Chapter-1 The Demons We Create
Mohammed's knight mare patrolled around the base, his knight mare moaned loudly as he turned the unit, and activated the sensor on the units head. He hated the Britannian war-machine almost as much he hated the Brits themselves. The unit couldn't be used for extensive time periods in the desert and the cockpit was so hot it was like being baked alive. The unit's joints were always clogging with sand. He would have preferred to be in one of his countries sand-hawks.
Now that was a true war machine in his opinion; mounted upon eight treaded wheels (6 in back 2 in front.) The bodies of the machines almost like a ladle the bottom where the wheels were held was also troop/supply carriers, taking care of the need for good transports. The body was connected to a long extended neck which held a command deck which held several crew operating the machine. Under the deck its sled on the outside was a large .250mm cannon which could penetrate 1 1/2 cm thick steel armor. Along with its strong gun it held a distinctive size advantage. It was not uncommon for a foolish Britannian Sutherland pilot to be killed under its treads, after charging it; foolishly thinking that he commanded the superior vehicle.
He hated how imprecise the Brits were. They left mines everywhere and after a battle they never cleaned up leaving villagers to die when they walked down the street for supplies at the shelters set up by other countries. He'd been a doctor back before he'd cast his lots in with this group. He remembered the horrible injuries his people had come to him with. He'd joined after an officer of the Britannian army took it upon himself to enter his home and kill his family, he'd done it just when peace seemed possible and the other groups of terrorist were ready to sit down and talk. This obviously caused talks to become impossibility; and war to come back to the region.
Mohammed would never forget coming home expecting his family to have dinner ready, to see his beautiful smiling wife and daughter; but instead what he walked in upon was devastating. The officer had killed his wife and was defiling his daughter. Mohammed had fought him off and then somehow gotten the officer's side arm and killed the devil of a man. His daughter was never the same no matter how far they moved, how much they tried to avoid what happened and his daughter couldn't take it. He'd had to send her to an asylum, but… she'd committed suicide 2 weeks after arriving there.
Mohammed checked the readings coming in from the sensors reading; nothing of abnormality that wasn't supposed to be there. He sighed; this was just another boring night, just another boring patrol. They'd been holed up here several days when would the cowards show themselves so he and his brothers could enact there revenge upon the scum? Mohammed checked his wrist watch. It was mid-night; it was time to trade off patrols. He flicked the controls aptly for one who'd only been piloting for a couple of days, and brought the Sutherland about with much creeping and lurching. He redeployed the wheels and was about to speed off; when an object came flying from nowhere.
It hit the unit hard sending him and his unit sprawling to the ground. He grunted in pain as he was jostled around the small rectangular cockpit, another reason to hate Britannian knight-mares, no god damn seat belts. Mohammed tried to rise, but only succeeded in turning the unit over. Mohammed clenched his teeth and reached for his radio to contact base for help when he saw something that chilled him to his core.
Almost as if being born from the shadows of the desert a completely black knight mare appeared. It was tall and slender nothing like the Sutherland he now sat had pointed shoulder pads from which a black cape hung from flapping behind it as it advanced. Mohammed looked at its head praying that it wouldn't be him. The face of the unit was black and angular resembling a full face helmet of the olden knights, but instead of a visor to cover the units optics it showed the blood red lenses; and on the left side of his face under the eye a tear ram down it cheek, the exact same red as the units eyes; and from its forehead protruded two large horns each bone white in color. The unit carried a huge spear of gold which now pointed at him on the ground; directly at where he resided in the cockpit.
"You filth," said a cold voice; each syllable dripping with contempt," how dare you take a noble stead of Britannia's and use it for your terrorist activities? Your knight mare screams at the injustice done to it."
It was him; it was the... "I the demon prince Lelouch Vi Britannia shall cleanse you and this unit; may the devil have more mercy on you than I," said Lelouch his smooth as silk voice ill disguising the contempt in his voice. Lelouch pushed the joy stick forward and the spear sank into the units chest impaling the units cockpit, killing Mohammed almost instantly.
1
Lelouch pulled it out, the tip of the spear covered in the terrorist blood and raised it high in triumph. He activated his speed control and rocketed forward the threat of sand slowing him down gone with the addition of treads to his rear and front wheels. He activated his comm system, his spear still held high in triumph.
"All units commence phase one of desert wind," he said, his voice full of the authority of an experienced commander. As he sped by the sand dunes around him began to rise revealing about 15 of his elite blood raven units.
Their units where much like Cornelia's Glaston knights except for several very distinguishing details, first they were all painted in a chilling blood red, and the heads of each unit looked like a ravens, secondly each unit like his own had clawed hands not only for decoration, but also as a close combat weapon; and finally the each held his crest on their units somewhere. A black raven swooping in for the kill, the raven outlined in white to separate it from the black night, the raven also highlighted by a blood red full moon. Lelouch's unit had the same crest just done in red. As he speed forward throttle open to full go another unit the exact twin to Lelouch's except completely white and lacking the horns instead on its head was a gold and silver helmet from which long golden blonde hair trailed from; now whipping in the wind behind it. Lelouch saw an audio only private channel asking for permission to connect with him, already knowing who it was before he spoke.
"My lord please allows me to lead the charge it would seem unfit for your knight not to at least have an equal total of kills as his lord," said Suzaku in his business tone.
"Suzaku you may join me in leading, but you may not lead; the men need to be shown I do not fear death, and will lay my life on the line the same as any of them. After all how can a king expect his subordinates to follow him if he doesn't lead," he said.
Suzaku was silent for a moment before he spoke again, "very well my lord," he said his tone making his disapproval evident.
Lelouch cut off the connection before Suzaku could complain. Suzaku pulled back a little so he was next to him, but not quite completely next to him. As Suzaku did this a new request was presented with a blip on his top monitor. He saw the crown recognizing the comm to be a royal link; he had sinking feeling he knew who it would be. If he was right this would be a pain. He opened the link and was instantly assaulted with verbal abuse.
"Lelouch! You sneaking thief, you piece of shit! How dare you do this behind my back you piece of scrap metal," came his sister roar over the visual connection her purple hair usually held up perfectly disheveled and messy.
"Yes dear sister? What seems to be the problem," he replied calmly looking at her through the link, but while aptly avoiding shots from a sentry that Suzaku quickly destroyed. Her hair was disheveled and she looked ticked off.
"You know what! You arrogant basterd! Pull back now! This is to be my kill, my victory! I had everything in place for tonight and now you've gone and completely ruined it."
"Tut, tut, sister; you should have sprung for the prey sooner, but don't worry. You can finally act like a proper lady and help clean up after the fight," said Lelouch mockingly. Cornelia turned bright red in anger, her color almost matching that of her hair color.
"I swear Lelouch I'll..." she said before he cut her off.
"Of course we can have dinner my love how does tomorrow at seven in my room sound," said Lelouch not really paying attention to Cornelia.
He pulled to a stop at the edge of a very steep downhill slope that led into a mini mountain range valley where the terrorist base sat. Some of the buildings were even carved from stone of the mountain itself. Cornelia on the other hand was silent too embarrassed to speak.
"That's not... I mean... We really shouldn't discuss stuff like this over the comm," she said stumbling over her words.
"I agree," said Lelouch before he cut off the connection and opening a new one to all squad leaders.
"Is every unit in position?" he asked.
The chorus of five "yes my lord's," was heard over the comm. Lelouch paused estimating the enemy's forces. About 25 Sutherland's ands and a few of the ladle tank things. His Intel had been right, good.
"Fire the missile barrage," he said.
As he said this 5 raven unit's with the .210 mm cannons came forward and aimed their cannons.
"Fire at will," he ordered curtly; and the barrage came under way. Lelouch watched the merciless attack. The first five shots hit buildings, which according to intelligence were store house for ammo and barracks, the cannon fire destroying all things with in the blast radius's, leaving no survivors. The second wave of shots destroyed the ladle tanks that were the pride of this country's military capabilities. They were parked in the open and were destroyed almost too easily; and the last wave destroyed most of what looked like newly constructed ammo ware house. When the barrage was over the Raven's who'd carried the cannons discarded them in favor of the standard anti-knight mare rifles.
"We are ready to move sir, just give the word," came one of his squad leaders over the open channel used for reports and orders.
Lelouch was dazed as he looked at the burning buildings. The flames reached up to the heavens; sending smoke, and flame billowing up into the dark night sky, the scene bringing him back to the Prime Minister's home burning. His sister's corpse buried deep bellow the ruble as if it was her funeral pyre. His eyes began to brim with tears at the memory.
"Lelouch?" came Suzaku's soft voice over a private channel; snapping him back to his current situation.
Lelouch shook his head clearing it.
"Sorry Suzaku I…," said Lelouch stopping not wanting to say anything more about the past, which was a painful thing for both of them.
"We can't hesitate now," was Suzaku's simple reply, but those simple words filled Lelouch with strength.
"Begin phase two," Said Lelouch, his tone strong and imperial as a prince's voice should be. At his words he saw the enemies Knight mare's beginning to move.
"Yes my lord!" was the tumultuous reply he received from his soldiers.
"Charge," yelled Lelouch opening his throttle to full; his spear pointed forward ready to charge.
He sped ahead of Suzaku, Suzaku doing the same at the exact same time. They raced to see who would get the honor of the first kill, neck and neck like when they were children during the Britannian basic boot camp they'd been trained at. Suzaku won, his lance piercing a unit firing crazed shots at Lelouch. Suzaku cut to the right intending to go and hit the right flank, Suzaku doing the opposite and hitting the left side. Lelouch spun avoiding bullets from a terrorist Sutherland. He landed so his unit's momentum sent sliding past the right flank's line but going forward so he hocked behind. He sped forward and impaled the unit that had fired at him, piercing right where the pilot would have been.
2
Twisting the spear out of the unit he turned and fired his rifle into a unit that was turning to fight him. His shot hit the arm and head, but before the emergency ejection system could activate and safely launch the pilot away he speared straight through it into the pilot. The Sutherland somehow getting stuck on his spear he pressed it into the ground and used it to launch him forward in the enemy that had been behind the first his clawed gauntlets tearing through the armor as if it was no more than paper.
4
He looked around for another opponent and saw none; all around him his soldier's fought having charged head first into the battle, every soldier in a natural high from their fights enjoying the thrill and the risk of the fight. Suddenly a small explosion occurred near his feet. He did a 180 degree turned and looked for the attackers. He noticed several men in a building each with an RPG, or another anti-tank weapon. He picked off the men with the small anti personnel machine gun that hid under his units chest.
9
He looked around and saw nothing he could do with out risking one of his soldier pride or lives. He sped around investigating the ruins, looking for other enemies in hiding; trying to find out any clues as to where they'd gotten so much High grade Britannian equipment. He noticed an inconspicuous ware house on the edge of the base, he entered catiously. Then before he knew what had happened gun shots tore at his unit hitting the arm destroying it. The unit went flying backwards through a flimsy wall of the hangar with a screech.
Actutman smiled to himself crazed. He'd have his revenge, yes he'd kill the demon prince here and know he raised the rifle aiming at the unit's chest and went to push the button down.
Suzaku vanquished his foe then turned his knight-mare looking for Lelouch. He saw him go into what looked like a hangar. Suzaku went to go to him; when suddenly Lelouch's knight-mare went flying out. He saw it almost as if it was in slow motion.
The enemy unit came out of the hangar and stopped before Lelouch. Gun aimed pointblank at Lelouch's unit's chest. "Lelouch!" cried Suzaku as the unit towered over his friend ready for the death blow.
Lelouch didn't pause for a second he lounged forward with his unit's one good arm and pierce the chest, but at the same time Actutman pulled the trigger. Bullet grazed the cock pit but didn't penetrate Lelouch's unit. Actutman in his cockpit was cut in half by Lelouch's razor sharp claws. Actutman felt tired, he felt nothing but sleep beaconing to him as he bleed out.
His eyes dropped shut slowly his last thoughts of his brothers and friends in heaven. He was going to see them now, he vaguely wondered if they would forgive him for not killing the demon prince and whether his seven virgins would make him wear a condom; then he died.
10
Tears rolled silently from Lelouch's eyes. He'd killed ten more people today. How many more would he have to kill? With the 10 today he'd kill 12,507 people. He wanted to end war, but strangely enough he was running around starting wars. He pulled away from the dead terrorist and brought his unit to its feet. Before him his soldiers gathered into ranks in the compound. All around enemy combatants lay dead As he rose Suzaku drove up next to him and stayed there next to him, and then a chorus rose from his all of his soldiers.
"All hail Lelouch! All hail Lelouch! Long live Britannia!" Lelouch's body shook with sobs as he cried. Then reared his head back and screamed his lament to the heavens. A sound no one heard, the sound for ever lost in the cheers.
Lelouch sat in his room alone half naked his shirt flung across his bed in a mess. All the lights were off except of the bathrooms light which cast a weak light over his grand room. The room contained three large book cases containing books on everything from mythology, books on ancient battles, to comics depending on his mood or need of the day. Lelouch sat on the couch, a towel over the back of his neck. His shoulders where slumped and his head down cast, the soft sound of the shower going a dull roar in the background to him. Lelouch was slowly drowning in his own emotions. He was torn between self-loathing, and anger at the world. Why did humans kill each other? He'd been in wars over things as simple as a quarter mile of land and as complex as an affair and assassinations; and every time he hoped naively that if he won this battle there wouldn't be another. That the orders to kill wouldn't come again. He stood up and went to the bathroom.
He stripped off his pants, the only garments he had on as well as his briefs. He placed the towel on the outside handle of a frosted glass window; and stepped into the shower. The hot water beating against his bruised and stiff muscles felt like a small piece of heaven. He closed the shower door and then just stayed under the water letting it soak in and cleanse him off. Steam rose and slowly began to loosen his tight muscles. After a couple of minutes he began to wash his body, slowly and deliberately he reached for his body soap and rag. He washed his body cleaning off the clinging sweat and dirt. He shampooed and rinsed off his hair. Finally he reached out and cut off the water.
As the water came to a trickle; a knock resounded throughout the whole room. He sighed and opened the door and shivered as the cold air touched his nude skin, he shivered. Lelouch wiped his body down with the towel, and then wrapped it around his waist leaving visible not the body of a prince, but a soldier. His skin scared everywhere on his body, a particularly large one was most noticeable. It ran from his right shoulder down to lower waist. He could have had the scars removed by surgery, but he didn't think he deserved such luxury, after all what devil gets rewarded for his actions.
He walked back into the of his room foyer room.
"Enter," he said the door to his foyer opened and in walked Cornelia, her face . She looked at him, it took a moment for her to realize what she was seeing and turned away bright red.
"What is it sister?" he asked, his lower waist still covered by the towel as he stood still looking down at her from the small platform that the bathroom's door was on. Cornelia stuttered as she spoke, " I- I wanted to d-dis-is-cuss your actions today," she said," about how you're going to compensate me for the amount of resources that were wasted due to your action.
"Oh," said Lelouch enjoying the sight of his flustered sister, "is that all? Or did you want to talk about that dinner." She turns redder.
"I...uhh, put some clothes on," she said abruptly.
Lelouch walked towards her until he was only a few steps away; then he let the towel fall to the ground.
Cornelia couldn't help it her lust overpowered her resolve, and she looked at Lelouch. Her face turning even redder if possible it was possible, her eyes traversed his body and finally transfixing on his manhood.
"Really sister? You've seen me nude before; so why do you act so flustered now?" Cornelia was scarlet, still not looking at him her eye's cast downward at his manhood unable to speak.
"It's unseemly large as always...," she said in little more than a whisper.
"It can get larger," he said playfully as he walked to her so he was so close she could smell his faint smell.
His hands went to her waist and pulled her closer. She quickly started fidgeting and playing with Lelouch's slightly longer than regulation hair. He pushed her against the door and kissed her neck, slowly working up to her mouth. The kiss was an intense, passionate kiss. After several seconds he broke the kiss; Cornelia leaned forward desperately trying to keep the kiss going for even an instant longer. Already her breath was fast and short and her expression was slightly gazed.
"Undress now," he whispered.
She complied, a little bit too exuberantly for someone who'd been embarrassed a moment ago…
Several hours later after the throngs of pleasure had dispersed he lay in bed. Cornelia's head was still on his shoulder. He wondered why he did this. Every time he wanted to forget he had to drown himself in pleasures that were always momentary, always frivolous. He rose slowly as to not disturb Cornelia's rest. He went into his dresser, and grab his clothes, a black dress shirt and a pair of tan khaki's were his choice of clothes. Quickly he donned his clothes and then went to leave. He walked to the door that was positioned near the wall. He glanced back at Cornelia. He wondered if she still had the notion that they could ever be together in a true relationship, a child's fantasy. He'd let her have it, all it meant to him though was another night of pleasure as long he allowed her to have her fantasy's.
He left the room and went into the hall his brown dress shoes were out there along with several others of the same design, but different colors. The only different shoes were boots worn by pilots in there knight mares. He left the small entryway and went into the military complex. He now stood in a long metal corridor stark and un-contrasting. He took a left and proceeded down the halls of the complex. He was in the hangar bay before even four minutes was up. He stood on the ground looking at his unit being patched up and fixing the destroyed arm and replacing his scratched up armor as well as the arm. As he walked in a light brown haired mechanic came and saluted him.
" Sir we've taken the right arm and are going to replace the arm; but we have no more of spare parts for your unit. We will have to use a ravens arm to replace it.
"Very well, carry on," said Lelouch.
The mechanic turned to go.
"Oh and Howard please just call me Lelouch," he said. Howard smiled at Lelouch; then returned to his work. Lelouch watched them work for a short while.
All the men here had worked for, and with him side by side. Each was a friend to him, a comrade at arms, an equal. He felt a hand touch his shoulder. He looked over and saw Suzaku.
"My lord I have news." Lelouch scowled, he'd told him more than several times to call him Lelouch.
"What is it?"
"We found a woman in the terrorist's compound, she demanded to talk to the commander of the base," he said.
"Why not call upon Cornelia?" he said.
"We have been unable to reach her for the last hour or so," said Suzaku leading Lelouch out of the hangar, down the identical hallways until they reached the interrogation room.
In front of the steel reinforced door was Alexander one of his most trusted soldiers, and one of the one's he'd known the longest. He opened the door for Lelouch who nodded in greeting, Alexander did that same before Lelouch entered the room. Suzaku held back, interrogation really wasn't his thing; the thought of forcing someone to do something was just unthinkable to him. Lelouch walked into the room and assessed the person before him.
Interrogation Room
Lelouch walked into the room alone. The interrogation room was freezing cold compared to the military complex where it was always at least 85 degrees on a cool day. In the room sat a girl in Britannian prisoner garbs, the kind used for dangerous convicts with restraints and zippers all over it. She had beautiful pale china like skin that appeared to be unblemished from what little he could see. He couldn't tell what nationality she was, but if he had to guess he would have said Chinese. She seemed to be some sort of exotic creature to him with her long green hair that seemed to be somehow natural, and beautiful golden orbs for eyes. She had a beautifully sleek body, a body of someone who knew what work was, but not too excess. She looked into his purple eyes and spoke.
"Hello Lelouch," she said never breaking eye contact.
Lelouch blinked in astonishment.
"What the hell?" he thought? 'Who the hell was she, and why did she address him so casually.'
"I've come to make you keep your end of your bargain from long ago," she said smirking.
"My end," he asked confusion showing on his face.
Japanese Liberation Head Quarters
Kallen paced in the waiting room; Ohgi sitting in a chair nearby.
"Do you think they'll let us join up?" she said suddenly turning on Ohgi. "Kallen I already told you I don't know," he said sighing.
"But what do you think?" she said impatiently.
"I think we should get in? Our plan is good, the Japanese Liberation Front should let us in, but they want to test us," he said.
"Ugh; but that's what I'm worried about," she said groaning.
She slumped into a nearby vacant chair.
After several minutes of silence an officer of the JLF came in.
"The general will see your leader now," he said.
Ohgi got up slowly visibly shaking; she glanced at Kallen and gave her a weak smile trying to ease her doubts despite his own; he then followed the officer down a corridor and was gone. For Kallen it was sheer agony to wait. When finally he came out again he was pale wringing his hands.
"What's wrong?" she asked jumping up to meet Ohgi.
"They want to see if we are really allies, "he said, "and to prove our commitment to the cause of Japanese Freedom. So they want us to attack a Britannian patrol in one of the ghettos.
"Damn it," she cursed which was followed by several others in Japanese.
They didn't have the ability at the current time to attack a patrol. They had managed to get some smuggled machine gun's, but nothing larger than a 50 caliber light machine gun, and they had her Glascow, but it didn't stand much of a chance against a fully armed squad of knight-mares with tank support and about 50 infantry, each probably with grenades.
"Yeah," was Ohgi's simple reply.
"What's the plan with this… this test or whatever? Are there any rules? Or what," she asked.
"None, They just want us to attack one of the patrol in three days," he said weakly.
"But why in three day's I doubt we'll be able to get everyone together in that time, so we'll be under full strength as well," said Kallen, 'This doesn't make any sense none what so ever. What were the JLF planning,' she thought.
The general of the JLF looked at Toudo.
"Are you sure they'll do it; their leader seemed to lack the courage. I do not think we can trust them with this," he said.
"It is those who are afraid who fight harder, besides he didn't hesitate when we asked he said 'yes' immediately, if it had not been for Japan then I am sure he would have said no," said Toudo in that sage like way he had that ended the discussion.
"Fine, but I'll send a squad or two to help them," said the general.
"Do as you will," said Toudo, "you are the officer in charge."
Preview of Chapter 2 The past still haunts us:
Japan- after Prime Minister kurirugi's supposed suicide Lelouch looked over the field of death. Before them lay the dead, hundreds if not thousands of dead men women and even... children lay there slowly rotting in the early afternoon sun. The grand city it'd once been completely leveled and gone. Lelouch turned away the sight too much for him. He inhaled deeply trying to calm himself. They were close now he could tell; where ever Britannians went death was sure to follow, like an obedient dog death would follow. He looked over at his friend; his only comrade. Suzaku sat on a large rock his bangs covering his eye covering them in shadow, but Lelouch didn't need to see the marks of his tear stains on the ground. He looked away, back up into the summer's sky. It was so large, so imposing. He wished he could be set free in it, but that was not to happen. No; he was bound here on the ground by the curse of his destiny, a destiny he now intended to fulfill at all cost. He squinted at the sky as he noticed a raven in the sky. Was it the same one? He couldn't tell but he thought so. He wondered why it followed them. He closed his eye and his gaze returned to Suzaku before him. He and Lelouch had formulated a plan for his reassertion into the royal ranks. He'd claim he'd been the one who'd killed the Prime Minister and made people believe it a suicide; so his father's forces could claim the island easily now that it was in turmoil. This would never be officially announced, but patrons would blossom from new places, and if this was not enough for him to win their support his very return would. People he knew would think him dead, but they'd be enlightened as to how wrong they were. "We should go soon Suzaku, we want to be past this before nightfall," said Lelouch softly. Suzaku sniffled and wiped his eyes with the back of his hands. "Yeah we should," said Suzaku weakly. Suzaku rose to his feet determination taking over his sorrow now fueling him forward even more steadfast than before. Lelouch looked at his friend sadly; he needed to be strong now for Suzaku. These were his people, all at one point worked in some way or another to make their homeland stronger, make it into an incorruptible thing that would be remembered for ages to come. Lelouch closed his eyes and gathered himself.
"Let's go," he said finally walking past Suzaku looking for a way down into the maze of death.
A/N This is the revamped story with minor grammar changes in this section I'll take the time to explain the convoluted plots and such like Morgan Freeman.
Cornelia and Lelouch's relationship is being used to set up various situations in the story. As well as adding a sense of royal inbreeding common in most great royal families.
Lelouch keeps a count of the people he's killed because he feels guilty of course but it also helps make him human. Lelouch's crying is meant to show that he is still very emotional about the death of his sister and show that he will make brash decisions at time instead of cold and calculated ones at time.
