Suddenly the Lancelot sprang into action, shooting at everything in sight, rocks, boulders, trees. Everything went flying, but C.C. stood in front of the others, arms wide, protecting them.
"Get out of here!"
Rocks went flying into her but she still didn't move, and when Raina finally pulled her away, she was covered in blood.

Kiara half carried half dragged Lelouch. He was still in shock from what he'd seen.
"Idiot," she muttered. "What were you thinking?"
He didn't say anything. Kiara muttered to herself but didn't say anything else on the subject.
The four of them picked their way through rocks as they put as much distance between themselves and the lancelot as possible. Whoever the piolet was he was going nuts!

"There's a cave up there!" said Raina, who was now half carrying, half dragging an unconscious C.C. "Lelouch, walk by yourself, I need some help here!"

Somehow Lelouch managed to stagger the rest of the way to the cave while Kiara and Raina carried C.C. the rest of the way. As they entered the cave the two set her down gently. Kiara removed her vizor and breathed in the cool air of the cave. She looked at the others as Lelouch removed his helmet.
"Mind telling us exactly what happened when you touched C.C.?" Kiara asked. "After she told you specifically NOT to do that?"

"I saw... her memories," said Lelouch. He glanced down at her. "We should do something about that wound."
"Leave it to me," said Raina. "Kiara, could you light a fire please? It's dark in here. Not to mention damp. Lelouch, you can call Kallen or someone to come get us."
Lelouch clearly didn't like the idea of her giving orders, but he wasn't in the mood to argue.

(Ha ha, you're bossing Lelouch around!)

Kiara nodded her head in agreement. She found a small hollow in the ground and decided that it was the perfect place to light a fire. She grabbed some moss and put it in the bottom of the small hole before concentrating. A bright white fire shot to life immediately. Flickers of light blue moved through the white and she smiled proudly. It was the brightest she could manage as the white gave off a little more light than yellow so they should have plenty of light to see by. SHe then moved over to Raina and studied C.C's onconcious form.
"Will she be alright?"

"If she's anything like V.V. she'll be completely healed in half an hour," said Raina. "He's immortal, and heals extremely quickly. The fact that she's still alive means that she's the same, I think. Any normal human would have died with wounds like this."

"Good point," Kiara said. She removed her jacket to reveal the short sleeved black top underneath and wrapped it around C.C and moved her closer to the fire. "We'd better keep her warm for now."

Lelouch came back inside. "I've called Kallen," he said. "It will take her a while to get here, but she's coming to get us."
"All right," said Raina. "Let's go outside and wait for her, Kiara. Lelouch, you could take care of C.C."
"You're calling me Lelouch? I'm Zero, remember."
"Not right now you're not," Raina stuck her tongue out at him.

Kiara smirked at Lelouch as he frowned at Raina.
"You'd better get used to it," she advised. "Without the helmet you're just Lelouch. Now, if you're through nursing that wounded ego of yours give me a hand with C.C."
Together the two Geass users managed to carefully transfer C.C. to near the cave entrance. Kiara quickly extinguished the small fire she'd conjured earlier before running back and covering the hole where it had been. No need to leave any evidence that they'd been there after all.

After a while, the red Guren appeared, and Kallen jumped out. She saw Raina and Kiara. "There you are! Is Zero here?"
"Yeah, he's just inside," said Raina, pointing.
Kallen went inside and saw Lelouch wearing his mask, C.C. standing by his side, fully recovered. "Who is that?"
"This is a dear friend of mine," said Lelouch. "C.C., I may not know why snow is white, but I do find such white snow beautiful."
"I see."

Kallen quickly filled them in on what had happened after they'd hidden and pretty soon they were all on their way back to the Black Knight's base. Kiara rubbed her eyes tiredly. She was looking forward to a good night's sleep in her bed at Ashford academy cuddling her Toshiro plushie.

*what do you think of my remembering skillz? ^^*

Once they'd rejoined the Black Knight forces, Zero/Lelouch announced that they would retreat now. They had won this battle.
Raina cheered witht eh rest of them and hugged everyone tightly, even Zero/Lelouch himself.

(I'm very impressed! I can't believe you know this part so well! Then again I know the entire Yu-Gi-Oh series off by heart so...)

Kiara smirked as Raina hugged Lelouch. She would love to see his face right now, she was sure that it was priceless.
"So," she said, addressing Zero. She leaned against a wall and had her arms crossed over her chest. "What now?"

"We'll see," said Zero/Lelouch. "For now we shall expand our influence further. I've decided to have Diethard work on it..."
"Let's celebrate guys!" called Raina, approaching the two of them. "Come on, Tamaki's handing out drinks!"

Kiara raised her eyebrow at Raina's enthusiasm.
"Need I remind you of the last time you had a drink?" she said dryly. "Hangover? Asprin? Going to Narita with a killer headache? Ringing any bells here?"

"Yeah, but that was when I had loads," said Raina. "This time I'll only have a little sip! C'mon, let's get drinks!"
"Shouldn't we be more concerned about getting out of here?" asked Lelouch/Zero.
"They're loading up the Knightmares already, don't worry!"

In the end Kiara had a non alcaholic drink with the rest of the black knights. If Lelouch wanted any then he'd have to take off his mask so he remained drink free.
"We should probably be getting back to the school soon," she pointed out, gesturing to where the sun was setting. "I'ts getting kinda later after all."

Raina was busy arguing with Kallen. "Aw, come on! Let me have another drink!"
"No," said Kallen, holding the bottle out of her reach. "I'm not having you getting another hangover. You'll thank me for it later."
"Pleeeeeeeeeease!"

Kiara snatched the bottle out of Kallen's hand and held it further out of Raina's reach.
"You're not getting it," she said flatly, giving her friend a 'look'. "Besides, I think it's time to go."

"All right, all right," muttered Raina, climbing into one of the trucks. "You two are such spoilsports."

"Maybe," Kiara said uncaringly. "But at least we'll be spoilsports that don't have hang overs in the morning."
It didn't take them long to get back and soon Kiara found herself walking into their dorm room. She let out a sigh of relief before dashing to the bathroom, desperate to take a shower. When she was done she climbed into bed and hugged the Toshiro plushie she'd left there that morning.
She was too tired to stay awake for long and by the time Raina was ready for bed she'd already fallen asleep.

Raina fell into bed ans the next thing she knew was the annoyign sound of her noisy alarm clock.
She yawned and struggled out of bed. Her head hurt a bit, but it wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday's hangover.

Kiara grumbled as she was forced awake by the buzzing of the alarm clock.
'stupid person who invented alarm clocks' she thought. She went into a mental rant about alarm clocks and what she'd do if she had the chance to meet whoever came up with the idea of having alarm clocks and continued in that vain for several minutes until she was fully dressed. She turned to Raina and tried unsuccessfully to smother a yawn.
"I hate mornings," she stated firmly.

"Then go back to bed," grumbled Raina. "I'm getting breakfast though. I'm starving."