April 25, 2018

"Jeez Naoto, will you relax already? I already told you, we got away clean. We have nothing to worry about."

Naoto Kozuki resisted the urge to glare at the man driving the truck next to him. Instead, he replied with a degree of annoyance, "and I told you Tamaki, that we can't afford to let our guard down. Not even for a second… And keep your eyes on the road!"

As Tamaki hastily turned towards the street, Naoto fell silent. He could barely believe how well everything had worked out so far. His plan had been executed flawlessly. Probably, he thought to himself, because he had given Tamaki the role of getaway driver, where he was less likely to screw up something important.

Or maybe it was simply because of just how important this particular mission was. Never before had Naoto's little resistance group done anything so vital to the protection of the Japanese people living under Britannian oppression. Usually their activities were limited to simple harassment intended to keep the Britannians from overly harming innocents.

But this… this was huge.

Less than a hour earlier, the resistance had stolen a container of highly dangerous and experimental chemical weapons. Poison gas.

Code-R.

For what seemed like the thousandth time since the two of them had made their escape, Naoto got out of his seat and moved over the door separating the trailer from the driver's cabin. When he opened the door and peered inside, he let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. The massive capsule of poison gas was still inside, shut tightly next to their stolen Glasgow.

"Oh come on buddy!" Tamaki said as Naoto sat back down and re-buckled his seatbelt, "it's almost been a half hour since we drove out with that thing, and we haven't seen a gunship, a knightmare or even a regular car following us! We're home free!"

"Just because we haven't seen anyone doesn't mean we can't be tracked." Naoto checked the rearview mirror to make sure that what they were saying was true, and that they really weren't being followed. He didn't see anyone. "They could have some kind of homing device built into the container."

Tamaki turned to look his leader in the eye with a surprisingly alert look etched into his face. "But you checked the whole thing over for bugs and stuff when we first moved out"

"I could have missed something." He said. "Keep your eyes on the road," he added absentmindedly. Tamaki hastily turned his head towards the street and corrected his steering.

"You also said that Clovis would never believe that a bunch of 'lowly elevens' could steal anything from his top secret project. And that he wouldn't bother putting surveillance equipment or an escort on the thing because he didn't want any of the other brits to notice it."

Somehow, Naoto stopped himself from scowling as Tamaki used his own words against him. Instead, he let out an irritated sigh and rubbed his eyes. "Look Tamaki, I know it seems like we're in the clear, but that could change at any moment. We just stole a massive canister of experimental poison gas from the Britannian prince in charge of the whole damn country. Once he notices that it's gone, he's going to come after us with everything he's got. We cannot afford to be careless here."

Tamaki was silent for a little bit as he drove the truck off the highway and onto a road that would lead them towards the Shinjuku ghetto. "But wouldn't coming after us with everything he's got draw attention to it? You said he wouldn't want to do that because he's trying to keep it under wraps?"

That was the best case scenario. For whatever reason, Clovis didn't want anyone other than himself and his staff learning about Code-R. It was inevitable that he would learn it was stolen. If he didn't know already, he'd probably learn about it within the hour, two at the most. But considering the lengths he had gone to hide it from prying eyes, it was likely that he would try to keep it under wraps as long as possible.

Oh sure, it was on the books, there were records here and there that mentioned it, but nothing ever went into detail. The basic reports on it said that it was medical research. An absolute ton of digging said that it was poison gas.

Whatever it was, a member of Britannian royalty was trying to keep it quiet. That only happened when they were trying to get an edge on someone. There was simply no way in hell that Code-R was anything good.

"That's what we're hoping," Naoto eventually responded to Tamaki as he checked the rearview mirror again. There still wasn't anyone following them. "And it would be the best case scenario. But we can't expect it to go that well. Hope for the best, plan for the worst."

"Is that what they taught you at Brit boot camp?"

This time, Naoto didn't even try to hide his glare has he turned to meet Tamaki's gaze. His loudest subordinate just loved reminding him of his time in the Britannian army. Against all odds, Tamaki wasn't glaring back. Instead, the Japanese man was giving his leader an even, questioning look, staring him right in the eye. Naoto resisted the urge to sigh as he stared back.

"Eyes on the road Tamaki."

As he turned, Tamaki laughed, loudly. It lasted at least a minute before he managed to fall silent; long enough for the truck to get close enough to see the ruined buildings of the Shinjuku ghetto on the other side of the monorail that separated it from the Britannian settlement. They were only a few blocks away from crossing into the ghetto. Once they were there they'd meet up with the rest of the Resistance and move the poison gas capsule somewhere safe.

"Oh come on Naoto," Tamaki started, still chuckling lightly. Naoto looked over at his loudest subordinate. "I know I give you a lot of crap about how you used to be one of them, but I don't hold it against you." Tamaki once again took his eyes off the road to look at Naoto. "A lot of people thought the Brits were the greatest thing ever after they shoved the Chinese out of Japan, some still do even after they numbered us. But I know that you – " Naoto stopped listening as he noticed a conspicuously large car heading straight toward them from their left side. He looked over to the road and saw red lights glaring at them from the traffic signals.

"Tamaki! Eyes on the road!"

"Hey, come on man I'm trying to –"

Before he could get another word in, he had run the red light, and the car crashed into the side of the truck at the juncture between the cabin and the trailer, knocking it a few feet off its path. For a brief moment, it even leaned onto the right set of wheels.

Tamaki slammed on the brakes, forcing the tires to screech loudly the massive truck was brought to an abrupt stop.

"What the hell!?" he screamed.

"Damn it Tamaki!" Naoto couldn't believe what had just happened. Sure, he'd been expecting something to go wrong, but he thought that it would be the military catching up to them or the remote activation of the Code-R container, not a damn car accident.

"Hey man, it's not my fault, he came out of nowhere!" Tamaki cried desperately. Naoto didn't bother to respond. He could chew out Tamaki for getting them into a car crash later, when they were safely hidden away along with the Code-R capsule and the rest of the resistance.

Naoto leaned over his loudmouth subordinate and looked out of his window to catch a glimpse of the vehicle that had slammed into him. When he saw what it was, he felt all the blood drain away from his face.

"Crap," he muttered quietly.

Tamaki looked out the window along with him. Out of the corner of his eye, Naoto could see him squinting to make out the shape of the mangled vehicle laid out before him. When he spoke, his voice was filled with a confused curiosity.

"What the hell is a limo doing this close to the ghetto?"

Jeremiah Gottwald had reacted with remarkably quick reflexes. There had been maybe five seconds between seeing the truck and crashing into it, and in that time, Jeremiah had leaped across from the other side of the limo and pulled the seatbelt his charge hadn't been wearing from its resting position and buckled it. When the limo slammed into the truck, the margrave had been launched toward the front cab, but Prince Lelouch vi Britannia had suffered no worse injury than some discomfort in the shoulder.

It certainly hadn't been the most dramatic of rescues, but it had kept him from being injured. Jeremiah had always been a practical man, an excellent trait in any bodyguard. In all the years he had served as Lelouch's protector, he had never seen any real action. It was a testament to the man's vigilance and discipline that he was able to react so quickly to such a sudden threat.

Lelouch unbuckled the seatbelt and kneeled over his bodyguard.

"Are you alright?" he asked hesitantly, even though he already knew the answer.

If they had been going at a higher speed, Lelouch would be a lot more worried. But the limo hadn't been moving particularly fast, and neither had the truck. A low speed collision wasn't anywhere near as bad as it would have been at high speed. The worst injury a man as physically fit as Jeremiah would have received was a dislocated shoulder.

"I'm fine, my prince," Jeremiah said calmly. He barely made a sound as he stood up, having recovered quickly. He had to hunch a bit to keep from banging his head against the ceiling. "What about you, are you injured your highness?"

"No," he answered quickly, "although I'm not too sure about Hobbes." He looked behind Jeremiah, to the driver's section of the vehicle. At the moment, the glass separating the two sections of the limo wasn't tinted, and Lelouch could see his driver's prone form leaning face down into the deployed airbags.

Lelouch could almost hear his protector scowl. But by the time he turned back to the prince, Jeremiah had assumed a neutral expression. "I'm going to go out, call for help, and see how bad the damage is. While I'm doing that, please stay here where it's safe."

"That won't be necessary." Lelouch said calmly, "I'd like to talk to the driver of that truck."

The muted nervousness that crossed over Jeremiah's face was almost comical. "But… your highness, it isn't safe out there, there could be-"
"It's perfectly safe, Jeremiah," Lelouch interrupted. He was in no mood to hear any unnecessary concerns for safety. "This wasn't an assassination attempt, it was an accident. And I for one would like to speak to the imbecile who caused it."

It was obvious that Jeremiah wanted to continue protesting. They were only a couple of blocks away from the Shinjuku ghetto after all; there was no way to tell how any of the Japanese living nearby would react to seeing a Britannian prince out in the open. But Lelouch could see the coming protest die away as his bodyguard got a look at his face. One of his servants had been knocked unconscious and possibly injured because some fool hadn't been paying attention to a traffic light. The Eleventh Prince of Britannia was in no mood to listen to any objections. Someone had to pay for this.

"Very well your highness," It didn't matter that he personally disagreed; Jeremiah was utterly loyal to his charge. As such, he would not question or contradict his prince, no matter how much he may have wanted to.

Lelouch only grunted in response as he made his out of the limo and onto the street. The sun was glaring down brightly, and the young prince had to squint a bit before getting used to the light. Once his eyes had adjusted, he took in the sight of the lightly damaged truck that had caused the accident and his eyes widened.

He hadn't been able to get a good look at the other vehicle from inside the limo and assumed that it would be some kind of shipping truck, perhaps a Japanese farmer bringing food to sell in the ghetto. It could have even been a charity worker bringing humanitarian aid, though that was unlikely.

But whatever he'd thought it was, he certainly hadn't expected it to be an army supply truck.

Dimly, Lelouch was aware of Jeremiah stepping out of the limo and inspecting the truck for himself, but the prince didn't pay him any attention. Instead, his mind went into overdrive as he wondered just what the hell a vehicle belonging to the Britannian military was doing out here.

Few Britannians ever bothered to set foot in the ghetto. Sure, there was the rare relief worker bringing aide or a police officer following up on a lead, but the vast majority of Britannians, especially the military, considered going into a ghetto to be utterly beneath them.

If the Britannian army had any forces stationed in the ghetto, they would be spies. No man in uniform would bother going there unless they had been ordered to. Had that policy been changed? Was Clovis stationing peacekeeping forces in the ghetto? Or perhaps launching an attack to strike against some recently discovered terrorist nest?

Unlikely. On the off chance that Clovis done something so uncharacteristic, as Sub-Viceroy of Area Eleven, Lelouch would have been informed. Even if none of his brother's subordinates had seen fit to tell him, or if Lelouch himself had simply ignored the report (as he often did when reports made their way to his desk), his wife would have made sure he knew about it.

Could there have been some kind of covert project in the ghetto? That wasn't outside the realm of possibility. It would certainly be like Clovis to assume that any secret project of his was perfectly safe from anyone other than his political rivals. Never mind the potential resources of any terrorist groups. In his brother's mind, there was simply no way elevens would be capable of stealing anything from him.

But even if he was running some kind of secret program in the ghetto, Clovis wouldn't be stupid enough to supply it in such an obvious way. The Third Prince of Britannia may not have been the most subtle man in the world, but he wasn't an idiot. He wouldn't supply any kind of covert operation that conspicuously.

Before he could give the matter anymore thought, a sudden screech ripped through the air. Lelouch blinked as he realized the driver of the truck was driving away. Within seconds, it was moving forward, accelerating as quickly as it could. Out of the corner of his eye, Lelouch saw Jeremiah run past him, attempting to scream something at the escaping vehicle, drawing his gun as he moved.

But it didn't make any difference. The truck had already disappeared around the corner of the building on the corner of the roads. Lelouch could hear its engines roar from just out of sight. As it grew quieter, his eyes narrowed.

Whoever was driving that thing wasn't a Britannian soldier. It probably wasn't a Britannian citizen either. Lelouch was the Eleventh Prince of the Holy Britannian Empire. He was one of the only members of royalty present in the country, one of the public faces of the colonial government. A Britannian living in Area Eleven would have recognized him instantly. Anyone living in Area Eleven would have recognized him instantly.

A Britannian, especially a soldier, would not have dared attempt to run away from Britannian royalty, no matter how terrified of him they may have been. A Britannian would have gotten out of that vehicle and thrown themselves to his feet, begging his forgiveness. Most Elevens would have done the same.

No… the only people who would have run away from loyalty were those who already considered the Britannian government to be their enemy. Lelouch scowled as he realized who had been driving that truck.

Terrorists.

For some reason, a terrorist had stolen that truck. Why? Lelouch had no idea. Perhaps there was a knightmare or two concealed within the trailer. He hoped not, the very idea of people like that, people who fought even when they had to know victory was impossible, possessing knightmares…

It disgusted him.

He needed to tell someone about this.

"Jeremiah."

Jeremiah turned back towards him, his expression serious. Good, Lelouch thought, his bodyguard had figured it out too; he wouldn't need to explain himself.

"I don't suppose you caught the license plate number of that truck?"

"I did," he answered quickly.

"Good." Lelouch's expression didn't change. He was angry with himself for letting such an important detail slip by. But at the same time, the constant irritation of having a trained soldier following him around wherever he went for the past seven years was momentarily outweighed by a sense of satisfaction that his bodyguard was so alert.

"Call my brother's office," he said. "I don't know what was in that truck, but it seems that it was stolen. Whatever it was, I'm sure Clovis would appreciate having it back."

"Yes, my lord," Jeremiah immediately took out his cell phone and dialed in the necessary number. He was silent for only a few seconds before Lelouch could hear muffled speaking from the other end of the line. As Jeremiah began to report what happened, Lelouch made his way over to Hobbes.

The man had been his driver for a couple of years now. Lelouch knew almost nothing about him other than his name. But he had been hurt while in his service. The mere idea angered Lelouch. As if the idea of people laying down their lives for him wasn't nauseating enough, this man had been injured in something as mundane as a hit and run.

Lelouch's scowl deepened.

He knew better than to move the man. Moving someone who had been injured in a car accident was dangerous, it could very well make his injuries even worse. Hobbes would have to wait for a doctor or a paramedic to show up before he would receive any treatment.

Briefly, he supposed that Jeremiah might be able to do something. After all, soldiers were trained to deal with injuries in the field. Or at least they were supposed to be.

But Lelouch knew that Jeremiah's primary duty was protecting him. He couldn't do that while trying to safely move his driver out of the limo. Even if Lelouch did order him, the man would be too busy looking over his shoulder to do any real good.

"Your highness," came Jeremiah's voice. Lelouch looked over to his bodyguard. "I've informed the Royal Guard, they're sending patrol aircraft to deal with the stolen vehicle, and assistance is on its way to us. Before it arrives, I must insist that you get out of the open." The margrave's eyes shot all over the place as he surveyed the area. "I know we appear to be alone, but we are close to the ghetto. You'll be much safer if we hide in one of these buildings.

"Very well," he said simply. He would have preferred to stay with the limo, but the situation had changed. Even if the crash had been a simple accident, now that he knew that at least one terrorist had been present, he couldn't pretend that he wasn't in any kind of danger. The prince silently followed his bodyguard over to the closest building behind, an apparently abandoned warehouse, while ignoring the relieved look he glimpsed on his bodyguard's face.

Inwardly, Lelouch seethed at the imbeciles who had caused all of this. At whatever terrorist had been stupid enough to keep fighting the inevitable. The idea that anyone would keep up such a pointless fight infuriated him.

When these terrorists were caught, Lelouch promised himself that he would do everything in his power, meager as it was, to make sure that they paid for their idiocy.

"What the hell is a freaking prince doing this close to the ghetto?!" Tamaki shouted.

"I don't know," Naoto said evenly. He couldn't believe his luck. Of all the people that could have been in that limo, it just had to be royalty, didn't it? Damn it. When the resistance started this mission, they had been expecting something to go wrong, no plan survived first contact with the enemy, but to have it messed up like this by pure, random chance?

Within seconds of seeing Prince Lelouch and his bodyguard get out of the limo, Tamaki had shoved Naoto back into his seat and gunned the engine. Naoto was actually a little surprised given how gung ho Tamaki normally was. The rebel leader would have expected the loudmouth to grab the nearest gun and start shooting at the prince before running away.

They made it into the ghetto in less than a minute. Looking out the window, Naoto could see Japanese people on the sidewalk, staring at the military supply truck racing through their ghetto, probably scared out of their minds.

"Just keep driving to the rendezvous point," he kept his voice as calm as possible. This wasn't the time to panic. Bad as the situation was, it could still be a lot worst. The rendezvous point wasn't all that far away, they could reach it before any authorities caught up to them. All they had to do was load the Code-R container onto the abandoned train. If they could get it into the subway system, they'd be in the clear. The railways underneath Japan were a labyrinth. Even with a map, the Britannians would have a hell of a time finding them down there.

They would be safe… at least until the military reviewed the Code-R security footage, figured out who stole the thing and started a manhunt. Naoto felt a brief pang of guilt for Kallen. If Britannians figured out who he was, his little sister would probably end up suffering for it.

"I'll contact Ohgi and tell him what's up. You just keep us on track; the rendezvous point isn't too far from here. And for the love of god, don't get us into anymore car accidents."

Tamaki shot a glare at him, looking ready to argue. But Naoto was not willing to deal with Tamaki's crap at this point; he squashed his subordinate's angry glare with one of his own.

"Eyes on the road!" He growled. It was almost a scream, but somehow, Naoto managed to keep his voice relatively even.

Tamaki looked back towards the street, his angry expression unchanged. Naoto almost couldn't believe that Tamaki was still willing to argue when he was at fault. But he'd known the man long enough to understand that Tamaki was always able to shift the blame. Not for the first time, Naoto wondered why he let him stick around.

Enough, he thought to himself, this isn't the time for that. Yelling at Tamaki would have to wait for later. Naoto reached into his pocket and pulled out his radio, turning it on to the frequency he told Ohgi to use for the day.

"Ohgi, you there?" There were a few seconds of agonizing silence as Naoto waited for his second in command to respond.

"I'm here," he finally said. "What happened, did something go wrong?"

The worry in his voice was practically palpable. Naoto had spent a bit of time outlining all the different things that could go wrong, and even over the radio, he could tell that his oldest friend was running through all of them in his mind.

"Yeah, we got into a car accident and hit a VIP."
"What?"

"Don't worry; we still haven't hit the worst case scenario. Is the train ready?" He'd put Ohgi in charge of the subway train, where he knew his friend would be able to keep a level head. Kaname Ohgi simply wasn't the kind of man who could handle himself in a firefight.

"Uh yeah, we're good to go, just waiting for you two to show up."

"Alright, we're only about seven minutes out, be ready to move as soon as we get there."
"Understood," He answered quickly. Naoto turned off his radio, relieved that at least one of his lieutenants could keep a level head. Ohgi may not be the best man to have in a fight, but could deal with sudden shifts in a plan easily enough, and he didn't waste any of Naoto's time asking for details.

Beside him, Naoto noticed that Tamaki was still close to full out panic.

"Calm down," he said. Tamaki's eye twitched over to him for a second, but it seemed that he finally learned his lesson and quickly shifted them back to the road. "I know it seems bad right now, but it could be a lot worse."

That familiar angry expression quickly showed up on Tamaki's face. He was probably about to start yelling about how that was the exact opposite of what he'd been saying earlier, and that someone who was so paranoid about stuff going wrong shouldn't be so calm when it did. But before he got the chance, a voice magnified by a loudspeaker ripped through the air behind him.

"To the driver's of the truck, you are hereby under arrest for theft of government property and assaulting a member of the royal family. Stop the vehicle and surrender now or we will fire upon you!"

Naoto looked into the rearview mirror and saw three separate military gunships bearing down at them from the sky.

Not the police, the military.

Crap.

"What the hell? We didn't assault him, it was an accident!" Tamaki screamed from the driver's seat.

"Now's not the time Tamaki, just keep driving and get us to the subway!"

Tamaki didn't respond. He didn't yell back, curse under his breath, or start swearing, he just shut his mouth and did what he was told. If that wasn't a testament to how serious the situation had become, nothing was.

Naoto looked back towards the gunships. They were simple military patrol vehicles, probably from one of the launch pads all around the settlement in case of terrorist activity. It was just his luck that the military was sent in instead of the police. Of all the people who could have been injured, it just had to be royalty.

Briefly, Naoto wondered if Lelouch's wife had been in there with him. That would be a damn nightmare. Clovis, or maybe the Purist faction would spin the accident into an attack, and if word got out that Princess-Consort Kaguya vi Britannia had been attacked by Japanese terrorists in possession of stolen chemical weapons, they'd have the perfect excuse to institute a whole bunch of anti-Japanese laws.

Before Naoto could launch deeper into that depressing line of thought, he saw flashes of fire in the mirror, and knew the gunships had opened fire. Naoto instinctively covered his head as he heard bullets beating on the trailer and ripping into the concrete of the road. Dimly, he was aware of civilians screaming as Tamaki lost control of the truck.

What happened next was all one big massive blur. One moment, Naoto was huddled up, subconsciously protecting himself from the machine gun fire, the next; he was being thrown all over his seat. His seatbelt was the only thing keeping him from being launched against the windshield. Vaguely, he noticed that the truck was no longer on its wheels, but instead on its side, and that it was no longer light outside.

Abruptly, everything became still.

Naoto opened his eyes, surprised to find that he had shut them so tightly, and looked around. Everything was suddenly a lot darker, but not so dark that Naoto couldn't see. They had probably crashed into a building.

Looking to his left, which was beneath him at this point, Naoto saw Tamaki lying at the junction between the windshield and the driver's window. He was clutching his left arm, and a vicious grimace was spread across his face.

"Tamaki," Naoto said, his voice barely more than a whisper. "You alright?"

It took the loudmouth a few seconds to answer. "Yeah… I'm fine." His voice then increased in volume as he continued. "It's going to take a lot more than a crash that tiny to hut me!" He laughed quietly. Naoto couldn't help but smile.

Tamaki was an idiot, no question, but he was also one tough son of a bitch.

"Hey, Boss," he said quietly.

"Yeah?"

"Didn't you say that moving that thing around too much might make it open up?"

Naoto's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't keep the panicked look from spreading across his face. He didn't waste any time wondering whether or not Tamaki was right. The machine gun fire – or maybe the crash – really could have forced the capsule to open.

A sudden surge of adrenaline brought Naoto out of his daze. He quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and maneuvered himself toward the door of the cabin; he took the tiny gas masks that he'd brought along with him out of his pocket. He tossed one of them to Tamaki before putting his own on over his mouth, inwardly cursing the resistance's inability to acquire gas masks that covered the whole face.

Once Tamaki had put his mask on and gave his boss a thumbs up, Naoto opened the door, hoping that Tamaki was wrong, and that he wasn't about to get a face full of poison gas.

As the door opened, Naoto found that Tamaki was right; the Code-R container had indeed been opened by the crash. The giant spherical thing was sitting there empty, lying on its side, having released its cargo. But there wasn't any gas.

Instead, there was a girl lying inside the opened capsule and spread across the wall. Long green hair was spread out behind her as the only blot of color in the otherwise darkened trailer. She was secured in a white Britannian prison suit, and appeared to be unconscious.

"What the hell…" he whispered.

"What?" he heard Tamaki yell, "Did it open? Are we going to die? Damn it Naoto, answer me!"

But Naoto didn't answer him, too confused by what he was seeing to respond.

All the digging the resistance had done said that Code-R was poison gas. All of it. Everything that didn't say it was medical research, the obvious cover story, said it was poison gas.

When it came to espionage, nothing was ever certain. It had always been possible that the info was false, and that Clovis's pet project was something completely different but…

This made no sense at all.

Suddenly, the girl's – or maybe the woman's, he couldn't tell how old she was – eyes cracked open, and she turned her head to stare up at him, looking right into his own widened eyes.

It was… odd, to say the least. There was no fear in her eyes, nothing to indicate that she was even remotely worried about what was going on. In fact, there wasn't much of anything in her eyes. Not fear, not anger, or joy or anything else. She just stared up at him, waiting for him to make the first move with expressionless eyes.

"Tamaki," he spoke, interrupting the subordinate's injured cries. He didn't look back, he just waited for the loudmouth to stop talking. "Can you move?"

There was another moment of silence before he answered. "Yeah, I think so."

Naoto could hear the man grimace as he forced himself to move. Inwardly, he couldn't help but feel guilty. He knew that you weren't supposed to move someone who had been in a car crash, otherwise they could just end up even more heavily injured. But there wasn't any time to be that careful, Britannian forces would be here soon, they needed to get out of the truck and over to Ohgi as soon as humanly possible.

Briefly, Naoto looked down and saw that Tamaki had managed to get himself upright, and was pulling himself towards the cabin door. Turning back to the girl, who was still staring at him, Naoto crawled into the trailer.

"Follow me," he said.

"Hey, wait a second," Tamaki protested, "Shouldn't we be trying to get away from the deadly gas? There's no way we can transport it with the truck like this, we need to leave it behind!"

"It's not gas."

"What do you mean it's not gas? You said it was gas! Hey, Naoto, I'm talking to you, don't keep crawling away! Come on boss!"

Naoto stopped listening as he made his way over to the girl. It didn't take him long, it was just a short drop to the wall of the trailer and he was there. He immediately went to work on the prison suit, undoing the straps that were restraining her arms and legs.

"Hey what the hell is this, where did she come from?" Naoto looked back towards Tamaki and saw that he had managed to crawl over the door. Now he was staring down at his boss and the mysterious prisoner with an utterly confused expression.

Naoto turned back to her and continued working on the suit. "She was in the capsule,"

"But you said it was poison gas!"
"I know what I said Tamaki!" Naoto snapped, "But it looks like I was wrong."

What the hell was going on? Who was this girl? Why was she in the Code-R container? Naoto tried to figure it out, but nothing he could think of made any sense. Nothing about this made any sense.

Could Code-R be some kind of elaborate prison? Had this girl slighted Clovis in some way? If so, what the hell could she possibly have done to make it worth so much effort to hiding her?

His mind continued to race as the green haired girl sat up, free of her restraints. She reached up to the collar of the suit and pulled it down from her face, freeing her mouth. But she didn't say anything. She simply sat there, once again affixing him with that strange look. For a moment Naoto stared back. Then he narrowed his eyes.

"Who are you?"

A single eyebrow rose, silently questioning him.

A chill raced up Naoto's spine. This girl, whoever she was, was dangerous. Naoto was sure of it. He couldn't explain how he felt that way, it sounded insane. His rational mind was screaming that there was no possible way this girl, this prisoner, could be a threat.

But out of the corner of his eye, Naoto could see the stolen Knightmare Frame, the Glasgow that the resistance had acquired months ago. It wasn't too long ago that knightmares were nothing more than a crazy dream, and the idea that modern warfare could come to be centered around fighting robots would have been considered insane.

Hell, a decade ago, the thought that he would be leading a resistance cell against the forces of his father's home land would have seemed insane too.

But here he was.

And Naoto's instincts were screaming that this girl was dangerous.

Reaching beneath his stolen white lab coat, felt his way toward the gun he always kept holstered under his left arm. He pulled it out and held it in the air for a moment, watching as the girl's eyes shifted towards the weapon.

"Let me ask again," He said quietly. He brought the gun down and put the barrel right up to the side of her head. "Who are you?"

The only part of her that moved was her eyes; slowing shifting from the direction of the gun that she couldn't see any more to meet Naoto's eyes once again.

"C.C." she finally said.

"What kind of a name is that?" Tamaki said from up above. The girl – C.C. – didn't bother answering him. She only continued to stare at Naoto.

"What's yours?" She asked abruptly. Naoto blinked, surprised by the sudden question. He was silent for moment, wondering whether or not he should bother answering her. She hadn't exactly been forthcoming with his question. But fair was fair.

He opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything, anther voice ripped through the air.

"We have the vehicle surrounded! Come out with your hands in the air!"

Naoto stood, momentarily forgetting C.C. as he remembered that the gunships probably had a couple of soldiers each. Seconds later, the yell was punctuated by bullets slamming into the trailer.

"Shit!" Tamaki yelled at almost the exact same time Naoto hissed, "Stay calm!" towards him.

Tamaki looked down at his boss, fear written all over his face.

"We cannot afford to panic Tamaki. I know it looks bad, but we can survive this if we just stay calm."

"Are you freaking kidding me Naoto? We're screwed!"

Before Naoto could yell back at him, he felt a slender hand wrap around the hand he was holding the gun with. His head whipped downward to see that C.C. had reached up and grabbed his hand, and that the green hair covering her forehead had shifted, revealing a strange red mark.

And it was glowing.

For an instant, Naoto's vision blurred. When it cleared, he saw…

He wasn't sure what he saw.

There was nothing and everything all at once. The world changed from moment to moment. At first there was nothing but blue, somehow rushing all around him. Then there was nothing, an endless white emptiness where he stood, naked before the crushing force of eternity.

And then came the voice. It seemed to come from nowhere, yet it sounded everywhere, as if he were hearing it in his mind. Somewhere, in some vague part of his conscious mind, Naoto realized that it was C.C.'s voice.

Do you desire power?

Yes he answered without hesitation. Without thought. That was no question, of course Naoto desired power. Without it, he was nothing, his resistance pointless against the oppression of a mighty empire. With it, he could fight and defend everything he cared about. He could end the suffering and free his people.

Faces rushed across Naoto's vision. Ohgi, Tamaki, the rest of the resistance. Countless innocent civilians that suffered under the wrath of a foreign empire.

Naoto Kozuki saw his mother for the first time since her death in the Chinese invasion, he saw his father, a man he had not spoken to in years. And he saw…

He saw his little sister, Kallen, who believed that he was dead. He saw her as she was before the war, before the Chinese attacked from the west and before Britannia had come in with their knightmares and swept away all resistance.

He saw her during the war, after their mother's death. He saw her terror and fear, and her wonder as the first Knightmare she ever laid eyes upon tore through its enemies, Chinese and Japanese alike.

And he saw her as she was now, a knight of the Empire. A grown warrior who believed her older brother to be dead.

Then she was gone. All of them were gone. Around Naoto were two worlds, each rushing toward him with unstoppable force.

I can give it to you.

Naoto blinked, and saw that he had returned to the crushing white emptiness. But he was no longer alone. C.C. stood before him, as naked as he was, staring at him with a slight smile spread across her face. The first emotion he had seen her express.

I can give you the power you desire, the power to fight back, to protect those you care about. But not without condition.

It was her voice, but she wasn't speaking. Her lips never moved.

Naoto remained silent, waiting for her to go on.

I propose a deal, a contract. If I give you this power, then you must agree to grant me one wish, my deepest desire. Accept this contract, and you accept its terms.

More images bombarded Naoto. He saw ruined caves adorned with the same mark upon C.C.'s brow. He saw crowds of young girls, children who bore it as well. And he saw the planet Jupiter, glaring down at him with its furious red eye. He saw a massive cloaked figure standing before the sunrise, his back turned to Naoto, and for a brief moment he saw C.C., covered in blood.

The power of the king will give you a different life, a different providence. You will continue to live in the world of humans, but you will live unlike any other. This power will condemn you to a life of solitude, are you prepared to accept that?

Yes! Naoto shouted If you can give me the power to fight this war, I'll accept anything!

Before him, C.C. smile widened.

And then everything went black.