Inspiration: This story was partially inspired by another story. In this case it's The Bonds of Family (formerly A Blast From the Past) by Shadow At Midnight. Check it out if you want to see just how the hell this got up off the ground.

Phase 8

The Rise of the Black Knights

Meeting Room, Unknown Location, 10:30 hours, one day after the raid on the military train.

"Kusakabe's going to do something stupid. I just know it already." a hooded man said.

"The Annual Summit for the Sakuradite Producing Countries at Lake Kawaguchi is the most likely event that Kusakabe will hijack. The other event locations are either not defensible enough for his liking, are too close to Britannian military bases, or so small that the organizers can simply pack up and leave at the first sign of trouble. Especially since he somehow manufactured that thing from four Burai, spare cannon, and a large generator." an old man said.

"This is exactly why I recommend against sending the Guren MK-II to the JLF: Something like this will come up and then Cornelia will destroy them before it even arrives. Kusakabe's angry at Zero's accomplishments and is determined to prove that he can obtain a victory just like Colonel Tohdoh did at Itsukushima back when the invasion was ongoing." Hiroyosi Yoshino said.

"At the same time, we cannot exactly abandon them. The JLF has been around the longest out of any resistance group!" Hidenobu Kubouin said.

"I believe that we should look to the future and not to the past, everyone. Zero and his group are doing well, but I cannot entrust the Guren MK-II to them at the moment. They will have to do well one more time before that can happen while the JLF must solve their Kusakabe problem before Cornelia's wrath destroys them if they are to receive the Guren." Kaguya said.

"What about the 'Zero Faction' then? Are we going to give them anything?" the hooded man asked.

"Calm yourself, Osakabe Tatsunori. We shall give some Burai to the Zero Faction. Even if the JLF ultimately do not get the Guren MK-II, we can deliver some Burai-Kai to them." Kirihara replied.

"Oh. Even if it's a token gesture I'm sure that those will be fine for either of them." Kubouin said.

"Well then, anything else?" Kirihara asked. Upon receiving no answer he said, "Meeting adjourned."

Viceroy's Palace, about one hour later.

Milly was tense and for good reason. Both her grandfather Ruben and Milly herself had been summoned to the Viceroy's Palace for a meeting with Cornelia li Britannia, the new Viceroy and half-sister of Lelouch and Nunnally. The Ashford heiress really didn't like the fact that Villetta Nu was doing a full-body frisk on her, but she supposed that it could be worse if she complained right now since she was only in a pair of navy blue panties and a frilly yellow bra.

"Okay, everything looks alright. You can put your clothes back on, Miss Ashford." Villetta said before leaving. Milly took that as the cue to put her dress back on. It was a pretty green one that showed some of her cleavage. After doing so, she left the small room and rejoined her grandfather at the entrance hall of the Viceroy's Palace. Andreas Darlton was waiting for them and said, "Please follow me." as he led them through the Viceroy's section of the palace. Once outside a door Darlton knocked on it and said, "I have brought Mr. Ruben K. Ashford and his grand-daughter Miss Milly."

"Come in." a voice on the other side ordered.

Darlton opened the door and Milly went in along with her grandfather. Inside the meeting room were twelve comfortable chairs that surrounded a table. Cornelia was occupying a chair that was at one head of the table and an adjacent chair was occupied by Euphemia. "Nice to see that you're still alive, Milly. The same goes for your grandfather. As you two are aware, I am the new Viceroy of Area Eleven Cornelia li Britannia. Please have a seat." Cornelia said.

Milly decided to sit down across from Euphemia while Ruben sat next to his grand-daughter. Cornelia then said, "Before I begin talking with you, I must apologize for having you two go through a a vehicle search, metal detectors, and then a full-body frisk. Paranoia has been the word of the day ever since Zero got past Knightmares, armed guards, and surveillance cameras to assassinate Clovis. In any case, I must thank you two for looking after my missing siblings Lelouch and Nunnally."

"The pleasure is all mine, Princess Cornelia. As it so happened I saw them like they were my own grand-children." Ruben replied.

"That is good to hear. However pleasant stuff like this isn't the only thing I have to discuss with you. Jeremiah Gottwald mentioned that Milly knew why Lelouch would eventually rebel against the Holy Britannian Empire. I would like to know why he would do that." Cornelia said.

Milly sighed and then asked, "Do you remember when Lelouch demanded justice for his mother's murder?"

"I do remember what happened: Father called Nunnally weak in addition to acting unaffected to the death of his favored consort and Lelouch threw away his claim to the throne in anger." Euphemia said.

"Exactly, and Lelouch was sent to Japan as a political hostage. At the time I had no idea what the Emperor would have done with Nunnally. I suppose that you have an answer for that." Cornelia added.

"Yes, although it's an answer that you likely will not like hearing."

"So what is it?"

"The Emperor had every intention of having Nunnally married off. It wouldn't have happened for a number of years though as it was to be with a wealthy nobleman's six-year old son." Milly answered.

Cornelia scowled and shouted, "There's no way that Lelouch would stand for that happening! I suppose that he did something to ensure that it wouldn't come to pass."

"Yes, Princess Cornelia. Lelouch ordered several guards from the Aries Villa to retrieve Nunnally from the hospital, and they succeeded despite some of them dying in the attempt and a few more being captured and executed. The Emperor had no idea that Lelouch was behind it until both he and Nunnally were already in Japan. Dorothea Ernst tried to find her with no results until Lelouch sent a taunting message."

"Jeremiah told me what happened next behind closed doors: a Spec-Ops team was sent after Nunnally and they had orders to kill Lelouch."

"Our father did what!?" Euphemia shouted, surprised at this information.

"The Emperor did order them to kill Lelouch. He however had expected this and maximized the chances of the entire team getting killed by moving to a military base near Tokyo. That incident just happened to be the unofficial trigger of the Second Pacific War."

"Euphy and I were always wondering why the military was already geared up before tensions were raised. I certainly believed that our father would have tried the same trick on us if I hadn't put Euphy under my protection."

Lake Kawaguchi Hotel/Convention Centre, Hotel Area, Floor 24 Room 1, two days later.

"It's been only three days since our raid against that Britannian military train, Ohgi. However we need to hold our positions here on the 24th and 25th Floors in case Josui Kusakabe's followers show up. The Annual Summit for the Sakuradite Producing Countries is being held here today and I doubt that Kusakabe would pass up the opportunity to do something stupid here." Lelouch said to Ohgi.

"I can understand that, but why would Kusakabe take an entire building hostage?" Ohgi asked.

"Kusakabe, despite his shortcomings, is a solid leader who actually knows what he is doing much like myself. However, he is a blind nationalist who lets his pride get in the way at times. Besides, the stairs leading here from Floor 23 have been barricaded, which means that Kusakabe's soldiers will have to use the elevators to reach us. The elevator doors are also closely watched by at least three of our guys." Lelouch said as he heard the bark of gunfire come from the floor below them. The door to the room then opened and Sayoko came in along with Nunnally before the maid said, "The equipment in Room 3 on this Floor is ready, Goshujin-sama."

"I will need to get ready, Ohgi. Would you kindly leave the room?"

"Sure." Ohgi said as he got up and left the room. When he exited, the door closed behind him and a few minutes later Lelouch was dressed in his Zero outfit while Sayoko was dressed as her alternate identity Shīrudo. Nunnally however had not changed outfits though as she still wore the Ashford Academy Middle School Division uniform despite no longer attending. Nunnally was deep in concentration though, and that drew a worried look from Ohgi.

He said nothing as he let them pass by and enter Room 3. While doing so he noticed that as Shīrudo Sayoko wore a stereotypical Ninja outfit. Once Lelouch, Sayoko, and Nunnally were inside Room 3 the TV screen that was connected to a bunch of machines turned on and displayed Josui Kusakabe's face. Lelouch then said, "Hello there, Josui Kusakabe."

"So you are the infamous Zero, eh? I was surprised to see that you're here as I'm making my point to the world that the Japanese Resistance are not dead. The mask is kinda disrespectful, so I politely ask for you to remove it." Kusakabe replied.

After doing so, Kusakabe's expression changed. "Le- Lelouch!? I wasn't told that you would be here along with Nunnally!" he said before Lelouch remarked, "Your intention was to hold this entire building hostage and exchange them for captured JLF personnel, wasn't it?"

"You are correct about that, Lelouch. Is there a problem?"

"This is Zero, you guys should capture Kusakabe and kill his men." Lelouch whispered into a walkie-talkie before replying to Josui, "Yes there is a problem with that. Cornelia doesn't negotiate with hostage takers and I remember one incident where she ordered an aerial bombardment on a location where hostages had been taken without even bothering to show up."

Lieutenant-Colonel Kusakabe had a look of horror on his face upon hearing that. "N- No way. I had never thought of that possibility." Kusakabe said. A minute later, Kusakabe was surprised to see the door to the room that he was in get kicked open as two members of the Zero Faction cut down his guards before restraining him. One of them then said, "Shall we leave before things get hairy, Zero? Another team said that they rescued the hostages."

"I'll go down and assure the former hostages that thier captors are dead." Lelouch said before he put his mask on and left. Meanwhile with the hostages, Nina was frightened along with Milly and Shirley. The JLF guards were dead and several members of the Kouzuki Resistance were watching over them now. The hostages had surprising taken it well when the Kouzuki Resistance fighters broke open the door and only shot the JLF soldiers to death before assuring them that they meant no harm to them. After a couple of tense minutes passed Nina asked no one in particular, "Is... is this nightmare over?"

As if to answer her, Zero entered the room and said, "Britannians, your nightmare is over. One thing though..." before looking around and noticing a girl with pink hair. Zero pointed to her and said, "You there with the pink hair, could you please stand up?"

The girl stood up and took off a pair of ordinary glasses that inexplicably concealed her identity from everyone in the room.[1] She then asked, "What sort of business do you have with Euphemia li Britannia, Third Princess of the Holy Britannian Empire?"

"Britannians, you have Princess Euphemia to thank. Were it not for her being here, Cornelia would have bombarded this place into oblivion when she arrived."

Almost all of the ex-hostages thanked Euphemia before leaving the room. When only she remained she asked, "What do you plan to do with Kusakabe?"

Lelouch answered, "Kusakabe is a very good soldier. He was one of several Japanese soldiers that was involved in killing a Britannian Spec-Ops team before Japan was invaded. As it is right now we cannot dispose of very good soldiers, even if they do something morally rehensible."

That got Euphemia's attention since by taking a hotel full of tourists hostage Kusakabe had indeed done something morally rehensible. "I presume that you intend to hand him over to the JLF, Zero?" she asked.

"Yes, Princess Euphemia. Given what he tried to do here, I am certain that he will be demoted at best and kicked out of the JLF at worst."

A/N: The harem story has already been published as 'Code Geass: The Rise of Neo-Japan. One Brocon Too Many has now officially split into two.

[1]- I honestly had no idea why a simply pair of glasses was enough for Euphemia to avoid being outed by Kusakabe's men from the start.