"Your highnesses, you may want to see this."
Two princesses one with purple hair and the other pink, looked over the report the purple one's knight gave them in her office.
The purple-haired one's eyes widened in bewilderment.
"A girl in a flying throne, travelling the countryside and... what?"
"Sister--" the pink-haired one started.
"I do not understand," the purple-haired one told the knight, "You say she... talked to them. That's it?"
"And played with them," the knight added. "I believe there were dolls involved. And cards."
"She must have done more than that!" said the purple-haired one. "How else could that slum have... it's only been months! And what of the sanctions?"
"None have been violated, your highness," said the knight.
"None have been... impossible! The sanctions forbid Elevens in Shinjuku from spreading to the rest of the area."
"But they don't forbid Britannians from spreading into Shinjuku," said the pink-haired one with a soft, triumphant smile.
Her mysterious rival was getting quite bold, she knew, to bring the Shinjuku Ghetto into her network. Said rival would owe her a big favor for what she was about to say next.
"The girl in the flying throne may yet persuade them to become honorary Britannians. Our empire will be stronger for it, if the Japanese no longer have a reason to fight us. We could put an end to all resistance and take away support from Zero and his Black Knights."
"Euphemia, what are you saying!?" the purple-haired one shouted at her as she jumped up from her seat. "You would give them exactly what they want!"
The pink-haired one, Euphemia, stood up to.
"We would also receive what we want," she argued. "Are you so blinded by hatred and rage that you can't see that, Cordelia!?"
"And how are you not!?" the purple-haired one, Cordelia countered with angry tears in her eyes. "They killed Nunally and Lelouch!"
"And they wouldn't have if father hadn't sent them here alone without any guard!"
"That was just a test of the Elevens' char--" Cordelia protested.
"It wasn't and you know it!" Euphemia argued, her eyes also brimming with angry tears. "If it was, he would have placed tracking devices, hidden agents and weapons to defend his children! Yet our secret service was never ordered to enter Japan prior to the invasion. There are no records of that anywhere that I could find, and as a princess my security clearance ought to be high enough to do so."
"What--what are you saying?" Cordelia sputtered. "Euphemia..."
"The Japanese government may have pulled the trigger, but it was our father, the emperor of Britannia, who gave them the gun and tacit permission to fire. He is complicit in the deaths of Lelouch and Nunally, same as they are."
"Um... am I dismissed?" asked Cordelia's knight.
Cordelia glared at him.
"Do not speak of this conversation to anyone. I must speak to my sister in private."
"Yes, your highness!" the knight declared. He saluted and then left.
Cordelia turned back to her sister.
The argument was surprisingly short. Euphemia had come prepared. She knew exactly what to say, what Cordelia would say in response, what prior actions she needed to have taken and what records she would need on hand to show her that she was serious and committed to her course.
They were sisters after all, and knew each other well. But Cordelia had never really listened to Euphemia before.
I'll give her this one chance, she told herself afterwards after Euphemia left the room. Her plan seems sound. She clearly put a lot of thought into this. And if it doesn't work out...
She grinned nastily. We can just do things my way.
Meanwhile...
A black-haired young man stared at his sister in shock when he got home. Gone was the wheelchair. And in its place was... was...
"Do you like my hover chair?" she asked him with her eyes wide open, spinning it around in the air while her brown hair whipped aroind her. "Nina helped me build it."
"I..." a look of dawning recognition appeared on her older brother's face. "It was you. Nunally, you... you were the one behind Shinjuku's restoration? And the other ghettos too?"
"Not all of them," said his sister, Nunally. "Some chose to replicate my efforts elsewhere. But for Shinjuku? Yes, that was me."
Nunally's brother was still staring at her in shock, like he just couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Stop underestimating me, Lelouch," she told him sternly. "Just because I'm younger than you and a girl doesn't make me dumb."
Her dark-haired older brother, Lelouch, sat down heavily upon the couch.
"How did you do it?" he asked.
"You thought you needed to make a better world in order for me to become friends with it," said Nunally, smiling. "You're wrong. I needed to become friends with the world to make it better."
"But-- but how did you protect yourself?" Lelouch demanded. "How did you avoid getting caught? If anyone found out we're alive--"
"Contact lenses, makeup, hair dye and the right outfit make an excellent disguise, wouldn't you say?" Nunally answered. "And if anyone tried to hurt me, I could just fly away."
"But the sanctions--" Lelouch protested.
"Only apply to businesses, nonprofit organizations, and the Japanese residents of Shinjuku," said Nunally with an impatient frown. "Not to a private full-blooded Britannian individual like me. Or my friends at school."
Did he even bother to read the laws before he started his rebellion? she thought to herself incredulously. Just because he's planning to overthrow the current government doesn't mean its useless to understand it.
"You know what I've been doing after school, don't you?" Lelouch asked her, his eyes narrowed.
"Preparing to overthrow our father?" she giggled. "After he tried to have us killed, I would be surprised if you weren't."
"And you're about to tell me to stop," Lelouch said in dismay. "Because violence is wrong."
"Violence is wrong," Nunally told him pointedly. "But as much as I hate it, I will not ask you to stop. You wouldn't listen, anyways."
"You're right," said Lelouch. "Even if your way of doing things happens to work, it might not. And I have come too far to stop now."
Nunally smiled sadly at him.
"That's why there are four of us," she said. "You with your rebellion, Suzaku with his rise in the ranks, Euphemia with her political manuevering, and me with my ever-growing circle of friends."
"I see," said Lelouch quietly as the gears turned in his mind. "It makes sense to have four different plans. It lets us cover our bases. So if one of them fails..."
"Another can succeed," Nunally finished. "Although I'm unsure where C.C. fits into all this."
"Neither am I," Lelouch admitted worriedly.
She does seem like a natural fifth person in this tangled web of fate we weave, he thought. What is her goal? What do I owe her in exchange for the power she gave me? What are the terms of our contract? She still hasn't said.
"Brother?" asked Nunally. "Is something wrong?"
"I don't know," said Lelouch, standing up from the couch with a yawn and a stretch. "But tomorrow I will find out."