R.R.

Chapter 4: The Bitter Truth

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At first he was terrified. But as it went on, his anxiety began to wear down. As it appeared, it wasn't the same power, just similar. He had to admit, it still baffled him as to why her Geass would fall under the same 'category' as his own. Is that what he would call it? A category? Geass was different between two people, an extension of themselves basically. Her power had different limits and restrictions then his, as he discovered before they escaped the airship. She was not restricted to how many times she could use it on someone, but her commands were reduced to once every fifteen minutes. And they wore off after three hours. However, she could 'renew' a command by reissuing because of the limitless uses. Even still, he couldn't put it away. Why would it be so similar?

He sat at a desk, furiously tapping on it. As it seemed, he was dead on with Gideon's plan. Shortly after the chaos with the two FLEIJA warheads in Japan, the emperor brought together the UFN, calling together a retaliation. And as planned, they all rallied behind him. At the moment, he merely pulled together the Black Knights and began producing knightmares. But soon, he knew Gideon would influence them to allow FLEIJA production. And then, all hell would break lose. It was really only a matter of time. His plan to seat away the Phoenix order before it became a threat failed, at least for now. There was still the possibility he could end the conflict before Gideon could obtain the right to use FLEIJAs. But that still didn't guarantee he would try something else. He had to find a way to stop Gideon indefinitely.

Behind him, Aleina sat at the vanity obsessively staring at the glowing mark in her left eye. The mark of Geass.

"Would you stop that?" He asked, turning around to face her.

She glanced back at him momentarily before returning back to the fascinating mirror. "Stop coming back to life after getting shot in the head."

"I already explained, Geass manifests its physical form through the appearance of a bird like sigil in the users eye. Like mine." Lelouch parted his hair to reveal the symbol emblazoning his forehead.

"It's given by immortals who possess a code. That code gives them immortality and the ability to grant Geass power to others. Can't get much simpler then that."

Aleina sighed, turning away from the mirror. "I thought it weird when I first found you. And your apparent lack of common knowledge was strange as well, but this, this is something else entirely. I mean, it's impossible. You're immortal, and I can command people to do anything I want."

Lelouch spun around in his spinny chair, looking up at the ceiling. "Yup. It's all very shocking. But lets not dwell too long on the subject. We have more pressing matter to attend to."

Lelouch turned back to the desk, opening his computer. "The UFN leaders are doing everything they can to prevent a large scale conflict, but after a stunt like that, everyone knows things can only end one way. Eventually, a war will ensue. And Gideon will end up on top of it all in the end."

Aleina walked over to him to see what it was he was looking at. She read over the reports on the emergency UFN council among the core members. Things didn't look good.

"Listen, this is important. Is there any on there members of the royal family who can help us? Any who might think the same way you do?" R.R. asked.

Aleina frowned. "Well, I guess there's my brother Daedalus. He's the second prince. He's always been suspicious of Gideon I suppose. I bet he might know as much as we do at this point."

R.R. nodded. "Anyone else?"

"Marellia. If we showed her solid proof about Gideon, she would listen."

"Alright, well we should go meet them then."

"You...want to meet two members of the royal family just like that? You obviously don't know Britannian royalty."

"Let me guess, ones on a safari in Africa and the others out feeding homeless in Asia. You have a jet that can get half way around the world in less then an hour. How hard is it?"

Aleina folded her arms, frowning. "It's not like that. I mean, you can't just go up to them and say 'hey I want to talk to you.' It doesn't work like that."

R.R. tilted his head. "Last I checked, I could go up to my sister whenever I wanted to."

Aleina glared at him. "It's not that easy. I'd have to call them and ask when they're available. And I'm sure with all the shit going around its going to be even more difficult. Seriously, is it that important?"

R.R. nodded. "Yes. Both in the long-term, and immediately. If I remember, Marellia and Gideon have close ties correct?"

Aleina frowned. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Good. Them lets go talk to her first. I want to make a request."

Aleina threw her arms up as she chased R.R. out of the room. "Fist you want to meet royalty, and now your going to make demands?! How stupid are you?!"

Lelouch chuckled to himself. "Oh, I'm very used to getting what I want. This is nothing."

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Lelouch made his way through to the UFN council building in Britannia. Other then the emperor himself, Marellia was the UFN representative of Britannia. Thus, his neat bet of immediately finding her would be to go there.

Aleina tailed closely behind him, and for the first time, he found himself not the one trying to catch up to someone. He grinned at that, and started to pick up the pace toward the towering building in front of him.

The actual building was very gravely guarded, and he had difficulty getting inside. He had to use Aleina as a way to get inside. Apparently they didn't take the incident in Japan lightly. He even saw a few shiny new knightmares scattered around the perimeter.

"I checked the attendance records, it seems Marellia is currently inside the UFN building." Aleina told him as she caugh up.

Lelouch nodded. "I figured. She's probably been here ever since this whole thing started. I know what that's like. Not very fun." He shuddered at the thought as he entered an elevator.

"Where are we going?" Aleina asked him as the began to ascend.

"To Marellia's private office." He answered.

"Seriously?! You can't just do that!" Aleina groaned.

"I can't just fool around here. Things have to get done. That's the one thing you need to learn. Far more time is spent deciding what to do then ever spent acting. That's why I succeed. Because I act."

Aleina sighed. "Fine. But don't blame me if you get arrested."

A ding signified they had arrived on their floor, and Lelouch stepped out and headed toward the proper door. The two guards backed off once they recognized Aleina, and allowed them to pass through. Lelouch was about to open the door when Aleina stopped him. "Let me." She swatted him away and knocked on the door.

"Sister? It's Aleina."

Some noise could be heard from the otherwise as someone moved. "Aleina? What is it?"

"I have something to ask you."

And a second Marellia answered. "Alright, you can come in."

Aleina opened the door and stepped into the office. She turned back to R.R. and nodded at him. He stepped in after and Marellia frowned as she saw him.

Lelouch took a look at the first princess of Britannia. She had long chestnut hair and priercing blue eyes, albeit tired. She wore a very formal dress, more like a business suit, but still fitting of a princess in its fashion. She looked at him with a hostile gaze that he had yet to see in anyone since Cornelia. Thus, he immediately associated her with the woman. After doing so, he couldn't help but detect even more similarities.

"Sister, this is my accomplice, R.R. He has something to ask you in person." Aleina introduced you.

Marellia sighed. "Aleina, can this wait? I'm very busy, maybe when this all clears up I can-"

Lelouch jumped in, interrupting her.

"See, that's why I'm here. I have very important information regarding the Phoeonix order and this while ordeal."

Marellia turned toward him, overlooking the interruption by what she had just heard.

"Really? I've heard hundreds of informants give me useless nonsense already, what makes yours so different you had to use my sister to come directly to me?"

Lelouch had to suppress a smile. There's always a Cornelia it would seem.

"Mine is first hand knowledge. I'm quite sure your other informants didn't board the Phoenix Order's airship flying above Tokyo during the FLEIJA bombing."

"Marellia frowned. "There was no airship above Tokyo. The satellites detected nothing."

Lelouch chuckled. "Have you not heard of cloaking technology? Very popular these days."

He produced a few pieces of paper and placed them on the princess's desk.

"These are plot coordinates received from a ground uplink before the second warhead destroyed it. They pinpoint the origin location of the FLEIJA to be six thousand feet above the surface."

Marellia looked over the papers, concluding their accuracy. "How did you get these?" She asked.

"If you need more proof, I have this as well." He placed a picture taken from the Vincent of the airship hovering over the city. " I guarantee its authenticity."

He glanced around as a particular item caught his eye. "Oh, chess! I do love the game, do you play?"

Marellia looked over toward the board sitting at a table in the corner. "I've never lost a game."

Lelouch grinned devishly. Aleina recognized it as the same face she saw the time she met him.

"You know by saying that you've subjected yourself to a challenge."

Marellia looked away from the pages he'd given her to look at R.R. "Is that so?" She smiled. "Tell you what, if you win, I'll listen to what you have to say." She extended a hand over the desk. Lelouch took it. "Sounds like a deal."

As the princess stood up to walk toward the table, Aleina grabbed R.R.'s arm.

"What are you doing?! Betting away your chance for her to help us on a game? You can't beat her! She wasn't kidding when she said that!"

Lelouch's laughed. "I've played against many an undefeated foe. They all have new titles."

Lelouch sat down at the table, facing Marellia. He was given the choice to choose sides, and selected the black king.

As the game game began, Lelouch attempted to procure information about Gideon's current movements in order to gain an upper hand against him.

"So I'd imagine you've been here ever since the Phoenix Order attacked."

The princess sighed. "Unfortunately. As the Britannian representative, I have to be present for all the meetings and decisions, as well as assist my brother."

"I see. I've been rarer busy as well, though I'm lucky I don't have the responsibility that you do. It must be very strenuous."

Marellia nodded. "None of us are used to issues like this. It's only a matter of time before war breaks out, they've even begun to talk about allowing FLEIJAs to be used against them."

Lelouch raised an eyebrow. Things were moving faster then he anticipated.

Marellia frowned at Lelouch's move, baffled at the idea. "You move your king?"

Lelouch smiled. "If you do not lead, how can you expect others to follow?"

Marellia laughed. "You are quite strange."

"Aren't we all in a way?"

The game moved on for a while on silence, before Lelouch spoke up again.

"There is one other thing I should tell you, about the airship."

Marellia looked up at him.

"I ran into the Britannian royal guard."

Marellia's eyes widened. "What?!"

"While I was exploring the ship, I was caught by a group of Britannians led by one Flauvious Escarmot."

"Flauvious, he's been missing ever since the insistent first occurred." Marellia stated, confused.

"That's because he's dead."

"That's impossible! How dare you accuse Britannia of such-"

"Sister." Aleina spoke up. "It's true. I was there as well."

Marellia seemed to visibly melt. "What?"

"We believe Britannia, specifically it's emperor, are directly fabricating this war in order to gain possession of FlEIJA warheads in order to use them to, in short, take over the world." Lelouch explained.

Marellia stood still with her mouth hanging open. "You, you can't be serious." She whispered.

"Also." She watched as he picked up the queen and moved it across the board.

"Checkmate."

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