If there was one thing I could better about myself, it would be my need to show off, it tends to get in the way, even if it is highly amusing.
Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia.
…..
"So, you cut of my barrel, breaking my Knightmare for a week, because you're in love?" The woman nursed her gin as she leaned back in one of my chairs, the bandage around her head forgotten for a moment. I had just finished explaining the situation we faced here, which caused my friends angry expression to slowly fade more and more.
"Yeah, basically."
"Hand it over Marius." Of course they made a bet about something like this happening, why would they not, it's not like they could try to be normal or anything.
"God-damnit, I hoped you forgot about that."
"The deal was before age twenty five, I am not about to forget something that simple."
"I fucking love both of you know that?" My words caused the two of them to share a surprised look, a moment of silence passing. Before Marius laughed loudly in what I am assuming to be victory, no fucking way...
"And now we are even again Dora."
'Fuck my life.'
…
"We need to talk after this Lelouch." The way she said it made him turn to her, there was emotion there, in those strange and beautiful golden eyes, he had a strange feeling he knew what she wanted to talk about. For now he simply nodded at her, which was enough for her to fall in behind him, he pushed the doors to the briefing room open to find a subdued atmosphere.
Kallen sat stitching a wound above Rai's eyebrow, calm as could be, Sayoko was in the corner of the room as always, chatting, or well listening to Diethard, Ohgi was reading through reports at lightning speed with Naoto by his side and the Colonel and his swords were sat in quite mourning of their general.
"Greetings all." His words, and the removal of his Zero mask caused not the expected strange looks from the swords and Tohdoh, Alexander had spilled the beans then, damn that annoyance of a man. "I am glad to see you all intact."
"Well mostly." Kallen said as she finished Rai's last stitch, "That was a lot closer then I would have personally liked, the Lion was going all out and I hate to admit it, but I was losing."
"Never mind the fact that we lost the general." Naoto said, raising his head from the pile of paperwork it was buried in.
"Do not fault yourself for that, the general had already been executed hours after his capture." Tohdoh's gruff voice spoke up. "The question is, Lelouch, what do you plan on doing next?"
"Next, Sensei, next we will fight on our own terms." He pulled up the main screen. "For now though, battle report, what are our casualties?"
"92 wounded, 27 dead, those Spartans don't mess around." Ohgi said, looking distraught. "Equipment wise it will take us at least a week to get back to the same level, we lost a lot of Ronin and the Gekka's have sustained heavy damage"
"Acceptable, we need to plan our next move anyway, as well as reorganize our troops, especially because we have another Submarine joining us soon."
…
"So Andre, what is she like?" Dora smirked at the way her little Brother by bond jumped from his reading through a rapport, looking at her with exasperation and fondness. Good to know she was still liked, even after being apart for such longer periods of time. "This Lady Stadfeldt your so infatuated with?"
"And why should I tell you?" The expected response, oh Andre, you never change do you.
"Because I am bored and you always want to talk." She pouted, legs swinging below her as she sat down on his desk, the man let out a sigh, rolling his eyes and pulling up a file on his tablet. She looked at the picture he presented to her with an appreciative whistle, Dora had never really been into redheads but she could understand the appeal of this one. "Hot damn Dre, you sure she's into men?"
"Pretty sure."
….
"Are you feeling alright Suzu?" He blinked at his Princess words, bringing him out of his internal nervous rant and back to the world, they were a few steps away from the door to the office. "You look nervous."
"I am fine Euphie, a little nervous yes but nothing more."
"Good, I don't like seeing you distraught." She traced the back of her hand against his before pushing open the doors to Prince Alexanders quarters, what he saw in there was not exactly expected. The prince was angry, almost shouting explicative at a large tv screen playing a game, while Ser Marius and Dame Dorathea laughed at him, however the most surprising part was the other person in the room. Kallen Stadfeldt sat with a slight smirk on her face as she handled the controller in her grasp, easily running circles around the Lion-Prince in a strange fighting game.
"Damn woman, how are you so good at this!"
"I'm just better then you Andre, shut up and put out!" he watched in stunned amusement as the man pulled a stack of notes from within his suit and handed them to the redhead, who counted the bills smirking.
"Dorathea, Marius." The tone Euphemia took from beside him was the one he knew as the firm one, the you are about to be in trouble one. "Please tell me you have not gotten another person involved in that god awful betting pool of yours or so help me god I will find a way to punish you!"
….
"Does she do that often?" Kallen asked Andre as she watched the man's younger sister berate the two knights, the siblings not even able to get a word in before she rattled of another consequence or threat. She had been playing a rather nice street fighter remake against him after he had official introduced her to his friends, Dorathea and Marius Ernst, who were almost pleasantly blasé for Britannian's, she could understand Andre liking them.
"Not to me, so I don't really keep track, makes me feel safer." She nodded at the man's words, it seemed like a logical plan to her, despite the pinkette's rather sweet disposition, as described by both Lelouch, Milly and Andre, Kallen found she would not want to be on the other side of one of these rants. "Ah Suzaku, good to see you!"
Suzaku... she turned her head to see the man the princess had walked inside with, expecting to find another helmeted faceless Britannia guard, but instead found a friend from the academy.
"Prince Alexander, Lady Stadfeldt."
"Kallen, I am assuming you know Major Kururugi, soon to Ser Kururugi."
What. The. Fuck.
…
"So, you have not in fact been a simple test pilot, but are in fact a Princess personal guard?" Kallen, Suzaku, Euphie and I were the only ones left in my quarters currently, Marius and Dora sent off for some forced brother sister bonding time. Currently I was watching as Suzaku explained his story to the redhead, doing his best to keep his use of the Lancelot and Lelouch being alive a secret, cute.
"Correct." The boy nodded a small smile on his face, seeming glad to have gotten through his story without giving too much away, now that won't do buddy.
"He has also been piloting the Lancelot, an experimental Knightmare frame made by Lloyd Asplund." I helpfully supplied, watching as Kallen connected the dots in an adorable manner, her face going through a multitude of emotions before settling on angry. I put my hand on her shoulder, keeping her from jumping up an doing something stupid like trying to kill the boy, she sent me an angry glare, to which I returned a smirk.
"Now, now Kallen, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, don't expect me to share sensitive information like this too often." She plopped back down at that, mollified and willing to at least listen. "Good, now, time to talk seriously."
"What do you mean Andre?" Oh Euphie, you are a terrible liar, even if I did not already know what you are hiding I would have been suspicious by now.
"Come on Euphie, you know you can't hide anything from me, I know Lelouch is alive, have known for months, and I know you do too Suzaku." The stuttering was amusing as always. "I also know you both suspect he is Zero, I am confirming for you that he is in fact Zero, oh and Kallen is the Red Champion Dragoness in case that wasn't clear."
The punch to my shoulder was worth it, Kallen frowning as Suzaku and Euphie went through several minutes of muttered conversation.
"Now the reason I am telling you this is to dissuade both of you from doing something you will regret."
….
"So, are we clear?" Kallen had watched with apprehension as Andre went through problem after problem with the two in front of the, still her attention was on him, raptly watching as he spoke. It was rare that he got like this during her visits, but she found it highly interesting how he could switch between the fun loving man she knew in person and the focused calculated warrior she knew from their fights.
"Yes. I do believe we are Andre, as long as we have your support."
"Of course you do Euphie, as long as you use protection and come to me for any 'accidents'." And he was back to joking and fun loving, even she found herself giggling at the faces Suzaku and Euphemia made, maybe he and Milly were not as different as she had thought.
"You know that isn't what I meant you troll! Do I have your support to take Suzaku as my knight?"
"You do of course, Father has agreed as well, though he expects you to host the ceremony in private and out of your own pocket, as well as to not displease him further."
….
"So why did you tell them all of that?" Kallen asked, leaning back against the wall while Euphie and Suzaku left my quarters. "I am assuming you had a reason beyond just your entertainment."
"Of course I did Kallen, it was inevitable that they would find out about Lelouch, and in turn you, being black-knights, I wanted to make sure that they did not do anything too stupid, at least nothing stupid enough to mess with my plans." I leaned back in my chair, looking out the windows to the sunset above the cities buildings. "Because that is exactly what Euphie would do, she is too naive."
"I could say the same about Suzaku, I am pretty sure he is not entirely right in the head."
"Well then they are truly perfect for each other, you are also taking this remarkably well."
"I am surprised about that too actually, but it's not like Suzaku being the pilot of that white devil changes much now that he is being assigned to Euphemia's control."
"Fair enough, just remember that my little sister is rather impulsive."
"Il keep it in mind, now, you up for another game? And a drink?"
"Hell yeah."
…
"So what did you want to talk about C.C?" About two hours had passed since the meeting, he had taken the time to shower and eat something, not quite dreading the upcoming conversation but also not entirely looking forward to it.
"I feel its time I tell you about myself." She sat down in their bed, knees to her chest, more nervous than he thought it was possible for her too look, was she really so afraid that he would reject her? Like he ever could. "I told you how I got my code, but never about what I did since getting it."
"You have not no, and I won't pressure it out of you."
"That's good to know." She looked up at him with that slight, true, real, smile, yet when mixed in with the tears in the corners of her eyes it made him almost rush over to her, almost. "Most of what I did, while interesting, is not important, I gave my curse to people with skill and desperation, from artists as great as Leonardo to dictators as vile as Adolf, I spread my curse and power to all, hoping that they could give me my wish, uncaring of what they would do to the world."
He sat down beside her, arm folding over her shoulders, eyes locked down on her, she clasped his hand in her firm grip, squeezing his fingers in reassurance.
"Then I met her, your mother, a poor girl working hard in the fields of her families ancient farm, where the Aries villa now stands, she interested me, like so many before her had, and we formed a contract." His breath hitched, he had his suspicions about his mother sure, the more he thought about her actions logically the less stable she seemed. "She used the motivation it gave her, running a rebel cell on her own."
"She rebelled against the Empire!?"
"For a time yes, it was the tail end of sigyl of blood, Britannia's great succession struggle, many people were tired of the royal family, she was one of them, that was until she met him. Your father and uncle with Ser Bismark, their loyal knight, stormed her cell's hideout, killing all but her and I, she bent the knee to them and I followed as I always have. Your Uncle V.V is a vile little shit, but Charles, he was charming, and it was not long before she fell in love, I thought it was to be the end for my wish, nobody ever wants to grant me my wish if they fall in love, but..."
"What is you wish C.C?"
"It was to die, for someone to take my code and end me."
"Was?"
Her smile was tearful as she raised a hand to his chin, turning his head towards her, she placed a short kiss on his lips, the taste of lemon and sugar left behind on them.
"Yes, was, let me finish. Charles and V.V had a plan you see, to end the system they grew up in permanently, they wanted to use an ancient weapon, and merge the consciousness of every human who has lives, has lived or will ever live into one. For this process they would need two codes, Charles was to take mine, and the two brothers would bring Ragnarök upon the world."
"What happened to that plan then?"
"It was not as simple as they made it out to be, nothing ever is, for their plan they needed power, so Charles took the throne, for their plan they needed experts so V.V formed the OSI, for their plan they needed land, so Bismark and Mariane conquered south America, for their plan they needed more children to experiment on, so Charles married more women. That turned out the be the biggest bottleneck, they needed a person with a powerful Geass, one who can help them stabilize the connection, one born with the latent powers of two Geass bearers inside them."
"So more of my father's wives have Geass?"
"All of them do, though none know it, Charles Geass lets him rewrite the memories of others at will, the problem with their plan was that it was taking too long, the children born were polarizing, either brilliant, insane or both, not one with the power they needed, V.V blamed Mariane, blamed the fact that Charles loved her."
"So he had her killed..." His hand clenched in the sheets almost painfully, despite what he now knew the woman was still his mother, still cared for them."
"Of course, but there was some truth to it, Mariane was hiding the one she thought was capable of the connection."
"Me?"
"No, surprisingly, it was none of your siblings, it was me, my Geass before I got my code would have been perfect for launching the connection, but she knew I would die in minutes if she took my code, which she did not want."
"Selfish, I suppose that runs in the family, I will never let you die either." His words made the girl in his arms twitch in the slightest bit of amusement, as well as netting him another kiss. "Thank you for telling me."
"You deserve to know, especially if you want to stick around with me, because I don't think I can let you go anymore..."
"Then, I suppose you are stuck with me then, my Beautifull Witch."
….
"Finally, I found you C.C, it won't be long now my love, we will be together again soon." The muttered words echoed through the halls of the sewer as the lone figured walked through the winding tunnels, the headphones on his white haired head blasting loudly with a soft feminine voice. "It won't be long now, everything is finally in place."
"Hey you there! What are you doing down here!? These tunnels are restricted on order of the Lion, leave now!"
"Hello Sargent Maximo, how is Jun doing? Still got those, how did you put it, 'rocking tits'? Do you want everyone to find out you have been sleeping with an eleven? Well if you don't, then you will do exactly as I say."
….
Nothing is more terrifying to me than an unpredictable idiot, for nobody, not even they themselves, know what they are truly capable of.
Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia.