Rai's fingers flew across the keyboard in a blur. His eyes were focused solely on the computer's screen. He barely even noticed that everyone else had crowded behind him to look as well. It had been three days (quintants according to the Alteans) since the massive fiasco with King Alfor's A.I. and Princess Allura had finally recovered from the Rejuvenation Ceremony on the Balmera. Now Rai was tapping into the memory data that they had managed to extract from Sendak before Lelouch had sent him off into space.
"Somewhere inside Sendak's memories, we should be able to find the inside information that gives us the key to take down Zarkon," Allura said confidently.
"I don't think your father would approve of searching through an enemy's memories," Coran said with a slight frown.
"Yeah, I hate to admit it," Suzaku added, "but I'm not super comfortable with this either."
"I understand," Allura said before standing up straighter, "but we have to do everything we can to defeat Zarkon."
"Once we learn all his weaknesses, we can drive up to his front door and challenge him to a fight. Winner gets the universe," Rivalz grinned, already daydreaming of the battle to come.
"Anything good yet, Rai?" Lelouch asked.
Rai only sighed in frustration, "We were only able to salvage bits and pieces."
"Okay, but we need something to work with," Shirley said, sharing similar feelings of frustration, "right now, we don't even have a decent map of the Empire."
"Do we even need a map?" Kallen asked with a frown, "After ten thousand years of conquering, I could probably fire Aka's laser at any random point in space and hit a Galra ship somewhere."
"Well, if we could just find troop locations or supply routes, small targets we could hit-and-run, then we could start to free planets one by one," Milly suggested.
"Hey Lelouch," Rivalz said, looking at the Black Paladin, "you have experience kicking Britannia's butt as Zero. Why can't you just do the exact same thing here? Just 'Zero up' and challenge Zarkon to a fight."
"It's not that simple, Rivalz," Lelouch said with a frown, folding his arms. "The only reason I've had so much success on Earth is because I already know the enemy so well. Most of my opponents are my own half-siblings, people I've grown up with and know on a personal level. Because of that, it's much easier to predict their movements and actions. On the other hand, we, including me, know little to nothing about Zarkon. He's been building this universal-sized empire for ten thousand years. That's longer than humanity has even been alive. We're not going to tear it down overnight with seven inexperienced-" Kallen cleared her throat loudly, and Suzaku crossed his arms with a slight frown as well, "-mostly inexperienced pilots and one support ship. The last thing we want to do right now is hit him where he lives, it'd be a huge mistake."
"Why not use your Geass on him and force him to stop?" Shirley suggested.
"I could try that," Lelouch agreed, "but there are some problems there too. I need to make direct eye-contact for Geass to have any effect, so doing that alone will be difficult enough. Also, there are too many unknowns about this situation. When I tried to use it on Sendak, he was able to counter it. Not to mention that something he said worries me."
"And that would be…?" Suzaku asked.
"When Kallen and I confronted Sendak, I attempted Geass on him. After he countered it, he mentioned people called the Druids, saying I 'paid a visit' to them."
"Hey, now that I think about it," Rai said, turning his head back to them, "he said the same thing to me when I fought him."
"Do you know anything about this, C.C.?" Lelouch looked up at the green-haired woman.
Surprisingly, she shook her head, "This is the first time I've heard of them as well."
"So instead of getting answers, all we have are more questions," Rivalz sighed. This was starting to get frustrating for all of them.
"Okay, anyway, I've cross-referenced Sendak's memories with the info I got from the downed ship back on Arus," Rai announced, turning back to the screen, Altean and Galran symbols started to appear in front of him, "Most of it was a garbled mess, but one thing kept repeating, something called a 'Universal Station.'"
"Universal Station? Like, the kind of station that controls the entire universe?" Shirley asked, leaning over.
"Well, we are translating it from Galra, so it could also be 'Galactic Hub,'" Rai countered.
"Or 'Space Base,'" Suzaku suggested. Everyone turned to look at him questioningly. "What?" he asked, looking confused.
"I'm pulling up the location of your Universal Hub Station Base on our screens now," Coran said as he walked over towards the primary monitor. As he pulled up the coordinates, two giant planets and a small moon appeared on the screen, but as far as they could tell, there was no sign of a Galra base anywhere.
"So... where is it?" Rivalz asked, looking confused.
"I don't know," Coran said, looking bemused. He rechecked the screens in case he put in the wrong coordinates. They were correct, though. "Our long-range sensors are unable to find anything at those coordinates."
"Maybe he remembered it wrong?" Kallen suggested.
"Or maybe we just stumbled across a top-secret base in Sendak's memories," Rai said as he clasped his hands together seriously.
"Well, there's only one way to find out," C.C. said.
"I agree, let's go take a look," Allura said with a determined frown.
They decided not to wormhole to the coordinates as the team had no real idea of what would be waiting for them on the other side. If they were lucky, there would be no enemy ships ready to shoot them down upon exiting a wormhole. But they learned early on that the team was rarely that lucky, so they chose to manually fly there instead. It took several hours for the castle to finally get within range of the coordinates that they picked up from Sendak's memories. Rivalz, Milly, and Shirley had ended up falling asleep halfway through.
"We should be close enough to get a good scan," Allura announced, shaking the trio from their slumber, "but far enough away to avoid being noticed."
The Castleship slowly crept around the first planet that oddly looked like a smaller version of their Solar System's Jupiter. As they did so, their target slowly came into focus. Located in the middle of the two planets and the moon, was a small base that seemed to be carved out of a meteorite. A couple of Galra cruisers were already lodging there, and another was slowly coming into port.
"There it is," Rai said gravely. It was a lot smaller than they thought it would be. However, considering how hard it was to locate, they couldn't dismiss the station due to size alone. There had to be something the Galra wanted to hide to have so much security around it.
"It appears the gravitation between the two planets warps the electron emission spectrum enough to keep the planet off the deep space scanners," Coran explained as wave patterns and other information appeared on the screen before them.
"So you can only see it if you really know where to look," C.C. observed. She chuckled slightly, "Clever."
"It's almost like a space version of the Bermuda Triangle," Kallen compared.
"From the looks of it, this place must handle shipments from all over the Galra Empire," Suzaku added.
"Wait, I'm confused," Shirley said, "if this place is basically just a glorified airport, why did they need to hide it?"
"There's probably more to this than what we're seeing," Milly offered.
"I agree," Lelouch nodded, "there's no reason that the Galra would go through all the trouble to hide this place if it was simply another outpost or port. Something else is happening here."
"Then, we'd better go down to take a look," Allura said as she tapped on the hologram screen. She pulled up the base closer to her. A small area around the middle of the base lit up and expanded, "We'll need to enter here: the central control building."
Suzaku blinked, before looking at Allura incredulously, "I'm sorry, Princess, did you say 'we'?"
"I'm going with you," Allura said with a determined frown, "I've traveled through the Galra transportation hubs many times with my father before the war began. I know more about them than any of you."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Suzaku asked nervously.
"I agree with Number Two, Princess, I'd rather you stay here," Coran said.
"I'm a part of this fight against Zarkon as much as anyone. I'm going. Does anyone have a problem with that?" Allura glanced around as if daring one of them to protest. Most of the Paladins looked away, not wanting to catch Allura's eye.
"I'm going as well," C.C. said, "both Lelouch and Shirley are contracted with me, and I'd rather be there to make sure they survive than watch them die."
Shirley turned a small tinge of green. Despite it being quite generous of C.C. to accompany them, she still wasn't used to some of her antics, most of which were quite morbid.
"...Fine. Suit up," Lelouch relented with a sigh.
"What?! Lelouch, you can't be serious!" Suzaku exclaimed as everyone else in the room looked up at the Black Paladin in shock.
"I understand the concern, Suzaku," Lelouch said calmly, "but the princess brings up a good point. With her experience at these ports, we can find what we're looking for faster. Besides, she's not going to be alone. We'll all be there as well."
Suzaku still looked uncomfortable, and Coran looked downright horrified, but the plan was in place. And now it was time to implement it.
"We'll go in low, fast, and hopefully undetected. Coming around the dark side of the nearest planet should keep them from getting a visual on us. Thanks to Rai's modifications to Zerith, we'll have thirty seconds of cloaking," Lelouch had explained before they departed.
Zerith zoomed around the side of the planet, the cloaking activating like a blanket being thrown over her. In a wide arc, she carefully landed near the rocky top of the base.
"I can flood their short-range sensors with a radiation burst," Coran had offered. "That should buy you a minute or so, while they assume it's cosmic interference. But, after that, it's up to you to be out of sight."
Looking down from the rocky outcropping, the base looked much bigger up close. Their destination, the central control building, as Allura called it, was right in the middle of it.
"Interference clear in three, two, one," an automated male voice ran through the control center. A single Galra soldier stood guard on top of the central platform, and down below were two sentries handling the other controls.
The Galra was bored. Nothing exciting ever happened at this base. Why was he the one stuck here handling cargo deliveries? He yawned as if to prove his point.
He then heard the entrance behind him open. He blinked and looked back, only to find that there was no one there.
"Huh?" was the only thing that came out of his mouth before something suddenly hit him in an uppercut. He went flying backward over the railing and landed unconscious down below. The two sentries immediately raised their guns, only to look around in confusion to find no assailants. They never got the chance to sound the alarm either as two blaster flashes later they were lying crumpled on the floor as well.
Shirley sighed in slight exhaustion as her Geass turned off. Before the group had entered the control station, Shirley had used her Geass to make them all invisible, at least to the enemy's eyes. It was the most people she'd had to use it on so far and she didn't expect it to be so draining.
"Great job, Shirley!" Rai praised with a smile, "Just sit and rest for now, okay?"
Shirley smiled gratefully at the Green Paladin before doing just that, practically falling on the bottom step of the stairs and leaned against the wall.
"It seems your limit of how many you can turn invisible is higher than nine so far," C.C. observed, as that was the number of people there, including Shirley herself. "You could easily smuggle an entire strike team into any situation without detection."
"And it's a skill we will likely be using in the future," Lelouch finished, giving Shirley a nod and a smile. The Orange Paladin blushed at Lelouch's praise. It felt good to be noticed by her crush.
The group wasted no time tying the Galran up and hiding him in the upper corner, as well as moving the two sentries out of the way. Rai was in the process of connecting his laptop to Rover, who was in the process of scanning the Galran station's network. Kallen and Suzaku glanced out the large windows to the center to make sure that no one spotted or noticed the assault.
"How's it look out there?" Lelouch asked.
"All clear. For now anyway," Suzaku confirmed as Kallen nodded.
"This shouldn't take too long," Rivalz said, as he helped connect the last wire to the little drone.
Rai's computer blinked to life as he started to type furiously on it, "We'll have all the information we need in a few minutes." In front of him, the screen beeped as numerous algorithms and data began swarming onto the screen. Despite the chaos, though, Rai's face didn't change. He seemed to know what he was looking for as a pixelated face of himself appeared on the screen and seemed to start laughing as data was transferred. "I made some improvements since the last time I tried to download Galra info. We should get a nice, clean translation immediately. Milly actually gave me the idea on how to do it."
"Well actually, it was more or less Nina's idea," the Yellow Paladin confessed, "but do you guys remember when we studied algorithms back at Ashford? And then Nina told us that joke about the ghost learning symbolic logic and innumerably infinite sets or something like that?"
"Your point?" Kallen asked before Milly could get too carried away.
"Yeah, right, anyway, she said-"
"Hey, guys, sorry to interrupt," Suzaku said before Milly could finish, "but I think we got company." A giant shadow of another Galra ship passed overhead, likely here for a delivery or pickup. It slowly lowered itself until it landed in the middle of the port.
"We should get out of here!" Kallen exclaimed as she and the other Paladins, plus Allura, Rover, and C.C. crowded around Rai and his laptop.
"Just need a few more seconds," Rai said, his typing seeming to speed up.
"Stay low. We need this intel," Lelouch ordered quietly.
The control board in front of them suddenly blinked to life as the group gasped.
"Get down!" Suzaku hissed as everyone scrambled out of the way as a screen appeared before them. Another Galra, likely the commander of that ship, was staring back through the screen. He grunted in surprise and confusion when no sentries or fellow Galra greeted him.
"What do we do?" Shirley whispered urgently. The Galra hadn't turned the transmission off. If he got too suspicious that something had happened, he could sound an alarm, and that was the last thing they needed right now.
"I think he's waiting for a signal or something," Rivalz guessed.
"Leave it to me," C.C. hissed as she stealthily dragged herself and one of the downed sentries towards the control panel. With barely a grunt, she hefted the robot to its feet and moved its elbow around as if it were pressing buttons. Due to how close the sentry was to the screen, the commander didn't see C.C.'s hand controlling it. She then somehow got it to not only wave at the Galra, but also give a thumbs up. How she did that they had no idea. The Galra on the other end still looked a little confused but waved back slightly in acknowledgment before closing the transmission. The immortal sighed in relief that that had worked. She'd had to do a lot of unorthodox things on this adventure so far. Well, unorthodox, even for her anyway.
"Thanks, C.C.," Lelouch said graciously.
"Don't mention it," she shrugged. So long as everyone was still alive, she didn't really care what happened. Though, not getting captured would be a bonus as well.
"Okay, download complete," Rai announced as Rover disconnected from the control board, having gotten what they needed.
"Okay, what's it say?" Kallen asked a little impatiently.
"Nothing!" Rai exclaimed in frustration and continued to type. "This place doesn't have any useful information! Just a schedule of the ships coming in and out."
"So we basically just wasted our time," Kallen deduced with a scowl, voicing everyone's current thoughts.
"Welp, can't win them all," Milly said, "a few busts were bound to happen."
"Let's return to the castle before we're spotted," Lelouch decided as they all got up to leave. Rivalz helped Shirley to her feet as she still was recovering from her Geass usage.
To their surprise, though, Allura spoke up, saying something for the first time since they had gotten in, "Hold on. Rai, do you know where that ship is headed?" the princess gestured to the one that literally just docked.
Though confused by the sudden request, the Green Paladin answered, "Um, it's scheduled to be here for about a half an hour, then head off to Central Command."
Allura stood up straight, "That's where they have the information we need, and I'm going to sneak aboard that ship and get it for us."
"What?!" Suzaku gasped as he and the others stood up, "No, absolutely not!"
"How are you even going to get in?" Shirley asked curiously.
"I'm going to walk right through the front," Allura smiled confidently as she took off her helmet.
Then right before their eyes, the princess started to change. Her dark skin became a purple color, and she grew in height by about another foot or so. Everyone stared, mouths open at what just happened.
"H-how did you do that?!" Shirley gasped, voicing everyone's question.
"The Alteans are a chameleon-like people who can blend in with the local populations," Allura explained with a proud smile. "It's the ability that's made us great explorers and diplomats throughout our history."
"So, can you turn into, like, a balloon?" Milly asked, leaning in closer.
"How many different colors can you be at once?" Rai asked next, turning his attention away from his laptop for a moment.
"Aren't you afraid you'll rip your pants?" Rivalz asked, all three leaning in, waiting for their answers.
Allura blinked a couple of times, not expecting such questions, but fortunately had answers for all of them, addressing one by one. "No, just one at a time, and I will need a change of costume. I can use his uniform as a disguise." Allura said, turning to the still unconscious Galra officer.
"You're not going in there alone," Lelouch said authoritatively.
"Excuse me? I do not need your permission," Allura fired back.
"It's too dangerous. I'm going in with you," the Black Paladin decided.
"You will stick out like a Choferiak's nose," Allura countered.
"You're going to need that nose, Princess," Rai interrupted before they could argue further. "We're still not sure how, but somehow Lelouch's Geass can interact with Galra tech," Rai then reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a flash drive. "He can interface with their systems and use this drive to gather intel. I can monitor the download remotely from here."
"If Lelouch is going, then so am I," C.C. said and continued before Allura could protest. "Lelouch is one of my contractors and will be in a dangerous situation. At least Shirley will be safe here with the others."
"...Fine, you can come," Allura finally relented.
"Uh, you guys better hurry up if you want to get on and off before the ship leaves for Zarkon Central," Shirley said, looking out the command center's window.
"Hold on!" Suzaku exclaimed, "How exactly are you going to get Lelouch and C.C. aboard?"
Allura, C.C., and Lelouch looked at each. That may be a problem. They needed to come up with something fast.
Lelouch honestly felt somewhat ridiculous and also embarrassed. Mainly because of how close C.C.'s… assets were to his face. A little too close for comfort. He had a feeling C.C. wasn't too happy about this arrangement either, but this was the most comfortable way that they could fit into the small cart that Allura, now disguised in the Galra's uniform, was currently pushing towards the ship. Despite this, though, it seemed this plan was working as the only stop they made was, Lelouch assumed as he couldn't look up, in front of the ship.
"Move along," the muffled voice of a sentry gave before they started moving again.
Allura blew out a breath of relief as she and her cargo walked right past the guards and into the ship. The hard part (they hoped) was done.
"They're in," Suzaku announced, breathing out in relief himself as he, Kallen, Milly, Rivalz, and Shirley watched the disguised trio enter. Despite that success, though, Suzaku couldn't let go of the tingling feeling on the back of his neck that this was still going to go horribly wrong.
"Hey," Kallen said, catching everyone's attention, "what do you think is in those giant containers?"
Before Allura was allowed to enter the ship, two sentries came marching down the ramp, carrying two large capsules. They couldn't tell what they were from their position, but they looked yellow and were glowing.
"Maybe… fuel?" Shirley guessed. It seemed like the most logical answer.
"Makes sense," Milly agreed, "A base like this likely has tons of spare fuel and supplies when ships need to make an emergency landing of some sort."
"Maybe this guy will tell us," Rai said as he and Rover sat, or hovered, in front of one of the sentries they had disarmed and knocked out earlier, "What is coming in and out of this station?"
The sentry's front light suddenly started flashing yellow, like a warning light. "Interrogation detected. Initiating lockdown," the automated voice announced as the robot then slumped forward.
Rover bleeped, sounding like he was both frustrated but also slightly mocking his fellow robot.
"I couldn't agree more, Rover," Rai smirked before turning his attention back to the sentry, and typing on his computer again. "So you're not talking, huh? We'll see about that."
"Whoa, check out that guy!" Kallen suddenly said as the others, except Rai, looked back out the window. In front of both of the canisters now was a creepy-looking robed figure.
Rivalz blinked before a thoughtful frown crossed his face, "Hey, uh, this is going to sound pretty random, but… what exactly is a druid?"
"Well, if you're looking for the Earth definition, they're supposed to be priests, magicians, or even soothsayers in some ancient religions. I don't think we really use that term on Earth anymore, though," Suzaku said.
"Wait… so the Galra have a religion?" Rivalz asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Technically, any cultural way of thinking could be considered part of a religion," Milly pointed out.
"Does conquering the entire universe count?" Kallen asked sarcastically. That quickly shut that conversation right up.
Curious about the person they were making a fuss over, Rai briefly glanced out the window. When he saw the figure, he gasped. Soft yet malicious laughter rang in his ears, and several figures, all with white bird-like masks, were leaning over him. He was strapped to a table and couldn't move-
"Rai! Rai, snap out of it!" a voice brought him back to reality. He blinked as Milly's concerned blue eyes swirled into view.
"Are you okay, dude?" Rivalz asked, hovering behind the class president.
"Yeah… that guy down there, he's definitely familiar," Rai confirmed shakily.
"So… this guy is a druid then?" Shirley asked, looking out the window again.
"I don't know, but whatever's happening here that requires the base to be kept a secret must have something to do with him," Kallen said, "I'm going to go check it out."
"I'm coming with you," Suzaku said, walking up behind her as she turned to leave.
The Red Paladin looked back with a scowl, "Suzaku, I'm not the sickly, frail girl you know from school. I can handle myself."
"I don't doubt that," Suzaku said, but continued on, "but if this is one of those druid people, we don't know what he's capable of. It's best to have a back-up just in case."
Kallen continued to scowl before finally letting out a forceful sigh, "Fine. Just don't get in my way."
As the two walked out of the door, Shirley looked nervously at the remaining Paladins, "They can handle themselves, right?"
"They'll be fine, don't worry," Milly said with a reassuring grin.
Meanwhile, on board the Galra cruiser, Lelouch, C.C., and Allura glanced out from one of the hallways just as a pair of sentries walked past. From where they were, they could see the corridors crawling with robots. It was going to be challenging to get past them all.
As another sentry walked past, Allura then heard a tapping sound. Looking to the source, she saw that Lelouch's hand was pressed up against one of the walls, and his finger was tapping in a slow rhythm.
"What are you doing, Lelouch?" Allura whispered.
"I'm timing the sentries," Lelouch answered back in a low voice.
"So you noticed as well?" C.C. asked with a small grin.
"Noticed what?" Allura asked, not quite following.
"The way the sentries walk," Lelouch explained. "Every time we've been on a Galra ship or base, I noticed that the sentries walk in a distinct pattern. Since then, I've been timing them. We should be able to sneak past them easily if it works."
"Will it?" Allura asked.
"Well, one way to find out," C.C. said as the trio turned around and scrambled down the hall just as another patrol came around the corner. They hid behind one of the outcroppings until they passed. Lelouch then led them around another corner, right before another patrol from the other side came up. The plan seemed to work as each time they heard a sentry patrol, Lelouch tapped the rhythm of their walk. Once they were gone, they would dash around another corner. No one, Galra or sentry, saw them.
Kallen's eyes narrowed as she watched the Druid person lead the two sentries with the capsules down a small metal chasm. It looked like they were heading deeper inside the base. Now that Kallen got a better look at it from her and Suzaku's perch, it looked similar to a warehouse.
It didn't take long for the warehouse doors to open, and the Druid led the sentries inside with their cargo.
As Kallen and Suzaku sprinted to keep up with them, the Purple Paladin was still shocked at how well Kallen matched his speed.
As the doors began to close, the duo leaped down after them with their jetpacks, making it in just as the doors closed behind them.
Rivalz had taken two of the wires that Rai had attached to the sentry's head and began pushing the two open ends together. This resulted in the sentry's arm wobbly being raised up and landing clumsily on its head.
He laughed as he continued to press the wires together, "Why are you hitting yourself? Stop hitting yourself! Quit hitting yourself!"
"Stop torturing it, Rivalz," Rai scolded, but he couldn't help but chuckle along with Shirley.
"I'm sorry. I just…" Rivalz said before putting the wires down, "I've had a lot on my mind lately. Like, I guess I still haven't gotten over the fact that not only is Lelouch a member of the Royal Family, but he's Zero too? I mean, who would've guessed that, right?"
"He's a valiant superhero sporting, not one, but two secret identities!" Milly dramatically proclaimed. This caused everyone to laugh again.
"Okay, I think I can teach this hunk of junk to help us," Rai said as he looked up at the robot, "Would you like to help us, Mr. Robot?"
The sentry's head mechanically swiveled in Rai's direction before it started rapidly shaking its head, making a rattling sound.
"Whoops…" he muttered, turning back to the laptop. Rover let out a few beeps, sounding like laughter.
Despite the silliness happening around her, Shirley suddenly frowned sadly.
"You okay, Shirley?" Milly asked.
"Yeah, I just… I keep thinking about what Lelouch told us. About what happened to his mom and Nunnally. And their dad just threw them away like they were trash! What kind of a father does that to his own kids, Emperor or not?!"
"Yeah. I regret to admit this, but up until Lelouch told us about what he's really like, I actually kind of admired the Emperor," Rivalz admitted with a disgusted frown.
"If I ever see that son-of-a-bitch face to face, the first thing he'll get from me is a slice to the neck," Rai growled.
No one protested the action, all of them thinking about similar things. To believe that the most powerful man in their nation was capable of such cruelty towards his own family!
Speaking of family... "...You know, we've been away from Earth for a while now," Milly said. "Has anyone been keeping track of how long we've been gone?" Everyone shook their heads. They hadn't. Milly sighed, "Fair enough. I'm guessing it's at least been long enough for people to notice that we're missing. I wouldn't be surprised if our school pictures are all over the news."
"Wait, if that happens-" Rivalz started before Milly interrupted.
"Yeah, even with the little my grandpa can do to stop it, Lelouch and Nunnally's cover has probably been blown sky-high by now," Milly admitted. "Once someone from the Royal Family sees Lelouch's photo, I doubt it'll take long for them to connect the dots. Both Britannians and Japanese."
"Would the Japanese recognize Lelouch and Nunna?" Shirley asked.
"I'd be surprised if they didn't," Milly continued. "Their 'deaths' are the whole reason that Britannia suppresses Japan so severely. They think the Japanese people killed two members of the Royal Family. If a Japanese faction got a hold of Nunnally, I wouldn't be surprised if they try to use her as a bargaining chip. Heck, Britannia itself could do it too, just like they did the first time."
There was a heavy silence for about five seconds as they all absorbed this information. Shirley, with clenched fists and a determined look on her face, then stood up. "Well then, once we're done here, I say the first thing we do is swing back to Earth and get Nunnally ourselves, quiznack to the Galra tracking us! She doesn't deserve to live a life like that! She deserves to be with Lelouch, and no one else!"
A chorus of agreement echoed Shirley's statement. Rai then thought of something else, "Hey, speaking of deserves better, we may be able to do more than just reunite them! The cryopods! Maybe they can heal her blindness and legs! Lelouch said her blindness was from trauma, so that means her vision should still be fixable since there's no physical damage. And if those don't work, I'm sure there's some alien species out there that have the ability or technology to help!"
"It would be wonderful for Nunnally to walk again. For her to have a normal life! Then Lelouch won't have to worry about her twenty-four-seven!" Shirley nodded immediately after.
"Haha! I'm sure he'd worry about her regardless. Still, either way, I'm sticking by Lelouch," Rivalz declared, "even if it means standing against Britannia."
Milly then pulled out her Bayard, and it flashed into its kusarigama form, "For Lelouch and Nunnally!" she exclaimed, holding her weapon in front of her.
The other three quickly caught on to what she was doing and stood up with their own Bayards activated. The weapons joined Milly's as the wielder's held them up in the center of their circle.
"For Lelouch and Nunnally!"
The remains of sentries filled the hallway as the two Paladins stalked cautiously into this next room. They crouched down low to prevent the druid person from noticing them. In the room up ahead, the walls were stacked with layers of more canisters, all filled with the same yellow liquid substance.
"What the heck?" Kallen whispered, "How many of these things do they need?"
Suzaku frowned. Something about this room sent shivers down his spine. He couldn't tell what was going on, but whatever it was, it couldn't be good.
Then one of the capsules was brought towards the center of the room, where several outcroppings met in the middle. At the center was a giant ball of energy, trapped within a glass ball. The capsule slid into place over the top of the ball, and the yellow substance slowly started leaking out the bottom and hitting the ball. But instead of spreading out like water normally would do, it was more like one of those penny donation boxes, as the substance started swirling around and around inside of the glass. Once it hit the bottom of the orb, it began to build up, slowly filling it.
Then the Druid, standing on one of the platforms, started to move. He lifted his dark grey hands up in front of him, and then in the blink of an eye, volts of violet energy shot out from his palms and hit the orb, causing the liquid inside to turn a bright purple. The pair watched it get absorbed into the energy ball in the center of the glass as the lightning ringed about it. Finally, slowly from the bottom of the orb, heavy-looking violet liquid dripped from what almost looked like a claw. It emptied into a much smaller container waiting at the bottom and started filling up slowly.
Both Suzaku and Kallen could only watch wide-eyed at what they just witnessed.
Allura, C.C., and Lelouch finally managed to evade the sentries long enough to find what they believed to be a control panel. The only person there was a single flesh and blood Galra. And he wasn't wearing a helmet either, as it was placed to the side of him.
Lelouch smirked and just walked right in, removing his own helmet. This was too perfect! When he was right behind the Galra, he cleared his throat.
The Galra promptly turned around to see Lelouch. Before he could shout for help though, Lelouch's Geass flared to life.
"Stand guard outside this room and don't let anyone in until we're finished here," he ordered as the Geass flew into the Galra's eyes.
As the telltale red ring encircled them, the Galra relaxed and saluted to Lelouch. "Vrepit sa, sir," he replied before replacing his helmet, picking up his gun, and moving to the room entrance to stand guard, just as Lelouch ordered.
Allura watched slightly uncomfortable as the Galra mindlessly did as Lelouch commanded. She understood that was how Lelouch's power worked, but to see it in action was still unsettling.
"That should delay any more patrols that come by," C.C. said, "but we should still hurry."
"Right," Lelouch nodded as he approached the main control panel. He quickly inserted the flash drive the Rai had given him into the board, then he activated his Geass once more, but this time for a different purpose. The familiar flicker of electricity traveled down the Black Paladin's hand and into his fingers as the control panel flashed to life.
"Rai, I'm in," he said through his helmet, "start the download."
"Generating access code," Rai confirmed from back at the central command deck. His familiar pixelated face appeared on the scene in blue, and soon, several bars appeared before Lelouch. "We're in."
Before Rai could get too far into the download, though, a Galra insignia appeared on the scene and started to buzz.
"Rai, there's a problem!" Lelouch warned, a small bead of sweat trickling down his face.
"Sit tight. I'm trying to work around this," the Green Paladin reassured as he typed madly on his computer, Galra text spiraling through it.
"Rai!" Lelouch urged impatiently.
"I'm on it! I'm on it!" he replied back desperately, biting his lip in the process.
"What's going on here?" another Galra asked, walking up to the Geassed Galra. He tried to step inside, but the guard blocked him.
"No one is to enter this room until the business inside is resolved," he said monotonously.
"What? What's going on in there?" the soldier asked.
"I'm under orders not to let anyone in until the business inside is done," he repeated in the same tone. He then pointed his gun at the Galra. "If you continue to persist, I will be forced to take extreme action."
The Galra backed off, looking somewhat alarmed before he finally relented, "Fine!" he then stalked off.
Allura let out a breath of relief when the soldier left. She was worried that she would have to step in for a moment. However, it seemed Lelouch's plan was working, for now.
"Rai, hurry up," Lelouch hissed, "we nearly had our cover blown!"
"Almost done," Rai answered through gritted teeth.
Kallen's visor morphed into a built-in video camera as she began to look around the room, or facility would be a better term for it.
"Coran, you need to see this."
Kallen's video feed connected to the main bridge of the castle. Coran gasped.
"I've never seen anything like it," he breathed.
"What is that?" Milly asked as the video was also shown to the other four Paladins still in the command center.
Suddenly, from behind the quartet, the Galra sentry finally blinked to life and answered them.
"The material is quintessence, the substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe."
"Hey, what do you know, he does work for us," Rivalz grinned at Rai. Though the Green Paladin wasn't listening to his comrade. Quintessence? Why did that sound familiar?
"What?" Coran asked from the castle, "Impossible!"
"Raw quintessence material is transported here from throughout the galaxy and refined into standardized Galra fuel requirements." the sentry continued.
"Hey, did you all catch that?" Shirley asked through the commlink.
"I can't believe it! They've found a new way to acquire quintessence!" Coran exclaimed.
"Okay, guys, we're going to steal some of this quint-whatever," Kallen said.
"What? We are?" Suzaku asked, looking at Kallen like she was nuts.
"We need to know more about this stuff," Kallen replied back with a hiss, "and what better way than to get it right from the source?"
Suzaku looked like he wanted to protest. This was way too risky, they could get caught! But, seeing that Kallen also did have a point, he relented.
"Hey, look," the same Galra from earlier approached the Geassed Galra again, "I really need to get in there. Can you just step aside?"
"I'm under orders not to-"
"I get that you have orders, this will only take a tick!"
Before the Galra could shove through, the Geassed one, pointed his gun at the officer and fired.
The Galra froze in shock before his hand instinctively reached for his belt, his finger pressing down on the button just as before he collapsed.
Alarms started blaring from all over the ship. The button the Galran had pressed had set them all off!
"Security alert! Security alert!" an automated female voice rang through the halls.
Lelouch ripped his hand away from the control panel and tore the flash drive from the port. He turned, and with a small pistol he had brought with him shot the Geassed Galra in the skull. He collapsed to the ground in a heap by his comrade. Allura ran up and pressed the door lock as they heard multiple footsteps heading their way.
"I think we're in trouble," C.C. said surprisingly calmly.
"You think?!" Allura demanded as the door started to develop dents from the multiple assailants on the other side.
Another Galra officer that heard the gunshots was attempting to break in. Before he could fire his gun again, Allura burst through the door, slamming the officer against the other wall. She then swiped the Galra's weapon away from him, arming herself with it.
Lelouch and even C.C. froze in the doorway for a moment, looking at Allura in shock. They had no idea she was really that strong!
"What?" Allura asked, confused by their faces.
They didn't have time to ask more questions, though, as a horde of sentries started shooting at them from the other end of the hall.
"This way!" C.C. shouted, dragging the princess and Paladin down the hall.
The quintessence had just finished filling into the small container. The platform it was on slowly started moving in Kallen and Suzaku's direction. It was the perfect opportunity to take it.
Kallen leaped from her side of the wall and snatched the container off the rack, barely making a sound. Suzaku caught her before her body could slam against the wall.
"Okay, we got it. Now let's get out of here," he muttered.
Kallen nodded in agreement, though she did take a moment to examine the canister more closely. She had a suspicion that this stuff wasn't just used for fuel. Why else would it have to be so well hidden? There had to be another purpose behind this stuff.
"Come on-" Suzaku halted his words when he looked back into the room. The Druid was gone, "Uh oh!"
"What?" Kallen asked. She got her answer as the Druid appeared right behind the pair and zapped them straight across the room, Kallen lost her grip on the canister in the process. The Druid promptly transported over to it and picked up the quintessence carefully as if it were a precious artifact.
"Okay! Plan B!" she exclaimed, pulling out her cestus and charging at the Druid. Suzaku wasn't too far behind her with his katana at the ready.
The Druid calmly set the quintessence down on another platform before vanishing into the air again when Kallen swiped at him, only to appear a couple feet away. This time Suzaku attempted to strike at it, katana swiping the air as the Druid vanished again, this time behind Kallen, who tried to swipe at him back, only for him to disappear. Again.
"Quick running and fight us, you coward!" She screamed as she looked around.
"Kallen, above you!" Suzaku shouted as he spotted the Druid on the platform again.
The Red Paladin just barely managed to spot the Druid before she was forced to dodge out of the way as a purple bolt of lightning hit where she had been just a moment ago.
Suzaku's brain momentarily screeched to a halt when he saw that. "That's just like… Lelouch!" he whispered before he was forced to dodge the lightning attack as well. Other than the coloring, the attack seemed almost identical to the attacks that Lelouch used thanks to his Geass.
The two Paladins dodged around the lightning before the two bolts collided, causing an explosion. As the smoke cleared, the Druid paused, wondering if he had disposed of them.
He got his answer as Suzaku suddenly leaped up in his jet pack from behind and attempted to kick the Druid as he spun rapidly. The Druid once again vanished to another platform, but Kallen had been waiting for him. With a battle cry, she swung her Bayard on what she thought was the Druid's arm, only for him to block it with a flash of purple energy that seemed to grind against Kallen's weapon.
The Red Paladin gasped as the energy became too strong, and she was shot backward with a scream, agony racing up her right arm. She hit a canister of yellow quintessence hard when she landed.
"Kallen!" Suzaku shouted in alarm as Kallen curled in around her injury. She looked down at her hand, blistering and charred from the attack. A trip to the cryopod was definitely in store for her after this.
Suzaku leaped backward himself as the druid tried to fire at him again. Fresh adrenaline ran through his veins as his jetpack activated and propelled him to Kallen's location.
"Rai! We need an extraction now! Hurry!" he shouted into the comm as he landed on the shelf close to Kallen.
"Rai, fire up Zerith! We're coming in hot!" Lelouch ordered as he, Allura, and C.C. continued to run down the hall. Lelouch was quite shocked that he was keeping up with the two women, but assumed his fight-or-flight instincts had kicked in and were helping him out with that, so he didn't question it too much.
The group then screeched to a halt as two more sentries appeared in front of them, guns raised.
Allura, the only one suitably armed, lifted the gun to try and fire… only for the shot to blast in the entirely opposite direction. The blast hit one of the sentries that were pursuing them from behind.
"Wha-" Allura asked as they turned to look. Lelouch growled and turned his Geass on once more, having tossed C.C. his pistol, and zapped one of the sentries while C.C. shot the other one. After they collapsed, Allura took the fallen sentry by C.C. and flung it at the incoming robots. It collided with them, causing them to fall, but that wouldn't stop them forever.
"I thought you said you'd traveled around the galaxy. I mean, you fly a spaceship. How could you possibly not know how to hold this correctly?" Lelouch demanded as he swiped the rifle from Allura's hands and turned it around and handed it back to the princess.
Hearing more steps behind, Allura yanked the two of them down the hall, holding the rifle right this time.
"I'm tense. This is a tense situation!" Allura explained, but before Allura could say anything else, the intercom came to life once again.
"Secure hatches. All personnel take positions for departure."
"Not good," C.C. said as they picked up the pace further.
From inside the command deck, Rai promptly unplugged the wires. He scooped up his laptop, leading the other four Paladins back towards Zerith.
Kallen and Suzaku were jumping and leaping from wall to platform as they barely dodged attack after attack from the Druid behind them. Strangely, the Druid didn't seem too concerned with the fact that while he was trying to shoot the Paladins, he was partially destroying some of the quintessence that was being stored on the base also.
Suzaku, at one point, managed to leap in front of Kallen with his shield up to take one of the blasts. The shield absorbed the attack, but the force of it sent him flying backward and hitting Kallen. Fortunately, they managed to land on one of the shelves of quintessence. They then slid down a conveyor belt that was transporting another quintessence canister towards the center of the room.
Believing they could possibly use it as a partial shield, Suzaku stood up in front of Kallen to protect her, as he was currently the uninjured one. The Druid soon appeared above them on the conveyor belt as well, hands shimmering with purple sparks of electricity.
As the canister stopped at the center of the room and the Druid approached ever closer, Suzaku readied himself for what would probably be his final stand.
That turned out not to be the day he died though, as the building suddenly shook violently, causing the Druid to lose balance and his attack fired just above Kallen and Suzaku's heads. It cracked open the canister instead and spilled the thick yellow quintessence all over them. However, Kallen got the brunt of it by being closer to it.
From above, the ceiling exploded, forcing the Druid to vanish in a retreat. Zerith's lithe form then landed right in the center of the facility, and she opened her mouth to let the two Paladins in.
"Get in!" Rai shouted from inside, "We've got to get Lelouch, C.C., and Allura!"
The two didn't hesitate as they sprinted into the mouth. As Suzaku made it in, Kallen took a moment to look back at where the Druid had been standing. She growled in fury when she saw that he was gone. She finally stepped inside, and as Zerith's mouth closed, Kallen felt a tingling in her right hand, the one that had been badly burned earlier. She looked down at it, only to gasp in shock, as the yellow quintessence seemed to close in on the injury, and fresh new skin grew in its place.
"Quintessence… what the heck is this stuff?"
"This way!" C.C. shouted as they made a sharp turn down another hall dodging laser blasts from behind still.
"Formulating navigation. All crew, assume secure hyperspeed positions."
"Hurry! We can't leave once the ship goes into hyperspeed!" Allura shouted as they felt the ship vibrate as it began to lift off the ground. She had also ripped off the Galra helmet she had been wearing.
From outside, Zerith leaped onto the top of the central command tower, and the six Paladins inside watched in horror as the ship prepared to jump.
As alarms continued to blare, the trio raced into the room, C.C. slamming her hand on the door panel before sprinting to a pod. Sentries continued to fire at them as the door closed. Before they could get one of the escape pods to work, the sentries started jamming themselves into the door, trying to force their way in.
Allura rushed forward and attempted to force the doors closed, but even her strength wasn't enough for the outpouring of robots trying to bust in. C.C. and Lelouch attempted to help her as much as they could, pushing against the door with her.
Behind them though, a pod was preparing for launch. Once it did and no one was inside, they'd be trapped for good and heading straight for Zarkon!
"It's taking off! Get in the pod!" Allura ordered the two humans who were trying to help her.
"No! We're not leaving you behind!" Lelouch shouted in protest.
The Black Paladin then yelped as he felt hands grab him by the collar of his uniform and fling him backward. He landed hard inside the pod only to see C.C. relaxing from throwing him.
"Lelouch, you can't die here!" she shouted, "Not before you prevail! Over the past and over the outcome of your own actions!"
Lelouch could only watch in horror as the pod doors closed, and the entry doors were wrenched open, and sentries swarmed to two women on the other side. Allura sighed in relief as C.C. sent Lelouch a reassuring smile before the pod took off away from the ship, its single passenger trapped inside.
Just as Lelouch's pod exited the battlecruiser, it jumped into hyperspace, taking Allura and C.C. with it.
"No… NO!" he shouted, slamming his fist against the floor of the pod as it glided smoothly towards Zerith, who floated close by waiting to retrieve him.
After Zerith collected the pod and Lelouch exited it, he solemnly walked up to the cockpit, the other six Paladins waiting patiently for him. Upon seeing that Lelouch is the only one to enter, though, they immediately could tell something is wrong.
"Lelouch, where's Allura?" Suzaku asked, ice flowing through his veins.
"And C.C.?" Shirley added.
Lelouch had yet to raise his head as the others crowded around him in concern.
"Lelouch?" Rivalz asked anxiously. He had never seen Lelouch look so… shattered.
"They sacrificed themselves to save me," he finally whispered, barely holding back tears.
"Wait-so they're still on that ship?!" Rai exclaimed in alarm, similar expressions on the others' faces too.
"The ship that's headed to Zarkon's Central Command?" Milly asked.
"The place you specifically said is way too dangerous for us to attack?" Suzaku asked, feeling like an ice cube had just been dropped down his back.
"It doesn't matter how dangerous it is. We can't let Zarkon get Allura," Lelouch said, a determined and angered frown on his face, "Or C.C. for that matter."
"But, Lelouch, you said going there would be a huge mistake. You said for us to attack that place head-on would be the dumbest possible thing we could ever do!" Kallen reminded him, eyes wide.
"I know what I said. But now we don't have a choice," Lelouch glared back through the window into the abyss the ship disappeared into.
They were correct, this would likely be the most stupid move they could ever make.
But if Zarkon got Allura and C.C., it was over.
And no matter what, that could not happen.
AN: Man! I don't know why, but this chapter took forever to write, but here it is! I hope you enjoy it!
Also, just want to add this regarding Lelouch's Paladin uniform. On stealth and low risk missions, Lelouch is wearing the normal white and black uniform, but in large battles where it's guaranteed to be seen by the enemy, he's in his Zero costume. So in this episode, he's in the standard Paladin uniform.
Next up is the finale of Season 1! I'm super excited it's going to be a doozy!
R&R and please update my TvTrope page if you get the chance! Thanks!
