Chapter 3
Capturing A Witch, Abandoners Convene and Piece Collecting
Alright guys this is the thirds chapter. Sorry for the long wait, trying to come up with an ending for this chapter was harder than I thought it would have been. Hope you guys like it.
"Speech", 'thought'
{flashback}
~ L ~ L ~ Lelouch centered point of view
~CO~CO~ Cornelia centered point of view
~C.C.~C.C.~ C.C. centered point of view
~ O ~ O ~ Omniscient (3rd person) point of view
Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass or any of its characters. This story is only for entertainment purposes and all rights are reserved to the creators of Code Geass and the company that owns it.
~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~
May Thursday 5, 2010
Evening
Aeries Villa
Corridors
C.C. found herself wandering the corridors of Aeries Villa that night for the last time. She had decided to leave yesterday when she found out that her latest contractor had been 'murdered', if ditching your body and going into a little girl's body, could be called dead.
'Honestly I should have seen it coming. The woman simply refused to use her geass, so I couldn't have known what it could do' thought C.C. When she learned what it did when the woman had finally used it, C.C. was understandably perturbed. There came and went another potential person that could have taken her code and released her from this existence.
'Why did you betray me Marianne?' C.C. thought with a whimsical look on her face. 'Oh well, this place has run its course anyways; Time to go find someone else to take this curse from me.'
As she continued to walk through the majestic halls of the mansion, she noticed an irresistible aroma assaulting her senses. 'Is that… no, it can't be. No one in this blasted place can make a decent pizza.' She thought confused but then smirked happily at the thought of finally having really good pizza after going without it for who knows how long. 'damn Marianne and not wanting her children to have any.'
'Well that's one good thing out of this; I can finally enjoy pizza again.' With that thought she began her hunt for the food of gods, or at least that was her thoughts on the delicious substance.
A while later we find her in one of the smaller dining halls that was meant for a more intimate family meal than opposed to the gaudy one Marianne always used despite her always saying that she was a simple woman. At the head of the table was the food of the gods (true to C.C., debatable to everyone else) and an unexpected host in front of the greatest invention of man, again her opinion that should be made fact.
She didn't really interact much with the other royals, other than Marianne, chuckles, short stack and on occasion the purple one that followed Marianne everywhere like a puppy with a bone. What she did know of this royal was that he was an anomaly.
It is Prince Lelouch; Marianne's supposed pride and joy. What C.C. knew of the boy was that he was arrogant thanks to his Prince Hood and Marianne pampering the boy caused him to have an inflated ego, but is supposed to be one of the Empires up and coming brightest minds in strategy and tactics, although to C.C. this meant absolutely squat. Not much really meant much to her anymore because of her immortality.
So the big question here was what was the boy doing here late at night instead of in bed or with his sister that short stack had maimed to fake the way how he killed Marianne. 'Well it's not like he is much of a threat. Marianne did say that he was abnormally weak after all. And he does have the pizza there. I might as well have some dinner entertainment.' C.C. thought and then smirked as she walked towards the boy.
"Who are you!" the boy demanded of her when he noticed her approaching. 'Arrogant indeed' C.C. thought before saying "Just passing through. I smelled something good and came by to see what it was. Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" C.C. said with her smirk ever present.
"I'm a prince. I can do what I want." he said while C.C. thought 'you should have taught the boy better Marianne. At this rate he's going to get himself exiled. Not that it matters to me either way.'
"I ask again, why are you here" C.C. asked with her expressionless face. She had found that it unnerved some people when she did that but the boy didn't seem to be fazed by it at all.
"I saw someone bring this in here…" he gestured towards the pizza "… a couple of minutes ago and wondered what it was. I haven't seen anything like it before. Smells disgusting though" he said which caused an instant frown to appear on C.C.'s face.
"Now I doubt that young prince. That is a pizza…" C.C. said as she walked to stand on the left side of the pizza and took a piece from the tray "… and it is the best thing in the entire world to eat."
"Hmph…" Lelouch said as he walked away from the table and towards the exit that was behind him "… whatever, I'm leaving. I can't stand the smell any longer."
"Are you sure you don't want any, little prince…"C.C. said in a mocking tone as she was about to take a bite of the pizza "… you never know if something's good unless you try."
"Quite sure…" Lelouch said as he disappeared behind the wall "… good night."
When the prince was gone, C.C. decided to gorge herself on what she presumed to be the first of many pizza's to come while thinking 'the boy was interesting. Definitely different from what Marianne said about him. Perhaps I'll check up on him in a few years, if he's still alive…' she chuckled at this thought because at the moment she thought his chances of living longer were 50/50 '… I'll see if he can be the one to take this code from me.'
As she picked up the tray that only had a couple more slices of pizza left on it and began to walk towards the same exit that Lelouch had left through, she began to feel dizzy 'what's wrong with me? I shouldn't feel like this…'
As she turned the corner in the direction the boy had gone, her eyes widened a fraction to see the boy there with a gun in his hand.
"Took you long enough…" he said with a smirk "… thought you might've fallen asleep in there. That wouldn't have been as fun."
When he said that, it clicked in her head that he did something to the pizza and looked at the piece that she had in her hand. She heard muffled sounds of gunshots and as she looked down she noticed that she was on the ground and that he had shot her legs. Although that had happened she was still focused more on the pizza. 'That was the best pizza I've ever had. I need to know who made it."
"Who made the pizza?" She asked unconcerned in the fact that he had the barrel of the gun at her head.
He smirked and said "Pizza is more important than life right?"
"Of course" she said a little miffed that the boy wouldn't answer her. "Why are you trying to kill me anyway? Trying to prove something to daddy dearest?" She asked still not worried about the situation.
"You could say it's me getting even…" he said "… but more really from letting you go out there and meeting that insufferable Mao."
"Mao?" C.C. asked interested in what the boy might be talking about "… who's Mao?"
"Nobody to concern yourself with…" he said "…now lights out for you."
"You know you can't kill don't you" she said getting the feeling that the boy might actually know something about her.
"Yes I know…" he said smirking "… this is me just keeping you from misbehaving… (BAM)" he said her name surprising her as he pulled the trigger.
~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~
May Saturday 7, 2010
Britannia Royal Palace
Night
Throne Room
Charles zi Britannia is considered many things, a strong man that led his empire's expansion to cover almost a third of the world, a wise man to know when something was worth it in the end or to leave it alone and take it at another time like when he decided to leave the federation alone for now, a vindictive man that would pay back a person that wronged him in spades like during the ascension war to determine who would lead the empire, a prideful man that would not admit when he was in the wrong but make it so that in the end he was right by whatever means. He is those things and many others, but one thing that he is not is a weakling He detests the weak. In his empire the weak only take up space and only get in the way of his goals, and he does not tolerate it.
That is why he built his empire based on the strong triumphing over the weak. He wholeheartedly believes that and that the strong are the only ones to have the right to live and thrive in this world. The way that he has built his empire has caused it so that when his favorite wife was murdered he could not show weakness. At the onset of his ascend to being emperor he knew that it was a possibility for it to happen when he began to encourage his subjects to take what they wanted and to not be apologetic about it, but just because he couldn't show weakness didn't mean that he couldn't be mad about it. When Charles learned that it had been his own brother that had done it he was furious. He still remembers it vividly when he had confronted him about it.
{flashback}
C's World
Sword of Akasha
Charles is standing at the top of the stairs of a majestic pantheon that seems to be made of limestone. The columns carved into groves of past wars and the hardships that man has faced. The entire structure seems to be floating in the clouds and it is eternal twilight. Ascending the stairs behind Charles is a small boy with long blond hair that is touching the floor. His clothes are that of nobility in the colors of white and outlined in green with gold lining. As he reaches the top of the stairs and stands next to the emperor he begins to speak.
"I heard what happened. My condolences" V.V. said to his borther while looking ahead at swirling clouds of C's world.
"My thanks, my brother" Charles responds while thinking 'please brother don't let it have been you.'
"Have you heard anything about it brother?" Charles asked hoping that he will tell him the truth.
"No I haven't. There have been many things keeping me busy at the directorate. Has there been anything new?" V.V. asked while feigning innocence.
Meanwhile Charles was livid. In his mind he was thinking 'he lied to me. We promised that we would do anything to achieve our goals but that we would never lie to each other. Why my brother? Why have you done this?! I will never forgive you for taking Marianne away from me.'
However his response betrayed none off his inner turmoil at being betrayed by his flesh and blood "No there hasn't. It matters not in the end though."
"Yes, that's right. Once the ragnorock connection is complete and complete the sword of Akasha to kill god we will finally be rid of this world of lies" V.V. said not knowing that Marianne had told Charles about what he did. "I'm glad to see that that woman has not led you astray from the plan Charles."
"Of course not brother, what mattes the most is the completion of the Ragnorock connection." Charles says still furious at his brother.
{Flashback End}
'You will pay for what you have done brother but it will have to wait. The plan must continue to be rid of this world of lies. I can wait to get my revenge for what you have done.' Charles thought while seated on his throne in his royal purple garbs and white imperial wig. He then sees someone enter the chamber an d his anger ebbs a little at seeing who it is. He had summoned her because there was something amiss with the boy that he had had with Marianne.
"It seems that the boy has been acting strange since your death" Charles said as the person approached.
In appearance the person appeared to be nothing more than another 8 year old girl with pink hair in a periwinkle and black evening ball gown, but if one paid closer attention to the girl's eyes they would see red rimming around them. Marianne vi Britannia had indeed escaped death that night almost a week ago. She had gotten lucky when V.V. had gunned her down and saw little Anya Alstream there hiding behind one of the pillars where the little maniac could not see her.
The girl would not have been Marianne's first choice to escape to using her geass that C.C. had given her, but dying people couldn't be choosers. Now she was stuck in the girl until they could finish the plan. She wasn't about to let it get her down though. Now that she was free to do what she wanted, she was going to have her fun. First though, she had to deal with what was going on with her children.
"How so?" she asked in her usual playful manner while still looking over the girl's body and getting used to her new home for the duration.
"The reports say that he has withdrawn from the royal family except from Cornelia, Euphemia and Nunnally…" the emperor said in his bored tone "… and has been making use of your royal guard."
"oh…" she responded looking over to him, her interest peeked "… and what has he been doing with them?"
"He let them go" he simply responded.
"He what?!" she yelled incredulously that her son would do that to her handpicked guard while thinking 'does he know how long it took me to find them?!'
"Does he know that he let go the best I could find?!"
"It seems the boy disagrees…" Charles said amused remembering what the boys reason was "… he said, and I quote, 'I don't want substandard soldiers that couldn't even protect a frail old woman.'"
"Frail?! Old?!" Marianne yelled at the insults. She didn't care if he was her child, nobody called her frail or old. "Why I ought a, how dare that boy of mine talk about me like that. I taught him better than that, and no comment from you about that while I'm like this…" she said knowing what he was going to say "… did he keep anyone at least? You didn't leave him defenseless did you?"
"No it seems that he decided to keep Cornelia on and that new fellow you had found recently."
"Gottwald?" she asked not understanding why her son would keep the inexperienced soldier albeit extreme in everything that he did. She understood him keeping Cornelia on, since she was his sister.
"Yes, that's the one I believe. The boy said that he would be more than enough for now…" he said still amused by the boy and his antics but then scowled "… although his attitude is troubling. Perhaps your death troubled him more than we thought."
"If it did?" she asked concerned for her son's fate, but ultimately leaving it to her husband.
"Then he would be unfit to remain as a part of this family. If he can't handle this, then he would need to be used as soon as possible while he's still useful unlike the other one. She will face his fate if he is unfit."
"He's just a boy Charles" she lightly admonished not concerned about Nunnally because her fate is already sealed.
"That is no excuse. I will I will have to have him summoned to determine his fate."
"Very well…" she said, letting him do as he pleased "… I suppose Nunnally is of no more use?"
"That's right…" he said "… except maybe to get Lelouch to do as we want. Depends on how he is really."
"Very well…" Marianne said.
The emperor then remembered about the immortal "… where is C.C.?"
"C.C.? I don't know. I haven't seen or heard from her since V.V. riddled me with that assault rifle of his…" Marianne pouted remembering that "… She probably already left the Britannian homeland. She did say that she was only here for me to complete my end of our contract and grant her wish. She won't be very cooperative with us now that I can't take her curse from her that's for sure." She reasoned with him.
"Hmm, it's fine for now. There isn't much we can do with her at the moment. We can let her roam for a while since the ragnorock connection is still not ready…" replied Charles "… that will be all for now."
"If that's all…" Marianne replied as she walked towards the exit "… I'm going to go and get this girl's body ready for military training. Need to find something to do in the meantime don't I?"
"Very well, when you're ready I will see about inducting her into the rounds."
~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~ C.C. ~
May Sunday 8, 2010
Aeries Palace
Lelouch's closet
She wasn't sure how long it had been since the boy had trapped her. She was sure it had to have been a few days by now at least. One thing was for sure and that was that she didn't like it. He had gotten the drop on her, plain and simple. She was big enough to admit that. Not.
The question that was bugging her was how the boy had been able to do it. There hasn't been anyone that was able to do that in years yet the boya was able to. It didn't add up.
'At least now I know better than to not be suspicious of kids' C.C. thought.
When she had first woken up the boy was there unsurprised to find her not dead and chained to the wall. She was understandably mad at the boy and tried to get him to touch her on her skin so she would be able to shatter his mind but had found that the boy was actually wary of touching her so that was out. When she tried to figure out where it was that she was at she found that it was the boy's closet at the palace. It seemed that the boy had the closet cleaned out so that he could use it to imprison her. She has been able to maintain her stoic expression even after seeing that he wasn't about to let her touch him and found that he had prepared to have her sedated enough so that she wouldn't try anything. He checked in on her 3 times a day to bring her more food with sedatives in them. She would have stopped eating the food to be able to escape but it seemed that the boy knew her weakness, pizza, and was not about to let it go to waste especially since it was that same delicious pizza from the night that he was able to capture her. It was like a heroin addict that came across the best heroin that they were able to find, you just can't say no to it.
'At least he brings the delicious pizza in large amounts' she thought to having at least something to look forward to. As she was about to doze off again she saw the door open and the boy come in with the food of God ('yes its God's food, get over it')
She then heard the door open and saw the boy walk in pushing a cart full of pizza for her. She couldn't help but feel gleeful at the sight of the pizza even though she knew she shouldn't eat any.
'Ah, to eat or not to eat, it was never a choice for me I guess…' she then shrugged '… oh well, things seem interesting here with him anyways. I guess I'll stick around for a while.'
"I see that you've been enjoying the food" he said to her.
"It's pizza" she replied with her stoic features not needing to say any more than that.
"That it is" he responded with a smirk.
"Which raises the question…" she said and raised an eyebrow "…how do you know I like it? I'm pretty sure I never showed myself around you boya, or your sister."
"Your right…" he responded with a smirk but she still saw his eye twitch at the boya remark "…but if I didn't get you now, then I would have to deal with that detestable Mao later…" he said with clear annoyance at the person he mentioned "…and I'd rather not go looking for you later."
"Oh…" she replied arching a fine green eyebrow and smirking "… and pray tell why you would want to look for me?"
"I like knowing where my witch is, is all" he said still with his smirk.
"Your's?" she said wondering why he would claim her as his and amusing that he would think that.
"Yes, mine…" he replied as he began to leave "… now if you'll excuse me. Preparations need to be made."
"Preparation's?" C.C. asked fishing for more information.
"No need for more information…" when he was at the door he said "… don't want that woman coming back here."
Lelouch then closed the door and left C.C. to continue to ponder the information that she has gotten since she was drugged into her current state.
'He certainly is interesting. The more pressing question is how he knew I wouldn't die. Did he see me die before? Possible but unlikely…' then she remembered the pizza and thought '… well it doesn't matter right now. As long as this stuff keeps coming I guess I could hang around for a while.'
As she was about half way through the pizza that she had started on she got a mental call from her recently departed contractor.
'C.C.?'Marianne questioned 'Wow this is convenient. Hey how are you? Are you still in Pendragon?'
'How am I?' C.C. replied sarcastically with a bitter undertone 'Betrayed, that's how I am.' She then wondered if she should then mention the predicament that she was in but thought better of it.
'She's already abandoned the boy so he's no longer any concern of hers and since she's not my contractor anymore then I don't have any obligation to tell her either.'
'I already left the empire. I decided to look for a new contractor since my last one skipped out on their end of the contract.' C.C. told Marianne.
'I didn't betray you…' Marianne mentally huffed '… I was just never informed of the details of our contract. Really, did you expect me to have agreed knowing now everything?' Marianne questioned C.C.
"Regardless, I'm now left without a contractor.'
'Where are you heading then?' Marianne asked.
'Not sure…' C.C. replied in her detached tone '… might head to Italy for pizza and then swing through the federation to have a look see how things are going on there.'
'Won't you tell me?' Marianne asked in her playful irritated tone at not getting anything from her.
'No'
'Whyyyy' whined Marianne.
'You're no longer my contractor, so it no longer concerns you' C.C. stated.
'But we're friends' whined Marianne again.
'We're not friends' C.C. said in her cold voice 'You we're just to take my code and seeing that you won't, we no longer need to interact. Goodbye' C.C. said as she pushed Marianne from her mind.
'Hey!' Marianne tried to protest but was promptly shut out from her mind.
C.C. sat there in her makeshift prison on her cot that the little princeling made for her thinking about him.
'He's too different from how Marianne always talked about him in her own way…' C.C. then smirked '… I guess I'll be sticking around a while and see how things go. Maybe he can do what his mother refuses if he's already showing this much potential.'
With that thought she continued to eat the delicious drugged laced pizza and slipping from her cognitive mind.
~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~
May Monday 9, 2010
Aeries Palace
Study
As Lelouch was going over his plans of what he was going to do that would take place in the near future, he heard the call of the devil.
"Oh lulu, where are you?" he heard the voice of the Ashford family heir's voice, Milly Ashford, come from the hall.
'Of all the unholy things to come for me, why is it her that is the only one that actually comes.' Lelouch thought as he tried to hide under his desk that he was at so as to not be seen by Milly.
As soon as he was under the desk the door opened and he was able to see a flash of yellow before he backed up even more under the desk so that she wouldn't see him there. 'Please don't let that she-devil see me' he thought.
"Hmm, I wonder where that lulu went off to…" Milly mused to herself as she thought 'ah there he is. How cute, he thinks he can hide from me' she then got a devilish smirk on her lips.
"Oh well, I guess he's not here. I'll go look in the gardens." She made to look like she was leaving the room but instead stood on the outside of the room with the door ajar and was reward a few seconds later with the sounds of someone in the room moving about.
'Ha, I knew it. Now why would lulu try and hide from little old me? Oh well, a question for another day, time for some therapeutic fun.'
Millicent Ashford but Milly to those that don't want to have broken bones has been friends with the prince since they were babies. Ever since his mother had become a consort they have been playing together. It was her family that supported the women's rise in society. So, ever since then they have been close allies with the vi Britannia branch of the royal family and enjoyed everything that came with it. To make sure that they would continue to enjoy their new station in society they were having talks about a possible arranged marriage between Milly and Lelouch. Of course only Milly knew about this since she was in the habit of eavesdropping and didn't tell Lelouch so that it would be a surprise. Now that Lady Marianne had been killed though, their position has instead become tenuous and it is unknown if the will survive the fallout of it.
"Ah ha, found you!" She exclaimed.
"Gah…" Lelouch said as he jumped and ran behind the chair "… How'd you find me? I thought you couldn't see me from the door." Lelouch said as he tried to hide behind the chair as Milly approached him.
"It was easy of course. You can't hide from me lulu, I know you too well." She remarked.
'That's true. No matter what I tried she was always there to bug me…' he thought with a scowl. He then fixed his features and put on a serene smile. "Well considering the circumstances it is good to see you Milly."
"My my, someone is putting up a tough front…" Milly said trying to maintain her usual jubilance "… and here your best friend came here to cheer you up."
Lelouch studied her for a moment while thinking '…Looks like things aren't going well. Oh Milly.' And said "you don't need to put up a front with me you know. If were friends it goes both ways Milly…" he shocked her because he was able to see through her when it was her trying to cheer him up "… You can come to me when you're feeling down. I know I don't have a lot of sway right know but I will try to help you as best as I can even if it's just a shoulder to cry on you know." He said while having an actual genuine smile for her.
She stood there shocked for a moment as she processed what he said and then she ran towards him and hugged him as she began to cry.
"Oh lulu it's terrible. Grandpa says that the emperor is mad at us and that he is going to revoke our family's noble titles for what happened to your mother…." As she clung to him he patted her head while softly hugging her "… and that we might have to leave. I don't know what to do. I don't want to leave and never see you again."
"It's going to be okay Milly. At the moment I can't do anything for you but I will do what I can to make it better. It won't be too long before I see you again, so think of it more as you going ahead of me in a vacation and I'll catch up to you. So show me the bright joyful mischievous perverted girl that I've come to know and dread to see" Lelouch said with a mock at the end to get her out of her funk which surprisingly did work as she sniffed and chuckled at the jib.
"You always did know what to say to make me feel better…" Milly said and then got a confused look on her face as she said "… what do you mean you'll be behind us? Did the emperor say something to you?"
"… no it's just me being my usual self and trying to protect Nunnally and thinking ahead of all the possible outcomes from this…" he covered quickly "… So until we find out more about what will happen just keep it out of your mind and in the meantime think of things that we can do until you do. I know you will keep on eavesdropping even if I say you shouldn't. I'm sure you can come up with some things to embarrass me in the meantime."
"Alright then, you just remember that you promised…" She then looked at her watch and saw the time "…I need to go back home. Promise me that whatever happens you won't forget about me?"
"I promise milady" Lelouch said with a mock bow.
"My my, ever the gentleman aren't we? Good day to you as well good sir." She said as she curtsied and left laughing feeling better than when she came to visit her friend.
When Milly did finally leave Lelouch to himself, he went right back to preparing for the upcoming events that were going to take place.
'Right now I just need to get things ready before people start wondering what it is I'm up to.' Lelouch thought.
As he was finishing up his plans and looking for the things that he would need to bargain with each of the individuals that he was having brought to him he decided that he needed to blow off some steam and went in search of something to do.
Since he let go of all the other staff of the palace, it had gotten quite. That day had been fun for him seeing all of the personnel's looks when he dismissed them all except for Cornelia and Gottwald. Unfortunately he was now operating under efficiency and he couldn't expect for Cornelia to protect him by herself even if Gottwald was still out getting his guests.
'I need to get at least the security back up and running otherwise that old geezer will try and get his people in here….' Lelouch thought annoyed about his father's lackeys trying to keep an eye on him.
Foyer
As he walked into the foyer Lelouch saw that Cornelia was there with what appeared to be new security guards.
'What does she think she's doing' he thought furiously as he walked towards his sister but kept a neutral expression on his face.
"Sister, who are these people?" he asked of her but predictably she wasn't expecting him so soon.
'damn him. How does he do that…' thought Cornelia frantically and trying to think of a good excuse.
"New guards since you saw to it that the others left rather hurriedly. You can't expect me to be able to guard the whole place by myself." Cornelia remarked back and crossed her arms over her chest with a huff.
Lelouch just looked at her for a moment and then looked over the new guards. There were three team of six, totaling 18 guards. They were wearing the basic gray guard's uniforms and were of mixed ages ranging from what looked like mid-thirties to those who looked like recent graduates from the academy. It was mostly males with a few women in the mix standing at attention and saluting him and Cornelia. He figured they were capable men if they were chosen by Cornelia but he couldn't trust them since at the moment they were more likely to choose the emperor over him in terms of loyalty.
'It seems that they will have to do for now. Damn you Cornelia, you know I can't say anything if I don't want to ruin your reputation in front of them. Without your reputation they won't recognize you as your own soldier. I can't wait until I can get over with this subservient role in front of others.' Lelouch thought and then sighed as he said "I guess they will do."
He then walked closer to the stairs and indicated for her to come closer. She grumbled as she got closer to the stairs and when he was at her level he whispered to her "Just make sure that none of them go into my room. I'm going to be looking the doors from now on understand?"
She leveled him a look of mistrust but a slight glare from him cowed her into submission "alright I get it."
"Good, that's all I ask for. Now if you'll excuse me"
Before either of them was able to even move they heard the voice of the one person that was worse than even Milly Ashford in what she would call her best day.
"Oh lulu! Nelly! Guess who?" said the one person that they both did not want to see at the moment.
'No, not her' thought Cornelia while Lelouch thought 'why is she here now. Dammit why do memories have to be so damn muddled.'
Nonette Enneagram, a short haired woman whose hair is light green with blue eyes, pushed open the doors and strutted into the room to the sheer horror of Cornelia and the mixture of annoyance and amusement of Lelouch. She was wearing a captain's uniform that was similar to Cornelia's with a green and gold cape to show that she was a knight of the empire. Lelouch had learned over the course of his lives that although Nonette is worse than Milly in some ways, he can at least control her through her vices and fortunately one happened to be with him right there in the form of Cornelia. Although with all the time that he has existed it still hasn't dawned on him that he is one of her vices as well, just one that she likes to indulge requests from.
'Well there's my darling lulu and lookie here, we have Nelly here as well. This will make things a lot easier' thought Nonette with a smirk on her face.
She then walked towards the two of them and picked up Lelouch much to his annoyance while he thought 'damn this young age of mine' and started to coddle him like a baby while saying in a sweet voice "Aww my dear little lulu got scared by those big bad people that hurt his family…" she then glommed him to her chest and despite himself Lelouch enjoyed it "… there, let big sis noni make you feel better." Nonette purred while she gave him a loving look.
"Nonette!..." Cornelia yelled at here slight redness on her face "… there are people present."
Nonette gave her a glare and said "Oh! Seems someone has grown a backbone since I last met them…" Cornelia faltered a bit remembering her days at the academy with Nonette and all the hijinks that the woman caused and got her involved in "… that's better. Besides it's not like I'm doing something that he doesn't like, right lulu?" Nonette asked him.
When both women looked at him he had a dreamy look on his face, the kind that is seen on teenage boys living one of their fantasies. Nonette chuckled while Cornelia sighed exasperated at what is happening in front of her.
"Please at least for proprieties sake act like the knight that you are and treat him like the prince that he is." Cornelia asked of the light green haired woman.
"She's right noni…" they heard from where Lelouch was in Nonette's embrace as Cornelia thought 'at least he knows what's acceptable behavior and what's not' and Nonette pouted that he was going to complain about the treatment but was slightly surprised and happy by what he said next "… Let's go have fun somewhere else while Nelly here shows these new guys the ropes around here."
Cornelia was flabbergasted by the way that he was acting and felt for some reason like he had only been toying with her before with the whole death of lady Marianne but then she saw him sending her a smirk and then she knew that he was doing it on purpose to get a rise out of her.
'Why that little twerp. He wants me to take the bait. If that isn't the most juvenile thing ever' Cornelia thought.
Lelouch at the moment was thinking 'hehehe, jealous Cornelia?'
Nonette on the other hand was thinking with a thoughtful frown on her face 'hmm now that's different. Usually by now he would have demanded that I let him down. What happened must have really affected him.'
"Maybe another time lulu, I was just stopping by to check in on you guys to see how you were. I got a busy day ahead of me full of important military duties…" Nonette said with a smile towards Lelouch and then she turned to Cornelia and whispered into her in ear while she hugged her "… call me if you need anything okay?"
Cornelia was a little surprised that Nonette was concerned about her but managed to say "thanks Nonette. I'll keep that in mind."
As Nonette was leaving Lelouch was right behind her seeing an opportunity to increase his forces and have his father loss one of his future potential ones.
"Nonette, can I talk with you for a second?" Lelouch asked her while keeping up the innocent façade.
"Sure lulu, come here…" Nonette picked him up, then nodded to Cornelia all while ignoring the scandalized looks on the guards faces at how she was treating royalty, and walked towards the door while carrying Lelouch "… what do you want to ask me? Want me to be your girlfriend?" she good naturedly joked while missing the smirk that passed on Lelouch's face.
"No, not that…" Lelouch said while she gave him a puzzled look because she knew that he should still be in the 'girls are icky' phase "… I wanted to ask you if you would come back to visit me soon so I could ask you something important."
"You can ask me now you know" she said.
"No, it's a secret…" he said giving her one of his mischievous smirks of a child with a big secret which warmed the woman's heart and caused a slight jelly effect to her legs "so will you come?"
"Well…" Nonette started thinking it over 'it couldn't hurt to come and spend some time with him to make sure he's okay' and then said "… I guess I could, but I'm busy this week so how about I come by on the weekend and we can go with Nelly to the hospital to check on your sister and make sure she's okay. That sound good to you my little prince lulu?"
"Yea, thanks Noni" Lelouch said as Nonette put him down by the door and waved bye to him as she left through the front door.
'Nonette Enneagram, potential future Knight of the Rounds, Knight of Nine, can't have you siding with any of them. With you I will be able to further tie Cornelia to me and with Cornelia already with me you will be less likely to refuse me if only to help her. That's one more piece for me Charles, Schneizel' thought Lelouch.
As Lelouch stood there watching the one woman that could outdo Milly in causing chaos to happen someone came up behind him.
"What are you planning Lelouch?" Cornelia demanded from him. She didn't like it how he was acting with Nonette. She might be afraid of the woman but she was still her friend and she would still try to protect her if she could.
"Why whatever do you mean sister?" he replied with that damnable smirk back on his face that she has come to recognize as the one he used when he was scheming something that would not bode well for whoever it was directed at.
'I knew it, he is planning to do something and it involves Nonette' Cornelia thought.
"If you think I'm just going to sit back and let you do god knows what to my friend" Cornelia began to say.
"Cornelia, remember that you have sworn yourself to me to be my vassal. Though the world will still know you as Princess Cornelia, you will still address me as your lord that I am when we are amongst our comrades…" Lelouch started and then turned to look at her to see her shocked expression "… that's right, did you think it would just be you and Gottwald that would be in my service? No my dear, we need to start to acquire more people to follow with us so that we can be able to do what we need to…" he then turned around to walk back inside but stopped next to her and said one final parting "…or would rather have me leave your friend to fend for herself and have to later kill her ourselves as our enemy?" his tone then turned darker to one that should not be of a child's "… I told you this before, the game is afoot and the pieces are being collected. Its collection time and we need to gather the pieces that we want before they are tainted and we need to destroy them." He then walked away and Cornelia stood there frozen wondering what the days to come would have in store for them.
A/N: And there it is. Hope you guys liked it. Was the ending any good or not? I admit it is not some of my best work but that was what would come to me. But overall how was it? Need constructive criticism to get the juices flowing.
I'm not going to give up things on how things are going to go in the story so you guys are gonna need to read to find out.
Now for the harem line up. Keep in mind that at this point this is just those that are already in but there will be more when I can swing it.
Now here they are: C.C., Kallen (obviously), Cornelia, Milly, Shirley, Nonette, Cecile, Kaguya (holds writer at gunpoint)
Like I said, I haven't fully fleshed out the list as I would like but these are the ones that are already in. If you want to make a suggestion of who to add pm me with who and how that person would meet Lelouch for the first time to get the ball rolling.
Now it been pointed out to me that I could do with some help with proofing my work so if anyone's interested in beta'ing for me pm me to let me know that you're interested.
Now its review response time:
To dw77: of course she's going to be in it. It was a no brainer in my book.
To IonicAmalgam: Nope not a repost, but there is another story that has a similar start as this one by D. Vangrave called 17th times the charm.
To EnderWiggin190: Not the exact same plotline, just a similar premise. I changed what I could so that it wouldn't be the same, there's only so much that could vary with a set stage, and there will be differences. For my story at this point Cornelia is not an adult. She is 16 at this point so please don't bag on that. As I stated before this is my first fanfic and I'm learning as I go so give me some slack about it.
To MM Browsing: right now I don't want to give anything away but I can say that he won't be like he was in the canon timeline. Hope my preliminary line up helps a bit with what you wanted to know.
To guest 22: as I said before, I'm learning as I go, but thanks for the advice. I'll keep it in mind when writing and I did try to get a beta but they never responded.
That's all for now, I'll try and update as soon as possible. Have patience with me.
Read and Review please!
Posted: 12/12/12