Assignment 8: Capture
My phone was ringing. The last thing I had remembered was Lelouch holding me in his arms. My alarm clock read 2:27 a.m. I groaned, and answered my phone.
"Leann?" I froze. It was V.V.
"Yes."
"I want to meet Zero."
"Good for you."
"Leann, I know that you joined the Black Knights."
"If the lead is there, I follow it."
"I'm not questioning your motives. I want to meet Zero."
"I can try."
"That's better."
The next morning, I was awakened by Zero entering my room.
"You wanted me for something?"
"First off, I want to apologize for yesterday."
"You don't need to, Leann."
"Second, V.V. wants to meet you."
"V.V.? Why?"
"I'm not sure."
"When and where?"
"3:00 today, on Shikine Island. He says there will be someone there you will want to meet."
Eight hours later, we arrived on Shikine Island. We were greeted by an armed escort and Princess Euphemia.
"Zero."
"Princess Euphemia. It's an honor."
"I'm afraid I cannot answer the same."
"Why ever not? I can assure you. Cornelia is fine. In fact, I had quite the discussion with her yesterday. She was quite cordial and polite, and I respect her for her strength. Here," He handed Euphy a letter. "This is from Cornelia. I haven't looked over anything in her letter, but I hope you will not reveal anything confidential that may of may not be in this letter."
Euphy was surprised. She hadn't expected to receive a letter from Cornelia. "Thank you." She said warmly, and led us up to the meeting place. The meeting hall was mostly empty, except for three seats at one end of the table. On the right was V.V., on the left was Prince Schniezel, and in the center was the Emperor himself.
I gritted my teeth. The Emperor didn't come anywhere unless he had special reason to. A side door opened up, revealing 5 Knights of the round, including Bismark Waldstein. To his left were Anya Alstreim and Nonette Enneagram, and on his right were Gino Weinberg and Luciano Bradley. Anya and Nonette sat to the left of Schniezel, while Gino and Luciano sat to the right of V.V., and Bismark stood behind the Emperor.
"Please sit down." Invited Schniezel. Zero and I sat down where he indicated. I could tell Zero was nervous. He had his Geass, but we weren't sure if it would work on V.V.
"Let's get down to business." Zero started. "Why did you want to meet me?"
The Emperor was the one to respond. "I am here to reprimand you, Lelouch."
"Lelouch? But he's dead!" Schniezel said incredulously.
Zero removed his mask. "Am I, dear brother?"
"Impossible."
"But here I am. I suspected that you had kept tabs on me ever since the invasion. Was it Hannah?"
"Lelouch. You never did understand."
"I beg to differ." The Geass sigil flashed, and he shouted. "Obey me! Lelouch vi Brittania orders you!" Red rims appeared around the eyes of Schniezel and the Knights of the Round. V.V. jumped up, but I tackled him.
"Stay down." I ordered. Or I'll kill you.
"You can't kill me, I'm immortal."
"Oh really?" I asked, taking out my contact lenses. V.V.'s eyes widened in shock, proving that only a Geass user can kill a code user. Something hit the back of my head. I felt as if I was being squished by something remarkable heavy as the Emperor said. "I wish you hadn't done that, Lelouch. Now I have to take you prisoner." I tried to get up, but it was to no avail. The object was too heavy. I drifted into unconsciousness.
I am sitting in a room, chained to a wall. I glanced around, looking for anything familiar. The only thing I noticed was a mirror, hung directly across from me. In it, I see a girl with wavy black hair. She is wearing a white robe with sleeves that are too long, and when she looks up I stare into her eyes. Her eyes are striking, because her left eye is a deep purple, while her right is red, with some kind of symbol almost encased inside the eye. The symbol resembles a bird flying in the distance.
I thought for a moment, confused. I didn't remember what a bird even looked like. I knew that the symbol was important, but I couldn't remember why. I refocused on the girl. She looked forlorn and discouraged. Someone entered her prison cell. He had blonde hair, but his back was turned, so I couldn't see his face. The man just sat on the floor, pulling out a lot of crafted pieces of wood and set them up in a specific pattern. I couldn't tell what was going on, but the man was crying. The girl's expression didn't change. Her face was emotionless and empty.
I wondered what had happened to the girl that made the man cry. He just sat there, and sat there, and sat there. I didn't understand what was going on. The girl must have meant a lot to the man, because she whispered something. The man looked up, and started crying harder. The girl was saying more, but I wasn't sure what she was saying.
Another girl came in and sat down beside the man. She had bright pink hair, with a black dress on. There was something special about the color black, but I couldn't remember what that was. The only thing I could remember was a picture. A picture of a girl in a wheelchair. She had light brown hair, and her eyes were closed. I knew that they had once been open, but didn't remember why they stayed closed.
I wanted to see the girl in the wheelchair again. Again? I must have seen her before, but I couldn't remember anything other than that girl.
Back in the mirror, the pink girl had sat down beside the man and laid her head on his shoulder. She took his hand, and I realized that she was also crying. The girl on the wall must be important. No, she was important. She was the key to my memories. I didn't know how I knew that, I just did.
The man got up, leaving his pieces of wood behind, almost as if something was supposed to happen if he left them there. The other girl left with him, leaving the girl on the wall all alone. I wanted to go to her, but I was chained down. I tried moving. Nothing happened. The girl in the picture twitched. Almost as if I had moved her. I tried again, this time harder. She twitched again. It must have been a coincidence, because there was no other way to explain it.
I gazed at the girl on the wall, trying to remember why she was important. While I was thinking about it, my eyes started to close. I tried to keep them from shutting, but they wanted to close. The rest of my body felt exhausted. I finally gave in, letting me eyelids meet, and I drifted into the unconscious.
I opened my eyes, realizing what I had just experienced was sleep. I felt refreshed. No wonder why my body had wanted to sleep. I felt something in my stomach. At first I assumed it was a monster, because it was growling at me. In the mirror, the girl was stirring, just like I was. There were three men in white lab coats dishing up something for the girl. They put the mixture onto a spoon, and fed the girl.
The monster in my stomach stopped growling. It had been appeased by the food that the men had offered. The men left shortly thereafter, leaving just me and the girl on the wall alone together. I tried to call out to the girl. Tried to get her attention, but it was no use. She couldn't hear me. I focused my brain on getting her attention. I did this for some time, until the pink girl from the other time came in with two other girls. One had dark purple hair, and a look of contempt on her face. The other had light blue hair that fell to her waist.
The purple haired girl made some kind of joke and laughed. The blue haired girl just put her hand over her mouth. Then the pink haired girl slapped the purple haired girl across the face. The light blue haired girl gasped, and helped the purple haired girl up. The two girls left, leaving the pink haired girl alone with the girl on the wall.
The pink haired girl stayed in the cell for some time, until a servant came to fetch her. They had a short conversation that ended with the pink girl leaving the room.
Time passed like this. I didn't have any way to track it, but I fell asleep 13 times. The pink haired girl would visit a lot, while the man I saw on the first day hadn't come back. The men would come and feed the girl food and check on her condition. Nothing changed much, other than the attire of the pink haired girl. She would wear black dresses, even when she came in with other people. I liked when the pink haired girl visited. It gave me something else to look at.
But today, something was different. A green haired girl came into the holding cell, and put her hand on the girl on the walls forehead. I immediately felt a strong pulling sensation. I was being sucked out of my body and into the girl on the walls body. At first I resisted, but the pulling was too strong, and I slipped into the girls body.
I started up. I was in the body of the girl on the wall. The girl with green hair unlocked the chains holding me to the wall. I fell to the ground. The girl pulled me up and dragged me out of the cell. I tried to walk, but my muscles were too atrophied from being chained up for a while.
"We have to go get your brother now."
"Brother?" I asked, sounding out the word.
"Yes, don't you remember Lelouch?"
"Lelouch?" The green haired girl stopped.
"Do you remember my name?"
"Name? Name, name, name." I said, testing out the word.
"I see. You've lost your memory."
"Memory?"
The green haired girl sighed. "Look, you and your brother Lelouch were taken captive by the Brittanian Empire because you were the leaders of the Black Knights, a resistance group that fought against Brittania. I am Lelouch's helper, and I came to rescue you with some of the Black Knights. We will rejoin them after Lelouch is rescued." I stared at her blankly. I didn't really care about what she had just said, but she had gotten me out of my prison.
"Follow me." She said. I did as I was told, and we weaved our way through the dungeon, passing many people in cells. I wanted to help them get out, but the green haired girl pulled me along, leaving no doubt as to whether we would rescue them. After going through the maze like dungeon for a little while, we reached a cell. The green haired girl stopped and pulled out her keys. She opened the door to the cell, and the inmate looked up. He had black hair and purple eyes, just like me.
The green haired girl unlocked his handcuffs, and helped him stand up.
"So you finally came, C.C." He said. "I see you already rescued Leann. Do you have my mask?" The green haired girl nodded and popped out a mask for the boy to wear. The mask was mostly black, except for the center, which was a purple oval. He put it on, and he exited the cell.
"Leann, how've you been?" He asked me.
"Zero, she lost her memory."
"She's lost her memory, huh?" An eye slot opened up on the mask, revealing his left eye. The symbol I had in my right eye appeared, and he started to say something, but I couldn't make it out. There was a loud buzzing sound in my head, but was overshadowed by the sound of a door unlocking. Then I started to remember. The memories of over 1000 people flooded my brain, but instead of overlapping and becoming indistinguishable from one another, each memory shone like a star, calling me to remember them. And I did remember. And I accepted the memories as part of me. I knew that though most of the memories in my brain belonged to other people, those people now were a part of me. I was Leann vi Brittania, and I was going to destroy Brittania.
