Lelouch didn't come home often enough.

It was a wonderfully paradoxical joy he felt as the thought occurred to him. As he sat enjoying a celebratory meal with his family. His mother and father, his two fiancees, and all of their peerages. It was far more people than would normally be convenient. More like a banquet than a family dinner. Yet with a mixture of magic and a positive, upbeat atmosphere, all present were at least somewhat able to stay engaged with all of the conversations going on around them, at least as much as they cared to.

In one corner of the room, Gasper drew comfort and reassurance from Loup's hand on his arm. Keeping him calm so that he was able to talk the ears off some of Sona's peerage about cosplay. A subject usually taboo in Sona's peerage for Serafall reasons, but Sona was aware enough to not stomp on an agoraphobe's interests for the sake of her own discomforts that paled in comparison. Though Lelouch suspected there might be some spankings in store for Sona's girls in the near future.

Akeno and one of Misla's Knights had seemed to become fast friends. Engaging in discussions that would have been deeply inappropriate for a human dinner table, but only merited raised eyebrows from the devils overhearing it. And the unspoken intrigue of Sona.

Meanwhile, Rias seemed to be keeping a pleasant expression while inwardly seething. She happily held onto Lelouch's arm, while at the same time he was fairly sure she was trying to crush it and pierce the skin with her nails.

"I'm sorry I didn't play to the theatrics of the setting you chose," he told her.

"Oh Lulu-nii, why would I be mad about that?" she asked him sweetly, taking a sip from the wine glass in her other hand. "It was only a childhood fantasy come to life. A minor tactical advantage pales in comparison!"

"She definitely didn't scream in anguish as she watched the statues fall," Akeno added with a winsome smile.

"Shut up, Akeno," Rias demanded, still in that sickeningly sweet voice.

"Ufufu..."

Lelouch sighed. "How can I make it up to you?"

The redhead's ire seemed to vanish. The grip on Lelouch's arm loosened. Rias' eyes holding a glimmer of victory in them. "The next time we have some time alone, I'll have some outfits for us to wear, and a script I expect you to memorise in advance."

And here he thought Sona would be the more demanding of his two fiancees.

"You're so much like your mother when she was your age, Rias," Misla declared with a laugh.

Herodotus, having known Venelana much better than Misla did when she was growing up, seemed to look distinctly uncomfortable at the comparison. "Lelouch," he said with severe intent behind his words, "Remember. A hundred smaller sacrifices you can predict are often better than a large sacrifice you can't predict."

"You're still angry over her destroying your recreation of the Battle of Cannae?" his wife teased.

"It was never anger," the Lord Bael answered. "Only despair."

"You can be so melodramatic."

"It was months of work!" he complained in a burst of emotion that a decade ago would have been wildly out of character. "Months of painstakingly recreating the geography, carving and painting the figures by hand! I spent a full day on getting Hannibal's beard right alone! Then woom, gone in an instant!"

"Dear, she was eight."

"Ah!" Rias interrupted suddenly. "I just realised! Now that Lulu-nii and I are officially engaged, may I start calling you... Mm... Mama and Papa?" Evidently she was reserving the Japanese parental labels for her own parents.

"Of course you can, dear." Misla offered her future daughter in law a reassuring smile and bob of her head, before turning her attention to the other. "Sona, you haven't said much tonight. Is everything alright?"

"Oh, of course, Lady Bael," Sona answered stiffly. "I didn't wish to impose or cause offence."

Misla gave her a fond look, her arm moving under the table in a way that suggested she was prompting her husband.

Who either got the message or was already on the same page. "Sona. If I could offer some advice from hard-won experience. Decorum is important, but more important is knowing when to toss it aside. Else in fear of acting improperly, you'll prevent yourself from saying the things you will one day wish you declared from the bottom of your heart." He gestured around the room, at the animated conversation going on in every corner. "Here in this room, we're all family."

To reinforce the point, Lelouch took Sona's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. He looked at her with understanding. After all, he knew full well where her tendency for being overly proper came from. Serafall meant well, but... Well, she could be quite a handful. A lot to deal with on a regular basis. It was only natural Sona might retreat from such excessively outward expression, and end up trying to compensate for Serafall's carefree attitude.

But he agreed with his parents. There was no call for being so closed off here. They were going to be family in the not too distant future, even if she wouldn't be taking the Bael name.

Her lips curled upward at the care in her fiance's eyes. She nodded. "My apologies. I'll try not to repeat that mistake."

"Good!" Misla responded with a firm nod and a grin. "So, how's my boy in bed? Relentless, I hope?"

Father and son palmed their faces at the exact same time. Meanwhile the stiff and proper girl looked like a deer in headlights, blushing brightly all the while. "I have found nothing to complain about," she managed to answer.

"The problem was us getting competitive," Rias added with far less shame.

"Ah, that sort of thing will shake itself out eventually," Misla assured them both. "Or it won't. That can be fun too." The Lady Bael shot a knowing look at where most of her peerage were seated. Many of the young-looking women returning the look with their own.

"Well that depends on what the King prefers," Sara countered. "Some prefer to watch the competition and reward the winner."

"Proper rewards are excellent motivation to excel," Misla agreed without hesitation. "Is Lelouch properly rewarding you?"

Sara could only cough awkwardly. At no point had she or Lelouch outwardly expressed that they had become semi-regular bedmates. Something the Rook had once said she had no intention of pursuing. "It um..."

Lelouch would reconsider his desire to come home more often, now that he realised his mother wouldn't stop talking about his sex life.

Somewhat nearby, Mash was equally awkward about that subject, so chose to talk to Shirone instead to distract herself. The nekoshou attacking her food with the frustration of a displeased cat. "What's wrong, Shirone?"

"Commentators said I was stupid," the catgirl muttered, simultaneously chewing and pouting. "I'm not. Senjutsu just makes it harder to think straight."

"Ah, that reminds me," Misla said, suddenly joining the conversation she was half paying attention to. Acting with the necessary capacity for acting as a social butterfly one might expect from the wife of a lord known for his stoicism. "Shirone dear, be sure to check your room before you go. There's a gift–"

"Kuroka was here. I know. I could smell her."

A subtly awkward charge entered the room, emanating from one particular person. "Sai was here?" Lelouch asked quietly.

Herodotus gave the answer. Clearly it was no secret. "We all watched your match together."

His heir wanted to be angry. Even if it wasn't a secret, even if Sairaorg only cut himself off from Lelouch and Lelouch had no right or desire to push him away from the family entirely. It felt unfair that they could see Sairaorg and he couldn't. But even if he wanted to be angry, he couldn't do that either. "Was he... Is he doing well?" he asked, trying to sound more at ease than he felt.

"He's brought some more members into his peerage."

"Did he say... Will he come back?"

Misla wore a much less genuine smile. There was no hiding the discomfort she felt at her sons being apart like they were. Another sentiment Lelouch understood entirely. "... Soon," she answered. "Seeing you and your peerage in action, I've never seen him so motivated. And you know just how much that means when it comes to Sairaorg."

"... Yes." Soon. It wasn't a good answer. It wasn't the answer he wanted. But it was an answer he could accept, nebulous as it might have been.

With determination and experience, Lelouch changed the subject as smoothly as he was able, letting the awkward moment rest where it belonged, in the back of his mind.

-(-)-

Mash couldn't silence the words that had been plaguing her all night.

Eventually, the evening had come to an end, Rias and Sona gave Lelouch their fond farewells with a kiss on each cheek before they teleported back to the school with their peerages. Then, Lelouch brought Mash and the rest of his peerage back to his own home in the human world. The comfortable pseudo-Victorian home that didn't especially mesh with the neighbours' Japanese architecture. Not that such a thing mattered to devils all that much.

"Alright. It's been a long day, everyone make sure to get some rest." An order that wasn't an order. And one with several caveats as Lelouch made sure to signal both Kallen and Ana to meet him outside while the peerage dispersed to however they chose to spend their night. Mash had learned to read those signals of his. As a means of better serving him of course. But in the course of it, she had learned exactly who he trusted most in the peerage. She couldn't begrudge him that. With the exception of his brother, Ana had been with him the longest. And Kallen... He had a strange history with her where they sometimes seemed more familiar than they should. Especially with Kallen's second personality.

... It wasn't her business. Once again, Mash had to tell herself that. She wanted to be a better servant, a better Knight. Knowing there were others who held more of his trust, it left her with a feeling of dissatisfaction, no matter how much she understood the reasons.

"Master?" Mash said, getting his attention before he left the teleportation room. "Could I speak with you?"

He glanced at the two women he had signalled, nodded at them. "Sure. What did you need, Mash?"

Before long, the two of them were alone in the room. And only then did the Knight speak up again. "What the analysts said, about the rating game," she said. "About my performance... I failed you today, Master." Her King didn't speak. Instead he stayed silent to let her explain. "I'm your servant. I'm your Knight. I'm supposed to follow your orders and you wanted me to ambush the enemy, but instead I attacked them head-on. It was wrong. I-"

Resting a hand on her shoulder, he smiled at her in that way she normally enjoyed but here and now felt entirely wrong. "Mash. You're mistaken. You didn't fail me. I failed you."

"No!"

"Yes. I gave you an order I should have known you wouldn't want to follow. You're my servant, yes. But you're not just my Knight, you're my knight. I know you have a preferred code of conduct and my orders largely went against that code. What I should have done was account for it in my strategy. An internal conflict is bad for morale, after all. That was my failing, not yours."

But... But... No. That wasn't how it was supposed to work! She was his servant! His orders were supposed to come first! Even worse, she knew it was stupid! She knew it was the wrong thing to do, not just against his orders but blindingly obvious from a tactical perspective! "I... What if I don't like it? What if what I'm supposed to be feels wrong?"

"You disobeyed my orders in order to live up to your own sense of honour and fair play." The words felt like he had struck her, laying it out so plainly, so matter of fact. "Who you are and what you want might be defined in the mind, but only actions make them real. And from your actions, you are a knight who is my servant." Even as her mind reeled from the statement that served only to drag her deeper into her self-doubt, he pulled her into a hug. "I knew when I first saw you, Mash. Your very first words were to plead for someone's life on their behalf. Throwing yourself into danger and hardship to protect someone else. That's who you are. It's who you were before we even met. I'm more than alright with that, and I'll do better for your sake from now on."

That was who she was? She wanted to deny it. But everything he had said were conclusions drawn from her own actions. And even if she wished otherwise, she couldn't help but agree with them. She had known before she acted. There were better paths to attack from. Ana had even left one open for her. And yet she ignored it to attack from the front. It wasn't like back then, when she had tried to save Lancelot. She was proud of that. It was a good thing. But the rating game... All she did was make things more difficult for herself, for Shirone, for Lelouch. All for chivalry, for honour. "I really am Galahad." For a time, for a wonderful time, she believed she had a choice in who she would be. And yet even with the inner turmoil that came from that, she would remember that time fondly.

"Why do you believe that?"

"Master?"

"Why do you believe you're Galahad?" he asked again.

"Because... That's who I was meant to be. And no matter how much I want to be someone else... My actions define me. I couldn't do what I wanted. I had to do what Galahad would have done."

Her answer seemed to be less than satisfactory for her King, though. On the contrary, he looked frustrated with her. Mash decided then and there, she really didn't like being on the receiving end of that. "What's your name?"

The homunculus frowned. "Mash ab-Galahad. Because I'm made of–"

"You're Mash," he interrupted her. "I didn't give you that name. It was the name you told me, and I checked with Arthur, they didn't give you that name either. It was a name you chose for yourself and it was not Galahad. The real Galahad is... Well it's said he was taken to Heaven." She watched him decide in real time that the exact status of Galahad was worth looking into. "But it remains. He isn't you. You're Mash. Your own person. You may have inclinations similar to him, but you make your own choices. Blessed and burdened with free will like the rest of us. I never want you to worry about trying to be Galahad, or what he might have done. All that matters is what Mash will do."

"What I will..." Mash mumbled.

Giving her shoulders a squeeze, Lelouch smiled at her again. "Try to get some sleep, alright?" Letting her go, he turned to walk up the stairs.

She didn't need to be like Galahad. Lelouch didn't want that for her. Camelot didn't want that for her. She was allowed to be her own person. To just be Mash. She liked to practise her swordsmanship. She liked school. She liked Shirone no matter how many snacks the nekoshou stole.

And... And she liked...

"Master!"

The Bael heir turned again, fond but impatient. "Yes, Mash?"

"Umm..." The words died on her tongue. No matter how much Mash wanted to say it, the idea of actually saying it, of reaching for what she wanted, it had never occurred to her. So busy she was with figuring out if it was right to want it in the first place. "Thank you! I'll do better too!"

She felt the warmth of her blush, coloured by the embarrassment of not being able to say the simplest thing. To take the first simple step!

"Goodnight, Mash."

And then he was gone. Leaving Mash alone in the basement room to squat down, hands folded on top of her head. "Uuuuuu...!" Why couldn't she say it?!

-(-)-

The distraction of Mash's self-identity issues resolved for the moment, Lelouch was free to make his way to the upstairs study. Also known as the most secure room in the house, warded to be secured against most any kind of scrying or spying methods Ana could think of. And the more mundane ones Kallen could think of. Both named women waited in the room for him. Shutting the door firmly behind him, he sealed it. Activating the myriad warding magics all at once. "Fallen angels."

Kallen Stadtfeld spoke, even as she created the duplicate for her other half to inhabit. "There's no way in Hell they're in Kuoh just for this one girl. They could've dragged her anywhere and instead they bring her to the most devil-infested town this side of Vegas?"

Ana perked up at the mention of that city. "I never did get to play with the spinny things..." she trailed off, giving her master an unsubtle hint.

Lelouch rolled his eyes. "I cleared the air with the locals. We can go again soon, but no magic to 'help' the games, got it?" The Bishop pouted, but nodded her assent. "Regardless, Stadtfeld is right. There's no way they would set themselves up in a town like Kuoh just to pick up a girl with a moderately rare Sacred Gear. Which means they have a motive to be here that goes beyond her. By my count there are..." He stopped for a moment, carefully considering what potential angles might be in play. "Six. Six potential targets of whatever they're doing. Me, Rias and Sona for reasons of reconnaissance. Siblings of the Satans and the next figurehead for the Great King faction. And then there are the three others."

"Which are?" Kozuki asked as she sat on the back of Stadtfeld's chair. The answer came with a stare directly at her. "Oh, really?"

"The two of you would be one of them, yes. Azazel, leader of the fallen, he's a scientist at heart. Their answer to Lord Beelzebub. I understand he was half the reason the Fallen lasted as long as they did in the war, coming up with all kinds of new madness forcing everyone else to adapt."

"A Rakshata type, got it."

Lelouch hummed, almost laughed, at her doing the same thing he once did. Fitting an archetype to someone he once knew. "One of the larger focuses of his research has been Sacred Gears. The Red Dragon Empress would be interesting on her own, but I imagine you only got more interesting to him when devils started saying you have a sub-species."

"How would he even know–?" Stadtfeld began to ask, only to answer her own question. "Oh. Right. Spies and shit." It was how Lelouch even got the information on the fallen in the town in the first place.

Lelouch nodded. "Of course you're not the only interesting one in that regard. Gasper is perhaps doubly interesting for his Sacred Gear, and his fairly rare existence as a dhampir devil. You don't see many dhampir for a start, and certainly not reincarnated ones."

Anastasia laughed at the idea of them targeting the meek boy. "For their own sake they should keep their distance. I dread to think how Loup would react, to say nothing of Akeno and Rias."

"You said six." Stadtfeld leaned forward in her chair, staring at her King. "You said Gaspar would be interesting for being a rare species..."

"... There is a distinct possibility that their interest is in Mash, yes," Lelouch confirmed. "I can't say for certain it's more or less likely than any of the other possibilities. We don't even know if the fallen are working for their own interests or if there's some alignment with other polities. Hiroko only heard about them being in Kuoh as part of Diodora's plan for this Asia girl, but he had to know they were in Kuoh already somehow. And when they've been lying low to the point that we didn't know, when they were right under our noses?"

Ana tried to maintain her poise, yet like the redhead across the table from her, she was struggling to stay upright in the face of confusing conspiracy. "It could be that the Old Satans are working with the Fallen. But at the same time, if the Old Satans still want to restart the war, undermining the Fallen's plans would still be something they're interested in doing. Not to mention the Hero Faction or their mystery sponsor or–"

"Getting bogged down in conspiracy won't help us right now," Stadtfeld cut in. "The bigger picture can be worked out later. Right now, there's a girl about to walk into a trap. How do we save her?" There was a long silence as she stared at her King in expectation. "Come on, you already have a plan."

"He does," Kozuki confirmed with a sigh. "He's trying to decide if saving her is the right thing to do."

Stadtfeld looked up at her counterpart, then back at her King. "It is."

"It is," Lelouch agreed. "Morally. Strategically, however... Hiroko has finally managed to glean actionable information, but also a window into what other forces might be working against us. We can't act recklessly to save one girl when there's so much more at stake."

"You're saying you'll just let it happen?" Stadtfeld asked. "Right here under your nose?"

"I said we can't act recklessly, not that we can't act." Really he might have let it go under different circumstances. If he didn't have certain tools at his disposal. However, the girl had potential benefits. A true healing power was fairly rare. The Fallen had the potential to provide even more answers as to exactly what the bigger picture looked like. And it was possible he could find a way to resolve all of this without anyone being the wiser.

Not that he expected any of that to be easy.

"We have a timetable," he stated, pulling out a large sheet of paper and magically overlaying onto it the map of the town he had memorised. "We know when this girl is expected to arrive. We don't know where the Fallen are hiding. We don't know why they're really here, but they see this girl as a bonus. We have two objectives. Secure the girl without raising Diodora's suspicions. And corner one or more of the Fallen to extract information from them without their superiors knowing about it."

"Geass?" Kozuki asked.

"How else?"

-(-)-

A/N: This chapter voted for and seen early by my generous supporters on THE GREAT FORBIDDEN P! FEAR THE P! LOVE THE P!