"I am, somehow, both too young and too old for this kind of crap." Lelouch grumbled as he strode into the lounge occupied by his mother and father. What he saw didn't do much to give him pause, but it did abate whatever spiteful barbs he'd been prepared to sling; the Emperor was, peculiarly, relaxed. Absent was the stony mien of a man who could and would command apocalyptic genocide, gone the gargantuan stature of a tyrannical dictator hell-bent on the conquering of not just the world, but of mankind's very spirit. Some of that might simply be Lelouch's own warped perspective from the first round, he couldn't be certain, but for the life of him his parents in that moment seemed less like personae and more like people. And he had to admit; a part of him liked what that implied. "Temporal chicanery aside; Scheizel blinked awful fast. I presume we're already moving to secure his previous eccentric geniuses?"

"I've tasked some of the Rounds specifically for it, yes; at the worst we can slow him down." None of the above meant that Charles didn't look gravely serious, however; this was a very serious matter and potentially a grave threat, and so the focused, intense furrowing of the old man's brow was only natural. "Marianne tells me you have a personal stake in why Schneizel might be running. You're the one who nearly brought Britannia in its prime to its knees, Lelouch, so you tell us; what's his plan of action look like?"

Too easy. "Securing Nina Einstein and rebuilding the FLEIJA. No amount of ace Knightmares will match up to that, so beat him to the punch and stop that bomb from being introduced." The world didn't need a weapon capable of atomizing entire cities in the blink of an eye. Peace through mutually assured destruction was no peace at all. "While we're at it, I'd like to get in touch with Rakshata Chawla. She's an Indian engineer and scientist on the same level as Lloyd Asplund, and was responsible for basically all of the Black Knight's R&D capabilities; Scheizel probably won't know to go after her, but getting her in our camp as soon as possible will give me more to work with. Just tell her I'm offering full sponsorship and access to Ashford Heavy Industries' facilities and personnel and she'll hop right aboard; I'd have a hard time not talking Reuben into working with her." Huh, come to think of it that might have been a worthwhile idea in the first round. He just hadn't had enough allies with Britannian connections, and Reuben's loyalty to his family and general disdain for court politics after Marianne's death could have been leveraged to turn him to the Black Knight's side. Oh well, too late now. "And keep tabs on Suzaku Kururugi. He was the ace behind the Lancelot's effectiveness; if Schneizel manages to recreate the Knightmare Frame it's crucial we keep him from finding a pilot for it for as long as possible." A single Lancelot might not necessarily decide an entire war, but it would definitely decide battles and introduce heavier losses than would otherwise be suffered in engagements. With Scheizel's strategic acumen, that might very well translate into the Empire's slow and inexorable defeat.

"And what do you recommend we do if he's approached?" Part of the prince's mind chewed on the sense of just how odd the scenario was, with his parents asking him for advice. Then again, the Emperor's specialty was politics and his mother's was as an individual combatant, and all three of them knew the Second Prince would think circles around Cornelia like as not.

But that question was a hard one to answer, and Lelouch folded his arms with his childish face screwed up in contemplative consternation. It would be so easy to just answer with killing Suzaku; the part of him that thrived off of lust for revenge was screaming for that answer, but Lelouch's passions had already cost him everything once before. No, having Kururugi taken out would be cathartic, but also sacrificed a tactical asset with unpredictable ramifications from the Japanese people as a whole. "Detain him," he said eventually, snapping back into focus, "and let me handle the rest."

"I suppose you'll be wanting to mete out some revenge for betraying you in the World of C?" Charles rumbled. If there was one thing he wished his son hadn't inherited from both parents, it would be their ability to hold a grudge; Lelouch's vengeful streak was a mixture of his own ruthlessness and Marianne's brutality intermingled with the boy's unique dramatic efficiency, and damn if it wasn't a frightening aspect of the kid's character. If he'd known just what exiling Lelouch would turn him into in the last timeline, Charles would have put considerable effort into avoiding that course of action, V.V.'s pettiness be damned.

To his surprise, though, Lelouch was shaking his head. "No," he answered, "much as I'd like to, it would be counterproductive. Suzaku is more useful alive and on our side than he is dead or imprisoned; you can attest to that. After all, you made him a Knight of the Round." In exchange for me was left unspoken, but hung in the air like a cloud of poison in spite of that. The child had a point, though; Kururugi was a rare breed of Knightmare Frame pilot that could be put to exceedingly good use if properly motivated.

"I seem to recall there being something between him and Euphemia in the previous timeline..." He muttered thoughtfully, and Lelouch piped up at the bait.

"There were a lot of somethings, but the long and short of it was they had the hots for each other like you wouldn't believe." Now that was an interesting, and abrupt, discovery. "She'd even made him her Knight of Honor. But that's not likely to be a viable course of action for now; Euphie wouldn't remember any of it, and at this point in time she would still argue with Nunnally over who would marry me." Everyone in the room shared a bemused chuckle at that; both girls had been quite adamant about their love for their brother as children. It was quite amusing and adorable, and if Charles was being honest he looked forward to properly observing some of those antics this time around. Maybe. If he didn't scare the poor girl stiff, as he had tended to do previously.

"Which reminds me," Lelouch interrupted their collective musings, "Euphie and Nelly will be paying us a visit 'later,' though whether that means later today or sometime in the near future is up for debate."

"Oh my," Marianne tittered from Charles' side, "that's going to be an awkward conversation for you to have."

Their son simply sighed and slumped back into his seat, visibly deflating. "Yes, yes indeed..." His eyes flickered to the Emperor, who raised a hand to forestall the request that was no doubt coming.

"No, I will not alter Cornelia's memory of events to bail you out of this." He smirked at the expression of resounding defeat that crossed his progeny's face, "You made this bed, Lelouch. It's only fitting you lie in it."

It had been a very busy and rather tiring day, and Kallen was only halfway through it all. Well, through the day that is; as far as plans went she was about to run into a lot of dead air. As she strode into her family's rather modest manor—compared to the estate after the invasion in the previous timeline, it was modest—she made a beeline for the den where her parents and Naoto had all sat down to ruminate on the strange happenings—Naoto and her father having no memories and her mother needing time to come to terms with everything and convince herself this wasn't just some very messed-up Refrain trip. Her arrival prompted three still very confused but very alive people to look up from their literal navel-gazing, and the Stadtfeld family indulged in shared smiles as she sat with them.

"I must say, Kallen," her father said, "You seem to be handling this rather well." There wasn't an accusation in his tone, or any trace of negativity really; he'd been caught in the FLEIJA, apparently, and as such had been spending most of his mental energy getting to grips with the idea that he had died sometime in the next eleven-odd years. Even if that course of events was very unlikely to play out again, there was only so much that assurances could do for such a revelation.

"I guess," she shrugged her tiny shoulders in response, "I built up a bit of a tolerance for weirdness in the last year or so of the previous timeline." The time she'd spent in hiding with C.C. after the first Black Rebellion had made plenty sure of that. Seriously, where did all that pizza go on that witch, and could Kallen learn to do that? "Besides, I don't really have the time to be confounded by all this, I have things to see to in order to keep the old future from rearing its ugly head here again... Speaking of; dad, how hard would it be to get me an appointment with Empress Marianne's children?"

"Normally, rather difficult." Her father replied, humming thoughtfully as he leaned one arm against the sofa and pulled her mother against him with the other. "But it's funny you ask now, because there was a message from one of Her Grace's staff saying that Prince Lelouch wished to meet with us at our earliest convenience."

So he had come back with the rest of them... Wait. "Us?"

"Well, the offer was specifically for you," her father admitted, "but we were invited to come along if we wished."

Now just what would Lelouch want to do with her family? That particular question had a lot of answers, and about half of them were horrible-but-unlikely, while the other half were... Nope, don't want to think about what that little scheming mastermind is after. But flat-out refusing would be a bad idea; at this time, Lelouch was still a Prince of the Realm, and snubbing him would be bad optics for her family as a whole and her in particular. Was she really this easy to outmaneuver?

"Well, then," she sighed, even though inwardly she was more than a little excited to give him a piece of her mind and extract the many answers he owed her, "best not to keep His Imperial Highness waiting overlong, right?"

There were still a lot of conditions left to clear, but Kallen's instincts told her things were turning out alright enough. And if there was one thing she trusted, it would be her instincts; she certainly didn't trust the Black Knights anymore, and wouldn't trust Lelouch until he convinced her that he was done screwing around with her feelings.

Notes:

Dang it, when y'all guess at things I have in mind it makes things awkward. And also makes me wonder if I'm being too predictable in my thinking.

Reviews:

Patjeeson: Actually, bingo. He can't be made PM quite yet (being nine years old at this juncture) but it's definitely in the cards.

Ryder77: Between chapters 1 and 2 Lelouch's running hypothesis was that exposure to Geass or Code was the condition for being sent back, and after discovering otherwise he simply hasn't had time to devote to properly talking to Nunnally. As far as them being gradeschoolers; one of them's also royalty, then another's nobility. Resources aren't infinite but they are considerable.

Kaiya Azure: You're part right, Schneizie isn't running just from Lelouch, but the perspective characters have incomplete information.