Winning Vote:
[X] Maternal Protection
February UE 0084
Geass Order HQ, Taklamakan Desert
You are Kallen Kozuki, and as you tear a bloody swathe through the interior of the Geass Order's subterranean HQ, Heero Yuy contacts you.
"Q-1, Rolo is closing on us, fast. Some of the Newtype pilots are coming over to assist us." Heero says.
"Got it. You and Trowa fall back to stay out of his Geass' range." You say.
As the Heavyarms Custom backflips onto one of the taller buildings and the Wing Zero ascends rapidly, you see a custom Vincent on sensors seemingly teleport over toward your group. At the same time, a trio of Jegans make their way over.
"Get ready, here he comes!" Duo yells as Rolo's Vincent closes in.
The Deathscythe Custom immediately dives into an alley before engaging every stealth system it has while Quatre and Wufei distract Rolo by trying to engage his Vincent in close combat with the Sandrock Custom and Altron.
For your part, you fire your slash harkens at Rolo's Vincent before ascending as rapidly as the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. can, which turns out to be very, very fast. From what you understand, Rolo's Geass affects perception of time, but doesn't actually affect physical objects, especially things already in motion, so if you keep moving, he'll have less of an advantage.
Quatre and Wufei understand this too, as they're boosting into the air and flitting about as much as they can without crashing into the surrounding buildings or the ceiling, which puts Rolo at a disadvantage.
The Newtype-piloted Jegans arrive and immediately force Rolo on the defensive, and, judging by the way his Vincent and the Jegans keep seemingly teleporting, he's trying to retreat further into the complex. Thankfully, the Jegans aren't letting him.
That's when Duo, Trowa and Heero strike.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLnG_mwD_ac
One second Rolo's Vincent is dodging attacks from the Jegans, the Sandrock Custom, and Altron. The next, the Deathscythe has appeared out of seemingly nowhere, beam scythe poised to bisect the Knightmare. A few seconds after that, a hail of bullets and missiles slams into Rolo's Vincent, knocking it into a building, before a massive beam erupts from the Wing Zero's Twin Buster Rifle.
Although Rolo is able to avoid immediate death at the hands of Heero, his Vincent's legs are still reduced to slag, and the resulting heat causes his ammunition to cook off anyway. Rolo ejects, his cockpit block sailing through the air and slamming into the ground.
You cautiously approach and see Rolo climb out of his cockpit block, bleeding profusely from his head. He leans back against the side of his cockpit block and coughs up blood.
"I...just wanted to be someone's brother..." Rolo sighs before closing his eyes and going limp.
Nunnaly's not going to be happy about this. You think to yourself.
"Confirmed, target down." Heero says as the Wing Zero lands next to you.
As an Asshimar tosses an incendiary grenade at a crowd of fleeing test subjects, you clench the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N.'s controls for a second before relaxing your hands. Thankfully, the roar of the flames is louder than whatever screams the unfortunate test subjects were capable of mustering.
Elsewhere in the facility
A customized Sutherland fires a bazooka at one of the Irregular's Vincents, only for it to dodge the round flawlessly. A different Vincent shoulders a massive rifle and fires an anti-ship round, clipping the Sutherland in the arm and tearing off half of the Knightmare's torso as a result. A third Vincent dashes past, and in a flash of metal, the Sutherland's remaining arm is cut off.
The Sutherland falls to the ground, it's cockpit opening up and disgorging its pilot, a young woman.
"Come with us, Mao. We can help you!" Sancia says.
"Yeah, we don't have to worry about our Geass killing us anymore!" Dalque says.
Mao gives a bitter laugh before coughing up blood.
"I'll pass. Even if I did want to defect to your merry little band, my body's too far gone at this point. Whatever was done to stop what was killing you would probably give me, what, a month or two?" Mao retorts.
"That's no reason to-" Alice is interrupted by Mao butting in.
"Save it. I'm the enemy, and there's no real reason to extend any kind of courtesy to me." Mao coughs up more blood before weakly performing a Britannian military salute.
"All...hail...Britannia..." Mao chokes out before going limp.
The members of the Irregular Warfare unit share a moment of silence before the sound of an explosion gets their attention.
"What is going on up there?" Lucretia ponders out loud.
Outside
You are Lelouch, and you and your allies are currently struggling to penetrate the Siegfried's electromagnetic shield.
"Damn you, V.V.! Fall!" You yell as you fire the Shinkiro's Hadron blasters at the Siegfried.
"You never did fit in among the rest of the Royal Family. I guess the progeny of a commoner will always be unfit for greatness!" V.V. taunts as he fires a slash harken at you.
You raise the Absolute Defense System, but it turns out to have been unnecessary, as the new Knightmare that had been approaching the battlefield appears before you in a flash of blue and cuts it in half with an MVS blade.
Now that it's practically next to you, you can see that this new Knightmare doesn't seem to match anything developed by Camelot or Rakshata. Rather than the sophistication of something like the Guren or the technological displays of the Lancelot series, this Knightmare is...simple. It's a stark blue, with gold trim and a float unit. The head is cyan with gold trim, and a series of blue filaments coming out of it give the impression of voluminous, feminine hair.
The pilot of this Knightmare opens up a channel with you, and voice you haven't heard since childhood fills your ears.
"How are you Lelouch, my dear son?" Your mother, Marianne vi Britannia, asks warmly.
You're momentarily at a loss for words before you respond.
"Things have been better." You say.
"A truer statement has never been said. Now, let mother dearest handle this. I have a score to settle with your uncle V.V." Your mother says as her Knightmare turns to face the Siegfried.
"Marianne! You commoner bitch, you actually betrayed us?! I knew you were poison the moment Charles laid his eyes on you!" V.V. snarls as he charges at your mother's Knightmare.
"Hello again V.V., you little shit. You have
no idea how much I've been looking forward to this." Marianne says as her Knightmare lazily dodges the Siegfried's wild charge.
"Where did you get that Knightmare Frame? Our intelligence says that Camelot was focused on iterating on the Lancelot!" V.V. yells as he fires another slash harken at Marianne.
"Oh, this little thing? You honestly thought Britannia had a monopoly on Knightmare Frame R&D? The Vivian was developed by the N.U.N.S. shortly after you 'assassinated' me. Given how radioactive the design of the Ganymede had become, they were able to buy a copy of the blueprints from the Ashford family for an absolute steal. The asking price was, what, about a quarter of what went into Project Supernova?" Marianne says as she dodges and destroys the slash harken that V.V. fired at her.
"That doesn't explain why you're
going against Charles!" V.V. screeches.
"Have you honestly never heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? Besides, while I was residing in Lady Alstreim's body, I was able to...broaden my perspectives. Suppose we did manage to create the World Without Lies. That's all well and dandy, but humanity is not the only lifeform in the universe. How would we fight off the aliens? The Council? Just because we solve and preempt internal conflict doesn't mean that others won't try to take advantage of that." Marianne says.
V.V. screams in anger before charging at the Vivian. Marianne easily dodges before slashing at something on the Knight Giga Fortress.
"That should take care of the electromagnetic shield. Normally, I'd go for the kill immediately, but it's much more fun to watch him squirm." Marianne says as the Vivian bows and gestures at the Siegfried.
"All forces, open fire on the Siegfried!" You order.
Cornelia fires a pair of bazookas at the Siegfried while you charge the Shinkiro's Phase Transition Cannon and let loose at full power. The Vivian unlimbers what looks like a miniaturized Valkryie Gunpod and opens fire as well.
The effect of your combined barrage is immediate and catastrophic-the Siegfried shakes and begins to explode. At the same time, the Vivian rushes forward and slams its hand into the crumbling Knight Giga Fortress before withdrawing its arm, now holding V.V. The Vivian squeezes its fingers, and V.V. grimaces in pain.
"How does it feel to be on the receiving end for once?" Marianne asks rhetorically.
Marianne proceeds to knead and crush V.V. for a few more seconds, V.V. unable to respond due to a combination of sheer agony and his respiratory system being crushed before she tosses him back into the base below.
"V.V.! We're not done yet!" You yell as you take the Shinkiro down to follow him.
As you go down, the Vivian makes to follow, only for the Hyaku Shiki and GM III on Base Jabbers to point their beam rifles at it, stopping mother from following you in.
V.V. lands, hard, on the bottom floor of the base, down near the most important part of the facility.
His immortality reasserts itself as his youthful body painfully, slowly, mends itself while he drags himself toward a pair of doors marked with the sigil of Geass.
The doors open to reveal Emperor Charles himself, looking very displeased.
"I'm glad you came, Charles. I guess siblings are the only ones you can rely in the end, huh?" V.V. says, wincing in pain as every syllable places strain on his mending diaphragm.
"Big brother, were you the one who caused Lelouch to lose control of his Geass?" Charles asks.
"So I did." V.V. admits.
Charles sighs in disappointment.
"You lied to me again, brother. This shall be the last time this happens." Charles holds up his hand toward V.V.
V.V. gasps as he feels his immortality leave him, his injuries no longer healing on their own.
At that moment, the Shinkiro bursts into the chamber, followed by Cornelia's custom Gloucester and the Wing Zero.
A flash of light emits from behind the doors.
"Damn it! This is similar to what I experienced near Kamine Island!" Lelouch exclaims as everything goes white.
Lelouch, Cornelia, and Heero suddenly find themselves standing at the feet of their respective mobile weapons. They are on a trio of floating platforms in a space that looks like it's in perpetual sunset, clouds as far as the eye can see.
"When did I get out of the Shinkiro? And where am I? This doesn't seem to be hologram, and given the presence of Cornelia and Heero, I doubt this is a hallucination..." Lelouch says as he looks around.
"Correct!" Charles booms. "Knightmares and mobile suits are such inelegant things. Especially in the face of this system: the Sword of Akasha!"
"You..!" Lelouch exclaims while Cornelia starts in recognition.
"Lelouch, my son! The time has come at last, for redemption!" Charles yells.
A/N:
No vote this time. Next part is likely to come at some point tomorrow, so look forward to that. Please vote, discuss, and critique!