The Empty Throne was one of the most sacred memorial sites in the world. In Britannia it was only second to the Memorial Day site where Nunnally made her public address each year. It was not quite a holy site, but the Empty Throne was a venerated spot, off limits to much of the activities that might ordinarily adorn such places of memory and public contrition.
The main "draw" of the spot was the dual memorial. There was a massive reflecting pool, an artificial lake that was actually the blast crater of a FLEIJA warhead. At one end of the miniature lake was a rectangular building with a columned wrap-around patio-like area. Facing out onto the lake at one end of the building was a large stone throne that looked as though it had been carved in the separate intent that a statue of a person sitting in that throne was intended to have been erected there as well.
The true intent was that the throne remain empty, hence the name given to the site. It was meant to symbolize the failures of the leaders of the past, the people who should have been occupying the throne, and their abdication of their greater duty in furtherance of their own selfish aims – the former rules who reigned but in effect left the throne empty. It also symbolized hope in the future; that one day there would be someone who could sit on that throne, see the failures of the past, and create a new and better future.
People had begun to view this memorial as a more spiritual place. There had been a number of incidents of distraught individuals who broke in during the first months of the memorial's opening, defacing some of the inner facilities, or engraving names of family or loved ones on public plaques. For that reason security was added, a special constant vigil over the main building. Protecting the public memorial was important for the public's ability to properly remember and mourn, but few thought it a target for anything more than distraught vandals.
Nunnally was having a meeting with her military officers shortly before the start of the latest incident. It was an important meeting going over the plans for how to deal precisely with Euphemia, Marrybell, and Shirley Alter. It was the deadline she'd offered to them following the attack on the secret facility where C.C. had been held.
In the secure room a wall of large monitors showed still images of Euphemia, Marrybell, and Shirley. Some of the images were clearly recent ones of the Alters, while others appeared to be older images of the namesakes themselves.
A lieutenant colonel stood to the left of the monitors and began his presentation once Nunnally entered and settled in the room and Angela Driscol affirmed there were no more expected guests. Lloyd was here as the eyes and ears for his team. Nina and Kallen were in attendance as well. Nina, mother of the FLEIJA, was going to be providing her technical analysis on the proposed use of a modified version of that weapon. Kallen was here to wear several hats, a realization that only really struck her as she was entering the room as she wrestled with finding herself unwittingly drawn so deep into Nunnally's orbit.
The LTC began, "Based on the encounters and data we've acquired this far about the three primary targets we've concluded that there is an unprecedented need for secrecy in communication regarding discussions on these targets. For that reason, with her majesty's blessing, this portion of today's conference is not being recorded in any form. There will be no transcripts so as to ensure this secrecy.
"From here on, we have decided that new codenames will be assigned to each target. Every person here is asked to memorize these new designations and use them at any time they are referring to the relevant party. If discussing the targets for any reason with someone not currently in this room, for example in relaying orders for preparation of a strike, it is to be assumed that the person has no need to know. If it is deemed absolutely essential that they understand who the referenced individual is, conveyance must be through a verified top-level secured mechanism.
"The element of surprise in our activities is not merely a "nice to have" in this case; it is paramount. Even in using these codenames, all care must be given to not convey any greater understanding of who the code refers to. For example, when using the code name for Marrybell mel Britannia, do not make reference to any locations in Europa, or relative proximity to other points of interest or targets.
"Now, our number one target is the being claimed to be Euphemia li Britannia. She will be designated "Avenger". She was the first to present herself before us and was responsible for burning the imperial castle. Indications are, based on statements and actions of the others, she is the leader of these monsters. However, we've yet to discern her actual intentions, or plans.
"The target claimed to be Marrybell mel Britannia has been given the designation of "Rider". She can be considered the most dangerous at the moment. She has killed scores of millions of people, mostly by immolation, and in the process has laid claim to England and parts of mainland Europa. She conducts barbaric public acts of depravity and murder to stamp out the will of the survivors to resist her. We have very limited visibility as to what is going on in the territories she's claimed. She is the only one that currently holds any land. Intelligence has a hard time reconciling her statements and actions with Avenger, so the belief is that they are in a stalemate with each other right now whereby she will not move against any of Avenger's interests, apparently to include Britannia itself.
"In this regard, it seems Rider is content to stay to the territory she's claimed in Europa at the moment, but there's no telling how long that will last. As best as we can determine, Rider likely holds some level of respect or deference towards Avenger. Her acceptance to the UFN as a non-voting member under restricted guidelines notably would allow her to demand support should she come under attack, else any member nation forfeit assurances she will not attack them.
"The target claimed to be Shirley Fenette will be given the designation "Berserker". She's a wildcard. Her motivations seem to be derived from vengeance, but that vengeance seems to be placed in a blanket application to anyone she feels like. In essence, her actions are divorced of any clear reasoning, and it's suspected that unlike the others whose rationality has been warped or enhanced to it's extreme position, hers has been all but stripped away. Eyewitness accounts say she has fashioned herself as some form of vigilante and has taken to killing victims and perpetrators alike out of a stated belief both contribute to the crime and a failure of a resolution prior to her arrival. She seems to have no interest in anything but murder, and acts as a protégé of sorts to Avenger. Although she was initially here in Britannia, she has since the first days of the assaults by Avenger been active in the areas around Ashford Academy in Neo Tokyo, where Shirley Fenette was once a student.
"Finally, we will designate the unknown mastermind as "Caster". Caster is not currently a primary target, but all reasonable effort should be made to secure them if located and the opportunity presents itself. We want them alive due to the fact they hold a great deal of information about what has happened, and likely will be easier to capture and extract information from than the others. They seemingly have not directly played a role in any murders. However, they have provided material support to Avenger in her murderous and terrorist actions, and enabled Rider's conquest in Europa."
"Thank you," Nunnally said hoarsely. She'd raised her voice far more often in the last couple days than was accustomed of her in the past several years, and it was showing. Angela had switched Nunnally's normal tea to a different chamomile and herb blend to help soothe her master's throat.
"With the confirmed actions of the UFN," Nunnally continued. "We are changing from Operation Casket to Operation Final Order. The declaration acknowledging Rider's claims to the territory she currently holds in England makes no mention of the other Alters, nor does it recognize any claims outside of England, specifically Spain. One of the goals of our operation will be to probe the response by Rider by entering the area of Cartagena where she made her first attack. Our hope is that we can investigate and begin the cleanup of the city in conjunction with our European allies. While this is occurring, we will begin an assault against Avenger."
Nunnally looked to the Lieutenant Colonel and he picked up his presentation. "By analyzing the patterns of attacks by Avenger, we have high confidence that her most overt actions are against our military installments. While we have yet to determine the exact rationale for her target selections, we do have confidence that we know which locations will be attacked next.
"Using this information, and data gathered by the various teams of this task force, the plan for our dealing with Avenger is simple. Despite the force she brings to bear, her operation time appears to be finite. By surrounding her and engaging in a wave pattern of attack, the goal is to exhaust her ability to respond to our attacks against her. Her use of the aerial attack weapons identified as dragons has been far more limited than what has been seen with Rider, therefore we assume that Rider has been afforded the lion's share of these weapons. Therefore, it is expected that our ancillary forces can sufficiently distract and wear down these targets while the main force focuses on Avenger herself.
"As her majesty mentioned, the plan for Operation Casket has been tabled indefinitely. Thanks to the hard work of Ms. Einstein, we have deemed it highly improbable that even a strategic deployment of the FLEIJA munition would effectively work. Given the likely location of its use, and the likely inability to adequately lure the target to more favorable engagement zones, the collateral damage would be too high to nearby civilian populations and our own troops.
"Our main vanguard force will consist of three deployments of mechanized infantry led by two or three Knightmares. Close range combat will be intense. While a kill-shot is preferable, the main goal will be to exhaust the target. Once the first deployment has exhausted 75% or more of its ammunition or has suffered more than 50% loss in combat ability, the second deployment will move in to cover for the first as it regroups and resupplies. The second deployment will repeat this process with the third deployment waiting to take over as the second did. This cycle will continue until Avenger has been brought down.
"A rear guard will serve to provide situational bombardment while keeping the dragons at bay and monitoring for movement from any outside forces into the combat area."
"Are there any questions at this point?" Nunnally asked the group.
"If you would, your majesty," one general spoke up. "The move into Cartagena is meant to draw Rider's attention away so that she does not move to aide Avenger. Is this really necessary? Given the operation's already clandestine nature, and the fact that travel from Britannia to Europa would already take half a day, wouldn't it be too late for Rider to aide Avenger once the attack begins?"
Nunnally looked to Lloyd, who knew he would be called on to answer this sticky question. "Ordinarily it would only make sense, as you suggest, to not expect help from halfway around the world. But there are aspects to these Alters we still don't quite understand. The speed of travel of their dragons, for instance, is uncertain, as we do know that in her attack on England, Rider covered the distance from Cartagena to London in only 2/3rds of the time expected by our fastest means. We also don't know for sure if that was as fast as she could have made that particular journey or not, seeing as how we don't know that she had any need to rush there."
"As the Cartagena unit will be mostly unmanned for this operation, the loss of a few machines is minor compared to the risk of failure if Rider does show up to aide Avenger," Nunnally interrupted. "That is also why the third prong of our operation is aimed at containing potential interference from Berserker."
"As her majesty said, isolating these Alters is critical, as their combat ability is significant alone. If they were to cooperatively engage a target, there would be no chance. Therefore, our missions to deter and distract the other two are as imperative to the overall operation as the mission to combat Avenger.
"The Cartagena mission will consist primarily of unmanned vehicles and a minor support staff. Despite what was just said regarding the applicable use of the FLEIJA against Avenger, the same does not apply regarding Rider. If met in Cartagena we would have little concern regarding the use of a FLEIJA should the opportunity present itself, given the entire region lays abandoned at the moment. If possible, it would be our preference that Rider took the bait.
"The manned force will operate well back of the unmanned unit, overseeing operational functionality. If Rider does appear, they will feign a retreat of all forces. In reality the goal will be to lure Rider deeper in while the manned forces escape to a safe distance. Once a safe distance is achieved, they will remotely detonate the FLEIJA munition.
"Now, regarding Berserker, the difficulty in dealing with her is that she acts in…"
It was as they were getting to this part of the briefing that a staff officer interrupted with the news of the incident at the Empty Throne. You could see Nunnally's face tense and contort in anger and frustration. Before dismissing the group, she bitterly ordered them to hurry with their preparations to take on Avenger.
"You seem really tired," Kallen remarked as she pushed Nunnally's chair through the halls, Angela quietly walking a step or so behind her. Angela had overheard Kallen lament deciding to accept Nunnally's offer, bemoaning her uncertainty about what it was she could do for her charge. It was Angela's suggestion that when together Kallen should be the one to push Nunnally's wheelchair along if not determinatively otherwise occupied. Kallen wasn't sure what she was supposed to get out of the exercise, but it had already struck her that she could notice little things she thought she was already aware of absent what she considered a minutely closer position.
"It's too frustrating," Nunnally answered wearily. "I don't like the person I'm becoming, and yet I don't know what to do to change it."
"Well," Kallen started, then paused, before continuing. "I hope you weren't counting on me to be able to answer that for you."
"No," Nunnally said softly. She reached her hand up behind her to softly touch Kallen's. "Sorry for venting to you like that."
"I don't know much about being a real knight, so please don't expect me to follow all those rules and stuff," Kallen answered back in a gentle tone. "But I don't mind listening to what's on your mind. I think everyone gets frustrated at some time in their life about who they are and who they want to be."
"I… suppose…"
Nunnally was truly exhausted. Her sleepless nights had stretched on for several days. Even if she tried to tough through it, it was easy to see how tired she was on a regular basis. Merely asking her to get more sleep was proving to be futile, and there was little to be done about lessening her workload, although not having her think about security was part of Kallen's job now. Just like that, Nunnally couldn't keep her eyes open and drifted off to sleep.
"I must say," Angela said softly. "I'm surprised her majesty is so comfortable around you. I've hardly ever heard her mention your name. I didn't perceive you to be so close to one another. Yet, I've only seen her majesty so at ease around Ms. C.C. and Princess Cornelia."
"I'm sure that's just how tired she is," Kallen answered back with a little defiance. There was no way she could figure out what was in Nunnally's mind, and Angela made a very good point.
"I don't mean to suggest anything more than relief that you were able to bring some mental peace to her majesty. The days and weeks since the loss of the castle has weighed on her more so than anything else."
"I'm sure the loss of the people who served her mean more to her than an old building."
"Pardon? I believe you're mistaken," Angela said, showing some confusion.
"Did I say something strange?" Kallen asked, herself now also feeling confused.
"No one at the castle perished in the attack."
"Wait, that can't be right. A sudden attack like that… the reports said there were several deaths."
"Well, yes there was early confusion, as I'm sure you can imagine. But I can assure you from my post as the one in charge of most of the castle's staff, no one died in the attack on the castle."
Kallen would have stopped and shook Angela to get her to explain in more detail if she weren't cognizant of the sleeping Nunnally in the wheelchair she was pushing. She almost felt like waking Nunnally up to ask her about it. She started to think through it again in her mind, wondering if Angela was the one who was mistaken about something. She tried to think about the last time she'd heard the details about the castle attack, the last time she spoke to anyone about it. As she did a morose, unpleasant, feeling started to crawl up her spine.
Most times, as she had a moment ago, there had been little talk of the details of the event. Most references to that night only mentioned the fact that there was an attack on the castle. Outside the details of the destruction of the castle itself, the uncommon attribute of the mythical beasts that caused the destruction, there had been no mention she could recall of a body count, a tally of the injured. There had been mention of such things in the attack that same night on the Black Knights base, and on the attacks involving Euphemia Alter since then. But that first attack, that seminal moment that kickstarted all of this recent chaos, seemed to have already been lost to history.
It didn't make much sense. How could there be so little known about this most crucial moment? Had she missed reading a report about it? There was no doubt a lot of her attention and focus since arriving in Britannia was centered on reviewing the most recent information about Euphemia Alter's attacks, figuring out how to counter her. She personally hadn't had any reason to delve too much into that first incident herself, in part because the timing at night, and the lack of awareness of the threat itself, meant there wasn't much information of value to be directly gained. But to say no one died in a ferocious and sudden attack that burnt a castle to the ground… how could such a fortunate outcome happen there, and what did that mean for the supposed torching of Cartagena and London?
While Kallen was in thought, they arrived at Nunnally's chambers. The door was slightly ajar, an immediate threat that snapped Kallen away from her thoughts and into her new role as Nunnally's knight. She stopped pushing the chair and waved Angela to her. Kallen drew her service pistol, wondering somewhere in the back of her mind if there was any point, Euphemia Alter certainly not going to be fearful of a few gunshots. As she pushed open the door, the familiar tassel of green hair eased her fears, brought a touch of relief, and sparked a little anger.
"What the hell are you doing?" Kallen asked.
"Well, well, I think the look suits you," C.C. replied, seated on the end of Nunnally's bed. "I'm gone for a little while and you become a knight. Very interesting."
"What would you've done if I was Suzaku or Cornelia?" Kallen griped, holstering the gun.
"I would probably have given them an earful. But, I guess it'll have to wait until next time."
"Why'd you come back," Kallen asked, softer now as she watched Angela bring Nunnally into the room. C.C reached back and pulled down the covers to help prep the bed. "After what happened, I didn't think you'd be able to trust us at all."
"I really was expecting to see those two here and not you. Or I guess I should say I thought I might, but part of me was hoping I wouldn't. Maybe I've grown too soft now, but I don't really blame them for trying to get rid of me," C.C. replied, her eyes cast downward as Kallen gently lifted Nunnally into the bed. "She's extremely precious to them, and to this world's future. Someone like me shouldn't be complicating things for her."
Having settled the still sleeping Nunnally into the bed, Kallen angrily grabbed C.C. by the arm and dragged her into the side room. She closed the door behind them, turning to look angrily at C.C.
"Don't look at me like that," C.C. said with a slight chuckle.
"Cut the bullshit!" Kallen declared furiously. "Don't try to make up such an obvious lie!"
"I'm not…"
"Then why're you trying to run away!? I bet you were planning to leave without even seeing Nunnally!"
"Listen Kallen," C.C. sighed. "I've experienced almost every form of pain and suffering imaginable in my long lifetime. Being shunned by Suzaku and Cornelia is nothing new to me. If you think that alone would send me fleeing from Nunnally's side, then you don't know me very well. But I want a different future for Nunnally than one where people who mean something to her are pushed away because of some misguided attempts at forcing civility. My only fear was that I would show up and Nunnally would reject me. It's a lot easier to talk to Nunnally if I don't have to worry about butting heads with them.
"There is a threat to Nunnally's future out there that I need to help resolve. Since I can't count on those two to help me do it, I just need to prove to them they're wrong by finding another way. Their little stunt did give me a chance to think things through from the beginning and now I think I understand a few things better."
"Care to share your sage wisdom," Kallen prodded, not fully convinced by C.C.'s sweet talk.
"The first thing is the main reason I came back now. I think there's someone helping Euphemia Alter."
"She's been given a new codename; Avenger."
"Hmm… I don't really know that it suits her, but whatever. I don't know who it is, although I have some guesses. But it wouldn't do for me to send you chasing the wrong lead based on my guess right now, so I won't say."
"So you want me to track down a spy for you? How're you so sure I'm not the spy?"
"You? To be completely honest the thought never crossed my mind. You're far too simple to be a spy."
Kallen resisted the urge to hit her, clenching her fist to relieve the welling stress. "And the other thing?"
C.C.'s demeanor turned sullen and she dropped her head as she spoke. "I think I might know what's going on. I've got a few people who're gonna help me look into it. It's a legend I heard about a very long time ago. Tell Lloyd to look into anything he can find about True Magic."
"True Magic? What's that supposed to mean? What's that gotta do with all this?"
"If I'm right… Euphemia, Marrybell, Shirley, aren't the last familiar faces we'll see. Someone might try to bring Lelouch back as well."
"B-bring back… Lelouch…?"