In some ways, Nina Einstein was the most powerful figure in the world. It was just that no one really knew it. In many ways she was the most infamous person alive. It was just that no one seemed to care about it.
Nina had long found displeasure in that remarkable aspect of herself to be rather unremarkable. She had the uncanny ability to go unnoticed. It was both a curse and a blessing. It made for a lonely life when you could do your best each day, and never receive any recognition for those efforts. But, it was because of this that she wasn't trumpeted as a monster on the level of Charles zi Britannia or Lelouch vi Britannia. As the maker of the worst weapon humanity had ever seen, she thought she probably got off light for her role in the deaths of countless millions.
That regret, in a morose way, was probably what helped her recognition in the public psyche. She only made the weapon. If she were to be hated, why not then hate Nunnally who pressed the trigger, Zero who instigated so much of the strife?
Nina had thought like this for a time, berating those around her over the regrets she held in her heart. Many knew that a major source of her anger and depression was an uncommon love she held for the late Euphemia li Britannia.
A shy and mousy girl, it was easy for Nina to get swept into the orbit of those of stronger personalities. Their gravity pulled her in and kept her close, and their radiance focused all attention on them, away from her. That girl who could be so unremarkable, who so often went unrecognized for her actions, was finally recognized by someone. The circumstance was uncommon, and it wasn't direct. But in Euphemia she found a different radiance that was stronger, more pure, than anything she'd known before. From this was born an infatuation that led to her becoming inconsolably depressed at the death of Euphemia.
Zero was the one who killed her. For that, he was a vile and inhuman enemy to be killed at any cost. Thinking like that, she created a weapon that without question could render him no means of escape from justice; a weapon capable of harnessing a bit of the power of the sun, and burn away the sins attested to Her radiant light.
But that was years ago now. The man who was Zero was now dead, and the man who was Zero standing before her had killed him.
Zero was a living myth; an enigma. He appeared out of nowhere, challenged Britannia, was blamed for countless crimes, was revealed to be Lelouch vi Britannia, and ultimately killed Lelouch vi Britannia. Logically, there was no way this could all have been done by one person. That truth was instinctively known. But at some point, people gave up wondering who Zero really was. So he became a living legend; a man eternally shrouded in mystery, wearing a mask, symbolizing justice.
Suzaku always felt a bit awkward around her nowadays. After Nunnally ascended to the throne, and she absolved Nina of any crimes related to her service to Prince Schneizel and Emperor Lelouch, Nina assumed a discrete job as a chief research scientist and advisor for the empress. Essentially, anytime a scientific question came up, it was run by her to get an answer. The gamut of topics was wide ranging, but she seemed genuinely happy doing the work.
But the awkwardness Suzaku felt had little to do with her work. Nina hated Zero. Zero was the man who killed Euphemia. She hated Lelouch because Lelouch was Zero. She had forgiven Lelouch, believing his story about the cause of Euphemia's death, and his desire to cleanse her name. She still hated Lelouch because that feeling of loss had never left her.
Nina, as one of a handful of such folks in the world, knew who the person under the mask of Zero was. She was integral in Lelouch's plan to stop his elder brother, rescue his little sister, as the one that came up with the counter to the very weapon she created. For a brief moment in time, three people who vehemently despised one another, came together to effectuate a sort of perfect plan that only they could have pulled off.
As such, she also was one of the few who knew the origins of the current state of the world, participating in its construction. Her help was going to be crucial. If the primary theory at the moment was going to be proven one way or another, it was most likely to come from her aide and her mind.
"Z-Zero? I had no idea you were here." Nina said in surprise as Suzaku started gathering up the papers Nina spilled. She rushed to help him. "I was told about the attack on your base, but I assumed you would have gone to a military base."
"I could say the same thing. I wouldn't expect you to be here." Suzaku replied. "This was the first place the military was redeployed to after the loss of the base, so I tagged along. I thought Nunnally might come here, considering where the nearest place to the castle would be that could securely hold her, so I've stuck around."
"Ah, that makes sense. I was summoned here myself, but I don't know what's going on. Can you tell me what's happening?"
Suzaku hesitated, then said, as he handed Nina the papers he gathered. "It's probably best we wait for Nunnally."
It was a relatively rare thing for the empress to visit the Assembly Hall. As the monarch at the head of the empire, it was the customary thing to have the Assembly go to her, not the other way around. If she needed to address them, they went to her castle at her invite and were received there.
Nevertheless, there were rooms set aside should the monarch ever need to attend the Assembly Hall. Unlike the castle, however, none of these were bedrooms. A sign that this building would likely be her residence for at least a few days, furniture was being brought in. It was likely that some meeting room was being repurposed as they spoke.
In similar fashion, a conference room had been requisitioned as the empress' office. It was a little slap-dash, but the room had to be particularly secure to prevent eavesdropping in any form. Some elements of this were inherently part of the makeup of the Assembly Hall's rooms, but to meet imperial standards required a bit more detail. It was essential that the empress be allowed a place to quietly converse with certain individuals in private without worry.
Regardless, it was a necessary task being completed by the Imperial Security Corp as Suzaku and Nina entered the room. Sitting in her chair was Nunnally, the twenty-year-old Empress of the Holy Britannia Empire. It was a bit painful to see her as she was right now, however.
The Nunnally Suzaku met as a child was a girl who could be as gentle as morning dew one moment, and as fiery as a volcano the next. After they were separated, it seemed time and life had changed her somewhat, because the Nunnally he was reunited with at Ashford Academy was ever the picture of morning dew. The duty of ruling had changed her.
Sometimes stern, sometimes happy, sometimes angry. What she gained in expressiveness, she lost in that ever present calm and slight feeling that he had back then. It was difficult to accept. It was a natural consequence of the duties and responsibilities on her shoulders, but it was hard not to wonder if she wouldn't have been happier having never regained her name and title.
That question was more prevalent now, looking as her expression freely shift to reflect the thoughts on her mind. You could read her like a book, and it told an unhappy tale. Her sagging eyes betrayed the fact she had most certainly been crying, and was without question exhausted to the point of seeming almost sickly. She was so deeply lost in thought, blotting out the world around her, she hadn't noticed Suzaku and Nina enter. One moment her face looked to be ready to succumb to tears, the next, so furious you were a bit scared to even be in the same room with her. And then a moment later still, she looked to be adrift in the sea of a pleasant memory.
"We're finished, your majesty," one of the corps said.
She replied with a pleasant enough, "Thank you," but the hoarseness in her voice told of the strain the last several hours had been on her. She waited for the last of the corps members to leave before she turned a sullen gaze towards Suzaku. On cue, Suzaku removed the mask of Zero. "Please sit," she asked of him and Nina.
The room was a modest sized conference room. An oblong wooden table that could fit maybe a dozen around it separated the empress from her guests. Excluding her own wheelchair, only about six other cloth armchairs occupied the space around the table at the moment. A remote telescoping arm held a monitor close to the ceiling a short ways behind Nunnally, as she sat facing the only entry or exit, a pair of wooden, metal-core, doors. In the corner behind Nunnally to her right was a podium with what looked like a tablet display taking up most of the surface, a similar sized setup mirrored on the table in front of Nunnally.
"I'm glad you're okay Suzaku," Nunnally said to him, tilting her head to the side slightly, a sweet but melancholic smile on her lips. "You've suffered a terrible ordeal."
"You're too kind, Nunnally. I know you've experienced a terribly painful ordeal yourself," he replied with a conciliatory lowering of his head.
"Yes, it seems we are being made to endure terrible pain and sadness."
"I'm afraid you don't know how terrible," Suzaku said, angry for having to add more to the tale of woe Nunnally was already lamenting.
"I was told that the Black Knights base was completely destroyed by fire," Nunnally accounted.
"Yes, well…" he hesitated.
He glanced at Nina sitting stiffly beside him. Even when she sat with him and Lelocuh years ago, that was the way it was for her. In spite of all her determination and what self-confidence she had managed to find, discussing these matters was still far from her forte. She could put on as brave a face as anyone now, but Suzaku knew she hated talking about death and dying. She never had a taste for it, and failed to acquire one despite all she'd seen.
As to urge him on that it was okay, Nina turned slightly to him and nodded. With a heavy mental sigh, Suzaku continued. "Once I heard that you were safe and where you were, I began ordering the Black Knights to scramble to meet you at the castle so we could protect you and help with the rescue. I was on my way to hangar when the attack began. I was cut off from the hangar with a few members of the Order. We made it to the armory to grab some weapons, and then we made our way to an exit.
"Once outside, we were confronted by… a large, black… figure. It didn't attack, but kept us from running. That was when…"
Suzaku paused and swallowed hard. He couldn't bring himself to glance Nina's way again, and he didn't want to look Nunnally in the eyes either. He kept his head bowed and said, "We saw a person kill one of our members. When they came towards us, they looked like… they looked like Shirley… Fenette."
"Huh?" Nina said with an aloof dissonance. It was only matched by Nunnally's own wide-eyed mixture of fury and horror.
Nunnally shut her eyes, bound her hands tightly into fists, and relaxed them again. Suzaku had seen her do this a number of times. The young Nunnally would have erupted into an outburst of complaints and whining. This was the way she kept that part of her in check nowadays. When with others she was more discrete with this habit, but in private like this, she didn't care whether anyone saw her strain to rein herself in.
"Are you sure it wasn't… no," she started and stopped. She knew there was no way Suzaku could possibly make that sort of mistake, but her racing mind pushed that question to her lips a little too fast. "Nina… I need you to listen carefully," she said, staring at Nina with fierce eyes.
"She's gotten so strong," Suzaku thought to himself. "This is her imperial mode."
Sappy naming sense aside, this was the form of Nunnally the empress showing through. Calm, measured, direct. When she was serious about something, she took on a different tone and sat with a different posture. It made you sit up and take notice.
"The fire at the castle," Nunnally began. "Was caused by a large black creature that resembled the dragons in stories. There was a person commanding the dragon to attack. She confronted me when I was returning to the castle. She looked to be Euphie."
"I've failed her," Suzaku thought. "She's being forced to tell Nina this even though I had the chance to explain it to her myself. Nunnally's got enough to think about right now, yet I was being a coward and forced her to tell Nina this."
Nina looked to be a frightful mess. She was scratching her head, trying to make sense of what they were telling her. Her violet eyes had turned as glassy as the frames that sat on her nose, darting all over in a mad dash to glimpse some invisible specter that might tell her she was dreaming, or maybe had heard wrong, or something. Because, at the moment, none of it made sense.
"P-Princess Euphemia… Princess… I…" Nina incoherently stammered, tears swelling in her eyes.
"You should both know as well as anyone that it's not possible." Nunnally said resolutely. "That's why I asked you to come here, Nina."
"I… I don't…" Nina continued to stammer, too consumed with the story to consider what Nunnally was trying to get at.
"I need to know if there's anyway a creature like a dragon can really exist in this world."
"A… a dragon? W-well, strictly speaking, it's highly unlikely. The creatures… in their myths, are too large to fly. No muscles could support the wings a creature like that would need. And the idea of an animal breathing fire is impossible. There's no way for it to create or store fire inside its body, and no animal known to the world has any internal structure that would suggest it could withstand prolonged exposure to flames.
"From a practical standpoint, it's also highly improbable that an avian or land animal as large as a dragon could have gone unseen in nature this long. There are few places on the earth that could support the necessary diet of an animal that large, all of which have had human habitation for at least a century. A sustainable breeding population of creatures that large could not possibly go unseen."
"That means that whatever it was we saw, it had to be a fake." Suzaku summarized. "The Black Knights did try to fight it off – I could hear the weapons fire when we were trying to escape. But it looked to be unharmed. We're probably dealing with some kind of machine made to look like a dragon."
"That's what I was thinking too," Nunnally agreed.
"No. Impossible," Nina refuted.
"Are you sure?"
"Well… not technically impossible, someday. I'm not an expert on engineering, but we don't have the technology to convincingly replicate anything like a dragon. Anything made today would certainly look more like a Knightmare than a dragon. You wouldn't mistake the engine noise, or the light from a Sakuradite reactor, or a Float System to allow it to fly."
"So it can't be a real creature, and it can't be a Knightmare. Does that leave us anything?" Nunnally questioned, the irritation in her voice slightly rising.
"We should contact Lloyd and Rakshata too, to see if perhaps they have special knowledge in this area." Suzaku suggested.
"I-I can do that," Nina offered. "I speak with Ser Lloyd regularly. We were supposed to speak tomorrow about a project I was researching."
"Please do." Nunnally agreed.
"Some of my advisors think we should announce this as a domestic terrorist attack – a failed assassination of the empress – so that we can calm public fear. Some think I shouldn't say anything until we know exactly what happened. What do you think, Suzaku?"
"The people are going to be very anxious as news trickles out. It would be very comforting to them to have their empress show her face to them and tell them that everything will be okay. It would be best if she didn't have to lie to accomplish that."
"The Senior Counsel will be meeting in about an hour. We will draft a statement then. I'll make my public statement by 8 o'clock."
"Yes, your majesty," Suzaku replied. He wondered for a moment if Nunnally had already determined the way she was going to answer her public. Her response seemed to say as much.
The Senior Counsel was a group of advisors to the empress. They were more or less the replacements for the cadre of royals and nobles that worked far behind Charles.
It was a somewhat strange thing when Nunnally first ascended and announced the formation of the Counsel. In terms of their actual powers, they had little if any. There had been no laws or anything like that in place that said who could be on the Counsel, what their duties would be, or any other details.
In terms of effective power, they were some of the most powerful individuals in the empire simply from the fact that theirs was the mouths whispering in the ear of the monarch. It was their opinions, their beliefs, that were supposed to commonly inform the policies the empress set forward. This was abundantly clear to be the biggest test of their influence to date.
"Sister is on her way too," Nunnally added. "I'll have to tell her too."
"If you like, I…" Suzaku started to say. He'd jumped at the chance to amend his earlier failure with Nina.
"No," Nunnally said, cutting him off. She was very defensive. "I have to do this."
"As you wish, your majesty."
Suzaku led Nina out of the room. He told one of the maids walking by to get some tea for Nunnally. As he saw Nina mumbling, a strange look on her face he could only think to describe as manic confusion, he asked the maid to fetch two cups of tea.
Placing a hand on Nina's shoulder he told her, "Take a deep breath. Slowly breathe in, and breathe out." She did as he said, that doing the trick. "Feel a little better now?"
"Y-Yes. I'm fine now," she said with a puppyish look. "I'll be okay."
"It's like you said yourself, it's not possible. That means someone is using some sort of trick we haven't figured out just yet. We'll figure it out, and the people behind all this will meet justice."