"It’s really you... the one whose memories I’ve been seeing," said Rai as he accepted Setsuna's assistance in getting up.
"I have seen your memories as well, Rai. And then some," replied the Meister in his usual neutral tone.
The grey haired youth blinked in puzzlement. "And… then some?"
"I saw two other sets of memories that seemed out of place," explained Setsuna as he pondered how to explain it. "It was as if I were witnessing two other lives you could have had."
He instantly knew what the other male was talking about. "Ah, those... I’ve seen them myself. I know they’re not my true memories but somehow this place has the power to show me other ways my life could have been." He paused for a moment and when he spoke again, his tone clearly indicated that this place confounded him as much as it did Setsuna. "I must admit... they felt so real. I really felt like I was living in that particular moment. Yet there was this voice at the back of my head that kept reminding me of my true memories and the time I spent at Ashford."
"So the memories of you working with the Black Knights and the Britannian military are merely... possible lives?"
"Dreams... other lives... call it what you will. I know for a fact that I never really experienced those events. I never piloted a Knightmare alongside Suzaku, nor met Zero in person. And the memory implying about Kallen being the Black Knight’s ace pilot and Zero's right hand woman..." It was difficult for Rai to see the reserved and frail Kallen Stadtfeld as the outspoken woman working with the Black Knights and piloting that red Knightmare Frame that he saw in that other memory. He really wasn't certain of her motive for working with the masked vigilante but he knew that she was half Britannian and half Japanese like him. From what he remembered of their last few conversations when she attended school, Kallen clearly didn't approve on the rampant racism that the Britannians displayed towards the Numbers. However, that alone hardly justified taking up arms against the Britannian Empire alongside a masked rebel. For her to join in the rebellion, it was likely that she had something personal on the line.
"So if we're assuming that the memories of your time at Ashford are true and judging from where your memories stop when you put yourself back to sleep, you missed several large events of the last year," informed Setsuna as he tried to recall what he remembered from the data he skimmed from Feldt’s data-files. In particular, news articles and stories that covered events of the past year starting at the point of Zero's debut.
"Such as what?" Rai wasn't sure if he wanted to know but he asked anyway.
"I can fill you in later. Right now we need to figure out how to leave this place. Now I know that Geass is distorting this world, it’s more important than ever we both leave here and return to the Ptolemaios."
"Your ship? You want me to come back with you to your ship? I... I don’t know what good I could possibly be, Setsuna."
"Rai, when I came into contact with you, I was able to learn about Geass through your memories. And the alternative lives I saw you live... even if they aren’t true to this world’s history, they offer insights that might hold grains of truth to answering the hidden questions that obstruct the path to peace in this world."
An uncertain look settled on Rai's face as he tried to wrap his head around what exactly Setsuna was getting at. "Still, could Geass be the only factor?"
Setsuna shook his head. "I’m not naïve to believe it is the only factor, but its influence could be paramount. That woman C.C. referred to it as 'the Power of Kings'. No doubt that name could signify that many individuals of all races and classes could have been exposed to Geass at some point. If we are going to free this world of the distortion that plagues it, we must discover the truth about Geass. And I will need your help."
Rai softly bit his lip in contemplation. "Is it because I am a Geass user?"
"Not just that. I felt your desire and will in your memories. You may fear your power, but you’re also tired of being alone. Rai, you can make a difference just like Rai of Britannia or Rai of the Black Knights and use your power to change the world for the better. You don’t need to be alone anymore." Setsuna slowly extended his hand out to the grey haired youth. "But the choice is yours. Whatever decision you make, it should be of your own will."
Rai stared at Setsuna’s hand, his mind mulling over Setsuna’s words. 'A choice of my own will… do I stay asleep, ignorant of the outside world? Do I stay in this safe bubble, or do I dare to venture out again, with my burden, with my Geass a potential danger to others just like before...?'
"I... I..." He trembled as he tried to decide what he wanted until finally his eyes snapped open. "I’m tired of running away from the world! Sleeping, recalling fractured memories, viewing 'what if' lives I might have lived... I don't want that life! I hate being unable to see the friends I made at Ashford!! I want to cheer for Shirley at her swim meets again! I want to play chess with Lelouch, fix motorcycles with Rivalz and Suzaku, fold paper cranes with Nunnally...... I want that all back! I want to stop Geass from ruining the lives of others and I won't let my tragedy happen to anyone else!!"
The youth took Setsuna’s hand firmly and felt the other hand tighten around him, cementing a new bond between the two males. "I want in! I’ll come with you Setsuna! I want to cut away the distortion in this world so that everyone can truly enjoy the peace I dreamed of back then! To that end, I will be strive to be Gundam and overcome the distortion in my heart!"
Upon hearing the declaration of the grey haired youth, a rare smile slowly appeared on Meister's face. "Welcome back to the world Rai."
All around the two, the light began to distort as the windows of memory and the endless corridors of sound and light began to fade.
Things just seemed to continue to spiral downhill every single minute. Already every Knightmare aside from Gino’s, Anya’s and her own had been trashed. The battleship escorts and the recon float had also been destroyed with a few of their slagged remains floating on the water while the rest sunk to the bottom of the sea. The mind of Nonette Enneagram was racing at a hundred miles a minute, trying to conceive of some way they could get an upper hand against this Gundam. Avoiding its rifle was one thing but those things it released from its body made things far more difficult. She couldn’t even dare fathom what technology went into them but all she knew was that they had to get rid of them!
"Gino, Anya... listen up! I have a plan!" shouted Nonette over the radio. Although it was a bit glitchy thanks to that Gundam's light, their Knightmares were equipped with much better ECM protection than standard mass production Knightmares, as well as a variety of radio type options. Currently they were using a satellite link waveband that used the Sakuradite from their frames as a medium. Even though it worked, it was barely functional and they had to stay within twenty feet of each other to be able to keep the communication channels stable. "Anya, how much energy do you have left?"
The Mordred's damaged head turned to face the Gareth as Anya’s neutral voice came over the radio. "I have 35% left on my energy filler. I used up more power with the Blaze Luminous field than anticipated."
‘Just as I figured. That rifle's energy output is probably 10% stronger than the output of a Stark Hadron cannon which the Mordred’s shields are capable of deflecting but not without a tremendous energy cost.’ The Knight of Nine ran the numbers in her head and made proper adjustments to the plan after taking into consideration what Anya had reported. "Okay then... Anya, I really hate to do this to you but I need you to disable all weapons and focus all your remaining energy towards the shields and propulsion. The Mordred's Blaze Luminous field has just become our new best friend!"
"Roger that. Diverting all remaining power to the Blaze Luminous field and to the float systems," replied the Knight of Six in her usual monotone which betrayed no emotion despite being far outmatched and outgunned in this fight.
Continuing, Nonette switched the channel to address the Knight of Three. "Gino, I’m going to create an opening for you. I’m going to lead an attack while Anya uses her Blaze Luminous to soak up the damage from those flying bit-armor things. If I read his reactions right, he’ll try to snipe me since those things will be focused on Anya. I’ll use the last of my missiles to intercept and create a smoke screen. Then you go fly in at full speed and use your MVS halberd to slice that rifle up!"
"I’ll do my best Nonette. It’s up to us to stop this thing from recovering his buddy," replied Gino, his carefree tone nearly gone as the gravity of the situation forced the Knight of Three to truly get serious.
"Those bit things are incoming. Moving to intercept," stated the Knight of Six, accelerating the Mordred as the four Shield Bits flew towards them. She activated her Blaze Luminous shield at full power just as the Bits zipped towards her and opened fire from all different directions, moving constantly to avoid being easily caught. The constant barrage from the Bits were putting a tremendous strain on the shields and as her cockpit continued shaking with the constant impact of weapons fire, a red outline formed near the edges of her pupils. For a moment she started seeing the movement patterns of the flying bits but for some reason, she felt as if someone else were guiding her.
Pushing the Mordred's speed to the max, the Knightmare raised its arms as it flew right at one of the bits. As it reached the bit, Anya dropped the shield at two points in the front, creating effectively two openings for the Mordred’s arms to protrude out and grab the bit by its end. Before it could try and escape from her grip, she slammed the bit right into another flying bit, causing them both to collide and fall harmlessly to the sea. Her eyes spotted the last two bits joining together to increase their firepower and in response, she dropped her Blaze Luminous so she could divert all remaining power to her weapons. The four Hadron Cannons on the Mordred's shoulders were quickly folded and formed into the Stark Hadron cannon before firing a shot just as the bits fired. This effectively caused a backlash as the Mordred's shot was just enough to take out the last two bits while they managed to get in a last attack of their own, leaving the Knight of Six unable to continue fighting.
"Targets neutralized. Attempting to land on the island," said Anya over the radio, disregarding whether her teammates could hear it or not. As soon as she made the report though, she followed up with another statement in a quiet and troubled tone. "But... I cannot remember how I did it..."
From inside the Tristan’s cockpit, Gino watched the Mordred descend towards the island for an emergency landing. "Whoa! Anya just went into Jesus Mode on those things! Way to go Anya!!"
"Gino, focus! It’s our turn now!" called Nonette over their radio-line as they flew towards the green armoured Gundam. "He’s taking aim! Get ready!"
"Roger that!"
"Damn... they actually got the bits," murmured Lockon from inside the Cherudim's cockpit. "That settles it... these guys aren’t just piloting pretty machines. They’re the aces of the Britannian Empire."
"Can’t underestimate them! Can’t underestimate them!" exclaimed Haro from his jacked control port.
"That’s for sure and here come the other two." The Irish Meister took aim with his gun module. "I better snipe them down before they actually cause us some damage."
Nonette saw a flash from the tip of the Gundam’s rifle barrel and activated all her missile launchers. "This is my last salvo!!" Every missile she had left was fired from her hip and leg mounted launchers. The missiles flew in a straight flight path toward the beam shot with the inevitable collision resulting in a huge explosion and smoke cloud. She gave a small grin since two of the missiles had been modified earlier to emit smoke upon detonation to confuse the enemy even further with the giant smokescreen. "Gino, go!"
"I’m on it!" proclaimed the Knight of Three as the Tristan transformed to Fortress mode and flew through the cloud before banking sharply to the left causing him to approach the Gundam's right side. Despite knowing the G-forces would not be good for the Tristan’s frame, Gino changed forms in mid sub-sonic flight and connected both ends of his MVS Polearm to create his single, double-edged scythe. After charging as much energy as he could spare into the weapon, he charged forward and with a concentrated swing, he sliced off a good chunk of the Gundam's rifle barrel. "YESS!!!"
"Che...! How careless of me!" growled Lockon to himself.
"How did ya like that?!" Gino directed his Knightmare Frame to make a second pass at the gun.
"Don't get too cocky..." The Cherudim reached towards its backpack with the left arm and grabbed the handle of one of its two GN II pistols before blocking Gino’s MVS blade with the beam-reinforced axe-bottom of the pistol. As soon as he tried using the pistol to hit the enemy physically, it flew backwards to get a safe distance. Without thinking about it, Lockon opened fire with the pistol.
The Knight of Three weaved in between the shots from the pistol before grinning confidently. "He has more weapons but these I can dodge easily! And they probably aren’t as powerful as his rifle-" His grin dropped as the Gundam folded down the mangled barrel of its rifle and slid it back to tuck itself under the gun, revealing a secondary gun ready to go. "Holy crap! Just how many gimmicks does that Gundam have?!"
With a press of the trigger, the newly transformed machine gun fired a quick volley which blasted off the Tristan’s left arm, float wing, the scythe and the left leg. The right arm followed a moment later with a single shot from the GN II pistol, causing the Tristan to hover helplessly before its superior opponent.
'Dammit!! Is this how it ends?!' He could barely see the Gundam approaching him through his damaged camera and the only thing he could say at a time like this was something his first love, an Eleven maid, used to say whenever she was upset about something. "KUSOOOO!!!!"
The Cherudim lifted its pistol at its damaged enemy and seemed ready to shoot him dead but Lockon paused for a moment and grumbled to himself. "...... man, this is making me feel like a big bully." Instead, it angled the pistol and then smacked the Tristan aside with the side of the gun itself, sending it spiralling towards the ocean.
"DID HE JUST BITCH SLAP ME WITH HIS GUN?!" screeched Gino. It wasn't bad enough that he got trashed like this but to be smacked down like this...!
"Gino!" cried Nonette as her Gareth flew low and caught the remains of the Tristan. "Answer me! Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Just my pride," grumbled the Knight of Three on his Knightmare's loudspeaker since the radio was fried at the moment.
Inside her Gareth, Nonette let out a large sigh of relief before switching her view to see the enemy fly on ahead, ignoring her since she obviously was in no shape to attack him herself, given she was playing rescuer. "God dammit!! We’re the Knights of the Round... and to think that we weren't able to put a scratch on Gundam...!"
"H-hey Nonette! Look at the island!" exclaimed Gino as the Tristan’s head, the only part of it that was still working properly, turned in the direction of Kamine Island.
The Knight of Nine turned the Gareth to face the island and her eyes widened in shock. From the opening in the hill overlooking the cavern, the blue and white Gundam rose majestically and spread its arms out, with the particles from its engine spreading out in such a way to give the machine an angelic look. "Dammit...! Just what we need... another thing to add to the list of number of things that went wrong today!"
On the ground Suzaku and MacTavish rushed out with the rest of the landing team, barely having gotten their equipment and data out of the cave moments before the Gundam's reactivation. All of them stared at the powerful machine as the green optics flashed once, indicating the pilot has fully recovered from earlier. "My Lord…"
Inside the Exia's cockpit, Setsuna F. Seiei slowly blinked his eyes several times as he found himself back where he started. 'I am back? Just how long was I out?'
"Setsuna!"
With his vision fully restored, Setsuna turned towards his display which was showing the Cherudim Gundam coming to a full stop right in front of the Exia. "Lockon Stratos?"
A mini-screen appeared on his HUD display, showing the Irish Meister letting out a breath of relief. "Good grief... you had all of us worried! We thought you got captured or worse!"
"How long was I out?" asked Setsuna while he set Exia's sensors to scan for life signs not within the immediate vicinity.
"Eight hours! Eight hours!" replied Haro from the other end.
Setsuna didn't really pay attention as he had been distracted by checking his sensors. "There’s another cave to the south end." He directed Exia and flew off to the opposite end of the island.
As for Lockon, he couldn't believe that his fellow Meister was still going off on his own without an explanation as to why. "H-hey, Setsuna! Just where in the hell are you going now?!"
Haro flapped its 'ears' as it responded. "Ungrateful bum! Ungrateful bum!"
"You said it partner!" Best not to keep the guy out of his sight for too long so he followed Setsuna to the other side as well.
Setsuna flew on towards the cave he picked up on his sensors and just as he got closer, his unit alerted him to a life sign exiting the cave. He slowly brought Exia into a kneeling position down on the ground right before the cavern entrance and zoomed in on the person who just emerged outside. He was dressed in a black student uniform with grey hair and pale skin. But his eyes were full of renewed purpose and determination. His rare smile returned to his face as he recognized the young man leaving the cave. In an instant, he opened the cockpit just as he brought the left hand down to act as a boarding platform. "Rai!"
He felt groggy and he had to shield his eyes to let them adjust to the bright sunlight that he had not seen in a year. But the minute he heard someone call out his name, he slowly lowered his arm and was treated to the sight of a Gundam kneeling before him, a hand stretched out to him along with an open cockpit. With a tired smile he managed to climb into the hand and held on as it was brought up to the cockpit. Just as he reached the open hatch, a friendly hand extended toward him. "Setsuna F. Seiei?"
"Rai, finally we meet in person." With a small grunt, he pulled the youth inside and closed the cockpit.
"The pleasure is all mine. What do you say we get outta here and back to your ship? I seriously need to clean up here."
"Roger that." Rai moved himself behind Exia’s pilot seat as Setsuna sealed the cockpit and initiated take off.
As Exia flew away from Kamine Island towards the open sea, the Cherudim flew up beside it. "I know I don’t have much room to talk about picking up passengers, but who’s the new guy you picked up?" asked Lockon over the radio, having seen the display of Exia retrieving Rai from the air.
Before Setsuna can answer, another voice joined their conversation through the radio. "Setsuna! Lockon!"
"Allelujah Haptism," said Setsuna as his way of greeting the other Meister. The Arios flew around them once before rejoining their flight path from the rear. Since he knew they would be interested in talking, Setsuna switched on both audio and visual settings for his communication and a mini-screen of each Meister popped up on his screen..
Allelujah was the first to speak. "Honestly, how do you keep coming out alive after pulling out these reckless- wait, who’s that with you?"
"I was wondering the same thing too. Care to spill the beans?" added Lockon.
Rai gave a small wave and smiled nervously. "Uh... hi there! My name is Rai and it’s nice to meet you..." He paused a moment as he identified each character from what he remembered from viewing Setsuna's life. "Lockon Stratos... Haro and Allelujah Haptism."
"He knows us! He knows us!" chirped Haro in a surprised electro-synthesized tone.
"I... um..." Rai pondered how to put it before deciding just to tell it straight up and explain later. "I picked up your names from Setsuna’s memories."
Lockon raised a surprised eyebrow. "His memories?"
"I’ll explain when we return to the ship."
"In that case, I'm transmitting our flight plan over," said Allelujah as he sent a file to both Lockon and Setsuna.
"Australia?"
"The territory is neutral and free of Britannian influence. We can rest up there and do some field repairs to the Gundams," explained the orange clad Meister to Lockon's puzzled question.
He nodded in understanding before sighing to himself. "Man, I'm not looking forward to telling Ian that I lost the only working Shield Bits in battle. The damage to my sniper rifle is negligible compared to them."
Allelujah gave a small chuckle himself, before addressing Setsuna. "By the way, besides the rest of the crew in general, you owe Feldt a large apology for going missing. She was a good bit more frightened for your safety than the rest."
"I see. I'll be sure to make the proper apologies."
"You sure you're okay? You seem a bit more out of it than usual," said Lockon with his sharp eye picking Setsuna's deep thoughtful look.
"I found it, Lockon."
"Eh?"
"The distortion of the world. Rai was instrumental in helping me find it."
'Well that explains Setsuna's passenger,' thought Allelujah to himself before speaking up. "So what is it?"
"The distortion that twists this world...... its name is Geass..."
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(Posted Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:48)
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