Chapter Ten: Plans in Motion
Kallen had to admit, she'd enjoyed her time in the Pureblood faction.
After acing the physical and written tests, she'd been allowed to return for training. She'd have to come after school to do it, and she was in. Since she wasn't going to the resistance anymore, she had all the time in the world.
It was only as she stepped off the bus near Ashford as the sun was waning that she realized what had happened. She was a Pureblood now, part of a racial supremacist group. And she'd enjoyed talking with Villetta, listening to what she had to say.
Drawing out her phone as she approached the clubhouse, Kallen made a call. "Naoto?"
"Kallen, you're here. How did it go?" asked Naoto.
"I'm in. They expect me to train with them after school every day," said Kallen. "It could take me a while to get anywhere, though. How did tracking down those gas canisters go?"
"It turns out they were being sent to a lab on the outskirts of the ghettos," said Naoto. "It's nearest to the Viceroy's palace, though. I've contacted Kyoto about it, and Nagata and Tamaki are transporting both to them.
"They should be able to see what it is.
"I also did some searching at a library and couldn't find anything about them. It's probably new tech."
"Right, thanks," said Kallen. "Listen, I have to check in with the Student Council and then go meet Mom."
"Right, good luck," said Naoto.
Hanging up, Kallen walked up the white steps. He entered the door and found a green-haired, glasses-wearing girl looking at her. "Oh, Kallen Stadfteld?"
"Nina, right? Um, I don't believe we've met," said Kallen.
"Oh, no, we haven't," said Nina. "Um, did you join the Purebloods?"
"Yeah, they accepted me for training," said Kallen. "I'll have to go there after school from now on, so I won't be able to help as much."
"Oh, that's wonderful. I'm really happy for you," said Nina. "Um, the others are waiting inside. They are all a bit on edge."
"Why?" asked Kallen as they walked another flight of steps.
"Lelouch should explain," said Nina.
Entering the meeting room, Kallen looked around and saw the others all sitting in silence. They kept giving Lelouch glances, and Kallen didn't like it. Moving forward, she wondered what had happened. "Hey, I uh... I got accepted into the Purebloods. Which is good."
"Oh, excellent. Glad for you; it's a real opportunity," said Milly quickly.
"Yeah, that's great. Just... great," said Shirley.
Silence. Kallen and Nina sat down.
"Well, this is awkward," said Lelouch after a moment.
"Lulu, we have to talk about what happened," said Shirley suddenly.
"Shirley-" began Milly.
"No, don't shut me up, Milly! We have to talk about this!" said Shirley.
Silence.
"Alright, let's talk," said Lelouch.
"Lelouch... you..." Shirley faltered.
"Keep in mind, Kallen is here," said Lelouch. "She might not know everything that is going on." It was a warning not to say too much. Kallen had seen them use the same trick.
"I could wait outside if you-" began Kallen.
"No, thank you. Stay. You're part of the council; this concerns you," said Milly.
"What you did was wrong, Lulu," said Shirley finally. "I mean, you escorted those guys and... you loosed them into the ghettos with no protection."
"How much protection do you think their victims had, Shirley?" asked Lelouch. "They would have killed all of us. And maybe done worse to you and Milly. Nobody would have cared."
"I agree with Lelouch," said Nina. "And Black King had black skin. No one is going to care about a couple of dead monkeys."
Black King? As in, the mafia boss who had employed resistance groups? Naoto had to tiptoe around him. And what was with Nina's racism anyway? Why wasn't Kallen having a stronger reaction? And he was dead?
What the hell kind of soup kitchen were they running.
"That's not why we set this place up," said Milly. "We didn't set up a soup kitchen to hurt people."
"Shirley is right," said Rivalz. "Don't you think you could have come up with a plan that didn't involve-"
"The chess game was my plan!" said Lelouch simply. "I was hoping Black King would be a good sport, okay. I thought we could play some chess, then I win, and he'd let us go. Now, I didn't think for even one second that he'd actually honor his end of the bargain.
"That's why I made the plan I did.
"I hoped for the best and planned for the worst. And the worst-case scenario was that Black King needed to die!"
They'd really done it.
"Oh shit," said Kallen. "You... you whacked a mafia boss." There was going to be a power vacuum now. Black King had mostly employed numbers because he knew the police would never deal with them. It gave them an incentive to toe the line.
"We didn't murder anyone," said Lelouch, and Kallen guessed that was a use of exact words. "Black King tried to pull a gun on us. We caught him off guard. We disarmed him and his bodyguards, stripped him, gave him a bible, and I escorted him naked into the ghettos.
"Seeing as everybody heard six shots shortly after he went in, we're pretty sure he's never coming out."
"How?!" said Kallen.
"He got sloppy," said Lelouch. "He figured we were a bunch of stupid schoolchildren. That I assumed winning a chess game would compel him to back off. I let him think that served his bodyguard's food, we took him by surprise, and the rest is history."
"Shit," said Kallen, thinking about what this would mean. "...And you're sure he's dead?"
"Are we alive?" asked Lelouch. "Because if he was alive, none of us would be. Under no circumstances whatsoever could Black King be allowed to live once we pulled a gun on him. Sending him into the ghettos naked was little more than an attempt at murder by proxy.
"We were putting him in a position to be killed in a way that could not be connected to us. Morally speaking, there is no difference, only legally.
"I take responsibility for what had to be done.
"If it becomes a legal issue, I'll take the fall."
Dead silence.
"Jesus, this is not what we signed up for," said Rivalz. "What happened? Why is it that everybody in the entire universe wants to hurt us?! All we're trying to do is feed the hungry?!"
"Because our existence galls them, Rivalz," said Lelouch in sudden anger. "These parasites live empty, sinful lives of hedonistic excess! And because they live in sin, their attention is focused on distracting themselves!
"It doesn't matter that what we're doing is helping people. And they don't care if it makes Britannia more stable. Their lives have not gotten any worse for our actions.
"It's not about power.
"It's about ego and self-satisfaction.
"They don't want to admit that good can triumph! They don't want to admit that ordinary people can make a difference! They don't want to admit that there is anything worthwhile in this world other than power and luxury!
"Because the second they admit to any of that, they'll have to look at themselves in the mirror. And they don't like what they see there."
At that moment, Nunnally came into the room through a side door, pushed by Sayoko. She had a tray of glasses. "Is everything alright?"
"I apologize, Master, Lelouch. We will come back-" began Sayoko.
"No, let Nunnally stay. We don't want to keep secrets from her," said Milly.
"Yeah, I mean, she's like an honorary member of the student council," said Rivalz.
Lelouch was dead silent for a long moment. "...No, no, things aren't alright, Nunnally. Operations are getting a lot more dangerous; Nina just out of the hospital. And we almost got sent to the morgue. And we could have some serious problems later."
"We're done here," said Milly suddenly.
"Milly?" asked Nina. "Are you-"
"Lelouch is right," said Milly, shaking her head. "Look, this was a nice idea. But Britannia... they want us gone. They've scoffed at us; they've laughed at us. Then they attacked us and wrecked things. And now they've given mob bosses the O.K to extort and murder us.
"Who is going to help us, the police?
"I'd love to think that if we just stick with it a little longer, everyone will come around, but..."
"But that isn't going to happen," said Kallen simply.
"They'll kill us if we keep doing this," said Lelouch. "Maybe they even thought Black King would kill us."
"Are we... are we giving up?" asked Rivalz. "After all we went through to get where are, we're just going to throw in the towel?"
"The situation is escalating, Rivalz," said Lelouch sadly. "We operated just fine for a few weeks and helped a lot of people. Then Tamaki showed up, and we talked him down. Things worked out for a while after that, before Milner showed up and wrecked the place. Black King showed up, and we got rid of him with guns.
"What are we going to do next? Buy an army of Knightmare frames?"
"That's an option," said Milly. "As Student Council President, I'm shutting the soup kitchen operation down."
"But Milly-" began Shirley. "We can't help people if we're dead, Shirley.
"No more distributing pamphlets either. We're going to lie low and wait for people to forget about us. Maybe we can put our efforts into some zany parties, take a break."
"It makes sense," said Nina sadly. "I guess I can work on my economic theories."
Kallen realized she was watching the destruction of a resistance cell.
Yes, they hadn't hurt anyone or even broken the law. But the existence of the Student Council had been fighting Britannia. It had been undermining what it represented and bridging the gap between people. The hatred that had been enslaving so many people had been lessening, and people were waking up.
But it hadn't mattered, in the end.
Because raw, brutal power could force them to stop. And that was all that mattered in the end, power. So the Student Council would take a break but never stop the break. Anytime someone suggested; otherwise, the memory of men with guns would cow them.
They weren't dying, but their spirits were being broken.
"We can't give up," said Nunnally suddenly.
"Nunnally I-" began Shirley.
"When Jesus died and returned from the dead, the disciples preached his word," said Nunnally. "But when the city of Jerusalem became hostile, they instead spread it across the world. And after they did, Jerusalem was sacked by the Romans."
"And what happened to all of them?" asked Lelouch keenly.
"Well, um... it's not a perfect metaphor," said Nunnally. "But, well, maybe we should try something else that is less risky. We don't have to stop helping people. We can just help people in a different way."
"So it's all been a waste," said Kallen, who saw where this was going. "We've failed."
The only thing it had done was get Kallen a place in the Purebloods. The knowledge made her sick.
"That's not true. We fed a lot of hungry people and handed out those bibles," said Shirley.
"Yeah, I'm sure they'll make excellent tinder on cold nights in the pouring rain," said Lelouch. "And people need to eat every day.
"...It wasn't supposed to be like this."
"What was it supposed to be like?" asked Kallen, curious. Lelouch had never struck her as one with high hopes.
"This was supposed to start a movement," said Lelouch. "We supposed to set an example and cause many other people to do the right there.
"A wave of concern and political activism would have gotten Clovis to adjust his behavior. And little by little, Britannia would change. It would change from within because the people within it would change.
"But it doesn't matter.
"Power comes from the mouth of a gun, in the end. We all know that now."
"...We don't need the soup kitchen," said Rivalz suddenly.
"What?" said Lelouch.
"We can still do this," said Rivalz. "And we don't need to go to the soup kitchen."
"Rivalz, what are you talking about? How are we supposed to cook the meals?" asked Shirley.
"Look, the way I see it, our problem is that the soup is a huge target with neon flashing signs," said Rivalz. "Anytime some thug with a badge wants to cause trouble, they can head over to us. It's a static thing that can't move.
"What if we get an RV?"
"An RV?" asked Nina. "You mean like one of those large mobile vehicles."
"Yeah, why not?" asked Rivalz. "I can get a driver's license for it. Or Ms. Sayoko could drive us in the meantime. We can get a vehicle that has everything we need for the job. We can move it wherever we like. Maybe Nunnally could come with us.
"If criminals decide we're on their turf, we'll just move a few blocks down. If the police don't like us operating in a place, we're good."
"And what about the eating area? How will people know where to find us?" Shirley.
"We could probably write; 'Free food for the hungry on the doors or something.'" said Milly. "Or maybe have designated locations that we come to on a certain schedule.
"We can make it work."
"That's a wonderful idea, Rivalz," said Nina. "And we'll be able to go all over the place, so people won't have to come as far."
Had...
Had Rivalz come up with a way to win? To keep going despite this? It seemed like it would work. Kallen had to play devil's advocate here, though. "Now, hold on a sec.
"You're talking about going from place to place like it's no strings attached. But, um, a lot of resistance groups are really ruthless. You guys lucked out in Shinjuku, but what about ones that are real terrorists?"
"We should probably do some research on the areas," said Nina. "I'm sure the Britannian government has some information. We could operate in less violent places; there are records on that."
"This is a good idea," said Lelouch. "But I insist on finishing the weekend."
"Lelouch, the mafia could come back tomorrow," said Rivalz.
"Well then, we'll just have to make sure they know they aren't welcome," said Milly. "We've got a couple of police outfits in the Student Council clubhouse and some fake mustaches. They could pass from a distance?"
"You want to impersonate a police officer?" asked Kallen, surprised.
"Why not?" asked Milly, winking at her and putting her long legs up on the table. "Lelouch, we'll dress you up as a police officer with a mustache. You'll stand guard outside and walk back and forth. Any criminals who decide to come by will think that we're under police protection. They'd have to be complete idiots to shoot us without checking with their boss."
"That trick won't work for long," noted Lelouch. "And they might be complete idiots."
"We only need to work it for one day. The Mafia don't like shooting cops; it leads to public pressure," said Kallen. "Nothing brings the heat down one someone like gunning a person in uniform."
"All we have to do is stall them for a day anyway," said Shirley. "I mean, they might not even come by."
"Fine then. Let's finish the last day and start work on Rivalz's plan," said Lelouch.
"With respect, Master Lelouch, I believe I should organize this operation," said Sayoko.
Silence.
"Well, you heard the ninja," said Lelouch. "Sayoko is in charge."
"What now?" asked Rivalz.
"Do you still have some of that champagne?" asked Shirley.
"Um yes, but-"
"Break it out; I need a drink," said Shirley. "Oh, Lulu, seeing as we're probably all going to die, will you go out with me?"
"Um... yes," said Lelouch, taken offguard.
"Great, I'll be there too," said Milly quickly.
"Just get me some alcohol," said Shirley.
No one argued with that.