Abandoned Base
Cysgod Eardrom-Dorcha reclined on a pile of creates, examining his multi-dialed watch again.
"Why must you always be concerned with the time?" Cysgod looked up at Kallen in her casual clothing as the rest of the resistance members were waiting for the Ashford students to get their new sets of clothing.
As it turned out, Nagata and Minami both volunteered to get civilian clothing from a settlement warehouse for the student council because Cysgod pointed out that, because of the attack on Ashford Academy, the students would be in just as much danger as the rest of them. Why? No idea, but better safe than sorry.
Cysgod stood and stretched.
"It isn't time that I'm usually concerned about."
"Then how come you're always looking at your watch?" Kallen asked, her arms crossed.
"This isn't that kind of watch. Now if you don't mind, I need to poke around and see if there is anything we could actually use in this abandoned dump."
Ashford Academy
Suzaku's mind was racing now. If the Serpents weren't looking for Lulouch and Nunnally, then what were they looking for, or rather, what did they find?
His eyes ran over the desk and spied a small portrait that had been knocked over. He picked up the frame and held it in the palm of his hand. It was a picture of a woman and a girl, like a mother and daughter. Both had dark green, almost olive colored hair and indigo eyes. They were dressed formally in what appeared to be higher-middle class dress. The woman had an arm wrapped around the shoulders of the girl, who in turn appeared to be leaning into her. Suzaku carefully removed the photo from its frame and placed it into the breast pocket of his uniform. Returning his attention to the computer, he clicked a few more keys and was suddenly presented with a series of figures, charts, and diagrams. It made absolutely no sense to Suzaku, except that it had to do with some sort of science. He searched through the desk again and found a small white data disc in one of the smaller drawers. He stuck the disc in the computer and began to copy the files.
There was a sharp "putt-putt" noise as one of a group of five Serpents shot down the police officer with a silenced pistol.
"Bloody waste!" said the Serpent with the silenced sidearm. "Didn't that so-called prince declare martial law? What's a pig doing here and not in the ghetto."
"Maybe the brits think the Nips will obey on just orders alone" said one of the younger Serpents.
"Stupid brits, in other worlds they had power over India and Africa and they were still incapable of eliminating those animals!"
Suzaku continued searching the room for anything that could be useful; a name, location, anything on the identity of the resident.
Nothing of course, the room was obviously searched long before he got there.
FILE TRANSFER COMPLETE
YOU MAY NOW REMOVE DATA DISC
Suzaku removed the white disc, holding it in his hands as he left the dorm room and started back down the hallway. At least there is still a chance that Lelouch and Nunnally were still alive. He continued walking, staring at the white disc. What could possibly be going on here?
cli-click
Suzaku's eyes widened, his adrenaline kicked in, and he lunged forward and dived across an entry way.
Bang!
A bullet flew past and embedded itself in the right where his head just was.
"We got a runner!"
Suzaku was already running and bolted down the next hall, catching a glimpse of someone wearing all green. Sons of the Serpents! His mind was racing as he made another turn, hoping to throw off his pursuers and get out of there. Just how many of them were there? he thought furiously, if there's only a few then it should be easy to elude them.
"Freeze Jap!" an angry voice announced before a spray of bullets peppered the wall and ceiling with a crooked line of bullet holes. Suzaku skidded to a halt and flattened himself against the wall as he found himself being corralled by five Serpents, all armed with pistols and sub-machine guns.
"What you think you're doing here Jap?" one of them sneered.
"None of your business," Suzaku answered back, measuring distances and slightly surprised that they called him "Jap" instead of "Eleven."
"Well what ever your business is," said another, "you happen to be in our way. So hand over that disc you have there and maybe we'll-"
Five shots rang out in split-second secession. Three pistols were shot out of the hands of their users and two sub-machine guns jerked in the hands of the other two Serpents, who all responded with either: "son of a-" or "what the-."
"Behold, descendants of snakes in their human forms."
"Who the hell!" The Serpents turned around and Suzaku looked on to see a figure simply stride into sight, wearing all black with shaggy black hair and a gas mask covering his mouth and nose, a large coat slung over his left shoulder, and a revolver in his right hand. When he spoke, his voice sounded altered and distorted.
"The dogs of the mighty Daemon, the hired guns of Occulta."
"Up yours!" a Serpent with a submachine gun shouted, burst-firing from the hip.
The stranger blinked. The Serpents and Suzaku stared as the Serpent who fired at him began to visibly shake.
"What? No way! You're so close! How could I miss?" The stranger shimmered. Suzaku actually rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things.
"You think you can shoot me?" The stranger lazily angled his revolver and fired, disarming said Serpent. "You can not kill me," the stranger continued, holstering his revolver and putting on his large, black coat that ended up trailing down to the ground. He then drew a second revolver from a holster on his other side and spun the chamber. "Six shots...enough to kill anything that moves, and one specter...enough to install fear and dread into the souls of the living." He spun the revolver around his finger as he stepped to the right, and the left, and back?
Suzaku witnessed two more individuals stepping out from the outline of the stranger. There were three of them! All alike and moving in sequence! How was this possible. The two Serpents with sub-machine guns opened fire. The three figures swayed independently of each other, causing Suzaku to register after-images of the spectacle. Both guns clicked empty and two of the illusions flickered and slowly vanished.
"I already told you," the nightmare in front of them said, "you can not kill Ghost!" He then quickly lowered his stance, slammed down the hammer of his revolver and fired five shots in less then two seconds. The Serpents dropped to the ground and lay unmoving. The stranger took a few steps forward, holding the revolver in front of his face. What did he say before? Six shots? "I know you're not going to surrender that," he told Suzaku, eyeing the disc in Suzaku's hands, "but the information must be used for the good of humanity."
"Do you even know what's on here?" Suzaku questioned, his eyes seeing what could possibly be mist inside the building. He was probably losing it.
"I do know, as a matter of fact," the distorted voice of the stranger answered. "But I would never tell anything valid to another soul!"
[Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty Theme (London Philharmonic Orchestra) - PLAY]
He raised the gun, he pulled back the hammer, no way he could miss. Suzaku's mind began to slow down.
I'm sorry...father...Nunnally...Lelouch...I've failed you all...
[Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty Theme - 0:35 PAUSE]
*cli-click*
Both Suzaku and Ghost registered the sound. Ghost turned round and fired his shot.
[Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty Theme - 0:36 PLAY]
Someone jumped across the hallway and fired a salvo of shots from a semi-automatic pistol. Ghost and Suzaku both dived away in opposite directions.
"Go Suzaku! Get out of here!" Suzaku didn't need telling twice from anyone at that point. He took off and turned down another corridor, still holding onto the white disc.
The newcomer continued firing at Ghost, who had quickly reloaded both of his revolvers and came out firing, unleashing two of his doppelgangers to confuse his new opponent. Suzaku heard the distinct sounds of both guns getting louder as he continued to run. His ears also registered a series of rapid-fire suppressed shots and a couple of richochets until Ghost's distorted voice reverberation through the halls.
"Damn it! Humanity could do without you greedy nayemniki sobaki!" Revolver shots were fired, grayish white smoke poured in from air ducts, and the lights were shot out with no available window to emit light. Suzaku bumped into somebody, two somebodies?, and dropped the disc.
[Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty Theme - 1:45]
Suzaku covered his mouth to stifle a cough, groping in the dark for the disc. As if the darkness wasn't bad enough, everything was becoming rather hazy. Must be because of the gas Ghost released. As his fingers skirted over the carpet, he thought his fingers caught the edge of the disc, but when he quickly tried to snatch it, he lost track of it. Wait, was that...yes! He grabbed the disc just as a grenade of some sort clunked on the ground and rolled.
[Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty Theme - 2:15]
The "grenade" then detonated, releasing a flurry of snow-like metal strips that quickly flooded the hallway. Ghost growled and let lose, emptying his first revolver in exactly two seconds, the bullets ricocheting off the walls as the second stranger grabbed Suzaku and shoved him toward the feeble light of window at the dead end of the corridor. The light wasn't as good as earlier, probably because there was both clouds in the sky with the threat of rain and the sun was still on the opposite side of the building anyhow.
Five shots echoed loudly and Suzaku felt, not to mention smelled, the hot rounds pass no more than an inch away from his being. Five holes were punctured in the window, making a basic outline of Suzaku's head, shoulders, and elbows.
"That's far enough," Ghost shouted angrily, aiming a revolver with his left hand. "I'm taking that disc." He pulled the hammer back, "Dlya chelovechestva!" Suzaku shut his eyes, and there was one last gunshot.
[Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty Theme - 2:34 END]
Suzaku opened his eyes, feeling no sense of pain. Both he and Ghost were frozen. Then...
"Eh-ah-ahhhh!"
Ghost dropped down to his knees as he grasped his left arm, bleeding while still holding a revolver.
"That was a chaff grenade Ghost," said the voice of the stranger, coming into view from behind Ghost. "You were using an electromagnetic emitter to repulse incoming shots, in addition to your apparent ability to create copies of yourself. I'm surprised you were able to shoot straight with that thing on."
"Svoloch!" Ghost spat as the stranger, now mercenary, came into full view. He was garbed in black fatigues and boots, a dark grey shirt with a white emblem of some sort on the right shoulder, and a set of goggles with blue lenses (no doubt handy in seeing through the heavy smoke). Seeing how he held onto his Yarygin Grach, Suzaku could see the young man was an experienced combative. He carefully, almost casually, stepped around Ghost before making one last quip.
"And humanity can do a lot better without you; or did you forget Lenin?"
"I'm no Bolshevik you bastard!" Ghost snarled, whipping out another gun from beneath his coat right as the young mercenary lunged at Suzaku, throwing them both through the window as a spray of bullets ripped through the air. Suzaku yelled as they fell down two stories and landed in a trailer-sized dumpster. Back in the dorm, Ghost grumbled to himself, still aiming his Glock-18 at the window. God damn merc, Ghost thought as he knelt down and brought his injured arm into the light to examine it, he's no mere soldier-of-fortune. He somehow realized I had the emitter; except he got the name completely wrong. The injury wasn't that bad really, but it would still make things difficult. At least it was his left arm, he thought as he dropped the Glock's magazine and struggled to reload.
"Come on," the young mercenary urged after he forced open the dumpster door with Suzaku almost throwing up as he stumbled out.
"Who in their right *cough* mind would *cough* place a dumpster *cough* right next to a school?"
"The same kind of person who should be driving a dark green sedan." A dark green sedan then pulled up and screeched to a halt before the two of them, a young man close to Suzaku in age behind the wheel. "Get in, quick," the merc urged, nudging Suzaku toward the passenger seat. Suzaku obliged as the merc jumped into the back seat. The young driver scrunched his nose.
"Please don't tell me that's why I had to move that dumpster-"
"Just drive idiot!" Orpheus, startled by his charge's order, slammed his foot on the gas and the sedan sped forward as bullets from a Glock-18 peppered the asphalt. From the shattered window, Ghost snarled as they sped away, but then he smirked. Stowing away the automatic pistol, Ghost strode back down the corridor. That merc hit him with bloody soft-point bullets, they were going to be a pain to remove. However, all things considered, it was more than worth it. He withdrew from his pocket a white data disc.
Dlya Chelovechestva
Kerman City, Dasht-e Lut Desert
Aeternum Renegade Social Exchange
beep beep beep
Rivalz, now in his school uniform, helped Cornelia to the cell door as a juvenile delinquent appeared in the corridor. Seeing the light-gray "eye for an eye" shirt and blue-&-white scarf, he realized that this was Alex's other lackey, alongside that Dillinger guy. His chestnut hair, unobstructed, was curtained both ways, almost wild-like. And he had that T-shaped gun too.
"This way you two."
They hobbled after the Facinus member down the corridor, through three different rooms, upstairs, past only a hand full of groggy JDs, through the atrium and outside.
The sun was just beginning to crest the horizon; Rivalz actually heard a cock crow. Cornelia winced.
"Sorry, are you alright?"
"No," the Princess assured him, "it isn't you. I've been caged up indoors for more than a day, and I haven't seen the sun since they brought me here."
"This way," their sentry urged, gesturing toward a steep hill behind the Exchange.
"Easy," Rivalz started, "we're moving. She's still hurt you know."
"I'm not blind goyim," the young man said, adjusting his scarf, "I just don't want you wandering into the Persian Silks."
"The what?"
"The trees down there."
"The Acacias?"
"They're Persian Silks, not Acacias, now go on."
"You have a name young man?" Cornelia muttered softly. The young man with dark eyes and a scarf, not to mention a gun, gave her an odd look before muttering to himself. "You don't have a name?" Cornelia pressed, louder this time.
"Meier Lehrer." Lehrer (Le - Rer)?
"You are German?"
"Nyet."
"You're Russian."
"I was born in that land," he answered simply as the two of them hobbled onward.
"What made you leave Europia?" Why was she continuing this line of questioning? Rivalz wondered.
"Nyet, I was never of Europia, or Russia for that matter."
"You just said you were Russian."
"I was born in Russia, doesn't mean I'm of Russia."
"Then what are you?"
"I'm Ashkenazi; one of God's children." Whatever that meant.
"This 'God' of yours wouldn't be Powers would it?" This made Meier laugh.
"Alex? God? He's a good Catholic; not that it does him any good. As far as we know, we're all going to hell, especially those of this life of ours." Whatever that mean?
Area 11
Tokyo Settlement Highway
The dark green sedan speed down the all-but-empty highway. Suzaku looked over the driver with long blonde hair and bright green eyes before turning to talk to his rescuer in the back seat.
"Thank you for that."
"Arigato," said young man, surprising Suzaku with this Caucasian guy's use of Japanese. "Keeping you alive was the least I could do after luring you to Ashford."
"Lure me?" The young man removed his goggles, revealing hazel-green eyes.
"My intent was to have you locate your friend and hopefully things would kick off from there; unfortunately we had a couple of unwanted surprises."
"You knew Lelouch and Nunnally were alive?"
"I had a hunch, and my uppers actually believe this operation to be a massive waste of time."
"Your uppers, who even are you?"
"An enigma?" he said with a shrug. Suzaku frowned before adopting a firmer tone.
"Who are you?" The young man paused for a few moments before giving an honest answer.
"I'm Zeta, Zeta Locke; and I'm on your side."
"My side? Against who?"
"Not who, what. Your enemy is tyranny." Tyranny?
"Haven't you noticed? Britannia is dead."
"Wrong, Emperor Charles is dead. Japan still stands." Japan still stands, hold on. Suzaku realized that this guy, this Zeta, was a difficult guy to figure out.
"You said you're against tyranny."
"Don't get me wrong, it's always fun to knock a king off his high-and-mighty ass. But a crown doesn't make you a tyrant." Huh, okay... "The Emperor is dead, and he was a tyrant, but now a new tyrant has made a move."
"You're talking about that Ghost guy?"
"What guy?" asked the guy driving.
"Eyes on the road Orpheus!" Zeta snapped. He turned back to Suzaku. "I don't know who that guy is; I suggest keeping an eye out for him. As for the tyrant, I'm talking about the Utopians. They call themselves the Universo Mundo Novo Exercitus."
"You're against the Serpents."
"Small fry, but yes, we're against them too. By the way, did you find anything in that school?"
"Well..." he seemed alright, and he had risked his life to save him, "I got this." He pulled out the gray data disc that he had in his pocket.
"What is it?"
"Someone was looking into a computer in the dorms, this is the file that they were looking at."
"I thought so."
"What?"
"Here," Zeta reached into one of his pockets and pulled out one of the two blue discs, "this is the real data."
"That was you?"
"Yes, aren't you wondering why I left the data for someone else to find?" That gave Suzaku pause.
"You swapped it with fake data?"
"Sort of; I acquired the data as it is, then I altered one or two lines of the original data."
"So this," gesturing to the gray disc.
"Is the altered data," Zeta held out the blue disc.
"You're okay with giving up the original data?" Zeta grinned and pulled out a second blue disc, identical to the first.
"Oh, right then." and Suzaku exchanged the gray disc for one of the blue discs.
Kerman City, Dasht-e Lut Desert
Aeternum Renegade Social Exchange
Dillinger flipped his coin, a genuine American Silver Eagle that he would never part with for the life of him. Before him, and couple other Facinus brothers, was an ornate alchemical circle on the floor, bout 17 feet across.
Ping
Ping
Ping
The circle began to glow. A pale shimmering light getting brighter and brighter until there was a momentary flash. After the flash faded, the light was gone and a group of 22 tightly-packed people had appeared in the circle. One was a made brother, kneeling on the ground, the rest weren't.
"Hey there Bender." Seventeen-year-old John Bender stood up and stretched.
"Well hey there Ed." Oh please.
"Quit it John, where're they from?"
"Can you believe me if I said they're from Boise, Idaho?" Dillinger merely shrugged.
"If that's where they're from." He stowed away his coin and addressed the others. "Welcome honored guests. Those who somehow managed to bring luggage, leave it here, they'll be dealt with in good time. Now please step this way.
Welcome to the Aeternum Club."