AN: sorry for the delay, my reasons will be given below the chapter.


Chapter 5

New Allies

It wasn't exactly easy for Lelouch, preparing to meet Jeremiah Gottwald. For one thing, it was the first time he was intending to deliberately reveal his true identity to someone.

Sure, every indication was that Gottwald would have strong loyalty to him, but that was no guarantee.

It wasn't as though he could use his allies to eliminate the man if he was unwilling to keep his survival secret, as that would require him to reveal his identity to his allies and any spies amongst them, if they even left a former member of Britainnian royalty who tried to ally with them alive.

So, whatever the consequences, he was going to meet with a member of the Britiannian military alone with the intention to reveal his true identity and how he had killed Clovis.

It was moments like this that Lelouch wondered if he'd gone mad during his exile.

In any case, he needed to prepare.

The first step was to examine the Gamer store, for anything useful.

While they wouldn't be too useful for protecting his identity, he decided to grab a few listening devices, which would at least give him some warning if they revealed him. The description informed him that all conversations within range of the device would be recorded and sent to a chosen phone (or similar device), with optional alarms for chosen keywords. Of course, it was still possible to listen in real-time.

He also picked up an emergency evacuation pod, which seemed a bit too large to fit into his inventory, yet appeared there nonetheless.

With the evacuation device he had a way out should things go sufficiently wrong, but he was well aware that if he needed to use it it would only be a mark of how badly things had gone wrong.

He had been unable to find anything that would enable him to ensure that his identity would not get out if he did have to run, however.

All that was left was to plan his meeting.

[Ψ]

Lelouch was glad he decided to place a listening device at the approach to where he had contacted Gottwald to meet him.

Without placing the device he wouldn't have had warning of Gottwald bringing a companion.

"Who are we supposed to be meeting?"

The voice was familiar, and after a few seconds of thought Lelouch was able to recognise the speaker as the woman whose Knightmare he borrowed in the Shinjuku Ghetto, a 'Villetta Nu' as he recalled.

"I don't know, but it was Zero who called for the meeting. To share what he knows about the deaths of Clovis and Marianne the Flash. It could be him or his informant."

"Are you sure you can trust him? This could easily be an ambush."

"That is why I brought you. Stay back and call for assistance if he tries anything."

Lelouch cut off the listening device and called Gottwalds number. It took a while for him to answer, which wasn't entirely unexpected.

"I thought it was obvious that I wanted t meet alone," he told Gottwald, "but no matter. I am willing to talk with your companion as well. Viletta Nu, correct?"

"How do you-"

"How I am aware of you not holding to the spirit of our agreement is of no matter. Approach, both of you. If I wanted to talk over the phone I could have done so without calling you out here."

He ended the call, switching back to the listening device. It would be easier if he could run the feed through his Zero mask, but then it could be useful to let someone else listen to the feed.

"He knew you were here. We don't have any choice but to meet him together."

"I still think it would make more sense to bring him in for questioning, rather than just go along with his demands."

"After the farce of a trial for Kururugi I doubt we would have a chance to get any information from Zero before he was executed. This is the only way we can get any answers. Wait, who's there?"

Lelouch had stepped into the alley in front of them, placing the phone back into his inventory as he did. No need to make them think he was keeping in touch with his allies during the meeting. There would be enough mistrust without it.

"It has been a long time, margrave Gottwald."

The pair was immediately on guard. "When did we meet?"

Villettas response was more direct. "You... you were that boy in Shinjuku! Lamperouge, wasn't it?"

Her confusion, mixed with a touch of surprise, was sufficient that she clearly didn't notice the look of recognition Gottwald made at hearing the name.

"Indeed, but when I last saw the margrave I was still using my fathers name. My name was Lelouch Vi Britainnia."

The response to his name was immediate. Villetta was stunned into immobility, while Jeremiah fell to his knee, with a cry of "my prince".

"Stand up margrave, my position was taken from me after all."

"Only after my failure. Can you forgive me?"

"It is no failure when you stood against a royal conspiracy," Lelouch responded.

"A royal conspiracy," Villetta scoffed. "Why would one of your relatives have your mother assassinated?"

"That is what I wanted to find from Clovis. All I learned was that he believed other members of our family," he ignored the popup informing him that his deception was unsuccessful. He hadn't tried that hard to keep the derision from his voice after all. "may know something. Aside from trying to claim his actions were to 'avenge' me and my sister."

"Nunnally survived as well?" The relief in Jeremiahs voice was obvious, to the degree that Villetta couldn't help but glance at him in surprise. "Wait, do you mean to say that you are the one who killed your brother?"

"If he had been left unchecked he would have killed those I consider my friends in my name. After everything he did, there was no way I could leave him alive."

It was most likely his dead tone of voice that caused the pair to drop that line of questioning.

Even now he could recall good times with Clovis back in the palace.

"What is your connection to Zero?"

"I am Zero," he stated simply. "Zero is my way to act to protect Nunnally. If Britainnia is allowed to continue as it has she has no future. I cannot allow this."

Jeremiah looked shaken. "You intend to destroy the empire for the sake of your sister?"

"There are others whose lives the empire destroys, it just took my sister for me to realise."

"Why abandon your position then? You could have changed the system from within." It seemed Villetta was intending to join the discussion.

"If I did, my sister was lost. You know the principles of the empire. And with a successful assassination within the palace it was safer to be banished." This wasn't something he had realised at the time, but rather worked out after the invasion. The way the family he had been sent to was targeted by the army was an eye opener for him. "I still don't know for sure who was responsible."

"My lord," Jeremiah started, clearly coming to a decision, "I had pledged my life to avenging you and your sister, but as you live I must instead pledge my service, in repentance for failing to protect your mother. You may no longer have a noble position, and may feel that there was nothing I could have done, but you will always be my lord, and I will always remember my failure."

Allegiance Attained

Jeremiah Gottwald

Declared a popup, alongside an expansion of his stats.

Giving them a quick look before returning to realtime, Lelouch was shocked to see a loyalty stat, which sat at 95 out of 100. How was Jeremiah so loyal already? And how did he not have an allegiance popup appear earlier? The more his 'Geass' revealed of its functions, the more questions he had.

"My thanks, and when we raise a new empire, without the flaws and hatred of the one we oppose, You two shall be named among the first of its nobles, so long as your loyalty does not falter."

Allegiance Attained

Villetta Nu

This time the loyalty stats was much lower, sitting at 53 out of 100.

As time resumed she bowed her head towards him, a gesture of respect tempered with a caution he could respect in turn.

"My lord, there is something I feel you should know. The next viceroy has been named as Cornelia."

Lelouch considered what he knew of his half-sister. "I suspect she will prepare a trap for Zero. If you are willing, I would have you gather information for me. Do not attempt to sabotage her efforts without my direct command, it would only raise her suspicions and could reveal my sister." A thought occurred to him. "If Cornelia is coming here, she will most likely bring Euphemia. Do what you can to protect her, Euphemia is one of the few me and Nunnally could always trust."

"Do you want to try and arrange a meeting?"

"No, that would only put her in danger."

And he would never countenance harm coming to Euphy.


Omake:

It occurred to Lelouch that messing about with the Options page before going to his meeting wasn't his best idea.

He could see Viletta and Jeremiah watching in concern as he tried to walk towards them.

It wasn't easy when his viewpoint was displaced so drastically by the "camera" options and the location of the third-person-perspective.


AN: the omake makes fun of my first idea of how to have Lelouch meet them, before I remembered I was writing it entirely from his perspective.

In any case, I apologise for how long this chapter took. It came down to certain factors like people waiting until the last minute to pass their records to their accountant, who then has to rush to get them filed in time, making December/January a busy time for accountants, I don't have the space to download the Code Geass wiki and the wifi has been practically non-existent after having someone to come and fix it.

A final note: if you think I've made any spelling mistakes in one of my chapters please tell me what mistakes there were. I have made sure that all the names used match what the wiki gives, so unless I made a serious mistake, which needs pointing out, any errors I made were from the wiki, and need to be corrected in both areas.