Interlude 5: Diabolic Revelation Part 1: Taishan Edict
...It's dark. My head...at least, I think it's my head, aches.
Last thing I recall...KURURUGI! You treacherous swine! How dare you betray us for Zero?!
Damn you! Damn you!
"DAMN YOU, SUZAKU KURURUGI!" I yell as I sit up in a rush, eyes blinded by the light around me.
"P-p-princess Corne—!" a voice tries to speak before my arm lashes out, pulling them closer to me.
"Get your master here now. If the Black Knights think they can hold me with impunity? They'll soon learn to fear the name of Cornelia li Britannia!"
"Y-y-your High-urk!" the voice tries to protest, but I can feel their body and close my hand around the neck, silencing their foolish protest.
"I said, get me Zero!"
"Sister, that's quite enough."
Sister?! I blink to try and clear my vision...only to realize the man I'm holding by the neck is in fact one of our own Army physicians. And the commanding voice telling me to stop?
Schneizel, who is currently looking at me with disapproval.
A grimace takes over my face as I release the doctor, leaning back into what I now realize is a hospital bed in a private room.
"My apologies, Doctor...?"
"Doctor Howardson, Your Highness. And the error is mine. We should have realized you would believe yourself to still be in combat if you woke up. I'm a military doctor; these things happen to us in this profession," the man, who I can now see is an older man in his fifties with a dignified beard and a medical Red Cross on a white doctor's coat over an army uniform.
The sound of a door opening draws my attention to Earl Maldini entering with a tea service, and turning to regard me with surprise.
"Oh my. Has Princess Cornelia awoken at last?"
Schneizel sits in a chair right next to my bed, "Indeed. And your timing is most excellent, Kanon."
Sighing, he turns to regard the doctor with an imposing gaze, "I'm afraid I must ask you to step out for a moment, Doctor. There are important affairs of state I must discuss with my sister."
Tch. Typical Schneizel. I've only just awakened and he already wants to get to work.
I can't deny he has a point, though, and I am eager to find out what happened while I was unconscious. ...And how long I was out for.
"Well, very well, Your Highness. I must ask that you not upset my patient, though. She's still healing from the injuries she took from the crash."
Injuries? What injuries? I feel fine...wait, why can't I move my other arm?
I glance down slowly at the cast around my left arm, trying to twitch even a finger and getting only a numb feeling in response.
"Doctor, how bad is—?"
Doctor Howardson strokes his beard a moment as he looks me in the eye, "You will make a full recovery, but your arm took shrapnel damage from the crash. It will need to remain in a cast for at least several weeks. Fortunately, the light armor of your uniform stopped the worst of the injuries. And the bandage around your head is due to striking your forehead against one of the monitors, which is what caused the concussion you experienced in the crash. As such, I'm invoking my authority as Chief Physician to the Viceroy to ground you from active duty for the next six weeks in order to allow your brain and body to heal."
Grounded for weeks...ugh. Nothing to be done then. Zero is no doubt as good as dead and all that's left to do is sift through the rubble...and pray to god that Zero did keep his word and that my baby sister is alright...
Doctor Howardson bows and excuses himself along with Earl Maldini, thus leaving me alone with Schneizel.
I confess, there was a time I might have relished this. Being in the same room alone with Schneizel with no one listening in...a faded fantasy of better days.
"Alright, Brother Schneizel. What in the name of King and Country are you doing back here? I keenly recall asking you politely to leave and not come back."
And of course, his response is one of his damned smiles. "I'm hurt, sister. One would think you'd be grateful for my assistance in resolving your situation and keeping Area 11 in Imperial hands."
My eyebrow would be through the ceiling if I could raise it any higher. "I might be more inclined to be grateful, if you hadn't set my sister up as bait for Zero."
The blonde fop has the nerve to shrug at that?!
"Water under the bridge. I assure you, my people are hunting down Zero's remnants as we speak. We'll have our sister back safe and sound soon enough. And Sir Kururugi has already been transferred to Pendragon for interrogation."
You pompous blackguard..."If you think I'm going to just let that pass so easily—"
"I think, my dear sister, that it's the least important thing we can discuss right now, seeing as we have no leads to her whereabouts. And more relevantly? There have been important developments while you were unconscious."
My features crease with a frown as I sit back in bed, reaching out with my right arm to sip some water, nodding at Schneizel to continue.
Brother Schneizel grimaces visibly...the news must be dire indeed for him to seem so visibly irked by it.
"By order of His Majesty, Emperor Charles zi Britannia, you are hereby suspended from the position of Viceroy, effective immediately. And you will turn over your position and authority to the new Viceroy, Sir Luciano Bradley, the Knight of Ten, when he arrives in 3 days' time."
...What madness is this?!
"What?! What is Father thinking?! Putting the Vampire in charge of an Area is rank lunacy! The man is an indiscriminate butcher! He'll do nothing except add to the body count and ruin what little of the economy is left!"
At that heated proclamation, Schneizel gives me a cold look, and loudly sets his cup down on the table next to him.
"My dear sister, do you take me for a fool?" he whispers in an icy cold voice that sends a chill down my spine. "Do you think I'm unaware of how ill-suited he is? That I didn't bring up every single point you're making to Father myself?"
My brother makes a fist, holding it clenched in as clean an expression of anger as I've seen from in a long time, "I argued with him for quite some time over this. But unfortunately, for once, he actually made this an order and was adamant that it be carried out."
An order? Father actually cared enough about to pull rank on Schneizel? What possible benefit to the Empire is there to sic Bradley on the Elevens?
Certainly, they are in need of a crackdown and punishment. But there is punishment, and then there is excess. The Vampire is nothing but a mad dog. Using him will only add to the corpses and foment even more rebellion than ever.
"My hands are tied. And he is right about one thing...you have, quite simply, failed," Schneizel says, letting out a deep breath before pronouncing the last few words like a death sentence to a convicted murderer.
As if I'd let that stand without contest! I can feel my vision clouding with anger at his self-righteous hypocrisy, and I refuse to be the scapegoat for this!
"How dare you, you overblown poppinj—!"
The furious tirade coming from my mouth grinds to an abrupt halt as Schneizel loudly raps his knuckles on the table, a heaviness coming over the room as he does so.
"You have been outmatched almost from the start. Zero has proven himself time and again to be a better commander, a better strategist, and a better tactician."
A hypothesis I am painfully beginning to consider. Equal to myself? That's been readily apparent for some time. But better? I'm not acknowledging that...yet.
"And instead of asking for reinforcements, or putting your pride aside to ask me for help?" he remonstrates with ill-concealed contempt.
Putting my pride aside? Ridiculous. War is a struggle between pride and life. And this was about more than pride. You tried to steal my sister's Knight, and undermined my authority in MY Area.
"You preferred to beat your head against a wall and play a madman's game."
A game, yes. But whose game? I presumed the SAZ was your forcing move, Schneizel. But Zero made it his.
So then... whose move was the Siegfried?
"Tell me, Brother, what do you know about the Siegfried? Or this VV person who Kewell claimed as patron, or Zero claimed as my Lady's killer?"
...Gods be damned. He does know something. Almost anyone else wouldn't have seen it. I only know it because I've seen him do it enough times and because we're family. A minute gesture, a glint of something in his eye. That smug sense of superiority when he knows something he's not saying.
"I had a conversation not long before I left for Area 11 with someone in OSI, Section 3. They refused to give out their name or any information. But? They had the ability to contact me directly. On my laptop, using encrypted channels, and without the call being logged.
"I'm sure, dear sister, you grasp the implications of that," he says, giving me an knowing and foreboding gaze.
Indeed. If that was indeed VV, then he's connected to the topmost tier of OSI itself. Which...means Father truly did know something about my Lady's death. Which also means Lelouch was right all along...
My musing upon this distasteful subject is interrupted by a file being tossed into my lap.
"You are doubtless wondering why I am being so curt with you. That, dear sister, is because as much as I would happily put aside time to try and help you? I have been forced instead to deal with a much bigger problem and have been working nonstop to try and stop the firestorm raging in Europia," Schneizel drawls with an expression denoting a jaw lightly clenched and a tightening of his eyes.
The title alone of this report has me concerned. Euro Universe frontline intelligence assessment? What the bloody hell happened while I was unconscious?
"That report is classified Top Secret and was written two days ago. You have been unconscious for a week," my brother says, his tone no less icy despite the circumstances.
Intelligence reports, logistical outlooks, list of personnel dispatches, combat reports...WHAT THE DEVIL?!
"It was written in the light of what they're dubbing 'The Second Trafalgar'."
This is impossible! How?! These casualties! The loss of equipment! "How?! Who?! What happened to the Third and Fifth Fleets?!"
This is a catastrophe! Our front lines in Europia are ruined and we'll be fighting to hold the MEF remnants, not to mention Euro-Britannia!
"How, is yet to be determined. What is obvious, is that the Fleets were sunk and Europia is on the warpath," Schneizel states calmly as he sips at his tea, looking out the window at the light snowfall coming down.
"As for who? That, surprisingly, we actually have a partial answer for: Zero."
...That diabolical genius. I fall back onto the pillow as my breath catches at the depths of his madness and grasp.
Brother Schneizel turns his head around, frowning, his lilac eyes piercing into the very core of my being, "I see the implications do not elude you. The significance of the timing is inescapable. The Fleets were sunk shortly after this 'Black Rebellion' kicked off. In fact, I would say they happened within a day or less of his striking Tokyo."
Icy claws of fear dig into my heart at the height of the precipice we narrowly avoiding tumbling off.
"The inference is, of course, obvious. Zero's reach was far greater than any of us suspected," the White Prince says with a deep sigh, crossing his arms. "That is why I said you have failed. Because Zero was on the verge of victory before the cyborg attacked him. Had he defeated you and taken Area 11?"
The Second Prince takes a deep breath before continuing in a solemn frozen tone.
"Not only would he have the full industrial might of Area 11 under his thumb, we would be fighting a war on two, perhaps even three fronts. And without the forces needed to dislodge him, due to the loss of our own two fleets. In short, a world war and a catastrophic loss of morale, orchestrated by perhaps the single greatest threat the Holy Britannian Empire has ever faced in its entire history."
I barely notice as Schneizel rests his hand on mine, mind swirling with the strategic picture of the war effort I have been absent from.
"Brother, answer me truthfully. Could you have defeated Zero without the Siegfried?"
The question seems to...did he flinch? My god, Brother Schneizel actually froze for a moment when I asked him that. A reaction that is an answer all its own.
"I...do not know. We should be thankful that such a question was never put to the test. Much as it galls me to thank someone like VV? I freely admit the technology that General Bartley's research created was a startling achievement of science."
An achievement built on a project that only be called a work of the deranged and mad.
My head rests against the pillows on my bed, eyes drooping from fatigue and the weight of the emotional hammer blows I've just taken. Sweet Euphie...forgive your worthless big sister...
"...Get out," I whisper, tears starting to run down my eyes.
Schneizel sighs deeply, "Very well. I will try to reason with Father about remanding Euphemia to your custody. But I can promise nothing, particularly in regards to Sir Kururugi. And Bradley's Viceroyship is already set in stone. The announcement will follow after he arrives, along with General Bartley."
Seeing the questioning look in my gaze, he rubs his forehead, "No, I do not know why Bartley is accompanying him. I suspect other hands and aims are at work here. But that is a discussion for another time and place. Good bye...sister Cornelia."
The prime minister gives a deep bow, hand over his heart and then departs without another word.
And the instant the door closes, I lose all sense of composure and let the bitter tears flow from my eyes. Damn you Zero. Damn you Father. And damn this worthless island for all it's taken from me.
