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Inside the Damocles, 1:01 p.m. Alistair and Lelouch were standing in front of the man responsible for the current battle, Samuel Hawking. Hawking kept his smile and stood up straight.

Hawking: So, you two made it! I figured that the only people in your crew who know me personally would be you.
Alistair: So, you surgically altered Sears’ body to look like yours, and hid his Geass behind contact lenses, huh?
Hawking: Now, see, that’s some astute observation, Mr. Holmes. In fact, it fits our dynamic. I’m the Moriarty to your Sherlock.
Lelouch: Are you seriously trying to have a conversation? Now?
Hawking: Why not? Alistair does it, all the time.
Lelouch: ...Good point.
Hawking: Though, it might not be for as long as you might think. Battle’s already almost over. I’ll admit, I forgot about Mt. Fuji being a volcano, so props for using the eruption to wipe out that wave of my army.
Alistair: What’s in the hangar, Hawking? Kallen and her group got ambushed by something.
Hawking: Oh, right, the jamming! Since you won’t be fighting them, I may as well tell you about the surprise, while your friends find out for themselves.

Meanwhile, at the Damocles’ armory, the Lancelot Albion arrived to back up the Guren’s team, its VARIS SMGs at the ready.

Suzaku: Kallen! I’m here! Where’s the threat!?
Kallen: Uh…

The Lancelot looked at where the Guren was pointing and Suzaku looked shocked.

Suzaku: You’ve gotta be shitting me…!

Across the room was an array of Renegade and Primeblood Knightmares, complete with the recreated Nobunaga and Barbatos, both of which looked at the group.

Oda Nanbu: Hello, peons!
Suzaku: Nanbu?! I thought you killed him, Kallen!
Kallen: I did!
Nanbu: It’s true, she did.
Kane Truman: She also killed me.
Gino: Freakin’ Kane Truman! I heard about this guy, he outclassed every assassin sent after him!
Suzaku: This doesn’t make any sense, you died!
Kane: We did.
Nanbu: We’re not flesh and blood, you see. You remember Agent Minnesota?
Kallen: They’re goddamn androids run by AIs!
Suzaku: Hawking had their personalities copied onto AIs!? That’s messed up!
Nanbu: No kidding. We were so fresh out of the factory, the eggheads at Civility had to fill in our memory gaps.
Kane: Now, we’re going to kill you.
Kallen: Why?
Kane: Personal reasons.
Nanbu: Primarily because you killed us.
Anya: I don’t think so.
Jeremiah: You’ve been surprisingly calm, Anya.
Anya: I barely remember how my personality used to be.
Jeremiah: Must’ve been when Marianne hit you with her Geass. Here, let me get that.

Jeremiah activated his Geass Canceller and Anya felt better about her memory. She then felt a surge of anger, as she aimed the Mordred’s Stark Hadron Cannon at the army of Knightmares.

Anya: Your army is no match for my gun, you idiots!

Back at the top of the Damocles, Hawking finished explaining what was happening down at the hangar.

Alistair: Only you would be so evil as to copy dead people onto android bodies and AIs, to suit your own needs.
Hawking: Flattery will get you nowhere. I can only imagine the carnage that will ensue, with those two on the loose.
Lelouch: Imagine all you want, asshole. We’re going to put a stop to you and turn your plans into ashes.
Alistair: No matter what you do and what you say, we will stop you. You don’t have any right to hold humanity’s future hostage.
Hawking: That, right there, gents. That's why I hate you guys so much. Your hope for humanity, that it will change with time.
Alistair: Because it will, dumbass.
Lelouch: For a man with your intellect, you sure seem to make such stupid mistakes.
Hawking: Fine, then. Let me put it to you, another way. You know what the villains you've fought, so far, had in common?

Outside the Damocles, the battle raged on, Black Knights and Tokyo Mavericks units destroying more and more of Hawking’s forces, as Hawking narrated.

Hawking: The Britannians might've been fools, Civility and the Confederate Enclave may have been mine, and the Last Battalion might not have belonged, but they were so easily manipulated by my words, I can't help but laugh about it. People, these days, are so easy to sway, primarily the bystanders. They can't help but be oblivious to the shit happening around them, and they'd rather live out their own boring lives, and mind their own goddamn business. The apathy that comes with Bystander Syndrome, that's also what pisses me off. You've got people living in utopian-looking cities, of my creation, after having more people die, see even more destruction on my own news channels. And...what do these people do? Walk through the streets, and do their fucking jobs, like nothing even happened!

Back inside the Damocles.

Lelouch: So, you hate not only cynics, but bystanders, because they're ignoring what you do?
Hawking: They ignored what Britannia did, too!
Alistair: Can't say that's wrong, to be honest.
Lelouch: Yeah, I've seen it, plenty of times.
Hawking: But, people like us are rare. People who stand out from the mediocrity of bystanders, good and evil, to clash in front of them, while they do nothing. Hell, I bet even Charles didn't even know about those people, in his own country, no less.
Alistair: And, when he showed his nihilism, you threw him under the bus, specifically us.
Hawking: Exactly. His little assimilation plot would've failed, no matter what. Why? Because, we exist. Charles could never comprehend the fact that there would be people who would resist his childish tirade, because his ego had been blinding him, the whole time. Controlling the masses is impossible, fusing the worlds of the living and dead together is impossible. Charles zi Britannia, the last Emperor of Britannia, along with his equally egotistical wife, Marianne, had wasted their goddamn time on a plan so stupid, it could never work.
Alistair: Yet, you're picking up where they left off.
Lelouch: You're going to destroy the world, with the F.L.E.I.J.A.s you have. If you're thinking of ruling the world, why make it so there won't be any world left?
Hawking: Why? Same reason as Alistair. For revolution.
Alistair: ...What?
Hawking: Violence, destruction, death, power, greed, insanity... I'm willing to do anything, anything to get these idiotic lemmings to look around at the changes around them, and no longer be bystanders. You want peace, I want the apocalypse. Two sides of the same coin. Only one side can win. Will it be you heroic little shitheels? Or, will it be my new nukes?