Chapter 122: Give Me a Pair of Wings
Ade walked quickly toward the hangar, and Momoka followed him in step.
"Actually, Ade-san didn't believe him from the start, right?" The maid-sama asked with an admiring look, "It's no wonder you're Her Highness Angelise's lover, that's amazing!"
"Char… is born to betray everyone." Ade was a little embarrassed being looked at by Momoka. He can not help but boast, "I'm not boasting, but I have prepared for him to betray me on everything."
"When did you meet that girl named Nunnally?" Momoka continued, "We haven't had any contact with strangers in the past few days, Ade-san has actually known a new girl, it's incredible!"
"Hey, you're not helping Ange collect information, are you?" Ade gave her a suspicious look, then the maid lady made an innocent look, "It doesn't matter if you report to her, I didn't do anything wrong. Didn't we go to eat near the school that day? That distance was close enough for an NT like Nunnally."
During the talk, the two came to the hangar. As Ade was still thinking what to say, Momoka said first, "Ade-san is going to find Miss C.C., it would be inappropriate for me to follow. Please take care on the way, and I will wait for you to return."
"Well, sorry …"
"I'm just a maid, please just treat me as a gift from Her Highness Angelise, don't care about my feelings." The maid lady gave him a slightly sad smile, "And it didn't happen to the last step between us, please don't ever feel guilty."
Such a statement instead made him feel even more guilty, but his worries about C.C. immediately took over his thoughts and he could only put the issue aside for now. He rolled over and jumped into the Unicorn Gundam, whose ZakuⅡ-shell had been completely repaired, ignored the still-beaten F91 and Wing Gundam Zero, and left Argama, heading in the direction Nunnally had told him.
The MS flew at high altitude, quickly out of the town, across the hills, and into the mountains. It was still early January and the white hills in the distance were visible to the naked eye. As the altitude continued to rise, the snow was getting thicker below and the outside temperature was getting colder.
"Ade, is there really no problem over here?" Alice's image appeared on the screen, "You've been heading up the mountain, but there's nothing on the radar."
"There's no problem." He replied affirmatively, "There's a powerful NT soul inside that thing, I can feel it now. From the information provided by Nunnally, Gundam00 is coming to get her."
"Powerful?" Alice cocked her head, "Alice thinks Ade is the most powerful!"
"Uh, it can't be worse than Amuro, maybe a famous character I know." Ade thought for a moment and then gave up, "Anyway, the person has died, I can't do anything now."
"But wasn't it dangerous? In case it contaminated you again like last time…" Alice made a worried look, "Should I be given the permission first? In case something goes wrong, Alice will protect Ade!"
"Do not, I have a countermeasure." He lamented with a slight sigh, "Using Geass to save C.C. is like taking Yang Wen-li's Unicorn fight Embryo. I feel the malice from the world."
He secretly experimented with his ability on Char these days and has completely figured out his Geass. When he turned on his Geass, all NTs within a certain radius from him could not feel anyone else, while there was no effect on ordinary people.
Normally, Geass can only be given to pure earthlings and can only take effect on pure earthlings. Considering C.C.'s identity, the origin of Geass and Code should be related to Lilith, and Geass can only work on purebred Lilith's children.
The reason why Ade can contract with C.C. is that his body is personally created by Lilith, and there will be no one more genetically compatible with Geass than him. The result is that his Geass can only be used against NTs, and Lilith's children are instead unaffected.
"Actually, the closeness that C.C. showed when she first met me was quite suspicious. Now that I think about it, my body was made by Lilith, and she also has something to do with Lilith." Ade's heart stuttered, "It can't be… again? No, no way."
His desire was to be himself, purely himself without any influence of his will or soul. Based on this, his ability has such an ironic effect: all NTs shut me up.
Because Char was being secretly used by Ade to test his ability, he suspected that something was wrong with his NT ability. He used to be nearsighted, but now he is blind. But he felt ashamed to consult Amuro or Ade directly, so he sidetracked every time. Amuro didn't understand what he wanted to ask at all, and Ade played dumb from the beginning to the end.
"Let's be honest and admit it, I don't want to try to understand each other with anyone." The moment he discovered the nature of his ability, he understood, "I never believed that there was such a thing as mutual understanding in the world."
After flying over a few more hills, an MS signal appeared at the edge of the radar. Ade followed the signal and continued on, finally meeting up with the target over a snowy mountain. Gundam00 was by now holding a spherical cockpit that had been twisted and deformed with both hands as it moved towards Ade.
"I hate close-combat MS, how am I going to defeat this thing…" Ade only hesitated for a moment, then decisively opened the public channel, "Are you Setsuna? Why don't you put your stuff down first and have a chat with me?"
"ZakuⅡ?" Setsuna just slightly froze, "Setsuna·F·Seiei, expel the target."
As soon as he murmured, Gundam00 threw the cockpit held in its hands towards the rear, then took out a pair of beam sabers from the skirt armor with both hands, rushing towards Ade.
"Fuck you! That's my wife inside it!" Ade was provoked, taking off the beam magnum from the MS's back and giving Gundam00 a shot.
Gundam00 dodged sideways, and the shoulder without GN-Drive slightly grazed a little, the entire shoulder armor and shield mounted on the shoulder was completely damaged. Realizing that this power was obviously not a ZakuⅡ could have, Setsuna didn't hesitate for a second, "TRANS-AM!"
Gundam00's shoulder ejected red light particles, countless murmurs and screams flooded into Ade's consciousness like a tidal wave, the intense tingling in his brain made his hands tremble.
"More and more ACEs don't like chatting these days." Ade did his best to keep his consciousness clear, and turned on Geass to charge at Setsuna with all his might, "Shut the hell up!"
Setsuna didn't understand the motives of the ZakuⅡ approaching him all of a sudden, but he still responded with his body movements. Gundam00 in TRANS-AM mode lifted the blade and cut through the air, and the speed was so fast that it looked like a red streak.
The two machines crossed paths in the air. ZakuⅡ had a large piece of armor cut off, revealing the white body hidden underneath. The red light on Gundam00 suddenly disappeared and it broke away from the TRANS-AM mode.
"It can really be forcibly turned off!" Breathing heavily, Ade was overjoyed, "I'm already invincible!"
"TRANS-AM!" Gundam00 once again emitted a red light, and the screams in the spirit world rang out again. The two MSs collided in the air, and this time, Ade almost succeeded in isolating Setsuna's burst, and Gundam00 once again went out.
"TRANS-AM!"
Setsuna never gave up and charged over and over again. Gundam00 lit up and went out, went out and lit up, over and over again. And Ade was also on an endless cycle between severe headache and a moment of relief, never-ending.
"That NT is pathetic, do you have any humanity left?!" Ade shouted angrily, "سوران إبراهيم!" (Soran Ibrahim, Setsuna's original name)
"Soran … what?" Setsuna's body suddenly freezes. He seemed to remember something immediately, but the vague pain in his brain made him unable to think, "This name …"
The cockpit immediately reacted to the word "Soran", and the synthesized electronic voice rang out, "The pilot is in a dangerous state and the MS's public channel has been automatically shut down. Recommend aborting the mission and disengaging from the battlefield immediately."
"…Setsuna·F·Seiei, abort the mission." Instincts formed from years of training overcame the impulse for a moment, and Setsuna decided to obey the order without hesitation, "Destroy the first target."
From Ade's perspective, Gundam00 first suddenly froze still. Just as he took out his beam magnum and prepared to shoot it again, Gundam00 suddenly rushed towards the hill and switched the sword blade mode into the beam rifle mode, firing wildly at the top of the hill. A large amount of snow collapsed and slid down toward the mountain, then brought up more snow and eventually formed a spectacular avalanche.
After doing all this, Setsuna turned his head and ran. Ade didn't even have the time to chase or break into a frenzy. He immediately flew in the direction where C.C.'s cockpit was thrown just now, however, the avalanche was still ongoing, and there was not even a shadow of the cockpit in his sight.
"There's no signal on the radar, and no one speaking on the public channel." He anxiously drove the Unicorn Gundam in constant circles, recalling the cockpit's shape, "Was the communication system destroyed?"
"Ade, it may have been buried deep, or it may have been washed away by an avalanche." Alice jumped out again, "It's impossible to find it now, let's wait until the snow melts in the summer, ok?"
Ade was in no mood to care about her, just flying up and down the mountain over and over again. However, the avalanche washed away all possible traces, leaving only a white patch of land.
"Ade, go back?" Alice persistently suggested, "You can't be lucky every time."
"Stop saying that, I won't go back before I find her!" Ade said this sentence and suddenly froze, "Wait, how did I find her last time?"
"Last time? Last time—"
"Quiet!" Alice commiserated, turning off the speakers.
He turned off all the sound, closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Vaguely, he could hear his own breathing, but he didn't need to hear it. The light from the monitor hit his eyelids, but he didn't need vision. What he needs is the sixth sense that is like a part of the body, beyond the five senses. The consciousness stretched downward, breaking through Gundam, through the atmosphere, seeping into the snow, spreading out inch by inch.
What he was looking for was some kind of unfamiliar awareness, yet an incredibly familiar feeling. It was the ethereal source that gave meaning to his existence in this world, like a candle-like light in the wind. His consciousness flowed between ice crystals and snowflakes, weaving, and then—
There was a ding.
"Found you."
The Unicorn Gundam flew above some spot that looked like all the others and began a careful digging operation. Ten minutes later, a twisted and distorted cockpit appeared in its hands.
Ade maneuvered Unicorn to fly to the foot of the mountain where there was less snow, and looked closely at the cockpit. The bulkhead was so deformed by the external force that the hatch could no longer be opened, and he guessed that this was how Setsuna stopped the person inside from escaping.
Ade put the cockpit on the soft snow, took out the beam saber to the lowest power, and drew a circle above the bulkhead. Then he jumped out of Unicorn and ran over to the deformed cockpit.
He rested his hands on the gash he had made. His beating heart sent a massive rush of blood into his brain so that he could not feel that his hands were being slightly burned. He lifted them with all his strength, and bright sunlight illuminated the dark interior. What appeared in his eyes was a cute girl with long green hair.
C.C. didn't know what had happened since she was locked in the cockpit. When she thought she was going to be brought back Britannia and never see someone again, the face in her thoughts suddenly appeared before her eyes along with the sunlight.
"My life is all ups and downs, ups and downs, ups and downs …," she said, desperately trying to restrain her urge to shed tears.
"Found you." Ade smiled happily. His smile somewhat dazzles in the sunlight, "That's how I found you last time, and this time too. As long as you dare to run, I promise I can still find you the next time."
"What's the point of finding me? We've broken up." She noticed Ade's burned hand and resisted the urge to grasp it and hold it, trying to keep her face expressionless.
"I haven't agreed to it yet, and you say break up?" Ade made an annoyed look, then showed a sad look, "Stop saying such sad words, although I am greedy, slow, timid and careless, as long as I live, one day, I will make you feel that it is a happy thing to be with me."
"Who knows if you will live until then?" She thought of the other two women and felt a little annoyed again.
"There was once a true and sincere—"
"That's enough." She stared at him and said impatiently, "Don't paly me with these sweet words that you don't believe yourself. Am I such a naive and gullible woman in your eyes?"
"I love you."
"Huh?" C.C. froze, "Huh? That, but, I, but, ah, this…"
In her long life, this was the first time she had ever been in this situation, a man she liked confessing his love to her without Geass. Her pretty golden eyes widened in panic and she was at a loss for words. The most important step in their long acquaintance, that she had skipped, that he had skipped, was finally filled in at this moment.
"I'm sorry, I …" she looked at Ade confusedly, "I'm sorry. I don't know how I should act at times like this."
"Hmm." Ade inclined his head and thought about it, "Smiling would be a good start."
So the tears sparkled in her eyes, and she smiled.
