"I acknowledge that Love is the most powerful emotion, but even it can be manipulated, what is worse, fearing for yourself or for someone you love? Fear is the root of it all, I do not like it, but I can no longer ignore the truth in that."

Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia

…

Screens lit the surrounding room in a colour-filled mix of chaos, showing the vision of a dozen cameras, all focused on the events unfolding in Siberia, she leaned back in her chair, so he had escaped V.V, good, that would agitate him, the next step should be easier then.

"This will not be good for morale." Naoto had a point, while it was progress against the true enemy, this would kill morale amongst the recruits not let in on the Dictorate, who were here to fight Britannia now that it was weakened and not to deal with the true threat. Still, moral would not be the only thing affected, the Lion was sure to come for the Dragon, and while she was willing to give up the advantage of having Kallen on their side, the time for such was not yet, not while the Dictorate still had Him.

"We will have to move soon. The Dictorate will have to fall." The problem was, to deal with the elevators they needed Lelouch, who was still hidden from her, V.V was tricky, and while she was building her army, an army alone was not enough, it needed a commander, and while she was good at intrigue and could fight, she was no leader of men. "Start spreading rumors of my being in Japan."

"Yes, Mistress."

…

Massive swords were a big trope for a reason, guys love swords, hitting things with swords, pretty much everything sword, I mean, I do at least, it's one of those things that has always been of interest to me, it was why I had Harris design this particular weapon long before it was in any way practical. Whirling plasma glowed a bright neon blue as I raised it up towards the charging foe, I reached within and pulled on that baleful energy still resting within me, Geass responding as it always did, my eyes burning as I felt the emotions of those around me.

Fear. Let them feel fear. Fear like that of a child caught by an abusive parent. Fear not of death, but of the pain that will last. Let them Dread me. The time for Mercy has passed, the time for holding back has passed, it is time to win.

Their charge flattered for a moment, they moved quickly, their machines cutting trenches into the ground, that was when I moved, just shifting Zeus around giving them pause, that was familiar, the last time I had tried to force dread was during the war against the Chinese so long ago now, during my assault on the carrier. Dread was a more powerful emotion than I realized, because as I set a single step forwards, they faltered, before the watching eyes of the world the elites of Europe faltered, a perfect return to order. A step forwards again, and their charge halted, as amusing as this admittedly was, I do not exactly have the time, I have more things to put in their place, more things to finally act on.

My next step was followed by a burst of the thrusters, sending me across the field at speeds that seemed to surprise them, the one at the front raised a giant axe towards me and my blade coming up cleaved the rough metal in half, and cut deep into the Russian made mecha, melting metal as it went. I grabbed the chunky metal arm of the opponent and wrenched, pulling the machine along my blade, dragging the machine towards the ground onto which it slammed with an eardrum bursting sound, planting my foot and the thruster within against its cockpit.

"No!" The cry from below was not met with mercy, and as the other European soldiers watched in paralyzed horror as the thruster on my leg fired, a bright white burst of heat and energy that turned to blue as the metal below it heated and gave way to a horrifying scream of pain. The scream got panicked movement from the other machines that were remaining behind, one charged, I pulsed dread again, pulling on the invisible strings of their emotions like a child would pull on hair, uncaring of their minds.

His charge faltered once again, but his momentum carried him forward further, I leveled the shoulder cannon with his cockpit with such smooth ease I found myself amazed, the part of my body that was not there on my human one already integrating so quickly, and fired. These Cannons had some major changes from the original test type used during Harris experiments and were notably smaller than the versions on the Olympus and Atlantis, but the whine of a fusion lance was unmistakable.

A pure blue line cut through the air, rapidly expanding matter and plasma contained by the self-propagating magnetic field it projected, piercing through the armor of the Russian Mecha's chest before detonating in a screech, at the same time I shifted right, and swung my blade outwards, cutting the legs off of another Mecha. The last two were approaching me in unison, but they seemed so dreadfully slow to me, a burst of the thrusters, and I was between them, bowling one over by the sheer momentum, while I leveled the left shoulder gun at the other and fired.

Differing unit markings on that machine, wZero soldiers going against orders?

Sloppy Layla, very sloppy.

A second lance of blue saw the same result as the first, with a turn and a sweep of my sword that seemed so contemptuously easy I cleaved deep enough into the cockpit of the Mecha I had floored, killing the pilot, leaving just the one stuck in a mecha without legs alive, he would live for now, whether that be luck of not was up for debate.

….

My chambers on the Olympus were a mess.

Papers scattered, data pads discarded after running out of battery, a variety of empty bottles, and ashtrays filled with the remains of cigars, all from the nights it had taken me to finally figure out how to sleep and turn off the liver implant that prevented my intoxication. Rakshata had already delivered a detailed, extremely detailed, document on my new implants and the results had not been good.

I would function like the best soldier and pilot at the same time, lacking a G limit, being partially immune to bullets and knives, with massively enhanced strength, I was also likely to die by age 40 if not earlier, that simple factoid had triggered a brief period of existential dread. The upside was that if I removed the more hazerdous cerebral implants the Order had installed I would likely live an additional 20 years at least, the downside is that no one has any idea on how to remove said implants without literally killing me, as they were spread from the center of my brain. That had triggered a whole new series of experiments on my new body too, like figuring out how to turn off the damned liver implant, as I really wanted to be drunk at the time, and realizing that smoking would no longer harm my lungs, as those too had been replaced by a mechanized alternative.

Shit was fucked, and I was just beginning to form something resembling a plan when the EU rolled out its Soviet Mecha, interrupting my valuable thinking time with shit I had to deal with, now returning to my room I was struck with all those feelings I had pushed away. Marius would be up in a moment or two, so I would not have long to think, but I had a promise to make to myself, I had been too easygoing, too sure of my control over the narrative of the story I was crafting, and it had blown up in my face, that won't happen again.

I am here to create a story, but what would a story like mine be if I lost?

I would be just another footnote, another failed self-insert, another thing to be discarded by the people watching my very thoughts and reading my mind, that would not happen, the time for sandbagging was over, no more holding back, it's time to win, fuck the consequences. I have become attached to this world, I have made family and friends here and found what passes for love for someone like me, I am not going to give that up because of some fucking midget and his incest fetish, nor to the old man wanting to cosplay God.

I was put here to make War, to turn War into a story, a story of Victory, and so I will, this I vow, to myself and to the world I made my home.

"God Andre, you look worse in person." I snorted at Marius' words as he casually entered my at the moment ramshackle room, turning to my brother by bond I found him looking older, not physically, barely half a year had passed since I was taken, but he looked more mature, more focused, the last bit of childlike innocence in him gone. "I am so fucking glad to see you, though. God Andre, shits been bad, real bad, Cornelia's MIA presumed KIA, Euphemia in a coma, Julius, the rising star banished for some scandal, our Empire is damn near done for."

"To be reshaped in the image of all that we hoped to remove." That had been the core of my power base, many saw the coming downwards slope our nation was heading down, corruption had set in long ago and the government, my father, was not even trying to uproot it, focused as he was on his plan for the death of personality. "I will need you for the coming time Marius, we need to reestablish our power base, find new supporters and rallying figures, Marrrybell and you will have to form the start of that while I work on the Rounds."

"Not exactly happy about that, but it's been unavoidable since the attack."

"How has it been for you, brother?"

"Chaotic to say the least, we lost so many friends, so many I could trust, it's a miracle Nonette and Dora made it, hell, we are down to fifty Spartans from three hundred, so many lost, at least your back."

"As much as is left of me, at least, how about Milly?"

"My fiancé is doing quite well from what limited communication we had, she is helping with the rebuilding in Tokyo, it's still rough there."

I nodded at him, I had checked in on a few things while we were rushing over here to start rebuilding my power base, my family and Tokyo being the first, God, losing Cornelia stung, incredibly so, out of all my siblings she was my favorite, my Mentor for a good long time before we became equals, I would miss her dearly. Euphie was in a coma and likely to remain in said coma for a long time, her skull had been cracked in seven different locations, shards of bone embedded in parts of her brain, it was ugly and made my teeth clench, she could still recover, but it would be years with current technology..

Lelouch had disappeared as expected, V.V got his hands on him too, Nunna had been taken in by Schneizel, and seemed to be doing as well as could be expected, Marry was here, and doing good, Nonnette and Dora were on medical leave, while the rest of the Knights had been gutted and replaced, my earlier estimates of an equal divide could be thrown out the window. Tokyo was a different mess all together, I was simultaneously seen as the savior of the city, along with Zero and Cornelia, while also being vilified for my secret super weapon, in truth the Rod From God system was one of the first space stations the Empire had ever launched, and I had only taken control of it.

"It's time we take charge Marius, we have to show that our faction is not dead, despite what it may appear like, we have to show we are still a force to be reconned with."

"I agree brother, you're going at it in full then, no more bullshit."

"No more bullshit, for now we rest and recoup, gather our forces and get more Mecha in operation, then… Then we destroy Europe."

"So we can remake it."

"Exactly." I accepted the hug the other man drew me into, despite my lacking desire for physical contact, it was nice. "Thank you, Marius, for standing with me, despite what happened."

"That's what family is for Andre." He paused, placing a hand on my metal shoulder, and locking my eyes. "We will get her back, I know you, Andre, don't let yourself get distracted, focus on this issue, let Thatcher deal with the shadow war."

I nodded, knowing I would still worry, no matter what.

…

Two weeks passed in a flash, days blending together as I assisted my skilled staff in organizing the army back into a shape I could work with, while Harris and the engineers worked tirelessly on their own project, and I oversaw Thatchers daily report on the Shadow war. In short, it's fucked. V.V and the Dictorate were dug in all around the world, and R6 is depleted from recovering me, I had to draw out resources I had hidden and embedded years ago, reviving both my Illusive man moniker and the two other information brokers I had made for other regions of the world.

Progress was being made, though.

Sixteen Geass bearers killed during the past two weeks, over three hundred operatives of the Order executed, a dozen scientist sent to the tender mistrations of my interrogators, we were taking them by surprise, but that would change, they would start to prepare, and casualties on my side would start to mount too.

On the frontline my forces had been reorganized, resupplied and ready, and we were once again ready to attack the Union line, now dug into the Urals and ready to throw us back. I relaxed into the data stream to Zeus, the connection up to 23 percent casually, the most I could take without slipping too far in, going over the map projected literally onto my field of vision. The Ural fortifications were impressive, Russian forces stretched from north to south over the entire mountain range, reinforced by Polish and Swedish forces drawn in to aid them, along with wZero and their new Mecha.

Graces they had been designated, and the Union was rushing production of dozens of them, building one a day, while I only had two Mecha to my name at this point, Harris was working on fixing that issue, but while he is a valued employee, he is no Lloyd or Rakshata, who seemed to pull miracles of engineering out of their behinds. It seemed my actions had inadvertently caused another shift in warfare equal to the Knightmares, a machine that can only be rivaled by others of its kind, and as before, the Empire had less but in higher quality.

The Russian machines were likely to see a massively improved German model soon, but for now the Union had to rely on the Russian doctrine of numbers, simply throwing their Mecha at me and hoping it would work, that or switch tactics to fighting where I was not, because there is little a normal Knightmare can do to a Mecha of that size.

"Status on the Ares?"

"Feeling good Brother, don't have the spinal connector thing like you, but the controls are intuitive, It's going to have a learning curve, but I can work with this."

"Excellent, ready for launch then?"

"Of course, time to crush some Euro heads?"

"Yes, lest fly Brother."

…..

"If I had a quarter for every major change to the ways of war I have caused, I would have two quarters, which is not a lot, but it's weird that it has happened twice."

Alexander Andreas Gustavos di Brittania.