A/N: Still alive with sudden inspiration. University is a killer for creativity. Sorry for the hiatus.

"You have got to be shitting me."

Suzaku didn't even look up from his paperwork as his office was intruded upon. He already knew why they were here.

"I tried to convince the Viceroy otherwise, Julia." He said without facing the woman currently in the middle of the room.

"Seriously, they just got attacked by terrorists and now they want to hold another gala in a god damn skyscraper that's not even finished." Julia paced around the room, ranting at Suzaku.

Meant as a symbol of a Tokyo that rose from the ashes, Babel Tower was supposed to be a clear fixture in the skyline. It was supposed to show that the Area and the SAZ could co-exist peacefully.

It was unfortunate that the Honorable Lord Babel had financed most of the construction, as the building rapidly took after the biblical tower as construction progressed. Mismanaged funds, a lack of tenants, and skewed priorities for the contractors meant that the inner floors were a mess, with some floors fully completed and operational while others were almost skeletal.

At least they had the forethought to finish the outside of it. Suzaku mused. The glass windows and red struts looked like a good symbol against the destroyed skyline of the settlement.

"And now the Viceroy is involved too, so now there's a bunch of influential people with targets on their backs in a death trap fifty storeys up." Julia plopped onto the couch and crossed her legs.

"I guess that means it's our job to protect them." Suzaku threw a thick folio at Julia, landing in her lap. "The blueprints for the building. Do your whole strategist thing. We don't have a lot of time to organize." He waved her off and reached under his desk for his painkillers. His head was acting up again.

Julia picked up the folder and stood up, looking right at Suzaku. "You need to tell him to call this off, or to move it somewhere else. There's no way in hell that we'll be able to defend the gala if it's on the top floor of Babel Tower."

"Why don't you do it then." Suzaku said as he kneaded his eyebrows. He took the small bottle of pills out and knocked back two white caplets. He washed it down with a bit of long-cold coffee before continuing. "I've already argued until I was blue in the face, but he didn't care. Said that it had to be done there or else it wouldn't be a symbol." He gazed into the pair of amethyst orbs. "But I'm sure you've got something that can convince him."

They both knew it was a challenge. Julia's eyes narrowed as Suzaku scrutinized every bit of them. He looked for even a speck of red. She gripped the file tighter. "I am not Lelouch." She almost whispered through her gritted teeth. "I do NOT have geass, Suzaku. I am me." She angrily turned on her heel and stormed out the door.

Suzaku just sighed as he felt his headache dull.

Julia stomped out the government building, glowering at each person she met along the way. He had tortured her for far too long, just for simply looking like a girl he hated. Her hands crinkled the card stock cover as she seethed. She didn't do anything wrong, didn't commit treason against the empire, and yet Suzaku had treated her like the scum of the earth for sharing a body with the most notorious terrorist in the empire. "It's all your fucking fault." She whispered to her own mind.

And yet she still didn't know why Suzaku was like this. The memories of Lelouch's imprisonment were scattered, jumbled, and filled with fear and betrayal. But they were consistent at least. There was only ever one question asked between the two of them.

"Why?"

She sifted through them once again in the car, desperately blocking out the pleas and screams of a helpless Lelouch. Oh how she suffered. Suzaku just wanted answers. His eyes said it all.

And yet, that changed one day. It was clear in her mind, the day that Suzaku snapped.

He had come into the room different. Not sullen or angry as usual, but… smiling.

He didn't ask any questions, didn't want any answers. Lelouch kept calm, but only until the blows came and never let up.

She tried to scream out why she had killed her sister. Why the SAZ ceremony had been a bloodbath. But she couldn't. Not even as Suzaku broke her ribs with the cane. Not even as he tore off her clothes and pushed her up against the wall. He never even gave her a chance either.

Something happened between those two interrogations. Something had to have happened. Suzaku went from interrogating Lelouch to beating her. And enjoying it.

Julia pulled her hand away from the blueprint folio, half-crumpled in her iron grip. She was breathing hard, too hard.

At least it's still readable, She thought as she started looking at the basement schematics.

The restaurant wasn't so busy this late at night. Kallen marched through the front door, marching her way past the kitchen. The patrons didn't pay her much mind, but the staff did. They looked at her a bit oddly, but returned to their work. Kallen went down the staircase and stared at Tamaki.

"So… why'd you call?" He said, leaning on a box of bok choy.

"I need your help. I need everyone's help." She said calmly.

Tamaki, to his credit, picked up on the 'everyone' quickly enough. "Wait, what for? I thought we were done, that we were going to leave all the fighting and bullshit to the UFN? I dunno how many of us we can call up, Kallen. Hell, I bet Xingke doesn't remember where our knightmares are."

"Damn it, Tamaki, this is not the time! There's going to be another party, another gala fundraising for the SAZ."

"And? What about it?" He crossed his arms.

"There's going to be another attack there, I can feel it. And I'm damned sure that the Britannian military isn't going to be able to defend us."

Tamaki gulped. "I-If it falls through, w-what's going to happen to the SAZ?"

"I dunno, but our funding is going to get slashed if we get attacked again, and if anyone dies…" Kallen didn't want to elaborate. "The Baronet of York is going to make this happen one way or another. I don't want another terrorist attack happening there. Please Tamaki, get some people, anything. Jump in if the situation gets bad."

Tamaki grit his teeth. "You're sure there's going to be another one?"

"Dead sure." Kallen replied. "I wouldn't call you up if I wasn't."

Tamaki ran his hand through his hair. If any of them showed up to fight terrorists again, the amnesty for former Black Knights would be over right then and there.

"I'll see what I can do."

The day of the party.

"Now or never."

Kallen felt her legs shake as the elevator ascended to the top of Babel Tower. Of all the places there could be a conference hall, it had to be atop a skyscraper.

She walked into the impromptu coat check, verifying her identity with the staff in the front before entering the ballroom.

For a group of nobles that had just recently been held hostage, they sure didn't look scared. She glanced around, noting the smiling faces and merry conversation. It was like the attack never happened. She saw the Baronet holding court with a bunch of nobles, the group laughing uproariously in unison at something he said.

Kallen held the clutch bag tight to her thigh, her fingers trailing the slanted cut of her red dress that showed off her left leg.

"You better be here." She whispered to herself. If something went wrong, she could signal for help in an instant. How long they took, she didn't know.

"Miss Stadfeld!" She heard from the Baronet, who waved her over. She put on a timid smile and walked over. The chamber orchestra suddenly switch to a dance midway, and she had to dodge couples vying for the dance floor.

She politely nodded to the Baronet when she arrived. "Do you need me? This really is your party, I shouldn't take up much of your time." Kallen had hoped that this night would just be uneventful. She looked at the press reporters that hung around the edges of the room, snapping photos and talking to the party-goers. It seemed that the Baronet wanted to broadcast this out to the world.

"Nonsense Kallen, this is your project as much as it is mine. Let me introduce you to my associates. They wanted to speak with you." He gestured towards a young man, tall and tan with brown hair. "This is Robert Johnston, son of Lord Johnston."

Kallen greeted the man with a handshake, which he heartily returned.

"And this is Lord and Lady Shellster, they've partnered with York industries on many occasions."

Kallen looked at the mismatched pair, a small blond woman who would have looked like a young child if it weren't for the lines in her face and the age in her eyes, and a tall, sturdy man with a mop of dirty blond hair.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Stadfeld." Lord Shellster spoke as he offered a hand that Kallen quickly took. "Me and my wife were moved by the plight of the Ele-Japanese," He quickly caught himself, "but we were never sure how we could assist. It seemed like you had many of the movers and shakers in the area co-operating." He kept a firm grasp on her hand even as he talked.

"But after hearing about the attack and your speech, Lady Stadfeld, well we decided that we must support the SAZ. We'd like to donate a lump sum of fifty million pounds and the services of Shellster Contracting to aid in the development." Lady Shellster spoke up. Her voice seemed to belong to a woman twice her size.

Kallen blinked. She extricated her hand from Lord Shellster's grip. "W-we'd be happy to accept your donation, Lord and Lady Shellster." She quickly performed a small curtsey, only to be stopped by Lady Shellster.

"Please, call me Mary. And him James." She poked her towering husband in the arm. "We look forward to working with you Kallen. Er, I can call you Kallen, right?" She asked.

"Yeah, definitely." Kallen replied. That amount of money would put them well past their stretch goals for the year, and the help of a contracting company was almost invaluable. She quickly shook their hands, offering to negotiate the specifics at a later date.

"You should come over for tea, dear. Sometime next week?" Mary said. Kallen nodded. "I'll email you the details later." She said cheerily before dismissing herself and her husband, locking arms to go mingle with others.

"That's a tough act to follow." Kallen turned to the voice of Robert Johnston. The Baronet was nowhere to be seen. She hadn't even noticed that he left.

"Were you planning on donating to the cause as well?" She asked him. He chuckled as he grabbed two flutes of champagne off a nearby platter. Kallen took the offering.

"Not actually. I wanted to see what this was all about." He gestured to everything. "Thought it would be fun to see. And to meet you as well." He wryly smiled at her.

"Well, thank you for the attention." Kallen raised her champagne to him before sipping the bubbly. "How is it?" She asked.

"Seems… decent enough. I work in the Revenue Department back in Pendragon. There's telltale signs of a group of nobles trying to hide money in an FS-30B."

Kallen looked at him in slight confusion.

"That's the form someone needs to fill out to apply for a non-profit organization. These people don't look like the type to evade taxes like this. Especially if their charity acts as advertised."

"So that's your reason for being here? To audit the SAZ fundraiser?" Kallen raised an eyebrow.

"No, I came here because I wanted to. My work just happens to follow me places." Robert replied, setting his now-empty glass down.

"So the only interesting thing about us is that we're not commiting tax fraud?" Kallen shot.

"I mean it is impressive, organizing all these nobles to do something for others. Non-Britannians even. Commendable, even." He turned to her.

"...Well, thanks."

The orchestra once again switched, this time to a slow waltz.

"Care to dance, Lady Stadfeld?" Robert held out a hand.

"Oh, no, I usually don't dance." She let out a timid smile.

"If you can be brave in a terrorist attack, you can suffer one dance with me." Robert offered again.

"Sure." She took his hand and the two made their way to the dance floor.

Julia tried with all her might to sink into the cheap office chair while eating a pack of pork rinds. The snap and crunch of the fatty chips was the only sound in the room other than the muffled sounds from the ballroom from the speakers.

Nothing of note had happened yet. The Viceroy's arrival wasn't for another thirty minutes. She glanced over at Suzaku and Gino. All three of them were in devicer suits as they watched the surveillance cameras.

"Nothing's gonna happen tonight, it's already 9:00." Gino said, fishing through Julia's bag of pork rinds. The oily residue quickly stained his white suit.

"Hey!" She slapped his hand away, but not before he pulled a few out.

Julia looked at the tactical map at the desk in front of her, her eyes tracing the ring of Knightpolice Frames that formed a perimeter around the base of the tower. Officers had been dispatched to the roofs of buildings within a mile of Babel Tower, on the lookout for anything remotely suspicious. Nothing yet.

There were thirty Knightmares defending the tower itself, including the Lancelot and Tristan. Julia had her own unit as well. She preferred to be on the ground with the troops.

On the other hand, other than the two Knights of the Round and a squad of Gloucesters, the rest of the KMFs were just Knightpolice Glasgows with riot gear. It was meant for dispersing violent crowds, not going toe to toe with military frames.

Julia frowned. While a sizeable force, it might not be enough. And with access to a Raikou, the terrorists could easily snipe the conference room from far away, too far for the tower force to deal with. "Your move, terrorists."

The Viceroy arrived right on schedule, his limo flanked by another two Knightpolice. They joined up with the others in the garage and at the perimeter, and Julia added another pawn to the cheap, travel chessboard on the corner of the table. She saw Suzaku eyeing her warily from her peripheral vision. This was exactly what Lelouch would do. But it was so effective not to pass up for Julia.

It was maybe five minutes after that a group of white semi-trailers started moving towards the tower from the southeast. Far too many to be a coincidence. They grouped up halfway to Babel Tower and arrived as a cohesive group. The trailers fanned out, side on to the front entrance.

"Seven of them, I think." Suzaku squinted at the screen.

"I'm going to sortie now, Sophie." Gino wiped his hands on his pants and moved to the door.

"Wait." Julia grabbed Gino's arm. "We can't."

"What do you mean? It's a bunch of semis lined up out there. It's definitely terrorists."

"Yeah, and it's also definitely a diversion. Or a trap." Julia kept Gino where he stood.

"What, how do you know that?" Suzaku responded.

"Because they wouldn't do something so overt before having a noose around the hostages." She said. "Keep the perimeter. Send out two to investigate the trucks." She moved a pawn forward.

Gino pulled his arm away from her grasp. "So, if this is just a distraction, then…"

"The terrorists are already in the building. They either moved in before we set up, or they came in one of the catering trucks."