With my other projects paused, I started writing this earlier than usual because I still had plenty of fire from the last chapter. Also, I remember watching Witch of Mercury and, a while back, mentioning that there was a timeline where Ashford operated similarly, with fractions or, in this case, clubs, all having sponsors and knightmares which they used in school events, games, and duels but as fun as it sounds, it would need a lot of work to create, and I have enough to deal with.

Chapter 6: Blonde Peacock's Last Crow

For the people who called the Shinkuju ghetto their home, their day had been nothing but confusion, grief, pain, loss, and range. It wasn't easy to call the ghetto home, not when its shattered remains reminded all old enough to remember what their city, what their nation used to be.

When the Viceroy appeared and brought with him death and destruction, they were reminded of what led to their country being destroyed and them being stripped of all rights and dignity as human beings.

For better or worse, those who brought the wrath of the Viceroy onto their heads had done their best to buy them time to get as many of the Elevens that were forced to call it home to safety. Still, it was cruelly apparent to everyone that it was a futile effort, and before the day was done, all would be dead or forced to flee.

At least, it would have been futile if not for an unknown entering the fame. Like a yokai of folklore, they broke reason and logic, defeating the once impossible force. With increasing speed and ferocity, they pushed it back, turning the ghetto into a killing field of Britannians.

In an act that seemed to only solidify that supernatural power, the very earth cracked and shattered at their order before swallowing entire groups of Britannian troops, vehicles, and knightmares, sending them all to a fiery hell, confused and terrified.

Of course, this miracle didn't last, as Britannia, having had its nose bloodied, turned and unleashed a new weapon that turned things back in their favor.

Then, to both sides' confusion, minutes after regaining the upper hand, Clovis…ordered a ceasefire.

As the orange rays of the afternoon shined over the ghetto, smoke lingered in the air, curling from crumbled structures and vehicle wrecks. All this was visible to Jeremiah, who was incensed that after such a humiliation, he and the rest of the soldiers had to just stand back and allow them to leave.

"Are we just letting the Elevens go? What about the gas they've stolen? It was never recovered!" Jeremiah yelled over the radio he had taken once he had reached the command area.

"But, my Lord, it's by order of Prince Clovis." On the other hand, the man replied he was one of the people still in the G-1.

"What about Bartley? Get the general staff on the line." Jeremiah could hardly stand Bartley; the bureaucrat had only gotten his military position because he was a confidante to Clovis, but he would happily use him to reverse this mistake.

As Jeremiah talked, Kallen and many of her allies had joined the rest of the residents as they left; others had remained with their newly acquired Sunderlands to move them somewhere safe.

The redhead wore Ohgi's jacket to hide her frame more as she spared the G-1 a glance; no doubt that the royal bastard watched them, thinking that not slaughtering them was some grand act of mercy.

"They're not responding, sir. They could be away from their posts." Jeremiah froze in shock at that response before his shock gave way to anger.

"Are you telling me Prince Clovis is alone on the con?!"

Clovis was, in fact, not alone in his command center, but he would have preferred if he was as Lelouch got up from his bow, his stolen rifle aimed right for his chest. "I overjoyed, Lelouch. They said you died when Japan joined the fold. It's truly a blessing that the reports were inaccurate. We should depart for the Homeland immediately."

Lelouch's face remained blank, but his eyes were a different story, as they had been when he revealed himself to his brother; Clovis saw something broken in them, the loving, intelligent if not petulant gaze of the brother he once knew was cold, like gazing out into a harsh northern winter storm, but in that ice there burned an all-consuming fury that even in the depths of that cold, burned hot enough that Clovis was half expecting that he would catch fire.

"I have no intentions to be used by you, brother, the same way I was used by our father," Lelouch stated, which left Clovis stuttering. "Tell me, Clovis, do you remember why we were used?"

"It was…because terrorists killed your mother-!" Clovis screamed at the end as Lelouch fired his gun, the bullet finding its home right next to his ear, which had the prince flinching in fear.

"Do you take me for a fool?" Lelouch's calm faded, replaced with that fury that rose to the surface, hot and hungry for more. "Answer, or I'll put one in your knee," Lelouch promised, with Clovis believing that he would and immediately answered.

"N-no! I don't, Lelouch! I never did!" Clovis cried.

"Then don't try and act like it!" Lelouch barked at him, and like a scared peacock faced with an angry dog, Clovis was cowed. Lelouch, with little control over a fury that he had lived with for years, approached his brother; in his mind, unpleasant memories came to the forefront of his mind.

The shattering of glass, the muzzle flashes, sharp ear-piercing rapid blasts of gunfire before the scent of iron came, thick and heavy. Lelouch never forgot that day, the day a boy had been forced to watch as his mother was torn to pieces in a storm of bullets, her lifeless body lying atop his traumatized, injured sister.

"My mother was a former Knight of round, second in prowess only to the Knight of One and the superior dualist, having earned that title through strength of will and arms, even though she was a commoner by birth." Lelouch reminded him. He had always taken pride in that, knowing his mother worked for all she had and the social standing they enjoyed.

Getting closer to Clovis, he bent just a little so they could look each other in the eye, a terrified peacock and a snarling dog. "And you and I both know that none of that mattered to the nobility, who couldn't stand the fact a commoner could rise to their level, even outshine them. Especially the other imperial consorts who held her in open contempt."

Clovis didn't speak; he didn't dare when he knew that was true. It was never a secret that Marriane had few allies at court. Britannian dogma or not, the nobility valued prestige of birth over prestige of action, so earned or not, to see someone from outside their circles think themselves their equal was an insult most couldn't stand. Clovis wouldn't pretend like his mother was a Marriane fan, either.

Lelouch saw that Clovis was following along as he snarled at him, his fury shacking his aim. "No mere terrorist group could ever hope to strike at the home of one of the emperor's consorts, especially his favorite one. And yet, you people claim that they did, and the killers were never even identified? Don't make me laugh; my mother was assassinated by you high-born parasites!"

Clovis was openly crying, decorum be damned, as he pleaded for his life. "I beg you, brother, I wasn't me! I respected Marriane! I would have never wished harm or misfortune on her! I had nothing to do with it, I swear!"

Seeing his brother break down didn't elicit any warmth from Lelouch; if anything, it only added fuel to the fire. "You will tell me everything you know. Answer my questions." Lelouch activated his geass, borrowing the power into Clovis's mind. A moment later, he went slack, robotically composed.

"Of course, what would you like to know?" Clovis asked him.

"Who killed my mother?" Lelouch asked, so eager to find the truth it nearly hurt.

"2nd Prince Schneizel and 2nd Princess Cornelia. They can tell you." Clovis's bland, robotic response had Lelouch snarling in shock.

"They did it?" Lelouch asked, disbelief mixing with fury as he fondly remembered them. Outside Clovis, they were the only 2 elder siblings he had who treated them with any love or respect, and there was never a case when he saw them even argue with his mother. If even they could conspire against his mother…

"No." Before his faith in humanity could further be shaken, Clovis's answer brought him pause.

"Then why did you say their names?" Lelouch asked, irritated.

"I don't believe that neither had any role in Marriane's death; however, roughly 4 years ago, shortly before I took up the position of Viceroy of Area 11, Schneizel confided in me that he had been ordered to switch out her body before it was laid to rest. As for Cornelia, she continued the investigation into the murder for 3 years afterward, though she never told me what she found, so I assumed she didn't find anything." Clovis explained to him, which only had Lelouch's eye twitch as he digested that information.

"The body…was…swapped?" He remembered the day of the funeral. The rain, the dirt, the humiliation and rage that came from laying his mother to rest when she had so much life left to live. Those feelings came back with revenge, his blood pulsing with fury as he learned that his bastard of a father couldn't protect his mother and now couldn't allow her a proper funeral?! Such outrage resonated with the madness and wrath constantly swirling in his mind. As he and that rage that seemed birthed from a fallen nation cried out for blood.

"What more do you know? Tell me!" Lelouch demanded, feeling like a bloodthirsty dog on a chain, a chain made from reason and whatever humanity he still clung to. Still, he wouldn't get any more out of Clovis on that as he opened his mouth but said nothing.

"So that's all you know then?" Lelouch muttered, needing to take several heated breaths to calm his rage or at least get it back under firmer control, as that was one sin his brother had been cleared of. Still, he had a great many more to answer for.

"Why were you chasing those terrorists?" Lelouch asked him.

"Because they had stolen something important," Clovis replied.

"Was it poison gas?" Lelouch felt something, a hope, a childish wish that his brother was innocent of something, that those under him had merely deceived him, and perhaps that wouldn't exonerate him of the attempted genocide; it would be…something.

"No." That childish desire died with Clovis's response.

"Then what was it? What made you so desperate to get back?" Lelouch asked.

"It was a strange woman at the heart of our research. We don't know her name or anything about her outside the fact she's immortal. We've found records that indicate she's at least a century old yet shows no signs of aging." Clovis replied, which Lelouch was more than a little skeptical about. C.C. was a mystery, from how she acted, her responses to everything and everyone else had done, to even the fact she refused to give him her name and went with what he doubted were her initials. But immortality seemed far-fetched.

"Immortal?" He asked.

"Yes, no matter what we did to her, she could regenerate from it within, at best, an hour. She was shot, stabbed, poisoned, burned, drained of her blood-"

"Stop, you were conducting torture?" Lelouch had to stop him before he said more, his mind already cursing him by filling in the gaps and adding other inhumane experiments conducted that would have proven the theory of her immortality. Lelouch wasn't sure what was worse, the fact that his geass made it so that Clovis couldn't emote as he revealed something so disturbing, or the theory that was gaining traction with him that Clovis just didn't care.

"We were conducting human experimentation, trying to study her abilities so it could be replicated." Clovis corrected him, with Lelouch resisting the urge to slap him for being a pompous pedantic.

But still left a question, one that he just couldn't comprehend. "Why? Why do something so depraved…so wrong?" Lelouch remembered a brother who hated bureaucratic work and, instead, loved the arts. The Clovis of his youth was a painter and wanted to try his hand at sculpting and clay. He had a temper and could be selfish and inconsiderate, but he always tried to be there for them.

He was one of just 3 siblings Lelouch fondly remembered from those days and featured in plenty of his better memories of those days. He wanted; he needed to believe in him.

"It was to secure my claim to the throne." That answer, that reminder of what their father forced, encouraged, and rewarded, allowed rational to win. Maybe he was that man once, or perhaps he wasn't. It didn't matter because what sat before him now was no artist but an arrogant peacock, one deserving of the butcher.

"The throne? All this for a bloody throne? You think that justifies even a fraction of what you did?!" Lelouch decried him, kicking at the corpse of one of Clovis's command staff that happened to be near, the man's neck snapping under the force of the hit.

"Yes." Lelouch's fury rose even higher, his memories of his brother's better days, his kinder moments washed away in blood as he felt his heart beat harder, as it called for blood in return, and Lelouch would oblige that.

"And what of the people of Shinjuku? Were your dreams of being emperor worth massacring them to cover your dirty secrets?" Lelouch asked him; his brother's fate was sealed, but he had come here for the truth. No matter how ugly that might be.

"They were nothing but Elevens." Hearing that response nearly snapped whatever patience and restraint he had. As he heard such sentiments before, he had heard it for years. No matter how well he hid it, it only made his blood boil at the callousness, the egoism, the blatant refusal to see one's fellow man as just that.

Lelouch took another breath; the heat of his fury doused a little by cold detachment. He was the fool who believed anyone could last long in that den of evil that was the imperial court and not find themselves stained. Reaching for his cross beneath the stolen uniform, he let its presence help ground him and tame the fury and heartbreak he felt towards his older brother.

"What do you know about that white Knightmare you deployed?" Lelouch asked, shifting focus from his brother's aberrant lack of humanity to the thorn that had ruined his plans.

"It's the Lancelot; it was developed by Lloyd Asplund and Camelot, an irregular division and research organization under the patronage of Prime Minister Schneizel el Britannia." Lelouch's breath hitched. Schneizel, their second eldest brother, was, among other things, one of the few people Lelouch feared ever facing. Even as a child, he could never defeat him in chess or any other strategy game. While he had certainly improved, it would be foolish to believe Schneizel hadn't polished his blade and skills.

Schneizel's involvement complicates things as he keeps a good eye on all his projects and never wastes time or resources on needlessly frivolous or pointless endeavors. And Lancelot, as he now knew, had proven its worth against him, easily defeating them and forcing a retreat.

Against Britannia's enemies, all of which didn't even mass produce frames comparable to their base Sunderland, the Lancelot and any successor units it spawned would dominate any battlefield. He couldn't outright find and destroy it; that could tip off Schneizel that someone in Area 11 knew more than they should, and he was in no position to confront him. But…there was an alternative.

"Do you have any information on the Lancelot?" Lelouch asked.

"Only that it's Britannia's first 7th generation knightmare frame," Clovis replied. It wasn't a surprise; his brother was never a military man or a man of science.

"Can you access any more information?" Lelouch tried a different angle.

"No, Camelot is out of my authority, and only those authorized by Lloyd or Prime Minister Schneizel may have access to any details." Again, not a surprise; Schneizel was Prime Minister for a reason; he wouldn't just let anyone access his data, even a brother he was close to like Clovis, a wise move considering what Clovis was willing to do one up him for their father's damned throne.

"Do they have any more frames or projects?" Lelouch pressed.

"I do not know." Clovis' response made him question if the pompous peacock even bothered keeping tabs on them. It would have been common sense to ensure you were well-informed of the happenings and players in your domain, but perhaps he was giving Clovis too much credit. This…incident, it would be in bad taste to call it a battle, revealed that, among other things, he was poor at warfare.

"Where is Lancelot's research team based?" Lelouch asked. He would need as many details as possible for his alternative proposal to be feasible.

"They primarily operate out of their trailer, but they're allowed space on a base close to the Viceroy's palace," Clovis replied, leaving Lelouch pondering that, as if Schneizel was funding them, he would assume they would have an entire building at least, with a hanger attachment if they were working on knightmare development.

"What times are they typically busy? Do they leave that spot regularly? What is the schedule of Lloyd?" Lelouch asked, a plan gaining steps in his head.

"They work the standard hours from 9am to 5pm, though I've heard talk that Lloyd arrives an hour early and leaves an hour after everyone else. They largely remain there, as today was their first field test. I don't know Lloyd's timetable; he can only decide to walk around the viceroy palace when bored." Clovis emotionlessly replied.

'That isn't much, but I can use it.' Lelouch looked to the side, as it wasn't much. Still, with his geass, careful timing, help from his new partner, and some disguises, it wouldn't be impossible to get close to the Lancelot.

Not to destroy it, but to get his hands on its data as Schneizel seeing potential in it would be enough reason to do so. Still, after fighting that white monster, it would be foolish not to counter it but, down the line, create knightmares comparable to it.

"I need data. Locations, names, suppliers, supporters, anything related to your research with this immortal." Lelouch demanded, and Clovis started listing off those details. Lelouch had pulled his phone out and turned it on, recording everything his brother told him so he could look into it later. Almost every name he heard would find its way to hell if he had his way.

Once that and another task was finished, he released his brother from his control. Clovis blinked for a moment before, like a switch had been flipped, he was packed to terror-filled panic. "I swear to you, I didn't kill her!"

Hearing him plead made Lelouch growl at him like a dog. Clovis scampered into his seat, whimpering under such intense hatred, before Lelouch blinked, and the fury vanished, replaced with a dead look of apathy.

Lelouch looked to the doorway and decided he was done with this. "I got what I wanted, as promised. He's yours." Lelouch started, with Clovis being confused about who he was talking about; he hadn't noticed anyone else.

That confusion gave way to near heart-stopping terror when C.C. walked in, non-plussed by the room filled with bullet-riddled corpses or the prince who seemed close to either soiling himself, passing out, or both. She only turned her gaze to him, looking the man who had authorized her torture up and down, before dismissing him as she turned her focus to someone worth her time.

"You're close to barking and baying for blood, boyo? You should know that such anger isn't healthy, and I can't have you dropping dead from a stroke or heart attack." C.C. stated as Lelouch continued to work to get his fury under control.

"In my experience, anger is an excellent fuel to keep one alive," Lelouch retorted before he reached for his side, pulling out his pistol and handing it to C.C. "You might need this."

"No, I won't," C.C. replied as she walked towards Clovis, who, if he had been scared of Lelouch, seemed downright petrified by C.C. walking up to him; Lelouch recalled the story she advised him on and wondered if her touch was as dangerous as she claimed.

"Stay away from me, keep back!" Perhaps it was as Clovis seemed close to losing his mind to primordial fear, his eyes turning to his brother, a lifeline that could-should save him. "Brother, keep that…that thing away from me! Don't let her hurt me! You don't know what she can do!"

Lelouch shook his head, C.C. stopping to see what he would do. "No, but I know what you have. If I had even a shred of love for you, I would have granted you a quirk death," Clovis saw his brother didn't snarl, bark, or roar. He didn't smile, smirk, or gloat either.

Lelouch didn't do anything; he didn't feel anything at the moment as, instead, all he felt was apathetic disgust for the man who pleaded for his life with the same tongue that ordered experimentation and genocide. "But that love died with the people of Shinjuku. If you seek mercy, then you will have eternity to pray for it, hell, my sinful brother."

Nothing more was said, and no more pleas were made before C.C. grasped the man's flailing arm. Unseen by Lelouch, the mark of geass on her forehead started to glow. Immediately, Clovis let out a piercing, guttural scream, raw and unrelenting, as his eyes went wide and frenzied, darting about wildly, seeing something only he could, something that could bring him such terror and pain that Lelouch nearly felt terrible for him.

He watched as his brother's body trembled, his voice breaking into agonized sobs as his body continued to convulse, the man frothing at the mouth like a dog in the later days of rabies before as quickly as it came, it ended as he went limp, falling off his throne into an undignified heap on the floor.

C.C. stepped back from her handiwork as Lelouch asked about it, which made her curious. "Not even a little concerned for your brother?"

"Whatever fate befall him was justice for his sins," Lelouch replied. However, C.C. noted that he wasn't looking at the mentally shattered heap that was his brother.

She decided not to call him on that. "That is one way to see it. As for what I did, I imparted some of my memories from my time under his care. As you can see, he couldn't handle the experience."

Lelouch frowned when he heard that, as it didn't take much to realize what sort of experiences she imparted onto Clovis. But that brought up another point as he approached her. To her surprise, Lelouch rested a hand on her shoulder without hesitation or fear. The boy kept her surprised with how remorseful he looked, as she had only seen him have such eyes when he was praying for the dead.

"C.C., I'm so sorry for what you had to go through. What Clovis and the rest of them did was wrong, and nothing could justify it. If you need a place to stay, I can offer a clean bed and warm meals." C.C. remained silent, and she listened to his apology and offer of help. She had already planned to stay with him, whether or not he wanted it, but when was the last time someone extended such a humane offer to her?

She saw it in his eyes. There was no pity there. Pity was detached; it started and ended with the sentiment, 'Oh, you poor thing' before whoever displayed that pity moved on. But this, this was genuine empathy. He wasn't just saying it to affirm that he was a good person. He was saying it because he believed in his words and wanted to give her some solace for them.

As she turned her head away, C.C. found Lelouch to be a puzzle with far too many pieces and too little sense to whatever picture it made. "You shouldn't apologize for things you didn't do."

Lelouch's hold on her never wavered, but it never tightened either. If she wished, she could break it without issue. "When I needed someone, no one was there. So, if I can, I try to be that for someone else. If might seem small, and perhaps on some greater level-it is, but," He paused, trying to find the right words for the situation.

"But I think that sometimes the person who apologizes isn't fixing the wrong but is filling the silence left by those who should have." He looked not at his brother but out towards the ghetto, the setting sun highlighting the ruins of the once-great skyscrapers that dotted the skyline.

"Clovis…no, so many people have wronged you; that wasn't right; you didn't deserve it, and if I could, I would have never stood by and let it happen." He looked back at her, C.C. frowning as this was new, but she found that she didn't hate this feeling in the heart C.C. thought she had killed long ago.

"What do you plan to do with Clovis, Lelouch?" She asked him, to which Lelouch walked over to Clovis's slobbering body and, with little care, turned him into his back before shooting him 3 times in the torso, the newly made mental patient not making a sound even as the bullets tore through flesh and bone, turning his once fine purple silks dark red.

"That, that was a fatal shooting, but not an immediate one. A slow death is what he deserves, as his first steps to hell should be far from pleasant." With that done, Lelouch finished his business there before he and C.C. left.

"Wake up, Lelouch! I know you were sleeping. Your hand stopped moving!" Lelouch woke up from his memories of what he had witnessed to Milly smacking him over the head with some rolled-up paper. The boy needed a moment to recall that he wasn't in Shinjuku nor Clovis's command bridge. He was back at school, surrounded by friendly faces and no single threat he could identify.

Well, threats outside the clubs if they didn't finish finalizing the budget for them, as was the purpose of their student council meeting.

"Do you really need to beat me up over it?" Lelouch asked, as on his lap, a black-and-white border collie had been napping the same as her master. When he moved, the 9-year-old dog opened her eyes to see the commotion before letting out a tired yap and returning to her nap, Lelouch absentmindedly scratching her ear. She was a dog getting up in her years, so she napped more than she used to while he was napping because he had stayed up late even after he managed to return from Shinjuku.

"Well, I see it as payback for ditching me yesterday." Rivalz laughed at his expense, and Lelouch rolled his eyes a little annoyed, but he was still smiling.

"Rivalz, I wasn't looking to fall into the backs of trucks or end up on the other side of the settlement." Lelouch reminded them of his cover, one with enough truth they couldn't disprove but enough misdirection that they would never know what he had been up to. It was hard enough to sneak onto school grounds late with a guest.

"Maybe it's a sign you do a lot of shady stuff, and the one time you don't, you get bad karma and have to walk back to campus." Rivalz joked, and Milly laughed at its implication.

"Thanks, but if the universe typecasts me as the villain, I would like to call my agent and cancel that role." Lelouch shot that down.

"Still, Lulu, it could have ended pretty badly. What if you fell and hit your head, or the people driving weren't nice and dropped you off when they heard you? They could have been criminals, you know." Lelouch wondered how odd it was that Shirley was both close to the truth and still off.

Though considering he came to class with a fresh medical path covering the bullet wound on his face, he already suspected she'd be on his back about his escapades as she and the rest thought Lelouch just lied about being fine when he 'cut' himself when he fell in the truck.

Milly slapped the palm with her rolled-up stack of papers. "Keep it on topic, people; we can discuss Shirley's previous Lulu cutting up his face later. Right now, we have more important things to worry about, such as the club activities budget; if we don't, there'll be no money left for anything."

"And if that happens, then…" Nina, the ever-quiet one, added to the conversation.

"Then the equestrian club will be pissed and come riding in here on horseback." Rivalz finished the statement, which only annoyed Milly.

"Rivalz, can't you be a more serious student council member?" Milly scolded him, though her point was undermined when a member of the equestrian club rode by the window, peeked inside, and left.

"It wouldn't have been so dire if you reminded us of this yesterday," Shirley told her, as she hated how flippant Milly could be with things like this.

"Or maybe she could have said something tomorrow, and then we could have given up," Rivalz suggested, the orange-haired girl turning a disproving glare at him, which he countered with a relaxed smirk.

"That's not a bad idea." Lelouch agreed with Rivalz.

"Guts!" Milly shouted, getting everyone to wince; even Matilda whined from her spot on Lelouch's lap as he soothed her.

"You trying that 'Guts' spell again?" Rivalz asked as Milly perked up, a mischievous look to her.

"Yup, I need my little worker ants putting their wall into this." She told them as Lelouch looked back at her.

"Maybe you should work on your magic, Milly. I feel no more invested in this than I did a moment ago."

"Well, speak for yourself, I'm ready to go." Shirley flexed, though one couldn't tell what she was flexing when her uniform covered her entire arm. Seeing that, Milly turned her gaze to the girl, a glint in her eye that typically warned people she was up to something.

"Supple and willing, I see," Milly observed.

"I train hard in the swimming club." Shirley boasted that she was the only one who did more than student council work and was proud of that fact.

"That's not what I mean, you're a ten," Milly told her, with Shirley being in the dark, at least until she noticed that the president's gaze was…lower than it should be. "From what I've seen in girl locker-room anyway. You've been filling out in all the right places."

"O-oh?" Rivalz joined in on the fun, with Shirley going red as she covered her chest up, feeling much more exposed under Milly's perverted gaze. She glanced at Lelouch, worried that he was leering at her, but his head was pointedly turned in the opposite direction. Did he know and not tell her Milly was gazing at her chest, or was he just being polite?

"W-what are you talking about, you perv?" She didn't have time to wonder about that and why she was a little upset that he wasn't looking at her. Instead, she yelled at the president for her antics.

The meeting continued after that, though Shirley changed how she sat to make it harder for Milly to look at her chest again. In the nick of time, they finalized the club budgets before heading for class. "Jeez, our president is just a dirty old man on the inside. She's dirtying the meeting with her filthy mind." Shirley complained as she was often the target of Milly's antics.

"Yeah, well…we kinda all knew that when we signed up," Nina reminded her, as one didn't attend Ashford long without learning of the principal's granddaughter's eccentricities. There was a reason that Milly was one of just three students who didn't live in the dorms or have a roommate. The girl in questioned wasn't with them since, as their sole senior in the council, she had her own classes to get to.

"Look at the bright side—the budget's been handled, so we don't need to worry about anyone rioting, " Rivalz said as the group reached their classroom.

"They used poison gas?" They heard someone state that the student council members were turning to find that the day's topic was a breaking news bulletin playing on someone's computer.

"Man, that's freaky. Shinjuku is only 30 minutes from here." Someone else mentioned that, though Lelouch knew it was only 30 minutes, you would not if one had reliable transport; you'd be walking for over 4 hours.

Instead, he focused on the news, which reported the narrative that Clovis came up with, using that as a means to explain away the no-doubt high body count. However, it was still closed off to the public or media when the military conducted an investigation and 'clean-up', the expected response to a gas attack, but no doubt a cover to get rid of evidence like Britannian dead and the remains of vehicles and knightmares.

"Oh my god, I saw smoke rising over in Shinjuku yesterday. It must have been the gas." Hearing that, Shirley recalled something and paled as she turned to Lelouch, her concern on overdrive. "Lulu, you said you were there, weren't you? Do you need to go to the nurses' office? The hospital?" Shirley looked ready to drag him to see the nurse already.

Shirley was a bit too loud in her worry. The chatter in the classroom ceased as they all turned to him, Lelouch spying on their eagerness for details. He wouldn't indulge them with the truth as he turned to Shirley, a slightly amused smile on his face.

"I can assure you; I wasn't exposed. I was dropped near the area, probably just inside the exclusion zone." Lelouch reminded them, with others calming as Lelouch had a patch on his face, which didn't sell confidence, but he didn't look ill.

"But if you were in it, wouldn't that mean…" Nina was the most nervous, with Lelouch resting a hand on her shoulder, giving her an encouraging little squeeze.

"Relax, Nina, those kinds of things are often larger than necessary to be on the safe side. Besides, if the soldiers thought I was at risk, they wouldn't have let me go so easily." Nina was always the most anxious of them, one that didn't take well to purely emotional assurances, so he used something she could grapple with with with: Logic and science.

And it seemed to work as Nina couldn't possibly imagine that they'd ever just risk a Britannian life if there was even a chance he was affected. And he had been acting like his usual self the entire day, with her having heard some other girls gushing about how he was up bright and early, as usual, walking his dogs. Indeed, a sick person couldn't do that, so he had to be healthy.

"Yeah, that's true. Man, you dodged a bullet there, didn't you?" Rivalz calmed as he slapped Lelouch on the back. Unknowingly, it was right where he had been shot through the shoulder, with Lelouch's smile growing tighter at the flash of pain; he couldn't let them even suspect he had more wounds than just the cut he couldn't hide.

"Still," Shirley was the only one who remained unconvinced, even as others returned to their own things.

He quickly hugged the girl, silencing her as her face went beat red at having his arms around her. "I appreciate the concern, Shirley. If I feel weird, I'll excuse myself and go straight to the nurses' office. Is that acceptable?" He stepped back, his hands resting on her shoulders.

"Yes!" Shirley chirped, her face red as a tomato, leaving Lelouch confused about her reaction. At the same time, Rivalz and Nina, who knew the reason, both hid their snickers at her expense.

"Hey, check out those dead Elevens."

"Ew, don't show me that!" Lelouch turned away from his friends to take in his classmates, frowning at how they treated the deaths of hundreds like it was some kind of macabre spectacle for their treatment.

He despised it, but he did more than just frown at them all; his disapproval was something he kept to himself as he had realized long ago that they would never understand it if he even attempted to scold them. They were raised in a society that encouraged them to dehumanize foreigners and numbers and, depending on their social rank, to ferociously compete with their contemporaries for greater power and prestige.

He would have to handle such an outset later, and he would handle it, but he focused on the news as it was present. As he predicted, the story heavily favored the military and authorities, with no mention of any significant losses of equipment or personnel, and that would probably be blamed on personnel heading in without the proper safety equipment.

Looking at the footage as it was present, Lelouch had to hand it to whoever was editing it, as despite it showing plenty of dead, it was presented in a fashion that wouldn't make it clear that those people had died to anything but poison gas. Blood splatter, torn-apart corpses, and those killed by guns and explosions weren't shown. Instead, it seemed to focus on the bodies of people who were intact or in groups, which made it hard to tell that they weren't probably gunned down in mass; no, most assume it was just a group of Elevens that fell to the gas at the same spot.

'However, whoever is left in charge is probably running with the gas story because that's all they know.' Lelouch thought. His interrogation of his brother revealed that Clovis kept the number of people who knew the truth small. With just Bartley still alive, perhaps he was leading the government. Still, he doubted it as from what he heard in his gambling circles, Bartley was that he was a blundering idiot, kept around because of his scientific genius and loyalty.

'No, that would mean someone else is running things, which means they must be incredibly nervous as they'll know the gas never leaked, but not that there was no gas to leak.' They'd have to search the entire ghetto if they wanted to find it, but with the truck that was carrying the 'container' destroyed, they were sure to fail.

Then, there was the loss of equipment and soldiers. Whoever was running things could keep that secret from the public, but the Homeland would demand answers. But that was small potatoes compared to the biggest issue, the death of the Viceroy and prince.

'It makes perfect sense to keep Clovis' fate secret from the public now; it would spur questions and panic if they announced it. They're probably working on some sort of press statement. I doubt that'll reveal he was ever near Shinjuku; probably, they'll blame it on some accident or sudden health issue like a stroke or heart attack.' Lelouch's mind flashed back not even a full 24 hours to Clovis's final moments.

"I beg you, brother, I wasn't me! I respected Marriane! I would have never wished harm or misfortune on her! I had nothing to do with it, I swear!"

"Brother, keep that…that thing away from me! Don't let her hurt me! You don't know what she can do!"

Those pleas were followed by screams and 3 gunshots silencing them. Lelouch felt a sliver of remorse for his actions, the cruelty of the end, and the fact that he gave something that was his brother, for better or worse. Only for that remorse to drown in the sea of rage and disgust as he recalled how far his brother had fallen. How that same man he once respected and loved committed heinous sins and so callously ordered a massacre to try and cover it up.

'No.' He willed his hand to cease shaking, and for the urge to throw up over what he had done, what he allowed to happen to fade away. Clovis doesn't deserve that.

"It's strange," Lelouch mused, with Rivalz and Shirley turning to him, Nina having gone to her desk already. "Clovis would typically have made an announcement by now, right?"

Lelouch's statement did its job; he asked where Clovis was but merely pointed out that he wasn't on TV, as Rivalz and Shirley started to talk about. Since he took office, Clovis had loved the camera, always giving statements or press conferences.

Lelouch understood the Ashford rumor mill well; it wouldn't even be lunchtime before most of the school was asking about Clovis's whereabouts, and it would only take a few students contacting family and mentioning it for that question to break out into the wider settlement, putting pressure on the government to act.

But much like the gas story is just that, they couldn't even find out who killed Clovis. He had been thorough with leaving no evidence or destroying it, whether that be witnesses, fingerprints, DNA, or security footage. There would be nothing that could even point in the direction of suspects. He had gone the extra mile to secure the audio recordings from the start of the battle to when he entered the room, erasing the files.

Maybe they could track the bullets, but seeing how he had killed the command staff with the dead man's stolen gun, that would lead them nowhere. As for his pistol, which he used to kill Clovis and his royal guard, well, he had picked it up years back and modified it to such an extent that it would be impossible to link it to him or all of the times he had used it.

Jeremiah and Viletta's limo was allowed onto a military base within the settlement. Neither of the passengers was happy about the mess they were in. "That ex-civil servant is such a fool, " Jeremiah said, with Viletta turning to her superior.

"Are you referring to Bartley?"

The man grunted, having been in a terrible mood the entire day. However, it was a marked improvement over the previous afternoon when he had learned of what happened and been inconsolable with grief over the prince dying under his watch.

"Who else? Because of his incompetence, Prince Clovis was left woefully unguarded, allowing the assassins to piece our heaviest security and slaughter his highness' command staff and the prince before making off without even a shred of evidence as to who they were or who they worked for." Jeremiah stated that what they knew was shockingly little.

The soldiers outside the G-1 never saw or heard anything suspicious. However, there was a noticeable lack of soldiers, meaning those who remained had to cover more than usual. The 4 soldiers who guarded the entrance to the G-1 were immediate suspects. Still, then they found all of them had committed suicide, which was incredibly suspicious, but dead men tell no tales.

All they could do now was look into their backgrounds and financial and familiar histories to try and spot reasons why they could be presumably blackmailed into aiding terrorists, only to kill themselves in what they believed was a shame. The security system didn't catch anything either, with the cameras that should have all had their footage from the time of the assassination erased.

Bartley, the fat fool, was as much help as everything else. The general claimed that he left the bridge because a soldier reported something of interest, that being gas, which Clovis told him to go and supervise it being secured; the man then swore repeatably that he had been knocked out by an unseen assailant and next woke up restrained and gaged in an empty supply closet.

Jeremiah didn't buy the story as there had been no reports since about the poison gas being found, as he heard nothing about it on the coms, nor did any other soldier corroborate Bartley's claims of anyone saying anything about the gas being found.

Even if the gas had been found, it wouldn't have been brought directly to the G-1. At best, Clovis had forgotten that fact, like the rest of the people in the command room, or Bartley was lying. Sadly, he didn't have evidence, so Bartley was a free man…for now.

"Margrave Jeremiah, with Prince Clovis deceased, we Pureblood then." Jeremiah held up a finger, interrupting Viletta before she could say more.

"Let me make that call. We still need to woo everyone over, " he reminded her. They would have plenty to do, hence why they were visiting this base.

The first period ended without incident, which to say that Lelouch was half asleep as he did most of his classes, much to the chagrin of his teachers; that annoyance only compounded thanks to his managing to remain in the top 10 of their grade despite how little effort he seemingly put it.

He had broken from Rivalz to use the restroom before they could head for their second period of the day. Because of that, when he arrived, most were already present. "Kallen, it's been ages!" One of the girls in his class called out, Lelouch stopping mid-stride before he lowered his foot. There was that name again, but…no, that was merely chance, little more.

Still, he turned his head, and much to his hidden shock, it was the same girl. She didn't sound nearly as passionate as the previous day, and he never did get a good look at her face, but he did recall that shade of red and those piercing blue eyes. 'Kallen' was seated, wearing a uniform like the rest of them as she was surrounded by others, her friends she assumed who brought up that she hadn't been seen around lately, with her response implying she had been sick recently.

'Sick? I doubt that, but it would make a good cover to excuse random and frequent absences. As he walked up to his desk further to the back, he kept an eye on her, as she seemed to be a good actor; if she indeed was the same person, then her demure expression, almost that like of a sickly puppy, would keep any suspicions off her.

"Anyway, if I stay home any longer, I'll never catch up," Kallen asked why she returned if she wasn't at her best; again, Lelouch didn't pick up any strength or fire to her words. Why would there be when she was sickly?

Still, he couldn't be sure yet anyway, as her Britannian was perfect, with no hint of a Japanese accent. Maybe if she spoke some Japanese, he could better compare it to what he heard, but that would be tricky.

'There is a good chance it's here; her eyes and hair color match, she wasn't at school yesterday, and her body type would be comparable to that woman's, but there is always the chance I'm wrong; I need definite proof before I make a move.' Lelouch nodded, with Rivalz noticing where his eye was and smirking as he slid up to him, nudging his side.

"Oh, I knew it would happen eventually. Mr 'I'm too busy for girls. Does he finally have someone he likes?" Rivalz asked him.

Unknown to both boys, Shirley was also paying attention, having heard Rivalz's comment about Lelouch possibly having an interest in Kallen. "Just thinking it's a rare event, I don't recall seeing her in class since the term started. Is she a new transfer?" Lelouch played it off, though Rivalz didn't seem any less interested in his best friend's love life.

"Nope, she's been with us since the first year. Her name's Kallen Stadtfeld. I'm not surprised you didn't see her before. She barely showed up for school last year, as well. Something about her being sick and needing frequent days off to rest or see the doctor." Rivalz explained that he tended to know a lot about the other school students, having taken it as a challenge to do so after Lelouch revealed he learned a lot about him before they even met in the first year.

It helped that he tended to focus on the girls, though Kallen was, admittedly, someone who flew under his radar. She was pretty but a bit too soft-spoken for him, and she couldn't get all that physical either. The last thing he wanted was to risk her health by just taking her for a joy ride on his bike.

It wasn't like she was just a pretty face, far from it. "Still, even if she misses school more than us, she got you as her grades are top of the class, and she comes from the Stadtfeld family, so she's well-bred and loaded with cash; gotta say, you sure know how to pick them." Lelouch seemed interested in the first part, but when Rivalz nudged him and mentioned her apparent perks, he rolled his eyes. As if he ever cared for her girl's pedigree. She was a person, not a show dog.

Lelouch only shook his head at Rivalz's insistence on some romantic interest. "Rivalz, I told you, it's not like that."

"Oh, you don't have to hide it from me. I won't tell anyone, though Kallen's a bit sheltered if you ask me." Rivalz told him.

Lelouch chuckled at that as if his suspicions were correct; Kallen should be the only one calling Rivalz sheltered, not the other way around. "Rivalz, when have I ever shown interest in dating? You said it yourself; I'm far too busy for it."

"You know you'll never disprove the mamma bear allegations." Rivalz reminded him, with the boy smiling harder when he saw how strained Lelouch's easy-going look got at that fun little reminder of a nickname the council knew he hated.

"Oh really? Then maybe I'll ask Milly for a night on the town." Lelouch countered, and Rivalz left, stumbling at the suggestion. Lelouch knew how he felt for Milly and was always trying to get him to confess; it would be the ultimate betrayal if he made a move; would Milly accept? No, that didn't matter because Lelouch would never ask.

"Don't you dare!" He grabbed the boy in a headlock, with Lelouch fighting back against him, yelling for him to let go of him. Kallen turned to the commotion, raising an eyebrow before returning to her conversation. Shirley also got back to reading through her textbook, as she had been worried that Lulu was interested in other girls. Still, it seemed like it was just Rivalz being Rivalz.

Still, why was Lulu showing interest in Kallen? Even if her being there was rare, he typically hardly cared about their classmates.

'It's probably nothing.' She concluded.

I must admit, I thought this chapter would be similar to the last one in that we focused on Suzaku and his skills and power with Lancelot. This chapter would primarily be from Kallen's POV. But I'm not unhappy with how it turned out, as that part with Clovis was longer than expected. Still, it was pretty fun to write as I wanted to focus on Lelouch's feelings towards him, as in the series, he never seems to think about WHAT his brother did or the why. Sure, he threw up when he remembered he killed him, but that was that.

That said, I did try and paint a picture of how thorough Lelouch can be, even at this early point in the story, which, of course, will come back later since I now have information about Code-R, everything that Clovis knew or could get his hands on anyway, and no-one even suspects it. Instead, they're too busy focusing on how confusing the day was, part of which was by Lelouch's design; other parts were questions that Clovis didn't consider, like how would explain things after the fact relating to the 'poison gas' which never existed.

However, because of what I had to put in, this chapter was a bit longer than what I wanted to be the norm, but even after several attempts, I couldn't make it any shorter without it reading weirdly.

The next chapter will be out on Jaunaury 3rd.

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