DISCLAIMER: I do not own Code Geass or Arknights. Both series are properties of Sunrise and Hypergryph respectively.
Cover art was created by DeviantArtist Alex-Kellar.
OPPOSITES ARE NOT CONTRADICTORY, BUT COMPLIMENTARY
—Niels Bohr
The Doctor looked at the ruins of the ghetto for the umpteenth time, staring at the ruined street below. He watched as another military patrol drove off, leaving behind a couple more corpses. Their bodies lay out on the concrete, blood pooling beneath them. On the one hand, the broken state of their bodies made his blood boil. On the other hand, their deaths came quickly and without much pain.
"That's the fourth one this week," Courier said. The Doctor glanced at the Itra, finding his jaw locked and fingers curled into shaking fists.
He was angry and so was the Doctor. This scene, which repeated countless times, became disgustingly familiar within these last few weeks. By now, they lost count of how many people died at the hands of Britannian soldiers. They also lost count how many times they had to restrain from themselves from getting involved.
"How long is this going to go on, Doctor?" Courier asked them without looking away. "How many people are we going to watch die?"
"…I don't know," the Doctor replied honestly.
Courier said nothing. Wordlessly, the two retreated into the dilapidated building that served as their temporary hideout. Britannian soldiers rarely ventured inside when patrolling the area, and even when they did, they did not venture up into the upper floors. Not that they could with how disastrous the insides of the building were; half the stairways leading to the upper floors were little more than bits of debris and chunks of concrete and the hallways were partially caved in.
When they first set up camp, the place was a mess. It took less than a day to turn it into a makeshift base. They salvaged and repurposed what equipment they had onboard the cruiser and brought it inside. Within the first few days, they had access to the world wide web and accessed as much necessary information as they could. Needless to say, what they learned was…disheartening.
"Welcome back," Exusiai greeted the two. The cherry-haired peppy was on guard duty with Yato, the latter gripping the hilt of her sword. "How'd things go?"
The Doctor sighed. "Not well. Britannia patrols are increasing by the day, and Naoto's group is getting restless."
"I don't blame them," Yato said. "He's been gone for almost a week, and they haven't heard so much as a peep."
"And they have no idea where he is," Exusiai grimaced. "I really don't want to be that person, but do you suppose he…?"
"It's possible," the Doctor admitted. "I would not suggest mentioning it around Kallen, though." They glanced at the door leading to the main hub of their operations. "Are Amiya and Dr. Kal'tsit back?"
Exusiai shook her head. "Not yet."
They nodded and parted ways with the operators, entering the room. Judging by the size and the discarded cubicles and ruined computers, the room was likely an office space. The empty space gave them plenty of room for their equipment. Several bulky-white machines, half of which the Doctor had no idea what they did, all haphazardly built into the walls with wires sprayed along the floor like snakes. On more than one occasion had they almost tripped and fell on their face while trying not to get their feet caught on one of the wires.
Mayer sat at one of the consoles, her face buried in her arms and snoring softly. "Must have overworked herself again," the Doctor muttered with a wry smile under their face-shield before walking over to her, gently placing their coat over her. Mayer shifted slightly, but did not wake up thankfully. The woman could be a handful and a half when disturbed, especially if she was in the middle of her work.
They glanced at the console, finding numerous schematics based on the information she dredged up from this world's internet. Basic armaments, easily reproducible low-grade tech, alternatives to medical treatments for the Infected, etc. The last one was a harrowing reminder of the Doctor's greatest concern. With no access to the landship or their resources, their limited supplies meant there would not be enough. They would eventually run out, and when they did…
Breathe. Just breathe in, then breathe out…
The Doctor took a shaky breath, counting up in their head.
"You sound pretty troubled there, Doc," a faux cheery voice said behind them. They looked over their shoulder. A toothy grin, ruby eyes and vermillion horns belonging to a woman who was once their enemy, and now an uneasy ally. "What's the matter?"
They sigh. "Reminding myself we have to find a way home soon," they replied honestly. "We've been here almost a month, and we're still no closer to an answer to finding a way out of this place."
"Well, it isn't as if we expected to wind up in another dimension where Sarkaz, Liberi and other races don't exist. By the way, Courier looks ready to kill someone. I take it you guys ran into another Britannian patrol?"
They nod. "At this rate, it will only be a matter of time before I can't hold them back." They felt the same. The more downtrodden corpses they saw, the more they felt their restraint slipping. "We've gotten lucky so far in hiding from the Britannian military. When they do learn of us…"
"Relax, we'll be fine. We've got you, remember?" W replied with a smile. It is not a compliment or words of reassurance, they knew. She never gave out such words, even when she was in an amicable mood.
The Doctor accepted her words regardless. Those under their care would be fine. They would make sure of it, no matter what. They knew they were not invincible or all-knowing. Their current situation was proof they could never expect anything. Regardless, they would do everything within their power to lead them all to victory.
They will never allow Britannia to take Rhodes Island, even if they had to walk over their cold, dead corpse.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: My god, I finally got this out. You have no idea how troublesome it was, especially when this went through, like, four different drafts and rewrites. I could never settle on how to start this, but at the very least, I wanted to have it start off In Medias Res style rather than explain how they got to the Code Geass world.
At any rate, the early chapters will be incredibly short and focus on the perspectives of the Operators before we move onto canon events. Also, in regards as to how myself and SkyRig picked the Operators… I'll be honest. The only ones we picked purposely were W, Ch'en and Kal'tsit (who I must point out I never considered including until Under Tides dropped). All others were picked at random.
The Doctor's gender is unspecified here in order to make it ambiguous, and partially because the character's gender is also somewhat ambiguous despite many players thinking they're male.
To cap this off, I have two announcements to make.
First, I have one more story I intend to publish. After that story is uploaded, I will not be creating any more stories until my current lineup of fanfics has been completed. I REFUSE to have over 50 incomplete fanfics, juggle them all at once and keep adding to the pile god dammit. I will publish a new story if I complete one of my current stories, but as of now, I am capping myself at 25 fanfics (I have 21, now 22 as of the publishing of this story, and two other stories published over on Spacebattles including a Quest and one fanfic on Sufficient Velocity).
Second, I am going to be adhering to an update schedule, in which case I will be completing a story and release the chapters by a weekly basis and will focus on a single story to its completion. My current focus is Kamen Rider Zero-One: Edge of Dawn. To this end, I am looking for a beta-reader who is willing to look over my work for any grammical mistakes.
Naturally, this means this story will not be updated for quite a while, so apologies for that.
That is all for now. Special thanks go to SkyRig, who is co-writing this, and to Alex-Kellar, who created the wonderful cover art.