Kansas girl goes on killing spree

Marrybell mel Britannia, the Witch of Britannia

Aerial Battleship Great Britannia, over the Toromo Agency ruins

Ten minutes into Operation Dorothy

I've done it…

Marrybell could almost swear to herself she never slapped on a gas mask faster in her life. Were the princess to act any slower and exposed herself to the incapacitating gas for longer than a few seconds at most, the infuriating irritation and prickling all over her skin would be the least of her worries.

"Are we clear?" Oldrin's crisp voice asked.

"No… no, not yet."

Nevertheless, the most important task was done. Her Geass had taken its effect. If she so chose, it wouldn't be considered outrageous for her to quite literally breathe a sigh of relief as the ventilation sucked away what was left of the tear gas, rendering her mask unnecessary. However, Marrybell knew better than to host an early celebration, not until she held the helm of the empire in her grip.

"-Bridge crew, attention!" Marrybell called out to her subjects from the elevated entrance, many sets of monotonous eyes turned their gazes at her, except the pair she sought for. "Rest of you are on standby, holster your weapons, no sudden movements. Acknowledge."

"Yes, Your Highness." Unsurprisingly, the operators of the airship saluted her. Although their response was rigid and robotic, lacking purpose.

Satisfied, Marrybell was ready to shift her attention to where it mattered. "Now, Emperor Lelouch, please step off your throne and show yourself." Despite knowing it was pointless to politely address Lelouch by his title, it was a habit in her she couldn't break overnight.

The oversized chair favoured by the Britannia ruler blocked Marrybell's line of sight from seeing him directly. If she wanted to improvise, she could've looked up at the tempered blast shields reflecting a concave angle on the bridge, but that wasn't a solution the princess applied. Her eagerness and suspense kept her eyes glued to the back of the throne, expecting a figure to reveal itself from the shadows.

To her surprise, a figure did appear. Albeit it wasn't shaped in her brother's physique, and it threw something at her that wasn't his resignation letter.

"-Get down!"

Before she had time to react, the projectile on a collision course with her nose was parried by Oldrin using the stock of her rifle.

"Contact, contact!" Her aide-de-camp instantly adapted to the smell of war, both hands firmly on the assault rifle and finger on the trigger. The same stance was mirrored to her left by Orpheus. Marrybell's two bodyguards levelled their guns at where they last saw the foe, anxiously waiting for the first, and hopefully the last move from their opponent.

"All of you on the bridge! On your stomachs, keep your heads down!" Marrybell issued a second order to Lelouch's soldiers. They could be used if necessary, but she didn't wish to risk catching her knights in the crossfire or letting someone in charge of navigations get tagged.

"Go left, I'll cover right." Her two pilots closed in towards the throne from either side, expunging what little cover their enemy had one step at a time. It took the recognizable sound of smoke capsules gushing on the floor to escalate the engagement. Another cloud of whiteness erupted from behind the chair and obscured her knights' visuals on their target.

"Smoke popped, go to thermal." Orpheus recommended. He tapped a button on the side of his visor, Oldrin too followed suit. For all the complaints she filed against their oversized goggles, it certainly had some features the noble girl didn't resent.

A couple of borrowed soldiers trickled into the room, reinforcing Marrybell's presence of mind enough for her to check out the object thrown at her. It was a metal dagger. A traditional Japanese kunai, to be exact. Thus, the identity of the culprit became an easy deduction to make, the only noticeably Japanese person regularly seen around Lelouch was his maid. Apparently, she had more than teacups up her sleeve.

The smoke was still thick in the middle of the bridge, inviting the twins to wander into it. It didn't take long for gunfire to rip through the mist, hitting the panels of sheet metal on the walls. Once the shots stopped singing, the clash of blades was next. Each resonance of steel smashing against steel skipped a beat in Marrybell's heart, the worry for her knights was on the verge of overwhelming her sensible logic.

Nonetheless, they were both experts on CQC, Oldrin especially. How those slender arms managed to wield a longsword over half her height in one hand like a bundle of newspaper was unimaginable to the princess.

Bursting out of the smoke, a blurry body was sent flying into a brutal tumble until it crashed against the stairs with a loud thud. To Marrybell's utter dismay, that body belonged to Oldrin.

"-Oz!" The princess reacted to her best friend's loss with a scream. Her compulsion commanded her to check on Oldrin's vitals, but out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something rushing her way threatening to endanger her own wellbeing.

It really was a maid who threw a wrench into Marrybell's grand scheme, a maid dashing and hopping around like a ninja. She almost couldn't believe it despite seeing the person in action charging her way with two daggers ready. If the young royalty was in the proper mindset and mood, she could've made a quip about the absurdity of Lelouch's servants.

If she was in the mood.

"Blast her! Shoot her!" The Glinda Knight's commander took an impulsive step back, letting her manipulated guards take the brunt of the attack. She inwardly cursed the mask protecting the maid from her Geass, things would've been much easier without it.

All of it transpired in less than five or so seconds. In the time it took Marrybell to draw her sidearm from her holster, the soldiers she momentarily cowered behind were all on the floor in the blink of an eye. Overpowering her instinctual fear and terror, the princess raised her pistol for a shot only for it to be knocked out of her hand by a thrown kunai.

This bitch is gonna do me in…!

With nothing left to hide behind and a maid with a vengeance storming towards her, Marrybell wasn't sure what she could've thought to do if she was given the luxury to think, which she didn't.

The maid thrust her dagger just below eye level, likely aiming for the princess' neck. Feeble as she was against an expert of martial arts, Marrybell did all she could to preserve her own life.

She tried to stop the deadly edge with her left hand, and by some miracle, she somehow caught the blade.

It took a few ticks of the clock for her to register, but once it did, the searing sensation of her palm sliced wide open surged through Marrybell's nerves and delivered her the excruciating agony. She almost couldn't bear looking at where the steel and her flesh intermingled. The cascading blood was spouting out of any crevices between her left palm and the knife, painting the dagger and her wrist in a shade of bright red as her blood seeped through her glove.

Granted that she wasn't dead, which was a good sign. Also to add to that, despite having her expression concealed by the blank mask, Marrybell felt confident assuming the maid was taken back. The ninja had lent her a few precious seconds of hesitation, and that was long enough of a period for Oldrin to pitch her assault rifle at the back of the woman's head.

"Marry!"

Her knight blotted to her side, eyes filled with sorrow and guilt staring down at her injury. Orpheus seized the opportunity to subdue their opposition, smacking her onto the floor using the butt of his rifle as she tried to recover and tied her hands up with a strap of cable tie.

"Hey- HEY! Team Butterfinger! I need a medical right away! Hurry it up!" By Oldrin's decree, a second wave of soldiers flooded in from the entrance, many of them were flying the emblem of the Glinda Knights, assuring the princess that her people had successfully conquered a majority of the airship.

"And clear the room, set security." Marrybell added to her XO's instructions, the new group of pilots nodded back and proceeded ahead.

"I-I I'm so sorry, Marry… that woman is- she's pretty strong." Oldrin tried to tend to her wound, clumsily pulling off the ripped glove and wrapping her hand in cloth before a certified medic came over and relieved her.

"It's alright… I don't need all my fingers." The princess wanted to inject a dose of humour to her suffering, but it just came out sounding kind of forced.

"Marry… I-I really… I should've been better, I'm sorry."

"Don't break down now, you can cry later once we're done here." Moderating her emotions, Oldrin wordlessly agreed with a sniff. Marrybell temporarily mulled over the fact that she didn't drop a single tear during what had happened, in spite of the painful cut still lingering under the bandage.

"Orpheus, bring that woman to me." Back on her feet and back to business, Marrybell couldn't spare the time to dilly-dally.

Her Head Knight came over with the prisoner in tow, he kicked her once above the ankle and shoved her on her knees. Marrybell didn't find delight in removing the maid's mask or exposing her suppressed fear upon seeing the Geass user face to face, her brush with death was still too surreal for her to employ mockery as a tactic.

Marrybell keenly studied the Japanese ninja's desperate struggle to avoid linking their eyes as she futilely wrestled against her handcuffs. For a while, they stayed like that, exchanging nothing verbally.

"-Your Highness, the bridge is secure. Your HVT is gone though, there's an escape hatch by the throne." One of her pilots reported for a lacklustre response from the royalty.

"Where is Lelouch?" Coolly, Marrybell interrogated.

"You'll never get him." The maid's answer was a cliché, and an unhelpful one at that.

"Cool. You got anything else you wanna say?"

"…"

"Alright then…" Without a warning, Marrybell jabbed her unhurt hand into the maid's mouth, earning a muffled yelp from her. She dug around a little, finally finding a tiny capsule stuck to one of her teeth and carefully yanked it out.

"Is that a…?" Orpheus couldn't help it when his curiosity leaked.

"Suicide pill, as expected of a ninja. You should've acted faster." Marrybell dropped it on the floor and stomped it into oblivion, defeat and desperation was starting to settle in judging by the maid's countenance.

Marrybell brought her right hand up to her mouth and was about to pull off the sticky glove with her teeth before she realized her mistake. "Oldrin, can you like… help?" Her knight swiftly rolled off her glove from the back, casting it aside as the royalty struggled internally with her charisma break.

"Now, anything you wanna say, for real this time?"

"You'll pay for this betrayal in blood… wench."

"Fair enough, I am now a little bit more scared than I was earlier." Marrybell was missing the energy to play the villain. Otherwise, she would've gladly acted more spectacular. "-Orpheus, if you would."

Orpheus restrained the ninja from turning away and pried open her eyelids. The burning crimson of Marrybell's Geass was set ablaze in her left eye, all that was left to do was connecting their gazes.

Oddly, when she stared deep into the Japanese woman's soul, what she saw beneath the fear and loathing on the surface was a hint of determination and resolve, unlike any of her previous victims who were aware of what was happening.

"Marrybell mel Britannia enslaves you…! And err… ah- whatever." Lelouch had more of a flair for the dramatic than her, or maybe it was just because of how different their Geass functioned.

— —

Marrybell stood before the throne, gazing down at the trapdoor that aided Lelouch's escape. A scraping noise echoed faintly in the back of her mouth, sucking the focus away from her convoluted deliberation. She wished for the annoyance to be over, but she discovered it difficult to stop grinding her teeth in frustration as she evaluated the cost of such a blunder.

"And where does this secret passage lead to? Answer me."

"Exits Are leading to all decks and bulkheads." The feedback she received was short and soporific, but the Geass wielder had grown accustomed to it.

"…Of course it does." Marrybell voiced her vexation, only for nobody to provide her with comfort. "Speak, do you know where he will go?" Nothing came back from the Japanese servant under her spell, as it often happened when she asked a question to which they had no answer for.

Off to a fucking fantastic start. The princess heard the criticism of her inner voice. To lose track of the smartest man in the massive combined fleet and the man crowned to rule the world's strongest military so early into Marrybell's betrayal wasn't a good omen. Lelouch was on the loose aboard the airship, and he surely wasn't too thrilled about his sibling's treachery.

Neither was Marrybell if she was to be honest with herself. However, dethroning one brother and killing the other was only the starting line in her sumptuous plot for world peace. The duty embedded in her core she believed must be accomplished by her design, as an atonement for the atrocities committed under her name.

"Maid, markdown where the exits out of this tunnel are. Join up with me once you're done." The Japanese woman said nothing in words and conveyed nothing in expression. She simply left the young royalty's side to fulfill what was required of her.

Marrybell could've sought for a confirmation from Sayoko- which she learned was the ninja-maid's name, but the cold shoulder given by her drones reminded her of the value of genuine intimacy, a factor of life her Geass victims could not replicate.

It reminded her of her own humanity. As often as she was hindered by it, she could not discard what made her alive.

Finished with one chore, Marrybell turned to the rest of her puppets without a purpose. "Bridge crew, recognize me as the new captain. Acknowledge."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Notify all personnel to be on the lookout for the Emperor, tell them to have face protection on at all times. If he is found, report it in and I expect to be contacted immediately. Otherwise, continue your duty as usual. Acknowledge."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Dame Krushevsky, make sure you keep that football safe with you at all times. Give it to me, and only me when I ask for it."

It's all so stringent… Dullness gave birth to a petty grumble floating around in Marrybell's thoughts, only for it to be quickly squashed unless she welcomed for hesitation to fester within her.

"What else we got, update me, 1-1. Is this ship secure?" Marrybell directed her next inquiry at the captain of one of her personal squadrons, leaving the Great Britannia crew to their own devices, limited as they may be.

"Ma'am. The forward section of this airship is secured. There're still some skirmishes on the aft side, but we have it under control."

"What about the escort ships and their birds?"

"Two battleships sunk and two commandeered. The remaining hostile Knightmares refused to surrender, we're cleaning them up now."

"Damocles?"

"Our recon units reported that the entire facility has been flattened, nothing could've survived that."

"Anything I didn't ask?"

"CDO Sherpa said it was pretty cringe and bluepilled of you for getting your hand run through." Marrybell let loose a sulking huff at her officer's cheeky jab, it was in line with how she expected Sokkia to react.

But she didn't hate her for it, she needed people like Sokkia during these discouraging times. She needed that positivity in her life.

"Remind me to feed her some bluepills once we get back." She waved away the Glinda Knight pilot, who took notice and stepped back in line with the rest of the commander's bodyguards.

"I want a squad scouting out those tunnels, take that maid's map and fill it out. I'm going to take a stroll, maybe run into Lelouch somewhere. Fireteam Butterfinger remains here, the rest are with me." All her knights saluted her respectfully, quick to self-assign the roles she demanded.

Marrybell shot one last glance out the windows towards the desolate ruins of the Toromo Agency before heading out the way she came with her posse in tow. The ninja-maid caught up with her out in the hallways as the automatic door slid shut.

"Marry, how's the hand?" Orpheus slipped his way up to the princess. His tone was a mixture of stoic solemnity and gentle concern.

"Feels like you guys did an oopsie." Marrybell joked, or at least she hoped it sounded like that.

Judging by Orpheus' reaction, Marrybell could easily guess he contemplated saying more to the Viceroy but held back whatever it was he wanted to express. To her, the comfort of knowing at least two people in the world still cared for her wellbeing warmed her heart and mellowed out the physical pain. They thought of her as valuable not just for what she was willing to do, instead, for who she was.

"It won't happen again."

"I trust you." Marrybell shined a grin for her attentive knight, letting him know his resolution wouldn't end up forgotten.

"Oh, and, err-" Orpheus snapped himself out of Marrybell's captivating smile, his hand clutching something tightly between its digits. "You should have this back."

Her Head Knight passed a tiny dongle to his liege, no bigger than a finger phalanx.

The technology on offer by the modern era was unbelievably intriguing, Marrybell told herself. To think such a small device, when plugged into the right port it was capable of bringing the computer systems of a massive battleship under her domain was almost too good to be real, but the results were undeniable. Of course, Orpheus had to stealth his way into the command centre and manually perform the sabotage, but that didn't mean what they accomplished together wasn't a stellar feat.

Although, Marrybell wasn't too sure why Orpheus wanted her to have it. "It's Toto's goober, why're you giving it to me? Drop it off at her lab once we're back on the Grandberry, and thank her for me too."

Orpheus froze in place for a good few seconds, and Marrybell did so as well after the realization struck her.

"Marry… Toto is… she—"

"-No, I-I, I know, I… I know. She's… dead, Toto is dead. My tech-geek, my AWACS, my kind-hearted assistant… she's dead." Strangely, Marrybell grew incredibly exhausted despite having done nothing at all. "I… I don't know what came over me, sorry. I'll take that goober off you."

"Marry… are you—?"

"-I'll take it now, thank you." Starkly, Marrybell cut off Orpheus before he could word his unease. "I need to talk with the maid, keep your eyes open."

Orpheus reluctantly joined back with the rest of his squad, their focus sharp and their weapons steady as the group protected their leader in the centre. The bits of chatter that escaped from their conversation informed Marrybell of a military operation's tedious nature behind the direct action of its actors.

"Sayoko, answer to what I'm about to ask." Marrybell woke the maid from her stupor, like powering on a computer. She was never sure what zapped through the mind of her Geass victims when they went without order, and she wasn't about to find out anytime soon. "How come my Geass didn't work on you and Lelouch?"

Sayoko didn't reply.

If she had the spare second to cogitate her own opinions on her Geass, surely the princess catalogued the thievery of her victim's personality as a con. Marrybell favoured free yet orderly servants, not mindless slaves.

"Did my Geass hit him?" Nothing. "Did my Geass hit you the first time?"

"No."

"Why not?" Marrybell might not be a genius on par with Lelouch or Schneizel, but she passed her basic geometry courses in Britannian high school just like them. She calculated the reflections of her Geass off the blast shields and was confident anyone looking in any direction other than straight down should have met the influence of her left eye.

"Master Lelouch shielded me and put the mask on me."

"He did…?" The gears upstairs slowly started clunking away. In the depths of her mind, a new tide of puzzles and deductions were waiting there to be conceived and solved.

Lelouch is smart, he would've seen my betrayal coming… he didn't stop it. Confidence or arrogance? Or maybe he didn't know… until I launched the F.L.E.I.J.A.? We have similar Geass, he knows how it works… then why didn't he prevent the rest of the crew from biting it…?

The outside world began to fade away from her peripheral as the princess allowed herself to be drawn deeper into her brainstorm. She might never climb to the same apex of wisdom where Lelouch sneered down upon her, but that was no excuse to build a home at the bottom of the barrel.

Right now… I'm winning. Keep the momentum, move fast and end it. I need to grab him, that's my victory. He'd want to leave and come back with an army, or at least get reinforcement here. If he catches me with a superior number, I'd be done for…

Marrybell wasn't perfectly pleased with her projected course of action, there were still unfilled holes in her strategy and leaps of logic explaining why Lelouch did what he did. However, the more daylight she burned idling around the place the more ground she'd be giving up, and seizing the opportunity for triumph was preferable over being executed for treason in defeat.

"Talk to me, Sayoko. How many ways off this ship are there? In midair, I mean."

"Taking an aerial vehicle out the catapult or the hangar, and the escape pods."

"So, the standard." Of course, it made sense. At the end of the day, the Great Britannia was still a Logres-class Battleship, it couldn't be retrofitted out of the blue.

If I am Lelouch… where would I go? A gloomy headache was starting to bounce on the inside of Marrybell's skull as she racked her brain, concentrating her efforts to conceptualize a maneuver that could put her ahead. Lelouch had to have some form of a plan, he was too good at hatching plots to go without one.

"Hey, maid. Riddle me this. That green woman who's always with Lelouch, is she his wife?" When the inspiration struck her, Marrybell wasn't exactly proud of herself for devising her idea.

"No."

"But he does care for her, like- a lot?"

"Yes."

"Where is she on the ship? I saw her earlier, she must be here-" The royalty cut herself off to make a small adjustment. "No, wait. Tell me where you think she's going to be. Where will she go in this type of situation."

"The aft hangar. Her Knightmare is stored there." After quite a bit of patience spent, Marrybell discovered a new way forward.

Lelouch, Marrybell's older brother, the Britannia Emperor, all those titles, yet he was still made of flesh and blood. As Zero, the personal aspects of his character were shrouded in mystery. As Lelouch, he enjoyed his every day with affection for his loved ones. The double life he led must have been gruelling and taxing, but it afforded him moments of humanity to experience sentiments and closeness. Zero had no weakness to prey on, unlike Lelouch.

Marrybell would seize her advantages where she could find them, punish Lelouch for his fondness of others. It was nefarious and immoral of her to do so, no doubt about it. However, the princess carried on with her promises of a duty to fulfill. Therefore, if she must exploit her brother's compassion, then she will do so now and feel guilty later.

"-Oz." The commander summoned her two knights, both of them arrived at her side in a flash. "We're securing the aft hangar, Lelouch is likely to be there. Check your map, I'm charting a route right now." Marrybell poked over the smartphone strapped to her forearm, uploading the necessary data to share.

To tell the truth, she felt pretty cool having a tactical tablet instantly available with the flick of the wrist, the pain which came from stirring her bandage notwithstanding.

"Update received." Oldrin replied first, Orpheus too agreed soon after.

"If you see Lelouch, try to take him alive."

"Only try?" Orpheus picked up on her acute choice of words.

"Just… try." Lelouch was of paramount significance to Marrybell's plan, his capture served as an immediate win condition for her campaign.

Lelouch… we're not so different.

Although it wasn't worth the risk of endangering the lives of her precious Devicers, she had her own weakness she couldn't forsake.

C.C., the immortal Code

"Lelouch!" C.C. raced to support the distraught Emperor clambering his way out of the vents. Never before had Lelouch appeared worse for wear than right that moment as she steadied his uneven footing.

The blaring sirens and distant gunfire told C.C. all she needed to know about the predicament they found themselves stuck in. Plus, the soldiers running around barricading the hangar entrances proved to be a fair impression of their debacle as well. Having known her contractor for so long, the immortal wasn't too shocked that he hid a shifty tunnel out of the bridge, granting that she never wished to see him demonstrating the escape path personally.

Lelouch panted groggily, leaning against the witch's shoulder as he wriggled out of his grimy ruler's attire. Under normal circumstances, she would be crying foul to the high heavens for having herself dirtied by the unkept king, but right now was one of the few times she made an exemption. Underneath the baggy white garbs of the Emperor, Lelouch had on a simple t-shirt and pants. C.C. personally didn't hate seeing him in a more modest outfit, and it did make his fuming scowl a little less jarring to observe.

"We need to get you out of here."

"…You wanna talk about what happened?"

"Marrybell… she-! I underestimated how amateurish she can be." Lelouch took the towel lent to him by the witch and wiped off his sweating brow, slithering between the walls of an airship would do that to a person. "Let me rephrase that. Her opening move is so completely illogical and unreasonable, I didn't plan for it."

"Kind of like how bad chess players can beat good chess players by being bad?" Lelouch turned his glance and studied C.C.'s countenance, relatively amused for the disposition he was in.

"I suppose it is like that. If I wanted to usurp me, I'd have obviously done it once we're in the facility, where secrecy can be easily obtained and maintained. If I want Schneizel dead, I can make sure of that on the ground. Because otherwise, starting a military coup three thousand metres above the open sky, where half the country can see you isn't the brightest idea." Lelouch took a breather, pausing his intensifying rant.

"You hate to see it."

"What is she thinking?! We negotiated passage into Cambodia with the UFN, everyone knows we're here! It's so… just so irrational. Given the scenario, should I assume that she manages to kill all of us and makes her way back to Pendragon, her Geass doesn't work like mine. She can't preserve a functional court with her drones. The only way is to forcefully remove the current ruling system and start a revolution, it'll be a full-blown war she can't win."

Ironically, it was almost refreshing to a degree seeing Lelouch so distressed for C.C. To clarify, she took no pleasure in witnessing his discomposure, but it did remind her that even the mighty Britannia Emperor could have moments where he isn't one hundred percent in control.

"I get it, she's a huge idiot. However, let's worry about getting you off this ship safely. We can't stay here. Your troops are outnumbered and won't last forever."

"No, I can't leave yet. I can't let her launch another F.L.E.I.J.A. I need to disarm the ones on board and grab the football from Monica. You- on the other hand, need to get away from here. Head for the closest Britannian embassy, let them know what's happening." Sternly, Lelouch ordered her.

"Not happening. If you're so insistent on staying, then I shall as well." Not less determined, C.C. challenged his command. "I hold the responsibility of protecting you, especially now that… Kallen is…"

"That's exactly why I need you gone. Kallen has value as a combatant, Marrybell won't harm her for no reason." Without missing a beat, Lelouch retorted. Losing of someone he adored and treasured so fondly would've devastated anyone else, yet he still carried himself diligently in retaliation. "However, you can't be Geassed, she won't have a use for you."

"She'll have to get me first, am I someone known to be caught?"

"I found you in a cell." C.C.'s cheek lit up in a sheepish red, that reminder was in poor taste. "Normally, I would trust you. But Marrybell is different. Hostages are only useful alive. She won't threaten me with Kallen or Monica when she needs them to fight for her. The story is different in your case. I cannot imagine what she will do to you to get to me, and I'm sure you won't want that."

"Oh… that's…. awfully considerate of you." Romance would've bloomed in the hectic hangar were C.C. to take a daring step closer, a kiss on the lips was what her benevolent king deserved for his endearment of the witch. Too bad the constant barrages of bullets and explosions repeatedly ruined their mood, or else she wouldn't refuse offering a bit of consolation when Lelouch needed it the most.

"Marrybell has an early lead, but now she's out of tricks. I can take care of her, and I need you to take care of yourself." Lelouch's adamant hold on her shoulders pleaded with her to follow his directives.

"…Such a pushy—" C.C. never got to finish that train of thought, it perished rather abruptly under a wrecked sheet of composite metal as a reddish Knightmare smashed through the hangar bay.

C.C. never really took in just how massive a Knightmare could appear to be. It wasn't to say she didn't memorize their mechanical height and width, because she could spare the space in her hippocampus. Nevertheless, ascending to the cockpit of a programmed robot via a rope ladder was an altogether different experience compared to cowering at the feet of a giant looming over her with its claw outstretched.

"-JESUS! Contact! Hostile armour!"

"It's the Percival! Stay clear!"

"We need anti-KMF weapons! Where're the AP rockets!?"

The Percival's Factsphere Sensor blipped open briefly, giving C.C. the split-second window to drag Lelouch away from where its radiant claw would have landed the next moment. The metallic deck under them was torn apart by the crimson wave of destruction, its energy wave sending the two toppling across the hangar.

"LELOUCH!" C.C. cried out, ignoring her scorched back and brunt outfit. Now was not the time to dwell on her own health.

She scrambled over to the king, desperately digging his ruffled body out of the rubbish. Thanks to her quick reflex, Lelouch was largely unhurt other than a couple of bruises. "I'm fine- I'm okay."

Behind them, the Percival was laying waste to the pitiful number of soldiers still loyal to the crown. C.C. could tell without having to turn around, it wasn't going to be a lasting confrontation, not after the barricaded doorway was blasted open.

"You need to go, now! Get out of here! I'll stall for as long as I can!" C.C. propped up the king under the armpit, hunkering down to keep their visage low while scrambling away from the chaos.

"No! That's not what we agreed on!" Lelouch wrestled against her, but C.C. could output a bit of strength if a push came to shove.

"There's no time, you have to get away!" The ageless witch refused to hear it, she had to ensure his safety before anything else. "Lelouch, listen! Tell me, can you beat her? Can you win against Marrybell!?" Awestricken by her exotic solemnity, the Emperor stopped trying to break free from C.C.'s grasp and steadied his footing.

"Yes." It was a one-word reply, said earnestly and implacable. That did the trick to comfort her trembling heart, to set her resolve straight.

"I'm glad you care for me, I really am. Please, go and stop her. I'll be waiting for you to come back with a smile." If only the fleeing clock permitted her one last kiss, that wouldn't be so bad. C.C. had to make do with imprinting Lelouch's briefly stunned expression in her memory forever.

She couldn't quite catch what Lelouch said as he ran off towards another hidden passage, but she didn't need to be convinced to stand her ground and fight for him anymore.

Marrybell mel Britannia, the Witch of Britannia

As Marrybell carefully paced across the hangar floor littered with the wounded or dead bodies of Lelouch's masked guards, she stubbed her toes on something particularly stiff. It actually hurt quite a lot, she inwardly cursed.

"Oldrin, use this thing, Killer Queen is taking too long." Her knight's first reaction was confusion at Marrybell's order, but she quickly fathomed what her liege wanted by tracing the tip of her finger pointing at the rocket launcher she accidentally kicked.

Oldrin casually picked up a fifteen something kilogram SMAW and straddled it over her shoulder. She tinkled with it for a bit, most likely checking the munition and removing the safety.

"Backblast check!"

"-Backblast clear."

"Rocket away." Once she finally decided to get down to firing the explosive at the pink Lancelot duelling the Percival, she landed a clean shot on the KMF's torso and blew half of its body right off.

The cockpit's emergency ejection must have activated, or else a sane person wouldn't choose to blast themselves upwards with about 5Gs of acceleration directly into the ceiling.

"Oof…" Even Marrybell winced at the sight of the deformed cockpit. "Maid, you're sure that pilot is the undying woman, right?"

"…"

"Maid, reply." Sometimes, the princess just forgets.

"Yes."

True to Sayoko's declaration, soon after its defeat, the Lancelot's Devicer crawled out of its destroyed control block and dragged her broken body away from the fire licking her mangled limbs. Just as she recalled, the green-haired Code bearer maintained her beauty despite her scaring wounds and ruptured organs, it was a sight so jarring to behold.

Immortality… but not for me.

"-Clear left!"

"Clear right!"

"All clear, set security." Her Glinda Knights were performing their task just fine, so Marrybell left them to it. "No sights of the HVT, Your Highness."

"Ughhh… not again!" Marrybell groaned. That was a fast way to ruin her mood instantly. Somehow, she was always a step behind Lelouch. She kept removing his pieces, but his king still remained out of reach.

The commander sauntered closer to Lelouch's immortal, swiftly discarding her upset and replacing it with an air of dignified elegance.

"You're Marrybell?" The woman asked, her arrogant tone already irked the princess. She managed to slowly writhe up from the floor, sitting on her two fractured legs bending at angles legs had no business bending at.

"Nice to meet you?"

"I… don't really like you."

"Figures."

And then, out of nowhere, the quashed Code bearer, half-naked and covered in blood, had the guts to pull a gun on her from thin air. Fortunately, her last act of defiance was conveniently squashed by the Percival's radiant claw, just in time to allow the woman one final ear-splitting scream before the cry was precipitously eclipsed by the crunching of her bones.

Although, while her life was preserved and her distinguished aura persisted, Marrybell was crudely reminded of just what percentage of the human body was made out of liquid, for she was drenched from head to toe in the immortal's blood.

"…FUUUUUCK!"

— —

Author's note

Man, it's finally getting to the exciting parts, feels like all of my setups are paying off. (Even though it's just mostly asspulls with no thought put into it.) Like the blast shield thing, you just gotta trust it's more effective than it sounds. It's the best I can do, okay. You should know I'm a hack by now.

Again, my number one worry is that my interpretation of Marrybell's character doesn't fit all the time. I'll admit there's bound to be a bit of OOC for a character that's not very widely known, and the research I did doesn't disprove this possibility of her behaviour but doesn't support it that much either. Things like her mental condition and her Geass are canon, but maybe twisted in ways I don't realize. Sorry about that, fellow lore-chads. Like I said last time, this'll be a tough read for anyone who doesn't like Marrybell. (I promise to stop bitching about it after this chapter, but being a bad writer person really gets me.)

I also feel a bit bad for making Lelouch goof up, but if nothing ever goes wrong there'll be no story, will there. He might not appear too much in the next couple of chapters, since he's like the chess player and everyone else are like the pieces or something. I want to keep him secretive so everything he does will have an impact when it happens. Again, the man is just too smart for me to properly write from his perspective, I hope everyone can understand that.

Anyway, thanks to you guys for stopping by. Try not to die during these questionable times.