Chapter 35- Befall
C.C
Groggily awakening to her modestly sized room C.C wasn't sure whether she wanted to get out of bed. It would be so easy to decay into a vegetable here with all these servants. 'Security' measures didn't allow her to leave her rooms until nine, and after glancing at the clock she decided to go back to sleep. Maybe she would have one of those nice dreams with Lelouch in it or just and ordinary one, anything but the nightmares. She dismissed them as a merely a product of all the stress she was under, but there was a certain one that most mommies-to-be never had to fear.
A tall and delicately-figured man dressed in a bejeweled robe of white gazed down from his throne onto a row of prisoners that were slated for execution. Horrified masses lined each street and murmured discontentedly to themselves about the injustice of it all, but could do nothing to oppose their tyrannical Emperor. The Emperor being the man in white, his face a less severe Lelouch's and his eyes an unnerving gold. He seemed nervous and kept glancing at the horizon until a black-cloaked figure appeared. When the crowd gasped and the relieved smile of a dying man getting his final wish spread across the Emperor's face C.C always woke up crying and would be overcome with dread for her son's future.
Out of the darkest reaches of her mind and into the bright morning room C.C looked at herself in a spotless mirror. Well of course I've gotten fatter. She stifled a grin when she remembered the royal family's astonishment after she'd finished three pizzas all by herself and had asked for more. And one of them was the deluxe kind with extra sausage and- a knock interrupted her pizza fantasy and she threw on the nearest dress, opening the door to one of Schneizel's personal guards.
"Good morning, Miss. His Highness has requested that I escort you to your gown fitting."
C.C had no idea what he was talking about. "A gown? For what?"
The man looked a little concerned. "Er...Empress Nunnally is being crowned today at noon in the cathedral of St. Beatrix, and Prince Schneizel granted you special permission to attend."
"Oh!" I've been so forgetful lately...I must be losing my mind in this place. "Yes, I'm ready to go right now."
"Good."
He set of at a brisk pace and led her through the servant's back routes to avoid the swarms of visiting nobility and dignitaries that had seemingly swarmed the palace over night. A good Christmas cheer added to the festive mood and Britannia's bloody legacy was momentarily forgotten as people came together to celebrate the new Empress.
When they arrived at room occupied by several sweing machines the guard began rummaging thorugh a rack full of fat plastic bags that were meant to hold clothing and such. "There's not enough time to properly customize a coronet but at least you'll have a robe to wear." He handed C.C a heavy velvet mass that once righted was a simple floor-length coat with a white ermine collar that was half a foot wide. An assistant then shoved something made of the same silky fur into her hands and began snapping orders to a few of the seamstresses who were doing last-minute fixes. C.C figured the object out to be a cape that was longer than she was tall. After trying it on and as measurements were hastily being made to the shorten her robe the flock of seamstresses were brushed aside by a furious woman.
"Why on Earth is someone wearing my robe? I send it over for a tear to be fixed and find that it's been pawned off to a…a…"
Before she tore the robe off of C.C the guard fluidly plucked it from the witch's shoulders and gave it back to the rightful owner. "My sincerest apologies, Lady Desni. We mistook it for a spare, no harm done." He purposefully stepped on C.C's toes but before she could apologize the irate duchess' face transformed into a horrifying scowl.
"Oh, so she's attending? Why must His Highness make a mockery of the peers on an important day like this." Her last statement was accompanied by a sad shake of her head and she swept away.
Quick to recover the seamstresses got back to work and the gurad assured C.C that there were a few extra ones and after giving her directions to a storage room claimed that there was an incident unfolding in the throne room that required his help. As C.C began the short walk she repeated the instructions in her head so she wouldn't forget them. Go straight until the tiles are blue and then right at the statue of Saint Talos, got it.
Prefering to stay to her rooms she had never been this far into the palace before and was stuck when her current hallway split into a fork, for she didn't know that Gemini Palace's most famous feature was that it was completely symmetrical. C.C chose the left path at random and encouraged by the décor's increasing opulence dodged the snoozing guards and tried the central door, entering to what was most defintely not a storage room.
The large space looked out onto a peaceful courtyard bursting with greenery and three quarters of the walls were covered with meticulously arranged bookshelves. Though there even were even a few paintings by Clovis hanging on the walls and an ancient battle axe resting in a case the space felt oddly impersonal; as cold and unwelcoming as its owner. Why on Earth would I be given directions to Schneizel's quarters? I'm insulted that I would be taken for a fool like this and fall for a silly guard's twisted prank! She had the strangest thought that it would be rather satisfying to see the cute portrait of a teenage Odysseus picking flowers for Cornelia lying in shreds upon the polished floor, but the spontaneous anger faded as soon as it had arose.
She then realized that she could snoop around a little bit. I'm sure that Schneizel would be at the cathedral by now...maybe there is something to the guard's instructions and there are a few spare robes are lying around. The library was full of buttery leather and suspiciously well-coordinated colours but there was no crimson velvet in sight, so C.C headed for the single door that was slightly ajar. In the narrow slice of visibility she gained she could see that sure enough, in the next room over and folded on the top if a peculiar statue was a crisp and unused robe still lovingly wrapped in a transparent sheath. It was only when she stepped through the ajar door did C.C realize she was not alone and gave a sizeable jump when Schneizel spoke to the cruel-looking woman he was video-conferencing with.
"-because I know that you love big, fancy parties."
Lucky for C.C he was leafing through the contents of an ominous manilla folder and did not notice that she was there. Knowing that if she dashed back out the door either one of them would notice her she panicked and dove behind the nearest large object, a antique sofa only a foot away from the door. Her collision with the floor must have made some sort of noise for the rustling of paper stopped, and C.C could hear Arthur purring from where he was curled up on the prince's lap. The four-inch space between the floor and her cover seemed painfully wide as she watched him cross the room and close her last avenue of escape.
His conversation partner spoke, in a friendly way that didn't match her appearence. Where have I heard that voice before? "A big, fancy party that I'm keeping you from. Perhaps another time would be more convenient-"
"No, my pet project is far more important than the religious ramblings and scented smoke that the Archbishop is using to entertain out guests right now. I've even allowed our subject to attend...such the excellent luck we've had with getting her comfortable and settled." He said, nonchalantly explaining that his kind behavior towards the subject is a sham, and this 'subject' been given special permission to attend...he can't mean that- "Code R will resume operation after the necessary equipment is acquired."
The words that Schneizel spoke as if he were discussing the weather made C.C's blood run cold. Code R. Project C.C. It really wasn't that long ago. At the time I didn't care about the eight-hours-a-day seven-days-a-week testing that I was subjected to, perhaps I even wished they would find a way to take my Code and end that miserable existence. In their eyes I was not a human being. That's why the woman was familiar: she was the Dr. Aila van Exel who's voice had been endlessly barking orders over the intercom to Start Procedure V-59 and Enter Lockdown Mode. The scientists weren't cruel to me and I wasn't harmed, but how Lelouch always looks slightly embarassed when he tells C.C that he loves her and how the baby inside her seems to be most active when she's trying to fall asleep...Maybe in those days I wasn't a human being at all, just an undying sack of skin that held a bundle of nerves and bone that was okay for the scientists to cut out of me. With something, someone to live for I can't let that happen again. C.C was overcaome with the urge that had been festering in the back of her mind ever since the first day here, to just walk out the front gates and fry anyone who tried to stop her with a deadly sequence of shock images.
The doctor made a disgruntled sound that startled C.C back to the present. "Hmmph. That explains the royal treatment you've been spoiling her with. Maybe you should cut back as it will only make the adjustment harder."
"You science types do love your cold metal tables, don't you?" Schneizel gave a quaint little laugh.
"It just gets under my skin when my property gets treated like a princess and a friend of yours since childhood is sent to the bush lands of Australia."
The conversation instantly switched from a discussion between friends to a prince and his underling. The tiniest hint of danger crept into Schneizel's voice. "Who are you talking to, Aila? Not to me, not with that much disrespect…."
"Oh, ah..I beg your pardon, my lord prince."
C.C imagined Schneizel nodding and he carried on as id nothing had ever happened. "As soon as my nephew is born and C2 tragically runs away you can do whatever you like with her. I had the whole team replaced and managed to steal Ingrid Berkastel, the one who did a stint as a prison warden, from our European branch...you'll like the experiments she's designed. Illegal in the EU, and only to be allowed in Britannia because she's on my payroll."
"We've always known that Project #33 was dangerous."
"Yes. After his mother has given birth and then run off to who knows where, out of kindness I could adopt him as my own thus giving him a parental figure and letting me remain unmarried. Win-win. C.C would probably have been a bad example for him and shaped him into a threat to Her Majesty. and that's a clever way to wriggle out of myobligations as Prince.
It was difficult for C.C to keep herself under control, for a constricting vise of fear had tightened around her body. He wants to eliminate me and keep Etienne.
The crowd of crimson robes barely fit into the cathedral's interior even though it was the biggest one in the country. Though the soaring ceilings were exquisitely painted by the masters of old nobody was paying attention to that, for all of the eight thousand people were focused on the grand set of doors that would soon reveal their new monarch. The higher your peerage the closer to the front you sat and C.C had been ushered into one of the last rows. If anyone recognized her they said nothing or were just too occupied with talking to their fellow blue bloods, and feeling rather lonely C.C found herself just wishing to get it over with.
Dreading who she might see C.C scanned the seats reserved for foreign dignitaries and sure enough, amidst the sea of faces she spotted the First Family of Japan, Kaname Ohgi and company. I wonder if our kids will end up being friends. That is, if Etienne isn't snatched away from me first. The month-old Hiroko goggled at so many people from his father's arms and gave a tiny sneeze of awe. They'll leave me alone, so I'll be fine. But when Kallen had returned to her seat beside the Prime Minister C.C averted her gaze and moved to sit so she was shielded behind the ridiculously tall L'sod family. I wonder if they'll have pizza at the banquet.
Her mouth began to water at the thought of sausage and peppers when the distant boom of cannon fire caused a hush to fall upon the crowd. C.C cleared her throat as the doors slowly creaked open, and joined with the massive cry of "The King is dead. Long live the Queen!"
Now it's time for….Spot the Skyrim Reference! The couple that I ship most of the time is of course C.C x Lelouch, then Kanon x Schneizel, and the most unlikely (and impossible) pairing that only I in the history of all things Code Geass has ever imagined…C.C x Schneizel! After I finish writing this, I want a salad.
Reveiwer of the Week (sorta): Blank XIth
Woot! I think that's a good sign!