Lelouch tried not to lie to his sister.

Any sort of fib would just eat away at him. She was the only thing he had left, really. To put on another mask around her, to construct another web of fabrications…

Maybe it was because she was blind. His sister did not deserve to be patronized just because she was lacking vision, of course. Even if she was a gentler soul than he'd ever be, she deserved nothing less than the truth.

Feeding her lies would be so easy. But the idea of his sister being led around, being taken advantage of… it make his blood run cold. He had the means to see the world, to navigate it freely (or more freely, at least), the least he could give her was the unaltered truth.

With that thought in his mind, he simply could not bring himself to pull the trigger as he stared Clovis down. Could he tell her that he was a fratricide?

And that was all he needed to tip the scales. Maybe he was just very good at justifying his ideas- or maybe his fury had just blinded him.

Would he honestly feel bad about killing Clovis in a vacuum? Not really. Depending on how you chose to think of it, it could even be just. But it would bring a tremendous amount of attention to Area Eleven while his plans were still in the cradle.

"I order you! Obey me!"

Clovis could serve his penance as Lelouch's puppet. He could do a lot more good for the Japanese alive.

Lelouch inhaled, and began to lay out a complex series of orders. Behave normally, at least at first, but establish a secure channel of communication…

The limit would be how far he could reasonably stretch Clovis' behavior before it started raising eyebrows. Well, that would be a worry until he could achieve a stranglehold on the entire administration.

Also, while he was at it, he'd need proof, wouldn't he?

On the way home, he bought a bouquet. It probably wouldn't do much to mask the smells he accrued during the day- something told him Sayoko would know how to wash out bloodstains, though- but it was nice.

Nunnally sat by the radio, tracing line after line of braille as Sayoko cooked up dinner. The scene was blessedly domestic, even if he couldn't quite hear properly-

"Lelouch!" Well. He could hear Nunnally, at least, even if he couldn't quite pick up the sound of whatever Sayoko was frying. Knightmares and their stupidly loud guns…

He embraced his sister, setting the bouquet to the side. "Nunnally." He sighed.

"What were you out doing today?"

"I was… delayed after my chess game."

"Are you alright?'

"Yes. In fact, I'm waiting for a call."

"Did you finally find a girlfriend, Lelouch?" His sister smirked, "Shirley will be disappointed-"

"Not quite."

"Boyfriend?'

"Hush, you." He laughed. Before they could continue talking, there were interrupted by a ringing. He shot towards the phone.

Lelouch picked up the phone and put it on speaker. "Hello, Clovis, is that you?"

"Yes. Did you need something, Lelouch?" Nunnally did smile for a moment, recognizing the voice, but her brow furrowed as she listened. For a number of reasons, this wasn't supposed to be happening.

"The access codes for Area Eleven's governmental computer systems, if you would."

Without a moment of delay, he began to rattle them off. Sayoko's eyes widened, and Nunnally's brows arched in surprise.

Nunnally had a braille display, a computer, and login information for Area Eleven's servers. She was, perhaps, the most powerful girl in the country.

Well, barring the green-haired woman whom Lelouch cited as the source of his powers. The immortal. (She believed it, of course. Her brother wouldn't lie.)

She had a lot of tools available to her now. Getting familiar with the security and records offices was obvious, but she decided to indulge in a bit of curiosity first. Britannia kept a very tight hold on their citizen's web access….

There! The emergency backdoor codes. Just in case anyone got funny ideas anywhere. With those, just about everything in Area 11 could be viewed at her leisure. What to do, what to do?

The most obvious was to to scrub some of the records regarding Ashford Academy. Using their actual first names, really? It was a miracle they hadn't been caught earlier.

It was a little late to go for a name change now, what with so many people knowing them, but still. There was also a lot of useful information just sitting there. Like grades.

Nina was the school's shining star, of course- Nunnally would have to have a chat with her- and Nunnally also saw her grades and Lelouch's. Perfectly middling. They couldn't be winning academic awards or anything like that, after all.

She took notes of who might be useful. There were lists of alumni as well- if they got Nina on board, she could use aides. Despite Lelouch's opinions about the nobility, their perfidy and sloth and etc, there were some real talents. Most wouldn't be sold on their particular operation… but that was what Geass was for, wasn't it?

Maybe the autonomy of other people should have been a greater concern for her. Maybe her experience with the royal court and their manipulations should have given her a tremendous respect for free will, knowing what it was like to have it stolen away.

It just… didn't. They lived in a vicious world, and if Nunnally had to make a choice between people she didn't know and her brother…

The world hard already given them enough rough breaks.

Her typing stopped as she heard footsteps outside the door, the slight jostling at the knob…

"Who is it?"

No answer. Nunnally pressed the panic button under her desk. More footsteps. She began to maneuver her chair-

A delicate hand wrapped around her wrist, and she could suddenly see, a flood of images pouring into her mind.

At the very least, she was grateful that her room wasn't tacky. Lelouch had a good eye for aesthetics- it gave a bit of substance to the showmanship.

Well, Nunnally did kind of wish she could see it with her own eyes, but anything was better than nothing. Plus, Sayoko had remarkable vision: natural twenty-twenty. She had really won the genetic lottery there.

(Well, Sayoko had won the genetic lottery in a lot of ways, complemented by the training Nunnally could now observe. That someone as incredible as Sayoko had contented herself with service…)

Well, Sayoko was good to start with, but then she started to push. She wasn't limited to one person, although attempting to thread too many through her one brain would only result in a splitting headache.

Sayoko's sight was good to borrow for general use around the house, but of course she leapt into Lelouch's point of view as soon as he walked into range.

The campus was all flush with life, the students wondering about with no understanding of who truly walked among them. A prince in exile! It was damnably romantic.

...

Kaguya Sumeragi received an email without a subject from a governmental address, and tried to fight the terror that raced through her. The complex she was in remained unraided, security was fine…

Still, the Kyoto houses and the Japanese more generally had one lesson burned into them: do not catch Britannia's attention. To do so invited exploitation at best and death at worst.

However, she couldn't in good conscience ignore it.

What it asked for was quite strange, though… no screaming at her about audits, no suggestions about her Sakuradite prices, but rather an invitation. Not to one of those splendid parties the Britannians were so fond of, but rather a simple invite for lunch.

The question, of course, was the sort of person who would use government servers for personal correspondence. It was a definite show of strength…

But whose?

The restaurant was fashionable, enough for the waiters to think it a little outside of her price range. They sneered at her she was walked in, but they did let her walk in, even escorting her to her mysterious acquaintance.

She scanned the restaraunt. She bad already been briefed on every possible exit, where her getaway vehicles were, everything to make sure she got out of the meeting alive. Even then, they didn't know so much…

"Hello." The girl smiled, so gentle that Kaguya almost forgot the strings those delicate little hands pulled at.

"Can you tell your man in the car to stop fiddling with his carbine? It's making me antsy."

Kaguya blinked. What was she…?

"You have all that radio equipment and not so much as a single line to him?"

Kaguya fiddled with the thin, almost invisible curve of plastic that hid under her ear. "Hello? Getaway 1?"

"Yes, milady?" He snapped to attention quickly, at least.

"Were you by any chance handling your carbine before I called?"

"Yes. I was…"

Kaguya's eyes flicked up to Nunnally. "Tell him to pay his parking fee. A few pounds will be the least of his worries if someone investigates him."

"Did you pay your parking fee?" Kaguya hissed, somehow believing her.

"Milady, it's seven pounds-"

"I'll reimburse you!"

Kaguya tried to laugh. "Thank you for the reminder. Where can you get good help these days?"

"Oh, I have a remarkable Japanese maidservant." Nunnally answered. "A Sayoko Shinozaki."

Sayoko Shinozaki… One of those Shinozakis? No one had really thought them extinct, but to say one served under you was a bold claim. Unfortunately, Nunnally's bold claims tended to be tragically well founded.

"I want you to support my brother." Nunnally answered.

"Your brother."

Nunnally attempted to slide the bill towards herself before Kaguya caught it. "I can pay for myself, thank you very much."

"I invited you to this restaurant, I should foot the bill."

"There's no need to burden yourself unduly…"

"It wouldn't be a burden at all. I insist. My email must have given you quite the scare back then, right? I'm just making up for it."

She tugged the bill out from Kaguya's fingers, before pulling out a wallet and shuffling through notes, which she did with supreme confidence despite her closed eyes.

(No Britannian schoolgirl would carry around that sort of pocket change.)