In a modestly opulent home, in a bedroom that reflected the tasteful decor of the house as well as a teenage girl's fancy of stuffed animals and objects that reminded of past joys. A gigantic card from a past Valentine's Day event. A boxing glove from the great Battle for Extra Club Funding. A broken lance from the Joust they had put on with help from the equestrian society that had only caused a single hospitalisation so really the big hubbub about that event was entirely unfair.
In any case. In that room that held so many mementos of the past, two young women lay facing one another on the four poster bed. Not reminiscing on the past, but having a very serious discussion of their future.
Shirley Fenette lay there with wide eyes, filled with innocence that was gradually being worn away just from the truths and experiences to which she was gradually being exposed. There was so much more to her life and future that she had barely considered. But being around Milly so often, being with Lelouch, she had learned so much and would inevitably learn and experience more.
"We both know how serious this is," Milly said, her voice filled with entirely appropriate severity. "This is something that could decide everything."
"I don't want to believe it would matter that much," Shirley admitted. "But you're right. This is bigger than I ever realised. I never even thought I'd be in this position and now it's happening. I..." She trailed off, worry and doubt taking hold of her thoughts.
"Don't get cold feet now. We're on the path. There's no room for doubts." The encouraging reprimand was softened by the blonde's hand taking the redhead's. A reassuring look of camaraderie. Of sisterhood.
Feeling the warmth of that hand, of that look, Shirley nodded. "I know."
The weight of their discussion was crushing. Matters of such life-changing, world-changing importance were unfamiliar to both of them, no matter how much Milly might have pretended otherwise. They were two intelligent young women plotting out the course of their futures, thanks to the young man who had changed their fate.
There was no room for hesitance. For doubt. They had to reach out and take what they wanted for themselves.
"This is the only fair way to do it."
"I know. And I'm not going to lose!" Shirley promised, her gentle voice filled with determination.
-(-)-
"Kallen! It's nice to meet you! My name is Nunnally vi Britannia."
The half-Japanese woman had trouble not staring at the picture of frailty that was at that moment shaking her hand. Her eyes closed, Her condition declared for all to see by the wheelchair in which she sat. Once again, the set of 'Lamperouge' siblings endeavoured to shake her view of Britannians. She knew with every fibre of her being that a girl like Nunnally... She was nothing to Britannian society. Blind, crippled, she was doomed to be discarded by the doctrine of her homeland, birth status be damned.
Yet here she was. Despite everything, no one had given up on her. No one had discarded her. Lelouch took care of her like a doting older brother, the Ashfords gave them a place to live, a maid to help her. The fact that that maid was Japanese was both upsetting... But also said something for how they felt about the Japanese. Nunnally was precious to Lelouch, and he trusted Sayoko implicitly. To the point she clearly knew exactly who the prince and princess truly were by Nunnally's entirely honest introduction.
"It's nice to meet you too, Princess Nunnally," she managed to say in response, forcing a smile for an audience who couldn't see it. "I'm Kallen, Stadtfeld."
"You hesitated. Do you prefer your Japanese name?" the princess asked as she released her hand. "There's no need to stand on ceremony here. You can be yourself here. Since you'll be working closely with my big brother, I'd very much like us to be friends!"
"Uh." Suddenly but inevitably, she felt awkward. She could feel Lelouch watching while pretending not to. The maid Sayoko doing the same. "I... I don't really know. I definitely prefer my Japanese name. But, it's weird. It feels like I'd be dishonest if I'm here, talking with Britannian royalty, working for Britannian royalty." Why was she being so honest to this girl, while Lelouch was watching no less? "I don't know."
"Hm? I don't think so," the princess disagreed. "I don't think it's dishonest. You are Japanese. And you are Britannian. What you choose to embrace is up to you, so long as you accept the other is still part of you. Everyone has part of themselves they would rather didn't exist. Where we come from can't be changed. Only where we're going."
"This is a heavier conversation than I was expecting," Kallen admitted.
The blind girl gave her a soft smile. "I agree. Would you like to start introductions again?"
"... My name is Kallen Kozuki. It's nice to meet you, your highness."
"Please, call me Nunnally. Would you like some tea?"
"Yes, thank you."
"Brother told me you're going through knight training. It must be quite an experience. Would you tell me about it?"
From a heavy introduction, reset to a pleasant conversation. And while it was pleasant, a part of her couldn't help but feel frustrated. So much of her time spent on quietly treating the Britannians like they were thoughtless monsters. It was easier to think that way. And that was where the guilt and frustration came from. That she thought that way because it was easy, not because it was correct. Her idiot friends. Lelouch. Shirley. Nunnally. Not monsters. At worst, ignorant. Even the other girls at school giving her a hard time for her 'relationship' with Lelouch. She had complained to Ohgi about it and when she cursed them as Britannians he was uncomfortably quick to point out... As a former teacher, and as someone who went through his education before the invasion, that kind of behaviour and treatment wasn't exactly rare in Japanese schools either.
It was frustrating how rose-tinted her idea of a free Japan was, having barely lived in it. Yet at the same time... Britannia did take everything away! They did cause so much needless suffering and they still do! And no matter how nice the Britannians she knew were, that didn't change any of that. Her hatred still burned, for Naoto, for her mother, for all of her friends. They deserved better. They never deserved everything happening to them. It wasn't fair that they now had to fight to get back the lives and the respect stolen from them.
But... Life wasn't fair. And Britannian or not, the blind and crippled girl across from her could probably tell a story that would bring that point home just as much. And yet Nunnally still managed to smile, to find happiness in it.
Every person had their own circumstances. It was up to them to make the most of them. If they wanted change, they could fight for it. The greater the change, the more power they required to see it through. And that was Lelouch, wasn't it? He wanted to change Britannia and so he would need all the power he could amass to make that happen. If Kallen wanted a hand in what that would look like... She needed to do the same.
The reason she was here, Lelouch had wanted to speak with her in person so she had come right after her training was done for the day. After a time enjoying the surprisingly pleasant talk with his sister, Lelouch brought her into another room. What turned out to be his bedroom to her discomfort. And not empty to her greater discomfort. "Were you here the whole time?" she asked the green haired woman lounging on his bed eating... Pizza?
"Where else would I go?" the woman asked. "The woes of a fugitive, caged within a ruffian's bedroom at his mercy."
"Don't listen to her," Lelouch ordered with a scowl. "If anything is at anyone's mercy it's my wallet to hers. The amount of money she can waste on disgusting takeout trash is not just astonishing, it's unsettling."
"Some people just don't appreciate good cuisine. During Washington's rebellion you'd be lucky to find anything a hundredth as good as a meat lovers' pizza."
"Should she be here for this?" Kallen asked, choosing to put the weird woman's fascination with fast food out of her mind. Even if the smell was appealing. She hadn't had lunch yet.
"I'd rather she be here where I know she isn't doing something that will give me a migraine later. Of course, now that I've said that I half expect her to be halfway through climbing out the window."
As Kallen was looking at Lelouch, listening to his answer, she only heard the sigh coming from the direction of the window. "Take all the fun out of it, why don't you?" the mystery woman asked sardonically, flopping back onto the bed and taking another slice of pizza. Dripping cheese on the bedding as she dangled it over her face and lowered it into her waiting maw.
"Better you than me," Kallen told the prince with a shudder. Melted cheese in bedding seemed like a nightmare she didn't want to even think about more than she already had. "What do you want, Lelouch?"
"You said the Knight of Six spoke to you when you first started knight training," he recalled.
"Yeah, I guess I impressed her or something?" Kallen asked more than answered. Knowing she was good, but not that good, surely. "I see her around sometimes but she hasn't spoken to me since."
"It's time to change that. I want you to get to know her."
There was a giggle of amusement coming from the bed that both of them ignored. "What, just like that?"
"She opened the door for it. Her station and yours aren't that different and as two young women with exceptional talent in a knightmare you have common ground." He turned away from her, incidentally looking at a chess board. Or perhaps not incidentally. "Now that Clovis is in my pocket, she's poised to be the biggest spanner in the works."
"Still can't believe you just... Did that, and now it's done," the redhead muttered. "Why? If Clovis is on your side then she's on your side too, isn't she? She serves the empire."
"Correct," he agreed, turning back to face her, wearing an uneasy expression. "With the emperor dead she serves the empire, but what that means is almost entirely up to her. She might listen to Clovis. She might listen to me once I reveal myself. But what 'serving the empire' means is more or less up to her interpretation. Right now, she's like a Queen piece without a King piece to protect. Thus, much more difficult to predict. The more I know about her, the more accurately I can strategise around her. For example, if she's something like a blood purist? You can see how that might be a problem."
She could. And it wasn't an impossibility. She had to smile and nod more than once as Gottwald and his cronies tried to feel her out for joining their faction. The only thing soothing her fear that they'd find her out was that Lelouch hadn't. So far as the records said, she was pure Britannian. But if someone like the Knight of Six was a blood purist, and Lelouch revealed the JSDF defending Japan... "Fine. I'll see what I can do, but no promises."
"You won't be the only one. Clovis has informed me of as much as he knows, but he had very little to give me. He'll be making more concerted attempts to feel her out now. Just so you know not everything rests on your shoulders. Your training is still important. When the day comes, you'll be proof of what unity in the empire can achieve."
A yawn from the bed. Which again, they ignored.
"Is that all?"
"Yes. Thank you for taking the time," he told her. "And, thank you for being courteous with Nunnally. She's been somewhat stifled from how we've had to live since the invasion. I really would be glad if the two of you could become friends."
"Yeah, well... We'll see." In truth, Kallen couldn't see why they wouldn't. But also felt like she was folding on too much for him and wanted to stand her ground on something.
She turned and left to make her goodbyes, leaving Lelouch and C.C. alone in the room.
"There is an easier solution, you know."
"You think I should just geass the Knight of Six and be done with it?" he asked the witch.
"I said nothing of what you should do," she corrected him lazily. "Merely that we must both be aware of that alternative. And yet you don't take it. I wonder why."
He glanced at her, lamenting just how much of a mess she was making of his bedding with her careless eating. Grease stains. Grease stains forever more. "If you seek to irritate me, could you at least do so in a way that doesn't make more work for Sayoko?" He got no worthwhile answer. Shaking his head, promising himself that he would compensate the maid somehow for the greater inconvenience, he returned to the witch's question. "A leader of thoughtless drones is a poor leader with poorer subordinates. Whatever Clovis may feel in terms of fraternity, I will never be able to trust him to keep mine and Nunnally's secret, nor to act in our best interests. It's simply the nature of being one of Charles' children. The Knight of Six however, if I can make her a trustworthy subordinate without the use of geass, she will be all the more useful for it."
"Are you sure you aren't simply afraid of your power? A man granted the power to enforce obedience. A ruthless power for a ruthless man, and you neglect to use it to its fullest potential."
"Fear and mistrust are not the same thing. I consider it to be as reliable and trustworthy as the person it came from." His stare, his glare, had no impact whatsoever. The witch remaining entirely unmoved. "The woman with her own mysterious powers, her own mysterious origins, her own mysterious goals. In what world would I trust either with anything of real importance?"
"How cutting," the woman sighed, rolling over on the bed to get nearer to the phone. Dialling. "Yes, I want a chicken and mushroom, stuffed crust, delivered to Ashford Academy clubhouse. Yes, charged to the same account. Yes."
Outside of the clubhouse building, Kallen wandered out to the courtyard. Glancing at the enormous and conspicuous construction that had taken up the middle of the courtyard. The crowds of students that were surrounding it. Well, she knew better than to get involved in whatever the hell that particular bit of nonsense–
"Kallen!"
Oh dear god no.
Her friends were waving her over.
She couldn't just walk away. She was supposed to be an actual person taking part in Britannian society now, not an invalid. Reluctantly, she approached. "Hey." And against her better judgement, asked, "What's going on?"
"You don't know?" one of them asked. The other looked at her in horror. "Okay. We can fix this. All we have to do is get you signed up and everything will be okay!"
"Signed up for what?" The redhead looked up at the tall structure. Two ladders on the outside to climb two towers attached by a single beam that hung over... Something. It was too tall to see over the edge.
"Shirley!" her friend, and she was very much considering revoking that title, shouted. Pushing the knight in training through the crowd toward the ginger girl with a clipboard. "One more!"
"Oh! Kallen!" her fellow redhead exclaimed on seeing her. "Wow, it's a little late. The first match is about to start, but we can squeeze you in!"
"Squeeze me into what?"
"Ladies and gentlemen of Ashford Academy! Welcome to the Battle of the Ages!" the voice of Milly Ashford blared from an unknown location. "Our first competitors are ready to go! Let's give them a big hand!"
Climbing the ladders were two young women, wearing gym uniforms instead of the standard, each wearing a helmet and carrying a pugil stick. What was happening became quickly apparent from there. The two girls duking it out with the sticks until one, with a fierce flurry of blows blasted her opponent off the platform and into what was apparently a several foot deep ball pit.
"And that's it, folks! Our first winner! Give a big hand to the captain of the equestrian society, Emma Dorothy!"
"Oh. So that's what," Kallen realised. "Well, I don't know if I'm–"
"Please Kallen!" Shirley joined in on the confusing pleading. "Emma is really, worryingly determined to take the whole thing. I think she holds a grudge against us for some reason, I don't know. But it really should be one of us that wins this, you know?"
"One of us?" Kallen's friend echoed. "Did you join the student council, Kallen?"
"I mean, they asked but I didn't really–"
"Please!" Hands clasped together, eyes wide.
Oh no. "I... Well... I guess I could?"
"Yes!" Shirley cheered. "Okay, I'll go tell Milly, we'll add you to the bracket! It's lucky since someone would've gotten a bye. Good luck, Kallen!"
Her friends squealed, directed her to the changing rooms to get into her gym clothes. To come out and engage in her first bout. It felt weird, and dumb, and ridiculous. Standing on top of that platform, some random girl declaring she would fight for love, whatever that meant. But as Kallen beat the snot out of her. And the next opponent. And the next. She started getting into the spirit of things. It was just a little dumb fun, what was wrong with that?
And besides, more than one of her opponents were the girls giving her a hard time over the past weeks. It was immensely satisfying, having an excuse to batter them in the face, foam or not.
It turned out, Shirley was right to worry about that Emma girl. Towards the end of the event, she ended up facing the student council president. After an argument at the start of the match that had something to do with fractured ribs, Emma pummelled the blonde Ashford heiress to the floor before rolling her off the platform with a foot. Kallen continued to move on, as did Shirley. The ginger girl declaring she would, again, fight for love and win in Milly's place. Appropriate as she was Emma's next opponent.
Another heated exchange, the ginger girl weathering an onslaught before tripping the irate girl with a sweep, sending her tumbling into the ball pit.
Before Kallen knew it, she was facing Shirley in the final match.
"I'm glad it'll end up being one of us," the cheerful girl, her maybe friend, said with a smile. "But I'm gonna win! For Lulu!"
Again, that 'one of us' thing. She didn't join the student council. What the hell was Shirley talking about? And win for Lulu? "Uh, yeah, sure. I'm gonna win for me though." She'd come this far after all.
"Oh, how scandalous!" Milly declared. "How forthright! I respect a woman who knows what she wants! Are the fighters ready?! Fight!"
Shirley came at her with surprising intensity and focus. The stick twirling in her hands to smack at Kallen's own, attempting to break her guard. Unfortunately for her, Kallen's frailty had always been a lie, and now that she no longer needed the ruse, she felt entirely confident in showing just how strong she could be. Catching every blow and holding strong. Having seen the sweep already, Kallen was prepared for the swimmer to be capable of it and evaded with the ease of practice. Knight training wasn't only training in knightmare frames, after all. To say nothing of the scrappy fighting she learned from Naoto and the rest of the resistance.
And... Well, Kallen could admit she felt like showing off. As Shirley recovered from the attempted sweep, Kallen rolled over her, hooked the ginger's stick with her own and used the momentum to rip it out of her hands. Leaving Shirley disarmed and defenseless, the foam stick pointed at her like a blade in a duel.
Shirley smiled weakly. "I guess that's my loss. But that's okay. If it's you, that's okay. I might not have his, but he can have mine."
"Uh..." Kallen couldn't really say anything to that. What the hell did that mean?!
But Shirley wasn't interested in explaining. Instead, she jumped off the platform of her own volition, sinking into the pit and swimming her way back out.
"The Battle of the Ages has its winner! Kallen Stadtfeld!" Milly declared to mostly applause and cheers. After all, she had put on a good show even if half the girls there hated her guts. "And what a fight she put on! Ooh-hoo, she must have been eager to secure victory for some reason! What oh what could that reason be? Well, I'm sure you all understand why! Dear Kallen has won a once in a lifetime experience!"
"I won a what now?"
"A private dinner date with our very own student council vice president, Lelouch Lamperouge!"
... Wait what.
"That's right! Kallen will be wined and dined by our very own prince of Ashford Academy! Oh, what might happen once the date is over?! I can scarcely imagine! Will sparks fly?! I think they just might!"
Kallen's jaw hung open, confusion, horror, humiliation. All taking some corner of her expression as she stared at the host. Next to whom stood the apparent prize of this whole affair.
Who just looked at her with a confused but all too willing smile.