Nunnally of the Insurrection
A vacation gone wrong.
A awed Suzaku Kururugi took in Ashford Academy as the brown haired young man followed the president of the School. Cecile had arranged for him to return to school, arguing with Lloyd that a intelligent devicer was better than a uneducated one, and had won the day by pure determination. Lloyd was trying to charm the Ashfords for something, or they were charming him, but whichever they had agreed that Suzaku could attend.
The school was frankly impressive, even considering Suzaku's background. School facilities, dorms, a park, pool and even horse back riding were offered to the wealthy students. As a honorary Britannian he was allowed in a place like this, theoretically, but as someone born Japanese and now a Eleven this was normally forbidden ground.
"Normally I'd have the student body president greet you," Mr. Ashford puffed as the older man lead him towards a large building, "but she along with several other members of the council are off on a excursion."
"It's no problem, sir," Suzaku said politely.
"It's your loss," Ashford looked amused as he told the young man, "my daughter Milly is quite the hot number."
"Eh?!" Suzakuj blinked, but before he could continue a cheerful young man had emerged from the building.
"Mr. Ashford," he nodded then smiled at Suzaku, "you must be Suzaku. I'm Rivalz, the only student council member in today,."
"All of them snuck off?" Mr. Ashford looked amused.
"Nunnally and Kallen tried to say no, but Milly insisted," Rivalz chuckled.
'Nunnally?' Suzaku blinked, wondering if it could be the girl he had known seven years ago. 'Nah, couldn't be,' he thought.
"Well," Mr Ashford chuckled, "I hope they have fun on their trip."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
There was a certain irony in a covert terrorist being captured by other terrorists, but Kallen was finding it hard to laugh. The terrorists in question were the Japan Liberation Front, a paramilitary group that had been fighting the Britannians for years without much success. Their leaders apparently had decided it was time for a all or nothing gamble and had taken over the hotel they were in.
'The perfect end to a perfect day,' Kallen thought grimly.
Officially they were here as representatives of the school council observing the Sakuradite talks, but Kallen suspected they were here because Milly felt like a trip to the country. She and Nunnally had both tried to back out of it but Milly was relentless, and soon they had found themselves on a train away from the Tokyo Settlement.
The trip out wasn't too bad, with her, Shirley, Nina, Milly and Nunnally sharing a car as they talked. Nina was a bit annoying with her phobia of Elevens but Milly calmed her down while Nunnally had tried sweet reason. Upon arriving they checked in at the hotel in the center of the lake, then took a short tour of the area. They came back for the meeting, just in time for the kidnapping to start.
The takeover had happened from the underground, a group of soldiers slipping in with the official trucks. They then quickly spread out through the hotel, covertly disabling security before finally declaring their takeover. The general in charge had actually faced the room, looking rather portly despite his fancy uniform.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you are now captives of the Japan Liberation Front," he told then seriously, "we will be holding you until our demands are met. Those demands are also quite simple: for Britannia to turn over the Sukuradite mining to the Japanese and to leave Japan."
"You're mad," a Britannian noble objected, "there's no way the Emperor would agree to that."
"You'd best hope he does," the general smiled back coldly, "because we will execute one hostage a hour until they comply."
'Which leaves us here,' Kallen thought grimly an hour later, after the first man had been executed. They put on the TV and they had watched, aghast, as soldiers of the JLF threw the man off the top of the hotel to his death.
Nina was trembling in fear as both Shirley and Milly tried to calm her down, while Nunnally sat nearby, scanning the room intently. She seemed remarkably calm under the circumstances, no doubt considering what they could do to escape or turn the circumstances to their advantage.
"Oh hell," Nunnally muttered as Kallen saw her glance at a pink haired woman sitting with the officials of the trade talks.
"What?" Kallen wondered softly.
"That young woman over there is Princess Euphemia," Nunnally said flatly, "if the JLF finds her it'll be a disaster."
"How so?" Kallen asked.
"If they capture her it'll be bad," Nunnally said grimly, "if they kill her even worse. Viceroy Cornelia loves her sister, if she dies she'll go insane. You'll see a level of reprisal that will make what's happened to Japan so far look like a love tap."
Euphemia looked up, gazing across the room so that her sunglasses covered eyes met Nunnally's. Her eyes widened and she stiffened, mouth opening to say something. Nunnally shot her a look that could have melted steel and mouthed, 'Stay still!'
The princess subsided, but still occasionally threw stunned looks at Nunnally. "You two know each other?" Kallen asked.
"Long story," Milly answered for Nunnally. She looked at her questioningly, "How much trouble are we in?"
"If we get through this alive, we'll worry about it then," Nunnally said frankly.
As Kallen watched Nunnally and Milly talk she saw that this represented yet another secret that Nunnally was keeping, and realized that there was quite a lot she didn't know about this young woman. Silently, she resolved to find out those secrets... assuming they lived through this.
"All right," one JLF soldier declared as he strode through the cowering Britannians, "we need a second candidate for a swan dive." His gaze fixed on Nina and he grabbed her arm, yanking her up as he growled, "You'll do."
"No," Nunnally rose as she smoothly rose and pulled Nina free, "take me."
"Why should I...?!" the soldier growled as he raised his rifle.
Kallen didn't hear what Nunnally told him but it was convincing as the soldier took her arm and lead her away. Nina looked almost white, but there was a odd glimmer in her eyes as she blurted out, "We can't let her...!"
"She knows what she's doing," Kallen told her. Mentally she added, 'Damn it, Nunnally, you'd better know what you're doing.'
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Outside the hotel Viceroy Cornelia, Princess of Britannia, coldly backhanded the head of security of the hotel. He flew backwards and hit the ground hard, spitting teeth and blood as he looked up at her in pure terror. "How could you let this happen!" she growled.
"We were caught off guard," he managed weakly.
"Don't kill him, Viceroy," her second in command and knight Dalton said mildly, "we'll need him alive for the inquest."
"Get out of my sight," Cornelia ordered flatly. She turned towards the table set up outside beside their Knightmares, her expression grim as she looked at the blueprints and area maps. "They're watching the bridges that access the hotel," she told her command team then asked, "What about the underground access tunnel?"
"They've set up some kind of railgun weapon under there," one knight said sourly, "it blew Daniels to ribbons when he tried it."
"Then we may have to try a air drop," Cornelia said grimly, "try to take the facility before too many hostages were killed."
Dalton knew how much it pained her to say that, how much Cornelia loved the sister being held within there. "IS there any chance the security force inside could do something?" he asked, pointedly not looking at the stunned security man.
"The brave ones are probably already dead," Cornelia said, but her radio crackled before she could continue. Unhooking it from her belt she demanded, "Who is this?"
"My name is Nemo, Viceroy Cornelia," the woman's somewhat distorted voice answered, "we haven't met yet, tho I did spar with your predecessor Clovis in Shinjuku."
"Are you with these kidnappers?" Cornelia growled out. A mysterious Knightmare pilot had disrupted the attack on Shinjuku, showing a level of skill to rival her own. If this woman was that person, it could mean....
"No," Nemo answered flatly, "I oppose the harming of innocents, as any good Britannian soldier would." She paused, "Of course, there are few good Britannian soldiers left, I suppose."
Cornelia grit her teeth as that jibe struck home. It had been a long time since she had fought a clean war.... Shaking herself she asked, "What do you want?"
"I want to resolve this situation without any more Britannian casualties," Nemo said calmly, "I just need a hour to act."
Cornelia debated a moment, but knew that even pushing her soldiers she would need more than a hour to act. "You have a hour," she said, "don't make me regret this."
"Thank you," Nemo signed off.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Within the building Nunnally put the radio she had taken away, wishing she hadn't had to use the intelligence of Cornelia's command frequency. She wanted to save that for a more tactical situation, but she had to make sure Cornelia didn't act too soon. Putting the radio away Nunnally trotted over to the man she had suborned with her geass.
"Ma'am," the man nodded obediently, his gun slung over his shoulder. His loyalties had changed utterly under Nunnally's glance, shifting from freeing Japan to obeying Nunnally.
"You know what to do?" Nunnally asked and he repeated his instructions by rote. "Good," she moved off then added, "If it helps any, what you're doing will lead to freeing Japan. Just not as directly."
"Thank you," the soldier looked relieved as he jogged off.
'I wonder if the words comforted him, or if he just following my geass?' Nunnally wondered as she hurried off.
The upper floors were controlled by the JLF and were well guarded, but such defenses failed against the power of her geass. A glance by Nunnally, the phoenix effect flaring and the soldiers became obedient, following her as she made her way up the building. Only a few soldiers died, trying to get a shot off against the stranger and dying instead.
As they reach the rooms holding the leaders of the JLF Nunnally turned to the small army of soldiers she now controlled. ""Head downstairs and free the hostages," she instructed, "get them out of the building then scatter."
"Where do you want us to go?" one woman asked, looking at Nunnally adoringly.
"Go to Shinjuku ward," Nunnally told them, "we'll find you."
As her new followers hurried to carry out her orders Nunnally turned to the closed doors, taking a nervous breath. Squaring her shoulders and setting a expression of determination on her face she pushed open the door, striding inside like she owned the place.
"Who are you?!" the general hopped up, "where are the guards...?!"
"My name is Nemo," Nunnally strode in with a serious look on her face, giving a recognition code sent out from Kyoto to the resistance factions then demanding, "and I want to know why you're sacrificing your troops needlessly."
"Nemo?" a young man looked at her skeptically, "From the Shinjuku ghetto uprising?"
"Answer me," Nunnally repeated firmly, not using her geass just yet. The overuse of the gift had already triggered a pounding headache, and to be honest she wasn't sure she even could entrance them all.
"It is not needless," the general replied as he looked at her thoughtfully, "our deaths will inspire the Japanese people to rise up...!"
"And what had Kyoto said about this!" Nunnally strode forward as she gestured, "Have you coordinated with the other rebel factions? Have you done any advanced preperation?"
Several of the JLF officers looked at each other and their leader nervously, the general sitting up indignantly. "We don't need those cowards in Kyoto," he sniffed.
"You are going to let the JLF die here," Nunnally said harshly, "you knew there was no chance of your demands being met." She gestured towards the Knightmares waiting outside, "You're provoking the Britannians to massacre you, hoping to trigger a uprising."
"Inspired by our sacrifice the Japanese will rise up and throw the Britannians out!" the general said seriously.
"And then what!" Nunnally shot back. As the soldiers looked confused she added, "You can't HOLD Japan! All you will accomplish is a massacre as the Britannians return with reinforcements to retake the country."
"And what would you do?" a soldier asked challengingly. He scowled, "Why are we even listening to you!"
"I'm the one ending this," Nunnally answered, knowing she had stalled long enough as they heard distant explosions going off through the building.
"What the...," a younger man yelped, going for his gun.
Nunnally drew the pistol she had taken and held it up warningly, "I'm saving your lives, gentlemen. Those explosions signal the hostages have been freed and your troops are scattering."
Several of the men got on radios, listening in shock as troops confirmed that they were ordered to free the hostages and go by cell leaders and others, and that the Britannians were invading the lower levels of the hotel.
Calling up her geass and nearly wincing in pain Nunnally ordered, "All you soldiers, go. The general stays."
As his men fled the general looked at Nemo calmly. "They're saying a lot of things about you," he said after a moment, "I'm starting to believe the stories. What will you do with me?"
Nunnally pointed the pistol at him, "There are too many dead hostages, someone has to take responsibility." And calmly she pulled the trigger.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Princess Euphemia watched from the safety of her sister's arms as the captives streamed out, the hotel's upper floors burning from a series of mysterious explosions. Her light pink hair flowed down her shoulders as they watched the chaos unfolding, helicopters buzzing the building and Knightmares ready to act if any hostile moves occurred.
"So the Japan Liberation Front simply fled?" Cornelia frowned at her subordinate. "We need to find out the motive for this attack...."
"When they were executing prisoners a brown haired student was dragged off," a black haired girl was asking Dalton worriedly, "you didn't see her...?"
"No," Dalton agreed, "no women were pushed off the building. But that doesn't mean...."
Before he could continue another group of captives were ferried out of the building, including a brown haired woman covered with soot and looking very bedraggled. "You're alive!" Shirley yelped, rushing forward to hug her.
"Easy," Nunnally smiled as the girls crowded around her, all talking happily.
"What happened?" the light brown haired woman demanded.
"I'm not sure myself," Nunnally admitted, "the guards taking me up were stopped by a masked woman, someone called Nemo."
"Nemo?" Dalton pushed forward as he respectfully said, "Please tell me what happened."
"She killed the guards and ordered me to hide," Nunnally admitted, "but not long after I heard explosions. Some guards helped me out, then they all ran away."
Euphemia watched Dalton interview Nunnally, taking in how the brown haired girl calmly gave her story with no hint of nervousness. 'Is that really my half sister Nunnally? Did she survive the invasion of Japan?' she wondered even as Cornelia ordered her to the medical staff to be looked over.
To be continued....
Notes: I originally intended to follow the original episode plot, then it occurred to me to have Nunnally in with the hostages. This episode has created... several divergences from the original plot, which I'm going to enjoy exploring. Heh!