"When push comes to shove... Well, let's just say that I won't stop shoving until I win."
Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia
...
The meeting room's mood was rather subdued despite last night's victory, I could understand, these men and women had acted without my orders and I was known for not liking things happening without my orders. But I was not angry with them, they followed orders of the prime minister, yes they did ignore my orders that Marius was to be in charge if I went missing, but they deferred to the only other man with power equal to mine instead.
And while I don't trust Schneizel at all, the man is not bad at war, sure I can confidently say I beat him 9 out of 10 times, but he can fight a battle just fine, especially with Nelly's support. He is more focused on grand strategy and deceit, overwhelming force was his most often used strategy, effective, but lacking his usual subtlety.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I want us ready for war with China and or the EU by the end of the month, our revolution will start not long after. Make all necessary preparations."
"Sir?"
"You all did well, at least in regards to the trouble we found ourselves in, our casualties were minimal and you stuck to my plans wherever applicable, I am proud of you all, but this is not the end." Watching as the men and women, all younger than the average military figures of their ranks, sat up straighter and allowed themselves slight smiles at the compliment. "Ready yourselves, for our time will come soon, soon we will complete my plans and the Empire can finally be changed, readied for the future, for our future."
"For the Lion!" The first cry came, as expected, it was a common enough saying in the circles of the empire under my influence and not something I would disallow. Was it a bit pretentious? Sure. But at least I am not going to go full 1940's Germany and make it law to say it as a greeting. "For the Lion! For the Lion!"
"Leo Imperator!" The cry surprised me, it came from a young officer by the name of Patricia Decita, a woman who grew up in Madagascar who I had recruited back during my liberation of the country. She had been... well slightly against me was an understatement, it was nice to see that she had changed her mind, she was good at logistics, one of the most important parts of war. Soon the other young promising officers, from majors to generals to captains to admirals, began to join in, the cry echoing throughout the Olympus command deck. "Leo Imperator! Leo Imperator! Leo Imperator!"
"Leo Imperator... I like it."
...
"How many does he have?"
"On his side? Fuck if I know the full numbers, but Asia for sure, no question about that, the pacific islands will stay loyal to Charles, probably, Africa most likely will join the Lion, Cornelia will cave to his requests as she always does, no question about it."
"And she holds the loyalty of the African armies... what of the homeland?"
"Loyal, the old nobles hate the Lion for his raising of new families, the southern continent, however, is a different story, while most of the areas are near fully integrated since the Blood, the nobles are more... well lets just say that the Lion has been buttering them up for a long time."
"If we give him the chance he will not just rebel, but win and depose my brother... Prepare my little project, Charles might want the Lion alive, but we need to break his powerbase, shatter his will... I have a plan."
...
"You have my permission Euphie, but... be careful, Alexander does not like these things happening in his territory, especially when he does not know about it." The pinkette frowned at that, she knew her older brothers were somewhat rivals, her seeking Schneizel's permission for this was likely to get her a scolding from both Nelly and Andre, still, she doubted it would come to more than that, Andre was her closest brother and second closest sibling in general. Her plan would work, no matter how much they doubted her ideas they had merit, damn Andre's plans, damn Nelly's submissive attitude towards the man since he took command, Euphemia would do her best to bring the world towards the future.
"Does he really worry you, Schneizel?" The question was one she had been meaning to ask for a while, Andre was planning something big, her personal guess was the annexation of China, not the whole federation, just China proper, while her sister bet on him planning for a liberation of India, where Andre apparently had a lot of contacts.
"To be honest? Yes, Alexander is a lot like our father, ambitious, proud, domineering and with few morals he keeps to. And with the amount of power he is gathering... It will not be good for our empire if he does anything with it." The blond shook his head, the all too familiar smile returning to his face. "But these are the worries of a jaded man, he is still our brother no matter what."
"Right... I will talk to you later, Schneizel."
"Good luck Euphie."
...
"Bet?"
"Alright, why not, the terms?"
"Winner gets to choose where we go for our first date?"
"Fair enough."
This was not what I had been expecting to be doing with Kallen today, but... It did seem like fun, even if I lost, which, well, I probably would. Darts had never been my thing, sure my aim in the Perseus was as good as it could be, but I am good at programming and liberally apply it around Pride-Corp's more important inventions, like the targeting system for our Knightmares. Thinking of that made me briefly come back to my latest project for Pride-Corp, the Operating System for our next-generation weapons, the ones meant to give me the edge to beat my father. The project was picking up speed now, just another three months and it would be ready for deployment, hell Harris has been working overtime on making the parts at facility Gamma.
Thunk
"And that is 180!"
"Fuck me..."
"Not yet Andre, not yet."
"That is not what I meant!"
"Hey! You're blushing!"
"I am not!"
...
"Suzaku, this is entirely unnecessary right?"
"You can't be too sure, Euphie. A wig will cover up your rather iconic hair." the boy leaned back for a second, a small smile coming to his face as he continued on. "And then we are free to have our date before the big announcement without being bothered."
"Okay, help me put on the wig please?"
"Yes, Euphie."
Euphemia found herself smiling at Suzaku's words, the man was happy they were going to have a mostly normal date for once, kind of like their first one, only without being chased by her brother's guards. The Ashford school festival was something done twice before and had become a big hit with the locals, with liberal Britannians young and old going the same as many Japanese.
The past two years the student council ran the festival themselves, taking care of nearly everything, but this year, because of a massive increase in funding coming from an anonymous benefactor, Andre was suspiciously silent when she mentioned it around him, the council had been able to hire personnel and buy machines to do much of the work.
This meant that Suzaku and the rest of the council were free to go to the festival and enjoy themselves, with the small exception of the giant pizza, where Suzaku had been conscripted to make it. Still, a day like this was not likely to happen much in the future, and Euphemia was going to enjoy herself with her knight slash boyfriend, even under the itchy black wig.
...
Despite everything going well for once I felt like something was wrong, the feeling of something you can't control going wrong was my least favorite, it's why I despised gambling. Sure I enjoyed watching others gamble, lose, win, celebrate and suffer by the way of chance, but I always ensured I knew the outcome of events important to me. This was why I disliked the situation I now found myself in, gambling on not being detected, and why it sucked, at least on the surface level, because a date was still a date and therefore fun. And Kallen wanted to go to her Schools Festival, as the loser of our Dart game, I would keep my word and go with her, even if the prize was 500 dollars for some reason, clothes shopping sucked. Everything was very expensive and extravagant or even more expensive and plain save for a single brand name plastered on it, this is why I always wear my own line of suits outside of the Perseus, where I generally went shirtless, the added kevlar was just another benefit.
"Come on Andre, it's only a disguise, you're pretty recognizable you know."
"Kallen, I look poor, why is this an acceptable way of dress and why were these clothes so expensive?"
"It's just a shirt and jeans you dumbass! With your new haircut, nobody will be able to tell it's you." My new haircut was... well different was a good way to put it, normally I kept my hair shoulder length, letting it wave in the wind and covering the scars on my head, most notably the long hairless mark stretching from my eye to the back of my head, my one momento from the battle of Shanghai. Now, however, my hair was short, just long enough to be pulled into small spikes by the absolute fuckton of hair gel put into it, my looks had changed from gracefully intimidating to young, confident, and aggressive, I blame my father, I did inherit his facial features and body type, which came with the signature look of superiority he always had.
"I look like a ruffian."
"Ruffian! Ha!"
Her laughter did bring a smile to my face, but the clothes were still awful, even if the school festival was likely going to be fun.
...
"Giant pizza?"
"Yes, a giant pizza."
"Oh Lulu, this is going to be so good, you know the way to seduce me don't you?"
"Nothing of the sort C.C, but I will take the credit anyway, the pizza will be the last big event, however, so be patient and you can have as much as you want."
"Now that does sound good, now come on Lulu, get dressed, it's time for our outing."
He knew she would never call it a date, or put any label on their relationship for that matter, it was simply not in her character, she was afraid of attachment he knew, but she was trying and that was what mattered most. C.C had gone from the strange girl he saved to a friend, to lover to unofficial girlfriend rapidly, but Lelouch found it to be almost natural, normal even, maybe it was because he had his own issues with attachment. It was a strange thing their relationship, most of the time both of them silently enjoyed each others company, no words exchanged, just comfortable silence, other times they roasted each other, trading insults and flirting at the same time, then C.C got handsy and he let himself be carried away by his emotions for once, loving how much emotion he could actually get out of her during those moments in their bed.
So, whether or not they put labels on their relationship, whether they said it or not, he knew that C.C loved him and he her, that was all that mattered.
...
"How do you feel Marius?" He smiled down at the blond happily, his casual clothes on, a simple pair of shorts and a t-shirt ready for their day together.
"Quite well Milly, glad that I do not have to wear a disguise like Andre." She accentuated her words with a little twirl, showing off the purple and white skirt and jacket combo she was wearing, the umbrella in her hand more a weapon than a tool, Marius knew there was a knife in the hilt of that thing, smart girl, Milly must have been more affected by the attack on the academy then she had let on at the time.
"Yes, I saw him walk with Kallen a bit ago, he looks unemployed." And his brother by bond really did, he had the worst fashion sense, Kallen along with him, black on black for him, red on red for her, barbarians, trully.
"He does, who wears a shirt like that without tucking it into their pants? Seeing him without boots on is also a surprise." He chuckled politely, at his own little bit of humour before kissing her hand and taking her by the arm, raising an eyebrow as she hesitated. "You okay."
"Yeah." She steadied her voice, standing tall beside him. "Are you ready?
"Of course Milly, are you? It's the more important question, you still have to steer everything around here."
"Oh no worries, if anything goes wrong I will sick Rivalz on it, he is the only one on the council that doesn't have a date."
"Huh, sad kid, but what about that other girl... the nerdy one?"
"Oh, Nina! She got pouched by Earl Lloyd a week or two ago, to work on some sort of special project."
"Strange." Marius nodded but decided to not continue with that line of conversation. "Anyway, what should we do first? You're the expert here."
"Oh, letting me be in charge are you... I know just the thing."
...
"Hey, Rai!"
"Shirley, I was looking for you! I was worried you would not come."
"After Milly's threats to your health? Of course, I am going to come on our date!" She simmered down a second later, lowly muttering something he probably should not have been able to hear. "Not like I ever would have not gone on a date with you..."
"Let's ignore Milly then, let's have some fun, no reason to label everything."
"I like that idea! Let's go to the cafe first!"
Rai smiled brightly as Shirley began to pull him around the festival grounds, stopping at every stand for a brief few seconds before dashing to the next one, coming to the cafe where he briefly nodded at Lelouch and his green-haired date before being pulled away again, now holding a coffee drink he did not know the name of.
...
"Of course, they are here..."
"Do you mean Rai and Shirley, not jealous are you?" The question was teasing, but Lelouch knew a test when he saw one, the way C.C set her shoulders, the way her eyes hardened for just the briefest moment, she would have some strong words to say if he answered wrong.
"Of course not, I meant the newest entries."
She turned to look at the gates, watching as Kallen and a decently disguised Alexander made their way onto the academy grounds, arms linked and smiling brightly, it made the pit in his stomach twist, and his left eye burn, guilt... he hated guilt.
"Come on Lulu, today is not about your extracurricular activities, let's just have fun."
"I suppose you're right... Still, I could do without watching him and Kallen run around."
"Feeling guilty?" Dammit she knew him too well, then again he had made it pretty obvious.
"I must admit that yes, a little, I know I needed to place that Geass on Naoto, but Kallen..."
"You could not risk revealing yourself to the knights, it was your only chance to place it on the pink-haired one, Kallen being there was unfortunate, that is what you are saying?"
"I... Yes, that is correct."
"And yet you have still made use of it."
"A necessity... I had to find out what the extent of the geass control was."
"As you say, Boy."
He frowned at the return of the old nickname slash insult, C.C was clearly annoyed with him, whether about his words or the fact that he was not focusing on her on their day Lelouch did not know.
...
"How do you feel?"
"I feel... alive."
"Know that it is only by the grace of myself, V.V that you are, I will need you soon Jeramiah, begin training, get strong, when I call upon you the Lion, your betrayer, will fall into despair and be ours to control."
"Thank you, my lord."
"First though, we must break his will, your target, when it is time, will be Kallen Stadfeld, capture her and bring her to me, reconditioning should work just fine for the girl. If we can control her we can control him, for all his boasting of being emotionless he has grown attached to the girl, as attached as a man like him could ever be to someone else at least."
"I understand Lord, I will bring freedom from thought to the girl."
...
"Alright Kallen, let's see who wins this."
"Oh, you're on, pretty boy!"
"Come on then hot stuff!"
Our fighters charged each other, and I swiftly had my ass handed to me, the streetfighter game, one of our favourites, was set up as a king of the hill type game, with the winner staying in as long as possible, Kallen had been on it for nearly half an hour and I had challenged her twice and lost. She was cheating, she had to be, no one was that good at the game. Kallen must have been playing since she was a fucking kid or something, pulling combos out of fucking nowhere and beating the shit out of my character when I tried to retaliate.
"Damnit!"
"Ah yes! One more to me!"
RING, RING, RING, RING...RINGRINGRING
I looked on as Kallen had a brief panic attack at the sound of a ringtone I assume was the one assigned to her father... Imperial march... Wait a second... Does Star-wars exist here? No, priorities first, pop culture references later.
"Let's go somewhere private."
"I... thank you, Andre."
...
"Yes?"
"Kallen, good, listen to me daughter, we have much to discuss, I need you to separate yourself from that idiotic-looking blond you are with, Marius Ernst is at the same place you are, and letting the Lion know of your whoring will not do, I have tolerated your continued 'indiscretions' because the Lion seemed to find it entertaining, but this will simply not do."
"Father I-"
"No, nothing girl! Do you know how proud I have been of you, how I have been using the status you have afforded us by ensnaring the Lion! We cannot throw this away by letting you have some one-night stand with a pretty idiot! Have some common sense Kallen! What would your grandparents say if they heard of yo- "
"Count Stadfelt you would do well to be quiet."
Kallen felt a smirk slip onto her face as Andre spoke up, despite his now far different looks, with plain civilian clothes and a short spiky haircut, his voice still held the same weighty authority as it always did and she could imagine the look of pure panic on her father's face at this very moment. Maybe it was wrong to take so much joy in something like that, but Kallen felt a little vindictive and happy that Andre seemed not amused but genuinely angry, not something that happened often with her boyfriend, he noticed how her father had made her feel and reacted with anger towards the man, it was kind of touching really, even if she would have like to take a crack at the man herself.
"Your Highness..."
"Good, let's cut the shit here Hank-" Kallen stifled a laugh at the use of her father's hated first name, the man never did like it, but nobles could not get their names changed, it was why she was glad her mother had chosen the names for her and her brother, she might have gotten stuck with her grandmother's name, Octaviana, it just made her feel weird. "I don't like you, that is clear, I never have liked reptiles like yourself, it's why none of your efforts to get a seat on the Pride corp board will ever bear fruit, but I like your daughter, so, let's make something clear."
Andre stopped for a brief moment, eyes darkening, a dramatic pause, he was going to do something that would make her call him a Ham again, but it was also admittedly rather hot, that was something new... Kallen did not consider herself Asexual, but few things actually registered as 'hot' or 'attractive' to her, sure she found people good-looking and was not afraid to acknowledge that fact, held an appreciation for it even. But actual sexual attraction was not something she felt often, or ever really, she did not miss it either, so it was not something she often taught about, or put a label on. She was glad that Andre would not care, he liked her as a person, loved her as a person, he was a lot like her in that fact, not really caring much about her looks. Sure he told her she was beautiful quite often, but it was never a compliment coming from a sexual thought, well no that was an overstatement, but it was almost like sex was almost never on his mind, similar to Kallen herself, hell she was half expecting one of them to just start a blunt conversation about it at some point further down the line in their relationship. Kallen found it quite interesting that while complicated, the relationship she and Andre had was easy to navigate.
"You have no power. Stop this nonsense or you can expect a black bag and an unpleasant in-person meeting."
And he hung up, hung the horn on her father, such a fucking ham. God she loved him. Ending that call lifted an invisible weight from her shoulders, she knew, at least intellectually, that her father could do little to her, not when she was in the position she was in, her mother's hospital bills paid by her boyfriend's corporation because the woman was testing some miracle drug that would help with addiction. Her brother was safe as second in command of the Black-knights and Kallen by Andre's side, there was nothing the man could realistically do to her, but the worry had been there, hiding, and part of it was gone now.
"That was fun! Let's go do something violent, Kallen."
"Sure. Thank you, Andre."
"You know most people don't like it when I threaten their parents?"
"He may be my father but he is not my parent."
"Fair."
...
"Excuse me, could I borrow the PA system for a moment?"
"Huh, well no we do not allow stude-" The man took a moment to look her over, eyes darting behind her to Suzaku, who was trying his hardest to look intimidating, eyes wide he stepped aside to let her into the booth, giving her a quick crash course on operating the PA system for the academy.
"Are you sure Princess?"
"Yes Suzaku, live in?"
"Ten seconds Princess, eight, seven, six..."
...
"I, Princess Euphemia Li Britannia, have an announcement for all listening to me! Hear me and understand! I am announcing the creation of a new project, sponsored by the Prime Minister himself! One hundred kilometers around Mount Fuji are going to be used for a social experiment that will lead to change within the Empire! I am announcing the creation of a place where Elevens can call themselves Japanese freely, where they have their own laws and rules! Where a Japanese and a Britannian can live together in peace and prosperity! I am announcing the United States of Japan!"
My eyes were wide, my body frozen in place as I had been standing. Kallen noticed my panic and put a hand on my shoulder, quickly my panic melted as new plans formed, anger standing substitute for it.
"GODAMNIT EUPHEMIA!"
...
"It's not often I feel fear, true terror that makes one shake, when I do feel it, my response is almost always anger, its the most... Human part of me, in my opinion."
Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia