ZERO, Lelouch's alter ego, left with Suzaku Kururugi. Xiao Ran also slipped into the crowd and quickly vanished from the road where a huge disturbance had just taken place. Following Lelouch and Suzaku, the group of five hurried out beyond the city ring and headed for the ruins outside it.
The sun had yet to rise. Compared to the brightly lit city within the ring, the area beyond the ruins was utterly dark. Inside a collapsed low-rise building amid those ruins, the Resistance Organization members contacted by ZERO had already taken up their positions. Some gathered in twos and threes, discussing ZERO's unbelievable act of rescuing Suzaku, while others hid in less conspicuous places, sternly keeping watch on the surroundings.
Xiao Ran followed Lelouch and the others to this location, entering the central area of the building—a ruin whose roof had already collapsed—without anyone noticing him.
While following Lelouch and the others to the building ruins, Xiao Ran had already recognized the other people who had participated in Suzaku's rescue. One of them was the long-haired man Xiao Ran had saved from the truck before. That man was also the leader of this Resistance Organization.
Besides the long-haired man, the red-haired girl was someone Xiao Ran had also seen on the truck. Her name was Kallen. The last one was a young man with a pompadour-like hairstyle, who should have been Shinichiro Tamaki, the person who took over as leader of the Resistance Organization in the normal course of events. He was the kind of traitorous character who barely counted as a bastard that had climbed up by stepping on Lelouch.
Xiao Ran's gaze did not linger on these temporarily unimportant people. Instead, he followed Lelouch and Suzaku into the center of the building, where only the two of them