Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I'm glad to be getting any feedback, as it really inspires me to keep writing. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter, even if it is mostly just set up.
Chapter 3
Gino Weinberg's eyes nervously darted around the throne room as he took in his surroundings. There was no one in the room aside from the Emperor and his guards, along with Bismarck keeping watch. Bismarck. Was that what all of this was about? Was this why he had been summoned? Sure, he knew touching a princess probably wasn't a good idea, but it was Princess Lelouch! What else could he do? Any other teenager would have done the same thing!
It might have been hard to believe, but the current Knight of Three was in fact, a teenager, making him the youngest member of the Knights of the Round. Despite this, he was still one of the best pilots in Britannia. There was a reason that he was the Knight of Three. Still, to the Emperor, everyone and anyone was expendable if it served a greater purpose, including Gino.
Tentatively, he knelt in front of the Emperor, who had an intense stare fixed on his back.
"Sir Weinberg, you have been an exceptional pilot so far, however…" Gino gulped. He knew that he was done. The Emperor was known for being cruel and he knew that he was not afraid to punish even his own Knights if he felt insulted by them.
"…You are one of the youngest members of the Knights of the Round. As a result, you will be sent to keep an eye on Princess Lelouch at training camp. I want her to be safe at all times. If I hear even one report about her being injured, you will be executed, regardless of your current post."
Relieved that he simply being ordered around, Gino eagerly nodded, "Of course Emperor."
Although he wasn't dead yet, the threat was still in the air. Still, it was better than what he had expected coming in. At least there was now a chance that he could get out of this alive, as long as Princess Lelouch didn't get hurt.
"Bismarck, lead him out." Charles ordered.
Just as he exited the room with Gino in tow, Bismarck immediately turned around.
"Don't fail Gino. If you do, I swear that I will be the one to personally execute you if I hear about the Princess being injured."
Gino nodded in understanding. It was known that Lelouch was Bismarck's favorite of the Royal Children, and that if the Emperor died, then Bismarck's first priority would be to enter the Princess's service. Due to that fact, he fiercely protected Lelouch and obviously, he wanted her to stay safe as well. Besides, it wasn't like he had much of a choice anyways besides nodding at Bismarck's threat.
"Good." Bismarck whipped around and returned to the Emperor's side.
Gino rubbed his forehead as he felt a headache coming on. This was either going to be the greatest success or the worst failure of his short career.
"Be careful." Nunally whispered to Lelouch as she hugged her for the last time. Lelouch savored the contact, doing her best to commit it to memory. Although she never wanted their embrace to end, Nunally pulled away, giving her a small wave.
"Go and prove to everyone why the vi Britannia women are the best pilots in the empire." Marianne joked before wrapping her daughter up in a bone crushing hug.
A part of her was proud of her daughter for continuing her legacy. Lelouch seemed to be a naturally talented pilot, and Marianne knew from the first time that Lelouch had touched a Knightmare Frame that one day, her daughter would go off to become a war hero and most likely surpass her skills.
Lelouch had known almost instinctively how to pilot, and if Bismarck had not caught her, Marianne was sure that Lelouch would have actually been able to pilot a Knightmare Frame at the age of 6. She had known instantly that Lelouch's destiny was to join the military at some point. Still, she hadn't expected that day to come so suddenly.
"Mother, at this rate, I won't need to go to the battlefield to die." Lelouch gasped, struggling to free herself before she choked.
"Sorry." Marianne apologized, letting go of her,"But you know, I don't really want to see my little girl grow up."
"Me neither Mother." Lelouch sighed before giving her one last quick hug. In a rapid succession, Euphemia came up and hugged her as well.
"Don't worry about Nunally. Just stay safe yourself, okay?" Lelouch had already told her about how Schneizel and Odysseus had also promised to protect Nunally. Frankly, she thought that Lelouch was just being paranoid now. With the protection of the First Prince, Prime Minister, and herself, there was no way that anyone could even think about hurting the young princess.
Lelouch on the other hand, would be in far more danger. On the battlefield, she would constantly be the target of other pilots and she knew that training camp would be anything but easy. She knew that Cornelia was always the main target in battles and the only reason that her older sister was still alive was the fact that she was an exceptional pilot. Otherwise, she would have been dead a long time ago. She could only hope that Lelouch learned as quickly as Cornelia did.
"Don't worry Euphie, I'll be fine." Lelouch replied.
The pink haired princess nodded and backed off, letting Schneizel through.
"Don't forget to make some friends. You never know who could be of use." Schneizel reminded, keeping a distance from Lelouch.
"Really? That's it? Not even one ounce of concern from you?" Lelouch said with mock sadness.
"All right. Take care of yourself, all right? I can't have my partner getting killed." Schneizel relented, giving her a quick hug.
"Heartless bastard." Lelouch muttered in his ear, causing a grin to break out on his face.
"Princess, we should go now." Jeremiah chided from beside her.
"Right." Lelouch nodded, following him to the town car that would take her off to her new home for the next few months.
"Lelouch! Wait!" Confused, Lelouch turned to the source of the voice, only to crash into a brick wall. Actually, it was a brick wall named Odysseus eu Britannia. From the way that he had not even flinched as she crashed into him and the six pack she had felt under his shirt, it was clear to Lelouch that Odysseus worked out often.
"Wow, you sure are hard." Lelouch muttered, causing Odysseus to blush, "So what are you doing here?"
"What? I shouldn't come to see off my favorite sister?" Odysseus asked innocently.
"Well then, thank you for coming to see me." Lelouch said, suddenly finding the ground very interesting.
"No problem." Odysseus smiled before pulling her head up to face him and giving her a quick kiss on the lips. Lelouch didn't even have to fake the look of surprise that had come over her face as his lips met with hers, tenderly kissing her. He pulled away with what could be best described as a smirk while Lelouch tried to regain her composure after being caught off guard.
"Right, I'll be sure to write to you." Lelouch said quickly, sliding onto the leather seat of the car with unnatural speed and slamming the door shut. Jeremiah adjusted his mirror, trying to see what had the Princess so worked up.
"Floor it." She ordered. As the car roared away, she could distinctly make out Nunally, Euphemia, and Marianne all suddenly crowding Odysseus while Schneizel shot him a dirty look through the window.
As she reclined into her seat and fingered a small locket around her neck, her mind drifted to her memories of the last few days.
Euphemia and Nunally decided to throw her a going away party, which was attended by most of her siblings. Clovis had given her one of his newly designed bathing suits, although she had decided that it was far too skimpy the moment she saw it. Schneizel had given her a travelling chess set with handcrafted ivory and ebony pieces with a suggestion to practice.
Euphie had given her a small locket with a picture of Nunally playing with Marianne inside. Lelouch had promised that she would always keep it with her.
Speaking of Nunally, she had also given Lelouch a present. Apparently, Sayoko had taught Nunally a little bit about Japanese culture because she gave her a small paper crane that she had folded herself, informing her that if she folded 1000 of them, her wish for Lelouch to return home safely would come true. She was truly touched by this gesture and had stashed the crane in a small box that she was hiding under the bed.
Odysseus had shown up too and gave her a beautiful golden ring encrusted with amethysts, with the implication being clear. He had clearly intended it as an engagement ring of sorts, although when he had been questioned by Euphie and Nunally, he responded with a minute of stuttering and blushing.
Overall, it was nice to know that at least some people would be missing her, although, at the same time, that fact made it harder to leave everyone behind.
She slowly fingered the ring that she was still wearing before she decided to remove it, an action that was not missed by Jeremiah.
"Princess, are you going to be okay?" Jeremiah asked with concern from the driver's seat, "After all, you'll be leaving Odysseus behind."
She rolled her eyes at the mention of that name. While he did impress her somewhat with his bold move, it would still be a while before she would consider him worthy of marriage without bringing politics into it. It wasn't anything personal, after all, she still had never met anyone she considered worthy of marrying yet.
"It was all just acting on my part. I couldn't really care less about leaving him behind. He'll hold off on his marriage with the Chinese Empress, and that's all that matters to me."
"I see." Jeremiah nodded, although personally, he wasn't sure if leading on the prince was the best idea. After all, there was only so much one could take before he reached a breaking point.
"The Suzaku Kururugi? As in the son of the last Prime Minister of Japan?" Naoto Kozuki asked incredulously, not believing that he was actually meeting such an important man.
Suzaku nodded in response to the man's question, "Yes. That's me."
"Well, what do you want with a group as small as ours?"
Suzaku looked around at the dingy apartment they were meeting in. The group certainly wasn't rich, but they did somehow get hold of a Glasgow, and their leader was a well respected man in the ghettos. Not to mention, they supposedly had an ace pilot for the Glasgow.
"I've recently made contact with some engineers from the Chinese Federation who wanted another Glasgow to study. Well, I've heard that you have a Glasgow in your possession, as well as a certain ace pilot." Suzaku replied, noticing that an expression of anxiety overcame Naoto's face.
"Well yes, we do have both, but…" He hesitated for a second, "The ace pilot is actually my younger sister. That's not to say that she isn't good. Heck, she's the best pilot we've got. But, she actually still lives with our parents in the Britannian Settlement. In fact, she's there right now."
Suzaku was surprised to find that the pilot was actually a woman. Not that he was sexist, but it wasn't everyday that you found a female ace in a terrorist cell.
"So is she Britannian?" Suzaku asked, suddenly noticing some familiar Britannian features on Naoto's face.
"Well, our mother is Japanese, but our father is Britannian."
"I see. Well, may I at least know her name?"
"Kallen Stadtfeld, although Kallen Kozuki's her real name."
Suzaku sat back with a smile on his face, "Well then, Kallen Kozuki, looks like I have a visit to make."
The car pulled up in front of a large military base. Aside from a small guardhouse at the entrance, two Sutherlands ominously stood at attention, making the message clear that any trespassers could expect death. Jeremiah deftly turned the car so that the window on the driver's side was next to the window of the guardhouse.
"Hold up right there." A solder ordered before walking out to inspect the car.
"Lower the window." Lelouch ordered and Jeremiah immediately complied.
The man's eyes widened as he noticed who was sitting in the backseat.
"Princess Lelouch! Sorry for the wait, we'll let you through immediately."
The man saluted and dashed back to the guardhouse. An instant later, the gate in front of them was open and they were driving up to the main building of the base, which was surrounded with large fields that were currently being used for training at the moment by Sutherlands.
They stopped in front of a door that was marked with "Entrance" above the doorway. Just before Lelouch made a move to exit, Jeremiah motioned for her to stop, "Princess Lelouch, just a word of advice. You can't expect any of these men to give you respect right away. As far as they're concerned, you're just some princess trying to get publicity. However, if you can impress them and gain their respect, you'll make some powerful allies."
Jeremiah then exited and opened her door for her while she pondered his words for a minute. He was right. The other recruits probably thought that she was some airhead princess. After all, that was how she always portrayed herself in public. While that image was great for dealing with nobles, these were solders who probably didn't want to fight alongside some helpless princess.
Although she was going have to change her image once again, it was actually a bit of a relief to her. She hated having to play up her princess side and having people constantly treat her like she was fragile. In the military, she was free to act like her natural self.
She stepped out, taking a second to adjust to the sunlight that had been blocked out by the tinted windows of the town car. She heard Jeremiah close the door and the crunch of his footsteps, informing her that he was now right behind her.
"Princess Lelouch!" A dark skinned woman with silver hair greeted her with a salute, which Lelouch quickly returned.
"I'm Major Nu." The woman greeted. As Jeremiah gave her a scrutinizing glare, she instantly felt nervous.
"Oh, and you must be Sir Gottwald." She greeted happily, trying to change his mood. However, when it came to his Princess, Jeremiah had no time to be anything but serious.
He nodded, "Yes. Tell me, where will Princess Lelouch be staying?"
"Once you enter the building, take a left and you'll reach the barracks. This base is used for training of all branches of the military, so all recruits stay in the same barracks, regardless of specialization." Villetta informed him as he icily led Lelouch past her. Once the two were gone, she managed to breathe a sigh of relief. As handsome as Sir Jeremiah was, he was far more intimidating than anyone she had ever seen aside from the Emperor himself.
Lelouch tentatively walked into the room where the trainees were sleeping. It was merely a large room filled with rows upon rows of plain bunks with white pillows and sheets.
"This is not at all up to your standards." Jeremiah spat, ready to go back and chew out Major Nu, but Lelouch stopped him.
"Wait, you said that I had to gain the men's respect, right? I won't be able to do that if I don't spend any time with them."
Jeremiah nodded, "As always, you are right my Princess."
Ignoring the stares from most of the other recruits, she walked over to a bunk located the corner of the room, right next to one of the large windows that allowed sunlight inside of the room. Jeremiah quickly moved to the bunk directly next to the one that Lelouch had chosen.
A recruit was already using it, but once Jeremiah shot him a glare, he decided that it would dangerous for his health to defy the blue haired man.
As she approached the bunk she had decided on, she saw a figure stir from the top bunk. It was a young man with shoulder length brown hair that came down in messy bangs in front of his slightly foreign face. As he hopped down and stood to his full height, she could tell that he was tall. For a woman, she was often considered to be tall, yet this man towered a few inches over her.
"Hello, I'm Neil Dylandy." He greeted, holding out his hand.
Seeing the warm smile on the man's face, Lelouch quickly took his hand, "Lelouch vi Britannia."
Before Neil could respond, a very angry blue haired man stepped in front of him and grabbed him by the collar, easily lifting him off of the ground.
"Jeremiah!" Lelouch called out.
"What gives you the right to touch a Princess?" Jeremiah growled with murder in his eyes. Immediately, two men ran up next to Jeremiah and tried to force him to put Neil down, but they were no match for Jeremiah's strength.
"Jeremiah, put him down. I command you." Lelouch ordered.
Jeremiah wanted to do nothing of the sort, but since Lelouch was his Princess, he had no choice but to follow her orders. Angrily, he dropped the man onto the floor, but refused to move from his position. Immediately, the two men, one with shoulder length purple hair and another with long black hair that covered half of his face, ran up to help the man up.
"Thanks Allelujah." He muttered as the one with black hair helped him to his feet. The two offered him concerned stares before walking off, leaving the three in an awkward position.
Neil massaged his bruised neck as he winced in pain.
"Wow, that hurt." He groaned, rubbing up against a particularly red section of his neck.
Lelouch sighed. Although Jeremiah did overreact, he was simply doing his job, and he was right to do what he did. As a princess, she was always in danger, and freely giving out trust like she had just done could be potentially fatal.
"Jeremiah. I appreciate what you're doing, but I don't think that a Britannian solder is particularly dangerous."
"Hey, I'll have you know that I'm actually incredibly dangerous." Neil said, annoyed at Lelouch's comment.
"That's not helping your case." Jeremiah snapped in response.
"What seems to be the problem over here?"
All three turned to see a stern looking man staring angrily at them. He was dressed in a blue uniform with some stripes to indicate his rank of Sergeant on his shoulder.
"Nothing, Sergeant Soresi." Neil said, instantly standing up and saluting the sergeant.
"Ah, Princess Lelouch. What an honor to meet you. Was this filthy idiot bothering you?"
"No Sergeant. My Knight simply got into a disagreement with him." Lelouch replied, not noticing the look of fear that came over Neil's face.
"Oh? Well then, Private Dylandy, expect a court martial. You know that you have no right to even be speaking to a Knight, much less arguing with one." Soresi informed Neil with a look of pleasure on his face before turning around and walking away. As he did so, Neil let his shoulders slump in defeat and sat down on the bottom bunk that Lelouch had previously claimed.
"What was that about?" Lelouch asked.
"Sergeant Soresi hates me because I'm not a Britannian." Lelouch frowned. It seemed like the sergeant was a Purist Faction that had been gaining power recently. Personally, she didn't care whether solders were Britannian or not. As long as they could do their job, what was the difference?
"You're not?"
"No, I'm from Ireland. I had to flee when fighting broke out there between Britannia and the EU. I decided to join the military after I managed to flee to Britannia land. I'm not a Number, so I can't be treated like one, but still, I'm not the same as a Britannian."
Lelouch had known that his face had not looked Britannian. She had heard about the fighting in Ireland a few years back. Cornelia had mentioned it on one of her visits home, just before she had redeployed. From what she had heard, a large amount of civilians were killed during the fighting. It was likely that Neil's family had been among the victims.
"Why would you join the military then?"
"Well, the only thing I was really good as when I was younger was shooting and piloting stolen Knightmares. It was only natural for me to become a solder at some point. If it wasn't here, I would have joined the army of the EU. But I preferred Britannia since the pay's better and my skills got me into the training program for the Knightmare Corps. And besides that, I do have my reasons."
Neil quickly plastered a smile on his face.
"But that's enough about my problems. You know, you should probably get some rest soon. After all, you're probably in for a long day tomorrow."
"Brother! Did you really just kiss Lelouch?" Euphie asked, amazed at what just happened.
"Does this mean that you are going to marry Sister?" Nunally asked. Of all people, she never expected Lelouch to be into Odysseus, but it's not like she was against him at all. In fact, he was her favorite brother besides Clovis because he was the only one willing to play with her when they were younger. Schneizel was always too busy doing something, and none of her other brothers ever came over, which meant that usually, Clovis and Odysseus were around. Although Clovis was always nice to her, he always wanted to play with Lelouch, so that meant that only Odysseus would take the time to play with her.
Although it meant that Lelouch might stop spending as much time with her, she did think that Odysseus would actually be a good husband for her older sister. No, she wouldn't really mind having him as a true member of their family.
"Actually Nunally, if he does, I'm going to rip him to shreds." Marianne informed her daughter in sweet tone that did not reflect her morbid words at all, causing Odysseus to gulp in worry. Why exactly did he do that again? He knew that he was going to be confronted by all of the others, but for some reason, in that moment, he didn't care who saw him. All that had mattered was that he was letting Lelouch know how he felt.
And now, he had forgotten that Marianne the Flash was her mother, and that the woman's temper could be legendary.
"Trust me, marriage never crossed my mind." Odysseus reassured, although that had the opposite of the intended effect.
"Oh? So are you just using my daughter for her body?" Marianne asked with a hint of anger in her voice, and although Odysseus was scared to keep talking, he knew that he was dead if he didn't keep going.
"No! Not at all! But, she is only eighteen. She still has a few years before she should be thinking about marriage, and the same goes for me as well. That's what I meant!" He quickly stammered.
"Good, she shouldn't be thinking of marriage, especially not with you." Schneizel said suddenly, coming up next to Marianne, glaring at Odysseus all the way. Odysseus could easily feel his glare burning a hole though him with its intensity. Why was Schneizel so angry at him for anyways? It's not like he was her mother or boyfriend or anything. Then it hit him. Schneizel must have been rejected by Lelouch and now he was jealous of their relationship. So he really did have an advantage over the White Prince in that regard.
He couldn't help the smile that began to form on his face. He didn't really have any malicious intent, but Schneizel saw the smile and instantly, his frown deepened. He clenched his fists at his brother's sudden burst of stupidity. Why was it that he only chose now to actually make a bold move?
For 28 years, Odysseus had let everyone push him around in political negotiations and the such, but he was willing to stand up for a woman? Granted, it was a gorgeous woman, but still! However, as brave as it was for Odysseus to take a chance like that, he had forgotten about one important detail.
"Do I need to remind you that you are going to be engaged to Empress Tianzi? Or have you completely forgotten that little fact? I wonder how Lelouch is going to feel about you when she's at your wedding?"
Oh, right. Odysseus had completely forgotten about his engagement, and now Schneizel had brought up a valid point, completely destroying his victory. Once again, Schneizel was the one who had thought ahead, and he was once again the Mediocre Prince. At that revelation, for the first time in his life, Odysseus felt rage build up within him. He was done being pushed around and taken advantage of. He was the First Prince of Britannia, not Schneizel, and it was time to start acting like it.
"Tell the Chinese Federation that the marriage is off." He growled, turning to leave.
"They'll take that as a declaration of war." Schneizel called out. Odysseus paused and Schneizel knew he had him beat. His brother always tried to avoid unnecessary conflict. Ultimately, that was his fatal flaw.
"Let them. If they try to fight us, I will not hesitate to destroy them." Odysseus said coldly before walking off with his assistant following closely behind.
Okay, I know that Odysseus is OOC now, but come on. You're telling me that he doesn't get angry with being pushed around by his younger brother? I really think that if Schneizel had ever pushed him like this, Odysseus would have flipped. Besides, I think that having a bitter Odysseus who can actually challenge for the throne would be more interesting.
Also, for those of you who don't know, Neil Dylandy and Allelujah are both Gundam Meisters on Gundam 00. I know that it would technically make this story a crossover, but since Neil is basically the only character who's going to get any face time, I figured that I would leave this as a Code Geass story. For those of you who do know him, I hope that you agree with me that he could be a potentially awesome character and that he deserves something more than what Gundam 00 gave him. I'm still sad about his death actually. The way that Haro calls out his name always gets me.
I was wondering though, are you guys fine with me featuring some Gino? He is one of my favorite Code Geass characters, and I feel like I owe something to him. After all, the reason I started starting thinking of a fic with a female Lelouch is because of a doujinshi I read that featured Gino and a female Lelouch. Obviously, he's not going to be as important as Lelouch, but he is one of the Knights of the Round and I think that if he had a crush on Lelouch, it would definitely create an interesting dilemma later on.
Anyways, sorry for the long author's note, but I had a lot to get out. As always, feel free to leave a PM or a review. Any and all thoughts are appreciated! Being the review whore I am, it really means a lot to me and it gives a lot of extra motivation to write when I get a review, so please don't be afraid to share your thoughts!