Prologue

This is the Year 2156 Common Era…or After Death of Christ. My clan is somewhat Christian, Protestant I believe. I am Lelouch Lamperouge, aged 10 currently. There was this tragedy in a country called Japan sometime ago… I wish not to speak of it mostly. My parents… they were foreigners there and my nation happened to be the one Japan fought against, the World Imperium. Even with the mass rearming and recruitment of mercenary soldiers were not enough to outmatch the Imperium's superiority… and Japan lost. As for me, I lost my parents and my sister was in critical condition and being taken care by Sayoko, my maid. A Guard of our household called Jeremiah was my guardian, but he too had to live on cybernetic implants.

"And this grew to be a source for major crisis everywhere," a man said, touching his face, "even here…"

The man was a Caucasian, with purple hair and wearing a black suit. A metal piece was fixed onto the left side of his face. He was walking down with a young man, who was also Caucasian and rather solemn. They were walking away 2 tombstones in a Christian graveyard.

"Jeremiah, where's Nunnally?" the boy asked.

"Sir Lelouch, Sayoko has taken Nunnally for resting. Only when she gets well, you two siblings will meet again," Jeremiah reassured the boy, "she is quite unwell…especially for this…"

"For what?" demanded Lelouch, "where are you taking?"

"This is your parents' wishes for you…to bring peace to the world," Jeremiah said, "We will be going to Disraeli (former Utah, Nevada)."

"Bring peace…" Lelouch repeated.

They then went into a limousine, with Lelouch taking the backseats and Jeremiah being its driver. Both of them quickly took off, and drove out of the graveyard.

Later, that limousine was journeying around the deserts of Disraeli Province of the World Imperium. It was only barren plains of sand as far the eye could see, making Lelouch wonder.

"Jeremiah, why are we here?" Lelouch questioned.

"Sir, you shall see soon enough," Jeremiah replied, "I believe we should leave the vehicle now."

The two of them quickly abandoned the limousine, and walked out into the upcoming road ahead. Suddenly, a blast from the sky shot and blew up the limousine.

"What was that?" Lelouch exclaimed.

"They are here," Jeremiah said, "several acquaintances of your late parents, Sir."

Lelouch looked up into the sky and saw a humanoid figure there. It was apparently plated in pinkish-red armour, and held a rifle gun on one hand and a shield on the other. There was another machine, shaped like a fighter plane in black armour. Both these machines suddenly descended on the ground.

"What are these?" Lelouch asked.

"The future of the world…" Jeremiah said, "They are…the Gundams…"

And then, hatches of the 2 so-called Gundams opened up and a male and female pair came out of the machines. The female had a strange-looking choker around her neck, and looked grumpily at Lelouch. The male also looked at the young Lelouch, and waved at him.

"Hello," he said, "I am Rudio Resonance, Gundam Meister of Celestial Being and of the Gundam Astraea."

"Jeremiah, what on Earth is it really going on?" Lelouch demanded.

"It is not convenient of us to speak here," Jeremiah said, "Marlene Vlady, open the hatch on Gundam Abulhool for us."

The female then returned to the Abulhool and a back hatch opened up. Jeremiah guided Lelouch into the hatch. Rudio also returned to its unit, and both Gundams flew off into the sky.

Area 51, Disraeli Province, World Imperium

But the journey was quite short. The 2 Gundams hovered around the desert plains of another part of Disraeli. Rudio keyed in several commands on his dashboard, and an electronic voice cried.

"Acknowledged, you may land in Area 51."

Suddenly, the sands of that portion split apart and both Gundams lowered into the underground base. The base was darkened, other than several dim lights dotted all over the place. As Lelouch and Jeremiah got out, they were greeted by a young girl somewhat older than Lelouch. Next to her, there was a pink ball-shaped robot.

"Hello. Hello. Hello." It cried.

"Chall Ascustia, nice to meet you again," Jeremiah said, "same to you, Haro."

"Same to you Mr. Gottwald, and this is?" Chall asked.

"Lelouch Lamperouge," Jeremiah introduced, "son of Lord Charles and Lady Marianne."

"I never thought I could actually meet you in person," Chall exclaimed.

"Chall, don't try to flatter your way around," Marlene sarcastically said.

"Well I won't be taking orders from a criminal, even if she were older than me," Chall said.

"Now now, settle down you girls and hear Jeremiah out," Rudio said.

And the 2 females quickly went quiet.

"Thank you, and Jeremiah, you may continue," Rudio said.

"Sir Lelouch, now how I should say this…" Jeremiah said, "Your parents are members of Celestial Being, a secret organisation in possession of private armed Mobile Suits… the Gundams."

"Serious?" Lelouch exclaimed.

"Indeed, and I myself and the others here are all fellow members of Celestial Being," Jeremiah said, "the two Mobile Suits are the Gundams, or least two out of the five prototypes we possess."

Suddenly, a new figure appeared before the young Lelouch. It was a female with green hair and amber eyes. She wore only a long white dress and seemingly in her teens only, but she was almost transparent like my ghost. However, Lelouch did not see it as such.

"A holographic projection," Lelouch cried.

"Wow, only a handful can ever guess it right," the image said, "you may refer me as C2, and I represent the ultimate interface unit of Celestial Being, Veda. It has selected you as a Meister…a Gundam Meister."

"Just like your mother," Jeremiah laughed, "and to which Gundam he is designated to."

"But I think…in my opinion, he's a tad bit young…" Chall protested.

"I am very sure of Sir Lelouch's abilities, and I trust Veda's judgment," Jeremiah said, "C2, please go on."

"Lelouch Lamperouge, from this day onwards, you shall be designated with the codename Zero by decree of Veda and with the rank of Gundam Meister and Chairman Apparent of Celestial Being in time to come," C2 proclaimed, "and henceforth, you will be granted Gundam Plutone for your usage."

"Plutone?! But that's still experimental at most," Jeremiah exclaimed.

"Sorry, but Veda has made its choice. Gundam Radion, in which Marianne Lamperouge as Epsilonette Flash had piloted, will be kept out of use until a suitable pilot is located," C2 said, "and you Jeremiah Gottwald shall ascend as Interim Chairman of Celestial Being for the time being."

"Understood," Jeremiah said, "but still…"

"Veda has no more to speak of," C2 said, disappearing into thin air at once.

"So you are given the Plutone to pilot…you're one lucky bastard," Marlene remarked.

"Oh well, Veda knows best… I hope," Jeremiah relented, "Rudio and Marlene, you two are in charge of guiding Sir Lelouch. Haro, you will guide Sir Lelouch in his Mobile Suit ventures."

"Understood," they said.

"Roger. Roger. Roger." It cried.