Lelouch made his way stealthily through the dungeons, guided by Arsene's expertise as a thief. If he had been told yesterday that he would find himself whisked away to another world with a distorted version of Ashford Academy, and that he would make deals with a mysterious voice and a demonic entity in exchange for magical powers, he would have thought the other person was crazy, or at least had a very overactive imagination. But this power felt all too real for it to simply be a dream. For too long, he had simply sleepwalked through life at Ashford Academy, but now he was more awake than he had been in years.
He found it curious, yet fitting that his inner demon — or rather, his Persona, should be Arsene Lupin. While Lelouch's favorite diversion from the tedium of his everyday life was chess, he had read many books over the years, frequently on tactics, but also finding an escape through fiction. An old favorite of his has been the Count of Monte Cristo, and his schemes for revenge against those who had unjustly imprisoned him, but more recently, he had discovered the adventures of Arsene Lupin, by the French author, Maurice Leblanc, and they too had resonated with him. That Arsene Lupin was a criminal who mostly targeted those whose crimes were worse than his own particularly appealed to Lelouch. Sometimes evil had to be committed to defeat the greater evils that would oppress those weaker than themselves.
The books were actually fairly difficult to find - many Britannians looked down upon authors from the E.U., one of the empire's ideological enemies, particularly when their themes would be considered subversive, in which case they were frequently censored. But apparently Leblanc's stories had been very popular in pre-invasion Japan, and thus Lelouch had managed to surreptitiously obtain a set for himself.
As Lelouch continued to surreptitiously move through the dungeons, he saw that he hadn't been the only prisoner within them. There were other students who had been disciplined by Coach Nu or the SSDF locked in the cells. Lacking the means to free them, he stayed out of their sight to the extent possible. It was a pity. He would have liked to stage a large-scale jailbreak, leaving Villetta's guards with their hands full as he made his escape. But those few prisoners who had seen him had been apathetic, murmuring simply that he was wasting his time and that it was Villetta's right to punish them as the Baroness. They would have been useless as allies.
The dungeons were crawling with enemies though, from the knights to the occasional member of the SSDF on the lookout. For the most part, he had managed to avoid them, while ambushing and disposing of those knights he couldn't slip past before they could alert their comrades. He felt no remorse at taking out the knights - under the armor, they were just demons anyway. But he hesitated at the thought of attacking the SSDF members. He wasn't sure if they were actually human, or if they were demons like the knights, and so he erred on the side of caution for now. It would create plenty of headaches if an Ashford student were to turn up dead, not least of which would be bringing unwanted scrutiny over the campus in the search for possible suspects.
Lelouch was near a T-shaped intersection, crouching in the shadows behind a crate as he planned his next move, when he heard rapid footsteps approaching. They were too light to be one of the knights clanking around in heavy armor. Could it be an SSDF squad? No, there would be more footsteps if it was an entire squad. A lookout, perhaps? But then why would they be running so quickly?
"Why are there so many guards?" a voice said. It sounded slightly feminine, but he couldn't be sure.
"Some idiot must have raised the security level!" A distinctly female voice replied. He was strangely sure that he had heard it before, but something about it was different, making it difficult for him to place.
"But we should be the only ones here!" the first voice said. "Who else knows how to enter a Palace?"
As the footsteps grew closer, one of the speakers came into view, a woman with spiky red hair, and wearing a red rubber suit. His first impression was that her outfit resembled a motorcycle suit, given the additional silvery protective padding on her shins, shoulders, wrists, and sides, and how the suit was zipped up the entire length of her front, from her crotch to her neck. But the suit was far more skintight than what a typical motorcyclist would wear, drawing attention to a figure that was clearly well-toned, and curved in a way that most boys his age at Ashford Academy would find to be highly attractive.
Lelouch immediately forced that last thought from his mind, quashing it almost before he realized that it had even occurred to him at all. He was not one to allow himself to be distracted by such trivial things as looks. He had no time to waste ogling the newcomer while he was trying to find a way out of this dungeon, and even if he had such a luxury, he would have had little interest in doing so. He had never quite understood what all the fuss was about, but he could clearly see how his classmates made fools of themselves over it. No, his appraising gaze served a far more practical purpose, assessing if the woman was a potential ally or if she would prove to be another foe.
The woman's features were well-hidden behind a mask decorated with crimson lotus petals, revealing only her mouth, nose, and fierce blue eyes, which prevented Lelouch from matching her voice to a face that he might recognize. It was even more frustrating because red hair and blue eyes were a very distinctive combination, but when he had more time to think, he was sure that he would be able to identify her. Still, if her eyes and stance, that of one who had been trained to always be on the lookout for danger, weren't indication enough that she wasn't to be trifled with, there was a large clawed weapon strapped to her right arm. It gave the impression that she was one to brutalize those who crossed her in close-quarters combat.
Lelouch still couldn't see the other person that she had been speaking to. Instead... he saw a cat. A cat with black fur, hurrying behind her on all fours… No… something was strange about this cat. For starters, it was wearing a black mask across its face, and it had a matching high-collared cape, lined red on the inside, trailing behind it. The cat had small pouch slung around its neck, which held a small knife, seemingly positioned so that the cat could grab the weapon with its mouth, absurd as the idea was. But even as the cat tried to keep up with the woman, it did so with a bit of a limp, and Lelouch could see that there a sticky red fluid staining the fur on one of its legs.
"I think we've lost them," the woman said quietly.
The cat raised its head, sniffing the air.
"Not yet I'm afraid," it replied.
The cat could talk?!
But in spite of his astonishment, Lelouch recognized that a talking cat was the least of his worries. From his hiding spot, he could see that guards were converging on the intersection. A pair of knights was on the path ahead of him, another pair was coming up the path he had taken, and presumably more were coming from wherever the woman and the cat had fled from. If all of those guards managed to join up, the woman and the cat would be badly outnumbered, and Lelouch knew that he couldn't assume that he would remain unseen.
But if he were to help the woman and her strange companion, they might stand a chance together. With the right tactics, even a numerically superior enemy force could be defeated in detail. That was to say that if they could isolate the enemy and destroy the guards in smaller groups, they might stand a chance. He still couldn't assume that the woman and the cat were his friends, but at least they definitely had a common enemy, and perhaps they could work together just long enough to get out of dungeons, or whatever the place really was.
The woman and the cat reached the intersection, putting them between and in clear view of the guards on each side.
"Intruders!" one of the knights shouted.
"It looks like they found us, Tama!" The woman said, quickly adopting a fighting stance in a way that only came through intensive practice. "We'll have to fight!"
"I'm not Tama!" the cat replied irritably.
"Sieze them!" another knight bellowed.
The knights on each side charged forward, but they did not see Lelouch lying in wait, focused as they were on the woman and the cat. Smirking silently, Lelouch sprung his trap as soon as the closest two had passed him, leaping onto the back of one of the knights in a feat of agility that he could not have pulled off without Arsene's power.
He then ripped off its mask.
He had surmised that as his own mask was the locus of his Persona ability, the demon's masks might be the source of their own power. Indeed, through trial and error, he had been able to confirm on his way through the dungeons that depriving a demon of its mask would not only force it to reveal its true form, but it would disorient and impair the demon in battle, at least for a time.
"Huh?!" The woman exclaimed, startled by Lelouch's arrival.
"Go, Arsene!" he shouted.
The winged thief materialized, casting a curse on the demon whose mask Lelouch had just stolen, causing it to fall to its knees.
"He has a Persona too!" the cat gasped.
"Just follow my lead if you want to win!" Lelouch called over to them. "Take the other two!"
"Hmph! We'll ask questions later," the woman replied. "But if he's got our backs, we can handle these Shadows!"
"I agree," the cat said before pawing at its mask. "Master Cat!"
A bipedal tabby cat with ginger fur, over twice as large as its summoner, appeared. It wore a cape, a feathered hat, and a fine pair of boots, wielding a rapier in one of its paws. The ghostly chains connecting it to the smaller black cat and the blue flames surrounding it proved that it was a Persona.
"Garu!"
A gust of wind swirled out of nowhere, knocking down one of the demons, or Shadows as the woman had called them. The black cat then picked up its knife in its mouth and swung it forward. The cat's Persona mimicked the action with its rapier, piercing the Shadow and causing it to disperse.
"Your turn!" the cat called to its partner.
Rather than summoning a Persona, the woman delivered a vicious kick to the nearest Shadow, stunning it, and then did a flip into the air, launching herself over Lelouch and descending upon the remaining enemy to deliver a staggering blow as she drove her metal claw down. Now two Shadows were slain, and the remaining two were helpless on the ground.
"Don't give them a chance to get back up!" Lelouch called to the woman and the cat. "Everyone, attack!"
Assaulted from all sides, the remaining Shadows never had a chance. Within seconds, two high-pressure spurts of blood exploded from them, and they perished. The Shadow's bodies disappeared moments later, leaving no trace of them behind.
The woman glanced around, scanning for enemies. Meanwhile, the cat summoned its Persona again, and a gentle aura enveloped its leg. After a few seconds, the bleeding stopped.
Healing magic.
"This way," the woman said after a moment, gesturing to Lelouch. "There should be a safe room up ahead." Through the holes in her mask, Lelouch could see her eyes narrowing. "We'll expect an explanation from you there."
She led them a short distance further down the corridor, stopping at what appeared to be a storeroom. The door seemed to oddly shimmer, and upon entering, it was indeed a storeroom… but one back at the real Ashford Academy. At least, he thought it was, before that faded like a mirage, once again revealing medieval architecture.
"Okay… the distortion is weak here, so we shouldn't have to worry about any Shadows interrupting us. Now, what's your story?" The woman demanded, suspicion clear in her voice. "Whatever stunt you pulled earlier put all the guards on high alert and ruined our attempt at infiltrating this Palace. How did you get in here anyway? As Tama said, we should have been-" She paused, looking at him quizzically. "Wait a minute… do I know you?" She shook her head. "No, you couldn't be him… And you can't be a Cognition of him either... "
The cat nodded. "I agree. I've never heard of a Cognition using a Persona."
So this place was called a 'Palace', and 'this Palace' implied that there was more than one such location. Intriguing. 'Shadows', 'Palaces', 'Cognitions'... the jargon used between the woman and the cat, to say nothing of the fact that they had entered the Palace intentionally, showed that they had been doing this longer than he had. For a change, he was confronted with a pair of individuals who knew the rules of the game already, while he was just figuring them out.
But of course, it would be dangerous to show any weakness in front of them. For now, they were just allies of convenience, and that could quickly change if they decided that he was a liability or a threat to them.
"I happened upon this Palace and was doing some investigation of my own," Lelouch said, bluffing and trying to divert her attention, concerned that she seemed to have an idea of who he was while he was still trying to figure out her identity. As always, he made sure that the lie contained a grain of the truth, so that it might be more convincing. He had 'happened' upon it, after all.
The woman's temper flared. "Bullshit! You can't just 'happen' upon a Palace! You need to have the right keywords for the MetNav!"
"MetNav?" Lelouch thought to himself. "Wait - Does she mean... that strange app? The Metaverse Navigator!"
He resisted the temptation to pull out his phone to check for the app, even though he clearly recalled deleting it. If he did so, she would immediately know for sure that he didn't know what was going on.
"Of course," he said smoothly. "You've got me there. But I might ask: what are you are doing here? And what sort of creature is your companion? It looks like a cat, but-"
"I'm-" the cat spoke up. "Well, I was just an ordinary cat…" It looked away. "Before I entered the Metaverse…. But I have a name, you know! I'm Arthur - so don't just go calling me 'it'!"
"I thought we agreed not to use our real names, Tama." The woman said quietly, glancing down at Arthur.
"Why do you have to keep calling me that? I'd much prefer a nickname like Merlin."
"No, all cats should be called Tama."
Come to think of it, 'Tama' had been the name of the family cat in a very popular prewar manga, though it had largely been unknown outside of Japan, largely due to requiring an intimate knowledge of daily life in Japan in order for one to appreciate it. Now, it was banned by Britannia along with most other forms of Japanese culture. The only reason that Lelouch had learned about it in the first place was through Suzaku.
Arthur sighed.
Lelouch didn't have further opportunity to reflect on the past, because the woman had looked up from Arthur and was glaring at him again. "But I'm supposed to be the one asking the questions!"
Her eyes were moving, and he could see that she was trying to read his body language and determine his true intentions. Finally, she seemed to relent a little.
"Well, you're no friend of the Palace Ruler at least. As you should know, the attire symbolizing our rebellion appears if the Palace Ruler considers us hostile."
"I can see that," Lelouch murmured. He smirked slightly. The first objective had been cleared. He appraised her once again, now that he could take a closer look, glancing up and then down. "It's quite the outfit you have there. From the lotus petals, and your cat naming sense, I take it you are Japanese?"
The woman did a take. Perhaps she was surprised that he knew about Japanese culture. But then he realized, without any conscious intention on his part, his gaze had lingered a moment too long on a certain spot.
And she had just realized that too.
The woman flung up her arms to cover her chest. "Stop looking at me like that, you pervert!" she demanded, sounding mortified. Indeed, a hint of red could be seen peeking out from under her lotus mask, and Lelouch realized that his own cheeks were getting warm too. He had just given her the wrong idea about him.
Glancing away apologetically, he waited for her to calm down.
"Um... anyways! So what if I'm Japanese?" the woman spluttered. Composing herself, the woman's tone became dangerously sharp, and her eyes suddenly held lethal intent, though it was held in check for now. "Do you have a problem with that?"
Lelouch knew that if he answered incorrectly, she would turn on him at once. Fortunately, he could see what the correct answer was, and it so happened to be the truth.
"Not at all," he replied smoothly.
She was no longer ready to murder him, but she was still on guard.
"What are you then?" she demanded. "Britannian?" She practically spat out the word. "What would a Britannian be doing infiltrating this Palace?"
"I have my reasons," Lelouch said simply. "As you said, I'm a rebel here, and I for one do not approve of how the 'Baroness' or Britannia is running things."
The woman sighed.
"Well… I suppose I have to thank you for helping us with those Shadows."
"As for us, to make a long story short, her brother received the MetNav— " Arthur piped up.
"Tama!" the woman scolded. "Why are you telling him that?!"
"Don't worry," Arthur replied. "I have a good feel for knowing who to trust. Besides, something about him reminds me of your brother. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders, but isn't afraid to leap into the fray either. I think we can get along just fine."
The woman crossed her arms testily. "We'll see about that. He's got some guts, showing himself like he did, I'll give you that, but I honestly can't see some cocky Britannian measuring up to my brother." She seemed sad, but quickly shook her head, and was back to her gruff self. "Whatever you do, Tama, just don't go spilling all of our secrets to him when he hasn't done the same."
That was an interesting reaction. Lelouch found himself wondering if there was a more vulnerable side to the woman that she was trying to keep hidden, just as he had tried to hide his own ignorance of this world a short time ago.
Arthur nodded. "Anyway, her brother began using the MetNav to explore this world, the Metaverse. The psychotic breakdowns and mental shutdowns haven't just been affecting Britannians, and as this is a place shaped by people's cognition, he came to think that they might be related to this world as well. As for me... I was a stray back then, but he had given me some food and water before, so I followed him. Then one day, I accidentally got too close as he was using the MetNav, and I got pulled into the Metaverse with him. I was always smart for a cat, but something changed me in here. So I decided that I'd continue to stick with him so I could find out why. But soon his luck ran out, and the Shadows killed him."
"My brother… showed me this world and introduced me to Tama before he died," the woman said uneasily. "He must have had a feeling something bad was going to happen, and… he wanted me to be able to finish what he started." She was clearly holding back her emotions, though she was having difficulty in doing so. "He thought it was really important."
So, he had been right. It was a pain that Lelouch was all too familiar with, and one that he knew could never fully heal, leaving deep scars on the psyche.
"That's why we're here," Arthur concluded, looking up at Lelouch again. "We'd be grateful if you'd lend us your power. My Persona's pretty strong, but hers isn't fully awakened yet, so we could be in a tight spot if we get outnumbered again."
"You're part of the reason we're in this mess in the first place," the woman muttered, and Lelouch couldn't fail to notice that she was glaring at him again. "You had better help us, if you're at all sorry for what you've done."
Lelouch had no objections. They had proven themselves as capable fighters, and the woman, as a Japanese person, had plenty of reason to hate Britannia, just as he did.
He could use them, and in any event, such an arrangement would be mutually beneficial.
"At least to the exit… it's a deal," he told them.
"You scratch our back, we'll scratch yours," Arthur replied. Was the cat grinning? "I look forward to working with you."
Suddenly, there was a flash, though neither Arthur nor the woman seemed to notice it at all. And then, Lelouch heard a female voice echoing within himself, the same voice he had made a contract with earlier.
I am thou… thou art I
Thou hast acquired a new vow
It shall become the wings of rebellion
that breaketh thy chains of captivity
With the birth of the Magician Persona,
I have obtained the winds of blessing that
shall lead to freedom and new power…
What was that? This world kept getting stranger and stranger.
"Okay," Arthur said. "We've been here a few times before, so we'll lead the way. You can help us with any Shadows we might encounter."
They fought a few more battles as they proceeded through the dungeons, carefully ambushing Shadows and finishing them off quickly with Arsene, Master Cat, and the woman's innate strength and agility, which was formidable even without a fully fledged Persona. They seemed to make a good team together.
However, Lelouch was startled when the woman snuck up on one of the SSDF members from behind, using one hand to cover his mouth to keep him from screaming out, while the other raised her claws to slit the student's throat. She did it all without hesitation. A moment later, the student disappeared and burst into black flames.
"You didn't seriously think they were real, did you?" she asked Lelouch, seeing his discomfort. "How new at this are you? That's one of the first rules of Palaces. If they're not Shadows or Persona-users, they're Cognitions. The Palace's Ruler sees these students as her informers, and so here they are, like her early warning system."
"Think of them as being highly lifelike dolls created by the Palace Ruler's perception of the real people that they're based on," Arthur explained.
"So a kind of simulacrum?" Lelouch asked.
"I guess that's another way of putting it," Arthur replied.
"If they catch you," the woman continued, "they'll call a bunch of Shadows, and things will get ugly quick. But killing one of them has no effect on the person they're based on. They're not real anyway, so there's no reason not to." She scowled. "The Cognitions don't stay dead either. If the Palace's Ruler wants them back, they'll reappear before long."
So it was like how one might see a person die in a dream, only for them to be back, alive and well, in another dream later on. After all, if he was understanding this strange world correctly, it seemed very much to be some kind of twisted dream of the Palace's Ruler. But unlike Cognitions, dying in the Palace truly was fatal for real people, as the woman's late brother proved, assuming that the whole thing wasn't just an incredibly detailed dream of his own.
But no, Lelouch knew that he was past of the point of seriously doubting the reality of the situation that he found himself in, bizarre as it was. To treat it with anything but the utmost seriousness would very likely prove deadly.
"Even if they were real, I'd kill them without a second thought if they threatened to expose us," he heard the woman saying.
Inwardly, Lelouch cursed himself for his earlier weakness. She was right, of course. Had he not vowed to Arsene to that he would commit any sacrilegious acts for the sake of his own justice? How could he expect to topple Britannia if he felt queasy at the idea of killing when necessary? He'd have to overcome any such qualms that he had.
The group moved onward, and soon they were out of the dungeons. Their surroundings were no longer so damp or gloomy. They passed through a series of corridors, illuminated by light streaming in through a number of windows, though they were too high to escape through. The decor was lavish, yet it somehow seemed garish, even by the nobility's standards.
"Okay, we're almost there," Arthur said as they entered the main hall. "Good job, everyone."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," an unwelcome voice said. Suddenly, the Baroness appeared in the hall in front of them, backed up by a platoon of guards, including a larger knight in golden armor that undoubtedly indicated a higher rank. Cognitions of SSDF members rushed in, standing in the rear and blocking off the doors.
"It's the Palace Ruler, the Shadow of the person who gave rise to this world! This is really bad!" Arthur yelped.
"So it seems you're in league with those other intruders," Shadow Villetta sneered, ignoring Arthur, but hatefully locking her glowing golden eyes on Lelouch. "You really thought I was going to be still stuck in that cell as you made your escape?" The Shadow laughed. "This Castle is my world! Everyone and everything in it responds to my whims! That is, except for traitors. But not for long. Anyone who stands in my way will pay the price!"
Shadow Villetta regarded them contemptuously, and her gaze shifted toward Arthur. "So the cat comes back. It seems It seems you still haven't learned your lesson. The death of your master wasn't enough for you?"
Next to Lelouch, the woman with the lotus mask clenched a fist.
"It's bad enough that the Eleven was trying to steal my Treasure. The sooner they accept that we Britannians are destined to rule over them, the better! But actually, I'm glad you came back, and the boy too. It makes it so much easier to exterminate the vermin in one fell swoop."
"You… killed my brother," the masked woman said, barely containing her anger.
"Ah… what have we here? Could it be?" There was an evil glint in the Baroness' eyes. "I recall the traitor's last words now… 'Kallen'…. He was talking about his younger sister… Could you be…. Kallen Stadtfeld?"
The redheaded rebel went rigid, and her reaction told Lelouch that the Baroness's deduction had hit the mark. He for one couldn't help but be surprised. The fierce woman at his side was really the same meek, sickly honors student that he knew from school, whom he had defended from Villetta in the real world earlier this morning? He had to give her credit; she had some acting skills if she had able to fool him, when he should know about leading a double life better than anyone. Though on the other hand, Kallen was out frequently enough that he had never really had the chance to see anything but the facade that she had constructed for herself, which was certainly by design.
Shadow Villetta let out a cruel laugh, her sadistic gaze still locked on Kallen. "This is rich! You're not even a real Britannian, just another filthy Eleven! Or did your noble father have an affair with a lowly Eleven woman? Disgusting. I could never touch, let alone love an Eleven."
Shadow Villetta closed in, circling around them. "You came here to die, didn't you, Kallen? You know in your heart that defeating me is impossible, let alone Britannia. What could a bunch of ragtag terrorists cells ever hope to accomplish, other than giving us the perfect excuse to tighten our grip and get rid of that pathetic Honorary Britannian system?"
"I-" Kallen started, her hands trembling.
"But to think that a mere Eleven has claim to a title of nobility!" Shadow Villetta seethed. "Do you have any idea how hard I've slaved away to get to where I am, who I've had to blackmail and betray? You know, if you had just swallowed your ridiculous pride as an Eleven, you could have had everything that people envy. Wealth… prestige… servants to attend to your every need. You could have conned a real Britannian noble into marrying you. Even if you persisted with your treachery, you could have done some actual damage with the privileges of nobility. But you chose to come here, too weak to live on your own without following your pathetic brother to the grave."
"Stop it!" Kallen cried. Shadow Villetta was now standing mere feet away from her, just out of reach of her claws. The other Shadows had followed their ruler's lead, surrounding the group. Lelouch and Arthur were standing back to back, but there were far too many for them to take on at once.
"Oh, I've struck a nerve, have I?" Shadow Villetta smirked. "Don't worry, Miss Stadtfeld… I'll save you for last, and I'll make you tell me everything you know. Exposing a fake noble and her collaborators! What a coup for me!"
"Kallen, are you going to just let her win?" Lelouch shouted out.
"Huh?"
"There are times when I thought the odds were impossible too, that I couldn't do anything against Britannia. I had almost given up. But you have to fight back! Nothing will ever change if you don't!"
"What nonsense is this?" Shadow Villetta demanded.
"You're braver than I was - you started fighting back even before you had power," Lelouch continued, ignoring Villetta. "No... you're already more powerful than you know! Now remember what Britannia took from you! Trust me, and we can win! No, not just win — we'll create a miracle! Together, we will destroy Britannia!"
"You don't really believe that drivel, do you Miss Stadteld?" Shadow Villetta snarled. "Guards, kill the boy first! I'm getting quite tired of listening to his delusions!"
"You're wrong," Kallen said, her eyes downcast.
Shadow Villetta paused. "About what, traitor?"
Kallen raised her head to meet Villetta's gaze, her blue eyes revealed to be blazing with fury.
"My name is Kozuki Kallen! I will show you not to underestimate the Japanese!"
"This is what I have been waiting for!" A female voice suddenly echoed out of nowhere. At once, Kallen dropped to her knees, clutching her head in pain. Lelouch could see that somehow, her eyes had turned the same supernatural gold as the Shadow's. "Out of the moment of doubt emerges such magnificent resolve! Let it waver nevermore. Avenge thy brother and take back thine homeland, even if thou must dance through rivers of blood! Swear to me: I am thou… thou art I… Today, your rebel's heart is born anew, wielding the destructive might of an oni with the beauty of a crimson lotus!"
"Guards! Leave the boy! Stop her!" Shadow Viletta shouted, panicking.
With a scream Kallen, ripped off her lotus mask in a spray of blood. Chains clattered and blue flames surrounded her, blasting back Shadow Villetta and the guards her as her Persona truly manifested for the first time, a vaguely mechanical female figure clad in crimson samurai armor, armed with a double blade in its claw-like hands.
"That Persona's power is incredible!" Arthur exclaimed. "I've never seen anything like it before!"
Kallen rose to her feet. Her eyes were back to normal, but she truly seemed fearsome now. In that moment, Lelouch doubted that there was anything that there was anything that could stand in her way and emerge unscathed.
"Go, Suzuka Gozen!" she shouted. "Let's show these fellas what this badass mother can do!"
Her Persona rushed forward, bisecting a line of guards in a single swipe.
"I don't have time for this!" Shadow Villetta shouted, scrambling to her feet. "Captain, deal with them! Do not fail me!"
"Yes, my lady!"
The knight in golden armor burst to reveal its true form as a Shadow… a much larger red knight, mounted on a fell horse and with a massive lance and a horned helm.
"Quake, rebels! In the Baroness' name, I will carry out your execution without fail!"
"Spread out!" Lelouch shouted in a commanding tone that left no room for debate.
The captain charged, and they barely avoided being trampled by his steed.
"Master Cat!"
Arthur's Persona appeared, and quickly stabbed at the Shadow's side with its rapier . Turning, the captain irritably swung his lance around, striking Master Cat with the shaft and sending the Persona flying backward into a column. Arthur recoiled, as if he too had been struck.
'That armor's too thick!" Lelouch called out, adapting his strategy quickly. "Physical attacks barely have any effect on it! Switch to magic!"
"Garu!" Arthur shouted.
The captain was buffeted by the wind, and while it seemed somewhat more effective, it did little to dent his armor.
"He's still coming at us!" Arthur moaned.
"Pull back and heal yourself, Tama!"
"You're using that nickname now too?" Arthur cried.
"Just do it!"
"Okay," Arthur replied, scurrying out of harm's way.
"Arsene!" Lelouch called out, gripping his mask. His Persona cast Eiha on the captain, but the enemy simply shrugged off the attack.
"Did you really think a curse would harm a knight from Hell?" the Shadow laughed.
Lelouch grimaced. They were quickly running out of options. "Kallen! Is there anything you can do?"
"I'm on it!"
Suzuka Gozen opened one of its clawed hands, and a a bolt of nuclear energy shot from it, striking the captain in the side. The intense radiation warped the armor, causing it to partially melt and bubble.
"Ugh!" The captain fell to his knees.
"It's vulnerable!" Lelouch shouted. "Commence an all-out attack!"
"You've got it!"
The three of them charged forward, relentlessly striking the captain while it was unable to fight back.
"How dare you!" the captain roared as it struggled back to its feet under the barrage. It was badly hurt, but not finished. "I will see you in hell, insolent rebels!"
"Send a postcard!" Kallen countered.
Disarming the captain with a deft flick of her blade, Suzuka Gozen grabbed the captain's helmet with her other clawed hand, and blasted the captain with nuclear energy again, this time at point-blank range, melting his head to slag. With a last whine from his steed, Villetta's captain of the guards exploded into harmless black wisps, and was no more.
"She beat the captain practically by herself!" the Cognitions of the SSDF members cowered. "She's like a demon! Run!"
The Cognitive SSDF members wasted no further time in making their exit, leaving Lelouch, Kallen and Arthur alone in the hall.
"So even Coach Nu sees them as the spineless thugs they really are," Lelouch murmured. "They only act tough when they have someone weaker than themselves to pick on."
"Kallen! If your brother could have seen that…!" Arthur began.
"I know." With a sigh, she fell to her knees once again. "I'm exhausted…".
"You gave it your all, didn't you?" Lelouch said, coming up behind her. He paused. "I too know what its like to lose someone close to you, and of the need to avenge them."
"He's not avenged yet. That Shadow… the Palace Ruler… is still out there. What could she be hiding in this castle that was worth his life?" Kallen was freely crying now.
"I'm sure he wanted to protect you," Lelouch said, offering what words of comfort that he could. "Isn't that what a big brother does? I know I'd do anything for my little sister."
It occurred to him that he might have said too much there, but it was already done, and if Kallen had picked up on it, she didn't say anything to that effect.
"I'll keep fighting, and I'll get to the bottom of this." She paused, looking up at him. "Did you mean what you said? That we can defeat Britannia?"
"I did. With this power, we'll find a way."
She gave him a curious look. "I'll hold you to that," she said after a moment.
There was another flash, just as he had experienced earlier with Arthur.
I am thou… thou art I
Thou hast acquired a new vow
It shall become the wings of rebellion
that breaketh thy chains of captivity
With the birth of the Chariot Persona,
I have obtained the winds of blessing that
shall lead to freedom and new power…
Lelouch strangely felt every so slightly stronger, although he couldn't say why. What did it all mean?
"Okay, let's go, before the guards come back," Arthur urged. "Our escape point is this way!"
He led them to a side room, where there was a stack of crates that they could use to clamber up to and escape through a window.
"The main door is sealed tight," Arthur explained. "Once we're outside, it's just a quick jaunt across the grounds, scaling some vines on the outer wall, and then dropping down the other side."
Lelouch blanched. Hadn't they already done enough running today to last a lifetime?
Seeing Lelouch's expression, Arthur said, "What? It's only some light exercise compared to what we've done thus far. Besides, the guards are bound to be in disarray with the loss of their captain, so I doubt we'll have problems."
Indeed, the rest of the escape went relatively uneventfully. They slipped through the gardens surrounding the castle and scaled the outer wall, to the side of the gatehouse. They used vines growing along it as makeshift ropes, with Arthur clinging to Kallen as they climbed, before dropping down on the other side, thankfully undetected. Lelouch felt himself panting, and his muscles were burning through the whole escape, but Arsene wouldn't let him fail such a simple test of being a phantom thief.
Now that they were beyond the wall, Lelouch could see the surrounding Tokyo Settlement, looking much as it normally did, though the skies were still an unnatural red.
"We should be able to safely make an exit here," Kallen said. "The Palace doesn't extend much past the outer wall. We can simply walk out the way we came, and we'll be back in reality. It's the safest way to leave a Palace. With all of the Distortion within a Palace, you don't want to use the MetNav unless you're absolutely sure that you know where you're going to end up, and that you're not going to get caught in front of witnesses when you do." She paused. "You did come this way, right?"
Lelouch nodded, though that was a lie, and took a step forward.
"Well, now we'll see who you really are," Kallen said as they crossed the threshold.
Wait, what?!
It was too late for him to stop now. Lelouch felt the world distorting around him. No, that wasn't quite right. They were moving through and out of the Distortion of the Palace, back to a more familiar reality.
Without warning, his trench coat turned back into his Ashford Academy uniform, and his mask disappeared. Kallen's rubber suit was similarly replaced with her own Ashford uniform, while her hair straightened itself into the style she normally wore around the school. Arthur… well, he was still a cat, but now that his mask was gone, Lelouch could see that Arthur had a large patch of darker fur around an eye.
"Welcome back. You have returned to the real world," a voice from his phone announced.
"It really was you…" Kallen said, looking at him in a mixture of suspicion and disbelief. "I knew it! You're Lelouch Lamperouge!" She grabbed his arm roughly, pulling out a small pink pouch from her pocket, from which a concealed knife sprung. "Listen!" she hissed, leaning in close. "If you even think of telling anyone about me or what you saw in the Metaverse, I'll kill you."
"Aren't you fiesty?" Lelouch replied with a chuckle. He knew however that she was deadly serious.
"Whoa, no need to bite his head off, Kallen!" Arthur's voice said from beneath them. "He promised to help us."
Lelouch glanced down at the cat quizzically.
"Is it so hard to believe that if I can speak in the Metaverse, I can do so here as well?" Arthur yawned. "Well, I'm exhausted. I don't know about you, but I'm going to find a place to curl up and take a nap." He turned his head. "Try not to kill him, Kallen, especially out in the open like this. You never know who might be watching."
Kallen seemed to falter for a moment, though she did not relinquish her grip, and Lelouch knew better than to try to wrest himself free. He could tell from how tightly she was holding him that Kallen was much stronger than himself, and if he tried to fight back at all, she would reflexively kill him. Her compassion for a Britannian attending an elite school might as well be nonexistent. Yet Arthur had made a rational argument, and Kallen's reaction had shown that he could use that opening. But ultimately, Lelouch knew that if Kallen was to trust him, he would have to convince her himself.
Unknown to the rebels, someone else indeed happened to walk by at that moment, and saw them in the distance: Shirley Fenette. She missed seeing them appear out of thin air, and nor did she see Kallen pulling a knife on Lelouch. What she did see was Lelouch returning to campus with Kallen after the two of them had missed class. She couldn't make out all of the details from where she was, but they were very close to each other. Were they holding hands? Or was Kallen embracing Lelouch in a more intimate way?
Her conclusion, as much as she wanted to deny it, was obvious, and her heart felt tight.
"Lulu's dating Kallen?!"
A/N:
Arsene - the pillager of twilight, his portrayal in Persona 5 and this story is actually considerably more vicious than the fictional character upon which he is based, as Arsene Lupin made it a point not to actually kill anyone. Specializes in Dark and ailment skills, with high agility and above average magic in Lelouch's manifestation of the Persona, though other stats are average or low.
Master Cat - Better known as "Puss in Boots", a trickster who relentlessly pursues the advancement of his Master, improving his own status in the process. Some versions of the story downplay his selfish motives, in that bringing them to fruition helps some other people as well in the process. Superficially, Master Cat's skill set may seem similar to Morgana's Zorro, in that wind and healing spells, along with light physical skills have been displayed so far. However, Master Cat is actually closer ability-wise to Yosuke's Jiraya, with balanced stats and an evasive build, a jack of trades, though Master Cat relies more on multiple light strikes than does Jiraya.
Suzuka Gozen - a dancing bandit princess, said to have fought the oni, and who may have been an oni herself. Persona fans will recognize the design as being that of Suzuka Gongen (another spelling of the name), but with some elements of the Guren Mk. II mixed in, such as the red color scheme and clawed hands. Excels in Nuclear and heavy Physical skills. Magic is actually a relative weakness of the Persona, with limited flexibility for casting spells, but reflecting her stats as an ace in Code Geass, Kallen's Persona has solid to exceptional attributes across the board, allowing her to still do heavy damage with the Frei (nuclear) series. This Persona is individually more powerful than Arsene and Master Cat combined at the moment. Of course, Lelouch has not realized the full extent of his powers yet...
Arthur's voice is stated to have a somewhat feminine sound, as he is voiced by Michelle Ruff in the English dub, just as Morgana is voiced by Cassandra Lee Moris in Persona 5. Making Arthur a loose parallel to Morgana was planned from the beginning, and even as I wrote the story, I could feel some of Morgana's attitude creeping into Arthur, but their origins are not the same, and I will strive to differentiate them in other ways as the story progresses. For one, Arthur is more likely to nap himself than demand that Lelouch go to bed, as Morgana would. Arthur's weapon of choice is also more akin to Koromaru's from Persona 3. As for his thief outfit, Zero's mask would impede that fighting style, so that idea was rejected, but the cape is a miniature version of Zero's cape from canon in a nod to that scene in the show. As for the nickname Tama, it's a name Kallen proposes for Arthur in one of the Code Geass sound dramas.
Edit: Just like Chapter 2, I decided to come back and revise this chapter, adding details and tweaking some scenes. Most notably, I changed Lelouch's initial impression of Kallen slightly, judging the original to be too out of his canon character at the start of the series. The revisions ended up making the chapter significantly longer, but I think it's stronger for them.
Also, I realized I forgot an important detail in the awakening itself - the eyes always briefly turn golden during the awakening.