A young woman, late 20's, blues eyes, tan hair walks down the corridors of a floating battleship. She is heading for the lair of Zero, the bringer of peace. Just under the tapping of her shoes on the shiny tile floor, a faint whirring accompanies each step.

Nunnally strides into Zero's chamber, a look of determination on her face. Zero, looking exactly as he had twelve years ago, is sitting in his accustomed spot in the middle of the room on his swivel chair, surrounded by computers detailing events all around the world. Events that for the first time in twelve years were not those of progress, but war.

"Zero!" the masked man straightens with a start. "There has been an attack on Li Xingke and the Empress!"

"Thank you, Nunnally. I just saw the broadcast myself."

Zero gestures to a bank of TVs off to his left, three of them currently on the subject of the attempted assassination of Li Xingke.

"Do you know anything more about this than is being broadcast? Anything from out networks?"

Nunnally shakes her head. "Nobody knows who is behind the attack. The Chinese government has requested a convening of the U.F.N. to relay the information firsthand."

"Am I to be there as well?" Zero stands up and snaps his fingers. Out of the darkness behind his throne, Kallen Stadtfeld stands up and retrieves a long object from the darkness and brings Zero his sword. Kallen is Zero's personal guard, not that he really needed needed one up until now. She still wears the black knight uniform that she fought in during Lelouch's rein.

"Your presence is requested."

"Fine. I will leave as soon as I can. Kallen?" He turns to Kallen and holds his hands out to accept the sword. Kallen places the sword in his hands and walks to the back entrance, leaving Zero and Nunnally alone.

"Is there anything else you need?" Zero straps the sword's sheath to his side and draws the sword in a graceful arc.

"There is, but..."

"Why the hesitation? You know that I will answer your questions. Is it something personal?"

"...Well, I-I want to know something. Can you send Kallen away?"

Zero's mask betrays nothing. He stands still for a few seconds before he speaks again. "I trust Kallen. Do you have a reason to send her away?"

"Not really. It's just private."

Kallen appeared around the corner with two duffle bags, one a standard issue black bag, the other colored black with purple and yellow highlights.

"Don't worry, I'll get the Knightmares ready." Kallen's voice is light, but her face has a dangerous look. "He'd better be there in one piece in fifteen minutes."

Nunnally watches her leave, then turns back to Zero.

"I know who you are, Suzaku."

Once again, Zero just stands there. He slowly reaches up and disengages his helmet to reveal Suzaku Kururugi.

"How long have you known?" His voice is much different from when his helmet is on. Nunnally realizes that he must have a voice modulator to change the way he sounds.

"Since the day Lelouch was killed. I saw a vision of him handing you his helmet."

Suzaku closes his eyes. "Who else have you told?" lines of stress appear on his forehead.

"Nobody."

"Please keep it that way. If people find out that this peace was caused by a final deception by Lelouch, we're all in trouble. The peace would break."

Nunnally blinks at Suzaku, then her eyes widen. "What if that's what happened, and this meeting is to draw you out? You could be in danger!"

"I have no choice. If I don't go, the public would interpret it as Zero ignoring a threat. If I go, I may have to end the peace, one way or another." Suzaku puts the helmet back on and once again becomes zero. "I must take my leave. Please keep me informed of any events that come up."

With that, Zero heads off to the hangers.

o-o-o-o

"Have you seen this?"

"Mmm?"

"Have you seen this assassination attempt on Li Xingke?"

"I thought you were going to stay out of politics from now on."

"That is what I said, isn't it. It's just distressing, not taking action."

"I know, but if anyone ever saw either of us-"

"I'm not saying that we should take action, I just want to keep a closer eye on events."

"Then I'm going to keep a closer watch on you, so you don't do anything impulsive."

"Relax. I may be new to this, but I have enough common sense not to give them a reason to suspect-"

"It's settled then. You stay here, I stay here, neither of us interferes."

"Got it."

In his heart though, he longed for action.

o-o-o-o

"Status report, Nunnally."

Zero is halfway to the meeting center after two hours of flying. The Shinkirō wasn't his first pick of Knightmare, but since it is Zero's signature Knightmare, he had no choice. The remains of the Lancelot were never recovered from the Damocles incident. Presumably, It was melted into the sun along with Damocles.

The Shinkirō had been reconstructed as more of a tactical model, but it looks almost exactly the same on the outside. It also still contained the Hadron cannons, but little other offensive weaponry.

Flying beside Zero, on his right, is the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Since it is the most advance Knightmare currently in existence, it requires one of the most advanced pilots. Suzaku himself had barely been able to control it. Kallen managed to make the machine move gracefully.

"No more news. High level security has been deployed on site to sweep the area before any of the U.F.N. members get there. Kallen? You'll been put in charge as soon as you get there."

"Understood. Will there be snacks?"

There is a silence on the microphone. "Um... I'm sure I can order something for you-"

Kallen laughed. "I was joking Nunnally. Kallen Out."

At least they're getting along. Suzaku hated when they fought. It's because of being cooped up together inside a Knightmare transport for a week. Happens every time.

A private channel opened between the Guren and the Shinkirō. "Zero, what was Nunnally asking about?"

"It was a private conversation, Kallen."

"I still think I should know. It might affect security if she can be taken hostage and stripped of that information."

"You are correct in that IF she was kidnapped, and IF she talked, it might cause a minor inconvenience. Nothing world shattering." Right. Not like the fact that peace is as much of an illusion as the assassination of emperor Lelouch.

Lelouch... Stepping into his shoes was the most difficult thing Suzaku had ever done. Lelouch was a brilliant chess-master both in the game of chess and in real life, whereas Suzaku was the more athletic type. Occasionally, Suzaku has dreams where Lelouch survived both the sword through the heart and subsequent immolation, but that is impossible. Right?

Suddenly, the Shinkirō's HUD Starts beeping, warning of five incoming Knightmares. They seem to be going for a lock on Zero. Spread out in a V formation, these Knightmares are a style previously unseen, colored an eye searing purple and orange with-

It can't be-

The symbol of Geass painted along the front edge of the Knightmares.

As long as it took Suzaku to understand this, Kallen had already taken action. She fires the Guren's silver right hand which grabs the leader and starts melting his Knightmare. Suzaku pulls out a Knightmare sized gun and fires at the two on the left. The two on the right swerve off around behind Kallen, and since she's attached to the Radiant Wave Surger, she can't swivel around to face them.

Suzaku manages to kill one of the two Knightmares he had been aiming at. The fallen one spiraled down and crashed into the ocean. No ejection. The one still flying pulls two swords of of it's back and charges Suzaku head on.

Kallen has finally destroyed the leading Knightmare, exploding into a fireball larger than such a small machine should have produced. She spins around to try to track the other targets, and finds one of them attempting to hit Zero with twin swords. She fires her secondary gun and misses her target, then swoops down to try and shield Zero.

Suzaku darts back as Kallen blocks the incoming Knightmare, straight into the clutches of the other two enemies. They pin the Shinkirō's arms and rip the gun from it's hand taking the trigger finger with it. Suzaku switches on the hadron canons and twists around to aim at the one on his left. At this range, Suzaku risks damaging himself in the blast, but that can't be helped.

The blast rocked every remaining Knightmare in the air, and the one Suzaku had been aiming at was simply gone. The Shinkirō had lost the entirety of it's left arm. Kallen calls up a closed channel.

"Zero! Are you OK?"

"I'm good. You worry about the one with the swords, I've got this guy."

Kallen returns her focus the Knightmare with the swords. He moved much faster than the other Knightmares, and is probably the leader despite not being in front. Kallen charges at him claw arm extended, only to have the other Knightmare dodge and swipe at the Guren's leg. It misses, but now it's heading for Zero.

Suzaku plants the Shinkirō's feet into the Geass symbol on the other craft and dislodged the Shinkirō's right arm. He reached around the other Knightmare and pulled a gun off of it. He aimed right at the cabin of the enemy and fired, the bullet ripping straight through and obliterating the frame.

The last remaining Knightmare reached out and sliced off one of the floatation wings.

While Kallen and the sword wielding Knightmare disappeared in a fireball, Suzaku starts the long plummet towards the ocean. Fortunately, when the Shinkirō was updated, an escape pod was added. Unfortunately, Suzaku was pinned into his seat by inertia, so he can't activate it. The long plummet seems a lot shorter than it looked from above. Suzaku realizes that he's probably going to die.

That's when the Geass kicks in.

"LIVE!"

Suzaku tilts his chair back, flinging him into the back wall of the Shinkirō. The impact knocks Suzaku out, the last thing he remebers is the ocean's surface rising up to meet him.