Turn 03: Complications for all
"As has been said before, Geass works on basis of the wish, and the human subconscious is greedy, a taste of power once will lead to the wish of more. Without thinking about the consequences, Geass over time will grow "stronger", the word stronger is here for the lack of a better word, for the Geass' growth seems to have no bearing on its effectiveness, as it tends to be an absolute power, such as absolute mind control. Therefore the strengthening of Geass' tends to be viewed more as a nuisance to most users and some cases even affecting the user's mind. So what purpose does it serve besides as a testament of the mind's wish for more? Research goes on" A peer into Geass, book found at the Brotherhood, author unknown.
Suzaku had been unable to get any kind of rest, the already troubled sleeping roughly interrupted by the panic caused by news of the Coup d'état in Brazil. "Damn them all, what do they want to do about it?" Striding grumpily out of his room in the Zero suit, he met Kaguya on the way to the conference room. "Oh, hello Zero, what do you intend to do about these recent events?" Not for the first time, Suzaku regretted the stupid idea that was Zero Requiem. "This is what we are going to find out, but first I need to know the intentions of all the members."
While Kaguya made her way to the United States of Japan table, Suzaku made his way to the dais. "First of all, I would like to declare this emergency meeting of the UFN open. As you all know, a coup d'état has happened in the nation of Brazil just a few hours ago. Renamed as Empire of Brasilis Lusitania, its mere denomination as an Empire being a sign of expansionist ambitions against neighbors, with all due respect to Russia, which retained its empire denomination as a tradition. I would like to know what the assembly thinks."
The Russian representative, Anatoly Bezukhov, was the first to speak up. "I believe this might be a good chance to recover the goodwill of most of the world, as Zero said, this new country appears to have expansionist ambitions, as a result the neighboring nations, especially Colombia and Peru, which produce most of the south American Sakuradite, might become terrified of being attacked, therefore a proposal of shielding them from attack might be a chance to bring them back into the fold."
The tone for the discussion was set, after little over two hours of discussion, a resolution was brought forth, in which any country could enter a pact of mutual protection with the UFN with the condition that the country in question be incorporated after at most five years of the pact's signing.
Most of the members seemed to be satisfied by the results, however, Suzaku felt like something was wrong, he decided to talk with the Chinese Federation's representative, Li Xingke. "It really is good that the idea is to bring countries into the fold; however is it really a good idea to isolate Brazil?" Xingke considered for a moment. "Well the theory is that we could also open a channel of communication with Brazil, and remind them that they would be welcome to join, therefore we would "scare" them into joining. But I do agree that something doesn't feel right. Since the last emperor's death we have been playing tug of war with the Russians, now it seems they are setting the tone in the UFN, I do not like this."
"I see your point, but what I mean is that in the Emperor's inaugural speech, there was nothing which could be considered a threat, even implicitly, this resolution seems to make us enemies without any reason. I cannot help but feel we are walking into a trap." Xingke nodded. "You may be right, but the resolution's vagueness does somewhat mitigate this. What does worry me is the Russian's insistence of the pact being valid even if the signer is the aggressor. Fortunately it didn't pass. I say you should be careful of the Russians."
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"… It is a matter of the country's sovereignty as it is not a part of the UFN. The tournament will not be interrupted simply because a country's government is overthrown." With these words the 100th Empress of Britannia opened the second day of the tournament, during which the second round of the preliminaries would be held.
"I expected as much, the girl really is made of stern stuff." Tohdoh commented. Tamaki seemed to not care about it. "I will finally show my worth! Just they wait, I will be first place!" Chiba didn't seem convinced. "Don't forget that Weinberg is in your group; just try not to run into him too soon." Tamaki chocked on the water he was drinking. "Shut up!" Tohdoh felt his throat dry. "I think I'm going to go get something to drink, best of luck Tamaki." Tamaki cheered up some. "You bet."
On his way to the cafeteria Tohdoh spotted Alice walking at a brisk pace, she was headed neither to the arena nor the cafeteria. For some reason, something felt wrong. He decided to follow her. He was able to do so for some length of time, however, suddenly he ran into something. Confused, he looked around; trying to find what blocked his way, when a girl's voice called.
"Hello mister, are you following Alice?" The girl seemed to be about fourteen years old, of Japanese origin. "Who are you?" Tohdoh felt confused, he was sure there had been nobody there, and what about that question? Was she a friend or a foe? "Athina is Athina. The master said Athina should try being more open, but Athina thinks that the world knowing her name is more than enough. Anyway, are you following Alice mister?" Tohdoh decided to take a gamble. "Yes, I feel worried about what Alice might be doing." The girl smiled cheerily. "Don't mister, Alice isn't responsible, the ugly bald man is. Master also told Athina she was to stop the ugly bald man from doing anything that might be bad." Tohdoh couldn't decide whether to feel awed, afraid or something else, the only other thing he could think of asking was. "What is your master's name?" The smile disappeared from the girl's face. "Athina is sorry, master said Athina shouldn't tell anyone, those who should know will know, he told Athina. Anyway, mister shouldn't worry and just pilot the big robots, they are great aren't they? Master said Athina would get to pilot one of them soon if she did a good work, so Athina works hard!" Tohdoh was still confused, before he could find a reply an eerie glow appeared on the girl's right eye and she seemed to disappear. He decided to let the matter rest for the moment.
=/=
"Ugh, damn it, I got careless." Jeremiah cursed his luck as he slowly woke up, he should have known some of the guards would use some kind of portable Gejhun Disturber to stun him. "Oh, you finally awake?" He was in a relatively spacious office on a chair, though not bound, trying to escape passed through his mind, but the memory of his recent capture stopped that thought. "Who are you?" The man sitting in front of him was dark skinned, with a cleanly shaved head and face. "Direct to the point are we? My name has lost meaning long ago, these days I ask people to call me Z.Z." The name pattern flared up many thoughts in Jeremiah's mind. So he was another Code Bearer. That E.E. really wasn't involved in the attack; this Z.Z. was the source of that Brazilian prince's Geass. It took a lot of energy for Jeremiah to reply calmly. "What have you done to my liege's body?"
Z.Z. appeared to be unworried, though true to be told he was one of the few people in the world who could be in the same room as the angered Jeremiah "Orange" Gottwald, and not worry about it. "All in due time, my friend, first of all I have a present and a favor to ask." Jeremiah was still suspicious. "Not interested." The other man seemed annoyed by this; he spoke in an irritated manner. "Look, all I'm trying to do is fix what that failure called "Zero Requiem" did. Please I'm just speaking the truth, and I would like it if you could remove your sword from my chest. Now I will be direct, both favor and reward concern the current empress of Britannia."
Jeremiah could that it wouldn't go anywhere if he just dug his feet. "Alright, I'm listening." The man smiled in response. "Good, as you may have discovered recently, there are many Code Bearers, or Immortals if you will, around the world. I am but one of them. It might seem to you that we conspire together to take over the world or something, but I assure you, nothing could be farther from the truth. Each of us have our own objectives." Jeremiah felt nervous. "And what this has to do with anything?" The man winced at being interrupted. "You have met E.E.. have you not? Probably the one who gave you the hint about us?" Jeremiah nodded. "You see, he is dangerous, and one girl who has a contract with him is even more dangerous." The talk about Geass users picked Jeremiah's interest; at the least he could gather information. "How so?" Z.Z. took a few deep breaths, and grabbed the glass near him, as if buying time until he found the right words. "You see, her Geass allows her to become… Invisible." Even for Geass standards, it seemed absurd. "What do you mean; I've never seen a Geass that distorts space." Z.Z. chortled. "But hers doesn't, what her Geass does, is make everything around her ignore her existence as if she wasn't there, which effectively renders her completely undetectable by all, except of course immortals and those with anti-Geass measures."
Jeremiah wasn't sure he understood what this man wanted of him. "So, that's where I come in right?" Z.Z. seemed more satisfied with the way the conversation was going. "That is where you and your reward comes in, you see, I do not have the time to babysit the girl, installing a Geass canceller on a user has unfortunate consequences, and I don't have anyone I trust which isn't a Geass user or busy." Jeremiah was confused.
"Are you implying you trust me?" "Yes, because I'm sure you will cooperate on this matter. I will give you an upgrade to your Geass Canceller." "What is it, what do I need it for?" "As you are now, you Canceller lasts the time it takes to expand to the size you want, and then turns off, because maintaining it on over a large area is extremely tiring is it not?" "True." "If you only have activated it over a short period of time, it is useless against that girl, as her Geass is a field around her which she turns on and off. Therefore this upgrade will allow you to use the canceller in a tiny area around yourself for extended periods of time." "Alright, I get all of this, so what of Empress Nunnally." "The girl's assignment right now is monitoring the Empress and those around her, if ever E.E. decides to eliminate the Empress she is dead unless someone like you is watching over her."
Jeremiah nodded grimly. "I see. Still, what of my liege's body?" Z.Z. pointed behind him. "I suggest you look back."
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A few days had gone by, despite the growing tension inside the UFN, every day the Empress Nunnally would come forward and make a speech about the importance of negotiations, and that she would not abide by unnecessary war. Talking with Lady Kaguya in his room, Tohdoh was pleased to see that the girl's words were mirrored by the britannian representative to the UFN.
For the moment his focus was on the upcoming quarter-finals of the Knightmare tournament. The list looking something like this:
Shinichiro Tamaki; Japanese.
Alice; Honorary Britannian.
Talleyrand Bourbon; French.
Gino Weinberg; Britannian.
Sergei Bolkonsky; Russian.
Mao-Fong Tao; Chinese.
Frederick von Hohenzollern; German.
Kyoshiro Tohdoh; Japanese.
He had a feeling that he would encounter in the finals either Gino, or that girl Alice, something about that girl still worried him, but he felt that if he dug in too deep it would be too dangerous, even for him. His thoughts were interrupted by a friendly slap to his back. It was Gino. "Hey! So you did participate in the singles tournament. I was worried you wouldn't, so I'd be unable to kick your ass. Don't lose before the finals eh?" Tohdoh smiled at the boy. "To be quite honest, I am more worried about that girl Alice, you should take care when fighting her." Gino's face was determined. "I get your point, never thought somebody could beat Anya and still fight a tooth-and-nails duel with you. I wonder if she uses a custom knightmare." Tohdoh was still staring at the name. "According to Cornelia she does." The siren for the devicers to head to the arena started playing. "Well, we shall find out about this soon enough."
=/=
It almost felt like they were going to war. The few days since the resolution were almost chaotic, as squadrons were assembled, soldiers were gathered. As most of the South American countries signed the pact with the UFN, a "Defensive force" was being assembled by the council to be sent to South America as a preventive action.
Suzaku stared at the docked Lancelot Albion as if at an old friend. He longed for these days when he was a mere soldier to be back, politics gave him a headache. He was surprised at seeing Kallen sitting on a box, staring at another Knightmare. "So, you came, what made you finally leave high school and come back to the Black Knights?" She had a distant gaze. "I just felt I couldn't let what he paid his life to build be destroyed…" For a moment, the weeks preceding the Zero Requiem came back to Suzaku. "Yeah, I understand your feelings." Her gaze became more determined as she pointed at the Knightmare she was staring at and asked, almost annoyed. "Why did they rebuild that? I thought only he could use it!" It was the Shinkirou, and somehow Suzaku felt that she wasn't talking about the complexity of the Druid System used to control the Absolute Defense Territory. Somehow, the meaning of her words felt like. "He is the only one allowed to use it!"
Turn 03 End.