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.
A long time ago, such wayward, accidental magic was easy to rectify. Willpower was a part of it, to some extent, and that was why only the most ambitious mages ever became great.
But now, she could do no more than put a hand to the convulsing Prince's head, casting no ars and saying no words. A thought occured to her: a long-forgotten art taught to her by an old friend a long time ago. It was possible to do now, but it required a stronger source of ars.
She rose to speak to the boy, but found that he had disappeared.
"Congratulations, little Gear, you have officially devolved from a child to a baby. Godamnit." Shaking her head, the dress-clad girl sat back on her knees and began chanting in a low, ethereal voice. The globs of darkness that bound the Prince were replaced by strips of green, leafy vines, still holding a tight grasp over the epilectic body. She sat back to observe her work, and put her hands on her laps primly. "I cannot decide if death would be a better choice for you. Truth be told, I owe you nothing, and hold you no interest.
"And so I shall only offer you this. May the winds be gentle and bring your spirit back," C.C prayed, closing her eyes, veiling the weariness in them. "For I can do no more. I am nothing now. Nothing."
)()()()()()()()(
Who was he? That question would be foolish to ask of Lelouch the Lamperouge, and would have earned a conceited scoff from Lelouch vi Britannia. Yet now, that question seemed to gnaw on him more and more, flashing itself into his mind like the sound of a gunshot.
His runed signature circle grew and shrank unsteadily, the blackness over his body taking turns to recede and engulf. Dimly he felt the presence of the ones he had controlled in some part of his mind, waiting in an area he'd commanded them to like loyal, patient dolls.
He felt his control over them weaken, their presences dimming to an indistinctness in his mind. It was just as well. The foolish intrigue he had had them participate in was all for nothing in the end. No new data, and blood – the blood of many on his hands. Lelouch the human would have fainted at the thought. But now- "Nunnally, you alone are the first and the last. I am Zero now, a zero. Just a Zero." He hoped she wouldn't find out about what he did to their brother, to all those people, for that would just break him from nothing to... less-than-nothing? There surely was a more wretched existence.
Zero's senses picked up something, just as he moved to warp himself to the rendezvous point. It had a familiar scent, a feeling of charged magical energy that moved outside his field of vision. His wings stretched uneasily, as he moved to look down the mountain.
A flash of white came, and he saw, coming with a force of power that he could feel reverberating through his hide, a white-blue bolt that was like lightning, ricocheting and zigzagging through the ruins below.
"Impossible. This condition is impossible! How could they have tracked me? The ars was impeccable!" The bolt stopped at the base of the hill for a moment, before it balled up and charged, accelerating up its side. Zero was taken aback, albeit only for a second as he immediately set to weave the teleportation ars.
But the thing was too fast. Already the bolt had reached the peak and flew in the air, shaped almost like an arrow in flight. He forgot in that instant that he was already at the cusp of the ars, and in a second would have been able to escape. He had frozen like fawn, seeing the illusion of demise as reality. The one thing occupying his mind as the arrow poised to strike, was, "Nunnally..."
)()()()()()()()(
For her, it was like waking from a deep, untroubled sleep. The rims of consciousness waited tantalizingly for her on the other side of the dark, and she felt her body move as if it was her own again.
The lullaby, which had embraced her all this time, shattered into fine points, and Kallen Kouzuki opened her eyes to see.
She gasped for air, immediately choking on the dust and sand that found its way inside her mouth. Kallen took stock of her surroundings, feeling for the presence of the others.
The first she encountered came as a literal shock, its presence blazing into her mind like the rarely seen sun. "The hell?" she gritted out, clenching a hand to her face. It was the closest, brightest thing, and she struggled to rein her anger in, forcing her body to resist the odd pressure that wanted to crush her mind.
"Master?" The word sounded alien and distant to her lips, but at the same time found sure purpose in her mind. "Who the heck's Master?"
And then the presence seemed to beckon to her from above, sending faint melodies of the lullaby to her ears. It felt faintly like panic and outrage, of uncertainty and defiance. ("Help him...")
"Help who?" She asked of the air. Deciding not to wait for the answer, she went up, out of curiosity more than anything.
The other, powerful presence came as another surprise, although this time it was truly foreign and unknown, a focus of energy that seemed to threaten. She did not know whether it was instinct or the lullaby in her mind; she leaped to meet the strange thing, feeling the wind on her body as she held out her hand to meet the force straight-on.
Fire erupted from her, exploding in weak, but steady waves outward as her hand clashed with the unknown force. Pain like barbed spikes shot into her arm, but it didn't make her falter. Her whole body shook from the collision, her vision vibrating incessantly like a battered drum.
Just when she thought she could no longer hold the connection, it snapped, and she felt herself driven back by the explosion that erupted from before her.
She felt something drip from her shoulders as her feet found purchase on the mountain. Kallen had no time to calm herself, however, as the feel of energy she thought had been knocked back had rose up again, and as if guided by an unseen force her legs had kicked her up, drawing power into her wounded arm once more to intercept.
"You- oppose-" The thing seemed to speak, but they were incomprehensible to her. The renewed pain seared through her arm like the fire she let loose, and she hollered a hoarse battle-cry as she fought to meet the other one's rising power with her own.
In the end, she didn't know who of the two had prevailed. There was just another explosion, something shattering from within her as she fell forward, the world's passive ars pulling her into its stony embrace.
"Wha-" But the falling sensation was interrupted by a something that yanked her from behind, pulling her back through the air. Kallen could do little but allow herself to be dragged, the aftermath of the clash making her body limp and weakened.
She landed bodily on the ground, a warm, clawed hand steadying her by her other, unmarred shoulder.
"I thank you. I'm truly grateful you saved a zero like me. Your courage...shall not go unrewarded. Now rest, and let us away." Kallen saw black, and hazy indigo, before she surrendered to the aches in her body. The hand on her shoulder squeezed, and she felt herself floating. The soothing song revisited her, and somehow, even though she never believed sentimental crap like that, it began to heal her.
)()()()()()()()(
"Detecting the sakuradite isotope in the Yggdrasil drive. It...matches the Z-01. I believe we've found him, Lloyd sir." Cecile's crisp, methodical voice barely hid the anxiety that was within.
Lloyd shared a similar anxiety, though dissimilar in focus. The last readings from his baby had been a very negative red, almost making him tear his hair out in an excellent repeat of his uncle's breakdown, but luckily Cecile had stopped him.
"Great. Now wait till I get my hands on that monkey-brained idiot..." Lloyd fumed. They had data, true, and even some rare footage of the Gear named Zero that would sell for a good price if they hadn't been honest, loyal Britannians, but to Lloyd the Lancelot was everything he was, ten years worth, that is.
"Shall we request the retrieval operation?" asked Cecile, bringing up the communication ars.
"Not unless you can get the Order to do it for us. Didn't intel report our base got a full walloping from the Gears?" They'd received the flash from satellite operations centres in the district, each telling the undeniable fact that something unforeseen had happened to the Palace and the base near it.
"But if we take too long..."
"Yes, yes, I know. Even forcing that shutdown protocol on the thing didn't slow that boy down. Emperor be praised he didn't overcome the second command." If that Kururugi had, he would've been fried to death inside the Frame. As it was, the Lancelot had been forced through remote commands to shut down and preserve its scant remaining energy. "And there're those Gears to consider, too. Throne-willing, they won't stoop to scavenging its parts- oooh what am I saying? It's doomed! My baby's going to be Gear lunch, dinner and breakfast! How could they resist a meal like that? It's the creme la creme of metallic treats!" Once again, he made to rip his hair up, but a gentle slap on the wrist cooled him back down. Cecile said evenly, in a cool, soothing voice, "Perhaps we can report to the Prince instead? If I recall, today's an Altar day for the Family, so I'm sure the Prince can be reachable."
"Hmm, you do that." Lloyd picked at the keyboard interface gloomily. "Also maybe use this time to send that footage. More brownie points for this Special Division." But it didn't matter one bit if the Lancelot were destroyed.
)()()()()()()()(
They found him sitting with his back to them on a weathered boulder near three sticks jutting from the earth. On each was impaled a clay serpent, still wet and dripping. Kallen lay on the ground nearby, and Ohgi immediately ran to her side, ignoring the aches in his own body.
"She..."
"She is suffering from exhaustion," he told them. "This brave one will wake soon enough. I've cast a recovery ars on her." The stranger shifted, sinuous tail curling outward and short wings flapping away some stray dust. He wore a black-and-green cloak over his head and a mask over his face, plain and featurelss save for two eyeholes out of which emanated a sharp, purple glow.
"Hey, who the fuck are you?" one of them demanded of the black-clad figure. All of them recognized him, of course, as a matter of instinct, but they asked the question all the same.
"I am nothing; I am no one. You might say I was your one-time Master, for a while. But that is all past now. No doubt you will discover the deeds I have had you do for myself, and I apologize." He gestured to the three sticks. "I know you may want answers, or redress for what I have made you do, for binding you to blind service as the rest of our brethren. Once more, I apologize. That is all I can do."
"So what gave you the right to steal our wills away, damnit?" shouted one, holding out his power like a pitchfork. "Damn right we want your dress, or whatever the fuck it is you said, you got no right doing weird mind-control things."
"My apologies are all I can give." The hooded head looked away. "Nothing can ever undo what I have done, and no doubt I may have leaped over a precipice this day. Perhaps I can promise that I shall never do thus again in the future? Regardless, my- our days seem to be numbered. You'd best find succor with Gaia the soonest you can."
Kallen had awoken, finally recovering her human form, and she stared blearily around the assembly. She found Kaname first. "Ohgi-san!" Then her eyes, drawn almost viscerally, swiveled to the stranger. "You..."
The Gear considered her for but a moment, before continuing, "It's best you act as if today never happened."
"Like hell, bastard!" One of them attacked, but the ars fizzled before it could be launched.
The stranger rose to full, stretching its wings wide. "It would be unwise to challenge me. One of the reasons why I was able to control you was because I was made stronger for my 'purpose'."
Kaname helped the girl up, and she stood on unsteady feet. Her entire body looked bruised and ragged, as if she'd been through something traumatic. Then again, they all thought to some extent, that was probably true for them too. Ohgi spoke up, addressing the stranger, "I am still angry that you made use of us like it was nothing, but the fact is undeniable that you're just stronger." He knitted his eyebrows, as if challenging the Gear with his look. "But why the hell would you just stop here? You seem strong. You're a Gear who can keep up his form without seeming to go crazy. So why'd you stop? I just want to know. Altruism? Pride?"
"Nothing of the sort," the Gear said in a more subdued voice. The violet glow seemed to disappear. "It is your prerogative to think differently because we, as Gears, are a different existence. But I..." He made a hissing sound. "But I just can't seem to let go of my human self. So I am no Gear, and yet no longer a human either. As I said, I am nothing." He stood on top of the rock, and he seemed like a tall, defiant child. "I fare you well. May you all find your 'purpose'."
"Like hell we'll just let you walk away!" But Ohgi silenced them with a look, instead urging them to look to themselves first. A thick, gas cloud came and seemed to shroud the stranger's retreating back, but he appeared again, wings hanging forlorn behind him.
Kallen stared after him, a pensive expression on her face. When Ohgi turned to call to her, she had already begun to walk in the same direction, and did not answer no matter how much they shouted after her. Barely clothed, wounds still fresh and a head that kept being pounded by an unseen hammer, Kallen followed the stranger into the distance. She did not look back.
AN: Getting back to the bustle of the working life is refreshing, but I do loved being able to write freely on my girlfriend's computer like this.
Thanks for reading!
Merlin out.