Chapter 1
Aries Villa, Britannia
2009
Two boys sat in the center of a large garden with a chess board between them. The boy on the right was studying the board intensely and the other stared at the board with a bored expression.
"Will you go already Lelouch?" the boy on the left complained to his copy. Lelouch looked up and glared at him but did move one piece on the board.
The boy on the left adopted the intense expression his brother had had on a moment ago. A pawn on the board started to tremble and slowly levitated into the air.
"Don't do that, Liam! Someone could see!" Lelouch hissed to his brother and the pawn clattered back onto the board.
"Sorry, sheesh, I just wanted to practice, and no one's around." Liam said, "Hmmm, that's kind of weird, I can't see any guards around the perimeter, and the shift change isn't until later."
Lelouch looked at his watch and said to his brother, "Oh no! Its noon, and now we're going to be late."
The twins were supposed to meet their mother and sister in the house to greet the guests that were coming to see their mom. The boys had reached the house and were panting from the physical exertion when they heard sounds, not unlike fire crackers coming from inside the house. The boys proceeded cautiously to the door that led to the main staircase and sneaked a look into the room, what they saw caused their blood to run cold.
A row of men stood facing the staircase, guns pointed at two figures laying there. The leader watched the larger figure shield the smaller with her own body as her lifeblood pooled around them. The two figures were what nearly caused the twins to cry out; it was their mother and sister. Tears pooled in their eyes as they realized that they were helpless, and to even attempt to save their sister would mean certain death. They were drawn from their morbid thoughts as the man in front started to speak into a radio.
"We have successfully dealt with the witch; it is a pity that her child did not die from the bullets but that is something that can be easily corrected. Even though it is just a child, it is a spawn of the devil and must be dealt with for the preservation of our blue and pure world! Now, kill it!"
"NO!" two young voices cried out. The twins had simultaneously abandoned their hiding place and had dashed out onto the staircase. From their new vantage point they could see that their mother's eyes were glassy and unfocused. She wasn't blinking or breathing.
"Well, well, well, looks like the other devil's spawn came to us. That will make this oh so much easier. Exterminate them." The team commander said sadistically to his subordinates. The men grinning raised their guns; the twins closed their eyes expecting death.
The sounds of gunfire echoed throughout the room, but the twins felt nothing. They opened their eyes and watched as four of the gunmen fell to the floor, bleeding. On the balcony surrounding the room stood the Aries Villa guards, guns aimed at the assassins.
"Get them out of here now, Gottwald!" their elder sister Cornelia shouted. The blue haired man nodded and ran over to where the children were getting their sister. He picked her up in his arms and motioned for the twins to follow him.
As they left they could hear the last of the assassins shout "No, Kill them!" when a gunshot interrupted them.
"For the murder of Lady Marianne, You. Will. Die" Cornelia snarled.
A few minutes earlier
With the guards
Cornelia Li Britannia sat on a bench in the garden of the Aries Villa. Various members of the guard were scattered about the garden. She wondered why Lady Marianne had sent them away. Did she not want the guards to intimidate her guests? She was brought out of her musings by a guard standing stiffly in front of her.
"Yes" she asked "what do you want?"
"Forgive me for my bluntness princess, but why did you order us to leave? "He asked.
Cornelia raised an eyebrow, not many soldiers would have the guts to ask such a blunt question to their superiors, let alone royalty.
"I didn't, Lady Marianne did," Cornelia vaguely wondering where her little brothers were. They would always run off and only a handful of guards could find them, one of whom was in front of her.
"Lady Marianne has been acting strange since his morning," the man stated, "We shouldn't have left."
"Lady Marianne is different, but I do agree it is strange, but we have our orders." She replied, in the distance she could see her little brothers running toward the house. They must have lost track of the time. At this point she realized the soldier was still speaking.
"—and Princess Nunnally said something strange this morning, she came over to me and asked me to stay inside the house with her and Lady Marianne. When I asked why she said she'd had a nightmare about assassins coming and—"
He was interrupted by a very familiar sound; Cornelia's eyes were wide as she stood up panicked. In the distance they saw the twins walk into the house as the sound continued.
"Everyone, back to the house now!" Cornelia shouted, inside she was panicking. How had people with guns gotten into the Villa without them noticing?
As soon as they neared the entrance to the house, she got her answer. In front of them stood the soldiers who were supposed to be guarding the perimeter with their guns pointed at her and her troops.
"Ah, Princess Cornelia, we wondered when you would get here." One said.
"What is the meaning of this, Captain? "The eighteen year old princess asked through gritted teeth.
"Why, we are just ridding the world of a witch and her demonic children." The captain said smiling, "That reminds me, you are a child of Charles Di Britania too, aren't you? That means you carry his ability, and for that you must die!"
The captain was raising his gun just as the soldiers behind Cornelia opened fire on him and the treasonous soldiers. Cornelia and a bunch of the loyal soldiers quickly dispatched the traitors.
They sprinted inside and heard faint voices coming from where the main staircase was. Using a back entrance they quietly sneaked into the room where many of them stopped in horror. On the staircase lay Lady Marianne with Nunnally under her having shielded her body with her own body. Above them closer to the doors were Lelouch and Liam, who had dashed out when the commander had ordered the gunners surrounding the staircase to kill their little sister.
Cornelia processed this all in a few seconds and came to a decision. The assassins wanted the Vi Britanias dead, why she didn't know but at the moment that didn't matter. What mattered was getting Lelouch, Liam and Nunnally out of here and fast. She ordered the soldier, who had asked her why she had left Lady Marianne unprotected, to take her siblings and get them out of here.
Then she turned her attention back to the assassins and snarled, "For the murder of Lady Marianne, You. Will. Die."
With Jeremiah Gottwald and the Vi Britannias
Jeremiah led the twins down two long hallways before they heard footsteps behind them. They reached the cellar as their pursuers caught up to them.
Jeremiah slammed the door as they opened fire. He gently laid Nunnally on the floor, and then moved to block access to the door. Once he finished, he turned back to the twins.
"We have to get you out of here." He told them, then moved to the back wall and moved the third shelf aside revealing a blank wall. He then tapped three bricks on the wall which opened up to reveal a safe room. He moved Nunnally and the twins into the room.
"Stay here, do not open this door for any reason," Jeremiah Gottwald instructed, "there is another door in here that leads outside, if you think someone is going to break into here, follow the tunnel and get out of here."
"What about you, Orange?" Liam asked, worried, "aren't you going to be in here with us?"
"No, I will be staying here to greet our pursuers," Jeremiah said as he closed the safe room door, cutting off the twins' protests. He replaced the shelf to its previous spot on the wall and drew his gun as the door was torn down.
There were two pursuers, both held pistols and had masks covering their faces.
"Stand aside, our business is not with you." The one on Jeremiah's right said.
"I cannot allow you to harm them," Jeremiah cried, "and I will be willing to die if it means that they would live!"
Jeremiah lunged and grabbed the right guy's head and kneed him in the groin. He switched his grip so he was holding the man up in front of him as the left man fired his gun. The man jerked as the bullets struck him. Pain erupted as a bullet went straight through his human shield into his side. Another bullet went into left arm and shoulder causing him to drop the man.
Jeremiah staggered and collapsed onto one knee as a bullet hit his left leg. His shooter walked to stand behind him.
"Your loyalty and bravery, for your country is admirable, but is ill founded." The shooter said from behind him.
"And why is that?" Jeremiah asked scornfully.
"Because your royalty are all demons, and must be destroyed for the preservation of our world." Was the man's instantaneous reply.
"So what, you're going to kill me for following my liege?" Jeremiah inquired sarcastically.
"No, that would be too kind; I sense that you are a man whose foundation is his loyalty. So what would destroy you, would be to force you to fight against those who you swore allegiance to."
"What's that supposed to—"Jeremiah asked as the shooter struck him in the back of the head. Jeremiah slumped to the ground, unconscious.
"Now that he won't cause any more trouble in the near future, time to find where he hid those demon brats" the shooter mumbled to himself. Knocking the shelves over as he searched the walls.
"Come out come out kiddies, I promise if you do I'll make it as painless as possible," the shooter said with a maniacal grin on his face as he turned toward the back wall. "Yes a bullet to the head is a fast way to go"
He shoved the shelf in front out of the way and opened fire on the wall. When the gun ran out of ammo he stepped back a little to admire his handiwork. Instead he watched in fascination as the wall sucked in the bullets leaving an unblemished, blank wall.
"What the hell is this?" he cried, reloading his gun and again firing at the wall. Again the wall sucked in the bullets, confusing the shooter even more. As he began to fire again at the wall he was stopped by a sharp pain in his chest.
Cornelia stepped over the shooter's body once he had fallen and went to open the secret door.
She was met by the two frightened faces of her little brothers, whom she hugged as the Aries Villa guards formed a circle around the royals.
Inside the Villa, one of the remaining terrorists was fiddling with the bombs strapped to his chest as the other survivors carried an unconscious Jeremiah into their escape route.
"Good luck." One survivor said to the bomber who nodded.
The bomber watched as the guards led the royals outside. "Still in range, good," he thought with a maniacal grin.
"FOR THE PRESERVATION OF OUR BLUE AND PURE WORLD!" he shouted as he triggered a switch.
With an earth shattering boom the Aries Villa exploded knocking the guards and the royals to the ground.
"Orange! He's was in there!" Liam cried out watching the flaming rubble that was their home for any sign of the soldier.
"Everything's going to be alright, he may have made it out in time…" was all Cornelia could tell them, she wasn't sure she believed it herself.
Imperial Palace, Pendragon
2009
"Announcing Prince Lelouch Vi Britannia, seventeenth heir to the royal Britannian imperial throne, and Prince Liam Vi Britannia eighteenth heir to the royal Britannian imperial throne." A herald announced to the assembled royals.
The twin princes walked heads held high toward Emperor Charles Zi Britannia ignoring the murmured conversations around them.
"I hear that Marianne was killed by radicals, inside the palace."
"And yet the boys remain even though their mother is dead, and the Ashford family who stood behind them is finished as well."
"And their sister, the princess?"
"I understand she was shot in the legs, now she can't even be married off for political gain."
"It seems that the Vi Britannia's fates will be decided in this meeting."
The twins stopped in front of the throne where their father sat and bowed.
"Hail your majesty, our mother the Empress is dead."
"Old news, what of it?"
"What of it?" the twins shouted indigently.
"So she was killed by radicals who did not survive the guards' retaliation. What we are here to decide is what to do with you."
"With us?" Liam asked wary.
"It seems that all you two are useful for are repeating whatever it is that I say." The emperor stated as the kids blanched. "You two will cause too much trouble together therefore you will be separated. You Lelouch, will be sent to Japan. Liam and Nunnally will be sent to the PLANTS for schooling."
Pendragon International Airport,
Three days later
Six figures stood in the airport in the area for private planes. One girl was in a wheelchair, one girl was openly crying while the eldest girl had a sad expression. The single adult male held a similar expression while the two identical boys were studying the ground.
"It'll be alright in the end you two; after all, you can still talk to each other." Schneizel said trying to cheer up the twins. They had never been separated for so long or so far.
"Yeah" they replied dejected.
"I'll miss you!" Euphie cried hugging the twins and doing the same to Nunnally. Cornelia followed suit except her hugs were of the bone crushing variety. Schneizel merely patted Lelouch and Liam on the hand before heading out.
"Excuse me your highnesses" an attendant said, "Prince Lelouch's plane is ready to depart."
"Goodbye big brother, good luck in Japan" Liam and Nunnally told Lelouch as he followed the attendant.
"Your plane will be ready to depart in a moment" a different attendant told Liam and Nunnally.
"Don't worry you two, the PLANTS have some of the best schools in Britannia, with your intelligence you'll fit right in. and they may be able to help Nunnally" Cornelia told them as the attendant led them to their plane. "You'll be just fine."
Cornelia never knew how wrong her words would prove to be.
An: Many thanks to Jman12394 for making this chapter presentable.
This is an idea that was taking up too much space in my head so despite the fact that I have not finished A Second Chance, A Second War I have written this. I do not know when I will be updating this story as I have other work to do and another story. I will try to update at least every 1-2 months. Thank you for reading and please review.