Ashford Academy/Halls of the Student building.
Yes and no.
Lelouch; or at last part of his mind, multitasking was becoming a necessity very quickly; was indeed controlling the events taking place in the replica of the Aries Villa with mixed emotions about the people and the place. He would love to visit it at some point and; at the same time; he wanted to torch the entire place down. It was the place where the madness of his parents and that little yandere little shit of an uncle went directly AWOL.
But back to the main topic, a piece of Lelouch mind, was indeed, controlling all the reunion, and checking in for his dear sisters, they were as lovely as he thought they were, and what was more important, Euphy was alive and Cornelia was not the devastated and betrayed woman she was, the last time he saw her. On the other hand, he has to admit that most of his attention was on the sweet and hot lips of Kallen, as both shared a very hot and large making out session before the classes could begin. After they had discovered how much of an idiot both had been in the past, they were making out for the time lost; and the lust of a Campione was only more wood to the fire. His green haired witch was determined to fuck him dry every night, and despite her healing powers and her immense knowledge and experience on the amatory arts, she was not superhuman, neither had enhanced stamina, but the intention was more than welcome for Lelouch, who did his best to satisfy the insatiable witch.
A very interesting thought cross his mind.
What if he managed to get the fire of Kallen and the debauchery of C.C in the same bed?; that could lead to the best night of his life, although, he was sure that Kallen would die of embarrassment and beat him for an inch of his life, if he even dared to propose that to her. She was a little prude in some matters; and now that he thought about it, he was a cretin in the past, ignoring the beautiful women around him. Well, C.C has show him how wonderful could it be, to get laid with a person you love; and this time, Lelouch was determined to do it, as much as he can.
And that line of thought was a little disturbing, when did him became such a horny bastard?, it seems that the rumours were correct, once you had taste what sex is like, you will crave for the sensation, specially if you are nothing but a teenager with a lot of hormones raging through your body. Unfortunately, he was a damn Campione too, and quelling his appetites could be a little more demanding than he thought. Kallen and him parted lips; mostly because she actually needed to breath; her face had an atomic blush, and her breath was ragged and hot.
They had not still reached the home run; mostly because Lelouch wanted to make it work at Kallens pace, and do not forcing her to do nothing; but they make out at each chance they had. Lelouch inner clock told him that he had an appointment with Ruben Ashford in five minutes, and it was an important appointment, it would be determinative for the future of his Black Knights and the army he would build when he declared war to Brittannia.
"Kallen" said Lelouch, not really wanting to let his wonderful queen go "I have a meeting with the Principal in five minutes, I'm sorry, I would love to kiss you forever but...".
"Idiot" punched her, his chest without no real strength, embarrassed for how lewd they had been kissing for the last quarter of an hour; if Milly ever get an ear of this, she would die of embarrassment.
Lelouch kiss her lips softly for the last time and whispered "I love you" to her, before walking into the halls that lead to the Principal office.
Kallen waved him back and run to join the rest of the student council, the classes of the afternoon are going to start soon and she had to attend some of them at last, her credit were not good enough to graduate yet; despite being a very clever girl, her facade of a sick child prevent her to attend all the classes she need to graduate. Lelouch on the other hand, has his expedient more than covered, for what he knows, his credentials where more than enough, to grant him a place, in any university, or whatever the hell he wanted to attend as a professional career.
Pity, he pretended to be Zero for full-time at soon as once the cat was out of the bag, and he could start the revolution he need to create the kind world of Nunnaly.
Speaking about her, a quick check into the systems of the Academy and he could see her through the cameras of the buildings, she was safe and happily attending her classes, and that was a good thing.
He still was torn between awoken her or not, she didn't deserve the pain and suffering, the longer he could keep her safe and happy, the better. What good could did to her, the knowledge of the horror she had suffered?, the memories of her brother being an arrogant asshole that had the world on the knees; and only through his own assassination and leaving her alone, could he create the world she wanted?.
Like a mace, the words of his Campione brother Magnus, ringed in his head.
"Do they look remotely happy, lad?".
Lelouch cursed in his mind, Magnus was right, and he hated him for that, it was horrible when someone slapped him with his own mistakes and made him admit then for what they are, the colossal screw up he did in the past. Shacking his head of those thoughts, he turned his attention to more pressing matters.
He had already located all the Six houses of Kyoto heads; even little, cute and energetic Kaguya; and soon, they will provide him all the support they could need. In fact, he prefered not to wait to Lake Kawaguchi to call the attention of the Six Houses.
The Black Knights will make their debut in that place, but the Houses of Kyoto would will be already under his command, or he will tear them a new one. Lelouch calmed himself, so much for not letting his hate and anger take command of the best of him; and now there he was, ready to commit a mass murder, just to get the houses under his absolute control. [Black King] was a dangerous Authority indeed, it gives him the need to control everything, it transformed him into a control freak like no other, but Lelouch could recognize that he was one of those in the past, the worst of those, and this time around, he will not commit the same mistakes. With a smile, he noticed that he has received a mail from Rakshata, the woman seems to have accepted his challenge, and she will personally travel to Area Eleven to see the miracle he claimed he could produce, and to get the second part of the fascinating new tech package, he has delivered to them.
It fact, it was just an alteration from the Blaze Luminous system Loyd created and installed in his Lancelot, modified to be put into Knightframe close combat weapons; different form of MVS, in the sense that the weapons could feed directly on the Yggdrasil Drive of the frames, making any weapon to last as long as the energy battery of the Frame.
It was nothing but an idea he had, but it was more than enough to pick up the interest of the Indian scientist, who couldn't resist the bet of Lelouch, when he dared to challenge her into travel Area Eleven, and see for herself a miracle in knightmare engineering; a miracle she would never be able to duplicate or surpass. That has been a cheap shot for her pride, but Lelouch wanted his clever and eccentric genius with him, as fast as he could, so he could protect her much better than the Indian government, not to mention he had a thousand different ideas about new Frames and wanted a real, solid expert to contrast his ramblings; simulations could only lead you so far.
With that, he will have another of the core members of the Black Knights back to him, allowing him to start his real plans sooner than he expected. He was going to brutalize the old time line after Saitama, in fact the pieces of that domino has already started to fall, when he check that his sisters has already found and read the contents of Project Orange.
They had something they didn't have before, they had hope and what´s best, they started to had some doubts about their own country, and what really Brittannia wanted with this world conquering campaigns, that Charles has declared. But, back in the Ashford Academy; and as he was moving some funds for a dozen of side projects and realizing a dozen different task in the net, simultaneously; Lelouch softly knock on the door of Ruben Ashford.
"Come in" came the voice of the old man.
" Hello Ruben, can I have a moment of your time?" saluted Leouch to the old man, he has been nothing but good to him and Nunnaly-
The Ashford where the ones that helped Marianne to reach the heights she reached, but when she died, the Ashford fall with her.
Now that he thought about it, he has never done anything to help them, to really pay them for all he good they had done for him and his sister, instead, he put Milly and Ruben in danger, and used the Academy for his own convenience during the time he recovered his memories and had Villetta blackmailed and Rollo completely fooled. The list of his misdoings just grow bigger and bigger, and each time he reminiscence a little, he just add more and more sins to the pile, up to a point on where it was starting to became ridiculous; much to his shame, he discovered, that each time he threw his mind back, he only discovered pain and suffering in his name.
Ruben was a very strong man, despite being past his sixties, the short but wide man was an imposing image; his hair has already white due old age, but there was no signs of lose of hair and he had a beard, that made him appear like a body builder Santa Claus in a tuxedo.
"Hello Lelouch, my boy, what can I do for you?" smiled the old man to Lelouch, but suddenly frowned and look at him " wait, shouldn't you be in class now?".
"Yes, I should be, but I need to spoke with you, about a couple of things" shrugged Lelouch, the old man sighed.
"I swear, you are incorrigible" said the man, leaning on his chair " so, what bothers you, Lelouch?, what´s so important that you ditched classes, again" stressed out the last word and Lelouch just smile widely.
It was fun to run from the teachers, he was more than qualifies for any work he would like to do, and now that he was a Campione, the things will only get even more interesting, but business before pleasure.
"I am afraid, I´m here for business" said Lelouch with a sad smile, sitting on a chair in front of the old man, and instantaneously Ruben noticed that this was not the slender and fragile Lelouch he has meet yesterday.
This man had confidence in spades, and just being in his presence, one could only though about the Emperor, speaking of witch, he was going to emit a speech soon, not much after the death of his own son, Clovis Vi Brittannia.
"Who are you and what have you done with Lelouch?" ask Ruben, looking intensely at the man sat in front of him.
"I am Lelouch" chuckled the boy "come on Ruben, I know I was not precisely an example of a healthy life but I wasn't that bad, wasn't I?" ask Lelouch, that was starting to realize, that perhaps his new body was as different as the previous, as the night and day.
"Boy, you couldn't end three laps in the athletics tracks by your dear life" stated Ruben, raising an eyebrow, he knew perfectly well how abyssal the athletics skills of Lelouch were " and now you have grown a couple of inches overnight and you look like you could run a decathlon without breaking a sweat".
"Pandora protect me, I was that bad" muttered Lelouch, under his breath.
"Sorry, Ruben, lets say, I have and epiphany about my horrendous physical skills, and I have been training myself in secret" suggested Lelouch and Ruben just let it go, if the boy wanted to play it off the record, so be it.
However, he took mental note of asking Milly about Lelouch, new found interest in physical exercise, Ruben money was on a woman; it was the most common thing for so drastic changes, and he has to admit that he was a bit intrigued about what kind of woman could have broke the ice walls of the heart of Lelouch.
"Anyhow, what is so important Lelouch?" ask Ruben, a little curious about what would want the boy; he was one of the brightest lads he has ever meet, and when the boy spoke it was actually something interesting to listen.
A lot of very profitable investments has come his way, because he listened to the advises of the boy and his keen and ruthless nature, when he was in business mode; if the boy ever develop and interest in the Corporation world, god protect them, he will take the business world like a storm.
"It is about the facilities that lies under the Academy, more specifically, the structures under this mansion" started Lelouch, making Ruben flinched a little, those bring bad memories to the man, and Lelouch hated himself for this, but he needed it.
"How did you know of that?" ask Ruben, sighing, he liked the boy, but what he was talking about was something that he prefer to keep buried.
"I..." Lelouch fidgeted a little, and Ruben raised an eyebrow, it looks like the boy that has being caught with the hand in the cookie jar.
"I hack into the Academy mainframe" said Lelouch and Ruben eyes widened "I have full access, to all cameras, databases, terminal or computer in the school, that included the powerful node that once held a Knightframe developing facility".
"Damn it, boy" grunted Ruben, and Lelouch did appear to regret it " that's part of the past, we lost that power, the day your mom died".
"I know" softly said Lelouch " but I need those facilities, Ruben".
"Why?" simply asked the old man, not really liking where all this was going.
The only reason a person like Lelouch would be interested in a factory of Knightframes, was because he will want to use it to build and army; and they were directly under his Academy.
Ruben has to think about the hundreds of students he had now in the Academy, he knew how cruel the world can be, and it was not impossible that Brittannian, China, EU ;or whoever the hell, has the finger on the trigger; would blow all the place to smithereens to get rid of a military target.
"I am going to build my own Company" answered Lelouch with a wide smile " and I would start by creating an entire new generation of Knigthmares, someone that could even beat the new Lancelot of Earl Asplund and the Military Engineering Corps".
"God have mercy on us..." thought the old Ashford massaging his forehead, his worst nightmare confirmed, Lelouch was going to enter in the world of higher finances, and he was going to be the worst shark in the sea; it ran on the family.
Marianne could appear to be all giggles and fun, but she was not Knight of Two because she was an airhead, neither how she managed to be the favourite of the Emperor, despite being of commoner blood.
"Ruben, please" called his attention Lelouch "I could deduce that you fear, that I would use the factory, to build myself an army, and to be honest with you, the thought has crossed my mind" nodded Lelouch and Ruben suddenly find himself looking for a drink.
"But your facility is not prepared for that; it is a facility for testing and development; it could build and hold a dozen frames at max, hardly an army" shrugged Lelouch " on the other hand, the place had all the facilities a scientist could ever dream about, perfect for investigation and development; not to mention, there is an Academy just over it, that taught some of the greatest minds of Brittannia, I know, I am one of the few friends Nina Einstein had, and I know, how really amazing her investigation is".
"And that's, why I feared this day" shook his head Ruben, collapsing in his chair "you had the mind of a CEO, Lelouch".
"I take it as a compliment" smiled the teen " but I am not simply asking for its usage, I know that those facilities has been abandoned for years, and it will require a lot of work and personnel to put them back in shape".
"I see, you have give it a thought" comment Ruben " but, Lelouch, it has been eight years, you will need an immense fortune just to actualize the hardware and the software".
"Done" simply said Lelouch and offered a surprised Ruben, a little tablet from inside his pocket, it was one of those pocket computers that lots of CEOs carried around, to always be informed of the situation of his business.
When Ruben saw the numbers on the screen, his jaw almost hit the surface of his wooden desk; the numbers Lelouch had presented to him were out of this world.
"How on earth did you manage to put your hands in this fucking fortune?!" shouted Ruben.
"The truth or the plausible excuse?" replied back Lelouch.
"The truth, Lelouch, please, the truth, these numbers are impossible, unless you had managed to hack into the national bank of Pendragon and ..." the silent of Lelouch made him pause "please tell me you didn't do it".
Lelouch laughed, that´s why he liked the man a lot, he had his feet on the ground, and knows when to joke and when was the time to be serious.
"I am not only financing all my little escapades trough gambling" explained the teenager, and Ruben feared for the world; how right the old man was, he couldn't know at the moment " I made investments, I offer advise from some corps, I have some patents at my name, I have been eight years carefully and discretely amassing a fortune, Ruben".
"I still can't see how" said the man, looking at the numbers on the screen, he pass some pages of the document, seeing where and when has Lelouch earn the fortune in front of him, and after some of the longest minutes of his life, Ruben sighed.
"Say, Lelouch, you wouldn't be interested in being the Ashford account manager would ya?" almost pleaded the man, and Lelouch laughed.
"Dear lord, now I can see why Milly will never let you go off the Student council, and how despite all her madness, the budget is always perfect" commented Ruben "but still, I need the truth about what you are going to do with the facilities Lelouch, please".
"Ruben, you are still a Frame engineer right?" ask Lelouch back, surprising the old man a little.
"Well, yes, I am" snorted the old man.
"Then switch on your computer and access to the following archives" pointed Lelouch to the computer on the wooden desk.
Guided by the curiosity, Ruben did exactly that and typed his personal password onto the node of the academy, granting him full access to any stored data on that inside network.
"Look out for the File Clarent001, inside the archives of the Student Council, in the carpet under my name in the same folder" said Lelouch and Ruben obeyed, he quickly found out the file, Lelouch was talking about and he proceeds to open the archive and run through its contents.
The stunned silence that follow, made Lelouch smirk and turn his attention to the other dozen of online movements that he need to do. After all, the delicious make out session with Kallen has come as consequence of how he has managed to get her and her mother, a very nice and comfortable apartment, near one of the rehabilitation clinics where they treat the victims of Refrain. He has made sure, that the place was not a scam, and even if they dare to pull that one on him, he will hunt them like dogs and made them pay for cause any harm to his Red Queen; her mother had suffered more than enough, and it was about time to something good to came her way.
Kallen, was part of the few persons that Lelouch ever loved, so her mother feel under the category of VIP for all the systems Lelouch controlled all over Tokyo and Area Eleven. And when he could finally nail that damn Chinese code, she will be a VIP in United China too; nothing was enough for those under Lelouch care; greedy yes, but for Lelouch it was a form of payment for the shit he has put all of them through, at the Black Rebellion.
Ruben sighed deeply, calling Lelouch attention back, the man seem to have aged a decade when he looked at him, and Lelouch scared a little, he wanted to impress the man, not give him a damn heart attack; and judging for his face, he was about too.
"This, this is brilliant" admitted the man " it is an interesting concept, but half of this, is still on the paper today, how come you actually come with practical solutions to it?" asked Ruben.
"You know, I am a clever boy" smiled Lelouch " but never know exactly how much clever I am, and until recent events, I was just fooling around, living the life of a normal boy, along Nunnaly".
"And why the sudden change?, and of course, why the hell Knightmare engineering?".
"I found a worthy cause, and because of that I discovered how really good I am at Knightmare engineering" shrugged Lelouch, answering truthfully to Ruben.
He didn't have much time in the past, to customize the BK knightmares as he would have love them to be; the Black Knights were almost in warfare state ninety percent of the time, and that doesn't allow them to make any research. Enough work Rakshata had to deal with the repairs of all the Frame mobile park of the Black Knights, not to mention, every time Lelouch try to scratch some time for anything not "work" related, he always ended neck deep into another problem. At some point it begun to be absurd, he could barely sleep three or four hours at day, and all of them in separate timetables, he was lucky if he could pick an entire hour nap, the cockpit of his stealthy submarine become his favourite nap place, as he could sleep in it, without interruptions; he barely remembered how was a bed.
"Lelouch, my boy" sighed Ruben " I am worried about you".
" And why is that?" raised an eyebrow Lelouch.
"I know you didn't appear it, but..." Ruben seems a little uncomfortable.
Ruben should not be the one having this conversation; this conversation should have been done by any adults around Lelouch, from his real family, but Ruben knew that bunch of wackos were out of the question. So, the responsibility of putting some common sense in the brain of the genius teen in front of him, has fall over Ruben shoulders.
"You are full of anger, full of hate to Brittannia" finally said Ruben, a little surprised about how Lelouch seems to be taking the conversation so well " and now you want to build Knightmares?, I am an old man, boy, but I am not an idiot".
"Ruben" spoke Lelouch, he has to admit that he has underestimated the old man, respected?, yes, but underestimated him. Ruben has read him far better than he has suspected, and perhaps it was time for a change.
"You are more clever than the people gave you credit for; not a surprise considering how the family keep going, despite all the shit, the court put on you" nod Lelouch " I will be honest with you, I will use those same facilities to build and maintain Knightframes that I will use to bring my father down, he is an insane man, and believe me, this is not just the ramblings of an angst kid".
Lelouch lean on the chair, massaging the bridge of his nose, fucking Chinese server, come on, this was nuts, the security of the node under them was higher than the Chinese and it has been a walk on the park in comparison.
"As I gain that fortune, I stepped into secrets that my father wanted to be buried, secrets that finally lead to the death of my mother Marianne" announced Lelouch and he could see how Ruben flinched like he has been slapped.
The death of Marianne the Flash, was a nasty wound for everyone that did ever support her, her assassination at the hands of "terrorist" or whatever the hell, the official excuse was, lead to a witch hunt of any family that did ever support the commoner, that at one point became the favourite spouse of the Emperor. Even today, Lelouch know how the Ashford were trying to win a place back into the court, by marrying Milly with Earl Loyd. Bad choice, in Lelouch opinion but he will meddle into that business on another moment.
"That new information, Pandora have mercy on us, it shocked me to the core" sighed Lelouch and Ruben noticed how he has sworn in Pandoras name, could it be the girl that has broke the ice walls of the lad?, if that so, Ruben thought it was a very amusing quirk.
"I will quash my father, and I will crush that hopeless and corrupt nightmare that Britannia has become" announced Lelouch and a sliver of his power slip from his words, making Ruben shudder and suddenly felt like he has steeped a landmine.
"Lelouch" said Ruben, really wanting to be anywhere but where he was "I really will want to help, but this is a school, please don't bring the horrors of war over the students".
"War?" raised and eyebrow Lelouch " Ruben, I want to build a company, not an army, but if that eases your fears, I will assure you that I will not use the factory to build an army, I would only build one or two prototypes and the rest will be used for investigation, after all, I had a dozen different theories I want to test".
"It is a very dark path Lelouch" Ruben was a little more at peace, knowing that the boy will not transform the school into a military base, anyhow, this new Lelouch scared the shit out of him, he was dangerous.
"I know Ruben, believe me, I know very well" nod Lelouch " but it is the only path available for me".
"Take care, my boy" sighed Ruben, soon he will have to prepare the documents, to grant the boy, the ownership of the old lab, in deep part of his mind, he was eager to see what does the lad had in store.
Clarent001 has been quite the surprise for the old man, and he was eager to see how does that develop; if the theories of Lelouch were right, they were in for a massive surprise.
"Thank you, Ruben, I promise I will not disappoint you".
And it was the total true, after all, he pretended to use part of what he was going to develop in the place, as offering to the Ashford, so they could buy his place into the nobility, leaving Milly alone.
Or that was plan M of the possible outcomes to pay back the Ashfords, for all the support they had done on him over all the years.
He had so many things to do, and so little time for them.
Saitama Ghetto/Open plaza
Lelouch has to admit that the plan of Cornelia was solid, she was going to replay the conditions of the Shinjuku ghetto and get his ass in a silver platter. Pity he knew the script beforehand, and simply bulldozed his way through the history, and in this case, he has to admit he has done it with style. The time changes had starting to became bigger and bigger, specially after yesterday where he confirmed with her wonderful witch, how his mom was still looking out for them, in her strange and totally crazy way.
Both Charles and Marianne were a little confused about what has happened with Clovis, and she has just contact with C.C to see if the plan was still going well; C.C just told her that the plan was going very well. Of course, she was referring to Lelouch plans, not Charles and Marianne plans, but they didn't specify when they asked the question. It was quite the nobility for Lelouch, for the first time in his entire life, Lelouch plans were proceeding without a hitch; that was quite the first, considering how all his plans, always tends to only produce more and more pain.
The role of the villain, of the dark knight and the rebel that only bring destruction, seems to fit him astonishingly well, and he hated himself for that, more than ever; even the first time, he knew that he was going to bathe in blood. But one thing was to bathe in the blood of faceless, and another, to see the consequences of your acts, right in your face; the tears of Shirley, the death of Rolo, the tears of Kallen, the millions of deaths of Tokyo; all screamed in his mind each time he closed his eyes.
But not anymore.
With the truth, came closure and acceptance.
However, despite all his good intentions, Lelouch knew; and he knew it deep in his soul; that he will never be free from the blood of the innocents and the sinners alike. This time around, he pretend to kill only when is due, nothing more, nothing else. Killing is a sloppy work; Mordred has already acknowledged that, servitude was far better than death; a death enemies made poor servants, although, he admitted too, that a defeated enemy could seek vengeance in the worst possible moment.
Suzaku, was the prime example of that, so blind in their own plans, that neither of the teens, recognized the damage and pain they were causing each other, until it was far to late, to do anything about it.
Zero Requiem, his masterpiece and despite being a melody of death, it carries too, the beautiful sound of salvation and redemption.
Pity, how C world actually send it all to hell, transforming the dream, into a nightmare. In one of his moments of weakness; and he was having a lot of them lately; Lelouch has to admit that after what all C world has done, he was greatly tempted to told the C world to go to hell and let his crazy parents eradicate all of them. But Pandora has made it clear; if the C world falls, humanity falls, if the humanity die, the C world die; they are intervened now, thanks to the colossal stupidity of the precursors of the Order, that tied the gods of the Myth realm to the subconscious of humankind.
Now that he thought about it; Pandora was extremely pissed off with the C world, it does seems that whatever universe, she and Magnus were from, the things were quite different, from starters the amazing powers of the Campiones and how the magic was a common thing in that world.
Lelouch would have loved to be a magician, he has the brains for it, and the immense magical energies of the Campiones would have been great to actually channel even the greatest spells, he would have to ask Pandora and Magnus the next time he sees them about that matter.
Could he use magic in this scientific era?, that could be great, another tool for the toolbox; it was not if he was not already loaded with aces under his sleeve, but another one was never a bad thing; in fact, after Saitama, he suspected, everything was going to diverge from the events that took place in the first time line; perhaps Lake Kawaguchi, and most possible neither Narita would be affected, and will take place, but how the things are done and the consequences were completely different.
He was going to change the game, the spectacle in Kawaguchi Lake, was going to be another turning point, of course, but that was a matter for another moment, right now, he was going to confront his dear sister. Another colossal failure, Cornelia has always been good to him and Nunnaly, and how does he payed that same kindness?, almost breaking her in the worst way possible and made her suffering all he could, killing people she cared about, one, after another. However, this time, he was going to act differently, still he has to face his dear sister once more, during the battle for the Saitama ghetto.
Jeremiah, being the loyal knight he was, has already pointed out about his and Nunnaly survival, and all the data of Project Orange; despite being a complete hoax, that Lelouch has made to guide Cornelia and Euphemia into the direction he wanted; it does contains a lot of very uncomfortable truths inside of it.
The real reason, why he and his sister were sent to Japan, what does the Empire did with the Ashfords, his first weeks of survival; not really a pretty sight, believe him; and in general a lot of shadows that only stain the otherwise, immaculate image of the Empire in the eyes of the two Princesses. And speaking of that, he would have to deal with his other half siblings soon, just in case any of them did anything clever and open an entire new can of worms; in the previous time line, he had been very lucky that none of them, except that fucker of Schneizel, interfere with his plans.
The shadow chase, he has throw Cornelia and Euphemia, had given him the time, to solidify his grasp on this Area and the use of his powers as Campione; talk about divine rights; to win the control of almost any machine in the Area. God bless, the lax laws about the net, he was a Deux in the machina now; and was enjoying every single second of it, this was much better, than Geass people and turn them into mindless drones that will not adapt to the circumstances and could flap their gums to the wrong persons, at the worst moment.
Lelouch, completely dress in his Zero attire, contemplate the ruins surrounding him, he has already expanded his Authority, and make all inhabitants of the ghetto, get the hell out of here, before Cornelia unleashed hell over the place. He was going to prevent all the casualties he could, it was better that way, otherwise, the deaths will simply add up; up to a breaking point, like it happen the first time, killing Shirleys father, and the hundreds and hundreds of persons that live in Tokyo during the Black Rebellion, the battle for China or the Battle for FREYJA.
Lelouch has to admit that he did not really give much thought about the price of blood and how was he staining his soul in an ocean of the blood of his own victims, and what is worst, he did it with a smile. Perishing those thoughts, he focused back to the present, so far, all was going according to his plan, it was not really a surprise, how easily one can distract entire battalions; when you could hack into their comms and IFF, and send them chasing ghosts. Some of the most hardcore resistance groups, had preferred to stand and fight, despite the warnings he has give to them by radio, Zero didn't want to made an appearance in front of them, fearing that his control over his Authority, will slip a little and put all of them under his command.
He didn't want slaves, he preferred partners and allies, way more useful and loyal.
Suzaku sweated bullets in his presence, and he was a very skilled martial artist that had suffered his own share, during the Pacific wars, if his power slips again, in front a rag tag bunch of rebels, he feared that he will cause some serious trauma to all of them. Ironically, it only happens, when he is under his Zero attire, when he is playing Lelouch, all his powers seems to be in "civil" mode, and do not spread, expand or simply scare the shit outta every living being in a mile radius. He was right, when he supposed that Zero was more than a facade, in a sense, it was his deeper desires made form, his own idealization of how he should be and how he should act, against the world and whatever comes in his way. Smirking under his mask, he thought that he does seems like some kind of comic book character, hiding under a secret identity, fighting an evil empire and all that things.
This was the real world.
There is no villain, nor hero, just humans and their masks, human and their desires and of course, humans and their sins.
With a soft chuckle Lelouch thought about that last remark.
Sins, hell yes, hundreds of sins, for what he was starting to begin to pay, in his own twisted Campione way of thinking. Despite all his good intentions, Lelouch was a Campione, and his trail of thoughts is different, irrational, one could say, after all, he was a divine being of sorts, and none has even dared to call any gods, rational. He wanted the best for the world, he wanted to create the world Nunnaly would be proud of, but at the same time, he was going to create it, in his terms and conditions; he was a Campione, and by definition, the closest thing to a god, anyone could have ever met. That, if you are lucky; otherwise you will meet a [Herectic god], and few survive the experience with the sanity intact.
Lelouch was comfortably sat in a chair, in the middle of the broken place, one of the places that has not being reconstructed since the end of the war, and that show, in all cruelty, how ruthless could be an assault of Brittannian forces; specially since they included the Knightmare Frames into their war forces.
Knightmares.
War machines that could bring hell to any place on earth; the Empire propaganda has been raising the value of the machines to a godhood levels, making them appear like they could win entire wars on their own, and how they are the solution to any conflict. It was a blatant lie, well; it was, until Rakshata and Loyd started their pissing contest, and start developing more, and more extravagant systems, reaching the pinnacle of mass destruction in the Hadron cannons. Still, a gentle breeze considering what a FREYJA missile could do; Nina investigation was a blessing and devils work at the same time, Lelouch has already begun to influence the reclusive genius but it was a delicate work in progress.
In the most extreme of the cases, he will impose his will over Nina, and make her a loyal minion, thank to [Black King], but despite all what happened, he sensed that he owned the shy and traumatized girl some happiness. She was a very fragile mind; despite the fact that she was much more clever, than anyone could ever imagine. Only Milly knew the truth, but Nina was almost raped by a bunch of drunken "elevens" one time she passed nearby the ghettos.
That trauma is now deeply buried, but Lelouch knew that, that kind of traumas, are not easily dismissed, neither overcome, specially after what happened in Kawaguchi Lake and how badly she reacted to the death of Euphemia at the hands of Zero. Pandora protect him, he was in part responsible for the creation of FREYJA. Oh, joy, how long was the list going to be?, there must be some god among all the shit he has done, at some point he should have done something god, no?.
Shacking his head, Lelouch just feared that he had not.
Well, only Zero Requiem, and he saw how well that ended.
"Pandora protect me, I am a complete fool!" thought Lelouch.
Sitting more comfortably in the chair and picking up a phone from within his cape, start to dial some codes and instructions, if his calculations were correct; and with a quick glance into the traffic cameras outside the ghetto, he confirmed they were indeed, correct; the forces of Cornelia will reach the ghetto right now. His senses picked up the noise of Cornelias G-1, entering the borders of the ghetto.
"I want one of those too" thought Lelouch, and made a mental note to build himself one, as soon as he could, Gawain, and Shinkiro, his two Frames in the past, were perfect for controlling the battlefield, but a G-1 mobile base, somehow gives credibility to an army. Not to mention, it could hold and maintain ten frames and carried a field hospital, something that the Black Knights could definitely benefit from when the push come to the shore, after all, they are going to face Brittannia. Until he could put his hands on the Ikaruga; the sibling vessel of the Avalon; a full equipped G-1 will be sufficient.
In part, it was the fault of Mordred, as Campione, as the [Black King], he unconsciously looks for a worthy steed to carry him to the battlefield. The Frame he was secretly developing under the Ashford Academy was just a prototype for the future, he will build the perfect Frame for him.
He didn't know it, but it was the desire of the divine essence inside him, speaking to him, encouraging him to be bolder and decisive; for the moment, it has been more or less quiet, as the actions of the sly Campione satisfied him, but soon he will demand more and more, Mordred has not entirely accepted his Campione, has not entirely surrendered the full power of [Black King] to Lelouch. In part because the boy was not ready, and in part because he didn't consider him totally worthy, not yet, despite how much similar the boy and him were, the god had his pride, and will only relinquish control, when he judged Lelouch, should be ready. Of course, Lelouch had no idea of all this, very few Campione know of this imbalance, they discover it when they achieve full domain of their Authorities or when they reach a high enough domain in the mystic arts to recognize the problem on their own magic energy. Without any formation in magical arts; as they was not any magicians out there, except the double letters; Lelouch has no way to detect this, and just assume that; like the Geass; the Authorities did not come with a manual, and he will have to learn by trial an error, only the achievements and the failures would be of divine proportions.
The squads of scouts were deployed and he could hear the sounds of the VTOLS fly over the base and the army entering in the ghetto, accessing to the communications of the Army with a single though, Lelouch noticed how cautiously they were approaching the situation.
Unlike Clovis, Cornelia was a good strategist, but unfortunately for her, Lelouch has earned a very painful lesson from Schneizel, Charles, Marianne, and the C world. The real master strategist win the battle before it has even begun, beat your enemy before the battle has even begun. And that exactly what he has done, still not visible, and not only in this Saitama battle, a battle that was not going to occur, but to a dozen different events that will alter forever the shape of this time line. And he didn't care a shit about what the world wants, he was going to build a gentler world for Nunnaly and Euphemia; just be grateful he used the non-bloody path, instead of simple obliterate entire countries in his ire.
It has been a checkmate since the beginning, and they didn't even know it.
The best way of doing things, even if it cost him a head splitting migraine for an entire day.
As a mental note, he noted that he really should be more careful about intruding in protected systems, specially when he was projecting his own power into a sheltered node in the middle of Pendragon.
Pandora protect him, the backlash when the node failed, almost fried his brain, and if the node did not, the two angry women with him would have torn him apart for being an idiot.
Kallen and C.C seems to have got along well, somehow, specially when they double team him after one of his Campione styled mess ups.
He really didn't want to know how, the competition of both women was like contemplate two lionesses, leering over a fresh piece of meat, in this case, He was the bloodied piece of meat. And Lelouch felt like an indecisive piece of shit, he couldn't say no to neither of them, it was just that he loved them too much to cause them any more harm, and he needed both, his Witch and his Red Queen at his side. Both woman were important for him the first time, and this time, he has already confessed to them how important they were for him. However, that opened an entire new can of worms, as he has deep feeling for both of them and he suspected for other important women on his life.
Campiones, never had it easy, in fact it was a freaking nightmare, between setting the board, playing the game of thrones and juggling his powers as Campione, this was starting to get ridiculous. And, being completely honest with himself, he loved every second of it. The power was like a drug, but he was using all his willpower to keep it under control and do not to use it on people, instead he focused his powers over machines.
Controlling the machines and doing the things the hard way, he could prevent himself from simply enslave all Area under his Authority and transform every single citizen in his own, fanatical to death, army of loyal mind-thralled slaves, that will hail his name, as they throw bare handed against the Frames of Brittannia.
Been there, done that.
He used Geass troops during the battle for Damocles.
Not as good idea, as one could thing, as practically drones, they had zero initiative. Partners are way better than slaves; they collaborate for the good going of the cause, instead of simply stumbling around, not doing anything unless they are directly ordered. Lelouch has to admit, that the temptation was sometimes unbearable, and that's where his friends and lovers intervene; remembering him the price of his arrogance and giving him the love and care, that he didn't recognize, until it was fucking late. Now, it was his time to protect them, and he will do it; Pandora have mercy of anyone stupid enough to be in his way, he will have no mercy, no remorse, and his wrath shall be biblical.
Back on the main topic, Lelouch focus his attention back on the first wave of VTOLS.
They were about to pass over the top of the buildings, none of the stubborn cretins around the place, had the weaponry to shoot them down at the distance they were, but they will have a visual of him. Sitting alone in a chair, as he had not a worry in the world, in the middle of a rubble filled plaza. Lelouch, know that Cornelia was not an idiot, she will triple check for any possible ambushes, traps and any kind of contingencies, and to be honest, he would have done exactly the same, if he were in her boots.
However, this was not a battle, this was conference and an advertisement, no matter how much he wanted to show her, who he was and how much he was sorry for what he did to her beloved half sisters; this was a prelude for the incoming battles. And he need her busy, clearing up all useless resistance moves out there, JLF included, from all those fuckers, only Todoh-sensei and his blades were worth a damn; the rest were as outdated as hell, too deep in their own sacred divine right to fight for the old and death Japan, than they had forgotten how to actually fight.
Ok, he has been a little unfair there.
He knew, they were pros, however, in front of the machinery of Brittannia, and how much they had their ass whooped by the Knightmares; all the JLF had not adapted well, to the defeat of their mother country. Lelouch had plans for Japan, after all, he owned the Japanese, to be the brunch of his first Black Knights, and Kaguya would be immensely happy if he gifted her with a free Japan, even if he knows that the country was death, and only a complete renovation could save it.
He rose his helmet head and cheerfully, yet elegantly, waved in salute to the pilots of the first VTOL that pass over the roof of the wrecked buildings of the Saitama Ghetto. It was time to put the show in movement, a dozen of thoughts, and the first movement of the game he was going to play with Cornelia started.
Poor dear sister of his; she was in check mate and she didn't even know.
Too say, that the pilots of the VTOL were surprised, will be put it mildly.
As soldiers of the personal army of the Princess Cornelia, they have seen a lot of action, in a lot of places; but even them, had to admit, that this was a new one. Not every day, your supposed alpha target was waiting for you, sit in the middle of an open plaza, like he was in a Sunday morning and waving at you like it was the most normal thing on the world.
This was nuts, to a new whole level.
The VTOL pilots were professionals, so even in the absurd situation they were, they did not lower their guards, and follow the protocol and the orders, they circled the plaza; scanning with their sensors for any possible hostiles; discovering, to they surprise, that there was no one around the place; only the masked terrorist. Considering the orders, they had, to eliminate all resistance; they had to admit that this was unexpected, but on the other hand, apprehending the recently infamous Zero, would raise their possibilities to ascension up to a notch; up to a notch one.
The VTOL was a gunship class, ready for combat, but not really carrying any frames with him; so far, his mission was to scout the ghetto, and clean up any resistance they found, opening a path for the Sutherland of the main forces. The crew of the ship was more than accustom to urban warfare, after all, the last campaign, had a high component of urban warfare, when the enemy transformed their cities into; filled to the brim of death traps; fortress.
Gaining a metre of terrain in those places was hell, even with the Frames, the cities are death traps for the Gloucesters and Shutherlands, you never know after what corner is waiting for you an Armour piercing rocket, or if that piece of rubble in front of you, is hiding a mine, ready to blow you to smithereens when you step on it. This Area Eleven ghettos are not that different in that regard, the terrorist hide, attack and retreat, but this time, Princess Cornelia was in charge of the operations and they are going to sweep the place, stone by stone if it is needed, until they have eliminated all the scum hiding in this rat hole.
Circling the plaza, the pilot of the VTOL, pointed to the gunner of the ship, seeing that the gunner, had his ventral cannon targeting the sitting figure of the masked terrorist firmly in his sensors, he radioed back to the command base in the outskirts. They wanted to be the ones that had apprehended Zero, but they know better, to never fuck with Princess Cornelia, the woman could be good with her men, but if you even dare to disobey any of her orders, or show a glimpse of mutiny and insubordination; she will personally shoot you in the head, with that pistol cane of hers.
"Aquila Five to Central, do you copy?" called the pilot.
"Central here" soon answered a voice " what´s the matter Aquila Five?".
"We have visual of Zero" informed succinct "the target is sitting in a chair, in the middle of an open plaza, at E-25".
"Understood Aquila Five" replied the voice, and it could hide a sliver of astonishment in his voice "keep the vigilance over the target, do not let him scape, Central out".
The pilot cut the transmission, and focused in circling the plaza, so far, the target has not even moved; zooming in with the sensors of the gunship, the pilot could see, how comfortable he was sat on his chair, toying with, what does look like some kind of mobile phone.
"Damn it!" the pilot cursed in his mind, as the sensor of the machine were not as good as the ones present in a Knightmare and their factspheres, so he could identify what kind of device was Zero really using.
But so far, nothing has come his way, not shooting, no Frame fire, not artillery, a welcome change for what the crew of the Aquila Five was accustomed.
"Man, whoever he is, he had brass balls!" shouted out the gunner of the ship.
"You can say that" nodded the pilot.
"Excuse me" echoed a new voice, all over the cabin, and both, pilot and gunner, flinched.
Good thing the VTOL had an autopilot function, otherwise, the ship would have done a very awkward pirouette after the temporary lost of control of the ship.
"Aquila Five, isn't it?" continued the new voice "my apologies to hack into your systems like that, but will you be so kind to pass a message to the Goddess of Victory for me?".
"UH?!" eloquently put it the gunner, all his thoughts into words, he was frenetically looking out for enemies, inside and outside of the vehicle.
On the other hand, the pilot, who has the advantage of having the data of the sensors deployed in his helmet; replied with a neuter voice.
"What message should we pass along?".
The gunner faced his partner, with incredulity painted in his face, what the heck was going on here?, the pilot pointed him to a screen in the control panel of the gunship, when the gunner lock at it, he paled, gulped and shut the hell up. The screen that he has pointed up, was the screen of the autopilot, and the autopilot was actually controlling the ship instead of the human pilot and behind the autopilot, was the one speaking through the speakers of the ship. And that was none other than the masked terrorist, appearing in their scanners as he was just sit in his chair, amicably chatting by his phone.
Lelouch smiled under his mask.
"Please tell, Princess Cornelia Li Brittannia, that I am expecting her, Lord Dalton and Lord Guilford in the following coordinates" as Zero end talking, the screen in the pilot seat, blip a pair of times, revealing a set of coordinates inside the ghetto "we have a lot of things to discuss, among those things, the truth about Orange and the lineage it protects".
"We, will rely the message" nodded the gunner, seeing with wide eyes, how perfectly has the man hacked the systems of the VTOL, ordering the machine to just circle the place.
The gunner knew perfectly well, that if Zero wanted, he could shut down the ship, making them crash down on one of the surrounding buildings.
"Thanks for your cooperation" replied Zero and let go of the ship; not that they will notice instantaneously, but it will take them more than enough time to allow him to leisurely walk into the shadows of one of the buildings and slip into the large tunnels of the ghetto.
It was a very curious thing, half of Tokyo seems to be made of tunnels; from the tunnels that he use in the Ashford Academy to slip under the radar and went gambling around, to the tunnels that the Kozuki Alliance used for flee out of the Shinjuku Skirmish; as the press seems to call the battle that took place there, followed by a lot of veiled insults about the competence of the Brittannian soldiers. One can drive for hours on those tunnels, mostly used for maintenance of the platforms that conform a lot of the Area, but in the ghetto, things are sorely different, as the tunnels were used by the Japanese to make a living as good as they can, scavenging and smuggling all kind of goods.
He made good use of those same tunnels in the past, and he will make good use of those tunnels in the present and in the future; they were made for this kind of things, and in a sense, he loved how he felt like a magician slipping past the noses of the audience every time they used them. Not so long, after he entered the tunnel, a dark car was waiting for him, ready to carry him for the next spot in the plan.
Lazily leaning on the side of the car, Rivalz was smoking a cigarette, patiently waiting for his boss, if one made a comparison between the student in the Ashford Academy and the youngster leaning on the car; one will reach the conclusion that they were not the same; not even by far. The blue haired boy repaired on Zero arrival and tossing the smoke into the air of the tunnel, threw the rest of the cigarette in a puddle and grab the keys of the car from the breast pocket of his jacket.
"How has it gone?" asked in a tone more proper of a hardened man, than the happy and cheerful boy, he appears to be at the academy.
"Perfectly" shrugged Lelouch, removing the mask of his face and scratching his nose; the worst part of carrying the mask all the day around, was when your nose itches, it was a torture " I can only guess how much Cornelia is fuming right now, but she will appear".
"How are you so sure?" ask Rivalz, entering the car and pulled the ignition on.
Lelouch toss the mask and the cape on the back sit, and removing his under black silk mask, he shuffled trough the contents of the Mini-fridge of the car, serving himself a glass of frozen scotch.
"Jeremiah was right, this spirituous is very tasteful, I still want some mead, but this is great nonetheless" though Lelouch, before answering his friend.
"I know her" smirked Lelouch putting down the mask and taking a sip from the cold drink, he didn't offer his friend, he was driving after all " and she will not pass a chance like this; no matter how slim it is; to discover the truth about Orange".
"Sneaky bastard" chuckled Rivalz without malice " so, what do we do now?" asked the boy, driving the reinforced car, into the labyrinth like tunnels of the ghetto " we have with time to spare before she appears in the designated spot".
"I have some business to run before that" nodded Lelouch, who was already running a dozen operations with his domain over the machines " but, I prefer to be there as soon as possible, just in case the Yamato Alliance, suddenly develop cold feet and start having doubts about all this".
"I would have Geassed all those fuckers" fiercely smirked Rivalz " at last, something good will come from those rebels wannabes ".
"Now, is the former resistance member speaking" pointed out Lelouch to his old and dear friend " as much, as I concur with your in that regard, this time around, I will not abuse my Geass".
"For what end?, my Authority is far more efficient, better, purer and stronger" added Lelouch in his mind.
"Your call, mate" laughed Rivalz, confidently driving the car into the maze, the vehicle was a complete GPS with all the routes of the place, being actualized each hour more or less "oh, and before it slips out of my mind, what on earth are you going to do with your harem?".
Lelouch almost choked on the scotch, when his friend fired at him that question.
"Beg your pardon?" recovered Lelouch.
"Lelouch, I am not blind, neither is Milly" smiled Rivalz through the rearmirror "well, she only knows about Kallen, but I know about C.C, and I don't buy for a second you have not noticed the Knigtmare sized crush of Shirley on you" Rivalz was enjoying seeing how the confident facade of Lelouch slowly crumbled.
"Look man" started Rivalz " last time, I was as lost as you, ok, I was only after Milly" admitted Rivalz " it took us almost dying to recognize we were a pair of fools, but you, come on, mate, you have already died once, what more do you need?".
"Is complicated" chuckled Lelouch.
"Category five Bullshit" snorted Rivalz and Lelouch blinked.
Was just him or for a second has Magnus reincarnated in Rivalz?, exact same words, exact same intention; talk about a blast from the past.
"Look, I know; you are Zero, hear me roar" intoned dramatically and mockingly Rivalz, making Lelouch laugh.
"Pandora bless us, its good to be able to laugh with a friend like this" thought Lelouch, how many times has he denied himself, just the basic human conversation, fearing for the sake of his plans; for his lies, never to be discovered.
"But even you need a good woman at your side, mate; you have two wonderful women at your side, I know them, I fought alongside them, trying to save Nunna and Cornelia from the hands of that snake of a brother of yours" Rivalz raise and eyebrow " and speaking about those two, how come neither Nunna, nor Cornelia has no idea about what´s going on?".
"I tend to be very selective about whom do I awoken" confessed Lelouch, this time around, he was not burying himself in a cocoon of lies and deceptions, however, such grace is only extended to his inner circle, the rest of the world are open game for him.
"Jeremiah, Sayoko, Kallen, C.C, Milly and you are the short list that had their memories back" numbered Lelouch taking another sip from his cold and delicious scotch " I plan to awoke more people as the time and the Rebellion advances, like Ohgi and Villetta".
"Uh, don't sit on it for too much, Lelouch" advised Rivalz " you power is a nasty one, sure, but believe me, I have the memories of the past; up to the point when Milly and I were in the wrong side of an execution squad; and I remember very well, how much your death and sacrifice affected them".
The glass of Lelouch crash in his hands, but none of the shard were able to pierce his Campione skin.
"I know, Rivalz, Pandora protect me, I know, that's why I am so reluctant; not precisely fitting for the almighty Zero, eh?" chuckled Lelouch with a sad and pained tone in his voice, if only Rivalz know how much he despised himself.
"Bah, fuck the legends" snorted Rivalz " I am talking with my friend now; one that carries the weight of the world over his shoulders, again" remarked the last world, and Lelouch just smirked, he has to do that, he was Campione after all.
" Listen to my advice will ya?, just trust the old gang, when they discovered the truth, way latter, they were devastated. Ok, you want to be careful about who awakes and who not, but Lelouch, don't go Ice King on us, again, will ya?".
"Milly has convinced you to spoke with me isn't it?" nailed Lelouch the motives of his friend in a second.
"He threatened me with the couch, an entire week" shuddered Rivalz.
"Ah, I understand" smirked Lelouch.
He was happy to have two of his dearest friends back, and what is best, was that both of them had retained the maturity and skills they achieved, when they were helping the Black Knights; when Schneizel betrayed Nunnaly and transform the slowly growing Utopia, into a nightmare. Like Lelouch was doing with his relationship with Kallen and C.C, they had decided to keep their relationship in secret, after all, this were their teen counterparts, not the experienced and strong adults they were, when they died. Still, that was not really a problem for all the hot dates and sex they could muster, they were young and vital again; and considering how was Milly as teenager, it was not really a surprise that she and Rivalz were doing the beast with two backs as much as they could.
Rivalz was whipped around Millys pinky, and she knew it, that's why the woman could make that kind of threats and be sure, that Rivalz will go to hell back and forth if its needed, to keep her happy. Lelouch and C.C were doing the same every night; she said that he has a lot of years to compensate.
For a second, Lelouch imagine all the women that had caused some kind of impression on him during his life, all of them with very tempting lingerie and waiting for him, at the four post royal bed, he had as Emperor of Brittannia. Shutting that line of thought before it went too far, Lelouch; with a blush slowly creeping into his checks; turn his attention back to the operations in his mind and the light conversation he was having with his friend. They had the perfect cover, the chauffeur of a young Brittannian scion, a cover that allow them to move freely through all the Brittannian controlled Area, and when they get in the ghettos, well, that's what the tunnels were for.
Lelouch focused into the systems of Cornelias G-1, he wanted to see the face of her sister at his challenge; oh, he has phrased it as an invitation, but he knows that Cornelia will see it as a challenge.
He had a second and very powerful motivator hidden under his sleeve, just in case, the woman doesn't play her part of this performance. As a side note; it was astonishing, how Lelouch was unaware of how much was changing; how much was changing into a Campione that would made, Pandora and Mordred proud, and not only because of how he was controlling the [Black King] by leaps and bounds, but in his attitude, his manners, his mental process.
He was a baby Campione, not even an entire month pass since he became one of the children of Pandora, but she was right; this one was special.
G-1 Mobile Base/Command Room
Andreas Dalton was a hardened veteran, he has saw enough war to fill a dozen of lives, and yet, he keeps being a soldier, mostly because he didn't know what other thing he could do with his life; all his adoptive children were already in the military; honoring him by forming the Glaston Knights, a unit that has one of the best records in the Brittannian military. Andreas was a man that didn't have time for social calls, he was a general of the Empire, always in the battlefield, and of course, it didn't help that his appearance was a bit intimidating; between his strong frame and his scarred face, he tended to displease the women surrounding him.
Except the people of the military, that had already seen worst.
He was loyal to the fault to the Princesses of the Empire, and when the message of Zero reached the ears of Cornelia, he sighed and prepared for the volcanic eruption that will surely follow the end of the message. He has seen the footage of the gunship, and despite being a flamboyant ass; Dalton had to admit, that Zero had style, all in his gesture and speech patterns spoke of high education and a massive amount of self confidence. Dalton had seems other leaders in action; being the furious Princess near him, the most impressive of all of them, leaving apart her father, but that man scared the shit out of everyone who has met him.
With that being said, he sensed something wrong in the man in the screen, there was something about him, that didn't add up, it was not only his absolute confidence, or the fact, that he has managed to hack and control an entire VTOL gunship with a terrifying easiness.
There was something on him that make his skin cringe, he hadn't seem anything like that, since the massacres of Africa, where Rommel butchered his armoured corps in Libia and Congo, before they became new; yet incredible unstable; areas. Cornelia was a hurricane in the battlefield, he has seen her conquer the enemy with her pilot skills and her unbreakable will and thirst for victory, but the pose of Zero was one that he has never seen, except in the Emperor, and only when he was about to cause tremendous harm upon a poor sod that has wronged him. He couldn't see the face of the masked man, but everything in his body language, spoke of terrible danger, he was living menace, and Dalton knew, that the sooner they get rid of this terrorist with the knack for the dramatics, the better for all of them.
The snarl of Cornelia called back his attention, the Second Princess of the Empire was grabbing the railing of the command centre with enough force to slightly bent the metal, her usually regal and beautiful features, showing a scowl of anger.
Near her, Guilford, her favourite knight, was equally angered but he was able to hid it, and instead he just stare at the screen of the command room, trying to figure out what the hell, the terrorist want of all three of them. Dalton has to admit, even if it was clear as the sun, that this was a fucking ambush for the three most important officers, Zero has managed to laid it out in a way, that it was almost sure that will made Cornelia fall for it.
Orange, was the only secret that could lead Cornelia into disarray, as it lands too close to home for her; it was no secret that she and Euphemia loved the Vi Brittannia siblings; Dalton itself has the highest respect for their mother, Marianne the Flash; and Cornelia did make of the woman her role model. When she found about how there was a possibility for both siblings to be alive, she jumped at the chance to see it for herself, unfortunately, all sources and witness of those years were part of the ghetto, and the info, that people like her could get from those places, was limited to say the last. Still, now this masked menace, has come out of nowhere and suddenly reveal that he knows what inside the Project Orange, that alone was more than enough for Cornelia to lost her temper and wanted to empty her pistol cane in the face of the masked bastard.
She snarled for a second time, and started to bark orders, making the army that she has brought to the ghetto, to actually enter even deeper into the place, she was going to catch Zero, even if it is the last thing they do; she ordered all the forces deployed in the ghetto, from infantry, to VTOL, to be meticulous, to do not left anything to luck.
They obeyed, after all, it was their Goddess of Victory, the one that has ordered them to be careful about what they do, and after all those years with her, following her victory, after victory; they do as she has told them to do. In four hours, the entire ghetto was pacified, and for the eternal surprise of all the strategist, generals and officers present in the field, they had not encountered anything that could be called resistance. They had lost one single unit into one ambush; as a lot of terrorist shot down the frames with concentrated anti-frame bazooka fire, but that has been the most standing event of the day; some other minor skirmishes here and there, but in general, they had been quickly obliterated by the superior fire power of the frames and the infantry.
But not a single civilian, not a single eleven, out of the ones in the ambush of course; all the place seems like a ghost town.
That sent some serious ripples among the Brittannian; that was impossible, unless they know of the attack beforehand, and this attack was a secret keep close, by the higher echelons of the command, namely, Cornelia, Guilford, Dalton and another couple of generals. It was impossible to evacuate such a big place so quickly, even if they had sentries that could have sent the word of the incoming army, considering the population that resided in the ghetto, even those unregistered, there should be a cavalcade of Elevens trying to get out.
That could only means, that they have evacuated beforehand, that's how they had managed to set up the ambush that has destroyed Icaro squad, they knew they were coming.
And that leads to the previous statement, there was a filtration among the higher echelons, a conclusion that Cornelia seems to have reach too, she faced them, eyeing the generals in front of her like a starving wolf would eye a bleeding goose. With a loud thud of the edge of his pistol cane over the metal of the command room; a sound that made everyone flinch from the sound, it was like the hammering of the pistol that was going to execute them; she asked a very simple question.
"How the hell has this happened?" ask the woman with an angered scowl.
Dalton has to admit, that he was at the same lost of words at the rest, he only focused on the message and the video of the gunship, Zero was in total control of the machine, exactly like he has done on the bridge, during the pantomime of the execution of Kururugi Suzaku.
He can hack frames.
A thought that made Dalton felt a chill run up his spine; the frames were the absolute war machines of all countries of the world, the spear, the sword and the shield of everyone, and this man was capable of putting them under his command. How?, how was such a thing possible?, theoretically it should have been impossible, the systems of the frames are incredible complex, and every one of them posses incredible advanced ECM; hack a frame is an impossible labour, theoretically. It was an ongoing rumour, that half I+D departments of the world had a collective stroke after the theatrical presentation of the masked man, in less than a week, he was the number 1 terrorist in the world, and the most wanted for half the intelligence agencies in the world.
Cornelia has ordered to upload the most advanced ECM they could, just in case Zero tries to repeat the trick of the bridge, but it has done the same with a VTOL, as they suspected, the man was somehow capable of controlling machines up to a point. It does depend in sight and complexity, he could control a VTOL from five hundred metres, but the Sutherlands of the bridge need to be under the hundred metres distance, and in the radius of the transmission he did to take control of them.
Earl Loyd almost tear apart the machines cores, in order to discover what the fuck has Zero done with the system, and for what they could found, he has just introduced a core order in the main program of the machines, allowing him to access to the systems of the frame, like he was the pilot. That pudding freak, tried to explain them, but between his oddities, and the fact that none of them were actual engineers, all the explanation was a little difficult to follow, much less understand; still Dalton got enough of it, to comprehend that Zero posses and incredible mind and he has done something that all the Avalon engineering corps will sell their souls for.
In the embarrassed silence that follow the question of Cornelia, all the generals were trying to find an excuse, that did not end with a bullet through their heads, and for the eternal surprise of all the people present in the room, the voice of the said Earl of Pudding appear in the comms.
"Hello, sorry to interrupt, but it is true that Zero has done it again?" echoed Loyd trough the speakers with that sing song voice of his.
"Asplund!" hissed Cornelia " this is not the time for your crazy antics, get out of the line, before I shot you" ordered Cornelia with an echoing voice, making all the general stand in attention, instinctively.
"Ah, scary" chuckled Loyd " but your highness, I think, I know how does Zero, what he does, how can he hack our tech like it was nothing".
That shut up everyone in the command room, it was not a secret that every one here consider the eccentric genius, little more than a nuisance, only useful for the Lancelot that he carries everywhere, one of the best machines that exist. Cornelia, frowned and a with a voice that promises eternities of pain for any idiot that disappoint her, she glared the screen where Loyd was and simply stated.
"Explain".
Loyd shuddered and his smile drop a little, he knew when it was not the time for jokes; this was very close to Cornelias heart, and the Princess was not famous for her infinite tolerance precisely.
"Ah, yes your highness, just give a moment and...there it is" Loyd push some buttons on the keyboard and at his sided appeared another set of screens, all of them filled with frame code; the basic programming that all frames had, and allow them to move and react to the orders of their pilots.
"You see, all our frames, from the most humble Glasgow to my wonderful Lancelot, shared the same basic code, the same programming" explained Loyd " and as impossible as it could sound, Zero has managed to infect any frame in their proximity with his own computer virus, one that overrides the commands of the pilot and make the frame obey him, as he was the pilot".
"That's preposterous!" voiced one of the generals " it is impossible to simply hack a frame, much less in combat, the factspheres, the comms, everything is protected from that kind of attacks, how can a man with a single device hack a frame in an instant?".
"We don't have an idea" shrugged and smiled Loyd, but soon lost all humour, when the growl of Cornelia made him get back on track " I have managed to isolate some scrap data from the infected systems of the Sutherlands and I have to admit, it is glorious, however what intrigues me the most, is that it carries his own signature".
"A signature?, what kind of signature?" asked Cornelia.
"Whenever the virus infects a system" explained Loyd, really fascinated with the computer virus and the skills of Zero " he creates a new identity inside the core programming, essentially, transforming Zero, into the owner of the frame, and when it happens, it lefts a signature inside the program, a series of zeros and ones that together, left two words".
"What two words?" asked one general a bit surprised for all this, all that chat about systems had him lost, long ago.
"Black King" smiled Loyd widely.
Saitama Guetto/Quarters of Yamato Alliance
What´s left from the Yamato alliance could be counted under the dozen, and the shit has not even hit the fan.
All the leaders of the resistance group; most of them old JLF or people with strong bonds with said military organization; has preferred to organize a resistance and try to ambush the forces of Cornelia, instead of listen to the advice of Zero, and evacuate the ghetto before they were shot down.
Courtesy of Zero, they could ear and in some cases, seeing in direct ;thanks to a quick hack into the vid feed of the VTOLs and tanks of the army of Cornelia; how they were being massacred, even the few that prefer to surrender than to actual fight, when they lost the spirit they had before.
Its difficult to get in the mood, when you only had a rusty AR; an old model from the war; and the enemy is pointing the gun of a Knightmare at you, not to mention, even the most dedicated soldier could see his will waver, when the rest of your unit is reduced to mince meat by a slash harken. Zero has already advised about it, Zero has asked them, to lead an evacuation, that they are not ready to fight, not in the state they were, barely armed with infantry guns and a bunch of anti-knightmare rocket launchers.
Cornelia will butcher all of them, she wanted Zero and she was cleaning the house, so to speak, starting with the little alliances and resistance groups she could find, and finally laying siege to the very same JLF. Zero has advised them, and in their arrogance, they had preferred to ignore his advice and face the enemy their way, and all of them could see how did it end; in the complete annihilation of all squads out there, and the ones that tried to surrender, were quickly shot down.
The message was clear; this was an extermination campaign, anyone armed inside the Ghetto will be shot down mercilessly, Cornelia was way beyond the point of mercy, and Zeros provocation has only enraged her even more. The quarters of the Yamato Alliance, were in the furthest corners of the ghetto, Zero has already prepared a huge store house for all the few survivors and as many civilians as they could gather before the battle commence.
Using the tunnels of the ghetto, they had managed to almost evacuate everyone in the ghetto, civilians first, guarded by the Sutherlands of the Kozuki group, just in case, an advance patrol of Brittannia sees them and tried to eliminate the unarmed civilians. So far, the evacuation has being a complete succees, with thousands of civilians getting the hell out of there, before they were eliminated by the invasion force of Cornelia, or during the crossfire between the resistance and the Brittannian forces. The automatic fire of an AR from a knightmare could pierce concrete walls, like it is wet paper, you can imagine what kind of horrid damages could it done to the flesh and bones of a common human.
They have already witnessed the gruesome death of one member of the Yamato alliance, when a slash harken pierced through his entire body, completely obliterating him, in a shower of blood, and gore. That was a nasty way of die, and the rest of the unit soon fell under the shooting of a Sutherland, as the machine open fire with his gun in automatic, vaporizing the bodies into red mists.
There is no really need to point out, how low the morale of the Yamato Alliance was, the ten or so surviving members; not counting the civilian support, only combatants; were seeing how all for they had fight for years, was slowly but surely being obliterated by the army of the Witch of Brittannia. The group of Zero, the Kozuki group, were seeing it as well, they have tried to help the Yamato alliance, and they have offered help and evacuation, but they will not sacrifice their machines in a battle that was completely lost beforehand, the few Sutherlands they had, were immensely valuable for them.
Ohgi knew about Zeros Geass, and seeing how Brittannia was executing his fellow resistance comrades, was putting some seriously doubts in his mind; he knew Zero could have simply Geassed all of them, and they would have obeyed every order to the letter. But Zero has offered his hand to the Yamato alliance and they had slapped him instead, not really trusting a newcomer and preferring to trust in their way of doing things, one that has just lead almost all of them into a carnage. Surprisingly, Zero has shrugged and move at his own pace into the battlefield, preparing the meeting he was going to have with Cornelia Li Brittannia and her general and trusted knight, Ohgi didn't know what the hell will they be talking about, but in all honesty, Zero scared him. Sometimes he could appear as a human being, and sometimes, he just irradiates menace; Ohgi had problems to endure his presence when he was in one of those moods, it was a pressure that fells over them like a lead slate, and for what he could muster, Zero didn't do it consciously; it was more, a reaction to his own emotions.
When he was calm, everything was ok, when he was not calm, oh boy, run for the hills.
The rest of the group was, more or less, in the same boat as him, in regard to their indomitable leader, they feared him and respect him in equal measure, and they had to admit that Zero did achieve results.
So far, the only one that didn't appear as taken aback as the rest of them, was Kallen, and Ohgi suspected it could have something to do with a starting crush of the redhead for their new and mysterious leader. Not that he could blame the girl, so far, Zero was their hopes and prays answered, but still, a part of Ohgi feared that Zero will cause more harm than good, he was simply inhuman sometimes, and Ohgi; who had made a promise to Naoto; feared for the heart of his surrogate sister.
All the resistance reunited in the safe house that Zero has arranged for them, way beyond the ghetto, and full to the brim with supplies for a month. One could say all he wanted about Zero, but if you are part of his group, you are treated very well, hands down in that matter; only a glance to the Sutherlands is enough to corroborate that fact, and the safe house on were they standing right now, was another proof. The Kozuki alliance feared about how has Zero managed to secure such a place, geass being the more quick and safe bet, but Zero has already assured that there was no need for such a thing, when you had deep pockets.
Money was far better than Geass sometimes, and much less dangerous, he simply rented the place, and pay a substantial bribe to the police force to forgot to patrol this place for a month. Corruption turned against them, it was poetical and what Zero loved the most, a lot more efficient. Both groups, the Yamato alliance, and the Kozuki group, joined together in the safe house, after they had finally guided the last civilians out of the danger zone, it has been a record evacuation, specially with the hounds of Cornelia after their heels, but thanks to Zero routes and planning, they had managed to do it on time.
Now, they are waiting for Zero and the consequences of the meeting he was celebrating inside and abandon building, only Kallen knew how important this was for the Campione, and how it would change everything from now on.
She just hoped, it was for the better, and where not walking again, the path that lead to the Zero Requiem.
Her heart will not endure that for a second time.
Ruined Building/Saitama ghetto.
Zero was patiently waiting, as he played with a little and ragged chess game, placed on the table in front of him.
He had a little time to spare before the arrival of the main guest, and he will allow himself some moments of contemplation before the inevitable clash of will, that is surely going to ensure his meeting with Cornelia. Nelly has always been headstrong, once her mind was settled, she was like a bulldozer, she will never stop until she achieves what she wanted. Being honest, Lelouch admired that trait of her, she was not a sly liar, neither a manipulator, a cheater or a coward. She was honest and straightforward to the fault, however, she was far form being stupid, in fact, she was one of the most cunning strategic minds of Brittannia.
She only lacked the talent of thinking outside of the box, like Schneizel and Lelouch does.
Moving the pieces over the board with a lazy gesture, Lelouch cornered the black pieces in several ways, just to broke through the game and achieving victory, using his black king piece, as checkmate piece. He has to admit it, Schneizel give him quite the lesson in that party before that pantomime of a wedding between Odysseus and Tianzi, when they played a game of chess, with Suzaku and his mask as prices.
Hindsight is always 20/20, and now he could understand why Schneizel wanted to know, what kind of man he was, was a complete madman like his father?, or would Zero be an interesting enemy in the quest of Schneizel of world domination through fear?. He should have caught his white king with his own black king and then, take Suzaku, wrap him in red tape and offer him as a gift to Kaguya, as he promised to her, that would have been a great way to peg him down a little, Suzaku was a Knight of the Round by then, and he seriously need a dose of reality.
A reality check was, still in the oven; but Suzaku has earned some halcyon days with Euphemia; after all, they truly love each other, as absurd as it could sound, an eleven and a Brittannian princess, it was something out of a romance novel.
As the old saying goes, reality surpass fiction.
And, if Lelouch hadn't Geassed Euphemia with the order of massacre all Elevens, they surely had been a very cute couple. Is at these moments, when Leouch made balance of his actions of the past, when he discovered how really damaged he was.
Magnus was right since the begging, he was damaged, mind and body, all his life has been nothing but an immense performance, on where Charles and Marianne had written his role as the Devil king, who will bring all the world to kneel in front of him, and rule over an empty shell of a planet. And what Lelouch hated more than anything, was the knowledge of how his parents were right, up to a point of course, but they were right in the idea of making the worlds of the C world pay for the stupidity they commit; in the future, but they did commit it nonetheless. Pandora was pissed off beyond worlds, at the image of what the Order has done to the Myth realm, turning a place of wonders and power, into an arrogant bunch of jokers and pathetic cowards, that feared the same humanity from where they derived form.
As goddess of knowledge, Pandora knew of the origins of the Order and how the Geass, were pieces of Authorities, rip off their original place and nailed forcefully into the contractors. The double letters, being nothing that disease transmitter, and as all disease carriers, immune to the disease they carry. It was nasty and very disagreeable, but when Pandora and Magnus reached the C world, well, the things really did get interesting.
Lelouch tumbled the white king and lazily start to reorganize the pieces for another game.
"It´s me or are they late?" mussed Lelouch and with a thought, he sent his power all around the place, it didn't take him long, to discover the presence of a couple of snipers in the near buildings and a two VTOLs over him.
However, what he did caught his attention was the presence of the trio of Gloucester that were moving in his direction, it does seems that Cornelia has listened to him, and was coming personally, however, something inside of the mind of Lelouch, told him that it was too easy. Cornelia is not stupid, she would no doubt suspect of foul play, and in any other circumstances, she will be completely right, after all, in appearance, it does seems like this was an elaborate ambush. Lelouch counted three teams of snipers, a couple of VTOLs with a dozen soldiers each, ready to be deployed in the building, and of course a trio of the most capable Knightmare pilots of Brittannia.
Cornelia, Guilford and Dalton.
The young Campione, just pondered about how dependant of the tech has the military become; of course, it was almost impossible to find anyone with even a shadow of the power he had to control machines and tech, but even then, he has his mind inside all the tech around, and could turn it against Cornelia and her army, with something as easy, as a thought.
Taking the reins of his own mind, Lelouch frowned under the mask, this was Not what he wanted.
He will not kill any of them if it not necessary; that killing oriented mind was the one that lead to the Zero requiem, this time he wanted to live, he wanted to be with the people he loved; and that means, zero unnecessary deaths. It has been accidental, but pun totally intended, this was a new Zero, and even if Lelouch didn't notice it, he was actually wrestling with his own power, it was another of the test Mordred had for him; to see if the boy could suppress his worst desires and have an iron will.
So far Lelouch approved, but this was only the beginning.
Outside the building, where Lelouch was passing the time, lost in his own thoughts, the forces of Cornelia have already surrounded all the building, even the tunnels under the buildings, had a squad of infantry and a crouched Knightframe, blocking the path, just in case Zero tried to flee pass them. Cornelia wanted Zero in an interrogation room, the man knew too much and knew the truth about the siblings, she was not going to let him escape; she was going to interrogate personally the man, and make him speak, even if she had to tear him apart limb by limb.
Back in the G-1, nearby the eastern limits of the ghetto, the rest of the forces, were organizing the retreat, this was not even a battle anymore, and just having the squads of frames jogging around an empty ghetto was a waste of sakuradite and time. From all the forces Cornelia has carried around, she has only lost a squad, and only because how the resistance had a lot of armour piercing missiles, but appart of that, she has effectively eradicated the Yamato alliance and a lot of other resistance groups.
Soon, she will eradicate almost all resistance groups in Area Eleven, and even those had their days count, they will fall and being reborn anew, proud and powerful, as the Black Knights.
Over the terrain of the ghetto, they barely were left a dozen of frames, a hundred of soldiers along their armoured carriers and a half a dozen of VTOLS, two of them, only equipped to recognizance. Those last two, were the ones that were circling the building, combing every single piece of concrete and rubble, in the search for possible menaces; their priority was to quadruple check the place of the meeting, in order to prevent any possible ambushes or traps.
Lelouch was not surprised for the meticulous of the VTOLS, and the scans he could sense from the factspheres of the frames, not a hundred of metres of him, looking for hidden troops, bombs or whatever they suspect, he could have brought to the meeting.
Nelly was universally hated outside of the Brittannian royal house, mind you, even if all the men under her command, consider her, their Goddess of Victory.
Lelouch chuckled when that thought cross his mind.
Kaguya said something similar to him, that she was called the Goddess of Victory of the JLF, and he replied that he has already sign a deal with the devil, so it was improper to call for the help of a goddess, when he was a warlock. Now, he was the most akin to the gods, not to mention, he did meet a goddess, the playful, brutal and generous Pandora, the woman who made all this possible, that give him hope and a new future.
"Would it be improper, if I actually swear and pray in her name?" blinked Lelouch a pair of times under his mask, when that thought echoed in his mind.
Now, that he was a Campione and Pandora has become his mother in a confused and disturbing sort of way; and with the consideration that all Campiones were Godslayers in essence, should he pray or even swear in the name of a deity?.
It was one of questions that you never does yourself, but when you do, the universe collapsed over itself, and leaves you wondering what the hell has happened with your sanity. Lelouch shook his head and smiled, he was so enraptured by his own idiocies that he has almost missed the squad that has entered in the building, and was combing the place, floor by floor, until they reached the entrance of the room where he was.
Sighing inside his mask, Lelouch prepared for the show, this was one of the things that he could never do in the first time line.
He sucked at physical activities, for god sake, he couldn't even end a lap in the PE class, without his lungs collapsing and his legs becoming lead. But no more of that, all thanks to the wonderful gift of his brother Magnus; the power of the [Jotunblut] was more than welcome, Lelouch wasn't very sure, if it counted as one of his Authorities or it was another thing entirely.
Mordred was on the same boat, the deity and legend in the Authority has never seen anything like the power of the blood of Magnus, so he simple recommend Lelouch to take it and use it for what is worth, so far it has only been beneficial for him. With the power of the [Jotunblut] running through his veins, Lelouch was physically perfect. If you mix all the gold medallist of the Olympics and fuse all of them into one single body, in perfect harmony, you could get an idea about how it was.
Strength, endurance, dexterity, reflexes, Lelouch was the top predator in the building, and thanks to the power of the [Black King] he has already categorized and mixed, possibly, all the combat styles of the planet.
Well, not all, only, those that are available online.
In resume, he had the knowledge of a lot of combat styles of this world, and a body that could made Olympic athletes look like snails.
The squad was about to be fucked.
Lelouch made some calculations, he could listen through his helmet, how the men at the other side of the wall, were preparing to barge in, he has already thought about that possibility, that Cornelia will try to apprehend him, and after put him in chains and torture him, until he told her all she wanted to hear. Six men, lightly armed, connected through radio and GPS to the G-1, a camera in the helmet of one of them, recording the action for future reference and tactical analysis. Not really a problem for him, being honest, with just a word, he could have all of them dancing or running till the end of the world and back, but if he did that, he will be falling in the same path, he did the time he received the Geass.
With impressive haste, he run some simulations in his head, and when he finished the last touches of his plan of action, the door of the room exploded and a trio of canisters fly directly inside the room. Basic tactic, but effective, smoking the room and then barging in after the gas has reduced the effectiveness of the enemy, however, Lelouch was one step ahead and when the men tried to enter, they found the punch of Lelouch.
The fastest punch in the world was recorded as 44 miles per hour, toppled with the strength of a weight lifting gold medallist and to finish the recipe, add the skills of a professional boxer.
The first who enter the room was sent flying five metres backwards, with his gas mask broken, along her nose and possibly with a severe concussion. Lelouch has to dodge a round of bullets, as he recognized that the reflexes of these soldiers were top-notch, but he ducked and then raise again, with a powerful axe kick, that slam the shooter into one of the walls, breaking the wall and possibly three or four of his ribs; it was a good thing the armour of the soldiers was a good one, otherwise, he will be dead by now.
Frowning under his mask, Lelouch adjusted his strikes a little, he didn't want to kill this soldiers, and what it worse, he has confirmed what he feared about his combat abilities. He blocked the knife of one of the soldiers and with a quick punch to the gut and a judo technique, send the unconscious man flying against a wall. His style was almost by the book, that means that even with his superior body and his knowledge, there was no real instinct, no real intention behind his movements, they were extracted directly from a text book.
Something that a clever opponent will have no problems in use it for his own advantage, and turn his own abilities against him, unfortunately, that will only lead to a one single conclusion, that Lelouch hated deeply.
He would have to train.
"Damn it" cursed in his mind.
Lelouch then proceed to disarm another soldier by grabbing the rifle and tossing him around like a rag doll, using the momentum gained by the movement, he rolled to the side, dodging some bullets and after shortening the distance, knock the fifth soldier out with an uppercut, under the mask filters and directly on the chin. Using the koed soldier as shield, Lelouch pick up some stones from the floor and tossing the unconscious body to the remaining soldier, he threw the stones to his weapon, knocking it out of the hand of the soldier and leaving her hand numb.
The only soldier left, was the one of the camera, with a hand almost broken and one comrade body on top of her, Lelouch moved on his blind spot and with a quick manoeuvre, rip of the helmet and the camera off the head of the soldier; knocking her out with a devastating jab, when she turned her face to see what happened.
Playing with the helmet, like it was a trophy, and don't really caring about the gas on his surroundings, his mask was sealed; but even then, he was pretty much sure, his superior constitution will be more than enough to deal with the gas. Putting the helmet and the camera over the chessboard, Lelouch tinkered a little with the device.
"Greeting my dear guest, I apologize for the mess, but I have to deal with some rude intruders" mocked Zero to the camera " please do not be shy and come, join me, in this little meeting I have organized, we have much to discuss after all".
Now, Lelouch thought about how he should have seen it coming, Cornelia was not one that enjoyed mockery, in fact, she took everything personally, that's perhaps why she was so good fighter and pilot. The front wall of the building was being tore apart by the hands of the frame of Cornelia, who has run to the building with the landspinners of his custom Gloucester and open herself a path, by completely destroying, walls and obstacles between her and Zero.
Zero, on the other hand, was calmly dragging the unconscious bodies of the soldiers, out of the wreckage and carrying the table and the chairs to the next room, the one when he stood before was going to be completely useless in a minute, when Cornelia ended the demonstration of pure power of her frame.
Lelouch couldn't but be impress with his sister, no doubt she was feared and revered in the same measure, after all, if she pulled stunts like this every time she entered in battle, well, the enemy was completely fucked.
A pang of gilt enter the brain of Lelouch, as he remembered how devastated Cornelia was, when he fought her over the copy of the Aries Villa in the Viceroy Palace, or her eyes when the horror cavalcade of the Demon Emperor; the last movements of the Zero Requiem; parade right in front of her eyes. Standing in front of the metallic form of the Knightmare, with his cape hugging his form, Lelouch regally waited for the entrance of his beautiful sister, the so called Goddess of Victory. Cornelia did not make him wait for much, and in a moment, she exited her cockpit and walked with a frown on her strong but beautiful features, her cane strongly hitting the surface of her frame, until she reached the hole in the wall and stared at Zero.
Zero did a reverence, a Brittannian style reverence, like if they were at the court, after all, Cornelia deserved it; with the light of the evening on her back, regally standing over her kneeling Gloucester, and her dark pink hair surrounding her strong but feminine features, she was one breath taking picture.
"Greetings, Second Princess Cornelia" said Zero, catching the chessboard, as he suspected what he was going to happen next, but couldn't resist, it was too good let it pass " I see that the rumours of your beauty and strength were not fake".
And, as he suspected, the poor chessboard took the bullet destined to his mask, Cornelia never take well provocations, neither flirting nor teasing; Lelouch knew that Guilford finally managed to marry her, and mentally take his hat off, honoring the bollocks of the man, however, he couldn't, by his dear life, imagine how the wooing of her sister could have been. The canon of the pistol cane was still smoking as an angry and slightly blushing Cornelia was still pointing her canon at the masked man, who was still covering himself behind the sturdy chessboard.
"Good quality indeed, thanks Pandora for the sturdy wood of this board" chuckled Lelouch inside his mind.
"My apologies" the mocking tone of the voice of Zero was unmistakeable " did I say, anything that offend you, Princess?".
"Cut it" snarled Cornelia, she wanted answers and was not in the mood for games "you are going to answer to all my questions Zero".
"Of course" simply said Zero and Cornelia blinked, she really didn't expect that.
"What?" asked visibly surprised " that easy?".
"Of course" repeated Zero again with amusement in his voice " that's, why I arranged this meeting, my dear Princess, shall we move to the next room?" ask Zero elegantly bowing an allowing Cornelia to pass before him " I'm afraid, this one is not suited for our discussion".
"Dalton, Guilford, get in here" ordered Cornelia through her comm.
Zero smiled under his mask, she couldn't possibly know, but Lelouch knows about how Dalton was pointing an experimental Varis Rifle at him; Lelouch could hack into the systems of the machine and see how the target was right on him.
Any wrong move, and Dalton will vaporize him.
On second thought, Lelouch didn't want to test his resilience to physical damage against a Varis Rifle, the weapon could cause him severe harm, perhaps do not killing him, but yes more than enough pain to be out of commission for a while.
"Thanks, Princess Cornelia" said Zero, all amusement and humour gone for his tone " please come in" guided her into the next room, where the chair and the table was waiting for them.
Zero move behind one of the chairs and moved it, so he appears like he was offering a seat to Cornelia, that did made her raise an eyebrow, those were court manners, this Zero had a brittannian noble education and that did made her be, even more suspicious of the person in front of her.
She graciously accepted and soon she found herself sit in front of Zero, who took seat in the other side of the table, neither of them repair in the protest and pained groans of the beaten up soldiers.
Cornelia just thought that they need more training; Lelouch on the other hand, smiled sheepishly under his mask, he feared that he has overdone it, he didn't expect to be such dangerous in hand to hand combat, still, he knew that any opponent with half the experience will soon see the flaw of his technique and develop countermeasures to it.
"As I promised my Lady" said Zero and Cornelia hide a quick blush under a scowl " please ask anything you want, and I will answer the best I could".
"Who are you Zero?" ask Cornelia, with her hands over her cane, ready to shoot or unsheathe the blade hidden in the cane, at the first wrong move of Zero.
"My identity is non important" dismissed Zero the question like it was nothing of relevance " and is not the question you really want to ask my dear Princess".
"Are they alive?" ask Cornelia, and even with all her training, in her tone, slipped a note of hope.
Zero did not answer, and put his right hand over his mask, as if he was pondering the question, Cornelia scowl deepened, and was about to lash her anger at the masked man, when he talked.
"Yes, they are, both are alive and safe" answered Zero.
Cornelia shoulders feel, and had to suppress a sob on her throat, she almost broke in tears for the happy news, Euphy will be delighted to listen the news, but there was something in the back of he mind, that bugged him.
"But then..." she tried to find a hole in the words of the masked man; he will not use her siblings as shield against her.
"Why did not they reveal themselves?" ask Zero before she could end, and she nodded to the question, she already had some theories but nothing of substance to test them.
"Princess Cornelia, despite what you could believe, I assure you what I about to tell you, is the truth" all mockery and fun was out of the tone of Zero and Cornelia stiffened under that voice, it was very similar to the one father has when he was pissed of or about to kill a poor sap in his way.
"Lelouch and Nunnaly, were defective merchandise in the eyes of the emperor" started Zero and had to raise a hand to stop Cornelia from interrupt as he listened her surprised and disbelieving gasp.
"Princess Cornelia, please, I know for certain you are not that naive; that you are perfectly conscious about what would happen if you ever retire your protection over Princess Euphemia".
Cornelia flinched, she knew it perfectly well, with Euphy not under her protection, there was no doubt that she will be used as political hostage, much like Lelouch and Nunnaly were used, not to mention, her worst fear was how the emperor would use Euphy as bait for a political marriage, without a second thought.
"When their mother was killed, and Nunnaly was crippled for life, Lelouch challenged his own father in the court" continued Zero his tale " unfortunately for the poor boy, his father just dismissed the assassination like it was nothing, something that enraged Lelouch and at the end, made the Emperor angry at him".
"After beating him to an inch of his life, he tossed him out of the court, sending him and Nunnaly to Japan as nothing more than sacrifices" said Zero, telling her something quite the opposite from the official reports that she had from that day.
"Wait a second" snapped Cornelia, just at the moment Dalton and Guilford entered the room, both glaring at the men on the floor and at the pale Cornelia with a mix of emotions in their features.
"That was not how it happened" denied Cornelia " Lelouch did appear on the court, but father dismissed him, and he left in tears, nothing more".
"Princess Cornelia, Lelouch was beaten that day, so hard that it was needed surgery to readjust his left shoulder, I could show you the medical report, buried so deep into the OSI archives that I needed a year and you can not imagine how much effort, to put my hands on it".
"Lord Dalton, Lord Guilford, welcome" turn his masked face to both men, standing in attention behind their Princess, Lelouch could admire such devotion " take a seat if you please, and by all means, ask when you believe it is needed".
Both men look at their princess, who nodded slightly, they were ready to fight the man, at a gesture notice, but for the moment, she was getting the answers she wanted, not liking the implications, but the truth was what she wanted, no matter how grim it was.
"They were hosted in the Kururugi shrine, and despite the rough beginning, Lelouch and Nunnaly were happy in that beautiful and forestry surrounded temple" Lelouch lean over the chair, his voice was neuter, and he was trying to hide his emotions, barely achieving that for the moment.
"The Japanese people were good to him, mind you, that Lelouch was still recovering from a beating from his own father, that kind boy you could remember was no longer, Princess Cornelia" advertized Lelouch and he could see the pain inside the beautiful eyes of her half sister.
"Pandora protect me, she did love us, what did I done?" thought Lelouch interrupting his tale for a second, as he forgot himself in his own memories for a little.
"And when he; mostly thanks to Nunnaly; recover part of his lost humanity, Brittannia attack Japan" continued Zero his tale.
"I don't really need to told you what happen in that battle scenario, you all were there in some manner, but I will teld you, is how Lelouch saw it" explained Zero, and his audience listened more intently.
" As soldiers you are accustomed to battle, violence is part of your life" nodded Zero " however, Lelouch was nothing but a poor ten years old mentally scarred child with a weak body, carrying his cripple and blind sister, in the middle of a warzone; the first warzone where the Knigthmare frames were deployed".
Cornelia contained her breath for a second, just imaging the situation, Dalton frown deepened, it was Guilford the only one that did not manifest emotions, but if his hands were clenched in fists.
Zero sighed and continued with his tale.
"For the children, those battle titans were the scariest things they had never seen, specially when the echoes of their bullets, thunders all over you, when the explosion forms the bombs and the exploding tanks where all the sounds you could ear".
"Soldiers of both bands commit a lot of atrocities, like all soldiers has done in wars, since the beginning of human kind, but this time, a ten years old child, had to witness them, had to survive, scrap food, shelter, water, whatever is needed so his sister could live another day".
No one dared to mutter a world, paling at the implications of the words of Zero; they could be soldiers, and be part of those same atrocities Zero was suggesting, but this was not an anonymous person, this was the tale of how a Prince of Brittannia had to survive a battlefield; and that hit too close to home to be comfortable.
"Those months were an inferno for the siblings, from time to time, they received help from unknown people, all of them Japanese, as they were sharing hardships with the conquered people".
"But why, why did not look out for Brittannian help?" asked Dalton " any unit out there know that the Prince must be found and brought back to Pendragon".
"Lord Dalton" replied Zero with a sad chuckle " why did the invasion even begun?".
"Excuse me?".
"The invasion begun during the second Pacific war, and at the beginning it was nothing but another battlefront, in order to gain control over the Pacific, against the Federation of China" explained Lelouch.
"However, it soon became a complete massacre, specially when the knightmares were deployed and when it was made public knowledge of how the Japanese had killed the Imperial siblings, making all the forces of the field desire vengeance" remarked Lelouch.
"But was is truly interesting, is how Brittannia gained the absolute control over the Sakuradite mines, with this resource, Brittannia would soar in Knightmare research".
"The second Pacific war and the Siblings were nothing but sacrifices" lashed Zeros voice like a whip, making all of them suppress a flinch.
"With the death of an Imperial heir in Japan, Brittannia would have free pass to do as he pleased with the country, in vengeance for the disappearance of the royalty" Zero chuckled with a lot of dark humor " how convenient, the perfect excuse to gain two vital advantages over the Federation".
"Sakuradite and Area Eleven" said Cornelia following the explanations of Zero, she has to admit, it does have a lot of sense, the death of the siblings has been used as propaganda during the invasion and after, to justify the actions of the army and the invasion itself.
"For what I can recall, Lelouch feared more his Brittannian kinsmen that had bombarded him; twice by the way; than the Japanese, people that was enduring he same hardships as him and Nunnaly" shrugged Lelouch under the suit and mask.
Lelouch momentarily recalled how hard those months were; there was time where he feared they were not gonna make it, hunger, dirt water, cold, all of those piled one after another; hard times indeed. Fortunately Milly found them, he owned the Ashford more than he could ever pay them, they were the ones that promoted Marianne, and they were the ones that allow him to live, teaching him, giving him shelter, food, an environment on where Nunnaly can grow up comfortably.
"When the Japanese surrended, they disappear along the mass of refugees; it was not long after that, that I found both and take them under my protection, after all, I am another sacrifice of Brittannia".
For a long time, nobody actually made a sound.
One could argue, that there is no actual reasons to actually believe anything of the tale of Zero, yet it had the painful ring of truth.
When someone spokes about experiences of the past, specially if those same experiences had cause him harm; be it mental or physical; its impossible to actually hide all the emotions related to those experiences. Lelouch had the advantage of the helmet, the mask that cover his face from the world, but even with the voice disruptor, the emotions tends to filter through it, specially now that he was a Campione, a being that thrives in emotions.
"Lelouch fears Brittannia and hates it with a passion" simply shook his head " and its hard to blame him, after all, he was abandon by his father into a hostile land, and then bombarded by the same people that should have supposedly protected him".
"She hates us now" sighed Cornelia, and a lot of pain went of her chest in that sight, now that part of the truth was out, she could understand why Lelouch hide, but that was no matter, she will find them and put them under her protection.
"Well, no" said Zero and Cornelia raised an eyebrow, there was a glint of hope in the eye of the woman, and Zero saw it behind the glass of his mask.
"Lelouch hates Brittannia" explained Zero " he hates the corruption that seems to fester every single layer of the Empire, he hates the Area systems, he hates the nobility, he hates the ideals and morals of the Emperor, and please do not never told him I said this, but I fear that he hates himself too".
"What?, why?" asked Cornelia, who despite being a soldier to the bone, was the sister of the siblings, and in the past, she loved them deeply.
"Because what he did to ensure his sisters survival" sighed Zero.
"My dear audience, how do yo think he survived in the middle of a war zone?, without any resources, unarmed, untrained, and carrying a cripple and blind six years old girl, dressed barely in rags, slim to the point of sickness".
That was a rhetoric question, he only wants the audience to picture the scene.
They were soldiers, they have seen worst, hands down on that matter, but at the same time, what they have done and see, was done over the enemy, over the anonymous persons or things, what they say was nothing but collateral damage. What they were seeing in their minds, was the children of the woman all of them respected; and in Cornelias case idolized; suffering the causes of a war, a war done in their name.
It was a disturbing picture, to say the least.
"Damn it" resumed it Dalton, with a deeper frown.
"He had to do several difficult things to survive, to keep her sister safe an as healthy as he could, fortunately, I found them before Lelouch reached his limit".
In truth, he was changing Zero for Ruben and Milly, but the emotions and the events, were the same; those were the times, that marked him most, when he has digging in his darker side to protect Nunnaly.
He owned Suzaku that at last; the help the Japanese boy give them during those times, until the war set them apart; was the only reason why they made it alive. Despite the pain that both inflicted on each other, it was time for those wounds to disappear. He was Campione, he was God Slayer, he was Zero, and he will be victorious.
Consulting the clock in a corner of his mask, Lelouch noticed that it was a little late, he will have to hurry, if he wanted to get in time for dinner.
"Now, my dear Princess, General, Lord" chuckled Lelouch and he rose from the chair, before doing a reverence and with a few words and a little of his tech magic, made it look like he has disappeared in thin air, with a flap of his purple and long cape.
He has pick up a page from Rolos book, and just ordered to them to stand still, until he was left and do not remember how he has abandon the room. Although he left some disks, as proof of all he has told them, at some tips that would give Cornelia in the right direction.
In appearance, he has just disappear on their noses.
"Now wait a..." started Cornelia before blinking and noticing that he was talking to an empty space.
Dalton and Guilford, who were on the move too, reacted with the same surprise at the absence of Zero, the mas has just...vanish in thin air.
"How on earth has he managed to do that?" ask Dalton, looking for any possible traps or secret passages.
"Attention all units, target is gone, anyone has him on visual?" ask Guilford to the forces surrounding the spot.
"Negative sir" replied all of them " he just disappeared from our sensors, like he was never there".
"Damn it!" cursed Cornelia, yet she controlled herself, Zero has give something she didn't have before.
Hope.
The siblings were alive.
"Zero has left us a final gift" announced Guilford with the disk in his hands " what should we done with this Princess?".
Cornelia trusted completely the bespectacled knight, if she ordered him to run to hell back and forth, he would have no problems in doing it, so she just thought about all what Zero told them, and discover that she should have asked a lot more questions, but the tale of the siblings has distracted her too much.
"Keep them, and bring them to Loyd when we get in the base" ordered Cornelia " we will have another shoot at Zero soon, this has not ended, not by far" fiercely announced Cornelia, and Dalton smiled.
The hunt has just begun.
Saitama Ghetto/Tunnels
Lelouch walked with haste on the underground tunnels of the ghetto, he was in a hurry, he wanted to get in time for dinner with Nunnaly, and the drive from Saitama to Ashford Academy will take a bit, even in the low traffic of the evening around the academy, Rivalz would have to step it a little in order to make it in time. He had complete confidence in his friend skills as driver, if it wasn't for the fact that Rivalz was back in his teenager body, Lelouch was sure, he could be one of the best OSI agents one could find in all the Empire. Although he had some several doubts at first; not very sure to how will his dearest friends react to his story and his sins; they did not hate him, instead they hug him with all the strength they could, happy to have their friend back.
And as a second benefit, they were survivors of the Empire of Schneizel, so they keep their skills and deep hate for that tyrannical rule, not so different from what was actually happening in Brittannia, and a mental note; Lelouch thought about having a conference with Schneizel at some point of the future.
He has tried to expand his domains into the EU systems, the net over the place was the most chaotic and diverse chaos he had ever saw, how in earth has they manage to get something done in such bureaucratic nightmare was something that amazed him. If he could get a hold into the EU net, he could actually see the real state of the war, the truth that the Brittannia propaganda wanted to hide.
As soon as he reclaimed the throne, in the previous time line, he discovered how thin did the lines of Brittannia stretch, and how dangerously close to the breaking point they were, he called back almost all forces back to Pendragon, for the inevitable conflict with Schneizel and the rest of the world.
Lelouch has to admit, that it did bug him for a while, how in sanity name, did the Black Kings just trusted all their forces to Schneizel?, not a day ago, they had been at his throat and suddenly they just believe all the bullshit about the geass, from the very mouth of the freaking enemy commander?.
Lelouch knew the world was crazy, but that crazy?, to actually, suddenly, trust more your worst enemy with a fantasy story, than the same man that has lead you through all kind of miracles?; it was like Schneizel had his own geass. But that was impossible; Lelouch checked for it, just in case his deceased father implanted a memory into Schneizel if the Ragnarok connection went haywire; Lelouch would have done it without a second thought.
As his new favorite pastime, Lelouch actually review more of the actions of the past, those that did mark him in some manner; he did it as some kind of private penitence for all the misgivings and harm he has done in the past, to those close to him. However, he has to admit, that the world did seem to conspire to actually twist each one of his plans into disarray, and with a humorous thought, he noticed how curious it was, that every time that he was convinced that each tasks at hand were complete, suddenly and without any kind of logic; everything went to hell. He took mental note of erase that line from his vocabulary, it was jinxed, it was unbelievable, but it was correct, that single phrase seems to be channel of a lot of very shocking episodes of his life.
And speaking about shocking, when he reached the place where the limo was, he found Rivalz amicably chatting with a tall and strong built man.
Lelouch raised an eyebrow, a little surprised for the scene.
First of all, Rivalz has a black eye and the man he was chatting with, had a unique resemblance to Magnus, another, more experienced and powerful Campione like Lelouch; the one that granted him the blessing of the [Jotunblut] that compensate his lesser resistance, in comparison with his fellow Campiones of other universes and times.
Confident in his own powers, in case something went south, and more than a little curious about who this stranger was, Lelouch walked into the scene.
Rivalz was the one that noticed him first, waving him lazily as salute and moving to the driver seat, he too wanted to be at home as soon as possible. Somehow Lelouch suspected that Rivalz wanted to be at home soon, to inform his devil of a wife of the latest gossip and thoughts of Lelouch about, Lelouchs so called harem. The violet eyed Campione was conscious that his father had 108 consorts, but somehow he seriously doubted he has bed all of them more than once; except the few that had managed to impress him, namely, the ones that give him children, the rest where nothing more than background noise for what the Emperor cared.
Lelouch was not interested in such a massive harem, they were not Court ladies, those were nothing more than a waste of time for the Emeperor, none pays them attention, except to the mothers of the Princes and Princesses.
On Lelouch case; despite how confused he still was in the matter; there will not be such an absurd number of women, so far, there was only two, the two most important women in their life, leaving apart Nunnaly of course. His sister, will always be important in his heart, he did all for her in the past, for her dream even betray her at the end.
When Lelouch reach the car; Rivalz has already started the engine of the long car; he found himself staring behind the glass of Zero mask, at a carbon copy of Magnus, but dress like a Brittannian military and not as tall and the gigantic viking that Lelouch meet in C world.
"Greetings, lad" smiled the tall man and Lelouch had no doubt of his identity " how have you been, since mother kick you out of C world?".
"Magnus?" blinked Lelouch behind his mask glass " but, how is it possible?, you were with Pandora in C world, keeping the old conscious at bay".
"At the beginning, yes" answered Magnus, taking place inside of the limousine, soon followed by Lelouch.
Magnus assaulted the mini bar, and keep the window of the chauffeur opened, so Rivalz could listen and be part of the conversation, the Nordmanni Campione knew how Rivalz was one of the few that really know how powerful Lelouch really was.
"But she though that you could need an extra hand down there" shrugged Magnus serving himself a can of imported beer "so I build myself a body, and after signing a contract with an old double letter, I was throw into this word".
The car moved into one of the tunnels, soon reaching the part on where it could exit and join the traffic, at this hour, almost all the workers where moving back to their homes, so the traffic was a little crowed; they joined the traffic and Rivalz pick the quickest route to Ashford Academy.
"You sighed a contract?" ask Lelouch, more than curious and surprised for the presence of Magnus in the world; still, Lelouch was already introducing new variables in his strategies, now that there was another Campione in the world.
"Aye" shrugged again Magnus " I found and beat the shit out of the soul of M.M, one of the first double letters of the Order, and in exchange for do not tear his soul apart and scatter it, into the C world, he gave me a Geass".
"But you are a Campione like me, Magnus" pointed out Lelouch.
"Nay, not exactly" shook his head Magnus " I'm no longer a Campione in this world, that would be too much power in a world that is no longer able to endure our presence".
"Then, what are you now?".
"I create a body with my [Jotunblut], physically speaking I near superhuman level" explained Magnus " human physical perfection, but neither I am capable of increase it more, neither I posses any divine power".
"And your Geass?" ask Lelouch, it was a pity that Magnus was not in his true Campione incarnation, but it doesn't really matter for Lelouch, he was a capable soldier and a trusted ally either way.
"Absolute healing" said Magnus with a smirk " apart from a very useful healing factor, I´m possibly the supreme physician".
"Useful, how does it work?" ask Lelouch taking another glass from the scotch he was drinking before, at some point he pondered how to convince Magnus to actually brew some mead for him.
"I need to perform a medical check, and once I have done it, I know the precise and exact health condition, including mental sickness" told Magnus to his little brother under Pandora, how works his own Geass " its specially useful when I was treating the military, they tend to bottle up all their traumas and demons, and as the times goes, it just destroys them, frankly, its kind of refreshing to be a doctor".
An irrational hope appeared in the heart of Lelouch, if what his brother was telling him was true, then Lelouch could hope for something that not even a Campione like him was able to concede. In a sense, having something that you can not concede was a humility exercise, something that keep you sane and human, preventing the usual god complex that several Campione had in the past. They were capable of slaying gods, in a way, they were existence superior to the gods, but at the same time, that arrogant way of thinking made them as dangerous as the heretic gods they hunted.
Lelouch didn't want to fall into that path, he did fall in a similar path the past, when he was nothing but an arrogant child, drown in his own power, the Geass of Absolute obedience.
"When did you arrive?" ask Lelouch, establishing some kind of time line.
"Two or three years ago" said Magnus " I was in the old Norway Area, I fought against the Brittannian, and then I join them in that insult that they call the Honorary system, with my combat abilities and my Geass, I made a living in the medic corps".
"How come you are in Japan now?" Lelouch take a sip of his drink, enjoying the cold and strong taste of the drink.
"I am part of Princess Cornelia forces, Medical corps division, Honorary Brittannian Magnus Frostsson" presented himself Magnus.
"That's, kind of surprising actually" said Lelouch " you hide under the noses of the Brittannian and the Order".
"Well, they knew I exist" said Magnus "I kill a dozen of assassins and agents of the Order, when they tried to capture me and bring me to wherever they had their quarters this year".
"And they couldn't capture you, considering your weakened state?, that only spoke volumes of your skills Magnus" said Lelouch.
"I have a black eye that agrees with you" said Rivalz in a soft chuckle " and a couple of sore ribs".
"Sorry about that, lad" apologize Magnus.
"I hope there will be no problems in the future" smiled Lelouch.
"None boss" laughed Rivalz " all was a misunderstanding, we all own Magnus and Pandora a lot, his decision to take mortal flesh and join us in the trenches, only made him ok in my book".
"Thanks for the vote of confidence" raise his beer Magnus.
"Not that I am not happy to see you here Magnus" said Lelouch " but what could make Pandora think, that you would be more useful here and not in C world, helping her keping all in check?".
"At the beginning I would have agreed with you" nodded Magnus " however, the old and stupid conscious no longer exist, the turning back of the wheel of time, made them disappear too, now mother is very busy trying to tidy up the things a little, up there, and prevent your parents to do something stupid beforehand".
"Well, what can I say?, welcome to Japan Magnus" smiled Lelouch, real happy to have his new founded brother with him.
"Thanks, lad" smiled the tall man.
The trio chatted amicably for all the duration of the travel, until they reached the doors of the under tunnel, that connect Ashford Academy with the main roads of the Area.
Magnus commented how useful it was to slip past the noses of any vigilance and both, Lelouch and Rivalz nodded, it was indeed useful, long before they become resistance fighters, the pair of youngster had been using them to sneak past the vigilance of the Campus and allow Lelouch to gamble and won a fortune.
They reach the private parking and soon they were back into the building where Lelouch and Nunnaly lived. Lelouch wanted to see how will all his friends react to the presence of his fellow Campione in the flesh, it was going to be one of the most interesting dinners of his life.
Ashford Academy/Frame Factory
It has been two days since the Saitama Ghetto and the changes was already start to show.
What´s going to happen now in the Factory was a pivotal point for him, as Campione and as Zero.
This was a mayor divergence, no doubt of that.
First of all, the Six houses of Kyoto did not support Lelouch after the Narita battle and his little show in front of Kirihara, however, this time around, he has managed to convince Rakhasa herself to come into Area Eleven for a bet.
First time, Rakhasa come with a complete new set of frames, Burais, Ronins and the Guren, Kallen loved her machine and what kind of boyfriend will Lelouch be, if he didn't get her loved machine back as soon as possible?. In this case, he was going to leave his audience flabbergasted, he wanted his knights and Rakhasa to see that Zero was a bloody legend, a bloody icon and the symbol of an entire new game for all the world. And no better way to do it, with the same thing that seems to be the core of the faith and miracle of this era.
Science.
Lelouch was about to perform a scam so great, that he was sure Pandora will be laughing her ass of in C world, he was going to own science in their own terms, by showing them the most powerful tech, the world has seen in ages.
Magic.
Magnus and him had already prepared all the stage, the machines of the factory were oiled and the all the systems were green, now he stood in the middle of the assembly line, slowly but firmly grasping even the most delicate pieces of the system, under his absolute control. He needs to control it to the letter, otherwise something could go wrong and he will cause a lot of damage, not only to the factory but most possible, to the audience in the control room, that will be looking at the process.
Lelouch wanted to build a knightmare since the beginning, but he barely had any time, not even when he was the demon emperor, his regret and guilt was so big that he only wanted to reach the day of the Zero Requiem and end the charade for good.
But hidden within him, was the little desire of having a Knightmare of his own, even Shinkiro; as great as that machine was; was not a machine that he could feel attuned to, or at last, not like Kallen was to Guren or Suzaku to his Lancelot. Lelouch didn't know if it was by the influence of the Authority inside of him, but he wanted to forge with his own hands, the perfect knightmare for him, a machine worthy of a Campione, a beast of the battlefield that harvest fear in the hearts of the enemy.
"Ready when you are, Zero" spoke the voice of Magnus in Lelouch helmet.
Lelouch turned to face the cabin where the audience was preparing for the little show he was about to display.
Kallen, C.C, Magnus, Rivalz, Milly, Ohgi, Tamaki, Inoue, Rakhasa and her team of scientist, Sayoko and Jeremiah.
So far, the core of the Black Knights with the addition of Rakhasa and her team.
"Activate the machinery, Magnus" ordered Lelouch and give a step ahead.
It does seems that he was going to fall six meters, but for the shock of the majority of the audience in the control room ;and the amusement of the few that knew the truth, about the real powers of Lelouch, suddenly; a pincer carrying the chest a Knightmare; pick him and raise him in the air.
Like a maestro in front of an orchestra, Lelouch raise his hands and start to organize, the complex and delicate assembly of a Knightmare frame.
Each movement of his hands and a piece of the puzzle fit in the perfect spot, from the feet of the machine, to the minuscule of the nails and screws that compose the frame of a six meters tall Knightmare.
It was almost like he was driving an orchestra into a masterpiece that only Lelouch seems to be able to listen, sparks being his strings, screwdrivers and soldering irons his wind instruments and hammers his percussionist. At an amazing precision and dexterity, a lot of separated pieces started to take form, still in the metallic colors of his base materials but slowly becoming more and more defined and styled. Lelouch just walk, royal and composed, in the middle of sparks showers and lethal metallic arms that attached circuits, metallic muscles and armor to the basic frame of the machine, indifferent to the dangers and always orchestrating the display.
Not a word was spoken in the control room, it was simply mind-blowing, how Zero was leaving even the best Knightmare builders in the world like amateurs, and he wasn't even trying, it appears like he was just playing a tune in front of an orchestra.
Lelouch walk and the machines build a pass with their own bodies, so he could move to the different parts of the factory without even the need to actually walk on the floor, he appeared like he was just air walking and the machines as his loyal vassals. Lelouch raise a hand and a dozen arms ignited their soldering irons, ready to act at the command of his master, with the other hand, a dozen pincers carried the first layer of armor.
Pausing for a second to build dramatic momentum, Lelouch smiled under his helmet and extended his hand, like a commander will do to order his troop to charge ahead.
And that was exactly what the machines did, obeying the command of their absolute master, armor plaques fitting on their spots at molecular level, with the perfection that only machines are capable, not a spot left, perfect integration of the first layer of armor of the Knightmare that will lead the [Black King] into battle.
It was like seeing a body being constructed instead of birthed, layers of solid and almost indestructible skeleton, strings of slim but powerful artificial muscles piling one over each other, circuits and cables as nerves, batteries and sakuradite as organs. The steed of the King was being created by his own master, in a strange ceremony of creation and blessing. The power of Lelouch start to slowly slip of him, fine trails of golden and black emanating from his body like smoke; not visible at the beginning, but as the work progress, Lelouch; lost in the trance of the forge; started to glow in black and gold.
The audience blinked, some of them know about the Geass, but this was a completely new shit to deal with, and they were already more than stunned for the display of skill and power, long before their boss actually start to glow. Lelouch didn't care, he was beyond mortal comprehend know, he was lost in the dance of creation, his power slipping into the frame; both Campione and Authority synchronized fully, to bring the best of both into the perfect machine. It was glorious and awe inspiring, more than a factory, this was a forge of the old times, where the fire and the smith worked together in the art of creation, far from the artificial, industrial process that seems to have destroyed the artisan work.
A perfect mix of artisan and industrial work.
There was no words to actually describe it.
Lelouch frown and move his hands, it has to be perfect, nothing else was allowed, Mordred demanded it from inside of the Authority in his soul, and the Campione agreed with him completely, with each hand wave, another piece fit inside the machine, making the frame more and more complete at each modification. Weapons, armour, systems, everything fit with each other, in a result bigger than the sum of his parts.
Slow but steady the powerful frame was taking form.
It was a huge machine, about twenty feet tall and broader than even the Gloucester that Cornelias forces uses, however, it was more stylized than the aforementioned frames, with a remarkable knightly style, from the limbs to the chest and the helmet of the machine, it looks like a mechanic knight of the old tales, with cape included. Lelouch smiled under his mask, it was almost complete, it was only needed one last detail, one thing that no knight should be without.
After all, what kind of knight would be without his sword?.
But before that, it was time to give, the knight his colors.
With a finger gesture, the mechanic arms completed their task works, ending the soldering and leaving the metallic gray of the frame in the open, the building process has ended and the frame only needed to be baptized and armed with a weapon worthy of his power.
With a gesture, the assembly machines get off the standing frame and the sprays took their place, Lelouch was not a painter, that has been always a talent that Clovis had, but it matters little for this, the design was already uploaded into the computers, they will be far more precise than Lelouch will ever be.
Giving the command, the arms danced over the frame, covering him with layers of colors and protective painting.
Black, gold, white and red.
The frame was release from his supports and if he was a living being; despite his cockpit being open and without any control worth that name in the sight, only a throne of some kind; it knelt in front of Lelouch.
A pair of pincer carried and lock on his shoulder and back, a black and white cape with the symbol of the Black Knights, a symbol that all of them will soon adopt and love, as they were part of something bigger than themselves. The cape flutter in the back of the frame and the machine lower his hand, so Lelouch could step in it, and be carried to the cockpit of the Knightmare, he sat in the throne and the cockpit close, allowing the audience to see the head of the machine.
It was crafted as a helmet, with a short dragon wings raising at the sides of the head, it only reinforced the image of being a knight of old.
The eyes of the machine ignited in red, symbolizing the activation of all the system of the machine, that turn his head to the side and extend his hand; from the side of the assembly line, a ten feet casket of metal and gold, was carried by a bunch of metallic hands, the same that not a moment ago where fusing the pieces of the armor of the machine in front of the awed audience. The casket opened, revealing a broad sword; all the blade had a core of gold like metal and silver edges, in the middle of the guard, there was a strange circle, with a line in the middle, the grip ended in a jewel like connector.
Extending his hand the frame picked the handle of the sword and bring it in front of him, leaning the guard over his forehead for a second, the jewel of the grip extended and connected with a port in the right hand, humming audibly in the air. The strange circle in the guard, suddenly opened, revealing what could look like a demonic eye, with a thunderous crackle, all the sword became surrounded by a black and golden spiraling energy.
In the screens of the control room, a series of commands appeared.
Clarent001 Active.
HB systems successfully integrated.
Weapons on line
Core engine on line
All Systems Green.
Clarent on line.
The black and gold knight, lowered the sword, deactivating the HB system, and with a flourish swing, sheathed the sword in a scabbard, integrated in the side and the back of the frame.
Magnus chuckled and turn his face to Jeremiah.
"Did you taught him that?" raise an eyebrow Magnus.
"Lord Zero always had a knack for melodramatics" smiled Jeremiah, amused and impressed by the exhibition of his lord.
The frame walked near the control room and as he approached, Sayoko open one of the frontal windows of the room, she has already deducted what he was going to do, and despite her neutral expression, she was as stunned as the rest, she simply hid it better than the rest. The frame open his cockpit, showing a comfortably sat Zero, who raised for the throne and walked with elegance into the open hand of the machine, just at the edge of the open cockpit; once the masked man was on the surface of the hand, the machine raise it to the open window and let him enter into the control room.
Clarent close his cockpit and walked by his own near the other frames; waiting in the west corner of the factory; kneeling at the side of the Guren and deactivating himself, entering in a stand by mode, until the call of his master.
With an agile jump, Zero entered through the window of the control room, in front of the astonished audience, and with a reverence to a mouth agape Rakhasa and team, ask:
"I did promise a miracle in Knightframe engineering, didn't I?, Lady Rakhasa".
Discretely, Jeremiah, Kallen, C.C and Magnus collected their winnings from the poll that has formed before the show, Zero has managed to broke the Indian scientist with science, in the possibly, most awesome trick of magic ever performed. Rakhasa just stared at Zero in mute awe, before her pipe fall to the ground; the sound broke her astonishment.
"How?!" shouted Rakhasa, who has just witness how all human knowledge about physic, engineering and computers, has been toss out of the window and then torched with gasoline and extreme prejudice.
Like a magician, Lelouch wave his hand and the screens behind him, turn back to life, showing a complex and almost eternal series of numbers and schematics.
"I am that good, Lady Rakhasa" the amusement of Zero was more than clear in his distorted voice " I will gladly share part of my knowledge with you".
The Indian woman tried to smoke from her pipe as she massaged her head with still shocked expression, then, she noticed how her pipe was in the floor and loudly cursed in her own natal language, picking the pipe, and with relief, see that it was not broken from the fall.
"I...don't know how on earth has you done it" said the woman " I have just witness the impossible, how?, how can you command that machine?, what are those weapons?, how can you control the sakuradite energy to that degree?" shot one question after another.
Before he could answer, Magnus phone ringed and the man just raise an eyebrow, even with the time he has been living in this world, common things like mobile phones and the computers are almost a foreign concept for him.
He "died" and join Pandora in the Boundary Between the Worlds, around the year zero of the christian calendar, when Jesus was born in Judea; it was an era of magic, not science, he has done a remarkable work accustom to the modern world but still, he was a lot uncomfortable with machinery. Not to mention, he couldn't pilot a frame for his dear life, it was tremendously difficult for him, preferring to fight with the feet on the ground, Lelouch has tried to convince him to learn, but he was happy in the back, taking care of the wounded. This was Lelouch show, he was only a roadie; after all, this was Lelouch universe, not Magnus universe.
"Aye?" answered Magnus to the phone " yes he is, sure, give me a sec" Magnus turn his head to Zero.
"Code Fostbraethr, Zero" said Magnus.
"Oh" simply answered Zero " Lady Rakhasa, feel free to accommodate yourself and your team in this facility, I am sure you will love to check in the files of the main data base" said Zero with amusement in his tone " and I will gladly answer any questions you have later, but now, if you excuse me, this is a call, I can not miss".
"Yeah, thanks" absentmindedly replied Rakhasa, almost hypnotized by the stream of data of the screens.
Zero leave the woman be, he knows that she will have to be drag out of the lab, as soon as she open the data package, Lelouch has left to her.
From the sakuradite channels into the main frame of Clarent, to the HB schematics; HB standing for Hadron blades; she was going to love every single line of those files, neatly put into an easy folder, for her to find and read. Lelouch already have the frames, he needed for the Kawaguchi lake and the Narita battle; if the battle would be ever happen; he was forcing the hand of the Six houses of Kyoto a little, trying to keep as many soldiers alive as possible. He was conscious, about how he will have to battle the entire Brittannian army at some point, and burying Cornelias forces and half of the JLF will reduce the combat potential of Japan drastically, specially when the Emperor will throw his favorite lap dogs in their noses.
Lelouch has calculated, that in a few months, specially when he finally united Japan under one single banner, the Black Knights banner; the Knights of the Round will make their appearance in Japan.
From all of them, only Gino and Anya mattered to him; the rest would be acceptable casualties if its needed. Suzaku was a good friend of the aforementioned two, and it would be a pity to actually lost both of them, specially considering how Anya was cursed with the presence of Lelouch mother, Marianne, as a mental parasite of some sort.
Lelouch had already a dozen plans ready to exorcise his mother from Anyas mind, enough has suffered already the poor girl at the hands of Lelouch mother, that woman was totally out of her mind. Even if he loved her in the past, after what happened in the C world and the Sword of Akasha, he will have a firm hand if he had to put a metaphorical bullet in their heads again, however, in victory one should be gracious, and he will allow them a grace; if the worst comes true, and he had to hunt and destroy them in the C world.
Lelouch knows he could sound a little arrogant, however, it was not a surprise, he was a god among humans, trying to impose any kind of morals onto him was a futile exercise; Irrationality, with capital letter, was the trademark of the Campione.
Otherwise, how they hell did they managed to actually kill a god?.
Lelouch pick up the phone and exit the room, soon followed by his closest friends, except Sayoko, Rivalz and Milly, they will accommodate and show the place to the crew of Rakhasa, meanwhile the woman will be mostly glued to the screens and Clarent.
Once Lelouch was out of the room, he double checked there was no camera or eyes looking at him, before he put his mask and black under mask off; answering to the phone with a smile.
"Hello Nunna, what can I do for my lovely sister?" said Lelouch to the phone, as the rest of the people behind him were chatting among themselves before they get to the main building and then depart on their respective business.
Jeremiah and Magnus had to return to the palace and rejoin Cornelia on her last attempt to eradicate any rebel faction in Area Eleven, so far she was doing a great job, something Lelouch encourages her to do.
Soon, only the JLF will remain as resistance group, the rest will be scatter and the Black Knights will pick up the scraps and reforge them into a real and efficient, military organization. He was essential using Nelly to clear out the different resistance groups, recruiting the survivors and beating the crap out of them, before they were inducted into the Black Knights. It was working amazingly fast, however, the Black Knights have not been officially debuted into society, something that was going to be corrected soon.
Kallen, and C.C on the other hand will be with Lelouch at the Academy; yesterday C.C was officially introduced to the rest of the school and how it can not be otherwise, she dragged him by the jacket neck and french kissed Lelouch in front of everybody. When she was inducted in the student council, Shirley was glaring daggers at her, Nina blinking like an owl with a red face, and Milly and Rivalz laughing their asses off at his expense, Kallen seems in the verge of trampling the woman like a stampede of rhinos.
In sum, a very funny episode of his normal life as everyday teenager. The green haired witch was as mischievous as Milly, not really a surprise both of them became friends very quickly, both love tease and cause as much havoc as they could.
"Nina, Milly and Shirley are going to travel to a sakuradite conference in Kawaguchi lake, and they ask if I could join them" inform the sweet voice of Nunnaly to Lelouch.
Lelouch knew this was going to be another big difference with the previous time line, a man called Kusakabe tried a bullshit of a hostage situation with the people of the Sakuradite Producing Countries Summit.
Lelouch had already planes for it, this time he was going to change the script of the play, for a better result; efficiency was his new motto for this rebellion, although he knew that there was something called being Too efficient. Hopely, he knew, that, if he started to stray from his path, his precious people will bring him back. Lelouch shudder to think what would happen if he became as worst as he was the first time, but with the power of the Campiones backing him this time.
"Sis, what do you want to do?" ask Lelouch.
He hated to keep Nunnaly in the dark; despite his supreme confident facade, he feared in the deeps of his heart, the reject of his sister, if she ever knew what he did in the past.
"I would love to go, I almost never get out, and thanks to the medicine that doctor friend of yours made, I am feeling better these days" said Nunnaly with hope in her voice.
"Then I see no reason why you could not go" smiled Lelouch " in fact, perhaps I could join you, in your little escapade, I had nothing better to do this weekend".
"Really?" Nunnaly sound surprised and hoped at the same time.
Lelouch had to hide a wince, questioning himself if he has been such a bad brother lately that Nunnaly replied with surprise to any offer of expending some time with her. Mentally, Lelouch review all the past days, painfully noticing how little time he has expended with her, being Zero was a time consuming job, not to mention, putting in shape all the Black Knights, in order to he grandiose debut of the Kawaguchi lake.
"Really" assured him, and he did pretend to honor that promise, he will kill two birds, with one stone, he will pass time with her and at the same time, put himself in the middle of the action, without needing to resource to under handed methods.
"I look forward to it" Lelouch could practically see the smile in her sister face " will you be at home to dinner tonight?" ask with hope in her voice.
"Of course" said Lelouch, and in fact, he will be in time.
Now that he has won the bet with Rakhasa; and almost guarantee her services for life; and how has he already made preparations, just in case anything went south; he had his agenda free of compromises, and expending time with Nunnaly would be a great thing.
Viceroy Palace
Lancelot Bay
"Euphy..." mussed Suzaku, as the princess has already dragged him into a corner and huge him for his dear life.
They hadn't kissed in the lips yet, however, it was clear that they were in love, and only the dread of the consequences of their acts was preventing them to go all the way to home run, not to mention Suzaku has a lot of issues to deal with.
"Just...let me be okay" whispered Euphemia.
Suzaku hugged her back, and slowly start to comb her hair and massage her back in circles.
Suzaku felt a little like a stress toy, and to be completely honest with himself, for a couple of days, he almost felt like he was some sort of whim of the princess, after all, he was nothing but a number, an honorary eleven with few rights. But for all the week or so, they had been dating; or at last, that was he liked to think about what´s transpiring between the two of them; he was convinced ; in a miraculous sort of way; that the princess and he had really felt in love with each other.
Suzaku, or at last the most rational and logic part of him, had to admit that this was something directly picked up from a romance novel, the peasant and the princess or viceversa, it matters not; the real question here, was how the Third Princess of the Empire has felt in love with a lowly number. Both Suzaku and Euphemia knew that Cornelia was going to neuter him with a rusty knife, as soon as she discovers the little escapades of Euphemia into the Lancelot hangar, and more concretely, into the arms of her lover.
Suzaku was not one that frets over death in the battlefield, but as the old says goes, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned; and Cornelia was way overprotective about Euphemia; the Japanese youngster feared Cornelia more than any demons form hell. However, the Japanese man, had to admit that being in the arms of Euphemia was totally worth it, they had clicked almost immediately, specially during their first meet, when she literally felt on him, when she was trying to run from her escorts.
Suzaku has to admit it; that has been quite the date, and for the first time in a long time, he has enjoyed the good things of life, even if he has been just released from practically a death sentence. Suzaku knew that he owned Zero a big one, although he feared the man in the mask, his mere presence made his skin crawl; much likely when he sensei killer intent; he has never meet someone like him. If he could be called human, Suzaku was not one that put too much faith into the supernatural, although Japan has always been a place of high spirituality, the invasion soon turn sour all faith in the gods of the Japanese people.
Still, Suzakus instincts; honed after years of martial arts and the hardships that he inflicted upon himself as payment for the assassination of his own father; was telling him that Zero was dangerous, tremendously dangerous. And at the same time, his presence was not one of an enemy, that dichotomy unnerved Suzaku, who didn't know what to think anymore, enough crazy was his life already; between his affair with the pink haired woman in his arms, his responsibilities as the Lancelot pilot, his status as number of the Brittannian Empire.
It was kind of surprising, how he has not gone nuts already, such a miracle was in part thanks to Euphemia, Suzaku may not be conscious of it, but the love of the woman prevent him for doing something stupid, like seeking death in combat.
"Ey" called him to her, as she nuzzled into his strong chest, she rose her eyes and look at him "I...".
Suzaku wanted to say it, he really wanted to say it, but there was a dozen of powerful motives for keeping his mouth shut.
He was not the only one, the love and affection in her eyes was more than clear, yet; and much like Suzaku was shutting it; she could bring herself to actually told him the three words that both wanted to say to each other. In an awkward but warm silence; as the presence of the other was more than enough for keeping them warm and comfortable; they just stared at the other, with gilt and desire in their eyes.
Neither of them know what possessed them in that moment, but they blink, and in a second, they were kissing each other like they were no tomorrow. They just don't ask, they didn't even dare to think about what the hell was happened, instead they simply enjoy the taste of the lips of their loved one, lips parted, lips meet again, tongues slowly and awkwardly asked for entrance before they twirled in sensual dance of recognition and love.
The universe didn't matter anymore, they were happy and the world could go to hell during the next five minutes for what they care.
Ashford Academy/Gardens
Lelouch was glowing, as his Authority just give those puppy lovers, the push they just needed.
However, it has give him a migraine, he has to force his powers, not only for the distance, but for the reason that he had to twist the rules a little for the stunt he has just pull out of his hat. Lelouch mussed a little about becoming a magician, trying to bury the headache he was suffering right now, after all, he could to tricks that no parlor magician could ever do in their entire lives. Taking control of both for a second, in the middle of the Viceroy palace has taken a toll on him; machines are way easier, it could have something to do with the fact that machines had no soul.
Well, most of the machines, Clarent surely had a soul of his own, embedded into the core of the frame when he forged; not build, not construct but forged in the fires of his own power; the machine. In the same factory, that created the Ganymede in the past, revolutionizing the Knightmare industry, the frame that was the frame of Lelouch mother, Marianne the Flash, and the one that carried her to victory, after victory in the Brittannian army. Lelouch couldn't but think about how fine irony, did the fate fancy himself; what gave birth to one of the most feared machines of its generation, now has served to create a machine.
No, not a machine, Lelouch sense how his Authority, how Mordred himself corrected him, Clarent was not a piece of metal, animated by the cold power of the science, the Knightmare was way more than that, Clarent was now something akin to a [Divine Beast].
The stunning revelation shocked Lelouch for a second, as he blinked a pair of times; even his migraine was forgotten in the light of what Mordred was revealing to Lelouch. Lelouch know that he was not the most capable or knowledgeable of the Campione, he was the second or third Campione in this universe, and the previous were defective things, as they were not products of the blessing of Pandora.
In fact, not even him was a perfect Campione, this world deities and Authorities had been long diluted into the C world, transformed into Geass and other monstrosities. Lelouch thought a moment about what Magnus has informed him, it was one of the reasons why the fellow brother Campione of Lelouch has travel to the mortal realm. Pandora did what she could, but she was not in her universe, and the ritual, the blessing that gives birth to all Campiones has to be twisted to accommodate the already more than wounded soul of Lelouch.
Pandora could grant him power, his well earned Authority.
But only if the diluted gods of the C world answer the call; one god answered in that moment of necessity, the power and legacy of Mordred, the black knight of Arturian legend, found in Lelouch a fellow soul, a good soul, twisted by the circumstances of his life into a Demon Emperor.
Different, yet so similar that it was terrific to contemplate, how the history seems to repeat itself.
Lelouch understood that even with that power, his human body would not be able to control, much less, harness it; and Pandora could not bring him the usual bless of her.
Reinforced body, bones stronger than steel, the instincts of a wild beast, astonishing magical reserves, the usual package, that transform a mortal, into a being more akin to a god.
That's were Magnus intervened.
Much to his shame, Lelouch admitted that he has not given too much thought to his secondary and relatively minor Authority [Jotunblut], when it was precisely that same Authority the one that give him a new body. Lelouch recognized, that in essence, [Jotunblut] was more than a worthy substitute of the physical enhances that the usual bless of Pandora grants.
Physical human perfection, with the addition of even increase more, by infusing power on the body from the magical reserves of Lelouch, already humongous, as soon as the new body was crafted by Magnus.
Lelouch raise from his sat in the garden bench, he wanted a second of solitude to deal with a dozen of operations online, he just hated to lose his time playing broker in the stock market, but it was a safe and sound way to invest his enormous fortune, without actually having to resort to any supernatural trick.
Of course, he had more than enough confidential info, to know where and when invest, actions that bring him fortunes, more than he could actually spend in a lifetime, however, founding his rebellion, and this time with a lot of equipment that would made half of the military forces of the world give a very sour look at their logistics divisions. And as he was checking the good being of his family and loved ones, he just casually stumbled upon the puppy love scene on the security cameras of the palace; with a chuckle he waited for it, and after the first five minutes, just screamed on his mind about those idiots' indecisiveness.
Taking things on his own hands, and earning a nasty migraine in the process, he took control of those two and helped them to kiss already and stop beating the bush around. Lelouch released them, with a thought about how it was bloody time, and how he didn't have time to deal with their conservative minds and all of that foolishness. He really wanted to save all the people he could, enough blood had already in his hands to be dammed to hell twice, but he was not an idiot, blood was going to be spill, rivers of it; specially when his crazy parents, could get a hold of what he was doing.
Lelouch always found humorous how he was taking all that planning of them, all that crazy as hell, dream of killing the gods and live a world of truth, and transforming into a completely different world. Lelouch had nothing against lies, they were incredible useful most days, mind you, that he was a compulsive liar half of his life, and only at the end of the first one, did he realize how much has he screwed up. In a relaxed pace, the violet eyed Campione moved into the main building, he was sure that he has seen a snack machine somewhere near the stairs; all that activity left him starving, Magnus; his now personal physician; has already warned about how much food he will have to take.
His brain worked in an accelerated rate, he could give a run for their money to all the supercomputers of the world at the same time; but such activity demanded nutrition, his body wanted sustenance, that's why he was eating so much lately. He reached his destiny and inserting a credit card into the machine, he tipped for a trio of chocolate bar, later he was going to devour an entire cow, with a dress of chicken and bathed in wine, beer, cafe and cacao.
Lelouch open the first envelope and lazily munched into the snack, as he was slowly chewing the cranky chocolate, suddenly his eyes widened and with a very uncharacteristic of him, shout of victory, he raised his fist in victory to the roof of the building.
"At last!" fiercely smiled, letting the snack fall to the ground.
During all this time, part of his mind, has been working on breaking the codification of highly protected Chinese servers, specially the ones that protected the Dragon Palace, the golden bar prison of Tianzi. With a predatory smile, one that would have made a dragon feel chills run down the spine, Leloch thought how all was about to get really interesting.
Ashford Academy/Infirmary
The academy infirmary was one of the best equipped medical centers that Magnus has seen in the two or three years he has been walking the earth of his brother Campione; so far, almost all has he saw, was Battlefield hospitals and the occasional military hospital where he had to put some of his worst patients.
Being a doctor was a completely new experience for him.
Magnus has been a lot of things in the past, and despite how his now lost Authority [Golden Apples] did wonders on the people of his kingdom when he was alive, he has never been a healer, or at last, not a common one, he depended too much on magic and his powers as Campione. In a sense, he has to admit that he was doing mostly the same this time, but instead of an Authority, he put his faith on the Geass he rip of M.M; that, and all the knowledge he borrowed from the C world of the best medics the world has ever seen. Magnus was somehow content with his life; this Magnus Frostsson was a likeable fellow, it was created with a lot of the memories he had of the trusted hirdmen he had when he was alive as a Campione in his own universe.
An entire new life was open for him but he was bound by the world he gave to his brother Lelouch; he will help him to the best of his abilities, it the least he could do for his little brother, the second one he had after the joined Pandora in the Boundary between realms or more know to this universe as the C world.
Magnus was patiently waiting for his next patient in the infirmary of the academy, he was enjoying a cold one; swiftly taken from the kitchen before the cooks of the Academy could notice the absence of the alcohol; as he was leaning over the window edge. Dress with civilian clothes, he was just a medic enjoying a moment of peace in the wonderful weather they were having that day. The day was clear, nothing like the good old blizzards of Norway and his kingdom in his universe, too much sun and clear skies has to be bad, it was too peaceful, but he will enjoy it for what it will last.
Magnus Odinsson the Campione could drown himself in wars and eternal conflict, but Magnus Frostsson was not someone like that, he was a healer and a soldier, with too much blood in his hands, and a pacifist at heart. A pacifist that could bend steel with his bare hands, but a pacifist nonetheless. He took a sip from his can, frowning from the taste, the sooner he could get his hands into a distillery the better, and somehow, he suspected Lelouch was as addicted to the mead, as he was; not really a surprise for Magnus.
He remembered how damaged Lelouch was, when Pandora and him founded in that torture dimension; for the boy could have been ages, and the suffering he had to pass through did a number on him. Magnus saw the expression he had when he tasted the mead for the first time; it was the same expression that a person about to die from thirst had when they found water. Magnus sighed and resign to the taste of the beer, it was the only one he could found in this Academy, it was a place for youngsters, none of them of adult age, so they could not drink alcohol; it was somehow amusing.
He was a man that has lived in ages, where the children are given mead and milk in equal measure, so they could grow to be proud and strong Nordmanni, however, in this era, all of that was unthinkable for the people of today. Magnus felt a little displaced sometime, but the constant traveling of Princess Cornelia was a very good thing to discover the different cultures and customs of this age.
The sound of the door of the infirmary open, and Magnus turn to face the persons that had entered.
Sayoko was pushing the chair of Nunnaly and talking to her in her usual polite and kind way.
Not half a week and almost all the members of the family of Lelouch has accepted and thanked him for the miracle, when Magnus has tried to explain them, that he was not the same Magnus they had in their memories and they should be thanking Pandora instead. Magnus has noticed how common has become to swear; in good way, asking for protection, bless or thanking her; in Pandoras name among the few that knew the truth. He had tried to dissuade them, but all has being in vain, humans will always surprise him.
Nunnaly turned her blind face at him, Magnus knew already the girl, but he could see the iron hide under the velvet of her appearance, she was going to be one hell of an Empress someday, so much he was sure.
"Greetings Lady Nunnaly, Sayoko" said Magnus leaving the cold one over the edge of the window.
Sayoko raise an eyebrow at the beer, but she remembered then who and what was the man in front of her, and simple shrugged, after what Magnus himself has told them about his powers, the alcohol was nothing for him. His Geass made almost impossible to actually drunk him under the table, even if he almost killed himself trying to prove that claim during a bet in one of the campaigns he took part, as part of the medical corps of Princess Cornelia.
"Hello" smiled Nunnaly " are you Mister Frostsson?, my brother told me that you are the best medic there is in Area Eleven".
"Aye, lass" laughed Magnus, pointing a stretcher to Sayoke where she could put Nunnaly for the medical check.
Sayoko nodded and carry the crippled girl, Magnus meanwhile look for a pair of latex gloves, once he found them in a drawer, he took and put them on.
Nunnaly was already laying in the stretcher, only her panties and bra as clothes, and gripping the hand of Sayoko, who was at her side, comforting the girl. Magnus recognized that despite all the recommendations, he was an unknown person to the girl and she could felt uneasiness around him, specially if she had practically to be nude in front of a stranger, medical reasons be dammed.
"Be at easy, lass" assured Magnus " this is not going to hurt you at all".
The hands of Magnus take the feet of Nunnaly, now that she was almost nude, he could see the scars and lacerations that the surgery and the bullets did on her when she was a child, even after all that time, such wounds were not fully healed and her, otherwise, pristine skin, was marrow by that crude markings. With a sigh, Magnus close his eyes and focus on his Geass, in a second he opened back his eyes, but this time the avian symbol of the Geass flared on them.
Sayoko has already accustomed to the power and appearance of the Geass, a power that did not hold a candle to the monstrous presence that Lelouch-sama was now, as a Campione. Still, she observed a bit curious how the man work, she had no doubt that the man mean well for Nunnaly-sama, specially after seeing in her memories how the man and his mother; the goddess Pandora; save him and all of them from the horrid future the C world had orchestrated.
Magnus moved the ankle of Nunnaly, it could not seem much, but for his Geass, it was a complete report of the body tissues of the poor girl, from the feet he pass to the legs, where the worst wounds were located. Limbs, chest and heart, he even made the charade of the stethoscope to made the girl feel less uncomfortable, not that Magnus really needed the apparatus, but he has found that people felt less wary of his diagnosis if the act like a proper medic of this era does. Magnus look at the legs of Nunnaly and grab the calf of the girl.
"Do you feel my hand, lass?" ask Magnus and Nunnaly shook her head in negation, increasingly nervous.
"It´s ok, Nunnaly" said Magnus in a soothing voice, that did calm the nerves of the girl "I am just testing how much sensitivity you had, you could felt your feet right?".
"Uh, yes" replied her a little surprised, it was a faint sensation, but she did felt the hands of the man on the soil of her feet.
"But from the ankles to the waist, you feel nothing" said Magnus, putting his own gown over the body of Nunnaly, covering her bare chest and legs.
Magnus knew that most of the females he has found, had a compulsion of feel increasingly nervous as they stood naked, specially the prudish Brittanniann; at last in public, what happens in the whorehouse, stays, get shoot and buried under a ton of salt, in the whorehouse; and the Japanese women.
As he suspected, being covered again by clothes quell part of the nerves of the girl, Magnus sat in a chair, positioning himself behind the head of the stretcher and applying and slow but continuous massage over the sides of the head of the girl.
"Oh, that is very nice, Mister Frostsson" said the girl at the soothing and relaxing massage of Magnus.
"Call me Magnus, lass" chuckled the man " there is no need of formalities".
"If you say so, Magnus" yawned the girl and blushed a little as the massage put her in a very nice and relaxing nap.
Five minutes later, Magnus noticed how the body of Nunnaly was already in REM phase, she would sleep for a couple of hours or if something disturb her sleep. As silent as always Sayoko stood at the side of her lady, she has never let her hand go, and she was looking at Magnus with a question in her otherwise indifferent but kind expression. Magnus rose from the chair and moved to the window, he took the beer and gulped down in one single drink, before crushing the can and toss it out the window with rage in his eyes.
Sayoko did say nothing, but she left him be, he has saw something in her Ladys body, something that has managed to anger a man like him, she almost felt sorry for the poor sod that is going to pay for that.
Magnus took a minute to calm himself before make some gestures to Sayoko and the door, the maid did not want to left her lady alone, but this could be important so she nodded and walked in silence to the door.
Once they both were outside, Magnus lean over the wall next to the infirmary door and sighed.
"Good news or bad news first, lass?" ask to Sayoko, who just stared at him in silence, before she replied back.
"Bad news" she asked steeling herself for the worst.
"Her legs are a complete nightmare, the muscles are torn and atrophied, the cartilage is a joke and don't even make me start with the muscles or the nerves" intoned the man with rage hidden behind his report "Odins beard, it´s a miracle she didn't have chronic pains for the death muscles in her calf, shin and back leg, but the worst is her blindness".
Sayoko already know how bad the poor girl was, her lady had suffered since she was crippled, kindheartedly smiling for her brother, even if she hated her own weakness.
"We already know, it the work of her own father" the venom in the voice of Sayoko betrayed her stoic facade " It disappeared when he died in the C world or so it seemed at the moment".
"Yggdrasil protect us, I suspected it" clenched his fist the man "I sensed the work of a Geass on her but it was so deeply buried in her subconscious that I would need a goddamned pile driver to take it out, she must have suffered deep mental trauma to confront the Geass on her own, by the Norns, the girl has an iron will" commented Magnus in a tone of respect.
"And the god news?" ask Sayoko with a smile, proud of her lady.
"I can cure both" simply state Magnus and Sayoko blinked, that was unexpected, however, she was learning that with the Campiones, nothing was impossible, only improbable.
"You can?" couldn't but ask the kunoichi maid, more than a little surprised.
"Aye" nodded the man " her legs are a nightmare but could be treated, I have only to ask if she wanted cybers or flesh legs and smuggle some things from the palace and the medical corps; her blindness on the other hand, look, lass, I know you loved these siblings as if they were yours but for the cure of her blindness, we will have to force Lelouch hand a little".
"Explain" the cold tone of Sayoko only cemented the respect Magnus had for the woman, Jeremiah has landed himself a nice woman.
"Lelouch Geass and Authority" stated Magnus sighing, he didn't like it too, but with this, he could cure two birds in one stone.
"I don't understand it, Lelouch-sama power was not a healing one, at last, not with humans" didn't see the point Sayoko.
"Lelouch authority could bring her memory back, from the time where she had already broke the Geass" explained Magnus " but the lad is terrified of the mere thought of what her sister would do if it happens".
Sayoko nodded grimly, she knew that as well, the rest of the awoken ones had tried to subtle and slowly tried to convince Lelouch of awakening his sister, that she would love him no matter what, but he didn't even wanted to ear about it.
"Campiones are terrible beings" Magnus cross his arms over his chest " we could be bless and curse in the same package, however, we are not devoid of the quintessence of the strength and weakness of mankind; the emotions that carry us further than any would dream, at the same time drags us down to the deepest pits of our personal hells".
Sayoko say nothing, remembering that the man in front of her was one of the gods or Campiones or whatever; there was not much a difference for her between them; that save Lelouch and as Lady C.C, he has walked the earth for a long time.
"If Nunnaly is not dancing with Lelouch in two weeks top, I ate her chair" announced Magnus with a tone that left no place for discussion " but for her blindness, Lelouch hold the cure for that, and not only for her, it will help the lad more than he would believe".
"Reassurance" Sayokos eyes widened following that line of thought.
" The doubts and gilt of Lelouch-sama will be greatly reduced" put her thoughts on words "if she is at his side, and not kept apart and in the dark, like she was in the first time, something that lead to the battle and betrayal on board the Damocles and the Zero Requiem".
"Aye, lass" smiled without humor Magnus " you nailed it".
"It´s a dangerous gamble" noted Sayoko.
"For their sakes?, worth it" shrugged Magnus "my brother need more help than he realizes, and I am not talking about power; he had it in spades; I am talking about his soul, that's the one that need attention, is time for him to bury his own demons".
Viceroy Palace/Strategic Room
Cornelia snarled at the image of Zero in the screen of her terminal, she hated the arrogant and cocky man with a passion, he has managed to fool them twice, and what is worst, she felt she own the man a lot, for telling her the truth about the siblings. Euphemia cried in happiness when she found it, and Cornelia had an entire OSI team trying to build a picture of how Lelouch or Nunnaly would be today, based on old photos, and spread around the city to look out for any teenager that could held a resemblance. At the present time, no success has been reported on that front.
On the other hand, Area Eleven, was slow but steady being clean from resistance groups and all kind of pesky terrorists, soon only the infamous JLF will remain as the last resistance group in the area, and so far she was far from impress. Only the Miracle Worker Todoh has gained her respect, after all, he was the man that achieve a damn victory over impossible conditions, against an army of Knightmares.
Tanks and infantry against Knightmares, and yet he pulled a victory out of nowhere.
She could respect that.
Cornelia frowned at the image of her screen, she really wanted to beat the shit out of Zero, but deep inside her, she had to admit that the man has surpassed them completely in Saitama. He held all the cards, and played them close to his chest, distracting and diverting the attention, Cornelia wanted to grab him by his damn cravat and toss him into a cell, where her best interrogators will make him talk. A headache started to appear in the corners of her head, she has been working non-stop for ten hours straight, reading reports and logistic inventories of the forces she actually had in Area Eleven.
Jeremiah has done a good job, she has to admit that the Margrave was a soldier to the core, one of the few true knights she has ever meet, it was a pity what happened to him in Aries Villa, his career could have ended there, but instead he swallowed the pill of the Pure Bloods and not only salvage his career but actually look out for Lulu and Nunna. Closing the picture on her screen, she changed it for one of the old times, when Nunna and Lulu were playing with Lady Marianne.
They were alive, that thought did put a soft smile in her face, however, the hide behind the screen, so none of the other soldiers working could see it; it will soften her at their eyes, and she had a reputation to uphold. She was the Goddess of Victory for her soldiers and the Witch of Brittannia for her enemies, it has taken her years to reach and conserve that reputation, one that helped her a lot, to keep Euphemia save and near her. Cornelia shuddered to think what would have done the Emperor with Euphemia, and a whisper in the back of her mind, suddenly questioned her, a question that send a shiver all over her spine, barely contained.
Would have the Emperor sacrifice Euphemia like he did with the siblings?.
She wanted to denied it, she really wanted to think that his father would not have sacrificed her in that way, but the proofs Zero has thrown on her lap where undeniable, the siblings were a sacrifice. In fact, all the evidence in the disk Zero has left, pointed out to the intervention of a Brittannian Black ops squad in Pendragon, in the exact same date when Marianne died, all the members of that squad were death or disappeared in the middle of the battlefields of Brittannia.
Cornelia picked up a strategic map and uploaded the data on her screen, a map that not only shows the position of the actual battle lines of Brittannia but, that showed in different colors how was the Brittannain Imperial army faring in those campaigns. She frowned at the most recent upload, all the lines were in a cautious yellow, except the ones that she has recently conquered and the sector of the EU, where her brother Schneizel was acting as commander of the military forces deployed there.
Cornelia sighed, the doubts Zero has planted on her mind were starting to affect her, why should she pay attention to the ramblings of a madman and a terrorist?. The same whisper in the back of her mind, was the one that replied her; she was paying attention because Zero was giving her proofs of what he claimed, it was not empty words or demagogy, all what he has told her was backed up by a lot of information, an info that she has triple checked and even if she had not entirely trusted the OSI agents with her, they had actually corroborated part of the information Zero has give to her.
Freely, she thought, he has given her what she and Euphy desired most; the life of the siblings.
And once again, her mind and heart were at conflict, mostly because how logical was that the siblings hated Brittannia deeply, and how it would only means that they will hate her and Euphy too. Zero has assured her, that neither Lulu nor Nunna hated them, only their father and the social Darwinism that seems to be the banner of the Empire on this last two decades; and Cornelia has to admit that she hated that same ideas too. That same ideologies, would end in the sacrifice of the siblings and if it were for her protection over her sister, Euphemia would be another victim of the greed of the nobles of Pendragon, with her own father on top of all of them. The sound of a glass hitting her desk made her raise her head from the map in the screen, to face a glass fill to brim with an orange liquid and a couple of white pills, she followed the glass to find one of her most capable soldiers looking at her.
For a couple of seconds, none of them said nothing, Cornelia look at Magnus, who just stared at her and rapped on the side of the glass, calling her attention to the medicines.
"I don't need it, Magnus" said Cornelia, she knew the almost miraculous skills of the man, that's why she brought him with her to any battle scenario her forces were deployed, but he was a little meddlesome sometimes.
"Orders of the Medic" shrugged the man " you need it, Princess" pointed Magnus to the pills.
"I´m fine" growled Cornelia with a glare to the military doctor.
Magnus shrug it off with the easiness of the practice, not the first time he almost had to chain the woman to the stretcher, she was as stubborn as Lelouch sometimes, specially when something bother hers.
"Nay, you are not" denied Magnus glaring back at her; Cornelia grunted and pick up the glass and the pills, Magnus will not leave her alone, until she did as he orders.
She has to recognize, Magnus was one of the best medics she has ever seen, but he sometimes abuses of his authority a little.
"Do not complain, your Highness" Magnus lean his back on the wall behind her desk, now that he was at the other side, she could see how he was carrying a plastic bag " is just a painkiller for your incoming headache, something for soothing your nerves, and a very healthy sport drink, orange flavored".
Cornelia wanted to hit him, she really wanted to hit him, but she just accepts the exact things she needed right now, drinking from the glass, she took the pills and swallow them with another sip from the orange flavored sport drink.
"Bad day, Princess?" ask Magnus as he took out of his bag a sandwich and offered it to Cornelia.
Cornelia blinked and just took the damn thing of his hands with a soft blush, she was so engrossed in the work that she has not eaten anything during the last ten hours or so, and she was starting to realize that she was hungry.
She chewed the sandwich like a starving wolf and answer between bites.
"This is a mess, goddammit, this is a complete and utter mess" she lean over her leather chair, privileges of the commanding officer.
"Usually, it is Princess" eyed the information on the screen Magnus, he has been deployed in some of those spots displayed in the map along her " aren't our lines a little too thin to be comfortable?" asked Magnus and a glare from Cornelia shut him up.
There were times to pull out the medical card, and times when one just shut the hell up.
Magnus knew very well, how the old saying went, Hell hath no fury...
"Zero was right, there is something going on here, and I hate not seeing it" said Cornelia finishing her sandwich and graciously accepting another from Magnus, who just pass her, her second sandwich without even saying a word. She was a Princess after all, and her temper was one that could give a run for her money to a volcano.
"I thought Area Eleven was going to be another rat nest cleaning" said Cornelia in loud voice, Magnus was a very good listener when he wanted, half of the forces under her command has already cried their hearts out to the Norwegian man, he understood better than anyone the scars the soldiers under her command have; he has parched most of them.
More than once, has she to consider if she should raise his salary, he was acting as a physiologist half the time, when they were sent to another campaign; and she was not an exception from that strong and calm Honorary Brittannian, was usually a very good listener and he had his feet on the ground, offering sensible advice whenever he was asked for it. Cornelia pointed out to a folder on her desk.
"But I was wrong, we have been sweeping out all this Area, and despite we have almost clear it, only the JLF remains as a plausible threat at this point" Cornelia eyed the disk of Zero "I feel that we were missing something".
"Princess, I am just a soldier" said Magnus and Cornelia snorted.
She chuckled humorlessly to that statement, Magnus was more than just a soldier, she has seen him training with the infantry and could recognize a good fighter when she saw one. He didn't like to show it off, but Magnus was a master of hand to hand combat, if he wanted, he could have become the next heavy-weight category world champion boxer. Although she had to admit, that she would never let such a resource like him go, even if she had to pull her rank and tie him to the infirmary of the G-1 he usually uses when she is deployed to the next battle scenario.
Half of the soldiers of her forces own the Norwegian their lives, be it for cures done in the middle of the battlefield or taking care of the wounded, those same battles left on both armies; for what she knew, Magnus was the only field surgeon with a one hundred percent of success in field surgery and cyber transplants. There was a legend about how he performed two surgeries at the same time that he was defending the field hospital from a surprise attack of a Kaibiles special ops unit from the Guatemala army, during the pacification of Area Six.
She somehow believed the rumors, Magnus seems one capable of pulling such stunts out of nowhere and then look out for a cold one, the love of the man for his distilled mead and beer was mind blowing.
"Magnus, please, just spare me your humble attitude" massaged Cornelia her head as she bit on the sandwich on her free hand " tell me; what do you see?" pointed out to the screen, before she introduced a disk in the computer and let the man, read the contents.
She took the chance to raise from the chair and actually went to the toilet, she has been like forever glued to that chair, and speaking of people glued to a chair, she noticed how absent was Euphemia, even when she had as much paperwork to deal with as her. After some time, a refreshed Cornelia enter back into the room, and blinked as she saw how there was only a quarter of the personnel on the room, her lips curved into a sad smile, they had took advantage of her absence, to actually get the hell out of here, nor that she was going to blame any of them, she hated this office work as much as any of them; but as Commanding Officer, it was his duty to surf through it.
That was the worst part of her work, in her opinion, an opinion that only get reinforced, when she dealt with all the idiocy and corruption of the government of Clovis, how the hell did her half brother allow such a thing to happen was out of her understanding. With a nostalgic smile, she thought about how Lady Marianne would have beat the crap out of Clovis and his sycophants, most probably with the blunt edge of a maul, in the hands of the Ganymede.
Magnus was standing in front of the computer, and when he rose to head to saw her, intermediately give a step back and offer the chair for her to sit, Cornelia smiled the tall man, he was a complete gentleman in a moment, and a caveman the next, but that was part of his charm.
"So?" ask Cornelia once she was back in the damn chair, she was sure, it has the form of her body by now "what do you think?".
"Considering what I have read" said Magnus standing in position near the desk of Cornelia " I would say that some is trying to running some shady business".
"Magnus, please stop" raise a hand Cornelia " do not beat the bush around, just be honest, I will not punish you for anything you could say".
"As you wish, lass" sighed the man and straightened her posture.
"Zero is right" he said and Cornelia frowned.
"What?" ask the woman.
"Aye, Princess" said Magnus without a single doubt in his voice " everything that told you was in the disk; allow me" ask Magnus permission before giving a step ahead and bowing a little, start tapping into the keyboard, looking for what he needed.
Cornelia roll back her chair a little to give some space to the man, he was tall and broad enough to be capable of compete as a heavy-weight class boxer, when he bowed to reach the computer, Cornelia could appreciate how the muscles moved under his uniform and a little corner of her mind, start to do cat calls and wolf whistles. She blinked at that thoughts, but with a smile she remembered how has she ear about how the women of the regiment tried to convince him to pose for a calendar, as soon as the thing was out, it sold like pancakes; she could understand it perfectly.
"There..." pointed out Magnus to a couple of medical reports in the screen and Cornelia turn her attention to the screen.
"Magnus, I am not a medic, both are medical reports" said Cornelia, despite all her virtues, she had not medical knowledge, apart from the basic she received when she trained at the Pendragon Military Academy.
"Zero told you that Lelouch was beaten in the court, that he need surgery" explained Magnus pointing with his finger to one line of the report of the left " this is a surgery fill-in, about how they reconnected Lelouch shoulder plate back into place".
Cornelia winced, that should be painful, and potentially crippling, she cursed her father, Zero was right, she could recognize the watermark of the OSI all over the paper, however, she kept a skeptic attitude, all of this could be forged.
"And the other one was a field report of one of the many numbers field hospitals that appeared during the invasion" changed his pointing Magnus " this one spokes about a violet eyed boy with a damaged shoulder, who tried to stole some food when they were treating his wounds, before he run away carrying a little girl with dirty bandages in her legs".
"Goddammit!" cursed Cornelia under her breath clenching her fists.
Even if she tried to convince herself that it was a lie, part of her mind was picturing the scenario; she loves the siblings, the mere act of thought about them in such conditions, made her heart torn between anger and sadness.
"I don't know about the rest of the info, but at last in this, Zero did not lie to you" continued Magnus " although, I am skeptic about the veracity of the reports, even if they did appear as the real thing, something tells me that this is the truth, bitter as it is, lass".
"All of them be cursed. Zero and Father" replied Cornelia, torn between her emotions.
"A piece of advice Princess?, go talk it with Princess Euphemia" said Magnus, never letting the plastic bag go of his reach "she could help you to accept this, and somehow I believe she will like knowing more about the whereabouts of her favorite siblings".
With a side glance to the clock on the corner of the screen, Magnus just smirked.
"Go, find her, she would possibly be playing around in the Lancelot bay" smiled Magnus " tell her everything, she could bring a new light to all this madness, and you could use the breather from the work".
"Yes, I think, I would do that" nodded Cornelia " thanks for the advice, Magnus" said the Princess walking to the exit of the room.
"A pleasure, your Highness" smiled him back, and just moved into another direction, he has a lot of things to do in the medical bay after all. Now if he could just remember where the hell did he put his surgery bag and those cybers for lost legs.
Ashford Academy
Class Room.
Lelouch was taking notes in his notebook, from time to time, he liked to do things, the old way; he was already incredible dependent of tech, and sometimes, he felt like it was time to give a step back and just do things with his own hands. But that didn't stop him from keep an eye for all the bots he had uploaded over all the systems of Area Eleven, both Brittannian and Japanese, and from one of those bots, one that was programmed to emit and alert when a specific name was introduced in the database of the Academy.
More specifically, the moment that Suzaku Kururugi was uploaded as a new student into the rooster of the academy. Lelouch knew that the changes he has done to the results and the computers systems of Japan has change the schedule of how the things happened in the past, that hasn't prevented some events to take place; speaking of which, he was eager to have a little chat with Mao, the mind reader was one of the most valuable assets one could even think about, but his obsession with C.C was too much of a bother.
Suzaku was going to enter the Academy, only some days later than he did the previous time, and four days before the events that took place in Kawaguchi lake, something that was going to happen.
Lelouch wanted the Black Knights to have their great debut, and what better debut than saving both Brittannian and Japanese equally, that was a credo that he was hammering into the heads of every single Black Knight. If one of them, even thinks about using the Knights as an excuse to be an asshole or worst, bully Brittannians, he will beat him or her, to the inch of their lives, and put them into a hospital for six months or kill them on the spot.
Lelouch was not joking around with those orders, and he was made sure, that they were respected to the letter; he knows that indubitably, the leeches that plagued the resistance groups will see the Black Knights as another free pass into an easy life, lazing around and just shielding themselves behind the excuse of be resistance fighters. He has cut down those by the roots, he will not tolerate anything less than complete dedication to the cause of the Black Knights, and that cause was not only the liberation of Japan, but the destruction of the Brittannian way of life.
Lelouch had little patience for fools, he didn't have it in his previous life, much less now; when things could be better than he would ever dared to dream; if he had to kill and bathe in the blood of some sacrifices for it, so be it. However, he will be the one calling the sacrifices here, not the world, not the circumstances, he was Campione now, he was the Black King, and everyone submits to the King commands, so was told and so will be. Lelouch shook his head a little after that trail of thoughts, Mordred always manages to infiltrate in his minds, not really a surprise for the black haired Campione, Mordred was inside his Authority, the one that was blessed upon him at the day when Pandora, Magnus and him, confronted the old and coward C world, turning back the Wheel of Time.
He used part of his powers to send a text to the phones of Milly, Kallen, Rivalz and C.C, informing them of the arrival of the Knight of Zero, even if he didn't know it yet.
Lelouch has already discussed with them about who will be awakened and who will be keep in the darkness, there was some people that it will be better to keep them in the dark, enough suffering had them to deal with in the past, to made them remember it. Suzaku will not be among those exceptions, he was going to be awakened, just it was too soon for the Japanese boy to face the choices and regrets he had in the past, the Halcyon days will continue for him, or better said, for Euphemia, until the ASZ day will arrive and the world will tremble at his power.
And Lelouch wanted to made Suzaku squirm a little, after all, being throw into the clutches of Milly and her crazy antics was more than enough suffering, until Lelouch had to slap him hard with the reality of the world. Rivalz and Kallen look at him for a second, nodding and keep attending to the class, it was Rivalz the one that had a wide smile, already suspecting how Lelouch was going to make Suzaku school life a lot more interesting than it was the previous time.
Not mention, and despite all the arguments they had shown him, Lelouch was going to take advantage of this opportunity to reveal some of his cards to the few persons he has ever considered more than pawns. The secrets, the lies, the hidden motives; Rivalz thought about how a sad life was imposed on him a decade after the death of the man, he considered his best friend, the same man that sacrificed himself for the sake of the world, always bearing the mantle of the greatest evil on earth.
The blue haired scion of the Brittannian nobility became a hardened and bitter man after that day, he man it up, as his wife, the blonde bombshell called Milicent Ashford told him, and became someone that Lelouch would have considered more than trustworthy. In a sense; Rivalz was really grateful for that, he used that same skills and mindset to protect Nunnaly from the clutches of that fucker of Schneizel for all the time he could, and he laughed along his wife in the faces of the execution squad that shot them to death.
Rivalz grimaced at the memories, those were dark times indeed, but all of them were in the past, and now, in the present, his best friend was a powerful Campione, that was gonna set the world straight, before that asshole of his father or half big brother could mess it. Not to long after the message of Lelouch; the door of the class, did open and a nervous and a little scared Suzaku entered in the class, looking around like a deer caught in the headlights.
His eyes widened when he saw Lelouch, but for his entire mental shock, the violet eyed Campione just smiled and waved back at him. Greeting him like it has been just a few days the last time they have seen each other, and not when they separated for a stray missile that almost blow out the camp where both were recovering.
"Suzaku?, Kururugi Suzaku?, speak about surprises, how have you been, my friend?" smiled Lelouch raising and increasing the mental breakdown of the Japanese boy, Lelouch hugged him.
Half of the class was already in the verge of a mental breakdown at the absurdity of the situation, but the other half; mostly girls; were blinking and some of them blushing at the image. Suzaku opened his mouth to reply but no sound come, weakly hugging back the man that did seems to be Lelouch, but Lelouch has not done any physical exercise in his life, and this teenager with his face, was in perfect physical shape.
"Teacher" called Lelouch to the sighing teacher in the chalkboard "Student Council business, if you excuse us" drag Lelouch the stunned Suzaku out of the class.
At the same time, the rest of the Council proceed to follow Lelouch with different expressions, from confusion and curiosity to apprehension and a little fear.
"You are abusing of that excuse a lot lately, Mister Lamperouge" chuckled the teacher that know could do nothing about it.
"And its never a lie, wonderfully convenient, isn't it?" replied back Lelouch with a wide smile, making several people blink a pair of times.
Lelouch fame among the student populace was one of an Ice Prince, that treats everyone around with kindness but in distant manners, and suddenly, he was doing jokes and speaking with a number like they were old friends. Walking from a nearby hall, Millys instincts, the instincts of the gossip queen of the Academy were already in overload.
But as she has received the text, she has already deducted what was all this about, however, that was not an excuse to get some fun, now that they were at it.
Milly was enjoying her second youth as much as she could, not only by jumping at Rivalz bones every chance they had to get some intimacy; after all, they did marry in the past, when the boy grow a pair and became quite the interesting and lovely man; but to enjoy her life as student once more. She has greatly missed these days, just after she graduated and became a journalist, and even after all the world went straight to hell, she ofter turned her eyes back into the past, to this wonderful days.
She was truly grateful to Pandora and Magnus for what they have done, she has already changed god for Pandora in all her prayers, she used Magnus too, but now that the Campione, or demigod, or whatever the hell the man was; has get down to earth to give Lelouch a hand, she has to admit that praying in his name will be a little odd.
Not to long after she exited her class, she found the retinue, walking to the Student Council room, and she quickly joined them on their way. Lelouch was ahead of them, talking with Suzaku who was answering the best he could, but it was clear for all of them, that the Japanese man was more than confused.
Suzaku was stunned, to say the last; he has never expected to find Lelouch in an Academy, he really didn't expect to ever see his old friend again, and much less such warm welcome. Not that he was not grateful, in fact he was happy to see his old and good friend again, but this welcome was a little too over the top for him, who was not exactly accustom to be greeted in such welcoming manners. Lelouch could almost read the mind of the Japanese teenager, he knew him very well, and he reminded himself, that this was not the bitter and regretful Suzaku he knew, but a blank slate on where Euphemia was writing her claim.
The young Campione wanted to change the past, and among the things he wanted to change, was changing his hateful relationship with Suzaku.
Lelouch know that both had done a lot of stupid things, they hunted each other, in a game of tag, each time ripping a piece of something important for them in each clash; from the death of Euphemia, to threw Lelouch at the feet of his father, a long and nasty list of sins.
But that was going to change, Lelouch had the power to change it, and he will change it.
Lelouch was Zero, the Black King, and everyone submitted to the King.
The rest of the retinue were a mix of emotions.
Kallen wanted to beat the crap out of the boy, for being such a cretin in the past, and then demolish him, once and for all, in a Knightmare battle, it was a thorn on her side, the battle of the Damocles was nothing but the excuse for Suzaku to fake his own death and became the new Zero, so for her, it didn't count to determine who was the best.
The green haired Cera Constantine, Aka C.C, was enjoying this a lot.
At the beginning she suspected that she was going to hate being back in the school, but then she meet Milly and together they discover how much both had in common, she wondered if she could hook the blonde to the supreme delicatessen that was the Pizza and gossip a little about who could be the next, mistresses of Lelouch. No matter how much in denial was Lelouch, for C.C it was clear that the number of his court ladies was going to grow more in the future, not only Kallen and her, and she was eager to discover who were the chosen ones, so to speak. For C.C it was a source of infinite amusement, see a powerful being as Lelouch, squirm under the pinkies of his own wives and lovers; it was absolutely hilarious.
In the case of Milly and Rivalz, both awakened into this time line, it was a mix of amusement and eagerness; in part wanting to get their friend back and on the other part, hoping this time, all will go for the best.
On the other hand, Shirley and Nina were not as amused and confidant as the rest of the Student Council. Shirley couldn't hide her curiosity about how was possible for Lulu to actually know and befriend a number. Nina was on the specter of being terrified, in her eyes, all the numbers; specially the elevens; were a very dangerous being, terrific and dangerous beings that will cause her harm.
Nina was not a bad girl at heart, in the same way that some of the most brilliants minds of her epoch, Nina was hiding in her science, as a mode to deal with the reality, she was shy and do not spoke with people around her, except the people of the Student Council. Very few among her friends know the deep scar the girl had in her mind; not long after she come to live in the Area, she was attacked in the Ghetto, for the reports in the Brittannian police database, she was sexually assaulted.
For her friends, it was not really a surprise how scarred the girl was, and how introverted has she became, much more interested in her investigations and experiments, than in the real world around her.
As Lelouch guided the stunned Suzaku into the council, he took a second to read the expression of his friends, noticing the fear in the eyes of Nina. Lelouch was slowly approaching the girl, helping with her investigations, at the same time, he channeled her interest into another paths, like alternative energy sources, instead the research that would eventually lead into FREYJA.
It was a slow process, one that he will not force, unless it was necessary, enough damage has he done already to the girl.
It didn't take them too much time to reach the Student Council Room, as soon as they entered, Leloch order the machines around to block any record on the room, what he was about to reveal in the room, must never be leak outside or, at last, not by video or audio files; he has no doubt that none of the present will ever betray him.
Not this time.
However, Lelouch will lie if he denied that burdening Suzaku with this secret; specially when he was seeing Euphemia secretly; was not amusing him, Suzaku was one of the worst liars in story, and keeping his mouth shut will be a torture for the man; and Lelouch will ask him to keep his mouth shut.
They entered the room, and Lelouch took a seat, as the rest of the council take places around the room, this was something, that Lelouch thought he should have done since the beginning. Instead of lying and forcing Sayoko to cover his absences; when her talents would have been incredible more useful as infiltrator and spy; or tossing all kind of excuses around, up to a point he lost an absurd amount of time planning how to slip past the attention of his own friends. Lelouch took seat in his usual place and smiled to the entire council.
"I suppose all of you wanted to know how is it possible that I meet Suzaku here" pointed Lelouch to the boy who smiled warily and shrugged.
"We are childhood friends; he, Nunnaly and I played a lot of times together in the temple on where his family had residence" explained Lelouch and he swore that he could see the interrogations popping up in Shirleys head.
"When I first arrive in Japan" reminiscence Lelouch those days, some of the best of his childhood, until the day of the invasion " I was scared and suspicious about everyone around, not precisely the best company ..."
"Understatement of the century" muttered Suzaku under his breath and Lelouch shook his head, the Japanese boy blushed a little being caught in the comment.
"It was needed the intervention of Nunnaly to crack the ice and became good friends after that" laughed Lelouch "speaking of which, later I will take you to see her" said Lelouch to Suzaku.
Suzaku blinked a pair of times.
"Wait, Nunna is alive?" whispered Suzaku " but the missile, it hit point blank".
"Yes it did" nodded Lelouch " fortunately, we were only toss around by the explosion shock wave, instead of being torn to shreds by the shrapnel".
Shirley was pale and acting by instinct, she just hug Lelouch, she was always being a very emotional girl, and the thought of Nunna or Lulu suffering like that, hurt her a lot; her gigantic crush on the Campione did not precisely help.
"Do not worry Shirley" combed her hair Lelouch, soothing the girl " it´s all in the past, and speaking about the past, perhaps, it is time for me to present myself like is adequate".
Shirley blinked and Suzaku paled this time around, Nina only seems to be confused for the words of Lelouch. The rest of the presents, had already express their opinions, some in favor, some against, but at the end, all of them agreed on the point that it could be beneficial in the long run. Kindly separating Shirley from him, Lelouch raise from the chair and walk to an open space in the room, facing all the people inside the room, and with a flourished reverence and a dashing smile, he said:
"Allow me to introduce myself".
His smile widened when he listened to the snorts, huffs, chuckles and facepalms of Milly, Kallen, Rivalz and C.C.
"My Name is Lelouch Vi Britttannia, son of Charles Zi Brittannia and Eleventh Prince to the throne".
Rivalz was quick enough to catch a fainting Shirley, and Milly just wave her hand in front of the stoned face of Nina.
"I think you broke them, you meanie" giggled the girl.
"Yeah, mate, I think you went a little overboard with this one" laughed Rivalz moving the fainted girl to a nearby chair, so she could be comfortable.
"Nice, my Warlock" purred C.C and kissed him deeply and with a liberal application of tongue.
"And now you broke him too" pointed with her thumb Kallen to the frozen expression of Suzaku, eying C.C like she was going to trample the damn witch any second.
Lelouch enjoyed the kiss, and when they finally separated, Lelouch smiled to his friends and comrades.
"I would say, this has gone well, don't you agree?"
