Don't Stop the March of Time

by Kamil the Awesome

A collection of one-shots detailing a variety of "What could have been?" in the life of Lelouch vi Britannia, the course of his crusade to destroy Britannia, and to create a gentler world.

4. The Imperial Selection I

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The Imperial Selection

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I

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Inspired by

"Final Command" by Bard Linn

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"It's nice, being able to sit here and relax with you, Onii-sama. You should take more breaks. We're all worried about what may happen if you overwork yourself."

Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire, glanced over at his younger sister, Nunnally vi Britannia. He smiled slightly, amused by how her soft, indigo eyes hovered upon his expression as if she would lose her vision once again. His heart clenched at the thought, his palms briefly wet. One morning she woke, able to open her eyes once more.

Father's geass did that to her. If he weren't already dead, I would have killed him solely for blinding her, exile and abandonment be damned.

"I'll try to be better about not working too much, Nunna-chan," he replied softly. "I've just had a lot on my mind. Being emperor is not an easy task, even with the bureaucracy and nobility to help run the Empire." Especially after having purged the worst of the corruption Father allowed to fester.

Her head tilted slightly, a troubled smile gracing her clear face. "There's something on your mind, isn't there?"

Seven months had passed since his coronation, the moment at which he officially became Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire, her sole and sovereign ruler. It was not something he had desired, but when presented with the duties and opportunities it presented, he had seized them as a means to achieve his own ends. At first, he had little choice in the matter. His father, the man he hated most, had never denounced him as an heir to a throne that lorded over a third of the world. Following a purge of the Imperial Family, the throne had come to him, being alive and intact—despite being in hiding. While it had derailed his rebellion, it also opened his eyes to how short sighted and childish he had been as Zero.

People suffered everywhere—Commoners, Numbers, even those with some power that did not follow the absurd Social Darwinist ideology spewed from the mouth of Charles zi Britannia. Where Zero could only fight for the Japanese, Emperor Lelouch could seek to safeguard every subject of Britannia and their legal rights, some of which he had to craft wholesale.

Even so, he thought, looking away from his sister. Some days I feel as if what I do is not enough. Having Suzaku by my side has been a boon to my plans, but I need another that I can trust without doubt. Someone who agrees with the vision I have, and can assist me in bettering it for all.

I also need to silence the most persistent concerns about my rule. Perhaps I should…

While his rule was continuing to stabilize, walking the narrow tightrope between traditionalist nobles and the more progressive masses, there was a matter all considered of due recourse: the imperial succession. With the exception of himself and his half-sister Euphemia, the newly appointed High Vicerine of the Pacific, the Imperial family was otherwise comprised of those too crippled for the Social Darwinist public to accept as their next sovereign, should the worst come to pass. Lelouch had taken up fitness regiments with both Suzaku and Sayoko, seeking to put to rights his own physical weakness. One day the programming of his father would be swept away, but he feared it would take decades to achieve that aim without drastic and bloody measures.

He sighed, knowing he had to commit to a path he felt unprepared for. "Nunnally," Lelouch began, meeting her gaze once more. "What traits should an emperor look for in a consort?"

She blinked before her indigo eyes bulged. "Onii-sama! Have they finally gotten to you? Euphy will never believe me when I tell her you're actually interested in a wife."

Lelouch grimaced at his dear sister's words. "I'm being serious here, little sister. I cannot get through a single meeting with the Privy Council nor with my Prime Minster without the issue being raised. The parliament bellyaches about it weekly, and several dukes have attempted to introduce me to their daughters for that sole purpose. Not a one has been appealing in the slightest, but they continue to throw them my way as though I am some primal man with simple lusts. If they could give a fraction of their beauty for a reasonable mind, perhaps I would not be as frustrated over this quagmire."

Nunnally giggled. "No wonder you never took interest in any of the girls at Ashford." She paused before asking, "Was there someone on the student council you had an interest in? They were the ones you were closest to."

He considered the question, if only to avoid any unknown pitfalls from admitting ignorance towards the fairer sex. His sisters would give him no end of trouble if he did so before pushing whichever girl they liked most in his direction. Milly, who had taken fully to her duties among the higher echelons of the staff of the Imperial Palace, was more of a second sister than anything else—a terrible one, as if Guinevere had liked him as much as Cornelia did before his exile. Euphemia and her got on like a house on fire, a resurrection of their terrifying childhood at the Aries Villa. If anything, he would get around to restoring her family's status as nobility, even as he worked to curtail their powers. Perhaps he could return their old title and lands as a gesture to reward their faithful service to the vi Britannia line.

Nina, he barely knew any more. She was firmly under the thumb of his brother Schneizel, working on the In Vogue Project in Dallas. If he understood the reports correctly, she was developing something that could either be used for energy purposes, or as a strategic weapon. He was pressing for the project to move towards energy production over weaponization potential, but he wouldn't deny the value the latter could have should the Chinese Federation or the EU get ideas beyond what was still theirs.

He glanced at Shirley several feet away, speaking with the third daughter of a baron. While he was more than grateful for her companionship, especially for Nunnally as one of her handmaidens, he now knew there was no return to how they had been. An unassailable gap had formed between them, though he had never done much to aid her in crossing it until it was too late. He had thought she would eventually adjust to his change in rank, yet it never occurred. Perhaps if he had been born Lelouch Lamperouge in truth they could've been happy together, but Shirley Fenette no longer had an opportunity to be the right woman for Lelouch vi Britannia.

And then there was the question of Kallen Stadtfeld, the mask worn by Kallen Kōzuki, who was still in Japan.

Lelouch sighed, running a hand through his raven-black hair. He found himself missing her, despite—or perhaps in due to—her activities as a terrorist from before they came into the same orbit. Sometimes during the brief moments of downtime he eked out during his busy days, he would envision what his life could've been like were he still in exile. Regardless of the state the Black Knights of different envisioned futures were in, there had always been one constant—Kallen Kōzuki, a woman who denied her Britannian name in her fight for the Japanese. She would be his Q-1, a soldier loyal to his cause, and worthy of the title of knight.

I even named her as the queen of my chessboard during that skirmish in Shinjuku, Lelouch reflected fondly. It was fitting then, given her tremendous skill as a devicer. A third-hand Glasgow lasting that long against fresh Sutherlands… I wonder how she would've fared against Suzaku and the Lancelot had she a comparable Knightmare…

"Who are you thinking of, Onii-sama?"

He blinked, turning to Nunnally with a slight frown. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I couldn't tell if you were feeling pain or longing for whomever you were thinking about. And, well, I was curious about who could affect you like that."

After a moment of hesitation, Lelouch smiled. "I was thinking of Kallen, actually." He peered up into the pale blue sky over Pendragon. There wasn't even the wisp of a cloud. "I wonder where she is right now."

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Kallen Stadtfeld sneezed, a slight sound that barely disturbed the classroom as she rubbed the bottom of her nose. She glowered at a classmate who tried to offer a handkerchief, wondering who had been talking or thinking about her. It was a silly Japanese superstition she held onto dearly, like a fond memory of the sakura blossoms.

For too many months, she had been living her life solely as Kallen Stadtfeld, the last living child and heir of Earl Vance Stadtfeld. It was a life at odds with the persona she latched onto her childhood, that of Kallen Kōzuki, which had to be set aside with Zero still missing. At least, that was what Ohgi told her nearly every day whenever she tried to convince him to allow her to visit the rebuilding Shinjuku. The few times she attempted to return on her own had ended with either him or Inoue taking her back to the Stadtfeld manor, lecturing her the entire way back. If the Black Knights even gathered anymore, she didn't know. Apparently it was a better use of her time to spend her days as an insipid schoolgirl, living a life that amounted to little more than a house of lying cards.

Thus she suffered days at Ashford, avoiding the house she lived in with every effort she could afford. The Student Council, which for a brief time had become a strange oasis of friendship in a desert of deceit, was defunct as the principal took up a greater share of managing the school. While she still received messages from nearly everyone, only Kallen remained at the Academy in Tokyo. The rest had moved with their families to Pendragon or elsewhere, some even folded into the court of Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia.

She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but Kallen regretted not taking the opportunity to attend Lelouch's coronation. Instead, she had been with the Black Knights, the last time she had spent a meaningful amount of time with those who had been her brother's resistance cell. On reflection of that afternoon, that was when things had begun to change between her and them.

Perhaps it's because I was as awestruck by Lelouch's coronation speech as I was by Zero's Kawaguchi speech, Kallen later realized with an awkward blush. If they had the suspicions I have, they would've understood my reaction.

Instead, they've kept me at arms length.

Kallen sighed. She felt confident in her theory that Lelouch had been Zero, but it raised more questions than it answered. Why had he remained at the Ashford Academy, posing as a commoner, when he could've returned to the Imperial family? Why kill Prince Clovis, his half-brother, at Shinjuku? How did he even get wrapped up in that mess? Why even bother creating the Black Knights if he was going to abandon them?

And most of all, had he actually cared about the Japanese?

It was tough to tell with the last one. If she were honest, life had gotten better under Britannian rule since Lelouch became the emperor than it was before. From what Kallen could scrounge up, life as a Honourary Britannian was fairly respectable, despite the implicit idea still in her head about them abandoning their native culture. Her mother lived elsewhere now, going through therapy for her past addiction. The implementation of anti-harassment and anti-discrimination laws now prevented cases like the hot dog salesman she had once seen with…

She rubbed her face before staring at the blackboard blankly. If not for the expectation otherwise, she would've returned to her past trend of not attending classes at Ashford. Any real friends she had at the school were gone, and where her heart wanted to be was now off-limits to her. On days like this one, she wished that Kallen Stadtfeld and Kallen Kōzuki could be separate people, allowed to live their separate lives in peace.

Though the real question, she thought, knowing exactly where her mind was drifting once more, is whether Japan will be allowed her independence, or if we're destined to remain part of Britannia.

Lelouch couldn't allow their nation to leave the Holy Britannian Empire, especially with the public announcement and brief scandal over his appointment of Kururugi Suzaku as the Knight of One. Having a former Number, especially the child of a foreign ruler, as the Emperor's stalwart knight and confidant had sent shockwaves through Britannian society. Kallen wondered if she should let go of her brother's dream and accept that Japan would remain part of Britannia as long as she lived. There was a chance that the lot of the Japanese people could be improved under the new Emperor's leadership, regardless of their nation's liberty and sovereignty.

The Japanese might once more live as they had as equal citizens of the Britannian Empire.

"Miss Stadtfeld," cut in the teacher's voice. Kallen straightened as much as her sickly persona would allow. "If you aren't feeling well, you should head home for the day. I understand with your…constitution that daily life, including your schooling, can be difficult for you."

She held back her sparking fury. It would be too easy to snap, especially since she couldn't put a finger on why she kept up the pretense of being sickly. It wasn't as if she was a terrorist/freedom fighter any more. If her father was going to insist she improve her attendance marks, then maybe she should've told him the truth about her and Naoto. The truth of what they had been up to, behind his back, and why he had to bury one of his children.

Instead, Kallen meekly nodded, even if she didn't move to leave. She suppressed her voice, weakening it to the point those in the back would have to lean forward and said, "I'll be fine today, though I may take tomorrow off."

The teacher nodded and returned to the lesson. She didn't bother to listen, having already missed most of the lecture so far, lost in thought. Kallen was growing increasingly irritated, thinking of her failures to leave the settlement as she used to. Ohgi claimed it was too dangerous and her father had cut off her normal paths out of the house, yet she struggled to remember the last time there was a terrorist attack anywhere. Area 11—Japan—had become peaceful.

Thanks to Lelouch.

Kallen sighed. Once more her thoughts had spiraled back to him, their new Emperor. It was becoming a serious problem with how insistently they plagued her. But then given he was arguably the most powerful man on the planet, it was hard to keep thoughts of him at bay. Everywhere she went, his face was upon a screen or a page, his name upon someone's lips.

And strangely enough, she missed him. They hadn't been close friends, but Lelouch Lamperouge had come across as a dependable man, even if he came across as being too passive for her liking and was as overprotective as her late brother.

How much of what I knew of him was real, and how much was what he wanted me to believe?

Increasing it appeared to Kallen that Lelouch had gone to great lengths to deceive everyone around him. It explained how he could go seven years without a disguise beyond falsifying his death and taking on his mother's maiden name. Nobody, beyond the Emperor himself and the Ashfords she guessed, had a clue that Lelouch vi Britannia was pretending to be a commoner. And as much as she could hate him for being a liar, she was guilty of the same crime. None of her classmates knew she was a half-breed, the daughter of a Japanese woman as well as the daughter of a Britannian nobleman.

It's because I'm a coward.

It was a harsh thing to think. Yet she knew the changing climate within Britannia meant that sooner or later, she could be honest about her heritage and not need to worry about any negative consequences. The only pushback she'd likely receive would be anger over the deception she had crafted. If Kallen felt she could safely do so, she probably would have admitted to who she actually was at some point within the past seven months. Instead, she kept it close to her chest, acting as if nothing had changed in the past half year.

Or maybe I care more about life at Ashford than I thought I did.

The teacher straightened at the front of the classroom, scanning them carefully. Kallen didn't need to fake a look of attention. Given the strange change in behavior, she wondered if the teacher was about to say something that would require her to seriously pay attention for once.

"As you all know, Emperor Lelouch has decreed a greater level of legal equality between Britannians and the Numbers—or, as His Majesty's Government has begun to mandate, non-Britannian citizens of the Empire. In this region, nearly all are Japanese." The teacher rubbed the back of his head, as though he didn't understand the decisions made by one of his former students. Kallen had tensed at the way he pronounced the actual name of her people. "Part of this change deals with educational facilities, including private and family operated academies like this one."

Someone stood, a chair rattling. It was one of the obnoxious girls who used to swoon over Lelouch. "Are we going to have half-breeds at school with us? Even more Ele—uh, Japanese like Sir Kururugi?"

Kallen's hands clenched as several others agreed with the girl. All of them agreed that they weren't comfortable having someone who was Japanese in their classroom, let alone a half-breed like—

"Miss Stadtfeld?" asked the teacher. "Is there something you wish to say?"

She blinked and realized that she had stood up. Eyes were fixed upon her, surprised by the vitality the sickly heiress they perceived her as had just displayed. An idea developed in her mind, fostered by her personal angst.

It's now or never. Do I continue living the lie, or…

"Yes, there is," stated Kallen. She straightened, taking on more of how she was while Kallen Kōzuki. Her blue eyes found the first girl who had spoken out against going to school with half-Britannians. "If you're so worried about going to school with a half-breed, then you can stop already. You have one in class right now." She bumped a thumb against her chest, her emotions running as fast as her thoughts. "My mother, the first woman my father married, is Japanese. I was born Kallen Kōzuki-Stadtfeld, and I was raised in this land before the invasion. Frankly, I consider myself more Japanese than I do Britannian."

The classroom remained silent for nearly a minute after her impromptu statement. The girl Kallen had incidentally confronted gaped, eyes bulging.

"You…you liar!" she sneered, outraged. "You allowed all of us to think you were one of us!"

Kallen snarled, glowering down at the girl. "You really think after what happened with the invasion, after the invasion, that any Japanese person would want to be one of you?" She marched across the classroom, stopping right before the girl to force her to tilt her head up. "I'm only here because I was fortunate enough to appear more like my father than my mother!"

The girl flushed, turning away with a squeaking 'humph!' The redhead forced down whatever frustrations she was still feeling and looked around the classroom.

"Does anyone else have issues with me?"

She waited for a reply. After half a minute with nobody even meeting her scanning gaze, Kallen returned to her seat as though she had not stood up and interrupted anyone. The girl sitting next to her—one among the small group she spent time with while at Ashford—scooted away, if only by a few hairs.

Strangely, it hurt.

For the rest of the day, nobody at Ashford dared to meet Kallen's gaze. She almost wished they would, if only so she could get an idea of what they were thinking.

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Ricardo "Rivalz" Cardemonde sometimes wondered what he had done in his past life to deserve his current one. His divorced parents had been really weird after he told them that his friend Lelouch Lamperouge, chess gambler extraordinaire that was filling their bank accounts with a ridiculous amount of pounds sterling, was actually Lelouch vi Britannia, once the Eleventh Prince of the Empire and now the 99th Emperor of Britannia. He had moved with his mother to Pendragon, to remain closer to his best friend, while his father had visited them—or more appropriately, him—a few times from the old home in California. Santa Monica didn't hold good memories for him anymore, though he wouldn't mind getting to know his young half-siblings.

He hadn't received a formal position in the palace, like Milly and Shirley and even Sir Suzaku Kururugi, but that suited Rivalz just fine. He'd rather remain under the radar, enjoying his life in a carefree manner. He didn't feel he was suited to some comfy office job or a middling support role among the bureaucracy.

Rivalz was his happiest with his friends, and when on the road upon his motorbike. It might sound childish, but he had seen what became of the adults who grew up too quickly. And unfortunately, his best friend was among them now.

It was his love of his motorbike and lack of interest in climbing the social ladder that made him uniquely useful to Lelouch, as he learned a couple weeks after the coronation. While his best friend never said so outright, Rivalz had picked up on the fact the errands he ran for the Emperor were the kind that, while wouldn't tarnish his good name were they to come to light, were of greater benefit kept quiet and secretive, out of the limelight.

Most of the work was carrying messages and helping people move about without being outright noticed. He appreciated the work, especially since he had gotten to see the crystalline waters of the Caribbean, the great forests of the South continent, and even the old Homeland lost to Napoleon thanks to his friend, the emperor.

"I need you to return to Japan," Lelouch had told him, meeting in secret at a hole-in-the-wall San Francisco pub a few days after a mutual friend hit the headlines with a shocking revelation. That the Emperor could hide so easily among commoners amused Rivalz. Almost as much as he had been shocked a friend from the student council had hidden an entire half of her heritage. "There's someone I want you to quietly bring to Pendragon, and there's nobody else I can trust to do so. I'll handle informing her father while you're in Tokyo."

Rivalz didn't need to ask whom he was speaking about, especially after he was given a ticket to Japan. The Stadtfeld scandal, as the purebloods and traditionalists were calling the continuing incident, had been all over the news. He had been shocked to learn meek, sickly Kallen Stadtfeld was half-Japanese. She didn't appear to be half-Britannian, having the classical blue blood looks in spades. Yet it made sense when he thought about it, given her odd absences and the fact he realized she had a healthy, athletic shape despite the lie about being sickly. She had been up to something questionable, though Rivalz doubted he'd ever learn the full story.

He and Lelouch weren't in a place to pretend they were perfectly law-abiding, given that gambling was heavily regulated—and they had been minors, making millions off of stuffy nobles and arrogant businessmen.

But Lelouch, Rivalz suspected, already knew exactly whatever Kallen Stadtfeld had been involved with. Hell, the blue haired Britannian wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Lelouch had played a role in propping up that Zero revolutionary who appeared a few times before vanishing into the ether. He had watched the Emperor play chess enough times to know his buddy was wicked smart and manipulative as hell. And given the masked man's two public appearances resulted in the rescue of the current Knight of One and then their friends from the student council, it would make a great deal of creepy sense if the current Emperor had been somehow involved.

His phone began to buzz, the ringtone faint against the rushing breeze. Rivalz pulled his motorcycle over into the shoulder, parking before picking up to answer. He swore that he was near the place where he had seen Lelouch fall into the back of a truck, captured by what could've been terrorists. The idiots had nearly driven them off the road, driving as fast as they did with an oversized lorry. Before he could speak, the person calling him spoke.

"It's me, Nina."

Rivalz blinked. "It's been a while, huh," he said dumbly, surprised by who had called him. He struggled to think of the last time he had seen her, other than perhaps during Lelouch's coronation months earlier. "This is a surprise. What's up?"

"It's…uh, it's about Kallen. I've been thinking about the news surrounding her."

He paused, lips rolling into his mouth as he chewed on them. Rivalz had always been a touch perplexed over Nina's presence in Japan back when it was still Area Eleven. Her family didn't have any financial connections to the colonial state government, nor was she of a more libertine mindset. Nina Einstein was remarkably xenophobic, uncomfortable with even the suggestion of being around someone who wasn't White Britannian, let alone non-Britannians. Lelouch and Milly had worked together to ensure she had never come into contact with Sayoko, which Rivalz thought was a shame and even harmful for their friend. The Japanese maid had always made the best cinnamon biscuits and had a caring nature he wished his own mother possessed.

Not even the presence of Suzaku Kururugi had been able to completely undo or roll back Nina's worst behavior. He wished they could've had an intervention for her back then, but past was past.

"How are you feeling about it?" Rivalz asked, hoping for the best.

"I…I don't know," Nina admitted softly. "I'm angry that she kept it a secret from us, but I'm also relieved that I never knew. I…I know I would've treated her terribly, like I used to treat Suzaku."

Suzaku? When did that begin?

Grinning, he said, "It's great to hear that you and Mister Sir Kururugi are getting along, Nina. He was always a really nice bloke, and I know it tore him up how you acted around him. He wouldn't say it, but the discrimination hurt him, regardless of how accustomed to it he was."

"I know. He told me, after I apologized for my past behavior." She paused, hesitating. "He even introduced me to Princess Euphemia, though I haven't seen her in person since His Majesty assigned her as the Pacific Vicerine."

Rivalz nodded. The only people who were more approving of Princess Euphemia being made the Vicerine of the Pacific—being the former Areas Seven, Nine, Eleven, and Twelve—than the Britannian public who loved the few royals they still had were the former Numbers themselves. The Elevens—the Japanese, he had to remind himself—were particularly pleased, especially after the scrapped plans for a "Specially Administrated Zone of Nippon" was leaked from the Imperial Palace following a scandal concerning an alleged romantic relationship between her and the Knight of One.

Rivalz honestly hoped it was more than just a rumor and that the two were happy.

"Maybe I can speak to Lulu about having Princess Euphie return to the Homeland for a few months," Rivalz suggested. "Though I'm not sure it'll work out. Our dear emperor has me running errands best kept quiet until he can execute his strategic masterwork."

"So you're in Are—I mean, Japan?" asked Nina, as though already knowing what their friend and sovereign had in mind.

"Uh, yeah," he admitted awkwardly. He didn't think she would guess so easily, but it seemed obvious now that he thought about what he had said. "Seems Lulu might've been in the know about Kallen's heritage. I don't know what plans he has in mind, but he wants her in Pendragon. That's why I'm back over here."

There was a snort from the other side and Rivalz couldn't help his beaming grin. A laugh from anyone was always worth the effort. "Nobody would believe me if I said a friend of mine referred to His Majesty as 'Lulu'."

"You should as well," he replied, glancing over his shoulder. "He found it amusing, the one time I let it slip before a few lords." Traffic was appearing to pick up once more and it wouldn't be safe to remain talking where he was. "Hey, I need to get moving, Nina. How about I call you later."

"Uh, sure, Rivalz," she replied. "And…I would like to speak with Kallen, as well. Once she's in the Homeland."

He beamed the entire way to the Stadtfeld family manor.

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In the weeks following her heritage being leaked to the press and exploding across Britannian tabloids, Kallen Kōzuki-Stadtfeld found herself confined to the family manor. Her mother, thankfully, was with Ohgi in the increasingly diverse Ikebukuro District, where the Emperor's efforts to integrate the former Number population with progressive Britannian commoners was in the midst of a messy, but hopefully productive affair. Kallen wished she could be there with them, but her father had sent word from Pendragon not to go out in public until the matter could be swept under the rug. While he hadn't said it outright, she had a feeling he was calling in any and every favor he might have to once more cover up her heritage—or to get it out of the news. She was frustrated that she couldn't say which she'd prefer. Only that this disruption of her life wasn't worth the hassle. Her stepmother fluttered about the manor, caught between glee that her stepdaughter had been exposed and fury over the media people parked just beyond the gates, as though it was a threat to her in particular.

Kallen couldn't muster up anything more than exhausted apathy over the unwanted attention. If she could've foreseen everything that would have followed her declaration in class, she would've apologized after suddenly standing and made up some strange story instead of publically admitting to something she had unloaded upon those unprepared for it, herself unaware of the consequences which might arise from the decision. The pressure of pretending to be fully Britannian had clearly gotten to her. Frustratingly, all of her Ashford friends had gone silent, giving her a cold shoulder.

I don't need them, she decided, sneering at the thought of them even daring to ask for forgiveness. Kallen grunted, arms curling with her heaviest dumbbell. The only means to use up her excess energy was to work out. They don't deserve it. If I were actually their friend, they would have cared enough to say something.

There was a knock at her bedroom door. Setting down the set of dumbbells she worked with, Kallen called out, "What is it?"

The door opened without her express permission, yet it wasn't her stepmother—or a maid or even her father—intruding upon her sanctuary. Instead, it was a friendly, familiar face she hadn't seen in months. One she had assumed would've forgotten about her, even with the recent headlines.

"Rivalz?" she asked, astonished, as he entered her bedroom. "What are you doing here?"

He looked around her room, whistling. "Sweet digs, Kallen." Grinning, he met her confused gaze and said, "I'm here on Lelouch's behalf. He probably would've phrased this all nice and fancy as would be appropriate given who your old man is, but the short is he wants you to come to Pendragon."

She blinked. A long, confusing moment passed before she remembered exactly which Lelouch both she and Rivalz Cardemonde knew.

Her jaw clenched, and she crossed her arms. His gaze dropped roughly thirty centimeters before springing back up to her cold blue eyes. She immediately decided that the moment she got the chance, she would hurt him. Badly. "What does His Majesty want?"

To her surprise, Rivalz shrugged. "Doubt he would've told me had I actually asked. Lelouch didn't even confirm it was you in particular until I asked like an hour ago. He's more paranoid than he used to be in the past, which given that a week before Suzaku started attending Ashford he got himself kidnapped by terrorists, it's sorta sayin—"

"Kidnapped by terrorists?" she asked, feeling sickly at the sudden, stirring thought in the back of her mind. Kallen had once thought the motorbike and sidecar Rivalz owned appeared familiar, but thought little of it. If what she feared were true, then that would explain how Lelouch got involved. Assuming my theory about him and Zero is correct. "You mean the incident in Shinjuku, the one responsible for Clo—Prince Clovis' death, right?"

Rivalz blinked. "Yes? I thought though that Prince Clovis was assassinated a day or two later, not at Shinjuku."

Kallen held back a grimace. She desperately hoped he wouldn't question her on that topic. She shouldn't have known exactly when the former prince would have been assassinated. Even with her Japanese identity known, she should've thought something similar to the general public.

Instead, a sudden and sly smile graced his face as he asked, "Speaking of back then, what did happen between you and Lelouch then? You know, in the shower. I do hear all manner of gossip from Milly and from what she got him to spill, you're the girl he's ever gotten…close with."

He wiggled his eyebrows as mortifying dread crept down her spine, coloring her cheeks. She had long since tried to forget that she had once held the current Britannian emperor at knifepoint while naked, afraid he knew about her past terrorist activities. Nothing could center her more in the media's eye than for that story to somehow escape into the public's awareness, even if Lelouch would spin it to hide the fact they had both fought Britannian Colonial forces. Admitting it to someone like Rivalz, who should keep Lelouch's secrets but might not, made her feel sick.

"That is between me and Lelouch," she growled, glowering. "And he promised not to tell anyone."

"Tell what?" asked Rivalz, lacking any awareness of impending physical harm. Her right hand impulsively curled into a fist, but before she could approach him, he continued speaking. "But honestly, I think Lulu does miss you. Pretty sure he's just using this whole…incident of you becoming a public figure to slip you out of Japan and to Pendragon. Your arrival will be swept under the rug, naturally. Or as least as much as possible in Pendragon."

Kallen frowned, wondering what he was trying to imply. "If that was Lelouch's intention, to bring me to Pendragon, then why wait until now? Couldn't he have sent you or someone else after his coronation or at some other point?"

Rivalz shrugged. "Lelouch wasn't specific, but then I didn't ask. If you want me to guess… I could try. I do hear the gossip from the palace thanks to Milly."

She pressed her lips thinly for several seconds. Eventually she sighed and said, "How bad can it be?"

"Well, there's one rumor that Lelouch is seriously looking for an empress consort. I don't think that's why he wants you around, but given Shirley is always complaining about how distant he is and how both she and Milly constantly hear about the Privy Council pushing for him to get married…"

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Earl Vance Stadtfeld paced, hands clenched behind his back. He had been quick to answer the summons of his Emperor. All Britannians were raised to answer the Throne's summons, regardless of who might sit in that august chair. It did trouble him, though, that the man who now sat it was of age with his daughter. He had just escaped the attention of Charles zi Britannia following the "Liberation" of Japan, even with his family forcing him to divorce his wife and marry a woman of their choice, and he was concerned that despite his reforms, the new Emperor would not look kindly upon his daughter being of Japanese descent. He had enemies and rumors aplenty to fight off without official disapproval of his lineage.

Following his arrival at the Imperial Palace, a Knight of the Rounds had led him to a waiting room. It was remarkably and deceptively simple with a single rug of geometric designs and three chairs, lined against the walls without doors. They were all of the highest quality, polished and cleaned daily. Everything was a reminder of the power Britannia's 99th Emperor possessed, despite having just reached the age of majority, but also a statement Earl Vance doubted most nobles would pick up on:

You are beneath me.

The second door, one he had paid less attention to, swung open. Sir Suzaku Kururugi, the Knight of One, appeared in the doorway. Earl Vance had to remind himself that the current emperor had once been a guest in the household of former Prime Minister Genbu Kururugi, and likely had befriended the young man who was now his sworn shield. It had come up in passing from Kallen that he had been in attendance at Ashford for a few brief months.

"Emperor Lelouch will see you now, Earl Stadtfeld. Follow me."

He nodded and followed the Knight of One from the waiting room. The young Japanese man said nothing as they walked down a wide corridor, lined with Romanesque busts. They passed paintings of glorious men and tragic battlefields, of natural beauty and the bone aching longing of the Britannian people to reclaim their homeland, the Island of Britain. Before he realized it, they reached a great set of doors, navy and gold and gilded with a thousand gems. His heart thundered in his chest, palms clammy. Earl Vance tried to draw up what the Emperor wished to speak with him personally about, but his mind continuously and without fail returned to his daughter.

Oh Kallen. What have you done to draw the attention of such a powerful man? Did you truly follow in Naoto's footsteps, as I always feared?

The Knight of One pushed the doors open, glancing back momentarily as though he expected the Earl to turn back. Earl Vance followed the younger man into the chamber and found that the grand Imperial throne room was dark beyond a handful of large basins at the far end, flickering with large flames. The throne reached up to the ceiling, vanishing into the darkness above. The Emperor sat there, filling the seat akin to his father, though not as greatly as his father had.

They crossed the chamber slowly, giving the Emperor time to finish up with whatever concern he was addressing at the far end. Another Knight of the Rounds was reporting to him, a short girl with pink hair. She bowed and turned away just as Vance got within range where he was expected to kneel.

"Don't bother," said the Emperor, his voice softer than the media footage and presentations had revealed. He rose to his feet, dressed in white robes embroidered in red and gold that seemed wrong upon him. For whatever reason, he swore the young man should be wearing violet or black. "Thank you for answering my summons so swiftly, Earl Stadtfeld. Especially in the wake of the media spreading news of Kallen's true heritage. It was of no surprise to me, but I imagine few of those who regularly came into contact with your daughter would've known. I have enough reports from the region where your lands are that some are happy about the news, though for reasons you would not appreciate.

"But then," the Emperor continued, violet eyes flashing, "A brief glance at your personal history would make clear the Heiress Stadtfeld is of mixed ancestry."

Earl Vance stared at the Emperor, thinking over the words chosen. He had given little thought to whom else might've come into contact with his daughter while living in the now former Tokyo Concession until very recently. There was something about the Emperor's word choice that gave him pause, and worried him.

"Your Majesty, did you know my daughter?" he ended up asking, dreading the answer.

The Emperor smirked, bemused by the Earl's question. "We attended the Ashford Academy in Japan together. In fact, she was present shortly after I was informed that I was to become the Emperor, and was there in person when I knighted Suzaku Kururugi. Had she not had her…medical issues holding her back, she would have been one of my guests for the coronation."

Earl Vance hadn't known that. In fact, he had been quite disappointed when Kallen insisted that she wished to remain in Japan instead of coming to Pendragon for the coronation, as a young lady of her standing and rank was expected to do. She would be the Countess of the Missouri when he died, and to his regret she was vastly unprepared for her future duties. The chaos and pain of the invasion had ruined their relationship and poisoned her to the life she was, if unwittingly, born to. He could only hope the public revelation about her heritage wouldn't threaten her future as Countess over one of the most important trading and farming regions within the nation's heartland.

That error is my fault, allowing my sentimentality and Shizuka's wish to raise Naoto and Kallen in Japan instead of Britannia, where they should've grown up. I failed them with that decision, and I lost my son because of it. I can only pray I won't lose my daughter to whatever the Emperor has in mind.

"Is there some matter concerning my daughter that I must know of?" he asked carefully, watching the young Emperor. "Despite everything you have done so far, you could forgive me for being concerned about your summons."

Violet eyes stared intently, seeming to peer right into Earl Vance's soul. Their locked gazes held, as though the first to flinch would lose everything he cared about.

"If I asked for her hand in marriage, would you agree to it, Earl Stadtfeld?"

"I—you wish to ask her what?" asked Earl Vance. He took a moment to breathe in slowly before continuing, "I must have heard something, Your Majesty, or did you just ask me to consent to allowing you to marry my daughter?"

"I did."

The simplicity of the words, married to the young emperor's commanding tone, nearly tricked Earl Vance into agreement. He couldn't deny the benefits that would come with his daughter being made an imperial consort—perhaps even the First Empress. He had a nephew, his sister's child, who could succeed his earldom instead of Kallen if necessary. She had been planning for that eventuallity since Naoto's death, though he had never formally recognized her child as his heir. And yet, Vance knew his daughter well enough to know simply agreeing on her behalf would cause troubles that could be avoided by making it her decision.

After a long moment of false consideration, he said, "If you can convince Kallen to marry you, then I will agree to the match. Though I wish you the best of luck with that endeavor, Your Majesty."

The Emperor stared at Earl Vance for a long moment, piercing violet eyes seeking weakness. The Earl held steadfast, resisting the instinctual impulses like to gulp or to breath harder. It was rough upon him, yet he wanted to display the willpower he knew both of his children possessed. Had possessed.

"Then we shall see what Kallen says, though I suspect she shall have many questions before I get my answer," the Emperor finally replied. He turned away, ignoring the deflating noble now behind him. "She'll arrive in Pendragon in two days time. I will summon her five days after that, to answer the very question I have posed today. Feel free to inform her of my intentions, should you wish so.

"You are dismissed, Earl Stadtfeld."

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"It's about time she finally came across the Pacific," muttered Millicent "Milly" Ashford, watching an airship begin its final approach into the nobility terminal of Marianne vi Britannia Memorial International Airport. "That girl has escaped too many grand times, pretending to be sick. She will be making it up to me." She glanced at the knight on her right, grinning terribly. "Though from the rumors I've been hearing, she won't have a choice, just like Emperor Lulu."

You're the ones spreading them, the knight thought, closing his eyes ever so briefly. Hopefully Kallen doesn't know yet, though I wouldn't put it past Rivalz to let it slip.

Suzaku Kururugi, the Knight of One, sighed. The Mistress of the Imperial Palace, as was Milly's official title, pouted in response. He was hesitant to call some of the events Milly had put on since she had come to Pendragon as 'grand', though several had been amusing. The fact the Britannian Emperor had officially sponsored a Crossdresser's Ball for the entire nobility still drew a beaming grin onto Milly's face whenever anyone spoke of it, regardless of what they said.

Somehow, she had looped him, Nina, and Shirley into welcoming Kallen to Pendragon. Kallen's father, Earl Stadtfeld, stood a few meters before them, his wringing hands held behind his back. Lelouch had merely frowned at the invitation and said he would summon Kallen when he wished.

Suzaku had taken that to mean the prescribed date provided to the Earl.

"You can't blame Kallen for wanting to stay in Japan, being half Japanese," Shirley said, even as her tone spoke otherwise. "And given she was hiding her heritage by pretending to be sickly…"

He frowned, but said nothing. Suzaku had asked Lelouch about Kallen's fake sickness and had received that damned, frustrating smirk in return. His friend and liege knew about the secret Kallen had been keeping from them—and it couldn't merely be her heritage, as explosive as it had been. The news was settling, especially as other half-breed noble children came to light in most corners of the empire.

"I wish she could've trusted us enough to tell us, though," pouted Milly. "I only found out she wasn't a full blooded Britannian because Grandfather wanted me to hand deliver a copy of her middle grade transcript to her residence. Naturally, he swore me to secret."

"Sorta like how you knew about Lulu and Nunna?"

Before Milly could reply, the airship they were waiting upon pulled into the dock. It was a small craft, designed for a compliment of five. While some models were used for pleasure cruises across the Caribbean, most belonged to the Diplomatic Corps and were available, if for a steep price, to any member of the nobility. Kallen, as the sole daughter of the Earl of the Missouri and as a guest of the Emperor once in Pendragon, would have had no issue in acquiring an airship of this model for her journey. Suzaku knew well enough, thanks to Lelouch, that she had flown from Tokyo to Pearl Harbor and then onwards to Pendragon.

Why Pearl Harbor and not Honolulu, he hadn't asked. A security reason, most likely.

Earl Stadtfeld led the way into the localized arrival. Secrecy measures were at their highest in this portion of the airport, and they had many reasons to keep secrets about the woman aboard.

The forward entry hatch opened and an elongated tube stretched outwards to seal onto the entry. The passengers disembarked, made their way through the switchback chamber within, and passed through the threshold before them.

Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald, his privileges restored by the vi Britannia line, emerged first, his white long coat swaying with each step. He stopped before the doorway, hesitating in whatever gesture he had wanted to perform. After him came Rivalz, Lelouch's agent to ensure Kallen complied with his wish and the first of their group to reunite with her. He was dressed in an upscale version of the Ashford uniform, though with the Emperor's personal crest on the collar.

Milly had preened when she first saw the uniform. Suzaku swore Lelouch gave her too much leeway.

Kallen then emerged through the threshold, Jeremiah bowing as she passed him. She wore tall boots under red, thigh-high socks. Suzaku had no clue what exactly to make of her rather skimpy shorts, which revealed a hand width strip of skin around her thighs, but he immediately tensed at the sight of the black and grey jacket she wore over her white shirt.

"The Black Knights," whimpered Nina, eyes bulging behind her large glasses.

Suzaku's mind flailed for understanding. In the chaos of the year since Charles zi Britannia passed away, he had forgotten about Zero and his Black Knights, who had interfered in the affairs of Britannian occupied Japan. He still remembered the carnage of Shinjuku, the harrowing night of his rescue, and his distress during that terrible day when his friends were taken hostage. Lelouch had never confirmed his suspicion, yet the Knight of One suspected the reason the masked revolutionary vanished entirely was due to the change in his status.

Now that he saw her in that jacket, and understood her heritage, it clicked. The woman with red hair who had driven the car, who had been upon Zero's beck and call during his infamous speech, had seemed familiar after he concluded it had been Lelouch under that mask. That woman was now before them, using the cover of the Black Knights as a fad to bring a part of her uniform into the heart of Britannia.

Is this the real reason why you seek Kallen, Lelouch? Are you going to continue the madness that begun upon that fateful day, when we were briefly reunited?

They ignored whoever followed Kallen off the airship, for he doubted any of them could focus upon anything beyond the symbol of a friend they still did not know and understand. None of them had ever a reason to suspect she might be of mixed ancestry, though now that Suzaku knew, those traces of Japanese heritage could be seen, as if smoothed into the image of Britannian nobility. Nearly every hint was around her eyes, but shifts in her profile or with the right shadow would likely draw others out.

Kallen approached her father first. There was a moment of hesitation, and then suddenly she beamed and crashed into him. "Hey Dad," she muttered, barely loud enough for them to hear.

"I've missed you too, Kal-bear."

"Dad!" whined Kallen as Milly burst out laughing. Her flushed face peered over at them from behind her father and she glared, crystal blue eyes promising pain in return for their mockery. It was a far cry from the sickly façade they had known. "Must you call me that in public? My friends are behind you."

"And that's why I had to call you that," Earl Stadtfeld replied, pleased with himself. Suzaku's heart tugged, realizing he had never had such an open moment with his own father. "We'll talk more on the way home." He glanced over his shoulder. "I think your friends wish to catch up with you."

Kallen nodded, stepping away from her father. She approached them slowly, Rivalz having joined them during the brief family reunion. Her hesitance was surprising, but then Suzaku doubted anyone accustomed to lying and pretending to be weak would feel outright comfortable once their secret was out. Especially when they were among those whom they had been friends with.

"Well, well," began Milly, stepping forward. Kallen froze like a mouse beneath a hawk's circling shadow. "You've been holding out on us, Kallen. That's quite the juicy secret, being a half-blood at my school."

"Your…school?" asked Kallen hesitantly.

"But I have a way you can make it up to me!" Milly continued, clearly ignoring Kallen, with a devilishly sweet tone. Suzaku sighed as Milly sprung forward, latching onto the redhead with a cackle. He looked away the moment Kallen squawked, reminded of the insanity Millicent Ashford spread wherever she went.

Mental note: Petition Lelouch to ship her off to the Caribbean.

"Why do I have to be the normal one?" mumbled Shirley to no one in particular. Nina frowned at her, but said nothing in reply.

To their relief, Kallen quickly dislodged herself from Milly's grasp, having thrown off the clingy Ashford heiress—the family was going to get their nobility back at some point—and approached the rest gathered to greet her.

"Welcome to Pendragon, Lady Kallen," Suzaku said stiffly. He bowed as was traditional, low enough to respect her noble lineage. "I will need to ask you to remove your jacket. Some might think that you are wearing a fashion statement, but others will not. It would be inconvenient to have someone potentially affiliated with a terrorist organization in proximity of the Imperial Palace."

She glared, blue eyes sparking with fire. "I've paid just enough attention to Britannian fashion to know I can skirt around the inconvenience of my wear, Sir Kururugi. Oh, and tell Lelouch I'm disappointed he couldn't bother to see me in person."

"You can tell him yourself," Suzaku replied trying to remain polite. "You are to be summoned to the Exelica Gardens in three days time. For now, the Emperor has set aside rooms at the Aries Villa for both yourself and the Earl Stadtfeld."

"Oh ho?" giggled Milly, even as Kallen frowned. She had a wide Cheshire grin, sparkling blue eyes turning to the Stadtfelds. "It appears you have Lulu's favor, if he's having you stay in his childhood home."

Kallen flushed, looking away as her lips floundered for the proper words of protest.

Suzaku glanced at the Earl, wondering whether the sudden tightness around the man's lips was a bad sign or not. He was increasingly against Lelouch's aim to make Kallen the next imperial consort, but he hoped they could find an ally in her father. If it weren't for his personal suspicions that his friend, the man who was emperor, had briefly been the revolutionary Zero, Suzaku would be immediately willing to declare her former status as a Black Knight to be crime enough to put her in stockades, not an imperial palace.

I truly hope you know what you're doing, Lelouch, the Knight of One thought as Nina, with Shirley's prompting, greeted their half-blood friend and immediately apologized for her past xenophobia. Kallen's confused expression nearly made him chuckle, though Milly was quick to tease the redhead over her cluelessness.

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Kallen Stadtfeld stood on a small balcony, hands upon a marble railing, staring out at the garden of the Aries Villa. It was nearly identical to the one where she had briefly spoken with Vicerine Euphemia li Britannia, and she couldn't help but wonder if the Late Prince Clovis had this garden in mind when he designed the one back in Tokyo.

I never thought I would come to Pendragon, let alone spend time in a place like this.

"You should sit, Kal-bear," her father suggested. She glanced over her shoulder at him and the two chairs set around a small table. A pitcher of iced tea, a Mississippi recipe her mother had made every summer back in Japan, rested there as he sat down. His voice darkened as he continued. "There's something we need to talk about. Something very important."

She frowned, but joined her father at the table nonetheless. Kallen couldn't imagine her father using a grave tone for anything other than trouble. It was the one he used before she was told about the impending divorce and that he would have to get remarried to some lady he didn't know, and when he took away Naoto's body for burial in the Stadtfeld mausoleum. With her impending summons to speak with Lelouch, the young man who confused her with how contrary he was, she could only suspect her father knew more about the summons than she first thought. Her heart hammered as her mind strained to parse together what he might speak to her of.

"When you go to speak with Emperor Lelouch, he is going to propose a question to you," her father began, worryingly stiff. She frowned at the tenseness around the word 'propose'. "Your answer could very well shape the future of this nation, let alone the future of the world. You must think it through carefully…and thoughtfully."

Kallen felt alarmed, remembering something Rivalz had mentioned to her back in Japan. Her face instantly flushed as she whined, "Please don't tell me the rumors about his interest in marrying were real! I thought it was just a joke!"

Her father blinked, then frowned. "Who told you? I was under the impression the Emperor had told none of his supporters beyond the Knight of One, so that I could be the first to inform you. He clearly has an understanding of your character, if he wants you to make a decision based upon anything other than your impulsive first answer."

She bit her tongue to hold back from shouting at the implication she would ever allow her emotions to completely sway her. It was frustratingly accurate and she had no good arguments against it.

Her mind struggled to put together two good thoughts once she forced away the knee jerk impulse answer, let alone come to terms with what she had been told. Unless she had actually gone mad, Kallen could've sworn on her brother's grave that the Emperor of Britannia, Lelouch vi Britannia, the man she suspected had been the revolutionary Zero if ever so briefly, wanted to marry her, to make her his consort and empress—

"He's mad!" she shouted, face certainly as red as her hair. "Absolutely barmy! The imperial court would never accept a half-blood empress, even with my noble lineage!"

"And yet that was what our Emperor said he planned to do," her father replied. "I suspect he wishes to make a point to the world, and to his subjects in particular, by going as far as to make you the First Empress of the Holy Britannian Empire. I don't know if that will be your title, but it's a possibility."

Nodding sluggishly, Kallen drew up what she remembered of royal titles. Unlike the emperors, who were numbered through successions since Alwyn I, the Celtic chieftain who had turned back the Caesars, the empresses were numbered in order of favor. The First Empress was the one favored over the rest, and whose children historically succeeded their father unless a better candidate emerged from the rest of his children. Should she remain the First Empress, she'd be the most powerful woman in the empire, bar perhaps Euphemia and maybe Cornelia. Maybe even more so, a treacherous corner of her mind whispered. Her, Kallen Kōzuki-Stadtfeld, a traitor to Britannia, fighting for a conquered nation, during the reign of Charles zi Britannia.

Just like him, she faintly remembered.

"I…I have questions of my own for him," she confessed, looking away.

"I would hope you would have questions of your own," her father replied fondly. "You were the most inquisitive child that ever lived. Naoto and Shizuka loved that about you, and I wished I could've been there more while you were growing up."

She nodded robotically, hating how much she wanted to be swept away into memories of those halcyon days.

"But I think you want to ask him about something in particular," her father added, his lord's voice making her tense. "Was he Zero? The masked man who rescued Sir Suzaku Kururugi and your friends from Ashford?"

Kallen froze. After several seconds, her head slowly turned so that her blue eyes met her father's. She had always taken more after her father than her mother, even appearing more Britannian than Japanese, yet she didn't think he could understand her as well as he did in the moment. Meeting his gaze was like peering into a tired mirror, reflecting a mirage of who she could become and who she might one day be.

"When did you…?"

He smiled wanly, oddly reminding her of those blissful months as a child when her father stayed with them in Japan. "When I saw you wearing that jacket when you arrived, I had to assume you retained some loyalty or dedication to Zero and his stated ideals, despite the fact nobody has heard even the slightest whisper about where he could be or who he is since the heir to the throne was announced. It was simple enough to connect you to the red-haired girl who had been with Zero during the Orange Incident, and you didn't hide as well as you should've after that hotel hijacking affair. After that, it was a bit of guess work and allowing you to confirm a few suspicions of my own."

"I…didn't realize," she muttered, flushing. "It was the only thing I had that expressed I was still Japanese, despite coming to Britannia."

"You're both, Kallen." She frowned at her father as he continued, "You may have been raised more Japanese than Britannian, but you have always been a child of both nations. Shizuka always praised your school marks, but she would also lament how competitive you were in everything. And she liked to blame me for that aspect of your temperament. Not that I could fault your mother, since I knew from when you were a little girl that you would've excelled at one of premier Britannian academies."

"Really?" she asked, close to smiling at the reminder of her childhood. She fondly remembered the praise she received growing up, coming home with 100 after 100, acing her tests and quizzes at school. Her friends had begged her for aid learning English, which she knew from growing up in a bilingual household. Her mother had spoken it as often as her father spoke Japanese, regardless of how present he was.

"If it weren't for the Second Pacific War, you would've left Japan and attended Imperial Colchester after you finished your primary education in Japan," her father said, appearing wistful. "Shizuka and I agreed to it, and even Naoto was supportive of the idea."

Kallen's gut impulse was to reject what she had just been told, but after a moment to pause and think, she remembered the way Naoto had reacted and spoke whenever discussing her time at Ashford Academy. Her insistence in supporting his resistance cell was always sidetracked by those conversations. She had thought he and Ohgi were using her to relive their academic lives, but now that she knew about the plan their parents had to send her abroad to finish her schooling, it made sense that he would want her to have something close to that old plan. Even his eventual relenting on her involvement in the resistance and the ensuring insistence on using being frail and chronically sick to disguise her frequent and extended absences made sense, coupled with his disappointed frown.

"Why are you telling me these things?" she asked softly. "Do you want me to marry Lelouch?"

"I want you to better understand the life you could've had. I failed you, allowing your anger over what happened between me and your mother, and the Britannian conquest of Japan, to fester," her father admitted. He looked away, face withdrawn. "And…and I don't want to continue failing you as I failed Naoto."

Her mouth went dry at the admission. Kallen had long ignored how seemingly easy her brother's group had gotten their hands on a Glasgow, along with the equipment to keep it as well maintained as their small, civilian militia could. Their targets had often been softer than food and medicine transports near any Japanese ghetto should be. They were barely freedom fighters, let alone organized terrorists like the Yamato Alliance.

But the Glasgow wasn't the only thing Naoto had brought to their group that shouldn't have been known to them, even if Kyoto had been providing some assistance. The information for their final activity as the Kōzuki Group had to have come from somewhere, but she had never seriously considered it at the time.

"You supported him," Kallen said, trying not to sound accusatory. "Did you…"

"Know the details about the project Clovis ended up murdering him over? No, I did not." Earl Vance Stadtfeld looked down at his hands as if her brother's blood stained them. "If I had suspected the late prince was involved with human experimentation, I never would've passed along the information that allowed for that heist to occur in the first place. The one that led to the skirmish in Shinjuku a year ago, where Prince Clovis' life was taken by Zero. I still hold myself responsible for what happened to Naoto in the process of his investigations and preparation, even if I went to great efforts to hide my involvement."

She nodded slowly, a stone in her gut. Kallen had never questioned how Naoto first got the intelligence that led to their raid and acquisition of poison gas—which clearly wasn't, since her father had confessed it had been human experimentation.

"It…it wasn't poison gas?"

"It wasn't," her father confirmed. "I always had different suspicions about what Project Code-R was, but it wasn't I encountered their subject in the Imperial Palace that it all came together. She even introduced herself, since it appears the Emperor discovered my involvement. Poison gas must've been a cover up significant enough to press the military to move swiftly and brutally, if they were transporting an immortal woman instead."

"You used your title to gain that information," Kallen accused, ignoring his claim that it had been an immortal woman. "But how did you…"

"Get away with it?" he asked, a strange smile etched onto half his face. "I was more than just the Earl of the Missouri, then. I still retained the title as Duke of Kanto up until Naoto's death, and thus was the most powerful noble in Area 11. One of the last things Prince Clovis did during his final week as Viceroy was to strip me of my territorial title, for I acquired it not from his father the late Emperor, but under Clovis's purview as Viceroy following the invasion."

Kallen nodded, suppressing the now irrational urge to be angry at her father for calling Japan 'Area 11' when discussing what occurred in the past. She understood why he stated it that way, to make clear the difference between then and now, yet it hurt all the same.

"I wish I had known," she whispered. "I wish Naoto had trusted me enough to tell me that you were supporting us, despite all appearances otherwise. I probably wouldn't have been as distant, had I known."

"I think that's why he didn't tell you, in the end. He wanted to protect you as much as he could, even if his methods caused pain he didn't foresee."

She nodded, frowning. Something about what her father said reminded her of Lelouch and something about him that still troubled her. Could he have done everything he did as Zero for his sister? It had been quite the revelation to discover that a member of the Imperial family was blind and crippled. If that had driven him to oppose his own country, to even kill one of his other siblings, would he have gone to further ends than Naoto did to keep his sister safe?

Would he sacrifice anything and everything to pursue that aim? Commit any crime or action necessary to achieve what he thought best? Would he go as far as to completely deceive her from his true nature, because it pained him to allow her to think he was anything other than perfect?

Kallen sighed, realizing that she had more questions to ask of Lelouch, when they finally spoke face to face.

Damn that Lelouch.

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Lelouch vi Britannia watched as the last noble left the gardens. He had hosted a long and rather tedious brunch, set up and planned by his Prime Minister. Even now, servants were preparing to dissemble the tables and chairs that had been set up for the affair. The demand of both Schneizel and his Privy Council to select a consort, regardless of her future position in the assumed harem he would create, was increasing rapidly enough that he could only hope his plan would work out successfully. He briefly wondered if his elder brother was aware of just whom Lelouch was summoning to speak with him later in the day. It would in Schneizel's nature to pursue all means to keep the precarious peace rotting Britannia from within, since it would cost less than correcting the errors and follies of the past.

Lelouch may be the emperor, but he was also still the young man who had sworn to destroy Britannia, and who had taken up the mask of Zero and sought to incite revolution and rebellion. He would change his nation for the better, using the means that Suzaku favored over the brute devastation he had thought was necessary.

Several minutes passed, everything around him quiet, as he stood alone in the Exelica Gardens, staring across the pond installed upon Guinevere's fifth birthday. Lelouch heard them approach long before they were close enough for him to see them. Eventually they emerged from behind one of the long hedgerows. There were three approaching him, two of which were Knights of the Round.

It was only as they drew closer that he saw tight, yet placid expressions upon the faces of Gino Weinberg, Knight of Three, and Nonette Enneagram, Knight of Seven.

Between them, as he desired, was Kallen, dressed in red and accordance to being an earl's daughter and heir.

"Leave us," he commanded the Knights, every bit the emperor he was. While they appeared displeased with the command, they followed his order without argument. Once beyond eyesight—they would certainly remain close enough to try and overhear his conversation, at the very least—Lelouch turned to face Kallen.

He held out an arm. "Come, walk with me."

She did as he requested, almost reminiscent of when they had walked from their classroom to the student council building, all of those months ago in the wake of Shinjuku. He wondered if Kallen had figured out the truth, that he had been Zero. Lelouch decided after a brief moment he'd be disappointed if she didn't at least suspect him once more. A simple slip of the tongue and a failure to test his geass had left him exposed to her quick mind and quicker temper.

"I'm grateful, for what you did," Kallen began softly, as though aware there would be eavesdroppers upon this conversation. "If it weren't for you, I would've died in the Shinjuku Ghetto."

"We needed each other, that day," Lelouch stated, ignoring his amusement at her shocked glance. Had she not expected him to confirm his own role? "You needed someone to guide you to victory, and I needed people who could open a hole to the enemy commander. Your group followed orders well."

"So you did kill Clovis," she breathed out.

Lelouch's violet eyes flickered over, meeting Kallen's blue gaze. "We both know it was Zero, the masked revolutionary, who killed Prince Clovis." A heartbeat passed. "A shame that masked man vanished around the time my path to the throne was cleared. I think he would've been an interesting foe."

Kallen frowned, incidentally illuminating her mixed heritage with the slight pulling of skin around the eyes. "Was Zero ever real, Lelouch, or a mask convenient for getting what you wanted?"

He smiled slightly at how she was undeterred by his words intended to trick her into second guessing her belief he had been Zero. "Zero was always a mask for my goals. That particular mask was meant to push an ideal of justice, one that would have allowed me to create the world Nunnally desires. The world she deserves to live in, now that her eyes have opened. She asked for a gentler world, where people openly and willingly treat each other with kindness. Even strangers, who they will never met again."

She snorted, shaking her head in what had to be disproval. "How utopian."

"Oh, but I will never see that world, and I doubt Nunnally will either, now that I have diverted from the path of blood to the path of authority. That world is the world my children and grandchildren shall enjoy. And even if it only lasts for a month or a year or a decade or only a day, it will be worth the toil to bring it to fruition."

"You don't think being the Emperor of Britannia won't lead to bloodshed? The Europeans and the Chinese won't allow you to go about doing as you wish, even if the rebellious subjects of Britannia come to heel."

Lelouch paused. "The blood of the innocent and guilty alike…" He sighed, shaking his head. "I will do what I must to avoid shedding it, but I will not hold back from doing so. I am not as gentle as my sister, and I have always known I would soak my hands in blood to achieve my ends. The means justify them, especially if I take upon myself the burden of evil committed."

Kallen nodded, as though accepting his answer. He hoped she did, for he had been honest about what might await his Britannia. When Suzaku had asked him to use Britannia to build the better world he envisioned, he had been forced to come to terms that it wouldn't be as easy as he hoped. Zero and geass and the Black Knights could've created that world in the span of a childhood, but the price would've been global war, and likely his own life. Instead Lelouch could be greedy and selfish, and ensure he would live with his sister in the world he shaped. It may not been the world Zero would have fashioned, but it would be one to be proud of, when his time came to leave his project to others.

One day that gentle world would come to pass, and he could only hope nobody thought to evolve further and render generations of sacrifice meaningless.

"I've been wondering, Lelouch," Kallen began. She stared towards a bush of hydrangea, which had been his mother's favorite in life. "Why did you and Nunnally remain in Japan after the invasion?"

"It goes back to why we were sent to Japan in the first place."

Lelouch briefly closed his eyes, remembering that terrible day. It was engraved in his mind, as clear as it was in the moment. Even so, he knew the actual truth behind the attack, and that his memories were a product of geass and a cover-up. "Eight years ago, my mother, the Fifth Empress and former Knight of Six Marianne vi Britannia, was assassinated in her own home. To cover-up what had truly happened, my sister was first crippled, and later ended up blinded because of the trauma. I went to confront my father after he ended the investigation into the assassination to demand justice.

"He declared we were dead to him, and had only ever been valued as potential pawns. This would be about ten months before the Oriental Incident…and a year before the Invasion of Japan."

"That's when you met Suzaku," Kallen guessed, turning back to him. "You and Nunnally were sent to the Kururugi family."

Lelouch nodded. "The Kururugi family, while not one of the Six Houses of Kyoto, was closely tied to them. I met Kirihara Taizō and Sumeragi Kaguya during my stay." He gave her a pointed look. "They were both pardoned secretly for crimes against Britannia, including aiding and abetting terrorist and revolutionary groups after Japan was brought into the fold. The other four as well, though none of them are aware of what I have done in secrecy."

Kallen nodded stiffly. Should the full extent of her past come to light, there were unfortunate limits upon his powers, unless she agreed to his coming request. Any crime she had committed was absolved in secret, the files already sealed and shipped to the Falkland Islands.

"When the invasion came," Lelouch continued, "the Emperor made no effort to recall us or to send OSI agents to retrieve us. The Kururugi Shrine, where we stayed, was left as an oasis in a sea of blood and death. Our only hope of safety was to trek across hundreds of kilometers to the consulate in Chiba, where Glasgows created a safe site for Britannians in Japan. That is the only time I can think of where I was grateful my sister was blind. I wish I never had to see fields of corpses, left to rot in the sun." He glanced at her. "I imagine because of your father that you and your family didn't see the worse of the invasion."

Kallen nodded. "He took us to the consulate shortly after the initial wave struck Edo Bay and our location was about to be despoiled," she confirmed bitterly. "We had just moved into Ikebukuro a few weeks beforehand. Prior to that, we lived in the countryside, where my mother grew up. Back then, it was special when father stayed with us. He told me a few days ago there were plans to send me to Imperial Colchester, instead of a school like Ashford Academy."

Lelouch hummed in response. "You would have done magnificently there. Given your heritage, being half-Japanese, many would compare you to my mother once your talent as a devicer became known." He gave her a knowing look, and was amused by the fact she couldn't prevent a blush. "They hated her for being a commoner, and a quarter-French to boot."

Kallen swallowed before asking, "What do you think your life would be like if your mother was never assassinated?"

He froze, but she continued walking. Eventually his redheaded companion realized he had stopped and turned to face him. She had taken a few steps without him. Kallen stared as though she could find the answer to her question upon his face, and Lelouch ended up looking away.

"I haven't done so. Not…not in a long time."

Grass crunched as she approached him. He stared as her warm, calloused hands took his. They were nearly the same size, though her fingers were slimmer than his. "When I talked with my father recently, he made me realize I was always more Britannian than I had thought. For the longest time, I rejected that part of me, wanting to only be Kallen Kōzuki. Or Kōzuki Karen, since I was trying to pretend I was fully Japanese. What he told me has made me reconsider who I really am, and what I want with my life."

He released a soft, non-committal grunt. Lelouch had realized following his return to Pendragon just how much he had forgotten or had wished to forget about court life. By living the lie of Lelouch Lamperouge, he had been rejecting the world he was born into. And by being Zero, he was trying to destroy what he could use to shape the world with greater ease than the mask of a terrorist turned revolutionary. Legitimacy turned power into authority. A lesson he had seemingly forgot.

Lelouch looked up, violet meeting blue. "Then I am to assume your father has informed you of my intentions towards you, that I seek your hand as my empress? That I desire to make you the First Empress of the Holy Britannian Empire?"

Kallen squeaked at his forwardness, accidentally bumping into him as her face flushed a brilliant red. He smiled at how it matched her hair. She flushed brighter, looking away. "I…I've given it some thought," she mumbled.

"And?"

Kallen took a moment to regain her composure and dignity, embarrassed redness fading from her face, before she turned on him with accusing blue eyes. "I still have more questions for you to answer, Lelouch. I won't answer your question until you've answered some of mine."

"I would have thought all of your questions so far were answered," he replied, a touch surprised. And that you don't expect me to answer every single one of them. "I didn't completely answer your question as to why Nunnally and I remained in Japan. If we had returned to Britannia, he would've used us as he did before the invasion. We were bargaining chips, to convince the Japanese that they were safe from invasion and reprisal."

"Ah. What about the Black Knights and Japan? Did you create the Black Knights and all but declare yourself Japan's savior for you own ends?"

He held back a scoff. "Everything I did in Japan was to secure a better future for my sister. The Japanese people would've benefited from that world, but it wasn't done for them or upon their behalf. You may have called my vision for the world utopian, but I could have made it a reality as Zero, supported by the Japanese people. Being the Britannian Emperor merely makes my job easier."

She hummed, arms crossed. Her face slowly reddened, embarrassed, before she asked, "Why me?"

"Other than I whole heartedly believe you are committed to a similar vision of the world?" She nodded, implicitly agreeing to his vision of the future. Lelouch smiled, not calculating or secretly pleased, but genuinely glad she would stand with him. "Britannia must change to embrace the world I shall create. An emperor's choice in consorts, especially his First Empress, dictates to the nation what his vision entails. What I am about to say sounds political, but selecting you is a clear message to the nation. You, who are noble through your father and foreign through your mother, send a message that my father's Britannia is truly dead. Your heritage alone might spark a revolution of hearts and minds in this nation. One day, historians will say so, regardless of the actual reality.

"And personally…I have missed you, Kallen. Had I stayed the course I was upon before becoming Emperor, I know you would have remained by my side. You, more than the rest, believed in Zero." He looked away as a burning flush crept up his neck. He had never thought he would become uncomfortable during this meeting. He continued to speak, more so without thought. "If you want something else, I would understan—"

"I accept, Lelouch."

Lelouch paused, and then closed his eyes as a relieved smile crossed his lips. They opened as he turned to face her, royal purple meeting a proud, smirking field of blue. Kallen smiled at him, even as she tucked back some of her red hair. "If you are serious about what you want for the world, about what you've told me, then I'll stand by your side."

"You don't need to marry me to do so."

Dammit, Lelouch. Stop.

Kallen's brows furrowed slightly. "Yet you're the one who asked me to marry you, Lelouch. I was long prepared to give up everything for what I believed in, for what I fought for. I never thought my hand would be something I would need to give up, but well…" She shrugged, looking away as her flush returned, though not as intensely. "You've made the world a little better as Emperor. I have no qualms about what I must abandon to help you further a better world."

"You would give up being Japanese as well?"

She scoffed at his question, arms crossing. "If I wasn't half-Japanese, I doubt we would be having this particular conversation, Lelouch. The plotting, political side of you that excels as emperor knew it would be useful for your aims, regardless of any emotional connection."

"You know me better than I expected," replied Lelouch. "Though to be frank, I had expected more questions from you."

Kallen's eyes went wide and she quickly turned away so he couldn't see her face. "I didn't need to ask them all. No big deal about that."

He smiled at her back. "Oh? Not even going to ask me what my favorite color is?"

She glanced over her shoulder, blue eyes barely visible through the falling red fringe. "Please, we all know you favor black." Her gaze fell, scanning him as they rose back to meet his gaze. "Though I guess you don't look too bad in white."