~0o0o0~

The chopping sound of the helicopter's blades startled a few birds from the corrugated metal rooftops as it swooped in from the direction of the Settlement, the insignia of the Police Department barely visible on its side. It performed a slow, lazy loop around the docks, a belly mounted spotlight cutting through the darkness surrounding the walls of the many warehouses that dotted the waterfront.

A second aircraft, this one a far more heavily armed gunship painted with muted tones used by the military roared by, far more faster than its predecessor. It pulled a sharp turn to the left with a resounding boom that lightly shook the buildings as it decelerated below the speed of sound. Engines roaring, it whizzed by, far above the helicopter and looped in the opposite direction, no doubt making heavy use of its infrared cameras.

The spotlight cut off a few minutes later, the gunship slowing down even more to match its companion's slower pace as they moved away further down the docks, the noise of their blades and engines still faintly audible. When Yoshida finally felt safe enough to move, he peeled himself away from the wall and climbed up the ladder again, lifting the windowed metal hatch to peek out at the sky.

Pausing to curse every single one of the pilots and their extended family, he slid back down the ladder and exited the room.

Ohgi looked up with a questioning look as the door squeaked open. Yoshida grunted in return, took off his oversized coat and threw himself into the cheap foldable chair on the opposite side of the rather shabby desk. "Still circling overhead." He leaned back, rubbing his eyes with a yawn. "They'll turn back and do another sweep in half an hour, maybe an hour. Any luck with the Knightmares?"

"If by 'luck' you mean unpleasant surprises, then no." Inoue replied, rapidly tapping on the laptop. Seemingly satisfied with what she saw, she pulled out a Knightmare activation key from a small receptacle connected to the laptop and gently placed it on a small pile on the right. "I think this is the last one, unless you've been holding out on me." The last of the activation keys went into the computer, rapid typing of her keyboard keys filling the room as she got back to work.

"I was thinking of keeping a few at home to show off. It would make the neighbours stop complaining about the noise, at least." Yoshida muttered, taking out a crumpled pack of cigarettes from the inside of his jacket pocket and lighting one.

Seeing Ohgi's glare, he quickly raised his hands in a placating gesture. "It's just a joke. Easy there, boss." He said around the cigar, voice muffled.

"We don't have time for jokes when every soldier in the Area is looking for us." Ohgi grumbled, looking at a door leading to the toilet on the other side of the room with a scowl.

"Oh, him?" Inoue glanced up and saw his gaze. "I still think we should just shoot him, you know. Get it over with." She said, leaning back and stretching her arms. "Think about what they could be doing to Kallen right now, this guy deserves no better."

"We're not shooting anyone." Ohgi shouted, wincing as he was reminded of his failure to protect Naoto's sister. "Killing them when they're shooting at us is one thing, but I won't stoop down to their level and execute prisoners." He repeated for the third time. They were all angry - and rightfully so.

Inoue conceded defeat, turning around and smiling as a beep sounded from the laptop, triumphantly pulling out the Knightmare key and waving it around. "Not a single one. No trackers, no safeties. I don't know if we just got lucky, or if they were that confident no one would nab them on the way from the factory."

Yoshida let out a low whistle, dragging a hand through his messy brown hair as smoke gently rose from the desk. "How many does that make it? Twenty?"

"Twenty one Knightmares, cleaned and ready to be repurposed." She grinned. Her smile faltered a moment later, replace with a neutral expression, "Would have been twenty two, but Tamaki…" Inoue sighed, standing up and going over to the window on the side of the room. "That was a lot of work, you know. So Ohgi, what are we going to do?"

The leader of their small rebellion stopped pacing around the room, sat down at the chair she had previously occupied and propped up his head with arms against the table. Looking down at the laptop screen, he shook his head. "They'll never be able to find them. Too many warehouses in the Settlement, too many places where we could have went. Not even I know all the exits from the underground."

"Those things up there sure looked well equipped enough to find them." Yoshida piped in, pointing a thumb at the ceiling above.

Inoue huffed, tying back her long blue hair in a ponytail. "They're stored inside this huge warehouse, covered with that military grade camouflage they were shipped in. I don't think even one of their fancy cameras could see them."

Yoshida nodded, turning towards Ohgi and taking a deep drag from the stick. "I've sent the boys home, aside from half a dozen keeping watch. The less of us are here to attract attention, the better."

"Good. Yoshitaka is getting in touch with our friends in the JLF. As much as it pains me to say it," Ohgi paused and let out a sigh, thinking of all the losses they'd suffered today. "We'll ship the whole lot to them as soon as they have a way to do it quietly."

"We're just going to give them up? Just like that? After all we went through today?" Inoue asked disbelievingly after a moment, leaning against the wall and staring at him in bewilderment. Yoshida slowly shook his head in agreement, looking at him oddly.

"I want you to think back to what happened today." Ohgi gestured around to the warehouse at large. "We barely managed to move them here, and that was only because we were underground and not under fire. Half of the volunteers could barely make them move around." He paused to rub his aching skull, still remembering the vibrations. "We're lucky we didn't get a cave in after how many times they slammed into a wall just trying to move around."

"I see." Yoshida spoke up, rubbing his chin. "Someone like Tohdoh will know what to do with them - and we don't have nearly the amount of manpower or the skill they do. Am I right?"

"Exactly."

"And the… poison gas?"

They all went quiet. The container in question was currently resting far below the foreman's office in the warehouse they were currently occupying. Knowing what its contents were, they'd used utmost care while backing up into the warehouse. It still stood in the back of the large lorry, silent and glowing an ominous green colour in the dark interior.

"You're going to get down there and see if there's a way to interface with it." Ohgi flatly told Inoue.

A long pause followed as they all looked away from each other.

"Ohgi, I'll be completely honest with you." Inoue slowly spoke up with a tight smile, one corner of her mouth twitching nervously. "I don't want to get anywhere near that thing, much less fiddle with it and set it off by accident."

Instead of responding, he stood up, groaning with fatigue. Walking over to her, he firmly squeezed her shoulder. She glanced away from his hard look, nervously biting the inside of her cheek. "Look here. I need you to this, alright?"

"We can't risk having a tracking device right under us." Yoshida spoke up quietly, glancing at the pile of keys on the table. "Or even worse, a ticking time bo-"

"Alright, alright." She yelled, shaking off Ohgi's hand and picking up her laptop. "I've always wanted to die while I'm still young and pretty." She muttered. He opened his mouth to respond, whipping his head around when he heard a muted thump from the other door in the room. Faint groaning were heard for a few seconds, followed by repeated thumping against the door.

Yoshida was already standing up. "I don't know if we have any of that medicinal stuff left." He muttered so their captive wouldn't hear them. "Might have to do this the hard way."

Ohgi grimaced and turned around, holding the door open for Inoue to stroll out onto the metal catwalk. She gave Yoshida a thumbs up, clearly unconcerned with the wellbeing of their captive. "Just don't kill him." He muttered, clicking the door closed and leaving the small room quiet aside from the muted sound of heavy panting from the closed door, the thumping having ceased moments ago. Yoshida slowly stubbed the last of his burnt out cigar into the ashtray and scowled, contemplating something.

Hearing another muffled scream followed by weak pounding on the door, he strolled over and kicked it open with a bang, mustering his hardest expression as he glared down at the dirty, disheveled man. "Told you to stay quiet, didn't I?" He said in roughly accented Britannian, stalking in.

As brutal kicks started landing on his side, Kowell grit his teeth in pain before spitting out bloody phlegm at his captor. "Fuck you and fuck your-" He wheezed in pain as the next kick caught the back of his head, head spinning before merciful darkness overtook him.

~0o0o0~

The large, fairly dimly lit warehouse was quiet aside from a slight buzz coming from the precious cargo that was now placed on the raw concrete beside the trailer it was brought in on. It pulsed slowly, casting the camouflaged Knightmares in long shadows before fading away, only to start the process again after a few seconds.

"Hell no, I haven't touched it. Do you think I'm crazy?"

Ohgi patted the short man on the shoulder reassuringly as Inoue approached the large canister, nervously biting her lips. "Easy. Take a walk around the place, we'll stay here."

The rebel pulled his hat lower over his face, turning around, "Don't have to tell me twice." He said and slowly shuffled away, "Can't believe we haven't tossed it in the ocean." He muttered, audibly spitting on the floor in disgust. Ohgi sighed, rubbing his temples. The night was still young. He glanced at Inoue who stood with her arms crossed, slowly tapping a foot on the floor.

"Any ideas?"

She ignored him, stepping forward and slowly running a hand over the outside of the container, muttering something under her breath. He blinked in surprise at the blank expression on her face.

"Inoue?"

She startled, flinching her hand away from the surface and turning around to look at him, her eyes wide, "I don't like this, Ohgi." She said loudly, turning back to look at the slowly pulsating object, "It feels wrong."

Ohgi rubbed his forehead again, taking a deep breath and reminding himself to stay calm. It had truly been a long day. "Check the sides, they must have installed an interface port somewhere."

"I don't-"

"If it blows up because it's a time bomb, we're all going to die."

That was more than enough to keep her silent.

She went around the side to have a look, shaking her head in silent befuddlement. Ohgi passed his hand over one of the glowing green lights, quickly snatching it away with a curse as he felt a slight shock. He moved away, shaking his fingers to rid himself of the unpleasant feeling.

"There's a monitor behind this panel, Ohgi." Inoue said. "And a keyboard." She added after a moment, carefully sliding it down.

"Can you find a shutdown switch anywhere? Anything obvious?" He asked.

She let out a nervous giggle, "No, no I don't. There's something about… oxygen levels? Pressure?" Inoue blinked once, then a second time. "Ohgi, I-I don't think this is poison gas."

"What?"

Inoue noticed she was slowly getting covered in cold sweat, quickly wiping her forehead as she kept reading out "Subject status, level of awareness, blood pressure, heart rate…" She stood up and looked at him, her face even paler than usual "There's something in there. Something alive."

He rubbed the back of his head, the headache that had steadily been pushing against his senses for the past few minutes growing stronger, "All the- all the documents we had access to never mentioned anything of the sort."

Ohgi walked closer to the gas canister - no, a prison? He squinted at the green light, but saw nothing, "Can you open it?"

"I don't think… let me see." She crouched down and started tapping on the small interface, wiping her forehead again.

A few minutes passed in silence, interrupted only by frustrated sighs coming from the other side of the large object. Just as Ohgi was about to speak up once again, he heard a distant scream of gunship engines and slowly looked up with a frown..

"And… done." Inoue said, hitting a final button and pulling a lever mounted to the side down with a grunt. "Do you want me to-"

The canister let out a mighty hiss as it released a cloud of steam, making both of them gasp and quickly back away. Inoue jumped away and quickly ran behind Ohgi, watching the spectacle with wide eyes.

As the roar of engines outside got even louder, Yoshida leaned out onto the catwalk above them, "Boss, they're coming in for another pass." He hissed, pausing as he saw the canister spreading open like a cocoon. With a look of pure horror he slowly backed away "What have you done?" he whispered.

A blinding flash of light lit up the inside of the building, throwing the cloaked Knightmares in stark contrast against the walls. It quickly pulsed once, twice, thrice, causing them to cover their eyes against the offending brightness. The sound of the helicopter blades outside was deafening in the quiet warehouse, echoing madly and amplifying itself exponentially.

The white light quickly faded, and a wrapped figure unceremoniously dropped to the floor next to the large container, hitting the bare concrete with a painful sounding thud. Ohgi barely paid it any attention as he pushed Inoue away, receiving a shocked yelp in return and grabbing a stolen rifle from his back, madly aiming at the large window on the top part of the warehouse gate.

With the canister lights now completely off, it suddenly seemed very dark indeed.

The roaring sound of engines and chopping blades outside quieted down, before disappearing completely, leaving them shaking with adrenaline in the suddenly quiet warehouse. Inoue slowly removed her hands from the back of her head, rising up from the prone - surrendering - position she was in, shaking like a scared rabbit. "They left, huh?" She said with a nervous giggle. Her hands were shaking as she lowered them to her sides.

Yoshida lowered his pistol and immediately started yelling down at her, waving his fist in outrage. "Quick to surrender, are you? Dropping down at the first sign of trouble, you coward." He spat down in her general direction from above, making her quickly step backwards with a disgusted look, tripping over the prone figure in the process.

Waving her arms to regain her balance, she almost missed the fallen figure's eyes slowly open. Inoue quickly hopped away on one leg, struggling to pull a holstered sidearm from its leg holster and failing miserably as her hands shook with stress. "Ohgi." She hurriedly whispered, catching his attention and making him take notice of her predicament.

"Who are you?" Ohgi asked, waving a rifle in the figure's general direction. Yoshida was already thudding down the stairs while Inoue finally managed to fumble her sidearm loose from the holster and shakily aim it at the fallen woman.

The woman - and yes, it was most definitely a woman with a figure like that - slowly looked at each of them in turn, before opening her mouth and letting out a small wheeze. She attempted to clear her throat a few times, weakly opening and closing her mouth.

Inoue now looked at her with some concern, slowly moving closer and speaking up, "Are you okay?"

The concern was quickly turned into immense pain as the figure's eyes swiftly turned into a pure blank white, its green hair splaying around in an aura as its rough voice stopped them all in their tracks, gripping their hearts with fear at the display. "Treason." it whispered, the voice easily projecting across the large space.

Inoue fell to her knees as she soiled herself, desperately clutching at her head with both hands as the voice sliced through her, leaving behind a searing hot pain that pulsed her head like no migraine in her life ever had. Ohgi was screaming like a man possessed, rocking back and forth in agony, painful convulsions pulling him around like a ragdoll.

"Deceit." Came the next whisper.

Yoshida was doing no better, a mix of sobbing and retching filling the air around him as he emptied the contents of his stomach all over the floor, his stomach finally empty, he resorted to making a terrible groaning sound. Their prisoner upstairs was clearly not faring any better, judging from the keening sounds he was making, the sound of something heavy slamming against the metal door adding to the cacophony of noise.

"Him first. Then the father." C.C. quietly trailed off, heedless of their agony. Her head slowly turned and stared at one of the high windows, focusing on the far, far-away palace that loomed over the city. A buzzing sound filled the warehouse for a few seconds, the three resistance members finally granted a reprieve from their pain as they fell into blessed unconsciousness.

Inoue's skull slammed into the floor with a painful crack, leaving the hall quiet again aside from an occasional convulsion from the fallen bodies. The Knightmares stayed where they were, somehow looking much less imposing than the monstrosity that had taken over the building.

C.C. stood up on shaking legs and wiped the sweat from her forehead, shakily taking in a breath as her lungs struggled to function once again after being sealed for so long inside of a hermetically insulated capsule. She gagged once, twice and then coughed, looking at the far-away Palace again through the dirty, high windows. There would be blood before she was satisfied.

~0o0o0~

Kallen grunted as she pulled on her bindings again, ignoring Cecile's exasperated look. The firm plastic material gave no ground, digging into her wrists as she kept pulling. She grit her teeth and grunted before limply dropping back down, her erratic breathing betraying her weak stature.

"You're going to hurt yourself." Cecile said with a pointed look at her covered wounds. The stone faced man who had been carefully checking on Kallen's wounds for the past half an hour continued rebandaging the redhead's right arm, ignoring the younger girl's glare.

"Now you care if I get hurt?" Kallen said acidicly, "You guys were dropping artillery shells on me just a few days ago."

The small room felt rather crowded with all the monitoring equipment she was still attached to, and the awkward atmosphere after her comment wasn't helping either. The Britannian doctor tied off the bandage after covering her entire right arm, making Kallen gasp in pain before gritting her teeth. "Can't believe they have teenagers killing people now." He muttered, examining her face and nodding to himself after seeing the light burns on one cheek were nearly healed. "These Elevens are deplorable."

"What would you know about it?" Kallen asked him accusingly, "You people aren't any better."

He shook his head, glancing at Cecile questioningly. She simply shrugged, unwilling, or simply unable to argue with the redhead. Looking back at Kallen, he spoke up, "Raise your head." Seconds ticked by as she refused to move, "I won't ask again, girl." He gazed at her for a few more seconds before she gave up with a huff, moving her head higher on the pillow and looking to the side.

"Satisfactory." He commented after a few moments of confirming there was no further damage to her throat. "She didn't try to bite me this time." He commented to Cecile who was cursing Lloyd for leaving her in charge of his new test subject, "I do believe she's improving."

"Fuck you." Kallen contributed to the conversation.

"I think I'll let you take care of the bandaging on her chest." He spoke to Cecile who gave an unhappy nod, "I don't want a repeat of yesterday's incident."

He started unplugging the monitoring equipment and moving it near the doorway, responding to Kallen's muttered comment of "Fucking pervert." with a stoic expression. The tubes came out of her wrists and hands with no further incident, save the small grunts of pain. He quickly and professionally attended to her wrists as well, taking great care to avoid her grasping hands. Once finished, Cecile stood up and opened the door with the small side panel.

"Thank you for your help." she said to the man as he rolled the monitoring instruments outside. Turning back to look at her, he gave her a neutral smile. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and glanced to the side as a pair of armoured soldiers quickly strolled by, seemingly in a great hurry to get somewhere.

"Thank the Prime Minister's influence for keeping her alive. We have one of the purists' pilots in the hospital three floors up - that man will never walk again." He said after they had passed.

"Good." Kallen shouted from inside the room, straining to hear their conversation.

"I would recommend that you ask the Earl to post some guards outside her door." He continued, seeing Cecile's worried look, "Loyal guards. The Purists take care of their own, and they will certainly be looking to take care of her."

"I'll be sure to let Earl Lloyd know. Thank you, doctor." Cecile said, nodding at the man and closing the door after he turned around. She walked back and sat down next to the table at the foot of the bed, crossing her legs and letting out a deep sigh. She was tired of doctors, tired of this room, and most assuredly tired of the redhead that was now glaring at the wall to her left.

Minutes ticked by, the awkward silence filling the room. Kallen slowly looked back at the seated woman and cleared her throat, "Could you-"

"No." Cecile instantly replied, "I am not going to release you."

"I need to go to the-"

"You're not getting out of that bed - not after that stunt you pulled. The doctor still has the bite marks on his hand." Cecile interrupted her again. She stood up and took a pitcher of water from the desk, filling up a tall glass. "Are you thirsty?"

"He was molesting me!" Kallen snapped, her cheeks blushed. Seeing the offered liquid, she cleared her throat again. "Yes. Please."

"He was most definitely not." Cecile held up the glass to the semi-reclined prisoner's mouth, watching as she quickly gulped down the water. "You know, biting people and cussing aside, you seem like a normal girl. What on earth are you doing running around with terrorists?" She asked, looking for anything to break the silence.

"You're awfully nice to someone who's probably going to get a bullet to the back of the head." Kallen said bluntly after satisfying her thirst, laying her head back on the pillow, "Why are you here? Why take care of me?"

"Because I was told to." The other woman replied just as bluntly, taking the glass back and setting it down on the table. "Because Lloyd wants something from you."

The redhead gasped.

"I knew he was a greasy pervert the moment I laid my eyes on him." Kallen hissed, blushing and squirming around on the bed before settling down moments later, by now more than aware of her bindings. "Is that it? It's hard to get Britannian girls for your aristocrat buddy to abuse so far from the mainland, so you're kidnapping me?"

"Lloyd has a brilliant mind when it comes to Knightmares, though some would call him eccentric." Cecile said, "You have nothing to fear from him as far as..." She awkwardly gestured at Kallen's body under the covers.

Kallen puffed out a breath of air, snuggling deeper under the heavy cover. She was still concerned about the mixture of drugs they were pumping her with for the past few days, she had never slept so much in her life, or felt as tired. This room was driving the redhead insane. She suppressed her first instinct to snap at the woman and leaned back into the pillow.

"I suppose I should be grateful you haven't given me over to those 'purists'." She grudgingly admitted.

"You are very fortunate to have been captured by our research team rather than the regular foot soldiers." Cecile quietly said, "If Lloyd hadn't been monitoring the communications, we never would have found you after you ejected." She paused for a moment, "They would have killed you on the spot."

"And are you… going to torture me? Kill me?" Kallen quietly asked Cecile, her voice breaking midway through the second question. The other woman's heart clenched for one brief second at the sudden gash in Kallen's rude, abrasive shell that showed a scared young woman. Cecile had no children, believing herself far too young to be settling down, but the sight still triggered something deep inside of her.

"No, no we are not." Cecile responded quietly. "I should assume you know what they do with prisoners?" She asked after a small pause. Seeing Kallen's quick nod, she continued, "Twenty four people were executed by firing line on live television this morning. All of them terrorists."

Kallen clenched her teeth, forcing herself away from the grief she already felt gnawing its way up her throat. Any one of them could have been someone she fought besides, or knew personally. "But not me?" she croaked out after gulping down her anger and sadness.

"Not you." Cecile said, wetting a towel in cold water and placing it on the redhead's forehead, tactfully ignoring the relieved sigh. "Lloyd is going to make sure no one even thinks about it."

Kallen snuggled deeper into the covers, until only her head and bound arms were visible. "I will never fight for you, you know. If that's what you are looking for." She said in what she believed was a solemn voice. Cecile showed a sad smile.

"Unlike your terro- associates, the Britannian Army does not recruit teenagers - or force them to kill people." Cecile leaned back, "We don't want you to kill people. We just want some… test data."

"Meaning what?" Kallen asked curiously, raising an eyebrow.

"We want you to pilot a Knightmare. As soon as tomorrow, if you're feeling well enough."

"You're kidding me." Kallen asked in disbelief after staring at the woman for a solid half a minute to make sure her hearing wasn't failing her, "I'm a prisoner of war or something, right?"

"There is no war, Kallen. You're being treated like a dangerous criminal." Cecile corrected her. "And as much as I dislike to share this with you, we have a distinct shortage of skilled pilots in Area Eleven." Seeing that she still had an interested audience, she continued, "The main body of the Knightmare Corps is currently occupied pacifying new Areas. This leaves us with a lack of experienced pilots to run tests with."

Cecile paused as a short beep sounded from the inside of her jacket. Taking out a small mobile phone, she frowned at the screen. She snapped the phone closed after a few seconds and stuffed it back in, before resuming. "He's reviewing the footage of the fighting now. Your piloting was... very impressive."

"Wow." Kallen blinked in surprise, "You guys really think highly of me. Does this mean I'm, like, the top threat in Area Eleven? Even more dangerous than Tohdoh?" She asked, her chest puffing up with pride.

"I'd like to make you an offer, Kallen. If you promise me you won't bite anyone else," Cecile said, pointedly ignoring Kallen's question, "and that you will cooperate, I will let you out of those binds."

Kallen contemplated the offer, blowing out a mouthful of air and making one of her shining red locks of hair jump back and forth. "Cooler than Tohdoh…" She said to herself, not noticing Cecile's thinly lipped expression. "Will you let me go after that?"

"We won't let the purists try and kill you, for a start." Cecile replied, skirting around the question while starting her small negotiation, "You're still a Britannian, which is far better than being an Eleven as far as the military is concerned." She crossed her legs and leaned back into the chair, fixing the redhead with a stare. "As for the future? If you're cooperative, we could pull some strings and get you back to school at some point. If anything, it's a start towards redeeming yourself."

"Redeeming myself, is it?"

Contemplating the offer for a full minute, Kallen looked down at her binds and flexed her hands, the hardened plastic creaking yet again under the effort. It technically wouldn't be helping the Britannians, right? She wouldn't be shooting at anyone, or causing havoc for her fellow Japanese. Shifting around, she looked at Cecile and nodded, "Fine. But I would like to take a shower first, I feel disgusting."

"I'll see what I can do."

~0o0o0~

The door to the office slammed open. A figure fell in and crumpled just inside the doorway, the raspy, heavy breathing filling the quiet air. After a few moments, C.C. slowly stood up on shaky legs, her clenched right hand pounding on the inside of the doorway as she tried to clear her abused throat and failed miserably, amber eyes flashing dangerously as they scanned the room.

She staggered towards the solitary, cheap desk in the corner of the room. Her legs wobbled, and she just barely managed to drop into one of the chairs rather than onto the floor. Shaking her green locks around and wiping away her sweat, she grasped a water bottle from the desk with a shaky hand and fumbled around as she tried to twist the top open. Finally managing it after a good ten seconds of quiet grunting, she greedily drank the precious liquid, heedless of the fact she was spilling more of it over her face and clothes than she was getting in her dry mouth.

Bliss.

The green haired girl discarded the now empty bottle over her shoulder after confirming there was nothing left inside, then laid her head down on the table and decided to spare a moment to rest her body. She closed her eyes and sighed, enjoying the novel sensation as the cool metal came into contact with her burning forehead.

Her regenerative powers had slowly been working their best to repair her body after the brutal conditions inside the sealed sphere. The incredible, crushing weight of vacuum had forced her body to adopt absolute defensive measures that focused on keeping her brain undamaged above anything else. Even after crumpling out of her containment, she had barely any feeling as her decayed nerves repaired themselves.

Slowly, first her legs and then her arms had regained the barest traces of feeling as the muscles were repaired, nigh on useless after not being used for so long. Seeing no obvious way out, she had slowly forced herself to climb the stairs and go through the only visible human-sized door, which landed her in her current position.

She let out a long, low pitched groan that slowly went higher in pitch as her vocal cords slowly - oh so slowly - regained their shape and strength. C.C. raised up her head, her bright amber eyes looking around the room with more curiosity this time. She reached out and gently raised one of the Knightmare activation keys from the pile it was resting on and rotated it, enjoying the feeling of the texture on her fingertips.

A low pitched hum came from one of the few windows in the office. She gingerly stood up, placing the key back on the desk and made her way to the window. There was an imperceptible widening of her eyes as she noticed the sheer amount of aircraft flying above the settlement, searchlights illuminating the destroyed buildings. The ruins vanished back into the darkness as the light would move away, only to be lit up again as troop carriers and other vehicles passed by, dutifully using their own lights in case the gunships missed anything.

C.C.'s lips tightened with displeasure, "Goodness' sake." She whispered, carelessly staining her wide, white sleeves as she used them to clear the fog from the window. Her honey-golden eyes reflected in the glass, and she hummed with frustration as she came to a realization her escape could prove to be a very short one.

Her eyes briefly glanced at the Knightmare activation keys on the desk and she shook her head, deciding against handing herself back to her captors on a silver platter by piloting one of the unmarked Knightmares with such heavy military presence right outside. She needed a plan.

Thud.

The second door in the room slowly creaked open. C.C. spun around and put her back to the window, glaring at the intrusion. A bloodied, abused looking man staggered out, half crouched and clutching his midsection with both hands. He looked up at the glowing symbol on her head with surprise, spittle leaking from his mouth.

"M-monster." He croaked out, leaning against the wall with a pained moan that turned into a disgusting retching sound a moment later. Kewell then proceeded to empty the remaining contents of his stomach in front of him, adding to the mess on his uniform.

C.C. slowly lowered the chair she had raised in self defence when she first saw him, taking in his appearance. His Britannian Knightmare Pilot uniform was torn in places, and seemed to be soaked in various bodily fluids. She spared a thought for the people in the warehouse below, remembering that they most certainly did not seem like members of the Britannian military. What was a Knightmare Pilot doing in here?

With strength returning to her legs, she felt confident enough in her muscles to walk over until she was barely a meter away from the panting man, "Who are you?" C.C. asked him loudly, her hands on her hips lending her a somewhat formidable presence as her icy tone cut the air and made him flinch away.

"Monster." He spat out again, weakly attempting to drag himself away from her. C.C.'s temper was now well and truly getting inflamed by his reactions. While even a child could connect the dots together and discern he had been tortured, she was in a hurry to abandon her current premises, and would need to obtain some information on her whereabouts. Quickly.

She roughly grabbed the top of the Pilot's unruly hair and dragged his head up until he was forced to face her. It was fortunate that he was already so injured, otherwise her smaller body would have had no hope of overpowering him, "You will answer me when I speak to you-" She began ominously, only to be interrupted as the man opened his mouth and started screaming.

Throughout her long, tumultuous immortal life, she had gained the unfortunate talent of being able to precisely discern every type of scream a human could make. Either through one of the many horrifying experience of her own, such as when she had been burned alive - multiple times, at that - or by being an observer of some of the more brutal acts men were capable of doing to one another.

This one was a scream of true suffering.

Kewell's eyes comically bulged out for a few moments as he continued to roar his lungs out, before his skull proceeded to unceremoniously explode from within while still in her grasp. White hot shards of bone combined with brain matter and wisps of blood peppered the front of her outfit, and she jumped away with a swear. The headless body fell to the ground, the exposed insides of the throat visibly smoking.

"Curses." She whispered.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and held it. Slowly, the angry, inflamed sigil on her forehead lessened in brightness. Focusing her full might on the source of all her power, C.C. ruthlessly squashed her emotions and brought her feelings under control. Her forehead back to its normal white colour after some time, she opened her eyes and gazed at the wisp of hair still clutched in her left hand with an odd look.

Glancing at the body and then back at her hand, C.C.'s expressionless face broke into a grimace. She released her grasp, letting the tuft of hair float to the ground. Turning on her heel, she strode over and took the oversized men's coat from the back of one of the chairs, throwing it around her shoulders. She carefully gathered her hair to her back, out of sight under the clothing, and pulled the hood down low so only her amber eyes were peeking out.

Silently resolving to control her emotions - and her powers - better in the future, she stepped over the cadaver and down the stairs, giving another emotionless glance to her former prison and the still weakly gyrating bodies around it, before slipping out of a side door and out into the cold embrace of the night. She needed to be swift if she hoped to evade being captured again.

Dawn was breaking.

~0o0o0~

"You are truly revolting. You disgust me to my very core." Kallen said. "If you dropped dead right now, it would be doing the world a favour." She elaborated with a cheerful spark in her tone, making Lloyd sagely nod along with her words even as she continued, "You are an abomination that should have been drowned at birth."

"I'm just here to check if you're ready." He replied, pushing up his glasses. "Lancelot is nearly charged." Lloyd started impatiently knocking on the cold metal door frame, "We need to get started."

"I will rip your head off, you fucking pervert." She finally lost her cool, shouting at him as she did her best to cover her bare, outrageously large chest, only half dressed into her already tightly stretched pilot uniform. He backed away as her other hand swished towards him, avoiding a punch that would have left a nasty mark. She yelped, quickly turning around and pulling her lower uniform up before it too started dropping to the floor.

"Have you ever heard of knocking?" Cecile shouted along, bodily pushing him away out into the hallway with both hands. She parted him off with a resounding slap that echoed around the corridor making him yelp in pain before slamming the control panel next to the wall to cut off his insane retort before it could even start.

"I am so sorry, Kallen." She apologised, a blush forming high on her cheeks, "He is not right in his mind, I'm sure he's just worried about the schedule. Please forgive him."

Kallen finally squeezed into the upper part of the pilot uniform with a grunt, taking a deep breath and gritting her teeth as she finally managed to pull the zipper all the way up. "A dead man." She said, her flashy rage boiling to a white-hot temperature, far more potent and dangerous. "I will pulverize and smear him across the ground."

"No, no, you won't. Please Kallen." Cecile sad, passing her the pilot jacket that went over the top, "He doesn't see women in that way - he doesn't see anyone in that way." She quickly hurried to clarify as Kallen looked at her with barefaced disgust.

"I used to wear that uniform and it fit me just fine." Cecile murmured under her breath as she helped her into the jacket, eyeing the fabric that was dangerously stretched against the contours of Kallen's upper body.

"What?" Kallen said, getting used to moving her arms again. She was never one for lying down for too long, prefering to move around as much as possible, "I couldn't hear you."

"Nevermind." Cecile rubbed her forehead and let out a breath she was holding. "Are you feeling well?" She looked at her critically, noting that her movements still seemed a bit stiff.

"I'll be fine." Kallen replied, doing a series of stretches to test her range of movement. "This isn't too restrictive. Even though it was designed by a pervert."

"You like using that word a lot." Cecile remarked. "I must say you are taking this rather well. From what I've seen so far, I would have expected you to, well, hit me. Or stab me." She nervously looked around the room, noting potential hazards before looking back at Kallen who looked right back at her impassively, before blowing back a lock of unruly red hair.

"I don't care much for executions." Kallen replied quietly, reflexively crossing her arms across her chest and making Cecile look upwards with a small, yet pointed cough. The redhead looked down again and slowly uncrossed her arms, letting out a small growl of disgust, "You are all insane. Just remember, if anyone even raises a hand at me-"

"Miss test pilot, if you're quite done, I should like to proceed with our tests sometime today." Lloyd's voice resounded from the speaker on the panel next to the doorway. "We still have a schedule to keep."

With a steely expression, Kallen nodded to Cecile and mentally gathered herself for the task ahead. Cecile stepped outside with the teen in tow, looking at the four armoured guards standing outside the doorway. "Gentlemen. We may proceed." She announced as Kallen threw on an oversized pilot's jacket around her shoulders, leaving her hands free of the sleeves.

Lloyd smiled as they headed down the metal corridor, the soldiers' boots slamming in unison as they fell in step around them with professional accuracy, giving their escorts more than enough room while still being close enough to react to threats. They were setting a brisk pace.

Kallen looked around as the scientist hummed a nonsensical song while guiding them through the facility. Their wing of the Palace seemed sparsely populated, uniformed men and the occasional woman striding by them with nary a glance, carrying datapads and even the odd physical file. It all seemed rather quaint for a research and development wing.

"I hate bureaucrats." She announced as they walked, one of the passing young men giving her a curious glance at the exclamation. His mouth dropped open at seeing her attire, the pilot's jacket moving just enough to the sides to show her uniform as she walked. Seeing Cecile's glare, he shook his head with disgust at the researchers and entered a door that revealed a bustling office workspace filled with people for but a moment, before slamming it shut, cutting off the noise.

Kallen ignored the reaction with a resigned look, doing her utmost to hold her breath in, one of her eyebrows twitching imperceptibly in frustration. A pair of escorts on her sides stepped closer, gripping their rifles just a bit tighter, while still looking just enough away to give her a modicum of modesty.

"Ah, but without bureaucracy, our dear Emperor would not be able to rule his Areas so efficiently, my dear." Lloyd replied. "There is hardly a more efficient system, wouldn't you say?"

"We'll get you a new suit if everything, well, goes well." Cecile quietly reassured her, eyes narrowing in sympathy as they entered a brightly lit courtyard, eliciting more stares from nearly every passersby. "We just need you to run a few tests."

They stopped next to a checkpoint that further into the building. Lloyd smiled at the soldier manning it, waving his arms around as he explained something just outside of her earshot, the background murmur from the staff in the courtyard washing over them. She felt just a tad uncomfortable, unconsciously clutching her jacket closer as the morning breeze swept over the courtyard.

"It's not just a repainted Sutherland, is it?" Kallen asked loudly in an attempt to distract herself from her surroundings, making Lloyd look back at her with outrage written all across his face. She continued before he could respond. "Because your Sutherlands are terrible, especially when piloted by that gutter-trash from your military."

"Cooperation, Kallen. Cooperation is the key." Cecile hissed in her ear, gripping her shoulder in warning. Seeing the redhead's glare, she quickly let go and resorted to glaring at the younger girl until she relented, giving up with a sigh and looking around the courtyard. Even their break areas were opulent. Damn Britannians.

"You will get out of my way right now, young man." Lloyd shouted at the guard manning the post by the door, "I have an armed escort right here to take care of her if needed, and I will not tolerate any more of your impudence."

"Yes, my Lord." The guard shouted back as he snapped his heels together and gave a smart salute, before nodding at the other one to open the door for them. Kallen couldn't resist raising her nose with a small humph as she walked by. She quickly stopped short as a large Knightmare outfitting bay appeared around the corner, her mouth opening in a small 'o' of surprise as she beheld the gargantuan, shiny beast that was contained within.

"Aha. I thought you would like it." Lloyd crowed triumphantly as he spun in a circle with his arms held aloft, "Behold the future of Knightmares."

Cecile smiled as she tugged Kallen towards the stairs at their side, droning on about specifications and technical details the redhead had absolutely no ear for, too preoccupied with staring at the centerpiece of the room.

Kallen finally closed her mouth with a snap, observing the unusually large battery being gently loaded by machinery into the waiting receptacle on the golden-white Knightmare's side as she walked. Her eyes swept over the undoubtedly powerful, yet sleek looking arms and legs of the Knightmare and nodded with approval. "Wow." was all she could whisper, for once in her short life truly out of things to say.

~0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0~

A/N: Yeah, sorry lads. I've got no excuses. Chuck me a review if you enjoyed it. Hopefully more will be coming soon, it was fun to write. Thanks to /u/AverageLucas for his beta-reading work on this one.