Wow. I am seriously astonished at the positive feedback Lelouch Liesmith garnered. So, here it is, a second chapter for you guys. But before I go on, I'd like to address one of the guest reviews: Loki's blue eyes in this story are from the Casket of Ancient Winters when he uses the powers (and not from Thanos mind-fucking him). When he uses illusions to show his standard form, he has the usual green eyes.

Also, I drop some fairly heavy hints as to who Kallen is in this chapter, particularly at the end. Yes, I am aware that this character did not canonically die in the MCU, yet, but for the sake of this story, she ended up in the same predicament as Loki due to AU shenanigans.

LELOUCH LIESMITH

CHAPTER 2:

WRATH OF A FROST GIANT

"I'll be honest," Lelouch, or rather, Loki reborn said as he watched the battle unfold. "Chess bored me. It's nothing like a real battle. The pieces can disobey, there are problems of terrain and weather, and there are logistics and materiel to consider. In any case, I had nobody willing to play with me on Asgard, aside from my par…I mean, Odin and Frigga. The last time I persuaded Thor to play, I got him in Fool's Check, and he flipped the board. Then again, for all his folly, he would be a much better opponent than Clovis. He at least knows how to lead an army, even if he was an impulsive oaf."

CC peered at the screen, smirking a little at the decimation of Clovis' forces. Lelouch had managed to bring this ragtag resistance group to a whole supply train full of Sutherlands, intended to be used for the Purists, but now were being turned against them. "Sounds like you have a lot of interesting tales to tell. What should I call you?"

"Loki in private, but in public, Lelouch."

"And that's how you introduced yourself to those rebels," CC mused. "Loki. You'll be using that as a nom de guerre, no doubt."

"Of course." His eyes met her own golden orbs. He could see the weight of the centuries, the pain she had accumulated over the years, behind that gaze. "One day, I would know your true name, CC. But not now." He turned back to the monitor, and frowned. The rebel group he had helped seemed to be celebrating already, given the cheers over the radio. But he recalled something he got out of Villetta Nu while interrogating her using the Geass. Tapping into the radio feed, he said, "This is Loki. I would advise that you do not celebrate just yet. I found out from a source that Lloyd Asplund of the Japanese branch of Camelot is present nearby, and he is rumoured to have a special next-generation prototype Knightmare ready for deployment. Stay alert until we can be sure they won't deploy it."

As predicted, the male redhead with the scruffy beard and the obstreperous nature objected. Loudly. Lelouch muttered quietly to himself, "With all his bluster, he's like Volstagg without the ability to back up his boasts. However, that girl, Kallen, she's practically a Valkyrie on her steed riding into battle with just a refurbished Glasgow…I wonder what she could do with a Sutherland or a Gloucester…"

Suddenly, panicked reports came in of a gleaming white Knightmare, attacking. Lelouch caught a glimpse of it fighting the others. It's fast, a veritable weapon embodied. What a beautifully lethal steed, he thought. Out loud, over the radio, he yelled, "All units, retreat! This is not a foe you can fight! Fall back to whatever boltholes you have. I'm going to go and end this."

And so he did. He had to ditch his Knightmare, and use his illusion magic to cloak himself and CC as Britannian soldiers. He headed for the mobile command centre, used Geass to force the staff on board to leave, and then held Clovis at gunpoint, forcing him to call for a ceasefire. Clovis then glared at Lelouch. "There! Satisfied?"

"Not quite."

"Then what? Shall we have a singalong, or perhaps play a game of chess?" Clovis asked.

Lelouch chuckled darkly, allowing the illusion on himself to drop. "Ah…we already have been, dear brother, and you are in check."

Clovis' eyes widened, and a delighted smile spread across his face. "Lelouch? Is…is that really you? But…I thought…"

"That I was dead. You were wrong, but it was a misapprehension I wished to continue."

"…What? You wanted everyone to think that you were dead? But Lelouch, we would have welcomed you back with open arms!"

"Oh? To be used as a tool? Or are you forgetting how readily the Emperor discarded us when all I demanded was justice for my mother's murder, and for him to see Nunnally!" Lelouch snarled. "I was happy living here in Japan, and then the Emperor decided to invade! Our own forces tried to murder us, to send us to Hell to join Lady Marianne! No doubt someone within the court, even one of my own family, did the deed."

"It wasn't me, I swear to God!"

"SWEAR TO ME!" Lelouch roared, his Geass activating. "Do you know who killed my mother, or who may know about it besides the Emperor?"

Clovis went limp, his eyes shining with a red outline. "…Schneizel and Cornelia may know. I do not believe they were responsible, but Cornelia withdrew the guards around Marianne, and Schneizel was ordered to move the body," he droned.

"I see. What of the girl CC, in the so-called poison gas capsule?"

"I was shown her immortality, and wished to find a way to obtain it for myself," he said.

"And do you regret experimenting on her? Or killing those people?"

"No. Those weren't people, they were Elevens, Numbers, subhuman. And CC was but a means to an end."

"Do you have any information on the project you had CC in?"

"General Aspirius has it."

Lelouch cursed inwardly, but he was relieved that, upon recognising the balding officer, he left a backdoor into his mind. So he released Clovis. "I've heard enough. You know, I am tempted to just shoot you through the head and call it a day…but you made this young lady suffer. You murdered hundreds if not thousands to cover your arse. True, I am somewhat guilty of many worse offences, but I'm nothing if not a hypocrite, and it didn't happen in this life."

Clovis stared at him as if he was a madman. The only thing he seemed to understand was that he was about to die. "Lelouch…you can't do this! We may not have shared the same mother, but we're still blood!"

"And you murdered the Japanese, the people who showed more love to me before the invasion than anyone of my blood, save perhaps for Nunnally, Euphie and Cornelia." His skin turned blue as he gathered the energy of the Casket of Ancient Winters. "Can you feel that cold chill?" he asked conversationally. "Feel that shiver down your spine? That, Clovis, is the spectre of Death. You are a treacherous, opportunistic little egotist, and in the Christian religion, is not the deepest, darkest circle of Hell deathly cold?" With that, Loki gestured, and Clovis' body began to become encased in ice.

"Lelouch, stop! I beg you, stop!"

"No. Die cold, in pain, just like you left many Japanese when you destroyed their homes and hospitals to erect monuments to your greatness, one quality amongst many you indubitably lack! I am Loki of Asgard, a god amongst men, and you are but a mere ant, about to meet its predestined boot."

Soon, the ice covered Clovis entirely, eating into his body, vitrifying it. His mouth was twisted into a frozen grimace, mid-chatter. Lelouch didn't let up until Clovis was covered in his entirety, and even then, he kept it up for the best part of a minute, until Clovis was encased in a massive block of ice. Then, he stalked forward, and slammed his foot into it hard, shattered the ice block, and with it, Clovis. "Ant, boot," Lelouch sneered contemptuously at the remnants of his half-brother. He then turned to CC, and bowed. "Forgive me of robbing you of your much-deserved vengeance, CC, but he had offended me greatly."

The green-haired woman shook her head. "No…no, as much as I wanted to do it myself, that was very satisfying. That…filth subjected me to just about every form of death imaginable, every torture the human mind can think up, all to try and unravel the secrets of my immortality." She walked daintily up to Clovis' head, severed from the neck down, still clad in a block of ice that didn't even seem like it would melt, and spat on it, the spit instantly freezing, adding to the ice. "I will have to content myself with that," she concluded.

"Excellent. I think we'll use my illusion spells to make ourselves invisible as we go out. We'll also have to see if Aspirius is still around…"

The rotund general, indeed, was, and Lelouch only spent enough time with him to confirm he could send the data. Lelouch then ordered him to, once he sent the data via untraceable means, or as untraceable as possible, commit suicide in the most painful and humiliating way Aspirius could think of, while leaving a note hinting at Clovis' crimes. Then, he and CC made their way back to Ashford Academy.

As he entered his rooms, the Japanese maid assigned to them, Sayoko, bowed, and said, "Welcome back, Master Lel…" Suddenly, her eyes narrowed, and she readied herself, kunai appearing in her hands from her sleeves. "No…you are not him. Your body language…it's different. Who are you? And who is this with you?"

Lelouch rolled his eyes. "Stand down, Sayoko." He caught a thrown kunai with contemptuous ease. "I said, stand down. I will not ask nicely again. I am Lelouch vi Britannia…but I have remembered who I was."

"Never."

The maid was promptly frozen in a block of ice. On CC's glance, Lelouch said, "I can vary how badly it affects the body. At the moment, she is merely encased in ice, with a hole over her mouth. She can breathe, and hypothermia won't affect her for some time. Unlike Clovis, I have need of her services, to look after and protect Nunnally at the very least. Now, Sayoko, I am going to let you loose. Please do not try to attack me until I've had a chance to explain everything…"

The Japanese maid and kunoichi stared at Lelouch after all was said and done. "You claim to not just be Master Lelouch, but also a reincarnation of Loki, the Norse deity, only, you were actually what we would call an alien, albeit with superhuman strength. Somehow, your memories and abilities were reawakened by this woman, CC, when she gave you this…Geass."

"Indeed. I know how loyal you are to Nunnally and I, which is why I froze you non-lethally instead of killing you. My story is certainly hard to believe, but…here I am. I could use Geass to enforce that loyalty…but I wanted to give you a chance first, given your years of service to us."

Sayoko frowned. "An unbelievable tale…and yet, despite your namesake's appellation of Liesmith, I find myself believing it, or at least your devotion to your sister. I acted with haste, Master Lelouch, worried for Nunnally's life."

"Then you need not worry." Lelouch became solemn. "I had no younger sibling in my prior life, only an older brother whom I was stuck in the shadow of. His follies in his relationship with me, I do not intend to repeat with Nunnally. My end is not world domination, though that may still be the means. Instead, my goal is to destroy my father, and the web of injustice that he sits at the heart of, as well as to take vengeance for my mother. Then, having carved out the cancer at the centre of Britannia, I will have paved the way for a world safe for Nunnally to live. A kinder world. Yes, there will still be cruelty and darkness…but I intend to burn away as much of it as I can. Freeing Japan is but the first step. I already had planned on doing this, but gaining Geass, and regaining my powers from my former life, has accelerated my timetable. I'm not so arrogant to believe I can do so alone. I may be powerful, but even with Geass, my Frost Giant physiology, and the power of the Casket of Ancient Winters, well, I need an army. Or a Hulk."

"…A Hulk?"

"I heard rumours of a man who turned into a rampaging beast back on the Midgard of my universe," Lelouch remarked. "The humans called him a Hulk. An unstoppable berserker. Still, I doubt they have something like that. My bit of gambling has helped build up the funds I need for this sort of thing. Armed revolutions are somewhat expensive, and there's also paying for our upkeep and Nunnally's medical bills. Still, for an army, I think I may have a decent foundation to begin one. Those rebels seemed to be concerned about civilian casualties, considering their discussions over the so-called poison gas."

"Contacting them might be tricky," CC pointed out.

"Maybe not. I'm fairly certain that one of them is a student here, Kallen Stadtfeld. I'm going to be keeping an eye on her for the next little while…"

As she lay in her bed that night, Kallen Kozuki stared at the ceiling. What was it about that name, Loki, the name of a Norse god, that sounded familiar? It reminded her of her nightmares, the ones she despised, of the woman in the black costume and the spiky horned headdress, cackling as she slew so many of her number on winged steeds in a bleak landscape. Of being the only one to survive, but when she tried to head somewhere, anywhere to exile herself, she got careless. Perhaps she did so on purpose, as expurgation for her survivor's guilt. She remembered being torn apart, the voice of a woman…and then, nothing.

While she was brilliant with a Knightmare Frame, and missed her Glasgow badly, she wondered what it would be like to fight on a winged horse, in armour. Sometimes, when she looked in the mirror, she saw not her red hair, pale skin, blue eyes, and just a hint of Oriental features from her mother, not enough to be noticeable. Sometimes, she saw a woman with dark hair and brown skin, with the eyes of a warrior. She didn't know why, and at times, she felt like she was losing her mind. Probably from the stress of living a double life.

Then again, Kallen didn't truly know what living a double life truly meant. But soon, she would. Yes, she would…

CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:

Ohhh…so Kallen is someone who may be familiar to those who have watched Thor: Ragnarok. Don't worry, she's the only MCU character making an appearance...unless a Stan Lee cameo counts.

No numbered annotations this time.