Marrybell mel Britannia waited impatiently for her long-lost half brother, Lelouch vi Britannia, alias Zero, to arrive. Following her chat with him the night before on KnightWatch, she had arrived at the agreed-upon location, a private club that was a haunt of the local chess gambling circuit. It was in a tucked away location, and had an unassuming front, but inside it was surprisingly spacious and well-furnished, with plenty of creature comforts, complete with a bar of its own, live piano music, and a number of rooms for hosting matches in further privacy on the sides.
Less pleasant was the lingering stink of tobacco in the air. It was a rather unpleasant and filthy habit that a number of nobles indulged in, though Marrybell suspected it was just as much to flaunt their wealth with expensive cigars than anything else. Thankfully, Lelouch had reserved a private non-smoking room for their meeting.
She was in that room right now with Oldrin, her Knight, sitting on one side of a chess table. Of course, Oldrin and herself were so much more than just that, and she didn't mean that that they were both Glinda Knights either. But now wasn't the time to indulge in such thoughts. The two of them were here for business, not pleasure.
Lelouch had never been the closest of half-siblings, whether to her or her late sister, at least back when they were all in Pendragon. Marrybell had spent more time playing with Euphemia, though that inevitably meant she crossed paths with Lelouch and Nunnally from time to time. But even more of her childhood had been spent socializing outside of the royal family. Oldrin had come over more times than she could count. Granted, Oldrin was nobility, but her Knight had always been humble. And Marrybell knew that her own mother, Flora mel Britannia, had always been progressive for royalty, even having friends among the commoner class who regularly came to visit her. So needless to say, her upbringing had been more well-rounded than most royals.
But that didn't mean that she hadn't cared when Lelouch's mother had been murdered by terrorists, or so she had thought, or when he was cast aside by their father and exiled to Japan with his little sister.
Or when she thought they had died in that distant land...
She could only imagine what Lelouch and Nunnally must have been through. That the two of them had in fact survived was already a miracle of its own, but for both of them to have come across the Metaverse as well...
Actually, if Nunnally had been among the Black Knights in the Palace, that would have to mean that she had somehow managed to regain the use of her legs, wouldn't it? She hadn't seen any of them bound to a wheelchair. That would be another miracle on top of everything else, as even Britannian medical science, with all of its advancements, hadn't been able to repair the damaged nerves that controlled Nunnally's legs.
None of that changed how dangerous the Metaverse was, something Marrybell knew firsthand. It was teeming with Shadows and deadly traps in the Palaces, to say nothing of the ordeal that awakening to her own Persona had been. Yet Lelouch and Nunnally had come across that world, whether intentionally or by accident, and they had continued to face to face those dangers, and were undoubtedly more experienced in the Metaverse than herself. After all, judging from when the Black Knights had changed their first heart, they had definitely discovered the Metaverse well before she did.
They must have grown powerful indeed. There was no way that they could have destroyed so many Palaces otherwise.
Marrybell couldn't be exactly sure of what would come of the meeting, but at the very least, they could "compare notes", so to speak. Still, what if...
"I haven't seen you so anxious in a long time, Mary," Oldrin said. "You're not into guys like him, are you?"
Marrybell shook her head. "Oz, you know better than anyone that I've never really been into guys in the first place."
Indeed, she wasn't into Lelouch in quite the way that her Knight was suggesting, but she had nonetheless felt an affinity for him from the moment that their paths had crossed once again at the masquerade ball. Now she knew why. She had instinctively recognized Lelouch, not as kin, but as a kindred spirit, with the same frustration, rage, and pain beneath his mask as there was under her own. With what she knew of the events leading up to his exile, she doubted that there was another person in Britannia whose circumstances were so uniquely similar to her own.
That would very likely make Lelouch and his Black Knights sympathetic toward her goals, and the possibility of an alliance with them was not one she could afford to squander. But while he had agreed to meet with her, she was wary of giving him any reason to distrust her. As someone who was legally dead, was the child of Marianne vi Britannia, whom many nobles and royals still hated, and was the leader of a vigilante group which had become a major thorn in Britannia's side, he had more than enough reasons to have developed a proper degree of paranoia.
She sighed. "Where is he anyway?"
"I was starting to wonder that myself, Mary. It's almost time for our meeting, and there's been no sign of him."
Marrybell nodded. "I don't know if he's planning to be fashionably late, but I never had the sense that he was that sort of person. Back in Pendragon, he was always punctual and precise. I almost thought he'd be here early to make sure all the necessary preparations were complete. But since he was the one who suggested that we meet here in the first place, he's probably already familiar with this establishment, and feels no need to inspect it further. If I had to guess, it's safer for him if no one else knows when he's actually arriving."
"He is rather devious, with how he tried to use us to get into the Consul-General's office. Of course, that's exactly where we wanted to be, Mary."
Suddenly, there was a chime from the door, and Marrybell felt her heart skip a beat.
Only someone whom the club had been issued a matching keycard to could open the door, an additional measure to ensure the privacy of its clients' matches.
It had to be Lelouch, and whichever Black Knight that he had chosen to accompany him.
But to Marrybell's surprise, only a single person entered.
It was a woman, a little shorter than either Oz or herself, though her features were concealed behind a motorcycle helmet with a dark tinted visor, which made Marrybell wonder how the woman had been allowed into the club at all like that. Marrybell had concealed her own features behind a pair of glasses upon arrival, as had Oz, and that had the advantage of making them look fashionable rather than suspicious.
Still, the newcomer's dark blue riding suit couldn't hide was a sleek, shapely, and buxom figure, which the material hugged tightly. Yes, there was protective padding subtly woven throughout the suit, and it was armored against impact injuries at the knees, hips, elbows, and shoulders, but that didn't make it any less flattering.
Marrybell found herself running her eyes up and down the newcomer's body, sizing her up, and quickly realized that woman wasn't quite as tall as she had first thought. The woman was wearing high, reinforced black leather boots, which extended up to a trio of belts strapped around each thigh, keeping the material of the suit close to the woman's body, presumably so it couldn't get caught on the frame of her motorcycle.
Finishing her inspection, Marrybell noted the suit's red trim, adding some much-needed color to it, a pouch by the shoulder for storing small items while riding, and a cravat tucked around the woman's neck, giving it an old-fashioned touch. The woman's wrists were also decorated with filly cuffs in the same color of the cravat, though they were small enough to avoid interfering with the operation of her bike.
The woman would totally be her type, if she didn't already have a Knight as adorable as Oz. But she also felt a strange sense of familiarity, more than she could account for from simply having seen the Black Knights in their Metaverse attire. And then there was the question of why the woman was alone, and not with Lelouch as promised.
Pausing behind the chair on the side of the table meant for Lelouch, the woman raised her hands, holding them in front of her for a moment, as if to show that she meant no harm, before lifting them higher to remove her helmet. She closed her eyes as she held the helmet in one arm, while she used another to remove a pink scarf that was wrapped around her hair to keep it down. Sheets of light blonde hair fell down to the woman's hips, and Marrybell found herself amazed that the woman had been able to hide such voluminous tresses under her helmet at all.
The woman opened her eyes, revealing amethyst irises and casting aside any doubts as to her identity.
"Lady Breisgau," Marrybell said. "No wonder you looked familiar. We met at Clovis' funeral, you were at the masquerade ball, and I thought I saw someone who looked like you among the Black Knights." She put on a sweet smile. "I hope you haven't forgotten me."
"How could I, after you couldn't resist dragging me off to play dress-up back in Pendragon?"
"Where's Zero?" Marrybell asked, dropping any pretense. "He said he would be here."
"He was here long before you were," Leila replied.
Reaching to the pouch on her shoulder, Leila took out her phone.
"Mary!" Oldrin called out. "She's going to-"
Leila tapped her phone.
The world distorted around them.
Marrybell was on guard now, but after a moment, she noticed that the room and its furnishings hadn't visibly changed. Neither had their clothes. Yet she knew they were in the Metaverse now. What was-
Marrybell blinked. She had been so focused on Leila that for a moment she hadn't noticed that there was now someone sitting in the chair directly across from her.
"I'm glad that you came to join us, dear sister," Lelouch vi Britannia smirked, tenting his fingers in front of him, as his elbows rested on the chess table. "I'm sure that we have much to discuss, so let's get started."
xXx
"Oz was right," Marrybell said across from him, wearing a pink dress trimmed with red while giving him what he assumed had to be her best prim-and-proper 'cross' look. "You really are a devious one, Lelouch, waiting for us here in the Metaverse this whole time."
He laughed. "Guilty as charged. I've always had a flair for the dramatic, I must admit. Though it's a bit more complex than that. I suppose you're wondering how Leila here managed to enter the club with her helmet still on."
A look of understanding flashed in Marrybell's blue-violet eyes. "She didn't. I would bet that you arrived separately, so no one would see you together. And given how theatrical you've been in your role as Zero, you couldn't resist putting on a show like a stage magician would, complete with a 'lovely assistant'. You made sure she had an access card to this room as well. Once here, she put her motorcycle helmet back on, and then stepped outside while still in the Metaverse. She then returned to the real world and entered our version of the room to give the appearance of a mysterious visitor." Marrybell frowned. "Though that's quite risky; if someone else had been in the hallway, they could have seen her emerge, seemingly from out of nowhere."
"You almost had it, sister," Lelouch smirked.
"We rented a second private room," Leila explained. "I was in the room next to this one when I put my helmet back on. I only had to go a short distance through the hallway to arrive here, and I didn't enter the Metaverse until I did so in front of you. There are no cameras in the private rooms, and they're also large enough so that we wouldn't risk pulling in people outside when I used the Navigator."
"Plus, I've already seen to it that the camera in the corridor would have a 'malfunction' right around the time that Leila was heading over here." His smirk turned into a grin. "I'm afraid it's stuck on a loop."
"So you had another accomplice help you set this meeting up," Marrybell said, "and they had probably completed their job before we ever arrived here. Or maybe you even did it yourself." She shook her head. "Just as I said before, Lelouch, you're a devious one."
"Very good," Lelouch replied. "But I suppose I'm no less devious than one who styles herself after the Wicked Witch of the West. That's what your codename refers to, isn't it?" He leaned forward. "Then there's the emerald mask that you wore at the ball and in the Metaverse. But most tellingly of all, you talked about giving Gao Hai's Shadow 'a little fire from Elphaba'. That's another name for the Wicked Witch of the West, and I'd bet it's the name of your Persona as well."
A smile slowly spread on Marrybell's face, a wicked smile that gave the lie to the facade she had presented to him.
"Very good, Lelouch," she said. "Most people think that I'm a sweet, mild-mannered Princess, like Glinda the Good Witch."
"You certainly have the look down, with all of that pink."
"Of course. I'm careful to cultivate that image for myself in public. But it's as you say. In the Metaverse, I can reveal my true colors." Marrybell let out a cackle in an eerily accurate imitation of the Wicked Witch, causing Leila to shudder slightly. "I'll show them not to underestimate me, my pretties!"
Lelouch lowered his hands, so they were resting in front of him. "Still, I must say, I didn't think the Glinda Knights were really named after the character from the Wizard of Oz at first. I was half-convinced that it was a corruption of 'Glenda', which is Welsh for 'fair' or 'good'. The alternative seemed too... childish."
Marrybell laughed again, though thankfully it was just a giggle this time and not her Wicked Witch impression. "Let's just say the name resonated with us. As you correctly surmised, my original Persona, and the one closest to my true self, is Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. And dear Oz's Persona... is Dorothy."
What?! The Wicked Witch of the West and Dorothy Gale, working together?
That was just wrong on so many levels.
"Mar- My Lady," Oldrin said, her cheeks turning red, "you don't need to go telling them about my Persona!"
Marrybell shook her head. "There's no need to get embarrassed, Oz. Dorothy's a wonderfully capable Persona for you. And you don't need to be so formal with me here. It's just my brother, and one of his fellow Black Knights."
Oldrin nodded. "Thank you, Mary," she said softly.
"By the way, how is Nunnally these days?" Marrybell asked. "You said that she was right there in the Palace with you, but that I wouldn't have recognized her."
"Her hair turns blonde in the Metaverse, and she can walk in there too. She was the girl wearing the... revealing dark blue pilot suit."
"Oh..." Marrybell giggled. "So sweet little Nunnally isn't as innocent as she seemed... just like me!"
Lelouch sighed. "I was just as surprised too, but you don't even know half of it. She had the same power that I did, and was already leading her own group of Persona-users, the Irregulars. We share certain goals, so they were there with us in the Palace too."
"Even more that Nunnally and I have in common!" Marrybell's expression turned serious. "But you said she could walk 'in there', Lelouch. So she's still-"
He frowned. "Yes, she still can't use her legs in the real world. But she's regained her vision in both worlds, and I'm grateful for that."
"That's incredible," Marrybell smiled. "Have there been any lingering side effects of her blindness?"
"None at all, as far as I can tell."
"Yet another miracle," Marrybell murmured to herself. She paused. "Still... there's something else I want to talk about, while we're still catching up with each other." She gazed up at Leila before turning back to Lelouch. "The last time we met, brother, you had a different woman accompanying you. Wasn't the redhead with a bit of a temper your date at the ball?"
"What are you getting at?" Lelouch said, making a scowl.
"Don't think I'm at all faulting you for your choice in women, Lelouch." She giggled for a moment, and raised her hand to politely cover her mouth. "Actually, I think you have excellent tastes. But..." She leaned forward. "Which one is going to be your Empress?"
Lelouch was so thrown back by the question that he couldn't formulate a coherent response, and Leila seemed to have been caught similarly off-guard.
Marrybell tilted her head, looking at him quizzically. "And here I was, assuming that you wanted to overthrow Father, which means you'd need an Empress, right? Lady Breisgau has an impeccable pedigree, and she's quite charming. Even when she's embarrassed or awkward, she manages to be endearing. I would know. But if I were you, I'd have trouble saying no to a girl as feisty as that redhead." Marrybell paused. "Who was she anyway? There are so many noble families that I can't possibly keep track of all of them."
"You don't understand-" Leila started.
"Which part?" Marrybell asked. "The Black Knights are clearly aiming to take down the Emperor. Each of your targets since the first has served to further destabilize Area 11, and changing Gao Hai's heart will undermine Britannia as whole. Plus, I know that Lelouch has to hate Father for how cruelly he got cast aside, along with his sister, and his mother's memory. Or..." She paused. "Oh, I get it now. I completely misunderstood you. Lelouch won't be choosing a single Empress, because both you and the redhead will be his Imperial Consorts."
"I will cast down our father," Lelouch told Marrybell firmly, "but I have no interest in taking his throne. As such, that precludes having an Empress or Imperial Consorts."
"But you didn't deny having some more than casual relationship with both of them," Marrybell smirked. "The redhead was afraid that I'd catch you in my spell, and it's obvious from the look on Lady Breisgau's face that she has a thing for you well. Or is it all just in casual fun?"
"With all due respect, your Highness, there isn't anything casual about our relationship," Leila replied. "Though if we may dispense with further formalities, as you have already done with your Knight, I think it would help us avoid unnecessary distractions."
"As you wish," Marrybell nodded. "We're all friends here, aren't we?"
"That may be, but don't think that I'm like our father, or that I'll tolerate any slights toward Leila or anyone else I care about," Lelouch said sharply. "I'd imagine you feel the same way about your Knight."
"Oh? Is it that obvious?" Marrybell asked. "And 'anyone else'?" She smiled. "It's more than two lovers then."
The way she said the first part made Lelouch think she was getting at something more, but he couldn't quite grasp what it was, so he decided to ignore it. Instead, he retorted, "My bonds with them are more precious than anything our father will ever know. I doubt he's ever truly loved anyone. But I think we've wasted more than enough time talking about my love life already. We have far more important matters to discuss."
"Very well," Marrybell replied. "This has been a pleasant chat, brother, but you're right that we should get down to business. So where shall we start?"
"How exactly did your mother and sister die?" Lelouch asked. "I have my own idea of what probably happened, but I want to hear it from you."
Marrybell frowned, but nodded. "Of course."
She took a deep breath. "It was a few months after you and Nunnally were exiled. A blond-haired boy came over to visit. He said that he was looking for my mother, Flora mel Britannia, and that he had a message and a gift for her. I had never seen him before, but he seemed to be about my own age."
Her frown deepened. "Unfortunately, my younger self didn't attach further importance to his appearance until it was too late. It wasn't unusual for my mother to have visitors over. At the time, I didn't even think it was that odd for a child to be there. Besides having friends across social classes, my mother was known for her philanthropic work, especially for children in Pendragon and throughout the Empire."
Marrybell's expression and voice grew pained. "Anyways, I let the boy in... and that was the worst mistake of my life."
No, that wasn't merely pain that Lelouch was hearing from his half-sister.
It was self-loathing, a side of her that he had never seen before. The Marrybell he remembered back from Pendragon had been a playful girl, and the one he had met at the masquerade ball had grown into a cunning strategist, but this...
"His 'gift' for my mother was a bomb," Marrybell said bitterly, casting her eyes down. "My mother was killed instantly in the blast, and my sister Julia died in the flames soon afterward." She clenched her fists. "But... I survived, when... I should have died that day... for my stupidity. That boy may have been their murderer, an assassin sent by I don't know whom, but I was their unwitting accomplice... so I'm just as guilty for their deaths."
"Mary, you don't need to be so hard on yourself," Oldrin said, placing a reassuring hand on her lady's shoulder.
"I'm so sorry," Leila said.
"Did they find the boy?" Lelouch pressed.
Marrybell shook her head. "No. It was deemed an act of terrorism, but official investigations closed quickly. No matter how hard I've tried, I've never been able to track him down. It's as if he never existed at all. But I know I saw him, and that he's the one who delivered the bomb to my mother!"
"A cover-up," Lelouch scowled. "Just like when my mother was killed."
"I refused to believe the official explanation at first," Marrybell continued. "And I needed answers. So I confronted our father..."
"What?!" Lelouch gasped, reflexively striking the surface of the table with his fists as he leaned forward again. "You confronted the Emperor after you had seen what happened to me? I got exiled with my sister simply for daring to question him!"
"Oh, I did more than that, Lelouch," Marrybell replied. "When our father refused to give me the answers that I sought, I drew a sword against him, seizing it from one of his guards."
"You drew a sword against our father?! Were you insane? You're lucky that you weren't executed on the spot! Threatening the Emperor's person is a capital crime in Britannia."
"It was right after funeral for my mother and sister. I think, in that moment... I wanted to die, if I couldn't get the answers I needed to make sense of my mother and sister's deaths... What point would there have been for me in going on? I didn't have it in me to end my life on my own, but I'm sure that part of me wanted to be punished for my part in their deaths. Even now, nothing will ever absolve me of that."
"You would have left me behind," Oldrin said.
"Yes... It was selfish of me, and I'm glad that you were there for me, Oz." She turned back to Lelouch. "Needless to say, I was disarmed. I could never have fought off all of the Emperor's guards by myself. I was just a child. It seemed incredible that I had even managed to steal a weapon from one of them in the first place."
"The Imperial Palace Guard is said to be drawn from Britannia's most elite soldiers, next to the Knights of the Round," Leila added, "so I must agree that it seems incredible. I understand that you must have taken them by surprise, but it still seems rather sloppy of them to have allowed you to take one one of their weapons, however briefly."
Lelouch shook his head. "You must have seen those uniforms they wear, back when you had to go to Pendragon. They're largely ceremonial, style over substance." He turned to face Marrybell. "You certainly picked a good time to steal a weapon from them. Usually, the Palace Guard carries rifles, but with oversized bayonets attached to them that are more like halberds than anything else. Such a weapon would have been far too large and unwieldy for you to use, especially as a child. But the Palace Guard switches to swords at funerals. While those swords serve a ceremonial role, they're still deadly."
He turned back to Leila. "There are some truly talented individuals among the Palace Guard, yes. Our contact in the Government Bureau used to be one, as was our current Viceroy herself. But many simply got their posts through their family connections, provided that they were suitably disciplined and met certain minimum levels of skill. Behaving as Marrybell here did was simply unthinkable to them, and they've always been reliant on the Knights of the Round to deal with any truly serious threats to the throne."
Marrybell nodded. "I understand that, now that I'm older. But what happened next was even more incredible. Our father sounded utterly furious as he stripped me of my rank of Princess on the spot, and ordered me to leave the Imperial Palace to live with the Zevon family... but nonetheless, he spared my life. I wouldn't be here otherwise."
"So despite committing a far more serious crime, you were allowed to remain in Britannia and in relative comfort, while Nunnally and I were thrown into a war zone!" Lelouch snarled. He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I'm not angry at you, sister, but our excuse of a father, and a society that just lets him dictate his will upon others, no matter how arbitrary. Though... you just said something that doesn't add up. You told us that you were the 88th Princess when Gao Hai caught us in the consulate, but you just said you were kicked out of the Imperial family."
"I am the 88th Princess," Marrybell replied. "Though that's a story in of itself."
"Tell me."
Marrybell nodded. "To give you the short version, while I was living with the Zevons, I began to wonder if I had been wrong. Soon, I became convinced that it really had been terrorists who killed my family, and I resolved that I would destroy them, no matter where they might hide. I enlisted in the army alongside Oz. She was supposed to be the heir to the Zevon family, but her uncle was on the verge of taking it over, so she had decided to get out while she still could."
"That just hastened my decision," Oldrin said. "Before she died, my mother was a Knight of the Round, and I had long planned to become a Knight so that I could follow in her footsteps. That dream was more important to me than any inheritance. Besides, Mary would be there with me."
Marrybell nodded, and made a slight smile. "Even as a kid, you were always practicing your swordplay." She turned back to Lelouch. "Oz and I were finishing up military academy together, when I received a summons from our father. He told me that he had been following my progress closely, and that he had a use for me again."
"It's always about using people with him!"
"I know, but I wasn't allowed the opportunity to refuse an audience with him. I was brought before our father, and he told me that he would reinstate me as a Princess, though my rank in the line of succession would be reduced compared to what it once was. Moreover, he would empower me to investigate terrorists incidents throughout the Empire, including the one that claimed the lives of my mother and my sister. All I had to do in return was prostrate myself before him, and apologize for my ingratitude in drawing a weapon upon him, who had given me my life itself, which was of course his to take away just as easily should he wish it."
"And you gave into him?" Lelouch felt himself clenching a fist so tightly that he might have drawn blood, but then he found Leila's hand resting on his. Looking her up at her, he relented, though nothing could stop his hatred for his father from simmering.
Marrybell glanced from Leila to Lelouch, and then continued her account. "I no longer wanted to die, not when I had finally found something that would give my life purpose, and trying to hold onto my pride in that moment would have earned me nothing more than a summary execution. I couldn't help but recognize his demands as anything less than an ultimatum, but there our father was, offering me my heart's desire after so many years, and I desperately wanted to believe him, just that once."
"You were a fool."
"Yes, I was. I would have just been our father's enforcer. I suspect that he knew all along that it was more than just 'terrorism' that I would find. In pursuing my investigation, I would eliminate his enemies, where deploying the Knights of the Round would have drawn too much attention. Maybe that's all that I've managed to do so far, and I'm still playing into his hands somehow, even now. But who in Pendragon would suspect a disgraced princess of truly being a threat?"
Leila spoke up. "As the leader of the Glinda Knights, you've targeted a member of the Imperial Family, one of the Knights of the Round, and you were there to sabotage Britannia's alliance with the Chinese Federation. Infighting among royals is seen as a feature in Britannia, allowing the strongest to rise, but I can't see the Emperor wanting the alliance to fail, or for you to change the heart of one of his own handpicked Knights."
"We're not so careless to have those whose hearts we change as the Glinda Knights be the same as the terrorists we're investigating on the Emperor's behalf. We don't even have an official designation. That way, he can easily disavow us if he needs to. And I'm reasonably sure that he hasn't discovered yet that the Glinda Knights and my Royal Guards are one and the same, or else he would have already declared all of us guilty of treason. That being said, it's not that I think that he wanted the alliance between Britannia and Chinese Federation to fail... it's more that he doesn't care either way. Something else is going on in Britannia behind the scenes, and I believe that he's obsessed with it, to the exclusion of all else."
"Cognitive Psience." Leila grimaced. "My parents were murdered so that they couldn't expose Prince Clovis' research into it, and he was killed in turn when we made him confess to his crimes..."
"There's more to it though..." Lelouch said. He paused, and then decided to commit to his gamble.
"Ragnarok."
"Ragnarok?" Leila asked, glancing down at him. "The Twilight of the Gods?"
Marrybell's reaction was quite different. "So... you know about Ragnarok as well. I suppose the long-nosed man told you about it."
"In a room lined with blue velvet," he replied.
"I suspected that you were a fellow 'Inmate' of that place. How else would the Black Knights be so successful?"
Leila looked increasingly confused, though Oldrin didn't seem perturbed by the odd conversation. Marrybell must have told her Knight about it earlier.
"Why won't you take a seat, Leila," Lelouch said. "This concerns you, so I think you're entitled to a full explanation, more than anyone else in the Black Knights. And here..." He took off his outer jacket, and offered it to her. "Maybe it's just me, but that suit of yours doesn't look particularly warm, and it's a bit chilly right now."
That was actually just a convenient excuse for him. He had noticed that Marrybell's eyes were still lingering on Leila, particularly her chest, more than they should be, and that might make Leila feel self-conscious. Hopefully, being covered by his jacket would make Leila feel more comfortable.
"Thank you," Leila said, accepting his jacket with a small smile. "I'll do my best to listen."
xXx
Leila rubbed her temples, processing what they had told her.
"Let me see if I have this right," she said. "Whenever you are 'organizing your Personas', it's not really some form of meditation, as I had assumed it to be, but your mind is in a place called the Velvet Room, which exists between the real and cognitive worlds."
"Yes," Lelouch replied.
"As far as you can tell, the Velvet Room can only be perceived by those with the ability to use more than one Persona, who have entered into some form of contract with its proprietor."
Both Lelouch and Marrybell nodded.
"The name of the Velvet Room's proprietor is Igor, and he is a being of considerable power who takes the form of a strange old man with an rather long nose."
"Absurdly long is more like it," Marrybell interrupted.
"The Velvet Room itself takes the form of a prison," Leila continued, "and its wardens are those two green-haired sisters who I saw on the summer trip. They can pass for humans, but they are supernatural beings, like Igor but lesser in power."
"Also correct," Lelouch said.
"Igor is also the one responsible for distributing the Metaverse Navigator, and he gives it to those with the ability to summon multiple Personas, and those other Persona-users that they draw around them.
"Yes."
"The reason I had the Metaverse Navigator is because Igor thought I would have the same ability as the two of you," she said, glancing from Lelouch to Marrybell, "and he was planning... for me to use that power to stop 'Ragnarok' ever since... I was a little girl?"
Lelouch nodded, and Leila's expression turned to a frown, as she cast her eyes down.
"So... I've been a pawn in Igor's plans for most of my life without ever knowing it... " She looked up again. "I just had a dreadful thought, Lelouch. Do you think Igor... could have arranged the course of events between Clovis and my parents... to force me to use my powers and meet you? I mean, nothing will ever make me regret meeting you, but..."
"It's possible," Lelouch said carefully, "but I don't think Igor would have done so directly. That doesn't seem to be his style at all. He once told me that the Velvet Room was a panopticon."
"A prison in which a single guard in a central position can watch all of the prisoners around him," Leila said. "Obviously, he can't observe all of the prisoners at the same time, but the panopticon is also designed so that the prisoners can't see the guard. They have to assume that the guard could be watching them at any moment, so they won't dare act out of line, lest they be punished further for their infractions. The prisoners will regulate their own behavior out of fear." Her eyes widened. "Wait a minute! When you were asking earlier about mythological pr-"
"As I was saying," Lelouch interrupted, giving Leila a meaningful look, "Igor's style is to observe and guide Persona-users." Namely, Igor guided them to do his bidding, but he couldn't say that part out loud. "Besides, no matter what misgivings one may have about him, it's undeniable that we wouldn't have been able to come as far as we have without his support. And if my father is trying to bring about Ragnarok, that's reason enough to stop it."
"I see..." Leila murmured. "But Queen should know, if her brother was also one of Igor's contractors. Have you told her about this?"
"She knows about the Velvet Room, but I haven't told her about Igor yet. I will though."
"Oh, so Queen's the redhead, isn't she?" Marrybell smirked. "But you don't quite trust me enough yet to say her real name in front of me. Still, it's good to see that you're being cautious, Leila."
"But there's one thing that you haven't addressed yet," Leila said, ignoring the princess. "What exactly is Ragnarok? If it follows the myth at all, it would signify-"
"The end of the world," Marrybell interrupted. Next to her, Oldrin nodded.
Lelouch gave his half-sister a curious look. "Do you know what form Ragnarok will take?"
"Yes, the Glinda Knights have, or at least, a rough idea of it," Marrybell replied. "But I think I should start from the beginning as to how we discovered it. There's much that I think would be of interest to your Black Knights."
"Very well."
"Thank you, Lelouch," Marrybell replied. "After I was reinstated as a princess, I began to assemble my Royal Guard, which would covertly assist me in my anti-terrorism investigations. While we would eventually become known to the public as the Glinda Knights, unseen vigilantes in the same vein as the Black Knights, few of its members joined with the intention of rebelling against Britannia. I want to make that absolutely clear. Most of them started off as soldiers loyal to Britannia, and they still are, at least to its people, if not to its ideology or Emperor."
Marrybell gestured toward Oldrin. "You may not believe this, but my dear Knight's greatest wish has always been 'to protect the smiling faces of the weak.' The others in the Glinda Knights may not express it in such a charmingly straightforward manner, but they are of a broadly similar character in that regard."
"I wouldn't have taken you for an idealist," Lelouch said. He turned toward Oldrin, "But if you want to protect the 'smiling faces of the weak', you're on the wrong side." His volume rose. "Britannia mercilessly crushes the weak. It has to be torn down for anything to change. If you believe otherwise, then you're just as deluded as-"
"Were you not listening to what Mary said?" Oldrin said, anger on her features as he cut him off. "I am, and always will be a Knight, and it's almost always the weak and innocent who suffer most at the hands of terrorism. But I'm not blind. I've seen firsthand in the Palaces that we've infiltrated just how cruel Britannia's rulers really can be to those weaker than themselves. That's why I continued to follow Mary when she decided to rebel against them. If she strays from that path, I'll be the first one to make sure she sees reason. And if you dare to bring ruin to the ordinary people of Britannia, I'll do everything it takes to protect them from you!"
Oldrin was to Marrybell as Kallen was to himself, he saw that now. But Oldrin valued staying true to her ideals above all, and would turn on her closest friend and Lady if those loyalties came into conflict, whereas Kallen would choose him, forsaking all else to remain by his side, even if he were to become the world's enemy. Oldrin and Kallen were like reflections of each other, as if through a glass darkly, but in either case, their wills to see their chosen paths through to the end were every bit as formidable.
"Now, Oz, it won't come to that," Marrybell said with a laugh, as if trying to lighten the mood.
"Indeed, I believe I misjudged you, Oldrin Zevon," Lelouch replied, a small smile forming on his face. "Color me impressed."
"Now where were we..." Marrybell murmured. "Oh, yes! Soon after I had recruited the first members of what would become the Glinda Knights, we were targeted by Carine ne Britannia. It started with her simply trying to discredit us, but it quickly escalated to a series of attempts on my life and Oz's."
"Carine was always mean to Nunnally, but I never thought her quite devious enough to be able to plan something like that on her own," Lelouch replied.
"She wasn't," Marrybell agreed. "The assassination attempts were sloppy and amateurish, but someone was pulling her strings and egging her on, using her as a patsy to eliminate us without drawing attention to themselves."
Lelouch nodded. "Whoever killed both of our mothers, and your sister, was clearly trying to finish the job they started. The fact that those assassinations were so close to each other, against Empresses with pro-commoner leanings, and that they were in each case covered up as terrorist attacks, tells me that the same person was the mastermind behind each of them." His face contorted. "We have to find him, no matter where he's hiding, and make him pay for what he did!"
"I agree," Marrybell replied. "The modus operandi of our mastermind is too similar to be a coincidence Though perhaps he's grown more cautious with age, if he's choosing to use proxies against us now. But it was while we were escaping from yet another assassination attempt, carried out on the behalf of our unknown enemy, that Oz and I inadvertently stumbled into Carine's Palace. It took the form of a vast arena complex, like the Colosseum of Rome and the Hippodrome of Constantinople mashed together, along with more modern venues dropped on top of them featuring every sort of bloodsport you could imagine."
That definitely sounded like Carine. For as long as he had known her, Carine had always had an unhealthy degree of interest in war and violence, even among members of the Imperial family, and it seemed that she had been no less bloodthirsty until her change of heart.
"Oz and I awakened to our Personas in there. You may have suspected as much, but we took inspiration from your methods, that is to say, those of the Black Knights. Stealing Carine's heart would force her to spill everything, and we hoped to learn who had put her up to kill us. By using the Metaverse, there was no way that her change of heart could be traced back to us either."
"Carine didn't know who the mastermind behind the assassinations was, did she?"
"Unfortunately, that's correct."
"But it was still a victory for the weak nonetheless," Oldrin murmured.
"While Carine had failed, the mastermind redoubled his efforts to have us eliminated," Marrybell continued. "His next proxy was the Knight of Ten, Luciano Bradley. As you know, Bradley was known as the 'Vampire of Britannia', a moniker that he wholeheartedly embraced, and so his Palace fittingly enough took the form of a vampire's castle."
Oldrin grimaced. "The things we saw in there... He called himself a 'Homicide Genius', but he was especially a predator toward women. He... liked killing them most of all, but only after he had degraded them... in every conceivable way..." She took several deep breaths. "Did you know he even had an all-female 'Valkyrie Squadron'? He didn't kill its members, but I'm sure he would have, if they ever came to bore him... as his playthings... Or even if he was simply in a bad mood."
"Next to him, the Knight of Ten made Carine look like an innocent angel," Marrybell added. "I'll admit, I wanted to kill him myself. But ultimately, we decided that forcing him to confess would be more productive to our goals. Even if the he didn't know who the mastermind was, such a high-profile change of heart might provoke one pulling his strings to act rashly and make an error in doing so. Even the Emperor's reaction could prove telling if he was in league with the mastermind, as you no doubt suspected when your mother's death was covered up."
A wicked grin spread on Marrybell's face. "Indeed, evidence of a much larger conspiracy became clear in the aftermath of the Knight of Ten's change of heart and our investigations into another Palace. It was called Mementos-'
"Mementos extends all the way to Pendragon?!" Leila gasped. "If it goes so far..."
"Yes, there's a... branch of Mementos growing under Pendragon as well, every bit as large as the one under the Tokyo Settlement, though you can't move between the two, at least, not at the levels we were able to explore. I'd imagine that they converge in the depths though. There may even be a Mementos wherever enough people have gathered to produce a distorted mass cognition."
That made sense, if Mementos was truly the Palace of the Public, in the broadest sense of the term. Indeed, his own plan to forcibly reform Britannia by stealing the Treasure of the Public implicitly assumed that Mementos' influence extended far beyond the Tokyo Settlement. But hearing confirmation of that was deeply troubling nonetheless. If Mementos was a worldwide phenomenon, how monstrously powerful must the distortion at its core be?
"But while our mothers' deaths may have set both of us on the paths we have walked since, it seems those murders ultimately played but a small part in the larger conspiracy," Marrybell frowned, casting her eyes down while clenching a fist. After a few moments, she looked up again, affecting a smile. "Have you ever wondered, Lelouch, why Britannia is called the Holy Britannian Empire?" she asked sweetly.
"I always assumed it was just lip service, a piece of propaganda to help justify its conquests to the masses."
"That's just the tip of the iceberg. As we continued our investigation into the plot, and fought off more pawns sent to kill us, we began to glimpse the truth. Unknown to most Britannians, the Holy Britannian Empire is actually a theocracy."
What? That didn't even make sense!
"Are you sure?" Lelouch asked, trying to seem casual. "As far as I know, the Emperor believes in no gods other than power and the survival of the fittest." He laughed. "Yes, the Emperor is secretly researching Cognitive Psience, that we know, but you're suggesting that the entire apparatus of the Britannian government that we can see is a sham, with the Emperor leading another shadow government unknown to most of the nobility, or even the Imperial Family itself. I mean, even conspiracy theorists don't usually go that far..."
"It is, and we're absolutely sure" Marrybell's earlier playfulness had disappeared entirely now. "We have come to believe that the Emperor is part of a cult. We even managed to track down a few of its members in Pendragon, and its local iteration of Mementos. If you remember those strange robed guards who are always around the Emperor, they're part of the cult too."
Lelouch did. The robed guards had been there even on the day that he had been exiled. They were always in the background around the Imperial Palace, but no one ever seemed to question their purpose, assuming them to simply be the Emperor's personal bodyguards.
"We forced some of their Shadows to talk in Mementos," Marrybell continued, lowering her voice, even though that wasn't really necessary in the Metaverse. "We couldn't get much out of them, but we learned enough. The cult is dedicated to bringing about Ragnarok, an event that they view with religious significance. They spoke of the opening of 'Heaven's Door', which they believe will bring about an 'end to suffering'. This is to be achieved through what they called 'the Sword', and 'Akasha'. According to them, the only hope of salvation lies in ruin. Ragnarok is the end of everything... but also the beginning."
"You're talking about a doomsday cult!" Lelouch shouted.
Marrybell nodded gravely. "And it has been the raison d'être for the Holy Britannian Empire throughout our father's reign: to bring about the end of the world as we know it. Everything the Empire has done, from its Cognitive Psience research, to its wars, is either directed at finding a way to open Heaven's Door, or distracting the world from the cult's true plans."
"Until we learned that, my fellow Glinda Knights were able to tell themselves that they were simply rooting out corruption within the Empire, and saw it merely as a logical extension of our mission to fight terrorism," Oldrin said softly. "But the Empire that they believed in never existed in the first place. We've concluded among ourselves that we have no choice but to overthrow the Emperor now, if we are to protect the ordinary people of Britannia... no, the world, from annihilation."
There was a heavy silence as Lelouch processed everything that Marrybell and Oldrin had told him. He could tell that Leila was similarly lost in thought.
Akasha... that was another name for the "Realm of the Gods" that Tsu had spoken of, the origin of all human souls, embodying the Collective Unconsciousness of humanity, and upon which Mementos had been constructed. So... the Emperor knew of that as well, and Marrybell had learned of it independently through the cult's members. If Akasha truly was a real place within the collective unconscious... he couldn't simply dismiss the cult's rantings, however much he might want to.
From that place, the Emperor and his cult might really be able to bring about the end of the world.
To think that it would come to this... He had first sworn to destroy Britannia to avenge his mother's death his sister's injuries, and then he had told himself that he wanted to create a kinder and gentler world for Nunnally's sake... That had changed into a broader goal of forcibly reforming society by stealing its distorted heart deep in Mementos...
But now, not only did his desire for revenge seem utterly petty, but there wouldn't even be a world for Nunnally, let alone a society to reform, if his father was allowed to have his way.
He still had trouble believing it. Destroying the world... That was the sort of plan that only cartoon villains engaged in. Yet...
"So that's why our father doesn't seem to care about anything, or anyone," he said slowly. "He's planning to destroy it all anyway, so that he can reach whatever paradise he imagines to be behind 'Heaven's Door'. Too many Britannians treat him like he's a god, but he probably thinks he can actually be one there!"
Marrybell nodded.
Leila looked up, and her face was pale. "But... you haven't released proof of the Emperor's involvement in this cult because.. no one would believe it, short of a confession from the man himself. And to do that... you have to change his heart."
"You're every bit as smart as my brother, aren't you?" Marrybell with a small smile, though it quickly faded. "But yes, that's correct."
"The Emperor's Palace is located at the ruins on Kamine Island," Lelouch said, his words coming out quickly now. "To be more precise, Kaminejima, an uninhabited island in the Izu archipelago, a few miles away from a Britannian military base on Shikine Island. You can't find it on official maps these days."
"I didn't expect you to be so forward with sharing such information," Marrybell said, raising her eyebrows slightly. "I almost thought that-"
"Changing our father's heart is imperative, no matter who does it! But his Palace is extremely well defended. We actually managed to get invited to the island by a scientist who was working there, but at the time, we didn't know the keyword needed to enter the Palace. We didn't even realize that it was there until we practically stumbled upon it!"
He took a few deep breaths, forcing himself to slow down. "From what you've told me, 'Heaven's Door' seems like the obvious choice for the keyword. But why would the Emperor think of his own Palace as 'Heaven's Door' if that's what he needs to open to bring about Ragnarok in the first place?"
Marrybell broke into a broad smile. "Thank you, Lelouch. I don't know how long it would have taken the Glinda Knights to find that out, if we had to do it by ourselves... if we ever did. I knew I couldn't afford to pass up on the chance to meet with you." She sighed. "But I agree... Heaven's Door makes no sense for the keyword, and if it was, our Metaverse Navigators would have reacted to it."
Marrybell covered her mouth as she cleared her throat, and then pronounced clearly, "Charles zi Britannia. Kaminejima Ruins. Heaven's Door."
No match was found.
"You see?" she asked.
They all nodded.
"We need more information," Marrybell continued. "That's why the Glinda Knights are here in Area 11, actually. We realized that there was a connection between the High Eunuchs and the cult. We hoped that by forcing Gao Hai to confess, we'd be able to throw throw the High Eunuchs' forces into disarray and then slip by them to raid what seems to be the cult's main compound in the Taklamakan Desert. Well, outside of wherever they meet in Pendragon, but we can't exactly break in there without the Emperor finding out exactly what we're doing."
"You'd be able to get all the way over there before they could raise the alarm?" Leila asked.
"I have my very own custom Caerleon-class Floating Battleship, the Grandberry. Father pulled a few strings for me after I was reinstated. It's modeled after Schneizel's Avalon, and cutting edge too, right out of the Camelot Engineering Corps. They were working on scaling it down, for rapid deployment behind enemy lines. If you were on Kamine Island when our brother visited it, perhaps you even saw Avalon there."
"We did," Lelouch replied. "It's inventor, Earl Asplund, was actually the scientist who invited us there in the first place."
"It was unlike anything we'd ever seen before," Leila added.
A smile spread on Marrybell's face. "The High Eunuchs will be struggling to hold back the uprising against them. With any luck, we'll be right on top of the cult's compound before they have the chance to call for help from the Chinese Federation that won't be coming. Then, once we've dealt with them, we'll take a look through any records we're able to salvage, and see if we can figure out what exactly Heaven's Door is, how they plan to open it, and if we can come across any suitable keywords for our father's Palace."
Lelouch had few illusions as to what Marrybell meant by 'dealt with them'. He glanced over to Oldrin, who remained impassive at Marrybell's words. Did she not understand what her Lady intended to do?
Looking to his side, he could see that Leila was grimacing. As gentle as Marrybell's outward appearance might seem to the unwary, he could tell that Leila had realized that the 88th Princess would not hesitate to kill anyone who stood in the way of her goals. If she thought it necessary, Marrybell would even massacre the compound's staff and then raze it utterly, ensuring that there would be no survivors who could carry tales back to the Emperor.
That was of course assuming that the other Glinda Knights would willingly go along with such a heavy-handed slaughter. From what he had seen of her convictions, Oldrin wouldn't condone that, even as a "necessary sacrifice". He couldn't honestly say that he would have been much different from Marrybell if he was leading the raid in her stead, especially if he had lost Nunnally too. That underlying ruthlessness was still a part of him. But his friends in the Black Knights had successfully held his worst impulses in check thus far.
"We have reason to believe that human traffickers have been abducting large numbers of Chinese and Japanese civilians, many of them already desperately in poverty, and transporting them to that compound," Leila spoke up. "Gao Hai's Shadow confirmed as much for us. And while his Shadow did not know what became of those people once they arrived there, it seems likely that they are being subjected to unethical experimentation in Cognitive Psience. We saw the same pattern on a smaller scale with Prince Clovis' Code-R." Her voice became firmer. "I trust that the Glinda Knights will liberate as many of these captives as they can, and evacuate them to a place where they can build new lives for themselves in safety. They are but innocent victims in all of this."
Oldrin looked to her Lady expectantly, and Lelouch couldn't help but smirk a little. Leila was good, leaving Marrybell no room to maneuver without risking a serious rift between her and the Black Knights, to say nothing of her own personal Knight. For that matter, he could be certain that the Irregulars would refuse to work with the Glinda Knights if they knowingly allowed harm to come to the captives at the cult's compound.
"I can't say no to such an earnest request, or when Oz gives me those eyes," Marrybell laughed lightly. "Though it will come at some additional risk to us, you have my word that the Glinda Knights will make every effort to ensure the safety of the captives. The Grandberry is faster than other ships of the Caerleon-class, but it's also smaller. That said, we should have enough room to evacuate up to a few hundred captives in the hold, though it would be a tight fit. We wouldn't be able to drop them off in Area 11, but perhaps whatever provisional government succeeds the High Eunuchs would be willing to accept them as refugees."
Indeed, Lelouch had little doubt that Xingke would be wiling to help any who had suffered from Gao Hai's crimes. If anything, Xingke would blame himself for not stopping Gao Hai and the other High Eunuchs sooner.
"Thank you," Leila said, sounding greatly relieved. "That's all I can ask of you."
Lelouch nodded, feeling much the same way himself. "Our goals are aligned then," he told Marrybell. "While you raid the compound and look for leads in the Chinese Federation, we'll continue to keep Britannia busy back here in the Tokyo Settlement. And of course, we'll share any information we discover about Ragnarok, Heaven's Door, or our father's Palace with each other."
"That will do nicely," Marrybell said. "We can of course stay in contact with each other through KnightWatch, but if you have another secure means of communication that you would prefer, we can agree to use that instead."
"Then we have ourselves a deal," Lelouch grinned.
"We do indeed."
I am thou… thou art I
Thou hast acquired a new vow
It shall become the wings of rebellion
that breaketh thy chains of captivity
With the birth of the Faith Persona,
I have obtained the winds of blessing that
shall lead to freedom and new power…
Faith?! That wasn't one of the twenty-two Major Arcana that Lelouch had grown familiar with over the last several months! What did it mean?
"There is one more thing that I should tell you," Marrybell said slowly.
"What is it?" Lelouch replied.
"Officially, I was dispatched to Area 11 by the Emperor to investigate you, by which I mean the Black Knights. Britannia has classified you as terrorists, after all."
What?! Had she-
But Marrybell and Oldrin made no move to apprehend them, and his half-sister laughed again, as if she found his reaction amusing.
"Don't worry! I'll keep what we've discussed in full confidence. I have no intention of reporting back to Father with what really happened here."
"You think you can pull that like it's nothing?" Lelouch huffed.
"If I really wanted to, I could have turned you in already."
"She has you there, Lelouch," Leila sighed.
"Let me make it up to you," Marrybell said. "We can end this meeting with a few quick chess matches. Leila is of course welcome to play as well."
Leila nodded. "I'd like that."
Lelouch did so as well. He couldn't refuse Leila the chance to play a few matches, not when that had been one of his reasons for inviting her in the first place, and after the little revelation that his father was planning to the end the world as they knew it...
They all needed something to take their minds off of it, if only for a little while.
"Splendid," Marrybell smiled. "Though if you don't mind, I'll take another rematch against Lelouch first." She turned her attention to him. "I hope that you'll forgive any presumption on my part, but I take it you'll be playing as Black."
"What else would I choose?" He chuckled, already feeling in a somewhat better mood. "Very well. I accept your challenge, Sister. Now let's get started."
xXx
Lelouch, Leila, and Marrybell each played a pair of matches against the other two. Oldrin politely declined to play, saying that she was content to watch, and would record their moves for the purpose of 'keeping score', as would be done in professional chess matches.
Lelouch won his two matches against Leila, though she still played quite well, and it was rather close both times. He actually lost the first match against Marrybell, breaking his winning streak, but he managed to claim victory in the second. As for Leila and Marrybell, they each won a match against each other.
He could tell that part of Leila wanted a tie-breaker against Marrybell, but it was getting late, and Lelouch knew that he should be getting back to Ashford Academy. Still, there would be other opportunities for Leila to have her rematch, and Leila said that she had nevertheless enjoyed their games together, and thanked him for inviting her.
They had left Marrybell and Oldrin, shaking on their newfound alliance with the Glinda Knights. Lelouch was also going to part ways with Leila for the night, but as she handed his jacket back to him, she asked him to meet up with her in the real world, where she had stored her motorcycle.
He didn't have wait long before Leila arrived, still in her motorcycle suit.
"You wanted to speak with me?" Lelouch asked.
"Actually, I thought I'd offer you a ride back to Ashford Academy. It would be a lot faster back on my bike."
He raised an eyebrow. "We came here separately to avoid attracting attention. Won't it look suspicious if we leave together?"
"Don't worry about it, Lelouch," she replied. "It's night, and no one will be able to tell who I am under my suit. I can even just drop you off by the Academy if you want." Her cheeks flushed slightly. "Of course, you don't have to..."
She really wanted him to ride with her, didn't she?
"That's right," Scathach whispered within him. "Go on..."
"Very well," he told her. "I'll take you up on your offer. Though I must admit that I've never ridden pillion before; it's always been in Rivalz's sidecar. And I didn't bring my helmet with me."
"I've got a spare helmet strapped on the back."
Sure enough, one was there on Leila's bike. She walked over to it, unfastened it, and handed it to him.
"Prepared as always, I see," Lelouch replied.
"It's pretty simple," Leila said. "Just try to make sure you're copying my movements so the bike stays balanced, and..." She trailed off.
"What is it, Leila?"
"Hold on tight."
xXx
Riding with Leila was both an exhilarating and a terrifying experience for Lelouch. He could feel the sheer power of her oversized machine as she picked up speed, the wind whipping against him, and centripetal forces pushing him to the sides as she took turns while barely slowing down at all.
The motorcycle was not nearly as noisy he had first assumed it would be, a testament to the quality of its engineering. If Britannia still used the internal combustion engines that had predominated before the invention of efficient batteries, fuel cells, and energy fillers he was sure that the beast of a machine would have been deafening. But the engine seemed to run even smoother and had vastly higher performance output than those of other sakuradite-based vehicles currently on the road. It almost seemed military-grade, and Lelouch found himself wondering if its engineers had somehow managed to miniaturize a Knightmare Frame's Yggdrasil Drive so that it could fit onto a motorcycle.
That train of thought was forced from his mind. They were taking another turn, and he had to lean his body to the side, matching Leila's movement, even as he held onto her waist for dear life. She was still going faster? They were on an open highway, but there was no way that Leila was driving at, let alone under, the speed limit, though he couldn't say by how much she was exceeding it. The only time he had ever see her act so recklessly before was when she had tried to rescue Kallen from the Divine Tiger.
How embarrassing would it be if the leader of the Black Knights happened to be caught because his second-in-command decided to break the traffic laws on a joyride?
Thankfully, Leila seemed perfectly in control of her machine, handling its awesome power with practiced ease. More than ever, he was convinced that Kallen would love to have a machine like it for herself.
He was just as glad that Leila wasn't so reckless to be doing a night ride with her tinted visor, which would have seriously impaired her visibility. Her helmet had a button on the side that, when pressed, retracted the tinted visor and slid down a clear one in its place. Still, there was little chance of her being identified, as her hair was concealed, and they were moving so quickly that no one would be able to get a good look at her.
Yet as they continued to ride, Lelouch slowly felt his anxiety leaving him, settling into a sort of rhythm, of anticipating the next curve and moving his body accordingly, without overcompensating or being roughly tossed from side to side. It was a problem that he could solve with his mind, further helping him return to his comfort zone. Accordingly, his hold on Leila relaxed. It was still firm, but no longer a death grip.
Indeed, he could appreciate now just how cathartic it must feel for Leila, that sort of single-minded focus and sense of freedom, being able to control her own destiny in a way that simply wasn't possible within the constrictive role of a Britannian socialite... or the world that his father sought to usher in.
Still, being so close to Leila, and with his arms wrapped snugly around her abdomen, feeling her curves under the leather of her suit, sent certain hormones flowing through him, a sensation that was becoming more common now that he was no longer actively trying to kill off his libido. Lilim was foremost among the Personas that rose to the surface of his mind, but Scathach was just behind her.
But there was a time and a place for such thoughts, and so he refocused his attention on the ride.
xXx
Soon, they reached Ashford Academy, stopping far enough from the main gate that no students would be likely be in the vicinity to see them arrive. Indeed, most of them would have already retired to their dormitories for the night.
Dismounting, the two of them stood by Leila's motorcycle.
"How was it?" she asked, pushing up her visor to take a breath of fresh air.
"In the end, I think I managed to enjoy myself quite a bit. But just how fast were you going over the speed limit anyway?"
"Only about ten to fifteen kilometers per hour at most. Almost everyone speeds a little bit on the highway. The police can't pull over everyone, so unless you're going way over the limit, or if you're an Honorary Britannian, they won't go out of their way to stop you."
She frowned. "I'm ashamed to admit it, but I could drive a lot more aggressively if I wanted to, and I probably still wouldn't be pulled over. The police know that only a noble would have a bike like mine, and so they'd tend to give me a wide berth for all but the most egregious violations. Most of those on the force are commoners, and they know that if they charge a noble with a crime there's a good chance that they'll face reprisals for it in some way or another."
"Why did it feel so much faster then?"
Leila laughed. "It's a much more visceral experience than riding in an automobile, or someone else's sidecar. You felt the wind, and how focused you had to be on everything. It's so much more exciting! But you get used to it in time."
"I suppose that makes sense." He chuckled. "Still, if you really wanted to let loose, maybe you could try racing in the Metaverse one of these days. With no people around, you could go as fast as you desired. Though no matter what you do, be careful. I don't want to see you get hurt."
"I appreciate your concern." She smiled. "Though it's only by taking risks, large or small, that we grow as people, isn't it? I mean, if you could make things totally safe for everyone, wouldn't that logically mean stagnation?"
"You're as insightful and talented with wordplay as ever," he grinned back. "Of course it would. But I'm not against taking risks. I'd have never have come this far otherwise. I just prefer calculated risks."
She shook her head. "You're a lot more honest with your feelings than you were when we first met, Lelouch, and your ability to think through a situation analytically makes you a brilliant strategist. But you don't always have to be logical."
"I'm not. You should know that by now."
"In that case..." She tilted her head slightly. "I was going to head back to my place... But if you want, I can stay a little longer."
"Aren't you concerned that someone might wonder what you're doing if they see you coming onto campus at this time of night?"
"Don't worry about that. I'll be a few minutes behind you anyway. Besides, we can come up with some excuse."
"Like what?"
"Let me see..." murmured Leila. "Maybe that I was studying..."
"Studying what?" he pressed.
She smiled.
"Things we don't have experience in yet," she whispered. "I... want to make sure that... we have that chance... before..."
"We won't let that future come to pass," he told her.
"Still, I... want this."
Lelouch felt himself getting very warm.
"Go for it!" a perky voice within his head urged.
Kallen and Shirley had said that he could go out with Leila, but- No, he was overthinking it again!
He swallowed.
It would be okay, at least this time. It was no different than what he had already done with Kallen. As long as he wasn't showing undue favoritism-
He could worry about the rest later.
"I'll.. see you at my place then. Just...do me a favor, Leila..."
"What is it?"
"Don't wake Nunnally."
Are the Black Knights Just?
Yes: 19.1%
Days Until the Empress is Married: 11
A/N:
Welcome back, everyone!
It may have seemed that I was on a lengthy hiatus, but I've actually been quite busy on the story over the last month and a half. After I started Persona 5 Royal, I was inspired to revisit the chapters in the first arc and revise them to bring them up to a quality more similar to the later chapters. I had originally written them without the benefit of a beta, and some of the chapters tended to be rather rushed. I've since fleshed them out with more details, improved the pacing of certain scenes, and tweaked some interactions to be more in-character, but the overall story remains the same. While this might strictly be considered an "Orwellian Retcon", as TvTropes would put it, I'm being open about it, and again, you're not missing anything that fundamentally changes the story if you don't go back to them.
Speaking of which, for those who are new to the story, it has its own page on TvTropes, so feel free to check it out!
Another milestone has been passed since I published the last chapter - over 500 readers have favorited this story (510 to be precise, as of the time of writing this author's note), and the story is at just under 400 reviews (396 at present). Once again, thank you for all of your support and/or honest constructive criticism! And as for the text itself, the story, with all author's notes included, is over 400,000 words long now!
I hope you enjoyed the meeting between Lelouch and Marrybell that so many of you have been anticipating! I think it was totally the right call on my beta's part to make it an in-person meeting with Leila and Oldrin also in attendance, rather than just Lelouch and Marrybell corresponding over KnightWatch.
There are, of course, a number of mythology gags throughout this chapter, including a handful to Persona 3. There's also Leila's dialogue at the end, some of which is borrowed from Persona 5's own Priestess confidant. On the Code Geass side of things, we have plot elements from the show itself, Nightmare of Nunnally, and Oz the Reflection mixing together here.
Persona 5 Royal will also be informing some plot developments from here on out, in some ways small, and in other ways larger, but only as doing so organically fits into the story. The most obvious manifestation of this is Marrybell appearing as Lelouch's Faith Confidant, which first appeared in Persona 5 Royal. I will not elaborate further on the reasons for making Marrybell represent Faith (though her own Arcana is the Fool, like all Wild Cards), as that would represent significant spoilers for both this story and Royal. I will say that her Confidant shares certain themes with Royal's Faith Confidant, but how they are played out in Marrybell's Confidant will be different. In any case, I have been planning for Marrybell to be Faith for several months now.
I would also like to emphasize once again, that while I am taking inspiration from certain elements of Royal, I have NOT added any characters to previous parts of the narrative where they did not exist before.
As further notes on Marrybell and Oldrin's Personas, Elphaba is the name of the Wicked Witch of the West as depicted in "Wicked". Normally, this would be rather anachronistic to the Code Geass world, as Wicked was first published in 1995 and our story takes place in the equivalent of 1963. However, by the events of Code Geass's canonical 2018 a.t.b. (1964 in our Calendar), Marrybell's personal Knight Giga Fortress is named "Elphaba", suggesting that the name was invented earlier in Code Geass' timeline.
From an out-of-universe perspective, most of the Glinda Knights are directly modeled after characters from the Wizard of Oz, with Marrybell being drawn from Glinda the Good Witch as her public face, and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West as her more vengeful and ruthless true self. Oldrin is similarly modeled on Dorothy Gale, and one of Oldrin's first acts in the manga is even to sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Though don't be surprised if Oldrin's Dorothy conjures up some swords. Oldrin is very fond of swords, as this chapter touched upon, and if a Persona like Cendrillon (Cinderella) can summon them in Royal, then it's more than fair game for Oldrin's Dorothy to be able to do the same.
Yet again, thank you so much for reading and continuing to follow this story. See you next time!