Disclaimer: I own none of the characters presented in this fiction, except one. All characters aside from Ulrike are the property of Sunrise.
Lies – all lies! They were deceived; the Empire took them over, and that was an end to the matter. But the lies remained, smoldering in the hearts of the oppressed people, like resentful sparks waiting to ignite a fire…
- Excerpt from The Unknown History of Britannia; 2016, Reddick, [publisher name withheld] (only in sale in the EU)
THE STRANGER, THE SAINT, THE HORN, AND THE WORD
Chapter 4 – Illusions
Incipio.
Before Shirley could do anything, Lulu and Milly each took one of her arms, and started to frog-march her down the hallway. Milly's voice hissed in her ear.
"Shirley, do not say or do anything. The lives of four people are riding on your cooperation with us. It's fine that you were curious, but now that you've heard, we have to tell you the rest and swear you to secrecy. If anyone asks you tomorrow, say that you forgot your Council supplies and had to go to my house for fresh copies. I am being deadly serious right now. Life and death, Shirley Fenette, life and death!"
Milly smiled vaguely at a passing student. "One of our members didn't comply with the Code! She must be punished!" He forced a chuckle at the spectacle, while staring at Milly, and moved on.
Shirley barely remembered the march to the car. Her head was full of what she had just discovered. Lulu is royalty? Euphemia's his sister? Could they have me executed? I hope not…
When they reached the car, most of the tension seemed to go out of Milly and Lulu.
"All right, Shirley. First off: Why did you eavesdrop on our conversation?" said Milly.
"Huh…? Well, I don't know… I was just, you know, interested as to why Lulu proposed Euphie as a new council member."
Milly turned, annoyed, to Lulu. "That was a terrible idea, Lelouch."
"Well, you try and get back at a sister who's so popular she has boys coming out of her ears to do her bidding!" Lulu shot back. "Even if she didn't ask them to, they would have found me and killed me had I pranked her! This has so much less bloodshed involved! A short dearth of free time for her, and I get my revenge! It was as simple as that!"
"You really need to learn how to do pranks, Lulu. Maybe I'll teach you sometime…" she said, and, while a dreamy look entered her eyes, she licked her index finger provocatively.
"Not the time, Milly!" said Lulu, who was the closest to panic Shirley had ever seen him. "Shirley! Do you swear by, by… who's most precious to you?"
"Um… I guess… my father is…"
"Then, do you swear by the life of your father that you will never tell anyone about this?"
"Y-yes, I do."
Lulu seemed to deflate at that, and gave her a weak smile. "Sorry about that. I'm… I'm just a little scared about our secret getting out. You see, there are probably still quite a few people who want us dead…"
Shirley felt overwhelmed. "Who is us? Why would anyone want you dead?"
Milly faced Shirley. Her face was more serious than Shirley had ever seen it. "Shirley. What I am about to tell you is a secret that perhaps only eight or nine people in the entire world know. Once I do tell you, you are not to speak of it outside of that circle for the rest of your life, unless circumstances render it moot. Am I understood?"
"Yes… yes…"
Milly sighed, and pointed at Lelouch. "This is not Lelouch Lamperouge. You have never known Lelouch Lamperouge. You have never known Nunnally Lamperouge, Euphemia Langenrosa, or Cornelia Langenrosa, either. These are their real names: Nunnally vi Britannia, Euphemia li Britannia, Cornelia li Britannia, and Lelouch vi Britannia. They were sent here as a part of a diplomatic envoy, and no one saw them again after the Second Pacific War. They were believed to have died in the fighting. They did not die. In other words, the Eleventh Prince and the Second, Third, and Seventeenth Princesses have been living here for seven years, under the noses of the First and Fifth Princesses."
Thunderstruck did not even begin to describe what Shirley felt. She thought, over and over again, like a broken record, And to think, half an hour ago, I was worried that Lulu had a crush on Euphie!
Milly Ashford stared at the astonished girl in front of her, and sighed. "It's all right, Shirley. I'm pretty sure he won't make you bow…"
Shirley shook herself, and said, timidly, "So… what are you going to do with me?"
Milly began to answer, with a gleam in her eye, but Lelouch cut her off before she could really start in on Shirley. Effing Lulu.
"Do? We're not going to do anything to you, Shirley. We're going to drop you off at your dorm, and hope that you stay quiet. I can't force you, of course," he paused a moment at that, "well, I can, but I'm not going to. Just remember: If you tell anyone who is not Reuben or Milly Ashford, or whose name ends with a vi or li Britannia, then it's very likely all up for us. I imagine that we would be dead, or used as pawns in some political game, within the week. I'm putting our lives in your hands, Shirley."
Shirley nodded tremulously.
"Thank you," said Lelouch softly. "Disinherited royals are a liability, but you will protect us, and risk yourself doing so… you are a friend, indeed. Thank you."
Milly directed the driver to Shirley's dorm, and they drove on in silence.
After Lelouch had shown Shirley to her building, Milly buttonholed him into doing some more paperwork for her. His cries of "See? This is what I meant when I said this prank EATS. UP. MY. FREE. TIME!" did not move her, and indeed made it more amusing. She gave Lelouch the option of trying out some new techniques with her, and it was a mark of his desperation that he agreed, but when she showed him the pictures, he turned a delicate shade of blue-green, and declined as politely as he could before going to throw up. She snickered as he emptied his stomach; she had intentionally chosen the most disturbing pictures she could find in her grandfather's folders.
Not that she wouldn't like to do some of these with Lulu someday… it was just, she wanted both him and her to have much more stamina, as well as stronger immune systems. She was continually amazed that her grandfather still managed to cultivate such a strong interest in things like that; and she remained convinced that she had gotten her sex drive from him and not her boring, law-abiding parents.
Lelouch reappeared while she was still in dreamland, and almost managed to sneak off before she shook herself and dragged him back to the desk, where he begged piteously to go home. She relented and told him he only had to do one of the itineraries, and then she would drive him home. "Or, we could go the couch… and I could teach you some life lessons…" she suggested innocently. Again, she was politely declined. She laughed at his fastidiousness, and left him to his work.
Lelouch stumbled through the door to the Vili, the apartment that Euphie had dubbed in honor of the middle honorifics of the four siblings. He had a mind to go right to bed –
But most unfortunately, he had an obstacle. A pink-haired, worried-looking one.
Euphie was sitting at the table in front of him, and from the look on her face, one of two things had happened.
Either she had found that their secret had been spilled to Shirley, and was going to chastise him for it. Unlikely, as that had happened mere hours before, and Milly had not told anyone that he knew.
Or, she had found out what Cornelia and Lelouch were doing. Raising a rebellion. Planning to destroy Britannia.
He sincerely hoped that it was the first.
Euphie, not taking her eyes away from Lelouch, called up the stairs to her sister: "Onee-sama, could you come down now, please? Lelouch is home, and I want to talk to both of you." She said to Lelouch, "Onii-sama. Would you mind sitting down?" She indicated the chair nearest her.
Onii-sama. Formal mode. That's a bad sign.
He took his seat, and sat in increasingly uncomfortable silence.
Eventually, when Cornelia had come down, looking a little apprehensive, Euphemia, her face unsure, said, "I overheard your conversation with… C.C., was it?"
Very not good, thought Lelouch.
Cornelia seemed to have frozen in place. She hated lying to her little sister, and now it looked as if she was going to have to.
"From what she said, it seems like you two are trying to overthrow the Britannian Empire. And I think that you two are – are Zero and Infinity."
Yes, thought Lelouch, in some corner of his brain that wasn't panicking, that's pretty much spot-on.
He and Cornelia had led armies. Were they to be undone by that most insidious and deadly of all threats, a little sister? It seemed they were about to find out.
He met Cornelia's eyes, and a spark of understanding passed unseen between them. She knew now that they were not going to give in, but they were going to fight. They had planned for someone overhearing one of their conversations, after all.
But they had not expected Euphemia as their enemy.
Battle Start!
Cornelia looked over at Lelouch, and said, "Brother, would you care to explain?"
"Certainly, Sister," Lelouch said, hoping his voice was sure enough.
He cleared his throat, and prepared for the assault on Euphie's assumptions.
"Euphie… you are partially right. We are part of a resistance movement. But. We are not Zero and Infinity, and we will never associate with them."
The lie almost stuck in his throat, and he could hardly stand Euphie's now confused and upset face, but the knowledge that Cornelia was keeping a straight face, and that this was even worse for her, kept him going.
"Our faction is actually composed of disillusioned Britannians. We wish, shall we say, a political and social reformation of the Holy Empire, and we are beginning to be influential enough to make a real impact on the governance of this area. However, we are separate from the Shinjuku Group – and we do not approve of their use of violence. Their sudden elevation was as much a surprise to us as to the rest of the world."
Euphemia's eyes widened, and she began to look close to tears. To hear that her siblings were trying to change the world from the inside rather than with violent persuasion had been a cruel blow to her confidence.
Nevertheless, she felt she had to try one more time.
"How do I know you're not lying?"
Lelouch and Cornelia looked at each other again, and Cornelia said, gently, "Sweetie, do you remember when Zero first appeared?"
Euphemia nodded. It had been in all the papers; after all, the failure of the First Princess to destroy Shinjuku was big news.
"Well, Lelouch was not in Shinjuku that day."
In a small voice, Euphemia said, "…Really?"
Here came the big lie. Lelouch braced himself.
"I was in the Shibuya district when it broke. Gambling is a lot easier there, because it's so commercialized. Anyway, when we saw the news, Rivalz and I came straight back to the Academy; it was unlikely that Shibuya would have been hit, but we figured it was best for me to be home. You can ask Rivalz about it if you want to; I'm sure he remembers it pretty well."
Rivalz would back him up; Lelouch had Geassed him to corroborate his story. As no one but the noble he had been gambling with, the man he had helped, and C.C. knew he had been there, it would be very difficult for anyone to find evidence to the contrary.
Euphemia was ashamed - terribly ashamed, it was clear - at having falsely suspecting her brother and sister. Lelouch could tell that they had broken her resolve with the lies about non-violence, and Lelouch's "rock-solid" alibi. He writhed inwardly at this; he and Cornelia were the ones who deserved to be ashamed, but they had to continue! They couldn't be stopped! Not here, not now!
Euphie said, tremulously, "I'm sorry… I thought – I thought… t-that… you both were…" She began to sob. Cornelia went to hug her. Guilt burned in Lelouch's stomach as he watched his little sister break down in Cornelia's arms.
Conditions cleared. Victory has been achieved. But this most certainly didn't feel like a victory; as his sister cried for her accusations, he felt that his purpose was compromised. I'm doing this for Euphemia and Nunnally. I don't want to make them cry. I want to make them safe.
So why am I torturing Euphemia?!
He hurriedly excused himself, and lay down on the floor in his room without waiting for comment from C.C. Even though he was exhausted, his eyes wouldn't close for a long while. When he did, his dreams were full of Euphemia and Nunnally crying at what he had done to them.
A fit penance.
No…
Cornelia felt absolutely, utterly despicable. Lying to Euphemia wasn't like lying to anyone else; her sister trusted her implicitly, more even then she trusted Lelouch or Nunnally, and this made her inclined to believe what Cornelia said. So when Cornelia lied to her, Euphemia believed that what she said was the truth, and sought refuge with her when she found out she had hurt her siblings by incorrectly suspecting them of terrorism.
It made Cornelia feel dirty to lie to anyone, but to lie to Euphie had been unthinkable.
At least, it had been until today.
Cornelia held her sister as she sobbed, and she kept her own tears back as long as Euphie remained. She knew that they would be torrential when they came; they were tears of rage at herself and Lelouch for lying, different than Euphemia's tears of self-reproach at her own mistake. At last, Euphie sniffled herself into silence.
"Come on, honey. You need to go to bed." Euphemia nodded, and allowed Cornelia to guide her to her room. Before going in, she turned and gave Cornelia a fierce hug. That nearly broke Cornelia's reserve of staying silent, but she hugged back all the same.
"I love you, Nee-sama."
"I love you more than you can imagine, Euphemia."
That was the only truth she had spoken all night. It made her feel better.
But only a little.
When she got back to her room, she curled up under the covers and cried for a long time, muffling furious and guilt-ridden tears in her pillow.
Life shouldn't have to be like this…
The next morning.
When Euphemia woke up the next morning, she wished that she hadn't. It brought everything back from the disastrous confrontation last night. She resolved to stay in bed for the rest of the day; even when Nunnally came to visit her, Euphie saw no reason to change her resolve. Nunnally had been asleep during the conversation the night before, but she didn't miss the thick tone in Euphemia's voice that bespoke tears, and she was kind enough to leave Euphemia to her bed. She couldn't help wondering, though, what could make her cheerful half-sister so dejected as to not want to leave her bed.
Euphie tried to sleep some more, but eventually, her body refused to comply any more with her wish to forget the previous night. She ended up staring at the ceiling, lost in a haze of misery.
I can't believe I did that. Why did I do that? Why was I so suspicious? They wouldn't lie to me! And Nee-sama was so kind… and Lelouch didn't say anything mean… He was even being nice…
She almost started crying again, but managed to stop herself.
I'm a horrible person.
From Euphemia's gloomy demeanor, there seemed to spread a fog of miasma throughout the Vili; both Lelouch and Cornelia kept to their beds as well, overcome by guilt and shame at their lies to Euphemia, and unwilling to face each other, for fear of saying something they might regret. Nunnally was the only person who managed to bear up at all under the distress, but even her good spirits were greatly affected.
She consigned herself to a silent and doleful day as she tried to ensure her siblings ate something at least.
When Milly came to see what was the matter (for Cornelia had a field trip she was supposed to lead, and Lelouch had Student Council duties that needed attending to), Nunnally answered the door, and looked so unhappy that Milly immediately concluded that one of the siblings must be ill; it was a common enough occurrence, and it reduced the other three to sympathetic gloom for days on end. But she had never seen Nunnally in this poor of a temper before; that made her worry. She resolved to talk to her grandfather about this; he would know what to do, as he had known all of them from childhood. She promised Nunnally that she would send a council member over with some food (as Nunnally had understandable difficulty cooking), and went to apologize for Cornelia's absence and do Lelouch's work.
She might have been a (albeit attractive) pervert and a prankster, but she was a true friend, and she cared about the four very much.
So, after she finished smoothing over the difficulties caused by the siblings' absence, she went to visit her Grandpa. Even though it wasn't a school day, he would be working in his office. He was a kind, generous, and intelligent man, and he was dedicated to Ashford Academy; he called it his chance to "succeed where once I failed", in other words, giving the boarders – Japanese or Britannian - a solid and ethical education when he had failed to do so with his daughter and son-in-law.
He also knew that he wouldn't be disturbed in his office, and he used his spare time to fuel his "interests".
Milly loved him for his kindness and generosity, and she admired him for his work ethic and – slightly dubiously - his "interests". She tried to emulate him in her life, because, besides him, her role models were rather thin on the ground. The emulation of his "interests" did cause problems, but it made her life fun.
Grinning, she asked the receptionist to tell Mr. Ashford that his granddaughter was here to see him. The receptionist smiled back, and said, "Go on in, he's free."
She walked up to the door, and let herself in. "Hi, Grandpa."
"Mpph? Ha! Yes… Milly. Hello. I most certainly did not fall asleep staring lewdly at a video of Princess Guinevere. I did not do that. That is my least favorite thing to do."
"I'm sure it is, Grandpa."
"Anyway," Reuben said, "Why did you come and visit me? I know you don't just want to visit your old grandpa; you're much too busy to simply visit me nowadays…" He tried to put on a wounded face at this, but Milly rolled her eyes, and he laughed.
Milly loved her Grandpa, but she had to admit, he was the only one who really knew how to push her buttons. Her penchant for doing so to others sprang forth from his, and as he needed to act the principal most of the time, she was really the only target he could safely annoy without looking juvenile.
Case in point, he knew how much she liked Lelouch, and wouldn't let up on it.
"So, really, why are you here, Milly? Having love trouble? "Lulu" still dodging your backhanded courtship? I'm sure any boy – and some of the girls – in the school would give their right arms to get the amount of attention you give that boy on a daily basis. But him? He's hopeless. If you ask me, he's obsessed with those sisters of his. Spends more time with them than anyone else. Think you can cure his sister complex with a little seduction? Or do you have a thing for siscons?"
Milly blushed. Her grandfather might be kidding, but below the kidding was real worry; for both Milly and Lelouch. She hated to admit it – even to herself – but he was probably right; Lelouch did seem to be obsessed with his sisters, and mainly his full sister, Nunnally. Milly adored all of the siblings, and she would by no means wish them harm; but she did wish that Lelouch would look up long enough from his sisters to see her come-ons. Even if he did, however, it would hurt Shirley a great deal to see her President going out with her crush. So it was fated not to be – as long as they were all still in school, at least.
After he had graduated, however, he was fair game.
A shiver ran up her spine, and she dreamed for a moment of her and Lelouch…
She put such happy fantasies from her mind, and turned back to her grandfather. "No, Grandpa – that's on hold for now, remember? The reason I came does concern him, though."
Grandpa quirked an eyebrow in invitation for her to continue.
"Well," she said, a little hesitantly, "I – well, he and his sisters aren't doing too well."
"Is one of them sick again? Good Lord, Cornelia and Lelouch need to learn that sheltering their siblings doesn't decrease the chance of illness, it increases it. And they could probably stand to take on a little less work themselves; Cornelia's been looking more and more tired at every staff meeting."
"No, they aren't sick. In fact, I don't think they're even close to being sick."
He frowned in puzzlement. "What's the problem, then?"
"We-ell, from what I heard from Nunnally – she's the only one up right now, you know – all three of her siblings have been bedridden since last night. And they're not ill, according to her. But she looked as miserable as if they had been ill, and that's what worried me."
He frowned again, this time in worry. "You were right, that's not good. Hmm. Do you know anything about Nunnally's extrasensory abilities?"
She shook her head, confused.
"Well, when she was born, she had a remarkable natural empathic link with her brother. If he was unhappy for any reason, you could bet that she would start crying the moment he did. And when Marianne offered asylum to those two others, Cornelia and – what was her name – ah, of course, Euphemia, it eventually extended to them. She could sense that they were unhappy, and if she knew enough of the circumstances behind it, she could usually make them feel better. After she lost her sight, it gained in power, if anything. The fact that she's had it all her life without a break means that she takes it for granted, just like everyone else does with sight or hearing. She also acts as a conduit for emotions; she gives feedback – even though it's hardly noticeable – to those encompassed by her ability, on the others affected by it. This explains why all four of them felt horrible whenever one of them had a cold. However, in this case, not only is she feeling a strong enough emotion to affect her own feelings, she is unable to assuage it because she has no knowledge of what has occurred to make them all so miserable, and even worse, with the feedback to each of them, she's intensifying the negative emotions felt by all of them; slowly but surely. If we don't do something now, we probably won't see any of them next week."
Milly was stricken. "So what do you think I should do?"
"What do I think you should do?" he echoed. "Mmm… I think you should go down there and help Nunnally get out of her funk. And I think that you should start interacting with all the siblings more, because, if you do, number one, they'll all become used to your presence, which will likely start to include you in the empathic link that they share. That'll let you cheer them up if they get down for any reason. Number two, Lelouch will get used to you. And you know what that means…"
"Grandpa!"
He chuckled at her indignant reply, and waved her out, saying, "I do have actual work to do; go and bother Nunnally some."
She did as she was told, and left. As she stepped into the fine spring evening, she thought, I'm going to help you four out of whatever trouble you're in, see if I don't!
Unconsciously, she knew that she would do whatever it took to help them.
She didn't know that that would entail a great deal more than she thought.
But it did, and she was now bound up with her best friends' fates until their story wound out.
Fate has a way of springing surprises like that.
That's probably why he's not popular at parties.
Chapter 4 – Illusions
Consumo.
Author's Note: Well, I'm back, and with a notebook full of ideas that I wrote while on my four-day weekend. I've realized that I will probably either split this into two stories, or just have one long story with a time skip in the middle, because this is going to be a long one. And I just decided to upgrade Milly from a relatively minor role to a major one, because I just realized how much I like her character here. That isn't to say that most characters won't get any spotlight, however. I've got plans for a lot of them. If you have characters that you like, I will stop just short of guaranteeing that most of them from the anime will make an appearance here. If they do appear, some of them might be… changed. The subtraction of Cornelia and Euphemia from the Britannian political scene, and their addition to Japan, has wrought quite a few changes in power balances; one you might already have noticed is that Clovis is not the Viceroy of Area Eleven. Why? We'll see… Also, I warn you: I'm going to ship almost every (named) character. I have a penchant for it that I inherited from reading the Wheel of Time series. This will require a lot of character development, so be prepared for the long haul. Even More Warning: There will be at LEAST one harem in the story. If you can't guess who it is, then you clearly haven't watched the show. Its member count is currently undetermined. I'm also going have (mostly) new battles. These will require some time, so battle chapters might take longer than relational chapters. I really think that this take on what might have been (or what is... who knows?) will be interesting, so if you like what you've read so far, why don't you stick with me? Let's see what happens!
