Who am I?
Where am I?
What am I doing?
I am Vela. I am in the world of [Code Geass], somewhere in Eastern Europe. I am seizing the Geass possessed by Leila von Breisgau—known as [Shared Emotion].
Blurred yet vividly real, she passed through a tunnel made of countless shimmering motes of light, twisting together like strands of living nerves—Vela stepped into Leila's spiritual world.
From a perspective both unreal and intrusive, she witnessed the scene before her: a delivery room, a newborn's cry.
A short but happy childhood. A life of displacement and flight. Fleeting peace after the chaos. A father—dead young in a bombing at a political rally. A mother—killed in the second attack. Adoption by the Malcal family. A new surname. Military academy. Early graduation. The formation of the W-ZERO unit…
The life of a seventeen-year-old girl.
Vela had no interest in the private details of girlhood. She sought only one thing—the origin of the power.
"Found it."
Her steps halted in a world of endless snow.
Mountains sealed in winter. Night. Forest. Frozen lake.
An explosion. An overturned car. A woman, gravely wounded and near death.
"Leila… run…"
"Mother."
The girl ran, stumbling through snow, her mother's dying cry echoing behind her.
Crack—the ice gave way. Exhausted, the girl fell into the freezing lake.
Her life was about to end far too soon.
"Do you wish to live?"
Appearing like a spirit of the snow, a pale woman with long green hair spoke softly.
She reached out, taking the girl's hand, pulling her from the icy depths.
"If you have power, you can live. This is a contract. Form a contract with me—you will continue to live, though not as an ordinary human. You will stand apart from the world, detached from its flow. The power of a [King] will grant you life, but it will also grant you loneliness. If you have the resolve… then use it."
The green-haired woman turned away.
"However, you are still young. I will give you time to decide. Once you use this power, there will be no turning back. But if you never use it… the power will vanish from existence."
Her voice drifted away, echoing faintly in the snow.
"And you… used it."
As the girl stood frozen in place, her left eye gleamed with a sinister red glow. A strange, bird-shaped sigil spread across it—and then, a calm, cool voice entered the scene.
The crunch of boots pressing snow—shaa, shaa—as a figure approached from behind the young Leila.
Vela bent down, resting a hand on the child's shoulder within this mental world.
She crouched before her, smiling faintly.
"Look into my eyes, little one."
Their gazes met—right eye, a blend of indigo and violet; left eye, glowing scarlet with the Geass firebird sigil.
Plunder!
Vela spoke the word silently within her heart.
Boom—
The forest, the frozen lake, the child—all vanished.
A cataclysmic roar filled Vela's mind—like the collision of worlds. Yet she felt no pain, only vibration. Then came whispers—countless, genderless voices echoing all around her, murmuring and chanting, shifting in pitch and distance—until there was light.
Her eyes refocused.
It felt like an instant—or an eternity.
Flashes of memory. Fragments of vision. Echoes of sound. Vela suddenly perceived the flood—an ocean of emotions and mental waves from countless beings around her. Thoughts not her own surged into her mind, flickering like the reels of an old sound-film projector.
Turning slightly, she caught her reflection in [Excalibur]'s polished silver-gray armor.
Her left eye—the Geass firebird—remained, but its color had changed from red to blue.
It was done.
...
At the same time, in Area 11, beneath the towering structures of Tokyo Settlement—
"Even after deciding to take that step, you still chose to bestow Geass selectively instead of turning them all into your dead men… you really are soft, Lelouch."
"Shut up, you pizza witch! What do you know, huh? I've already used Geass on Kallen once—it won't work a second time. She's the Black Knights' absolute top combat power. I need her strength. If I turned Ohgi, Tohdoh, Tamaki, and the others into Geass slaves, she'd notice something was wrong. Besides, I still need them to act on their own initiative, to rally the Japanese people with their own will."
In a nondescript maintenance corridor deep underground, Lelouch—wearing the jet-black ZERO mask—walked slowly beside C.C., while their path was guarded by lookouts hidden in light and shadow.
The sentries were a strange mix: workers, thugs, police officers, even subway staff. But one thing they all shared—the faint, almost imperceptible red glow flickering in their irises.
The mark of Geass.
"Ugh… damn it!"
As they walked, Lelouch suddenly clutched his abdomen, staggering against the wall with a strained hiss, his voice caught in his throat as if suppressing pain.
"You should've stayed at the academy to recover. I could've led the Black Knights' meeting for you."
C.C. cast him a sidelong glance.
Such a fragile body.
"No. You already showed your face at the Battle of Narita, and you've impersonated ZERO before. If ZERO appears now but you don't, they'll suspect something. I must go. Besides, I need to strengthen the Black Knights' organizational discipline."
"I don't have the luxury of lying in bed for months, wasting time. You were right, C.C.—I was too naive before. I've already secured control of the quartermaster, and the self-healing antibacterial field dressings and new-generation wound sealants Britannia's transferring from Europe to Area 11… wait—you?"
Lelouch turned, noticing C.C. had stopped walking.
"C.C.? What's wrong?"
C.C. looked up, her bright golden eyes flashing with a trace of surprise. "A contract has ended."
Lelouch frowned.
"A contract… ended?"
His voice rose slightly.
Perhaps even he hadn't realized it, but Lelouch had begun to rely—deeply—on this immortal witch.
The friends at Ashford Academy—he couldn't drag them into his war. Nunnally—his precious angel—must never know. Kallen—useful, more than loved. Only C.C. was his accomplice. Without her… he truly had no one to confide in. Without her, he was utterly alone.
"What's wrong, are you afraid I'll leave you, boy?"
Her teasing tone sliced through the tension.
C.C. looked at him and smirked faintly. Her expression didn't change much, but her eyes softened just a little.
"Not our contract," she said.
"Then whose?"
He pressed, ignoring everything else.
"Someone like Mao? Don't tell me—you have another contractor in Area 11. What's their Geass ability? Tell me."
He knew too well how troublesome Geass users could be. If he had to face another, he needed to be prepared.
"Relax. It was a girl I saved twelve years ago in Europe—a Britannian noble who defected. A descendant of House von Breisgau. One of the Hohenzollern faction traitors under your sister Vela's command. Considering your sister's recent movements in Europe… the contract ending now likely means she's dead on the battlefield."
C.C.'s tone was airy, her words casual. She resumed walking, passing Lelouch without looking back.
"I see. Then we'll have to accelerate our infiltration of the European Britannian branches."
Removing his mask and chewing a couple of painkillers, Lelouch followed.
Ding.
The elevator doors slid shut. C.C. glanced at Lelouch, fumbling to remove his ZERO attire, her expression unreadable.
In truth, she hadn't told him everything.
The contract hadn't merely ended—it had partially transferred.
"V.V.… was this your doing?"
...
Within the palm of [Excalibur].
Now.
"Ah!"
As Vela released her grip, Leila screamed, collapsing within the capsule-shaped cockpit. Her limbs trembled uncontrollably, her skin slick with sweat that poured down like rain.
"You… what have you… done…"
The burning pain in Leila's eyes and head quickly faded after a sharp sting. Her voice trembled with fear.
"What… did you do…?"
"Nothing," Vela replied coolly. "Just delivering punishment to a traitor, collecting compensation for the damage your father's betrayal caused to the honor of House Hohenzollern."
Her left eye shimmered with the blue light of Geass as she looked down upon her.
"Now, sleep well."
As tempting as it was to experiment further—to explore and test her new power—this was still a battlefield. Flesh and steel mixed poorly. She needed to finish the fight first.
"You… I… no…"
Leila tried to force herself awake, but she was far too drained—mind and body both. Overwhelmed by waves of exhaustion and drowsiness, she collapsed forward and lost consciousness.
Seeing this, Vela turned to return to [Excalibur]'s control chamber—but paused. A thought crossed her mind. Turning back, she leapt into the cockpit where Leila lay unconscious.
After a brief search, she retrieved a needleless injector from the KMF's emergency kit, pressed it against Leila's neck, and administered a sedative. She fastened the girl's harness securely before jumping back to the command cradle of [Excalibur].
Just to be safe—no mistakes allowed.
After all, the Geass she had taken was [Shared Emotion], also known as Mental Link, Connection, or Resonance. She had amplified Leila's fatigue and drowsiness to the extreme, pushing her into unconsciousness—but this wasn't an absolute mental domination or soul-rape command.
Clack.
The heavy torso armor sealed shut once more. Vela maneuvered [Excalibur], gripping the capsule containing Leila in its clawed hand. She was about to test her new Geass when—
"Hm?"
She sensed multiple emotional signatures rapidly approaching.
Manfredi.
A squadron of [Gloucester] commander units, caped and gilded, roared toward her. At their head was Manfredi's custom model—a massive variant adorned in red and gold, with ornate crests and broad shoulder guards.
"Your Highness!"
Manfredi's upper-body hologram appeared in a small comm window. Vela, temporarily suppressing her Geass, nodded.
"Order all units to feign a panicked retreat and disengage. Artillery and rocket divisions—commence bombardment of this area in three minutes. Latvia is yours, Lord Manfredi. Prepare for defensive countermeasures."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Only then did Vela turn her gaze toward the raging forest below.
Composing herself, she closed her eyes, slipping back into her Geass connection state.
Found them—Suzaku Kururugi and Akito Hyuga.
From her perception, the Geass traces imprinted upon their souls shone like bright lamps in a dark room.
The latter, she had expected. The former—so, he had come to Europe, and still bore Lelouch's Geass.
"Then—'Release.'"
She targeted Akito's corrupted mental state.
On the battlefield, the [Alexander Type-01] was already ravaged—its facial guard shattered, revealing the monstrous visage beneath. Inside, Akito's face twisted in demonic rage, his irises completely crimson, devoid of reason.
The remnants of the Wyvern Squadron, their coordination broken, could no longer support him.
"Die, die, die—urgh!!"
Just as he was consumed by total madness, charging on all fours toward [Lancelot], a flicker of crystalline blue appeared in his eyes, washing over the red. His expression froze.
"An opening!"
The red-vibrating MVS blade cleaved downward with blinding force. Sparks erupted—crack!—and the beastlike KMF was split nearly in half, its systems collapsing.
Why such a fatal mistake?
Before Suzaku could question it, a voice came over the comm: "All units, retreat! Evacuate the wounded immediately! Artillery barrage incoming!"
The order from the St. Michael Knights.
Suzaku turned his gaze toward the blue-haired boy visible through the shattered cockpit canopy of the damaged E.U. mech.
So young.
A conscripted child soldier?
No time to think. Acting on instinct, he twisted his mech, wrenching the capsule cockpit free, and, coordinating with the Lancelot's allies, withdrew rapidly from the marked bombardment zone.
Moments later, the thunder of artillery tore through the already shattered forest.
Vela watched quietly.
An active skill—rather than passive interference against Geass. For the first time, she felt truly clear-headed, exhilarated.
Around her, the air was filled with the dying screams of the remaining Wyvern pilots and the relieved chatter of her troops.
The loudest, most emotionally charged voice belonged to a man cursing the E.U. and Britannia alike—crying out names, "Yukiya, Ayano!"—until a rocket struck his position, silencing him.
"Well now… still alive?"
Vela glanced toward the Area 11 Expeditionary Corps' position.
Akito—how had he ended up with Suzaku?
No matter. It wasn't important.
That so-called "Hannibal's Ghost" didn't actually possess a Geass.
As a child, his older brother, Akito Hyuga's sibling, had placed a "Die" Geass upon him—but the boy had been too young to comprehend death. Thus, the command had never activated, creating a sort of "bug." It had become instead a latent trigger, an unconscious switch.
When the Geass state manifested, his power surged—granting him the strength to deliver "death's salvation" to others. Through the [Alexander]'s Brain Raid System, that surge spread to his squadmates, though the price was loss of self and uncontrollable bloodlust.
After this experiment, Vela had a rough estimate of her current Geass limits.
Her acquired Geass had no restriction on number or frequency of use.
Single-eye control stage.
While the extent of emotional influence and range still required further testing, both one-way and multi-linked spiritual connections were fully viable. Moreover, when forcibly linking or infecting another's mind, she could override and neutralize existing Geass effects—a kind of Geass Canceller in her own right (similar to how Leila's emotional link could override Akito's Geass in the original timeline).
"Abandon Daugavpils. Withdraw."
After issuing the order, Vela switched [Excalibur] into low-altitude cruise mode and sped northwest.
In the command cradle, she closed her eyes, letting calm settle in—and, instinctively, began to share her triumph with the other selves that existed beyond the world.
And then—
"Hm? Why does your result look… like such a downgrade?"
Vela frowned.
Something was off.