Sorry for the delayed upload. I actually had a difficult time writing this chapter. I had many ideas but I didn't know which one would be the most appropriate. I really hope that this idea which I thought was the best among the others is okay.

I'm open for all kinds of suggestions that will help me improve my writing skills.

Elsewhere in a dark room a man wearing fancy robes knelt down before his master.

"My Emperor the task has been completed successfully."

His master grinned; he was pleased with the work that had been done but still not satisfied.

"Did anybody witness the events? Give me the entire details."

"No, My Emperor, it was carried out as stealthily as you expected. We easily had access to the body and it was replaced by the decoy. The body was then carefully transported to the particular cold storage as you had ordered. We even secured the true eye witness Anya Alstreim and transported her to the palace."

"Very well then, you may leave."

Only when the man had exited the room did th Emperor turn to his right and acknowledge the person on his right.

"It seems V.V. that our master plan will finally be successful now. Marianne can truly be by our side now."

The rest of the day of the attack on the Aries Imperial Palace was uneventful other than the increase in the number of soldiers in the palace grounds to ensure that a repeat of the earlier incident did not occur. The palace had been thoroughly searched and all meals were checked for any traces of poisoning. The maids, guards and soldiers present during Prince Lelouch's outburst had been ashamed of their actions and resumed their duties with enhanced vigor. Many among them also swore that they would be eternally grateful to their Mistress' kind deeds and that they would remain loyal to her children for all eternity no matter what the situation would be in the future. The only question that remained was that, how true their claims were and for how long would they be true?

As for the two siblings, they had remained in the safety of the infirmary for the entire day. They were under the constant observation of Leon and Lord Deamon. The two of the had left the siblings alone for only for an hour so that they could deal with their mother's death in privacy without the constant fear that someone would overhear them and reveal their secret weakness to the outer world. For any to normal children it would have been normal to mourn at their mother's death but for Lelouch and Nunnally, there was no such option: as they were royalty they were expected to have hearts made up of steel so as to withstand any type of grief. Furthermore as their mother was a mere commoner who has risen to be the Empress, they were despised by the nobles of their country and such actions would only be ridiculed meaning that they would lose the protection that they got for being royalty.

The tragic day followed by a night of restless sleep had finally gone by. Lelouch had woken up many times during the course of the night to the sounds of Nunnally's whimpers. Every time Nunnally had a nightmare it took Lelouch at least half-an-hour to coax her back to sleep. Having had to deal with both his and Nunnally's nightmares, it was no wonder that he was wide awake by seven in the morning. Realizing that he didn't have to get up for at least an hour or so he lay quietly on his bed and thought about the rest of his family members. No contact made with either Nunnally or Lelouch by any of them. He really didn't expect any condolences from his numerous step-moms. But, some of his brothers and sisters were entirely a different case. He really expected them to come over and contact him or Nunnally. He had waited for a good amount of time the previous day for his any of his sibling to come and assure him that everything would be okay, they would protect him and his sister. But when nothing of that sort happened he was forced to think that they didn't care what happened to them. It seemed as if they were glad that Lady Marianne was finally dead. They were probably plotting different strategies to get Lelouch and Nunnally out of the race of becoming the next Emperor or Empress.

What had surprised Lelouch the most was that even Euphemia hadn't contacted them. Still on the bed in the infirmary Lelouch's thoughts were filled with countless questions about Euphemia's actions.

Was all her kindness and love all an act to get on our good side? Was I wrong in trusting her? Besides, what could she have got by that? Cornelia was already among their father's favored children and she could easily get Euphemia what she wanted, then why had she done so? Was she not informed? No, that wasn't possible, rumors of assassinations spread faster than fire. Then was the news of his mother's assassination being withheld, if so then why? Or was Euphemia also attacked? Was she hurt? I really should have contacted her, but I too have my fair share of problems and couldn't go being a superhero when my little sister needs me the most. Could I? No of course not, what I did was right, wasn't it? Arrgh! So many questions and almost no answers! I will get all my answers today from father. No matter what I shall uncover the mystery behind mother's death. She shall be avenged, Nunnally shall be avenged. I shall….

"Big brother what are you doing here?" shrieked Nunnally suddenly and her words brought Lelouch out of his thoughts.

"Calm down Nunnally. Why are you so worried? Did you have another nightmare?"

"No! No! No! I didn't get another nightmare but have you even looked at what time it is?"

"Why yes, its only 7:45 in the morning and I am only required only after 9. So I think it is alright to spend some more time with my sweet little sister. Don't you agree?"

"While it's truly wonderful that you like spending time with me, I really think you should get ready for meeting father. You know as well as I do, if not much better, that meeting father shall be a very difficult task. So go now. Please send Miss Annie in."

"Yes I understand; I'll take your leave now." said Lelouch while getting out of the bed and moving towards the door.

"One more thing if it's okay with you could you leave Leon behind for my safety instead of Lord Daemon, he is a bit too overwhelming for my liking"

"Of course I'll talk to them. Now that you mention those two I wonder whether or not they slept last night. I really hope that they didn't overload themselves with ensuring our security"

"Me too. Goodbye Lelouch. Take care and don't do anything harsh."

"Yes I will and you better take care of yourself too" with that Lelouch exited the infirmary.

To say that Lelouch was nervous was an underestimation, his nerves were a wreck and there were rats, no elephants jumping up and down in his stomach. His confidence in himself that he would wiggle out the truth from his father had been diminishing from the moment he had left the infirmary. Even then he had convinced himself that he would be able to do it. But, when he had started planning with Lord Daemon he truly understood the difficulty of the situation. He wasn't able to decide whether he should demand he father to answer his questions directly or talk round about the topic of his concern. Lord Daemon wasn't really an help in this situation for in his opinion the prince shouldn't have sought an audience with the Emperor so soon.

Is predicament wasn't solved even when he reached the gates to the courtroom. Finally he decided that he would deal with the situation when he faced it by whatever means necessary.

And then it was announced….

"Sir Lelouch vi Britannia, 17th in line to the throne of the Holy Empire of Britannia, requests an audience!"

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