Hi again. I have the first chapter out. Hope you guys like it. Don't be too harsh on me. Like i said this is my first code geass fanfic. The characters will be out of character if i have not mentioned it before i am warning you now. Everyone in this story is going to be out of character and there will be some original characters introduced in this chapter. Please review tell me your thoughts.
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Gease.
Chapter 1: First Meeting
Luluko took a deep breath to steady her nerves and narrowly avoided retching from the sharp, well-known stench that surrounded her. The smell of hot Ailuran blood spattered on the stones, and cool Lycan blood that seemed ready to dissolve the skin off her hands if she touched it. The smell of burned hair and skin of the dead smoldered in the fire of a dropped lantern. Only the fall of rain all the night before had kept that fire from spreading through the clearing to the woods.
From the forest to her left, she heard the desperate, strangled cry of a man in pain.
She started to move toward the sound, but when she took a step through the trees in his direction, she came upon a sight that made her knees buckle, her breath freezing as she fell to the familiar body.
Lion ears non-moving, and sandy brown hair, which was swept across the boy's eyes, closed forever now but so clear in her mind. His skin was gray in the morning light, covered with a light spray of dew.
Her younger brother, her last remaining brother, was dead.
Like her sisters, her brothers and her father years ago, like her aunts and uncles and too many friends,
Rolo vi Britannia was forever gone. She stared at his still form, willing him to take a breath and open eyes whose color would mirror her own. She willed herself to wake up from this nightmare.
"My sister and I cannot be the last." She thought to herself.
The last two children of Marianne vi Britannia, who was all the family she had left now. She wanted to scream and weep, but a Ailuran does not cry, especially here on the battlefield, in the midst of the dead and surrounded only by her guards. One does not scream or beat the ground and curse the sky. Among her kind, tears were considered a disgrace to the dead and shame among the living.
Ailuran reserve.
It kept the heart from breaking with each new death. It kept the warriors fighting a war no one could win. It kept her standing when she had nothing to stand for but bloodshed.
She could not cry for her brother, though she wanted to.
She pushed the sounds away, forcing her lips not to tremble. Only one heavy breath escaped her, wanting to be a sigh. She lifted her dry eyes to the guards who stood about her protectively in the woods.
"Take him home," She ordered, her voice wavering a bit despite her resolve.
"Princess, you should come home, too. There are no more soldiers left to heal. If your mother knows you not only heal our soldiers, but our enemies as well. She would be beyond mad."
She turned to Xingke, the captain of the most elite fighting army, and took in the worried expression in his soft brown eyes. The Siberian tiger had been her friend for years before he had been her guard. She nodded at her friend.
Another cry from the woods made Luluko freeze. She started toward it, but Xingke caught her arm just above the elbow. "Not that one, milady."
Normally she would have trusted his judgement without question, but not here on the battlefield. She had been walking these battle fields whenever she could ever since she was twelve. The thing is since young, Luluko was gifted with the art of healing. As she grew older she had put those magic skills to good use. However, her kind heart always got the best of her. She could not avert her eyes when they were in the middle of this chaos and someone was pleading, with what was probably his last breath for help.
Thus, she healed her enemies in silence when the battlefield was empty. She would cast a spell on the wounded lycans soldiers so they would not remember her. Whispered rumour attributed her power to white magic and angels.
"And why not, Xingke?"
The Siberian tiger knew he was in trouble the instant she addressed him by his full name instead of his childhood nickname of Li, but he kept on her heels as she stepped around the slam of bodies and closer to the voice. Two of his troops took their dead prince home and the rest of his troops fell back, out of sight in their second forms – tigers and lions, mostly. They took her brother home, but there was no way they were going to leave their princess alone there.
"Lulu."
In return, Luluko knew Xingke was serious when he lapsed into the informal and use her nickname, Lulu, instead of surname or a respectful title, Princess. Even when they were alone, Xingke rarely called her Luluko. It was an entreaty to their lifelong friendship when he used that nickname where someone else could hear it, and so she pushed to listen.
"That's Seiryu Kururugi. You don't want his blood on your hands."
For a moment the name meant nothing to her. With his hair streaked with blood and his expression a mask of pain, Seiryu Kururugi could have been anyone's brother, husband or son. But then she recognized the stark brown hair against the sun tanned skin, the emerald signet ring on his left hand , the wolf ears atop his head and, as he looked up, the deep emerald canine eyes that were a trademark of the Kururugi line, just as the cat like violet eyes were characteristic of her own family.
Luluko did not have the energy to rage. Every emotion she had was cloaked in the shield of reserve she had learned since she was a kitten.
Evidently the lycan prince recognized her as well, for his pleas caught in his throat, and his eyes closed.
She stepped toward him and heard a flutter of movement as Xingke moved closer, ready to intervene if the fallen man was a threat.
With all his various scratches and minor injuries, it was hard to tell where the worst damage was. She saw a broken leg, possibly a broken arm; either of those he could heal from.
She stood still over him, thinking to herself. This man was the man who had led the soldiers that had killed her brother and his guards. Should she just turn and leave and let her guards end his life? For a moment she thought of taking her knife and putting it in his heart or slitting his throat herself and ending the life this creature still held while her brother lay dead.
She went to her knees once more, this time beside the enemy. She looked at the pale face and tried to summon the fury she needed.
His eyes fluttered open and met hers. A muddy shade of green, Seiryu Kururugi's eyes were filled with pain, sorrow and fear. The fear struck her the most. This boy looked a couple of years younger than she was, too young to deserve this horror, too young to die. Luluko then thought of her little sister, especially her brother.
Bile rose in her throat. She loved her brother, but could not murder his killer. She could not look into the eyes of a boy terrified of death and shaking from pain and feel hatred. This was a life: Lycan, yes, but still a life; who was she to steal it?
And this train of thought would always repeat itself in her mind. She would always find herself on her knees next to her enemies, at first with the intent to kill, but afterwards realizing she had no right to take away their life.
As Luluko took a closer examination that was when she was able to see the wound on his stomach, where a knife had dragged itself raggedly across the soft flesh, one of the most painful of mortal blows. The attacker must have been killed before he could finish the deed.
"Perhaps my brother had held the knife. Had he lain dying alone like this afterward?"
She felt a sob choke her throat and couldn't stop it. Seiryu Kururugi was the enemy, but here on the battlefield he was just another brother to another sister or brother, fallen on the field. She could not cry for her own brother, he would not have wanted her to. But she found herself crying for this hated stranger and the endless slaughter that she had almost contributed to.
This is why this stupid war goes on. Because, even when he's dying, you can only feel your hate. She told Xingke using telepathy so that the lycan prince could not hear. Something every shape shifter can do.
"If I was in this man's place, I would pray for someone to kneel by my side. And I wouldn't care if that person was Suzaku Kururugi himself." This time she spoke out loud.
Xingke knelt awkwardly beside her. For a moment, his hand touched hers, unexpectedly. His gaze met hers, and she heard him sigh quietly with understanding.
"I know no matter what I tell you. You won't listen to me. Heal him quickly so we can get out of here alright." He whispered and gave a light smile.
Luluko turned back to the Lycan.
"I'm here: don't fret." She said as she smoothed his brown hair from Seiryu's face.
His eyes filled with tears and he muttered something that sounded like "thank you". Then he looked straight up at her and said.
"End it. Please." These words made her wince.
He thought that she was going to end his life, while actually she was going to save his life. She was not going to bother trying to explain to him what she was about to do. Because, soon he won't even remember that they ever met.
She needed to act and fast. Soon the Lycans will be coming in search for their missing prince and she does not want to be there when they find him.
Seiryu took the silence as an affirmative and closed his eyes once more waiting for the final blow.
Luluko began chanting the healing words which soon was followed by a bright light.
Instead of pain Seiryu felt a warm soothing heat coming from his wound. He opened his eyes and saw what was happening.
"What are you doing?" he asked after staring a while at the princess beyond the glowing light.
"I am healing you, so just lay back and relax." Luluko said while never taking her focus away from what she was doing, her focus was entirely on healing his fatal wound. She figured the rest he could heal on his own.
The young prince was flabbergasted. He never thought that the princess of his enemies' race would try to save his life.
While, on the other side of the battle field, not too far from where his little brother was Suzaku Kururugi was in search of his brother and any remaining lycans body dead or alive.
"Search for my brother, he must be somewhere around here. And gather the remaining bodies, and bring them to the kingdom."
Suzaku stared across the remainder of the battlefield. Blood and lifeless body lay dead everywhere.
"When will this meaningless war come to an end?" He closed his eyes at his thought. "Brother please be alive."
Suzaku looked towards the sky trying to reach out to his brother with his mind. But, there was nothing.
"He is probably too weak or dead."
It seemed like hours had passed, Suzaku was just standing there in the middle of the battle field still trying to contact his brother with no luck. He really hoped his brother was not dead.
Suzaku was interrupted from his thoughts by one of his soldiers.
"My lord, we have found your brother. But, it seems we are to late the Ailurans has found him before us."
Suzaku's mind went blank and on instinct he began running in the direction his men pointed to. He transformed into his second form a huge magnificent chocolate brown dire wolf; however, unlike the normal dire wolfs whose legs are short and are not really meant for running. His legs were steadier and longer, among his kind he is known as the fastest of his people and runs and fights with grace.
As he got closer he noticed three figures, he saw his brother lying defenceless against a tree trunk and a woman hunched over him and a strange light in between them and a man standing behind the woman.
"What are they doing? Those bastards." Suzaku did not think he just acted, and lunged for the woman.
Xingke heard something coming up from behind and just in the nick of time he was able grab his princess and shoves them out of the way, of the Lycans attack. But, it was still a little too late. The lycans claw had successfully nicked Luluko's left side.
Luluko tried to hold in her scream of pain, but failed. She held her left side trying to stop the bleeding. It was pretty deep, but if it had gone any deeper it could have damaged an organ.
Xingke placed his princess behind him as they both waited for the next attack to come. Where they once were, they saw a huge brown dire wolf standing protectively over the young prince.
Luluko knew right away who the dire wolf was after seeing the same green emerald eyes. It was Suzaku Kururugi, who came to rescue his little brother.
Are you ok my brother? Suzaku never lift his gaze off his enemy while he spoke telepathically with his brother. He was not going to let his guard down.
Brother you came?
Of course I did I was not going to let you get your sorry ass killed out here. I would not hear the end of it from mother. Suzaku was trying to sound sarcastic, but failed. He was so worried, but of course his pride would not let him show it. Especially amongst his enemies.
Since, the dire wolfs arrival. Silence had befallen in between the four. The four now only staring at each other, no words being exchanged; only waiting for the other to attack or make the first move. After awhile, Xingke's troops had jumped out of the trees flanking their commander and princess in their second form. At the same time wolves had appeared on the other side flanking there two princes.
Luluko hated where things might be going. She already witnessed enough murder in one day. And now she was going to be part of one. She was not going to let that happen. She knew someone had to speak up first before there was going to be any more bloodshed.
"Don't attack! There has been enough bloodshed in one day." Luluko was the one who broke the silence.
"Just now I know it may look like I was hurting your brother, but I was not, I was trying to help him." While she said that she stared into the green eyes of the dire wolf hoping to come to some sort of understanding.
Suzaku was staring into the princess eyes. Even though, it looked like she spoke the truth. He was convinced that she was lying, it's was natural instinct not to believe anything the Ailurans had to say. He had learned that the hard way and he was not going to make the same mistake. He was about to growl a command to attack, but was cut off.
Brother she speaks the truth. Seiryu said to his brother still lying on the floor.
Lies brother I cannot believe that, that Ailuran women, especially their princess at that would get herself dirty to help her enemy. Suzaku growled with disbelief.
I know it is hard to believe brother even for me but she speaks the truth. If not for her I would have been dead brother. I am not saying I am grateful brother, but one thing I do agree with her that there has been enough bloodshed in one day.
Suzaku turned towards his brother and made eye contact seeing the plea in his brother's eyes to go home. He was in pain and he just wanted to go home. This was enough to convince the prince.
And once where the dire wolf stood was replaced with the crown prince of the lycans. He was standing with his back to Luluko. He bent down and began to grab his brother. Careful, avoiding the major injury. And then he turned staring back at her.
"I agree, there has been enough bloodshed for one day. Let us just go our separate ways back without any fighting agreed." Mostly regarding Luluko when he spoke.
Everyone was about to reject, but Luluko thought otherwise.
"Agreed." She was standing still clutching her left side.
She was looking at the little brother. She was able to stop the bleeding of the wound, but still it was far from being fully healed. She knew at least he was not in danger of dying anymore. She felt a little bit uneasy that she was not able to cast her spell to make the boy forget that she helped him. She just hoped the whispers do not reach her mother's ears. Her people would think of her as a traitor.
Lu, but how will we know that as soon as we have our backs turned they won't come after us. Xingke never moved his gaze from the lycans.
For some reason Luluko could see in those emerald green eyes that even though they are eternal enemies, for just this once they could put their eternal hatred aside and come to a certain truce for now.
"Let's just go, Xingke." And without any arguments Xingke commanded his troops to fall back. At the same time Suzaku also told his pack the same thing.
And both of them going their separate ways.
For now.
Hope you guys liked it . i will try to have the next chapter out. I there are any Inuyasha fans you should check out my Inuyasha fanfic called My Savior.
Please leave a review. Till next time.
