Chapter Seventeen: Reassessment

Kallen knew Lelouch had secrets and knew something about keeping dark secrets. And she knew that Lelouch had helped take resistance against Britannia to the next level. So she waited until they were back home in his office, behind closed doors, to say what they were both thinking.

"So, when were you going to tell me, Lelouch?" asked Kallen, not hiding the accusation in her voice.

"Never," said Lelouch, checking the data Villetta had given him.

"You've been hiding this from us all this time!" said Kallen.

"Not really," said Lelouch, typing. "Milly has known for years."

"How could you keep something like this from us?" asked Kallen, fuming all the more at his apparent indifference. He was supposed to hang his head in shame or deny it wildly.

"I could probably ask you the same question, Kozuki," said Lelouch, not looking up. "Which secret represents a greater threat to the Student Council?"

"You're a Prince!" said Kallen incredulously.

"One of many," said Lelouch. "And I renounced my claim to the throne a long time ago.

"My death was a sensational story seven years ago. If word of what I was got out, I'd be used as another bargaining chip and disposed of. My sister too.

"If word of what you were got out, you'd be able to run to your brother.

"What do you think would happen to the people you were working with?"

Kallen stopped and realized what would happen. Britannia would have the perfect excuse to have them all shot. Even if she could save them, the Student Council would have their lives ruined at best. "I...

"I don't have a choice."

"Neither do I," said Lelouch. "So, we'll move on."

Kallen wanted to object to that but couldn't come up with a good objection. So she paused and decided to move on as Lelouch wanted. "So, what about this information Villetta gave us?" Her memory went back to the sight of Villetta in that red dress and found herself... distracted.

Lelouch looked up for the first time. "Oh, it's quite extensive.

"Clovis seems to have been very interested in the operations of what he calls the Geass Order. Bartley did a very good job of chronicling it all. Assassinations, disappearances, I think Clovis played middleman to them.

"He was in over his head."

Kallen leaned in and read an excerpt from the information. It was like something out of a sci-fi movie. "This is...

"What's this about psychic powers?"

"I have no idea," admitted Lelouch. "But someone must have thought they were a real possibility."

"Why would Britannia be after this?" asked Kallen.

"If I had a guess?" asked Lelouch. "The Emperor is seeking immortality. No doubt as part of some plan for godhood."

"What makes you say that?" asked Kallen, noting he didn't refer to him as Father.

"It's what I would do if I were him," said Lelouch. "The bastard is getting on in years. He doesn't care about anyone or anything besides his own power. And if he dies, he's headed to hell. If he has a chance at immortality and ultimate power, he will take it."

"How would you know?" asked Kallen.

"Mother was his favorite consort. He actually used to visit us, unlike the others," said Lelouch simply. "When she was assassinated, he didn't even investigate things. And when I objected, Nunnally and I were exiled. Still, at least now, I know just what the Emperor has been occupying his time with."

"I always assumed he was ruling the Empire," said Kallen.

Lelouch smirked and looked up. "A Head of State making decisions for the state? You are fond of fantasy, aren't you, Kallen?"

"It's not that ridiculous!" said Kallen defensively. "Genbu Kururugi was highly involved in Japan's management."

"Yes, well, the truth is that Schneizel has been the one in charge of running the Empire," said Lelouch. "He determines policy, created the strategy, and briefs the Emperor on what he has planned.

"The Emperor, meanwhile, seems to have made himself a figurehead. He appears only for occasional public statements. I'd wondered why he seemed to be ceding authority to Schneizel; now I know why." Then he glanced back to the bed, where the green-haired girl was eating pizza. She was lounging there, clad in a straightjacket. And she was wolfing down some cheese while several empty boxes of pizza were around her. "C.C, do you have anything to add to all this?"

C.C looked up as if their discussion was far less important than the cheesy dish in her hand. "...This pizza needs more tabasco."

"Much as expected," said Lelouch, turning back.

"What is she even doing here, Lelouch?" asked Kallen.

"I was hoping she had information on events. Apparently, she does not," said Lelouch.

"If I don't want to answer your questions, I don't have to, just as you don't have to," said C.C.

"Fine then, let's start simple," said Lelouch. "When did you come to Japan?"

"Shortly before the war," said C.C.

"And what were you doing here? Were you fleeing this Geass Order?" asked Lelouch.

"Most organizations have internal strife once in a while," said C.C.

"Were you a part of the order?" asked Lelouch.

C.C shrugged. "...Cheese is good, though."

"If you don't give me answers, C.C, I'm not going to buy you pizza anymore," said Lelouch.

C.C sat up with a small cry of horror. Finally, she calmed herself and looked at him. "...You're a very cruel man.

"Fine, yes, I was associated with the Geass Order. There are a finite number of Immortals, and the Emperor needs several."

"Is there some method of transferring or replicating the power of immortality?" asked Lelouch.

"Yes," said C.C. "But it has a cost."

"Then why hasn't the Emperor used it yet?" asked Lelouch.

"Maybe he doesn't want it," said C.C.

Lelouch looked back to the screen and switched to a different file. With a frown, he looked back at C.C. "...Clovis' efforts to replicate your immortality failed. Your cells lost their immortality once they left you and died. Britannia doesn't have a legion of immortal super soldiers. So the Geass Order couldn't have faired better.

"There are few enough immortals that the Geass Order would have a shortage. That means replication is difficult or impossible. We don't see any sign of these psychic powers they detail here...

"Combined with the Geass Order's focus on you, I believe the two are connected.

"You, an immortal, are able to bestow powerful abilities on others of sort variety. This ability has been labeled geass. And that ability is somehow connected with gaining immortality, possibly transferred from you."

C.C looked up, her stoic face becoming slightly impressed. "...You're a lot cleverer than you let on, Lelouch."

"What are you talking about?" asked Kallen, feeling left out. "He's always pretending like he's the smartest person in the room!"

Lelouch shrugged. "I am the smartest person in the room."

"Well how would you even know that the ability is called geass anyway?" asked Kallen.

"Geass seems to derive from the word geas from Irish," said Lelouch. "And that was a mythological ability to compel someone to do something. And if the order is focused entirely on discovering the nature of this power, it would make sense to name it after it."

"So, now you know," said C.C. "What are you going to do?"

"Reveal the truth, of course," said Lelouch simply. "But not yet.

"Doing so at this stage will put us on the radar of some very dangerous people. We need to have more security first. We have to wait for the opportune moment to destroy this organization."

"You've only just found out about it, and you're planning to destroy it?" asked C.C.

"If the Emperor wants it to succeed, I'm fine with trashing it," said Kallen with a shrug.

C.C smiled. "My, that's honest of you, Kallen. I know Lelouch is in the middle of a teenaged rebellion, but you seem just as enthusiastic.

"Trying to impress a boy?"

Kallen scowled at her. "No, I just hate Britannia."

"Whatever you say," said C.C. "So what now?"

"Well, tomorrow we'll meet Suzaku at the place we agreed on," said Lelouch. "Today, I've got to organize some other files."

Kallen paused. "What files?"

Lelouch shrugged. "Nina asked me to put her notes in order so she can explain her theories in brief. Most people these days have a short attention span, so she needs a cliff notes version."

"What is the theory anyway?" asked Kallen.

"Well, it's very complicated, and Nina has been working on it for years," said Lelouch. "The short explanation is that Britannia's aggressive foreign policy is a money sink. One that makes individual people very rich. But it damages the wealth of Britannia more than it helps.

"Nina is arguing in favor of soft power to ensure we control the industries we need. All that without actually conquering the nation."

"How does that work?" asked Kallen, curious despite herself.

"Well, the theory she lays out here is that you offer a extensive country loans with low interest. They then use them to build infrastructure," said Lelouch, skimming through a file. "More improvements than it can likely afford to pay off if anything goes wrong.

"Something always goes wrong.

"So when they can't make the debt, Britannian corporations go in and repossess what they built. Thus they own the railways. They own the Sakuradite reserves or oil. They don't have to administer the nation, but they control everything that nation needs. So they conquer the place with none of the drawbacks."

"Yeah, that's so much better," said Kallen.

"Well, it would result in fewer massacres," said Lelouch. "But really, it's all theoretical here. Nina's policy is to try and fix our relationship with other countries. We won't have to worry about wars. At the same time, we hold the profitable provinces, cull corruption, and cede the less valuable. This act of goodwill would help."

"I guess that's a good start," said Kallen.

"So the moderates will think," said Lelouch. "But, it'll never go through."

"What makes you say that?" asked Kallen.

"The Emperor has gone out of his way to conquer as much as he possibly can over the course of his lifetime," said Lelouch. "It's one of the great achievements of his reign. He's not going to give it all up just because Nina writes an economic thesis that makes sense.

"No, our best bet is to get a movement going. The moderates, the liberals, and the pragmatic imperialists will see the sense of it. If it gets big enough, someone will assassinate Father. Then Schneizel will take the throne, and he'll adopt whatever policy works."

"You think it'll be that easy?" asked Kallen.

Lelouch laughed, and it sounded easy. "Easy?

"No.

"Our job is crushing the corruption in Area 11. Doing that will help cull the worst part of the nobility and make the transfer of power easier.

"But if killing off the Emperor of Britannia was easy, I'd have done it a long time ago."

"You hate him that much?" asked Kallen.

"He denied justice for my murdered Mother. Then exiled my crippled sister and me to Japan as political hostages," said Lelouch. "Then he invaded the place while I was there, knowing full well we might be executed in retribution. He is also responsible for a large part of the misery all over the world now.

"So, yes."

Kallen nodded. Then it occurred to her. That was was why Villetta was being so flirtatious. "...So are you planning to um..."

Lelouch looked up at her. "What?"

"Become Emperor," said Kallen, wondering what it was like to be an Empress. Purely in theory, of course.

"No," said Lelouch with a shrug. "Not unless absolutely necessary anyway. Ambitions like that will ruin your health."

"So you might do it if you had to?" asked Kallen.

"Of course," said Lelouch. "I've been meaning to obliterate Britannia since I was twelve. Part of that might involve becoming Emperor. But it would put Nunnally at risk. I'd much rather fade away after killing everyone who had anything to do with my Mother's murder."

At that moment, there came a knock at the door.

Lelouch stood and made his way over to the door, opening it to find Nunnally on the other side. She smiled. "Lelouch..."

"Oh, Nunnally," said Lelouch. "I'm sorry for leaving you on your own. How can I help?"

"Well, I was just wondering if you could help me set up a book on tape," said Nunnally. "Someone moved the disc player. I want to listen to the Lord of the Rings."

"Of course, Nunnally, I'll find it right away," said Lelouch. "I'm sorry Sayoko hasn't been around so often; I've had to use her other skillset." He looked back at them. "Kallen, C.C, I'll be back."

Kallen looked over to C.C, who was looking at her with half-lidded eyes, while finishing the last piece of pizza. There were like, five boxes behind her. Kallen stared at her. "...So, what are you doing here, other than eating pizza and using Lelouch's credit card."

C.C finished the last bite and licked the cheese off her fingers. "Why is it so important to you whether I'm sleeping in Lelouch's room or not?

"You aren't sleeping in his room!" said Kallen, offended.

C.C smiled and stood up. "So, you were concerned."

"I wasn't..." Kallen halted. "Nevermind! I'm out of here!"

Storming out, Kallen couldn't wait to put this conspiracy stuff behind her. Taking pictures and riding a Knightmare is much easier.