A/N: fourth chapter. Should be good hopefully. enjoy.
Disclaimer: I am the all powerful, immortal the Zombie King.
Disclaimer 2: The all powerful, immortal Zombie King does not own Code Geass.
The world seemed to be spinning rapidly for Kallen as the Guren plummeted head first in a spiral arc downward toward the rocky terrain below. Kallen, determined not to let this be her end, kept her strength focused on the failing controls. With considerable effort, she brought Guren out of it's spiral, managing to arc its descent considerably.
Guren had built up far too much momentum to effectively control, but Kallen was at least able to steer it away from any mountains. She could feel Rakshata gripping to her very tightly, obviously frightened for her life. Feeling like she had done all she could to soften Guren's crash, Kallen initiated the cockpit ejection system, jettisoning her and Rakshata to safety. The ejected cockpit shook horribly as it hit the ground nearby, throwing the two women forward violently.
"Y-you okay…?" Kallen asked, shaking.
"I-I think I'll manage…" the other replied in a weak voice, pulling herself up.
Kallen sat back up as well, surveying the damage to her body. Being jostled around violently had left her shaken and bruised in parts, but nothing seemed broken or severely damaged. She had been spared any serious injury. This wasn't very surprising; Guren's cockpit was heavily reinforced after all.
"We don't have any time to waste. The enemy will likely be here any moment now. We don't want to get caught here," Kallen said sharply, forcing the cockpit to open up and allow her exit. Once she had stepped out, she turned around and helped the still wobbly Rakshata up after her.
"Do you really think we have a hope of getting out of this?" Rakshata asked, panicked, as Kallen led her by the hand.
"I can't say. But I'm not about to give up," Kallen said, maintaining an incredible cool despite the situation.
"But without Guren, what can we possibly do? It's almost assuredly a Knightmare that shot us down," Rakshata argued, less capable of containing herself.
"We just have to think of something. Try and fight our way out of this," Kallen said as she continued to run forward, across the rocky terrain. Quickly she caught sight of what she sought. "And it's not like we don't have Guren at all."
They came to a sudden halt and turned to see right in front of them Guren's crash site, a short distance away. It had hit the side of a somewhat rocky, yet small hill, and was well damaged, but it was still recognizable. Thanks to Kallen's piloting and it's solid construction in the first place, it didn't look nearly as bad as one might have imagined in falling from the altitude it did.
"My, how wonderful. My precious Guren…. You saved it… " Rakshata smiled as she stared at the damaged machine, her voice full of unstable emotion.
"Of course. Before I even thought about ejecting us, I had to make sure Guren would survive as well. I wasn't about to give those treacherous fools the satisfaction of having destroyed our Guren entirely," Kallen said with her own satisfied smirk as she continued toward her Knightmare Frame.
"I think you're right." Rakshata said, pulling her pipe out from seemingly nowhere and lighting it. "'Our Guren' would be more appropriate, wouldn't it? I mean it's fairly clear it belongs as much to you as it does me now…"
These comments took Kallen for surprise. Honestly her words were meant to place ownership of Guren with the organization of the Black Knights as a whole, rather than just the two of them. Even if it was her knightmare, Kallen didn't feel right having any claim to it. She started, "No, you misunderstand. I was just--"
"It is better for a child to have two parents as it is, don't you think?" Rakshata cut her off without even listening. Kallen realized then that it was too late to retract her words.
"I suppose…." Kallen said, not really sure. Her family situation wasn't a very fair model.
"Heh. Well let's not linger hear any longer. Our precious Guren is in need of treatment. let us see what must be done," Rakshata seemed reinvigorated from her earlier state as she quickly moved onward.
"Got it," Kallen replied softly, a smile on her face.
Finally the two were right before the Guren, able to inspect the damages closely. The body was dented and bent all over. It's right arm, already damaged from enemy fire, had absorbed even more of the damaged and looked mangled beyond use. The right leg had absorbed too much impact, and lay about ten yards down the hill from the rest of the wreckage, smoke still coming up off of it.
"Our poor child, in so much pain…" Rakshata stated in a sad, emotional voice. "These wounds will take some time to tend."
"Unfortunately I'm not so sure we have any to spare. Whoever shot us down is clearly going to be looking for us now," Kallen reminded the other, her voice immediate.
"Well, I'm sorry. But this damage cannot be reversed instantaneously. If our aggressors arrive now we simply won't have a means to fight back," Rakshata said in a dry, bleak fashion, smoking hard at her pipe, as she stared longly at her damaged creation.
"That's not true," Kallen began steadfastly. "We won't have Guren working properly, that's true, but we may still be able to defend ourselves even without it."
"Oh? What do you have in mind?" Rakshata started, surprised as she caught the other's resolute expression.
"How much trouble would it be to get the Gefjun Net to deploy remotely?" Kallen asked, surveying the unit further.
Rakshata gave a high laugh as she turned to the girl and smiled at her. "It seems you have a plan in that head of yours." The scientist nodded approvingly then moved to the back of Guren and began examining things, "This shall be a simple task. Let us get to work."
"Right," Kallen replied, taking up position as the other's assistant.
---
Kallen and Rakshata spent the next half hour or so hard at work rewiring a few of Guren's systems. That's all the time they got. After that time had passed, sounds could be heard in the distance; Kallen knew these as the sounds of approaching Knightmares. From her experience she deduced that it was more than one but no more than three making the sound. As she got in place, hiding behind the damaged machine and peering out, she found she was correct in her judgement.
Two heavy Knightmare Frames were approaching slowly through the night. Kallen noticed immediately that they were Britannian models rather than Chinese Federation ones. This was expected; even if the Federation was clearly behind this, they wouldn't want to be stuck with the blame should things fail somehow.
The Knightmare Frames were large, heavily armored Sutherland models, each equipped with a very large, nonstandard cannon on it's left arm. One of the two held the ejected Guren cockpit under it's right arm. The two stopped their stride forward before the wrecked Guren, which Rakshata was still outside of, making repairs. Kallen held her breath as she prepared to see her plan in effect.
"Rakshata Chawla, we have been ordered to apprehend you and bring you in. Stop what you are doing and drop everything," the pilot of the Knightmare holding the Guren cockpit projected, opening his own cockpit.
Rakshata obeyed. "Alright, alright. You got me. No getting out of this with my precious Guren in this shape," the woman replied with a frown. "Go ahead and take me away boys." She put her hands forward, signaling surrender.
"Hmmph. Right," the man said as he jumped from the back opening of his Sutherland down to the ground below. Kallen noticed that despite his Britannian Knightmare the man was clearly of Chinese decent, just as she would have guessed. He grabbed the scientist and forced her hands roughly behind her head; then, retrieving a pistol from his side, pointed it at the woman's head. "But before that, tell me where the pilot is!"
"Miss Kozuki was badly injured in the crash. S-she's resting behind the Guren right now," Rakshata said, a hint of nervousness in her voice.
"Hnn!" The soldier pushed Rakshata forcefully to the floor. "Make sure this bitch doesn't try anything!" he shouted to the pilot still in his Sutherland who pointed his heavy cannon at the Indian woman once more. He began to move slowly toward the Guren. "You back there. If you can hear me, show yourself now!"
"A-alright…" Kallen stuttered weakly. She faked effort in stumbling out from the wreckage. She had wrapped her arm in cloth and let it stay lifelessly at her side; several rips and tears had been added to her clothing in a number of places, some of which left parts of her skin below exposed. She limped forward a bit before falling over on the side of Guren which she held to tightly after that.
"Heh. What a shame. The Black Knight's mighty ace meets death already wounded…" the man said as he pointed his pistol rigidly aimed at Kallen's head. He continued towards her.
"So you are to execute me immediately then," Kallen said without vigor, her words strained.
"On sight," the man replied with a twisted smile as he brought his gun even closer to his enemy's head with each step he took.
"Then do it. What are you waiting for," Kallen challenged, staring at the man wearily.
"In due time, girl. Since fortune has brought you to me in such a condition, I might as well take advantage of it," the soldier said with a laugh as he got even nearer to Kallen. He was eyeing her body wildly up and down, excitement in his gaze.
"Stop. Please, just do your job and be done with it. Don't put me through such things," Kallen pleaded, placing fear in her eyes.
"Hey! Come on out and help me enjoy this! I doubt the other one will put up much fight… we can rape both these whores!" the man shouted back to the Sutherland, turning his back on Kallen; the other pilot, withdrew his cannon from Rakshata. This gave Kallen the perfect opportunity to put her plan into motion.
In one swift motion she found a small switch that Rakshata had placed at the back of the Guren. As the Gefjun Net deployed to surround the Sutherland, while the man in front of Kallen was turning back around to investigate the sudden noise, Kallen pulled her trusted concealable knife from her pocket and closed the distance between her and the man. She let the sharp blade find it;'s way deep into his chest. She grabbed his pistol as he was falling back and shot him just to make sure he was dead.
The Sutherland became a complete prisoner of the Gefjun Net before it could re-aim it's cannon. Kallen could hear the pilot begin to bang on his cockpit hatch after awhile. She ran toward the dead man's Sutherland and jumped in. To her luck , the man had left his machine on and in standby, so no access code was necessary. She simply found the controls, turned the machine, aimed it's massive cannon at the other Sutherland, pulled the trigger, and watched as the occupied machine was obliterated. That accomplished she opened the hatch but remained inside.
"I never expected it to actually work…" Rakshata said with wide eyes.
"You didn't trust me?" Kallen laughed.
"No, I definitely trust you," the scientist laughed. "The plan was flawed. If things had happened any differently one or both of us would be dead now."
"I guess luck was on our side today," Kallen said in a content fashion.
"I'd still give most of the credit to you," Rakshata said, pulling her pipe out once more, a smile on her face.
"You deserve a lot yourself. Without the Gefjun net trapping one I couldn't have handled both," Kallen reminded, smiling herself.
"A fair point, I suppose," Rakshata smirked.
"Were fairly secure now, I guess. We have a working Knightmare and those idiots actually ended up saving us some trouble in bringing us this," Kallen said, motioning the Guren cockpit which had been placed at the Sutherland's feet.
"Yes. Now all we need to do is restore Guren to the point where it can fly," Rakshata said with a nod.
"I trust you'll be able to," Kallen nodded.
"Never doubt my talents," Rakshata smirked and smoked her pipe some more.
"Of course not," Kallen said with a soft, satisfied laugh.
---
Things proceeded smoothly after that. Four enemy Knightmare Frames would visit the crash site over the course of the several hours it took to repair Guren, but Kallen was able to best each of them fairly easily with the Sutherland she had stolen. When she wasn't fighting off the enemy units, she'd act as Rakshata's assistant, either lifting heavy things or bending metal with the Sutherland, or exiting and assisting on foot.
Eventually, the night almost fully exhausted, Guren looked more like itself. It's leg had been reattached, the cockpit reset in place, and most importantly, the float system repaired. It still had visible damage. There were dents and bends in the metal and the paint had obviously chipped all over. The right arm was still completely non-operational. It's technology was too intricate, and the damage to severe to pay it any mind. Guren would still need several days safe inside the hangar of the Ikaruga to be fully restored.
"Well, I think that about does it. Looks like I'm going to need another test flight, Miss Kozuki," Rakshata called, satisfaction on her face.
"I'm a little nervous about this one I must say," Kallen said as she climbed down from the Sutherland and made her way to her Guren.
"I thought you'd trust me more than that," Rakshata playfully laughed.
"I do trust you. I just don't like my chances should there be another one of those bastards waiting in the darkness for the chance to shoot me down," Kallen said under her breath.
"You've been watching the enemy movements on the Sutherland's radar system. You didn't see any 'friendly' signals, did you?" Rakshata questioned, her pipe placed at her lips.
"No. You're right. There hasn't been anything in a while. They probably realized they lost. The Federation doesn't want to risk losing any more of these Britannian models to us," Kallen said victoriously.
"I can only imagine the look on Xiang Sheng's face about now. All those Knightmares and they couldn't even complete a mission as simple as killing one woman and capturing another," Rakshata gave a somewhat smug smile.
"Yeah. Well I don't like our chances staying out here much longer. Besides, I haven't slept for what seems like forever, and I'm pretty much starving at this point," Kallen complained. Being stranded for several hours in a desolate corner of northern India wasn't much fun.
"I agree on both accounts. Thats why you should hurry with the test flight," Rakshata insisted. She did look quite weary as well.
"Right!" Kallen shouted as she found her way into the familiar machine.
Guren took off without a problem. It didn't fly as smoothly as before, but it flew, and that was what was important. After a few minutes in the air, Kallen was confident the machine was mechanically sound. She landed it.
"Seems to have operated fine!" Rakshata called up, when the cockpit hatch opened.
"Well enough, I think," Kallen replied.
"Good then I think I'll join you," Rakshata said in a light voice. Kallen helped her up into the cockpit. They took the familiar position of before, Rakshata embracing Kallen, her chest to the girl's back. It was strange, but Kallen almost felt as if she had been looking forward to feeling Rakshata wrap her arms around her once more. After the hectic night it felt somehow comforting, securing.
"Let's go back," Kallen said with a healthy smile as she let Guren fly into the sky.
"Yes, let's," Rakshata replied, holding Kallen tighter.
"But before that…" Kallen started turning Guren around. She aimed the Guren's secondary cannon which was still operational as the stolen Sutherland. Flying up a bit so she wouldn't be caught in the blast, she let out several rounds of fire at the Knightmare's heavy cannon and watched as it created a massive explosion below. That accomplished, Guren turned back around and began it's flight east.
"Good idea. Saves the trouble of destroying it later on the battle field," Rakshata said in a high voice, still holding tightly to the girl seated in front of her.
"Yeah…" Kallen said. She wasn't embarrassed or insecure about the position she was in any more. She was just warm and comfortable. She supposed the fear, the hunger, the lack of sleep, something must have let her become a little more true to herself.
"I contacted the Ikaruga as soon as I got the communication system to work. Someone should be there to meet us half way," Rakshata explained in an even voice.
"Good idea," Kallen said distantly staring off into the beautiful sunrise before her.
"This scene's pretty romantic too, isn't it?" Rakshata almost whispered, taking notice of what Kallen was focused on.
"The flight isn't as smooth, but this seems almost more beautiful to me somehow," Kallen sighed, a longing in her voice.
"You're right. It is incredible, this thing that our Guren can show us," Rakshata spoke, a warmth to her words.
"Guren…" Kallen softly whispered the name.
"Guren is lucky to have two wonderful mothers," Rakshata said. Her words had a strange effect on Kallen; a full smile reached her lips.
"Isn't it strange for a child to have two mothers?" Kallen asked absently, staring off.
"Do you think it is?" Rakshata asked, turning the question around.
"I don't know anymore…" Kallen softly spoke. She wasn't sure what she was talking about anymore. All she knew at that moment was that her hands had to stay firmly on Guren's controls and that she liked having Rakshata hold her.
"Kallen, look back here for a moment," Rakshata said, loosening her embrace again. Even if it wasn't the safest thing to do, taking your eyes off of what was in front of you while piloting a Knightmare Frame, Kallen was quick to comply. She wanted the embrace to be tight again. She turned her head back to gaze at the beautiful woman behind her.
To her surprise, but also to her immediate satisfaction, Rakshata greeted her with a warm, soft kiss to her lips. It was nice. She savored it. She didn't know why she enjoyed having another woman kiss her. It was strange. Her body just felt lighter than usual. It was as if she was dreaming. And in that dream, she knew she wanted Rakshata to kiss her.
The soft kiss broke shortly and Kallen turned back around to better guide the Guren. No words were shared for a few moments. Kallen just stared ahead hazily, her heart aflutter, her whole body feeling very warm.
"I know you said you weren't interested, but after tonight, I couldn't help myself," Rakshata cooed into Kallen's ear eventually, making the girl's focus become even softer.
"I don't mind. I actually kind of liked it," Kallen almost moaned back, blushing at the vulnerable sound of her voice.
"Oh? And what about Zero?" Rakshata asked, fake surprised in her voice.
"He doesn't matter. I never would have won anyway… not with him…" Kallen admitted what she had felt all along in regards to Lelouch. It was bound to be a fruitless struggle. She was just going to get hurt being interested in a man like him. Shouldn't she then give it up and let herself be open to other things; other beautiful, wonderful things.
"Then maybe you'll let me kiss you more once we return to safety," Rakshata suggested, a hint of uncertainty and hesitance in her voice. "It's been a long time since I've been so interested in something other than one of my children."
"I-I wouldn't mind…" Kallen said in a soft voice, closing her eyes just momentarily to enjoy Rakshata's warmth.
Rakshata kissed lovingly at Kallen's neck, causing her to give a short moan. "It makes me happy to hear you say that, Kallen."
A few more scattered kisses and Guren's flight path became quite erratic. Luckily, it wasn't much longer until the Guren met up with the recovery transport, which would bring them back to safety.
A/N: End chapter. A fun chapter I think. We had a little action, Kallen using certain tactics that would work on just about anybody to get the Federation soldiers distracted, and her and Rakshata making their escape in a cute, romantic fashion. Next week we'll have the final chapter, which will hopefully conclude things nicely, and at the very least will contain some sexiness.
Well, for the poll this time I had a pretty negative question, which Code Geass character you hated. I'm not surprised at al with the top vote getter. With 12 of 30 voting for him, I have to agree with the notion that Suzaku Kururgi isn't exactly likable. I disagree with the ten of you who put Nina in second place though. She progresses and I think, redeems herself by the end of the series. Rolo definitely deserves all of his 9 votes, as does V.V. with his 8. I kinda like Mao, who also got 8 votes, though. He was a compelling psychopath. The Emperor got 6 votes somehow (I mean what's there to hate about that guy…) and the other option got 7, which his unsurprising considering I left a lot of the cast off the poll. I was more surprised with the lesser vote getters. Shirley, Ohgi, Diethard, Nunnally, Lelouch, C.C., Euphemia, and Milly all got at least one vote and I think they're pretty cool characters (I can understand Gino, Schneizel. and Rivalz getting votes though). No one hates Kallen (believe me, if she had got even one vote, you all would have heard about it…), Kaguya, Jeremiah, Tamaki (I'm actually a little surprised at that one), Rakshata, Todoh, or Anya.
Anyway, usually come fourth chapter, I'd be preparing poll of options for what my next fic should be. I'm not this time. I already know what I'm doing, and you all are stuck with it. Let's just say it'll be a lengthy, creative endeavor that will take a lot of my time to complete. It should be fun though. I don't know how many of you will follow me on it, but I'm looking to create an entertaining story. I'll probably give more details with the final chapter of this story. Going into this story, I am a little curious as to my readers tastes in regards to my fics, so the ol is on that now. The results may shape the fic I'm doing (though probably not; I already have like the whole thing mapped out). Vote if you will.