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"Kallen"- Speech
'Lelouch'- Thought/mental communication
"{Die}"- Geass Command
"Halt!"- Loudspeaker
"Roger."- Radio/Walkie-Talkie
Interlude: The Emperor Reacts (Take Two)
The Sword of Akasha, the World of C
"What?" Charles zi Britannia asked, utterly confused, a previously uncommon occurrence that was becoming far more common thanks to his estranged son.
"I said that Cornelia was forced into a draw." Marianne, in Anya's body, rolled her eyes at her husband's shock, "That was partially forced by the JLF detonating bombs that blew up most of the mountain they were fighting on."
"Unbelievable." The Emperor shook his head as if he were punch drunk, "Cornelia is one of the Empire's best field generals. For her to fail to achieve victory not just once, but twice is unprecedented!"
"You underestimate our son." Marianne said bluntly, "Out of all of your children, Lelouch is the most similar to you, far more so than Schneizel! Put yourself in his position at the end of the invasion of Japan…what would you have done afterward? Cooled your heels or trained to improve yourself?"
He had to admit that it would be the latter. To do otherwise would be the height of folly. He took the report from Marianne and started to leaf through it.
Lelouch had clearly recognised the same thing and had trained himself to the point that he knew his abilities and limitations very well. He was not arrogant, he was not overly prideful, he engaged in several contingency plans as evidenced by the swift reinforcement after he was forced into a corner by the Lancelot.
Oh, it had been a closer fight than it had seemed, but the Camelot Knightmare was superior in all respects to whatever hodgepodge machine his wayward son had been given and this Suzaku Kururugi was a highly skilled Knightmare pilot, more skilled than Lelouch likely, so his defeat would have been guaranteed.
"He is our son." Marianne stated with pride, "He has your superior strategizing skills and genius intellect and my Knightmare piloting instincts and tactical skills! Oh, I am so proud of him."
"Dear, he could serious delay the Ragnarök Connection if he successfully ousts Britannia from Japan." Charles pointed out dryly. His wife had always been prone to waxing lyrical about the achievements of her children regardless of the actual right and wrong of what they had done. Such as the time Lelouch had snuck into Carine's suite and injected luminous green hair dye into her shampoo as revenge for the bratty princess slapping Nunnally the previous day.
The shriek had been heard from all parts of the Imperial Palace that morning.
"Oh, let him try." The spirit of the Knight of Honour snorted, "Even with all his advantages, Cornelia isn't one to lie fallow when a powerful enemy is nearby. She'll go over all of Lelouch's tactics and familiarise herself with them so she won't be caught off guard again. With the addition of two Knights of Round to Cornelia's line-up, my foolish son will get a nasty surprise."
The cold tone she spoke in chilled even Charles for a moment. Marianne wasn't entirely sane, he knew that. She had swung between periods of being overprotective of her children to periods of being willing to use them as chess pieces for the sake of the Ragnarök Connection. Evidently dying hadn't cured her of that little condition.
"Schneizel wasn't happy when Nonette was able to pilot the Bedivere." Charles said, changing the subject somewhat, "The little fop looked as if he had eaten a lemon."
"Hah! He really should have known better than to make a wager with Nonney!" Marianne cackled, "She's almost as stubborn as I am; which is saying something! Boy, if she can master the Bedivere, Lelouch will be in a heap of trouble."
"Nonette has an irritating habit of accomplishing what she sets out to do." Charles sighed. He did wish that she would stop calling him 'Charlie' in private. His name was Charles, dammit.
"Too true." Marianne nodded Anya's head before turning serious, "The OSI have reported that the government-in-exile of Japan in the Chinese Federation are almost ready to make their move to retake their country. Two, perhaps three months and they'll strike."
"Tch." The Emperor snorted disdainfully, "Those old men wouldn't know loyalty if it stood in front of them with a Gloucester. They've sold their country to the Federation, to the Council of High Eunuchs, for power. How pathetic."
"Truly." Marianne agreed, "Should the OSI pass on the warning to Cornelia?"
"No." Charles said with a dismissive gesture, "Lelouch will protect his sisters, and by extension Japan, from those relics of the past. Doing so will endear the unwashed masses to him and reinforce the altruistic image he has been broadcasting. All we need to do is wait until he overreaches himself and then strike."
All commanders, no matter how savvy they might be, eventually overreach during a war, especially if they had a string of successes to build on. Give Lelouch enough rope to hang himself and he'd make his own gallows.
"We are NOT killing him if it can be avoided!" Marianne said sharply, "It's bad enough that jealous little troglodyte of a brother of yours has sent an assassin after my babies, but I will not let them die unless it is absolutely necessary."
"About that…" Charles grinned, "Apparently, his agent, Rollo, was ambushed by another one, Desmond. Rollo is currently in a coma and is likely to remain so for the next month. My brother is most put out by this, as you can imagine."
"Ha!" Marianne hooted in laughter, "Desmond? The one they call the Lethe Killer? He got the best of Rollo? V.V. must be fuming like a furnace that a second-string agent got the best of his personal attack dog!"
The Emperor snorted. That was putting it mildly. His brother was in a full-blown sulk that Desmond had managed to ambush and subdue Rollo. Apparently, Rollo had been asleep when he had been abruptly been brought to full consciousness by Desmond and then knocked out into his coma. The hidden camera Rollo had set up in the room had confirmed this.
"I had better go. Anya needs her sleep." Marianne said with a wince, "You are certain you don't want to send her to Japan instead of that greenhorn?"
"By 'greenhorn,' I assume you refer to Dorothea Ernst, the Knight of Four?" Charles asked with a sigh, "Yes, I am certain. I need Anya –and you- to keep an eye on Schneizel on the EU Front. There's no telling what mischief that hollow boy will get up to without someone to curtail his movements."
"As you wish, Charles." Marianne nodded, "How long until Anya will have that new Knightmare?"
"The prototype will be completed inside of six months, according to the development team." The Emperor replied, "Once it has been field tested and all the flaws diagnosed, it should be ready in another year, at earliest."
"Poo." The spirit of his wife pouted. She did miss the Ganymede so much.
As he watched Anya's possessed body walk away, Charles sighed to himself. Just a little longer. Just a few more years at most, and a world without lies would be at hand…
Bonus: Woes of a Scientist and Father
Joseph Fenette sighed as he made it into his house. It had been touch and go there for a moment. That damn Eleven General Katase blowing himself up had destroyed half of the Code R Beta Facility and had almost killed him. Luckily, he had managed to get out in time.
'I do not get paid enough for this shit.' He thought tiredly as he shrugged off his coat and hung it up. Padding softly to the kitchen, he grabbed a beer out of the fridge and snapped it open, chugging it down before slumping onto a chair.
On the bright side, he had managed to evacuate over eighty percent of the subjects and hardware, along with all of the staff and data. On the downside, there was only one facility left available to Code R now that both the Alpha and Beta sites were compromised; the Gamma Facility near Fukuoka Base in Kyushu. That meant he would be away from home a lot more and away from his daughter as well.
'Still, I can't very well say "Sorry, I have to spend time with my daughter, so I'm taking time off from this ultra-top-secret black project' to General Bartley.' Joseph thought tiredly as he had another swig of beer, sighing as he emptied the bottle.
Deciding that thinking about it when he was dead tired wasn't going to help matters, Joseph stood up, threw his empty bottle into the bin and headed off to bed. In his tiredness, he neglected to take his bag with him, leaving it open on the floor, with the topmost report clearly visible.
'Findings on the Combination of Subject 753-4c (Albino) and Subject 804-5a (Kewell)'