Lelouch I

"Announcing Prince Lelouch Vi Britannia seventeenth heir to the royal Britannian Imperial throne!"

After the Imperial herald had announced him to the court, Lelouch strode on into the throne room with all the confidence a ten-year-old can muster. If one did not know much about the royal family, you would be shocked to learn that the young boy was meeting with his father. Firstly, you would be astonished that someone needed to arrange a meeting with their father in the first place. And secondly, you would likely be surprised that a father and son would meet in front of a crowd of more than fifty plus courtiers. But this was not an ordinary family; this was the Imperial family of Britannia. And no one, not even a Prince of the Empire, could just meet with the Emperor of Britannia. As Lelouch walked towards his father, who was sitting on his throne, Lelouch listened in on the courtiers' whispered words.

"I heard Empress Marianne was killed inside of the Britannian palace."

"There's no way terrorists could've gotten in there."

"Then, the real killers must've been…."

"Beware, my friend. You'll regret starting rumors like that around here!"

"And yet he seems so steadfast, even though his mother is dead!"

"But he has no path to the throne now."

"And the Ashford family who backed them is finished, too."

"And his sister, the princess?"

"I heard she was shot in the legs."

"And that she'd lost her sight."

"Hysterical Blindness, though, right?"

"It's the same thing. She can't even be married off for political gain now."

After Lelouch reached his destination, he stood at attention before his father. "Your majesty! My mother has passed away!" Lelouch said.

"What of it?" Charles replied in a bored tone.

"What of it?!" Lelouch repeated to himself in disbelief.

"You sought an audience with the Emperor of Britannia simply to tell me that? Send the next one in. I have no time to babysit a child," Responded the boy's father in a disdainful tone.

"Father!" the boy yelled as he ran up the steps to his father's throne. Two guards rushed to intercept the young prince with their weapons drawn. However, the Emperor waved them away, and they responded with a mechanical "Yes, your majesty!".

"Why didn't you protect mother! You're the Emperor! The greatest man in this nation, if not the world! You should have protected her, and now you don't even visit Nunnally!" Lelouch yelled at his father.

"I have no use for weaklings," Charles sneered.

"Weaklings?" the boy said to himself in shock.

"That is what it means to be royalty," Charles continued.

Lelouch looked away from his father, the image he had of him in his head firmly shattered; finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he looked up at him again. "Oh really? Then what did it mean when you had my mother murder your siblings and do your dirty work during the reign of blood? Is that weakness or strength cowering behind my mother like a snivelling child the Great Charles Zi Britannia a second class soldier to a woman who by birth you and these sycophants would deem lesser or are your Darwinist beliefs a mere facade to mask some inadequacy? If so then I don't want to be your heir. I give up my claim to the throne!" he yelled in defiance of his father's proclamation.

The court gasped in disbelief; for anyone to talk to the Emperor in such a way, especially a ten-year-old child was unheard of in the empire.

"I'm tired of the fighting and the scheming over who will succeed you, father. I've had enough!" Lelouch continued.

"You are dead," Charles replied with venom in his voice.

"You've been dead from the moment you were born. Who gave you the clothes you wear? Your home, your food, your very life! All of those I have given to you! In short, you have never actually lived! And yet you dare to speak such foolishness to me!" Charles yelled as he stood up. This action startled Lelouch, which caused him to fall with a scared squeak.

"Lelouch!" The Emperor yelled while staring into his son's eyes.

"As you are dead, you have no rights. I am sending you to Japan. As a Prince, you will serve well as a bargaining chip," Charles continued.

Lelouch looked up at his father with a mixture of anger and fear in his eyes "and what of Nunnally?" he asked.

"She will prove useful to me in other ways," he replied coldly.

"Now get out of my sight!" he yelled.

"I shall and may you choke upon the venom of your own spite you loathsome bastard and the ghost of my mother rip at your soul with guilt till your old and weakened and then I shall come for you like a wolf among sheep," Lelouch said as he got up and began walking out of the throne room. Lelouch was furious; he could practically hear the held-back laughter of his father's court at his foolishness and weakness. He had barely been able to contain his anger when he listened to their dismissive comments about Nunnally, but now it was even worse. He had been humiliated by his own goddamn father. Exiled for daring to confront him about the indifference he had shown towards his mother's death.

Lelouch was given a day to pack his things and get his affairs in order for preparation for his exile to Japan's island nation. His siblings, the ones he was close with, of course, came to see him off. Schneizel, Clovis, Cornelia, Euphemia, Lalia, and Marrybell were among them. Nonnette Energram, Jeremiah, and Darlton, members of his mother's old royal guard were also among them. Nunnally was still in the hospital, so she couldn't come to see him off. Euphemia began to move towards him, likely to hug him or comfort him somehow, but Cornelia stopped her and merely shook her head sadly. Lelouch looked at them for a while, nodded his head, and climbed up the stairs and into the plane that would take him to Japan. Jeremiah saluted him as the plane took off into the sky with the child of the woman he so admired inside of it. When the plane was finally out of sight Lelouch's siblings went their separate ways back to their residences.

As Lelouch was sitting in his passenger seat on the plane, he silently wondered to himself what this new land would be like.

Lelouch would get an answer to his question 16 hours after he asked it when he finally arrived at the location of his exile after a non-stop flight from Pendragon to Japan. Japan, to put it simply, was beautiful. Not in the same way as Britannia but beautiful nonetheless, where Britannia's architecture was opulent, Japan's was simple. Where Britannia was heavily industrialized, Japan was far more rural. After he was done looking at Japan from out the window of the plane, Lelouch disembarked from the aircraft. The young Prince got into the car that would take him to the Kururugi shrine, where he would be staying for the foreseeable future.

As Lelouch sat in the car, his mind wandered to his siblings. Sibling, the word was a strange one in the context of the Imperial family. It was hard to have a normal relationship with your siblings when there are 98 of them, many of which are more than a decade older than you and have different mothers. Although his father had made it clear that he would not tolerate any assassination attempts between his children like in the emblem of blood, squabbling over the throne was still the order of the day. He wondered who Schneizel was playing chess with now that he was gone. Clovis and Cornelia could never hope to match Schneizel and Euphemia; Odysseus and Guenivere had no interest in the game. He wondered if his siblings were missing him, or were they celebrating the fact that they didn't have to deal with a rival for the throne down the line? He wondered if Nunnally had woken up yet since she was due to wake up any hour when he left. How would she react to his exile? Not well, that was for sure.

She had already lost her sight, legs, and mother to a hail of bullets, and now she was losing her brother to her father's indifference and cruelty. The young prince sat there in the car for about 2 hours until he finally arrived at the Kururugi Shrine. The actual shrine itself was at the top of a hill at the end of a long stone staircase. Lelouch got out of the car, sighed, and then began walking up the stairs. It was a long staircase, and Lelouch was never the most active of children, so he was panting by the time he got to the top. After he had caught his breath, he looked up and saw four individuals looking at him as if to size him up. A big man in his 40s in a white shirt with black pants Lelouch assumed he was Genbu Kururugi, an older man in traditional black robes that Lelouch didn't recognize, and two children Lelouch didn't know.

Lelouch walked up to them, bowed, and introduced himself in perfect Japanese. Lelouch was thankful for the requirement that the royal family members had to be bilingual more than ever. He did not want to speak through a translator. "Hello, I'm Prince Lelouch Vi Britannia; it's a pleasure to meet you all," he said.

The man in black robes chuckled. "We speak English, young one," he said.

"Oh," Lelouch said blankly as the young black-haired girl giggled at him.

"I'm Genbu Kururugi; you will be staying in my family's care for the time being. I expect you to respect our ways while you are here, boy," he said in a powerful voice.

The boy with brown hair and green eyes who had been doing nothing but scowling at Lelouch for the time before this finally spoke up. "Don't think that you can get special treatment from us just because you're a prince," he sneered.

"Suzaku, be nice!" The little girl admonished, "Just as he is our guest, we are his hosts, and hosts are supposed to be gracious after all! I'm Kaguya Sumeragi. It's nice to meet you," she said. So the boy's name was Suzaku, and the girl's name was Kaguya? Suzaku seemed to have a chip on his shoulder, but the girl seemed nice enough.

"I am Taizou Kirihara, the minister of finance; I'll have the attendants bring your things to your room. If you could please follow me," Kirihara said as he turned around and started walking towards the shrine where Lelouch would be living for the foreseeable future.

"Thank you, Kirihara-Dono," Lelouch said respectively with a bow as he followed Kirihara. The rest of the people who had come to greet him dispersed and went about whatever they were doing before he arrived. After walking with Kirihara through the Kururugi shrine, Lelouch eventually arrived at what he assumed was his room.

"You will be staying here for the duration of your 'diplomatic mission,'" Kirihara said as he opened the door for Lelouch. A 'diplomatic mission' yes, that was the official reason for why Lelouch was in Japan. Officially he was supposed to improve the diplomatic relations between Britannia and Japan while he studied abroad. Of course, no one with a few brain cells to rub together actually believed that story. Why would the Emperor send his ten-year-old son to be a diplomat? And especially to improve relations with a nation that Britannia had a tenuous relationship with, like Japan?

Lelouch walked into his room and flopped down onto his new bed; as he did so, he wondered what this new chapter in his life would bring him.

Lelouch and Suzaku were sparring with each other in Kyoshiro Todoh's dojo. Now, if Suzaku had remained as hostile to him as he did initially, then Lelouch would've found this task very unpleasant. However, Kaguya, Suzaku's cousin, who was also his betrothed, had practically forced Suzaku to be civil with Lelouch, which led to the boys forming a friendship. Lelouch had never had a real friend before, oh sure, he had many "friends" from the nobility, but they had formed friendships with Lelouch out of political necessity, not real fellowship. The fact that Suzaku had been so open about his initial dislike of Lelouch only served to strengthen his belief that Suzaku was a true friend and that their friendship was not a political move of his father's. Tohdoh was Suzaku's sensei and a major in the Japanese Imperial Army, and he was famed throughout Japan for his martial arts talent. He was selected by the Prime Minister to instruct his son for that very reason.

Currently, Lelouch and Suzaku were sparring against each other using Aikido, which was consequently the martial art that Tohdoh specialized in. Lelouch was, of course, being trounced by Suzaku. Lelouch had never practiced Aikido before Tohdoh started forcing him to practice with Suzaku in his Dojo. Still, he was also the most physically inept person in the Britannian royal family even Kaguya was more physically fit than him. After the sparring session was over, Kaguya sent Lelouch and Suzaku to get her flowers from the forest.

Suzaku and Lelouch were walking through the forest together as they searched for flowers to get for Kaguya. Eventually, they came upon a small hill which they decided to climb up, Suzaku had little to no trouble climbing up the hill, but he had to pull up Lelouch when the young prince nearly fell due to his lack of upper body strength. Lelouch took a moment to catch his breath before both boys were startled by a noise. They looked up and saw a Britannian army advancing on Japan from the sky. Lelouch and Suzaku immediately dropped what they were doing and ran back to the Kururugi shrine as fast as possible.

The next notable thing to happen during Lelouch's time away from the homeland was his and Suzaku's journey through the Japanese countryside that had become a warzone. They had to avoid both the Japanese military and the Britannian military due to Lelouch and Suzaku's heritages. The Japanese army would be more than willing to kill Lelouch as reprisal for the invasion, and the Britannian military was under orders to exterminate the prime minister's family. They were currently walking through the Gunma massacre's aftermath as the atrocity would later come to be known. As they were walking through the corpse piles, Suzaku abruptly stopped. Lelouch turned to look at his friend but decided not to say anything knowing that he needed a moment to himself. For his part, Lelouch was outraged by his father's actions; not only had he invaded, knowing full well that Lelouch could die, but his military was also blatantly committing atrocities against the populace. Despite his outrage, Lelouch couldn't help but be impressed by his father's brilliance. He had given Japan a worthless hostage to lull them into a false sense of security. He had utilized their technological advantage to conquer the entire country in nearly one day. After Suzaku had collected himself, the two boys continued on their journey.

Lelouch and Suzaku were resting at a checkpoint on the road for refugees; a Japanese soldier was saluting his fallen comrades, Suzaku seemed to be brooding as he sat in the middle of the road. Despite the sheer amount of carnage they had caused, Lelouch couldn't help but be impressed at how quickly the new "Knightmare" units had laid waste to Japan's armies. They had just gotten word that Japan had given an unconditional surrender to Britannia and that Japan had been annexed. Lelouch knew what would happen next Japan would be stripped of its identity, its rights, and eventually its name. Soon the former nation of Japan would become one of Britannia's many colonial areas, and its people would become numbers. Lelouch was torn on what to do next. He could either go into hiding or return to his life as a Prince. Lelouch hated the idea of returning to his father, but at the same time, he needed to protect Nunnally. After he had decided on his next course of action, Lelouch walked up to where Suzaku was sitting.

"Suzaku, One day I swear to you, I'll destroy Britannia from within, and build a new Empire in my own image!" he said.

Jeremiah I

Jeremiah was worried; specifically, he was worried for the son of the woman he loved and admired, albeit from a distance. He was happy with his life, even if it was as an insignificant royal guard. He got to live in the same place of residence as the woman he loved and got to watch over her children. But it had all gone to shit when Marianne had been assassinated, and Prince Lelouch had been exiled to Japan for daring to speak up to his father, the emperor. Marianne's assassination had ruined her entire Royal guard's reputation, with the exception of Princess Cornelia. For the most part, they were blamed for her death because they had withdrawn her escort before her death. Of course, the snakes in the Imperial court had conveniently forgotten that Lady Marianne herself had ordered them to withdraw, but things like logic and facts mattered little to the court. And as such, most of the royal guards had either retired in disgrace or had been sent on a suicide mission to die in the invasion of Japan. Jeremiah was in the latter category. But he had, somehow, defied expectations and had actually succeeded in his suicide mission.

At the moment, Jeremiah and his unit held up a checkpoint on one of the main Japanese highways. Their job was to check the escaping refugee's ids to see if they were on the kill list of Important Japanese political figures. In short, their job was to kill fleeing members of the former Japanese government who were trying to escape from the country. His thoughts were interrupted when he saw a ragged-looking boy come up to the checkpoint. The black-haired boy looked almost… familiar… but that couldn't be, could it? The very thought of the Prince being some ragged refugee coming to this particular checkpoint at this exact point in time was ridiculous. But then again, if he had the chance to bring the Prince home and he didn't take it, then he would never be able to forgive himself. So just to be sure, he got out of his Knightmare and walked towards the boys.

To his surprise, the boy spoke to him before he could to speak to the boy, He spoke in an imperious tone.

"I am Prince Lelouch Vi Britannia, eleventh Prince of the Empire and seventeenth in line to the throne; after you verify my identity I ask that you bring me back to Britannia," he said. And when those words were said, history was changed forever.

Author's note:

Hi, it's been a while hasn't it, this is the rewrite for my old fic, "Sceptre." Normally I would've just posted chapter nine, with an apology for taking so long. However, There were some things in my old fic that I found to be nonsensical, foremost among these was Lelouch bringing Suzaku to Brtiannia to live among him and the royal family, and everyone just kind of…. Accepting it? I guess? In this version Suzaku will have his own arc in Japan. Some things that were changed this chapter was some of Lelouch's dialogue to Charles (courtesy of my editor), Lelouch's dialogue with Suzaku, and how Jeremiah meets Lelouch in Japan, which was not written particularly well in the OG Sceptre.