"Uh… um… hi," Milly said, awkwardly unsure of how to necessarily greet Nunnally.
"M-Milly!?" Nunnally exclaimed.
When the two reunited, it had been an eternity since they were alone in a room together. It was so unnerving, Milly found, to approach Nunnally.
For good reason, she reasoned.
Nunnally was the empress. One should be nervous meeting someone of such incredible stature and power. It was odder that she was even here right now to be able to meet this person.
The look on Nunnally's face then was so wonderful and yet so disheartening. In an instant Milly could recall so many memories of the sweet and gentle expressions, the adorable doll-like way she could turn to you, her eyes closed yet as though she could see you so clearly. Seeing her eyes so beautifully now felt like such a blessing. Yet at the same time Milly felt such a profound sadness and anger too.
Kallen had convinced her to come. It was a little odd to think that it had been the opposite, her convincing Kallen to go to Britannia, not that long ago. Was it her revenge? No, Milly couldn't think of it that way. It was too special a thing to be able to see Nunnally again like this to let such petulant thoughts ruin it.
It was hard for Milly to put it precisely into words. It was almost like being reunited not with an old acquaintance, or even a friend, but as though she had been separated from her own daughter all this time. That was far too presumptuous a thing to say out loud, but that was almost how close the two had been once.
Throughout high school Milly had been everyone's fun-loving big sister. She was beautiful, talented, smart, and she was always trying to make others happy. She didn't like to take anything too seriously, privately reminding others that once they were out of high school, the world was not so forgiving a place that one could expect to have many opportunities to live life so freely. Ashford Academy was her walled garden, a sanctuary where they could enjoy the frivolity of a day spent having real fun. It was a garden any student was welcome to reasonably enjoy. But it was really a garden built for her and two others.
The Ashford family had been allies of Marianne the Flash. It caused them grief when she was said to have been on the outs with the other royal families. And when she died, they lost the former noble status they enjoyed. Milly hadn't understood it all that well at the time, but she could recall the discussions and machinations of her father and the other adults around her trying to figure out how they could reclaim their status as nobles of Britannia. The decision to take in and shelter Marianne's banished children was as much a play at ingratiating the family with a Britannian prince and princess as it was a sense of duty to their old affiliations. If all had gone as originally planned she would have been married off to Lelouch, Nunnally would have been married off to the Kururugi boy, and all would have been right with the world.
Then the invasion of Japan took place, and the prince and princess were declared dead. The Ashfords knew without even having to say a word that the declaration of them as dead was made without any real attempt to find out otherwise meant. Milly could recall her grandfather saying that Britannia likely bombed the county with the intent that the two be caught in the blasts. And just like that, the unofficial official engagement between Milly and Lelouch was at an end.
The Ashfords still kept the two Lamperouge kids close. If the two's claim to the throne ever bore fruit, the family stood to come out far ahead. And if worse were to happen, they were a grand bargaining chip. That, however, was beyond Milly's thinking. She didn't like such scheming and exploitation, another part of why she cherished her academy so much. But even so, for a long time, she dreamed of the idea that one day she would be queen, spending her days in Britannia's royal castle, Lelouch on the throne, Nunnally there as her little step-sister.
And that was more or less how things had been for much of their younger days. She loved Nunnallly as much as if they really were sisters. Seeing how sad and despondent Nunnally have been when they first met, she spent almost as much time as Lelouch did thinking about ways to make things a little happier, more comfortable, for her. Even when in high school and she found herself being forced off on Lloyd Asplund she was willing to go along with it in part because she was promised that it would keep Lelouch and Nunnally out of harm's way. A countess in Britannia's ranks most certainly would have more power and authority than a normal woman lacking title.
That's why, even though she typically tried not to think too hard about the politics that came with being a Britannian, she had one thing she was sure she would never forgive.
Her big break in her post-Ashford Academy life came when she had to fill in for the news station she was working for as a weather girl. The destruction of the Tokyo settlement from the first battlefield use of the FLEIJA was such a devastating event. In the immediate aftermath there was so much confusion, so much bewilderment. Milly found herself having to report in the moment from a helicopter as it traversed the terrible scars from the weapon. It was during the flight, while reporting on the scene, that Charles' Geass on her was broken. Looking at the area, her memories that had been overwritten and locked away all came back. The producer, the viewers and critics, marveled at how fantastic a job she did conveying the emotion of the moment at seeing the tragedy without allowing it to overcome her. They didn't know that it was all she could do to contain the emotions that had little to do with the blast crater.
It was a lonely feeling. She had so much she wanted to know, so many questions. It was such a scandal; the Britannia emperor had some kind of power at his disposal to manipulate the memories of a person. To have every memory of growing up with Nunnally stolen like that, these happy moments she cherished so much… she was never going to forgive the fact that those were taken away, that for over a year she hadn't even had the opportunity to miss having Nunnally around. That Nunnally was thought dead in that bomb blast hurt all the more thanks to that. It was almost like finding out that day that her little sister who had been missing was now dead.
When Lelouch took over the empire, pronounced that his father was dead and the he was now emperor, Milly felt just a little that she knew what must have happened. She thought it only made sense that Lelouch would kill his father. The man who banished him and his sister, who left them for dead, who then made everyone they knew forget those relationships and connections… she could only imagine the pain and frustration she felt was infinitely worse for him. For Nunnally to then appear once more, under the cape of Schneizel, pitted against him as an enemy, Milly couldn't fathom what the two of them must have felt.
She wanted to see them, to talk to them. There was no way that they couldn't just talk things out. In all the years she spent with the two of them, she couldn't remember even seeing them squabble, let alone fight. There was no way that they could end up in a battle trying to kill each other. That just didn't make an ounce of sense.
Milly did try. She did everything she could to try to get a chance to talk to them. She called on Lloyd, on Nina, used her new connections in the news business, any connections her family still had, anything she could think of to try to get a minute with Lelouch. In the end it was to no avail.
And so she had to watch, and worse still report, on the two siblings fighting each other. She struggled to comprehend whether Nunnally knew what kind of terrible weapon the FLEIJA was to be in a battle where she willingly pulled the trigger on so many of those weapons. It seemed almost as if her own memories were a lie in watching Lelouch announce victory and parade Nunnally down the streets of the capital readying for her execution. And her heart bled when she saw him killed, saw Nunnally looking at her brother die before her. She had to turn away, cut her audio, when she heard Nunnally's screams of anguish.
She lied to herself though. She had said there was one thing she could never forgive, but that was a second. Zero was a hero. He fought Britannia, liberated Japan, and then took down the Demon King Lelouch. But no matter the cause, it felt as though there was no cause for Nunnally to have to witness such a brutal end to her brother's life.
In the years since, Milly hadn't had a real chance to ever interact with Nunnally. She hadn't known what it was she really ever wanted to say if she did. Had Nunnally realized what her father had done? Did she know about the terrible things Lelouch was said to have done as well? It wasn't as though they were in a position to return to how things were when they were both even just a couple years younger. She had come under lots of criticism already for any of her coverage of Nunnally and Britannia as a reporter. That came with the territory anytime you were a reporter and not super critical of Britannia, so she didn't care too much about that. But she had heard about the grief Nunnally received when a reporter received an invite to a ball Nunnally was hosting in her first year. In reality it was the spouse of a noble who had been a former reporter that received the invite, but it didn't stop rumors from swirling about Nunnally and her family trying to control the press coverage of the family and the empire.
That was why, when Kallen gave her a call, she wasn't sure what to do. Kallen and Milly became better acquainted near the end of Kallen's time with the UFN. Milly was doing a story on the Black Knights, and given Kallen's position with the Order at the time she was the natural contact. They hadn't become terribly close, but they did talk regularly. In a moment of terribly difficult contemplation, Milly talked to Kallen about the secret she'd been keeping since the day of the Tokyo Settlement battle, the stolen memories by Emperor Charles.
It was a relief to know that it wasn't all just some fantasy in her own mind she'd been suppressing all this time. Several years later, it was that experience that convinced her that she should push Kallen to go to Britannia. If it were possible, if she had any capacity to be of help to Nunnally herself, she would have dropped everything to be there. Knowing that her memories of the days with Nunnally weren't a lie, that they weren't some depraved fantasy a mind warped by the grief of an unimaginable loss of life that day, also brought with it a strange feeling of being separated from precious family. That sisterly feeling she once had with Nunnally was stirred again.
So of course, if Nunnally had gone to the trouble of asking for someone's help, that person must have been important to whatever Nunnally wanted to do. And as the big sister, of course she would put a little pressure on whoever it was to go along and help her little sister. Sure, some could easily accuse her of self-satisfaction, but did she care? This wasn't a matter to be debated with anyone about. She was accused of self-satisfaction all throughout her reign of terror as the student council president at Ashford. She still managed to do as she pleased, in most regards, when she was there. This was a relative cakewalk.
Yet when the call came and Kallen asked her to come to Britannia to visit, Milly was more than a little hesitant.
"That's probably a bad idea," Milly wearily retreated.
"Why not?" Kallen insisted through the other end of the phone call. "I'm not saying come and stay for a week or anything. Just spend a few hours with her."
"It's been what, seven or eight years now? I doubt she even remembers me all that well by now," she half lied. Despite her sentiments towards Nunnally, she honestly had no idea to what degree, if any at all, that Nunnally had the same feelings back towards her. It would've been one thing to be that presumptuous when they were together at the academy. But now? It was mortifying to think how terrible it would be to see the empress, try to act all friendly with her, and be smacked down for the audacity and rudeness.
"Do you want me to ask her?"
"Don't you dare!" Milly snapped back in a panic.
"Relax, it's not like she's here listening in you know," Kallen laughed. If there was one thing she envied of Milly, it was how seemingly unflappable Milly usually was, yet how easily she wore her feelings.
"I don't know how to explain this to you," Milly sighed. "It's just so… terrible, to think about it now. Whatever the reason, I haven't seen or spoken to her in almost ten years. That's a really long time. What would I even say to her? What would happen if I brought up Lelouch by accident?"
"She'd love that," Kallen reassured, her voice sounding a touch more somber. "That would probably be one of the best things you could do really. There really isn't anyone alive right now who has more memories of the Lelouch she knew than you do." Kallen felt a little bit like that was a lie, but only just slightly. Milly didn't know much about C.C., but C.C. didn't know a whole lot about the Lelouch that existed before she gave him his Geass. There were memories there that only a handful of people even had privity to, and fewer than that alive to talk them over with.
In the end, Kallen successfully cajoled Milly into paying Pendragon a visit. She lied and told Milly she'd let Nunnally know she was coming. She clearly had not. And so, when Angela rolled Nunnally into the room and Milly rose to greet the empress, Nunnally nearly leapt right out of her chair and into Milly's arms. Milly had been so tense when she arrived at the palace and was escorted in. She'd wanted to strangle Kallen for setting her up when she realized that almost no one knew to expect her arrival that day. Her nerves ate at her while she waited the seeming eternity for Nunnally to finish holding court that day, and it almost drove her more than a half dozen times to get up and leave. Yet the embrace of Nunnally melted away all of that tension and fear and apprehension. "At least this much hasn't changed," she thought to herself.
Barely a week on from that joyous moment of nearly a decade of tension and worry being melted into nothingness, a sadness and regret almost as old resurfaced.
Kallen had told Milly she only need stay for a few hours, an afternoon at most, to see Nunnally. She decided she'd take a long overdue vacation and set aside almost a month. That meant that she was still in the capital when the plan was launched to try to subdue Euphemia Alter. It also meant she was around the next morning when the news broke out that science advisor and Deputy Science Minister, Nina Einstein, was being detained.
Milly was in her vacation rental just outside the city when she heard the story. She was supposed to have breakfast with Kallen that morning, until the decision for the mission to go the previous day was made and those plans were scratched. She was deftly aware of how loose information control had become for Britannia in the wake of the Nunnally's ascension, so she could tell immediately that something sudden must have happened. The incident wasn't being reported as something the crown was putting out, or any official source from within the Britannia government, so it had to have been something someone caught wind of themselves and rushed out to the media outlets.
That part of her brain processed that part of the story in a second. The active part of her brain was angry and heartbroken. What in the world had Nina done? The first thing she thought was that she might have assaulted someone. As odd as it was a conclusion to jump to, the moment the first Euphemia Alter sighting occurred Milly thought of Nina. It had been abundantly clear that Nina held a tremendous infatuation with the princess before the whole science lab bomb standoff. That trail of events had already been dealt with in the past. But if there was one person Milly could see being infuriated by someone posing as the princess, it was Euphemia. Assuming Nina's passionate feelings for Euphemia hadn't waned too much over the years, it was easily imaginable that someone could make a snide or disparaging comment about Euphemia and send Nina into a fit.
Was that what happened? Did Nina get angry and take a swing at someone? Or worse, had she gone too far defending Euphemia's name and say something she shouldn't have to Nunnally? Milly rushed to her phone to call Kallen. She was sure there was no way that Kallen wouldn't know what was really going on. If it was just an argument, surely Kallen could talk to Nunnally and convince her to go easy on Nina. The news was already reminding people that Nina was the Mother of the FLEIJA. Public sentiment against her was bound to erupt in no time. Regardless of the truth, the public would want her head for…
Before she could make the call, Milly's phone rang. She froze and stared at the caller ID blankly before answering.
"Hello?"
"Hi Milly. So you heard already…"
"What's going on Kallen?"
"I can't tell you right now. I need you to meet me somewhere without telling anyone."
"Wh…" Milly was about to debate Kallen over this cloak and dagger routine, but she thought better of it. Kallen wasn't one to play games with something this serious. "Where should I go?"
"I'll send someone to get you. Give me a call back when they get there. I gotta go now," Kallen said in a hurry.
Milly let her go and hung up. She sighed and let herself drop down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her face twisted as if she wanted to cry, but nothing came out. It was so hard, she thought, to be an adult.
It was only about fifteen or twenty minutes before there was a ring of her doorbell. It was only just enough time for her to get dressed. She grabbed up her phone, calling Kallen as she opened the door. She didn't recognize the man who was standing there. But when Kallen explained what they should look like, Milly was at least confident this was the right person.
The guy was talkative, but Milly didn't pay much mind to what he was saying. She made pleasantries, paid enough attention to give somewhat cogent answers when he said something that would prompt response, but her mind was preoccupied with the questions he couldn't answer. The forty minutes they spent driving was like torture.
She knew almost immediately after the first ten minutes that a part of the trip was a common tactic of driving in circles to lose a tail or make a person forget how to get where they were taken. She'd heard plenty of stories about it from some the investigative reporters she worked with in the past; their war stories about chasing a dangerous lead, or being taken for a ride by some cloistered regime. She'd never experienced it herself, and if not for the reassurance from Kallen to trust her, she would have been terrified out of her mind, especially when their drive began to depart the normal roadways and get further outside of the city.
Their final approach was onto a derelict road. It wasn't terribly old, but it was clear it hadn't been much used, if at all, in several years, and hadn't been receiving regular care. It was cracked, sprigs and even the beginnings of a full bush here or there starting to come up. As the road wound its tree lined path, Milly could see the drab, panel, construction that was indicative of a military facility. Slightly better than the road, the base also appeared to be on the other side of better days. They drove past the opened gate, slowing down to be waved in by what looked to be knights freshly deployed to the location and just now getting set up. As they got closer to the administrative building, she could see more vehicles, at least a couple more military personnel carriers, a truck she believed was used for carrying around hardware. And there was a quintet of vehicles she knew were royal transports. That meant Nunnally was here.
Milly got out the car and was escorted inside the building. There were more knights and regular military inside. She wasn't sure what was going on, but it looked as though they were discussing getting security and operations setup. It drove home her suspicion that this was a decommissioned base that was hurriedly being reactivated.
Angela met Milly in the lobby area. She escorted Milly through a series of halls to a room with a guard posted by the door. Milly thought to herself it was odd how there was such a frantic military buildup of this location, yet the room where the presumed prisoner was being held had just a single soldier by it. The thought hit her that they were likely more concerned with an enemy entering from outside, than one exiting from inside.
Pass this door was a room, relatively small. Kallen was in there, eliciting a bit of relief. But that faded in seeing how despondent and upset she was. Beside her was Zero. She'd heard he was set to return from the UFN Hawaii HQ that morning, but hadn't realized he'd already made it. In the frantic scramble of the morning she hadn't realized that it was already pass ten in the morning. There was another woman in the room as well. Milly didn't think she knew her, but she did seem familiar. She was young, probably a little younger than her and Kallen she speculated. Her green hair stood out in particular. She wondered what that woman had to do with what was going on. There was also a blonde woman. Milly recognized her as someone she should know but couldn't place a name to the face.
The sour mood was thick in the room. She felt certain she just missed being witness to an argument. They were huddled relatively close together by another door. This one was heavier looking than any other, though admittedly not by much. It had a single small window about average eye height, its deep recess being what made her think this door was thicker than ordinary.
"K-Kallen? What's going on?" Milly asked tentatively. They had been looking at her without saying anything. The unease was as if someone had died and it filled her with morbid dread.
"Milly… thanks for coming," Kallen said hoarsely. Her voice sounded genuinely hoarse, as though she'd been shouting for so long her voice was starting to fail her.
"What's wrong? Why is everyone so tense? What happened to Nina?" Milly asked, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.
"Nina…" Kallen started. "Nina confessed to being a spy for the Alters. She's claimed she's been helping them for several years now."
"W-what? N-no, there's no way… I mean, I know she loved Princess Euphemia. But there's no way Nina would choose to help a psychopath pretending…" Milly stammered as she blurt out her defense, Kallen sheepishly looking away.
"What haven't you told me?" Milly demanded, agitated and not entirely sure why.
"We're not so sure… that they're fakes," Kallen replied.
"Of course they're fakes!" Milly protested. "We were there for her funeral damn it!"
"I-I know that," Kallen answered, still very sheepish.
"We'll tell you everything," C.C. said. "Kallen wanted to avoid letting you suffer in darkness again, going on not knowing what was really going on. However, it will put you in a difficult position."
"You're the pizza girl," Milly suddenly blurted out. It wasn't meant to be comical, but the suddenness of her declaration, and the way C.C.'s face morphed into a cartoonish frown, it was hard not to snicker. Leila didn't really get the joke, so she could only look on in bewilderment.
"Can we please stay focused?" C.C. stressed.
"Who are you?" Milly asked. "You look exactly the same as you did back then."
"Wait, she doesn't know about C.C. at all?" Leila asked, clearly under the assumption that Milly must have already.
"There were only some things I could tell her," Kallen defended. "Milly's not the type to blab secrets, but still…"
"Wait, what's going on here exactly?" Milly asked, suddenly realizing she was about to be part of something extremely secretive, at least on par with the Charles Geass story.
"President, let's just sit down and talk for a little while," Suzaku said, removing his helmet.
"S-Suzaku…" she gasped, taking a step back. Her mind had set to racing.
"It's okay, he's not an Alter," C.C. said, predicting the cause of at least some of Milly's panic.
"I'm really sorry Milly," Kallen apologized profusely. "I know you'll probably hate me for keeping all this from you, but…"
"I… I need to sit down," she said, rubbing her temples.
"Go ahead and sit down. I'll fill you in on the big picture stuff for now," C.C. urged.