Chapter 16: Missing Miracle

“It's been done." She breathed out, relief flooding her system, even as the entire place seemed to shake and tremble. Even as the battle was forced to cease by the total collapse of the control system and Bakugan, which were once mere balls, took to their true forms, Nellis reveled in all of it.

“What’s happening?” The people in the stands yelled as the entire place was shaking.

“It’s an earthquake!”

"Look, their Bakugn! But the battle is over!" Someone yelled as Sirenoid, Elfin, and Percival stood in the field, along with the defeated Brontes and Altair. The two stood in defense of their brawlers, or in Altair's case, floating.

“I think it’s time to go!” Lync yelped as he looked up and saw the dorm develop cracks.

“First sensible thing you’ve said all day.” Volt agreed as he jumped onto Brontes palm, the clown carrying him off as Lync was picked up by Altair. From the floor of the field, cracks formed before what seemed like sinkholes appeared; from them came out many more Bakugan, who had never been part of the prior brawl and couldn't be now.

Ace and Nellis spotted their fellow brawlers exiting as well, having been carried out their respective Bakugan.

“There’s so many of them!” children in the stands yelled, pointing at how many Bakugan they were while parents tried to shepherd them off. One of the rings holding up the dome snapped and fell, causing a member of the crowd to see it and scream, others following suit.

But the beam was caught as they all ducked and prayed for mercy. Slowly, they looked up and saw that it wasn't blocked but caught by both Elfin and Percival. Straining under the weight of the stupid thing, Elfin still found the strength to smile at the tiny little Vestals. “You kiddies all right?” She asked, which floored them almost as much as nearly being crushed.

“Did…did that Bakugan just speak?”

Percival snorted as he and Elfin tossed the support beam into the arena where it couldn’t harm anyone. "She did; trust me, you're not going crazy."

Seeing their chance, Nellis turned to the crowds and breathed before speaking. "Hear me, please keep calm, people of Alpha City! There is nothing to fear from us or these Bakugan! They are intelligent beings who wish for nothing but their freedom and genuine friendship!"

Her words were clear, strong, and confident in all the ways that mattered when it came not just to public speaking, which existed merely to convey ideas, but as a leader who needed to inspire, to make people feel something when they spoke. He had never had to do so for a crowd like this, but mask or no, he had perfected it with his leadership of the Black Knights.

And that seemed to be paying off as he saw that, slowly but surely, the people in the crowds were coming around to the idea.

Now he just had to convince their political and civic leaders…what a wonderful to look forward to.

Line Break

Hours later, as the two suns started to set over New Vestroia, the resistance gathered outside the city. With them was a collection of Bakugan who were acting as the representatives for the hundreds of Bakugan who had once lived in Alpha. "Thank you all for freeing us, " one of the Bakugan said.

Mira bowed a head before raising it once more. "Don't thank us; we'll be in this together. We all still have a lot more Bakugan to free."

“Then we shall offer our aid in any way possible by joining the Bakugan Battle Brawler resistance.” Another declared, others nodding with her.

"Yes, we want to fight." A few expressed that wish, and the members of the resistance were happy to hear it.

“Then I welcome you all to the fight.” Mira smiled at them, bowing her head once more as Baron cheered.

"This is awesome; our team is getting bigger every day!" their Haos brawler declared. With a group this big, beating back the Vexos would be a piece of cake—he was sure of it!

Ace laughed at that. “We’re still pretty badly outnumbered, but we’re more quality over quantity anyway.” He declared that it was just with the small team that they managed one massive victory; growing this much would make their victory easy.

“Just the way we like it.” Percival nodded as they heard another Elfin calling out to them. Turning, they saw her and Sirenoid approaching from the city, Zero riding on Sirenoid's shoulder.

"I see things have gone well on your end, " the masked man noted as his group arrived.

"Finally, back to the mask?" Mira joked as Zero was helped down by Sirenoid, the man thanking his Bakugan partner before he turned to the rest of them.

“That’s right. While I flawlessly pulled it off, it’ll be a while before I act like a woman again.” He shot back, a hint of amusement in his tone, which only made Mira shake his head.

"I think we can all appreciate that," Ace muttered, finding it a little creepy how easily Zero changed to 'Nellis' and back.

"Is that because you hated it or because you have a little crush?" Elfin teased him, making Ace jump back, his cheeks growing red.

“I-wh-Of course not!” Elfin only continued to giggle at his expense as Percival rolled his eyes.

“Real convincing, Ace.” He told his battle partner, feeling Elfin would make this a running gag between them. He just hoped Ace could make his outage look like outrage, not the embarrassed blush of a man with a crush.

“How’d the meeting go?” Mira asked, bailing Ace out of the hole he dug deeper into.

Zero sighed, irritated at how his shoulders moved but not much else. "It had its ups and downs, and the major was a stubborn mule, but I got him to see reason in things. He'll suspend any moves to repair the dimension controller and come tomorrow and have people dismantle what's left."

Zero would leave out the knitty and gritty stuff. While he had left the rest to manage things with the newly freed Bakugo, which included getting them out of the city with minimal damage, he had been tasked with speaking with the leaders who had proven to be… political appointees, as he expected. Plenty were in disbelief, others in denial, and a couple outright refused to change things even with the revelations.

He swore he was so close to using his geass multiple times to just force them, but his pride wouldn't stand to need it. So, despite how much he would prefer trying to teach Tamaki complex battle strategy and social tact, he continued until, without compliments, insults, and outright threats, he managed to get the majority of the leaders of Alpha to their way of things.

"You seem to be real eager about that, more than even the Bakugan," Mira called out, as she wasn't sure why, but she got the impression that their mysterious Aquos member was in a really good mood. In fact, Ace mentioned that she…he seemed overly excited by the destruction earlier.

She hoped he wasn't some chaos junkie; she did NOT want their own version of Shadow.

Zero hummed. "It's just good to be able to breathe easy. Can't you feel it in the air? That oppressive force is gone, at least in this neck of the woods." Of course, he knew they couldn't. None had geass, and even among those who did, how could they say they knew the feeling of it being violently suppressed, only for it to viciously burst to the surface once more?

Of course, that did come with some…complications.

“I don’t feel a thing,” Mira noted, but she decided to just let this go. They had a bigger issue after all. “Should we make ready to head out?”

Baron raised a hand. “Can’t we spend the night here to relax?”

"Baron, we don't really have time to good off." Mira reminded them.

“It’s not a bad idea,” Wilda agreed with Baron. The Vexos probably already know we're going to either Gamma or Beta next. If I were them, I would be preparing for that. Giving them an extra night won't do much to hamper us." At least he couldn't see them having something too crazy planned.

"It'll be nice to be able to stretch my legs when I'm not kicking Vexos' butt." Elfin also seemed to like the idea, as it had been forever since she could just be in her own skin without needing a battle.

"Sirenoid, I don't have an opinion going either way; how about you?" Zero asked, putting Sirenoid on the spot as Mira and Baron looked at her, awaiting her word. Ace and Percival doing the same.

“…I suppose we could use the break.” She relented, muttering the second part. “These Vestals have earned it.” Lucky for Baron and the rest, they didn’t hear that dig as the boy celebrated that they could just rest and goof.

Mira looked towards Ace and Percival; both agreed with her but also voted to remain for the night, only to get to know their newly gained Bakugan and be around to see if the mayor would keep his word. "Well, with so many wanting it, we can take the night off."

"Sweet, we'll meet up later. There's a big lake not too far from here we're gonna hit up. See you!" Elfin scooped up a surprised Zero and raced off. Sirenoid sighed, but she and Juggernoid turned and followed. The elder Bakugan, who had been with them and not Zero since they destroyed the controller, wished them a good afternoon before he walked off.

Line Break

As Elfin had said, she had heard about a large lake, which she had been more than eager to enjoy; even as the 2 suns continued to set and the evening set it, they hadn't left their spot. Zero only sent a message to the rest of the resistance, confirming they were there and would return after another hour or so.

He and the rest enjoyed the calm, cool evening air over the lake. Above, the alien night sky of New Vestoria greeted them, and on the lake's edge, laying on a smooth stone, Lelouch lay as he took in the hues of deep violet, electric blue, and bright stars shining overhead. Stargazing like this, his mask resting to the side, his coat folded under his head, and hands and feet bare, he couldn't help but be remiss about days long gone.

He had used to do this so much back in Pendragon when his world made sense, and he could place faith in his family and believe in Britannia. The night sky back home was well documented and mapped, yet still beautiful. He wondered how Euphie and Nunnally would like this one, as he had done this many times and yet seemed to find something new each time he looked up.

As he lost himself to such memories, out on the water, the soft hum of Sirenoid's voice gently echoed. Her melody was wordless but still full of tranquility and wonder as she strummed her lyre. Her fingers coasted mellow chords that seemed to float into the sky as she rested on the surface. The lake proved deep enough that she could rest nearly her entire body in it with ease. Her aquamarine hair fanned out around her like rays of sunlight, her crown still wet from her recent swim.

Not far from here, Elfin was happily paddling through the water, diving to chase after fish before returning to the service, fish caught only for her to release them to chase after another bunch. Lastly, Juggernoid was just enjoying the cool night and lake by floating along its service, his legs kicking about seemingly randomly as he appeared to be napping. He was so still that the bioluminescent plants brushed against his shell and almost seemed to see it as another rock they would try to latch onto; frogs seemed to have that idea.

Lelouch reached for his face, which was free of the contacts; his true eyes shined through. One violet and the other pink and red as his geass burned within it. It had been worrying when his power surged to the surface, and he found that he couldn't shut it off. If not for his contacts, someone would have seen it, and it made his talks with the mayor and his people difficult, as he didn't have his mask with him and to be careful with his words and where he looked as he spoke.

“Wavern?” He didn't have C.C., but he did have a being who perhaps could shed some truth on this.

“I am here, my child. I would have spoken earlier, but I decided you deserve the chance to celebrate with the rest," Wavern replied, as always, her voice something of a balm on his otherwise restless and violent soul.

“What the-!” Lelouch was distracted from the talk as Elfin, who had been happily swimming, floundered for a moment before breaking the surface and looking around. “Whose that?”

“What is she?” Lelouch asked, though Wavern still responded.

“I’m not sure.” The Dragonoid replied, to which Elfin grew all jumpy as she yelled that she heard it again.

She wasn't the only one, and Sirenoid and Juggeroid were surprised by it. While Sirenoid could perhaps write it off as a trick of the mind, how that voice responded to their human…it could only be… “I hear it as well…is…is this you, Wavern?” She asked, looking towards Lelouch as if expecting him to have the legendary dragonoid at his side.

“Oh my.” Lelouch thought that Waven was as lost about this as he was.

“When did you get in my head?!” Elfin yelled as she smacked the sides of her head.

"I don't think it's that, Elfin," Juggeroid spoke up, having swam towards the edge where Lelouch lay. "She's connected you, Lelouch. Maybe with the controller down, we, as your Bakugan, can hear it."

“That…makes some sense,” Lelouch couldn’t find fault with the logic. "Well, at least I know you three won't think me crazy now." He frowned as to how many impossible things had happened in his life since he gained power. What was even impossible anymore?

“I apologised for that, didn’t I?” Elfin pouted.

"I can't believe it. I can hear the voice of Wavern…this…this is incredible." Sirenoid focused on the fact that the closest thing to a righteous God had spoken to them, to her. She had never thought such could happen, and yet it was.

“Please, don't take it as such a holy thing. I'm far from a God or figure of admiration. I am merely doing what I can to protect the world I love.” Wavern asked of her, as despite her standing, she had never liked how she was seen as such a figure. If anything, a true deity wouldn't have needed to be in her situation. They could have stopped her brother or been able to handle both cores or…

She turned away from such thoughts of events eons in the past. They had more pressing things to discuss, but first. “But since we can all converse, I wish to impart my gratitude for your success this day. I know it was not an easy journey, but because of your efforts, our fellow Bakugan are one step closer to the freedom they were robbed of.”

Despite not being physically present, they could all sense Wavern's immense gratitude. It washed over them like a gentle wave of water, washing away doubt and stress and leaving them feeling invigorated. Even the plants around the lake seemed to stand straight, glow brighter, or exhibit deeper shades of green.

"No kidding; if that battle had gone on any longer, who knows how things would have turned out." Lelouch sighed, as Ace might have held back, but not him. He would need to improve his brawling skills as he couldn't let this be a running them. “But at least the people of the city were willing to change. I was worried that…well, it didn’t happen.”

Wavern caught what he was thinking, even without her having to read his mind. “Not all people are evil, Lelouch. Nor are so many willing to accept the status quo once they realise the misery and suffering it's built on.”

Lelouch scoffed, but it came out with far less disbelief and scorn than it otherwise would if he spoke with Suzaku about the merits of rules and methods for what felt like the 100th time. “Well, considering everything I’ve seen since I met you, I’m willing to believe, if only a little.”

“I’m confident that your belief will grow in time, as will your faith in the Vestal people, Sirenoid.” Waven didn’t push either of them down that path.

"That…remains to be seen, my lady. One city deciding to side with us is one thing, but…" Sirenoid tailed off, as Lelouch still didn't know much about what she was doing before she ended up in Shalta's possession, and she never volunteered.

With their luck, he wouldn't be surprised if she and C.C. had something in common, and he didn't like to think about that.

Again, Wavern was patient and as gentle as cotton on the skin. “You need not say more, my child. I have witnessed much of why you take issue with them. The horrible things that have been done to our fellow Bakugan is not a transgression that can so easily be forgiven nor should be forgotten.”

“Hey, Wavern…” Elfin had finally gotten over the whole speaking with Wavern thing, and this could ask her something that had never been far from her mind. “Since you’ve kept tabs on things, you…you wouldn’t happen to know where Preyas is?”

Lelouch sat up at that, as he had was as invested in the response as his Bakugan. “My old friend has been searching for the rest of the legendary Bakugan. Alas, I have been unable to contact or inform him that Skyress, Hydranoid, and Gorem have already been captured by the Vexos.” Wavern replied, sounding pained at the fates of half her old friends, though she couldn’t confirm what befell them after they were captured.

“B-but that still means he’s out there, he’s safe right, right?” Elfin held onto that piece of info like a lifeline.

“He’s safe for now.”

"Then where is he? I-I mean, we need to find him before he and the rest are taken to." Elfin hurriedly corrected herself, but none of them would fault her for such.

Wavern seemed to almost contemplate her response, weighing the risks and pros of revealing what she knew before she eventually spoke. “He's closest to what the Vestals call Beta City, though I can't say it’s one way, " she said before adding. There are some islands, perhaps three days' travel from Beta City, on which he's taken refuge. As for why he went there, I can't say more than a belief he suspected he could find Drago or Tigrerra there.”

Elfin grew serious/ “Then we’ll convince the others to make the detour.”

"You have my support on that, Elfin," Sirenoid said.

"As with mine," Lelouch stated, picking up his mask to look at it. Seeing his reflection in its clear surface. “Searching for those we care for is an important thing…”

Line Break

“I order you to live, Kallen! Hold onto hope, as I'm betting my life that you'll find a way to come back for me!”

Kallen could still hear Zero's orders, as clear as the moment he gave them to her. And yet, she hated that all she had been able to do was follow them. She couldn't have done more to help him, to save him; instead, he had summoned that dragon, cleared the way for them, and tossed her aside when she was his protector!

She stopped, taking a calming breath, something that Tohdoh had taught her would help her keep a cool head. It was a lesson she found herself using regularly these days. Like Zero said, she had to hold onto hope-she just had to else…then they might as well call Cornelia and surrender.

At least with this, she had something to keep her mind occupied and busy, as she couldn't return to school. Suzaku knew who she really was, and she just knew that the father-murdering bastard would try and arrest her if given a chance, especially considering what Milly told her in the last chat before 'she returned to the homeland for medical treatment.'

As if things hadn't been strange enough, Lelouch, the lazy asshole of a VP, had gone missing, and it was clearly detrimental to the student council. Suzaku had mentioned that he was worried that Lelouch had been kidnapped by the Black Knights, so she was sure that Lelouch's best friend would sure as hell try and arrest her to get information out of her about a kidnapping they didn't commit.

'Not like he'll believe me if I told him what could have happened.' Kallen ruminated. She wasn't stupid; the same guy she suspected as Zero vanishing at the same time as Zero, all the times he missed class if not outright slept through them. When they learned who the Lancelot's pilot was, Zero's odd behavior made sense. She was more pissed that it took this long to figure it out.

It was more like a failure because she wasn't good enough, and his sister was left alone, not knowing what happened to her brother. If he was alive or dead. Kallen knew that feeling well, but for as much as it hurt, knowing that her brother was dead was comforting in a way. She didn't need to worry; she didn't need to hold onto hope for something that might never come.

"Did he know I was…" She thought back to the council's party for Suzaku being named a knight and how Lelouch had grabbed her right when she was walking up to Suzaku.

She shook her head, thinking back to what had happened since Zero was sucked into the same portal that had birthed his dragon…summon, whatever the hell it was.

As she learned after the fact, it was a small miracle that she could get the Gawain to the Black Knight's submarine undetected and load it up. This was both because it was a valuable piece of equipment Rakshata was eager to sink her teeth into and because it helped her to be grateful when she explained things.

She skimmed over the details of how Suzaku found her; the rest didn't need to know she was caught naked and mainly focused on what happened in the cave. None of them believed her, none but C.C., the mysterious woman who hung around Zero, who refused a uniform and walked around in a restraint jacket, which Tamaki called proof of her being Zero…Lelouch's mistress and that he had some odd tastes.

It was because of the Gawain that she could prove any of it, as the unit had been active and positioned in a way that its cameras had caught most of what she saw. Safe to say, the existence of a dragon seemed to surprise everyone, even C.C., who looked on wide-eyed at the sight of the white beast. Video proof of a dragon made revealing her ties to Zero easier for the woman. If dragons could exist, why not an immortal and magic called geass?

Still, they had questions, too many to count, but they could agree that they were to keep them to themselves until they got their masked leader back. C.C. was adamant he was alive because of their 'contract'. She just couldn't figure out where he was. While crazy, she and the rest of the high command doubted he was on Earth anymore, as he would have made the news by now or found some means to contact them.

For now, they focused on both trying to find their masked leader and surviving. Cornelia had been hunting them like a bloodhound, taking full advantage of Zero's absence and their decrease in recruitment, but it was something that they could use.

“Cornelia fears us. She fears Zero and his Black Knights. It was Zero who killed a prince in his place of safety. It was safety that saved Shinjuku. It was Zero who saved Kururugi and humiliated the Purebloods. It was Zero who saved the hostages at Lake Kawaguchi when Cornelia could not. It was Zero who made mountains quake and saved Tohdoh the Miracle Worker. Cornelia attacks us so viciously because she fears our power and the hope we inspire in the people! Our existence dares to prove Britannia anything less than invincible!"

Diethard was a slimeball, but never let it be said he wasn't good at what he did. They didn't have radio or TV channels. Still, word of mouth and secret print houses had ensured that sentiment, and others like it, circulated throughout the ghettos and in the poorer areas of settlements.

It didn't stop the slowdown of new recruits. Still, it kept it from drying completely and kept Britannia from declaring Zero dead. 'Kinda hard to do that when they don't know what happened either.' She smiled at the black humour, as someone like Schneizel wouldn't dare give Zero the means to add to his persona by returning from the dead.

"We're here." Kallen was jolted back to the present, finding herself seated in the cockpit of the Gawain, having been assigned as C.C.'s bodyguard as they touched down on Kamine island.

“And what are we doing here? You didn’t say a word about it.” She asked as they powered down the unit.

"We're here to check on that gate," C.C. replied without giving details, something Kallen and the rest had come to be painfully aware of. She wondered how the hell Lelouch could work with her for as long as he did.

Following after her, she kept her gun out, a hand resting on her knife. The Britannians might have vacated the island, but she refused to take chances. If she so much as saw one, they were dead.

Entering the cave, Kallen had to take a moment to calm herself. She couldn't afford to let her failures and what-ifs cloud her judgement or slow her down. She didn't want to be here, but she would stomach it if she could help recover their leader.

C.C. noted her bodyguard's apprehension but didn't comment on it. She focused on the Thought Elevator before her, the only thing in the cave that, despite the…whatever it was, was in good condition. Looking at the carvings, a construct she knew was far older than even her and marked with geass had her pondering it.

Because of these things, Charles and his collaborators were fighting all these wars, and they were conquering lands across the world. As a means to build their sword of Akasha to slay 'God'. C.C. had always seen them as powerful but little more than means to boast the power of a code and allow one access to C's world.

She had never thought it possible to summon a dragon. More than that, she had seen such doors open in the past and knew that they didn't create 'portals like the one she saw in Kallen's recording. She also carried the suspicion that Lelouch hadn't been sucked in as the rest believed but had made the choice to go. Why? She didn't know.

For one, there was something geass related that she had no clue about, and she could admit that it excited her if only a little.

Approaching the door, she turned to Kallen. "I'm going to access C's world through my Code and try to search for Zero. With this, I can amplify my strength and hopefully get a read on his location."

“How long would it take?” Kallen asked, eager for results.

"I don't know; this is as uncharted waters for you as it is for me," C.C. replied before she turned and placed a hand on the door. At once, her Code started to shine as her eyes rolled back; Kallen, despite being caught off guard, caught her unconscious body before it hit the floor.

"Of course, she didn't tell me this would happen…" Kallen grumbled, not that C.C. would hear it as her mind entered C's World; now she just had to start looking for where her pain of a contractor had vanished.

"I'll need to search in places that I'm not familiar with. Hopefully, I'll have luck there, " she decided as she started to look. She wished that this was easier or that she had exclusive use of this plain, but she didn't. So, as she ventured into areas of the realm she had rarely, if ever, seen, she had to remain alert. Otherwise, Charles or, worse, V.V. would have entered and noticed her presence as well.

Having entered, she felt her connection to Lelouch growing stronger, enough that she could feel his geass having reached the point of geass runaway, but also that it was…different. She couldn’t describe it, but the closest thing she could compare it to was similar to that force from the day he vanished. That potent, ancient power that seemed to swell up from parts unknown and returned to it just as fast.

'What was that?' She asked, as in all her centuries, she had never felt such. She had never been made to feel so small as she did at that moment.

Either way, she hadn't forgotten it, and as she fished around, she could use it, along with her Code, as a sort of proximity tracker, trying to follow it to wherever the connection felt strongest, which worked…till it didn't.

"What now?" She asked herself, looking down at the abyss that lay at the edge of C's World, at the end of human consciousness. She had found nothing, but her connection was strongest here. So it had to keep going, but where? How would she even venture that far out?

As she wondered if she was missing something, she felt another presence entering C's World. She couldn't tell who, but with the list of suspects so small and made up nearly exclusively of hostile forces, she didn't stick around to find out.

Lien Break

C.C. opened her eyes, something Kallen quickly caught as the green-haired woman sat up. C.C. could see the question in Kallen's eyes and the hope, but she could not shake her head.

"Why don't you dive back in? It's only been 10 minutes." Kallen asked, but it came out as more of an order, one which C.C. wouldn't fault her for.

"Time passes faster in C's world than it does in the real one. You might have seen me lay unconscious for 10 minutes, but I've been searching for over an hour. I had to pull out before I was noticed." C.C. frowned. "If I hadn't, you might have been stuck with a soulless, comatose body, and that doesn't help anyone, does it?"

Kallen wished to argue that but deflated as logic won out. “I get it, we…you have enemies that you don’t want to tell us about but who are apparently ‘above our pay grade.’” She snarled while using air quotes.

“Because they are.”

“But,” Kallen stressed, as once more, how did Zero work with such a difficult woman. "It's been over a month, and we still got nothing! What are we supposed to do? What can we do when we don't even know what and who we're up against!?"

"All the Black Knights feel that way; I'm not blind. But you're all doing what you can as we also work to bring back Zero. We must keep the ship floating, or else all the work and hope your build-up will fade away. Even Rakshata has set aside her typical projects to investigate the matter, and Kyoto has been an eager supplier of goods for it." C.C. reminded her, though she kept it to herself, that she was sure that a big reason why Rakshata cared so much was the possibility of cracking the secrets to otherworldly life and dimensional travel.

“We wouldn’t need any of that if I had just done my fucking job!” Kallen yelled at her, tearing up as she clenched her fists. "I'm reminded every time we have a meeting without him, whenever no one has heard his voice, and when people look at me like a failure because I am!"

"I'm the captain of the Zero squad. Lelouch picked me because he believed I was capable enough for it, yet when the chips were down, I couldn't do anything and had to be rescued. What sort of bodyguard does that-OW!” C.C. flicked her forehead before she could fall further down that rabbit hole.

“Foolish girl, you really think he would think such things about you? That boy’s far too sentimental for that. He prioritised your survival because he cares. Because he wanted you to live, remember?” She asked her, as that came crisp and clear in the audio from that day.

“Yes, but-"

"No time for that. Have faith in him as he had faith in you. We'll get him back, and then you can kiss and make up. If you want to take it further, tell me first so I can break out the lingerie.” C.C. stood, brushing the dust off her body before she strolled back towards the exit, leaving Kallen red-faced at the heavy implication in her statement.

"Dammit, C.C., Stop putting weird thoughts in my head!" Kallen yelled at her as she quickly got up and jogged to catch up, to which C.C. gave her a knowing grin over her shoulder.

“I didn’t put what was already there.” She teased the younger woman, who was left splattering, trying to voice denials that they both knew would fall flat. The redhead had a crush on Zero before, even though she had no clue what he looked like, and thought Lelouch handsome despite his refusal to do anything despite his smarts. Finding out that they were one and the same was the best of both worlds for her.

"Now, let's get going. We should report our findings to the rest. Maybe Rakshata's made progress on her end." C.C. reminded her.

Line Break

Oh boy, this chapter was a long time coming. Still, because of all my notes and add-ons, it was perhaps one of the easier ones to write as it's less a central list of ideas and more a vibe, or was one when I wrote it. After 14 chapters, we finally see how things have been back on Earth since Zero vanished. Much like in Bakugan, I set it after their first victory over the Vestals' occupation with the destruction of Alpha's dimension controller.

Of course, with this chapter having been worked, it will hamper things moving forward as I might need to delay the next chapter of Golden Ending DLC till Saturday as I doubt I'll be able to get it enough today that I can finish it tomorrow and post it on time. It sucks, but thems the cost of writing stories where a short chapter is 4K, typically is 5K, and for Golden Ending in particular, its shortest chapter was still over 9k and the rest over 10K.