AN: Chapter 17… Later than I was expecting to post considering I've been writing it for two weeks… but then, I did do a lot of research as I was writing this one. And it doesn't really show, as after doing it, I decided just to make things up as I went along… but I do have a vague understanding as to how Britannia (the country, as opposed to it's colonisation of the rest of the world) works. And I've figured out a fair amount of alternate history. But history and politics, especially politics…, are not my strong point, so if you notice anything that seems dreadfully stupid, I tried my best so forgive me.

Thanks as usual to all my reviewers, and to all those lovely people who've added me to their alerts and favourites lists.

Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass.

The next morning the four had got up and made it to the airport with all due efficiency. Lelouch, of course, made no mention of the fact that he'd yet again awoken to find himself pressed up against Suzaku, half draped across him. This had obviously been because he was cold, and Suzaku had been warm, and even his unconscious mind was able to respond to that logic. Suzaku didn't need to know, and, since Lelouch had managed to get up without waking him, hopefully he never would.

Suzaku had been pleasantly surprised when he woke up in the early hours of the morning as his friend had cuddled closer. Suzaku had allowed Lelouch to do so, smiling at the unwitting display of affection. Of course, Lelouch would probably be angry with him if he'd known, because of course, in Lelouch's opinion it would have probably been Suzaku's fault rather than his own. He was only ever that affectionate when unconscious after all, and, because he appreciated being allowed to see Lelouch in such a cutely unguarded state, he would make certain that the privilege was not withdrawn by keeping quiet about it. Lelouch need never know he'd seen.

How they'd made it to the airport without someone noticing that one member of their party had departed only to be replaced a few minutes later by Zero, Lelouch wasn't sure, but they'd managed it. It had probably had something to do with the assorted list of taxi numbers EE had surreptitiously picked up at the reception and passed to Suzaku. EE was surprisingly streetwise for someone who had been away from society for so long.

Nevertheless they made it to the airport and onto the plane with nothing more than the standard air travel related delays. They were seated in the largely deserted first class section of the plane, something Lelouch and Suzaku were particularly pleased with. The tension dropping out of Suzaku's frame was highly visible, even through his cape and helmet, as the plane left the ground. Lelouch too was marginally relieved that they had succeeded in getting Rolo and EE out of the county without further run-ins with their former jailers. However, they were heading to Britannia, and while this was good for their new companions, it was not so good for himself. Britannia, the Royal Household in particular, was like heading into the lions' den with only his thin disguise to protect him. He was much more likely to be recognised there than anywhere else.

EE seemed to be doing a sufficient job of keeping Rolo entertained, so Lelouch allowed himself to turn his attention to the task ahead.

Nunally had sent him a list and details of all his half nieces and nephews, the grandchildren of Charles vi Britannia. Considering just how many brothers and sisters he'd had, it was not a short list. It was a certainty that none of them had felt the need to reproduce quite as much their father, though that would probably have been impossible for some of them anyway.

Lelouch immediately dismissed all other than the first born from each branch of their family, which only did a little to reduce the numbers, most of his nieces and nephews were only children. Perhaps having been born one of so many had made his siblings feel that being an only child would be nice and afforded their own offspring the favour. It's not as if they were raising a horde of children to have an all out competition for successor to the throne… or at least they hadn't known it would come to that at the time. He noticed that Nunally had done the same, those she considered potential candidates were marked, and were all included in his selection. Looking through the marked names, one in particular caught his eye.

"Cornelia named her eldest daughter after Euphemia?" Lelouch queried Suzaku, who nodded in acknowledgement. "That's just like her… Euphie was always her favourite sibling; she was very protective of her… I suppose everyone was, to some extent…"

Lelouch faltered to a stop as he felt Suzaku tense almost imperceptibly beside him. Euphemia was always a dangerous subject to breach in front of Suzaku. He still wasn't certain of the exact nature of the relationship between them, but Suzaku had been her knight, and they had shared very similar, if naïve, views on how to change the world. Lelouch had even briefly believed that with the pair of them working together, Japan could have become a better, more equal and just place to live, without his interference. Of course, he'd never gotten the chance to see how it would have worked out, thanks to the dratted ill-timing of his geass.

Suzaku still didn't know the exact nature of Euphie's death. Lelouch had never once told him that he hadn't meant to geass her; that death had been the only way to prevent her from trampling her own values beyond recognition, a slave to the order that he'd never intended. He had never expected the repercussions of his tasteless humour. All Suzaku knew was that Lelouch deeply regretted Euphie's death, and that, hopefully, he still forgave him for it. After all, after Lelouch, the demon emperor, no one remembered the story of the massacre princess.

"Mia," came the hesitant voice from his left. "For short. That's what they call her…"

"Mia? Is she anything like…?"

"Not so much. She takes more after her parents, I think."

"You've met her then?"

"Of course. I'm pretty well acquainted with your extended family. They all put in an appearance every once in a while, even though they all have their own districts to take care of. Britannia may be smaller than it once was, having surrendered most of the areas, but it's big enough in its own right for Nunally to need representatives spread out across it, and a lot of your siblings married into the families of the nobles who traditionally carry that responsibility. I've seen most of them as they've grown up. And it's not like Cornelia didn't try to raise Mia to have Euphie's gentle nature, because she did. And she does normally come across as a calm and gentle person. Just up until the point when somebody displays the slightest incompetence at following her orders… and then the side of her that most definitely takes after Cornelia tends to glower through. She's got these really piercing blue eyes that look straight through you and deem you unworthy… not that I've been fixed with that look since she was about six years old. Of course, she's now married to the Duke of Winchester and they have two young boys."

"Yes, it says that here. Obviously Nunally wants to make the issue of who inherits the throne simpler by considering the inheritance issue. She doesn't want another complex situation like she's dealing with at present, if it turns out her heir has no heir. All of the candidates she's listed here either have healthy children or are likely to within the next couple of years."

Lelouch continued his perusal of the list, eyes gliding over the names of relatives he hadn't seen for years, not since his own brief spell as emperor, and as such, considering his treatment of many of them at the time, probably remembered him very badly, even putting his more public actions as emperor aside. He was slightly intimidated by the thought of seeing some of them again, now they were no longer influenced by his geass, but he consoled himself with the thought that they would not recognise him.

Guinevere, his oldest sister, and possibly the person who hated his memory the most, was thankfully not on the list, but one of his youngest half sisters, and Guinevere's comrade in Lelouch-hating, Carline, was. Her son, James, was listed; one of the youngest of the candidates, and apparently very intelligent. He was set to marry the Duchess of California in two months time, so there was plenty of chance for him to have children. Lelouch was wary, Carline had never liked him, and she seethed with hatred at Nunally and her pacifistic nature. For being the same age, they couldn't have been more different. There was nothing to suggest that James was anything like as spiteful as his mother, so Lelouch would wait until he met him to make his judgment.

Flipping through, he finally came across the name he'd been most wary of. Schniezel el Britannia. Lelouch had had no idea what his most… aggravating half brother had been doing since he'd 'died'. He hadn't heard anything, but then he hadn't heard anything of any of his siblings, other than Nunally. Schniezel's son was called Roderick. Lelouch was a little surprised that his brother had gotten around to having children, it hadn't really seemed in his nature, and it was hard to picture him as a parent, and he voiced the thought to Suzaku.

"Schniezel's changed a lot since you geassed him. He's helped Nunally a lot, especially during her first few years as Empress. He mostly does as I tell him nowadays, and is otherwise rather placid, as if he doesn't want to risk a telling off. So it's my fault, I suppose, that he has a son."

"Your fault? Why, what didyou say to him?"

"I don't remember exactly… but I think I may have said that raising a child might be a worthwhile activity, since so many of his other siblings were doing so. And then a few months later, the next time he visited Pendragon it was with a wife, No one quite knows how it came about, not even Kanon, who, by the way, is still fiercely loyal to Schniezel. She was the eldest daughter of the Duke of Manchester at the time, though her brother holds the title now.

"She was a lovely woman, pretty, I suppose, fairly smart, and she seemed nice, though I only met her once. However, she was a very sickly woman, with a long history of health problems, and she didn't get out much, otherwise I sure she would have been married years before she met your brother. Roderick was their only son, she passed away a few months after he was born, and he was raised mostly by Schniezel with Kanon's help."

"What's he like?" asked Lelouch, hoping very much that he wasn't another Schniezel.

"Absolutely nothing like Schniezel," said Suzaku, as if reading Lelouch's mind "At least from what I know of him."

Lelouch relaxed. The last thing he wanted was another Schniezel conspiring to power. He put the list to one side, he couldn't form any conclusions from it alone, but it would be good to have the essentials in mind when he got round to meeting these people. At least knowing a little about them would make a first meeting run more smoothly.

He looked up to find EE and Rolo engrossed in what they'd been doing. EE had a faint smile on his face, as if he weren't conscious of its presence, and he kept glancing up at Lelouch then back down at the pad of paper in his lap. He snapped out of his daze when he noticed Lelouch's eyes upon him.

"I haven't done this for years, so I'm a little rusty" he said, tipping his page forward, to show a half finished sketch, undoubtedly a drawing of the disguised Lelouch. "They didn't really let me have the chance to pursue my hobbies while I was imprisoned after all. Of course, I used to draw animals, but" he gestured around "this environment is somewhat lacking in wildlife. I also thought the boy might like to give it ago… I don't know if you'll be able to fix his voice, but art, drawing in general, is an effective means of communication, especially since he hasn't relearnt how to write yet."

"Rolo," said Lelouch, "he's Rolo… even if he doesn't remember it."

"Is it safe for him to use that name? You're hardly using your real identity after all, and you said he was your brother."

"It should be fine, he's only an adoptive brother, I guess. He was considerably lower profile than me, I shouldn't think there are many people around who knew much about him. My other family… the ones we're visiting, they shouldn't know him. I suppose… we can still call him my little brother. Since I'm pretending to be from a fictional branch of my mother's family, no one will be any the wiser."

"What about me?" asked EE, "what role do I play in this scheme?"

"Scheme? It's hardly a scheme, but there's no way I can travel as myself; I'd be arrested on sight, and it would likely throw the country into chaos. You can be a cousin or an uncle if you like, and I'll try to convince them you need to be with Rolo as an assistant to help with his disability or something. He needs to stay with someone familiar to him and I expect I'll be busy a lot of the time."

"I'll be your uncle then, I'm a bit old to pass successfully as a cousin."

"Surely you're not that old; rather, you weren't that old when…"

"I was old for someone carrying a code… Physically speaking, I'm the oldest, even if I'm not in terms of years of existence. It seems younger people are more fundamentally suited to the code's purpose, whatever it is, but my code, it didn't have a lot of choice at the time it formed."

Lelouch wanted to ask more about codes and how much EE knew about them, since their existence remained mystifying to Lelouch, but decided against it. They would have plenty of time for that later, and it sounded like EE didn't know much more than he did anyway. Instead, he turned his attention to the boy sitting across from him.

"What have you drawn?" he asked Rolo.

Shyly, Rolo handed the paper he was drawing on across to him. The picture was messy, as if drawn by a child; a sign, Lelouch assumed, that Rolo's fine motor skills hadn't been properly restored. Nevertheless the drawing brought a smile to his face, more so than any of Clovis's paintings ever had, despite his half brother's skill. Four figures stood, hand in hand, and it was obvious who was who. Suzaku stood on one end, holding Lelouch's hand tightly and standing close, protectively. Lelouch, drawn wearing his disguise, stood beside Rolo, who had a smile on his face, and on his other side was EE. Lelouch didn't need words to know that this picture was an expression of gratitude from Rolo, that the people he'd drawn were his new family and that he would trust them. Lelouch was determined to earn that trust. He would do his best, for both sides of his family, for Nunally and for Rolo.

AN: So, I finally introduce some of the contenders to the throne. These are the three I know most about thus far, and are likely to be the main contenders, and will join EE in the ranks of OCs with major roles.

Roderich, James and Mia. What do you think of them so far? Also… I hope the Dukes I named didn't seem too out of place. I know Britannia is an alternate America, but I figured that reused British place names would takes higher precedence than others considering the alternate history… so I'm trying to keep a mix of them. And realising how very little I know about America…