An Early Ascension

by TiberianSun371Alexw

Lelouch vi Britannia encounters inconvinence, setbacks, and near disaster in his quest for justice for his mother and revenge. It would be so much easier if he was abolute monarch of 1/3 of the world.

5. The Princess and the Witch

The Princess and the Witch

After the release of Suzuku, Lelouch talked to Ogi about the running of the terrorist cell he ran. Ogi inherited the terrorist cell from Naoto, a man who was in contact with the Japanese Liberation Front. They had supported over 30 operations of the JLF and used to get some money from them. Acquiring weapons through the black market was mostly their own work. They used to get some ammunition, but now they have to buy it themselves. Assuming they do their usual small time raids and occasionally get raided themselves, there is enough food and ammunition for 3 years in their storage, or ten years for small arms. Food should last awhile since they have their own jobs and civilian covers and don't have to hide around moving from place to place. Supplies should not run out as a healthy black market exists, although their three favorite suppliers were raided and now can only get ammo but no replacements for their RPG-7s for the moment.

The terrorists mainly did kidnapping and blowing stuff up. As it turns out, people in the ghetto become more angry at Britannians when stuff is blown up, rather than angry at the people blowing stuff up. They had not been in active contact with the JLF for a long time, only sending some intel about the ghetto occasionally. Once they were rewarded with a tip about poison gas. And Lelouch knew how that would end up.

Funding came from a few sources. Most of them simply chipped in whatever they could spare from their civilian lives. Kallen contributed some of her allowance, equal to 3000 "average" contributions, but this was still inadequate. The terrorists simply kidnapped Britannians at random intervals and held them for ransom.

Target practice was held weekly. They usually used cutouts, but sometimes they kidnapped Britannians and used them for target practice. A crude timer would unlock the targets ten meters away from the shooters who would try to kill them. Ogi didn't authorize these kidnappings, but he left the other terrorists decide how they got their targets as long as they didn't leave a trail for the police to follow. Since the kidnappings occurred on the street at the night, they usually didn't leave a sufficient trail. Three times some targets escaped and one of them resulted in some of the terrorists shooting each other. Lelouch did a facepalm hearing about this method of acquiring live targets.

The group's ace in the hole was an outdated Glasgow. It had fuel issues, consuming more of the energy filler in idle mode than a normal KnightMare. If this one and a full working one moved as fast as possible, this one would use triple the power. Since the waste happened regardless of whether it was in idle, moving, or combat, it encouraged aggressive behavior. Kallen had some practice when her cousin brought a Sutherland over for a week. Since this was a Tokyo based terrorist cell, they could not deploy it in the streets or parks unless during an operation. They did practice using it in the storage garage. Hundreds of the group had practiced with the basic controls. The KnightMare had only ten meters forward and three laterally of movement most of the time, although sometimes when storage boxes were moved, better movement was allowed. Lelouch immediately understood why these people performed worse than pilots who were told the basic controls (movement, GUI, arm controls…) and had "practiced" with computer games and not yet gone through KnightMare simulators. Lelouch did a facepalm as he remembered thinking about how the terrorists absolutely failed when they were the defenders of a frontal assault.

Three times the group has been raided which included a KnightMare. Once the Kallen was able to beat three Sutherlands, but she had the support of ground troops. The bullets were unlikely to do damage, except when a KnightMare carried a machine gun instead of the Sutherland's general purpose weapon. Small arms could easily destroy a machine gun, if the guy holding the rifle doesn't get killed first… which happens a lot. Another target was the exhaust ports of the KnightMare. Riddling bullets into it would cause a KnightMare to overheat in half an hour, but this was not a kill since it gave the pilot plenty of time to return to base. The RPG-7 shot shaped charges that could be theoretically effective against the KnightMare armor. In three places it could penetrate in a shot and in most of the places three hits on the same place will leave a gaping hole. Unfortunately, the KnightMare was very maneuverable. Lelouch knew in the Second Great pacific War, Japan didn't lose because the tanks had inferior armor. In fact, pre Sutherland KnightMares would be destroyed with less force than a main battle tank assuming both vehicles were hit in their weak spots. 75% of the area covering the KnightMare would be equally protected as the tank's frontal armor, not superior. However, the shots fired from the KnightMares had the same explosive yield and muzzle speed but were more massive than tank shells. Their rate of fire during that war was seven times as great at the tanks, and that's nothing compared to the modern Sutherland which can fire as fast as slower automatic rifles. A single slash harken or melee attack could destroy a tank's armor, even if pilot didn't do the smart thing and just maneuverer himself to the tank's weak spot. Their speed and maneuverability were unmatched by anything on the battlefield, except helicopters which wasted more fuel just to stay in place. While bullets could hit a KnightMare, a competent pilot could doge tank shells and RPG rounds as long as he wasn't immobile (dueling another KnightMare) or within 10 meters. Getting within 10 meters of a KnightMare was hopeless without one yourself. Because of these facts, all three times they were raided by KnightMares, much equipment and recruits were captured and a base had to be abandoned.

Ogi told Lelouch that while the RPG-7 and their shaped charges were one of the best weapons the cell had, they were not used effectively. In the Battle of Shinjuku Ghetto, they had lost over 30 operators without them being engaged directly. Lelouch made further inquiries and found out they did not make any effort to use the weapon properly. Like most recoilless weapons, the RPG-7 needs to be operated with ear protection (this was done) and leave a meter of free space behind it (terrorists didn't check). Lelouch did a third facepalm as he pictured a terrorist firing one of them from a building and blowing himself up.

Lelouch told Ogi he would get in touch with him and not to allow any more non ransom kidnapping and in fact, try to limit even those if he could. Lelouch headed back to Ashford Academy. He wondered what he should do with the KnightMare he left in Shinjuku Ghetto. It was in a place the authorities would not easily find.

Lelouch was entirely drained. He didn't think it would be so much work attempting to free Suzuku. There was also the concern about Clovis. On one hand, he was glad his brother was still alive. Perhaps seeing Britannians kill off that strange girl and Suzuku was enough to let the anger get the better of him. Clovis had been a despot caring more about the security of himself and nobility than the economic wellbeing of the Elevens he ruled, but he was still his brother. Even if Suzuku was killed, Clovis did not order Suzuku's death. Only a fool would order the death of one of his loyal soldiers and it was that stupid officer who shot up Suzuku rather than listening to Suzuku that a Britannian student might not be one of the terrorists. All things considered, trying to kill Clovis was bad and he shouldn't have tried to do it, so in some sense he was glad that his brother was alive.

On the other hand, Lelouch's time was limited. If Clovis ever full awakened, he had every reason to try to kill Lelouch out of self-preservation, and Clovis knew his face. Lelouch needed to find a way to escape Ashford Academy if he was ever discovered. To be safe, he needed a contingency plan within 30 days. The terrorists don't give him any confidence after he learned about some of their operations, so he would not rely on them for self-preservation.

"I'm home" said Lelouch.

"Welcome home, Lelouch" greeted a green haired girl. She wore a white straightjacket in the unrestrained position. It was the same girl he saw got shot in the head. OK, that was two people he blamed Clovis for killing when they were actually alive. Lelouch was unable to maintain a straight face and puzzlement was over his face.

"Welcome home, brother" said Nunnally.

"It appears you already ate dinner" said the stranger, helping Nunnaly with a paper crane.

"I was worried. I thought you might be caught up in the chaos this Zero person caused" said Nunnally. "Brother C.C. came all the way to see you"

"C.C.?" said Lelouch.

"What a strange friend, only using her initials" said Nunnally.

"Yeah…" said Lelouch.

"Could it be that she's your girlfriend?" said Nunnally.

"We promised to share a future together, didn't we?" said the new girl.

"By future do you mean marriage?" asked Nunnally.

"No, no, it's not like that. She's, um, joking" said Lelouch.

"I don't like those" said the strange girl with long green hair.

"I see, brother you are unexpectedly rash. But they say 'to each his own' so it may not be so strange" said Nunnally.

Lelouch broke a cup which spilled. "What are you doing C.C.? You're all wet. Hey you need to go to the bathroom. I'll get you a change in cloths too. Nunnally, I'll clean this up right away don't move. And what she just said isn't true. A lie, a joke" said Lelouch, grabbing the strange girl's arm

Lelouch brought the newcomer into his room, turned on the lights, and shoved her, very ungraciously for someone who saved his live. "Who are you?" said Lelouch in a more assertive tone.

"I already told you, I'm C.C." said the green haired girl.

"That's not what I mean. You're…" said Lelouch.

"'Supposed to be dead'?" said C.C. "Do you like the power I gave you?"

"As I suspected you're…" said Lelouch, activating his eye.

"Are you unsatisfied?" said C.C.

"No I'm quite grateful. You pushed my schedule forward quite a bit.

"Schedule?" said C.C.

"The plan to destroy…" said Lelouch.

"'Britannia?'" said C.C., hinting she knew something about him.

"I thought it would be awhile before I could make my move" said Lelouch, suppressing his puzzlement.

"Do you think you can destroy it with just that power and some terrorists?" said C.C., anticipating the whole Zero thing.

"I was planning on destroying Britannia even without it" said Lelouch.

"As I expected you're an interesting person" said Lelouch.

"What are you going to do form now on? You're being pursued…" said Lelouch.

"'By the Army, aren't you?' Even though you say it's the army, it's only a small part of it. It'll be okay if I keep a low profile. I'll put up with it here." said C.C., throwing off her straight jacket. Before she could be seen braless she moved into the bed and pulled the sheets.

"Hey! You're planning on staying here?" said Lelouch, surprised and worried.

"Men sleep on the floor" said C.C, holding the bedsheets securely.

"That's not the point…" said Lelouch.

"If I get caught, you'll have problems too, won't you? If I sleep out there I'll get caught." said C.C.

"Not at your convenience, but mine…" said Lelouch.

"I hate persistent people" said C.C.

"You don't seem nervous about this. Anyways how…" said Lelouch.

"'Did you survive? And about that contract you were talking about'" said C.C.

Lelouch gave an annoyed look at C.C. C.C. almost looked pleased, but a smile didn't come and her mouth stayed emotionless.

"Good night Lelouch" said C.C. Lelouch owed his life to this Little Miss Snarker.

Meanwhile Princess Cornelia had won a decisive battle against an alliance of the Kingdom of Syria, Kingdom of Jordan, Kingdom of Assyria, and the Muslim Brotherhood armed private group. With over 75% of the enemy's forces destroyed in a single battle, conquest of the Middle East, except Egypt (independent within EU sphere of influence), Palestine (EU control), and Arabia (Civil War, 30 year true with Britannia not expired), was effectively complete. Cornelia and her personal unit of 3000 KnightMares had been involved in 13 battles as a single unit over the past three years and didn't suffer a single loss when they were together. Only 33 losses happened to this unit and in those times few dozen of her unit was deployed separately instead of as a whole. The Syrians had this bright idea of simply avoiding Cornelia's personal unit and retaking territory elsewhere since they could defeat members of her unit so long as they proved her into detaching individual squads. Cornelia made a full frontal assault on one of their defensive positions and the Arabs thought this was time to make their pitched battle as they heavily outnumbered Cornelia's unit. Unfortunately for them, Britannia's 13th infantry division, 33rd infantry division, 34th infantry division, 35th mechanized infantry division, and 37th KnightMare division were also part of the assault and so the Britannia outnumbered the Arabs. Whoops.

Only 1/8 of the regulars were staying. Most would return to the homeland. Three armies of them would mop up the rest of the resistance. Some of them would follow Cornelia and her unit to Area 11. "I'm sorry, I'll have you accompany me to clean up after by brother" said Cornelia, signaling their departure for Area 11.

"No, to us our country is where our princess is" said a subordinate.

"We can't use conventional tactics in Area 11" said Cornelia.

"I'm well aware of that."

"Good" said Cornelia. "I will drag you out Zero, and avenge Clovis" she continued in her mind.

Cecile and Lloyd were examining the news. "Fukushima, Kouchi, Hiroshima… that makes seven incidents since Zero appeared not including the ones claimed by the Japanese Liberation front" said Cecile.

"After Zero appeared the other groups started trying harder" said Lloyd.

"Because of the Orange Incident, Deputy Governor-General Jerimiah is losing his leadership position. De jure he is still in charge but de facto Area 11 is managed by an unofficial triumvirate of a Colonel from the army who is a Marquess and from the Purist faction, an earl from Clovis's old inner circle, and an unlanded nobleman in charge of administration married to an Honorary Britannian. No one dares request permission outside their normal authority without their unanimous approval and stalemate within the triumvirate prevents any initiative from being taken. A replacement governor general is usually sent from a month to a decade, but doubts about Jeremiah means a replacement is under way immediately" said Cecile.

"He doesn't have what it takes. Cooperation between the mainly Britannian administration and the local police, almost all of which are Honorary Britannians except Tokyo, Sendai, Hiroshima, and the rural police forces which contain more pure bloods, is in shambles. It's an inconvenience to us too" said Lloyd.

Meanwhile at the Japanese Liberation Front headquarters, the officers could not decide what to do. Some of them viewed Zero as nothing more than a distraction. Others saw an opportunity to make a stand. No matter what, they did not have adequate forces to fight a conventional war against the Britannians. In fact, corrupt Britannians were the only reason they were able to acquire their obsolete KnightMares in the first place. The Kyoto Group was merely a financial backer to some of the resistance organizations and did not know of force deposition or anything that could coordinate the disparate groups. In fact, they probably did not want to know since if caught, there would be very little evidence of any crime other than embezzlement or money laundering but any further knowledge would make it hard to deny funding terrorist organization. Don't rush it. The information that Kyoto is intending to give the Guren Mk II to Zero is not definitive. We'll fail if we depend on other organizations too much, including Zero" said Todo.

Three days later, Lelouch was busy looking through the internet on several incidents. C.C. was dressed in nothing but one of Lelouch's white shirts. She was eating peperoni pizza from Pizza Hut. "Hey what do you mean with Orange?" said C.C.

"You won't answer anyone's questions, but you'll ask me questions, huh?" said Lelouch.

"If you don't want to answer me you don't have to, just like me" said C.C.

"Orange was just something I said. But people who call themselves allies are easily divided by a thorn of suspicion" said Lelouch.

C.C grinned. Lelouch planned to have counterintelligence analysts waste their precious time. She looked over three different magazines and a newspaper all with Zero on the front. "The entire world is searching for you. The entire world is moving because of you. Lelouch is this what you wanted to see?" said C.C.

"No, this disturbance is merely part of the calculation. As a side effect of my future plans, the world will be plunged into even greater chaos" said Lelouch.

Three kilometers away some officers were discussing further plans for Area 11. The Purists did mostly achieve their goal of putting their followers into key positions in the chain of command. On the other hand, the Orange Incident loomed over them. One of the officers tapped into a police traffic camera and watched Margrave Jeremiah organize a contraband checkpoint. "We can't allow that Orange to affect Her Highness Cornelia's arrival" said Lord Kewell.

"At this rate, the loyalty of the Purist faction will be questioned" said a lieutenant in glasses.

"Is it really true that Lord Jeremiah was bribed? He saved your life before and it's difficult to doubt his loyalty" said a counterintelligence officer who was doing double time as an observer the Purists Faction used. He had a miniature headset with a microphone and a small speaker inside his right ear.

"Then what is Orange?" said Lord Kewell. The headset guy turned nervously and didn't know what to make of it. He didn't want to agree with Kewell but on the other hand, not agreeing didn't make much sense of the previous events. "At any rate, there is something suspicious about Lord Jeremiah" he continued.

Villetta Nu was observing the same broadcast. "Lord Jeremiah's memories are jumbled. The same happened to seven other KnightMare pilots who had their Sutherlands stolen at Shinjuku" she thought. And there was her own incident. It's true the terrorist probably cooped a military train carrying a load of KnightMares, and they got them that way, but something didn't add up.

Villetta remembered being impressed as a teenager how one of her friends lived the high life. Villetta thought she was a princess, but her friend was actually daughter of a countess. That didn't register for some time. She had joined the Army and was made a Knight of Honor. Villetta spent a considerable amount of her adult life looking for a place to belong. Three different groups were joined, but while she took some enjoyment, she didn't think she completely fit in. One example was a group that seemed to be full of airheaded women. The parties were fun and some of the men they met took her to wonderful places and she even had a crush on one of them… but she didn't exactly fit in either.

Villetta was somewhat worried about her family. There was her older brother, two little sisters, and her niece. Her siblings were not living lavishly which should guarantee financial safety, but they all worked with a company with questionable stability. It even went bankrupt and laid 70% of its employees, although her siblings were spared and it became solvent… for the moment. Britannia doesn't have a socialized health care system and private health and life insurers are required by law to charge triple in premiums what they would expect to pay out. Some of it went no noblemen, but a lot of the extra charge just went into company coffers since Britannia didn't believe in supporting the civilian sick unless the sick could pay for it. Britannian philosophers have debated if insurance destroys survival for the fittest if one had to have afforded it in the first place since the uninsured poor aren't treated, but the bottom line was that Villetta's family was one injury away from disaster.

For her own income, Villetta earned triple as much as the average Britannian pureblood. On the other hand, being a Knight of Honor did not make her family unlanded nobles like an earl would. More importantly, heredity nobility offered continued benefits to her family after her generation. While winning a large lottery would give her family financial security for a long time if they spent wisely, even that didn't give the prestige of hereditary nobility. She never thought she could advance past Knight of Honor. The fourth group she joined was the Purist Faction, but she didn't seem to belong here either. In the Cambodia Campaign, she defeated three KnightMares alone apparently saving the life of an officer whose energy filler was low. It was Margrave Jeremiah. He revealed she didn't save his life, but she did save them the battle by not forcing him to be seen escaping through an area he planned to counterattack later. Despite Lord Jeremiah being three ranks higher than her instead of one, Villetta stuck with him instead of her immediate superior for the campaign. Afterwards, they found out that they had the same taste in music, wine, and baseball. Jeremiah brought Villetta to a different group of Purists. There were generals, administrators, but also low level officers who were mostly nobles and well connected so would rise soon, such as Villetta herself. She got along with them. Jeremiah explained the Area 11 situation and his own experiences when he was present. On the way back there Villetta listened to him and became a Purist ideologically instead of merely claiming membership and supporting individual Purists. For factional struggles within the Area 11 administration, Villetta didn't do much other than give favorable character testimony, be Lord Jermiah's number one supporter, and look pretty. As a KnightMare pilot, an administrative assistant, and Jeremiah's observer for the Tokyo area, she was superb. Lord Jeremiah didn't give his march or any of his counties to Villetta, but he promised her the possibility of being a hereditary knight, a baroness, or even a countess.

Villetta vaguely remembered seeing a Britannian student in Shinjuku, but couldn't' remember much more than that. None of the others with a stolen KnightMare reported seeing anyone odd. She didn't realize this was because she was Geassed too late after a failed attempt.

At the main Area 11 Tokyo administrative building, Suzuku was finishing a court martial with a tribunal of three officers. This floor was dedicated to the military. The prosecutor read the original evidence against Suzuku. Suzuku was prepared to repeat his deposition about his alibi. He expected the other side to question it given Cecile wasn't actually paying attention to the time and the uncertainty of when Clovis was shot, giving him a window for attempted murder. Instead, the tribunal reached a conclusion and didn't let Suzuku get a word in. "Private Kururugi Suzuku of the district 11 army, ID 14-1075, we declare you acquitted from suspicion of Prince Clovis's attempted murder due to lack of evidence" said one officer. Suzuku walked away from the building puzzled that only now did the authorities investigate the accusations properly. H put on some sunglasses. He didn't want to get recognized so soon after this week's chaos.

"Please get out of the way!" said a voice from above. Suzuku was puzzled. "Look out!"

Suzuku caught a pink haired girl with a long dress coming from the administrative building. He made sure to unlock his knees and collapsed on the catch. "Um, are you okay?" said Suzuku.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think there would be anyone below" said the pink haired girl.

"Um, yeah. I didn't think there would be a girl falling from above either" said Suzuku.

"Oh?" said the pink haired girl.

"Is something wrong" said Suzuku.

"Yes! Something is wrong" said the girl, with a smile not quite consistent with her statement. "To tell you the truth, I'm being chased by some bad people. So could you please help me?" Suzuku saw a bedsheet ladder from where the girl probably came from. It went 3/4 of the way down to the ground. Looks pretty legit.

Suzuku and the girl ran for half an hour before slowing down to walk. If they acted part, anyone trailing would think them to be part of the crowd. The Tokyo concession gave an appearance of crystal spires, glass, and silicon. In a strange way, from far away it could have been Roman architecture with shiny, although as you came within a hundred meters or so, appearances normalized. "I haven't introduced myself yet did I? I am… Euphie" said the pink haired girl.

"I am…" said Suzuku about to take off his sunglasses.

"You shouldn't do that. You're a famous person, and right now not for a good reason. The son of Kururugi Genbu, Kururugi Suzuku.

"You lied about being chased by bad people didn't you" said Suzuku looking back.

"Annoying is bad isn't it" said Euphemia, wandering off and paying more attention to a cat than the conversation. It had darkened fur around the right eye, a front paw, and tail. It rubbed its soft face against Euphemia. She held it up. Suzuku reached his hand out to the cat, which promptly bit his finger.

Cecile and Lloyd drove up to the indented meeting spot. "We're half an hour late. I hope he's waiting for us nearby" said Lloyd. They had their part to the Lancelot back, but not much else was going correctly. The third person to their team was temporary and the technician was a courtesy from Clovis, not officially within the Special Envoy's organization chart.

"But was he really acquitted?" said Cecile.

"Apparently for the lack of evidence. Well, it looks like it was throughouly investigated after that incident with zero. Huh, what the…?" said Lloyd. He thought he saw Suzuku with someone important

"Do you dislike cats?" said Euphemia.

"Well, I like them…" said Suzuku reaching out to the cat. It hissed with displeasure. "It appears to be a one-sided love."

"Kind people are the ones who have one-sided love" said Euphemia. The can suddenly got interested in something else and started running off. "Please come with me for a bit!" she said grabbing Suzuku's hand.

Suzuku showed Euphemia places around Tokyo. The pair went window shopping through a high end shopping district, enjoyed the view of a park, and had some crepes. It was an enjoyable hour. Suzuku learned that Euphie was a high school student from the motherland. She tried to hide it, but when she paid for her crepe with cash, Suzuku could see the girl was loaded. Euphie wanted to see what sort of place Area 11 was. For almost all of Tokyo, it was just like being in Britannia. Meanwhile Cecile and Lloyd followed. They walked by a large television screen.

"Suzuku, could you take me to one more place?" said Euphemia.

"You may request anything of me, princess" said Suzuku bowing.

"Then to Shinjuku. Please show me Shinjuku Kururugi Suzuku" said Euphemia.

A plane was flying away from Tokyo. 32 soldiers, a pilot, a copilot, a hitchhiking pilot, a flight engineer, and a prisoner were heading to Pendragon. Three of the soldiers saw in the same room as the prisoner. They had standard gas mask/HUD display helmets on and were cradling their firearms. General Bartley was the prisoner. "To go to the homeland like this… I shouldn't have gotten involved in that strange girl. Still, objectively, there was no evidence of any wrongdoing by me except incompetence which nearly led to Clovis's death, and I wasn't part of his guarding unit" thought Bartley.

Lelouch spent some of a break period on the internet. He needed a method to disappear with 170 hours of lead time. Currently, he had no way to disappear with a whole month of lead time. He had some gambling funds, but he needed to provide an excuse to leave the Ashfords behind. Since he did not want to harm those who had sheltered Nunnally and him, he wanted a way that would not harm them.

"Lelouch, are you free?" said Kallen.

"Hm? What is it?" said Lelouch.

"It's about that phone call from before" said Kallen.

"Phone call?" said Lelouch. He was genuinely puzzled as he forgot he was present when Kallen took the recorded phone call, in fact doing it simultaneously was the whole point.

"That, uh, time in the bathroom" said Kallen. Lelouch remembered immediately. That Zero stunt took a lot of willpower recently. Lelouch was certainly afraid of messing up and getting killed. Still, no matter how much willpower he needed to summon for a moment, it doesn't excuse forgetting other events. While that may be typical for a normal Britannian student, forgetting details would mess Lelouch's plan quite a bit. He needed to get used to remembering details, no matter what else may have his attention at the moment. "Do you know if there are any call logs? I want to contact that person" continued Kallen.

"It's the school's phone, so I don't think…" said Lelouch. He then immediately saw C.C. ten meters behind Kallen in one of his motorcycle, spinning clockwise and drinking a soda. Her long green hair gave a whirl.

"I see. I thought so too" said Kallen, not bothering to contest the fact that Lelouch was on the student council. While a normal council would have no way of using school records, Miley was the student council present.

"That girl…" mumbled Lelouch, balling up his hands in fists.

"What?" said Kallen, turning. Lelouch immediately held Kallen in place, touching her cheeks. Kallen gasped. C.C. walked away. "What are you doing?" said Kallen. Unlike making threats in the shower, she did become louder or give any change in personality. It merely sounded as if she was puzzled.

"Uh, what indeed" said Lelouch. There should have been an easier way to prevent her from looking. He brought C.C. to the roof of one of the school buildings. "Are you an idiot?" he asked C.C. "Don't just go wandering around"

"I'm OK as long as I'm within school grounds. Don't be so strict" said C.C.

"No, you're an outsider here" said Lelouch. The girl might have had a point, but he wanted to make sure that if she was stealing his bed, he might as well try to get her to keep him informed of her whereabouts and intuitions.

"I'm an outsider no matter where I go. Get me a steak dinner. I'll eat it with the last slice of leftover pizza" said C.C. Lelouch saw that while the girl's primary purpose for following up here was related to food, her tone suggested she was enjoying deflecting his protests as a bonus while she was at it. C.C. noticed a girl in an Ashford Academy with sharp chisel carving a symbol into the wall. "What's with that person?"

"Oh. So she's at it again. What did you call this power?" said Lelouch.

"Geass. It is the power of absolute obedience. Given your own ideological beliefs on the ideal society, it's certainly ironic. You did admit it was convenient" said C.C.

"I used Geass to make her leave what she is doing every Thursday at a specific time and go to a place to carve a symbol, with this wall as a preferred target" said Lelouch as the girl finished.

"A test to find the duration, huh?" said C.C., mildly impressed.

"It's best to understand the specs of your weapon isn't it? If you act too selfishly, then…" said Lelouch.

"I wonder if it would work on me" said C.C. apparently she understood the implied threat and gone from impressed to amused. "Don't worry, you and I are accomplices. I wouldn't do anything that would put us in an unfavorable position" said C.C.

Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald sortied from the army base in his KnightMare. "Is the information about Zero true?" he said.

"Yes. It's information from Lord Kewell" said the counterintelligence officer who was off duty and sitting in a Purist base/

"All right. Deploy a cordon on the 4th zone of the Shinjuku ghetto" ordered Jeremiah.

"Understood grand lord" said the officer, deactivating his com. "We'll leave the rest up to you Lord Kewell" he said. It was out of his hands now and he could kid himself his conscience was clear.

Suddenly a sword appeared next to him. "I wanted to talk to Lord Jeremiah, but it seems now's not the time" said Villetta.

The counterintelligence officer ran through his thoughts quickly. He erased the frequency Jeremiah contacted him with, making it impossible for them to communicate with him without using a general channel that could be heard by all military, Tokyo Police, and aristocrat civilians who actually wanted to listen. There were three of them and all of them had handguns in their holsters. The officer was sitting down and not in a good position to fight. If he grabbed his gun, she might easily kill him, but buy enough time for the other two to respond. Villetta might only get one stab on his colleague after killing him before they could shoot. Depending on Jeremiah's true loyalty and the nature of the Orange thing, Villetta could very well be illegally threatening them and jeopardizing a cleansing operation against a traitor.

On the other hand, he had his own doubts. It didn't seem logical for Lord Jeremiah to betray Britannia or even the Area 11 administration; some nobles did plot around the local administration to get their own agenda without direct defiance of the motherland, although since legalistically this is wrong they would still be traitors. Perhaps deep down he thought Lord Kewell had just gotten a bug of the paranoia. He didn't doubt they had a mole, but did doubt it was Jeremiah, even after that incident. "Lord Kewell believes Jeremiah has betrayed the Area 11 administration and he has his own agenda different that both the economic and stability goals of the administration and the ideological goals of the purist faction. Kewell is initiating a purge as we speak"

"Get out of here you Britannian pigs!" said Tamaki, a brown haired Eleven terrorist who was trying and failing to grow a goatee. He was also failing to lie low on the orders of Ogi. Apparently the young terrorist thought he was away from eyes of surveillance of the authorities in a ghetto and for the most part he was correct. He threw down a camera from one of the two tourists. They had intended to take pictures of themselves in front of three different areas of Shinjuku, including an old monument.

"What? You're just an Eleven!" said the Britannian Camera owner in some kind of strange cap.

"We're Japanese! Don't call us Elevens!" said Tamaki. If the off-duty terrorists were here to mug the Britannians, they were doing so miserably, out of the shadows, in line of sight of anyone within 10 meters, and had already damaged an item worth money on the black market. On the other hand, if they were blowing off some steam after losing so many allies at Shinjuku and failing to protect the civilians there, it made some sense since they did not threaten violence until being called "Elevens" for the umpteenth time.

"What are you saying? You lost to us you dogs of a defeated island country" said the other Britannian. He had dark hair in a ponytail.

"You Britannian devil…" said the terrorist, balling his hand into a fist. His two compatriots closed the distance to the Britannians.

"Please stop! Don't resort to violence!" said Suzuku.

"Don't get in the way!" said the terrorist, slapping Suzuku's sunglasses away. "You're Kururugi Suzuku"

"The guy who shot Clovis" said another.

"You idiot, it was Zero who did it" said the third.

"This guy is just a slave. So what if he's an Honorary Britannian? Selling out your pride, comrades, and soul… you still call yourself Japanese?" said Tamaki, preparing a punch. "You Britannian dog!" he started to throw his punch.

Suzuku moved 3 centimeters to avoid the blow and grabbed the Eleven's arm as it passed. His other hand reached for the chest to act as a pivot and he threw the hapless terrorist. "Please stop. I've received training. I don't want to act against my own comrades…" pleased Suzuku.

"What do you mean by comrades?" demanded Tamaki.

"Hey! Let it go" said his comrade. There was no way this street fight could be won, and it would attract too much attention anyways. In fact, they were already sort of wasting their time.

"That traitor…" muttered the brown haired terrorist as he walked away.

"Suzuku? Are you OK?" said Euphemia.

"Yeah" said Suzuku.

"It's no okay. My prime G and MX4…" said the camera owner looking at rather extensive physical damage. "You should have finished them off. You're just an Honorary. Who do you think feeds you…" continued the ungrateful bastard.

Euphemia stepped up and slapped the tourist in the face hard enough, his arms reacted violently and sent the camera onto the ground once more "I will not let you insult this man any further!" said the pink haired girl.

Lelouch had left the city before this particular day and used several subjects to test Geass. While the duration test needed to be done at Ashford Academy, the others could be done in the ghetto, where he could scout out potential converts and asses the sentiment. 32 of them were used to test distances. In three of those cases he obtained EEG and MRI tests at the expense of his gambling winnings. One of the testers proved the ability to penetrate glass. Three of them were used to detail what kind of orders could be dealt. It seems that a very complicated order with many conditionals involving complicated visual patterns can be issued. In another example, he told an Eleven burglar to kill all Japanese. Lelouch used the stolen Nightmare to stop the Geassed Eleven three times before reminding him, without a Geass, that after Britannia conquered Japan, the people were renamed and as such there were no longer any Japanese left, only Elevens. The tint of the man's eyes disappeared and he reverted to normal behavior. Innocent casualties were going to be inevitable if he followed his plans. Lelouch didn't mind killing him if this experiment proved him wrong since, once again this was a burglar and not innocent and therefore his life was expendable.

"In order to use Geass, one must look directly into the target's eyes. There is no problem penetrating through things like glasses" said Lelouch. C.C. started putting on her straight jacket. "Maximum distance is 100 meters. Target must be able to hear the order, as such the 75 meter, 90 meter, 100 meter, and 102 meter tests needed to be done with the aid of walkie-talkies. A physically impossible order is not followed and it only makes the target immune to further Geass attempts. It is assumed that a paradoxical order will have the same effect. After having Geass cast on them, or when it is in effect, there is a noticeable gap in memory. This is thought to be caused by the Geass invading the cerebrum, hippocampus, and mammillary bodies. If it has the property of light, reflection should be possible" said Lelouch to himself while comparing the brain scans to known neurology. It was really for his own benefit as it was likely that C.C. already knew all of the details.

"I'm surprised you quickly put the lives of all those Elevens in Shinjuku online with that "Kill all Japanese" order. No, perhaps you were prepared to kill the burglar if pointing out there were only Elevens failed. You've studied the Geass in death so quickly" said C.C.

"The opponent is an empire which has subdued over a third of the world. There's no such thing as too much discretion" said Lelouch.

"Understandable for Elevens, but you're Britannian aren't you? Britannian is too large and powerful to fight with just Geass. In fact, the Emperor and his homeland units are too powerful for you and some terrorists to overpower even should you recapture Japan" said C.C.

"So I should become stronger?" said Lelouch.

"I wonder if it's wrong to be weak. Not in the physical sense, but I'm conflicted in my mind. At that time, for us ten year olds, the world appeared to be a sad place. For Japan, it certainly was" said Suzuku. He and Euphemia were looking over the graves of civilians killed in the Shinjuku Ghetto incident.

"Suzuku…" said Euphemia.

"It's not just the ungrateful Britannian insulting me after I helped him with some thugs. My friend and I saw many things"

Lelouch thought to the time of the Britannian invasion. He explained to C.C. all he and Suzuku had seen wrong with the world. In the early days of the war, power was cut off, spoiling food. This alone caused most of Japan's 24% drop in population in the invasion. "Hunger" said Lelouch.

"Sickness" said Suzuku, thinking about a cholera outbreak after surrender.

"Corruption. Decay" said Lelouch, thinking of the Area 11 administration.

"Discrimination" said Suzuku, thinking of how as an Honorary Britannian, he was still looked down upon by the pure blood Britannian.

"War and terrorism" thought Lelouch, remembering first the invasion of Japan and then how he nearly got killed by the terrorists he saved… before the military he thought he would need to rely on assumed he was one of them and tried to kill Suzuku.

"The endless chain of hatred" said Suzuku, thinking of the modern Area 11.

At this point, as if united by an unseen force, Suzuku and Lelouch as well as their companions the witch and the princess spoke in unison.

"A foolish vicious cycle. Someone must break this chain" said Lelouch and Suzuku.

"Quite an idealist" said the girls, C.C. pessimistically and Euphemia surprised given he was recently falsely accused of a crime. C.C. faced a wall and gave Lelouch a view of her posterior.

"Of course, I don't think that it's possible to get rid of all of it. I'm not that arrogant. That's why I want…" said Lelouch and Suzuku.

"A world without war" said Suzuku.

"Revenge and justice, followed by making a safe heaven" said Lelouch thinking about Charles, Marianne, and Nunnally.

"A place where we won't lose those dear to us" they finished in unison.

"Such a convenient world… what can you do to accomplish it?" said C.C. and Euphemia. C.C. this time gave no emotion on either her face or voice. Euphemia felt pity.

At this point, the unison unseen by the childhood friends was broken. "It's easy. The fighting stops when someone wins" said Lelouch, knocking over a chess piece with a grin.

"Someone?" said C.C.

"I don't know yet, but if I stop striving for it my father would have died in vain" said Suzuku, looking at his father's stopped pocket watch. He knew he didn't have the details worked out yet even on paper. But he needed to try.

"Prime Minister Kururugi's…" said Euphemia thinking of Suzuku's father who died in that war.

"In that way, my father had to die!" said Suzuku. For the moment, he believes in his father suicide over the helplessness of Japan's defense. They were interrupted by sounds of heavy vehicles.

Lord Jeremiah Gottwald arrived in Shinjuku ghetto. In addition to the cordon, he had ordered 34 KnightMare pilots to be on standby in their cockpits. 3 special infantry platoon, 3 regular mechanized units, a helicopter and 10 platoons were ready to be mobilized and enter the ghetto at his order. A platoon of 35 was waiting outside the ghetto. In his KnightMare he felt safe enough to investigate Kewell's Intel alone. An anti-tank rocket wouldn't hit a novice KnightMare pilot unless he got within 10 meters. Jeremiah talked to another one of his fellow purists. All the KnightMare guns were at base, except his. There were no maintenance issues.

Suddenly, a group of seven Sutherlands attacked Jeremiah. He was stunned. Jeremiah started firing in the general direction of four of the enemies who were clustered together for a charge. They dodged the un-aimed suppressive fire. "What's wrong? These terrorists are like professionals. While un-aimed fire is worse than using the fact-sphere and ballistics calculation or even eyeball aiming, this would normally result in a few hits." he thought. Three of the KnightMares in the charge ended up in contact. Jeremiah recognized the melee weapons, which were strange for the situation. Aristocrats sometimes augmented a KnightMare with customization that was moderately expensive, impossible to mass produce, difficult to use quietly (Sutherland is capable of minimal noise melee combat at the expense of speed, in case a 3 and a half story high mecha need to be stealthy and it was too dark to see it) and only offered marginal improvements. They would not be in a train waiting to be stolen by terrorists.

Jeremiah managed to us his skill to knock the three foes down, but others were going towards him. He retreated around a ruin. Jeremiah watched one KnightMare pass by. Another came and Jeremiah launched his slash harken. One hit on the leg. He filled the enemy with bullets, causing destruction of most of the machine and an ejection. One down, six to go. His slash harken retracted and it would take some time to be usable again.

Another machine tried to lance Jeremiah's KnightMare. He dodged it and tried to counterattack. Suddenly, three anti-tank rockets came from spate ruins. Jeremiah was forced to lose ground and his machine lost its footing, a knee slammed into the ground. Another foe tried to attack him while he was down. Jeremiah punched the leg and got up. He was under attack by all of the enemies by this time, dodging a lance attack and thee sets of slash harkens at the same time. Jeremiah grabbed the enemy he damaged and tossed it. This would cause enough damage to probably render it immobile, but he followed up with three shots, all of them penetrations. Jeremiah ran away using the railroad tracks for extra speed since the land spinners are more efficient there, not bothering to see that he had indeed the enemy KnightMare's own pilot believe the situation was unsalvageable and ejected.

Jeremiah could see three of them were in walker mode and heading stadium. Another was rolling in the streets, trying to find him. He probably lost them. "Michael, this is Margrave Jeremiah. Send in your platoon. You have automatics weapons, a flamethrower, and 3 bazooka operators. I am under attack by the terrorists in Sutherlands. Three of them are proceeding towards the north park"

"Ok we're coming. Wait, did you say Sutherland? Let me check. Nope we can't come. Those three are friendlies. Also, we were told not to come within 100 meters of this unit with this IFF signal" said Colonel Uzumaki, an Honorary Britannian who used bribery to pass the rank of Major which he legitimately earned.

"Where is Lieutenant Michael?" demanded Jeremiah.

"He's next to me. I came to him when I was ordered to take control of this platoon with him as an advisor. He's three positions below me in the chain of command, so it's legit. Anyways, those are the order"

Jeremiah considered using his authority as Margrave to override the odd order. "What is the IFF code you are checking for the 'friendlies'?" said Jeremiah. He got the code, but before he could put it in, he was under attack again. This time, his slash harken was dodged. Jeremiah fried to fire the gun, but the enemy was close enough to grab it and force it to be aimed at the ceiling. The two of them went into a balance duel and Jeremiah won. He punched the enemy's fact sphere and started firing. Another ejection, although it only moved 100 meters before glancing a wall. Jeremiah didn't bother to pursue.

If the enemy was headed towards that direction, at land spinner speed they should have reached a certain landmark. Jeremiah moved to an old baseball stadium. This was in the same direction as the trio, but only one third of the distance they should have traveled. Jeremiah eyed a lone KnightMare. It was probably the one that spread out to search for him. Jeremiah decided the disadvantage in melee equipment he had could be made with a surprise attack. A Sutherland's punch carried much more momentum that the shell the gun fired. He hurriedly entered in the IFF code. Now he could see anyone broadcasting that code. In addition to the position signal, the KnightMare will record all pilot conversation and emit a short 10 meter audio signal of the pilot. Jeremiah could select an icon and listen. But he didn't' see a lone icon, but three more to his right. Jeremiah dodged another attack, and selected a 'friendly' icon.

"We had to no bring guns. He knows the logistics chain and if he's trying to make sure the supply situation is good, he might accidentally discover us if we sortied with them. I don't think we can really trust that Honorary, but it doesn't matter. We can defeat the platoons if they come. They were only expecting to deal with terrorists and maybe a few JLF tanks if they somehow managed to smuggle that in. Rats, Orange got out of my hands again" said the voice.

"Lord Kewell? What is the meaning of this" demanded Jeremiah, activating his speakers.

"Today we will make you pay for the sin of allowing the murderer of Prince Clovis to escape" said Lord Kewell, turning on his own speakers.

"Cowardly Kewell! You lied about having located Zero!" said Jeremiah. The battle took a pause and a standoff started.

"Before her Highness Cornelia arrives, we must cleanse the shame committed by our own comrade. Jeremiah, this is a purge!" said Kewell. He charged and hit a wall, creating the noise Suzuku and Euphemia heard.

Lloyd and Cecile arrived to pick up Suzuku. They spied on him until losing him when they entered the ghetto and finding them again just now, no longer content to wait. The door of the special envoy truck opened up.

"Suzuku! It's dangerous, get on!" said Cecile as the teenagers ran to the truck.

"The Purist Faction is having an internal conflict. Let's get out of here. Oh and how unfortunate you were found innocent and released. You'll have to deal with us again" said Lloyd, teasing Suzuku.

"Please wait! Wouldn't this be a good chance to get battle data on the Lancelot?" said Suzuku. Cecile gasped in fear. Lloyd was pleasantly surprised. Euphemia was worried. "Sorry Euphie, this is where we bid farewell. I have to go"

Meanwhile Jeremiah had an opportunity to shoot down Kewell before melee range. It was unlikely to score killing blow, but at least damaging either the frontal armor or the legs would mean it was only three intact and one damaged KnightMares against an intact KnightMare. However, he hesitated and instead of firing dozens of shots, only managed to get of three that overshot before the assault rifle was knocked out of the hand and pierced by a lance. "Damnit. Seven… I mean four on one" said Jeremiah. He activated an electrical weapon attached to his KnightMare arm and tried to attack, only to be met by Kewell's lance.

"Don't worry Jeremiah, we'll announce that you died in battle. There will be no shame to your family name!" said Kewell. Jeremiah fended him off but another Purist Faction Splinter member attacked him from the side, forcing him to an unfavorable position to dodge the lance which ended up in the ground.

"Are you serious? Are you seriously going to kill me Kewelll?!" demanded Jeremiah, fending off a body slam. He was furious and fended it off in an unfavorable way, causing him to lose more ground. If he was pinned to even a low lying wall in a three to one KnightMare fight, he was doomed if they were better equipped than him, which they were after the gun was gone.

"Shut up Orange! Why do you think we exist? It's for the glory of the royal house, isn't it?"

"All hail Britannia" said the Pureblood Faction Splinter group. Three of them charged with lances and the other was going for a body slam off Jeremiah's center of mass. Jeremiah calmed down enough to see a counter. He would be able to use his electrical attack and temporarily disable an attacker's leg, as well as damaging its armor there and on the front. He could then shove him away and lose more ground to avoid the other three. However, there was only so much ground he could give. Suddenly, a slash harken appeared and glanced off Kewell. "Please stop! Don't fight amongst yourselves as Britannians" said Suzuku in the white KnightMare.

"That's the Honorary Britannian. The mobile weapon Lancelot" said Jeremiah.

"You report to the officer of the Special Envoy right? What does the Special Envoy want? If you are going to interfere, we'll kill you regardless of who you are!" said Kewell.

"No! I can't allow a meaningless fight to go on" said Suzuku, drawing two swords and activating the blades.

"MVS? So they've been put into use?" said Lord Kewell, oblivious to the fact that they were NOT put in use for the very reason that attempting to make the crystals in the certain shape they needed was so precise, 3000 failures resulted for each success to make just one component using a specialized piece of equipment that is the only kind in the world thanks to the parent company going out of business. The failures are nothing but scrap material and the whole process of making them was expensive, unscalable, and inefficient. "But I'm not backing down" said Kewell. He fired his slash harken which was dodged.

"Amongst your own comrades" said Suzuku, dismayed at the disunity. He used the MVS to cut the right slash harken of three KnightMares that fired at him. Into melee, he fought, stabbing the arm of a KnightMare and forcing another form its feet to end up on the back. But three on one was difficult against those who actually know how to use a KnightMare, unlike the terrorists, and he lost an MVS.

"If I can just take our Orange…" said Kewell, advancing with a lance. He hit a section of the right arm of Jeremiah's Sutherland. It was a special plate that covered 90 degrees of the 360 possible around the right arm and it offered additional protection. Before Jeremiah thought he was probably done for. Now he had an ally, but that ally was busy and he was pinned in a vulnerable spot with not enough time to get up from his knees. If anything, the situation was worse, from unlikely to win but possible if keep dodging indefinitely to what looked like a lost cause.

A Sutherland came from over the stadium stands and punched Kewell. "Lord Jeremiah!" said Villetta.

"Is that Villetta? Thanks!" said Jeremiah. He picked up the fallen MVS. Cut off from a machine with the correct port, it only used a third of its possible power and it was time limited before it would become a very heavy pointy non-brittle electronic.

"Everyone back off" said Lord Kewell. The other Purist faction Splinter group members complied.

"Kewell? So we've come to an understanding?" said Suzuku. Rationally, with four on three, this made sense. Also Suzuku didn't see what Britannians fighting each other accomplished. However, he also knew this skirmish was emotional and surprised Kewell stopped thinking emotionally.

"I'll use the Chaos Depth Charge" said Kewell, proving Suzuku currently wrong and his first assumption correct. It was a powerful weapon that pilots bought for themselves because it was stupidly expensive for a one shot weapon.

"Don't let that hit you! You shield is inadequate" said Jeremiah.

"Stop!" said Euphemia, rushing into the ruined stadium.

"What?" said Jeremiah. He moved to shield the pink haired girl and kept his hand on the ejection button, afraid he would not hit it in the window the Sutherland was disabled before the ejection system too was disabled. Villetta moved out of the way.

Suzuku moved the Lancelot in front of Euphemia and Jeremiah and activated the shield. High speed projectiles started spewing out, hitting the shield. It was only 30% done when the shield failed. The Lancelot took severe damage to the left leg, the left slash harken sport, and the left fact sphere which was exposed since Suzuku never thought to close it for protection when he had a shield. His shield generator wouldn't work even if he recharged it since it was blown out. Roller movement was only possible if someone pushed the Lancelot and it was no longer capable of charging on the rollers, but thankfully walker movement was only slightly impaired as it managed to miss critical components. The armor was wrecked in multiple places. If the Chaos Depth Charge spat out uniformly, the Lancelot would have taken extensive damage likely immobilized or possibly even disabled. Fortunately, it releases them rather randomly. Just like one can roll 30 6s on a fair die in a row, it was possible to not take extensive damage when close to the Chaos Depth Charge, although not something one would want to count on.

"That honorary Britannian used himself as a shield for the Britannian civilian and Lord Jeremiah…" said Villetta, surprised. She had not seen Suzuku risk his own life by entering the fight in the first place on his own accord.

"Both sides, lower your weapons!" demanded Euphemia.

Kewell took a look at the pink haired girl. She looked almost like "It can't be…" said Kewell. No one had pictures of the 3rd princess as of 37 months ago. Not too many people paid attention to her, but Kewell and a lot of Purists have a general idea of who she is. The girl did look very much like an older Euphemia.

"I am the 3rd princess of Britannia, Euphemia li Britannia" said Euphemia.

"Euphie?" said Suzuku, surprised.

"I am taking control of this area. Step away" said Euphemia.

"As I thought, Her Highness the Princess" said Jeremiah. He didn't need to look up a database on the royal family, which would have been three years out of date on pictures anyway, to recognize Euphemia.

"Did you know that Lloyd" said Cecile.

"Mm. She rarely appeared to the public because she was a student" said Lloyd. He was leaning into a wall, an arm with a bent elbow, that hand pushing on the side of his head, a leg on the ground, and the other leg pushed against the doorway he was in.

"I am truly… I am truly sorry" said Lord Kewell, moving his KnightMare into a salute position. The other Purists followed suit. Suzuku left his cockpit and tries to prostrate.

"Suzuku, just as you have lost your father, I may lose my older brother Clovis. In fact, I likely have. Those injuries are usually fatal. Will you lend me what's left of your strength so that no others have to lose those dear to them?" said Euphemia in a heavy tone.

"Yes! Your kind words are more than I am worth of!" said Suzuku, dropping to his knee and reaching his left arm over his chest.

Later that night, Cornelia had arrived in Tokyo. "I heard about Lord Kewell, Don't do such reckless things" said Cornelia.

"I am truly sorry elder sister, but…" said Euphemia.

"While we are here, call me Governor-General, Vice Governor General-Euphemia. A distinction is needed since we are siblings" cut off Cornelia.

"Yes, I understand" said Euphemia.

Cornelia smiled and then turned towards an aide. "So about action taken…"

"Yes, the administration has already completed the preparations to welcome the princesses" said the aide before Cornelia turned a handgun on him.

"You are lacking. You are weak. You are lazy. What about Zero? You had enough time to prepare for our arrival and gather intelligence at the same time. He is the enemy of the Empire and must be stopped!" said Cornelia.

The next day, Lelouch was in for a surprise. He did read small article in a print newspaper about the acquittal of Suzuku. Lelouch thought that would be the end of it for a few weeks, but he had a surprise in homeroom. "From today on, I will be a student at Ashford Academy. I'm Kururugi Suzuku. Please to meet you" said the transfer student.

Author's Note: There are a few reasons I started from the begining. one is I wanted to start with small changes that escalates to a tipping point where Lelouch finally decides to take a gamble. I'm also trying to make Jerimiah a bit deeper, while keeping the awesome and loyalty. Another reason to start formt he begining is that I wanted someone who only looked at the wikipedia article and didn't watch any episodes to be able to follow this. In other words, it will not just be a fanfiction, but a story that is readable and complete. Another thing is that there are two plot holtes from canon I can't resolve. In episode 1, C.C. didn't tell Lelouch his pwoer was called "Geass" in her speel and later lelouch did not geass MULTIPLE Sutherland pilots, leaving one wondering how many pilots ended up with jumbled memories... I'm probably going to make some edits over this weekend to fix those. A third concern I had about this section is that... well I know I'm making changes add up but maybe I'm changing Jermiah too much. If I didn't exlicitly put in the ejections, I would have raised his body count in his pre-Lelouch loyalty phase... by three nominal ALLIES. Canon has him in the middle of the stadium with no clue how the combat initiated and he (probably) didn't threaten to kill Kewell (who was trying to kill him) for example, he fought them to a standstill despite being outnumbered and his gun taken from him. Also, isn't obeying all of my line breaks making some sections look more disorganized than my word document