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.
"Afghlorz," said a vampire. Her smile in that dark place was warm and eerie. The First Sacred Preserve of Humanity, vibrant Area One with all of the ancient standing places, Area One the hometown of the Order's blessed Founder, was vibrant, radiant in the enduring day, but it had its shadows. In fact, maybe it had more shadows than most other Areas, for having the greatest lights.
Down in one of these shadows, a murder had taken place. One could not dodge the occasional death down in those shadows, because Gaia and a number of other things lurked down there, spinning their great webs and gnawing on the Area's foundations. (Someday, it would all fall down, and the people would find themselves enmeshed.) To walk the shadow below was a great risk, lesser perhaps than the risk of walking through the Dead Zones unescorted, where the mutants and Gears ran free, but the risk was there all the same. The speaker had, along with its companions, come here for that purpose.
And so, the blood ran freely down - a waste, several of the killers thought, for they were vampires - flowing through the muck and flooey sludge that emptied out onto several openings, seeping down into the earth. The blood came from a rapidly decomposing body that looked like smashed pieces of pumpkins on the underground wall. The living who were there grumbled inwardly, focusing their resentment at their traitorous stomachs.
"What?" said another of the assembly. Afghlorz was a code-word, an archaic sign that their organization clung to. "You disagree?"
"What my companion means to say," said one of the vampires, bidding the first speaker be silent with one of their own kind's hand signals that few mortals were taught, "-is that they are rightly concerned about the ramifications of this act. There are certain codes, after all, that we must adhere to in order to ensure-"
"We're the League of Assassins, not Boy scouts. Or girl scouts, 'scuse me m'lady," replied the man, who bowed to the first vampire who'd spoken, whose face remained impassive. "We do what is required, and we like it."
"To be able to perform the act is payment in itself," intoned another man.
"No, no, I see where they're going, friends. And I get it. This man," said another man closest to the kill, pointing to the mess of broken flesh, "was, after all, one of this Gaia branch's prime mage-sinisters, if not renowned around the world for his... art. And is not that organization one of the League's prime sponsors?"
"Afghlorz," murmured the vampire again. She was distinct among the figures in being the one who was more radiant than the rest. Even the companion, who was pale, melted into the darkness easily. She, on the other hand, had the complexion of the full moon, with hair as golden as the sun.
"That word," said another man, "I do not think it means what you think it means." He laughed then, like a jackal.
"What's done is done," said another. He was no man nor vampire. He had a distinctive Britannian accent which turned a lot of heads in pro-EU Area One. "We have all joined in the hunt, and we are proud of our work. The scent of blood will call to us, and we will be ready with all the means to coax it forth."
"Aye, and the sooner we are called to another hunt, the better."
"Perhaps it shall be Zero next?" The name of that Gear sent chills through each one's brain, even the vampires, who stirred and shivered uneasily.
"Hush man, do ye wish to summon the devil himself here?"
"I had not heard say that Zero was the Old Man Black himself, but if he were, I'd like to question his sanity, because there's better things to be than a Gear."
"We're a League of Assassins, not Old Wives," joked another vampire in response to the first one, who laughed and rolled his eyes.
"Give me a free second and I would kill an archmage," intoned the first, beautiful vampire. The gathered assassins all fell silent, waiting. The disagreeing man eyed the vampire testily. "A free minute each for a eunuch or president." She looked dreamily, through close-lidded eyes at the flowing blood. "Five minutes for an Emperor, five and a half for an Empress. Ten for a Gear."
"But a decade for Justice. Eternity for the Beast. And as for Zero..."
There was an uncomfortable silence. Not a single one of them wanted to contemplate the thought of a hunt on that maddened Gear, who had once more broadcasted his grand delusions to the world. They knew, as a dog knows its true master, that Zero belonged to the shadows, just like them. But unlike them, he too thrived in the light. There was the fact that he was a Gear, and so was preternaturally given to inhumanity. But there was also the fact that even the oldest of the Dusted vampire-kin, who had clapped their eyes upon the burning cities of ancient Rome, who knew that "Zero" could not possibly be its real name, shuddered at the mere thought of that repulsive Gear.
"If a hunt is called and I am needed, then I shall go," said the Britannian. He grinned to himself: the sign of healthy insanity. "They say he is Lord Death. They say he will wring the world of life. They say his very touch will further fragment the poor mirror-shards of the unreality the plebeians term their reality. Whatever they say, but this is what I believe: it shall be the greatest orgasm to die at his hands, I reckon."
The golden vampire glared for but a brief second, for vampire's glares could kill, and there was no killing within the League, save for if an Elder did it. "Shibboth."
The Britannian stared. "Well said, Lady." And they left the place, each to their own.
)()()()()()()()(
Code Geass: The Corrupted
)()()()()()()()(
It was nighttime. An Ashford student looking out the window would spy in the distance the smoke-stacks still lingering in the distance, flitting about slowly like overweight ghosts in the twilight sky. If he or she went to open the window, she could discern, carried by the breeze, the distant sounds of fighting.
But not a single Ashford student, it seemed, had done so. They were either asleep in their homes, oblivious to the alert status in the Preserve, or were discussing it over net or over table, some in excitement, some in trepidation. A few were deep inside the facilities of Ashford, sunk into the most serious of researches which would probably never see the light of day.
Still a few more were gathering at the entrance, and their assembly was something to behold: for near them were many oddities and assorteds, figures swaddled in cloth , paintings and landscapes veiled from sight, knick-knacks and other miscellany squashed into boxes. An astute passerby would spy a name here and there: The Emperor Frederick, Golden One. Any who were curious enough to come closer would then observe many variations of the name on each of the objects that could be revealed to their sights, lending to the only conclusion.
A motorcycle rumbled in the distance. One of their number set off, returning a second later carrying something.
"Finally! Whew, I never thought it'd take this long to get a bust like this," Rivalz Cardemonde said, cradling the covered object in his arms with the air of care. He placed it among the pile gingerly as the other club members gave their own reactions, before returning to the matter of the transport.
The plan had been to borrow a transport to get all the gathered objects inside the academy. As their illustrious president had forbade the use of the Ashford Academy official transports, they were forced to rely on the city. But it was then that the alert had started, and after the delivery vans from the museums and artifactorums had deposited their sacred "treasures" here, they'd hastily beaten a retreat, the council members' complaints nipping at the heels of their vans like angry dogs.
One plan had been to use their resident genius's expertise: either Nina Einstein or Lelouch Lamperouge surely had the magical know-how to transport all these objects, totaling roughly a hundred tons in weight, across a kilometer to the clubhouse for recording and distribution? But it turned out differently for their plans (unfortunately).
In the first place, the two had gone, Lelouch disappearing as his wont and Nina citing an emergency in one of the museums. That had been on midday, well before the alerts had gone up. Neither one had returned until late afternoon, when Nina had come back, looking distinctly pensive as she walked up to the lot of them standing around indecisively.
"I don't know how to do that," she'd said, twiddling her thumbs. "It's- well I've read about the proper arrays and glyphs to use but practically it'd need a hundred people to set it up. Couldn't we all just take turns carrying it in?" Non non, Miss Einstein, three centuries of magic had trickled down to these students, modifying their outlook considerably to one that ever sought a better, "magical" way of doing things, and so they shrugged and thought of waiting for Lelouch, over Nina's protests that even he couldn't possibly know an Ars better than what she'd read.
And so here they were still standing, and it was night-time, and they were taking turns using their cellphones to get the latest updates of their local situation, letting their minds free of the enormous responsibility that was right near them. Nina strangely hadn't gone inside to report to Milly like them, pointing to some perceived slight against the Prez, something they could well sympathize with. She stood off to the side, brow sunk in thought as the others conversed loudly from time to time.
"Crazy monsters..."
"Did you hear Zero's latest...?"
"- very fortunate we've the Guardians, though I hear Princess Cornelia's troops are helping out - "
"-wonder if he hit the other places too, like before-"
"-Kururugi has his hands full, I tell ya-"
It was to a heated discussion initiated by Rivalz, about which current magical girl would be best-suited for the situation of dealing with the supposed Gaia threat of beasts that the Guardians were in the middle of cleansing from the city, that Lelouch Lamperouge arrived, clothes rumpled and expression stormy. He strode to the gates and paused when he sighted the assembly, who were also looking and pointing at him excitedly.
"Lelouch, you're back!" Rivalz was the first to say, being the closest among the assembled members (self-proclaimed) and also being the only one on whom the others relied on to persuade Lelouch to help them. "You okay? Did you get mixed up with all the ruckus over down there at the... never mind, we've got bigger problems. Could you do us all a favor, ol' buddy?"
At first, it seemed as if the boy hadn't heard Rivalz, as he stared blankly at his friend without responding. Nina, who was watching from afar, noticed something peculiar about the boy, something she couldn't rightly place, like a detail that was obviously askew. It was then that Lelouch let out a breath, blinked, and put on a small smile. "Pardon me, Rivalz... Favor?"
"Yeah!" the boy replied, his expression lightening after seeing Lelouch's consent. He thumbed the collection over his shoulder. "Do you know of a way to get everything all the way to the clubhouse? Like an Ars... or something...?"
"Why don't you use a transport?" Lelouch raised a brow. He gave a quick sweep of everyone in there, raising another brow at Nina's presence.
"W-W-Well we aren't really swimming in resources here Lelouch, what with Zero's attack and all- oh hey Kallen! What took you so long?"
They all turned to see the redhead trudge up, bringing up two long marble pillars over her shoulder as easily as if they were made of aluminum foil. But there was an exhausted look on her face, as if she'd just run a whole marathon.
"Yo," she greeted.
"Kouzuki... you were late too?" Lelouch asked, his smile dipping into a sardonic tone. "And here I thought I was the only delinquent in Milly's inner circle."
"Shut up, Lamperouge. So, what's the deal with all of you? And what's with all this junk?"
"Milly's essentials, obviously. They were waiting for a miracle-worker to help ease their burden, I'm guessing Nina either refused or didn't know any of the sort. Am I right, Nina?"
"Uhh..." Nina turned quickly to the pile of assortments, before looking back at Lelouch and nodding. "It's a complicated array, Lelouch," she said in her most clinical voice.
"Yes it is, sorry to say, Rivalz." There was a chorus of groans, Rivalz's being the loudest. "I'm afraid we shall all have to 'bite the bullet', as it were, and perform manual labor. Luckily, we've an Eleven now, plus you two," he pointed to the other Japanese, "- and it should take just upwards of an hour to deliver everything. A pity that Suzaku isn't here, he'd be most enthusiastic when it came to things like this...More than enough time, don't you think? We can all then take our breaks with the knowledge of a job well done. Good evening to you all, I've a report to make with Milly." There was the disturbing sound of popping air and Lelouch disappeared in a flurry of seithr.
"Why that son of a- ahhh forget it," Rivalz said, wringing his hands in a futile gesture. He stooped to pick up the very bust he'd brought in. "Let's go people. All for Milly." And with those words, the council began their work, grudgingly but faithfully.
It was fortunate that they, like Nina and Kallen, who were nervous at the president's reaction to their deeds and were rightfully wary, came second to Lelouch. When the boy had teleported into the clubroom in a flash of seithr, before he could utter a single word, he only saw green, then gold-yellow, and then he heard a crashing thud and a scream, and then silence.
Kallen, who could hear louder than any of them, flinched at the noise that came in the direction of the clubroom. All of a sudden she had the urge to drop the pillars and bolt. I'm not scared. No, not at all. Beside her, Nina sighed, as if she were purposely walking over the edge of a cliff.
)()()()()()()()(
The mid-afternoon sun of the Preserve failed to penetrate through the haze.
The inquisitor stood along the building's side, feet planted on the wall and its white form shrouded in an Ars.
As it walked, it was detailing a report to its superiors.
"Assessment: Gaia in allegiance with rogue Gear elements. 75.6% possibility of involvement with Subject Zero. Will wait for end to thoroughly investigate."
Two platforms screamed overhead, and the mages on it fired down concussive bursts onto the red-eyed beasts that roved over the streets, mowing down a number of them.
"Log indicates Order losses bumped to twenty-five. Order injuries are at fifty-nine. Correction. Sixty."
"The Information has been logged, Immaculate-25. Continue monitoring of situation. Scenario Z and scenario S have been added to the intervention list. Maintain distance with local Guardian units until further orders. Hail Guardian."
"Order has been accepted and initiated. Immaculate-25 logging off. Hail Guardian."
A pack of wolf-like creatures ran through the alley below, undoubtedly to flank a Guardian formation.
A hail of daggers crashed into their forms, pinning their feet to the ground. They howled for a while, before they were quickly decapitated by another barrage of blades.
Their remains sizzled and went foul as they dissolved. The inquisitor gestured, and its embedded blades disappeared. In the next second, it too became like air.
)()()()()()()()(
He watched Zero's little broadcast from afar. Not that it did any good, probably, at this range, and with all that damned smoke obscuring his sight. Only a few minutes ago, Zero's cronies had disappeared down the secret shaft, undoubtedly following secret routes back to their dubious master's lair, wherever it was.
He shivered. Get a hold of yourself man, you've got orders. He pressed a button on his uniform. After hearing the acknowledgement from the other units, he sprang into action.
The hidden places all across the city weren't only escape tunnels for all of Gaia to use. They were also entrances, doors that were forever unlocked. Through those, Gaia could, in a single afternoon, take over the entire Area. If they had the manpower.
Not like they had the current manpower now, even in the wake of Zero's alliance with them. Each side was only willing to side with the other to a point. And even if his precious mistress believed otherwise, Zero was undoubtedly still a threat to them and their plans. He was a Gear, after all.
And his little broadcast proved it. That hadn't been in the plan. Just as this, he knew, wasn't part of that guy's plan. After another signal, the doors opened, and a host of beasts, a whole week's worth of production, flooded into the district. It was only the Britannian area, but that was like, a thousand or two beasts out there.
His work done, the gentleman assassin leaped to his waiting vehicle, a short, vintage motorcycle. He soon withdrew, leaving the myriad growls of the horrors he and his brethren had unleashed behind for the Guardians to clean up.
Mission accomplished, mistress.
)()()()()()()()(
It was a literal blast of fresh cool air that greeted Kallen when she finally disengaged from the Guren. It wasn't that the heat had become so unbearable that she could die, no not like that. But her body could feel the difference, and it was there. Inside had been hot, and being out of that thing was like walking into a damn freezer.
And Zero was there too, Zero the full Gear, Mr. "I can't kill my friend even if I ordered Kallen to". And she was about ready to rip Kururugi a new one too, especially after that last attack.
That hit came out of fucking nowhere! But I was close to reaching the Heat limit, so it wasn't like I could do anything about it.
"Well done, young flame."
"You're still singing that line?"
"...I beg your pardon?"
"It's nothing, sorry." Zero seemed to give her a deeper look before shrugging mysteriously.
"...As I said, well done Kallen. Disregarding Kururugi's appearance, you were able to fulfill the conditions without fail. I thank you for your dedication."
"But what about Kururugi, Zero?" Kallen couldn't help but ask. "What are your intentions toward him?"
Once more, Zero fell into a piercing silence, which in all truth wasn't anymore comfortable than the first. She could somehow tell, behind that weird face of his (and that was funny, for she hadn't chanced to look at her own face in the mirror as a Gear yet) that he had no intention of telling, that there was a lie being cooked up back there somewhere, just the same as the lie he kept on telling her, that he wasn't who she thought he was.
"He is but a mere specimen of a man," Zero said quietly. "But surely, Kallen, you have felt something from him during the battle yourself? The sense of something grand, something greater than his current self, than being a mere Knight."
"So you want to see how far he goes?"
"More than that. He could be a great...asset to my cause."
What, so he can serve you too? "Asset?"
"Ah, but that is all still in the future, Kallen. Today, we are still adversaries. I will go my path, as he goes his. Perhaps I am worrying over nothing." He turned around.
"And now to the point. We are currently two kilometres under the EU district. A connecting tunnel through that door will lead to a portion of the network under the Britannian district. From there you can acces any of the closest Gaia hubs to reach the surface. Expect further communication... four days at the latest. We must wait for the other side's moves." Zero then began to dissolve, and that was a sign to Kallen that he was about to disappear.
"Wait!" she said. "What about the Guren? It's been damaged a bit." Not a bit, Kururugi totally trashed that thing's harken! And it served her well, so it would feel weird not having it during Zero's next "move".
"Have no fear. Our friends from Gaia will relocate it. However, you do raise a point as to its condition. The unit's designer is currently unreachable, but I believe we can do our own tweaks to it in the meantime. Do you have any other concerns, Kallen?"
She hesitated. "Thanks."
Zero tilted his head. "Whatever for?"
"It's better you don't understand. What? I just said 'thanks'."
It would be the first time then, hearing Zero chuckle deeply in that lush, deep voice of his. It was chilling, like winter's breath in morning. "Hmph. For that matter, you are busy, are you not, Kouzuki Kallen? Unless I am mistaken, you have certain other... duties to attend to. I shall bid you safety for now. Fare you well."
"Damn it Lamperouge," she murmured when Zero's teleportation left her alone with the Guren. "You know better to play it close to the chest. You're starting to be more obvious." She shrugged into her uniform, prepared miraculously on a stand sitting alone on the other side of the room, before casting a pre-formed surveillance Ars on herself, to detect living creatures near her.
After climbing up slimed ladders and rusted hatches, she broke off into a jog towards the surface. Well, I am in a hurry, he got that right. Prez needed those displays... three hours ago?
Oh boy, I hope "we" don't get into too much trouble. In less than an hour, her first fight to the death as a Gear inside a fully-functional Knightmare, against the Poster Boy of Ashford Academy became a simple afternoon daydream in her mind.
)()()()()()()()(
It had been shortly after noon that the news had come. Tentative alerts, it had said.
The office of the Viceroy representing the Throne of Britannia was rife with incoming reports and missives, hastily and painstakingly organized by the Princess's Knights and their own respective secretaries as they pieced together a play-by-play picture of the happenings in the Preserve on that day.
The Princess had been on her way to a meeting with the Chinese ambassador to Area Eleven, in the hopes of spurring forward her agenda before Zero's next move. It turned out that that had been preempted by the relentless Gear himself, who revealed his hand as the afternoon bled into night of dealing with Gaia and of the intent to seed chaos as much as possible.
The aborted meeting gave Cornelia time to think, gathering her thoughts into a spool of connected outlines and half-formed plans and putting them away to pursue a greater thread.
The outbreak of Gaia-beasts, which she'd dispatched a portion of her forces in order to aid the Guardians in some capacity, had only been reported in the Britannian district. Although the districts of the other Powers were on high alert, no more than smoke had happened there. Much of the reported deaths from the ravenous creatures had come from her own district.
It lent credence to there being some grudge against Britannia, either from the Gears or, as it was revealed later by his broadcast, Zero. Point to Schneizel.
But that was only one part of the puzzle. So it only confirmed one of her goals, pushing her to make it happen as soon as possible, what then?
Zero had magical might (obvious, from the first incident).
Zero had intellect rivalling a human's. Score one to the Gear proving itself. (Irrelevant, Zero is an isolated case)
"Your Majesty, a missive from Earl Lloyd of the Special Division. It appears Knight Kururugi has had a-"
Think. In Zero's position, what would my intentions be?
There was a census before her. Assuming all of the Gears listed as killed had in fact, not been accounted for, then there was a truly staggering amount of Gears that Zero had access to, that Zero could (or had, as the case already turned out) use for his own ends. Basing on Gear capabilities, the number was already enough to overrun the Eleventh Preserve, as well as all satellite colonies, two times over, even with the combined power of all the stationed Powers and the Guardians.
Maybe Zero did not have all listed Gears at hand. Point One. It was possible that Zero could only control so much at a time. Point Two. Zero could have a finite amount of time active as a free-thinking Gear before collapse, rendering prolonged assaults insustainable. Point Three.
But as of yet (think) there was no conceivable pattern (think) that was available to her at the moment. Supposing the Gear really was as (need more data) cunning as he seemed, then there was no pattern to his appearances. A major event, the flood. If he'd followed it up with a full-scale attack, then there'd be no need for Cornelia to have come take command over the Preserve – the whole world would've been up in arms against the Gear. A frightening event, unfortunate for those living in the Area, but a logical step. (think) Only, Zero hadn't done that.
(Ah! There was the possibility-)
And then there were his broadcasts. It had the stink of terrorism, but there were no active threats. It may as well have been an idealistic oration than a statement of terror. It was true terror, as many analysts had pointed out, unmitigated chaos intended as done by the anarchists of each nation through the years. Did Zero seek to destabilize?
No NO No, there was still the undeniable, incontrovertible fact that seems to be forgotten everytime, that Zero seemed to be-
"Oh for the love of all the gods, can someone bring a tally of all the specific districts that have been hit? We need to pinpoint all of the known Gaia entrypoints-" Darlton's voice droned in and out of Cornelia's consciousness. It was a potent jolt to her system.
"Perhaps..." She stood from her seat, eliciting sounds of "Your Highness?", "My liege", or "Princess" from the gathered subordinates. Her eyes turned to the window, focusing on the smoke where undoubtedly the chaos lay. Am I certain of this?
There was the one possibility, that Zero was merely toying with them all. And that was something disturbing to think about.
As I thought, this is no place for Euphie!
)()()()()()()()(
The lightning flashes came not once, twice or thrice. They came in succession: hot, desperate outbursts through the snapping, growling darkness that cut straight through like a shaft of sunlight.
"Kururugi, don't charge ahead! You need to regroup with the rest!"
The lightning dove through heedlessly, seemingly unafraid of the darkness, bursting and overflowing with its own relentless power.
"Sir Knight...might wanna cool down for a bit, you're looking dangerously low, even with the quick refill we did..."
To many, the whirlpool of energy was a beacon of righteousness, justice personified in activated seithr, sakuradite, and a million micro-arrays all acting in unison to power a furnace of living lightning. To the others, like Legion Master Tohdoh, it was a perversion of the things they stood for like self-restraint, temperance and the responsible use of power.
The boy's final dive illuminated the afternoon sky in a final, momentary, brilliant blast, a brief, neon glimmer of white-blue that quickly dissipated into its base components. In its wake, the gathered Knights beheld smouldering corpses of a thousand strong.
)()()()()()()()(
It was already night-time. The smoke had been terrifying to see, for she sensed it was an unnatural smoke, how she knew this she could not say.
And then had come the smell of a forest of stink-flowers dipped in skunk essence and left to fester. She had recoiled, retreating into her solitude of greenery.
And then had come the outburst of light. Her friends gathered to see it illuminate the sky in the space of a second, like a lighthouse giving out its last brilliant gasp.
She mouthed words that no one except her knew.
Then she looked down at her friends, who had all gone back inside the safety of her shelter.
"Don't worry, Mister Suzaku. I know you're a strong one. You're not weak at all."
AN: Can anyone guess where Lelouch has been and what he's been thinking throughout the reverse sequence?
And I apologize... even though I said I would finish my eroge and start doing more frequent updates...but I believe I will still continue to be distracted. Another game has arrived in the mail and this time it's something major. It's another one of Nasu's games, "Mahou Tsukai no Yoru" and I'm interested to read the latest milking of his universe. So updates will still remain sporadic for the foreseeable future, but do not give in to despair! It shall continue as long as I draw breath! Or until other distractions arrive.
Thanks for reading!
Merlin out.