Don't forget to reread the last chapter if you read it the first day, that was an accidental rough draft issue and its now been replaced with something waaaaaaay better.
In Transit Above the Atlantic
Cornelia was tapping her desk in frustrated worry, the monitor flashing "Attempting Connection" with pleasantly irritating music playing in the background, 'First action as Empress, kill whoever programmed this damn thing' she mused to herself. The computer then beeped with a flashing "Unable to Connect", letting out a sigh of barely contained rage she thought, 'Correction, kill them and their families", she dialed again staring into space. She, like most of the world had seen the recording of Carine's fall, including the hacked security camera's showing Calares' hijacked missiles reducing the Viceroy Palace to rubble, while not particularly caring that Carine was dead her actions had nearly killed Euphemia which was unacceptable. Hell's bells the only reason she wasn't in a highspeed interceptor flying at mach 10 with her hair on fire towards Area Eleven was Schneizel's assurance that Euphia had infact survived due to the quick thinking and loyalty of a random NCO. Her train of thought derailed as the image connected with her pink haired little sister.
Ephemia looked for lack of better words, like shit, her bloodshot eyes had circles around them and her hair looked like Medusa on a bad day, to top it all off she was wearing a pink t-shirt with "Party Naked" printed across it. The two sisters stared at each other for a long moment before Euphemia broke the silence,
"What," Simple, concise, to the point.
"Euphia..." Cornelia muttered, the response was less then pleasant.
"What. Do you want." Cornelia wasn't quite sure how to handle this kind of attitude so she just plowed forward and met it head on, like always.
"Euphia...what the hell happened last night, what's wrong with you, where are you?" The pinkette stared at her a full thirty seconds before she sighed and relaxed into her chair, now that she was out of the camera's view she realized that the wall behind her was bare bricks covered in beer and heavy metal posters.
"Lemme think...oh right, Carine insisted she go through with her purge of the Saitamo ghetto to get revenge for Clovis, which by the way I hear is a bastardized version of the plan you came up with to draw this Zero character out. " Euphia returned her gaze to her sister with a look of consternation, "nice job giving that psychopath a battle plan by the by, anyway she got played hard, the handful of survivors say they were routed by three seventh generation Knightmares and when they tried to bolt they ran headfirst into a group of black and green Sutherlands that forced them to surrender." Pausing as a brown skinned woman handed her a cup of coffee she muttered "arigato" then resumed her tale.
"After that Carine was defeated by one of the seventh generations, the one that looks like a hybrid design, after that Zero executed her."
"Zero?" Cornelia asked.
"Yeah the guy in the opera suit, Carine must have had someone who spoke Japanese...Elevenese...whatever...on her staff, what the guy called himself in his declaration, its making it rounds right now." Drinking deeply from the steaming cup of life juice she sighed contentedly then continued, "Anyway I was pissed beyond all words at that point, mostly on brandy, everything I know is really hearsay."
Taking a deep, uncalming breath, Cornelia asked "Why where drunk? Why didn't you stop Carine, and once again, Where. Are. You?" Snorting in disdane Euphia waved off the ire like it was nothing,
"Because she used the bureaucracy to lock me out of all command decisions and had Calares place all troop movement orders outside of my knowledge, I found out what she had planned when she broadcasted it, at that point I could do nothing, so Letta and I got very, very drunk."
"Who is Letta?" Cornelia asked, once again going into protective sister mode, which seemed to irritate Euphemia more then anything.
"Villetta Nu, Clovis's only surviving knight, bit of a ladder climber but she managed to hold this Area together before Carine screwed it up, she's been helping me take care of all the bureaucratic crap Clovis set up here." Taking another sip of her coffee she continued, "Probably making her my knight of honor, honestly she deserves it after hauling me away from the blast zone last night." There was an audible gasp and the sound of glass breaking, Euphemia sighed holding her head in agony, "Why did you have to break the coffee pot...yes I want you to be my knight of honor I know its a big deal...stop crying...gods..."
"I...I assume you're at her flat right now? " Cornelia hazard a guess.
"Yes yes, was the most secure place to sleep off 5 bottles of Courvoisier Cognac with the palace being blown up, I hadn't answered your calls because I'd been playing administrator on Villetta's piece of shit laptop." She stopped for a second, then stared to her right, "Letta you're now a Baroness, with all rights, privlages and funds, go buy a fucking desktop with more RAM then my wristwatch, now." Crash, gasp, slamming door and revving engine in less then 30 seconds, 'impressive response time' Cornelia couldn't help but think.
"All right, I'm glad you're safe and taken care of, what are your next plans?"
At this Euphia paused to contemplate, nodding to herself she replied, "I'll hold the fort till you get here, after that I'm going to scout local schools and worm my way in, I need to relax and I've more then earned my stripes as a leader dealing with Carine's blunders so please don't waste time fencing with me over it."
Cornelia couldn't help it, she was bloody proud of her little sister right then, she had taken control , acknowledged her weaknesses and found people to cover for them and made best of a bad situation... Lady Marianne would be proud as well. Smiling to her litt...no...maturing sister she said,
"A lovely plan, I'm already in transit, I'm leaving the administration of Area 18 to the politicians, I don't rightly care if Father or Schneizal approves, I'll be there soon." Smiling wanly Euphia ended the conversation on a quick note,
"Please hurry."
Stadtfeld Industries Factory Floor Three Days Later
Kallen Kozuki lived a life of lies, she was fully aware and content with this, she played the part of the docile lover to Lelouch at school so no one asked questions, always a plus, questions usually ended with broken bones around her. She pretended to be a subservient follower to her fiance's new persona Zero, also a plus since no one would ask questions, questions in that department ended up with bodies that had to be disposed of which annoyed the hell out of Nunnally. What she would never pretend to be was a weak leader, so as she plodded through the factory floor of her industrial empire she couldn't help but stare at old man Ruben with fury.
"Why in the jacked up literal fuck are we building war machines for the Britannians Grandfather!?" Her words were as always coarse but respectful to her long term benefactor, her sister in all but name Millicent was tapping away at her tablet looking nothing like the perverted President of the student council she typically played. Ruben grinned making his silly walrus mustache look even more ridiculous then normal,
"My dear Duchess, as always its because we get something out of it, you yourself fed Earl Asplund the combat data from the Lancelot like you had come up with it on your own, these Vincent's he wishes to make from that are far easier to handle then another high-end unit." Pausing to light his pipe he continued, "Britannia has to adapt to what is confronting it, and we're in the perfect position to mold the development to our desires, be honest now, would you rather they make another Lancelot that could stop your Guran in its tracks or would you rather have a gaggle of knockoffs that could stand up to Sutherlands and little else?"
Kallen for her part was quiet for several minutes as they made their way to the elevator, choosing to ignore her father figure she turned to Millicent,
"Milly...your grandfather has a very annoying habit of being right, please write in that this is no longer acceptable." Ruben and Milly both laughed heartily at that and walked out of the elevator as they proceeded to the offices they had handed off to the Camelot division.
"Duly noted Duchess, also on an aside I sincerely suggest you publicly announce your engagement, Shirley is about to attempt and woo him again and its getting very hard to distract her." Sighing she shot back,
"You know it really floors me that neither of the twins have shown any interest in relationships with the student body yet they're practically stalked on a daily basis, its messed up." With that Ruben snorted glancing to his ward,
"Young lady people want what the cannot have and no mere normal human being could ever entice Luluka and Lelouch Vi Britannia, the common folk sense this barrier and want it." Milly giggled then only nodded in agreement, fuming silently they approached the door to Earl Asplund's office she slammed her fist against the fine oak in anger,
"Hey you Earl of Pudding, we're here to negotiate, open up!"
Ashford Acadamy Gymnasium
Suzaku Kururugi enjoyed his life immensely, he was considering this as he did one handed body lifts with over a dozen women watching him. He was by no means a playboy, but for all intents and purpose he could be, his brother had set up the perfect alibi for him and his obvious Japanese features where considered exotic rather then repulsive with his supposed bi-racial heritage. So he lived it up, new girlfriend every few weeks, sex where he wanted it, no hard feelings from the ladies, and he was generally liked by everyone. All thanks to Lelouch, he didn't even want to consider what his life would have been like if he'd stuck to his old childish ideals.
Jerking up from his lifts he saw Lelouch enter the arena shirtless without the synthflesh cover on his arm, 'Oh brother wants to play' he thought with a devilish grin, readying himself he tossed his towel aside and dove forward. Performing a spinning kick he charged his brother while he attempted to guard himself, 'Getting better' he though pleasantly as Lelouch's synthetic arm jerked up and threw Suzaku across the hall. They batted at each other for forty minutes strait, neither gaining an inch but giving their all the entire time, as the class change bell range they leaned against each other panting in exhilaration.
"One day" Lelouch gasped, "I'll finally beat you, bloody exercise freak." Grinning Suzaku just patted Lelouch on his head,
"Go ahead and think that brother, right now I see...six ladies who would probably murder the Emperor to be with me so I'll talk to you later." With that they separated, Lelouch chuckled as he walked away,
"Womanizer" he threw over his shoulder, Suzaku only laughed in return,
"Oh please you're just jealous because your lady would murder anyone who got in her way to you." Lelouch stopped at that and shuddered,
"Yup" was the only response.
Ashford Academy, Lamperogue Wing
Luluka's knife flew strait and quivered in the stack of pizza boxes taking up the corner of the common room, she pulled it out and handed it off to her little sister,
"Now remember, hold the blade by its edge, let out your breath and throw it with determination, just like Sayoko-san showed you." With that Nunnally pulled her forearm back and jerked it forward, hitting less then an inch from Luluka's mark.
"Well done Imouto!" she cheered, Nunnally needed all the positive reinforcement she could get and her Nee-Chan was hell bent on giving it to her, grinning again she said
"Now imagine that pizza box was our goat fucking father, throw it again!"
Pendragon, Emperor's Personal Offices
Glowering at his desk he stared at the diminutive pink haired teenager before him, he always felt like a sick pedophile when he had to address Marianne in her purloined body,
"So...they're all alive and fighting against me." Marianne could only nod before he continued, "You know...its rather sad really, of all my children I think those three could actually understand where we were coming from...that could have been allies, powerful, furious allies." He gritted his teeth as Anya, or rather Marianne laughed,
"Oh yes, my entire family could have been part of Ragnarok, sadly your creepy big brother ruined all that, maybe, maybe they could have eventually forgiven my murder, but forgiving a near decade of constant assassination attempts? They'd be idiots to believe anything we say." Charles for his part kept glaring forward before he shook himself from his rage, turning he addressed his semi-deceased wife,
"So...what do you suggest?" Anya's childish face played a very adult look of bemused anger,
"Oh nothing much, just giving away the Geass Directorate to our loving children and see what they do with the information." Charles for his part just quirked an eyebrow before responding,
"More then likely he'd order an immediate reaction, try to wipe out all those tykebombs at once...but...well his sisters always acted as a counterweight or catalyst...ok we'll have a courier get 'caught' in Area Eleven, I'm as curious as you are to see how this will be handled." Marianne/ Anya smiled maliciously then nodded in ascent.
Ashford Academy Student Council Lounge
Luluka was having the time of her life, killing idiots trying to kill her family, infiltrating enemy strongholds to save loved half siblings, making friends with mad scientists, it was honestly her idyllic idea on how to spend her life. She walked through the lounge to see Nina typing away at her computer when she stopped cold, unlike her kydoi she had a very good grasp on physics and what she saw was horrifying. Walking up to the small girl she startled her while she put her hand on her shoulder,
"Nina...what the hell do you have here..." The green haired scientist in waiting jumped up in surprise while blushing furiously, 'Right the lesbian thing, must be like a piece of dangling meat in front of a timid kitten right now...ugh' pointing at the monitor she decided not to respond to Nina's reaction.
"Ummm...hey Luluka, its just a stupid idea I had, based on my uncles research it, its likely you could force the uranium isotope U-235 into a nuclear fission reaction via an impact slug of plutonium or a near fusion reaction by the simultaneous detonation of an explosive sphere that hyper compressed the isotope till it imploded on its own. You could exponentially increase the yield if freshly manufactured tritium was 'squirted' into the blast as the reaction occurred." Taking a breath the bespectacled girl continued, "My idea is instead of tritium you inject sakuradite, my projections indicate that the gamma radiation absorption would be 92% more effective then the tritium and the resulting explosion would look more like an implosion device with no residual radiation. Other then the 15 kilometer deep crater, I suppose that would be an indicator, I'd have to ask whatever institute picked up my research funding to find out exactly but I doubt it would be difficult to figure out." With that Luluka numbly picked up her phone and texted her brother,
'Get the fuck over to the student council building, NOW.'