Kindred Spirits: Lelouch's Story Ch1. Prototype.
- Prologue: Coup -
Lelouch stared down at Rolo's makeshift grave, he had used the time it took to bury him to consider his next step.
As it stood he had lost everything, the loyalty of his army and most importantly his sister Nunnally, who had perished during the battle for Japan, the only person that really mattered in his miserable life.
He considered returning to the UFN as the Black Knights mutiny could be counted as an illegal action by the UFN, but with his Geass exposed and reputation in tatters, he would not be permitted any form of high ranking position that would allow him to pursue his goals.
Most likely he would be facing life imprisonment or death at the hands of his former allies and frankly he preferred the latter rather than rotting in a prison cell or worse a lab rat.
With nothing to lose and little time, he came to a decision, if this was the end for him then the least he could do was drag the Emperor - his father - down to hell with him.
With that in mind he powered up his knightmare, the Shinkirō and set a course for Kamine Island only to suddenly vanish into thin air. The next thing he knew the vast ocean was replaced with a forest of trees, right before he collided into one.
- Chapter 1 -
"Well, that was different." Kirche noted, standing alongside another girl with blue hair. She along with the other students all stared at the unusual creature that had appeared from the summoning.
Today was the Springtime Summoning Festival where all second year students throughout the continent summoned their familiars, who acted as both a companion and as an teaching aide to the summoner.
Familiars ranged from mundane animals such as cats, dogs and birds to magical beasts like dragons, griffins and unicorns.
However when one of her classmates, Louise Vallière performed her summoning - like all her other spells - typically erupted into an explosion, as to be expected of Louise the Zero.
What wasn't expected was what came flying out of the dust cloud, an oddly shaped creature never before seen, hurtling across the plain before crashing into a nearby grove of trees.
For a time it sat there unmoving, clearly it had either unwittingly killed itself or knocked itself out. It happened sometimes when a familiar enters the portal while traveling at speed, especially flying ones.
Intrigued the students cautiously approached it, led by their instructor Mr. Colbert. Observing closely Kirche assumed it was some kind of giant insect, she noted that its carapace was black and gold at the front and dark crimson towards the back that gleamed like polished metal, it had four crimson wings that formed an 'x' shape, the trailing edge of the wings glowed red as it hovered in place.
As the students looked on in wonder, a sound caught the group's attention as a section of its carapace between its wings popped open. With a groan a figure emerged much to their surprise, only to stumble and fall from its perch.
Acting quickly Colbert caught it with a levitation spell and gently lowered it to the ground. Seeing it up close Kirche was surprised to see it was human, he had pale skin, black hair (a rarity in these parts) and a handsome appearance that leaned towards effeminate, it seemed Louise had come through on part of her claim at least.
"It would appear that this creature is in fact some kind of flying contraption made of metal." Colbert observed inspecting the interior, he waved his staff over it. "I detect no enchantments or any other magical workings on or within it, fascinating."
"Wait! How can it be my familiar if it's not even alive?"
"Clearly this was not intended to be your familiar, but rather the rider accompanying it, Miss Vallière."
"And what am I suppose to do with him? I've never heard of a human being a familiar, ever."
"If you don't want him, I'll take him." Kirche interjected, treating the rider with a healing spell.
"I'm afraid we're going to have to settle this later." Heading off the impending argument building between the two. "His injuries require treatment by a healer"
Groggily Lelouch awoke, opening his eyes he looked around in confusion, the last thing he remembered was flying over the ocean towards Kamine Island and then suddenly he was crashing through a grove of trees.
Considering what happened he expected to be in a hospital, assuming of course that he'd been rescued (or worse, captured).
He was lying on a cot in what he assumed was some kind of rustic infirmary, judging by the row of cots to either side of him and the contents of the nearby cabinets containing bandages as well as other items, the walls were made of stone with a wooden floor and roof. Lelouch had never seen a building made of stone, only in history books depicting the noble's estates in Europe that once belonged to the Britainnian nobility before they driven out by Napoleon's revolution to the New World. The door at the end of the room opened and two people stepped inside.
"Ah, you're awake, good to see you have recovered from the crash." Came a man's voice.
Lelouch turned towards the door where a young girl and an older man stood. The man appeared to be in his late thirties, he was mostly bald, wearing black robes and spectacles. "I am Professor Colbert," he then gestured to the girl next to him, "and this is Miss Louise de La Vallière."
The girl on other hand looked to be about twelve years old judging by her short stature, she had shoulder length pink hair (same shade as Euphemia's), eyes the colour of apples and wore a black cloak, a white blouse and a gray pleated skirt.
"May we have your name?" Colbert asked politely.
Lelouch's eyes narrowed as he reluctantly gave it, "Lelouch Lamperouge."
The pair looked about in confusion, "What red lamp? Where?" The girl - Louise - demanded.
"I wasn't talking about a lamp, It's my name!" He growled.
"That's an odd name." She scowled in disbelief, Colbert silently concurred.
Lelouch glowered at the pair. Looking him over Colbert noted, "Judging by your clothes you don't appear to be a commoner, are you a noble?" Indeed, though the young man didn't wear a mantle, nor did they find a wand on his person, the quality of his clothes were too good for commoner to afford.
Standing next to him the Louise's eyes widened at the question. As her gaze darted back and forth between them, Lelouch took a moment to consider his response. Technically he was a royal prince exiled by his father, the reigning monarch of the Holy Britannian Empire. But to claim such without any means to prove it could have dire consequences, so he fell back on his trusted alias.
"No, I'm not." He answered.
Louise breathed a sigh of relief. "I see. Well then, now that introductions have been made, Louise you may proceed with the ceremony." Colbert instructed.
"With him?!"
"Yes."
"What are you talking about? What ceremony?" Lelouch interjected, he was getting a bad feeling.
Ignoring him, they continued to argue. "But-"
"-As I said before you cannot retry the summoning!" Colbert Cut her off, "now proceed."
With great reluctance she turned to Lelouch and drew her wand.
"What are you doing?" Lelouch demanded, looking for an escape route, but Colbert was between him and the door.
"My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, Pentagram of the five elements, bless this being and make it my familiar." She chanted waving her wand over him.
"What on earth are you doi-" Before he could finish the girl pinned him down to the cot and kissed him. When she withdrew, her face was tinted red with embarrassment.
Suddenly he felt a burning sensation on the back of left hand, gripping his wrist he hissed in pain as while gritting his teeth, "What's happening?"
"It's just the familiar runes being branded, perfectly normal," Colbert assured him. "Odd, familiars never exhibited pain during the process before."
'Branding?! They're branding me!' Lelouch was understandably alarmed, 'Who are these people?' When the pain subsided Colbert peeled back Lelouch's glove to check the back of his hand, Lelouch glared angrily at him but he didn't seem to notice.
"Well now," he said when he finished his inspection, "with that out of the way, I leave him in your care Miss Vallière." Both of them watched his retreating back as he left.
After a moment Louise turned back to him, "well, come on then." Lelouch eyed her skeptically but followed with great reluctance none the less.
"What is this place?" He asked as followed behind her.
"We are in Tristain's prestigious Academy of Magic." She answered.
"Magic Academy?" Disbelief evident in his tone, he naturally found her explanation somewhat difficult to believe, then again it was no more unbelievable than immortals that grant people such as himself supernatural powers. "Never heard of it."
Despite his situation he was strangely calm, had he not have been exposed to Geass and the ruins associated with an alternate dimension, he imagined that his reaction would've been far more dramatic. However his question
Glancing over her shoulder she asked. "Hey, even though your not a noble, can you use magic?"
Curious Lelouch asked, "Do you people make a habit of turning other people into familiars?"
"No!" She replied clearly annoyed, "Before today I've never heard of a human familiar. I was hoping for something better, like a dragon, or a Griffin. Instead I got you!"
"Why make me one then?"
"I had no choice!"
"Yeah right, you could've said no," he pointed out, "and saved us both the trouble."
"I would've been expelled!" She yelled back, afterwards Lelouch followed in silence for remaining time it took to reach their destination.
When they entered Louise's room in the girl's dormitories it looked roughly about 210 square feet in size. Opposite the door was a window facing to the south, with the bed on the left and a wardrobe on the right. All the furniture looked to be high quality. Observing his surroundings, Lelouch noted the opulent drapes hanging from the bed's canopy, an indication of high status.
'She may be a brat, but she's an upper-class brat. Looks like I'm going to have to be on my best behavior, at least until I figure out what's going on and what to do next,' Lelouch evaluated. He went to take a seat at one of the backed chairs at the table, but caught himself before seating himself on the sole stool at the foot of the bed. When he turned to face Louise he found her watching him inquisitively.
"Where I'm from, the nobles allowed their servants to sit in proper chairs as they were tired of them falling off of them." He quipped.
"Heh, whatever." She said dismissively turning away from him, "it would explain your audacity."
Night had fallen and Louise was preparing for bed, she began to undress. Lelouch would've been embarrassed, however C.C. had on more than one occasion had wandered about his room in various states of undress, at times she even changed clothes in front of him not caring if he saw her naked, heck she didn't even afford him any privacy when he changed, so when it came to Louise he didn't even bat an eyelid.
When she was done changing into her nightgown she hurled her discarded clothes at him. "Here, have these washed for me tomorrow," she told him.
"Why me?" Lelouch blanched, "Don't you have servants for that?"
"You're my familiar, right?" she said rhetorically, "Laundry, cleaning, other menial tasks - they're naturally your job-"
'Familiar?' He knew with the term, which confirmed his earlier suspicions.
Louise continued, "-besides it's not like your good for much else."
Lelouch bristled at that but restrained his temper, revenge could come later, first he had to figure out what they had done with the Shinkirō.
With Louise setting the tone, Lelouch grudgingly complied and set out with the washing. 'First I'll hand these over to the laundresses, unlike me they get payed to do this. Then I'll look for the Shinkirō.' He decided.
"I'm going to sleep, wake me at dawn." She informed him as he shut the door behind him.
During his outing after dispensing with the laundry, he had found that they had moved the Shinkirō to one of the courtyards. Its float-system still active, it hovered off the ground hatch still open. Lelouch observed that it was unguarded, seeing no was around he approached it.
Inspecting the outer hull for damage, he could only find what had been sustained during his and Rolo's escape from the Black Knights, it was mostly cosmetic. However there was no further damage resulting from the crash, thanks to a hastily deployed barrier put up by Lelouch.
Using some nearby barrels to reach the cockpit, Lelouch climbed in and ran a diagnostic, the readout indicated that the Shinkirō's energy filler was down to one-third of its capacity due to Rolo's inefficient use of the Absolute Defense Barrier during their escape and the following crash as well as the continuous drain from the air-glide system.
Releasing a sigh Lelouch looked up and inhaled suddenly when he saw the two moons - on large and one small - hovering in the sky.
That revelation decided his course of action, there was no point in taking off without a clean destination in mind. With no means to replenish the Shinkirō's energy filler and no supplies or currency to speak of, he wouldn't last long, he would have to take his chances here with half-pint.
Taking stock, he noted that the Shinkirō's compartments contained both his Zero mask and his cape, though they were of little use now. In another compartment he found his sidearm, a Britannian issue officer's pistol with one magazine of ammo, not much.
Not wanting to be caught with it on his person, certain that commoners were forbidden to bear arms with severe penalties, he returned it to its compartment. Landing the Shinkirō and shutting down its systems, he removed the activation key and closed the hatch before returning to Louise's room for the night. Entering her room Lelouch went to wheel out the truckle bed under Louise's, only to find that there wasn't one, clearly Louise hadn't intended to bring a personal attendant. So he lay on the straw mattress Louise had provided for him and prayed that by morning that he wasn't covered in splinters.
The following morning one could imagine Colbert's expression when he came to check on the Shinkirō.
A/N:
At this point readers may have noticed that this one-shot was meant to be apart of a larger story. However I've determined that Lelouch and Louise are not compatible and as such this story will be undergoing major restructuring, after which I hope to release sometime in the future.
This brings forward the obvious question; 'why is this even here?'
To answer that, as some of you may have noticed this is my first story published on this site and this is pretty much a test case to familiarize myself with the process of publishing further entries later in the future.
Reviews on your thoughts of this story prototype would be greatly appreciated, as well any other helpful advice.
In the meantime be on lookout for next story Nightmare of the Void, which I'll publish hopefully later this year or the next,
Your Sincerely The Author.