Title: Chase
Category: Anime/Manga » Code Geass
Author: Angel-wing2
Language: English Rating: Fiction Rated: T
Genre: Romance/Humor
Disclaimer: Sunrise owns Code Geass. I own two dogs and a stethoscope. :P
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Chapter 8
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"C.C." Lelouch grumbled. "Let's swap clothes now. There's no point, since they know it's us already."
The green-haired girl pouted. "But you look cute in that dress."
Lelouch and C.C. had begun walking at the crack of dawn, and they just arrived at another sleepy town. Lelouch had no idea where they were going but followed anyway. Someone just had to keep that girl out of trouble.
"I say we bring Guren!" Kallen said angrily. She and Suzaku had been arguing for nearly the whole night and had yet to formulate a good plan to look for Lelouch and C.C. They had met up in the hangar of C.C. and Kallen's manor past midnight.
"But Lancelot is more powerful, and if we ever engage the enemy, we'd have an advantage." Suzaku argued. Kallen was so stubborn. Why couldn't she understand that his Knightmare was the better option?
"You're just a chauvinist pig!" Kallen finished and crossed her arms across her chest. "It was a mistake to think I could team up with the likes of you!"
Stubborn girl
Self-righteous bastard
Suzaku crossed the room toward her and slammed his fist above her head, face dangerously close to hers. Kallen stared up at him in utter shock, speechless. They were close enough to kiss!
"Who's a chauvinist?" a voice said. Both Kallen and Suzaku froze in panic. Someone found them!
A tall, dark-haired woman entered. Kallen curtsied and Suzaku bowed. Both bewildered beyond words and thinking the same thing. What in the blazes was Empress Marianne doing here?
"Might I know where we're going, C.C.?" Lelouch asked. They left the town, changed clothes, much to Lelouch's relief, and got themselves a quaint mode of transportation: a horse-drawn cart. Lelouch had raised an eyebrow and wondered aloud why they didn't get anything more convenient, like at least a truck. It wasn't like he was low on funds or anything. C.C. ignored him and proceeded.
Lelouch was dressed this time as a cart driver, his face hidden under a wide-brimmed hat. As if anyone would see him here in the middle of nowhere anyway. C.C. was his passenger at the back of the cart, and she looked at him lazily. "Oh, just drive on."
Finally, C.C. found the spot in the mountains where she hid Gawain. How she did this Lelouch could only imagine.
"You know I've been going along with this not knowing anything." Lelouch frowned as the two of them got on his Knightmare Frame. C.C. looked at Lelouch determinedly, he was already helping her, so he might as well tag along, she thought.
"But you'll help me with this?" C.C. said softly. She really didn't like asking for help, especially from Lelouch.
The dark-haired Prince bent over from his higher seat. What was up with her? "Sure, I will."
Kallen and Suzaku found themselves in quite a pinch. They looked guiltily at the ground, not saying anything, like children caught with their hands in a cookie jar.
Marianne looked at the two teenagers with amusement. Kallen's expression was a mixture of sullen resentment and contrition while Suzaku looked like he would pass out any moment now. Was it because she caught them almost about to kiss?
"Relax, you two are my son's friends, aren't you?" she said. "I just have a favor to ask."
They reached the facility hidden in the mountains, but there was nothing inside. After they had blown the entrance open and destroyed plenty of equipment easily, thanks to Gawain. C.C. got off and looked around. No...what happened? Were they too late to save the children?
Lelouch followed. It was eerily quiet now. So, where were these children C.C. told him about?
A short, long-haired figure sat watching the security cameras and winced as more explosions went off. A few minutes ago, the entire security system had been hacked into and rendered useless. Lelouch now had his grudging admiration.
"Marianne!" V.V. scowled. "Your son is wrecking my facility! Just how far are you taking this?"
"Don't forget that he's your nephew too, V.V." Marianne smiled. "Just a bit more! Can't you see they're getting along so splendidly?"
Empress Marianne stood up and left the room. There was work to be done!
"Did you hear that?" C.C. asked as they heard footsteps echoing along one of the hallways. For the guards not to show up till now, was just way too suspicious.
"C.C.!" Lelouch dove into the green-haired girl as two uniformed guards started shooting at her. Luckily, she wasn't hit.
"Let's run for it!" C.C. and Lelouch sprinted for the nearest exit. C.C. took out her own gun and started shooting at the guards as well. To her surprise, the guard she shot at just barely missed the bullet thanks to the other one. Not only that, now, they seemed to be arguing.
"Is there a problem C.C.?" Lelouch asked worriedly. It surprised even him that he wasn't tired yet. Must be adrenaline or something. Fortunately, the guards didn't seem to be shooting at them anymore.
C.C. shook her head. "Nothing." This was really so…unusual.
"The Empress just told us to catch them, Kallen!" Suzaku said, as he helped her up. "Not kill them."
"Hmph. Aren't you forgetting that these are just duds, Suzaku!" Kallen huffed, a bit flummoxed that Suzaku, had in fact, saved her. C.C. wasn't using duds. It just felt so unreal, shooting at her cousin like that.
"In that case, aim for Lelouch." Suzaku winked. "He's much slower"
Lelouch and C.C. continued disabling the security in the rooms they passed. If Lelouch's hunch was correct, they'd reach the control room any moment now.
The last metal door whizzed open as Lelouch rapidly tapped in security codes. Psh. This was so easy. C.C. frowned and approached a chair facing away from them. She pointed her gun at it. "Turn around. Where are the children?" she said evenly.
The chair swiveled around and V.V. looked at her. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He said coolly.
C.C. shot a bullet two inches from his ear without batting an eyelash. "You heard me." She said in her usual monotone. Lelouch noted that she was a bit more agitated that usual, but hid it extremely well.
Lelouch took the gun from C.C., who let him. "I'll do it C.C." he said. Lelouch didn't want to see what the green-haired girl looked like when she was really, really pissed. It was probably better if he took care of this.
V.V. looked like he had frozen into his position, mouth slightly ajar and knuckles white on the armrests. He'd kill Marianne as soon as he got out of this.
"Lelouch! Stop this now!"
The Britannian Prince spun around. "Mother?"
How it came to this. He would never, ever understand. Lelouch thought as he looked at his mother, her words not quite registering.
They were now back at the Palace, C.C., Kallen, Suzaku, Lelouch and Empress Marianne were taken home by a private jet that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Lelouch continued to stare blankly at his mother, and let out a brilliant, "Huh?" in response to her lengthy explanation of this debacle. He couldn't believe it.
"I'm really sorry." Marianne repeated. She probably went a bit overboard with this plan of hers, but it just *had* to be done.
"So, everything was a setup from the start?" Kallen asked incredulously.
Marianne nodded. "No experiments done on the Geass children. I purposely let C.C. and you find out about it, knowing you'd come after the facility."
"But who were those children I saw at the orphanage?" Suzaku interrupted.
"No way! Child actors?" Kallen gasped. Empress Marianne meant business!
They were all silent for a while, until Suzaku and Kallen stood up and excused themselves. Not really wanting to see how this twisted family affair resolved itself.
C.C. and Lelouch had yet to say anything the whole time. The green-haired girl was exceptionally silent but looked, for the most part, like she was very relieved that there were actually no Geass children involved in this.
"—but why go through all this trouble, Mother?" Lelouch asked, now recovered from the initial shock.
Marianne rose and whispered something to Lelouch, whose eyes widened a bit. C.C. quirked her head to the side, not hearing a thing. Like mother, like son?
"I'm going now." The Empress said. She approached C.C. and touched a gloved hand to her cheek, "Nice to finally meet you, my dear."
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tbc
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A/N: I know, I know. What a useless chapter!~ Anyway, hopefully, things will be resolved in the last (next) one. Anyhow, thanks to the readers who reviewed chapter 7, I think I wasn't able to reply due to general toxicity. Thanks for reading. :P