Wow. I mean, I'm actually astonished at the reviews Warlock has gotten so far, and I've got more momentum going for the story. With any luck, it might end up as a published story before long. It's worth pointing out that both Lelouch and Kallen will be a little OOC compared to canon. The latter is because Harry has been a calming influence on Kallen. She's still the fiery redhead, true, but she's also a more thoughtful person, more inclined to despise the nobility of Britannia rather than every Britannian.
With Lelouch, it's more of his actions that will be different. Given that Warlock knows who he is, as well as Kallen, he's more open, albeit out of pragmatism than true honesty. He'll also be modelled slightly on the Lelouch from SeerKing's Code Geass: The Prepared Rebellion (which I recommend, by the way).
Also, I haven't heard much word about adding CC to the pairing. A few have commented, but not enough. Well?
Given my recent obsession with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, it's little wonder that the mock-opening I describe at the end of this chapter is based on one of the openings for that series (because I think the opening of Code Geass, at least the first one, is a bit too generic anime for my liking). Namely, the third opening, Stand Proud. I used the version translated by Triv and sung by Mark de Groot here, partly because the lyrics translation fitted better:
watch?v=hXRDpfP9r20
That being said, I prefer Jonathan Young's version, and if you want to see it married with the actual opening titles (which is ridiculously awesome), here it is...
watch?v=uOGDq86i8tY
WARLOCK
CHAPTER 2:
REVELATIONS
A few minutes later, as they made their way through a veritable warren of abandoned buildings, Harry heard the voice of CC remark, "Hmm, a novel way to travel, being levitated. I can walk now, so you can let me down."
Harry did so, and the beautiful green-haired woman got to her feet. Lelouch glanced at her. "So, you didn't die."
"And you can state the obvious," CC snarked. "How do you like my gift?"
"Gift?" Harry asked.
"The power of Geass," CC said.
"That mind-control thing he did?" Harry asked. "Like the Imperius?"
"...Yes. I found it useful," Lelouch said. "Thank you, CC. We'll talk about this later. First, we need to get out of here."
"Easier said than done," Harry said. "Hear that gunfire? Clovis has ordered an outright massacre, no doubt. I'm hoping that our group has managed to evacuate the civilians to hiding places, but even so, there's only so much we can do. And only one of us would find bullet wounds a mere annoyance."
They made their way into a warehouse, and just as Harry was helping CC get some supplies out from underneath some rubble, a Sutherland burst through. Thankfully, the pilot could only see Lelouch, and demanded answers. Lelouch seemed to try and use his Geass, only for it to fail, so he spoke a lie, claiming to be someone called Alan Spacer.
Harry recognised the woman who emerged from the Sutherland, given her presence alongside Gottwald during his public appearances. The dark-skinned woman with blue hair and an athletic frame was Viletta Nu, Gottwald's second in command. And once she was close enough, Lelouch brought her under control.
"Why didn't you tell him that it was based on eye contact?" Harry hissed at CC as Lelouch interrogated Viletta.
"I'm still half-drugged from the capsule," she retorted quietly. "And I've had a bullet go through my head. Forgive me if I don't give the boy a book titled Geass for Dummies."
As the pair of them emerged, Lelouch said, "Warlock, if you want to ask her anything, go ahead. I've ordered her to answer any questions you might ask. I only ask that you keep her alive. I've decided to make her my mole within the Purists. And given that I need eye contact for the Geass to work, I can't exactly force you to comply. Once you're done with your questions, say to her, 'Lamperouge Flash(1)'. You'll have ten minutes to leave before she reverts to normal after that. I'm going to help your comrades."
"Then I'll make my own way back. Unless you happen to come across a whole train of Sutherlands or something."
Lelouch flashed Harry a knowing smirk, before looking at CC. "Care to join me? It'll be a little cramped, but…"
"Yes, I do believe I will take this gentleman's offer of a ride," CC said, before looking at Harry. "Thank you for helping me."
As the pair of them got into the Sutherland and left, Harry looked at Viletta. "Did you know that Clovis was engaged in human experimentation on that woman?"
"No."
"And if you had known, what would you have done?"
"Reported it to Margrave Gottwald," she responded automatically in a flat tone. It reminded Harry of the time when Barty Crouch Junior was questioned under the influence of Veritaserum.
After a moment, he said, "Why is Gottwald so xenophobic?"
"He believed the Elevens killed the children of Marianne vi Britannia. He feels their demise deeply as another failure, after his failure to protect Marianne."
"And if he found out they were alive?"
"He would immediately be loyal to them."
"And you?"
"Where he goes, I go. I joined the Purist Faction out of loyalty to him."
Hmm, useful information. Could Gottwald be an ally? The key thing was Lelouch. And as tempted as Harry was to kill this woman for her own xenophobia, Lelouch had said he had turned her into a mole. So he decided to just content himself with hitting her with a spell that turned her into a clown, before saying, "Lamperouge Flash."
As he fled through the Shinjuku Ghetto, attacking Britannian soldiers whenever he could do so, Harry realised that he couldn't find Kallen's radio. He still had his own, so he dialled it to the frequency of Kallen's Glasgow, and said, "Tsunade, are you there?"
"A little busy right now, Warlock!" Kallen said. "Gottwald's not letting up, and my Glasgow is now missing an arm!"
"Right, well, there's some good news. Our stowaways have decided to help out. He's in one of the Purists' Sutherlands."
"Indeed I am," Lelouch's voice, albeit distorted by a vocoder of his own, sounded. "Tsunade, use the train tracks to get to the West Entrance! If you want to win against them, go there! Warlock, what's your status?"
"On foot. Avoiding any Knightmare Frames, but dealing with any goons trying to kill civilians."
"Right, keep doing that."
After a moment, Harry realised he wasn't far away, and watched as Kallen leaped up onto some tracks, pursued by Gottwald, who roared over his external speakers that she couldn't escape. However, he got intercepted by a train, and the Knightmare Frames pursuing Kallen were shot down by the mostly-concealed Sutherland that had to be Lelouch's, though Kallen landed the final blow on Gottwald's, forcing the Purist to eject.
Harry'd done his best to help the evacuation and thin out the attacking Britannian infantry, so he decided to head on up there. He was able to Apparate within a line of sight, so he appeared with a loud crack right near Kallen's Glasgow, with Ohgi and the others running up nearby. "How's the evacuation?" he asked.
Ohgi nodded. "We managed to get it done, as best as we could. But the soldiers, they killed the stragglers. What was with the radio message earlier, telling us to come here?"
"We got help from someone," Harry said, deciding to fudge it. "We'll talk later, Sensei. We can trust him…for now. I know who he is."
"Then tell us, dammit!" snapped Tamaki, he of the short temper and tiny mind.
"Shut up, Baka," Kallen and Harry chorused.
Lelouch contacted them again, talking to Ohgi and asking what he intended with the capsule, before agreeing to help them. And to Harry's astonishment, there were twenty Sutherlands. Looks like Lelouch did manage to find a train of Sutherlands. Harry began casting Repair Charms on Kallen's Glasgow. He couldn't do much about her missing arm, but a few other things could be repaired.
"By the way, Mysterious Voice, what do we call you?" Harry asked.
"For now…call me K-1. At least you have the sense to use codenames over an open line. I'd like listings of everyone's codenames, except for Warlock, Tsunade, and Sensei, I've already got those. Oh, and Baka."
K-1? Isn't that the notation for the King's starting position in chess? The ego on this guy, Harry thought, thinking back to Ron, and regretting it almost immediately. Still, after finishing up with Kallen, he got into his own Sutherland, removing the mask for now, but keeping the vocoder. "K-1, I'm nowhere near as good as Tsunade using a Knightmare Frame. When I do, my specialty is sniping, not close combat."
"Understood, Warlock. The Identification: Friend or Foe units on those should be disabled, and I can send you a feed of those from the Britannian forces. I need you all to follow my instructions to the letter…"
The battle was ridiculously easy, though Harry suspected it was because Clovis was a shitty commander in battle, whereas Lelouch…well, Harry and Kallen went to the Ashford Academy, and Harry, though information gathering, knew Lelouch was a chess player better than Ron. Indeed, he often played games for money, fleecing nobles who underestimated the slender teenager. This sense of tactics was obviously brought over into real life, given the results he was getting.
Harry, for the most part, enjoyed sniping some of the Knightmare Frames from afar. And soon, they had dealt with almost all of the Knightmares. However, he noticed something in the distance. "K-1, I see what appears to be a Knightmare trailer in the distance. Patching in a feed."
After a moment, Lelouch said, "Hmm…looks like it's associated with the Earl of Pudding."
"Who?" Tamaki demanded.
"Lloyd Asplund," Lelouch explained. "The rather eccentric head of Camelot. They do weapons R&D. Which means that trailer may have an experimental next-gen Knightmare Frame. Stay alert."
The Knightmare that emerged was ridiculously fast, agile, gleaming white, and armed to the teeth. Harry watched as it tore a few of their Sutherlands apart, and when he fired, it was blocked by a shield. "Shit," he muttered. "K-1, I'm not sure what the hell we can do to this thing. The pilot is good, and this thing is armed to the bloody teeth."
"Understood, Warlock. If you can slow it down, do so."
"Easy for you to say," Harry muttered. The Knightmare had turned to attack Kallen, and Harry aimed for one of the leg joints and fired. This time, it managed to damage the leg. Instantly, the Knightmare fired one of its Slash Harken harpoon/grappling hooks at Harry's Knightmare, and while he evaded in time, his rifle wasn't so lucky. As the new Knightmare grappled up using another, Harry made his way away, pulling out a Chaos Grenade. "Everyone near me, get the hell away! I'm leaving this wanker a Chaos Grenade as a gift."
He primed it and leapt off the edge of the building. Blasts of high velocity shrapnel spat out. "K-1, anyone looking on, did I get the bastard?" Harry demanded as he used the Slash Harkens to descend safely.
"You managed to get him, Warlock, but he used his shields to absorb most of the damage," Lelouch replied. "Warlock, Tsunade, please act as decoys. I'm going to put an end to this. You know how, Warlock."
The Geass? Harry thought. But as a nearby building crumbled, a woman and a baby began plummeting to their doom. And Harry, cursing what Hermione called his 'saving people thing', ran to catch them, even as the new Knightmare dropped down.
He managed to catch the mother and child, adjusting the hands in just the right way to minimise injury, but cursed as the Knightmare landed in front of him. Whoever the Britannian was had him vulnerable, and they wouldn't give a crap about a Japanese mother and child dying.
Except, they were hesitating. Eventually, they turned on their external speakers, and said, "I won't fight you while you're holding them. Put them down now."
Harry blinked. Wasn't that voice Suzaku's? For a moment, he debated whether to use them as meatshields, but while Harry was a harder person than he was before, he wouldn't stoop that far. Unless it was a bluff.
He gently lowered his hand, and the woman scurried to safety with her burden. "Private Kururugi…so you made it to safety," Harry said through the external speakers. "Now I'm beginning to wonder whether saving your arse from those bastards trying to kill you was a good idea. Gratitude has a rather short half-life, doesn't it?"
"You're doing things wrong! Violence only begets violence! Why can't you accept that?"
"…Well, let's just say that I've a major allergy to elitist arseholes. And if you seriously think that people should bend over and lube up just because some old bastard with a shitty attitude, a shitty beard, and a shitty wig, claims survival of the fittest is paramount…think again."
Suzaku seemed to have had enough, as he fired a couple of Slash Harkens at Harry. But Harry had a plan. A stupid, reckless plan, but a plan all the same. As the cockpit of his Sutherland ejected, he Apparated across to the Knightmare Suzaku was piloting, ending up perched just behind the mecha's head. "Surprise, bitch!" he yelled. "ALOHAMORA!"
Now, he had no idea whether this'd work, but to his amazement, the cockpit disengaged and opened up, revealing a very surprised Suzaku. Harry promptly Stunned him, using Levicorpus to send him down to the ground, safely. For now. He crawled into the cockpit, and looked around. He'd have no hope of piloting this, but he reckoned denying the enemy one of its weapons would be a good consolation prize. "BOMBARDA MAXIMA!"
He Apparated to the ground just in time as the cockpit erupted in flames. Rubble came crashing down, separating him from Suzaku. Harry wasn't sure whether he was going to kill the idiot. He was a threat, true…but Harry saw a little of himself in the Japanese boy. Before idealism was killed by his fifth year at Hogwarts. Before the Department of Mysteries, Sirius hit by a curse, Harry intercepting him, only to be knocked through the Veil…only to end up in Japan in a parallel world.
Clicking his tongue irritably, Harry went to go look for Kallen and the others. He was about to deal with some soldiers who were searching the area when he heard Clovis' voice announce a ceasefire. A grim grin touched his lips behind the mask. It seemed that Lelouch had struck…
In the hideout later, as Tamaki was being chewed out by Ohgi (it was Tamaki's mistakes that caused the Britannians to be alerted sooner), Harry, who had taken off his mask, was talking to Kallen in the corner, having erected a Privacy Charm. Nagata, thankfully, had managed to make it back to base, and was currently being tended to. "So K-1 was Lelouch?" Kallen asked.
"Yeah. I'm guessing his exile's made him bitter towards his former countrymen," Harry said, running a hand through his tangled black hair. He looked at Kallen. "Are you all right?"
"Just a few bruises," the redhead said, smiling. The fiery girl had taken some time to warm up to Harry completely, but they were now inseparable. "What about you, Harry? What was that reckless crap about taking on that Knightmare outside of one?"
"I took a risk. If it didn't work, I would have gotten the hell out of there," Harry said. "Anyway, I've managed to give the Earl of Pudding a blow to his ego, and he won't like that…"
"NOOOOOO!" Lloyd Asplund wailed, cradling debris from the Lancelot as if it was his dead child. Which it was, in a perverse way.
"…Is he going to be okay?" a rather battered Suzaku asked.
Cecile Croomy, Asplund's beleaguered assistant, sighed. "Define 'okay'," she said. "It gets pretty loose around him."
"DO NOT WANT!"
"Even so, I don't want you risking your life like that, Harry," Kallen said.
"Hey, you were the one fighting off Jeremiah fucking Gottwald," Harry retorted. "I should be saying that to you, though Lelouch's little bit of intelligence gathering helped. Still…that ability he used…the one CC called Geass…we've got to be careful, especially if he helps us in future. We tell Ohgi, and make sure Nagata's quiet about it. I think we should head back to Ashford Academy soon."
"Ugh, I hate that place. Most of the Britannians there are idiots. Even that genius girl, Nina or whatever it was? She's ridiculously scared towards Japanese. I dunno why you spend so much time trying to befriend her," Kallen said.
"Hey, she saw her family murdered by a Japanese mob during the invasion. Not to mention what happened when she wandered into the ghetto by accident. She's afraid of Japanese, she hasn't got the whole superiority complex thing most of those idiots have. And I've managed to get her to engage in intellectual debate about the issue. Hopefully, she'll just be cautious than a nervous wreck. Anyway, if she's anything like her namesake back home…" Harry's face fell at the reminder. Home. A whole universe away. And his friends, if they were still alive, separated by the walls of time and space.
Kallen gently put an arm around his shoulder, knowing what he was thinking about. It took her some time to believe that he was from another world. "We'll find a way back," she said quietly. "I want to see a world where Japan is free, and Britannia doesn't exist."
Harry scoffed morosely. "I want to show you that world…but I can't. So…I do what I can here."
The two sat together like that, for some time. The wizard, and the freedom fighter. Fighting against a monolithic empire. An impossible, quixotic task. But then again, Harry had first done the impossible when he was still in nappies. What else was new?
OPENING
SONG: Stand Proud by Jin Hashimoto, Takatuku Wakabayashi and ZENTA, English lyrics by Triv, sung by Mark de Groot (opening to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders)
As the opening chords begin, we see Lelouch holding a mask as Zero posing, before Kallen and CC, back to back, appear on the next set of notes, before we see Harry as Warlock (sans mask) from the back, before he turns and points his wand at the camera, before the camera zooms in on his eye, a Geass symbol briefly appearing before the caption WARLOCK appears over the Geass vortex.
As all these memories fade to stardust,
Let's brave the world just like the men we are,
We'll make it far!
We see ghostly, smoky images of the lives of Harry, Kallen, Lelouch and CC in what could be clouds or plumes of scintillating dust we move through. We see, at least briefly, Harry falling through the Veil, Marianne and Nunnally being shot, Kallen's mother on Refrain, CC burning at the stake, and so on. We then see the Black Knights standing on a Knightmare Frame, zooming in on Harry and Lelouch dressed as Warlock and Zero, flanked by CC and Kallen, with Harry and Lelouch flinging out their cloaks, briefly obscuring the screen.
Can't let the hands of time enslave us,
'Cause you know that's not the way we wanna go.
We see brief flashes of Lelouch's declaration to Suzaku when they were younger, before they fade to show Suzaku alongside Euphemia and Cornelia, along with Gottwald and Viletta, standing in front of the Lancelot.
Caught up in a bind, fingers tied,
But I'm gonna prove that we've won,
'Cause we're made of platinum!
We see Nunnally confined to her wheelchair, Lelouch and Sayoko doting on her, then Hermione, Dumbledore, Remus, Sirius and the Weasleys walking through the streets of the settlement. Then, the JLF and Tohdoh in one of their debates. We then see Harry, Lelouch, CC and Kallen, in Black Knight gear, sans masks, looking ready to fight. We then zoom in on Lelouch's eye, with the Geass appearing.
Take a stand! Take a stand! Take a stand!
And you'll turn it around!
Understand! Understand! Understand!
That they'll burn to the ground!
We see, in an abstract landscape, Kallen using her Guren Knightmare to fight against the Lancelot. Harry, in Warlock gear, is teleporting around Cornelia trying to attack him in single combat. We then see Lelouch, his hand outstretched, his Zero mask sliding open to show the Geass symbol in his eye. We zoom in, and see three brief flashes of Charles and VV, Schneizel, and then Voldemort.
Break it down! Break it down! Break it down!
And don't give me a frown!
Be a star, and try to stand proud!
We move down the pillar into the Sword of Akasha, showing Harry, Suzaku, Lelouch, Kallen, CC, Euphemia, Cornelia, Hermione and others in the structure proper, surrounded on all sides by enemies, the Jupiter-like form of C's World hanging in the sky, symbolically defending C's World from Ragnarok. We then cut to Harry, Lelouch, Kallen and CC standing back to back, looking determined, as Voldemort and the Death Eaters come for them, zooming out once more…
CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:
So, we've had a similar but not quite the same battle in Shinjuku. Harry's been rather reckless.
1. This code word to deactivate Viletta in 'mole mode' comes from SeerKing's Code Geass: The Prepared Rebellion, which I highly recommend.
