I'll keep this short as there isn't much to say about this chapter or the last, more so since there hasn't been as much in the way of review responses as again if you have thoughts, please share them as I can't react to feedback without actual feedback. As for a question I had, which of the girls in the show would you think Lelouch would be best with and why? Add that to your reviews.

Chapter 12: Into the Rabbit Hole

The feeling of the rays of sun on her skin stirred C.C., the immortal's eyes slowly opening, confused as to where she was, and why it was so warm when should still be cold as hell. In her haze, she looked around and saw that she wasn't in her bedroom, she wasn't even their home but rather, they were in a forest. It was at that moment that she fully woke up and with it, came the memories of what they had been doing, what they had found, and the skull-splitting pain that came before…before?

She couldn't remember.

Either way, she got herself up to her feet and checked for anything out of the ordinary which revealed to her that wherever it was, it wasn't in Wales as she was in a forest, one with trees that grew twisted and bent as if at every turn someone had come over and snapped branches and trunks for the fun of it, more than that, the trees were far larger than normal, being closer to the famous California Redwoods as even the small ones appeared to be at least 50m tall while the larger ones seemed to be well over 100m tall, with trunks well over 8m thick. This along with their leaves all being a rich scarlet produced a sight that made her think she was still out of it. Her attention didn't linger long on her surroundings, and how surreal it was to be hit by glimmers of the warm sunlight through the thick scarlet canopy, rather it was drawn to a deer in the distance, it was large, larger than any she had ever seen, with a thick carmine coat and massive brilliant red antlers.

The animal spotted her as well, pausing mid-stride to gaze at her, neither moved, and neither knew what to do in this situation as C.C. had never seen such a creature, and she was willing to bet that the deer was in the same boat. It appeared to turn to walk closer to further inspect her, but a groan from the side surprised it and sent it rushing off, into the thick bushes and branches. That same groan reminded the immortal of the fact she wasn't alone as she quickly turned around and to her relief, she spotted the other two, though it was a minor one as neither man looked to be in the best shape. She run over to Lelouch, who was thankfully still breathing, but it was heavy and strained, his already pale face near white. As he lay on his side, he would cough up blood and some of the fowl yellow poison, his body trying to expel as much as it could.

'Lelouch, we need to start moving, you can't stay like this.' She got no response from him, a bad sign as she turned to Jeremiah, who seemed to be unconscious as she was earlier, so she quickly smacked went over and smacked him over the head, which got the desired results.

'Wha-where? Jeremiah was on his feet instantly, much more alert than she when she first woke up, his blades ready for whatever could jump at them but his mood only grew more panicked when he finally noticed Lelouch wasn't moving. His majesty!' He rushed over, checking over the man, his laboured breath doing little to calm his nerves as he turned to C.C. 'Lady C.C. How bad is it?'

'It's bad, Jeremiah. It's spreading and I don't even know where we are.' C.C. told, moving Lelouch's head to her lap to give him some comfort as he battled with that monster's plague ravaging his body.

'What do you…' Jeremiah looked around them, seeing not the cold Welsh countryside they had just been in, but the strange crimson forest made of trees the size of buildings. 'What in the lord, what is this place?'

'I don't know. But if I'm right about the sun's position, we don't have enough time to figure it out, so it'll be best to set up a camp.' C.C. replied, reaching to remove her large backpack off her shoulders and switching out her thighs for her rolled-up sleeping back so that their sickly friend had something of a comfort.

'But his majesty-' She raised her hand, tired, confused and irritated at this entire situation but barely keeping enough restraint not to blow up at the cybernetic knight for his justifiable concerns but that didn't stop a little of her bite from making its way into her tone.

'If we try to move now, it'll get dark and we'll be in even more trouble. It's not ideal, but we need to stay put for the night, we can travel using the sun in the morning.' The man deflated her, either seeing her point or deciding arguing was pointless, she didn't know and frankly, wasn't in any position to care.

'Very well.' He placed his pack down, noting that he was lacking his pistol as he turned to walk off. 'I'll…I'll try to find us some firewood.' With that, he walked further away, leaving the witch to set up their camp before it got dark, with both hoping that their luck would be strong enough to keep whatever passed for a dangerous animal away from them.

Later, the two sat in silence as a small fire kept them warm. Both had eaten one of their pre-packed meals and got to drink fresh water as while out gathering wood, Jeremiah had stumbled upon a stream which he used to fill up their bottles. C.C. sat with Lelouch's head once more on her lap, the witch having removed her thick winter gear, and then did the same for Lelouch before she fed him his meal, worried that throughout it all, he hadn't woken up once from whatever he was dreaming of, even when she tried to use her code to peek into his mind, she runs into a wall that kept her out.

'You said that Thought Elevators could work as teleporters; do you suppose that is what happened here?' Jeremiah asked her, stroking the fire.

'It's possible, but that would need more than a few things to happen, none of which mean anything good for us.' C.C.'s response got him to raise his one remaining eyebrow.

'Such as?'

C.C. looked at the sky, or what they could see through the thick canopy towards the strange, unfamiliar stars that floated overhead as she answered. 'For one, most of their teleportation capabilities are only between them, and considering we were nowhere near whatever remains of the London Thought Elevator, nor do I think we're close to one now, it's fair to assume that isn't the case.' C.C. would have felt something if that was the case, whenever a thought elevator was close, and in use, she could detect it but what she felt before she ended up here… wasn't it, far from it.

'But didn't V.V. use a Thought Elevator to send his majesty, Lady Kallen, Princess and Euphemia and Suzaku to the one on Kamine Island from Shikine Island?' Jeremiah raised a good point, as even then she was surprised by it as she hadn't thought it possible to do such a thing, but if that was the case, it didn't mean they were out of the woods.

'He did, but that doesn't make this situation any better, as if that is what happened-' She didn't need to finish the sentence as Jeremiah caught off soon enough, his eye narrowing.

'It would mean that we were summoned here, possibly by another immortal.' It took His Majesty bringing down the weight of the Black Knights in a surprise attack to defeat V.V. and even then, he was both a young and relatively inexperienced immortal, so the idea that there could be another, one with potentially centuries of skills and knowledge to call upon acting as an unknown was troubling.

'Even so, I don't even think we're on Earth anymore.' C.C. replied, getting a tired snort from the man.

'What makes you say that? Are we on another plane like C's world?' Jeremiah took a drink of his water.

'I…don't know, but the place doesn't feel like C's world. It feels…different, this place feels…dense. I can feel it in my code, the energy in the air differs from C's world.' C.C. had never felt such a force before, not even in C's World, what she used to believe was the source of geass and code itself. If she were to describe it, C's world was like a single flavor of ice cream, it didn't matter which, what did was the fact it was just one, while earth, the regular world was the same only diluted down. But these woods…from the moment she woke up, it was different as the flavor was strong, almost as strong as within C's World, more than that, it was like a barrage of different tastes and flavors.

'I can't say that I also don't get the feeling…this place' Jeremiah reached for the part of his face covered by his permanent visor, which hid his geass canceller which though artificial, had been acting up for hours now, ever since he woke up. 'I'll take the first watch; we'll swap out in 3 hours.' He signed as he got up, stretching as he did so before walking away from the fire to the edge of their small camp.

'I'll be resting then.' C.C. replied as she moved Lelouch into his sleeping bag, worried sick for him as he remained near still and pale. He moved closer to him, but at the last second broke up and went to her sleeping bag, turning away from him as she tried to get some sleep.

As Jeremiah and C.C. went about resting and guarding their camp, Lelouch found himself in a familiar hilly expense, with the setting sun where it always was, the area as bright as ever and the hundreds of rams all around, milling about. He recalled himself being infected by the beast's deadly breath, and the splitting headache but other than that, nothing. 'How long have I been here?' He asked no one as he sat by the water's edge, his hands as bloodstained as ever.

He turned to one of the rams as it came to the water to drink. 'Don't suppose you can tell me? Not like you're a normal sheep, right?' He asked the strange animal, which seemed to look at him with far more intellect than a simple farm animal should, but rather a response that gave him anything, the damned thing seemed to smile at him as it snorted his way before walking off, Lelouch feeling the urge to have lambchop after that as he gave the animal a half-hearted glare.

'Of course, it's never that easy, is it?' He combed a hand through his hair in frustration.

'I would have to agree.' He jumped to his feet, turning to see who was speaking only to be surprised by who that was. 'Though if that is due to how things are meant to be, or because it makes things more interesting, I can't say.' The figure seemed to smile at him, but he couldn't tell as just like the former, they were masked in fog and shadows, their massive form well over a meter taller than him, though he wasn't sure if they were as tall as the first one. All he could be sure about was that they were feminine if the voice and unclear body shape were to be believed. Though two things that stuck out to him were the fact she carried a large, intricately decorated and finely made vase at her side, her arm keeping it snug and tight against her masked body. To the other side, was a majestic horse, with a mane that looked closer to silk mixed with gold.

'Who…' He started to ask, but she stopped him with her giggle. He didn't know why, but there was a part of him, a core part of his human soul that screamed that he shouldn't anger this being, as she'll bring him nothing but dread if he did. Listening to it, when she started to walk away from the river's edge, her horse following suit as she gestured to him to follow, he obeyed. They left the river behind, with the sheep parting for her, even seeming to bow as she walked on past them, leaving him confused as they continued to walk for a time, only stopping when they reached one of the hills that overlooked the hill-filled river valley.

They ascended to the top of it, where he found it was filled with flowers and had a small blanket already laid out for them, one large enough for a woman close to the size of a knightmare as she gently sat down, gesturing for him to do the same as he took his place at a respective distance, only for her to giggle again as she gestured for him to get closer to her and still listening to his primal instincts, he obeyed, moving close enough that he was almost touching her. The horse had taken its place behind her, letting her use its equally massive frame as a backseat of sorts.

'Would you like to sit with me and chat? My husband tells me much about you.' She told him, her voice carrying the same melody as wind chimes dancing in a gentle summer's breeze, but an undertone of a coming storm as well.

'Your husband…?' He asked her, not understanding the situation as she picked one of the flowers from the area around them, placing it into the vase which she held close to her.

'Oh yes, you're met with him a great many times already, so I got curious and wished to see you for myself.' Lelouch realized that she must have been talking about the first one, the one shrouded in shadow and who wore a helmet that kept his hidden from him. Still, he gave some credence to the idea that…wherever he was, and whoever he was speaking with in these dreams wasn't just random, that there was a purpose but at this moment, as he sat next to this being s far above his mortal self, he couldn't help but feel even smaller as he looked at him, hands covered in blood, a body barely more capable of the average high schooler, a heart filled with darkness.

'Well then, I hope I'm not too disappointing.' He told her, looking at himself in shame and disgust, only to be brought out of it with a yelp as she pulled his head onto her lap, their size being closer to that of a large pillow and nearly as soft as one. 'What?' He didn't know why she did it, but he could tell that his earlier feelings were bleeding out of him, leaving him feeling much more relaxed.

'Relax, little one. You've had a long journey, suffered many great tragedies, lost many loved ones.' She told him as she combed her hand through his hair, her voice still carrying that same balance of fury and serenity but he found himself gravitating towards the latter as her scent reminded him of the happier days he had with his sister and mother in the Aries villa garden, of the laughter of the smells of the freshly planted exotic flowers. But even as his heart calmed, it still ached as he recalled what had happened with Nunnally, and how despite his best, he couldn't protect her from the world's corrupting influence. But before that nugget of despair could go anywhere, the figure placed a large hand on his chest, covering the entire thing really, but with it being focused right over his heart.

With that one touch, his heart was calmed and in place of that despair, he felt a flicker of hope. He didn't know what she did, all he could do was look up at the face with his hollowed eyes searching for something…something real in her, something he couldn't make out, but a part of him, that same one that screamed at him that she was a force of nature to be feared, also told him that she was smiling down on him. With a voice that reminded him of the times when his mother would sing him to sleep whenever he had a bad dream, she spoke. 'My husband is right, you are a soul without purpose, a soul burdened by so much evil but I know you can pull through because you are our champion.'

He didn't know what she meant by that, and when he moved to ask her, she merely laughed off his unspoken question as she leaned down and kissed his forehead, which left a sensation of strength in his body as if he had recalled the second last piece needed to understand a great puzzle. 'When you realize that, what you accept is that; all you need to do is ask for our aide. But for now, you must return to the waking world.' She giggled once more here as if she found what she said amusing as she said one last cryptic thing. 'Though not the one you're used to.'

When he woke up, he felt like he was dying with how exhausted and in pain he was, his eyes slowly opened as he felt himself being carried. As he gained more awareness of his situation, he managed to make out the fact he was being carried on Jeremiah's back, and that they seemed to be walking down a small paved road in a strange crimson forest. He wanted to ask what had happened while he was unconscious but ended up coughing instead, barely being able to cover his mouth with his hand, when he pulled it back, vaguely aware of the fact C.C. was rubbing his back, he saw that what he coughed out was both his blood, but also contained a worrying level of that yellow mush.

'Drink this, you need it.' C.C. passed him his water bottle, which he drank a little from before he spat it out, washing out the sick taste of whatever the hell that beast's poison was and the bile that came up with it. With that done, he took a generous drink from it, downing a third of it before he handed the drink back to the witch, who kept her concerned eyes on him. 'How do you feel?' He took a moment to think, as at the moment he felt like death but he didn't think they needed him to vocalize it.

'I'm alive…that has the count for something.' He settled on that as his answer, getting a snort of mild amusement from C.C. as Jeremiah breathed a sigh of relief.

'Your majesty, I'm happy that you're awake at last, you had us worried.' Jeremiah told him, the taller man smiling as he adjusted his grip on him as Lelouch relaxed just a little at that.

'Apologies, I didn't think I would be out for so long.' He expected that he would have been up and about within a couple of hours, but with this strange new place, he couldn't tell how long he had been out of it. before he could ask that question, Jeremiah slowed down to a halt, the man seeing something coming their way in the distance.

'We have company.' He announced to the two of them, with C.C. being the most relieved as she was carrying all three of their packs at the moment and it started to hurt her back.

'Finally, someone we can ask for help.' She said but Jeremiah didn't share her relief, as he kept his gaze on the incoming object and was able to make out the fact that it was a carriage, but not like one he had ever seen before.

'…I don't think so.' He told them, as he didn't think that they'll get smooth winds from this point. Confused by his statement, both Lelouch and C.C. looked to see it for themselves, with Lelouch raising his head to look over the man's shoulder.

'Oh…' Both could see what had given the man pause as it was indeed a carriage coming towards them, but one more suited to fantasy than reality as it had a horse pulling it, yes, but there were no wheels to speak of as the large wooden object simply floated along as it was pulled by the beast of burden. That if of itself would have been enough for them to question if they were all of sound minds, but it was the driver that made that all the worse. To call them human would be to call a Chihuahua a wolf, there was certainly a connection but it was far removed as one could be while still being somewhat related. The person they saw driving the cart had purple skin, with horns growing out of their forehead that seemed to have well-trimmed and solid red eyes with no white to speak of.

They weren't the only ones surprised as when he noticed them, he damn near fall out of his seat, pulling hard on his reigns much to the pained annoyance of the horse as his cart came to a stop. For a moment, both parties remained still and silent, just trying to process what they were seeing in front of them. But that shock didn't last long as the man started to scream in a language that they didn't understand before he pulled a crossbow from behind him and aimed it right for them, leading them to try and calm him down with little results.

'Wait, wait, wait!' Jeremiah shifted his body a little so as little of Lelouch was visible. 'We mean you no harm, I swear that on my honor as a knight!' The man's aim didn't lower as Jeremiah yelled for peace.

'Enough!' C.C. yelled over them both, giving pause as she glared at the knight. 'He can't understand us, and considering how we look, we must be the strange ones.' They needed a way to convey what they needed from him before he tried to kill them and saw how little his bolts would do to Jeremiah's cybernetic body, or worse, her fully immortal one as he already saw them as strange, the last thing they needed was him thinking they were unholy monsters, she had been burned at a stake once and she wasn't going to go through that again.

'Suggestions then?' Jeremiah asked, highly aware of the fact that their strange friend had his crossbow still aimed at them. Even if he hadn't pulled the trigger, they couldn't afford to provoke the terrified man.

'Put me down.' Lelouch ordered him, getting both to look at him like he was insane.

'But my lor-' He stopped any protest with a look, and reluctantly, Jeremiah put him down, though Lelouch found it hard to stand up straight as his vision swarmed and his legs felt like jelly but, he still powered through it. Walking a little closer, the man kept his aim on him, shifting it away from Jeremiah and C.C. but it seemed like despite their very different looks, he could tell that Lelouch was in no position to threaten him.

'Help…we need…help.' The dark-haired man signed, trying his best to get his message across with simple, but universal gestures and from how the man lowered his aim, he could tell that he at least got the message that they were trying to talk, not hurt him. 'Healer…do you…know…doctor.' He held back the urge to cough his stomach out, even if it meant swallowing whatever his body was trying to reject with a grimace. The man looked at him for a minute, trying to understand his body before he looked towards the others, a hand raised as he pointed towards Lelouch before placing a hand on his head as if it was checking his temperature-no, he was gesturing for temperature checking, a common way to tell if a person was sick or not.

'Yes…I'm…not well. Do you…know…doctor?' Lelouch continued, repeating the gesture as he pointed to himself, but couldn't do more as he fell to a knee, vomiting out more bile and yellow ooze as Jeremiah and C.C. rushed to his side. Seeing the discharge, the man seemed to recognize what it was as he put his weapon down and jumped off the carriage, careful in his approach as he helped Lelouch to his feet, leading him and Jeremiah to the back of his carriage where he gestured for them to get in. After they got the sick former prince abroad and laid out flat, Jeremiah and C.C. followed suit before the man returned to the front and quickly grabbed the reigns as the carriage started to move once more, much faster than before as the man must have recognized the severity of the situation.

In the back of his floating carriage, the three of them looked around at what he was transporting and saw it was a collection of toys, clothes and finely made glass. 'He must be some kind of merchant.' Jeremiah observed, wanting to study the toys but not wanting to upset their driver and potentially damage his wares.

'Regardless, we're at his mercy till we can get some help, hopefully, he can take us to that.' C.C. leaned into the side of the carriage, resting her back after walking for almost 3 hours with three packs filled with camping supplies.

'I'm just wanting to be sure about this, but you both saw what I saw…right?' Lelouch turned his eye from Jeremiah to C.C., his sweaty pale face filled with nothing but questions over where they were, how they got there, and how they were being given a ride in a floating carriage by a person that would be burned as a demon. 'I'm not hallucinating right now?' At his question, C.C.'s body relaxed as she couldn't help herself, she didn't have any of those answers.

'I'm not sure if I would prefer if you were.' She replied, ending the conversation as the trio remained quiet afterwards, all trying to cope with the situation in their ways. This silence enveloped them for a while afterwards, with Jeremiah tracking how the sun moved in the sky to keep track of the time, which was how he knew that by the time C.C. spoke up, a little over 4 hours had passed, with the sun having passed its midday peak a while ago.

'It seems that we're close to a settlement.' C.C. looked out and saw that the forest had finally fallen away, having been cleared away by hum-it had been cleared away for farming as both sides of the roads allowed them to see farmland, with crops already planted and being tended to.

'Yes, which means potential…help.' Jeremiah started to speak till his tongue ceased to function as he and the rest of them saw that it wasn't more of whatever their driver was tending the fields, or watching over their strange livestock, but it was honest to God giants. Being at least 5m taller, with skin as green as the forest and stronger than any man as they saw one of them dragging something that must have weighed as much as a cow with little strain while another was carrying stones that must have weighed half a ton towards the side of the road where they were repairing a wall.

While C.C. and Jeremiah were gaping at the sight before them, Lelouch was watching in awe, as he couldn't help but be captivated by it all he felt like he had stepped into a fairy tale as he had been in what would have passed for an enchanted forest, met of their inhuman residents and now was seeing actual giants…or were they orcs? He was seeing so much, but he felt a hint of grief as he recalled how his friends would have loved to see this as well, especially Rivalz and Milly, Shirley would have wished to see the sea and perhaps meet some mermaids. Eventually, the farm fields fell away as more buildings; homes they assumed appeared and with them, that number only increased as they finally entered the town. They didn't have the best view of it, but from their spot inside the carriage, watching it all through the back of the thing, they could tell that it looked far different to human architecture as if Lelouch had to explain human designs, they were all centered around arches, triangles and squares, which made sense, these shapes tended to be the best at managing loads and other stresses.

What they were seeing now wasn't that it appeared as if their gold standard shape design for buildings were circles and octagons, if that made any sense as it seemed like the buildings were designed in a way to appear as if they didn't have corners or sharp edges. None appeared to be made from things like concrete or steel, but rather brick and wood despite that, they saw buildings that were at least 8 stories high and looked as structurally sound as any modern one either of them would have seen. It wasn't just the design of the buildings that caught their attention, but their size as well as some of the ones they saw were sized for residents as large as the giants they had seen working the fields, with others walking about town, going about their days as they would any other. Other buildings appeared to be much smaller, small as in the kind of size that would fit into a single room, and built far above the ground with no way to access them, leaving them to wonder whose idea that was for a moment before they saw the reason as from one of them, a fairy the size of a large doll came out of one and flew off. Such sights continued for a while as they travelled through the town before they came to a stop.

Outside, they found that they had stopped outside one of the the-thankfully-normal-sized buildings, a double story with a sign, but as they had come to expect from the fact they couldn't understand anything they heard on the way, it wasn't in English, it wasn't in the Latin alphabet, it wasn't in any alphabet that any of them would have recognized. But they could make out the picture of a herb which must have meant this was a doctor, right? The man came around before they could figure it out, helping to get Lelouch out of the carriage with Jeremiah being sure he didn't trip, the sight of the quickly turning heads as people nearby turned to them, children pointing as parents pulled them back while others stood in front of the rest, clearly ready for a fight with as far as they were concerned, aliens. It was with this fanfare that they entered the building, a bell announcing their arrival as a pale, red-haired man whose head wasn't even at C.C.'s waist, what they could only assume was a leprechaun, came around to greet them, a smile on his face till he saw who his clients were and it quickly faded into shock and fear.

The merchant stepped forward and talked to him for a minute, the two looking back at them now and then and while they couldn't understand a word they were saying, they could get enough from the context that the doctor wasn't happy to have them, even getting increasingly angry and that the merchant was doing his best to help. After a while, the doctor's anger seems to fade as his shoulders relax as the merchant handed him a small pouch of coins, which the doctor opened up and quickly counted, once he was satisfied with the payment, he handed the merchant back a generous amount of change, waving off the man's clear confusion of getting so much back before he turned back to them.

Afterwards, they escorted Lelouch up the stairs to a room with numerous beds, or what passed for beds as the mattresses just looked like bags filled with feathers or something of that type. The doctor did a quick exam, not bothering with questions as they both knew it would just turn into the world's most irritating game of charades, a fact Lelouch appreciate as he was starting to struggle to remain awake, his energy drained as the doctor gestured for him to rest or did he? Either way, he closed his eyes and faded back into the world of dreams, wondering what would happen now that they found themselves in this strange land.

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