I do not own the Command and Conquer Universe and Familiar of Zero/Zero no Tsukaima.
I also do not receive any form of compensation for writing this story, it is purely for my own and the reader's entertainment.
Chapter 1 : Rise up!
(Tristain Academy of Magic)
"I'll show them.." She whispered lightly into her pillow. Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière was sprawled on her bed 'elegantly'. Her legs dangled in the air and her face buried in her feather pillow. She had been recounting the day's events in her mind for the past half an hour, replaying it and adding scenes of her own to the mix.
Today was the first day of class with the new Professor Chevreuse. A triangle earth class mage, the professor had said with a slight disappointment in her voice.
Louise bit her lip. Some people didn't know when to be grateful. The strawberry-blonde bitterly thought of every single time she had tried to cast a spell only for it to blow up infront of her face or blow the entire immediate area entirely. Yet Professor Chavreuse was troubled by the fact that she wasn't a full blown square-class mage.
She couldn't blame the professor anyhow, it was normal for mages to seek more power. If only her's would work normally then she too would probably be lamenting about being an under-classed mage.
After a long-winded introduction of how earth magic was basically 'the essence of life and the most important of all magic', Louise had stopped listening after a minute or two as she engrossed herself in a book she had borrowed from the library, she was happily minding her own business too. A book detailing the different styles of pentagrams and incantations used in a summon familiar spell.
At that moment was then the professor had called her name, much to the dismay of the whole class, she remembered the multitudes of sighs and moans as the professor ignored every one of their pleas. Yet again, she couldn't blame the professor for suggesting her to go first. It was her first day here, she couldn't have known.. How Louise the third daughter of the Valliere was a failure of a mage..A zero.
She remembered telling herself she could do the transmutation spell, a simple spell to say the least. Easier than magically lighting a candle, atleast there was no possible destructive force involved like fire right? Wrong. Long story short, the spell ended the same way hundreds of spells before it, in a blast of smoke and soot. Effectively destroying the front part of the classroom, leaving the professor unconscious and herself with tattered clothes.
Then she was reminded of the trip back from class, with that hound Kirche, Tabitha and Montromency trailing behind her like vultures waiting for her to roll over and die. Maybe not Montromency and certainly not Tabitha. But Kirche, that was for sure. The Zerbst had been on her like fire to oil as soon as the Germanian had learned of her heritage. Louise, never one to back down a fight and also wielding the rule of steel instilled in her like a sword-and sometimes a crutch-fought back the jeers and name calling with equal amount of acidity.
Then she remembered shouting that particular sentence with confidence and finality "I'll summon the greatest familiar you'll ever see!"
She groaned and rolled over onto her back, an arm draped over her face.
"I can do it…" She whispered "I can do the summon familiar spell" She was unnecessarily reminded of the times she had tried casting the summon servant spell which was slightly similar to a familiar, but instead of a servant animal she received a flying patch of dirt and smoke as a reward.
She grimaced at what followed the bitter memory, the insults and name calls. Her degrading moniker being repeated over and over like a mantra, or like how commoners welcomed a foreign nobility to their meager town. But instead of feeling celebrated she felt she had hit rock bottom. Willing the ground to blow up again and cover her in a miserable ball.
However, she didn't give in to the urge no matter how strong it was. Stronger still was the rule of steel beaten into her by her mother, none other than the great Karin Heavy Wind herself. Her mother was the reason she was still up on her two feet, still kicking and breathing. Yet, she was also the reason why Louise was fighting this much, too much. The strawberry-blonde realized she had never turned away from a challenge, she embraced it willingly despite the odds.
In spite of the lengths she did to earn her mother's recognition, she was never good enough. It didn't matter what she did unless it was magic. Be it sword fighting or painting, the former earned her a mock battle with the heavy wind herself, ending with a broken sword and a disheartened wielder. The latter, ended with a shredded painting canvas.
Needless to say her night after those two events were filled with muffled sobs, fearing her mother would listen and barrel down the halls, smashing her door and drill Louise regarding the weakness of such an act.
Louise wiped her eyes with her sleeve, sniffling slightly as she did. Tomorrow would be a day to remember, a red letter day. Because it all depended on the outcome of her spell, whether it would bear fruit or another explosion. If it did bear fruit and she somehow summoned a familiar, by now she didn't pay mind the accidental promise she had yelled at the bloody Zerbst as long as she got a familiar then it bought her the ticket to extend her stay at the academy and prove to the others that she was a mage!
If not, then she would be expelled the very next day. A letter would be sent out to her mother, by next week a carriage bearing the Valliere family insignia would arrive. A furious Karin heavy wind was not a mother one would want. She would gladly have Eleonore come and get her instead of her mother. Then no one would have to see her on the receiving end of whatever her mother had instore for her. That was indeed saying something if she willingly wanted Eleonore to be here.
Curling her body into a protective ball, she begun to slowly lose consciousness as sleep begun to engulf her mentally fatigued mind.
(The next day)
"Miss Valliere is the only one left, professor"
Brimir damn that Zerbst!
Louise shot the Germanian a glare, she was doing so well at the back. No one took notice of her presence. Everyone was too busy looking forward to summoning their own familiars so much that they forgot the one who was least likely to get one. But then the harlot Zerbst started flapping her lips and her plans of flying through today without an incident was slipping away.
Truthfully she wanted to summon a familiar by herself, maybe at night where no one was watching. Louise hid the envy that welled inside her when Tabitha, the quietest mage in class managed to summon an honest to Brimir wind dragon. The other summons weren't any less amazing however, even the lecher Kirche managed to summon a fire salamander. The blonde couple: Guiche and Montromency held the honor of having the most unimpressive familiars. Having summoned a mole and a frog respectively, but Louise knew better than to voice her thoughts, not until she summoned her familiar. If she managed to summon anything at all for that matter.
Sighing, she walked over to the clearing, ignoring the not-so-veiled insults as she did so. Her classmates cleared the immediate area, walking a fair distance away from her but just enough to maintain sight of her. Louise felt a vein pulse on her forehead.
"Louise?! She'll blow us up!"
"Hey it's the zero!"
"Don't mess up my favorite cape now"
'I'll show them' Louise tightened the grip on her wand.
Louise schooled her features, her eyes narrowed slightly as she began chanting the sacred incantations.
(A few miles off of Melbourne, Australia
17th August 2048)
MCV unit-424 was a minor tactical A.I., minor tasks were usually assigned to it whenever the field human commander or LEGION was away. Minor tasks ranging from base defense, resource gathering, staff count and to put it simply; Tasks that the human commanders or the advanced A.I. would deem 'inadequate' for their skills.
Not that 424 was complaining, it couldn't complain even if it wanted to. Here it was trudging through the desolate lands of what used to be part of Australia, a small town just outside of Melbourne, without a sound of complaint. It also noted that it wasn't eliciting any signs of jubilancy either.
Its bulky dark metal body lined with red pulsing lights was the only thing that appeared to be alive in the town. It's four legs carried the MCV slowly and carefully through the street. The field commander had been a stingy human and dare Unit-424 say it? A coward. The human refused to assign 424 with much needed escort.
Leaving it to fend for itself while navigating through the treacherous land riddled with tiberium, Unit-424 wasn't concerned with the GDI roaming the area where it was supposed to set up a resource base, no, it was the mutants. The mutants were abominations, a faction of mercenaries with no permanent ties. What mattered was who had more credit.
They were simply fickle creatures, deformed in appearance but strength wise? They would run down a normal human in a straight fight. Sometimes their mutations would heighten their resistance to physical abuse and most of the time they would be immune to tiberium! Without Kane's blessing! Such heresy.
That was to say nothing of the visceroid lurking in the tiberium fields, if mutants were a sideways step from normal humans, then the visceroid was a gigantic leap sideways for every living organic creature on the planet. Basically a lump of flesh mutated into a living -breathing was questionable-tiberium based life form hell bent on eating its way through anything man made.
If Unit-424 was an organic it would've shuddered at the thought, fortunately, Kane did not program it to feel human emotions.
"I beseech you my faithful servant, who lives somewhere in the universe!"
Unit-424 stopped abruptly mid-stride. One of its legs still hovered in the air as if the sudden sound had frozen the A.I. into place.
"Identify yourself" Boomed the voice of Unit-424 through its external speakers, its voice metallic and deep, bounced off the empty walls of the desolate town.
But no answer came.
Unit 424 unconvinced and entirely determined that it's audio receptors were in peak condition started it's stealth detection protocols. But every instrument that was built to nullify stealth registered nothing on their its sensors.
Billions of programs and codes ran simultaneously, each trying to discern the source of the auditory anomaly. Though pathetically underpowered compared to LEGION or its predecessor CABAL. Unit-424 was still an A.I., its computing speed was beyond human capabilities. Even with all the industrial might of the GDI, they were hard pressed to stave off Unit-424's cyberwarfare. It ripped through firewalls in mere seconds and decrypted high level encryption in mere hours, minutes if it dedicated all of his resources to one task.
Part of the reason why it was basically frustrating when none of it's scanners were receiving any feedback. Ghosts it seemed, haunted this town and the machine was hearing things like a scarred war veteran.
"Oh my unshakable, resolute and unwavering follower!"
There it was again. Unit-424 was now wholly convinced it was not a malfunction on its part. There was definitely a voice speaking to it. The voice was firm and strong, but had an underlying tone of desperation laced with anger. It reminded it of Kane, the various times he communed with LEGION like a father would to a son.
Unit-424 had reviewed those recordings a few times in awe of such a great human, capable of shaping the disorganized humans into a true fighting force and uniting both organic and cybernetic organism under one banner. The brotherhood of Nod.
Indeed, the voice was music to it's audio receptors, even though it was far too feminine to be Kane.
"Here I desire and plead from my heart!"
The voice continued. Unit-424 had stopped moving entirely, settling into a neutral stance. Effectively enraptured by the sound of the voice.
"Follow under my guidance, through power shall we achieve peace!"
At that same moment, a green disc larger than it's own body appeared a few feet from it. The surface rippled with unknown energy. A human would've been reluctant to enter, a cybernetic organism would've run tests towards this spatial anomaly. Unit-424 would've done the same, if it hadn't heard the words spoken by the mysterious voice.
Those words were unmistakable, sure it wasn't the same, word by word, but it still held the same message.
Peace through power
Without a second thought, the Nod MCV stepped into the portal, abandoning its previous mission with a new one in mind.
Author notes : Good evening comrades! Tonight marks the beginning of another Familiar of zero crossover. Hopefully it would pique the interest of those who had read the fic 'Foundation must be true' by Tankred. It had inspired me to write my own take on CnC and Familiar of Zero.
I also apologize if I botched up abit regarding the Nod military presence in Australia, I have not read much of the CnC lore. I decided to base it on my own playthrough in CnC Kane's wrath global conquest where I had one surviving MCV in a failed strike force attack.
And this is my first published fanfic, I dont mind criticism as long as its constructive.
cover image anyone? and beta reader?