Code Geass: Lelouch of the Digidestined

by Demon of Zero

Digimon were created as an artificial life, their original purpose lost to humanity with the death of their creators. And so the world gave them a purpose, horrible though it may be. Those that emerged in the human world were captured and enslaved, used as soldiers and weapons. And despite these changes, still some things remain the same. Zero will rise and the world will change.

2. Chapter 2

Lelouch: The author doesn't own Code Geass or Digimon.

Demon: Which sucks, because if I owned either then I would be rich and/or Lelouch wouldn't have gotten fucked over quite as hard as he did. I mean, plot twists are great, but Lelouch's luck was just plain bad most of the time. Really, he makes an attempt at humor and starts a genocide. Even my jokes aren't that bad.

Lelouch: Wait. Does that mean you're not going to make me kill Euphy?

Demon: ... Uhm. Maybe?

Lelouch: *Glares suspiciously, hand reaching towards his pocket.* Maybe?

And then Lelouch is bopped on the head repeatedly by a pico hammer, drawing his attention away so he can deal with the new threat to his reputation.

Demon: It's good to be the author.

... Holy crap, 13,000 words. Wow. Inspiration is neat. ( This was said before I went back and revised this chapter. It was supposed to be basic revisions and somehow I ended up expanding the word count significantly.)

---

That night, Lelouch stumbled into his humble abode long after Nunnally had fallen asleep. He had to, of course, to hide the smell of death from her. His academy uniform was stained with blood from Clovis's Royal Guard. If he could smell it, even faintly, then Nunnally would pick it up instantly. That would lead to a whole slew of questions, and Lelouch didn't want to lie to Nunnally.

He didn't think he could, to be honest.

It wasn't a surprise to find cold metal at his throat after he entered the dining room. "Sayoko." He greeted quietly, a small smile touching his lips. Just knowing she was still here brought a warmth to his heart, even though he knew she would be. The confirmation was simply heartening.

The kunai knife slipped away from his throat, and his assailant moved to regard him from the front. "You're bloody." She noted simply. Shinozaki Sayoko was a beautiful woman with brown hair and dark amber eyes. Normally, she was dressed in either a maid outfit or a set of kunoichi garb. Right now, however, she was dressed in a simple pink yukata.

Lelouch shrugged. "Sorry for waking you, Sayoko." It wasn't that he was avoiding the unspoken question, he just figured apologizing for waking her up took precedence. It was quite rude of him, after all. Really.

She sighed, shaking her head slightly. "It's not a problem, master Lelouch. Would you like to talk about it?" She figured he wouldn't, but it couldn't hurt to ask him. After all, it's not ever day you come home covered in blood that's not yours.

"Yes, actually. I could use someone to talk to right now." She was surprised at his reply, but moreso at the downtrodden expression that found it's way to his face. He sighed heavily, fist clenching. "I killed people today, Sayoko. A lot of people. And I didn't really care about them at all." That actually felt really bizarre to say, though he attributed it to the fact that he'd long begun to see Britannian soldiers as "the enemy". "There was one person who I killed today, though, who I can't get off of my mind." Understatement of the century, that.

Sayoko's expression calmed him down immensely. She was just giving him a sad, supportive smile. She understood just what it felt like to have the dead haunt you. "Why is this person haunting you, master Lelouch?" She asked kindly. Perhaps it was something they had said, the way they had looked, how they had died, or any number of things.

"Because he was my brother." It was a simple statement, but it carried so much weight.

"Oh." Well that was unexpected. Lelouch had killed his brother. There was a brief pause before the severity of that statement really sunk in, and the realization caused Sayoko's eyes to widen. "You mean..." Had he truly gone and killed the Viceroy of Area Eleven? How had this even happened? What could possibly have put him in a situation where that was even an option?

"Clovis." Yes. Yes he had killed the Viceroy. "I got caught up in an incident in Shinjuku today, and everything escalated out of control... eventually, I decided to help the rebels fight back against the military. In the end, I entered the G1 base and killed him." The words seemed to pain him physically, she had never seen him this distressed. The boy shook his head pitifully. "I have had a horrible day today, Sayoko." He really looked like he could use a hug.

Rather than saying anything else, she gently wrapped her arms around the younger boy's shoulders, pulling him into a soft embrace. "I understand. Does this mean..?" She allowed the question to trail off, knowing he understood her meaning.

Releasing a ragged sigh, Lelouch leaned his head against her shoulder. "Yes. My plans are set in motion."

Sayoko was more than just a maid and retainer for Lelouch and Nunnally. The woman was practically family. She had been there for them since they had first come to stay with the Ashfords, having first worked as Milly's own personal maid. Of course, Milly had sent her to work for them not a week after the duo had arrived. In the time they had spent together, the Lamperouge siblings had learned much about Sayoko, and in return she had learned much about them.

And moreso, Shinozaki Sayoko was more than just a maid in general. She was the 37th successor to the Shinozaki School of martial arts. And, in short, she was a ninja. Lelouch had been skeptical upon learning that, but after seeing his life flash before his eyes when Sayoko pinned him to a wall with a few kunai knives, his doubts disappeared alongside a few years of his life.

Of course, after learning of her heritage, Lelouch didn't treat her any differently. As a matter of fact, he seemed incredibly relieved that someone who would be close to his darling sister was so capable. It was rather endearing to see that he still trusted her with his life even knowing she could end it with little effort.

Well either way, she couldn't actually bring herself to harm, let alone kill, either of her charges at this point. The thought of someone bringing harm to either of the Lamperouge siblings kindled a protective instinct in her heart. She had never had younger brothers or sisters, and these two were filling that void easily.

She would openly admit, to certain people, that she loved the two of them with all of her heart. Nunnally had both Lelouch and Sayoko wrapped around her finger simply by being herself, and neither her older brother or their maid could bring themselves to care.

When it came to Lelouch, however, there was just something irresistible about him. He had a sort of charisma, a natural charm, that made people want to follow his lead. He was kind and caring, willing to go out of his way to help his friends and Nunnally. But, at the same time, he wasn't some hero trying to save everyone from everything. He stepped in to situations when his aid was necessary, and giving his aid wouldn't compromise Nunnally or him. He was determined, he was brilliant, and he was compassionate within reason.

Not to mention he was handsome, but that was better left alone for the moment. Unfortunately, "better left alone" did not mean her mind would allow that persistent little thought to go away. She sighed and just leaned deeper into the embrace. "I will stand beside you no matter what path you choose, master Lelouch."

Her breath caught in her throat when he looked up to see her eye to eye. A small, genuine smile was on his lips and a few tears slipped from his eyes. That was not an expression one saw often on Lelouch vi Britannia. It was reserved, up until this point, solely for Nunnally. And even then it was on rare occasions, the type which even Sayoko didn't feel completely comfortable intruding on.

She had never imagined he would look at anyone else like that, let alone her.

"Sayoko." He whispered softly. "Thank you for everything." And this was why he knew that seeing her would make him feel better. Because she accepted his desire to fight. Nunnally wouldn't understand, she was too kind, too peaceful. Fighting, killing, these things were not something she could accept or condone... but they were necessary to build her the world she, and so many others, deserved.

Nunnally would not approve of his ambitions, even less if she knew just how much she had influenced them. Sayoko did, however. She was no stranger to fighting or killing for a purpose. She understood and accepted his goals, supported his decision.

Much to her surprise, Sayoko found herself blushing as she answered. "You're welcome, master Lelouch." Yes, despite it being "better left alone", Sayoko couldn't manage to completely stop her musings on how handsome her master was.

This touching scene was disturbed by a sudden movement in Lelouch's jacket. "... Don't mind me." A squeaky voice muttered, the movement ceasing. "Just your friendly neighborhood Tsumemon."

As Sayoko's face shifted to a confused expression, Lelouch sighed and began explaining the events of the day in full detail.

---

The next day, after a playful scolding from Nunnally about how he shouldn't gamble, Lelouch went through classes as usual. Up until, of course, the President declared an Emergency Meeting of the Student Council. (EMSC)

The EMSC was a privilege granted to the Student Council President that allowed members of the student council to excuse themselves from class with no consequence. It was only used in dire situations that could unleash havoc upon the school as a whole.

In other words, it was a monthly occurrence.

Whenever Lelouch or Nina hadn't had the time to look over every important document, there was bound to be something gone wrong. This month was especially bothersome, because it wasn't just a minor slip-up that the Vice President or the greenette could correct quickly.

No, this was a royal screw-up of the highest degree. "I cannot believe you didn't tell us sooner that NONE of the budgeting was done, Milly." Lelouch growled. A rolled up paper smacked him upside the head, before coming down again and summarily retreating as his teeth snapped closed on the air it had once occupied. He responded in such a primitive way because his hands were full as he wrote down various figures and such on one piece of paper, while checking his calculations via calculator. Which was more of a formality, really, but still. "You seriously couldn't have told us, say, a day earlier?" Not much time, but an extra twenty four hour cushion would have been much appreciated.

Her only responsibility in regards to the budgeting was to let either Nina or himself know when it needed to be redone so they could dedicate a couple of meetings to it. She had one job. ONE. JOB. When he hadn't heard from her, Lelouch had assumed she had told Nina and the girl had taken it upon herself to do it alone.

It wouldn't have been the first time- Nina had a lot of free time and liked busy-work.

"Or even a day later, so it would be too late to deal with this and we could give up." Rivalz offered, helpfully, as he waved a pencil about. He tossed a brief glance to Lelouch, a slight downward tilt to his lips.

That was an intriguing idea. "You know, it's not too late to do that." He noted offhandedly, subtly sending a reassuring smile towards Rivalz before noticing Milly inhaling a large breath and quickly covering his ears.

Her ear-shattering cry of "GUTS!" was only a dull shout to him, though the others felt it clearly.

Rivalz nearly hopped out of his seat, scrambling to catch the papers he had accidentally strewn about in his rude upheaval, having been too distracted by the silent "conversation" he was taking part in to cover his ears.

Shirley was better off, just flinching and smiling good naturedly. She even seemed encouraged by the loud war-cry. But, then, she was just peppy and bubbly in general.

"A-ah-AH!" Nina, on the other hand, had fallen out of her seat in her alarm. The sudden shout had startled the poor girl terribly, and her wide eyes and quick breathing attested to that.

If he was being honest, it was kind of cute. He felt rather guilty thinking that however. It was like startling a small animal- it was adorable but you felt awful afterwards.

"Oh God Nina, I'm so sorry!" Milly yelped, quickly making her way over to the bespectacled girl in a fashion similar to someone who had startled said small animal. Guilty, but amused... and guilty for being amused. "Are you alright?" She asked, idly checking the girl for injuries. Once she found Nina in perfect shape, she copped a feel as Milly is won't to do. Nina's face lit up in a scarlet blush and she squeaked loudly.

"Milly!" She yelped, scooting back and covering he chest protectively. She tossed the blonde a half-hearted glare and slowly began to move back to her chair.

Once Nina was back in her seat and confirmed to be alright but not unmolested, the group settled in to continue their work.

But Lelouch couldn't help but throw one last barb in. "Your magic had an effect this time, Madame President." He noted sarcastically.

And poor Shirley, bless her heart, implicated herself for targeting from the buxom blonde bombshell that is Milly Ashford by claiming it had encouraged her.

One sly wink and subtle comment led to a confused Shirley soon realizing that Milly had been undressing her with her eyes and liked what she saw.

Business as usual for the Student Council at an Emergency Meeting.

After the meeting had finished, Milly had gone off to attend to other things. They didn't know what things those were, but Lelouch had assured them that if they didn't know, it was something they didn't want to know.

He seemed convinced that anything Milly did in private was automatically evil and they were better off staying far, far away from it.

The other four members of the council were walking together, chatting idly. The mess they had sorted out had taken almost half the day, but they had finished just as a class period ended. The short break inbetween classes was often spent in the courtyard, which they were heading towards at that moment.

"Our President is just a dirty old man inside." Shirley grunted. "Sullying the meeting with her dirty mind." She was clearly not a fan of the fact that Milly loved teasing people in such a blatant manner.

Nina giggled quietly, covering her mouth with her hand. "Well, that's Milly for you." She replied cheerfully. Her oldest friend could be such a handful at times... more than a handful actually. In more ways than one, a treacherous voice in her mind couldn't help but note.

Rivalz just shrugged his shoulders casually. "At least we got the budget sorted out." And really, that was a surprise in and of itself. Literally none of it had been done. How had that slipped by everyone?

The Vice President simply chuckled lightly at Milly's antics. "Despite her quirks, Milly is reliable in a pinch and a wonderful friend." His face broke into an annoyed frown. "However, her constant attempts to get dirt on me are tiresome." So very, very tiresome.

The other three nodded sympathetically, not knowing why it was that Lelouch attracted so much of the President's attention.

Lelouch knew exactly why it was, though. After all, hiding the fact that he and Nunnally were Royalty would take it's toll on Milly if she couldn't at least occupy herself with other things. Such as spreading rumors about Lelouch's various excursions into the settlement.

"Yeah, especially after I got drug into it last time." Rivalz grumbled. "Why anyone would believe we were undercover operatives of ANY organization, I will never know." Just... why? Why in the world did anyone actually believe that one? It was just so ludicrous.

Lelouch twitched, that particular incident one of his least favorite. His fanclub hadn't stopped bombarding him with inquiries for weeks. And yes, he did have a fan club. He had been certain to deny their request to become an official club before Milly spotted it, KNOWING she would accept in a heartbeat just to make them more of a nuisance to him.

Amusingly enough, however, this incident had started the small "Rivalz Cardemonde" fanclub. They even had an emblem. An emblem for goodness sakes, in the shape of a light blue motorcycle on a white background.

This had, of course, prompted Lelouch's fans to do the same. Their emblem was a black king chess piece on a royal purple background.

He was not amused in the slightest.

Lelouch hated being popular sometimes. It was ridiculous. Everyone on campus knew his face, name, and position on the council. He was like a celebrity and it really got on his nerves sometimes, especially the fan girls.

"Whoa, they used poison gas?" The words made Lelouch snap to attention, his mind quickly deciphering the possible reasons this could be said. Moments later he came to the likely conclusion that word of the Shinjuku Massacre had gotten out, probably censored by the government. They were passing by a classroom, and the group's attention was quickly diverted to the open laptop that four other students had surrounded. On it were images of the Shinjuku Ghetto, ridden with bullet holes and crumbled architecture. Several men in hazmat suits were foraging around, and the heading claimed that the area was still under the effects of poison gas and should be avoided.

"Shinjuku..?" Shirley wondered, eyes traveling to Lelouch, who had asked her about Shinjuku just yesterday.

"Yeah, I was nearby and heard a commotion, so I called you to see if you knew what was going on." He tried to smile reassuringly. "I'm just glad I didn't enter the ghetto myself, if these terrorists let loose poison gas." Truthfully Lelouch wasn't sure whether or not he was happy about the fact that he had ended up in Shinjuku yesterday. On the one hand, it was an all around pain and nearly got him killed multiple times. On the other, he'd finally made the first step in his plans to defeat Britannia, and had gained two very powerful resources towards that goal.

Had Lelouch not been in Shinjuku yesterday, he would never have gained Geass or his new partner Keramon. Those two things would allow him to push his plans for rebellion up by years, perhaps even decades. He was fighting right now and it was all because some terrorists had tried to steal poison gas from his brother and nearly ran him over.

Shirley nodded, satisfied with the answer. Nina, however, had narrowed her eyes slightly, likely getting the feeling there was more to the story. She probably wouldn't pry, however.

Rivalz had also picked up on it, of course. He made a quick gesture with his hand, confirming Lelouch's thoughts that there was no way he wouldn't pry.

Right hand scratch behind left ear, "Say more later". Lelouch sighed, one hand fiddling with the pocket of his pants. "Affirmative". He would need to get together an adequately detailed cover story.

Originally, the secret sign language Lelouch had created was shown only to Suzaku and Kaguya, the latter having forced it from Suzaku and then strong-armed Lelouch into teaching her. For some reason, that girl had seriously wanted to get close to Lelouch. Looking back, it was kind of cute seeing how her and Nunnally vied for his attention, much like Euphie and Nunnally had back at the Aries Villa. Of course, when Euphie and Nunnally had competed for his attention, it was much fairer for the pink haired girl.

Kaguya had been trying to compete with the attention of his blinded and crippled sister who was his only remaining direct relative.

At that point in time, he didn't consider Charles zi Britannia his father. He still didn't, for that matter. That man was nothing more than a sperm donor.

At any rate, the secret language had been in the hands of three young children, two of whom swore to keep it a secret. Lelouch, as creator, held the right to teach others the language. Now the list had expanded from three to six, with Sayoko, Milly and Rivalz having learned the entire language.

Sayoko knew it for obvious reasons, being the closest confidante the Lamperouge siblings had, aside from Milly. Nunnally had told her about the sign language, and she inquired about it later to Lelouch, who offered to teach her. After she had a grasp of it, and it was rather easy considering it was made up entirely of easily dismissed gestures that held different, sometimes vague, meanings. Some others were extremely specific, such as the tugging of your collar meaning "Meet me on the roof", while others were vague but easily understandable when used in certain situations. Sayoko had the entire language memorized in one week, and another two were spent practicing using each gesture as discreetly as possible. Now, it was so natural that even Lelouch sometimes had trouble picking up whether or not she was using it or just happened to make a gesture reminiscent of it. Talk about going overboard.

Milly had also picked up on the language, having learned of it from Lelouch himself. She had begged him to teach her, even offering an entire week's reprieve from her usual pranks and antics aimed at him as incentive.

Obviously, Lelouch had accepted.

She picked up on the language slower than Sayoko, which was to be expected considering Sayoko had been specially trained to receive and memorize orders both as a ninja and a maid. However, in three weeks time she had memorized the gestures completely. However, she was not nearly as subtle in using them as Sayoko, or even Lelouch. Normal people probably wouldn't notice that she was trying to convey a message of some sort with her gestures, but someone who was actually looking could probably tell.

Rivalz... well, Rivalz was taught partly of necessity, and partly because he was Lelouch's only male friend. And, really, Rivalz was Lelouch's best friend.

Suzaku had been his first male friend, but seven years apart made it rather hard to consider the boy closer to him than Rivalz. Especially after what had happened in Shinjuku.

Really though, how could it be fair to call Suzaku his best friend when he had known Rivalz for longer, and hadn't seen Suzaku in ages? Of course the thought did bring him some guilt due to Suzaku's fate in Shinjuku... but still. Rivalz had been around for years and the two had hit it off nicely. While the blue haired boy often joked about being "but a simple chauffeur", he knew that their relationship was deeper than that. He was the only male friend Lelouch had at this point.

The necessity had come from needing to discreetly communicate while in the middle of a chess match. It hard started with Lelouch teaching him the "Run. Now." signal to depict that a situation was going to end poorly. And, after that, he just taught him the rest for completions sake. They'd never really needed to use the language during one of his matches, though. The nobles that had come to Area Eleven were actually pretty fair sports, nothing clandestine ever seemed to happen during his matches.

Rivalz was amazed his friend had created an entire sign language back when he was ten. "When I was ten," he had said, "I could barely make a secret handshake. You really are something, Lelouch."

A shrill shriek from one of the girls at the computer, drowning out the various other reactions from those watching the scene, brought Lelouch out of his musings in time to see several corpses on screen. He nearly choked. 'That's the warehouse they found me in.' He thought to himself in surprise. And indeed it was. The Royal Guard of Prince Clovis la Britannia had been removed from the scene beforehand, replaced by dead Britannian infantry. 'Probably dead Japanese dressed up like soldiers. Or the Honorary Britannians sent in to first scout for the gas.' He supposed they'd decided to parade dead Britannian soldiers in front of the media to cover up how one sided of a "battle" that had been... at least at first.

It was a gruesome sight, but he had seen worse. And, well, seeing the corpses for the second time while significantly further away was much less upsetting. His eyes panned over the reactions of the seven nearest to him, the four random students, only one of whom he knew vaguely, from the photography club, and his friends.

Rivalz had a sour expression on his face, clearly skeptical of the heading that painted the massacre as a terrorist movement being put down. His teeth grit slightly after a moment, and Lelouch realized immediately that he had spotted the few children lying in the pile of corpses. Resistance movements that had been seen throughout Area Eleven would never endanger the lives of Japanese children and civilians so blatantly.

Hell, many of them attempted to avoid BRITANNIAN civilians during their operations. The JLF had a remarkably low civilian casualty rate for such a large "terrorist" organization. That wasn't to say they had killed "few" Britannian non-combatants, because the numbers were in the hundreds, but it was still a small number comparatively. The Britannian Military had killed thousands upon thousands of unarmed noncombatants in Japan alone, and yesterday alone had marked the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

For comparison's sake, the total number of civilians killed by the Japan Liberation Front over a period of seven years or so was nearly matched in a single day in Shinjuku by the Britannian army.

Shirley looked aghast, as expected. She never could stomach death, and was a naturally compassionate person. Thankfully, she was unable to spot the various small forms lying among the adults or she may have started crying on the spot. It was a good thing she was too appalled to pay more attention to the screen.

Which, of course, brought us to Nina. Her face was pale, she was shaking, and her eyes were wide. Lelouch cringed inwardly, knowing she would spot the dead children and notice the distinct lack of weaponry on the dead civilians. Yes, she would immediately understand that this wasn't a terrorist movement, and she was also smart enough to question it.

However, unknown to Lelouch, her mind had shut down after seeing that. So much blood, dried and staining the ground. So many corpses, many in terrible condition from the high caliber bullets ripping through them. Men, women, children, the elderly, all of them in that warehouse gunned down ruthlessly by Britannian soldiers. And not one of them appeared armed. It was awful, a massacre.

And then the image changed, this time to something that invoked an even greater reaction. "Turn it OFF!" The same girl from earlier shouted, eyes clenching and covering her mouth as she began gagging. The image was now that of a man who's body had been partially crushed by fallen debris. His body had been bisected, intestines hanging from his upper half and his body broken and twisted in painful looking ways. It was all around an incredibly graphic scene.

Shirley turned green, Rivalz cringed and had a distinct look of sympathy, and Nina...

"Ah!" Lelouch gasped, quickly moving to catch the falling girl as she fainted. The sight had been too much for her. "... Uhm. She's out cold." Lelouch noted, looking back at the startled faces of the other six. "I'll take her to the nurse." He offered, lifting her bridal style and heading out into the hallway.

As he walked out, leaving a rather surprised group of students, he wondered if Nina had spotted the bullet holes scattered about the building that had dropped the debris on the man in the first place.

As large as the holes were, they could only have come from a KMF rifle. Which the terrorists didn't have until yesterday, not that Britannia at large knew that in the first place.

So that left only Britannian fire to have dropped the large chunk of concrete on to an unarmed civilian.

Leaving the children's bodies with those of the adults, not placing any false armaments, not covering up the civilian casualties? Either Britannia had gotten sloppy or the death of the Viceroy had seriously mucked up procedure.

Come to think of it, it was probably the latter.

---

Lelouch sat beside one of the beds in the nurse's office with a bored look on his face. Just as he arrived to drop Nina off, the nurse had to take off to deal with some situation or another. He believed she said something about the equestrian club.

More likely than not, someone had been bucked off again.

While he could have just locked the door, it locked from the inside and the nurse had the key, and left, Lelouch didn't want Nina to wake up in the nurses office all alone. And, so, he decided to wait with her until either she woke up or the nurse returned.

This gave him time to think, though, so it was fine. Or, rather, it had been until his thoughts drifted to Clovis. He remembered putting the gun to his head, and then blood... Lelouch wasn't squeamish. It wasn't the blood that bothered him, nor the dead look in the eyes of a human when they died. It was the fact that that was Clovis's blood. That those dull eyes were once full of life that belonged to his brother.

How many more of his siblings would have to die? Would he have to kill Cornelia? Possibly, leaning on probable. What of Schneizel? He would almost have to, either that or use this Geass on him. And then there was Euphy.

Lelouch did not believe in God. At least, not as it was portrayed by humanity. The idea of a higher power seemed more likely now that he had attained this nearly godlike power, the ability to command anyone who's eyes he met to perform any action he wanted them to. To bend people to his will so easily, and so thoroughly... Surely, it was a godly power.

That being said, Lelouch prayed to whatever higher power out there that he never have to kill Euphemia. Lelouch could move past the death of Clovis. The brother he had known had changed for the worst and admitted so before his death. Power had corrupted him. Cornelia and Schneizel were actively aiding the Britannian military, in very prominent positions at that. Power may not have needed to corrupt them, they may actually believe in the nation they fought for. If so then he could move on should he be forced to kill them- fighting for Britannia was forgivable, but honestly believing Britannia was in the right was something else entirely.

Euphemia hadn't even been presented to the public yet. They were aware of her existence, but she had done nothing to gain attention. She had no power to corrupt her. She would be the same wonderful, sweet, kind and caring sister he had missed for all these years. And he didn't want to kill her. He would do everything in his power to keep her safe once he began to walk this path of blood. She was innocent, completely and utterly innocent.

Cornelia and Schneizel were likely to die. He understood this fully. If he wanted to topple Britannia, these two were fundamentally important to that. If he couldn't get them on his side without Geass, he would need to kill or capture them both. Schneizel was the Prime Minister and one of the most threatening commanders the nation had, and Cornelia was one of the most feared military leaders around the world. Capturing Cornelia would be next to impossible, as would capturing Schneizel.

He would try not to kill them, he would try to capture them or convince them to join him. But in the end he would not go too far out of his way to do so, despite his feelings for them. They had both chosen their paths and he had chosen his own.

Why must the few members of his family that he actually cared for be so deeply involved with Britannia? Clovis was a Viceroy, Cornelia was a prominent military leader, and Schneizel was Prime Minister.

Had this been Castor or Pollux, he wouldn't even need to worry about killing them. Those two were more interested in science and sports, last he saw, and he heard nothing new of them since. They had next to nothing to do with the actual running of Britannia.

He wouldn't need to kill Odysseus, either, but the man had no significant meaning to him. He was kind, but they were simply too far apart in age for them to find anything relevant to speak about. His position as Crown Prince was pretty much a farce at this point, it was clear who would go on to become Emperor if Charles zi Britannia died of natural causes.

It was actually really difficult to name off more members of his family he interacted with enough to be relevant in this line of thought... Guinevere would probably be safe, as would Carine... and that basically covered everyone in his family he actually knew enough to give a damn about. At the thought of Carine, however, Lelouch couldn't help but loose a snicker.

She was always such a brat. It was actually really funny looking back on it, how she was the closest family member of theirs outside of the close-knit group that had been built around them. Much like Euphemia and Nunnally, she had wanted to garner his attention when she was around... but she was bratty as hell about it. It had been annoying when he was younger, he'd disliked her quite a bit. Now, though, he could look back on those memories fondly. She was just a little girl who had wanted attention from the boy closest to her age, even if she was a pain about it.

But really, it seemed like almost every member of his family at risk of dying in his bid to improve the world were those he actually cared deeply about. Wasn't that just lovely?

Aside from Carine who he was only somewhat fond of after looking back and realizing she was just bratty, rather than being all of the evil that Nunnally hadn't inherited from their father given form. As well as Nunnally herself, who would hopefully be kept in the dark about just what he was doing... and then Euphemia who would hopefully only be at risk if something went horribly, horribly awry. Everyone else in that family that he actually interacted with regularly was either dead or at risk of dying if he carried on his revolution.

As far as members of his family who were at risk of death that he didn't particularly care about..? Charles zi Britannia was at serious risk of dying... but, really, Lelouch was okay with that. As a matter of fact let's remove "risk" there and replace it with "certainty" in some fashion or another. Charles zi Britannia faced a certainty of dying should he succeed. Much better. The thought brought a smile to his lips.

And then there was Anya to consider as well. He really didn't even want to think too hard on that, but his mind seemed to be incapable of that whole "not thinking too hard" thing.

She was the Knight of Six, one of the most elite soldiers in Britannia... and she was two years younger than him. She had also been one of the closest friends he had made in his childhood, up until their separation after his mother's death. As one of the Knights of the Round she would play an important role in almost any major conflict with Britannia.

However... capturing her would not be nearly as difficult as capturing Cornelia or Schneizel. She was a front line soldier, and often worked alone or as close to it as one could be on a battlefield, due to the weapons she tended to carry on her own personalized frames. Schneizel wouldn't enter combat, and Cornelia would be surrounded by her own handpicked soldiers. Anya would be on the battlefield for certain, and depending on the situation it could be possible to isolate and capture her.

If he could get past her digital partner, who was known to be incredibly quick and agile. That was why she was so comfortable working alone- less friendlies nearby for her to worry about as she bathed the battlefield in explosives. Sealsdramon was too swift and evasive to ever be caught in the blasts.

Of course he doubted it would be that simple, but killing her did not sit well with him at all. Lelouch desperately hoped it would be possible to keep her alive throughout the chaos he was going to cause. Being so emotionally attached to the enemy simply would not end well, but he couldn't help it. He'd tried once to simply detach himself from those fond memories and the bonds he had created, but... it had left him feeling so empty inside. He couldn't do it, he refused to.

And then his thoughts drifted back to Clovis. Memories of the two playing together as boys, of posing for some of Clovis's first paintings specifically. When he had first decided to paint, it was clear he had a talent. His art had been lovely for a child of his age, especially with no prior lessons or practice, and so he practiced and practiced at the one thing he could outdo Lelouch in thoroughly.

Lelouch was the driving factor behind Clovis's desire to paint up until they had been separated, after that he simply kept it up as he'd found his calling in life.

He then recalled the pranks they had pulled on the others. His mother's Royal Guard often found themselves victim to the whims of the dastardly duo of princes, their various hijinks forever embedded into the hearts and souls of their victims.

Especially the time they had placed oranges all over the Villa in places frequented by the youngest guard, Jeremiah something... ah, Gottwald! Jeremiah Gottwald. He had a potent dislike of the fruit, having grown sick of it since he had been raised on a plantation of them. The look of sickness on his face as he found every one of his posts scented like the citrus fruit was priceless.

Of course, Lelouch had apologized to Gottwald afterwards. He genuinely liked that particular guard, who was willing to oblige him to games of chess when asked. The other guards would too if he asked, but Gottwald had always been happy to do so. He had been decent at the game, steadily improving just from facing Lelouch, but he never won. Or came close, really.

The one time he had looked distraught when asked to play a game of chess was when Lelouch had managed to get a hold of a set of chess pieces in orange. It was easy for a prince to have things like this made for him, and Jeremiah had lost that game more quickly than normal due to his distaste for the color messing with him.

The only time the man could stand orange was when he looked at his eyes, because they reminded him of his mother. He had her eyes. Lelouch remembered that, as it was one of the few times he had gotten Jeremiah to open up. He had always been so formal, almost afraid to interact with the young prince. The chess games had loosened him up greatly, and he eventually told the young prince more about himself.

It was good to remember Jeremiah Gottwald. It kept his mind off of...

Clovis. Damn it.

Lelouch sighed. He hated his mind sometimes, always having to think and think and think. He couldn't simply force his mind blank. While he could handle plotting out several different outcomes to the same situation at the same time, he couldn't just clear his head. It was such a pain when there were things like this to think about.

Clovis. Those dead eyes... his brother's dead eyes. He had loved his brother dearly when they were young, and it hadn't changed much even after seeing what Clovis was capable of. He loved his brother, and despite his crimes, Lelouch could never stop loving him. It hurt to have to kill him, and he had left the G-1 quickly before vomiting until there was nothing in his stomach, only taking the time to hide himself in a nearly collapsed building.

The blood blossoming from the back of his skull, splattering the wall. It sickened him, and he nearly wretched right there. "Damn it..." He muttered. "Damn it. This isn't the time..." He whispered painfully, shaking his head to force those thoughts away.

"T-the time for what?" A soft voice asked, concern evident. "Are you alright, Vice President?" Nina had woken up. Brilliant.

He tried to change the subject, turning to face her with his usual disarming smile, before he realized his mistake. When had he started crying? He hadn't even noticed...

Nina's eyes widened. "L-Lelouch... you've been crying. What's wrong?" Nina had never seen Lelouch cry before. Ever. Very few people had. Seeing tears rolling down the normally calm face of the Vice President was almost terrifying. Nothing shook him, ever... and yet here was proof that something was distressing him immensely. "Please, you can tell me if something is wrong..."

Lelouch sighed. She was being genuine, it wasn't like Nina to falsify concern, but he really couldn't just tell her. For obvious reasons. That would mean revealing the fact that he was royalty, the fact that he had killed Clovis, and be a dead giveaway for when he actively began opposing Britannia. It was simply out of the question.

So, what could he tell her, then? It wasn't like he could brush this off, everyone who knew him knew he didn't cry often. And never over trivial things.

Shinjuku, then. Yes, that would work. He sighed. "I lied earlier, Nina. I was in Shinjuku yesterday." Her eyes widened, and he continued on. "Rivalz and I had an accident, and the drivers of the truck behind us swerved and hit a building. I went down to check on them, and got knocked into the back of the truck. Come to find it was being driven by rebels." He paused briefly to allow that to sink in. "There was a spherical container in the truck, with what appeared to be vents on the upper half, a tarp covering a Glasgow, and not much else. Eventually, we made it to the abandoned subway tunnels, the driver must have been injured because we stopped suddenly, and the side of the truck opened." He stopped once more with a small frown, briefly considering a few different options.

Just how much should he tell her? Should he reveal that there was no poison gas? Nina had always been xenophobic, the girl hadn't even traveled outside the Tokyo settlement once since her arrival as a child. Generally speaking, she tolerated Britannian strangers much better than foreigners, likely due to the propaganda depicting them as the light of the world. Was he really willing to tear down her beliefs of their society?

But, at the same time, Nina was a smart girl. She had been questioning the government already, especially after witnessing the aftermath of the slaughter of Shinjuku. On top of that, he couldn't stand seeing such a brilliant mind blindly following Britannia. He knew for a fact that Nina would accomplish much in her life, already she was working on a project so advanced that he could just barely understand it. If he was correct it was a new energy source with the potential to replace Sakuradite. And if nothing changed, she would hand that over to Britannia without a second thought. And if he knew his homeland, they would find a way to weaponize it just like they had with Digimon years ago.

"Nina, there was no poison gas." He continued after making his decision. "There was no terrorist insurrection in the Shinjuku ghetto." Well not at first at least. There was after he handed out those Sutherlands like party-favors. "Almost all of those killed yesterday were innocent noncombatants." And almost all other casualties were Britannian soldiers, but that was irrelevant at the moment.

Nina recoiled as if struck, her voice coming out in a hoarse whisper. "Then why?" She asked quietly, hands trembling.

"The truck contained the capsule that was said to hold the poison gas. It opened after the side of the truck retracted. It wasn't poison gas, it was a green haired woman dressed in a straight-jacket. Clovis ordered the purge of Shinjuku to retrieve a personal prisoner." While he understood, now, just why Clovis had kept the woman captive, he was still bitter over the fact that so many innocents died just to keep her existence secret. And now she was dead anyway. "That's why I was crying, Nina. I was in that warehouse we saw on the computer, and I heard the screams of those people as they were gunned down. I was lucky they hadn't seen me." And here is where the truth stopped bending and broke into a lie, as his luck was not nearly that good.

He was still actually kind of angry at Shirley for that call.

The bespectacled girl frowned. "B-but, you're a Britannian. They wouldn't kill you." Surely they wouldn't, Britannian soldiers were supposed to protect Britannians. That was just simple, common sense. What good were soldiers that would kill the people they were supposed to protect?

"Nina, you're a smart girl." She blushed, fiddling with her skirt after the rather sudden and unexpected praise. "Prince Clovis ordered a purge of the Shinjuku Ghetto. Everyone inside was supposed to die. Even an unfortunate Britannian student. My death would have been blamed on terrorists and used to add to the anti-Eleven sentiment." She flinched at the word Eleven, and Lelouch let out a brief sigh as he remembered why.

Her mother had been killed in a terrorist attack, if he was correct. Nina's mother had been a genius from what he'd heard, much like her daughter. Of course, due to this, she was often doing business with Britannia's finest, the military. The Japan Liberation Front had launched an offensive, striking the relatively small base while their military might had still been strong. The entire base had been wiped out, and Layla Einstein had been killed in the crossfire.

This was one of the only decisive victories the JLF had in seven years, and it was nothing but a blitzkrieg on a small military base. That painted a very clear picture of the Japan Liberation Front's chances of victory, in his mind.

In addition to that, Milly once mentioned that Nina had been to the ghettos before. She didn't know much about the incident, not wanting to pry into Nina's life, but Lelouch had always worried. He wasn't sure why Nina would go into the ghettos, but if she had he could only imagine what had happened to her. A young Britannian girl wandering the ghettos all by herself was not a comforting thought. Regardless, he had left it at that. It was none of his business and if she had developed this well then either nothing happened, she had put it behind her and moved on, or she had some serious repressed trauma that would come up later and end up with her turning that energy project into a nuclear bomb or something.

... On second thought he may need to get to know Nina a bit more closely to make sure nothing like that last option happens, as it seemed like far to real of a possibility for him to ignore. He'd also always had concerns about her wellbeing after that so it wouldn't just be a pragmatic option.

Nina had reacted far differently than he had when put in a similar situation. Upon losing her mother, rather than respond with anger, she did so with fear. It had been much worse before, but having met and interacted with Sayoko for years had dulled her fear a bit. Enough that she could see them as people, rather than monsters. She was able to see just how horrifying the deaths of those in the Shinjuku ghetto were.

"H-how did you get out?" She whispered. She had never thought the Britannian military would harm Britannian civilians. She had never thought Prince Clovis would order a purge just to retrieve a single prisoner. Her beliefs were being torn down one after another, so which one was going down next?

Here, Lelouch frowned. "Prince Clovis ordered a ceasefire. I slipped in with the crowds leaving the ghetto and left." And with some duct-tape and elbow-grease the truth he'd broken into a lie now rounded all the way back to the truth.

Nina's eyes narrowed a bit in thought. "But why would he order a ceasefire, if he was the one who ordered the purge?" That didn't make any sense.

"Either he had a change of heart and realized that these were innocent people he was slaughtering, or he was forced by a rebel who managed to infiltrate the G-1 command base he was in." He grimaced, remembering quite clearly which one of the two had happened.

She chewed her bottom lip nervously. "I see..." But if a rebel forced him to order a ceasefire, couldn't that mean... "Do you think that they k-killed Prince Clovis?"

Lelouch flinched a bit. "I don't know." And back to lies. Damn and he'd been so close to ending on the truth. "But after what he did yesterday... I'm not sure if I would have been kind enough to spare him." No, he was sure he wouldn't be. He sighed, looking over at her. "Well, we should get back to the others. We've been gone for about an hour, I'd say. You were out for a while." It was best to cut this entire conversation off before it got too far. Giving her a reason to distrust Britannia was one thing, but he didn't want to tip her off for when he actually began fighting. That could only lead to trouble, for both of them.

"Ah, you're right." Nina agreed, standing up slowly, as though afraid she would pass out again.

Lelouch smirked at her. "If you like, I could carry you again." He offered with a charming smile.

Nina's face went scarlet. "N-no! I mean, I-I'll be fine." She looked down at her shoes, refusing to make eye contact.

As they left the nurses office, Nina couldn't help but wonder why everyone felt the need to tease her.

Lelouch, however, was wondering why he didn't do it more often.

---

Thanks to Nina fainting, and Lelouch skipping class to keep her company, it was now lunch time. He and Nina were heading towards the usual spot the Student Council took to have their lunch, a picnic table beneath a large tree. It was all around a rather cozy spot, the large table shaded by the tree.

While being popular was a pain, being a member of the student council had it's benefits for sure.

As he and Nina walked, he couldn't help but notice a shock of red hair in the middle of a few less interesting girls. He quickly hid the surprised look that had come to his face, hoping Nina hadn't seen it. He didn't need yet another slew of questions to answer. Especially not if he was right, and he knew he was. 'That's why she was so familiar.' He realized.

Kallen Stadtfeld, frequently absent due to a recurring sickness, and yet her grades were still among the highest in her classes. Heiress to the Stadfeld family, and the fortune that came with it. At first glance, she seemed normal enough. But she was acting and Lelouch picked up on it rather easily. Nothing about her sick facade seemed natural to him now that he actually cared enough to look. As someone familiar with wearing a mask, it wasn't that hard to pick up on her own.

Unknown to Lelouch, Nina had spotted the brief flicker of surprise before he concealed it. This had prompted her to follow his eyes, and she realized he was discreetly observing Kallen Stadfeld. "S-see something you like?" She asked, attempting to tease him back after his earlier shot about carrying her. Of course, it backfired horrendously for her when he simply looked back to her with a raised eyebrow and a coy smile.

"Yes, I do." He replied, casually inspecting her. That should distract her enough that she wouldn't question his earlier look of surprise upon seeing Kallen, or his slight scrutiny of the redhead.

That, and the fact that Nina looked cute when she was blushing. Honestly, he saw why Milly spent so much time flirting or teasing people. This was just too much fun. He was going to have to start doing this more often.

It was rather amusing just how much actually taking a swing at Britannia had loosened him up. He hadn't really been this playful since he pretended to be a demon to mess with Kaguya. Those were good, good times.

"I-I, umm, b-but..." Nina was trying to form a coherent response. She had thought her little jab would at least have some effect on Lelouch, but she didn't think he would turn it back on her. And... was he being serious? He hadn't sounded like he was joking, but Lelouch rarely did. It was why a good deal of his jokes were taken the wrong way. He hadn't been using that sarcastic drawl he answered Rivalz with all the time, either.

After another few moments of watching Nina flounder about for an adequate response, he decided to take pity on her and change the subject. "Come on, we're almost to the table." He noted, pointing towards said table. From a door on the other side of the courtyard, Rivalz wandered out and waved. Shirley followed directly behind him and waved as well, beckoning them over.

"A-ah, right." She finally managed to get herself under control. 'He was just joking, is all. It's nothing. Why would he like me when he has Shirley so blatantly attracted to him?' It was actually a bit disappointing, in a way. Shirley was much prettier than her, with those bright green eyes, long orange hair, wonderful bust... Soon, she caught herself staring at the orangette and swiftly looked away, lest her thoughts go deeper into uncharted territory.

She'd been doing that a lot, recently. And she'd been secretly enjoying the "attention" Milly tended to give her, much to her embarrassment. As though to send her mind deeper into the gutter, she briefly wondered how it would feel if Lelouch had been the one to grope her earlier. One thought led to another, and she could feel the blood rushing to her face. Thankfully, her thoughts were interrupted before she could get too far into one of her fantasies.

"Nina, you're okay!" Shirley exclaimed, hugging her. "I was so worried when you fainted." She released the blushing girl, smiling kindly at her.

"Hey! I was worried too, ya'know." Rivalz pointed out, throwing an arm over her shoulder. The other arm was thrown over Lelouch's. "If you got sick, it would just be Lelouch around to fix our messes. And then we'd be screwed." Scary thought, that. The scarier part was just how true it was. For a "student council" there was very little actual work done by three of the five members...

Nina took this as the sincere gesture of concern it was meant to be. "I-I'm fine. I guess that picture was too much for me to stomach." Just remembering it even briefly made her tremble.

Rivalz grimaced, and Shirley turned slightly green. "Yeah. I can see why." He replied. His expression turned a bit harsh as he continued speaking. "The guy from photography club seemed to think it was cool. Said something about how he'd have to go check the place out once the cleared out the gas." Rivalz hated people like that. It was like they didn't understand just how messed up that whole thing was. That same person would've been up in arms had the Japanese casualties all been Britannians.

Nina shivered slightly at the mention of someone venturing into the ghettos, though Rivalz and Lelouch were the only two to notice. Rivalz because his arm was still over Nina's shoulder, and Lelouch because he was aware of the fact that Nina had, apparently, made an outing into the proverbial badlands. This seemed to point towards Milly's information being correct, not that he had particularly doubted it previously...

He wouldn't pry, though. Everyone had their secrets.

Lelouch knew that especially well.

---

While he wouldn't pry into Nina's life for her secrets, Kallen was an entirely different story. Nina was a close personal friend, Kallen was apparently an ace Knightmare pilot fighting against Britannia in her spare time.

It kind of loosened his stance on letting secrets lie undisturbed.

Lelouch needed answers, and the redhead herself was the most likely candidate to get them from. He'd left the picnic table early, before calmly walking off in the direction Kallen and her own friends had been seated.

For once it seemed as though luck was on his side, as the girls seated around her had scattered in fear of a bee.

... yeah. A bee. And they all just ran off screaming.

It was quite clear that even Kallen was incredulous, as she had hesitated a bit before half-heartedly running off behind some nearby foliage, the bee following her.

She was not a very attentive person seeing as how she'd yet to notice him despite the fact that he was approximately ten feet away from her, and that was only compounded when she growled, and proceeded to kill the bee with a quick chopping motion of her hand, before complaining about "acting like a freaking invalid" and aggressively taking a bite of her sandwich.

The amount of self control Lelouch possessed was then put to the test as she noticed him, her eyes widening in shock and dread and sandwich between her lips as she finally realized he was there.

Lelouch was so close to laughing. So very close. It was just too perfect. She'd completely destroyed her sick facade within the first ten seconds of meeting him. And the look on her face! Priceless. That deer in the headlights expression was just perfect.

"That poor, poor bee." He noted, shaking his head slightly, amethyst eyes sparkling with amusement. "He just wanted to make friends, and you killed him."

Kallen took on a rather nervous grin, not even bothering to try and throw the sick-act back up as she swallowed the bite of her sandwich. "E-er... I-... Uh..." She was at a loss. "Well fuck." She eventually settled, glaring at him. "Tell no one about this, got it?" Her glare deepened, as though she was trying to force him into submission with just a look.

Goodness did she shift gears quickly. From sick to angry to nervous and back to angry.

He rolled his eyes, before his left eye lit up as his Geass activated. At this point Lelouch would have stood under the full brunt of a glare from Charles zi Britannia without even a twitch, there was no way some girl in a miniskirt was going to get a reaction from him.

Well. Not that kind of reaction, he amended with a smirk as her body slackened and his power took effect "I've got some questions I'd like you to answer." His voice lost it's warmth and amusement, switching to business mode.

The redhead's face slipped into a neutral expression. "Understood. Ask away." Her response was short and sweet, as he was used to with this power of his.

"Were you the pilot of the Glasgow in Shinjuku yesterday?" He asked, just to be entirely certain. He was ninety nine percent sure it was her, but that one percent did not need to exist if he could eliminate it.

"Yes." She replied with a small nod, eyes glazed over.

Nodding to himself, Lelouch continued. "Why do you fight?" He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but the answer he actually got was most certainly not it.

"Because I'm Japanese." Her response made him blink, as he pondered that statement for a moment. That was a rather bizarre thing to say, but she wasn't lying. Without prompting, the girl elaborated. "My mother was Japanese, my father Britannian." Ah. A half-blood, then. That made sense.

"Very well then." He mumbled, deciding to erase her memory of their meeting entirely via command. If she felt her sick act was compromised it could have unexpected results, possibly aggression.

She seemed the type considering how she handled that poor bee. It was still hysterical how she had handled the entire situation, though. Lelouch wished he could have recorded it. "Forget any interactions between the two of us for the past five minutes." That would cover the discovery of her act, as well as the conversation, without potentially causing any other memory loss prior to this day. He released his Geass, noticing that she'd begun blinking herself out of the stupor it had put her in.

However after a moment, Lelouch vaguely remembered that Shirley had brought up Shinjuku earlier, and a few students had heard that he was nearby... if this girl was to get her hands on that rumor it could end poorly. Best to nip that in the bud right now, and so he turned back to her and spoke once more. "Oh, by the way, don't say anything about Shinjuku."

Her stupor faded entirely, and the glare shot back onto her face despite the fact that she was compromising her act. "What about Shinjuku?" She snarled angrily.

It didn't work. Son of a bitch. Did his power only work once per target? Really? Requiring eye contact, and a usage limit per person? God damn it he really needed to figure out the exact specs of this weapon of his before he got himself killed stumbling through the dark with it.

Just to be sure, even if it could throw more suspicion on to him, he continued. "You should go back to class." His second statement also had no effect. Bloody hell, that was brilliant. Now what was he going to do to get out of this one? He could just bullshit an excuse and take off, but there was no one nearby to keep her from chasing due to her act... and if he ran away too quickly it may bring up other questions. Good lord, this was a sticky situation.

Salvation came in the form of a Shirley leaning out of the window above them, yelling down.

"Hey, Lulu! It's your turn to set up in the chem lab, you need to get to class!" Shirley was an angel. He would have to do something nice for her... actually no, this just meant he forgave her for the phone incident yesterday. That caused a lot of problems, some of which he was still dealing with.

"Oh man, that's right!" He shouted, falsified panic in his tone as he turned to run off. "I must have forgotten with all the commotion earlier!" And off he went, jogging fast enough that Kallen would be entirely out of place pursuing him and would have blown her sick act in front of Shirley, but not so fast that the "wimpy vice president" act of his was shattered.

He wasn't some Olympic runner, but you'd be surprised at what living with a ninja as a maid could do for a guy.

This left Kallen standing there with a half eaten sandwich, a dead bee, and a whole lot of anger that she couldn't vent on the one who had cause it...

So she stomped on the bee.

Poor, poor bee...

---

That night, he came home, had dinner with his little sister, and promptly retired to his room.

Lelouch's room was average all around. A few small bookshelves placed against one wall, a desk placed just beside a window with the curtains drawn. Nothing special about it, aside from the bed. Not so much the bed, as what one could find on the bed.

Keramon was lazing about, in rookie form, simply because he had nothing better to do. He peered at Lelouch with as serious a look as something with a name derived from the onomatopoeia of cackling could. "Lelouch, we need to talk. You and I are both missing pieces of information the other can provide, and I was unwilling to ask yesterday due to your state of mind. But it can't be put off for long, or something will happen that you'll be unprepared for." Yesterday he had just killed his brother. There was no way Keramon was going to force this discussion before the boy had at least a day to come to terms with what he'd done, but since he seemed stable now it was best to get this over with.

"I understand. What do you want to know?" Lelouch asked, noticing the seriousness of the digimon's tone.

Keramon shifted from a lying position into what passed for a seated position for him. "First off, how long ago were Digimon created?"

Lelouch raised an eyebrow at the seemingly odd question, but he answered nonetheless. "Approximately seven years, the first reported appearance was a few months before the invasion of Japan." Wouldn't a digimon have known how long they had existed?

It was Keramon's turn to look incredulous. "Only seven years? It's been several thousands of years in the Digital World, Lelouch." His partner's eyes shot wide, and Keramon continued. "I knew time moved differently between the two, but this is far beyond my expectations." That was a very interesting tidbit. How in the world did time move so differently from one world to the next? But then, really, how did two worlds exist so close to one another and yet remain almost entirely separate? "Alright, next question. How often do Digimon breach?" Almost entirely separate of course meant that sometimes, digimon didn't stay in their own world.

"The rate of bio-emergence has been steadily increasing over the years, however the breaches aren't concentrated on any particular area." Lelouch replied quickly, a small frown as he noticed that the most recent breaches had been in Area Eleven primarily, with some scattered about the other Areas. He was unsure about breaches in China or the EU however.

"And what happens to those that do breach?" Keramon asked with a frown... Lelouch thought it was a frown. It was kind of hard to tell.

"If the Britannian's get to them, they are often enslaved by Britannian digivices." He grimaced at the idea of stripping something sentient of it's free will and emotions. "If not, they are destroyed. Rare occasions point to them either destabilizing and returning from whence they came, or befriending a local human and sticking around." He shrugged, glancing pointedly at Keramon. "The Chinese Federation has a major deterrent to invasion in the form of a Black Gabumon capable of reaching Mega level, and it fights alongside them out of choice for whatever reason. After the original appearance of this Black Metal Garurumon where it defeated Luciano Bradley and his Myotismon, Britannia has refrained from any overly aggressive moves." Honestly, that thing was an absolute monster to regular troops. Nothing but another Digimon could stand up to the raw might of a Mega level Digimon as of now. Lelouch honestly wasn't sure if humanity would ever advance to a point where their technology could stand up to the sheer strength of Mega digimon.

"Oh wow. A Black Gabumon, huh? That's interesting." Keramon mumbled out with a chuckle. "The Celestial Empire has been actively hunting them down for the past couple centuries or so." The digimon noted. "I'll give you some insight to the condition of my world, now. There are basically three factions of the Digi-world. The Celestial Empire, the Demon Lord Territories, and the Sovereign Kingdom. The Empire is full of Digimon who are pretty much enslaved by loyalty to their Lord." He shrugged, not really getting why the Lord commanded so much influence over his subjects. "Most never see their Lord, and he's largely considered the strongest Digimon in existence. Of course, this is debatable, but with an entire army of various digimon of a Celestial variety, alongside a "privileged" few other types, no one bothers to question it to their faces unless they're already in battle." At that point this was debated quite fiercely.

He paused to let Lelouch absorb this, before continuing. "While the Empire controls about half of the digital world's territory, the rest is under control of these other two factions. They are very loosely allied, so as to keep the Empire from running them down, but quite separate. They're not really friends, but they're not enemies. Generally, the digimon of a darker nature, such as my own species, seek refuge with the Seven. Various other types go to the Sovereign. The Seven Demon Lord Digimon managed to construct a kingdom in which we darker digimon live in relative peace." Relative. Relative was the key word here. That place could be nuts sometimes.

"And the Sovereign have a similar kingdom for assorted species as opposed to "dark" digimon?" Lelouch asked with a brow raised in interest.

"Yep." Keramon replied, picking up his story once more. "It's not just the Seven and the Sovereigns, or the Lord. Each kingdom has it's own powerful groups of digimon. The Seven have not only themselves, but the Dark Masters. They're four powerful Mega level digimon who've made their homes on a mountain they had literally twisted together through their combined might, each spiraling strip representing one of the four. Machinedramon has an urban city-scape, Puppetmon has his forests, Piedmon has a wasteland at the tip of the mountain where his castle is, and Metal Seadramon managed to screw with the flow of the oceans to the point that he made an upward flowing waterfall as the entrance to his particular domain. The Sovereign have their Devas and a couple of the Ancients, and the Empire has the Three Archangels and other Ancients, as well as the Olympians split up among the factions." He paused for a moment, considering something. "Though some of the Ancients have been missing for... well. Ever, really. No one quite knows what happened to some of them." It was as if they'd never existed at all, but at the same time they had to have existed. They were the first Digimon, the ones who everyone else had derived from in some way or another. So they had to have existed, and yet somehow there were some that hadn't been seen or heard from in recorded history.

"I see." Lelouch noted. That was interesting, certainly, but where was this going?

"I can tell you're getting impatient, so I'll cut it short. Lelouch, the digital world is tearing itself apart due to an Empire similar to Britannia but even less tolerant. This means more and more digimon are going to be breaching to escape it all. And unfortunately for us, Digital Fields are attracted to digivices like yours." He nodded towards the purple device Lelouch kept in his pocket. "That one isn't an artificial tool made to enslave digimon, it's an artifact that can bring the powers of digimon to new heights when in the hands of a human. Digimon seeking power or escape are gonna start popping up, and for every one that we don't bring down, that's another that Britannia may end up enslaving for their own uses." Which would be very, very bad. They were already behind their enemy in sheer numbers, there was no way allowing them to amass even more dangerous units would end well.

"You have got to be kidding me." Lelouch muttered dryly. Really? He would have to play exterminator for breaching digimon, or run the risk of Britannia becoming more powerful?

"'Fraid not." Keramon replied sympathetically. "However, on the bright side, if we manage to destroy rampaging digimon then I can absorb their data to get stronger." It was a brutal way to look at it, but most of the time digimon that breached in the first place would just go on a bloody rampage before being put down or captured. Better they do it than Britannia. If one of them was actually cognizant they would be dealt with accordingly, but otherwise just deleting them would be the best option.

"Hm, at least something useful could come from this." Lelouch mumbled, considering the information he had received. "From now on, I suppose I'll have to keep you with me in case these digital fields crop up." If he was caught without Keramon, there would be nothing he could do. He'd tested his Geass on the digimon, with consent of course, in order to determine whether or not he could use it on Digimon.

It didn't work. The cheeky bastard had pretended it worked for like ten seconds before he began laughing like a loony.

"How to do it without being noticeable is the issue." He continued, gesturing at the digimon who stuck out like a sore thumb in just about any setting. "While I hid you in my jacket before as Tsumemon, it was obviously uncomfortable for you." It wasn't very comfortable for him either really, the boy noted as he glanced to his closet. "I suppose I'll use a duffel bag from now on, I can just wave it off if anyone asks questions and it's big enough to hide you comfortably. I'll even pack a small pillow for you, if you like." He sewed from time to time, and had a few older projects of his that fit the bill. At least the little digimon would have a comfortable dwelling. If a bit dark. "By the way, one of the terrorists from Shinjuku is hiding out as a student here. I've managed to draw suspicion onto myself, unfortunately. So, I'll be confronting her directly tomorrow. I'd like for you to be with me in case things go south, this Geass power of mine only works once per person and I've used it on her already." And of course it only worked once on any given person, and he found that out confronting one of the most dangerous people he'd come in contact with in years. That was just how his luck was.

"Kekeke... I got your back, partner."

---

He had decided that the direct route was the best route for this particular situation. And so he had simply asked Kallen to accompany him to the student council club room, where Milly threw her extravagant parties. Not that Kallen would know, since she had yet to attend one. That sick act was upheld quite well when she wasn't murdering bees. While he could see through it, upon further scrutiny Lelouch had to admit that she wasn't doing a bad job of it... he was just good at picking up the signs.

"Wow." She muttered in her softer "sick" voice, attempting to seem normal and yet it was threatening at the same time. Something about the tone of her voice, her stance, and the slight glare she was leveling him when she thought he wasn't looking. It gave off an unintentional air of threat, which Lelouch picked up on easily. She was too easy to read, for him. "I didn't even know this room existed."

"This is the club room. The various balls and parties the President organizes are held here. But, otherwise, it goes unused." And next she would seek confirmation that the area was secure, before her stance would become ever so slightly more threatening.

"We won't be disturbed, then?" She asked, her tone taking on a sharper quality. She shifted slightly out of her sickly slouch, into a more healthy stance.

Yes, she was just too easily read. "No, we'll have ou-!" He was cut off by a sudden voice, drawing his eyes to the most recent monkey wrench in his plans.

"Here it is!" Shirley yelled, at the very top level of the room.

And of course it was Shirley. Lelouch sincerely hoped this wasn't going to become a habit of hers.

She was holding up a small chip, likely something of Nina's. "I found it, this is it right?" Her voice echoed throughout the room.

His thoughts were confirmed as the bespectacled greenette walked up and gratefully accepted the chip. "Thank goodness you found our lab data." She replied cheerfully.

"Yeah! My ass is killing me." And there was Rivalz. He still needed to speak with him about what had happened in Shinjuku, but he'd been distracted. The subtle glance from his best friend was answered with a nod, letting him know that Lelouch remembered.

From the main door, Milly walked in pushing a tray of various foods. "Were you able to find it? I finished up on my end, shall we dig in?" She began settling the food on a table, back turned to the rather stupefied duo who had originally come here to settle something with the potential to turn bloody.

"Uhm... Milly? What exactly is going on here?" Lelouch asked, playing innocent. It wasn't that hard considering he legitimately had no clue what the hell was going on.

"Oh? I thought you knew? We're inducting Kallen into the student council, I figured that's why you brought her." Her smile turned mischievous. "Or, did the two of you come here for some... other reason, hm?" It was clear what she meant.

Kallen had the decency to blush, but Lelouch was unphased. He was already poking the beehive as it were, why not mess with the volatile redhead some more while he was at it? He smiled. "Yes, it seems you caught us red handed." He joked, glancing meaningfully at the girl he had brought along.

Kallen immediately went red and began spluttering out some reasoning about having wanted Lelouch to tutor her, and being too embarrassed to ask him in front of her classmates. Luckily, Milly decided to drop the matter as she explained that her grandfather, the Principle, had recommended Kallen join the council due to her poor health but exemplary grades. "Oh, and I'm Milly by the way. The President of the Student Council."

It was then that the other three greeted her, Rivalz jogging up with the girls directly behind him. "Hi, I'm Rivalz, the Secretary. If there's anything you need, I'm your guy."

Shirley picked up next, smiling brightly as she announced "I'm Shirley, a member of the swim club. It's nice to meet you."

Finally, Nina chimed in. "Uhm, hi. I'm Nina."

It was then that the sound a motor attracted everyone's attention, all of them turning to the new entrant to the room. "Uhm, I'm sorry, but could one of you put these on the table?" A small, demure voice asked.

As Shirley moved to help the younger girl, Lelouch had made his first really visible reaction throughout the entire ordeal. "Nunnally?" He asked with undisguised surprise. "What are you doing here?"

Kallen gasped slightly, this had been the first time she had seen the young girl. Or Lelouch reacting in such a way. He'd completely lost the ice prince, arrogant jackass tone and had taken on a demeanor that reminded Kallen of her older brother. It was a very jarring change, and it just happened all of a sudden with no warning.

"That's Lelouch's little sister." Milly pointed out, noticing the redhead's surprise at the sudden change of attitude in their resident ice prince. Whenever Nunnally came around, he just seemed to brighten up no matter where he was or who he was with. The unbreakable ice prince melted in her presence, turning into the doting older brother that bowed to her every whim.

"I'm still in the middle school group, so I can't be an official member of the council yet." Nunnally stated cheerfully.

Rivalz laughed, walking over towards her. "You're an honorary member in our books." He responded. And then, with a conspiratory laugh, he presented something from beneath one of the tables. "Let's kick off this party." He exclaimed, placing a bottle of champagne on the table. "With a toast."

Nina, ever the responsible one, seemed concerned. "B-but, we're on the Student Council. We shouldn't..." What if one or more of them actually got drunk and did something they'd regret the next day?

Rivalz grinned once more, this time a disarming smile. "Relax. It's sparkling cider." He assured her. However, he didn't sound too trustworthy at the moment.

And with that said, Shirley took action, attempting to retrieve the bottle from him. "Lelouch! Heads up!" He shouted, tossing the bottle like a foot ball to Lelouch with a smirk. Oh, siccing Shirley on him because he hadn't had time to give him the rundown on the Shinjuku incident? How petty.

Lelouch approved. It seemed he was rubbing off on Rivalz.

"Hm?" He murmured, reaching out lazily to catch the flying bottle. He noticed once it was in his hand that the pressure seemed to be building up. In the few seconds it took Shirley to reach him, Lelouch had already devised a plan to remove the threat of Kallen peacefully. And so he angled the bottle towards the redhead discreetly, before being tackled by Shirley. As he fell, he laughed internally at how well this was going.

If this played out like it should, Kallen would swat away the flying cork of the bottle out of instinct. With the threat of her cover being blown for like the third time, she would stop for a second to make up an excuse, allowing the fluid from the bottle, cider or otherwise, to douse her. Aside from the fact that soaking Kallen with the champagne would make her clothes cling to her lovely frame and give him a wonderful view, it served the purpose of getting her to clean off in the shower. The bathroom had a phone. He would use this opportunity to make "The Voice" seem even more well informed, while covering his own tracks.

So, it was with an internal grin and an external look of surprise that he watched Kallen stiffen as the cold liquid covered her entirely, making her shirt cling tightly to her large bust.

It was good to be a genius.

---

"I'm sorry about that. They can get carried away at times." Lelouch said to Kallen, dropping off the clothes he had retrieved for her to wear. "I hope you're alright with wearing some of my casual clothes. Milly and Shirley's wouldn't fit, and Nina..." He trailed off, rather than pointing out the obvious. Nina's breasts were the smallest of the four girls, nothing she had would fit the redhead who was very gifted in that department.

That didn't stop Milly from groping Nina whenever the opportunity presented itself, though. She was an equal opportunity pervert. "That's fine. It's okay to cut loose every once in a while, I suppose. By the way, that was fast. You ran all the way to the boys dorm and back?" She found that hard to believe. He was so scrawny looking he probably couldn't make that run one way or the other.

"Actually, I live here. You see, it would be hard for my sister to live off in the dorms. The principle lets us stay here as a favor." He turned and prepared to exit, but was stopped by the redhead calling out to him. "Hm? Do you need something else?" He asked.

"Uhm, yeah. Could you hand me that pink pouch over there?" Kallen requested.

"Sure." He smiled, picking up the item in question. 'Just as I thought. A switchblade hidden inside. Clever.' Sayoko had something similar. If he hadn't suspected it from the start he may not have noticed the knife. It really was a clever little trick. He flicked the knife out, a brow raising questioningly. "Interesting toy, miss Stadtfeld." He noted, removing the knife from the pouch before holding it out for her to take.

Knife or no, Kallen still grabbed him by his arm. However, without her means of keeping him hostage easily, the girl had to resort to more drastic measures.

After a brief struggle, one that Lelouch didn't even pretend to try to win, Kallen had pinned Lelouch against the wall of the shower and was straddling him, an arm placed against his throat. The pressure wasn't very noticeable, but the message was clear. She had him where she wanted him. Or so she thought. This position had left Lelouch's arms free, seeing as how she believed him to be weak physically.

Everyone did, really, but that was the point. Sayoko had offered to teach him, and he had made time to learn a bit. Primarily how to dodge, building up just enough muscle to keep himself looking weak, and how to use various weapons.

Lelouch especially enjoyed throwing knives. Not the kunai Sayoko preferred, as they were her all around go to weapon, but knives meant specifically to be thrown. It was a lot of technique, rather than being purely physical, so he'd done better at that than anything else she'd managed to teach him.

He was no ninja himself, not even close. And he wasn't really that strong physically, but he knew enough to use Suzaku's own momentum from his spin kick against him, had a fast short-term sprint, though he lacked stamina to run that fast for too long, and was combat savvy enough to realize he could bust out of Kallen's hold quite easily if need be. He was stronger then he looked, which was the intention behind the special exercises she had taught him. Grueling though it may have been, he was better for it in the end. He wouldn't be winning any fair fights with legitimate martial artists, but street punks were well within his abilities and he'd actually had to put his combat ability to the test a few times against them.

That, and the additional comfort of Tsumemon being in the same room and ready to pounce on the girl, calmed Lelouch enough to just relax and enjoy the fact that there was a wet, naked Kallen straddling him in such a way that nothing was hidden. The best part was that he was so discreet about his ogling her that the girl hadn't even realized he was doing it. "You certainly are a live-wire." He noted whimsically, rolling his eyes. Good lord, how did this girl actually get away with acting sick? There was nothing unhealthy about her at all unless you could count her temper.

She glared at him. "Were you the one in Shinjuku?" She asked, exerting a bit of pressure against his throat, but not enough to cut off his response.

"Why do you want to know?" He asked, annoying her intentionally. "Is there something wrong with Shinjuku?" That was a rather low blow, he realized. Of course there was something wrong with Shinjuku.

"Don't. Answer my question. With another question." She emphasized her sentences by pushing a bit more on his throat with each one. By this point it was difficult to breath. "Yes. Or. No." This time it was just for dramatic effect.

The phone rang. Right on time. He looked her in the eye, calmly. "If one of us doesn't get it, someone will come." He noted in a warning tone. And wouldn't that be unfortunate? His reputation would be shot, for sure.

Kallen growled, grasping his shirt with one hand and wrapping the other around his neck in a choke-hold of sorts. She stood, lifting him along with her. This was a relatively slow process that ended up pressing their bodies close together, something Kallen was still to in the zone to care about, and that Lelouch was simply enjoying. His hands were still free and that meant he could escape her easily if the need arose.

He picked up the phone, answering casually despite the situation. "Hello, this is the Ashford Academy student council. How may I- Oh?" He narrowed his eyes. "It seems he wants you. Perhaps a friend?" Oh he was such a bad person. This situation had played out perfectly for him and he was enjoying it so much right now.

Kallen blinked. If it was her step-mother, Lelouch would know it. And her step-mother was the only one she knew with the number for the Academy and not her cell phone. So, a friend... the Voice? Whoever he was, that guy seemed incredibly capable and well informed. He would have to be to have outmaneuvered the Britannian military so thoroughly with a rag-tag group like hers and a handful of Sutherlands. It was well within the realm of possibility that he could track her down and get a call to her.

But, she couldn't let go of her hostage... "Could you put the phone to my ear, I'm afraid my hands are busy." She asked Lelouch, kindly but with a distinct edge to it that he recognized.

Lelouch turned, slowly, just enough that his hand placed the phone to her ear. It was a good thing he had given a cushion of ten seconds on the recording before saying his piece.

"Tokyo tower. Come alone." Those were the only two, distinctive, phrases he heard from the phone. Granted, he knew the entire message already, so it was no big deal, but those words had been emphasized enough that he could hear them easily.

"Hey! Hold on, how did you order that cease fire!?" She yelled, as the phone cut off. She had been so quick to act that she had actually released Lelouch. In what seemed like the span of two seconds, Lelouch struck.

He grabbed the chord of the phone, pulled it taught, and slipped behind the distracted Kallen fast enough to circle it around her neck tightly. He pulled back slightly, showing that he was nowhere near as lenient as she was in a similar situation. Not willing to allow even the slightest chance of escape, more as a show of dominance so that the girl would be wary of assaulting him again, he kicked her legs out from under her and eventually ended up with her in his lap, his legs crossed over her own to prevent her from moving them. Both hands had the chord pulled just tightly enough to show that he could cut off her supply of oxygen in an instant.

The whole thing had taken about four seconds, two for the fall and another two for the set up. He leaned forward slightly, whispering into her ear playfully. "Ceasefire, huh? Seems someone likes to play a dangerous game." Time to have some fun at her expense. She totally deserved it though for trying to pull a knife on him.

Kallen wracked her brain, searching for some excuse to get her out of this situation. Damn it, how the fuck had she let this happen? Some Brit bastard had seriously gotten the drop on her like this? The fucking chord was strong too, she couldn't just rip through it like other phone chords. Why the hell was it like that?

"The chord is thicker than usual since it's in a bathroom, in case you were wondering. After an incident where a student had nearly died, the Principle had any phone near a body of water insulated. Thus, the chord is thick enough that you can't break it without running the risk of me choking you out first." He'd noticed her glaring at the chord and decided to elaborate, for his own amusement really.

Cheeky fucker could read minds too? Great. Just fucking great. And even worse, she had just realized she was naked and sitting in his lap with his groin pressed against her ass, and his hot breath a steady presence by her ear. How the fuck did she get into this mess? This was humiliating in so many ways.

"Kallen." He spoke again, a gentle tone to his voice that did not fit at all with the situation. "I'm going to let you go now. We'll keep this incident between the two of us." What? He was letting her off? Why? "I figure you're wondering why, right? Well, it's simple, really. I'm a student, not an assassin. This is just a precaution so that you don't grab that knife and kill me. To answer your question earlier, I brought up Shinjuku because there are videos on the web that are sickening to watch and extremely popular right now. I nearly gagged and poor Nina actually fainted after seeing one. I just wanted to warn you about it." Really, students were awful. Even if they didn't enjoy the content of the video, they still got a kick out of sending it to their friends to see the reactions.

Right, that was great and all, and the pressure on her throat had let up enough that she realized he hadn't even managed to leave a red mark somehow. What the fuck was he, a ninja or something? It had all happened so fast. She spoke. "I see. So, this never happened? Just like that?" It was kind of hard to believe. She'd been threatening his life not too long ago and had clearly intended to hold him hostage with a knife if he hadn't found the damn thing first.

His voice turned cold, but his breath was still hot against her ear. "Provided you don't attempt to harm any members of the council, myself, and especially Nunnally. I'm just a student, but I'm willing to kill you right now if you can't promise me this. Believe me when I say I can get away with it." She was still dangerous, he knew that much. Had he not caught her off guard she would have been much harder to corner like this.

But, then, Lelouch didn't like to play fair when it came to these situations. In a fair fight with a martial artist he'd be hard pressed to keep himself uninjured, let alone actually fight back. Whether or not Kallen was actually trained in martial arts wouldn't come into play with the way he fought, because he didn't fight fair at all.

It was a simple but effective method. Act weak but be strong. Kallen was doing something similar, but her strength was different than his own. She would just get you alone and then the lion would come out, but Lelouch was no lion. He was a fox, cunning and wily. His strength only revealed itself when he held all the cards already, or when he was simply pushed too far.

"Why would you trust a promise from someone who was just trying to hold you hostage?" She asked, actually feeling a shiver run down her spine from the positively glacial tone of his voice. What the hell? Some random guy just so happens to sound like a cold blooded killer on demand? Who the hell was this guy?

... and could he really get away with it? He'd seemed so sure. Not the arrogant noblemen "sure" that came from their own ego, but the kind of certainty that came from stating a well known fact. This guy honestly believed he could kill her and get away with no consequence and frankly that terrified her.

His voice warmed a bit, notably calming her. "Did you know that as the Vice President, I'm able to bypass various privacy measures of the school? Being a competent hacker never hurts, of course." It really didn't. So many interesting things he could get into that he wasn't supposed to.

What the fuck was he bringing that up for? "Where are you going with this?" She asked, teeth gritting as she was forced to endure the humiliation of being his captive a bit longer. She honestly wasn't sure what was more humiliating- the fact that he'd gotten her into this situation or the fact that she was naked, wet, and pressed tightly against him. The fear had mostly been replaced by embarrassment again.

"I can take your word, because I know from experience how much honor means to the Japanese." Yes, he did know how to drop a bomb. But, still, this would be interesting later on. If he could get her to trust him, then interacting with the rebels could become much easier. It was quite fortunate that one of the members of the Shinjuku group turned out to be a classmate of his, those were useful folks.

Kallen gasped, suddenly humiliation was overrun by terror once more. He knew she was a half-blood, and had more than enough evidence to figure out she was up to something clandestine. If he was as smart as he seemed to be, he may have put together the whole story. With that kind of dirt on her he really could just kill her and get away with it if he played his cards right. She was beginning to feel helpless, even though his grip on her neck had slackened. She knew he could react fast enough to counter anything she tried.

"Do I have your word that you will not harm any of the individuals I listed?" He asked once more, actually leaning his chin on her bare shoulder. The contact startled her, which was part of the intent. He needed to speed this along, if they were both missing for too long then someone would come searching. Couldn't give her too much time to think.

What the hell was he on about now? He couldn't actually be planning to let her go off of some stupid promise? Or... did he really that she would honor that promise? Better yet, would she? She came to the realization that, yes, if she made this promise she would keep it until she had no choice but to break it. She gasped slightly, as he actually nuzzled into her neck affectionately. "H-hey! What the fuck are you doing?" She questioned, red faced.

"Sorry, couldn't help myself." He didn't sound sorry at all. "You have very soft skin, you know?" Her blush grew deeper, but he wasn't sure how much of that red was anger. The glare and the growl certainly let him know how his compliment was taken, however. "Now, do you swear not to harm Nunnally, the council, or myself?" He wasn't quite uncomfortable in this position, but if someone were to walk in on this it really would kill his reputation.

She calmed down, telling herself to just ignore the fucking pervert and make the damn promise so she could put her clothes back on. "Yes." She answered solemnly, as she took her word very seriously. "I agree, now let me go you damn perv!" Solemn moment over, promise made, now let her go damn it.

Much to her surprise, he laughed sincerely. "I'm glad to see you're still so energetic despite the circumstances." He released her, quickly, and she noticed something. He wasn't being careful about it at all. Well, no, he was actually being quite gentle in removing the cord from her neck. It was the fact that he wasn't guarding himself at all as he did so.

'He seriously trusts my word so much that he let his guard down, even after all that?' She pondered.

Lelouch realized he was giving off that feeling right now, and it was exactly what he wanted. He was, actually, quite prepared for her to go back on her word. What the girl hadn't noticed throughout their exchange was that he had acquired her knife at some point during it. It was hidden within his sleeve, but still open.

It had been stated before but it bore repeating- Lelouch did not fight fair. Any advantage he could find would be used so long as it didn't seriously compromise his morals. Those values were the biggest thing separating him from his enemy and compromising them would make him no better than what he was fighting.

"This never happened, Kallen." He reminded with a wave. Then, as if rethinking his decision, he amended his statement. "Well, I suppose the part about you naked in my lap or straddling me can still have happened if you want." He shrugged. "Those were certainly my favorite parts." He had undone the cord around her neck, and had replaced the phone on it's hook. He was now standing with his back turned to her, a few feet away. Even though his back was to her, Kallen could practically feel the smirk.

"Pervert!" She muttered angrily, covering herself. She noticed, after a moment, that Lelouch's clothing was soaked. "How the hell do you intend to explain that, genius?" Kallen asked, gesturing to the soaked clothing before realizing that doing so had left one of her breasts visible again and covering it quickly.

"Oh? This?" He asked, gesturing towards himself. "I'll just change into the other uniform I've been carrying in my bag. No big deal." With that, he began unbuttoning his jacket. "While I never thought I would need it for this situation, having a spare uniform is always useful." Frankly, he began carrying the spare after the last time Milly had decided to make the world's largest pizza.

Kallen's eyes widened and she blushed. "H-hey you perv, keep your goddamn clothes on!" One of them naked was enough damn it!

He returned her look with a slight grin. "You don't want to return the favor of me seeing you naked? I feel insulted." He chuckled at the atomic blush, and the furious glare that accompanied it. "You know, the shower is right there." He pointed over his shoulder with an exasperated shake of his head. "Just draw the curtain again. And finish up quickly or Milly may come check up on you. And I assure you, she's handsier than I am." He honestly wasn't lying. If Milly showed up while he was half-undressed, soaking wet, and Kallen was in the shower who knows what she would do?

No one really knew just which team Milly was playing for either, so the threat was quite real to Kallen.

---

The two were now walking down the halls of Ashford, chatting idly. Lelouch had apologized for being so rough, which lead to an angry blush from Kallen and him being told to shove it. He had simply chuckled and mentioned that her sick facade seemed so unbelievable now that he had seen the real Kallen. His statement of liking this one better had elicited an embarrassed flush from the girl, before she covered it up with another outburst of anger.

It was like poking a beehive, he figured. But damn was it fun. He really did need to do this more often, the reactions were hysterical. "So, the student council doesn't actually do much in the way of real work." He was telling the truth. The council didn't, it was mostly Nina and him doing the actual work. Milly just came up with harebrained schemes, Rivalz agreed with his long-time crush, Shirley sat around and looked pretty while providing a prime target for Milly to tease.

The three of them weren't stupid, of course, but Milly delegated tasks to those below her on the food chain in true manner of the Nobility, Rivalz was lazy, and Shirley... well, between the teasing from Milly and the fact that the hard work didn't pop up until their monthly Emergency meeting, she didn't find much to do other than socialize and carry papers about for Nina or Lelouch. "When we're not dealing with some crisis on campus, we're either planning an event or relaxing under the guise of hard work."

"Ah... like the Culture Festival." That particular event pissed her off more than she cared to admit. It was basically Britannia parading about all the various countries and cultures they had destroyed and conquered.

Sensing her distaste and feeling he knew why, he shrugged. "That and the Cross Dressers Ball, Absolute Silence Party, and Swimsuit Day." He sighed. The Cross Dresser's Ball was his least favorite event. Being dressed up like a noblewoman was not his idea of a good time. "Blame our president. Oh, I heard she's also the reason why the high school uniform's skirts were shortened this year." He chuckled.

Kallen twitched, having noticed already that the skirt was rather short and at times revealing. She much preferred the clothes she was wearing now, much as she may loathe the one loaning them to her. His voice cut in to her musings once more. "Frankly, you seem the type to prefer pants." She nodded idly. "And they look just as good on you as the skirt. You wear them better than I do, certainly." Somewhat embarrassingly, his clothes had fit Kallen extremely well. Milly would no-doubt tease him for his girlish figure if she noticed just how well she fit his pants. The shirt was, understandably, still tight on her.

She twitched again. "You know, I'm starting to rethink that promise to not harm you. At this point karma would agree that you deserve a bit of harm." He'd been fucking with her this whole time, non stop. It wasn't even the blatantly obnoxious kind of fucking with her either, most of this was articulate and well thought and so very hard to actually poke back at. Calling him a pervert was about all she could actually say and that clearly didn't offend him.

Kallen never thought she would meet the man who annoyed her more than Tamaki, but lo and behold here he was. At least with Tamaki she could just slug the fool.

Lelouch shrugged, a grim look overtaking his face. "You would think that, wouldn't you?" He asked with a dull frown. "But really, if karma exists then I think I'm owed a bit of good karma by now." Supernatural powers and digital friend or no, the entirety of Shinjuku was one big clusterfuck and he had been caught right in it. "Believe it or not, even us Brits can have bad things happen to us. Some more than others."

She had flinched at that, and he sighed, before taking on a more genial tone. "I don't think less of you for your heritage, you know." He pointed out. "There's a reason I referred to you as Japanese." This last part was spoken in a whisper. "It wasn't for shock value. Using the term Eleven would probably have been better for that. I don't believe in what Britannia is doing. But, as you can guess, a simple high school student with a crippled younger sister has his hands full taking care of said sister and can't go off and fight the good fight." Or so you would think. He was adaptable, though.

Kallen felt her eyes widen. "So, you figured it out." No use denying it, at this point. She knew it, he knew it, and she knew he knew it. "And... you won't say anything?" The girl didn't know she could trust him. But he had trusted her word not to harm him, and so she would put her faith in his word. For now. If he broke his promise he would pay dearly, but until then she really couldn't do much to him. Especially at that moment because he'd never returned her knife and she was not going to get into a fight with him while he had a pointy bit of metal to shove into her.

This was also why she had refrained from taking a swing at his pretty-boy face.

"Say anything about what?" Lelouch asked in an oblivious tone. "Are you inquiring as to whether or not I'd like to play that online game you were talking about earlier?" The feigned innocence in his voice was painfully obvious.

She actually found herself smiling as she replied in an overly ditzy and sick manner. "O-oh, yeah. I guess... It's not like I can do much else..." Uhg. She actually felt sick to her stomach acting like that. Why did she have to choose the sick act again?

He snickered. "Yes, I prefer the back-alley cat Kallen. Being a domestic kitten doesn't suit you at all." It really, really did not after he had seen the real her. The sick little doll of a girl that had been Kallen Stadtfeld did not interest him one bit, but this girl was genuinely interesting and delightfully blunt in her intention and speech.

Lelouch absolutely adored it. She was rough and tumble and had called him all manner of horrible things on their walk back to the other members of the council, and it had amused him to no end. But at the same time her vulgarity didn't detract from the clear fact that this was not some airheaded heiress, and he could honestly believe that this girl kept up with him in grades despite being absent as often as she was. Frankly she was a joy to converse with and he was having a wonderful time traversing the minefield that was a conversation with Kallen.

"There's an insult in there somewhere, I'm sure." She noted blandly, unsure as to whether he had intended the alley cat comparison to be an insult... or the kitten comparison. Actually they both sounded pretty insulting to her. But still, once they had gotten past the "trying to kill one another" thing, Lelouch wasn't too bad of a guy. Still a fucking pervert, but hey. That was one thing her circle of acquaintances lacked so she was expanding her horizons. Tamaki was a perv but not nearly as blatantly as Lelouch had been. Or maybe Tamaki just knew that if he said this kind of shit around her he'd get slugged, because he was not nearly handsome enough to get away with it.

... handsome or well armed. Because as stated previously she would probably have taken a shot at Lelouch if he didn't have her knife. But still, she could admit that he was good looking. Enough to have half the damn school on his heels like a bunch of fucking puppies. It actually seemed to annoy him though, so that gave him some points in her book. At least he had standards. And even though the guy had practically been hitting on her, it didn't seem to be with any intent. More like offhanded comments meant specifically to annoy her than anything.

Thus far though, after the incident in the showers that she would be doing her best to forget about, Lelouch had been a pretty decent person outside of the constant teasing. He wasn't as arrogant or jackassy as she'd expected him to be from how he usually acted, nor was he on some high horse about the might of Britannia and all that. Hell, he'd even told her straight up that he didn't like how things were run. She could understand not wanting to get involved though, especially with his little sister in her condition.

People died doing what she did, Nagata was a blatant example of that. She could only imagine how that girl would react if her brother didn't come home one day. It would tear her apart. There was no way some regular high school student, a full blooded Britannian, would risk that just because of sympathy for the oppressed. It would just be stupid. She had a reason to fight, she had quite a few actually. Kallen knew what she was risking each and every day and she was alright with that. This was her life and she could do with it as she pleased.

It was clear that some other folks wouldn't be willing to risk their lives, and how could she fault them for that? It wasn't their fight, so they didn't make it their fight. Simple as that. So long as the Lelouch knew who was in the wrong, Kallen respected his choice to stay out of it and could come to respect him as a person.

The redhead's sickly persona was firmly in place as they entered the room, her and Lelouch walking side by side and seemingly getting along well. They actually were, oddly enough. When he wasn't being an insufferable pervert to bother her and she wasn't threatening to kill him for being an insufferable pervert to bother him.

... actually, even that was still them getting along. It was a bizarre dynamic but it seemed to be working for them.

"Lelouch!" Nunnally shouted, having picked up on his voice after hearing the end of one of his comments. "It's terrible!"

"Nunnally, what's wrong?" He didn't have to feign concern, despite knowing what would cause this reaction. It had gone public.

"Prince Clovis has been found dead!" Oh God... just the fact that he had caused such a dreadful expression to cross Nunnally's features made him want to vomit.

If she actually knew that he had been the one to pull the trigger... for once, his mind granted him his wish and did not dwell on that thought.

He quickly clamped down on his emotions, the original reaction of recoiling as though stuck and throwing his lunch back up was replaced by a simple flinch.

Acceptable.

Gottwald was the acting consul, now? Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald had certainly come far from his post as a guard for a commoner Empress... No, he couldn't thrust his anger onto the man. He knew as well as anyone else that Gottwald, along with the rest of Marianne's royal guard, had been enthralled by her. She held their unwavering loyalty. It would have taken a lot to make Gottwald even consider leaving his post, which in and of it's self made the whole thing an even bigger mystery.

Perhaps he would be able to get close enough to the man to Geass it out of him. And while under his thrall, he would see just how receptive Jeremiah would be to serving under Marianne's child. Even if it was against his home-land.

A man like him, who had valued loyalty so much? Well. It would be interesting to see just where that loyalty lied. With Britannia, or with Lady Marianne and her children.

Upon seeing the next familiar face on the T.V., however, he rescinded his earlier decision not to be angry with Jeremiah. This time, however, it was justified and rational anger.

Because the next familiar face he saw had been accused of the murder he had committed.

And because that was the face of someone he had thought to be dead twice over.

"Private Suzaku Kururugi." 'Kururugi Suzaku, damn it! Calling his name like that makes him seem loyal to this rotten Empire!' Lelouch thought furiously, his anger overriding his shock at seeing Suzaku alive.

He despised how Britannia honestly tried to eliminate or integrate cultures after conquest. They took anything interesting from the places they conquered and integrated it in some way, and the rest was stomped into the dirt. Languages, literature, music, media, anything they could think of. It was disgusting.

"I repeat, Private Suzaku Kururugi has been arrested for murder of Prince Clovis la Britannia!"

Not if Lelouch had anything to say about it.

And Lelouch was always known for knowing just what to say.

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AN: Revised chapter 2. Yay, work is being done. It's basically just simple flow stuff, more detail where needed, less where it isn't, and so on. Keeping the bodybuilder joke in the AN because I like it.

Feel free to Review. It makes me happier than a body builder directing traffic. And we all know that's happy.