Though he could barely stop himself from shaking, Clovis managed a smile.

"I'm overjoyed, Lelouch. They said that you died when Japan was brought into the fold. It's truly a blessing to have you back. We should depart for the homeland immediately-"

"Why?" questioned the black-haired prince. "So myself and Nunnally can be used as tools for diplomacy? That was the reason we were sent here in the first place. Mother was a Knight of Honor, and Father's favorite, but she was still common born, and much of the Imperial Family hated her. It was your kind that killed her!"

Clovis gasped in surprise and pain. "It wasn't me. I swear that it wasn't!"

Lelouch knew that Clovis was being honest - especially since Rhodes Island's arrival in this world had confirmed who her real killer was. But there would be few chances to interrogate a member of his old family, and he wanted to know what exactly was the situation with the green-haired girl.

"Perhaps that may be true, but I have questions I want answered, and until I get what I want' spoke Lelouch, readying his new power, "YOU WILL OBEY ME!"

The strange symbol in Lelouch's left eye flew into Clovis' eyes, and moments later, the prince relaxed, a hazy red glow filling his eyes. "Yes, of course. What do you want to know?"

"Was there really poison gas here?"

"No, it was a cover story so that my royal guard could recover a different item."

"Was that the green-haired girl?"

"Correct."

"Why is she so important?"

"She appears to possess some form of immortality - she can survive being shot, burned, hacked to pieces, and being poisoned, to name some causes of death. Additionally, she appears to be several hundred years old, yet shows no signs of aging."

"Is she like Kal'Tsit?" wondered Lelouch.

"Why do you wish to study her?"

"Replicating her powers would allow me a stronger claim to the throne."

Lelouch was hardly surprised there - most of his siblings desired the throne, even if they were unsuited to ruling.

"Do you know anyone who might have been involved in my mother's death?"

"I am unsure."

"Do you know anyone who might have more information on the subject?"

"Second Princess Cornelia was charged with the investigation, while father requested that Second Prince Schneizel make arrangements regarding the body. If there are any others, I cannot say."

"I see. Can you provide me with a copy of all research pertaining to Code R?"

"Yes."

"Do so now."

One moment later, Lelouch had a flashdrive containing everything Clovis had on Code R.

"...If you were to assume Code R compromised, what would you do next?"

"The majority of the project would be liquidated, while what could be salvaged would be sent to a secret facility located at Narita, then moved to a tertiary base in Tsushima."

"Provide me the exact coordinates of those bases, and valid passcodes."

"Done."

Lelouch looked over the information he had acquired. It was certainly more than enough to turn much of Area 11 against Britannia, regardless of whether or not they were Britannian or Japanese. There was nothing else he needed to know...

Nothing that wasn't personal, at any rate.

"I have one last question for you."

"Yes?"

"...Do you truly love me and Nunnally?"

"Yes. I do. My sister misses you as well, as does mother, who still grieves the loss of Marianne. Victoria and her daughters also grive the loss of your branch of our family, as does Anticlea and her son. Marybel also misses you, as does Carine, not that she will admit as much. There are others who miss you as well, such as Hannes."

Lelouch felt his eyes beginning to well up with tears, but he managed to fight htem off. "Thank you for that."

Then, the prince steeled himself. "When this power wares off, you will fall unconscious after two minutes. Before that, your vision will grow fuzzy, your les will have trouble functioning, and your hearing will dull. You will not call your guards to rescue you. When you return to consciousness, your senses and legs will be restored to full functionality, but you will not remember anything that ocurred after I entered this room...But if I see you again, look you in the eyes, and say, with intent, that 'You are permitted the truth', the block on your memory will be undone."

"Understood."

Satisfied, Lelouch allowed his power to subside.

Then he turned to leave.

"Wh-Wait, Lelouch!"

The boy glanced back at his brother. "Yes?"

"Where are you going?"

"To see my family?"

Clovis had a puzzled expression cover his face. "What?"

Lelouch gave his half brother a sad smile. "You may want to take me back to our family, but I have a new family. One that has shown me support and love when I needed it, and proven stern but understanding when necessary. And while I know that you, Euphie, and other members of our family still miss me, I can't abandon my new family."

Turning away from Clovis, Lelouch made his way to the exit. "So, I'm sorry, but for now, this is goodbye."

"Wait, Lelouch!" cried Clovis, only to collapse when he tried to follow his younger brother.

"Lelouch, please" begged Clovis, who was starting to lose consciousness.

Lelouch took once last glance at Clovis, who had finally passed out.

"...I'm sorry, brother."

XXXXX

After ensuring that all evidence of his presence in the G1 was scrubbed, Lelouch quietly made his way to the Rhodes Island rendezvous, silently greatful that the Britannian military was too busy trying to search around the G1 to find his escape route. Filling into one of the medical vans, he watched silently as the troops and Knightmares disappeared from sight, amused at how easy they had been to best.

It wasn't long before he was back at Rhodes Island's local office in the Tokyo Settlement, where the staff were already directing the injured to rooms for treatment. Passing by Talulah and Ch'en, who were debriefing their men and women, Lelouch smiled and waved. This elicited a blush from the two half-siblings, one that Lelouch failed to notice.

Finally reaching the main debriefing room, Lelouch opened stepped inside. Amiya, Kal'Tsit, and Doberman were already inside, and after a few minutes Talulah, Patriot, Ch'en, and Nearl joined them.

Once the last of those who constituted Rhodes Island's inner circle were inside, Kal'Tsit officiated the debrief.

"Alright, since everyone is here, I want to ask the most important question: did we recover the originium?"

"Yes, actually" noted Hellagur. "Surprisingly, though, it wasn't in the bomb-truck. It was found in a nearby supply truck instead."

Lelouch quirked an eyebrow in surprise that, mentally chewing himself out over not thinking to ask Clovis about that.

"I see. Odd. What was in the bomb truck, though?"

Lelouch took a deep breath. "Would you believe that it was a green haired girl?"

"..Elaborate."

"Clovis was performing human experimentation on a green haired girl via a project named Code R."

"Why was he experimenting on this girl?"

"Supposedly, becuase she was immortal."

The room went silent at that.

"Almost like two people all of us are familiar with."

All eyes now rested on a surprised Kal'Tsit, who was tyring to figure out what to say.

"...I see. Do you know where she is?"

"I put a recovery transponder on her, and from the looks of it, she's currently being examined by Warfarin and Mephisto. She was shot in the forehead protecting me, but somehow, she's apparentlt alive again."

"Interesting," noted Kal'Tsit, before her voice grew harsh again. "Is there anything else that we should know about her?"

Lelouch thought about omitting his new power, but decided against it - while Lelouch did not trust Kal'Tsit for how she treated the Doctor, she wasn't his enemy.

"She also apparently can give others powers. Somehow, even while dead, she provided me the power to control others."

Mixed looks of shock and distrust fell upon Lelouch, though some were also curious.

"Could you prove it?" asked the Doctor.

"Is someone willing to volunteer to be the local guinea pig?"

Kal'Tsit let out a sigh, before stepping forward. "Just get it over with."

Lelouch smirked. "Alright. Despite the enmity between you two, do you find the Doctor attractive?"

The strange symbol appeared in Lelouch's eye, and soon filled Kal'Tsit's eyes.

For a moment, it seemed that it didn't work.

"Wait, what did-WHY DID YOU ASK ME THAT-"

But then, Kal'Tsit grew disturbingly calm.

"What he did to Theresa was unforgivable...but yes. His aura of mystery is rather attractive."

A moment later, the power wore off, leaving Kal'Tsit looking confused...especially since everyone seemed to be trying to suppress a laugh. Everyone except the doctor - he just seemed to confused as well. And maybe a little annoyed.

"What just happened?"

"Nothing important," said Amiya, who was still trying not to laugh.

"Now throw a boot a me." said Lelouch, trying to drag Patriot's shield in front of himself.

Kal'Tsit quirked an eyebrow, somewhat annoyed by that request. "Why?"

"Huh," noted Lelouch. "Guess that power only works once."

"...I will find out what you did to me," promised Kal'Tsit. "But first, I'm assuming that you know about Code R than you are letting on."

Wordlessly, Lelouch pulled out the flashdrive that Clovis had provided him. "Informating on everything related to Code R. Including the locations of two bases that aren't officially on the map for any reason at all."

Kal'Tsit took the device from Lelouch's hands, before giving them over to Closure for analysis. "Does anyone else have anything to say?"

When it became clear that the answer was no, Kal'Tsit declared the meeting adjorned.

XXXXX

Exiting the room, Lelouch made a point of passing by the room where the green-haired girl was being watched over. He suppressed a laugh when Kal'Tsit informed Warfarin that the vampire would have her pay docked if she tried to sample the supposed immortal's blood.

"She doesn't look much older than you, does she?"

Lelouch turned to see Mephisto, who was disposing of his gloves. "That she does, though supposedly she's an immortal like Kal'Tsit."

"Interesting. Faust has been helping me and Warfarin watch over her, though she hasn't moved much since she got here. Though since she's gone from a corpse to being unconscious, she's definitely improving."

"True. Say, don't you have a performance tonight?"

Mephisto smiled at that. "The Songbird cannot be silenced!"

Lelouch found Mephisto's smile to be contagious - after spending so much of his life suffering under circumstances he couldn't control, and becoming a monster over it, seeing Mephisto finally have the chance to live a little was rather nice.

"Ahem."

Turning around, Lelouch and Mephisto found Schwarz staring at them, with Ceylon not far away.

"Yes, Ms. Schwarz?"

"I apologize, Zero, but your sister and maid have arrived."

"I see. I will be out to great them in a moment-"

"They are not the only ones to arrive."

"...Who else came over-"

"LELOUCH!"

Before Lelouch could finish his question, an orange haired girl with multicolored antennae surged into him, followed by a blue haired boy, Nunnally, and Sayoko.

Lelouch only barely managed to avoid being toppled by Shirley's charge, though the embrace that followed knocked the air out of him. Looking around in confusion, Mephisto noted the perplexing looks that Schwarz and Ceylon had, as if they were deciding between hitting the girl...or joining in the hug.

"You're okay!"

"I'm fine," wheezed out Lelouch, "but I think you're going to crush me if you hold on too much longer."

Letting out a surprised eep, Shirley released her grip on Lelouch, then chuckled nervously as she backed up. "Sorry. I was just worried."

"I know."

"Dude, you got pulled into a warzone," noted Rivalz. "How often does that happen? And the time two months ago didn't count!"

"One, that wasn't really a warzone, and two, much more often than you think."

"...How many wars has Rhodes Island been in? Besides those two in..Kazdel?"

"More than you'd think."

"...You have got to tell me more about that."

"Sometime soon," noted Nunnally.

Sayoko merely nodded.

"Um, soo," asked Shirley, now somewhat confused, "what do we do now-"

"Would operator Zero report to the Rhodes Island media center?"

"Go to the media center, it seems. I'll fill you guys in on the way."

The group wanted to challenge that, but Closure generally didn't make requests unless they were important, so they reluctantly followed Lelouch, all the while hoping they would get the answers they sought.

XXXXX

AN: And that's a wrap.

Rivalz wasn't originally supposed to know about Lelouch's past with Rhodes Island, but I changed that when I decided upon what exactly happened regarding Shirley that led her to become Operator Merrow. Mostly because it involves a motorcycle chase and I needed someone other than Lelouch to drive.

So, Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!