Disclaimer: I own Code Geass about as much as Lelouch likes his old man.

"Kallen"-Speech

'Lelouch'-Thought/mental communication

"{Die}"-Geass Command

"Halt!"-Loudspeaker

"Roger."-Radio/Walkie-Talkie

Chapter 5.5: The Emperor's Reaction

Sword of Akasha, C's World

"Marianne, what did you just say?" Charles zi Britannia said, an uncommon perturbed look upon his regal face.

"I said that C.C. has severed our connection." The person speaking, by appearance, was Anya Alstreim, The Knight of Six. However, Charles knew that the person currently suppressing Anya's mind and speaking through it was Marianne vi Britannia, the one person in the world he loved and, in life, one of his 108 Imperial Consorts.

They were currently standing on the main platform of The Sword of Akasha, the weapon Charles planned to destroy the Collective Consciousness of mankind, otherwise known as God.

Anya's face was currently screwed up in a confused fashion, making Anya look rather odd.

"I tried to communicate with her, but all I got was a feeling of….sadness. Sadness mixed with determination. I don't understand why she would sever the connection like this!" Marianne was pacing Anya's body like a caged tiger now, her host's brows furrowed in thought.

"I…might know." Charles reluctantly admitted to his dead wife. Marianne span around and fixed him with a glare that looked almost comical on Anya's face, but from past experience, Charles knew better than to underestimate his spouse when she had that look on her (or Anya's) face.

"About a year and a half ago, Clovis captured C.C. in Area 11. The young fool was trying to artificially duplicate her Code and thus, her immortality." Charles shook his head at the foolishness of his son before continuing, "I only found out about it six months ago."

"What did you do to her, Charles?" Marianne's voice was frosty, so she had guessed what he had done, Charles surmised with a sigh.

'As expected of my true wife. She can read me like a book.' Charles thought fondly as he prepared himself for Marianne's inevitable reaction.

"I sent him a Geass Suppression Field Generator blueprint." He told his wife, "I also gave him an unofficial blessing for his project."

"Charles! How could you?!" Marianne was beside herself with anger, "C.C. is an ally! Or at least she was before you did that! She agreed to give us her Code! All we needed was two more Thought Elevators and we could have killed God! Just what were you thinking?!"

"Brother told me that it was better to keep her in one, easily accessible place rather than have to track her down when we need her." Charles said with a barely noticeable shrug.

Marianne scoffed at that, making one of Charles' eyebrows raise in silent query.

"Oh, don't give me that spiel, Charles." Marianne told him, disgust evident in her voice, "V.V. killed me because he was jealous of our relationship and I watched through Anya as The Ashford family and all my allies in and out of court were systematically banished, killed or disgraced. C.C. left before that could happen to her, but it looks like he finally caught up to her."

Charles' face darkened as he remembered being told Marianne had been murdered. He had been so shocked and filled with grief that he had been unduly harsh when dealing with Lelouch when he made his court appearance to demand answers.

The Emperor of Britannia clenched his fist as he saw in his mind the hate-filled, accusing gaze of his eleventh son as he cast off his succession rights to the throne and all but accused the Emperor of being complicit in her assassination.

That had pushed Charles over his limits and he had risen from his throne and beaten Lelouch into unconsciousness with his own hands. He had, of course altered the memories of all present, barring Lelouch, using his Geass.

The next day, C.C. had brought Anya to him and Marianne had possessed Anya for the first time and proven who she was. Then she had told him what had actually happened. All this after he had altered the memories of Nunnally, Lelouch and a handful of other nobles to conform to V.V.'s story.

Needless to say, Charles had been furious.

He had calmed down and mentioned Marianne's death to his brother on his next meeting with him, to which V.V. had merely replied that it was unfortunate that she had died.

He had lied.

His brother. Had lied. To him.

V.V. had broken the contract between them to never lie to each other. Charles had been unable to believe it at the time and still had trouble believing it sometimes.

Shortly afterwards, C.C. had left the Court and disappeared just before, as Marianne had pointed out, all of Marianne's old allies began suffering mishaps and disgrace.

Charles shook his head and brought himself out of his memories. Regarding the Marianne-possessed Anya, he sighed again as he massaged his eyes with a gloved hand.

"Yes, I screwed up, Marianne, but there is another factor that you are unaware of."

"Oh?" Marianne cocked her head in exasperated curiosity, "What else have you done, Charles?"

"I did nothing." Charles defended himself from his Consort's accusations, "C.C. has made a new contract with someone."

Marianne's eyes rolled at this.

"I know that Charles. I was connected with her at the time, although all I know is that the Contractor is male."

"The identity of the Contractor is Lelouch." Charles spoke softly, his voice barely audible to Marianne, but she heard him nevertheless.

"W-What?!" Marianne's borrowed body had frozen in shock at this revelation, her eyes going distant as she remembered her oldest child, his intense love for his sister and herself, his brilliant intellect and Charles' report on how quickly he had grown to hate his distant father after her death and Nunnally's mutilation.

"How do you know?" Marianne asked him.

"He had C.C. kill Clovis." Charles' voice held no sympathy for his dead son. Marianne's eyes widened.

"C.C. killed Clovis? How did she even get close enough to draw a bead on him?" Marianne queried. As the Third Prince and Viceroy of Area 11, Clovis should have been under almost constant Vigil by his Royal Guard, "And how did Lelouch find out about and retrieve C.C.?"

"C.C. was stolen by Eleven Terrorists, who apparently thought they were stealing Poison Gas. I don't know how Lelouch got involved, but he freed her and then took command of the Terrorists in Shinjuku and dealt an almost overwhelming defeat to Clovis' forces there." Charles told her, almost by rote.

"Oh my." Marianne breathed. This was not good. C.C. getting loose and teaming up with an exiled prince who had no love for either his former country or his father was one thing, but actually handing Britannia a decisive defeat -the first defeat since Itsukushima- was quite another.

"Just about the only positive happening at all yesterday was when Lelouch almost destroyed Schneizel's little toy, the Lancelot." Charles snorted at the fanciful naming his second eldest son's research group had given a Knightmare.

"How did he do it?" Marianne was curious how her son had accomplished such a feat.

"He tried to drop half of the old Tokyo City Hall on top of it, apparently." Charles replied, his voice showing amusement at the manner the Lancelot had been defeated.

Marianne stared at Charles for a second then burst out laughing.

"Hahahabhahaha! As expected of my son!" Marianne cheered out, Anya's body dancing like a lunatic.

"I received the preliminary report a few hours ago from a Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald. He was once a member of the Palace Guard, stationed in the Aries Villa." Charles carried on, ignoring his wife and her antics.

"Oh, Jeremy?" Marianne smiled at Charles, "He was an excellent guard. He stopped that brat Carina from picking on Nunnally more than once by pretending to have to take her to a lesson. He's a good soldier."

"He is also brutally honest in his facts. Not including the Lancelot, we lost over 40 Knightmares, two-dozen tanks and half a dozen VTOLs." Charles told her grimly.

"Oh my."

"To top it off, Clovis couldn't remember anything for a period of ten minutes before he was killed by C.C., meaning Lelouch used his Geass on him." Charles ground out.

"Did you try using your Geass on Clovis' spirit?" Marianne asked.

"Of course I did, for all the good it did me." Charles replied, "Evidently I cannot recover memories that have been destroyed by someone else's Geass, even unintentionally. Either that, or my Geass cannot affect someone who is already dead."

Marianne cursed for a moment. This meant that they had no idea what Lelouch's Geass was or any of its limitations.

"What do you intend to do?" Marianne asked her husband.

"I've sent orders to Margrave Jeremiah to become the Temporary Viceroy of Area 11 until Clovis' replacement arrives." Charles told her.

"Oh? Who are you thinking of? Guinevere? Odysseus?" Marianne asked with a sly smirk. She knew Charles would rather dance naked on live television than let either of those two imbeciles out from under his sight.

"No." Charles said flatly. Evidently he knew she was teasing him, "I was thinking Cornelia, with Euphemia as Sub-Viceroy."

"Lelouch's two favourite sisters, besides Nunnally. Oh, you are evil Charles!" Marianne giggled.

Charles smiled down at his wife's temporary body.

"I do try, dear." He said dryly, "Lelouch accused Clovis of being complicit in your murder, so C.C. evidently hasn't told him the truth of the matter yet. Following on logically from that, he will jump at the chance to interrogate the former head of your bodyguard. Hopefully Lelouch is just as cocky as he was seven years ago and will underestimate Cornelia, leading to either his capture or death."

Noticing a slightly uncomfortable look on Marianne's borrowed face, he placed a hand on her shoulder, making her look up at him.

"Failing that, I doubt he will miss the chance to become reacquainted with Euphemia either. As soft and pacifistic as she is, she will serve a dual role: First as the 'Velvet Glove' to Cornelia's 'Iron Fist' and secondly as bait for Lelouch." Charles spoke softly to his wife in order to ease her distress.

Despite the plan to use the Sword of Akasha, she still didn't want to have to feel her children dying and passing on to C's World. Charles would accommodate her as much as possible, as he hated seeing her sad above all else.

"That sounds good." Marianne said, recovering herself slightly. She smiled sadly at Charles, "Sorry for worrying you, dear."

Charles shook his head with a small smile. He didn't mind bowing to her wishes like this every so often. In the long run, Lelouch was a minor fly in the ointment that was the means to re-acquire C.C., nothing more.

"Now, we had better part here. Brother is due to come for an update soon and Anya is on standby tomorrow, so you had better let her body get some sleep."

"Very well Charles. You need some sleep as well, so don't spend all night talking with V.V., ok?"

"Yes, dear."

The couple parted, one to stare at the clouds surrounding the platform, the other to leave the World of C.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Author's Note: It occurred to me that a lot of people were wondering what Charles and Marianne's reactions to C.C. and Lelouch sleeping together would be.

In the spirit of things, all chapter x.5's are going to focus on Charles and Marianne from here on out. Look forward to it!

Catch you in two days for Chapter 6!