Gate walked out of the plane that dropped him onto a private airstrip. The Emperor's Palace. The lord of one third of the planet. He felt honored that he was going to go before the King as an emissary to V.V.
And yet…something did not feel right. V.V. could easily have contacted Charles for such a trivial matter as reinforcements. Why send someone? Gate knew something more was a part of this, but he had no idea of proving it. Still; a desire to expand his career in this new land that he had somehow appeared into…and he was obviously on a good start to do so.
The Britannian guards went to check his security verification, and this seemed to occur almost endlessly. Even Gate figured that an Emperor didn't need this many security checks in order for someone to actually go and see him; although he constantly reminded himself that he came from a different land. What really fascinated Gate as he kept wandering through the palace were the amount of decorations that was there, and the mere size of them. Some of the portraits and carpets seemed to stretch out to almost several meters.
This Charles sure lives in style…even the human government of Able City didn't have this many decorations adorned all over the place.
Gate began to become curious with more details of Charles as he was led to Charles' private chamber.
"I hear that Charles is a man of frightening stature." Gate said.
"The king is." One of the agents said. "He's a man of great fortitude and size; even members of the Chinese federation shiver when they see him speak on any delegations which require his attention."
"Might I ask the purpose I have been brought here?" Gate asked. "Or are you or me not permitted to ask questions?"
"You think correctly." One of the men said. "Charles has called you here for a very specific purpose."
"Odd." Gate said. "I was under the impression that V.V. sent me here to personally request reinforcements."
"We could have done via communication." A man said. "The Emperor has a more…interesting reason why you have been summoned here."
Gate was immediately intrigued by this turn of events; especially the fact that his calculations had indeed been correct. Now all he had to do is wait until they arrived in the Emperor's lounge.
This took a lot longer than even Gate had predicted. And as he traveled, Gate began to notice a startling change in the atmosphere the deeper he ventured into the palace. The place began to become darker, and less emphasis on art seemed to be taking place. Sooner or later, it started to look more like a cultist place than a palace.
"Where exactly are we?" Gate asked.
He did not receive a reply this time around. The men who escorted him to the King did not answer anything that he said after they made it to this part of the palace. Throughout the twists and turns, Gate watched the environment's startling transformation.
At last they came into a long hallway with stretched for hundreds and hundreds of meters. The room was extremely white, and also extremely dark. At once, the men left the room, leaving Gate to himself. He originally thought he was to go with them, but the doors behind them slammed shut. A single light turned on at the end of the hallway.
There, before Gate, was Charles Di Britannia himself.
"Welcome!" He shouted.
Gate, immediately awe struck, walked over to where Charles sat, and bowed before him gracefully. After all, he was under the employ of humans again, and had to what they wished. Better than be a maverick and become destroyed again.
"It is an honor to be here, Emperor Charles Di Britannia." Gate replied.
"As it is with anyone." He said. He then lifted himself out of his seat (to which even Gate was surprised at the height of the man himself) and began to walk behind the throne. "Rise and come with me. I must speak to you on something."
Gate immediately rose and began to follow Charles. Behind Charles throne was a single door, which led into an extraordinarily dark hallway. Charles took a lamp from the side of the door and began to walk through it. Gate simply used the thermo optics in his eyes to see through the dark. There was silence for most of the walk through the hallway, with conversation held to a minimal.
"Were you awe struck at the palace my family has strived so hard to build?" He asked.
"It sure is a marvelous sight." Gate said. "This particular part is a bit dark for a King I believe."
"This is a private room for conversation of grave importance." Charles said. "Think of it like a Situation Room. And I need someone of your expertise to deal with a threat to important research of mine. While I possess other Reploids that are more than capable of handling it, there is a situation in Area 11 which calls to their attention."
They continued to walk down the hallway, to a level of stairs which went deep into the earth. Eventually after all their travel was said and done, they came to the end of the hallway, where there seemed to be a large stone like structure. There didn't seem to be anything else. This stone like structure held strange and unusual markings on it; very similar to the markings Gate saw at the Research center.
"That mark…" He said.
Charles said nothing and touched his hand on the stone. At once a bright light appeared and encased him. Soon the light also sprouted forth and went for Gate. Gate activated his shield, but it didn't matter if it did or not. Soon all he could see was in fact light.
And…then he was there. A strange world, filled to the brim with cloud and sky. He was standing on a temple like structure, floating above this mass of sky and cloud. He was awe struck at the sight of the palace, and of the presentation he had from Charles, but this was too much. He drew his beam saber instinctively, looking around for anything.
"Welcome!" Charles shouted.
Charles was standing where a large roman temple. He was directly in the middle of it, much to Gate's astonishment. Charles stood there as Gate stood on the bottom of the floating tile, still trying to discern what happened.
Where am I? What trickery is this? Has a program corrupted my visual optics? Is my sensory program deteriorating?
"Neither." Charles said. "Come."
That is when Gate really began to suspect something was wrong. Charles answered him, even though he was processing that in his mind. Could Charles read his mind?...no it was illogical. A Reploid reading another's mind was possible, prior that the unit was hacked by the one attempting to read his mind. But this was a human being reading his mind. This was all too much to comprehend…clearly something was going on.
Without anything else to infer on, he chose to obey Charles and began to levitate towards Charles, his floatation system still seeming to be active. He landed right next to him, as Charles stood there.
"Listen; and listen well Gate." He said. "For it seems someone has gone to challenge my rule; and possesses sufficient power to do so. I want him taken care of."
Before Gate could even ask, Charles placed his hand on top of him. As soon as he did, he watched as images began to pour through his mind. Charles was hacking his visual sensory program, with his hand. How could he do this? What sort of trickery was this!? After Gate had a sensation of his mind flying through a blue column of energy, a single still image came to his mind. It looked like an old man tried in a black cybernetic body. An orange crystal covered his head, and his armor made him look like he had a long black coat with red edges.
"Do you see it…the image of the man I have placed in your mind?" Charles asked.
"Yes…yes I do." Gate said. "Who is he?...That technology looks far more advanced than anything Britannian has."
"That is because the machinery is Reploid made." Charles said. "This man calls himself Doctor Weil…a crazed maniac who believes he has the right to rule my domain. " The image changed from Doctor Weil to that of a destroyed military base. "Over the last few weeks, lone Britnanian military bases have gone under large scale attacks from these machinations called Reploids. While individually they are inferior to our Knightmare units, the problem lies in the super Reploids which he possesses, and the fact these units infiltrate our bases and murder the pilots. We have tried to up security measures to counter his forces, but even these extra marines or two have not the fire power to contend with all of them."
The image then changed to Mega Man X, which shocked Gate. Mega Man X…the Reploid who destroyed him; along with Zero. They were alive and well. A sudden fear panged at Gate's mind.
"Do not fear him." Charles said. "He does not know about you, and is with us. There's a certain count who plans to analyze and produce copies of him, and usher a new age of technology into Britannia. We need these machines in order to combat the ones this Weil has. Sadly, it may be years before the first Reploid copies will be made. In other words, I need this Weil disposed of now in order to ensure my kingdom survives. You Gate…you will be the one to do this."
"I am to destroy this Doctor Weil?" Gate asked.
"You are." Charles said. The image then changed to a city. A large one with many Chinese architecture on it. "His recent defeat has forced him to retreat to his fortress for safety. My sources have tracked it to an underground base located deep within the Chinese Federation." The next image showed Gate what appeared to be a battle between Britannian and Chinese Federation Knightmares. "Under normal circumstances, I would deploy Knightmares and siege his area until there was nothing left but smoldering dust. But if Britannian units trespass on Chinese Federation waters, we will have a full scale battle on our hands. We can't afford even to contend with the enemy that we have attacking us without going into a full scale war with the Chinese."
"In other words, Weil can keep weakening you, and continue to build your force?" Gate asked.
"Yes; and there is a more pressing matter at hand." Charles said. The image then changed to that of a giant space station. Gate again could not recognize this from his era; or anything in the Britannian databanks about something like this.
"This Space station is something that he has; known as Ragnarok." Charles said. "A powerful space station capable of leveling cities to the ground. I cannot allow this station to be finished or used, regardless of which it is. The problem is that the station is hidden from my sight. I want this station destroyed, and its creator dead. That is where you come in."
"Me?" Gate asked.
"You are capable of holding your own; and you possess great power within you." Charles said. "I want you to be my weapon in smiting this wretch from thinking he can oppose my rule. You will depart to the Chinese Federation to contend with him. My orders are simple; search and destroy. Leave none standing in your wake. Do this; and great things will be heading your way."
"Great...things?" Gate asked.
"You will know more when you finish my goals." Charles said. "Do we have an understanding, Gate?"
He thought long and hard on it. He definitely didn't like the idea of being used as a weapon to destroy someone. HOWEVER, the thought of fighting to defend people? He had committed atrocities before towards Reploid; and as a result people. Perhaps this was his chance…his chance to redeem himself….yes it had to be. Without a second thought, Gate shouted at Charles.
"Yes!" he shouted. "I hereby accept this request!"
As soon as he shouted that, the whole area around him began to collapse and shatter; as if it was glass. Gate fell into blackness and knew no more.
When he awoke, he was outside of that mysterious object where Charles was standing. Charles was already walking back towards the stairwell, leaving Gate to pull himself up.
"You have your orders Gate." Charles said. "I am entrusting that you deal with this. Now begone!"
As soon as Gate regained himself, he turned to Charles, removed his helmet, and bowed to him.
"Yes…my lord." He said.
Edits on the story:
The following changes have been made to chapters 24-31:
1. Spelling errors have been made
2. Grammar and Punctuation errors have been fixed
3. Changes to Reploid's personalities to make them more accurate to their actual counter parts
4. Certain scenes have been changed
5. New scenes have been added:
A. A battle between Phantom and Zero, to show more relationship issues between the two
6. Scenes have been removed
A. Zero attempting to shoot Lelouch. Zero wouldn't do that if he is serving him.
7. Fixed Harpuia's name. Apparently for the first 31 chapters, I constantly misspelled his name as Harpuria.