Code Geass - A Brave New World

by nightbringer24

(Pretty heavily inspired by Ripped Away) What happens when a young man from our world is transported into the world of Code Geass? Watch as our unfortunate hero is thrust into situations he doesn't fully understand, but tries to make the most of it. R1 Arc in progress.

22. Chapter 22

When the third day of the truce dawned, the inhabitants of Area 11 found themselves looking at the new dawn with trepidation born from differing views. To many of the Britannians in Area 11, it was an uneasy return to the status quo: none of the Elevens were trying anything, not least Zero and his band of terrorists, but there was always the constant fear that they were planning something, possibly something big.

For the Japanese, it was a trying time. For a single month, their attention had been focused on the masked man who fought for them, even if Zero had said that he fought for everyone. For those of them living in the ghettoes, there was still cause for concern: the actions of the Black Knights and the other terrorists had kept the Britannians nearly constantly scrutinizing the shattered remnants of Japan, either with patrols of armed police or regular military units. But now, with the terrorists staying quiet, the Britannians were staying out of the ghettoes for some reason. It got many of them worried. Memories of Shinjuku and Saitama were still horribly fresh in everyone's mind, and there were whispers everywhere about the Britannians planning to execute something like that again.

For the Japanese who were Honorary Britannians, it was an even worse conundrum. While they were all ethnically Japanese, at the same time, they all owed their lives to the Britannian regime. Those were facts. It was also a fact that they were looked down upon by virtually everyone in Area 11: the native Japanese saw them as traitors, people who betrayed their own kin in order to save themselves, while the Britannians saw them in the same way that anyone else would view an insect beneath their boot; worthless and, if they were feeling quite vindictive, liable to try and stamp on them. And, for the same as any insect, it was highly unlikely that anyone would stand up and protect them. They did not know who to put their hopes in to: Zero and the Black Knights offered freedom, a dream which all Japanese wished for while living under Britannian rule, but at the same time, they owed their ultimate allegiance to Britannia who, even while treating them as lower-class citizens, offered them just the slimmest chance of hope in bettering themselves, no matter how high that was.

For Area 11, it was a trying time.

---

However, to a very small percentage of the Japanese population, specifically the portion that made up some elements of the Black Knights, the ceasefire was infuriating.

On the night that the captive Captain Forsyth had been given back to the Viceroy and Second Princess Cornelia li Britannia, and after he had returned to their base of operations, Zero had made it clear that the Black Knights would stick to the agreement in that they would take no direct or indirect action against the Britannian government, military or police in Area 11 until the ceasefire was ended on the Sunday night. In the meantime, the group had moved to consolidate their strength after Narita by forming a stronger tie with the Six Houses of Kyoto. After the débâcle for the JLF, the Six Houses would obviously be unsure about whether or not to keep funding the remnants of the Japanese Army.

After being contacted by Kyoto and being brought to the sakuradite mines that ran through the heart of Mount Fuji, Zero and the head members of the Black Knights, minus Inoue, came face to face with the nominal head of the Six Houses: Taizo Kirihara, the Traitor, the man who the Japanese claimed to have sold them out to Britannia. Although to say that it was a 'face to face' meeting would be a misnomer considering that both Zero and Kirihara both had their faces obscured. Following a tense moment where the Black Knights thought they had uncovered the real face of Zero, only to discover that it was the mysterious green haired girl that hung around the base, and an incredibly tense moment where Zero appeared and threatened to blow up the Fuji mine, the old Japanese gentleman agreed to pledge the support of the Six Houses of Kyoto to the cause of the Black Knights in their fight against the Britannian Empire.

Upon receiving the news at the Black Knights' headquarters, the faction was understandably in an uproar: to be given the support of the main financier and backer of all the anti-Britannian resistance groups in Japan was a huge boon for the Black Knights as it would allow them to get more weapons, more supplies and, fundamentally, more Knightmares.

That joy however was tempered by the simple fact that none of the group could do nothing except train with their new equipment. Many of the group were happy to go along with it, mainly the likes of Inoue and Ohgi, knowing that their success at Narita was almost wholly down to Kallen's actions in the Guren and them using the shock of the sudden attack to surprise the Britannians. There was no logical reason that they would be able to replicate that sort of attack again, so they had to be ready for all other situations that could happen.

Many sections of the Black Knights were not that subdued however. Many wanted to take advantage of the ceasefire to strike at Britannia while they were still reeling from their loss at Narita. For one particular resistance fighter, there was a more personal side to the thing. And for once, it wasn't Kallen.

Once again, the dining area of the Black Knights' headquarters was the scene of much commotion as six of the Magnificent Seven once more spoke amongst themselves in a lively debate, although it had more in line with a shouting match. Sitting at one of the tables set aside specifically for them in a closed off area, Ohgi, Inoue and Minami sat on one side while Yoshida, Tamaki and Kent sat on the other.

"And I say that we need to hit the Britannians now!" Tamaki roared in that persistently nasally tone of his. Ohgi couldn't help but be thankful that his nose had healed, since the combination of the lisp gained from the injury and his natural voice would have made it nearly impossible to take him seriously. Under normal circumstances, the curly haired Japanese man would have ignored his friend's outburst, but the man had been getting more and more angry ever since the battle at Narita.

"Tamaki, we've been over this," Ohgi said, putting on his best placating teacher's tone. "Zero has given us orders to not do anything against the Britannians. If we're the one's who break the ceasefire, then that gives the Britannians more legitimacy against us. Besides, we need to build up our numbers."

"Ohgi's right." Inoue cut in, looking at the man to her right. "Besides, with all of the new recruits and equipment we've gotten, we need to look for new places to store all of the equipment. Plus, we need to train up all the new recruits, get them in to their units and we also need to portion out the Burais to those who can operate them. Even if we wanted to fight the Brits, we just can't do it right now."

"So what?" Tamaki roared back, surging to his feet. "We've got those bastards on the run. If we get them now, we can drive them out of Japan for good."

"God damn it." Minami groaned, putting his hand to his forehead as he leaned against his elbow on the table, and Ohgi was inclined to agree. Tamaki had been going on at this ever since Narita, and there was a real danger that many people would start following him.

To everyone's surprise, it was Toru Yoshida who spoke up next.

"I agree with Tamaki. We can't afford to let up the pressure on the Britannians. Especially now that we've got them on the back-foot."

In retrospect, Ohgi shouldn't have been surprised. The young man with the neck length brown hair had been a member of the small gang that Tamaki ran with before the invasion. So had Inoue actually, since they both wore the same red bandanna that Tamaki wore, so it wasn't too surprising to see Yoshida take his side.

"But Zero told us to lie low and wait!" Inoue yelled back, also surging to her feet, her brow furrowing in anger.

"That's what he said, but that's not what he meant!" Tamaki yelled back, still on his feet as he looked at the people in front of him. "Zero's my buddy, so I know what he wants."

Ohgi resisted the temptation to chuckle at the other man's choice of words, especially since the logic behind it didn't really make that much sense. But there was another reason that the man refused to laugh at his friend's eccentric choice of words.

"Tamaki, you've been pushing this subject ever since we let that Captain Forsyth go." Ohgi said, putting his hands down on the table. "Please don't tell me you want to simply get back at the man."

"He kicked me in the fucking dick!" Tamaki roared back. "I have a right to hate him!"

The curly haired Japanese man just blinked at the man standing across from him before, letting out a loud sigh, he put his hands up to his forehead, the palms covering his eyes as he processed exactly what Tamaki was saying. He seriously wanted to risk an outright war with Cornelia, the Witch of Britannia, and possibly the Britannian Empire at large... all because one man kicked him in the giblets?

Granted, Ohgi could, as a man, definitely understand where Tamaki was coming from, but...

"Really?" Inoue asked, giving voice to Ohgi's thoughts. "Although, to be honest, that's not the worst thing that's happened to you."

Everyone present, save for Tamaki himself, nodded their heads in agreement. Throughout their time together with the man, they had seen him get in to all sorts of trouble, usually because of his own antics, which would often result in Tamaki being injured in numerous and humorous ways. In all honesty, being kicked in the crotch then the face was pretty much par for the course for the man.

Tamaki looked set to let loose another outburst but Ohgi intercepted him, dropping his hands from his face to the table. "Tamaki, I promise you: if we catch that man again, you can kick him in the crotch as often as you'd like. But until then, do what Zero tells you to do!"

Everyone looked at Ohgi in surprise as he raised his voice, and even the man himself was surprised by what he had just done. He rarely ever raised his voice, his training as a teacher telling him that keeping a level but firm tone was always best, but there were times when Tamaki, even though he was one of Ohgi's closest friends, just really pissed him off.

The bandanna-wearing man looked subdued, but he still looked ready to say something else, and Ohgi had a feeling that he himself was ready to say something else too.

Luckily, the tension was dissolved by the arrival of a certain redhead in to the room.

"Bloody hell, guys," Kallen said as she entered in to the room, dressed in the tan and black uniform of Ashford Academy, a leather case in her hand. "I could hear you yelling outside. What's going on?"

Sighing, Inoue ran a hand through her hair before she spoke up. "Just Tamaki being Tamaki."

"Ah." Kallen said in understanding, not needing to be told anything else.

Soon, the attention in the room shifted from Tamaki to the newly arrived Kallen, the man's outburst forgotten as the teen drew closer to the table.

"Where were you last night, Kallen?" Kent asked, leaning against the table as he looked at the young ace pilot.

"Yeah, sorry about that, guys." The girl said, putting her case on to the table as a small smile crept to her face. "It's just... something happened."

Everyone looked at Kallen in surprise as she spoke. They had rarely seen the girl smile over the past few months, the last time being when they had won at Narita. But that smile had nothing on the look she had on her face now; a smile that seemed to glow with delight, no matter how small it was.

"Kallen? What happened?" Ohgi asked, leaning forward expectantly in his seat. In turn, Kallen looked up at him and he was certain that he saw tears forming in her eyes.

"Ohgi... my mum's all right." She said simply, albeit a little bit choked with emotion.

The eyes of the curly haired man opened wide in shock at the news, while Inoue let out an audible gasp of delight at the news, while the others let expressions of joy come to their faces, their prior argument forgotten.

"What happened? Where is she?" Ohgi asked, wanting to know more.

"She's at Tokyo General Hospital. She's being held in the prisoners wing, but she's being given help to kick her addiction to refrain." She answered, looking up at Ohgi happily before she let out a small sigh. "They kept their word."

The Japanese man was admittedly surprised that the Britannians would keep to the promise that Kallen had said she had made with the Knight of the Three and what she had been told by General Darlton when she was held in Nagano. But to actually be told where Hitomi was being held... that was just not something he expected to hear.

"How did you find out where she was?" Yoshida asked, the brown haired man leaning forward in his seat to look past Tamaki. The question soured Kallen's mood somewhat as the smile faded from her face and she looked down at the table.

It was Inoue who seemed to have the best idea as, standing up from her seat slowly, she fixed Kallen with a stare. "It was 'him', wasn't it?"

Ohgi looked at the woman beside him in confusion as he processed what she had said. "Wait, who are you talking about, Inoue?"

"Who else could I be talking about, Ohgi?" Inoue snapped, turning her head quickly to look at the man beside her. "It's that bloody captain Forsyth."

"See? I told you that that guy's trouble." Tamaki added, but no-one was really paying attention to him now, as Minami spoke up.

"Now wait a minute: this guy gets your mum put in to rehab, and he tells you personally? He must be after something. These bastards will always try and pull something like that."

At this, Kallen looked back down at the table in front of her silently. This seemed to set Inoue off, as her face became an angry scowl. "I knew it! I knew that he said all of those things to mess with your head." She yelled out. "I'm telling you Kallen: no matter who this guy is and no matter what he tells you, if he's with the Britannians, then he's scum. The sooner we're through with his kind, the better?"

"'His kind'?" Kallen asked, looking up at the woman in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean." Inoue said in reply, crossing her arms over her chest. "The one's who act all high and sanctimonious when what they're really going to do is to stab you in the back."

"Now wait a minute, Inoue," Minami said, holding his hand up to silence his friend. "Let's not be too rash here. Now, all of us here know Hitomi. She was like a mother to all of us, and the fact this man went out of his way to help her tells me we shouldn't be too quick to judge him."

"Are you being serious, Minami?" Yoshida asked, looking at his friend incredulously. "How can you be sure that he did this with good intentions? For all we know, he... he's... he's buttering her up so he can have her way with her!"

"He wouldn't do that!" Kallen cried out defensively, her face taking on a tinge of red from the very idea.

"But how do you know that?" Yoshida countered, turning to look at Kallen.

This time, Kallen bit her bottom lip, obviously unsure of how to continue before she spoke up. "Well, remember how yesterday, it really pissed it down just before lunch?"

Everyone in the room nodded.

"The captain showed up to see me a while before it hit, and..." Again, Kallen's face took on a slightly deeper shade of red. "Well, we both got caught in it and... this uniform is not very water resistant."

"They never are." Inoue said, seeming to remember from experience.

"True," The teen said, nodding her head. "Anyway, when he saw that my shirt was nearly... nearly see through, he got embarrassed, I guess. He looked away and gave me his jacket."

In all honesty, Ohgi found himself nodding along with Kallen's story. From what he knew, all of Cornelia's Royal Guard would be a Knight, or at least behave like one. The captain had never said that he was a Knight, but the fact that he had given his jacket to Kallen showed that he had some sort of moral code, and Ohgi could sympathise with that.

Tamaki on the other hand had a completely different idea. "So he's gay."

That admittedly brought the conversation to a grinding halt as almost all present turned to look at him, who simply shrugged at what he said.

"Still doesn't explain the fact that this guy tried to get Kallen to leave us though." Inoue said flatly, obviously not fully committing to Tamaki's idea. Although it seemed that her words caught everyone's attention as they looked at her, aghast, before looking at Kallen with the same expression.

"He told you to what?" Kent asked, a surprising look of hurt on his face.

"Yeah," The redhead replied, not looking too pleased from the fact. "He did tell me to leave the Black Knights. But I said no!"

The whole table looked ready to erupt in an uproar, but Ohgi held up a hand to quieten everyone down before turning to look at Kallen. "Now wait a minute, guys. Kallen, tell us what this guy said to you. Please."

The teenager took a deep breath before she began regaling them about her conversations with the officer. Everyone knew about Kallen's initial encounter with the man at Nagano, but it seemed that only Inoue had been made privy to what she was saying now. She spoke about how he had tried to get her to see his reasoning: about how Zero was only using her as a weapon and how she was doing nothing to 'break the cycle of violence' between the two groups. She spoke about how she was apparently wasting her intellect while only acting as a fighter, how she was a hypocrite for decrying Britannia's use of violence against the Japanese while using nothing but violent methods against the Britannians and purely focusing on the fight over anything else.

It took a minute or two for Kallen to finish what she was saying, but at the end, she was met with silence as the group looked at her in confusion. He couldn't say anything for the other people in the room, but Ohgi was just digesting everything his friend had said.

Sighing gently, the man said the single sentence that no-one probably expected him to say. "I think he's got some good points."

Almost everyone looked at him with shocked expressions on their face, while both Tamaki and Inoue gave voice to their surprise with a loud, "What?!"

Ohgi held up his hands defensively as he spoke. "All right, look. I'm not saying that everything the captain said was right, but he did bring up a good point: right now, we're only using violence against the Britannians to change things. Why don't we try using non-violence for once?"

"Like what?" Yoshida asked in reply, looking at Ohgi like he was a mad man. "Like candlelight sit in outside the Viceroy's Palace?"

The curly haired man rolled his eyes at the comment before replying testily. "No, of course that's not what I mean, Yoshida. I'm just saying that we can try something different."

"Like helping out in the ghettoes?" Kent asked, tacking on to Ohgi's idea quickly, to which the man nodded.

"Exactly. If we're shown to be helping people then we might get more sympathy from some of the Britannians, plus we'd get some more support from the Japanese in the ghettoes if we're actually being shown to help them."

Ohgi watch as Minami and Kent nodded their heads in agreement, pleased that some of his friends were going along with his train of thought. It did sour his mood though when he saw Inoue, Tamaki and Yoshida scowl at him.

"What the fuck, man?" Tamaki simply asked.

"Why are the hell are you agreeing with a fucking Brit, Ohgi?" Yoshida asked, sounding genuinely hurt at the idea. Inoue didn't add anything further, but she looked both hurt and angry at the man.

"On one point, Yoshida. One point!" Kent countered, holding up his index finger to illustrate his point. "God-damn it, man. Calm down. It's not like he's going to just go other to their side like that."

"Exactly." Ohgi said, sounding very offended. "I'm just saying: we have the time now. We can do more good for Japan if we actually help them in more ways than just fighting the Britannians."

It was something that Ohgi had been thinking about recently. All through the time he spent living in the ghetto, he had seen so many problems left over by the Britannian invasion seven years ago: crumbled buildings nearly ready to collapse, along with shattered roads and pavements. Burst drainage pipes mixed with sewer pipes permeated the air with the horrible smell of decaying human waste, while the lack of any clean drinking outside of any nearby waterways meant that diseases like cholera were ever-present, and it was hard enough getting the medicine to the people affected was hard enough as it was.

Which brought up another set of problems altogether. Even after seven years, the Britannians seemed hell-bent on making the lives of the Japanese living in the ghettoes more miserable with each passing year. The black market that existed in the ruins of the old Japan was run almost exclusively by the Britannians, save a for a few opportunistic Japanese who wanted to get rich quickly, who extorted ridiculous sums of money from the people living in the ghetto, and sometimes worse. And if the Britannian police weren't getting a cut of the money (although he did have to think that that was only a small portion of the police), they were likely to just turn a blind-eye to what was going on in the ghettoes, outside of sending the odd one or two police units to terrorise the inhabitants.

"We all know the circumstances in the ghettoes, and we know that Britannians won't do shit about it." Ohgi continued, looking at each person in the table in turn. "I know that we're all doing a huge amount of work in fighting the Britannians, but we can do so much more to actually help people."

Everyone at the table was silent as they digested what Ohgi had said, so he continued.

"I for one think we should do something about the medical situation in the ghettoes while we've got the chance." The man with the curly pompadour said firmly. "Even if it's for only a few days, we can do something to make a difference for these people."

Ohgi let his words sink in before someone spoke up.

"Zero hasn't said anything about doing something like that." Inoue said curtly.

Ohgi couldn't help but cringe at how quickly she had spoken but he just shrugged in reply as he turned his head to look at her. "So I'll talk to him about it."

Inoue simply started at him for a few short seconds before she turned away. "All right then."

Unfortunately, that made the room fall in to a frankly uncomfortable silence as the original topic of discussion had been overtaken by something far more serious and now that just left a void to fill.

Pushing her chair back, Inoue leant down, picking up a small stack of papers that had been sitting below her chair, before standing up and making to leave the area.

"Where you going, Inoue?" Kent asked as the woman neared the door.

"I need to go see Zero. He told me to give a report to him about the other resistance groups." Inoue said flatly before she exited the room, leaving the others in silence.

Once again, it was Tamaki who broke the silence, and for once, he didn't say something stupid. "So what's happening with your mum, Kallen?"

This brought the room back to life as the red-haired girl began talking about what the doctor had told her, about how Hitomi was not really aware of what was going on around her due to the Refrain messing with her mental state. So Kallen had to go and see her often, to talk to her, to try and ease her back in to the real world, while the doctors were giving her a full but steady detox of her system to flush out the Refrain from her system.

It made Ohgi smile with joy to know that the woman he considered to be a second mother to him was getting serious help with her addiction. But, turning his head to side slightly to look at the door she had left through, he couldn't help but be worried about the reaction that Inoue showed.

---

Sitting in the upper floor office of the large trailer that served as the Black Knights' mobile headquarters, Lelouch, dressed in his extravagant Zero suit minus helmet, stroked his chin as he was deep in thought. Thankfully, with CC away for a while, he could actually think.

Being the head of possibly the largest resistance cell in Japan was definitely a trying experience, especially for a Wednesday morning. The Black Knights had gotten support from the Six Houses of Kyoto, meaning that the group now had a more stable financial backer over them either getting money as donations from the people who wanted their freedom but didn't want to fight, just taking money from the criminal elements that existed in Area 11, or from the money that Lelouch had won in his gambling. The other three options were enough to cover basic things like purchasing weapons, food and such, but the aid from Kyoto would mean they could do so much more. Already, Lelouch was looking on getting a professor from the Militarized Zone of India in to the country. Apparently, this person, a professor Rakshata Chalwa, was the same person who created the Guren, and he was definitely looking forward to see what else they could make.

Another matter on hand was what to do with the other resistance groups. Obviously, with the loss of a major portion of the Japanese Liberation Front's fighting strength, the Black Knights were put at the top of the pecking order in Japan. But that wasn't an inherently good thing. There were several groups that were still operating independently in Japan, and Lelouch had sent several envoys to a number of them to try and get them on integrate them in to the Black Knights. However, a major point of vexation was for those groups who wouldn't join, the ones who believed they could take on the might of Britannia by themselves. There was also the fact that several of these groups were quite... blood-thirsty in their actions. So that left Lelouch with a quandary: did he try and assimilate them in to the Black Knights, wait for them to be taken out by the Britannians, or order them to be taken out? Currently, he sought the first option. It never hurt to have more bodies in the group, especially towards the end.

And finally there was the matter that concerned him the most: Nunnally and Rai. To say anything had blind-sided him over the past week, it was the fact that two had... formed a relationship. Really, he had not seen it coming! Lelouch had been keeping a discreet eye on the young boy ever since he had arrived without explanation at Ashford Academy a few weeks earlier, which was made further confusing when he had shown up with Kallen at the Black Knights base. Granted, the silver haired boy proved his worth as a Knightmare pilot at Narita, but it still didn't alleviate the fact that he was spending far too much time around his dear, beloved sister! It also wasn't his fault, after-all. He had a rebellion to lead, and that sort of thing couldn't wait for anyone, even his little sister.

Although it was nice to see his sister happy, to see her smile. But why did it have to be because of someone else and not him? Maybe he really should spend a bit more time with her...

The sound of someone knocking at his door drew him out of his thoughts.

"Who is it?" Lelouch asked in flawless Japanese as he put his helmet back on.

"It's Inoue, Zero." Came the reply, a woman's voice carrying through the door.

"Enter." He simply said, the mask replacing the visage of the Britannian prince in exile.

At his command, the door slid open, allowing Inoue to enter the room before shutting behind her.

Lelouch had to admit that Naomi Inoue was quite an imposing woman. Not in the same way that his half-sister-slash-nemesis, Cornelia was. In the evolutionary sense, if an animal possessed anything large, then it was automatically scary. African elephants with their big ears, hippopotamuses with their large mouths, male lions with their manes. For the Second Princess, it was the combination of her large head of hair coupled with her characteristic large cape that made her imposing (if one ignored the fact her voice could equal the same volume as a cannon when she was angry...).

Inoue was someone who definitely bucked that trend. She was a thin woman, almost matching Lelouch in litheness, with long indigo hair worn under a simple red hair-band, and soft brown eyes. But those did nothing to conceal the fact that the woman was dangerous. If the fact that it was Inoue who helped bring the captured captain Forsyth to the Black Knights wasn't known, then the fact that she would routinely chew out anyone in the group, be they new recruits, veterans or even the original members of the resistance group, with Tamaki being her 'favourite' victim. She'd never resorted to physical violence, but there were rumours that she had been getting dangerously close to doing so.

Putting her right arm across her chest, her clenched fist in front of her heart, Inoue gave the salute chosen for the Black Knights by Lelouch. In her left hand, she clutched a small stack of documents.

"I have the reports you asked for, Zero." The woman said flatly, holding the papers up before putting them down on the desk in front of him.

"Thank you, Inoue." The masked man said in reply as he reached over and pulled the papers closer to him before beginning to look through them. If there was one single aspect that Lelouch would choose to praise Inoue on was the fact that she was meticulous at her work as head of logistics and intelligence. Each sheet of paper in his hand showed the name of each resistance group that were still operating independently, their suspected numbers of fighters and equipment, their possibility of them joining the Black Knights and also whether or not the possibility existed of them trying to challenge the group in open combat. "Good work."

"Thank you, Zero." Inoue said, speaking in a flat tone of voice again. It did not escape Lelouch's attention as he put down the sheets of paper and turned to look at her.

"What's wrong?" Desperately hoping it wasn't problems of a certain type.

"Do you know what's going on with Kallen?" She asked, not in a tone that simply suggested that Zero didn't know, but heavily suggested it was probably his fault.

"What are you talking about?" Lelouch asked in return, a little worried by something upsetting his ace pilot.

In reply, Inoue's face took on a look of consternation, the older woman biting her lower lip as she obviously became unsure about what to say. "I'm... I'm not sure it's my place, Zero."

This piqued Lelouch's attention now. Inoue obviously thought of the girl as a friend, and the exiled prince-turned-terrorist could understand that. But practicality trumped any emotion like friendship.

He was tempted to use his Geass on her, but he decided against it. Instead, he turned his chair fully so he was sitting face-to-face with Inoue, before crossing one leg over the other and placing his hands, fingers interlocked, against his knee.

"Inoue," He said softly, keeping his tone low. "Anything you say to me will not leave this room. I swear it."

The woman looked at him sceptically, her eyes narrowing for a few seconds, as she looked at Zero. It was true that his identity as a Britannian had been told to the upper members of the Black Knights, and while the testimony of Kirihara had allayed a few suspicions about him, there were obviously some way to go until they fully trusted him again.

But luckily, Lelouch's gambit paid off as, sighing, Inoue began speaking. "Okay. I'm sure you know that Kallen's spoken to that Britannian captain we captured at Narita. Right?"

Beneath his mask, Lelouch's brow twisted in to a scowl at the memory of the man, but then it quickly struck him: no, he did not know. "No. No, I'd didn't."

Inoue's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Oh. Well... they spoke and... it looks like he's been saying some... things, to her."

"What kind of things?" Lelouch asked, shifting his pose as he uncrossed his legs, separating his hands before putting them both on his knees.

"Well... To cut a long story short, he told Kallen that we're in the wrong and that she should leave the Black Knights." Inoue said, obviously a little put-off by the fact that Zero didn't know what happened.

Lelouch's reaction was somewhat understandable.

"HE TOLD HER WHAT?!" He roared, surging up from his chair, his hands tightened in to fists. The volume of his voice made Inoue flinch and take a step back.

"He... Kallen said that the captain said that you were only using her as a weapon, that you were only focusing on violence instead of looking for other ways to help the Japanese."

Try as he might, Lelouch couldn't keep his anger under control as his arms began trembling and his fists clenched so tight, he was sure he could feel his well manicured fingernails through his gloves.

How could Kallen do this? To not tell him about this... It was... It was...

'No.' He thought to himself, finally getting control of his anger. 'This has nothing to do with Kallen. It's that damnable captain Forsyth.'

"Inoue." He said out-loud, his voice taking on a smooth tone again. "I know that I agreed to keep this information between us, but I'm afraid that I must speak to Kallen."

"But she-" The indigo haired woman said, a look of shock coming to her face before Zero held up his hand to silence her.

"Don't worry. Your name will not be mentioned, I promise. But I have to speak to Kallen about this." He said softly. "This is something that we cannot ignore."

Inoue looked at the masked man sceptically but in the end she nodded her head. "I'll go get her for you."

"Thank you." Zero replied, nodding his head in thanks before Inoue exited the room. Sitting back down in his chair, Lelouch turned away from the door and tried to think of what he could say to Kallen. There was no denying that she was his most ardent follower. At the Mount Fuji mines, she had been the one who called against Kirihara having Ohgi remove his mask, showing her true belief in him. She had been following him unquestionable for over a month now. So how could one man shake her that badly?

A knock sounded on his door before Kallen's voice came through. "Zero, it's me. You wanted to see me?"

Time to get this over with. "Of course. Come in, Kallen."

The door slid open and the red-haired teen entered, dressed in the tan and black uniform of Ashford Academy. She had her hair down like she always did at school, but her face lacked any of the demureness she had at that place. "What is it, Zero?"

Keeping his back to her, Zero spoke. "Kallen, what is it the Black Knights are for?"

"To fight injustice... for the liberation of Japan." She answered. It was her standard answer, and the one that she knew best but something about the delivery sounded... off.

Turning his chair around, Lelouch looked at Kallen through his mask, her visage coming through with a slightly purple tint because of the non-reflective cover of the mask. "Do you still believe that, Kallen?"

The question shocked the girl, making her eyes open wider, showing the blueness of her eyes. "O-of course I do, Zero!"

She was hiding something, that much was obvious. And using his Geass on her was out of the question. Lelouch had already used it once on Kallen, so it wouldn't work again. Should he try the soft approach like he did with Nunnally if she was keeping something from him? Maybe he could try the more direct approach instead.

"Kallen. I know that captain Forsyth has been talking to you."

That was the key point: not to make Kallen sound like the one in the wrong, but to make the captain be the one in the wrong.

The revelation of the news hit the girl hard, once again causing her eyes to open wide. "How... how did you know?"

"It doesn't matter how I know, Kallen." Zero said smoothly, waving the question off with his hand. "But I want to know: what did the captain say to you?"

A look of guilt came to Kallen's face as she looked down at her feet, obviously not wanting to look him in the eye. The room was filed with an uncomfortable silence for a few long seconds before the girl spoke.

"The captain's been trying to get me to leave the Black Knights. He's been saying that you only see me as a weapon and that we're doing nothing to... to break the 'cycle of violence'."

It was a good think that Lelouch had heard practically the same thing from Inoue before, because he thought that he'd probably give the same reaction he did before. Luckily, he steeled himself against the angry thoughts welling up in him and remained calm.

"I see." He simply said as he pushed himself up from his chair, moving to stand before Kallen. "Kallen, is it wrong to defend yourself if someone attacks you?"

The red-haired girl arced an eyebrow at the question. "Well... no, of course not."

"Well let me elaborate on that question: if someone attacks you, and in the process of defending yourself, you kill them, is that wrong?"

Confusion fell across Kallen's face as she thought about the question. "Well... I'm not sure. No?"

"Of course not." Lelouch said, pointing the index finger of his right hand at the ceiling in a gesture that meant to reinforce his point in the way that all lecturers instinctively knew to do. "Because, in the end, the ends justify the means. Your survival is what is paramount, and that is exactly what is happening here, in Japan."

Kallen just looked at the masked man as he continued speaking.

"The path we are embarking upon will not clean. It will be a path upon which blood will be spilt, there is no denying that, but, in the end, won't the realisation of our dream of a free and independent Japan be worth it?"

"I... I guess." The girl replied, obviously agreeing with the logic, but not wholly sure about it.

Lelouch frowned under his mask. Not too long ago, he would have seen Kallen immediately agree with his logic, no questions asked. To see her hesitate... how badly had this man affected her?

'Time to try a different tact.' He thought to himself before he spoke out loud. "Kallen, how is your mother doing?"

That definitely put Kallen on the back foot. "How... how did you find out about that?"

Zero simply shrugged. "I have my ways. I did research on all of the main staff of the Black Knights; Inoue had a perfect credit score before the invasion, Tamaki had to repeat both the seventh and eighth grade, to name a few."

Kallen looked at the masked man with a look of fear and Lelouch was certain he could see her limbs trembling.

"Kallen. None of what I know will be used against you." He said softly, trying to calm her down. "You are my best pilot and my most ardent follower. I had to make sure that you were at your peak mental strength as well as your physical strength. So... how is your mother?"

The room fell in to uncomfortable silence again before Kallen spoke. "She's... she's getting help. She's in the Tokyo General Hospital."

Zero nodded his head. "So I heard. I also heard that it was because of captain Forsyth that she was placed their, right?"

Kallen nodded her head. "That's right."

"Don't you find it a little... strange that he takes such an interest in you, Kallen?" Zero asked, putting a finger against the bottom of his mask in a thinking pose.

"What do you mean?" The girl asked, obviously confused at the line of thinking.

"What I mean, Kallen, is that you shouldn't think too highly of the captain." He responded simply. "He works for the Viceroy, and is actively engaged in fighting us. The fact that he knows who your mother is and who you are, means that he'll try and control you."

Once again, Kallen's eyes widened in shock at what he said. But to Lelouch's surprise, she quickly shook her head. "No, I'm sorry but I don't believe that, Zero."

That was not what Lelouch expected to hear. "What do you mean?"

"Well for starters, he's a bit of an idiot." Kallen replied flatly.

'Now that was not what I expected.' Lelouch thought to himself before he spoke. "What do you mean?"

"He came to see a person he knows is a known terrorist, by himself, to tell me that my mother is in the hospital."

'Where anything could happen' was the unsaid part of her sentence, to which Lelouch nodded. "Yes. That is quite bad."

"So I don't think I need to worry about Ciaran trying to blackmail me." Kallen said calmly, before she quickly put her hand over her mouth as she realised what she had said.

"Ciaran?" The masked terrorist said in confusion.

"That... that's his name." Kallen said demurely, putting her hand down to her side.

"Yes, I figured as much. How do you know it?"

"When we had him held captive," Kallen replied, her feet fidgeting a bit. "He introduced himself to me with his name."

'Ciaran Forsyth.' Lelouch mentally repeated, rolling the name around in his head. 'Good to know.'

"But don't you worry, Zero." The girl in front of him said, snapping Lelouch's attention back to her. "I'll say to you what I said to him: I won't go easy on him the next time. He's still an enemy."

Beneath his helmet, Lelouch couldn't fight the smile that came to his face. So the captain hadn't turned her against him. Good.

Nodding his head, the prince-turned-terrorist turned and sat back down in his chair before turning it to face away from Kallen. "Good. Good to know. Now... I believe you should be off to school."

He didn't need to turn around to know that the ace pilot in disguise was looking at her watch, although the small squeak of shock told him that he was on the money.

"Oh crap!" Kallen said aloud. "I have to go. I'll be able to attend the meeting tonight."

"I have no doubt." Zero said as he picked up the sheets of paper to finish reading through them, not really paying attention as Kallen exited the room, closing the door behind her.

Reaching up, he removed his helmet from his head, shaking his black hair free to fall naturally over his head again. It didn't take long for him to finish reading the papers and digest the information contained on them.

Setting the last sheet down on the desk top, he leant back in his chair, causing it to groan quietly in protest at the treatment. The facts had been laid for him on the matter of the remaining resistance groups in Japan, he could formulate a better plan on how to deal with them.

But there was still one issue to deal with: how to keep Rai away from Nunnally. Crossing one long leg over the other, Lelouch put a finger to his chin as he tried to think of the best, non-lethal way to get the young boy away from his sister.

He remembered overhearing Sugiyama say that Tamaki couldn't keep a girlfriend for very long, maybe he could ask him.

---

The day couldn't have started out better for Dorothea, even if she had wanted it to. She had woken up refreshed, had a well balanced breakfast and, after having a small, post breakfast clean-up, she had engaged in a small make-out session with Ciaran in his room, where she still found herself now. Well, the bathroom anyway.

Even as she gave herself a little bit of a comb in the mirror, her black hair down past her shoulder, the Knight of Four couldn't help but smile at the memory of what had happened not ten minutes ago. Granted, the pair were still getting in to the flow of each other's rhythms, more so on Ciaran's part with Dorothea, they found themselves greatly enjoying the kisses traded with each other. But the revelation as to why was definitely something she had not expected.

It had certainly been a shock when the Briton dropped the bombshell that he had never had a prior relationship before.

"So... I'm your first?" Dorothea had asked, looking at young man dressed in the deep maroon uniform of the li Britannia Royal Guard sitting on the small couch set against one of the walls of the room.

"Well, yeah." Ciaran simply said, shrugging his shoulders.

To say that was a shock to the woman was a giant understatement. Walking over, she moved towards the couch and sat down beside him, gently sidling up next to him. For his part, Ciaran only put his elbows on to his knees, steepling his fingers as he let his arms drop and he leant forward.

"To be honest," Dorothea said, overcoming a small bit of silence. "It does explain your reluctance to say what your feelings for me were."

Out of the corner of her eye, the umber-skinned woman saw Ciaran's face scrunch up in a look of shame.

"I don't hold anything against you for it!" The woman said quickly, putting a hand on her lover's shoulder. "It's just... why didn't you say anything at the start?"

Letting out a quiet huff, Ciaran shrugged his shoulders again. "I just... I just didn't want you to think that... I don't know what I was thinking really."

Dorothea furrowed her eyebrows at him before she shrugged her shoulders. "So... you've never had any sort of relationship with anyone? Ever?"

Suddenly leaning backwards, Ciaran let his hands hall away from each other as he let his back collide softly with the back of the couch. "Does having a crush on someone count?"

Dorothea shook her head.

"Then no."

To say that the Knight of Four was stunned was putting it quite mildly. She thought that the young man was quite handsome in a rough sort of way. His beard and head of curly, dark brown hair reminded Dorothea heavily of artwork she'd seen in historical texts about the Celts who originally inhabited the British Isles. It honestly baffled her how someone hadn't tried to get their hands on him already.

"Are you ashamed that you didn't have a relationship before me?"

This seemed to confuse Ciaran as he quickly arced an eyebrow up at her, which then turned in to a quizzical look. "Well... no, not ashamed. Kind of... it's hard to explain."

Lifting up her legs up on to the couch so she was sitting fully on the furniture, Dorothea leaned closer to Ciaran, putting her head on to his shoulder. "I'm quite smart. Try me."

Closing his eyes, the young man took in a breath before letting it out. "I just... All my life, I've seen people enter in to relationships or be in them. From people I know from school, people from where I used to work, people I know from the internet, practically everywhere. And... I don't know. I just felt... left out."

"Left out?" The woman repeated.

"I was never the kind of guy girls would look at twice." Ciaran elaborated, looking a little bit downcast at what he was saying. "And to be honest, you saying you loved me... it scared me a bit."

"What?" Dorothea asked, pushing herself up to look properly at the young man next to her, a look of shock on her face.

"I went through so much of my life thinking that... that I'd never find anyone who'd say those words to me. And, to be honest, a part of my brain always told me that if anyone did say those words to me, that they'd just be lying to me. So I got scared that was what was going on."

Dorothea just looked on in quiet shock at what her lover had said.

"What about now?" She asked, fixing the man next to her with a soft stare as he lifted up his head to look at her.

"Well..." A little smile played at his lips, which Dorothea definitely did not miss. "Yesterday definitely told me that you were telling the truth."

Dorothea let a smile tug at her own lips at those words.

"Though of course, I've been wrong before." Ciaran suddenly said happily, before giving the woman beside him a smirk.

Her emerald eyes and her mouth opened wide at what he had just said. "Are... are you extorting a kiss from me?"

Ciaran let a mask of innocence came to his face. "Just one."

Dorothea shot her lover a dismissive look in return before her face softened in to another smile. "All right then."

Leaning forward, the Knight of Four let her mouth press softly against his own. She could feel the smile on his lips and she couldn't fight the smile that came to her as they lengthened their kiss, before they separated from the kiss. Just as quickly, they re-engaged the kiss.

Soon that kind of deteriorated in to what was basically a make-out session-slash-lesson on proper kissing etiquette after Ciaran accidentally leaned forward when their lips were parted and the duo ended up bashing their teeth together. Luckily, the Briton was a quick learner and definitely willing to learn what to do. A few things the young man knew not to do already: hands could never touch her rear or hips, no tongue, and also no humming. It just felt weird to Dorothea when someone hummed while kissing.

Even though they two had kissed each other the day before, there was something about this time that made it feel completely different. The whole experience felt... different now. It's because she was his first actual love, Dorothea told herself. There was no falsehoods between them, nothing to be scared of. Just each other, together here and now, enjoying the closeness of each other.

The sound of someone knocking at the door to the room earned an annoyed growl from both lovers as they disengaged from the kiss reluctantly before the eyes of both people opened in shock as Guilford's voice came through from the other side of the door.

"Are you in there, Ciaran?" The Knight asked, causing the young man in question to look at Dorothea in shock.

"Just a minute, my Lord!" He quickly called out before turning to look at the woman beside him and speaking in hushed tones, "What do we do?"

This was not something either person had thought of what to do in this sort of situation.

Maybe she should hide? No, that wouldn't work. The space in the cupboard and under the bed would be far too small for her. The bathroom was out of the question too. Too far away, even if she tried to run, and there was no chance of her hiding underneath the couch either, ignoring the fact it was incredibly undignified.

Looking around quickly, Dorothea spied a small stack of papers on top of Ciaran's desk. As quickly and as quietly as she could, the Knight of Four crossed over to the desk, picked up the sheets of paper. Seeing that it was the paper Ciaran wrote for his new unit, she flipped it open to a random page before she moved back to the couch and sat down.

Giving herself a quick pat down to make sure nothing about her outfit was amiss, she quickly took on a relaxed seated pose, giving the page a quick scan so she knew what she would be talking about.

Turning her head slightly, she looked at the look of confusion on Ciaran's face, before moving her head forward and opening her eyes wide in a gesture that universally meant 'well?'.

"Uh, come in, Lord Guilford." The young man said with a little hesitancy as he hoped what Dorothea was doing would work. Quickly, the wooden door opened and Cornelia's Knight walked in, nodding his head politely at the young man.

"Lady Ernst, what a surprise." Guilford said upon spying the Knight of Four sitting next to Ciaran on the couch, who nodded her head as a greeting.

"Good day to you, Lord Guilford." Dorothea said nonchalantly, looking up from her reading. "Can I help you with something? Or are you just here to see Ciaran?"

Quickly overcoming his surprise, Guilford spoke. "Actually, I came to see the young captain to try and find where you are."

"Oh?" Dorothea replied, taken aback by his words. "Why is that?"

"The Princess wants to see all of us. She neglected to say why though." The bespectacled Knight said with a small shrug. "Speaking of which: Where is Lady Nonnette?"

"She'll either be in her room or in the media room." The lady Knight replied, trying her best to remember the habits of her friend in the Viceroy's Palace.

Guilford nodded her head. "I'll go find her presently. The meeting is set for quarter past eleven, so, with respect, my Lady, that should give you enough time to fix your hair."

"Fix my hair?" Dorothea asked, looking at the Knight in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Turning her head, she looked at Ciaran to see what Guilford was talking about. To her surprise, she saw that the Briton's eyes were wide open in shock, although thankfully it didn't seem that Guilford could see his expression. Reaching a hand up, Dorothea took a hold of the braided portion of her hair which, to her relief, had not been undone.

Dorothea shook her head gently as she spoke. "I don't know wha-" She stopped speaking as she felt a single piece of hair flip down from her head and landed against her forehead.

"Ah." She simply said. "Thank you for pointing that out, Lord Guilford."

The Knight nodded his head softly at her thanks. "I know that Ciaran's work can be quite... formidable at the start, but obviously it shouldn't be anything to get too daunted by."

Dorothea let her eyes flick quickly between Guilford and Ciaran before a smile came to her face. "Oh, it's all right, my Lord. That's why I was here."

"Yes, I do think that Ciaran would make a good teacher." Guilford said, inclining his head towards the young man who simply shrugged by way of a reply. Clapping his hands gently, the taller man smiled again. "Right, then. I shall be off and leave you to get ready, my Lady. I shall see you two in fifteen then?"

"We'll be there presently, Lord Guilford." Ciaran said, prompting the knight to bow his head to both of them before he turned to leave, exiting the room in his attempt to hunt down Nonnette, leaving the pair alone in the room.

After waiting a few seconds to make sure that the Knight would not return, Dorothea and Ciaran let out a deep sigh as they slumped in to their seats, letting out a breath neither knew they were holding.

"That was close." Ciaran said, putting a hand to his forehead, in relief, prompting a nod from Dorothea before she wordlessly got up from her seat and walked towards the bathroom to fix her hair as Guilford had suggested.

Entering the bathroom, she flipped on the light-switch, bathing the room in stark white light which quickly dimmed to a normal level as her eyes took in the light. Moving to stand in front of the mirror, Dorothea saw what Guilford was talking about; several strands of hair had gotten free from her hair bun, some only slightly along with the single thick strand of hair that had gotten loose to flop free and rest against her forehead. Quickly scanning her eyes across the porcelain sink top, she spied the form of a simply comb.

Easily slipping her hair free from her braid, Dorothea shook her head lightly to shake her hair free before she picked up the comb and began working on her hair after turning on the sink to wet the comb.

Which is where we find Dorothea now, standing in the bathroom of her young lover, tending to her hair as she begins thinking about what had happened in the last few minutes. She had learnt that she had been Ciaran's first requited love, and that got her a bit worried for him. They had reached the conclusion that they loved each other over a good few weeks, but even so, things were going a bit too quick for him, and she was scared that he'd get overwhelmed.

"Something wrong?"

Snapping her head around, Dorothea saw Ciaran leaning his shoulder against the door frame to the bathroom, his arms folded across his chest while a look of quiet worry was on his face.

"No, of course not." She replied, trying to put a bit of false calm in her voice. "What makes you say that?"

Still in his place, the Briton gave her a soft smile. "You just had it written on your face, sad to say."

"Ah." Dorothea said dejectedly. Putting the comb down, she let her eyes droop so they looked at the sink. "Sorry."

Behind her, she heard Ciaran move closer to her but she still couldn't help but jolt as she felt his arms wrap gently around her waist before he nestled his chin against her right shoulder, causing her to look up at his soft face in the mirror.

"Don't be." He said softly, smiling gently. "What's wrong?"

Moving her arms, she gently stroked her hands over Ciaran's arm, feeling the velour fabric against her fingers. She spent a few seconds taking in the feelings of being held so gently before she gave voice to her feelings.

"I know this is all going quite fast for us and... I'm worried that it'll be too much for you to handle, and I think that... that we should slow it down."

Looking up, she saw a thoughtful look come to Ciaran's face. "Do you think so?"

A nod of her head was her answer.

"All right then." Ciaran simply said, nodding his own head, rubbing his chin against her shoulder.

That was not the reply Dorothea expected. "You're... you're not... angry?"

A light chuckle came from the man behind her. "Why would I be? As I said before, you're my first, and you're also older than me too. So if you say we should slow it down, then I'll not say a word against it."

Dorothea was not sure what to say right away: Ciaran was basically giving her free reign with the relationship and he had no qualms against it. He trusted her that much.

Reaching up, she wrapped her arms across her chest, taking a hold of Ciaran's upper arms in an attempt at a hug, while she closed her eyes and smiled as she leaned her head to gently rest against his own. "Thank you."

"No problem." Ciaran said. "But I do have one proviso."

"Oh?" Dorothea asked, pulling her head back from resting against his head. This got her a bit worried.

"I've still not taken you on a date yet." He said, raising an eyebrow at her. "It really doesn't make sense for us to do all of this and not for us to go on a date."

Dorothea opened her mouth, ready to say something when she realised that, yes, they hadn't gone on a date.

"It is a bit out of sequence, yes." The Knight of Four finally admitted. "What did you have in mind?"

"I'll be honest, I'm not sure." The young man said, shrugging his shoulders gently. That earned a light chuckle from Dorothea, who simply shook her head before moving it back to rest against his.

"Oh, Ciaran." She said in happy exasperation. "Let's hear what Cornelia has to say, then we'll got from there. Sound good?"

Ciaran nodded his head. "Sounds good." He replied, before he gave Dorothea kick kiss on the cheek. "I'll leave you to finish up."

Letting his arms slid from her grip, Dorothea turned her head as she watched Ciaran leave the bathroom to wait in the main bedroom before she returned to combing her hair as a smile came to her face.

---

It didn't take long for Ciaran to wait for Dorothea to finish with her hair, the young man sitting on the couch, gently tapping his foot to a rhythm he had in his head but wasn't wholly sure what it was. It must have been less than a few minutes or so until Dorothea stepped out of the bathroom, her hair done up smartly in her customary braid with not a hair out of place.

"I'll be honest, it always amazes me that you can do your hair up that quickly." The young man said, looking the umber-skinned woman who merely shrugged.

"Practice makes perfect." Dorothea said, swinging her head around to the side a bit, making the braid in her hair swing gently from side to side. "Shall we head out?"

Pushing himself up from his seat, Ciaran made show of bowing dramatically at his waist as he gestured to the door. "After you, my Lady."

The gesture caused Dorothea to burst out in to a small laughing fit at the gesture, before she spoke, fighting hard to keep the laughter out of her voice. "Why thank you, Captain Forsyth."

Standing back up to his full height, Ciaran moved to and opened the door for his partner to exit through. After closing the door behind him, the duo began their trek down to Cornelia's office.

Along the way, the duo kept a respectful silence between each other. They had to, unfortunately, be careful around the palace, in case word of their relationship got out due to the loose lips of a maid being where they shouldn't be. The only rooms they could show their affection for each other was in either of their rooms, and even then they had to be careful. So along the way, the kept up the façade that their respective ranks told them they were: just a captain of the Royal Guard and a Knight of the Round.

The trip was short and done in silence, both people fixed on their destination until they arrived at the door to Cornelia's office. Reaching up with his right hand, Ciaran made ready to knock on the door before he was stopped by Dorothea putting a hand on his shoulder, prompting him to look at her.

"Something up?"

"You said you'd agree to let me take the lead in this relationship," Dorothea stated. "So I think we should hold off until later before we let the others know about us."

Ciaran furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "How long?"

The woman beside him shrugged softly enough that if he wasn't watching, he'd have missed it. "Until we both feel it's the right time."

Letting out a sigh, Ciaran let his palm rest against the wooden portal in front of him. It was true that he said that he would let Dorothea take the lead in the relationship, but he also knew that she wouldn't just let him be strung out in such a way to keep the people he came to care about in the dark.

Nodding his head, he turned to look at Dorothea as he smiled. "All right the-AH!"

The Briton let out a loud yelp as he nearly fell forward on to his face, only managing to stop his forward momentum because of some quick footwork, due to Euphemia opening the door. Which also nearly caused the two young people to collide with each other hadn't the Third Princess quickly stepped to the side.

"Euphemia!" Ciaran cried out in indignation. "Was that on purpose?"

The pink Princess had her hands covering her mouth, either in shock or to stifle a laugh, he couldn't tell. "It wasn't. I was just one my way to find you, honest. Isn't that right, Cornelia?"

Looking up, Ciaran saw the Second Princess seated behind her desk, looking at the display with a mirthful smile, while beside her, General Darlton just stood their with his arms across his chest and was shaking his head.

"She is right, Ciaran." Cornelia said, looking directly at Ciaran.

In turn, the young man stood back up to his full height and grabbed the front of his jacket before pulling it down gently to smarten himself up. "All right then."

Behind him, Ciaran heard Dorothea chuckle lightly as she walked in to the room before Euphemia closed the door behind them. Making their way across the room to stand in front of the Princess' desk, the duo bowed their heads as a greeting as Euphemia made to stand beside her sister.

"Are we still waiting on Guilford and Nonette?" Ciaran asked.

As if on cue, the door opened again and the duo in question walked in, Guilford closing the door behind a very annoyed Nonette.

"Where did you find her, Lord Guilford?" Dorothea asked, a smile playing at her lips.

"In the media room, my Lady." The Knight replied, prompting the Knight of Four to gently nudge Ciaran with her elbow.

"Told you." She said happily.

"And right in the middle of a KMF League match too!" Nonette wailed out, sounding like a very stroppy child rather than a Knight of the Round.

"KMF League?" Ciaran asked quietly.

"Competitive Knightmare Frame League." Darlton answered.

"That's a thing?" The young man replied in disbelief.

"You've never watched a match?" Nonette asked, her annoyance quickly forgotten as Ciaran shrugged his shoulders.

"Not really had the time." Ciaran replied with a shrug.

"Can we please get this meeting under way so we can get ready for lunch?" Cornelia suddenly said, startling everyone in the room and causing more than one muttered apology to come forth. "All right then. I've called you here because I have some news to announce."

Standing up from her chair, Cornelia looked at everyone as she spoke. "First off: the first prototype of the vehicle based on Ciaran's Mine Resistant Ambush Protected principle is being constructed, and we'll be testing it in the following days."

The Briton look at Cornelia quizzically before he realised what she was talking about. It had been a paragraph or two in the essay he had written on his world's counter-insurgency tactics: basically, military vehicles with a reinforced lower hull built in the shape of a V, to deflect any explosive force from ground-based IEDs and mines away from the vehicle and to sides. He hadn't heard any news about any of the resistance groups in Japan pulling that sort of thing, but it seemed like a reasonable precaution to take.

But from the looks of her face, Cornelia had more news to share.

"Is there anything else, my Lady?" He asked.

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked, Ciaran." Cornelia said as a smile came to her lips. "We've got the Valkyrs."

The young man didn't even try to contain his delight as he did a double fist pump and cried out in joy. "Yes!"

This prompted a chuckle from Darlton and Cornelia before Ciaran suddenly became quite self-conscious and stood back at a form of attention. "Sorry." He said sheepishly.

"Don't be." Guilford said. "You've got a right to be happy. You're hard work is paying off and you soon you'll be in command of your own unit."

"Indeed it does." Cornelia added on, the smile still on her face. "But that's not the only news."

The group turned their heads to look at the Second Princess as she continued speaking.

"Due to the nature of your new unit, and the nature of how they are going to operate, I'm afraid that we need to comport this with a bit of secrecy."

"Well, you're not doing a good job at it, Nellie." Nonette added, a smirk on her face, which prompted Cornelia to roll her eyes.

"Be that as it may," The purple-haired Princess continued, ignoring the Knight of Nine. "We cannot train the soldiers for the new Fireforce here in Area 11, nor can we have the Valkyrs shipped to Area 11 until the soldiers and aircrews have been trained to use them."

"So what does that mean?" Ciaran asked dejectedly, fearing something horrible.

"It means that yourself, General Darlton and Lady Villetta will be making a trip to the Homeland, specifically Sacramento Air Base in California county."

The young man's jaw dropped at the news, earning a chuckle from those gathered around him. "The-The Homeland?"

"It's the only place where we can gather the soldiers and get them used to using the new equipment without having the Black Knights or any other terrorist cell interrupt us, or find out what we're planning on doing." Cornelia said.

Ciaran nodded his head at the logic although he did have a completely different fear on his mind, but he decided not to voice it, instead focusing on the positive. "So when do we leave?"

"Tonight, at seven o'clock." Darlton said.

"Tonight?!" The young man replied. "That's bloody short notice."

"Language, captain." Cornelia chastened, scowling softly at Ciaran before her face softened again. "It is, but I'm sure you can agree with the idea for us to get this out of the way as quickly as possible."

Not able to say anything against her logic, the young man nodded. It was true that if they wanted to nip this insurgency in the bud, they'd have to get everything done. And fast. But still this was way too quickly.

"Do I at least get to pack?" Ciaran asked.

"Of course." The Princess replied, looking at him like he had said something painfully obvious. "But don't pack too heavily. There'll be something extra waiting for you at Sacramento."

Arching an eyebrow, the young man looked at Cornelia sceptically but didn't say anything on the subject. Although he had something else on his mind to say.

"What about Alpha Company of the 200th Pathfinders'? Surely they'll be coming with us?" He asked.

"They've already left." General Darlton answered. "It's an eleven hour plane journey for them, so they'll be there ahead of you. Plus, I doubt you'd really enjoy flying in a military transport."

"And Lady Villetta?" He had to ask. It wouldn't do right for him to not care about his second in command.

"She'll be here in a few hours time." Cornelia answered. "She'll be able to join us for an early dinner before you all leave."

"So what's going to happen while we're away?" Ciaran asked.

"Same old, same old, really." The Second Princess replied. "Although with Darlton gone, I'll be taking over military matters plus the matter of politics. So not too much change really."

At that, Cornelia shot the scarred general a sly look to which the man only replied with a shrug.

"Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?" She asked, turning back to look at Ciaran, who only shook his head.

Instead, it was Dorothea who spoke up.

"Your Highness, would you permit me to accompany Captain Forsyth, General Darlton and Lady Villetta to Sacramento?" The Knight of Four asked.

This confused almost everyone present, except for Ciaran, as they turned to look at her. However, Dorothea didn't pay them any attention as she continued speaking. "I served with Ciaran, along with with the men of the 200th Pathfinders during Kitakyushu, plus I am also familiar with Lady Villetta. Plus, with myself being a combat veteran under Darlton's tutelage, I feel that I would be well suited to aid the captain in this endeavour."

It sounded all official and measured, but Ciaran knew it was just an attempt to try and get more time together. And he was all for it. If they were together, then they could tell Darlton about the whole thing.

Unfortunately, Nonette chose to open her mouth. "Oh no, you don't!"

"What?" Dorothea asked, looking at the champagne-haired woman beside her who had an angry look on her face. "Why?"

"Because you've gone with him twice!" Nonette said, jabbing an accusatory finger in the air towards her fellow knight.

"Poor choice of words..." Ciaran quietly muttered to himself, thankfully quiet enough for nobody to hear him as Dorothea countered Nonette's... argument.

"I joined him at Kitakyushu. That's it!"

"And you also went with Euphie to pick him up from the Black Knights." Nonette countered. "That's twice! I've only been with him once."

Turning his head, Ciaran looked at Guilford who looked back at him apologetically. "Is this really happening?"

"Why are you bringing this up, Nonette?" Cornelia asked exasperatedly, putting her hand against her forehead.

"I'm simply saying that if either of us should go with Ciaran to the Homeland, it should be me." Nonette said, putting her hands against her hips. "It's only fair."

Ciaran just looked between the two Knights of the Round. Normally, the idea of two gorgeous women arguing over him would have been something for him to take delight in but right now... it was a bit scary, not least due to the fact that Dorothea and Nonette were staring daggers at each other.

"So how are we going to resolve this? Without killing anyone?" Darlton tried to joke, but the tension in the air made it fall flat.

"We'll do this old school." Nonette simply said, not taking her eyes off Dorothea as she raised her right fist in front of her, which prompted Dorothea to copy the gesture. On reflex, everyone else in the room took a single step backwards.

"Ready?" The dark-skinned Knight of Four asked.

"Ready when you are." Nonette replied, narrowing her eyes.

At once, both women raised their hands up and let them fall as they spoke. "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"

Ciaran could only let his jaw drop at what just happened: all that drama. For a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors?!

Dorothea's hand was a clenched fist while Nonette's hand was flat.

"Ha! Paper beats rock. I win!" The Knight of Nine cried out in joy at her victory before spinning on the spot to look at Darlton. "That's not going to be a problem, right?"

The general turned his head to look at Dorothea, who was simply frozen in place with her hand still held out in a fist, then to Ciaran, who was just completely gob-smacked.

"I... none that I can see." He said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Right then!" The Knight of Nine said, spinning around on one foot before she began walking to the door, looking very much like the cat that got the cream. "I'm going to do some packing. Toodles!"

Ciaran had no idea of what to make of what just happened. Although he doubted that he had that much of a say in what would happen.

"Is there any other business we need to discuss?" Cornelia asked, hoping dreadfully to change the topic as Dorothea's mind finally processed what had just happened and she let her arm drop down to her side.

"Um... what time will we arrive in Sacramento, your Highness?" Ciaran asked in turn, finally overcoming his shock.

"It would normally be five in the morning, but since you'll be taking a super-sonic jet, flight time will only be about four to five hours."

"So you'll be able to get some sleep then." Dorothea finally said, her voice a little bit more tepid than normal.

"Looks like it then." The young man replied. "Is there anything else?"

Cornelia shook her head. "Darlton will tell you at lunch

"Then by your leave, your Highness." Ciaran said, bowing his head, Dorothea copying the gesture as the duo made to exit through the door.

"Wait up!" Euphemia called out, catching the duo as they were a few paces from the door and Ciaran was opening the door. "I'll join you two."

The older pair waited beside the door as the Third Princess bowed her head in thanks before exiting the door, Ciaran and Dorothea following her as the young man closed the door behind them.

Turning around from the door, the young man looked at Dorothea who still had a look quiet dejection on her face, her eyes looking down at the floor. This caused a look of confusion to appear on Princess Euphemia's face.

"Is something wrong, Dorothea?" The young Princess asked.

This prompted the Knight of Four to raise her eyes and look at the young man before speaking. "Should we tell her?"

Flicking his eyes from his lover to the pink-haired royal, he nodded his head. "But not here."

"What's going on?" Euphemia asked, very much confused by the turn of events. Neither adult said anything as they simply lead her to Ciaran's room, the duo guiding Euphemia towards the destination. On reaching their destination, the young man held the door open for both ladies to enter through the doorway before entering the room himself and closing the door behind them.

"Ciaran, what's going on?" Euphemia asked, sounding a little sternly.

"Just hold on a minute, Euphemia." The young man said as he moved over his desk and wheeled the chair over towards where she was standing, motioning for her to be seated. "You should probably sit down."

The Princess did not look so sure.

"Please."

Looking at the chair, then back to Dorothea who was seated on the couch, Euphemia demurely sat on the chair. Opposite her, Ciaran moved around to sit on the couch beside Dorothea, putting his hands together resting his elbows against his knees.

Folding her hands together and putting them against her legs, Euphemia fixed the duo with a hard stare, or as hard a stare as her soft features could allow. "So... what's going on?"

Ciaran opened his mouth to speak but closed it shortly after. He really had no idea what to say in this situation. It had not been something he ever thought he'd be prepared to do or to actually do, so it was hard to know what to say. He couldn't just go "Hey, guess what? Me and Dorothea are in a relationship." It wouldn't work, so he tried racking his brain for the right words to say.

Sensing his discomfort, Dorothea put a hand on his thigh, making him draw his attention to her. Looking at her, his worry went away as he saw her give him a soft but sincere smile. Unfolding his hands, he gently took her hand in his, giving the back of it a gentle stroke with his thumb.

Turns out, words aren't always needed since a gasp sounded from the seated Princess, a hand coming up to her face to try and fail to suppress the smile that came to her face.

"You two...? You're both...?" Euphemia asked happily, moving her hand down from her mouth, prompting Ciaran and Dorothea to nod their heads. Moving quicker than either could predict, the Princess leaped off her chair, her arms outstretched before she wrapped her arms around both of their necks and drove them against the back of the couch.

Ciaran was unsure of what to do, so he did the only thing he could do: he began laughing. Past Euphemia's hair, he could see Dorothea look at him like he was mad before a smile graced her lips and she began laughing herself.

Letting go of their necks, Euphemia quickly moved to pull the chair closer to the still chortling duo on the couch. "So, tell. When did you two... tell each other?"

Calming down from her laughing fit, Dorothea looked at Euphemia with a smile. "It was the day after we got Ciaran back from the Black Knights. Or rather the night we got him back."

This earned a raised eyebrow from Euphemia.

"We slept in the same bed." Ciaran said, avoiding the phrase 'slept together' in case Euphemia got the wrong idea.

A look of disbelief came to the young Princess' face as she processed what she had been told. Looking to his side, Ciaran hoped that Euphemia wouldn't get the wrong impression as he looked at Dorothea.

"Have you kissed yet?" Euphemia suddenly asked, catching both adults by surprise.

"What?" The young man asked, completely ignoring all sense of protocol and manners at the question.

"Have you two kissed yet?" The Princess repeated, fixing the two with a steady stare. To his side, Ciaran saw a blush creep across Dorothea's face, and he was certain he could feel one coming on too.

"We... well, I kissed Dorothea on the cheek the day after you picked me up." Ciaran said, feeling very unsure where exactly this was going. "But we had our first proper kiss yesterday after I came back from the Settlement."

Sitting on her chair, the young man watched with a slight bit of trepidation as Euphemia processed what she had just been told, nodding her head to whatever was going through her head. After a few seconds spent in a frankly uneasy silence, the Third Princess nodded her head once more before looking up and smiling at the two of them.

"I did tell you, Ciaran." Euphemia said with a happy smile, prompting a smile to come to Ciaran's face as he remembered his conversation with Euphemia the night after the Kitakyushu raid.

"You did, Euphemia. You really did."

The Princess nodded her head at her self-perceived victory before moving to stand closer to the seated duo. Reaching down, she gently took a hold of one of their hands and held them in her own.

"I'm just happy that two of my friends have found love, and even more so that they are in love with each other." Euphemia said sweetly, looking at the duo in front of her, which in turn caused the two to look at the young Princess fondly.

Taking her hands away from theirs, Euphemia clapped her hands together gently. "Well, it's nearly lunch time, so I shall see you two love-birds later."

Ciaran couldn't help but shake his head at the comment, due it sounding so weird to hear Euphemia say something like that. It sound so much more like something which Darlton would say...

Darlton...

"Euphemia, wait!" He called out as he surged to his feet, making Dorothea flinch in her seat and stopping the young Princess where she stood.

"Y-yes?" The pink-haired girl stammered out.

"Can... can you keep this just between us?" Ciaran asked. "We... still don't think we're ready to tell the others just yet."

Looking at him thoughtfully, Euphemia seemed to mull over the request before she nodded her head with a smile. "All right, Ciaran. I'll keep it quiet."

"Thank you, Your Highness." Dorothea said, nodding her head thankfully.

Euphemia didn't say anything else, only smiling at the two people in front of her before she opened the door and left the room. When the door was closed, Ciaran moved to the vacant chair and sat down in it, turning himself so he was looking at Dorothea as a large smile came to his face.

"One down." He said.

"Four to go." Dorothea responded, a smile of her own gracing her lips.

---

After lunch, Ciaran spent the majority of the afternoon in his room, trying to figure out what to pack in to the duffel bag he had chosen to take with him for the trip. Deciding that, if they were doing something with the new unit which would probably involve training, any civilian clothes were out of the question.

But then again, they were going to California. So he did pack a fairly large number of t-shirts in to his bag. He also put in a spare of his Royal Guardsman uniform in case of emergencies, although he doubted he'd be doing strenuous in the maroon uniform. Then after that, it was just a matter of packing several travel essentials: toothbrush, toothpaste, shower-gel and deodorant.

With everything packed, Ciaran exited his room and made his way down to the dining room to eat. As Cornelia had said, Villetta was there, dressed again in her deep purple tailcoat, sitting near Dorothea, whom she was deep in conversation with. Judging by the smile on both their faces, it must have been something good.

"Good evening to you, Lady Villetta." He said, moving to take his seat next to Darlton, who was already sipping on a small china cup of tea. Looking around quickly, Ciaran saw that the only people not present were Cornelia and Guilford.

"And good evening to you, Ciaran." Villetta responded with a smile. "Are you ready for our trip?"

Ciaran couldn't suppress the chuckle that came to his throat. "You make it sound like we're going for a beach holiday."

"It'll be nose to the grindstone when we get to California." Darlton quipped, raising his cup slightly, earning a nod from Ciaran and Villetta and a quiet "booo" from Dorothea.

Before anything else could be said, the door to the dining room opened and in walked Cornelia and her Knight, marking the start of the meal.

The meal itself was uneventful, being a course of honey glazed chicken with various vegetables, and nothing of note really happened, since it seemed that Nonette was so content with her victory at Rock, Paper, Scissors over Dorothea earlier.

After the meal and a few hours of down time, Ciaran, Darlton and Nonette collected their bags from their rooms and made their way to the designated meeting place; the Palace's smoking room. Inside, they found Villetta attempting to get the drinks dispenser to work. Beside the small table in the middle of the room, a duffel bag not to dissimilar to Ciaran's, apart from the crest of the Britannian Army, sat on the floor.

"Having a bit of trouble there?" Ciaran asked as he entered the room.

Giving the silver machine a slight slap, Villetta shook her head and sighed in exasperation. "I don't know why, but it's not giving me a drink."

Darlton shrugged as he set his own bag on the floor before sitting down. "Can't be helped. Shall we talk about what we're going to do for the next few days?"

At that, the remaining three moved to sit down in the chairs around Darlton as he began speaking. "Okay, so as you know, and I'm sure Villetta has been informed, we're going to the Sacramento Royal Air Force base in California to pick up the aircraft we're going to need for Ciaran's Fireforce protocol."

The young man couldn't help but grimace at Darlton calling it his protocol. It just... didn't sit right with him, but he kept his mouth shut as the general continued speaking.

"While we're there, along with making sure that the Valkyrs are still operational and making sure they undergo any necessary repairs if something is wrong, we'll also be practising the ins and outs of the Fireforce, for both on-the-ground tactics and getting the intricacies of the vertical envelopment tactic down pat."

Everyone nodded their heads in understanding. To his surprise, out of the corner of his eye, Ciaran saw that Nonette was paying extremely close attention to what Darlton was saying.

"What's going to be our flight-time?" Ciaran asked.

"Eleven hours, give or take," Darlton said; "So leaving at seven in the evening here would see us arrive at three in the morning in Sacramento, factoring in the time dilation between the places."

"Oh joy." The young man said in a deadpan voice.

"Something wrong, Ciaran?" Nonette asked.

"I can't sleep on planes." He said simply; "It's something I'm just incapable of doing."

A hearty slap on the back from Nonette nearly propelled him off of his chair. "That's because you've never travelled on the transports used by the Knights of the Round!"

Darlton let out a loud sigh as he put his hand against his forehead. "Oh, Nonette. What did you do know?"

"Nothing major." Nonette said nonchalantly. "I just told the guys who were going to fly us to the Homeland to leave their old rust-bucket at the airfield and to come and use the transport me and Dorothea came on."

Everyone in the room looked at the Knight of Nine in surprise, while she simply just smiled sweetly at them.

"That... that's very nice of you, Nonette." Darlton said in quiet shock.

"So it's settled then!" The champagne-haired woman said cheerfully. "Shall we get a move on then?

No-one else in the room said anything, only nodding their heads in mute agreement before they picked up their bags and left the room. As they walked down the corridor to the large hangar at the rear of the Palace, Ciaran and Darlton in the rear with Villetta and Nonette leading the way at the front, the two ladies making conversation at a normal level, which surprised Ciaran since there was not a single case of any inappropriate touching or phrases coming from the Knight of Nine.

Soon, they reached the large space of the hangar, probably almost the entire length of the Palace by the looks of it, with the same white and gold, hawk-like transport that brought the two female Knights of the Round to Area 11 over a month ago sitting ready on a runway, one it's side ramps down, ready to accept it's passengers.

"Let's saddle up, people!" Nonette cried out, almost skipping to the transport, the trio of officers following in her wake.

Climbing inside, Ciaran definitely saw that the transport was definitely something befitting the Knights of the Round: plush, leather upholstered seats, elaborate wooden tables, a wall-mounted TV screen and a drinks bar filled up the main space of the transport. The young man couldn't even begin to guess what else was in this aircraft.

"There's beds down to the side, there." Nonette said, pointing to a door leading towards the front of the aircraft as the group put their bags in overhead storage compartments. "So if you feel like you need to sleep, you can do so in there."

The intercom crackled to life. "Attention ladies and gentlemen. This is your captain speaking; we are almost ready to make out departure, so if you would please take your seats, we'll be ready for take-off."

"Well, let's get ready, everyone." Darlton said as he sat down in one of the chairs before buckling himself in. Quickly, the others followed his example, settling down in to their own chairs before buckling in.

It didn't take long for the intercom to crackle in to life again. "All right everyone. Prepare for take-off."

Even though he knew that the aircraft's frame would be soundproofed, it still took Ciaran by surprise when he heard the sound of the engines roaring in to life. They were a completely different noise to the sound made by the turbine engines of the Boeing 747s in his world. These were proper jet engines, as evidenced by the steadily building roar of the engines.

"Here we go." Nonette gave as a warning, before everyone was pushed backwards in to their seats gently as the aircraft built up speed as it moved down the runway before, with a quick burst of speed, it sped down the runway at full speed before a slight drop, indicating they had left the palace hangar and were now in the air.

"This is your captain speaking; we are now airborne. Flight-time will be around ten hours, due to flying with the jet stream, so that will see us arrive in Sacramento, California, at roughly two o'clock in the morning local time." The pilot said. "We'll be ascending to over twenty thousand feet and be maintaining that altitude throughout the entire flight. So please sit back, relax and enjoy the amenities we have to offer."

And with that, Ciaran was on his way to the Homeland.

---

AN: Chapter 22 is up! And with that, A Brave New World is over a year old! Over 200,000 words, 188 faves, 215 followers and 134 reviews. All I can say is... wow. Seriously. I never thought I'd be able to accomplish something like this, and I sure as hell did not think that it would garner the amount of support and love it has, let alone get a fanon Wiki and a TvTropes page (the latter of which still needs work, so please, please, PLEASE, help with that if you can). So again, thank you, everyone. It means a lot.

Won't talk about life since it's really kind of Same Shit, Different Day really. Working on getting back-owed money from the government is annoying.

Anyway, for the story, I tried to do something to kind of hint at the situation in Japan under Britannian rule, but also kind of... well, tone it down a little bit. I really think that CLAMP kind of went overboard a bit with how the showed the Britannians, and I want to show that in future chapters. I did also get some ideas from A Cold Calculus, which is a very good Code Geass story, I'll be honest. Several leagues better than mine, I'll say with all honesty.

Also, still having trouble writing anything romantic, but I think I'm getting better. It's just practice, that's all.

And that's all I have to say.

As usual: read, review, enjoy. Please help out on the TvTropes page if you can. And until next time, as Nonette said: "Toodles!"