Hope everyone is safe during these difficult times! I hope this chapter will bring you all a little more joy!

Shaurya took the elevator to the basement level after the blowup with his father. As he got older, they became distant. The family figured it was just Shaurya's natural teenage instincts. But as time went on, Shaurya felt that was something was going on his father wasn't telling the others. Becoming involved with the military, he began to hear rumors that seemed to corroborate what he felt. And his father finally confirmed it all, implicitly if not spoken. He knew war was a brutal, bloody thing. But surely, there had to be rules followed-!

At the moment, his mind was in turmoil; he needed to blow off this energy. He finally reached the floor that was secretly used for military training. While they were all taught modern combat, the Secret Indian Military believed that it was best for all to remember their ancient traditions. He saw several soldiers dressed in traditional garb, red shirts and white shorts, as they sparred with swords and shields.

As Shaurya made his way down, he began to remove his shirt, revealing a lithe but built body. "Major Chawla!" A soldier saluted him. "We haven't seen you here for a while!"

"Apologies, lieutenant." Shaurya said as he walked past him, barely remembering to salute. "I'm not in the mood right now." Though the two were close friends growing up, they knew to adhere to formalities when on military grounds. "Get me a few sparring partners." Shaurya said as he grabbed a pair of weapons for himself. "I need to blow off some steam."

"Do you know who I am...Lelouch?" Suzaku asked the Britannian in front of him.

"You're Suzaku Kuurugi." Lelouch answered plainly, not minding the guns trained on him.

"And what else do you know?"

Lelouch chose his words carefully. "I know you didn't like me much when I first came to Japan. I remember how you didn't approve of your late father's actions when Japan was invaded."

Suzaku's face remained stoic, the gun still trained on his heart. "What about the Black Rebellion?" Suzaku asked. "Do you remember what happened then?"

Lelouch narrowed his eyes. "That depends. Do you want the answer you are hoping I will say...or the truth?"

Kallen's eyes widened. "Does he remember?"

Suzaku's face scrunched, and he quickly pistol-whipped Lelouch across the face. As he aimed at his former friend, holding his lip, Suzaku took a deep breath. "I suppose there is no answer you can give that can ever satisfy me...whether you know the truth or not." Suzaku then turned to face the minister. "I overheard. You've overstepped your bounds." The minister only scowled. "Well, do you have anything to say?"

"I apologize for nothing. I did what would have to be done."

"You may have been conspiring against us...but at least you are not a coward when confronted." Suzaku took his eyes off his captors for the moment. "Sergeant!" He called to an officer. "Take Minister Chawla with you. Have him show us his WMD."

"Yes, my lord!" The sergeant saluted. He and three others forced the minister on his feet, and took him away.

"Gino."

"Yeah Suzaku?"

"Take another unit with you. The state army trains beneath the parliament. Round them up."

Gino saluted. "You're the boss." He and his squad left, leaving Suzaku and a few others alone with Lelouch.

Quickly, he reached into Lelouch's coat, pulling out a device with a single light in the middle. "I won't let you call your pawns." Without another word, he crushed it.

As Shaurya selected a val and shield, he suddenly heard a gunshot. "On your knees, now!" One of the invading soldiers shouted.

The trainees, unprepared for this sort of conflict within here, complied. Shaurya reluctantly went along with it as he kneeled with his hands behind his back. One of them, a blond man, inspected the everyone. Noticing the minister's son, his eyes lit up. "You're the minister's son." Gino noted.

"And you are Gino Weinberg, Knight of Five."

"You've done your homework." Gino nodded.

"Don't flatter yourself. You never made yourself hard to know about." Shaurya shot back.

Gino smirked. "Nothing personal. This is just duty." Gino raised his gun slightly. "Don't try anything funny."

Suzaku took his focus off Lelouch for the moment. Instead, he took his combat rival into account. "Kallen." Suzaku. "You found out who he was under the mask. And yet, you came back to him. After abandoning him too, I might add." He looked back to Lelouch, who remained expressionless.

"That is correct." Kallen answered flatly.

"Why?" Suzaku asked. "You would risk our people's future in his hands?"

"Better his than yours." Kallen said.

"How can you be so reckless!?" Suzaku yelled. "We may have a long way to go, but we are finally making progress for the Japanese! I have become a Knight of the Round! And Nunally is now the Vice Roy! Kallen, she is one of the purest souls you have ever met! She will help the Japanese, she will bring things back to the way they were as much as possible!"

Kallen just scoffed at him. "I always knew you were naive. But I never imagined you could have ever become so deluded!" Suzaku remained unresponsive. "You think becoming a Knight of the Round has changed the opinions of all Britannians overnight?" Suzaku thought back to Benjamin's gala that night. "You think it made the emperor gain a heart? I've no doubt Nunally wants what's best for us, but do you think she'll have complete control over everything? That no one will deal under the table without her knowing? Wake up, Suzaku! As long as Britannia continues to conquer, no one is safe! Their nature will never change until there is someone to challenge them!" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Under the emperor, the best we can hope to become is pawns. Personally...I find that worse than death."

"That's rich coming from you." Suzaku shot back. "You speak of freedom and yet you go crawling back to someone who has no right to call himself your master."

"It was her choice, Suzaku." Lelouch interrupted. "She may have been conflicted, but she ultimately came back to me of her own free will, after a year of consideration. Even at my lowest, she did not give up on me so easily."

"Shut up!" Suzaku punched him across the face. "You of all people have no right to preach about choice!"

Lelouch calmly wiped the blood from his lips. "Suzaku...Shirley is dead."

Suzaku's eyes widened. "What-?" His face scrunched. "No, no!" He shook his head in denial. "That can't be! I brought all our friends before the emperor! I did it to protect them! He promised me they would be safe!"

"And he had them put back with me." Lelouch finished. "And near those plants. He could have relocated them anywhere with new families and friends, and away from me." The two just stared at each other as Lelouch slowly stood. Though the other soldiers raised their rifles, Suzaku stayed them. "The emperor KNEW I was a liability. He KNEW I could become a problem that had to be eliminated! And he put them all around me! WHY!? HE LITERALLY HAD INFINITE OPTIONS, AND THE ONE HE CHOSE IS THE REASON WE'RE HERE TODAY!"

Suzaku trembled, and pressed his gun against Lelouch's head. "Just what DO you remember?"

It took a moment for Lelouch to reply, his face still expressionless. "All I remember is that I AM the Emperor's son." The soldiers and the Black Knights around him collectively gasped.

Pateyah pressed his eye against the retinal scanner, opening the door to his weapon. The soldier behind him punted him in the back with his barrel. "I'm going." He sighed. "There isn't much I can do in this situation."

As they walked across the catwalk, the soldiers observed the missiles around them, ready to launch at any given command. "What are these?" The head soldier asked.

"Missiles?" Pateyah tried to answer innocently.

One of them smacked him with butt of his rifle. "Don't play dumb with us!" The leader shouted. "These aren't ordinary missiles, we know that! Now, what are they!?"

Pateyah sighed again as he helped himself up. "It is a chemical weapon. A gas that can burn the flesh and collapse the lungs. If it were to be released in a windy environment, it would kill everything in a fifty-mile radius." Though the soldiers remained stoic, the fact India had these weapons was unsettling to them. A massive bomb would have been a much better way to go. "Officially, it's designated Chemical #5409. For simplicity, we call it Dhumavati, after the Goddess of Death and Misfortune. For the ones who inhale it, I could think of no better term to describe it.

The squad leader pushed his bluetooth with urgency.

"Your highness!"

Suzaku breathed deep. It may have taken him a good half minute before he answered his bluetooth. "Yes?"

"It's a chemical weapon! We must acquire this for ourselves, as much as possible, and destroy the rest! We cannot allow anyone else to have this!"

"Understood." Suzaku answered. "Hold the minister there." Suzaku shut off his connection. "Seems I have a more serious matter to attend to at the moment." Waving his gun, he motioned them to move. "I'll deal with you all later."

The remaining soldiers motioned the knights forward, who put their hands behind the back of their hands.

The stealth carriers above remained in place. "Any word from our lords?" The fleet commander asked.

"No..." A technician answered. Then, a light came on. "...wait. I've got something." He turned a switch. "Sir Kuurugi. We read you."

"I have prisoners" Suzaku answered. "I need helicopters for transport."

"Understood my lord. Do you require more soldiers?"

"No, the battle was won before it began. However, we have weapons we must confiscate. Get them ready while I figure out how best to safely remove them."

"Understood."

"Get the choppers ready!" The commander shouted.

Elsewhere, the eyes of several Sutherlands lit up. One of them stepped forward as it lifted its foot, knocking a soldier out of the way. "AH!"

"Stop!" Another ran onto the bridge, waving his arms. "Stop! We're not clear for take-off!" The Sutherland didn't stop, instead continuing to walk forward. Another tackled him out of the way before the knightmare could squash him. "What's going on!?"

Other knightmares began moving, heedless of their comrades. One began to punch a hole through the hull, triggering the alarm.

"What's going on!?" The Fleet Commander shouted over the alarm as the rest of the bridge scrambled.

"Our Sutherlands are taking off!" The head technician shouted.

"What!? Who gave the order!?"

"No one, sir!" The technician answered. "We must have at least a dozen rogue knightmares flying off of their own volition!"

"I need a headcount of all pilots!" Another shouted. "Who's doing this!?"

"The better question is why." The commander uttered under his breath, gripping his chair.

The Black Knights were led outside, Lelouch looking at the soldiers. They looked at him with disgust; they probably never imagined one of their own siding with the numbers or other races. Just as they were in the center of the courtyard, a large shell totaled one of the buildings. Looking up, they saw the Sutherlands descend. Suzaku ran out to see the commotion, and his eyes widened in horror. "Stand down!" He yelled into his bluetooth. "Everything is under control!" The knightmares landed, and shot up the buildings. "I order you to stand down!" He yelled desperately.

Suzaku ran outside, desperately waving his arm frantically. He balked as a shell missed him by a small margin; a little to the right and he would have been obliterated. "What's going on?" He wondered. Seeing Lelouch, he ran towards him and got him into an armlock. "What did you do!?" Suzaku yelled as he shoved his pistol against his temple.

"Whatever's happening, this isn't my doing." Lelouch answered calmly. A Sutherland touched down, and took aim at both of them. Suzaku held firm; if he was going to die, he would be sure to take Zero with him!

After a tense moment, the Knightmare lowered its weapon...and it's head was blown off by a targeted shot.

Suzaku looked up, seeing the Zangetsu Ikazuchi flying into battle as he was flanked by his Tsunamis. "I had a feeling things would go downhill, so I sent the distress signal ahead of time." Lelouch explained.

"This changes nothing!" Suzaku yelled.

"One thing has changed, Suzaku." Lelouch said as he suddenly elbowed Suzaku in the stomach. The knight keeled over, not expecting that. Before he could recover, Lelouch grabbed him by both the shoulder and hip, and quickly bent down, throwing him over. As he lay stunned, Lelouch said "I've been training." And quickly ran off.

Seeing as everyone was occupied outside, Lelouch ran straight back into the parliament building. Quickly scanning the hall where they were earlier, Lelouch found his discarded helmet. "Yes!" Lelouch quickly donned it, and opened communications. "I see you got my signal, Todoh."

"Apologies, Zero." Todoh said as his image appeared on screen. Lelouch could see him, but he could only hear Lelouch. "We would have been here sooner, but we worried revealing ourselves would complicate things. When we saw the knightmares, we knew we had to intervene."

"On the contrary, your timing was perfect." Lelouch assured him. "I don't know why the Britannians have chosen to attack indiscriminately, but this is perfect for us. Seek and destroy, but be careful. Pateyah was keeping a weapon of mass destruction somewhere here. I don't know its nature, so avoid attacking the buildings and defend them if possible."

"Roger!" Todoh confirmed. "Your knightmares are on the way!"

Lelouch sighed under the mask. "This...will be difficult."

This will be it for now, but I'll get the rest soon!