Chapter Nineteen: Three Choices
Kallen Stadtfeld arrived at the border of Shinjuku and found Villetta Nu waiting. The silver-haired woman was clad in her pilot's suit so it bared her legs. Kallen's own outfit was a crimson mirror to it. Moving forward, Kallen halted, only for Villetta to draw close and put a hand to her shoulder.
"Kallen, I'm told you've been sent to negotiate with terrorists?" said Villetta, a slight smile on her face.
Kallen shrugged. "Not exactly.
"Just some friends from before the invasion. Lelouch wants me out of his hair."
"Well, Ms. Cecile is accompanying him, and she's wired," said Villetta. "So if he is being blackmailed, we'll know."
"Lelouch isn't a criminal," said Kallen.
"Well, yes, but Kyoto might be," said Villetta. "What exactly is your mission, Kallen?"
Kallen sighed. "I'm supposed to convince the terrorists to stay neutral."
Villetta put two fingers under her chin and drew her face up, so she had to maintain eye contact. Their breasts were pressed together as they drew near. "And?"
Kallen stared straight at Villetta and, eventually, stepped back. "I'm planning to see if I can get them to take our side. I think we'd be much better with them shooting Chinese instead of waiting in the back."
Villetta nodded. "It's a nice idea. I'll talk to Prince Clovis after I pick up Lelouch. It seems that he wants a personal meeting."
"Oh, I see," said Kallen. Had someone found out Lelouch was a Prince? "Well, that could be a while. If I know Lelouch, he'll probably go somewhere else as soon as he gets back. The guy comes and goes at will."
"Fine then," said Villetta. "He should be heading here now. Meet me back here."
Kallen nodded.
Then she headed into Shinjuku, and it was... odd. The water had mostly receded from the streets by now. Yet, the ruins seemed somehow cleaner. It looked like people had been cleaning up the trash and piling it into places to be burned. Many loose stones had been taken and used for construction. The flood had come and gone, but it was as if it had washed away something.
Even so, Kallen kept a hand near her gun despite herself. She should be at home here, but she hadn't been back here in a while. It felt like a new place, and she saw people had better clothes. Apparently, other charity works had seen them better, and there was an aura of hope.
"Nice to get a warm welcome," mused Kallen.
Then she thought about business as she got to the meeting place. Beyond a ruined doorway guard by Tamaki, there was a table. Tamaki was reading a bible when she got there, and he shut it as she approached. He'd known she was there. "Kallen, you're here."
"Yeah, here I am," said Kallen.
There was tension here.
"Follow me," said Tamaki.
Leading her in, they sat down, and Naoto and Oghi came through. Some of the others could be seen, looking over maps or polishing weapons.
"Is everything going okay?" asked Kallen.
"About as well as we can expect," said Oghi. "We've gotten some supply shipments of blankets and food from the Student Council by train. Apparently, they got things reasonably well secured where they were."
"I don't remember Lelouch giving out any orders about that. It must have been Milly," mused Kallen.
"Actually, it was a completely separate charity organization that cropped up," said Naoto. "Well, it's probably saved some lives. A lot of the settlement is still draining, and we've been trying to clear things out. Kururugi managed to help us out."
"We shouldn't have accepted help from that traitor, Naoto," said Tamaki.
"Tamaki, we're accepting help from Britannians. And you've been going to church services from a Britannian religion," said Naoto. "Why is accepting help from them so bad?"
"It's not a Britannian religion!" said Tamaki, offended. "It's Judeo-Christian; it originated in Judea under Roman Rule! And Britannia wasn't even really a thing back then!"
"Technically, Eowyn's defeat of Caesar marks the beginning of Britannia," noted Naoto.
"A bunch of bandits don't count as a nation," noted Oghi.
"Then Britannia doesn't exist," said Naoto.
That got Kallen angry. "Who the hell do you think has been handling the reconstruction all this time? Feeding the hungry? Who do you think paid for the RV or the building we've been using!
"A lot of Britannians hate this situation just as much as you do! They're just afraid to come out and say it!"
"What do you mean?" asked Naoto.
"Naoto, you and I are half-Japanese," said Kallen. "We had a whole lot of social connections which we could go to in order to form a resistance group.
"Do you really think someone who is full Britannian has that kind of option? The Washington Party only operates in the Americas. Someone who is in a colony can't do anything. If they speak out, they become social pariahs. They can't change anything because they can't advance in rank without getting sponsored.
"And everybody who is anybody in Britannia is rigidly devoted to social darwinism.
"I'm a noble, Naoto, and I have to pretend to be something I'm not all the time."
"Alright, alright already," said Tamaki. "Shouldn't we get back on topic?"
Tamaki seemed smarter than usual. "Fair enough. There are two reasons I came here. First, to get a wish list of supplies and assistance you might need in the cleanup. Clovis is taking action, so we'll have a lot more manpower soon to fix things. That'll free up some of our people to help out here.
"Kyoto is also doing relief efforts.:
"We got the news on that," said Oghi. "And I've compiled an extensive list of what we need." He offered Kallen a sheet of paper. "Believe it; it was hard to find any sheets that weren't pulped by the flood. I had to run down to a staple in ankle-high water."
"Fun," said Kallen, reading it. "Alright, I'll show this to Lelouch and see if I can get you it."
"What's the second reason?" asked Tamaki.
"We're expecting a Chinese Invasion," said Kallen with a sigh, stretching. "The Communists are running out of other people's money. Their nation is a wasteland, and their morale is dropping. They are never going to get a better chance to take Area 11, and if they take it, they could get it all.
"They still have Sawasaki and the government in exile.
"We heard a bit about this," said Oghi. "Several messengers came in requesting we help out by harassing Britannian forces. A few even wanted a full-on rising.
"We uh... were noncommital."
Kallen stared at him. "And you didn't tell me? Naoto, what the hell!"
"That's not the kind of conversation you have over a phone, Kallen," said Naoto. "It could get this entire ghetto massacred if Britannia thought we'd taken up with the Chinese."
Kallen sighed. "Good point.
"You're going to help, are you?"
Silence, and that was very, very bad. First, because it meant they thought she was sympathetic to Britannia. And second, because it meant they were thinking about it.
"Well, a lot of the other resistance groups are thinking it's a good idea," said Naoto. "I was pushing for neutrality with some support, but-"
"We can't let the Communists win, Naoto!" said Kallen in horror. "They'll kill us all!"
"What, like the Britannians have been trying to do for years?" asked Tamaki.
"They haven't been trying to kill us, Tamaki!" said Kallen. "If Clovis wanted us dead, he could send a battalion of knightmare frames down here and wipe us out! He'd lose a bunch of people, but he'd do it eventually!
"You have to understand, yes, Britannia is an 'evil empire.' But they are still slaves to the expectations of their people. They have to motivate the common man.
"Britannia justifies ruthless expansionism on the idea that they are helping us.
"It's stupid, it's ridiculous, but it works. Britannia is sharing its greatness with the rest of the world. If Emperor Charles decided to just push us into gas chambers, he'd have a PR nightmare. The moderates would go over to the other side.
"And he'd have a hard time justifying pointless annexation. The white man's burden provides a license for annexation for a good cause."
"And the Communists are worse; why?" asked Naoto.
"Look at their country!" said Kallen. "They can't even farm enough food to feed their people. Meanwhile their overweight officials gorge themselves! Do you think some nice teenagers are gonna open a soup kitchen under a communist government?
"Even if they found the food, they'd black bag them in seconds!
"And look at the bigger picture! A few decades into their worker's paradise, they've reduced it to a blighted wasteland. The Opium Wars were a comparative golden age to what they did to themselves. Britannia has fields that yield crops, and a strong industrial base. Why do you think everyone is trying to copy Britannia's military systems?"
"Okay, fine," said Naoto. "Where are you going with this." He was looking at Kallen in genuine concern.
"Communism is a loser's ideology," said Kallen. "It is a total failure. It fails in morality, and efficiency, and religion, and every other thing worth having. Constant purges often cripple even their military by paranoid officials. Corruption is an expected norm rather than a punishable offense.
"They don't believe in god, or in karma, or in right or wrong or beauty or anything else worth having. They tolerate those things only insofar as they serve the state.
"Because of this, the only thing Communism is good at is maintaining the status quo. And it is very good at that.
"Invite the Communists in here, and they'll cling to power for a century. They'll tear down every monument, burn every shrine, cut down every tree. And they'll just keep doing it forever until there is nothing left but a wasteland. Then they'll pile their stolen treasure into planes. Then they'll run off to live the high life on an island while everybody else dies!
"Britannia is a much better option. There are Britannians we can actually work with and who are doing good things. And even if Britannia's problems are systemic, they're going to have a civil war sooner or later. And somebody is going to come up with a synthetic alternative to Sakuradite. Or maybe Sakuradite will be less important.
"Once that happens, we'll be a lot less important. So they won't throw as many troops after us.
"Hell, we might not even want them to pull out."
"What makes you say that?" asked Oghi.
"Clovis is out of touch and surrounded by sycophants, but he just fired a bunch of them," said Kallen. "He's got good advisors and is a decent leader in some things. We might be able to use the Student Council to get better treatment and rebuild things here.
"Obviously, we don't disarm; that'd be stupid. But we can work to improve conditions here and get people like Milner out. We'll get more breathing room, a better reputation, and also put pressure on the racists. That could help a lot of other numbered populations besides the Japanese.
"That could give us a chance to get better weaponry and maybe do some serious operations. We've got a pretty good thing going here. Trading out for the Chinese will only cause a lot of destruction and could be even worse."
"Yeah, but we might never get another chance to win," said Tamaki. "We could play one side against another."
"We don't have enough force for that, Tamaki," said Oghi. "We couldn't establish a regional government, even if we won. We have to join with a larger faction or stay neutral."
Kallen sighed. "What if we win, Naoto? Like, completely?
"Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Britannia is defeated and knocks the Chinese as well. Everybody lives, and the Britannian government packs it in.
"Who is going to run this place?"
Naoto said nothing. Neither did Oghi or Tamaki, or Inoue from the door, brushing a strand of blue hair out. Kallen decided it bore repeating. "No, seriously, who is going to run this place?
"Kyoto? They're a shadow cabal of rich merchants; nobody would respect them even if they wanted to run things? The JLF? They hide in their mountains and refuse to take risks or get their hands dirty? And I doubt they have many qualifications for leading a nation? Sawasaki? He's a communist puppet who robbed the treasury and fled the country like a coward. Us?
"Who is 'us?'
"Do you really want to turn Japan into the Warring States Period with AK 47's and drug dealers? Because that's what the 'resistance' is. Yeah, we don't have any other choice; the only other alternative is bowing and scraping to the Emperor."
"What are you saying?" asked Naoto.
"I'm saying that you have three possible choices, Naoto.
"Three different ways you can rebel against Britannia:
"Option 1: The Kyoto option
"You admit that we are only doing this because we have no choice. We abandon all pretenses of a glorious revolution. Instead, we focus our full efforts on acting deterrent to hostile forces. We cooperate with humanitarian aid groups. We take out drug-dealers and help old ladies across the street.
"We resign ourselves to being the 'good' elevens. We get condescending statements that we're s credit to our race. And we may end up getting purged as inconvenient anyway. But we'll take this option because it does provide safety and protection for the elevens.
"We sacrifice our pride for our people.
"Option 2: The JLF solution
"We dedicate our full power to total rebellion against Britannia. Then we make contact with Kyoto. We get foreign aid; we work to support our friends, buy lots of guns, fortify, and do a few raids. And we fail. We fail because Kyoto controls our finances, and Kyoto are invested in the system.
"Believe me, if Tohdoh were going to pull off a miraculous win, it would be long ago. And even if your raids cause real damage, Britannia will just ship more troops in.
"Option 3: Zero."
"What do you mean by 'Zero?" asked Naoto, thoughtfully.
"I mean Zero, Naoto," said Kallen. "Nothing.
"You destroy everything. You admit that the entire system is completely rigged to make you fail. You dismiss all pretensions that the system can be reformed or changed for the better. You declare that there are no heroes, only corrupted liars. You reject the entire world.
"Then you burn it all down and start from scratch.
"For a start, we'd have to do some daring raids and do some real damage. That'll get us funding from Kyoto, but that's a trap. We then have to use that funding to go big, really big. We have to become so powerful and famed that Kyoto can't cut our purse strings. Now once we have that, we have to destroy the JLF.
"The leadership there are obsolete. They are tying down the best fighting men in the resistance for the sake of their samurai honor. And all the while, we're fighting their battles for them.
"Katase, Tohdoh, Kusakabe, all of them need to die.
"Maybe you keep Tohdoh and the lower officers around to train the troops. But everyone else has to be wiped out.
"Now, once you have complete control of the resistance, Kyoto has a choice.
"Either they join with you, or they join with Britannia. Either way, they are out of the game. Their win condition is dying before they lose control of the situation. And if they join us, we shouldn't give them anything."
Dead silence.
"...That's a pretty ambitious plan, Kallen," said Oghi.
"It's the only way we win a revolution," said Kallen. "The other rebel factions aren't allies, their competition. The second you get stronger than them, they'll want to tear you down. It'll also raise your profile on Britannia's hit list.
"There's no silver medal. You aren't going to get a consolation prize. You have to clear them out and take their resources to beat Britannia. If you don't clear them out, they could conspire against you. You might have to bribe them into submission or otherwise fight a lengthy campaign. And Britannia is going to use that to try and take back power.
"Anyone in this room could become your enemy.
"Oghi over there is a great second in command right now. What is he's not so great when commanding entire armies? It's a completely different skillset, and none have been trained in it. Do you keep him at a post he isn't qualified for? He could lose you a critical battle. Kick him upstairs to some meaningless position? What if he decides to conspire against you? Do you even want to think about the other options?
"And what about me? A lot of my friends are Britannian. What if you accidentally kill some of them with your orders. Even if I stay on your side, nothing will be the same."
"...You mean to say, there's no happy ending with options two or three," said Naoto. "Option two is just treading water. We'll be wiped out eventually, no matter what. Option three could work but is high stakes, and most of us will probably die.
"Even if we succeed, we'll all likely never be in the same room again.
"Whereas with option one, we could all live happily ever after if it works out."
"And if it doesn't," said Kallen. "We can just adjust our strategy. We can back out of option one; we can't back out of the other two."
"Hold on, what does this have to do with the Communist Invasion?" asked Oghi.
"Because the Communists have picked option three, Oghi," said Naoto. "They choose to burn everything down to take power and make the world what they wanted a long time ago. If they don't win here, they lose everything."
"It doesn't really matter, though, does it?" asked Tamaki suddenly.
"How does it not matter, Tamaki?" asked Kallen.
Tamaki shrugged. "Well, we can't pick any of these options if the Chinese wipe us out. So we gotta make sure they don't win first."
"Which is kind of my point," said Kallen, though it was not entirely true.
Naoto stood up. "...Kallen is right.
"Nothing we do is going to have any meaning at all if Japan gets taken over by communists. We'll talk about other stuff. Oghi, I've got to make some calls.
"Kallen, you should head back right away and report to Lelouch."
And then Kallen's phone rang. Quickly taking it up, she raised a hand for silence.
"Kallen, is that you?" asked Shirley, sounding worried.
"Shirley, what's going on?" asked Kallen. Why was she calling her?
"I'm trying to get through to Lelouch, but he's in a dead zone," said Shirly. "I'm at Itsukushima right now, and they just got the long-distance scanners up. The Chinese Fleet is heading toward us. They'll be here in a few days."
Kallen felt chills. "How many?"
"I don't know, several ships at least, I'm not an expert," said Shirley. "We're trying to order an evacuation, and we have a list of useable equipment. We've even gotten some of the armed citizens to stand by for reinforcements, but they'll leave soon.
"Oh, and we're also pulling all the old weapons out of storage from before the war. They had a big stockpile of them."
"You did all that?" asked Kallen. "How are you giving orders to the military?"
"Well, they didn't have any coordination," said Shirley. "And I sort of panicked, so I just said, 'Lelouch has need of it.' I think they might think I'm taking orders from a Prince. Well, anyway, it worked, so anytime I needed to ask for supplies or something, I just said that."
If only she knew. Kallen smiled and then got to work. "Okay, call up Milly and tell her this, tell her to dispatch the Britannian militia on the border. Then keep trying to raise Lelouch. He'll be somewhere you can call him soon.
"Anything else?"
"No," said Shirley. "Um, I'm going to see if I can find some uh... explosives or something. Hey, um, do we have anything that could blow up the hull on a capital ship?" She hung up.
This did not bode well.
"What's going on?" asked Naoto.
"The Chinese are heading for Itsukushima. There's hardly anything to resist there," said Kallen. "The good news is, we've got the head of the swim club from Ashford Academy there, so they'll never make landfall.
"We've got to get everyone we can down there."
"Attention all citizens:" came a robotic voice. "This is a high-priority announcement. "Several Chinese Fleets are nearing the shorelines of Area 11. Kyushu has been reported as under attack by Chinese landing parties. Lord Jeremiah has engaged them, and god willing, victory will soon be ours.
"It is believed that the Chinese may attempt bombing runs. Prince Clovis has set aside evacuation zones that will be well sheltered. All civilian personnel should evacuate to them if possible. Please go to the governor's palace to receive transportation."
"I don't believe it for a second," said Naoto. "Tamaki, get as many people as we can spare and head down to that place at once. Take the train if you have to. You'll put yourself under the command of uh...
"Who was this?"
"Shirley Fenette," said Kallen.
"Right, just ask her what she wants to be done and tell her if it's impossible," said Naoto.
"She's a schoolgirl," said Tamaki.
"It's either her or a Britannian officer, and they'll try to get you killed. So it's the Swimclub or an early grave," said Naoto. "And see if you can round up some of the Honorary Britannians to go with you. Kallen, talk to your superiors and tell them this. See if you can get assigned there.
"I'll see what I can do on this end. We'll be golden if I can get some of the other resistance groups to head out there.
"I'm willing to bet there will be a strike here in the Tokyo settlement. We'll keep the Glasgow here, though, just in case. I'll use it like usual."
Kallen smiled. "Right."
Kallen broke off and rushed back to the meeting spot as quickly as she could. Doing so had her nearly tripping several times, but she managed it. She found Ms. Villetta waiting with a car for her and halted inches from her. She'd just gotten off the phone.
"Ms. Villetta, have you heard about Itsukushima?" asked Kallen.
Villetta looked grim. "Yes, I just got the news. We have almost nothing in that area, and the Tokyo Settlement is under threat too. They might just walk in unopposed while the resistance groups keep us occupied."
"Not unopposed," said Kallen, feeling proud. "I've got a resistance group heading out that way to reinforce them as we speak."
Villeta reached forward, grabbed Kallen by the head, and kissed her on the lips. Then she drew back. The tingling sensation left behind was pleasant. "Thank you!"
"Um, yes, uh..." Kallen found herself going beat red.
"Are we interrupting something?" asked a voice.
Kallen whirled and stammered excuses and saw before her Lelouch. That and a beautiful, blue-haired woman in uniform. It had happened so suddenly. I mean, not like Ms. Villetta wasn't beautiful and sexy and um... no, drop thought process.
"Yes, I mean no, I..." began Kallen.
"Do you know about Itsukushima?" asked Lelouch simply.
"I heard about it from Shirley. Anything new?" asked Kallen, only too glad for the distraction.
"I've already dispatched the militia we raised using the cars we salvaged. The trains aren't going to get our people there fast enough. I've also sent trucks with sandbags, rations, and ammunition. Their orders are to dig in and also get the weaponry in the museums out for use.
"In addition, I've sent a request to Kaguya Sumaragi of Kyoto and requested she send help. Local resistance forces are now en route. And the Saitama resistance group is also heading there to be put under... Shirley's command."
"You mean the girl from the swim club?" asked Villetta. "Why is anyone following her orders?"
"Well," said Lelouch. "The elevens refuse to accept command from a Britannian officer. They think they'll be sent to die. The Britannians refuse to accept command from an eleven for obvious reasons. There isn't any one of sufficient rank or charisma to force the issue. And Shirley was involved in raising the alarm.
"So they are either commanded by the swim club, or they just go home."
"We've put the fate of the nation in the hands of a teenaged girl with no qualifications," said Villetta. And she sounded miserable.
"Oh, it's just social darwinism in action," said Lelouch. "Progress of the best kind. I think it'll work out splendidly. In a few years, every superpower will be ruled by preteen girls."
"Just stop," said Villetta. "In any case, you're ahead of us. We're still trying to mobilize some sort of response. Clovis has been working on raising what troops he can, but we didn't expect to be hit there. Or this quickly.
"Why didn't you call us?"
"It was nothing but an unfounded theory. I wanted to get a sense of the defenses there before I made a hassle," said Lelouch.
Villetta nodded. "In any case, your highness, I'm afraid I've been asked to escort you to Prince Clovis' area of command."
Oh.
Oh, this was bad.
Lelouch looked to the blue-haired woman, who halted. "Ms. Cecile?"
"I didn't tell anyone," said Cecile.
"It wasn't her," said Villetta. "You did an excellent job of blending in. However, a determined investigation reveals few possible alternatives. Prince Clovis wishes to meet with you."
Lelouch sighed. "Very well then, I suppose I've already given what orders I can.
"Lead on."
They entered into the black car, and Villetta drove them off. Kallen looked to Lelouch, feeling a bit odd about all this. The sun was falling now, and darkness was coming on. Lelouch peered out. "Night is coming. That should buy us time."
"So you are a Prince?" asked Kallen.
"You guessed as much," said Lelouch from her tone.
Kallen shrugged. "There were a few too many coincidences, so I suspected it. You haven't been nearly careful enough."
"I know," said Lelouch. "Neither have you."
And he took her hand.
Kallen smiled. "Guilty as charged."
There would be hell soon, but for the moment, there was serenity.