Chapter Text
Lelouch set Nunnally down as gently as he could, before falling to the ground in exhaustion, panting heavily. His head was swimming, his chest pounding, and he wasn’t sure how much further he could go.
“Brother?” Her soft voice cut through the haze of weariness. “Are you hurt?”
Wincing, he crawled to a nearby tree and sat against it, struggling to catch his breath. “Of course not, Nunna.” He denied. “I just…need to sit for a moment. We’re nearly to the Ashford’s, don’t worry.”
“We’ll be safe?”
“Absolutely,” He promised.
“And…Suzaku?” She asked hesitantly.
Lelouch sighed. “I’m sure he’ll be fine,” He told her, not willing to bring himself to outright lie to her. “We can try to find him some other time. He turned himself into his father so we could get to safety. So we need to do that before anything else, otherwise he’d have risked himself in vain, wouldn’t he?”
“I suppose,” Nunnally lowered her head. “I’m scared. For us. For Suzaku. For Japan.”
“Everything…everything will be okay,” He said, trying desperately to comfort his younger sister. “Just a few more minutes…and we’ll go. We’re nearly at the city limits now.”
“Maybe they don’t remember us,” Nunnally said fearfully. “Maybe they won’t take us in. Father-”
“They’ll remember,” Lelouch said. “And it won’t matter what father did. They were mother’s friends, not his. We’ll be in the safest place we could possibly…” He trailed off, his eyes raising high into the sky as something in the distance flashed across the sky.
He frowned, his brow knitting in confusion as the object grew closer and closer. It took him far longer than it should have to realize what was happening, and when it did his eyes widened in fear, and he threw himself over Nunnally. “Watch out!” He yelled in a panic, dragging the two of them to the ground.
He shut his eyes, and above him he heard something crashing into the treetops above them, slamming into the earth with a thunderous boom. In an instant, the serene quiet of the woods was gone, and a thousand sounds filled his ears. The cracking of the trees as they split apart, the frantic chirping of the birds and the squirrels, the sparking of flames as a fire caught on from the impact.
Several seconds later, when he realized neither he nor Nunnally were harmed, he rose to his feet, staring in wonder at the sudden destruction. “Lelouch?” Nunnally cried out in a panic. “What’s happening? Did they find us? Are we-”
“No,” He said, his voice quiet from the shock. “I don’t…I think it was a meteorite.” That…or some sort of experimental flight craft. If a Britannian bomber had crashed near them…
…he might have a weapon. Or money. They were almost to the Ashfords, true, but they still had to make it through the city. Even a small advantage could be the difference between life or death.
His feet carried them towards the site of the impact even before he had made up his mind. He moved wordlessly, telling himself he wasn’t going to take any risks. If it was a meteorite, he’d leave, and if it was a craft and it looked too dangerous to try and salvage anything from it, he’d take Nunnally and run without a second thought. But he couldn’t just leave without trying.
He came upon a large depression in the earth where a trail of smoke rose up into the air, and guessed this was where the brunt of the impact had fallen. With slow, cautious steps, he peered over the edge…and froze.
It was no meteorite, but neither was it some sort of plane. At least, not any kind on earth, he could tell that from sight alone. He wasn’t an expert in aviation, but the thrusters on the back of the ship were far too large for such a small craft, and the crescent wings of the ship would create too much drag to be practical.
He had no idea what he was looking at, and he very much disliked things he didn’t understand. He didn’t know how long he stood there, staring at the ship that shouldn’t exist. He knew when he stopped, though. He knew when he snapped out of his trance and gasped, falling down into the ditch.
It was when the cockpit opened with a hiss, and a young girl stumbled out with a cough.
She wasn’t fully awake when she landed.
Or…crashed would be a better word for it. Part of her had been conscious through it all, but that part was small. Mostly she had been in a strange sort of induced semi-coma. It seemed like it passed by in an instant, and at the same time, lasted for so terribly long.
Something had gone wrong, she knew that. She was still catching up to Kal’s ship, following the route her uncle and her father had helped devise. But something pulled her away. A black hole.
She knew it was coming. She saw it as it sucked her in, beat against the glass of her ship uselessly, crying out in terror. She tried in vain to steer the ship away, but she couldn’t overwrite the autopilot no matter how hard she tried.
It took her a week to be taken by the black hole. After the initial terror wore off, though…she found herself oddly resigned to her fate. She should have known better. Why should she escape the death of her planet, while everyone else died? Her parents, her family, her friends…everyone, except for Kal. And for all she knew, he was gone too. It was a long journey, and she didn’t know what else was out there.
She thought it might be better this way. Maybe Rao had sent her to the black hole, to be reunited with her family. She stopped trying to fight it. What was there to fear? Krypton died. Nothing else in the universe could hurt her as much as watching her home torn apart.
Still…a part of her was regretful. Her father had asked her to be there for Kal, to protect him. To teach him about Krypton. She was the only one who could. The Last Daughter of Krypton. The sole inheritor of a race’s, of a planet’s legacy. Now, even if Kal survived…he would be alone. He wouldn’t know who he was, where he came from, what it meant.
And that hurt worse than the idea of her death.
And then she was taken by the black hole, and the hurt went away, along with everything else. It was replaced with a faint feeling of numbness. Minutes passed as slowly as hours, as years flickered by like so many seconds. Or perhaps it was the other way around. She had no way of knowing. Every chronological device on her ship was thrown completely off by the black hole, and her own senses couldn’t be trusted. Maybe she was there for minutes. Maybe centuries. Whatever the case, it didn’t seem to affect her, at least not physically.
And when she came out the other side…it felt like no time had passed at all. Like Krypton had been destroyed moments ago. And maybe it had.
All she knew was that she had arrived, and that she was landing.
No, wait. She was crashing. Yes, that was it.
Still in a haze, she grasped the controls, hoping against hope she could try and stop it, with as much success as her first attempt. She shut her eyes as she breached the atmosphere, and prayed to Rao whatever happened to her, it wouldn’t hurt.
When she opened them again, her body was wracked in pain, and silently calmed her anger by reminding herself that every church of Rao in the universe had been destroyed on Krypton, and so she held her tongue before screaming out some blasphemous curse.
Once more, her hands ran against the controls, not really expecting to accomplish anything…only, this time, something happened.
The glass of the cockpit hissed open, exposing her to the air of this alien planet. Her head rushed, blurring her vision, and she stumbled out of the ship with a cough.
Earth. That was what her father had called this planet. Earth, She thought, as she dug her fingers into the dirt.
She took a few heavy breaths, before rising to her feet with a struggle. She looked back at the wreckage of her ship, but something else caught her eye. Further back, at the edge of the hole the impact had dug them into…
Someone had fallen.
Her eyes met his, and they froze, neither of them making so much as a sound.
He looked…normal. Like a Kryptonian. Humans were supposed to be the dominant species of this planet, weren’t they? Was this one of them?
He was a boy, and looked to be her age, if humans aged the same as Kryptonians. Around ten years old? She wasn’t sure. He was simply dressed, and looked as surprised to find her as she was to find him.
Then again, she had just fallen out of the sky.
He opened his mouth, and said something she couldn’t understand. It sounded like a question. He waited, then frowned, and repeated his words more frantically, gesturing at her ship.
“I don’t speak human,” She said, then awkwardly realized that the human probably didn’t speak Kryptonian either.
No one did anymore. Just her.
She pushed those thoughts deeper into the growing hole inside of her, and struggled for a moment to figure out what to do. A memory came to her, and she gasped in excitement, running back to the ship and climbing inside.
She fished around looking for a special compartment, and cheered in success when she seized a small metal pyramid, taking it with her as she hauled herself back out of her ship. “It’s a translation matrix,” She said giddily as she held it out for the human. “Hold it and speak into it. It should figure out whatever language you're using in a few phrases.”
He looked at her oddly, and she reddened in embarrassment. Her excitement had gotten ahead of her, and she had forgotten the entire reason they needed the matrix was because they couldn’t understand one another.
She took the pyramid and placed it in the boy’s hands, then used her hands to mime words coming from her mouth, then pointed back to the matrix.
The human caught on quickly, and hesitantly raised the matrix to his mouth, then spoke into it. A blue light began to glow from the pyramid, and the boy spoke a little more. The light turned green, and when he spoke again, Kara could have cried.
“What is this?” He asked, sounding both scared and accusatory. “Who are you? What is…” He gestured towards the ship. “All of this?”
She placed her hand on the matrix and spoke. “My name is Kara Zor-El,” She introduced, her voice shaky. The adrenaline was beginning to wear off, and she was beginning to feel like she was being smothered. The ship, the crash, the human, Krypton…it was too much, too much and too close together, and she hadn’t had any time to THINK, she couldn’t…
Her eyes widened with a gasp. “Kal!” She had left shortly after him. Her father had adjusted her course so that they should arrive at the same time. He should be here!
She climbed out of the ditch, frantically looking around for another crash, another ship. There was nothing. No landing site, no trail of smoke, nothing at all to indicate there was anyone else in the forest aside from her and the boy.
The boy who was crawling out of the ditch with a grunt of exertion, and a look of annoyance. “I asked you a question,” He snapped. “And you answered, and I could actually understand you, so I know you know what I’m saying. Who does that ship belong to?”
“No,” She shook her head. “No, this is wrong. Kal should be here. We should be together.”
The boy frowned. “Who’s Kal?”
“My cousin,” Kara said. “We were supposed to arrive together, but…” She trailed off. “This is wrong. It’s all wrong! I can’t do this alone, I can’t be HERE alone! I’m supposed to be there for him, what if he gets hurt? What if he’s already here? What if he never comes? And what am I supposed to do? I can’t do this alone, I can’t be the only one…” She choked a sob, falling to her knees as tears fell down her face. “I can’t…”
She didn’t know how long she sat there crying, hunched over herself. Images of Krypton bursting apart flew through her mind, taunting her. Her parents, smiling with tears in their eyes as her ship flew off, content knowing they had saved her even as she screamed for them. The terrifying emptiness of space, leaving her with nothing but her thoughts, her nightmares.
She knew when she stopped, though.
The boy spoke again, his voice much more gentle this time. “Can you speak without that…device?” He asked her.
Sniffling, she wiped her eyes, shuddering as she took a deep breath. “N-No, I can’t,” She said shakily. “Humans can understand me, but only if I hold the translation matrix.”
“Humans,” The boy echoed. “You said that like you aren’t one.”
Kara froze, not sure what to say. If she told him he wasn’t from this planet, would it anger him? Did humans even know there were other species in the galaxy? Maybe she should run. She didn’t know anything about this planet. She could try her luck anywhere.
His voice cut her out of her thoughts. “I have an idea,” He said, clearing his throat.
She frowned. “What idea?”
“I need help,” He admitted. “My sister…I can’t carry her much further. Help me get her to our friends, and I’ll help you look for your cousin.”
Her eyes widened. “You will?”
He nodded. “But you’ll have to play along. Hide that device and if someone asks you a question, pretend to be mute. I’ll handle the rest.”
“But I won’t know what they’re saying,” Kara said.
“It’ll be easier than trying to explain…this,” He said, gesturing around them. “So? Do we have a deal?”
She sat there a moment longer, staring at her ship, before finally she rose to her feet and nodded. “I…yes. We have a deal.”
The boy nodded. “Then come on. We need to hurry.”
It was funny how quickly he’d come up with a solution, a plan. Like it was normal for alien girls to fall out of the sky and just start…crying.
He should have left her. This was a terrible idea, one that would almost certainly bring more trouble than it was worth. He and Nunnally were trying to stay in hiding, and sheltering an alien would be a perfect example of drawing attention to themselves. Something they were trying to avoid.
But then the blasted girl had begun crying…if only she hadn’t cried. He could have walked away, taken Nunnally even if he was exhausted, and made the rest of the trip to the Ashfords.
But her words had struck a chord with him. It was…far, far too familiar to him.
And so here they were, the three of them trudging through a half-ruined Tokyo. He’d told Nunnally it was a meteor after all, but that he’d found another survivor in the woods and they’d agreed to help. He also told her she couldn’t speak, which was only half a lie.
Still though…he was deceiving his sister. For some stranger’s sake.
He tried not to focus on it too much. Besides…he’d lied to Nunnally more than once since the invasion began. And just like then, this was for her own good.
Instead, he turned his thoughts to the impossible. This girl…she was an alien. He still couldn’t quite wrap his head around the gravity of it all…whenever he tried, he couldn’t help but feel it made perfect sense. He would turn to look at her as she carried Nunnally, with her strange blue suit emblazoned with a golden ‘S’, and he would find nothing at all out of place. Of course she was an alien…what else could she be?
He blamed it on the shock of nearly being crushed by a space ship.
The sun had set by the time they finally reached Ashford Academy. He was panting, nearly ready to fall to his knees. “Only a little further…” He murmured quietly to himself.
Climbing up the steps with no small amount of effort, he pressed the door bell and waited, still not quite believing they had finally made it.
It took a few minutes, but finally, the door opened. Lord Ashford greeted them with a puzzled look, before he realized who he was looking at. His eyes widened as he stared in silence.
For a moment, Lelouch was scared he’d throw them out without another word. Slam the door shut in their faces. He wouldn’t blame him…they were exiles. And Ashford would have seen the news. Their deaths. The public might think otherwise, but Lord Ashford would know only the Emperor could have been responsible for their deaths, and he would know that harbouring them would be treason.
Lord Ashford shook his head, and let out a shaky breath. “Heavens, children, get in, get in! Before someone sees you!” He hurried them in, shutting the door behind them. “The staff is away while the city is still technically a warzone. Only Milly and I remain, and a few housekeeping staff, but they’ve all gone to bed.”
“Mr. Ashford?” Nunnally whispered. “Is that you?”
“Yes, dear girl,” Lord Ashford smiled sadly. “You have no idea how relieved I am to see you.”
“We didn’t have anywhere else to go,” Lelouch blurted. He’d prepared a speech, come up with an entire argument detailing why he should take them in, but he’d found he’d quite forgotten it in the moment. “The Kururugi Shrine was destroyed, and we couldn’t go to my father, and we couldn’t go to Suzaku’s father…please, if you can’t take us in, at least let us rest for a few-”
“If I can’t…” Lord Ashford scoffed in disbelief. “We’ll have none of that now. You aren’t going anywhere, not unless you want to take your chances with your father.” Lelouch paled, and Ashford nodded. “I thought not.” He looked them over, likely searching for any injuries, before finally he sighed. “I can’t simply put you in a room tonight. It isn’t safe even with so few staff. I’ll come up with a story tomorrow, but for tonight you’ll have to sleep in my office. I apologize for the inconvenience.”
A weight lifted off his shoulders, and Lelouch nearly fell over from relief. “Thank you,” He said, and he didn’t think he’d ever meant the words as much as he had then.
“Please,” Ashford snorted. “Your mother’s ghost would haunt me to my grave if I let something happen to you two, and Milly would be the one to put me there if she found out I turned you away.” His expression softened. “It is good to see you, children. I feared the worst when I saw what happened to the shrine. Milly has been inconsolable…” He turned to the newest member of their part and frowned. “Although, I do have to ask…who is this?”
“We ran into her outside the city,” He said, falling into the story he’d been preparing as they traveled. They were lucky that they were able to steal new clothes for Kara that fit her before arriving. Trying to explain the unusual suit of hers would cause too many headaches. “I wouldn’t have been able to get Nunnally here without her help.” Not quite true, as all he really needed was a few moments of rest, but Kara had helped get them here quicker, and it helped his story.
“She doesn’t speak.” He moved closer, lowering his voice to a whisper. “She was alone. I think she lost her family in the invasion.”
“Poor girl,” Lord Ashford muttered. “No doubt the shock robbed her of her voice.” He hummed in thought. “You promised her a place to stay if she helped, I assume?”
He nodded guiltily. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t-”
“Hush now,” Lord Ashford chided. “I’d give the girl a palace if I still had the money. She brought the two of you here to me, to safety when I thought you were dead. If all she asks is a place to stay, I’ll happily give it to her. I’d probably give it to her anyway if I chanced upon her as you did. Now…” He glanced around them. “...we can figure out the details and you can tell me your story tomorrow. It’s far too late, and I can see you’re all exhausted. For tonight, however, the three of you must sleep in my office. It’s the only place in the academy I can guarantee no one will intrude, aside from my quarters, and Milly’s.”
“We don’t mind,” He promised. “Really.”
“Then come along,” Lord Ashford said, gesturing for them to follow. “I’m sure you all want nothing more than to rest.”
Kara blinked up at the ceiling, her arms folded back behind her head. She’d tried to sleep at first, honestly, but she knew it was a lost cause, even with the blankets the old man had placed on the ground to make them a little more comfortable. There was too much for her to think about, and every time she shut her eyes to try and rest, her thoughts inevitably turned to Krypton. To Kal. To this strange world she had found herself in.
Something shook her, and she almost jumped and yelled when she realized it was the boy whose name she never got. He was holding a finger to his lips, gesturing for her to be quiet. When she calmed down, he pointed to the translation matrix she’d carefully hidden, then laid beside her pillow once the three of them were left alone in that old man’s office.
She took it, and excitedly activated the device. “Can you hear me?” She whispered.
He nodded. “Yes.”
“Oh, thank Rao,” She breathed out in relief. It was awful, following him around without understanding a word he or anyone else was saying. She had no idea whether the conversation with the old man had gone well, or what they’d said to each other, or even if they had a plan.
“We can’t talk for long,” The boy said. “Nunnally’s asleep, and we can’t wake her up.” Nunnally…the boy’s sister, then. “Besides, we need to be back before someone realizes we’re gone.”
“It’s the middle of the night,” Kara frowned. “Are humans nocturnal?” Why would anyone be up?
“No, but we’re in the middle of a war,” The boy said. “Or at the end of one, anyway. Point is, the less time we’re out, the better.”
“But you said-”
“We’ll look for your cousin,” He promised. “At least, we can go back to your crash site and give it a look. We can’t just leave your ship sitting there, after all.”
“We…can’t?”
The boy laughed. “Are you serious? If someone found that, the biggest manhunt in the history of this planet would be looking for you. And that would be very bad, for all of us. Don’t worry, I have a plan. Follow me, and we can talk more later.”
They crept out of the office together, wordlessly picking their way through the empty halls of the…what was this place, anyway? It looked like a school as near as she could tell, but why would the boy want to come here of all places? Was his family here?
After some time, Kara decided the boy didn’t know where they were going. Not exactly. He certainly seemed to be looking for something, but she didn’t think he knew where it was. It looked like his first time in the building.
“Must be around here somewhere…” He murmured, before creaking open what felt like the hundredth door that night and breaking into a grin. “Found you!”
He hurried in, and Kara followed after him. They entered what looked like a storage room, jammed pack full of useless junk. She frowned. “What are we doing here?”
“I know he kept it,” The boy said, ignoring her. “He wouldn’t have just let it be cast aside…ha!”
He ran over to a corner where something large was covered by a dirty tarp. “Prepare to see something truly amazing!” He declared, then tore it off with a grunt.
Kara tilted her head in confusion, before it dawned on her what she was looking at. “Oh. it’s some kind of primitive mech.”
The boy’s face fell. “It isn’t primitive!” He insisted. “It’s a prototype! Only one person was ever able to pilot the Ganymede!”
“I can’t imagine more than one person would want to,” Kara muttered. She’s seen some of the huge rolling mechs as they traversed the city, sticking to the alleys and backroads, but compared to Krypton, the technology paled, and even compared to THAT, this prototype was a junker.
The boy made a sour face. “Well this primitive mech is what’s going to make sure you aren’t hunted down by Britannia, so perhaps a little appreciation is warranted.”
She held up her hands placatingly, gripping the translation matrix. “Hey, I’m super appreciative! Never been more grateful!”
The boy harrumphed, then climbed into the cockpit. “Come on,” He said, holding out a hand. “It’s small, and too old to have an IFF tracker so we’ll be mostly unnoticed, but if someone stumbles on us we’ll be in trouble. Best to go now while it’s dark.”
Even with the translator, she felt like she only understood half the words coming out of his mouth. She shrugged, then took his hand, and nearly pulled him out of the seat as she joined him.
He drew his hand back with a hiss as she sat, massaging his hand. “Are you trying to pull my arm out of my socket? Don’t yank so hard!”
“But I didn’t!” She protested. She didn’t understand…she’d barely tugged on him.
“Hm,” The boy shook his head, taking over the controls. “Let’s just go.”
“So what’s your name?” Kara asked. They were out of the city now, back into the woods they’d come from, and she figured now was as good a time as any to start asking questions. “And what’s Britannia? And why-”
“If you want me to answer all your questions we’re never going to make it back in time,” He snapped. She shut her mouth quickly in fear he’d change his mind and turn back, but after a few moments of silence, he sighed. “Sorry. I’ve…been under a lot of pressure recently. My name is…” He paused, as if reconsidering, before wincing as he finished. “My name is Lelouch.”
“Lelouch,” She echoed, trying it out on her tongue. “That’s a pretty name.”
He scowled. “It’s not supposed to be pretty, it’s supposed to…” He trailed off.
“Suppsed to what?”
“Never mind,” He sighed again. “Anyways, it’s my name. I think I mentioned Nunnally’s? She’s my sister.”
“And that old man?”
“Lord Ashford,” Lelouch said. “And before you ask, Lord isn’t his name, it’s a title.” He frowned. “Or it was, I guess. He’s not a lord anymore.”
Kara rolled her eyes. “Translator, remember? I know it’s a title.”
“Right…” Lelouch cleared his throat. “To answer your other question, Britannia is an empire. One of the biggest and most powerful on earth. A brutal regime that subjugates countless territories, conquering and colonizing them. This…” He gestured around them, taking one hand of the controls of the Ganymede for a moment. “....This was Japan, one of the last neutral nations not a part of one of the three superpowers. Now it’s just another part of Britannia.”
“That’s the war you mentioned, isn’t it?” Kara asked quietly.
He nodded. “It hasn’t even lasted a full summer. It feels like only a few weeks ago, everything was so normal…” He swallowed. “It’s gone now.”
Kara felt a pit begin to form in her stomach. A part of her wanted to tell him she knew exactly what he meant…but a larger part wanted to ignore his words to spare herself the pain. She didn’t want to remember. She didn’t want to hurt anymore.
“We’re here,” Lelouch said not long after, the Ganymede slowing as they approached a familiar pocket in the woods. There wasn’t a smoke trail any longer, and to her surprise her ship was right where they left it.
“Huh,” Kara frowned. “From the way you spoke about Britonnia, you made it seem like they’d find it immediately.”
“Britannia,” Lelouch corrected. “And they would, but you were lucky. You landed in the middle of a warzone. Smoke trails and sudden impacts aren’t all that uncommon. If anyone saw anything, they’d think it was an enemy aircraft that was shot down, or maybe a mortar. If we act quickly, no one will ever know something out of the ordinary was here.”
“We’ll look for Kal first, right?” She asked nervously.
Lelouch nodded. “We can’t search the whole forest. Or the whole Island. Or Japan, or the world. The earth is too big of a place, and there’s still the matter of if he would even land here…but we can search around the crash site for a little while.” He placed his hands back on the controls, and the Ganymede took off at a much slower pace.
If…if she was being honest with herself, Kara hadn’t expected to find anything. The adrenaline from the crash had long worn off, and logically she knew if Kal had arrived with her, she would have found him as soon as she was out of her own ship. The crash site would have been obvious, not to mention the smoke trail. But a part of her hoped she could be wrong. She couldn’t just run away, she had to look for him, she had to try…
To Lelouch’s credit, they spent two hours looking. Maybe he knew how she felt. Had he lost someone in the way she had? Did he know what it was like to search for someone so desperately, despite knowing deep down you would never find them?
Or maybe he was only holding up his end of the deal. Either way, she was grateful, but by the time she noticed his eyes starting to droop, she’d already accepted she wouldn’t find Kal-El. Not here, not now.
She placed a hand on his shoulder silently, and he turned to look at her. Whatever he saw, he understood. Without another word passed between them, the Ganymede eventually changed its course, heading back to the crash site.
“We have to hide your ship,” Lelouch said as the Ganymede stooped to pick up the small craft. “From everyone. The Ashfords. Nunnally. Everyone.”
“Where are we going to put it?” Kara asked, quietly rubbing at her eyes. She didn’t want to cry in front of him again. She was alone now. She was going to have to grow up quickly, and grown ups didn’t cry, not ever.
She tried to erase the last image she had of her parents, crying even as they smiled, watching her ship blast away.
“For now, with the Ganymede,” Lelouch said, though he sounded uncertain. “I saw another tarp in there large enough to cover it, and from the dust I doubt anyone goes in there often. But that won’t last long. I’ll have to find somewhere else…but we can worry about that later.” He paused. “And…sorry about your cousin.”
“I was supposed to protect him,” Kara murmured. “That’s why I was sent here. I was supposed to be there with him, to keep him safe and teach him.”
“If…if he does arrive one day, it’ll either be the most publicized story in history, or the most covered up,” Lelouch said. “If he does come here, we’ll probably know about it.”
Kara almost laughed. “You know, you’re terrible at cheering people up,” She said with a grim smile.
“I apologize for making the effort to be considerate,” Lelouch said with an irritated huff.
Kara giggled. “It was nice, though. I…thanks. For trying.”
Before she knew it, their little expedition was over. They picked their way carefully through the city once more. She thought for sure someone would say something, someone would spot them and raise an alarm, but Lelouch told her the people here were probably familiar with the sound of a Knightmare traveling through the city, and knew that keeping away was the smart decision. If anyone did see anything, they’d rationalize her ship away as a downed aircraft, or something similar.
They entered the storage room through a lifting door that led to the Academy grounds, carefully placing down her ship before powering down the Ganymede. With a bit of effort, the two of them concealed the machines, hiding any hint of their midnight escapade.
It took them minutes to make it back to Ashford’s office, and when they arrived, Nunnally was still mercifully asleep. The two of them nearly collapsed on the floor once they were safe, and Lelouch began panting in exhaustion.
For her part, Kara didn’t seem all that winded. Tired, sure, but not worn out.
“What now?” She asked.
“Now we sleep,” Lelouch said, sitting up against the wall. “After I’ve had a minute to catch my breath. And tomorrow, we get through the day. And the next, and the next, and eventually it’ll all become a new normal, and we’ll figure something else out.”
“What about me?” She asked more pressingly. “I can’t speak without this!” She held up the matrix.
“I have a plan for that too,” Lelouch said in between breaths. “We can’t get around the matrix, unfortunately. I’ll simply have to teach you English the old fashioned way, though at least being able to understand me will help speed it up a little. In the meantime, I told Ashford you were probably a war orphan. With what I’ve told him, and what he’s going to see, he’s most likely going to come to the conclusion that the trauma of surviving the war and presumably losing your parents robbed you of your voice. Once you’ve learned English, he and everyone else will assume that you’ve overcome your trauma with the power of friendship and love, and blah blah blah. The point is, no one will find it unusual. You just have to keep up the charade around everyone that isn’t me, including Nunnally. She doesn’t need to know anything more.”
“Okay…” She frowned. “But what am I supposed to do if they talk to me and I don’t understand them?”
“It’ll be uncomfortable at first, but they'll probably write it off as you not wanting to communicate at all,” Lelouch said. “You’ll have to get by with gestures most of the time. There’s no other way really around it, unless you’ve got a way to use the translator without holding it all the time.”
Kara shook her head. “I guess that’s what I’ll have to do then.” She hung her head. “Fumble my way through a world I don’t know anything about.”
“I can teach you more tomorrow, and whenever we get a chance to speak alone,” Lelouch offered.
“I know,” She said, sitting down beside him. “I don’t blame you, I just…”
She shut her eyes. She couldn’t ignore it forever, no matter how much she wanted to. Like it or not, this was her life now. And Lelouch was the only one who knew who…what she was. She was going to have to tell him eventually…better to get it over with.
“The planet I’m from is called Krypton,” She blurted before she could talk herself out of it. “It’s a beautiful place…a world of science and scholars, a world of peace.” She swallowed dryly. “Or it was.” She blinked, wiping tears out of her eyes as they began to form. “I-I don’t know the specifics of everything. My uncle, Jor-El, he found out something bad. Something deep inside the planet was killing it, and if we didn’t change soon, we’d destroy our home. He and my father went to the Council to plead their case, but they didn’t listen. So my father and my uncle started work on a way to evacuate the planet, but there wasn’t any time. My uncle’s predictions were off, and they only had the time to make two small shuttles. One for my baby cousin, and one for me.”
She took a shaky breath. “I saw Krypton break apart as the ship took off. I begged my parents to let me stay, to go instead of me, but they refused. There was only room for one. I watched my home turn into nothing but chunks of floating rock out in space, and I couldn’t even steer my ship. My body, my mind…it feels like a day or two ago. But I was dragged into a black hole along the way, and my path was diverted….it sort of…stretched. I know it was longer. When I came to properly, I was already crashing through your atmosphere…” She hugged her knees closer to her chest. “...and you know the rest."
They sat there together for a long time. It was funny…he was the only person in the universe she could talk to, and they were spending so much of their time in silence.
Then again…sometimes nothing needed to be said.
Finally, though, he spoke up. “My mother was murdered,” He said. “In the same attack that crippled my sister. I watched it happen. I begged my father to do something, and he sent me away. To a country I knew nothing about, an unfamiliar place where I was unwelcome, where I didn’t understand anyone that didn’t bother to speak English, and where me and my sister were entirely alone.”
“I hated it at first,” He said. “I was angry. At my father, at my mother’s murderers, at the world for letting it happen, and at this strange place. I was miserable.” He paused. “And then I made a friend. Everything changed. I didn’t become less angry, but it hurt less. I laughed again. I smiled. And before long, I realized I was starting to like Japan more than my home. Then that was taken from me too.”
He took a deep breath. “But I have something now. Something to keep me going. I made a promise. To my friend, to myself. And I intend to keep it.” He was quiet again. “I know it’s not really the same. But when I came to Japan, I was miserable and lonely. And even if I would have never admitted it, having even a single friend helped me more than anything else I tried. I can’t bring your home back, or your family. I can’t promise you’ll like it here. But I can promise I’ll help you.”
Kara raised her head, her eyes wide in surprise. “But…why?”
“Because I at least know something about how you feel,” He answered. “And I know it hurts.” He cleared his throat. “Besides, you helped Nunnally and I get here. And I don’t leave a debt unpaid.” He yawned. “That’s enough for today. We’ll find a time to speak tomorrow, I’m sure. Good night, Kara.”
“Good night,” She murmured, before turning off the matrix and hiding it under her pillow. They laid down, and this time when she shut her eyes, she felt sleep beginning to take her.
Drifting off, she didn’t dream of Krypton. She didn’t dream of her parents, or of her cousin,or of the countless thousands of awful things that might happen to her on earth.
She dreamed that she had made a new friend.
First things first, yes the next chapter of shattered mind is late. Simply put, I haven't had the time. Between inventory, getting certified for my promotion, and fucking jury duty of all things, I've been very busy. On top of that, it's just really, really hard to write these chapters on my phone.
I've been managing it so far, but it's just an extreme hassle, and makes editing and changing things a pain, and I don't want to post worse chapters. It's uncomfortable, inconvenient. But the good news is that I have internet again, and I SHOULD have a new laptop within the next week or so, so the suffering shall end soon.
And yes, I've decided that I'm not posting anything else until both shattered mind AND the next chapter of eleventh prince is done, because it's been over a year now and that's just ridiculous.
In the meantime, enjoy this! It’ll be continued much later, but for now here's a taste. I wrote it a few months ago, and it's essentially what if Supergirl landed on earth first instead of Kal, plus an xover with Code Geass.
It's not the classic Argo city origin of Kara, but I don't enjoy that origin all that much. It's more like the Injustice 2 version minus Brainiac, with a few switcheroo’s. No the Supergirl/Superman mythos won't be the only DC stuff to show up. Yes it will be the focus. No Lelouch will not be Batman, he will be Zero. Not everyone will show up, and it won't be for a while, so don't expect a justice league in ten chapters. Characters will be introduced organically, gradually. Some will be mixed with Code Geass characters, others will be standalone.
Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoy!