Chapter 30: Guren and Nemesis vs Lancelot.

For the residents of Georgetown, the morning had begun routinely. Nestled beneath the Narita mountains and guarded by a modest Britannian outpost, the town rarely feared unrest. Fog clung to the streets, and an early chill seeped through shutters when the soldiers' evacuation orders crackled through.

Most groaned—convinced it was nothing more than a drill, perhaps a readiness exercise for the Black Knights. After all, with a viceroy like Cornelia, perhaps such things were inevitable. Grumbling that they’d lose a day’s wages if they fled too far, the townsfolk obeyed half-heartedly.

Their doubts only deepened when a distant roar rolled down from the peaks—cannon fire, they guessed, part of some live-fire test commissioned by the Viceroy. That illusion shattered in an instant. A tremor rippled beneath cobblestones as the mountain’s flank fractured. With a thunderous crack, a torrent of mud, stone, and uprooted pines cascaded toward them. The green-clad slope turned an angry brown, each massive tree ripped from its roots like a blade through silk. Clouds of dust billowed overhead, and the earth groaned as the avalanche devoured everything in its path.

Panic erupted. Parents clutched children, lovers grabbed one another, and siblings clumped together. Prayers spilled from trembling lips—supplicants begging to be spared from what felt like divine fury. Their collective dread focused on their homes, memories, and the fragile world they'd built beneath the mountain's watchful gaze.

Miraculously, the slide lost force as it crested the foothills. What had thundered down with the might to obliterate forests slowed to a sluggish flow. By the time it reached Georgetown's fringe, it bore down on a handful of gardens and low stone walls—enough to ruin flowerbeds and dent fences, but no more—like a conquering army that, in mercy or chance, halted its advance.

“What the hell was that?” One of Minami's squadmates asked, looking wide-eyed at the aftermath of the landslide, which could have buried them if they had been at ground level.

“I guess that’s the signal…” Another muttered.

“You crazy? How the hell was a landslide meant to be the signal?!” The burai’s pilot yelled over the comns.

“Cut the chatter, she's right. Zero informed us commanders before this started of his plans. That landslide was artificially created and should have wiped out a big chunk of Cornelia's forces.” Minami spoke up as he kept his binoculars on the target building, which was left untouched by the landslide.

His squad looked at him, surprised but awed that their masked leader could do something like this.

Minami was just as impressed as them, but he hid it better as he turned to them. Lowering his binoculars, he picked up his rifle and turned to them.

“So, while they do their part, it’s time we do ours.” The remainder of their task, as well as the clear signs that their comrades would be e hitting the Britannians on their end, galvanized them all as whatever hesitation or fear melted away.

Line Break

The facility gate security guard wondered for a moment if they should have left, considering that they had just suffered a landslide. With the authorities calling for an evacuation, it would be suspicious if he stayed.

But standing in the guard house by the facility's gate, he shook his head. If he left his post, they'd have hell to pay, and with rumors rampant that the Viceroy had already found and liquidated another site, he knew that he didn't have much chance should his luck find him detained, as his papers marked him as deployed to a small garrison up north in Kitaakita.

So he was on high alert when he heard the sound of an engine. Looking down the road, he saw it wasn't a military vehicle but a basic van, the sort one would use to deliver things to small businesses. He wondered how the heck it was out at a time like this when he made another observation.

The van was throttling towards them at full speed. Grabbing his radio, he got out of the guard station and started waving at the driver, screaming for them to stop and turn to do something, but if they noticed, they didn't react.

"Dammit!" He cursed as he pulled out his pistol and started firing, aiming for the glass to kill the driver or force them to turn away. Still, despite his shots piercing through the windscreen, sending rippling cracks through it, the van didn't stop. He moved to aim for the wheels, but the front bumper was too low for him to do it.

With no choice, he gave way as the van came crashing through the steel gate, its momentum ripping the gate off its tracks and taking out the guide rail attached to the wall. Looking at the destruction, the guard saw that the gate was totaled, but so was the van, as its front was ruined, with part of the gate steel bars buried in the driver compartment. In fact, it skewered where the driver would be.

With the alarm ringing, the security knew he would be getting reinforcements soon. Slowly approaching, he radioed in the issue. “Control, we have a code green at the main gate. Unknown vehicle, moving to-”

Before he could finish, the van's rear doors flung open, and several figures spilled out. Clad in black, all armed, he saw that the uniform matched that of the Black Knights from the hotel jacking. His training kicked him, and he was already aiming his pistol, but the assailants were faster as 3 of them trained on him and fired; the guard shot several times in the chest and head, one bullet hitting his hand and throwing his dead aim off, his gun going off but firing into the courtyard, hitting no-one.

The man barely had time to realize that he had been shot before death took him, and his lifeless body collapsed in an unceremonious pile. His reinforcements arrived just in time to see his death, both men yelling that they had intruders as the Black Knights turned and opened fire.

Both guards went down before they put up a fight, the first having been shot through the chest and neck, but the second managed to dive to the side and avoid immediate death; with 2 bullets finding their way into his gut and shoulder, he knew his time was limited.

"It's the Black Knights. They're attacking. We need more guards." Minami shot the man dead, but he wasn't fast enough to stop him from spreading the word.

"We don't have time. Remember the plan, trust your teammates, and don't hesitate," Minami ordered the seven-man team as they ran towards the main entrance.

Line Break

With the special core, Cecile was once more amazed by Suzaku's ingenuity in combat. At the same time, Lloyd, nursing some bruises, could only giggle.

“As Reckless as ever. He used the V.A.R.I.S. to clear the obstacles in his path and get him to Cornelia faster,” Lloyd smiled wider as he recalled a little bit of trivia from all those panicked radio calls earlier. “And if the reports are accurate, then the Black Knights got their hands on 2 units far better than those Glasgow knock-offs.”

Line Break

Suzaku kept alert, keeping it to himself that he was relieved that his gamble had got him to the Viceroy in the nick of time. Switching the V.A.R.I.S to a lower power setting, he turned to her unit, frowning when he saw the condition of it.

“Your Highness, are you all right?” Suzaku asked her.

“How did-who gave you permission?” Cornelia asked, only to scoff as she looked to the side. “Never mind, it was Euphemia, wasn't it?”

Suzaku nodded, Cornelia almost seeing him as a proper knight with how he was carrying himself. “Yes, Sub viceroy Euphemia ordered that I find and recover you before escorting you back to friendly lines.”

Guilford couldn't hear their conversation, but he had seen how fast the Lancelot had been moving. With his princess' signal still active, he would breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that she wasn't dead. He did find it unsettling that as her knight, he had to put his faith for her safety in the hands of another, but if nothing else, he had faith in the Lancelot's capabilities.

As Zero messaged his neck from that hard landing, Tamaki spoke up. “Hey, I recognize that unit; it's the same one from Shinjuku!”

“There’s no mistaking that appearance," Zero agreed, though he was seething at their chance to capture Cornelia being stopped. “This must be some cosmic joke, a white knight always arriving to thwart our plans, but this time we’re ready.”

C.C. followed that statement by aiming their cannon, one of the seven rounds of a specific anti-tank sabot loaded and fired. However, their opponent would go easy as it shifted its arm and activated its Blaze Luminous, resulting in the round deforming on impact, bursting into pieces but not leaving a mark.

"No good, our cannon can't break that shield," C.C. commented.

“Q-1, destroy the Lancelot, I’ll provide back-up. Tamaki, you handle Cornelia’s capture.” Zero ordered as he and the Guren charged the Lancelot from two sides, Tamaki being caught off guard by the order.

“Wha-really? I get to take down Cornelia?” Tamaki asked as the Lancelot, seeing that the red unit was further but lacked ranged equipment, stayed close to Cornelia's damaged unit and fired its slash harken towards the octo-legged machine, to which Zero had to pull back and dodge to the right to evade. The narrow valley limited their options.

Seeing a chance, Cornelia also moved. “You handle that thing; I'll handle the rest.” She ordered, firing both her slash harkens at Tamaki’s Sutherland, the man yelping as he dodged the one but got hit in the shoulder by the second, damaging the left slash harken.

“Yes, Viceroy!” Suzaku replied, blocking another shot from the Nemesis, aiming his V.A.R.I.S. at the Guren and firing a couple shots, but Kalle managed to evade both. Seeing the two closing in, Suzaku had to act and chose to charge the Guren, trying to catch it off guard.

Kallen didn't fall for it, a determined smile forming on her face as she waited for her chance, and right as the Lancelot tried to kick at her, she grabbed its foot and fired the RWS. Suzaku didn't know what its arm did, but as soon as he saw a flash, he disconnected his foot from the sand panel and watched as the piece of equipment bubbled, swelled, and exploded.

Needing to keep distance from such a weapon, Suzaku jumped over the Guren, trying to get to an area with greater space, only for an alarm to go off. Glancing to the side, he saw the Nemesis targeting him and quickly blocked its third shot, which knocked back to earth harder than he would like.

“This won’t go like Shinjuku, oh white knight. One way or another, you’re going to end up scarp.” Zero smiled as he and Kallen kept up the pressure; the Lancelot was forced to split its attention between them. Flicking his other sand panel at the further back Nemesis, the octo-legged machine just knocked it aside with one of its legs. Giving the Guren a chance to get close.

Ducking below its lunge, the Lancelot shoulder-checked the Guren, which shifted and went with the blow, retreating back before the Lancelot could attempt to cut it down. Again, he tried to fire at it, but the Guren quickly dodged the blasts from his V.A.R.I.S. "They're fast, especially that red one; it's matching the Lancelot."  Suzaku didn't know how that was possible; the Lancelot was supposed to be the best unit in the world; where did the Black Knights find something that could match it?

He couldn't think long about it as the Nemesis started firing its autocannons, which didn't pack nearly as much punch as its main but forced the Lancelot to block. Suzaku noted how the unit moved as it jumped onto the valley wall and springboarded off it, landing close to the Guren. “That unit…that’s the one which was firing on units from afar,”

Yes, that made sense, but if that was the case, then the same unit had defeated the Purebloods, and he knew who had been fighting them. Continuing with their dance, Suzaku felt his blood start to boil. “Zero, how many more need to die before you finally stop this madness?”

This landslide, this counter-attack, all those deaths and losses, all because Zero couldn't accept reality? He hated it, and he wouldn't let him continue unchallenged.

Evading an attempt from the Guren to swipe out his legs from under him, the Lancelot jumped into the air, firing its hip slash harkens at the Guren, but Kallen wasn't as surprised by them as he thought she would. Instead, she brought up her RWS and fired it on wide, creating a shield of concentrated radiation, which caused the two slashes harkens to bubble and defoam nearly instantly before they, too, exploded.

“Q-1, duck!” Kallen didn't question; she just followed orders. The Guren's legs shifted hard to either side, forming a near-perfect split, lowering it enough that the Lancelot could just barely make out the Nemesis behind it as it fired its cannon,

He didn't have time to throw up a shield, so he dodged the shot, feeling like the round could have taken his head off if he had been even a moment slower. Seeing that his ploy hadn't worked and their opponent was still in this fight, Zero had to admit that he was impressed. “It’s living up to its specs, or is this a taste of the pilot’s skill?”

“Whichever it is, it’s not making it easy to handle!” C.C. called out, keeping track of their ever-decreasing munitions, only to cry out a warning. “Boyo!”

The Lancelot, viewing them as the easy target, sidestepped the Guren's attempt to get his claw on it and rushed them, the prototype being far faster than them, and closed the gap. Zero pulled hard on the controls, throwing them hard into reverse, and tried to lean to one side to swing out of the way.

“It’s too fast-!” But that was too slow to escape damage as the Lancelot's MVS sliced through their cannon's turret, cutting off half its length, followed by a spin kick that knocked them into the air.

“Zero!” Kallen cried out but was even rattled; the masked man wouldn't let that defeat him. He reached for a level and pulled on, releasing the clamps on the legs’ connector joint, allowing the system, which recognized they were nearly belly up, to react.

That response was that all six legs swung upwards, now facing the ground, as the upside-down unit came in with a hard landing. One that had C.C. yell that he should perfect the shock absorbers and swap out the seatbelts for something more comfortable, but a landing that she could walk away from as she fired both autocannons on the Lancelot as Zero pulled them back in a zig-zag.

“It can turn its legs arou-!” Suzaku didn't have time to wonder how such a unit could adapt like that as the Guren was on him, furious that he managed to get past her.

“You aren't getting anywhere near him again, you Britannian bastard!” Kallen yelled as she jumped over the Lancelot, putting herself between it and the damaged Nemesis, and when it swiped at her, she caught its MVS.

Clamping down on the blade, she fired off the RWS, forcing Lancelot to abandon its sword. Despite being made from some incredibly heat-resistant materials, it was destroyed like everything else the Guren got its claw on.

“Dammit!” Both Guren and the Nemesis heard Tamaki cursing. The masked rebel looked at his screen to see their comrade's signal replaced with the 'lost' tag. It was the only means he had to see that part of the action, as they had moved too far. “I totally had it!” Considering he was complaining, they could assume he ejected without issue.

"How did Tamaki lose to Cornelia? Her Gloucesters didn't have arms or weapons outside slash harkens." C.C. asked as Lelouch righted their unit. They did a quick look at the damage, and it was mounting. Their main cannon was out of action, with their right autocannon jammed from that frankly ludicrous strike from the Lancelot. All that left them was the left, which had 29 rounds left, while the servos for the 2nd and 4th legs registered possible failures if they tried anything flashy.

“It was unavoidable; I'm not a knightmare designer nor have the proper production facilities. The fact that the damage is relatively limited is more a boon than anything else.” Zero now had to move with caution as they rejoined the fight.

With Cornelia, she had just dealt with that amateur Eleven when her unit came to a stop, falling back to a knee. Trying to force it up, she got an alert. “Dammit, my energy filler’s run out.” She only had enough for communications and her IFF transponder, but aside from that, she was a sitting duck.

“Zero, you handle Cornelia, I can take on this one!” Kallen called out as she noted that Cornelia was just remaining there, and her unit was not moving on her screens.

Suzaku tried to return to the Viceroy, but a burst of fire from the Nemesis cut him off as the machine got between him and where Cornelia was. Inside its cockpit, in just a few moments, Zero turned his head to the camera feed that showed their rear, along with Tamaki's wrecked Sutherland; he saw Cornelia's Gloucester, immobile and no doubt of power. She couldn’t put up a fight if she tried.

It wouldn't take much, just a few seconds to turn around, and she would die. It would be the second royal he would manage to outplay and send to face judgment from on high…

But this wasn't a search-and-destroy mission. And without Tamaki and Kallen, the main thing keeping the Lancelot at bay, she couldn't double back and retrieve the Viceroy's cockpit.

All that went through in moments, only enough time for the Lancelot to try and attack him with its 2 remaining Slash harkens, its V.A.R.I.S. already primed and ready to fire on him when he dodged.

“Negative,” Zero knocked the slash harkened off course, noting how it did far more damage than what the Purebloods could, having sheared off most of his frontal leg armor and exposed some inner workings. "If I try and pull out, it'll only give chase. Our best bet is to eliminate it here now. Keep the pressure on it; we'll provide ranged fire support.”

“Right!” Kallen did just that, forcing the Lancelot away from its mission and to focus on survival. The two units moved in ways that would have been impossible, even for a Gloucester. Attacks, melding into retreats and counter, interlaced with the Nemesis firing from a distance but just keeping in motion to keep their foe on their toes.

This split in attention came to cost Suzaku. At the moment he shifted to target the Nemesis again, Kallen managed to grab onto his V.A.R.I.S. Suzaku quickly relinquished the weapon, which Kallen blasted with the RWC before tossing aside, the rifle exploding before it hit the ground.

Now, with limited range, Suzaku diverted additional power to his left Blaze, as he would have to fight much like a knight of old.

“Just what are these things? Where did Zero get machines like this?” Suzaku asked himself, starting to sweat as the two machines were putting pressure on him, on the Lancelot of all things. “Lloyd, do you know what this is?”

Lloyd appeared on his side screen, and he was surprisingly composed for a man who cried when the Lancelot took minor damage at Shinjuku. However, the loss of 2 slashes harkens an MVS and his V.A.R.I.S.

Suzaku didn't know Cecile was keeping an eye on Lloyd and knew he would not add to his bruises; he didn't voice his justified frustration that his masterpiece was being slowly dismantled.

No, he followed his assistant's advice and focused on the fact that this was a prime chance to collect data. “Hmmm, can't say I do. I know that the Euros and Chinese don't like their bipedal designs because they can't find effective means to mass produce them. Still, I've never heard or seen anything resembling either.” Did that mean that the Black Knights had their own production means? Or perhaps found a powerful backer with such?

"The data on our end shows that the knightmare Zero's piloting is firing the same type of rounds as a Federation tank. The Blaze luminous is more capable of taking hits, but don't let your guard down." Cecile added that while its main cannon was disabled, they couldn't discount it yet.

“Understood, my lord!” Suzaku responded as he dived back into the fight, but…he didn't know, but it was moving strangely, as if it could read his moves, but how?

“Damn, this guy’s no joke.” Kallen leaned back, avoiding a slash that would have carved through the Guren’s chest, and went for a counter strike, but when she slammed the RWS into the Lancelot, it had activated its shield. “I hoped the radiant wave surger would do more damage." She didn't get into a power struggle with her foe; she knew from its stolen specs that if she hadn't gotten through in those first few seconds, she wouldn't.

“Zero. Do you have any ideas?" she asked, as he studied those specs probably harder than she did, seeing how he had them longer.

Off to the side, the Nemesis was racing across the uneven, rocky terrain. C.C. kept their remaining autocannon trained on the Lancelot, which kept shifting to ensure it could respond should they fire. "It's different to the Guren, Q-1. Where you're a close-quarters specialist, Lancelot was designed as a multi-role test bed.”

“So, it’s good at everything?” Kallen asked as she continued to press the Lancelot, but while she was pushing it back, it wasn't going down, and she couldn't get a hold of it.

“But does not excel, certainly not when up against a fellow 7th gen unit designed with a specialty in mind.” Zero complimented the Guren, to which Kallen smirked. “It's lost its rifle and one blade; more than that, it's cautious of your right hand. Use them, bait them. We'll lend whatever aid we can.”

A warning went off in both their cockpits, Zero and C.C. looking up to the skies and spotting at least a dozen attack VTOLs coming in for them, along with what looked to be a knightmare transport. Zero guessed the latter was for Cornelia, which proved his theory that Cornelia couldn't move either from lack of power or Tamaki's efforts. “And it seems that starts with giving you space to fight. Focus on eliminating the Lancelot, Q-1.”

“But what about you? You can’t handle those attack VTOLs.” Kallen replied. It seemed they'd need to pull out as she could defend against those birds, but she couldn't properly counter.

“Observe.” Zero was as confident as ever as he raced to face them, the VTOLs targeting him as their belly-mounted cannons started firing, peppering the area. Others sent out a couple of missiles designed for tanks, and thus Zero and C.C. knew that even a single strike could kill them. Well, C.C. could come back from such, but her contractor enjoyed no such ability.

That threat of death hardly seemed to phase Lelouch. Despite their unit sending warnings of damage accumulating, he continued to shift and move them around the same way as always, evading everything thrown at him. Under the mask, the exiled prince was smiling, mentally wishing that they'd get a proper fight to see what these birds could do.

"I don't have any rats to call upon, but C.C., shall you give them a proper welcome?" He turned a little to look at C.C., who rolled her eyes but smiled a little as she switched the weapons from ground to air. Her targeting system shut off for a moment before rebooting to the secondary system.

With the system’s activation, the two cells on the Nemesis main body opened, revealing that they had been 4-shot missile ponds this entire time. Having locked onto one, she pulled the trigger, and with a sharp hiss, followed by a roar of a rocket engine, the missile was off. Within seconds, breaking the sound barrier with a boom before it crashed into the belly of a VTOL, detonating on impact.

“What?” One of the other pilots cried.

“Scatter, that damned thing has anti-air!” Their leader ordered, only for his VTOL to be the next one targeted, the pilot forcing the controls hard to the side, releasing flares to get the missile off them, but the Nemesis was still able to tag them with several shots from its remaining autocannon, burning through its dwindling munitions. Still, it did the job as the VTOL exploded.

Seeing the burning remains of their leader crash into the mountainside, the second in command, no new mission leader cursed. “Falcon 1-2, you must break away and retrieve the Viceroy, now!”

“Yes, my lord!” The transport pilot replied as he turned away from the squadron and went to where the Viceroy was. Maybe they could hook up and get her to safety if she had enough power.

The rest remained with Zero, saturating the area with bullets, rockets, and missiles that the Nemesis was dancing through. However, this was starting to take its toll, as Zero already had to override 2 auto fail-safes to keep them moving, even at the risk of overworking the unit.

Narrowly dodging a rocket that crashed next to them and exploded in their wake, Zero commented as calmly as one would about the weather. “C.C. one seems to try to escape.”

"I'm aware," C.C. replied, firing a missile, not for those attacking but for the VTOL trying to get away; the missile blew up close enough that fragmentation did it, tipping to the side. It wasn't able to right itself before it spiraled out of the sky and crashed. “We’re down to half our missiles. You should have installed more.”

"I'll put that on the recommendations for a future model." Zero dryly replied as he kept them from being turned to scarp.

“Warrant Officer, do you have a means to silence the terrorist’s anti-air?” Cecile contacted Suzaku, as their units were reporting losses, with their VTOLs unable to approach the Viceroy's position out of the risk of one getting shot down and crashing on top of her.

“Negative, my Lord.” Suzaku started to sweat as he hurriedly pulled back from the Guren. His Blaze started to overheat from the incessant activations under the strain of whatever weapon his foe had. "I'm still engaged against the second unit."

To his back, he got another message of a VTOL down, which only pulled on his heart more. What was he here for if he couldn't even protect them? Why was he gifted with the Lancelot when he couldn't defeat one terrorist?! It was getting hard to keep his anger in check, but he would be lying if he wouldn't take joy in finally ending this nuisance.

That was easier said than done as Kallen's knowledge of the Lancelot, incomplete as it might be, was giving her an edge that he just couldn't completely counter, not when she was learning his fighting style as they went to add to that. Kallen, for her part, was growing frustrated that despite her edge, she hadn't taken out the damned white knightmare yet. She was just chipping away, piece by tiny piece.

She was avoiding taking damage, but if this guy had just taken to the field to save the Viceroy, then, if nothing else, he could outlast her, as her energy filler was already concerningly low. Still, she couldn't give up her momentum; she couldn't let this guy think. She had to keep him on the back foot and push her unit's close-ranged specialty as far as it could go.

The Guren had greater reaction times at close quarters matters. She also had a greater ranger than he had, especially when, as Zero predicted, the Lancelot was unwilling to try and meet her RWS with its remaining MVS. Instead, it would only parry her dagger, keeping her from landing any truly damaging blows, which reduced her to scratches and minor cuts that only left superficial damage.

The two were so locked onto each other that they missed how the explosions, doggedly chasing Zero, ceased as the VTOLs pulled back.

“Pull back, I repeat, pull back! There’s no point trying to recover the Viceroy under these conditions.” The commanding officer called out.

“But my Lord-!” Surely, they could find a weak spot, or they'll get lucky and kill Zero here and now, get revenge for all the comrades he's killed.

“The orders come from the Sub-Viceroy. Are you refusing that, soldier?” the commander asked the other pilot, who paled at the question.

“N-no, sir.” With that, none put up a fight as they pulled back, leaving a pot-marked landscape of craters and cracks, smoke trailing into the air, mixing with the kicked-up dust.

Amongst all that, the Nemesis stood.

Inside its cockpit, its duel pilots knew that standing was a miracle in itself. The unit was suffering from several system failures, with the number 2 leg in the red and misfiring and needing to be shut down. Legs 3 and 6 also showed critical warnings from damage and wear and tear.

“Looks like they’ve lost their appetite.” Zero commented, though their scans showed that the plans were still close, enough so they could double back.

"It's a good thing, too. We've exhausted our missiles, and our autocannon's down to 4 rounds." C.C. raised an eyebrow at him, as they were near toothless now. “Any bright ideas?”

Zero thought about it. Glancing at his screen, which showed their deployments, he focused on the closest fight, which had been the one that had to be abandoned. They couldn't help much, at least if they went about this the typical route. “Just one, but we'll have one chance at this. So if you will, C.C.” He returned her look. “Don’t miss.”

C.C. laughed at the statement; crossing her arms, she asked. “Who do you think you’re talking to?”

Line Break

Suzaku was starting to feel the heat from the enemy's weapon even though his shield and cockpit. Getting some space, he managed to move them into a position where the terrorist unit had its back to the cliff; now he just had to find a means to get them off it; that should give him time. "Warrant Officer, the Blaze is overheating; it will fail!”

Cecile's hurried call removed the option of ramming it off, as it would undoubtedly try to cook him like it did his weapons. But what could he do? He was lucky it wasn't charging him again, but how long?

“Don't you dare let that stupid red beast microwave my precious Lancelot, Warrant Officer Kururugi!” Part of him wanted to tell Lloyd he would also be cooked alive should that happen, but he knew it was pointless and thus kept his focus on the threat.

'Easier said than done,' Suzaku found a workaround, as he had been using just the one Blaze; if he just reversed things, then even if it taxed the other Blaze, it should withstand the heat long enough for him to end things. “I’ll just swap hands and let the one Blaze cool.”

He didn't know that Kallen had been waiting for that exact thing. She had guessed that he had to be overworking one of his shields to keep the RWS from doing any damage, and that meant rerouting power, which, according to the specs, would be evenly distributed between the two shield generators.

It would take him just a couple of seconds to swap that, considering how well this guy moved his unit, but she just needed those few seconds.

“Got you!” Despite the distance, Kallen crossed it far faster than a knightmare should, forcing the Guren to move as fast as possible from a standing start. The Lancelot saw her move and was already countering, shifting back. Still, she shot her right hand out and clamped down on the Lancelot's head like she had done to Jeremiah earlier.

Suzaku, knowing that her hand could do it, didn't hesitant. As soon as it clamped onto his unit's head, so close to the cockpit and Yggdrasil, he slammed into the expulsion switch, which detached the head. He didn't even wait for it to fully disconnect, forcing the Lancelot back so hard that as the Guren's RWS fired and radiation quickly spread through the head, the rest of the unit tore free of it.

He could make out Lloyd screaming at the loss of the unit, but Suzaku didn't care. At least the Lancelot, unlike other Britannian models, hadn't housed its factpheres in its head but had two built into the chest. Thus, while headless, his screens weren't nearly as affected as they could be.

Kallen ticked her teeth at the admittedly smart move from the Lancelot, tossing its swollen, radiated head to the side, and it bounced a couple of times before exploding. “Finally, I was wondering when that shield of yours would overheat.”

“Q-1, Duck!” Again, Kallen didn't question; she just did, pushing the Guren into a one-kneel kneel.

‘Not again!’ Lancelot also reacted, having seen this move before, but Suzaku realized a moment later that it didn't make sense. The Guren had its back to the cliff still, and there was no way Zero was behind it. Even so, what could it fire at him?

He then realized that in their battle, he had shifted so that his back was to where Zero was, to where he still had to be. A moment later, Lancelot's alert screamed to life right as a tank shell slammed into his left shoulder.

“What?!” The round was mercifully wasn't a HEAT but an APFSDS, so no explosion, which would have surely caught the cockpit in its blast, but the result still was Lancelot's shoulder being torn apart, blasting its arm clean off and throwing him and the unit to the side. To his credit, Suzaku righted his damaged unit but limped instead of walking now. He and the Guren turned to spot the Nemesis, its cannon still smoking from the shot. Still, they could also see that firing its cannon when it was already had caused some sort of damage as other parts of the turret were smoking.

In the cockpit, C.C. coughed as the system worked to vent the smoke that had leaked in. Zero's gamble to override the main cannon fail-safes had paid off, but not in the way they wanted. “The barrel’s damage threw off my aim. Else that shot would have pierced its cockpit.” She commented that, like Zero claimed, they couldn't try again as the unit had ejected the rest of the rounds in case of a fire.

“Well, that’s the only chance we’ll get…” Zero noted that, with things as they were, only the Guren was in any condition to keep fighting, but he feared for its energy filler. Then there were those VTOLs, which could come back any moment now, or other forces that could be sent it.

He sighed, irritated, but kept his eye on the bigger picture as he gave his order. “All Black Knights, this is Zero. We’re retreating. Move to your escape points.”

“But Zero, what about the Lancelot and Cornelia? We can take both out here.” Kallen called back, as she knew she could take the Lancelot; it was already weak. As if to answer that, a beep rang, and when she looked at the power, she saw she had less than 10 minutes left, and if she fought with it, it would drain much faster.

“A wounded foe is the most dangerous; that unit is equipped with a self-destruct, mind you.” Zero reminded her, as while the Lancelot wasn't a perfect one-to-one with the stolen specs, many aspects like its MVS and V.A.R.I.S. had been incomplete then; they couldn't rule out that the self-destruct written about had been removed or never implemented. “Besides, we’ll never be able to recover Cornelia like this.”

“But-”

C.C. cut her off. "Listen to your leader, Q-1. Besides, the Nemesis is on its last legs. If we don't pull out now, we'll be defeated."

“Understood.” Kallen raced out, deploying smoke as she did, and the Nemesis did the same. However, as she raced to leave the area and get to her escape point, she noticed something on the ground. The Lancelot's severed hand…well, most of it, as everything above the midway point of the upper arm was nothing but useless scarp. But as she jumped the Lancelot during its switch, its arm still held its now deactivated MVS.

Thinking about it, she scooped up the limb and sword and raced off through the smoke.

Having climbed out of the valley, the damaged, overstrained, and smoking Nemesis spared the one-armed, headless Lancelot one last glance, which was matched by the white unit, before he turned and limped off. Putting some distance between them, Zero contracted Katase. “General Katase, we’re pulling out. I hope that things progressed well?”

Though he had already noticed the Black Knight retreat, the old general nodded. “We’ve evacuated 90% of our forces. We'll be completely out in 10 minutes.”

Some good news that made up for their failure to both destroy the Lancelot or capture the Viceroy. Still, just to ensure no unpleasant surprises later. “Remember the deal, General.”

Katase glared at him but, after a moment, bowed his head. “…I’m a man of my word. Come midnight, the JLF will be no more.”

Line Break

“Viceroy!” Cornelia sat in her cockpit, furious at how things had developed. Her 'rescuer' was now a headless wreck, lacking both a gun and a sword.

“Go after Zero.” She ordered.

“What? But Viceroy-” She didn’t care what this Eleven thought, she cared what he did!

"My energy filler is drained; go before that masked bastard gets away!" He yelled at him; Suzaku appeared on her screen, looking sheepish.

“I see…” She didn't care about that, but he continued before she could repeat the order. "I'm afraid I can't follow that order, Viceroy. I was given strict orders when deployed. I'm to recover you and deliver you to friendly lines. And if you can't move alone, I can't leave you like this.”

Her fury found a target, Suzaku gulping under the intensity of her glare. “Warrant Officer Kururugi, are you disobeying a direct order from your superior?”

“He’s not, Viceroy. He’s acting under mine.” Lucky for Suzaku, Euphemia came onto the call, stern in the face of her sister's ire. “I’ve already ordered a retreat to preserve what lives still remain. You need to accept that we’ve been defeated.”

Cornelia would have blown up there, enraged that her sister had taken command of her forces. Still, despite wanting an outlet, she couldn't deny her words. That landslide had taken out what she had heard was half their forces, and then the Black Knights had thrown themselves into things. Even the Lancelot was damaged and loathed, as she was to admit. That couldn't be because of its pilot, not with his skill.

“Guilford and Dalton?” She growled, but Euphemia could detect a hint of concern for her soldiers and confidants.

“General Dalton had already returned with a fraction of his forces to refuel; I ordered they remain here. Lord Guilford took a beating, and your royal guard suffered losses, but your knight is alive and well. If anything, he's worried sick about you and should be rushing to you now.” Euphemia's tone grew softer as she explained things, to which Cornelia sighed as she could expect nothing less from her night.

She'll need the help as she doubted the Lancelot would be all that good at helping her unit up. However, perhaps it would be best to wait for Guilford to arrive and abandon the armless Gloucester.

Line Break

Having found Tamaki by chance, Kallen decided to give him a lift as they went to meet the others.

“Man, I’m hating this retreat thing.” Tamaki groaned, leaning against the Guren’s open cockpit.

Kallen turned to him, unimpressed. “You got taken out.”

“I was this close to defeating her; you should have seen it!” She rolled her eyes at his comment, still miffed that he was defeated by the Viceroy. If he had remained in the battle and disabled her unit, he could have made off with her while she and Zero kept the Lancelot distracted.

Ohgi’s voice came through the radio, the man having parted ways with Tamaki and Zero earlier to escort their prisoner away. “Still, you kept her busy, Tamaki. We didn't get to capture her, but we thrashed the Britannians. If we kept pushing, we would need to worry about reinforcements or being trapped here."

“If we had contacted the JLF earlier, we wouldn’t have that problem," Tamaki said, as they hadn't been happy with Zero deciding to strong-arm the JLF into joining them by holding the threat of complete destruction over their heads.

“I’m not so sure…” Ohgi let that drag for a moment before he continued. “Well, either way, we bought the JLF time to pull out; they should just be stranglers, but I heard the bulk of their forces are clear.”

“Still, we could have done it if only I had more time," Kallen muttered; as she was so close to ending the Lancelot, she could nearly taste it, but Lelouch ordered her back.

To that, Tamaki just laughed. “No sweat it, Kallen. You won that round; next time, maybe you'll take off an arm or a leg, and then we can drag the entire thing back as a trophy.”

“I hope you don't think I will hang this on the wall like a reward.” She commanded the Guren to hold up its Right hand. In it, she carried Lancelot's hand, while in the other, the MVS.

“Why not? It’ll look real bad-ass.” She groaned at Tamaki's retort, unsure what she expected from him.

Mercifully, Ohgi filled in the blanks for Tamaki before he said something else stupid. “I think she intends to have whoever built Zero’s unit study it. The more we know about that thing, the better.”

Silence fell over them for a moment. Kallen's radio remained on, allowing both redheads to hear how the rest of their forces were pulling out from the battlefield.

“By the way, Kallen, did Zero ever explain why we didn’t just off the princess? Sounds like you had chances.” Tamaki asked out of the blue.

Kallen thought about it, but she couldn't recall him explaining that, even in her conversations with Lelouch outside the Black Knights. “He didn't, but I'm sure he has reasons.”

“They better be good ones, as that bitch might just start slaughtering entire ghettos after this embarrassment. We might never have another shot at her.” Tamaki stated. As it wasn't hard to find stories about Cornelia and how she earned the moniker of 'Witch of Britannia'.

Ohgi thought otherwise. “No, I trust that Zero thought of that. He seems to understand people; he should know that we aren't just pawns in some game. I just can't see him doing that. His rage is real; we've all seen it firsthand,” Kallen shivered as she recalled how furious he had been during the hotel jacking. Tamaki recalled the oil rig and how Zero acted after they found the first bodies of test subjects.

“But I know that anyone who feels a rage that deep also has felt a sorrow equally deep.”

Line Break

Having entered a clearing far from the site of their fight, the Nemesis groaned before it buckled, falling on its belly. Three of its legs were no longer operational while their Yggdrasil Drive shut down. "Well, it looks like we're stuck," C.C. stated the obvious as Zero sighed, reaching for the side of the cockpit.

“It fought well. We asked for 110%, and Nemesis delivered.” He soothed the unit as if he would one of his hounds. Giving him unit its due affection, he pulled out its data hard drive and secured it in his pocket. Opening up the cockpit, he got up and stretched. “We should be able to make the rest of the way to the rally point on foot.”

C.C. looked at him like he had just said the moon was made from Cheese and that the Chinese Federation was a prosperous and benevolent superpower. “You realize how long that will take, especially in this terrain.”

Oh, he knew. “Well, good thing I ensured those heels wouldn't be uncomfortable.” He joked, offering a hand to C.C., who looked like she would kick him. She sighed and accepted the hand to stand up.

“I will make you-!” C.C.’s retort was silenced when her head violently jerked to the side, a splatter of blood sprouting from the side of her head. Lelouch’s eyes widened at that, but he couldn’t even think as he was shot in the head as well, the bullet shattering the side of his helmet, causing both to tumble off the side of the Nemesis’ cockpit onto the dirt with a thud.

Moments later, 8 Britannian soldiers emerged from the brush, dirty and exhausted from the quagmire of a battle they had just gone through. Not even a couple of hours ago, they had been 30-strong and had been escorted by several armored units. But then that freak landslide came out of nowhere, and isolated and confused, the JLF had made a comeback with Black Knight support.

They had been the only survivors of their unit and had gotten lost trying to get back to friendly lines when they had lucked on the strange knightmare, which, against the odds, hadn't noticed them. They had thought they could take out some terrorists and get some revenge for the deaths of their comrades, only for the masked man himself to climb out of the knightmare.

“We got them!” One of the soldiers gasped before cheering at what luck they had.

“Oh man, was that some good luck!” The one who had the honor of killing Zero smiled, patting his rifle in pride as surely the Viceroy would reward them handsomely with this.

"Quirk, call it in. Command's gonna want to hear about this!" the leader called out as he approached the unit to inspect it, wondering what to do with it. Obviously, it broke down, so they couldn't ride it back. Did they wait for someone to find them or mark their location for later?

As he inspected, 3 of his soldiers went around to the other side, only for one to speak out in confusion. “Wait, where’s Zero?”

"What do you mea-where'd he go? I tagged him in the head. I know I did. He went down!" Another cried out, and the commander and the rest were going to inspect. They found the body of that strange woman, Zero's co-pilot, dead in the grass with copious amounts of blood leaking out of her head, along with brain matter, but no Zero.

They could make out blood and some shattered pieces of his helmet. Still, neither was enough to confirm an immediate kill or incapacitation.

Without warning, a shot rang out from the brush, and one of his men’s heads rag-dolled as the bullet tore through their throat. They dropped their weapon, reaching for their throat, coughing and gagging as they tried to speak before they collapsed to bleed out face down in the grass.

“You shouldn’t have done that." The remaining four had been on high alert before they heard Zero speak but couldn't see him.

“What the hell was that?” one of the soldiers asked, scanning the forest for any movement. However, it was too dark under the canopy to make out any details.

“I…I shot him in the fucking head, I saw him do down, you saw it too, how…how is he still-!” Zero’s would-be killer started to freak out.

"Focus! We already took out one; we can handle one man, " the commanding officer barked at them.

“A man? Is that what you think I am?” The commander, feeling a chill go down his spine at Zero's voice, noted that it sounded…off, less like an unnatural monster, as what could be his true voice bled through. “Oh, what a tragedy. Made all the worse…because you dared to harm my cherished comrade while I still breathe."

"You can play it up all you want, Zero! You're outnumbered and outgunned. Surrender now, and you might have a chance to defend yourself in court." The commander steadied himself. They were seven strong, to just one man.

“…I'm outnumbered by fools, and the only thing you have in excess…is fear.” Zero's retort was followed by a twig snap, which caused all of the soldiers to shift their aim toward the sound, only for one of them to spot something dashing out from another part of the brush.

“There he is!” He yelled as the rest reacted quickly and found their mark, but Zero was already close.

“Get him-!” One pulled the trigger but missed as Zero ducked, his cape lingering, creating a larger target as the masked man drove his dagger into the man's chest, twisting and then ripping it back, tearing junk off his body armor with it.

He didn't linger; immediately, he rushed behind the Nemesis, and the second he was out of sight, he grabbed the unit. He pulled himself onto it before jumping back to the other side right as his pursuers, who only saw his cape billowing in his wake as they heard another cry.

Rushing the back to the side with the woman’s dead body, they now found that Zero had slain a 3rd survivor, the man also face-down in the dirt, with them just barely making out Zero as he vanished into the brush, a stream of rifle fire following him as they yelled for him to just die.

Stopping, they heard nothing; again, there was an eerie silence. If Zero had been shot, he would have gone down without a sound, but none of them were dumb enough to walk in to check after he punked them twice.

“What the hell was that?” One shivered as this was scary; no one told them Zero could move like that. Joseph's corpse, having slumped back against the Nemesis with a gaping hole in his chest where his heart was closer to the wound a wild animal would leave, not a man. Same with Francisco, as Zero, much like a jaguar, had ambushed him with that jump, having landed on the man and then stabbing him in the back of the head, the knife still embedded in his friend's kill.

“How did he…how’d he do that?” One asked as another remained. He went over to Francisco's corps and noticed why Zero hadn't had time to retrieve his wickedly sharp knife.

“He grabbed Simmons rifle.” He reported to his commander, which only made things worse if Zero only had a pistol before; now, he could unload an assault rifle on them from anywhere.

“Shit.” To prevent the group from being gunned down, the commander spread them out more, which also meant that they had a greater area of vision. They wouldn't let Zero trick them with the same stunt.

As they looked through the brush, the commander contemplated just retreating. With reinforcement not coming, even if they radioed the situation, they'd need to hold out long enough for something to be thrown together. In fact, they didn't know if Zero hadn't contacted his people before he left the cockpit, so who to say they weren't willingly staying to be ambushed themselves?

He didn't dare voice such thoughts when his men were already on edge. But as he looked through the brush, he spotted a vibrant, wild purple eye through the bushes, an eye which shifted colors.

“He’s-” Lelouch caught him in his geass.

“Slaughter your comrades." It had been the left side of his mask, which had been shattered, so he didn't need to open up any panel to cast his geass onto the one man present who wasn't wearing a full helmet with a gas mask.

The rest were surprised and unnerved by Zero's statement, but that turned to confusion and panic when their commander, a man they had known for years now and trusted with their lives, turned and shot Jacques without warning before doing the same to Ludwig.

“What the hell?”

"Commander! What are you doing!" The remaining two demanded, but their commander didn't respond, only turning his gun on them as well. At this point, they didn't try and reason and, with heavy hearts, gunned down their commander for his out of nowhere madness-induced treason.

With just two remaining out of the 8 that had, Zero shot both of them. Both didn't immediately die, but one was hit in the hip and shoulder, falling over while his comrade was hit in both shoulders and dropped his rifle. Both going down with pained groans.

It was then that Zero came out of the underbrush, stalking out into the open like a predator who had finally cornered their prey. The two men spotted the damaged mask, but despite seeing the human face beneath it, that eye held no warmth and looked at them as if they were deer to be devoured, leading them to whimper.

Approaching the one whose arms were useless, Zero glared at the man as he recognized him as the one who shot him. "You're a lucky man; I don't particularly care that you tried to kill me." Zero's voice distorter jammed and splattered, making it sound like two beings were speaking, the beast they saw and the man beneath it.

"R-really?" The man asked as Zero placed a hand on the side of the soldier's head.

“Yes.” Without flinching, he fired his hidden gun point blank.

The lone survivor paled at the cruel and callous act as Zero got up and approached Francisco’s corpse. “Y-you said-!”

“I said I didn't care, then he tried to gun me down. I never said he would be allowed to live. But you have other concerns." Zero told him, pulling his knife free from the dead man's skull before walking up to the last one and placing the bloodied blade to his neck. "Did you do it?”

“What?”

“Did you shoot that woman?” Zero asked again, his voice dripping with distilled malice.

“N-no.” The man shook as he replied, reaching for his side-arm as if he could-

Zero stabbed him in the forearm, drawing a bloody scream from the soldier as Zero wiggled and pulled on the knife but didn't remove it.

“That," Zero emphasized this by thrusting the blade deeper, striking bone. "Was not wise, not wise at all. First to lie to me, and the trying for the gun.”

“You terrorist…you’re already going to kill me, might as well try and make you join that wrench in hell.” The soldier groaned out through ground teeth.

Zero didn't respond, not with words. He just watched the man, his eye a window to an ocean of rage that was kept back by…the wounded soldier didn't know, but he seemed like a fragile thing.

He was expecting that Zero would lash out, perhaps just get it over with and kill him already. He wasn't expecting Zero to gently remove his helmet and gas mask, revealing the face of a blonde, green-eyed middle-aged man.

“Such an attractive face; you must have a loving partner, perhaps kids waiting for you. And now that I have a face…”

“Don’t you dare-!” The unmasked soldier yelled only to bite back a curse when Zero ripped his blade out of him and stabbed him in the shoulder, digging to the point of hitting bone.

“Dare what? Find them? Watch them? Kill them?” He pressed the wounded man, his fury rising closer to the surface as he tortured the man. “How could you stop me?”

Eventually, he pulled his dagger out and cleaned it on the man’s sleeve before standing up. “Rest easy, I won’t track them down. They’ll suffer enough when it comes time to identify your corpse.”

“Go ahead.” The man sighed, accepting that he was going to die.

“Me? Oh, I'm not going to handle that,” Zero stated before letting out a clear falling whistle, followed by a rapid series of short notes. The man was confused about that, but moments later, he heard a bird flying in, followed by another, and then several more. In less than a minute, the clearing was occupied by dozens of birds, the raptors landing on the wrecked Nemesis, on the bodies of his comrades, and on the branches of the trees.

All of them watching the two, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that pooled in his stomach at how they looked at him.

Zero held out his hand for one of them to hand on his forearm, which he seemed to handle as he trained it, petting its head with the bird leaning into the torch, though its gaze never left the wounded man. “It is that time of season. They're Black Kites; they're more carrions than active predators, but…”

The birds advanced, flapping their wings and letting out rapid, harsh, piercing chatter. The wounded man started to sweat, as surely not, this…this wasn't what Zero intended.

Looking at the masked man, he felt hope die in his heart at the demented look he could see through Zero's broken mask. Those… eyes weren't those of a man, not even an animal, but something else that didn't seem natural or belong on God's green earth.

Zero sealed the man's fate by turning to the Black Kite on his arm. “If you all could, dispose of the trash.”

Line Break

Once more, I'm writing this chapter around a week early, as I started work this Saturday, the 7th of June. Good thing, too, as I was up late working on that second DLC for Golden Ending like the first DLC; I just gave up on word count and just kept going with it till it came out much…MUCH longer than what the regular 'story' chapters were. Back to this, it being written in advance meant I got some proper rest afterward. I also finished that second chapter of that new MHA project, and with one more to do, that'll free me up to work on that Danny Phantom Project.

Onto this chapter, like I said previously, I wanted to give Minami some time as he's out doing something which canon Lelouch simply didn't do, mainly because he wouldn't have known otherwise, and that's striking at Code-R's Narita branch, which for some of you, is clearly screwing with canon, but…I've been doing that since Shinjuku from C.C. not 'dying,' Lelouch asking about code-R, not geassing Jeremiah, and even Jerry not getting roasted by the Guren because he's not nearly as obsessed with defeating Zero here.

Canon is very much just a rough set of ideals at this point. While some beats going forward will be hit, you can expect that I have some cooking for the coming chapters, including the finale of what would be R1.

Line Break

This was nearly 10K long, and I'm so glad I finished this Monday. If I had waited, oh boy, would this have been coming out late. Now, for the chapter, I did have to cut some stuff, namely most of Minami's section, to make room for the real meat of things, the 2 v 1. Now, I had to balance things out there, as in canon; at this point, Kallen probably could have bested the Lancelot as, remember, during their fight, she managed to destroy one of his sand panels(Suzaku threw the other way), 2 of his slash harkens, one of his swords and blocked a shot from the V.A.R.I.S. If not for the cliff, she probably could have taken him and keep in mind, this was her first sortie in the Guren.

Yes, Suzaku was surprised, and he and the rest of the Britannian forces clearly didn't expect to face off against a 7th gen unit. Still, surprise can't cover the entire fight or even most of it. So when I wrote a scene with Kallen both knowing more about the Lancelot and having back-up, it was hard to have both those things have a greater impact on things without making it seem like Suzaku was just that much better than he could still keep up and I think I nailed it, while also showing off Kallen's intellect considering she purposely targeted his one Blaze to overtax it and then took his head which came after she took his rifle.

The end was a good way to explain why C.C. would miss her shot when she had no issues targeting targets much further away. After all, it's not like I could rely on Lelouch knowing the pilot, as while he stole the Lancelot's data when Suzaku was still its recorded devicer, Lloyd didn't record his names, and even if he had the initials, Suzaku is an exception to the rules, so Lelouch would need to be meme levels of Batman 'smart' to figure out that S.K. stood for Suzaku Kururugi.

It also meant that I had to get creative with that last scene, seeing how, given the damage it caused and Suzaku's specific orders, he wasn't likely to give chase even though he could tell that the Nemesis wasn't in any better condition.

And before you ask. Yes, Lelouch could have geassed the commander earlier; he just chose not to because he's a twisted little bastard and was miffed that they shot C.C. And to follow up any other questions, this was the same guy written to get into a firefight with Clovis royal guard in chapter 3 and win. Then you saw how he handled the criminals and a knightmare in chapter 24. He’s not as strong as Suzaku, but he’s very much Marriane’s son and worked to be almost as fast on his feet as he is in his head.