Chapter 26
"I've been told you've been making yourself invaluable around here." Naoto said nonchalantly as he sifted through through the box of gas masks they'd stolen before, inspecting each one for any trace of damage or malfunction.
Beside him, Matsumoto paused at his task. "Have I?" He asked unconcernedly.
Naoto chuckled. "Well, you've been here every day, volunteering for every mission, doing the jobs the others would like to shirk. And you saved Tamaki's life on that raid a few weeks back."
"Well, if we want to free Japan we have to work hard. Britannia's too big of an enemy to let us slack off." Matsumoto shrugged.
Naoto frowned and examined the man next to him. Was he an idealist then? Did he believe that anything was possible so long as they gave it their all? Did he believe even Britannia could be pushed back by hard work and determination? Naoto had often been called an idealist, but even he understood that it would take a miracle to get the Britannians to completely withdraw from Japan. Quite simply, they didn't have the numbers or resources to engage Britannia in a full on war. But what they could do was voice their dissent and try to teach the Britannians a lesson about how they treated the Japanese.
Did Matsumoto really believe they could salvage the entirety of Japan from the Britannians?
"Why did you join the resistance, Matsumoto? I remember you saying once that your family escaped the war unravaged. Is it just about Britannia's affront to your pride?" Naoto asked.
Matsumoto stiffened momentarily before setting down the mask he'd been inspecting. "No, it's not just about pride." He said, turning to look at Naoto. "Just because the war has officially ended, doesn't mean my family is safe. That's why I joined up with your resistance. To keep my family safe."
Naoto smiled slightly, remembering Kallen's last, blasé promise to protect him and the cocky smile she'd sent his way as she'd said it. "Yes. I see. Family is important." He agreed. So then, Matsumoto wanted to expel Britannia to protect his family.
"You have family left?" Matsumoto asked curiously.
Naoto's smile faltered a little. "They're all alive." Naoto answered mechanically, his mood dampening a little at the thought of his father – a spineless, sycophantic parasite – and the broken woman who had given birth to him. He couldn't even look at her anymore without getting depressed. "We don't really . . . my sister is a wonderful person. Honestly, it's because of her that I'm fighting against Britannia. To protect her. There's absolutely nothing I wouldn't do to protect her – morally ambiguous or not. So I understand your motives."
"For your sister, huh?" Matsumoto said quietly, his hands clenching into fists for a moment. "I feel the same way about mine. There's nothing I wouldn't do . . . to protect her."
Naoto smirked at finding a kindred spirit. "I want you on my team for the Code-R operation." He said calmly. Ohgi had told him about some of the missions Matsumoto had gone on with them – the guy was practically unstoppable. "You've shown your determination and efficiency, and now that I know what's motivating you I feel confident in trusting you with our task. We're going to have to go in quickly and quietly and I think you have what it takes to help me get the poison gas and get out without causing too many problems."
"Poison gas?" Matsumoto asked, his eyes widening in surprise. Details about their upcoming operation had been kept strictly within the upper echelons of their organization for now – though he planned on debriefing everyone thoroughly before they began to move in a few days time. There was no harm in letting Matsumoto in on it a little early if he was going to be on the infiltration team. It would give him time to prepare himself for their task.
"Clovis' pet project. We're going to take it off his hands before he decides to try it out in the ghettos." Naoto explained.
"And once you have possession of it, what are you going to do with it?" Matsumoto inquired warily.
"Relax." Naoto chuckled. "It's not like I'm going to set the thing off in the middle of the Settlement. Though it's been suggested that the Tokyo Base might be fair game since it's the military that would be using it on us. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. First we have to acquire it, then we'll decide what to do with it. Really, our biggest priority it just taking it off their hands before they can use it. If we can figure out a way to disarm and disable it, I'd rather do that than use it."
"Oi, Kouzuki!"
Naoto tensed and whipped around, hand straying to the gun tucked into the waistband of his pants. He knew that man – he'd been with Jin Nakata and introduced as his business partner when Naoto had gone to see about getting the Glasgow on his ship. Yhu Long; a Chinese man in his early thirties who no doubt dealt with the acquisitions half of their arms smuggling operation.
He had no reason for being in Naoto's headquarters or for even knowing where it was.
"Why are you here?" He asked firmly. "Did something happen to the ship? What about -?"
"Don't worry so much, Naoto." Yhu shrugged, before grinning sleazily. "The ship's en route and on schedule And don't worry about the girl. She's still aboard – along with your little toy."
"Then why are you here?" Naoto hissed, closing the distance between himself and unwanted guest. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I came to discuss a business contract with you. So let's talk." Yhu said with a corrupt smile and the overbearing confidence of a man who thinks he's holding all the cards.
"Business with me?" Naoto asked dangerously, but it was all becoming so clear now – just why that backstabber Jin had been only too eager to help them out with the lending of his ship. And he'd willingly sent his own sister into the middle of this mess and unwittingly made her a hostage. "You son of a bitch. If you hurt Kallen, I swear I will tear you limb from limb."
"I have no intention of hurting her. Nor do I have any intention in getting in the way of your operation." Yhu placated, holding his hands up in mock surrender.
"Then what do you want?" Naoto growled menacingly. He had to give the guy credit for having the balls to waltz in here like this. By now, the few resistance members that were in their headquarters at the time had been drawn to the commotion and none of them looked happy to see the intruder harassing their leader.
"You haven't been doing any business with our organization, Kouzuki." Yhu explained.
"I have other suppliers." He replied scathingly, and indeed he did. His Britannian appearance allowed him to deal in markets unavailable to most of the other resistance groups. But that was something Jin already knew. Naoto had been dealing with the same arms dealers since he began his resistance movement. Even after Jin had started up his little business, Naoto had refused to change suppliers – probably one of the reasons Jin had left in the first place.
"I know, Jin told me. But here's the thing, I have a bunch of stock that I need to move and you have a lot of guys who need weapons. So this is what I propose, we set up a deal and we'll make sure our ship's where it needs to be when it needs to be there. I'll even make sure your sister is in top form."
Naoto wondered if this was what people meant when they said someone was driving a hard bargain. Regardless, this bastard, Yhu, had him trapped between a rock and hard place and neither seemed likely to give. On the one hand, Kallen was being held as a hostage. On the other, his entire group's autonomy was being threatened. If he let them dictate where and who he got his weapons from, it would only open the door to them telling him where and how he could operate which would eventually lead to his cell getting swallowed up by the Blood of the Samurai.
This operation was off to one big shit of a start. He hoped it wasn't an omen as to how the rest of his plan would pan out.
"You said you have no intention of hurting Kallen. So if I refuse to your demands, what happens to her?" Naoto asked, his fingers still resting around the butt of his gun.
"Well, we don't want to hurt her, Naoto. But we're here to make a profit and we'll do whatever we have to to get it." Yhu answered with an arrogant smirk. "Jin's watching over her personally.
"A real entrepreneur, huh?" Naoto asked, hesitating only a second, before he made up his mind and raised his gun. "You didn't study risk management, did you, you dumb piece of shit? You dare to come in here and try to force my hand?"
"Are you an idiot? We have your sister!" Yhu exclaimed as real shock and fear crossed his face. "If I don't keep in contact with Jin he'll kill her. Jin said you'd do anything to save her."
"I bet Jin never told you we grew up together. He knows what I'll do to him if he touches her. And besides, I gave Kallen very clear and very specific orders to be in position on the twenty-ninth. I told her to do whatever was necessary to get here." Naoto explained ferally. God damned son of a bitch. He was going to kill Jin the next time he saw him. If he was reading this situation wrong . . . if Jin had changed that much in the last three years. . .
No, he couldn't count on knowing what Jin was thinking. He'd have to trust in Kallen and her skills. She knew better than to leave the key to the Glasgow laying around and she never went anywhere without a weapon, even to school. He doubted they'd be able to get the drop on her unless she shied away from causing them damage. She was more than decent in a fight. "Whatever was necessary. Up to and including using force to take the ship from your men."
"You think one girl -"
But Naoto didn't give him a chance to finish his protests before he pulled the trigger. Either way, there was only one option. Kallen would never have forgiven him if he'd allowed their organization's position to be compromised for her sake. Playing lapdog to the Blood of the Samurai just wasn't an option. Kallen would understand – no, Kallen would have demanded the course he was taking now.
He just hoped he hadn't just condemned her to death.
"Clean this up." He ordered with a scowl to one of his subordinates, his fingers curling into a frustrated fist. "If we refuse to bow to Britannia, how can we let ourselves bow to scum like this?"
"I'm on it." The subordinate said quickly, moving to drag the body away before it had even ceased twitching.
He turned away and came face to face with Matsumoto, the man he'd just told he'd do anything to protect his sister. He felt like a filthy hypocrite. Oh he could talk all day long about how he'd do anything for her – he'd dismembered the body of a cop for her, for God's sake! - but when it came to his own little personal army, he faltered? How very shallow he was! His only comfort right now was that she would understand. If anyone ever explained this situation to her, she would certainly understand.
"He didn't call you by your name." Matsumoto pointed out after a moment and Naoto was just glad he had the tact not to accuse him of selling out his own sister.
"Is it surprising that someone in my position would operate under more than one name?" Naoto grumbled before offering his hand to shake. "My name is Naoto Kouzuki."
Lelouch sat in the mess hall, perusing yet another long list of personnel profiles on his laptop. Between soldiers, doctors and support staff, there were a lot more people on base than Lelouch had originally anticipated. And there were a lot more people with potential links to the Eighteens than he'd anticipated too.
It was aggravating that he'd thought by doing this he'd be able to narrow down the suspect list to a handful of people. In the end, he was just going to make more work for himself. Because now he'd want to question each of these people and he'd undoubtedly disbelieve what each of them had to say. He felt like he was going nowhere. What he needed was more evidence. He needed to know how the information had been leaked to the Eighteens or where from or even just what information had been given.
But so far they'd found nothing and that only frustrated him more, sending him back to the personnel files. It was a vicious circle, but he wanted the person who'd betrayed him brought to justice. Not only because he'd almost been captured, but because it had put his people at needless risk too.
"Can I sit here?"
Lelouch barely even looked up from his work. It was Hector. The only people who would have asked were members of his squad. Otherwise, most of the people on base were too shy to approach if they realized who he was or ignored him if they didn't.
"Sure." He grunted, closing the file and deeming it 'unsuspicious' before opening the next one.
Hector sat down across from him, toting a plateful of the shepherd's pie they were serving. It was substandard, in Lelouch's opinion – he'd already had his obligatory plateful earlier – but it was sustenance.
"What are you doing?" Hector asked.
"Looking for the traitor." Lelouch answered without looking away from his screen.
"Sir . . ." His subordinate hesitated. "What makes you so certain it wasn't Von Hoffman?"
Lelouch glanced up from his work to frown at him. "In all the time he worked as your squad's mechanic, did you ever suspect him of being a traitor? Of selling information to the Eighteens?"
"Well, no. But we never really spoke to him much either." Hector admitted.
Lelouch shook his head slightly. "No. Von Hoffman didn't betray me. I've given him a reason to be loyal to me. Besides, if it had been him, he could have easily disabled some vital weapon systems of my machine to make it easier for them to take me. I'm not going to pin the blame on him just because he's a Number. I'd much rather find the truth."
"You know, it never really mattered to me whether or not he was a Number before this happened." Hector grumbled after a few unenthusiastic mouthfuls of the shepherd's pie.
"So don't let it matter now." Lelouch suggested, turning back to his work. But before he could become completely absorbed again, he noticed the way Hector was eating his food – a methodical march from the left side of his plate to the right. Lukas had done the same thing and the thought brought a wry smirk to his lips that didn't go unnoticed.
"Something wrong?" Hector asked.
"No." Lelouch chuckled. "You just reminded me of Lukas for a moment. He'd do the same thing with his plate."
Hector snorted. "You really did befriend the little bastard, didn't you?"
"I did." Lelouch agreed. "I don't usually make friends easily, but your brother made an impact on me that was hard to ignore."
"Lukas did?" He asked a little skeptically, pausing with his fork halfway to his mouth. "What did he do? Sock you one?"
"Not at first. That came later, during unarmed combat training." Lelouch said. "But without him to break the ice for me, I would probably remained ostracized from my training mates for the majority of Basic."
"Yeah, well he never did have any couth." Hector laughed. "I talked to him yesterday on the phone and all he could tell me about were the hot E.U. women he'd seen."
"He's doing well?" Lelouch inquired, hungry for news of his friend.
Hector shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. But the E.U. border isn't like here. It isn't a hostile war zone yet, so mostly all they do is scheduled patrols then spend their nights out on the town."
"Must be nice." Lelouch said, gesturing around the canvas mess hall. "Meanwhile, we're stuck camping in the desert."
"I'm sure he'd come out here at the drop of a hat if he was asked to." Hector said. "He asked about you. He nearly lost it when I said you'd been ambushed and almost captured."
Lelouch snorted in response, trying to imagine the expression that would have crossed Lukas' face at the new.
"He told me . . ." Hector hesitated. "He told me that he'd made a pledge or service to you."
Lelouch raised his eyes sharply to look at Hector. Why would he bring that up? Did he not approve? And even if so, it wasn't any of his business. Whatever oaths or pledges Lukas made had nothing to do with Hector.
"He urged me to do the same. He said . . . that you were someone worth following."
Lelouch's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "That particular oath isn't the kind of thing you should swear just because someone else says you should. Even if that someone is your brother."
Hector didn't say anything for a long moment, instead using his fork to turn his mashed potatoes into starchy mountains. "I trust his judgment."
"Lukas' judgment?" Lelouch asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "Really? Even in something as important as this?" Swearing oneself to a member of the royal family was no laughing matter. It was an oath of fealty that held precedence over any other command as well as the surrender of one's authority over their own life or death. "Lukas told me he had a bit of misspent youth."
"More like misguided." Hector snorted. "No, I suppose you're right. It was misspent and misguided, but I trust him anyway. He's changed a lot since then."
"Oh?" Lelouch asked. "This is actually a story I'd like to hear."
His subordinate glanced up before chuckling cruelly and adopting a look that anyone about to cause undue embarrassment to a younger sibling knew. "You want to hear about how much of a little bastard Luke used to be?"
"Yes. He mentioned in passing that he had a wild childhood until you snapped him out of it. He has a lot of respect for you, you know? He talked about you a lot. But I want to hear the whole story and you seem like the best source." Lelouch answered.
"Alright." Hector nodded, leaning back in his chair. "Well, the first thing you have to understand is that Lukas and I are six years apart. So, for the majority of the time I've have the pleasure of being his sibling, he was just my annoying kid brother who wanted to follow me and my friends around and hang out. I never really paid attention to him, except to get in the occasional brawl with him when he got too uppity. I supposed he wasn't really that bad of a kid. He just got . . . mixed up in the wrong crowd, sort of.
"We grew up in a small town so there weren't a lot of kids his age to play with. But there were a lot of Three families in the area. Technically speaking, anyone can move to the homeland, but just because they move there doesn't revoke their Number designation. Anyway, there were a whole horde of these Three brats in the same neighborhood as us and since there was no one else to play with, they became Luke's friends.
"Which was fine when he was little. But then they got older and they went to school and began learning about the differences between Britannians and Numbers and about the history. Obviously, it wasn't long until the other kids began to bully the Threes." Hector shook his head. "Fucking brat. Well, Lukas, being the hard-headed idiot that he was, decided he wasn't going to stand for it. After all, these kids were bullying his friends. They'd run around in diapers together, rode their first bikes and skinned their first knees together. He wasn't going to let the other kids trample on his friendship with them.
"Which led to schoolyard brawls, bullying of his own and back talking his teachers. Which, of course, led to him getting suspended. A lot. Along with all of his friends. Not sure how it's done in the cities, but in a small town like ours, you pretty much have to kill someone to get expelled from the school.
"So he'd break some kid's face and get rewarded with a week off with his friends. By the time he was in that annoying pre-teen 'I know everything there is to know about how the world works' stage, he'd taken his act off the school grounds. Brawling on main street, trespassing at the cemetery or the the swimming pool or God knows where else after hours, graffitiing the school or peoples houses or a very large, crude, inappropriate painting on the side of the grocery store.
"He was a hellion. Little bastard." Hector chuckled. "The first time he was picked up by the cops, he and his friends broke into the local water treatment plant and were in the process of trying to figure out how to turn the whole town's water into iced tea when they were interrupted by a friendly neighborhood constable. Mom almost had a breakdown when she got the call from the station."
"And the second time?" Lelouch asked, suppressing his smirk. This was an entirely different picture of his friend than he'd imagined. He would definitely have to bring it up next time he saw Lukas. "He said he was arrested twice before you beat some sense into him."
Hector's expression darkened at the question. "One of his buddies got beaten up pretty bad – like eating out of a tube bad, from what I heard about it. For whatever reason, Luke decided he wanted revenge. Cops picked him up when they saw him headed across town lugging a jerrycan. They knew by then that when they saw him out and about at night he was up to no good. Can't count how many times they brought him back to the house with a warning.
"I don't know if he was planning on burning down the guy who did it's house, or what, but the cops took him in anyways and charged him with mischief because he hadn't actually done whatever it was he was planning on doing."
"Where were you? You made it sound like you weren't there?" Lelouch asked.
"Hell, I got out of that shit hole as soon as I was able to. The day after I turned eighteen I moved out and joined the army. Four months later, I was suppressing local resistance in Area Thirteen." Hector answered with a shrug. "You know, my first night back in the country after completing my tour of duty, I show up at my parents' house and find out Lukas is in jail. Mom decided to let him stew in there. She thought it would teach him a lesson.
"I thought I could teach him a better lesson on my own. So I posted his bail, got him the hell out of there then beat the shit out of him. Then I talked some sense into him, though I don't really blame him if he only remembers that I beat the sense into him. In any case, he was never arrested or in trouble with the cops again after that. Either he stopped being such a delinquent or he got smart about it. But I think it was the former, because he went back to school, got good grades and graduated near the top of his class – even if it was a year late."
"Huh. Either you really beat him senseless or you must have had something good to say to him." Lelouch mused.
Hector laughed. "Well . . . what did you call it, sir? Unification Theory? I just told him that nothing was going to change for his friends so long as the Empire was at war. Because only after all of our external enemies had been defeated could we start working on domestic peace and better rights for the Numbers. So if he really wanted to help his friends, torching some asshole's house wasn't the way to go about it. Though if what he was really driving at was getting arrested, sent to a real prison and made into some guy's bitch, he was definitely on the right road. I think Luke's the only one I've ever actually discussed the theory with."
"How'd you come up with it? The theory?" Lelouch asked.
Hector glanced away, his mood dampening again. "I guess it's what happens when you throw a bunch of eighteen year old kids into the middle of a war, give them a gun and tell them to put down the local military. Of course, they don't tell those same eighteen year old kids that all that's left of the local military is the Citizen's Army.
"We went in in full combat armor – I was in the Infantry Corps before I was recruited to be a KMF pilot – anyway, we went in expecting some resistance. But we didn't expect to come up against a bunch of high school kids in shorts and sandals toting machine guns. I had to justify it somehow, I guess."
"And that was the birth of your Unification Theory?" Lelouch asked. "A justification for a massacre?"
Hector shrugged awkwardly under Lelouch's penetrating gaze. "I guess. War changes things. Before I joined the army, I couldn't care less whether or not the Empire was at war somewhere or not or how many people died. But now . . . some of the shit I've seen over the years, or the things I've done. . . I guess you're lucky, Lelouch. You're in the same place I was when I joined the military, but so far you've been spared seeing anything too fucked up."
"I wouldn't call myself lucky. I was already in Japan when Britannia decided to invade." Lelouch said.
"Right, I forgot about that. But watching the war from the command center is different than being in the thick of it." Hector pointed out.
Lelouch shook his head. "No. I suppose you could say I was a bit like Lukas when I was a kid. I too befriended a Number. Well, he wasn't a Number then, but that's just semantics. I was at his house when the war began. In all the chaos and confusion, I was just another ten year old kid caught up in the commotion.
"We ended up escaping the strike on his house and struck out together on foot to another one of his family's properties through areas that had already been decimated. The invasion of Area Eleven is generally acknowledged as the most bloody war Britannia has ever fought for a reason." Lelouch said bitterly. Even now, years later, he was still occasionally plagued by nightmares about what he'd seen during his flight to safety.
Hector grimaced. "That must have been rough on you. You were just a kid then." He acknowledged. "What happened to your friend?"
Lelouch's hands clenched into fists in his lap beneath the table hard enough to leave angry little crescent moons on his palms. "I don't know. We were separated." Lelouch admit, then snorted depreciatingly. "Kind of pathetic, huh? The very first friend I ever made, and I don't even know if he's dead or alive."
He'd looked. Oh, yes, he'd searched tirelessly those first months and years after arriving at the Ashford's for any trace of Suzaku Kururugi, but to no avail. The Kururugi's had gone into hiding, taking Suzaku with them. Doubtless it had been for their own protection. Still, Lelouch had always wondered if Suzaku was dead or had simply forgotten him. In seven years, Suzaku had never tried to contact him.
Not that he'd exactly been broadcasting his location, but Suzaku had always been stubborn. No doubt he would have tried to find a way, even despite the odds. That was just who Suzaku was – what he was like.
"I think he's dead." Lelouch murmured quietly before falling into another brooding silence, boring a hole into his monitor with his gaze.
"Lelouch," Hector said finally, drawing Lelouch out of his introspective moping. "I'd like to pledge myself to your service, sir. If you'll accept me."
He hesitated for a moment. This was different from the mutually acknowledged oath Lukas had sworn. Because there had been no way Lelouch could turn Lukas' offer down – to deny his friend – after all the injustices he'd put him through. Like usurping his command. But this . . . Hector didn't know him half so well as his brother did.
"Why?" Lelouch asked. Regardless of whatever his long term goals for joining the military were, he was going to need to trust the people who were closest to him to some degree. Part of that trust would stem from knowing just why they were serving Lelouch in the first place.
"I've had a lot of different commanders over the years, but none of them operate like you. I think you're someone worth following. And this time those are my thoughts, not my brother's." Hector answered.
"I don't have to warn you about the price of being foresworn, do I?" Lelouch asked. Betrayal was not an option after making such an oath.
"No, sir." Hector answered immediately.
Lelouch tapped his finger against the table, considering. "You're sure?" He asked for the last time. There was no turning back after this.
"Yes."
"Then I gratefully accept your pledge, Hector Zimmerman." Lelouch said, holding out his hand to shake. "But we can forgo all the pomp and ceremony. I prefer settling it with a handshake. Thank you."
"Thank you, your highness." Hector said, shaking hands.
Well, this would certainly make things more reassuring for Lelouch. Having someone on his squad who was sworn for him – sworn to follow any order without hesitance – would be useful. It was a stroke of good luck that he hadn't foreseen, but who was he to look a gift horse in the mouth?
He'd have to thank Lukas next time they spoke.
"So," Jin said casually, leaning back in his chair with his feet resting on the table in front of him. "He finally let you join up, huh? A full fledged member of Naoto's little army."
"Yeah, that's right." Kallen said, bristling under the doubtful look he was sending her way. How dare the traitorous bastard doubt her?
"Hmph." Jin snorted derisively, reaching for a flask of some kind of alcohol that smelled putrid even from where Kallen was sitting. "So you're a regular little killer, are you?"
She glared at him, "Just what do you mean by that?" She demanded.
"Or is this your first mission?" The man prodded, an infuriatingly knowing gleam in his eyes.
"So what if it's my first mission? That has nothing to do with how well I can pilot the Glasgow." She growled.
"No, you're right." Jin agreed. "But it has everything to do with whether or not you're going to freeze up if I need you to act."
"I'm not going to freeze up." She snapped. "The sooner we finish this little errand of yours, the sooner we can get back to my operation."
"Have you ever killed someone before, Kallen Kouzuki?" Jin asked suddenly, leaning forward in his seat to stare at her seriously. "Have you ever been there, staring at a corpse, knowing that you were the one who made the eyes go all glassy?"
She stiffened as the blood drained from her face and her hands balled into fists. "Shut up!" She snarled.
Jin blinked in surprise at her reaction for a second before tilting his head back and laughing as though it were the funniest thing in the world. "You have!" He finally howled, out of breath from his bout of hysteria. "You certainly don't look like it, but murderers come in all shapes and sizes, I guess. Or murderesses, I guess I should say."
"I'm not a murderer." She hissed. This man was throwing stones at the glass house she'd constructed to preserve her sanity and she could tell he was getting great pleasure from it. She wondered if he was trying to break her. "The bastard deserved it. I was just protecting a woman and her kid."
The man across from her snorted and shook his head. "You Kouzukis and your obsession with protecting people. But as long as you bend that obsession towards protecting me and my guys, I don't care how idealistic you are. Would you like some?" He asked, offering the flask to her.
She quickly declined with a sharp shake of her head. "Just who am I supposed to be protecting you from, anyway? All Naoto said was they were shady characters."
Jin shrugged. "Some uppity resistance group. They're new on the scene, but rumor has it that they shot their last arms dealer and looted all his stuff. Not the brightest plan considering the long term repercussions, but if they're willing to pay, I'll sell to them."
"A resistance group?" Kallen asked in surprise. "Looks like there wont be much for me to do after all. Attacking you would just be stupid. You're a member of a resistance group too."
"Oh, you idealists." Jin sighed dramatically as he shook his head. "You really think that just because they're fighting against the same enemy, that they're your allies?"
"Well why wouldn't they be?" Kallen demanded.
"Because they're greedy?" Jin hazarded a sarcastic guess, one eyebrow raised in a 'duh!' expression.
"They wouldn't randomly attack you just because they want your stuff. If they're fighting for Japan, then fighting against other people who have the same enemy defeats the purpose." She glaringly explained.
"Right. You keep believing that. I, on the other hand, am a realist. I fully expect them to try to take me down and steal my shit. History repeats itself. And by the way, people aren't automatically designated into the 'good' or 'bad' category based on their ethnicity, you know? Not all Japanese people are good, nor are all of them victims. Same goes the other way. There are plenty of decent Britannians. I mean, look at you and Naoto."
"We're Japanese." She growled.
"You're a half and half." Jin countered mercilessly. "You of all people ought to be able to see what I'm trying to say. You may like to call yourself Japanese, but the fact still remains that you're half Britannian. Even if you refuse to acknowledge it, you can't escape it. In fact, you're more than just 'half Britannian', aren't you? Isn't your dad some kind of Duke or something?"
"He's an Earl." She ground out. "Not that it matters. He pretty much abandoned us after the invasion of Japan. And in any case, my father's title has nothing to do with my genetics."
"True." Jin conceded her the point. "But it makes all the difference to the Britannians, doesn't it? You and Naoto are in a strange position, simultaneously part of the Britannian ruling class, and the ostracized conquered. What do you do? Play Britannian princess by day and Japanese terrorist by night?"
She grimaced but morphed it into a seething glare. It hurt just how close to the truth he'd been able to get. "How do you even know about our dad?" She asked defensively.
"You don't remember? I used to run around with Naoto and Ohgi when we were kids. I guess you were still pretty young back then. I even met your dad once or twice." Jin shrugged.
"You did?" Kallen asked in surprise. Even before the invasion, her father had been a busy man and absent more often than not.
But Jin didn't answer. Instead, he glanced at his watch and smirked before leaning back in his chair, crossing his arms behind his head. "Excellent. It seems Naoto hasn't changed a bit. There's only two things you absolutely don't fuck with when you have to deal with him; you and his resistance cell. Yhu did both."
"What are you talking about?" She asked suspiciously, hand inching towards the switchblade in her pocket.
"My partner was supposed to call me by eleven o'clock at the very latest. He tried to bully your brother into doing business with us by telling him that I'd taken you hostage." Jin laughed. "Naoto must have reacted just how I expected him to."
Kallen was on her feet the next second, naked knife in hand as she prepared to attack or defend herself as the situation demanded. So, Naoto's misgivings about the situation hadn't been misplaced. She should have expected something like this. But he wouldn't have sent her if he'd suspected something this bad, would he have? She'd been taken hostage? Were there guards at the door then? Would she be able to clear a path to the Glasgow with just her knife?
"Relax, girl. I know better than to lay so much as a finger on you." Jin said, apparently unconcerned but with his eyes glued to her knife nonetheless. "I have no intention of hurting you and every intention of getting you back to Tokyo in time for your little mission."
"You don't seem concerned about your partner." She pointed out warily.
"Of course not, since I'm the one who set him up. Even if he had, by some miracle, managed to get Naoto to fold, I would have made a ton of money from dealing with him. It was win-win for me." Jin grinned ruthlessly.
"You sold out your own partner?" Kallen demanded incredulously. "You mean, you wanted Naoto to kill him?"
"Consider it part of the price of using my ship." He explained, gesturing for her to sit back down. "Yhu's been embezzling funds from me for quite some time. I was in the process of figuring out what to do about it when Naoto approached me with his request. I wasn't about to let the opportunity slip by. So I set him up. I bet Yhu figured it out right before Naoto pulled the trigger."
"Naoto isn't an assassin!" She exclaimed in outrage. "He's not someone you can just order to kill for you on a whim." She huffed, slumping back down into her seat but keeping her knife ready at hand.
"Which is precisely why I didn't tell him that part of the plan." Jin shrugged. "But Naoto knows me. I'm betting he figured it out. He'll probably whop me one next time we see each other, not that I plan on showing my face around him for a while until he's calmed down. I'll get you to your landing zone, but I don't plan on leaving the ship."
"You're despicable." She growled.
" Because I made Naoto kill someone? It's not like it's something he's never done before." Jin shrugged.
Kallen glanced away from him to scowl out the window of the dining hall (the galley, she supposed it was called) into the dark waves skimming past them. To her, Naoto had always been stubborn and hardheaded, but he was always categorically good and kind. She didn't like to think about him mercilessly killing someone unless it was during a raid for the resistance or something of the like. Sometimes it was hard for her to reconcile the image of her goofy big brother with the cold, serious terrorist cell leader she was beginning to see more and more of lately.
"You're soft, Kouzuki-chan." Jin said quietly. "And you can't afford to be. Not on this path you're walking down. If you don't toughen up, it'll destroy you."
She glared at him in response. Who the hell did he think he was, trying to give her advice? And as if she'd follow the advice of some thrice-damned traitor. She opened her mouth to say so, but he pushed his chair back and stood up before she could get the words out.
"Well," He said with a yawn, stretching massively, "I'm headed to bed. It was a busy day and tomorrow promises to be just as hectic. We'll be meeting with those upstarts tomorrow. Make sure your machine is prepped and ready for action, please.
"Oh," He paused, halfway to the door. "And I'd just like to reiterate that you're not a prisoner here. Go wherever you want. Goodnight."
She glared at the door he'd disappear through for a moment before fishing her phone out of her pocket. She thought about calling Naoto to figure out what had happened back at their headquarters, but found she had no service out at sea. Sighing, she stuffed the device back into her pocket and stood up, following Jin's lead.
Except, instead of heading towards the cabin she'd been assigned, she made her way down to the cargo hold where the Glasgow was being kept. She'd be sleeping in the cockpit – just in case they changed their mind about starting shit with her and decided to come for her in the middle of the night. It was going to be uncomfortable as hell, but she doubted there was much aboard the ship that could crack open a Glasgow.
Naoto was so getting an earful when she got back.
AN: So another chapter. This is actually the second version of this one because I wrote it all out then decided I didn't like it. The first version included Jin being the bad guy Naoto shot and the ship's crew trying to take Kallen hostage. Which, of course, led to her hopping in her Glasgow and eliminating all of the ship's crew. But that was really dark and way more dramatic than it needed to be and would have caused a lot of psychological problems for Kallen along the road. So I rewrote it (I really need to stop writing when I'm drinking. The story just takes on a life of it's own and runs away on itself).
For Lelouch's part, thanks to the unsigned reviewer Waffles and ice cream who reminded me that I hadn't really introduced you guys to the Zimmerman's all that much yet. The story of Lukas' past was going to come out eventually, but now just seemed like a good time for it. Considering what's coming up. I would just like to say now, firmly and finally, that Lelouch did NOT just make Hector (or Lukas) his personal Knight of Honor. The oath of service he swore is similar to the pledge Jeremiah tried to make to Lelouch in chapter four (three? somewhere around there). It simply means that they acknowledge Lelouch as their lord and will follow any command given by him. Basically it's just a pledge of loyalty.
Sorry if Kallen seems a bit naive, but she really comes off that way to me sometimes. Like Lelouch, she too will get darker and more cynical as the story moves forward.
Also, I decided to go back and rewatch Code Geass and it's kind of discouraged but encouraged me at the same time. On the one hand, I notice how glaringly different my characters are from canon - the way they've evolved is really blatant. Somewhere along the way, to me, this story ceased being a fan fiction and became my own. Which is a good thing, I think but also has it's hold ups. I've tried to have a reason for the differences in character for each of my people, from the fact that Geass hasn't twisted Lelouch yet, to Kallen's will to fight still being a bit wishy-washy because she hasn't lost Naoto. Hopefully it's not too disappointing.
Anyway, thanks so much for reading. You guys really are the best reviewers out there. Thanks for enjoying my story.
Allora.