Sunrider: The Mask of Zero
is a Code Geass and Sunrider crossover where following the events of the original series, Lelouch is revived over a hundred years later to take up the mantle of Zero once more. However, he is relucent to do so given the events of the series and how many of his past actions still haunt him combined with the fact that almost everyone he fought and died for have long since passed on.
However, two students on Cera with the aid of a certain immortal witch do managed to convince him to take upon the mantle of Zero once more, both as a chance to make amends for his past actions, those intentional and otherwise. At the same time hopes to prevent someone else from making the same mistakes he did.
It is also posted on Archive of Our Own Here .
This story provides examples of
- Absent Aliens: Despite the setting being a literal galaxy, only humans populate the vast majority of the galaxy. There are some ailen creatures like Space Whales and such animals on certain planets, but any intellgent ailen lifeforms are not seen. However, details mentioned in the original game and a statement by Chigara from Sunrider Academy suggests it is because humans exterminated most aliens lifeforms espeically intellgent ones rather than subjugated them and risk an uprising in the distant past .
- Abusive Precursors: The ancient Ryuvians of the Holy Ryuvian Empire were not nice people to put it mildly, in fact Lelouch directly compares them to the Holy Britannian Empire, but much worse and its royal family makes the Britannian Royal Family at its worse look tame in comparison given the number of assassinations and power grabs among them. However, unlike Britannia their advance technology made their emperors were worshipped as gods and ruled the whole galaxy for tens of thousands of years until a series of destructive civil wars and succession conflicts tore it all part sending the galaxy into a dark age that lasted almost a thousand years reducing the Ryuvian Empire to a shell of its former self.
- Anonymous Benefactor: A white robed woman appears to Lelouch in the early chapters giving him information leading to the the ship graveyard of the Mnemosyne Abyss a treasure trove of Lost Technology which the sell of priceless artifacts and reverse engineering it helps Lelouch gain an advantage over the vast armies of PACT despite being vastly outnumbered .
- Back from the Dead: Lelouch, through a project dubbed the aptly named Pandora Project which is funded by C.C. with Admiral Grey having provided the technology and the resources, which came from the planet Diode before it was destroyed.
- Big Bad: The one Lelouch has been brought back to fight, Veniczar S. Arcadius the leader of PACT who aims to conquer the galaxy. His true identity is a Hive Mind of female Artificial Humans known as the Prototypes, led by Alice Ashada and Alpha Prototype.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Captain Kidd and his pirate fleet are subjected to this by Zero in a
decisive battle against the Black Knights with most of the fleet wiped out and Kidd himself captured. - Decadent Court: The New Empire and the Holy Ryuvian Empire was this, which Lelouch notes made the Holy Britannian Empire at its worse look tame in comparison. In fact it was one of the reason both the New Empire and the Ryuvian Empire would fall, the former to string of ineffective rulers, needlessly cruelty and rampant corruption rotted it until it was overthrown. The latter was destroyed after a series of civil wars and battles for succession caused it to collapse upon itself. Sola and details Lelouch and the Black Knights confirm this for the Holy Ryuvian Empire .
- Godzilla Threshold: A big reason why Admrial Grey supported the Pandora Project to bring back Lelouch, given his accomplishments he pulled off before he was an adult and his power of Geass knowing that the Solar Alliance would ignore the threat of PACT until its too late.
- Oh, Crap!: Several moments of this in the story, such as Captain Kidd realizing he and his fleet of pirates have walked into a well-engineered trap, then in the following chapter Alice realizes she is dealing the original Zero possessing his Geass forcing her to cut off L7nn out of fear he could seize control of the Prototype Hive Mind, but she is unaware of its limitations .
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Cosette declines an invitation from a group of notorious pirates hunting for Zero. She knows it will result in an Epic Fail, but under the belief that the rival groups are using a Uriah Gambit clusterfuck that'll leave Zero on top. She doesn't think that Zero will personally wipe out all the pirates single-handedly .
- Took a Level in Kindness: Lelouch, due to events of the series and intent on learning the lessons of the past and prevent a repeat of the Black Knights is notably more open and honest with its new leaders and select members such as revealing his Geass while the majority of the Black Knights and its new members are kept in the dark.
