This was a strange dream.
Kallen frowned with narrowed eyes as she looked around herself. That was the first thing that was strange. That she acted, consciously. Despite the evidence that this was clearly a dream. That evidence being she was in a completely dark space. And also that she was naked. The strange part though was there was no one around to see her naked. That was how this sort of thing usually went, wasn't it? Pitch blackness was a new one, and something she was fairly certain she didn't like.
Then she heard it. The growl. Low and predatory.
"Who's there?!" she shouted, turning around, finding her feet planted on absolutely nothing and yet she moved anyway. "Is that you, Lelouch? You messin' me about?!" she demanded of the inky blackness. She had no idea if this was something he was capable of. "OI!"
Then the glow. The strange, ethereal, all-consuming green glow. It was coming from behind her. She didn't know how she knew that, but she knew. She turned again, found herself confronted by a shape. An enormous, bestial shape made up of angular ridges. A great monster, the only source of light for it were its glowing, gem-like green eyes. She heard it breathe in, then felt its roar course through her entire being as the empty world around her was filled with roaring flames.
"JESUS FUCK!" she shouted, only for her eyes to widen as a lance of agony ripped through her brain. "OW!"
The monster, the red dragon laughed at her in a low, rumbling chuckle. Long enough for her to recover and take in its majesty unimpeded.
"Y Ddraig Goch," she whispered reverently. "I can't bloody believe it..."
"Hmmmm," the dragon hummed, circling around her with great flaps of his powerful wings, completely unbothered by the flames. He completed a full circuit around her, analysing every inch of her. She puffed herself up. She knew she didn't want to be found wanting by the creature that was the symbol of her homeland. "Hm. Nine out of ten."
She blinked. "What?" She wasn't quite sure what she was asking. The red dragon could talk? But more than that, what did the rating mean? Did he think she was strong enough? She liked to think so but it was a little surprising a dragon would rate her so highly–
"I like what you're going for," the dragon continued in a considering tone, his mouth not moving at all, the voice coming from everywhere and nowhere. "The tough girl, kind of tomboy thing that secretly has a super feminine body. I like it. It's a great archetype. Loved girls like you back in the day. So feisty!"
"What?!" Her world was collapsing. What was happening?!
"Yeah, you manage it really well. Not much at all to improve on if we're being entirely fair. But..." the great beast clucked its tongue, hissed through its teeth, "I just think maybe your tits could be bigger you know?"
"WHAT?!"
The dragon continued talking, completely ignoring his host's diminishing mental state. "If we'd met maybe a month ago? I'd've given you a perfect ten, easy. But then you went to that devil party or whatever it was and I saw that Asian girl? Oof. Can't be a day over seventeen and still has fat, juicy knockers like that! Boy, I miss the days when they'd send me girls like that... Great mammaries. I mean, memories." He pulled himself out of his wistful thoughts to finally notice the equally furious and horrified look of his host. "Yours are great too, though," he added in hopes of appeasing her.
"I...! I...! AGH!" the screamed in futile fury. "What even are you?! I thought you were supposed to be the Welsh Dragon! Not some giant perverted lizard!"
"Oi! I am the... Welsh? Oh, right, my name's in that language isn't it?" the beast nodded to itself. "Yep. Y Ddraig Goch, that's me. Ddraig for short."
"If you're a powerful dragon, why are you rating my tits?!"
"Not just your tits, your whole image," the dragon protested as though that made a difference. "You do remember the thing about dragons being greedy, right? Ahh, all the gold, jewels, women sacrificed to me. I made sure the women were comfortable of course. And they made sure I was comfortable too. Heheh. heh."
"This can't be happening!" Kallen tried to tell both herself and the world. "The symbol of Wales is nothing but a giant fuckboy lizard."
"Pfft, you would say that, Little Miss Died a Virgin."
"I'm gonna turn you into a purse!"
"Maybe you should start with pants?"
The redhead looked down, yelped as she realised she had been naked for the entire conversation. And that the pervert dragon was probably ogling her the entire time.
"Hahahaha!" the dragon bellowed a laugh, showing the width of his great maw and the sharpness of his teeth. "I haven't had a female host in a long time. I forgot how much fun it was."
"This is my life now," Kallen lamented. "Servant to a future King of Hell with a perverted dragon inside me."
"Heh."
"DON'T," she shouted warningly, knowing exactly what the dragon was thinking.
"Not like it was ever a problem for you before," the beast huffed in good humour. "After all, didn't you appreciate all that help I gave you?"
"What help?"
The red dragon paced, or rather swam around her once again, this time with a much more predatory air about him. "All those times you thought you were at your breaking point? Every time you dug deep inside yourself to push that little bit harder, to push your limits that little bit more?" He chuckled to himself. "You weren't just pushing yourself, you were pulling on just a touch, just a taste of the power I have. Did you never consider how you had taken your body further than anyone around you thought possible?"
"I..." She had. She hadn't known of anything supernatural. The only conclusion she could have drawn was that she had natural gifts that meshed well with her determination.
"That is what my power is, my new host. I am the Red Dragon of Domination. Within me, and within the Sacred Gear you now hold, is the power to grow endlessly, to achieve power that eclipses all others. Be grateful, my host. For as the new Red Dragon Empress, you no longer have limits. Together, there are no heights we cannot soar to."
She frowned at him. Turned to follow his movements. "That drive I've always had, was that you too? Was that just you pushing me without me knowing it?"
"Do you think Sacred Gears are granted by chance, my host?" the dragon asked. "They are granted to those whose souls are compatible. I would not be here with you if we didn't share some similarities in character. You and I are better matched than most hosts I've had. You would have been a driven woman with or without me." He huffed out a gout of flame. "That isn't to say I didn't stoke the flames of your ambition. My time might have passed, but I do like to see what my hosts can do with a little encouragement."
"Then why does it go away around Lelouch?" she asked. It was an important question to her. One she had nothing close to an answer for. It was at times both unnerving and comforting. A part of herself (or what she thought was herself) going silent, but at the same time the burden to excel mostly fading from her mind.
The answer didn't come as readily as the others. "Maybe you're in love," the beast teased.
She blushed, but frowned. "Just because he's attractive, technically saved my life, makes me feel calm and has a sinister bad boy image isn't enough to make me fall in love."
"Pfft, you might be the first woman I've ever met who could say that with a straight face."
"And I'm not some innocent girl who would get flustered by that kind of talk enough I'd miss you deflecting." She folded her arms over her chest, giving the dragon an unimpressed glare. "Talk. What do you know?"
Once again, a slow response. "I don't know anything," the beast answered to her dissatisfaction. "But... There's something. I can't describe it. He feels... odd. Unfamiliar."
"Unfamiliar?" she frowned in confusion. "What does that even mean? It's not like you would've met him before. He's younger than me so you'd never have had the chance."
"That isn't what I mean," Ddraig grumbled. "He's strange. Foreign. There's something more to him. Something that doesn't belong."
"What does that mean?"
He looked at her, then looked away, coming to a stop with a flourish of his entire body to face her properly, smoke puffing from his nose and mouth. "Alright. I've decided." He looked her up and down one last time and nodded with satisfaction. "I'm gonna give you a bonus point."
"What?"
"For being a natural redhead." He raised a claw in a bizarre facsimile of a thumbs up. "Perfect ten."
Kallen gasped, covering her crotch from his view, glaring up at him.
-(-)-
As was often the case, Lelouch was contemplative as he watched the scenery pass by. The car hurtling at hundreds of miles per hour through the vast untamed wilderness on either side of the road. The underworld was vast. Far too much for devils to settle in its entirety. As such it was easy to create a personal hideaway if one wished. Defending it from the wildlife was another matter. The weak congregated in cities for the protection of the nobility and safety in numbers. The strong built palatial estates on the far fringes of civilisation. And with transport being so much easier for devilkind than humanity, the fringes were far further afield.
"Does he live in the middle of nowhere?" Kallen asked her King, staring just as much as him, staring in awe with every glimpse she got of the strange beasts inhabiting the Bael lands.
"More or less," Lelouch answered without much concern. "Retired heads tend to live a life of comfort and solitude, at least for the Baels. Zekram is more or less the exception. He's an active figure in devil politics, but the only people who go visit him are family." He tried to conceal most of his trepidation as he added, "And now you."
"What's he like?" She sensed his concern. Good. It was rare he showed that emotion so she should understand the gravity of the situation. She didn't need to know the depth of that concern.
"When you think of a devil, what do you think of?" he asked rhetorically. "Nefarious deals? Manipulations? Attempts to subtly tempt you into hell? That's the type of devil Zekram Bael is."
"That's... Kind of how I saw you," Kallen noted.
He hummed in agreement. He wasn't shy about it, and never would be shy about it with her. "And that's why he likes me. He wants to turn me into another him in totality. My recalcitrance on the matter is the reason I anticipate this meeting going poorly." If he had thought he would need to ask more favours of Zekram he... No. He would never have pretended at buying into the outdated positions of the Great King faction. It wasn't in him to be a simpering toady. He wouldn't have lasted a month.
"Is he... Should I be going with you?" the redhead asked. She had been invited when Lelouch had asked for this meeting.
"He invited you. If I refused that, it would be because I don't trust you." He turned, looked over his shoulder at her. "And I do. Just," his eyes returned to the outside, "Be careful with what you say. He'll be taking this opportunity to learn about you. Who you are and what you represent." He felt it best not to speak the alternative way Zekram could take the refusal. That Lelouch didn't trust him. If nothing else, he needed the old devil to believe as much as possible that it wasn't the case, even though it very much was. The fact that he trusted Kallen was his only relief from that reality.
They both fell silent, tension building as Lelouch recognised the final approach to Zekram's estate.
"Oh my–!" Kallen exclaimed, cutting herself off before the final painful word. She stared as the graphic stained glass windows came into view. And then the statue of the defiled angel. "Lelouch, what–?!"
"He likes imagery of the holy being reduced to base urges."
It was clearly an answer that didn't satisfy but he didn't have a better one.
The car pulled up the the front entrance. True to her training, Kallen emerged from the car first, moving around the car to open the door for her King.
Lelouch took a deep breath in as Kallen closed the car door behind him, Rudolf taking the car around to wait in the guest house. "Hello Mary," he said with forced politeness.
The former Queen of England's head bowed. "Welcome back, young master." Unlike previous visits wherein the servants wore a rotating list of fetish gear, it seemed this time Zekram had them dress normally. Or, as normally as he ever would. All of them wearing proper servant clothing. The maid outfits showed a rather large amount of cleavage but that was as far as they went in terms of risqué. "Master Zekram is busy at the moment but has requested you and your... Guest, await him in the lounge."
"Thank you, Mary."
She bowed her head again, turned and walked ahead of them. It seemed this time, likely due to Kallen's presence, he was not permitted to find his own way as he had been last time.
"Would either care for refreshment after your journey?"
"Coffee, please," Lelouch asked, turning to look at his Queen. "Kallen?"
She jerked to awareness. "Just... Just water, please. Thank you." With a nod, the servant turned on her heel and left them alone. "Your... Is it grandfather? He's the old-fashioned type then? Having his servants dress like that?"
"... You could say that." It was true in most every sense of what devils were. But it wasn't in what Kallen had seen. It was no coincidence that Zekram's penchant for humiliating cosplay was put on hold when he planned to entertain a reincarnated devil. "And yes, grandfather is the easiest term."
They waited. A minute passed in silence. Kallen took the moment to examine the room. Lelouch took the moment to keep himself from fidgeting. It would be the worst revealing of his nerves, and he knew Zekram or at least one of his servants was watching.
Zekram arrived before Mary returned, both devils knowing well enough to stand to receive him. "Lelouch," Zekram greeted, taking his grandson in a less than affectionate one-armed hug. "I wasn't expecting to see you for some time, though I'll not complain at spending time with my descendant. Ah," he released the dark haired boy to approach the redheaded young woman. "And this must be the talk of the underworld herself. Kallen, was it?" he asked, taking her hand and raising it to not quite touch the knuckle with his lips. "A pleasure to meet you, young lady."
"It is an honour to meet you, Lord Bael," she answered, leaning on her etiquette lessons.
"Ahaha, I haven't been Lord Bael for a long time, my dear," the ancient devil laughed good naturedly. So convincing it was almost sickening. It was at this moment that Mary returned with three drinks on a tray. "Ah, wonderful. May I suggest we sit? I must admit I have quite the many questions about you, Miss Stadtfeld, our new Red Dragon Empress. You'll forgive an old man his curiosity for the sake of protecting his grandson, I trust?"
The questioning, the interrogation began. The old devil wasn't content to leave his questioning to recent events, to her death and her new life. No, he asked after her complete history. Her family. Her aspirations as a human. Her hobbies. He asked her about subjects she hadn't even spoken of with her King yet. All of it giving him more and more of a read on who Kallen was as a person.
"And have you spoken to it yet?" Zekram asked.
Once again her eyes flicked to Lelouch. She had spoken to him about it briefly. "I... Yes. He's not really what I expected."
"To such a legendary creature, your lifetime is an eye-blink," Zekram smiled, not needing to note aloud how he shared such a perspective. "Something a human would never be able to understand. Though now that you are a reincarnated devil, perhaps you might be lucky enough to do so." He raised his glass of some dark brown liquid, took a sip and toasted with it. "But I've harangued you long enough. Thank you for indulging me, Miss Stadtfeld."
"Yeah, no problem," she answered, surprised by how long she had been talking and how quickly the time had flown by.
Zekram suggested they adjourn to the dining room to share a meal. The host graciously suggested they eat their fill before discussing the true purpose of the visit. From Kallen's perspective, the meat dish seemed to be some sort of fish? Though she couldn't place it, it was delicious all the same. As she might have expected.
Once again they returned to the lounge, refreshments of coffee and water replaced with a vintage red wine. "So," Zekram spoke, setting down his glass and leaning back in his seat. "Lelouch. What brings you by?"
The teen devil nodded, feeling just the supplicant that he was in this situation. He needed to take more control of the situation. "I have a proposition. An opportunity that has come to me, largely out of happenstance, that I would be foolish not to take."
"Oh?" Zekram asked and the tone of it set alarm bells to a clamour in Lelouch's head. "You aren't the type to ask advice of your elder unless you're desperate. And you don't need to ask my permission to take advantage of an opportunity. Unless, of course, it runs counter to our house's position or our arrangement." The smile appeared pleasant but it was anything but. "So, which is it?"
He knew. He already knew which it was. "I am currently courting Sona Sitri. The expectation is that I will one day take the position of consort once she becomes Lady Sitri, providing heirs to her house."
"I'm familiar. A difficult situation given our politely adversarial relationship with the houses of the New Satans but the fury it causes the new Leviathan is a potent salve."
Serafall very much didn't like him. That hadn't been the case before Sona decided to make their courtship official but ever since it had been in Lelouch's best interest to not visit Sona's home. There was no expectation of attack or injury but she would undoubtedly take glee in making his stay miserable.
"Though that still leaves the issue of who will be the future Lady Bael–"
Zekram put forth a raised hand, stopping Lelouch short. "Gremory?" he asked flatly.
"She has voiced interest. It would be of benefit to our house's reputation to reclaim–"
"Enough," Zekram warned, shaking his head as he stood and pace. "I must admit I knew it would come one day but I had no idea it would be so swift." He turned, facing his heir again. "Little Gremory was furious to see you had a Queen, refused to speak to you. Stormed off during the youngest Phenex's debut to avoid you. This much I know. But allow me to imagine where it went from there. You, being the soft-hearted child you are, chased after the wayward girl to confront her. And there she told you, teary-eyed, her grand plan to submit herself to you. But, alas! What cruel fate you have designed! You found a Queen before she could take the position. And now the heartsick girl is trapped in the position of spurning the boy she loves or failing her house! What tragedy! If only you, Lelouch, had not chosen another Queen but of course it isn't your fault. She will proudly soldier on as her world falls apart!"
"You're being awfully dramatic," Lelouch noted with narrowed eyes. "It isn't like you."
"Oh," the ancient devil uttered, coming back to himself. "I apologise Lelouch. I simply wanted to put on as rousing a performance as she. After all, it clearly moved you the first time."
"Not everyone is as ruthless as you are, Zekram. You think the whole thing was a performance? She's a teenage girl."
"And has you wrapped around her little finger," the first Bael countered. "Or was any of my supposition the slightest bit wrong?"
"No, you perfectly encapsulated the events. After all it's entirely correct to the facts of the schism caused by your faction–"
"Our faction, Lelouch," Zekram corrected warningly. "Or have you forgotten that? You are part of the Great King faction. The heir to the house of Bael. You made a deal with me to work in our faction's interest."
"A deal for which you've reneged!" Lelouch snapped. "Did you think I would let it slide? The only lead you offered for finding a cure for Mother was also a favour for your sake! You have offered nothing in the years since! And in the time I played your gladhanding heir, Mother's time has been running out. Did you believe I would allow you to rest on your laurels until Mother woke or died, then claim you fulfilled your end of the bargain?! Do not speak to me of that arrangement! It avails you nothing!"
The ancient devil rose, standing just a touch straighter, his expression firm. His eyes flicked toward Kallen. "Given your Queen is the new Red Dragon Empress, I assume you have also been studying the Sacred Gears of the same type. The Longinus?" he asked, awaiting no answer. "I have been seeking the current holder of the Sephiroth Graal."
"The holy grail?" Lelouch asked with a frown.
"The ultimate answer to issues of life and death," Zekram nodded. "The power and knowledge of life and souls. The thirteen Longinus have the power to surpass even gods. With it, the sleeping sickness can be cured. Or, even if it can't, it could take her soul and place it in another body, one absent of the sleeping sickness. One way or another, it would give you the cure you seek. No guess, no possibility, no question, no doubt. It would work."
"And I'm supposed to take it that's truth you just spoke, and not a hastily cobbled together excuse to keep me on your leash," Lelouch accused.
Zekram levelled a flat stare at him as he raised a finger to his ear. A moment later another servant, a man Lelouch didn't recognise, laid a pile of papers and files on the table. "My investigations on the subject," the devil gestured at the papers. "Do not accuse me of failing to hold up my end of a bargain. I made an agreement with a member of my family and I held up my end. I will honour it. Will you?"
The boy stared at the pile of documents. In this moment he couldn't confirm it contained what Zekram claimed. But it would be more than a bold move to present a false prop like that. And so he swallowed down that argument, changing tack. "Were I to marry Rias it would cause difficulties, but it would not be betraying the Great King faction. One of the greatest threats to our house is the growing idea that the Gremory, not the Bael, hold the power of destruction."
"And bringing in the girl would inhibit that, leaving the Gremory with only one heir holding the power." Zekram finished the argument for Lelouch before he could. "I'm aware. It's a convincing argument."
"Nothing compared to the one flaw you've always seen in me. My care for those you consider to be outside of our house. Were I to marry Rias, the last of those personal connections you're so terrified by would be within our house."
"Yes," Zekram nodded. His expression unchanging. "Also very true."
Was this Zekram's new tactic? Agreeing with everything Lelouch was saying without contest was certainly taking the wind out of his sails. "Then what is the issue?"
"The issue, Lelouch?" the ancient devil asked, clasping his hands behind his back. "Isn't it obvious? The issue is you wouldn't learn from this."
"... What?" The Bael heir's blood ran cold. This was familiar. This was too familiar.
"The one concern I've had for you, Lelouch. The one thing that prevented you from being the perfect heir. I saw it when you gave up one of your most valuable pieces for your powerless brother. I saw it when you intervened in the Gremory's engagement. I saw it when your mother first fell ill. Again and again and again you sacrifice for the sake of those who shouldn't matter. Over and over and over taking the burden of their happiness onto yourself. And for what? What has it gained you in the end? Maybe one day your brother won't be a complete waste. But the Gremory took from you and now she asks for more. Your mother's distress brought you to me, forced you to act in the interests of a faction you vehemently disagree with. And now here you are, trying to make one more desperate bargain."
"What were you willing to sacrifice this time, Lelouch?" Zekram asked, devoid of any sympathy. "What would you give up to stop a girl you know from crying on your shoulder? Would you sell your soul to see her smile again?" His smile was cold, condescending, and more than a touch victorious. "Let's find out. The price I ask for supporting you in this," his hand moved, a finger pointing, "is that."
Desperation suddenly gripped him. Looking from his ancestor to the pile of papers on the table. "Wait–!"
"What I saw coming, Lelouch. It wasn't the little Gremory's proposal. It was a moment like this one. When your bleeding heart would pull you so far beyond your ability to manage. I'm prepared to give you my blessing right now, Lelouch. Put redheaded Baels in the little Gremory. You will have my full support. But," he gestured at the files again. "That? Our deal? It will be null and void. I'll even let you off from working for our faction. But you will receive no more of my help." He raised a hand to his ear. "Mary, see my guests out would you." The hand lowered. "Let me know when you've come to a decision."
Lelouch didn't even watch him leave. Instead he stared blankly, unseeing. Lost in other times. When he had been forced to choose between those he loved. When he had been ripped from them for the sake of someone else's purposes.
Destruction flickered in bursts of malevolent energy from his palms, the fury of what was being done overwhelming his self-control. With no better outlet, that energy burst free in an uncontrolled wave directed at the far end of the room, whether instinct or coincidence, a portrait of Zekram was caught in the blast.
And in the hall outside, an ancient devil smiled a satisfied smile.