Thank you to everyone who read and/or reviewed the last chapter! Yes, Suzaku was taking the oddness of Tellius compared to his world a bit lightly, and they in turn took his uniform quite in stride. Sorry if this didn't get conveyed properly, but I think his pilot suit would look like a street performer outfit. And he didn't seem to have his gun on Kamine, or rather the way I see it Lelouch was implied to have it, so he doesn't have it on Tellius either. Well, here's the chapter, starting with a bit of mystery. If it's enjoyable to you, enjoy it please. If not, file a complaint. No reviews will be construed as flames. Any and all criticism is welcome, as are balanced reviews. Anyway, once again here is the chapter.
"You did what?" CC shrieked. That annoying ghost!, she seethed. I sent Lelouch, Euphemia, Kallen, and Suzaku to Kamine Island. Except it didn't really work and they ended up on Tellius., the phantom voice repeated calmly. CC gave the voice a mental glare.
"I knew that! How could you mess that up so badly?" CC screamed. She felt the voice pause in shock. Well, the C transport code for Kamine is SE019, and the one for Tellius is FE910, and you know how close S and F are on the keyboard…, the spectral voice said, still taking CC's anger all too literally. CC decided that, with a ghost so used to dealing with tantrums as the former mother of two children, anger was not the best way to get her message across. Certainly not the easiest, anyhow. She sighed and decided to find a more diplomatic means of getting her point across.
-Greil Mercenary Fort, Crimea, Tellius-
"So Kallen, explain to me again what's going on here?" Suzaku asked. Kallen shrugged.
"Dunno, really. One moment I was trying to beat you up with the Guren, the next I was here. Here, on a world that might come out of one of those children's fairy tales. For example, Soren over there's a real mahou tsukai, like you might see in a bedtime story." Kallen explained, seeming to Suzaku all too calm about the whole situation as she motioned to a boy with long green-black hair and a black robe. Kallen had already filled him in on the fact that she was a Black Knight, and also told him never to mention Black Knights in front of the mercenaries as it brought up bad memories for all of them. Not wanting further explanation, Suzaku agreed to the latter, with no small amount of surprise in response to the former.
"You know, once we find our way back to our own world, I'm going to have to arrest you Kallen Stadtfeld." Suzaku said. Kallen smirked.
"Not if Zero finds us first." Kallen replied, her grin visibly widening with each word and each passing second. Suzaku couldn't help but marvel at her faith in the masked leader. Hero, villain, all of that was a matter of opinion. Though many had made the choice to dub the mask-wearing man as the former of the two, Suzaku himself would, if required to make the choice, describe him as villainous. That landslide at Narita that had named him the Black Knights' miracle worker had killed so many innocent people. . . His classmate and friend, Shirley Fenette, though she had not been present at the battlefield, had lost a life all the same. The life of her father, Joseph Fenette. Suzaku shook his head, pushing away the unpleasant memory. He was so thankful that Lelouch was probably still by her side at Ashford comforting her. Oh Lelouch, what would I do without you?, Suzaku asked himself, giggling and remembering that whenever he used to ask that Lelouch would respond with all sorts of silly things. He really did miss openly being able to hang out with his one and only best friend. But that was fine, since their arrangement kept Nunnally safe. He didn't even notice Ranulf come and go, the laguz taking all of the Greil Mercenaries except for Mist and Rolf with him. Nor did Suzaku notice Kallen and Mist trying to talk to him until Rolf added his own small, squeaky voice to the collective call. Even with the seventeen-year-old's voice their noise hardly broke the noise of a dog's bark, and Suzaku suspected that it was mostly Kallen's voice.
"Yes, what is it that you wanted? Oh, and what are your names again?" Suzaku asked the two junior mercenaries. The one with honeyish golden brown hair and bright blue eyes responded first, before the boy with green hair and eyes could even absorb the question.
"I'm Mist and this is Rolf. Kallen told us that you guys are from another world with different technology than what we have on Tellius. Even the priests at Palmeni with their mechanisms and music boxes can't compare to what she told me about those Knightmare frames of yours. This might sound a silly question, but how are those things named?" Mist asked, a curious glint entering her eyes. Suzaku thought it was a good enough question. He himself had asked it of Princess Euphemia once.
"Well, Brittanian knightmares are named after famous Brittanian folktale characters from what I understand. This is the story of my knightmare's namesake, Sir Lancelot. . ." Suzaku began, his features illuminating as he launched into the brightly coloured tale he had learned from Euphie.
He repeated it word for word, the tale his, what would the word be, oh yes the person whom he had a crush on had described to him in such detail with her knack for beautiful language.
In days of old, when the great and noble warrior king Arthur ruled over all Britain from his court in Camelot, brave knights gathered from all corners of the land hoping to gain themselves a spot on his elite round table. Notable among these prestigious knights were Sir Percivale, Sir Lamorek, Sir Gaharis, Sir Geraint, Sir Tristan, Sir Bedivere, Sir Kay, Sir Bors de Ganis, Sir Gareth and Sir Gawain. And, of course, King Arthur himself was one of , if not the, most honourable and mighty knights. To earn one of the one hundred and fifty-four spots on the table, one had to prove his bravery, honesty, and strength. The wizard Merlin, however, had sealed one seat, reserved for the perfect knight who would deliver England from its greatest trial. Many had tried, but its enchantment had rejected them all.
One day, a young knight named Lancelot du Lac was determined to earn himself a seat at the table. Nimue, the lady of the lake who had given king Arthur his sword Excalibur, had raised him. After making peace with Arthur's enemy Galehaut (not to be confused with Galahad who is different entirely), Lancelot was accepted to the knights of the round table. During his first while at Camelot, Lancelot fell deeply in love with Queen Guinevere.
Later on, the knights were invited to a jousting tournament in the home of Lord Bernard of Astolat. Lancelot went ahead of the other knights and stays with the lord and his two sons and daughter. During his time there, Elaine of Astolat fell completely in love with Lancelot. When she gives him a token to wear during the tournament, Lancelot decided it to be in good fun to pretend as a knight of Astolat and see whether he could win the tournament without the bonus of his well known shield to wrack the nerves of his opponent. Assuming the persona he had before he discovered his name in his first quest, he donned his pure white armour. Euphie had never told Suzaku about that one past the alias of White Knight.
Lancelot was victorious in the tournament, but not before receiving a wound in the side from Sir Bors' lance. After that, Elaine and a former knight of the round table nursed him back to health and Elaine declared her love for Lancelot. However, because of his affections to Guinevere, he politely declined any reciprocation of those feelings. Ten days later, a heartbroken Elaine of Astolat died and as per her instructions, she was floated down the river to Camelot with a letter explaining the circumstances of her death to Lancelot. Guilt-stricken, Lancelot arranged for her funeral.
By the end of the tale, Rolf was very sad, and suggested that they all go out for a walk in the nearby forest. Initially, Suzaku didn't want to, but Kallen and Mist wanted to go too and together, the three managed to convince Suzaku to come along, much to his chagrin.
Out in the forest, Mist twirled around every few steps in the emerald light. Rolf was busy fiddling with his bow, with Kallen looking curiously at the weapon.
"You built that? Or did Shinon?" Kallen asked.
"I did. Three years ago, when Mist and I were just fourteen and the Mad King's war was going on." Rolf replied, later adding, "Stupid string." As his bowstring snapped, and all three others burst into laughter.
"Hey Mist, how much longer before we reach that flower field you wanted to show us?" Suzaku asked, trying to break the akward silence that had ensued from Rolf's pouting.
"Actually, we're there." Mist said as they walked into a clearing and came face to face with Leonardo, Edward, Lelouch in Zero's clothes (minus the mask), and Euphemia.
"Euphie!" Suzaku beamed, pleased to see the pink haired princess. Euphie likewise called Suzaku's name in a similar reaction. Kallen was less pleased.
"Great, it's the puppet princess." Kallen muttered, affording her glares from Lelouch and Suzaku. After that, all eight teens ran into the clearing/flower field. Once they had done so, a giant, red, glowing Geass symbol appeared beneath their feet and all eight felt the ground lower beneath them as they plunged into total darkness.
Note: Euphemia, Kallen, and Suzaku have informed the FE people about their world in enough detail that they just aren't going to really question the fact that they're there.
Mist rubbed her head as her blurry vision came together, revealing a woman in an orange uniform with purple hair standing in front of her. From what Suzaku had described, she was Cecile Croomy. In person, she looked remarkably like an older version of Mia.
"Hello. What's your name?" Cecile asked. My, she thought, this girl looks young enough to be Suzaku's classmate. What on Earth is she doing in a research area that I wasn't allowed to access?
"Hi. I'm Mist. You're Cecile Croomy, right?" Mist replied along with another question as a thought occurred to her. People here have second names. So I guess I'll make up one for myself. She quickly corrected herself by adding, "Mist Redglaive."
"Mist Redglaive? How do you know my name?" Cecile asked, confused as she well should have been.
"Oh, erm, Suzaku told me." Mist responded, though it sounded slightly more questioning than a proper answer. Cecile seemed pleasantly surprised at the mention of Suzaku.
"Oh, you know Suzaku? Are you one of his classmates at school?" Cecile asked. Mist shook her head.
"Well, actually, I've never really been to school." Mist said. And immediately regretted it from Cecile's horror-struck expression. It took a few moments for Cecile to calm herself.
"Well that's something we'll need to be changing. Thinking back a bit, Suzaku did request that we allow a friend of his into our division. Lloyd approved that. I assume you're that friend then." Cecile said, and Mist nodded. Beaming, Cecile continued, "Alright. Then, Ashford will accept you as a transfer student. Are you Britannian?" Mist replied no. Cecile internally wondered about Mist's ethnicity, but she certainly seemed Britannian and had a Britannian name too, so she put that to rest and went back to the Knightmare Frame and Related Armaments Research and Construction (A.K.A. Camelot project) laboratory.
"Ahaa! A new assistant! I assume you're the one Suzaku mentioned?" Lloyd asked with is normal pleased sound as Mist and Cecile walked into the lab.
"I assume that too." Mist said, prompting laughter from all the researchers.
"OK. So if you're going to work here part-time, you need to know how a Knightmare frame and its weapons operate. So here's how it works. Consider it homework to read this over a couple times. Ask one of us if you've got any questions. Come on down to the simulator if you've got a minute and I'll show you how to pilot." A female researcher said to Mist warmly, handing the cerulean-eyed girl a thick book. Mist sat herself down at a desk and opened the book as Euphie came into the many-leveled room.
"Has Suzaku returned here yet?" Euphie asked. Lloyd shook his head to indicate no. The Britannian Third Princess sighed.
"I see. Maybe he went to Ashford, then. I'll go look there."
Rolf woke up with Kallen standing next to him. She had considerably different clothes on. She wore a yellow dress with a green necktie and a black short skirt. Her red hair was combed down, revealing the fact that it was actually shoulder length.
"You so owe me one." Kallen joked. She opened her mouth to say more, then promptly closed it as Milly Ashford, Rivalz Cardemonde, Shirley Fenette, and Lelouch Lamperouge walked into the room.
"Kallen, who's this?" Milly asked, her eyebrows raising into a mischievous demeanor.
"This is my um, my brother's friend's cousin Rolf Mozart?" Kallen half asked. The other student council members accepted that. Except, secretly, Lelouch. But he decided to play along.
"I see, and is he enrolling at Ashford?" Lelouch asked. Kallen shot a quick, private glare at him and thought of a little revenge scheme.
"Yes, but he is orphaned and has umm… a chronic muscle lapse illness from that accident." Kallen said, thinking on the spot and fully aware of what Milly would ask Lelouch next.
"That's terrible! Could he possibly stay in the clubhouse with you and Nana, Lelou?" Instead of Milly, Shirley asked. Lelouch, albeit grudgingly, agreed. Lelouch shooting a "now-we're-even" look at Kallen, Rolf and Lelouch walked down the hall to Lelouch and Nunally's kitchen. Around the table sat Sayoko, Nunally and Euphemia. Lelouch's surprise was visible on his face as he shrieked. Fortunately the other student councilors had left before he screamed, but he did get confused looks from everyone present. It wasn't Euphie he was worried about, of course, but if Euphie knew of his location, Cornelia would be next. Then father…