Interlude 3: Familial Affairs

Grrr...how dare he...how dare he...HOW DARE THAT DESPICABLE CHILD INSULT ME LIKE THIS?!

So what if I killed that French trollop Marianne? She dared to come between me and my brother. Any sibling whose relationship with their dear one was threatened would have done the same. It's only sensible for an elder brother to protect his younger, more easily-led-astray sibling from feminine wiles meant only to beguile and bewitch him.

I tap my fingers on the armrest of my chair, spinning the office chair in place as I brood within my office in the heart of the seat of my power.

The Directorate, the culminations of decades of work, the instrument of my will and reach. Well, after I left my mark on it when that whore CC left Britannia. Useless, sex obsessed slut. As if she'd know better than a member of the Royal Family how to do things.

It's not like me to sit alone in my office, merely thinking instead of acting. But I find myself in a predicament. I want to act, I NEED to act against that little weasel Lelouch, need to ensure he pays for this slap in the face...

But? I cannot move as I wish on this. Not after what Charles said to me.

WHAT IS THIS?! HOW?! HOW COULD HE KNOW?! WHO COULD HAVE—!?

...CC. No one else knows. No one else could have told him.

I'll make that gutter-trash jumped-up peasant girl regret her immortality more than Clovis ever did!

"That arrogant brat! I'll have his face on every newspaper in the Empire!" I say as I seethe with anger.

It will only take a single phone call and then we'll see who has the last—!

"You will not."

The sound of my little brother's imposing voice next to me causes me to turn around, only to see him giving me an imperious gaze from behind his desk.

"What? But brother, he—!"

A large finger held up for silence is all it takes for him to tell me he wishes to speak.

"One. It is beneath the dignity of a King to defeat so Grand an opponent in such a manner."

Charles steeples his fingers as he continues, "And two. By throwing you under the spotlight, he has made such a strategy into a trap."

Trap? As if that boy could ever conceive of a trap I could not see. Charles is clearly letting his favoritism blind him.

"Suppose you did reveal that he is the exiled prince. A prince who has publicly been declared dead."

Which in turn would cause he to be dismissed as yet another disgruntled royal aiming for the throne. Thus enabling—

"IF he is revealed to be alive, then the entire rationale for the second Pacific War would be questioned," Charles intones, his eyes narrowing.

Who cares about the Second Pacific War? It's been over and done with for seven years already. We got what we wanted and the Elevens are just more Numbers now.

"Moreover, regardless of the truth, it would lend significant credence to his accusations against you, and myself."

...Oh no. That's right. I forced Charles to use their supposed deaths as a rallying cry for the Empire. The death of Imperial scions rallied Britannia into a vengeful rage.

Charles leans forward on his desk, staring down at me, "Do you have any idea how popular my late wife was among the commoners?"

Popular? Damnation. He's right. For some unfathomable reason, Marianne was always popular with the lower classes. Obviously the plebeians lacked the ability to see her for the unworthy harlot she was.

"What do you think would happen, if a Prince of the Empire were to be seen as the most successful rebel in our history, with a worthy cause?"

Worthy cause? Successful? His army is broken and Schneizel will mop up the rest. I saw the Gawain crash through three buildings.

"Successful? Worthy? Little brother, are you sure you're not feeling some paternal empathy?" I say teasingly to him as I sit on a chair, kicking my legs.

Charles stands up, his eyes alight with the imperial power that is his right as Emperor...and I admit, it is a rather intimidating sight. Enough to make me pause in my teasing and look up at him.

"You, Vincent, would be the cause of the second Emblem of Blood. The resulting chaos would split the Empire with civil war."

Civil war? Over him? The Commoner Prince? Preposterous.

"Why should the rest of the Imperial Family or the common rabble care about him—?"

My little brother interrupts me with an annoyed tone, "It seems to me you are missing the obvious, big brother. The boy has accomplished everything on the sheer power of his charisma and presence, with the genius of his strategies."

Charles walk around behind his desk, fingers tapping one of his large biceps with an eyebrow raised at me, "How much more dangerous, then, if he had legitimacy and a face?"

Legitimacy...curses. He's right. Lelouch being a scion of the Empire, even a disgraced one would be a Public Relations nightmare...oh. Now I see where he's going with this. Lelouch has already killed Clovis. The rule that's been in place since the Emblem of Blood was broken. There's nothing stopping anyone dissatisfied with Charles from defecting and declaring for Lelouch to seize power, just as Euphemia did.

How could I not have foreseen this possibility?

"And I have my doubts that it would break his internal power structure as well. I suspect he has already revealed himself to a select group of his commanders. Speculation, but one that I am reasonably confident is the case."

A minor consideration, Charles, compared to the catastrophe he represents if he dared to remove his mask in public. Fortunately, that's unlikely to happen for a variety of reasons, most of all that he's likely vanquished.

"No, big brother. You would be throwing kerosene onto the blaze. And creating a political firestorm that I do not have time to deal with," Charles says with a sigh, shaking his head.

"Therefore, you will not release his identity. Are We understood?"

Even if I had been planning on it before this, that door is closed to us now. Conceited brat. To think he'd use his own identity as a shield...

Naturally, I give a bit of a sulk to my features before I respond, "Yes, Charles."

One must make sure that one makes their little brother feel wanted, after all.

"If you'll excuse me, Charles, I have work to do on cleaning up my nephew's mess."

"Big brother. There is one more thing."

I turn around, raising an eyebrow. Now what?

"Where exactly, did Clovis get the technology to incapacitate CC?"

...Drat.

"I'm afraid I'm not understanding the ques—"

Charles taps his fingers on his desk, frowning, "Big Brother, let us not dance around this. You gave the technology to capture CC to Clovis. Moreover, I find it interesting that this Knight Giga Fortress Siegfried should happen to show up just at the perfect moment to smash Zero's plans, and piloted by a man who was supposedly sent back to the homeland."

Alright, how shall I play this?

"Very well. Yes, I admit it. I gave Clovis the containment sphere and told him to keep CC under wraps for Code-R."

I walk over to the desk, pouring myself a small glass of wine from the decanter on his desk. I can't drink too much, unfortunately, the limitations of this body. But a small glass is enough for me to enjoy myself and not get too inebriated.

"And wasn't it smashing? Seeing Lelouch's plans go down like a controlled demolition of a decayed building was the most fun I'd had in years, hahahaha."

Odd, do I detect a tightening of his expression? Perhaps I was more on the mark than I thought in asking about feeling parental. Silly brother. The only one you need is me. Just forget about that French skank and her worthless progeny.

"I will admit, it did cast an impressive figure. Though, little brother? Perhaps you could have picked a more suitable candidate?"

I take another sip of my wine, smirking, "Whatever for? Soresi did a magnificent job."

Charles gives that smirk of his, the same one he and I share, along with most his progeny, "Then perhaps you can tell me whether Kewell Soresi confirming your existence was factored into your assessment?"

...What?

Charles turns the footage and audio back to a specific point in the conversation being broadcast-ed.

"I have no idea who he is or what he has done, all I know is that he calls himself VV. And that I owe him a debt for giving me the chance to avenge my dishonor. Beyond that? I couldn't care less about the Commoner Empress."

The only sound is my dropping the wine glass on the floor as I stare dumbfounded at the screen.

THAT MISERABLE WORM! How did I miss that?!

...I was too busy crowing over Lelouch being dead and his plans broken, that's how. Damnation!

I snarl as I look up at my brother, "I'll have him reprimanded and punished severely for his insolence!"

Wait a minute. That was on a public broadcast. ...Everyone heard him and Zero.

You vile blackguard. Fifty years of work, fifty years of anonymity. fifty years of doing everything to erase my name and presence from all but the earliest mention in the Imperial records.

ALL FOR NOTHING?!

My cherubic face sends an innocent smile at my wonderful little brother, my precious sibling, who conveniently has a Geass capable of manipulating memories. God bless my darling Charles.

"Baby brother, hypothetically, if I asked you to help me with this mess using your Geass and my agents in the OSI, what would you say to me?"

"Really, brother? A hypothetical question to a problem we both know is not so easily resolved? Are you sure you're not going senile in your age, old man?" Charles says in a jesting tone as he pours himself a glass of wine.

A rather rude sigh escapes my lips as I slump back in my chair.

"No, far from it. My mind is as sharp as ever. I simply can't fathom that Lelouch has so completely outmaneuvered us," I say with a pout on my lips.

"Don't give me that look, it hasn't worked in over fifty years," he says, rolling his eyes at me.

I let out a bark of laughter at him making that gesture, "One must allow one's elders to indulge in humor in dark times."

Charles snorts in derision as he takes a sip of wine from his glass. And you say I'm the childish one, ha!

"The Black Knights are not destroyed, even if we assume Zero is. But more importantly? CC is still at large, and thanks to your efforts and those of Clovis? She has no interest in aiding us for the moment."

So what? What can that French slut do? It's not like she's as dangerous as Lelouch himself.

"Charles, I'm failing to see the prob—"

"Vincent, dear brother. Do you really think CC has any obligation to keep the secret of your existence to begin with? OSI has been working over time, but the contents of that conversation were spread across the internet, the dark web, and the four corners of the world. Even if I were to use my Geass to somehow reach every single person on earth, AND OSI were somehow able to eliminate all evidence currently wandering the digital mediums? None of that matters if CC still is at large to see it spread again."

That brat can't have done this. He can't have checkmated me so cleanly. There must be a counter, a strategy...

I refuse to be beaten by a corpse. And I'm not, not yet, and not ever by commoner trash like him.

Charles' face takes on a frown as he looks at me with a challenging gaze "So that's it, then? This is all it takes to rattle you? A mere mention of your name after fifty years by a renegade prince and his ragtag group of rebels is all that's needed to you shiver in your bedsheets? I'm certain you're having me on, at this point."

I walk over and pour myself another glass of wine, swirling the liquid around before answering him.

"Really brother, have just a tad more faith in me. Our goal is within sight, and Lelouch has only hearsay and rumors, with a vague confirmation by my gossipy agent of a individual bearing my codename existing. The only thing that would give enough credence to move more than the usual conspiracy obsessives, is for Lelouch to unmask himself in public. And we are both aware he will not do such a thing, regardless of his madness. And that, of course, assumes he somehow survived Soresi's rampage, something we have no confirmation of either way."

Of course, the idea of him surviving is absurd to begin with. There's no way he could have...

But what if he did? What if Lelouch did somehow live despite all my efforts to see him brought low?

I can't take the chance. If he's allowed to return from this, he'll be twice as powerful as he was before, his myth and presence magnified by a miraculous return from death.

That...that would put the fear in Charles' heart. That demonic blackguard would put fear into my baby brother's tender heart.

No. I won't let that happen. Charles is too soft to do what must be done.

"If you'll excuse me, brother, I need to return to the Directorate. Soresi needs to be punished for his insolence, and there's work to be done hunting down CC."

My brother puts his glass down with a notable sound, drawing my attention to the serious look on his face.

"I do not believe it would serve our interests to continue pursuit at this time."

What? Absurd. Her petty acts of rebellion are inconsequential, and she wants to pass her Code on and finally die, so what more need be said?

"And why not? Lelouch is no longer a factor, the Black Knights are routed, what possible reason would we have not to—?"

"Big brother, are you forgetting that woman's history? What she is capable of? And most importantly, the fact that you, above all others, are responsible for the worst tortures she's endured in centuries?"

That...brings a pregnant pause to the moment and causes me to think.

It's true, CC is not the forgiving sort of betrayal. And judging by singing the Carmina Burana with Zero? They did seem to be getting along.

Hmm. Charles may have a point. Much as I'd love to set the hounds loose, CC going to ground and vanishing into the wilderness could set our plans back decades, just trying to root her out of some godforsaken corner of the world. We were incredibly lucky she was near Lelouch and Nunnally, the last time.

"You raise an excellent point. Better to let the rebels lick their wounds. Goodbye, big brother."

Still, this doesn't sit right with me. If Lelouch is somehow still alive, it's just going to cause trouble if we don't handle him now.

Dignity of a king indeed. Sometimes I worry that being on that throne has made you rather daft at times, Charles. What an absurd and romantic notion of power you have sometimes.

But, it's ever the duty of the older brother to do the things their younger sibling can't handle. Charles will, of course, thank me for taking my own initiative.

"Well then? If I can't hit Lelouch, and I can't hunt CC? I'll just have to make other arrangements," I say out loud as I sip a cup of tea, looking over reports at my desk.

You'll soon find I have other ways to make you suffer, nephew.