I do not own Code Geass.
Epiphany
Conundrum
Do we build for the pilots we have found or do we find pilots for what we have built?
It really should have been an easy question.
But then, again so should a lot of things.
Rakshata Chawla bit the stem of her pipe. So many things should be simple… and they are! In theory.
She was good with theories, hell she was borderline divine. So why did everything always seem to go so wrong?
Things were supposed to be simple. Go to Zero. Work for Zero. Strengthen Zero.
But never for Zero.
She was never meant to actually believe in this man, with his insane plots and melodramatic manner, his corny speeches and flamboyant style.
Put it all on paper, and he was a mockery. A sham. A charlatan claiming to be a messiah. But get too close…
He'd drag you in to his madness, make you believe. He drew people in, made armies from militia, made countries from safehouses, made new worlds from words.
It was supposed to be easy to keep her distance. Make a couple of innovation's here, pull a fast one on her erstwhile fiancé there… It was so clear!
Keep your distance!
Stay unattached!
Be ready to run at a moment's notice!
And still! It was maddening…
She was just an engineer. She made things for others to use. Did she build for the pilots they had found or did they find pilots for that she had built?
Rakshata knew exactly what she had done. She had made decades of progress in a few months. Decades under the command of a ragtag bunch of idealists, fighting a losing battle.
She had been stewing over the same old, outdated design for half a year in India.
She had lacked the drive necessary to truly innovate.
Then Zero appeared.
Purpose. Opportunity. Inspiration.
And out came the masterpieces.
Guren.
Gefjun Disturber.
Weaponized Radiation Waves.
She turned battles. She changed defeats into stalemates, stalemates into victories, victories into routs.
Or did she? She just made a tool for others, didn't she? She could no more take credit for Kallen's success than Adam could for humanity's.
What was she?
An engineer, striding forward in leaps and bounds?
A weapon-maker, toying with death and destruction?
A visionary, to deliver the world from evil?
A partner to Zero?
A subordinate?
A slave?
I am the pilot or am I the tool?
Did I make the army Zero's using, or did Zero use me to make his army?
She finally relaxed her grip on her pipe. She stretched out on the couch she insisted came with her everywhere.
Does it matter? Does it really?
Pilot or machine, each is useless without the other.
But still… deep down inside, there was the niggling worm she so disposed.
Zero would have found some other solution anyway.
AN: Rakshata. She's really interesting. I haven't noticed her a lot in canon, but she's always there. Lazy, clever and omnipresent, but we still don't know a lot about her. She makes everything Zero needs, but she'd be worthless without him. In India, she's useless. In Brittannia, she's Lloyd, but with breasts and better taste.
And, oh yes, Lloyd and Rakshata were engaged. I don't particularly care if it's cliché or cheesy or whatever, that is literally the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw how those two treated each other. Also kinda explains why Lloyd was still unmarried in canon (not because he's old, but because he's noble but not even engaged).
Anyway… yet another Zero-angst thingy. The mind goes where the mind goes, I guess.
Read, enjoy, review.
~GrinGrin
PS – Oh yeah, it looks like this will continue. Don't expect a regular update-schedule though. Not going to make promises I can't keep.
Written: 17/12/2013
Posted: 17/12/2013