An: I'd like to address this to a person who sent me a rather rude PM (you know who you are). I realize my grammar is bad, alright I admit it but don't you think telling me what grammatical errors I made so I wouldn't keep making the same mistakes would be more productive than just insulting me? Call me crazy but I think it just might be. You didn't have to be so mean about it. I wouldn't have gotten offended if you just had told me what I did wrong. I would have gone back and fixed it like I did with some spelling errors that some other reviewers politely had pointed out to me in the past.

To everyone one else: I'd like to point out again that this story is and AU which means Alternative Universe. Not everything is going to be cannon. I will try to stay as close to cannon as the story will allow but other than that just go with it. (And no Velshard I'm not addressing this to you. You had a legitimate question/ concern)

And finally by popular demand I will try to have more interaction between Kallen and Lelouch in the near future. I still haven't made my decision for pairings yet but I have seen some pretty interesting arguments for both Kallen x Lulu and CC x Lulu and I will take them all into consideration.

Now on with the chapter…

I own nothing

Ch. 12 the Lancelot and the Merlin

"That Bastard!" Lelouch growled angrily as he got back to his apartments.

"May I ask what is the mater my lord?" Jeremiah asked timidly wondering what or more importantly who had his prince so vexed.

"The Emperor!" Lelouch answered sharply still greatly upset. In his frustration he started pacing the sitting room like a caged animal. "That contemptible old codger blatantly threatened me with Nunnally right to my face. He said that if I didn't prove myself useful then my sister would…God I hate him! I hate everything he stands for!"

Jeremiah listened on as the Prince continued his rant.

"I didn't even want to join the military! He forced me to! I was perfectly happy living with Nunnally in obscurity as a high school student until Clovis bumbled into finding us and just had to tell him that we were still alive!"

Jeremiah became very serious "My lord the day you made me your knight I meant what I said, my loyalty is yours and yours alone. Even if it means being executed for high treason I will follow you to the grave."

Lelouch stopped pacing and looked at his knight for a long tense moment before he spoke again. "That is exactly why I chose you."

0000000000

The Next Day

Lelouch had managed to calm himself down by morning and was going over some new paper work with Jeremiah when his cell phone of all things started to ring. He checked the number and saw that it was Milly. "Hello?"

"Hey, Lulu…um…we've like of got a problem here." she sounded almost nervous.

"What kind of problem?" Lelouch asked very nearly dreading the answer.

"Well, we have people who keep bombarding us with questions in the clubhouse. Some students even broke into the east wing to pester Nunnally. Don't worry they didn't get past Sayoko but it's still a big problem." Milly answered.

"What!? Tell the school that the east wing of the clubhouse is strictly off limits from now on. I'll assign a team of guards to watch over her and the property. Once they arrive tell the school that the guards can and will use deadly force if they feel that Nunnally is threatened. Sayoko can serve as a body guard until Nunnally is old enough to choose a knight for herself."

"Alright I'll do that. Thanks Lulu."

"You're welcome, if there are any other problems don't hesitate to call. Goodbye". he pressed end and hung up the phone. He then looked to Jeremiah.

"Shall I send a team of guards to Ashford then my lord?"

"Yes and tell them that no one except school staff and the student council are allowed to enter the east wing of the clubhouse"

"Yes your highness." Jeremiah said as he left and then Lelouch went back to the paper work he was finishing. A few moments had past when he heard a knock on the door to his office.

"Enter." he said and didn't look up as one of his sectaries came in.

"Private Kururugi to see you your highness" she announced.

"Send him in." Lelouch answered and soon after Suzaku strolled in and took a look around.

"Man, Lelouch this is your office? It's huge! Look you can see the whole settlement out the window!" he walked over behind the desk where Lelouch sat and took a close look "Hey look there's Ashford."

Lelouch laughed. "I take it that these are better surroundings than you're used to?"

"Yeah the dorms are pretty dreary, and when I'm not there I'm working in a weapons bay of some kind. I usually end up with Lloyd and Cecile though. So why did you want to see me?" he asked.

"I'm promoting you." Lelouch said simply.

Suzaku turned around and looked at him. "Lelouch, I don't want any special favors." he said.

"Special favors?" Lelouch asked. "Suzaku…remember a few weeks ago when we were sparing in the prototypes? I've gone head to head with you and I've seen what you can do. You've earned this on pure talent alone."

"Wait, you want me to pilot Knightmares?" Suzaku was a bit surprised. Elevens were usually not even allowed near the Knightmare frames…unless of course they were performing some kind of maintenance duty with them.

"Not only do I want you piloting Knightmares, but I want you on Knightmare squad Seven-Thirty-Three with Jeremiah."

"But that's and elite squad! Most of the purists are on it!" Suzaku argued.

"Yes, you have to be an officer to qualify, at least a Major, which is why I'm promoting you. See no special favors involved. If there were I would just go ahead and make you Lt. General or something."

"People are still going to say you only promoted me because we're friends." Suzaku said.

"Since when do you care what people think?" Lelouch asked smiling. "You'll still be working with Lloyd and Cecile but you'll also be working closely with Major Nu and Lt. Cornel Soresi. They are both still part of the purist faction so watch yourself. Major Nu will probably make an effort to keep things professional but Soresi may be a bit more militant about it so good luck. Jeremiah and I will do our best to keep him in line though."

Suzaku gulped at the idea of having to work with members of the purist faction, he knew he wasn't going to be very popular with them. "Thanks for the promotion Lelouch."

"Like I said you earned it."

000000000000

Ashford

"Lelouch is sending some guards to keep people away from the clubhouse for now on." Milly announced to the rest of the student council as she put her phone away.

"You mean like guard guards?" Rivalz asked in awe of the authority Lelouch had acquired with his new position.

"Rivalz what sorts of other guards are there?" Shirley asked as she gave him a look that basically said 'you're the dumbest guy on the planet'.

"It hasn't really hit you yet that brother and I really are part of the imperial royal family has it Rivalz?" Nunnally asked sweetly saving Rivalz some dignity for the moment.

"I guess not. Lelouch has so much power and influence now I guess it hard for me to get my head around. I mean there's a chance he could end up being the next Emperor." An angry sounding grunt came from Kallen's direction and everyone looked over. When she realized she was being stared at she faked a coughing fit, which they all seemed to buy.

"Bother has no interest in that. Besides he's only seventeenth in line for succession and I know that he and father don't exactly see eye to eye on a lot of things. Out of all our siblings brother Schneizel is the most likely candidate." Nunnally explained.

Kallen looked up at Nunnally "You mean your bother and the Emperor argue?"

"I've never actually heard an argument between them but I do know that it has happened before and I know Lelouch gets very upset after every time they speak. Like yesterday father said something to him before they got on stage. And afterword I could tell bother was very angry even though he tried to pretend that he wasn't when he said good bye to me when I had to come back here."

Kallen noticed Milly bite her lip and look down. 'So Lelouch and the Emperor don't get along? Then why does he serve him? And Milly looks like she knows something that the others don't. What is going on here?' she thought.

000000000000

"That Eleven Jeremiah quit the pureblood faction over?!" Kewell yelled.

"That's what I was told. Prince Lelouch himself promoted him to Major this morning just so he could be placed on our Knightmare squad." Villetta sighed. "I guess he must be good to cause this much of a fuss."

"Good! How can he be good? He's an Eleven! He shouldn't even have been let near a Knightmare frame! And…and he's…" Kewell struggled to find the words.

"…an extremely talented pilot that can put even us to shame, and a very close friend of the prince." Jeremiah finished for him as he entered the room. "You may want to check your attitude Kewell. Major Kururugi may end up saving your life someday."

"Friends? His highness and that Eleven are friends?" Kewell asked sounding disgusted.

"It's my understanding that they are child hood friends to be exact. At least try to be professional around him if only for his highness's sake."

"Alright but I won't like it" Kewell said stubbornly

"Nobody asked you to" Jeremiah shot back.

000000000000000

Lelouch's desk phone rang and he answered it. "Prince Lelouch speaking…Oh hello Lloyd…you have?…wonderful Suzaku and I will be right down…yes, see you in a little while." he hung up the phone and turned to Suzaku who was still in the office having made himself comfortable on one of the couches. "That was Lloyd. He and Cecile finished the schematics for the Knightmares they're building for the Camelot project. They want us to take a look at them since we're the ones that will be piloting them." he explained before picking up his desk phone again and dialing Jeremiah's extension. "Jeremiah, Suzaku and I will be down in the engineering hangar if you need me."

"Yes your highness, thank you for telling me." the voice on the other end said and Lelouch hung up.

Lelouch got up from behind the desk "Well let's go see what they've done" he said.

When Lelouch and Suzaku arrived in the engineering hangar Lloyd and Cecile were waiting for them with blue prints to a Knightmare up on a large computer screen.

"Oh good you're both here." Cecile said looking up from her work and watching them come in.

"Yes Lloyd called us down here, said you two had some schematics you wanted us to see." Lelouch said.

"Oh yes, I hope you like what we've done. We thought it would be best to consult you before we went ahead and built them." she said before turning away and calling for Lloyd. "Lloyd! Prince Lelouch and Suzaku have arrived!"

They watched as Lloyd's head poke out from behind a large cannon of some kind. "Hello your highness, you sure made it over here fast. I hope we didn't interrupt anything!"

"No, you didn't interrupt anything. I just got done promoting Suzaku here to Major so I could place him on squad Seven-Thirty-Three." Lelouch explained.

"Congratulations Suzaku." Cecile said warmly.

Suzaku felt a little awkward "Thanks Cecile."

"Your highness if you will direct your attention over to the screen here we can begin." Lloyd said. "We're calling these Knightmares the Lancelot, and the Merlin. They are both very similar to each other. They will both have a significant amount of Sakuridite scattered around the various parts and a heavy amount in the yggdrasil drives. This will make them both very powerful but unfortunately very difficult to pilot which is why we need the both of you to do the honors." Lloyd explained. "They will have two retractable factspheres affixed on the chest, they two forearm-mounted energy shields called Blaze Luminous, and four slash harkens. The slash Harkens will have some new experimental thrusters that we came up with called harken boosters which can improve their speed and allow them to change direction midflight. They will also have a pair of Maser Vibration Swords on each one. And they will also carry VARIS particle rifles which can adapt their projectile repulsion output to any situation. The Lancelot and the Merlin will also be the first Knightmares equipped with a new type of float System on their backs but, the power usage of the Float Systems will unfortunately be astronomical so they will have to be used sparingly." Lloyd finally finished. "So what do you think?"

"Just how difficult do you think they will be to pilot?" Lelouch asked.

"Most of the test pilots for the prototypes were unable to get them to even move. But I'm sure with the skill the two of you possess it won't be much of a problem." he answered.

"What are going to be the differences between them?" Lelouch asked.

"I'm sorry what?"

"The differences?" Lelouch repeated. "You said they were very similar which leads me to believe that they are at least one or two differences."

"Oh yes! The Lancelot will be white and the Merlin will be black." Lloyd said matter-of-factually.

Lelouch rolled his eyes. He really should have been used to Lloyd's behavior by now. "So basically they're the same model then?"

Lloyd nodded. "For now while they're still in the experimental stage. Once technology starts to catch up we will be giving them individual upgrades in shields and weapons depending on your individual needs."

"I see." Lelouch said staring at the schematic that was on the screen in front of him looking deep in thought. "I like it." he finally said. "Go ahead and start construction on them. I kind of exited to see just how they will handle!"

Lloyd and Cecile beamed. "Yes your highness!" they said in unison.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An: Don't you just love Wikipedia? I wouldn't have been able to write this chapter without it. If anyone would like to share any ideas for the story to me don't hesitate to do so. I love it when people send me new ideas.