Hello everyone! Guess who lives again~? That's right, it's me. I apologize that it's been a while, but here's another chapter to help soothe some of your excitement. Also, I read the reviews and one review from Kura really, really surprised me. Turns out I've got a TV Trope page all on my own with this fic! I am so, so honored and pleased that someone loved my story enough to create an actual freaking page about it. That really made my day. Thank you for letting me know about it.
Kura also brings up another good point. I believe I'm going to start cross-posting my stories on Ao3 just so my story can reach more people. I honestly like Ao3 as a system more just because the filters are so much easier to use and more specific when looking for a story of your tastes. I'd suggest checking it out. You guys might end up liking the site too and find more stories to read and love. But anyway, let's just jump straight into it!
Warning! This story will have lots of swearing, violence, and blood/gore. If you don't like that, then this probably isn't for you and you shouldn't be reading this.
"Yes, I am Zero." = Regular speech
What is he up to? = Thoughts
"Where are you young one?" = Telepathic speech
"Hello, I am your PDA." = The PDA is speaking
/Can you understand me?/ = Sign language
I don't take any credit, nor do I own Code Geass or Subnautica. This story is purely for fun and my entertainment only.
Ch. 14: Hallucinating Reunions
"Warning: Local radiation at maximum tolerable level."
Well, that was bad.
The terrorist had forgotten about that admittedly after everything else that had happened. He needed to somehow find his way to the drive core and fix it before something worse than just radiation happened.
But how was he going to-
"Containment breach repaired. Further breaches detected: 10."
.
.
.
What?
. . .
"Containment breach repaired. Further breaches detected: 9."
Lelouch was absolutely floored. Looking down at the PDA as if it had finally lost the screw keeping it somewhat sane. What- but how? Is the drive core somehow fixing itself? I'm stuck in here so there's no one who can repair it- Wait.
"Containment breach repaired. Further breaches detected: 8."
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What the hell? There's no one who could repair the drive core except for himself. Himself, and two other people.
"Containment breach repaired. Further breaches detected: 7."
"Containment breach repaired. Further breaches detected: 6."
Suzaku. Kallen.
"Containment breach repaired. Further breaches detected: 5."
They were alive. They really were alive.
"Containment breach repaired. Further breaches detected: 4."
They made it. They had survived. Just like he did.
"Containment breach repaired. Further breaches detected: 3."
They were fixing the breaches while he was stuck on the other side. They were doing it! They were succeeding.
They were alive!
"Containment breach repaired. Further breaches detected: 2."
"Containment breach repaired. Further breaches detected: 1."
Lelouch couldn't help the onslaught of tears rushing down his cheeks, fogging up his helmet and making it harder to see.
"Drive core breach sealed. Radiation levels decreasing."
"Kallen! Suzaku!" Lelouch bellowed, and immediately regretted it when his throat felt like it had been grated against sandpaper multiple times. "I- i'm here- i- '' Scratchy and wheezy, even Lelouch couldn't understand what just came out of his own mouth.
Barely resisting the urge to try and pointlessly pummel the door blocking his way down, Lelouch frantically searched around the Prawn Bay to find any tools that could assist him. While he did manage to find a storage module for the Seamoth the only other things available to him were pieces of scrap metal. They wouldn't be strong enough to pry or tear down the door, and the Prawn suits were deactivated. It would be a hopeless affair to try and rewire them and turn them on. It would also be dangerous since Lelouch would have no clue as to what he was doing.
By the time the tired terrorist came back to collapse by the door in sudden exhaustion so much time had passed that the raven haired teen was certain the two had moved on from the drive core. Wherever that was since he sure as hell didn't find it. For all he knew this doorway led to a supply closet, and he was making himself out to be the fool.
Ugh, for fuck's sake. Lelouch tried to make some noise to show his dismay, but not even a peep or whimper came out. Eyes snapping open in surprise, Lelouch reached up to rub his sore, abused throat with one hand. Trying to speak again yielded the same results. As if there was a sudden block on his throat and voice. He couldn't speak.
He couldn't speak anymore.
He can't speak.
While the sudden rise of adrenaline that came with panicking was almost clouding Lelouch's mind. There was a sudden, abrupt bout of banging and noises coming from the other side of the door. Sudden and abnormally different from the constant chaos of the degrading spaceship, and it was coming from right behind him.
. . .
Distract. Stab. Repeat.
It would almost be a calming, soothing pattern if it wasn't for the high risk of being bitten by parasitic tentacle sea monsters. At least it would've been for Kallen, she didn't really know how Suzaku felt about it. He probably didn't really mind either though seeing as these things were trying to suck out their blood.
A true survival of the fittest world where it's kill or be killed. Where only the strongest survive.
For a single second, Kallen pondered on if this was the kind of world the Emperor of Britannia was striving for. If this was what he visualized as the perfect, beautiful world he plans on obtaining. From the way the old mad geezer based his speech upon such ideals at his son Clovis' funeral the redhead would have to give an educated guess and say yes.
She couldn't wait to get back home and introduce the true cause to all of her and her family's pain to her Guren. Hopefully Suzaku would be willing to step to the side for just that one moment. Just for one second, it would be all she needed.
Kallen knew she was starting to reach her limit when she could feel the whites of her eyes starting to turn red, going bloodshot. She was holding onto threads with her own well being, physically, mentally, and emotionally. The very edges of her vision were now constantly hazy as she shifted her gaze to Suzaku. The Britannian soldier putting his all into eliminating the last few of the bleeder fish going stir crazy in the blood infested waters like a pack of piranhas. The edges of his eyes were starting to turn red too, probably from the same bone deep exhaustion she was feeling.
Yet, it wouldn't be safe to fall asleep inside a spaceship about to collapse on itself any second. They couldn't rest until they left this place for good.
But, it wasn't safe to rest outside in the ocean either, not with that haunting leviathan skulking around somewhere. No where was safe until they reached their base… They're home. Even then there were still exploding fish hiding within the caves beneath those safe shallows. Kallen would rather take exploding tiny fish than leviathans she'd probably struggle killing even inside of her marvelous Guren.
"Squee!" A frantically panicking bleeder gave one last ear piercing shriek before finally falling limp on Suzaku's blade. With this last death came a sudden relief and ease in tension around the drive core. The duo silently agreed to scout the waters one last time to make sure all of the threats were eliminated before diving right in.
They were somewhat safe, for now. Though that could change any second in a place like this.
"Here, I'll get the repair tool out of your bag and you can start repairing the radiation leaks." Suzaku spoke quietly. As if it was too much effort and energy to speak any louder than he was now over the constant rumbling and grumbling of the pained Aurora. "I'll watch your back in case we missed any other bleeders we couldn't find above the water."
"I'm pretty sure we at least got most of them." Kallen agreed as she turned to let Suzaku rifle through her bag and pull out the advanced repair tool. "Glad we decided to look for any danger before we leaped." Suzaku didn't reply back, but the redhead had a feeling that if she turned her head around to look at him his entire posture would be screaming 'same'.
"Here." The brunette said instead, and handed Kallen the repair tool before wordlessly standing up and diving into the water. Away from the massive amount of alien blood drifting in their previous kill zone thankfully. Nobody wanted to swim in a ton of blood, alien blood or not. The Black Knight Ace watched as Suzaku swam around for a bit, before turning to her and pointing to a rather sizable tear in the drive core's metal hull beside him. The four metal pillars were littered with similar tears, and each one had small sparks of electricity dancing from torn live wires.
Thank the lord the radiation suits also helped protect them from the electricity in the water. While the sea creatures on this planet seemed to be resistant to the electricity, their human bodies wouldn't have been able to handle it without such insulation. As long as neither she nor Suzaku actually tried to touch the main source they would be fine.
Taking a moment to prepare herself with a deep breath and check on her injured arm. Kallen casually jumped in after Suzaku and slowly followed him to the spot that needed to be repaired. Not even bothering to say anything, the Guren pilot held up the repair tool and activated it.
Both teens watched as it almost seemed like time reversed itself to quickly fix up the damage caused to the drive core by such a nasty crash landing. Bits of polished white metal creeped up over the now fixed wound like a living entity, but was probably just nanotech working at its finest somehow.
Even so tired and emotionally drained as they were. Both Kallen and Suzaku couldn't help just slightly marveling at the sight. At how much potential the human race had in this life. Lelouch would be going nuts raving at the possibilities bringing the technology to their world would do for them. While they would just be rolling their eyes teasing him for being such a nerd and continue on with fixing the repairs.
"I'm surprised this is actually working." Suzaku finally unclogged the invisible barrier stuck in his throat to nearly force those words out. Attempting to bring some light hearted conversation into the depressing silence encompassing the duo now. "I thought for sure we'd need something more than the repair tool to fix this thing and that this entire endeavor would all be for nothing."
Kallen glanced over to Suzaku's olive green orbs, watching as he scouted the empty area around them. Some of the deceased bleeder corpses were slowly sinking towards the floor leaving a small trail of yellow blood in their wake. The scent will certainly attract more from wherever they managed to get in eventually, but for now they were in the clear.
As the fiery teen moved on to the third containment breach she could spot, Kallen finally plucked up the ability to speak again as well. "To be honest, I was kinda worrying about the same thing." She croaked before clearly her throat lightly. "I didn't think this was gonna work either." Once fixing the third breach she took a moment to close her eyes and sighed through her nose. "But I'm glad it did."
Suzaku nodded and began to swim towards the fourth breach when he noticed a small light brown blur swimming towards Kallen. Reacting instantly, the brunette didn't even say anything as he grabbed the stray living bleeder from the water and killed it with his survival knife. Though the Guren pilot saw the incoming danger and was prepared to protect herself, the Lancelot user decided to strike first.
The bleeder squealed bloody murder on its demise, and Kallen looked over to Suzaku. The two silently stared at each other in a mute conversation with only their eyes and near numbed emotions from all the constant adrenaline and shock. Sapphire blue and olive green stared. Two opposing colors on two opposing sides with two different yet similar lives in another world.
They were both enemies at war, but they were also both friends.
The two reached a consensus, an agreement. Together, they learned something about each other and themselves. Gruen or Lancelot, Britannia or Japan, good or bad, right versus wrong. At the moment it didn't matter, because right now everything was all just gray, and deciding on what is right and what is evil all just depends on perspective. Their perspective. Something which was finally starting to shift into understanding.
Things would be different if they managed to get home.
"..." Kallen gave a silent nod which Suzaku softly returned before they abandoned the dead bleeder and continued on their current mission.
Green eyes blearily looked around for any more threats, but currently saw none. Suzaku tried to reach up and rub at his face which was beginning to grow an irritatingly itchy stubble, but was prevented from doing so by his radiation scuba helmet. Realizing this a few seconds after going through the motions brought out an annoyed, exhausted groan from the soldier. "I'm exhausted."
It took a minute for Kallen to properly process what Suzaku just said as she finished the fifth breach repair. Blinking dulled sapphire eyes she merely droned on with resolve. "We're almost done here, then we can go."
"Speaking of leaving, what the hell are we going to do after all of this?" Suzaku gestured weakly to the side. "How are we even stepping a foot off of this death ship without that… shinigami trying to swallow us whole?" The Eleven soldier shuddered in fright just at the mere memory of the reaper.
The reminder of their precarious predicament served to bring Kallen back up to the present. Blue eyes blinking and becoming just a bit more aware than before as she thought long and hard on this problem. Silence reigned as they finished repairing the breaches, and once the last one was finally sealed up Kallen answered honestly.
"Drive core breach sealed. Radiation levels decreasing."
"I'm not sure." It was spoken with a grim dull note. Wordlessly, the duo began swimming up towards the water's surface to exit the drive core since there was no longer any reason to be there. There was nothing left of value to salvage, so it was time to move on. "But perhaps we can find something further inside the Aurora's depths to distract or kill the thing while we make a run for it." Once sitting back down on the drive core's walkway Kallen took a moment to take off her helmet and eat a nutrient block they had recently obtained through their searching. Rubbing the crumbs off her lips she spoke once more. "Otherwise, I don't know what we can do besides take a risk and just swim for it. Pray to God we don't get killed in the process. The usual really."
"Wow." Suzaku droned on with an unamused expression. "How exciting." It was clear he was being sarcastic, but it was also clear he didn't mean anything truly hurtful about it. He was just trying to project and take out some of his anger in a less violent way than slamming his fist into a metal door. Kallen didn't mind and let it slide.
Once both parties were set to continue, they left the drive core completely without turning back. Reentering the fiery hallway and sliding back into the water, but just as they dove under the rocking waves the entire Aurora suddenly shifted dramatically. Both teens cried out in surprise as they were caught off guard, and the sea water suddenly sloshed everywhere as an overwhelming cacophony of noise ringed over their ears and senses. The duo could do nothing more but stiffen and brace themselves for possibly being crushed as more of the Aurora's frame was compromised.
There was a loud metallic crack somewhat similar to a thick bone finally being broken before a loud crash and tear echoed out further down the hall. Ash and dust fell onto the water's surface above Kallen and Suzaku in a massive wave of black and brown. The sea water finally starting to calm its jarring motions again as the Aurora gave one more almighty shriek of agony before dulling back down to the usual groan of destruction.
The two fighters waited for a moment, still floating in the water before daring to open their eyes and look around to see what had happened. The water level of the area had risen to a noticeable degree, and some more of the ceiling's panels and beams had fallen down to float in the water but that was mainly it.
"What was that?" Kallen asked finally after realizing the main danger had passed. Straightening out in the water she began to swim forward and investigate. "That sounded super close by."
"It sounded like a floor collapsing or something." Suzaku guessed as he followed Kallen. The two looked down the hallway towards the Seamoth Bay to see nothing had changed, but then they turned to look towards the once sealed shut locker rooms.
The entire wall had caved underneath the pressure and fell down to the next floor. Dangerous, wickedly sharp and strong metal beams criss crossed alongside floating live wires flickering menacingly. Yet, there was a noticeable gap that the two could easily travel through now that wasn't there before that led to a half demolished locker room and further beyond.
"I don't know if we should go through there." Kallen stated hesitantly, yet the two started swimming forward regardless. "We should probably double back towards the surface and see if any new open areas appeared from that chaos."
"I'm not so sure." Suzaku disagreed. For once being the person to give Kallen the confidence needed to go forward instead. "Can't gain anything without any risks. Who knows, maybe we'll find that blackbox data the PDA was talking about."
"Or maybe a way to combat the leviathan knocking on our door." Kallen muttered right after in rising agreement. "You're right."
"Besides, no matter where we are so long as we remain on this metal deathtrap we can be crushed literally any second." Suzaku stated seconds after, which certainly didn't do well in helping Kallen's mood on the idea. Judging from the stare she gave him, the brunette realized it too. "Hey, I'm just stating facts here." He held his hands up in surrender.
Kallen scoffed and rolled her eyes. "More like stating the unnecessary obvious. Let's just keep going." With a dramatic 'after you' gesture, Suzaku decided to swim through the gap first, then turned around to help Kallen through so that she could rest her injured arm.
Once through to the otherside, the teens split up to search what remained of the locker rooms. Finding two abandoned PDAs on the Aurora's auxiliary mission and a supposed 'sweet offer' they mostly skimmed over and ignored. The better finds were water, med kits, and a stray full battery. Though the best jackpot had to be the Prawn Bay.
"Hey Suzaku." Kallen called out to the Britannian soldier to gather his attention from looting a locker of its medical supplies. "The Prawn Bay seems to be just right up ahead. Those are the knightmare mechs built for the sea in this world right?" She questioned, as if any of them could forget something so similar to their world and vital for their survival.
Olive green eyes poked out from around the locker's door to look at the somehow still functioning glowing sign. The bright sign showing that the Prawn Bay was just down the opened hallway in front of Kallen. Suzaku's eyes widened in surprise at the find, and after taking a moment to finish cleaning out the locker, immediately joined his redheaded companion at the hallway.
"Yeah." Suzaku agreed softly. His eyes zeroing in on an abandoned supply crate left in the hallway while Kallen's own gaze went further down the electrical hall. "How much do you want to bet we can't get through this way?"
"That's not even a bet." Kallen stated surprisingly quickly. "With our luck it's almost guaranteed."
The two surfaced from the rising water back into a burning hallway almost chalk full of thick black smoke. Sticking as low to the water as possible their O2 tanks popped open and automatically filled up on as much oxygen as possible before capping back shut in the dangerous environment. It probably had a sensor to tell when the oxygen was safe for breathing or not thanks to human innovation, but at the moment it didn't really matter.
What mattered was the fact that the door was mainly unharmed, and only needed the repair tool to open it.
The teens stood hunched over in their exhaustion, gobsmacked at this basic middle finger to their original thought of the Prawn Bay being much harder to get to. Suzaku even accidentally slipped on the wet walkway, nearly falling straight into a wall that was on fire in his stupor. Instead the brunette veered sharply to the right and ended up crashing into the door.
"Uggh." Suzaku groaned weakly and slowly sat up, his muscles twitching and trembling in visible strain. "I'm too tired for this shit."
"I can barely even walk straight either." Kallen said comfortingly. "Hell, my vision is starting to go cross eyed. I'm so dead beat tired. I get it." She repeated.
"Think they have a resting spot somewhere in the Prawn Bay we can sleep in?" Suzaku asked weakly as he got out of the way for Kallen to use the repair tool to open the door.
"God I hope so." Kallen said in a rush as she had to focus on keeping her usable arm from shaking to use the repair tool properly. "At this rate I'm content to sleep on the damn floor in this burning inferno if I can just get five fucking minutes of rest." As the repair tool finished its job and the door began to start working again Kallen slumped forward. "I just want a freaking break and no more surprises."
As the door's light turned green and slid open with a silent woosh Kallen and Suzaku were of course immediately thrown with a curveball surprise right after her words.
The sight of a short black, dark violet, and yellow blur falling backwards from resting against the door they were opening had Kallen and Suzaku spooked. Both yelling and jumping back against the hallway's opposite wall in startled fright. Suzaku held his survival knife threateningly while Kallen traded her repair tool to bear her own serrated suit's blades against this new threat.
"Oh shit!"
"What the hell!?"
Both exclaimed at the same time as the thing on the floor suddenly started thrashing wildly in surprise. Extensions flaring out and nearly hitting Kallen and Suzaku's shins if they hadn't backed away when they did. Gangly arms threw themselves back to catch themself to prevent their head from hitting the hard metal floor. Instead turning the hard crash into a lazy slide of sorts and the thing- No, the person lazily, tiredly slumped back down onto the floor almost like a blob.
Legs sprawled out, cape extensions whirring back to flop onto the floor with a weak clank, arms stretched out by the sides of his head. Lelouch's hazy dual colored eyes slowly squinted open to look up at Suzaku and Kallen.
. . .
When the door he was suddenly laying against in defeat opened Lelouch didn't really know how to react. Sure he was caught off guard, but he didn't really feel the spike of adrenaline he was supposed to feel when one feared they were about to either be crushed by debris or eaten by a sea monster. Instead he kind of just… flopped down and laid there in exhausted acceptance. His cape extensions flopped weakly once before stilling. His lack of energy was obvious.
Lelouch couldn't fight back against a baby even if he tried, and at this point, he really didn't give much of a shit. He just wanted to sleep.
So imagine his surprise when Lelouch opens his eyes one last time to see what was gonna do him in only to see two familiarly colored blobs standing above him. One in a horribly blurry stark white radiation suit that stood out drastically compared to the chaos going on around them. The other in a bright red radiation suit that differed from the constantly orangery red hellfire happening all around them.
There Kallen and Suzaku stood, absolutely floored at the sight of Lelouch just casually staring up at them from the floor. Speechless in their disbelief.
"L-lelouch?" Both Kallen and Suzaku practically squeaked. The duo looked down at him as if he had somehow hung up the stars in the sky. As if they spoke too loudly he would suddenly break and turn to dust. Scared he was going to vanish from their sight.
".. . …" Slowly, Lelouch opened his dried, chapped mouth to try and speak, but once more nothing came out, not even a wheeze. So instead, the raven haired teen just carefully nodded his head.
"Is that- are you-" Suzaku's mouth looked rather like a fish as he tried to find his words once again. "Are you real?" It sounded somewhat muffled when reaching Lelouch's own ears.
Funny, that's what I want to say. Lelouch stated, amused but unable to really show it due to his exhaustion. All his dichromatic eyes were really able to see were blurs and blobs of color. It certainly wasn't a very good testament to his health. But I know you aren't.
They weren't real.
He didn't believe they were real despite what the PDA had said before. He didn't want to believe they were real, because believing only made it hurt more. It made the hope burn so brightly it would burn a hole into his chest and kill him once and for all.
His brain can be so cruel to everyone and himself.
So he deemed them as hallucinations and decided to call it a day. Sure falling asleep in a slowly collapsing ship was fatal to his health, but Lelouch was dead beat tired and going outside meant fighting monsters and stuff he didn't want to mess with. Sleeping in a death trap then, because it was the lesser evil a thousand percent.
When one red gloved hand shakily reached out towards him, Lelouch couldn't help it. His gaze sharpened just enough to see bubbling clear tears against watery sapphire eyes. A shaking cape extension feebly rose up and carefully wrapped around her hand in a shaky grip as light as one would wield glass. The second extension copying the first to grab hold of a strong white suited hand right after.
The extensions held solid against their flesh. He could tell.
"real."
Whatever tension Lelouch somehow missed in his body relaxed completely at the feeling. He was safe. Everything was fine. The drive core was fixed and his friends are alive. They're okay. They're real.
"they… are… real… young one."
Comforted with that fact and this knowledge. Lelouch felt more than saw Kallen and Suzaku pull themselves together. Their forms no more than dead husks walking together, they helped guide Lelouch from the floor and back up into the crew's quarters. Carefully placing him on one of the many beds before they too flopped onto their own ones. The knightmare duo conking out as soon as their heads hit the somehow heavenly soft pillows.
"sleep."
In his own darkening vision, Lelouch saw multiple glowing cyan eyes staring back at him. The words barely a whisper in his brain as he finally gave up, and obeyed the softly spoken suggestion.
"Sleep."
. . .
"And how is the stability of the cavern looking?" Schneizel el Britannia, 2nd prince to the Holy Britannian Empire, questioned as he looked towards his personal aid Kanon Maldini. The aid was giving a current update on the situation at Kamine Island.
"Stability of the cave will hold during our experiments according to our scientists' calculations, sir." Kanon stated idly as he pulled out a tablet for the prince to look at. "The people that built this place long ago knew what they were doing for the most part. Pressure is kept off of the most vulnerable key points and the stone work done is simply astounding. They clearly took special time and care into creating this structure."
"And for good reason." Schneizel agreed with a light airy hum. His eyes absorbed all of the information being presented to him like a sponge. Ever since the chaos that happened a few days ago at Kamine Island with Zero things have certainly been both interesting and… dull.
Obviously his step sisters Cornelia and Euphemia were handling the results of the event differently. Cornelia being rather pleased with Zero and his ace being out of the picture. The Black Knights were dealt with a huge double blow into their rankings, and the quoted 'Goddess of Victory' was showing her true prowess on the field now that Zero was out of the way. Practically beating the snot out of the Eleven rebels left scampering fearfully around the country. Of course, Lancelot's pilot Suzaku Kururugi ending up missing as well is a rather big loss for Schneizel's research and development team. Alongside Cornelia's fighting power of course, but she didn't seem to find it that big of an actual loss.
If only that boy had been born a Pure Blooded Britannian, or even a half breed. The lengths he would've been able to reach with his knightmare piloting potential. No doubt he would've become a Knight of the Round.
Oh well. It was a bit of a setback, but in Schneizel's mind it wasn't that huge of a loss. What with the amazing discovery Suzaku's subsequent death revealed about Kamine Island's mysterious ruins.
Euphemia however, was another story. The poor girl was absolutely distraught, rather heartbroken actually. While most of it seemed to stem from Suzaku being taken by the strange light from the doorway, Schneziel knew there was something more.
He tried getting her to talk about it. To see what little piece of the puzzle he was missing, but in a shocking turn of events, Euphy refused. So much like her sister but so different in so many ways, Euphemia sometimes actually managed to surprise him.
All Schneizel knew was that it had something to do with Zero, and wasn't that just fascinating. Mourning over not only her personal knight and possible love, if what Schneziel saw from their little interactions was any indication, but also grieving over their sworn enemy? Being sad over the death of Britannia's most feared and potential threat? How curious.
Clearly she knew some things that he did not to give such an emotional reaction. Not at the moment at least. That theory was made even more solid when Euphemia even agreed and gave her solid support to Schneizel to try and help bring them back from what had happened. Them. Not him. As in more than just Suzaku, who should be the only person Euphy cared for out of the three people that went missing that day.
Well, the more important people if you ignore the other soldiers and measly scientists.
Though, Schneziel could agree with missing the masked man. The terrorist was simply fascinating the way he moved and acted from the single moment they all had at Kamine Island. So much confidence and brazen audacity, but it was backed up by an intellect the second prince of Britannia wanted to know the limits of. If the man could beat Cornelia in a battle of wits multiple times, then he simply had to be interesting.
Now, as the second prince of Britannia and the Prime Minister of a country controlling over one third of the world. There wasn't a lot, if anything, that Schneizel couldn't have, but for once in his life the blonde prince was shocked to find that he was jealous. Jealous of not only Cornelia and Euphemia, but of someone as low of status as Suzaku and that redhead in with the Black Knights. All because of one little fact.
They got to interact with Zero, on multiple occasions. Hell, Euphemia and Suzaku have both encountered the masked man in person multiple times and lived to tell the tale. Well, Euphy gets to tell the tale at least. They got to know what kind of man Zero was. If he was as much of a charismatic leader as he portrays to the media and to his people.
If he was as worthy of an opponent Schneizel thought he would've been. If it wasn't for Suzaku's brash actions at Kamine Island ruining such ideals for the second prince.
"And how are the Gawain's systems holding up after being scrambled last time?" The blonde questioned as his eyes finally gazed up from the test results on the tablet before him to look at Kanon.
"At the moment they're almost completely repaired." Kanon responded easily, looking around at the staff of the Avalon to make sure they weren't eavesdropping before continuing. "Earl Asplund and his assistant Miss Cecile are doing a fine job on helping get Gawain's druid system back into working order again. I'm sure it would've taken twice as long if we didn't have their help in this."
"Hmm, indeed I have to agree with your assessment." Schneziel agreed with a light hum. Resting his chin and mouth against the knuckles on one of his hands. "I doubt that we'll be even close to creating such a reaction out of the gate again at Kamine Island without the Gawain being there to help us."
The tablet showed the results of multiple attempts at causing that unnatural glow to happen at Kamine Island's ruins. Countless amounts of pictures and samples, rock acidic tests and soil levels taken from practically every inch of the place. Yet, the main common result was that no matter what all tests tried differently, that door won't open again. Nothing would happen.
It was starting to get the normally Cold Prince of Britannia frustrated.
No matter who or what kind of scientist he threw at the problem, nothing changed. No matter what kind of tests the stubborn, corrupt scientists begrudgingly banded together to try, nothing happened.
What they needed was a catalyst, and the first time it happened Zero was that catalyst.
But now he's gone. Clearly not in this world anymore, or possibly even in this life!
So the prince adapted and went with the next best thing. Doing what he does best in complicated situations with ease. If Zero wouldn't be around to remake the catalyst they would recreate their own with what data the Gawin managed to obtain with its druid system. Which was why it was so important to get the damn thing fixed up and running as fast as possible.
But showing his impatience would be a sign of weakness, and that simply wasn't allowed. Besides, if he tried to rush the already brilliant scientists to go faster something might go wrong. A miscalculation might be made, and that was unacceptable.
Although, with how quickly Asplund was working on the Gawain in his determined search to find answers himself and get his 'missing component of the Lancelot back'. Schneziel didn't have to say anything to get them working as quickly as possible.
"Are you doing okay my lord?" Kanon's voice snapped Schneizel back into reality. Maldini's sky blue eyes looked towards the prince with light concern, though his facial features revealed nothing. "You seem to be thinking about a lot recently. Has the incident at Kamine Island really gathered your interest so much?"
With a small sigh, Schneziel gave a light charming smile. "Oh, but can it be helped? You saw what happened on that day on video I'm sure, but being there in person for it?" A spark rarely seen was ignited with the Prime Minister's gaze. "It was utterly breathtaking."
Kanon blinked, his expression changing to caught off guard shock. "Your majesty?"
"Such mystic power, all bundled up and turned into something beautiful." Schneizel continued stating. He even went so far as to place the tablet down by the little table always at his throne's side. "The way it could just be turned towards an opposing side and just make the enemy… disappear." When it first happened, Schneziel had marveled at the sight. "All that chaos turned into peace in mere minutes. All that horrible fighting, and the enemy was defeated in a quiet, peaceful way. Taken away to somewhere else, somewhere better than here."
"Your highness…"
"I want to see how he did it." Schneziel finally concluded. "I want to see how Zero summoned that being and controlled it to fight for him. Something so otherworldly being controlled so easily. Imagine if we had that power, Kanon." The second prince's smile grew even more at the thought. "World peace could finally be achieved, all in the name of Britannia. There would be no more useless fighting."
"When you put it that way I suppose you are correct, your highness." Kanon agreed after a moment of thinking about it.
Finally, Schneziel handed Kanon back the tablet and resumed what he had originally been doing, which was looking over a military plan to take over more of the E.U bit by bit. "Please notify me when Earl Asplund has completed his renovations for the Gawain, and is prepared to recreate the effect at Kamine Island immediately. I'd like to be there personally once the tests start again."
"As you wish, your majesty." Kanon retook the tablet and gave Schneizel a deep bow before taking his temporary leave.
Schneziel will find a way to recreate what happened on that day. He'll find a way to get Zero to spill how he did what he did if he was still alive. Whether that be through chasing after him or dragging the man back out of the light remained to be seen.
. . .
.
.
.
"Can you… hear me?"
Through the silence and the ringing within his ears, sound finally began to come back into reality as Lelouch slowly arose from his impromptu deep slumber. The world being filled with so much noise it was instantly deemed as too much. Screeching metal, scorching flames crackling, rooms collapsing, all happening at once it was near overwhelming to Lelouch's ears.
The raven haired teen curled into a ball and groaned miserably, cape extensions tightening around his form in a protective manner.
"It will… be okay." What spoke the most however, was the voice of a female whispering into his mind. The noise was louder than anything else despite being so soft spoken and gentle about it, like it was being said straight into Lelouch's brain. "We are- I am… here… for you. For all of you."
Then the sound of lightly clicking mandibles dribbled into Lelouch's head. Soft echoing coos and clicks coming from a living creature right beside him. Something that wasn't human, wasn't Kallen or Suzaku.
Danger. A threat.
Demonic eyes flew open and Lelouch shrieked in terror, but nothing came out of his throat. No real sounds escaped past his lips no matter his attempts, only fiery pain erupting from his abused throat like sandpaper sanding his flesh down agonizingly fast.
In front of the revolutionary's gaze, the strange shadowy creature Lelouch saw all that time ago slouched before him once more. The creature he saw in the beginning at Kamine Island, what started all of this, looked down at him calmly while he panicked.
"Good… Safe…" The creature clicked in that feminine voice. She was acting so calm as if nothing was truly wrong with this situation while Lelouch was going mad over it. The human falling off of the bed and scrambling backwards and away from the thing as quickly as he could with his newfound energy. It was a leviathan.
It was a leviathan.
It was going to kill him. It was going to attack and eat him. Rip him to bloody shreds like that thing outside the Aurora.
For a long second, the creature flickered out of existence, before slowly reforming once again. Yet, this time, it was slouched down and angled so its head was level with Lelouch's face.
"Hear me… young one." The creature clicked and echoed soothingly even though Lelouch was freaking the fuck out. The raven haired teen reeling back and striking out with his cape extensions, but that did nothing but made the creature blurry for a second before refocusing as much as possible. The thing blinked its four eyes at him, as if puzzled by why he was reacting this way, before its eyes squinted somewhat and it chirped happily in its own language he couldn't hope to understand. "The other… the reaper… is gone… for now. You are safe… You must… leave this place… quickly."
It almost seemed amused by him.
"You are so intriguing… young one." It continued echoing happily. "It's been so lonely… We must see you." Lelouch didn't care that he tipped over multiple lockers and things to get away. All he knew was that he had his back against the corner of the room and was huddled up as small and tightly as possible. He didn't want to be here. "So many thoughts… flying through your head so quickly." He didn't want to see this thing. "Always so rushed." He wanted it gone, to go away. "So little time."
After seeing all of the hell this planet has waiting in its depths. What once had Lelouch enamored now terrified him with his knowledge.
Go away! Lelouch cried out as he tried to speak once more, but failed spectacularly and fell into a horrible coughing fit instead. Get away from me!
The creature straightened out its posture as much as possible. Trying to give Lelouch the space he so desired, yet at the same time towering over the teen and overshadowing him. Dual colored eyes snapped shut, and Lelouch attempted to block out all of the noise, all of the stimulus by hiding his head in his knees and slamming his hands over where his ears were in his helmet.
"I am… what you seek." The creature seemed saddened by his attempts at hiding, but no matter how hard Lelouch squeezed his eyes shut he could still see the image of the creature in front of him. No matter how much pressure Lelouch put against his ears he could still hear them. Hear it. Hear her.
It was inside his head.
Lelouch didn't know how to feel about that.
"We- I-... Want to… Help you." The creature explained slowly, with Lelouch having no other choice but to listen. His breathing elevated and haggard in his fear of what was happening. This has never happened before throughout his time on this planet, and the only other time it happened was back on Earth.
It made Lelouch feel like he was being placed under a geass. The feeling made him shudder in fear. He didn't want to lose himself like he made others do. He didn't want to lose his own will, not with everything going on.
Now that he knew what it felt like, Lelouch didn't quite know how to feel about his own power.
Suddenly, the being lost its imaginary balance, and staggered before catching itself. Lelouch's eyes widened and snapped open to look up and watch the creature. Its form began to slowly fizzle out and disappear from its inky, shadowy darkness.
Those four cyan eyes were burning to meet, but Lelouch steeled himself and met them anyway.
"Come here…" The being stated, pleaded, and the revolutionary had this sudden urge to obey, to see it in person. As if all his questions would finally be answered, and his life truly depended on it. "To me."
"-ouch!"
"Snap- -of it!"
"He- me?! Please!"
"Please… Hur-'' The creature closed all four of its eyes and fizzled out completely before managing to finish what it was trying so hard to convey. With it came the sudden stark return and contrast to reality. The dim, flickering dull lights and flames within the Aurora suddenly seemed so blindly bright compared to the creature's shadows. The room felt so much bigger now that the creature was gone, almost too empty; it sent a spike of irrational kenophobic terror through Lelouch's being.
The things within the room also came into view finally, into Lelouch's perception of reality, and with it came two miracles in the form of Kallen and Suzaku.
Widened, shaky eyes watched as reality went into focus. How the other two teens were crouched down on the floor a few feet in away from his cramped, cornered position. How their posture was no longer slouched with exhaustion but instead straightened in attentive worry. Their eyes were red rimmed and had bags under them, but shined with an acute awareness that wasn't there before.
Lelouch couldn't believe he was actually seeing them again alive and in the flesh. It felt unreal. Like a dream. He must still be hallucinating-
"Lelouch can you see me?" Kallen questioned softly, noticing how the haziness within the revolutionary's gaze had faded almost immediately. The wild look was still there, but it seemed like Lelouch had managed to gather a bit of himself. She gestured to herself and spoke loud enough to be heard over the constant rumble of debris, but soft enough to not spook her companion again. "Can you hear me?"
"I don't even know why he started freaking out." Suzaku muttered worriedly to Kallen as he leaned against the frame of what was once Lelouch's temporary bed. "One second he was sleeping just fine, then the next he was awake and trying to escape from something." Olive green eyes looked over Lelouch for any injuries, satisfied to find none, but still somewhat concerned as to what just transpired. "Are you okay? Can you speak to us?"
Lelouch fumbled around with words that wouldn't escape his destroyed throat anyway like a slippery fish. His eyes flying back and forth between his two best friends in disbelief. A shaky hand hesitantly rose up to rub at his throat, and with what little control he had over his trembling body Lelouch used to shake his head.
Both Kallen and Suzaku perked up at Lelouch's mute reply, clearly pleased that he was finally starting to respond. "You lost your voice? You can't talk?" Kallen frantically filled in the blanks as Lelouch nodded his head in confirmation. "Okay. That's okay. That's fine- Well, that's not really fine. You can't talk, but we can work it out!" Seeing the redhead ramble was certainly a new sight, and seeing people come back from the dead would be a new one too if Lelouch hadn't already met C.C. "Can we come closer?"
The fact that Kallen asked permission instead of trying to force her way towards Lelouch during his bout of uncontrollable fright nearly had his ice cold heart melt into mush. Always his Q-1 surprising him with stuff like that. He'd remember that.
Instead of shaking his head, Lelouch had his cape extensions slowly creep forward from their painfully tight embrace around his body. The light scrape of metal mute to all the other noises going on. Kallen silently held her hand out and accepted the unnatural metal as it wrapped around her one usable arm and lightly squeezed it in both comfort and confirmation. This was real.
They were real and they were alive. It wasn't a hallucination. All of this was real.
The terrorist's second cape extension mutely went towards Suzaku in search of a similar embrace. One that was instantly reciprocated from the brunette without a moment's hesitation. The soldier even went so far as to pat the metal comfortingly with his other hand as he muttered. "Everything is okay. You're safe. We're safe. We're all fine now. We're all fine."
Lelouch didn't notice the tears streaming down his face as everything collapsed down on top of him. Like Atlas holding up the heavens, everything that had happened since arriving on 4546B hit him like a bullet train to his chest. What he did realize was that Kallen and Suzaku were undergoing the same breakdown as he was. All of their strained threads snapping at once. The two had clear tear tracts going down their faces from within their helmets as they tried to mute their own hiccups and sobs. Trying to keep their anguish in and sheer relief down for Lelouch's state, to try and keep him calm.
Everyone's eyes were red and vision once again somewhat blurry through the tears. Faces slowly turned red and puffy as they tried and failed to keep it all inside, because showing weakness would cause the others to crack.
What they failed to understand was that it was okay to cry sometimes. It was healthy to stop bottling it all up and let go. It was something they were only just now starting to comprehend.
They were all safe. That's what made Lelouch break first.
With a mute cry, Lelouch squeezed his eyes shut and moved forward to tackle both Kallen and Suzaku in a bear hug. His cape extensions pulled them forward and into his embrace to meet in the middle before wrapping around their frames to squeeze as tightly and safely as possible. Ducking his head in between their shoulders to keep them from seeing his embarrassing weakness and tears. The sudden group hug trembled as much as the Aurora they resided in as all together the trio broke down and wept.
"You made it. You made it. You made it! Oh thank God." Kallen's voice went high pitched as she cried her guts out. Releasing all of the pent up fear and adrenaline left in her system through her cries. "You're okay. You're here!"
Suzaku subtly got the group slowly rocking back and forth in a light comforting motion as he muttered into Lelouch's own shoulder. "Thank you. Thank you, thank you. You made it. You're alive. We're alive." His hiccups interrupted most of his words and nearly made them incomprehensible, but the meaning and message was made clear as he blubbered his way through it. "It's okay. We're all okay. I-"
Through it all, Lelouch finally gathered all of his courage together to show his face to his two now most trusted companions. Trembling hands slowly took both Suzaku and Kallen's hands to write the words he wouldn't be able to speak into their flesh. Using a form of communication Lelouch last used way back before the war between Britannia and Japan first started. Back when Lelouch and Nunnally finally started really getting to know Suzaku as children.
/I'm so glad. I'm so happy. I was so scared you two didn't make it. That I had failed you two. That I was too late-/ Lelouch took a moment to lay his forehead against their hands and just breath before continuing. /Then my PDA notified me of the containment breaches being fixed and I just couldn't believe it, but I so desperately wanted to but-/ The group derailed from their speaking to just babble and cry and huddle together as closely as possible. It was all so real. They were all alive.
/Thank you thank you thank you. Thank you so much for being here./ Lelouch frantically continued his writing as fast as possible. Almost too fast for Suzaku and Kallen to process as he rambled madly. As if he feared that if he didn't say what he wanted to say now he would never get it out, and that was a scarily high possibility. /For not leaving me. For living. Thank you thank you./ Lelouch gave a light heave, as if he couldn't get enough air into his shuddering lungs. Rapidly shaking his head side to side. /Just please keep living. Please don't leave me again./ He wrote again.
/Please keep living./ And again.
/Alive alive alive./ And again.
There we have it. The nice mental breakdown on all sides coupled with an unexpected perspective eh? Smells like Schneziel is up to some trouble~. What's funny though is that as I was making this chapter I read some of the reviews to see one person suggesting to add more bits of the Sea Emperor… right as I was doing it. Talk about ESP or what? XD
Fun fact! Kenophobia is the fear of open spaces or voids, and is the opposite fear to claustrophobia which is a fear of super enclosed/tight spaces.
Also, one more point I want to make. It seems a lot of you are confused on just what monster the group almost encountered in the beginning of Chapter 12. No, it wasn't a Sea Dragon Leviathan like you guys all believed it was, as cool as that thought would be. It's not the sea dragon, it was a Ghost Leviathan they nearly stumbled upon. I gave hints about it being a 'ghost that escaped from hell screaming in the distance' and Lelouch saw a 'long flash of bioluminescent blue turn away and dive deeper into the ocean's depths'. I'm kinda shocked you guys didn't realize it.
As all Subnautica pros know, the Ghost Leviathan is extremely aggressive and territorial in nature. It doesn't even eat fish, it hunts plankton and other microscopic lifeforms. It gets so angry because people metaphorically 'step on it's lawn'. What happened was the group got too close to a Ghost Leviathan's territory, and it was actually chasing behind them the entire time. It only split off from chasing them when a sand shark inadvertently got in the way, and the leviathan took its aggression out on it instead and killed it. By that point the group was out of its territory and too far to give chase again, so it turned around and left.
The group was being hunted the entire time, and they didn't even realize it. Jolly!
Anyways! If you have enjoyed the story so far leave a REVIEW, Follow, and Favorite the story so you can keep track of when chapters pop up. Because FYI, I don't have a posting schedule and I just post whenever I feel like it.
Otherwise, I'll be seeing you guys in chapter 15! -MoonlightWright :D