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Chapter 3: Contract Struck, The Black Dog joins the Hunt
🕑 Added 2024-11-29 22:17:28 +0000 UTCChapter 3: Contract Struck, The Black Dog joins the Hunt
They had managed to find an exit from the tunnel that led into what seemed to be an old warehouse. Lelouch appreciated that it lowered their chances of air support spotting them. Like the silent girl, Lelouch kept low as he crawled up the stairs, not caring how dirty his uniform got ."Stay quiet. I'll check it out." Lelouch whispered to the girl, who nodded back. Getting up a little further, there was a burst of gunfire, which had him throw himself lower, nearly smacking his chest into the sharp stone stairs.
A moment later, he realized that he hadn't been the target; peaking out, he saw the body of a Japanese man who had been fleeing from the royal guard, face down with a back filled with bullet wounds.
"Report." The Captain, covered in soot from the explosion, ordered, Lelouch got that the man was pissed, but if the schoolboy had his way, he would have much more to worry about. Doing a quick head count, he saw that their number had decreased by 3. Had they been killed in the blast? Lord, he hoped so. Bastards deserved a fiery death, but it made things easier for him as he pulled out his pistol.
"We've found only Elevens here, sir." One of the soldiers replied to the order, the Captain humming back and looking around the place. Still, Lelouch's position in the shadows, so low to the ground, meant that his head went unseen.
"You sure that exit comes out here?" The Captain asked.
"According to the old city maps, this should be the closest exit. The next would be another 15 minutes away." Lelouch frowned at that response. He had suspected that they would look up the maps. Still, those were notorious for how inaccurate they were these days, as the invasion and subsequent complete lack of maintenance or repair work over the years meant that many had collapsed, blocking out paths or creating entirely new ones. Frankly, it was a minor miracle that they didn't need any detours to get there.
Lelouch flinched when he heard a child crying, one that was so close that he-
Their cries were placed by the bark of gunfire, and then silence once more as Lelouch ground his teeth; his fury, his spirit, the storm of voices and emotions festering in his mind demanded retribution. Still, he had to remain calm and think this through. It was how he had remained alive this far. He wished to kill the Royal Guard, but it being 7 on 1, 6 of which carried assault rifles, his chances of anything more than a pyrrhic victory were slim. No point in taking the risk.
That was the right call, as it didn't seem like the royal guard was willing to enter to check. They were most likely assuming that they had gone for another route to avoid them or had come through here already. The Captain was already turning to leave, and Lelouch relaxed just a little.
Then the sisters of fate decided his life was too easy at the moment as his phone went off. ‘Shit!’ Lelouch swore as the blasted thing had been the furthest thing from his mind, so he hadn't put it on silent or just turned it off. He was quick to reject the call, but the damage was done when the royal guards turned back.
A world away at Ashford, Shirley blinked in surprise before yelling that Lelouch was a jerk for hanging up on her. Still, he didn't know, and he wouldn't have cared as Lelouch, with the element of surprise now gone, Lelouch yelled out. "Stay down!" As he jumped out of cover, he saw 3 of the royal guards approaching to check the stairwell. They knew he was armed this time and had been ready as the two sides fired.
Lelouch managed to evade most of their bullets, but one managed to graze his left cheek, another his shoulder, and one passed through the outer flesh of his right thigh. It hurt, but he had prepared for it, and his aim didn't flinch as he pulled the trigger twice. One bullet hit a guardsman in the neck, tearing through his right carotid artery in a shower of blood. The man reached for his neck to stem the bleeding before his eyes rolled back, and he dropped. The second bullet wasn't lethal, hitting another guardsman in the shoulder, throwing his aim off with a curse.
Lelouch rolled behind a pile of debris, twisting out the other end and letting out another two shots, but this time, only one found its mark in the gut of guardsmen; Lelouch ducked behind cover as a volley of bullets came for him.
“Dammit, how did he-!” One of the remaining soldiers yelled as they fired at where Lelouch was, keeping him pinned as their two injured were pulled back.
"Focus on killing him and retrieving the girl!" the Captain yelled, furious that they had lost two people already. Prince Clovis wasn't going to be pleased. With his cover whittled away, Lelouch brought his hand to his mouth, his thumb and index finger between his lips, breathed through his nose, and let out a loud whistle.
The guardsmen immediately understood it as a signal, and the Captain and another turned around to look for any more terrorists that could appear. Still, they didn't see or hear anything. With half their attention off him, Lelouch dived for another large piece of cover, a support beam in the shadows of the warehouse. "He's moving!" One of the injured yelled as he let out a burst of automatic fire in Lelouch's direction, another bullet getting him in his side; as he let out a hiss, clamping at the wound, pulling his hand back, he saw it was crimson.
Turning their attention on him, the guardsmen moved as a group to corner and finish him, but Lelouch wouldn't keep them cornering him like a rat; looking up, he saw something scurrying about above. As it was dark in the warehouse, it took a moment for him to make out what it was, and he did; he smiled, his gaze growing excited despite the dire situation and his injuries.
Taking full advantage of the shadows he hid in, he pulled a rock he had picked up earlier. He tossed it at an old steel support beam, causing a long clang to echo through the warehouse, grabbing the guards' attention just long enough to quietly dash into another area of cover unseen by them. As it did so, he let out another 2 shots, which saw the wounded guards killed with bullets piercing their hearts and heads, respectively; he wasn't going to let them give him away again.
"Dammit, kill the brat!" The Captain yelled as he and the remaining 3 guards shot into the shadows where they thought their target was, but there was no response to the burst of lead smacking into the pillars and walls. The Captain pulled out his torch and shined it into the darkness, trying to find where the boy had gone but seeing no trace of him. Still, he wouldn't dare get closer into the building to grab their target and run, not till that brat was dead.
His fury mixed with an unease caused by them hearing something from the darkness. This low chuckle sounded less like a man and more like a laughing beast, one that was in its element, watching them, hunting them like rabbits that had dared cross its path. They looked all over the place, his men also taking out torches and attaching them to their rifles to look around, but no matter what they turned, it was like the eerie chuckles were coming from another part of the room, bouncing around the old, dilapidated walls as the chuckles grew louder, insulting them by its mere existence.
With Lelouch, he hid in the shadows, evading their lights. Despite his injuries, or perhaps because of it, he threw back his head and laughed, leaving his opponents nervous and intimidated. "Is this kid insane? He sounds like a savage." Lelouch observed one of the guards ask another, his keen eye noting how the man was shaking; he was scared. He should be, as they were walking right into his trap, as he has friends with him, and they were eager to help.
Truthfully, Lelouch wasn't sure himself about his question, but he had stopped caring about his sanity years ago; it was more…liberating not to, as Lelouch smirked and noted loud enough for them to hear.
“You know, there is something quite amusing about this.” He spoke up, his voice coming from all around them. The soldiers also heard scurrying but couldn't see what was scamping about, as they would always just miss it.
“And that’s that, school boy?” The Captain asked the only one who was taken by terror, though he was still on edge, his senses trained to try and find the boy and kill him.
There was more scurrying, this time coming from above, though when the Captain turned his light up, he saw nothing but the support beams. "I had been wanting a challenge for quite some time. Now tell me, you collared beast, don't you feel it? The catharsis of fighting for your life, of putting it all on the line?” Lelouch asked when the last time he felt this trill was. This terror, this grief and joy? When was the last time he had gone out to fight with his friends? Years.
"Not much a fight these days when all there is to shoot is vermin; it's a shame you chose to side with them; your skills could have seen you get far in the military." The Captain spoke up, trying to make the boy slip up, but Lelouch's response was to mock him and the concept of his offer with more of that savage chuckling.
“Vermin? That's what you say? That is quite the thing to say, as I thought the same about you. After all, royal guardsmen being bested by a mere schoolboy? If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t know how I would be able to leave my bed in the morning. The embarrassment you see.” Lelouch mocked them, joined in high-pitched squeaks, not just from a single source, but what sounded like dozens of them, all around them, above them, to their rears, but when they looked, they couldn't see what was causing it. It was leaving them sweating in fear.
Even the Captain was starting to feel it. This was insane; it didn't make sense. A boy besting them, a Britannian at that, and then it was those sounds. That definitely couldn't have been the boy, and he wasn't informed about the girl being able to do similar things. The man shivered as confusion gave way to fear, but he did his best to keep it under wraps. “That mouth of yours will get you in trouble.”
Lelouch watched them, unseen by the adults, as he took sick joy in their unease, their fear of him and what lay in the darkness with him. He could have taken another shot at them. He had 6 more shots in the magazine, but why grant them a quick death when they deserved much worse? "Oh, I know it will because it already has. But you said something interesting.”
“Oh, and what’s that?” the Captain asked as Lelouch looked over their heads and smiled.
"That you've had is vermin to shoot, well, all I see is vermin to be devoured." His friends sprung into action at his words, starting with one of them letting out a screech as it leaped from the raptors onto one of them. Its small body hardly moved the man, but it scared him as he let out a girlish squeak.
“What the hell?” the man yelped as he smacked the creature off his shoulder. It landed on the floor, revealing itself as a rat, not just one. More came pouring into the room from the raptors, rubble, and holes in the walls, swarming like angry bees.
“Rats?!” The Captain yelled out as the men started firing at the swarm. Their shots killed many, but there was so much of them that killing a few wouldn't stop them; if anything, it seemed to enrage the rodents as they attacked them, the rats coming in all sizes, some small enough that they could comfortably sit in your palm, others as large as a small cat and these dozens of rodents came at them from all sides, lunging at their faces as the man screamed as they fought against them, one of them tripping and falling onto his back where the rats rushed him.
“Christ, they’re everywhere!” One of them screamed out in terror, having fired his weapon till he ran out of bullets. Still, despite blasts of blood jetting into the air, there was no sign it did anything as one rat bit his ear, making him scream louder as another went for his nose.
“What in God’s name-Kill them! Kill all of them!” The Captain's face was already bloody, having been jumped many times as he smacked, punched, and stomped on the damn rodents, but it was like every damn rat in the ghetto had come for them.
"No, no, get off me, it hurts!" Another of his men cried before one rat got lucky and, when it landed on his shoulder, bit deep into his neck, severing his jugular in a spray of blood, his pleas replaced with desperate gasps for air and guggling of blood before the map dropped face first into the dirt, his body swarmed by the rodents who now had a feast.
Seeing that made the man freak out; their training had been for countering man's methods, not for the horrors that beasts could bring. Desperately, he tried to get up, covering his mouth and eyes the best he could. "Help me, captain, they won't stop; please stop; I don't want to die." He started to cry.
“I need to run-!” The third one of them, having managed to fend off the worst of it, turned tail and ran for their lives, their mission be damned as he would take whatever death Prince Clovis had in store for failure than this. Only for a burst of pain to form in their right thigh, followed by the crack of a gunshot as the man went down.
"No, no, you won't," Lelouch stated, his gun still trained on the fallen man who found against the swarm, but the rodents smelled blood and moved in, one going for his eyes; the man let out an ear-piercing screech as one of his eyes was assault by sharp, unrelenting rodent teeth. “This is your fate.” Lelouch finished as soon that man went limp, either from being killed or shocked; he didn't know; he just knew that it wouldn't be long before he would be dead.
“You-!” The Captain's gun was shot out of his hands; taking the trigger and pulling a finger with it as he let out a rage and horror-fueled shout. Lelouch had to admit, he was impressed as the man of rank seemed to have been worthy of it, being the last one on his feet, as with his attention off them, the last of his men had fallen, the rats clearing from him to reveal a managed corpse with a massive pool of blood between the man’s thigs, no doubt one of them cute little critters went for his femoral.
Walking out of the shadows, the rodents parted for him as the waters of the Red Sea did for Moses. Lelouch's gun remained trained on the man, his violent eyes terrifying him more than the swarm of rodents that had slaughtered his men, as there was something…profoundly wrong in those eyes, something broken, a fury that seemed near inhumane lay in those shattered eyes, one that seemed to enjoy every moment of this madness.
"How many people have you killed? How many innocents are left to be eaten by rats and ravens?" Lelouch asked the man. His words seemed jovial and friendly, but there lay an undercurrent to them, the same fury in his gaze. "What's wrong? Is it not pleasant to be covered in them? Is it unpleasant to be devoured by such lowly creatures?"
"Stop this! Get these filthy animals off us. Please just help us!" The man hated that he was reduced to begging but couldn't; he just couldn't keep going. He just wanted it to end.
“Now that’s just rude,” Lelouch scolded him like he was a child; holding out his hand, one of the more giant rats jumped into it, but it didn't attack him; instead, it sat there, acting like a tamed, housebroken pet to the schoolboy. Lelouch put his gun away and started to tend to it, a finger stroking the little critter's head, getting pleased squeaks from it, a serenity falling onto his face in stark contrast to the rest of the blood-soaked scenery. “Rats are much cleaner than the stories say; they are quite particular about grooming themselves and those they call family."
"They can also form massive family units, a byproduct of being able to breed all year round and having large litters. I suppose I can relate to them on that front, having a large family." Lelouch mused, thinking of times long past as he tended to the rat, joined by another that climbed up his leg and back to his shoulder, where it snuggled up to his face, getting a short laugh from him at hits fur tickling him.
“Please just kill me.” The Captain begged, his strength fading even as the swarm around him lulled for the moment.
"That, my dear vermin, would be a mercy I will not give." When Lelouch looked back at his, that humor and serenity faded away, leaving just cold, intense anger. “As you’ve done to others, let it be done to you. So say Lelouch vi Britannia.” Lelouch turned to leave him to his fate, but his name seemed to spur something in the man as such a name could only mean one thing.
“vi Britannia?! But that’s-!” He never got to finish it, as Lelouch whistled. The rats attacked the Captain, his blood shooting out from them as they went for his neck, wrist, and thigh, severing major arteries in a shower of blood the man dropped before he was quickly covered up by the swarm of rodents who promptly went to work eating their fill.
The mysterious woman had remained silent the entire time, but even she had been perturbed by the sight before her. 'Just when I thought I had seen everything.' She thought as Lelouch approached her.
"Are you alright? I kept their attention on mine, but one can't predict ricochet in this environment." He offered her hand, acting nothing like the brutal beast tamer he had been not even moments ago. Looking at it and then at him, she grasped it as he gently guided her out from the stairs. The woman spared the gruesome scene a glance before she looked back at him.
“You are a strange one. Did you have this planned?” She spoke for the first time, Lelouch noting how indifferent she sounded—toward him, towards his actions, even towards the mass death that had occurred and was still occurring around him. He wasn't sure why, but there was something else in her words, something he couldn't figure out.
"To your first observation, being strange suits me quite well. It keeps things…interesting." Lelouch stated, deciding that it could be solved later once, he strangled Clovis with his own intestines. “As for your second, I did not.”
"And yet these rats followed your orders, " she replied, referring to the rats that even now followed his wordless actions as they cleared paths for them.
Lelouch knelt and allowed the two rats to jump down, turning around to pet them both and send them off with a smile. "I've always been…close with the animal kingdom; in a way, the beasts and pests of this world have proven to be much more accepting of me than most people," Lelouch replied as he looked towards the dead Japanese, rage, and grief present on his face. “And on that note, may I tend to the innocents before you and your family have their meal?”
In response to his words, the dozens of rats seemed to let out squeaks of agreement before they scurried off into the darkness, leaving the bodies of the guards they had already started to devour bare, a sight which neither Lelouch nor his acquittance seemed to be affected by.
“Thank you.” Lelouch thanked them as he walked over to the largest group of dead, one which was where he heard the cry of that child, whose lifeless eyes looked back at him but saw nothing, their torso riddled with bullets as they held a stuffed doll in their hands, their grip tight even in death.
The woman observed him as he gently closed the little girl's eyes, a sorrowful frown on his face. He quickly shifted their bodies around, turning the pile into a group of organized bodies, laid out side to side, hands clasped over their chests—a task she silently helped him accomplish. In just a few minutes, it was done. It wasn't much, but it was much more merciful than leaving them to rot in a pile like garbage.
Lelouch knelt before them, their blood soaking into his pants as he pulled out his silver cross from around his neck, having been hidden by his shirt and jacket, his throbbing from his wounds forgotten. As he had been doing since the fight started and now ended, he focused on more important things as he clasped his cross like a rosary and closed his eyes.
"You killed those men for killing innocents but will stand aside and allow rodents to eat them instead of giving them a proper burial." While she had helped it, the woman commented that she had been curious why he would go out of his way for people he didn't know, especially when he could take such glee in watching men be devoured alive by rodents.
“If it was just one or 2, I would have had them leave them be, but with so many,” Lelouch didn't finish; they could both see where he was going with this. "I can't give them all what they deserve. I can only do what I can and allow nature to take it from there." He reasoned, as while he didn’t like it, he had come to accept it. With that said, he took a breath before starting his prayer.
“O Pater in caelis, et Filius in cruce positus, hic peccator te invocat: quaesumus, in nomine Patris in caelis et Filii Virginis Mariae, da his animabus innocentibus requiem; finem hodie affer eorum passionibus, ut gaudeant cum eis qui ante eos transierunt. Omnipotens Pater, Filius omnium indulgentissimus, exaudi verba huius canis et concede eis pacem in morte, quam in vita non cognoverunt. Amen.”
Clapping his hands twice at the end, he opened his eyes and got up. “Sinner?” The woman asked him.
If Lelouch was surprised that this mysterious woman could understand him, he didn’t show it as he turned to her. "Would a good Christian slaughter these soldiers like I did? If the situation called for it, perhaps. But a good Christian wouldn't have enjoyed it, yet I reveled in it." He was blunt with his words, the woman's eyes seeming to take on some light of approval.
“You resent how things are, don’t you? That these people were ever killed.” If Lelouch was honest about it, that was a foolish question.
“How could I not? What good Christian- no, what good person could not see all this and not resent it? Feel anger at those who put them into this? At a world that could allow this?" he gestured around them, not just to a warehouse filled with corpses but to the echoes of explosions, gunfire, and screams coming in from the outside.
“Would you like to change it?” Lelouch paused at the woman’s question, though she took that chance to approach him. "If you had power, would you change things?"
“Of course, but-” She silenced him, laying her finger on his lips, her eyes once indifferent, now containing that wisdom from before. These were eyes that were older than they appeared. Yet, Lelouch was still captivated by them, as even when he looked deep into them, there was no malice, no evil but a sense of...again, he couldn't make it out. Still, it drew him in like a moth to a flame.
"You have a reason to fight and live, so I propose a deal that will grant you power to carry out your will. But it's not without cost." Lelouch wanted to reply snarkily that what deals didn't have a catch, but his tongue refused to move as she moved closer, her heels helping to bridge the height difference.
"While I shall grant you power, you must agree to grant my one true wish." "If you accept this deal, you accept the conditions. You will continue to live in a world of humans. Still, you'll forever be different, with a different providence, a different time, a different life. The power of the king will condemn you to isolation.” Her words were clear but also carried an undertone of melancholic resignation; Lelouch didn't know why; he didn't know what she was even talking about as he should be stepping back, calling out this charade for what it was.
But he didn't. A part of him, his more rational side, reasoned that this woman was important enough to Clovis that he would go this far, so perhaps there was some truth to her words. But another part of him, a more emotional and beastly side, was drawn to her words.
When she grasped his face in her hands, he didn't even feel the sting from the bullet wound on his cheek. Instead, he saw many things. Many things he couldn't understand. He felt his limbs were bound by energy chains, yet he felt free as a bird. He felt like he was traveling through a vortex of color, seeing everything and nothing while not taking a step in any direction. He saw two planets that looked like Juniper about to collide, yet neither reacted as such planetary bodies would while the sun's bright rays shined over the horizon of the top. At the same time, the moon rose over the bottom.
He saw a mass of girls, all dressed the same with tattoos he didn't recognize, their eyes closed as if they were in prayer. Lelouch saw a strange symbol etched into stone, which looked like a bird in flight, struck through by a spear. But what he saw next grabbed his attention more than anything, as he saw a large man, old but strong, his back to him as he conversed with a group of robed, masked individuals. When he spoke, his voice was as he had remembered it, stroking the rage that burned in his heart.
“A convergence with the Ragnarök connection? So the myth is beginning once again?” The man asked.
‘You-!’ Lelouch felt his rage roar for blood before he grasped the woman close, letting out a chuckle that bled malicious intent.
For the woman, this had surprised her, from meeting Lelouch to seeing him slaughter an entire unit of royal guards. Still, it was this interaction that left her perplexed. His mind wasn't as she thought it would be; it wasn't how it should be. And just like him, she felt herself drawn to him, her would-be contractor—so much so that she didn't mind much when his hands settled on her waist and back, guiding her closer to the wounded teen.
Her golden eyes peered into his violet ones, which did house something broken. This fury, along with beastly cruelty, burned like anything he had seen before. But she looked deeper than the shattered shards and ever-burning fury. She saw an unflinching will, intelligence, and a strong sense of compassion and mercy, contractions seemingly baked into his very core.
Holding this woman close, Lelouch leaned lower, his breath touching her clear, fair skin. “My dear, what you offer could be called a Faustian bargain, but you'll find I am never alone; I'll never be free."
She seemed disheartened by that, as it sounded like he would refuse the offer. It wasn't a wrong move on his part; she had laid out the cons, and he seemed like an intelligent boy, but that didn't make it any less disappointing. She moved to step back, but his hold on her didn't cease, nor did how captivating their eyes remained to the other.
"I accept the terms of the contract." Lelouch did something he rarely did, he didn’t think. His rational side took a back seat as he sealed the death with a kiss, one which left the woman surprised, her face growing a little red, but it faded as she went along with it, her hands soothing the pain of his wounds.
The moment passed, and the chaste kiss between them ended as neither released the other. The woman lay her head on his chest, listening to that steady heartbeat as his hands held her close to him as if she were something precious—a notion she scoffed at. Still, she could admit that he was a good kisser.
"Well, boyo, you're quite forward. You don't even know my name, yet you stole a kiss." She teased him, smiling when she felt his heart start to race.
“I…” Lelouch opened his mouth, but no explanation came forth because he didn't have one. Why did he kiss her? That wasn't like him; he had never kissed anyone in such a manner, so how did he even know how, as she seemed to enjoy it. “I have no idea why I did that.”
“Sorry, but hormones aren’t an excuse.” She told him, though she suspected there was more to this than either realized. When Lelouch moved to step back after such a forward action, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, humming in approval that there seemed to be some muscle on his slender frame. “I didn’t say let go.”
"You certainly sounded like it," Lelouch replied.
“I have no idea what you mean, boyo.” He grunted in annoyance, but she enjoyed getting him so rattled.
"It's Lelouch, Lelouch vi Britannia, but I go by the family name Lamperouge these days. Might I know your name?" Lelouch introduced himself, thinking of the contact and how he acquired knowledge about this power she gave him, enough that he understood how to use it and felt what seemed like a mental switch in his head, a button to press when he wished to use it.
"You may not. Don't think a single kiss will be enough to earn that. But I go by C.C., so call me that, boyo." Lelouch frowned harder at her refusal to share her name, but he wasn’t given time to question it or her as the wall to the side blew open, throwing up dust and smoke.
C.C. removed herself from his hands before he realized what was happening, standing in front of him as a human shield, which rubbed him the wrong way. However, he could take some solace in the fact that the bodies were on the opposite side of the room and hadn't been damaged by whoever had just earned his ire.
The target of that ire revealed itself to be a Sunderland, which carried the markings of the Purists, fouling his mood further. This unit, unknown to him, was piloted by the very same woman who had caught the truck by surprise and diverted them into the ghetto. Same with her, she could have never known that the person before she had been in that truck and nearly killed when she fired on it.
But she wasn't here for the truck. Instead, their forces had got a distress signal from the Royal Guard. She had been closest, and thus the one sent to investigate. To her horror, when she scanned the warehouse, she found them all dead, some already having pieces missing. But that shouldn't be possible. That sent the signal out mere minutes ago. How could scavengers have gotten to them already?
"What could have killed all these royal guards?" She asked herself, as the elevens present were all dead as well, not a single weapon visible. But she saw two very much alive people staring her war machine down with little fear. Pressing the speaker function, she demanded answers. "What happened here, boy? How did these soldiers die? How did a student end up in a place like this? And why do you have a prisoner with you?” At her demands, Lelouch remained silent, glaring at the unit like she had personally offended him.
“Are you deaf? Answer me!” She yelled back, firing her weapon around him, blasting large holes in the rusted corrugated iron wall behind him. However, despite this, neither he nor C.C. flinched as the draft kicked their hair about.
"This is bad. We're pinned," C.C. whispered to him as she could defend him against bullets, but that knightmare would easily tear through her and him. Just her luck that she finds an exciting contractor, and then they end up in a situation that ends with both dead. God knew how long before she found someone like him again.
“I order you to come out at once," Lelouch spoke up, pressing the button in his mind and calling upon the power-geass, which was what it was called. His left eye shifted as the mark of that power formed, a bird in flight, but the woman just looked on with confusion and irritation.
“Who the hell do you think you are to order me to do anything?” She called back. She would give them this; they didn't act like cowards, as most would have flinched when she fired her weapon at them. But that just made her all the more cautious. That sort of response, or lack thereof, meant that someone had combat experience, which could explain that they were these soldier's killers.
'I see; then it can only work with direct eye contact.' Lelouch thought, keeping calm despite his plan and power failing him. Though he realized that he had made her all the warier of them both now, the only reason she hadn't shot to kill was that they both looked like Britannians. Before she noticed, he had put his gun back in its concealed holster.
“Boy, I’ll provide a distraction, you-!” C.C. started, but Lelouch placed a hand on her shoulder, the green-haired woman glancing at him in confusion, annoyance, and a touch of concern.
"No need, follow my lead, C.C.," He whispered to her as he stepped forward, putting her to his back and looking at the knightmare like it was a particularly incompetent servant. “My name is Leonardo Chesterfield, son of Duke Chesterfield. This woman is my mistress, who these savages kidnapped along with me. Now I demand your protection and aid in getting us away from these damned monkeys before their stench sinks into my clothes."
Lelouch's words were impatient and arrogant, like his stance. His glare could only belong to someone used to getting what he wants and demanding that this be no exception.
“Nobility?” The woman asked herself. She had heard the name Chesterfield before; their leader was a 60-something who loved to drink and boast about his exploits from his days in the military before he retired a decade ago. He had one heir, a son who she had met. This brat wasn't as he as this schoolboy was a decade too young and had the wrong hair color…but it was an open secret that the Duke, despite his age, had mistresses and at least 7 known illegitimate children. Was this one of them?
Lelouch tapped his petulantly tapped his foot. “What are you, dead woman? You’re a Britannian soldier, are you not? Hurry up and do your job!” His bravado came off as whiny and annoying, little more than a demand of a brat which was something that pissed the woman off.
"You're coming off too strong," C.C. warned him, as who would listen to such an unreasonable brat?
"Nobles are childish. They always demand and never compromise." Lelouch whispered back, though his attention remained on the knightmare, which didn't move before, at last, a response in the form of the unit shutting down and its cockpit opening up.
Coming on its wire was its pilot, a young, attractive, dark-skinned woman with silver hair tied into a long ponytail. She didn't seem to be a fool, as she had her gun trained on them both.
"I'll need to see your ID to confirm your identity, Leonardo. But I don't trust you two, girl. Step away from him so I can get his ID for myself." She ordered, with C.C. silently following that order before Lelouch tried again.
“Hand over your gun and knightmare keys to me, as well as its activation codes, and remain in this old building for 90 seconds.” This time, Lelouch felt something akin to an electrical current completing between himself and the woman, her mind being rewired nearly instantly as red rings around her pupils as, without hesitation, the woman flipped her handgun in her hand so that the grip was facing Lelouch as she wordlessly approached him and handed him her weapon and only means of defense.
Lelouch smiled as he accepted the graciously donated firearm; though he had his own, he could keep it as spare if not raid it for its full magazine. His geassed target pulled out her knightmare's activation key and handed it to him.
“Understood, the code number is XG21G2D4.” She robotically told him.
“Got it,” Lelouch easily memorized as he turned to C.C., smug that his ploy had succeeded despite concerns. “As I said, nobles are a little more than temperamental children. Demanding that everything and everyone goes their way and never compromising even when signs say to.”
Lelouch didn’t just pick the name at random, as he knew the Duke, at least in passing, and knew that the old fossil couldn’t keep it in his pants to save his life as he had sired at least 11 different kids, one of which was an old senior at Ashford.
He had met the Duke, a terrible gambler and one of his more lucrative opponents in the last few months, as he couldn't fork over his losses. Still, he had stakes in the local knightmare production industry and offered up some ‘under the table’ means to pay his debts which the mere schoolboy had been more than eager to accept.
“I would imagine that arrogance wasn’t hard to fake now, was it?” C.C. hardly seemed impressed by his deceit, though he narrowed his eyes at the subtle slight she shot his way.
"There's a difference between arrogance and confidence; the first is imagined, the second is proven." He replied.
"That's the sort of thing an arrogant person would say," C.C. smirked as he grunted in annoyance before he turned his newly gained weapon on the still motionless woman, her command keeping her like that for another 55 seconds. "Well, now, what's this? Are you planning on killing her as well? Giving your little friends another course in their meal." C.C. asked him.
“I should, she’s the enemy. Worse, she’s a damn Purist,” Lelouch said the name as if it were an insult, moving closer till the gun's barrel touched the woman's head, pushing her head to the side and leaving her no means to defend herself or react should pull the trigger.
But he relented and stepped back, his gun lowered. "But there's no point; she can't defend herself, and killing someone like that when they're not even a threat is disgusting," Lelouch told her, thinking that the woman was lucky as he turned and walked towards the Sunderland.
“Now, we should be going then.” Lelouch grasped the line and turned to C.C., who looked like she was walking off.
“We?” She asked him, with Lelouch frowning at her question.
“Yes, we. I would imagine that you would want to see Clovis dead for keeping you in that damned capsule.” Lelouch told her, with C.C. turning to him but not moving from her place by the entrance, half in the light and half in the dark.
"Oh, are you offering me a chance of revenge?" she asked him, an amused smirk on her face that Lelouch couldn't make heads or tails of.
“I offer justice, but I would be a fool to say that in this case, as in many others, those two things are one and the same.” Lelouch chose to focus on her words, not her expression. C.C. seemed to think about it, but she made him sweat as she liked him, kept track of the time, and knew it was less than 30 seconds before she finally made a move.
Walking towards him, she gave him a cat-like grin, which made Lelouch regret offering her a chance to follow him. "Well then, boyo, you certainly know how to gain a lady's interest. Maybe you'll be able to make up for that little kiss sooner than I thought."
"Let's just get going," Lelouch muttered, ignoring how C.C. was the smug one as she held onto him as he grappled up into the Sunderland's cockpit. C.C. heard him call it the same as the simulators. When prompted, he quickly inserted the key and then the passcode before taking its controls and piloting the thing away like it was as natural as breathing.
Exactly 9 seconds after they left, the Purist pilot blinked as she came to. "What the-where's my Sunderland?" She recalled she had been piloting it; wait, was her unit knocked out? Shit, she would need to make it back to friendly lines; lucky for her, she had her-she went for her holster but found it empty. "Where's my gu-what the hell happened here?" She called out in shock and horror when she nearly stepped on the corpse of a royal guard.
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“Are we having a bad day?” Suzaku's eyes shot open at that voice, taking in what felt like the first breath of his life before he let out a hiss of pain; looking at himself, he saw that he had been stripped of his armor and uniform and that his bare chest was bandaged up. Looking up, he saw a man in a lab coat and a woman in a military uniform, but neither looked at him like trash despite being what had to be Britannian officials.
“Wha-! Wait, where am I?” He asked, his confused state leaving him forgetful of proper behavior when addressing his betters.
It would seem that the scientist he spoke to either forgot those norms or didn't care as he replied to his question as freely as the bird flew through the air. “You missed your chance to go to heaven, private Kururugi. You’ll very much still among the living.”
“I did…" Suzaku said, his memory returning to him as he remembered the mission, meeting Lelouch again, learning that the gas was a hoax, the orders he refused, and then…well, nothing. So maybe this scientist was right, but how did he head up…wherever they were? "Forgive me, but you didn't tell me where we are."
"Well, we're still in the Shinjuku ghetto, but as far from the fighting as you get, " the scientist he spoke to, Lloyd, replied.
"We're in the medical unit, which was stationed close to where Prince Clovis is, so it's the safest place in the ghetto for the moment." His assistant Cecile gave further details, which comforted him somewhat, but also left questions. Questions that went unanswered as she presented him were something he both held dear and feared. “This is what saved your life, Mr. Suzaku.”
Suzaku ignored how she used his first name as his last; it was a mistake plenty of Britannians made due to cultural differences. Instead, his attention was on what she held in her hands. As presented to him on a white cloth, it was an old pocket watch. Its lid had long fallen off along with the latch, but the glass cover for the watch itself was intact if now cracked, thanks to the bullet.
"You proved to be a wise man in keeping it on your person as the that deflected the bullet in place of your body armor," Lloyd explained, Suzaku keeping it to himself that his armor would have worked fine if the Captain hadn't placed his gun in the spaces between it.
“Is it a keepsake?” Cecile asked as Suzaku slowly took the offered item into his hands, feeling its many dents and cracks.
“Yes, very.”
"You Elevens believe that Gods and spirits reside in everything, even objects if that a case-"
“Is Lel-what’s the latest on the situation.” Suzaku cut off Lloyd before he could say something else, as he had dealt with enough issues for the day and didn't need someone making fun of his customs.
Lloyd didn't seem to mind being cut off by a number and answered the question. “Well, things went belly up not too long ago. The poison gas was unleashed, massive Eleven casualties.”
"They're still trying to catch the culprits," Cecile added, making Suzaku feel worse. They didn't seem to know the truth, that there was no 'poison gas', not unless the terrorists had another truck carrying some. No, the reason those people were dying was the same reason he almost did; to protect whatever secret his superiors wanted to keep covered up.
“I…see…” He breathed out, letting out his rage with his breath. He couldn't be angry now; it wouldn't help anyone.
“Private Kururugi, how much experience do you have in piloting a knightmare frame?” He looked up at Lloyd, wondering why he would ask such a random question.
"Well, all recruits go through basic training, which includes drills in knightmare simulators, but there's no way an Eleven will ever be made a knight," Suzaku replied honestly, but that just made Lloyd smile all the more as he held up a knightmare’s key, one that looked far fancier then any he had seen.
“Suppose there was a way to do just that?” Lloyd asked again before he agreed to the possibility. Lloyd didn't waste time, and after he was rushed to get dressed, he was led out of the medical truck to another one designed to carry knightmares. Its rear opened, and a knightmare was held in place by clamps but covered up by a tarp, though Suzaku could tell that whatever was underneath it was no Sunderland.
"Congratulations, the only knightmare of its kind awaits you. Once you take control of this big beauty, everything will change. You and your world." Lloyd told him, eager to finally see his creation to the field now that they couldn’t rely on old Jerry getting back anytime soon.
"For better or for worse," Cecile told Suzaku, a near-melancholic smile on her face, as she understood things that her boss often didn't.
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I never thought that this would be the last chapter of the month, but then again, this wasn't an idea not too long ago. It makes me a little sad that this is the second last update for the year. However, because of that, I made sure to pull out all the stops for this, as it's a great chapter to showcase the differences between this take on Lelouch and canon.
As for the chapter, it's later then normal as editing took a while as there was stuff I had to remove and replace due to some major errors.
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Lelouch’s prayer was in Latin and translates to:
O Father in heaven, and the Son placed on the cross, this sinner calls you: we ask you, in the name of the Father in heaven and of the Son of the Virgin Mary, give rest to these innocent souls; bring an end to their suffering today that they may rejoice with those who have passed before them.
Almighty Father, most forgiving Son of all, listen to the words of this dog and grant them peace in death, which they have not known in life.
And yes, C.C. knows Latin; I assume she knows several languages, some of which are extinct.
I can already assume that some of you would be confused by it, but we know that Christianity does exist in the CG world; it's just not practiced by any named characters outside, maybe C.C. praying at a church and Shirley and her father getting protestant-styled funerals. As for Lelouch being this exception when you would assume royals wouldn't under Charles, I set this up in the first chapter because Lelouch kept his silver cross clean even in a warzone. This chapter gives us a clue into how Lelouch sees his faith and place in it, with more to be revealed as the story continues.
With Suzaku, I just wanted to make it clear that yes, he knows the poison gas story is just that—a story. Still, for his own reasons, he didn't refute it as he has no means of knowing he can with Lloyd and Cecile, who knew there was more going on and might also suspect something else but also can't just talk about it.
Comments
Ochom Omoding
It will be explored more as the story goes as it would be cheap to jump dump it all in oen chapter
3rddynasty
Ok wasn't expecting a swarm of rats ngl. Really curious about what that's all about
