A/N: Chapter 55 is here. Hope you guys are ready for some major twists in this. Enjoy.

(Edited as of 2/13/14)

Disclaimer: Nothing from Code Geass or Sailor Moon belongs to me.

Chapter 55

Worst Nightmares Part 1

"And now for the highlight of today's events," Eugene stated to the crowd filled with reporters and high ranking nobles. "Princess Euphemia will select the grand-prize winner."

Euphemia dreaded hearing those words, mainly because she knew what people were probably thinking. She knew that they believed she would pick the painting of her father. For a Britannian princess who loved her country, it was the obvious choice. However, Euphemia didn't want to go with the obvious or what others wanted her to do. She wanted the power to choose for herself.

In that moment she wished that she were more like Sailor Mars. Brave and strong. She made her own decisions. Chose her own destiny.

"I can do that as well, can't I?" Euphie asked herself silently.

Eugene, the man who was hosting the event handed her a flower.

"The work of art upon which you place this flower will be deemed the winner your highness," he said.

Now with the flower in tow, the princess walked toward the paintings in front of her. The painted image of her father stood directly in front of her. Her actual favorite painting was the one to the left of the imposing portrait. It was a simple painting of a cottage that subtly reminded her of her departed brother Clovis. He used to paint things of that nature. Simple and yet exquisite in it's own way.

Still, she's the Britannian princess, and while certain freedoms come with that, the freedom to be who you really are is a privilege that royalty cannot have. It simply isn't done when you have specific guidelines to follow...one of them being the discrimination against the numbers.

Like Suzaku…

"But why?" Euphie inwardly questioned, staring vacantly at the paintings. "Why do we discriminate against each other? I don't understand it."

Her father had said why once…at her brother's funeral, but his words did not appeal to her, so she continued to find other answers for herself. But now it was all unclear. What was she to do? How could she make this world better...for everyone?

"Please your highness," Eugene quietly pleaded, interfering with her train of thought. "It's time for you to decide. We can't wait any longer."

"I know, but I…" she began shakily. She said nothing more, her thoughts taking over again until a cell phone rang. She turned to find the source of the sound. She wanted to know which phone had rang.

But it wasn't just one phone…

Or two…

Or three…

Pretty much every cell phone that was in the room rang. It was quite annoying if you thought about it. All that ringing and buzzing…but that's not important.

Next to her, Darlton was talking quietly through his earpiece, but Euphemia didn't pay much attention to it. Instead she had trained her focus on the giant monitor across the room. An image was beginning to appear on it.

Within seconds, Euphemia could see the Lancelot combating with the enemy knightmare frames. Why this was happening the young princess didn't know, but she found herself worrying just the same. She always worried over Suzaku.

At one point when he had barely blocked off an attack, Euphemia had to bite her tongue to keep from yelling out for him to be more careful. After all, he can't exactly hear her.

She began praying then, hoping that Suzaku would make it off the battlefield safe and unharmed.

"Why do I feel this way about him?" Euphemia asked herself as she prayed. "What is it that I'm feeling? Suzaku…what do you mean to me?"

While Euphie searched for the answers from within her mind and heart, she watched the Lancelot combat the other knightmares. She continued to silently hope and pray for him, as well as for herself.

She prayed to find the answers to all the world's problems.


Around the same time

The Black Knights and the Four Holy Swords successfully busted Tohdoh out from his prison, but everyone knew that reinforcements would be arriving soon. Knowing this, Zero arranged for Tohdoh to have his own custom knightmare frame for the occasion. The man once known as the miracle maker was boarding the knightmare now while ordering his subordinates to cooperate and follow the orders of the masked vigilante.

Lelouch took off the Zero mask, smiling as Tohdo's cockpit closed.

"Now all the tasks at hand have been cleared and Nunnally's knight has already been chosen," Lelouch thought to himself, almost giddy from his victory. "That leaves only…"

It was at that moment that the very obstacle that was left to stand in his way appeared. The Lancelot.

"Well, how convenient; the one problem left to contend with has come here on his own," Lelouch said aloud, his smile growing wider. Truly it was his lucky day.

And so the battle commenced between the Four Holy Swords, with Tohdoh leading, and the Lancelot. All the while Lelouch was preparing the strategy to take him out of the picture for good.

"Zero, do you have any data available on this unit?" Tohdoh asked through one of the communicators that they each had.

"Possibly," Lelouch answered. "However, I want you to do exactly as I say."

"Very well. I'll defer to you in this."

With a nod, Lelouch gave orders for all of the units to give the Lancelot distance. They did so, but the Lancelot's speed was almost too fast for them to give him any kind of distance at all.

"It's speed and maneuverability are truly astonishing," Lelouch thought, narrowing his gaze on the machine. "Nevertheless…I have everything I need to put him in check."

And with that Lelouch began to send out the data. Some of which wouldn't have been possible without Rei's last bit of assistance. He would have to thank her for it later.

"It's movements follow a predictable pattern," Lelouch stated, his words going out to all the units under his command. "It's initial attack is always straight on. It never feints that first move."

As expected the Lancelot did just that.

"Once you dodge that attack," Lelouch continued. "He will immediately move to avoid your offensive. Check the data I'm sending you. Now! S-5-7!"

That particular unit was piloted by Asahina. He was the one who ending up attacking the white knightmare. As expected, the Lancelot fell back to the rear.

But that was exactly where Kyoshiro Tohdoh was.

Lelouch could taste the sweet flavor of victory on his tongue. "And with that…"

Tohdoh prepared to attack the Lancelot from behind, waving the mechanical samurai sword high in the air.

"Check!"

However, the pilot of the Lancelot anticipated Tohdoh's moves. Thanks to this he avoided getting killed. Unfortunately the top half of his cockpit was sliced off, revealing him to the world.

The second Lelouch saw the pilot, he stopped dead in his tracks.

"No way!"

In seconds Kallen was shouting. Trying to get Zero to send orders out, but Lelouch was paralyzed.

"All this time it was him," he whispered, having thankfully switched off his communication system for the time being. "Suzaku…"

In the minutes that followed Suzaku and Tohdoh engaged in combat with each other. They exchanged words, but Lelouch didn't pay any attention. He couldn't.

"Why?" he asked, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Why are you there? You can't be...because…you have to be by Nunnally's side."

Kallen continued to shout, but Lelouch heard nothing. He couldn't begin to process the fact that Suzaku was the enemy he'd been fighting all this time. The dreaded white knightmare he despised was being piloted by his best friend.

"Don't do it!" Kallen screamedsuddenly. She was screaming at the Four Holy Swords. They were preparing for their spinning life or death formation attack.

It was then that Lelouch finally snapped out of it. With a flip of a switch he yelled out to his newest subordinates.

"Wait! Stand down!"

"Don't worry," Asahina said, sounding very confident. "It's a synchronized four way attack. He'll never dodge it."

However, Suzaku did indeed dodge the attack by using the harken booster.

And it was then that Lelouch had had enough.

"Stop it," he shouted, struggling to reign in his rage. "We've done enough fighting for now. We achieved our objective here. Use escape route three."

At first no one moved.

"WITHDRAW IMMEDIATELY!"

Thankfully for Lelouch, the backup forces that had been called to help Suzaku were beginning to arrive. So they did as Zero said and retreated. Suzaku tried to follow after them, but it was no use after they released the chaff smoke. In an instant the Black Knights and Zero were gone.


At that exact moment across the settlement...

~Ashford Academy~

Rei felt immediate pain in her chest. Something was wrong and in more ways than one.

The first reason undoubtedly had to do with Lelouch. Rei knew he wasn't hurt physically or anything, but she was getting the vibe that something had wounded him emotionally.

"He must know about Suzaku being the pilot of the Lancelot now," Rei realized silently.

Still, that wasn't all of it. There was something else that was far worse, but Rei couldn't identify it at all. That in itself was worrying the senshi of fire.

She along with Serena and Nunnally were seated at the dinning room table in the student council clubhouse which pretty much served as Lelouch and Nunnally's home. The three girls were eating a simple spahetti dish Rei made for them. The raven-haired girl wasn't very found of cooking, but she could make a few and Nunnally had already cleaned their plates and were busily chatting away.

Rei however, had barely touched the food. She felt too nauseas to eat.

"Hey, I'll be right back okay," Rei announced, rising from the table to go to the bathroom. The nausea was getting the better of her.

She quickly ran upstairs and into one of the guest bathrooms. The second she closed the door behind her she knelt in front of the table, throwing up into it. Inwardly she cringed, knowing that these constant premonitions were really starting to wear her down physically. She couldn't remember a time where her premonitions had ever made her sick. Especially sick enough to where she would continuously vomit for ten minutes. It just wasn't normal.

After the last round of puking was done, Rei flushed the toilet and stood to look at herself in the mirror. Her face was paler than normal, but the color was slowly returning to her face. A mass of sweat had gathered at her brow, making her bangs stick to her forehead.

"What's wrong with me?" she wondered, unbuttoning and shrugging off her Ashford Academy blazer. After tossing it to the floor she rolled up the sleeves of the white blouse she wore underneath the blazer. After doing this she pulled off the green tie she had to wear with the uniform and used it as a ribbon to tie her hair up into a high ponytail. She'd changed into Capri pants and white ballet flats earlier, around the time she'd been at the mansion before Serena arrived.

After inspecting herself, she figured her appearance was at least semi normal. The awful feeling in her chest remained.

Not to mention that it got ten times worse when she heard Nunnally scream.

"Aaaaaaah!"

Rei busted out of the bathroom, rushing down the stairs two at a time. When she came to the main living area, she gasped. The windows were broken and two phantom like creatures stood directly in front of them. They reminded her of the phantoms that she had seen in that vision back in Narita, except these phantoms were wearing masks and dark cloaks. The masks had markings all over that mirrored the Geass symbols. One hole was cut on the right side of the masks for an eye to see through, but Rei wasn't really concerned about those details. Mostly her gaze stayed on the sharp swords they carried in their hands.

Her gaze darted around, looking for her friends. She found them in the corner of the room with Serena holding Nunnally protectively. Neither of them were hurt, but Rei didn't allow herself any time to feel relieved. The threat was still in the room after all.

"Serena! What are these things?" she asked.

"I don't know," Serena replied, still staring at the phantoms. "They just came crashing through the window and attacked us."

"Are you okay?"

"We're fine," Nunnally answered, shrinking in Serena's protective hold. "But I'm scared."

"Don't worry Nunnally," Rei responded, turning toward the phantoms while poising herself into a battle stance. "I'll take care of this." She glanced back at the meatball head. "Serena, take Nunnally and get out of here."

Serena nodded reluctantly and left, carrying Nunnally on her back. She didn't want to leave Rei to fight on her own, but she had to protect Nunnally first. Only God knows what Lelouch would do should anything happen to his sister.

Rei stood alone before the phantoms with no weapons or plans to execute.

However, now that she was alone…she could become the warrior of fire.

So without a second thought, Rei pulled out her transformation pen and shouted the words…

"Mars Crystal Power!"

The flames quickly danced around her as she became a heroine of justice. A woman filled with determination and courage.

When the transformation ended, she immediately began to attack.

"Mars Flame Sniper!" she shouted. The flame arrow pierced the first monster, but the other one came to her faster than she had anticipated. She barely dodged the sword that had been aimed for her head. She quickly used one of her talismans to dispel the creature.

The two phantoms turned dust and faded away, but unfortunately for Rei, those two phantoms were just the beginning of the nightmare.

One by one, more and more phantoms entered the house, each with swords in their hands. Those who didn't have swords made up for it by having claws that were extremely long and sharp.

"What's going on here?" Rei wondered as she began to fire off her Flame Snipers one by one at each creature. However, as soon as she got rid of one, another came to take its place, attacking at a pace that was almost too quick for her to react to. She was having a hard time because of it. Eventually she ended up backed into a wall, unable to escape because she'd used up most of her strength.

She hadn't been bodily harmed yet, but the vomiting spell from earlier left her weak and exhausted. It wasn't long before her attacks became useless against the strange creatures.

One of them slowly approached her. There were few left in the house now, but it didn't matter. She was about to die.

The seconds played out in slow motion as the phantom raised its sword into the air. Rei couldn't begin to breathe or think as the sword drew closer and closer to piercing her heart. It was her dream all over again only this time it was real...

That is…until one second before…something else took over her entirely.

And Rei disappeared in a fog of madness.


Meanwhile

Serena P.O.V.

I don't know what's going on, but I don't like it at all. This must be what Haruka warned us about, but I thought that what she mentioned would have attacked the Juban district. I never dreamed that something like this could have happened at Ashford. Still, now that we're in this mess, I've got to do what I can to help. For now that means carrying Nunnally in the direction of the girl's dorms. At the very least we can hide in Rei's drom until I get in touch with the other scouts. From there we can come up with some kind of plan. Well, I hope we can.

"Serena, do you think Rei is going to be all right?" Nunnally asked.

"Don't worry," I told her, shifting her weight on my back. "Rei will be fine."

"At least I hope she will..."

"Help!"

Oh, that doesn't sound good.

"Someone help!" a girl shouted as she ran out from girl's dorms building.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"There are these weird ghost things attacking everyone," she shouted taking off a second later. "Run away!"

All my instincts told me to take the girl's advice and run away from the building, but I reluctantly decided to go in there anyway.

"Well, here goes," I muttered, running into the building as quickly as possible. On the way to Rei's dorm room I saw other girls running and shouting. Definitely not a good sign. I'm starting to think I'm headed where the phantoms are sure to be.

And sure enough, to my absolute horror and annoyance, they were right in the hallway where Rei's room was. Dang it! This is just terrible.

I quickly sat Nunnally on the ground where she'd be safe and then began to run towards the phantoms. They may have swords and stuff, but I still got my powers.

"Moon Eternal Make-Up," I whispered, hoping Nunnally wouldn't be able to hear me. After all, she isn't that far away.

After transforming into Sailor Moon I began to totally kick butt. Sure I'd never been much of a fighter, but I've been practicing and I've definitely gotten at it. Even with my newfound...um what's the word...expertise...yeah that's it. Anyway, even with my newfound expertise, I still have to rely on my powers for the most part. So, needless to say, I ended up just using my magic scepter to get rid of the phantoms.

The phantoms turned to dust at my feet once I was through with them. Glancing about just in case there were more of those things lingering around, I ran into Rei's room while transforming back to normal. I know she keeps some weapons in here, so the best thing to do is give Rei's room a thorough search.

So far I've found two hand guns, a butcher knife, and a bow with some arrows. Most likely the bow and arrows were stolen from the archery club.

I didn't think I'd find anything else, but I looked under the bed just in case.

What I found surprised me.

Under the bed I found a samurai sword with an engraving of a tiger on the sheath. Total jack-pot!

Making sure I'd gotten everything, I ran out of the room and straight toward Nunnally. She was exactly where I'd left her, perfectly safe.

"You ready Nunnally?" I asked as I picked her up again.

"Yes," she replied. "Did you get what you needed?"

"Yeah," I told her, running down the stairs to the third floor. I was almost positive that Shirley stayed on this floor, but who knows if she'd still be here.

"Shirley!" I shouted.

No answer…from anyone. This hallway was practically deserted.

"Aaaaah!"

"That sounded like Shirley," Nunnally stated quickly.

"You know where her voice is coming from?"

Nunnally pointed toward the hallway on the left. "That way."

I turned to the left hallway and sure enough Shirley and her roommate Sophie were being backed up into a corner by a phantom. Both of them were dressed up for some reason, but that wasn't really important…although I'll have to compliment their fashion choices later cause their outfits are totally cute.

Still, that aside, I have some major fighting to do. With that in mind, I sat Nunnally down again and unsheathed the sword I found. I'm not an expert with them…well I've never used on in my life except for that one time in that battle with Galaxia, but I'll have to use this now. Hopefully I won't hurt myself...

With a deep breath I lifted the sword into the air as high as I could while the phantom turned to gaze at me. Then, (the weight of the sword kinda forced this outcome) I slammed the blade down on the beast. It became dust instantly.

Whew, talk about good luck. Of course Shirley and Sophie didn't know. They stared at me, looking surprised and extremely grateful.

"Serena!" Shirley exclaimed. "You saved us!"

"Yeah, it's what I do," I joked, trying to lighten the mood a little. "Anyway Shirley, where's your room?"

"Right there," Shirley replied pointing to the door next to me.

I glanced at it before speaking to Shirley again. "Okay, we'll need to hide in there for a little bit while we're waiting for backup."

"Back-up?" Sophie asked, watching me as I moved to pick up Nunnally from the floor. The poor girl was shaking now.

Glancing back at Sophie I replied, saying, "These weird phantom things are all over campus and unless we have students who are secret ninjas we're going to be in for trouble. Hopefully someone called the police, but in case they didn't I need to call my friends."

"Are you serious? They're all over campus?" Shirley asked, following behind me as I entered her and Sophie's shared dorm-room. It was a nice room with cream colored walls. There was a desk in the corner of the room, probably where Shirley and Sophie did homework. There were two twin beds a few feet away from each other, allowing the middle section to be an open walkway.

"Yeah," I answered, lowering Nunnally onto one of the twin beds. After making sure she was nice and secure I reached into my pocket for my communicator. A few seconds later I dialed for Ami, knowing she'd be the most calm about this.

"Hello?"

"Ami, we've got a problem at Ashford," I stated when her face appeared on the screen. "It's under attack by these weird phantom things."

"What!?" Ami questioned, looking confused. "How can that be?"

"How should I know? They just randomly fell from the sky and started attacking people!"

"I'll get Haruka and the others," Ami said with a firm nod. "We'll be right there, Serena."

"Listen Ami, don't come as…well you know," I told her, realizing that Shirley and the others were still in the room.

Ami nodded again, narrowing her gaze. "I understand Serena. Don't worry we're on our way." After that her face disappeared from the screen. Sighing I placed my communicator back in my pocket.

"Now the only thing left to do is…"

That was when another phantom decided to crash through the door.

Looks like a girl's job is never done.


A/N: And that's the end of that chapter. But seriously, what is going on here? Who's sending these freaky phantoms to attack the school? What will happen when Lelouch and Suzaku find out about what's going on?

The only way to find out is to tune in to the next chapter.