Hello my friends! Welcome to the last chapter of the six-chapter bonanza marathon I've been running for the past few days. Unlike my other stories, as -man is my favorite anime/manga, I plan on updating this one quite frequently. Now, the next chapter won't be out until I release the next chapter in my most popular story. But, to give you an idea of when the next chapter for this story will drop, it will probably be sometime within the next month or so. The next chapter is going to be longer than these previous ones as well, so do look forward to it.

Anyway, that's enough chit chat, let's get on to the part you all are here for!

Disclaimer: I don't own -man or Code Geass, all rights go to their respective owners.

Chapter 6: Prelude

Kallen yawned as she walked into her classroom and rubbed her tired eyes. Right after that whole fiasco with Allen and the girl, Zero summoned everyone for a meeting to discuss the recently-freed Kyoshiro Tohdoh and the Four Holy Swords. Obviously, the five warriors decided to join the Black Knights. However, for them to work properly as a cohesive unit, Zero practically forced all of them into a lengthy conversation on their ideals and strategies. The crazy part was, she felt like it actually worked. "He really is amazing, Zero." Their leader was a mysterious person, that she knew for certain, but he had a knack for getting the job done in the strangest ways. After that meeting, she spent the rest of the night talking to some of Rakshata's engineers about her Gurren. To be more specific, Zero wanted the two of them to discuss possible countermeasures that they could use against the Lancelot. Suzaku's knightmare had proven to be quite troublesome over the past few months, and it was obvious that they needed to start upgrading their arsenal. "I see Lelouch is sleeping as usual." She told Suzaku, wearing a fake smile the entire time, as she took her seat.

"Yeah, he's been like that ever since we got here. He told me that he was up all night working on a project, or something like that." The Student Council's vice president was dosing off without a care in the world. However, somehow, he managed to do so while staying upright. As the rest of their class poured into the room, she watched as a few of her friends turned on their monitors and started to watch something.

"Hey, isn't that the transfer student? You know, the one from Europia." She heard one of them say, her eyes glued to the screen. "Kallen, didn't you and the rest of the Student Council show him around town the other day?" The same girl asked her. Kallen, who at this point was very curious to find out what had everybody in such a ruckus, raised an eyebrow and walked over to the two girls.

"What in the world are you guys talking about?" She asked them as her eyes wandered to the screen. Her classmates were watching a video which had gone viral just a few hours ago. It took the Gurren's pilot mere seconds to recognize what the recording was actually about. "Hey, this is from the other day!" She told her classmates as she watched the video play out. It was blurry, and had obviously been recorded on a phone, but she'd recognize those men anywhere. The video, which was probably taken by one of her countrymen, showed the assault she had witnessed just the other day. Whoever recorded it was at the front of the crowd, so she, Suzaku, and the rest of the Student Council, weren't shown. However, the video did show the Britannians assault on that Japanese girl, and, which was probably what caused it to go viral, showed Allen dashing in to save her. In terrifying detail she watched as the boy was beaten black and blue trying to protect the girl. The change in perspective really helped her see how badly injured the boy actually was, and even though she was there to witness it in-person, found it hard to watch. "That idiot really should've let me treat his wounds." She thought as she bit her lip. With the injuries he got, by the end of the whole ordeal, he should've been at death's door.

"This video has been removed and reuploaded so many times now." One of the girls told her as she turned away from the screen. "Ugh... I feel like I'm going to be sick. That poor boy, I can't believe we saw him in class just the other day." Kallen was shocked, these were the same people who yesterday were cursing the ground Allen walked upon.

"You aren't mad that he saved an Eleven?" She asked the girls and some of the other students, all of them looked at her as if she was stupid.

"It's different when it's an Eleven who doesn't know their place." One of the boys said as he frowned and turned his head back towards the screen. "But from where I'm standing, it looks as if those guys just decided out of nowhere to kill that kid. Even if she is an Eleven, I can't say I'm comfortable with just beating up children." Kallen sighed, thank God the video didn't have any audio, or they would've learned that the reason the girl was assaulted was because she had stolen something from a one of the men. Child or not, she knew for a fact that, if these people knew the full story, none of them would hesitate to throw the girl and Allen under the bus.

"If only you bastards knew how many kids your country's military have massacred." She thought as she walked back to her seat. If she talked to those people any longer, she wasn't certain that she'd be able to keep a cool head.

"Do you know if Allen managed to make it to a hospital last night? I know that he said he'd take care of the girl, but those injuries he had were pretty serious." Suzaku asked her. Kallen shrugged, she had no idea. "Darn, I guess we'll just have to wait until he get's here." Thankfully, they didn't have to wait long. Just two minutes later, Allen walked into the classroom looking as fit and healthy as ever.

"Wow, you sure heal quick." Kallen said as the boy took his seat, Allen laughed, it would take a lot more than some random thugs to do him in.

"I don't know what to say, I guess I'm just thick-skinned." Kallen and Suzaku frowned, his skin would have to be as hard as iron if that was true. However, neither of them decided to press the issue, they were just happy he was okay.

"What happened to the girl? Did you find her a place to stay?" Suzaku asked him, Allen smiled and nodded.

"I figured something out. She should be resting peacefully in a warm bed right about now." He told them, keeping his words vague. At the moment, he didn't really know how to tell them that the girl was staying at his place. For now, he'd keep them in the dark on that little detail.

"That's a relief." Suzaku said as he and Kallen both leaned back into their chairs. As they did so, Allen looked around the room and frowned.

"By the way, did either of you have a chat with our classmates? I'm not getting as many glares as yesterday." Granted, he was still getting quite a few, but there was definitely a change in the students general attitude towards him.

"Your little stunt the other day is all over the net. After seeing how badly you got roughed up, they've probably decided that they'll give you some space, for now." Kallen told him. She had no doubt in her mind that some of the prominent nobles would still try to give Allen some trouble. But, at the moment, he probably didn't have to worry about getting death threats from every student in the school.

"Well that's definitely an improvement." Allen said as he flipped out his phone and stared at his schedule. Most of it was the same as yesterday's, however, there was one class on it that made him worried. "Gym... that's going to be a problem." He mumbled, causing Suzaku to chuckle. The boy must've heard him.

"Ah, come on Allen, you can't be like Lelouch who skips gym whenever he get's the chance. Otherwise, your body will become weak." After he said that, Allen swore he heard Lelouch scoff.

"That's not really the problem." He thought as he stared at his left hand. Since Ashford's gym uniform had no sleeves, covering his left side would prove... difficult, to say the least.

"If you're worried about working up a sweat, that shouldn't be an issue today." Suzaku told him as he pointed towards a large building on the other end of campus. "Gym today is going to be held in the pool, so you don't have to worry about getting hot." Allen nearly choked on his own tongue when he heard that. Forget the uniform, hiding his arm while wearing a swimsuit simply wasn't possible.

"Is that so. Well then, in that case, I don't have to worry." He told him with a smile, however, internally, Allen was starting to panic. How was he going to hide his arm? Since Ashford was a uniform school, wearing a swim shirt wasn't an option. "I guess I can always follow Lelouch's lead and skip class." Even though he had only been a student at Ashford for two days, he had already heard all about the vice president's infamous skipping. "No..." Allen shook his head. He wasn't Lelouch, and didn't have a condition like Kallen. Plus, his obvious injuries had already completely healed, so falling back on those wasn't an option. Just skipping class was also a no-go, if he started doing something like that this early in his student life, it would only make people suspicious. After all, why would somebody who was willing to take such a beating be adverse to attending simple gym lessons?

"If it's the girls you're worried about, I promise they'll only judge you a little." Kallen joked as Allen started to sweat. Luckily, thanks to his years of gambling, he was able to keep a straight face. However, in that moment of panic, an idea popped into his head. Using his obvious injuries as a scapegoat might have been out of the question, but just lying wasn't. After all, he did get beat pretty bad.

"Suzaku, do you know if this school has any waterproof casts?" He asked the boy. "As you can probably tell, the majority of my injuries have healed, but my left arm still hurts." When he said that, Suzaku smiled and nodded.

"Sure, you can get one from the nurse's office anytime you like. Normally, you'd have to show some proof of injury, but thanks to that video that's been going around I don't think that'll be a problem. And Allen, there's no need to try and act tough. If you're hurting, it's always better to get a professional's opinion than to try and tough it out yourself." Spoken like a true soldier. Allen sighed, if that was the case, then there was nothing to worry about. As the staring bell rang through the air, he turned back to the window and stared at his apartment building. "Ikuko… I wonder if she found that food I left for her." He thought as his eyes wandered about the courtyard. When he got to the Student Council building, however, he stopped for a moment. "Hmm... I wonder who that is?" Standing next to a window was a strange girl with platinum-blonde hair. She wasn't wearing a typical uniform, and was holding a piece of pizza. For a brief second their eyes met. Not wanting to be rude, Allen gave the mysterious girl a little wave. She nodded and returned the gesture, but, immediately afterwards, closed the window's blinds. "This school is just full of strange people." He thought as the professor walked into the classroom. "Okay then..." he mumbled to himself as he got out one of his notebooks and a small pen. It was time for his day to begin.

Every person had one or two things that they were really good at. In Lelouch's case, he had quite a few talents that he could tout. One of his most useful skills was being able to read a person. All he needed was a few hours and he could reliably predict what somebody would do next. He had used this little talent of his frequently in meetings and other gatherings, and it always seemed to work. However, there was one person he could never read, no matter how hard he tried. And that person was his partner, C.C. Even after all of this time, he still didn't have a clue as to what made the girl work. She was an outlier, an anomaly, and in some ways a threat. In the past, he found that he only needed to use his talents seriously in serious situations. However, now, he found himself using them on a girl who was simply munching on a piece of pizza. "What?" She asked him as she grabbed another slice.

"Could you please keep it down? I'm trying to think." Currently, he was formulating strategies with how to deal with Suzaku. As a possible countermeasure, he asked Rakshata to upgrade Kallen's Gurren. However, he was still stuck. "On ground, Suzaku is near unbeatable unless there is somebody there at his level." Sadly, the only people he had that was on said level was Kallen, and maybe Tohdoh and the Four Holy Swords. "Damn..." when he learned that Suzaku was the pilot of the knightmare which had been ruining all of his plans, his mind ground to a halt. Suddenly, all of his strategies needed to be rewritten. And, most importantly, he needed to find another suitable candidate to protect Nunnally.

"I saw that boy today, the new one that you and your friends went out with the other day." C.C. said as she splayed herself over the couch.

"I'm assuming you're referring to Allen Walker?" Lelouch asked her as he scrolled through the daily news.

"Is that his name? Well, anyway, I just brought it up because I thought he looked strange." Lelouch scoffed, she was certainly one to talk. Although, he couldn't help but agree with her. The boy's snow white hair and strange scar was more than enough to prove her point.

"Well, he definitely is a unique fellow, but he's harmless. Besides being uncannily tough, there really isn't much I can say about him." There was no doubt that Allen Walker was a kind soul. But, that seemed to be all he was. Just another hopeless fool who thought he could save everyone using nothing but kindness and his own strength. Suzaku was the same way.

"Really? Even though I only saw him for a second, I thought him to be quite the complex character." Lelouch raised an eyebrow as he turned to face C.C. She didn't say things like that often.

"What do you mean?" Lelouch asked her as the girl smiled.

"Wow, so even the mighty Zero couldn't see something so obvious." C.C. shrugged. "Then again, I guess what I'm referring to is something you can only see with age." Yet again, the immortal witch threw his mind for a loop. "There's a sadness in his eyes that I've seen in veterans. He's lost his old life, and is now looking towards the future to build something new. That's what I'm talking about." Lelouch sighed as he got up and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What you're describing is just another form of optimism. There's nothing unique about it." C.C. smiled when she heard that and closed her eyes. As if she knew something that only she could understand. Over the months, Lelouch had stopped trying to figure her out when she made that face. It simply wasn't worth the time and energy. As he said that, he heard the hourly bell start to ring.

"Isn't that your que to go?" She asked him, Lelouch scoffed. His next class was only gym. There was no reason for him to waste his valuable time training his body when he could be training his mind. Sadly, God must've had it out for him that day because then his phone started to ring.

"Great, it's Milly..." he couldn't say he was looking forward to speaking with her, especially when he already knew what she was going to say. However, even though he didn't want to, he knew that he'd only make things worse if he let it go to voicemail. "Lelouch speaking, what's up Milly?" As he expected, the president of the Student Council proceeded to jokingly lecture him on how he shouldn't be skipping class and whatnot. Normally, he would've just mindlessly agreed with her before hanging up. However, this time, Milly had something else to say.

"Lelouch, this is the first time in weeks that they're holding gym in the pool. Which means that you'll be able to get some quality time with Shirley." Lelouch sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, why did Milly always insist on playing matchmaker? "If you don't come today I'm going to have Suzaku tie you down after class until you and Shirley make up. You two playing strangers just breaks my heart." And there it was, checkmate. He had a meeting with Ohgi and the others directly after school today, one that he couldn't afford to miss. Plus, he knew that Milly would follow through with her threat, that was just how she was.

"Fine then..." he said as his posture slumped. He had to hold the phone away from his ear when Milly started to cheer.

"For the first time in years Lelouch Lamperouge is going to gym class!" Those words hurt him more than any test or essay. He always had a special place in his black heart for gym, and it was there for a reason. "Come on slowpoke, get a move on! The next bell is in five minutes!" Milly's evil laugh gave even his a run for its money. If there was one thing that she had that he didn't, it was her near-limitless supply of energy.

"Dammit..." Lelouch thought as he grabbed his coat and headed for the door. He just knew that this was going to be an awful experience.

"Have fun." He heard C.C. say from her spot on the bed. "Break a leg."

"If it's gym, I probably will." And with that, Lelouch frowned, and walked out of the building.

Author's Note

And thus we come to an end of this long, long, 6 chapter marathon. If you guys have read some of my past works, please tell me if you like this method of writing more. And if you're new to my stories, tell me if you liked the six chapter in one go startup. Since I'm such a huge fan of both Code Geass and -man, I wanted to give you all more than just one chapter to chew on. I feel like, this way, I can not only snag more readers, but also show the fact that I am serious about this story. Other stories on my page may be a bit more one-shotty, I.E. I only write them when I feel like it. But, what I want from this story is something different. I always go in to my -man stories with a plan. And I am determined to do the same here. I already have the next thirteen, yes, thirteen, chapters outlined. So all that's left for me to do is write them. But, since this is the final part of the marathon, I've decided to leave some questions for you guys here.

A.) I really am thinking about doing a pairing. So, if you guys want one (for Allen, I mean), I'll leave some options down below. Whichever one gets the most votes is the path I'll go with. To vote, all you have to do is write a review and tell me which one you want. Anyway, the options are as follows:

1. Kallen

2. C.C. (she's only in here for spice, I don't really want to write an AllenxC.C. pairing, but, if you guys want it, I'll go ahead and bite the bullet)

3. Some other girl besides the two I listed above (except for Shirley, mainly cause I can't think of any way - and nor do I want too - to write her out of her thing for Lelouch)

4. You don't want a pairing, keep it platonic.

B.) This question is less for all of you, and only to those few who are willing to write an actual review. Basically, all I want to know is if you're enjoying the story and how I could possibly improve it in your eyes. I know this is a weird question to ask (as that's what most people do in reviews anyway) but here I really wanted to emphasize that fact as I really do want to make this story a long one.

P.S. By the way, if there are some continuity errors/the time between events in the CG storyline is a bit off, please forgive me for those. I understand if they're major ones, but, for the most part I don't have the day-to-day script of CG memorized. And, to make a good story, I kind of have to work around that.

So then, without further adieu, I'll go ahead and close this off. Thanks for reading and supporting this story so far. Please, if you would, rate and review, and I'll see you guys in the next chapter of A New Dawn!

Chapter 7: Old Scars, New Battles