-The fic's diverse enough that it doesn't feel like you're rereading the manga and it's just well written. Also I love what the author has done with the Geass universe, the greatest contribution being the elimination of Mao of course lol/
Synopsis: Imagine if Lelouch had prepared himself both mentally and physically for his war with Britannia. Lelouch X Harem. Has a TVTropes page!
Rated: M
Words: 326K
Posted on: fanfiction.net/s/10724053/1/Code-Geass-The-Prepared-Rebellion-V2 (SeerKing)
PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)
-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)
Chapter 0-3 (exceptional)
Year 2010 A.T.B, (1955 A.D.) May 10th
Undisclosed Location, Japan
Lelouch Lamperouge, formerly known as His Highness Lelouch vi Britannia, Eleventh Prince of The Holy Britannian Empire and Seventeenth in line for the throne, sat scowling at his feet.
Off to his left, some Japanese soldiers were cremating the remains of some of their fallen brethren, saluting to respect them and their sacrifice.
'A single month.' Lelouch thought darkly. 'In only a single month, my former homeland has forced Japan to surrender itself. Incredible. These Fourth Generation Knightmare Frames, the 'Glasgow', must be very powerful to accomplish this.'
Most people would be surprised by such dark and mature thoughts from Lelouch, considering he is only ten years old, but Lelouch is no ordinary child. Raised in the Aries Villa alongside his half-siblings, he was taught the basics of ruling, in case he was the one to make it to the throne, he proved himself to be a veritable genius, surpassed only by his elder brother, Prince Schneizel, in his ability to grasp even the advanced and convoluted theories of politics and of warfare.
In addition, he was far more mature than most children of his age due to the tragedies he has endured. His mother, Marianne vi Britannia, had been brutally murdered by a withering hail of gunfire right in front of him. His younger sister, Nunnally, had been caught in the crossfire.
Although his mothers' last act had been to shield most of her with her body, Nunnally had been shot in the legs, crippling her.
The trauma from the death of her mother had robbed Nunnally of her sight ever since.
Lelouch had demanded a reason from his father, Charles zi Britannia, the Emperor, as to why terrorists, whom it was supposed by all had committed the murder, had been allowed to get into the inner gardens of the Aries Villa, where they then shot through a series of windows to kill his mother as she was walking down a flight of stairs, and had escaped, both unmolested and unfound!
In response, Charles disowned both Lelouch and Nunnally, and sent them to Japan as political hostages. "So you may be of some use, as weak as you both are." as his former father had put it.
And now this. An invasion, which gave the Japanese people carte blanche to kill them. The two children of Marianne had been truly abandoned by both their family and country.
Lelouch's scowl deepened. He had been forced to use his intellect to save his own life, as well as Suzaku Kururugi's life, once already, when the Japanese Colonel, Kyōshirō Tōdō, had threatened to kill him and Nunnally.
Lelouch knew that Tōdō had spared him only because he had been a temporary student of his during his stay at the Kururugi household, and knew how much Lelouch himself despised his former country. The next assassin would not be as forgiving.
He and Nunnally would have to disappear, and soon. Lelouch already had a plan in the works that assured a successful hiding place for the foreseeable future. Nunnally was resting at the moment, but they would set off for Tokyo in the morning, to enact the first stage of his plan.
Lelouch glanced to the side at Suzaku. His brother-in-all-but-blood was quiet and seemed to be brooding, much as Lelouch was. Suzaku's father, Genbu Kururugi, had been the Prime Minister of Japan, thus why the two royal exiles had been staying with them.
When Japan was invaded, Genbu had committed seppuku, ritual suicide. That had thrown the country's command structure into disarray and, with only a single victory against the rampaging Britannian forces at Itsukushima, the remaining politicians had folded like a house of cards.
Suzaku had been devastated by his father's death, and only the need to protect Nunnally had helped the boy recover somewhat from the shell-like being he had turned into following his father's death.
"I swear, Suzaku." Lelouch spoke, anger filling his voice as he stood.
Suzaku looked up and stared at his friend warily.
"I swear, someday, somehow, I will destroy Britannia!" Lelouch said, determination etching his face and body.
Chapter 1
Year 2017 A.T.B (1962 A.D.)
A room in The Tokyo Britannian Settlement, Area Eleven, Formally Japan
Lelouch Lamperouge moved his knight to its destination on the chessboard and said, softly, "Checkmate." to his opponent, a Britannian Nobleman who was as arrogant as he was rich. In other words, very, very rich.
Currently, said nobleman was doing an excellent impersonation of a landed fish at his defeat in chess. It was hardly surprising, considering he himself had set a limit of 20 seconds per move to give himself an advantage against the man Lelouch had replaced, an old man who ran a costume business. This rule had in fact had contributed a considerable portion to his own defeat.
Unsurprisingly, it had only taken 8 minutes, 38 seconds to lay the pompous fool low, a personal record of his, according to his friend Rivalz.
After the wreck of a nobleman had paid him the money being wagered on the match (The Pride of an Aristocrat made him pay), Lelouch and Rivalz sauntered out to ride back to campus on Rivalz's bike.
On the giant outdoor screen, there was a report on the terrorist bombing on a lab the previous day, which was followed by an emergency broadcast by the Viceroy of Area-11, Prince Clovis la Britannia, Third Prince of Britannia.
Lelouch's eyes narrowed at the sight of the pompous ass who was his elder half-brother. Clovis was a fool, a coward and an utterly abysmal and lackl.u.s.tre strategist. Lelouch had been forced to stop himself yawning as a child in the face of Clovis' boring and uninspired strategies and tactics with a chessboard, so he could hardly be better with troops and Knightmares.
After Clovis' 'charismatic and inspiring speech' was over, Rivalz and Lelouch were on their way towards Ashford Academy. While they were en-route, Lelouch considered the last seven years.
He and Nunnally had - after dodging yet another assassination attempt, this time by a covert Britannian Unit - been taken in by the Ashford group, his mother's old supporters and backers from when she had merely been one of many Knights of Honour, which was exactly according to his calculations.
On the run from both the Britannian Army and the Japanese Army, Lelouch had developed a fairly accurate picture of himself and Suzaku and had compared them at the Ashford's residence.
Suzaku was an average strategist, but was excellent at thinking on his feet and adapting to changing situations. He was also physically fit and possessed very high kinaesthesia, granting him excellent skill in martial arts. Suzaku's Achilles Heel was his overly idealistic, not to mention naïve and childish, viewpoint, which restricted what he was able to doing strategy and tactics due to his own morals.
Lelouch himself was an excellent and (no false modesty) almost peerless strategist, being able to see all the possible moves an enemy can possibly make and when they can make them with little to no information. Tactics-wise, he was quite good, but tended to be nonplussed if something doesn't go according to plan. His own Achilles Heel had been his physique, which was underdeveloped, due to doing more sitting than exercise. Although there was nothing wrong with his kinaesthesia, he just couldn't move fast enough, or strongly enough, to make use of it.
Lelouch had seen the possible flaws and weaknesses inherent in his body and mind easily, and had (reluctantly) taken steps to avoid them. He was now moderately fit and healthy, thanks to a mildly rigorous fitness regime. Although he was no body builder, he could hold his own. He had also taken up the Japanese defensive art of Aikido, should the circ.u.mstances force a hand-to-hand fight. In order to maintain that health, he had taken up the art of fencing. Secretly, he had also taken up a rare style of Japanese kenjutsu, and had maintained a high success rate in matches with both disciplines.
In order to offset his tactical inflexibility, he had read every book on strategy and tactics that he could get his hands on, from Sun Tzu to the memoirs of the Britannian commander of the invasion of Japan.
Of course, Nunnally had no idea about that, nor did she know about his gambling for cash that he did. Even if she had known that he did gamble, she wouldn't guess why.
The reason he conducted high-stakes gambling, other than the pleasure of fleecing unsuspecting, and well deserving, targets, such as the nobleman this afternoon, was to build up funds for his eventual attempt to destroy Britannia.
It would, he reluctantly conceded, take quite some time before he had the perquisite funds for such an attempt. He had been doing gambling for three years now, since he was fourteen, and barely had enough to buy a black-market, outdated Glasgow Knightmare Frame, after money for living expenses, and several 'investments' were deducted.
At Ashford, he played the role of a likeable, social, easy-going person. He was liked so much that there were actually cheers when Milly Ashford, the current Student Council President, strong-armed him into the role of Student Council Vice-President almost as soon as he entered the High School Division.
Almost every girl at Ashford seemed to have a crush on him, so he turned into a veritable Ice Prince when they attempted to get close to him, much to their dismay, although some of them seemed to get excited for some strange reason when he did reject them, squealing in delight at how 'cool and distant' he was.
No one ever suspected he was wearing a mask - a mask of lies. Lelouch sighed to himself as he considered the web of lies he had constructed to protect himself and Nunnally. The only people who knew the real him were Milly, Nunnally, Sayoko Shinozaki, Nunnally's personal maid and guard, as well as his Aikido and Kenjutsu instructor, and himself.
Being popular was exhausting, both physically and mentally. Just about all that got him through each day was seeing his little sister happy, alive and not being used as a tool of diplomacy.
'Even in my despair, it appears like I cannot give up.' Lelouch mused to himself sardonically.
Lelouch was jarred from his contemplation in the sidecar of Rivalz's bike by the sound of a horn blaring immediately behind them. Lelouch cranked his neck around to see a very nondescript truck right on their tail. The driver, a male Japanese man, looked very irate and stressed. His companion, a female, was trying to calm him down, but he seemed to have had the final straw at being blocked by a pair of school kids on a motorbike.
"Whoa!" Rivalz yelped as the truck drew too close, forcing poor Rivalz to dodge to the right, while the truck went along a route marked off for construction as it led into the Shinjuku Ghetto. It crashed into the entrance of the tunnel as Lelouch watched with wide, shocked eyes.
'It was partially their fault for being so damn close to us, but Rivalz is equally to blame for going so slow on a freeway.' Lelouch thought as the bike screeched to a halt, Rivalz gasping at the close call he had just avoided.
Lelouch noticed people stopping their cars and gawking at the crashed truck. They were taking photographs with their camera phones and gossiping with each other.
'The herd gathers to watch, yet do nothing.' Lelouch thought with contempt as he got out of the sidecar and took off his helmet. 'I will not be like them!'
Resolute, he made his way down, ignoring the catcalls from the crowd and the yells of Rivalz that there was only ten minutes until their next class.
He would help these people, damn it, even if they were partly responsible for the crash!
In the Truck's Cab
Kallen Kōzuki groaned as she recovered from the crash that her partner, Nagata, had partially caused. The rest of the fault went to those damn Britannian brats in the motorcycle for not reacting fast enough!
"Nagata! Nagata!" Kallen called over to the stunned man.
The man groaned in response before shaking his head and cracking open an eyelid.
"Well, we can't be dead, otherwise I wouldn't have whiplash." he mused aloud.
Kallen rolled her eyes at her companion's lackadaisical comment.
"Nagata! We have to get out of here! Move it! Now!" she hissed at the man, who nodded and reached for the gear lever.
Outside and On Top of the Truck
Lelouch was climbing the ladder set on the middle of the truck, seeing as the cab was cut off from casual approach by metal girders. He was becoming concerned by the lack of cries of pain or for help.
"Hello? Are you alright in there?" He called once he reached the open hatch at the top.
Suddenly, his body was tingling. His senses were hyperactive and his heart skipped a beat. What was going on? He could swear he heard a female voice then.
'It's you! I've finally found my…' The voice cut off and the strange sensation with it. Just what the hell was going on with this truck?
Lelouch was having second thoughts about helping the truck drivers when the truck jerked backwards in reverse, causing him to fall into the truck, through the open hatch.
He recovered and landed, crouched on one knee. He tried to call out, to let the drivers know there was someone in the back, but the breath was driven from him before he could do so by being slammed into whatever it was that the truck was carrying.
In the distance, Rivalz gaped at the sight of his friend being carried off by a truck. "Soooo….would you call that a hit and run?" he wondered aloud. He couldn't go after them, as stopping that sudden stop had fried the circuits somehow, as well as cutting the fuel line.
He just hoped Lelouch would make it out of this in one piece, because Rivalz had a bad feeling about this.
Inside The Truck
"If they put a ladder on the outside, you'd think they would apply common sense and put one on the inside as well!" Lelouch muttered to himself as he sought a way out.
He was about to try and climb the spherical object that was the sole cargo in this section of the truck, when a voice from a loudspeaker ordered the truck to pull over. The next thing he knew, the truck was moving in one direction then another rapidly-a very poor evasion. On top of it all, he heard a rapid {PTNK}, {PTNK} sound and a [VOOM], [VOOM] sound outside Lelouch recognised -a VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) Gunship firing its main machine gun -thankfully, only as a warning shot this time.
Rapid possibilities flashed though his mind until only one remained -this truck had terrorists of some ilk on board, quite probably one of the many anti-Britannian rebel/terrorist groups that Japan spawned like a nest of rats. The voice on the speakers warned that the next shot would be shot to kill.
Lelouch was paralysed with worry-until he heard someone walking rapidly towards the compartment he was in from the cab! Quickly, he took cover behind the odd spherical device just as the door opened.
Through it stepped a redheaded female about Lelouch's age. Her hair was held back with a red and black headband and spiked up at the sides. Her eyes were sapphire blue and burned with determination. She was wearing a blue medical orderly's vest that was swiftly removed that to reveal a vest-shorts combo in brown and red that highlighted a voluptuous, well-toned figure. Lelouch had an odd sense of familiarity, as if he had met her before somewhere.
The girl spoke, presumably to the driver, "Can you use the Subway tunnel in the Azu-Bu route?" Her voice was forceful, determined and strangely melodious.
"Kallen! Why don't we just use it here? Why not?" The driver yelled back. Lelouch had ice in his stomach as the probability of the 'it' they were talking about being the device he was hiding behind.
"Because that would cause a bloodbath!" the girl -Kallen- responded in an admonishing tone, as she climbed the steps to the next compartment. The driver grunted and admitted the truth of that statement.
Lelouch meanwhile was running through all the redheaded girls he knew called Kallen, as that nagging sense of familiarity was insisting he was at least acquainted with her.
He rapidly narrowed it down, since Kallen was not a common name, the same applying to red hair, to a girl in his class who was sickly, thus frequently absent for treatment: Kallen Stadtfelt, the only daughter of the Stadtfelt family.
Lelouch's eyes widened. The Kallen he vaguely remembered from class was quiet, meek and non-athletic, the polar opposite of this Kallen. Either he was wrong or the Kallen at school….was a mask.
Lelouch felt the latter conclusion to be correct; since it was the only explanation that accounted for the vague familiarity he felt when he saw her.
Now he had to hope that whatever it was she was doing at the back of the truck was going to stop the truck being turned into a burning wreck by the military.
With Kallen
Kallen booted up her Knightmare, an obsolete Glasgow painted crimson. She was an excellent pilot, despite not having undergone any formal training, yet she was well aware that the Glasgow was no match for the Sutherland Frames that had been introduced as Britannia's main-line workhorse, even with an excellent pilot on the side of the Glasgow.
She just had to hope that there were none nearby, or at least she could hold any off while Nagata got away with…it.
Kallen shuddered. Not many things made her shiver, but deadly poison gas? That certainly made the short list of things that did, another being the people who made and planned to use the infernal stuff.
She keyed the hatch open slightly via remote and saw three VTOL Gunsh.i.p.s in pursuit-and that the lead Gunship was about to fire its main cannon for another burst!
Kallen, without hesitation, fired off one of her two Slash Harkens at the Gunship. It exploded in flames on impact. Kallen decided that now would be a good time to begin the diversion section of her job.
The Slash Harken had already begun to retract automatically, so Kallen merely burst through the doors and met it halfway, the Landspinners deploying with a flick of a switch, granting her manoeuvrability the VTOL's couldn't hope to match or track.
Kallen fired off her Slash Harkens simultaneously this time, winging one and destroying the other. Kallen grinned viciously at the destruction she had wrought.
'Even although killing these Brit dogs will never bring you back, it still brings me one step closer to fulfilling your dream of a free Japan, Naoto-nii-sama.' Kallen though as her Slash Harken retracted into their launchers.
"The rest of you back off -I'll take it from here." came a new voice from loudspeakers. Kallen quickly activated the Factsphere Sensor to get an idea of what was happening-and she paled at the image being displayed on the monitor.
A VTOL. A VTOL carrying a Sutherland. Not good. Unlike her Glasgow, the Sutherland was specifically created to combat other Knightmares as well as conventional tanks and VTOL's. She was screwed without the advantage an ambush would give her. Doubly so, since this Sutherland bore the markings of a member of the Purist Faction, a radical, racist element of the Britannian Military that despised the 'Numbers', those who are the native residents of the Area's conquered by Britannia.
"I can only assume you dug that obsolete relic out of some scrap heap." The Sutherland pilot verbally sneered at her as his Sutherland detached from the VTOL and began to descend. Kallen fired off a single Slash Harken at him. He countered it with one of his own, deflecting it with ease.
"An over the hill Glasgow is no match for a Sutherland!" the Sutherland pilot continued to verbally sneer at her as he executed a perfect landing and took a battle stance.
"Not to mention a filthy Eleven who spurns the compassion of out glorious Emperor!" Kallen wondered if the man thought he was in an action film or something-he was certainly doing a long enough monologue to be a lead actor in one.
The Sutherland fired a burst from its battle rifle. Kallen avoided most of the shells, but one ripped through the Glasgow's left forearm, destroying it.
Kallen heard Nagata tell her he was going to split up to increase the chances of them surviving. She wanted to protest, but knew he was right.
She tried to fire the left Slash Harken, but it was stuck-and the Sutherland had deployed a tonfa-attachment for close combat and was about to strike her!
"Second-Hand junk!" the man in the Sutherland before her sneered as he brought the tonfa down. Kallen did the only thing she could: She ejected the remains of the left arm right into the path of the tonfa, using the smoke from the resulting explosion to get away.
Kallen knew that she had to get away from the Sutherland and fast-or it was all over for her!
Back in the Truck
'No signal for my cell phone, dark as night during the day and the roughness of the road surface indicate we are in the old subway tunnels.' Lelouch thought as he sat, one leg over the other, and waited for something he could use.
Shortly after Kallen had deployed her Glasgow, (He recognised the motor sound from seven years ago) he had discovered she had left a radio behind along with her presumptive disguise in her haste.
'The driver's probably looking for an exit in the Ghetto.' Lelouch continued his calm thought process as he waited. 'On my own, getting out of here will be tricky….I'm not that big on the military, but I could hand this radio over and claim military protection…oh, no I can't -Clovis or one of his flunkeys might come and recognise me. Need another plan…'
Alone in the dark, the exiled prince tried to plan for all possibilities. Little did he know, his salvation would lie next to him as he did.
Thirty Minutes Later
"Whoa!" Lelouch said as the truck came to an abrupt and bumpy halt. "An accident, or…?" he wondered.
Suddenly, the side doors opened. Lelouch ran to one side to try to avoid being seen through the opening, but it was too late.
Despite Lelouch's effort, the masked Britannian soldier quickly over powered him and held him to the ground with a powerful one-handed throat grab.
"Enough mindless murder!" The soldier snarled at him.
"Wha? Wait, I'm…" Lelouch tried to get out before the choking hand clenched briefly, cutting off his air temporarily.
"Planning on using poison gas, eh? Stop trying to lie!" the soldier snarled.
Lelouch considered himself a fairly controlled individual, but he hated being accused of things he hadn't done. He always had.
"Get. Off. Of. Me!" Lelouch snarled back at the soldier and backed up his words with a swift kick to the soldier's midriff, which was dodged, to Lelouch's surprise.
"First off," Lelouch said as the soldier landed from his dodge. "I'm a Britannian, you can tell by my uniform. Secondly, I'm not here by choice." The boy strode forward a step, to show his Ashford Academy uniform.
The soldier stiffened at the sight of Lelouch in the light. "No way…" he breathed.
"If this is poison gas, the only people who could make it is Britannia! 'Mindless Murder', you say?" Lelouch said, anger and resentment at his former homeland bubbling to the surface. "Then simply obliterate Britannia!"
Then the figure said something Lelouch never expected.
"Lelouch…" The soldier pulled off his helmet to reveal a familiar face Lelouch had not seen in seven long years.
"It's me, Suzaku." said the boy who had helped him protect his sister from the invasion.
"Y-You became a Britannian Soldier?!" Lelouch said in shock.
"So? You're a-?!" Suzaku started to say, when Lelouch cut him off.
"No, I'm not! This truck crashed and I went to help it, then it drove off with me in it!" Lelouch tried to explain, only for Suzaku to raise an eyebrow.
"Considering how smart you are, is that really the best excuse you can give?" Suzaku asked. Lelouch felt like gnashing his teeth.
"I can't 'make up a better excuse' because that's what really happened!" Lelouch retorted as he rolled his eyes. "Argh! You really haven't changed a bit! Once you get an idea into your head, you hang onto it more tenaciously than Kaguya used to hang off of me!"
All of a sudden, the 'poison gas canister' began to glow and emit light. Lelouch was suddenly tackled to the ground by Suzaku, who then forced his own gas mask over Lelouch's mouth and nose.
The sphere's four lids then popped open, and instead of poison gas, a girl appeared. Her hair was jade green and waist length, her eyes were the same colour as gold. She was dressed in a Britannian prisoner's straitjacket that left nothing to the imagination as it clung to her slim, lithe body.
She looked at the two stunned young men, before collapsing into an unconscious heap.
"That's not poison gas." Suzaku muttered, confused.
Lelouch nodded before forcing Suzaku's hand away from his mouth. "Something smells like a rat, and I don't mean the sewage pipes." he said, before getting up and moving towards the girl.
"Suzaku, be straight with me here," continued Lelouch as he undid the bindings on the straight jacket, "What the heck does a girl have to do with poison gas?"
"It's what the briefing said was in the thing during the briefing." Suzaku protested as he leaned against the truck examining Lelouch and the girl. "Hey Lelouch, have you actually been exercising, or have you found a way to turn brain-power into muscle power like you told Tōdō-sensei you would?"
"As a matter of fact, I have been exercising." Lelouch replied. "The last time I got involved with the Britannian military, I had to walk for miles carrying Nunnally on my back-I wanted to cover my weaknesses in case it had to be done again."
Suzaku raised both eyebrows at this. Seven years previously, Lelouch had cordially detested regular exercise, deeming it inhumane and Spartan treatment and had called Tōdō-sensei several rude and colourful names when forced to do so. For him to actually get motivated to do it…
Suddenly, bright lights flashed on and both Lelouch and Suzaku raised their hands at the glare from the light.
'I have a bad feeling about this…' Lelouch thought.
Ten Minutes Later
In this particular instance, Lelouch wouldn't have minded being wrong.
The men with the spotlights had been low-ranking members of Clovis' Royal Guard, who had wanted to kill Lelouch for 'discovering the prince's secret'. Suzaku had tried to stop them, only to get shot in the back by the group's leader!
Lelouch and the girl had only gotten away when the terrorist in the truck had activated a self-destruct and blown up the cab, covering the area with smoke. Lelouch had grabbed the girl and ran like the wind away from the Royal Guard.
It was irrational, Lelouch knew, to blame the girl. She was a prisoner and both he and Suzaku had stumbled upon her by chance. Nevertheless, he really wanted something to blame right now!
His best and only true friend was dead, murdered in front of him like his mother. Another life lost. 'Another reason to crush Britannia!' Lelouch though morosely as he led the girl up a set of stairs. He turned to her and indicated for her to stay where she was. Lelouch didn't know if she knew English or even Japanese for that matter, so he let the tone of his voice do the talking rather than the actual words.
"You stay here and be quiet okay? I'll check to see if the coast is clear." he said in a calm reassuring tone.
Five Minutes Later
Lelouch was getting sick and tired of being caught in traps, trucks and by Royal Guards.
He had been caught as soon as he stood up straight, along with the girl. How embarrassing. The leader was currently running through a monologue about terrorists 'only being able to do so much, even Britannian student terrorists.'
"And now, my clever young friend, you have no future!" the man finally finished his monologue and began to raise his side-arm.
'Is this it?' Lelouch wondered as the man's pistol was raised and the trigger was slowly pulled.
At the proverbial last instant, the girl rushed forward and cried out, "NO! He mustn't die!" throwing herself in front of Lelouch.
The bullet struck her square in the forehead.
"Y-You shot her!" Lelouch exclaimed, reflexively stepping forward, catching her falling body and gently laying it on the ground.
"We were supposed to capture the female alive, but, oh well." The man shrugged, unconcerned by the death of his target. He tapped his chin with the muzzle of his pistol for a couple of moments, and then an evil smirk crossed his face.
"This is what the report shall say then: We, the Royal Guard, found and exterminated the nest of terrorists." he waved his pistol to indicate the warehouse they currently stood in, filled with the dead bodies of innocent Japanese civilians, including ten year old children, "But unfortunately, the female hostage had already been tortured to death. What do you think of my script, schoolboy?" The sneer in the man's words was all too evident.
Lelouch was numb. 'First Suzaku is killed, then this girl. And I'm next. Before I have a chance to do a single thing with my own life. I' m sorry, Nunnally!'
Suddenly, time slowed down and he seemed disjointed from his own body. His heart was racing, his senses on fire. What on…?!
'You don't want it to end here, do you?' came a voice he recognised.
'The girl…? Impossible!' Lelouch thought in shock.
'You appear to have a reason to live on. If you possessed power, could you go on? I propose a deal. In exchange for this power, you must make my one wish come true. Be warned - accept this Geass contract and you accept its conditions: While living in the world of humans, you will live unlike any other. A different providence. A different time. A different life.'
While the voice was talking, Lelouch was bombarded with images of strange things: a pair of planets, images of the girl, a battalion of androgynous people with an odd red mark on their forehead. Lelouch thought the girl sounded as if she knew precisely what she was talking about, as if she had lived the life she was offering him.
'The Power of the King will condemn you to a life of solitude…are you prepared for this…?' she asked.
Lelouch saw a final image- his hated parent, the Emperor.
"A convergence with a Ragnarök Connection…? So the myth is beginning once again…?!" he heard his father say.
'He sounds like he knows what Geass is, meaning he might have one!' Lelouch though furiously.
Aloud he spoke, "Very well! I accept your contract…and its conditions!"
With a jolt, he was back in his body, and seemingly not a second has passed, as the Royal Guard leader still has that arrogant smirk on his face.
Slowly, Lelouch stood up, one hand over his left eye. The Royal Guard commander felt something…different about the boy, compared to how he was just a second ago.
"Say, as a Britannian who despises his own country, how should I live my life?" Lelouch asked, a hint of laughter in his voice.
"Humph. Are you some kind of radical?" the commander asked with a scoff, raising his pistol once again-and then stopped. There was an aura of…intimidation coming from the boy, one that was very dangerous and made the man hesitate, which cost him his life.
"What's wrong? Why not shoot? Your opponent is 'just a schoolboy.'" Lelouch mocked him with a genteel sneer. "Or, perhaps you finally realised...the only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed!"
Lelouch uncovered his eye at last. The colour shifted, changed and formed a red bird-like shape in the centre of his eye. Just looking into it made the commander unable to move, he could scarcely even breathe!
"W-What is this…?" He choked out.
"I, Lelouch vi Britannia, command you!" Lelouch declared. "{All of you...die!}"
The bird seemed to flap its wings and then the commander, and the rest of his men fell into parade rest.
"Hehehehe…Happily, Your Highness!" The commander said, and pointed his gun at his jugular vein. The rest of his troop copied him. "Fire!" Ordered the commander and, as one, the Royal Guard of Clovis la Britannia committed Geass-induced suicide.
A small splash of blood hit Lelouch's face and for a moment, he looked appalled at the first lives he has ever taken.
'My life was nothing but lies. My name, personal data, everything, lies, lies nothing but lies. I despaired in an unchanging world, yet could not, even with my lies, give in to despair. But now I have it…this…incredible power…it's mine…' Lelouch thought as his horror-struck face shifted into an almost maniacal grin.
"Well then…"
Chapter 2
Derelict Warehouse, Shinjuku Ghetto
Lelouch knelt beside the girl who had granted him his power, Geass. He was slightly irritated, as there was no way for him to fulfil his end of the contract if the girl wasn't alive to tell him what her 'One True Wish' was in the first place!
Ignoring the constant booming in the background, he examined the girl closely and was startled to see the bullet hole in her head was smaller than just a moment ago, which should be impossible. As he watched, he could see it growing slightly smaller!
Lelouch's mind was racing, trying to join dots. 'The Lab bombing, the 'poison gas' cover up, the prisoner's outfit the girl wore, the rapid mobilisation of the Royal Guard, the attack on the Ghetto…Clovis, you are an even bigger fool than I thought.' he raged at his cowardly half-sibling. He could see the chain of events clearly.
Clovis had come across this girl, somehow, and desired whatever ability she possessed, whether it was regeneration or something more, and took her prisoner to find out how it worked. The girl probably refused to tell Clovis what he wanted to know, so he experimented on her to find out.
He had probably classified it top secret and had it mislabelled as something else entirely, creating a dummy secret project, presumably to create poison gas, to conceal it from his father as well.
Somehow, the terrorists had found out about the dummy project and believed it existed, so had dug deeper and, through luck or skill, had actually discovered the location of the actual project.
Hopefully, rather than using the gas, they had intended to attempt a propaganda coup of some ilk, showing the world what a so-called honourable prince was cooking up. Not bad, as plans went, but they had failed to take Clovis' terror of being found out by the Britannian Homeland into account.
Not even a Prince was immune to censure in Britannia, especially if that Prince violates the International Ban on the creation of chemical and biological weaponry, one of the few treaties Britannia hadn't broken, ever. Even if he did tell the Emperor it was a cover story, the Emperor would demand full disclosure of the project in question as confirmation, meaning goodbye to any chance of gaining this girl's abilities.
So Clovis, the fool, dispatched the Royal Guard, along with some disposable Honorary Britannian Soldiers, in order to retrieve it. Lelouch was willing to bet that after the sadist of a commander had reported the capsule was open, Clovis had likely ordered the destruction of Shinjuku to cover his mistake-permanently.
Lelouch was disgusted by the lack of respect for life his brother was showing, although the tactician in Lelouch did acknowledged that the plan was simple and effective. By killing all of the inhabitants of Shinjuku, the girl would have nowhere to run, presuming she recovered and revived from her 'death'.
Suddenly, a Sutherland, marked in the colours of the Purist Faction, loomed through the doors, its assault rifle held ready to fire. Its Factsphere Sensor opened and a moment later, a voice boomed out from its external speakers.
"What happened here, Boy? And why is a Britannian student in a place like this?" Lelouch was slightly surprised. A female Knight? While not exactly rare, neither were they common.
Lelouch activated his Geass and said, "{I order you to come out. At once.}" All that earned him was an angry demand as to who he thought he was to order a Knight around.
'Interesting. It requires direct eye contact. This Geass ability seems to be far more intricate and tricky than I first thought. I'll have to be careful how I use it.' Lelouch thought as he raised both hands above his head.
"My name is Alan Spacer, my father is a Duke. My I.D. card is in my b.r.e.a.s.t pocket. Once you have confirmed my identity, I will request your protection." Lelouch said.
'A mere Knight will jump at the chance to aid a scion of high nobility, on the off chance of promotion to a Hereditary title. That ought to get her out where she's vulnerable.' Lelouch thought. Sure enough, the c.o.c.kpit on the back opened and a silver haired woman descended on a boarding wire. She was a strong, fierce-looking woman in her mid-twenties by Lelouch's estimation. Her eyes were the colour of agate and her body was well toned and very voluptuous.
"Stay there! I'll take your I.D. out." She called as she walked forward.
Lelouch grinned. "Now, {you will answer my questions.}"
A red halo encircled the woman's eyes. She dropped her handgun and stood straight. "Of course."
"Who are you and what is your unit?"
"Villetta Nu, 8th Mobile Battalion, the Purebloods."
"What is your mission?"
"The eradication of all Elevens and buildings within the Shinjuku Ghetto."
Lelouch frowned. Exactly as he had feared. He needed protection in this war zone. He focussed on Villetta again and attempted to input another command.
"{Hand your Knightmare over to me.}"
"Understood. The code is XG21G2D4." She then tossed the activation key at him, which he caught.
"My thanks." Lelouch said. 'So I can input multiple commands as long as I maintain eye contact? Logically, that would imply that it can only be used on a person a limited number of times, possibly only once.' He was about to break contact, when he thought of a possibility.
'One of the conditions for use of my Geass is direct eye contact, a tricky one to fulfil. To save having to risk myself in order to Geass numerous people, having a sleeper agent, unaware even to herself of her loyalty to me, would be useful.' he mused and then implanted a third command, a more long-lasting one, as an experiment.
"{Whenever I say, 'By the command of Alan Spacer', you shall acknowledge it my calling me 'Master'. You shall then follow my every command, answer my every enquiry without question, and have no memory of the experience afterwards. When I say, 'Lamperouge Flash', you shall return to your normal self. You shall kneel on the ground for ten minutes from now, at which time you shall return to normal, with no memory of having seen or heard me.}"
"Understood, Master." Villetta replied, kneeling on the ground and falling silent.
Lelouch grabbed the strange Geass girl and lifted her in a fireman's carry. It would be stupid to leave her out here if she's regenerating, after all.
Ten minutes later, a very confused Villetta Nu was wondering where the hell her Knightmare was.
A.S.E.E.C.C Trailer, Britannian Temporary Shinjuku Ghetto Command
Suzaku Kururugi was lost in dreams of the time before the Britannian invasion, of when he spent time with Lelouch and Nunnally at the Kururugi Shrine, laughing and playing together, when a loud explosion force him back to consciousness.
"SO, are we having a bad day?!" came an unusually cheery and obnoxiously loud male voice from above him. Suzaku's eyes snapped open.
He was in a room, coloured in neutral tones of grey and cream. The source of the voice stood leaning over him, with a wide, childlike grin on his face. He wore large glasses, had short grey hair, and was dressed in a white, floor-length lab coat, with an armband.
Next to him was a woman wearing an orange-tan and black uniform. She had kind, pale blue eyes and shoulder length blue hair. She seemed to be holding something in a handkerchief.
"W-Where…?" Suzaku croaked out, his throat desert dry.
Nonchalantly, the man handed him a flask of water as the woman explained that they were still in the Shinjuku Ghetto, right next to Prince Clovis' G-1 mobile command fortress, so theoretically they were as safe as anyone could be in the ghetto at the moment.
Suzaku slowly drank the water with gratitude.
"You missed a chance to go to heaven, Private Kururugi." The man teased him.
Suzaku then noticed the bandages wrapped around his abdomen, as well as becoming aware of a minor pain where his kidney was located on his right hand side.
"This is what saved your life, Suzaku." the woman leaned forward and showed him what was in her handkerchief.
Suzaku's eyes widened. His father's pocket watch!
"You ARE lucky it was situated under your body armour at JUST the right angle to deflect the bullet." the odd man said lackadaisically.
"I can't believe my father's memento saved me…" Suzaku said, somewhat dazed by the revelation.
"You Elevens believe that gods live in everything, even inanimate objects don't you? Looks like this one was…oh, what is the name? Ah, yes! A so-called 'Shugo Seirei'? (Guardian Spirit)" mused the man, somewhat amused by the concept of spirits.
Suzaku then asked for an update on the situation in the ghetto and was horrified by the reply: a mass-slaughter of the inhabitants, due to the resistance fighters mingling among them (Or so they were told).
'More lives lost, more senseless slaughter! Lelouch, I hope you make it out of this alive, for Nunnally's sake, as well as your own.' Suzaku thought in horror. 'Why are they resisting? If they just work within the system, no one need die! I don't understand them…'
Suzaku was floored by the offer that came next: to pilot an experimental Knightmare Frame in order to bring a quick resolution to the conflict, once they had Prince Clovis' permission.
'What should I do?' Suzaku wondered.
With Kallen
Kallen was angry. Hell, she was absolutely enraged. Her people were being slaughtered like cattle, and it was partly her fault!
"Murdering Britannian bastards!" Kallen snarled as she used her Glasgow's one remaining Slash Harken to destroy a Britannian tank that had just gunned down a group of Shinjuku residents.
"Kallen!" Ohgi's voice yelled from her radio. "Can the Glasgow still move?" He sounded much stressed and panicky, not much of a surprise in this situation.
"Don't worry, Ohgi! I'll run decoy, you get everyone else out! The only ones to be caught will be us resistance fighters!" she called back.
"It's not as easy as that! We're pinned down and they have us completely surrounded!" Ohgi replied.
'Please…if any Kami exist…make a miracle for us…I'm begging you…' Kallen silently pleaded as she moved on to another target.
With Lelouch
Lelouch was frowning. He had just gotten off the phone with Shirley Fenette, a member of the Ashford Academy Student Council and the girl who had a 'secret' crush the size of the Britannian Homeland for him.
'It would seem that Clovis isn't quite as dense as I had supposed. A media blackout has been imposed; the only thing on the news, according to Shirley, that even mentioned Shinjuku was a traffic restriction, although by not mentioning it, it will be hard to justify this to the public afterwards, presuming he even considers telling the most remote truths about today.' Lelouch thought as he parked his stolen Sutherland between two buildings as cover.
Lelouch noticed a discarded chessboard lying within a house that must have suffered from a stray shot by a Knightmare Bazooka or an Anti-Knightmare SAM launcher, as it was missing most of its roof.
He retrieved the chessboard and re-mounted his stolen Sutherland. 'I'm hemmed in here, trapped in Shinjuku like the residents. It would be difficult, closer to impossible, for me to escape by myself.' Lelouch thought as he set up the board, with white to represent the Britannian forces and black representing himself. He completely discarded requesting sanctuary from the military, as it was far too risky.
'Clovis is trying to keep this as low-key as possible, so calling in reinforcements, whilst simultaneously keeping this under the radar, would be tricky at best.' Lelouch reasoned as he gazed at the lone piece on his own side, the king. 'This means he has to make do with the pieces he currently has on the board. Still, these odds are more than slightly against me. I need chess pieces.'
Lelouch could think of only one source of manpower: the rebels who had dragged him into this mess in the first place. It would be quite appropriate, in his opinion, for them to help him. The main problem is that they currently only possess small arms and a single fourth generation Glasgow, clearly insufficient against a division of Sutherlands.
'Well, of all tasks, that is the most easily taken care of, considering that idiot Clovis ordered a train of Sutherlands sent in to reinforce his guard, but forgot to order Knights to accompany them, the moronic fool. More so that he did it over an unencrypted channel, the arrogant popinjay.' Lelouch thought as he began moving his Sutherland to the train depot.
'Resistance fighters, I'll have you pay me back in full for getting me involved in all this.' Lelouch thought as he approached his destination. He didn't notice a pair of amber eyes regarding him from behind him.
Thirty Minutes Later
With Kallen
Kallen struck down another VTOL with her one remaining Slash Harken, when she heard a familiar voice chuckle from a loudspeaker.
"Well, well, if it isn't our Glasgow friend." Kallen paled at the knowledge of where she had heard that voice before and made her damaged Frame speed off. As she did, she saw in the rear camera that the place she had only just occupied had been strewn with bullets from an Assault Rifle.
"You've led me on a merry chase, but no mere Eleven can escape Jeremiah Gottwald!" The Sutherland carrying this Jeremiah Gottwald was in pursuit of her, another was on his flank. To make matters worse, her Glasgow's Energy Filler, the only thing powering her Knightmare, was down to a mere thirty minutes of power. Once that gauge hit zero, Kallen Kōzuki was dead.
Suddenly, her radio crackled and a voice spoke. "The West Entrance! Use the tracks to the West Entrance!" Kallen's eyes narrowed. She didn't recognise this person's voice.
"Who are you? How did you get this code?!" Kallen snapped at the radio. If this guy thought she was going to just trust a random instruction from an unknown voice, he had another thing coming!
"It doesn't matter! If you want to survive this and win against these Britannians, you're going to have to trust me!" came the reply, the voice sounding tense and matter-of-fact.
"To win…?" Kallen breathed out in disbelief. She had hoped to survive this intact, hoped to reduce the casualties her people were suffering, but this voice offered the possibility of winning?
'If nothing else, it will give me time to strategise at least.' She reflected.
She leapt up onto the old rail bridge and made haste towards the west entrance, the two Sutherlands in close pursuit.
"OK, what am I supposed to do now?" she asked the voice, getting more nervous as the Pureblood Knightmares drew closer.
"Since you trusted me, you're going to win. Jump on the approaching train!" the voice told her.
Startled, Kallen noticed a cargo train rapidly approaching on the same tracks she was running her Knightmare along.
"Right!" She affirmed and leapt atop of the train engine and then leapt to the end of the train, across the roofs of the cargo cars.
She heard Jeremiah Gottwald scoff as his Sutherland held the train back. She turned her Glasgow around in time to see the second Sutherland leap up, clearly intent on following her. She, and the Britannians for that matter, were taken off-guard by a pair of Slash Harken intercepting and destroying the Sutherland in mid-air.
All eyes turned to see another Sutherland in a building next to the tracks. Jeremiah spoke, his voice sounding angry.
"Friendly fire?! You there, what's your name and your unit?! We're after the one armed Glas-" Jeremiah was cut off by the Sutherland he was addressing opening fire on him and ripping off his Knightmare's left arm and leg in a hail of bullets.
Not one to not take advantage of a distracted and crippled opponent, Kallen yelled out a wordless battle cry as she charged the Sutherland. With a curse, the pilot activated the ejection system of the Sutherland and sailed off to safety.
'I just made a member of the Purebloods recognise he would have been in danger and forced him to eject!' Kallen thought, stunned at the revelation.
"You saved me!" Kallen spoke to the voice on the radio, not caring that relief was obvious in her voice. "But how in the world did you get your hands on a…"
Her voice trailed off as she noticed the mystery Sutherland had disappeared.
'How the heck did he move away in less than thirty seconds?' She wondered absently as she tried and failed to find him on her Factsphere Sensor.
"KALLEN!" A shout came from behind her and she turned her Glasgow around to see Kaname Ohgi, the man who took over the resistance cell after the death of her brother, run up to her followed by Kento Sugiyama, Shinichirō Tamaki, Yoshitaka Minami and Naomi Inoue, most of the rest of her brothers' cell.
"What was with that radio message earlier?" Ohgi asked, concerned about their security.
"He called you too?" Kallen spoke over the speakers, surprised at the fact.
"Yup. Yoshida's group as well, they ought to be here soon."
Ohgi's Walkie-Talkie then crackled before an voice spoke from it. "Are you the one in charge?"
Kallen recognised the voice: it was the same as the one that aided her.
"Umm…Y-Yeah" Ohgi's voice stuttered a bit.
"Before I go on, I have a question. What were you going to do with that canister of poison gas? Were you going to use it?" The voice seemed to drip disdain at the thought of someone using the stuff.
"NO!" Ohgi had a disgusted look on his face. "We were gonna show the world what Clovis was doing by hijacking the airwaves and showing them what Britannia is really like."
The voice chuckled. "As I thought. In which case, I offer you the contents of that train. It has the tools for your victory."
Kallen's sapphire eyes widened in shock when a train full of Sutherlands, at least twenty of them. The voice continued to speak.
"If you want to use them to win, then follow my orders!" Kallen was still in shock at seeing so many Sutherlands that were not enemies. 'Just what kind of person gives away Sutherlands like party favours?' she thought, numbly.
"Woman in the Glasgow! What is the status of your Energy Filler?" the Voice asked her, snapping her out of her daze.
"A-About fifteen minutes worth." She replied.
"Change out your Filler then, and standby. You will be running decoy. I'll contact you in ten minutes with your code names and instructions."
The radio then fell silent. Kallen wondered what was going to happen next, since today seemed to be full of surprises.
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With Lelouch
As Lelouch shut off the radio he had stolen from Kallen, he sighed, feeling the tension seep from his body.
'This is a lot more tiring than I anticipated, mentally speaking.' Lelouch mused. 'But I must persevere. This game is one upon which I bet my life on.'
"Well now, this is interesting." A voice said from behind him.
Lelouch stiffened slightly, but otherwise didn't show any signs of being surprised.
"Oh, good. I was wondering when you would wake up." Lelouch said calmly. "It looks like getting killed takes quite some time for you to revive from."
"You figured out that much in less than forty-five minutes? You truly are impressive, for a boy." The woman said sardonically.
"In less than five minutes actually." Lelouch replied. "Now can I have a name to go along with your fair features?"
The woman giggled slightly. "Is it not polite to give your own name before asking for another's?"
Lelouch sighed. He could tell that this was a delaying move, but he could play along...for now.
"As I'm certain you are aware, my name is Lelouch vi Britannia, formerly the eleventh prince and seventeenth in line for the throne for Britannia. Now, your name if you please."
"Call me C.C." the woman replied. "Do you like the power I granted you?"
"Geass? Yes, it is very useful." Lelouch replied with an almost maniacal grin. "It will prove very useful in my plans to crush Britannia."
"Do you actually imagine you can accomplish that, with just this power?" the woman -C.C. - asked. He could almost hear the eyebrow being raised as she spoke.
"With just this power, no. I'm neither stupid enough nor arrogant enough to believe that. With a loyal army behind me, however, I will crush Britannia, even if it means my death." Lelouch stated.
"Not before you complete your side of the contract." C.C. countered.
"Ah, yes, I've been wondering about that. Precisely what is your 'One True Wish'?" he asked, although given how evasive she was being, he suspected she would give him the run-around again.
"You do not need to know that. Just focus on remaining alive." was the reply he got.
'Just as I thought.' Lelouch sighed mentally.
"Fine then. I'm going to be devising a plan to use the resistance as a force to defeat the forces of my idiot brother, so keep it down." he replied, somewhat irritably.
As he worked on the plan, he considered a conversation he had heard on the encrypted Britannian radio half an hour ago, regarding the A.S.E.E.C.C. Special Task Group. They had been calling a 'Margrave Jeremiah' back to make use of the 'experimental Knightmare' he was supposed to use.
Evidently, he had refused, as there had been some background swearing from someone within range of a microphone before the signal was cut off.
Lelouch frowned. If there was an experimental Knightmare Frame running around, it might cause some hiccups in his plan, so he had better have an insurance policy, just in case they found a pilot.
Two minutes later, he was ready. After telling C.C. to keep quiet, he grabbed the radio.
Five Minutes later
With Kallen and the Resistance
"Hey, are you really sure this is a good idea?" Tamaki called at Ohgi, who had just booted up his Sutherland. "They've all had their IFF Beacons (Identify Friend/Foe) removed! What if this is a trap!"
Ohgi rolled his eyes as he replied to his friend's concern. "Tamaki, Britannia has an overwhelming military edge here. There is no point in using traps or tricks with the superior firepower the Britannian army can bring to bear."
Tamaki grumbled, but shut up (Temporarily).
The radio in Ohgi's Sutherland crackled. "P-1, are you ready to move?" the voice enquired. The voice had called five minutes ago and assigned them all code names. Ohgi was P-1, while Tamaki was P-5. Most of the Cell was assigned a letter and number combination of P, B and N.
The only exception was Kallen, who had the code name Q-1. Ohgi surmised that it was to differentiate her from the rest of them due to her main duty of running decoy.
"The Sutherland's controls are greatly similar to the Glasgow, so it should be fairly easy to operate." The voice continued.
Ohgi grabbed his radio and spoke into it. "Can't you tell us who you are? At least your name!" 'Seriously, calling him 'the voice' all the time is getting awkward.'
"No can do. What if the Britannians are monitoring this frequency? For now, my code name is K-1. Call me that if you wish. Anyway, if Q-1 is on schedule, two enemy Sutherlands will reach the other side of the wall in twenty three seconds. Shoot them through the wall."
"Is this guy for real? He has to be nuts!" Tamaki scoffs. Ohgi, on the other hand, recognises complete and absolute belief in his own words on the part of the newly christened K-1.
"Everybody, double check your weapons and head to your positions!" Ohgi commands.
Tamaki splutters in indignation at this, but follows the others as they prepare to fight.
"Three….Two….One….Fire!" Ohgi commands. The seven Sutherlands with him open fire, shedding the crumbling concrete wall instantly-and the pair of Sutherlands who were moving to attack Kallen from behind.
All of the resistance fighters gape at where the broken bodies of the Britannian Sutherlands lay.
"Alright everyone! Looks like K-1's word has just been proven to be good!" Ohgi said over the radio, ignoring the grumbling of Tamaki. "Follow K-1's orders! Let's show these Britannians that Japan's spirit is greater than theirs is!"
Prince Clovis la Britannia's G-1 Mobile Fortress, Shinjuku Ghetto
Clovis la Britannia, Third Prince of the Holy Britannian Empire, Viceroy of Area Eleven and (in his own opinion) best dressed of the entire Imperial Family, was slightly surprised.
Sir Orion and Sir Valarie, two moderately experienced Knightmare Pilots (Knights), had just been caught by an ambush, necessitating them to eject.
In a military operation, this would not be any kind of surprise, combat being unpredictable. However, this was not combat, this was 'urban renewal' (read: a massacre), so there shouldn't be any casualties.
'Tch. Must have been a lucky break for the terrorist sc.u.m.' Clovis thought, dismissing the ambush from his mind and made a note to punish Orion and Valerie when they were picked up.
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With Lelouch
"An IFF can be a double-edged sword, can it not, oh brother mine?" Lelouch mused aloud as he watched the screen where the locations and ID's of all of Clovis' forces were displayed.
He had set up the chessboard and pieces to correspond to the number of forces available to both Clovis and himself. Clovis had the advantage in numbers, but was a very poor tactician and strategist, whereas Lelouch was at a disadvantage in numbers, but was the superior strategist.
Behind him, the woman calling herself C.C. watched him silently, analyzing him and his actions.
Lelouch activated his radio again, "P-1, P-4, P-7, move 100 meters to the right and fire your Slash Harkens at three o'clock." he called to the terrorists.
"Can you win this battle, boy?" C.C. asked, acerbically.
Lelouch resisted the impulse to reply in an equally rude way, instead replying politely, "As long as the terrorists follow my orders, the task at had will be completed. This battle would be meaningless, other than stopping a pointless slaughter, if Clovis were not here."
C.C. raised an eyebrow. "Is he your target then?"
"Indeed." Lelouch replied, "He will be both my first step on my path to defeating my father AND the first step on my investigation."
"Investigation? About what?" C.C. asked disinterestedly.
"My mother's murder." Lelouch replied shortly and got back to commanding his troops, harrying someone codenamed P-5 to get ready.
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In Shinjuku, a lithe man in a green outfit, wearing reflective shades and headphones, was stumbling along, cursing his luck at getting caught in Shinjuku during a massacre. His name was Mao.
He had entered Area 11 a week ago, suffering the constant chatter of the minds of the disgusting smugglers he had hired to sneak him in. He had scoured the city looking for his beloved C.C. and had yet to find her!
Mao knew she had been in Japan just before the Britannian invasion, several people in the Chinese Federation had seen her purchase the tickets, he had seen their memories, so why had he not been able to find her?
He had been on the verge of giving up and returning to the isolated area of China where he had resided since C.C. had left, when a passing military man had been thinking of her.
Mao had covertly followed the man. Turns out he was a general called Bartley and he had been doing unspeakable things to his C.C.! The nerve of the man!
Mao was overjoyed to find out that some terrorists had managed to 'steal' C.C. from the Britannians. All Mao had to do was waltz into Shinjuku, where the truck had last been seen, kill the terrorists, grab C.C. and get out again. Easy, right?
Wrong.
Barely five minutes after he entered the Ghetto, it turned into a war zone! Mao was having a harder time finding the terrorists, because none of the residents seemed to know who they were or where they were. All the stupid herd was thinking about was their own worthless lives, pathetic!
Mao stiffened as he felt the ground shake and reached out with his mind reading Geass. There! One Sutherland Pilot, a Britannian, as typically arrogant and self important as you can get, is advancing to meet up with another squad. He was about ten meters away.
'Tch. Better stay hidden. Damn Britannians! Damn Elevens!' Mao snarled in his head as he ducked behind a building. He would come to regret that action.
Ten seconds later, P-1, P-4 and P-7 hit the Britannian Sutherland with six Slash Harkens, sending it crashing into the building Mao was hiding behind. His scream was abruptly cut off as he was crushed to death beneath concrete and metal.
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The G-1 Command Base
"Sir Henry, Lost! He reported before he ejected that the terrorist have more Knightmares, our own Sutherlands!" one of the Staff Officers reported, wide eyed.
"The enemy is advancing towards G-2-8!" Another reported.
General Bartley was sweating bullets. Three Knightmares down in less than five minutes? Prince Clovis was going to have his head!
"Send Glaube's squad!" he ordered hoarsely.
Prince Clovis, sitting on his throne, was stunned. "They have our military weaponry? How?" He whispered in disbelief.
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With Kallen
"Q-1, your target is on top of the building in front of you. Eliminate him." K-1 ordered over the radio.
"Right." Kallen responded. She hated purely running decoy and had been about to complain to K-1 about it when he had told her he had a target for her to take down.
'Was this just a coincidence, or did he read me?' Kallen mused idly as she fired a Slash Harken upwards, to get her on top of the building.
Kallen had honestly been taken by surprise at the skill this K-1 was showing. The small resistance cell that her Nii-Sama had founded, and had passed to Ohgi after his death by that bastard Clovis, was running rings around a highly trained Britannian Knightmare Battalion, not to mention the tanks and VTOL units in support.
Kallen's Glasgow landed on the roof of the building and charged at the Britannian Sutherland facing away from her. It turned around, the Factshpere Sensor open and active.
A hard punch from her Glasgow's remaining arm shatters it and destroys the rest of the head. The Automatic Ejection System in the Sutherland activated and sent the pilot to safety.
Kallen grins and moves to her next point, as ordered by K-1.
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G-1 Command Base
"Sir Glaube, Lost!" The same Staff Officer reports.
"Change our codes, they must be intercepting our transmissions!" Bartley barks at his officers.
"But we have sir, five times already!" Protests one of them.
"Well do it again!" Bartley shoots back. Mentally, Bartley is very much dumbfounded. How were the terrorists moving like an elite unit of pilots and making his own forces look like rank amateurs? It made no sense!
"This failure is totally unacceptable!" Clovis declares, rising from his throne.
"M-My apologies, your highness!" Bartley stammers out, nervously. He knew that those who displeased members of the Imperial Family rarely survived the experience with their careers -or their lives- intact.
Suddenly, a vid-call window opens up on the main battlefield monitor screen, displaying the face of Earl Lloyd Asplund, of the A.S.E.E.C.C. Special Task Group.
"Good Afternoon, Gentlemen!" the Earl greets the room in a loud, obnoxiously cheerful voice.
"What is it? We are in the MIDDLE of an OPERATION!" Bartley snarls at the man. Were it not for the fact that First Prince Schneizel had given the idiot Earl permission to act outside the chain of command, Bartley would never have let the fancifully named Camelot near Shinjuku.
As it was, he had zero authority over them. Only members of the Royal House, such as Prince Clovis, could give them orders, and as he was commander here, they required his permission to enter the fray.
"I'd say it's time to deploy the A.S.E.E.C.C. Special Weapon!" The Earl said, brightly. 'As I suspected.' Bartley thought sourly.
"We have no time for this!" Clovis barked as he advanced towards the command table. "I will now take personal command of the forces stationed here!"
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With Lelouch
Lelouch watched as blip after blip disappeared from the screen, each indicating a lost unit, the last being a tank.
"R-2, fire anchor." He commanded, advancing a castle.
{Beep} Unit Lost. Bye-Bye, VTOL.
"B-7, use UN Ordnance." A Bishop was moved.
{Beep} Unit Lost. Farewell, tank.
"N-Group, continue your advance." A Knight was advanced forward.
{Beep} Four Units lost. Rest easy, Sutherlands.
Lelouch settled back and watched the IFF screen carefully.
"Now then, the enemy has five options. Their move." He muttered aloud.
"Which do you think will happen?" C.C. asked.
"If my idiot elder brother panics, and takes personal command, probably an en-mass attack. If not, a tightening of the encirclement and a slow, steady advance." Lelouch replied with a shrug. "I have plans to deal with anything either Clovis or his pet General can throw at me."
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G-1 Command Base
"Sir, we just lost Sir Lazlo's Squad!" came one of the latest of the many casualty reports.
"Grrr. No choice. Bring up Quincy's Squad!" Clovis ordered.
"But, Your Highness, that will break the encirclement!" Bartley cautioned his prince carefully.
"Reinforce the line with some of the units guarding me. A battle is not won by those who are faint of heart." Clovis dismissed Bartley's concerns firmly.
Clovis pointed at the display on the Command Table. "All we know for certain is that enemy forces are somewhere here. Surround their position and crush them!"
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With Lelouch
Lelouch was idly twirling the Black King piece between his fingers as he waited for the enemy to move. He raised both eyebrows when he discerned the meaning of the movements he was seeing.
"My, it seems Clovis has taken command after all-that is the stupidest move he could have made, out of all of his choices." Lelouch remarked as he grabbed the radio.
"Q-1, do you have an area map?" he asked his main decoy. Lelouch was very impressed with Miss Kallen Stadtfelt. She listened to orders, was an excellent Knightmare pilot and possessed a highly moral character. She also had a bit of a temper and was impatient, which is why he had assigned her to take down that lone Knightmare, to relieve her of some stress.
'She reminds me of Mother quite a bit.' Lelouch mused. 'Although, Mother wasn't nearly as easy to read as Miss Stadtfelt is.'
"Yes, I have a map of the old city, but it has no current landmarks." came her reply, the frustration very obvious in her voice.
Lelouch smirked. Good. "That will do, now here's the plan….."
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With Jeremiah Gottwald
Bruised from his ejection, Jeremiah was taking a slow and cautious approach to returning to the G-1 Command Fortress. The last thing he wanted was to be ambushed by some Eleven terrorists.
Jeremiah sighed. Not for the first time, he questioned the path that had led him to joining the Purist Faction.
After the assassination of Empress Marianne vi Britannia, a woman who, despite being of common birth was the most gifted Knightmare Pilot in the Empire, on par with Lord Bismarck Waldstein, The Knight of One, The Strongest Knight in the Empire, Jeremiah, a guard in the Imperial Palace at Pendragon, had been in disgrace.
While he had, essentially, been persona non grata with the imperial court after Lady Marianne's death, he had still heard of the court appearance of her eldest child, Lelouch, and the subsequent action taken by the Emperor, not least of which was exiling them to Japan as Political Hostages.
If Jeremiah had had any kind of pull left in the Court, he would have applied to join the Prince and Princess in exile. To Jeremiah's mind, if whoever had assassinated Lady Marianne had the resources and political clout to slay one of the 108 Imperial Consorts, in the Imperial Palace, in broad daylight no less and make an escape, there was no question that they could at least attempt to wipe out the vi Britannia line in a backward country like Japan.
Sadly, he had no clout and had been force to compromise his own morals by joining the so-called 'Pureblood' Faction, just to save his career. Their ideals were ridiculous. Lady Marianne hadn't been a noble, yet she had regularly trounced nobles in her Knightmare, the Ganymede, often three on one.
Their stance on the Numbers was, in Jeremiah's opinion, somewhat flawed as well. Yes, Britannia had conquered them, but that was due to Britannia's superior technology, not some divine right handed down from god!
He had also taken issue, in private and only to himself, with the Emperor's policy to do with the way Vassal States were treated. Stripping them of their governments, yes, their flags, yes, but their Name? Their very identity? THAT was too far. Lady Marianne herself had said that showing mercy was a sign of strength, so why try to crush them so completely as to make them virtual animals?
After the invasion and conquest of Japan and it's subsequent re-classification as Area Eleven, Jeremiah had transferred his unit there, hoping to find the last remnants of Lady Marianne. After three fruitless months of searching, the officials, by order of the Emperor, labelled both former Eleventh Prince Lelouch and former Fourth Princess Nunnally as dead.
Jeremiah had refused to believe it. He had seen the obvious intelligence of Prince Lelouch, as evidenced in his mastery of chess. He had always dominated everyone he played, aside from First Prince Schneizel, who was also extremely intelligent. If anyone could plan to survive a war and the subsequent 'peacekeeping activities', it was him.
As the years past, he had continued the search, albeit clandestinely. Just before this whole terrorist incident, he had been about to search the files on Britannian citizens in the Britannian Tokyo Settlement. He had previously ignored Tokyo, as His Highness Clovis would have recognised any noble who resembled his old chess rival.
Jeremiah had been horrified when he had read the briefing on this current operation. Terrorists with poison gas! The area it would affect was massive and the gas was very much in the fatal category. A nagging voice at the back of his head had questioned exactly where the terrorists had gotten their hands on it and exactly why only the Purists were mobilised to deal with it.
The pilot of the red Glasgow had been very skilled, shown by the fact that detonating an arm to cover a retreat was a very tricky manoeuvre and required a fair amount of skill to perform. Still, no Glasgow could go toe to toe with a Sutherland and come out on top without the advantage of surprise, so when he had found the Glasgow later on in the day, he had expected a chase and a kill.
What he had gotten instead was his ass handed to him. He didn't know how a terrorist could get his hands on a Sutherland -painted in the colours of the Purebloods, no less- but the entire left side of his Sutherland had been crippled very quickly, followed on by that Glasgow charging at him, ready to kill him.
All in all, Jeremiah was definitely thinking about upgrading to a Gloucester sometime soon, preferably before an enterprising Eleven shoots him. 'What a day this has been.' Jeremiah thought as he continued his march forward.
In the distance, he saw a column of Knightmare Frames and Tanks advancing towards an unknown destination. Jeremiah peered at the units and recognised them. They were some of the units assigned to encircle and blockade Shinjuku.
"What idiot ordered them to break the encirclement?" Jeremiah wondered aloud.
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G-1 Command Fortress
Clovis sneezed suddenly.
"Are you catching a cold, Your Highness?" Bartley asked.
"No, I must be allergic to close proximity with these filthy Elevens." Clovis replied, before blowing his nose on a handkerchief.
"Moving on," Clovis said, after disposing of his hanky, "Send in Burtz and the others as well. The target is that central dot: Finish them!"
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With Lelouch
"Are all of you ready?" Lelouch radioed his troops.
A chorus of affirmatives came back at him.
'Alright. Time for the second act to end and the third to begin.' Lelouch thought as he picked up the Queen piece.
"Begin Mission Number Three….now!" He commanded via the radio.
Mission number three was a very simple plan. All Knightmares enter the old subway tunnels with Q-1 at the rear. After a set amount of time, Q-1 was to turn about face and fire her Slash Harkens into the ceiling's support beam. That would cause it to collapse and cause the surface above it to collapse as well. In turn, the shifting of the under maintained road collapsing would start a chain reaction, reaching out in a wide radius, swallowing and crushing any and all Knightmares and tanks caught by it.
He had made the plan, along with several others, once the enemies responses had been reduced to the last five, but he hadn't expected to actually need to use it, as no tactician worth the name would use an en-masse attack method these days. The last time that happened was during the time of actual Knights on horseback, for crying out loud.
'Then again, Clovis did like his history. Along with painting, History was his favourite subject. Shame he never took to heart the saying 'those who do not learn from the mistakes made in the past are doomed to repeat them.'' Lelouch thought with a shrug.
"With this, I call Check." he remarked aloud.
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G-1 Command Fortress
{Beep} Target not found.
Clovis stared at the display in stupefied confusion. All of the forces he had massed had charged in….to see each other and no enemy.
What the hell?
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With Kallen
As the small column of Knightmares advanced, Kallen, last in line, watched a countdown timer reach zero.
'Its time.' She thought.
Turning her Glasgow around, Kallen launched her Slash Harkens at the roof's support beam as K-1 had ordered, before quickly retracting them and beating a hasty retreat.
With a mighty crash, the roof collapsed, sending shockwaves across the entire area of the tunnel.
Above the tunnel, the confused Knights had stopped where they were, awaiting orders. Suddenly, the ground opened up beneath them, swallowing them and their Knightmares and crushing them in the jaws of the earth.
The collapse spread, swallowing Knightmares, Tanks and infantry whole, never to be seen alive again. Even buildings were brought down, smashing atop the remains of the weapons of war, creating a tomb of rubble for them.
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With Lelouch
Lelouch was grinning like a fool. He had done it. Clovis had just lost over 80% of his combat capable forces to a simple trap.
'I can do it! I can crush Britannia!' Lelouch thought, allowing himself a moment to celebrate, then got back in the game.
"Right, now that he's lost most of his conventional forces, Clovis will undoubtedly commit the 'prototype Knightmare', whatever it is, and hope for a miracle." Lelouch postulated aloud.
"So then, 'General', what's the plan?" C.C. asked, humour laced into her voice.
"Watch and learn, immortal, watch and learn." Lelouch told her as he reached for the radio once again.
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G-1 Command Fortress
Clovis watched in horror as almost all of the units under his command were destroyed in a wave of destruction.
'J-Just…Just who am I dealing with here….?' Clovis thought, panic etching his features, 'My God….What if he's better than Todoh..?!'
While the Eleven populace revered Todoh as the Miracle Bringer, the Britannian forces called him The Phantom of Itsukushima's Miracle and reviled him for defeating a numerically superior force, without any Knightmares of his own.
The idea of facing Todoh in battle terrified Clovis; the idea of facing someone who was better than Todoh in battle made him want to faint. Suddenly, inspiration struck the panicking Prince.
"Lloyd!" Clovis shouted and Lloyd's image reappeared on the main monitor.
"Yes, Your Highness?" the scientist nobleman asked cheerfully.
"Can your toy win?" Clovis asked.
"Oh, please, your Highness-call it Lancelot."
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A.S.E.E.C.C. Knightmare Storage and Transport Trailer
"Z-01, Lancelot, Launching. Please clear the area!" Cecily Croomey's voice echoed over the speakers.
As Cecily's voice blared out over the speakers, Suzaku Kururugi was getting suited up in a 'Devicer's Uniform' as Lloyd called it. The uniform was white, black and gold, padded in order to better protect against the Lancelot's rapid movement and the jarring that commonly accompanied it.
He had read the manual (most of it anyway) for the Lancelot and was more than slightly impressed. The Lancelot outclassed Sixth Generation Gloucesters, by about as much as a Sutherland outclassed a regular battle tank-totally.
The Blaze Luminous Shielding System was the main defensive array on the Knightmares arms and could be activated to shield the Lancelot from bullets, grenades, Chaos Mines, even close combat weapons like Stun Tonfas and Lances.
The Lancelot also featured an improved version of the standard Yggdrasil Drive, the Core Luminous, as well as a hefty amount of Sakuradite seeded throughout the Lancelot's frame, increasing its overall strength, agility and power.
There were only two issues Suzaku had with the Lancelot, as it currently was. The first issue was the lack of ranged weaponry, aside from the Slash Harkens, meaning Suzaku would have to get up close and personal with any enemy Knightmares in order to defeat them, upping the chance of an ambush.
The Second, far more pressing, issue was the lack of any sort of ejection system. Quite how Earl Asplund neglected to design one into the Lancelot was astonishing to Suzaku, considering how Knightmares were originally a pilot ejection system in and of themselves.
Suzaku knew of the development history of the Knightmares, up to the Third Generation Ganymede, fairly well thanks to Lelouch. He would often reminisce about all of his mother's duels, especially the time she had defeated the Knight of One, Lord Bismarck Waldstein.
Hopefully, Prince Schneizel will grant a bit of extra funding to build a basic safety device like an Emergency C.o.c.kpit Ejection System, and relatively soon.
"Have you read the manual?" Cecile Croomey's voice came over the headset he wore over his right ear.
"Pretty much." Suzaku replied. All he had skipped was the part he was certain the Earl had added, entitled, "Devicer Conduct and Proper Veneration Etiquette of the Lancelot". He was pretty sure that was superfluous to requirements, so had ignored it.
Suzaku made his way out of the changing room and stood in front of the Lancelot. It was magnificent. The Lancelot's white and gold paintwork made it shine like a beacon, even in the Ghetto.
'With this, I can end this slaughter. I can do it!' Suzaku thought as Ms. Croomey talked in his ear about being careful in the field.
Suzaku mounted the Lancelot's c.o.c.kpit and sealed the hatch behind him. After running preliminary start-up procedures, Suzaku activated his radio.
"Ms. Cecile? All systems check out all green on this end." Suzaku reported.
"Roger. All systems green on this end as well." Cecile replied. "Releasing safety locks 1-16. Suzaku, you are cleared for launch. Godspeed."
Suzaku inserted the activation key as he acknowledged Cecile. "Roger. Suzaku Kururugi, Z-01 Lancelot: Launching!"
The Lancelot exploded forward in a flurry of motion, Landspinners whirling, speeding towards the sounds of conflict.
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