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Code Fuga: The Melody of Zero

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"But that’s why we have to fight. To give them the peace they deserve, and to let the world grow as it should. Maybe it’ll be like Berman. Once we take out the Emperor, the people might soon change for the better."
Malt Marzipan

Code Fuga: The Melody of Zero is a Code Geass/Fuga: Melodies of Steel crossover fanfiction by SparktheDog, taking place in an alternate aftermath of Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3.

Having stopped Maestro's plans on the moon, the children aboard the Omega Taranis prepare to return to their Earth. Only instead, they found themselves in an alternate Earth where a country known as Britannia rules most of the world with an iron fist. Now, the children find themselves fighting another war in allegiance of the exiled prince Lelouch under his Zero guise, and hopefully free the world and bring change to Britannia.


Tropes present in Code Fuga:

  • Accidental Misnaming: Happens from time to time, such as when Malt, Mei, and Boron accidentally call Ohgi "Oggy" or Chick referring to Lelouch as "Ley-luke". Justified in that some of them are still very much young children.
  • Accidental Truth: When Malt, Kyle, Kallen and Ohgi are all discussing why Lelouch, a Britannian, would fight against his own country, Malt mentions how his situation might be similar to Britz's in how he was mistreated by his own people, with Ohgi suggesting that a Britannian killed someone close to him in a cross-fire. Not only did they accurately guessed that Lelouch watched as a Britannian commander shot Suzaku right in front of him in Shinjuku, but it goes back even further when he watched his mom get assassinated and his sister get crippled at the same time, with his father disowning and exiling him almost immediately after before using him as a political pawn to justify a full-on war with Japan, leading to Lelouch concluding that the assassination was an inside job.
  • Adaptational Context Change:
    • Just as in the original, Lelouch discovers a limitation to his Geass shortly after acquiring it. In the anime, he discovered it by accident when trying to command Villetta to surrender her Sutherland while she was still in it, forcing him to make a fake cover story on the spot in order to get direct eye contact for his power to work. Here, Lelouch tries to Geass the Omega Taranis, and ends up willingly surrendering himself upon discovering that it's piloted by children, while also vowing never to use his power on them since he considers that going too far. Because of this, Lelouch ends up commanding the on-site resistance members in Shinjuku while inside the Omega Taranis, instead of a hijacked Sutherland.
    • In canon, "Orange" was a made-up phrase Lelouch used to sow suspicion amongst the Purebloods and discredit Jeremiah before using his Geass to have him release Suzaku. Here, as Jeremiah was trying to pin the Taranis' rampage on Zero, he instead twists the context to hide the Taranis using "Orange", making it seem as if it was a secret Britannian project Gone Horribly Wrong to tarnish his reputation even more than he did originally.
    • Lelouch's failure in Saitama resulted in him deciding to create the Black Knights out of necessity in order to more efficiently combat Britannia. He still decides to create the Black Knights out of practicality here as well, but it's due to the children of the Omega Taranis being considered so unruly and willing to become Military Mavericks that he needed something more reliable to make up for them.
  • Adaptational Early Appearance: Though he did cameo in Episode 6, "The Stolen Mask", Schneizel el Britannia never made his first major introduction in the anime until Episode 18, "I Order you, Suzaku Kururugi". Here, Schneizel appears as early as Movement 5, "What We Fight For", which takes place around the same time as the sixth episode.
  • Adaptational Karma: Cornelia, who gets away with massacring Saitama scot-free in the original anime, gets utterly trounced by the Omega Taranis here. She also loses Guliford in combat and gets Geass'd by Zero way earlier than intended!
  • Cassandra Truth: It's safe to say that no one in Britannia takes the threat of the Taranis seriously until they directly encounter it, as seen as a few times in Shinjuku. Zero exploits this in Movement 3 to further discredit Jeremiah during his plan to break out Suzaku.
  • Deducing the Secret Identity: Surprisingly, Wappa gets one over Lelouch when she noticed how strange it is how Zero appeared just shortly after Kallen tried to question him over his involvement in Shinjuku, which Malt was later able to confirm by noting how Zero agreed to privately talk to him in the Taranis, something that he wouldn't do if he didn't already know what the Taranis was beforehand. The only reason why Malt doesn't go public with Lelouch being Zero is because he understands that he only wanted to protect his friends, and how his Zero persona is possibly the only way he'll agree to work with the other resistance members to begin with.
  • Death by Adaptation: Guliford wound up becoming a fatal victim of the Omega Taranis in Movement 6, getting shot by one of its cannons and being unable to eject thanks to Vanilla damaging the outer hull of his Knightmare. The children consider it to be an Accidental Murder on their part, with Jin admitting that his death was a mistake.
  • Demographic-Dissonant Crossover: Zig Zagged. Code Geass is a dark Real Robot series aimed at older teenagers with its main factions crossing Black-and-Gray Morality. The zig-zagging comes in when looking at Little Tail Bronx as a whole, which are far more idealistic with the first two games, Tail Concerto and Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, firmly setting in Black-and-White Morality despite also delving into heavy themes themselves. The Fuga Trilogy is far darker in tone with greater focus on war, with revenge being a Central Theme in how far one is willing to go before it begins to turn into Irrational Hatred, which helps make the contrast less jarring if one overlooks how the main characters of Fuga are all anthropomorphic cats and dogs.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: Lelouch lying to Nunnally about how he was practicing acting for a potential School Festival plan leads to him coming up with the idea to create a false identity to misdirect Kallen.
  • Funbag Airbag: In trying to run away from Kallen after nearly getting exposed by her, Lelouch accidentally bumps into Shirley's breasts in Movement 2.
  • Godzilla Threshold: The Soul Cannon hasn't been used thus far, but it's mentioned that the children swore never to use it even if it's the final survival strategy they have.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Subverted, which is funnily enough, also Played Straight as Kallen and Ohgi assume the children are overly trusting of people. In truth, they're aware that trust isn't something they should throw around so casually, but they also believe it to be a disservice if they immediately turn someone away without getting to know them to some degree first.
  • Internal Reformist: Just like in canon, Suzaku believes he can change Britannia from within. While Jin respects him for this, he warns him that it's ultimately a fool's errand as long as the current Emperor is in charge, since he knows from first-hand experience that people like him will refuse to change and will make sure any chance of reformation is impossible. Suzaku, being Suzaku, tells Jin he's going to try and change the system anyways.
  • Loophole Abuse: When Lelouch teams up with the children of the Taranis in Shinjuku, he refuses to tell them him name to protect his identity when all was said and done. The children accidentally play this by telling the resistance members what he looked like instead, which threw Lelouch into a panic before he came up with the idea to create Zero to throw them off.
  • Moral Myopia: Suzaku, as per usual. Made worse when Malt and Kyle directly call out Suzaku for contributing to the violence in Shinjuku, only for him to retaliate with a simple Shut Up, Kirk! instead.
  • Multi-Part Episode: Movement 1 is listed as such in the chapter listing.
  • Noodle Incident: Psyche at one point wrecked Lloyd's entire lab, the only hints on how it happened being that he didn't know the legs were lighter than they looked and they weren't locked down enough.
  • Outside-Context Problem:
    • To the nations and factions of the Code Geass world, Britannia's Knightmare Frames are the pinnacle of modern warfare backed by the might of the most powerful empire in history. Against the Omega Taranis, a super-tank from an alternate timeline meant to fight against Titano-Machina and other Juno-based weapons, they are flattened with ridiculous ease with the exception of the Lancelot (and it's clear that even it would've been taken down were it not for Malt allowing Suzaku to retreat).
    • The Crimson Knights are this thanks to their Wrong Context Magic, being able to utterly trounce the Glaston Knights in a Curb-Stomp Battle. The only difference being that they join Britannia as their own specialized task force backed by Schneizel, who kept it a secret up until Cornelia makes her debut as Area 11's new Viceroy.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Ash gives one to Jeremiah in Movement 5 over his plan to incriminate Suzaku to save the Purebloods from scrutiny and how it blew up in his face once Zero exposed it.
    Ash: That doesn’t change the fact that you had Zero dead to rights, and you let him go, Orange Boy. You’ve made a laughingstock out of the Purebloods, especially with how you open fire on your own men. Of course, whatever you planned to do with Suzaku was doomed from the start, though given how you’ve obstructed justice by denying Ceceil’s reports, you probably knew that, didn’t you?
    Jeremiah: W- Wait-
    Ash: You should've sucked it up and waited out the initial scrutiny following Clovis’ death. Now, because of you, no one will give your little team the time of day, and Princess Cornelia is working overtime to quell the masses however she and her men can. I hope that three-rank demotion was worth it.
    Jeremiah: T- Three… ranks… ?
    Ash: If I were you, Jeremiah, I’d retire with whatever dignity I have left and work on an orange farm. But knowing you, you’d probably start all over from the beginning as an average pilot, working your way back up no matter how many times it breaks you.
  • Secret-Keeper: Malt becomes this to Zero in Movement 3 in regards to his true identity as Lelouch. By Movement 5, Vanilla also becomes one as well after rightfully guessing that Malt knew Zero's identity, though in her case, she only knows that Zero is Britannian and not much else.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Spanner in the Works:
    • Lelouch's plan to keep hidden following Shinjuku pretty much goes up in smoke because he didn't anticipate the children telling the resistance group what he looked like physically, or Boron noticing how his eye glowed whenever he uses his Geass when it failed to work on the Taranis itself.
    • Pops up again in Movement 6. The Omega Taranis' involvement in Saitama winds up ruining both Lelouch's and Cornelia's plans, due to the children and Vanilla being able to help the citizens evacuate and utterly destroy the latter's forces with minimal effort.
  • Tank Goodness: The Omega Taranis, natch. For added irony, Britannia was able to easily overpower Japan's tanks using their Knightmares.
  • You Remind Me of X: Which is why the children of the Taranis didn't hesitate to join the fight against Britannia. They saw too many similarities between it and the formerly Kaiser-led Berman Empire for them to stand by and do nothing. Played for Drama in Movement 4 when Britz has his Trauma Button pushed from a group of Britannian bullies attempting to assault Hanna.
    Britz: This place… Britannia… I’m sorry, but it really does remind me too much of the Berman Empire…

Why do deaths end my torture?
Why can't anyone feel my hurt?
Why'd you crown the most violent to be champions?
In this inferno
We built for ourselves
Reviving each other in this hell

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