The Black King

Fuck everything.

First, Kallen shows up at school and I slip up and make the dumbest mistake possible because I don't understand the limitations of my power.

Then I take her aside because I think she might suspect I'm the voice from Shinjuku. And instead, apparently she figured out I'm a prince!

Also, she's borderline insane, if her willingness to listen to what I, as Zero, have to say, do what I ask, and just not show any second guessing or fear, is any indication.

Then, Suzaku gets captured for my crime. Tortured for my crime. I free him, and he gives me some cryptic fucking answer and walks away from me and back to Britannia! I'm supposed to be the one giving people riddles!

And now, this witch shows up, makes Nunnally think we're engaged, refuses to answer my questions, and steals my damn bed. Now I'm on the floor and dammit my back is going to hurt in the morning.

Again, fuck everything.

The Black Queen

I remembered an oddity happening the day after Suzaku's trial. A discussion with Lelouch that had turned out...weird. So I decided to see what was up with it, rather than avoid it completely.

"Lelouch?" I asked, approaching him while he was sitting on the bench in the Academy courtyard, on his laptop. "About what I brought up the other day… when we were in the bathroom." I started, waiting as he closed the computer and turned his attention to me with a wary look.

"I'm sorry I brought it up. I had to do an essay on the Second Pacific War last year and I almost did it on those two. Things just kind of fell into place." I lied. Keeping my words deliberately vague. No doubt he would want to keep specific conversation about this subject out of any potential eavesdroppers in the school. I couldn't exactly say that I was interested in the call that had come in the bathroom, not this time anyway. I'd implied that I knew exactly who it was. And I did.

Although the subject of the talk this time was completely different, the outcome was much the same. He looked past me, over my shoulders. His violet eyes widening in shock and panic. I turned my head to see why… and he grabbed my face, pretending to kiss me.

Well, he tried, anyway.

You see, despite pretending to be a sickly girl for most of my education at Ashford, I wasn't really all that big on pretending. So I didn't.

This was nothing like the kiss I stole after I betrayed him. After he took the throne. Then he had shown faint surprise, but otherwise no reaction at all. It was cold. It was unfeeling. He had pushed me away. And I had let him, for the second time. For the second time I had had the chance to force him to acknowledge my loyalty...but I just let him push me away and send himself to his death.

Here, well, he was still certainly surprised, incredibly so. And he even seemed to try and voice some kind of protest against my lips. I used the opportunity to slip my tongue into his mouth and deepen it.

Don't ask. Even I don't know what had gotten into me, but Lelouch eventually groaned quietly and relaxed into my touch… and then quickly clamped down on that comfortable reaction to pull away. "What… Was that?" He asked, violet eyes again wide and looking at me in bewilderment.

I gave him a small smile. "Ah...What indeed…"

Karma's a bitch, Lelouch.

The White Knight

I was so absorbed trying to figure out how to broach the subject of Lelouch and Nunnally to Jeremiah that I almost completely forgot to set my bag down and catch Euphie.

Until I heard her wail, anyway.

Euphemia. Beautiful Euphemia. I killed my best friend to avenge her memory. And now...Now I somehow had acquired the chance to save them both. A chance I had no intention of wasting, mind you.

I was silent for a few moments as I looked at her, gazing into the light violet eyes that she held. Similar to Lelouch's, but more...gentle and of a lighter shade. My silence this time was more out of joy and the memory of the grief I'd experience a year ago upon her death than it was out of shock. But I managed to catch myself when she began to excuse herself for falling on me.

"I wasn't exactly expecting a beautiful girl to drop into my arms." I chuckled quietly. "You do know there are these things called doors, right?" I asked, rubbing the bag of my head.

She offered the same B.S. that I fell for the first time, about bad men chasing her, and asked me to help her get away. And like the first time, I did.

It was perfect. I spent the entire day, or at least it felt like it, with her. And I didn't regret a single moment of it. I don't know if I was living in a memory, but everything still felt...new. The pink haired princess, Lelouch's half sister, had my complete attention. My complete devotion. At least for now.

Believe me, it felt good to get away from plotting what to do with your knowledge of the future. Even if it were only for a few hours. This time, I actually knew who Euphie was, although I didn't really let that on. We walked. We laughed. We sat and just enjoyed the cool autumn air in the park.

Just my luck that Arthur would still show up though. Damn cat. I am not a chew toy!

This, like many things since I had been sent back in time, was like a dream. This one, in the simple fact that it was...perfect.

If I could, this would not be the last time Euphemia li Britannia got to enjoy a day as a normal girl, rather than as a Princess of Britannia.

I didn't put up a protest this time when she asked to visit Shinjuku.

Soon, like before, we were interrupted after a scuffle with Tamaki and those two students, by the sounds of fighting over in the stadium. The purists, having their scuffle. Or rather their attempt to wipe up the loose end of one Jeremiah Gottwald.

This time I had noticed Cecile and Lloyd practically stalking me over the course of the day, and when they showed up I didn't even hesitate to tantalize Lloyd with the prospect of gathering more battle data for the Lancelot.

"What business does the Special Corps want here?! Interlopers will die!"

Oh Kewell, you power-hungry fool…"No. I didn't stand by and watch while Lelouch and Nunnally vi Britannia suffered at the hands of their country, and I'm not about to start doing it for this man."

"What?!" Came Jeremiah's shocked exclamation.

Seed, planted.

"Back down, Lord Kewell." I demanded, ready to leap from the rim of the Stadium into the defense of Jeremiah as I had before.

And indeed, the slash harkens came. The moment that happened, I decided not to show these murderers any mercy. My blades sliced through slash harkens and their tethers. When I hit the ground, like before, I kicked the feet of one Sutherland out from under it.

Unlike before, I stabbed my MVS blade through his cockpit.

I continued with the next, again, halting the lance with my MVS and slicing through it...but not stopping at the end of the arm. I bisected the machine and sped away as it blew up. Villetta showed up then and took out a third, merely disabling it, unlike my attacks, and I faced off against the only remaining opponent; Kewell.

"Don't even think about firing that Chaos Mine, Kewell. There's a Princess here. If you do it I will make sure you're known for attempted Regicide." I declared darkly, knowing that, any second now, Euphemia would be running through onto the field. While I believe in the Blaze Luminous shield to protect her again, I really wouldn't show any mercy to him if he threatened her. Even by accident.

I'd killed someone who meant far more to me for the same crime.

On cue, Euphie.

Guess I didn't get to kill him.

That Night

As expected, one Jeremiah Gottwald hunted me down the first instant he could.

"How did you know those names?" The blue-haired Margrave demanded desperately, once I exited the Lancelot after parking it back in the Special Corps truck. Presumably, Emperor Lelouch's most loyal servant had left his damaged Sutherland behind somewhere.

"Lelouch and Nunnally? Because they're my friends." I noted, turning to him with a look of feigned curiosity, tilting my head to the side. "Why do you ask?"

His eyes widened and he reached out to grab my arms. I let him with a sense of amusement blossoming in my core. "They're supposed to be dead!"

"Supposed to be." I repeated with a raised eyebrow. "But they aren't. Like you pointed out in my interrogation. I'm Genbu Kururugi's son. We were their hosts when they arrived here seven years ago. Me, Lelouch, and Nunnally escaped the Britannian special forces team sent to kill them. I saw Lelouch last week in fact, in Shinjuku."

The orange eyes of...well...orange, widened in shock, joy, and rage.

Lelouch and Nunnally were alive.

Britannia tried to kill them.

I smiled grimly. "He's a student here in Area 11. Though, I'm sure you can see why he would have no desire to return to the homeland?" I questioned.

Jeremiah let go of me and backed away in shellshock. Eyes wide. Mouth open. Hands frozen and yet shaking in front of him. Like every thing he'd ever believed was ripped out from under him.

I felt my eye itching and my consciousness take hold of his body. I could hear the whispers of his mind.

'Lord...Lelouch...and...Lady Nunnally...are...alive? And Britannia...tried to kill them? What else does this honorary Britannian know?'

Hook, line, and sinker.

I returned to my body.

And so begins Project Orange.

The Black King

Remember what I was saying yesterday?

I felt my eye twitch as my best friend, and the man that had left my alter ego in the rubble of a destroyed building with nothing but a confusing explanation...stood introducing himself as the newest student at Ashford Academy.

First...everything else.

Then Kallen kissed me.

The witch apparently has no idea how to keep a low profile, and can't stop asking questions although she won't answer any of mine…

And now...now there's this.

Fuck. My. Life.

Why can't anything go according to plan?