Knights of Justice?
Chapter 3: "The Fraud Prince"
by AstroCitizen
The Tokyo Concession
Holy Empire of Britannia, Area 11 (formerly Japan)
The Day of the Retaliation
(or, Operation Wild Hunt plus one month, one week, two days)
Lelouch smiled, and for once there was the hint of mirth there. He quite often felt pleased with himself, but usually this was simple awareness that he had done something right rather than feeling happy. Happiness was an ephemeral feeling, but the occasional bout of contentment needed a reflective gesture.
Today, however, there was an undefined feeling of weight removed from his shoulders that put him in a jaunty state of mind. Why, he could even look up at the viceroy's palace – currently his palace – without fantasizing it in flaming ruins for once.
That feeling had always passed through him whenever he looked at the edifice stabbing up from the skyline of Tokyo. First it had been a burning pain as a child prince watched the gem of Japan rebuilt to its new masters' standards, and later a dull sting as a student flittered about from schoolwork to chess game (or vise versa). Taking up residence there hadn't changed that, not even when Clovis's ignoble last stand had handed him the seat of colonial power.
After six long years without any of them looking down at him or being underfoot, Lelouch's quiet life had ended under the most ignominious of circumstances. It had started innocently enough, another day with him playing another chess game with another nobleman for another set of high stakes. He was about to put the count in check when God, life, the universe, or something had done just that to him. With no warning whatsoever, Lelouch's prima donna of a half-brother suddenly popped into the parlor to surprise that same visiting noble with well-wishes, a little bird having told him of an engagement to a duke's grand-daughter.
"It was all just a rumor?!" Lelouch had shrieked when he learned that little nugget of joy much later.
For that bit of idle gossip, he'd been found and railroaded back into the soap-opera-on-amphetamines reality that was the royal family. Leaving behind Milly and the others as his life at Ashford Academy was abandoned. His blood-curdling "reunion" with his father. Boot camp (however abridged) followed by officer's school. Contributing to the warfare and death, which had very nearly included his own, in Africa. Watching a new generation of slaves be freshly broken to the Empire's will. The burning of bridges between himself and Cornelia, with Euphemia caught in the middle. Hours of boredom and moments of mind-numbing fear as he was press ganged to handle the insurgents in Area 11. Even the few bright spots – his joy as he was unexpectedly reunited with Kururugi Suzaku, his vengeance as he thwarted his predecessor's forces with a handful of unskilled freedom fighters – hadn't assuaged the part of Lelouch's mind which reminded him day-in and day-out that, instead of sitting there like a bump on a log, he really should have run out the door while Clovis had been busy glad-handing the confused popinjay.
But that was all in the past now, and should be left there. The future was coming, and it looked like after hacking and slashing through jungle forever, he'd finally come to a clear pathway. It gave him the almost alien feeling that maybe, just maybe, everything would turn out all right in the end.
And I have all the tools I need to make it happen.
He had in his pocket Suzaku, someone who with the right spin the Japanese could gather around as a figurehead. He had the authority of oversight and therefore influence over Schneizel's Camelot program. Laws he'd passed to give the Honorary Britannian system some teeth had been run through, along with new policies regarding the unindoctrinated Japanese. That and his victories over the more radical terrorist groups had left the resistance spinning its wheels as it tried to fathom the new viceroy. All of that, plus some backroom deals, reliable intel, and good old-fashioned common sense, and he was certain he'd soon have the Kyoto Houses under his secret domain along with the J.L.F. (minus a rogue faction or two, of course). To top it all off, he had an idea for a nice, nasty prank – er, uh, plot in mind for Lord Stadtfeld's daughter.
The icing on the cake was that, rather than returning from Pendragon, it looked like Cornelia was being reassigned to Area 18 as its permanent governor, her usual insistence on being at the forefront of the Empire's trouble spots falling on deaf ears for once. Considering how that area was built from the Middle Eastern Federation that had fallen due to his actions, the assignment even to such a large, rich land must have been galling for her.
Oh, well. She's within spitting distance of the El Alamein region, almost sure to become the next big front when things between the Empire and the E.U. heat up again. That should be enough to satisfy her, he thought with just a touch of sorrow, not comfortable with her being in an international trouble spot.
He immediately quashed that notion, reminding himself how quickly Cornelia had proven a thorn in his side. First, she'd mother-henned him in a pathetic attempt to honor her former mentor and his late mother, Lady Marianne. Then she'd micromanaged him when the Black Prince was assigned as part of the expeditionary forces in Africa. It had mixed like oil and water as Lelouch, determined to at least do things his way if he had to live by His Majesty's command yet again, was completely insubordinate to the elder princess's thoughts, opinions, even her direct orders.
This occurred both privately and professionally. A series of mishaps with starry-eyed girls, some staged while others were actual run-ins, had made it seem Lelouch was (de)evolving into a consummate womanizer. Meanwhile in the field, instead of hanging back to play mop up, he'd led those under his command into battle, his use of strength and strategy turning his high-risk moves into victories with little to no casualties, a far cry from the series of meager advances occurring most elsewhere. Whether this made Cornelia feel more ignored or upstaged it was difficult to tell. What was certain was the undercurrent of rivalry now between them, the same as with too many other royal siblings.
Matters were compounded after Shinjuku, when the so-called Goddess of the Battlefield was sent to Area 11, not to take over as Clovis's successor, but to share in the responsibility with her surviving younger brother. She was appointed commander of all military services in the area while Lelouch continued managing all civilian authority as the official Sub-Viceroy, leaving the actual chair of colonial governor empty. In essence, they were co-viceroys with separate but equal powers and responsibilities; as such, they had to work together and with their recent history, it had been pulling teeth to reach an agreement on any topic.
Having Cornelia around his neck like an albatross had been a wholly depressing time for Lelouch. It had been bad enough when, through luck more than skill, he realized Schneizel had taken an interest in his frequent visits to the old gang at Ashford Academy. Schneizel's curiosity he'd been able to satisfy by introducing Nina to one of Camelot's lead engineers, Major Cecile Croomy, who took it at face value Lelouch's interest in Nina's atomic energy equations. Originally formulated by her grandfather, Nina had been doggedly working to improve upon them with modern scientific knowledge, and luckily enough for Lelouch had reached a stage where she wanted some professional evaluation before publishing. With her background in solid-state energy research and her (normally) easy-going personality, Croomy had been tailor-made for the ruse.
The hair on the back of his neck stood up at the memory. As expected, Croomy had shared Nina's work with project leader Lloyd Asplund, who in turn mentioned it to Prince Schneizel, thus in a roundabout way dissuading the White Prince that his long-missing brother had been doing anything but helping out a childhood colleague's career. Unexpectedly, however, the Chancellor had then recruited Nina for some special project of his. She'd been gone for over four months, had sporadically sent letters and postcards that once or twice had a sentence or a word blacked out by a censor, and had said nothing about her work when she returned.
Uncharacteristically, she carried herself as if she knew a big secret she was bursting to share with everyone. In fact, there had been one moment where Nina let down her guard and mentioned a problem with something called the decoherence factor, but had immediately clammed up when she realized what she'd said. She'd been sworn to secrecy, which Lelouch decided to respect for the moment so as to keep his brother's prying eyes at bay, but the whole thing hadn't set well with him. Whatever it was, it was big and had met with success, for not only had Nina been more-than-generously paid, but her family was now on the list for those recommended for a peerage in the near future.
He paused, smiling at a thought that occurred to him. "Countess Nina". Heh. Rivalz should have made a play for her while he had the chance. His school chum had mooned nonstop over the student council's president since he'd known him, when he should have concentrated on the easily more approachable little physics aficionado. And now it would simply look suspicious, he added, shaking his head at his friend's poor luck.
Returning to the topic at hand, he pursed his lips in annoyance. The only other thing he'd gleaned about Nina's time away was when she admitted that she had to work with a Number – Nina-ese for an Honorary Britannian, he'd translated at the time – from Area 3 also working for Schneizel, which had taught her to appreciate how Lelouch had learned to get along with Suzaku. A backhanded compliment to Lelouch's liberal racial views, but given how panic-stricken Nina could be around non-Britannians, which nearly got herself and the other hostages killed back at Lake Kawaguchi, one took what one could get.
Cornelia, however, had been an entirely different matter. What had begun as a strained acceptance of Lelouch retaining ties with the déclassé institute as he eased back into a proper imperial lifestyle soon turned into mistrust. First it was belief that Lelouch was secretly in a relationship with the Ashford heiress Milly, a fallen noble like the rest of her family but still not totally written off by the royal court as reflected by her parents' repeat attempts to marry her into polite society. Then came the more turgid accusations that he'd made the female student body of the school his private garden for sewing his wild oats, with the Student Council specifically as his harem. "Isn't that sass-mouthed little chit of yours enough, Lelouch?" she unloaded at him when she'd come up with that particular accusation.
The thought of this caused the Black Prince to frown as his stomach rolled a bit. I never could tell if she was counting Rivalz or not. Maybe it's best I don't know.
There'd been nothing he could think of to do that could allay Cornelia's suspicions. As it was, any talk between them outside meetings often became shouting matches, which would have culminated in Cornelia doing an under-the-table investigation of the campus should she confront him over his visits there. Well, that couldn't happen, so between that and the situation with Schneizel, Lelouch had made the hard decision to cut off his visits to Ashford Academy. He'd dropped in just long enough to notify them of his decision, and later when escorting Nina to and from the airport for Schneizel's project. Otherwise, his only contact for months now had been letters and little pick-me-up gifts he'd surreptitiously sent.
He mused on what he could still be worried about. Nina's returned, and it sounds like Schneizel has another science project to keep his attention. I'm officially viceroy now that Cornelia's been all but banished to Gibraltar. And with her out of the way, I've no one but a loose conglomeration of moderately-influential nobles to stand in my way of how I run Area 11 or how I behave in my private life. Hmmm…
He hummed thoughtfully to himself, unconsciously drumming his fingers on his knee, crossed over and resting upon the other, as he sat back in his limousine.
"A problem, Your Highness?" Margrave Gottwald asked beside him.
"No, Sir Jeremiah," he responded, realizing his knight had spoken. "Just ruminating on how to spend my free time. I think I'll see what work has piled up since we were away, and let that decide for me," he added.
"It shouldn't be too great, m'lord. The inspection tour of the area's military bases was supposed to take all week." As he said so, Jeremiah glanced out the window as the limo pulled up to the palace's main entrance.
"We're only returning early because they were uniformly a disgrace. The commanding officers for all Area 11 outposts have a month's time to turn things around, or else I'm sacking all of them," Lelouch rejoined peevishly. Really, scuttlebutt about his nights of wine, women, and song had gotten out of hand. Without Cornelia around, the base commanders thought they could return to their lackadaisical Clovis-era status.
Worst of all was Kyushu, which could fall with just one good push. The noble in charge locally, Calares, had actually seen fit to argue with him, laughing at him when he proposed the possibility of a Chinese invasion. Jeremiah in turn had "persuaded" him that His Highness' concern was quite serious as was Calares' duty in seeing that the possibility did not become a probability.
Lelouch acknowledged the salute from the duty officer that held the door open for him as he vacated the limo and made way straight for the elevator. The prospect of making a visit after so long gave wings to his feet, the Black Prince almost bouncing on his heels during the long ride up to his office. As he rounded the corner, his nervous energy quickly switched to anxious.
It was noon, lunchtime for most, so the office was operating under a skeleton crew, which was now lying on the floor. The only exception was Wilhelmina O'Connor, the grande dame secretary he'd brought in to whip Clovis' secretarial pool – Now that was a private harem, he'd thought – into shape. "Ms. Minnie's" scarecrow-like frame was now slumped over her desk, face pressed against the keys of her antique typewriter. Nearby her on the floor was Major Nu, the former Purist having collapsed within arm's reach of a discreetly-installed alarm switch on the wall.
Lelouch immediately backed up at the sight, Jeremiah doing the same as he slapped a handkerchief – thankfully newly laundered – over his master's mouth and nose. They relaxed momentarily as they both saw the slight movements as the apparent bodies continued breathing, punctuated by the occasional cough or snore. Freeing himself from his knight's protective grasp, Lelouch noted that he still felt normal and didn't detect anything in the air. Clearly, whatever gas had been used dispelled quickly.
Gas… used against Britannia, he thought. It gave him a creeping sense of déjà vu and—
The sounds of activity suddenly came from behind the doors of his inner office. Turning to Jeremiah, the prince gave orders to him using the hand-signal system he developed years before while at the Kururugi Shrine, or rather the expurgated version that Suzaku had finally learned. Maybe it is too complicated, he'd thought when Lord Gottwald encountered the same problems memorizing it.
Silently cocking his sidearm, Jeremiah edged up to the doors alongside him as the sounds of someone at work continued from within. After a silent countdown, they threw the doors open, Jeremiah kneeling into a firing position as Lelouch activated his Geass.
Within his field of vision, the Black Prince could see his self-proclaimed partner C.C. lying on the floor by the office's small sitting area, where she'd apparently been enjoying another in her endless diet of pizzas. She was now encircled thrice with a series of bolos, and gagged with a rolled-up slice jammed into her mouth. Seeing him, she began to thrash on the floor and grunt angrily, a far cry from her usual attitude which vacillated from indifference to sarcasm. Between the rope-burns caused by struggling against her bonds, and the dollops of sauce dripping from the pizza onto herself, she'd picked a bad day to finally wear the uniform he'd requisitioned for her.
Lelouch's concentration was on the invader in his office, though. It was not whom he'd expected, but rather a teenaged boy of moderate height with a mop of black hair and ears that stuck out just a bit. He seemed to be about Nunnally's age, as he retained a level of baby fat in his face, a sharp contrast to his arms which were easily as lean and wiry as Suzaku's. His skin tone was fair and inferred Anglo-Saxon descent, although that didn't entirely rule out that he could be half-Japanese like Kallen given his present activities.
His face and his arms, by the way, were the only portion of him uncovered, and even then he had on a domino mask that obscured his eyes and black gloves with nearly elbow-length gauntlets. The remainder of the intruder's clothes that he could see included a black cape worn over a red jerkin woven of some sturdy-looking material and clasped tight with buckles. Cinched tight about his waist was a belt, canary yellow and covered in pouches not unlike those of the gear belts worn by soldiers only more compact. Certainly not a typical uniform of the J.L.F. or other insurgent groups he was familiar with.
Another interesting bit about his wardrobe was the backs of his gauntlets, which were embedded with electronic devices. One had plugged into it a USB cable, evidently connected to Lelouch's personal computer, and was emitting a tiny holographic image of a monitor screen. It appeared backwards to Lelouch but it was obvious the boy had been in the process of hacking his hard drive. Now, however, he was frozen in place, eyes locked with Lelouch, his other hand stalled in the process of reaching for a pouch on his belt.
By his feet, C.C. continued to squirm about, so he reluctantly gestured at Jeremiah to untie her. Seeing that the invader was safely in his master's hypnotic grasp, the knight put away his pistol and set about cutting the witch's bounds with a pocketknife.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" the Black Prince asked the intruder, speaking loud and clear. His basic actions were quite obvious, but such a question often yielded more specific details on the other person's intentions.
Surprisingly, there was a brief pause, as the boy's jaw quivered before finally opening. "I… I ammm call-called R-Robin," he said in the expected monotone, albeit haltingly.
Mildly impressed, the prince still smirked to himself. Whoever this Robin is, he isn't strong enough to resist the power of my Geass. Not for long anyway. He glanced at the boy's mask and briefly wondered how the eyeholes achieved their opaque effect. Whatever manner of lenses they use, they don't provide any protection, either.
The boy-burglar continued, the hesitancy in his words vanishing as he talked. "I came here to hack your systems, to learn more about your security and defense procedures, and to copy any files that may be of interest."
Lelouch nodded at this, expecting as much. He also silently congratulated himself on keeping any ideas and pertinent details for plans that would result in an execution, namely his, solely on a well-hidden memory stick. He was a tiny bit distracted as C.C. hadn't calmed at all, still grunting at him as Jeremiah did his best, starting with her bound ankles and working up from there. Ignoring her, he listened as the lad continued talking, expectantly waiting for the next details of his confession.
"Now I've been hypnotized into telling you all this," he said as he unexpectedly took the order to report on what he's doing quite literally, "distracting you while my partner comes up with a plan."
"Partner?" Lelouch said in surprise.
"Partner?" repeated Jeremiah, having just completed cutting the last of the bolo cords holding C.C.
Robin simply pointed down beside him with his free hand, just as someone jumped up from behind the desk.
"PARTNER!"
Lelouch caught only a glimpse of red hair, dark goggles, and a yellow shirt before he was swat aside by a wind tunnel erupting from nowhere. Astonished, he looked up from the floor at the second intruder, a boy roughly his own age this time, who spun his arms so rapidly they formed a blurry cone of yellow streaks. Fantastically, this also produced gale force winds, buffeting C.C. and Gottwald with papers that had been lying atop Lelouch's desk.
The winds also caught the remainder of C.C.'s pizza, which rocketed off the coffee table and into poor Jeremiah's face. This deluge flung his knight helplessly backwards while Lelouch's presupposing accomplice flattened herself on the floor, lying there as the blast of air continued. Not surprisingly, she used this time to eat the slice she'd been gagged with.
Looking down, the second intruder noticed Lelouch as he was getting to his feet outside of the "blast zone," wrestling his own sidearm from its holster. Putting an end to his cyclone trick, the lad in yellow then pulled out Lelouch's PC, plopped it on the desktop, and yanked out the USB and other cables from the back with a speed-enhanced tug. With speed that made Suzaku look like a somnambulist, he then ran around the desk, pushing Lelouch's swivel chair along with him. He zipped up to Lelouch from behind with it, knocking him onto the seat before tying him into place using the freed cables. He then did most horrible thing imaginable at that moment.
"Round and round he goes," the living bolt of lightning cried mockingly as the swivel chair spun around like a demented top. "Where he stops… they'll probably have to replace the carpet!"
I will not scream I will not scream I will not scream I will not scream, Lelouch repeated over and over in his head like a mantra even as the g-forces tugged at the flesh of his face, his heart pounded like a jackhammer in his chest, and the world around him became a massive blur. I will not—
"AAAAAAHHHH!"
The yellow bastard had let go of where he'd jammed his foot against the wheels like an airplane chock, allowing the chair and its unwilling occupant to go zinging around the room like a satanic teacup ride. He couldn't tell where he was going since he was still spinning, but got a sense that he was heading towards a nearby wall fortified with a bookcase. A mass, white with streaks of lime-green, flew at him just as he made the collision.
The Black Prince blinked as the world reluctantly resolved itself into an ever-wavy state. He was lying on his side where the chair had fallen after impact, covered with books that had been knocked off the shelves. Even though the world lurched from side-to-side, he could plainly see the two intruders were still there with the first one, Robin, coming down from his Geass-spell, so there was still a chance of turning this situation around.
The cables hadn't been properly knotted, so he was able to pull his hands free from the armrests, then got to work on loosening the cables around his chest. Despite his abrupt halt, Lelouch was still conscious, although he was definitely feeling vertigo as he tried to get back up.
As he did so, he saw where C.C. had used herself as a cushion, taking the brunt of impact where he'd crashed. Mashed between the bookcase and the chair, she had received a number of broken bones, possibly along with fatal internal injures had she'd been a normal human being. Pulling the chair out, Lelouch let C.C. flop onto the floor, where she fidgeted a little bit as her body started realigning itself, her bones audibly knitting. An eyelid quivered open long enough to shoot him a reproachful look.
"I kept trying to tell you, 'There's two of them,'" she mumbled crossly before laying her head back on the carpeted floor, letting her body do the rest. Assured that she was on the mend as always, Lelouch returned to the threat at hand, stumbling in the general direction of his desk.
He needn't have bothered though. Jeremiah, his face still smeared with marina sauce, had returned to the office brandishing a sword while also throwing his knife expertly at the red-breasted burglar's face with what should have been pinpoint accuracy. Now of his own mind again, Robin whipped out a black baton – An eskrima stick, Lelouch thought, recalling the weapons Suzaku had once trained with – from his belt in response, swatting the projectile out of the air as easily as a pro tennis player. He then brandished it and its twin at the oncoming knight, challenging him with a short bark of a laugh.
The goggled youth in yellow, however, nudged his partner with his foot as he shouldered Lelouch's computer tower. "You can play with your new dance partner another day. We got what we came for!"
Nodding in agreement, the masked boy then reached for his belt again and there was an audible click. For a moment, Lelouch thought it was another enhanced movement trick as they were then surrounded by a series of flickering afterimages of themselves, only this time the images were glowing outlines of themselves as they continued to stand still. The images then collapsed back upon the intruders, resulting in a flash of light that covered their escape. Or perhaps that was their escape, Lelouch considered. Jeremiah, meanwhile, was left to swing his blade impotently through empty space and almost collided with the desk.
Without even knowing he'd moved, Lelouch had crossed the room on unsteady feet, pistol in his shaking hand, as this happened before him. Leaning on a table backed against one of the couches, he stared where the two teenagers had been just a moment ago, his knight looking at him with an expression that was just as helpless as he felt. A list of actions that needed to be taken as a matter of course, along with the likely consequences of allowing his office to be ransacked, all whirled through his head, adding to the vertigo he still felt. Nevertheless, he started to issue orders.
"Jeremiah, we need to – *urp*"
And that was as far as he got. A long, shallow desk drawer in the table wasn't much, but beggars can't be choosers.
"Hhrrrrrraaaaaaaccckkk!"
He stood there, doubled over as he felt dry heaves ripple along his abdomen for another minute or two. Satisfied that it was over, he then spat the residue out of his mouth into the irretrievably stained bit of furniture, then closed the drawer, stood straight up, nodded to his knight that he was okay now, and collapsed to the floor.
/ * CG * /
Lelouch woke up a few hours later in a darkened room with night falling fast as the lack of illumination through the windows attested. He could have been taken to his quarters and treated in his bed there, as he had only minor bruises and had thrown up due to nausea rather than a concussion. But the viceroy's palace had been all too easily penetrated, and the attack on him was being treated as an assassination attempt, necessitating he be moved to the medical wing where doctors, medicine, and surgical equipment were on hand. He garnered all this from the slight antiseptic smell in the air and the hospital bed he lay on which, despite being of high-quality suitable for royalty, still felt like a fold-out sofa only narrower.
Naturally, the place was on high alert, and he was surrounded by soldiers guarding his life from further attempts. He could hear Sutherlands on patrol right outside his window, along with the murmur of troops filling the hallways outside the doorway, which would be flanked by at least two royal guards. Even the medical staff had been "partnered up" with experienced field medics to double-check every little thing they did in case a traitor was in their midst.
And naturally, this had done nothing to prevent C.C. from getting in. The immortal witch was lounging on the couch reserved for guests during visiting hours, channel-surfing the big screen TV mounted on a bureau in front of him. He hadn't said a word, but still she'd known he was awake now.
"Primetime TV in Japan was always uniformly poor," she commented in her natural detached drone. "One thing I hoped Britannia's conquest would change was the quality of programming. No such luck."
After a beat, she spoke again, her voice now carrying a serious edge. "You owe me a new pizza."
He glared at her sourly as he used the bed's tiny control to shift the mattress into a sitting position. As he did so, his eyes adjusted to the muted darkness.
"Is that a candy striper's uniform?"
"Uh-huh," she said absently.
"Where did you find that?" Her choice of costume piqued his interest more than how she'd gotten past his security. While Jeremiah didn't fully trust her and would use the opportunity to keep her at arm's length from his liege, at this point Lelouch just naturally expected her to go wherever she pleased. Sometimes I think she must have let Clovis catch her.
"The same place I inexplicably get stuff I happen to need."
Lelouch frowned at her evading the question, but then got an idea. Smirking, he asked, "Why don't you start getting your pizzas there, too?"
"Now you're just being ridiculous."
He sighed, accepting momentary defeat on the subject matter. The thought occurred that she'd gotten that uniform to replace the one ruined back during the fight in his office, which reminded him. It was something he realized when he'd gotten loose from his chair but hadn't mentioned at the time.
"You needn't have tried to tackle me. My chair had flung itself back first into the bookshelves, so I probably would only have been banged up a bit more than I am now." His voice then took on a scolding quality. "In fact, your 'sacrifice' could have easily adjusted its flight so I went head first into something and really been hurt."
For the first time, she turned away from the TV and locked eyes with his, taking into consideration what was, for Lelouch, a show of gratitude for saving his life, as well as concern for her. Standing up, she smoothed out the creases in her too-short uniform before taking up a chair beside his bed.
"Would you like a sponge bath?" she asked, nodding her head towards the nearby bathroom.
The hint of a coquettish lilt in her voice could have entirely been his imagination. Still, the Black Prince felt his cheeks redden mildly. Shooting her an annoyed look to cover up for the rather obvious tell, he turned his attention to the TV, which now showed Diethard Reid outlining the day's news roundup.
Back at Narita, they had shared a moment of… "near-closeness" was probably the best way to describe it… which neither of them had mentioned since. It's not that C.C. wasn't pretty and shapely, and God knows his first sight of her, strapped tightly into security garb meant for prisoners in transit, had more than once danced across his mind's eye at night. Had he been a normal teenaged boy or the skirt-chaser he pretended to be, he might have considered her attitude a challenge and pursued her. But knowing her as he did, and the flashes of memory from her past he'd accidentally received once, she'd become too remote and strange a being for him to even consider a physical fling with, much less an ongoing relationship.
No, really, he'd told himself more than once.
And so Lelouch focused on his would-be press agent as he expounded on the top stories happening in Area 11. It certainly got him back on track with his responsibilities, as the lead story was about collapses within all major Sakuradite mines. The analytical part of his mind argued such an event was a godsend, as procuring the necessary equipment and manpower to get the mines operating again in double-time would likely leave the N.A.C. beholden to him, not bad given his suspicions of them. The rest of him, however, questioned the chance of such a disaster and the invasion of his office occurring on the same day.
His suspicion seemed founded as Reid continued, reporting that the mines all collapsed within minutes of each other. Furthermore, "errors" in the mines' safety systems had falsely reported fires, gas leaks, or other emergencies, resulting in the mines being evacuated by the time each cave-in happened. The final nail was two instances where Eleven workers had been left behind, having simply been overlooked or outright abandoned by their foremen. In both cases, a search-and-rescue team later found them unconscious, a little banged up but otherwise in one piece, outside the mines, having evidently climbed out through a fissure that had opened to the surface.
At this C.C. interjected for the first time. "When they awoke, they all reported having seen men straight out of Ovid's fables tearing down support beams and weakening tunnel walls, in addition to rescuing them."
"Mountains have collapsed under more credible circumstances, C.C. I should know," said Lelouch wearily.
And indeed he did. To give himself an upper hand in dealing with the more stubborn pockets of resistance, he'd researched innovative weapon systems and came across some papers by a visiting Indian academic back when the Empire and China were on slightly friendlier terms. "Radiant Wave" technology as it was called described beams of concentrated radiation that were discharged – either by contact or even projection across the air without a physical medium – into a target with destructive effect. The papers were from a purely theoretical viewpoint with little technical data, so the best his engineers could do was knock together a device which channeled focused microwave emissions. The emitter could evaporate bodies of water almost instantly, a far cry from the real-life laser beam-type weapon he'd envisioned. However, by targeting underground rivers and water veins, Lelouch could trigger earthquakes and avalanches, perfect for dealing with Japanese terrorists in the mountain areas.
None of which meant beans to C.C., who gladly told him that there was proof to these wild tales.
"Proof? What kind of proof?"
"One of the workers possessed a cellphone, having completed all the fussy little forms so he was technically an Honorary Britannian… whatever that means. In any event, he took pictures of their savior. They're fuzzy, but they show a man, a rather robust-looking fellow, dressed in bright red with a white operetta cape."
"What?" he said, not sure if he heard her correctly.
"I didn't pick out his clothes for him," she said rather defensively, fishing out of her pocket a print-up of the image. It hadn't been cleaned up so it was, as she said, fuzzy, but it still showed a white man with black hair, dressed as described with the addition of a golden streak down the front of his coat. He was built like a battleship, and would have to be, as the picture captured him shoving apart an archway of support beams like Samson pulling down the Temple of Dagon upon himself, a chunk of stone shattering to bits where it fell upon his head.
After she'd given him time to take it in, C.C. added, "The other rescued workers report similarly, albeit an African man in red-brown with a green cloak. No news on who or what caused the other mine cave-ins, however."
Lelouch compared the improbable stories to the redhead back in his office, who'd moved with speed that the human body was simply incapable of. With the thought of more people running about with unnatural abilities, a rather nasty thought occurred to him. His head turned like a tank cannon acquiring a target as he faced C.C.
C.C. was watching the news again. Noticing Lelouch glower out of the corner of her eye, she didn't even bother to snort. "Don't look at me. My contracts always glean powers of the mind, not the body." After a beat she added, "Jealous?"
He refused to rise to the bait this time. "Where did you get this?"
"Oh, I didn't," she answered facetiously. "Your knight has confiscated all materials, so I couldn't possibly have sneaked a peek."
"Good work, Jeremiah," he muttered to his absent knight. "I assume the workers are being kept from the media as well?"
"He calls it 'protective custody,'" she offered by way of an answer. "He nearly did the same to young Kururugi, too."
Lelouch frowned at his knight's presumption. Keeping the occurrences in the mines under wraps was expected, but using the opportunity to terrorize his childhood friend and nominal second knight of honor was going too far. "What could Suzaku possibly have to do with this?" he asked, slapping his hand on the blurry picture.
"Nothing," she responded. "He's just trying to keep the attack upon Camelot secret as well."
"What?"
"While we were having fun, the hangar where Lt. Kururugi and Major Croomy suffer the eccentricities of Earl Asplund was attacked by a man in a blue cloak and a red suit of armor."
There was a beat as he struggled to keep up with the influx of information. "A man in a suit of armor?" he repeated.
"Which was red." She paused for a moment. "Naturally, Lord Gottwald has confiscated video footage of the attack and marked it for your eyes only."
"Let's see it," he said, guessing correctly the witch had somehow availed herself to that as well despite all his knight's precautions.
"It happened during lunch when personnel was minimal. Those present were knocked about by the intruder. They contend they were attacked with blasts from some kind of compressed air device, but the reality is that he may have taught our… mercurial friend that wind tunnel trick of his."
As she spoke, she sauntered over to the TV, the hem of her uniform bunching up around her thighs… which Lelouch took care not to take note of. She slipped a burned DVD into the appropriate slot and within moments they watched silently as the hangar conscripted for ASEEC appeared on screen. It was empty save for a handful of interns and technicians tinkering with parts from the series of KMF prototypes commissioned by Schneizel.
The TV screen had split into quarters which showed the hangar at different angles which occasionally switched. The grainy footage appeared at odd angles though, not standard for surveillance footage. Lelouch dismissed this as he watched Camelot's staff dither about the area.
Nothing happened at first, then the main entrance doors opened and in walked a man wearing, just as C.C. said, a suit of armor with a cape draped over him. The cape reached to the floor and had a high collar that surrounded the man's head, not unlike the cloak Lelouch himself wore on occasion.
Before he was noticed, the stranger gestured and a blast of air erupted from his hand. It resolved into a medium-sized whirlwind that flew around the room, grabbing each of the technicians and carrying them aloft. It finally zipped into an empty conference/break room, depositing the dizzy squints onto the floor as it dispelled. Following his manifestation inside, the armored man pulled the blinds on the windows close before leaving. Shutting the door behind him, he then squeezed the doorknob into a misshapen lump, fusing its components so the men were trapped inside.
With that done, the armored man walked straight over to Lloyd's "command center" and began typing away. One of the screens switched to show the angle from a discreet webcam, giving Lelouch a good look at the man. His armor was very streamlined, as was his helmet which had no visor, just slots for his mouth and eyes. There was no ceremonial engraving, but a downward-pointing arrow could plainly be seen on the brow of his faceplate.
C.C. hit the fast forward button as the armored man spent several minutes working on Lloyd's computer, either downloading files or uploading viruses neither could tell.
"All that time, and he didn't do anything about the security cameras," Lelouch muttered in wonder at the man's bravado.
"Actually, the surveillance system had already been sabotaged. Just before he entered, it started looping the video feed from the previous half-hour, so all security saw were the technicians still at work with the Knightmares. This footage is from extra cameras Earl Asplund had stashed here and there around the hangar."
Lelouch was surprised by this. The pudding-obsessed, self-styled sociopath didn't seem the sort to take extra security precautions, even with the classified nature of his work.
"The CCTV cameras already in the hangar didn't shoot his creations from their good side, essentially, was his explanation," C.C. said, shooting Lelouch's newfound respect for the man down in flames.
His frown relaxed a bit as something occurred to him. "The intruder had to have gone through a series of doors with security locks on them. What clearance code did he use?"
"None," C.C. answered. "Commands from your personal computer automatically turned the locks off and back on again after a few minutes as he headed towards the hanger."
"That settles it," he muttered, his theory proven. That thief I Geassed – Robin – admitted to hacking the security system. He set up the CCTV loop that the guards received while he used the cameras himself to follow the movements of the man in armor, unlocking the doors for him as he headed for Camelot.
C.C. returned the DVD player to regular speed as the intruder finished his work on the computer. He then got up from the chair and walked over to the middle of the hangar. Standing there, he stood with his arms outstretched for a moment before becoming completely enveloped in a cyclone that reached up to the ceiling. Lelouch felt a bad sense of déjà vu as the screen became a blur, as anything not anchored securely was pulled and carried along by the gale force at work. Indeed, the POV of one of Lloyd's cameras suddenly launched into the vortex and within moments only showed static.
Lelouch realized the intruder's intention as he remembered stories of wooden boards being pierced by straw during a tornado. While the armored war machines were hardly planks of wood, the debris was hardly bits of hay either as they repeatedly rammed into Lloyd's precious prototypes, already in various states of repair or assembly. This particularly held true for canisters of gas used for welding tools, which inevitably exploded and at least softened up the KMF's, not the least of which was the Lancelot. As they began to topple under the onslaught, Lelouch couldn't help but shudder as he saw what he thought of as his friend's personal Knightmare collapse to the ground.
With the metal massacre over with, the winds began to die down, eventually showing the man in red floating upon another whirlwind, which slowly lowered him to the ground. The hangar around him was now a wreck with tools and more sophisticated equipment in broken heaps, the Knightmares piled on top of each other. Water gushed everywhere from pipes torn loose, seeping into cracks in armor and likely causing more damage to their internal parts and circuitry.
It was at this point Lelouch saw that the ensuing cacophony had not gone unnoticed, as the main entrance doors suddenly flew off their hinges, blown off by a small explosive. Hardly a moment went by before a platoon of soldiers led by Suzaku charged into the room. They were followed closely by the head squint himself, Lloyd Asplund, who was obviously devastated by the damage done to all his work. So much in fact, he actually balked when his long-suffering assistant Cecile Croomy came beside him, offering him a cup of pudding to calm his nerves.
The prince only let this distract him for a moment as he concentrated on Suzaku and the troops he'd assembled. Not surprising, a blast of air like a whipping tendril issued from the armored man, knocking them all down except for Suzaku, who'd escaped it with an uncanny leap. This leap morphed into his signature "Spinzaku" move which he aimed at the intruder. Unfortunately, this only set him up for embarrassment as another gesture added to his spin, sending him careening into loops of chains still hanging from a broken pulley. Hopelessly entangled, Suzaku struggled valiantly to free himself but was quite helpless.
With all resistance dealt with, the man in red then touched an area of his forearm. Lelouch cocked an eyebrow as the bit of plating there slid back and a small device popped up. When the man pushed a button on the device, the prince wasn't too surprised to see him disappear much like the two young burglars from earlier. Surrounded by debris as he was, this time it was certain he actually disappeared into thin air and hadn't just slunk away while a light show caused a distraction.
The intruder did not leave alone, however. After seeing him easily dispose of Suzaku, Croomy had left Lloyd to his pathetic wailing and, grabbing a wrench up from the rubble, had proceeded to sneak up upon him. Just as the duplicate images appeared, Croomy tackled him, wrapping her arms around him in a chokehold, and vanished as well.
"She's ballsier than I would have expected," the witch droned again as the disc popped out. She slid it back wherever she had room for it on her uniform while stating that there had been no ransom demands for her but on the plus-side there had been no further attacks. "Here, at least," she added.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Rumors are escalating that attacks have occurred all along Britannia's borderlands – Areas, disputed territories, and so on. They all match the same pattern with mines, Knightmare hangars, and centers of government or military being infiltrated and sabotaged. Even secret facilities were not spared according to some gossip."
"How many fatalities so far?" he asked, not looking forward to the answer
"Another similarity. The attacks all occurred when the facilities were undermanned and its occupants gassed or otherwise incapacitated, or there was a false emergency that caused the site to be abandoned, so there would be next to no one to be endangered at all. The follow-up attacks were then carried out in about ten minutes or more, although some of the consequences – fires and whatnot – naturally didn't work on a time-table."
Lelouch stopped to consider this. That would have been the pattern of the burglary at his office, only he came back unexpectedly. He turned to C.C. as he continued constructing the chain of events that made the invasion of the palace different.
"The gas they used, it didn't affect you for long, did it?"
"Briefly," she muttered. Was it his imagination, or did she sound a tiny bit embarrassed? "I woke up just as 'Speedy' was about to help himself to my pizza. I tried to grab him, but the other one caught me in time."
So that's how she's wound up with those bolos all over her, he concluded. Seeing how likely it was she intended to use that psychic flashback trick of hers, he wasn't sure how he felt about her being caught beforehand. He then remembered the feeling of spinning uncontrollably and decided that he did know how he felt. Be quicker next time, he mentally groused at her.
He began ruminating on the pattern of attacks again, patiently considering the incapacitation of witnesses and sabotage of surveillance. It meant the source of these attacks was playing things close to the vest, relying on the mystery of the attacks to cause morale damage in addition to the collateral. Only he and those in his command had been "lucky" enough to clearly see the perpetrators. Not to mention how they made their escape, most likely.
"There's high alert throughout the Empire, even the homeland," C.C. added. "You're likely to be juggling phone calls for the next few days."
"What has the Emperor to say about this?" he asked testily. Usually he didn't give a farmer's bucket what that man thought, but with the Empire suffering counterattacks on all fronts, whatever he had to say may very well concern him. So much for visiting—
"Nothing," said C.C., interrupting his train of thought. "Not yet anyway. Your brother Schneizel hasn't made any comments either although news crews have seen him rushing about Pendragon."
That's odd, he thought. The Emperor should have declared war on someone by now. At the very least, he'd make a big speech on television about how Britannia conquered all and would naturally triumph over their enemies. Schneizel would be more diplomatic, and try to sooth the public's nerves. Could either of them be trying to get ahold of more information before making any decisions at all?
"Has Schneizel tried to call me? Has there been any communiqués?" he asked aloud.
By now, however, C.C. had gotten bored playing "Miss Exposition" and had walked away while he'd been deliberating. She opened the door to the outside, surprising the guards who'd thought the Viceroy had been alone. "I'm not your secretary, Lelouch," she responded, her tone indifferent but testy, as she ignored the flustered soldiers who looked ready to dog pile on her.
"Let her go," he commanded offhandedly, knowing her attitude would just grate on him now anyway.
"Speaking of whom," C.C. called back over her shoulder as she was given room, "Minnie and the others have been fielding phone calls from your old school for hours now. The Ashford girl keeps demanding to speak to you, and they're getting sick of it."
He muttered a thanks as the door shut behind her, a button-push returning his mattress to a lying position so he could relax a bit. Closing his eyes, he tried to get the jumble of information cleared up in his head. Soldiers not dressed like soldiers, bizarre non-Geass powers, attacks around the Empire (which he might have welcomed any other day), the Emperor and the Chancellor both missing while the nobles and commoners alike threatened to run around like chickens with their heads cut off. And to top it off, Milly wanted to play phone-tag with him. What could possibly be so important that—
Lelouch shot up in his bed, feeling as if he'd touched a live wire.
Milly kept trying to call him. There were rumors of even secret Britannian facilities under attack. These factors and more all spun through his mind, adding up into one perfectly dreadful equation. Oh no. No no no no no no…
Within minutes, the entire wing had been evacuated and a secure line, impossible to tap, had been established for Lelouch. All this had been done while the doctors and security were operating under a codeword-activated trance state he'd implanted weeks ago with Geass, insuring that even the existence of his extra-private phone call would be kept secret to their dying day.
"Come on." He paced as a dial tone came over the other end repeatedly, praying that he was wrong and Milly only wanted to hear that he was alright. For once, he'd even welcome an invitation to one of her ridiculous festivals, even if it involved cross-dressing again. "Come on, come on, come onnnnnn," he muttered in aggravation.
After centuries, there was a click on the other end and Milly answered. "Hello, welcome to Ashford Academy. You've reached the student council clubhouse…"
"It's me… Lelouch," he said needlessly. Milly's "phone voice" usually had a flirtatious edge that made strangers wonder if they'd accidentally dialed a softcore chat line. Instead, she sounded distracted as she recited the scripted greeting, which only made him more nervous. "What are the calls about? Is… is-is everyone safe?!" he stuttered out.
As he spoke, he heard Milly's hand clap over the mouthpiece as she yelled into the distance. Within moments, there was a fumble of words as people talked over each other while gathering around the phone. As this died down, there was a beep, followed by the sound of the phone being returned to its cradle. The line stayed open, however, indicating the speaker feature was on.
"Oh God, Lelouch… *snrrrt* we're so sorry! It's all my fault! I should have…" Shirley's tear-stained voice came first, and it was obvious she'd been crying, perhaps for the entire time they'd been trying to contact him.
"Wait! Who's there? We're on a secure line but I need to know who's present before we say too much." He was already feeling his heart fall into his stomach, but he needed to observe the safety procedures they'd agreed to.
"It's just the old gang, Lelouch," said Milly, for once dropping her pet name for him… a bad sign indeed. "Kallen's not here; she called in sick again."
Lelouch clenched his teeth. He knew what her "sick days" meant and while it seemed preposterous that Kallen and her ragtag regiment would be involved, the timing was poor.
"I am here, too, Master Lelouch," spoke another voice he hadn't heard in months.
Sayoko!
He started to hyperventilate and not so much sat but fell onto the toilet seat. He'd already thrown up once today, so he'd taken to the bathroom in case he couldn't handle whatever the message from Ashford Academy would be. And the presence of Milly's maid-slash-bodyguard back in the clubhouse could only mean all his fears were true.
They've taken Nunnally. They found out about the bolt hole and took Nunnally.
The "bolt hole" was his nickname for a secret locale hidden underneath Ashford Academy, built in secret with no hint of its existence on any copy of the official blueprints. It was essentially a combination bomb shelter and panic room – More like a panic suite, he'd thought when he first inspected it – and was accessible by a secret elevator shaft hidden behind a sliding bookcase in the library. He'd made it his Plan B in the eventuality that he and his sister were found alive before he was ready. When Clovis had stumbled upon him, he nearly broke his neck getting Nunnally moved there before an investigation, even one so flimsy as Clovis and General Asprius were likely to pursue, could find hide or hair of her at the boarding school.
The world thus continued to believe her dead, a state preferable to being another pawn in the Emperor's style of international diplomacy which before had nearly seen her married off to Kururugi Genbu. In all the time since then, Nunnally had stayed safe and hidden beneath the school, guarded by Sayoko, frequently visited by Milly and the other student council members in the know. And for the past few months, that was all the company she'd been allowed.
And just this afternoon, I'd been thinking of finally breaking my "quarantine" and visiting her after all this time, he thought despondently.
"What…" He stopped and swallowed, keeping his voice calm. "What happened?"
There was a pause. He could picture them looking at one another, wondering which of them should go first. He was about to start yelling when their red-headed swimming enthusiast spoke up again.
"The cafeteria had her favorite cake at the dessert counter yesterday, Lulu, and I got extra slices. I figured we could use them for a little tea party, so I snuck them into the library in my bag today." She stopped to sniffle loudly, fighting the tears so she could finish the story. "I waited around the bookcase until the coast was clear like I'm supposed to, then opened it up and summoned the elevator. But when I got on, I turned around and there was this girl I'd never seen before looking at me."
"Describe her."
"Uh… almost my age, slim, black hair, and light blue eyes. She looked Britannian but I don't know for sure. I didn't recognize her and she wasn't wearing a uniform, so I thought she might be an applicant looking around the place."
"What was she wearing?" Lelouch asked, interrupting her.
"Beige slacks and a wine-red top. Nothing special. Why?"
Lelouch ignored her question as he absorbed this information. No capes, no armor, no masks. They didn't wear anything to draw attention to themselves in a civilian setting. That may mean something. "What happened next?"
"Like I said," Shirley responded over the phone, "I thought she was an applicant. I was about to tell her I was with the student council on official business, that I was testing an old freight elevator in case we wanted to renovate it, when she spoke to me."
"Did she threaten you, Shirley?"
"No. Well, maybe. I don't know. She waved her hand in front of my face and said something. It wasn't in Britannian. And there was something wrong with her voice, like there was an echo even though she was right in front of me."
"And then?"
Shirley at first grumbled something in frustration over the line. "She must have sprayed me with something that knocked me out. I suddenly felt drowsy, and the next thing I knew, Nina and Rivalz were shaking me awake."
At this, Lelouch's former "chauffeur" took over the narrative, with the often silent member of their group adding the occasional affirmative mutter behind him. "Yeah, Lelouch. Nina was showing me some books I need for a report in chemistry class when we found Shirley zonked out at one of the reading tables near the elevator. She had stacks of books all around her, and she was resting her head on an open one like a pillow, snoring and droo—OW!"
"You don't need to tell him that!" the redhead yelled out from a distance.
"This is where I come in, Master Lelouch." Whatever her feelings were, Sayoko's voice was composed, which had a mild calming effect on Lelouch, her fortitude lending him a measure of strength.
"I was with the young mistress when the elevator was called," she explained. "I was worried as it stayed up longer than usual, but eventually we heard it coming back down the shaft."
The delay must have been due to the mystery girl dragging Shirley over to the table and making it appear she'd fallen asleep during a cram session, Lelouch guessed. "What did you do when the intruder arrived?"
"Nothing at first, my lord. When the doors opened, it was Miss Shirley. Or rather it looked to be her."
Lelouch blinked at this. He didn't hear any reactions over the phone, so they must have been told of the mystery girl's use of disguise already. He briefly wondered how she could have known in advance that Shirley would visit Nunnally, but dismissed it for the moment.
"Continue."
"As I said, it looked like her, but I soon guessed something was wrong. As she stepped off the elevator, she looked around as if she'd never been there before. Also, she moved differently than Miss Shirley does."
Had anyone else said that, Lelouch would have thought them either boastful, trying to make themselves sound like a bodyguard extraordinaire, or just paranoid. But Sayoko was the 37th successor to the Shinozaki School, a dojo that was a front for a famed ninja clan. Or at least as famous as a family of trained spies and assassins could be without compromising their effectiveness. If anyone could distinguish body language as easily as faces, she could.
"The young mistress could feel it too. She asked Miss Shirley if anything was the matter as she approached us."
"Shirley, are you okay?" Lelouch could practically hear Nunnally say that. As warming as it was to hear of her natural concern for her friends, it also worried him that those might be the last words any of them ever heard from her again.
"It was then the intruder seemed to recognize her and asked, 'Princess Nunnally, is that you?' At that, I sprang, grabbing her in a chokehold with a kunai at the ready, and demanded to know who she was. She didn't struggle at all, she just held up her hands beside her head. I thought she was surrendering until…" She paused for a moment, the weight of her failure evident in her voice. "The same thing happened to me as Miss Shirley described. She said something, speaking low and evenly, yet her voice echoed. It sounded almost like she was saying, 'Peels aloft'. My next memory was being awoken by Miss Shirley, Miss Nina, and Mr. Rivalz."
"S-Sayoko was on the floor when we got there, Your Highness, and Nunnally was gone," Nina piped in quietly.
They continued to speak, each taking over the narrative of what they did next and what little they knew. The imposter had taken some of Nunnally's clothes and her schoolbooks as well. They hadn't grilled the librarian too much on who had left so as to not mention a wheelchair-bound girl. Milly had gotten ahold of the security camera they hid to keep an eye on the elevator, but it didn't show anyone leaving with Nunnally. By all rights, she should have still been down there so they don't know how it happened and they were all sorry, so very sorry and…
He was no longer listening to them. He clicked off the phone, allowing it to clatter to the floor as he slid off the toilet, joining it on the floor as he leaned against the outer wall of the tub. If he had a gun, he might be at risk of killing himself.
It's all been for nothing, he thought. Months of jumping through hoops for his father, while his sister was left buried alive on the other side of the world. And now she was gone… Nunnally, his sister, more precious to him than even his revenge against their father and for Mother's murder. He could say that now. It would have been one thing if these… invaders… had gone about simply demolishing the Empire, retribution for some slight against their people, a nation out of all the world he couldn't conceive which one it could be. He could live with his hatred denied, taken upon by someone else, but not his sister's health and safety.
He'd actually considered going to his private suite rather than his office as he'd stepped onto the elevator earlier that day. Just long enough for a change of clothes, then sneak away to Ashford for, however briefly, a reunion with her. But today, like every other day for nearly a year, he'd been paranoid and overcautious. Now that opportunity was gone.
Could I have made a difference? he wondered. Had I gone there, could I have shown up before Shirley's imposter, or caught her in the act? Robin hadn't expected Geass. That was one thing that had escaped their preparation for their attacks. It would have meant using it in front of Nunnally and my friends, but so what?
If nothing else, they might have been together, both taken prisoner. Or maybe they would have left her behind. I'm the Viceroy of Area 11, the conqueror of the M.E.F. I'm the valuable one. Dear God, it's torture just thinking about—
A shard of ice sudden went up and down his spine.
Maybe it's not about who's valuable to them, he considered. They already have the power and ability to strike at our border interests with impunity. To penetrate our most closely guarded secrets. What need of they for someone to interrogate?
He wanted to be furious. He wanted to smash ornaments around his apartments and rage at the sky, to swear bloody vengeance on Nunnally's kidnappers. All that happened was silence as the hours slowly passed by on one of the coldest, longest nights of his life as Lelouch pondered what he could do, and what could be happening.
Dare he contact his father and reveal the truth so a rescue may be attempted? Would it do a bit of difference, or just lose him any possibility of seeing Nunnally alive again? Was she still alive? What was happening to her? The intruders had done so much to avoid casualties, especially at the school. But Nunnally, technically, was a figure of authority of an enemy state. But one just had to look at her, see her living conditions to realize she had no part in the Empire's crimes.
Would that matter to them? Britannia loved kicking the people they'd conquered, stamping with booted feet long after they were down. It encouraged an eye-for-an-eye response by some. And a princess of the realm made for a tempting target.
There was nothing for it. Even as the doctor cleared him for service. Even as Sir Jeremiah reported on recovery operations within Camelot. Even as he received requests from the N.A.C. practically begging for emergency aid in reopening the mines. Even as he received an order for his presence at a special assembly of the imperial court. Nothing could prevent the notion that kept coming to the forefront of his mind.
The horrible notion that at that very moment, Nunnally was being… tortured.
Disclaimer: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion is the property of Sunrise and Bandai Entertainment. Young Justice is the property of DC Comics, Inc. and AOL-Time-Warner.
You didn't think Nunnally was really dead, did you?