Code Geass: Lelouch Vi Britannia

Time's up

While Margaret was recuperating at Tokyo Life hospital, Lelouch walked over to the new SPK HQ, in hopes to find Near. Lelouch contemplated over how to resolve the situation he was in. He messed up the future timeline and he's unable to use the time machine. As if a barrier has surrounded the machine to prevent him from going back to fix his mistake.

When Lelouch arrived at the massive building complex, the lot was completely full and paparazzi invaded the building like a great white shark ravaging the cage to consume the diver within. He pushed through the mob with difficulty, almost getting squished to a single sheet of paper. He was stuck in the main entrance for about an hour until the crowd died down and he could manage to crawl through. He entered the elevator alone and the array of buttons to access any level appeared normal but there seemed to be a seal or door below all the buttons. Lelouch noticed this and tried prying it open. It wouldn't budge, he made a few other attempts but they all managed to fail. When he was about to give up on it, believing it to be in case a fire or error were to occur in the elevator, he pushed it and the elevator suddenly descended.
Lelouch's POV

The elevator descended for a long time, what seemed like 10 minutes. This would've been a nice time to have brought a chess board to occupy myself. I sat in the corner with my hand laying on my temple, pondering on the situation at hand. I sure hope that Near can help me. He already realized that I was from another timeline, perhaps he can help me return to it or fix this world, I'll have to be clean with him if I have any hope of using the time machine again.

C.C. POV

Hours passed by since he left, I wonder what he's gonna do? Today was the day he mentioned he was supposed to kill Near, but he's usually not the type to comply with orders without reason. It's been quite lonely since we time traveled. While Lelouch has been off investigating and making friends, I've just been lounging around this room for hours at a time and he barely talks to me anymore. Well, we did have our moments, like this morning. Ah, this morning was great. I don't know what came over him but he was amazing. I wish precious moments like that could last forever.

It was around noon, when I was flipping through channels. After searching through a ton of channels, I stopped when I saw Near on the podium. He was somewhat of a scrawny guy, perhaps it's because he's slouching. Lelouch told me he had white hair and had bulgy eyes that can be intimidating If you stare at them for too long. He fit Lelouch's description perfectly, besides the fact that he looked like a teenager.

After hearing Near challenge Kira, I decided to call Lelouch's cell but he didn't pick up; I hope he's okay.

Lelouch's POV

I reached the bottom floor and the elevator shook like an earthquake. I firmly grasped the metal bars on the elevator as the entire thing was shaking. After a brief moment, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. I wonder if it shakes like that everytime.

The elevator doors opened to this long narrow corridor that had a small door barely visible on the end. The walls were blood red and the door was like a dot in the center that was completely out of place from the rest of the corridor. I stepped out of the elevator and slowly walked along this corridor. I continued walking for what seemed like 10 minutes and the faint dot still appears to be just as vague as it was when I stepped out of the elevator.

I glanced behind my shoulder and saw that the elevator disappeared and all that was left behind me was the hallway that I walked for what felt like an eternity. I noticed something was off so I decided to stop walking. When I stopped, a realization hit me. Everything was moving out of synchronization; I was slowly moving backwardw and the walls were moving backwards faster than me. I stomped on the rug and I heard something scrape, like when you sharpen a sword, I heard it under the rug. Apparently the rug wasn't attached to the ground and I could lift it. A treadmill was running underneath the rug.

All of the sudden, the moving walls and silent treadmill stopped running. The hall grew silent. I resumed walking forward and the walls and everything started moving again. I stopped and everything else around me stopped moving again.

This was obviously a trap or illusion scheme. This must've been made to prevent people from entering or to trap them until Near could do something about the threat. Now then, how do I advance forward without starting the machine so I wouldn't be moving anywhere?

Perhaps I can walk slowly. I slowly walked and the machine started up again shortly after and moved me back to where I was for over half an hour now. Well, that didn't work. What else? Hmm......

"I have an idea." I mumbled to myself. I mustered all of my energy and in one explosive launch, I jumped. I made a perfect landing. Just as planned, the machine didn't move. I leaped across the hall and as I got closer, I noticed that the spec I thought was the door knob, was nothing but black pasted on a wall. I arrived at the end of the corridor and all that was there were the walls that surrounded me and the dried black splotch of paint on one of them.

I ran my hands along the wall, in hopes to find a hidden passageway. The rough grooves and unsanded drywall didn't give way to any pressure I applied to it. I tried on all three of the walls. Next, I knocked. At approximately the same height as my head, something hollow was behind the wall with the black smudge.

I punched a hole through the hollow point and almost broke my knuckles punching the metal plate behind it. There was a digital number keypad behind the wall. The keypad was used recently because I could still see the oil from the last users' fingers. I attempted 16 tries with all the possible combinations for it. Unfortunately, none of them worked.

With no other ideas, I decided to punch the keypad, like they do in the movies and it surprisingly worked. The wall slowly receded as a new corridor appeared. The hall was dim, there were vents above me. The fog spread like a wildfire in the hall. I walked with stealth across the hall until I reached the end. At the end of the hall, was a vault door. I slowly cranked it to the left, and the door opened automatically.

I scanned the entire room for any cameras or traps. All I saw, was alot of monitors, file papers, chairs, and a bunch of toys scattered across the floor. It was quite apparent that Near was here and that this is the hideout. I continued to explore the place and noticed that there was alot of advanced technology in certain rooms and cubicles in others.

I returned to the main room and saw Near playing with the toys on the ground. "I knew you'd come. Congratulations on passing the hall trap." Near greeted me. "It was simple. Anyways, there's something I need to talk to you about." I said. "Let me guess, something about the timeline being broken yadadadada and all that good stuff, right? Sorry, I can't help you. The most I can say is that you time travel back, but I think you already tried that and was un- successful. You're here to ask me for help. The only thing I can think of is for you to complete what you came here for and maybe you'll be able to go back in time to fix this." Near said. "Thank you Near. You've been a great friend and I'm glad I met someone as clever as I, maybe even smarter." I bid my farewell.

"I command you to ......."