Excerpt from 'Business Britannia' Circa 2015'
Lord Ashford, as the steward for Stadtfeld industries has dramatically re-purposed the corporation from consumer electronics into the number one manufacturer of high end, cost effective medical replacement limbs and Nightmare R&D Proving Facilities. While this is remarkable in its own right, his stance and that of his young ward Ms. Kallen Stadtfeld on labor have caused waves throughout the business world, the companies policy of housing, feeding, training, and providing medical care for numbered employees being on par with that of pure Britannians enraging hardliners. Lord Ashford responded with "Oddly enough when you treat your employees with respect and dignity you get more productivity out of them, as Ms. Stadtfeld's advisers have said on multiple occasions 'willing servants are far more useful then resentful slaves'. That's beside the point, most of my detractors are simply peeved that my policies of financial equality netted Ms. Stadtfeld 29% higher profit margins then her closest competitor, it would be my estimation that if they wanted to share those profits they should attempt to emulate rather then detract from our efforts."
Black Knights Main Facility Beneath Ashford Academy April 18 2017 A.T.B.
C.C. was content for the first time in awhile, sure it was one in the morning and she had been shot in the head at one point in the past 24 hours but she was freed from Clovis, her new contractors had let her have sweet sweet petty revenge and their little sister had given her instant access to glorious pizza. So she just sat their contentedly munching through her own meat lovers while the adorably dysfunctional family exchanged stories, it was so strangley relaxing being around people who legitimatly loved each other. Lelouch was in the middle of describing how they had stopped to take pictures of the exploding G1 when his phone range,
"Ohgi-sensai, how goes it? Really? She was hopping up and down squealing?" he sighed "well tell her to let me know the moment she finds something out about that unit...yes tell her we did hose out the cockpit before we sent it over, mmhmm...ok take it easy, bye." Hanging up he grabbed for a slice of pizza when Kallen asked,
"What was that about hon?" Hon? Oh my was little Lelouch in a relationship? He grinned pulling his hair back behind his ears, very cute.
"Ohgi just got that prototype you guys nicked to Rakshata, she's practically fawning over it, he hadn't even gotten the truck closed up before she had one of its arms torn apart, I have the strangest feeling we might all be getting some upgrades in the near future." With that he pointed at C.C. "So yeah guys, magic bondage hottie gave us super powers, wanna see?" C.C. couldn't help but blush a bit at that, Nunnally's eyes got wide and squeaked,
"Magic?!" Her brother chuckled and said
"Totally, Luluka dearest?" With that his sister grinned then disappeared, to her family it appeared that Kallen's blouse unbuttoned indecently low, Nunnally's slice of pizza had a massive bite taken out of it, and Suzaku had a large lipstick kiss mark on his cheek, they all stared numbly at her then the simultaneous response of,
"WHAT THE FUCK?!"
"COOLIO!"
"Bwa...hehe..ah..."
Grinning like the Cheshire cat she said,
"If I don't want you to see me, you don't, simple as that, oh the locker rooms will be chaos tomorrow..." They seemed to all shake their shock off quickly, looking to Lelouch, he grinned sheepishly.
"I can make anyone do anything I want, I mean anything" he said this last bit while winking at Kallen who blushed deeply. He smiled and looked at Luluka "I command you, you will be unable to swear for the next 5 minutes", she stared at him a second then said
"Oh fu...fu...what the sh...Lelouch you mother fu... Oh I swear to the old gods I will destroy your scrawny a...AHHHHHHH!" Luluka screamed and ran into her room.
"Wow" the three said at once, they looked contemplative for a moment, Nunnally turned to him and asked,
"Use one on me!" Lelouch nodded then cast his Geass
"Why do you paint your Knightmares pink?" Her face fell flat and she monotoned
"Because I think its bloody hilarious having prissy nobels being beaten by something the same color as my vibrator", with that her eyes cleared and she shook her head. "Oh dear" she mumbled trying to hide her face to avoid the embarrassed looks from her family. Suzaku coughed loudly to break the silence then continued
"Annnnd now we know way more then we wanted to, so movin-" Before he could finish his sentence Luluka ran out of her room with a baseball bat screaming,
"Lelouch I'm going to fu...I'm going to destroy your scrawny as...GAHHH!", before violence ensued C.C. spoke up causing everyone to stop mid action
"Would the rest of you like to form a contract?", much to her surprise Lelouch stepped in before they could respond.
"First you're going to explain exactly what these powers are, where they draw their energy from, and what happens to the users in the long term, we had no choice but to accept your offer since we were rather pressed for time but I won't have you endangering my family so they can have some extra parlor tricks." She had to reevaluate the boy again, every time he reminded her of his zealot parents he threw a stick into the spokes.
"Yes..." Kallen agreed staring at the lime haired witch, "I'd really like to know exactly what you got my fiance involved in before we make any rash decisions." That settled it, Marianna had to hear about all this now, her little boy was engaged? The incorrigible woman would love this. Sighing she wolfed down her last slice of pizza and took a swig of the beer Suzaku had given her.
"Ok first off my Code of Immortality comes from the World of C..."
Tokyo, Area Eleven, Stadtfeld Industries Secret Developments Lab April 18 2017 A.T.B
Rakshata Chawla was on Cloud 9, not only did she have the Earl of Pudding's baby at her mercy but her wonderful benefactors saw fit to recover it nearly intact, the cockpit block quite seriously being inconsequential, the second it had hit her underground labs floor her team of forty mixed nationality engineers had torn the Lancelot apart like worker ants. In less then an hour the entire thing had been disassembled, cataloged, and the more yummy bits put under scrutiny for reverse engineering, at any other facility for any other faction in the world digesting all this new information would take weeks of pandering with officials for funding, authority and other red tape. Here, now, at this lab all they needed was 'Boss Red' to clear a half a billion quid in funding and they were off, hell Ms. Stadtfeld had even cleared a hybrid prototype to see if the two design principles could benefit from each other.
"Yes, Lloyd and I could have a child together" the blonde Indian said chuckling, manipulating the blueprints she went over mythology in her head, this unit would be a reaper, a reaver of souls the very best from three of the greatest minds in existence, a chooser of those to be slain. With a start she smiled and named the new unit to be,
"Project Valkyrie, something tells me you'll be second favorite only to my dear Guren", she thought as she made another pot of coffee, it was to be a very long, fruitful night.
Ashford Academy 30 minutes later
The family sat there mulling over the information they had just received, while the idea of any power they were given running rampant was all together terrifying, the chance that it could be perfected and fully controlled was alluring, Kallen glanced down at her hands and kept mulling the pros and cons. It was a terrifying choice to make, especially since she had no idea what her power would be and if it was even something she could control long enough to avoid going mad which apparently was a very real threat. Lelouch and Luluka both looked a bit ill, it was fairly obvious they were suffering buyers remorse but their options had been limited to 'pariahic magic power or death' so for her own selfish reasons she was glad Lelouch took the contract. Before she could talk herself out of it she turned to C.C. and with a shudder said,
"I'll take your contract, if only to protect my family", 'there' she thought, 'the die is cast'. C.C. gave her a coy smile and touched Kallens cheek, she got the same laser light show the twins told her about but as it all cleared C.C. made her offer,
"For the power of the Queen, you must promise to protect these wonderfully refreshing siblings, they're a light in the world rarely seen", Kallen would never know it but her reaction to this was quick enough to surprise the immortal.
"I of course accept your contract...and I see the way you look at him, back off." Grinning maliciously C.C. sealed the pact.
As she sat there absorbing what just happened she flexed this new mental muscle and watched as Lelouch reached over to hold her when she saw his beer fall off the edge of the table, without thinking she reached out and grabbed it, the bottle falling in her hand well after she put it there. Staring dumbly she turned to C.C. who was grinning wickedly
"Oh nice, Absolute Precognition, I've only ever seen that one once before...you are a very focused and loyal individual Ms. Stadtfeld", as Lelouch pulled her into his embrace C.C. looked at Nunnally and Suzaku, but before anything could be said the little brown haired teen said
"Me next!", at this C.C. reached out to her but her light show was different, C.C.'s voice sounded sad,
"Your injured in the mind little one, your family does everything in their power to help you but you've been so damaged healing isn't an option, but you're strong, you actually acknowledge this and work past it...you are an incredibly strong young woman." Gathering herself she retorted,
"I have been killing since I was seven years old, there are only two groups in the world, my enemies and everyone else, who ever hurts the latter ends up in the former, and they have to die for it" C.C. was quiet for a moment and then she felt some warmth from the immortal.
"You are a strange, interesting mortal, my contract is this, you must keep your wonderful family safe, even from themselves, anything goes so long as they survive". The teen grinned the same smile Luciano Bradley never got to see the moment before his death.
"So keep the status quo, roger that. I accept your contract Ms. C.C., that's a terrible name by the way."
Nunnally came to and stared at her family, she took a deep breath and activated her power, her entire family started to writhe in pain gasping, muttering apologies to the air, she screamed and quickly turned it off. They got up rubbing their heads looking ill, gasping slightly Kallen said,
"It felt like...every person I've ever hurt...minor slights...people I killed...demanded I pay at once..." The others agreed and C.C. quirked an eyebrow at Nunnally.
"Absolute Penance...haven't seen that one since the dark ages...long made short kiddo everyone connected to the collective unconsciousness collects resentment from those they wrong, a kind of retribution buffer if you will, your Geass exposes the target to all that resentment, the more people they hurt the more painful it is. Plus side you clear the buffer so to speak when you cast your Geass so as soon as you cut it off they're safe until they do something to hurt another person". C.C. looked thoughtful, surprise still evident on her face. "I'm...honestly shocked, last person that took that was a Templar and he was a religious fanatic...anyway you're good your family can't be hurt by it again, you cut it off way before the nasty started." She turned to Suzaku who looked far from his formerly healthy pallor,
"I...ok...they all took it so I might as well...do it witch", Luckily for him his connection was similar to Kallen's and his promise was equally strait forward unlike the twins,
"So...you constantly hide in the shadows, having to disguise your feelings and ambitions to keep yourself and your family safe, to avoid the reprecussions of who you were born as...my contract with you is you must admit your feelings to the woman you love within the next year, do you accept this?". It says alot about the mans resolve that he seriously considered telling her to fuck off...but remembering those he loved, and lost, and his country enslaved...he sighed and sadly responded,
"I accept...witch", with that he was back with the others, dispondently avoiding Luluka's gaze he cast his Geass and the entire group gasped in shock, Nunnally being the first to speak.
"Did...did Godzilla just appear in the corner tearing into the left over pizza?!" Her voice quavering.
"Yes...yes he did" Lelouch responded as he looked at Suzaku, the witch was chuckling again, which he was starting to find incredibly annoying.
"Absolute Illusion, fitting for someone hiding in plain sight, that one should be fun for you young man." The limette stretched languidly as she shot up, "Its quite late and you all have school in the morning...how novel. I suggest we get some rest and go over this all tomorrow, agreed?"
With that the group split up, Lelouch and Kallen went off to their room as the others headed to their own, Luluka was stripped down to her underwear when she jumped into her bed sighing contentedly, glad the day was finally over and trying not to think about the fact she had to be up in four hours. As she mulled the benefits to sleeping pills and caffeine she felt a weight shift in her bed, turning she found the green haired witch nose to nose to her. Sighing inwardly she asked,
"And what do you think you're doing?" The golden eyed temptress just smirked and said
"Well since Lelouch is taken I figured I'd use the single twins bed" Luluka quirked an eyebrow while thinking 'I may not swing that way but I grew up with Milly 'fucking' Ashford, if you think for one second you're unsettling me you're sorely mistaken', with that thought finished she grabbed C.C. and pulled her close.
"Your mistake witch, I'm a cuddler.
Edit Note: Gah, fixed some very glaring errors and I'm sure I missed even more, I really need to lock my friend in a small room and force him to beta read these things for me, anyway hopefully chapter 10 will be up tonight, I'm having alot of fun writing this and its starting to seriously jump the tracks from canon.
