Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass.

First of all here are the answers to some of your questions. I won't say who asked them and I'll try to answer these in as much spoiler free detail as possible.

Why Am I using Gino as part of the team with Lelouch and Kallen?: In all honesty when I was originally doing up the plans for this story I was originally going to have the team be Lelouch, Kallen and Suzaku, as I further planned the story out however, I found that if I wanted to do this I would have had to alter Suzaku's position within the storyline quite a bit, something I wasn't prepared to do, so I tried to find another character to take that position. Originally yes my thoughts did go towards placing Jeremiah Gottwald in the position however, a lot of the basis for Gottwalds loyalty to Lelouch is his loyalty to Empress Marianne. As She never died in this story, Gottwalds loyalty thus stays with her. I placed Gino in the role because of three main reasons. First of all his a knight of the round and therefore an exceptional Knightmare Pilot, second, I believe in a few ways Gino and Lelouch's core ideals are somewhat similar, By introducing them early and allowing a friendship to form between them, I think Gino could be converted to Lelouchs side, finally, I like Gino's character.

Why is Gino commander of the army, why not Cornelia?: I can't really say to much here without spoiling anything but I will say this, think of Kallen and Gino being to Lelouch what Guilford and Darlton are to Cornelia.

Why didn't Nunnally make a quote?: Mainly because of the fact that I didn't want to spoil anything.

This chapters mainly designed to show some of the relations between the royal family and to introduce the story.

Please Read, enjoy and Review


"I really miss those times, back when there was no wars or killing or any other problems like that to worry about, we were just kids, and just one incredibly big, and, for quite a few of us, incredibly unhappy family, they were some of the best times of my life though." – Euphemia Li Brittania, Prime minster of the Holy Brittanian Empire


Within the dead of night at the Imperial palace in Pendragon, one figure stood waiting for his sub-ordinates. This figure appeared to be a young child around the age of 10, with blonde hair longer than his body and light purple eyes.

Suddenly the child spoke up, "So everything is prepared?"

A man, with the symbol of a soaring red bird within his right eye, walked out of the shadows and kneeled before the boy, "Yes, Master V.V."

"Excellent," V.V. smiled, "It's really too bad it had to come to this Marianne but I won't let anyone get in the way of the plan." He said to himself, before beginning to exit the palace and head towards the imperial Villa at Aries.

"Lord V.V." another mysterious man cried out heading towards the boy.

"What?"

"Sir, I think you should see this" The man said, bowing before V.V. and handing him a note.

Looking over the note, V.V.'s eyes widened, "You're positive about this?"

"Yes sir"

"Dammit," V.V. cursed before heading towards the exit, "It appears you're too important to our plans to let die aren't you Marianne, well there's always other ways to ensure that you won't be an obstacle to my ambitions..."


"Nunnally"

"..."

"Nunnally"

"..."

"NUNNALLY!"

Rubbing sleep out of her eyes, the young fourth princess of the holy Brittanian Empire, Nunnally Vi Brittania, slowly sat up in her bed.

"Mum?"

The 98th empress, Marianne Vi Brittania, looked down at her daughter with a smile, "Yes, now hurry up you need to get ready, and wake your brother up to while you're at it."

"Can't I sleep in some more?" Nunnally whined throwing the covers of her bed back over herself.

Marianne frowned before lifting the covers back up, "No, where late enough as it is, what will all your brothers and sisters think?"

"But mum, I'm tired." Nunnally continued to whine.

"It's your own fault for staying up past your bedtime."

"I just wanted to see who your visitor was."

The previous night, Nunnally had stayed up late after her mother had mentioned during dinner to Cornelia that she was expecting a guest that night and wouldn't be needing her usual guards to attend on her. Curious Nunnally had snuck out of bed and followed her mother trying to see who it was. After about an hour with nobody showing up, Marianne had caught her daughter and scolded her before putting her back in bed. Now in the morning, Nunnally was paying for it.

"That's enough, now go wake your brother up."

Nunnally's face stretched into a small smile at that, her older brother Lelouch, nearly always out slept her, and one of her favourite past times in the morning was to be his wake up call, it was almost worth not getting enough sleep... almost.

Walking into Lelouch's room and finding him still asleep, Nunnally creped over towards his bed, before climbing on and...

"WAKE UP BIG BROTHER!" Nunnally shouted at the top of her lungs as she started bouncing up and down on his bed.

Bolting out of bed startled, Lelouch Vi Britannia glared at his little sister, "NUNNALLY," He shouted out, leeping out of bed and chasing after his little sister.

From the doorway of the room, Marianne stiffiled a small chuckle as she watched her physically inept son, try (And fail) to catch his little sister. "Now, now you two, you can play tag later, but you need to get ready now."


Walking out of her childrens room, and down to the kitchen, Marianne finally released the chuckle she had been holding in.

"What's so funny?"

Looking to the table on her right, Marianne saw a young teenaged girl, sitting there with a half eaten box of pizza.

"C.C." The woman greeted warmly, "What are you doing here."

"Just checking in," The woman said, in a bored tone, "And I thought I should tell you, I'm going to be leaving for a while."

Marianne frowned at that "Why?"

"If you're not going to fulfil my contract than I'm going to find someone who will," C.C. said rather directly getting up and walking towards the exit, "Plus, the pizza here's not that great, and Pizza hut doesn't deliver to the imperial villa..."

"I suppose I'll see you sometime then?" Marianne said letting out a sigh.

"One more thing before I go," C.C. said stopping suddenly, "V.V. is up to something, you might want to watch yourself."

"Dully noted," Marianne said watching as the immortal left.


"Mum, why do we have to go to this stupid thing anyway?" Lelouch complained

Marianne sighed before answering, "Lelouch, you know why the gathering is important, don't you want to see all of your siblings?"

"Not really," Lelouch stated rather bluntly, "Is Father going to be there today?"

"No, the negations with Japan are taking longer than expected."

Arriving at the central palace, the Vi Brittanias entered the room seeing their numerous siblings already engaged in conversation.

The imperial gathering was an important time of the month within the royal family. Due to the familys numerous branches and the numerous potential heirs to the throne, Charles Zi Brittania, the 98th emperor had seen fit to gather all his children together for one day of the month to observe them and determine which of his children were the most useful. Today however the emperor was notably absent.

Entering the room, Lelouch was slammed by a flash of pink, "LULU"

"EUPHIE, LET GO OF ME" Lelouch yelled out trying to get his pink haired half sister of him.

If Lelouch would have had to have chosen a favourite sibling other than Nunnally, his first choice would have been this girl, Euphiemia Li Brittania. The Empire's third princess was the closest of his siblings to him in age and due to the close friendship between Marianne and Euphies mother, Annabelle Li Brittania, the two had grown up together.

"Amusing as ever," Another of their siblings, Clovis La Brittania said approaching the three. If Euphie was Lelouchs second favourite sibling than Clovis was Nunnallys. The older boy was the one who first introduced and helped cultivate Nunnallys interest in the arts, Clovis was always polite and kind to his siblings and was somewhat of a pacifist disliking conflict and acting as somewhat of a peace maker between his siblings. Unfortunately for Nunnally, Marianne and Clovis's mother Gabrielle La Brittania, did not get along well and were often at odds precenting the amount of time the close siblings could spend with each other.

"BIG BROTHER CLOVIS" Nunnally yelled out before tackle hugging the older boy

Letting out a laugh, Clovis turned towards his younger brother who had just managed to escape from Euphies hug of death, "Some help here Lelouch?"

Lelouch just smirked at Clovis before walking away, Euphie happily following him "Figure it out on your own, I'm going to go see if Schneizel is up for a match."


In another room of the palace, Charles Zi Brittania looked at the latest proposal from the Japanese Prime minister, Genbu Kururugi.

"Very well then, agreed"

"Excellent," The Japanese ambassador said with a smile, "Shall we expect our hostages by the end of the week then?"


"And that little brother... is Check-mate." Schneizel said with a smile moving his queen in position to check Lelouch's king.

Dispersing the crowd who was watching the match wandered away, two princesses however walked away together.

"It's not like that commoner brat, could ever beat Schneizel," Carine le Brittania said with a condescending tone about her older brother, "So why does he keep trying?"

"Lelouch did almost win that time," The empires first Princess Guinevere Su Brittania, said nonchalantly while taking a sip of wine from out of her glass, "Perhaps he'll be more useful and skilled than any of us thought." Guinevere thought with a smirk


"A little to the left, now a little to the right, there that's perfect." Clovis said, Nunnally moving into position for Clovis to paint her.

"CLOVIS, NUNNALLY." The second Princess, Cornelia Li Brittania called out to her to younger siblings.

"Hello big sister, Cornelia." Nunnally said with a smile. "Is something wrong?"

"Have either of you two seen Euphemia?" Cornelia asked, "I can't seem to find her."

"Last I saw, she followed Lelouch to his chess match with Schneizel." Clovis commented helpfully.

"Thanks" Cornelia responded before going back inside.

Turning back to his artwork Clovis let out a curse. "DAMMIT CORNELIA, I WAS ALMOST DONE TOO."

Nunnally just started laughing.


Charles Zi Brittania looked down at his brother, "Do you truly believe these are the best two choices?"

"Absolutely," V.V. began, "Lelouch has little value to the empire currently, and is around the same age as the Prime minister's son, besides the boy is far to prideful for his own good, he needs to learn his place."

"And the girl," Charles asked with a raised eyebrow.

"As your agreement states, you need two hostages and they both need to be from your family, the girl holds little value either and she's far too naive."

"Very well then, I agree with your decision, I will inform them of their fate tomorrow."

As V.V. left his brothers throne room a smirk was displayed clearly on his face, "Everything is falling perfectly into place..."


"Lelouch is getting better, isn't he Schniezel." The empires first prince Odysseus Eu Brittania commented towards his half brother. Although Odysseus never really had the aptitude or taste for chess he knew that his younger siblings did, and he himself had observed a good deal of matches, so he was somewhat aware of the intricacies of the game

"Perhaps." Schneizel said with a small smile, "How much better will you get little brother."


"Found you big brother." Euphie smiled as she located Lelouch behind the curtain. "I guess I win this time."

Lelouch just let out a small laugh at his little sisters antics. "True, but I still managed to find you more times than you found me."

Between the two siblings it was common to play hide and seek as a game. Both siblings didn't enjoy the others favourite game, Euphie's favourite being House and Lelouch's being Chess, however they both enjoyed hide and seek, so they often chose to play that with each other. It also allowed Nunnally and Cornelia to play as well when they were present.

"Did not" Euphie said pouting

"Did too."

"Did not"

"Did too."

"Did not"

"Did too."

"Did not"

"Euphie." Cornelia called out

"Did too."

"Did not"

"EUPHIE" Cornelia called out, once more as she walked over to the pair. "Grab your things, were going back home now."

"Aw, but I want to play with Lulu some more." Euphemia said pouting

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get to play with 'Lulu' again soon." Cornelia said with a teasing smirk towards Lelouchs scowling face, "Besides, I think Lady Marianne is heading back soon anyway."


That Night

"Lelouch," Empress Marianne began while looking down at her son, who was tucked into bed that night.

"Yes mother?"

"Your father wishes to speak to you tomorrow morning, so don't sleep in too late."

"Yes mother, goodnight"

"Goodnight, Lelouch"


Walking into the throne room the following day Lelouch knelt before his father.

"LELOUCH" The emperor boomed sitting on his throne.

"Yes, father?"

"I have decided how you may be of some use to the empire." He began coldly, "You are to go to Japan for the duration of the negotiations."

Lelouch was filled with rage at that point, gathering his courage, he was about to demand that the Emperor tell him why before he saw his mother at his fathers side shaking her head sadly.

"When do I leave, your majesty?" Lelouch asked gritting his teeth in rage.

"This afternoon." The emperor continued.

"Yes father," Lelouch said angrily walking towards the exit of the throne room.

"Wait," The emperor commanded from his throne, "You will not be alone, I'm sending another of your siblings with you, send in the girl."

And with that the throne room's doors opened revealing...

"EUPHIE?"


And thats it, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter

I'm sure some of you are wondering what the information was on that note in the beggining of the chapter. Since it's not overly important to the plot, I'll tell you now, basically V.V. has discovered, much earler on than in cannon, that they need two codes to activate Ragnarok. In this they also need a person with Geass from each of the codes as well. The note informing V.V. that only Marianne had a geass from C.C. (I don't know whether or not Mao had recieved his geass by this point, It doesn't really matter anyway though since I doubt Mao would agree to Ragnarok in the first place), Therefore making it a neccesity to keep Marianne alive.

Anyway, can anyone guess why I'm sending Euphemia with Lelouch instead of Nunnally? Theres a few different reasons and anyone that reviews with at least one of them will get a mention within the next chapter. Also can anyone guess what V.V. is planning?

Please Review.