"Preparation is the first among the principles of battle."

Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia.

…

"So, how did it go for you?"

"I think I just got engaged..."

"Milly?"

"Milly." I did not expect that, then again this is Milly we are talking about, I probably should have thought this a possible consequence of having Marius distract her, at least this might help Ri get over his unrequited crush on Nelly. "How did it go for you?"

"Rather well I think."

"She agreed to the deal then?" At my nod Marius continued, "Is she going to come back next week?"

"Possibly, I can't quite get a real measure of her."

"Huh, you really do have the hots for her."

"I do." My answer made my brother by bond roll his eyes, he was trying to embarrass me, but that was never going to work with something so minor, attraction was something I would never be embarrassed about, it was natural reaction after all. "Now, let's get some rest, we have preparations to make tomorrow. Congratulations by the way, Milly is going to run you into the ground."

His blush made me laugh, so predictable.

….

"So, you're Zero?"

"I am."

"Huh, I did not expect that."

Lelouch found himself nodding at that, the redhaired man, which Kallen had explained was her brother, standing in front of his desk at the black-knight base, having given him a rough explanation of her night, which he found himself doubting at times. Still she was nodding along with her brother in the corner, looking at him with a mix of amusement and an odd look that made him worry.

"I suppose so, then again, I did not expect to meet my predecessor as leader of your group."

"Huh, fair enough."

"Well why don't you explain yourself Lelouch vi Britannia?" Fuck, she had figured it out, not much of a surprise, but still annoying to deal with, well time for plan B. "Come on Lelouch, why did you hide that? It makes little difference at this point and you might as well have told me."

Or not.

"I suppose that's true, still, I am not the sharing type, please understand that I prefer to keep my secrets close to me. Now Naoto, what do you intend to do now that you are free?"

"I was planning on taking back control of my cell, but I suppose that's impossible now?"

"Hmm, yes, though I am looking for a righthand man if you are interested?"

"I am but I have a stipulation."

"Go ahead?"

"You will let the command staff know your identity."

"Fair enough, I will do so after the meeting with Kyoto tomorrow, for now..." He closed his eyes briefly, calling on the devilish power he held, his Geass responding eagerly. "I need the two of you to, trust me."

…..

"Lady Sumeragi, glad to see you have arrived."

"I can hardly miss this, my insistence is the reason we are all here today after all." Kaguya sat with the other heads, hidden from their soon to arrive guest by a curtain to keep their identities secret. Personally she felt it entirely unnecessary to hide themselves from Zero, if the man was even slightly as intelligent as she thought he was, he likely already knew who all of them were anyway, she had spoken with his supporters at length after all.

"An insistence that I felt was rather unnecessary, most of us wished to meet with the man already, despite the risk." Kirihara said, sending a look at Osakabe, who had been the only one to vehemently refuse meeting Zero. "He was proven himself to be useful at resisting the occupiers and resourceful enough to function without our full support, giving him our full support is a only natural at this point.

"Zero has arrived."

….

"Why do you not want to destroy this Kyoto House?"

"Simply Cornelia, as long as he is a threat I have an excuse to pull more power to myself, destroying Kyoto House right now has no benefit, and would rob me of a challenge ."

"You want a challenge? There are better ways of creating one Andre."

"I know Sister, but there will be no challenge greater then him save the emperor, beyond that we have not had so much political freedom since the war." Her brother leaned back in his chair, having just consumed his typical breakfast of a slice of toast and jam, takin the opportunity Zero's meeting with Kyoto posed to sleep in and relax. "Honestly, I have not felt better in years, I have been craving a real war sister, as barbaric as that sounds."

"You are creature of war brother, have you not always said that you lived for conflict and battle?"

"Fair enough, conflict is the natural state of mankind after all, no matter how much people like to avoid it." Andre shook his head, standing and stretching. "Up for a spar Nelly, you need to practice."

"Fuck you Andre."

….

"Zero, greetings, welcome to Kyoto."

"It is my pleasure to be here, and a pleasure to 'see' you all, heads of Kyoto house." Zero bowed in a respectful greeting, Kaguya found herself analysing the man intently, he was more intimidating in person then on screen, a shadowy presence that came over the entire room. Still he was here with only his personal body guard, the red dragoness and her brother, a man she was told had recently returned from a Britannian prison.

"Zero, please remove your mask." And there came the one thing she did not agree with, why should the man reveal himself, Zero was more a symbol then a man anyway, an ideal not an individual. Still she could not deny that she was curious as to who was behind the mask, a presence like that would have to be matched by quite the man. The man grabbed the mask over his head, before lifting it up to reveal mid length black hair, an aristocratic face and purple eyes.

"Lelouch? "

…

"Kaguya, Taizo, it's been a long time."

Kallen found that her ears perked at those words, she knew that Lelouch had spent some time in Japan before the invasion, but how had he met two of the members of Kyoto house? Kaguya Sumeragi was distantly related to the long deceased Emperor, but how would he have met her... unless he stayed at the prime ministers house, where he would have met Suzaku... suddenly a lot of things started making a lot more sense.

"I wish to discuss your vassalage." The words put her on edge, what was Lelouch planning? "Kyoto house has proven itself incapable of properly managing the rebellion, it's no miracle, none of you are former military after all."

"Zero-" Taizo growled words were cut off as Lelouch aimed a rather terrifying glare at him, was that a family trait or something?

"It's time the Houses of Kyoto fall back into their roll of supporting the Emperor, or well, Empress as the case may be." The robed bastard gestured at Sumeragi, who stood and moved to Zero's side. "And her chosen Shogun."

…

"HAHAHAHAHAHa! Oh Lelouch, I knew I supported you for a reason, oh this is just perfect, well played my boy, well played." The gloved hand shook in mirth, sending cigar ash all around, it was the most emotion, other than anger, that Lelouch had ever seen from the Illusive Bastard, the man appeared to be genuinely amused. "And they all bent the knee?"

"For now at least, Taizo and Kaguya are definitely behind me, two of the others support me mostly willingly, as long as I don't threaten their bases of power, and the last two will support me as long as the others do." Lelouch shrugged. "I only really need them until Kaguya is crowned, two months at most and they can be removed from the board."

"Ah, the chess metaphors, still, this is damned good for business."

….

"This is Kallen Kozuki, Ronin preproduction type, launching!" The sleek form of the Ronin was slower than the Guren by a long shot, but its agility was nearly equal, currently it was unarmed, because this was just an function test. Rakshata had delivered on her promise, having a working test type two days after the meeting with Kyoto, she was still amazed and impressed at the complicated mess of a web Lelouch had weaved for himself.

"Alright Kallen, max speed first, I want to see what my youngest child can do." Rakshata's voice was exited and calculated at the same time. Kallen simply pushed the acceleration to max, relishing in the speed and the smooth tarmac of the abandoned airfield that they were using as a base. "Excellent! That will be all for now Kallen dear, return the Ronin to the hanger if you would."

"Alright then."

…..

"Brother?"

"Yes Nelly?"

"What exactly are you doing?"

"Oh, nothing really, just some coding, we are working on a big project and my code is required for it to function properly."

"That's not what I meant, why are you doing that now?" The setting was not ideal that was true, but Nelly knew I cared little for the meeting we were in, these were Clovis bottom feeding administrators, unimportant, the only reason they were still here was because the lack of less idiotic replacements. "Please pay attention."

"Alright then, what requires my attention."

"The bloody tunnels Andre! They run all over the settlement and give the terrorist free reign!"

"And nothing can be done about them Nelly, filling them in is prohibitively expensive and detonating them will destabilize the settlement's foundation, I know its not ideal but we simply have to deal with them."

"Then what about this Illusive man funding Zero?"

"We found nothing on him, he is a damned ghost and rather upsettingly good at avoiding R6."

…

"What are you going to do about your brother knowing who you are?"

"Honestly C.C, there is not much I can do about it, if he has not moved against me now it is unlikely he will at all." The green haired woman lazing on his bed sat upright slowly, staring at him with more confusion then he had ever seen on her before. "I honestly don't know why."

"Hmm," She hummed, leaning back down and taking another bite of her pizza, he kept his eyes focused as she purposefully pushed a bare leg out from under the covers, damnable temptress. "How would you describe your brother, Lulu?"

"Alexander?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, what was she getting at this time, the Witch nodded and he decided to just answer her, when she was playing these games she always had a good point to make. "Ambitious, good at reading people, a brilliant strategist, a complete bastard when he wins, and he always fucking wins because of course he does!"

"So, competitive then?"

That brought him up short for moment, it was a good way to describe his brother yes, but what was she getting at, she couldn't be saying that...

"Your brother is looking for a challenge Lulu, and has chosen you as his opponent." She sighed at his confused and offended look. "Don't think like you are doing right now, it's not an insult, honestly it might be a compliment."

"He is manipulating me!"

"If he is anything like your father, Alexander seeing you as a challenge means he is underestimating you..."

"His mistake then." He nodded, still angry and upset. "I will make him regret it."

"Good, now mister grumpy, I'm horny, get in the bed. Now."

….

"We have our next mission people." Zero instantly drew the attention of the command staff, Kallen was unsure who was currently under the mask, but had the suspicion it was actually Lelouch this time. The far straighter posture, more fluid movements and general aura were different from C.C's more relaxed state of being, plus he was not likely to allow others to make such an important statement. "And it's an important one, a large group of JLF remnants have gathered on Tsushima, however it seems the Lion has caught their scent, it won't be long until they are eliminated."

"We can't exactly help them, that island is not exactly big and we don't have any way to get off of it." Naoto said, her brother deep in thought for a moment. "Unless of course, you have a solution for that Zero?"

"Have I ever not delivered a miracle?" The amusement in his tone as always temped her to punch him. "Rakshata, if you would?"

"Naturally." The Indian scientist rose from her couch, tapping at a nearby console for a few moments, pulling up an image and some documents. "Meet the Ikaruga, our soon to be headquarters."

"A Submarine..." Kallen muttered, because of course Lelouch had to go overboard on security for their home base. "Yeah, that would do it. What's the plan?"

"Glad you asked."

…

"Glad we could meet Lelouch."

"I do not like being summoned in the middle of the night, this better be important."

"It always is with me Lelouch, you should know this by now."

"Oh shut up you Illusive Bastard, why am I here?"

"The file is in the drawer."

Taking it as invitation enough Lelouch opened the small desk drawer, pulling the thick paper documents and USB drive from it, flipping through the document he found his eyebrows shooting higher and higher.

"This is real?"

"Of course."

"Really?"

"Its is rather hard to believe I know."

"Project Pegasus, oh Alexander, what a great gift."

….

"Installation of the B Type reactor?"

"Ready and working my lord!" Harris excitement was rather amusing as always and I was glad to have my chief engineer working on the Perseus directly, the new reactor's installation was second only to the proper paint job being applied to my frames arms and legs. "The lance replacements have been equipped as well, and the longer sword you requested too!"

"Excellent work Harris!" His excitement was rather infectious, especially when it involved weapons of mass destruction. "The Hercules and Spartans?"

"Repaired and upgraded, no more running out of fuel for the thrusters mid battle, you could comfortably boost for thirty minutes straight!"

"Good, good! We are going to need it, it won't be long before Zero makes his move on Tsushima and I want to be ready for it, time to show him that he is not the only one who can lay a trap."

…

"So, you did come back?"

"You weren't expecting me too?"

"I was unsure, not something that happens often I assure you." Andre spoke with a pleasant smile on his face, a week had passed since the last time they spoke, since she got her brother back. If she was honest with herself she did not know why she decided to meet with him again, she had no compunctions about breaking deals with brits before, but something made her go. Maybe it was fear about what her father would do, or nervousness about what Andre would do, or maybe something else entirely, but she had gone to see him again. "Do you want a drink?"

"Yes, the same as last time please." He poured her a drink, the same rum as before, sitting down with his own. "So what do we do now?"

"Hmm, well, I had not thought much about that..." He leaned back, taking a sip of his drink, Kallen deciding to do the same. "How about a story?"

"About what?"

"Ever shared war stories?"

"Not really no, I have had much to share before."

"Well, let me start then, what would you like to hear about?"

"What was your first battle like?" She knew of course that it had been Iceland, but little information was available about it, it was a sneak attack after all with little to no media coverage and over in a matter of days, if not hours.

"Iceland was a mess looking back at it, my plans were childishly simple and had no presentation. Far from my later Supervillain like plots. Disappointing." He shook his head, her eyebrows rising, was he joking? "Still, if you are sure you want to know, then let me tell you!"

…..

"Every era of war has had its master, one who could command and win battles that none other could, Alexanders, Ceasars, Charlemagne, Genghis Khan, Oda Nobunaga, Napoleon, Robert E Lee, Von Moltke, Rommel. Their times are long past, if still desperately clutched to, I know that in this era of Knightmares, the title of Master belongs to me."

Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia.