TheDelta724-Thank you for the congratulations, I'm kinda shocked I've gotten this far in this story so quickly, its just so much fun to write!
The Worldwalker-Patience friend, I had to introduce several knew technologies in an organic manner before the time skip, Cornelia suddenly having her doombots out of nowhere would be lazy story telling, plus after the terrible week I had at work this tiny bit of fluff mixed with world building was a very pleasant distraction for me. Just to give you a bit of teaser for next chapter and an assurance I'm going to keep this going I'll give you two words, Omaha Beach.
I hate to say it but this is alot rougher and shorter then I'd like but I've been ill the past couple days along with it being a terrible work week, I hope you guys can forgive me and look past it. With any luck I'll be back on my game before Monday, this getting a hideously nasty head cold in warm weather is just asinine, anyway enjoy and review although I kinda dread the reviews for this one.
Letting politicians run a war is like having the worst of all worlds, the arrogance of a general, the inexperience of a butter bar, and the strategic understanding of a potato - Grand Admiral Cornelia li Britannia
The Eye of the Storm
Lelouch watched the grinning trio cart the punch bowl into the room with trepidition, this would be...memorable to say the least, turning to Barbados he simply said,
"Don't drink the punch," and walked towards the high table that Ruben and the student council were gathered at. Glancing at Milly he stated, "Its an Ashford Christmas Special...squared," The three teens and old man's eyes widened, General Santiago who had been busy discussing her new role as Sub-Viceroy looked back and forth between them confused,
"I'm sorry what does that mean?" Lelouch lit a cigarette while offering Rivalz one, lighting it he sighed out,
"Long short? Have a camera ready and emergency services on speed dial, Kallen didn't give me the details but if she felt it necessary to warn us this'll be bad...why me?" With that he just slumped in the seat next to his friend and watched his dad offer up a toast, he honestly wasn't paying attention he just wanted this over with. Hearing the knocking in his thoughts he responded 'Yes sis?'
'Lou, any idea what they spiked that with?' sighing he glanced up to the throne his dad had been sitting at, making his way over he picked up an empty bottle laying on the floor and groaned,
'Yes, two hundred year old absinthe...is someone recording this I don't want Euphemia to miss anything,' feeling amusement from his twin she told him to look up, glancing towards the balcony he saw a grinning Maribelle holding a camcorder. 'Ah, ok,' retaking his seat he watched as one of his brothers broke out laughing while swatting at the empty air, Guinevere was scratching herself frantically until she started screaming and tore her clothes off. As the naked woman ran out of the room Lelouch glanced over to see Cornelia's mom spin kick someone in the face. Rubbing his temples Lelouch watched the situation degrade further, Rivalz broke out into a fit of laughter and gasped out,
"Lou...thanks for the invite I haven't had this much fun in years," Glancing at his friend he mumbled,
"Rivalz the day I snap you're the first to go...god is David seriously arguing with the Christmas tree?" Milly nodded then pointed at another one of his siblings throwing a candle on said tree catching it on fire,
"And Michelle just torched it, is the Knightmare hanger locked up?" Eyes widening in horror Lelouch shot up sprinting for the hanger, as he passed Nunnally, Timeo, and his dad all three of them were cackling like madmen.
"Whymewhymewhymewhyme!"
The Next Day
Lelouch had spent the better part of the day getting his hung over family packed onto the Great Britannia to be sent back to Pendragon, Odysseus and Maribelle had offered to stick around to help clean up while Schneizal and Cornelia returned to their fleets in the English channel, his father was passed out upstairs, thank god. Odysseus picked up a fragment of the now destroyed hardwood floor as he gingerly attempted to step around the severed Vincent arm still clutching a novelty candy cane in its fist,
"So...ummm...this was probably the second most destructive family gathering we've had yes?" glancing back at the man Lelouch nodded,
"Yeah, we didn't beat out the property damage from Cornelia's sixteenth birthday...but from what I was told Nonette was involved with that and well..." his brother finished smirking,
"Nonette will Nonette things up like no other." Grinning Luluka tossed a destroyed wreath in the trash can,
"Yeah, shit remember when she showed up demanding to know which one of us killed the Knight of Ten? That kiss she gave Nunnally had her blushing so badly she was as red as the Guren." Timeo glanced over to his girlfriend who looked a bit under the weather, she hadn't handled the ancient liquor very well,
"Yes that happened, no I don't want to talk about it, and would you all stop making that bloody buzzing noise? Ugh my head..." Chuckling at her expense Maribelle dropped more debris in the pile they'd formed by the doors,
"So Ody, we taking the old man home after this?" Their eldest brother nodded solemly while wincing a bit,
"Errr...yes, I'd hoped to hitch a ride with you to avoid anymore err...drama, but since he's still comatose it looks like we're going to have to deal with him hungover...joy..." Kallen shrugged sheepishly at her brother in law,
"Sorry, we tried to get him to sober up but he kept insisting he had to talk to Lady Marianne and rambling about ghosts, at that point he threw up on Suzaku and passed out." Sighing Lelouch dropped the load he was hauling and said,
"Fuck it we're hiring wreckers for this, lets go watch some cheesy Christmas movies and forget about this crap, sound good?" Everyone agreed and they left the partially burned out ballroom to the hired help.
Upstairs
Charles awoke in agony...and in an unfamiliar room incidentally, glancing around he shakily sat up to see four immortals grinning at him, smiling wanly he muttered,
"Morn'in...umm...about yesterday..." Zhenzhen busted out laughing, the elderly asian woman barely keeping it together,
"Shit Chuck can you even remember yesterday?" Thinking about it he thought he remembered something about punch... shrugging he looked over to Barbados and decided to cut to the chase,
"Your decision?" All four grew serious as their leader spoke up,
"You're right, they have the drive, ambition, skills, and resources to pull off what they plan to do, they're alturistic, philonthropic, and ruthless enough to pull their plan off. Its audacious and idealistic...we approve." Nodding Adebola continued for him,
"We have already given them out codes, handshakes all around, don't worry they won't activate until they get themselves killed, and lets face it they will at some point." Eyes widening Charles felt his mouth drop open in shock,
"But...but when C.C. received her code-" Zhenzhen interrupted him with an angry grimace on her face,
"She had her code forced on her by a self centered psychopath who was so desperate to end her immortality that she forced the natural order of things, its why the poor girl has that scar still. We passively gave them our codes and they'll manifest when they're ready, not a moment before, hell I know from personal experience the girls codes will not activate no matter what until their pregnancies come to term." Dudley picked up from there,
"We found out they've actually developed a science based method of acquiring immortality that they planned on using on themselves anyway, they're not going to be resentful about this, it works out quite nicely, sure living for the past 400 years has been interesting but damnit Charles I'm bored and my companions and I only run into each other every few decades, we're all ok with this." Adebola glanced at their former conspiritor and asked,
"What about Nunnally though?" Eyes hardening Charles sat up and did his best to look dignified in an oversized nightshirt...where the hell had that come from?
"I have V.V.'s code reserved for her, she suffered the most from his treachery, its only fitting." Barbados chuckled as he made his way to the door,
"Fitting, well we're off Charles, our codes are now in limbo which means we get to age again, me? I'm finally going to make that trip to Mecca I've always been talking about, you won't be seeing us again old friend, take care of yourself." And with that the four former immortal's moved on with their now mortal lives.
Pendragon December 27, 2019 A.T.B.
Chip was grinning widely, he'd been down on his luck for so long that his recent financial windfall hadn't quite registered yet, he'd been trying to freelance as a driver for a few months with limited success, his rent was two months over due and his rickety delivery truck was a step away from exploding, so when he had received the call to make a special delivery to the Imperial Palace he'd nearly had a panic attack. The Palace! Making a delivery to the royalty of Britannia was a big deal, you had to be bonafide through more customs than you could imagine to get that kind of gig and it was just handed to him! Grinning as he approached the front gates he handed the guard his papers and made his way up the winding driveway.
Glancing up he saw the Imperial flagship floating towards the palace, the enormous size and elegance of the vessel speaking lengths to the empires superiority, grinning at the sight he distractedly brought his gaze to his now ringing cell. Sighing you flicked it open and said,
"Yes? Oh hello Mr. Salvadore, oh yes yes the Great Britannia just arrived at the palace, why do you ask?" With that the 20 kiloton yield nuclear fission bomb in his cargo hold detonated, the resulting blast killed 95% of the imperial royal family as well as wiping out more then half the capital in seconds. The eventual death toll for this attack would number in the hundreds of thousands, and with those death's the nature of warfare changed forever.
Air Battleship Dreadnought 2 hours later
The room was dead silent, no one dared say a word, both Charles and Lelouch paced the room, two apex predators shoved into a corner with nothing to lash out at, gritting his teeth Charles let out a tired sigh and collapsed into a plush chair, rubbing his eyes in frustration he seemed to come to a decision.
"Lelouch...I'm abdicating the throne to you," several gasps filled the silence as Lelouch appraised his father, his cold violet eyes analyzing the old man for a moment before he nodded resuming his pacing.
"Very well, you'll address the terrorist attack and then explain how you find it necessary for me to take control, this disaster will be attached to your administration which I can only assume was your intent." His father nodded solemnly at this, "Ok then, first things first, Kallen get a hold of Rakshata and find out if she worked the kinks out of the Terraforming nanobots and cleansing systems, if so I want them in Pendragon yesterday, Suzaku your pet project with Cornelia is green lit with a blank check, choose the men and women you want augmented and have them trained on the equipment by the years end." Turning to his sister he continued, "Lulu, I want you to get on Lloyd's ass to refine that pulse laser he scared us all to death with, make it compact and less...end of the worldy, while you're at it hand off the blueprints for the Vladimir and Boudicca I want them fine tuned and manufactured by next October. Nunnally I want you working with General Santiago, Schneizal and Nelly developing an invasion plan, we want audacious and unexpected that's why you're on the project." Taking a deep breath the new Emperor let out a sigh as he turned to a very pale Maribelle who met his gaze with determination,
"What would you have me do...my Emperor," Nodding Lelouch pulled out a thick folder and handed it to her,
"Your job sister is to find out specifically which bastard just nuked our family and our home, you have a blank check as well and Suzaku agreed to hand over his personal Avalon class cruiser to you for the duration of the operation, you're given free authority to find out what you need to regardless of legalities and morality, I want these bastards to pay." Giving Lelouch a resolved smile she started leafing through the documents the second they were in her hands. Glancing over to Odysseus he whispered, "I need you to make sure dad doesn't fall off the deep end." Meeting his younger brothers gaze he nodded sadly in understanding. Dismissing the lot of them Lelouch collapsed in his chair finally letting it all hit him, as he contemplated the future C.C. slid onto his lap and held him close, stroking his hair as he nuzzled her she whispered,
"And what of me my warlock?" Looking into the amber eyes of his lover he smiled sadly,
"You my witch have the hardest task of all...making sure your warlock does not fall to his own despair."
So yeah, that happened, I rather liked Pendragon too hopefully they can fix it, but hey check it rally cry for the nation and I don't have to come up with back stories for hundreds of siblings, good times! Anyway I still feel like crap and I truly hope you guys can forgive me for cutting some corners with this one, I'm getting some bloody sleep and hoping I feel inspired to do something other then crawl into a corner and pass out for a week.