Phase XXII: At midnight all masks fall off.
(Royal family private transport plane)
October 31, 14:00 hours.
Lelouch had just boarded the private plane which was sent to transport him to Pendragon.
Last night around 1 in the morning Bismarck had told him that for his great victory, the emperor wished to reward him, so he sent his personal jet to fetch him, he also maintained that he would also reward his lieutenants, but that will be done later, the reason his father wanted to reward him so fast was a mystery to Lelouch.
"Guess will find out when I reach the mainland" Lelouch thought to himself and fell asleep in his chair.
(Slayers military facility)
"Well what do we do now? Do we start the revolution?" Sugiyama asked curious.
"No! The plan was to trigger it when Cornelia's army would be heavily engaged with Sawasaki's forces on the beach, if we did it now, it would surely end with our annihilation!" Todoh replied.
"So what do we do now?" Tamaki asked curious.
"The only thing we can do now with the presence of Cornelia's 8th army is to lie low, for now we will continue to gather strength, the brittannians will make a mistake one day and then we will exploit it!" Kaguya proclaimed and that restored everyone's fighting spirits.
Kallen forced a fake smile of assurance, but inside she was at turmoil.
"With leaders like Zero, Cornelia and Schneizell will the day in which Brittannia makes a mistake ever come?" she pondered in her head, after what happened only a few hours ago she also wondered if they could prevail against Lelouch, or would just be an annoyance.
(Fukuoka city, 42nd headquarters)
Kewell had written two letters of resignation to both his masters, he could not serve the one he spoke on the phone with since he no longer believed in him and his philosophy, and he could not face Prince Lelouch since he was sure he found out about Kewell's treachery he would no doubt kill him himself, after what Kewell was he would have done the same.
He then prepared to mail the letters; it would take a few days for them to reach their respective destination.
(Ashford Academy)
11: 55 pm
Rivals, Millie, Nina and Shirley were pulling another all night work session, with the invasion they decided to postpone the scheduled masked ball from today to a week from today.
"Please excuse me, I have to go the ladies room to freshen up!" Shirley replied and left the room.
"Hey guys look at what their broadcasting!" Rivals said to them and he turned the volume up.
On the TV the image of the Emperor sitting on his throne surrounded by the nobility of Pendragon was broadcasted.
The subtitles said ' that the emperor had summoned his son Prince Lelouch to reward him for the great victory he obtained last night.
"Man! I wish Lelouch was here so we could view it together!" Rivals said to himself mentally.
(Imperial palace throne room)
"His Imperial Highness Major General Lelouch vi Brittannia!" the chamberlain announced, and Lelouch entered the room.
Silence then reigned over the room, usually when a conquering general returned home and was received by the emperor the nobility would applaud him as he entered.
"Even with my great victory you still refuse to acknowledge me as an equal at least…you still only see me as the bastard child of a commoner whore!" Lelouch thought to himself and the silent reception he received was proof of that.
"You'd better pray I never become emperor, cause if I do I will confiscate all of your wealth and leave all of you parasites poorer than beggars!" Lelouch thought as he made his way to the throne, the nonility did not clap, but they did however bow their heads, from fear of his power rather than respect of his person.
Lelouch then reached the designated distance which a returning general is to be from his lord, saluted with a wave of his cape and got down on one knee and said.
"Major General Lelouch vi Brittannia reporting for duty!"
"Arise my son!" Charles said and Lelouch complied.
Charles then got up from his throne and clapped his hands, a pair of servants came to Lelouch carrying a large wooden case.
"Open it!" Charles told his son.
Lelouch complied and what he saw made his eyes go wide in amazement.
Within the case was a beautiful crimson double edged saber, Lelouch took the saber out of its case and admired its beauty and craftsmanship.
"A great sword for a great general!" Charles said with a chuckle.
"I thank you my lord!" Lelouch replied and gave a slight bow of the head and it was the first time in his life he was actually grateful to his father.
"However.. I think the title of major general does not suit you, so I will give you another one!" Charles said and he gestured towards the servants to bring him something.
"Is he going to promote me to Lieutenant general? Or perhaps make a member of the general staff?" Lelouch thought in his mind.
Charles then saw that his servants had returned with what he gestured him to get, took a few steps towards them, took what they brought, turned back to Lelouch and said.
"I Charles zi Brittannia in recognition of your enormous contribution to the Army of the Empire award you, my son Lelouch vi Brittannia the power, stile and title of Field Marshall!".
"No!...not that….anything but that!" Lelouch thought to himself in horror, for it was customary when a field marshal was created the respective person received a crown of olive branches, this dated back to the time of Eowin, who after his victory over Caesar he wore Caesar's golden olive branch crown as a war prize.
But what terrified Lelouch was the fact that for him to receive the crown he would have took take of his helmet and since he saw that TV Cameras were broadcasting it to the world, the whole planet would now know the secret which he tried so hard to keep, his face!
He looked at the crown that Charles was holding in his hands and in a desperate attempt to avoid such fate he quickly got down on his knees and said the following in a desperate attempt to protect his secret.
"Your majesty, forgive me…but I cannot accept your generous reward for I feel that I am unworthy o such a magnanimous reward!" the words came out of Lelouch's mouth in a manner in which a man begged for mercy rather than express modesty.
"Nonsense! You have achieved a feat of such greatnesses last night that would dwarf Eowin himself! If you are not worthy of a miserable field marshals commission, then I do not know who is!" Charles replied and his voice was filled with amazement at Lelouch's modesty, false amazement, which Lelouch did not fail to recognize.
"Now remove your helmet, and receive your reward!" Charles said with a smile on his lips.
Lelouch then looked angrily from within the protective gaze of his helmet and then the sudden realization behind the emperor's motivation had become obvious.
"A test of loyalty! This is what this all is! He wants me to prove my loyalty by forfeiting my greatest secret!" he angrily said in his mind.
He then looked at his father who was looking down on him and the snicker on his face transmitted the following message to Lelouch:
"You understand now don't you my son!"
(Slayers military base)
"Hey guys come quickly! The Iron Prince is about to unmask himself on TV before the emperor!" Tamaki said and everyone rushed to the TV.
(Ashford Academy, Nunnally's room)
Nunnally was listening on the radio what was happening between her brother and father and grabbed Sayoko's arm for courage, she knew that Lelouch had donned that mask and hidden his face so as to give her a normal life outside the circles of the nobility.
It did not bother her that her father decided that was no longer necessary, but she hoped that it would not affect her brother too much, so she tightened her grip on Sayoko's hand and waited for the inevitable.
(Brittannian 12th fleet)
"How could father do something like this!" Cornelia shouted to Guilford and Darlton.
Cornelia knew just how much effort Lelouch put into keeping his face secret from the public, she considered it an act of cruelty to deprive Lelouch of his most closely guarded secret.
"A field marshals commission is every officer's dream! How could he turn that it dream into a nightmare!" she said to herself and followed the broadcast.
(Kyushu, Dragon Cavalry's position)
"So we will finally be able to see the face of the man who defeated us" Zhou Xianglin said to Li and Huang.
"If he is a man at all, just because he calls himself Prince doesn't mean he is a male!" Hong said and his voice was entirely serious, since it was a serious statement.
"We will find that out soon enough!" Li Xingke said and tapped his fingers against the desk in restlessness.
(Kyushu, Jeremiah's position)
Jeremiah had just finished destroying almost half of the targets his Lord had given him when the transmission started and he viewed it.
Normally a knight would be delighted when his master received such a reward, but knowing that his lord had now had to remove his helmet and reveal his identity to the world it felt more like an execution that and exaltation.
He turned off the TV from within his Gun Ru and in fury and frustration he lunged himself at the remaining targets.
The same feeling was shared by George, Omar, Odysseus, Suzaku, Kewell and Viletta who were viewing the broadcast from the 42nd mobile command center.
(Fukuoka city Hi-TV broadcast van)
"3 billion viewers! Are you sure those numbers are correct?" Diethard asked over the phone, he was talking with Hi-TV central in regard to the broadcasts audience number.
"Yes sir! After the emperor said for him to unmask word spread like wild fire, and people from all over the world started turning on their Tv's , we even have reports that sites like Yahoo, Facebook and HI Five crashed from the sheer number of e-mails transmitted to tell people about the broadcast!" One of Diethard subordinates from Hi-TV replied amazed at what he himself had just confirmed.
"The whole world is viewing this! What will you do now Zero?" Diethard said to himself and looked at the screen with anticipation of what was to come.
(Pendragon city, throne room)
After hearing his father's reply he knew there was no way he could back down now, so Lelouch decided that if he was going down, he would go down with grace.
"Yes your majesty!" He said as best as he could.
*Bonk* New Big Ben of Pendragon rang its bell announcing that it was midnight.
"Midnight, Halloween….a rather perfect moment for my unmasking" Lelouch said to himself.
*Bonk* the bell rang a second time and Lelouch got up from his kneeling position.
*Bonk* the bell rang a third time and Lelouch moved to take of his cape.
*Bonk* the bell rang a fourth time and Lelouch cloak fell from his shoulders and touched the ground.
*Bonk* the bell rang a fifth time and Lelouch turned his head to the right side.
*Bonk* the bell rang a sixth time and he moved his right arm towards his helmet.
*Bonk* the bell rang a seventh time and the helmet opened revealing Lelouch black hair, since the camera was filming him from behind.
*Bonk* the bell rang an eight time and Lelouch turned his head towards his father and removed the helmet from his head.
*Bonk* the bell rang for the ninth time and Lelouch bowed his head slightly and lowered his body a few inches to receive the crown of olive branches.
*Bonk* the bell rang for the tenth time and Charles placed the crown on Lelouch head, and Lelouch started to turn around to face the world
*Bonk* the bell rang for the eleventh time and the world held's its breath in emotion.
*Bonk* the bell rang for the twelve time and the world now saw Lelouch's face and a great silence followed.
"Disappointed that Zero the Iron Prince is a brat or just surprised? I wonder?" Lelouch said in his mind nothing the great silence and shocked expression of the nobility and this great revelation, it was silent for a few seconds until Lelouch broke it.
"And now…all my nightmares know my name!" he said with a calm tone in his voice, it was not with his characteristic thunderous voice, for it sounded more like a man on death row cursing his enemies one last time before his execution.
Halloween was over and all masks had now fallen off!
Authors note:
Read and review, let me know if I should continue.