Author's Note: Here we are again. I actually think this one came out sooner than usual. Scheduling is weird like that. Let's see if we can't get this going...

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the series shown in here. I'm also trying to figure out more unfunny jokes about it. Stay tuned.

Down Time

Whatcha Gonna Do?

"That was quite the commotion last night," Ozpin said, raising his coffee mug to his lips. Lelouch sighed and examined his own cup, watching the door to the meeting room.

Last night had proceeded into this morning, with no regard for the human need for sleep—confirming that no one had suffered permanent harm besides the interlopers, calling up the insurance companies that were still willing to do business with Ashford Academy, making sure that the policemen who came for Marcus Black were fully capable of transporting the man to the highest security facility in the city, where he would wait to be transferred to an even higher security facility on the mainland. After tucking Shirley in, Lelouch had instructed Kallen to get some rest herself and, bolstering himself with an elephant dose of caffeine, set to work. He was used to these kinds of things and had worked with a near-clinical precision born of practice.

The problem came when morning finally rolled around and he had completed the paperwork. Any other day, he would have slept the lost hours away. Right now, though, was a fairly important meeting, and preparations/idiot proofing for the funeral would run through the rest of the day.

"What are you planning on doing with the girl?" he asked—something that he realized he had yet to ask. "Gina Marlon, didn't you say her name was?"

"Our friend the child soldier?" Ozpin replied. "To be honest, it's going to take some work. She's not exactly ready to integrate into society, and when I called Beacon to ask for a background check, Glynda started yelling at me for 'leaving her to the madness' or some such." He shrugged. "I know someone who'll take care of her if no one else will."

Lelouch nodded, adding 'background check' to his mental to-do list.

The door clicked open, and the third attendee slid into the room—or rather, he attempted to roll into the room on his omni-present swivel chair, but the wheels caught on the lip and he was thrown to the floor.

"Doctor Stein," Lelouch said. "Thank you for finally joining us. If you'll shut the door?"

"Oh, certainly," Franken Stein replied, standing and setting his chair upright.

"Now then, please state your names for the record. As you are all aware, I am Lelouch Lamperouge, founder and head of the Black Knights and the Orion Society."

"Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy and God-Emperor of Swag," Ozpin replied, completely straight faced. Lelouch sighed, and gestured to Stein.

"Doctor Franken Stein," he obliged, "Teacher at Death Weapon Meister Academy, and representative of the Antic Order."

"Thank you. Now then, Professor Ozpin, as the one who called this meeting, what are we here to discuss?"

Lancer gave Nails a sidelong look. "You're absolutely sure you're not going to get lung cancer?" he asked. "I don't think you've stopped smoking the entire time you've been here."

Nails shrugged. "I wondered about it a few times, but then I figured that I'd have gotten it already."

Lancer shrugged, and returned to examining the signboard. "Cafeteria… Nah, already had breakfast. Auditorium? No events. Movie theater…" he brought a hand to his chin, turned to look at Nails, who shrugged . "Maybe later. Hanger?"

"It's where Asplund and Chawla keep all their stuff," Nails confirmed. "Knightmare Frames and the like."

"Might as well," Lancer said. "Maybe Adam'll be there."

"Doesn't exactly strike me as the mechanical type."

"He's not. He goes over places, makes sure he knows where everything is—weapons, food, stuff you might need in a pinch."

"Makes sense. What about the other two?"

Lancer thought about this for a moment. "Misaka… She's probably wandering around campus. Hasn't got much by the way of interest."

"She's a teenage girl, she's got to have some kind of silly little obsession."

"She's one of those clone girls. You know, from Academy City?"

Nails hummed and nodded. "And the Ashford girl?"

Lancer shrugged. "Heck if I know. Maybe she's hiding out in the basement?"

"I've done it, Mister Table!" gloated Nina Einstein as she waved a sheaf of papers triumphantly. "We'll finally be rid of Suzaku Kururugi once and for all!"

Mister Table said nothing. Mister Table was, after all, a table.

"It's so simple, I can't believe I didn't realize it for two years!" Nina went on with little regard for above fact. "All we needed to do was—"

Milly slammed the door to the student council room open. "Nina! Perfect, you're still crazy. I need your help!"

Nina hid her papers behind her back. "I—well, what with?"

Milly sighed, and gestured grandiosely. "As you are aware, I left Ashford Academy two years ago. Since then, I have devoted much of my time to specifically not being dead. And do you know what that means?" She began to walk purposefully towards Nina.

"… No?" Nina replied.

"It means that, in over a year, I have not committed a single antic. Moreover, I have as of late been traveling with what may be one of the LEAST receptive audiences ever." Milly slammed her hands down on Mister Table. "It means, Nina, that now is the time that I must confirm that I have not lost my touch. It means that I once again require your resources."

"But—the funeral's tomorrow," Nina pointed out, trying to find a place to discretely drop her work.

"Nina."

Nina jolted at Milly's tone—pleading instead of stately, tired. "Yes?"

"Please. Just… please. I'm back but everything's different, and I…" Milly put on a smile, the plastic kind that you wear when you don't want anyone to see what you really feel. "I just need to take my mind off of things for a little while. You know?"

Nina stared awkwardly, and lay her papers down on a nearby chair. "Let me ask Mister Table," she said.

"And that is the situation as it now stands, gentlemen," Ozpin said. "Any questions?"

"Yes. Why hasn't the Antic Order intervened yet?" Lelouch asked, giving a pointed look at Stein. "You have the resources and the ability. Why not do something?"

"Antic Lord Zelretch prefers to let people fight their own battles," Stein replied, twisting the bolt planted in his head. "Also… not enough of the situation has been confirmed. If things get bad enough, we will mobilize, don't doubt it, but Demeter hasn't shown her hand yet." He shrugged. "Besides, we're mainly shippers."

"Incredibly powerful shippers," Lelouch corrected.

"A not inaccurate statement," Stein conceded, "but shippers still. It's not always easy to mobilize, and some of us have problems of our own to deal with."

Lelouch sighed. "I suppose that makes sense. I take it that this meeting was called so that you could request the help of my intelligence network?"

"If possible," Ozpin confirmed. "We have worked together fairly well in the past." Lelouch nodded, and examined his hands passively.

"I'll do what I can," he agreed, "But I have been encountering problems myself."

"What do you mean?" Ozpin asked.

"Recently, there have been signs of someone working… counter to the Orion Society. Blocking us from entering certain areas, or outright attacking our agents." Lelouch shrugged. "I don't think they suspect our existence yet, but considering our line of work…"

"I see," Ozpin replied. "Unfortunately, there's not much I can do to help. Most of my faculty is on alert due to the current situation."

"I'm working on the fallout from Spirit and Medusa's wedding," Stein added, "but there may be something the Order can do to help. I'll see if no one's busy."

"That would be very helpful… Wait." Lelouch glanced over at Ozpin, who shrugged. "When you say Spirit and Medusa—"

"I don't understand it either."

/10033/ When did you say the package would arrive? asks Misaka, growing frustrated from the wait.

/17077/ It should be there by afternoon today. Now stop asking, explains Misaka, growing frustrated herself at having to deal with the same question so many times.

/Last Order/ Knock it off you two, orders Misaka as Misaka becomes frustrated herself.

/10032/ Try not to lose this one, requests Misaka humorously.

Misaka opened her eyes, blinking at the bright light filtering through the branches of the tree she sat under.

As the different Misakas gained greater senses of self, many things had entered the Misaka Network—things like conflicting opinions, taunts with no apparent reason other than to get a rise, and in a few cases, words that weren't meant to hurt but still stung.

10032 hadn't meant anything by it. In fact, if Onee-sama had said the same thing, 10033 would have appreciated the humor and been about her business.

But that's just Onee-sama being Onee-sama. 10032 is different.

/10032/ Did you say something? Asks Misaka, not quite catching the last words.

/10033/ Misaka said that she will do what she can, Misaka replies defiantly.

Lancer blinked. "There are Monokumas hanging from the rafters," he said.

"The Great Despair Invasion of Two-and-a-Half Weeks Ago," Cecile Croomy explained. "They tried to seize control of the Knightmare Frames and some… other projects. It didn't go as well as they expected."

"Why are they still hanging from the rafters?" Lancer replied. Usually, these things were something you didn't want to leaving hanging around.

"Doctor Chawla requested that we leave them there after she won the kill-count," Cecile replied.

"Oh. I guess I can respect that," Lancer replied. "You said other projects?"

"Nothing of very great import," she said. "Mainly just ego trips."

"They ever get that Gundam working?" Nails asked. Lancer raised an eyebrow.

"You have a Gundam?" he asked. Cecile shrugged.

"It's a replica of the X105 Strike," she explained. "We found it in a junkyard, and Lloyd figured he could get it working again. He's not quite there yet, but it's looking remarkably better than when we found it."

"Maybe I could help with that," Lancer said contemplatively. Nails guffawed.

"You mean you actually know how to build a Gundam?" he snorted.

"Not that well. I worked with Amuro Ray a few times during the Legend War, though. Picked up a better than passing understanding."

"The Legend War?" Cecile asked.

"Think Holy Grail War," Nails said, "but with hundreds of Heroes multiple centuries ago and spanning the entire world."

"But isn't Gundam set in the distant future?"

Lancer and Nails gave her a collective blank look. "This is the Reactsverse," Lancer stated.

"Fair point."

Adam stood at the top of the bell tower, examining the campus. War was approaching, and he needed to prepare for it.

Alright, so maybe that wasn't quite what was going on. Assassins would be coming for Milly while she was here, and people would be caught in the crossfire—including, potentially, himself and Misaka. He needed to be prepared for when that happened.

Also… Koumori was out there. And he was stronger and he was worse than Adam had ever seen him. The thought that Adam cared about a human seemed to have enraged him… if he came, he would definitely come for Misaka. And while she could defend herself, this was an opponent that she stood no chance of defeating.

Maybe… the man who trained him. Immediately following the Siegmund incident, Adam had requested that he watch over Ariel. If he had Misaka go to stay with him, she would be safe beyond a shadow of a doubt. What if she were to refuse, though? What if she chose to go into danger regardless?

No, she would be reasonable. Misaka was no fool, she would stay if she was told. He knew her well enough to be certain of—

"LOOK OUT!"

Soccer ball. Ow. Who in Ashford had legs strong enough? What had he been thinking about, again? Oh, was he falling?

Yep, definitely falling.

"One final question, before we leave," Ozpin said, standing. "The current situation with Milly Ashford."

"What about it?" Lelouch asked.

"What do you intend to do about it?"

"To be honest, I have quite a few things on my hands, and we have dealt with worse on a fairly regular basis." Lelouch sighed. "It shouldn't be too much of a problem. If it becomes so… Well, I have my methods."

"Speaking of Miss Ashford," Stein cut in, "I was asked to speak with her. Order business. Do you know where she would be?"

"I have a few ideas, I guess," Lelouch replied, rising. "Is that all the business we have to deal with?"

"I believe it is," Stein replied. "I'll pass your concerns along to Lord Zelretch." He spun in his swivel chair to face the door.

Come to think of it… Yes, Milly is a member of the Order, Lelouch thought. Would she… Calm gave way to a niggling feeling of concern. With brisk strides, he walked to the door and threw it open.

"Ah," Stein said, staring calmly into the face of the advancing flood of maple syrup, "I suppose she will be wanting to renew her membership, then."

Author's Note: You know, it's funny. I literally went back and rewatched Code Geass JUST to get a better handle on the characters, and I'm still not that good at writing them.

In other news, my approach to this story has changed somewhat from when I started. I went into this fic with barely anything planned, intending to write by the seat of my metaphorical pants. Now, I have a definite endgame planned out and I just need to get there.

Next Chapter: The will reading. And some other stuff. I've got to start bulking up my chapters.