The Black Submarine
2:30 AM
Tuesday
The deep snagged growl filled the room before following a quiet decrescendo and fading away at an intake of breath.
There was a three second paused before it came again, this time a higher pitched rumble emitted from the throat.
Euphemia stared at the ceiling from the top of her bunk listening to her sister's snores. She loved her sister, very dearly, but her ability to snore with the elephants and somehow sleep through a nuclear holocaust were both quite annoying.
Lelouch had given them the securest of all rooms in the Black Submarine, an unfurnished steel casket devoid of all comforts. The bunk bed and wall mounted television were the only indigenous items. The only advantage the room offered was a 7 inch thick iron door, a density on par with the submarine's outer hull. No dresser, no desk, no chairs, no carpet no air conditioning control no plush pillows no lush blankets, nothing.
She sighed and refocused on her sister's excessive noise. The room choice was reasonable, as enemies prowled around them, but would it REALLY hurt to have one good blanket?
And it's not as if they were all bad people. Kallen, Oghi, and Tohdoh seemed to have taken her fact in stride with minimal aggressiveness.
But that Chiba woman….. geez, and I thought Cornelia was the craziest.
Euphemia breathed out and fluffed up her pillow once more, turning facedown against the pillow. And turned to sleep….
…..except she couldn't.
A violet chill overtook the room
Light retreated and shadows stalked. Euphemia sat up, instantly on alert, eyes frantically scanning the room.
"Can't fall asleep, Massacre Princess?" Euphemia shot up as a dark cackle extended maniacally from a recess of the room.
"Who…." Euphemia whispered. Her arms clutched at her legs in pale fear. The voice twisted and curved, pooling around her senses. The chants increased;
"It's all your fault it's all your fault! It's all your fault IT'S AL!LYOU!RFAULTIT'S ALL!YOURF!AU!LTIT'S ALLY!OUR!FAULTIT'S A!LLYOURF!AULT!-"
"No!" Euphemia screamed, tucking into a ball. Her hands dragged firm across her legs as tears spilled openly from across her eyes. "Please…who are you-"
"Why, you should know who I am." The dark gust took a gassy form, condensing into the face of a Japanese man. "After all, you KILLED ME!" The form grabbed a knife like form and slit its throat, bending down until its head was attached by a thread of skin.
More bodies were appearing, heads torn, bodies mashed in shapeless silhouettes. "And you killed me! AND YOU KILLED ME! AND YOU KILLED ME!"
"Stop it, stop it PLEASE!" Euphemia spoke in sobs. "I didn't mean to kill you, it wasn't supposed to-"
"Oh? Did you forget?" Another body appeared, a red haired Britannian soldier with a crooked nose and missing chest. "HOW YOU KILLED ME!" The body twisted forward and grabbed Euphemia, shoving her against the wall. "DON'T WORRY, PRINCESS!" Its neck twisted at an inhuman angle. A knife was raised. "I JUST want to RETURN the FAVOR!"
"NO!" Euthemia finally shrieked. Oh no, this can't be happening this can't this can't be real, no NO NO CONNA LULU HELP ME PLEAASE GOD PLEASE
The blade jerked downwards towards her neck and-
A switch clicked.
A blinding haze of white light flooded the room, dispelling the hallucinations that swirled about. Euphemia stood frozen at the corner of the bed, choked at the past experience.
"Euphy?" Cornelia's voice called out from underneath, voice groggy but caring. "Did you have a nightmare?"
Euphemia composed her breath and heartbeat before responding. "Y-yeah. Just a nightmare."
"…. Do you want to sleep down on my bed?" Cornelia cited their practice of comfort when midnight terrors struck.
Euphemia began crying again, silent tears over what she couldn't do. "No, d-don't worry about me Cornelia. I'm fine…. just, just go back to sleep."
Cornelia waited a bit before responding. "Okay Euphemia, try to get some sleep though." Euphemia heard a scuffle as Cornelia reached to dowse the lights.
"Wait!" Euphemia cried. "Please…. please don't turn off the lights." Cornelia grunted in annoyance.
"Fine, but you'll owe me for this one." No words were said after that. After 5 minutes, Cornelia's constant snores bleed into the room.
Euphemia stood motionless in the same position, hoping that Cornelia hadn't detected the tremor in her voice. She only moved after the symphony began again, inspecting the damage she had done to herself.
Five parallel lines of sopping red ran from her kneecap to mid-thigh, present on both legs. There were two ugly welts on her left shoulder where her nails had dug into skin. Both extruded great pain, a thousand needle pricks focused in a single file.
Euphemia ignored it.
Blood stained the sheets a crimson hue. Euphemia watched in candid interest as the streams of red liquid rolled out of her cuts, dividing across multitudes until finally meeting the sheets.
Trembling fingers reached down the roots of blood, marring their tips with the liquid.
She giggled a bit, and then broke into an uproarious chuckle.
Ha! This is my blood, my life, my red bleed. She moved her fingers to her face, smearing the liquid across her features. She continued on and painted her entire body with the red liquid, until the flow finally stopped.
With a final chortle, Euphemia opened her small hand mirror, one of her few remaining possessions.
And there she was.
Inked with her own life force, crazed smile plastering her face. She giggled again at the sight.
What would Cornelia think? Her precious Euphie…. covered in blood! She thought for another second.
Bloodstained Euphie.
"Can you…..can you see the irony in all of this?" Euphemia beckoned to herself while gazing upwards. Her own voice joined the dim laughter of the dead.
Ashford Academy
11:00 AM
It was morning. Rising tides of a bright orange red flare emanated from the sun, now just visible over the peaks of the Tokyo Settlement. The air was crisp and inlaid with yesterday's humidity. A warm breeze buffeted plant life.
Lelouch sighed starkly at the sight of his home, Ashford Academy. The small car was brought to a stop near the front entrance.
He hadn't come home last night.
He'd stayed in his office at the Black Submarine, falling asleep slumped back in his chair. A dreamscape had broken wide, flooding his thoughts with errant subconsciousness.
In the dream, a samurai had fought a dragon. In a grisly conflict, scored with the death and skulls, fought across boards of queens and kings, the dragon finally gained the upper hand. He crouched over the wounded warrior, and asked, "Was it worth it? At the end?"
The dragon tore off the samurai's head and laughed.
The alarm woke him at 8. From there, he'd promptly contacted Euphemia and Cornelia. He'd called a car, Geassed the driver, and found himself sitting idle in a running car.
Lelouch, you NEED to do this. He stole another second of delay before opening the car door, beckoning for the inhabitants to follow.
It was inevitable, the following conversation. Especially now
Nunnally…..
He found her on the rooftop garden. It was a favorite past time of her, enjoying the fragrance of plants drifting around her, even if she couldn't see them. Sayoko would hold up a specific flower, and then give its Japanese name while handing it off for Nunnally's inspection.
But Sayoko wasn't here now.
Nor was Nunnally paying any heed to the plant life around her. She simply sat at the edge of the roof, motionless in her wheelchair. A brisk breeze snatched her hair back.
He took a step forward. She stiffened a second, before relaxing.
"Lelouch? Is that you?" She asked, though already knowing the answer.
"Yes, Nunnally." Lelouch stepped forward, putting a steward hand on her shoulder. "It's me."
Nunnally gently laced her hand through his for comfort.
"Euphemia…. and Cornelia….. they're dead, aren't they." the last words came out in a choked sob. She lifted her hand from Lelouch's, bringing it up to her face as tears rolled thick.
"Euphy, and Conna, you two?" She cried. "Why, why do so many people have to die!"
Lelouch simply stared forward at the scenery with a shredded heart. The vantage point offered a skyward view of the Tokyo settlement; the winding streets and monorails, the ducking heads of a million strangers. In the background, a landscape of the tallest buildings, all situated on a steel plateau.
It tore him, inside, watching his sister. A wretched snag that clawed at his innards, threatening dissolution.
And here it was, this was the moment.
The moment of where he would tell Nunnally the truth, or never. A million thoughts zipped through the front of his mind.
Tell her. She's already lost so many people in her life-
Don't! We have to protect her! You've been branded a terrorist-
What's the use of remaking the world for her, if you break her in the process-
And the worst one; What if…. she doesn't accept me? What if she hates me. What I've done, the people I've hurt. Would she ever forgive me?
In her shoes, would I ever forgive myself?
He gently crouched in front of Nunnally, drawing back the hands from her face. He held them warmly with trembling hands. Silent tears welled, despite his refusal.
I… I can't lose her! Not again!
"N-nunnally. I have to tell you something." He gulped again and collected his tone. "Or, rather, it's something to show you."
He beckoned to the far doorway, where two shadowy profiles waited patiently. At his command, one pink haired form dashed forward and swept Nunnally in a loving grip of warmth.
Nunnally froze for a second in confusion. Her hands hesitatingly clasped the arm, before suddenly tightening in a vice grip.
"Euphemia?" She asked in restrained hope.
"Yes, Nunnally. Yes." Euphemia's face was streaked with infinite happiness at the reunion. At the sound of her voice, Nunnally's down expression instantly broke into one of joy mixed relief.
"Euphy, it's really you!" She turned her face to her shoulder. "I… the news said that you had died! That you and Conna-"
"-are very much alive, thank you very much." Cornelia slipped in behind Nunnally, grabbing the two in a giant hug. Nunnally's face turned towards the voice and broke out into a larger smile. Her hand broke off to tentatively touch the face of her two sisters.
"Onii-san, please, please tell me that I'm not dreaming…"
Lelouch let an affectionate chuckle cross his lips. He kneeled, and once again took her hands.
"Nunally. I swear to you. This is real, and they are alive." He then leaned forward and completed the embrace, all four members of the Imperial family content with the flowering happiness of closeness to each other.
Lelouch's thoughts barely flicked dark. I swear Nunnally. I'll support, with whatever you think of me.
Twenty minutes later, they were all seated in Lelouch's sound-proofed and bug-swept room downstairs. Saoto had brought extra chairs, but only Cornelia felt content using one, as Euphemia claimed the bed and Lelouch took to pacing. C.C. had declared that she had business elsewhere, and had vanished before the confrontation.
Euphemia was chatting away with the party as a whole, discussing hit shows and funny experiences, with Cornelia chiming in occasionally.
Sayoko walked in and delivered a tray of tea and cookies for the party. She gently tapped Lelouch's shoulder.
"Do you… want me to leave for a bit?" She asked. She was more than knowledgeable on Lelouch's hidden activities, and understood what would come next.
Lelouch shook his head. "No, Sayoko. I'd appreciate it if you stayed. You've been with us for years, and are an equal member of my family. Nunnally will need your support."
Sayoko nodded with a flat face, though overtly pleased inside at Lelouch's words. She leaned to the wall left of the bed.
"So I told Dalton…. to splinter the poor thing with his knightmare! And he did!" Cornelia and Nunnally broke out in a light hearted laugh. "Boy, did I ever catch fire for that one. And this other time-"
Lelouch tuned the conversation out, focusing on the potent scenarios. She asks me, I tell her, she moves away and vanishes. She asks, I tell her, she decides never to speak to me again. She asks, I tell her, she has a heart attack. She asks….. the list rolled on and on, an endless chain of sequences.
I've got to stall! I'll ask Saoto to-
"Onii-san?" Lelouch went rigged at the voice. "How did you manage to save Euphy and Conna… from Zero and the Black Knights?" He breathed in quickly at the name of his alias, prepared to lie like a rug.
No, you started this. You're more than committed now.
"Nunnally." Lelouch spoke softly, almost imperceptibly. "I am Zero, the leader of the Black Knights." Nunnally gasped at the exclamation at the exclamation. For a second, her features held a barricade of denial, but then crumbled as the pieces aligned.
"Rescuing Suzaku, saving the members of the student council at the hotel…" Her face shifted with lines of drawn pain.
"Onii-san…. if you're Zero, why did all of those people have to die?" She asked. Her breath grew quick as drops of water once again began manifesting at her eyes.
No….Nunally! Please, please don't! "I…..I don't, I don't know… it was –" Lelouch stuttered, caught completely speechless. His thoughts refused to marshal.
BANG! Euphemia sat upright In a frenzy, knocking over the bed stand.
"IT WAS ZERO WHO KILLED THEM? LIKE HELL!" She yelled. Everyone's eyes turned towards her exclamation. "IT WAS DAMN BRITANNIA! THEY TOLD THE LIES, THEY SENT THE ASSASSINS, THEY SHOT THE GAS, THEY KILLED THEM, ALL OF THEM, NO MERCY, NO REGARDS TO HUMANITY!"
Her eyes took on a mad glare, a stark contrast to the loving care that had been present a moment ago. "IT WAS THEM, IT WAS THEM, IT WAS THEMITWASTHEMITWASTHEM-"
Cornelia wrapped Euphemia in an embrace. "Shush, Euphy." she whispered. At that Euphemia calmed down. Her breaths grew long as her heartbeat slowed.
"I-I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me." she said back in her usual tone. The insanity faded from her complexion.
Lelouch stared openly at his half-sister. Euphemia….shouting and swearing, and that look….
He shook his head, the SAZ had obviously shaken her on a level she didn't acknowledge.
"Britannia…. was responsible?" Nunnally asked, breaking the silence. Lelouch's nerves calmed another notch, Euphemia's outburst having burst the stretch of anxiety. Cornelia moved forward, saving him the trouble of explanation.
"Yes, Nunnally. Britannia tried to have Euphemia killed, while in conference with Zero." Cornelia shook her head sadly. "After… they attacked the surrounding Japanese, and blamed the Black Knights for it all."
"And it was my fault." Euphemia squeaked through a scattered expression. "The SAZ. It was all my idea. If I hadn't committed to it, hadn't pushed it forward, despite how everyone else had told me to stop-"
"Britannia would've found another way to kill them." Lelouch stated, edging closer to the group. "Schneizel…. is too smart not to have a backup plan. And the knightmares, the ones the used to frame the Black Knights, it all takes time." He counted upwards on his fingers. "The special paint job, the pilots, the weapons, the forgery, oaths of secrecy….Schneizel was planning on something big, whether the SAZ was to exist or not."
But…. a man of Schneizel's capabilities, he could've easily set it up within the day.
He stepped down to look Euphemia in the eye, putting on his most persuasive voice. "So stop blaming yourself, okay?"
Euphemia nodded dumbly at his proclamation, face looking at least a bit uplifted.
Thank god, she bought it. Lelouch thought. Cornelia's countenance suggested a similar line of thought. He then turned towards Nunnally, putting a hand on each of her shoulders.
"Nunnally, please. I need to know what you're feeling, about Euphemia and Cornelia, about Britannia," He took a slow breath. "And about me."
Nunnally tilted her head upwards, towards Euphemia and Cornelia. Lelouch dropped his hands to his sides.
"To Euphemia and Cornelia, I am the happiest to see them still alive. Being close to you again…. it reminds me of the happiest times in my life.
"Britannia's actions...are beyond horrible. However, with Euphemia and Cornelia having been raised on Britannian ideals, and still turn out the way they are now, it can't be all bad. But I can understand the actions taken against her." Her face went back down towards Lelouch's level.
"And to you, Onii-san. You are my brother. The most important person in my life. You, who took care of me in a land of strangers, who stood up to the King for me, who carried me through battefields of the dead, who gambles, and spends all the money to support us….. how could you ever think my feelings towards you would change?"
She suddenly bent forward, grabbing Lelouch in a thick hug. "Onii-san, Lelouch, Zero. No matter what happens, with whatever choices, decisions you make, I will always stand by you. Because you…." she and smiled reassuringly. "…have always stood for me.
Lelouch felt a cool wave of relief wash over him as the fears of his worst nightmares, finally resolved.. He remained in the embrace for several instants before backing out.
"Nunnally. Thank you."
Viceroy's Palace
2:45 PM
Gilford stalked the halls, on edge despite the familiarity of his surroundings. Dalton had summoned him to his office, for reasons unknown. He could have tried to refuse such an order, but with Cornelia's disappearance, Dalton was technically his superior.
Does he….could he know about my helping of Zero? Does he suspect? Impossible, I left no trace! He pushed such feelings past as he continued forward.
He paused as he stood in front of the steel portal, waiting for a second before knocking on the door. It slid open unceremoniously. Guilford stepped into the room.
The room was auspiciously decorated, a contrast to his and Cornelia's. A red patterned rug hugged the floor, while the blue windows were covered by a Britannian flag. Dalton was sitting behind a desk, hands folded in front of him.
Dalton. Guilford thought. The man had been Cornelia's knight years before Guilford had joined them. Young and still aspiring, Guilford had hated the man, imagining his usage of manipulation and bribery to secure his position. But those feelings had faded to gradual respect, as Dalton proved his grit time and time again on the battlefield.
Something of the man drove him to beyond greatness, and Cornelia recognized it.
But… if you threaten Cornelia, or Euphemia, even after all we've been through…
Guilford gave a military salute. "You wanted to see me, sir?"
Dalton beckoned to the only open chair in front of him, expression unreadable.
"Guilford, take a seat." After following his orders, Dalton continued. "I have one question; where does your loyalty lie?"
Guilord locked up for a moment, unfreezing in reflex a second later. "My loyalty belongs to the flag and lifeblood of Britannia. Every bullet I fire, order I follow, is purposed to further that loyalty."
Textbook answer.
Dalton watched him with intensity, gauging his expression.
"You're lying." He stated, simply. "Answer truthfully. Foremost, WHERE DOES YOUR LOYALTY LIE?"
Guilford didn't blink an eye the second time around. "My loyalty is to Britannia, first."
There was a flash of annoyance behind Dalton's face, but it quickly faded to neutrality. "Very well." He took a breath. "Suppose I tell you that Britannia has received intelligence of Cornelia's, more, shady activities. Drug smuggling, black market dealings, control over the slave trade-"
Guilford's eyes widened, then narrowed viciously towards the man. Lies…. all of it. Slander.
"-inhumane experimentation, helping corporations bypass the law, and the bribes she's accepted." He sat back with a resigned expression. "Frankly, it's not looking good for the past Viceroy."
Guilford balled his hands behind his back, to maintain control over his features. "Sir, why are you telling me this?"
Dalton watched forward, analyzing him meticulously. "Because, they found her, yesterday. She was brought back, and tried instantly in the Royal Court."
Guilord choked and anxiously leaned forward.
"They've sentenced her to death, immediately. At 3 'o' clock, on the dot, in five minutes." Guilford stood with pallid fear. He leaned against the back wall for support, hand on his face.
Cornelia…. captured!? Impossible! I made sure we weren't followed!
He turned markedly and walked towards the doorframe and smashed the switch to open the door. Cornelia…I've got to get to Cornelia!
The door didn't open. On closer inspection, the normal green label on the keypad had been highlighted a deep red.
Locked from the inside. He felt a chill travel down his spine.
Guilford carefully dipped his head forward, making no sudden movements. His hand moved across in a calculated movement to the handle of his gun.
"-Guilford, where are you going in such a hurry?" Dalton asked. His voice had dropped a pitch, becoming cool, serene.
He barred his teeth. Dalton, for you to sunk this low…
Guilford forced a small laugh. "Well, you see Dalton, your words made me remember my loyalty, SINGULARILY AND STRICTLY TO CORNELIA-" Guilford's form blurred as he spun one eighty degrees, gun blurring as it moved from his holster to his hand.
But Dalton was ready. A single shot leaped from the outstretched barrel of his own gun, hitting Guilford's gun and igniting the ammo strip. Guilford dropped the weapon reflexively. His eyes bore down on Dalton with intense hate, his mind seeing reason no lie, considering his situation.
"You make me SICK! You sickling BASTARD! IS THIS WHAT YOU'VE BEEN REDUCED TO? Or maybe, maybe this is what you've always been. God, I can't believe I EVER looked up to you-" A bullet dented the steel inches away from Guilford's head.
Both forces faced each other. Guilford, a checked gust of barely held back rage, and Dalton, still wearing an unreadable mask.
"Go ahead. KILL ME!" Guilford snarled. There was a flash of something kind in Dalton's eyes, followed quickly by an expression of mirth.
"Everything I've just stated, is a lie." Dalton laid the gun parallel on the table. "For the next stage, I had to guarantee your loyalty, not to Britannia, not to me, but to the wellbeing of the Princess."
"...what?" Guilford's thoughts parried backwards, trying to fully comprehend his words.
Dalton wore a severe expression when he continued. "Let me lay the facts. Cornelia has not been recaptured, she has not been spotted. According to Britannia, she is dead. However, I've fallen into information that-"
"I've seen her." Guilford interrupted, bluntly. He took back the chair opposite the desk. "I helped her and some comrades escape from Yamato docks, just last morning."
"YOU DID WHAT!?" Dalton exclaimed, in marked surprise. "BLOODY HELL, WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THAT CHARADE I JUST PUT ON! AND DAMMIT, WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS SOONER?"
Guilford shrugged, smiling at Dalton's reaction. "Well, I had to GURANTEE your loyalty first…." He then launched into an apt account of yesterday, beginning with Sunday's phone call, and ending with dropping the four of them off at a drop off point.
He carefully suppressed details regarding Zero, and a certain lost prince. Information of that caliber wasn't his to reveal.
Dalton's face was a tired husk after the story concluded. He spoke softly.
"Damn. Well, that's, just, Damn." He spread his fingers wide across the table. "Britannia…. is it really that corrupt? All these years, serving and fighting, only to extend this madness-"
Guilford nodded in sympathy. His mind had walked the same road of disbelief, and then utter regret, just hours ago.
"Cornelia will be returning to Britannia, to act as a double agent for the Black Knights. She already has my support…. what of you?"
"HA!" Dalton barked. "Do you have to ask? If Cornelia needs allies, those who won't stab her in the back, then I'll stand with her! From now, to the end of me!"
Guilford smiled, in a much better mood than a couple of moments ago.
The JLF, or what remained of them, were situated thickly in the convoluted subways beneath Japan. Most of the other generals had been defeated, and as such the round table was mostly circumvented by minor officers. The majority of their heads were bowed in defeat.
"We…the Japanese Liberation Front, WILL NOT ACCEPT THIS!" A recently promoted officer said, more of a frail squeak than a commanding declaration. The officer mentioned wildly wheeled around the gathered for support. Heads slowly turned towards the figure at the back of the room.
Towards General Chiyo, the final surviving general of the JLF.
The man that was not of an impressive figure, at first glance. His hair was grey with age, a web of wrinkles spread over his wry features. He had brown eyes, optics that had witnessed everything from the gradual rise of Britannian Power, to the fall of the Japanese people. The standard faded green JLF uniform was his attire. A multicolored insignia displayed his status.
He'd made his name in on the field of Europe, providing stratagems against the Britannian front. Hit and run onslaughts, underhanded ambushes, anything to stay ahead. He'd rejoined the Japanese military when Britannia had begun to put pressure towards the annexation of the small country, rising to the top of the intelligence department. Tohdoh's achievements were widespread throughout the world, but few had heard of Chiyo, the man responsible for attaining the cut throat intelligence used in Britannia's largest military defeat in decades.
But he'd been regulated to below the highest position of command over the last decade. Something of his actions, his mind and features, showed a sharpness and brutality foreign even to the likes of Britannia.
"And what to you, plan to do about it?" asked Chiyo, voice low and gruff. "Exclamations as of yours have NO substance, NO advantage, just useless chaff on the wind. If you proceed with words like those-" He turned his full gaze onto the errant soldier. "-then kill yourself, and save us the trouble."
The officer gulped and looked downwards.
Another officer steppe up. "But sir….we have to do something! We can't let the Black Knights just WALK AWAY from everything-"
"FOOLS!" Chiyo shouted, immediately silencing the others. "Since when has Britannia laid bare the truth? When have you placed intelligence gathered by the enemy over your own intellect?"
He placed his hands together, a contemplative gesture. "Frankly, I applaud this ploy of Britannia. Manipulation of the game pieces, turning the Black Knights' arguably greatest strength into weakness."
"At any rate, this chance is but a minor lapse in our own plans." He clicked a button on the desk, activating a holographic display anchored in the floor.
"If everything works out, in the coming month, we'll be one step closer to liberation…."
C.C. watched the scene through a second pair of eyes. She was underneath Ashford Academy, a stolen laptop plugged into Lelouch's surveillance system that ran all throughout the campus.
He'd wired it meticulously, days after unmasking himself as his fight with Mao. The rising risk of putting Nunnally and his friends was too great to not warrant precautions. The security issues didn't stop there. Extra precautions, installed gun turrets, hidden traps, were all disquietly added to the campus.
Basically, from the one room, it would be easy to turn Ashford Academy into the world's largest morgue of high school students.
C.C. focused on the happy reunion of the imperial siblings. They all wore happy expressions, for the moment unblemished by the world's cruelties.
To be able to do that….. love someone, or a group of people, and they love you back….. how beautiful that must feel.
She shook her head as she propped the laptop against the side of the wall and continued down the hallway, rapping her knuckles twice against the dead end.
"Identification…. C.C." She prompted. There was a computerized buzz, followed by a click as a keypad unsheathed itself from the barrier.
3.…8…9…1…..3 Her fingers typed, in quick succession.
There was a small exchange as the computer ran a final check on her fingerprints.
She smirked a bit in the time. Lelouch had prided himself with his fastidious methods, yet he'd missed the greatest fact, hiding just under his nose.
An artificial voice sounded, "Confirmed, Director C.C. Welcome back." A dim squeal of grinding gears sounded as the entire wall drew back, giving her a clean view of its innards.
The high pitched wine of linked processors overcame the room. As well as housing Lelouch's command center, the underground cellar was also responsible to containing the Ashford databanks. Rows upon rows of machinery stacked upwards to the ceiling, contained strictly in the chilled room. Large swathes of compacted information detailed a hidden agenda.
Quite frankly, the Ashford Family had a larger stake in the world than anyone could imagine.
And when the time came, it could change everything.
The door swung shut behind her.
Omake 6.5:
Lelouch stared down Mr. Ashford with furious intensity. He'd been summoned to the office, a nice room of refined books and a single desk. The back window held a clear cut view of the enter school campus.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T ADVANCE TO THE NEXT GRADE!" He yelled as he slammed his hands into the desk. "I'VE GOT THE CREDITS! I'M PASSING ALL OF MY CLASSES-"
"- besides gym." Mr. Ashford sighed. He massaged the bridge of his nose and leaned onto his elbows.
"You're HOLDING me BACK because I'm not passing GYM? Lelouch said incredulously. "In the best academic school of Japan, you're holding ME back because I don't monkey down on the tracks?!"
"Lelouch, we've had this conversation before. It's an area requirement, you HAVE to receive a passing grade in gym to move up."
"Mr. Ashford, with all due respect, you've hidden mine and Nunnally's EXISTENCE from the rest of the world, I don't believe you get more illegal than that!"
Lelouch let the statement hang in the air, watching as Mr. Ashford direct his gaze downwards.
Lelouch gasped. "So you CAN bump me up, anyway, but you're not?" Lelouch watched Mr. Ashford hide the smallest of grins.
"Lelouch you've missed three fourths of all you gym classes. Three fourths! You have to make a visible effort not to go to gym if you miss that many classes." He leaned back in his chair. "Now, I don't know about you, but when I was your age-"
Oh hell no. Don't you start this again.
"-personal fitness was an important trait! I can't tell you how many times my friends and I would run, wrestle, all to see who was the strongest. Physical exercise can teach you values that will last you the rest of your life!"
Lelouch sighed and shut his eyes. "Fine, just tell me what I have to do to make it up."
"After school, every day, hour and a half of excercising." He stated with finality. Lelouch stared with an exasperated expression.
"AN HOUR! I'm busy enough as it is after school! I won't have time to-"
"Do you want to pass?" Mr. Ashford asked in a straight tone.
Lelouch twitched slightly before standing, ready to leave. "Fine. Have it your way."
I'll rig the cameras. I'll Geass the witnesses. There is no way in hell I'm doing-
"And Lelouch? I'll personally visit you in the gym, every day. I'll also assign Milly, or someone else from the student council, to spot you."
Lelouch's grin was a barely concealed demon. "That's…..FINE. Mr. Ashford." He walked out of the room.
A/N: Eh, a bit shorter chapter. But I'd like to imagine that all the stuff that's happening is good compensation for its shortness.
I originally scripted the scene at the end to figure somewhere in the middle, but it just ended up interrupting the flow of the story. Soooo... I just labeled it as an Omake. Cause I didn't want to waste it.'
On another note, I got a bunch of reviews commenting about the pairing of this story. Okay, let me start by saying that throughout both seasons I have been strictly LELOUCH x C.C. It was basically that initial idea that drove this story.
But, I have this other idea. No one start shouting, don't instantly start hating on it, but how would you honestly feel about the story following an Anya x Lelouch pattern? I've already written the next chapter with some interaction between the two, but who he ends up with is not even close to being set in stone. If you have the time and an account, please fill out the poll on my account, about the possible pairings: Lelouch x C.C., x Anya, or x Euphemia (Euphemia probably won't happen, because because. No x Kallen, I won't even consider THAT).