"I remember that day as clear as if it was yesterday. Back then, I was a simple colonel, just arriving from Military Academy, who was given a small yet prestigious infantry batallion 40km away from Pendragon. That day, I lost my friend, whom I valued dearly, yet I found a man, to whom I bear respect to this day.
He stood there, alone, with fire and determination in his eyes. He didn`t cry, didn`t break as others would in his conditions. No, he was calm as priest, asking me for help in protecting him from both external and internal threats to His Highness, as his Father, the First Prince, was slain by treaterous conservative section in Nobility. Out of both sense of duty, respect for both his father and my old colleague, who was slain with him, and out of a...feeling? Yes, feeling. From feeling that this man would end this tradition of fraternicide and will bring Britannia it`s better days, that I decided to support him.
12 years had passed. Do I regret it? No, and I doubt I will."
From Otto Waldstein diary, 1977. Later rewritten with help of other authors into "Icebreaker: How Britannia was carved out from Emblem of Blood" (2003)
Chapter II
From the Beginning
Charles felt his surroundings change from burned streets of Tokyo. He couldn`t yet see, as his eyes were still blurred. Ash around him disappeared and he felt the forest clean air entering his nose. It returned some feeling of nostalgia, as he remembered how he and Marianne spent some time in the forests around Imperial Villa.
He also felt glad that he didn`t have to listen to the roar of Black Knights, their voices finally dissipating and leaving only the birds and some woman`s laughter in the background.
His vision begun to clear, as his eyes grew wide.
"D.S., why am I here?" he looked around trying to find her. He waved his hand as if he was trying to catch her, but he couldn`t reach her.
He looked at his hands, which were now much shorter and weaker than they were before. Charles then checked his outfit, finding out he didn`t wear it for about 50 years. He had a red coat, with white fabric covering his shoulders and down to his elbow.
Out of nowhere, D.S. reappeared on his right. "We thought that you clanged too much to your beliefs in your old age, so we decided to go a little bit further into the past. Perhaps a younger you may see the world differently." Her emotionless voice spoke. "Reception at the Boniface Villa. I think you remember what happened here."
"But why here? Wasn`t your goal to 'save' Lelouch?" His voice spoke, sounding much less mature than he used to, coming off almost as a squeak.
"You`ll see" she placed her hand on his shoulder, before vanishing into thin air.
He glanced back, surprised to not find her back.
"Charles, what are you doing there? You know that you`re way more energetic than me, I can`t keep up all the time."
He quickly found the source of the voice, stopping in his tracks. His older twin, whom he always cared for in a previous life, run towards him. He looked just like he always looked, though was he more mature this time?
"Brother, let`s go! Father allowed us to be on this meeting. I know the area around the chateau is nice, but it`s not the time."
Charles silently looked at him. What should he do? This Victor isn`t his brother who betrayed him, but he will be one in the future. He doesn`t even has his Geass, nor does he have a Code. Maybe he could change him. For better or worse, he is his brother. Regardless, for what`s to come, they are allies no matter the spilled blood.
Before Charles could respond, Victor took his hand and dragged him to the villa. Time-traveler decided that it`d be better to recite what actually happened here. From what he knew at the time of his coronation, his father and mother were relaxing at the villa, in a company of close allies. How many of them were there and how many were killed was impossible to know – bodies of everybody aside from his parents were too much burned to identify, and the number of servants on the villa wasn`t constant. It was possible that at the time of the attack there were no allies of theirs or that there were 1 or 2 friends, but that`s all.
As he was dragged to the villa`s entrance, he was at a loss what to do. His parents, for one, hadn`t yet arrived. Secondly, he couldn`t gather enough guards to protect them, if he could at all – who`d listen to the ramblings of a small child? And in the end, he didn`t even know where the assailants were, when and how they strike.
Getting lost in thought, he was surprised by Victor appearing before his eyes, with a concerned look on his face. "Charles, you seem worried, what`s on your mind?"
'I doubt you`d believe me, if I decided to tell you,' Charles thought to himself, "Oh, nothing much. By the way, who our father is meeting?"
"Oh, already thinking like father? Heh, you will be a good emperor," Victor mused to himself, "I don`t know, actually. Let`s observe them when they arrive, somewhere from the grounds, father is still late though."
They sat in a small garden nearby, with some croissants they took from the kitchen before. Charles was expecting to see some closest allies of his father arriving, perhaps two or three people, as he wasn`t popular much due to his policies. But horse-drawn carriages flooded the villa, revealing a lot of influential dukes and lords. First was the Duke of New York, then there were Dukes of New England, Vancouver, Texas and many-many others. He was surprised to see them, because most of them were found dead the next week, but there was no information about them meeting his father. Only the Duke of Texas somehow survived this, though it`d be better if he didn`t.
"Victor, why our father brought all of them here?"
"I don`t know, but I also don`t care. We can ask him when he arrives, maybe he brought us some presents," Victor mused, before wiping any crumbs from his mouth. "Oh look, it`s them!" he pointed at a typical horse carriage, but with a small golden ornament and purple curtains.
Yet again, Victor dragged him to the carriage. Charles tried to remember the day from his old memories. He wasn`t close to a villa when the attack happened, this way not getting any damage or being attacked. But now he and his brother were right by the carriage of his father. He massaged his forehead, trying to remember where his parents were shot, just not to get in a line of fire and to place guards on the overlooking positions.
He tried to think on how to prevent it, but he lost a lot of time. Victor simply dragged him around too much, and he had no time to speak to the guards.
"Oh, mother, hello!" The siblings run to the carriage, meeting their parents. "How`ve you been?"
Receiving a hug back, the First Prince (and their father) placed a hand on Charles`s shoulder. "We have to go right now, we`ll speak about everything later"
"But, father, what if there would be any danger to you?" Charles tried to safely approach the topic. Running in screaming about imminent assassination would be too stupid to do. "I mean, there are a lot of enemies in court and what if they decided to deal with you?"
The prince laughed, though he could still see some reaction in him, "Oh, don't worry, nobody knows we`re here. There are just enough guards to defend us. If we brought more – this meeting would be easier to find," he spoke with a small smile on his face.
"Your Highness!" a Duke of Texas approached him, "There is some matter I need to discuss with you, privately."
"Lead the way."
As he left, Charles was compiling every fact he got from here. A well-hidden location, a lot of influential nobles, presence of the first prince, security measures lowered down due to secrecy… No, his father wouldn`t even plan a coup, opposition was powerful enough to start a massive civil war.
And looking at the profile of arriving nobles most of them were open reformers. Not in a radical way, just curtailing power of the corporates, improving overall life quality, limiting nobility in their actions, and having them responsible for their crimes. Rest of them may`ve hid their beliefs, but they supported this as well.
Charles thought for a moment. The plan was nice, and could work. If the current emperor could be negotiated to resign for his first son to take place, and if the heir had backing from the biggest financial conglomerates in Britannia, a better future would arise for the Empire.
Something was wrong. How conservative faction learned of the meeting? How they gathered enough men for the assault?
He glanced at the Duke of Texas. He was one of his main opponents before the Emblem of Blood, but he was participating in a meeting.
Could he be a traitor?
Before he could say anything to his father, a loud explosion happened in one of the stationed carriages, wreaking havoc on the road and killing some of the guards. Carriage of his father was pushed by the explosion, falling sideways on his brother and mother. Victor was saved by their mother pushing him away, as she herself was crushed under the weight of it.
"Au revoir, First Prince" the duke spoke, firing a hidden flintlock pistol, pointing it at his heart. Prince tried to punch him, thus shot missed his heart and hit his left lung. At the same time, a small military detachment of Purebloods swarmed the villa, bringing enough demolition equipment to destroy half of the Imperial Palace. The rest of them were firing at everybody they saw, who could be enemy. Most of the guards were defeated in a matter of seconds, and one of the assailants shot at the First Prince, taking out another lung.
"Charles, let`s run!" Victor spoke, breaking his brother out of his shock. Charles knew what to do, but for some reason he couldn`t do anything. 'Was it what Lelouch felt?'
"Yes, let`s go!" Charles roared, placing his arm on Victor`s shoulder to push him away from the chaos behind them.
As they found themselves in the woods, away from the fires behind them, Victor took a break trying to regain his breath. They were alone, against the world that betrayed them. Charles remembered how scared he was the first time it happened, how the world seemed alien to him. But now, he knew what waited for him and he knew what he should do.
"Brother, everything will be alright," Victor spoke with a smile on his face. Charles could tell that it was forced, simply not to scare his younger brother anymore. "No matter what we will face from now on – we shall defeat anything. Those, who will face us will pay. They will come up with an excuse or find a scapegoat for our father`s murder, find a lie to wrap it up as well. But first, promise me this, brother. We`re alone in this evil world. We will create a world without lies, we will always help one another, never hide anything from each other. Will you agree to it, brother?"
"I will, Victor, as long as we keep being honest with each other – I will."
A/N: I`m planning to cover some parts of Charles`s life about his ascendancy to the throne and further, so there will be some similarities in his decisions.