“Target is arriving as predicted.”<br/><br/>“Transfer control to me, sending ID numbers of peripheral vehicles.”<br/><br/>“Target now entering fifth gate by B3!”<br/><br/>“Do you think she'll show this time?”<br/><br/>“I just know we can't afford to fail. We're taking a huge risk by letting Lelouch go to the settlement's outer edge.”<br/><br/>“He's in the gambling hall, section C7. Chess district.”<br/>__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________<br/><br/>“Ah, I'm terribly sorry!” A bunny girl said as she bumped into Lelouch and spilled a margarita onto his pant leg.<br/><br/>“No, it's fine, don't worry about it.” The Black haired, purple-eyed student said as the girl brushed off his pant leg from the spilled alcohol.<br/><br/>“But I'm an Eleven, and you're a Britannian student! This is inexcusable!” She said worriedly. Lelouch bent down. “All the more reason to excuse you. I hate having our social class held over you like a sword.”<br/><br/>“It doesn't matter. The powerless have no choice but to bear their lot in life, regardless if their oppressor is wrong.” She said shamefully.<br/><br/>Lelouch frowned. “I'd appreciate it if you didn't push your values on me. I'm not interested.” he said.<br/><br/>“I beg your pardon.” she gasped as a man with shoulder length blond hair and a broad figure grabbed her by the head. “Come'ere! Let me take a look at you!” he said, humming a bit as he inspected the girl. “Nice goods you've got here.” he told a man standing next to several unwilling female Elevens all wearing Bunny outfits.<br/><br/>“Yes, Mr. King, we have a large quality catch of Bunnies today!” the “Gentleman” said, smiling. Lelouch frowned. The young woman struggled. “You're wrong sir, I'm not for sale!”<br/><br/>Mr. King smirked. “But you are for sale! You should know by now losers don't have any rights! Curse your own wretched birth for not having been born with power! That's what his Majesty always says, isn't it?”<br/><br/>“His Majesty?” Lelouch muttered, confused only for a second, then returning to a frown.<br/><br/>Rolo murmured in his big brother's ear. “The guy's Mafia, Lelouch!”<br/><br/>Lelouch ignored the warning given to him and spoke with contempt to the man. “What an arrogant display! Feeding upon the weak are you?” which made the man stand up.<br/><br/>Mr. King smirked again, and answered the schoolboy's remark. “This is the grown up world in here schoolboy, so get lost!”<br/><br/>“Then will the adult world devour the student or is it the other way around?” Lelouch answered calmly, opening a breifcase with a chess set inside it. “Why don't we find out the answer with this?”<br/><br/>“With Chess?” The man said with surprise. Rolo ran in front of his brother. “Big brother don't-”<br/><br/>“Too late, fellas, right boys?” the broad shouldered man said as his men laughed. “Students really don't know much of anything do they?” He said, confidently.<br/><br/>Lelouch, calm as ever, stated, “That's not true Mr. Black King. You're a famous chess player in the gambling arena aren't you?”<br/><br/>Black King's smirk was wiped off his face as he crushed some walnuts he had been toying with. “So, you know who I am, huh? Alright... this should be entertaining if anything.”<br/><br/>tick tick tick clack!<br/><br/>tick tick tick clack!<br/><br/>tick tick tick clack!<br/><br/>tick tick tick clack!<br/><br/>tick tick tick clack!<br/><br/>tick tick tick clack!<br/><br/>tick tick tick clack!<br/><br/>“And that's checkmate!” Lelouch confirmed, his voice laden with boredom and cockiness at the same time.<br/><br/>“Impossible!” Black King said as the series of moves known as Scholar's Mate were performed in a way he hadn't been aware of. Lelouch grinned. “Looks like you're the one who's been devoured here.”<br/><br/>“Damn. That's inconvenient.” Black King said in a carefree manner. Going on with a more sarcastic remark, he said, “How will I ever be able to show my face in public if word of this gets around?”<br/><br/>Lelouch had a serious tone, responding with, “I would never spread rumors.”<br/><br/>“No schoolboy, not that! What I'm saying is that others will hear how you cunningly cheated me!” Black king said, toying with the walnuts again.<br/>“I what?” Lelouch started. King went on without waiting for more. “Such a naughty little man!”<br/><br/>“Now wait a minute!” Lelouch started as the men began to advance on him. The Bunny girl from earlier frowned. “Cheat? But in chess how could you?”<br/><br/>Rolo looked worried. “There's no way to do it!” he said.<br/><br/>King turned to his men. “Get him and hold him! Now to whip up a little evidence against the kid!”<br/><br/>Lelouch stood up abruptly and shouted, “You filthy lying adult!” as the man pulled out a gun from his undershirt. Black King trained his gun on Lelouch. “Fair play doesn't win the game. Learn that schoolboy!” he said mockingly.<br/><br/>As if on cue the entire building shook from impact of a Hindenburg hitting the roof of the skyscraper. Black King yelled, “Terrorists!” The bunny girl displayed an impressive slew of martial arts skills and took out the Mafia boss and his two hitmen. As the ceiling broke open, the girl grabbed Lelouch by the hand. “Come on, this way!”<br/><br/>“What?!? Hey! What's happening? What's going on???” Lelouch said as his brother caught up to them and pulled him away from the bunny girl. “Big brother, this way!”<br/><br/>As Lelouch ran he asked himself, “Terrorists? What are leftover fragments of the Black Knights doing here?”<br/><br/>At that moment, a Nightmare frame with a custom helm, but otherwise plain features jumped down in front of the two boys, and held out it's hand to Lelouch. As windows around the area broke open, Rolo cried out. “Britannian military!” but his joy was cut short when they shot down innocent bystanders without first discerning who was a target and who wasn't.<br/><br/>“Rolo, this way!” Lelouch led them to an area of the building still under construction.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">~that Nightmare earlier... was it trying to-~</span><br/><br/>A loud bang on the other side of the door jarred him from his thoughts.<br/><br/>“Lelouch, what do we do now?” Rolo asked, frightened.<br/><br/>“Don't worry, we'll be all right. I promise you I'll get us out of here.” Lelouch reassured his brother.<br/><br/>Rolo allowed a small smile to adorn his face. “Yeah... I'm sure-”<br/><br/>“ROLO!” Lelouch shouted as gunshots from a guard were fired at his brother. Throwing himself at Rolo to save his life, Lelouch fell into the unfinished structure's depths.<br/><br/>“LELOUCH!” Rolo yelled as he attempted to grab his brother's arm, only to watch him fall.<br/><br/>Lelouch landed on a tarp in the middle of the tower and immediately pulled out his phone.<span style="font-style: italic">~I'm out of range! What do I do now? At this rate we'll both be- NO! I have to try and save him. The least I should be able to do is save my only brother! Even I outta have enough strength in me to do that! I have to!~</span>he internally monologued as he ran up several flights of stairs and crawled through excess rubble. As he turned a corner, he found the bodies of not only the Black King and his thugs, but several Elevens as well.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">~Terrorists are responsible for this? But... Elevens were killed too!~</span>He bent over and had to restrain his gag reflex at the massacre laid in front of him. As he looked at a woman in the group, he noticed she had been holding a photo of Zero, the man who only a year ago had attempted to overthrow Britannia along with the Black Knights. “Are these people still counting on Zero to rescue them?”<br/><br/>Looking up, he noticed a lone Nightmare Frame opening it's cockpit. “The Black Knights!” was his reaction to the revelation that it chose not to shoot him. “What do I do? Will they kill me, even if I run?”<br/><br/>“Lelouch.” A female voice said as the owner of the voice revealed herself to have hip length green hair and a white woman's high ranking military official garb descended from the Nightmare Frame. “I came to get you out of here, Lelouch. I'm on your side, an ally, and your sworn enemy is Britannia! We have a contract. You and I are both accomplices.”<br/><br/>“... Contract? Accomplices?” Lelouch stumbled over the words.<br/><br/>“I'm the only one who knows you. The real you!” the woman went on to say. Needless to say, this only served to further confuse Lelouch. “What does she mean... the real me?” he muttered to himself. Taking steps towards her, a gunshot rang out and the woman managed to say his name as she fell from her perch on the Nightmare. Running forward, he caught her and asked, “Are you alright?”<br/><br/>No sooner did he ask then the soldiers whom were the cause of the woman's death began lighting corpses on fire to corner Lelouch and the girl. A scream rang out as the flames hit a nearby person with less severe injuries. “STOP IT! That woman's still alive!” Lelouch shouted as the firing squad(if it could be called that) killed her with two more bullets. As the flames surrounded him, a man in a military grade nightmare stood up in the pilot seat. “You've served your function well, good Lelouch Lamprouge.”<br/><br/>“Function? What are you talking about?” Lelouch asked, getting more confused and forgetting to be scared only long enough to get those words out.<br/><br/>“We've had our eye on you for a very long time now, young man!” the man pulled out a journal with the words “Lelouch's Activity Log” on the front cover in gold trim. “Wakes up at 6:59 AM. From 7:12 AM watches the news with his little brother while eating breakfast. No ideological deviations with the program he watches. 8:45 AM goes to class. Doesn't attend his morning homeroom or first period class. Instead, he reads on the roof. During his second period class-” The man kept going as Lelouch muttered, “Those are things I've done today!”<br/><br/>The man wasn't finished. “I prefer to think of it as a pet diary, or bait journal! Or call it a trap if you wish, for that witch! All to lure C.C. out of hiding.”<br/><br/>“No wait, please! What's going on?” Lelouch shouted, but was met with an annoyed stare. “Boy, I'll have you know that I am a Baron. I'm through wasting words on bait like you. Now time to dispose of you, and there won't be any witnesses left!”<br/><br/>Lelouch let out a surprised gasp.<span style="font-style: italic">~Dispose... is this... the end for me? Without even knowing why? So matter of factly...~</span>He thought. Gritting his teeth, he gained a determined look in his eyes.<span style="font-style: italic">~To hell with that! Power! If I only had power! The power to escape this place! The power not to lose the world!~</span><br/><br/>A hand grabbed him by the shoulder, and before he knew what was happening, the girl in his arms was kissing him.<br/><br/>“You desire power?” a voice echoed in his head as strange visions of places he had never been played out in front of him.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">~That voice... the girl who was shot?~</span><br/><br/>“You already possess the power you seek. It's merely imprisoned within a cage of amnesia. Remember! Remember who you really are! The power of the King! Now, let the seal... be broken!”<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">~I see now... The persistent irritation that pricked me like thorns in my everyday life! Yes. Hah. It was all the phony memories implanted in me! I remember now... I am... I am... I am... ZERO!~</span><br/><br/>Standing up, Lelouch addressed the man with his gun trained on the young student. “Before you dispose of me, I'd like you to answer a question!”<br/><br/>Two of the men yelled to each other. “That girl's still alive!” and “Impossible, she was shot through the heart!”<br/><br/>Lelouch continued to approach the military unit. “If being powerless is so terribly wrong, then does having power make you right? Do you find vengeance evil?  What's your value of friendship? Is it Justice?”<br/><br/>“There's no justice or evil.” the man replied with a smug grin plastered across his face. “The only truth that's left for you bait, is the simple reality of death!”<br/><br/>“I see. Then that reality is all that remains for you as well.” Lelouch brought his arm up to his side horizontally and while making a wide gesture to add dramatic flare said, “I Lelouch Vi Britannia command you. ALL of you. Die!”<br/><br/>“It-it can't be!” the Barron said as his genetics were rewritten to make him follow the order along with all the other officers in the unit. They then shot each other down with a final decree of “Yes, my lord!” As Lelouch stood in the flaming hallway with C.C. and a large Nightmare Frame called the Gurren busted through the ceiling and landed at his feet, followed by two other sword wielding Nightmares. “The world has to change, so I will change it!” he stated.<br/><br/>One of the Nightmare Frames external voice modules was turned on. “We've been waiting for you Master Zero. Please, give us your orders!”<br/><br/>Lelouch now exhibited confidence. “Very well. Because after all, I am Zero! The one who will crush the world, and the one who will recreate the world anew!”<br/><br/>After commandeering a Nightmare Frame for himself using his Geass, Lelouch began giving orders to his troops.<br/><br/>“Q1, head up to level 21, B4 block the stairway. R5 left thirty degrees. N1 fire barrage fifty meters ahead angled toward the ceiling.”<br/><br/>C.C. switched to Zero's personal frequency. “Britannian reinforcements are here.”<br/><br/>“Any more bad news?” Lelouch asked nonchalantly.<br/><br/>“We seem to have been misinformed. We don't have enough charges to execute the plan.” C.C. Replied in the exact same tone Lelouch used to speak with her prior.<br/><br/>“WHAT?”<br/>__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________<br/><br/>The Autobots were currently tracking a spacebridge signal and trying to replicate it. A day prior to this, Megatron and the Decepticons had all vanished through a spacebridge, right after Megatron said he found a better place to conquer.Arcee was still torn up over Cliffjumper, so she wasn't in the best of moods. Ratchet finally got the signal, but was confused when he saw where it led.<br/><br/>“Optimus... this may be a bad idea. The bridging signal is a one way trip. We can't come back if we leave.”<br/><br/>even though Arcee was depressed, she was able to offer some advice. “Doesn't that mean that neither can Megatron?”<br/><br/>That was all the motivation Ratchet needed. Soon the 'bots were standing in front of a full on battlefield however as the noticed it was centered around a huge tower. The strange thing was that it was a bunch of Robots fighting each other, but they weren't 'bots or 'cons. There were people shouting orders in a large vehicle as they directed their troops, paying little mind to the 'bots arrival.<br/><br/>“So who are they fighting? And why do I get the feeling we need to get inside the building and help the losing side?” Arcee said as her servos grabbed a blade one of the other robot things seemed to have dropped when it exploded.<br/><br/>“Oh my! I wasn't aware there were any new Nightmare Frames they were sending us for this battle! This should be interesting...” Vicroy Colaris said as he finally noticed the 'bots. “Go in there and take no prisoners! For Britannia!” he yelled through the external com at the Autobots. Arcee sighed. “Leave one war, join another... so who's side should we be on? Thermal scans show humans in these things. And they all seem to be trying to smoke out whoever is in the tower. Your call Optimus.” Arcee said, looking to their leader.