Chapter 2: Orders
Timeframe: Season 1
Leading a double life is a real pain.
That was the main thought running through Lelouch's head as walked through the halls of Ashford Academy. As smart as he was, Lelouch couldn't get around the simple fact that he was still required to take tests. So for the last few days, he had been stuck at the school instead of overseeing Black Knight operations.
Stifling a yawn, Lelouch hurried back heading to his house where he could change into Zero and meet up with his troops. It was best to get this done quickly, considering it was Wednesday. Wednesday was the middle of the week and by that time Milly was usually very bored and began thinking up of new weird festival ideas. Lelouch knew he needed to get away before the student council president got him roped into one of those.
As if fate was somehow mocking his plan, Lelouch's phone suddenly began to ring.
"That's probably the president now," Lelouch said lightly and flipped his phone out to have a look at the call display on it. When he saw the name, Lelouch's blood ran cold.
'What is this? She shouldn't have this phone number'
Making sure the voice modifier for his phone was in place, Lelouch glanced quickly around the hallway to confirm that no one would eavesdrop on him. Seeing only a handful of other students in the area, and none right next to him, the young flipped open his phone and turned it on.
"Yes" he said tentatively in the tone of Zero.
"Ah, hello there Zero" a pleasant sounding female voice answered back.
"Rakatsha. What can I do for you?"
The Indian scientist continued on speaking. "I'm just calling to double check that you still want to keep working on those new improvements to the Knightmare systems"
"Of course I do. That is one of our most high priority tasks at this time. Why would I want you to stop working on that?"
"Well those orders you gave out said that you wanted every single member of the Black Knights involved"
'Orders? What orders?'
"Anyway, I just thought I'd check. I need to get back to work on my children so I'll talk to you soon. Bye"
"Wait, how did you get this phone number?" Zero started to say but was cut off by the clicking noise ending the call.
Lelouch walked down the hall trying to figure what that was all about. Still his analytical mind was able to come with several possibilities to explain the situation.
Possibility number 2: There had been some miscommunication regarding the next upcoming mission and Rakatsha had thought that she needed to be involved.
Possibility number 4: The research head was trying to gauge how important Zero considered her work in an attempt to get more funds out of him.
Possibility number 7: Rakatsha had just gotten bored from sitting on her couch and smoking her pipe all day and needed something to do.
Possibility number 8: Rakatsha had a very peculiar way of flirting with people.
Before any of these could be sorted further, Lelouch's phone went off again and when he answered it, he was surprised to find that it was another Black Knight's member who should not have had this number.
"Zero, how are you today?"
"I'm fine Diethart. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"
The reporter was quiet for a moment before replying. "Well, it is concerning your recent orders."
'Him as well?'
"I'm really not quite sure how they can be presented in a positive light to everyone"
"Just present them as you always do Diethart."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. Do not worry Diethart. I have confidence in your abilities"
"….Very well then Zero. If you say so"
As the call ended Lelouch's brain kept going coming up with more possibilities as to what Diethart found so difficult about a simple ambushing of a supply shipment for this weekend.
Possibility number 15: Several members got a wrong memo concerning the next mission.
Possibility number 19: Diethart is a double agent for Britannia and is trying to get more information out of me about my plans.
Possibility number 25: This was some kind of plot by the man in order to generate huge ratings on TV.
Possibility number 37: Diethart is a crazed fan boy and the phone call was just part of his obsessive stalking of me.
One would hope that two calls would be enough for Zero. But, unfortunately not. Those two were jut the beginning as suddenly calls started pouring into the phone with each person needing to say something about Zero's orders.
Tohdoh.
"Zero, how does this course of action benefit the Japanese?"
"Everything I do is for the betterment of Japan Tohdoh"
Kaguya.
"Lord Zero! This is a great idea you came up with. Your wife is very impressed"
"…Err, I'm glad that you approve Princess Kaguya"
Tamaki.
"Hey Zero. I think this mission might be too tough for me. Hahahahaha. Are you sure, you don't want to come in to help us and get a piece of the action? Hahahahahahahaha!"
"Do not worry Tamaki. I shall make sure that you are reassigned to the very first available suicide mission"
"Hahahahahaha….wait, what?"
- click -
Some random person
"No, I am not interested in changing to a different cell phone provider!"
As the number of calls increased, so did the possibilities for what was cuasing all of this.
Possibility number 85: Everyone in my organization is nuts.
Possibility number 100: Milly has somehow joined the Black Knights without my knowledge and come up with some crazy scheme in order to remove my mask.
Possibility number 100, alternative A: Kallen has been spending too much time around Milly and she is the one who has come up with the crazy scheme.
Possibility number 221: There is a new geass user out there who has mental abilities and is using them to miss with the minds of the Black Knights making them confused and then having them annoy me to death with their constant phone calls.
Possibility number 666: This is all just a very long dream. I'm still a prince. Mother is still alive. Nunnally is not crippled or blind and we still live in Britannia where my superb genius and chess skills make me next in line for the throne. And C.C and the notion of geass are nothing more then horrible figments of my imagination brought on from eating that old leftover pizza in the fridge the night before.
By the time the fifteenth call had come in - who Lelouch was sure had been someone that was only hired to clean their base once a week - that was enough. He growled as the small plastic device rang again and he answered
"Look," he said speaking in an angry tone, before the person could say anything, "I don't care if you don't think my orders are right or if they do not make sense or seem logical to you. The fact remains that these are my orders, and I expect them to be followed. I am the leader and I always end up leading you to victory so you have no reason to question me! Do I make myself clear?"
"……Lulou?"
Lelouch mentally cursed himself as he took a glance at the caller id recognizing it as Shirley and not a Black Knights member.
"Oh my apologizes Shirley" Lelouch said quickly switching back to his mild mannered non world conquering student tone of voice, "I thought that you were someone else"
"Are you alright? Your voice sounded different and why were you yelling?"
"Well, I was doing some work for the president and some of the heads of the other clubs were giving me a bit of a hard time" he replied back smoothly lying"
"Oh, well that's what I needed to talk to you about. Milly has come up with a new idea for a festival and she needs you to…"
At this point a light began flashing on Lelouch's phone.
"I'm very sorry Shirley. I have another call coming in. I'll call you back in a little while. Bye"
Back at the student council office, Shirley still had the phone held to her ear not realizing that Lulu had hung up as he had spoken so fast. A few moments of dead silence and the girl finally caught on.
"Lulou" she cried out angrily she closed her phone and threw it on to the table.
This time, Lelouch made sure he knew where the call was coming from. Luckily, this was a number he recognized and someone who should be able to tell him what the hell was going on.
"Zero? This is Kallen" the girl voice came through on the line.
"Ah yes, Kallen, I…"
Lelouch paused in mid sentence as his eyes wide in shock. Just down the hallway was Kallen looking around to make sure nobody would overhear and whispering into her own phone. Knowing that a conversation could not take place here, he turned around and fled in the opposite direction startling a few students.
"Hello Zero? Are you still there?"
Zero stopped running when he had completely ran out of breath. He had managed to make it a good 35 feet away from Kallen which was in fact a new record for him.
"I am here"
"Are you okay?" Kallen asked concern in her voice, "You sound like you're out of breath"
"Fine," Lelouch muttered in an irritated tone.
"Okay. Then what is going on with these orders?"
"Well…"
"I knew something was wrong when I heard them! This is obviously her doing, isn't it?"
'Her?'
"She never does anything at all and just lounges around the base. Now she has you doing this sort of thing for her. It is unacceptable! It's obvious that she is trying to manipulate you Zero. You must not stand for this!"
'Her!'
The rest of Kallen's rant fell on deaf ears as Lelouch was too busy inside his head systematically eliminating a large number of the possibilities.
"….I would be more then happy to take care of her for you Zero"
"Hold that thought Kallen," Lelouch replied hanging up on her.
Before another annoying call could come in, Lelouch dialed a number himself for a change. He needed to check to make sure.
"Ohgi," he said sternly as his second in command picked up the phone, "I need you to tell when you received your last orders from me and word for word what they were"
"Err alright Zero. Your last orders were yesterday when…"
A minute later, Lelouch had a complete understanding of the situation.
Possibility number 1: C.C!
A short while later, Lelouch barged into his room coming across the source of his anger sprawled out on his bed relaxing.
"C.C," he said in a very stern tone. "I received a very interesting report from Ougi today. Would you like to hear it?"
C.C yawned a bit not answering but it didn't matter as Lelouch was going to tell it anyway.
"Yesterday, Zero showed up at the Black Knight's headquarters with brand new orders for everyone. Apparently he instructed everyone to start planning and get undercover agents in place for an operation. An operation called Seize Control of All Pizza Hut Locations in Japan or SCAPHLJ for short."
The tiniest bit of a smile formed on C.C face when she heard the name.
"However, I was here at school all day yesterday and never issued any new orders," Lelouch said going on. "C.C, would you happen to know anything about this?"
C.C looked straight into Lelouch's eyes and responded calmly. "No, why would I? I'm not Zero"
Lelouch may have considered the notion that she was telling the truth for a split second were it not for the fact that C.C was currently playing with one of his Zero helmets. Instead his face formed a look that just screamed I'm going to kill you.
"Oh by the way, I may have given your phone number out to a couple of people"
"….Damn you witch" was all Lelouch managed to get out before he gave into rage and lunged forward at her.
In another section of the home Nunnally's ears perked up as she heard what sounded like a lot of shouting and banging noises Although the young girl could not see anything in her home, she still had a idea of the layout of the place and could guess that it was coming from the area of her brother's room.
"What do you think my brother is doing up there?" Nunnally asked politely turning her head in the direction of Sayoko who was busy chopping up some vegetables for dinner.
The maid stopped working as she looked back to Nunnally and also listened to the noises coming from upstairs.
"I'm sure that it is nothing you have to worry about Nunnally" Sayoko responded back.
"Okay"
This statement from the maid was a lie though as evident in the look of embarrassment on her face and the fact that inside her mind, Sayoko had come up with only one possibility to explain what she was hearing.
Possibility number 1: Sir Lelouch's hormones were running very rampant today.
