The next two chapters will lack action since we're doing a bit of world building and character development, I'll make up for it with some ensuing hijinks, I'm more then looking forward to writing the chaos that is the Royal Family Christmas party, and considering who the new Viceroy of England's granddaughter is...
Pendragon, Imperial Palace December 8, 2019 A.T.B.
Charles was fully sober, this grated on him like nothing else, he didn't suffer from withdrawal like an addict would, no no he was just annoyed because he happened to thoroughly enjoy watching the world through a haze. Sadly what he needed to do right now required clarity and the people he needed to address demanded respect, its not like he was dealing with nobility here, these were real people, as he reached the ornate door he had been approaching he hesitated. Everything hinged on their approval and while they had given tacit support two years ago things change, sighing he unlocked the door and made his way inside the suite of rooms, knocking on the door he announced himself, his bass voice causing the windows to vibrate.
"It is I Charles, may I enter elders?" There was a pause when a booming laugh responded,
"Charles! Come on in young man come in!" Smiling slightly the Emperor let himself inside and observed four people, an elderly Chinese woman was busily playing an old school Gameboy, if the music was any indicator it was Tetris, beside her a young dark skinned woman was carefully painting her companion in shocking clarity upon a canvas. On the other side of the room sat an eldery middle eastern man with a belly length beard and a younger brunette Britannian both watching the news, the honey brown skinned elder grinned vividly towards Charles while he pointed at the television. "My my my young man Marianne's little ones have been busy, taking the English isles back in less then a month with fewer then five thousand civilian casualties across the board? I'd call bullshit if you didn't give us access to the military reports!" Smiling Charles bowed to the older man,
"Esteemed elder, err right, Barbados, I have a...request of you and your friends," With that the two women stopped what they were doing and moved to sit next to their companions. Charles cleared his throat and continued, "I and a large majority of the royal family will be meeting the vi Britannia's in London for our annual Christmas ball in the coming weeks, Lelouch and his kin have all but repaired the isles at this point and we're to have the festivities in the former Governors palace. I'd like you four to go and evaluate them, decide if they deserve your gifts without my influence, you are all far more experienced then I and less...biased." The ebony skinned teen smiled dazzlingly at Charles responding with a thick Nigerian accent,
"Charles so formal, that's what I love about you, giving respect to those you feel earned it...of course we'll go, I assume you have covers for us?" Nodding he smirked at her,
"Of course Adebola, I always have a plan, you're all an international diplomatic corps put together as the result of my son making all peoples of the Empire equals, you'll be discussing the future direction of our country with them and you'll be able to evaluate them by their responses." The Chinese woman busted out laughing and spoke in perfect high Britannian,
"Hear that Dudley? We're to be proper foreigners! Hehe, oki Chuck I'm in," With that the final member of the group joined her laughter,
"Oh indeed Zhenzhen, this should be interesting!" Glancing over to Barbados raising his eyebrows questioningly, the older man broke out into another laugh as he nodded to Charles,
"Oh Allah knows we need to get out for awhile, and meeting the children that changed your entire world view would be marvelous! I of course agree, when do we leave?" Charles grinned at his long time companions and replied,
"In two weeks, and I warn you my daughter in law informed me that the former governors palace is...heh...as she put it 'Preposterously ostentatious and dick compensating', so don't judge them on it." With that Adebola burst out laughing as she started going through her closet of dresses,
"Oh this child I must meet!"
December 12, 2019 A.T.B.
Erwin was seething, his coffee had long gone cold as he leafed through the reports scattered on their table, Chloe sitting across from him sharing his mood, as she read the summary for the battle of London a chill ran up her spine, whether from the snow outside the cafe or the projected losses she couldn't say. Eventually her compatriot dropped the papers and rubbed his temples,
"Ve lost the English Isles in less then a month, a month Chloe,and now the damn Britannians have just been sitting off the coast of France outside of bombardment range for two veeks doing nothing, vhy?! Vhy lose their momentum? None of this makes sense!" Shaking her head sadly she took a sip from her lukewarm drink,
"From what I've gathered the Royal family has spent every spare moment repairing the damage they'd done in the invasion, they're saying London will be fully self sustaining again before Christmas, they're dumping all their reserves into reconstruction. It's like they don't care to continue this conflict." With that they both brooded in silence when a young man in blue jeans and a leather jacket sat at their table uninvited. His shoulder length black hair was hanging in his face and they could barely see the hints of violet irises as he flagged down a waitress ordering a cup tea.
"Earl grey, yes thank you young miss," The mans voice was refined with a faint Britannian accent, turning to the confused General's he smiled politely, "That's because I never wanted this conflict to begin with, England was snap retribution for your government attacking my sister, plus it was ours to begin with so I felt no real compunctions against taking it back, the rest of the invasion will require...finesse." Gasping Erwin muttered,
"Gott, der Schwarze Prinz," grimacing the young man pulled his hair behind his ears and looked at the Field Marshall cockeyed,
"People are still calling me that? Ugh...better then the other names I guess... anyway I'm pleased to finally meet you two, and before you decide to do something stupid please recall that if I wanted you dead I wouldn't have dropped Freyja's on my brothers, I'm here to talk, nothing more." Chloe hissed out a slow breath as she closed her eyes, calming her heart rate she opened them again then nodded towards their enemy. Erwin finally pulled himself from his stupor and said,
"Ok...ok, Vhat is it you wanted to discuss," Lelouch grinned brilliantly at them as he pulled a folder out from under his jacket,
"Ah Isabella spoke so highly of you two, I'm glad your former teachers faith wasn't misplaced," he said as he started pulling photos and documents out, Erwin and Chloe exchanged confused glances, not being able to keep her peace Chloe asked,
"Isabella? As in General Isabella Santiago? The woman you killed in China months ago?" The prince stopped for a moment sighing to himself then continued to organize his papers.
"So that's what they told you eh? Figures, odd a frontline soldier knew who she was but you two don't...hmm...interesting, but no no Isabella is one of my finest commanders, her battalion was integral in retaking the Mother Isles, its amazing how motivated soldiers are to fight their former masters when they were used as bait on top of a nuclear bomb." Eyes bugging out of his head Erwin gasped out,
"Our...our teacher joined you!?" Lelouch glanced at the redhead then back to Chloe,
"Does he always restate what he's been told?" Unable to help herself she smiled and said yes, shaking his head Lelouch elaborated. "Ok getting a bit ahead of ourselves here but long short, a strike team was sent to nab the former leader of China to ransom her, someone in your parliament apparently thought terrorist actions are fine so long as its to help acquire campaign funds. Anyway they'd been given orders by a subversive element in your leadership to murder my little sister to draw me in, General Santiago was then ordered to surround the city and act as bait to bring my forces close enough to eat an EMP from a nuke causing us to crash and burn and kill all of 'Bella's troops. She took exception this, may I continue now?" Nodding numbly the pair silently processed this.
"Anyway, I'm giving you two a heads up, this subversive element is this man here, goes by V.V." Showing them a photo of an effeminate boy with floor length blonde hair Erwin snorted derisively.
"Really, a child? Ve're supposed-" Lelouch cut him off tersely,
"I really don't want to spend anymore time going over this shit can you please just let me finish?" Looking vexed Erwin mumbled obscenities in German while the prince continued,
"Anyway, this little bastard has been trying to knock my family off for the better part of two decades, he's the Emperors immortal twin brother and has one heeeeeell of a fixation issue, murdered my mom because she took too much of his brothers time and the animosity spread to her kids. And yes I said immortal just bear with me while I explain the rest of this crap I'm getting bored." Pulling out a stack of documents he handed them to Chloe,
"Now here is a list of all the actions he's made through your President since he made a pact with the man, you'll notice that your parliaments insane decision making and micromanaging of military operations started at the same time. We've been drawn into a world war over one psychotic with sharing issues and your President's desire to get re-elected indefinitely, democracy isn't it grand? The pact V.V. made with the President granted him something called a Geass, its a power that has absolute control over a portion of the human psyche, thankfully the source of this power is damaged at the moment so he got a diet cola version. As far as I can tell it persuades people to look at things the presidents way, fortunately the more the person disagrees with him the less likely they are to follow through with orders, hence why 'Bella joined me, strong will and all that."
As they were both about to yell bullshit the prince flicked a switch on his necklace and his eyes glowed red, staring at them both he said,
"You both are now my slaves," With that they sat up strait and muttered
"Yes your highness," nodding he looked at Chloe handing her a pendant similar to the one he wore, doing the same to Erwin he then continued with,
"Now the both of you are to put those pendants on and activate them." Following the orders they flicked the switches at once and both gasped in horror as they slumped in their chairs goggling at the fiery eyed demon before them. "Now, those necklaces are Geass inhibitors, basically they constantly reset your connection to the collective unconsciousness removing any and all Geass commands, you're now immune to the effects, Merry Christmas."
With that prince stood while flicking the switch on his inhibitor, turning to leave he glanced back at the couple "This was a gift from Isabella, we may remain enemies or we may become allies, but she wished for her two favorite students to be able to make the decision for themselves, and as a show of respect I'll give you one small tidbit, I will not be moving on Europe for a year, good day." And with that the Black Prince walked out of the cafe, never once touching his tea.
"We...well...I..." Chloe muttered trying to cope with the horrible feeling of subservience she had experienced for a brief few seconds, the horror of what could have been stunning her, Erwin stood and moved his chair next to her so they could hold each other, rocking his girlfriend gently he muttered,
"So...vho...vho is the enemy I don't...love vhat do ve do?" At the moment, she didn't have an answer.
As Lelouch made his way outside his brother kicked off the wall his eyes glowing red, glancing over to Suzaku he grinned,
"So Suzu what are we today?" Grinning the Japanese man twirled his hand lightly,
"Two elderly woman rambling about how their kids never visit them, we'll make it back to the Gawain with no troubles Lou, so how did they take it?" Snorting the raven haired man grinned back at his best friend,
"Fucking shell shocked, I could see the realization hitting their faces but Rommel is Prussian to the core if I stuck around the 'Crush all those that defy me' impulse would kick in, I have no idea if they'll join us but after what I did to them they'll never take those inhibitors off." Nodding as they weaved their way through traffic Suzaku sighed lightly,
"Paris is beautiful brother, gods I hope we don't have to hurt these people to get rid of that cancer." Nodding as they approached the hidden Gawain Lelouch replied,
"Me too Suzu...me too...well come on we have to help Kallen and Luluka prepare that eyesore palace for the party and if nothing else we're pulling those goddamn frescoes down before Euphemia shows up...seriously how-" Suzaku interrupted him as the Gawain's cockpit opened,
"The less we talk about the painted horse dicks the better man, come on lets get out of here.
London, English Isles December 20 2019 A.T.B.
Nunnally was wrapped around Timeo as they watched cartoons on the warships main monitor, curled together on the couch normally reserved for Kallen and C.C., looking down at the little brunette he curiously asked,
"Nunnally...do you ever feel fear?" The small teen in his arms tensed a moment, relaxing she said,
"You know how despite being kicked off the isles for a couple centuries we had a massive nautical empire for damn near two thousand years?" Nodding to her the woman continued, "Well our culture really didn't change, a lot of our allegories and the like stayed ocean themed and the way I always looked at it was this. Not since I was seven have I known what living without fear is like, I'm a tiny life raft left in the open sea with no hope for rescue, my water has long run out and the temptation to drink from limitless poison is near absolute. But I don't, the water is fear and drinking it would be totes succumbing to it...I don't feel fear hon, I live in it." Looking down at the woman he felt tears forming as he held her a little closer,
"Well...I hope I'm a calm in your storm dear one." Chuckling lightly she turned her head enough to make eye contact,
"Babe...there's a reason I'm always near you." Sighing contentedly the small sociopath settled back into watching the TV while her boyfriend contemplated how life had brought him here.
Governors Palace London England December 22 2019 A.T.B.
"Horse dicks everywhere!" Milly Ashford screamed in horror, she stared at the half destroyed paintings leaning against the wall while Kallen rubbed her temples sighing,
"Tell me about it, you know we don't even know what the creepy fuckers name was? We just took this opulate place and found zoological porn painted on EVERYTHING, Lelouch is freaked out we missed something behind a cabinet door and I'm completely with him, I'm really hoping the rest of the E.U. isn't like this because frankly its going to get awkward." The blonde pervert's look of consternation hadn't left her face as she smashed another hidden frescoe with a hammer,
"Seriously when Lulu told me that granddads new palace had some issues I had no goddamn clue that fucking beastiality was the problem, holy hell!" Her boyfriend laughed lightly as he picked up the destroyed fragments of plaster, Rivalz turned to Shirley who was busily marking cut points on the replacement drywall and said,
"Hey make it 6'3", just to be safe, seriously why doesn't Lou have real carpenters doing this crap?" Rolling her eye as she made the adjustments Shirley grunted out,
"Because he can actually rely on us and he knows we're on winter break from University so we can't say no, now hurry up and clear that stuff so we can get this going, the royal family will be here in two days Rivalz, no slacking!." Sighing the bluenette went back to demolition cleanup as a grinning Milly went apeshit on the creepy walls.
To sound like a complete sissy sometimes when I put myself in Nunnally's mind and what she's endured it kinda makes me wanna cry a bit. On bringing back the student council I need people the family sees as equals to be the foil to the coming insanity that is the royal family Christmas party, revel in the Chaos God's presence!