Code Geass: Knight of Revolution Second Advent

CG isn't mine and Timeless Echolocation and Elemental Balance submitted Charlotte Moreau and Cyrill Madron respectively.

Chapter 11: Tyrfing's Curse

Hal stood speechless. The Knight of Eleven looked exactly like Lelouch Vi Britannia. The man stood there with his Geass active in both eyes. Anya stood patiently by as she looked at her former protector while he was the Knight of Two. Halbdunkel grit his teeth in anger. Kyrios and Rena couldn't move either, and looked at him, waiting for orders. All of them were pretty sure that their own Geass could still activate, but the consequences would be too dire.

"Can you calm down for me to explain Hal?"

"That depends, who is he?"

Anya walked over and took a seat before nodding at Cardinal. Hal's control returned to him as did Kyrios and Rena. The three SOLDIERs tentatively sheathed their weapons. Taking a seat across from Anya he placed his arms on the back of the couch and propped his feet up on the table. Leveling an even glare at her, he motioned for her to start.

"He is given the codename Cardinal. His real name is Rai Vi Britannia, Lelouch's identical twin brother. Charles separated them at birth. V.V. gave him Geass of Absolute Obedience, the same as Lelouch's but audible, not optical. Also unlike my other son's, it doesn't have a limit to times it affects its targets."

Halbdunkel felt everything that he'd ever fought for and trusted falling down around him.

"That doesn't explain you Anya."

"Anya's my conduit so to speak. When I died, my Geass activated."

Hal's feet came off the table and he sat forward in consternation.

"What?!"

"C.C. gave me a Geass back then. Only I could never activate it. When I was assassinated, it activated and my soul transferred into Anya, who was just a little thing back then. She saw who killed me."

This was becoming more and more complicated by the moment. Placing a thoughtful hand to his chin, he knew by her words that it had only been a single individual. So who was it?

"Marianne . . . who killed you?"

"V.V."

Something inside him snapped. V.V. had held back this information concerning Charles and Marianne. Things weren't adding up, everyone had gapes in their stories and most of all, everything he'd ever fought for, ever believed in, was gone. He had plotted saving the Collective and finishing off V.V. somehow, but now V.V. really had to go. Yet part of him wondered why she hadn't informed Charles and why he had suddenly disowned Lelouch and Nunally.

"Did C.C. know?"

"Charles and I saw that C.C. and V.V. had become tulmutuous so close to one another with his contract to Charles and mine to C.C. The little immortal always was the jealous type."

Hal veiled his response.

"Oh? So that's why C.C. suddenly left the country. Tell me, after the incident, why did Charles disown Lelouch and Nunally?"

Anya sighed.

"It was to protect them until we could unleash the Sword of Akasha."

Hal bit his tongue. V.V. had explained Charles' ambition and expressed his dislike of the plan to use the Sword. V.V. hadn't known about Marianne's Geass and it now changed the whole spectrum of the world's next few events. Darkness began to swell inside Hal's heart. The world he knew was no longer there. Enemies lay everywhere. His mind now made up, he knew what his next course of action had to be.

"I see. You should go your Majesty, any longer and the rest of the people onboard will begin to grow suspicious. Schneizel is a smart man."

A small nod came from her before Anya jerked to attention as if she'd been startled from a nap. Rai had replaced his mask and guided her out of the room as Hal crossed his hands and meditated with his eyes closed.

'All these years and we've been duped. The world will be forced down a static world if Charles wins, chaos will reign with V.V. Not really much of a list of choices. No, I know what I must now do.'

"Kyrios, Rena. For the sakes of the children back home, would you follow me through the Gates of Hell?"

"Yes."

Halbdunkel sighed. The weight of his years and experiences finally crashed down on him. He felt exhausted.

"Thank you . . . both of you."

The bridge of the Ikaruga was stunned to silence. Suzaku had tried to grab Lelouch, but Kallen and entered along with Toudoh at the same time. Kallen had shoulder checked Suzaku before placing herself between them. Toudoh had pinned his former martial arts student to the floor.

"K-Kallen?"

Kallen felt Lelouch's hand on her shoulder as he held a calm expression. In his eyes she could see his underlying fury that Suzaku hadn't matured in the least. They spoke of the desire to lash out against his old friend, but instead he held his hand and tongue. It was something that took a great deal of effort; especially when these feelings had been pent up for more than a year.

"Yes, Suzaku, she knew of my identity before I proposed. Like Nunally and me, she knows what it's like to lose loved ones and what it's like to be oppressed. We are fighting for a better world, and it has to be done from without!"

"I won't join you Lelouch, you've deceived us."

Lelouch scoffed and looked at Kallen who rolled her eyes.

"The only one here who's been deceived is you and now you know. I don't expect you to join us Suzaku, but I will eliminate you from the threatening equation. I won you in the wager against Schneizel and I intend to keep my word. Euphie is the only one who may command you now."

"Wha?!"

Euphemia walked over and motioned for Toudoh to let him up. Slowly letting up on the suppression hold, Toudoh stood between the younger man and Lelouch as well. Euphemia walked over to him and gave him a deep look in the eyes.

"You told me when we first met before you knew who I was, that you wanted to fight for peace and to protect. How can you do that by oppressing people? We've freed your homeland, yet you continue to fight for Britannia as it stands now. You're helping them conquer and subjugate Japan all over again Kururugi!"

"I, I, can you give me some time to think about all this?"

"I think we can afford that, but not too long. We are in a hostile situation at the moment."

Suzaku nodded once in understanding. Alexsander looked from Cornelia, to Euphemia, to Lelouch and back again in utter confusion.

"So we're all fighting each other over nothing?"

Before Lelouch or his half sisters could say anything, warning alarms went off and Hinata turned in her radar operator's chair.

"Incoming Knightmare Frame!"

The displays came alive and the group looked up to see a design none of them had ever seen before.

"What kind of Frame is that?"

Rakshata came online and held an annoyed expression. Behind her, they could hear the sounds of the Sturm Falken firing up its engines. She started talking but the fighter took off, the jet engines screamed just overhead as the fighter zoomed past the bridge just over their heads. The noise drowned out anything she said until it was a fair distance away. The Indian woman grew more annoyed.

"As I was trying to say Lelouch, that's the Shenhu, it was a model that we gave to China before you came on the scene with the Black Knights. I never thought they'd send my child out. Normal people couldn't pilot it even at forty percent capability."

They group watched as the transforming fighter closed in on the incoming Knightmare. Two missiles released from their wing ports and shot toward their target. Halfway their, the outer shells fell away to spawn six missiles inside the mainframes. The strange Frame dodged the first three before shooting out its slash harkens from the wrists, skewering two more missiles. The rest impacted just before the wires began spinning. When the dust settled, the frame was still there, the slash harkens spinning rapidly. The group was surprised at the tactic, the swiftly spinning wires acted like shields.

"Zero, should I go into melee with him?"

The fighter rose into the sky.

"Yes, but be cautious, we don't know who is in it."

"Understood."

The Sturm Falken did a tight inside stall turn before diving back down at the Shenhu.

Inside the cockpit, Xingke had to admit that the Shenhu was impressive. Even with his physique, he wasn't able to push the limits of the machine. Not with his health condition anyway. He hadn't seen the extent of that fighter, but had heard reports of the plane during the broadcasts a year ago concerning the liberation of Japan. Still, seeing it was another thing altogether.

Slinging out one of the slash harkens, the plane canted its descent to dodge before firing the twin beam cannons on its underside. Xingke shifted sideways to let the fighter pass before slinging the other harken down after it. The tip of the weapon nearly reached the fighter just before it whipped over into an upside down flat fall and fired its cannons again into the sky, forcing him to dodge. Retreating to a good distance, Xingke saw the Falken continue its flat fall, transforming and landing with its rifles in each hand in a kneeling position after back flipping.

"That's impressive as well. But this Shenhu has more than just harkens!"

He drew the short sword at the shoulder and began spinning the opposite harken like a flail. Part of him was surprised to see the transforming machine stow its rifles and remove its wings, snapping them together to form a large great sword. On the displays of the Chinese mobile fortress, the Eunuch Generals were confused.

"It's going to fight the Shenhu in melee combat? Foolish, it can't fly now!"

The unit sprouted its second set of wings and blasted off from the desert floor. The great sword hefted over its shoulder, it closed in with machine gun fire from head mounted vulcans. Xingke repelled the projectiles with the spinning flail as he darted in to clash with the changed fighter. Blade sparked against blade as Xingke went to wrap the harken flail around the fighter.

That action swiftly changed to an arm block when the Falken whipped its MVS sword from its scabbard on the back of the machine out with its off hand and swung left to right. Xingke winced at the surprising force of the strike. He didn't think that the first strike with such a big weapon was the diversion. The pilot was sound and keen on the battlefield. He felt intrigued by the pilot and wanted to meet who ever it was at least once. Breaking away from the opponent. Xingke grinned. It had been ages since he met a formidable foe.

"Show him your power Shenhu!"

The chest section opened up and inside the cockpit of the Falken, the AI scrambled to identify the weapon being brought onto the table. Running slightly faster than the searching was taking, the pilot switched out weapons, retracting the secondary wings and disassembling the great sword back to its flight mode and retrieving the rifles. Slamming the off hand weapon into the back of the dominate hand rifle, the Falken leveled the extended firearm at the Shenhu and fired at the same instant the Knightmare shot the Baryon Cannon. The two shots collided and formed a stalemate. The people on the Ikaruga went wide-eyed at the spectacle.

"Why is that in enemy hands?!"

Zero slammed a fist down on his console at the stalemate. The combined Archer Beam Rifle could only fire at full power, as no regulator was able to hold together under the power flow. The Shenhu had stalemated their fighters ranged trump weapon easily. Onboard the Chinese Frame, Xingke smiled.

"Even with just forty percent power, this weapon is unparalleled. Still, so is that pilot. Melee is preferable to me considering the drain the Baryon Cannon has on the energy filler."

The Falken stowed its rifles and brought out its MVS swords. The posture the flying machine took intrigued him. The swords were held like daggers in a reverse grip. He immediately knew to be on guard. Reverse grip user weren't power hitters, but trick strikers who could disguise a blow as something completely different.

"Xingke! Stop toying around with that one and get Zero!"

Xingke grit his teeth and mentally cursed. The Eunuchs would never understand an opponent of this caliber could not be ignored.

"Fools! I can't ignore someone this skilled!"

"You lowered your guard!!"

Xingke realized his error too late. The Falken charged forward bringing both swords to bear in a cross cutting down slash that sure to strike home. The blow fell short when he brought the short blade up to parry. The moment the weapons collided, he punched the Falken to the side with his free hand. Spinning away while trying to stabilize the out of control aircraft, the pilot swore.

"What is it with men and punching?"

I do not know. The damage is minimal, still combat capable.

"Well that's reassuring."

Recommend Tyrfing Blade Mode. Fuel status is T-Minus three minutes to Bingo Fuel.

"Shoot, must've been the Archer combination rifle. Alright, switching to Tyrfing Blade configuration."

The MVS blades went back into storage and the great sword came back into play. Recognizing the weapon, Xingke went on the offensive to get close and restrict the Falken's movements with the large weapon. The craft shot upward and out of the main attack. The blade nicked the Falken as it rose and came down with another cleaving slash. Xingke blocked again only to get thrown down and into a sand dune.

"Agh! What in the world?!"

The Falken landed a few meters away with the huge sword in hands. Yet the blade seemed even larger this time.

"What did they . . . the secondary wings are also blades? How many surprises does that machine have?"

All of the wings on the machine were gone, now parts to the huge great sword. An open transmission came through his communication line.

"Will you not surrender? I will not continue a fight against you in that case."

"Never. I must save Empress Tianzi. I made a promise to her!"

"That's a shame. Now that I'll at least spare your life. But the Frame has to go."

Setting the sword at the ready, the Falken gunned forward. The sand from the impact had entered the joints and prevented Xingke from moving. Clenching his jaw shut, he prepared for the blow. Yet it never came. The Falken went down to one knee with the sword propping upright in the ground. Inside the cockpit the pilot was swearing quietly.

"No! The fuel line got cut? Dang it!"

Recommend emergency self-destruct, downloading into detach terminal now.

'Darn it! Why now?!'

Pulling the panel off and stowing it away, the cockpit ejected from the machine, landing roughly several meters away. Jumping out, the pilot made a made dash back to the Ikaruga. Seeing this, Zero didn't have to bark an order as Kallen and Toudoh took off with a handful of other Black Knights to rescue the downed comrade. In the same instant, Chinese Gang Lous began swarming toward the running pilot.

Only a few moments passed as the Falken exploded in a brilliant flash of flames and debris. Rakshata hit herself in the head with her pipe. What was it with the transformable Frame and getting blown to bits?

Up above, the Avalon launched the Tristan and Mordred. The sight of the Lancelot created consternation on the Black Knight's side.

"Suzaku, who would they get to replace you in the Lancelot?!"

"I don't know, but I think it might be the Knight of Eleven."

"Eleven? They filled the position?"

Cornelia and Euphemia looked at Suzaku with concerned expressions. There had been announcements and ceremonies for Gino, Anya, and Suzaku during their rise to Rounds status, so who was this?

Rai has launched in the Lancelot. The pilot of the Falken is in serious trouble, who will recovered the downed Black Knight. Who is the pilot? Any more guesses? What is it that Halbdunkel has decided to do with the revelations he's discovered?

What is the curse of Tyrfing. New Year's Cake to the one that gets it right.