Chapter III

Strengthening the position

Gunfire… Sound of broken windows… Screams inside the room and suddenly – silence. Heavy and painful silence.

Charles entered the foyer. Usually there`d be guards to open the doors for him, but brushed them aside, almost tearing apart the wooden doorframe. He didn`t even looked whether they were at their posts or not. He needed to get there.

'Be alive, be alive, be alive!' he prayed to himself. His eyes were met with poorly lit hall, with only moonlight shining on it. Each step was getting heavier and heavier to make.

He tried to hide his emotions, not to rage and scream. He remained silent, but his face betrayed his true thoughts. Before him she lied – mortally wounded, with bullets piercing her entire body. Around his wife`s beautiful body was massive pool of blood. There was no need for doctors – she was dead.

Charles approached her. Did she have the possibility to use her Geass? Was she truly dead?

Before he made first step on the staircase, he spotted a glimpse of light shining on something pale, outside the staircase. It was a girl, whom he remembered to be a vessel for his wife`s soul once. This time, she didn`t escape the tragedy.

"Charles, why did you allow me to die?"

He stepped back, trying to find a source of the voice. Marianne rose up, in her once beautiful brown dress, which was now completely drenched in blood. Her eyes were tired, seemingly out of nowhere she got brown bags under her eyes, as if all the energy was lost in them.

"You knew he was dangerous, and yet you allowed him to proceed! You allowed this jealous little piece of shit to avoid justice! Why, Charles, why?!" She screamed at him, her voice sometimes failing her. He could see tears in her eyes. But the rage on her face was much, much more shown.

Instinctively, he took a step back. The same moment, villa and all other surroundings disappeared, and Charles found himself on a quay. Well, on something that had been a quay before. Now it was nothing less than a massive scrapyard with an improvised crematorium.

He could discern two young boys standing in the middle of it, and a girl sitting in a wheelchair with them. Their clothes were torn and covered in dust, with metal cuts on them. As he looked closer, Charles could recognize Lelouch, Nunnally and that Eleven knight they`ve met before.

Lelouch was angry, while others remained sad. "I swear it, Suzaku," his son spoke in fully resolved tone, as if he was already the emperor, "I will destroy Britannia!"

Charles spotted some movement behind him, voice coming out earlier before he recognized his brother. He run towards him, facing Charles with fury and disgust on his face. "What are you waiting for? Kill him, kill both of them! He will stop out plan and you know it! Stop him, before it`s too late!"

He glanced to his side. Image of his mature son, with the same determination, speaking against Ragnarok, came to his mind. "I reject your world!" Lelouch roared, with his arms outstretched. Victor was partially right – if he could end everything right here and right now, his own and his brother`s dream would come true.

But could he do it? Was the Ragnarok really the way to go? Does the world really need it to be achieved? In the end, it was Marianne that helped him to complete the Ragnarok, despite that it was his 'brother' that betrayed and killed her.

Seeing the hesitation, young figure sighed. "Fine, I`ll do it myself," Victor leveling his gun on them.

"Not them! Not Marianne!"

Victor sat on a ruined door, silently observing his younger twin sleeping. Charles certainly was having a nightmare, his head swirled from side to side, with him mumbling something in his sleep.

His lips moved, and Victor tried to listen what his brother was saying. "Not… Not Ma…"

Victor looked away, unsure of what to do. 'Still thinking about our parents… Don`t worry, Charles, I will always be with you, and nobody will steal you from me, not even the God himself.'

Something moved in the forest, earning Victor`s interest. A certain man appeared, wearing a typical bourgeoise Victorian Era outfit. "You look determined, young boy," a red light flashed from his neck. "Say, if you had a power to change the world, would you accept my contract?"

'He must be joking, but… is there anything for me to lose if I accepted?' Victor glanced at his brother, who still was suffering through a nightmare, and reached his hand to the unknown man, "I accept your contract!"

Charles felt if somebody was shaking him, trying to awake him. He slowly opened his eyes, almost jumping when he saw his brother standing right before him. Charles slowly came to his senses, that what he saw before was nothing short of a dream.

"Wake up, brother, remember what we swore to do – we have a lot to do to achieve it. We survived, but that`s not for long if we stay stagnant." Victor held out a hand for his brother, helping to get up.

Charles refused, as he slowly got up by himself, gathering his composure back. Victor was slightly confused, as his brother seemed to be much more mature than he was only a day ago. Even back when attack happened, he was more of confused than determined. Maybe it changed him, Victor wondered.

"Whoever was behind the attack, and I suspect we may find out soon enough who it was, won`t leave us alone. What should we do next, brother?" Charles asked him. Apparently, in his old age, he was beginning to forget what exactly happened in the following days after attack. Not that it mattered for him in his late reign or nor did he was calm when he was young. Too many events were unfolding afterwards. Emperor`s speech, court politics, other attempts at their lives, then more court politics, then emperor`s death and even more court politics.

Simply speaking, nothing of high importance to keep track of.

Victor scratched the back of his head, trying to guess the best option. "I remember there was a military base about 4-5 km from here. In an hour or so we can easily get to them."

Charles quirked his brow. "And how can we know that they aren`t a part of conspiracy?" He knew that his brother wasn`t a good strategist, but not this much. Was there something he missed?

Victor smiled, "I don`t see any other option but to check it. I don`t expect any trouble if we try, I have my way of dealing with such things." Charles was about to comment on it, but he stopped himself from it, but the grin with which Victor spoke was strange. He was this confident only when he was immortal or… when he had his Geass, abilities of which Charles didn`t remembered.

Right now, he was sure that his brother did not try it on him. Yet.

Otto Waldstein was a young imperial officer, who was just given a command over an infantry battalion. While it wasn`t much, it was a nice start for his military career.

While he`d happily conduct any kind of training operation he was ordered to conduct, the reports of strange black smoke on the horizon disturbed him. Didn`t his old friend, who rose to the title of Duke of Arizona have some business there?

"James, are there no reports from scouts or anybody on the situation?" He asked one of his officers.

"No, Sir!"

Entrance wall swung open, revealing a disturbed guard entering the tent. Colonel glanced up at him, inquiring him to speak. "Sir, there are two children at the gates! They said there is an assassination attempt at the First Prince!"

'The First Prince?! They will pay dearly if they are joking, unless…'

"Did they tell who they are? How do they look?"

"Um, they didn`t tell their names. It seems they`re two brothers, both with long blond hair. Both are young, probably not even teenagers. They are dressed up as nobles, but we aren`t sure if they were ones, since their outfits are worn out."

He closed his eyes, thinking his next moves. The way he described them they seemed to be similar to the First Prince`s sons, and it wouldn`t be good if they were right. However, if they were right, they were extremely vulnerable and had no value in court. "Bring them to me, without any harm."

"Yes, Sir!" The soldier saluted and left.

Charles walked inside the tent, following his brother. Did Victor really have his Geass already? That`d explain a lot, but still. He was all alone with a brother who will betray him, his father was assassinated and he himself is far from being a powerful figure in court. He will be one, surely, but not yet.

The colonel before them was sitting in his chair, silently making observations on them. "You told us about an attack on the First Prince, and yet, we`ve had no reports of such from his guard. Who are you and where is he?"

Victor closed his eyes and smirked. "I will tell you everything you need to know, but before that," he opened his eyes, and his left eye sparked red, with a sigil in the middle, "I want you to grant us guards from possible assassination attempts and that we`ll require any help you can give us."

"What the…" the colonel started, but in a moment, his expression changed from surprised one to a robotic one, "Will be done." He took out his pen and started scribbling orders on a sheet of paper. It took about a minute before he finished and gave them to Victor.

Charles looked at them as well, and was slightly surprised to see such detailed list of everything they`d get. Pretty much the full freedom of movement with the ability to call in entire regiment for protection.

"Were you planning on betraying us to anybody else?" Victor asked, rising his brow at the colonel.

"None at all. I recognized you as His Highnesses sons the moment I heard your description. My old friend, Duke of Arizona, was his ally for quite a while, so I don`t have anything against you."

Charles stood, observing entire conversation, trying to get every info on his brother`s Geass. He seemed to have something similar to what he and Lelouch had, but there was something to it, something different. His brother, Victor, smirked, and blinked, his power`s effect disappearing in the same time.

Colonel blinked, looking around confused. "Where I was… Oh, yes, Your Highness, on this paper you have everything that I`ll provide for your sake while you may hide here. This is just a courtesy of mine, don`t expect me to demand something for it.

In the same time, I can`t say that I remember who you are, little boy. What are you doing with His Highness Charles?"

Charles was confused. It only after a few second it clicked in him that he asked Victor.

"I`m his older brother, who do you think I could be?"

"I don`t remember anybody who`d be his older brother coming here. I`d advise not to call yourself in this ridiculous way ever. Identity theft is a crime, more so against the Royal Family."

Victor looked confused. He clearly was here! Colonel certainly knew him! Was it a side effect of his Geass?

"Let him be, Colonel. He doesn`t threaten me in any way, so I don`t see any issue with that."

He eyed the future emperor, unwilling to confront his decision. "…Very well, but in any case, you can call on anybody here for help, we will deal with this interloper quickly."

Charles nodded, taking his leave out. Victor stood there confused, but in the end decided to follow his brother out of the tent.

"Now, could you explain what was this light?" Charles asked him. He knew absolutely what it was, but he wanted to know how his brother could explain it.

"I… I don`t know, actually. When you slept, there was one man who offered me some kind of power. I didn`t test it out before this, since you`re my dear brother and there was absolutely nobody else. I tried using it on him, but it didn`t work."

"How can I trust you, brother, that you won`t use it on me?" Charles pressed him.

"You saw what happened to that colonel? He completely failed to recognize me! If you would never recognize me again, I don`t think I could live with it. After all, we only have each other in this world."

Charles hugged him. What had settled into his brother that he betrayed him? Victor, whom he sees now, would never be a man who`d harm his dear brother or deceive him. Could he try to fix him, after all he may do in the future?

In the same time, he kept a wary eye on him. If he ever sees that he strays back to what Victor ultimately fell to, he will deal with him.

"This power that I have is a sign that God is really out there. When I will be able to get some kind of power to you, we will then continue with our promise of killing him."

He thought for a moment. He got his Geass about two years from his parent`s death, so Victor wasn`t lying there. But did it mean that he killed his contractor in such young age?

"You know, Charles, there is something in being in shadows. I only care that you would recognize me, but if anybody else was to think that you survived alone, I`d make everything for you to become a ruler."

He stepped back, trying to stay in character of unknowing young boy, not of a strong 60 years old man. "To become a ruler? But why?"

"Because with you in charge of Britannia, only then could the world truly change. We will kill God, you will guide it to the better while I will make preparations in the shadows for it. But without power, we`re nothing. We will fight for it, win, and then we will be able to do what we wish to do."

He thought for a moment. His brother was correct in assessing of what should`ve been done for it. Even more – he didn`t lie anywhere yet. It was so refreshing for Charles to speak with his brother without lying to one another. Almost as they were really siblings both in blood and spirit.

"But how do you wish to stay in shadows? You mean that you will completely disappear in public?"

Victor furrowed. "If 'Victor' had to disappear, and 'V.V.' would appear in the shadows dealing with your enemies and help in killing God, what would you think about it?"

He broke off to temporary quarters, which were set up for the kind of VIP as he was rightfully considered to be as. Charles let a sign, breathing in fresh air, before he felt some strange feeling, like he slowed down. Everything around him seemed to stop moving at all. Even birds in air stopped in the same place.

"How is everything going?" D.S. appeared from behind of one of officers near him.

He sighed. "It`d be a lot easier if you didn`t sent me to this time, when I was this young. Sometimes I even begin to think like a boy. Was the physical appearance always this important?"

"Kind of. We know you hate this period, especially because of constant assassinations of dukes and princes, but because of it, you had to visit it again. You seem to lose understanding of what really happened, what was transpiring, how much had changed and how you made mistakes with Lelouch."

"You mean about sending him to Japan?"

"No, about your attitude in general. While you thought you cared about him, you never really did anything for his sake. Why had you not spoke with him when he was arrested after First Black Rebellion? Or before he killed Euphemia? Or Clovis?

Were you afraid that he grew up similarly to you? Because in this case, you should be happy – he didn`t, and he grew his own childhood trauma, different from yours."

She stopped, giving time for her words to settle in. "Then there was that attempt at your redemption, but you successfully killed Lelouch during it. One OSI agent there, one Geass command to Clovis there, and you made yourself an enormous enemy, who would burn everything and only afterwards think about consequences."

He scowled. "He destroyed the Sword of Akasha. There was a need in punishing him for it. Who would`ve thought that he wasn`t the only one on my way towards it." A certain image of Kamine Island being blown up by Nunnally with Schneizel in his Avalon came to his mind.

"Either way, it`s not that good to relive almost your entire life, especially if you will try to control it too much," he glanced her in the eyes. "By the way, where is Marianne? I did ask you to bring her back as well."

She smiled, "You weren`t wrong about your current physical conditions affecting your thinking," as he raised a brow at her comment, she continued. "Charles, you know what year is it?"

"1965, probably. Current date doesn`t bring me anything useful, so I don`t try to catch up with it."

"Yes, it is 1965. She was, or, rather, will be born in 15 years from now. Your age gap with her is honestly enormous. If it wasn`t for the fact that you`re a prince…"

He sighed, placing his hand on his head. "So, I`m here to wait half of my life to reconnect with her?" She smiled in response, "You have an interesting way of punishing."

'If it only wasn`t so darn effective. What should I even do in this time? Of course, power struggles and all is a thing but…' his thoughts stopped flooding his brain as the time went in motion yet again, with D.S. nowhere in sight.

"…great"

"Brother, did you say something?" Victor, or, rather, now V.V., poke his head out of tent, looking around.

"Oh, nothing," Charles responded, looking absolutely bored out of his mind, "Now, returning to the plan we spoke about earlier. How will we get the throne?"