"Lelouch"- speaking
'Baka.'- thoughts
"Roger."- Radio/Walkie-Talkie
Disclaimer: This is a fictional story. The views and opinions expressed in this story do not reflect the views of BlackTyrantValvatorez or Fanfiction Dot Net.
Somewhere in the Chinese Federation, meeting room, June 22nd, 2018.
"That situation was too close for comfort! If they had broken through sooner, all of us who were in the Narita base would have been captured by the Britannian military!" an unmasked Zero shouted to the other leaders of the Black Knights. It had become apparent that since the others knew about his real identity and about Geass, the loyalty that the Black Knights had to Lelouch had strengthened instead of breaking completely. Even then, Lelouch mostly wore the mask of Zero as a feeling of nostalgia to the old days of the organization before the SAZ Massacre.
"Even so, I performed to the best of my ability. It was miraculous that we were able to hold onto our prisoners plus our honored guest." Tohdoh stated.
"Indeed. By the way, what is taking Kaguya so long now that with the counter-invasion scrapped, there's no need for multiple Home Guard commanders?"
"Yeah, about that, there was a ton of paperwork that had to be dealt with." Naoto spoke up.
"Alright, I should probably go and help her with that. By the way Ohgi, how are the prisoners doing?" Zero said.
"Some of the guards were considering whether to rape Alice or not. I had them transferred to the front lines. Aside from that small incident, they've been fine." Ohgi stated.
"Good work there." Zero said before leaving to help Kaguya. Once he left, Naoto then asked Ohgi, "So Ohgi, how is the orange-haired prisoner faring?"
"Eh, she was slightly shocked to find out that Lelouch was responsible for the death of her father during the Narita Mountain Battle in 2017. He had apologized to her about that and honestly, they were so silent during that half-hour I didn't know what was going to happen. In the end, she forgave him and there's also something else that we need to talk about, Naoto." Ohgi replied.
"Is it about Nunnally? If it is, I should remind you that the Westermarck Effect has absolutely no fucking presence in Code Geass or any of its official spin-offs."
"Yeah, and that's not even touching the fact that Lelouch is a fucking siscon. I mean, yesterday I overheard both Nunnally and Euphemia arguing over who was going to marry Lelouch once Japan has been liberated and Britannia is neutralized as a threat to the planet. That was before Suzaku came into the equation and complicated things further. I mean, Nunnally is probably, I don't know, fourteen or fifteen right now? I don't even know what age she is, but she is almost as flat as a board because she's younger than Kallen."
"Fortunately, it seems that Suzaku seems to prefer Euphemia. It might have had something to do with him being her Knight from when he was in the military before the SAZ Massacre occurred."
"Arrrgh, just thinking about that day makes me want to throw the fuck up."
"Not to mention that Nunnally actually told me that unless she met someone who could care for her better than Lelouch, she wouldn't marry anyone else."
"By the way, I wonder how Jeremiah is faring right now?" Ohgi asked.
"Eh, he's been serving under Lelouch and Nunnally directly and has been tutoring the Princess since Lelouch doesn't want Nunnally out in the field in case she's captured." Naoto replied.
"It makes sense considering that we had to plan for quite a bit and almost got destroyed by the Glinda Knights when we commenced Operation Fallen Noble."
Meanwhile in another room of the hidden safehouse, Lelouch had finished helping Kaguya with her paperwork and had been notified that Lloyd Asplund had arrived. After running into Suzaku, Lelouch finally got to the hangar where Lloyd was waiting.
"So you're Lloyd Asplund, the famous Earl of Pudding?" Lelouch asked.
"You would be correct, Zero. Ah, I see that Suzaku is here as well. Excellent, I brought the Lancelot along, but unfortunately it seems that Ms. Cecile is in a bit of a quandary right now." Lloyd said with a serious expression on his face.
"What's the situation with her?"
"She's been forced to marry Prince Schneizel."
"I can guess that she was given an alternative option that would pretty much destroy her career or life."
"Bingo: Schneizel would have had Luciano Bradley of all people rape her."
Suzaku remained silent for five seconds before he punched a wall in frustration and vowed, "I will make him pay for this transgression!"
"That time will come eventually Suzaku, but for now we must focus on fighting Britannia. How many Sakuradite mines in Area Eleven are still in Britannian hands, Kallen?" Lelouch said as Kallen walked in.
"Only three right now. Option Nihil is nearly completed defused, but we can't let our guard down." Kallen stated.
"Good, that means that we're on target. However, once Japan has been liberated, Britannia will most certainly stop at nothing to conquer it again. To that end, we will have to escalate and begin launching attacks on other areas. I have no sympathy for the Britannians over in Africa at the moment."
Geographic South Africa, Britannian Base Camp 2.
"These fucking Africans are a pain in the ass! Why do they waste our time with this shit!?" a Britannian soldier cursed as he patrolled the outside perimeter of the base with another one.
"I completely agree! The damned niggers are absolutely everywhere! We could easily kill them all on a good day and be done with this shit, but no; those stupid, fucking European dumb-asses have to arm the locals and give them Anti-Knightmare weapons to somewhat negate our advantage! And I don't see why we aren't assigned to the front lines! The two of us are Purists, for Christ's sake! Does the Army have something against us now!?" the second soldier shouted.
"I honestly have no fucking idea! The kikes and wops are the ones running the show, not us! If it were us who were in charge, we would be burning the fucking continent and using chemical weapons on our enemies. I don't know why we even signed that fucking agreement that prohibited us from using chemical and biological weaponry!"
"Also, how many Elevens does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"
"One thousand?"
"Yes, and that's because there is one Eleven to screw it in and the other nine hundred ninety-nine to make sure that the goddamn system is working properly!"
"You know, the Commander is going to chew our asses off if he hears us telling these jokes."
"Well, the Commander can stick his morality bullshit up his asshole for all I care! I just signed up because I want to fucking kill people!"
"Same deal with me. The stupid monkeys are gonna die in the future!" the first soldier said.
"Evolution is continuous, so these 'monkeys' might end up being the ones who burn down Britannia. Yet, what's the odds of that happening compared to those fucking Elevens!?" the second soldier replied.
"Next to nothing!"
"Exactly, and that's why we should head out there and burn the motherfu-" the second soldier started, but was interrupted by a series of explosions that killed him and the first soldier. An African miliitant in camouflage garb then yelled a battle cry in Afrikaans before charging into the base.
Somewhere in the Chinese Federation, holding cells.
Milly Ashford was grateful that she had managed to hide a lockpick kit in her cleavage, but she couldn't really use it at the moment because of the fact that Tamaki of all people was standing outside of the door to her cell along with Kallen. The Ashford family heiress knew that Shirley, Sophie, and Alice were being held inside other cells, but causing a jailbreak wouldn't go well since Milly had overheard Tamaki mention that this base was located somewhere in the Chinese Federation, but the Japanese man never mentioned exactly where in the Federation's territory the base was. And of course, there was Nunnally to worry about because the Black Knights had kept her separate from the other prisoners.
Kallen suddenly had to go check on something and when she did, Milly realized that this might be her only opportunity to shake some information out of Zero and decided to bang on a wall of her cell while pressing her back against a wall at a position where Tamaki couldn't see her from the outside. Naturally, Tamaki decided to investigate the sound and opened the cell door before going in. Milly knew that she couldn't win a fair fight with Tamaki, so she opted to knock him out and leave him inside the cell before heading to where Zero's quarters were located. It was somewhat difficult since the Black Knights were on the alert and she had almost been caught by a patrol of five gas mask-wearing members whom she only managed to avoid because she hid inside of a locker. The man-sized lockers were an oddity, but also practical since the members often stored their rifle cases and body armor in there along with their field uniforms when they actually went out on missions.
Near a door, Milly overheard talking on the other side of it and pressed her right ear to the door to listen in to the conversation.
". . . was once addicted to Refrain." a voice on the other side of the door said.
"So that's why Kallen hates Refrain so much." a feminine voice replied.
"Yes. We've shut down many Refrain operations in both Japan and here in the Chinese Federation. Kallen has no doubt been one of our best pilots in the Black Knights." a third voice said.
Before Milly could listen in further, she heard a rifle cock and turned to her left slowly and saw two members of the Black Knights. Both of them were wearing gas masks and had their weapons pointed at the Ashford heiress.
"How the hell did you get out of your cell? Do we have a rat problem in this base? one of the gas masked Black Knights asked.
"I don't know, but at the same time the forces in Honshu have made remarkable progress. Mount Fuji is now completely under our control and Britannia has been driven out of every city save Tokyo." the other one said.
The door that Milly had listened through opened and stepping through was none other than Nunnally. Milly noticed something off about the fifteen year old's legs, namely that they had metal braces on them and then there was the fact that Nunnally's eyes were open and were a light purple in contrast to the dark violet eyes of Lelouch. The Ashford heiress also saw that Nunnally was wearing a pink dress that ended at her thighs and she had a commanding aura around her as the two gas mask-clad Black Knights saluted her on sight.
So you've managed to get out of your cell, Milly. Zero will be eager to speak to you about this." Nunnally said to Milly.
Milly was left with no choice but to follow Nunnally as the two gas mask-wearing Black Knights were behind the Ashford heiress. Eventually they arrived in a room where Euphemia was waiting along with Suzaku, Rivalz, and Zero himself.
"Alright, now that we're here, we can begin talking. Rivalz, if you may." Zero said to the blue-haired young man.
Rivalz snapped his fingers and then Shirley, Sophie and Alice were escorted inside the room by three members of the Black Knights each. After they were seated, Rivalz removed Zero's helmet, revealing midnight black hair and a pair of dark violet eyes.
"It- It can't be! Le- Lelouch is not only alive, but he's Zero!? Milly shouted, surprised to see that someone who was supposed to be dead was leading the Black Knights.
"It seems that Diethard Ried's little show had worked quite well. In any case, you are probably wondering why Nunnally can walk and see again. I will answer that now. It was all during a mission that the Black Knights undertook called Operation Fallen Noble." Lelouch spoke.
"The objective of Operation Fallen Noble was to kidnap the then-Viceroy of Area Eleven and Nunnally's presence here is proof of the mission's success. Rivalz, acting as a sleeper agent, planted satchels of Sleep Gas among piles of inconspicuous objects and then set them off in a bathroom before three squads stormed the building and captured my sister along with her Knight Alice, you, Shirley, and Ms. Sophie Wood. We then made our escape in three BTR-80 APCs given to us by Russian sympathizers who supported the Black Knights. Nunnally awoke during the escape from Tokyo, but I had Jeremiah use his Geass Canceller on her and my suspicions were proven right when she opened her eyes after the Geass Canceller was used on Nunnally."
Milly knew what was going on since Tamaki had told her along with the other prisoners about Geass and said, "Wait, Nunnally's blindness was Geass-induced?"
"Yes, Milly. Apparently Charles zi Britannia had altered her memories so that she thought that she was blind according to the data obtained when we seized control of the Geass Order. The Emperor's Geass allows him to alter memories according to whatever he says, but it requires eye contact. He did use it on me, but I had also used my own Geass, Absolute Obedience, on him. Specifically, Charles zi Britannia had tried to intercept me and the Black Knights when we fled for the Chinese Federation in the aftermath of the SAZ massacre with the intention of erasing my memories of being Zero and removing Nunnally from the memories that I would retain. I Geassed him into erasing all of my memories except for when I was Zero and to the Emperor, Lelouch died spying on the Black Knights." Lelouch answered.
"For over six months Lelouch had been acting as Zero and was recruiting more and more people into the Black Knights. With the Chinese Federation currently invading Area Eleven with their aid, the Black Knights have proven themselves to be an effective force that could possibly threaten the Britannian Homeland. As to how I am still alive, the OSI had somehow revived me in the aftermath of the SAZ massacre. While the tanker I was on was en route to Area Eleven, the Black Knights had raided it and I was captured and brought to Narita, where my memories were restored." Euphemia added.
"Until the Black Knights had kidnapped me as their main objective in Operation Fallen Noble and then taken to Narita, I was unaware that Onii-sama was still alive. He had intentionally made the world believe that he was dead so that I would not attempt to seek him out and try to make him stop his plan to destroy Britannia. It worked and even though I am still hurt by the fact that he had abandoned me before I was brought back into the Imperial Family, I ultimately forgave him for what he has been doing so far and for what he has done in the past. I can never bring myself to hate my older brother Lelouch and vowed to help him make a gentler world for me. In fact, with the research of the Black Knights I have been given back the use of my legs and my eyes were restored thanks to the Geass Canceller used by one Jeremiah Gottwald." Nunnally stated.
Shirley had her right hand on her left breast during the entire explanation and was on the verge of tears, devastated by the information that she had just heard as did Sophie. Euphemia then said, "As for why I died in the SAZ massacre and was subsequently revived, I will answer in reverse order. I was revived because the OSI thought that they could use me as an assassin and send me out to kill Lelouch. I died because Lelouch's Geass, Absolute Obedience, had become out of control when he unintentionally told me to kill the Japanese and the Black Knights were left with no other option but to kill me to stop the massacre because they didn't have the Geass Canceller back then."
Milly herself was now also on the verge of tears and then Rivalz came up to her and placed his right hand on her left shoulder before barely whispering to her, "It's alright. You can cry now." Something broke inside Milly when she heard the blue-haired Black Knight say that and she began to cry, burying her face into his chest as she did so.
On the next Chapter: The Battle of Tokyo commences at the same time as a battle begins between Akito Hyuga and Julius Kingsley over the fate of a Thought Elevator.