Warning! This story will have lots of swearing, violence, and blood/gore. If you don't like that, then this probably isn't for you and you shouldn't be reading this.

"Yes, I am Zero." = Regular speech

What is he up to? = Thoughts

"Where are you young one?" = Telepathic speech

"Hello, I am your PDA." = The PDA is speaking

I don't take any credit, nor do I own Code Geass or Subnautica. This story is purely for fun and my entertainment only.

Ch. 10: Land Ho!

At that moment, two small explosions and bursts of fire plumed out different parts of the enormous ship. A sign of what was to come sooner than either teen had hoped.

"Let's hurry, we need to get that seamoth built and decide on what to do next." Lelouch's words once more kick started the duo back into action. They both retreated back under the water, but stuck very close to the surface, and swam back to the sea base as quickly as possible with their rightfully earned goods.

. . .

"What are you doing up? You should be in bed resting." Lelouch stated, half tired, half frustrated, and an extra third just done with everything that had happened today. With some assistance from Suzaku, who had entered the sea base first, the raven haired teen limped into the bedroom to sit down in one of the chairs that worked well with his mechanical cape extensions.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm looking around." Kallen stated stubbornly with her chin held just a tad bit high. "Honestly Lelouch, I'm not a cripple, it's my arm that's the problem."

"I-" Lelouch was about to retort back, but was thankfully cut off by Suzaku as he dragged in another med kit and set it on Lelouch's bed.

"It's good to see you up, Kallen." Suzaku smiled lightly in relief as he opened the med kit's case and rifled through its materials for the necessary supplies to work on Lelouch's leg. "You getting up and walking around is a good sign for your health. Plus, it's nice to see you moving and doing something."

"Heh, what can I say?" Kallen gave a somewhat shaky grin as she fiddled with the makeshift sling holding her injured arm. "Can't let this thing get me down all the time."

Lelouch opened his mouth to say something again, but after a moment's pause he shook his head in faux annoyance and decided to say something else. "...I suppose you're right." Watching Suzaku reach out for Lelouch's injured leg, the revolutionary's cape extensions twitched before Lelouch interjected. "Hey, I've got this." Lightly slapping Suzaku's forearm in a show of camradire, Lelouch easily slid the disinfectant and bandages out of the burnette's surprised hands. "Go get started working on that mobile vehicle bay so we can build that seamoth. We're on a time limit here. I can take care of myself just like Kallen can."

Suzaku blinked for a moment, processing what had just occurred, before giving a light huff of breath and standing back up. A mute nod passed Suzaku as he began to leave the room, but not before grabbing the PDA from Lelouch's supply bag. "I suppose you're right. I'll get started on that stuff right away."

"What happened to get you that nasty cut on your leg Lelouch?" Kallen asked as she went over to the raven haired teen's side and sat beside him on the bed. Giving a silent nod to Suzaku as she passed by him as he went back out to work. "Was it one of those freaky fish things again like the one that attacked me?"

Was it a bad thing the three of them were starting to converse about such things like it was a normal, everyday occurrence? Probably.

"Not quite, but it was a close call." Lelouch explained as he quickly got to work on bandaging himself up and then repairing his dive suit. "That fish that attacked you is actually called a sand shark, and it nearly had both Suzaku and I for lunch by trapping us in some of the Aurora's wreckage." A triumphant grin stretched across the revolutionary's face despite the pain of cleaning his wounds. "Luckily, Suzaku and I managed to team up and kill it before it got to us. This cut was just from some stray shrapnel I ran into in a panic at the time, so it's nothing."

"Metal?" Kallen raised an eyebrow though her eyes showed worry. "Shouldn't you be worried about getting tetanus? You better clean that wound good."

"Don't worry, I intend to." Lelouch said idly. His concentration and gaze mostly on what he was currently working on at the moment.

After a while it was quiet. Just the two of them sitting there, alone, doing their own things. Once finished stitching and bandaging the gash on his leg Lelouch went straight into repairing his dive suit. With some quick help from a few materials on his designated shelf and the fabricator it was a rather easy job. Meanwhile, Kallen set out to clean the floors from the leaking blood that had rushed down Lelouch's leg from when he first entered the base. It was somewhat difficult with only being able to use one hand, but the redhead grit her teeth and stuck through with it.

"You should relax, try not to work yourself so hard, Kallen. You could hurt yourself." Lelouch warned softly.

Kallen sat up on her knees on the floor, just finishing wiping away the last bits of red that contrasted brightly with the light gray metal of the floor. A visible sign of annoyance was clear in the way the ace Black Knight took a deep breath through her nose and let it out through her mouth before even thinking of setting her sapphire blue eyes on Lelouch. Though they weren't as bright as before all of this chaos had started, a strong resolve and determination shone through greater than any diamond possible.

It had Lelouch stopping to stare at her, near mesmerized. Was this how it felt to be placed under his geass? Lelouch wasn't sure.

"Lelouch, we've talked about this before." Kallen stated firmly albeit calmly. "I can't just sit here and do nothing, hiding away in this room like I'm some pathetic princess trapped in a locked tower. No way am I playing the damsel in distress role here." A somewhat teasing smile twitched on the side of her lips before going away. "That role is all for you, you dramatic diva."

Now that got a snort of mock offense from the raven haired teen. Dichromatic eyes rolling fondly at Kallen's antics.

"Ha, ha, very funny. I get it." Deciding to play along for just a bit to lighten the somewhat down mood, Lelouch spread his cape extensions and acted like he was presenting a very captivating, motivational speech as Zero. "It's because I'm Zero isn't it? Ha, ha. Hilarious. You should see me when the theater club at Ashford Academy manages to wrangle me into one of their plays. I really lay it on thick then."

Just the thought of Lelouch in some stupid, silly costume made by other students at Ashford and being forced to act somewhat against his will had Kallen going through a laughing fit.

"Ha ha ha ha, hoo… But seriously, don't try to fight me on this." Kallen returned to her serious demeanor. She wasn't going to allow Lelouch to subtly change the subject and move on. Not until they had this resolved, and with her as the winner. "I'm not going to stop helping you and Suzaku just because of what happened to my arm. I have to- No, I need to help you guys. Otherwise, what use am I for as the Black Knight's ace?" Her sapphire gaze flickered from her injured arm cradled by her chest back up to Lelouch, before she stood up to match his height and look him in the eyes. "You understand?"

"..." Lelouch's dichromatic eyes narrowed just a smidge in his silence. Kallen could practically see the gears whirring in his head as he complicated and uncomplicated things for himself. "I understand. You win."

Kallen blinked, a little stunned at how easily that had gone with Lelouch. She'd figured that with Nunnally and his near obsessive big brother behavior that it'd be near impossible.

But here she was, winning in a conversation against Lelouch. He had conceded.

A grateful smile slowly spread across Kallen's face. "Thank you." Her gratitude towards Lelouch's easy acceptance was clear in her tone. He was letting go of the need to control every aspect. To stay as the leader that stood on top, that knew everything, that gave out orders expecting them to be followed to a T.

It was clear progress. At this moment, the two had become solid best friends, and perhaps something more that had finally bloomed under the surface. Because while Lelouch was wondering if C.C had secretly given Kallen a form of geass herself. She was starting to wonder when Lelouch had started gaining the good bits she admired while he was Zero back again.

Eventually, Lelouch realized he was still staring at Kallen, and quickly averted his gaze out the window. Perhaps out of a bit of embarrassment, perhaps not, but it didn't stop the light pink from dusting his cheeks either way.

Kallen caught on quickly as to why Lelouch had done that, and seconds after followed his actions by looking the other way awkwardly. Her own blush began to form as she berated the thoughts flying around in her head. Now was no time to fantasize and wonder, no time to possibly hope and think about such emotions when they needed to survive. Besides, it'd be incredibly awkward with Suzaku around. That and it'd be cruel to force the Britannian soldier to become a third wheel like that and have him be forced to see all of the awkward, cringey moments in his perspective.

Kallen certainly would despise it if she was him.

"...So." Kallen piped up again with a question that was on her mind since waking back up. "Did you guys really build this place? All by yourselves?" This time her eyes looked around the structure they were currently living for who knows how long.

Seeing the clear subject change, Lelouch decided to take the out with grace. "Yep. It took a while and a bit of bickering between Suzaku and I, but we eventually got it done... Do you like it?"

Kallen nodded quickly. "It's amazing…" She said with clear awe. "I especially like the greenhouse you guys made. It's relaxing."

"That was Suzaku's idea admittedly. I was planning to make it a mere extra storage room, but Suzaku's idea seemed better when he suggested it. It is certainly impressive though." Lelouch looked around the room and further down the hall as well with a proud, satisfied air around him. His cape extensions rising up to match his feelings. "I can agree with you on that."

"How did you guys do it?" Kallen asked, clearly curious.

"Ah, it was mainly through fabricating the parts and a ton of titanium and quartz." Lelouch explained as he began to rifle through his bag. Taking it and exiting the bedroom to head towards the main storage room, Kallen following not too far behind him. "Though if we never had the habitat builder none of this would have been possible, and we'd still be stuck living with that dingy half broken down lifepod."

After a moment of searching, Lelouch pulled the habitat builder out of one of the many labeled lockers and handed it to Kallen for her to inspect. Once finished with that, he returned to organizing the items and materials he and Suzaku had collected whilst exploring the Aurora wreckage. Putting them into their specific storage locations for later usage, and to empty his bag for the inevitable next supply run.

Just as Lelouch finished organizing everything Suzaku returned into the seabase. Shaking off bits of sea water drenched over his suit the brunette looked to Kallen and Lelouch making idle chatter to pass the time.

The relief and joy at the sight dampened a little as the reminder of the Aurora hung over his head, but Suzaku refused to let that ruin this incoming, glorious moment for all of them.

"Hey." Getting both Lelouch's and Kallen's attention, the Britannian soldier grinned madly. "I hope you two don't mind, but I took the liberty of fabricating the mobile vehicle bay and gathering all of the necessary materials for the seamoth already. Everything is waiting for us outside."

The shock and surprise of that unexpected announcement had Lelouch's jaw dropped in shock and Kallen blinking in surprise.

"You sly son of a-"

"What, already?" Kallen asked, completely caught off guard.

"Yeah, making a seamoth is actually really easy, surprisingly. We already had a good chunk of the stuff we needed." Suzaku explained as he started to walk towards the kitchen area to eat some food. Fry a peeper or two and what not. "Let's eat first and then make this thing so Kallen can test that baby out."

"Me?!" Kallen repeated, near speechless.

"Yeah you." Lelouch stated with a huff as he once again rolled his eyes whilst crossing his arms. The teen's cape extensions flicked idly and tapped a subtle rhythm into the sea base's metal floor as he asked. "Why else do you think we're making this thing? Not only is it a greater, better, and faster mode of transport that is definitely safer, but it means you can come with us on supply runs even with the problem that is your arm."

For a while, Kallen resembled that of a speechless goldfish, merely following the two boys into the kitchen to eat. The silence was thick for a moment as the trio ate their lunch, which was more like dinner at this point.

Then Kallen spoke, her eyes slightly watery.

"You guys suck."

Both Suzaku and Lelouch knew it was actually a great, huge silent thank you. The redhead saying it out loud in her usual, classic charm of being an emotionally hotheaded person.

. . .

"This is going to be so cool."

Lelouch had to agree with Suzaku on that statement. The mobile vehicle bay itself was very interesting to look at. What with the four flying drones just waiting to be given a command and start fabricating.

"What are you waiting for Lelouch? Hurry up and initiate the command to start fabricating this thing. We're on a time crunch." Kallen said swiftly, glancing at the Aurora for a moment before looking back towards Lelouch.

"You just want to drive the thing." Lelouch said easily, but regardless did as the redhead had asked.

Whilst having lunch, the two boys quickly filled Kallen in on what the plan was going to be since the Aurora was soon to explode to cataclysmic proportions. There wasn't enough time to head to the ship and prevent the explosion. Not that any of them even knew what to look for or where to start.

No, the best decision the trio made was to take the seamoth and drive away from the ship, hopefully to find an island instead of the endless blue ocean. Once the explosion was finished and a couple hours after just to be safe, the group would then return to their base and plan further from there.

"Okay, here goes nothing." Lelouch took in a deep breath, before pressing the button on the mobile vehicle bay to initiate the fabrication of the seamoth.

Instantly, the drones got straight to work. A light blue laser was shot out from them and began using the materials the group had gathered to make their hard earned submersible vehicle. One drone created the outline of the seamoth in a brilliant bright, near white blue light while a second began to break down and process the materials required. The other two converted those materials broken down into the sleek, advanced, technological beauty and marvel that was the seamoth itself.

Over all the commotion the teens watched it with awe clear in all of their eyes. The PDA piped up with a tidbit of information on their newly obtained mode of transport.

The seamoth is a fast, safe mode of transport, but remember that swimming is good for your glutes and endorphin levels.

"Oh shut up." Lelouch said, yet he kept his dichromatic gaze on the newly made seamoth. Watching as it fell from the sky where it was being fabricated and started to sink into the water before it stabilized and began to idly float within the ocean's depths. "I've done enough swimming to last me a traumatizing lifetime."

"Amen to that." Kallen added in somewhat spitefully towards the PDA which was definitely beginning to irritate her as well.

As the trio went under the waves and quickly swam to get a much better look at the seamoth, all three could agree on one thing. It was beautiful.

Sleek white and navy blue metal, strong futuristic propellers hidden in the back. That round sphere of strong, thick glass that had to be greater than bullet proof.

Whoever had created this design and gave life to the seamoth deserved whatever praises they earned along with a solid pat on the back.

"Oh man, dibs!" Kallen hollered and swam forward before either of the boys could. Opening the hatch on top and easily sliding into the very comfortable one person seat before the hatch automatically closed above her. With the redhead entering the vehicle, all of the lights and the subs headlights flashed on, bright as L. . The water drained from the very comfy cockpit and the air was plentiful here.

With the light hum of the efficient seamoth came another voice, similar to the PDA, yet a bit higher pitched. "Welcome aboard captain."

"Oooohohoho yeah. Hello to you too beautiful." Kallen cheered. Her workable arm fiddled with all of the controls and mainly the steering wheel to get better acquainted with everything.

"I think she's in love." Suzaku joked as they watched Kallen slowly get control over everything along with a good understanding of how the seamoth worked. It was rather fun to watch from an outsider's perspective as well, and exciting either way.

"Yeah? Who wouldn't be with an engineering marvel such as that thing? Though I still think that the Guren is her one and only." Lelouch talked back. The teen rubbed his hands together in a show of excited impatience. "I can't wait to see what other vehicles the Aurora has hidden within its scrapped hull like that P.R.A.W.N suit. It's got me grinning like the grinch on the inside."

"Well it's got you grinning on the outside too." Suzaku laughed towards Lelouch's reaction. The burnette began swimming forward towards the seamoth seeing how sleek and swift it was going in the water. Suzaku had a hunch Kallen had figured everything there is to know about the vehicle out. "Hey, let me try it out!"

"Me after." Lelouch added in from the sidelines. "Then we need to see if all three of us can fit into that thing or if we need to make another one or two." The revolutionary fidgeted, most likely not looking forward to the incoming cramped space.

"Mmmm, oh fine." The hatch opened and Kallen once more exited the seamoth which had stopped on her command. "If it wasn't for this place being a literal underwater hell I'd say this was the greatest fun I've ever had."

As Suzaku and Lelouch had their turns, both had similar great approving comments for the seamoth itself.

"It feels like I'm piloting the Lancelot again." Suzaku reminisced with a fond smile on his face for his old knightmare frame. Feeling nostalgia and missing everyone back at home, especially Princess Euphemia.

Hopefully she wasn't taking his supposed 'death' too hard on herself. He swore he'd come back soon enough.

"It's controls are rather sensitive. Just a mere twitch and the seamoth will follow the movement. Not only that, but the controls are sleek and fluid. I don't feel any resistance against my actions at all." Lelouch breathed in awe of what the future was looking like for humanity. "This is much better than any pathetic submarine or submersible knightmare frame back at home. Britannia could never hope to match up to this piece of advanced tech."

Then came the test to see if all three of them could fit into the seamoth at once. Even though it obviously wasn't designed like that, until they gathered more resources and got more familiar with the terrain it was better to at least try it this way.

Surprisingly, with the seamoth's cockpit being rather spacious in design, it wasn't as cramped as the group thought it was going to be. With Kallen sitting in the middle and obviously piloting, and Suzaku and Lelouch sitting on either side of the chair the only problem was getting in and out.

Yet even then it was a simple matter. Kallen simply needed to enter the vehicle last since she was sitting in the middle and exit first. Suzaku and Lelouch had to enter first before Kallen and then leave last since she was right below the hatch.

"This is going a lot better than I expected." Lelouch stated offhandedly at one point. This statement caused both Kallen and Suzaku to groan loudly, before giving Lelouch the stink eye. "What?"

"Dude, even I know you should never, ever say anything like that. Now something bad is bound to happen." Suzaku said whilst rubbing his face with both of his hands.

"What." This time a somewhat astonished look grew over the raven haired teen's face as he looked between his two colleagues. "Is this supposed to be a prank or something? Don't tell me you two actually believe in that 'Oh, well at least it can't get any worse' crap."

Kallen did a mock show of slapping her own forehead at Lelouch's words. To think this dude is Zero. The most wanted revolutionary in our world. "What do you mean crap? Of course stuff like that is real! Just wait and see."

After that quick yet somewhat weird conversation the trio got invested in learning all they could about the seamoth. Apparently they could make upgrades for the advanced submarine, but they didn't have the proper blueprints on hand to make it at the moment. It could dive down to around two hundred meters underwater though and acted as a safe haven alongside a pocket of movable oxygen, which was perfect.

Ten minutes passed by like this, before dichromatic eyes finally looked down to notice a blinking little notification on the top right corner of the PDA.

"Whoa, hey hold up guys. Stop the seamoth." Slowly, Kallen ground the vehicle to a halt at Lelouch direction. Thankfully, piloting the submarine with only one hand was actually easier than she had thought. It certainly wouldn't have been possible if the controls were as complex as the Guren's.

"What's up? PDA pick something up?" Kallen asked curiously with a quirked eyebrow.

"Yeah, says there's a new radio message. I want to go check it out." Lelouch mumbled distractedly, and with those words everyone began the process of pouring out of the seamoth like a clown car.

"A new message? So more possible survivors." Suzaku said eagerly swimming forward a tad at the possibility of encountering other humans.

"We won't know for sure until we meet up with them, it could be like lifepod seventeen for all we know." Lelouch warned lightly as they all entered the sea base and headed towards the radio. "Besides, I don't know if meeting up with people in this world is a good idea, they're a part of this Alterra."

"We certainly didn't come from that huge ass spaceship parked right outside our door. They won't recognize us either." Kallen added in. "But it wouldn't hurt to just check."

"... Yeah, sure. Let's just see what the message says first before doing anything." With that, Suzaku had reached the radio first and hit play.

"Playing pre-recorded distress call." The voice over the radio suddenly changed to that of a male. The person sounded very frazzled on the other end of the recorded line. "This is Officer Keen in lifepod 19!.. The captain is gone. I have assumed command. The last thing the captain did was give me coordinates for dry land. We regroup one and a half kilometers south-west of the crash site. Stay together, and good luck… This message will now repeat."

Two seconds after that before anyone could say anything the PDA spoke up again. "Rendezvous coordinates corrupted. Transmission origin coordinates downloaded. Signal location uploaded to PDA."

"... Fantastic." Suzaku said after a moment of silence everyone took to process the message that had just played. Olive green eyes looked to dichromatic and sapphire blue ones. "This is great, right?"

"I mean, there's a group out there somewhere, there are actual survivors just waiting for others to hopefully show up and survive." Kallen agreed hesitantly.

"More importantly, there's dry land around here somewhere." Lelouch stated, and together the trio unanimously decided to start packing their bags of any food, water, and medical supplies they'd need for this unexpected trip. "That's where we'll go once to wait for the Aurora's explosion out. Not only will we be safe from the freaks of the night that live down here underwater, but we'll find other people and supplies."

"People means information too. Perhaps they can tell us what happened to cause that huge ship to crash." Kallen struggled to zip her bag shut with one hand, but got it soon enough just as the other two finished packing.

"We better hurry then." Suzaku said quickly as the trio exited their sea base and hurried back to the seamoth. "Who knows what'll happen, they might decide to move onwards somewhere else and we could miss them if we're not quick enough."

"That and the Aurora could explode at any moment." Lelouch agreed once the trio all jam-packed themselves back into the submarine. "So it would be wise if we got out of here and went over that way as soon as possible."

"But we don't know where the dry land is, only the place where this officer Keen last made a transmission." Kallen interjected as she began to pilot the seamoth up to the surface to breach the water.

"Not a problem." Lelouch merely pointed over to the Aurora. "He said the dry land was about one and a half kilometers south-west of the crash site, so…" Following the genius teen's finger as it moved, Lelouch pointed off to the right of the great destroyed ship. "It should be somewhere over this direction."

"I think I would feel safer if we checked out the last transmission spot first. If only just to be safe." Suzaku mildly objected. "We might find something there that's important for us later down the road, and we could find the exact coordinates to the island if we just checked as well."

"I don't really see the point in checking, since we know no one is going to be in the lifepod since they've moved onto dry land." Dichromatic eyes turned to Kallen. "Looks like you're the deciding factor here Kallen. Do we go straight to this island or check the transmission first?"

"The PDA does say the lifepod is very far down in the water… Plus the coordinates say it's nearly three hundred meters down underneath the water. The seamoth can't go that far down without getting demolished by the pressure." The redhead shook her head and pointed the seamoth south-west of the Aurora before moving forward. "I'd have to suggest the island first, then maybe we can check and see what that area has in store for us."

"That's reasonable." Suzaku agreed as he took in Kallen's words. Even so, the burnette took in a huge deep breath to try and help himself relax, it didn't work much. "Oh boy, I really hope this goes well."

. . .

"Oh my God Kallen, what are you doing?!" Lelouch said semi-frantically as he watched Kallen pilot the seamoth. Both of his mechanical cape extensions were wrapped so tightly around the single seat headrest and any grabbable hand holds everyone could hear the creaking strain. It matched perfectly with the teen's nerves that were starting to rise higher and higher at the moment. "Why are you going down when we should be going up and staying on the water's surface!?"

"Because I want to be prepared, that's why." Kallen snapped. Her hand was slick with sweat as she steered the advanced submarine further down into the water's seemingly bottomless depths. "If there are going to be any big class leviathan predators I'd rather we not be an open, easy target from all directions okay? At least if I stay low to the ground I'll be safe and rest easy knowing it's safe beneath me. Now shut up with the back seat driving and let me do my thing."

"I thought you didn't want to go to the transmission signal until after the island?" Suzaku questioned somewhat meekly. His tan skin paling as the light from the surface dimmed more and more. How it got more murky and harder to see the ocean around you much less in front of your own face.

Nobody liked this, at all.

"I did say that, but it wouldn't hurt to scope the place out for any possible predators or dangers before that either. Who knows if this island is being guarded by some sea dragon monster or whatever." Kallen spoke offhandedly, most of her attention on driving. "I'm just doing the best to keep us all safe and alive in the way I feel is best. I don't know what goes on in your guys' heads, but I for one would like to stay breathing."

"Yes, breathing is nice." Lelouch agreed somewhat sarcastically, but otherwise kept quiet as the world around them just got emptier and emptier. Less life and plants, less fauna all around them as they progressed forwards.

Lelouch didn't know what was worse, the emptiness, the lack of life around them as they advanced, or the eerie silence that came with the absence of said wildlife. The only noise now being the subtle hum and purring of the seamoth as it casually puttered on through the ocean without stop.

"Oh gosh this is deep." Suzaku muttered uneasily under his breath. His words became more rapid with every second that passed the deeper down the trio went in the ocean. "We're so far down in the water, so far from the surface. Oh gosh, oh gosh. This is the farthest down we've ever gone, oh man this sucks."

"Hey, don't think I like doing this either. I hate this." Kallen added onto Suzaku's comment.

Whilst traversing down in the depths of this terrifying ocean the environment changed into something the trio has yet to have seen from 4546B. It had empty, huge wide open waters that seemed to span nearly all directions endlessly which was extremely intimidating for all parties involved. Yet, they still persevered. Kallen skillfully piloted the seamoth down and through the large spire-like structures made from old, eroded stone. All of those tall spires coming in like layers, yet became less frequent the further they went in. After passing the boundary of the environment the ground seemed to level out just a couple meters past two hundred.

Living flora and fauna here was clearly sparse, very few and very far between. The sand undisturbed by any form of life except for the ocean currents themselves. The land was relatively flat suggesting the group had made it to what seemed to be the bottom of the area finally, hopefully. Huge green mounds of table coral were dotted all over the flat expanse of underwater land. Scattered alongside the mounds were some bioluminescent flora that was somehow managing to survive so far down and alone.

Otherwise, all that was left to be noticed were the couple of large fissures that led further down into unknown darkness.

Besides that though, there was nothing.

"I hate how empty it is here. I hate it." Lelouch hissed through his teeth, body tense as if he was expecting a monster to suddenly come leaping out of one of those darkened fissures and attack.

"It's so unnerving." Suzaku agreed, yet his olive green eyes focused around the open waters above and around them. "Yet, I don't see any possible predators or dangers."

"It's just… nothing." Kallen spoke finally as well. Slowly, her shoulders lowered from being scrunched right up by her neck. Taking a moment to pause and look at the PDA again for coordinates Kallen finally paused just above the lip of a particularly large fissure. "Okay, the transmission is coming from right below us at around a hundred meters further down. Just wanted to let everyone know that for when we come back for it later."

"Right, let's just get the hell out of here and on sweet, heavenly dry land please." Lelouch nodded quickly, and breathed a huge sigh of relief as Kallen began to pilot the seamoth straight up and towards the surface of the ocean. "Thank you."

It was a bit weird to go straight up and down in the seamoth for the boys since they didn't have an actual seat to sit on, much less seatbelts. The two had to rely on any foot and hand holds they could use to stay upright in their spots as gravity took hold of them.

Yet, as they went further and further up, something became easily more noticeable, more apparent. What started off as a couple of dull glowing pink blobs became more defined, bright and obvious.

It was what was above those blobs that got the trio shocked to their cores.

"...Wait, is that…'' The breath left Kallen's lungs in a rush as her eyes widened in speechless realization. "W-woah."

"No way." Suzaku awed, his jaw dropping as the sight of what was before him registered into his brain. "...Uh, guys? I think we found the island Keen was talking about in the recording."

"That's not possible." Lelouch stammered. Both Kallen and Suzaku could see the smoke leaving the revolutionary's ears as his brain processed calculations practically a mile a second. "All of that stone, all of that weight and pressure. This literally cannot be possible. Whatever way or how this island is floating has to be near ancient age or just incredible to withstand so much weight. This thing should be at the bottom of the ocean right now like everything else."

"Well, this isn't exactly Earth anymore Lelouch." Suzaku said idly as the seamoth continued traversing upwards towards the center of the island where a hole in the floating landmass resided. "With everything that's been happening, I don't think impossible is a word we can exactly say anymore."

"Obviously it has to be those weird, disturbing pink looking things that are latched onto the bottom of this island that's causing it to float." Kallen stated logically as she stared more at the creatures they were getting close to. How the huge behemoths have a clear membrane over their pink innards, protecting them. The vague sight of blue and red veins traversing the alien thing's entire frame. "Looks like they're stuck where they are, almost like leeches."

There were other things besides the alien leeches though of course. With the island floating there was a ton of spires pointing down towards the now murky water depths below. On and around those spires were large spans of bioluminescent coral clustered together alongside different species of coral like table or red coral. There were also a ton of barnacles and other strange flora life on the spires.

There were also occasional chunks of debris and rock detaching from the island and quickly hurtling down towards the unseeable bottom of the ocean.

"Once we make it to the surface of the island and park the seamoth I'm going to scan whatever those pink blobs are." Clearly Lelouch had snapped out of his calculating stupor to finally speak once more just as they were about to breach the water. Dichromatic eyes narrowed as he shuffled to take the scanner gun out of his bag. "I swear I've seen those things somewhere before now that we're much closer to them, but I can't remember when."

"Are you sure you should do that alone? This planet has death around literally every corner." Kallen asked uneasily. She didn't like the idea of Lelouch being alone in the water. The thought didn't feel right with her.

"There's nothing here except for this island and salt water. I'll be fine and back in a mere minute." Lelouch spoke, easing Kallen's worries just a smidge. "While I do that, you guys can look around on the island and see if there is actually anybody there."

"Okay, if you say so." Kallen begrudgingly agreed, and right after that breached the water's surface and parked the seamoth. Everyone quickly climbed out of the submarine and went to do their tasks.

As Lelouch plunged under the water and his form slowly phased out of their vision, Kallen and Suzaku quickly swam for land. It hadn't hit them how desperately they wanted and wished to be back on land again until now. It was such an unfathomable joy and relief.

When they finally reached land, both teen's weren't shy to admit that they had crawled onto the actual dry sand and collapsed right then and there. Breathing sighs of relief and laughing lightly at the fact that they were on land now.

Land. They had finally, finally found land.

"Oh thank God how I've missed you." Kallen laughed out loud at the thought of missing solid ground beneath her feet, and finally urged herself to stand up and walk for once in who knew how long. To look up and see the bright blue sky and occasional white clouds dotting the great expanse. To breathe without fear of running out of air. To hear the neverending crash sound of waves hitting rocks and sand relentlessly and the sounds of leaves rustling in the light breeze, soaking in the sunlight.

Everything was bright and green and beautiful.

"Can we just live up here instead of down there?" Suzaku muttered into the sand, before finally getting up as well. His legs actually buckled for a second before correcting himself, almost as if he had to learn how to walk all over again. "This is infinitely better and more peaceful."

"That idea sounds fantastic." Kallen agreed easily enough. Sapphire eyes idly looking around before a light blue glow on the sandy ground caught her attention. "Hey, look at that over there."

Looking towards where the redhead had pointed Suzaku instantly knew what was causing that blue glow, and any feelings of joy were quickly mashed and turned into one of dread. "Hey, that's a PDA over there. It must have some sort of message from the group that met up here."

"Abandoned PDAs are never a good sign, Suzaku." Kallen warned gently, but nevertheless the group made it over and picked up the PDA. It's placement giving view to a well worn pathway higher up and further into the island.

"I know, but we might as well read what's on them if we ever want to find out what happened here." Suzaku said back.

Then the water shifted violently, and burst forward with a loud splash. Both Kallen and Suzaku reeled back swiftly screaming, startled by the sudden unexpected noise.

Lelouch laughed at their reaction as he treaded water idly for a moment. "Ha, who else were you expecting? I told you two I would be back in a few seconds didn't I?"

"Oh ha ha, very funny Lelouch you scared us." Kallen rolled her eyes and carefully crossed her one usable arm over her injured one. "Excuse us for being a bit paranoid and flighty after everything that's happened so far."

Lelouch had just managed to pull himself out of the water and stood up on land. His shins still submerged in water when he looked back up at the duo in silent contemplation. "... Okay." Dichromatic eyes went from his friends to his surroundings as he too looked at the island with untold amounts of relief. "I never realized I could miss solid dry dirt and rock this much." The revolutionary began striding through the water onto dry land once more, the water sloshing around his feet as he did so. "So, did you guys find anything?"

The way Lelouch's mechanical extensions dragged through the dry sand and curled temporary patterns into it revealed how much he was eager and excited for this. Showed how thankful he was to be back above water and on land to walk. Revealed just how badly he wanted to explore and see what this island had to offer.

"Yeah, a PDA, but I doubt what we're going to hear will be anything good." Suzaku said glumly, but didn't let complete despair win.

That caused an annoyed, yet accepting sigh to escape Lelouch's throat as he rolled his eyes. "Great. Jolly. Alright then, let's just get this over with and play the recorded log."

The PDA within Suzaku's hands sparked to life at the burnette's prompting, and everyone carefully listened in as two voices spoke. One being a male that had to be Officer Keen, while the other was an unknown female that must have managed to make it to the island. "We have to board the Aurora, repair the long range comms, and make contact with the other survivors. We can't be the only two that made it." The woman spoke up calmly and assuredly.

"Those are not the orders the captain gave me, and they are not the orders I'm giving you." Officer Keen ordered with the same level of calm as the woman. It seemed the two were having an argument of some sort.

"This isn't chain of command, it's survival." The woman spoke hotly. "The more of us there are, the more likely we live."

"My obligations as acting commander don't run on their convenience. Get out of the water." Keen demanded with more heat in his voice. It seemed the woman wanted to go see if there were other survivors while Keen wanted to stay and wait in case anyone else showed up.

"If I get into trouble. I'll send you my coordinates." Either they were waiting for a long time already or she wasn't a patient person in general, but it seemed the woman had enough of just sitting around and waiting.

"I can't let you go alone." Officer Keen stated firmly, yet the heat in his voice had died down.

"Then come with me." She said simply.

A loud, defeated yet disbelieving sigh came from Keen. "... You don't leave me much choice."

The PDA piped in at that moment. "Received emergency transmission from second Officer Keen two hours after last activity." The news brought a clear sense of dread in everybody.

Something had gone wrong. Horribly wrong.

The log recorded heavy breathing and the crashing of waves easily. Officer Keen's defeated voice rang out eerily over the noise. "Rendezvous was a failure. Intercepted a transmission from Alterra HQ, seems they've sent a data package to the Aurora."

The woman from before wasn't speaking in the recording anymore. Where she went and what happened to her, the trio didn't know, and they didn't know if they wanted to find out.

"We were intercepted by a leviathan class predator before we could reach the ship…" A shaky moment of silence as Keen worked to gather himself together. Guess that's what happened to the woman, something got to her first while Keen was left to get away and survive. If only for a bit longer. "Consider the CTO and I lost at sea…" Another shaky breath that was worse than before. A feeble attempt to calm himself down that obviously wasn't working. "Be safe… Keen, out… Oh God."

"So great, our journey here looking for anyone was a complete bust." Suzaku released a bit of his rage at that fact by throwing the PDA down onto the ground. Burying half of it in the sand from the impact. "Dammit! If they had just waited a couple hours longer!"

"We just missed them." Kallen swore softly under her breath. Her own sapphire eyes darkened at the news. "So it's still just us. At this rate it feels like it's only going to be us three."

"I'm more worried about this leviathan class predator." Lelouch said grimly. One hand going up to cup his chin while the other remained crossed around his body. Cape extensions curling in on themselves out of reflex. "Whatever it is, it's big, carnivorous, and is obviously a huge threat. Not only that, but apparently it resides somewhere around the Aurora." Dichromatic eyes looked up to olive green and sapphire blue. "So when, or more likely if we ever go exploring the Aurora in the aftermath of this oncoming explosion we'll need to keep a very sharp eye out for this thing."

"If it's a leviathan class predator then it should be huge and easy to spot." Kallen shrugged in confirmation, and quickly turned to head towards the exit and explore the island. "I'm going to take a look around if you guys would care to join me, see if there is anything cool those two left behind."

"Hopefully the explosion will kill it." Suzaku muttered bitterly towards 4546B's twisted, demonic animal life.

"Knowing our luck here so far? Probably not." Lelouch spoke back as the trio began to explore the place. The sun starting to dip down near the horizon and begin setting.

Looking around, seeing all of the stark green and occasional burst of other colors was almost overwhelming without a sheen of water in the way. The breeze was startling and had everyone's nerves jumping since being underwater meant there was no gust of wind.

Of course, with all of the new sights, sounds and plants came with a renewed sense of wonder and need for exploration. To find out as much information as possible. So, despite needing to possibly save room for other more important items, Lelouch gathered seeds and specimens of each new plant they encountered. Being extra sure to scan everything and anything he could.

From Bulbo trees that held tons of water within them and could be used as a steady source of food. To the smaller plants like voxel shrub and fern palm that had no other use except for being decoration and pleasing to the eye. Huge bright yellowish orange flowers that immediately caught everyone's eye through the mass of overgrown greenery. Grub baskets and jaffa cups were their species' name apparently.

"I swear, some of these things you find and scan have the weirdest freaking names Lelouch." Suzaku said at one point on their adventure.

It was a point Lelouch couldn't deny, so he didn't even bother to and just focused back onto what he was scanning.

Lantern trees were another interesting possibility with their equally intriguing fruits hanging from their branches. After making sure with the PDA that it was safe for consumption, the trio immediately found the watery fruit to be one of the best things they had ever tasted.

"Oh my God, this is so good." Kallen mumbled happily as she continued consuming the fruit. The group took a quick break to sit and lean against said lantern tree to just eat, to just relax. "It's so sweet and chewy."

"And it doesn't taste like fish." Suzaku breathed a heavy sigh of relief at that one.

"Thank God for small mercies at least." Lelouch agreed on the side.

After that break the group continued onwards. Finding ming plants and pink caps, speckled rattlers and so much more. Though the island was mainly populated by a certain kind of tree species. The bark was a smooth grey and its leaves a regular green like on Earth, but underneath the tree's crown of leaves came a strange blue glow that was mesmerizing.

"Lelouch come on, we can't keep stopping every time to see a new plant. We'll be stuck here for ages." Suzaku urged his best friend forward impatiently, crossing his arms and tapping his foot as he spoke.

"Hey I'm just planning ahead." Lelouch argued back as he quickly finished up on what he was working on. "Think of how well these plants will look in your garden? We can use it to help further our research and understanding of this planet. Maybe even bring it back to our world and grow them if it's safe."

That caused the burnette to soften up some. "You thought about my little greenhouse when starting this?" Honestly, Suzaku brought that idea up on a strong whim to get away somewhere and relax since he thought there were no dry islands on this ocean planet. To see that Lelouch had taken his idea seriously and was still thinking about ways to improve on it was rather touching for the Britannian soldier.

"Well yeah, weren't you thinking about it? It was your idea after all." Lelouch said simply, as if it never occurred to him Suzaku didn't think about it until now.

"Can we just move on please?" Kallen interrupted finally and pointed up to the two mountain peaks above them. Just barely poking through the tree canopy were two old, rusted bases on top of each peak. "I would really like to take a look at those old bases before it gets dark."

"Sure thing." Lelouch threw his bag back over his shoulder, a third of the way full already from gathering plant data. "I think that's the last plant species I've noticed anyway. Seeing as this is only one island it's not surprising that there isn't a lot of diverse flora around here. There's not even more than ten plant species here."

"Good, then that means we can move faster now." Kallen nodded, and everyone set off on foot once more.

It was almost unusual now to feel their feet aching from walking so much, but that did little to deter them from continuing onwards. Even when the PDA piped up with interesting information they didn't stop.

"Picking up multiple energy signatures on the island's surface."

That certainly didn't mean they wouldn't investigate that mystery later.

As they explored, the group also found multiple spots where rusted exterior grow beds lied. Chinese potato plants and marblemelons still healthy and growing in their rooted spots. The grow beds were a huge score, since they could now grow sea flora outside of the base as well as inside for anything not meant to be submerged underwater.

"Farming alien plants is a proven survival strategy. Craig McGill survived 47 months on a healthy, raw salad of live tree-roaches and stankroot."

Yet, it was what lay at the top that was the one of the best finds.

The first base wasn't anything special at all, just a single hallway with a desk and swivel chair at the end. Yet, it was the observatory and PDA lying on the desk that was the most interesting catch on the first mountain peak.

"Unless constructed with a specific research task in mind, observatories and other glass modules are imprudent for survival purposes."

"Yeah no shit sherlock." Lelouch glared down at the PDA for speaking basically nothing but sarcasm. "I swear this thing is gaining a mind of its own."

"Degasi voice log?" Kallen quirked an eyebrow. "Who the hell is Degasi?"

"Play the PDA's recording while I scan the observatory for its blueprint and we may just find out. I think this will look very cool if we ever decide to upgrade or move our base." Lelouch ordered simply. "Despite what this hunk of junk called a PDA thinks."

With a mere shrug, Kallen played the voice log, with it three new voices were introduced. Two male and one female. One male voice was clearly older, more rough and had a big accent in it.

"This island is a godsend! Look out of the window. No predators… fresh food!" The man with an accent yelled out. It sounded like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"No building materials… nothing left of the ship… And your kid says we're going to starve without more grow beds. Speak up, kid." The female, cool as ever, practically drew on. As if she was trying to be as antagonizing as possible without meaning to when proving her point.

A lighter, younger male voice hesitantly spoke up after a moment of silence from the woman's prompting. "It's true, father. The natural growth rates are too slow to keep supporting us."

"They must be talking about those grow beds we saw outside." Lelouch muttered to himself, but got a light slap on the arm. "Ow!"

"Shush. Let the recording finish first before talking!" Kallen hissed chastisingly.

"I can't believe a child is stuck here. In the middle of all of this chaos." Suzaku said softly, shocked at hearing the boy's voice in the logs.

"All I'm sayin' is, ocean's got us surrounded. No use hiding. Sooner or later we'll get our feet wet, Paul." The female stated simply, revealing the older male's name.

"The rest of your life may have been a fight, Maida, but I've made my decision. You want to forfeit your emergency pay to take a swim, go ahead."

"Believe me, I'm thinking on it." The trio could practically see Maida sneering at Paul through the recording.

"Hey, there's another bigger base at the bottom over here." Suzaku pointed out once the voice log was over. "Right between the two mountains."

"Looks like it's covered in mud or something too. At least part of it." Lelouch added in as he squinted his dichromatic eyes to see the base for himself.

"Great, we can check that place out real fast on our way down than get that last base on the second mountain peak." Kallen stated happily. Seeing as there was nothing else of great interest in this base, the group began their very careful climb down the mountain.

Once the trio managed to make it halfway down. A sudden, uncontrollable shiver raced up Lelouch's spine as he let out a sudden unexpected cough that made his throat slightly sore.

Suzaku and Kallen both turned to give Lelouch a somewhat concerned yet curious look. "Hey, you good man?" The burnette asked after a moment of surprised silence.

Lelouch blinked, before straightening his posture and nodding. "Uh, yeah. I don't really know what came over me." The raven haired teen subconsciously started to rub his upper arms to gain more heat through friction. Cape extensions curling around his frame to block out the light breeze. "Guess it was just a shiver from the wind."

The other two teens raised an eyebrow at that, but seeing as Lelouch was perfectly fine otherwise, they elected to ignore it and move onwards. Though the group got a bit turned around at one point and crossed a cool looking naturally built stone bridge between two gaps in the island over the water. They eventually found their way back forwards through a small natural tunnel on the side of the mountain they had climbed on.

"Okay, I have to admit this is kinda fun and cool." Suzaku suddenly spoke up as they traversed through the island and inside the very small tunnel. A familiar light blue glow of an abandoned PDA gathered the group's attention. "Like that hunt for Aurther at Ashford Academy, but with less stakes."

"Oh God." Lelouch growled as he rubbed his forehead. A sudden migraine spiking up at the mere thought of that horrid day. "Don't mention that in front of me ever… Damn cat nearly blew my cover."

"You know, now that I think about it. You very nearly getting exposed to everyone as Zero due to a stray cat is very hilarious." Kallen laughed alongside Suzaku.

Lelouch merely made a sour expression, before stalking ahead, grabbing the abandoned PDA, and playing its latest message. As the PDA spoke, the group continued to move on and explore more of the island. Getting closer and closer to the base at the bottom of the two mountains.

"You see chief?" That woman Maida spoke. Her tone of voice in a clear 'I told you so' pitch. "You brought us to this sodden planet. Told us we'd see a lush payday. Now what do we got, some six weeks later? A dead crew. A habitat that's half buried. Food washed away." She said half sarcastically, half irritably.

"I suppose the executive decisions would be better left to someone with your extensive experience of hitting people in the face?" Paul drawled on as slowly as possible. As if there was nothing wrong with their crew being dead and their current home being nearly destroyed.

"I know enough not to take unscheduled detours to uncharted planets. That's something you don't want to learn the hard way." Maisa hissed lightly through clenched teeth.

This time, the anger hidden within Paul's own voice became more visible through his speech. "Easy to judge my decisions in hindsight. Harder to come up with a plan of your own."

"Got one already." Maida's reply was instant, and her own frustrations directed at Paul being shoved down beneath the surface once more. "We take what we can carry and hunker down in a cave somewhere. I scouted a site. Couple hundred meters down. Lots of metal deposits." Clearly the woman was prepared and expecting this scenario.

"How do you imagine we live?" He snapped.

"With ready access to building materials? Like damn queens." Maida said haughtily. "Couple of water filters, a bioreactor, fresh fish… But chief, we'll eat seaweed salad and drink our own urine if that's what it takes. All that matters is: do you got something better?" That last statement for survival got the trio of teens cringing in disgust at Maida's words.

Then again, people would do a lot of things under strenuous, desperate circumstances in order to survive.

"Send the coordinates to my PDA. I'll review your proposal." The group could hear the way Paul was grinding his teeth as the PDA finished its voice log.

"Apparently it rains a lot here on these islands." Kallen stated to get the group to talk about something. Anything to fill the void of silence between the group after listening to that message.

"That's not surprising." Lelouch spoke offhandedly. Dichromatic eyes widened slightly as he caught a glimpse at the horribly rusted base a good walking distance away. Idly pointing the structure out to everyone else before the trio continued walking. "Seeing as the temperature of this entire area is tropical alongwith the flora both above and below the surface evolved to fit said temperatures. It's expected that it rains a lot here." As the raven haired teen spoke, his cape extensions rose to help push stray foliage and huge leaves out of his way.

"I still can't believe we're walking on a floating island." Kallen muttered to herself in awe. Sapphire eyes looking down at the ground, as if she suddenly had x-ray vision and could see those enormous pink things again.

"I actually have seen those things before." Lelouch piped up a tad loudly in exclamation. The teen pulled out the PDA again and showed the data he got on the huge pink creatures. "They're floaters, but basically super big and super old versions of them. They're called ancient floaters. A regular floater is normally around the size of our heads, maybe smaller. Yet if you get a ton of them gathered together they can actually lift up masses of rocks and boulders and keep them in place."

"Wow. Very fascinating Lelouch." Suzaku deadpanned, but looked at the PDA entry with intrigue anyway.

"It actually is from a scientific, biological perspective." Lelouch's eye twitched lightly at Suzaku's tone of voice, but the raven haired teen dismissed it. His best friend was more about action and movement rather than the intricate details and scientific process of life. "Turns out these guys are parasitic scavengers, and they literally don't react to anything. Trust me, I actually poked one with my knife and nothing happened. They're just noninteractive."

"That's cool to know for future reference." Kallen nodded in light agreement. "In case we ever run into them again or something."

"Hey, that base is just up ahead." Suzaku interjected, and that brought the trio's focus back onto their surroundings rather than the previous conversation. The group continued advancing until they finally broke through the barrier of plant life to see the open space of the abandoned base.

A bit of an abrupt ending for this chapter, but I wanted to evenly space out chapters 10 and 11 and this was the best spot to do so. Otherwise, the group has finally, finally managed to make it to land, haha! A few of you were commenting on how slow the story has been progressing, and I just want to inform you all that it should start speeding up now that they have access to the seamoth.

Anyways, if you have enjoyed the story so far leave a REVIEW, Follow, and Favorite the story so you can keep track of when chapters pop up. Because FYI, I don't have a posting schedule and I just post whenever I feel like it.

Otherwise, I'll be seeing you guys in chapter 11! Happy Valentine's Day. -MoonlightWright :D