Hello all and welcome to the third chapter of A New Dawn. Damn am I excited cause we can finally get to the actual crossover part of this crossover! Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy it! So why don't I stop talking and just get on to the chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own -man or Code Geass, all rights go to their respective owners.
Chapter 3: New Faces
As Lelouch walked into the main courtyard, he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. The past few days had been exhausting, constantly switching between his Zero persona and his everyday life was starting to take its toll. And to further add to his stress, just a few days ago he found out that Suzaku, his longtime friend and companion, was the pilot of the white knightmare that had been foiling his plans for months now. "What should I do?" He thought as students poured in around him. While he was absorbed in thought, he felt someone place a hand on his shoulder.
"Up and at 'em, Lelouch!" A familiar voice said as Lelouch bit his lip. Suzaku always did have a knack for showing up at the worst times. "Are you alright? You look tired..." he asked him as Lelouch forced himself to smile.
"Oh, it's nothing. I was just up late last night with Student Council business." He lied through his teeth as other familiar faces walked passed him. "Anyway, how's the military been going?" He asked Suzaku as he walked up the steps into the academy's main building. "I know you can't talk about much, but have they been working you hard?" Suzaku laughed when he heard that and scratched the back of his neck.
"Yeah... its been pretty busy lately. What with the Black Knights and all." Right on que, Rivalz, Milly and Shirley shot out of the entrance. Each one with a massive smile on their face.
"Well look who it is!" Rivalz called out as he wrapped one of his arms around Lelouch's shoulders. "And here I thought you were going to skip class again! Are you finally thinking about turning a new leaf, Vice Pres?" Lelouch laughed sarcastically as he shrugged Rivalz off.
"As long as I have the credits to pass I see no reason why I should have to waste my time here." As he said that, Milly laughed and rolled her eyes.
"Now don't be like that, Mr. Smartypants, we all know the reason you're here and not playing chess somewhere is because you missed the last Chemistry test!" Lelouch frowned when he heard that, Milly was right. And that's what stung the most.
"Hardy har, besides my academic performance is there any other reason why the entire Student Council came to greet me? Well... almost everyone." Nina wasn't there, she was probably working on some project, and he had already seen Kallen walk by a few minutes ago.
"My friend, you need to loosen up, otherwise girls are going to avoid you like the plague!" Rivalz joked. "But really, the reason we're doing this is for Suzaku. We all heard about the prison break a few days go. Are you doing alright?" The Lancelot's pilot just laughed and shrugged.
"It'll take a lot more than that to push me off balance!" He said as he placed a hand on his left bicep. When he saw that, Lelouch smiled, Suzaku really was the perfect symbol of hope for the Japanese. But sadly, so was Zero, and this world didn't have room for the two of them. Before he couldn't finish his thought, however, the bell rang. "Come on, Lelouch, you don't want to be late to class! That is, unless you want to fail!"
"Suzaku… you would've made an excellent knight for Nunnally, but now the prospect of that happening is becoming more and more like a dream. I wonder, is there any way I can spare you from the carnage that is to come?" Sadly, that was a question that he did not have an answer for. "Damn..." he mumbled when he felt his throwaway phone start to ring. "It must be Ohgi." He thought as he turned on his voice changer and held the receiver up to his lips. With the addition of Tohdoh to their ranks, the Black Knights had started to grow at an unbelievable rate. They were starting to run out of places to keep the new recruits! "It's just one thing after another..." Lelouch thought as he stared up at the sky. In the few minutes he was outside, dark clouds had drifted over the academy. Going at this rate, it wouldn't be long before it started raining. "Damn... I hate the rain." Bad weather like this had a nasty habit of digging up unwanted memories. With that out of the way, Lelouch sighed, straightened his coat, and headed through the entrance.
To say the classroom was packed would be a major understatement. Do to the horrid weather, most outside clubs had been canceled for the day. Which meant that every single dry spot was filled with drenched students. "Well this sure stinks." Suzaku said as he stared out of a nearby window, lightning crashing off in the distance. "The weather sure took a turn for the worse, don't you think Lelouch?" He asked him, the Britannia's forgotten prince just yawned and shook his head. To be honest, he was struggling to stay awake, and this rain was helping one bit.
"I bet Milly must have something amazing planned for this." He mumbled as he rubbed his aching head, for some reason, he was starting to get a headache. Milly always had some new prank ready for rainy days.
"Yeah, well, that's our class president for you. She just doesn't know when to stop." Suzaku said as he leaned back into his chair. "But still... I think we're safe. After all, she's currently embroiled in finals right now. So I doubt she has any time for fun, much less pranks." As he talked, Suzaku reached into his bag and pulled out a bottle of ointment.
"Did Arthur scratch you again?" Lelouch asked him as he rubbed the ointment on a swollen wound on his right wrist.
"Yeah... he still doesn't like me for some reason." Lelouch chuckled when he saw his friend's downtrodden face.
"Ah, don't worry about it, he'll warm up to you eventually... probably." He said as Kallen walked over to the two of them.
"Hey, you two..." she started as Lelouch watched her eyes dart in-between him and Suzaku. Whenever they landed on the Japanese knightmare pilot, Kallen's eyes twitched a little bit. Although, that wasn't that surprising. She and Suzaku were on opposite sides of a war, after all. "Milly wants us all in the Student Council room. So come on." She told them in the softest tone she could manage. Lelouch almost winced when he heard that, her acting had gotten worse. Thank the heavens that Suzaku was the trusting type, or he might've gotten suspicious.
"Oh great, what does the school's princess want now?" Lelouch asked her, his voice practically dripping with sarcasm. Kallen shrugged, how could she possibly know? "Well then, Suzaku, let's grab our umbrellas." He said as thunder shook the building. "Jeez, it's really coming down hard."
"I know, it's hard to imagine that it was all sunshine and rainbows just a few hours ago." Suzaku said as he zipped up his raincoat. "Are you going to be okay in this rain, Kallen? It's quite the nasty storm out there." Lelouch looked away and smiled when he heard that, his friend had no idea what type of woman he was really talking to.
"I'll be fine, my condition doesn't make me allergic to regular old rain." Kallen said, Lelouch thought she was about ready to punch somebody. Once they were all ready, the three of them headed through the rain towards the Student Council building. The rain was coming down in sheets and was so loud that they couldn't even hear the thunder in the distance. "You know what... I take it back... this is pretty rough." Kallen said as she trudged through another ankle-deep puddle.
"Agreed..." Suzaku mumbled, they were all having trouble. "I'm glad I brought a fresh pair of socks, mine are drenched."
"Are the boots the military providing you not up to snuff?" Lelouch asked him as he nearly collapsed when they finally arrived at the Student Council building's entrance. Suzaku shook his head.
"A soldier's job isn't to complain." Suzaku exclaimed as he took his boots off. Multiple buckets were strewn across the floor catching leaking water. With every slight gust of wind, a foreboding sound shook the building.
"Oh, there you guys are! It sure took you long enough!" They heard Rivalz say as he walked out of the Student Council room. Like them, he was completely drenched from head to toe and had a towel wrapped around his shoulders. "Here, we've got enough for everyone." He said as he handed out towels to the three of them. Once they were all nice and dry, they made their way to the Student Council room. Shirley, Milly, and Nina were all already there.
"So, what's on the agenda today Milly?" Lelouch asked her as he sat down in his chair. "I'm assuming there's a good reason why you had us trudge through all of this rain so early in the morning." Instead of answering him, Milly just waved him aside and pointed to her ear. Apparently, she was on the phone with someone.
"I understand grandpa, but why are you letting a new student transfer in now? I know... yes, Suzaku is here... yes... but this is going to be bad for him, you understand that right? I'll try my best to control the students, but some of them can be nasty. You know how nobles can get..." after a few more minutes of this, Milly sighed and finally put her phone down.
"You sure looked stressed, what happened?" Lelouch asked her with wide eyes, it wasn't often that he got to see Milly so distraught. She was usually such an upbeat person. And it seemed like the rest of the Student Council agreed with him. Everybody looked at Milly with concerned eyes, even Kallen.
"Oh no, are they cutting our budget?" Shirley asked her. Milly nervously chuckled and shook her head.
"No... they aren't cutting our budget." Milly sighed, honestly, at this point, she wished that were the case.
"Then what's got you so down, Pres? It sounds like one heck of a situation." Rivalz exclaimed as, he too, pulled up a chair. Once everyone was seated, Milly sighed and fished a folder out of her purse. After placing it in the center of the table, she opened it and pointed to the first page.
"A transfer application?" Lelouch mumbled as he turned back to Milly. "Are we getting another transfer student?" Milly nodded as she leaned back into her chair.
"Yeah... for some reason grandpa thought that this would be an excellent idea. Honestly, I have no idea what he's thinking sometimes." She said as she furrowed her eyebrows.
"What's the issue? Is this new person a bad apple or something?" Shirley asked as she flipped through the folder. "Hey... what? This thing is mostly blank, there isn't even a picture of the student!" All that was written in the folder was a mailing address, a student number, and a name. "Allen Walker, huh?" She said as she passed the folder around the table. "I thought that a picture was required for the application process, or am I wrong?"
"No, you're right, normally grandpa would've outright denied any application that didn't have a confirmed form of identification. But this, according to him, is a special case. This Mr. Walker has had his spot reserved for quite a few years now." She told them as she pressed her finger against a small symbol that sat next to the student's name.
"A reservation? That isn't that unusual, right?" Rivalz said as he read through the barren folder. Ashford Academy was supposed to be a school for nobles, after all. So the practice of reserving a spot upon a child's birth wasn't unheard of. Hell, sometimes, if a student did well enough on their exams, they could reserve a spot even if they weren't part of the nobility. But that was so rare it was practically impossible. However, there was just one small problem with this. "Wait... what?" Rivalz mumbled as he rubbed his eyes, he must've been seeing things. "He's Europian?!" The second he said that everyone besides Milly crowded around him to get a closer look.
"And therein lies the central issue for this little gathering." Milly said as she rubbed her head. "Even with his reservation, normally, my grandfather would never allow a student from Europia to come here. However, just last week, this student received numerous glowing recommendations from some of my grandfather's contacts in Rome. He simply couldn't refuse." Lelouch frowned as he rolled his fingers against the tabletop.
"Suzaku was a tough sell as it is, and he's an honorary Britannian. I can't imagine how the student body will react when they learn about this." Lelouch exclaimed, the war with Europia was one of the most-targeted subjects by Britannia's propaganda campaigns. Some of the students even had relatives fighting overseas. "I can see why you're worried... this is really a bad idea."
"It'll be a hit for morale, that's for sure. But what I'm more worried about is this new student's safety." Milly said as she nervously bit her index finger. When Suzaku first came to Ashford, he was subjected to numerous accounts of cruel bullying and ridicule. Even today, there were still small groups of students who resented his presence. She couldn't even imagine what would happen once everyone figured out that they were sharing a classroom with a Europian.
"Do you think we can, you know, send him back?" Nina whispered as she nervously fidgeted in her chair. The poor girl was obviously terrified at the prospect, however, there was nothing they could do.
"He's already been accepted into the student roster, Nina, so that's not an option." Milly said as she turned to Suzaku and Lelouch. "You two, I know it's kind of on short notice, but I need your help." Lelouch sighed when he heard that, he already knew what she was going to ask them to do. "When he gets here, I want you two to show him around. I feel like having members of the council present might help to quell some of the student body's animosity."
"Yeah, good luck with that." Lelouch thought as his lips pursed into a line. "These are the children of nobles we're talking about here, they won't show any mercy to a Europian." Honestly, the kid would be lucky if he got through his first day without receiving a beating or two. And it wasn't just him who realized this, Suzaku and Kallen both knew how brutal their classmates were to foreigners. This wouldn't be taken lightly, even with them there.
"Do you know what class he'll have first?" Kallen asked her as she stared out of a nearby window. The rain had yet to let up, in fact, it had only gotten worse.
"That's the one ray of hope in this whole mess. Thankfully, his first class has you three in it." Milly said as Lelouch heard Suzaku sigh in relief. With all three of them there, it would be much easier to protect the new student.
"I can see why you've been so worried, Milly. This seems to be quite the bad situation." Lelouch said as the hourly bell shook the building. "Well... I think that's our que. If we want to make it in time for his first class we'll have to leave now." Kallen and Suzaku both nodded their heads, what with the rain and all, the trek back to the main building was going to be quite the trial.
"Be careful you three." Lelouch heard Shirley say as they walked out of the room, he wasn't sure why, but hearing her voice again pained his heart.
"The power of the king..." he thought as he reached up and touched his left eye. "I wonder, is this ability of mine truly a blessing or a curse?" The answer to that question had eluded him for what seemed like ages, and he had a feeling the pain this power would bring him was only just beginning. "But still..." he thought as he curled his hands up into fists, strengthening his resolve. "For Nunally's sake, and my resolve, I must prevail!" Nothing could stop him now, not even God himself.
"Lelouch, are you okay?" He heard Kallen ask him as they made their way out of the conference room. "You looked stressed." Like the professional terrorist she was, Kallen didn't miss a beat.
"Oh, sorry, I'm just a little bit tired." He said as he quickly turned away. Now wasn't the time for that, now wasn't the time for Zero. At the moment, he needed to be Ashford Academy's vice president. "Come on, if we don't hurry Suzaku is going to beat us there." With that out of the way, he zipped up his coat, and walked out of the door.
Lelouch could practically feel the anger radiating off of Kallen's being as they walked through the hallways. The two had managed to catch up with Suzaku, and in that small amount of time the news of the Europian transfer student had already spread throughout the entire school. "Damn Britannians… they're always looking for another scapegoat." he heard her curse under her breath as they walked into their classroom.
"What in the world is the administration thinking?!" One of their classmates said as Lelouch, Kallen, and Suzaku took their seats. "First it was Suzaku, but he's an honorary Britannian soldier so that I understand. However, this is completely different, they actually want us to study under the same roof next to a Europian pig?! What a joke!" Lelouch felt a chill go up his spine as he heard Kallen snap a pencil in half.
"If she isn't careful then people are going to see right-through her sick girl façade." He thought as he scratched his chin. "Europia… even with all of my calculations I still cannot see a realistic situation which involves Ashford gaining another transfer student." Britannia was at war, after all, even with exceptional grades he still found it hard to believe that Britannia actually let a Europian inside of its borders. "This kid must know some people in high places..." that was the only possible explanation. "Maybe I could have him tell me who got him in, that could be interesting." People with the power to get a Europian into Ashford must have quite the hefty wallets. Wallets that the Black Knights could use. "No... with how this situation unfolded, they probably recommended the boy via private channels." If Milly's information was accurate, this new student wasn't even a noble. And if that was the case...
"Alright class, settle down." Lelouch stopped thinking when the professor walked into the room. She was a relatively young woman in her late twenties and was responsible for teaching the modern history classes. "As I'm sure you all already know, Ashford Academy has received a transfer student from Europia. He'll be here any minute now, some please give him the proper respect. After introductions are over I'll start the lecture."
"So we're going to be the first to see this infamous transfer student. I can't tell if I'm more curious or pissed off." One of the girls said as her eyebrows narrowed. "I swear, this school has gone to the dogs recently. Soon they'll be letting anyone in." As she spoke, one of the girl's friends sighed and swiveled around in her chair.
"Do you think he supports the Black Knights? I heard that the majority of Europians openly cheer for those terrorists. What do you think Kallen?" The girl asked her as she waved her hand around in the air.
"Oh, the transfer student? I don't know really." Kallen said as she balled one of her hands up into a fist underneath her desk. "I'm going to wait until after I see him before I make any judgements." Right after she said that, the room fell silent. Everyone was waiting for the same thing: the sound of the new student's footsteps clinking against the tiled floor. In a few moments, they got just that. It was an ominous mix of that, the rain, thunder, and heavy breathing as they all waited to see the face of their country's enemy. And then, the door creaked open, and the transfer student walked in.
"Sorry if I'm late." The boy apologized to the professor as he wiped his face off with a towel. "I didn't expect the weather to get this bad. Anyways..." he started as he slipped the towel into one of his pockets and turned to face the class. "I'm Allen Walker, it's a pleasure to meet you all." As he talked, he placed his right hand over his heart, and gave them all a pleasant little bow.
"Wow... I can't really say I expected this." Lelouch heard the girl next to him mumble as they all looked over the new student. He had silver eyes, hair that was as white as snow, and a strange scar running down the left side of his face. There was something about the boy that just drew the eye, almost as if they were staring at a dove.
"Well, Mr. Walker, why don't you tell the class a little bit about yourself? After that, you can go take that open seat near the back of the room." The professor said as she prepared the projector for the day's lecture.
"Oh, umm, sure." The boy said as he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "So I'm from the northern coast of Europia, but after a few years of studying I managed to find an apartment here and transferred to this school. Before I came here, I did a lot of work for the Catholic church and volunteered in some of their orphanages." Lelouch frowned as he listened to the boy speak. It sounded like he was reading off of a script.
"Is he a spy? No... he's probably just awkward." Lelouch thought as the boy walked over and took his seat. As luck would have it, the only spot that was open was next to Kallen. Nobody would try anything with her there.
"Oh, hello, my name is Allen Walker. I guess we'll be sitting next to each other." The boy said as he held his hand out for Kallen to shake. The girl took it with a smile, which didn't sit too well with the other men in their classroom.
"Great, she made it worse." Lelouch thought as several of the other students started to glare daggers at the boy.
"Tell me, Allen Walker, what do you do for fun?" Kallen asked him, in an obvious attempt to rile the other male students. Sadly, her little ploy worked. Which probably bought them a whole extra week of work. As the two continued their little conversation, the professor turned on the projector and started the lecture.
"Damn..." Lelouch thought as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Thanks to Kallen prodding the nobles, this whole thing suddenly got ten times harder. And he wasn't the only one who realized this.
"Lelouch, do you think we should stop her?" Suzaku asked him as he subtly pointed towards Kallen. "Going at this rate, she's just going to piss off the men more than they already are." He sighed, it was already too late for that.
"Let's pull her and Walker aside after class is over. If we're quick, we might be able to get him to the Student Council building before this all goes south." If they waited any longer than that, then there was a good chance that Walker wouldn't be leaving his first day of school one-hundred percent healthy. "Working with the nobility here is a whole new war in and of itself." He thought as he closed his eyes, readying himself for a nap. God knows he'd need it.
Allen smiled as he walked down the hallway. Immediately after class was over he got up and headed for the exit. If he waited for everyone else, there was a good chance that he'd have been stopped by some angry student. During his time at the Vatican, he had learned about Europia's relationship with Britannia. Sadly, since Rome was a Europian city, they had no way to procure him a Britannian passport. Which meant he had to serve his time as a Europian in the middle of a Britannian territory. "Who'd have thought that school would be this exhausting?" With a sigh, he wiped some stray rainwater off of a nearby bench and nearly collapsed into it. Since he got here, everything had been a new experience, and none of them were good. "Well... everyone else definitely hates me, but that isn't so bad." At the very least, they weren't hoping for his execution like some people in the Black Order were. As he sat there, the rain now lightly drizzling onto his face, he looked up and watched as a helicopter flew overhead. "Hmm... it really is amazing how much this world changed in such a short amount of time." In just over a century, humanity had managed to claw its way up to the clouds and now controlled unparalleled weapons of war. "If the Earl was still alive he'd be having a field day." It seemed as if, no matter which way he turned, some section of this sorry world was embroiled in war. And Britannia was the cause of it all. Hell, even here in their own territory they were fighting major battles. "The Black Knights..." when he first heard about the mysterious revolutionaries lead by the masked man Zero, he thought he was going mad. "Is there no place on this planet where peace is an option?" He thought as he stared at his left hand. "I wonder... why haven't you disappeared? Is there still something you want me to do?" What was the point in having innocence if there were no demons to exorcise? Hell, since the war was over, what was even the point in him living? "Damn... I need to stop acting so worried or I'll end up looking like Kanda." He thought as he lightly patted his cheeks, trying to keep his spirits up.
"Hey look, it's that Europian." He heard a group of students say as they hurried passed him. He could almost feel their disgusted gazes digging into his skin. However, it wasn't all bad, in this sea of animosity there was a few good people.
"Those three, I don't know why, but I get the feeling that they're different than everyone else." Allen thought with a smile as he stared up at the sky. The dark clouds had gotten thin enough to allow a little bit more sunshine to get through. Illuminating the dark courtyard in a somber grey light. "Oops, I nearly drenched my gloves." He thought as he moved his hand away from a nearby pool of water. He didn't notice it, but, at that moment, there was a strange shimmering in his reflection. And for a few seconds, in that puddle, it looked as if his mouth had twisted itself into a horrific grin.
Author's Note
Hey guys thanks for reading another chapter of my story! I hope you've been enjoying it so far, cause I've certainly enjoyed writing it! But man, getting to this point really sucked. It's always the beginning of these, as I like to call them, "meet up" chapters that are the hardest to write. Cause it's in chapters like these where the characters from one universe collide with characters from another, and that's really hard for me to write (and do it well). Well, that's all for me here. I hope you guys have a good day and I'll see you all in the next chapter of A New Dawn!
Chapter 4: Friends