, and her radio crackles, N1 reporting a few more stragglers eliminated.

She doesn't hear it, her eyes wide as she stares down at her mother, shuffling along the warehouse floor like a zombie, arms extended as if to grasp someone...

The woman doesn't even gasp in surprise as she trips. She likely didn't even notice. She makes no reaction as Kallen reaches forward on reflex, catching her with the Glasgow's metal hand.

"Naoto! You should pay more attention to your sister!" Her mother continues, chiding her invisible, dead brother.

"Mother... Y-You..." Shock boils over into rage.

"Y-You... Foolish, stupid, weak woman! Not only do you submit to that blonde bitch, not only to you let yourself be worked like a slave in your own home, you... you... Y-You turn to a drug like this?! For what?! Naoto is dead, and you'd rather waste away than honor his memory? I-I'm... I'm ashamed to even call you mother!" Kallen shouts, her voice picking up and echoing through the warehouse via her Glasgow's loudspeakers.

"... Kallen? Are you alright?" Zero's voice comes over the radio. She ignores him.

"You... You make me sick! I should j-just leave you here! Let you drown in this damn drug den!" Kallen chokes on her words, her vision blurring with tears... But as she wipes them, she sees her mother looking up with sightless eyes, her arms wrapping around the Glasgow's thumb.

"... Kallen... Naoto... You mean the world to me... I will always be here for you... No matter what, I would never leave you. Never... Never..."

With those words, something clicks... And Kallen's boiling rage turns to ice with the sudden realization.

Her mother had been there with her all this time. Always there in the background. Just outside her room. Just around the corner. Just behind her chair... Always close to her. Not to her father. To her.

Her mother had stayed in that house not out of some pathetic love for a man who had jilted her. She had endured the abuse from her stepmother and her fellow maids, not out of some foolish dream of one day being swept away by her former husband, but for her and Naoto.

Her mother had been there, and Kallen in turn had ignored her, belittled her, pretended she did not exist...

Her mother had not turned to drugs out of simple weakness. Kallen had driven her there.

"I-I..."

She feels sick. Her hands tremble on her controls.

"Kallen? Come in? Are you alright?"

"I-I... No..." She whispers back, staring through the screen at her mother's calm, smiling face...

A face that suddenly turns into shock and confusion.

"Kallen? Kallen! Where are you going? It's not safe there! Kallen!"

Her mother stands up and suddenly leaps from her Glasgow's hand, landing clumsily on the floor, before picking herself up and beginning to run deeper into the warehouse.

"Mother! I-I'm right here! Don't go that way!" Kallen shouts, but her mother doesn't hear.

"COME ON, JAPAN! HOME RUN, BABY! HOME RUN! LET'S GOOOO!"

"Oh no! I'll miss my flight! I need to go!"

"The train leaves in a few minutes! I promise I'll call you every week! Love you!"

"Come on! The flowers are blooming! Let's go!"

In unison, the mob of Refrain addicts begins to move as well, all of them running in the same direction.

"No... No! Mother! Don't go that way! MOTHER! I'M HERE! MOTHER!" Kallen shouts, but her mother doesn't hear her.

"Kallen, it's- ON YOUR LEFT!" Zero's sudden order causes her to spin reflexively, just barely dodging out of the way of a stream of gunfire.

The Knightpolice were here.

More muzzle flashes illuminate the far end of the warehouse, and the Black Knights entering the room dive for cover. Amidst the flashes, Kallen sees the drugged-up addicts climbing into the back of a truck, while several men in black suits and sunglasses spray machinegun fire at the Black Knights, keeping them from entering the room.

"N1! Move up and put some fire on the back of the warehouse! Take out the gunmen by the truck! Q1, hold that Knightpolice steady! P2, have Kenji get an RPG on it as soon as you have a clear shot!" Zero orders.

Kallen wastes no time in obeying, dodging around another stream of fire, firing a pair of slash harkens in return. The enemy Knightmare twists, just narrowly avoiding both, but ending up trapped for a moment between two cables. Kallen brings her own rifle to bear, just in case the RPG misses.

"Backblast cle-"

A flash of green light, and the RPG's wielder is gone. Kallen blinks, looking around for the source, and in that instant the enemy Knightmare moves, slamming into one of her cables and pulling the Harken out of the wall it was embedded in. Kallen's burst of cannon fire goes wide. Instead of striking center of mass, it just barely clips her target, striking its pistol. The Knightpolice tosses the useless weapon aside and draws a knife, charging forward.

"They're hiding in the storage racks!" One of the Black Knights shouts as more bright green bolts fly through the air, several aimed at Kallen, while others tear great chunks out of the walls the Black Knights are taking cover behind.

"N1! There are aliens in the warehouse! Take them out!" Zero shouts.

"Yes, Zero-samaaaaAAAAAAA!" N1's leader's voice turns into a blood-curdling scream.

"N1? N1! Come in!"

The response is a burst of automatic gunfire and surprised screaming over the radio.

"N1!"

Kallen listens to it all unfold as she dodges out of the Knightpolice frame's knife strike, simultaneously turning her Glasgow's machine gun turret on one of the alien positions, high-caliber rounds perforating the storage container it was hiding in until the plasma fire stops.

"N1, status!"

"W-What the... What have I... It wasn't me! It wasn't-" N1's leader's trembling voice is silenced by the sound of an alien weapon discharge.

"P7, confirm the status of N1! Shoot anything that moves!" Zero orders.

"Y-Yes..."

Kallen curses as she dodges another strike from the Knightpolice frame. Of all the crooked cops in the city she just had to end up fighting the one who actually knew how to use a Knightmare! She dodges another strike and raises her rifle, for the weapon to have a hole blown clean through it by an alien weapon. Kallen returns fire with her machine gun turret, bringing the now useless weapon up to block the Knightpolice's next strike. The knife plunges clean through the weapon, and Kallen grins, twisting her Glasgow's arm and wrenching the knife out of her opponent's hand. The Knightpolice frame stumbles, and Kallen moves in for the kill, firing a pair of slash harkens into the wall behind her opponent and pulling herself towards them, pulling the knife out of her ruined rifle and plunging it into the her opponent's cockpit.

Up above, there is more gunfire.

"Z-Zero! N1 is wiped out! R-Repeat! Everyone's dead! One of those grey things was up here! We got it, b-but..." P7's leader reports in.

"I see. Nothing we can do now." Zero sighs.

"Q1, clear the remaining aliens from the walls. P7, move up and put suppressing fire on the back of the warehouse. Be careful not to-" Zero's voice cuts off as he seems to notice something in the distance.

"C2?! What are you doing? Get away from there!" Kallen hears him shout.

C2? That wasn't one of their callsigns... Kallen glances back at the truck as she opens fire at the storage containers, only to see the last of the addicts stepping inside... Along with a green-haired woman in a prisoner's straitjacket that she definitely had not seen in the warehouse when she'd first entered.

A moment later the truck's door is slammed shut and its engine starts.

"No!" Kallen shouts, accelerating towards it, only to have to suddenly brake to avoid another burst of alien gunfire. She spins around, perforating the wall with machine gun rounds, but as she does so she hears the truck's engine roar as it accelerates out of the warehouse.

"R2 here! We've got runners!"

"No! Don't shoot! There are hostages aboard! P8! There is a truck escaping out the back of the warehouse! After it, now!" Zero shouts.

"P3 here! We're seeing something strange coming out of the warehouse! It's some kind of... Disc! It's- SHIT! We're taking fire! Akiyama's down! That thing's accurate!"

"R2, engaging!" Heavy automatic cannon fire is heard outside as the IFV opens fire on the unknown opponent.

"There's more of them!"

"Out of my way!" Kallen roars as she speeds up once more, crossing the length of the warehouse, shooting at the remaining suited men in the back. Without the Knightpolice to occupy her, she guns them down in seconds, their small arms bouncing uselessly off her Glasgow's armor before she spins around, throwing her Knightmare into reverse as she does so to fire on the remaining aliens. Up above, P7 has finally taken up a position on a catwalk overlooking the warehouse and they too begin to fire.

"R1! Get ready to move as soon as I'm aboard. P6, get to your cars. Q1, help our encirclement force! The faster we kill whatever is out back, the faster we can send them to help with the hostages! P3, P4, R2, as soon as the area is clear, you are to join the pursuit. Ohgi, I am moving out to rescue the hostages. You have command of the forces in the warehouse. Make sure it is clear, recover any alien artifacts, and burn the drugs!" Zero barks orders as he runs out towards where R1 is waiting.

"Roger!" Ohgi shouts.

"Dammit!" Kallen shouts, fighting back tears as she breaks through the back wall, the desire to immediately chase after her mother warring with the need to carry out Zero's orders. On one side she sees the truck disappearing into the ghetto, P8's car speeding after it a few seconds later. On the other, she sees three large silvery discs hovering in the sky, rotating slowly, ridges along their sides glowing first orange, then bright green before releasing a barrage of green energy into the nearby ruins where the encircling force is hiding. Tracers shoot up to meet it as the IFV returns fire. Several rounds hit home, and one of the discs falls out of the sky. As it hits the ground, Kallen sees a bright green-white flash, and an explosion rocks her Knightmare.

Her machine gun traverses upwards and more tracers spray into the night sky. Several of them spark off the disc's skin, punching holes inside. She sees it rotate towards her, the ridge separating its top and bottom halves glowing green once more... Only for it to shudder and fall out of the sky as one of the sharpshooter teams takes it out, exploding a moment later.

"B2 here! It's down!"

"Only one left!" R2 calls out as Kallen sees R1 skid across the parking lot, its machine guns blazing away, joining Kallen and the IFV in focusing fire on the last remaining disc, which is quickly torn apart, detonating in midair as something important inside is hit. Kallen wastes no time in moving after Zero and R1, leaving the warehouse behind.

"P8! Do you see them?" Zero orders.

"Yes! They're heading east, towards Omoridai station!"

"Q1! Move across the woods to the west and cut them off!" Zero orders, and Kallen obeys, swerving off the road and making a dash through the trees. Soon, she's through them and reaches the old suburbs. She sees a few people peeking out of old, rundown houses as she speeds down the road, making a left turn and seeing the rail line in the distance.

However, even as she skids around the corner and onto the old, semi-underground rail line, P8 radios in again.

"They've turned away! They're now heading up onto the Tateyama expressway!"

"Q1! The overpass is nearby. Get up there!"

Even before Zero is finished speaking, her slash harkens are already launched, embedding themselves in the bottom of the highway overpass. Only when she is already in midair does Kallen realize that there is traffic on the highway above. Fortunately, at this time of night it is light. A car swerves out of the way as she lands, shaking the bridge, before looking around.

"Q1, it's headed for you on the southbound span. Put a harken through its engine block and slowly winch it to a stop!" Zero orders.

"Roger!" Kallen moves into position, another car dodging around her as she stops, factsphere open and scanning.

It does not take long. Soon, the truck comes screaming into view, her Factsphere recording a speed of two hundred and eighty kilometers an hour. The operators must have removed the speed governors. But even so, her sensors quickly spat out a targeting solution and she took aim, waiting as the seconds counted down...

Suddenly, a large, semi-circular shape detaches from the truck's roof. A metal crescent framing a large central pod, it spins to face her and Kallen quickly throws her Knightmare into reverse, just barely avoiding the angry red laser as it scorches the pavement. Her slash harken goes high, the truck speeding under the cable and her window of opportunity closing in an instant. Her machine gun opens fire, perforating the drone and causing it to tumble out of the sky, but by now it's too late.

"Damn it!" She screams as she leaps across onto the southbound span of the highway, skidding across the pavement, seeing P8's car swerve around to avoid her, and then slamming her hand down on the throttle, pushing her Knightmare to its limits as she joins the chase.

"Missed my shot! I'm in pursuit now!" She radios.

"Q1! Put a Harken through the upper half of the trailer!" Zero's response comes a moment later.

Kallen does not need to be told twice. Both slash harkens lash out once more, her left one missing and skidding off the road, but the other strikes true, punching through the metal of the truck's trailer, before punching out of the roof. Her winch engages a moment later, and she feels the cable pull tight as the truck pulls against it, her Knightmare speeding up further as the truck pulls it along.

"I got it! Reeling it in now!" She shouts.

"Slowly!"

"Roger!" A savage grin spreads across her face as she begins to carefully reel the harken back in, her Glasgow's winch struggling against the engine of the vehicle, applying a brake to her right landspinner to keep the resulting force from spinning her around. A warning sounds out in her cockpit, telling her that the motor is over its limit. She ignores it, feeling her Glasgow starting to win the tug of war, beginning to slow down, the truck ahead doing the same, one minute ticking by... Two... Slowly but surely, her target is pulled in... Just a little more...

Suddenly, the sheet metal of the truck's semi trailer gives way, having never been designed to withstand such forces. The hardened tungsten of the slash harken head punches back through the way it came, taking a small chunk of the trailer with it. The truck surges forward, no longer held back, and Kallen desperately pulls back on the controls, braking again in a desperate struggle to keep her Glasgow from spinning out...

It's not enough. She slams into the barrier and goes over the side, her Knightmare tumbling end over end, Kallen's restraints digging into her as she fires her slash harkens off once more, embedding them into the underside of the highway, turning an uncontrolled tumble into a swing as she pulls herself back up, retracting them just in time to fly in an arc back over the highway. She sees R1's truck speed past under her, its engine struggling to keep up under the weight of the additional armor and weapons bolted onto its back, Zero visibly staring out of the passenger-side window. She sees his mask looking right at her as she fires her harkens down, pulling her Glasgow back down onto the highway before punching the throttle forward once more, ignoring the beeping of her Knightmare warning her of her energy filler status. She dodges around traffic, quickly passing R1, then approaching P8, her Knightmare's motors pushed to the absolute limit, her landspinners glowing red hot as the seven year old components were spun faster than ever.

A heat warning pops up on her HUD, coupled with an alarm.

"Come on... Just a little more..." Kallen growls, seeing the truck in the distance, beginning to turn off the highway onto an interchange, tires screeching as it drifts around a bend, before accelerating again, now on a northbound route headed straight for the tunnel that bridged Tokyo Bay. Kallen doesn't waste time with the intersection, instead firing her slash harkens and swinging across the gap just as P8 begins rounding the interchange ahead of her.

"They're heading north across the bay now!" Kallen reports as she slams into the bridge, the entire structure shaking slightly as she lands on the southbound span. Ahead of her she sees headlights, and she just barely avoids crashing into a Britannian military convoy speeding down the bridge, their confused drivers honking loudly as she fires her harkens once again and swings across to the northbound span. P8 passes her as she begins to get up to speed, ignoring another, louder warning about her energy filler. If she can just get close enough, even for a second, she can drive her knife into the truck's driving compartment and bring it all to a halt...

They speed down the bridge, the truck visible in the distance, slowly getting closer and closer... Then, there is a flash of green-white light and bright orange fire, and Kallen gasps in horror as the bridge span ahead of them collapses, blown out by some sort of explosive.

"P8! BRAKE!" She shouts, slamming on her own brakes... But it's too late. Ahead of her, she sees P8's car go flying off the bridge into the water below... And her own Glasgow goes over a moment later. Once more her slash harkens fire, anchoring into the bottom of the bridge, arresting her own fall...

Down below, she sees P8's car, its front crumpled by impact with the water, sinking fast, the people inside likely unconscious, while out in front she sees the truck vanish down into the tunnel beneath the bay.

She hesitates for a few seconds... Before beginning to descend, unwinding the Harken cables, reaching down into the water and just barely managing to grab the car before it can sink beneath the waves. With tears streaming down her face she hoists herself back up onto the bridge, placing the car down and opening her cockpit just in time to watch R1 slow to a stop. She sees her fellow Black Knights inside jump out of the truck, quickly rushing over to the totaled car, opening it and pulling out the people inside.

Zero steps out a moment later, barking a few orders to get the wounded stowed away as he makes his way over to her.

Her whole body shakes as she descends from her machine, the adrenaline rush finally subsiding.

"W-We lost them..." She chokes out, no longer able to stop the tears.

"M-Mother's gone... T-They... They took her... It... It's all my fault!" She sobs.

Then, she feels an arm wrap around her shoulder, and a cape covers her.

"... It's not your fault." Zero says quietly as she begins to cry in earnest.

"I... I..."

It was her fault. She was the reason her mother was in that warehouse. She was the reason her mother was driven to drugs. She was the reason her mother was taken away to some horrible fate.

"It's not over yet. We'll get her back." Zero says, holding her in a stiff, awkward hug.

"... Please... I... I don't want her to die thinking I hate her... Please..." Kallen chokes out.

"We'll get her back. Her, and everyone else they've taken." Zero replies, more firmly.

Slowly, he guides her back to the truck as other vehicles begin to arrive on the scene. She sees one Black Knight begin to set out a rudimentary warning sign to stop traffic on the bridge, while others start the process of loading up her Glasgow, or keep a nervous eye on the skies just in case the Britannians come to try something.

Soon, the Black Knights convoy begins to head back up the bridge, quickly dispersing at the interchange to avoid pursuit. Throughout it all Kallen remains curled up in the back of the truck, Zero sitting beside her. She held tight to him, crying softly, his hand awkwardly wrapped around her shoulder. A few of the Black Knights nearby look at them, but a masked glare from Zero is enough for them to mind their own business.

Kallen does not return home that night. Neither does Zero.

---

A/N: Here it is! Chapter 2, done in a decent enough amount of time.

First, I will address something that may have seemed strange to you, namely Cornelia's attitude towards Saitama. In the show, Saitama is shown to be an unambiguous defeat for Lelouch, who is led by the nose into a trap he really should have seen coming, ending with the Yamato Alliance breaking and being annihilated, while he himself is saved by C.C. at the very last second, creating a diversion and allowing him to run away, having learned a valuable lesson about hubris. This is entirely true... But only from Lelouch and C.C's point of view. From the Yamato Alliance's point of view, Zero showed up, issued commands, allowed them to win the initial battle, and then things began to turn against them and they either died or ran, leaving Zero behind. To them it would be a loss, but at least they gave the Britannians a bit of a bloody nose.

As for Cornelia's point of view, Lelouch was just a KMF pilot with a stuck hatch who was in the process of slowly complying with commands when Zero appeared. Moreover, when you consider which side lost what, it becomes immensely skewed in Lelouch's favor. Zero specifically loses nothing but his dignity and some convenient patsies (though Cornelia also would not know this. She would probably assume that they were Black Knights). The Yamato Alliance loses some Sutherlands and their pilots, but they started out the battle without any Sutherlands to begin with, having obtained them all from Britannian stockpiles. Thus, while they suffered some manpower losses, the materiel losses they sustained were actually Cornelia's as well. In the end, Cornelia massacred an entire ghetto, wrote off a train full of Sutherlands, sacrificed a decent amount of her own men as bait, all to kill a small amount (double digits tops) of terrorists (some pilots, plus a few idiots that thought surrender was a good idea), and failed to get the one person she was actually there for. She would still be able to declare victory, of course. The Yamato Alliance sustained considerable losses and survivors probably retreated into the underground, and Zero ultimately yielded the field to her, but I don't think Cornelia would personally consider it as such, especially given the logical consequences of such an act.

Cornelia's scene in the first part of episode 9 also introduces a bit of a problem for me, specifically timeline compression. In the start of that scene, Cornelia is already loading up equipment for the Narita operation, meaning it is already in the troop positioning stage. Considering how close Narita is to Tokyo, it's not even a day's move by train or car, meaning that Cornelia likely engaged in some form of deception operation to confuse them and make them let their guard down, rather than simply massing her troops and then moving on them directly. However, even with this excuse, it can't be more than four or five days between that scene's start and the battle of Narita. Episode 9 takes place over Three nights and two days. Between that and episode 10 is at least one day, with episode 10 starting at night. This is followed by Reid and Jeremiah talking, and then the Black Knights receiving a shipment from Kyoto. I am assuming this didn't all take place in a single night, so that is one more day and night. On the night they receive the Kyoto shipment, the Black Knights begin to move out to Narita, where the battle takes place the following day. Thus, episodes 9 through 11 and all their events take place. Thus, two days remain between now in-story and Narita. I have some stuff to push into this time slot, so it may seem like a lot is happening in a very short time period. Rest assured, I have it all planned out, and while the timeline is tight, I think I've managed to make all my planned stuff fit.

Second, I could not find an official source on whether or not Kaguya Sumeragi is actually the next in line for the position of Empress of Japan, but personally I feel like it fits, so I will keep that piece of fanon as well. It probably won't play much of a role, much like it wouldn't have in canon, but it would certainly explain why a fifteen year old girl is even allowed to sit at the same table as the other five, no matter how smart she is.

The scene with Toudoh and Kaguya went on longer than I'd initially intended, with the conversation with Kaguya, Kirihara and Toudoh being a last minute addition after I decided that Toudoh would not be content to simply cool his heels and do nothing, and Kyoto in turn would do more than just redirect a few trucks and train cars in response to such earth-shattering news. It also gave me an opportunity to play with Kirihara and Kaguya and start diverging from the timeline there.

The Kallen and Milly scene, I mostly included to show how Kallen is under a bit of stress from the whole thing as well, plus a bit of exploration of Britannian society.

Finally, we come to the big combat scene. When I write battles like this, my number one goal is to ensure that you, the readers, can visualize the whole affair and keep track of everything in your heads. I first picture the setting, in this case a large warehouse with two main storage rooms and a side area composed of office space, machinery controls, and employee lounges, with a parking lot on one side and a loading/unloading bay on the other. Once that is done, I position the troops and then do my best to keep the audience appraised of their movements, updating them whenever something changes or the plan is advanced. I hope this doesn't disrupt from the flow of the actual combat scenes though.

This leads into the car chase. This was my first time writing a car chase, and I will say it now. Car chases... Are boring. Cars moving in a straight line on confined roads, even at high speeds, does not make for much good action material in a written medium unless one or both sides have a bunch of James Bond-style gadgets to spice things up. I suppose that movies have a huge advantage here since here you can actually hear the engine noises and the individual shifts, dialogue, gunfire, etc. The route they took, I mapped out from the Omoridai train station near Chiba East Hospital, then southwest along the Tateyama Expressway, then turning north at the Kisarazu junction and ending at the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line, where the bridge was blown. This wasn't my original plan, mind you. Originally, I wanted to have it end with the truck escaping into the underground metro near Tokyo, but when doing research on the local transport networks, I found that all the rail lines seemed to run either above ground or in open-air underground passageways without any true tunnels, and when looking on satellite maps, I could not find any tunnel entrances in any locations that suited my original script. Thus I altered it to end at the Tokyo Bay bridge, with the happy side benefit that setting it on an elevated highway meant I could let Kallen get creative with slash harkens and mobility. It's something I've rarely seen being done, to be honest, and that surprises me. If you want to shoot someone, use a gun. Harkens are stupid as primary ranged weapons. However, the mobility and utility options they offer are numerous, and they're still powerful enough to fuck something up if you have no other option.

As always, please point out any issues/errors/inconsistencies, and I hope you enjoyed this somewhat over-length update.