August 31st, 2018. Area Eleven. Lake Kawaguchi resort hotel, evening.

Upon being granted entry the hotel lobby, the pair of JLF soldiers escorting the Black Knights were shocked to find three of their comrades piled in a corner of the room with slit throats; before the element of surprise could be lost, Zero shot them both in the back of their heads. "My agent on the inside has been diligent," he explained in reference to the stack of cold corpses. "Black Knights, you know your orders. C1, join with Alpha Team in search of the hostages. I'm going to meet with Kusakabe; no doubt, the Princess is in his care as we speak."

C1 spared a helmeted glance his way. "You killed Clovis. What guarantee is there that you won't do the same to Euphemia if left unsupervised?"

"Clovis selfishly and arrogantly sacrificed innocent Japanese for his own convenience, and was punished appropriately for it. Viceroy Euphemia's willingness to trade herself for the lives of her citizens taken captive by the JLF, by contrast, is something to be lauded, not punished; if you cannot discern the difference between these circumstances…"

"I know the difference perfectly well," C1 evenly replied. "I just had to make sure that you know it."

"To establish our credibility as allies of justice would demand that the Princess is returned safely to her people. Does that satisfy you?"

"You must be around Suzaku Kururugi's age," C1 muttered as she turned to follow Ohgi's beckoning wave, "if you can look at the world around us and still believe in justice."

She hadn't bet on Zero overhearing the remark, and flinched at the dramatic swoosh of his cape when the revolutionary made for the elevator. "I believe in justice where none exists because we, the Order of the Black Knights, will create it!"

C1 couldn't help the shiver racing up her spine. Walking next to her, Ohgi noticed. "You know, Miss, if you want to see real justice for the Japanese, you could defect from Britannia and join up with us; we'll take whatever help we can get."

The rest of the rescue team broke out in a flurry of whispers around them, with Kallen being the one to blurt out what everyone else was thinking. "You can't be serious, she's a Britannian soldier!"

"A soldier who didn't have a problem walking up unarmed to cooperate with a group of rebels," Ohgi chided, "and who ultimately hasn't yet behaved in any way I'd call unreasonable."

Turning back to C1, he added, "Even if Princess Euphemia genuinely means for the best, surely you have to realize that we as Japanese can't simply entrust our interests to someone whose entire family has been not only murdering us, but trying to stamp out our identity as a people."

Kallen scoffed. "Civilians are one thing," she muttered, "but I can't see myself trusting anyone who'd pick up a gun for the country trying to snap our necks."

"Q1–!"

"I'll point out that I don't have a gun," C1 briskly replied, "and that you are all a bunch of self- or half-trained amateurs relying on a mysterious leader you don't even know, who's only achieved two ultimately minor victories against Britannia so far. Your assessment of the Viceroy isn't wrong, but it's also far too early for you to start proclaiming yourselves the saviors of Japan. At the very least, save your recruitment pitch until after the mission."

The Black Knights bristled at the rebuke, but… none of them could really deny the facts of what had been said.

"…you're right," Ohgi admitted, looking forward with a resolute nod. "We do need to prove ourselves to the people. Not just that we can be trusted to do what's right, but also that we're capable enough to get results. And tonight's the first step on that path. If our information is accurate, the hostages should be in a pantry up ahead."

Slowly, C1 nodded in agreement. "Good attitude. As soon as we find them, I can signal my colleagues to start our evacuation plan."

Just as quickly as it had begun to fade, the tension in the group started climbing up again at the reminder that, although the parties' immediate purposes aligned, their desired outcomes deviated…

Pendragon, Imperial Palace. Early morning.

Monica stands up and tries to loom over us from behind the other computer, with a popped vein in her forehead and an expression that I'd almost call 'horror' if I didn't expect any better. "You, Sir. Are a degenerate!"

Too bad for her that the height difference makes it adorable instead of intimidating. "Did I fail to complete the mission objectives?"

With a heated sigh, Monica deflates. "No."

"Did my forces suffer excessive casualties?"

"Much higher than would expected or, normally, tolerated from a Knight of the Round, and higher than is standard for successful combat operations, but not so high as to make your victory a Pyrrhic one..."

"Was I as bad as Bradley?"

"My brother in Christ, of course not!"

The agitated look on her face when I laugh at that scandalized denial only makes me laugh even harder. "So what's the problem?"

"What's the problem? What's the problem?! You scorched valuable farmland and used the remaining civilian food stores to bait out raids from the enemy fortress!"

"I also shared my rations with those civilians in the interim," Suzaku calmly replies, "kept forces on hand to protect them full-time, and then redistributed the ill-gotten wealth from the fortress among them once I had a good enough position to take it. They should have more than enough money to buy more food or otherwise rebuild their lives, and if that's not enough then the situation also represents an opportunity for Schneizel to generate some goodwill by making a humanitarian aid deal."

Monica slaps the table between us and storms over. "You're a Knight of the Round! Keyword being Knight! It's expected that you should conduct yourself in a knightlier manner than this!"

"You're cute when you're mad. But to address your actual complaint," I continue while she's off-balance, "I'm not playing for glory or to make some jackass on a throne look good; I'm here to win while shooting for minimal casualties, before going home to cuddle my sexy girlfriends. And frankly, the only way I see a problem with how I conducted this operation… is that it's a short- to mid-term hit to productivity if you were planning to annex the territory, even though I've taken actions to help mitigate civilian hostility and make them more amenable to joining us peacefully."

The blonde doesn't answer for a long moment, hopefully chewing on what I've said and maybe reconsidering some of the garbage Charles and the rest of the culture in this town must have filled her brain with. "...that may be the case," she allows, "but you can still at least put a little more effort into looking the part I expect of you while doing so. That's enough, you're dismissed."

Suzaku salutes and turns to leave, only to awkwardly abort when I keep our eyes on Monica. "It's five in the morning. Did you plan on keeping me here all night?"

"No, but I hadn't planned on His Highness the Prime Minister keeping you all day, either. I wanted to get as much out of testing you as I could, as quickly as I could…"

The Knight of Twelve doesn't seem affected at all by the odd hours, though it could just be that she's jacked up from watching me play her RTS game. Whatever the case may be, she pulls a phone out from a pocket in her cloak and swipes on it – probably checking some kind of calendar or scheduling function. "You've been given a private audience with His Majesty in two days at noon, and if that goes according to plan then it will be followed with a public ceremony for your knighting at four – just in time to make the morning news in Tokyo. As for tomorrow, you're scheduled a few hours of administrative lessons with Gino and then six hours of combat training with Dame Ernst; once you've been knighted, you'll be free to leave the homeland as soon as we're satisfied with your progress. Get what rest you can, Sir Kururugi."

Suzaku salutes again, and this time I let him take us out of Monica's gaming… out of her 'simulation' room while I pull out our phone and check for missed messages.

"Nothing at all," he whispers before I take over and make for our new office, head shaking all the way.

Would've been nice to try and catch up with Cecile, and not only for a friendly face to help me process whatever I might find when we scry Norland with our Geass… but it's certainly no time of night for that. And given that Monica admitted she knew things were going down overseas –

The idealistic interpretation, Suzaku cuts in, is that things are under control and nobody wanted us to worry…

Sure, and a more realistic one is that the situation's still too chaotic for anyone involved to concern themselves with feeding us updates.

That's… probably accurate. Although you might as well go ahead and take a look at the note he slipped into our pocket earlier.

Ceding the point, and that in the worst likely case scenario we might just need to ask someone for help if it's in code or something, I snake the folded up paper out of our pocket to find…

…contact information for some kind of company, and a detailed set of instructions?

These are mercenaries from Zilkhstan, Suzaku realizes as we continue reading.

"And written precisely enough that even a clueless idiot could follow them."

Why would a Britannian Knight of the Round give something like that to us? Even if he wanted to congratulate our joining the Rounds, which I doubt, something like this doesn't make sense as a gift.

No, unless he's expected that we'll have a need for it and our doing so benefits him in some way… and I don't think he's expecting a kickback for the referral.

…whatever the situation may be, we aren't going to equip ourselves to resolve it tonight. While we have the relative luxury to do so, we should focus on one crisis at a time.

"Right," I reply as I finally get into our office and dig out the remote for a TV in the corner, turning it to the societal cancer that is 24-7 cable news. "And the foremost crisis at this particular moment is –"

"Do you know why I've just had you waiting here in silence, Princess?"

Euphemia spared only an idle glance to the armed men on either side of Kusakabe, reflecting with some small frustration that she probably ought to have expected more of the current situation than she had.

Still, it was some small dignity that the brute had deigned to let her use the couch facing the desk rather than make her sit on the floor – even if her title were spat with the respect normally reserved for a curse, the Princess could hardly hold much grievance over that in the present circumstances.

"If I had to make a guess, I would presume that Zero is on his way to meet with you. Knowing that he killed my brother Clovis, one possibility might be that have some interest in getting ideas from him for what you'll do to me. Another is that you plan killing us both so that the Japanese will see that they have no alternative path but flocking to your banner."

"Hah! A mind like that is wasted on a Britannian girl," the bearded soldier sneers with a clap. "Indeed, I find myself curious to hear what Zero would like to say to me before I decide what I'm going to do with you."

"I see." Rather than waste time or breath with this sudden burst of conversation on scolding him for refusing to negotiate, she merely folded her hands over her lap. "Since we're now on speaking terms," Euphemia continued, "would you mind my asking what you plan to accomplish with all of this? Surely you must realize that after the attempts I've made to improve life for your people, anyone sent to replace me will be all the crueler for my passing."

"Hah! As if the false hope of your superficial kindness isn't already the cruelest thing you Britannian mongrels could possibly offer to the Japanese," Kusakabe sneered.

The Princess didn't answer that at first, coolly choosing to observe her captor.

A moment later, her eyes turned sad. "You haven't experienced genuine kindness since you were a small boy, have you?"

Euphemia's question was answered with a backfist that sent her sprawling to the floor… but not quickly enough to stop her from noticing the grimace that flew across Kusakabe's face before his anger consumed it.

"Attacking an unarmed woman behind closed doors… indeed, the Japan Liberation Front can be no less than the bastion of fortitude I've heard so much about."

In the moment, Euphemia barely even acknowledged that Kusakabe's fist had been raised for another swing. Rather, her attention held fast to the synthesized voice that had spoken out of turn… and, more damningly, the open door it had waltzed through unopposed.

Is that really you under that mask? Lelouch?

"Hmph! I expected better manners from a guest," the Lt. Colonel growled. "Though for the man who slaughtered that pig Clovis, I can overlook a certain degree of rudeness…"

The unintended reminder of the brotherly bloodshed honestly hurt Euphemia more than the physical attack had done; regardless of whether Kusakabe and his pair of guards noticed her flinch, they kept discipline enough to maintain their focus on Zero.

"How gracious of you."

No mask or voice synthesizer in the world could limit the sarcasm in Zero's response as he strode further into the office, letting the door shut behind him. "As long as you're in an indulgent mood, Lt. Colonel, perhaps you wouldn't mind clearing something up for me… what exactly were you hoping to accomplish tonight?"

Clearly interpreting the question as confessed ignorance on Zero's part, Kusakabe's mood and face lightened considerably. "You mean you don't know? Really, Zero, you are partly responsible for all this; thanks to your self-centered showboating, the people have begun to forget that the Japan Liberation Front are still alive and well… with tonight's show of determination, our names will once again be held aloft by their voices!"

Wasting no time, he turned and pointed at Euphemia with a sneer. "And you're just as guilty yourself! You may have been tricking some of the more gullible among my countrymen with your lies and deceptions, but I see right through them! You're no less heinous than Clovis himself – thinking you can assuage nearly a decade of raped dignity with mere food and money!"

"That's all?"/"This was just for pride?!"

From the look on his face, it mustn't have necessarily been unexpected for the Britannian child to be confused.

But to see her rise back to her feet in anger, speaking out at the very same moment that Zero's languid frame radiated nothing short of pure disgust?

"You… are you both such callow brats?! Rather than enslaved by Britannia, it would be better if we went extinct! Any true Japanese would choose death before di–!"

"Your disgrace is already beyond measure," Zero snapped with a sweep of his arm. "Now, all three of you, die."

Kusakabe and his guards froze in place, before straightening up and giving the masked man a trio of manic grins.

"HAI! OYAKATA-SAMA!"

And with that, the guards shot themselves in the head while Kusakabe drew his katana and impaled himself in the gut before dragging it across and spilling his shredded insides across the floor.

So it's really true, Euphemia realized in horror. With just a look and a word, he can seal the minds of other people and force them to do anything he wants!

As soon as he'd confirmed that all threats had been eliminated, Zero immediately whirled on Euphemia – just in time to catch her pulling a pair of sunglasses out of her cleavage and shakily sliding them over her face with one hand, even while her other was covering her eyes. "That's you, isn't it Lelouch?!"

"Lake One," Viletta snapped into comms, "we've gotten the signal to commence an armed intervention! Clear the evacuation team a path through the access tunnel, and extract the Viceroy!"

Down in her cockpit, the black-haired beauty raced through her remote power detachment procedures with one hand while hastily returning a friendly salute to Elle with her other.

"Roger that! Maya Garfield, Sutherland Custom – launching!"

The KMF's cockpit snapped shut with a hiss as the machine leaned forward to reduce its aerodynamic profile… and then surged into the access tunnel at full throttle, kicking up a whirlwind of heat and dust that left ASEEC's support crew coughing.

"She might be as impatient as Suzaku!" Elle cried, all while Lloyd cackled and applauded despite having been knocked on his back.

"I know, isn't that fantastic?! I was worried about finding a replacement Devicer, but she might not be half bad!"

Maya Disel, obviously, didn't hear Elle chastise their boss for failing to talk about his pilots like human beings.

Nor did she hear the mocking laughter of the JLF soldiers piloting a pair of Burais that had been bolted together and turned into the operating chassis for a supermagnetic railcannon, for which the entire underwater access tunnel was a glorified killzone.

Being on closed comms, she couldn't hear the terrorists boasting that their Raikou artillery platform would shred any Britannian mongrel who dared to challenge it.

But she did see the distant muzzle flash through her screen, and threw up her KMF's Blaze Luminous energy shield to disperse the impact across its projected surface, allowing her to continue barreling on through.

Time and again the JLF tried to shoot her down, and succeeded only in draining the Sutherland Custom's energy reserves.

It was certainly a fact that sustaining enough hits would eventually drain its power to the point of being unable to rely on the Blaze Luminous any further. And it was also a fact that with each second Maya's advance continued, she left herself less and less of a window to evade the next salvo.

On the fifth hit from the Raikou, the Sutherland Custom stumbled and staggered as its Blaze Luminous flickered and failed altogether, having absorbed all the punishment it could take.

Maya, her vision and awareness locked so tightly onto the target that she barely noticed, snarled as the Raikou finally came into proper view, and brought the VARIS rifle to bear.

You're disgusting cowards who target and hide behind civilians instead of taking our fight to the people with actual power!

"DIE, YOU DAMN ANIMALS!"

One pull of the trigger was all it took to launch a hyperaccelerated plasma bolt into the Raikou's barrel and out the back of the unit, cooking off its ammo store and causing the entire artillery platform to explode. The JLF didn't even get a chance to scream.

"Target down," Maya reported. "Moving on to the next phase of the operation!"

Forcing down the rage pounding in her ears as she consulted her digital positioning readouts, the pilot promptly shot open a hole in the roof of the tunnel and leapt through it into the open air.

"All I have to do now is shatter the hotel's foundation, and the evacuation team can rush in!"

With no option left but to follow the plan Maya had been given, the Sutherland Custom once again took aim….

Zero froze in place, surprised that Euphemia had called him out by name. At the same time, however, his mind raced to the obvious conclusion. Of course Suzaku would tell her. He has no reason not to, and it would put me into a bad position… Damn it, it's far too soon for this! But if she already knows, then there's no sense in lying.

Still, he kept calm and watched Euphemia get back to her feet. The girl was clearly rattled but rebounding, and pointedly putting the couch she'd been knocked out of between herself and him, even as she stared back through her thick sunglasses.

"Expected of Suzaku, that he would tell my secret to you."

"...as expected?" Euphemia asked. "Believe it or not, telling me the truth about you tore him up inside. I don't know what pushed him to do it... but if not for that, he'd have been content to keep lying to me for you."

"I've known him longer than you have. That's expected of him, too."

Euphemia hummed, slowly nodding. "Yes, I suppose I can see that... For what it's worth, you sound reasonably well. We've all missed you and Nunnally, but I suppose you likely don't intend on any other family reunions without that," she mused with a nod at the sidearm on his hip.

"No, not until I find who is responsible for what happened to Nunnally, and mother."

"But I could try to help you with that!" the princess insisted. "With Suzaku's own power... even he'll give up on being stubborn and play ball if I'm direct with him. I don't see any sensible reason why you and I should have to be at odds with each other."

Had anyone else but Euphemia said that, Zero might have laughed at them. "Of course you would not, you don't see the situation we're in from a perspective other than your own."

"I've heard much the same about you," she shot back. No hesitation, no consideration. Almost as if she'd had it already loaded.

But rather than attack, she extended a hand in his direction. "But we have this chance to share perspectives, so why waste it?"

Hmph. "Very well. I refuse your open hand because while you may have dreams of a better Britannia tomorrow, I must contend with the Britannia of today. And despite your sacrificial resolve, the fact you were fine with dying here makes me question your commitment to what you believe in."

"I wasn't fine with dying here, actually… but I noticed some truth to what you always said all those years ago – that if a King doesn't lead, his men won't follow. So here I am trying to lead, and to survive while gaining the experience to lead better as time goes on. You lament needing to contend with today's Britannia, and I might concede you that point – but it seems that I'm in a better position to do something about it than you are."

"Are you, now?" Zero asked, before inviting her to go on with a flourish. "Then by all means, point me in the direction of my mother's killer."

It was, of course, a cheap change of subject, and the princess's pout let him know exactly what she thought of it. Even so, her perspective on the matter was something the vigilante had an interest in. And, blessedly, Euphemia wasted little time in taking the request as seriously as he wished.

"...Cornelia was nearly as devastated by Lady Marianne's passing as you were," she began, talking as much to herself as to Zero. "And while Schneizel is certainly more conniving and shifty at times than I would like, he was too fond of you as a budding protege or rival to be involved with planning something that would hurt you and Nunnally to the extent that you have been. Never mind that he himself was always on benign enough terms with the late Queen to begin with, and that being party to such a massive disruption in court isn't like him… Notwithstanding the possibility that the Emperor has his own type of coercive power, similar in nature to yours, I don't believe that any of our brothers or sisters would have been involved; if anyone alive knows the truth, then it would have to be someone the Emperor actually trusts – which implicates Sir Bismarck Waldstein, and absolutely no one else."

"The Knight of One…" Zero mused. And who else would it be? Charles barely saw his children as pawns, but Bismarck was the man he trusted with his very life and will. "No," he admitted, "that is a very valid point."

"By all accounts," Euphemia continued, "you and Marianne were the Emperor's favorites until that night. For him to have reacted the way he did, and for the case to have been left in its current state for all this time… I'd wager he's covering up for a third party we aren't aware of. I'm as confident of that as I am that you'd prefer not to shoot me."

Left unsaid, but not unheard, was her acknowledgment that he had more likely planned to use his power on her in some way instead.

"Killing you was never an option. Neither, at this point, is what I originally intended."

"What are you planning, then, now that you know that I know the truth about you?"

"For now? Finishing what has been started here."

If Kusakabe and his followers were any indication, then the JLF had proven themselves a blight on humanity that needed to be purged –

"So resolute and cagey," Euphemia lamented, the smile she'd been trying to keep on her face becoming as sad as he'd ever seen it. "I suppose the more things change, the more they stay the same."

The entire convention center rocked from a series of impacts hit its foundation, before slowly listing to one side.

Though his composure remained ironclad, Zero noticed movement on the grounds outside and stormed to the window to see…

Suzaku?! But he's supposed to be on the other side of the planet!

Shaking his head, Zero looked again to see that the pale KMF staring at him through the windows wasn't the Lancelot descending from quite an impressive leap, but rather some other new ace custom unit.

I should have expected that a team working for Schneizel would have some kind of redundancies in place…!

"If I'm not given another chance to say it in person, Lelouch? I love you, you and Nunnally both. And if her pain and rage weren't enough evidence of it, Cornelia does too. And Merrybell, and Schneizel, and more than a few of our other siblings."

For a half-second as he reached for the detonator to the explosives planted around the base of the hotel, Zero hesitated. "I wouldn't have thought you'd say goodbye like that–"

There, standing across the room from him, was Euphemia. Holding a heavy chair. "I implied earlier that I had a plan to get out," she said with an exasperated laugh. "But I certainly never said you'd be impressed with it!"

Zero's rational mind deduced her intention almost immediately, but when faced with the sheer dissonance of the sight before him compared to that sweet harmless girl he knew at Aries Villa…

"EUPHIE, DON'T–!"

With a yell, Euphie swung the heavy wooden chair into the glass window and broke it, before leaping through.

Zero reached out in vain to catch her, even as he spotted the unknown Knightmare Frame start racing forward to do the same.

Damn it! If I use the explosives now, then…!

With speed and agility such that Zero almost couldn't believe it wasn't the Lancelot, the unknown KMF recklessly sped towards the wall of the shifting hotel at full speed before leaping up and kicking off to catch Euphemia with what could only have been inches to spare.

Judging by that crater in the ground, there must be more personnel coming behind it through the access tunnel… I'm out of time!

Zero's thumb went for the activation switch on his detonator – only for a girl's terrified scream to pierce through his brain from nowhere and knock him to his knees as if gravity had suddenly increased a dozenfold, echoing through his bones.

A voice beamed directly into my mind, like when C.C. contracted with me at Shinjuku and granted the power of Geass…?!

"Zero, we have a situation! One of the hostages turned into–"

And of course the Black Knights were subject to some grievous complication of their own, panicking into his ear!

"Do you have the rest of them?!"

"Y-yes, but–"

"Just focus on getting the civilians to safety!"

With more savage frustration than had ever been intended, Zero finally had a chance to trigger the explosives that had been set on the hotel's end of the access tunnel.

Whatever strange incident Geass had created now, at least he might be able to isolate the situation before too many other people could get caught up in it!