"I hereby renounce my claim to the throne!" – Regular speaking
'How dare the Emperor abandon Nunnally!' – Regular thinking; Italics not in singular quotations are used for emphasis
"Q-1, strike the left flank now!" – Speaking as heard over radios and other communication devices
"Lelouch vi Britannia commands you, DIE!" Speech influenced by using Geass
Disclaimer: I don't own any franchise that is used in this story nor do I make any profit from it whatsoever.
Enjoy the new chapter.
Chapter 1: The Rise of the Black Devil
(Tokyo Settlement, Area Eleven – Nobleman Residence – 11:38 am – September 11 – 2017 a.t.b.)
Lelouch sighed as he and his friend Rivalz stood silently in the elevator that would take him to his next match. Lelouch and Rivalz were dressed in identical uniforms, both of them being students at Ashford Academy. They were dressed in a simple pair of black pants with a simple pair of dress shoes combined with a long-sleeved jacket with a golden trim around the inner edges and a black belt holding it closed. The only difference between them, besides their physical differences at least, was the motorcycle helmet and goggles that Rivalz had on top of his blue head of hair.
As he waited for the long elevator ride to take the two of them to the top floor Lelouch's mind wandered to the events that happened to him after the night Nunnally had woken up from her medically induced coma.
They hadn't actually been sent to Japan immediately after his sister had awakened. Instead, they had spent their last two months in the Aries Villa, allowing them to pack up any items that they wished to keep when they finally had to leave. Aside from packing items that would be necessary for the two of them to survive on their own, Lelouch had personally only kept a few specific pictures that were sentimental to him and a few of his favorite books while Nunnally had only kept some of her own favorite stories for him to read to her since she was unable to see pictures anymore.
When he had first arrived in Japan along with Nunnally seven years ago he truly had no idea of what the future held for them. All he knew was that he needed to protect Nunnally no matter what.
They had ended up being sent to Japan on January 7, 2010 a.t.b. after the arrangements for their lives as political hostages were arranged.
Not even the Emperor could command a neutral foreign power to simply accept them as he demanded and it had taken just over two months of political maneuvering by both governments for them to agree to a deal.
The deal stipulated an increased amount of Sakuradite would be sent to Britannia over the course of the year 2010 of the Britannian Imperial Calendar in exchange for the Eleventh Prince Lelouch vi Britannia and the Twelfth Princess Nunnally vi Britannia of the Holy Britannian Empire as well as the Holy Britannian Empire not making any aggressive motions against the Japanese government for twelve months.
Of course, as soon as Lelouch learned about the wording used in the agreement he realized that the Emperor had no intention of keeping his word. After all, the man himself had said he believed Lelouch to have been dead from the moment he was born and that meant the Emperor didn't consider 'Eleventh Prince Lelouch vi Britannia' as even existing. He figured the man probably felt the same way about Nunnally as well which infuriated Lelouch. Even the ten-year-old boy he had been then could tell that the Emperor was simply deceiving Japan. Especially since, by the words used, the agreement was most likely considered to be null and void the instant it was signed in the Emperor's mind. Or so Lelouch assumed at the time.
Once Britannia attacked in the month of August, Lelouch had found his theory proven right and he, Nunnally, and their close friend Suzaku Kururugi had been forced to flee from Britannian forces after their residence was destroyed by bomber planes. Unfortunately that attack ended up destroying almost everything that Lelouch and Nunnally had brought from the Aries Villa, leaving only the clothing they had been wearing as their remaining possessions. Luckily the three of them had been out exploring the forests at the time and had avoided the deaths that Britannia orchestrated for them.
Suzaku Kururugi and the vi Britannia siblings had grown surprisingly close despite their rough first meeting and the three of them had grown even closer once they had to rely solely on each other to survive during the Britannian invasion.
Unfortunately, they had to also avoid many Japanese refugee settlements because the Anti-Britannian sentiment was running rampant and Lelouch refused to trust them with Nunnally's safety. Suzaku had begrudgingly agreed with him, more out of concern for Nunnally than him believing his countrymen would voluntarily hurt a blind and crippled seven-year-old little girl.
That decision had ended up taking them through the places hit worst by the invasion and it was one of the few times he wished he hadn't sworn to never lie to Nunnally. The last thing he wanted to do was tell his seven-year-old little sister of the many graveyards and ghost towns they traveled through to get to safety, but despite desperately wanting to tell Nunnally they were only traveling through a dump, he had been honest with her.
It had broken his heart to tell Nunnally what Britannia did to the many innocent civilians, he hadn't seen a single weapon amongst the corpses, and he made sure that he avoided too much detail when explaining to her just where they were. No matter his promise to be honest with her, he refused to give Nunnally any images of the things he saw. He, Suzaku, and Nunnally had all been scarred by the Hell that they experienced during the invasion. The thing that ate at him the most during that time though, had been how absolutely helpless he had been to do anything.
"Hey, Earth to Lelouch. We've made it to the top floor." Lelouch shook his head slightly as Rivalz brought his attention back to the present.
"Oh right. Sorry Rivalz, I was just thinking." Lelouch was honestly surprised that he could have ever made new friends with anyone after the things he'd seen. But after setting himself and Nunnally up with their mother's old allies, the Ashfords, after Japan surrendered, thus reuniting them with Milly and learning that they had been officially declared dead having been killed by the Japanese, he crafted himself a public persona that he honestly enjoyed acting as. Still, he disliked living a life of lies, even if it was necessary for Nunnally's sake.
Suddenly an arrogant huff brought his attention to his new opponent. "Did your substitute arrive?" The man speaking was clearly very wealthy, a given since he had bought out the entire top floor of the building, and he had a very smug look on his face with his lips peeled into a pretentious grin. His hair was a light brown with eyes that were a pale blue. On the man's lip was a mustache that was divided down the middle. The nobleman was wearing a dusty red jacket with golden thread lining the edges and golden buttons unbuttoned keeping his jacket open revealing his black shirt. His pants were a light dusty velvet color.
Lelouch then noticed the five guards surrounding the nobleman and the man sitting in the chair across from him with an elegant chessboard placed on the table between the two men.
'Man, I hope those guys are only for show. I hate dealing with nobles who think they can strong-arm their way out of paying for their loss.' Lelouch thought to himself as he effortlessly maintained his composure. Lelouch then turned his attention to the man who he was playing for.
The man was not only much older than the nobleman, but more thin as well. He was dressed in a simple, yet elegant grey tuxedo that was suited for more formal occasions than gambling, but it suited the older man well. The man also had stress lines on his face and was balding, but Lelouch hadn't picked him because of his appearance.
He had figured out early on that he couldn't simply go gamble against the nobility and win while expecting to stay under the radar. So he had found someone who was in desperate need of money, but was an honest and trustworthy person. Lelouch had asked Rivalz if he knew anyone like that and it turned out that his friend's part-time job as a bartender had given him easy access to many different kinds of people. The two of them worked out a deal with this man and, in exchange for a twenty percent cut of the winnings; he would set up chess matches for Lelouch and act as the supposedly dead Prince's benefactor of sorts.
Of course, Rivalz was compensated as well. Lelouch took the majority of the winnings at fifty percent, something that Rivalz had complained about until Lelouch explained that most of the money would go to caring for his little sister's doctor appointments at which point Rivalz had completely understood his reasoning and allowed himself to settle with the remaining thirty percent. It wasn't the entire truth, but it was the only truth Lelouch was willing to entrust anyone with.
It wasn't like he could say he was gambling and winning obscene amounts of money in preparation for financing his own personal war against Britannia after all.
In exchange for getting the money necessary so the man could keep his home and care for himself, his benefactor would set up chess matches between himself and the many nobles who wished to show off their 'skill' in chess in Area Eleven. After he set up a match, he would call Lelouch at a pre-designated time and Lelouch would let Rivalz know when they would need to leave and on which date. It was a routine that had gained all three involved a hefty profit since there was no one currently in Area Eleven that could defeat Lelouch at chess.
Of course, Lelouch had made it very clear that the man was to not set up any matches against anyone directly associated with the Imperial Family and he wasn't to breathe a single word of their deal to anyone. If anyone asked about Lelouch he was to call the Ashford student his substitute. Something that was technically the truth since the man almost always started Lelouch's games for him if he was running a bit late.
The man looked very relieved currently as he left his chair and he was clearly sweating. Yet despite that the man maintained his kind demeanor towards the ones who helped him out so much. "Thank Heaven, I'm saved. Are things going well at school?" The old man asked kindly. Lelouch had a small smile as he nodded at his benefactor.
The man, despite having practically no relationship with the two students outside of these types of events, was always very genial and kind toward Lelouch and Rivalz. Almost always asking if things were going well for them whenever they met up.
The nobleman turned his attention to his new arrivals and spoke in a clearly smug voice, "What have we here, schoolboys?"
Lelouch gave a small smirk as he stared at his opponent. "Well look at this, a nobleman." He retorted simply. He had no reason to hold a conversation with the fool he was about to part from his money.
The man tapped the nail file he had been using on the table. "I envy you kids today; you have so much time on your hands." The noble then leaned forward slightly and spoke ominously, "Time for regrets. What's your name?"
Lelouch stared down at the noble and spoke clearly and concisely. "Lelouch, Lamperouge." Yes, Lelouch Lamperouge was who he was now. Lelouch vi Britannia had been dead ever since his home country betrayed him and his little sister by invading the country they were living in for its natural resources, leaving the two of them to die.
Now he was simply Lelouch Lamperouge, Vice-President of the Ashford Student Council, the one student who could and would consistently avoid every single P.E. class and somehow get away with it with minimal punishment, caring older brother to Nunnally Lamperouge, and an excellent student despite his notorious gambling habits that made him miss classes repeatedly.
Rivalz looked at the chessboard and gasped in shock. "Whoa, now wait a minute. You can't win this one, it's impossible right?" Lelouch ignored his friend's false pessimism. He knew that Rivalz only said that to make the nobles he played even more overconfident ever since he learned how skilled Lelouch was at chess, but it could be exasperating sometimes.
"Rivalz, when do you think we would have to leave in order to make our next class?" Lelouch asked his blue haired friend calmly. Let the fool think he had the upper-hand, it would make defeating the nobleman all the easier.
Rivalz did a quick mental calculation and responded, "About twenty minutes if we bust our asses."
Lelouch had to hold back a smirk. "Then be sure that you drive safely on the way back." Lelouch sat down as he ignored his friend's gasp. "I'll need nine minutes." Lelouch boasted. The noble tapped his nail file twice in irritation, clearly annoyed at hearing a mere student say he could beat him in nine minutes. He then turned his attention to his benefactor. "And by the way, about yesterday?" The man had said that they needed to talk about something important as soon as possible, but he hadn't wanted to do it over the phone. Lelouch was curious about what the man wanted to speak about, but he could wait a little while longer before finding out.
The old man responded respectfully, "Understood sir. We'll discuss it later."
The nobleman felt that he'd been ignored enough and cut the by-play between his new opponent and his former one short. "Nine minutes? You only have twenty seconds per move." Referring to the time limitations set to make the match more challenging for the gamblers.
"Enough time." Lelouch replied simply. For Lelouch, twenty seconds was hardly a challenge. The time was currently 11:40 am so Lelouch would have to defeat the noble before 11:50 am in order to keep to his boast. Something that Lelouch felt he could accomplish all too easily.
The young student then began his first move by picking up his King piece.
"You start with the King?" The nobleman laughed incredulously at his new opponent.
In response, Lelouch merely gave the man a smile. The fool would realize the value of his strategy soon enough. After all, Lelouch had never failed yet when he used his own personal strategy to play chess.
He had yet to meet anyone who could defeat his King's Gambit.
(Tokyo Settlement, Area Eleven – Nobleman Residence – 11:48 am – September 11 – 2017 a.t.b.)
"Checkmate."
The noble stared at the chessboard in shock, as did the five guards around the two gamblers. Lelouch's benefactor merely relaxed his tense form and gave a small smile toward the student. Rivalz gave out a big grin as he imagined all the money he would be getting from his cut this time.
The noble had been foolish enough to suggest that the bet be tripled when he thought he was going to win and Lelouch accepted having successfully lured his opponent into his trap. Of course, once it became clear that he was losing the noble was unable to back out and now he had lost more than three times what he was going to originally have to pay in the first place.
"So you'll pay three times your original bet as promised, right?" Lelouch said with an innocent smile. He hadn't once lost his composure and he knew his innocent act was very unnerving after his ruthless victory over the fool across from him.
He did it specifically to demoralize his opponents so they would have a perception of him being untouchable. It made it much easier for him when he didn't have to deal with the 'guards' hired by his opponents.
Sure he could defeat them thanks to his old sensei's teachings, and he doubted that the men surrounding him had been trained by anyone like Tohdoh, that man was slave-driver, but his stamina was still absolutely terrible so it wouldn't be very easy. His body just wasn't made for strenuous physical activity over an extended period of time due to its frailty and his muscle strength wasn't so great either, but his reflexes were surprisingly quick despite those weaknesses.
He personally found psychological attacks much easier to use and much more satisfying. Especially against the nobles who all thought they were unbeatable. When they were faced with even a small portion of the real world, which often conflicted with their own perception of reality, they were usually shaken so much they paid him without comment.
And as if to prove him right once more, the nobleman woodenly gestured to his guards to grab the three briefcases that were placed against the wall and give them to the two students and the old man. Originally there had only been one, but when the nobleman tripled his bet two other suitcases were brought out.
Lelouch picked one up while Rivalz picked up the other two. As they were walking out of the room, Lelouch turned his head and gave a mocking smile to the noble who was still staring at the board in shock. "Thank you for your time, mister nobleman. You were almost a challenge for me to crush." As soon as the electric door closed behind him he heard the sound of something fragile shatter as it hit the ground and a scream of rage from the fool who he had liberated of three hundred thousand pounds.
There was nothing quite like psychological warfare and it was very satisfying for Lelouch whenever he crushed an opponent's spirit. There was definitely something wrong with him, because he knew normal people didn't get a feeling of satisfaction when they completely ruined people in so many different ways, but Lelouch just couldn't find it in himself to particularly care. Especially since he only did it to those he knew deserved it.
As the two students left the elevator, they went their separate ways from the old man. It appeared that they would need to find another person to make a deal with if Lelouch wanted to continue gambling. Going by the conversation that the old man had with the two students, it seemed like this was the last time he wanted to deal with the nobles in Area Eleven, something the two young men had no trouble understanding. Lelouch was perfectly fine with it and was glad that the man had been so willing to work with him and Rivalz for as long as he did. The man was more stable financially now and no longer needed their help to maintain his way of life, thus making this last match his final payment. Luckily, since the money had been split evenly in all three cases, the division was much easier and the man added forty thousand pounds split between the two cases held by the students while in the elevator. Lelouch and Rivalz would split the cash further when they had some free time at Ashford Academy.
Rivalz laughed as he and Lelouch made their way out of the hotel. "Man, this is why I love playing against the nobility. When you beat them they always pay out of pride. By the way, eight minutes and thirty-two seconds is a new record." He always enjoyed watching his genius friend break his previous record times. He didn't think they'd get much faster than this though. There was a limit on just how fast a chess game could go after all.
Lelouch scoffed lightly. "He also didn't have much time to move either. And as opponents go the nobles are tepid. They're just over-privileged parasites, that's all." That was a rather tame description of his true feelings toward the nobility. If anyone over heard exactly what he thought of the high society fools that wasn't someone he trusted explicitly, he'd draw way too much attention to himself.
Rivalz ran forward quickly and turned around so he was walking backwards. "Well, then why don't you challenge one of the Elevens? They're nothing like us Britannians. Besides, it would probably be a good idea until we can find another partner." Rivalz also thought it'd probably be a good idea to leave the nobles alone for a little while before someone got suspicious, but figured that, since they had lost their partner, Lelouch probably came to the same conclusion.
Lelouch frowned as he heard his friend refer to the Japanese with the derogatory term 'Eleven'. He hated that name.
When he had first begun living in Japan he'd hated it. Not because of the people or the culture, though being so suddenly forced to live in a new land had been unnerving, but because it truly meant that he no longer had any place to call home. Where he and Nunnally had lived was nothing more than a glorified prison and he had no idea how to escape it. Eventually Britannia had solved that problem for them, but those first few weeks had been irritating, especially dealing with Suzaku before they became friends. After he got used to it though, he'd fallen in love with the natural beauty of the island nation, and the language was something he found interesting as well. The Japanese language had been something that both Lelouch and Nunnally learned after he and Suzaku started getting along better in an effort to grow closer to each other by sharing each other's languages.
However, since Suzaku's English was much better than their Japanese, having been taught at a young age due to being groomed to become his father's successor in preparation since Britannia's chief language was one of the most spoken throughout the world, it was mostly Suzaku teaching the two of them Japanese. What had caught his and Nunnally's interest were the multiple ways that people could be addressed and the differences between the levels of affection and respect that could be expressed by the Japanese language. She loved to use it to express her level of love towards him when they had been younger, but after Britannia invaded, speaking Japanese had become outlawed along with the rest of the culture, leaving the two of them unable to properly enjoy the ability to express themselves in such a unique way in public.
He hated how Britannia stole so much of a nation's culture away after conquering it in the name of "progress".
He despised the racism prevalent throughout Britannian culture, but he couldn't really blame Rivalz for his attitude. It was the fault of the Empire itself for imposing such a cruel doctrine and his friend was merely another victim of Britannia's lies.
Besides, Rivalz did have a point about not gambling for a little while until they could find another person to act as their cover.
As the two of them walked through the electric doors their attention was brought to a television on the side of a structure specifically used to broadcast speeches, national news, and other important things that were meant to be delivered to the general public at large. Many of the other nations around the world had similar towers, probably for partly the same reasons as Britannia, but it was also a highly effective way of getting important information out to the general public quickly and efficiently. The scene depicted was of three towers, one with smoke billowing out from one of the higher floors.
'Terrorists.' Lelouch thought disgustedly. He knew that Britannia was wrong to conquer Japan, but that didn't make it okay to deliberately kill innocent people. That's not even considering the fact that, according to the report, they had taken out more of their own people than they did Britannians.
He wished more of the terrorist groups were like the Japan Liberation Front. Whenever they fought it was always against military personnel and they fought more as freedom fighters than as terrorists. In other words, they still followed the international laws of war reasonably well when compared to most other terrorist cells. He wasn't under any delusions that they didn't hurt the innocent though because he knew that some civilians inevitably get caught in the crossfire, but those kinds of incidents were never deliberately meant to harm the civilian population and were generally par for the course when it came to any military operation in a conquered Area. And any military operations in general near a civilian sector.
The voice of a woman sounded from the television as the Britannian flag appeared on the screen. "We apologize for the delay. Now his Royal Highness Prince Clovis, Third Prince of Britannia, will address the nation."
Lelouch's eyes narrowed as he saw a blond man with light blue eyes wearing an extravagant purple suit with golden threads lining the inside sewn in an artistic shape that suited the flamboyant Prince that Lelouch remembered. Clovis always did prefer to paint and sculpt art rather than play politics.
Of course, much had changed since those days and he was under no illusion that Clovis was still the same boy he knew. Hanging over his shoulders was a white cape that had golden shoulder pads with little frills hanging off it connected together by an interwoven golden cord.
"To all my imperial subjects." The Viceroy of Area Eleven spoke grandly. "Including of course the many cooperative Elevens who choose to serve the Empire of Britannia." He grasped his chest as though he were hurt. "Do you not see my pain? My heart was ripped from my chest, only to be torn apart. The remnants are filled with rage and sadness. However, as Viceroy of Area Eleven I will not tolerate terrorism of any kind! Because the battle we fight is a righteous one, a virtuous battle to protect the wellbeing of one and all. Now then everyone, I would like you to join me in the observance of the eight who died for justice. In the line of duty."
Lelouch almost growled. Of course they would forget the fifty-one people who died who weren't Britannian. It disgusted the former Prince that they wouldn't even bother to respect the rest of the dead who were caught in the attack. Though it didn't mean he would go along with this farce anyway.
The woman's voice returned once the Viceroy finished with his dramatic speech. "A moment of silence please."
As Lelouch paid the parking meter Rivalz looked at him curiously. "Well, aren't you going to join in?"
Lelouch gave him a wry look. "Aren't you?" He retorted. He didn't see Rivalz stopping what he was doing after all.
Rivalz put the keys into his motorcycle and started it after putting their briefcases on the floor of the side-car. Luckily it was big enough that Lelouch wouldn't be too cramped when he sat down. "Heh, it's sort of embarrassing." The blue haired boy admitted.
Lelouch tore out the receipt that the meter gave him as he responded. "And I agree with you. Besides spilling tears over those people won't bring them back to life now will it?" He would respect the dead, but he wouldn't mourn about people he didn't even know. He had done enough of that during the invasion.
Rivalz pulled his goggles over his eyes and replied, "Damn, that's dark buddy." He was curious at what had happened to his friend to make him so morbid sometimes, but he decided to respect Lelouch's privacy. Especially since it most likely had to deal with how Nunnally got injured. He didn't want to bring up any bad memories for his friend so he usually kept his questions to himself.
Lelouch looked at the receipt to see how much they paid as he responded to Rivalz's observation. "It's all about self-satisfaction." He commented somewhat snidely. "It doesn't matter how hard you try, there's no way you can do it. There's no way you can change the world." He spoke wistfully.
Yes, he desperately wanted to change this rotten world. Maybe then Nunnally could open her eyes and enjoy it as she deserved. But he couldn't afford to risk the life he lived now. He needed to stay alive to take care of Nunnally and if he tried to do anything he would draw attention to himself and Nunnally could be used as a political tool again. He would never let that happen if he could help it. She deserved a peaceful life after everything she'd gone through.
Suddenly his phone began to ring. Lelouch raised his eyebrow as he took his phone from his pocket to answer it. "Hang on Rivalz, if we leave now I won't be able to hear whoever's calling me over the engine."
"Sure. It's no problem pal." Rivalz turned off his bike to save the power in the battery as Lelouch flipped his phone open and put it to his ear.
"Hello, this is Lelou-" Lelouch pulled the phone away from his ear as he heard the person on the other end shout at him.
"Big Brother, where are you?!" Nunnally shouted. Lelouch checked his watch and his eyes widened as he saw the time. It was about a minute before noon. "Lunch is almost over. If you're not back soon you're going to be late to class again!" It had taken them nearly forty minutes to arrive there was no way they were going to make it back before their next class at 12:35 unless they got lucky and the traffic from earlier had died down.
'Great, now I'm going to need to grade even more papers tonight.' Since he was far too different for the mundane punishments that were normally used by the school to work on him, the teachers had come up with a different sort of punishment for Lelouch.
Depending on what he did, he would have to assist the teachers, all of the teachers, at Ashford, with a certain number of homework assignments to make up for the time he missed. It was pretty much the only effective punishment because simply because of how mind numbingly boring it was to him. He and Rivalz had thought by leaving at lunch time they could make it to his match and be back well before the lunch break ended, but the traffic had made them late.
"Sorry Nunnally, it looks like we're going to be late. Rivalz and I were just about to leave when you called." He winced as he practically felt Nunnally's frown. He hated it when he upset Nunnally. For more reasons than simply being her loving older brother. Nunnally could be very devious when she put her mind to it. "Hey, how about I take you out shopping tomorrow? My treat. After all, my opponent paid three times more than the original bet today." He sighed in relief as he heard Nunnally chirp her response before he practically choked on his tongue.
"I suppose that would be fine. But we're taking Milly with us so I can get a proper girl's idea of fashion. Talk to you soon Big Brother, I love you!" Lelouch heard his sister's phone click shut and he shuddered. Milly was going to torture him tomorrow, he just knew it.
Rivalz laughed as he heard Lelouch's conversation. Witnessing Nunnally messing with Lelouch was always amusing. "Dude, your sister has you totally whipped." He ignored Lelouch's glare as he restarted his motorcycle. It wasn't the first time he was on the receiving end of one of Lelouch's glares. And compared to the first few times he got glared at when he was trying to become Lelouch's friend, it was nothing.
Lelouch sighed as he sat down in the side-car and pulled out his book after putting on his helmet and visor to protect his eyes from the wind. "Just drive." He said exasperatedly. Honestly, it wasn't worth arguing about something like that. He started reading the next chapter of a book he brought to keep himself occupied while Rivalz drove.
It was a well-known fact that he would do just about anything for Nunnally. Of course, there wasn't anyone at school who knew that better than Nunnally herself and when she was annoyed with him she took full advantage of that fact. In fact, when he wasn't the target of her devious little mind, he was very proud of her. Of course, that didn't change the fact that she could play him effortlessly and he couldn't do a thing about it. Not that he really cared. He loved putting a smile on Nunnally's face. Even after being crippled and blinded she was still the devious little hellion that chased him around the Aries Villa when they were younger. He knew though, that no matter how much she messed with him for fun or when he annoyed her, that she loved him very much and Lelouch felt the exact same way.
(Tokyo Settlement, Area Eleven – Highway – 12:17 pm – September 11 – 2017 a.t.b.)
As Rivalz was driving down the highway on his motorcycle he asked Lelouch a question that had been nagging at the back of his mind since the beginning of Lelouch's chess match. "That first move you made –"
Lelouch looked at his friend from the corner of his eye. "Hm?" He shifted his attention from his book to his friend. He had read and reread the book so many times over the years that he practically knew it inside and out, only reading it so often because he enjoyed it so much, so he had no problem answering whatever Rivalz wanted to ask him.
"Why did you start with the King?" Rivalz may not have been much of a chess player, but even he knew that it was dangerous to move the King when it wasn't in check. Poor strategy didn't suit his intellectual friend very well.
Lelouch returned his attention back to his book after realizing that Rivalz was only curious about something he was well prepared to answer. "If the King doesn't lead, how can he expect his subordinates to follow?" He replied. It was a very simple philosophy, but one that was very outdated in this modern age. Though with the invention of the Knightmare Frame the philosophy seemed to be making a comeback with skilled pilots gaining higher ranks than normal soldiers. And even if it wasn't outdated, playing the King piece simply because of a personal philosophy would have been foolish. Lelouch had managed to invent a wholly unique and unorthodox playing style that was completely unknown to anyone who knew about chess. His King's Gambit playing style was one of his more mild secrets compared to being a former Prince, but it was still something he'd rather not share with anyone.
Since he was the first one to create it, he knew all of its strengths and weaknesses and he knew exactly how to play it to perfection. The only one who could possibly defeat his style would most likely be Schneizel, but Lelouch would never be able to test that theory. Something he felt somewhat saddened by if only out of a passing curiosity of how his older half-brother would play against it. After all, he hadn't even begun creating the King's Gambit when he was nine, having abandoned his original playing style that he had been creating after being abandoned by Britannia.
Rivalz was confused by his friend's cryptic answer. "What's with that?" Lelouch wasn't usually so philosophical about something as mundane as chess.
"With what?" Lelouch thought his answer was rather self-explanatory.
Rivalz decided to clarify his earlier question. Lelouch was so freakily intelligent that sometimes Rivalz forgot that his friend wasn't actually psychic. "Do you fantasize about running a major corporation?" That seemed like the most likely option based off of what Lelouch had told him.
Lelouch almost laughed. He had no interest in running a corporation. "No way, ambitions like that will ruin your health." He replied with his amusement coloring his tone. Though some would also say that about plotting to bring down an empire that ruled one third of the planet.
Suddenly a loud noise distracted the two students from their conversation and preventing Rivalz from continuing with his line of inquiry. Lelouch turned his attention from his book to see what had honked at them. They hadn't been speeding had they? He hoped that he and his friend weren't in any trouble.
Lelouch's eyes widened as he took in the enormous truck that was coming up right behind them extremely fast. He heard Rivalz and the driver each shout something lost to the wind blasting through his ears as he tried to stay calm. He held on to the edge of the side-car as Rivalz swerved the two of them out of the way. He heard wheels screeching and he turned just in time to see the truck that almost crushed them swerve into a construction site.
Rivalz stopped his motorcycle as he looked at the crash site in shock. "Eh, was that our fault?" He asked nonchalantly to cover up his own fear. He had never come that close to dying before so he was very nervous at the moment.
In contrast to his friend, Lelouch stayed calm, it wasn't the first time his life had been at risk so he wasn't all that phased. Even so, not having the constant threat of death over his head for the past few years had evidently made him forget what it was like to feel genuine fear about something other than Milly. He answered Rivalz's query with the same casual tone he was known for as he tried to calm down his quickly beating heart. "I don't think so." He said as he watched the billowing smoke float into the air. After all, they had been the ones to almost get rear-ended.
Lelouch's eyes widened as something occurred to him. 'Is the driver alright?' He thought to himself. Even if he had almost been in an accident, it was just that. An accident. The driver didn't need to die for something like that. As Lelouch set his book down and got out of the side-car to get a closer look to see if there was anything he could do to help he noticed something strange. 'What is that light?' An odd green light was coming from the back of the truck. The small motes of light that he could see coalesced into a humanoid shaped form before dissolving, causing the exiled Prince no small amount of confusion. Lelouch took off his helmet and visor and leaned over the divider that blocked the edge of the highway. "What the-?"
He was cut off when Rivalz groaned. "Oh man, this sucks. It looks like the power line on the bike got cut." He loved his bike too. The only bright side that he could see was that the money he would get from his cut of the prize would definitely cover the damage. Still, there was no way in hell that they would make it to class on time now.
Lelouch absentmindedly replied to his friend, "Yeah. Hey Rivalz, come check this out." He needed to make sure he wasn't the only one who could see that weird light. Maybe Rivalz could see it if he looked over too even though the light seemed to be gone. He hoped that Rivalz would be able to see it too. Seeing things wasn't exactly healthy. 'Maybe it's shock?' He thought to himself. After all, he knew all too well how near death experiences could shake someone up.
Suddenly his attention was drawn to a platform closer to the site of the crash. He watched as a large number of people gathered and started taking pictures with their phones as they discussed what might have happened. With one or two suggesting they call for help without doing a single thing. It disgusted him. 'All those idiots.' He quickly turned around and threw his helmet and visor into the side-car and ran to the ramp that had taken the truck to the construction site. He ignored Rivalz calling for him as he rushed down the ramp. His stamina may not have been the best, but short bursts of speed like this were no problem.
As he arrived at the site he noticed that the truck was buried under steel girders. There was no way he'd be able to move those at all so he had to resort to seeing if the driver could reverse the truck on his own. He hoped whoever it was that was driving was still alive. "Hey are you alright?!" He shouted. He wondered if his voice could even reach past all that steel. As he looked around he noticed a ladder that led to the inside of the truck. 'Perfect.' If he could get in, he could check to see if the driver was okay or if he needed to call an ambulance.
He climbed up the ladder and stood on the top of the truck. 'Shit, there's no ladder on the inside.' Lelouch noticed. That meant he wouldn't be able to climb out as easily as he could get in. Still he could call one more time and hopefully the driver would be well enough to respond and back out safely. If not, he'd go in regardless. He wouldn't let someone die if he was in the position to help them. He'd had enough of being helpless to change anything. "Can you hear me?! Are you okay?!"
Suddenly, a woman's voice echoed through his mind. "It's you! Finally, I have found my –" The voice was cut off before it could finish its statement.
Lelouch looked around as he tried to find the origin of the voice. "But, where?" Was that the driver? "Are you in there?!" He leaned over the edge to get a better look, but the truck was very dark on the inside.
All of a sudden the truck started up again and Lelouch stumbled forward. He gasped before the training he'd received from Tohdoh kicked in and he controlled his fall on instinct. He landed with his left shoulder and rolled into a somersault, stopping on his right knee. He needed to get the driver's attention and fast. "Stop! I'm in here!" His body tumbled as the truck turned and he hit his head on a large metal contraption. Disregarding his sudden dizziness as best he could, Lelouch stood up quickly so he could control his balance better before the truck hit another bump and he crashed into the side of the truck. "You'd think they'd put a ladder on the inside too." He complained to himself quietly. His head was feeling somewhat fuzzy after hitting his head on whatever metal thing was inside and he shook his head as he tried to regain his bearings.
Once his headache began to dissipate slightly, he noticed that the strange machine he'd hit his head on was tall enough for him to use to escape so he reached up and grabbed a handhold. 'With any luck I can jump out before we pick up too much speed. It'll hurt, but the driver clearly can't hear me and I really can't be late to class. They'd never believe this and I'm in enough trouble as it is already.' He blinked. He couldn't believe it. He was stuck in a truck that was heading to who knows where and he was more worried about getting to class on time? He must have hit his head harder than he realized.
"Stop the vehicle!" A voice projected over a loudspeaker said. Lelouch's eyes widened. 'Oh dear God, what have I fallen into here? Please let this just be a standard robbery.' He thought desperately. He could talk his way out of this much easier if this wasn't – "Surrender now and you'll get the chance to defend yourselves in court! Stop and surrender at once!" The truck he was trapped in swerved as he heard gunshots rapidly fire from behind the truck.
'The fucking military is after them?! Damn it, that means these guys are terrorists.' Lelouch had a feeling that things were about to get much worse. "Give up now, or we'll shoot to kill!" And there it was.
He would have laughed if he weren't terrified right now. It was just his luck the military wasn't feeling merciful the one day he decided to try to be a good Samaritan and ended up accidentally stuck in a truck with freaking terrorists. Lelouch hid behind that strange contraption he'd hit his head on as he calculated his options. He couldn't afford to be noticed by the terrorists right now. "If I jump out right now, I have the choice of breaking my neck or getting shot. I can try to call–" The sound of a door opening caught Lelouch's attention. A red-haired woman walked past Lelouch's hiding place dressed in a doctor's scrubs, which she quickly removed revealing a uniform that Lelouch was unable to get a clear look at before she was out of sight.
"Can you enter the subway via the Azabu route?" When the woman spoke Lelouch felt a spark of recognition. He carefully made his way out from where he was hiding to get a closer look at the, admittedly good-looking, terrorist.
"Kallen, let's use it here! Why not?" The driver questioned.
The red-haired woman, Kallen, retorted quickly. "Because that would mean a bloodbath!"
Lelouch narrowed his eyes at the woman after the driver conceded his side of the argument with a sullen "You're right." before the door shut again blocking anymore sound from the driver's side and making Lelouch wonder what the hell was going on. 'What have I gotten myself into and why does that woman look so familiar?' Lelouch was losing the hope that he would be able to get out of this quickly faster and faster. 'Just what in the world is going on here and what did these guys steal? And why would Clovis be so quick to mobilize the military to get it back?' There was one thing Lelouch knew for sure though, things were about to get very dangerous for him.
Lelouch sighed. He hoped that his luck would hold out so that he wouldn't end up leaving Nunnally alone. While Sayoko was a good caretaker, it would still break Nunnally's heart if he didn't make it home.
Lelouch's attention was quickly drawn to the woman again once he realized what she was doing. 'Shit, that's a Glasgow!' The only resistance group that Lelouch had ever heard of that had Knightmare Frames was the JLF and he knew that these people were definitely not members of that faction.
They were too disorganized and they clearly had no backup coming to help them, something that the JLF would have prepared for easily. As soon as the Glasgow left the truck Lelouch almost ran forward before he realized the truck was moving way too fast for him to safely jump out. 'Damn it, this is bad.' A small light flashed out of the corner of his eye and Lelouch turned to find the scrubs that the woman had abandoned had a communicator in it. 'Perfect, I can use this as a bargaining tool to get help from the military, or I can use it to contact the terrorists to help me escape. Either way, I win.' He thought as he picked up and pocketed the radio. Even if he hated the Britannian military, he had no personal connections to the terrorists. He wouldn't think twice about selling them out if it was necessary to get home to Nunnally. 'Now if only I knew why that woman seemed familiar.' Lelouch sat down as he contemplated his options and the roads smoothed out.
Lelouch pulled out his phone and huffed lightly. "No cellphone reception." That was just perfect. He felt the road shift underneath the truck. "I'm out of range and judging from the darkness and the road surface they must be driving along the old subway lines. They're headed for an exit somewhere in the Ghetto." That must mean the terrorists' base was hidden in the Ghettoes. "That means getting out will be dangerous." It was ingenious really. No ordinary Britannian would voluntarily go into the Ghetto. Many of them disliked even seeing Honorary Britannians, especially the Britannians who felt that 'Numbers' didn't deserve any rights at all.
Lelouch tilted his head up slightly and wondered if they had exited the subway lines yet. "I'll have to make my decision soon. Which will benefit my survival more, the terrorists or the military?" Lelouch pondered sardonically. Whichever choice he made, he had to ensure that his identity remained secret and that he stayed alive. That's all that mattered.
He was in all this trouble just for trying to help someone out after an accident. 'It's always the little things, isn't it?' Lelouch thought morbidly before he noticed a strange sign on the machine that the terrorists had been going through so much trouble to steal. 'Damn, it's too dark for me to read properly. I wonder, what is this thing and why is it so important to Clovis?' No matter, he figured he'd find out soon enough anyway.
(Shinjuku Ghetto, Area Eleven – Underground – 1:02 pm – September 11 – 2017 a.t.b.)
After being stuck in the vehicle for well over forty minutes, his headache dissipating a little while ago, Lelouch had been constantly trying checking his phone to see if he would get lucky and get some wireless service so he could call for help. Suddenly the truck Lelouch was trapped in lurched. "An accident?" He wondered. "Or has the military found the truck?" He did his best to maintain his balance as he stayed down so he wouldn't end up hitting his head a second time if the truck suddenly lurched again.
Once it became clear that the truck had stopped moving completely, Lelouch stood up from his lowered position. When the 'walls' began to open Lelouch quickly moved so he wouldn't be spotted. As soon as he noticed that no one was rushing in, he figured it had to have been an accident. He definitely would have been taken in by now if the military had been the ones to stop the truck.
'Maybe now I can see what all this is all about.' The doors that he had thought were walls had ended up lighting the back of the truck just enough for him to get a better look at the strange machine.
Lelouch gasped in shock when he read the label. 'What the hell?! Poison gas?! But chemical weaponry has been banned worldwide since the end of World War I!' "What the hell is Clovis thinking?" He whispered to himself harshly. This was really bad, if this really was poison gas, every single person in the country could be in danger.
Suddenly the sound of footsteps brought him out of his shocked stupor. He saw a Britannian soldier running toward him before the soldier suddenly jumped and performed an eerily familiar spin kick.
Lelouch didn't have any time to put up anything other than a simple block on reflex as his eyes widened in shock. 'No way! There's someone other than Suzaku who can pull that damn thing off?!' He thought quickly as he hit the floor from the strength of the kick. He quickly used the momentum from his landing to perform a backwards somersault and get back on his feet. Quickly he raised his arms up as the soldier once again rushed him and quickly pinned him up against the inside of the truck. Both of their arms were occupied holding each other's shoulders as they stared each other down.
The soldier's gas mask popped open as he growled at Lelouch. "That's enough mindless murder."
Lelouch glared at the soldier. As if a Britannian soldier had the right to speak of mindless murder. Still, he may end up needing the military's protection so he couldn't anger his only current potential ally. "Wait, I'm not a terrorist!" He shouted back.
The soldier grasped at Lelouch's uniform and pushed him against the inside of the truck harder. "Planning to use poison gas, don't play dumb with me!"
Lelouch growled as he raised his leg to kick the soldier. "Damn it, get off me!" He shouted. His kick missed as the soldier jumped back, but it succeeded in getting the soldier to back off temporarily. He rolled his shoulder slightly as he walked forward from his position against the wall. "I'm not here by choice, I fell into the back of the truck by accident after I tried to help the driver after they crashed. I had no idea they were terrorists at the time." He explained calmly.
If he had a choice he would have normally used this moment to vent his current frustrations by bringing up how if there were poison gas it had to have been made by Britannia, but he couldn't afford to piss off his only current option for protection. He couldn't afford to die and leave Nunnally alone.
The soldier mumbled something as Lelouch stepped into the light that was illuminating the inside of the van. Lelouch gave the soldier a look, "Um, what? I didn't catch that." He quickly disregarded whatever the soldier said as unimportant. There were more important things to worry about right now. "Whatever, could you help me out of this, I just want to leave. I had no intention of getting involved with these guys in the first place." He explained himself calmly.
"Lelouch." The soldier spoke more clearly this time, though his voice was clearly filled with shock.
Lelouch's eyes widened in surprise before they narrowed in suspicion, if this soldier knew who he was this was going to end really badly. If necessary, he may have to kill this soldier and he wasn't sure he could pull it off. The soldier was clearly more skilled than him despite his quick reflexes and he had never been much of a physical fighter. But he couldn't afford his identity to get out; it could compromise Nunnally's safety. He suddenly felt sick at that thought as the soldier removed his helmet and spoke to him.
"Lelouch, it's me. It's Suzaku." His old friend spoke to him for the first time in seven years. His childhood friend was dressed in Britannian military fatigues that were generally given out to the lower ranked grunts. But his curly brown hair and pale green eyes were still the same as the friend he remembered.
'Oh God, I just thought about killing Suzaku!' Lelouch thought in shock and disgust. He could never kill Suzaku after everything the two of them had been through with Nunnally. "Suzaku, you became a Britannian soldier?" He mumbled in shock. Had his friend forgotten of all the terrible things that Britannia had done to his people during the invasion?
Suzaku gave Lelouch a solemn look as he ignored his friend's question. "So was what you said earlier true? I'd hate to think you'd become a terrorist Lelouch."
Lelouch snorted. "Yeah, just goes to show you what happens when you try to do something nice for someone. The driver almost crashed into me and my friend on the highway before they ended up running into some kinda construction zone. I thought I'd be a nice person for a change and help the guy out since it was only an accident. Then all this crap happened. Talk about bad luck right?" Lelouch asked rhetorically. His luck had never been the best, it was why he only gambled on his chess matches, but this was just ridiculous even by his standards.
Before Suzaku could respond the capsule containing the poison gas cracked open and a golden light started shining from the contents. Suzaku reacted almost instantaneously and tackled Lelouch to the ground and covered his mouth with his military gas mask. Lelouch grunted as he hit the ground and looked at his friend in shock. 'No, Suzaku's going to be killed!' His friend had just given up his only protection to save Lelouch.
Suddenly, a beam of yellow light shot toward the ceiling of the truck, bursting through the roof, and exited through a crack that was allowing light into the underground cavern causing a circular hole to appear in the roof of the truck. As soon as the beam of light left the vehicle the golden glow began to die down and Lelouch realized that no poison gas had erupted from the canister. Before he could start to wonder why the label had been fake a woman with long green hair bound in a Britannian prison uniform fell out of the capsule.
"That's not poison gas." Suzaku murmured absentmindedly as the woman was temporarily bathed in the golden glow. 'Beautiful.' Both Lelouch and Suzaku thought at the same time. The scene was almost ethereal and the woman was definitely beautiful. Passive golden eyes stared at them before closing in what seemed to be relief and the woman collapsed.
Seeing the woman fall unconscious brought the two teenagers out of their reverie. This was no time to be gawking. The two old friends carried the woman out of the truck carefully and gently set her down on the ground.
"Well, isn't this an interesting day. First accidentally falling in with terrorists, and then meeting an old friend who joined the military, and now a woman being labeled poison gas." He chuckled before continuing. "I know women can be troublesome, but this is ridiculous." Lelouch joked as he helped Suzaku unzip the woman's straightjacket freeing her hands enough so they could find the buckle binding her arms. Underneath the lower restraints that Suzaku unzipped she was wearing high heeled boots an identical shade of white to the rest of her clothing.
Suzaku let out an exasperated sigh. "You were thinking of Kaguya when you said that last bit weren't you?" The Honorary Britannian said tiredly with a small smile. His cousin had that effect on people; even as a little girl she could drive people crazy with ease. "Anyway, we were briefed that what the capsule contained was poison gas, so I have no idea what's going on." He unbuckled the restraints binding the woman's legs and arms as Lelouch froze.
'Wait, they only let Honorary Britannians join the military and they're almost always considered cannon fodder.' He thought to himself as he realized something dangerous. 'And Suzaku wasn't briefed about this woman but told a cover story about poison gas.' His hands started to shake as he moved again to pull off the lower face mask binding the woman's mouth, but much more slowly as a terrible fact sunk into his mind. 'That must mean they're going to cover this up and to do that they're going to kill Suzaku!' His eyes squinted as a harsh light flashed from his left.
"Fucking trash." A man dressed in the garb of Clovis' Royal Guard said as he stood backed up by at least nine other soldiers with floodlights making it difficult for Lelouch to identify anyone's features other than their leader. The man had a scar curving under his left eye, but that was pretty much the only unique thing Lelouch could notice with the lights blinding him. Otherwise the rest of the Royal Guard and their leader looked pretty much identical to him. "Being an Honorary Britannian will not excuse you!"
Lelouch reached forward to try and stop his old friend, but he missed as Suzaku ran up to his superior. 'Damn it Suzaku, they don't care! They're not going to let you live now that you've seen what was really inside that capsule. This woman really is poison, but only to Suzaku's superiors and Clovis if knowledge of her gets out.' He thought to himself as Suzaku tried to explain what was going on to the Royal Guard.
As Lelouch expected the guard ignored what his old friend had to say, but he was surprised by what the man did next. "However, in light of your outstanding military achievements I'm going to be lenient." He pulled out a pistol and handed it toward Suzaku. "Private Kururugi, take this and execute the terrorist."
Both Suzaku and Lelouch's eyes widened in shock. Suzaku turned toward his childhood friend as he tried to explain. "But he's not a terrorist he's a civilian who just got caught up in all this by mistake!"
The leader of the Royal Guard interrupted Suzaku, "You insubordinate little bastard. That's an order! Didn't you swear your loyalty and your life to Britannia?!"
Suzaku clenched his fist in frustration. "Yes, but– but I can't." He wouldn't kill his friend. Besides, all he needed to do was buy some time for Lelouch to think of a way to get them out of this. He knew that if Lelouch revealed his heritage it would likely protect them, but he would never expose his friend without his consent. That would be the worst betrayal he could ever commit.
The Royal Guardsmen growled at the Lelouch's childhood friend. "What?"
Suzaku turned to look at Lelouch. His eyes softened slightly as he took in the visage of his older, but still familiar friend. Hopefully he had figured out a way out of this situation for them now. "I won't do it sir, I won't shoot a civilian. I can't follow your order sir." And if not, there were worse ways to die than looking at an old friend.
The Royal Guards leader frowned before responding as he lowered the gun in his hand. "Very well." the guard pulled the trigger and shot Suzaku in the back before he could react.
"Suzaku!" Lelouch shouted in shock and desperation. 'No, not Suzaku too.' Lelouch ignored the guard speaking at him as his mind almost shut down. His closest friend was dead, just like his mother. Dead, dead, dead, DEAD! Suddenly the truck behind him exploded upwards collapsing the already structurally weakened ceiling around the young student, shaking Lelouch out of his horror.
'No. I can't afford to die here.' He couldn't afford to be distracted now and let Suzaku's sacrifice go to waste. He was different from that night, his mind had already seen the many tragedies that Britannia was capable of and he just needed to classify this as another one until he could mourn properly. 'I'm sorry Suzaku, but I guess I'll have to find your body later. I swear I will make Britannia pay for this.' He picked up the green haired woman on instinct and ran into the tunnels of the Ghetto.
(Shinjuku Ghetto, Area Eleven – Underground – 1:33 pm – September 11 – 2017 a.t.b.)
Lelouch leaned up against a wall underground as he heard the sound of explosions echoing above him as a massacre was being carried out by Britannia. He covered his face with his hand as he tried to keep himself under control. "It's just like the invasion all over again." He murmured despondently. Images of that Hell flashed in his mind with each scream and explosion he heard before he regained control over his mind. He needed to keep a level head, but he couldn't quite keep in his last statement. "Only this time it's over a single woman." Lelouch said in a disbelieving monotone.
Lelouch removed his hand from his face as he glared at the green haired woman that had fallen out of his grip when he leaned against the wall to rest. "This is all your fault! Because of you, everyone here is going to die! And Britannia's, it's even stolen Suzaku!" Lelouch covered his face again and pressed against his eyelids with his right hand as he tried to suppress tears for his friend. 'Damn it, Britannia has already stolen my mother, my little sister's legs and sight, and now they've stolen my closest friend!' Lelouch took a deep breath, 'No, I can't think like that right now. At the moment, I should be focused on surviving.' Lelouch turned to the green haired woman more calmly this time. 'And I suppose I should protect her too. After all, Suzaku lost his life so that we both could live. I would be dishonoring him if I let this woman die right now.'
As Lelouch bent down to pick up the woman and leant her against the wall, he apologized to her. "I'm sorry for my words earlier." Lelouch knelt down at her side to see if she had any injuries from her fall. "I'm not going to let you die after my best friend gave his life for us. Can you walk?" He asked softly. The woman gave him a searching look, as though she were trying to ascertain his sincerity. She was apparently satisfied with what she saw and decided to respond to his query.
"Not all that well," the woman spoke in a calm voice, "I'm still worn out from the anesthetic they injected into me." Lelouch was surprised that the woman was so calm. Though there was also the fact that her voice seemed familiar to him for some reason he couldn't place. It was a very sophisticated tone that she used, indicating most likely she spent a large amount of time amongst the nobility in the past.
Lelouch frowned at the woman's statement. 'Damn, I don't think I'm strong enough to carry her all the way out of here.' His arms were burning from the effort of carrying her so far already and he doubted the anesthetic would wear off soon enough that the woman could walk on her own without some assistance. He thought about his options before something suddenly occurred to him.
As he pulled out his phone and hummed in triumph as he saw that he finally had service again, the woman's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Are you going to call the military then?" She stated blandly.
Lelouch looked at the woman appalled. "After what they did to Suzaku?! No, if I have a choice I'm never going to rely on the Britannian military ever again. They've stolen far too much from me." He searched through his contacts and pressed a button to call his chosen number. "No, I'm going to call someone that may be able to help us." The woman gave him a look and Lelouch decided to assuage her worries as the phone rang in his ear. "Don't worry, she's trustworthy. I trust her with the most important thing in my life."
"Hello? This is Sayoko." A young woman's voice answered demurely. "May I ask whose calling?"
Lelouch sighed in relief as he heard his maid's voice. "Sayoko, this is Lelouch. I need your help, I'm stuck in the Shinjuku Ghetto and there's a woman here who is being targeted by the military. We're safe for now, but I don't know for how long. Right now, I need you to check the news and tell me what's going on in Shinjuku." He spoke urgently.
"Yes, young master." Sayoko spoke in assent. Lelouch heard a click in the background as the maid turned on a television. "The only news coming out of Shinjuku right now is a large amount of traffic. Would you like me to come pick you up young master?"
Lelouch sighed as he realized what was going on. 'The military is going to cover this up. It can't get out that a massacre was sanctioned or the political backlash would be terrible for Clovis. They're probably going to try and blame this on the terrorists using poison gas.' He thought about Sayoko's offer to help and decided it was probably the safest way to get the two of them out of here. "Yes Sayoko. That would help immensely, but please be careful." Lelouch cautioned her. "I wouldn't want you to get killed on my account. If you can't find us in an hour go to the eastern edge of the Ghetto and wait for fifteen minutes. If I'm not there in that time, leave. I won't have you risk your life. Nunnally needs at least one of us to make it out of this."
"I understand young master, but, pardon me for saying this, I'm sure the young mistress would rather you get out of this instead of me." Sayoko said remarkably calmly for someone mentioning her own possible death. Lelouch figured that it probably came with being a shinobi.
When Lelouch had first begun living with the Ashfords, he had personally assisted Ruben with investigating all of the man's servants and which one who he would pick to help him take care of Nunnally.
As he had only been ten when he had moved in, he was unable to properly care for everything Nunnally would need in the future no matter how much he loved her. It had taken some serious convincing on Ruben's part to make Lelouch understand that he couldn't possibly raise Nunnally without help when he was only a child himself.
Eventually the man succeeded, and Lelouch agreed on the stipulation that he would only pick one of the man's servants and Ruben had to personally interview and investigate all of them, if he hadn't already. He wanted to know everything he possibly could about the candidates before he allowed them anywhere near Nunnally.
When he had come across Sayoko, he had been shocked to find out that the woman had been hired before the invasion, since most Japanese servants had been hired after their country was conquered, and that the woman was actually satisfied with being a maid to the Ashford family.
When he asked Ruben about her, he had said it was because the woman was from a family of shinobi and she had to learn to accept all forms of tasks, including being a maid, in order to get closer to her targets.
She had originally been sent by her family to assassinate Ruben and to steal information about the Ganymede when he had been exiled to Japan after losing his family's noble title, but he had quickly discovered very, very small inconsistencies with her background check when he had begun hiring servants. They were so small that had he been anyone else, the mistakes would have never been noticed.
Ruben hired the woman anyway and began investigating her more thoroughly than a simple background check and he eventually learned about her mission.
He had called her into his office and actually gave her the information she wanted in exchange for her staying on the job as his maid and to not take his life. When Sayoko had asked about his reasons he said that after the way the Emperor so callously treated the death of Marianne, who he had been rather close to as her sponsor, he no longer felt any loyalty to Britannia.
Unfortunately, the information he gave her had been too late, and the attack that Japan had been expecting to come at the end of their contract with Britannia in December of 2010 had instead come in August. Since he had given the information in the month of July, they had only managed to study the information for a month before the ones who had sent her on the mission were attacked and killed along with the rest of Japan's resistance at the time.
He had chosen Sayoko to be his servant after he learned all of this because he knew that having someone who could protect Nunnally as well as help him take care of her would be invaluable. Over the past seven years, she had proven to be one of the only people he could trust completely and he considered her a very valuable ally to him for both her dedication and her loyalty to him.
"Sayoko, please don't talk like that." Lelouch hated it when someone who he was close to disregarded their own life as though it were worthless when he considered it precious. "Anyway, just please be careful. You are very valuable to me. I'll see you soon Sayoko."
"Of course young master." Then Sayoko's phone clicked shut and Lelouch sighed as he shut his own phone after turning on the cloaked GPS that would lead Sayoko to his location.
The things that could be done when you had months of free time and a technological genius as a guardian he mused. He wasn't much of an inventor, he had the creative mind and none of the mechanical skill, but when he had mentioned the idea of placing small tracking devices into his, Nunnally's, and Sayoko's phones so that they could all track each other if it were ever needed Ruben had delivered perfectly.
The man had greatly missed the freedom he had as the head of engineering at one of the most prestigious research institutes of Pendragon and had been dying to invent something again no matter what it was. So when Lelouch had come to him with his idea, the man had been ecstatic.
Within three months, the tracking devices had been installed in their phones and the man had even succeeded in making the signals completely invisible to any attempts at detection.
The signals were completely untraceable with any existing technology because they used existing signals and they rebounded until they found one of three IDs that only existed on each of the phones and once the connection was established the signals plotted the quickest course between each other. It couldn't be found because there wasn't anything to find according to the sensors that were used by anyone who could try to track it.
Lelouch turned to the green haired woman who had been silent while he talked to his servant. "Now then, since help is on the way we should probably get moving. I won't have Sayoko drive through this warzone and risk getting herself killed any more than she already is by coming to help us." He said as he leaned down and picked up her left arm and put it over his shoulder. "Until you are able to walk on your own, you can lean on me. I won't let the military capture you." He promised. He meant it too. He was not going to let this woman die if he could help it.
As he silently walked slowly through the tunnels underneath the Shinjuku Ghetto helping the mysterious woman he'd freed with Suzaku, Lelouch felt far calmer than he had in the past two hours. 'Maybe it's because I finally have a plan for getting out of this alive?' He wondered. 'Or maybe it's because I've just become numb after seeing my closest friend murdered right in front of me.' As he let his mind wander the green haired woman let out an amused chuckle.
"Well aren't you a gallant one. Saving a mysterious woman whose name you don't even know and promising to protect her? You're quite the knight now aren't you? All we need is a dragon and it'd be a regular fairy tale." She said dryly. She had not been expecting anything quite like this to happen today. So much for just another day of invasive testing on military black sites.
Things were getting interesting again. She liked that.
Lelouch looked out of the corner of his eye at the woman as they continued walking. "Trust me woman, I'm no hero. I just refuse to let my closest friend's death be in vain. After we get out of this, I couldn't care less what you do with your life. Just make sure you live it knowing that my best friend died for you and if I find out you wasted the life he gave you, I swear I will find a way to make you pay." He never had been, and he never would be, a hero. His mind was far too distorted for him to be a hero to anyone and he knew it.
A hero wouldn't feel nothing but satisfaction as he broke the spirits of nobles for money, a hero wouldn't kill soldiers remorselessly at ten-years-old to save his little sister and feel nothing but happiness that she was safe. But most of all, he knew a hero wouldn't be willing to burn down every single living thing in the entire Ghetto until it was nothing but ashes if it meant his best friend would come back to life. No, he knew he would never be a hero.
The woman laughed at his threat as though she knew something he didn't. "How amusing, although I don't think there's anything you can do to me that the bastard Prince ruling this land hasn't already done." She said bitterly. Any child borne of Charles' blood seemed to have an instinct for cruelty she discovered.
Lelouch glared at the woman before she mentioned Clovis. His eyes then began roaming the woman who was leaning on his shoulder as they walked. She was almost his height thanks to the heels and, although he could tell she was beautiful, with her emerald hair and golden eyes, he knew that Clovis wouldn't imprison a woman for such a reason. There was little point in that after all. He looked at her intensely and she returned his gaze with equal strength, her golden amber orbs staring into his own violet.
They paused their walking next to a door that Lelouch assumed was originally meant to be used for maintenance and a small flight of stairs leading out of the tunnels as the exiled Prince asked a question that had been bothering him ever since this woman had fallen out of that poison gas capsule. "That reminds me, why exactly did Clovis lock you up so heavily and what did he do to you?" The mysterious woman merely gave him a smirk.
"Who knows, maybe I'll tell you someday." She said amusedly. She wasn't going to tell him anything that easily. What fun would that be?
Lelouch sighed at the woman's response. "Whatever, just stay here for now. I'm going to see if there are any guards above us. Hopefully, we can escape without being seen." He spoke as he set the woman down against the maintenance door.
As Lelouch crawled silently up the stairs, he heard rapid fire gunshots and a body collapse to the ground. He quickly ducked back down and motioned for the woman behind him to stay silent.
His eyes widened as he heard the voice of the bastard who shot Suzaku in the back. His body started trembling with anger as he repressed the urge to jump from his hiding place and strangle him if only because of the fact that he would die before even reaching the man.
Instead, he listened for anything he could use to make his and the woman's escape easier and he hoped that the soldiers would leave soon.
"You're sure of it? The tunnel they went through comes out here?" The leader asked.
One of the man's subordinates replied, "Yes sir. It matches up with our map of the old city."
Suddenly the sobbing of a little girl echoed throughout the warehouse they were in. Gunshots quickly silenced the little girl as Lelouch's eyes turned to ice. 'That's it! I don't care how, I don't care if I lose my life, but these sons of bitches are going to die!' The only thing that Lelouch could think of right now was that little girl could have been Nunnally and his mind went white hot with pure rage.
Suddenly his phone rang before he could make his most likely suicidal charge. He quickly silenced it and turned to grab the woman and hide, but it was too late.
His school uniform's collar was grabbed and he was thrown to the ground from his place on the stairwell. He shouted, "Quickly woman, run!" Before he was punched in his gut.
He gasped for breath after the wind was knocked out of him and saw the woman he tried to warn get grabbed by her long green hair as she was thrown a few feet to his left. The soldier who punched him picked him up by his collar and punched his cheek, throwing him back against the wall of the building.
Lelouch wiped his cheek and was relieved to see no blood for the moment. He then turned to his attackers and saw that two of them were pointing their assault rifles at the green haired woman and the rest were pointing their own at him. The leader walked past his men to the front and spoke to Lelouch.
"What an appropriate location for a terrorist to meet his end." The man said.
Lelouch growled at the bastard. "You scum, so you think that little girl was a terrorist?! You're nothing more than trash that enjoys killing innocent people!" He snarled.
The man ignored him as he rambled on. "Still you did well for a student, but that's expected of a Britannian. Unfortunately my clever young friend, you have no future." The leader pointed his pistol– the same pistol that murdered Suzaku– at him and slowly pulled the trigger.
Lelouch flinched before glaring at the man as he prepared to die. He feared death but he wasn't going to cower before this man.
Just as the bullet was about to leave the chamber of the pistol the green haired woman quickly pushed her way passed the men holding her hostage, who had been distracted by the spectacle their leader was putting on, and jumped in the way and spread her arms as if to protect Lelouch.
"No, I will not allow you to kill him!" she shouted. The gun flashed and the bullet pierced the green haired woman's skull with a sickening pop.
Lelouch stared in shock as the woman who he had promised to protect collapse to the ground in front of him just as the corpse she had become should. Blood started to pool around her head as the bullet exited the back of her skull onto the floor.
The bullets used by the military only had a powerful initial piercing effect and it took a few seconds for the bullet to make an exit wound. He shook his head to dispel the clinical analysis his mind jumped into as he stared at the pool of blood that left her body. His fear became more visible as his body began to shake.
"You shot her." Lelouch mumbled in shock as he ran to kneel next to the woman as though he could do something to save her. The kind of shot that the woman had taken was almost instantly fatal. After all, she had been shot directly through her forehead and it was impossible to survive that. He stared at her body in shock as the leader of the Royal Guard spoke.
"Humph. Our orders were to bring her back alive if possible." The man blinked as he mulled over what he could do to explain the situation to Prince Clovis. "Oh well, nothing can be done about it now. We'll tell our superiors that the Royal Guard found the terrorist hideout and killed them all, regrettably the female hostage had already been tortured to death." He smirked as he looked at the young Britannian student before him. "What do you think schoolboy?"
Lelouch's body trembled as he resisted the urge to take the woman's hand and try to feel for a pulse, knowing that there would be nothing to find. 'How can this be happening? My plan to have Sayoko take us out of here, my plan to save this woman for Suzaku, it's fallen apart. First Suzaku, then that little girl, now this woman. Now I'm about to die, before I've had a chance to do a single thing with my life. It's gone in a heartbeat.' An image of his beloved little sister sitting in her wheelchair waiting for him flashed through his mind.
'Nunnally!' He couldn't afford to die here and leave her all alone! He refused to die here and leave Nunnally behind!
Suddenly the supposed to be dead woman's hand reached out and grabbed his own. Lelouch's eyes widened in shock and surprise. 'What?!' His mind flashed as he felt like his body was being dragged. A strange dark blue world flashed passed his eyes as he noticed what appeared to be pale blue strings attached to his wrists pulling him downward. Green lines flashed throughout the strange world as though he were inside a circuit board.
"You don't want it to end here do you?" The dead woman's voice echoed through his mind.
'That's why she sounded so familiar. She was the voice I heard on top of the truck before I fell in!' Lelouch realized.
Suddenly the blue world faded completely to white, leaving only himself floating in the strange abyss.
He then stared forward in shock as he saw the woman's upper torso, clearly naked with only her long hair covering even a part of her breasts, and yet he couldn't help but feel as though clothing simply didn't matter in this strange world. Besides, she was as white as the rest of the abyss, with him only able to identify her because he could see her outlined in dark lines like a sketch.
He looked down slightly and realized he looked the same, only he had his Ashford Academy uniform on even though it was just as white as everything else around him.
"You appear to have a reason for living." Her voice echoed strangely in this odd world. "If I grant you power, could you go on?"
Lelouch's mind responded almost instantly, 'Yes.' The result was instantaneous. He saw two enormous orbs flash through his mind before being illuminated in a bright white light that somehow managed to avoid blinding him. The woman spoke once more.
"I propose a deal. In exchange for this power, you must agree to make my one wish come true. Accept this contract and you accept its conditions." Her voice then took a solemn tone. "While living in the world of humans, you will live unlike any other. A different providence, a different time, a different life."
Feathers then flashed through the strange air and Lelouch found himself floating in the empty white abyss once again.
A stone with a bird-like sigil and with a single line piercing right through the center flashed in his mind before the image once again changed in an instant.
This time he saw a large gathering of people dressed in pure white clothing with the same symbol on their foreheads, their eyes closed as if in prayer.
The third image flashed in an instant once more only this time it was of space and Lelouch saw a planet in the vision that greatly resembled Jupiter.
His mind once again flashed blue as he felt himself dragged once again. He listened as the woman spoke again, something sorrowful in her tone as though she wished to apologize for asking him of this. "The Power of the King will condemn you to a life of solitude. Are you prepared for this?" She asked him cautiously.
Golden flecks of light shown in the distance as Lelouch felt his mind once again assaulted by a vision from this strange world. Only this time, it was a vision of someone Lelouch recognized with a boiling hatred.
A deep voice echoed throughout the world as Lelouch glared at the Emperor's back in shock. The man was dressed in strange robes flanked by figures dressed in identical garb. "A convergence with the Ragnarök Connection? So the myth is beginning once again?" The man's voice echoed just as the woman's did. Lelouch growled with rage.
"Yes, I hereby accept the terms of your contract!" Lelouch flourished his left arm dramatically as the world changed once more. Twin gears interlocked as the contract was accepted and Lelouch faded from the strange world back into what felt like his body once again. He would accept this power, and he would find the answers he sought.
Even if he had to burn the world to the ground.
As knowledge of this new power, this Geass as it was called, flew through his mind, he knew that he would need to be cautious with it. The knowledge that entered his mind appeared to be only the bare basics of it, so he'd have no idea of its weaknesses. The only thing other than basic knowledge of his new power that flashed through his mind was its name. The Geass of Absolute Obedience. He was figured out the basics of what that entailed and luckily he had his first test subjects right in front of him.
He calmly stood up and placed his hand on over his eyes, ignoring the threat of death leveled at him by the Royal Guard Captain. "Say, how should a Britannian who despises Britannia live his life?" He asked the Royal Guard rhetorically. The leader once again pointed his pistol at Lelouch.
"Are you some kind of radical?" The soldier was unnerved. The young Britannian's countenance had changed so quickly.
"What's wrong? Why not shoot? Your opponent is just schoolboy." Lelouch said coolly. His voice was as smooth and cold as ice. He smirked as the soldiers before him started shaking. Obviously, they had no knowledge of how to react to someone who showed confidence while surrounded by such large number of enemies without even being armed.
"Or have you finally realized? The only ones who should kill, are those prepared to be killed." He said with conviction as his left eye began to burn with his new power. He was going to enjoy this.
The soldiers before the exiled Prince began shaking in fear. "What's happening here?" The leader of the Royal Guard asked in a terrified voice.
Lelouch gestured toward them with his left hand, letting his wrist and fingers stay limp, "Now, I Lelouch vi Britannia command you, now all of you, SUFFER AND DIE!" He swung out his left arm with all the finality of an executioner's axe. He maintained direct eye-contact with all of the soldiers as he felt his Geass exert its power over their minds, crushing any willpower they may have had to resist his command.
A shiver ran down his spine. He could feel their wills being crushed and subsumed by his own. The sensation felt addicting.
The building was silent for a single second before the first soldier started screaming. Soon all of the soldiers before the exiled Prince began screaming, begging for mercy, and sobbing as they suffered at the whim of the enraged Prince. After what these men had done, Lelouch had no intention of letting them just die. No, he wanted them to suffer for every atrocity they'd ever committed until they were begging for the sweet relief of death!
Lelouch laughed with pure joy as he heard the first gunshot of a soldier committing suicide. While the remaining ones continued to scream as they suffered. He laughed long and hard until every single one of the soldiers before him either died from shock or put a bullet through their skulls to end their pain. Their faces reflecting the terror they'd suffered before they died. Almost nothing had brought him this much joy than to see the suffering of these men before they inevitably lost their lives.
He knew it was twisted, but he didn't care. These men had killed Suzaku and an innocent little girl and who knows how many other atrocities for absolutely no reason. As far as he was concerned, they deserved to suffer before they died.
If he could he would have made these men suffer for all eternity, but he supposed that was the Devil's job now. He wondered if there truly was such a being and if it would enjoy the gift Lelouch had given it. No matter. 'If there isn't a Devil, then I shall become Him. I shall make all those who caused pain to the undeserving suffer for their sins before they die.' He thought before he realized something. 'Whoa, I need to calm down. I still don't know the limits of this power yet. I can't use it recklessly.' He took a deep breath as he calmed down from his power trip.
It really was quite addicting.
Still, it wouldn't be very good if someone came across him cutting loose with this power. He couldn't have anyone realize his instability. He wouldn't be able to change anything in this rotten world if he was locked up in an insane asylum.
He turned to look at the woman who had given him both the gift of life and his new Geass. His eyes turned solemn as he took in her cooling body. 'I thank you for this, whoever you might be. I'm sorry I didn't treat you better for the brief time I knew you. I wish I had learned your name. You were kind enough to sacrifice your life for my own, and endow me with this amazing ability. I hope, whoever you are, that you can rest in peace. I will do the best I can to use these gifts you have given me and make this world change so innocent people like you don't have to die. I'm sorry that I won't be able to fulfill your request and grant your one wish, but if there is such a way I can do it with you gone, I will do my best to grant it in your memory. It's the least I can do for you after what you've done for me. I promise, just like with Suzaku, once I can end this massacre, I will return for your body so I may lay it to rest properly. Until then, wait for me, my savior.' Lelouch didn't speak his eulogy to the young woman aloud, because she was unable to hear it anyway so it would be a waste of breath, but he felt that this woman deserved to be respected for her sacrifice. She had given him much, and so he would remember this nameless woman with respect. She had been quite useful to him after all.
Suddenly the wall to his left exploded inward as a Knightmare, one of the new Sutherlands he believed, burst into the building. As the smoke cleared, he saw the Factsphere, the computer that scanned the area for allies and enemies, open up to allow the pilot to get a better look at the inside of the building. 'Well then, I suppose now would be a good time to see if my Geass requires physical eye-contact or if it can work through a machine like a Knightmare.' Lelouch thought to himself. He needed to familiarize himself with his new ability quickly if he was going to use it to end this massacre.
"What happened here boy?!" A woman's voice blared from the speakers in the Sutherland. "And why is a Britannian student in a place like this?!"
Lelouch didn't answer as he contemplated his options, he couldn't afford to screw this up. The woman's voice blared over the speakers once again, "Are you deaf? Answer me or I'll shoot!"
Lelouch narrowed his eyes and grimaced at the hot-headed pilot. The Sutherland's gun open fired on the ground surrounding Lelouch as though to warn him to not even try to escape.
Unfortunately for the only living occupants of the building, that was the last thing that was the structurally unstable building could handle. The ground underneath their feet began crumbling and as they fell well over thirty feet downward into a hidden level of the building.
As Lelouch fell through the air, his body reacted before his mind, just as Tohdoh had taught him.
He kicked off the slab of stone, pushing his body into the air and to the right, used the falling stones around him as platforms to make sure that he didn't land directly on the floor and break his legs.
As he jumped from stone to stone, barely maintaining the momentum that was keeping him in the air and alive, he saw all the bodies as well as the Sutherland plummeting to the floor that was fast approaching.
He couldn't make out any details of where they were about to land, but he saw a spot that would allow him to get rid of his excess momentum once he landed without too much trouble. Still, he'd have wished for a place more open than the small area he'd seen.
He quickly pushed off the stone he had been standing on once they were just over ten feet from the ground. He made sure to position his feet so he landed heel to toe and bent his knees before rolling forward to absorb the impact of his landing.
His legs were practically on fire as he stood up before he could collapse, and he was sure he'd be feeling that in the morning, if he survived till tomorrow, but he would live for now. Luckily he hadn't sprained anything or broken any bones. The same couldn't be said for the Sutherland.
Knightmares were generally very top-heavy because of all the necessary protection needed for the pilot in the ejection pod, but the legs usually needed to be more maneuverable. So they were normally less armored, and thus less heavy, than the upper torso of the Frame.
That meant that the woman in the Sutherland had no way of balancing her Frame after falling into the open air as her Frame's top half was pulled down by gravity. She had tried to fire her Slash Harkens, but she missed her, he assumed, target of the ceiling and ended up sending them directly into the wall, bringing down more debris on top of her Knightmare.
The pilot in the Sutherland groaned incoherently over her speakers and Lelouch figured that she must have hit her head on the inside of her cockpit when she landed, knocking herself out. The Knightmare itself wasn't too heavily damaged, but it was definitely going to need to be fixed up.
Lelouch turned his attention from the Sutherland and its pilot as he tried to adjust to his new surroundings. The light from the ceiling of the building barely illuminated portions of what appeared to be a lab, but not much else. Lelouch looked in the opposite direction of the Knightmare Frame and noticed rows and rows of computers, the kinds that were usually used by research teams that needed to observe many different things at once.
In each row there were at least five computers and there were thick cords attached to the monitors that led up to a strange container that had been shattered. Whatever had been placed inside that container was definitely not inside of it anymore.
What surprised Lelouch the most though was how old the technology was. 'Incredible, this technology is at least a few years out of date. Just what the hell was being created here? Was Japan trying to create its own Knightmare Frame before they were discovered or something?'
Most of the computers he saw had their screens destroyed, deliberately as far as he could tell, but there was one that was somehow activated. Its light blue screen drew Lelouch's attention. It was the only thing that was still active in the laboratory and he was curious about what he would find on it. 'Our landing must have triggered some kind of reaction and activated a backup generator or something.'
As Lelouch limped away from where he landed he felt his legs burning from all the exertion he had forced them through today. 'Damn, my legs are killing me. But I can't afford to rest, not yet. I still need to stop this massacre.' Lelouch powered through the pain as he made his way toward the only active computer.
Lelouch let out a startled yelp as he felt something crunch under his foot. As he looked down, he saw a skeleton dressed in a lab coat under his foot. He almost shouted in surprise, but he maintained his composure. 'Okay, these guys have definitely been dead for a long time. If I'm right, this scientist, whoever it was, died several years ago when this place was discovered.' Lelouch then noticed the arm of the scientist bent at an odd angle with a single pair of handcuffs attached to a briefcase.
Lelouch's eyes widened as he saw the machine attached to the top of the briefcase. 'That's a liquid Sakuradite container! If anyone tried to open the briefcase without the proper key, it would have turned everyone here into dust!' Luckily the Sakuradite seemed to have drained out of a small hole that had been created when the glass decomposed over such an extended period of time exposed to raw, liquid Sakuradite.
'Just what were they making here?' Lelouch made his way to the computer, wary of stepping on any more skeletons as he looked around the lab more.
Since he was used to the darkness now, his eyes had finally adjusted properly, he could make out the corpses that had fallen from above and other bodies had been there for the past few years.
He pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he made his way to the only source of information that was available. 'If I want to learn anything about this place, I better start with that computer.' Lelouch pushed the skeleton that was seated in the chair in front of the monitor off of it and sat down, ignoring the clattering of the bones as he started up the computer.
"Okay, now let's see what was going on here." Lelouch murmured to himself as he watched the monitor start itself up according to the commands he typed into the keyboard.
After working on the supercomputer below Ashford Academy and piloting the Ganymede Knightmare Frame for some of Milly's insane parties, an old computer was simple for Lelouch to use. He effortlessly passed through the security firewalls before he stumbled upon a file labeled Project: Zero.
"Hmm, what's this little gem?" He wondered thoughtfully. Maybe it was what all these scientists had been working that had gotten them killed. He had noticed the skeletons of some Britannian soldiers as well, so he had a feeling that whoever had discovered this place for the Britannians hadn't survived the war or Britannia would have raided this place years ago.
His eyes widened as he took in the extremely detailed description of Project: Zero. "Our answer to the Humanoid Autonomous Armored Knight informally called the Knightmare Frame." Lelouch snorted at the comment 'informally'. This was definitely made seven years ago.
The term Knightmare Frame quickly became the formal way of referring to the machine once people got sick of the mouthful that was the original name. "The Zero Armor is our only hope to stave off the invasion of the Britannian Empire. It is an Anti-Knightmare Armor roughly the size of an adult human." Lelouch read quietly. "Unfortunately, this machine is too expensive to mass produce and too difficult to control to be implemented effectively with our regular soldiers and we have only managed to create one successfully working model so far."
"It requires enormous concentration abilities to be properly utilized to its fullest potential and the Zero Armor also requires the user to have quick reflexes, faster than the average mind could normally react. It also requires significant knowledge about how to operate a Knightmare Frame in order to be fully utilized. There is no one currently in our military that could fulfill these requirements and if the Zero Armor cannot be used to its fullest potential we will not allow its usage. We cannot allow Britannia to get its hands on our D.O.M Hostia system–" Lelouch hummed in mild confusion as he reduced the size of the window that he was using and searched the available files for the 'D.O.M Hostia system'.
He found it, but he noticed that there was a warning in red next to the link. It said File Corrupted and Lelouch frowned as he realized that the information was most likely destroyed after having been corrupted for so long.
He returned to the file he was reading after re-sizing the page properly. He quickly found his place and continued reading from where he'd left off. "– nor can we allow them to get their hands on the materials that make up the Zero Armor. Throughout all of our testing, we have been unable to find anything that managed to do harm to the Zero Armor and we have begun to believe that we accidentally created an indestructible material. Not even a controlled explosion of Sakuradite managed to harm the Zero Armor, although we did not have anyone inside of it at the time so we are unaware of how much the armor would be able to protect its wearer."
Lelouch stopped reading in shock as he leaned back to try and process that these scientists had managed to accidentally create a possibly indestructible armor. 'There's no way– if this had been even a fraction easier for someone to use, Japan would have put up a much more difficult fight against Britannia. Hell, they may have even been able to drive the Britannian military away if they could have mass produced this armor.'
He quickly returned his attention to the file. "The Zero Armor can assist the wearer in feats of strength, speed, and stamina that the wearer would normally be unable to perform, but at the cost of draining the power source of the Zero Armor proportionate to the amount of extra strength, speed, or stamina that is needed to assist the wearer."
"The boots of the Zero Armor are capable of temporarily attaching the wearer to walls and ceilings using an electromagnetic field to attach the wearer to the surface and allow them to temporarily defy gravity. (Note: This feature drains the power source of the Zero Armor incredibly quickly.)"
"The cloak of the Zero Armor is our answer to the Knightmare Frame's Slash Harkens. The cloak is able to divide itself into a finite number of sharp, pointed whips that are made of the same material as the Zero Armor. As far as we have tested, these whips are equal in range and ability to the Slash Harken, but they are unable to match the Slash Harken in strength and piercing power from the same range."
"The helmet of the Zero Armor is the most important part of our creation. The helmet has a built-in miniaturized Heads-Up Display in the upper right corner that clearly displays the current level of functions that the Zero Armor is capable of in real time and once the helmet has the schematics of a Knightmare Frame the Zero Armor is capable of utilizing the D.O.M Host- (This Section of File has been corrupted). The helmet is directly interfaced with the user's brainwaves, but since a stray thought could endanger the wearer while in combat a function has been added that requires a clear concise mental order for the Zero Armor to process the command." Lelouch frowned as he noticed the rest of the file was completely corrupted.
He closed the Project: Zero file and searched the database to see if there were any other files on the computer were able to be accessed.
He only found one and it the only link that was completely blank on its label. He frowned as he realized that this was the only file remaining in the database that hadn't been virtually destroyed by whatever virus the scientists had used to destroy their information regarding the Zero Armor. "Well, I suppose I've seen everything else I could have, I may as well check this out too." So he clicked the link.
A video screen popped up on the monitor and Lelouch realized that it was a file depicting a scene from a security camera.
Lelouch saw the remaining scientists in a dimly lit room that he realized was the laboratory he was in only how it was seven years ago. Before everyone involved had ended up dead. He was unable to hear any words being spoken, but he saw the scientists arguing with each other.
The capsule that was shattered in the current time was perfectly fine in the video and it was glowing the ominous pink of Sakuradite as a menacing looking black armor floated inside of it, held upright by plugs inputted into certain points of the armor feeding in the pink liquid.
He realized in shock that the power source the mentioned in the file was liquid Sakuradite. 'Were they insane? Or did they find some way to refine the material in such a way that it could safely be used?' He wondered.
He watched silently as a small light on the computer next to the chamber where the armor floated flashed green. The liquid material was drained beneath the container, before the bottom door to the lab was kicked in and the scientist who had been sitting in the chair when Lelouch pushed him off was shot in the back of the head and a second shot shattered the chamber where the Zero Armor was stored.
To their credit, despite clearly not being used to live combat, the scientists reacted with remarkable efficiency as soldiers burst in shooting at anything that so much as twitched wrong and they quickly pulled themselves together despite their earlier argument and grabbed the Zero Armor and its helmet before the enemy could get their hands on it.
They quickly put both in a briefcase that Lelouch recognized as the one attached to the skeleton he'd stepped on earlier, and handcuffed it to one of their own. As the woman who had it attached to her fiddled with the liquid Sakuradite container on the case the other scientists pulled out their own weapons and returned fire managing to take down the leader of the enemy with a lucky shot.
Once briefcase was armed, the woman made a run for the door before she was shot in the back by one of her allies, a traitor who had let Britannia know of the secret project presumably, before his own head was shot by one of the Britannian soldiers.
No one moved to take the briefcase since all those involved clearly recognized the danger that the liquid Sakuradite presented and the scene quickly devolved into a firefight of pure anger and vengeance between both parties.
Lelouch watched passively as he witnessed both sides take each other out leaving absolutely no survivors in the room to leave and speak of the project.
Lelouch sighed as he digested all the knowledge that he had learned before he heard the female pilot in the Sutherland begin to regain consciousness as she groaned over her still active speakers from her clearly splitting headache.
He shut off the computer and quickly looked around. He spotted something useful out of the corner of his eye. He picked up the metal pipe and smashed the only working computer monitor until it shut down and sparks flew off the screen. He couldn't afford to have anyone else discover this place and find out about the Zero Armor. He quickly dropped the pipe back on the ground and turned to face the Knightmare Frame.
"What's going on?" The woman groaned over her speakers. She was clearly in pain and disoriented; something that Lelouch planned to use to his advantage.
"What's going on is that you attacked me!" Lelouch shouted in a haughty voice. "You almost killed me you incompetent soldier!"
"Why should I care about that kid?" The woman growled in irritation as she adjusted her Sutherland so it was no longer lying on its back. Good, her irritation meant she'd play right into his hands.
"I'll tell you why you should care! You should know me as Alan Spacer; my father is in the nobility!" Lelouch felt the burning in his left eye as his Geass activated and sped toward his target. 'Now it's time to see if my Geass can be used to affect those not directly making eye-contact with me.' Lelouch thought to himself.
He was unsure if his Geass could make people believe lies were truth just yet so he twisted his words into an order, technically speaking the truth aside from his name, while making sure to emphasize that his father was a nobleman just in case his Geass didn't work.
He frowned as he felt no connection established between himself and his target to suppress their will. He had noticed when he used his Geass on the soldiers a minor psychic connection had been established as his will overpowered theirs and forced them to obey his commands.
He felt no such connection form as the woman left her Sutherland apologizing and calling him, "Your Grace, I deeply apologize for my earlier actions. I have run into nothing but terrorists and filthy Elevens throughout this damn Ghetto and I was surprised to find a Britannian here. I had no idea this structure was so weak. Had I known that you were the son of a nobleman I would have never attacked you milord." She practically groveled.
Lelouch frowned at the woman's words. Just another person completely subsumed by Britannia's corrupt ideology. Still, he could make use of her. "It is of no importance." Lelouch spoke to the woman calmly. Once he saw her form visibly relax, he activated his Geass. "Now, you will answer my questions."
The woman quickly fell under his thrall. "Of course, milord." She replied woodenly.
"What is your name, station, and current mission?" He asked as he maintained direct eye-contact.
"My name is Villetta Nu, my rank is Knight and I am a member of the Purist Faction serving under Lord Jeremiah Gottwald, and my current mission is the eradication of the Shinjuku Ghetto by the order of His Royal Highness Prince Clovis." She responded formally.
Lelouch frowned as he heard the woman mention the name Jeremiah and her current mission. The name seemed familiar to him for some reason but he discarded the matter with a thought as he focused on the more important subject currently.
It seemed Clovis was as desperate to recapture the green haired woman as he had believed. He made sure he maintained direct eye-contact with the woman as he thought through the information she had given him.
Since she had no reaction since he gave his first order he assumed that as long as he maintained eye contact she was under his complete control for the duration of his Geass' current usage. If he broke the eye-contact he may have to reinitiate his Geass commands to put her back under his control.
Though it would be annoying if he had to keep finding her to reinitiate his commands to her with direct eye contact, maybe his Geass could be used to input sleeper commands? It was worth a shot.
But first things first, he needed to see if his Geass could make his target believe lies to be truth. If that were the case, it would be even more valuable than he originally thought. "My name is Alan Spacer." Lelouch lied. "And you have been my slave since the day I was born. Do you acknowledge this as the truth Villetta? Maintain eye-contact as you respond." He needed to test the extremes that his Geass was capable of and if it could completely subvert someone's free will even if the command was a lie this power would become his greatest tool in his war against Britannia.
Villetta knelt down on her hands and knees and lowered her head position until her throat almost touched the ground as she maintained eye-contact and looked up at him worshipfully. "Of course this one acknowledges that as the truth Master. This one has always been Master's most loyal slave." His target said submissively. "How may this slave please Master?" She spoke with small hopeful smile. "Please, order this one to please Master in anyway this slave can."
'Unbelievable, this power is amazing!' Lelouch thought as he saw the woman submit completely to him by his command. 'Now then, to input those sleeper commands and end this massacre.'
Lelouch allowed a terrible smile to come across his face while keeping his eye-contact with his new slave. He gave Villetta his next commands. "Stand up and give me all the weapons you have on you right now." He couldn't have her armed if this failed after all.
When she stood up with a "Yes Master.", giving him her sidearm, a combat knife attached to her thigh inside her thigh-high purple boots, and making him almost blush when she pulled another concealed knife from her cleavage. He placed the knives that she had given him into his pockets, while keeping the coilgun aimed at the woman's heart and he finished the rest of his commands. Knives wouldn't kill her quick enough if she broke free from his control.
"I am your Master, but you will only acknowledge me as such when you are under my control. Otherwise you will act as though I were just another Britannian." He needed to make sure she didn't call him Master if she ever spotted him while walking down the street or something. That would be an embarrassing oversight.
"When I, and I alone, say the phrase 'Traitorous White Queen' you will obey my every command as my slave and you will once again be under my complete control." With the command phrase established all he needed to do next was add specifics and a release phrase.
"You will retain absolutely no memory of your time under my control unless I allow you to and even then you shall never speak of it to anyone except for your Master when we are alone and only with your Master's expressed permission." He couldn't afford to have her retain any memory of these encounters or she could end up a major thorn in his side in the future. However, if he needed to have her remember something, he needed to make sure that she could recall if he needed her to. He wasn't sure how a mind influenced by his Geass could handle a logical paradox.
"You will acknowledge the phrase by saying 'How may this one be of service to you Master?' and you will kneel before me as you did earlier if you are alone in your Master's presence. When you hear the command phrase 'Traitorous White Queen' over the phone or another communication device that your Master is using to contact you, you will simply say the phrase 'This one hears and obeys Master.' and acknowledge your Master's orders." By having specific actions she needed to perform if she were under his control, he would be able to test to see if she were ever faking her response to him.
"When I, and I alone, say the phrase, 'Black Pawn's Release' you will be released from my control and act as you normally do." Now with the release phrase in place he needed to set up other conditions for her to successfully fulfill any orders he gave her without being caught and exposed.
"You will fulfill any orders I gave you during your time under my control when you are alone and you will destroy all evidence of your tampering after you complete your orders. You will retain no memory of following my orders while you are free from my control and you will eliminate any witnesses thoroughly and without hesitation should you be noticed while obeying my commands and are unable to explain your way out of it without compromising your Master or your position as my slave." This would make sure she didn't end up killing anyone that may be too important or useful to him later on unless absolutely necessary. Since she was a Knight she was at the very least competent so she should be able to come up with suitable reasons on her own.
"You will eliminate any evidence of their termination that can be linked back to either you or your Master; instead placing evidence that will lead to a proper scapegoat and you will arrange a meeting between your Master and the chosen scapegoat." By having a scapegoat in place she would be able to continue to serve him and he would be able to force the scapegoat to obey him and admit to the crime since his Geass could make lies become truth to the target.
"In place of all the memories that you will no longer have, your mind will come up with suitable, non-contradicting memories in place of the ones that no longer exist." His final command was to make sure to add a memory clause since huge blanks of memory would make anyone seek help and he wasn't sure if hypnosis could be used to have a target recall the memories of their time under his control.
Lelouch needed to make sure he left detailed, but open ended orders so that he would be able to take advantage of them in the future. 'Now to see if my sleeper commands worked.' He blinked and broke eye contact.
The blue haired woman blinked and shook her head as though she had a headache. "Ugh, why does my head hurt so much?" She wondered.
Lelouch frowned. 'Interesting, so large and complex orders can cause the target some discomfort in the form of a headache. Or maybe it's merely the extreme altering I've done to make her the perfect slave? Either way, I better make sure to not do this often. I can't afford to mix up commands with the wrong puppet.' He supposed it was lucky that this Villetta woman had such a distinctive appearance. He could definitely see that she was beautiful and he definitely would be able to pick her out of a crowd easily. Still, her personality and inherent racism made him annoyed with her.
Maybe he could change her? No, that would be too sudden and unexplainable. It would probably be best if he avoided too many major changes to his targets. He couldn't afford to have anyone become suspicious of his new power. It wouldn't be good if he drew the Emperor's attention by completely subverting his entire military force in the region.
"Hey, what's going on here kid? And when did I leave my Sutherland?" She asked in irritation and confusion.
"Traitorous White Queen." Lelouch calmly spoke as he had another realization. 'So it seems my Geass erases the memory of the target up to a few minutes before first the command is given.'
Lelouch smirked as Villetta knelt down as she had earlier and spoke submissively, "How may this one be of service to you Master?"
'Good, it worked perfectly.' Lelouch thought darkly, 'Now, to end this massacre before any more innocent people get killed by Clovis' pride.'
"Well, well, well. I see you've wasted no time in using the gift I've given you." A voice Lelouch thought he'd never hear again spoke amusedly. "So do you like it? Does the Power of the King make you satisfied?"
Lelouch spoke at Villetta before he could make any mistakes and accidentally break his newest slave. "Stand up and give me your contact information." Once Lelouch committed his new slave's contact information to memory, he gave the woman his final order for now. "Now give me your Sutherland and leave this place. When you get a phone call from a number you don't recognize you will feel a compulsion to answer it in private. Once you meet a Britannian soldier, you will react as though I gave you the command that will release you from my control just this once. You will have no memory of anything that happened while you were in this building." He spoke quickly.
"Understood Master." The blue haired woman tossed her Master her Sutherland's key. "The activation code is XG-21-G2-D4." She then walked placidly toward the staircase that led to the upper exit that Lelouch had thought was a maintenance door earlier.
Lelouch ignored his sleeper agent as she walked away and turned to the woman behind him. "Now, I'd appreciate it if you told me how you're still alive. Humans can't survive a direct bullet to the skull when fired from any type of gun."
His eyes took in the woman who he thought had died for him not even a half hour ago. She looked exactly the same, as though she hadn't taken a fatal gunshot that had saved his life. It really was a good thing he didn't waste his breath on his earlier eulogy after all. "So just what are you woman?"
The woman chuckled amusedly. "Why, my dear accomplice, I am called a witch. As to how I survived, that's simple." She looked at Lelouch and smiled. "I'm unable to die. I am immortal. Now, it's your turn to answer my questions. Are you satisfied with my gift? Your Geass?"
Lelouch frowned at the woman's explanation. 'I guess the proof is right in front of me. Even if she had somehow survived the bullet to her skull, there is no way she could have survived the fall down here without doing something similar to what I did and her body didn't move at all while she fell through the air.' He sighed. 'I guess that means she isn't lying.'
Lelouch responded cautiously, "Yes, I am definitely satisfied with this power so far. It's accelerated my plans by years and I appreciate it very much." It was probably best to be cautious with this woman if she was unable to die. He doubted that he could get rid of her all that easily without the simple limitation that was death.
Although this answered his question about why Clovis had her imprisoned, but he was still in the dark at what Clovis had done to her. "So, accomplice, do you have a name or should I simply call you my immortal witch?" Because she was most definitely not his guardian angel.
The woman gave Lelouch a small smile. He figured that after however long Clovis kept her prisoner had prevented her from having a civilized conversation with anyone. "You may call me C.C., my contractor. I am very interested in these plans of yours. Would you care to tell me about them? After all, we are allies now."
Lelouch froze as a name similar to her own flashed through his mind. It had been seven years, but he would never forget that one sentence.
"Why did you kill Marianne V.V?"
'Why does her name mirror that man's? Could she be associated with him in some way? Either way, I can't afford to show any reaction to her name.' Lelouch thought quickly. 'Besides, she's an enemy of Britannia, or at the very least most likely feels nothing positive for the country, so I suppose she may be a useful ally for now. However, I must be cautious around her.' He decided he'd act as though the name meant nothing to him until he could properly speak with C.C. later.
Lelouch stepped toward the briefcase that contained the Zero Armor and stepped on the skeleton's arm that was still attached to the case, crushing it. "Since you're an enemy of the Britannian military, if not the entirety of the Empire, and I doubt you'd be very quick to answer my own questions if I refused to answer your own, I suppose I can let you in on part of my plan." He set down the coilgun and picked up a stray pipe and bashed it against the locks on the briefcase. Having been seven years old, they shattered after the second strike.
He knelt down and opened the case slowly, savoring the moment. Inside the case on the upper part were a large number of small containers that greatly resembled miniaturized Energy Fillers that were used by Knightmare Frames, while the lower part of the case contained the neatly folded Zero Armor with the Zero helmet placed on top of it.
The helmet of the Zero Armor appeared to be a mask with an opaque oval shaped visor in the center that had two triangular spikes jutting out from around the area that would constitute the wearer's lower cheeks, with two more spikes coming from around the ear level, and a final spike pointing backward on the top, making it look very similar to the crown part of the King chess piece. He carefully removed helmet as he took out the Zero Armor itself and took a good look at its appearance. It was split down to the waist, revealing that it was supposed to be put on just like a Knightmare pilot's uniform. Needing to be zipped up in order to be put on properly. On either side of the split were two squares of thick plates that constituted the indestructible armor, while having extra plates of armor a little bit lower on the torso of the armor in order to protect the wearer's ribs and internal organs, making the armor extremely defensive despite it needing to be zipped up. The arms of the armor were covered in identical dark plates, covering everything from the shoulder to the wrist in the flexible plates. The elbow was protected just as well despite being a joint and thus one of the usually more vulnerable parts of standard armor. The legs of the armor were covered from the waist to the ankle similarly to the plate armor contained on the arms, while the boots of the armor covered and protected the feet of the wearer.
He began loosening his clothing after setting the armor down, not bothering to ask the witch to avert her eyes since he was positive she had seen everything the male body had to offer if she had truly lived for such a long time and he doubted that she'd acquiesce to his request anyway. He carefully placed the terrorist communicator he had taken from the truck and his slave's Sutherland key on the ground next to the pistol as he removed the jacket of his school uniform revealing a simple white dress shirt underneath.
He then removed his lower clothing, leaving him only in his boxers and white dress shirt, before quickly removing the shirt as well, and he began to put the armor on. He let the top half hang as he put on the lower portion of the armor, feeling it fit onto his legs snugly as he pulled it up.
He then slid his arms through the top half of the armor and zipped it up, covering his entire body save his head in the indestructible material with the cloak flowing dramatically over his shoulders. He clenched and unclenched his fingers a few times to get used to the feeling of having something covering his fingers and not be somewhat off like most gloves were. The collar was annoyingly high, but he supposed he'd need to just deal with it. Part of the armor around the neck was rather long on him, but he realized that it could be used as a lower face mask if he needed to breathe in a room or other environment with potentially irritating substances in the air. He motioned with his arms as he got used to his new armor and realized something strange. 'It seemed like it would be looser on me before I put it on. Could it have tightened up on me as I was putting it on to fit me better?' It seemed that the material used by the scientists adjusted itself according to its wearer; that was an interesting fact. Those scientists really had thought of damn near everything when they created this armor.
He silently folded his clothes up, putting the knives that he had obtained inside his Ashford Academy jacket as he folded it up along with his shirt, pants, and shoes, and placed them carefully into the case. Luckily for him, he'd only broken the security lock on the case meaning it could still hold itself closed just fine. He picked up the case and placed it upright on the ground before he picked up the Zero helmet and the communicator with the loop of the key to the Sutherland around his wrist for the moment. He placed the pistol in a small pocket on the legs of the armor, clipping it to his hip. He then turned to the suspiciously silent woman behind him.
"I'm going to use my Geass, the terrorists, and this armor to end this massacre and kill Clovis." He stated calmly as he placed the helmet over his face, answering her earlier inquiry before his impromptu costume change.
C.C. simply chuckled at him. "My, my, have you no shame? Changing in front of a woman without any warning. Such a naughty boy you are." She teased.
His new mask merely stared at the woman. "Feeling shame before an immortal woman who has most likely already seen everything the male form has to offer in her long life? Such a useless emotion." Lelouch spoke and the voice modulator made his voice sound deeper and more robotic. "Besides, I harbor no illusions that I'm anything special." He chuckled self-deprecatingly.
He picked up the case with his free hand and walked toward the prone form of his current Knightmare Frame. "Do you want to come and enjoy the show, C.C.?" Lelouch offered as he felt her name roll off his tongue surprisingly smoothly.
The witch laughed darkly as she walked toward him and the Sutherland. "You are surprisingly interesting." She observed. "As long as you manage to humiliate that bastard Prince and get out of this alive I will allow you to do anything you want for a single night. No limits." She spoke seductively. She wondered how he would react to the obvious offer.
Lelouch paused in reaction to the witch's teasing. But not for the reason she believed. 'Maybe I can get her to answer my questions regarding V.V. and my Geass.' It's not that he wasn't tempted to follow up on the clear offer, but he wasn't interested in her that way for the moment. He barely knew her and he would never have sex with someone he didn't trust fully, especially considering his nature as a supposedly dead Prince. He couldn't afford to risk such an intimate relationship without someone who he could trust with his life.
"Temptress," he muttered amusedly, "I may take you up on that offer." After all, Clovis had never managed to defeat Lelouch at chess in a single game when they were children. And what was war but one big game where the soldiers were the pieces with luck and skill as the players.
He attached his foot to the zip-line, wrapping the arm that held the communicator around it tightly so he could maintain his balance, which would take him to the cockpit of the Knightmare and reached out his arm that held the briefcase for the immortal to take. He would need to be a little creative on how he got her up with him into the Knightmare. "Now come, my dear witch, we have a massacre to end and a Prince to kill."
She gave a small devious smile as she took his arm and wrapped it around her waist while he pushed the button to take retract the line to pull them into the cockpit with the back of his hand that held the communicator. She held herself against him with his arm around her waist and her own arms around his neck.
'Now Clovis, let the game begin. Let's see if you've improved your skills while I've been gone, my dear big brother.' Lelouch thought sinisterly.
(Shinjuku Ghetto, Area Eleven – Abandoned Building – 1:48 pm – September 11 – 2017 a.t.b.)
The cockpit of Lelouch's Sutherland was just large enough to accommodate both him and C.C. as well as their cargo, but it was a tight fit. C.C. was forced to either sit behind Lelouch on a smaller chair that was behind the command chair or to sit in the exiled Prince's lap.
Of course, the temptress decided to take her position on his lap, sitting sideways so as to not block the monitor that Lelouch needed to use in order to properly identify enemy positions. He had placed the briefcase to his side so it wouldn't get in his way.
Luckily for Lelouch, his Sutherland's IFF Transponder, or the Identify Friend/Foe Transponder, was damaged from the fall, meaning that the enemy's radar would be unable to pick up his Knightmare giving him a very large advantage in stealth as long as his Frame wasn't clearly visible.
Lelouch was currently monitoring the chatter going on over both the radio he had obtained from the terrorists and the communications that the military were sending over their own channels while waiting in an abandoned building in the former business district of the Shinjuku Ghetto.
It was clear to Lelouch that the terrorists were getting desperate, having diverted a large portion of their manpower to evacuating the civilians, they were unable to properly deal with the military's attacks. It wasn't the most pragmatic decision on a battlefield. Still, it earned them Lelouch's respect.
Clearly these weren't the types of terrorists that had assaulted the tower he'd seen on the screen almost two hours ago. These people would rather lose here than let the innocents die to claim victory and it made Lelouch even more sure of his decision to aid them. They would be the first soldiers in his new army.
He heard the commotion that the military were making over a red Glasgow Frame and noticed something on his Sutherland's monitor that would greatly help the terrorists on their way to victory.
Lelouch then spoke to the witch in his lap, "Don't speak while I'm directing the terrorists, I will need to focus to get them to trust me and if you distract me I may make a mistake."
C.C. looked at him with half-lidded eyes. "No problem." She spoke simply.
Lelouch spoke into the radio on the frequency of the red-haired woman in the Knightmare Frame. She was a very good pilot, having been able to avoid the two Sutherlands pursuing her for a fairly long period of time. "The West entrance. Use the tracks to move to the West entrance." He ordered calmly, trusting the communicator to disguise his voice well enough. If she followed his command it would put her in the perfect position for him to aid her and to take his gift to the resistance.
He had taken off the mask of his armor once it became clear that it would serve no current purpose, he hadn't figured out how to activate it properly yet, but his new armor seemed to be working fine despite his lack of mental connection with it. The materials it was made up of were very lightweight despite their strength.
"What? Who is this?! How do you know this code?!" The pilot responded. Her voice sounded distraught and Lelouch couldn't blame her. He had been much the same way when he, Suzaku, and Nunnally had traversed the country looking for safety during the invasion.
Lelouch ignored the distraught woman's questions as he delivered his response. "That doesn't matter. If you want to win, you're just going to have to trust me."
The woman's gasp was audible over the radio. "To win?" She murmured in shock.
Lelouch stayed silent for a moment before he saw her follow his orders. As she was riding on the tracks, he contacted the rest of the available resistance members and ordered them to get in position on the tracks. He quickly delivered their orders and returned his attention to the Glasgow pilot as she contacted him again.
"Okay, what am I supposed to do now?" She asked. She seemed much calmer this time.
He waited until his gift got closer… 'Perfect.' The train was heading toward the woman fast and Lelouch quickly spoke over the communicator. "Thank you. Since you placed your trust in me our victory has been assured. Jump onto the train!"
"Gotcha!" The woman responded as she followed his order perfectly.
'Yes, this woman, Kallen if from what I heard in the truck is right, is an excellent pilot. If she had a better Knightmare Frame she would wipe the floor with those two Sutherlands.' Lelouch thought to himself.
He quickly fired a Slash Harken at the Sutherland that jumped over the one slowing down the train to pursue Kallen. He managed to destroy the head of the frame but he missed his target of the cockpit. However, he felt that was a moot point once he saw the Frame bounce off the tracks.
He ended up drawing the attention of the second Sutherland with that action though. "What's your name and your unit?!" The male pilot blared over his speakers.
Lelouch ignored him as he positioned his Frame's assault weapon and opened fire. "We're after the one armed Glasg–" The pilot was cut off as his Frame was severely damaged, as well as losing one of its Landspinners, from the rounds fired from his Knightmare.
"Oh my God. A terrorist?!" The enemy Sutherland turned and aimed its own assault weapon at Lelouch. "You son of a –" The pilot attempted to curse before Kallen managed to surprise both Lelouch and his enemy by returning with the Glasgow and forcing the enemy pilot to eject or die.
Obviously the man chose to eject and live to fight another day.
Lelouch quickly left his vantage point as he searched for another suitable position to get a proper view of the battlefield. 'A sniper should never stay in the same place for long after taking his first shot. He should always leave quickly and search for another area where he can get a proper view of his enemies if possible.' Lelouch mentally quoted from an old strategy book he'd read before.
'I'm not exactly a sniper, but the situation is more than similar enough for me to use the same strategy.' Once he quickly found another position in a different abandoned building, he reinitiated contact with his allies.
He quickly spoke over the radio on a separate frequency. He needed to find the one who led these people and get him or her to agree to follow his orders or the danger of infighting amongst his new allies would be very real. "Are you in charge?"
"Uh, yeah." A man's voice spoke over the radio.
'Perfect.' Lelouch then spoke clearly over his radio to the leader of his allies, "I present to you the cargo in that train over there, think of it as a gift. They will be the tools for our victory. However, if you accept them, you will need to follow my orders. Do you accept my offer?"
He knew that it was an offer they couldn't refuse. After all, how many chances did a group that wasn't the JLF get to arm themselves with brand new state of the art Sutherland Knightmare Frames?
However, the man surprised Lelouch by asking him a question.
"Before I agree to give you the right of leadership over our group, tell me this. How did you get ahold of your communicator?" The man was obviously cautious and Lelouch couldn't blame him. He knew all this seemed too good to be true.
However, he needed to be careful that he didn't mention that he'd been involved ever since he'd fallen into their truck in the Settlement. They would realize that he wasn't Japanese and he doubted they would trust him after that before he built up some credibility for himself.
He easily came up with exactly how he would respond without lying, but it would take some serious twisting of his words. "I found it in a truck." He said honestly. "I don't think the owner is alive anymore since the truck was clearly destroyed."
He hadn't lied because he was speaking of the owner of the truck, not the radio, with his second sentence. There was also the fact that the explosion had made it rather clear to him that the truck was definitely blown to pieces.
He decided to try and give them some form of comfort. "You have my sympathies." If he managed seem more understanding of their plight they would be more willing to trust him. Of course they really did have his sympathies, he knew what loss felt like after all, but that didn't mean he wouldn't use the opportunity to his advantage and elevate their perception of him.
"I see." The leader spoke simply. Lelouch assumed that he had confirmed at least a portion of his answer with Kallen. It was her radio after all. "Thank you for being honest with your answer. Though did you happen to see a canister inside the remains of the truck?" The man was fishing for information about the 'poison gas'.
Lelouch looked at the woman in his lap amusedly before he responded. "Yes, I did see a canister inside the truck. It was open, but nothing too important seemed to be inside of it." That was definitely stretching the truth, since C.C. was a someone not a something though it wasn't technically a lie, and he had to resist the urge to laugh at the pout on C.C.'s face before she smacked his shoulder. She gave her contractor a look that clearly said that he'd pay for that later, but Lelouch refocused his attention back onto the leader. "Now, if you'll tell me the answer to my offer? We can't afford to waste time while innocent people are being butchered." He needed to make sure his allies were focused on the present.
He couldn't have them dwelling in the past right now. There would be plenty of time for them to mourn once they won the day.
"Understood. Please, lead us well – Uh, what should we call you?" The now former leader asked Lelouch before he realized he hadn't gotten his new leader's name.
Lelouch smirked as he decided on what he could have them call him. It would be his call sign for when they were in combat so it would need to denote authority and respect. Why not the name of the project that had likely saved his life? No, not yet. He needed something that could be used to relate to the codenames he'd prepared.
"You may call me K-1 for now. Make sure to not use any real names since these lines could be tapped." He would use another alias later, when he no longer needed them to relate to him, and he was going to be using chess notations to refer to his allies for now anyway so it was appropriate.
He then turned his attention to Kallen, "Woman in the Glasgow." He spoke to Kallen on her frequency, making sure to not use her name. It would give away the fact that he had been on the truck well before they arrived in Shinjuku. Besides her name seemed familiar to him for some strange reason, but he just couldn't place it.
"Ye-Yes?" The red-haired pilot spoke uncertainly.
"Stay where you are. Your unit's going to run decoy, do you understand?" He couldn't afford to sound too callous or they wouldn't be willing to obey him. He needed to give them an illusion of having a choice so they would feel like their new commander wasn't disregarding their feelings.
"U-Understood." She spoke slightly more confidently this time.
"What's your Energy Filler status?" He asked. The last thing he needed was her Frame failing on her right now, especially since it was already missing an arm leaving it at a disadvantage. Still, he had some faith in her skill as a pilot.
"Only five minutes' worth." The woman said clearly.
Lelouch frowned as he realized he'd helped her out just in time. Had he been any later she would have most likely been captured or killed. "Then recharge it. Make sure to rearm your weapons as well. In ten minutes, I'll contact everyone with their call signs and their new orders."
He then placed the communicator down in front of his Sutherland's monitor sighing, and turned to C.C. and gave her a searching look. "So, have I done satisfactory in your opinion, my accomplice?" Lelouch asked curiously.
He wondered if the strange woman had any experience as a commanding officer and if she could tell what he was doing by using terms like we and our when referring to his allies. By ingratiating himself with them and using those terms he would be making them subconsciously see him as one of their own, something that would be invaluable for gaining their trust.
A King without loyal subjects is a King of nothing after all. It had always been the people who make the Kingdom all throughout history and Lelouch was planning on making his army his own personal Kingdom.
The witch had a contemplative look on her face as she thought about her response. "I suppose it wasn't too bad for your first time, but you'll need to do better in the future." She spoke calmly. This was going to be amusing. The boy needed to be punished for indirectly referring to her as a thing and she had just the punishment in mind. If she had wanted to be considered a 'thing' she would just go back to that bastard Prince. Though, unlike Clovis, Lelouch held no malice or ulterior motives when he called her that. It was still annoying though.
Besides, it was an honest evaluation. The boy really wasn't half bad at this little war game he was playing for the moment. Still, she would reserve higher praise when he showed that this battle wasn't a one-time fluke. Her old friends who were some of the greatest military minds of their times wouldn't appreciate it if she gave out praise lightly.
Lelouch gave a tiny lopsided smile and replied, "Well, I'll do my best to live up to your high standards next time then. Of course, things will begin again in just ten minutes so you better be prepared." He warned her. He'd be moving his Sutherland a lot more than he already did soon and he needed to make sure she'd hold onto him tightly.
She seemed like she'd be an enjoyable person to hold conversations with when their lives weren't in danger and Lelouch hoped that the woman could be trustworthy. He was starting to enjoy her strange personality.
The green haired immortal raised an eyebrow at him. That response was just absolutely perfect for her. The boy had no idea what he was walking into. "Oh my, so soon? My, my you do work fast don't you? Are you sure you can satisfy me this time then?" She spoke cheekily. A small smile came onto her face as her newest accomplice responded.
"I guarantee you'll be satisfied this time, my immortal witch." Lelouch spoke before he ran the previous conversation through his head quickly.
He almost facepalmed at how perverted the previous conversation would sound without the context. "God, that sounded so much less suggestive in my head." Lelouch spoke as he noticed the immortal in his lap chuckling quietly once he realized what she'd done.
"Sneaky witch." He spoke with false irritation. Yes she definitely would be an interesting conversation partner in the future if she proved trustworthy. However, before he could retaliate against the woman in his arms he realized that his ten minutes were almost up.
He picked up the radio and began focusing on the enemy's movements on his Sutherland's monitor.
"It looks like we'll have to continue our conversation later. Right now, I have a battle to win." He spoke confidently.
"Of course." The green haired witch spoke with a chuckle before calming herself down. The boy could play the game well and she wondered just how interesting he would be over the time she would be with him.
He spoke to his allies over the communicator and began giving out everyone's call signs.
Once he finished giving Kallen, now known as Q-1 since she was the most skilled and independent 'piece' on his 'board', her orders and she left in her Glasgow, he spoke to the former leader of his allies, now known as B-1, since he had managed to lead the group rather well despite clearly not being suited to leadership on a battlefield thus the designation of Bishop, "B-1, can you move? It operates basically the same as you're used to." He was glad to have learned that most of their group had some practice with Knightmare controls despite Kallen being their best pilot. It made it easier for them to understand how to work the Sutherlands.
B-1 responded, "Yes K-1, I can move. What are your orders?"
Lelouch smirked. "Good, then if Q-1 is on schedule enemy Sutherlands, probably two of them, will be reaching you in twenty-three seconds." Lelouch then spoke the next part of his order so that his new soldiers could activate his trap. "Shoot them through the wall."
Lelouch smirked as he beheld two LOST signals appear on his Sutherland's monitor after twenty-three seconds had passed. They followed his commands perfectly.
He then began issuing more orders to his allies. "B-1, P-4, P-7, move one hundred meters to the right and fire your Slash Harkens at Three O'clock."
"P-5, are you ready?" He had the feeling that P-5 was someone he'd need to watch out for. He didn't seem very competent to Lelouch since he'd been questioning every single order he gave out.
"Quit calling me that!" The man complained.
He smirked as he eavesdropped on the commands being issued by the commanders of the Britannian military; changing the codes accordingly once they realized that they were being intercepted. He began tailoring his orders to take advantage of his knowledge and to his satisfaction his allies all followed his commands without hesitation. Eventually, Clovis would be forced to take command and if the Prince was as incompetent as Lelouch remembered the older man would fall into all of his traps.
"This failure is unacceptable!" Lelouch heard Clovis shout over his Sutherland's communicator. "Send out the Irregulars!" Lelouch frowned in confusion. "Who are the Irregulars?" Lelouch murmured in confusion.
He was surprised when he heard C.C. growl. That was the first time he'd seen her react in anger. Though it was her response that surprised him the most.
He listened to her whisper her knowledge to him while keeping his attention on ordering his forces to continue to decimate the military.
"Abominations that the bastard Prince created using data he gained from studying me." She growled softly. "They each have an artificial Geass that is unique to them, but they can't survive for an extended period of time without a certain chemical composition that only Britannia produces, essentially making them Britannia's slaves."
Lelouch frowned as he processed the new information continuing to command his forces before he turned to the witch. "Do you know anything more about them that could help me?" He asked his accomplice as he continued to order his forces throughout the battlefield.
If she was being forthcoming with information about them she must have believed that he needed to know this information and he agreed. He wouldn't have been prepared for artificial Geass users if C.C. hadn't told him that they existed.
He had already suspected other Geass users of existing, but he hadn't known that it was possible to artificially produce a Geass. Whatever the process entailed, it was clearly the reason C.C. had called the Irregulars 'abominations'.
C.C. replied to his question softly, "All I know is that the three that I'm aware of are female and two of them aren't even adults yet." Lelouch's frown intensified when he heard this information. He hadn't expected Britannia to go so low as to create child soldiers, but he guessed that there was nothing they wouldn't do in the name of progress. Teenagers were technically allowed to sign up at around fourteen, but that was a conscious decision being made by someone who usually had a choice, not children who were forced to survive due to a drug and being forced to serve in order to obtain it.
He growled as he saw three signals appear on his Sutherland's screen before stopping in confusion when he noticed a fourth signal intercept them almost immediately after they began to enter the district he was in.
He watched in shock as the single Knightmare Frame completely defeated the three Irregular units before vanishing almost as quickly as it appeared. He listened in on the military's communications to try and find out what happened, but it seemed they were just as confused as him and C.C. They quickly reacted despite the surprising defeat and began encircling his allies, depleting the guards surrounding Clovis' Command Center.
"Hm, it seems Clovis has gotten desperate. Clearly having the Irregulars defeated so quickly by an unknown Knightmare Frame has unnerved him." Lelouch smirked as a plan to eliminate all of the enemies in one shot entered his mind. "He has just made a grave mistake." Lelouch grinned as he gave his allies new orders in order to properly set up the greatest trap of the battle yet.
"Q-1, do you have an area map of the Shinjuku Ghetto?" Lelouch asked his Queen piece.
"Yes I have a map of the old city, but it has no current landmarks." She responded tensely.
Lelouch smirked. "That's just fine, it'll do. Have all of the civilians in the area been evacuated?" With a confirmation that there were no civilians in the vicinity of his trap, Lelouch then proceeded to outline his plan to Kallen and his other allies. He couldn't have them get caught in his trap after all. They'd be useless to him dead.
He waited until his trap would eliminate the maximum number of targets before he gave his order to spring the trap. "Now Clovis, with this trap, I call Check." He then spoke into his communicator. "Now Q-1, B-1, P-5, destroy the support pillars of the surrounding streets and crush the enemy forces!"
Lelouch allowed a mad grin to spread across his face as he witnessed every single enemy Knightmare Frame signal be replaced with the word LOST as the devastation caused by his trap spread to engulf the entirety of the enemy Prince's forces, heedless of C.C. who had her own malicious grin spread across her face at Clovis' humiliating defeat.
'Perfect.' Lelouch thought to himself. 'They followed my commands flawlessly and Clovis has nothing left to deploy. The only Knightmares still able to be used are mine and the pathetic amount that Clovis still has surrounding his Command Center. Nearly all of my tasks have been cleared, all that's left is to find Clovis and end this battle.' Just as he was about to maneuver his Knightmare to leave its position so he could sneak onto the Command Center, he overheard a conversation Clovis was having with someone on a different frequency than the rest of the military.
He frowned as he realized that he was unable to hear the other man speak properly, but he could clearly hear Clovis ask if his 'toy' would be able to defeat his forces. 'Seems I spoke too soon.' Lelouch realized. Unfortunately, due to the differing frequency, he was unable to hear the details of this new enemy. He did hear one word though. Lancelot. "So Clovis, you still have one piece left to play do you? Well then, let's see it my dear brother." He realized his slip up and looked down to see C.C.'s reaction only for his own eyes to widen.
She was merely giving him an amused look and said, "What, did you think I was unaware of your nature as a dead Prince, Lelouch?" He belatedly realized that was the first time she spoke his name as she continued. "When we made our contract, I saw everything there was to see inside your mind." His eyes widened even more in his shock. That meant she was aware of his memory concerning– "I know that you are aware of a man with a similar name to mine and I can assure you right now that I haven't been in contact with V.V. in years and even if I had been, he is no ally of mine."
Lelouch was stunned into silence before he regained his composure. "I see." He said simply. What else could he say? This woman in his lap, the immortal witch who had saved his life, now knew him better than anyone on the planet other than Nunnally, even being aware of his clear mental instability that made him prone to occasional bouts of madness, and she still stayed by him willingly instead of attempting to escape when she revived herself. "Then you are clearly aware that I'm not entirely sane. So why have you stayed with me after you gave me my Geass?" He asked cautiously. He knew he wasn't normal, it was simple for him to acknowledge because denying it would just make things more difficult for himself in the long run. It didn't mean that he didn't fear himself though. His worst nightmares, when they weren't about the invasion, were about him losing control over himself and killing all those who were precious to him in a fit of insanity.
The witch gave him a small smirk that was tinged with something Lelouch was unable to recognize. "I told you didn't I?" She leaned up slightly and spoke softly, "We are accomplices, Lelouch." He shuddered lightly as she leaned up and whispered his name into his ear.
She then leaned back and looked him directly into his eyes and said, "Besides, you are hardly the first person I've made a contract with that wasn't entirely sane. You are remarkably well-adjusted compared to them and many other people Lelouch so don't sell your mental fortitude short. Your mind is very strong. Especially for someone your age."
It was true, most people would have been unable to perceive anything other than her words when she made a contract with them, but Lelouch had managed at the very least glimpse every single image that was projected when she offered to make a contract. His mind was incredibly strong and she couldn't wait to see how he used his brilliant mind to accomplish his goals.
Lelouch merely nodded at the immortal witch before returning his attention to the battle. He needed to pay attention if he was going to properly counter Clovis' newest piece. He could speak with C.C. later when they made it back to Ashford Academy. At the moment, he needed to focus on ending the battle and eliminating Clovis.
Soon enough, his forces started to report something strange going on. The newest piece on the board had arrived and it was already making some serious trouble for his allies if the jumbled reports were to be believed.
He breathed in shock as the latest report from his allies came in. "It can reflect bullets?" Lelouch quickly thought about his options. 'This is bad. If I don't do something quickly my forces are going to be slaughtered. But if it can reflect bullets, and it's a new model, no range would be able to affect it unless the terrain was used against it, but it moves too fast and irregularly for me to plot a proper course in order to set up a trap.' Lelouch hmphed in mild amusement as he realized that, had this been actual chess, this new piece would most definitely be a Knight. There was no way his current forces could properly deal with this new threat. Still, he could at least salvage the Sutherlands he had obtained for his army.
He quickly gave the order for his forces to retreat. "Everyone, fall back! This thing is too much for you to handle right now so fall back!" There was no shame in retreating if it meant survival in order to face your enemy on better terms. Only fools would try and force a victory against a superior foe without a proper plan.
Suddenly, he noticed that the Frame was coming at him at a ridiculous speed. He quickly forced his Sutherland to go full throttle as he tried to back away from the newest threat, but it had fired something similar to Slash Harkens at him, though were definitely more powerful than his, in an effort to cut off his escape.
It raised its fist and launched a powerful punch that Lelouch barely managed to raise his Sutherland's own arms up in time to block. 'Holy shit! This thing is fast!' Lelouch thought in surprise. If he let go of the controls holding his Sutherland's arms up to reach for the eject switch, his cockpit would be smashed and although he wasn't alone, his position had ended up forcing C.C.'s arms against her own body, making her unable to reach the ejection mechanism either.
'Damn, how am I going to get out of this one?' Lelouch tried to stay calm as he thought this through. He couldn't afford to lose his cool here. He needed to think.
The floor ended up giving out underneath their Knightmares' weight, but it didn't manage to change their positions in any advantageous way for either pilot.
Lelouch grimaced as he realized that this once again fell into the category of physical activity and his arms began to burn with exhaustion as his mind continued to race through multiple scenarios, creating, fusing, and discarding plans faster than any normal mind would be able to follow.
Luckily for Lelouch, Kallen hadn't followed his order completely, having noticed the new unit charging toward a higher-level position that made her remember that their new leader had aided her from a similar vantage point earlier. She used her own Slash Harkens to quickly scale the building and she used her Knightmare to tackle the new unit away.
"Hey, I'm returning the favor. Now get out of here!" Kallen shouted over her speakers before the new Knightmare returned and quickly forced her to eject. But not before Lelouch managed to put a significant amount of distance between the two units allowing him some breathing room.
'I must remember that in the future. The difference between chess pieces and humans is the human 'will'. While ordinarily a piece may only move in a certain way, sometimes a human is simply unable to perform a certain action despite it being normally possible. Conversely however, the human 'will' allows a 'piece' to perform above and beyond its normal limitations.' Lelouch sighed as he continued to think as he pushed his Knightmare to its fastest speed.
'I see now, battle is far more than a mere chess match with luck and skill as the players.' Lelouch realized. 'The human 'will' is a whole new rule that I must learn to exploit to the fullest without completely taking it over. If I take it over completely it will ruin its effectiveness.'
Lelouch thought sardonically, 'I suppose it is here that my Geass becomes my weakness since it will be all too tempting to simply enslave those under me so they obey me without question. I must be wary and make sure that I don't abuse this power, but most of all, I can't afford to let anyone under my command know about it or they will begin to doubt themselves and me.' Lelouch growled at that thought. 'I can't afford that.'
Once he realized the white Frame from before speeding up behind him, Lelouch spun around and kept his Sutherland going at its fastest speed while he fired his assault weapon at the white Knightmare rapidly.
What he hadn't foreseen however had been the fact that the speed he was going at and the kickback caused by the rapid firing of his weapon had ended up causing Lelouch to miss most of his shots. He ended up accidentally firing upwards towards the walls of the tall buildings that were once a part of the bustling city of Shinjuku seven years ago, causing large chunks of rubble to fall toward the white Knightmare.
Lelouch looked on in shock as the Knightmare performed maneuvers that shouldn't have been possible, yet it pulled them off flawlessly allowing it to dodge all the accidentally discharged rubble. "What the hell is that thing?" Lelouch wondered in shock.
Whatever it was, he wanted one of them damn it! He had never seen a Knightmare capable of pulling off maneuvers with the same flexibility as a human before, and the pilot was obviously someone who was either ridiculously naturally talented, or someone with enough sheer dumb luck to be shot point blank by a bullet and not die. 'Well, as long as they aren't like C.C. at least.' He mentally amended his previous observation.
He suddenly heard a scream and turned his Knightmares Factsphere to look above. 'Shit!' He thought all the civilians had been evacuated!
He couldn't turn around or he'd be caught. 'I'm sorry.' Lelouch thought to the falling woman. He couldn't afford to be apprehended now. If he had the capability, he would have saved that woman, but he didn't and so he couldn't.
His eyes widened as the white Knightmare stopped its pursuit of him to save the falling woman and sighed in relief. 'Good, at least the pilot has a heart. I'd hate to think of a heartless bastard piloting such a powerful Knightmare.' He shuddered at the thought before he turned to face C.C. who had remained eerily calm in his lap ever since their previous conversation.
He supposed she just didn't want to distract him. After all, being unable to die didn't mean fatal wounds didn't hurt, at least he logically assumed they didn't. He didn't know much about an immortal's biology after all. "I'm going to eject and overload the Yggdrasil Drive on this Knightmare. I can't take the chance of anyone finding about anything that happened in this Frame's presence. Hold on to me tightly." He said calmly before he started overloading the Knightmare and pulled the ejection lever.
He watched the Knightmare burst into a pink explosion as he flew away in his ejection pod. He absentmindedly wondered if his slave Villetta had managed to survive the battle. It would be irritating if all the effort he went into turning that woman into the perfect slave and sleeper agent was for nothing.
Once the ejection pod landed, and making sure that he maintained his balance on the seat, he quickly activated the escape hatch before the power dissipated from losing the Yggdrasil Drive. He opened the hatch before he noticed a Britannian soldier running toward him. Luckily he seemed to be alone, but Lelouch wasn't going to take any chances. Once the soldier stopped in front of him, he pointed his assault rifle at them after he realized that Lelouch and C.C. weren't dressed in the Britannian military uniform.
Lelouch activated his Geass as his accomplice stood behind him and to his right. "You will hand your uniform and any weapons you have on you over to me and then you will obey my every command."
The soldier's stance went slack and he replied simply, "Yes sir."
He then began removing everything Lelouch had told him to while Lelouch turned to C.C. and spoke. "I'm going to go confront Clovis, would you like me to use my Geass to get you your own uniform?" Lelouch offered. He wasn't sure what she would choose to do, but he would do his best to help her for now. After what they had gone through he felt she deserved at least some of his trust.
C.C. merely shook her head. "No, I will remain in this for now." She gestured to her straightjacket. "After all, until the military is no longer looking for me, I am still a prisoner." She said solemnly.
Lelouch simply nodded as he picked up the uniform of the soldier and began removing his clothing for the second time in the Ghetto in order to get into disguise. After he quickly changed, he placed his armor and helmet back into the briefcase along with his pistol over his Ashford Academy uniform. He picked up the helmet from a corpse of a nearby soldier to cover his head and pulled out the gun that the soldier had given him.
"Thank you for your assistance, but now you are no longer needed." He then pulled the trigger and put a bullet between the eyes of the unfortunate man and then placed the sidearm in its holster on his right thigh.
"Was that really necessary?" C.C. asked. "You could have just turned him into your slave like that Villetta woman. So why didn't you?"
Lelouch frowned at C.C.'s question. "Yes, it was necessary. After seeing that woman fall before she was saved by that pilot I realized that there might still be civilians in the area. Now that I know that, I need to end this battle quickly before any of them get killed."
He then looked at C.C. out of the corner of his eye. He wanted to clarify his intentions behind what happened before so she didn't think he'd go around enslaving people on a whim. "And besides, I hadn't originally intended to do that to Villetta, but I needed to test just how strong my new power is. When I commanded the soldiers, I merely gave two commands that ended up killing them in less than five minutes. I needed to perform a more detailed test and Villetta just so happened to be the unlucky target." Lelouch explained as the two of them walked towards Clovis' Command Center.
"I needed to test the extremes to see if there were any limit to the type of commands I can give and now I know that I can completely break anyone's free will with the right orders, it disgusts me." Lelouch spoke contemptuously. The concept of completely stealing someone's free will was abhorrent to Lelouch.
"The most valuable thing humans have is our free will, and to completely destroy that as thoroughly as I did to Villetta is a terrible thing. That's why I gave her the command to act as she normally would when not under my control. To give her the illusion of still being a free human being. It may have been kinder to just kill her, but she is my enemy and I have no obligation to be kind to her so I instead turned her into the perfect sleeper agent that will be completely unaware of her services and allegiance to me." Lelouch finished his explanation as he saw Clovis' Command Center come into view.
Since he was still disguised as a soldier he simply walked up through the entrance, it not even being guarded due to Clovis sending out every available infantry soldier to hunt down the terrorists. C.C. followed him with the same confidence. The two accomplices quickly found a circuit breaker and Lelouch used it to temporarily shut off the power.
"Now, we need to move quickly. Clovis won't allow the power to be off for long." Lelouch said as he started jogging toward where he knew the room where Clovis would be. His ego wouldn't allow him to do anything less than witness the complete annihilation of the terrorists who had humiliated him so thoroughly.
Once the two of them found the door to the command room, the power turned back on and the door opened. Lelouch noticed a switch next to the door and pulled it, plunging the rest of the room into darkness.
Once everyone's attention was drawn to the male figure standing at the door, Lelouch activated his Geass. "Leave the Command Center. You will have recall nothing of what happened in here after the power went out. You will recall nothing of our appearances, my orders, or even our presences here today." Lelouch ordered.
Luckily for him, the only one not facing him at the moment he used his Geass was Clovis, so everyone else left the room completely disregarding Clovis' commands.
C.C. stayed in the shadows for the moment, not wanting to let Clovis know that she was free.
Lelouch walked to the bottom of the stairs before the throne platform and pointed his pistol at Clovis. "Now then, you are going to order an immediate ceasefire or I will blast out one of your knees. Then I will ask you to do so again, and should you refuse I will shoot your other one. Then next I will target your elbows, then your feet, your wrists, your hands, your shoulders, and then I will start targeting your individual fingers and toes." Lelouch smirked as he saw Clovis shaking in fear.
"It's your choice, Clovis. Will you choose the needlessly painful choice or will you order that ceasefire now?" Lelouch asked darkly as he began lowering his pistol to target the Prince's right knee.
The Prince desperately reached for the button on his throne and activated the speakers of his Command Center. "Attention all forces, ceasefire at once! I Clovis la Britannia, Third Prince of Britannia and Royal Viceroy of Area Eleven, hereby command you; all forces are ordered to ceasefire at once!" Clovis ordered.
To Lelouch's surprise, the Third Prince continued with his commands, "You will also cease destruction of any buildings or property! All casualties, whether Britannians or Elevens, shall be treated equally and without prejudice! In the name of Clovis la Britannia, you are hereby ordered, ceasefire at once! I shall allow no further fighting!" Once the Prince was finished with his orders, the speakers were shut off.
Clovis then turned towards the disguised Lelouch, eyes turning to the briefcase he'd carried in with him, then to his compatriot who remained in the shadows for now, before returning to the man before him. "Are you satisfied?" He asked with a growl.
Lelouch replied coolly. "Very, although you surprised me with your mercy Viceroy. Could it be you were trying to appease me by giving those extra orders?" Lelouch chuckled as Clovis remained silent.
Clovis placed his elbow on his throne and leaned his cheek on his knuckles. "So what shall we do now? Sing a few lively ballads, or perhaps a nice game of chess?" He spoke calmly as the man dressed as a Britannian soldier walked slowly into the lighter area surrounding his throne.
"Oh, but don't you see?" Lelouch spoke amusedly. "We just got through a game, and I won. As I always have." Lelouch spoke his final sentence as he took his helmet off and tossed it aside, revealing his face to Clovis. "After all, you never did manage to beat me when we played at the Aries Villa when we were children did you, my dear big brother? Eldest son to the late Fifth Empress and consort Marianne, Eleventh Prince of Britannia, and Seventeenth in line for the Imperial Throne, Lelouch vi Britannia, at your service." Lelouch concluded mockingly as he knelt in the custom Britannian salute.
Clovis' leaned forward as his eyes widened in shock. "Lelouch, you're alive!" Clovis spoke with happiness. "I can't believe it; everyone thought you were dead after the invasion of Area Eleven seven years ago. Euphie's going to be so happy–"
Lelouch interjected before Clovis could continue with his speech. "No, she isn't. Because she is never going to find out about this."
Clovis leaned back into his throne in confusion. "What do you mean?" Clovis asked in confusion. "We all thought–"
"That I was dead?" Lelouch interrupted again. "You were wrong and I have returned to change everything." Lelouch said darkly.
"W-What do you mean?" Clovis stammered.
Lelouch ignored the Prince and activated his Geass. He smiled menacingly as he felt the now familiar burn that signaled its readiness to be used. "The truth can no longer be hidden from me. Now, tell me everything you know regarding my mother's murder."
"Of course." The Prince obeyed placidly. "For some reason unknown to me, Cornelia called off Marianne's guards that night. I know not why, but perhaps she could give more detail. Prince Schneizel handled Marianne's burial after your exile so he may also have some knowledge about that night. The two of them started an investigation, with my assistance, before we were stonewalled by Father. He shut down the investigation and destroyed all the evidence we gathered once he found out. I stopped after that, not willing to do anything further on the subject that angered Father so, but I suspect that both Cornelia and Schneizel continued their investigation in secret."
Lelouch continued to process the information as he maintained eye contact and asked the Prince a question. "Where do you keep all the information you gained on C.C.?"
He motioned with his hand for C.C. to not react for the moment until she could see his reasoning for asking such a question.
Clovis responded in the same placid tone he used to describe his knowledge regarding Marianne's death. "I keep it all in a briefcase in a safe behind my throne here on the G-1, the password is my birthday, your birthday, and Nunnally's birthday, in that order and I always make sure to keep all the information I gained on the project on the single flash drive contained within the case. I always send all the data I have on my personal computer regarding Code-R to that flash drive before erasing all files contained on my computer to prevent any hackers from getting the true information on it. I placed decoy information that would lead any hackers to believe that it was about poison gas."
"Are there any other copies of the information contained on that flash drive?" Lelouch asked. If there were, he'd need to destroy them.
"No, not even the hidden lab at Narita has the information on Code-R because I ordered them to send any research data they collected to me whenever they moved the subject between laboratories and to erase any information concerning Code-R from the computers after sending the information to my personal computer. Since they were planning to move the subject today, as far as I am aware, no other copies of the information on Code-R exist." Clovis once again answered in the same placid tone that he had under the control of his Geass.
Lelouch blinked after his eyes started burning in a way that had nothing to do with his Geass. He would need to work on keeping his eyes open longer he supposed. After he broke eye-contact Clovis' face returned to the confused expression it held before Lelouch had placed him under his control.
"Lelouch, what do you mean?" Clovis asked once he was free from being unknowingly controlled by Lelouch's power.
Lelouch had one more question that he needed answered though. Hearing how much Clovis had cared for him and Nunnally, enough to include their birthdays as a password to a safe that was required to be unbreakable, had shaken his resolve slightly. However, he knew that Clovis wouldn't need to be under the compulsion of his Geass to answer this question honestly. "Tell me, dear brother, why did you order the massacre of the entire Shinjuku Ghetto?"
Depending on how he answered, Lelouch may have ended up allowing Clovis to live despite him giving up when it came to investigating his mother's murder.
He had always been the softest of the three brothers. Lelouch, Clovis, and Schneizel had been very close when Lelouch was a child despite their age differences and Lelouch wanted desperately to believe that the kind older brother that loved to paint Nunnally and Euphie in the beautiful garden of the Aries Villa and play with him was still in there somewhere, disgusted by what he had done this day.
"What does it matter to you Lelouch?" Clovis asked confusedly and unknowingly shattering Lelouch's hopes for allowing his brother's survival. "They were just Elevens."
Lelouch trembled, with both sorrow and rage. Sorrow because that kind older brother was clearly dead and gone, and rage because his once kind older brother dared to indirectly call Suzaku 'just an Eleven' as though his life weren't worth anything when it was worth more to Lelouch than well over half of the Imperial Family's lives. His eyes burned with tears, of which emotion he couldn't discern, but all he knew was that he had to end this madman's life.
He raised his pistol and put it close to Clovis' forehead. The least he could do was make it painless and quick.
"W-What are you doing Lelouch?!" Clovis screamed in fear. "You and I may not share mothers but we are still brothers!"
Lelouch spoke with a voice barely holding back the raging emotions he was feeling. "No, we are no longer brothers. The brother I remember is clearly dead and gone."
Lelouch then gave a slightly insane smile. "Besides, you can't change the world without getting your hands dirty!" He shouted in an unhinged voice and pulled the trigger.
And thus, with the sobbing of rage and sorrow by his once beloved little brother, the life of the Third Prince of Britannia, Clovis la Britannia, was snuffed out.
And on the day September 11, 2017 a.t.b.; a Black Devil was born.
Author's Note: Sorry that this chapter was so long, but in addition to merging the first two episodes of the anime from Lelouch's point of view, I also had to go into detail on the changes that I've made to the storyline for my story when it was appropriate or convenient. Anyway, I hope that this chapter was an enjoyable read.
I also want to say something to all my readers. I would like it, if I make an obvious grammar mistake, to have it pointed out if any of you notice it or them. I can't stand making grammar mistakes, personally I blame all my English teachers for being stiffs with almost no sense of humor, and I will make sure to correct any mistakes that are noticed.
As you can tell, this Lelouch is just as much a genius as the canonical one, but he is more understanding when it comes to other people and human emotions than he is in canon because he has more control over his own arrogance in this story. This self-control, as well as slightly unstable mental state, is what makes my Lelouch unique I believe because I have yet to see a story where Lelouch is self-aware of his own distorted mental state from the beginning while maintaining a surprisingly good amount of self-control despite it.
One last thing, I was thinking about writing this same chapter, only from Nunnally's point of view in the next chapter with some obviously different events happening at the time of Lelouch's, barring the Shinjuku one for obvious reasons. My partial crossover with Nightmare of Nunnally makes her a possible main character after all. It will be shorter than this one since I need to have less of an exposition.
Now,
Lelouch vi Britannia commands you, REVIEW!
King Draconias Over and Out.
