A/N: Finally got myself inspired enough to finish this new chapter. Mind you, I've done a lot of re-revision on the series on AO3 for the past week, so that explained my new formatting on stuff. That said, I'm mostly gonna keep my AO3 up to date compared to the ones here, so preferably... do keep tabs on my updates on AO3.

I may or may not start updating the past chapters but no promise that I could be done with that very quickly.

Chapter 17.939: Tense Relations

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"Lelouch—!"

Without warning, Lelouch was hit by a gust of pink whirlwind as he fell onto the carpeted floor. He let out a loud gasp as he recognised the person who had tackled him out of the blue.

"M-Marrybell—?"

Everyone inside the room turned around as Kallen noticed how Cornelia didn't look remotely surprised at the arrival of the newcomer. She turned towards Jeremiah immediately.

"Who is she?" she asked as the tall man lowered himself to try to explain to her.

"She's Marrybell mel Britannia," said Cornellia instead. "She's one of our half-sisters as well as the leader of the Glinda Knights."

Cornelia turned her attention towards the girl in question as both she and Lelouch finally got off the floor.

xxx

He stared at his half-sister after telling the newcomers to take a seat at the guest lounge. While he wasn't as close to Marrybell as much as he was to Cornelia and Euphie, he did used to see her around when they were younger. After all, they were around the same age too... him, Mary... and Euphie. He barely remembered seeing Mary's little sister... Julie too. Unlike Euphie though, he rarely got to spend time with Mary's side of the family despite how their two villas weren't too far apart.

He found out about what happened to Aunt Flora and his half-sister—Mary's little sister, Julie. It was just a bit of catching up that he did during the past few weeks since he returned to Britannia from Japan. After all, before this... he never did try to keep track of any updates of anything involving his many other siblings. As if those kinds of information ever reached Japan anyway—Not that he cared to find out as well, ever since they were left abandoned and believed to be dead. But he couldn't quite believe it...

...that Mary ended up experiencing a fate, similar to that of Nunnally and him in the past. And it happened not long after he and Nunnally were exiled to Japan. But unlike him and Nunnally, Mary lost BOTH her mother and sister. He read how Mary did a similar stunt as he did to confront their father for not protecting her precious people and was exiled for a while.

Though to be honest, should he even be surprised about this? Aside from his mother who was a mere commoner and a Knight of the Rounds, Aunt Flora should be the next least-liked Imperial Consort within the Britannian royal family. And assassination plots within the royal family weren't really that uncommon.

After all, that was also how his father was able to ascend to the throne and become the 98th Emperor...

He learnt how Mary was able to restore her title as a princess much later, as she dedicated her efforts to fighting terrorism due to the incident from that past. Quite the opposite path compared to his own.

For some reason, the similar circumstances as to how Mary lost her mother and sister as well as how he (supposedly) lost his mother and almost lost Nunnally too, struck him as odd. After learning the truth about the incident from his parents, he wondered if there was also another hidden truth behind the incident behind Mary's family tragedy as well...

"You're alive—!" cried the young princess. "How could you not come back home when you're still alive?"

Lelouch stared at Marrybell, almost in disbelief. When it was agreed upon that he should reclaim his title and birthright, he already braced himself for the kind of opposition he would receive, since he doubted too many people would welcome him with open arms. Yet he didn't expect—!

Then again, until he started his rebellion... he was never aware of how many people in Britannia actually respected his mother, despite her humble origins. Considering how he used to be treated with disdain by many of his father's other consorts and children, he never thought that any of his other half-siblings would ever care...

Lelouch smiled weakly.

"Sorry. Like I said during my reinstatement ceremony yesterday, Nunnally and—no, I decided to keep our survival a secret to protect ourselves. The Ashfords... who took the two of us under their wings and protected us ever since then, also agreed that it was the best decision," Lelouch bit his lips, as he recalled how he used to tell Euphie this same 'story' back when she happened to stumbled into Nunnally in Ashford Academy and found out about their survival. He sighed. "After all... there was that 'incident'."

"What were the odds that those same 'people' who killed my mother and stole Nunnally's mobility and sight would try to kill us again if they knew that we're still alive?"

Lelouch turned his eyes away from Marrybell...

"And Father DID exile the two of us over there. Not to mention, Nunnally and I were already removed from the succession line... so was there even any point of returning home—"

Marrybell pursed her lips at him, and for a second he thought it was Euphie who was making a face at him, to scold him about his past decision. "Idiot—! How could you believe... that no one at home would still care about the two of you—!" she exclaimed before grabbing on the lapels of Lelouch's jacket.

Marrybell pressed her head against Lelouch's chest as he thought he could hear his sister sobbing softly.

"—Did you forget that not all of us were happy to have to send the two of you away like that back then? How could you believe that none of us would've wanted to do something to keep both of you safe?" she gasped as Lelouch awkwardly tried to soothe his distraught sister. He turned his head towards Cornelia and Kallen who were sitting nearby for help, but received no aid from the two women.

He shrugged weakly. "Sorry. I did think that Nunnally and I were better off remaining in Ja—Area 11 back then. If possible, I could've remained in hiding for as long as I could—"

As long as I could continue to protect Nunnally and keep her safe—!

Lelouch glanced up towards the other man sitting right across him, wearing the same old 'deceptively kind and gentle' mask he always attributes to the person in front of him.

"—Not that any of that matters now..."

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Lelouch turned his attention towards his oldest brother as he recomposed himself. "That said, why are you here... Big Brother?" He shrugged. "Marrybell aside, I don't think that you have any other reason to come and visit me."

He suddenly smiled. "Unless you still wanted to contest Father's decision from yesterday..."

Odysseus's facial expression barely changed after his taunt. Somehow, he couldn't help being impressed.

"Are you saying that you didn't intentionally tell Father to make you the new crown prince?"

Lelouch's face immediately turned sombre.

"That... was all HIM," said Lelouch haltingly. "The only reason why I came out into the open was because of Nunnally. If Schneizel didn't make Nunnally the new viceroy of Area 11—!"

"Was that really the only reason—?"

Lelouch turned his attention back to Marrybell as he noticed that her eyes had turned sharp. That reminded him, that the reason why Marrybell formed the Glinda Knights was because of the growing resistance of some of the Numbers all over the continent against Britannia. A chain of reaction that started due to his initial rebellion movement through the Black Knights. It was interesting, that despite the failure of his initial Black Rebellion... his attempt at trying to challenge his Father ended up inspiring many others to fight against his Father's old ideology.

But that also meant... that Marrybell must've also found out about the things that happened in Japan a few weeks ago. Or at least, 'most' of it...

He smiled at Marrybell weakly. "Marrybell... did you believe that the Japanese people were wrong for trying to reclaim their freedom from us?" Lelouch shrugged at her. "Considering how a lot of Britannians oppressed them badly just because they were reduced to being 'Numbers' after their nation was conquered by Britannia, I wouldn't blame them for wanting to fight back and reclaim their freedom from us."

Marrybell frowned at him immediately. "But Lelouch! Regardless of their reasons, they are still terrorists!" she exclaimed. "Did you forget how Lady Marianne... my mother and Julie were killed by the terrorists? And Brother Clovis too? And even though I still couldn't believe what Euphemia did last year... I still can't forgive those terrorists for killing her as well!"

xxx

Kallen felt her heart clench as she watched Lelouch flinch when Marrybell mentioned Euphemia. She almost wanted to rush over to Lelouch's side to defend him before Cornelia stopped her. Oh yeah, they shouldn't let out to the other two that Lelouch was Zero as well as the one who killed both Clovis and Euphemia, They already discussed this in detail after all... for the past few weeks. They should let Lelouch deal with it by himself for now, since Lelouch should be the one who knows the truth best.

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"—like the two sides of a coin, there should also be two sides in a story," Lelouch started to say as he glanced up towards Marrybell. "Mary... did you know that the day Clovis was supposed to deal with terrorists in the Shinjuku ghetto who released some poisoned gas in the area, he was sending those soldiers to wipe out the innocent people living there to cover up some secret?"

Eh?

Kallen frowned as she turned her attention towards Lelouch. Was he going to tell Lady Marrybell about the things that happened that day?

Lelouch just shrugged before turning his head towards her direction. Kallen suddenly felt her cheeks going warm as Lelouch flashed him a knowing smile. Would she finally get to find out the other side of the truth regarding the Shinjuku incident? How Lelouch end up forming a contract with C.C., and then saving her and her motley group of freedom fighters from certain doom?

"I was there by chance actually... and witnessed what happened there. There was this big truck behind the motorbike I was riding with my classmate... that ended up crashing to the side while trying to avoid hitting us on the highway..." Lelouch started to say. He chuckled, "We were supposed to be heading back to Ashford Academy back then but—I just can't ignore it if someone was hurt, just because we happened to lead them into an accident. But then, the truck suddenly jerked out while I was checking the back of the truck... and I fell in and got dragged along for the ride. I found out that the truck was driven by some terrorists and they stole something 'secret' from the army, which caused them to be chased by so many people. The truck later crashed again in some tunnel... and I found out that the truck they were stealing had a huge container that was supposed to contain poison gases."

Lelouch turned back towards Marrybell.

"But the truth was... the huge container was holding a girl inside, and she seemed to be some kind of a prisoner—"

Kallen exhaled softly... as her heart started to race. Just like he said before, that was how Lelouch and C.C. first met. And how her and Lelouch's paths started to cross each other. Back then, both she and Nagata had gone to steal the 'gas canister' after finding out that the late Prince Clovis was conducting some secret experiments at some secret laboratory to create poisoned gas to use against the freedom groups. But if there were never any poison gas in the first place, that means... the late prince and their people must've been secretly doing experiments on C.C. in the past!

Was it to find out about C.C.'s powers?

She turned her attention back to Lelouch as he continued to speak.

"We were found by some soldiers, and just before I could try to ask for their help... those soldiers tried to kill me and the girl from the capsule. Because apparently, I found out something that I wasn't supposed to know. So before those soldiers could kill us off, I took the girl away to save our lives. Turned out that one of the remaining 'terrorists' who remained in the truck, had set off a bomb before dying... and that allowed me and the girl a chance to escape."

"But that didn't stop those soldiers from looking for the two of us—" Lelouch bit his lips, "—I even saw those soldiers shoot down some unarmed kids and their families who just happened to be nearby! I still couldn't forget their screams as thousands of bullets were rained down on them." Marrybell's face turned pale as Lelouch trained his eyes on her. "While I feel bad that Clovis was killed, I was grateful to the man who killed him."

"If not because of that person, me and many other innocent Japanese civilians would not have been alive right now..."

Me too, thought Kallen. So that was how Lelouch was able to save them after she and her group had to escape the battle when Suzaku's Lancelot turned the tide on them. He knew that the only other way he could stop more people from being killed was to have Clovis call off the soldiers from Shinjuku. Lelouch must've used his Geass to allow himself to get to Clovis without anyone's knowledge.

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"As for Euphie..."

Lelouch gritted his teeth as he forced himself to recall the disastrous memories from the SAZ incident. "I also couldn't believe that Euphie was capable of doing something so terrible. I didn't think that Zero... who claimed to be fighting for Japan's independence, wouldn't accept Euphie's suggestion to form a new Special Administrative Zone in Japan. Someone... must've done something to Euphie, to make her attack those innocent civilians back then."

"It must be hard... for Zero to have to shoot Euphie dead to stop her from killing any more people. I wished someone had come to snap Euphie from whatever it was that made her pick up those machine guns."

"—then maybe, Zero wouldn't have to kill her..."

xxx

Cornelia let out a long sigh.

So that was the whole truth. As for the circumstances that led to Clovis's death... as well as Euphie's. So Lelouch DID want to accept Euphie's offer on the Special Zone. She used to think that Euphie's idea was foolish—she gasped.

Did that mean that Euphie had known about Lelouch and Nunnally's survival much earlier? Was that why she was so adamant in wanting to make the Special Administrative Zone real?

Oh, Euphie...

If only Euphie had told her much earlier that Lelouch and Nunnally were still alive. Then maybe... maybe things could've turned out differently now...

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"The Japanese... weren't all that bad actually," Lelouch suddenly said.

"There was this guy... he was my first friend," Cornelia turned her attention to her younger brother as she noticed how Lelouch's gaze started to soften. "When I met him for the first time, he seemed like a very snobbish guy... and such a busybody. That guy used to get so baffled when I refused to accept his family's 'hospitality' and just rely on myself to deal with everything. He used to say that he hated seeing me being an uninvited 'guest' at his home."

Lelouch chuckled softly to himself. "Then again, back then... I guess I was a brat as well."

Cornelia frowned at that. 'Guest'? Was Lelouch talking about... the time when he and Nunnally were sent to the Kururugi household eight years ago? Then this 'first friend'... was he talking about Major Kururugi Suzaku?

"Regardless... that guy was really nice. When I used to get bullied by the local kids just for being a Britannian... it was that guy who rushed to help me, even when I didn't ask him to do it. And he was really nice to Nunnally as well." Lelouch's smile faltered slightly. "I used to get saved a lot by him... back then and nowadays." He shrugged again at Marrybell. "At times, I felt bad about him... because sometimes I felt that he always got hurt because of me."

"You see... that guy even got himself shot trying to save me one time. That idiot... who kept putting other people before himself!"

Lelouch sighed.

"While I do agree that there are real bad guys—terrorists and criminals—out there who are truly unforgivable, like those people who killed my mum and Aunt Flora and Julie... and many others—I don't think that all of them were all bad. They might just be desperate people stuck in bad situations. The more I see how the world out there works between the strong and the weak, how even we in the royal family had to fight each other to survive... the more I wanted to fight against it."

Lelouch raised his eyes to stare at Marrybell right in the eye. "If I myself felt this way about how Britannia had worked all these times... how could I begrudge those people who have suffered from Britannia's oppression for so long from fighting back?"