Cautiously, Raina stepped out of the cable car and onto the platform. Shirley, who seemed in a daze, followed, and os did Lelouch.

Kiara exited the cart before Lelouch and turned arounnd to watch him as he exited the cart. She wondered where C.C. was. She stared hard at Shirley, the orangette had been too quiet and calm through teh whole thing and she was just waiting for the orangette to do something, anything that could put them in danger.

As soon as Lelouch stepped onto the platform, the man brought up his shotgun. "You guys were no fun at all," he said. "looks like I'll have to kill you."
Raina stared at the barrel of the gun, but she knew she probably couldn't deflect these bullets. A shotgun's bullets were so much faster, and had so much more momentum, she was unlikely to be able to stop them at this distance.
Suddenly, there was a hiss of hydrolics as the doors of the cable car closed.
the man looked around in confusion. "Who's there? Who escaped my influence?"

Kiara's head whipped from the man to look around. Her eyes widened and she felt a grin stretch accross her face as she saw who exactly it was that had saved them.
"C.C.!!" she called. "Nice timing!"
C.C. stared at her cooly before refocusing on the strange man.

The cable car began to move back down the mountain. To Raina's surprise, the man jumped to the rear window and put his hands against the glass. He threw off his weird eye screen and headphones and called out, "C.C.! It is you!!!"
C.C. said nothing.
"That dress looks lovely, C.C.! Don't worry, I'll come and see you soon!"

Kiara blinked as the strange man retreated in the cable car thingy down the slopes of Narita. She looked at C.C.
"How exactly do you know that guy? And who is he? We kept asking but he never answered."
"Nis name is Mao," C.C. replied calmly.

"Um guys... I think we'd best do something about Shirley..." said Raina.
Tears were streaming from Shirley's eyes and she looked at Lelouch. "Lulu... you..."
Lelouch grasped Shirley's shoulders and forced her to look at him. His left eye glowed.

As Lelouch used his Geass on Shirley Kiara moved to stand beside Raina. She frowned at Lelouch. If only he'd listened to her earlier suggestion about hitting her over the head...

"Ah well, all's well that ends well," said Raina cheerfully. She pretended not be shaken by what Mao had said to her earlier when he'd first read her mind.

"Somehow I don't think so," Kiara muttered. She turned back to C.C. "How do you know this guy anyway? Getting answers out of him was like trying to cut down an oak tree with a banana!"

"We'll settle that later," said Lelouch, steppign away from Shirley. "Let's catch the next rail back into the Tokyo Settlement."

"Alright," Kiara replied. "Should we take Shirley or leave her to find her own way back?"
She was very much hoping to leave the orangette here. Lelouch glanced at the dazed Shirley.

"She doesn't know me any more," said Lelouch. "She'll find her way back." Raina only just caught the "probably" he muttered afterwards.
"Next rail leaves in 5 minutes, guys! It's over there on that platform!" said Raina, pointing. "Let's go!"

As they boarded the train and sat down Kiara looked at Lelouch. "You did make sure to take all those pictures she had of you right? Raina has the camera but still..."
Lelouch gave her a look and she smirked at him. "How long will it take us to get back to the Tokyo settlement?"
"The same time it took us to reach here I imagine," C.C. replied. Kiara rolled her eyes at the green haired female accross from her.
"Very funny," she muttered dully.

"Can I keep some of those pictures?" Raina asked Lelouch. "They were really good!"
Lelouch blushed bright red. "No!"

"Come on Lelouch," Kiara teased. "They aren't that bad, especially the one with you asleep lying on the grass. It looks very nice. Maybe we could frame it or something." She was enjoying teasing him, it was fun.

"You could even make several copies of it," said C.C.
"That would be good!" said Raina. "then everyone on the Student Council could have one!"
"That's enough!" said Lelouch, bright red. "Anyway, C.C., tell us about Mao."

The mood immediately turned from joking and fun to tense in less than a second. Kiara frowned as she turned back to look at C.C. She quickly glanced at Raina, even though she tried to hide it Kiara knew that Mao had rattled her. She'd certainly been ratted.
"He has a geass...did you give it to him?"

"Eleven years ago, Mao and I made a contract," said C.C.
"Eleven years? Then he is by far my superior. Is he an enemy?"
"He's after me."
"Well, if he was after you, Lelouch, he would have told the Britannians about Zero's identity," said Raina.

"True," Kiara agreed. "There's still a chance that he will but I don't think so...and even if he did he's...rather strange. I doubt they'd take him seriously. So what happened?"
"His Geass drove him mad," C.C. replied. "He couldn't turn it off like Lelouch is able to do. Can you imagine being able to hear the thoughts of everyone around you? Even in a quiet room? Or when someone is speaking and they are thinking something else? It was too much for his mind to handle."

"So what are the abilities of his geass?" asked Lelouch.
"He can hear the mind of anyone within 500 metres if he concentrates," said C.C. "And he isn't limited to direct eye contact or a limited number of uses, like you are."
Raina whistled. "Impressive."

"All those voices in his head..." Kiara muttered. "I can understand why he lost it. I mean, I can barely deal with Raina and she isn't even in my head!"

(Gotta go now sorry. G'night and C'ya tomorrow)

*K, bye!*

"Yeah I kinda feel sorry for him..." said Raina. She paused for three seconds. "Wait a minute..."

Kiara grinned at her in amusement.
"If we can get back on topic here..." Lelouch directed the conversation back to Mao.
"Right," Kiara nodded. "When did he got mad C.C. and how long ago was that? Has he been looking for you? Will he come back?"

"He will come back," said C.C. simply. "He's after me."
"Then we should use the black knights to try and find him," said Lelouch. "I'll call Ougi once we get back and get him on it."