One Last Shot at Life…One Last Shot at Victory
Stage 10 "Lightning's Pawn"
A/N: I'm still feeling bad about chapter 9…I didn't mean to update so slowly…and after I posted that, I started this…that's just horrible too. So. I was planning on buying the Code Geass cell phone strap package for my phone! It's on Amazon for like eighteen bucks, for four of 'em. It has a chibi Lelouch, Xing-Ke, Anya and Suzaku :). They're just all so fricken' cute! xD. Now, for the song I was listening to when I started this chapter. I was listening to Flow, one of my favourite J-Rock/Pop bands, other than SID. Anywho, I was listening to "Days". It's an amazing song; you should listen to it sometime.
Now, to extend my thanks to all of my reader and favouriters (not a word, but now it is :).) You all inspire me and motivate me to move forward in writing this story and I appreciate your devotion I guess, and support, so much thanks extended to all of ya'll!
DISCLAIMER TIMEE! Yayz…these are always fun, oh and the second 'e' in time is meant to be there, I do know how to spell the word, no worries there. (insert laughter here). So. I don't own Code Geass. (God dammit!) I wish I did, but I don't. Tough love right? Bandai owns dah rights and they better not shut down their American branch or Imma strangle whoever runs the damn thing! Sorry, I'm done now :).
Oh! For this chapter I was listening to the song Break & Peace by Dustz which came after Days. Both are excellent songs.
Anywho! Onto chapter 10 of One Last Shot at Life…One Last Shot at Victory
(Sorry for the ranting :) )
Stage 10 "Lightning's Pawn"
Area: Knights of the Round Meeting Room
Time: 0900* hours
It was quiet. No one knew what to say nor dared to speak. They had let their prized prisoner, Kallen Kozuki, escape and they, the Knights of the Round, were about to hear it from the Emperor. All that was missing was said Emperor's actual presence.
Gino was the first to speak. "So, does anyone know where his Majesty actually is?" An unsettling silence stretched across the room, no one dared answer. They all knew where he was. He was most likely yelling at lesser guards and having them arrested for insubordination.
Monica leaned back in her chair. The Knight of 12 had never been yelled at by the Emperor before and nor did she ever want to. She was exemplary in her duties doing what she was asked to do and then more, without even being told. "Maybe, he's letting us of easy." She whispered quietly.
Suzaku scoffed and he too leaned back in his fairly comfortable chair. "No, he'll come. He's just trying to send us into a false sense of security." Suzaku stared harshly at Monica, who just glared at him.
"Well-" Monica was cut off by the large non-automatic doors of the meeting room opening loudly. All of the Knights immediately straightened up in their seats, folding their hands neatly on the table. Suzaku shot Monica an "I told you so," look and she just glowered at him.
"Zero is not dead when he should be." The Emperor exclaimed, anger flaring in his light coloured eyes. No one dared answer. They knew he wasn't done yelling at him. "What makes matters worse," he continued, "is that fugitive Kallen Kozuki was allowed to escape…alive." He glared dangerously at all of the Knights who sat around the large cherry table. "So…" he growled, "have none of you anything to say?" His voice raised in his fit of rage. The Knights once again stay silent. Charles glanced at every body in the room, his gaze was sharp. It almost had a deadly flare to it. "Find them. I want them all dead."
"Yes Sir!"
****CODE****GEASS****
"ACHOO!"
Kallen Kozuki glanced at Lelouch with a smirk plastered on her features. Her sapphire blue eyes had a smug tint to them. Her superior officer just shot a "don't you dare say it" glare at her. "I told ya so," Kallen laughed causing Lelouch to growl in anger.
"The look should have told you not to say it." The teenager glared at the blue eyed girl who sat across the room from him. He snuggled down into his blankets further and wrapped the large quilt that sat on his bed around him.
The Black Knight's Ace Pilot laughed good naturedly at Lelouch, and she still received a glare back. "Okay, so, just take the day off. You don't take the time off that you deserve Lelouch, and now would be as good a time as any to take the time. There's nothing planned today so why not spend your day in bed?"
"There's always something to do." Lelouch grumbled, not really in the mood to argue. Though, his own conscious told him that it would be in his best interest to stay in bed and fight of the small cold that he had contracted. Being sick always seemed to put the Black Knight's leader into a foul mood.
Kallen narrowed her gaze a Lelouch. "We need you to be in top health Lelouch, now, you're staying in bed or I'm going to lock you in here and only open the door for meals." To add effect to her words, Kallen crossed her arms and quietly clicked her tongue in annoyance, showing off her disapproval.
"Fine," Lelouch grumbled, mentally applauding himself for keeping on a good mask. He was grateful for the day off and let his mind slip as he slid into a semi-peaceful slumber, mumbling quick "Get me up if there's any problems," to Kallen before he fell into the welcoming arms of sleep.
"Night Lelouch," Kallen whispered, quietly walking out of his room and gently shutting the door behind her, a small smile flashed across her face as she shook her head slightly. "He needs to take more time off."
Kallen made her way down the corridors of the Order of the Black Knight's headquarters. She stayed walking mostly straight but quickly made a left to head into the Officers Lounge. "Tohdoh, are ya in here?" Kallen called, getting Tohdoh's hand raised in her direction. "There you are…" she mumbled softly.
"What do you need?" Tohdoh asked, wiping his face clean of anything that was left from his lunch that consisted of beef teriyaki and onigiri. "Oh…food," he pushed his nearly empty plate towards her. "You can have the rest; Chiba's onigiri and beef teriyaki are filling."
"Thanks." Kallen pulled out a seat for herself and promptly sat down, then standing back up and wandering over to where they kept the flatware and chopsticks. She quickly snatched a disposable pair and made her way back to the table. "So, any international news?" She asked, picking up a piece of the marinated beef and plopping it in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully as she waited for a reply.
"Nah, nothing of interest at least," Tohdoh leaned back leisurely in his seat and lowered his voice to a quiet whisper, "but get this. The Emperor has sent all of his famed Knights of the Round after us. We've made that much of an impact on the Britannian Empire Kallen."
Kallen grinned slightly as she popped another piece of Chiba's famous beef teriyaki into her mouth, once again chewing slowly and thoughtfully, savoring every bit of flavour the meat had to offer. "That's always good to know. Not saying it's good that Britannia has its best soldiers after us." Kallen pointed out, pointing a chopstick at Tohdoh. "I mean, what if they find this place?"
"They won't," Tohdoh reassured, "Rolo made sure this place was un-detectable. Zero was there overseeing the whole damn project, it's pretty close if not damn perfect." He quietly took a sip of his steaming green tea and glanced at Kallen. "And if they do, we always have the Knightmare escape path."
"Flawless, I know. But, what are the chances that they could find us?" Kallen asked, slowly biting into an onigiri, her eyes trained on Tohdoh's face, as if expecting to find an answer within his dark coloured eyes.
"Well, the chances are really slim, so I doubt anything's going to happen, but you never know." Tohdoh murmured, bringing his tea cup to his lips, "but this is Britannia we're talking about, we never know what they're gonna do." He added, taking a small sip of his steaming green tea.
Kallen nodded. "Yeah, well, thanks for the food Tohdoh, I better go check up on Zero, he caught a cold," she wandered over to the smallest cabinet in the room and opened in taking some fever reducers. "Could you toss me a bottle of water please?" Kallen asked.
Tohdoh smirked slightly as he tossed Kallen a bottle of water. "A cold huh, now, how did he manage to catch a cold?" It was obvious that Tohdoh was trying to suppress the laughter that was building up in his chest, but he was doing a fairly good job.
"Rain does wonders," Kallen answered, catching the bottle of water that was tossed to her from Tohdoh. "Mineral water? Why not just plain old regular not tinkered with water?" Kallen asked, turning the bottle around in her hand. "It's mostly sugar right?"
"Read the nutrition label. A little mineral water isn't going to kill the miracle-worker Zero, I promise you. It might even be good for him." Tohdoh said, still sipping tentatively at his steaming cup of green tea. "Or, give him some green tea, there's still some in the pot. It happens to be much better than mineral water…in my opinion at least."
"Right, thanks for the water, Tohdoh."
"Anytime."
****CODE****GEASS****
She was graceful, and beautiful. People admired her. People bowed down to her. She was originally just a commoner, so what business did she have in the royal palace? She was quite the Knightmare pilot, and she had captured the heart of one of the most feared men on planet Earth. She had captured Charles zi Britannia's heart.
Marianne the Flash.
The name is almost taboo in front of him, according to the Knights of Zero and One. After her death, he had exiled her children to the island nation of Japan as political tools. He had planned to take over Japan, and he had succeeded. The island nation did stand up to the mighty power of Britannia. Yet it was sad, when Charles entered the room where is wife's bloody corpse lay, he wasn't disturbed. It didn't even faze the Emperor to see his youngest son down on his knees sick to his stomach, not from the sight of his mother and little sister, but from the fact that no one did a damn thing. Not one damn thing to prevent the death of his mother. It didn't even provoke emotion from Britannia's sole ruler to see his daughter pressed underneath his dead beloved, eyes wide and hands shaking. He just didn't care. And this tortured Lelouch, ever day. Especially when he had a fever, it just made things ten times worse.
Lelouch bolted straight up in bed, perspiring heavily, his eyes wide. It was that dream again. The one dream that sent trembles down his spine and made him sick to his stomach…it was the single dream that made him want to destroy his father more than he already did. It was like fuel to an already burning, out of control at that, fire. Sighing, the violet-eyed teenager pushed himself lazily out of bed. He wandered slowly and half-heartedly towards the door, pausing before he hit the button for it to open automatically. It wasn't like the leader of the Black Knights was home…he couldn't just waltz out into the hallways all laddie-dah like. Groaning, he spun around on his heels and head back to bed, plopping himself down into the inviting arms of his bed and masses of pillows and blankets. Lelouch snuggled himself into the masses of pillows and blankets. Sleep was inviting him with open arms, but alas it was to no avail. The alarms in the Black Knights secret base went off. Standing up from the sweet abyss of his bed, Lelouch smacked his mask onto his face, not even caring that he was in his own pajamas.
"What's going on?" Lelouch hissed, pushing passed random members of the organization he so painstakingly put together. He marched himself straight to Tohdoh, wishing the taller and older man could the see the expression plastered onto his face. But no use in risking his identity to show someone a facial expression, right?
Tohdoh shrugged frantically. "I have no idea, sir. I mean the alarms just went off. There's no sign of any Britannian troops or…" Lelouch held up a hand, cutting off his general.
"Fine, find out what's wrong and where. I want a full detailed report in fifteen minutes," and some Tylenol or something…Lelouch thought grumpily to himself. His head was throbbing, adding to his horrible mood. Groaning, Lelouch stomped back to his quarters.
"Sir," Tohdoh added quietly watching Lelouch stomp away, his hand held to his forehead in a salute. "I'll try my best, Sir."
A/N: I have to re-read this story and then start updating again. I forgot to update chapter 10, I'm sorry! So, I owe you all this chapter, sorry for the shortness I'll try and be quicker with my updating! Much love! KR