Chapter 1 Ghosts of the Past

A/N: Real Reviews! So much better than writing in the Harry Potter fandom where 9/10 reviews is " Update NOW" Spinzaku is now my favorite name for Suzaku.

" Hotel six this is Bravo three, do you copy?"

" This is Hotel Six, we copy. Insertion complete. Moving in."

" Copy that, Hotel. Sending Coordinates now."

Typhon switched off his night vision goggles as his small Spec Ops squad approached the Kaminejima Black Knight Base. The layout of the base was peculiar, supposedly designed around the ruins not far outside of the base itself. It was built over the ruins of the Britannian Base that Lelouch Vi Britannia resurrected his rebellion in.

Typhon motioned to his second, " You take the sentry on the left. I take the two on the right."

He raised his sniper rifle, and in two quick bursts, brought down the two sentries. His second did the same, and lowered his weapon. " Now, move into the base. Get to secure location."

They dashed in the shadows towards the detention cells. Once in a secure position, Typhon opened his communications link. The Russian accented voice of Alexander Stormcrow filtered in.

" Commander Ray Typhon Jameson, your task is to extract Andrew Fenette. He is a prisoner being held in Detention Cell E5. If you are quick, you will be able to get in and out with minimal resistance. Stormcrow out."

Typhon motioned for his second to follow him into the Detention Hall. Most of the MPs were sleeping, and only the shit details were patrolling. Except at Hall E. Secundus muttered, " Commander, they're doing something in Hall E. Too many guards for us to take out by ourselves. Should we call the rest of the squad?"

" No, we can take them. We simply have to time it right. The door is coming right about…..here. Get flashbang ready. I'll toss smoke after flash."

" Sir!"

Typhon inched the door slightly open, whispering, " Now."

Secundus tossed the flashbang into the room, and a few clinks later, it burst into light. The men inside yelped. Typhon slung the door open, and opened fire. He cut down the commander, and ordered, " Secundus! Take care of the other two. I'll grab the package."

He quickly tied a blindfold around the emerald eyes of the target. He picked the effete man up, commenting, " Looks slightly feminine doesn't quite cut it. If his records didn't list him as a male, I would swear he was a girl."

Typhon pressed his hand to his ear, " Hotel Six to Bravo, requesting extraction."

700009349569939996

( In Siberia)

" You are Alexander Stormcrow?"

Frankly, Lelouch hid his surprise at the somewhat intimidating man in front of him. He wore his greasy, scraggly black hair long, but kept strands of it in a ponytail. His beard was down to his chest. He had a similarly impressive mustache. Scars dotted his face. His eyes were black, no irises. He had a long, deep scar running down the side of his neck from his left ear, and it looped around like someone had tried to cut a Rat's Smile on him. His clothing was even shadier, with a deep black trench coat and a stripped blue and white shirt. His pants were tight, but had various slashes all over them. He screamed Underworld.

Though the links negated it somewhat, the man spoke with a rather thick Russian accent, " Yes, I am Alexander Stormcrow. Is this appearance problematic for you?"

Lelouch stared at the man passively, " Not at all. However,", Lelouch's left eye flashed red, " I would like for you to tell me exactly why you have revived me."

Alexander smiled, before replying, " Not today, Geass boy. You will have your explanations momentarily, but I must first deal with a matter involving my adopted daughter. You must forgive me."

Lelouch raised a slightly curious eyebrow, Adopted daughter? I've not seen a single woman in this entire base, save for Nina. No way. If he is, then I could kind of understand her xenophobia. It's like he deliberately makes every attempt to be as intimidating as possible. He pulls it off gloriously, I might say. Hell, he might prove to be a foe worthy of my time.

As Lelouch was having thoughts about the man responsible for his revival, a signal went off in the base. A very eccentric looking man walked up and pressed it. He leaned into the monitor, " This is Bravo, clear for landing."

Typhon's voice went over the intercom, " Very well, Bravo. Hotel out."

Lelouch asked, " What was that?"

The man cocked his head sideways, " Oh, it was just our little boy, Typhon, returning from his little mission. I do hope he liked his new guns. Took a lot of work on that Galil to get it up to par. Weapon is older than me, you, and Typhon put together. They used it in the Vietnam conflict!"

" So who are you?"

The man pulled his stark white hair out from under his hat, " Name's Marlowe Harrison. I'm the lovely man who designed most of the procedures that went into your revival! Not to mention our four KMF's here."

I thought there were ten. Guess that's a projected number. " Do you have pilots for them yet?"

Marlowe gestured at the incoming plane, " Well, we have at least one pilot. He's coming in on that. However, we are a tad lacking in the manpower department. Most of us here are scientists, not devicers."

" Query, do all scientists use Lloyd Asplund's terminology?"

Marlowe laughed, " Nope, Brenden acts like Rakshata."

" Great. Strange pipe? Calls his KMFs his children?"

Marlowe smirked at the Demon Emperor, " In a nutshell, Geass boy."

" Why is everyone calling me that?"

His musings were cut off by Alexander returning, " Emperor Lelouch, it has come to my attention that you are intrigued by our reasoning to revive you. Do you still wish to know?"

Lelouch nodded stoically. Alexander recanted, " The world is on the brink of collapse. Despite its appearances of being whole and unified, storm clouds gather over the horizon. Age old fault lines threaten to rupture. Cracks in the shell threaten to shatter into thousands of shards. The world is becoming a stagnant hellscape that threatens to overcome reasoning."

Lelouch countered, " I've heard that Japan and China have advanced remarkably."

Stormcrow returned fire, " But look at the rest of the world. There exists a saying, ' Judge a man not on how he treats his equals, but on how he treats those lower than he.' Japan and China have advanced remarkably. The Black Knights are the largest military in the world. But look at Britannia. Stagnating under the self-destruction of its own economy. An economy that was destroyed by your sister I might add. Britannia helped rebuild Japan and China, but neither has extended a hand to aid Britannia's failings now have they? Oh, and China hasn't advanced very much. If anything, they've regressed considerably."

" One can hardly blame them. Both nations, Japan especially, suffered immensely by the hands of Britannia."

Stormcrow smiled ever so slightly, " I see this is truly one to be reckoned with. Anyway, our motivations are the same as yours were so many years ago. Rebuild the world in an image that we see fit. Is that not the idea behind all conquerors?"

" A rhetorical question?"

" Naturally,", Stormcrow answered with his devious looking smile that reminded Lelouch of his own. A small alarm went off, and Typhon's voice went over the intercom, " Stormcrow, this is Typhon. We have delivered the package. Requesting audience."

" Granted,", Alexander gestured to Lelouch, " Come, let us go meet our newest Knight Pilot."

Lelouch followed the Russian down to the landing pad just below the command center of the base. Alexander explained," Now, Lelouch, I want you to know this. You have a history with the Fenette family do you not?"

Internally wincing at the mentioning of Shirley's family, he answered, " Yes. I happened to have been very good friends with one." Not to mention directly responsible for her father's death, and in some ways, her death.

Alexander made a hand motion, " Well, I suppose you wouldn't be adverse to meeting another then,", he opened the door to the holding room, " May I introduce Andrew Fenette?"

His first, despite hearing Alexander say the person's name, was, Shirley? Impossible! Wait, something's different. This one….he is clearly a military man. Does he know he looks a lot like Shirley?

The man introduced as Andrew Fenette stood up, and saluted Lelouch. Lelouch frowned at the obvious familial resemblance between Andrew and Shirley. Andrew wore his orange hair the exact same length that Shirley had worn hers, and his emerald eyes were the same exact shade. He was slightly taller, but that didn't change the fact that he looked very much like the woman who was his cousin.

Andrew muttered, " I see you are making the same mistake several others have already made. I've always been told I resembled my cousin."

Typhon walked up with a report in his hand, " Slightly effeminate doesn't come close to him. He would have had me convinced if I didn't already know from bio reports that he was a male. However, his KMF simulation scores are the highest we've ever seen. Even higher than Kururugi's back in the day."

Andrew sneered, " I modeled my fighting style after the former Knight of Seven and Zero's. If anything, I've always wanted to serve the Emperor in the same capacity. So,", the orange haired man knelt before Lelouch, " I, Andrew Cassius Fenette pledge honor and fealty to Lelouch Vi Britannia, 99th Emperor of Holy Britannia and Lord of this World."

Lelouch let his arrogant smile dot his face, " And I accept your pledge, Andrew Fenette. However, I cannot name you a Knight in capacity for several reasons. One: I do not know your skills in real life. My men here tell me that you have obscene simulator scores. Despite having had the pleasure of working with two aces in the past who had obscene scores, I still cannot take that as an indication of true skill. Two: I have a history with your family, and for now, I would like to distance myself as much as possible from whatever situation may arise from it. You are dismissed."

Andrew nodded, and walked off with Typhon to the medical bay. Lelouch spoke with disdain after Andrew had left, " He obviously doesn't realize the discomfort he has inflicted on myself."

Stormcrow jeered, " Fighting the ghosts of the past eh, Lelouch?"

" More than just fighting. More like threatening to destroy me. They always have. I'm telling you this because by having me as your leader, it is something you will have to deal with. During Zero Requiem, this role was fulfilled by Suzaku. Now, this role will have to be fulfilled by you."

Stormcrow smirked, " A role I shall perform admirably in. Now, we have much to discuss, you and I."

+++++++)_++)+)+++++++(+(+*+)+)

( Japan)

" Ohgi, this is bad man."

The Prime minister looked at Tamaki, " Yeah it is. A squad of Rogue Legion men broke into our most secure base and stole a high profile prisoner. Nunally's going to kill me when she finds out that we let him get away."

The fiery hothead blustered, " Ohgi man, you can't possibly be afraid of the Demon's sister now are you? Or has Viletta rubbed off on you that much?"

" I have learned many things from my wife and Kallen. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. I believe that if the time were right, that Nunnally would be just as fierce an opponent as Lelouch Vi Britannia himself."

Tamaki gaped. That was the first time any Black Knight member, save Kallen and Toudoh, had actually used Lelouch's name. Ten years, and they all still called him the Demon. Tamaki saved his face, " Well, got to give the girl credit. She did stand up to her bro back during the Damocles incident."

" We were there, Tamaki. I am still in awe at how we lost that, and still managed to come out on top. Example of, " Lose the Battle, Win the War,", isn't it?"

Tamaki laughed, " Well, I can dare say that Lelouch isn't around to see the country he tossed around like a baby's toy become the most powerful in the world! Isn't that right, Ohgi?"

" Maybe a little exaggerated, but we really do have the best economy, best military, best technology don't we?"

Tamaki patted his old Black Knight commander on the shoulder, " And it's all because of you, Ohgi man! Best Prime Minister Japan ever had right here!"

" Well, we do happen to have some really good scientists here thanks to Rakshata. And some excellent Knightmare pilots thanks to Zero shifting some pilots to us. And the Black Knights are the largest army in the world at this time. I guess you are right, we are the most powerful nation in the world right now."

A voice came from behind them, " Unfortunately for you, you do not have the power to use that newfound power now do you?"

Tamaki and Ohgi looked upon the newcomer. They had seen him before, a frequenter of Rivalz Cardemonde's now prestigious bar in the middle of Tokyo. After the wars, parades of people had migrated to Japan from various regions of the world. It was one of the reasons that Japan was now the most successful country. This man was one of them. A former German KMF pilot and Commander by the name of Gottfried Hansen.

Tamaki asked, " Hey, hey, what are you doing here?"

Hansen answered, " Fulfilling my duty as Adjudicator of the Black Knights. After all, it is these types of investigations you hired me for isn't it?"

Hansen had a bit of reputation as being a hard ass and quite determined about his duty. As such, only the highest Black Knight Members, such as Xingke and Toudoh, had the sheer will to block him. Despite their successes, Tamaki and Ohgi didn't have such a will. They let him through. He explained his reasoning, " Despite your better reasoning, you and yours still recognize Zero as your leader do you not?"

Tamaki answered, " Of course man! He rid us of that roach Lelouch!"

Hansen smiled as he looked over some field reports, " I see you have a very short memory if you cannot recall the fact that Lelouch WAS Zero up until you removed him. I suppose you will be even more surprised to learn that I know who THIS Zero really is."

Ohgi looked really nervous. This was bad. Hansen hadn't even been in Japan during the Black Rebellions, and here he knew things that very few of the most privileged Black Knight Operatives knew. Hansen laughed at him, "It is my job to ascertain the truth in all matters. So don't be blaming me for trying to remove the Black from the Black Rebellions. Thanks to censorship and classification, the records of even the most famous battles seem to be almost non-existent. When you're in as far as I am, you uncover some collateral things as well. You wouldn't be wanting that to go to the wrong people, me thinks."

What those two didn't know, was that the information Hansen possessed was ALREADY in the wrong hands of a man named Alexander Stormcrow Petrenko. In fact, Hansen got the info from Stormcrow, who was in possession of Diethard Reid's fail safes in the event the Black Knights turned on him. Said fail safes included detailed manuscripts of every Black Rebellion battle, every strategic maneuver, every person Zero met, down to whether or not C.C might actually have his child ( she didn't). Included, naturally, was who the REAL Zero was.

See, Hansen wasn't his real name. His real name was Wilhelm Amadeus Temkhe. The Phoenix of Berlin. The only man who could truly claimed to have faced the entire Knight of Rounds at some point, and survived all of them. Granted, he had never fought ALL of them at once, but he had seen at least two, upwards of four at once. They called him crazy for a reason, but he was the only reason that Germany was Germany, and not Area whatever. Or former Area whatever nowadays.

They called him the Phoenix, because no matter how suicidal the mission was, no matter how impossible the objective, no matter how daunting the enemy, no matter how damaged his frame was, he always came back. His skill only improved after each fight, and even he admitted that he was a lucky son of a bitch that his first enemy in a KMF had been former Knight of One Bismarck. How he lived through that encounter was beyond even Schniezel to understand, but he was eternally grateful that he had lived to fight his enemy another day. A warrior like himself only lusted for war. Which was specifically the reason why he had accepted all of those Rogue Legions in Germany.

The Rogue Legions were supposedly a dying breed, but for a dying breed, they sure than hell were thriving. The Phoenix Legion alone had nearly double as many men as the Imperial army that had fought the Damocles. That army had been roughly forty thousand strong. The average legion was only ten thousand. The Phoenix Legion had just shy of eighty thousand. Contrary to Tamaki's boasts, the Black Knights did sport the largest army in the world, but clearly not the most powerful. Not if the indications coming from Blizzard HQ were true.

Wilhelm smiled as he poked around at the ruined command room. If Lelouch Vi Britannia walks the earth again, then the legend of Zero shall be replaced with the Lay of Lelouch. For a former EU pilot, there was no greater irony than to be serving the Former Emperor of Britannia, but he would do so. He would do so if only to taste the drug of war once more. He panted as he climbed out of the ruined room. Sometimes he wished he had taken conditioning a little more seriously, but hey, if frail man like Lelouch could rule the world, then he could pilot a KMF.

467734573886756784976y867859

( Siberia)

" So Nina is your adopted daughter?"

Stormcrow ran a finger through his beard, " Yep. Didn't do much for her though. I know her whole family in fact. Lived next door to her for years in Tokyo while I was dealing with the Yakuza. You might even say that me, my father, and her parents were good friends. But that all changed one day."

Lelouch frowned, " Well, I guess I have a good idea of why she is so xenophobic then. You have something to do with it?"

" Not particularly. My father had a VERY big hand in it though. More than just a hand I might say. I've always felt I owed it to her and her family to make it up for what he did. So I actually adopted her and her two sisters. But she ran off as soon as she could for Ashford, and can you really blame her?"

Lelouch passively answered as he quickly fit in all the details, " Not really. What happened to the other two?"

" Well, Natalie became a KMF pilot. She died in the Damocles battle. She was the last KMF protecting the Avalon when Xingke took it. And I don't know about Ophelia. She kind of disappeared. The only one I've been able to keep track of is Nina. Hell, the only reason I've been able to keep track of her is because she's become rather infamous after the FLEIA incident."

Lelouch sipped on the vodka that Stormcrow provided, " So, now that we have your history, care to explain where I'm going to get men to fight with?"

Stormcrow tossed a folder at him. Pointing at it, he explained, " That contains the most recent census of all the Rogue Legions we've contacted. The largest and newest to join us is the Phoenixes. They are nearly double the fighting strength of the entire army used by you in the Damocles War. Nearly Eighty thousand strong."

Lelouch smiled, " Now there's some numbers I can work with. What about our enemy?"

" The Black Knights are almost three million strong in Japan alone now. They have the strongest army in the world after Nunnally instituted a disarming in Britannia. Britannia still fields a respectable army, and both could draft more if necessary."

Lelouch frowned as he began running scenarios in his mind, " Just like the Black Rebellions all over again I guess. So, these experimental KMFs you got here. What are they?"

" We only have two with pilots right now. One is the Fenrir, which Andrew said he will pilot. The other is the Phoenix, which is piloted by Wilhelm Temkhe. Hopefully, we will be receiving some new pilots."

Lelouch tossed a black king on the table, " I'm no Ace, but I know my way around a KMF as well as anyone. You probably remember the Shinkiro and Gawain. Any frame you got here that might fit that?"

Alexander pulled two folders, " One of these is the Gabriel, which is still in development. It's being designed to be the perfect KMF. The other, is Ghost Prototype."

Lelouch pulled the file on Ghost Prototype. The frame was based off of a combination of the Tristan and the Lancelot. But it had a huge variety of weapons and special abilities. Not to mention Blaze Luminous shielding that would make the Ikaruga look unshielded. However, this compensated on its significant lack of armor. Lose the shield, and you were fucked if you couldn't weave out of it. But Lelouch took a liking to the KMF, and selected it.

Alexander took the folders back, " Good choice. The manual for the Ghost Prototype is being placed in your room as we speak. By the way, our techies are working on a Giga Fortress for Jeremiah. Tell him about it the next time you two speak."

"Very well. I will also work on our theatrical entrance back to the world's theater. I think that invading China might be in order. By the way, you mentioned a quirk with Andrew's medical file. What was it?"

Stormcrow waived his hand, " Seems that Andrew has a small time case of Multiple Personality Disorder. Our scans detected two presences within his mind, meaning he has double the brain activity of normal people. But it isn't really a problem, despite the fact that one of his personas is decisively female."

Lelouch frowned. He thought it might, in fact, be something bigger. He remembered that Shirley had told him when she was dying, she would always love him, no matter how many times she was reincarnated. Could it be a coincidence that Andrew, her closest living relative ( her mum had killed herself a few years back as he had learned), had multiple personality disorder, one of which acted JUST like Shirley, and he kept his hair the exact same style and length? Not to mention that he was extremely picky about it, just like Shirley had been? Plus, he is way too loyal. It was too much of a coincidence, considering that Shirley had never mentioned any other family members. And Shirley couldn't keep a secret to save her life, literally.

It was definitely something to ponder on. While he couldn't boast that he knew everything about his former schoolmates back when he was in school, he certainly knew enough about them to make inferences on them.

Alexander noticed how tense he was, and commented, " You need to loosen up, Emperor. A man is not at his best when he is tense. Perhaps you need to get laid?"

Lelouch gave his normal smile, " You realize the only woman on this base is Nina correct?"

" There's a problem with that?"

" Well, let's see here. I guess Xenophobic, sometimes psychopathic, hates me with the fury of the sun, and is probably lesbian, yeah there might be a bit of a problem."

Stormcrow laughed, " You're Lelouch Lamperouge, the man who once held the entire female population of Ashford Academy in the palm of his hand. I think you could work her. If you tried."

" Then you've clearly never seen me with a woman. It's like kryptonite, dead serious."

Stormcrow chuckled darkly, " Have it your way, Duke of Love. But I have heard some strange things about you in the past. There was a picture of you in a ball gown in your file."

" I'm going to kill Milly one of these days."

565467357888888996756745

( Somewhere in Britannia)

" Your Highness, I bring news."

Schniezel turned to face his aide, Kanon Maldini, " You may relay it to me."

The pink haired aide sat the report on the desk of the Britannian Prime Minister, and began his oral report.

" It appears that activity amongst the Rogue Legions has increased over the last week or two. It seems that something has spurred their actions. It would be prudent to assume they would begin active military operations within a month of today. As for why, I can only begin to guess. Even our contact has been suspiciously quiet as of late. All that was mentioned in the last report was something called Project Lazarus."

Schniezel let the slightest hint of a frown dot his face, " That is disconcerting. I fully expected our spy to be doing better than this. We have to assume the absolute worst. That the Rogue Legions have finally found a way to bring my dear dead brother back to life."

" Milord, how would they have done this? There is no science that can do this, and we've already ascertained that Lelouch did not have the code of your father."

Schniezel waived a careless hand, " I guess I get to reveal to you a very strange experiment that my sister, Cornelia, commissioned eleven years ago. When Euphie died. It was called Project Rebirth. I heard the project was rather successful, but for some reason, they hid the results of the experiment from Cornelia. Let me ask you, do you know who was on the staff of Project Rebirth?"

" No, your highness."

Schniezel gave an arrogant smirk, " Marlowe Harrison. Based off of all reports, he and Brenden Howell are the top scientists of a Rogue Legions based in Siberia named the Blizzard Group. However, as much as I would love to go introduce my brother back to my mental fist, I am having enough trouble with the Damocles II. Nunnally is strangely observant of me isn't she?"

" That she is, Your Highness. After the Damocles One, can you really blame her?"

Schniezel chuckled softly, " Not really. Observant of me or not, she is still pregnant with that cur Kururugi's child. Yes, I know full well who Zero was, and is now. The King of Terrorists? More like Knight of the Demon. My brother will always present a much bigger challenge than the combined might of Britannia and Japan. Alas, he must always choose the hard way."

Kanon was very used to listening to his prince speak of Lelouch, so he simply answered, " He must always. Your Highness, I believe we should start planning in the event that Lelouch should begin to make his moves. Experience in the background, I believe he probably already has plans to invade China or Japan."

Schniezel smiled in his concealed way, " Ever the present mind, Kanon? I see we are in accord. But I am more inclined to believe that my dear brother will strike China first. For all of his Justice talk, he always struck the weakest links first."

Kanon pulled the latest reports from China, " Looks like Xingke is losing control of the place, your highness. He can't quite keep Tianzi in power."

Schniezel further explained, " And China has a plethora of resources that my brother would be sure to use. In this chess match, China is nothing more than a pawn to be sacrificed. As for Britannia, they are our bishops. Japan is our queen. But we are the kings."

Schniezel smirked, thinking, Our next joust shall be with the same stakes as last time Lelouch. However, this shall be a true battle between kings of this world. Heroes get remembered, Legends never die. Oh, that reminds me.

Schniezel pulled some papers out of his desk, " Kanon, I need you to take a look at these papers."

His aide promptly did so, and dropped the sheaf. Schniezel smirked, expecting the reaction, " Sorry, Kanon, but I cannot allow failure to go unpunished. You should have noticed that my brother was screwing with me. You are dismissed."

The aide took it in stride, but Schniezel could tell he was rather angry with his sudden removal. Kanon asked, " So who is replacing me?"

Schniezel motioned at the dark haired woman in the shadows, " Meet Ophelia Petrenko. No offense, Kanon, but I need someone already familiar with our other enemies in this fight. Ophelia's father is the head of the Blizzard Group."

She bowed, " Step father, actually, your highness. He adopted my two sisters and I after his father killed our parents in a drunken rage."

Kanon narrowed his eyes in the background. Schniezel continued, " Your oldest sister, Natalie, died in the Damocles conflict. She died protecting Lelouch."

" Yes. And for that, I shall hate him."

Schniezel fingered a white king, " And your next sister, Nina, developed the FLEIA warhead that caused the whole accident."

" And I hate her as well. She had no business to develop the weapon that slaughtered millions. Alexander Petrenko, AKA Stormcrow, has taught me many things. I shall use them utterly in your service, Your Highness. And I shall see you on the World's Throne!"

Kanon left the room. He decided it would be time to pay a visit to Rivalz Cardemonde's bar.

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( Nunnally)

" Suzaku, I feel very bad about Odysseus. I think he is deceiving us."

The Masked Knight removed the Zero Mask, allowing his emerald eyes to meet Nunnally's amethyst eyes, " I told you already, it shouldn't be possible. Lelouch Geassed all of the Royal family during his Coronation to acknowledge him and be his slaves. Hell, Carline works as a cleaning maid. Odysseus has been acting odd for awhile. But I'm more concerned about Schniezel."

Nunnally frowned, " Brother Schniezel is always supposed to recognize you, as Zero correct? But I swear I heard him call you Suzaku the last time we met him. No one alive, besides C.C, Jeremiah, and Sayoko, knows you are alive outside of this room. Everyone else is supposed to believe you are Zero. Speaking of oddities, I received a report from our contact in Japan."

Suzaku never did like the fact that Nunnally felt the need to keep spies in a nation so obviously allied with them, but went with it, " What does she say this time?"

Nunnally looked Suzaku in the eyes, her unease obvious, " Villetta said that there is a Black Knight Adjudicator there who knows too much. He digs around in the past. Gottfried Hansen, she said. He's already snooped around in Diethard's old reports. He appears to know that the Zero who led the Black Knights to victory was Lelouch, and not you. He also recognizes the differences."

Suzaku looked panicked, " Is there a chance he might reveal the truth? Especially if he has proof?"

Nunnally gave the Knight of Zero a sweet smile that underlined her real intention, " Of course not. No one would ever believe him. Not a Euro Universe fool who's overstayed his welcome in too many places. Well, not the Phoenix of Berlin."

Suzaku grimaced, " I thought that he was dead. The Phoenix was blasted by Gino in the last battle of Berlin."

" Not according to the reports that Rivalz sent me. He's been in contact with a man named Alexander 'Stormcrow' Petrenko about something called Project Lazarus that has them both really excited. Given that both are heads of Rogue Legions now, I would say this would be bad news. And we know that Marlowe Harrison, infamous for developing the Life Giver Compound, is with them. It wouldn't be outlandish to say they have revived my brother."

Suzaku flinched. He remembered the attempt to revive Euphemia. For the most part, it had been successful, but the scientists involved showed him alone because they feared what Cornelia's reaction would be. Given that they hadn't been able to recreate Euphie's mindset due to the damage the Geass did, she had the intelligence of only a two year old. Suzaku hadn't hesitated to order her termination.

Suzaku said, "If they bring back Lelouch, will it be Lelouch of the Rebellion, or will it be someone else? Euphie was too damaged when they brought her back, and they couldn't repair her mind. They have to have perfected the procedure. If they hadn't, they wouldn't risk bringing Lelouch back. Also, who knows what Lelouch would be thinking of when he awakens? We would be in a bad spot if he woke with dreams of vengeance on his mind. I think he still hadn't forgiven the Black Knights when he died."

Nunnally looked downcast, " I would love to see my brother again, but I fear that the next time we meet eyes, it will be as enemies again. I hate fighting Onii-sama."

" And he hates fighting you too, Nunnally. But if I have my way, then you will never see him on the battlefield again. I will remove him before I allow him to fight you again. I only allowed it the first time because we had to."

Nunnally smiled at him, " Thank you, Suzaku. I'll hold you to that promise. I would rather him dead, with my good memories of him, than him alive and trying to kill me."

" As her majesty wills."

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( Wilhelm)

The infamous German KMF pilot wasn't a known person in Tokyo. Well, unless you considered Gino Wienberg, he was completely off the grid. Stormcrow had directed him to infiltrate the Stadtfeldt wedding, and cause a big problem. Seeing as the wedding was still a few weeks off, he had time to plan. Unfortunately, these types of missions weren't his gig. They were Typhon's specialty.

The Phoenix laughed as he considered each member of the Blizzard Group and the leaders of the Rogue Legions. Each one was designed for one task. Typhon was a Spec Ops guy, but failed in a KMF ( and life in general). Wilhelm was a KMF pilot for the ages, but he was slight of frame and useless outside of one. Stormcrow had his underworld connections, but no battle skills at all. However, if what he'd heard of Stormcrow's favorite adopted daughter, Ophelia, was any indication, she would be a huge problem if not on their side.

The Phoenix brushed by a man with mauve hair. Wilhelm immediately stiffened as he watched Kanon Maldini, notorious for being Schniezel El Britannia's Aide de camp, walk into the same bar he was about to come out of. He immediately turned around and hailed the man. Kanon fixed the Phoenix with his sky blue eyes, " Phoenix…."

" Call me Hansen, Kanon Maldini. I've never seen you at a bar before."

The aide glared, " I've hit a rough spot. I've been replaced."

" Oh ho? Now, we should speak of this over some vodka."

The former aide smirked, " My points exactly, old friend."

A/N: So Geass boy wants to go big or go home. The battles begin soon.

Alexander: His relationship with Nina, and Ophelia, will be a problem to keep an eye on. It's an effort to give a legitimate background story to Nina's irrational xenophobia. Think Viktor Reznov when envisioning his appearance. If you want to know where I got his nickname from, look up Jorn Lande's " Stormcrow" on Youtube.

OCs: This'll be the last chapter to introduce a new OC for a while. At least, until the KMFs start to flesh out.

Andrew: His Multi-personality disorder becomes a bigger issue later, as it will have a habit of popping up at inopportune times

Wilhelm: His KMF skills are not over the top. After all, Kallen could toast just about everyone's ass ( Including Gino, Luciano, the Valkyrie Squad, and Anya) with the Guren SEITEN at the end, and Suzaku was the only person who presented her a challenge.

Lelouch's lady troubles: A joke about the fact that Lelouch was hopelessly unaware of his effect on the female species.

Numbers: Don't know the exact numbers of the Damocles battle, but that is factoring NC ( non combat) Personnel as well as combat personnel. After all, someone was flying those dreadnoughts and preparing the KMFs for battle. With that being said, the size of the Phoenix Legion is emphasized because as you will shortly find out, it is the only legion that any of the governments legitimately fear.