Chapter 10

God's Sword

Helltanz's notes: I'm actually considering adding a, better and roughly 5k word, prologue to chapter one which covers the AU parts of R2 and the Zero Reqiuem, and potentially using it to introduce some of the 'Loyalist' Black Knights in service with Lelouch, perhaps add some more characters to the UFN while I'm at it.

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Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass understand?

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Chapter begin

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This meeting was extremely unexpected. The supreme chairwoman had rarely asked to speak with Cornelia li Britannia alone, and to date never during a UFN conference. There was actually a rumor it had something to do with Lelouch, since those same rumors were quite clear that Kaguya had held an enormous crush on Lelouch during the Black Rebellion. "Cornelia, I need to speak with Lelouch." The chairwoman remarked bluntly, "This whole affair has gone on quite long enough, he commands a respectably sized force, but the chances for a war are to high for him to sit behind the scenes moving about like a phantom."
"and you suggest what?" Cornelia responded,
Kaguya sighed, "We need to be able to negotiate, and he needs to come out into the public eye. I need to open dialogue with him up, he doesn't own all of space," Some of his supporters would probably dispute that statement, but that was neither here nor there. "and we need to make sure at the very least where he stands."

"Have you considered simply asking for my brother? Surely if he wanted to talk you would be able to," As she'd half expected the hologram projector activated, and the blob of light shifted, forming into a very testy looking 99th Emperor of Britannia.

Lelouch didn't of course directly monitor all priority discussions himself, that would have been absurd. He did however have them monitored by a series of intelligence officers, and multiple next generation druid system arrays. "And what do you think of Kaguya's proposal Cornelia," Lelouch remarked softly.

"Your survival is going to be announced anyway," She responded darkly, and that already assured Lelouch's supporters in public would demand she cede the throne of the Empire back to him... and Lelouch was sitting there drinking tea while they were talking. The Empress scowled, "Still a public statement is necessary if all the world leaders are proclaiming you're back."

The insufferably smug look from earlier was back, "I do need to make a statement I suppose," That was true, but he'd been hoping he could push it back to a more vaulable date to capitalize on the advantage. "I will of course have to insist you relieve Claudio of his position as Knight of nine."

"Absolutely not!" She roared in response, "I will not relieve my knights of the round simply so you will address our own country!" Cornelia snapped.

His posture didn't even shift at the outburst, "You misunderstand my statement Cornelia, Claudio is not Knight of Nine, as my own knight of nine retains that position. It would be most complicated if you continued to sillily insist he hold the position. We're simply lucky you don't have a knight of one, that would be bothersome." He remarked silkily.

"Just what are you suggesting?"
The Emperor smiled, "my announcement would of course be coupled with the prescence of my knights of the round, and of course you keeping father's supporters in line." What did that mean, Cornelia had no idea.

"Lelouch I think it would be for the best if you presented a statement to the entire UFN," Kaguya remarked, "As opposed to simply those nations affiliated to Britannia." This was actually very much critical. While Lelouch speaking to Britannia did handle a sizable portion of the world, what they really needed was for him to address everyone. While some leaders would be hostile, a peaceful Lelouch would hopefully ease tensions world wide. "In that way we could continue to insure peaceful cooperation between all party members. I have absolute faith that your interest is in peace." She declared.

Cornelia face was one of absolute astonishment, this was her plan, hope Lelouch didn't intend to ascend Britannia's throne and unite his suzerain domains under the flag. Still it was best to present a united front, "You should certainly clear up that debacle in South Africa," She added,

"I have already taken my time and explained that misunderstanding Cornelia,"
She knew that, after all it'd only been a few hours ago, "I meant publically." Hopefully doing that would actually defuse the situation if he stated it had been a misunderstanding where neither force had withdrawn when presented the opportunity. "A mistake between two hostile forces is much more acceptable than outright malice."
"You think there wasn't malice on either side?" He laughed, "Both sides wanted the others dead, no both sides should have withdrawn rather than fight, but they didn't. It was a mistake yes, but both sides despise each other."

Kaguya again took the moment to speak up, "And its precisely that disease that is putting us all on the road back to war."

"My, my Kaguya, are you trying to conscript my fleet to build your orbital platforms for you," He chuckled again, "I will ready a statement, Kaguya, rest assured Cornelia my Knights of the Round will make an appearance in Pendragon. Make your speech, I will follow with my own not long after you do." Without further ado Lelouch's hologram folded inwards and vanished.

The supreme chairwoman paused, "Did that go well? I couldn't tell for sure."

"It won't be Tokyo his Knights of the Round show up at," Cornelia responded bitterly, "Still I don't think he'll attack, it doesn't seem to suit him." For now perhaps Lelouch was just biding his time.

Kaguya nodded, "Knightmares are developing of course, its a pity but everyone is going to be upgrading their armies."
"I am very much aware. They're getting bigger." Powering flight systems were still an issue, as moving larger knightmares drained batteries quickly. "I've already made plans to announce Lelouch's," She paused before finally settling on the word..."situation." She sighed.

"Politics are like this. The UFN is going to be on edge until we solve this," Kaguya remarked settling back into her chair.

Cornelia nodded, she could do with some tea right now, just to sit back and relax and let the troubles of the world fade into the background. Well until someone went and caused another incident. Briefly she wondered how Britannia was faring in her abscence, no doubt the various peers were already back at each others throats.

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The conference in Tokyo had ended on schedule and without major incident, and a date had finally been settled on to announce everything that still needed to be proclaimed to the public. They'd bought a little bit of time, possibly enough breathing room to begin wide scale upgrades, but no one could say for sure. Beyond Lelouch, and Scneziel all of Charles's, surviving, children were in the New Grand Palace today, not that that said much. Still it was Nunally alone Cornelia wanted to speak with, not any of her other relatives. For all that she'd chosen to side with Schneziel it was hard for Cornelia to hold her in any way responsible for Schneziel's crimes. All the better the public at large was unaware of any role she might have had in Schneziel's actions.

Truly it had been four years since things had changed. No one could answer where their father had gone too, and truthfully she didn't want to know, maybe Lelouch had killed him. Nunnally was four years older now, nearly five, she'd be nineteen in october. "I heard the track meet went well."
"Oh it did," Nunnally admitted taking a seat at the table. They never met in the throne room outside of official functions.

Cornelia smiled softly. At least Nunnally was getting the chance to go and enjoy school, Euphemia too had enjoyed her time at Ashford back when Japan had still be Area 11. "We do need to talk though Nunnally, and its not about school."

"Its about Lelouch, isn't it?"

Of course she'd heard, it was stupid not to have brought it up sooner than this, but she'd been so busy, and the Carolina incident had been a number of problems not just one or two. "You're not wrong Nunnally, Lelouch is alive," her younger sister's breath hitched in her chest, "Its true, where he's staying I have no idea. Still we're going to announce it publically soon, but you really needed to hear it first." She really had meant to bring it up sooner. "The truth is Lelouch managed to survive, he took the Damocles into space, but then not too long ago he showed up in the Carolinas."

"Is that why the fight stopped?" It was, the public was being kept out of the loop of what had actually happened in the skies over Carolina for the time being. They'd been lucky of course that no one had said anything about the fight other than the EU, and Black Knights had been involved in a fight over Britannia's east coast. Truthfully that was the best thing to come out of it.

She nodded, "Yes, Lelouch intervened in that, have you been watching the news then?"

"Only occasionally." Nunnally admitted, "But Kaguya is all excited, and I figured it had to be Lelouch," That was right of course her little sister was on friendly terms with the Supreme Chairwoman of the UFN. It was actually something that had bothered Cornelia at first, but she'd eventually gotten used to it over the last few years. "All of this meant I could only talk to Kaguya occassionally, but she was always excited, and worried about what was going on. Besides I kept Lelouch's sketch book I knew those were the Epochs."
Cornelia was startled, "What sketchbook, and what do you mean the Epochs?" Nunnally laughed a little at Cornelia's surprise,

"I thought you knew, but Clovis was the one who introduced Lelouch to art. During the rebellion he sketched, and made the color schemes for the Black Knights. The Epoch was one of the last designs in the book."

It took every bit of her self control not to rush out immediately to start a search for evidence of the knightmare frame, because what Nunnally was telling her was that the machine had been pioneered while Lelouch had been Emperor. "Could you bring it to me to look at?"

"Will I get it back?" She asked, for all the disagreements when the last they spoke it was the one of her brother's possessions. She just wanted to make sure she got to keep it.

"Of course Nunnally," The Empress promised, they weren't likely to get much from the sketchbook, but it was something that Lelouch had left behind, most probably by accident. "We'll just want to look at it, since it could tell us something about Lelouch's plans." Still they'd given her most of Lelouch's personal effects almost on a whim, no body had ever thought to look through them, and if Nunnally had never brought it up it was a lead they could have completely missed. "Did you find anything else by chance?"

"The sketchbook was really the only thing. I never received Lelouch computer, and most everything else that I've gone through hasn't been as eyecatching."

Cornelia sighed, she supposed it'd been a bit much to hope for. Lelouch had never left a will, of course, but still she'd hoped he'd have accidentally left things behind. "Well I suppose on to other things."

"What does Lelouch want really Cornelia?" Nunnally asked before she could continue, Cornelia wasn't used to be interupted these days. "I know you've been talking to him."
How was the first thoughts through her head, but then she remembered Kaguya. That was the most obvious explanation. "I've spoken with Lelouch, but I can't tell you what he wants."

"Can't or won't?"
"I can't tell you something I dont' know Nunnally. Lelouch has not decided to tell me his plans," Cornelia was on the verge of getting emotional, "All I've gotten from him are orders to remove Claudio from his position as knight of nine, and a constant mocking!"

Nunnally's hand brushed hers, "I'm sorry Cornelia I didn't mean to make you upset,"

"Its alright," She reassured the anger spent for the time being."we're going to announce Lelouch's survival publically. Still its going to be the big thing on the news."
Nunnally understood that, even after four years people still talked about Lelouch, even at school people talked about her brother, for good or ill. That was the way life was these days.

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Kallen really didn't know how to feel, Cornelia, surprising as it was had told her about the conversations with Lelouch. Maybe the Witch just wanted some her insight into things, and she had to agree Lelouch was plotting something, but the only people she could see him declaring to be his Knights of the Round were Jeremiah, and... herself. She wouldn't put it past him it was just the kind of sneaky thing Lelouch would spring on her.

She sighed, well in any case everything was hopefully going to be quiet until they announced the news. Rakshata was still talking about all kinds of knightmares the last time they spoke, she was even hoping to create another Gurren model, but that wasn't likely to go through... at least any time soon

"So my fair lady how did the conference go?" A boyish voice asked from the railing, still his tone was almost deferential. The Duke of Rochester smiled, "Our rightful liege is going to address his Imperial subjects soon of course then maybe we'll all get some peace and quiet." The situation one way or another had two options to proceed from here, and the ocassional minor skirmish was vastly preferable to open warfare.

Kallen doubted it, Lelouch saying anything wasn't going to give them peace and quiet of any kind, since she was certain everyone was going to be constantly talking about it. It was about this time Kallen noted they weren't quite as alone as she'd expected.

"Good afternoon Captain Stadtfeld," The older, probably now in his mid thirties, man murmured, but the important thing wasn't his age it was the Imperial Guard signet pin on his lapel. There were a lot of people who tended to wear them these days, generally it just meant you had family who had served in the Imperial Guard, or the person in question had served in the Imperial Guard. Everyone said it'd been Lelouch who'd created them, the pin design. "I apologize for not introducing myself immediately, I am Johnathan Algren, Knight of Five, by the wisdom of the Imperial Throne."
Officially there was no Knight of Five, and Cornelia would never have appointed an Imperial Guard officer, or sympathizer to the position, which meant... "Lelouch appointed you? Are you completely stupid!" she snapped angrily, "You willingly sanctioned the execution of UFN Peacekeepers."
"I sanctioned the destruction of enemy forces," He responded waving off the accusation, even though the final orders regarding the recent skirmish in South Africa had been from him, and the UFN knew that.

"Technically we're not at war with the UFN," The duke of Rochester interjected, "I think his majesty would have said something if we were." He stated, "The Emperor is in discussion with Lady Sumeragi." He pointed out.

She wanted to ask how he knew that, but just like she knew that from Cornelia, he could have been told by Lelouch, or Cornelia for that matter he was a member of the house of lords. "Thats right." Kallen agreed.

Steely Prussian blue eyes swept between the two, "The Emperor has not criticized my choice to destroy the entire patrol."
"But you didn't do anything to stop it." She growled, "Instead you gave Lelouch's troops the go ahead to wipe out UFN Peacekeepers, just like you had troops in Indonesia wipe enemy forces there?"

There was brief pause, "Actually Kallen I've got to disagree, Indonesia was a completely different affair than that horrible incident in South Africa, as we were at war with the former territories of the Chinese Federation at the time." The duke remarked interjecting.

"Would you prefer to ask the Emperor about it,"

Actually no, Kallen really didn't want to talk to Lelouch about what had happened. "I'll pass, thanks." She growled. "So why are you here anyway? And who are the Black Hand, I figured you would be calling the troops the Black Knights?"
"The Black Hand are an elite force under Gottwald's command," He stated, "They were created at the Emperor's command, and yes they should have known better than to start an engagement, but once the skirmish started the UFN troops were dead. If you cannot understand the reasonings why you fail to understand the reason for the Emperor's orders."

Those were Lelouch's orders? "Well fine I guess I don't under Lelouch, but I suppose he's too busy lording over the Earth in the Damocles to come down and explain it to us wee mortals is that it? So why don't you tell me then if your understand Lelouch's orders so well go right ahead?"

"By order of His Imperial Majesty any conflict involving the Avatar series KMF is to result in an immediate priority to destroy any enemy frames which engage them for reasons of operational security." Algren responded harshly, "We destroyed the peacekeepers under those directives,"
"Fat lot of good that did you," She snarked in response, "Your pretty avatars got played all over the news didn't they?"

He nodded, "Nothing is perfect, everyone admits mistakes were made."
"So then Mr. Knight of Five why are you here?" Kallen asked, surely he wasn't just running around Britannia for fun.

He straightened, "You are formally invited to the headquarters of the Black Knights, by order of the Emperor. That is why I'm here." The Knight of the Round stated, "and before you harass me over the why I'm sure Cornelia li Britannia has already informed you of Lelouch's upcoming speech."

"Wait you're telling me Lelouch sent you down here," She ignored his protest that he in fact had already been in Britannia at the time to order had come down from on high, "To invite me for tea?" Lelouch was up to something, which was really, she knew, about the same as saying cats ate mice, as Lelouch was always up to something. She wanted to tell him to stuff it, and walk off, but damn it while that would feel good it wouldn't help anyone. "Fine when was he talking about? Surely not this week?" He was the one who'd had the all the gall in the world to insist she went back to school after all.

"He means today."

That definitely wasn't what she wanted to hear.

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Noboru took a sip of his coffee. Tokyo was a lot calmer now that the conference was over, anti globalists had all fallen back to the confines of their homes where they whined on the internet about the meddling UFN, or over arching power of Britannia, or the EU or whichever power bloc had earned their 'righteous ire'. The Black Knights were even in record high spirits, for their current situation, though that was because of the new budget no doubt.

Right now, Rakshata was producing the schematics for the next proposed generation of Knightmare frame, and going on about some technical detail the Black Knight didn't even pretend he understood. What he did get were the basics of course, just not the total understanding of actual technical details, but then that wasn't his job.

"Simply," She continued on, "We are confined to existing issues of power supply," A flight unit appeared on the hologram, "Flight capability comes at the price of adding weight and drastically reducing sustained combat time."

The real reason the current model knightmares were all Galahad sized monstrosities was because of the need for lengthy power capabilities. It helped the knightmares being bigger meant fewer could be produced, which did hypothetically reduce the size of standing armies. Of course it did lead to retired knightmares following into other hands.

"But we can't remove them, and detachable float backs were something we tried." Tamaki protested, and he had a point. "Thats why you built the new Gurren with the integrated version, and why the New Days have them built in." That was the truth, too, as was the fact Tamaki's own Knight Giga Fortress like all KGF, or as the EU called them Mobile Amrors, carried integrated flight systems. "I mean his knightmare frames have the same flight systsem as the Seiten did built in."

Rakshata's face set into an annoyed look, "And his larger sons have four meters on my dear Gurren, those same boys are carrying his large Hadron weapons." By which she meant the Eons, which had launched to break up the fight between the Gurren, and the EU machine. "The energy requirements alone dictacte Lelouch has created a refined nuclear power plant."

"Err well if you say so," Tamaki faltered, "but still we tried the approach with detached float systems right? I mean its not like well lets face it why are making a new frame." He didn't want them to misunderstand he liked the idea of new KMFs for the BK, but this didn't make since, "If its going to be bigger why are we making it have a detached float unit."
Rakshata grimaced, "Because most of the fighting we're hoping will be on the ground, the units for sustained flight capabilities mean extra weight which just drains power to move. The detachable back mounted units mean less weight in normal ground based combat." And he got that, but they'd tried that hadn't they?

"Tamaki drop it, and let Rakshata talk." Ogi finally ordered,

She nodded, "The detachable float system for the new model holds its own internal energy reserves, but as such is larger than normal flight units, of course this larger size is also meant to allow for better performance as well."
"Okay so it goes faster thats different," Tamaki interjected, getting a dirty look in the process from Rakshata.
The scientist prepared to continue on, when another voice interjected. "The flight capabilities are all well and good Doctor, however I'm more concerned about the survivability of our pilots." The Britannian remarked, "What about the defenses?" The Britannian Army's Vincent derived model all carried MSV particle shields, and the latest EU units had plenty of reinforced armor for protection.

"I've been working on that," She responded, of course she had been working on that, she was always tending to her children. There had actually been those who had insisted she simply adopt MSV shields for the next series knightmares. It wasn't like there were any real difference in capability, both shields could be eventually worn through, and both would be lucky to stop even a few shots from hadron weaponry fire. Weapons Lelouch loved to equip his forces with, and he'd made sure to give his sons MSV shields as well. It wasn't like they were somehow inherrently superior to her radiant wave technology. "The increased size of the energy reserves allows us to increase the effectiveness of the defenses over the New Day by twenty percent." She knew it didn't sound like a lot, but really they were at a limit to how much extra energy they could spare to strengthening the shields. Not that she expected them to understand, the new design was heavier than their current KMF, and had to be just as fast on the ground. "Understand this," and she made sure to give the European envoy in the room a long hard look, "with were we are currently limitted on power is a limit on how much we can improve on the short term. Once the powerplants are more effective we can increase the strength of the shield systems." The was the advantage of course to sticking with regular guns though as opposed to doing what Lelouch had did by seemingly switching to a nearly entirely energy weapon based arsenal, those Hadron weapons. Damn the earl of pudding. Still none of that mattered now...

"Its critical we insure these new machines are as functional as possible," Ogi stated at last, "I can make sure we get the most out of our new budget, but still its up to you to decide what we need for these things." That was true enough handling the supply side, and logistics was Ogi's most valuable talent. "And we can't forget about the Chinese either, since they want a new frame."
"Yes, I know," She remarked, "And its not such a difficult process." After all she could build the Chinese a ninth generation frame, and they could mass produce it. She could even use this opportunity to test out solutions for her real problem. Resolving the issues of creating a large scale frame, and the Chinese generals would like that something large, was something she could use the project for, and beyond that she could test out new armaments for them.

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Lelouch vi Britannia, long may he reign, was enjoying his cup of tea. Jeremiah was already taking care of certain disciplinary issues within the Black Hand, which would neatly trim down the number of issues he had to deal with. That, and talks with the European Council was going well, they had no interest in fighting Britannia, but were willing if Cornelia pushed them to it. The was the problem of course, Cornelia rarely knew when to stop being the aggressive general.

The apple slices sat arranged in a circle on a small plate before him as he studied the screen. All things considered things were now neatly back on track, which was the way he liked them. Still the speeches to come were going to be the real issue, but he'd expected that at some point he was going to have to give one. His fingers uncurled from the delicate porcelin cup's hand and reached for one of the slices of the fruit. He glanced at the screen, and grimaced. He hated being right. "Algren should have made contact with Kallen by this point." It was delicate move, and had there been any choice he'd of sent Jeremiah, but there wasn't. Jeremiah was not simply just busy but he was far too noticeable in Britannia.

"Why him? They know about him as it is, after what happened."
"Kallen needed to be picked up by someone who she could link with me personally, for all that things have calmed its still annoyingly problematic." He responded before taking a bite, "Make no mistake about this Duke Stadtfeld according to his doctor will be dead within the year, and that is barring assassination of course."
"You want her to kill the nobles who'd try it." Nonette remarked.

He gave a bland shrug, "If they try it, they do, but he's dying anyway. She'll have his title soon, even if he doesn't abdicate, and when she does Cornelia will have to act." In truth Cornelia was in a way already acting with the way she called on Kallen. "In any event I would be vastly more amused if those fools attempted to attack her directly." Not that they would ever do something so utterly retarded Cornelia would freak out, Gino would snap, and well Algren had his orders to brutally murder anyone who leveled weapons at them. Two Knights of the Rounds, and the Witch of Britannia were plenty, and that wasn't even counting Kallen herself. Still it would have been funny to watch them try something." Lelouch wasn't terribly worried, and as things were they'd probably rush to try and do something as soon as Cornelia, or he made the planned speeches. "Kaguya's speech would be another prime time to attack." He remarked, "That one actually is far more of a strategic value, if the attack that one or worse the EU we'll have severe problems."

"You could talk to the EU,"
Lelouch quirked an eyebrow, "They're open to dialogue yes, but not yet open to joint counter terrorist operations, certainly not with me." He remarked. "They already know there is a potential threat, but for now they're saying they will handle it."
"Will they suceed at stopping an attack?"

"No," Lelouch responded, "too many opportunities against the EU, and Kaguya is scheduled to multiple times in a short period." It'd be next to impossible to stop so many possible vectors, believe me I used to drive Britannia crazy by taunting areas they were so sure I was going to attack, police stations especially, just sent little packages of food to non corrupt cops. Once sent a package to a fire department Cornelia found out about the spate of packages but never figured it out. Its the same problem we face, too many vectors to defend. We don't have enough intelligence to narrow things down, and that is precisely the problem. Order Sahid to report in. Then send a message to Rakshata, and forward Kaguya's schedule to Sahid."

Lelouch settled down into his chair, he needed to spring something that would force the Charles camp to back down. He'd actually been thinking about such a plan for a while. The knight of the round frowned, "I thought you'd ask for Kassim."
"I need Kassim in the command and control where he is," He responded, "Besides Sahid has a background in engineering from before he joined us. Tell him we'll furnish him a frame if he needs it, but this is mostly an accademic task. Tell Sahid to assemble a team of experts." Normally in this kind of situation it'd him leading the team, but he'd be busy during the whole thing. "Tell me when Kallen gets her she needs to be read in, she'll either be in with Cornelia or Kaguya."

"Is that the reason for calling Rakshata?"
Lelouch didn't give a response to that. "Nonette you're going to take Morganna, and your flight command and watch Cornelia. Whe I make my speech at Pendragon Jeremiah, and Anya will both be there, logically Kaguya will be the less guarded of potential targets after the speeches. Cornelia has a standing guard, likewise Kallen is an experienced military combatant. Kaguya likes to speak publically. She does not like heavy military prescences at her gatherings." With good reason of course politics had certain issues with dozens of ground troops.

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Chapter End

-End Part I-

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