I've been rewatching Gundam Seed for ideas, and something strange struck me—particularly about the Earth Forces and ZAFT. Both factions are portrayed as bad, but the Earth Forces take things further. In Seed alone, they start the war by nuking the PLANTs, bully neutral Orb into building weapons, and set up what could be tens of thousands of their own soldiers to die as part of a trap. They force neutral nations to join them under threat of violence, invade Orb when it refuses, and deploy chemically augmented child soldiers. Later, they again try to nuke the PLANTs again and allow their version of the KKK's leader to co-opt their military leadership. The writers clearly favored one faction over the other.

With this chapter, I wasn't sure how long it would end up being, as the ideas for it are similar to the last one, with points I want to explore and more just short prompts, with some having more details than others. Still, as I'm not working with a hard word limit for these things, I didn't have as much issue with them as this can be as long or as short as I feel is necessary. It does follow a similar style to the last chapter, where each section is essentially following one member of the cast in this post 'Lelouch is Emperor but don't try to be a dick' world.

Epilogue 02: Regret's Reverberations

Ever since the Knights of Round had been formally created by Lelouch's ancestor, the 87th Emperor, during the early 1800s, they had been a strictly military unit, the Emperor's best soldiers or, as Britannia's enemies would call them, their most ferocious and loyal attack dogs.

Suzaku, even as the man who held the title of Knight of One, agreed with that sentiment. After all, was he not chosen because he was willing to betray even the few friends he had for power? Did Bradley declare on more than one occasion that he only joined the army just to satiate his homicidal desires?

Even in his journey to become Knight of One to take Area 11 as his own, he never stopped considering the institution of the Knights of Round. At the time, perhaps he did realize what it was and what he had become, but he was so blinded by hate…no, no blinded, that he couldn't understand the weight of his actions.

He hated Lelouch, Kallen, the Black Knights, and everyone who wouldn't stop fighting Britannia; fighting that took Euphie from him made it so that he just didn't care anymore. He didn't care if he was conquering more nations for Britannia; Suzaku didn't care that he condemned millions to the same fate as Japan. He didn't care that he had lost the parts of himself to which Euphie had been drawn.

That hatred that seemed to grow by the day nearly led him down some truly dark paths. From doing nothing as the entirety of Ashford's teachers and students were either replaced or geassed to forget Nunnally ever existed, being Kingsley's jailor there to ensure that Lelouch's true self remained shackled in the depths of his own mind while a being that represented all that both he and Lelouch hated in Britannia controlled his body. Nearly drugging Kallen with Refrain to get the truth out of there.

Firing F.L.E.I.J.A.

Suzaku had a great many things to regret, a great many sins to atone for. And for once in his life, he wasn't going to run; he wasn't going to deny or try to put the blame on others. He would own that. That was why he agreed to let Lelouch take the throne. While his hatred for him hadn't abated, he had a sense of clarity that could restrain those darker urges.

It was through working with him that he got his wish and was made the Knight of One, though the title was meaningless to him as Lelouch's reforms destroyed the Number system, giving a means for tens of millions to become full citizens of the empire with all the rights and liberties that promised. His cleaning out of nobles and officials that would undermine such also helped, and Suzaku could admit he enjoyed hunting down such people and seeing them stripped of their wealth and power before throwing them into prison, sending a message to the rest to color in the lines, or pay the price.

That was one use of rule through fear that he had no issue with, especially as Lelouch promised when he claimed the throne that in just two more years, the practice that birthed the Area system would be abolished, even if Japan was re-classified earlier than others.

"The Knights of Round, unlike previous knight orders, had no set creed or code to follow. Can anyone explain why that was?" Suzaku explained, the man serving as the guest lecturer for a class of exceptional soldiers fast-tracked to the officer academy. This was an odd group, as while some were on the younger side, only three out of the 40 were younger than him, with the bulk being a couple of years older than him.

Despite that, they acted as they would have with any of their much older professors, even when he wasn't wearing his white cloak. That also meant that most were nervous about answering the question, leading him to call someone nearly randomly before someone finally raised their hands. "Yes, Samson." He gestured for the dark-skinned man to stand.

"Sir, it was because Emperor Aurelien feared that creating an order similar to those found in Europe or the Middle East would see it grow too strong to control or would develop a code of ethics that ran counter to Britannian policy and the will of the emperor," Samson explained, to which Suzaku nodded.

"Correct. Because of that purpose, every knight order rejected the institution of the Knights of Round, and the Church of Britannia refused to offer approval or condemnation until the 1930s." He left out the part where that approval came through heavy pressure from the Emperor and several powerful noble fractions. Britannia was a Christian country, but mainly on paper, as even Lelouch couldn't recall so much as a single instance where he attended mass outside Easter or Christmas or even prayed for his meals in his time as a prince.

That meant that while the commoners valued their faith in what the Japanese knight believed was a means to defend against claims of evil, those with actual power didn't. It was part of why when Britannia started invading other countries, any knight order they found was dissolved and its senior members arrested. "That extended to Britannian knights in general, to swore loyalty to their prince or princess first and foremost, however as I hope you all studied." A prime example would be his short tenure as Euphemia's knight.

"That has changed now, and all Britannian knights swear themselves to the Geoffreyan Creed," Suzaku continued before pointing towards the back, where he noticed someone thinking this was prime time to talk with friends. Theobald, name the eight points of the creed for the class."

The redhead froze like a deer in headlights, and when he saw that the entire class was now focused on him with his friends distancing themselves, he gulped. Suzaku's expression remained unsympathetic to him, only raising an eyebrow as he waited for a response. "Oh…well, there's…fight to defend the weak?"

"Yes, and the other nine points?" Suzaku pressed, his frown growing at how clear it was that one of his 'exceptional' students wasn't studying.

"Don't be dishonest…?"

"Was that a question or an answer? I don't tolerate people who think one can be the other in this class." Suzaku reminded him, and the 20-something boy continued to dredge water until, at last, he was saved when another classmate raised his hand.

"Ermengarde, would you like to answer the question?" Suzaku turned his gaze towards the French-Britannian, one of the more 'by the books' students he had, but he wouldn't fault her for it. As the daughter of a French General, she had a lot of suspicion on her.

Case in point, how she stood ram straight as she answered. "Sir, the 10 points of the Geoffreyan Creed go as follows. One should respect and honor church leaders and defend the church and its culture. Aid and defend the meek. Respect for the empire and its parts. To live by the Emperor's law and ensure it is upheld. Fealty must be sworn to the crown and the reigning Emperor. One must remain composed before enemies of the empire, from within or beyond. To be honest and dependable, any secrets or lies must not contradict the creed. Finally, one must renounce greed and gluttony and actively contribute to charitable causes."

Suzaku nodded once more, pleased that at least one of his students bothered to read that damn book. He had spent weeks working with Akito, Jeremiah, and Ashley writing it so that the knights that came after that wouldn't end up as fucked up as they did. "Not how the creed is written, but you hit all the points. Can anyone tell me where the creed might have some issues?"

This time around, another student was quick to raise their hand. "Yes, Judith." He turned to the Euro Britannia transfer.

"The creed might imply that it's one faith it's referring to. However, the creed speaks to all faiths that live within the empire. However, that doesn't mean you need to be religious yourself." She replied, pleasing him. It seemed that the floodgates were opening as several other hands shot up, Suzaku being spoiled by the choice of who to pick.

"Bernard, do you have anything to add?" He turned to one of the students up front, an older man with a thick beard.

"The other point that can confuse you would be the aid and defense of the meek as if your duty calls for you to fight them; it could be a contradiction. However, as the empire's laws have been changed, knights can still carry out arrests, break up riots, and all that while being held to a standard where force is only used as needed and to the proportional response." He explained before Suzaku pointed to another in the middle.

"There is also the part where one swears off greed and gluttony as knights are required to keep in shape, but so long as one's vices or 'gluttony' for things like gambling, alcohol, sex, and all that doesn't interfere with their duties, but it would be ideal to avoid them as it can complicate things." Yes, Suzaku had been responsible for that one, as one didn't need the possibility of being mentally impaired over you or someone being able to leverage a destructive addiction or gambling debt to make you break your oaths.

"Good, now here is a question. If you've been made a knight by a prince or princess or by a noble, are you the same rank?" he asked, wanting to see how his students could use the knowledge he was teaching them rather than just repeat what they were told. "Kajita."

One of the smaller students present, the sole Japanese-Britannian in his class, stood and bowed before answering. "Sir, that was a trick question as it implies that all levels of nobility can knight people. The law was changed so that only nobles of the rank of Earl or higher can do that, and those below a Grand Duke need to apply for approval from the reigning Emperor to knight anyone."

Suzaku was about to continue, pushing them to respond more deeply and think only the bell would ring, ending his class.

"Looks like that's all the time we have for class today. Remember, I expect you all to read up on chapters 7 to 9. We will discuss it tomorrow, and I would like to not see you all sweat. These are all things you need to know if you plan to one day become a knight." He dismissed them as he turned to his desk to gather his things, as that was the day's last class.

His students confirmed that heard him as they saluted him or got into discussions with friends as they left, leaving him alone as Suzaku sighed. Shaking his head as he walked over to the window, he looked over the campus grounds, not in the capital but instead 2 hours' drive from Richmond. The school that had invited him, having been one of the oldest in the empire, separate from the one which saw the likes of his former fellow Knight, Nonette, and Cornelia attend, but one that could also claim to have taught some of Britannia's best and brightest.

It was also one of the most…conservative schools in the empire, one which took the doctrines of the old world and embraced them, one of which being that before Lelouch claim to power, not even commoners could attend as it was believed that only those of proper noble birth could ever hope to be officers, with commoners being best suited for fundamental roles and duties that most recruits could handle.

Even during his time as Knight of 7, they would have drunk bleach sooner than invited him onto their grounds. Suzaku had no reason or interest to force himself into their affairs.

It's funny how that worked: a change here, an arrest there, a letter signed by the Emperor ordering them to cease their elitist practices and adopt his policies or risk the entire place being leveled. They were eager to embrace the new Britannia, even inviting him to prove they were doing so. Frankly, Suzaku still didn't want to, but Cecile talked him into it, being the change you wished to see.

'I didn't think this would be when I was 20,' He thought to himself before he caught the flash of a shiny reflection in the mirror; looking at his hand, he saw the source. 'But it's something I can feel proud of.' He smiled fondly as he caressed his wedding ring. He still found it weird that he, of all people, could manage to land a one-in-a-million woman like Cecile. Or that Lloyd could plan a surprisingly good wedding reception.

She was always a friendly face for him, even when he didn't deserve for her to have to stick by him through it all. She had to be saintly, he was sure of it, even if their time on their honeymoon to the Caribbean had been one where he saw her cut loose for the first time and sin; Lord, could that woman gamble.

Recalling some…other parts of their time on honeymoon, such as something they did on a beach at night with no one around, had him shake his head to clear away the stupid-looking smile and blush before leaving the classroom. He had to get back to his accommodations and call his wife.

"I haven't atoned for even a fraction of my crimes, Father, but…" Suzaku thought aloud as he walked down the empty halls of the school, the stern look on his face fading into something softer. "I am making progress, one step at a time."

"It might snow again, one last burst before the Spring thaws." Nunnally softly mused to the benefit of no one. A bitter wind swept across the plains, carrying a faint scent of the thawing earth beneath the stubbornly clinging crust of snow. Still, it would seem that in the evening, another layer would be added to it.

Her farmhouse stood solitary against the vastness of the prairie, an older building with its weathered boards and fading red and white paint. Still, the structure stood firm against previous years' winds, rains, sun, and snow and would continue to do so, not that she worried about such things daily. Looking up from her place on the porch, she saw the March sky filled with clouds, dull and gray; the only thing that broke the view of the low rolling white hills to the grey sky was the Rocky Mountains off in the distance, a wall that even if she could walk, she couldn't hope to reach or ascend.

Movement was sparse. A red-tailed hawk circled lazily above, scanning the ground for prey, and one of the horses lazily trotted about, a foul following after its mother. Closer to the house, a pair of magpies perched on the railing, their feathers stark against the white backdrop. Nunnally remained so still as she took in the sights and smells that they approached close enough for her to see the color of their eyes.

The road leading up to her house was the only other spot of color, or the lack thereof, as its tar-black surface was regularly cleaned of ice and snow, creating an arrow of black that stretched out into the vast snow-covered fields towards town through Nunnally wouldn't know for sure. She had never been. She was allowed to venture out across the land she was restricted to, under guard, but she had long since stopped even noticing when one of her jailers was present; like the staff of the noble's estate, they were quiet, efficient, and worked to remain to the peripheral.

The quiet was disturbed by the creak of the door opening behind her, spooking her avian friends who took off. Nunnally let out a disillusioned sigh under her breath but nothing else as she waited for the person to speak.

"Would you like a blanket? It's getting cold." The woman behind her spoke, a woman that pointedly not Sayoko, a friend and former caretaker she hadn't seen since…since before the Black Rebellion. That wasn't the only difference, as where Sayoko enjoyed her job so much that she was rarely seen without her maid attire, at least from what she heard from others, her caretakers were all dressed in painful clothes. It wouldn't do for them to wear their warden uniforms.

"That's quite all right, Rebecca. I find that the cold was a certain…charm to it." Nunnally replied, soft-spoken and gentle, born both of her logical desire not to irritate those whose hands controlled her daily routine but also, at least on some level, the lack of drive to cause trouble.

Rebecca nodded, though she frowned. She had only been out less than a minute and could already feel the chill while her prisoner…it felt wrong to call her that while her ward had been out here for the last two hours. She understood that the woman liked to watch the area when she wasn't exploring it, but she still worried.

"Very well, I'll return to inform you when dinner's ready." She settled on just going along with it, at least for now.

"It'll be ready at 7pm, as it always is. Diaz is punctual; I wouldn't be surprised if he's already started." Nunnally replied with a hint of amusement in her words. However, Rebecca knew her enough to know it wasn't the sort of amusement she would have preferred to hear from the handicapped woman. It seemed demeaning in nature, born from Nunnally's rarely voiced resentment and depression at having her adult life as limited as her pre-teen and teenage years had been.

Yes, they lived in the country. Yes, they had incredible views of the stars when the weather permitted it. Yes, they all treated her cordially. Yes, they resided on a plot of land 12 hectares large with no fence in sight.

But that didn't take away from the truth of it. She was their prisoner and would be till the day she died.

Rebecca left Nunnally to her thoughts, thoughts which were one of the few things she still had free reign over. Nunnally had thought about many things, some dull, some pretty, some mundane, some exciting, but mainly, she thought about her decisions. She had been living on a farm in the middle of nowhere for close to 4 years now, and in that time, had made many realizations and formed so many regrets that she at times would joke that if she could walk, she would still be held to her chair from the weight of her shame.

"Damocles…what a foolish thing," Nunnally uttered, her eyes returning to the dark clouds that floated overhead. One could control the world or rely on something as primal and unpredictable as fear and apathy to do it. "And I was the fool who believed it." She added, wanting to shake some sense into her younger self, get her to see reason…but she wasn't thinking then, was she?

Her life had been far from normal. She was born a princess with few allies or true family. She had her mother, and…she had her brother. Oh sure, she had others, Clovis, Euphemia, Cornelia, and Schneizel, but they weren't…it wasn't the same.

A point made clear when her mother was killed, and for the longest time, she believed that she had been caught in the crossfire, left blind and crippled as a result. When her brother went up to bat for her, even if that meant facing down their father, he did so alone, and because of that, they were exiled, but…they had each other.

Again, it wasn't complete isolation, as even in a foreign land, surrounded by people with little reason to care and plenty to hate them, they managed to bond with Suzaku. But while she grew to appreciate his company and value his friendship, it still wasn't the same as what she shared with her brother, who she knew in her heart loved her, knew that he understood that Nunnally wasn't okay, that she still missed her mother, missed their lives, missed being able to join them as they ran about, even just simple things like missing seeing her brother's face.

He never ignored her, told her to bottle it up, or tried to offer empty words about how things would be better; he would just…hold her, let her cry, let her sob from a nightmare, throw a fit about how unfair it all was, and just hear…be unhappy, be not okay.

And she would appreciate that more than words could ever convey.

And then the bombs came again, and once more, all she had was her brother, who, even while tired and panting like a dog, never once let her go as he carried her through the invasion. She later realized what some 'landfills' had been and how they went through many of them, her brother laughing it off, saying that he just had a poor sense of direction. But then, she didn't think anything of it. Why would she do it when she trusted her brother so much?

That trust and reliance only grew, even after Area 11 was established, as she would need to wait for him, for hours at a time, as he went out and earned money and brought things like food, water, clothing, and anything else they needed. But he never failed to return, and while they lived in worse conditions than even their time with the Kururugi family, they had each other. Enough that she didn't mind attending school all that much, so long as she had him with her. The one constant in her life.

Then Zero appeared, and she lost that constant—or at least, that was what she thought. Her brother was still around; he was still the same person, and if she asked, she knew he would drop everything and nearly teleport to her. But Lelouch wasn't always there, and that worried her… Then the first Black Rebellion happened, and he just…vanished.

"And like a child, I overreacted." Nunnally sighed. Perhaps she was being too hard on her past self. How would she have reacted to that strange person who called themselves V.V. and knew so much about her, about them on top of her brother just vanishing like smoke? But that younger self's choices and feelings led her here.

That was when the seed of doubt poisoned her heart, and she started doubting her brother and his character, his love for her—so much so that when Schneizel and Cornelia, two siblings who couldn't have even been bothered to keep in touch with her when they told her the 'truth', she snorted at that now, as she didn't know or care enough to wonder if that was the facts as they understood them or how they wanted to see them.

Her brother was Zero, but he was genuine in his desire to fight evil and change things. He did kill Clovis, but only he tried to wipe out Shinjuku Ghetto. He used geass, but only on enemies, as with any other tool. He…he did geass Euphemia, but it was an accident. This horrific accident could only come from some deity's twisted sense of humor. He vanished after the Black Rebellion, but only because he was captured.

But those were truths she learned too late, revelations she acquired after she threw her lot in with Schneizel. Like so many, after the battle, she went on trial for all of Britannia and the world to watch, as was its importance.

Then she learned Schneizel had never bothered to evacuate Pendragon and instead wiped the entire city out of some warped sense of mercy. When Cornelia objected to that and his plans to strike every major nation in the world to force them to submit, he gunned her down. She cried then, not caring how she looked, seated with other defendants, balling her eyes out as Schneizel so-so…so casually admitted to murdering their sister. She didn't care if he was compelled to speak honestly by geass; he was asked if he regretted it and his response.

'Somewhat.'

A sibling he had known close to his entire life. He was one of the few that he got along with, that he cared for, and she cared for him. Someone that stood by him even when their father was killed, and Lelouch took the throne.

And he only somewhat regretted gunning her down when she called him out for his nihilistic insanity. But at least Cornelia… got her send-up after her remains were found in the morgue of Damocles, and while she was a co-conspirator, her lack of knowledge of Schneizel's goals and death, preventing it got her just enough goodwill that Lelouch was able to give her a proper funeral without too much fuss. It was a commoner's grave, and it was under her mother's name, but…

It was enough. Indeed, a far better fate for the rest as many of her fellow defendants were found guilty and found themselves hung, beheaded, or shot, with their remains going to the mass graves that their prisons kept on the grounds. The heads of the prominent noble figures who sided with Schneizel were given worse.

Preserved in tar and left to hang from on polls erected on the main roads and rail into the city, not even its main airport escaped, such as guests coming into the capital were bound to see a head or two. An archaic and barbaric practice that her ancestors brought with them from Europe, but one that never fell out of practice with the only change being that eventually, the heads were removed 2 months afterwards.

Schneizel's head wasn't given such mercy. His severed head was bathed in molten gold, ivory fixed to it like a devil's horns, and it was placed in the middle of Broceliande's F.L.E.I.J.A. memorial park, from what her jailors told her, a sign below it to remind all of who it was and what they had done.

She also knew that an imperial decree would ensure that it couldn't be overturned without the overwhelming 80% majority vote from parliament or a second imperial degree.

She didn't mind that all that much.

"We were right, Schneizel…but also so very wrong." She exhaled dolefully. F.L.E.I.J.A. was hated-yes. The world over, people called the weapon nothing more than the hand of the devil born through science. More than that, they hated the people who developed and produced it…but most importantly, they hated those who used it.

With that knowledge came regret. The shame was so deep that some days, she struggled to leave her bed and eat much less. More times than she counted, her jailors had to play nurse when she would just… lose any will to eat. It wasn't as bad as those early days, but in other ways, it was worse. She willed herself to survive even when she wished for death because she didn't want to take the coward's way out. She didn't want her tombstone, if she even got on, to read that Nunnally just 'lost the will to live' when she was liable for the deaths of hundreds.

More than anything, she forced herself to keep moving, even when her heart yearned for an end…because she held onto the dream, the desperate hope that one day, it would end. That she could be able to rejoin her family; she didn't care for her titles, wealth, lands, or any of that. She just wanted to converse with her and hold her brother again. To regain that constant.

Their last conversation had been days after the trials started when he had Jeremiah remove the full effects of their father's geass. However, that was a short visit, and little words were exchanged.

That wasn't enough. She wanted a real conversation, a real chance to apologise, to try to make things right between them, to repair the once unshakable bond that they shared.

The grey skies answered her pleas. What she wanted didn't matter. What she deserved did. 'Naoto turned 2 a few days ago…if the news was accurate.' She felt her eyes grow wet at that, though she shed no tears. Kallen had given her brother a bouncing baby boy, Nunnally was the aunt to 3 children, and she wasn't even allowed to send them a Christmas card, much less meet them.

She couldn't even confirm if they knew they would ever know she existed outside hearing about her in some history book and then asking their parents about the 'the aunt that wasn't executed.'

What would the response be? 'Oh yes, Auntie Nunnally was exiled for crimes against the empire and humanity, and you should never speak her name again, for she's not a vi Britannia; anything else, son?'

When Rebecca came to fetch her, she would finally be in the same spot, staring up to the now-dark sky and silently wheeling her in.

November weather in this area of Britannia was never pleasant, at least for those who didn't love to compare it to the weather of their lost homeland, the British Isles. The day was still young, but it remained cold and damp, with drizzle coming and going, never long enough for the water to evaporate. Snow mixed in with some of it as winter was fast approaching.

This made it a terrible time to host an outdoor press conference, as the over 2000 people had to attend with winter coats and umbrellas to keep them dry, while those with equipment like cameras and microphones had to work extra hard to keep them out of the incessant rain. But Nina couldn't change that, as the project they were all there to see had just finished construction two months ago, and safety inspections and runs were last week.

But at least she could rest easy knowing that it wasn't her call to make; it was the board for the University of Pennsylvania who thought it best to host the event now. If she could have, she would have waited until at least when it started snowing in full. People tended to prefer snow over this dreary weather. It would have made for a warmer reception when she eventually took to the stage.

She stood to the side of the stage, behind some curtains set up to keep her out of sight as she waited for her queue. She held her speech notes in her hands—not the entire thing, but just highlights she wished to touch upon in case she forgot. Nina didn't want to be here; she didn't want to give this speech, and she would much rather get back to her and continue her research out of the public eye.

But what she wanted wasn't a factor; it was what she had to do, and she…she wouldn't run from that. She hadn't run when she joined Lelouch and Suzaku to defeat Schneizel, and she wouldn't run now. When the dean finished his introduction and thanks, he gestured towards her and taking a breath, she walked onto the stage.

There was no music, no cheers or applause for her. What greeted her was silence and uneasy looks. She rows of reporters, energy sector officials from the empire and UFN, government officials, and just regular university students where she worked who happened to secure seats among the crowd of important people.

All had faces that showed skepticism, curiosity, thinly veiled distrust, and, in some, open hostility. Nina saw it all, and while she still wished to retreat, to cower before such looks, she had braced herself for this and continued towards the podium. Reaching it, she adjusted her glasses and tie, a hint of tension in her fingers.

Taking a steadying breath and wishing for guidance from Princess Euphemia, she began.

"Thank you all for being here today. I know that the weather dampens the mood quite a bit." Nina's calm, deliberate, and patient voice carried over the speakers. "I know that for many of you, the invitation to this must have been met with hesitation, suspicion, or antagonism."

She spotted a few heads nod subtly, others shaking as if too many; she had lost them the moment it was announced she was even present. As such, they watched her with guarded eyes, while the press seemed eager to catch any slip, any mistake, and further demonize her in the eyes of the world…as if they needed more terrible things to say about her.

Gesturing towards the building behind her, it was massive—a man-made mountain in the middle of a pristine forest. It was a dome-shaped facility, with funnels to one side and smaller buildings dotting its surroundings. They had set up their press conference at its entrance, where the gates read 'Frey Power Plant.'

"What you see before you are the result of years of work, experimentation, and refinement. When the 3 reactors within the Frey power plant are activated, they would each be capable of generating 80 megawatts of clean, reliable energy." Nina explained. "That will be 240 megawatts of power added to Britannia's eastern power grid, enough power to light up 20,000 homes across the east coast, all without producing an ounce of greenhouse emissions."

With attention off her and towards the power plant, there were some polite nods, even a smile or two, as Britannia's power grid was being stretched past its limits. It had been one of the best in the world, but that came at the cost of focusing on powering settlements and the estates of the nobility and wealthy. Smaller towns and communities of numbers were often left with little, if anything.

Reforms saw those policies revoked, but the unprecedented increase in power demand pushed their grid past what it was built for, and blackouts had become something of an unpleasant commonplace. New projects like this and continued efforts to modernize and expand the power grid would go a long way to ensuring such rough times are temporary.

Nina pressed up. "This is achieved not through solar or wind farming, as is commonplace towards the interior of the northern Britannian, but through controlled explosion created via a similar process at the heart of the F.L.E.I.J.A. weapons."

Not a moment after she finished did the mood shift as people looked towards the building like it was a ticking time bomb, ready to wipe them off the face of the earth, and towards her for seemingly tricking them into attending what could be a mass murder-suicide.

Nina knew this would happen, and the staff knew it would happen as well. They asked if she preferred if she wasn't the one to give this speech. But she had refused the mercy, or maybe it was just emotionless PR tactics. She had to face this, and she wouldn't let someone else do it for her.

"I'm not blind to the history of that name or my history as the one that turned an obscure acronym that sounds like the name of a Norse God into someone everyone knows and rightfully hates." Nina continued, not needing to fake the remorse or shame; she felt both plenty day to day every time she saw a reminder of her wrongs.

"Some of you have known about me for a while, having learned my name in the wake of the Tokyo disaster or even after the Pendragon bombing." She continued, recalling those days when it leaked that she developed the F.L.E.I.J.A. and went into hiding at Ashford, Rivalz being the only friendly face back them as everyone else was either gone…or dead. "Others would have seen him during the Damocles trials, where I served as a witness and admitted to my hand, that limits my involvement."

Many in attendance grimaced or grew more irritated with her with that reminder. Nina hadn't been charged them, as ultimately. At the same time, she created the weapon and admitted she pressed Suzaku to first use it during the second Black Rebellion; she did not have the authority to command him to do anything. Her leaving the military's research wing mere hours after Tokyo meant that Pendragon couldn't legally be blamed on her any more than one could blame a gun manufacturer.

Still, what was legal didn't stop people from baying for her blood then; plenty of the people in the courtroom had lost people, and seeing her acting merely as a witness of the state, with no jail time led to plenty of screaming, cursing and even one attempted suicide bombing from a father of 3 whose entire family had been wiped out in Tokyo.

"I am the woman that created the F.L.E.I.J.A. I am the woman that opened Pandora's box and handed killers and mad-men the capacity to destroy 2 cities and creditable threaten the world with what could only be described as genocide unseen since the floods of the bible." Nina repeated, their hostile looks no different from what she saw every night, whenever she was alone, and she closed her eyes, if only for a moment.

She could have lied, saying Schneizel tricked or manipulated her, but she was honest then. She admitted that he never ordered or asked her to do anything while he provided the funding, person, and research. He merely gave her free reign to create her doomsday weapon. She was even the one who requested it be deployed to the Grand Duchy of Japan, then Area 11.

"To many, I am a witch; I am the mother of monsters and should have been hung along with the others after those trials or been thrown into some cell to rot for the rest of my days. It must feel like an insult that instead, I was transferred to one of our empire's greatest and oldest higher education institutions where I work at the taxpayer's expense."

Nina still couldn't believe she had let Kallen and Lelouch talk her into accepting this. She was content, never working in the scientific field again. Still, those two could be surprisingly convincing, especially when this came with a chance to make up for what she had done, the same way everyone seemed to be doing.

"I can't fault you for those sentiments. I have done much…far too much to earn anything else. I can say it as many times as I wish, but it won't change what I've done, the lives I'm responsible for taking, but I will repeat it." Nina took a breath before looking them all in the eye, the cameras catching all of it. "I am deeply sorry that my grief, my issues, but hatred for none Britannians could drive me to commit such a grievous sin against the whole of humanity and bring shame onto the sciences themselves."

"I can't change my past, no matter how much I wish to, but I can change my behavior going forward." She declared, working up as much of her confidence as she could.

"The Sol-4 aren't just the 3 reactors," She stated, gesturing towards the power plant behind her. "They're a promise, from me and everyone that worked on them to the entire world, that this technology will serve mankind, not threaten. To bring light and safety, not death and destruction." A flicker of interest sparked in the crowd, and Nina seized the moment.

"This plant and its technology host the potential to reshape our energy future, to ensure that millions will have access to affordable, sustainable, environmentally friendly and most importantly, safe power," Nina emphasized that last bit, as they worked tirelessly to ensure it, even limiting the potential reactor output to more manageable levels.

"To ensure this, the reactors were designed to ensure that they can't recreate the conditions that produce an explosion anywhere near what an F.L.E.I.J.A looks like. With layers upon layers of fail-safes and safety protocols built into the power plant to prevent such from happening, up to and including complete shut-downs of the reactors."

Her voice softened as she lost some confidence and tried to be honest with them, with Britannia and the world.

She bowed to them all. "I didn't embark on this journey for forgiveness, and I won't ask that of any of you…all I ask for is a chance to do better and more in this life than just create weapons."

There was no response to her speech but the soft patter of the drizzle against the microphones and podium. There was a sound, a smidgen thing that could have been ignored or missed, but with such silence, it rang out like a gunshot. Nina didn't dare rise from her bow, but those in the audience turned to try and find the source of that sound.

They quickly found it, with it being one of the students in attendance, the young man giving Nina's speech applause, even with everyone looking at him like he was insane. Then someone else joined, a member of the university staff this time, someone who had spent considerable time working with Nina. This was followed by another, the Emperor himself, who was in attendance.

Slowly, the sentiment spread as applause followed; maybe it wasn't genuine; maybe there would still be resentment and suspicion against Nina for many more years, but she could accept that.

"Thank you," Once the applause died down, Nina finally rose to face them again, wiping away some tears of gratitude. With her speech done, he reached for her earpiece, connecting her to the crew already at their stations within the plant. "Start the reactors."

At her go-ahead, the switches were flipped, safeties deactivated, and soon enough, the 3 reactors came alive. The power of the F.L.E.I.J.A. was used to generate immense heat, which boiled water by the thousands of Liters until it was high-pressure steam, turning turbines that would create electricity that would flow into the power grid. With no reports of issues, the day was considered a success, and Nina quietly left the stage.

No sooner had she gotten behind the curtains than she was accosted by a familiar face.

"Oh, look at you! Giving big fancy speeches!" Milly, ever the…Milly scooped up the more petite woman and hugged her like a teddy bear.

"I don't like public speaking, but it must be done." She replied as Milly put her down, letting her guest for the event, Rivalz, approach her.

"Still, you got some guts, Nina. I would have frozen halfway through and made a fool of myself." He gave her a thumbs-up, which got a small smile of thanks out of her.

"I practiced with some colleagues in the days leading up to it, but imagining a large crowd is nothing compared to the real thing." She admitted.

"Well, if you performed great up there. I just wish I was the first to give you praise." Kallen made herself known, offering a friendly smile to the woman. The Emperor's consorts dressed to that match, with her outfits often having some mix of red and blues.

"We agreed that it was best to wait for others to do so, to help the idea that she's not just our, what was it the papers called her, lackey?" Lelouch asked.

"Still sucks that we have to pretend. Everyone knows we're not impartial with her." His wife grunted as she took some convincing to not just say 'screw it' and give a standing ovation.

"The cost of the crown, Kallen." Lelouch joked before he offered a handshake to Nina. "But we do mean it. It's been a long time coming, but you've done it. How does it feel?"

She accepted it, though her brow creased as she tried to respond. "I…I can barely describe it, heavy…but not? Like I've made a major breakthrough but just scratched the surface."

"That won't be the first time. I get that feeling often, though I wouldn't describe it in similar words." Lelouch replied, his eyes flashing with memories and regrets, the same as hers. Something only she could understand as Kallen…Kallen was a fighter and had killed plenty of people, but aside from her part in Shirley's father's death, she didn't particularly feel remorse for any of them, and even then, she wasn't dragged down by the fact she killed Joseph either.

"I like to think it's our souls being able to take solace that we're taking steps in the right direction, even if our minds remind us that there are still many left to the destination…whatever that might be." Lelouch finished as Nina nodded, and they entered a large tent set up where they could converse without needing an umbrella. Nina still had plenty of questions from the press to answer.

As Jeremiah had come to expect, it wasn't even midday yet, and the heat was already oppressive, as was expected during June, right at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. That heat and the moisture in the air draped his orange farm in a sticky veil of humidity.

The sun blazed overhead, casting harsh light over the many rows of citrus trees, their green leaves hiding the last of the fruit that had yet to be picked. They would need to do so soon, as with the end of the month approaching, so too would the end of orange season. When that came, perhaps he could also work on planting Tangerines and Tangelos.

The knight of two wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, the man dressed not in his knightly uniform but in simple, commoner farming garb. It did more than enough to hide his body's more…mechanical parts, though his orange eye cover was always visible, even if he had come to appreciate it. At the moment, he wasn't among the trees, picking fruit, but instead in his truck, watching his workers moving through the grooves as he would have soldiers in training or battle.

The other truck had already left, loaded to the brim with produce that would need to be processed, packaged, and shipped out. Jeremiah's once small farm had grown and now supplied the surrounding towns with his crop, something that he took great pride in.

As he watched his workers, he kept silent and let the music from his radio play, adding some ambiance to the area as he had made a little game out of it. Those who picked the most could choose the music, and while he wasn't a fan of this…rock music, he was a man of his word, and his workers wanted it. Local lads they were, all young, wishing to earn a little extra cash, or people who made this their summer jobs, as he couldn't keep half of them through the rest of the year and they would find employment elsewhere.

Seeing some of them setting up a ladder, he noticed it wasn't set on even ground. "Jerry, Micheal! Don't be careless with the ladder; it won't take much to lose balance and take a nasty fall!"

"Yes, sir!" The two boys waved back at him, their bags already partially filled with oranges as they adjusted their ladders.

Jeremiah watched them a moment longer before his gaze moved on to the rest, supervising them. He didn't see Anya among them today. However, he expected as much as the former soldier had taken to her studies with a zeal that he hadn't expected but much appreciated. With exams in full swing, if she wasn't at the local library or her teacher's house, she was holed up in her room going through practice sheets.

It was hard to imagine that it had been 6 years since his deployment to Shinjuku, the day that everything would change. If he had been told that he would go from that to being humiliated by Zero and then working with him in less than a year, he would have called you mad…but Zero was someone to who he had always owed his loyalty. Jeremiah was a simple man; he could play politics, read people well enough, and plan, but at his core, he preferred when things were simple. One of the simplest things out there was loyalty.

Once you picked your master, you served them well to the best of your abilities. Their allies were your allies, their enemies your enemies. Their sins yours. That last part, especially as their knight, is that you were often chosen to carry out their will, for better and worse.

It was that connection that often weighed on Jeremiah. His master rejected Britannian dogma and actively sought to liberate the numbers, even for his own gains. And yet, what was Jeremiah doing then? Leading a Britannian supremacist group, happily participating in massacres for little reason, trying to frame a man he knew full well was innocent just to destroy the only means by which Elevens that chose to work with the empire had to find employment of any kind within the settlements.

Looking back on that, all he felt was shame for his actions and beliefs. It was merely cosmic justice that his master would be the one to set him straight, humbling him and freeing an innocent man from his clutches. Even his fate at Narita was nothing but a consequence of his foolishness; he was bested by consort Kallen and chose not to eject, allowing him to be bathed in what should have been lethal levels of radiation.

It was a mercy that when he would fight his master last, without knowing who the other truly was, he was offered mercy. Rather than death, he could finally serve him. And serve him he did, through thick and thin. Even when the Black Knights betrayed him, even when he claimed the throne, he stayed loyal and helped to see his reign succeed against all those who challenged it.

But all that time only made his sense of shame greater. As he saw the Britannia of old, the one created by his master's predecessors…and people like Jeremiah, he saw it as it was now. An empire transitioning into something deserving of the title 'Holy' Britannian empire. He witnessed all that and wondered how someone like him could have a place in it when he felt like a relic, a painful, brutal weapon of an era now passed.

Anya…Anya was young, but she still had a chance, especially when she never had the choice to even become a soldier, which was made by Empress… Marianne.

'Even now, I still find myself doubting my master, doubting all the evidence that…' Jeremiah sighed as he leaned back in his seat. To think that Marianne, the woman he admired, was no different to any other consort…no, she was worse. Say what you will about the other woman Charles sired children with, but they either made their true nature obvious or at least cared for their children to some degree.

Marianne was neither, fooling everyone till the very end.

And now, her son ruled, but he tried his best to be better than the sum of his parts, live up to the ideals he preached, and lead his empire down a righteous path. Would such a path need an Orange Boy? He didn't know or think he would know for many years.

But he had the time, didn't he? He might believe that his past made him unfit for this second chance. But he was a man of loyalty, and his master, his Emperor, deemed it so. He would continue to live to make up for his evils and to serve as a reminder to the knights that would come after him of what pitfalls to avoid and what they should aim to be—a duty he would perform for many years, long after his Emperor passed from this world.

Jeremiah pulled his shirt down just enough to look at his chest, where the mark of code was above his right.

C.C.'s code.

His geass canceller was enough of a workaround for him needing a geass to take her power, a process that did not require that he slew his Emperor's consort. Unlike her or even V.V., he had accepted this burden later in life; he was 33, after all. But it meant he was physically at his peak, one made all the taller thanks to his augmentations and cyberwear.

She might have seen it as a burden, and he did, too, to some extent, but he also saw it as a blessing. He knew that she worried that she would, like always, outlive her family, outlive even her grandchildren, and refused to curse her husband with her code. So he offered himself up. It would allow them both the chance to live loving but short mortal lives while also ensuring that a protector of this new peace remained to guide the future generation to ensure that the lessons learned through tragedy and blood weren't forgotten.

"She said she'll be swinging by again sometime during the week. I'll need to ensure I have proper accommodations prepared for her." Jeremiah mused, as C.C. wasn't about to just let him figure things out like she had to and had taken to mentoring him on all she knew, which was a vast swathe of knowledge on many topics, not just geass and code related.

"I'll also need to ensure I have pizza ready for her, though how much can she eat now that she can gain weight?" Jeremiah asked himself if maybe he would need to call the palace chef and ask about any changes in her diet lately, as she could get…unpleasant when she didn't have enough pizza, but if he gave her too much, that could affect her health.

The University of Pennsylvania was apparently founded before the Revolutionary War by Benjamin Franklin, of all people. You know, the dude who, in this timeline, betrayed the revolution with the promise of wealth and a noble title. So it stands to reason that the university would still be around and probably be considered one of the best, considering that its founder was a 'true British/Britannian patriot.'

As for the plant, as F.L.E.I.J.A.'s are this world's nukes, it seemed…fitting that it would be a power plant running on F.L.E.I.J.A., not nuclear tech; just don't ask me how I kept it vague because I can't explain that. As for its output, it was kept low because this is their first one, much like the first nuclear power plant the US built, so they're learning how this works. Nina's own cautious nature also played a factor in it.

And just for shits and giggles, here are the lengths of some of the reigns of previous Emperors. The timeline itself is weird, as some sources claim Richardo was the first emperor,…how the fuck do you go through over 90 rulers in less than 200 years? So I kept the thing where Britannia retroactively made Alwin 1 their first emperor.

1998 – 2018(20 years) 98th Emperor

1949 – 1998(49 years) 97th Emperor

1938 – 1949(11 years) 96th Emperor

1919 – 1938(19 years) 95th Emperor

1891 – 1919(28 years) 94th Emperor

1868 – 1891(23 years) 93rd Emperor

1860 – 1868(Succession Crisis) 5 Emperors

1828 – 1860(32 years) 87th Emperor

Final chapter(for real this time) will be posted February 1st, but if you want to read it early, well the link is at the bottom for my p a t reon.

Special thanks to my Patrons(s):

Emmanuel Baptiste

GodOfConquest91

3rddynasty

Jacob Crispin Rincon

Francesco Alayza

LastCranel27

Frostcore

Broden Hammel

Alexei Barrett

rlp31-

ShelDrake

TheCoolest7248

Uknown Grimoire

p a t reon . com (slash) Ducksmakegreatminers