"Well. This is a little more than you promised."

"I believe I promised more help for more answers. You answered every question." Celia's green hair swayed as she offered a vaguely grand gesture with all the enthusiasm of a cat waking from a nap. "Welcome, Lelouch Bael, to the Rosenkreuz observatory."

Lelouch was more than familiar with the fantastical at this point. He wouldn't go quite so far as to say magic had become mundane, but it had become a constant feature of his life and the world around him. The impossible made real had been downgraded to a mild fascination in his mind. But even so, it was good to know there were still things that had the capacity to truly impress him.

When one thought of an observatory, the likely expectation would be telescopes, whether large or small. Or some other device for monitoring, for observing, whatever the room was there to observe. Not so in the Rosenkreuz observatory. The equipment, or rather magics, for observing were not housed in this room. Lelouch would be surprised if Celia were even willing to tell him how they managed this feat of... Magical engineering? Sorcery? Regardless, what the room held was instead an enormous, room consuming display of a globe. A non-corporeal miniature representation of the planet. Such a thing was not so impressive on its own. Nor was its ability to present the data of whatever the observatory was searching for.

The impressive part was how it interacted with those viewing it. Even from the entrance, Lelouch experienced the strange phenomenon as he focused on one mark on the map. And in that moment of extra focus, to his perspective he looked closer at the map, like it worked in tandem with some other dimension to move and alter perspectives, even though the display itself was perfectly still. "Impressive. Is it altering my perception or is my perception altering it?"

"I should have known you'd have an idea of its workings this quickly," the ancient magician sighed theatrically. "The answer is both, but obviously only so far as the display is concerned. No worries about us messing with your head. That's more your turf than mine."

"What?"

She stared at him, her eyes dull. "Hypnosis? You are still a devil, yes?"

"... Of course."

"Hmmmm..." She looked up at the display again. "It's currently calibrated to displaying the currently observed instances of holy energy as we speak. The Vatican, Jerusalem, Mecca, various denominational headquarters, churches of various levels of importance. The more vibrant the mark, the greater the quantity of holy energy observed in that area."

"Good to know. Wouldn't want a false positive. But as we speak is less important than over the last few days."

"And here are the controls for that," she showed him, moving past him through his personal space to a control that was little more than a giant lever. "Left for back, right for forward, the more you push it, the faster it goes. Don't lean too heavily on it. The last thing I need is the department whining at me about recalibrations."

He hummed a laugh. "I'll try not to inconvenience you too badly."

"I'm sure. Good luck with your little hunt for the Holy Grail. I'm going to go have some girl talk with your Queen." She waved with her fingers as she walked away from him, not looking back.

Holy Grail. A cute joke. And almost a good idea as he thought about it. Could this thing help him find it? If only it were so easy. It tracked holy energy in use. Even if it were in use and would thus show on the display, it would just be another flare of holy energy. Of which even a cursory search through the past day or so, there were many. And the fact that Arthur and his spearman friend were causing the same flares, Lelouch would never know if one of those flares happened to be the Sephiroth Graal.

So. To the task at hand then.

He tilted the lever left and as he continued to look at the map, an idea appeared in his head. The time. When it was currently displaying. Were he not a devil he would have worried for the direct interaction with his mind. Even if Celia was trying something nefarious, it would need to be something big to overcome a devil's natural resistance to mental interference. His Geass, a couple of the stronger Sacred Gears, literal divine intervention. Not much else would get past it without his allowing it. Desire and imagination based magic made it very difficult to subvert a devil.

Further back. Days, to the day Emily had been taken. He focused in on her hometown, eased time forward, and there it was. A brilliantly bright marker that flushed out the display from how close he was observing. Pulling out further it continued to do so until he was focusing on the entire town, at which point it only covered a significant portion. Yet it spread, likely as the two went through the town covering their tracks. Erasing the existence of the two women.

The suffusion of holy energy remained for some time before it slowly began to dissipate. So it created a sudden flare, then spread, then lingered. He had gained parameters for what Arthur's actions looked like. The sudden burst of energy would be difficult to miss. Then it was just a matter of seeing if it fit the pattern afterward.

He worked for some time, collating data points. Times and locations of these enormous bursts of holy energy. There was a pattern to it. All it took was finding the pattern and he could track them. And... Doing so led him to a very clear conclusion. They were covering too much ground. Teleportation perhaps? Magicians could do that and Arthur's sister was a magician. It was possible. But then, there were too many possibilities to assume her involvement in this. Every faction under the sun was capable of teleportation within the human world. All a belief in their use of teleportation told him was his idea of tracking their path until they stopped was no longer a possibility.

The locations of their activities were many. And moreover, not localised to the United States by any measure. In fact, more were in Europe than anywhere else. A couple in Canada, a couple more in northern Africa, a dozen in the USA... Dozens scattered across Europe. Lelouch had assumed they were up to something big, but that many places? Were they abducting people from all of them? That was hundreds of people scattered across the world! They might have covered their tracks in the short term but someone else would have noticed this sooner rather than later!

Which meant time was against him. He had assumed as much but this proved it. Sheer coincidence had given him this short window of opportunity to stop whatever this was. Or at least find out the purpose behind it. His hopes for the former were dwindling.

The abductions had slowed to a halt a day ago. Before he had even begun his search.

Another problem. Without a path for him to track, without a way for him to use their targets as a method to chart their most likely location, his plan B had been to perhaps catch them in the act. The burst of holy energy would at least let him find the perpetrators. That would give him a path to their victims. But with their activities seemingly done with, that was off the table. His only other hope would be to find their base of operations directly. However, there was no single location that seemed to have been visited more than once. With how free they were with using the Excalibur, he expected that to be true for their base also. Yet there was no indication. No new location with excessive holy energy–

... No new locations. What about the places that already had a preponderance of it? They had to expect they would be throwing around a lot of holy energy. If that was the case, wouldn't it only make sense to find a place where that would already be present? Where it wouldn't be as strange? And as a wielder of the holy sword, many would welcome him with open arms.

He had the data points. He knew where they were and when. Which meant he also knew when they were between excursions. So it was just a matter of finding those times and scouring the already saturated holy locations and looking for an increase after an abduction and a decrease before the next.

An hour passed. Then another. Then nearly a third as Lelouch refused to believe what his eyes were telling him. "You can't be serious." He kept telling himself that they couldn't possibly be that obvious. Though in fairness Lelouch had needed to go to great lengths to find them. Even so, there was hiding in plain sight and then there was... "Arthur Pendragon returns home. Kallen!" He hurried away from the control lever, returned to the door as his Queen threw it open.

"Yeah?"

"I've found them. We're going home."

It was time to gather their forces.

-(-)-

Caerleon. South Wales. Approximately seventeen miles northeast of Cardiff. It was only a small town, a population less than ten thousand. It was completely dwarfed by the city of Newport that could be seen in the distance. A place of barely any significance in the modern day whatsoever. In the modern day. But historically?

Caerleon was once the site of the most famed castle perhaps to ever exist. Camelot. The seat of the legendary King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. There were many humans who devils had feared during the war of the three factions and King Arthur topped the list. And in turn, they were more than happy to assist the legendary magician Morgan Le Fay in subverting The Once and Future King. Some of the knights survived but Arthur and Camelot fell, bringing an end to the legend.

And yet. Seated directly behind Saint Cadoc's Church sat a great four-towered citadel of polished stone. Tall and proud. Flying no banners. As pristine as the day it had fallen.

Camelot.

"This is a joke," Kallen stated with certainty as she stared at the rebuilt fortress. "This has to be a joke. This guy runs 'round the world disappearing people and at the same time he rebuilds an entire bloody castle to keep 'em in?"

"It's certainly a strange mix of cautious and audacious," Ana agreed, adjusting her new jacket that hugged her chest a little too tight. "It would be difficult at best to hide the construction of this place without significant resources. Or perhaps they secured permission to build this through outside means?"

"Arthur Pendragon goes rogue and suddenly Camelot rises from the ashes," Sara summarised, highlighting the absurdity of accepting that as a coincidence. "Maybe he used a pseudonym on the paperwork. Called himself Melrin. Seems like the right level of subtlety for these idiots."

"Kuroka," Lelouch called out, giving his younger brother's small peerage his full attention, turning his back on the fortress. "First, thank you for agreeing to help. You were under no obligation to do so."

"Of course, nya," the nekoshou answered, standing very close to Sairarog, leaning into his side. "I do owe you at least this much. And you were right Shirone is too young for something like this. So considerate, nya!"

Seeing what the Bishop was doing, how she was behaving, Kuisha puffed out her cheeks, linked her arm with Sairaorgs and pressed it between her breasts. "A... A Queen must stand beside her King!" she proclaimed, smiling up at the younger Bael. Sairaorg himself wearing a proud smile.

Lelouch was happy to see him so happy, and to see just how loyal his younger brother's Queen was. Ha, they might even make a good couple! Perhaps it was time to give Sai a talk about finding someone special. Really, he was overdue for that kind of talk. Lelouch didn't know how Sai had managed for so long.

"Even so, thank you. With both of your help, this will be far, far less difficult than it would otherwise have been." Because no matter what help they had, they were assaulting a fortress ostensibly created by the holy power of Excalibur. One in a church's backyard, no less. The danger level of this operation would be enormous. "First, we need to know what kind of opposition we could expect. Kuroka, your senjutsu allows you to sense life energies from a certain distance, yes? Can that sort of sensing be detected by others?"

"Maybe by someone also proficient in it," the cat woman supposed. "But they'd have to be actively looking. After all, it's all natural, nya!"

So that was a no. "Alright. Can you find out their numbers for us? And if possible, what their predispositions are."

"Predispositions?"

"How many of them will be presenting a more holy resistance, ideally."

"I can try, nya."

"Good." He watched Kuroka sit in the grass, her legs crossed, completely uncaring of how she flashed everyone with the position. Then turned his attention to planning their assault. Namely by getting as much information on Kuisha's capabilities as he could. He wasn't exaggerating when he said she would be vital to making this operation easier. Her house's ability to create 'holes', portals from one place to another, was a vital resource. Even if it held the same weakness all devil magics had. She wouldn't be able to just drop them all in the heart of the citadel without seeing or being able to imagine its exact location first.

"Hey Lelouch," Kallen got his attention as they waited for Kuroka to finish. "What's with the..." she trailed off, picking at her blazer. "Why do we have uniforms now?"

"Oh, that was my idea!" Ana volunteered happily, curtseying in her long, dark skirt. Her doll sitting comfortably in a pocket sewn into it. "You inspired the idea actually, Kallen! I saw you standing like a soldier once and I couldn't help but think how cute you'd look in uniform! And they had to have hats so little Shirone could have her ears poke out of hers!"

"Eh, right," Kallen agreed, for a certain definition of the word. "But, okay, I get the colour scheme. It matches Lelouch with the dark and the yellow piping because Bael colours and all that. But... Yours is a long skirt. Why is mine shorts and thigh-highs?"

"Because it works for you!" the ice princess answered with utmost certainty, beaming with pride. "I am the ladylike magician, you are the... What is the term... The action girl!" The former duchess declared in epiphany. "The aggressive girl who is powerful and fights hard but also has a feminine side she likes to keep hidden that wants to feel attractive while she kicks butt!"

The redhead blinked. Opened her mouth as if about to refute the description. But... Well, Ana had more or less got her pegged. "Okay, but... Can't I do all that in trousers?"

"No." Both a male and female voice answered as one. The redhead looked at Lelouch, who hadn't realised he had spoken and pointedly looked away. Something that only brought the words of a most hated witch to the Red Dragon Empress' mind.

"Trust me, Kallen!" Ana tried to reassure her, adjusting the Queen's hat to sit a little lower. "You look amazing!" Adding quieter, "See? Master Lelouch likes it!"

"Pffwfwell," Kallen's sputters eventually morphed into a word, trying to keep her blush down. "What about Sara?! Why's she in a leotard?!"

The Rook smiled as she looked over to the embarrassed Queen, punching her gloved hands together. Her legs spread in a pose that showed off the significant musculature that Kallen hadn't known was there until today. "Because I asked for it. Freedom of movement, flexibility, and like the princess Bishop said." She flexed harder to accentuate the point. "I look damn good."

The statement had been made. Sara wanted her uniform to be a skin-tight leotard, hat, boots and gloves. They fit the scheme and were accepted. So if Kallen really wanted, she could have insisted her own be changed to pants, more or less the same as Sairaorg wore. So it was perhaps telling that despite this, she instead went quiet and allowed the subject to drop.

Ana's abilities could be scary on occasion. On most occasions even.

For a moment, Lelouch considered taking her aside to remind her not to overstep. But... She was keeping Kallen's thighs on display, so it could wait until after they were done here.

The sun, setting when they arrived, was fully below the horizon by the time Kuroka finally stood. The serene presence she exuded vanished as she let the natural energies of the world return to their unperturbed state. "I have what you asked for," she said with an unexpectedly regretful tone.

"How many?"

"There were thirty-one people in the castle," she said. "Nyow there are thirty. The strongest presence disappeared while I was watching. There are four others that were strong. One was... Nn, nya," she shuddered in revulsion. "A cursed existence. I could feel him fighting against his corrupted nature, tearing himself apart. Another was radiant but barely even aware and diminishing by the moment. The other two, secure, capable, but not close to the level of power of the first two. And the rest..." She shook her head. "Rigid. Unwavering. Soldiers."

Lelouch drew in a breath through his nose. "I see." Thirty. Versus the hundred or more than should have been here. There were two possibilities. Either they kept their captives elsewhere still. They had teleportation so it wasn't impossible. Or... Whatever they intended to do with their victims, they had already done it. Both were possible, but Lelouch had resolved to give up false hopes. "In that case, our objective has changed. Presumably the strong presence that disappeared was Arthur himself. That gives us a window of opportunity to attack before he returns, discover everything there is to learn about what they were doing here and why. Here is the plan."

-(-)-

Hours earlier, inside Camelot

It was.

This hadn't been the case until this very moment. It existed in a state of confusion, as the they slowly warped, twisted, contorted and melded together. Their very existence disfigured. Each individual carved and sculpted to become a puzzle piece, slotted into place next to another similarly carved to match. Each a single segment of a larger whole. A mosaic existence.

It was made. Constructed. Shaped by a craftsman's hands for specific purpose. Many things that could not meet that need, that true existence reshaped until they contributed to that one purpose. To be the one true existence that their shaper desired. Even with such care and careful carving, it was a futile dream. A fateful impossibility to create such a resplendent and pure being. How could such purity be born from methods of such cruel monstrosity? One hundred and eighty-two souls. Sacrifices on the alter. On the anvil.

To be more.

To be perfect.

To be a failure.

"It didn't work."

They were the first words it heard. The first sensation it experienced even before the cold of the stone it rested on.

"I know."

The same voice again. The only speaker? ... What was a speaker? Ah. It understood. Its many pieces were coming closer to being truly one. And with every piece came understanding. Stone. Stone was cold and hard, but smooth. Smooth under its... Its back. It was on its back. Like sleep? Was it asleep?

"Don't get angry at me, Cao! You're the one that suggested this!"

Cao. Cao. What was Cao? It didn't understand this word.

"We did everything we were supposed to do! We did everything right! Did you think we could just mash over a hundred souls together and it would all just work without problems?! ... I don't care what Indra said!"

Mash? Was it a mash? It could have been. A lot of things broken and put together to make something else. A mash. It was a mash. It understood.

"For fuck's sake, Cao! She's dying! She was supposed to be–!"

She? Was it a she? She felt like a she. Some of her didn't feel like a she. Most of her felt like a she. She? She was a she. She understood.

"Fine! ... Fine. I'll... I'll get back to you later."

She heard once again. Not a voice, but a sound. A tap. A tap? A tap of one hard surface against another. Stone? Stone on something.

She felt. She felt. Touch. The touch of... A hand on... Her head?

"I'm so sorry."

Loud noises. Clanks. Metal. Metal on metal on metal. Moving.

A voice.

"Arrrrr... Thurrrrr..." A voice like grinding metal. Tightly restrained fury.

"Protect her!" the first voice demanded. Demanded? It was angry. Still angry. "You'll at least follow that order, right?! You protect her until I get back! I'm going to find a way to fix this mess."

"Hurrrr..."

The stone sound again. Tap. Tap. Tap. Then the metal on metal on metal getting closer and closer.

It stopped.

The sing of metal. Sing? Metal sings? A blade. A blade sings when it's drawn. She understood. There was a sword. Then the clanking of metal, the harsh, angry noise of metal. Striking something. Breaking something. Breaking stone? Breaking stone.

"Myyyyy..." the grinding metal voice tried to speak. Lower. Closer than before. "Myyyy... Myyyy... Gala... haaaad..."

Silence descended on the room. The metal on metal did not move. The grinding metal did not speak. The tap tap tap was gone. All she could feel was the stone.

-(-)-

A/N: This chapter voted for and seen a week early by my generous supporters on THE GREAT FORBIDDEN P! Fear the P! Love the P!