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.
Zero, the self-proclaimed renegade Command Gear, has shown the world that he is relentless: openly attacking the Eleventh Sacred Preserve of Humanity many times in less than six months. And though the Order of the Guardians, the great defenders of humanity, does their best to contain him, the Gear has always faded into the shadows.
Zero's latest ploy has involved a broadcasted distraction of ingenuity: lulling the defenders of Area Eleven into a moment of quiet, unguarded outrage as his new minions, together with his new allies in the terrorist group Gaia invade secret outposts all over the Preserve.
But while Zero broadcasts his new challenge, Gaia has not been idle, its agents assigned to Zero unleashing a plague of summoned creatures upon the unsuspecting Britannian district. Only the timeless valour of the Guardians – together with the unleashed fury of the Lancelot and its headstrong Devicer – has saved the inhabitants from being torn apart in a mess of blood and offal.
The sun rises on the next stage...
)()()()()()()()(
Code Geass: The Corrupted
)()()()()()()()(
It was strange.
"So what's the problem then, Lloyd sir?" Cecile asked, her fingers unceasingly flipping aside data on the screen before her, each displaying an aspect of the Lancelot that needed attending to. She eyed her superior apprehensively, waiting for the telltale outburst of expletives or the ranting condemnations of a man whose baby has been left to the grinder. Not that that mental imagery did any good to ease her worried thoughts.
"Ohh there's no problem, no problem at all," answered Lloyd flippantly, hunched over his seat, his gaze intently focused on his own screen in front of him. He turned his head and smirked. "Well, maybe the division's going to take some heat from the Princess at the end of the day, but I hear she's quite busy..."
"'Take heat?' What do you mean, sir?" It was strange indeed. Very, very strange. The Lancelot had suffered 75.90% damage to all internal structures, together with the external warping of roughly 40%, leading to an operational loss of 90% (and scaling upwards, as her own reports were showing), and its creator wasn't suffering a aneurysm – or falling into a deep coma.
"You saw the reports, right? And you saw the way those Knights saluted ol' Sir Kururugi when he left here. I think they were there, Cecile. They were right there when my baby lit up the skies like a beacon of pure power, driving and guiding our Devicer's patented lightning through those monstrous hordes. They saw my baby, Cecile, being the best Knightmare it could be. And..." he turned swiftly in his seat, a sudden action that almost made her jerk away. Lloyd's eyeglasses flashed as his gaze now turned to something far away through the windows of the small office. Following it, she saw their servant Gear plod away with the heavy lifting. "And the other report – disregarding the information of a Gear actually using a Knightmare, there is the unassailable fact that even with that Gear's power (and I say this as broadly as I can, because we all know Gears are all powerful in many ways) augmented by that Knightmare, my Lancelot was still able to keep up. It was probably close to beating it, too.
"And that!" he shouted, and this time Cecile really did jerk her body away, looking in fear at the Earl's transformed features, "That, combined with the stellar performance of my Lancelot later in the city, has firmly cemented my baby as the future of Britannian Knightmare design. Although it is unfortunate that the EU and the Federation were able to see it for themselves now too, it pales in comparison to knowing that my magnus opus, my crown jewel, is vindicated. They may have laughed at the GUTS optimizer, the first Variable Packs, or that failure of a customized Glasgow, but now my true form is unleashed! Finally, the Ashford's chain is broken! We are free from two hundred years of R&D bondage! All hail Asplund! All hail Britannia!"
"Sir, you have to admit that's a bit..." she tried to say.
"No! This is NO exaggeration, my dear assistant-" she expertly weaved out of the way of a hand that reached out and was about to tap her shoulder, causing the Earl to stumble to the ground. He stood back up, quick as lightning, adjusting his glasses. The grin was still plastered to his face. "...Of course, the costs will be astronomical at first, especially in the first part of the production process, and we're not really sure if all the main components will be transferred to the fabricated model, but in the meantime we have the right to get ahead of ourselves, because this is the future after all, and under the shining beacon of reason shed by Prince Schneizel, the Asplund name shall rise above the Ashfords to become the testament of true Britannian spirit, such that no FLOW system or Mobile Unit will ever think themselves greater again! Even Frederick himself (praise be to him) would be awed, nay he would shed a tear at my designs! The Knightmare is the future! I am the future... Britannia!"
From years of experience, Cecile wisely bowed her way out of the office, leaving the good Earl alone with his overflowing cheer. Portable datapad in tow, she marched down to where the Lancelot was undergoing the first stage of repairs, its magically-imbued innards exposed as its battered white-gold shell was put to the side. Still further to the side, attended by more techs, was the Blast Pack, which had ben abandoned by Sir Kururugi in his zeal and left to be seared by the heat of the conflagration. (Some spots here and there were melted, and she'd thought Lloyd would follow suit and melt right there on the spot) Cecile's eyes flicked down to the grainy recorded feed on the datapad in her hands, witnessing from the Devicer's point of view the Lancelot's battle with the unknown red Gear. Towards the end, through the black smoke and video interference, a figure had appeared, and with its coming, the feed was then engulfed in a shadow so thick it rendered the Lancelot's recording system unusable.
She put it away, looked back up at the office, then down to the side at their servitor Gear. The fallen Lancelot gleamed for but an instant under the influence of a systems reboot, and Cecile almost felt as if the Knightmare were giving her reassurance.
She worried, a little, for Lloyd.
And she worried, a little, for sir Kururugi.
)()()()()()()()(
Whoosh!
The fake wind brought the promise of a sunny day tomorrow.
He did not know how he found himself here.
"Here" was the forested core of the Preserve, a remnant of the vanquished Japanese.
He could not remember leaving Earl Lloyd's workshop, trudging through the city and finding himself sprawled on his back, gazing up at the simulated canopy of stars through the leafy curtain of the branches above.
In spring, one could catch a rare glimpse of the sakuradite's namesake here.
Technically, it was spring.
But it seemed as if the trees were keeping their leaves in – either they were shy or unwilling.
For that matter, they should let their leaves free, spreading their unique pink color across the four corners of the Preserve.
But they were unwilling.
Unlike him.
No wounds were on his body, yet he felt heavier and more sluggish than the time when Lelouch had been a little bit late – and the Gear had seen fit to graze his midsection lightly with its poisoned claws.
The cloak of despair had not settled into his soul, but he still felt as if the world had been tugged out from under him, and now he floated in a black nothing – arms and legs finding nothing in their turn.
Had it all been for nothing?
Was this the point he was allowed by the world or any other higher power to reach?
No, stop thinking too deeply into it.
He shook the hair from his eyes.
Thinking too deeply was his best friend's forte.
Ah, he completely forgot.
He wondered how Lelouch or Nunnally was.
Or the rest of his friends.
The world seemed a colder, darker place in the face of the implacable Zero.
He blinked, seeing a star wink at him from the sky.
No, that was an illusion.
A mere coincidence.
Someone in Preserve administration might have just been toying with the controls.
Any brother or sister had the authority to do so.
It led to many an amusing anecdote, shared around the table at the mess hall.
He sighed, some cheer filling his chest.
Right.
He should be heading back.
First, report to his sensei.
Then, go back to-
Hmm?
Suddenly, the scent of freshly picked flowers filled his senses.
It was so familiar – the scent of a flower whose name coyly escapes his memory.
Fragrant, was all he could place.
And then, he felt a presence next to him.
He sat up quickly.
Something gave an "eek!" and he tilted his head in confusion.
What was next to him was a cloud of leaves.
Green, yellow, reddish-brown, brown, and-
Sakura petals?
The scent seemed to be coming from the cloud.
Below it, various overgrowth squirmed about themselves like leafy serpents, scrambling for a better look.
Flowers bloomed here and there in the mass, spreading apart into full color before dying in many dyes of color.
As he stared in open-mouthed wonder, a part of him knew, instinctively, what the apparition was.
The exclamation of surprise had been the clue, the familiar timber of its voice unmasking the owner as surely as if a child playing a prank with a sheet of white cloth is betrayed the ghost act by giggling.
Just as he was about to say something, there was the sound of a cough.
The leaves exploded outward, raining down in a cascade of organic colors.
And what he first saw and looked for, was her smile.
Hair the color of cherry blossoms.
Eyes the color of the pure azure sky.
That innocent giggle seemed to banish the sour spirit within him.
"Good evening, Sir Knight-san."
And the Knight broke into a full-hearted laugh.
)()()()()()()()(
Grrrk!
There it was again.
The feeling of reality itself being distorted, somewhere, closeby. It sounded like a toad croaking into a giant megaphone, stringing together into the cacophony of a rowdily marching band; the sensation tearing itself into his consciousness with the tenacity of a tiger in that brief sunrise of a moment before settling into a ponderous nothingness.
Lelouch blinked his strained eyes, sticking his fingers behind his glasses to rub them. The after-effects of the sensation still buzzed in his ears, causing a nausea that peculiarly did not want to make him throw up, but which unbalanced his senses all the same.
Need to focus.
Before him was a mini-terminal, one of Milly's "secret weapons" drawn from her family's secret armory. The fact that one could buy this make downtown and that the model itself was already a few development cycles behind had been lost on the girl, who had pressed it on Lelouch with the severest of commands.
What was that? Who on earth-
"Hey hey, Lulu! You're on punishment duty, remember? Stop dozing off and get back to work!" came the voice of his punisher, the dominating Prez. There was a ponderous scratching on the secrecy barrier's outer surface, the sound boring itself into his taxed ears which surely compounded the nausea-that-was-not-nausea.
"Did I hit him too hard, I wonder?"
"Prez, you're only now thinking about that?" Shirley.
"Gugugugu..."
"Someone please prop Rivalz head up... Gosh, why are all the boys in this council weak? I don't think I made a mistake when I recruited them..."
"Um...Lelouch...?" He spared a stray thought to identify the source of the next voice that came. "Is the barrier still stable?"
"Of course it is! It's Milly Ashford make, and it's trademarked to boot! Oh, and you shouldn't be sympathizing with the likes of rule-breakers, promise-breakers – all-around truant people – Nina. That's just gonna lead to trouble in the end."
"But...I'm a rule-breaker too... right? In a way?"
"Oh, that's right! So Prez, you should punish everyone else too – wait, what am I saying!"
"Now now, my only loyal subordinate, it is not the time to be sympathetic to trouble-makers too..."
The secrecy barrier, hastily set up by Milly and connected to the school's power network, was level-three in make, an impressive work by the average standards of the Academy, though it would only take a little exertion on his part to interrupt the flow of power through the array to dispel it. But he didn't want to – because at least here he was safe from the Prez's own outburst of attacks, which had cost him three hours of consciousness during which he'd dreamt of being chased by a pack of lionesses up a sheer cliff. Judging by the sounds Rivalz was making, it was indeed fortunate that he couldn't be subject to the same thing again should he make one small mistake doing his duty for the upcoming Justice Week.
Another option was teleportation, bypassing the concept of space with a forbidden incantation of Ars. Right. Just like he'd felt someone close by do a few moments ago.
"Remembering" that he was Gear allowed him access to the small things as well as the big ones. Things that he didn't know when he was but a human. Things carried over even if he was still human.
A surplus of energy became apparent quickly enough for him to already accurately measure – though he was still void of any true lasting stamina. The ability to chain-cast Ars Magus through the power of mere thought than having to ready his mind through the process of chanting the words. And one other thing was the ability to sense magical phenomena in an area near him – magical signals, the simple tug of seithr, or the energy bled out from consumed Ars Magus – all these his senses could already identify to an extent. Over time, he was able to increase the radius and refine the focus of his detection, such that no unfamiliar magic could be cast within the entirety of Ashford Academy without his notice.
He rubbed his temple, using a small exertion of Ars to coat a finger with cooling frost.
The rough feeling of that teleportation Ars wasn't unfamiliar – but as far as he knew only he was the only one in Ashford, let alone the entire Area (possibly), who had the very rare, rule-breaking talent of launching himself through space by himself or without consequence. It meant that whoever was casting (and he'd already sensed several incidents) was a virtual unknown to him.
Unacceptable.
"...which brings us to- Hey, are you even listening, Lelouch!" There was a muffled tapping on the outer surface of the barrier. "Falling asleep is not allowed, okay?"
"Worry not, Prez. Even I'm not too heartless," he muttered, erasing the traces of ice on his hand before pressing his fingers to the keyboard to restart the arduous process of typing.
Not like anyone would be able to hear him through the barrier.
He barked a laugh in self-derision.
"Oh no! Prez, Lulu just laughed. Look, he's laughing, Prez!"
"Hmm... I guess prisoners do lose themselves once under solitary confinement... Not like Lulu didn't already have things unscrewed in that head of his..."
He kept on laughing, oblivious to Rivalz' continued groans or the concerned stares from the three, nor to Kallen's stare that seemed so much a glare.
A fine gambit, Gaia, you are indeed a formidable adversary. Do not worry about crossing Zero with that pitiful act. It only honed the blade that will be Suzaku Kururugi. But I cannot pit myself against you yet. No...Not yet.
He needed an army, however small or large, but he would not beg that from Gaia. Later...yes, later, when the situation in Area Eleven was resolved, and he was finally free to operate in the greater world.
"Hey stop it, Lelouch, there's laughing madly and then there's a laugh that unnerves even this great Ashford. Lelouch? Can you even hear me over your laughter?"
"Lionnnnngggg...g've me yerrr besss- gu ga ga giiiii- Letsh...get..."
But you...sister. What will you do? How will you handle this situation? What moves shall you use against Zero? I remember Aries Villa sister. I remember it very well. Your words pierced me then, but they seem the wisdom of the elders to me now. Will you follow it here and now, sister? Will you "trust the evidence"? Will following "the gut-feeling of your heart" lead you to Zero?
"...Will my Justice Week be okay I wonder?"
All conditions have been set. Your move, sister.
)()()()()()()()(
"You have to do it, Cornelia. This latest assault is one which neither I, nor the rest of the world, can overlook," her brother had said in his latest communication. "I understand well that fighting a battle over a polished table is not your specialty, but it is an equally important battle all the same. Use your instincts, sister. 'Defeat' them. 'Conquer' them, at the table."
The representative from the Order, a veteran flanked by his four subordinates (she hadn't bothered to wear the name on her memory as they continued with the negotiations) was still standing to the side, expression unreadable whenever she glanced at it. No matter. I've a battle to win.
Naturally, there had been more than the healthy dose of skepticism with the olive branch she'd presented to the other two Powers in the Area. There had been mild threats, probes, insinuations of greater diplomatic intrigue which seemed to have passed right over her head only to be pointed out later on by her Knights, and other communications which pointed to if not indicated total refusal to her request.
She had used every trick in her arsenal to persuade the representatives into a formal, secret meeting, overseen by the Order, naturally, but they had remained staunchly evasive. A meeting date and place had then been set, but the agreement was worded so vaguely that her blood boiled when she considered the possibility of them not showing up to it at all. (If that had happened, honor dictated she retaliate)
It was then either fortuitous or serendipitous that Zero had decided to attack when he did. And then followed it up with the knowledge that he was openly allying with the scum-eaters of Gaia.
So at least she had Zero to thank – for enabling the means to destroy him and his kind once and for all. The other two had then been quick to acknowledge her request in concrete form, aided by the Order finally stepping in to gently strong-arm them into agreeing and the fear of the potential instability brought about in the Area by Zero's attacks.
The engagement thus began.
The "debate", as the Chinese representative had liked to delude himself with the term, had gone on for several hours, each filled with nonsensical back-and-forth over the special rights accorded to each Power during her plan. A lot of it she surmised came from a quiet resentment that only the Empire had thought of a solution this obvious, and so the other two were forced to blow up into the size of giant puffersharks to gain a semblance of importance.
Yes, she was loath to give up the Empire's jurisdiction and hand it over to the Order, but as long as the other two Powers did so, too, the upsetting of the normal hierarchy of all their standing forces would be mitigated – at least, in their minds. And what better way to win over the staunchest dissenters than the notion that the Empire would forsake its legendary pride for the sake of such a small thing?
As usual, the EU expressed its reluctance due to the Gibraltar incident that was still ongoing, but it was quickly forgotten when Order representative Tohdoh came in.
"We will be concerned about the people's reactions, Princess Cornelia," said the Chinese representative. They had just wrapped up an agreement over the protocols to use in the event of a major Zero reprisal. She moved her focus to him, "You say Zero cannot afford to let this stand when the announcement comes. He will certainly react as any rational beast would – not that we haven't already seen the extent of his terrorist ways. But are you sure your plan has allowed for each and every contingency? We can all attest to some degree of his unpredictability. Because I feel as if we were trying to ensnare a great, rabid bear, with our only weapons sticks and bundles of rock. And so in the end, it might be our people who will suffer the most for this, including our own armed men – both in the beginning part of your plan and in the end, whatever Zero has planned."
"Yes, I do admit to some uncertainty as to the degree of Zero's possible retaliation, or in what time he shall choose said action," she said delicately, "But at the same time, we cannot sit by and be reactive all the time. We must be proactive in this Area for once, even it means we submit our populace to the inconveniences imposed by the plan. We will all be sharing in this burden."
The EU representative, a sometime mage from some forgotten tower, raised his hand. "My concern runs parallel to the honored representative, but diverges thus: we have received reports from intelligence - and I do not hesitate to share this amongst you in the table for I have a healthy confidence that you already know to some extent – that somehow, the Guardians has been compromised-"
"You speak out of turn, representative," Tohdoh rumbled quietly.
"But I must – we must be rational, honored Legion-Master. We entertain the thought, and the sheerest of possibilities that anything said over this table will be revealed to Zero within twenty-four hours. Even if we do eliminate that, there's no assurance - and I speak for even my own forces - that Zero will remain long unaware of the sudden reshuffling of all our forces and Guardian's mobilization. If even the people of Gaia have allied with Zero, we must entertain the possibility of him knowing the markings of our plan. And so crumbles our little sand-castle."
It was Cornelia's turn to smirk in confidence, after so many hours of keeping a straight, stern face against the squirming, shifting expressions of the others. "Our methods are rarely suspect, you can reassure yourself. I doubt Zero can comprehend and plan for even this – the details of the process are one of the most guarded secrets in the Empire's-" - she looked and saw raised eyebrows- "-recent research. Zero will have the vague idea, but I don't think he can plan ahead for the process involved. He cannot circumvent it by flying away before the announcement – as you've just agreed, after this meeting the Order will start enforcing the travel-watch into and out of the Area. He has no choice but to fight or hide when the announcement comes. If he does the former, then we shall be waiting, even if we sacrifice most of our men in the process. I declare the Empire is ready to give the life of its sons for the good of the world. If it is the latter, the Order will then have the means to zero in on areas where Gaia and then Zero are hiding, and then it will still come to a fight.
"All that matters is that we are bringing the fight to him, and we can end this churlish uprising at the source. Sooner or later, we will discover Zero, and he will fall. Perhaps then we shall fall back on our foolish rivalries – perhaps only then the winner is they who gets to kill Zero first. I'd rather take pleasure in the field, but Zero is a canker that even I cannot ignore, a pus on the face of the world that none of us should let free. We shall avenge all our fallen by his demise, without waiting on the petty politics in each of our homelands regarding the Gears." And Clovis will be vindicated, by my hands. "Did I make myself clear, honored representatives?" She looked across at the faces of the others. Only Tohdoh reflected the resolve on her face with an iron, hooded glint, and she thought she could catch the glimpse of a nod as she looked away.
"If you will pardon me, we shall now move on to the next phase of the plan," she said, when no objections came. And no further objections came throughout the rest of the meeting.
)()()()()()()()(
"Hey fresh meat, that you?"
She pressed her hand over the speaker, looking wildly about the mall's crowd. She looked over the corner and saw that the rest of the council was still engrossed with something on the big screen hanging from the ceiling.
"Tamaki, how did you get my fricking number, and wait, this isn't a secure-"
"Wait wait," he said over her protests. She could tell by the tone of those two words that something was up. "You've gotta contact him, Kallen. Ohgi's just been in from contacting our 'friends'. No details, but something really, really big's about to go down, and we don't know if he olready knows or not, but we have to reach him.. We gotta meet."
She glanced over again, and saw Lamperouge, though his back was turned to her. He was talking to that Shirley girl, who had a weird look on her face. The redhead clucked her tongue and turned back.
"Got it." She turned the phone off. What was that all about?
AN: I'm back! The explanation for my lack of a fast update is traced back to that visual novel I was about to read mid-April, (Maho-tsukai was so-so for me, in spite of the grrrreat production values) which led to shockingly another when another eroge ended up in my mail, leading up to the first week of May, just as I was finishing that one, another one came in. So, been really distracted, (still in the middle of finishing the third one) but I only offer slight apologies. I was able to squeeze in after being disappointed in a particular heroine route mid-game which made me put the game on hold, but I'll be coming back for the true ending, so later update still. And it's not like I'm good at multitasking too... I did mention I'm easily distracted by other things and I've a busy workload right? Right?
And to this chapter. It was supposed to be much, much longer with that Euphie/Suzaku scene in the middle, but I wasn't satisfied with the overall result. I guess the dialogue was too colored with my recent VN experience, and since the dynamic I remember from the anime was still hazy, I couldn't quite capture the original charm between the two. So, trimmed!
Thanks for reading!
Merlin Out.