AN: I made a battle map as a visual aid so things don't get too confusing, but this site doesn't allow image uploads. If you wanna see it, head over to Ao3. Same fic name, author is listed as DonVito.
"It is in the heat of battle that one's true self is revealed. Only those that have experienced it can truly know themselves." - Hawk
"By all reports, Zero, we are severely outnumbered in terms of personnel. There are also sightings of multiple Paladins, we've seen five of them so far. Not to mention the police presence they could call upon." Glaston's expression was grave, one would think they were at a funeral instead of a command room. Violet mused that they were certainly preparing one as he studied the map.
Their headquarters and the associated apartments were surrounded on three sides by a meandering river. It held two key bridges in the south, which would be the linchpin of his plan.
"It's not so hopeless, we've got a choke point at the bridges, assuming our engineers have them set to blow up." He looked at Hawk, who nodded.
"Both of them will be gone at your command, Zero. But they have forces also gathering on the northern side, and they could pass through another bridge two clicks downstream. We didn't have the time or the resources to prepare its destruction."
"It won't change much, I can assure you. Once they start crossing, we collapse the bridges and wipe their cut-off forces with our best men, before turning around and overwhelming the northern force. Simple defeat in detail. Any deficiencies in equipment and skill will be compensated by our unshakable willpower."
"And the fact we've got nowhere to run," Hawk added, "You sure know how to motivate people."
"Of course I do. Blake told me we've managed to gather about a thousand men in this area, evenly split into 10 companies. She also said the police are making a perimeter to deny us escape or reinforcement."
"They're scattered and lightly armed, but they have enough men to search the urban area if we try to slip into the civilian population. They're also conducting other operations at the same time, we've already got incoming communications about raids on facilities in other parts of the city."
"They've prepared well," Zero said, "As expected of them. I'd be insulted if they did anything less."
They shuffled in their seats, overtaken by nervousness. It seemed none shared in his enthusiasm. No matter, he'll deliver them a miracle and shatter their doubts yet again. He'll deliver miracles again and again, until they recognize him as the unshakable force of nature that he is. Until they become fanatics.
"Glaston, you handle the south with companies 1-4. I want company 5 in reserve, while Azul takes the north with the help of our rookies in companies 6-10 and huntsmen trainees from Beacon. I will take overall command from our Paladin cockpit, but I will need a co-pilot.
"I'll do it," Blake stood up.
"You sure you're up to it?"
"If that White Fang ogre could do it, why can't I? I've had some experience while at the base, I'll do as good a job as anyone."
"Very well, we've also got an evac Bullhead ready in case the worst comes to pass. I want Hawk in HQ with our reserve staff. And don't forget to pick up the decoy radios, we'll try to repeat what we did last time. Let's give them hell."
They all nodded, standing up and hastily making their way out of the room. All but one.
"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you, Marrow. I've got a special mission for you, but for that I need to reveal some confidential information. Alone." Blake looked like she might object, but he turned her away.
Amin's expression gave it all away. All Violet needed was to keep him from immediately attacking, and the bait worked.
"So what is it you wish to tell me?" Marrow said. It was the happiest he looked in a while, but Violet could tell his arms were tense, just ready to spring into action.
"So, Marrow, what would you say is your greatest virtue?"
"Loyalty," he responded immediately. Violet didn't even bother suppressing a chuckle.
"Of course, loyalty. I would say I am quite similar, being totally dedicated to my mission."
"It's plain for all to see," Marrow responded, a confident smirk across his face. Both believed they had the other, and were only barely pretending to be on friendly terms, "Yet dedication isn't necessarily a virtue."
"Oh? Is it not the same as loyalty? It always depends on who or what you are dedicated to."
"No. If you are dedicated to a cause, even a good one, you may justify anything you wish for its sake. You can let your inhibitions run wild so long as it's for the greater good. Loyalty restrains me to person. I cannot betray their direct command. It is selfless. It is purer."
His hand moved to his helmet, "It is sweet how much you like philosophy, specialist Marrow."
He had taken it off completely, and both met eye to eye for the first time. Both held looks of contempt- But while Marrow's eyes also held surprise, Violet's had a faint glow about them.
"I need you to do something for me."
Violet caught up to Blake as she was approaching the Paladin. She turned around, gesturing for him to follow, "You done? Got anything useful from Marrow?"
"Yes," he said through his helmet, "He won't be a problem anymore."
"I see." She didn't exactly look happy, but they both knew he deserved it.
Violet looked upon their Paladin once more, the bipedal mech was painted a black, with a red emblem of the Black Knights denoting it as the agent of their revolt. It laid down in a kneeling position, presenting its cabin to them.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Blake said. None could ignore the firepower of the two rotary machine guns, two artillery tubes, and an unguided rocket cluster. It was the hammer with which he could even the odds against the overwhelming might of Atlas, should he use it well. But so could they.
"I'm still skeptical. There are enemy Paladins with more training than any of us."
"I said it's fine. Besides, Hawk added a couple of his personal touches to it," she winked.
"Do tell."
"While the Paladins are effectively prototypes, they still need to pass very strict reliability regulations to be deployed by Atlas. So for the time being, they only run the power generators at 80%."
"So…" he walked towards the machine, opening the cabin, "We just overrode all the safeties?"
"Don't worry, it's just Atlas being stuck up and overly cautious. They tuned their machines to run for days in rough terrain without requiring maintenance. We won't need such measures here."
"I hope you're right," he climbed inside the commander's seat, took off his helmet, and was quickly followed by Blake, who took the pilot seat in front of him. While he also had the option to pilot from his seat, Blake would do most of the work. That way, he could focus on giving orders.
They turned the machine on. The dust-powered engines roared to life, and the displays lit up. "Say," Violet began, "This is technically an improved design, it is not longer the Atlas Paladin-290."
"I suppose it's not. What of it?"
"It's ours. We should be the ones to name it."
"Hmmm…" Blake thought about it for a moment, "A paladin is already a kind of knight."
"But this is a Black Knight. Appearing from the shadows, striking fear into the evildoers of the world."
"Like a nightmare. We could call it a Knightmare?"
"Hmmm… That's good. It's perfect, in fact." he smiled, "Knightmare MK1, ready to deploy."
Despite his many years on the Ace-ops, this would be his first time experiencing a large scale military operation. He wasn't sure what it would look like, and he was very anxious. But the moment he and Marrow entered headquarters, he knew they would be fine.
The HQ wasn't just efficient, it was artful, dizzyingly so. Row upon row of communications terminals flashing various lights while operatives, assistants, and officers were going to and from- it was a wonderful atmosphere of orderly busyness. There must have been over a hundred people working to coordinate the Atlesian army to perfection. The special operations center has the ability to monitor and micromanage every squad on the battlefield remotely.
And then there was the brain of the machine, Winter Schnee. She stood there in the center, taking in reports and barking orders in return. He grabbed Marrow by the hand and took him to her.
"Taskforce North reports enemy sightings on 21st street. They seem to have formed a line running from…"
"Police report success in district 9, they've hit targets Bravo and Charlie, losses are…"
"Enemy scouts have sighted Taskforce South gathering, should we begin the advance?"
"We're more than ready," Winter said, "Order battalions one and two to advance from the south right after the airstrike. Battalions three through five are to start their sweep from the north while police elements follow up to clear stragglers."
"Very well, they'll be informed immediately."
"Good. If you don't mind, I need to handle an urgent intelligence report."
She dismissed her officers, before facing the two arrivals with an earnest smile, "Finally, took you long enough. I thought I would have to do this without you."
"I'm glad to see you too," Clover said.
"Likewise, but we have no time for small talk. Marrow, be quick, what are their deployments and how many…" Her smile lessened as she noticed the faunus' oddly blank stare. Her eyes darted to a suitcase in his hand just as he threw it towards her. The most she could do was extend her hand and call upon her semblance before everything was consumed by a blinding light.
The next thing Clover remembered was darkness. The smell of dust smoke, the sounds of dying, of pain. He felt the pain too, he felt it everywhere. He instinctively knew his luck semblance had saved him again, and he could only hope others were affected by it.
Forcing himself to get up, he saw that the whole headquarters was gone, all that pristine order which had taken so much effort to construct was instantaneously turned into ruin. Handpicked officers that went through years in the academy, pristine equipment and their operators, painstakingly trained for a field day that would never come. All was gone in a flash, nothing remained. Only rubble, scattered papers, electric sparks, the dead and the dying littering the place… How could it have happened?
And that's when it hit him, why Marrow had seemed so absent the whole day. It was obvious in hindsight, and yet even now his brain was struggling to rewire itself into considering Marrow an enemy. He loved the kid, he was hard working and constantly cheerful, nothing but the greatest tragedy could ever get him down. Then how? Why?
He shook his head and tried to focus on the present, on ascertaining the situation and helping people. Anything he could do now to salvage what was left. He wandered the ruined building, trying to help his comrades, yet each person seemed less savable than the last. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that at least Winter looked whole, though she was not moving.
Before he could get to her though, he almost tripped on Marrow's very much living and breathing body. Bleeding, but alive. He felt a surge of anger at how he lived while so many others had died. And yet another part of him was glad. He wanted answers from this stranger who had replaced his dear friend. He ran up to him, kneeling on his back and handcuffing him. At that, Marrow regained consciousness.
"Wha- What's happening?"
"You know damn well what's happening, you traitor!"
"Traitor? What are you-" He paused to look around, "What happened? Where am I?"
Clover slapped him, "Don't play dumb with me, who do you think I am?"
"I- I don't understand," he struggled against his restraints in vain, "What did I do to deserve this? We- we're teammates, aren't we?"
Clover slammed Marrow's head into the floor, "How disgusting. Feigning ignorance like a common criminal, at least have the decency to own up to what you've done."
"C- Clover," a meek voice called out to him. He almost didn't recognize it when it spoke with such a tone, "What's the situation, Clover."
"Winter!" He ran up to her, checking her for wounds, "Are you hurt?"
"It's just… A concussion," Her voice rose into a panic, "Clover, who's commanding the army?"
"No one, I think."
Zero watched from his Paladin outside HQ as yet another column of men settled into their positions, taking cover in various large concrete buildings and behind barricades they had put up at ideal places. As he heard the sound of jet engines approaching, he retreated into the HQ complex. Not a moment later, it shook with enormous force, the lights flickering and the people diving for safety.
And yet, the structure held. It was chosen for its sturdiness, and was additionally reinforced with spaced armor on the roof. Regardless of its failure, this was certainly supposed to be a decapitation strike, which meant that a followup attack would be coming.
"Get us outside, Blake, I want a direct look of the battlefield."
As he took up a position overlooking the river, he could spot another explosion, this time in the far distance. He was certain of its origin, and he felt safe calling it 1-0 for now. At the same time, though, he spotted two massive columns of APCs coming through the short bridges, each led by a Paladin.
"Looks scary, huh?" Blake said, "Second thoughts?"
"Who do you take me for?" He smirked.
Once the first vehicles had crossed, he ordered the detonation over radio. A second, two, three. Just as he thought it had failed, the ground shook with the intensity of an earthquake, sending countless men and armored vehicles into the water. He could physically see the shockwaves breaking windows as he moved in to finish those who had already made the crossing at one of the bridges.
"Glaston, wipe them out, no mercy," His paladin moved with grace to where several APCs had made a hasty semicircle near the destroyed bridge, and its occupants started disembarking. They were under heavy suppressive fire by his men, and when Violet started shooting shells into their clumped up position, absolute panic overtook them. People were fleeing in all directions, some of them on fire, some trying to surrender, others jumping for the river. It was a slaughter.
The only real threat was the opposing Paladin, who stayed mobile, firing its shells and machine guns wildly, yet it could not hit him. Blake was piloting the machine like an expert. A volley from his Paladin's artillery struck the Atlesian machine head on, and left it vulnerable to a barrage of rocket launcher fire from the ground troops. It knew the battle was lost, for it turned around and tried to ford the river.
Unfortunately, it seemed to be quite suited to the task, despite its damage. Violet and Blake tried to get close, but the hundreds of enemies on the other side had their sights on him, and their swarming rockets forced him to back off. He could only watch and take potshots as the defeated paladin limped to safety, just barely. Violet wasn't bothered, it would likely be out of commission for the battle. A call from Glaston's radio provided the perfect distraction, "Green-1 here, requesting reinforcements at the second bridge."
"Expect a paladin arrival ASAP, over." Blake fired a volley of Gatling fire at what remained of the cowering infantry, before leaving them to be finished off.
"Blue-1 here, We've made contact with the enemy in the north. They've got surprisingly large numbers and three Paladins, we're being overrun here."
"Hold strong. Try to draw the fighting to HQ, Hawk's reserves are manning static defenses and can hold until we arrive."
The second group was having a bit of a tougher time, as a more substantial amount of Atlesians had made the crossing, and they managed to gain some ground and spread out into the urban area. This didn't mean they could hide the massive APCs though, which were firing their machine guns into the distance while Violet approached from the flank.
It was a simple, methodical sweeping of the streets. Their small guns could barely scratch the paint off his murder machine, while he could effortlessly destroy them. He traveled back and forth, shelling APCs and machine-guning through various buildings where shooting was coming from. At that moment, Violet felt like he could beat their whole army all by himself. That was, until a shell directly hit his cockpit.
It was a shock, they were totally disoriented as they tumbled down to the ground. By the time they'd regained their senses, they realized they had crashed into a building. It didn't seem like anything major was broken, but some of the auxiliary instruments were down. By the time they'd gotten the machine back up, the enemy Paladin was upon them.
They fired their one rocket barrage at it, the unguided missiles scattering everywhere, but making enough shots to stagger their opponent. An attempt to finish it with the artillery tubes failed, as the shots missed.
"Damn, the auto-targeting system is malfunctioning," Blake said.
"Then just get up close, shoot it point blank."
She tried to do so, but all she got for her troubles was a violent peppering of dual high-caliber machine guns and a rocket barrage of its own that she scrambled to escape from. They'd lost their chance, and now the Atlesian machine was chasing them. Blake did her best to run away, while Violet directed her movements, leading them deep into the settlement where his soldiers were well entrenched in the buildings.
As the chase went on, the machine started piling up hits from rocket launchers, dust bombs, and precise hits to its sensors. It was passing by Violet's best men, and at some point it started slowing down, giving him the perfect opportunity.
"Go around that corner, and ready for a fight."
She turned the corner and prepared their weapons. When the enemy Paladin came into sight, all guns fired at melee range, obliterating the wounded machine several times over in a glorious display of explosive might. In just a few moments it was reduced from the pride of Atlas to a smoldering mess of scrap metal.
Jubilant soldiers cried out at the sight, and it wasn't long until Glaston called in, "Zero, we've cleaned the last of the enemy on this side. What now?"
"Leave a handful of scouts in case they try to cross somehow, send the rest north towards HQ. I'll be joining you shortly."
"Copy that."
"How are you feeling, Vio?" Blake asked as they neared their destination. By now, they could clearly hear the sounds of intense battle.
"It's gone almost perfectly. Don't let up, the hard part isn't over yet."
Just as Violet had ordered, most of the fighting was taking place near the HQ. The factory was turned into a concrete fortress, with firing slits from where machine guns and rocket launchers reined hell on the assaulting troops, who were professional in their own right and were overrunning some outer positions despite taking heavy casualties. Their motivation wasn't unfounded, as there were three Paladins running back and forth, reducing hardpoints to rubble with explosive cannon fire and covering them with machine guns. It seemed a hopeless battle, at least until he arrived with hundreds of soldiers on his tail.
He let it rip as he moved in, rotary guns cutting through the charging masses, before continuing further north before the Paladins could give chase. It seemed that there was sporadic fighting in the surrounding areas as well. He called in Azul.
"Blue-1, status report. Why are things such a mess?"
"We're trying to sort through the confusion as well, Zero. We've lost contact with companies 7 and 10. We think they're mostly gone."
"Not surprising, we'll have to write them off," He moved through the streets, with Blake occasionally firing at enemies, but they were mostly scouting out the situation.
"Companies 6 and 9 seem to be scattered throughout the city. We've got as many men as we could gather defending HQ with the reserves."
"I've got nearly 400 men hitting them from the flank. If you have anything left, you and Hawk should counterattack now."
"I'll send out everything I can spare, all the huntsmen too."
"Good. Tell company 6 to regroup near the precinct out west, there shouldn't be many Atlesians present. From there, they should march to envelop the enemy grouping."
"I'll forward it. I'm seeing that the enemy force is moving to expand its attacks on HQ from the east as well."
"I'm circling back there, so don't worry. Company 9 should take positions alongside the Longstreet apartments, they'll get a good firing lane on the enemy as they move to flank us."
By the time they'd completed their mini tour of the battlefield, the situation had changed substantially. The previously swarming hordes of enemies were no longer charging ahead. They had gone on the defensive, hiding in the various buildings like vermin. A duo of jets flew by but couldn't do anything. The battlefield was too chaotic for them to pick out a target. Not for him though, confusion presented opportunity to him.
"Fire away, Blake. Leave none alive."
Violet watched the ongoing carnage with a smile. He relished the chaos, personally. The Atlesians were built for a different kind of warfare, for the civilized open field battles of the previous century, where the volume of artillery, armor, and air power decided the day. He delighted in taking the proud Atlesian army, dragging it through the mud, and beating it in the dirty brawl of urban combat where their advantages meant little.
The only thing with the mobility, firepower, and armor to fight effectively here seemed to be the Paladins. Three of which had just appeared in line formation as he rounded a corner. They wished to confront him, and he gladly accepted their challenge.
"Ramming maneuver, Blake."
"What?" She gasped.
He overrode the controls from his seat, setting his mech to charge into the middle Paladin before they could shoot him down. The two other mechs couldn't decide if they should fire on the entangled machines or not.
"You… mental, suicidal… agh," Blake growled in frustration as she desperately tried to wrangle her Paladin into pointing its guns at the enemy they had tackled, something it seemed to be resisting with its own mechanical limbs. They were practically wrestling with the mechs, he was sure this wasn't an intended use case, but it seemed quite effective.
"Keep at it." He reached for the radio, "The other Paladins are standing still. Knights, destroy them!"
It took a few moments, but a number of people suddenly started firing at the mechs, and he could hear serious explosions and equally destructive retaliation. Eventually, just barely, Blake had managed to point an artillery gun at the Paladin's cockpit. As she did so, it ejected, but as it was laying down at a bad angle, it only managed to crash into a building before combusting into flames.
By the time he looked around, the other two Paladins had withdrawn.
"Zero," Glaston called, "They… They're retreating!"
"Really? Just like that?"
"Seems so, we're pursuing as much as we can, but we're exhausted too."
"Keep at it, but be cautious. Don't let any element get too far ahead from the rest."
It took him and Blake a few moments before they righted themselves and rejoined the battle. This time they took things more cautiously and tried not to push the strained and damaged machine to its limits. He saw a great number of dead and injured on the way as their men raced north and took out whatever pockets of hostiles they encountered. He was dismayed to see that many civilians had been caught in the mess, there were just so many corpses everywhere. He supposed Atlas shot at every silhouette as they rushed forward.
As they moved through the urban environment, clearing out buildings and chasing through the streets, their soldiers ran into more and more resistance, and even limited counterattacks. They've also started spotting some police officers in the enemy ranks. The Paladins had also returned, though they were far more cautious now. Perhaps too cautious, as they preferred to use indirect fire to harass his men. When they had encountered what seemed to be a fallback line, he let his people attempt an assault, hoping the defenses would prove brittle after he applied pressure, but it was not the case and they were forced to fall back.
"All units, cease pursuit and take up defensive positions. Hawk, I need your men to gather the wounded and run ammunition to any units that need it."
"Copy that, Zero."
"Green-1, we're going to pull back by one street. I need your men to make sure we leave behind decoy radios for them to find."
"Understood, Zero. We're on it."
"I'll also need company 1 under my direct command to set up an ambush. Make sure they're issued more explosives. By the time the enemy heads in, we'll be rested and ready."
Violet breathed a sigh of relief and slouched in his seat as the fighting died down. He could hear some potshots being exchanged here and there, but both sides were low of ammo and were physically exhausted from the stresses of combat. He checked the time, it wasn't even 40 minutes since the fighting began.
"Had enough?" Blake was breathing heavily in the pilot seat in front of him.
"No. Not until I've wiped them out fully. I want the head of whoever is in charge, and I want their execution broadcast to the world."
"Calm down there, you reckless lunatic. You're gonna kill me for real next time."
"You were scared shitless, weren't you?" He chuckled, "Relax, it turned out fine in the end. In fact, it was the best move we could have made in that circumstance."
"You. And I. Are never getting into the same Paladin. And don't ever override my controls again, understood?"
He couldn't quite keep his laughter to himself, "I'm afraid I don't. You're stuck with me for the remainder of the battle, Blakey."
She gave him a viscous side-eye, before cracking a smile, "You jerk."
The moment was interrupted by Glaston's voice over the radio, "The plan is in motion, we've got a handful of people ready to imitate command chatter. What do you want them to relay to the enemy?"
"Hmmm… Make them forward information on how we're gathering at the old hospital out east to regroup and resupply," Seeing Blake's raised eyebrows, he added, "Don't worry, it hasn't been in use for years. The place has a large courtyard, and we'll fire on them when they try to approach the complex."
Several minutes later, and the enemy had restarted their attacks. To his frustration, this time they were moving in a far more methodical fashion. He'd hoped that they would charge deep into their territory like last time, but he was fine with waiting a little longer. They had to forward the supposedly captured radios at some point, he hoped they were competent enough to do that much.
Slowly but surely, the fighting neared them. It took them longer than expected, to be honest. He had ordered Glaston to try and provoke them into breaking formation, to no success. Have they lost all confidence? Did he really inflict that much damage on them? All reports say that they're being cautious to a fault. Either way, he and his men were ready to pounce from the side streets, they were getting anxious as they waited for the enemy to fall into their ambush.
Then, out of nowhere, an explosion shook his Paladin. Blake moved on instinct, and they just barely dodged a second, and then a third explosion. Enemy infantry came in from all sides and opened fire. Some of them were exceptionally reckless, absorbing several shots with their aura as they charged his best men and cut them down from up close.
Violet took control of the machine guns, firing a volley into a grouping of aura-users engaged in a melee, taking them out alongside a few of his own men. Another round of what he now recognized as artillery shells hit some distance away, and he moved to escape the area.
"How the hell did they sneak up on us?" He shouted. "They should have tried to envelop the hospital, not- ugh."
Just as they had exited the street, they came face to face with the two Paladins from before. Their guns were pointed almost vertically, likely shooting indirectly at where he was moments ago. He was sure they noticed him. He was too far to wrestle them like last time, so he fired all his guns while strafing to the side. He only managed a few glancing blows, while they, in turn, unleashed hell upon his Paladin. Blake did her best to dodge them, but they still took a shell hit to the lower hull and a great many bullets. He could see more and more soldiers coming in, every window and rooftop filled with them, firing everything at him, from small arms to rocket launchers.
"Company 1, retreat. Companies 2 and 3, send your closest elements to cover them. We're-" A thundering shock interrupted him. They had suddenly stopped, and panic overtook him he realized they were immobilized. He didn't even know what happened, the warning lights went from an informative display to a dizzying lightshow, while the gunfire against them only intensified.
He knew he had only one option. It pained him to do so, but he hit the eject button. He felt an immense acceleration and his vision dimmed as he soared into the skies of Vale in his cockpit.
A few more moments, and the acceleration stopped. He was in freefall. He shared a look with Blake, and they both knew at that moment that they were getting far more than they bargained for. He felt the parachute deploy, and as he looked at the ground, he was at least relieved they would be landing in friendly territory.
The fall was frustratingly slow, but eventually, they landed in the street and Blake opened the cockpit, dragging him out.
"You okay?" She asked.
"It's not looking good," he said, laying down, "That whole sector is vulnerable, and I need to be there."
"They ambushed us…"
"I know!" He slammed his fists on the ground, "You don't need to remind me. It's… like they changed into a completely different force at the flick of a switch. How? Those were some of my best men, and they somehow snuck past our frontline and… They must have used elites, right? That's the only explanation, there were aura users among them, so it's not that much of a-"
"Violet," She interrupted his rant, trying to get him up.
"Don't." He knocked her aside, "I don't need your sympathy. I'm not giving up just yet."
Breathe in, breathe out. He composed himself before getting up and retrieving his helmet from the cockpit. He examined it closely, its shiny surface reflecting his face, and the familiar glint in his eye, "I'm going to show them a miracle they'll never forget."
AN: We're finally doing it! I am a little afraid of writing large, Code Geass style battles, but I've got plenty of ideas on how to keep it varied. And don't worry, we'll get a perspective on what's happening on the other side in the next chapter. See ya soon!
Guest:
Yeah, I remember reading Black Rebellion a few years ago and desiring a worthy successor. I mulled it over in my head a long time, only now getting to type it out. It's been a while since I last looked at it, but I recall it had written itself into a corner by giving Lelouch too much, too quickly. Rest assured, I won't fall for that trap. There will be much suffering in the future ;)