Slowly, Cornelia lowered her gun. Ougi began to drive again, and the van continued on its path towards the hotel. Once they reached the gates, they were opened for them. No need to force their way in.
Inside the hotel, Zero dismounted from the van, and was escorted by guards to see the Colonel. The black knights got ready to make their move. Raina and Kiara's orders were to make sure that the rescue of the hostages was done smoothly with minimum complications.

Kiara and Raina made their way quietly to where the hostages were being held. They were wearing vizors over the upper halves of their faces so hopefully the Ashford Academy students wouldn't recognise them.
As they approached Kiara felt her muscles tensing even more and her fingers twitched at the thought of the small, advanced crossbow strapped to her back. It wasn't anything like the midievil crossbows but the same basic principle was the same and Kiara knew that she was a good shot with it.
"Get ready," she whispered to Raina. "The show's about to begin."

"Yep," said Raina, looking round the corner. "Four guards, each of them carrying a gun. If I concentrate I can control their bullets so they don't hit us... but I can't fight while doing that. If I handle the bullets, can you get all four of them quickly?"

"No problem," Kiara whispered back. She reached for her electronic crossbow then thought better of it and pulled out the small, compact pistol that she'd hidden in a pocket of her jacket. "Ready, on the count of three, one, two three!"
As one they rushed forwards, catching the guards by surprise.

The guards all opened fire, but Raina concentrated on each individual bullet. As soon as they left the guns, they went sideways, into the walls, where they hurt nobody. It took a good few seconds for the guards to realise that their bullets were not getting anywhere near their target, but were dead before they could figure out exactly what was happening.
The hostages all ducked down at the gunfire, most of them trembling with fear. Raina caught sight of the President. She was glad that Milly was safe - she liked Milly.

As Raina deflected the bullets skillfully she quicky shot her pistol at the guards. They were dead before they knew what hit them. She stared around at the hostages and immediately spotted the three Ashford Academy Students. She was glad to see that Milly was okay but a little annoyed to see taht Shirley was unharmed, Brittania really wouldn't miss her that much. She looked around at all of them.
"Alright!" she called. "Everyone on your feet! We're getting you all outta here!"

After some reasonably controlled chaos, Raina and Kiara managed to get the hostages out of the hotel and into life boats on the lake, while other Black Knight members set off explosives in the hotel.
This gave them a chance to get away. Princess Cornelia couldn't interfere, or the rescued civillians would just go back to being hostages again. Princess Euphemia was in one of the boats.

Kiara smirked as the charges were lit. Her ifngers twitched. When they exploded she intended to have a little fun. Raina used her geass tonight so she figured that there was nothing wrong with using her own.
She looked to Zero as he stood in front of them, facing the oposite shore with Cornelia facing them.

Zero used the camera of Van 3, which was stolen from the media, to bring his message to the people. He introduced the Black Knights as protectors of the weak, and the enemies on those who bullied those without power. This was sure to gain support from the Japanese, Raina thought.

Kiara smirked as a signal was given and the explosives set around the hotel counted down before exploding. Kiara added her own little spark to the show and as the flames rose she concentrated. The flames faded from bright orange and red to a black as dark as pitch with gold flickering inside of them. There were many shocked gasps at that and Kiara couldn't help the pleased smile that played accross her face.
People weren't likely to forget this little show any time soon.

Raina glanced back at the explosion as she was about to crawl back into the van. "Nice," she grinned at Kiara.
The operation, overall, was a success. They had rescued the hostages, thus gainign the support of the Japanese population, and managed to escape right under Cornelia's nose.

"Thanks," Kiara whispered back. She glanced back at the burning building. It would take them a while to put those fmales out. As the vag drove off Kiara could hear Kallen talking to Ougi up front and moved a little closer to listen to them.
"But I still don't get it, did Zero do something to them?"
"Who knows," Ougi commented off handedly.
"But they changed colour! Fire doesn't do that!" Kallen persisted. "At least not unless there are chemicals added to it and as far as I'm aware there are no chemicals that can do that!!!"
"Drop it Kallen," Ougi said in a bored voice. "Zero probably did it for effect and it worked didn't it?"
"I guess," Kallen muttered.
"You see, Zero knows what he's doing."
Kiara pondered the conversation she'd overheard (spied) on. She had to give Kallen credit, she was good.
It wasn't too long before they reached HQ and everyone piled out of the van. Kiara dusted herself off after she climbed out. She hated tight spaces.

(I am REALLY sorry! My internet cut out and it took us ages to get it back up.)

*It's ok, my internet connection is so bad it's failing all the time >_<*

Raina climbed out of the van, and let her hair down loose again, now that it was dry.
"Now that was fun," said said in a relative undertone to Kiara. "Joining the Black Knights was an awesome idea."

Kiara rolled her eyes at her friend, she couldn't help it really. As they re-entered headquarters they found Lelouch/Zero sitting down, mask still in place and legs crossed casually in front of him.
"Well," he said. "I would say that was a resounding success on our part."
"I'd say you're right Zero-sama," Kiara stated.

"All right, the day after tomorrow some new Knightmare frames are arriving from the Kyoto group," said Lelouch/Zero. "I want everyone to be here to help unload the Burai and the Guren."
"They're sending us a Guren Nishiki?" asked Kallen, awed.
"Yes. Until the day after tomorrow then," said Lelouch/Zero.

"Understood Zero-sama," Kiara said. She grabbed Raina's arm and beckoned for Kallen to follow them and the three girls made their way back to Ashford Academy. Milly, Shirley and Nina still hadn't arrived back at the school by the time the three Black Knights had snuck back on campus and Kiara thought that it was probably because they were being questioned about what they had seen and heard. Cornelia would not be happy after tonight and would be seeking any advantage that she could get against them. She had to admit that Cornelia was a good comander, one of the best in the entire Brittanian empire. They had a fight on their hands and she was looking forward to it.

Raina yawned. "I just washed my hair before we left and now it's full of dust and dirt... I'll have to wash it again tomorrow morning..."
She collapsed into bed and fell asleep instantly, only to be awoken a few hours later by her alarm clock.

Kiara yawned as she and Raina entered class the following morning. SHe was still tired from last night, fighting tends to do that to someone after all, and she could've really used a few more hours in bed. She immediately noticed taht Shirley, Nina and Milly were back. Students were swarming around them, asking questions and barely letting them get a word in before another question was asked. How exactly did they expect to get answers if they wouldn't let the person being asked speak?
Lelo0uch entered the room looking completely rested and refreshed, like he hadn't just been leading a terrorist group the night before. Kiara nodded at him and he nodded back before Suzaku entered the room.

After classes were finished, the Student Council held a welcoming party for their newest addition - Arthur the cat. This involved everyone dressing up in cat costumes. Raina and Milly were having lots of fun choosing, but they all had to tie Lelouch down in order to draw on his whiskers.

Kiara looked around at everyone. They all, including her, looked absolutely ridiculous. She scratched the cat, Arthur, behind the ear and it purred.
"You're enjoying this aren't you?" she asked the cat. It looked at her, yawned and meowed as if to say 'I don't care,' and closed it's eyes and nudged her hand to encourage her to keep scratching. Kiara rolled her eyes at the pushy cat but continued to scratch him behind the ear.
She was in costume of a white cat with dark and light grey patches. She winced as Lelouch was forced to have whiskers drawn on. She sympathized with him. She really, really did.

"There, done!" said Raina proudly, having drawn on Lelouch's whiskers in permanenet marker. She'd already done her own, and was wearing black cat ears, a furry white top, and a black tail and paws.
Milly was dressed as a black cat, Rivalz and Suzaku were dressed as brown ones, Nina was dressed as a tabby, and Shirley was dressed as a... pink cat?!
"Shirleeeeeee," said Raina, putting her arm around the girl she hated. "I loooove your outfit! You're so clever too! I had no idea pink cats existed! I guess it just shows how much smarter you are than me!"

The party lasted for a while, all the cats interacting with Arthur and each other. Kiara winced at the pink cat outfit Shirley was wearing and she smirked as Raina 'complimented' her on it. She looekd around and thought Kallen had had the right idea in ditching this before she was forced into a cat costume.

(If I remember right Arthur steals the Zero helmet from Lelouch right?)

*oops... that was supposed to happen just when Suzaku first comes to Ashford >_<*

"Um..." was all Shirley could say, trying to wriggle her way out of Raina's grasp.
"Ooh the next Bleach episode is out!" exclaimed Raina, letting Shirley go and turning on the TV.
"Oh yeah, I want to see how Orihime's doing," said Shirley. "She's my favourite character."

(Oh yes, I could just TELL that Inoue would be Shirley's favourite character! They're both annoying!)

Kiara perked up her ears at that.
"Did you say Bleach?" she asked, walking over to them. "If you're watching it then I'll join you. I want to see how Toshiro's fight with Harribel's going."
Suzaku and Lelouch looked at them curiously.
"Bleach?" they asked together.

(can you imagine Lelouch watching Bleach? He'd probalby try and get tips from Aizen or something)

"It's this old Japanese anime show that they've added subtitles to and are airing again, pretending that it's Brittanian," said Raina cheerfully. "Things have gone downhill since Ulquiorra died, but it's still good." She paused a sec. "Did you just say that Inoue's your favourite character?!" she eclaimed at Shirley.