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?

5. Chapter 5

A/N: WHEW! This one was a long one. In fact, I believe that this is the longest single chapter I have ever written for anything, ever. In hindsight splitting it in two might have been a better idea, but I felt compelled to do all of Narita in one single chapter, from start to finish.

With that in mind, I hope you all enjoy.

---

Chapter 5

It was a cloudy day over Narita as the G1 approached the city, navigating between the odd mountains that had Britannian geologists and Sakuradite prospectors alike constantly visiting and exploring them. With it came a legion of transport trucks, tanks, APCs and Knightmares, most of which were crewed by Cornelia's veterans. A faint sprinkling of snow covered the ground as they drove in, and the weather outside the cabins and cockpits is unusually chilly for April.

"Your highness, our scouts have confirmed the presence of the JLF's base of operations on the mountain in question. Our blocking forces are already in position, as is General Darlton's train. General Alexander is beginning landing procedures at the local airport as well. No sign of enemy resistance. It seems we've caught them with their pants down." The staff officer overseeing the tactical map gives his report.

Cornelia nods from her command throne, a bemused expression on her face. Ever the dutiful knight, Guilford is standing right beside her, ramrod straight and on alert.

"What about outside reinforcements?" Euphemia speaks up.

"If you mean Zero, then no. I do not believe he shall be making an appearance. Your plan worked quite well, Sub-Viceroy. Based on reports from this morning, the Black Knights were engaged in a shootout many miles south of here. Even if they heard about us the moment we departed this morning, this operation would be over by the time they got here. As for other threats... All nearby terrorist organizations with the equipment that could potentially make a difference have been eliminated. It is just us against the JLF now." Cornelia replies.

"Your highness, we've reached our deployment point!" The shout comes from the driver near the front of the vehicle.

"Good." With that, Cornelia stands up.

"Order the column to halt and prepare for deployment. Prepare to send the shelter in place order on my command." She says, heading for one of the nearby Knightmare bays, where her personal Gloucester was stowed away.

"Euphemia, you are to stay here with the G1. Under no circumstances are you to leave unless your life is in imminent danger, understand? You will have command of the medical troops as well."

"Yes, Cornelia." Euphemia nods.

With that, Cornelia leaves out the side door. Before her is her Gloucester, a custom design with additional command equipment built in, and she quickly slides into the cockpit and begins the startup sequence. The deep hum of the Yggdrasil drive spinning up resounds through the cockpit as its displays all boot up. A few quick checks show that all systems are nominal, and that all maintenance was carried out appropriately.

"Lady Cornelia." Guilford's voice comes in over the radio.

"Go ahead." Cornelia replies.

"I am concerned about Euphie. Would it not have been safer to leave her in the palace?" Her knight asks.

"She insisted on it. She agreed to stay safe within the G1 and not interfere, but she also insisted on observing... And after Saitama, it is clear that there are some blind spots in my own vision that she can cover just fine." Cornelia replies.

"And presumably prevent casualties among local civilians?" Guilford asks.

"Yes, though I do not see them being likely. This is a proper battle. The JLF at least have the decency to not hide behind civilians like the rats in the Ghettos do." Cornelia sighs.

"... Of course, they still took Euphie hostage, and for that they will all die like dogs. But as they have granted me the courtesy of a clean battle, I shall make their deaths clean as well."

"Of course, your highness." Guilford replies.

"Your highness, this is General Alexander. We are touching down now." The transmission comes in.

"Good. It's time then." Cornelia nods, before switching to the general tactical frequency.

"All units, commence the operation!"

"Yes, your highness! Launching!"

A moment later, Cornelia finds herself pressed back into her seat as the G1's electromagnetic catapult sprang to life and accelerated her Gloucester out of the launch tube, sending it saling through the air, deploying its landspinners, and landing on the firm ground below.

Back when it was first designed, the G1 had been intended as a mobile air base, and thus the catapults had been intended for launching fighters. However, the difficulty of landing aircraft back at the G1, coupled with the advent of Knightmares, had led to the catapults being rendered somewhat useless. However, it had not taken long at all for Knightmare pilots to figure out that they could, in fact, launch themselves out, and while it served no tactical purpose it was quite fun. Thus, Cornelia had kept her G1's catapults installed for morale reasons. Rumor had it that the next generation of command landship would have its catapults removed in exchange for doubled Knightmare transport capability and additional maintenance space, and that was entirely fine, but she had a suspicion that there would be a lot of disappointed Knightmare jockeys once the G1 was replaced by the G2 in a few years.

She saw icons appearing all over her command map as more and more units activated their IFFs and moved out. All around her, Knightmares deployed into battle formation and began moving towards the hill, seeking to cover as much ground as possible before JLF artillery could wake up.

To the east, a second group of IFFs activated as a stopped freight train suddenly opened all its doors, revealing a cargo not of coal, but of Knightmares as Darlton's force moved out as well, moving with practiced ease as they dropped the deception that had them sitting on trains for the past few days.

Up above she saw heavy transports begin to drop the vanguard of Alexander's force, the rest of it simultaneously disembarking from landed planes at the Narita airport.

In a matter of minutes, the Narita mountains had been completely encircled. There was no avenue of escape for the JLF now. Either they would have to brave the steep cliffs behind them, which left them exposed to Cornelia's blocking forces, or they would have to fight their way through her army.

This was it. It was time to sweep these last few embers of a dead nation aside, so that a new order could take its place at last.

"All units, forward! The JLF dies today!" She shouts over the radio.

"Yes, your highness!"

---

"We're picking up enemy IFFs all around us! Hundreds of them!" An officer shouts in the JLF command center as the tactical map lights up with each newly revealed signature.

"It is as you predicted." General Tatewaki Katase nods to the figure standing behind him. At nearly nine feet tall, and covered from head to toe in a dark red robe, the creature's hood shifts as it nods.

Indeed. Shall the JLF fight here?

The creature's response is not spoken, but rather echoes in the minds of those nearby.

"Of course! With the tools you have given us, we shall crush Cornelia's force into dust!" Katase replies, eliciting eager smiles from the officers around him.

Very well. I shall not interfere with your command, General. You know your forces best, after all.

The creature nods again, before it moves off to a corner of the room, making no sound, its legs seemingly not moving at all beneath the robe as it turns to observe the battle.

"You heard the Emissary! Time to show our friends the tenacity and skill of the JLF! Nippon Banzai!"

"Nippon Banzai!"

In the time since the Emissary had first shown up, the JLF had seemed to gain new life. For seven long years, the fight ahead of them had seemed hopeless, and many had quietly believed that they were simply counting down days in a bunker until Britannia finally crushed them. Not even Katase had proven immune to this malaise, growing ever more despondent and indecisive, and increasingly leaning on Toudoh for advice on even routine matters. Now though, the troops and officers moved with a sense of purpose and decisiveness, and Katase stood in the middle of it all, every bit the commander his men so desperately desired.

No longer though. Now, Katase was different. Now, with his hope rekindled, he was every bit the decisive commander that the JLF officers around him desired. As soon as the speech was made, he was in the center of the room, barking orders to his men.

"I want the Seventh and Eighth Reserve Knightmare Battalions to be deployed from Exits Two and Five. Their Burai have not yet been modified, so they shall serve as bait. They are to engage the enemies' Eastern and Western flanks respectively. They are to skirmish, but do not get entangled in close quarters, and are to retreat and preserve their numbers wherever possible. We shall let the Britannian forces move up the hill and gain some confidence."

"Yes sir!"

"The Third and Fourth Armored Battalions are to move out and engage the force in the center. They are to attack, fire a few shots, and then immediately turn and run. Let the center force think they have routed us. Our Second, Third and Fourth Artillery Battalions are to provide support for their respective flank, but they are to only fire old ammunition for now. Save the special shells for later."

"Yes sir!"

"Finally, get the old ECM systems up and operational!"

"Sir, the Britannians will burn right through them."

"Exactly. The Britannians believe themselves to be superior in all things. I see no reason to disabuse them of that notion until it is too late for them. Let them have their victory and urge their forces ever onwards."

"Yes sir!"

"Prepare all other units for deployment when I give the order. We shall let their center push up ahead of their flanks and expose themselves. Once they have passed the red line..." Katase draws a line on the tactical map, halfway up the hill.

"... Then we shall activate the Emissary's jammer. Everything that isn't JLF shall be deaf and mute. Then, I want the First Artillery Battalion to open fire with Type-3 Special Ammunition. Once it lands, the First and Second Knightmare Battalions deploy from Exits Three and Four to meet the Center head on, while the Third and Fourth shall deploy from Two and Five to strike at their flanks, with support from our drone swarm. The Fifth and Sixth shall deploy from Exits One and Six respectively, accompanied by the First and Second Armored. They shall pin the enemy flanks in place while we annihilate their center. Once the center has collapsed, our forces shall turn and destroy the flanks as well. Not one Britannian shall leave the battlefield alive this day!"

"Yes sir!"

Katase then turns to an aide.

"What of Toudoh? Has there been any news?" He demands.

"No sir. We have not been able to reach him ever since he left Tokyo for Kyoto. We suspect that he is still attempting to negotiate for the release of the Guren." The aide replies.

"No matter. We shall make our own miracle without him. Now go! The divine wind is blowing, and it shall sweep the Britannians aside!"

As the invigorated JLF leaps into action and begins to execute orders, the Emissary watches silently in the corner. It says nothing, merely looking on... And occasionally giving a pliable mind a slight prod in the right direction.

---

The drive back to Tokyo had not been a particularly pleasant one. The convoy's drivers had pushed the trucks as hard as they dared, ignoring all speed limits in their desire to fulfill Zero's commands. The ride being what it was, Lelouch had ultimately given up entirely on sleep, and had instead spent the time familiarizing himself with the battlefield.

Kaguya had provided him with the exact location of the JLF Headquarters, which was built into a series of natural caverns within a Sakuradite Rise near Narita, right under the nose of the Britannian administration. These caverns had subsequently been reinforced, so that an earthquake would not bring the rock, largely supported by magnetic force from natural Sakuradite veins deep below, crashing down upon their heads. Other caverns provided water through access to subterranean lakes and aquifers. It would be hard enough to assault it even without the JLF also being armed with alien technology of unknown capability.

"Zero-sama, we're here." Sugiyama breaks him out of his thoughts.

"Good. Has Inoue made it?" He asks.

"Yes, she is waiting outside. The rest of the Black Knights are assembled as well."

"And Toudoh?"

"He is here too, along with the Four Holy Swords. They are asking to speak with you."

"Tell them I will brief them on the situation now, and they can speak privately on the drive to Narita." Lelouch replies as he stands up out of his seat.

"Yes, Zero-sama."

Lelouch nods and follows Sugiyama out of the truck. He spots Kallen on the way, along with her mother.

"What's going on? Kallen-" The woman stiffens as she sees Lelouch approach.

"Kallen, follow me. I have something for you." He orders.

"Yes, Zero-sama." Kallen salutes.

"What are you having my daughter do?" Her mother demands, turning to stand between them.

"Miss Kozuki, you and the other abductees will be taken somewhere safe, and from there you will be allowed to return home. However, your daughter is needed for the upcoming battle." Lelouch replies.

"What? No, I-"

"Mother, please." Kallen steps around her mother, over to Lelouch's side.

"I need to do this. If we don't, then thousands more people could suffer what nearly happened to you. Now that I know, I... I can't just stand by and let this happen. I thought I told you this already..." Kallen says.

Her mother stares at her, looking crestfallen.

"But..."

"Please..." Kallen reaches out to grasp her mother's shoulder.

"... Follow Zero's instructions. I'll explain things later, but we don't have time for this now."

Her mother hesitates for a few long seconds, but just as Lelouch is about to use his Geass on her, the woman bows her head.

"Very well... But please, s-stay safe, Kallen... Please come back..." She says quietly.

"I will." Kallen nods firmly, before she begins to usher her mother out of the truck, Lelouch following close behind.

Outside, the Black Knights are assembled in a crowd, and Lelouch can hear the whispers as news of what happened during the rescue operation made its way around the crowd. Behind them is a train, made up primarily of flatbed cars. The trucks previously loaded on said cars had already been unloaded, and were now standing ready for departure.

The whispers stop as he turns to address the crowd.

"Time is short, so I'll keep this brief." He begins.

"As of this moment, Cornelia has just begun a military operation to destroy the JLF base in the Narita mountains. Under normal circumstances, we would be moving out now in order to save them. However, recent intelligence from Kyoto and from Toudoh-san has revealed that the JLF has been subverted by alien agents, and is now acting as one of their proxies, aiding them in their eventual takeover of Japan."

One could hear a pin drop in the resulting silence as the Black Knights took in that information. Those who had been on the rescue team nodded, having heard the gist of the story ahead of time, confirming the fact for their comrades who hadn't been.

"This means that Cornelia is almost certainly walking right into a trap. If Cornelia's army is destroyed before it even knows what it is fighting, then it means that the JLF will only have us to stand in their way to turning Japan into an alien puppet state. With this in mind, the Black Knights will be deploying to Narita in order to break Cornelia out of the JLF trap and allow her to retreat." Lelouch finishes.

At that, the mutterings begin in the crowd below.

"Is he serious?"

"What the hell...?"

"We're helping the Britannians now?!"

"Zero! Wouldn't it be better to just let Cornelia and the JLF destroy each other and then take out the winner when they're weak?" Inoue shouts, loud enough to be heard over the crowd.'

"That is not an option." Lelouch replies.

"We do not have the strength at our disposal to wipe out either side. More importantly, even if we do manage such a feat, the Black Knights currently lack the numbers and equipment to effectively resist either a Britannian response force or repeated attacks by Aliens. Cornelia is currently at the head of the largest military force in the islands. We need that force directed at the aliens, not destroyed on a mountain before the aliens have even begun to truly fight." Lelouch replies.

Inoue nods, seemingly placated by that, but many of the others in the crowd are still voicing their doubts.

"I can't believe this!" Another voice comes, this one coming not from the Black Knights, but rather from the only woman among the Four Holy Swords. Lelouch sees one of her companions, an old man, raise a hand to stop her, but Toudoh stops him, motioning for his subordinate to continue.

"You have spent the past month claiming to be Japan's only hope for freedom and salvation, and now you want to turn around and join forces with Cornelia?!"

The crowd goes silent as the Black Knights wait to hear Lelouch's response, and he knows he has to think of something. A logical response would not work, he needs to appeal to emotions, but Chiba hit the nail on the head. Many of his men had joined precisely because of Shinjuku and Saitama. For him to then go and help the perpetrator of the latter...

"Man, all of you sure have short memories, don't ya?" Tamaki interjects, interrupting Lelouch's train of thought.

"Excuse me?" The woman demands.

"I seem to recall that the whole reason that all this started was because a certain someone helped us hand the Britannians their asses in Shinjuku, and then walked in and shot the man responsible! This man was willing to make himself Britannia's most wanted man specifically for our sakes!" Tamaki continues.

"That was then, and this is now. It's one thing to fight the aliens and their puppets. It's another to try and help Cornelia of all people! She is our enemy! The biggest threat to Japan's freedom, and you want to-" The woman replies, but Tamaki cuts her off.

"The biggest threat, you say?" His eyes narrow.

"Have you ever seen an alien?" He asks.

"... No, I haven't, but-"

"Well I have. Damn near all of us have, at this point... But I've seen more of 'em than most." Tamaki bulldozes ahead.

"I've felt them reach into my mind, hijack my body, and make me turn my gun on my friends to try and shoot them in the back, while my mind was trapped, helpless and screaming in my head!" He says, drawing his handgun.

"I've seen their guns, no bigger than this pistol here, blow a man's body clean apart. Nothing was left to bury but a pair of legs." He continues, holstering the gun.

"I've seen inside their ships, and what they do to us there. I've seen the tanks full of gore and bones that once were people. I've seen a man with his fucking ribcage cut open, blood and guts everywhere and yet still FUCKING alive, BEGGING for us to put him out of his misery... And do you know what?! Every last one of the people they took was Japanese! If they have their way, every one of us will one day end up on a table like that, or as BLOODY FUCKING SOUP IN AN ACID TANK!" His voice rises until he's screaming at the end of it all.

He pauses to take a few deep breaths, calming himself down.

"... Look. Our man, Zero? He sees the big picture, and while I might not be the brightest, for once I think I can see it too. Cornelia's got a lot more guns than anyone else in Japan, and if we don't want to end up on a table with our ribs pried open, we need them all pointed at the aliens. I don't know about you, but after what I saw inside that alien ship, I'm perfectly fine with trusting in Zero's grand plan and fighting alongside Britannia, if it means THAT won't happen to us. I trust that eventually, once things have calmed down, he'll make sure Cornelia gets what's coming to her too." Tamaki says.

"... But for now? Time is wasting, and there's aliens to kill. We should get moving." The Japanese man finishes.

For a few moments there is a stunned silence, before Lelouch speaks up.

"... Thank you, Tamaki." He nods.

"Are there any more questions?" He asks.

No hands were raised.

"... Very well. I have assigned Knightmares based on simulator aptitude. I've sent the list to Inoue, and have copies here. If you are on the list, find the one assigned to you. Everyone else, grab your guns and prepare to move out. Kallen!" He turns to the girl in question.

"Yes, Zero-sama?"

"Follow me. I have something for you." He says, moving towards one of the more distant trucks.

He opens the door, revealing a bright red shape within. Even hunched over, it conveyed a sense of barely-contained menace, its distinctive silver claw glistening in the light.

"T-That's..." Kallen gasps.

"The Guren Mark-II. The first seventh-generation Knightmare to be built in Japan." Lelouch says.

"This machine was built for the sole purpose of killing other Knightmares. In all of Japan there is only a single unit that may be a match for it." He opens up a small envelope taped to the Knightmare's foot and pulls out a tiny red keychain, before tossing it over to Kallen. The redhead catches it reflexively, and blinks.

"It is now yours. You will need something better than a Glasgow in the fight to come." Lelouch says.

"M-Mine? But... Surely it should be yours? It's the best machine we have, and with its defensive capabilities it would be best suited for you, right?" Kallen protests.

"This is a machine meant for an ace pilot." Lelouch shakes his head.

"You are our ace. My Q1. Therefore you will make the most of its capabilities. I will be taking a Burai-Kai for this operation. It possesses improved command equipment, which would better suit me." He says, gesturing to the next truck in the line.

Then he notices a set of crates behind the Guren.

"Hm?" As far as he was aware, the Guren didn't require ammunition.

He walks over and opens one, revealing an automated excavation probe. For a moment he was puzzled, wondering just what it was doing here, before remembering that Kyoto had sent excavation gear to the Black Knights along with Knightmares. Most likely, Inoue hadn't had time to unload them...

Suddenly, a plan begins to take shape in his mind... He would have to check the maps just to make sure, but if it was...

"Zero!" Kallen suddenly speaks up.

"What is it?" He turns to face her.

"Thank you." The redhead bows deeply.

"For... For everything you've done."

"Thank me by using this machine to its full potential. We will need it." Lelouch replies.

"Yes. I will, Zero-sama." Kallen straightens up and salutes. Lelouch returns the gesture, and then heads off to get into his own Knightmare.

The Burai-Kai was not quite as visually distinctive as the Guren was. Painted in a simple drab grey and brown color scheme, its most distinguishing feature was the pronounced pair of radio antennae trailing off the rear of its head. These were powerful communication systems, designed to burn through even the most sophisticated Britannian jamming systems in order to allow the users to stay in contact with their allies in high ECM environments. This unit in particular had originally been meant for the Kyoto Group's house guards, but thanks to Kaguya it had instead been shipped to the Black Knights. The primary weapon of the Kyoto Guards was a long Revolving Blade Naginata, equipped with a superheated chain-blade at the end. From what he knew, the five units issued to Toudoh had instead carried swords with larger revolving blades, but the Naginata better served his purpose. It was an easier weapon to use, and his men didn't have time to figure out complex sword forms in a Knightmare.

Aside from the Naginata, the Burai-Kai of the Kyoto Guards carried an assault rifle. This one fired the same round as the ones issued to the standard Burai, but was a more compact design, trading a bit of ranged stopping power for easier one-handed use and reduced weight. Again, from what he knew Toudoh had eschewed the use of the rifle entirely, preferring to keep his Knightmares lighter and faster in order to better close into melee.

Outside of that, the Burai-Kai had the same torso machinegun mount as the standard Burai. Good for anti-infantry work, but practically useless against anything armored. The two Slash Harkens mounted on either side of the cockpit were also unchanged from the base model.

Lelouch stared up at the Knightmare for a few moments, before climbing up into its cockpit and settling inside, powering on the communication systems as all around him the Black Knights got into their various transports and prepared to move out. Soon, the Black Knights are rolling out once more. A giant convoy of trucks, APCs, IFVs, and even a few tanks, most of which were brand new from Kyoto snaked its way out of Shiroi, and began to head for Narita.

As they moved out, Lelouch hailed Toudoh over the radio.

"Zero." The man replied. His voice hadn't changed much from when Lelouch had seen him last.

"Toudoh-san. I have a question for you." He says, immediately getting to the point.

"As do I... But go ahead and ask." Toudoh says.

"We are going into battle against the JLF. Many of the men we face may have been your subordinates just a few days ago. Are you willing to kill them?" Lelouch says.

"That ties into my question for you." Toudoh replies.

"Oh?"

"I am willing to do what must be done. If they are truly alien puppets, then it is my duty to put them down before they can hurt the very people they joined up to protect. To grant them the freedom in death that they no longer have in life." Toudoh says.

"However, I also owe it to them to try to save them. I ask of you to allow me to address them first to try and convince them to stand down, and that any who do shall be protected, be it from the rest of the JLF, from Britannia, or from your own men. Can you promise me this?"

Lelouch pauses for a few moments. Would it be worth the risk...? Yes. It would be. For all he knew, the JLF were simply deluded fools, following a puppet. Perhaps if they could be shown the truth, they would defect to him.

"Yes. I will guarantee it." He answers.

"Moreover..." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a flash drive, plugging it into the Burai's control panel and beginning a data transfer to Toudoh.

"... This drive contains photographs of what we found inside the alien ship. When you address your men, send this to them. Perhaps it may help convince them." He says, sending a choice selection of images over.

"I see..." Toudoh trails off, doubtlessly looking over the photos.

He is silent for a long while as the convoy rolls on.

"... I see. Thank you, Zero." He finally replies.

"For what it is worth, I hope that we are able to avoid unnecessary bloodshed." Lelouch replies, truthfully. He hoped they could, even if he did not think it was likely.

"... As do I." Toudoh breathes a long, tired sigh, giving Lelouch the impression that the older soldier thought much the same.

With nothing more to say, Lelouch pulls out his phone and begins hurriedly searching for maps of Narita's water table.

---

The Britannian spearhead advanced through the trees, a white-caped Gloucester at its head. The ground shook as something exploded nearby.

"Careful, your highness. Enemy artillery is coming down." Guilford reports.

"That was a six-inch shell, I'd say." Cornelia replies, showing no concern as another shell detonates some distance behind her.

"I suppose we'd better get counter-battery on it. Major Graves!" She continues, reaching out to the nearest artillery battery.

"Yes, your highness?"

"The enemy artillery has decided to make its presence known. Silence them, if you please."

"Already on it, your highness." The man says. A few moments later, the radio picks up him shouting orders to his own subordinates.

"Three rounds, airburst-frag! Fire when ready!"

The guns gave their reply a few seconds later, and Cornelia saw the shells streaking overhead towards the mountain top, where they detonated just a few meters above the ground, blasting the ground below with shrapnel and killing any exposed gun crews below. More shells were fired a few seconds later, followed by a third volley.

"Contacts ahead! Glasgows!" One of her Knightmare pilots calls out.

"Not Glasgows. They are... What are they called, anyway?" Another one of her men asks.

"Burai." Cornelia corrects him. The Elevens' choice of name for their Knightmare was hilarious to her. If she recalled correctly, it meant something along the lines of 'self-reliant', which was quite rich coming from something that was essentially just a Glasgow clone. Her men had captured a few soon after her arrival in Japan, and the subsequent analysis by her engineers had confirmed that the only concerning thing about the design was the fact that its components all had Japanese serial numbers.

Of course, with a good pilot a Glasgow was still formidable. The unknown Red Ace of the Black Knights had proven as much in Shinjuku, where they had taken out multiple Sutherlands in direct confrontations despite being in a damaged state, and had since been confirmed to have added several Knightpolice to their kill tally as well. Would any of the JLF pilots that just came into sight have such skill, though?

"Lady Cornelia, please stay back. Allow me-" Guilford begins.

"Oh please, Guilford. You think I've ever been one to stay back?" Cornelia replies, before throttling up, her Landspinners throwing up dust as she accelerates towards the enemy squadron.

The JLF Knightmares turn to face her, seemingly not having noticed her own unit, but by the time they open fire it is already too late. Their hasty shots go wild as Cornelia fires off her slash harkens. Two Burai go down in an instant, the powerful harpoons punching clean through their armor and through their cockpits. Reeling the destroyed Knightmares in, she puts them between her and her opponent, whose bullets slam into his destroyed comrades as Cornelia closes. Slamming on both pedals, she leaps into the air, and slams her lance through the last Burai as she comes back down, spearing it and splitting it in half from head to hip before casting the wrecked Knightmare aside with a casual flick of her Gloucester's lance.

A muzzle flash catches her attention, and she turns to see a JLF field gun on a rail carriage just ahead, perched atop a cliff face and firing down at one of her neighboring Knightmare squads. A slash harken puts an end to that.

As the rest of her unit catches up to her, she switches to an open channel.

"Well?! You wanted to challenge Britannia, did you not? Well I, Cornelia li Britannia, have answered! Do any among you have the courage to face me?" She declares.

To most observers, it might have seemed like self-endangering bravado. A pointless gesture that did little but reveal Cornelia's location and make it easier for her opponent to kill her. However, this too was calculated. From her tactical map, Cornelia could see the known enemy contacts, and she saw that there weren't enough of them. The JLF was likely keeping a sizeable force of Burai in reserve in order to keep up the fight after her forces had breached their tunnels, and in tight underground passages they could prove far more dangerous.

However, in her time in the Middle East, she had on many occasions been able to use such a simple trick bait out defenders, foolishly brave and desperate alike. The prospect of potentially killing her and decapitating the snake would often override common sense, and she was hoping that perhaps the JLF could be similarly baited out of their holes.

The answer, however, is another barrage of artillery.

"I thought we'd silenced those guns." Cornelia frowns as she moves uphill, taking cover in the shadow of one of the cliffs as the shells come down.

"Major Graves!"

"Yes, your Highness! I'm on it! Must have brought out new crews!"

More artillery shells soon streak over head, and once more the guns above fall silent, allowing Cornelia to resume her advance.

A shame. Still, the JLF only prolonged the inevitable. The noose was tightening, and soon the end would come.

---

"Sir, the enemy's center has broken through. The Fourth Armored has been wiped out, and what's left of the Third has retreated successfully. The Seventh Knightmares have encountered Cornelia but have taken heavy casualties and are falling back. The Eighth have taken heavy losses but are still holding." Katase nods as his Lieutenant rattles off updates, staring at the map as marker after marker winks out. Unfortunate losses. He had hoped that they would have been able to withdraw, but the Britannians were faster than expected.

The bunker shook slightly as Britannian guns pounded the Second Artillery Battalion. Fortunately the guns and their crews were safe, being mounted on specially designed retracting mounts, linked to alien sensors. Should incoming artillery be detected, the casemates would automatically drop into an armored tube, sealed by a thick roof affixed above the guns, and then once the counter-battery stopped the guns would be raised once more. It was a type of fortification that had been proposed repeatedly over the years, but until the aliens had provided their lightweight alloys and powerful sensors the design had been deemed too unreliable, with a high risk of jamming in the up or down position, with older computers and sensors being too slow to react.

"Sir! The enemy center has crossed the red line!"

At that, Katase nods.

"Activate the Emissary's jammer. Once it is active, I want the First Artillery Battalion to open fire at pre-aimed points with Type-3 Special Ammunition! Once it has hit, order all hidden units to attack and let our reserves retreat. They have done well." He orders.

"Yes sir! Activating jammer!"

A moment later, everyone in the base felt their hair stand on end, a sensation not unlike an electrically charged balloon coming over them as the powerful alien jammer begins to radiate, blinding radars, silencing radios, rendering every electronic system within a fifteen kilometer radius of Narita blind, deaf and mute.

"First Artillery Battalion reporting! Type-3 Special Shells are loaded and casemates are extended!"

"Fire!"

The bunker rumbled again, this time with the force of six large thirty-centimeter artillery pieces firing specially built, rocket-assisted shells in unison. For a few seconds there was silence... And then a ripple of CONTACT LOST indicators appeared all over the tactical map.

"Good effect on target! We've hit them hard!"

"Excellent. Order our men to charge forth from their shelters! Let the divine wind sweep this mountain clean of Britannians before the day is done!"

---

"General Alexander here, reporting breakthrough! Repeat, we have broken through their center! The Elevens are running scared in their tanks!"

"Darlton here. I'm coming under some light artillery fire. I think I might be close to the target."

"Foolish! Add another to my tally. It seems sitting in a bunker and broadcasting propaganda for seven years has made the JLF soft." Cornelia declares.

Euphemia closes her eyes and sighs at her sister's words. Cornelia's enjoyment of battle was something she could not understand, and while she did her best to look past it, she still found it distasteful.

The G1 had moved away from the combat zone after deploying its cargo, and now Euphemia was left staring at the tactical map, watching the noose slowly tighten around the JLF's mountain fortress. Britannian units were displayed in blue, while enemy forces were shown in yellow, and as she watched, more and more yellow markers winked out. Such a waste of life... All these young men fighting and dying when they should have been living peaceful lives, raising families...

But this, she supposed, was Britannia's own fault. Her sister would agree, even if for different reasons. The JLF was a reaction to Britannia's mistreatment of the Japanese, and she knew in her heart that so long as that mistreatment continued there would be more JLFs rising up and causing problems. Worse still, it had been going on for so long that even if the mistreatment stopped, the resentment and thus the fighting would persist.

"The enemy seems to be in full retreat. The JLF has proven itself craven, and our victory is sure to come soon." One of the staff officers in the room narrates to her, as if she couldn't see the map. Still, Euphemia nods politely, acknowledging his words while her mind remains focused on trying to figure out the puzzle before her, considering how she could possibly break the cycle of resentment and violence so that the scene unfolding before her now would never happen again.

Her thoughts are interrupted as suddenly, without any warning, the tactical map vanishes, replaced by static.

"More ECM?" She asks.

"Yes, your Highness. Our ECCM should overcome it in a moment." The officer beside her says.

However, the picture was not restored.

"I'm getting nothing but static on the radio! All comms to Her Highness are down!"

"I'm unable to raise General Darlton either!"

"What's with our ECCM?!"

"ECCM is running at full power already! It's not having any effect!"

"Is there anyone we can raise?!"

Euphemia listens as slowly, the scene aboard the G1's command bridge begins to go from calm to confusion as the officers begin to realize what is going on.

"W-What's that?!" One of the men points, and Euphemia follows his gaze to see six streaks of light arcing up from the top of the mountain...

"Enemy artillery?!"

As Euphemia looks on, the six streaks of light suddenly burst in midair, becoming nothing more than puffs of white smoke. Though Euphemia was too far away to see it, each shell contained nearly six hundred tiny submunitions, each one housing an Elerium-based explosive that, on a direct hit, could destroy even a Knightmare.

"What-"

A moment later, the entire mountain is blanketed by thousands of bursts of green fire, though this quickly vanishes, replaced by orange flames as smoke begins to rise from the ignited forest.

"What just happened?!"

"Cluster munitions of some sort?!"

"The Elevens weren't supposed to have weapons like that!"

"Can anyone raise Her Highness?!"

"Negative! Our radios might as well be bricks!"

"The only people I seem to be able to raise are the bloody Purists nearby, and even then the signal quality is bad!"

As confusion turns to panic around her, Euphemia stares wide-eyed at the burning mountain ahead. Part of that bombardment had come down right on top of her sister, and for all she knew Cornelia was dead, gone in an instant, along with who knows how many of her men...

Her breathing quickens as she begins to panic as well, the image of Cornelia vanishing in a burst of fire seared into her mind, gone forever, taken away from her by Japan just like Lelouch, like Nunnally, like Clovis...

In her mind's eye, her sister's expression turns disapproving, and Euphemia knows why. Her sister would not have allowed herself to break down now, not when the situation was as it was. Slowly, Euphemia begins to calm her breathing, closing her eyes and looking around, seeing the officers around her running around like headless chickens... Someone had to restore order, but could she...

No. Her sister would not have let doubts like this overwhelm her. She would be an island of calm amidst the chaos, inspiring her men even if she had no solution yet. Euphie took a deep breath and knew that now, she had to do the same. She wasn't just some girl. She was Euphemia li Britannia. If she couldn't lead now, then when?

"E-Everyone, quiet!" She shouts, her voice carrying above the mayhem within the command center. The men around her reflexively turned, hearing the orders of royalty and obeying almost by instinct.

"I know that I am technically only in charge of the medical unit, but with Cornelia out of the picture I am assuming command until contact can be reestablished." She orders.

"Yes, your Highness!" She nods before turning to the map. Now that she was looking closer, she saw that while the bulk of the battlefield was indeed covered by static, there were a few units out near the periphery that were still visible, flickering from place to place but with positions roughly known. There was a large cluster of blue ahead of them, and another solitary yellow marking just behind them.

"Which units are those on the map?" She points to the blue and yellow points.

"The ones ahead of us are the Purists, your Highness. Your sister ordered them to stay back and act as an emergency reserve. Shall we commit them to battle?" One of the officers asks.

"No... We'd... We'd be sending them in blind. We need more information first." Euphemia replies, then points at the yellow unit.

"What about that one?"

"That would be an auxiliary unit, your Highness. Its pilot is an... Eleven. Normally such a thing would be prohibited, but-" Euphemia raises a hand.

"Is it combat ready?" She asks.

"Well... Y-Yes, it is the prototype Knightmare frame, the Lancelot..."

"Order them to prepare to sortie." She replies.

"But-"

"Do it! If you can't raise them on the radio, then run out to them yourself if you have to!"

The man nods and obeys.

"Now, we cannot raise the main force by radio from here, but we may still be able to get a message out to them through other means. Do we have any fast vehicles available?" Euphemia asks.

"Y-Yes, we have several ATVs stored in the G1, but-"

"How many?"

"Twelve, your highness. What do you wish to do with them?"

"If we cannot send a message by radio, we will have to carry it to them by hand. I-I will need volunteers." Euphemia says, her stomach turning at the thought of sending people into that fire in nothing but an exposed buggy, but she had no choice. Thus, she stepped up to the G1's PA system, flicked the switch to enable the external broadcast system, and began to speak.

"To all nearby forces, this... This is Euphemia li Britannia. All attempts to contact Cornelia's forces by radio have failed. I need... Nine volunteers to act as couriers. All those willing to undertake this crucial mission, please present yourself at the G1's bridge." She pauses, and takes a deep breath.

"... If not enough people do so, I will join you on this mission myself."

"Y-Your Highness!" One of the officers protests.

"Y-You're too important! We can't lose you too!" Another exclaims.

"I-I'll do it!" One of the security staff for the G1 declares, stepping forward and raising his hand.

"... Thank you." Euphemia nods to the man, ignoring the protests from the others as she begins to write a quick message to Cornelia and the other generals.

Soon, more men trickle into the G1's command room, twenty four in all, more than twice as many as she had originally asked for. Now came the hard part.

"Thank you all for volunteering. I... Contact has been lost at the front, and thus the only option I see is to deliver messages by hand. We have twelve ATVs, which will be split up into four teams of three. One will be dispatched to each unit to try and find their command staff. Once you have found them, deliver this message from me. Then, one of you will be tasked with making runs back and forth to the G1 with updates, while the other two will remain at the front and act as couriers for the commanding officer. The last group will act as a backup."

One of the men raises his hand.

"Your highness?"

"Yes, ah... Sergeant Rogers?" Euphemia reads off his name.

"I work in communications, and ah... We've got a few big spools of superconductive cable in the back for situations like this. If we can run those out to the front, it would make sending messages much easier and faster than just carrying messages by hand." The man points out nervously.

"I... Thank you, Sergeant." Euphemia nods at the explanation, thankful that someone with expertise had been willing to speak up and probably save lives.

"We will do that then." She orders.

"Load up the cables and run them out to the units at the front as quickly as possible. Reestablishment of communications with the front is our top priority. Are there any further questions or suggestions?" Euphemia asks.

"What about the rest of us?" One of the men asks.

"We'll need two per ATV to manage the cable spools." Rogers replies, before realizing he spoke out of turn.

"A-Ah, sorry, your highness." He bows.

"Thank you. As Sergeant Rogers said, you will be working in pairs for this. Are there any further questions?"

Nothing but nervous looks came in response.

"... Then move out. Good luck to all of you. I will make sure your heroism does not go unrecognized." Euphemia nods.

"Yes, your highness!" The men salute, and hurry out of the room.

Euphemia closes her eyes, committing their names to memory, trying her best not to wonder just how many of them would be coming back alive as she thinks of her next action. At the very least her men didn't refuse her orders, though she wasn't sure if that meant that her orders were sound, or just that her royal status made them too nervous to speak up.

Suddenly, a memory from the previous day's briefing came to mind, and she turns to the communications officer.

"Can we raise the Tokyo Settlement Air Force Base?" She asks.

"N-Negative, any transmission we send out would be jammed beyond recognition, and any response from them would likely suffer the same." The officer replies.

Euphemia shakes her head.

"Send one anyway. I want you to broadcast the situation to the air force in Tokyo on repeat and request air support. Even if nothing gets through, the fact that there is something being sent to them at all would hopefully be enough." She replies, hoping that it was true and not just wishful thinking.

"Yes, your highness." The officer does not question her, instead turning to obey her orders.

Now all that remained for her was to wait and hope that her decisions were the right ones.

---

"Sir! Sir! We're picking something up!"

Colonel John Bradford turns as he sees a junior officer enter his office.

"Go ahead." He nods.

"We're picking up a transmission from Narita, sir."

"Well? What's it say?" Bradford demands, standing up from his desk, wondering if Cornelia had, in fact, decided to call for air support.

"We... We don't know. It's all static. Someone's definitely saying something, but it's so garbled that... Well..."

"But they are trying to reach us specifically, correct?" Bradford presses.

"I... I think so, but..."

Bradford thinks for a few moments.

"Why isn't the signal intelligible?" He asks, having a hunch but needing confirmation.

"It seems like there is heavy jamming in the area. Even out here, our radios are getting a lot more interference than normal, sir." The officer replies.

"Then the course of action seems obvious to me. Do we have any fighters with ARMs ready?" Bradford asks.

"Ah... N-None, sir. We weren't expecting any sort of ECM that the G1's countermeasures couldn't deal with." The officer replies.

"Right... In that case, I want our Jaguars to scramble immediately and make for Narita ASAP. They'll provide close air support for our forces on the ground. Meanwhile, I want the 88th Squadron's 1st Flight to rearm itself with Mark-78 ARMs. How long will that take?"

"Ah... Fifteen minutes if we work fast, sir." The officer replies.

"You have ten. Get to it. As soon as they're ready, I want every bird we have in the air and heading to Narita. Knock out whatever is causing the jamming and then provide CAS as needed." Bradford replies.

"But sir, we're under orders not to participate without explicit orders from the Viceroy!"

"This transmission is explicit enough for me." Bradford replies.

"At the end of the day, either we'll all be heroes, or I'll be court martialed. That's a risk I'm willing to take. Now get a move on! We don't have time to debate semantics."

"... Yes sir!" The officer salutes, and moves to carry out his task.

Soon, the roar of VTOL engines can be heard outside as twenty four Jaguar attack VTOLs lift off from the tarmac, turning and heading out across Tokyo Bay towards Narita.

---

A long line of trucks and armored vehicles makes its way down the road to Narita. Fortunately the Britannians had the foresight to close roads ahead of time, and so civilian traffic was nonexistent.

In the center of the column are two particular trucks that, unlike all others, are not part of the Black Knights, belonging instead to Toudoh and the Four Holy Swords. Together they carry five Burai-Kai, the very first such units to have ever been built, a sign of Kyoto's favor.

"Toudoh-san?"

"What is it, Chiba?"

Toudoh does not take his eyes off the road as his subordinate asks her question.

"Are you sure we're doing the right thing? I... I understand what Zero is saying, that we stand a better chance of victory if we can get the Britannians to fight for us, but would it not be better for us to take what the Britannians have and use it ourselves instead? Allying with Cornelia of all people... It doesn't sit right with me."

Toudoh is quiet for a few moments, thinking of how to answer.

"... You can ask me for anything you like, except time." He finally says.

"Hm?"

"Napoleon Bonaparte, the man who humiliated Britannia two hundred years ago, said so, and today it rings as true as ever. Time is the most precious resource one can have when planning and executing a military operation, and right now time is precious. There are three options, as I see it. The first would be to let the JLF and Britannia annihilate each other, and then have the Black Knights recruit a new army all on their own. It would be all Japanese, but such things require time. During that time, Japan would be vulnerable not just to the aliens, but to Britannia and the Chinese Federation, and the Black Knights would lack the short term strength to win such a battle."

"The second is that we let the JLF and Britannia annihilate each other, and then involve a foreign power. However, the only valid option is the Chinese Federation, who would arguably prove even worse than Britannia as occupiers while also offering less military strength."

"The third is that we keep the Britannians alive, and they then help us in the fight. This is the only option that offers us the short-term strength we need in order to build up our own army to an acceptable level, and then, in the long term, be able to triumph against both aliens and Britannia alike. With this in mind... No, an alliance of convenience with Cornelia does not sit well with me either, but it is the best option we have to guarantee our victory in the long term." Toudoh finishes.

"I see..." Chiba replies.

"... Then why did you let me accuse Zero the way I did?" She asks after a few moments.

"I was curious as to Zero's response. I needed to know his stance on the matter. He is an enigma, after all, and likely not Japanese. I needed to know if Japan's sovereignty meant anything to him, or if all this was just part of a much larger game to him."

"What makes you think he is not Japanese?" Chiba blinks.

"A few things. His choice of clothing, for one. Very western, not a single piece of traditionally Japanese attire to be found. His choice of name for his organization, the Black Knights, is another. Such a name evokes old legends from Europe and Britannia, and has nothing to do with Japan whatsoever."

"So he would be from the EU, then?" Chiba asks.

"Hmm... No. I believe that Zero is probably Britannian." Toudoh replies.

"What!?"

"Do not be so quick to judge based on nationality, Chiba. There are many reasons for a Britannian to turn against his people." Senba cautions from the back seat.

"Quite right." Toudoh says.

"What... What makes you think that Zero is Britannian?" Chiba asks.

"His accent. Not in Japanese, he speaks our language quite well, but when he spoke to Cornelia he spoke in Britannian, and there was no accent there. The modulator he wears disguises a lot, but it would not hide, say, a French or a Japanese accent."

"I... See." Chiba frowns, looking thoughtful.

"In any case though, he has proven himself beyond a doubt to be against Britannia. After killing Clovis, nothing awaits him on that side of the world but a painful, public death. We can trust that much, at least." Toudoh concludes.

Suddenly, the music playing on the truck's radio cuts out, replaced by static.

"What the? Ugh, did it break again?" Senba groans.

"No. Too sudden... Are we being jammed?" Toudoh picks up his radio and attempts to contact Asahina in the truck behind him. Nothing but static came in response. Toudoh tried again, on a different frequency. Still nothing. Then, swapping to a JLF military frequency, he spoke again and had better luck.

"Toudoh-san? You're getting static on the comms too?" Asahina asked.

"Yes. It seems Katase has deployed something to stifle communications in the area. JLF military frequencies appear to be clear though." Toudoh says.

"Heh, good thing all our radios are able to tune into those, eh?" Senba smiles.

"Indeed." Toudoh replies, before hailing Zero.

"Zero, come in. This is Toudoh."

"Toudoh-san? You found a way through the jamming?" Zero replies a moment later.

"Yes. JLF frequencies are clear." Toudoh says, before quickly listing them.

"What's that up ahead?!" Chiba exclaims, pointing at a giant column of smoke suddenly rising in the distance.

"... It seems that the JLF's trap has been sprung." Toudoh replies.

Zero seems to have noticed as well, as a few moments later the Black Knights' leader addresses his men.

"Attention all units! We are entering the combat zone now. Set your radios to the following frequencies, but use them sparingly. For all non-essential communications, use laser-comms only." Zero orders, before giving out a list of frequencies.

"Now, deploy for battle! Our objective is to allow the Britannians to successfully escape the JLF's trap. Follow me, and victory will be ours!" He declares.

"Yes, Zero-sama!"

"Minami! Inoue! Your units will be carrying the excavator probes on the way up! Do not lose them under any circumstances!"

"Roger!"

Doors all over the convoy begin to open, and one by one Knightmares roll out of their backs. Toudoh nods to his men, who quickly pull off to the side and stop their trucks before heading back and boarding their Burai-Kai. Doors on the tops of their trucks opened up, allowing them an easy egress.

"Seven years ago, I'd never have thought we were going to fight in a battle like this." Senba quips as the Four Holy Swords deploy for battle, joining the column of Black Knights.

"Indeed... But strange times make for strange bedfellows." Toudoh replies as he takes the lead.

Up ahead, he sees another force of Burai-Kai, these ones equipped with Naginata. At their head was a wholly different Knightmare, bright red and possessing a giant silver claw.

"Zero!" He hails the Black Knights' leader once again.

"What is it?" Zero replies.

"My Knightmare is still equipped with the right codes to connect to the JLF's Tactical Battle Network." He reports, quickly entering a password in his cockpit and then connecting his Knightmare to Zero's.

During his time within the JLF, he had been granted high level access to their combat networks, and it seems that access had not been revoked. Now, he was using his authority to grant the same access to Zero's Knightmare, allowing the Black Knights' leader to see everything the JLF saw.

This was the true point of no return, he supposed. By doing so, he truly was committing treason against the JLF.

"I've just granted you access to it as well. Are you in?"

"... Yes, I see it. Thank you, Toudoh-san. I take it this will only work once?"

"I foresee my access being revoked after all this is done. Perhaps even before. Expect it to vanish as soon as they realize what is going on." Toudoh answers.

"Still, it is a great advantage. Thank you, Toudoh-san." Zero answers.

"Remember our promise though." Toudoh points out.

"I will. I swear that we will not fire outside of self defense until you have a chance to speak." Zero replies.

"Thank you. Toudoh out."

As the Black Knights' force accelerated away, quickly leaving their transport trucks behind, Toudoh could only pray that effort to save at least part of the JLF would not be in vain.

---

Looking at the tactical map, Lelouch could see that the situation was bad. The Britannian center was collapsing before his eyes, more and more units winking out with each passing minute as JLF forces closed in from three sides. The lucky ones were far enough back that they were able to see what was coming and run away. The rest were caught inside a pocket, surrounded, and in a matter of minutes, completely annihilated. With that done, the JLF's main force continued the drive downhill, seeking to chase down and destroy any survivors.

The two units on the flank fared slightly better, facing less JLF forces, but they were clearly pinned in place, unable to move away and disengage as artillery came down around them. Fortunately, it seemed that Cornelia was not among the dead. The JLF had marked her unit as a VIP, and Lelouch suspected that them keeping her alive was deliberate. After all, if the aliens could get their hands on a member of the Britannian Royal Family...

However, before he could come to her rescue, he had another matter to attend to.

Up ahead, through a break in the trees, he saw the giant shape of the Britannian G1 Command Vehicle, dwarfing the small force of Knightmares guarding it. They seemed completely unaware that such a large force was even now approaching the G1, likely completely blinded by JLF jamming.

"Halt. Whatever you do, do not fire." Lelouch orders, the Black Knights rolling to a stop at the edge of the forest. He could see the men around him taking aim, just in case the Britannians proved hostile, but thankfully nobody took the shot.

Instead, Lelouch activated his Burai-Kai's laser comm array, targeting the G1. Laser communications were a relatively recent innovation, providing a means of communication between units on the battlefield that could not be intercepted or jammed, at least not with conventional methods. However, it was far from perfect. Compared to conventional, omnidirectional radio, laser comms were strictly point to point, and required a clear line of sight between the two individuals communicating. A tree, rock, or even dense smoke in between the two units would block the transmission entirely.

Fortunately, none of those were present as he established a link to the G1. It was time to convince the Britannians to play along.

A few seconds passed, and then one of his display screens changed... And he just barely managed to hold back a shocked gasp when he saw Euphemia's face on the other side.

What the hell was she doing here? Had something happened to Cornelia over the past few days? The older sister he knew would never have allowed Euphemia to come anywhere near an active war zone like this!

"Zero." Euphemia's greeting was curt, and the pink-haired princess looked furious. It was an uncharacteristic expression to see on her face, and it did not suit her one bit.

"Was all of this your doing? Have you come to gloat about how this whole battle was a trap, and how you and the JLF conspired to lure my sister into it? Have you now come to do to me what you did to my brother Clovis?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at him through the screen.

"Hardly." He replies.

"Today, the two of us have a common enemy in the JLF, and a common goal in ensuring that your sister and as much of her army as possible survive the day." He sees her eyes widen in shock, and presses his advantage.

"Yes, your sister is alive. I have hacked into the JLF command network, and she has not been listed as killed there. I can ensure her safety, but only if you are willing to cooperate with me." He declares.

Euphemia is silent as she processes that information.

"... Why are you doing this?" She finally asks.

"You fight against Britannia and its oppression of the Japanese. You and the JLF are, or at least should be, on the same side. Why have you decided to instead aid my sister and turn against the JLF?"

"The JLF have sold themselves to another outside power, one that stands opposed to both of our interests. We have little time to explain, but suffice to say that this battle's outcome will be crucial if any of us wish to live out the year." Lelouch declares.

Once again Euphemia is quiet, considering his words, and Lelouch once more presses ahead.

"... As a gesture of goodwill, I am sending you your sister's current location so you know that I am entirely serious." He says, quickly recording the coordinates and sending them over.

Finally, Euphemia relents.

"What is it you want us to do?" She asks.

"Place any forces you may still have in reserve under my command. There is a way to salvage the situation, but I will need as much firepower as I can to guarantee that your sister and as many of her men as possible make it out of this alive." Lelouch replies.

Predictably, he hears the outraged shouts of the officers behind Euphie as they hear this information.

Fortunately, Euphemia seems to pay them no mind as she nods.

"... Very well. I will hold you to your word though, Zero." She says.

"I am already staking my life on it." Lelouch replies.

Euphemia is quiet again.

"... You are desperate, aren't you? When we last spoke in Lake Kawaguchi, you were calm and entirely in control, even as you stood beside the JLF leader's body and his men were staring right at you." She states.

"I meant what I said earlier. Now, will you grant me command of your men or not?" Lelouch demands.

"I will. Patch him through to the Purists and order the Special Unit to launch. Tell them that Zero will be in command on the spot, so long as he remains true to his word and does not carry out any hostile actions against our own." Euphemia orders.

"I... Y-Yes, your Highness."

The Purists.

Of course it had to be the fucking Purists, Lelouch sighs. Out of all the possible units that could be in reserve, it had to be the one that was most fanatically anti-Japanese. For a moment he was tempted to change his mind and reject their aid, but pragmaticism won over. He needed firepower, and the Purists, for all their beliefs, had a lot of it.

A moment later a window popped up on his display, belonging to Unlicensed TUControl, indicating that several new units were being subordinated to his command... He stifled a laugh at that. It seemed that the Kyoto Group had anticipated the Burai-Kai working alongside captured Sutherlands, and had included a pirated version of Britannian command software as well. Visible on it is an entire battalion of Britannian Knightmares, thirty-six Sutherlands in all.

"All units, come in. Do you read me? Adjust your radios and sensors to the following frequencies and form up on my lead." Lelouch orders.

For a few moments there is static, and then a familiar voice comes on the radio.

"Were it not for her Highness' orders, I would shoot you where you stand, Zero!"

"Good day to you as well, Margrave Gottwald. Rest assured that were it not for the extraordinary situation we've found ourselves in, you all would have been dead already." Lelouch replies.

"Hello? Hello~? Is this working right?" Another voice chimes in as a lavender-haired man with glasses and an eager grin joined the conversation.

"What the hell are you doing? Who gave you this frequency?" Gottwald demands.

"Earl Lloyd Asplund... I take it you are the one in charge of the Special Unit that Euphemia mentioned?" Lelouch asks.

"How dare you speak Her Highness' name, terrorist!" Gottwald shouts.

"In the flesh! And to answer your question, Margrave, I simply wish to thank the Man of Miracles himself for his work in doing the impossible and allowing the Lancelot to finally sortie~!" Lloyd replies.

The Lancelot... That must be that one white Knightmare from Shinjuku. As the scientist spoke, Lelouch saw a trailer behind the G1 open up, revealing the Knightmare in question.

"Treat my precious Lancelot well, do you hear me? Let it get lots of exercise and bring back plenty of useful combat data!"

"Naturally. It would be nice to see how well it stacks up against the Guren." Lelouch smiles, knowing that with two seventh-generation Knightmares instead of one, his odds of success have increased considerably.

"Now, all units, listen up. Your callsigns will be as follows. I will be K1. Guren, you will be Q1. Lancelot, you will be Q2. You two will be taking the lead." He speaks, addressing his own units via laser-comms to keep names secret, while using radio to speak to the Britannians.

"Roger." Kallen replies.

"Roger. Moving to take the lead." The Lancelot's pilot replies. His voice is familiar... No, that was impossible. There was no way...

"Toudoh, you and the Four Holy Swords will be N1. Ohgi, your unit will be N2. Tamaki, yours will be N3. Sugiyama, yours is N4. You will move with me as part of our main force." He continues, updating unit callsigns on his tactical map before switching over to address his armored vehicles.

"Asuma, your unit will be R1. Kasumi, your unit will be R2. Your units will follow the Knightmares. Avoid direct engagements wherever possible and provide us with indirect fire support." He designates a pair of Britannian tanks, captured from Shinjuku as the former, and a trio of older Japanese Type-84 tanks, fresh from Kyoto, were marked on the map as the latter.

"Hara, your unit will be B1. You are to stay near the rear with the infantry until I give the order to deploy them." A quartet of APCs and the infantry within were designated as such.

"Minato, you will be B2. You are to stay near the rear and provide anti-air cover as best you can, just in case." A collection of modified trucks, most of which had fought alongside him two nights before, were marked.

"Next up..." Lelouch switches to his radio.

"... Purists, your squadrons are to be designated P1 through P6, in the same order as you number them. You will be taking our flanks."

"If you think that we will just let a terrorist like you command us-" Jeremiah begins.

"Jeremiah, need I remind you that both your Princesses' lives are at stake here? You have been given your orders. Carry them out." Lelouch orders as the Black Knights begin to move out.

"Like hell am I going to take you at your word! You-" Jeremiah is cut off as another Purist, a woman whom Lelouch recognized from Shinjuku, interrupted.

"Her Highness has given us an order. No matter how unusual, we will carry it out. Moreover, if Zero's intentions are treacherous, who better to stop him than us?" The woman declares.

"Those who want glory, follow me! The rest can stay behind." She finishes, beginning to move into position. That seemed to finally be what broke the Purists' reticence, and the red-marked Sutherlands finally began moving into position. Even Jeremiah complied, however reluctantly.

"Thank you. Finally..." He swapped back to laser-comms.

"... Minami, Inoue, your units will be P7 and P8. You are to stay in the center with the excavators and keep yourselves safe as best as you can. If we are to win, we will need to get to the top of the mountain with them. Understand?"

"Yes, Zero-sama!"

"Now, move out!"

At his command, a full two battalions' worth of Knightmares, spearheaded by two of the most advanced Knightmare frames in the world, began to move towards the burning mountain ahead.

---

The ground shook around Cornelia as another barrage of JLF artillery shells hit home. Entire tree trunks were sent flying by the blasts, or else shattered into splinters, the spectacle illuminated by bright green flashes. Cornelia gritted her teeth as another shell slammed in a bit too close for comfort, forcing her to brace herself against the cliffside to avoid being blown over by the shockwave.

Her Gloucester, once a proud, royal purple, was now charred and blackened. Its white cape had been burnt off during the initial cluster bomb bombardment, while soot and smoke from the fires burning all around them had covered her entire unit. Fortunately they had managed to find cover in the shadow of a cliff face, though JLF artillery was doing its best to reduce this bulwark into nothing more than a pile of rubble and molten slag. Time was running out, and there seemed to be no way out of this debacle.

She should have seen it coming. In hindsight it was obvious that the JLF were holding back, not putting up anywhere near as ferocious a defense as she'd expected, allowing her units to close, sacrificing a few of their own to help reel them in closer and closer before the trap sprang shut.

"Here they come again!" Her external microphones pick up the shout of one of her guards. This close to the JLF jammer radios were completely useless, even at such close ranges, and smoke from the fires burning around them made even laser-comms unreliable. At this point, the only options they had were to shout over their Knightmares' loudspeakers and hope they were heard over the din of battle.

Looking over, she saw the guard in question duck into cover moments before a torrent of gunfire tore through the space his Knightmare occupied mere moments before, the roar of a rotary cannon audible in the background. Those were no tracer rounds, though. Each round was a hypersonic dart, moving so fast that the air around them was ionized, forming a plasma shockwave, hot enough to kill a man on foot even with a near miss, or able to punch clean through the torso of one Knightmare frame, then kill a second one behind it faster than one could blink.

Where the JLF had gotten such technology, Cornelia did not know. Certainly not from Britannia! Even Schneizel's toy hadn't gotten a weapon quite like this-

"Above us!"

Reflexively, Cornelia spun her Knightmare around and brought her lance up, feeling something heavy slam into it. With a powerful swing, she slammed whatever it was into the ground, revealing it to be a JLF Burai, its leg torn off by her strike. Before it could attempt to stand, Cornelia withdrew her lance and lunged forward again, impaling her enemy through the cockpit block and putting it down for good.

However, there was no time to celebrate as a second enemy came at her a second later, with three others engaging the rest of her force. This opponent was driving something that had clearly once been a Burai, but many of its limbs and joints had been expanded. More pressingly though, its hands had been replaced with two large drills which now struck out at her, seeking to tear her Gloucester apart.

"Shine! Shine! Shine-heHEHE!" The pilot cackled something in his native language as Cornelia dodged around his berserk strikes, sweeping her lance down at his legs in an attempt to break his balance. The Eleven pilot spun out of the way, just barely avoiding being tripped and knocked over.

Looking around, Cornelia sees the rest of her force similarly engaged. Guilford is fighting another similar unit, albeit with giant crab-like claws instead of drills. Further away, two Eleven Knightmares dueled against three of her own. The two were identical, with two large blades extending from their forearms that seemed to heat the air around them, perhaps due to high frequency vibration, while further back each wore a pair of bucklers made of an unusual purplish metal. As she watched, one of her guards reflexively extended his tonfas out to parry a strike, only to realize too late that this was a mistake. The JLF Knightmare's blades sliced through the dense tungsten bars as if they were nothing, and then its strike continued on to cleave the Sutherland's cockpit block in half.

The JLF unit in turn was felled a moment later, shot in the back by one of Cornelia's guards as its pilot likely gloated over his kill. She didn't have time to see what happened next though, as the drill-wielding Burai came at her again, and she was forced to dodge and weave her way around another flurry of blows. Her lance lashed out in return, only to be knocked aside by the berserk JLF pilot. Slowly but surely, Cornelia was pushed back.

"Agh! Dammit!" She heard Guilford cry out, and looked over to see the JLF Knightmare grab his lance and twist it out of her Knight's hands, sending it spinning away... Headed straight for her. Cornelia does not hesitate. Spinning out of the way of another strike from the drill-wielding Burai she reaches up, snatching the tumbling lance, holding it in a reverse grip as she completes the turn and drives it straight through the side of the drill-wielding Burai. Even before the JLF Knightmare has hit the ground though she lets go of the lance and continues her spin, gathering momentum as she completes a full turn and throws her own lance back at Guilford's assailant. It strikes the clawed Knightmare in the back of the cockpit block, and the modified Burai falls to the ground, dead.

Pulling Guilford's lance out of the downed drill-wielder, she looks around to see the JLF force dead, her men having finished the fourth attacker while her focus was elsewhere.

In the distance, she heard JLF artillery hitting something. Probably another isolated pocket of her own men. She hoped they were doing better than she was.

Unfortunately, it was not a victory to be savored. Only four of her own guard remained alive after that battle. One more push like that, and she'd be-

"More of them! Coming around the sides!" One of her surviving guards, the one whom she'd seen shoot the blade-wielding Burai in the back, shouts, peeking around the corner of the cliff face to where a shallower, more traversable pass is located.

"Toss a chaos mine when they're in range!" Cornelia orders.

"Yes, your highness... Chaos mine out!"

Cornelia hears the floating shrapnel charge go off, spraying the ground below it with ten thousand tiny pre-formed fragments over the course of several seconds, forming a lethal curtain that could shred any armor that tried to pass through.

"Got 'em! That's two down! Repea-"

The man never got a chance to finish as the cliff face beside him exploded, and Cornelia just barely glimpsed a projectile punching clean through his Gloucester, its passage marked by a trail of molten rock, metal and superheated air.

"They hit him through the cliff face!" Guilford shouts.

"What?! Some kind of sniper?!" Cornelia demands.

"I think so! Must have seen him when he peeked out and fired through the rock!" Guilford replies.

"All units, keep your heads down and don't peek around the corner. Guilford, take that side. If any JLF forces come around, toss a chaos mine. I-" Cornelia pauses as she hears an engine, before a trio of ATVs come careening into view. One of them is trailing a spool of cable behind it, while a second has a full spool mounted on its rear seat. The third is not carrying any cable, and its passenger is busy trying to put out a fire that us currently burning on its rear wheels.

"Your highness!" One of the drivers shouts as he skids to a halt.

"What is it?" Cornelia turns her Gloucester to face them.

"Your sister has sent us to run a cable to you from the G1! She is requesting a status update and further orders!"

Cornelia blinks, and despite the grim situation cannot help but smile. Euphie truly was the best sister she could have ever asked for.

"... There's a cable port in the foot of my Gloucester. Plug it in there." She responds after a few moments, and the man obeys.

Soon, a link is established, and Cornelia's finger is halfway to the call button when Euphemia's face appears on her screen.

"Cornelia!" Her sister visibly breathes a sigh of relief.

"Euphie..." Cornelia smiles back.

"Are you alright? What's the situation up there? All our sensors are blind, a-and all we see is fire and smoke! We-"

"We're safe for now, but we are pinned down. JLF snipers and artillery are keeping us from being able to move. I will need artillery support, by the way. Are you in contact with our batteries at the rear?"

"Y-Yes, Cornelia, but-"

"Good. Tell them to target the following position, just ahead of mine. We need to regroup after that cluster barrage, and we cannot do that with JLF Knightmares sniping us through solid rock." Cornelia orders.

"Ah... Y-Yes!" Cornelia feels her heart swell with pride as Euphemia passes the order along. Her sister was growing into a fine princess.

"... What about Darlton and Alexander? Have you been able to get into contact with any of them?" Cornelia asks.

"Y-Yes! Well, we got into contact with General Darlton a few minutes ago. He says he's managed to find shelter and that his forces are pinned down, but alive. I... We haven't been able to get into contact with General Alexander though." Euphemia replies.

"I see... Thank you, Euphie. You've done well. Very well..." Cornelia nods to her sister.

"T-There's something else!" Euphemia interjects.

"What is it?" Cornelia asks.

"Ah... First, ah... I've called for air support from the Tokyo Settlement. I'm not sure if my message got through, but hopefully they should be here soon. I know it was against your orders, but-"

"No. You made the right call. Who knows, perhaps with air support we might even be able to destroy that damn jammer." Cornelia replies.

"What else?" She asks.

"... I... Zero is here, Cornelia."

"... What?! Isn't he supposed to be halfway across the island? How- Never mind that. Are you safe? Where is he now?!" Cornelia demands.

"I am safe. Zero... He said that right now, we are all on the same side. He-"

"Same side?! What is he playing at now?" Cornelia demands.

"I don't know, but..." Euphemia trails off, nervously.

"... but...?" Cornelia asks, suddenly dreading the answer.

"... He sounded desperate, Cornelia. He said that the JLF have ah... sold themselves to another outside power, one that is a mutual enemy to all of us. He seemed convinced that if he did not come to save you here at Narita, that all of us would be dead before the end of the year." Euphemia replies.

"... Theatrics from a terrorist." Cornelia replies, though something about Euphemia's words resonates with her. The JLF could not have gotten all of this technology on their own. Someone had to have given it to them, but who? The EU? No, the EU would not have spooked Zero like that. The Chinese, then? No, that was impossible. The Chinese didn't have technology like this, and if they did they certainly wouldn't be wasting it on the JLF. But then who? Another Britannian? No, that was impossible. She would have noticed if that was the case, and the JLF would never accept aid from Britannians...

"... More importantly though, what did you do, Euphie?" Cornelia finally asks.

"I..."

"Go on."

"... I ordered the Purists and the ASEEC Special Unit to deploy under his command. They have since departed."

What the fuck?! Cornelia's eye twitches.

"... Where are they now?" Cornelia does her best to keep her tone level.

"I don't know. They are out of sensor range at this point, a-and..."

Cornelia breathes in deeply, in and out. In and out. In and out.

"I... Suppose that if he were planning any sort of treachery, those are the best units to stop him." She finally admits.

"But we will speak of this more once all of this is over." She finishes as she hears Britannian artillery shells flying overhead, striking the forest up ahead of her, where JLF snipers still lurked.

"For now though, there is little we can do but put our trust in Zero, and hope this isn't all some grand scheme to destroy all his rivals at once." Cornelia sighs.

"I... I'm sorry, Cornelia." Euphemia says softly.

"No. You... You probably thought I was dead, didn't you? The fact that you took action and held things together, even if I find some of your decisions questionable... I'm proud of you, Euphie." Cornelia smiles at her sister.

"If I don't make it through today... I can at least be happy that my dear little sister has finally grown up."

"D-Don't talk like that! You'll make it through this!" Euphemia shouts.

The ground shakes as JLF artillery begins landing closer once more.

"I will do my best, Euphie... But there is no guarantee." Cornelia replies as the ground shakes around her.

"No, Cornelia, I-" Suddenly, the signal cuts out, and Cornelia blinks. Looking down, she sees that the shaking had caused the cable to be dislodged.

"... Your Highness... With all due respect, you shouldn't talk like that." Guilford speaks up. Cornelia blinks. How did he...?

She glances down at her keyboard and sighs. She'd left her loudspeakers on.

"Guilford... The only ones who should step onto the battlefield are those willing to die there. I sincerely hope that I may yet speak with Euphie again once all this is done, but... I know that this day may end up being my last. Just promise me that if I die here and you do not, then you will protect Euphie like you've protected me."

"Y-Your highness-"

"Swear it to me, Guilford."

"I... I swear that should you perish here, I shall keep your sister safe." Guilford replies.

"Thank you. Now then... You there! Cable-man!"

"Yes, your highness?" The man on the ground asks.

"Plug the cable in again. I have artillery to direct."

"Yes, your highness!"

---

"Ugh, with all this soot in the air, we'll really be Black Knights by the time all this is over!" Tamaki jokes as the Black Knights move up through the forest. Though they are passing through a section of the forest that is yet unburnt, the fires are burning uncomfortably close to the west, where the Britannian left flank was fighting for its life. The smell was everywhere, the Burai-Kai's air filters not quite able to keep all of it out, and the whole battlefield was obscured by a thick haze that reduced the range of laser-comms and made it hard to see even with the naked eye beyond a hundred meters.

For the moment, Lelouch's plan seemed to be going well. The JLF's center had overextended, pushing their Britannian counterparts all the way down the hill into the town of Narita itself, which even now was burning behind them as JLF artillery and Knightmares pounded the Britannians making a desperate stand within its confines. Conversely, the JLF's flanks remained pinned in place, fighting against Cornelia's forces, and leaving a large gap in their lines that the Black Knights could penetrate through without resistance. If Lelouch wanted, he could turn wheel his force around and either strike the enemies pinning Cornelia in place on the left flank, or he could charge downhill and strike the JLF around the city in the rear, but both of those alternatives would mean saving only a single pocket before the battle turned into one of head to head attrition. That was a fight he knew he could not win, not on this battlefield.

No, Cornelia could hold on for a bit longer. Once his plan came together, he would not save a single pocket, but rather all of them, and hopefully inflict devastating damage on the JLF in the process.

The ground rumbles and shakes as Britannian artillery begin working once more. Clearly someone had managed to either restore contact or else get a clear visual picture of the situation from the G1, to be able to confidently fire into this mess and not worry about accidentally hitting their own princess.

They are roughly halfway up the hill when Lelouch's radio picks up a transmission coming from the JLF's command center.

"Toudoh? You are here?" Lelouch taps one of his displays, and a moment later the whiskered face of a JLF officer, a general judging by his rank tabs, appears onscreen.

"I have returned, Katase, and I bear grave tidings. I only ask that you listen-" Toudoh begins, but Katase interrupts him.

"Toudoh, my tactical map shows you surrounded by Britannian IFFs, as well as multiple unknowns. Explain yourself." The general demands, eyes narrowed.

Lelouch, meanwhile, notices another figure in the background. Clad from head to foot in a red robe, its black, hooded gaze seems to stare right into him through the screen. Was that the Emissary?

"General Katase, you are being lied to. The Emissary is not here to assist us in freeing Japan. I have spent the past few weeks gathering evidence that I am sending to you now. See for yourself what its kind are doing to our-" Toudoh begins a speech, likely one that he has been rehearsing for some time, but Katase once more cuts him off.

"You have been absent for the past few weeks, completely out of contact. Now, as the hour of our great victory against Britannian oppressors approaches, you return, but rather than take up your sword and point it at our enemy, you instead seem to be marching on MY base, with Britannians at your back! I am giving you one chance to explain yourself, Toudoh! Why have you committed treason?!"

It is at this point that Lelouch decides to join the conversation.

"General Katase. Toudoh is no traitor." He declares.

"Ah, the notorious Zero has finally appeared... Are you the mastermind behind Toudoh's actions? Or just another breed of lapdog? Just like him, you are cavorting with Britannian dogs, and not just any Britannians, but the Purists themselves. You have spent the past month talking of justice, and yet now it seems the truth has been revealed..." Katase smiles.

"I know who you are, Zero. You may have fooled your poor, deluded puppets, but not me. How convenient, that a masked revolutionary comes out of nowhere, somehow manages to infiltrate the throne room of a Britannian G1, kill Prince Clovis, and leave with impunity. It is almost as if you had help from the inside..." The general continues.

"That is completely irrelevant! Katase, you are being-"

"Silence, traitor." Katase interrupts Toudoh once more.

"I think it's time you learned who your masked puppetmaster really is." He declares.

"Oh? And just who do you think I am?" Lelouch replies, his voice full of bravado, while his heart turns to ice in his chest. Had the aliens somehow managed to take information from his mind? How? When?

"... You are nothing more than the lapdog for some Britannian prince. An assassin, sent in to do the dirty work of some ambitious royal master and eliminate rivals for the throne. You killed Clovis, created your own resistance group, and now are likely attempting to claim credit for killing Cornelia and Euphemia, removing obstacles and rivals from your master's path one by one, all the while claiming to be a knight of justice. In the end, you and your Black Knights are nothing more than pawns in a greater game. Dolls, dancing to the tune of some imperial puppetmaster!"

Lelouch blinks.

Then he begins to laugh as tension drains from his body. They didn't know. This was just psychological warfare, and amateurish at that.

"Hahaha! The only puppetmaster here is the one standing behind you, Katase. I wonder, were any of those words that just came out of your mouth original? Or were they all implanted within you by that monster in the corner? Your attempts at fostering suspicion and division within my ranks will amount to nothing, alien. We have seen what you plan to do to us. We shall not be turned away from our course. Not by the likes of you!"

"... This mountain will become a graveyard, Zero. Not just for you, but for all the traitors and lapdogs that have followed your siren's song!"

With that, the transmission ends.

"Katase... What has that thing done to you?" Toudoh wonders.

"Further talking with him is pointless. Not when his puppeteer is in the room. Now come on. We must- SCATTER! FIND A TREE AND TAKE COVER BEHIND IT! MOVE!" Lelouch's reply turns into a panicked shout as he hears rumbling in the distance, followed by several bright streaks of white arcing up from the mountaintop, then down, down towards him...

They burst in the air, and Lelouch slams his Burai against the nearest tree, taking cover as best he can and closing his eyes...

All around him he hears a deafening rumble, as though someone had fired off a burst of machine gun fire just inches from his ear. He feels the temperature inside his Burai rise by a few degrees as heat washes over the forest as hundreds of cluster munitions detonate all over the Black Knights' formation. One bomblet slams into the canopy of his tree and detonates, blowing its branches apart and igniting what remains, the burst of energy washing over his Burai, scorching its paint and throwing up heat warnings all over his interface. He hears screams, cut off by static and the sound of unit after unit winking out on his tactical map.

As the explosions cease, he opens his eyes and beholds a scene from hell. Just a few moments before, this forest, though full of smoke, had still been green. Now it was all on fire, the blaze spreading rapidly among the charred and blasted trees. A glance at his tactical map paints a grim picture as well. B2 was gone, the lightly armored trucks having been annihilated in an instant. P3 and P5 had been wiped out as well, the Purist Sutherlands having been caught in a clearing when the bomblets fell. N2, N3, N4, and several other Purist units had all taken losses as well.

"What was that?!" He hears Suzaku shout.

Wait, Suzaku? Where-

Lelouch is distracted by a notification from his tactical map, showing new JLF units appearing ahead.

"JLF Knightmares incoming! Looks like a whole battalion!" He shouts.

"Q1, Q2, N1, take the lead! B1, I want two of your APCs to detach and search for survivors! Evacuate anyone you find to the G1! The Britannians have a field hospital there! Everyone else, keep moving forward! We'll break through the JLF and ascend to the mountaintop!" He orders.

"Wait!" Toudoh shouts over the radio.

"Damn it, Toudoh! We don't have time to wait!" Lelouch shouts back.

"Let me try to talk to them, at least! The Emissary isn't here with them! It can't possibly control them all too!"

"Here they come!" He hears Kallen shout.

"Damn it all... Talk now, Toudoh! All units, hold fire until I give the order." Lelouch says, keeping an anxious eye on the battlefield... If these JLF could be reasoned with, then there might be hope for the rest, but if they kept attacking despite Toudoh's pleas, he would give the order to fire.

"What are you Elevens blathering on about?!" One of the Purists demands.

"Hold fire! Or you will answer to me!" Lelouch replies.

"Soldiers of the JLF! This is Kyoshiro Toudoh! I am begging you! Please, listen to me! The Emissary is lying to you all! Following them will not lead to a free Japan, but to the destruction of all that remains of it! Please, look at the evidence I am sending you now. Do not let the Emissary's false promises deceive you. It has already murdered Kusakabe and all of his men, and its kind butcher Japanese people like animals. You are being used. Please, if you care at all about a free and independent Japan, lay down your arms and-"

"Toudoh, get down!" Lelouch sees Chiba's Burai-kai slam into Toudoh's own, pushing him out of the way just before a burst of gunfire meant for her leader tears into her Knightmare instead. The woman barely manages to eject in time, her cockpit block going sailing off into the distance to land somewhere downhill amidst the inferno.

"Open fire!" Lelouch shouts as battle erupts all around them. He sees the Guren and Lancelot charge ahead, the three remaining Holy Swords moving right behind them. For a moment Toudoh's unit remains still, before he activates his rotating-blade sword and joins the battle as well.

"Those are just regular Burai!" Lelouch hears Ohgi shout.

Up ahead there is a flash of crimson light, and he sees the Guren burn an enemy Burai out with its radiant wave surger. Beside it the Lancelot cleaves two of the JLF Knightmares in half with its swords, the two advanced Knightmares working together to tear their way through the JLF horde. Any enemy that comes close to them is killed, the older units standing no chance.

"It's the Seventh and Eighth Reserve Knightmare Battalions... Katase, what have you done?! These were just cadets!" He hears Toudoh shout. Lelouch sees his Burai-Kai up ahead, recognizable by the orange glow of his weapon as he dodges out of the way of a Burai's slash harken, before bringing his sword down and severing the weapon's cable with a well-timed swing. Lelouch in turn raises his gun and opens fire, putting a burst of high-caliber rounds into the Burai's chest. One strikes an energy filler, and the Burai explodes, killing its pilot instantly.

These really were cadets... Barely trained, and using outdated equipment. Katase, or rather the Emissary, had to know that this was pointless. Even against the similarly inexperienced Black Knights, such a unit would have likely melted away...

Suspicion taking root in his mind, Lelouch glances down at his tactical map and grimaces.

"We need to break through, now! Two battalions of JLF Knightmares have broken off from engaging the Britannian center and are now headed our way! We need to move!" Lelouch shouts.

All according to plan, but the margins were far thinner than he would have liked...

"VTOLs! We've got VTOLs above! They're friendly!" He hears one of the Purists shout. Lelouch looks up, and sure enough a pair of Britannian Jaguar VTOLs were swooping in low, braving the smoke and unpredictable air currents to try and strike at the JLF. In the distance more were visible through the smoke, moving in to provide close air support to the Britannians on the flanks. For once, the might of Britannia's air force was directed at his enemies, and not hanging menacingly over his head.

"Ain't that a sight for sore eyes! The air support is here! We've got those bastards now-" One of the purists begins... and suddenly, a horrifying realization hits Lelouch.

"SCATTER!" He shouts moments before the VTOL opens fire straight into his own units, a barrage of rockets plastering the battlefield. He sees a JLF Burai go down, along with two of his own, along with one of the precious and irreplaceable Burai-Kai belonging to N4.

"Friendly fire! Friendly fire!"

"Fuck! I'm hit!"

"Sugiyama! Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine! Ejecting!"

"Hold your fire! HOLD YOUR FIRE! YOU'RE SHOOTING AT FRIENDLIES!"

Nothing but static comes in response. Their radios must still be set to jammed frequencies!

Before he can say anything more, a flare goes up from one of the Purist Knightmares, and the second VTOL notices the improvised signal. It breaks off moments before it could begin its own attack run, turning to instead circle the battlefield, trying to pick out targets through the smoke with its sensors blind and both sides using Burai.

Suddenly, a missile rises up from the hill ahead, and before the first VTOL can react it is hit, tumbling out of the sky and crashing nearby in a tremendous fireball. The second VTOL does not last much longer, as a JLF Burai takes aim and fires, its gunfire blasting the second VTOL out of the sky, moments before the Lancelot decapitates its killer.

"Keep moving! We're almost through!" Lelouch shouts.

"What about survivors?!" He hears the Lancelot's pilot shout in that maddeningly familiar voice.

"Kururugi, is that you?" He replies.

"I-I... Y-Yes-" That alone was confirmation enough. What was with people showing up in unexpected places today?! Was he going to find Shirley at the top of the hill in a JLF uniform next?

"I should have known. To answer your question, there aren't any survivors, and even if there were, we don't have time to search for them! JLF reinforcements are on our tail, and we need to break through and get to the mountaintop, now!" He responds instead.

With that, Lelouch holsters his gun and grabs his naginata, before stepping on the throttle and accelerating uphill. A Burai attempts to block his passage, but he drifts to the side just as it takes aim, its bullets missing by a narrow margin as he swings his weapon around in a circle, aiming at the back of the Burai's knees in a move that he'd once seen his mother perform during a combat trial of the Ganymede... Of course, she had done it with a jousting lance, tripping her opponent over before following up with a stab through the cockpit block. His naginata, on the other hand, saws clean through the Burai's legs, and before he can finish his opponent the pilot ejects.

"Keep moving! The way ahead is clear! Don't stop for anything!" Lelouch shouts as the Purists finish mopping up the last of the JLF units.

The plan could still continue... The battle was not lost yet.

---

As he advanced through the burning forest, JLF artillery coming down all around him, Jeremiah wondered if this was his punishment for his failures. He had failed to protect Lady Marianne. He had failed to save her children. He had failed to protect Clovis, nearly gotten Euphemia killed when he'd failed to keep his own men in line. His name and reputation had been dragged through the mud. Everything that he'd built up over his life was now gone.

The man responsible for a good chunk of his current problems was only a short distance away, only the rotating blade of his halberd visible through the smoke. Jeremiah gritted his teeth, reminding himself of his oaths. Princess Euphemia had given him an order, and no matter how strange he had to obey, even if he wanted nothing more than to shoot the masked bastard in the back and rid the world of a particularly prolific terrorist.

"P1, P2, heads up! It looks like the JLF has decided to take some of the heat off Cornelia and send it our way. Eight JLF Knightmares are headed towards you. P4, P6, it looks like a similar force is headed to you. Engage if you see them, but stay cautious. We do not know what they are capable of." The man in question ordered.

"Ha! What does Zero know? Those are just more Glasgow knockoffs. We took care of 'em just fine earlier." He hears Kewell laugh over the radio.

"Careful. Those were part of the unit that were holding her Highness up over to the west. They have to be better somehow." Viletta cautions.

"Please, if it wasn't for the jamming and artillery, we'd have overrun them all by no-"

CRACK!

A trail of molten metal and ionized air punches through several trees before Kewell's Sutherland even hits the ground, the unknown projectile seemingly completely unbothered by his Knightmare's armor.

"Kewell!"

"On our left!"

"Contacts! They're moving fast-AARGH!"

"We're engaged!"

"Hold on! Q2, move to assist our left flank! Q1, do the same for our right! Everyone else, keep moving!" Jeremiah hears Zero shout as he spots the enemy that had just killed Kewell. The JLF sniper's shot had left a hole in the smoke, the particles either pushed aside or vaporized by the force of the shot. Through that hole, Jeremiah can see a Burai, painted in drab JLF camouflage. This was no simple Glasgow knockoff, though. Its entire left shoulder had been replaced with a gigantic cannon, with a barrel long enough to require a supplementary landspinner system to keep it stable.

He can see it taking aim at him next, but he is quicker on the draw, bringing up his own rifle and firing off a burst, smiling as it tears into the JLF Knightmare and sends it tumbling to the ground.

"As if I need an Eleven to fight my battles!" He shouts, only to suddenly throw his Knightmare into reverse as another JLF Knightmare leaps down, two glowing blades extended from its forearms. He dodges the first set of strikes, attempting to return the favor with a stun tonfa only for his Sutherland's arm to be sliced off at the elbow.

Desperately backpedaling, he dodges another swipe of a blade, firing a burst of rifle-fire at the enemy, only for it to ricochet off a large, forearm-mounted shield.

"Jeremiah! Behind you!" At Viletta's shout Jeremiah looks behind him only to see a second such Knightmare charging towards him, blades raised to strike at his unprotected rear... Only for a slash harken to punch through it and turn its charge into an uncontrolled tumble.

"Lord Gottwald! Are you alright?!" He hears the voice of the Lancelot's Eleven pilot as the white war machine leaps into the fray, Maser Vibration Swords drawn, casually decapitating Jeremiah's second opponent.

"I... Help the others! The rest of the JLF force is over there!" Jeremiah points to where the rest of the surviving Purists are still fighting.

"Roger!" The Lancelot moves out towards Viletta's position, where tracers and explosions are still visible through the smoke. Jeremiah moves to follow, but sudden motion catches his eye...

He turns just in time to see the Knightmare that the Lancelot decapitated to stand back up, evidently having only been playing dead, and leap towards him.

"Shit!" He brings his gun up, opening fire, and sees his shots strike the enemy Knightmare, but its arm is already swinging... He swings his remaining arm around in a desperate attempt to block the strike, but the blade slices right through, biting into his Knightmare's side.

He feels a sudden kick of G-force as his emergency eject system activates, powerful rockets igniting and sending his cockpit block flying clear moments before one of his energy fillers goes critical and his Sutherland explodes.

"Jeremiah!" He hears Viletta shout.

"Ngghh... I-I..." Jeremiah chokes out against the crushing g-forces, before the rockets cut out and his parachutes deploy, the hammer blow of deceleration driving the breath out of him.

"I-I'm fine! Don't worry about me!" He shouts, the omnipresent smell of smoke reminding him of the fire that burns in the forest below...

"I... Alright. I'll see you at the G1!" Viletta replies.

"I'll hold you to that. Drinks are on me." Jeremiah said, trying to suppress the feeling of helpless terror with bravado as his escape pod dangles over a scorching inferno...

But it seemed fate did not want him to die today. The updrafts of hot air press up against his parachutes, carrying him clear over the fire, allowing him to land lower on the mountain, where the fire has not yet spread. As his pod touches down gently in a clearing, he checks his gear, draws his pistol, and pops open the hatch, making his way out. The fire may not have reached this spot yet, but it is spreading fast, and he has no intention of being here where it came.

The sound of jet engines causes him to look up, and through the rising columns of smoke, he can just about make out the forms of Spitfire strike fighters, their afterburners lit as they approach the battlefield.

---

Rock fall down onto Cornelia's Gloucester as a JLF shell lands nearby, throwing up gravel and sending it raining down onto her head. By now, the remnants of her personal guard had withdrawn from their previous hiding spot, which had been completely pulverized by JLF artillery to the point of providing no protection at all. From there, they had gone to a small cleft in the rock about two hundred meters further downhill, where they had met up with another force of Sutherlands that had taken shelter within.

Up above, she hears the sound of jets, and looks up just in time to see a pair of Spitfires fly overhead. Her smile grows as she recognizes the payloads slung under their wings, moments before it is fired off. First four, and then eight Mark-78 Anti-Radiation Missiles fly off the rails, trailing plumes of white smoke as they dive towards their target, somewhere on the opposite side of the ridgeline to her east. There, unbeknownst to her, an old mountain lodge previously belonging to Genbu Kururugi, which had until recently served as the command post for the JLF, was reduced to rubble, the alien jammer within being destroyed in an instant.

Immediately, the jamming vanishes, and Cornelia winces as her ears are bombarded by a flood of notifications as unit after unit winks out, designated LOST on her tactical display. Still, as she looks over, she sees that it is not as bad as it could be. On her own flank, a surprising amount of her troops are still alive, having found cover amidst the uneven terrain, sheltering in small pockets of three, four or five Knightmares each. Together, such a force could have likely broken through the JLF units that attacked them, even with their enhancements, but with communications cut and little visibility through the trees, fire and smoke, and with JLF artillery making movement a perilous endeavor, it had allowed the smaller JLF force to pick them apart one unit at a time. Nearly half of the Knightmares on her flank were gone, to say nothing of the casualties among the infantry and supporting armor, which were considerably worse.

"General Darlton, come in!" She switches on her radio, intent on getting situation reports from her generals.

"Your Highness! It is good to hear your voice! I feared the worst!" Darlton replies.

"It was difficult, but we made it through. What of you?"

"The cluster bombing hit us particularly hard. Not much cover on our side of the mountain. Still, I kept what remained of my force together. Still, we've taken around sixty percent losses. I do not recommend a frontal assault with our current strength." Darlton says.

"I see... Very well. Fall back to point 9. I will join you once I regroup my own forces the status of General Alexander. We will determine where to go from there." Cornelia replies.

"Yes, your highness!"

With that, Cornelia adjusts her radio, reaching out to her center.

"General Alexander, come in!" She demands.

There was no response.

"General Alexander, come in!" She repeats. This time she gets a response.

"T-This is Captain Devereaux, f-fifth Company! General Alexander is KIA! Repeat, General Alexander is KIA! The whole damn regiment is gone, your Highness! Everyone's dead!" The voice on the other side is panicked, and through the radio link Cornelia can hear artillery going off nearby.

A quick glance at her tactical map confirms the scale of the debacle. Her center has completely collapsed, having been driven all the way down the mountain and into the city of Narita. There, a few small pockets of resistance remain, being pounded by artillery as JLF Knightmare squads move through the streets, cutting them off and destroying them one by one. The Captain's words were true. General Alexander's entire force, the whole 11th Victoria Regiment, was practically wiped out. Already the JLF was pulling Knightmares back from the city, sending them uphill once more... Up towards where a loose collection of Purist IFFs and unknown contacts indicate her unlikely reinforcements.

"... Very well. You are permitted to withdraw back to the G1. Preserve your forces as best you can. I will have our incoming air support divert and help cover your retreat, and your units will have priority tasking from the fourth and fifth artillery batteries." Cornelia orders.

"I... T-Thank you, your highness..." The man replies.

"Part of the force attacking you in the town has already been diverted north to deal with other problems. We will provide support as best we can for the rest." Cornelia continues.

"I-I noticed... The drone swarm left." The man replies.

"Drone swarm?" Cornelia asks.

"Y-Yes, your highness. Drones! H-Hundreds of them! They swarmed all over us l-like hornets with l-laser cannons and just... T-They cut our men to shreds, a-and even the Knightmares weren't safe... T-There was just so fucking many of them, your highness... W-We couldn't kill them fast enough, they just... Just..."

"... I see. Thank you, Captain. That will be all. Withdraw as best you can. Good luck." Cornelia orders, before relaying new commands to her artillery and the incoming aircraft, her heart heavy in her chest. Never before had she taken such heavy casualties, and she had only herself to blame. The JLF had played to her assumptions perfectly, luring her into the same sort of trap she'd goaded prideful Europeans and enraged Arabians into time after time before.

Now it was time to see if she could salvage victory from this debacle. However... First she had another call to make.

Adjusting her radio again, she prepares to contact the Purists in order to patch her through to Zero, but before she can do so, the man in question contacts her first.

"Cornelia. It seems you still live." The man says, his masked face popping up on her display.

"And you aren't halfway across the island. It seems I need to clean house." Cornelia replies.

"If you do find my agents, give them a medal. Were it not for their quick notice, you and Euphemia would both be dead." Zero answers.

"Would that not be a good thing for you, Zero?" Cornelia replies. When people acted so contrary to expectations, it meant that there was something she did not know, and considering just how contrary this was to everything she'd known about Zero, that something must be quite big.

"There is more going on here than you know. The JLF did not get this technology on their own, and their masters want you dead and your army out of the way. It is in both our best interests to ensure that does not happen." Zero replies.

"Now go, regroup, and withdraw your forces. However, keep clear of this marked area." Cornelia's tactical map pings, indicating that an unregistered user was sending her a situation update. She opened it, ignored the error about the file being generated in an older version of the software, and saw a large triangular area appear on the mountainside.

"Don't presume you can order me around, Zero."

"I am not about to let you kill yourself and all your men after I have spent all this time trying to save you. Stay out of the danger zone, or I will have to explain to your sister why you were a moron who died completely pointlessly and took your army with you in a fit of pique."

Such arrogance. She looked forward to one day taking off that mask and making sure the smug bastard underneath it was permanently reminded of his place.

"What do you intend to do anyway?" She asks, fighting back the urge to drop an artillery strike on the impudent rebel.

"The same thing I did at Shinjuku." Zero replies.

That could mean any number of things. Still, Cornelia decides that it was best to swallow her pride and not take needless risks to prove a point.

"General Darlton!" She instead contacts the man in question.

"Yes, your Highness?"

"Change of plans. Move to point 12 to regroup, not point 9."

"Yes, your highness!"

With that done, she returns her attention to Zero.

"You have two battalions' worth of JLF Knightmares moving up towards your position from Narita, plus additional forces that were previously pinning my flanks in place. Along with them comes what has been described as an aerial drone swarm of some sort." Cornelia says.

"We shall see how your plan holds up to the test of the battlefield. The last time we fought, they were quite lacking. I suppose I will see now if Shinjuku was a fluke or not."

"... I assure you, Cornelia, everything is proceeding exactly according to my design. You will not be disappointed." Zero replies, before cutting the channel.

Cornelia is quiet for a few moments. The temptation to order one of the fighters to change course and drop a few thousand pounds of high explosive on their head is there, but she restrains herself. Zero is currently pulling a lot of enemies off the backs of her troops, a huge force of them charging on uphill after him... And massing together right in the middle of the danger zone that Zero had marked out.

She remembered the combat reports from Shinjuku. Zero had used Britannian IFFs to lure a significant amount of Clovis' forces into one spot, and then collapsed the ground beneath them... But this wasn't an urban area, with tunnels running below the pavement that could be easily collapsed...

Then she remembered that this was no ordinary mountain. Suddenly, everything made sense. Zero must be carrying some sort of extremely high-yield demolition charge that he planned to plant on the mountaintop in order to cause an avalanche. Such an avalanche, if successfully produced, would sweep downhill and obliterate everything in its path. With that in mind, she addresses her force once more.

"All units, we are falling back to point 12. I am calling in a barrage of smoke shells. Once they land, move out! Whatever you do, do not enter into the marked area on the map, and give it a generous berth. Repeat, do not enter into the marked area on the map." She ordered, before moving out, beginning to withdraw downhill.

---

Though the trees at the top of the hill were few and far between, their absence did little to get rid of the smell of smoke in Kallen's cockpit, nor did it do much to clear the haze all around them.

"Enemy artillery battery to the west!" One of the Purists on her flank shouts.

"P6, Q2, suppress them! B1, move up and deploy your infantry! Take those guns and turn them on the enemy!"

As Kallen watches, the Purists open fire on the round pillboxes, the guns inside turning towards them but moving too slowly, their operators ducking down to avoid the machine gun fire aimed at the bunker slits. The two remaining APCs under Hara's command roll up to them, machine guns blazing, keeping the enemy within suppressed as their rear doors open and the Black Knights inside dismount, finally free from the confines of their armored boxes. Kallen watches as two men lay down more suppressing fire on the first bunker while the rest run up. A flashbang is tossed inside, and as it detonates the Black Knigths rush out, some of them firing into the slit while others climb through.

"P7, P8, plant the excavator probes around the mountaintop! Hurry!" Zero continues shouting orders as the bunkers are stormed, and Inoue and Minami's units scramble to obey. Each Burai moves to a point on the hill and jams the excavator probe into the soft dirt before activating them, allowing them to begin burrowing into the mountain, ejecting excavated dirt as they dig deeper and deeper.

"The rest of you, take up defensive positions! We have multiple battalions of JLF Knightmares heading up the hill towards us, and Cornelia has reported incoming drones as well. We must hold this hill at all costs! Our fate, our mission, and the fate of Japan rests on our shoulders now! Let each one of us do their utmost!"

"Yes, Zero-sama!" Kallen shouts, her words echoed by the rest of the Black Knights as they take up defensive positions. Soon, the Knightmares of P7 and P8 join, peering into the roiling smoke and flames below, trying to make out enemy soldiers amidst the inferno...

"I see something!" Ohgi shouts.

"I see 'em too!" Tamaki shouts a second later.

"I think those are the drones... There's a lot of 'em!"

Kallen sees them too. A huge swarm of disc-shaped drones is flying uphill, cutting through the smoke at a breakneck pace. There seem to be two types. Smaller ones, not much bigger than a dinner platter, and larger ones, closer to a table in size.

"Open fire! R1, R2, load canister shot!" Zero orders, though even before he speaks Tamaki is already blazing away. The rest of the Black Knights join them, along with the few remaining Purists. The Purist Faction had been practically annihilated over the course of the battle, and the few that remain cluster around the Lancelot, which for its part seems perfectly happy to keep them safe as it fires its VARIS rifle at the enemy. Ironic, that the most rabidly anti-Japanese faction in Britannia now hides behind an Honorary Britannian for safety.

Kallen resolves to find a reason to smack Suzaku silly once she is back at Ashford. The bastard had been piloting the Lancelot this whole time... Even in Shinjuku! Did the massacre of innocents by the Britannians not mean anything to him? What sort of sick, twisted mind lurked beneath the awkward yet friendly exterior she saw at Ashford?

All questions for later, she supposed as she raised the Guren's left arm, inside of which is an automatic grenade launcher. Intended to deal with infantry rather than rival Knightmares, it still had a full drum of ammunition, she quickly sets the smart fuses to airburst before opening fire, sending a burst of grenades arcing into the swarm to detonate among them, spraying them with shrapnel. She saw several smaller drones fall out of the air, but more and more are coming, and now they are making evasive maneuvers. Tracers lash out at them, but most pass through empty air as the disc-shaped drones zip back and forth in unpredictable patterns. Worse still, bright yellow-white pulses of light flash through the smoke as the drones return fire. Kallen hears a small POP! as one laser bolt strikes home on the Guren, scoring her armor and sending a shower of sparks flying through the air, but failing to deal any real damage.

More grenades, more cannon shells, more machine gun rounds all fly into the swarm, but it seems that for every drone that is hit and killed, three more come out of the smoke to take its place. Soon, Kallen's grenade launcher clicks empty, leaving her with only her fork knife and radiant wave surger... And yet still the drones keep coming.

More Knightmares join the gun line as P7 and P8 roll up, having finished planting their probes and now joining the battle in earnest as the swarm draws ever closer...

She sees the machine guns on top of Hara's APCs traverse, their gunners aiming at the swarm and opening fire as well, sending two streams of tracers downrange at them. One stream is suddenly cut short as a laser beam strikes the gunner, blasting away a part of his head, and the burning corpse slides down into the APC.

"Hara's dead!" Someone shouts over the radio.

"We've taken the guns! What are our orders, Zero?"

"Fire at the swarm! If you have canister shot, load that! If not, fire high explosive at the ground beneath!" Zero orders, just as the five tanks of R1 and R2 open fire. Each shot sends a cone of tungsten ball bearings at the enemy at supersonic speed, and she watches as each blast sends scores of drones falling out of the air... But still more keep coming.

More lasers strike the Guren's armor, and she sees that the other Knightmares around her are taking hits as well. One of Inoue's squadmates is soon overwhelmed, the sheer volume of incoming laser bolts eventually hitting something important and causing the Knightmare to fall to its knees. She sees the cockpit block open, the pilot bailing out only to be struck in the back, his clothes igniting from the hit as he screams in pain. Mercifully, another bolt strikes and kills him before he can burn to death.

The tanks fire again, another volley of canister shot scything through the incoming drone formation, and this time the captured artillery joins in. Huge explosions tear up the ground, shockwaves and shrapnel knocking more drones out of the air, and yet more still come, the swarm drawing inexorably closer even as more and more are shot down. With a sinking feeling, Kallen knows that once the swarm is upon them, there would be no fighting back. The drones would attack them from all directions, moving too fast for the cumbersome Burai to hit, blasting apart armor and killing the Black Knights with a thousand cuts.

"Q1! Excavator Three has struck water! Get to it at once!" Zero orders, and Kallen obeys, turning away moments before a hypersonic round flies through where she was standing. She sees the shooter before she ducks out of sight. A JLF Burai, a sniper model with its hypersonic gauss cannon. The Lancelot seems to have seen it too, as it returns fire, the Burai disintegrating as it a hypersonic round strikes it in turn.

"JLF Knightmares!" Tamaki shouts as more large, humanoid shapes make their presence known through the smoke.

"Fall back! Get to cover and fall back! All infantry, set the artillery magazines to blow and get back to your carriers!" Zero orders as more hypersonic shells and and lasers strike their position. One final barrage of artillery fire slams into the incoming drone swarm, before the bunker doors open and the JLF run out. Kallen notices that two of them are carrying artillery shells as she reaches the excavator, which is now spraying out a steady stream of crystal-clear water.

"Deploy the radiant wave surger!" Zero orders, and Kallen obeys. The Guren's claw grabs onto the top of the drill, and Kallen dials up the power output to maximum, taking a deep breath and praying that this would work, before squeezing the activation button. In an instant, a truly immense amount of heat is dumped into the drill. Superconductive sakuradite magnets carry practically all of it down into the underwater lake below, and in an instant several tons of water are turned to steam.

The mountain rumbles beneath her feet, and suddenly, just a short distance downhill, the mountain face explodes in a burst of steam, superheated mud and rock. As if caught in an earthquake, the entire mountain shudders as the landslide picks up speed. Kallen sees the JLF Knightmares struggling to escape in vain as they tumble down, swept downhill and buried by the titanic stream of rock and mud.

"I... I-It worked!" She cheers.

"Good work. The path is clear for our escape and the bulk of the JLF force has been eliminated. All objectives have been accomplished. Now we must disengage. I am marking a path to the bottom of the hill! Move out, now! We may have cleared the Knightmares, but there are likely still drones active! All Britannian units, once we have reached the bottom of the hill, you are to detach and return to your commanders. There, we shall go our separate ways." Zero orders.

"... What few of us remain, at least." The woman in charge of the Purists mutters, just loud enough for her radio to pick up.

Nevertheless, they all know there is no time to waste, and following Zero's marked path, they begin the descent downhill. As they start to descend, there is a second rumble as bombs planted inside the JLF artillery shell magazines explode, and Kallen looks back to see six plumes of blue-white fire ascend into the sky, turning orange as they cool further up. Cannons, pieces of equipment, and even the heavily armored roofs of the bunkers themselves are sent tumbling through the air by the force of the blast as it is vented into the sky.

"I see drones!" Tamaki shouts.

"Here they come!"

Kallen curses her Guren's lack of any remaining ranged weaponry as she watches the rest of the Black Knights open fire. Though many of the drones had been flying low enough that the rush of displaced air from the landslide had pulled them down to their doom, those that flew higher still survived. While there were much fewer of them than before, they nevertheless proved hard targets, their evasive maneuvers allowing them to come closer and closer...

There is a bright flash of light, and Kallen watches in horror as one of the larger drones' lasers strikes Zero's Burai-Kai in the hip. The Knightmare, already bearing the scars of multiple smaller laser hits, collapses, one of its legs blown out at the hip. Zero is quick to respond, desperately slamming his arm into the cliff face to stop what could have otherwise have been a deadly fall into the unstable furrow left by the landslide. His Knightmare spins around until it is facing her, and she reaches out a hand to try and grab him...

"Grab on!" She shouts, but before Zero can do so the drone fires again, this time striking his Knightmare in the side, where Kallen realizes the energy fillers are located. There is a burst of fire and smoke as the auto-eject system engages, blowing Zero's cockpit block clear of his Knightmare moments before the energy filler explodes, reducing the Burai-Kai to nothing but charred, twisted metal fragments. A blast of canister shot reduces the drone to pieces a moment later, but it is too little, too late.

"Zero's down! He's ejected!" She shouts, panic growing in her voice.

"He's out of the fight but his ejection system will carry him to safety. His orders still stand! Move downhill! Q1! Your Knightmare is fastest. Go rescue Zero!" Toudoh interjects, assuming command before Kallen's panic can spread.

"Y-Yes, Toudoh-sama!" Kallen replies, before slamming on the throttle and accelerating downhill, navigating the treacherous terrain as best as she can, praying that Zero lands safely and that she is not too late. Zero had led them to victory once more. If he died now...

No. He was Zero. He had to have another miracle in him. He would make it. He had to! Dammit, Kallen hadn't even had a chance to confirm that he was Lelouch! He couldn't die now!

In her haste the Guren slips, and Kallen scrambles to prevent a fall, digging the radiant wave surger into the ground, leaving behind a deep furrow in the soil as she slows her fall.

"Dammit..." She curses. The ground is treacherous. She needs to be more careful...

Slower now, she continues her descent, heart pounding in her chest as she prays that she makes it in time...

---

From the foot of the mountain, Cornelia watches with grim satisfaction as the landslide sweeps downhill. On her map, the dots indicating four battalions of JLF Knightmares all blink out at once, pulled under and buried beneath the unforgiving rock.

The landslide continues down further, soon picking up burning trees and pulling them along, a terrifying image of burning debris and ton upon ton of tumbling dirt continuing on its way, spilling all the way into the town of Narita with enough force to cause buildings to collapse and break from their foundations... Fortunately, it does not go further than that, the rumbling soon fading out as the landslide's energy is exhausted.

"Your highness? What... What are your orders?" Darlton asks after a few seconds, finally breaking the silence.

Cornelia takes a deep breath.

"... Retreat. The only way up the mountain that isn't either still on fire or a treacherous, unnavigable mess is almost completely open and nearly devoid of cover. The remaining JLF forces are already moving to block it, and with the losses we have sustained, I do not believe we can break through them, especially with JLF artillery remaining a threat." She finally replies.

"The battle is lost. Fall back to the G1 and prepare to return to Tokyo. If it is any consolation, the JLF has bled today as well." Cornelia says.

"As you command, your Highness." Darlton nods, his voice noticeably tinged with relief.

He passes the order along, and soon the Britannian army, or at least what remains of it, is withdrawing from Narita, heading back to the relative safety of the G1.

As Cornelia moves out, a transmission comes in from her sister.

"Cornelia!"

"Euphie? What is it?"

"Um... Something just came up. We... A pair of Black Knight APCs just rolled up to the medical unit! They're carrying a lot of wounded, a-and they are requesting medical assistance." Euphemia says.

For a moment, Cornelia is tempted to order them all imprisoned for their foolishness... But then she thinks the better of it. That would do nobody any good. Instead, a better plan comes to mind.

"Treat them." Cornelia orders.

"Treat them, on the condition that they disarm and agree not to cause any trouble." She adds.

Euphemia blinks, and Cornelia allows herself an amused smile. Her sister had no doubt expected a harsher response that she would then have to argue against. With that in mind, Cornelia decides to humor her unspoken question.

"Zero knows something that we don't regarding the JLF, and in general he has been acting odd lately. Something has him spooked, to the point where he is willing to set aside his feud with Britannia in order to fight people who should logically be on his side. Now that we have some of his men in our custody, we can trade them for information." Cornelia says.

"I see." Euphemia nods.

"Good. Now prepare the medical unit. There will be many wounded to treat soon." Cornelia says.

"Yes, Cornelia." Euphemia says, her voice becoming quieter, before the transmission ends.

Cornelia sighs as well.

"... Guilford?" She asks.

"Yes, your highness?" Her knight replies.

"One more battle like this and, victorious or not, I fear that I will return home alone." She says quietly. Her throat feels hoarse, likely from the smoke that her cockpit's air filters couldn't quite keep out.

Guilford is quiet for a few long moments.

"... You won't be alone. I swore to remain by your side, after all." He finally replies, eliciting a faint smile from Cornelia, though it is soon broken by a fit of coughing.

"Your highness! Are you alright?"

"I.. I'm fine. Just some smoke I breathed in. I'll have it checked out once we are back in Tokyo." She reassures him.

"I... See." He replies.

The two of them move along in silence for a few minutes before Cornelia speaks up again.

"... It was all my fault. I should have seen this damn trap, and now more than half my army is dead." She says.

"C-Cornelia! You... It wasn't your fault. Nobody could have predicted that the JLF had the capabilities they did! None of our intel reports even suggested-"

"But I should have seen the trap coming! Damn it, I'd used the exact same strategy so many times on others!"

"Hindsight is always perfect." Guilford replies, moving his Knightmare closer to her.

"... I've fought alongside you for years now, Cornelia, and I can think of no better person to have devoted my life to, but nobody is perfect. You told me so yourself back when we were both cadets, remember? That we all make mistakes. Sometimes even big ones, but what matters is that we learn our lessons and make sure those mistakes never happen again." Her Knight says.

Cornelia is silent. She remembered that day well. She had been speaking of her failure to protect Marianne back then, the memory still raw in her mind after less than a year. How ironic that those words were now being thrown back at her, in this land that had already taken the lives of Marianne's children and had very nearly taken her own as well.

"... You are right." She finally concedes.

"Once we reach the G1, I will contact Zero and hopefully we can get to the bottom of all this. I swear that the losses we have suffered here at Narita will not be in vain."

Up ahead the G1 comes into view through the trees. The smoke is clearing as well, now that they are further west of the mountain. Nearby, the clearing is full of white tents, emblazoned with red crosses and ready to receive patients. Sadly, most of those would have to be picked up. It was not safe to treat the wounded so close to the JLF headquarters, after all. Not when the Elevens could launch an attack at any time.

Soon, Cornelia reaches the G1, driving her Gloucester into the hangar and disembarking. She looks back at the machine, seeing it covered in black soot, its proud cape burned away and its armor scratched and pitted from battle. Still, it could be cleaned and returned to its royal purple shine with time and effort... And just like the Knightmare, Cornelia knew that she could clean away the shame of this defeat. One day, sooner or later, she knew she would have to return to Narita. When that day came, she intended to do so as a truly victorious conqueror.

---

"Zero's down! He's ejected!"

Through his radio, Jeremiah hears the panicked shout of the Guren's pilot, and he immediately freezes, looking up at the sky. Sure enough, a solitary cockpit block was visible in the air, tumbling away from the battlefield. Its parachutes deploy, but Jeremiah notices that only two unfurl successfully, the third collapsing as its lines get tangled and twisted. He winces at that. A cockpit could still come doen safely on two parachutes, but it would be a hard landing.

Still, this was his chance at redemption! The battle had ended. Cornelia had disengaged. That meant the alliance between the Black Knights and Britannia had come to an end. Now he had the opportunity to find Zero, capture him, and bring him to justice!

He draws his pistol and begins to run through the forest, making his way towards where the cockpit block was coming down. If he made it there in time, Zero would still be stunned from the bad ejection and completely helpless! Finally, Jeremiah could avenge Clovis and prove that his loyalty never wavered!

It took some time of navigating treacherous terrain, pausing every once in a while to rest, catch his breath, and clear some of the omnipresent smoke and dust from his throat, but soon he spots it in the distance. It had indeed been a hard landing. The parachutes had caught on a tree, and the pod had likely been jerked to a sudden stop before swinging down against the tree.

More importantly though, Jeremiah sees that he is not the first to reach the pod. A green-haired girl, wearing an odd white prisoner's straitjacket is standing over the pod. Some sort of civilian rescuer? No, it couldn't be. Nobody lived so close. She wasn't in a Britannian military or a Black Knight uniform either.

"You there! Step away from the pod! Britannia's most wanted terrorist is inside." He shouts.

The woman turns at the sound, but does not obey even as he comes closer.

"You mustn't harm him." She replies, spreading her arms wide, standing between him and the pod with Zero inside.

"I have no desire to hurt a woman, but if you do not step aside now you will be shot. That is Zero inside that pod, and I am here to take him into custody." Jeremiah replies, coming closer still.

"No! You will not lay a finger on him!" The woman repeats, louder this time, still refusing to move.

In response, Jeremiah draws his gun and aims it at her.

"This is your final warning. Stand aside!" He declares.

"You don't know what you are doing! For all our sakes, you must not-"

BLAM!

The girl cries out as she falls to her knees, bleeding from her abdomen. Jeremiah keeps his gun trained on her as he walks on, shoving her aside as he reaches for the cockpit hatch handle. Just as he takes hold of it though, he feels the girl's hand grab hold around his ankle.

"You-"

The last thing he sees is a red glow shining through her bangs, illuminating a symbol on her forehead, and then, all of a sudden, his world goes dark.

The smoking forest around him is replaced by an endless void, illuminated by a single star. He sees two spheres, a million tiny points of light passing back and forth between them.

The scene vanishes a moment later. Now he sees hundreds of children, their eyes closed, bearing the same symbol tattooed upon their foreheads.

Another flash, and suddenly that vision is gone too. Now he sees the planet Jupiter in the distance, growing closer and closer. A blue dot, Neptune, is faintly visible in the background, a tiny point of blue light compared to the immense grandeur of the king of planets. He tumbles through the void, crying out in confusion, growing closer and closer, until his entire vision is filled by the image of the Great Red Spot, which seems to stare back at him like some gigantic, swirling eye...

Then his vision goes white, and he finds himself standing in an airport, surrounded by crowds of faceless strangers...

Save for two people, whom he immediately recognizes.

His mother and father sit together in one of the terminals, preparing to board a plane for a flight to Area 2.

"No! Stop! Get away from there!" He shouts, desperately trying to call out to them.

"Group 1 may begin boarding now." The announcement rings out.

"No... No! Don't go that way! Please! Can you hear me?! Stop!"

His parents do not listen, instead standing up and walking towards the boarding gate, along with several other silhouettes. Though they are all just black shadows, Jeremiah knows that one of them is Prince Alistair we Britannia... And he knows what comes next.

"No! PLEASE! GET AWAY!" He shouts one last time.

Suddenly the terminal erupts in fire and smoke as a bomb smuggled in by one of the prince's rivals goes off. In an instant, his parents, the prince, and all the other silhouettes in the terminal are erased. More lives claimed by the Emblem of Blood.

Jeremiah collapses to his knees, sobbing as the scene around him fades to white.

"No... No no no..."

"What's the matter?" Another familiar voice causes his eyes to widen.

He turns to its source and sees her.

Long black hair frames a perfect, beautiful face. Violet eyes, the color of amethyst stare into his own, and a mouth turns up in a kind, playful smile. She wears a red jacket and white riding pants, just as she did on the day they had first met.

"E-Empress Marianne...?" He asks, his voice trembling as he stares up at her.

The figure kneels down beside him, putting an arm around his shoulders.

"Come now, Jerry. If there is something bothering you, you know you can talk to me." The dead Empress says.

"I... I..." Jeremiah freezes, unable to speak. Was this truly Marianne? Or some awful hallucination?

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Marianne continues, still smiling as she gently ruffles his hair.

"Y-Your majesty, I... I... I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I failed... I-I failed you. W-When you needed me most, I wasn't there, I-" Jeremiah chokes out.

"Shhh... It's ok." Marianne replies, continuing to hold him.

"You have grown into a fine man, haven't you? Just as I knew you would when I first met you." She continues, moving her arm down under his and gently lifting him back up to his feet.

"I... I'm not... Your majesty, I.. I'm a failure... I have failed in my oaths to you. I failed to protect you. I failed to protect your children. I failed to protect Clovis. I failed to bring his killer to justice. I-"

"No failure is beyond redemption. No mistake beyond atonement. You still have a long life ahead of you, Jerry. Do not waste it on despair." Marianne replies.

"But-"

"No buts, Jeremiah~!" Marianne places a finger on his lips to quiet him.

"No doubts. Trust in your convictions, and remember your oaths of loyalty. Even if all others doubt you, I know you remain true." She says... And Jeremiah notices that she is beginning to fade.

"Y-Your Majesty! What's going on? You're fading away!" Jeremiah shouts.

"Remember your loyalty, Jeremiah Gottwald. Remember the oaths you swore to me." Marianne repeats.

"Yes, your majesty. I-I remember. I remember! Please, don't leave! Please!" Jeremiah begs.

Somewhere above, he hears a bell toll, and the scenery around him begins to shift. He recognizes it as the atrium of the Aries Villa.

"Please! Don't go! Take me instead!" Jeremiah shouts, both to the fading specter of Marianne and to the world around him.

"Remember..." Marianne says once more, before her specter fades away completely.

The bell tolls again, and Jeremiah looks around, his eyes widening in horror at the familiar scene around him.

The windows of Aries Villa are shattered. The immaculate marble floors and carpets are covered in shards of glass. Bullet holes dot the walls and furniture... And try as he might, Jeremiah cannot help but look at the stairs...

He sees her there, lying lifeless in a pool of her own blood. Beneath her, eyes wide and mouth open in a silent scream is her daughter, hanging on to life by a single thread, her blood mixing with that of her mother on the steps below.

Higher up, Aaron Black and Roger Stone, two bodyguards who had disobeyed her order on that fateful day, lie dead as well, and further up still...

There stands her son, staring at the corpse of his mother. Somehow, despite the distance between them, Jeremiah can hear the young boy's heart beating, loud and fast as his entire world crumbles around him.

Then the boy screams, a sound that is equal parts rage, sorrow and misery, as the world around him fades to white once more...

The smell of smoke brings him back to his senses. He is standing in the forest of Narita once more, atop Zero's ejected cockpit, his eyes wide, hands trembling.

He feels the grip around his ankle fade.

"... R-Remember... Who you are..." He hears the green-haired girl say quietly, and a moment later her head falls, and her dead body slides down, off the cockpit block and hitting the ground below.

He stands there for a few moments, eyes wide, breathing heavily, wondering what the hell had just happened.

"What did you do to me?" He demands of the girl, but her corpse says nothing.

All around him there is nothing but the sound of distant gunfire, nothing to provide an answer for the questions now circling in his head.

... No. There was still one person who could answer them.

Jeremiah takes a deep breath, stills his trembling hands, and reaches for the cockpit hatch.

The door opens easily, and inside, just an arm's length away, is Zero. The man's masked visage stares back at Jeremiah as he raises his gun.

"... In the name of her Highness Cornelia, you are under arrest. I have some questions for you as well, that you will answer." He says, aiming his gun directly at Zero's heart with one hand while the other reaches out to grab hold of Zero's mask.

"N-No..." Zero groans weakly, trying to reach up and stop him, but Jeremiah is undeterred.

"But first, let's see who you really are behind that mask!" He declares, grabbing hold of it and pulling it off...

Violet eyes stare back into his own. Black hair, just like hers, frames an all too familiar face. Older, yes, but still unmistakably the one he had seen in his vision just moments before.

"W-What...?" He gasps, recoiling back, dropping the mask.

His heart pounds in his chest, his breaths coming fast. The arm holding his gun falls limp to his side, and he dimly hears his pistol clank against the metal cockpit, before sliding down and falling to the earth below.

"Y-Your Highness...?" He asks, hesitantly, not believing his eyes. It is all coming together now. The green haired girl's words. The vision of the late Empress and what befell her. The reminder of his oaths.

This was his chance to atone for his failures. To prove his loyalty once and for all.

With that, he knelt down, picked up the mask, and gently placed it back on his prince's head.

"Your highness... I beg your forgiveness. For failing to protect your mother when I was part of her royal guard, for failing to protect you, and for my failure to find you all these years. I am unworthy of your service, but I beg of you a chance to redeem myself in your eyes." He says, bowing his head as Lelouch's masked visage stares up at him.

"All those years ago, I took an oath to your mother. When I had nothing, she gave me everything. Know that the loyalty of Jeremiah Gottwald is, and always shall be, to the line of vi Britannia." He says, closing his eyes and wondering if this was the end. Would his prince accept him? Or would he take his life as punishment for his many failures?

He heard a rustling and a click in the cockpit below, as Lelouch undoes the straps keeping him secure in his chair, and he hears his lord stand up.

"Jeremiah Gottwald..." Lelouch speaks a moment later.

"... I remember you. I remember you playing with Nunnally in the palace gardens. You were a good man then." He says.

"Imagine my shock all these years later when I learned that you were the leader of the Purist faction in Japan. The leader of an organization that oppressed the people of Japan, who had taken me in and showed me kindness and hospitality even as my own people tore their nation apart. Your organization committed heinous crimes against them. Massacres, show trials, public executions, all of this with your direct involvement if not by your direct command."

"I... That is true." Jeremiah nods, unable to look his lord in the eye.

"Why? Was my mother not a commoner by birth? Did she not treat people with kindness and compassion, no matter their background? Did she not teach you to do the same? She was the living antithesis to the Purist ideal, and you joined the organization anyway."

"... I... I... I was... I was blind, your highness. I thought that she was killed by terrorists, and that the people of Area 11-"

"Japan." Lelouch growls.

"That the people of Japan had killed you and Nunnally in turn... My desire to avenge you led me to commit those acts. I... If my death is what is required to bring about justice for the atrocities I have committed in your name, then my life is yours to take." Jeremiah finishes. Once again he falls silent, awaiting the gunshot that would bring about his end.

It does not come.

"Would your death change anything?" Lelouch replies. Before Jeremiah can answer, he continues.

"No, it would not. The acts you committed have all been done. Your death would not erase them, nor would it stop such things in the future. So yes, Jeremiah Gottwald, I shall take your life... But I shall not kill you." He says.

Jeremiah feels his heart race, not daring to look up just yet.

"T-Thank you, your highness." He says.

"There is a storm on the horizon. Here at Narita, we have gotten our first taste of it, and there are much worse things yet to come. If we are to survive, Britannia, the Black Knights, and Japan must work together. However, this reality does not excuse the crimes that Britannia has committed. Justice must be served, and you shall help me see it done." Lelouch says.

"Therefore, you will be my eyes and ears within the Britannian army and government, as well as my voice."

He feels a hand on his chin, guiding his head to up, and he opens his eyes to see Lelouch removing his mask once more.

"Do you swear that you shall serve me with undying and unquestioning loyalty until the day you die?" His prince asks.

"Yes. A thousand times, yes." Jeremiah replies fervently.

"Do you swear to uphold the ideals of my mother, Marianne? The woman who treated all around her, regardless of their birth or status, as people worthy of respect?" Lelouch asks.

"I swear it." Jeremiah replies once more.

"Then rise, Jeremiah Gottwald. You will give me a means to contact you, so that I may pass further orders along to you." Lelouch orders.

Jeremiah nods, and quickly pulls out a paper map of Narita from his pocket and writes down his contact information, before handing it to his prince.

"Good. That will be all for now. Return to the Britannian camp, and I will contact you soon with further instructions." Lelouch says.

"Yes, your highness!" Jeremiah bows, before turning to leave, only to pause.

"... May... May I ask a question, your highness?" He says hesitantly.

"Go ahead." Lelouch answers.

"Is... Is Princess Nunnally alive as well?"

Lelouch is silent for a few moments, before nodding.

"She is. She is alive and safe. Do not seek her out." He warns.

"Yes, your highness." Jeremiah bows once more, before stepping off the cockpit block. He turns to recover his pistol, only to freeze as he sees the green-haired girl standing beside the cockpit, still very much alive, the wound on her stomach seemingly having closed by itself.

"W-What..." He gasps.

The girl says nothing, merely giving him a faint nod before passing the pistol over to him.

Jeremiah does not move, staring wide-eyed at her as she turns away to climb up to meet with Zero. The two of them exchange a few quiet words, before Lelouch nods and dons his mask once more.

For a few moments Jeremiah stays there, like a deer staring into headlights, before he remembers his prince's orders and turns away, making his way away from the ejected cockpit, thoroughly shaken by what he had just seen.

---

The atmosphere aboard the Command G1 is somber as the Britannian forces withdraw from Narita. There is no pursuit, but that is cold comfort for the retreating army. This had been a defeat, and not only a defeat, but the most devastating one any of them had experienced in their careers. An entire regiment was gone, its commander dead and having suffered so many losses that the remnants would not be able to reconstitute themselves, and would instead likely be disbanded.

Of the others, not a single squad of Knightmares had gone without at least one casualty. The infantry had suffered particularly badly, with practically every surviving man being treated for injuries ranging from severe smoke inhalation to full-body burns. The worst-off were in the G1's infirmary, while the rest were being treated in ambulances, jeeps and wherever else there was room.

Cornelia tried and failed to stifle another coughing fit, drawing concerned looks from both Guilford and her sister.

More coughs sound out, though these are not hers. They come from Jeremiah Gottwald, who is sitting on one side of the room, along with most of the other surviving Purists.

The entire Purist faction had been practically wiped out, and the few survivors were quiet and morose, staring into the distance. Thirty-six of them had gone up the hill with Zero. Just four had returned, with two more making their way out of the burning forest some time later after successfully ejecting. One more had been brought in later on, heavily burned from ejecting into the forest fire, his life saved only by the mercy of the Black Knights, who had recovered him and transported him down the hill.

From what little she knew, the Black Knights had suffered heavily as well, although not as badly as the Purists. Zero had taken his combined forces and thrown them straight into the middle of the JLF's defenses, counting on speed and skill at arms to break through before the JLF could concentrate their forces and mount a defense. His gamble had paid off, and the destruction of no less than six JLF Knightmare battalions could be laid, wholly or partially, at his feet.

The dregs Cornelia had fought at Saitama could not have pulled this off, but the Black Knights had. There was no doubt now that if Zero had wished it, he could have completely annihilated her entire army, catching it in a pincer between his forces and the JLF. Instead, the man had saved her army and dealt her enemy a grievous blow.

It was for that reason that two black APCs were permitted to drive alongside the G1 under their own power, housing a small contingent of Black Knights that had requested urgent medical aid from her sister. The majority of their number, however, were held inside the G1, being treated for burns while under armed guard.

Cornelia coughs again, before turning to one of the officers nearby.

"Give me the radio. It is time I spoke with Zero." She orders.

The officer obeys, and Cornelia switches to the same frequency he used to contact her earlier in the battle.

"Attention, Zero. This is Cornelia. I would like to propose an exchange." She says.

For a moment there is silence, before a response comes in.

"This is Zero. What is it?" The man replies.

"During the battle, some of your men came to my sister and requested treatment for their wounds. Per her orders, all wounded, regardless of status, are being treated to the best of our ability, but what happens to them afterwards is still entirely in the air. I propose an exchange. Your men... For your information on the JLF, the sources of their technology, and their activities. You will tell me what you know, and in exchange they shall be released upon completion of their treatment." She says.

There is silence on the other side for a few long moments, before Zero responds.

"In principle, your exchange is agreeable. However, I would be a fool to simply tell you now, and then hope that you would keep your word when the time comes to release your hostages. How long would it take for them to finish treatment?"

Cornelia turns to Euphemia.

"Ah... Three or four days, in our best hospitals. Much longer for them to fully heal, b-but..." Her sister trails off. Cornelia nods, and relays the information to Zero.

"... Then there is your answer. Once they are cleared for release, then we can talk." Zero replies.

"Very well. In four days' time, I shall have a special convoy prepared to take you to the Viceroy's palace so that we may talk." Cornelia says.

"Into the lions' den? So that you can order me arrested as soon as you hear what you want? No. We will talk, but we will talk in Shinjuku, where all of this began." Zero replies.

"I would ask that you listen to your own words before proposing absurdities. Very well. Neutral ground, on the East 4th Bridge between the Ghetto and the Settlement." Cornelia says.

"... Acceptable, on the condition that you come alone and unarmed. I shall, of course, do the same." Zero says.

"You expect me to take a terrorist and a regicide at his word? Need I remind you what happened the last time you were alone with a member of the Britannian Royal Family?"

"She was returned to you, safe and sound." Zero replies without hesitation, and Cornelia clenches her fist, realizing her mistake.

"If anything, it is I who should be questioning your honor, not the other way around. I believe that today I have thoroughly demonstrated that if I wanted you dead or captured, I would have done so by now. You, on the other hand, may very well take the opportunity to kill me at any time. Therefore, if you do not come alone and unarmed to the meeting point on the arranged day, I will be forced to take my chances with a hostage rescue operation. Do you understand?" Zero asks.

Beside her, Euphemia turns to her and nods, and Cornelia in turn takes a moment to calm herself before nodding in turn.

"... Very well. However, I warn you now that any acts of perfidy by your men during or before the meeting date will mean the end of my goodwill towards you. At noon in four days' time, we will meet on the East 4th Bridge out of the Tokyo Settlement, alone and unarmed. Until then, a ceasefire shall be in effect between our camps. Assuming you keep your end of the bargain, the hostages will be released." Cornelia says.

"Assuming you keep yours, I will tell you everything I know regarding the JLF and their masters. It seems that we have an accord." Zero says.

"It seems we do. Break it at your own peril." Cornelia says.

"Likewise." Zero says.

With that, the transmission ends, and Cornelia walks back to her throne, collapsing onto it and closing her eyes, before coughing some more.

"... Now let us return to Tokyo. Euphie, you have command." She says tiredly, before finally allowing exhaustion to take her.

---

Nunnally hears the door open on the floor below, with two sets of familiar footsteps entering the dormitory a moment later. Instantly, she knows her brother, along with the strange girl C.C. have returned together.

From her bed, she listens silently as Lelouch and C.C. make their way upstairs, her brother entering the shower while C.C. proceeded straight to his bedroom.

For nearly half an hour Nunnally listens to the sound of running water, before her brother finally exits. She listens to his footsteps as he heads to his room, pauses, and then, with a sigh, walks away. His footsteps grow closer and closer, stopping just outside her door, and she freezes, carefully slowing her breathing to try and seem asleep.

She hears her brother cough a few times, before opening the door and walking inside, coming closer and closer until her all but collapses into her bed, pulling her into a tight hug as he curls up against her.

In a matter of minutes her brother's breathing slows and evens out, his grip loosening as he falls asleep at her side.

Nunnally, however, finds it harder to do the same.

Her brother smells of smoke and charcoal, the scent of shampoo and conditioner not quite enough to mask it completely. She had heard on the news as well, about a battle and a huge column of smoke rising from the Narita mountains to the east. The two had to be connected... What could her brother have possibly been doing?

She falls asleep, still worrying, holding her brother in her arms.

Her dreams, however, are not peaceful.

She finds herself standing in a dark forest, surrounded by people she doesn't recognize. She hears indistinct commands and shouts all around as gunfire and explosions surround her. Up ahead is a metal tower, and from it come flying, horned demons with strange energy weapons.

She sees people blasted apart, each hit from the demons' weapons reducing them to a spray of charred gore. Demons fall in turn, struck by gunfire as a huge, red, humanoid shape that could only be a Knightmare moves into view, covering the men as they advance with its heavy guns.

The forest begins to burn all around them as they fight, the fires closing in, unaware men pulled into them, their dying screams echoing through her mind, and yet still the battle rages on as she moves closer and closer to the tower.

At last she enters the tower itself, and beholds a gruesome sight of tanks filled with blood, bones and screaming people. She sees Shirley inside one of them... Recognizing her by her voice despite never having seen her with her own two eyes. She had such beautiful orange hair... But the girl inside the tank is screaming, her body melting away in front of Nunnally's horrified eyes as she stands there, helpless. Milly is in another tank nearby, suffering a similar fate. Again, Nunnally cannot look away, no matter how hard she tries. The screams of her friends dying echo through her ears as she moves further and further into the maze of bloody tanks, unable to help anyone until at last she enters the maze's center.

There, upon a surgical table, she sees a body, torn open and yet still alive and screaming, two of the demons hovering over it. The demons die, cut down by gunfire, but as she approaches the twitching, screaming body, she looks down and her heart freezes.

The face on the table, looking up at her is her own.

---

A/N: There we have it. Nearly 28,000 words' worth of fanfic. I hope you all have enjoyed this. Now then, time for the end notes of uncertain length.

First-off, why the hell DOES the G1 have a catapult anyway? Spending so much money and adding so much weight to the G1 in order to yeet a Knightmare like, 20 meters tops is silly. Therefore, in the GC-verse, they where originally designed as aircraft carriers. There.

Now, the first major change I added to the story was that of Katase. In the show, Katase was worse than useless. His total contribution to Narita involved ordering his men to charge out of their prepared defensive positions on the dominant heights in repeated human wave attacks against Cornelia, while simultaneously whining for Toudoh to come save him. You can easily see why Lelouch decided to simply blow him up in canon instead of attempting to recruit him. Here though, Katase is finally a commander worthy of the name, and with his new technology and renewed hope, he devised a plan that, were it not for the intervention of that pesky masked prince, would have completely annihilated Cornelia's larger force. Of course, the question of how much of that is truly him and how much is alien mind control is left up for debate. He, of course, claims that it is all him.

Once that is done, we get to the Black Knights. Of course, just because cooperation is necessary, doesn't mean everyone is going to agree, and while Lelouch is perfectly capable of using facts and logic to counter some arguments, some of the more emotional ones require a different touch. Enter Tamaki, and I will say that this sequence of him shouting down an objection like that was something I'd planned to include almost from the moment this story began. Of course, originally I'd intended to have him do so to the Six Houses of Kyoto, but as time goes on the story plans shift, and this ended up being the ideal place to put it. Of course, while emotional arguments do hold weight, they still need to be backed up with logic of their own, and in this case Toudoh fills in for Chiba what Zero and Tamaki could not.

Next up, we get to the big Oh Shit moment for Cornelia and the Britannians. In the show, this was when the avalanche suddenly hit, wiping out Cornelia's center and splitting her forces in half, followed by the Black Knights descending from the mountain while Toudoh comes in from behind. This was the moment where everything suddenly went wrong, and an easy battle suddenly turns into a costly loss. For things to work well, I had to have the JLF do something similar with their alien technology, and thus I came up with the idea of the alien jammer. With it, the JLF knocked out the crucial pillars of Command, Control, Communication and Information, and hot on its heels they unleashed Elerium cluster bombs upon the enemy. Then, with the enemy blind, deaf, mute, and knocked off balance by the opening barrage, the JLF unleashed their main force of enhanced Burai.

Speaking of which, I remember seeing speculation that this would be the grand reveal of the Sectopod. To that I will say that I am saving the Sectopods for a VERY special occasion. Moreover, Sectopods didn't quite fit with what I wanted the JLF to be. Instead, I took inspiration from the xPiratez mod, which is set hundreds of years in the future after an Alien victory on Earth. There, the major Human factions that act as the alien's puppets and administrators receive Gauss and Laser weaponry from the Aliens. These are formidable weapons, but the key advantage here is that while they are inferior to the Alien plasma weapons, they are stuff that the Human factions are able to produce themselves, with a lower technological base.

With this in mind, the aliens didn't give the JLF a few weapons of their own. Instead, what they gave the JLF was blueprints for weaponry that, while inferior to their own, were still better than what the JLF had before by a significant margin, while also being simple enough that the JLF could start producing them on their own, with a much shorter and more efficient logistical chain than having to ship stuff in from Mars.

In the long run, this would lead to the JLF being far more formidable, and would also allow the JLF to better operate as a puppet government of occupied territory.

As for the Enhanced Burai themselves, I was loosely inspired by the many different Burai variants from that one DS game, though these are most certainly NOT one for one copies. They are still, at their core, Burai frames, but they have been considerably enhanced. Moreover, these are simply the first production run. As time goes on, you can expect the JLF to start branching out and making more... Unique designs of their own, building on the more successful designs that they have fielded at Narita.

Returning to the story, I decided to give Euphie some time to shine, much like she did in the show. In the show, it was ultimately her order to send in the Lancelot that saved her sister from capture and forced the Black Knights to retreat. In a similar vein, her orders to restore communications with the front, to attempt to call for air support, and to agree to ally with the Black Knights was what saved the day for Cornelia here.

Now we get to first contact between the JLF and Zero. Originally I wanted to include more scenes from Katase's point of view, but I ended up deciding that they were unnecessary, as they would only serve to repeat information that everyone already knew. I didn't need a Katase scene to tell you that the JLF was sending in its weaker battalions as a delaying tactic to allow the better equipped units from Narita time to catch up.

What mattered, however, was the conversation between Toudoh and Katase. Toudoh, in-universe, is not the most charismatic of individuals. His inability to wield charisma like Lelouch did is what ultimately led to the failure of the first Black Rebellion as soon as Lelouch was taken out of the picture. I tried to channel that while writing his dialogue, having him unable to keep up with Katase during the conversation. Of course, he was never going to succeed, not with the puppetmaster in the room with Katase at the time, but still, just a little something to keep in mind.

This then led to Toudoh's subsequent attempt to try and force the JLF 7th and 8th Battalions to defect. Originally, in this scene my idea was that Toudoh would get through to them, and they would start doubting things, but then the Emissary would step in with mind control, causing them all to experience a rush of euphoria that makes them ignore Toudoh and that would be that. However, after thinking about it long and hard, I decided that such a scene wouldn't make sense. If the Emissary had the ability to control them, it would have been done pre-emptively, and if not then the soldiers would have been loyal to Katase either way and thus it would have been a moot point. Thus, that sequence was dropped in favor of Chiba saving Toudoh's life and being forced to eject in turn.

All of this leads to the final act. Cornelia withdraws, and the Black Knights take the mountaintop, fighting off JLF drones while they prepare the avalanche attack. As an aside, these drones are not cyberdiscs. Much like the Enhanced Burai, they are lower-tech machines that the JLF is able to produce itself without too much trouble, and the JLF has produced them in huge numbers. A drone swarm like this is pretty much the perfect countermeasure to Britannian Knightmare assaults. A swarm of lightly armored, highly evasive drones with laser cannons could tear apart infantry in the field, and kill Knightmares through a thousand tiny cuts, and as they swarm over their targets they attack from all directions, like a swarm of hornets, picking the enemy army apart. This swarm was just as much responsible for the quick collapse of the Britannian Center as the JLF Knightmares were. Machine guns and rifles cannot kill them fast enough, and while canister shot is a better solution, it is slow, short-ranged, and can only last so long before it runs out. In the entirety of R1, the only canon unit capable of reliably countering such a swarm would be the Gawain with its wide-angle Hadron cannon blasts, and, well... That unit is not ready yet.

Still, with a defensible position and liberal application of explosives and canister shot, the Black Knights could, I feel, hold on against such a threat long enough for the excavators to strike water and enable the landslide plan, before retreating down through the burning forest where the flames and smoke would confuse the drones' targeting systems. Of course, they couldn't quite get away scot-free... Which leads into one of the other big scenes that I've been planning since practically day one, namely Jeremiah's encounter with Zero.

One of the things from R2 that always struck me as odd was just how readily Jeremiah cast his loyalty to Britannia aside in order to serve Lelouch. There was no real reason given outside of Jeremiah respecting and adoring Marianne just that much. Therefore, I decided to add some details to his backstory to explain it. As I revealed in this scene, Jeremiah lost his parents during the tail end of the Emblem of Blood period (which I defined as ending only when Charles took the throne in 1998), with them having been killed as collateral damage during a bombing aimed at a Prince. This left a young Jeremiah alone, without any financial lifeline and in considerable amount of debt. It was Marianne who then saved Jeremiah and pulled him out of this situation, ensuring that he could go to a good school, that his debts were bought out and waived, and making him a member of her personal guard in response. This would have instilled a fanatical sense of loyalty to Marianne specifically in the young man, likely by design.

Marianne in general is interesting, because it seems like despite her being despised among the courts, everyone who actually worked with her seems to have been absolutely enamored with her. Jeremiah, Cornelia, Bismarck, Charles and even C.C. all seemed to regard her very well. My conclusion is that this was the result of her, at least outwardly, being a kind, generous and honest person who treated everyone, no matter their station, with respect... So long as you didn't make an enemy out of her, in which case she would crush you brutally and without mercy. This sort of honest personality would have definitely made her Charles' waifu, and would have also had an influence on Lelouch's own ideals and personality as he grew up, both before and after her death.

Whether or not this is her true self or just the mask she put on, of course, is up for debate, but this, I feel, would have been the face she showed the world.

All of this went in to explain not only Jeremiah's heel-face turn in R2, but also why he so readily swore fealty to Lelouch upon unmasking him here. C.C. simply acted as an enabler here, giving Jeremiah a reminder of his past (and allowing Marianne to speak with him directly via their mental connection).

Finally, you have the ending scene. This was another one I had planned all the way at the start, and serves as a little teaser of what is to come with Nunnally and Lelouch.

With all of that said, I hope you all enjoyed this double-length chapter. Please review, and if you see any errors or inconsistencies let me know.