Okay, this is the last chapter for this story. I'll be honest here, I never thought I'll get this far but you guys have loved this work and have continued to read and review, which makes it all the more easier to write this thing. Though as I've been addicted to Genshin Impact for a very long while now, this chapter came out a lot later than I thought it would but it's the finale of this story so I don't feel too bad about that. Also, as those who get update notifications know, this chapter won't be a long one, only being 7k words. As Christmas is around the corner, I won't start on the sequel to this until next year.


Chapter 37: For our struggles, liberation

4th December November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:

Unknown Region:

Milky Way Galaxy:

Earth/Sol-3:

Skies over Tokyo settlement Area 11/Japan:

Onboard the Black Knight flagship, the Starship Sakura.

"So she was right." Cornelia whispered to herself as she gazed onto the face of the brother she believed she had lost, now the face of the man that had not only defeated her time and time again but also taken from her good friends, loyal comrades, competent soldiers. All of this lead to her having a mixed bowl of emotions on the subject, ranging from joy, relief, anger to sorrow.

"Brother…" Euphemia uttered, being close to tears as she looked at him, like the rest, she was overwhelmed with the shock of an imperial prince being this enemy, but more than that, she was happy that he was here, that he was alive. Sadly for her, he didn't share in this heartfelt reunion, only growing in irritation as his creased brow showed.

"I have no clue as to why you are referring to me by that. I renounced my claim to the throne 11 years ago. By imperial law, along with that, I gave up my familiar name and any relations to the imperial family." Lelouch told them as he put his helmet down on the table, speaking clearly and harshly as his words were almost like physical strikes against the two as they recoiled at how cold his response was.

"What…?" Cornelia asked in shock, she was in no delusion that he would be happy to see them, he had been seeing them for months now, but she still felt hurt that he was so reserved and cut from them.

"What is wrong, Viceroy? Surprised that I'm familiar with imperial law?" Lelouch asked her as he leaned back into his chair, appraising them like strangers, like enemies.

"Lelouch, we're your sisters!" Euphemia cried to him, missing how the one in a hood flinched at her tone. She knew that he felt angry, that his fury was what drove him to fight against them but for the love of God, they wanted the chance to make amends, she wanted a chance to be able to be close to him again, did he not notice, did he not care?

"By blood but not by name," Lelouch responded as he looked her right in the eye, showing them that he was locked away from them. "Or by heart."

"Heart, what are you talking about? We loved you and Nunnally, we still love you both, please, please is she alive? Is she safe?" Cornelia jumped in, displaying a rare moment of emotional weakness as she sought answers about their other lost sibling, fearing that worse but those fears were only compounded when Lelouch lifted his head and laughed, though it wasn't a laugh of humor or even madness, it was a laugh of condescending nature.

"You say that you cared for this boy you speak of, but did you care enough to speak up when he was exiled?" Lelouch started as he stopped laughing as he faced the, though now his anger was on full display as his eyes shifted from their normal royal purple to a violent, malevolent red as the whites of his eyes faded into a dark, cold black. The sight of which scared not only his sisters but the rest of them with both Nunnally and Suzaku being concerned for how close to the surface his connection to the dark side was flowing.

"Did you care enough to keep in contact with them when they were thrown to the wolves? Did you care enough to protect them when the bombs fell and the cities burned?" Lelouch started as his breathe quicken and his teeth begun to bare at them. "Did you care for them when they were nulled to sleep by hunger and the screams of the thousands dying? Did you care when I lad to lie so many times to Nunnally about the smell around us when he went through small destroyed villagers, telling her we detoured through landfills so she may still have the chance to sleep peacefully at night?" Lelouch continued, losing his composure as all his scars came up to the surface as he threw all their failures in their face.

"I'll tell you the answers" He finished as he took a deep breath to calm himself as his eyes shifted back to normal, but the tension in his body remained as he was visibly furious. "You didn't care, you can act like you did but the fact you can never run from, is that you weren't there."

"Whatever remained of that weak boy, thrown into the world and left to fend for himself, died over a decade ago." He finished as he breathed out a sigh to calm himself down but at the same time, finish his little rant.

'Jesus, those eyes….they are so cold.' Nonette thought to herself as she nearly fell out of her chair in shock as seeing such, she had already experienced his powers when he toyed with and defeated her, but in this moment, she felt more fear than she ever did facing Charles, the fear she felt for the emperor paled in comparison to what she just felt.

"As for your second question," Lelouch said as he turned his eyes towards the one in a cloak, nodding his head at them as if to grant permission. "Why don't you ask her?" The person in question then reached for her hood and slowly removed it, revealing to their Britannian counterparts Nunnally for the first time in years, though like her brother, she had gone through the aging process and was now was quite the beauty, though her visage seemed weighed down by something as if she also has some baggage to deal with which they weren't sure they wanted to know about.

"Nunna…?" Euphemia whispered, now more confused than she was before as she never expected this, though from the look in her sister's eyes, something in her had died over the years, something…innocent and pure.

"Hello, Cornelia, Euphemia." Nunnally spoke up, her voice soft but not like that of the child she once was, but more along the lines of someone that had felt and seen the worst of humanity, something that both Nonette and Cornelia picked up on as they had seen that look, heard that tone with many young recruits who had no clue what war was like. "It's been a while."

'I can't believe it, these are their missing siblings?' Guilford thought to himself in amazement, he had not been clued into their suspicions but he knew of them from the few instances throughout the years where Cornelia had talked about them, but she had always spoke of them with such longing and fondness, so this reception confused him. 'But why is he so cold? Does he feel nothing for them?'

"Are you finished?" Lelouch cut off whatever emotional outburst the two princesses had as he zeroed them back into the whole point he let them onto his ship as guests and not as prisoners of war. "I didn't bother with this meeting to end up wasting time." Hearing this cold dismissal of them, Guilford stood up, sick and tired of hearing someone dare speak to his princess like this, especially when it was clear that person was causing her so much grief.

"How could you talk to them like that, they are you-!" Guilford started to scold the younger man for his treatment of his two sisters but he found himself unable to speak as a begun to be choked, the room watched in shock as Lelouch, with nothing but a glance lifted Guilford into the air as he used the force to choke the man.

"Guilford!" Cornelia jumped to her feet in shock and fear as she tried to bring the man back down along with the help of one of their guards but found that he was stuck, and going from the face he was walking, finding it harder and harder to breathe.

"You have experience with royalty, yes? Do you understand what happens when you speak out of turn? So who permitted you to speak?" Lelouch asked him, not at all in the mood to entertain someone who thought they could talk down to him as if he was his better.

"Lelouch, please. Put him down." Nunnally told her brother, getting him back down to himself as he stopped looking at Guilford and let the man fall to the floor, gasping for air as Cornelia and Euphemia fretted over him.

"So long as he and the rest of them behave." Lelouch said as he focused on Nonette, but ceased when S.K took a loud cough to remind him to keep it together. Seeing that trying to appeal to his brotherly side wasn't working for them, Nonette thought of a new plan as the two princesses made sure Guilford wasn't in any danger.

"So….you are just Zero now?" She asked him, keeping her tone formal and watching her words.

"Not be a fool. There is more to me than the leader. I'm a father, a husband, a brother. Just not a brother to them, not anymore." Lelouch told them as S.K spoke up as he saw that the meeting was going no-where.

"Might I suggest," S.K started as he looked at his friend who was making things difficult for them. "That we get you the reason we are gathered here? This is supposed to be a surrender negotiation, nothing more." Seeing his unseen gaze, Lelouch took another breathe to force his darker elements back down before speaking up.

"You are correct, S.K. my apologies for getting side-tracked, but that is the reason you came, so why don't we get started." Lelouch said to them as he gave a small bow, though the fact his face was expressionless, they weren't sure if he was sincere or not.

"…Yes," Cornelia re-joined the conversation as she forced down her own conflicted feelings on both her siblings and their rather unique situation. "Let's."

"Good, the first demand we make of you is to order all imperial troops in Area 11 to stand down and surrender by 07:00 hours tomorrow." Lelouch started as he had one of his aides pull out some documents and hand it to Nonette, who along with Euphemia looked through what must be a first draft for an official surrender. His demand being one of the first stipulations that would be imposed on them should they agree and sign it.

"You expect that everyone will comply and just lay down their arms?" Nonette asked as she knew more than a couple of units will not be easy to convince, not after everything they sunk into this colony. There was even the issue of the imperial court and Emperor Charles, would he accept such conditions? Conditions that all that openly mock him?

"They will if they are under threat of being wiped off the face of this earth. Your formal declaration would serve as a way to criminalize any who don't follow it, giving us free rein to deal with them as we see fit." Lelouch responded as he already accounted for that when he and his commanders drafted this proposal. They already had units formed and ready to eliminate any that went against this agreement.

"Fine, but I demand that we be given time to properly do this, we'll need until at least 17:00 tomorrow to draft something feasible." Cornelia responded as she needed the time to go over this herself and think up of how the hell they were going to pull it off, to begin with.

"You have the next 72 hours, which should give you the time to make sure all follow it." Nunnally spoke up, allowing them more time as she could understand this would be hard for them, not something that could be rushed.

"Next item on the list, both our sides will agree to release all prisoners of war we have captured. This means that the Black Knights will hand over all Imperial military officers and personal while you agree to release all Black Knights you have captured." S.K. stated as they figured that this act of good faith from both sides will help ease the tension, there was also the fact that they captured more prisoners than they planned for and starting to struggle to deal with them all.

"Just the Black Knight members? Not all the Japanese?" Euphemia noticed that separation as the government had captured and imprisoned thousands of elevens throughout the years on charges of terrorism, though she found that many of those charges were false or blown out of proportion.

"I have no idea what they were like nor of their allegiance, I won't accept potential criminals if that is what you're implying." Lelouch explained as while he knew that many of them were innocent or forced to attempt blame for harsher crimes than they committed, he also knows many were actual criminals. The Black Knights already needed to act like a police force nationwide once this was over but they didn't have the time or resources to deal with an influx of crimes.

"How long before the swap?" Nonette asked the three.

"We can wait three days for that, 72 hours should suffice." Nunnally responded as they needed time to prepare their POWs for transfers from their isolated and very secret holding facilities. As those sites were for military purposes, they had decided that their locations should remain secret and classified, rushing a prisoner exchange may reveal some of their locations.

"I assume you want us out of Area 11?" Cornelia asked as she read through the documents and saw that on the second page, where it spoke of their military. In it, it was clear that all Britannian military assets and personal were to be removed from Japan.

"Correct, any military presence will be required to vacate the area and either head to another area or back to your homeland." Nunnally responded, though they knew that bases would be left behind, and along with their conditions, the imperials would be barred from destroying equipment and assets they couldn't take with them, which meant facilities like dock years, airstrips, and bases were being handed over to the Black Knights, saving them months and millions of pounds building their own.

"What about the people? Are you kicking them out?" Euphemia asked as that was a concern of them, seeing how there were ever 171 million Britannian citizens in the country. A mass exodus that large would be a humanitarian nightmare.

"We can aid in facilitating proper transport of those who wish to leave, but Britannian citizens not involved with the government or military will be permitted to stay, so long as they are liable for school or work visas." Lelouch answered her as he could see the issue. They could spare 1 fleet carrier, 2 heavy carries, and 2 heavy cruisers for two weeks. All in all, if they unloaded military equipment and if filled with the capacity with civilians and their belongings, they'll be able to help over 4 million people vacate Japan.

"And the rest?" Cornelia asked as she read that part and while she was very impressed that they could move that many people with such little ships, no matter how large. That was less than 3% of the total number of Britannians in Japan, though she figured that many would choose to stay as they had no lives in other areas or the homeland.

"Will be deported back to Britannian lands." S.K finished as if need be, they'll force people to put with only what they can carry. After this, the group spent the next three hours ironing out details to the surrender, from concessions to additional time for things to be done.


(Later)

"We'll take 40 minutes as a break. Is that acceptable to you?" Euphemia asked as she looked at her watch and saw that they had been here for quite some time.

"It is, are we allowed to roam the ship, or will we have escorts." Lelouch responded as he got up from his seat and started to make his way out of the room, not caring for the fact that Guilford flinched when he walked past him. Kallen and the rest of his people followed after him but he paused at the door, turning to speak with them one last time.

"You will be escorted by some of my men at all times, try to keep out of trouble." He ordered them as he soon left them, leaving the Britannian alone with but their guards and Nunnally who signed.

"Sorry about him," Nunnally spoke as he poured herself some water, something dealing with her brother was a tiring affair. "He's…he's changed over the years."

"That is an understatement. I knew that he wouldn't be…happy to see us, but from how he acts." Cornelia breathed out as she seemed to collapse into her seat, despite the fact she was already seated.

"After what happened…he started associating everything we left behind with the bad, he never told me why, but I think he did it because he hurt too much to have two contrasts." Nunnally explained to reasoning why Lelouch was so cold to them, although there were the siblings they were closest two before their mother's death. In the beginning, she would hear him mumble in his sleep to them, asking them to not let go, to stay with them. He never knew that she heard him as she figured that it was his burden, which sadly like many others, she couldn't help him with.

"What about you?" Euphemia asked her before she could go deeper into self-loathing for her inability to do anything back then.

"Me? I like to remember our lives before that dreaded day….before everything happened." Nunnally answered as she gave the two a small smile, though he was one filled with pain and bad memories.

"….How….how have you been?" Cornelia asked her, wishing to know more about the time they spent apart, on how they manage when she failed in her duty to protect and care for them.

"We're been good. We were taken in by some nice people, they fixed us up, fed us, clothed us. Taught up everything we knew." Nunnally replied with a faint, more genuine smile as she thought back to the time she spent with her masters. Granted they were not related but they still treated them like their own, allowing them to both grow but even heal a little from their traumatic lives.

"They fixed your blindness and your legs?" Euphemia asked as she never thought this day would come, even after they were exiled, she believed that the girl would be stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

"They did, I was so happy when I was able to see again, experience sight spent most of my days just watching things after that." Nunnally said as she remembered how she would just spend hours looking at things, sure it creeped people out as she would not blink for extended periods but she took full advantage of it, scared she would wake up and find out it was in a cruel dream. "As for my legs, that….it would be better if I showed you." Nunnally finished as she took a breath and got up from her seat, moving her robes aside so that the four of them could see her legs.

"What are you talking…" Euphemia started to ask but found herself forced silent when she Nunnally untucked her pants from her boots, removed said footwear, and revealed to them, that everything from the knee down, was cold metal. "Oh my god."

"You should have seen it when the leg was blown off, I wasn't thinking straight, but it hurt more than anything I ever felt. Sometimes….sometimes I get phantom pains." Nunnally tried to joke when she picked up the even the silent Guilford and Nonette were stunned silent, she let the pant leg fall back down as she was self-conscious about her missing limb, which was the reason most of her closest was pants and dresses rather than shorts and skirts.

"H-how…?" Cornelia asked her, not being able to accept such a thing, she knew that they should have been with the Kururugi's the entire time and that they should have protected, did she lose it to the Japanese in some act of responsibility for her father's decision to invade? An accident?

"Airstrike must have thought we were some Japanese kids. Brother needed several organ transplants because of it." Nunnally answered as she struggled with that for years, wondering if she would still have both limbs if she was just a few meters to the left or the right.

"Nunnally, I'm…I'm glad that you are alright, that you are alive right now, but how are you able to do…any of what you do?" Cornelia asked her, trying to voice her confused, messed-up thoughts.

"Simple, we're force sensitive." Nunnally responded to her question, she didn't feel the need to hide this from them. The truth would come out eventually after-all.

"Force….sensitive?" Nonette, who like Guilford had first-hand experience with the power, asked the girl.

"Allow me to explain." Nunnally before she started to explain to them everything. From her powers and training, to about the vast expanse of space and alien life.


(Meanwhile)

"Don't you think you were a bit harsh back there?" Suzaku asked Lelouch as the two stood on the bridge of the Sakura, overlooking the Tokyo Settlement that in a few days, would change hands to them.

"I think I acted rather well." Lelouch responded, though he figured that he was harsh in there, he was unwilling to admit it right now.

"They are your sisters, you know." Suzaku reminded him as he spied Kallen and the rest of her squad in the corner, speaking about something.

"They were my sisters, I do recall telling you that I renounced any ties to the imperial family, they are merely enemy commanders now." Lelouch countered as when he renounced his claim to the throne, he also threw his familiar name away, leaving him with only his mother's maiden name to take.

"One doesn't just cut ties with blood, no matter how hard they try. Otherwise, you would have purged your father's blood from you a long time ago." Suzaku smiled as he told him that fact, not caring for the glare his old friend shot him at that as anyone who knew them knew that his father was a very sore subject with him.

"Damn straight." Lelouch admitted before he saw that there was no victory here and just gave up. "Fine, when we meet again, I'll apologize, but we still have our duties."

"Those duties are nearly complete, you may not need to fight then past this." Suzaku told them as they knew that they would be very busy rebuilding Japan to galactic standards, which meant that they would be unable to do any more fighting for a while.

"I highly doubt that Cornelia is still a ranking officer in the Britannian military, if they react as we think they will to phase 2 of your plans, then we'll be seeing her in the field of battle yet again." Lelouch responded as he knew someone like her would be shipped for to another front, and with the fact that they would have proved the empire capable of defeat, the E.U would no doubt ramp up their attacks in Africa and the Mediterranean, not to mention the Pacific. Yeah, things will hectic for a couple of years.

"And what will be our next move?" Suzaku asked his friend as they were on the brink of completing a major milestone, there will be harder ones in the future but the first was always the hardest.

"We'll do as the plan says, rebuild, fortify and solidify in here Japan. We have tens of millions of people to care for, both Japanese and Britannians." Lelouch responded as he thought about all the people underneath them, as he said in the briefing, he had no intentions of just forcing them out, he knew people like Rivalz and his family immigrated here and built their lives here, they didn't have anywhere else to go to. As he thought about this, one of his aides came rushing up to him.

"Sir!" The aide saluted him as he handed him a phone.

"What is it?" Lelouch asked him as the phone didn't have caller ID seeing how it was an older model and meant for function over anything else.

"You have a call," The aide started before he gulped as he knew that the topic in question was rather sensitive. "Form your wife."

'Odd, what could she need my help with?' However, rather than act rashly as the woman thought he would, Lelouch calmly took that info in and tried to think of reasons that his wife would break radio silence, their bunker could withstand a small army, had concreate and steel walls tough enough to survive a direct bomb blast and had enough food, water, and breathable air for weeks. Either way, he wasn't going to find out anything by not speaking with her.

"Reyla, is everything alright?" Lelouch asked once he brought the phone up to his ear, but the voice that responded wasn't one he expected.

"This isn't Reyla, sir." Nagato, the man that has grown to be his family's primary butler/bodyguard answered, though he sounded frantic and barely holding it together, something that got him concerned as well.

"Nagato, what is going on?" Lelouch demanded of him.

"Hmmm, sir, Reyla….her water broke."

.

.

.

"What?" Lelouch asked him, wondering if he heard that right.


7th December November 2020 a.t.b. /3 9688 BBY:

Unknown Region:

Milky Way Galaxy:

Earth/Sol-3:

Ashford University:

"She did what!?" Rivalz yelled in shock as he and the rest of the council sat in their meeting room, having been forced to remain on campus ever since the ship showed up a couple of days before. Right now, Milly had just informed them of news she only received that morning.

"She gave birth, apparently." Milly repeated herself as she was still finding that hard to believe, sure they all knew she was pregnant, but they hadn't put much thought into when she would give life to children.

"But I thought she wasn't due for another few weeks." Shirley, who had spoken with the woman not too long ago, asked as she was told the baby was another two weeks out at least.

"Premature they did, but the twins are doing alright." Milly answered as she was concerned when she was told that, but Lelouch was quick to assure her that everything was fine and Reyla and the twins were doing just fine right now, as all three were resting seeing how they were weak and feeble while their mother was exhausted from an 18 hour long home birth.

"Twins?" Nina, who had been silent up until this point, asked as the thought of babies was appealing to everyone, even her.

"Yeah, a boy and a girl. Lelouch only manage to get there in the final couple hours. Their houseguest is a trained midwife and stepped up." Milly told them as she never thought that strange green-haired girl had such a skill set, but she told them she traveled through rural Europe a lot and when she needed money, she did odd jobs here and there. What she didn't know was that while C.C. wasn't lying, she left out the part where she picked up most of those skills in the 17th century, hence why she had no need for modern medicines or equipment.

"Oh, thank goodness. I can't even imagine how dangerous giving birth with no help would be. But why didn't they just go to the hospital?" Shirley, whose mother is a nurse, felt relieved to hear that as all she knew was that Reyla was under the weather but she wasn't going to a hospital.

"They don't have a car." Milly told them.

"You serious? I thought they did." Rivalz, who had seen the sports car the trio owned asked as though not the most spacious, the car was surely big enough for a pregnant lady and a driver to get to the hospital. Even if there was a stay at home order right now effective across the settlement, he was sure the police wouldn't stop them.

"Breaks were out. Suzaku was in the middle of replacing them but didn't have the right pads, so he placed an order for them. They'll only arrive tomorrow." Milly took that off the table.

"Honestly, that is some shitty luck right there. But everything's fine, right?" Rivalz sighed out as these past couple of days were turning out to be a roller-coaster of emotions and thoughts

"Yeah, Reyla's still recovering and they already had a doctor check up on them already, she said that the babies and the mother are both just fine, she just needs some bed rest for a few days."

"Thank God, that was a scare right there." Shirley said as she walked over to the window and looked up at the site that was slowly becoming a norm. "But I think we need to focus on the other scare right now." She finished as she stared up at the massive ship flying overhead as a couple of fighters flew right over their school at that same moment and moved to fly back to their mother ship.

"Yeah, that thing's been there for some time now, does it ever need to land?" Nina asked as she and Rivalz and discussed this in length after they noticed that hours had gone by with the vessel staying right where it was with no signs of stopping. These talks only got more ground when the first 24 hours had gone by with no change.

"Where the hell would you even land something that large in the first place? The docks?" Rivalz asked as something that big needed an entire field…or ten to land.

"But why hasn't Princess Cornelia does something about it yet?" Nina asked as she had been on edge ever since the damned vessel had arrived. She didn't know what was worse, the fact that the numbers had invaded them like this, or the fact that a battle hadn't broken out yet.

"Probably because that thing was there when Pearl….fell. Maybe she doesn't have anything to take it down." Rivalz suggested with a fearful wince as rumors had been circulating online about the faith of their pacific naval command post, granted there had been no statements from the government but more then a couple of students had family on the navy and none of them could make contact which was not helping anybody's nerves right now. "There's also the added fact that it can just fire down on us, they could literally drop bombs and bullets on us right now." He added in as in a recent news report, the camera had caught a picture of the weapons on the hulking warship.

"Rivalz." Milly warned him as he wasn't helping Nina with his statements one bit.

"What? It's true."

"I just think," Shirley started before the two of them could start to bicker. "We need to stay calm about things, not do something rash. I'm sure that things will be addressed soon enough." At that same time, the tv that had been playing in the background switched from the nature channel to an urgent news report about something happening with the government.

"Speak of the devil." RIvalz uttered as Milly picked up the remote and unmuted the tv so that they could hear what was going on.

"We are coming to you live with a special bulletin report. We have now about unknown warship currently hovering over the Tokyo settlement. We now take you all to the Viceroy's address to Area 11." The newscaster started as they explained the situation to them before it cut to the press conference. The people in attendance were no-brainers such as heads of the local government, representatives of both the media and the military as well as both viceroys and the knight of nine. It was the three dozen or so others present that stunned them.

"Hold on…" Milly started as she picked up on the five in non-imperial, black uniforms.

"Is that…." Shirley continued from there as the logo on those uniforms gave away just who they were.

"Can't be…." Rivalz finished as he saw the man in the mask standing in front of that group, the most wanted man in the empire right now.

The Black knights were in attendance, and not in chains.


(Imperial Bureau)

"To all imperial subjects and the….Japanese, I make this address." Cornelia started as she, in her full attire, took the stage to rely on what had been going on for days now. "For some time now, there has been an unknown vessel over our heads, in our skies. I am here to answer some questions," She paused at that as though she had time to meet with her siblings, her pride as a warrior and as a commander would be forfeited by this. "And to admit some harsh truths."

"The ships above us right now, if the flagship for the Black Knights, and much like the rumors say. It was involved in the attack on Pearl Harbour. An attack which left the base all but destroyed." Cornelia told the entire area, seeing the shock in the eyes of these present who weren't already aware, or was it maybe the shock of getting the confirmation to the rumors being spread by the E.U. "That combined with the continued victories of the Black Knights was what lead me to meet with the Black Knights some time ago." That one seemed to hit harder than the first as the media people there started to mutter no whisper to one another, but she didn't give them the time to and kept going.

"It was in this meeting, that I….as Viceroy of Area 11….formally requested a surrender to Zero and the Black Knights. We….we have lost this fight, failed to squash this uprising, and as a result…as 13:00 hours today, I have formally signed the surrender papers." Cornelia admitted to the world as she had signed those damned things just hours prior, what she didn't tell them was the fact that she could have signed them a while back but that was before they ironed out all the details and though she and her people managed to get better conditions, it was clear that they got the short end of the stick with the agreement. The real kicker though as the fact she legally didn't have the power to release an area from imperial control, only the prime minister with the support of the house of lords or the emperor himself could make that call. The point they were making with this whole thing was just to show how badly they had lost, and to dare the emperor to fruitlessly send men and machines to their doom since as long as her brother\s forces had those…Star destroyers, noting they sent would matter and be destroyed long before they made landfall.

"Here with me, is Zero himself. To address the people himself." Cornelia as she stepped aside and allowed the masked menace to take the stage and turned to the crowd which had mixed reactions. The nobles in attendance feared for their lives from him, the media were more curious to find out more about him and his agenda while those from the military looked downright disgusted by his presence, but none of them seemed to faze the man, if anything, he did not even appear to care about it.

"Thank you, Princess Cornelia, for that introduction." Zero started as he looked towards her as she chose to stand rather than take a seat next to her sister and her knight, displaying how much she did not like this. "As I'm sure many of you are confused and angry about this, I shall do my best to keep things short. It is as she says, Cornelia has surrendered to be and recognized that the Black knights are the ones who rule Japan. She had also relinquished any imperial holding on these islands and has recognized Japan as a free, independent, and sovereign nation once more. As are the terms of the treaty, all imperial troops and assets are to be moved out of Japan and we of the Black Knights will aid the Britannians in this." Zero told the world as was sure he could feel the excitement building up in the ghettos at the news, but also the confusion and dread building in the settlements as millions of Britannians wondered what was to come of them now.


(With the Ashford group)

"As well as this, all imperial prisoners captured during our struggle for independence will be return to Britannia, in exchange for all Black Knight prisoners. Though to keep order, imperial law will still be in effect until a new set of laws can be approved by the new government, however, any laws about the numbers system, honorary Britannians, and special rights and privileges awarded to full Britannian citizens and nobility have now been revoked. As of this moment, all are equal and have the right to their culture, religions, and nationality. There are no more elevens, only Japanese!" Zero announced to the world.

"He did it….he went actually and did it." Rivalz, who never thought that the rebellion would grow this large and powerful, felt himself eating his words as area 11 ceased to exist.

"But….but how….the empire is the strongest on earth." Nina on the other hand, looked like she couldn't comprehend the announcement as that would mean that the imperial might of the empire….lost, that they were now on foreign soil.

'Was this your dream, lulu? To see it burn?' Meanwhile, with Milly, she watched on in shock as the news that the Black rebellion had won, that the first major uprising since the French revolution was officially a success. But the question was, how would this affect global politics, and how would the homeland react to this.


(Chinese Federation: Tianzi's private quarters)

"This message is to all those of you who have supported us throughout this struggle. We have won a major victory here today! For we have toppled the Area 11 colonial government as liberated the people of Japan and with that, I hereby declare our independence once more! With this, you have earned your freedom! With this, you have earned your pride back! So look to the rising sun tomorrow that this land was named for and know that you have regained the right to yell from your heart, to hold it dear to your souls, that you are Japanese! Today is the first day for true freedom for us all!" Zero all but yelled to the world as the Black Knights all jumped to their feet and saluted him in uniform, their joy at the news clear for all to see. Zero let this go on for a little while longer before he began to claim his men down.

"However, while I despise Britannia practices and the royal family, I will not tolerate any crimes of hate against Britannians in Japan. We are better than that, show them the kindness that you all wished they showed you, it may feel right to take revenge, but we are not animals!" Zero called out to his people and the people of Japan, showing something that most of the world's leadership thought he lacked, decency and humility as most would have used this as a chance to eliminate any opposition to them and their new order.

"This next part is for all those you have come to call Area 11 their home, the Black Knights will aid the Britannian government in moving any who wish to leave out of country." Zero reported to them as he knew a great deal wouldn't want to stay in Japan. "However, for those who stay, so long as you obey the new laws, you still have your homes and I hope that many of you chose to do so." But on the other hand, many would have no choice but to stay, which means they'll have millions to care for, he could only hope he found people of use such as teachers, doctors, nurses, etc.

"What happens now?" Xingke asked after Tianzi paused the screen so that the two of them could speak.

"….Well, Kaguya did tell us he would be different. Do we have contact with them?" Tianzi replied as she took a moment to think about this, as she didn't think they'll get this far for another 5 months at least, but with the news that they already destroyed Pearl harbor and have a small fleet of massive, flying fleet. Both of which they knew nothing about beforehand.

"Not yet. Rakshata has been silent for the last two weeks." Xingke responded as their middle man, or in this case, middle woman hadn't sent them any new information for some time now.

"Try to contact Kaguya and see if we can't open talks. They might need support if the Britannians try a counterattack." Tianzi ordered him as she watched as Cornelia stepped back up and shook the hand of the man she was sent there to capture or kill.

"Would that be wise, your majesty? Britannia's presence in the Pacific right now is weak and stretched thin." Xingke asked as they already had reports of how many assets the Britannians had that could be deployed to Japan anytime soon. Granted they could move assets from the Atlantic but that would leave them more open to attack from the E.U.

"Maybe, but the Britannians might not give up their monopoly on sakuradite so easily. Also, it would be to get Zero more willing to deal with us and open trade deals. If we can get our hands on his technology quicker, then we'll be in a better position to deal with the eunuchs later." Tianzi told him as she saw that those ships cared the ever-loving hell outta her prison wardens, they fell over themselves wondering how they'll either obtain the tech or find ways to work around them seeing how Zero and his Black knights have rejected every attempt from the eunuchs to build a relationship between them. She even heard that every spy they sent had been found out, captured, and killed, leaving the Black Knight to be this unknown power across the strait.

"As you command." Xingke saluted her before he left the room, being closely followed by guards loyal to them back to his duties before someone noticed his absence.


And with that, the chapter and the story, are done. I'll be real here, I'm been into Genshin so much that I almost didn't write this chapter altogether, I planned to wait for next year but that seemed like a dick move seeing how it's the last one, why drag it into the new year. So because of the rather rushed nature of the chapter, I wrote this in three days, it might not be as good as my normal stuff as I feel that if I put another three days into it, it could have been even better. But to fix that, there will be a bridge story between this story and the sequel which will act as the epilogue for this one and sort of an introduction into the next one, don't worry, it'll be a one-shot. As I\ve not started work on it, all I can tell you is that it'll include flashbacks to the birth of the twins, more character reactions to Zero's speech, sibling bombing between Nunnally and her sisters, and info on how the hell Lelouch interns to run a country.


Onto reviews:

Dragonheart of Ireland: Thanks.

tf330129: Thnks.

Vein Bloodborne: Thanks for that compliment, though this chapter also came after a sort of hiatus itself. His sister's reactions will be further covered in the prologue story but I think that was a start to that. With the crossover ideas, I'm already swamped with ideas for stories as is and while I can shift them around, I can't write them all.

Wahyudison: I'm pretty sure I already answered the why they won't do that unless forced.

extremeninja09: Thanks for that, a lot of people were kinda sad that I didn't make use of more of the Star Wars side but I needed to focus on their world first. While I won't give spoilers, the dark side will have a larger role in the sequel story and have them off-world more.

x-x-TheBurnedMan-x-x: Hahahahah, I'm sorry about that, I really am, I didn't mean to refer when I wrote that but now that I see that I unknowingly did, I'm just laughing as I was saving that for later, oh well, there are plenty of Obi-wan quotes that have been made into memes.

Perseus12: Well, I made her smarter as she is older and therefore, more experienced. There was also his wording during their meeting during the hotel jacking which made her recall his banishment but the key as the fact that in his international address, he directly referenced things that Charles told him 11 years ago, things that only those who were present would have heard. Their masters will come more into being in the sequel story since it'll have more Star Wars content.

tsun: Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.

Dontus -not Donut- Powerus: Well….that is embarrassing. I'll have t fix that but that will take time.

Blaze1992: With the royals, they've already seen his power so their WTF moment wasn't as big as one would think but yeah. I'll leave that for later, no spoilers.

Rick: Well, I did get rid of that one review but with the admins, I've never had an issue with them so far, but I'll keep your warning in mind. And no, I don't have an AO3 account, though I might get one.

The legend lover: Cliffhangers are a part of fiction, plus the chapter was getting long and though I do release long chapters every now and then, they are abnormal and take a lot out of me.

Guest: Well, I'll just make sure that people know my work is the OG. Even I've tried to make stories that copy the ideas of other writers…..they never end well.

7: Woah indeed.

Coment9: She came to earth off-screen seeing how space travel in Star Wars is so common and relatively cheap that in one episode or movie, they could be in the mid-rim and the next in the core worlds or close to the unknown regions. With the guns, well I just like them and it was down because they can't afford to mass produce their own weapons yet seeing how they put most of their stock into spacecraft and knightmares. And yes, yes I am a Gundam fan. Yes, though I'm pretty sure that I said that already in the info for the Sakura class.

Vegito is King: Man, this was a long review so I'll do my best to address it. With the weapons and politics, that was one of the reasons I liked the prequels and the CGI Clone Wars cartoon so much since they have both in spades and help to explain how Palpatine convinced the entire republic to give him that level of power. Which is why I hated the Disney star wars and some of the extended material as they take a villain that was an evil genius….and make him a complete idiot, like the hell would he build an empire only to let it fall so that he could make another one? With Suzaku and Nunally being allies, though that fixes some of the issues, it still leaves others as they are still his weaknesses in the same way Ahsoka and Obi-Wan were Anakin's throughout the clone wars, the only real difference is that both can defend themselves and they are on his side from the get-go. With their personalities, I tried to keep them close to cannon without being too close.

Well of course they are, they are made of some of his best troops and closest followers in much the same way the Four Holy Swords were. With Oghi and Tamaki, while I don't like the two of them, I don't hate them as much anymore which is why I just wrote them out of the story and diminished their importance. They are still alive, and members of the BK but they are been given jobs that better suit them as we saw how poor Ohgi was as a commander and Tamaki….need I say more. Like with other authors, the whole multiple wives thing is more to screw with him seeing how someone like him would most likely dislike the idea as he came from a family with no love and many…many stepmothers, granted there are harems out there that get it done right such as Daily life and High School DxD as in both cases the main protagonist only has personality and is likable but the attraction from the girls makes sense as they have positive interactions with said protagonist that make them out to be the type of guy a girl would want to bone.

Kaguya herself was my third favorite pairing, with the second being Kallen and number one being Shirley, so I wanted to give her that time in the sun. As with my other story, the two of them would mesh well and even if they don't grow to love one another, they can still have a good, stable marriage that benefits both sides so yeah, it's mainly political. C.C...I have no clue what to do with her, Ha! I unknowingly wrote her to be so unimportant that she could vanish and it won't change a damn thing….okay, Alice would lose a housemate but that's it. Oddly enough, she will become more important in the second story as I did have a place for her there where she can grow some more and add to the plot.

Kallen was intentional though as despite the fact she has great respect and admiration for Zero for what he's done for both the freedom movement and her personally, she hasn't had the interactions with him or Lelouch to be that close to her, in fact, she is closer to Lockon and Lei Mei then she is to her boss. C.C. Their relationship at this point that of very close friends/boss-worker and it won't change from that. C.C. staying in the house is just so that we can get those moments every now and then and because Nunally wishes it seeing how they know what she's been through, so it's her being caring to the girl, even if C.C. will never thank her for that kindness despite that being what she wished for in life, having people to care for her.

With Code, they never give us a limit other than time to come back, but there are inconsistencies there seeing how Cornelia killed V.V., and with the knife still in his brain, he got back up like it was nothing. Though that has been an issue with immortalities for a long time, what happens if the body is destroyed, how do you come back from that? Forever fixed that seeing how immortals there when they die, their old bodies vanish and they revive with a new one in some large body of water, so even if you caught them in the center of a nuclear blast, they would still come back so long as there are large bodies of water on earth.

I didn't like the movies, they butchered the original material in my eyes seeing how it not only added new scenes but removes old ones, at times, entire episodes and mini-arcs are gone, even the wiki admits that they are their own thing like how the different fate series and movies are their own thing. Like, I was shocked and pissed to find out that in the movie universe, episodes 1 through 13 for R2 are not shown at all and only a small selection of moments from half of season 2 are mentioned later. Are you trying to tell me that half the content wasn't important since we know have no clue what Lelouch was doing for a year, how he returned, how he got the band back together after his year-long absence, how they came to liberate the federation etc. Heck, even his moments with Shirley and Kallen are cast aside since most of those scenes are gone yet the movies still act like they are any different from the literal horde of girls that like him. Without those crucial moments for the characters to grow closer and distinguish their attraction to him from all the other girls who only think he's a pretty face, their interest in him seems…shallow.

Also, how the fuck did C.C. think Shirley could smuggle the body of the most hated man on earth away? How did she do it in the first place? She may have been close to him but she was still just a schoolgirl, what school girl could pull off something like that? I'm sorry, but just the premise for the third movie stopped me from watching it as the guy that could predict an entire conversation word for word, couldn't see that the nation that runs on war wouldn't like world peace?

Ramos: Well, clearly this wasn't a comment meant for me so…..

Syqadelic: He\s a different person, and they don't affect the story so they are more easter eggs than anything else.

NinjahMonkey1: what….?

JCarrasco: Hope you like the chapter then.

Blackholelord: That was the whole point of choosing the old republic era as I don't have to worry about too much happening on that front such as the Clone Wars or the Galactic Civil War as earth would stand no chance to either side of any of those conflicts as even the rebel alliance would make mince of Earth if they wanted to, and as I like to forget that the Disney Star Wars movies exist so please don't bring things up from that era. There is also the fact that not only is the Great Galactic War between the Sith Empire and the Old Republic is raging on right now but this story was just the first one where I set up his powerbase on Earth.