Disclaimer: I own nothing of Code Geass, nor of Guilty Gear, nor to a lesser extent, BlazBlue and Rewrite. I do own this story, and all the inspirations along with it. And of course, the brain where the ideas came from.

Let the sacred Word witness:

we are the shield

in the darkest hour

The first and the last

defender of mankind

- Guardian battle-cry

)()()()()()()()(

They'd told him to request time off from the Academy to attend an evaluation test at the local Order base, and he was quick to oblige by heading straight for the principal's office.

The elderly Ashford nodded in great approval, peering at him with proud eyes as he magnanimously canceled his obligations for the day. Suzaku bowed in sincere gratitude, before heading back to the dormitories to change.

As he did, he idly wondered when and where his friend had started to be secretive, for example, arriving back late at night and leaving early on the next day. There was that hint of a change, but he couldn't be sure if that was his imagination, or his brain telling him it was customary to develop a certain distance when one was in his situation.

Lelouch didn't seem jealous of Suzaku being offered an apprenticeship at the Order, but he knew he couldn't just assume. After all, he had felt a little jealous for Kallen stealing his thunder for an instant, even if that moment quickly passed. And in the end, the redhead had indirectly declined – and Suzaku had sensed a change there too, if only subtly, because he didn't know the girl well in this case.

Before long, as he set into his customary jogging pace on the way to the train station, his mind was on fire with all the possibilities this might entail. He was humbled, yes, but he was glad that a chance like this could come so early to him. He was determined not to shirk from his future responsibilities.

Never again.

The Sacred Order of the Guardians, to his knowledge, was a paramilitary force that had a worldwide presence. To some people's eyes, they were a group of self-proclaimed holy knights, pledged to the protection of all peoples. The history books would term them earnest defenders of the Sacred Preserves from the threat of Gear, mage-sinister and monster, through the judicious use of combat discipline and ars.

To Suzaku Kururugi, they were the paragons of justice, a state he aspired to, to the exclusion of everything else.

The Order, founded illustriously on the same period when a worldwide consensus had established the Sacred Preserves, was at its core open to all nationalities. It only held the stipulation that their former citizenship would become secondary to the Order's commands when issues of loyalty were raised. However, there remained the incontrovertible fact that location brought participation, and thus each Preserve's Order branch would have mostly citizens of the endangered race that each Area sought to preserve.

Area Eleven's Order branch, for example, would mostly have the remnant Japanese as prominent members, although High Command was wont to assign other nationalities to prevent the possible – although many Knights would vehemently deny such a possibility would ever exist - conversion of an Order base into an independent army.

Each Order had but one base for each Area, where the armories and various manufactories were held, but members of the Order generally spent their day practicing in the various offices dotted throughout their respective Preserves, giving each Knight an impetus to patrol their charge city. This office in particular, which Suzaku finally found after great difficulty, sat humbly on either side of a library and a music school.

The guardsman standing in front of the Office, a solitary sentinel garbed in the Order white and gold, saluted him when he presented his identification, informing Suzaku in a friendly, welcoming voice that someone would be personally leading him to his evaluation.

He lingered in the lobby, which had doors leading this way and that to several other rooms as well as a central staircase which had receiving glyphs on either side of the bannister for quick transportation up. He resisted the urge to salute the many Knights who walked by, appearing and disappearing through the doors. He stared at the big hourglass placed near the ceiling, above which was the time in digital numbers. His eyes met that of a statue's, and Suzaku found himself placing his hand on his breast, silently saluting the renowned founder of the Guardians.

"Kururugi Suzaku?" came a muffled voice, and the youth turned to bow hastily to an armored Knight, feathered cape fluttering a vague green. In his mind, that signified something important, but he couldn't recall it well.

"Good day. I've come in response to the summons. Kururugi Suzaku, I'll be in your care." Suzaku righted himself crisply, making his face as blank and untroubled as possible.

"Very good. I am Order Sister Nagisa Chiba. Pleased to meet you. I've been tasked to be your guide while we await the start of your evaluation by the Legion-Masters." The Knight turned its head left and right almost imperceptibly, before continuing, "Though we have read her letter, is Kouzuki...?" the Knight asked, beckoning him towards the stairwell.

"It is as she probably wrote. She says she will need some more time to consider the offer." They walked all the way up the winding stairs, pausing before a door over was a blue-and-white banner emblazoned with the Order's golden shield on a blue-and-white banner.

"I see. We could've done with more Sisters, but that'll probably be just a peeve of mine. Please think nothing of it." A white gauntlet pointed towards the door. "Through there are the first round of Legion-Masters who will sift through your will to join the Order. Please afford them even the barest sliver of respect, as they shall show to you."

"Of course." Suzaku steeled himself, already staring at the door as if it were an enemy.

"In addition-"

"Is that you, Suzaku-kun? Suzaku Kururugi?" came a deep, gravelly voice from the other end of the hall. The two turned to see the ornately armored Knight who'd hailed Suzaku. Nagisa immediately brought a fist to her chest, hailing the other Knight, "Lord Tohdoh!"

"Tohdoh?" Suzaku murmured, a memory surfacing in his mind, staring at the grey-armored Knight that approached, with a bright-red cape over his back. "Sensei!" He immediately bowed at the waist, out of ingrained instinct.

"Well met, Kururugi," said the man, who had removed his helmet to reveal the pinched, scarred face of Kyoshiro Tohdoh. The man smiled graciously, bowing in his turn before regarding the boy with a level stare. "Have you been well?"

"Yes...for the most part," replied Suzaku off-handedly, though didn't avert his honest eyes from the man. It was something he learned from his teacher, after all.

Kyoshiro Tohdoh had been a family friend, comrades-in-arms as Brother Knights with Kururugi Genbu, Suzaku's father. Through various reasons, Genbu had begged a dismissal from the Order, possibly to help raise his new family, though the friendship never waned in the least. The man had volunteered himself to help give a little training in martial arts to the young Kururugi, which the latter always dreaded as the "lessons from hell". However, his admiration of the man grew as news of him leading great victories and helping establish proximate colonies throughout Japan's Dead Zones came, becoming a renowned Order hero in Area Eleven, as well as becoming one to the young Suzaku's. His last glimpse of his teacher had been weeks before the Gear attack, astride his iconic custom Frame Unit, the ebony Gekka.

"I apologize for being absent from his funeral." his teacher explained, eyes downcast in contrition. "I was only able to visit the memorial shrine after the Iwate offensive ended, and when I came back I wasn't able to catch you. I'd heard you entered that Britannian Academy afterwards, and so I was hesitant to visit you while you grew."

"It's alright with me, Sensei. I managed to get over it already," Suzaku whispered, face taking on its own faraway look.

"Yes. You seem to have." The Legion-Master's eyes swept down to size up his frame, giving him a critical look. "You seem to have grown well enough, and there is a light in your eyes that reminds me of his. It made me glad to hear you'd been recommended to us by our scouts, to see you develop such skill even at your youth. I hope you do join the Order, Suzaku, if your will is not found wanting."

"Yes, sensei, that is my vow. I will harness my body's strengths to the limit! I will change and improve myself for the sake of the vow! I shall become a true Knight of Justice!" Suzaku yelled, his voice echoing into the halls.

Tohdoh smiled, his cracked features lightening as if in a deep sleep. "A Knight of Justice? We shall see, young one." He put his helmet back on, and it sealed off with a pneumatic hiss. The Legion-Master pointed to the now opening double-doors, the onrush of wind making the Order banner flutter fiercely. "For now, that is your duty. I only have these words for you. Never let go of that will; let it burn like a fierce light to drive back the darkness within you. Good luck, Kururugi Suzaku!"

Suzaku Kururugi took the first step fearlessly, his young soul ablaze with its ideals.

)()()()()()()()(

"Are you sure about this Kallen?" None could ever enjoy a starry night in the Dead Zones, where the seithr ran thick they became murky clouds that refused to be blown by any wind. Kallen did not mind the darkness; a Gear's eyes could see regardless.

"I've decided," she replied, removing the cloth from her mouth, allowing the flap to fly freely in the wind. "I want to be of help to my people."

"What brought this on?" Kaname asked, coming down from his perch on top of an overturned log to stand a respectful distance from the girl.

"Oh, a lot of things, this and that, you know," was the spur-of-the-moment reply. Kallen refused to let her pensive expression dominate her face, it showed weakness, and even though she knew Ohgi and the others wouldn't exploit it, she had learned a lot since the day they had removed the seal from her body.

Today they would not be holding any meetings, the frequency having been forcefully cut after that disastrous gathering of the different underground Gear bands which had resulted in the unnecessary deaths of many Gears and the alerting of Order forces to their existence.

Kallen had been unfortunate to have witnessed the event, having been invited a few weeks after unlocking her beastly Gear form. There, she beheld the raw destructive power that each unleashed Gear possessed when they clashed in a violent maelstrom of brutality after but a mere argument on leadership. Ohgi had stated that he and his group would follow who was wise enough to lead the Gears, but this had merely begun an ego-stroking throwdown among several reputedly powerful Gears, turning the supposedly friendly gathering into a riot.

They were able to escape having to fight off with their own Gear forms because of two things: the appearance of a strange, dark Gear which had an aura so stupendous and puissant that it had cowed the remaining warmongers into mewling docility. The second had been the sudden appearance of an Order patrol force, which had all the Gears scrambling to escape into the winds.

After the incident, young Kallen desired to know what Gaia actually had in plan for the people like her. Ohgi said they had pledged to aid the underground Gears all over the world financially and emotionally, but the price in exchange was goddamn vague and insensible. From her memories as merely Kallen Kouzuki, she knew Gaia could not be trusted a rat's shit, even though it seemed that it had enabled her to find closure with herself with her new comrades.

"A lot of things, huh?" beamed Ohgi, nodding to himself as if knowing for himself what Kallen really meant, but choosing to hide it. "It sure is nice to be young. So many ideas..."

"Hey, I told you what I wanted. Now are you gonna have me in or not?" asked Kallen, crossing her arms in front of her.

Ohgi stepped close, this time affixing Kallen with a stern, acute look. Kallen found herself staring back defiantly, clenching her fist, her inner Gear desiring to break out of the human shell to throttle the man, or something. She wanted to ask herself what the fuck was wrong with it, and why was she even thinking that, when Ohgi had been her helper, one of the people who had gotten rid of her fear...

"I see." Ohgi stretched out a hand to shake. After a momentary pause, Kallen shook it uncertainly.

"I won't tell you if it's a good or a bad decision, Kallen," Ohgi declared. "It's not my place, after all. But I am happy, or relieved, that you're one of the stronger ones who want to step up to make a change. Our other brethren, powerful though they may be, don't have that courage the few Gears like you do."

Kallen flushed, feeling an odd sort of pride in herself in that moment, smothered quickly by a snide thought that hell yeah she would damn prove herself to the world that she was something, that she existed, that she was capable of changing things for the better. If not through Gaia, then some other group that next came along, as long as they promised the same.

Her thoughts went back to her mother.

And if nothing else, she decided, Kallen Kouzuki would go down in a blaze of glory.

)()()()()()()()(

"Hey, why do we have to write your recommendation report, Prez?" complained one Shirley Fenette, chin sunk and touching the surface of the club table as she idly tapped her pen on its edge. "It's what you yourself promised for your grandpa, isn't it? Could you please do it for yourself then?"

"You just don't get it Shirley," Milly chided, brandishing a rolled-up poster. "How could I ever miss this chance to have the rest of the council express their most honest opinions for our Knight-to-be? This may be our- pardon me- your final chance to give Suzaku a proper sending-off!"

"But, Prez," Suzaku raised his hand, "Why do I have to write it too?"

"And why are we the only ones doing it?" Nina remarked from her place in the table, looking around at the empty chairs that were pushed in, unused. "Don't the other members have a say?"

"Details, details, guys, sheesh! This is our Poster Boy we're talking about!" Rivalz said exuberantly, standing up from his seat to shake Suzaku by the shoulders. "The first ever most recommended student of Ashford Academy! Man, that's got to be a big damn honor, wouldn't you guys say?"

"Well, I did get invited too, you know," came Kallen's glum voice, doodling idly at the bottom of a page.

"The first one who accepted then!" Rivalz amended, waving it off in a way that would have made the Ashford proud, if she had been looking. "I mean come on, aren't we all friends of Suzaku here? To think someone so close to us could become famous...My Son of Thunder is all grown up, and-" Rivalz's face scrunched up, imitating a mock cry. "Oh, I can't stand it. Oh, youth!"

"Now now Rivalz, I won't technically be graduated yet-" Suzaku tried to appease Rivalz.

"Oh youth!" the other one continued to wail, pulling away from Suzaku to make remonstrations of invisible things, twirling around and almost crashing into the quarantine bubble on the other end of the table.

"Ah-choo! Ah-choo!"

"Oh, sorry Lelouch. Youth!"

Lelouch Lamperouge sulked inside the bubble, wiping his nose with a tissue before demolishing it in a fire ars. He stared with teary-eyes at his work, glaring at the words he'd somehow written, before obliterating it too with fire.

"Lelouch, are you done? You're staring at me so fiercely..." Milly remarked, earning a real stare from the youth, who once again sneezed repeatedly into the space inside the bubble.

"Lulu, have you given your answer yet?"

Lelouch, having picked up his pen, almost dropped it when Shirley spoke. He glanced with surprise at the Fenette, before shaking his head and putting his hands before him in apology. "Sorry, I'll get right on that."

"Geez. The tea club really wanted you to approve their budget. You've got to give them a definite answer or they won't stop pestering me at club!" Shirley complained.

Lelouch only was able to sneeze more in reply. "You really shouldn't have spent all those nights out late, Lelouch. Suzaku's told me you did it all week last week. Now look at you. Hang on, I'll get you some more tea. Sayoko, would you please-?"

"Curse this age," muttered Lelouch, after watching the teacup squeeze inside the bubble without popping it, "three centuries of ars and thrice that time of medicinal studies, and nobody yet knows how to cure the common cold! Goddamnit."

He caught the eyes of the Gear dressed as a maid, bowing to him dutifully, almost mechanically. Lelouch frowned, a train of thought starting. Those damn biology lessons were false! Gears are immune to disease? Hah! I should mention this to that woman.

At the thought of C.C., Lelouch's insides grew cold, a conversation from a fierce, windy night coming back, a question hanging perilously like smoke between him and the woman, an answer trapped inside the vacuum of his mouth.

"I need your answer now, Lelouch!"

"No longer shall I wait for half-answers and indecision!"

"Answer, or I destroy your pathetic Gear self once and for all!"

"What is it that you will seek when I grant it to you?"

"The power to change the world, or yourself?"

"I..."

)()()()()()()()(

No cares

save the world

and ourselves

- Gaia aphorism

AN: A note to the readers on the possibilities of romantic links: for the purposes of this story, none shall ever exist between our warlock and his witch.

Added another crossover element, making a total of four Japanese-inspired universes mashed together in the mixing bowl. Nippon Banzai! Or something.

Thanks for reading!

Merlin Out.