Hello everyone! I'm back with a new chapter!
Now, a lot of you have brought to my attention that India is in fact part of the Chinese Federation in CG. I completely missed that, as I don't think it was specifically laid out in any of the anime episodes. Looking at the wiki, Indian INDEED did support Zero in the first season (hence why Rakshata joined the Black Knights in the first place) so that changed my plans on how things were going to play out.
I guess this makes this fic mildly AU (which given the divergence from canon I made, of course it would be). I'll try my best to look up the background of the CG canon before I move on with the story. It's too late to take back that mistake now, but I did my best to meet the canon halfway here.
Either way, for what it's worth, enjoy!
New Delhi was a bustling capital, filled with diverse and beautiful cultures. However, it shared one disturbing similarity between it and many of the colonial capitals of the Britannian empire: a sharp division between rich and poor. In the colonies, it was obviously divided between the Britannians and the Numbers. Here, it was also more nuanced between classes; the division between the untouchables and everyone else was not lost on Kallen as she looked around, following the group. "This seems strikingly familiar." She muttered as she observed the class difference.
"It's unfortunate." Rakshata agreed. "But there's nothing we can do."
"Maybe someday." Lelouch said, "But that is not our objective."
"You sure changed things back in my homeland." Fadah noted. "I think this would take less effort."
"The cultural revolution of your homeland was a by-product of our main goal." Lelouch reminded her. "Hopefully, we can accomplish something similar here, but it will have to wait. Besides, such a change is best If the people of this land will it to be." Lelouch observed the city through his sunglasses. It was certainly massive, rivaling Tokyo. "So…which way to parliament again?" Lelouch asked. While India was part of the Chinese Federation, the Chinese reluctantly allowed them SOME autonomy. With the two populations rivaling each other in size, direct conflict was not in the best interest of either; China barely came out on top by it's willingness to take the entire land by any means necessary.
"Just follow me." Rakshata said. "We should be able to catch a bus."
"Okay. Which way?" Lelouch asked.
"I forgot." Rakshata turned to the others giving her a dirty look. "What? I haven't been here in years." CC sighed as she rolled her eyes.
As they made their way through town, Lelouch noticed that Rakshata seemed to make an effort to actively avoid some areas, and hurried through others. "Rakshata." He said when he noticed it was starting to happen more frequently.
"Yes?"
"You seem like you don't want us down this street."
"A lot of these streets are overrun with gangs." Rakshata answered.
"Looking to rob us?"
"Maybe." Rakshata said. "They'll certainly attack you if they sense you have money."
"But that's not the only reason, is it?" Kallen asked suspiciously.
"We have two others." Rakshata said. "One, four out of the five of us are women. Many of these punks don't exactly 'respect' women as they should. And…four out of five of us are foreigners as well. Guess which one of you is the worst offender?"
The group paused to look at Lelouch. The Britannian rebel just looked down and sighed. "Okay. No more questions. Just get us out of here."
"Smart move." Rakshata continued on, when suddenly a group of teens walked in front of them. It was clear by the clothes they wore they were definitely on the poorer side. And judging by the look in their eyes, they were rather hardened. Rakshata was about to lead her group the opposite way, when others cut them off. Some of them even began to cat-call the ladies.
"Oh, come on…" Kallen groaned. "...does this actually work?"
"They don't exactly look like they were given any better advice." CC sneered.
"Hey!" one of them, probably the ringleader, called out to them. "How'd you like us to take that scrawny boy there off your hands and come hang with us?"
"Not interested." Rakshata said, a slight edge to her voice that the others never heard from her before. "Run along home to your mothers."
The gang only began to laugh. "Feisty. I like feisty." One said. The teens began to approach them.
Kallen and the others were about to get ready to fight back, but Lelouch grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away. "Are you out of your mind?" Kallen whispered. "These guys are looking for trouble, and you can't Geass all of them!"
"Think about it. We're foreigners here. If we act together in one place, we'll attract the police, and from there our cover will be blown! We need to spread out! Take Rakshata with you!"
"And what about you?"
"I'll find a way!" Lelouch suddenly broke from the group, running faster than Kallen was used to seeing.
"Rakshata!" Kallen called as she grabbed the technician by the wrist. "Come with me! The rest of you, split!"
CC and Fadah followed her lead, taking off in opposite directions. The ringleader did not give specific orders who to follow, but everyone in the gang had a preference. Everyone spread out and went their separate ways.
Gino walked down the street, wearing sunglasses to conceal where he was really looking. So far, he hadn't seen anything unusual. He knew he was looking for a Britannian, probably of Caucasian decent. "You'd think a person like me would be EASY to spot in a place like this." He turned his head, seeing a bunch of teens run down the opposite street. At first, Gino thought he should ignore them…but he couldn't help but feel curious. Quietly, he followed after them.
Even though he felt his lungs burning and his legs turning to jelly as usual, Lelouch was still running. In fact, when he realized he was still running, he was both shocked and proud of himself. "If I ever get out of this, I'll have to thank Kallen for that hellish training!" Despite his newfound stamina, the gangsters were gaining on him "I've got to lose them!" Lelouch darted to the right, hoping to throw them off…and found himself at a dead end. "Shit." Lelouch turned to see himself cornered. Nothing was said as the teens suddenly picked up some objects and rushed him.
On instinct, Lelouch went into a fighting stance as he blocked the first strike and punched the guy in the nose. Unlike Abbas, Lelouch managed to aim his knuckles properly and avoid hurting his hand. His momentary victory was cut short when someone wacked him across the back with a board. "Uhn!" Lelouch pushed himself to get up and hit him with a rear kick. "Okay, I've got to…" Once again, his thoughts were interrupted when another slashed a knife across his face. "AH!" The assailant pushed him against the wall as Lelouch held his knife at bay. The others quickly closed in on him and began to beat him against the wall. Too much was happening for Lelouch to process; he couldn't think his way out of this when he was being pounded every second!
"Come on, waste this prick!"
One of them cocked his fist back…and felt it grabbed as he was thrown back. "Back off." The red-haired man in sunglasses said. The gang then turned their attention on the new guy.
"What?" One of them postured for him. "You want some of this?"
Gino had experience with punks like these: when they goaded you, often the only solution was to give them more than they could chew. Quickly, Gino punched the kid across the face, resulting in an instant knock out. The gang stared at their new opponent, just frozen. Either they were too afraid to attack him…or they were waiting for someone to tell them to attack.
"Get him!" one shouted.
"Shit, they've decided to go the stupid route." Gino grabbed the arm of one trying to punch him and flipped him over. Before another could leap on his back, he shot a chicken-leg kick in the groin. Gino quickly propped himself upright to avoid a fist of brass knuckles. Seeing that there were only three left, Gino's instincts kicked in. He pulled the one closest in for a knee to the stomach and pushed him into the one coming in from behind. The third attacker tried a very bad and predictable kick, which Gino caught. Pushing his foot up with tremendous speed, Gino forced the assailant to hit the asphalt hard on his head.
As his back was turned, one of the other two picked up a big board. As he lunged for him, something hard hit him in the back. The teen's eyes rolled in the back of his head as he fell to the ground like a ragdoll. Lelouch stood over him, brandishing a karate-chop.
"Hn. It seems you've a few tricks of your own." Gino smiled.
"Uh, actually, I'm still new at this." Lelouch replied sheepishly. "But thanks for your help. It's much appreciated."
"No problem." Gino said, extending his hand. "The name's Gerald." Gino didn't want to lie about his identity, but even for a grateful civilian, he couldn't risk it.
"Leonard." Lelouch held out his hand.
"Something's off about this guy." Gino sensed. Still, he returned the handshake.
"If you don't mind me asking you for another favor, sir…" "Leonard" began…
"Depends on the favor." Gino answered. "I'm kind of on the clock."
Lelouch put his sunglasses down and looked Gino right in the eyes. "I'd like you to forget everything you just saw…"
"KYA!" Kallen knocked out one of the gangsters with a clean punch across the face, and he fell like a ragdoll. Everyone else were prostrated in undignified positions and groaning in pain, courtesy of the Red Queen herself.
"Hm, I knew you were a fighter, but I must say, it's another thing entirely to watch you fight." Rakshata said casually, not at all perturbed with all the excitement earlier.
"Save the compliments until we find him again. I'm worried." Kallen said as she looked straight ahead.
Kallen began to walk away, when one of the punks raised his head and looked at her with sheer hatred. "You stupid bitch, this ain't over! We'll get you!"
Kallen's brow twitched at his declaration. "You better hurry; we're not staying long." She then walked towards him, and the idiot had no idea just how bad he messed up. Kallen just sneered at him. "But, just so you'll remember us…" She then smashed her foot right between his legs. Neither she nor Rakshata ever heard such a high-pitched scream.
CC and Fadah were quickly reunited with Kallen, the ladies having dealt with their attackers in a manner similar to Kallen. "I take it everyone's okay?" Kallen asked.
"If we weren't, I don't think you would be seeing any of us." Fadah replied.
"If nothing else, we probably don't have to worry about other gangs messing with us." CC said. "Right now, I'm more worried about Lelouch."
"CC!" Kallen hushed her.
"What? Lelouch is not a well-known name, except among a few people." A male voice said as the girls turned their heads to the source. Their disguised leader approached them from an alley. "Still, Kallen has a point." He added. "We probably should think of speaking in code whenever we're travelling among the public.
"You made it!" Kallen exclaimed.
"I had a close call." Lelouch admitted. "We should hurry to parliament."
"You seem worried." CC said.
"A stranger helped me, a Britannian I think." Lelouch replied. "I couldn't put my finger on it, but he seemed familiar. I had to wipe his memory of the event."
"Wipe his memory?" Rakshata asked. "How- "
"Later. I got a bad feeling from him is all I'm saying." Lelouch interrupted. "But we better go, just in case."
"He's right." Kallen told them. "If it's someone we know, it could only be bad news."
"Okay then." Rakshata said. "Anyway, I think I found a bus stop around one of the turns there. We should go on there."
"Good idea." Lelouch agreed.
Gino blinked in confusion. "What was I doing just now?" He found himself in a completely different street than he remembered, and he caught some guys limping away; no doubt he was in a self-defense situation. Then why couldn't he remember it? "I better tell Suzaku."
Quickly, he pulled out his phone and dialed Suzaku. "Report." the Knight of Seven commanded.
"Suzaku, I…" Gino hesitated for a moment as he thought about what he was actually going to say. "I'm actually not sure if it's important now."
"Tell me anyway." Suzaku said.
"I just…I seem to have a complete loss of memory of the last two to ten minutes."
"Memory loss? Are you sure you just didn't lose track of time?" Suzaku asked skeptically
"I'm sure, I don't even have the slightest idea of what I've been doing between now and a few minutes ago. Something just doesn't feel right about this."
The other end was silent. Since he didn't hang up, Gino stayed on, knowing Suzaku was thinking about this. "Gino, pull out your tracker."
Gino switched the app on his phone for his GPS, and typed in his code to activate one of his homing beacons. Indeed, there was a red dot moving on the map. "Wait, I got something! But how!?"
"Whatever caused your memory loss, you had enough sense to take precautionary measures. It seems you found a person of interest and tagged them. Good work, Gino."
"I'm sending you the signal now." Gino said as he typed the code in.
As the GPS screen synched with Suzaku's phone, he quickly laid out a plan of intersection. "Anya." He called on the other line. "Meet Gino and I on 56th and Bollywood!"
"Understood."
Suzaku knew this could only be the work of Geass as he ran towards the rendezvous. "Where could he be heading?"
"Here we are." Rakshata announced as their destination was finally in front of them. The knights stared at the building of Parliament. It was quite large, and well polished, as they expected of a government building. The Ornate towers gave it it's unique local touch, showing it was indeed Indian.
"Okay then. Let's go." Lelouch ordered.
"Yes." Rakshata gulped. "Let's go…"
Her nervousness did not go unnoticed by Kallen. "Rakshata…what's wrong?"
Rakshata sighed. "Well, you're about to find out either way…so I'd rather not tell you just yet."
Lelouch nodded.
They went inside and approached the front desk. Lelouch took notice of the gaze of the security guards, but thankfully, none left their post to harass them despite their cold stares. The receptionist hid his surprise as if the group was nothing out of the ordinary, much to their appreciation. "May I help you?"
Lelouch looked to him, then to Rakshata. "I think it's best if my friend here tells you."
Rakshata breathed deep. "I…"
"Rakshata!" The group turned to see a well-dressed young man, probably about Lelouch's age, approach them. He was clearly Indian, but had streaks of blonde in his average length black hair. His gaze was rather hard to pinpoint, but he did seem a bit miffed. Kallen and Fadah in particular could see from the way he moved he was rather athletic…maybe even a fighter like them.
"Shaurya." Rakshata answered. "It's been a while. Though I wonder if for you it's been too long or not long enough."
"Well, I'll let father know you're here, and depending on your answer, we'll find out." Shaurya replied.
"Father!?" Kallen and Fadah exclaimed.
Suzaku and the knights looked at Parliament from across the street. Suzaku checked the screen; the signal was coming from inside without a doubt. "Gino, I do believe you found Zero without even knowing it."
"So, he's in parliament." Gino noted. "Probably trying to recruit allies. Looks like we got here in the nick of time."
"However, we cannot storm the building with our knightmares. Not without probable cause." Anya noted.
"Whatever our cause, the Indians are going to be pissed either way." Gino noted. "So, Suzaku, what do you propose?"
Suzaku thought for a moment. "First, we need to see how this will all go down." He answered. "We need to find the Prime Minister's office."
"I doubt they'll allow a bunch of mere tourists to see him." Anya replied. "And that's the best case scenario."
"Must you always be so literal, Anya?" Gino smirked. "On covert missions, we take the backdoor."
The women waited down the hall as Shaurya went to inform the minister. "So…your brother?" CC asked.
"Indeed." Rakshata answered.
"I take it you never talked much about your family in this group." Fadah said.
"Well, Zero never asked, and it never seemed relevant when I first joined the group, so yes." Rakshata said.
" 'Family sucks' type of cliché?" Fadah asked.
"No." Rakshata said. "Not too much. If anything…the problem is with me."
Finally, Shaurya approached them. "The minister will see you now. However, I must warn you: he is not very pleased."
"That's quite alright." Rakshata said as she stood. "I did not expect him to be, and I don't blame him for the way he feels."
"Well, at least you understand that." Her brother answered. He looked around. "Where's your friend?"
"He needed to change in the restroom." CC thumbed the bathroom door. "Wanted to look presentable for your minister."
As if on cue, Lelouch stepped out. Or rather, Zero stepped out. "What!?" Shaurya gawked in surprise. "You're alive!?"
Zero quickly approached him. "Whatever you're thinking of doing right now…don't. Take us to the minister, please. We just want to talk."
The minister twiddled his fingers on his desk as he waited for his unexpected guests to come. Whatever political agenda they might have, that's not what bothered him. "Of all times, why did she have to come back? Why now?"
He heard a knock on the door, and Shaurya eased the door open. "Sir? Rakshata and her guests are here to see you."
"If Rakshata is brining other people here, I assume they're important?"
"See for yourself." Shaurya swung the door open, and the minister's eyes widened at the sight of Zero.
"You!" the minister exclaimed. "We thought you were dead."
"Prime Minister. A pleasure to finally meet you." The masked man said as if nothing was wrong. "Before we begin, I must thank you for your support a year ago. I only apologize that I was unable to meet your expectations that year. I promise you we shall make up for that. But, I believe you should hear that from someone other than me."
Rakshata then stepped in front of him. "You have a lot of nerve coming back." The minister said to her.
"It's been a long time…father." She said.
And that's a good place to leave off.
For those who may be confused, in THIS version, though India is apart of the Chinese Federation specifically, they are allowed some autonomy. You could think of it as being to China what Puerto Rico is to the US (I acknowledge my understanding of the real world counterpart may be WAY off). India can do almost anything they want within their own borders, but matters of international importance have to be approved by the Federation.
Hope that helps, and I did my best to make certain there wasn't any information on Rakshata I was missing out on. Since her family is not mentioned in the series, I'd figure I'd take some liberties. You'll see how the drama plays out.