Phase VI: The Last night of love and the first day of war
(Governor Palace private airfield, nighttime)
Lelouch and Suzaku along with Jeremiah, Viletta and Kewell where standing on the landing strip, both were in their respective disguises and before them the plane which carried the new governor general had just landed, and the doors where starting to open.
"Lelouch!, Suzaku!" a voice was heard and suddenly Euphemia jumped out of the air plane door and gave both of them a hug.
Lelouch was happy to see his sister, and moment after she let go off the two of them he said:
"Good to see you Euphie, are you by any change the new governor?" Lelouch asked.
Euphie by now was not hugging the both of them, but she still had her hands around Suzaku and said: "No, I'm just the vice governor."
"I am the new governor" A voice was heard from behind Euphie and Cornelia appeared, flanked by her two knights Darlton and Guilford.
"Come here you two Darlton immediately went towards the two young men and gave both of them a bear hug, and lifted them from the ground, "How are my favorite students, hah, hah, I 'we followed your progress since you two graduated from West Point" .
The truth was that Lelouch was no good for physical shape and Suzaku was an anti-talent when it came to studying, so Cornelia made Darlton they're tutor which explained Darlton's unprofessional behavior towards t he two.
"Good to see you Darlton-sensei" Suzaku replied.
"If you don't mind letting us breath we would be grateful" Lelouch replied also.
Darlton immediately set them down.
"Well sorry, how can I tell if I was squeezing you too hard with you you're highness wearing a fishbowl on your head, and you captain wearing a oversized smiley face badge" Darlton replied to the two.
"Intel is essential, the less Intel your enemy has upon you, the better" Lelouch replied still catching his breath.
"I see that Darlton had tough you well, and the Lessons learned have been put to good use" Cornelia replied.
A few moments later the group was inside the governor's palace, and we're sitting inside the main office.
"Quite the shindig you have here Lelouch" Cornelia remarked while admiring the view from outside.
"It's you office now Cornelia, I am glad you are the new governor, cause I've been meaning to ask off you something , but I've never had the opportunity up until now." Lelouch replied.
Cornelia turned around to face him and asked "Well what is it?"
Lelouch asked that he and Cornelia be left alone and the others followed his request and left the room.
"Permission to raise an army" Lelouch replied and at this Cornelia was horrified, she had tried to stop her brother from going into the military since she was the one who raised and protected Lelouch and Nunnally after Empress Marianne had died, she hated the though oh him dying on a battlefield, and had not even known about his mission to Siberia until after he finished it, and now he was asking her for an army to lead to the field where death dance's and sings it's merry songs.
"I understand what you're asking, but currently we have a ceasefire with the E.U and we are not engaged in any war with the Chinese Federation so I do not see why"
"The war is not over, it will begin sooner then you are telling me" Lelouch snapped at her, which shocked Cornelia for she had known her little brother to be a man of patience who always maintain a cool head.
"You and I both know that is the truth….., sister" he said while he took of his mask held it in his hands in a manner which showed respect and obedience and with the calmest voice he could muster.
"Sister, after Siberia you elevated me with three ranks as a reward, I thank you for that and I in turn have given my subordinates ranks in according with their talents, but …." He paused and took a breath of air; he then exhaled and with a slight angry tone in his voice said:
"I am a major general without a army corps, Jeremiah is a brigadier general without a division, Kewell and Viletta are Brigadiers without regiments, and Suzaku is my captain of the guard without a royal guard!,"
"Sister I did not go through all the crap they put us trough at West point so I can say "I am an officer", no I went through it to get an army, to fight, and to prove to all those nobles and politicians back home who say I am nothing more than the worthless son of a commoner whore, who got her rank by sexual favors wrong!" he roared out the last part and slammed his fist on the table.
He then retracted his fist, stood up straight and finished his statement by saying:
"If you don't give me a commission, then I while resign from the army, you know that I have the necessary skills to lead it, and if you do not give me one then there is no point in me continuing to hold the rank of Major general" with a tremble in his voice and waited for an answer.
Cornelia at this was speechless; she knew all that Lelouch said was true, he had the necessary skills to lead, he shown that during the war games at West Point and most recently during Siberia, if it had been anyone else she would have given him an army long ago, but the fear of losing her little brother, that combined with the fact that Clovis had just died a few days ago made this even harder for her.
"Alright General, you have permission to raise an army" Cornelia hesitantly, but with a commanding tone replied.
"Do I have permission to raise the troops without external interference?" Lelouch asked.
Cornelia knew that by that he meant that he would probably use numbers in his forces; Lelouch was sympathetic to them ever since Japan was invaded.
"You have" she replied with a nod.
"Thank you,…..oh by the way I have another request of you" Lelouch said with a trembling voice.
"What is it?" Cornelia asked confused, and slightly unsettled at Lelouch's voice.
"Can you call a doctor? My hand is bleeding" He said he then surrounded his injured hand with his healthy one and leaned forward from the pain.
At this sigh Cornelia jumped out from where she was standing quickly over to Lelouch, horrified and panicked and what was happening.
"A doctor, we need a doctor" she shouted
"How did this happen, you only slammed it on the desk! Cornelia asked.
"It's the same hand from Shinjuku; I must have opened the wound." Lelouch replied with his voice clearly in pain and gasping.
Cornelia's eyes went wide with amazement.
"You actually stabbed yourself in the hand; I thought that was just a parlor trick!" She then grabbed Lelouch's ear by the lobe with her fingers and said:
"You are in big trouble mister!" a moment latter the doctor came in the room followed by the others who a few moments later left the room, the sight of a bleeding Lelouch with Cornelia holding him by the ear made them momentarily pause from the sheer weirdness of the situation, but the doctor snapped back to it and went to treat him.
(The next morning; Outside the governor's palace.)
Suzaku was now dressed in civilian clothes and was planning on enjoying his day off, when all of a sudden he heard a voice from above.
" Look out" Euphie cried as she jumped from a rope of bed sheets right onto Suzaku, who caught her.
"Euphemia-sama! What are you doing?"He asked while he put her down
"I want to see the city, but my sister insists that it's too dangerous, and didn't I tell you too call me Euphie?" she retorted.
At this Suzaku blushed slightly and was having a hard time finding the right words, but before he could respond he saw, that Euphie was tending to a wounded cat.
"Meow, meow, are you alright meow?" she said to the cat and he immediately warmed up to her.
Euphie picked up the cat and said "Looks like he is injured"
Suzaku walked over and attempted to pet the cat, but his attempt was in vain for the cat responded by biting his hand.
A few minutes later Suzaku's hand was wrapped in bandage and Euphie was feeding the wounded cat which was now bandaged.
"Do you hate cast" Euphie asked.
"No I love them, but it seems my love is unrequited" he replied and tried to pet the cat, but he received a hiss.
"That is just like you Suzaku, unrequited love is a sign of a gentle heart, ….although you have problems when it's requited love" she whispered the last part.
"What was that?" he asked.
"N…..Nothing!" Euphie asked with a blush on her face.
"Anyway, I'd like to see the ghetto, would you take me there?" Euphie asked, Suzaku was hesitant, since it would be dangerous, but she threatened to use her rank so he complied.
(Shinjuku ghetto)
The ghetto was a poor excuse for a district, bombed buildings, no water, no electricity.
"Suzaku, my brother died here in Shinjuku against terrorists didn't he?" she asked and Suzaku nodded , Lelouch had confined in him that Clovis shot himself, but they decided to tell Euphie that he was a brave man who died on the battlefield, rather than a loony who shot himself out of fear from his father.
"Something tells me I should hate them for what they done,… but I do not,…. also looking at how they live I cannot help but say that they have a good reason to fight us "bloodthirsty Britannia's" she said with a fake chuckle.
Suzaku wanted to tell her that things were going to change, but he did not have time for he saw a couple off students being molested by three Japanese.
He quickly rushed over, followed by Euphie to intervene.
"Please stop this, where all on the same side" he said at which Tamaki who was one of the three men looked at him and Euphie and replied" Stay out of this" and showed him a little, making the sunglasses which Suzaku was wearying fall from his face.
Tamaki looked astound now at Suzaku and said: "What the hell, you're Japanese and you protect these Brittanian scum!" he then looked at Euphie and remarked "Wait a minute!, you must be one of those Honorary Britannia's, and I bet that girl you're little british whore," Tamaki said while looking at Euphie again "YOU SOLD YOU"RE FRIENDS AND YOU'RE SOUL JUST SO YOU CAN HAVE SOME LITTLE BRITTANIAN PUSSY,AND YOU DARE SAY THAT WE'RE ON THE SAME SIDE!" and lunged at Suzaku.
Suzaku military training kicked in and he quickly dispatched Tamaki, who had to be carried away by the two other's present.
"Ah, they broke my camera, why didn't you kill them, you're an honorary Brittanian, they're elevens, and they're not worth trash" but was stopped by a slap on the face from Euphie who said: "I will not allow you to insult this man".
(Lelouch's quarters, Ashford Academy)
Lelouch was guiding Cornelia towards Nunnally's room.
"So Clovis did not die in battle….." Cornelia said with a breath of exasperation.
"Yes, apparently he was conducting some king of experiment, apparently it was so taboo that he preferred shooting himself rather than facing father's wrath and having his mother pay for his mistake's as he put it" Lelouch replied towards Cornelia.
After the doctor healed his hand and they were alone gain Lelouch decided to confide in Cornelia the truth regarding Clovis's death, for The Witch of Brittannia was not well known for compassion, and if she though the Japanese had killed him, then she would have unleashed her full fury upon the island drowning it in blood.
"Still the eleven's are partially to blame, they still continue to refuse to accept that we are the new masters of this island, they need to be put back into they're place" Cornelia replied.
"They are already live under miserable conditions and the majority of the terrorists fight against us in the hopes that they will create a better future for their children, if we make their current living conditions worsen the fear of our power will be dwarfed by the hatred they have for us, and then even more people will flock to swell the ranks of the terrorists, this fact has been proven by my reforms, our spies in the ghettos have reported that almost 60 % of the terrorist cell's have disbanded so they can benefit from the phoenix fund." Lelouch retorted.
Cornelia listen to Lelouch, and she herself had reservations about the numbers, in her opinion the numbers should have proper living conditions, but they should be segregated from the Brittanian citizens "equal but separate" was her opinion, she was not extremely racist, but she neither was extremely sympathetic.
Amongst the general population of the empire a neutral opinion about the numbers was shared by the majority of Britannia's citizens, they didn't like them but they didn't hate them either.
"No matter how you look at it, the numbers are slaves, and if a slave is set free the first thing he does is take revenge upon his master for him being a slave" Cornelia told Lelouch.
Lelouch knew this too be true and it was a known fact that hatred and a desire for revenge is the one thing which persists the most in human nature, but he also knew that thing's where not that simple so he stopped right outside the door to the living room, turned towards Cornelia and said:
"Unless they're masters are the ones to set them free" Lelouch told Cornelia and paused for a moment before continuing.
"While people may hate a country, a government, a philosophy, which is against them, they will love, fight for and die for a person who fights against it" he finished and saw no change in Cornelia's facial expression so he continued with:
"And it was not the numbers who forced Clovis to blow his brains out, it was fear!... fear that his mother, his uncle, his friends would all pay for his incompetence, we as humans are willing to accept the consequence of our actions, but we are unwilling to let others suffer for our transgressions, that is the kind of country we serve!." Lelouch then took two steps towards Cornelia brought his head closer to her and said with a soft and angry tone:
"How long before I blow my brains out to protect Nunnally? Or you blow yours to protect Euphie? As long as this system remains sooner or later that day will come!" he finished, with a rasp of disgust which was heard as he said the final nine words of the sentence.
Cornelia at this only looked away from him, and shifted her head towards the ground, she knew that Lelouch was right, hell the only one who ever managed to win a debate with him was they're older brother Schneizell , and even him saw the merit in Lelouch's opinion.
"That may be true, but only the emperor has the power to change that policy" She retorted and directed her gaze towards Lelouch once more.
"Yes! …only the emperor does" Lelouch replied looking Cornelia straight in the face, a moment of silence flooded the room which seemed like an eternity, until it was broken by Cornelia.
"Enough of politics for one day, let's not get into an argument, when came here so I can meet Nunnally, not to argue with you "little mare" Cornelia replied and changed her tone and facial expression from dead serious to a playful one, and Lelouch responded in kind, the nickname Cornelia had for him "little mare" was one who always defused tension and made Lelouch cheer up.
"You know I'm not exactly little" he replied with a chuckle in his voice.
"But you still are a mare" Cornelia replied and both of them entered the living room with laughter coming out of them.
"Hello Nunnally" Cornelia shouted.
"Sister Cornelia!" Nunnally shouted in joy, she was making origami with Sayoko, and Cornelia was about to go towards her to hug her when she was stopped in her tracks by the sight of a young woman, with green hair which appeared to be dressed I a straight jacket?
"Ah sister, this is miss C.C, we've been making origami together," She told her sister with a smile.
"Hello" she said towards Cornelia and gave a slight bow of the head, which Cornelia returned with slight hesitation inside of her.
Lelouch was horrified at the sight of his two sisters' and that witch at the same table, C.C saw this and said towards him:
"I got hungry waiting for you, so I decided to go eat and I met you're little sister."
" Oh! And you should get a new bed, this one's a little small" She finished and continued with the piece of origami she was working on.
At this piece of information Cornelia was stunned and quickly snapped her head towards Lelouch and asked: "Lelouch just what is your relationship with this woman?.
"We have a contract." C.C replied with a tone of indifference in her voice.
"C…Contract!" Cornelia chocked on the word, in today's society men of peerage where, accustomed to taking in mistresses, this action would not have as a response a plight of ignorance form the ladies, and hypocritical scorn form gentleman who they themselves had such women, No!, such reaction would only happen if the said person did not take care of his mistress.
Many mistresses where discarded when they're patrons tired of them, and by then they would be looked upon by society as leftovers, and had few marriage prospects, either they were too old, or the fact that they where once a mistress made men repulse at the idea of taking another man's "reject".
So over time a law was made, any person who wanted to take a mistress, needed to provide for her an alimony for the rest of her life, a house, and college and child support should any children be a product of that union, this all had to be put down in paper, making in something reserved only for the fabulously rich, it was a practice which had started form Ricardo vi Britannia, the founder of the House of Britannia, he himself had tens of children, with dozens of women, but unlike others, who did the same and only provided financial support for these illegitimate offspring's he was different.
A month before the death of Elizabeth the third he at a royal banquet all of a sudden rose from his seat and boldly proclaimed to the gathered nobility which included the queen herself the following:
"It is impossible to ask a man of power to be faithful to his wife until death parts them, power corrupts and begs for it to be used, any man who has the power to have any woman he desires will use it, even the most pious and faithful man towards his wife will succumb to such a power's corruption, and any woman of high society which has a half a pound of brain knows that she can expect her husband to be unfaithful, anyone who denies this is either a liar, or is not in the possession of such a power, I myself have never been married, but I have fathered 15 children, by five different women, all of these women I loved, and all of my children I love with all my heart. I have openly proclaimed them as my one, and named them my heirs, yet you act as I am some immoral creature for simply giving my children the love and recognition they deserve, one of our greatest queens Elizabeth I was viewed by those outside England as a bastard child of Anne Boleyn, and may I remind you that our greatest king Henry the IX was also a bastard!
I am tired of this society who proclaims that the law of :"there is only the wife for the nobleman" is as sacred as Christianity itself , and nobody follows this proclamation! I might someday decide to emigrate to Turkey or Iraq, a place where polygamy is practiced without the shroud of hypocrisy."
This stunned the room, for everyone knew of it, yet no one spoke of it, a sort of public secret, but the silence was interrupted by a pair of hands clapping, the nobles where surprise to see that it was the queen herself who was clapping at this proclamation.
A week after the feast, a new law proposed by the queen was approved by parliament, making polygamy legal; it was opposed half heartily, since many men were delighted by the prospect of having a harem, even if few could afford one.
Three weeks later the queen died and appointed Ricardo as her successor, he immediately married the women who where mothers to his children, five in total, and made all of his children prince's, since then is was expected that if a male would succeed the throne, he would have to have at least five empresses, and take several other wives and even a few mistresses to ensure plenty of offspring's, prince's and princesses' who would lead the country, he also made a law that the next king or queen would be chosen by the council based upon skill alone, since Ricardo loved all his children equally he could not favor one over the other for the throne , it was the reason the Britannian monarchy survived the "Age of Revolution", the sheer number on royalty who were in key position in the military, economy and government , made it so that the royal family was the military, economy and government, making it impossible for non royals to make it to a position where they could destroy the monarchy, and even if they did they where quickly married off to a member of the royal family to ensure they're loyalty.
That combined with the fact that after a new monarch ascended, they're sisters and brothers would be removed from the line of succession, leaving only the children of the current king candidates, mixed with the fact that those children where pitted against each other ensured that only the best of them would become the ruler of the country this prevented civil wars, and ensured that a capable ruler would arise to lead the country.
This non-interrupted line of great kings is what transformed the Empire from thirteen small colonies on the end of the civilized world, into s superpower, which comprised of 1/3 of the world today
Fifty years after this Duke Oswald von Gotwald wrote in his journal:
"With one bold proclamation Ricardo, my king inadvertently created a type of monarchial system which by bypassing the traditional one king one queen system proved to have the power of producing capable kings and queens, therefore avoiding the incompetent rulers such as those who brought the French Revolution, which destroyed the European Royal houses."
The historian Alfred H Periwinkle wrote that:
" If yesterday he did not lose his temper and made a fit then he would have not been crowned king today, by the queen's appointment.
Another factor to consider is that in those times, a royal heir was supposed to be from a legal wife, but as it happened many times in history, the illegitimate children outshined the legitimate ones, this in turned was due to the fact once a child was born he knew from the start that he would be the next king, and since he did not have to fight for that position, the skills which one usually develops from competition with others over a prize was nonexistent, making the future kings the equivalent of doctors who received diplomas without even going to medical school.
This also turned the profession of mistress from a hush taboo pleasure, into a luxury which only the fabulously wealthy could afford, and prince's often made "contracts" with such women, if they intended to take on a mistress." (A History of the Empire )
The fact that C.C proclaimed that she had a "a contract" with Lelouch made Cornelia freeze from the shock of the news "A mistress, Lelouch has taken a mistress!" she said to herself.
"No, C.C is just making a joke" Lelouch tried to tell those present.
"I hate jokes" C.C retorted.
This made Lelouch panic even more and he hit his left pants pocket accidentally, hitting his cell phone and making the answering machine service replay the calls he missed.
If the misconception that Lelouch had taken a mistress was like a bomb exploding to a anormal person to Cornelia, this was like a hydrogen bomb going off,
This made an almost eerie silence fall the room, and the four females present, we're all giving him the look, even Nunnally's who was blind was giving him it.
Faced with a situation like this Lelouch did the only thing a soldier could do…..he retreated.
"Bed's two small?, what do you mean C.C?, here why don't you show me yourself" he said and dragged C.C along.
At this Nunnally only looked towards her paper crane and said "Brother is such a playboy!" while exhaling a breath of disappointment at Lelouch's behavior.
Cornelia was for the most part still processing the information she had just received.
(Lelouch's bedroom)
"Didn't I tell you to stay in this room? For god sake's the military is looking for you, haven't you no sense of danger at all" Lelouch yelled at C.C, and at his reaction C.C emotionlessly said:
"You are the military, also it would be better for your sister to think I'm your girl, rather than I was you're brothers lab rat." She pulled of her boots and started to tuck herself in the bed.
"Hey wait, are you just going to sleep now? I have a lot off questions to ask you, what was that power you offered?, who are you?" but C.C only responded with a good night.
Lelouch knew he had been defeated, so he left the room to go find an isolated place to smoke a cigar, he was not a real smoker, for he puffed the cigar without inhaling it's smoke, he also only did this when he was unwinding after a stressful event.
He was about to pull out his cigar from his pocket, but stopped himself when he saw that Cornelia, was approaching him.
"We need to talk" she said and motioned for Lelouch to join her in the library, once they were alone and sitting at a table, Lelouch popped the first question
"What do you want to talk about sister?"
"Just remembering how cute you were as a baby, how I watched you and Euphie get into trouble, and I've just realized that, you are now a man and a man has certain needs, and it is obvious you have someone to see to those needs".
At this statement, a look of horror came to Lelouch face and he buried his head in his hands, Cornelia was going to give him the TALK!.
"Sister, C.C is not really my mistress" he started saying but was stopped by a raise of the hand by Cornelia who said:
"Since you're mother is not here it falls to me to ensure you are not sexually irresponsible" and so despite Lelouch's innocence he was now sentenced to a punishment of countless hours of proper sexual practice, that combined with the fact that it was being delivered by his elder sister made it an even worst punishment.
Lelouch looked at the sky and somewhere, somehow he knew that Clovis was laughing his ass off.
(The next day, Brittannian concession railroad cart)
"Well I am glad you are in good spirits now Shirley" Millie said to her friend.
"Well never been out off the settlement , so this is exciting, going to lake Kawaguchi !"Shirley replied.
The train passed under a passage way making the light dim, and Nina who was with them shivered slightly from fright, Millie placed her hand upon Nina's and said: "It's alright, well be far away from the ghetto".
(Meanwhile back at Lelouch's mobile command center).
Jeremiah, Viletta Kewell and Suzaku all entered Lelouch's office within the command center and he gave them all the good news.
"So we finally have our own army!" Jeremiah replied with the broadest smile he could muster.
"For now it's just a division, we must first gather battleexperience, and then we can expand it into a full army corps, then a fully fledged army." Lelouch replied.
"And what will be the name of our division?" Kewell asked
"It will be the 501st knightmare division, instead of reforming other regiments into a new division we will have to raise it, and drill the men ourselves if we want a disciplined army, but nothing worthwhile is ever done by cutting corners" Lelouch replied to his officers and they all agreed, they didn't mind the extra work, since the day they had waited for so long had finally come.
"Why don't we celebrate this" Viletta said and she went down stairs to turn on the TV with the intend of finding MTV, but the TV was set on the news channel and she saw something, that made her party mood all but disappear.
"Lelouch, you have to see this, it's an emergency! "Suzaku who was also downstairs yelled.
Lelouch went down and saw the news report.
"We are live here at the Kawaguchi Sakuradite conference, where only minutes ago, a group of Terrorists, calling themselves the Japan Liberation Front have taken members of the comity and tourists will now show you footage from the terrorists" and there the whole group saw about 30 people taken hostage, among them where the student council members Shirley, Millie and Nina and most surprisingly a pink haired young girl with glasses on was seen amongst them.
"Euphie!" Suzaku cried in shock.
"Looks like we will get field experience sooner than we thought" Lelouch replied and continued to stare angrily at the news report.
Authors note
Dun dun dunnn! Clifhanger!, Now is we're the filler stops and the plot restarts, anyway I know you we're all expecting the Kawaguchi thing to happen sooner or latter, well here is my take on it
Read and Review, let me know if I should continue!