Author's Note: OK, so...here's chapter 36.
This was delayed by a week because of several reasons, and I am sorry for that. But, it happened.
Unfortunately, I am going through some...turbulent times IRL at the moment. Not as a direct effect of the Coronavirus, but as an annoying, tangential side-effect of it, and it has unfortunately started to affect my writing due to my needing to cope with it. This means that for the foreseeable future, updates are going to be up in the air somewhat. I will TRY to update weekly as per my schedule, but I make no promises. I ask for everyone's understanding in this. Now, please scroll down and enjoy the chapter.
Look at my profile for my writing schedule. BEFORE you ask me in a review or a PM!
Disclaimer: Code Geass isn't mine.
Beta'd by BigCC
"Kallen." - Speech
'Lelouch.' – Thoughts/mental communication
"{Die.}" - Geass Command
"Halt!" - Loudspeaker
"Roger." - Radio/Walkie-talkie
Chapter 36: The Rage and Fall of Melisande Ashford
A Week Later
Observation Box, Knightmare Sparring Arena, Area 11 Administration Building
"Sister, you rarely make use of these facilities. What's the occasion?" Euphemia asked as she settled down in the throne-like seat next to Cornelia.
"Reuben Ashford has apparently completed the prototype of a 7th Generation Knightmare Frame and wishes to display its capabilities." the Viceroy replied. "If nothing else, it's a good use for those useless Liverpool and York Drones. Target practice is practically all those worthless fodder drones are useful for. Even a Sutherland Drone has more field capabilities then those remote toys."
The younger pinkette nodded absently in agreement. Unlike the Sutherland Drone, each of which had an integrated onboard AI, the Bradford Family's machines were all linked to a single external control unit which controlled them remotely, making them liabilities against any foe who used reasonably advanced ECM to jam the control signal.
The fact that the Bradford Family and their R&D department continued to refuse to recognize this glaring fault was both amusing and irritating in equal measure for Cornelia; their only argument were that such countermeasures were 'impossible for such underdeveloped plebeians outside Britannia to use effectively' despite all evidence to the contrary.
Unfortunately, now that she'd received them, she couldn't simply ignore or scrap the Liverpool and York Frames she already had without politically slapping a glove in the Bradford Family's face. And while their attempts at developing combat Knightmares were laughable, the family had immense financial wealth as the company that designed and produced the MR-1 civilian Knightmare Frames (which even Cornelia would admit were useful machines) and their continued interests in various automotive and heavy machinery manufacture. And the Bradfords had proved especially good at leveraging that wealth to gain an immense foothold in the Parliament due to a heavy mix of bribery, blackmail, and simple politicking.
Granted, the Britannian Parliament held very little real power, being little more than a rubber-stamp institution that gave the nobility and wealthy a delusion that they had some form of say in how Britannia was ruled, it could still apply an annoying amount of pressure to someone since they were, in all technicality, a legitimate legislature.
Oh, how Cornelia hated politics.
"I must confess to being curious about what manner of Knightmare the Ashfords have managed to design since their exile." Jeremiah said. He had been brought along as a temporary replacement for Darlton, who was out on a brisk little shake-down outing with his sons to, as he put it, 'shake the rust off.'
"Reuben was irritatingly mysterious about it." Cornelia huffed, although a slight smile was ghosting its way across her lips. "He said that we should just look forward to it."
"By the way, where is Lady Nonette?" Guilford asked, looking around. "Given her history with the Ashfords, I was certain she'd wish to be here…"
"She's off trying to strangle Earl Asplund." Euphie volunteered with a strained smile. "He removed the Halo Luminous System from the Bedivere and she isn't happy about it."
Her sister snorted. "I actually agree with the insane twit on that one; that system's too much of a power hog to work on a Knightmare Frame. From the specs Earl Asplund provided me, it would be for more suited for use on a Command G-1, where it could be linked to a secondary generator rather than relying on a Knightmare Energy Filler. Nonette will simply have to get over it."
Moments later, Reuben Ashford entered the box, impeccably dressed as always. "My apologies for being late, Viceroy, I was personally briefing the test pilot of the new unit."
"Nothing amiss, I hope?" Cornelia asked with a smile. As far as nobility went, the Head of the Ashford Foundation was one of the few she actually had anything positive to say about. The man was smart, polite, and had more spine than a dozen other nobles put together. His prior relationship with Lady Marianne only served to better her opinion of the man.
"No, no, far from it." the old man shook his head. "I wanted to ensure they weren't overly enthusiastic. You know how test pilots can get. Lady Marianne could get very carried away once she started a test, if you will recall…"
"Yes, she did have a tendency to push things." the purplette sighed sadly.
"So what do you have to show us, Lord Ashford?" Euphie asked, hoping to stop her sister from sinking into melancholy. Even with the news that their siblings were likely still alive out there, reminiscing on Lady Marianne could still put her sister into a right slump.
"You shall see but momentarily, Sub-Viceroy." Reuben said with a smile as he sat down in his own chair, pulled out a small radio and spoke into it. "Activate and mobilise Liverpool units one through three."
A few moments later, three of the forest-green Knightmares had stomped their way into the arena from the right-hand side. Each armed with a single tank cannon, a single gatling cannon and a single bank of missiles, they lacked Slash Harkens and Factsphere Sensors. Added into their remote-drone nature, and you had what even the most incompetent General would term as useless fodder. They only really saw willing use on the battlefield as scouting and patrol units in far-flung installations and battlefields where ECM countermeasures couldn't be reliably utilized.
Or as test opponents for prototype Knightmares to destroy. Even then though, they were barely a challenge. Cornelia knew for a fact that these three were merely being used to demonstrate this new Frame's weapon systems; the next round would involve three Sutherland Drones and would be a proper opportunity to show off the machine's combat efficiency.
"Viceroy, Sub-Viceroy, Margrave Jeremiah, Sir Guilford…" Reuben said with a smile. "Behold, the Ashford Foundation's latest prototype Knightmare Frame."
From the opposite side of the arena, a single Knightmare appeared at an easy walk. Coloured gold and sea-green, it looked drastically different to the Lancelot. It stood slightly taller than the first Britannian 7th Generation Frame, and more than a few parts of its armour were rounded as opposed to flat and angular, such as the shoulders. A cape was fluttering from its shoulders, and its head was shaped to resemble the helmet of a Spartan Warrior, metal imitation of the horsehair crest included, two luminous blue cameras shining from the visor. Mounted on its left arm was a large heater shield emblazoned with the crest of the vi Britannia family, with gold trimming around the edge.
"Allow me to present the YF17-X10A Prototype Seventh Generation Knightmare Frame, the Galeschin." the Head of the Ashford Foundation stated with pride.
"It certainly looks impressive." Cornelia admitted appreciatively. While she preferred practicality when it came to machines, she could still appreciate that appearance was important to awe enemies and impress the citizenry.
Granted, Form would always be secondary to Function in her opinion, but she could still understand its value.
"Galeschin? The knight who was saved by Lancelot alongside Ywain?" Euphemia asked curiously.
"Indeed." Reuben smiled smugly. "Camelot hasn't got a monopoly on the names of the Knights of the Round Table, Sub-Viceroy. If they do end up having a successful project that predates three years by the same name, I will happily relinquish it, but until then…"
"Well then. Let us see what your machine can do, Reuben." Cornelia smiled. "Have your pilot make ready."
"Yea, Your Highness." the man inclined his head and raised one hand before clenching it into a fist.
The Galeschin reacted immediately, the heater shield exuding a sword hilt from the bottom end that the Knightmare quickly drew, revealing a short sword. In an instant, however, the blade extended in length to the size of a standard Knightmare Longsword. The front of the crest on the Galeschin's helmet opened up and revealed a Factsphere Sensor that flashed green before being hidden once again.
"A telescopic blade?" Guilford asked raising a curious eyebrow. "While I can appreciate the portability, wouldn't that be a bit too fragile for combat use?"
"While it is a bit more fragile than a normal Knightmare Longsword, our metallurgy experts have actually developed a new tungsten alloy that is more robust than you might expect. The Collapsing Knightmare Sword is simply one of the first viable uses we've found for it." Reuben answered calmly. "If the rumours about Earl Asplund completing the Maser Vibration Sword are true, then it could be switched out and improved as the technology comes available."
"Hmm…" the Knight of Honour looked thoughtful.
"Well then, let's begin the demonstration." Cornelia stood up and withdrew her duelling weapon, raising it to the sky. "Fight with honour! START!"
Pulling the trigger, a single round was shot, signalling the start of the test.
With the sounds of mechanized whirring, the Galeschin shot forward using its Landspinners, sword drawn back and shield held over its torso. In response, two of the Liverpools fired their main cannons at it, while the third unleashed a barrage of missiles, the six small rockets arcing towards the charging prototype.
In a dizzying display of agility for a Knightmare, the Galeschin swerved around the paths of the two cannon rounds before two Slash Harkens were fired from the waist of the machine, pulling it forwards and away from the targeted area of the missiles.
"That agility!" Guilford exclaimed. "It's not on the same level as the Lancelot, but it's close."
"Not quite." Reuben demurred, but left it at that for the moment.
Retracting the mobile anchors, the Galeschin landed right in front of the lead Liverpool, the automated machine barely having time to start moving back before it was too late. With a single slash of its sword, the drone Knightmare was cut diagonally from left to right. Even before the two halves of the Liverpool had hit the ground, the 7th Gen machine leapt into the air, avoiding fire from the other two Drones' gatling cannons.
Still in mid-air, the Galeschin thrust its shield out, firing two Slash Harkens that were integrated into the two sides of the curved point of the heater shield, the two anchors smashing into the leftmost Liverpool, right above the main cannon. As the more advanced machine landed, it jerked its shield and the Knightmare connected to it so that the Liverpool was sent flying right into the path of its last remaining sqaudmate's main cannon.
As the stationary Liverpool fired its cannon, at almost point-blank range, into its defeated squadmate, the resulting explosion and backlash sent it careening to the ground, damaged beyond repair. The opposing machine dealt the coup de grâce before turning to the box and saluting the watchers with its sword.
"That fighting style looked very familiar…" Euphie mused with a frown.
"It should have been familiar; that was a very good attempt at Lady Marianne's personal combat style, Coup de Vitesse, the Blow of Speed." Cornelia murmured in shock. "I based my own fighting style off of it. That was an attempt at copying the style directly, and a fairly good one at that. Who is the pilot?"
"I shall inform you once the second round is over, Viceroy." Reuben said with a mischievous twinkle in one eye.
"How does it move so much like the Lancelot?" Jeremiah asked. He'd fought alongside the White Knightmare during the Purist Faction Debacle, so he was more than slightly familiar with the white and gold Knightmare's fighting abilities.
"Albert and myself invented a kind of synthetic muscle that allows a Knightmare built with it a greater range of human-like movement." Reuben replied easily as clean-up crews started using MR-1's to remove the remains of the Liverpools from the arena. "Judging by the reports I have been able to see regarding the Black Knights and their 7th Generation Machines, they seem to employ a similar kind of synth-muscle in their machines, though I couldn't tell you how similar unless we got one into a lab."
"Surely that's not the entirety of the reason?" Cornelia asked pointedly.
"True...a greater range of movement is meaningless without the horsepower to put behind it." the old scientist and businessman acknowledged with a nod. "That is why there are small deposits of Sakuradite in key locations in the limbs and body of the Galeschin. As a powerful conductor, Sakuradite is perfect for enhancing the power in a Knightmare, outside of the Yggdrasil Drive."
Seeing the shocked looks on the faces of Euphemia and Cornelia, he chuckled. "Ah-ha, did Earl Asplund not mention that it's been a very common theory to attempt to enhance a Knightmare's physical abilities with Sakuradite in this fashion ever since the Ganymede first laid waste to its opponents? The good Earl is simply the first researcher to come up with a means to do so successfully. Before the Lancelot, all of the prototype Knightmare Frames who have attempted it have merely blown up, some quite catastrophically. It reached a point that many believed the idea to be impossible and it was mostly discarded. However, the main issue was that technology had not caught up to the level necessary to safely regulate the energy produced by the Sakuradite enhancements. When I heard about the abilities of the Lancelot, I knew immediately that young Lloyd had managed to succeed where all others had failed, and reinvigorated our own research on the project. As you can tell, we've had a few breakthroughs."
"And yet you were able to find a test pilot." Guilford stated, recalling how only the top percentile of Knights could use the Lancelot anywhere close to its fullest capacity, as well as the issues that had arisen due to the need for such high-level Knights.
"Unlike Earl Asplund, I am an industrialist first and a researcher second. That means I don't demand that humanity match my machines; I develop machines that fit humanity." Reuben stated with a sardonic smirk on his face. "Through careful experimentation, we've managed to discover the precise amount of Sakuradite necessary in each limb to provide an optimal combat improvement while minimizing the strain it puts on the pilot. In this regard, the Galeschin is superior to the Lancelot; a wider variety of people can pilot it without issue. Granted, it's still not to a level of being a Mass Production Frame just yet, but we are fast approaching a point where it will be ready for at least Special Production."
"So high-spec, but not ludicrously specialized." Jeremiah summed up succinctly.
"Precisely." the older man nodded. "Ah, it looks as if we're ready for round two."
While they had been talking, the broken remnants of the three Liverpools had been withdrawn and three Sutherland Drones had taken their place. Rather than Factsphere Sensors, the Drones had a single camera mounted on their heads. The Sutherland Drone had been created by Euro Britannia, to make up for their limited number of personnel in comparison to their mainland counterparts and enemies. Although not nearly as effective as Sutherlands piloted by proper Knights, they were capable enough to serve on the front-line and still a far cry above the Liverpool and Yorks.
They were still fodder, but they were useful fodder at least.
The Galeschin had withdrawn to the other side of the arena again and had returned its sword to its sheath, instead hefting a gun that was about comparable to the Lancelot's VARIS Rifle at full extension. It was coloured sea-green for the majority, with the long barrel a shining gold.
"And what's that?" Cornelia asked curiously.
"Ah, that's what we're hoping to have as the Galeschin's main ranged weapon." the head of the Ashford Foundation said with a smile. "It's full name is 'Experimental High-Impact Electromagnetic Accelerator Linear Cannon', but I personally prefer to call it the Rhongomyniad Railgun. It's a heavily miniaturized and underpowered version of the Type-7 Railcannons used on the Imperial-Class Battleship, Great Britannia, His Majesty's Flagship."
"And you've managed to keep it from blowing up?" Jeremiah asked nervously. All guns, from pistols to Knightmare Battle Rifles, to even the large main guns on a ship or in artillery battery, were what could be referred to as coil-guns. A railgun was a completely different kettle of fish, and the six previous iterations of the Type-7 had all been capable of taking out the ship they were mounted on whenever they suffered a critical failure.
"This is the thirteenth iteration of the Rhongomyniad that we've developed and it has passed all of our tests with flying colours. We've even had it go through several iterations of live-fire testing in various circumstances." Reuben stated. "Rest assured, I do not allow my test pilots to wield weapons unsuited for the battlefield, especially in front of royalty."
"Very well." Cornelia nodded. Once again, she fired a shot to start the match.
The three Drones immediately engaged their Landspinners and sped towards the Galeschin, Battle Rifles raised and ready to fire. The Galeschin itself lined up a shot and pulled the trigger.
BANG
The roar of the Rhongomyniad firing made everyone in attendance wince at the sound. The projectile fired by the railgun pierced through the left shoulder of one Drone just as it happened to cross paths with another one behind it, that Drone's right shoulder being completely destroyed, making it drop its Battle Rifle.
"Damn, it pierced through the Sutherland Battle Armour like it wasn't even there!" Guilford gulped, sounding halfway between impressed and nervous.
"Sadly, that will be the only shot that can be fired; it takes thirty seconds to recharge for a shot with our current technology." Reuben said with a sigh. "It's still in the developmental stages, but we hope that, by the time the Galeschin is ready for production, we'll have it down to less than ten seconds. It will never be a mass fire weapon, but for precision and penetrating power, it can't be beat."
As if to confirm that, the Galeschin threw the railgun to one side and counter-charged the Drones without drawing a weapon. The only Drone to retain both its arms fired a burst at the incoming Knightmare, only for the shield to deflect most of them. While that happened, the two one-armed Drones deployed the close combat weapons they had on their arms, Stun Tonfa. Generally reserved for the Sutherlands belonging to elite Knights, a select number of Sutherland Drones were also equipped with them.
Suddenly, the armour on the outside of each leg of the Galeschin snapped open and spat out a knife apiece, shooting them up into the waiting hands of the Knightmare. The blades extended until they were the Knightmare equivalent of poniards, just as the Galeschin reached the lead Sutherland Drone.
With a slash from each poniard, the rifle was trisected and fell uselessly from the hands of the Drone. Before the onboard AI could react, its main camera was stabbed by a poniard, the action having much the same result as the destruction of a Factsphere Sensor, disabling the entire machine.
Deftly, the Galeschin threw its off-hand poniard at the camera of the left-hand Drone, while it fired the Slash Harken mounted on its right hand at the other one. The thrown dagger slammed home into the camera, disabling the Drone instantly, while the last one was able to fend off the Slash Harken with a slash of its Tonfa.
Reeling in its Slash Harken, the Galeschin snapped its shield-arm around and slammed it into the Sutherland Drone's body, in what many would call a shield bash. The strength of the blow, combined with the Drone's own momentum, was enough to send it spinning head over heel to crash to the ground and cease movement.
"That was excellently performed." Cornelia nodded. "Even if those were unmanned units, the speed at which they were destroyed certainly proves that the Galeschin is indeed a 7th Generation unit. You and your research team are to be commended for your work, Reuben."
"My thanks, Viceroy." the man bowed his head slightly. "As I mentioned earlier we are fast approaching a point where a Special Production model of the Galeschin will be ready. Unfortunately a Mass Production is still some time from being feasible, not until we iron a few more of the issues out. When either are ready for your perusal, I shall send word immediately."
"Very good." The princess turned her gaze back to the Galeschin. "Can it be modified to use the MVS?"
"I haven't seen the systems behind the MVS, but it shouldn't be difficult to do so." Reuben replied after a moment of thought. "Additionally, power consumption isn't likely to be an issue, as Albert has developed a new type of Energy Filler that has an additional 30% more power storage capacity than previous models."
"That's excellent news!" Euphie offered effusively. Even if she wasn't a combatant by nature, she'd been around Knightmares enough to know that the greatest limitation on any given Frame was its operational time, especially if they had systems that were power hogs like the VARIS Rifle and the MVS. Power efficiency and power capacity were what all inventors sought when creating Knightmares...except for Earl Asplund.
"We do try, Princess." Reuben said modestly. "Now, regarding the matter I communicated with you via Milly, You Highness…?"
"You have my support." Cornelia agreed at once. "Cancel Millicent's engagement with Lloyd Asplund. Let anyone who objects know that they can address all of their complaints to my office."
"My greatest of thanks, Your Highness." Reuben said with a deep bow. "I will likely have to placate Earl Asplund, but I believe a copy of Lady Marianne's combat data will suffice. Just...not all of it."
"Such as the time Lady Marianne fought Bismark and Nonette at the same time?" Jeremiah suggested, his lips twitching slightly in amusement.
"Precisely. Her public bouts are a matter of record, but I believe that her private matches are none of the Earl's concern." the old businessman smirked. "He'll get what he expects, and nothing more."
"Just so." Cornelia agreed with a smirk. The inane and insane scientist might be useful, but that didn't mean he didn't irritate Cornelia something fierce. A bit of a poke at him was all well and good in her book.
"You Highness, can I ask that the future pilot of the Galeschin be Lord Jeremiah here?" Reuben said after a moment.
THAT surprised Jeremiah and the others. Even Cornelia had to take a moment to process that request. "Can I ask why?"
"As you are aware, the...incident...at Ashford Academy was conducted by an enemy of those who were once allies of Lady Marianne." Reuben said, his voice cold with a controlled but visceral rage. "The Ashford Family, the li Britannia line and Margrave Jeremiah are the only ones left in this world who once called themselves Lady Marianne's allies; all others are dead or disgraced beyond redemption. I can protect the Ashford Family, and you have the all defences of the Area 11 military and your personal Knights to protect you and your sister, but Lord Jeremiah hasn't anything close to our level of influence. And on the battlefield, even a Gloucester might not be able to protect him from assassins in the shadows."
"You believe that these possible assassins might have Knightmares?" Guilford asked in disbelief.
"Before the Wings of Talleyrand launched their attack on Pendragon, I would have been sceptical at such an idea myself, but given that a single noble family managed to create a battalion of borderline Seventh Generation Machines, as well as the Sutherland Ikaros, I cannot deny that it is now disturbingly possible." Reuben stated unhappily.
Face twisted in distaste; Cornelia was nevertheless forced to agree with the industrialist. The assault on Pendragon had sent ripples of shock throughout the Empire; no one had expected that anyone would have the sheer gall, let alone the means, to dare and try to destroy the Imperial Seat. Taking that to its logical conclusion, whoever had attempted to kill Lelouch and Nunnally during the invasion had somehow acquired an entire special forces team and outfitted them with advanced and unknown weaponry. It wasn't so much of a stretch to imagine that the organization behind them might have some Knightmares to throw into the fray seven years later.
"Should he prove able to pilot it, I see no reason to deny your request." the Viceroy said after a moment. "Aside from myself and my personal Knights, and possibly the Glaston Knights, Lord Jeremiah is one of the most skilled Knightmare pilots in Area 11, so I don't see it as an obstacle for him."
"I shall endeavour to live up to your expectations, Your Highness." Jeremiah bowed.
"As shall my Ashford Family." Reuben added. "If Lord Jeremiah could come to the Ashford Foundation's Knightmare Development Center tomorrow, we can get his basic data input and test his compatibility, although I am certain that with his skills, it will merely be a formality…"
The Next Day
Melisande Ashford's Room, Ashford Mansion
"THAT USELESS OLD MAN!" a woman howled before a vase, one worth enough to feed and clothe an ordinary family for a year, flew across the room before shattering against the wall.
Chest heaving in fury, Melisande Ashford née DeAmbury glared at the wall furiously. To look at Melisande, you could see where her daughter had inherited most of her physical beauty from; Melisande could easily pass for an older version of her daughter save for her colouring. While Milly had inherited the Ashford's traditional blonde hair and blue-grey eyes, Melisande was a brunette with forest-green eyes. Melisande's skin was also a bit paler than Milly's though that was less genetic and more a result of Milly more active lifestyle.
Also worth noting was the fact that Milly's most…eye-catching features, her prominent bust and long, smooth legs, had also been inherited from her mother.
Unfortunately, the similarities between the two were only skin deep. Melisande, no matter where she was, dressed in a manner befitting a noble; expensive dresses, dripping with gold and jewellery and with impeccable makeup. None of that could hide the air of arrogance that she wore like a cloak about her, nor the cunning avarice in her eyes.
Truly in terms of heart and spirit, she and Milly were like night and day.
"All my hopes, all the time and effort spent negotiating with the Asplund Family…" Melisande seethed. "All of it rendered utterly moot by that overly-emotional geriatric that refuses to do the world a favour and simply die!"
Just a handful of hours ago, Earl Asplund had called to let her know that the engagement was off, due to reasons that he had no intentions of telling her. Melisande had seen through the paper-thin excuse easily enough; the only reason that Asplund would call off the engagement was if he'd already obtained what he'd wanted without the added burden of taking on a wife. Thus, he no longer needed to play the game with Melisande any longer.
Reuben Ashford, just the thought of that interfering old coot made the former daughter of the DeAmbury Family want to scream. The DeAmbury Family were a Viscount family on the western coast of the Britannian Homeland, with fingers into numerous industries, from food production and textiles to plastic manufacturing and civilian vehicles, and just about everything in-between. Individually, none of their businesses were particularly strong; rather, the DeAmbury family made their fortune by filling in multiple smaller niche markets, covering the cracks between the various titans of industry.
Such a practice had made them extremely economically stable and quite wealthy, but offered little in the way of power and influence. For Melisande, that had never been nearly enough. In Britannia, three things truly mattered in her opinion: wealth, status, and power; and she'd never been satisfied with simply one of the three. So, she'd set out hunting for the means to gain all three.
And she'd found the means in the weak-willed son of Reuben Ashford. She'd always had a talent for finding weaknesses and Roderick's lack of spine had stood out like a beacon in the night. Seducing and utterly dominating the only son of the Ashford hadn't taken a full week, and within a few months she was married into a family that had everything she'd desired in spades and seemed to be rapidly on the rise. Within a year she was already planning on how to permanently remove the old fool from power and place her husband at the family's head, becoming the power behind the throne for a powerful Earl. She was only delayed by the rise of the 'Commoner Queen' under Reuben's auspice, but even then, that had promised her ways to rise even higher by simply marrying her fool daughter to the son of 'the Flash'…
...or so she had hoped, but then Marianne vi Britannia had been assassinated, the two brats she'd whelped had been used as throwaway tools of diplomacy, and the Ashford Family had been stripped of their titles of Nobility and exiled to the newly formed Area 11. In the space of three months, all of her carefully laid plans had been utterly destroyed and she was forced to move to a far-flung Area and had even lost her noble title to boot!
In the space of a few weeks she'd been forced back to square one, and for someone of Melisande's overbearing pride and domineering ambitions, such a situation made her want to scream the unfairness of it to the high heavens. She literally could not permit such a state of affairs to continue!
An unexpected bit of fortune had been the survival of the vi Britannia siblings in the chaotic days following Area 11's official surrender. Had things gone the way that Melisande had wanted, they would have returned the two brats to the Imperial Family within a week and been rewarded with the return of their Noble Title!
'But no, that addle-brained old monkey instead gave in to sentiment.' the former noblewoman sneered at the thought. 'He hid them and threatened to cut me off from all of the Ashford Family's resources if I tried to force things!'
No one had ever dared threaten her before, no one! In that moment, removing Reuben was no longer a means to an end in putting her husband (and thus herself) into power, but something she deeply desired for its own sake. Her resentment, bitterness, and mounting rage would only grow as every attempt she'd made at convincing his pet commoner-blooded prince to understand that serving her interests was in his best interests had failed miserably. Even worse, Reuben had allowed that Eleven attack bitch he kept as a maid for the brats to throw a knife at her and remain unscathed.
Having failed at even persuading her stupid daughter to help her, Melisande had decided to do what she could to get the Ashford Family back into the nobility using one of the oldest and most time-honoured ways; by selling her daughter's hand for a noble title. And of course the ungrateful little hussy had been resentful and bucking her control the entire time.
(Really, why was the silly bint so difficult? She should have insisted that servants raise her in a separate mansion rather than under Reuben's supervision; she had a feeling that his influence was what had made Millicent so rebellious. She had been raised by servants, and the results spoke for themselves.)
And now even that small shred of possible advancement had been severed. There were no other Noble Houses of suitable rank that would be willing to risk themselves with an out-of-favour house like the Ashfords. The only reason the Asplunds had agreed was due to the Earl's obsession with those mechanical monstrosities of his.
Melisande just knew that Reuben had something to do with this; the old fossil was the only one who had access to Marianne vi Britannia's combat data. She'd searched high and low for the data herself, but could find no hint of it. She'd been banking on being able to force Reuben to hand it over to ensure his granddaughter's safety and security in her new marriage.
She was already pacing back and forth across the room, a dark, furious scowl marring her features as she went through her options. Melisande knew that she was running out of time if she wanted to usurp Reuben as Head of the Ashford Foundation and install her husband in his place. With his recent agreements with the Viceroy and the Knightmare Factory being built, Reuben's star was once more on the ascendant, this time with Princess Cornelia li Britannia, the Goddess of Victory, backing his rise. With the Chief General of the Imperial Army backing him, there was almost no way that she could legitimately oust Reuben from his position.
Legally, anyway.
"Alright father, if you want to play games, then fine." she whispered darkly. "I'll play, but you should know that these games are always played for keeps."
However, the cusp of the problem with an assassination was that the overwhelming vast majority of servants working for the Ashford family were almost sickeningly loyal to Reuben and Milly and held little regard or respect for her or her husband. She was fairly sure several of them were monitoring her and her husband's movements on Reuben's orders whenever they left their private suite of rooms. She only had a few servants that she could count as being hers; all remnants of those she'd brought with her when she'd married into the Ashford Family. She'd originally brought in nearly thirty of her personal servants when she left the DeAmbury family, but time and 'accidents' (that she was always half-certain were Reuben's doing but could never prove) had dwindled her numbers down to less than a dozen useful hands. None of which had access enough to Reuben to make an attempt with any real hope of success.
Reuben made it a point to keeping her servants in her service, while his own cared for his own needs. Even a sudden accident wouldn't be able to move a piece into place, Reuben always had 'extra hands' available for just such an emergency. Anyone working out of place would quickly be noted.
Even her previous arrangements with the lowlife elements that ran the Area's criminal families had all but been rendered moot since the rise of that damned terrorist Zero. The besuited madman had apparently been using her allies as target practice for his own followers. Those few groups who hadn't already been wiped out had mostly pulled up stakes and either fled to another Area or were hiding in their shells like turtles, hoping that Cornelia would rid them of Zero and they could get back to business.
She honestly hadn't expected the worthless thugs to be of much use in the first place, but the loss of yet another card in her hand was irritating.
So with her two best cat's paws removed from play, she was left with very limited options. She didn't even bother considering her husband. The man was so spineless that he'd balk at any sign of aggression; he'd wind up cowering before the old man, unable to pull the trigger if Reuben so much as glared at him.
Such a pathetic man.
No, it would appear she'd have to take matters into her own hands.
Sauntering to her desk, she quickly unlocked a drawer and pulled out a box roughly the size of an encyclopedia. Flipping it open, she smirked at the pair of derringers that nestled inside. Both were modernised recreations of the Remington Model 95 pocket pistol, exquisitely decorated with mother of pearl grips and elegant etchings along the snub-nosed muzzles. They had been a gift from her mother two years ago, just before the woman passed away.
Melisande liked to consider herself a fairly good shot. She normally disdained combat as a job for the 'lesser' but had picked up a bit of skill just in case, mostly at her mother's insistence. Her daughter, the irritating little strumpet, had excelled in the combat training her father-in-law had insisted on, being marked as 'excellent' with both pistols and rifles and even a capable hand at unarmed combat and knife-play.
That smug little whore.
Pulling out a box of bullets from the box's side, Melisande slowly loaded two rounds apiece into the weapons before snapping them closed and concealing them about her person using the holsters provided in the box to do so.
"Now then, let us see if your little games fair as well against a loaded gun." The brunette hissed, malice in her eyes.
Later
Reuben Ashford's Private Office
The Head of the Ashford Foundation let out an annoyed sigh as his daughter-in-law kept ranting at him, demanding to know why he'd interfered in the marriage she'd arranged for Milly. He was fairly sure she'd realized that he wasn't listening a while ago and was simply enjoying the sound of her own voice. And then there was his son, meekly sitting next to her, afraid to make a sound.
Such a disappointment.
"Enough." Reuben finally interrupted the steaming woman, his patience finally worn thin. "Despite your protests, the marriage you 'arranged' was going to be one of convenience at best. Earl Asplund is infamous for his asexuality and disinterest in, quote-end-quote 'messy matters' such as interpersonal relationships. That's the only reason why I allowed the marriage talks to go forward."
Well, that and he'd decided to use it to finally goad young Lelouch into taking action with his granddaughter, but Melisande didn't need to know that.
Melisande glared at him. "Your sentimentality is keeping the Ashford Family from regaining its proper place as nobility." she hissed furiously.
"You mean it's keeping you from what you see as your rightful place as a noble." Reuben scoffed absently, no longer willing to even pretend to ignore the woman's nature. Things had progressed far enough that keeping up those pretences were no longer necessary. "I do hate to be the bearer of bad news, Melisande, but the Ashford Family does not exist to cater to your desires. Your 'arrangement' was a farce that would fool no one and would only damage the Ashford family's reputation further, something you either refuse to see or simply don't care about. Since neither of you have the wit or forethought to consider the family's interests, Millicent is confirmed as my legal heir as of today."
"She hasn't even graduated from that pathetic school of yours!" Melisande snarled.
"Your point? There are no legal requirements regarding the age one must be to be chosen as a family's legal heir." the old man said in amusement. "And should something happen to me in the period between now and Milly's majority, Princess Cornelia has agreed to look after the interests of the Ashford Foundation until Milly comes of age."
"And what if those cast-off royal brats are discovered by Cornelia in that time?" the brunette woman growled, hands twitching. Roderick looked concerned as well.
"Aside from Princess Euphemia, Lelouch and Nunnally are Princess Cornelia's favourite siblings." Reuben answered easily, though he was now frowning at the clear disrespect to his charges. "Doubtless she would keep them safe. Leaving theoretical situations to one side, we need to talk about you, Melisande."
"Me?" the woman blinked in shock.
"Arthur Campton. Desmond Olivier. Eustace Mulligans. Henrietta May. Abel Star." Reuben listed calmly, causing Melisande's eyes shrink into pinpoints as her skin took on a deathly pallor. "Sampson Saint-James. Ursula Longknife. Antony Matthau...I think you know all of these people, don't you? All of them are, or were, infamous members of criminal families and cartels in Area 11."
"R-really...that's news to me." Melisande managed to say, somewhat shakily. "And why would I know such people?"
"Come now, Melisande." the old man said reprovingly. "Did you actually imagine that you could pull the wool over my eyes? You weren't even married to Roderick for a year before you started making plans to supplant me. After our banishment, you were so sure that it would come down to one of us being removed from the board permanently. And even with your titanic ego, you knew that you couldn't match me as a politician or an industrialist, so you instead decided to go for a more…extralegal route. Sadly, you were just as ham-fisted about gathering your ne'er-do-well allies as you were in trying to position your servants around me."
Melisande felt as if her heart had lodged itself in her throat. 'He knew?!'
"Dear…" Roderick spoke up tentatively.
"Shut up, Roderick!" she snarled and he flinched, looking down submissively.
Pretending as if he hadn't noticed, Reuben continued speaking. "Of course, by the time you tried to approach them, I'd already brought them under my control. To quote Sun-Tzu, 'Know yourself and know your enemy and you need not fear a hundred battles.' You were never an opponent that could unseat me Melisande, because I had long since read your nature and character, and was thus able to predict your likely moves well in advance, whereas you simply looked down on me due to my age and...ah, 'sentimentality', I believe you refer to it as. I've always believed that valuing life and friends is not a sign of weakness, and that disregarding those is not a sign of strength. Then again, you were always too self-absorbed to understand something like that, I suppose."
"So what of it?" Melisande ground out furiously, her anger rising now.
"The star of the Ashford Family is in ascendance once again." Reuben lectured her, his mien shifting to that of a teacher lecturing a particularly dim-witted student. "The contract to build Sutherlands, Gloucesters and a substantial monthly payment for the Galeschin will flow into our coffers, not to mention future contracts once we begin finalizing the designs for the Budick and Nentres. I no longer have either the luxury or desire to deal with your infantile schemes and plots. You are both to be sent to oversee the Ashford Family's holdings on Okinawa...for the rest of your lives."
A vein beat a furious pulse on Melisande's head at this. The Ashford Family had a pathetically small factory in Okinawa, that was it. It made nuts, bolts, sprockets, hand tools and other boring, but essential, things needed to repair and maintain most kinds of machinery, up to and including Knightmares. It was completely unnecessary to have a member of the family oversee the place! This was exile, no doubt about it!
"And what if I reveal to all and sundry the existence of those royal brats?" Melisande threatened darkly. "They and you wouldn't get off easily if I reveal everything!"
"Simply by remaining silent about them over the years means that you're already an accessory to the act, Melisande." Reuben shook his head in disappointment at her lack of foresight. "Even revealing their existence now would not remove your culpability for the past half-decade in the eyes of the Imperial Family. You'll either be imprisoned or, more likely, 'rewarded' with a clean, quick execution. Do you really want to walk down a path of mutual destruction?"
With a scream of frustration and 'I have had enough of this shit', Melisande leapt to her feet and drew one of her derringers, pointing it right at Reuben's head. The old man simply cocked an eyebrow.
"And, do tell, what exactly do you plan to do with that?" he asked conversationally.
"D-Dear…!" his son said worriedly.
"Shut. UP! Roderick!" Melisande snarled. "And you! I have a gun pointed at your head! Why the hell aren't you more worried?!"
"Because, my dear, reckless, and immature daughter-in-law, I told you before; I read your moves well in advance." Reuben said with a disappointed sigh. "I cut off your external help. The servants you have in the mansion who are loyal to you are on the miniscule side and only work within your own rooms, where I never tread. Your criminal associates have been de-fanged. The political side is so against you that it may as well be an impassable obstacle. That left you with confronting me yourself. I was well aware that Madeline DeAmbury sent you a pair of derringers before her accident, so it was likely that you'd use them to attempt to intimidate me."
"Intimidate nothing! I WILL take the position as family head today!" the furious woman declared. "By hook or by crook, it will be mine!"
"So you'll shoot me? Do tell how you'll manage to cover my death up, hm?" the older man replied, seemingly completely uncaring of the fact that a loaded gun was levelled at his head. "With your poor control over the servants, they'll report any gunshots to the police, which will very quickly reach the Viceroy's attention; after Milly's nigh-assassination recently, I think she'll likely inspect happenings over here personally. You lack access to the security network, so you cannot destroy or doctor the security feeds showing you entering my office. Not to mention that shooting me is quite useless; I have long-since registered Milly as my chosen heir, so you would be left utterly stymied."
"That little brat should have known her place!" Melisande snarled. "Once I've dealt with you, I'll deal with her as well. Children are to be used for the sake of the betterment of their family; I was wed into this family in order to improve the DeAmbury Family's prospects, so I know this better than anyone! You're too soft on her, letting her pine after that cast-out prince like a bitch in heat. If he's not willing to be of use to the family, why bother keeping him? Your sentiment for him is just as appalling."
"Are we mere pawns of our families, to be moved without regard for our will and preferences?" Reuben asked philosophically. "No. We are human, and it is our choices as individuals that should matter, not what our family cares to think. Truly, Milly has clearer sight than you do; and I wholeheartedly approve of her choice in a spouse. Let us bring an end to this, Melisande. You have three choices here: submit to my decision and allow yourself to be exiled to Okinawa, put the gun away and leave Area 11 for any other Area in the Empire, or attempt to pull that trigger and suffer the consequences."
A mocking sneer crossed Melisande's face. "Fallout? Even if the police listen to the commoners over a Noble's statement, I will simply pay them off. The security footage can be destroyed and my daughter forced to obey, keeping her precious princeling at gunpoint should work to keep accommodating until she can be disposed of. That's what you never understood, father-in-law. How you win is immaterial; to be Britannian is to achieve victory, the means behind that victory are immaterial. Goodbye, Reuben. I'd say that it was a pleasure, but I don't like lying to the dead."
The brunette's finger started to squeeze the trigger before her fingers seemed to lock in place. Slowly her finger uncurled before her hand simply let go of the weapon, all against her own will!
"Wh-what...what's going on?! My hand…!" Melisande stuttered as she stared in fright at her right hand. "I can't control my hand!"
Abruptly, the hand clenched into a fist before slamming itself into its owner's face, not holding back in the least. Melisande cried out in pain as blood spurted from her nose. Roderick would have gotten up to help his wife, but his entire body had locked up, only his eyes able to dart about in frantic panic.
The side door, which led to a small room Reuben used to secure some of his personal files, opened and Milly Ashford stalked out, eyes glaring at her birth parents in a primal fury. In one of them, a crimson crane symbol blazed with intensity. Coming out behind her were Lelouch and Sayoko, both sharing Milly's furious expression.
"Fuck. You. Melisande!" the Ashford Heiress growled at her mother. "You completely ignore me for the first five years of my life, expect me to be a goddamned sock puppet for you, belittle me, insult me and try to sell me off to anyone so long as you can be a noble again. That much is just you being a typical Britannian noble, so I can accept it as par for the course even if I despise it, but you just threatened the only real parent I've ever had, you stupid bitch. You just burned your last bridge with me."
Then she wheeled on her father. "And you! How the hell is a spineless worm like you related to me and grandfather?! You just sat there while she almost killed him!" she raged. It was clear that Milly was venting all of the anger and frustration that the two people before her had given her over the years.
"M-Milly…I…!" he managed to protest weakly. When his daughter looked into his eyes, what she saw made her pity her sire. Lelouch had been right, there was absolutely nothing left of Roderick Ashford left in the man, just a miserable shell whose personality had been utterly crushed beneath his wife's heel over the years.
"Enough." Milly sighed, slumping her shoulders in exhaustion. Death would honestly be a release for Roderick, he barely counted as an independent person anymore, simply acting as a sycophantic puppet for his wife.
"You alright, love?" Lelouch asked her softly, hugging her from behind, ignoring the pained sobbing from the mostly immobile Melisande.
"Yeah...I am now." she said, relaxing into her boyfriend's embrace.
"Sayoko, secure her." the exiled prince ordered, nodding at Melisande.
With sharp motions that gave absolutely no respect to Melisande's position as a member of the family that employed her, Sayoko roughly bound Melisande's arms behind her back and secured her to the seat she had vacated previously, doing the same to Roderick before moving to stand primly and demurely at her master's side.
"Had you not shown me your unusual ability before, I would be very much taken aback, Milly." Reuben said as he witnessed the 'Ward of Absolute Puppetry' at work. When Lelouch had revealed the existence of such unusual powers to him three days ago, he readily admitted to having doubts...before Milly had made him perform the Cossack Dance for twenty seconds or so.
The scientist in him was honestly curious about how these powers worked. The rest was a mix of grateful that such a power was in his granddaughter's hands, and terrified about what other powers could be out there
It had been Lelouch's idea to have Milly on standby in case Melisande proved herself more a fool than Reuben had expected. Her 'Geass' had very literally saved his life, and he made a note to give his granddaughter a substantial raise in her allowance...all of Melisande and Roderick's money, for a kick-off.
"In this case, I'm glad to have surprised you." the blond girl said with a sigh. A beep from her phone made her check on it. "Celesta's confined all of their servants. You can deal with them later, Lulu."
"Can you please not call me that when we're dealing with this pair of idiots." Lelouch said in mild exasperation. Really, this woman…!
Sighing at the antics his Milly (and was it odd that he found referring to her like that all too natural?) was getting up to as usual, the raven-haired boy stared down at the two people who had brought Milly into the world before making her life miserable since the start of their exile.
Roderick was a minor annoyance at best. His complete subservience to Melisande overruling any loyalty to his family was the only reason he was even going to bother with the man. That and he wasn't sure how the puppet would react if its master simply disappeared. Too much of a risk of him being used against Milly in the future to leave him as a loose end.
Melisande on the other hand was, frankly speaking, a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off. The woman had no compunctions about betraying the family she had been married into out of spite, and had even spoken about killing her own daughter with no signs of sorrow or hesitation in her face, voice or body language.
A true Britannian, indeed.
"Reuben, you may want to leave now." he said softly. "What is to come isn't going to be pleasant to watch."
At the very least, Lelouch wanted to spare the man who had helped shelter him and Nunnally the necessity of witnessing his only son's last free moments. Useless and cowardly as he was, Roderick was the only living child of Reuben and his deceased wife. It wasn't right to force a man to watch the prelude to the death of his own son.
"No, I think I'll stay, Lelouch." Reuben shook his head slowly, appreciating the way out the boy had left him. Sadly, he needed to do this. He had allied with Lelouch and made the decision to eliminate his son and daughter-in-law; to him, that meant that he had to stay the course and watch the happenings here to the end. As a father, it was all he could do for his son.
"...very well." Lelouch nodded, respecting the older man's choice. Turning his attention back to his captive audience, Lelouch's lip curled slightly in distaste. Everything wrong about Britannia's system of nobility and Charles zi Britannia's Social Darwinism was represented in Melisande, while Roderick was living proof that being born to a noble family wasn't an automatic guarantee of being talented, competent or even remotely strong willed. Even Tamaki would have handled Melisande a lot better than Roderick had, and that was saying something!
Say what you like about Shinichirō Tamaki, but he was no one's bitch. Roderick could never hope to match such a statement.
"So then Melisande, it has come to this." the exiled prince sighed somewhat theatrically, letting himself get into character. "Seven years, countless attempts to make my sister and I sacrifice ourselves on the altar of your ambition and with this you truly cross the final line. Any other person would have recognized a losing hand when they'd realized just how badly they'd been backed into a corner and simply accepted Reuben's rather generous offer of exile. But not you, no. Instead you go for broke with hardly a plan, guided by simple arrogance and a bullheaded refusal to admit defeat. And that has led you here."
The malice and resentment in Melisande's eyes tripled during his speech, but they also showed a hint of smugness and satisfaction. Given her personality and ruthlessness, it didn't take Lelouch more than ten seconds to guess what was going through her head.
"Ah, let me guess. Right now you're considering whatever system you established to expose Nunnally and I if something were to happen to you?" he assayed smugly. "I'd put money that its either some form of private contractor or perhaps a smuggler; someone in that grey area where they couldn't make use of the information themselves but could benefit from being in your favour. How am I doing so far?"
Despite her paralysis, Melisande still managed to display quite a bit of shock at the statement, which made Lelouch sigh in annoyance. It was yet another reason why he despised the horrid woman; while he made it a point to keep the full extent of his intellect and capabilities hidden from most, and thus expected to be overlooked by the majority, he expected those who did know of it to acknowledge his intelligence and ability.
Melisande had never done so, so caught up on his 'commoner blood' that she refused to see him as anything more than an 'upstart brat who needs to listen to his betters.'
"I do so wish that you'd show some intelligence. Melisande. Between you and your puppet, it's a wonder my Milly is capable of tying her own shoes. I suppose Reuben's brilliance simply skipped a generation." Lelouch offered with a scowl. "I'd honestly be more concerned if you hadn't had some sort of backup in place. Still, that won't do you much good, as you're going to tell me everything about it right now."
The former noblewoman looked on in terror as the same crimson crane symbol that was somehow in her daughter's eye appeared in Lelouch's left eye as well.
"{Obey me!}" Lelouch commanded softly, the bird symbol in his eye flapping once as he did so.
The last free thought of Melisande Ashford was a litany of curses directed towards Lelouch vi Britannia and his useless cripple of a sister.
Hours Later
Milly's Room, Ashford Mansion
"I cannot believe that…that…unrepentant sow!" Milly growled as she paced across the floor. "Not only did she try to kill grandfather, not only did she intend to kill me, but she was actually planning on selling you and Nunna out to your father!"
"And she failed miserably at it, Milly." Lelouch offered soothingly from where he leaned against the wall. "Sayoko's already found and retrieved the man that Melisande entrusted the files to, and he's now under my control. All the copies have been destroyed and we even fragged the computer system he had them stored in so there's no chance of anyone being able to retrieve them."
"Not to mention all of her loyal servants are yours as well." the blonde bombshell offered, a vicious grin across her features. She'd always had a distaste for the uppity idiots that served her mother, all of them were classic Britannians, elitist snobs and brown-nosers to the core. Seeing Lelouch put all of them under his Geass had been a pleasure.
"Well, we did need some patsies to blame Melisande and Roderick's assassination." Lelouch remarked absently. "None of them are without their own sins and crimes, so it's merely their own fault what comes. Their final performance combined with our latest bit of intel is going to make the next few weeks interesting"
What information that Lelouch had extracted from his newest pawns hadn't been particularly important or useful. A few offshore accounts they'd kept off the books, a safety deposit box Melisande had kept a few particularly valuable nick-knack in case she'd needed some 'untraceable' funds. However, there had been one bit of information that they'd provided that would prove useful for his secondary identity as the Masked Revolutionary.
The identity of the Black King, the undisputed ruler of the Tokyo Settlement's underworld; better known to the world at large as Viscount Eduardo Royale.
The man had taken every precaution in hiding his identity, to the point that even Lelouch (as Zero) had been stymied in finding out who he actually was. Unfortunately for the man, Royale had decided to meet with Melisande in person, to better his chance of gaining influence with the Ashford Foundation after Melisande had taken control of it. That and the man apparently had a weakness for beautiful women.
The two were actually lovers on occasion. That honestly hadn't surprised Lelouch or Milly; after everything Melisande had done, her cuckolding her husband wasn't that much of a surprise.
On an interesting note, Viscount Royale also 'shared' the title of Black King due to his habit of gambling on chess matches and his preference toward playing black. Most had simply dismissed it as a coincidence, no one willing to believe that a criminal kingpin would dare to use their underworld title in real life. A double bluff, Lelouch would give the man credit for that bit of deception.
"Ruthless as ever, dear." Milly smirked before becoming serious. "After this happens, you know we're not going to be able to keep Cornelia from coming to visit."
Despite speaking of the impending deaths of her birth parents, she might as well have been speaking of two total strangers.
"I am aware. Reuben will send Nunnally to the Ashford Private Hospital to have another check-up early tomorrow morning." the raven-haired boy stated. "Sayoko is already preparing for the move, and will be scouring the hospital building for any signs of infiltration or subversion tonight."
If there were any infiltrators, he felt sorry for them; Sayoko adored Nunnally with a mix of maternal and sisterly affection, and had very little patience with, or ability to tolerate, those who threatened her 'little mistress' in any way. The last time someone had been belligerent towards Nunnally, a passer-by who had been a fanatical supporter of Social Darwinism, the man had suffered a 'rather nasty fall.'
Said 'fall' broke both his legs in three places each, shattered one of his hands, crushed his nose, and left him with less teeth than a newborn toddler.
"What about C.C.? Where's she been since she secured the servants?" Milly asked curiously.
"She'll be staying in Theta Base, overseeing the people I've Geassed into my service as they do the renovations." Lelouch replied. "Another few weeks and the place will be fully operational."
"That's simply amazing." Milly shook her head in wonder. "Theta Base is almost a decade old, and some of the advances in technology over the last seven years have made a lot of the systems completely obsolete. You must have spent millions of pounds in order to get all of the upgrades you needed…"
"Approximately four million pounds thus far, not including payment for the workers, raw materials and bribes." the exiled prince informed his girlfriend. "If you include those, the cost rises to almost four and a half million. Fortunately, we were able to liquidate most of Code-R's offshore accounts before whoever the Emperor has in charge of them started sniffing around, so that covered most of it. The rest was covered by several…generous donations from a few noble families."
"You are evil, Lelouch." Milly giggled, though the smile on her face was a vicious thing. "You've bankrupted several of those noble families...granted they deserved it with the way they treated those people."
Lelouch had carefully chosen targets among the nobility, the worst offenders when it came to the treatment of their workers. Sayoko had been able to easily infiltrate their businesses and homes, placing a few bugs of Lelouch's own design into their computer systems, effectively allowing Lelouch complete and total access. After that, it was a simple matter to drain their accounts to next-to-nothing, before pinning the blame on another family deserving of…imperial attention.
Combined with his other funds, Lelouch was now a multi-millionaire; though a significant chunk of that was invested in his revolution and the Black Knights. He'd still managed to invest a good chunk of it into the Ashford Foundation and a few other more moderate and progressive families that he thought could be turned to the cause eventually.
"That just leaves tonight." she said as she looked unblinkingly at the boy who had owned her heart since she had been a young girl.
"You want me to seduce you on the eve of the death of your parents?" Lelouch asked, one eyebrow hiking up.
"My sperm donator and uterine receptacle mean absolutely nothing to me, Lelouch." the Ashford Heiress informed him tartly. "I had my first crush on you when I was five, had my heart shattered when I thought you died at ten and fell head over heels for you when I was twelve. You are far more important to me than those two could ever be. I honestly thought I'd be thrilled with their demise after everything they've put me through. Instead I feel absolutely nothing about their impending demise. No sadness or grief, nor joy or excitement; just nothing. Odd, isn't it?"
Given Lelouch's own issues with his father, may he be damned forever, he really couldn't say anything here.
"I watched with jealousy as C.C. and Sayoko were taken into your bed, and I'm sure Kaguya and Kallen will soon follow suit, but I refuse to wait any longer." Milly said firmly. "So, either I'm going to jump you, or you can throw me atop my bed and ravish me until I can't walk tomorrow. Entirely your choice, Lelouch."
After barely managing to restrain a deadpan look at his childhood friend, Lelouch walked over to her and cupped her face with one hand. "Are you certain? Once we do this, there will be no going back. Your first time doesn't come every day, you know."
"Lelouch, shut up and make me scream your name." Milly said, cupping the hand with her own and leaning into the affectionate gesture lovingly. "It isn't nice to keep a lady waiting, especially after when she's being so frank with you."
"Then as the lady likes…" Lelouch whispered and drew her into a soft kiss that made her whimper in desire. As his hands started to wander, Milly moaned as one hand started squeezing her full rear, while the other teased one of her breasts.
If nothing else, Milly was grateful that Melisande had passed down most of her physical features to her; her grandmother had been a slender, lithe and svelte woman, with an appropriately modest bust to go along with it. Milly rather liked her full, perky DD rack, thank you very much, and the sensitivity increase that C.C. had performed on her breasts made even being lightly groped there above her clothes a very pleasurable experience.
Suddenly, a second hand joined the first on her rump and Milly found herself hoisted into the air by Lelouch. She squeaked and automatically locked her legs around his waist as he carried her towards her bed.
"Pwah!" she disengaged from the kiss to smile coyly at her soon-to-be lover. "Who knew that you were this strong? I never imagined you could lift me…"
"Thank Sayoko. She is a harsh taskmistress, but the rewards are worth the efforts." Lelouch answered with a knowing smirk, before leaning in to breathe into her. "But less about her, love. Tonight is all about you."
Were it not for the fact he was holding her up, Milly may well have swooned there and then. Since when was Lelouch so suave with whispering sweet nothings? She was willing to bet that bedding a seven-century-old immortal had something to do with it, especially as she was his bed partner most nights, mostly because Sayoko was often busy with tasks assigned by Lelouch as Aegis, or otherwise busy with household chores and looking after Nunnally.
That would be changing soon, as she was going to convince her grandfather to let her move in with Lelouch. They were going to get married, after all.
Her thoughts were distracted as she was laid back on her bed, looking up at Lelouch as he stripped out of his Ashford uniform top.
"I'm wearing too much, aren't I?" she asked throatily and reached for her own uniform jacket.
"Allow me." Lelouch interrupted as he crawled onto the bed and straddled her waist. "You're the one who incited me, so allow me to tell you how this is going to go. I'm going to slowly unwrap you like a present, and then take my sweet time learning each and every one of your sweet-spots. By the time tomorrow comes, you will be my woman, in body and in spirit."
Milly's womanhood grew heated, and trembled with desire at those words.
"Then don't talk about it, do it!" she demanded fervently.
"Well then...let us begin…" Lelouch smirked, and reached for her jacket.
*You know the drill by now. Look on my account of the same name on AO3 for the Lemon!*
Milly collapsed on her front as both of the new lovers finally ran out of energy. Her naked body was covered in a sheen of sweat that made her look almost ethereal, and the love-bites on her lower neck stood out bright red against her pale skin.
Aside from the slight pain from the hickeys, Milly's hair was a bit sore, and the pain in her nether regions didn't need to be mentioned, but despite that, the girl wouldn't change anything.
"So, love." Lelouch murmured as he collapsed next to her and drew her into a one-armed embrace. "Did I pass muster?"
"And then some!" Milly giggled happily. "You really made me scream your name, multiple times even! How'd you know I liked being treated gently at the start and roughly at the end in bed?"
"Milly, I've known you since we were five." the boy smirked in that infuriating-yet-sexy way of his. "And I've lived around you on a daily basis since before we hit our teens. Rest assured, there is only a small number of things that I haven't deduced about you."
Rather than making her worried, that statement served to ignite more arousal in Milly's body. Lelouch usually tried to stay detached, keeping a distance between himself and everyone else. He frequently quietly catalogued information about people, but rarely beyond a couple of data-points that would prove useful in manipulating them, unless he was close friends with them. The closer to him you were, the more information he would gather on you.
That he had learned so much about her told Milly that he genuinely, honestly loved her. And that fact made her happy beyond belief.
"We'd better get some sleep. We both have a busy day tomorrow." Lelouch told her as he grabbed the cover and drew it over them both.
Milly's face pinked as the very intimate situation dawned on her. They were going to sleep in the same bed, naked, after making love. Even though she had just made love with Lelouch who knows how many times, this gesture of intimacy made her fall in love with him all over again.
Saying nothing, Milly snuggled into her lover's side and sighed contentedly as she felt the grasp of Morpheus coming upon her. Finally, after twelve long years of waiting and pining, she had her man.
'It's true...good things really do come to those who wait…' she thought fuzzily as she fell asleep.
The Next Day
Airport Terminal, Britannian Tokyo Settlement
"Be careful with those, you idiots!" Melisande barked irritably. "If we have to go on this ghastly exile, then I refuse to go without my creature comforts! If anything in those suitcases are damaged, it's coming out of your pay!"
"Yes, ma'am." her long-suffering team of servants chorused, weighed down by three large baggage carts that they struggled to push.
Roderick meekly followed at his wife's side as they advanced towards the part of the terminal that housed the private plane section. Although fallen from grace and stripped of their noble title, the Ashfords still had more than sufficient resources to own a small fleet of commercial and private jets, both for transporting products and raw materials and for allowing the members of the Ashford Family the ability to travel within Area 11 wholly in comfort.
'Just you wait, you miserable old fool!' Melisande fumed as she marched angrily forwards. 'I may be forced to obey you for now, but I will make a comeback, just you wait and see!'
As if to mock her, a tinny chime sounded out at that precise moment, a bored-sounding female echoing over the intercom a moment later.
"Could Alan Spacer please come to the nearest payphone, call waiting from Sue Donym. I repeat, could Alan Spacer please come to the nearest payphone!"
As soon as the mic clicked off, red circles appeared around the irises of Melisande's near-dozen servants, their bodies slacking momentarily before they began to move again. They abandoned their efforts at pushing the trolleys, before moving to encircle their master and mistress.
"What is going on here?! What do you fools think you're doing?" Melisande barked in irritation, before her face slackened in fear as all of the butlers and maids drew concealed pistols from their uniforms and levelled them at the two trapped in their encirclement.
As people around them started to notice the situation shouts and screams started up, even as security personnel started running over, but it was too late.
"Death to the followers of the Commoner Empress!" the servants shouted in unison before firing their weapons. In a small fusillade of bullets, Roderick and Melisande Ashford were cut down, falling to the ground and bleeding profusely. Roderick died instantly from a lucky pair of shots that pierced right through his neck and skull.
Melisande wasn't that lucky; one of the shots had hit an artery and she was slowly bleeding out on the cold floor.
'No...this can't be...why...when I was going to plan to win this time…!' she thought wretchedly.
It was at this point that all of her memories of the previous day rushed back to her, including Lelouch's orders for this particular moment.
{When you are shot by your servants and lie on the floor dying, you will remember everything that happened today, and you will not speak a single word, nor will you mouth a thing or try to and pass a message in any form. You will die in full knowledge that you stepped where angels fear to tread and that I could have been much, much crueller in how I eliminated you. You will die knowing all this and not able to do a thing about it.}
As she struggled to break the mysterious power that had sealed her voice, several servants emptied another round into her body before placing the guns against their necks and opened fire for the last time, killing themselves.
Raging and struggling in her mind to the very last moment, Melisande Ashford died just as the security team arrived next to her body, a look of rage and despair on her face as she breathed her last.
"Well...fuck." the security agent swore as he registered that both the victims and the assailants were dead, before he turned to his companion. "Johansson, get Security Control to call the police and the Administration Building. These are members of the Ashford family that just died on our watch. Call more security members to cordon off the area, as well as lock the terminal down; no one enters or leaves before forensics goes over this place with a fine-toothed comb."
"Yessir!" Johansson nodded before bolting off.
"I'm so gonna lose my job!" the man left to guard the cooling corpses mourned.
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Next Chapter: Knight of Honour
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Knightmare Hanger
Unit Name: Galeschin
Model Number: YF17-X10A
Previous Pilot: Ashford Foundation Test Pilot
Future Pilot: Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald
Description: Prototype 7th Generation Knightmare Frame
General Characteristics
- Crew: One (Pilot)
- Height: 4.51 Meters
- Weight: 7 metric Tonnes
- Power Source: Yggdrasil drive, Energy Fillers
Design Features
- Cockpit Ejection System
- Landspinner Propulsion System
- Factsphere Sensor System
Armament
- X1 Collapsible Knightmare Longsword
- X1 Knightmare Heater Shield (with a pair of Slash Harkens mounted on the curved end, and sheath for the sword)
- X2 Waist-Mounted Slash Harkens
- X2 Wrist-Mounted Slash Harkens
- X2 Collapsible Knightmare Poniards (Contained in leg sheaths)
- X1 Rhongomyniad Experimental High-Impact Electromagnetic Accelerator Linear Cannon