Code Geass: The Demon and the Dragon

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass. If I did, then what you see below would be the show, instead of a fanfiction on the Internet.

Stage 34: Devils In Distress

- The Demon -

Streets of Narita
8:30 AM

"Have you found her yet?"

"Nothing so far."

"Damn it!" Lelouch swore, hanging up and punching a nearby wall in a rare and painful display of physical anger. He and C.C. had been searching for the past two and a half hours, starting out in the areas around Yokosuka and then searching the places Lelouch had calculated...guessed she'd have gone. The search was turning out dismally, to say the least. To be honest, Lelouch was kind of losing hope that he or Learme would be able to solve this little crisis without drawing upon the Black Knights for help, which would introduce all kinds of complications into the already volatile mix.

Composing himself, Lelouch returned to the search. The street he was on was empty, as was usual for the ghettos near any battle between the Black Knights and the Britannian forces. There was some damage from the battle on the mountain, most of it from misaimed artillery on the Black Knight's part, but beyond that mostly intact.

Moving around a corner, Lelouch winced at the more grievous damage. The intersection ahead had been one of the resupply points for the Britannians during the battle, and had thus been marked by Learme as a target to be destroyed with extreme prejudice. Craters large and small pitted the street, rubble from nearby buildings strewn about. Most of the materiel had already been recovered by the Britannians, although their salvaging operations had left the place in an even bigger mess than immediately after the battle. Scanning around, Lelouch searched for any sign of Shirley, despite the enormous chances of her being around.

Then his phone rang. Frowning, he pulled it out and checked the screen. When he saw Shirley's name, Lelouch didn't waste any time answering.

"Shirley! It's me, where are you!" Lelouch was quite unable to keep a tone of desperation out of his voice.

"Hmm...I wonder about that..." There were two things that Lelouch noticed immediately about that answer: First, it was definitely not Shirley. Second, it also came from behind him. Spinning about brought Lelouch face-to-face with a strange, white-haired Asian man, dressed in weird white-blue clothing.

"Who are you!"

The man simply tossed Shirley's phone at Lelouch's feet.

"You're Lelouch right? It'd be embarrassing to go through all this trouble and get the wrong one."

What the- "Bastard! What did you do with Shirley! And Learme!" The man merely laughed, clapping slowly.

"How nice! What a scary face! That kind of face says your family and friends are threatened, and you're out for blood!"

"Where are they?" Lelouch snarled.

"You wanna know? Well then, let's have a match over it." The man grinned, bringing out a chess piece.

- The Witch -

The noise of construction equipment roared in the background, Britannian reconstruction projects still ongoing in the section of the city where C.C. now searched for Lelouch's little lost paramour. Next to the road she was at, the cables for a repaired cable car service provided transport to the upper slopes of the mountain.

"-Look lady, I don't have time to sit around while you draw a picture of this chick! Why don't you just go ask the police, or hell, even the army?"

C.C.'s expression changed not one whit.

"I don't want any trouble."

"Then why don't you just go up high somewhere and look for her? Look, there's a cable car right now." Turning, C.C. saw the mentioned car. And Lelouch inside.

What is he...Lelouch's companion caught her attention then. Chinese, grey-white hair...It can't be...Mao?

- The Dragon and The Shifter -

Location...Unknown
Timestamp...Unknown

The sky roiled and hissed, strange red lightning arcing throughout a stratosphere full of purple clouds. Rain fell onto a flooded ground, doing nothing to dilute the ankle-deep lake of blood surrounding Ian. A haze filled the area, hiding anything farther out than a hundred meters yet strangely only slightly obscuring anything within that radius.

"How stereotypical." The doppelganger muttered, taking in his surroundings. Small mounds of corpses dotted the area, composed of bodies from the very young to the decrepit and old, both genders represented. One spectacularly large hill defied this formula however. Judging from the form and size, Ian would say that this small mountain had mostly middle-aged males. Moving closer, he made another observation. While the bodies in the smaller piles wore typical civilian street clothing or the rags of the destitute, the hill ahead was almost completely dressed in Britannian combat armor and BDUs.

A crunch interrupted Ian's trek. Stepping back and looking down, he saw a small boy, no older than ten, laying facedown in the blood. The entire back of his skull was missing, and grey matter was strewn about. Ian had stepped on his hand.

"Horrible, isn't it?"

Ian spun back towards where he had begun in this strange world, to find that another heap of the dead had appeared there. Like the largest, the corpses were mostly Britannian military. However, there was an addition to the ranks of the deceased here: Knightmares. parts of dismembered Glasgows, shredded Sutherlands and maimed Gloucesters stuck out of the pile, smeared in oil and the Sakuradite viscera of their Yggdrasil Drives. Atop all this was a throne of sorts, haphazardly constructed out of the heads of Britannia's Knightmares, all welded together, with a Gloucester's horned facade serving as the seat. And in that throne sat Learme.

Ian snorted.

"Been watching a few too many horror dramas?" He asked, gesturing at the world around. Learme blinked confusedly and looked.

"Eh...whoops. Sorry, my bad." The world spun, blood draining into nothingness and drab, grey metal walls dropping into place around the two. Ian staggered, restraining the urge to vomit as the reinvented area settled into reality. Unlike the strangeness earlier, this place was clear and neat. And much more enclosed. Four walls enclosed a ten-by-ten meter area, the only apparent exit being a trap door set into a small half-column about waist-high. Rather than the ostentatious and melodramatic throne, Learme sat in a simple folding chair. "I think Lelouch has been drilling a bit too much of his dramatic sense into me." And then he pulled a gun out from behind the chair. From Kallen's pilfered memories, Ian could tell that it was Learme's signature magnum, a monstrosity of a weapon.

He also recognized that it was aimed right at his head.

And then it fired, Ian's world dissolving in a maelstrom of blood-red fire and pain.

- The Demon and The Obsessed -

Narita

Lelouch cursed himself for being so easily caught. Then he cursed the maniac in front of him for being so inconceivably well-prepared. Unable to Geass him due to the sunglasses, Lelouch had been led into a cable car and sat down with a chessboard in the aisle between his seat and the freak, already set up for a match.

Out of the blue, the strange Asian giggled madly. And then chuckled at the scowl that spread across Lelouch's face before making a move, sending the queen's pawn to the center of the board. Lelouch absently moved a knight to counter, while his mind ran with possibilities.

Who is he? What's with the chess game? A trap? It must be. The only reason for him to do this would be to take me to a secluded location, without any witnesses...

"This is the first time I've played this game." The man commented as he mad another move.

Whoop-de-fucking-do. Lelouch thought sarcastically, adopting Learme's insulting manner, at least in his mind.

"Now, now, one such as you shouldn't be so impolite." The guy scolded mockingly, "And shouldn't you be focusing on the game? You might lose." This before making a move that completely invalidated the half-thought strategy Lelouch had been using.

Damn him.

- The Witch -

The bike roared as it sped up the mountain, following the red cable car as fast as C.C. could push it without causing an accident. Undoubtedly, its owner was just now waking up with a possible concussion, but C.C. couldn't be concerned with him.

Lelouch was in trouble.

Lelouch...you can't win against Mao...

- The Dragon and The Shifter -

Ashford Academy Underground Complex

Grimacing at the marks on his wrist, Learme snarled at the toppled figure of the doppelganger-Geass-user.

"Oh, you're going to pay long-time for this buddy." He muttered, wrenching at the ropes tying his left hand to the chair's arm. But he had to give the guy credit, he could tie a knot.

A mumbled curse then signified Ian's renewed consciousness, the man groaning and bringing a hand up to massage his temples.

Learme activated his Geass. At this range, with one target and only one sense, it was rather easy to use. And the sense he manipulated was one of the less-considered, as it wasn't one of the traditional five senses. No, in this instance, Learme completely fucked with Ian's sense of balance. To the shifter, the world reeled even as he vomited onto the floor.

"That's gonna be a bitch to clean up." Lelouch commented, shifting the focus of his Geass. A little more difficult, he went after both Ian's sight and hearing, shutting them down completely. The mercenary was forced to rely only on his sense of touch and smell to navigate, all the while Learme worked furiously at his bonds. He grunted when one particularly forceful tug tore a little skin off of his wrist. Finally, as Ian regained his feet, Learme ripped his hand out of its bonds and started working on the ropes tying his feet to the chair's legs.

Learme didn't notice as Ian's features shifted, changing. He did notice when his control slipped over the Geass-shifter's senses. "Crap." Abandoning his feet to the rope, he reached over to one of the tables and grabbed an arc welder from one of his projects. "This is gonna hurt." He muttered. He turned the welder up to its lowest setting, and brought it to bear on the ropes. As Ian staggered, now wearing the form of Learme, he glanced over and saw his captive burning the ropes away.

"Damn!" He swore in Learme's voice, taking a shaky step towards the once-Prince just as the ropes snapped free. Learme, on his part, now had bad burns on both of his ankles due to the fact that the welder had set his pants legs on fire, but that was a bit of a secondary concern in this situation. He stumbled towards his locker, using the tables as cover to hide from his captor.

Ian muttered curses in several languages as he recovered his handgun from the floor, taking aim for Learme. Unfortunately, the rebel was quick enough to duck around and behind the tables to avoid the fire, while still moving towards whatever destination he had. Just as Ian ran out of rounds, Learme darted for the wall, hastily smashing his thumbs against a pad. Ian was reached for another clip when he saw what Learme withdrew from the locker.

Oh Fuck Me!

- The Demon and The Obsessed -

Narita, Cable Car

Lelouch ground his teeth as the Asian made his move, a rook cornering Lelouch's black king in a trap that the former prince had been desperately trying to move out of for most of the game.

Impossible...I LOST!

"Hey, hey, does this mean I won?" The white-haired man asked, just before the car shuddered to a stop, spilling the pieces all over the aisle.

Lelouch just stared at the board in shock.

He saw through me completely. Just who the hell is this guy?

"Hey, didn't C.C. tell you about me?" The man asked. Then he cackled and applauded as Lelouch's mind raced. "Impressive! You managed to come up with fourteen possibilities as to my identity within an instant! And one of them is right." The man's grin turned sly, as he turned down his shade to reveal two eyes with the red crane of Geass.

Damn it! A Geass User! The crane flared to life in Lelouch's eye.

"Whoops!" The man exclaimed, quickly replacing his glasses before Lelouch could issue a command. "You can't use your Geass without direct eye contact. I know all your conditions."

"You can read my mind!"

"Yep! That's my Geass."

"Damn you!" Lelouch swore. "Where's Shirley! What have you done with Learme!"

"Now, now, all in good time. But before we get to that, let's start the penalty game." Just then, Lelouch caught sight of someone behind the man, in the window.

Shirley!

"Why don't we get out of the car?" The man asked, getting up and moving towards the cable car's upper exit. Lelouch would have refused, if not for the fact that Shirley had a gun trained on him. Slowly, cautiously, he rose from his seat and followed the Asian out. Stepping out of the car, Lelouch found himself between Shirley, who had climbed a few steps up, and the newly-revealed Geass User, who was a few steps down of Lelouch. As he studied the both of them, the Geass User with restrained loathing and Shirley with confusion, Lelouch noticed certain details about the handgun in Shirley's hands.

"Shirley...that gun..."

"Yeah...it's Zero's gun...yours Lulu."

So she does know.

"Hey, why don't you use your Geass on her?" Lelouch turned to fix a cold stare on the Asian. "I mean, you haven't used it on her yet have you? Then again," He mused, "If you do, I'll shoot you where you stand." This followed by the User drawing a gun on Lelouch.

Ah, a Catch-22.

"Yep." The man grinned, replying to Lelouch's thought with relish.

Hmm...is it only my conscious mind he can read? Does he have any restrictions like I do? Time lag? How long can he use it? What does he want and what has he done to Learme? If he just wanted to kill us...

"Yes, yes, used that brilliant strategic mind of yours, let the cogs spin and spin and spin-"

"Shut up!" Lelouch shouted.

"Tch, this is a fitting end for thieves like you and your twin." The man replied to that, rather calmly.

"Lulu." Lelouch turned at Shirley's strangely calm voice. "Please. Just die.

...Damn it.

- The Author -

Alright. So...long time no read, eh?

Sorry for not updating in so long...I've been getting side-tracked...and to be honest I may be losing interest in writing this...although that's probably because this part doesn't have as much out-and-out action in it. Probably as soon as we get out of the Mao arc and into the more actiony parts of the story it'll start to pick up more.

Personally, I'm looking forward to Tohdoh's jail-break. That'll be good for me to write.