- Evil Instrument Ver: 2 -

On the southern end of the dormitories a young girl stirred as a ray of sunlight shone through the window onto the canopy bed. She mumbled as she woke before releasing a jaw splitting yarn as she stretched, not being a morning person she took her time rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière sixteen years old was a petite girl of short stature with peach blond hair and eyes the color of apples. She was a second year student of Tristain's prestigious academy of magic which is attended by every young mage in the kingdom, so great was its prestige it even attracted students from other kingdoms. There were no age restrictions for those that wished to attend the academy, thou most of the student body were between the ages of fifteen (first years) to 17 (third years). However allowances were made for younger students who've proven they were talented, as well for older students whom had transferred from other academies and had been required to repeat a year.

Things hadn't gone so well for the young mage, as for the past year and even before that, all her spells had backfired, fortunately she hadn't been required to repeat a year. Only just recently she had bungled a simple alchemy spell that any mage of 'Dot' rank could perform. Ever since she began practicing magic at a young age neither she nor anyone else could identify the cause of her magic's instability, it didn't matter what type of spell she tried or however many precautions were taken it always ended with same result; an explosion. It was a recurring mystery that boggled everyone who tried to solve it.

Getting out of bed she washed her face before going to the wardrobe to retrieve her school uniform which consisted of a white blouse and gray pleated skirt, a black cloak that distinguished her as a second year student, pinned at the front by a broach embellished with the pentagram of the five elements.

Today she and every other second year in the academy would participate in the 'Springtime Familiar Summoning' Ritual, where each would summon his or her familiar whose nature signified the summoner's elemental affinity. The ritual was mandatory for all second year students and every mage born on Halkeginia for the past six thousand years had performed the spell at least once in their lives. For Louise it would hopefully be the first step to solving the mystery behind her erratic mage, what she didn't know was not only would her summon set her on the path to discovering the truth behind her magic, but would also plunge her into numerous conflicts spanning the continent.

In an unknown lab in one of the many Code Geass universes, scientists working for Prince Clovis on the C.C. Project diligently went about their work, their task; to recreate the unique abilities of the test subject known only as C.C. an immortal with extraordinary abilities.

Previous attempts to recreate the subject's abilities were partially successful when implanting C.C's cells directly into a human test subject, forming micro-tubes inside their bodies that interface with Eden Vital allowing them to twist universal laws granting them either physical or mental enhancements. However the transplanted cells eat away at the body in a short period of time killing the host. In response 'Inhibitors' in the form of a drug had been developed to mitigate the damage by controlling the cell's growth preventing them from running rampant, thus extending the test subjects' life expectancy, however this also reduced the effective output of the subjects' enhancements. In spite of their initial success, immortality was a long ways off.

Suspended within its holding tank with electrodes attached to monitor its vitals was a living doll shaped object that was created using the immortal's cells in the hope of replicating all her abilities. The purpose of the doll was for it to form a symbiotic bond with its host merging with them on the cellular level, thus allowing them to interface with Eden Vital while at the same time preventing the host's body from corroding. The scientists designated it; Magical Device Nemo.

However the scientists had not anticipated that the symbiote would become self aware and fearing that it could influence and perhaps even control the host, they concluded that without a means to insure obedience, it was too dangerous to implant and as such was confined to its tank for further study. Now regarded as a parasite, Nemo acquired its new moniker; The Evil Instrument.

From its tank, Nemo observed the scientists as it waited impatiently for a chance to escape and seek out a host. Then one day an anomaly occurred within the confines of its tank.

A shining mirror-like object, elliptical in shape, with no substantial thickness floated before Nemo. It had a diameter of about 30cm across, easily big enough for Nemo to fit through, curious an arm sprouted from Nemo's body and extended out to touch the mirror's surface. Upon contact Nemo was yanked from the electrodes and was drawn into its surface.

When the ritual began, Louise watched as one by one each student summoned their familiars. Tabitha's young Wind Dragon set the bar high as the most impressive summoning by far, offered by Louise's rival; Kirche, whose salamander a close second. Last night the girls had taunted her on how she would most likely fail to summon a familiar in which she retorted by claiming that she'd summon the most impressive familiar, so far it looked as thou she wouldn't be able to match her claim, but surely she could do better than Montmorency's frog.

When at long last she was called to perform the summoning, Louise stepped forward and began to caste. "Pentagram of the five elements, heed my call and bring forth my familiar!"

As per usual the result was a spectacular explosion, however as the dust began to clear, nothing appeared to have come through, mind you they were expecting something bigger and therefore didn't notice as a tiny figure slipped away under the cover of the dust cloud.

Louise could only stare at the empty space before her in disbelief. Begged Colbert to allow her to try again, which he had granted her, she repeated her attempt several times before eventually breaking out in tears as the worse possible outcome became increasingly apparent. Louise who had thought she had hit rock bottom when she'd been given the moniker of Louise the Zero in reference to her success rate, only to learn that the bottom had a basement when she botched a spell that theoretically no one could fail at.

Unable to bear any further ridicule at this point, Louise fled towards the academy, heading for the dorms as fast as her short legs could carry her.

Running across the courtyard, she tripped and fell over, fortunately no one had witnessed her fall. For a time she lay there sobbing.

"So you're the one that brought me here, I've been waiting for you my little witch." A voice called to her, looking up Louise saw what appeared to be a crudely shaped clay doll sitting before her. It seemed to be made from two clumps of white clay, with a small body and an overly large head with a red streak across its face giving it the expression of an owl. Louise immediately assumed it to be some kind of Alviss, like the ones in the dining hall.

"I called you here?" She paraphrased, sitting up as the meaning behind its words sunk in. 'The spell must've worked, and this thing is what I summoned?' She couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at how unimpressively small it was, however at this point she would take even the smallest glimmer of success if it meant avoiding been expelled.

"I can feel it..."It continued, its voice echoing with Louise's mind as its body trembled, "Your anger."

"Anger at the ridicule directed towards you by your peers..."

"Anger at the unyielding pressure imposed upon you by your family..."

"Anger, at your own inability..."

Louise gasped staring wide eyed at the doll. 'How does it know? I've yet to tell it anything.' She wondered.

"In exchange from freeing me from my confinement, I propose a deal." An arm sprouted from the doll's body and extended out towards Louise. "In exchange for making one of our wishes comes true... I will lend you my power."

"Your power?" Louise repeated uncertain.

"Yes... The power to fulfill our desires."

Tempted, Louise reached out to the doll with her wand. "My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière."

"Nemo," It introduced itself, "The Evil Instrument"

Louise began to caste. "Pentagram of the five elemental powers... Bless this humble being and make it my familiar."

With that she tapped her wand against the doll's head completing the spell 'Contract Servant,' just as its hand grasped her wrist. Louise cried out as they were engulfed within a pillar of light and the Eden Vital Beast; Mark Nemo materialized for the first time. For Louise what happened next seemed as if it were a dream.

'The next thing I knew... I was inside this usual looking golem... That's when my nightmare began...'

"The contract is complete!" Nemo proclaimed with joy. "The power of Eden Vital is mine! This is my new body!"

'As did her dream...'

Siesta was heading outside with load of laundry to be hung out to dry; exiting the girls' dorms Siesta was blinded by a sudden burst of light. When it died down what stood in its place appeared to be a medium sized black and grey golem, trailing from the back of its head six yellow hair-like extensions each ending in a wicked dagger point, to either side of its hunched back which bulged up and out behind it. Its forehead adorned with an identical red marking.

The golem flexed its arms as its hair extensions writhed like serpents. It took several slow steps forward before breaking into a run towards the nearest wall, which it quickly scaled before leaping back down to the ground.

"I can run! I can leap! I am free at long last! And soon, I'll surpass that witch."The golem's laughter bellowed across the courtyard.

Siesta screamed and abandoning her wash basket, fled from the golem.

Upon dismissing his students, Prof. Colbert followed after Louise to check up on her; afterward she would need to speak with the headmaster as this occurrence had never happened before in the academy's long history. It was of great concern that Miss Vallière had failed to perform the summoning spell, after all no mage in the past six thousand years since the spell had been formulated by the Founder Birmir himself, had ever failed to caste the spell no matter how inept they were. The fact that the spell was one in a handful of spells that didn't belong to the four elemental categories of fire, wind, earth and water, ensuring that any mage regardless of affinity and rank with enough practice could perform it. It was essentially foolproof.

Colbert's musings were interrupted when a pillar of light erupted skyward near the dorms, rushing to investigate; Colbert collided with a maid fleeing the scene in panic. Grabbing her by the shoulders he demanded, "What happened?!"

"G-golem! A golem appeared in the courtyard near the dorms." She stammered pointing back the way she came.

'A golem on academy grounds, could it be Fouquet?' He wondered. Fouquet was a powerful earth mage and notorious thief who used large golems to break into even the most heavily defended vaults.

Fearing for the safety of the other students, Colbert hurried towards the dorms. When he arrived however there was no sign of the golem, however the courtyard was littered with large footprints, standing amongst them was...

"Miss Vallière? What are you doing here?" He asked, as she seemed to be searching intently for something.

Turning towards him her bewildered expression changed to excitement. "Prof. Colbert! I have a familiar!" She announced before resuming her search.

"You do? But how... nothing appeared during the ceremony." He recalled, thinking out loud.

"It was quite small and was obscured by the dust cloud kicked up by the backfire, that's how it slipped past everyone's notice."She explained, "Darn it, where did it get to?"

"Are you sure?" He asked feeling skeptical.

"I'm sure, I caste 'Contract Servant' on it just moments ago!" She insisted.

Colbert boggled at the implication as he recalled the pillar of light he had witnessed earlier. 'Was that her doing? But that doesn't make sense; none of her previous spells resulted in such a display. It also doesn't explain...' What Louise said next startled him out of his thoughts.

"And after that, it turned into a golem. But now it's gone, seriously how does something that big disappears into thin air." Louise postured irritably, hands on her hips.

Strangely enough Colbert's thoughts concurred with hers. "Well, until I confirm the familiar runes there's little I can do." He said at first, but before Louise could protest he continued. "It's been a long day for both of us, why don't you continue to the dorms and get some rest. Once you've located your familiar, bring it to me and we can then go through the necessary motions."

Placated for now, Louise headed for the dorms while Colbert stayed behind. Surveying the area once, Colbert set off to locate the maid he had run into earlier to get more details, and then he needed to report to Osmond.

"Unbelievable." Louise grumbled when she entered her room. Closing the door behind her, she slumped into the chair seated at the small dining table."I finally succeeded in casting a spell and I still have nothing to show for it. I thought things were suppose to be better now, but instead it's more of the same."

Indeed the spell had gone off without a hitch; there hadn't even been an explosion. Though the doll-like creature wasn't her first choice for a familiar, it was better than nothing if only to prove that she succeeded. However only for both it and the golem it transformed into to vanish leaving nary a trace. Trying to explain that Prof. Colbert without either being present hadn't been easy and judging by the skepticism evident on his expression, he was hardly convinced.

"Now, now. What's with the long face? I'm gone for a few minutes and you're lonely already?"

Startled, Louise whirled around to find an unfamiliar girl standing nearby. She was the same height as Louise with pale-blond hair, eyes a deeper shade of red with pale skin and wore a seamless black one piece that covered everything except her head. Other than that, she bore an uncanny resemblance to Louise; they could almost be mistaken for twins.

"You?! Who're you? How did you get in here?" Louise demanded.

The strange girl smiled mischievously. "What, you don't recognize me?" The girl brushed away the locks of hair obscuring her face with a hand marked by several runes, revealing the same marking that had given the doll Louise encountered earlier an owlish expression.

"That mark, and those runes. You are my familiar? Why do you look different from before?" Louise wondered out loud perplexed.

"Indeed I am, and thanks to the contract we've established, I've been granted the body I've long desired to have," Nemo explained as she admired her new form. "much better than that pathetic doll's body."

Louise had to admit, Nemo's current form was much better to look at than when she had initially appeared. "Why didn't you reveal yourself when I was speaking to Prof. Colbert?" She demanded.

"There was no point," Nemo said, "And even if I did it wouldn't have helped you. I am not an entity that he can easily comprehend."

Nemo's unhelpful attitude irritated Louise. "I see. In that case you can go and wash there." She tossed a bundle of washing at Nemo, much to her surprise Nemo made no effort to catch them as they passed harmlessly through her form. "Eh?" Louise gaped.

"I'm afraid that my new body is ill suited for the tasks you're thinking of, as I am unable to interact with the physical plane as I currently am." Nemo said nonchalantly.

Having failed to chastise her familiar, Louise fumed. "You had no trouble interacting earlier."

"Those circumstances were different. Besides you wouldn't expect a dragon or a griffin to do your laundry for you now would you?" Nemo pointed out.

Louise grumbled in irritation.

"Anyway," Nemo continued, "You should get some rest, tomorrow we'll begin on the path to realizing your wish."

"My wish?"

"To be a great mage of course."

-End of Chapter 1-

A/N: In response to Xenter's review, I have revised this chapter in an attempt to resolve its issues with flow. I don't know if I've accomplished this, though I have expanded and reworded parts of this chapter, if anything I believe I've somewhat improved upon it since its original posting.

As always I'm receptive to any reviews and advice.