Chapter 18: Returning to Base

Giotto stared at the soldiers pointing their guns towards him, right now he wasn't worried about getting hurt. Well, to him it would hurt like hell but he won't die THAT easily-

*No, will I even be able to die in the first place?*

Thinking about his own state, Giotto realized that he was really quite the hard cockroach to kill. He probably has even greater survival ability than a certain yellow haired boy with blue eyes and a fox friend.

*In any case, I need to save the girl first-*

Shaking his head to calm his mind, Giotto found that things were already going to explode out of control. So without any second thoughts, he launched two discs from his palms.

The two disks landed next to the woman in red forming a GN particle field.

*That shield will only last for a few minutes now then-*

A green flash came from the eyes of Giotto's armor as he vanished from where he was. Everyone in the room could only hear a high pitched screech as a white blur passed through the soldiers firing at the woman in red.

Otto watched as the white figure passed his men in a flash and all he could see was a white blur as his men all flew like ragdolls.

"Shoot at the man!"

He screamed in panic but-

"Too late"

Giotto had long arrived behind Otto and as the old man was about to turn around a purple beam saber had already stabbed him in the heart. The young man's voice echoed in Otto's ears as his eyes slowly dimmed.

Unfortunately, unlike star wars or other franchises, when Otto died and loss power in his legs, his body fell forward as there was nothing supporting him.

The beam saber did not act like a sword, it burned through everything it cut which means the soft flesh was like air to it.

As Otto's body fell on its knees, the beam saber also cut upwards. Fortunately the extreme heat did not only cut through Otto's body like butter, it also cauterized the wound preventing any extreme blood fountain.

"Well… that went better than I expected."

Giotto whispered as he looked around, just now he had used one of the tools his suit had to rapidly maneuver through area's with flat terrain.

That tool being a pair of heavy duty wheels below his feet. Giotto got this idea from Code Geass Knightmare frames, and he initially wanted to use the original landspinner concept from code geass.

Unfortunately VEDA was not really into looks, and more to functionality. Although his words were final, the fate presented by VEDA really made him change his mind. 

In fact, VEDA had even proposed non-human designs for the Gundams, but that was one thing Giotto would never give up on.

"So, mind telling me who you are?"

As Giotto was lost in his thoughts, the woman in red appeared before him. But to her question, Giotto simply remained silent, contemplating- a lot of things.

*Damn she's hot- wait… why the hell am I thinking like this? No, this is how I always thought… no, ever since I came to this- shit, now that I think about it-*

Seeing as Giotto did not answer, the woman in red simply extended her hand and said.

"Jessica Drew, former agent of Hydra, by the way, that is my real name, I am not going to hide anything from you. Well, it's not worth that much anyway"

 Jessica's extended hand, snapped Giotto from his stupor as he thought for a moment-

*Code Geass… alright*

"Names G.G. you could also call me G2 if you want"

Hearing his words, Jessica showed an annoyed expression as she avoided Giotto's hand saying-

"A fake name huh?"

But to her words, Giotto simply answered apathetically.

"You have nothing to worry about and I have plenty, take it or leave it"

In the end Jessica could only shake Giotto's hand with a hint of dissatisfaction still on her face.

"I won't ask you how you accidentally arrived here but we need to go-"

After shaking Giotto's hand, Jessica turned around and searched for any enemies that may be approaching. She rushed back to Giotto as she spoke to him with urgency only to see the armored man placing what looked like bombs on the door.

"Already on it"

As Giotto finished his words the door exploded and a huge hole was left on the thick metal door.

"You could have cut through"

Jessica commented as she looked at GIotto's hands which had held the beam saber a while ago.

"Too long, come here"

Giotto answered curtly, he looked outside only to see that the door led to nothing. The huge door and the cliff outside shows that the door was an entrance for huge aerial vehicles. Seeing this Giotto did not hesitate as VEDA informed him that a group of soldiers were coming their way.

"VEDA, initiate the self destruct sequence for the base"

The moment Giotto entered the base, VEDA had already begun its attack on the servers. It found out the self-destruct sequence of the base and more information on Hydra.

Like how all their bases had a self destruct feature to ensure their enemies won't find traces of their activities and research.

Interestingly enough, the bases walls were lined with explosives to ensure that any self-destruct operation would completely obliterate anything that allows their enemies a lead to them.

Because of this, Giotto decided to take Jessica back to his base-

Without any warning Giotto took Jessica into his arms and flew off, increasing his flame output to create a GN field as he flew to block the wind pressure of high speed flight.

Giotto shot out of the base and as he did the self-destruct operation of the base was initiated and all the remaining HYDRA soldiers and officers in the base were swallowed by flames and destruction.

"So you have a hacker on your side?"

Jessica calmed down, she had experienced her own fair share of crazy things being an agent of HYDRA. As she relaxed she was able to start giving out random comments to avoid silence.

"Well, you could put it that way"

Giotto answered with a half baked response. 

This made Jessica realize that she can't get any useful information from the man. Moreover, escaping was not an option-

*I can't survive a fall from this height at this speed-*

Jessica thought as she looked down and saw the rapidly moving scenery way below her. But this didn't mean that she wouldn't do anything and just sit by and wait for her fate. She knew of her abilities and was fully willing to use them as such, this time, knowing her captor was a man-

"So, where are you taking me? Honestly I am not a damsel in distress but I don't mind playing that role. But I could continue resisting if you want"

Her word were not sultry, unlike Emma who had a keen understanding of the male psyche, Jessica was nothing but straightforward.

Her tone and way of speech was more like that of a friend. Some may even say that she acted like she was "one of the boys".

For Giotto, she was doing nothing more than asking about where they were going.

"My base, HYDRA won't be able to track you there"

Giotto said apathetically without giving Jessica a second glance.

Seeing his reaction, Jessica asked.

"Does your suit have its own breathing apparatus? Or some filter?"

Her question was followed by an action of looking for any holes on Giotto's mask.

"No, it's too much of a waste to add it, there's just a bunch of vents that allows air to enter the suit"

Hearing Giotto's response, Jessica asked curiously.

"Is that so? Anyway, I could understand a secret base, but why bring me? I mean, you could just kill me or something if you don't want your secret going out."

Jessica was not naive, she did not believe that the man G.G. would save her out of kindness. In fact her initial thought was that the man developed an interest in her body.

Well, it's not like she wasn't used to it, her suit after all, fully showed off her assets. Moreover, Jessica was confident in her looks, she wasn't wearing a mask which means that the man in armor could see her clearly.

She even caught him sizing her up, which means he did take a good look at her body.

Even now, the man was holding her in a pretty suggestive way.

*Then again, he probably can't feel anything under that suit*

She thought, but as she did she realized something-

*So he's planning to get a GOOD feel at his base? Well, as long as he removes that suit… wait- damn I need to find a way to restrain him-*

Jessica was thinking of various crazy ideas on the other hand Giotto already spaced out. He still had his mind focused on heading back to base but his mind was constantly sifting through various thoughts-

[Giotto POV]

Based on VEDA's analysis it seems my mind, due to half of my brain being in the Quantum Void, has now been superimposed with various other realities…

No, I could tell, VEDA's assessment is correct but not completely accurate. Instead of superimposition between realities it's more like a superposition between my past self and my current self-

No, that's also wrong, it's more like a superposition between Giotto, Me and Aeolia Schenberg-

*That is correct child-*

What?! Whose that!

*A man you know all too well*

This voice… no- it can't be!

*What child?*

Giotto?

*You are far sharper than Aeolia had told me, the time is nearing, neither he nor I could last any longer, child, this superimposition of your mind will not last too long. For now- Sleep*

Wait! Not yet! I need to bring Jessica to the base! I need to ensure she's fine before anything else!

*I see, kindness is one of your traits, if you weren't the way you are, Aeolia and I would have fought desperately till the end… but child- you are correct, do not trust "it", your power is yours. It had long been yours, it is neither mine, nor is it Aeolia's*

What? What does that mean?! Giotto! Hey! I have your memories but why can't I remember how to use Zero Point Breakthrough? Why are there a lot of blanks in my memories? Why? Even before I was in the Quantum Void!

*Aeolia will give you the answer to all your questions, child. For now, do what must be done and get some… rest*

Wait! Hey! Don't go! Not Yet!

[Jessica POV]

"WAIT!"

Huh? What the hell is he on about? I was just talking about his plans with me and he's screaming wait? No, the way he screamed… that's weird, he should have gotten excited… no, is this a weird play of his?

I couldn't understand, I wanted to say something but after screaming G2 just went silent.

Alright, what did I expect from him? I mean, he never really showed his true colors. Anyway, all I need to do is follow him.

The worst he could do is rape me but with my current state that's not really much of a problem. At least I'm… alive…

Haa- who the fuck am I kidding? The thought of someone forcing himself on me still scares me… I can't… really-

I was trained on all things needed to be a spy, normally I would have also gone through some "sensual" training but my mutation stopped them. They did not want to remove my uterus or remove any chances of using me as a breeding sow for mutated agents.

Well… they did already plan that, that damn Otto! Well now he's dead, but-

Dad… Who am I kidding, I- tsk… I can't hate him… even after all that he has done for me-

Hm? What's this? I felt something wet on my hands, my face got a bit itchy- I tried to scratch it but found that it was only… water?

No… am I crying?

What the hell?!

For that old geezer! He deserves to fucking die! For what he did to me! For what he turmed me into! For what he made me do! That old bas-

"Tsk!"

[3rd person POV]

Jessica was acting weird, Giotto was silently moving like a robot towards the base.

The two were not flying towards New York, neither were they heading for Point Nemo. Instead Giotto set course for a base in China.

VEDA had already set up an offshore, underwater base. Located a few nautical miles away from the shore, the underwater base was far but with Giotto's flight speed the duo were able to get there in under an hour.

The GN field helped as it allowed Giotto to go supersonic without hurting Jessica. Of course the G-Forces were also blocked out by the GN field.

After all, the reason Aeolia Schenberg planned extensively using the GN drives was because of the law breaking ability of the GN particles to manipulate quantum effects. Breaking through various physical laws.

How does an immaterial barrier defend against physical objects? It does not become solid, it simply isolates the object inside the field from physical laws.

This requires a lot of GN particles and prevents contact between the forces outside the shield and inside the shield.

Which is why if Giotto wanted to attack someone with a GN shield on, he had to either have the opponent within the shield or drop the shield completely.

Now, he was using the shield to fly at supersonic speeds without the effects of extreme G forces.

This is a luxury as GN drives could not produce so many particles, especially with its energy requirement. Fortunately for Giotto his modded drives derived energy from his flames which had near infinite supply.

Because of this, Giotto quickly arrived above the base.

He did not release the shield as he dived down, this action caused Jessica to wake up in a panic. She screamed at Giotto but before she could do anything they were already underwater.

Fortunately, the shield was still in effect as it blocked out the water, this made Jessica calm down while snapping her back to reality.

It was at this point that she found the weirdness in Giotto's actions.

What followed was Jessica and Giotto entering an underwater base. Being placed in a room and Giotto left.

Jessica tried to leave the room and she was able to, she followed Giotto but was not able to follow him into his room.

Giotto did not remove his suit, realizing that she had no way to find out the man's identity, Jessica proceeded to walk around the base. As she did her stomach started rumbling making her realize that she had not had a meal since morning.

"First food-"

Jessica whispered as she started to look for the kitchen.

While Jessica was busy searching for food, Giotto had already gotten out of the armor. Walking out of the armor, he had a blank look on his face.

Without delay he walked towards his bed and fell onto the soft, mattress-

*When was the last time I had a peaceful night's rest?*

He thought to himself, as he lay atop his bed, his mind blurred, his body felt light and he felt the feeling he had long lost…

*No… when was the last time I felt truly… slee-*

He was unable to complete his thoughts as his vision turned dark and he fell in the world of darkness.