AN: Hi everyone, sorry I haven't posted anything in ages. I just haven't had any really good ideas.

Anyhoo, a little while ago I discovered these two amazing Code Geass fanfics; Ripped Away and Code Geass – A Brave New World. Both stories deal with someone from our world suddenly finding themselves in the world of Code Geass, but I won't spoil the details for you (check them out yourselves, they're great reads!). After reading these stories, I was intrigued by them, since they used a concept I'd never considered, but I quickly found myself loving the idea. And this story is the result of that inspiration. Note that this story is a Self-Insert, based on myself.

For those of you that have read the aforementioned stories, you may notice some similarities between them and my story. While I have tried to keep mine as original as possible, there will be some similarities.

Update: Just edited this chapter towards the end. I realised that Matthew being unable to find any mention of Knightmare Frames was a bit weird, so I've addressed that little issue. I hope to get the next chapter up some time this week or next week.

Update: Replaced "Arizona" with "California, as the official Code Geass Wiki indicates Pendragon is located in South California.

"The less routine, the more life." – Amos Bronson Alcott

It is likely that few of us have ever heard this particular pearl of wisdom, while even fewer have really grasped at its meaning.

Matthew Gavin was no exception. After twenty-one years of life, the young New Zealander was as set into his daily routine as any other, the only variations brought about by whether he was currently attending university or not.

Nothing about his appearance spoke of anything other than an average young man; standing 178 cm tall, with a fairly slim build, short brown hair (dark almost to the point of being black), blue-grey eyes and a fair complexion. A pair of plain glasses indicated a lack of perfect vision, in this case short-sightedness.

All in all, he found his current situation in life satisfactory, if a little mundane. His third year at university had just concluded, with another year left to go due to having failed a few papers along the way. Thus, he was soon busy searching for a summer job with which to occupy his time, and to earn some much appreciated money.

Little did he realise, his life would soon take a turn that he never could have predicted.

3rd Person

It was a fairly normal, although slightly overcast Friday morning in early November, as Matthew left home and headed for his nearest bus stop. He'd just had a reply the previous night from a family friend, who said he had a few weeks work available, and was on his way to pick up a pair of general work gloves, as the work typically was hard on the hands. His attire was pretty typical; light grey cargo pants, black/yellow sneakers, and a plain t-shirt underneath a grey/white/black pixelated hoodie.

As was usual, his mind was otherwise occupied for most of the short, five minute walk. So it wasn't until he took another step that he realised something was off.

His footstep echoed…which meant he was no longer outside.

Stopping in his tracks, Matthew took in his new surroundings, growing more confused by the second. Instead of the plain concrete footpath, he now stood on what appeared to be an ornate marble floor, covered mostly by a beautiful scarlet red carpet. Looking up, the ceiling was much higher than most buildings he'd ever been in; at least two stories high. On his right-hand side were a series of large pane glass windows running almost floor to ceiling, while the walls to his left were a mix of marble half-pillars and the same scarlet red as the carpets, with elegant gold details

Turning several times, his mind racing in confusion, his eyes quickly settled on something; a woman, wearing a stereotypical maid's outfit, carrying a silver tray.

"Uh…" was all Matthew managed to utter.

The maid dropped the tray, which sounded like a hammer striking an anvil, and quickly turned tail, hiking up her skirt as she ran, shrieking "Intruder!"

"Oh god." Matthew muttered as he turned and started running. While he still had no idea what was happening, the fact he was clearly being considered an intruder was clearly not good.

Unfortunately, he'd barely managed more than a few hundred metres before a dozen soldiers wearing marron uniforms and carrying what looked like bullpup assault rifles burst through a door up ahead.

"Freeze!" One of them commanded.

Matthew quickly skidded to a halt and threw his arms up in surrender, still having no idea what kind of situation he'd somehow gotten into. Instantly, one of the soldiers forced his arms behind his back, effectively restraining him.

"General, this is Sergeant Williams. We have apprehended an intruder in the west wing. What are your orders?"

The man nodded his head at the other, unheard voice's words, before responding with a "Yes, general."

The sergeant put the radio away. "Corporal Anderson, follow me. We're taking him to the interrogation room." He said, clearly referring to the man restraining Matthew. "The rest of you, head back to your posts."

Before he could react, Matthew felt himself being jerked backwards and made to walk down the same corridor he'd just run through. Before long, they approached an elevator built into a recession in the wall, which one of the guards opened with a key-card. Without much pain, Matthew was bustled into the elevator with the two guards, as the sergeant pressed a button for the basement.

They descended in silence before they reached their stop, Matthew being shoved roughly out of the elevator into a stark white corridor. They walked in silence, with the occasional shove by the barrel of sub-machine gun as a motivator to keep moving, until they came to a very ominous looking steel door. The soldiers deposited their guns in a recession built into the wall before one of them opened the door with a screech of metal on metal.

"Get in." One of them said, followed by a rough push, as Matthew was forced into the room. Making his way in, his eyes focused on the furniture: two chairs and a table, as the door was closed with a resounding 'clang'.

"Sit." One of the guards said, pointing at the chair, which the young man promptly sat in.

A few seconds later, one of the pair produced a pair of cuffs which tightly bound his wrists.

"Now then, just sit here and wait. My superiors will be along shortly." The sergeant explained, before he and the other guard left the room, leaving Matthew alone.

1st Person, Matthew's POV

About five minutes after the guards left me on my own in this room, the sound of approaching footsteps snapped me out of my panic-induced thoughts. It seemed that the "superiors" the sergeant mentioned were almost here.

"Not that it makes me feel any better. At least I'll hopefully find out what the hell's going on here." I thought, sitting fully upright. If anything, I didn't want to appear frightened, as it would almost certainly not help. Just then, the heavy door opened, and three people entered the room.

The first two were both men; one was very tall, easily a foot taller than myself, with short black hair, blue eyes and glasses and possessing a rather slim build. The other was slightly taller, somewhat brutal looking with a diagonal scar running across his face, and a much more imposing build. Both men wore similar marron-coloured uniforms as the guards from earlier, albeit with the addition of gold filigree. What really caught my attention was the woman who followed them in, who I could only describe as stunningly beautiful. She stood about as tall as me, with a large head of purple hair reaching down slightly past her shoulders. She wore a marron uniform like the two men, with the addition of a white cravat, boots and cape. Her indigo eyes stared me down, conveying an air of superiority I'd never felt from anyone before now.

"I guess one those guys must be the "General" that guard was talking to, but I've got no idea which one of them it is. And this woman, who is she? Judging from what I saw upstairs, she must be pretty important." I thought to myself, as the woman removed her cape, handing it over to the bespectacled man, who then returned to his place behind her right shoulder as she sat down at the table, facing me.

"I must admit, it's quite a shock that you managed to get this far without being detected. Especially after what happened eight years ago. But it appears your plan to assassinate me has failed. Wouldn't you agree, terrorist?" she said, staring at with what could only be described as contempt.

"Wait, terrorist?! What are you talking about?! I don't even know where I am right now!" I shouted, before the bespectacled man stepped forward and smacked me upside the head, leaving my left cheek stinging.

"Watch your tongue, you insolent brat!" he roared. "When you address my princess, you will afford her the respect she deserves!"

"Princess?! Crap, I had no idea! Although, I have no clue where I am, so it's not surprising." I thought. "I'd better be more careful from now on, if I want to make it through this in one piece."

"I apologise for my behaviour. Like I said, I don't know where I am, or who any of you are." I explained, addressing all three of them, before turning to the woman, whom I now knew was a princess of some kind. "With all due respect, may I ask who it is I am talking to?"

The princess' gaze softened slightly, but remained stern and focused. "Nice to see you have some manners. I am Cornelia li Britannia, Second Princess of the Holy Britannian Empire. And these two are General Andreas Darlton," she replied, gesturing to the scarred man on her left, "And Gilbert G.P. Guilford, my Knight." At which the bespectacled man o her right briefly bowed his head.

"I see. In that case I apologise, your highness. I had no idea." I replied, briefly dipping my head as well, making sure to keep my tone respectful. No easy feat, given how afraid I still was. "My name is Matthew Gavin. It's a pleasure to meet you." I saw a brief smile flash across the princess' face, but it disappeared almost immediately.

"Now that the introductions are out of the way, perhaps we can get to the problem at hand." Princess Cornelia said, resting her clasped hands on the table in front of her. "You claim that you're not a terrorist. Given the fact that you somehow ended up well within my palace and yet allowed yourself to be discovered by one of my servants tells me one of two things. Either you're telling the truth, or you have to be one of the oddest terrorists I've ever heard of." As she said this, the man who I now knew as Guilford stepped forward.

"If I may interject your highness, I believe he's telling the truth." He explained, as Princess Cornelia turned to face him. "This man was carrying nothing that could conceivably be used as any kind of weapon. In addition, he clearly has no idea where he is. If he were indeed a terrorist, it's likely we would never have known he was here until it was too late." Both the princess and General Darlton nodded their agreement.

""Yes, I suppose you're right, Guilford." Princess Cornelia replied, before turning back to me. "Very well, since we're all convinced you are being truthful with us so far, let's see if we can work out exactly what is going on here. I assume you will cooperate with us."

"Of course, your highness." I replied. "I'll help as much as I can."

"Excellent. Then let's begin. Darlton?" Princess Cornelia said, addressing the man behind her, who then produced a large, rolled up sheet of thick paper from behind his back.

"Probably a map of some kind." I thought, "At least I'll find out where I am." The general unrolled the map, which took up much of the surface of the table, so that it faced me. Immediately, I could see that while the continents all looked the same, meaning I was still on Earth, the borders stretching across them were almost unrecognisable. [AN: I won't bother explaining the whole map of the Code Geass world. You guys can easily look it up if you aren't familiar with it.]

"Now then, I thought we'd start with this, since you claim not to know where you are." Princess Cornelia explained. "We are currently within Gremory Palace, located inside Pendragon, the capital city of the Holy Britannian Empire." She explained, pointing to where the state of California should have been. Instead, all of the borders within North and South America were gone, indicating that this empire she spoke of somehow encompassed the entire Americas. Looking closer, I was shocked to see that New Zealand, while still possessing the familiar shape and name, filled with the same blue colour, marking it as part of the empire as well.

"I see, so that at least answers that question." I replied, unable to say anything more.

"Good, now perhaps you can show us where you're from." Princess Cornelia asked. I nodded my acknowledgment, before pointing to New Zealand. "So, you're from New Zealand, are you? Interesting."

"If I may, your highness?" I asked, to which she nodded. "It would appear that I've somehow ended up in a different world to my own. From what you've shown me, there's almost no similarities at all."

"Yes, we suspected as much." Princess Cornelia replied, noting the look of surprise on my face. "Before we arrived here, I had Darlton check to surveillance footage from the area where my servant spotted you. One moment the hallway was empty, and then suddenly some sort of distortion appeared, which then vanished and left you in its place."

After these words, I had to take a deep breath to try and calm myself down. I'd just learned that somehow, I was now in some other world, with no idea how I'd arrived here

"Forgive me, your highness." I replied, my voice a little shaky. "This is a lot to take in."

"I understand completely, Matthew." She replied, her voice now much more gentle. "I can't imagine what a shock this must be for you. Darlton, please remove the cuffs. I feel we won't need them any longer."

"Thank you, your highness. But I'm still able to answer any questions you may have." I replied, relaxing my previously tense shoulders, as Darlton swiftly uncuffed my wrists.

"I'm curious, exactly how is your world different from ours?" Princess Cornelia asked.

"Well, your highness, for the most part my world isn't that different from yours. The continents themselves are the same, as are the various islands. However, I can tell that the borders are very nothing like they are here." I explained, gesturing towards the map. "While the EU does exist in my world, it's purely a politico-economic union, although the member nations of your EU appear to be the same as they are in my world. Also, neither the Chinese Federation nor the Holy Britannian Empire exists. Instead, there are a number of much smaller nations in their place."

"Fascinating. It seems our world are very similar, and yet very different as well." Princess Cornelia mused.

"If I may ask, your highness, does Britannia have any ties with Great Britain?" I asked. "In my world, 'Britannia'was the ancient Roman name for the British Isles."

Princess Cornelia nodded in response. "Yes, it does. The Holy Britannian Empire was founded in 1807 a.t.b., when the Britannian royal family escaped to the North American colonies." She explained.

"If that's the case, then I assume that both the American Revolution and the war against Napoleon failed in this world?" I asked.

"Correct. The Britannian royal family fled here and shortly thereafter established the Holy Britannian Empire, which soon encompassed North and South America, while New Zealand was settled later, around 1840 a.t.b., although it is still considered part of our homeland." Princess Cornelia replied. "Well, I think that's all I need to know for now."

"Thank you your highness." I said, relieved that I appeared to have been let off.

"Now then, we need to sort the issue of what to do with you." Princess Cornelia said, causing me to nervously gulp. "Since you're from New Zealand, we can at least pass you off as Britannian. However, it would be unwise to send you out on your own, especially since you aren't familiar with this world. Did you have any previous occupation or ambitions in your world" she asked me.

"Well, your highness," I replied, "I didn't have any past jobs to speak off, seeing as I'm still at university. I had always wanted to join the army, since I've always had an interest in shooting and military history. But I didn't think I could pass the physical requirements and New Zealand never had a very large military to start with, so I never really followed up on it."

"Hmm, I see. Thank you Matthew, that gives a few ideas." Princess Cornelia replied, as she rose from her seat. Guilford stepped forward and replaced her cape, while indicating for me to stand as well. "For now, Darlton will show you to one of the spare rooms in the palace for you to sleep, until we sort out the particulars of your situation."

"Thank you, your highness." I replied, bowing slightly out of respect and gratitude. Princess Cornelia really seemed to be going out of her way to help me, so I felt it was the least I could do for her.

"As you command, my lady." Darlton replied. After this, all four of us left the interrogation room, Cornelia and Guilford leading, with myself and Darlton bringing up the rear. After a brief walk and a quick elevator trip, we emerged back within what I guessed was the main palace itself. Princess Cornelia and Guilford then separated from Darlton and I, presumably to return to the princess' office or her chambers in order to discuss my situation. Meanwhile I followed General Darlton, as he led me through several large hallways, before we arrived in a slightly narrower corridor, with many rooms on either side. The general stopped in front of one of the doors, so I guessed this must be the room the princess had mentioned earlier.

"You'll be staying in this room for now." Darlton explained. "It's still early in the evening, so I'd ask that you not leave this room for now. Either Lord Guilford or myself will come to collect you in the morning."

I nodded. "Of course General Darlton, and thank you. Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Nothing else that I can think of for now." He replied, though a small smile now graced his otherwise grizzled features. "There should be some spare clothes for you to sleep in, since these rooms are used by the palace servants. Just be sure to leave your current clothes out so we can dispose of them."

"Because my clothes would make me stand out too much, I take it?" I asked, feeling like I was catching on.

Darlton nodded. "Exactly, you're quite the sharp one. I think you and Guilford will get along quite well. Don't worry, we'll bring you your new clothes tomorrow morning. Also…" he explained, before reaching into his pocket and handing me what looked like a small data drive, not too dissimilar from a USB. "This drive will allow you to access our internet. I suggest you use some time tonight to learn what you can about this world, it'll help you blend in a bit better."

"I'll be sure to do that." I replied. "Good evening, General Darlton." He nodded, then headed off. At the same time, opened the door and entered to take in my temporary accommodations.

The room itself was not especially large, appearing roughly five metres along each wall, although it was certainly larger than the interrogation room from earlier. The walls featured a similar style as before, but with rosy brown replacing the previous scarlet red on the walls, albeit with the same gold edging. Raised marble cyma-style moulding covered the joins between the walls, while a plain marble skirting ran along the join between the walls and floor. A modest, four-poster bed sat against the wall to my left, positioned exactly halfway along the wall. Opposite the bed, a simple yet elegant desk rested against the wall, with what appeared to be a small desktop PC resting on its surface. A plain, but clearly comfortable chair was positioned under the desk, which would no doubt get some good use shortly. Across from the door I'd just entered through was the entrance to an en-suite bathroom, with a light floor-length curtain in place of an actual door. On the same wall was a large, white wardrobe and chest of drawers, likely containing the spare clothes Darlton had mentioned earlier.

"Well, seeing as I've got nothing better to do, might as well see what there is to learn about this place. Should be quite interesting." I thought, sitting down at the desk. After turning on the PC, I plugged in the data drive the general had given me, causing a few small progress windows to appear on the screen, which promptly closed shortly after. A full-screen window now opened, with a stylised logo featuring the word 'BIGLOBE' appearing on the screen, a search bar just below it.

"Must be their equivalent of Google, I guess" I thought, before commencing my first search.

3rd of January, 2017 a.t.b.

9:57 pm

About three hours later, I stopped to take a short break. I'd long since shed my hoodie and removed my shoes, which were now resting on the floor at the foot of the bed, seeing as the room was remarkably comfortable without them. So far, I was amazed at how different, and more importantly, how advanced this world was compared to mine.

According to what I'd found, the calendar used in Britannia, which used the label 'Ascension Throne Britannia' or 'a.t.b.' for short, was roughly 55 years ahead of the Anno Domini calendar, making this year (2017 a.t.b.) roughly equivalent to 1962 A.D. In addition, this world was currently dominated by three major powers; the Holy Britannian Empire, the Chinese Federation, and the European Union, or EU. Seven years ago, Britannia had declared war against Japan, in response to the island nation's decision to restrict the supply of Sakuradite, a rare mineral with superconducting properties, to Britannia. Amazingly, Japan had fallen to its enemy in less than a month, this stunning success made possible by Britannia's newest weapons, what they called "Knightmare Frames".

These Knightmares, called "Glasgows", were bipedal mechs, standing somewhere between four and five metres tall, based on the photos I'd come across, with a cockpit block extending from the back. They were armed with what appeared to be either handheld rifles or large, short-barreled cannons, along with a pair of rocket-propelled anchors fitted in between the main body and the shoulder joints. Despite being fully bipedal, it seemed that the Glasgows relied on what amounted to a pair of self-propelled roller skates attached to the outsides of the ankles for movement, which appeared to give them great speed and mobility compared to the tanks they had faced. Although I wasn't able to learn much more, given that the exact details of the Knightmares weren't available online, I was able to learn that the Glasgow had been replaced a few years ago by the new Sutherland model.

"Well, I'm not surprised they were able to win so quickly, with machines like that. Looks like tomorrow could turn out to be a lot of fun." I thought. Another interesting find, was that firearms in this world, at least in Britannia, no longer used chemical propellants. The superconducting properties of Sakuradite had allowed most firearms to be designed so that they functioned essentially like a linear motor; a small piston motor was used to initially accelerate the bullet, while Sakuradite electromagnetic rails enabled even a pistol to achieve a muzzle velocity of 600 m/s.

"I have to say, they've got some pretty impressive technology here. This is probably a good time to stop for now, I'm feeling pretty worn out." I thought, turning off the computer. After opening the chest of drawers, I quickly found a set of traditional light blue flannel pyjamas in my size. After quickly changing into them, I was surprised at how comfortable they turned out to be. I then set the rest of my clothes down with my shoes and hoodie, which I moved over next to the door so that they could be more easily collected. After turning off the light, I climbed into bed, falling fast asleep not long after my head hit the pillow.

AN: And that pretty much concludes the first chapter. Please do review and let me know what you guys thought.

In case anyone thinks that I've written Cornelia slightly out of character, let me explain. My story is set roughly two months before the start of the first season. Therefore, Cornelia has no reason to suspect Matthew of being Zero. Also, anyone who has watched the show will have noticed that Cornelia is a very logical person, and does not jump to conclusions, which explains her calm and fair treatment of Matthew during the interrogation.