Cool guys walk into explosions

Kallen Stadtfeld, Knight of Ten

Near the Toromo Agency ruins

Two hours since last contact

Kallen could never recall any of her nightmares. She knew for sure she had experienced waking up with a tremor and a spook, hazily remembering the chronicles of a dream too far gone. those weren't too infrequent in her twenty years on this earth. However, she never, not even once leaped out of her bed in unfathomable fright and ragged temper, with her bedsheets soaked in a cold sweat and the residue of her scream still echoing in her bedroom.

That had never happened to her.

Bringing it back to the present-day, that was why she wasn't sure if a waking nightmare was the appropriate term to describe what she felt riding inside the Percival. Nothing else ever came close to matching the absolute fear and terror she imagined could only happen in the land of dreams, not in the least alleviated by the numb sensations returning to the tip of her fingers glued to the twin joysticks.

Never before had Kallen truly unravelled the degree of sheer abhorrence which was the foundation of Geass' methods, never before did she understand how completely frightening it was to be enslaved by its clout.

For the incessant duration after she fell for Marrybell's elaborate trap, she lost total control over her flesh and her actions. She was reduced to an observer immured in her own body, trapped beneath her skin while the princess subjugated her mindless husk to serve her treasonous ploy.

Kallen tenaciously grappled at her faint sanity, finally regaining control over her physical form after its subjugation against her will. She broke out of the stupor caused by her irredeemable undertakings, imploring her consciousness to register her environment and her condition.

"-LELOUCH! LELOUCH!" When she finally was back in it, Kallen screamed at the top of her lungs, ignoring the fact that her king wouldn't pick up her cry inside the cockpit.

She couldn't count how long her horrid howl lasted for, only that it was eventually interrupted by the fizzling white noise from her earpiece and the detestable voice which ensued shortly afterwards. "—Kallen, dear… you just gotta pick the worst possible time to lose your shit."

In the next possible split-second, the fear of Geass was instantly evaporated by a brand-new emotion of pure hatred boiling to the top of her head. Marrybell made her sabotage the airship's function, made her kill her fellow pilots, made her kill Jeremiah. It was unforgivable, she was used as a dirty rug, played like a fool.

And worst of it all, the one thing that crystalized her explosive wrath to a deadly focus was the aftermath which laid before her. The destroyed Shinkirō and its ejected cockpit in shambles at her very hands, Lelouch's life jeopardized by her incompetence and Marrybell's betrayal.

Although for the moment, she planted the blame solely at the feet of the perpetrator, the girl with the gall to still contact her.

"—You're FUCKING DEAD! DEAD! You BITCH! I'll rip your head right off your fucking neck, MARRYBELL!" Kallen bellowed at the expressionless princess displayed on her monitor, not a sliver of remorse to be found.

Kallen yanked her mask to the side, putting her twisted scowl on display as she jerked her sticks downwards, landing her Knightmare next to the commanding KMF's cockpit. She wanted nothing more than to pummel Marrybell's face into a bloody pulp, to watch the light fade out of the princess' eyes as she chokes her life away. But coming before her frenzy was the Emperor's wellbeing, and unlike her fantasy for revenge, Lelouch's life was undeniably in danger.

"—Not one step farther, Kallen!" Marrybell's genuine threat somehow managed to halt Kallen's step. She glanced up at the Viceroy's video portrait and saw her presenting something exceedingly alarming. "—Remember this? Remember what you had for lunch?"

In Marrybell's hand was a remote detonator, modern and slick. It flashed back muddied memories to the forefront of Kallen's thoughts, reminding her of her past deeds under the Geass' power.

"—Don't make me do it. We both know I won't hesitate." Marrybell threatened seamlessly, merciless and cruel.

Under Kallen's seat was a plastic bag containing a cardboard box that used to hold fried chicken bones, but instead got replaced by a brick of C4 at Marrybell's behest. The princess made her rig her own Knightmare to blow at the press of a button when she was subdued, a contingency for this exact potential hazard to her plan.

"—…You're so gonna regret ever being born, your heartless, backstabbing bitch! I can't believe I ever took a cunt like you for a friend!"

"—Say anything that makes you sleep easier at night." Marrybell spent no extra energy refuting Kallen's accusations. "—If… you still want to sleep tonight, you'll disarm yourself and come back aboard. Otherwise…"

Kallen painstakingly eked out a jagged grunt between her gritted teeth, barely containing her endless billowing rage under a half tore veneer of rationality. A deep breath later, she carefully pondered all of her options, putting all her gathered knowledge on combat tactics and prowess into consideration. Only to come to the unavoidable conclusion spelling defeat in her face.

The battle was lost, Kallen couldn't brute-force her way out of this one.

Damn it! This's fucking BULLSHIT! It's so unfair, so fucking unfair! If only I got a Geass or some shit- This's all my fault… FUCK! Fucking Marrybell! I'mma kill that two-faced whore!

There was nowhere to go except for strictly following Marrybell's order, one wrong step would result in a fiery death for the Round. Kallen had no doubt the treacherous usurper held no quandaries about pressing down on the detonator in a split if as little as a hair went out of line.

"—…Fine… fine, you fucking bitch, I surrender! Don't do anything rash!"

"—Where's my 'please'?" Kallen almost choked on her disgust, the image of Marrybell's slightly smug smirk put her fuming temper on the edge of complete eruption.

"—Go fuck yourself!" Her unadulterated hatred seeping through the transmission wiped the smile off Marrybell's mug, inviting the young princess to click her tongue.

"—Just get rid of your weapons and come back here. I still need you."

Begrudgingly, Kallen expelled the Percival's claw and tossed its rocket shield pod to the ground, disabling the weaponries she couldn't discard. She slowly took off for the airship overhead, keeping a keen eye on the monitor with Marrybell's video feed.

"—At least tell me why you did it. What can you dream of gaining from doing this!?" Kallen asked, her brow furrowed and her palms sweaty.

"—You can't possibly understand my motives."

"—Not if it's so far up your ass! You honestly think you're so big-brained that the shit you pull will end up meaning anything? All the death in your wake will be all wasted!"

Marrybell narrowed her gaze in bemusement or deliberation, her expression rapidly flashed through a range of emotions. "—You know nothing of my sacrifice, nothing of beauty! I shall be she who put an end to our decaying era and welcome a brand-new zeitgeist for the world! The next generation will lavish in decades of peace and prosperity, never knowing the horrors and tragedy of war."

It took no time at all for Marrybell to become engrossed in her own demented raving, her utterance ridiculous and her guise ludicrous. Maybe it was Kallen's submissive attitude and the princess' helpless absorption in her delusions, but the Viceroy lifted her thumb off the denotator's trigger without a cognisant effort.

"—Use your imagination, Kallen! See what I see! The death of ten thousand is a necessity!" Kallen reeled in her urges to spit on her screen where Marrybell's face flickered, she didn't want to lower herself to that woman's hollowed depths.

Marrybell was sick in the head, so messed up to the extent that even a blind man could see it. Yet she somehow was able to keep her excessive glamour intact, holding onto her charisma without breaking into an outburst of insanity. Kallen supposed that was how psychopaths operated, hiding beneath a façade of normalcy was their unchecked madness.

The lone knight had ascended above the forest now, roughly twenty to thirty metres off the ground. Marrybell's fervent speech on eugenics, genocide and whatever droned on with no breaks in sight. What actually mattered to Kallen was how tightly she held onto the detonator looming over her impending death, she made sure to keep that highlighted in her peripheral at all times.

At the exact moment that Marrybell's attention was briefly diverted, Kallen made a break for it.

"—Kallen! Don't you dar—!" The rest of her captor's sentence got blown out by the roaring wind travelling at forty miles an hour storming around her open cockpit.

Kallen betted her survival on a perilous gamble, pitting her skills and reflex against all odds. As her pilot seat slid out from the cockpit, she had absolutely no spare second to calculate all the finesse details which were involved with jumping out of a moving Knightmare. She aimed for the closest treetop and braced for the leap, hoping her trajectory won't be too far off the mark.

As she kicked off the Percival's metallic armour like a springboard, that was the exact instant Marrybell decided her death was more preferable to her escape, granting her maybe milliseconds to condemn the princess' dedication to her promise of violence and her cold-hearted callousness.

Kallen wasn't fast enough, she simply just couldn't outrun the inferno.

Immediate, authentic and downright excruciating was Kallen's realization of doom. The scorching fire of a horrifying chemical reaction surged after her at the speed of light, consuming everything in its short path until it enveloped the audacious pilot from feet up.

The burning pain was immense, so grievous that Kallen had never felt anything like it in her life. It was as if her body was being melted down to the bones, despite the protection offered by her crimson flight suit against the flame and shrapnel swallowing her body whole, the touch of death had clearly landed on her flesh. A mortifying scream in a frequency she didn't believe she was capable of escaped her throat, loud enough to faze out the sound of the combusting Knightmare, at least in her head.

As the flame caught up to her, devouring her entire body in its charring blaze, an insufferable touch was ripping into her left cheek, pressing her mask up against her face as it deformed under the blazing heat and broken into shards by the metal scraps crashing into it.

It was only until her nerves were burnt to total numbness, that was when the inferno hawked her out onto a tumble downwards into the treelines.

Her lingering cognizance begged her to react, desperately grabbing for anything her limbs could reach. She snatched a couple of branches on her way down, but the momentum of her fall snapped off the logs instead of halting her descent.

Kallen's wounded body crashed down with a wimpy thud, landing on a pile of leaves and bushes. Her insensate impulses gradually returned to the forefront of her mind, reminding her of her vitality slipping away due to the countless injuries she sustained. She tried to move anything she could still feel, but no part of her wounded physique responded.

Dying… this is dying? Without a doubt, she was about to meet the Grim Reaper in person, its icy touch washing over her.

Her blurred version darted across the grass, hoping to catch glimpses of anything that could save her. To her surprise, she ended up not too far off from Lelouch's cockpit. The dirt trench plowed during his landing was still fresh, as well as the folded parachute next to it.

Kallen summoned all the strength she could muster in her broken body, commanding it to inch closer to Lelouch in any way she could. As she pitifully crawled over the soft soil powered by nothing but anger and regret, she was confronted by the exact magnitude of her own weakness and failure.

Please… please be alright, Lulu. She didn't ever recall wanting to address him by that nickname, but for some reason, it jumped out at her fading consciousness.

The last bits of her perception picked up the noises of two Knightmares flying overhead, increasing in volume until they came into view over the clearing above. The machines of war strafed the location of Lelouch's ejected block, riddling the compartment with ordnance until there was nothing left but dust.

That was the final recognizable impression registered by Kallen's awareness, before fainting into a slumber she wasn't sure whether she would arise from.

Marrybell mel Britannia, the Witch of Britannia

Aerial Battleship Great Britannia, over the Toromo Agency ruins

Get blown the fuck out, Kallen.

"—Metallica 4-1 to Road Runner. That was good effect on target, returning to regular patrol pattern."

"—Nicely done, 4-1, 4-2. Continue patrolling." The report of her tactic airstrike was in, and Marrybell's AWACS acted on her behalf as the deliverer of her instructions.

"I want eyes on the ground, someone go confirm that kill and recover Stadtfeld if she's still alive." Marrybell said, expecting the order to be passed down starting from her vice-commander next to her. How did she even break out of it, what an annoying bitch.

"Marry, we don't have the… the thing is-" Oldrin munched on her lower lips, stumbling over unleashing her words. "Our mission time is critical. We can't linger around here any longer."

"Mission time? How long have we been here?"

"We're seventy-two minutes into this operation. At this rate, we're risking encountering local first responders in another ten." There was always that something, always that one thing raining on her parade.

Marrybell moaned loudly, voicing her dissatisfaction. "What if he's still alive? What if he somehow got away?"

"The Shinkirō's cockpit block is on screen this whole time, it never opened. If Lelouch is in there, he's dead." Oldrin talked fast, flying by the keyword in that sentence: 'if'.

"I can't rest without seeing his body!"

"And you won't see anything except for crisp ashes! Use your brain, Marry. We shot at him with 30mm cannon and hadron blasters, there's no body to recover."

"What about… any word from the CIC? Could he still be aboard?"

"The CIC staff are all gone. We have to assume that they were the rogue units from earlier. There're no signs of a firefight, he must've done it through his methods." That meant more casualty on her side, more lives lost to her cause.

"Jesus… did he slap their visors off their faces or something?" Oldrin provided no feasible hypnosis to that inquiry. "DuckTales… 0-5…" Marrybell didn't know her operators that well personally, all she could do was match a name to a face. Yet, somewhere inside her still stung knowing she couldn't keep everyone on her side safe from harm.

"I'm sorry, Marry. But we need to move on, we can't stay here."

"You…" Marrybell directed a sobering glare at her precious knight, but Oldrin didn't falter. "You're… right. We don't have time. I'll miss them later." Lacking the evidence to ease her burdened heart, the princess turned to rely on her best friend's claim instead.

You better hope you're dead out there, Lelouch. Because this is a grudge I won't forgive or forget. Was her bitterness towards her brother hypocritical? Possibly. But then again, so was she.

"We've already wasted too long here. Let's stick to the timetable, or this entire operation is toast."

"Call it in then, you're half a commander, don't forget." Tiredly, Marrybell teased her knight, the mental fatigue from scrutinizingly deliberating her every scheme against the intellect of her brother took its toll on the princess' vivacity.

"—Oreo 2-1 to Grandberry. Operation Dorothy is progressing into phase two. Pass the order down to set sail for Pendragon." Having decided on a new course of action when her aide was planning out the next step, Marrybell patted Oldrin on the back to signal her withdrawal.

"-Wait, where're you going?" Naturally, the protector grew curious about her liege's destination away from the bridge.

"I'mma roll on Lelouch's bed, seeing if I can nap this headache away. You have executive authority over this operation, lovely. Do your thing."

"…Don't overexert yourself snoozing." The last sight Marrybell saw of her guardian was a helpless expression and slouched shoulders.

Kallen Stadtfeld, Knight of Ten

Somewhere mobile

Sometime later

The muted humming of a gasoline engine, the frequent bumps sparingly lifting her aching back off the seat, a whiz of flickering lustre constantly dashing past her sealed vision; they were all hints of herself on the move. Irksomely, Kallen woke up in humility. The first ping to resonate across her body was the pinches of subdued injuries, everywhere she could feel.

Kallen tenaciously peeled open her eyelids, tetchily greeting the harsh sunshine of a damp forest beaming in from the jeep's tinted backseat windows. In the centre of her eyesight, a largish fluff of pink focused into view.

The Knight of Ten blinked away her drowsiness, meeting the gaze of Anya pointing a black sharpie directly over her face.

"…Good slept?" Anya tilted her head, twirling the marker away when her ingenious prank failed.

"W-where…?" Kallen managed to ask a question, inducing Anya to brainstorm a reply.

"…Hey, you. You're finally awake… you were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there."

The pink-haired girl's dry, toneless humour ended up being funnier than Kallen wanted to admit. She tried to laugh, but only a parched cough came out.

"You got me again… Todd Howard. Y-you can't keep getting away with it." Kallen played along despite the withering pain in her throat. She tried to lift herself up from lying on the backseat but found all of her strength had abandoned her scorched figure.

"Relax. Don't get up."

The young girl planted a palm on her shoulder to lay her to rest. The physical contact upon her skin conjured up a new discernment of a foreign sensation over a portion of her body, inviting her to bring a hand up to her face. However, Anya caught her slow movement and pinned down Kallen's swathed limb, disapproving of her actions with a headshake.

"Don't mess up your bandage." Her fellow Round settled her back down, meticulously avoiding landing a touch anywhere cloaked in whiteness.

"I-I'm okay… I'm okay." Kallen reassured the Mordred's pilot, coming to terms with her fragility that she only prayed to be temporary. "Thank you…"

It really fucking hurts… but at least, I'm still around. If she lived to see another day, she was in for another fight.

"How- how long… was I out?"

"Three hours since I found you, don't know how long before that."

"Why… are you here?"

"Stationed outside your AO, as reinforcement… maybe. AO went boom, I wanted to provide support, but didn't receive any orders. I drove in to investigate… here I am." Kallen wasn't in the right mindset to care too much about the logistics behind Anya's presence, not when she was the only friendly face she saw since the mess started.

"Anyone else… alive?" Kallen held onto Anya's delicate hands with all the strength she could muster, the petite pilot returned a firm squeeze.

"Jeremiah is here." She pointed to the driver seat where the back of a tall adult was steering their ride.

"Jeremiah… oh- thank God… I-I'm so sorry… it's all my fault."

"Nonsense. You're not to blame for Princess Marrybell's betrayal. None of us possessed the clairvoyance to foresee such an occurrence." The cyborg briefly turned around and offered Kallen a thin smile of absolution.

"Are you okay…? I gunned for you pretty hard."

"The Sutherland Sieg contains a regular Sutherland and its ejection system, I made it out just fine." Relief overtook Kallen upon the realization that she didn't commit a mistake she could never undo.

If that was the worst failure of her career, she understood she will never live it down. If only that was all she did. "But… but Lelouch… I-I… I couldn't stop myself… he… he might be…" Kallen couldn't get the word out, she couldn't stand bearing the weight of her misdeed.

"Before that, let me tell my story." Jeremiah redirected to a less unpleasant topic, if only by a little. "After I landed, I was at a loss for what to do. I knew your action wasn't willful, meaning it must be the effect of a Geass. Unfortunately, the range of my canceller cannot reach that high up in the sky. So, I bided my time and waited, helping out our ejected pilots where I could."

Kallen apologetically listened, unsure of what Jeremiah was implying. "A while later, I saw in the sky the Shinkirō attacked by the Percival. It wasn't winning against you, but its path took it closer to where I landed. I assumed you'd be told to chase down the cockpit after it ejected, so I followed too. That was when I realized it was all a part of his plan, putting you near where I should be."

"And you… undid the Geass on me."

"Yes."

It took a strenuous effort for Kallen to perform the most basic of bodily functions, such as breathing or blinking. Even so, she still tried her utmost to reply with an awestruck gasp. Since admiring Lelouch's absolutely incredible intelligence and foresight cost her nothing.

"So he planned for all of this… that means he must be—!" In her haste, the red-haired ace choked on her words, fretting her stoic caretaker.

"Mayhap. Once I freed you, I recovered the Shinkirō's flight recorder. Have yourself a listen."

On cue, Anya presented a tablet before Kallen, one with a cable plugged in its charging port connected to a hard drive. Kallen gave her a short nod of approval, gracious for Anya tapping the play button.

From the muted speaker, a miraculous voice rejuvenated Kallen's spirit. "—Okay… I'm hoping this message finds its way to either Cyberpunk, Lotus, or even Snapshot, preferably all three. I'll briefly explain what happened, and what to do if things go as planned from here on out."

"—Current time is fifteen thirty-two, September 17, 2018. Roughly… an hour and forty minutes since Marrybell launched her coup against me, and- errm… I expected her to do something similar, but not to this scale. I was ill-prepared for war. Or maybe… I just didn't want to doubt her."

"—Marrybell… she is my sister… and not a bad one at that. I wanted to believe her, I thought she was different from the rest, from me." Lelouch from the past sounded sombre like Kallen would've never believed, rivalling him at his worst. Just lending an ear to his dejected tone put her sentiments on the brink of tears.

"—Her plan is nonsensical, but her opening move- speaking strictly strategically, was well-played. We took heavy casualties, including Kallen, Monica, Sayoko and most of my soldiers, both aboard the airship and my ground troops outside the agency. C.C. is most likely compromised also. Jeremiah… I believe him to be fine, in fact, this plan depends on his survival." Lelouch took a pause, likely reorganizing his thoughts.

"—If things worked out perfectly, Kallen should've been recovered. But proceed regardless… even if she's not with us." Through the transmission, a bit of static and background noise hid the gulp of Lelouch swallowing a lump in his throat. "—You need to warn Pendragon of an impending attack. That's most likely Marrybell's endgame, I'm certain she's after the throne. But not through your phone, those are linked to our compromised flagship. If you're detected, it's over. Don't risk exposure."

"—You need to reach a Britannia Embassy, inform them of the situation and have them contact the capital and the UFN. There exists a possibility that my sister has indoctrinated the embassy staff to her side, but I believe the risk of that is low. The detailed instructions are in the text file, make sure it is followed to the letter." A cold bead of sweat dripped down from Kallen's forehead. She could only pray that Lelouch's prediction would be on point to mend their situation.

"—Marrybell's attack in Cambodia will be seen as an act of provocation. Toromo Agency belongs to Britannia, but not land around it, we don't want them involved. You should have at least one Knightmare operational, her forces should be gone by now, but still stay low until you reach the embassy."

"—Once the message is delivered and your safety is ensured. Do what you can to rejoin the battle. Marrybell won't wage a war she has no chance of winning, she must have an army capable of toppling Pendragon. They'll need your help." Lelouch spoke nothing more after the last line of direction, leaving Kallen baffled and anxious.

"Is that- is that it? Is he okay? He's not in the cockpit, right? Where is he!?"

"Keep listening." Jeremiah advised, returning Kallen's silence.

"—In the case that… this message does not reach its intended recipients, then… well, that's not good. If you're the only one listening to this, Marrybell. Congratulations, you may have bested me. You are unsure of my survival just as I am unsure of your true intentions, I suppose you have the determination to shed an ocean of blood for your conquest, if you win, you can claim your victory proudly."

"—What I said in the other recording is a lie, only to rile you. I believe you can be a fine Empress. See to it that you are. Otherwise… well, otherwise you'll see." That was when the tape cut off, the timeline of the audio track at its end.

"We don't even know where he is…" Kallen muttered, dejected.

"I checked the Shinkirō's cockpit, inside was a Glinda Knight soldier. She committed suicide before I reached her." Jeremiah added his tidbits about Lelouch's whereabouts, and that added a slice of hopefulness to their bleak setting.

"If the Shinkirō was the bait, then he must still be on board." Kallen said what she hoped to be true, the least worst-case scenario. "Marrybell got C.C., Lelouch is alone up there…"

"We must hurry if we're to prevent the destruction of our capital."

"…Yeah, we have to." Sternly agreeing with Jeremiah's assessment, Kallen painfully understood just how useless it was to lose her wit over Lelouch's wellbeing. He's alive, he's alive. He's not me, he has never failed us before.

"So, what's our plan then?" Kallen inquired, finally regaining the strength to prop herself upright.

"Once we get out of this forest Anya can take the Mordred to Phnom Penh, she'll notify the embassy." Without taking his view off the wheel, Jeremiah replied.

"Great, great. -You take care of that," Kallen addressed Anya, who nonverbally accepted her duty. "And err… the two of us can head for the nearest airport, grab a jet and get back to Britannia."

Her impulsive proposal didn't earn the endorsement from Jeremiah like she anticipated. Peeking into the rear-view mirror, the cyborg spared a portion of his focus to perceptively pierce Kallen with his stare. Likewise, Anya's body language evinced her disconcertment, an exotic feat.

"I'm taking you to the nearest town with a hospital, we'll stabilize you and get you to a proper institution for treatment." Coldly, spoken like a parent dismissing their child, Jeremiah revealed.

Deep down, she knew it was to be expected. It was the proper procedure. "No- no, not happening. It's not necessary, I'm still operational. This is nothing." Kallen intuitively rejected the notion of her curtain fall, she wasn't about to let herself be written off without accomplishing anything.

"You suffered severe blast and impact injury to several parts of your body. It's not something to just walk away from. You need to be hospitalized if you want to fully recover." The Knight of Ten didn't like where the conversation was going, she didn't enjoy being told what to do, even if it was for her own good.

"It's not your decision to make, Orange! I can still function. You heard what Lelouch said, I have to be there!" Kallen leaned forward, letting her body rise with her passion. However, the instant she tried to get a grip on the front seat, her aching bones gravely protested that movement by sending a shock of jarring pain down her nerves.

"Your face… it's messed up. You need treatment." Joining the protest, The Knight of Six beseeched.

"I know what's happened to me! It doesn't matter how messed up I am, Lelouch needs my help!" As someone famous for riding on her emotions, Kallen at the moment cared naught for the condition of her wounds.

"Treatment… or you'll be disfigured."

"-Wha- what…?" Stuttering in shock, Kallen was unready for her dose of reality-check.

"I did my best… but I'm no doctor. Your left cheek is badly burnt, a piece of your mask stuck in there."

The second time Kallen tried to touch her bandaged face, Anya didn't hamper her. "…No, that can't… I can't be…"

Small circles of dampness manifested under her bloodshot eyes, pasting the thick layers of bandage to the brunt skin over her cheekbones. Except for a thin slit across her eyes and her unkempt hair sticking out between the folds, all of Kallen's head was shrouded in rolls of cloth covering her sullied appearance from its humiliating exposure.

"Looks like Harvey Dent, Two-Face. You want to see?" Compared Anya, involuntarily savage.

Kallen couldn't find the correct choice to make in a position she never found herself in, but Anya took her stupor for a tacit consent. She flipped on the front camera of her phone and presented it to the Round, letting the mummified pilot witness for the first time her appearance as the younger girl undid the bleached fabric.

Kallen didn't dare to gaze into a reflection of her spoiled allure, but her sight was too lost in the pit of devastation to turn away.

"No… my- my face… I-I can't be- this isn't real…" No vocabulary in any dictionary could be conjured up to describe the utter misery and despair which poured down over the Knight of Ten.

The pristine beauty of a maiden in her prime was deformed by blasting fire and melted plastic. Pots of blistered crimson dyed the surface of her left cheek, valleys of charred flesh snaking across her face mimicked the skin tone of a dried and buried corpse. A small fragment of her mask, a fragment of Lelouch's gift to her, was carving into her flesh, nestled up against the inside of her mouth on the verge of puncture.

I… I'm ruined… I-I'm… Kallen wasn't sure if she would ever scavenge the courage to look into a mirror again.

"Don't cry… please, don't cry. It's fixable. We have the technology to heal you. Facial reconstruction surgery, it can be done." Anya struggled to console her friend, her lacking self-expression lessened its effectiveness.

With diffident fingers quivering at the minutest motion, Kallen took hold of the wrappings and reapplied her bandages. Layer by layer until her hideous presence was once again hidden under the dense coating of latex dressing. When she was done, only silt for her sight and strands of her vermillion hair tinted in a charcoal black curling out of the strips persisted outside.

"This… changes things." Kallen tiredly muttered, overburdened by the absurd violence trampling her identity as a woman.

"Please, seek medical assistance. Please, you can be healed…" Anya tugged frailly, doing her utmost to speak the language of friendship she formed with Kallen.

Conflicted were her intuitions, confused was her decision. "If this was only up to me… I don't care how blemished I get. Lelouch's safety is more important than anything else in the world, more so than my appearance."

Kallen spoke her unweaving conviction, the unmovable resolution she lived by. "However… I'm responsible for more than just Lelouch's life, I'm also responsible for his happiness. So I don't wanna disgust him with an ugly-ass girlfriend, making him feel guilty for what happened to me or something. That, and… fuck, man- I don't wanna look like Two-Face."

"Then… will you get help?"

"I'm gonna have to… just not at some ghetto-ass Cambodian hospital." Kallen found her word-choice almost insulting, and just a bit comical.

"What's your plan?"

"I hate to do it, but we gotta spoil our buddy Suzaku's vacation."

Britannian Embassy, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Their trip consisted of driving by Jeep, transferring to a Knightmare, low-altitude cruising, and a little bit of jogging to finish up the mechanical triathlon journey. Too bad Jeremiah was forced to be excluded from the ride in the Mordred, mainly due to his bulker build and the lack of breathing room. He agreed to drive his way down to Cambodia's capital, travelling the conventional but suboptimal path.

Leaning on a chair in the Phnom Penh embassy' conference room, Kallen impatiently waited for the consulate staff to examine the thorough unofficial edicts from the emperor delivered by the Knight of Six. Sometimes a random peep from the employees would be caught by the taller Round's perceptive scrutiny, only to quickly look away, finding safety behind their laptop screen.

"M-ma'am, please… relax your body." A nurse attending to Kallen politely requested, her voice mildly trembling under the pilot's unreadable gaze.

Kallen loosened her squelched fist and unwound her coiled left arm. A light prick of a needle nicked her tangible vein and in no time at all drops of fluid were dripping down from the IV tube into her bloodstream. The nurse carefully steadied her injured arm on the armrest, ticking a box on an IV bag as she scribbled down something on her notepad.

Kallen was smarter than to be fuming at her restricted state as she received temporary medical treatment from the consulate's doctors, but she just couldn't put out the boiling pot at the button of her stomach irritated by her weakness. None of this should be happening, she told herself. It was her job to eliminate Lelouch's enemies and ensure his safety, yet here she had failed both.

Guess I'm not buying that McLaren anytime soon. She internally joked, only to have the laughter come out as a laboured cough.

"Hey… Ms. Nurse, do you think you can up my anesthetic? It's starting to wear off." Kallen forced down a toiled pant after her request was aired. Anya must have shot her up with a dose of opioid painkiller before she woke up in the back of the jeep, since after that the agony only worsened with each tick of the clock, coercing her to refresh the dosage every time.

"Ma'am, I must again recommend you receive proper medical—"

"-Listen- listen, okay? I told the doctor or whoever was here the first time. I don't have time to get comfy. As soon as we're done here, we're leaving for the capital- our capital. Not that I like being wounded, but there's no time to waste." Kallen exhaled, letting go of the annoyance of having to repeat herself. "So please, just shoot me up."

Reluctantly, the nurse tinkered with her IV bags and a new mixture entered the tube. The effect became soon apparent as Kallen was washed over by numbness and relief. She leaned further back into the cushioned seat, letting herself indulge in the inebriation of the drugs and the misery of her incompetence.

"-Are you… okay?" Sometime later, Anya detached herself from the embassy employees and made her way to Kallen.

"…I think so. I'm high as a kite right now, other than that, just peachy."

"You're crying." That was an attribute she wasn't even aware of.

"Did you warn Pendragon?" Kallen distracted Anya from her own insecurities, albeit not quite so successful.

"Yes, they should be ready for a war. Suzaku said he'll send someone to pick us up soon, you'll be treated aboard the Avalon." The pink-haired ace affirmed, "Are you feeling okay?" and also redirected the topic to her concern.

"This shit just… it really sucks, you know? I feel way out of my league. I've never been a W.I.A before, and I got messed up this badly in one day." Compelled by her remorse, more bubbles of tears escaped her eyelid. "I am just… isn't up to par, I'm such a loser…"

"It's okay, we all make mistakes."

"But some of us can't! I can't! Some mistakes can't be made."

"It's not your fault. Don't beat yourself up over someone else's badness." It was the same sympathy she heard already, and it didn't work too well the second time.

"But I should've been better! I should have… done anything else…"

"It's just what happens… similar to when I went from playing vanilla Minecraft to 2b2t. Do you know they PvP with End Crystals there?"

Kallen was monetarily dumbfounded, she tried to shake away the confusion with a befuddled stare. "What? What- what are you even talking about?"

"2builders2tools. It's the oldest anarchy server in Minecraft. It has never been reset since it launched eight years ago."

"B-but why would you bring that up? Does that have to do with anything?"

"To distract yo- I mean, to tell you stories of 2b2t, the oldest anarchy server in Minecraft. And how it's so different from what I was used to… just like right now, in real life, because you're not used to it."

"Huh… heh… ha-! Hahaha…" This time, Kallen managed to laugh heartily. Maybe it was due to the influence of drugs pumping through her system, or maybe not. "You're just… such a strange girl, Anya… I can't even… thanks, I guess. You're pretty cool, gamer."

"I am?"

"Sure are."

— —

Author's note

I just wanna remind everyone to take a look at my chapter titles, they're kinda funny in some ways and I'm kinda almost proud of some of them.

Very important, the most important, literally paramount. Kallen isn't real-life 'OMG her face just melted off' disfigured, this is the anime 'badass-ly receive a scar that makes a character looks 11111111% cooler' disfigured, or will be after she gets proper medical attention. I had the idea of blowing her up to kinda show how Marrybell's thing does have consequences, but she's obviously not gonna look like what's-her-face from American Dad after getting acid-attacked that one episode (or acid-attacked IRL).

Also, Kallen's opinion on Marrybell's belief doesn't represent what the story believes. It's her thoughts after what happened to her. I won't tell you guys what to think of Marrybell's plan, we all have different thoughts on it.

I'm not sure exactly how realistic it is for someone who got blown up and fell down a pretty far distance to be up and somewhat about after a couple hours. But thanks to CG's medical technology in lore, I don't have to be. Their healthy health is obviously healthier than our health so let's all agree it's not impossible for her to not be crippled after that.

Is Marrybell gonna successfully pull off her plan and win the big game? Probably not. Is she gonna end up in the gutter like some of you guys are hoping? Lmao, I dunno. Although it's fair to guess that's where Kallen wants to put her.

Hey, I'm thanking you guys again for liking this story, I'm still chugging along, doing my thing. And this time I sure got some stuff to say to some reviews. For the ones I don't directly reply to, I'm still very grateful, I just can't think of anything to say other than 'based, based on what?'

Replying to Goten Askil's chapter 16 review on Euphemia's trip to Japan: I understand how the trip could sound unreasonable, but I think it's pretty acceptable that Suzaku and the Avalon crew would take the necessary precautions to ensure she doesn't see anyone or do anything bad. Even if she does get triggered by a Japanese, I'm thinking that Suzaku can straight up overpower her if he must (which wasn't needed, as seen in the later chapters). Also, you weren't supposed to guess that other bit, my dude.

To your chapter 20 review: I can respect your opinion on Marrybell and the Glinda Knights, and what you said about lack of attachment to the characters is definitely true. I think that's why I spent lotta words on Marrybell since I do want her to be more relatable, if not likeable. For the part when Kallen struck, I don't think I wrote his reaction in a way that shows he's all frozen up? He's surprised, but not so much that he just stops, he gives the order for Jeremiah to pull back and asks for Marrybell's location. Maybe it's the '!' that makes him seem more panicky, but Lelouch being absolutely floored wasn't how I intended the scene to play out. Him not telling Jeremiah to use his canceller is my bad though, I could come up with an explanation right now, but I'll admit I didn't think of it at the time of writing. However, I did write that Monica took off her mask when the tear gas occurred, I think it's fair to assume the rest of the bridge crew did the same, and that's why they were vulnerable to Marrybell's Geass.

Replying to Ascer97 review on Marrybell: I know mostly everyone doesn't know who she is, that's why I really want to give her more screentime. I am a bit biased on Marrybell though, since I just really like her character. Hopefully, my interpretation of her isn't too far from canon, except for the music bit, I definitely saw somewhere that she really likes it, but maybe it's from 4chan a long time ago, so oof if it isn't true.

Replying to Jupiter's Bull's chapter 12 and 20 reviews all about the good stuff, I guess: Glad that you enjoy my (questionable) usage of the spinoff characters, not everyone is about that, but I think I need them to write a compelling plot. Can't please everyone, but I do my best. I believe the story is ultimately more about the characters than the overall plot, so that's where my focus is. I do plan to have a good ending since I'm all about having the characters be happy too. Also, thanks for the encouragement, but I think I'll stay outta Lelouch's head for a now, it's kinda the style of my writing at this point and makes him way more mysterious (and available for asspulls) than if I were to describe what yer boy is up to, although maybe in the future when I do a big reveal or something.

I really do hate long-ass ANs since it really bloats my word count, so I'mma bounce here.