Welcome, readers, to this story, Code Geass: Rebirth of an Empire.
This is basically my attempt at capping off my main Code Geass fanfic, Code Geass: The Black Steel Prince of Britannia, with a decent conclusion.
I'm doing this for several reason, one of which is that, at the rate I have been writing chapter for that story, the story would have taken forever to be completed, if at all. The underlying reasons for the long time between chapters are that I'm going to college, and, perhaps more importantly, I just can't bring myself to actually write the story out as I had it planned, mainly because this would be a gruelling and not very rewarding endeavour.
In short, I don't have the motivation to write out the complete story, mostly because a lot of it would be stuff I would not be particularly thrilled to work on. Let's say there was a lot to go through to explain how things got from point A to point B.
So, to remedy that problem, I am going to take a shortcut, and condense most of the story in a resume (to be found bellow) up to the point I really want to write out, which is shortly after the United Federation of Nation (It's called the Federation of the United Nation of Eurasia in this story) moves to take back Japan and the second battle of Tokyo as ended. I will write out the rest of the story from that point on to the end.
I MAY one day properly write out what's going to be laid out bellow, however I make no promises on this.
Please note that some dates will be shifted from the cannon Code Geass timeline, mostly by a few months.
I hope you enjoy the story, such as it's going to be.
As always, I welcome comments, critiques and suggestions.
Disclaimmer: I do not own or claim any ownership to any material related to the Code Geass franchise. The sole purpose of this story is to entertain!
A Resume of The Black Steel Prince of Britannia, Part 1
15th of June 2016 ATB
Lelouch and Anastasia both graduate from the Ashford Academy. A month latter, Lelouch enrols into the Imperial Military Academy at West Point for a condensed, one year program focussing one Knightmare Tactics and Strategies. Anastasia joins the Imperial Knightmare Combat Training School in Mountbatten, Area 2. There, she meets several young aspiring knights, notably Oldrin Zevon, Marika Soresi, Liliana Vergamon, and Anya Alstreim .
2nd of July 2016 ATB
17 Years old Victoria Winchester undergoes an experimental surgery which gives her back most of the mobility in her legs. During her rehabilitation, she joins several handpicked people, including Samuel Lamperouge and Cassandra Gottwald, in an LAI testing program for their latest knightmare design. Unofficially, this is also a scouting operation for potential pilots to join a special Knigthmare battalion under Lelouch's command.
Month of September 2016 ATB
An unknown vigilante starts to cause a stir in Area 11, and quickly becomes known as a protector of oppressed Elevens. He strikes quickly and never leaves much of trace. All that is known is that he wears a bright red hooded cape, wields duelling swords with great skill, and always leaves at least one Z mark wherever he strikes. The Elevens come to call him the Crimson Phantom, a name which even the Britannian press comes to use.
11th of November 2016 ATB
The Castro Brothers make contact with representatives of the Houses of Kyoto, bringing them material support from both the EU and the Chinese Federation.
14th of February 2017 ATB
The Imperial Military Council approves plans to invade the Russian Federation to open a new front against the EU. The plan is financed and backed largely by the Euro Britannia faction. It is to take place during the coming summer. Operation's name: From Britannia With Wrath.
17th of June 2017 ATB
Lelouch graduates from West Point with grades second only to his father's, and is given the rank of Colonel. He is granted permission to create a knightmare battalion with full freedom to chose it's members, regardless of their background.
Anastasia graduates from the Mountbatten Combat School with flying colors the next day. The only one to have shown better results was Anya Alstreim, who was rumoured to have been scouted for the Knights of the Round…
20th of June 2017 ATB
Recruitment and training for Lelouch's knightmare battalion begins. The rooster includes;
-Anastasia Constantine, 2nd in command
-Zachary Lamperouge, military adviser
-Cassandra Gottwald
-Samuel Lamperouge
- Sergeants Alexander Macleod and Nathaniel Gale,
-Oldrin Zevon and Toto Thompson, (both from the manga Code Geass: Oz the Reflection)
-Marika Soresi and Liliana Vergamon
10th of July 2017 ATB
Lelouch's newly formed unit is assigned to join the invasion of Russia, under the command of Field Marshal Helen Constantine.
14th of July to August 7th 2017 ATB
Invasion of Russia gets underway. The Britannian forces, whose mainstay Knightmares have been provided by LAI, crush the Russian military, and quickly reach St-Petersbourg. Lelouch's unit show special prowess in battle, and both the Britannian and EU military start to take notice of him, the former calling him the second Black Prince, the later the Black Wolf of Britannia (Lelouch's unit insigne is a black, purple eyed wolf on a silver shield.
Shortly before the siege of St-Petersbourg, Lelouch's unit meet an unknown EU unit using never before seen Knightmares. The ensuing skirmish is at once the fiercest and shortest encounter the unit has in Russia, and while no lives are lost on Lelouch's side, several Knightmares are totalled.
8th of August 2017 ATB, Area 11
During a botched operation, four members of a resistance unit headed by Naoto Kozuki are captured, including himself.
9th of August 2017 ATB
The britannian Forces Take St-Petersbourg.
10th of August 2017 ATB
Kozuki and his fellow resistance members are set to be executed. They are saved at the last moment by the Crimson Phantom, who infiltrates the Area 11 government complex in a daring raid. He also hijacks the Area's emergency broadcast system, and, declaring himself an enemy of Britannia who calls himself "Zero", delivers a speech to the whole Area vowing to fight injustice and oppression wherever he finds it (The speech was to be an adaptation of V's revolutionary speech from V for Vendeta.)
Zero dresses (and fights) as a swashbucklerHero, complete with billowing cape and oversized, impractical but highly stylish plumed wide-brimmed hat. He wear a mask that covers his whole face like the anime's Zero, however this is mostly red, with a purely decorative golden "eye mask". Rai wears a similar silver mask, tough it only covers the upper portion of his face.
At the end of the speech, sets of fireworks go off in the ghettoes surrounding Tokyo, all ending with giant red Zs illuminating the sky. Zero, his accomplice, and the rescued resistance fighters manage to successfully escape.
11th of August 2017 ATB
Lelouch and his unit are ordered to go to Area 11 to help its government who is reeling from the Zero incident.
13th of August 2017 ATB
Lelouch arrives along with Jeremiah in Area 11, the rest of the unit being set to arrive the next day.
Unbeknown to Lelouch, Clovis' trouble just got worst; Naoto's group, unaware of their leader's status or whereabouts (Rai, Zero's accomplice, is currently trying to link up with them, but has not yet succeeded), decided to use the confusion the Britannian are in to steal what they think is a new weapon, is hopes to use it to negotiate for Naoto's and the other's release.
When Lelouch calls up on him, he finds out that Clovis has gone out in Shinjuku Ghetto to deal with "some sort of minor problem". He also finds out Isaac has been dismissed from Clovis' council of advisors the day before. Lelouch decides to personally find out what the situation is, and seek Clovis out. On his way there, his car ends up as collateral damage from the Britannian's pursuit of the hijackers, and in the ensuing chaos, he gets separated from Jeremiah.
Roaming the tunnels under Shinjuku, Lelouch ends up finding the stolen truck. There he is reunited with Suzaku, who is serving as an Honorary Britannian Soldier, and they discover that the contents of the capsule the truck is carrying is a green haired girl. Soon after, they are discovered by Clovis' royal guard, who are made up of some of the more radical members of the Purist Faction who, he discovers, despise him. Their commander orders Suzaku to shoot him, and when he refuses, shoots him in the back. Lelouch is saved only by the explosion of the stolen truck.
Lelouch and the green haired girl roam the tunnels, and end up at an exit, but the Royal Guards are waiting for them. Just as they are about to shoot Lelouch, he is saved again, this time by the green haired girl, who takes the bullet meant for him full in the head. Yet, as she laid there, she reaches out and grab his leg, and she and Lelouch have a supernatural exchange, during which she grants him a power called Geass.
With his newfound power, Lelouch commands the Royal Guards to kill themselves. Following this, he is reunited with Jeremiah, who acquired a Knigthmare off one of Clovi's knights. He and Lelouch, who again use his power, acquire another one for himself. He takes the Green Haired girl's 'body' along with them to use as a bargaining chip against Clovis, but to his surprise, she ends up sitting up on his lap as if she didn't take a bullet to the brainpan. Shrugging this off, they resume seeking the Viceroy out, this time with a vengeance.
As they do so, Clovis' forces end up being beaten back by the Shinjuku resistance, who have acquired Britannian Knightmares and are directed by Rai, who calls himself Mugen (Infinite in Japanese). In the midst of this, Suzaku, who survived being shot thanks to a memento, sets out in an experimental Knigthmare called the Lancelot, and manages to beat back the Shinjuku resistance, but the Lancelot ends up immobilized after Suzaku fights Rai.
At that point, Lelouch had reached Clovis' G1 command center, and has Clovis' call off his forces' sweep of Shinjuku. Using his Geass, Lelouch question Clovis regarding Marianne, but he knows nothing. Lelouch decides to let Clovis off, planning to make him cooperate to get to the bottom of whatever his father was up to. However, Zero shows up at that moment, and after wounding Lelouch, shoot Clovis in the head, then leaves, leaving Lelouch bleeding heavily on the floor. He is found moments later by Jeremiah.
15th of August 2017 ATB
Following the events of Shinjuku, Lelouch is hospitalized and in a medically induced coma. Calares, leader of the Purists' Faction, seizes control of the government. Lelouch's unit and his family take steps to make the Prince effectively untouchable, so Calares look to someone else to take the blame for Clovis' death, and he finds Suzaku, whom he railroads towards a show trial.
While this is going on, Rai and Zero have finally linked up with Naoto's group. While the resistance unit is overjoyed at the safe return of their leader and comrades, they do not fully trust the two revolutionaries. Zero decides to show them what he can do by freeing Suzaku, who has just been announced as being accused of Clovis' murder.
16th of august 2017 ATB
As Suzaku is paraded to his trial, Zero and Rai get in the way of the convoy using Clovis' personal vehicle, which they stole during their break-in of the government complex. Zero reveals that it is he who killed Clovis' and wounded Lelouch, and derails Calares by suggesting his involvement in something called project "rebirth". Rai then use his Geass to make Calares facilitate their escape.
After successfully escaping with Suzaku, Zero and Rai link up with Naoto's group in a theater in the ghettos. There, Zero confirms to Suzaku that he is responsible for the crimes Calares was accusing the boy. When asked what he plans to do with him, Zero responds that Suzaku is free to do as he wishes, be it join him or return to Britannia, and lets him go.
Upon returning to the courthouse, Suzaku finds that his situation has changed dramatically. For one, Calares has been removed from power, and temporary viceroyship has been assumed by Third Princess Tiffanny del Britannia. Secondly, his lawyer got changed with a LAI paid attorney, and thirdly, the judge who was supposed to oversee his case has been replaced by Chief Imperial Judge Lilith del Britannia, who proceeds to blasts with all the power of her foghorn voice everyone present , calls the case a "mockery of justice from all possible angles" before declaring it suspended in order to be reviewed with serious zeal.
Lelouch wakes up just in time to see his friend walk free.
17th of August 2017
A recovering Lelouch as to deal with Anastasia's, his Grandfather's and Uncle's questions, especially concerning the Green Haired girl who is now hiding in the Lamperouge manor. Deciding to gamble on his family's trust, Lelouch reveals to them what really happened, along with the new power he now posses, which he demonstrates on one of the manor's guards, discovering at the same time the power can only be used once. Issac doesn't know what to make of it, other than it's definitely a good thing it saved his life. Sebastian recommends that Lelouch be extremely careful with it, as they don't know it's full effects and implication, and until they do, it would be best to use only as a last resort, like in Shinjuku. Anastasia is the most taken aback, but simply ask is he would ever consider using it on her. Lelouch responds that no, since he'd consider doing so to be effectively violating her, and that she has his complete trust as does his family. And if she didn't feel like she could trust him 100%, she might as well shoot him right now. That satisfies her.
The girl with green hair, who informs them she is called C.C., is surprised Lelouch chose to reveal his power to others, even if only a handful. Lelouch responds that these people have his trusts, unlike her, and tries to inquire about herself and her motives, questions which she effectively stonewalls.
18th of August 2017 ATB
The day's event are identical to the anime's episode 5 as far as Suzaku and Euphemia are concerned, except Jeremiah is replaced by Calares, and instead of Villeta discovering Kewell and his group's plans, they're found out by his sister Marika, who intervenes in order to try and prevent her brother to do something he would regret. The rest of Lelouch's unit, rounded up by Victoria, arrives on scene, and they attempt to force Kewell's to stand down. He only does so after Euphemia's intervention, who has also contacted Tiffanny, who orders them to stand down. A pissed off Lilith in civilian clothes then arrives on scene via VTOL craft and informs both Calares and Kewell's group that they better start praying, because divine intervention was the only thing that might save their military careers at that point.
Lelouch, who has learned that Suzaku is the Lancelot's pilot, meets with him and tries to convince his friend to join his unit, to no avail, Suzaku claiming its better they don't associate too closely because of his status and past. Suzaku asks him about his onetime pledge to destroy Britannia, to which Lelouch responds he intends to remove all that he considers bad about his father's Britannia so that tragedies like theirs don't happen again, even if it means burning down the whole establishment in the end.
19th of August 2017 ATB
Cornelia arrives in Area 11 to fill the role of Viceroy, and Tiffanny returns to Area 10 (Indonesia). She berates Lelouch for putting himself in such danger before crushing the air out of him. She restores Isaac to the Viceroy's advisory council, and while she dismisses his advices on civilian affairs, she agrees with his view that the elements of military resistance should be pursued and crushed with the outmost prejudice in order to pave the way for true stability in the area.
20th of August 2017 ATB
After organizing her forces, Cornelia sets out to lure Zero by recreating the condition in Shinjuku, this time in Saitama. Lelouch, who ends up present in an advisory fashion, expresses his doubts on the necessity of another large scale civilian massacre as well as on the uncertainty of predicting Zero's actions, going as far as suggesting he may allow the civilians to be killed and use this to get more support from the eleven population. Cornelia dismisses this, and proceeds with the operation.
As the operation proceeds, both Cornelia and Lelouch notice that, while the armed resistance is about as expected, the civilian presence is almost non-existent. Lelouch deduces that the civilians have most likely been evacuated beforehand, and this means they are the ones who walked in a trap. He orders the G1 to move to a safer location and warns Cornelia, just before the whole Saitama ghetto is rocked by a series of huge explosions, which cause multiple cave-ins and building collapses, this taking out most of the Britannian Fighting force.
Lelouch scrambles his unit, which Cornelia had previously ordered to stay out of the fight, to protect the G1 and rescue Cornelia and her forces. Zero then makes an appearance, throwing a bouquet of roses over Cornelia's disabled Gloucester, calling the gesture a 'reward for her valiant effort', and advising her to be cautious, less the next time the red covering her steed could end up being her blood. Zero then disappeared with a tip of his plumed hat and a sizeable smoke bond.
Investigation revealed that most of the civilians had been evacuated just before the operation, and that the majority of the resistance fighters had retreated with exemplary timing and fortitude during the chaos.
21rst of August 2017 ATB
Following the Saitama turnaround, Naoto's resistance group has decided to fully support Zero. They are joined by the Saitama resistance and people from other groups. Seeing that Bitannia was taking worrying interest in Kallen, Rai sets out to fake her death to both throw the Brits off her sent and allow Kallen to devote herself to their fight. He is largely successful in this.
Following this, Kalen's mother falls into a depression, and almost ends up using the drug Refrain, but she is stopped by Zachary Lamperouge, who takes her back to his appartment where he ends up spending the night with her.
23rd of August 2017 ATB
The hotel hostage taking incident. Pretty much the same as in the anime, except that along Euphemia, Nunnally and Rollo are also present and end up as hostages, as are Fidel Castro and Lorie Dora, who are there officially as part of an EU party but who, ironically, are really there to set up a large weapon shipment to the JLF. Turns out their contact has been replaced by someone more suited to facilitate a hotel hijacking. Them's the breaks, eh?
As the other hostages cower and Euphemia is taken to see the leader, Fidel deals with the situation in usual Fidel fashion: By coking up, breaking out his ceramic composite pistol, cracking one liners and blasting to bits the procreating potential of one of the guards while Lorie, with the help of her cybernetic right arm, crushed the living crap out of the left hand of the other guy who was bullying Nina Einstein and the other girls.
Meanwhile, Zero and his newfound followers make their move, and convince Cornelia to let them in to deal with the situation. Once the JLF lets them in and Zero goes to meet their leader, Lt Col. Kusakabe, they quickly take control of the hotel and rescue the hostages just as Fidel and Lorie were breaking out. Out of anger, Kusakabe attempts to strike down the unarmed Zero, who takes the JLF officer's blade out of his hands and strike him down with it just as Euphemia is brought to the room. Apologizing for the unsightly situation and revealing that he knows her identity, Zero escorts Euphemia to where the hostages have been gathered. On the way, she ask him why he killed Clovis, and Zero responds that he killed her brother because he gravelly misused his power, which is why he didn't kill Lelouch or plans to harm her.
As this is going on, the Britannian forces outside set out to resolve the situation using Knightmares to infiltrate the building, but as the set out to do so they witness the explosion of the hotel. Like in the anime, the hostages are revealed to be safe, even if it seems they only changed hands. Zero announces the creation of the Order of the Revolutionary Red Knights, and once more pledges to fight oppression and injustice wherever he finds it, before escaping.
Following this, the Castros decide to start supplying Zero's group, partly out of gratitude for saving two of their groups, partly because, as Raoul puts it, they "seem to be the only resistance group around here who has their shit tight and together".
September 10th 2017 ATB
Following the hotel incident, the Red Knights numbers grown and they gain further notoriety by going after corrupt Britannian and Elevens alike, prompting Cornelia to set up some anti-corruption measures of her own.
Meanwhile, the Castros have provided Zero's group with their first Knightmares, including the Gurens Mark I (Basically the prototype for the Mark II with similar performance, minus the Radiant Wave Surger) and Mark II. Zero hands them to Naoto and Kallen, respectively. They get the chance to test them all too soon.
Cornelia, who has decided to deal with the JLF before going after Zero, is preparing an operation to wipe them out at their main base in the Narita mountains. Zero informs his Red Knights of this, and sets out his plan to help save the remnants of the JLF and deal a blow to Britannia at the same time. As he seemingly expected, this causes a stir amongst the group, and they seem divided about whether they should go through with this plan. Zero tells them that their war against Britannia cannot be won unless they're ready to take risks, and that in any case, he wouldn't set out on an operation like this if he didn't know they could succeed. The vast majority of the Red Knights end up agreeing to go along with the plan.
11th of September 2017 ATB
Again, the battle at Narita plays out much like in anime, with some key differences being the addition of Lelouch unit, whom Cornelia orders to protect the operation's base, and the intervention of a unit lead by Toshiro Takahasi-Kururugi, who uses new highly mobile Knightmares that can transform into a car like shape for urban combat. After the battle gets underway and Zero collapses the mountainside, Lelouch's and Toshiro's units fight one another.
Suzaku, at Euphemia's request, set out to rescue Cornelia in the Lancelot. He fights Zero, who, despite piloting a technically inferior knightmare, holds his own out of sheer wit and skills until Anastasia joins in, disabling Zero's knightmare together with Suzaku. Suzaku goes after Zero, whom ends up using a similar trick to C.C. (Who's posing as Lelouch's secretary, not very convincingly btw ) to neutralize him, and he successfully escapes with Rai's help.
Another difference from the anime is that the collapse of the mountain, while still burying much of Narita city, doesn't cause civilian casualties as a group of men led by Rai and disguised as Britannian soldiers evacuated civilian to shelters before the battle began. This means Shirley's father survives.
Kewell ends up being saved by Victoria and Samuel.
A wounded Calares ends up being picked up by the code R scientists.
13th of September 2017 ATB
The Red Knights intervene and save the JLF's commander, Tatewaki Katase, who manages to successfully escape with his ship and men. Villeta Nu, acting as an intelligence officer for Lelouch's unit (Which is currently pursuing Toshiro's unit through the Japanese mountains) , corners a wounded Rai, who's Knigthmare got destroyed during the fight, but ends up being Geassed and shot by him. What happens to her is pretty much the same as in the anime.
15th of September 2017 ATB
Mao meets Rai in a chance encounter, during which the Chinese Geass user reads information about C.C. in Rai's mind, which immediately capture's Mao's interest. Zero, who seeks out Rai after he fails to show up to a planned meeting because he can't shake Mao off, ends up sneaking on him, surprising Mao, who cannot read Zero's mind just like C.C. . At first Zero seems intent to kill Mao, but changes his mind and decides to bring him on board for intelligence and interrogation purposes.
Meanwhile, Lelouch and his men return to Tokyo, having been unsuccessful in capturing Toshiro. However, Kyoshirou Tohdoh has been captured by Cornelia's men, and knowing how Toshiro respects the man from the time he was an hostage before the invasion of Japan, plans to use Tohdoh to lure him out, while Cornelia wants to test Suzaku's loyalty by having him execute his former teacher. Suzaku ask Lelouch if this is the sort of things he had wanted to protect him from when he offered him to join his outfit, and Lelouch says that yes, it was.
Zero is contacted by both Toshiro's group and the four Holy swords to get his help in rescuing Tohdoh.
16th of September 2017 ATB
As Britannia is about to execute Tohdoh, the prison complex where he is kept comes under attack from multiple fronts, including from the air, when several hijacked transport planes (later found out to have been unmanned and remote controlled) crash into the prison's towers.
Both Cornelia's forces, Lelouch's and Suzaku engage Zero's forces and allies. Suzaku ends up personally fighting Toshiro, who seems to relish the opportunity for them to fight with all he got, and they prove to be evenly matched. Only when Tohdoh joins in is Suzaku beaten back, but he is saved by Lelouch's personal intervention.
At that point, Zero orders a retreat, which is executed without a hitch. The rescue operation is thus successful, and with it, the Red Knights are joined by both the Four Holy Swords and Toshiro's group.
After the breakout, like in the anime Euphemia announces that she's instating Suzaku as her personal knight.
At one of the Red Knight's hideouts, a new member joins them: Physician and former revolutionaries Ernesto Guevara, with whom the Castros are acquainted. Viva la Revolution!
17th of September 2017 ATB
Before his knighting ceremony, Suzaku meets in private with Euphemia, who has noticed how he seems disturbed by the recent events, having to fight people he once considered family. She reveals to him that she herself is worried about both him and Lelouch, and that she believes that Zero, while he appears and acts chivalrously, seems more than capable of taking their lives if he has to in the future, and that she has been thinking of a way she could help settle things in the Area before this can happen. She asks for Suzaku's support with this when the time comes, which he pledges.
During the knighting ceremony, Lelouch's group, including the Lamperouges, are the first ones to start applauding, prompting the rest of the guests to do the same.
18th of September 2017 ATB
Lelouch is assigned to escort Euphemia, who goes to Shikinejima to greet their older brother prince Schneizel, who's officially coming to the Area for an inspection as Prime Minister. In truth, the second prince is really more interested in a set of strange ruins that people working for Clovis had discovered and which he suspects to be connected to some sort of major endeavor important to Charles.
Unknown to them, Zero is also in the Area, and like Schneizel , the Masked Revolutionary also has ulterior motives to be there, and they also involve the ruins; Officially, he's going there on a mission to capture the Lancelot and, is possible, Suzaku, the latter mostly as a favor to Toshiro, who wishes to put an end to the Britannians using his little brother.
The battle plays out like in the anime, with Zero luring in the Lancelot in Rakshata's trap. Suzaku, ignoring both Lelouch's and Toshiro's pleas for him to save himself, holds a strangely calm Zero at gunpoint. The masked revolutionary explains to the Honorary Britannian that, even should he die, which will not happen, Suzaku's sacrifice will have been in vain, has he has set in motion events that will lead to either Britannia's reform or destruction, and that he, Zero, has become a symbol of the struggle to bring this about, and will live on as such. "After all, ideas are bulletproof!"
As the missile strike approaches, an angry Lelouch jumps in the circle with his knightmare, opens his cockpit, and, his Geass activated, cries out that he must live. At the same time, Euphemia also jumps in. Lelouch's appearance seems to unsettle Zero, and as he jumps out of the Lancelot just as the Geassed Suzaku closes the cockpit, a red glow surrounds Zero's body. The flying battleship Avalon appears, and start firing at the red-knights, causing Kallen to also fall in the circle. There's a bright flash of light, and Lelouch, Kallen, Euphemia, Suzaku and Zero are whisked away. The red knights temporarily retreat, Naoto grabbing the Guren Mark II in which he believes Kallen still is.
Somewhere far away, V.V. opens his eyes and smiles.
What follows is pretty similar to the anime again, with Suzaku stumbling unto a skinny dipping Kallen, though, not knowing her, he thinks she's someone from Lelouch's outfit at first as she looks Britannian to him, but wises up when she attacks him and he sees her Red Knight's uniform.
Euphemia ends up with Lelouch, and the two end up talking about a lot of stuff, including what just happened, the previous battles, Suzaku (Lelouch realizes she's in love with him), Anastasia and their eventual wedding, and Lelouch's motivations for fighting. Here, thanks to many a survival trip courtesy of the outdoor bound Lamperouge clan, Lelouch fares a lot better, actually managing to catch a boar.
Zero is alone, spying out the ruins about which Schneizel's men are scurrying.
19th of September 2017 ATB
The next day, Lelouch and Euphemia link up with Suzaku and Kallen, whom Lelouch recognizes and he is distracted enough by finding out she's alive that he doesn't notice the movements behind him before Zero is able to grab Euphemia. This in turns distracts Suzaku enough for Kallen to wrestle away from him and free herself from her bounds. Zero tries to diffuse the situation, saying he only whishes to get off the island with Kallen, but before anyone can make a further move, the ground upon which they were standing moves down.
The rest play out as in the anime, with Zero and Kallen seizing the Gawain. As the Britannians watch the black machine fly away, Lelouch is shooting metaphorical lightning bolts at Schneizel, both for the previous day's events, and what just happened.
Soon, Lelouch is reunited with his unit. Suzaku is at first put under arrest for disobeying orders, but is let off due to conflicting and vague rules regarding the primacy of orders when conflicting instructions are given by a nominally superior imperial official (Schneizel) and a military field officer (Lelouch), especially one commanding an Imperial Unit which ultimately answers to the Emperor himself. Schneizel does call in question Lelouch's judgment once it comes out that he knows Suzaku personally and that the 'order' appeared to me emotionally motivated. However, the second prince doesn't do anything further than saying he would make a report to Charles, so Lelouch had better get his priorities straight.
Once back in Tokyo, Suzaku, who has no memories of the incident which obviously troubles him, confronts Lelouch in hopes to get some answers, which he gets. Lelouch tells him about his Geass, C.C. (who is present for the exchange, eating a pizza while looking on as if she was watching some highly entertaining show, which this was for her), and how he placed a Geass on him forcing him to keep on living.
Livid, Suzaku ask Lelouch who he thinks he is to decide for him if he should live or die. Lelouch first answers is "Your friend.", which he follows with a counter question; who did Suzaku think he was to get to decide when he could die, especially after pledging his life to serve and protect Euphemia! When Suzaku says that he has done things that can only be atoned with death, Lelouch doesn't press on, but states that, if that's the case, death is just an easy way out, and that he just had to find atonement through living instead.
Later that night at the Lamperouge Manor, Lelouch is trying with more or less success to relax with a hot bath. A bathrobe wearing Anastasia enters his bathroom, and she confesses to him that the events of the past couple of days made her realize how much she admired him, how important he is to her and that she wouldn't know what to do if something happened to him. Lelouch, not sure how to respond, apologizes for making her worry. She calls him an idiot, and then the two share a deep kiss, before she joins him in the bath and eventually in bed.
Meanwhile, a large fleet is approaching the southern border of Area 11, flying the Japanese flag….
20th of September 2017
An armed force composed of Japanese exiles and Chinese Federation troops, and backed by the CF, lands in and occupies most of Kyūshū. Suzaku and the Lancelot are dispatched to fight them, the Knigthmare being equipped with an experimental backpack that allows it to fly. Suzaku cuts through whole swats of the invaders, but ends up surrounded when his machine runs out of power. He is saved by Lelouch and his unit, who used a more conventional, if just as much experimental, LAI developed backpack allowing their Knightmares to fly in during the commotion Suzaku created. After tearing Suzaku a new one verbally, Lelouch resupplies the Lancelot with energy, and he, his unit and Suzaku go after the rest of the invaders.
Zero and the Red Knights watch this from one of their hideouts, and in answer to the groups questions about why they did not lend a hand to the Kyūshū invaders, Zero responds that doing so would only have facilitated Japan's takeover by another power, and that this wasn't what their fight was about.
21rst of September 2017
After reading one too many articles praising the "invincible" Lancelot as the pinnacle of Britannian Knigthmare development (little to no mention was ever made of Suzaku, the pilot. Go figure!), Proffessor Kayne rage quits the project he was currently working on (*coughflyingbattleshipcough*) and goes to petition LAI's CEO Sebastian Lamperouge to allow him to work on a special Knigthmare project, so that he can "show that upstart Earl of Puding he isn't the only one capable of putting together a one machine army wrecker!".
Sebastian is reluctant, but ends up giving him leave to work on a design and development plan to at least keep him happy. Somehow, travelling at the speed of rumors, the project soon reaches the ears of Victoria Winchester, and she convinces her adoptive mother to bankroll it so that she can get her hands on a "sweet ass doomsday machine that'll make Sammy go green with envy". Kayne is more than happy to indulge her, and so, one of the speediest, costliest and most successful knightmare development endeavor begins, using the best cutting edge tech and production capabilities LAI possessed, most of which were in the prototype stage themselves.
5th of October 2017 ATB.
The Ashford Academy is holding its annual grand school festival, and Euphemia decides to go there incognito with Suzaku, who is clueless enough that he doesn't realize she's effectively taking him on a date. Also present are Tiffanny and her knight Ryan Finlay, also incognito and who end up keeping Nunnally and Rollo company.
At some point, LAI's very own Professor Kayne and his onetime intern Lloyd Asplund cross path, and end up in an epic debate centered on the nature of scientific research. Many a doctorate would be born out of the notes the speechless science students took as they witnessed two science gods duke it out verbally.
Elsewhere, Kallen's mother, Manako, is also on what can only be called a date with Zachary Lamperouge. She had been informed by Zach, who got the info from Lelouch, that Kallen was alive and well, but was fighting with the red Knights. Not knowing if she should feel relieved or worried out of her mind, she's having a hard time enjoying herself. And there's also the matter of that positive pregnancy test she took that morning….
As Euphemia looks on and see both Elevens and Britannians coexisting and simply enjoying the day without a care in the world, Euphemia comes to a decision, and go up to a nearby television crew, revealing herself before Suzaku can stop her. She then proceeds to announce her intention to create a Specially Administrated Zone of Japan centered around Mt Fuji, where Elevens could call themselves Japanese again.
13th of October 2017 ATB
As the SAZ project gets underway and gets serious backing, amongst other from Schneizel, people are starting to realize that this is really happening. Elevens are pretty much divided on whether to support the SAZ or not, and nowhere is this more evident than within the Red Knights. However, once an official date has been set for the creation of the SAZ and application procedures laid out, Zero comes out in support of it.
Zero explained to the Red Knights that the SAZ, if successful, can be seen as a positive outcome of their struggle as much as any, as the Area's government will have to ease up his policies regarding Eleven Population to compete with what the SAZ has to offer them. Thus, he would support it, but the Britannian will no doubt require the disarmament of the Red Knights, which they will agree to… in Area 11, anyway, as he plans to continue the fight against injustice and oppression, and indeed Britannia, elsewhere. The world has already witnessed their fight, and everybody is paying attention, as so will he see that the revolution spreads. Any current member of the Red Knights who wishes to accompany Zero will be free to do so, but if they accompany him, there would effectively be no turning back.
14th of October 2017 ATB
A troubled Cornelia shares a video chat with Lilith, officially for legal council on the SAZ plans, but the real reason is that Lilith is one of the few people Cornelia trusts to talk with her frankly about her current problems.
Eventually, when Cornelia wonders out loud if she had raised Euphemia right, Lilith ends up comparing their respective little sister's upbringing as follows: While they had raised both Tiffanny and Euphemia to be kind, compassionate young women seemingly brimming with optimism, where she and Cornelia had proceeded differently was that Cornelia had raised Euphemia as a sheltered, picture perfect princess, whereas Lilith had groomed Tiffanny to become an empress. You reap what you sow!
19th of October 2017 ATB
Victoria heads out to Hawaii's LAI complex to receive delivery of her "shiny new death machine", which is planned to be showcased along with LAI's new Aerial Assault Battleship in a demonstration due to take place in the following days in Tokyo, in a not-subtle-at-all show of awesome Britannian military hardware which was in no way sold to the top Britannian military brass as a way to remind those uppity Elevens who was still in charge!
Meanwhile, Professor Kayne and his R&D crew slumped their way to the nearest beaches and clubs for some R&R which they hoped would help them forget the one month of self-imposed hell they just got through. It wouldn't not work, but once they settled in lounge chairs, exotic named and looking cocktail in hand, that didn't worry them too much.
End of Resume: Part one.
Okay, so I decided to cut the resume into parts. Next will cover what I guess we'll call the Bloody Red Uprising.
Don't be shy about leaving comments, be they critic, suggestions or questions. I'm probably going to post the next part tomorrow. I need to let it… rest a while before posting it.
Until next time, peace out readers!
-The Ambiguous Stan Man