AN:
First: A reminder that sometimes things are context sensitive, the inference of Schneizel not being driven was Cornelia's perspective, that he was dispassionate and goes through life on autopilot like a Drone. She doesn't fully grasp him as a person because of his own mask of lies.
Second: I initially did not consider including Maya in the relationship and included her simply because I enjoy her as a character. As far as pairings go I am still thinking about it. But if you guys want to see Maya get included with Lulu, Kallen and C.C. let me know. One reviewer mentioned it and I'd like to know what the rest of you think.
Third: Kallen gets to shine a lot more this chapter, hope you all enjoy that.
Shinjuku Ghetto had become a better place over the years. It still looked like crap- admittedly. There was little that any of the resistance groups could do to clear up the rubble or demolish the condemned buildings, much less build any sort of new housing. They lacked the manpower and equipment to pull that off.
But the camps that the people stayed in had gotten better thanks to the Kozuki resistance movement. New tents, sleeping bags, pillows and blankets. Toys for the children. Food, water, basic medicine. It wasn't pretty, but it was a start.
Maya Diesel had considered asking to join the local resistance movement a number of times really. But she never had the guts to risk it. She may have been half-japanese by blood, but she looked like a Britannian, and that was risky enough coming down here.
But the locals knew her. She always brought fresh food and toys, especially for the children. So while Maya wasn't a well known member of the community she did have a good rapport with the locals, and the kids loved her. The warm smiles she got from them always made her feel better.
Today was one of her visitation days. She always tried to go to the Ghetto at least once a week. She carried a bag of groceries with her and went to her usual spot, coming across the camp and seeing that it was business as usual.
She smiled as the kids spotted her and ran over, and she gave them all a group hug. She waited patiently and with content as they started to talk her ears off with the energy only a kid could muster.
She felt it through the ground first, a rumbling vibration that sent shockwaves through the concrete she stood on. Then she heard it, like a crack of thunder, but not quite, the sound of an explosion.
She looked up and spotted a plume of black smoke shoot into the air in another part of Shinjuku, and felt her stomach drop.
Something was wrong
Tokyo Settlement, 30 minutes prior to detonation.
Lelouch was sitting in the passenger seat of the truck, Naoto was at the wheel, and Kallen was strapped into her Knightmare, sitting in the corner with a tarp draped over her crimson Burai Custom.
Lelouch took a deep breath as he checked the mirror to see Ohgi driving in a car behind the truck, with Tamaki riding shotgun.
He nodded to himself, and raised the radio up to speak. "Q-1 how are you doing back there?" He asked.
"Bored."
He snorted. "Hopefully it stays that way, P-1, P-5 how are you holding up?"
"Antsy." Ohgi answered. "But Tamaki seems excited."
"At least he's eager." Lelouch commented wryly. "Your stop is coming up soon, remember to pull off the road a couple blocks down from the target area."
"Affirmative B-1, I'll see you again soon after for Pizza Hut and Sake." Ohgi quipped. "P-1 out."
Lelouch looked over at Naoto who was concentrating on driving, and spoke calmly.
"Remember, business as usual, if you aren't nervous they won't be nervous. Act like you belong, you're professional, you belong, maybe you're a bit bored, you had a long drive, maybe your legs are cramped." Lelouch offered as his eyes gazed on their upcoming destination. Naoto nodded to himself, trying to visibly relax as they approached the checkpoint to enter the compound's parking area.
Naoto turned to go into the checkpoint and stopped as directed by the security who approached the window. He did his best to relax his posture, and pulled out his fake ID, as did Lelouch.
The security guard on station glanced at the ID cards presented before handing them back and signaling for the gatehouse to let them through, making Lelouch and Naoto both let out a breath they didn't realize they had been holding in. Naoto then drove the truck over to the loading bay area and Lelouch scouted the place, his eyes sharpening as he spotted the target.
"Only one truck being prepped to load cargo, it has to be our target." He muttered before holding his radio up again. "P-1, P-5, status report."
"Coming up on the fenced off area of the courtyard, down the sidewalk."
"Affirm, start getting their attention, we're gonna do the swap now."
"Got it."
Lelouch put the radio down and looked to Naoto. "Ready?"
Naoto nodded. "I see exhaust coming out so it's still running, keys are in the ignition, driver is likely making a pit-stop in the bathroom, I don't see him in the cabin."
"When he comes back we'll inform him that the boss needed to switch around some drivers for the deliveries. Let's go."
In a swift and practiced motion, Lelouch and Naoto would set to work. The older Kozuki sibling would act as the lookout while Lelouch lightly jogged over to the truck in the loading ramp and slipped in, using the controls inside to shut the rear hatch and move it over to a parked position. The moment the other truck was moved, Naoto smoothly replaced it with their own.
Lelouch then walked back to the truck Naoto was in and got inside before shutting the door and bringing his radio back up.
"We're in position and waiting for them to load the gas, no issues so far. You doing alright back there Q-1?" Lelouch asked softly.
"It's lonely back here B-1, you should join me." Kallen flirted.
Lelouch blushed. "I think it would be a bit cramped in that Burai."
"We could make it work." She retorted playfully, making Naoto snicker and Lelouch coughed dryly.
"You know we can hear you right?" Ohgi asked with a whisper, and Lelouch grumbled.
"Let's cut the chatter, Ohgi, how's Tamaki doing?"
Ohgi stood next to Tamaki, who was honestly doing pretty well. He was pretending to be a drunk and disgruntled Honorary Britannian, and it was working. The security guards were giving Tamaki annoyed glances and talking smack back at him.
"Get out of here, Elevens." One of the guards said dryly, and Tamaki huffed with a fake drunken stumble.
"Who's gonna make me? You?"
Ohgi spoke into his ear-piece again. "He's doing great, security is annoyed and focused on him. I don't think anybody noticed the switch."
"Good, keep me posted."
This would continue for another couple minutes. Tamaki had perfected the art of being annoying. He was being just enough of a troll to the security that they focused on him but not enough to draw more than some verbal backlash at his jeering.
Lelouch looked into his mirror and saw that a load lifter was moving the poison gas capsule into the freight car. He was tense, every second that ticked by felt like an hour as the deadly weapon was put into his vehicle. The driver of the original truck had yet to return.
Tamaki meanwhile was simply having too much fun.
"I said knock it off Eleven! Or else!" One of the guards snapped.
"Ohhhhhhh~ what are ya gonna do? Use your poison gas on me? Nyeh!" He mocked.
Ohgi took a moment to process what just happened and froze before looking up at the guards.
Each and every single one of them was now staring intently at Tamaki
"What did you just say, Eleven?" The head guard asked as his hand slowly went down to grasp the pistol in his holster, and Tamaki realized his mistake, frantically glancing over at the loading dock and then back at the guards, who noticed the behavior and turned to look at the truck that just had the poison gas loaded on to it.
Oh no.
Ohgi acted on instinct now, pulling the pins on a bundle of flashbang and smoke grenades before tossing them at the guard station before grabbing Tamaki by the shoulder and dragging him away in a sprint.
"B-1 this is P-1 we got a broken Masquerade!"
Lelouch snapped in to focus, whipping around to see the guard station get hammered by flashbang and smoke grenades going off. The facility alarm began to blare almost immediately afterwords.
Lelouch slammed his fist against the side of his door. "DRIVE!"
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Naoto barked as he quickly shifted gears and floored it, making everyone lurch as the truck sped out of the loading bay and back towards the checkpoint running it down and swerving onto the street.
Lelouch held the radio up to his mouth. "B-1 to base! The enemy caught on, all units prep for combat, we're en-route to Shinjuku! Q-1 we might need you in a couple minutes, get ready!"
"Hai!"
"You where magnificent your highness!" One of the ladies of Nobility complimented as Clovis stepped down from just making another grandiose speech about Area-11. It was business as usual really.
"Yes well the Viceroy is the marquee actor of Area-11. I need to change costumes quickly."
"My-my, you're so self-confident!"
Clovis smirked, adjusting his handkerchief. "It's all in the performance."
As he was busy gloating and flaunting like the peacock that he was. He saw General Bartley barging through the doors and running in. Something urgent was happening.
Clovis briskly walked away from the others present and gestured for his general to approach.
Bartley did so with sweat dripping down his brow and whispered into Clovis' ear.
Curiosity quickly turned into shock and then rage.
"Unacceptable!" He snapped. "Deploy the royal guard immediately, Knightmares as well!"
"Look out!"
Naoto had just barely a second to react as his truck ran up on another vehicle driving down the highway. Lelouch briefly recognized it as Rivalz' motorbike, but had little time to think about it as Naoto, in a panic, yanked the steering wheel to the right.
"Wait- no! Not that way!" Lelouch yelled, but it was too late as the truck went down a closed-off exit ramp and smashed sideways-on into a construction sight.
Lelouch groaned, his seat belt and the airbags caught and Naoto so they didn't smash their heads face-first into the windshield, but he felt nausea for a brief moment as he came back to his senses.
"Naoto-" He coughed. "Naoto are you alright?"
"Yeah!" Naoto winced, he got banged up a bit but he was fine for now as the air-bags deflated and he changed gears. "Hold on!"
The truck swiftly went into reverse as Naoto drove. Pulling it away from the wall he crashed the truck into and improvised, driving it into the underground.
"We've definitely got the military on our asses by now." Lelouch grunted, bringing up his radio. "Q-1 we're expecting contacts any second, get ready!"
Kallen was in her cockpit and had the radio set to the side as she powered on her Burai, watching anxiously as it underwent its boot-up diagnostics before activating. She had kept it powered down until now to conserve the energy filler and now more than ever she needed this thing to be ready for battle.
She grabbed the radio. "I'm on it, give me 20 seconds!" She responded as she quickly ran through the activation procedure, and typed in the activation code.
As they came out of the other side of the tunnel, a trio of Britannian gunships came into view, and on instinct, Kallen fired one of her slash-harkens out of an opening in the truck's rear hatch, nailing the flight leader before jumping out of the truck as the anchor retracted back into the Burai.
The red Glasgow was back.
Before the Britannian pilots could even comprehend what was happening Kallen grinned and fired another pair of Harkens. One pilot was skilled enough to dodge, the other was not, and exploded like the first.
It was then that Kallen saw Knightmare Dropships approaching at high speeds, and she watched as a purist Sutherland dropped down from the aircraft.
"You again!" Jeramiah snarled from within his Sutherland. "It's payback time! Nobody makes a fool out of Jeramiah Gottwald and lives!"
"Come get some pig!" Kallen shot back as she continued to tail the truck behind her.
"With pleasure monkey!" The Britannian Knight snapped at her, raising his rifle and firing a grenade shell her way.
She would have dodged, but she knew if she did that the poison gas might be unleashed, so she raised her armored Gauntlet just in time to eat the barrage sent her way.
"Gonna have to try harder than that asshole!"
"Kallen!" She heard Lelouch over the Radio. "We're gonna split up! You'll fight more effectively when you're not Shielding us, we'll take this pile of junk into the Shinjuku subway system, try to lose em there!"
She didn't want to abandon Lelouch and Naoto. Her lover and her brother were both Unarmed and sitting ducks on that truck.
"But-" She was about to argue. However as she was preparing to speak, another purist Sutherland jumped onto the bridge and raised it's rifle, pointing it directly at the driver's cabin.
"Get down!"
Lelouch, on instinct grabbed Naoto by wrapping his elbow around Naoto's neck and yanking him down. A split second reaction as the knightmare spat bullets directly into the truck. Naoto's seat got shredded and the windshield was shattered with glass spraying at both of them. Naoto saw that there was an exit ramp and pulled hard on the steering wheel to take it off the main highway.
Kallen grit her teeth. She was out in the open and exposed to fire from all sides. Falling back on her training in the simulators, she activated her countermeasures and discharged smoke bomb that obscured the immediate area before disengaging. She had to move quickly.
Naoto sat up straight to watch the road and Lelouch looked back at him, his eyes going wide.
"Naoto you're bleeding!"
Naoto looked at his right arm and saw a hole had been torn into his uniform. Blood was gushing out of the wound, he didn't even notice the pain because of the adrenaline he was on right now.
That was a lot of blood...
"Oh... oh fuck." Naoto breathed.
"It must have nicked an artery, God damn it! Floor it Naoto we need to get that under control soon or you'll bleed out!"
"You think I don't know that!?" Naoto screamed.
Lelouch stopped and took a deep breath, placing a firm hand on Naoto's shoulder.
"Deep breaths, slow your breathing. The faster your heart beats the faster you lose blood. Focus." Lelouch spoke, trying to keep Naoto calm.
"I... thank you, just... try to-" Before he could finish what he was saying, they where jolted again as the truck ran into a large pile of debris that had collapsed from the ceiling long ago, the truck got stuck then and there. Naoto tried to put the vehicle in reverse and back out, only to discover that it was well and truly jammed, the tires screeched against the pavement, but the truck did not move.
Lelouch narrowed his eyes and tried to think of a solution. Getting out of the passenger seat, he walked towards the back to make sure the poison gas canister was still secure. Naoto likewise pressed a switch to open the side door and follow him to the rear cabin. They both stopped and stared at the thing, trying to figure out what they should do.
Naoto and Lelouch both heard the sound of footsteps approaching and swiftly turned around. Naoto tried to ignore the searing, throbbing pain he felt from his arm and grit his teeth as they both laid their eyes on a Britannian Trooper.
However, this soldier seemed to lack any sort of visible weaponry. An unarmed scout?
"Stop you mindless murderers!" The soldier demanded, seemingly ready for a fight, only For Naoto to draw his pistol with his good arm and point it at the Trooper.
Mindless murderers?
Lelouch seethed. "If you want to stop mindless murder then you should help obliterate Britannia!"
That made the soldier step back in shock, which earned a curious glance from Naoto.
"Lelouch?"
And that shocked them in turn, as Lelouch scrambled to think of who might be in that armor. His internal question was answered however when the Trooper reached up and detached the gas mask from his face, and then removed his helmet.
A Japanese boy around Lelouch's age. Messy brown helmet-hair, soft green eyes, and a warm smile.
Recognition flashed across Lelouch's face as his breath caught in his throat.
"Suzaku?" Lelouch's voice was so quiet Naoto wasn't even sure he heard it.
The Japanese boy's smile got bigger as he nodded.
But that smile then faded as Suzaku took the situation in more detail, remembering what was going on as clarity returned.
"Lelouch- you're a terrorist?" He asked anxiously.
Lelouch shook his head. "No suzaku, we've never hurt any innocent people. The military yes but we aren't going around bombing civilians like some of the other groups."
Suzaku winced. "But... the poison gas-"
"That we stole from Britannia, who created it in the first place, we only want to dispose of it safely and protect the-"
Before Lelouch could finish, the poison gas capsule suddenly began to open. For what reason, none of them could decipher. Suzaku reacted on instinct, rushing forward and putting the gas mask onto Lelouch's face, sending them both to the floor before Naoto could even process what was going on.
However, rather than deadly poison, an almost golden glow erupted from the chamber as it split open. A girl with green hair and golden eyes could be seen in a straight jacket.
"... The-fuck?" Naoto asked, voicing the opinion of the other 2.
Suzaku, flabbergasted and unsure of what to do, got off of Lelouch and helped him up.
"Suzaku... what the hell is this?" Lelouch asked.
"I don't know!" Suzaku said defensively as Lelouch ran over to help the girl and bring her out to loosen the restraints. "They said it was poison gas in the briefing so I-"
Again they where cut off, as floodlights flashed on and the silhouettes of armed soldiers made themselves visible.
Ohgi cursed as he pulled the car over and parked it before running out with Tamaki, the former school teacher got on the radio as he rallied the resistance members that were currently on sight.
"Ka- Q-1 this is P-1 do you copy!?"
"This is Q-1! I'm alright!" Kallen's voice returned and Ohgi breathed a sigh of relief. "I've lost contact with K-1 and B-1, did you have any luck P-1?"
"Negative." Ohgi breathed out worriedly as he gave hand-signals to the resistance members, they where trying to get the civilians evacuated. "What do we do?"
Kallen stared at the radio as she sat in the cockpit of her Burai Custom, contemplating how to answer.
Her brother- their leader, and Lelouch, their second in command are both currently MIA, no contact, complete radio silence. Ohgi was technically her senior but... he was deffering to her her in this instance. She had matured over the years, she was competent and unofficially the third in command after Lelouch.
She gripped the controls and thought for a moment longer, before answering.
"Attention all units, this is Q-1. K-1 and B-1 are unresponsive and as such, until further notice I am taking command. Sound off!"
"Hai!"
P-1 I want you to organize all of our best pilots. The ones who preformed best in the simulators and have talent, they get first pick of the Knightmares we have hidden in our stockpile. I want them ready to go ASAP. Everyone else is to continue evacuation efforts and defending the civs as their top priority."
"Roger!"
Kallen was about to continue when the ground rumbled, and on instinct, she poked her Knightmare's head out of the hole she was hiding in, laying eyes on an explosion that went off a short distance away, sending smoke high into the sky and she gulped.
Kallen gripped the controls and desperately hoped that wasn't Lelouch and Naoto's position.
Her fear turned into anger. Anger at everything that was happening. Hate echoed through her blood as it began to boil and her eyes sharpened. Her mouth formed a sneer as she bared her teeth.
"Ohgi, I'm going loud, everyone capable of piloting a Knightmare better be in one within the next 5 minutes, out."
Kallen didn't give Ohgi a chance to respond as she shot up out of her hiding spot.
It was time the Area-11 Garrison learned to fear the Red Knightmare.
Across the Ghetto, Britannian forces started encroaching, pouring into Shinjuku from all sides, spreading chaos, terror and destruction, leaving blood and ash in their wake as they went about on the orders given by their prince.
Destroy Shinjuku Ghetto, leave no one alive.
Kallen fought like wrath made manifest, running Riot through the Ghetto and decimating every single Britannian unit she came across, not caring if they died or ejected as she pulverized the Sutherlands she came across.
She tore through them with a savagery unlike anything they had ever seen before, ripping them quite literally limb from limb.
"It's the red Glasgow!"
"Run!"
"No! Stand and fight you cowAH-"
Kallen's Glasgow used its pile-bunker to pulp the cockpit of a command Sutherland, blood oozing from the crushed metal frame and dripping down the Burai's faceplate before she raised her KAR and gunned down another that was trying to flee, making it explode.
She gunned the landspinners and continued to blitz down the street, catching another pair off guard. One of them held a Knightmare cannon that they tried to swing around and aim at her.
She ducked at the last second, her knightmare scraping against pavement as the cannon shell flew inches over the head of her frame and she closed in for the kill...
Her Burai grabbed the barrel of the knightmare cannon and wrenched it upwards while she punched the Sutherland in the face. This gave her the opportunity to rip the cannon out of this Sutherland's grip before whipping around and using it as an impromptu baseball, smashing the second Sutherland in the face right as it tried to assault her with its Stun-tonfas. She then aimed the cannon directly at the cockpit of the second Sutherland with an underhand grip and fired, blowing out the chest and smearing the knight pilot.
Sensing that prior owner of the cannon was about to strike she turned around and used the cannon to block the tonfa hit that was coming down at her before parried the blow.
As the enemy Sutherland stumbled, she reared her knightmare's free-hand back, setting up the pile-bunker before slamming her fist into the chest plate of the Sutherland, and the pile-bunker drove forward, exploding out of the back of the Sutherland as it bent over her fist, and blood ruptured from the cockpit like a Volcano before it came back down on her Burai like rain.
Clovis watched with horror as the Crimson terror that hunted the Britannian refrain trade now seemed to find a new purpose: Destroying the Purist Knight Order. This single knightmare in the span of just a few short minutes had claimed a dozen confirmed kills and at least 5 unconfirmed, given they never reported what was attacking them and the camera feed didn't catch it.
Sweat dripped down his brow and he swallowed bile that rose up his throat as he tried to come up with a solution before squeaking out his orders.
"Call for reinforcements!" He ordered. "Knight-police, spare garrison units! Anyone!"
"Yes your highness!" The command staff replied, even as they too were showing clear nervousness as they watched the Red Glasgow rip the Purists apart in piecemeal...
Maya ran, to find someone, anyone. Britannia was invading the Ghetto, and destroying everything. She had managed to hide the children before the camp was attacked, and now she was trying to find a way to help the others if she could.
That's when she saw them, Kozuki resistance members! She had seen them before giving out supplies to the ghetto's so on instinct they ran towards them.
They saw her approaching, and recognized her from her visits.
"Maya?" Ohgi asked. "What are you doing here? It isn't safe!"
"I know, look, Ohgi right? Let me help, please!"
He looked surprised. "I don't think-"
"I need to fight them, to protect the others here!" She protested. "I have Knightmare piloting experience, I'm good at it too!"
Fuck it.
"Nagata!" Ohgi yelled over his shoulders. "We got any Knightmares left!?"
Nagata called back from his position. "Just Naoto's Burai, the blue one!"
Ohgi bit his lip. "I got a temp pilot for it, throw her the keys!"
"Got it!"
Ohgi was taking a risk, he knew that much. The girl was Kallen's age, roughly, but he saw that same fire in her eyes, she was serious about fighting, and they didn't have any other qualified pilots. With the way the brits came down on the Ghetto this was do or die, so he begrudgingly would allow it until the situation changed.
Meanwhile, across the Ghetto, kallen was STILL on a rampage. Her frame tore through the streets and went on to decimate even more Britannian forces. Sutherlands blown away or ripped to pieces, tanks turned into flaming wrecks, humvees pulverized, Britannian infantry littered the streets, their bodies either filled with bullets or turned to paste as they got smashed by the multi-ton body of the Kightmare.
No, not a Knightmare, THE Kightmare, the blood-soaked menace of Britannian pilots across Area-11. Kallen was enraged, after years of training, of waiting, of watching as the last of her countrymen got poisoned by these thugs, it all came spilling out in this battle. The pent up rage she harbored and bottled up was now being unleashed in a chaotic flurry of unrestrained, raw violence.
Maya took only a moment to assess the controls of the Blue Burai, getting familiar with it before quickly jumping into action. She sped off into the Ghetto to assist the resistance, and took up a position on the front lines. Her Knightmare sped towards a trio of Sutherlands, and she dodged their gunfire by having her Knightmare dodge and weave through the streets. Her mech had a katana-style revolving blade sword in one hand and a KAR in the other.
She fired her slash-harkens up at the side of a building, using it to gain elevation as she ran up the side of the apartment complex with bullets zipping past her. The harkens then released and she kicked off of the wall, swinging her blade down as she bisected one of the Sutherlands. She then spun her frame counter-clockwise and pivoted to avoid a retaliatory strike from a second Sutherland while the first one exploded, using her blade to deflect the attack before taking it into a reverse grip and slashing the enemy Sutherland directly across its mid-section before stabbing the blade through the cockpit.
She let go of her sword and backed away, letting the second Sutherland fall limp to the pavement as she side-stepped a grenade shell that blew a hole in the wall next to her. She raised her KAR in response and mag-dumped into the enemy Sutherland, expending the entire magazine as she turned it into swiss-cheese while using her landspinners to circle the Sutherland she was mutilating, before finishing it off with a grenade round of her own that blew the enemy knightmare to pieces.
Maya breathed heavily, tightly gripping the controls as she pulled her katana out of the second Sutherland she slew before her factsphere alerted her to the presence of another Knightmare.
Looking up and to the side, she saw a red Burai standing there, looking at her.
"Naoto?" They asked hopefully.
"Maya." She corrected. "Ohgi let me use it temporarily, I'm a volunteer-"
"You're good."
Maya wasn't sure how to take the compliment.
"Thank you." She replied after taking a moment to process.
The crimson Burai nodded.
"Do you have a designation yet?" Kallen asked the pilot of her brother's frame.
"No."
"You do now, your code name is now Q-2, you're under my direct command now."
Maya gulped.
"Understood." The Ashford student replied before the radio sparked to life.
"Q-1" Lelouch's voice came through, and Kallen's attention immediately focused on the radio now as she grabbed for it desperate to make sure he and her brother were both ok.
"B-1! Is K-1..."
"Incapacitated but alive, I just dropped him off at N-2's checkpoint. I've commandeered a Purist Sutherland."
Kallen sighed in relief.
"Attention all units." Naoto's voice came through a moment later. "This is K-1. I can't stay awake much longer, my head is... fuzzy..." He paused. "Be advised, B-1 is now acting Commander of the Kozuki resistance movement. I repeat, B-1 is now in command for the duration of the battle. Sound off!"
"Hai!"
Lelouch, in the cockpit of his Purist Sutherland stood with a number of other Burai units.
"I have a plan to secure more war material." He said after taking a moment to think.
"Q-1, Q-2, head towards the west entrance. I want every other able-bodied pilot to head that direction, follow the rail tracks.
Lelouch allowed a confident smile to stretch across his face.
"I repeat, head towards the west entrance."
AN: And that's a wrap for this chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed! I wanted to give you a second one ASAP because of the huge delay and-
Heavy breathing
Turns to see Kallen with blood splattered on her face and a slasher-grin.
Kallen: "Rip. And. Tear. Until it is done."