Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Second verse, same as the first.

Impossible... It was all absurd. Maddening, even! No matter how many times he thought it over, again and again, it all seemed so bizarre. How could someone who honestly believed he loved another enact a course of action that, on paper, seemed so risky? Did Father trust C.C. to intervene if they were in trouble? Without another Geass User to assist her, there didn't seem to be much she could do. Where did she go afterwards? Why leave? How did she get captured by Clovis, or more accurately, whomever sold her to him? Those answers were not likely to be forthcoming. He'd wasted his chance with Clovis, and there was short odds that one of the officers he'd Geassed to get to Clovis was the man in charge of the project - Lelouch himself would certainly want to be on the scene. And to think that Mother was still alive! Well, mostly alive, and with a mostly complete body on stasis. Yet another thing Clovis would be useful for. But then, replacement organs and limbs had a nearly unlimited usefulness. While it did not seem to make sense after all was said and done... everyone's goal and intentions seemed so pure, even to themselves... how terribly disturbing. With a grimace, Lelouch's own desires and motives came to mind, and it became hard to deny that he himself may have been falling into that trap... All his hatred, and rage, and pride, borne out of love... To think that he, too, might have set another unfortunate set of events while meaning only the best... No one here was truly evil, truly treacherous, merely foolish.

No. There was someone. V.V. It would be impossible to kill him anytime soon... "But that would be counterproductive," he spoke to himself with a wide, sharp grin.

A cough rang out from the door to the darkened room, "Ah, Lelouch... It's about time."

The aforementioned younger brother blinked and buried his plans for his own... medical research... bringing his grin down to a less distressing size. "Of course. Do go ahead. I'll be right behind."

Clovis entered the grand boardroom with one of his lesser flourishes, "Ah, I'm sorry to keep everyone waiting, but if we're all here, we'll begin, yes?" The room itself held quite a number of the Empire's "greatest treasures", the children of it's Emperor, whether in person due to their close proximity to Pendragon, like Schneizel, or by long range conference like Cornelia, currently enjoying a respite between battles in the recently acquired Area 18. Hardly the full number, but rather the great majority of it's elder members, those that were well acquainted with their missing members.

Schneizel smiled beneficently, "If you would not mind, brother?"

"Yes, please. Not everyone has time to waste." Cornelia was quick to add, the far less impressive interior of a G-1 Mobile Base and a dark sky in the background of her screen.

"I suppose so, but I would doubt you'd be happy with me if I didn't tell you first: I've recently discovered a great many of the details of
Lelouch and Nunnally's vanishment after the invasion of Area 11, including their current locations," Clovis supplied, sending the room into a somber silence.

Schneizel spoke first, shocked or not, "I... I see. Then... preparations are being made to add them alongside their mother?"

"No," the Third Prince responded succinctly, well aware of the failure in communication, intentional as it was.

Cornelia, the most quick to anger of the group promptly exploded at the perceived slight, "Why not!? Surely nothing those Eleven dogs could have done would be better than the resting place of their ancestors, assuming they even had the grace to bury them!"

"I would hope that they had no intention of burying us, Cornelia... I'm sure it would be quite unpleasant." Lelouch spoke as he took his cue for his grand entrance from there. He chuckled as his various siblings seemed to have difficulty in thinking up an appropriate response, or perhaps not quite fully comprehending the differences he'd enjoyed since puberty. "Ah... No applause? I thought it was a good trick... Coming back from the dead is a little old, but it's still quite impress-"

"LELOUCH!"

"Urk!" And with that, Lelouch received a pink princess to the chest, and a quick end to his "quite impressive" entrance.

Our hero grunted, forcing himself into a seat, and gently touching his sore head, and most importantly, glaring at the cause of his current situation.

Euphemia winced, and muttered out a "Sorry," once more.

"So, Lelouch," Schniezel started, taking lead for all his present siblings, as he is prone to do, "I must admit, I'm quite surprised to see you. Father said you had died in Area 11," he continued, elicited a small scoff from the younger man. "Should I assume he was aware you had survived, after all?"

"Brother, he quite clearly told me that I was dead, in front of a full court, no less. Our Father is rather liberal with his definition of 'dead'."

"But, still," Odysseus interjected, "That doesn't really explain why Father would scorn you then, and not now."

"Ah... While he found my survival of the invasion of Japan to be... almost interesting," he begun, his anger and disgust starting to pick up as he went on, "it was hardly enough to counter the folly of assuming that our Father would desire that those who had invaded his grounds and laid hands upon his property, his woman, and his daughter to be slau..." he paused momentarily in his rant, noting the presence of more impressionable minds, like Euphemia, Carline, and if he were to be cruel, Odysseus, and opted for something less likely to rouse him any further, "Erm, dealt with, in a manner that one would expect of such people. As such, for him to... forgive me, he wanted to see something more interesting from me, if not impressive. Clovis was unfortunate enough to be my control specimen in this little... experiment. And, as he claimed, he has decided to be merciful, as it were."

"Then... Should I ask what this experiment was?" Odysseus continued.

"No." Clovis and Lelouch responded in rapid tandem.

"...Ah."

"And Nunnally is...?" Euphemia inquired, pretending that the shock of seeing Lelouch hadn't made her neglect the younger.

"As expected."

"Ah, then I should see her quickly, then." Euphie concluded with a smile.

"And I should be able to get back to Britannia, soon." Euphemia's elder full-sibling added.

"That won't be helpful," Lelouch countered, "Nunnally is still in Area 11, and she's not allowed to skip school lightly, even to see you. Besides, you look to be rather busy. It would not be prudent of you to leave your men without due reason. Clovis and I will be returning as well. I will be taking up the position of Viceroy," Lelouch started,

"And I will be assisting and putting more time into a project Father is interested in. At the same time, this should be a good time to start on my Masters Degree." Clovis finished.

"Oh!" Euphemia perked up and clapped, "Then can I come? I haven't been outside Britannia in ages! Pleeeease, Cornelia?"

"No," she snapped, earning a pout from her sister, "Besides, Lelouch can't possibly be ready for something like that!"

"Clovis was." Lelouch noted pointedly, earning an indignant squawk from the aforementioned party.

Euphemia turned back to her surprisingly-not-dead brother, features set firm. "I'm coming."

Said not dead person sighed in resignation, one hand brought to his forehead. "Just... Get your mothers agreement."

"Okay!"

"Alstreim!" Sargent Blazkowitz. I get off my bunk to greet him, as expected. "Visitor!" The Sargent stood at attention towards the visitor. "Prince Lelouch. This is Private Anya Alstreim. She will be finishing her training in a month or so. I've not been informed of why exactly someone this young is being pushed through, however. It's been particularly stressful on her, physically, though she's not one to stress easily."

The visitor, a young dark haired man wearing a basic loose suit, turned towards me. I salute. "My lord."

He stares back at me calmly. "...At ease." I drop my hand to my side and wait. He turns back to the Sargent. "If you've not been informed, then it wouldn't be prudent of me to speak out of place. Suffice to say that there are those who are interested in her development, even if the original plan has gone awry. Hm. Is she being isolated?"

"No, My Lord. Private Alstreim is quite quiet by nature. And when she does speak, she can be quite blunt, even tactless. Combined with her natural talent, and youth, she earns the ire of many of her peers. The only person who could be considered her friend is Private Weinberg, who is... equally disliked among his peers, and male. Not that either of them seem to notice."

"...In any case, if you would please give us some privacy." Turning back to me, the Sargent leaves my dorm, and closes the door behind him. The prince looks into my eyes for some moments, as if looking for something, before eventually speaking. "Anya... I'm under the impression that you don't remember me."

"Yes, sir. My memory is poor."

"I hear that's an understatement. ...We've met before. Quite a long time ago. Even though my memory is exceptional, even I don't recall you quite well."

"Then why are you here?"

"Curiosity, partly. I'm also afraid your memory loss might be partly my fault. You were living with us for a period. A pet project of my mothers, apparently. My mother was Knight of Two, Marianne the Flash. An orphaned commoner who climbed the ranks to become a Knight Of Round... I believe she wished to see if she could repeat it. My sister Nunnally and I were... unsuitable for what she wanted, so she turned to you, another commoner orphan. That is why you are looked upon favorably: in her memory. As I said, you were living with us. That ended when you, along with Nunnally, witnessed my mothers death. Since, she has been unable to open her eyes, despite there not being anything wrong with them, as well as being unable to remember the identities of the ones who attacked them."

"And I have been unable to remember as well."

"Yes, though on a greater scale. As a result, the killer has avoided justice for a very long time."

"You want me to remember, so you can find them."

"No. I already know, though allowing the information to reach the public would be bad, so if you do remember, it would be good of you to tell me, and otherwise remain quiet about it. As I said, I'm here because of my responsibility. You've been alone since that day, though I could have done something about it, if I had only remembered you above Nunnally. I need to apologize for that... though it would be nice for you to keep that to yourself. I can't let people think that I'm a nice person." He smiles. I tilt my head. He frowns. "...Then, if you'll excuse me, I should go. If you want to speak with me, however..." He hands over a piece of paper. "That is my email address. If you wish to talk with me about it, I check it often." With that, he stands and leaves.

I return to my bunk, and look at the roof for a while. I come to a conclusion. "My heart feels... different." And I get out my diary and start typing.

Chapter 2 END.

AUTHOR NOTE:

I really need to apologise. Firstly, this is not even remotely as large as the first chapter. A mere third. This is not so much a problem – the first chapter seemed very "run on" simply because I wanted to get to where I finished off in a single chapter. Whereas in this, there were only a relatively small number of things that needed to arranged, and this seemed like a good enough stopping point as any. I had no expectations of the second chapter being of that same size, and was shocked that the first was as large as it became. Still, I may have disappointed some people.

Which leads me to my second point. This chapter has been an incredibly long time in coming. I dunno why, Super Robot Wars K; Fallout 3 GOTY; Disgaea 2 on PSP; Life, The Universe And Everything... These may have contributed. But mostly, it was probably just me. I am not an adept nor experienced writer, though my punctuation and spelling are indeed above par. This is an experiment for me, to stretch my mental muscles, but at the moment, I am weak and flabby. Do be patient. But still... 2 months? What have I done!? The first chapter didn't take this long! ...OK, maybe it did, but it was still bigger. I am only reassured in the fact that my beta-by-default, Yamiro, has done only slightly better, and, in the case of her multi chapter fic, somewhat worse.

Which leads to the final point... Apparently, due to a sudden case of Life, my beta has vanished. Getting email from her is nearly impossible, let alone reading the stuff I do. This is about 60% unbetaed. Please review and pass along anything of note which could be improved upon. And if you have, I dunno, an idea, also pass that along. Really, I have only a modest framework of concepts and ideas. At the moment, I have only hope and a random number generator to fill in the blanks.