3,383Author's Note: Hello, one and all! it has been...far longer than I would have liked since I posted a chapter. I didn't neglect my stories without reason, however. A family member that I am close to was admitted to hospital a while back, and it was mentally draining for me. What made it worse was when they left hospital, they had to be almost immediately readmitted due to a serious medical issue. Again, not mentally conductive for writing.
Everything looks to be resolved (fingers crossed), so I'm starting my writing schedule again. With luck, there won't be an interruption to it. Thanks for your patience, and please, enjoy the chapter.
Look at my profile for my writing schedule. BEFORE you ask me in a review or a PM!
Disclaimer: Code Geass isn't mine.
Beta'd by BigCC
"Kallen." - Speech
'Lelouch.' – Thoughts/mental communication
"{Die.}" - Geass Command
"Halt!" - Loudspeaker
"Roger." - Radio/Walkie-talkie
Chapter 43: The Knight, the General and the Scientist
The Next Day
Black Knights Mobile Command Vehicle, Britannian Tokyo Settlement
"Are you certain this is a wise decision, Goshujin-sama?" Sayoko, currently dressed in her guise as Aegis, asked her master and lover. They were currently headed for the acting Black Knights headquarters in order to pick up Kallen, as her master had determined that now was the time to reveal his identity to those most likely to be able to guess Zero's secret on their own in the near future.
"I am. Kallen already knows me, both in the persona of Zero and in that of 'Lelouch Lamperouge', so she will have ample opportunity to put two and two together when we move activities to the new base." the Regicide offered, clad in his own outfit as Zero with only the helmet removed, resting folded up in his lap. "And out of the three likely to figure out my secret, she is the likeliest of them to have a more volatile reaction to the discovery. Rakshata is emotionally detached enough to trust not to overreact and Tōdō-sensei is at least aware enough of my history to temper his own reactions. I fully expect Kallen to lash out in anger when I remove my helmet, let alone when she discovers the truth of my royal bloodline."
The kunoichi maid frowned a bit, but nodded her acquiescence. Kallen Kōzuki was a young woman of both principle and passion. Unless she was acting out a specific role, such as the character she portrayed as 'Kallen Stadtfelt' for most to see, the red-haired half-blood wore her heart on her sleeve and did rarely did anything to conceal her opinions or beliefs. And her deep and abiding disdain for the Britannian Royal Family was something that was well known among those that truly knew her.
"I understand, but would not convincing General Tōdō or Doctor Chawla be of greater importance?" Sayoko queried back curiously.
"From a purely logical viewpoint, that might be true, but this situation requires a bit more than simple logic. Empathy is also required, and I'm sure you can imagine the sense of betrayal that Kallen would feel were she to realize that she was among the last to be informed." Lelouch countered calmly. "She is Zero's trusted Guard Captain, his personal ace, and yet she was the last to truly be brought into my confidence? That would make the sting of betrayal that this conversation will undoubtedly cause all the darker and sharper for her, perhaps enough to even damage her loyalty, her faith in the ideals I am trying to fight for. No, Kallen is far too valuable to the Black Knights, and myself, for me to take that risk."
The possessive tone that Lelouch's voice took on near the end of that little speech made Sayoko smile ever so slightly. It was truly a relief to see that her master had finally started to lose that emotional inflexibility that had haunted him for so many years, that he was finally allowing his heart to carry its own voice rather than trying to rely solely on the sharpness of his mind.
"Understood, Goshujin-sama." The maid bowed her head in acceptance of her master's decision. "Who will be next after Kallen?"
"Tōdō-sensei." the raven-haired ex-prince responded firmly. "And unlike this meeting we are having with Kallen, we will be meeting him in the presence of the Heads of the Six Houses so that they might reassure him of their continued support of my position. Having Lord Kirihara alone voice his support of my position should be enough to at least ease many of the concerns my former sensei will have about my intentions."
"And that shall thus leave Rakshata last." Sayoko concluded.
"Indeed. Unlike both Kallen and Tōdō-sensei, she lacks any direct grudge against Britannia and its royal family. In addition, she has proven herself to be an extremely clinical woman that values the detached evaluation of data and information in all of her decisions even beyond her work as a scientist." Lelouch agreed with a nod. "Those two factors, combined with a reaffirmation of my promise to aid in the liberation of the Militarized State of India from the Chinese Federation, will most likely be enough to safely induct her into the 'Inner Circle' so to speak.'
That matched Sayoko's own assessment of the Indian scientist, so she merely nodded once more. Still, she silently decided to ensure that Rakshata was called somewhere where she would be unable to access any cameras or recorders for the meeting, just to be safe. While both she and her master were confident in their assessments of Rakshata Chawla, it never hurt to err on the side of caution.
And she was ever a loyal kunoichi, serving her chosen master with faith and foresight, so she could do no less than her best.
Later
Corridors, Theta Base
It took all of Kallen's self-control to keep herself from openly gawking at the corridors surrounding her. When Zero had said that he was going to be showing her the new central base of operations for the Black Knights, she originally assumed that it would be something similar to the old one, but this? The corridors were made of gleaming metal, the technology far more advanced, and Kallen still had no clue where she was.
"Zero…what is this place?" she asked in awe.
"Follow me and I shall explain everything." the masked man offered, beckoning her forward as he started to walk down the hallway. Without much choice, she immediately moved to follow him, with Aegis, Augur, and Incognito all following behind her. It made her kinda nervous, to be here with just Zero and what some people (who should really know better by now, Tamaki) referred to as his 'battle harem.'
The only time that the idiot had used that term in their actual presence, Aegis had left an imprint of his face in the room's wall. Idiot.
The hallways all looked exactly the same to her, so after a couple of turns Kallen was sure she was hopelessly lost. Her mind was racing at the sheer scale of just what this base suggested, just from the small part she had seen so far. The cost of building this place had to have been utterly immense…not to mention the labour and resources that would be required to actually see it built in secrecy. Zero had said that he had been preparing to rebel against Britannia for a while…was this base the reason he had never shown himself before Shinjuku?
Kallen jerked out of her thoughts as Zero led them into a conference room of sorts, with a large table and chairs all facing a single large screen. Seating himself in the central chair, he gestured for her to take a seat. Soon all five of them were seated and Zero pressed a small button built into the desk, making the lights dim, and the screen lit up with an overhead picture of the Britannian Tokyo Settlement.
"This, as you can no doubt recognize, is the Britannian Tokyo Settlement. The original land was home to the Britannian Tokyo Enclave during the cessation of hostilities that occurred during 2010 and the tail-end of 2011, but it has since been significantly expanded." Zero offered. "The Ashford Family was commissioned to build the majority of it as a final gesture of 'good will' from the Britannian Emperor; a flimsy excuse to help increase the pace of their exile after the murder of Marianne 'the Flash' vi Britannia."
"Wow, the Emperor is even more of a petty bastard than I thought he was." Kallen scoffed at the idea, that was the kind of petty crap that she'd expect out of Tamaki. She honestly had expected…more…from the 'Emperor of Blood.'
"Just so. The individual sections of the Settlement were manufactured in the Homeland itself before being shipped to the newly renamed Area 11." Zero elaborated. "What was required before assemblage could take place, however, was the clearing of the surrounding area, not to mention the setting of all the required foundations and subterranean infrastructure that the future Settlement would need….and that is when the head of the Ashford Family had a rather interesting brainwave."
"A brainwave?" the redhead parroted, finding the term odd coming from someone like Zero.
"Yes. If his family, which had been unflinchingly loyal and true to the Empire, that had done so many great services for it including the shepherding of the Knightmare Project from the Second Generation through to the Third, could be so casually cast aside with naught but callous disregard for the mere death of its patron, who knew what cruel fate could befall them in the future should the Emperor's shallow favour continue to turn against them? A former peer nursing a petty grudge being elevated to the position of Viceroy? Having more of what remained of their legacy stripped away with a few words? Or even the more…traditional…worry of any newly reduced Numbers managing to rise up and start massacring Britannian citizens? Taking all of that into account, as the first massive pillars of the foundation were being driven into the earth, Reuben Ashford was already planning for a very dark future…and thus he crafted the original idea for this place…Theta Base."
With another press of a button, the image of the screen changed to a schematic showing a side-on view of the Tokyo Settlement, this time not only showing the internal areas of the Settlement itself, which was supposed to be top-secret information, but also the ground and systems underneath it. There, lying underneath the ground where a great chunk of the city of Tokyo once stood, rested a sprawling base complex. Kallen jaw threatened to unhinge itself as she realized just how extensive the underground structure she had found herself in truly was.
"Theta, the eighth letter of the Grecian Alphabet, resembles a circle with a horizontal line held within it. This encompasses the idea behind this base, to hide within the most obvious of targets…the Settlement itself." Zero continued, the image changing once again, the Settlement being removed and the perspective changing to look down on the schematics for the base itself from a diagonally high position. "Theta Base is an extensive underground complex designed to be entirely self-sufficient should it ever become necessary. It has an extensive hydroponics wing that can grow vegetables and fruit, an area that even now is having a number of extensive fish farms being built within, and enough space to comfortably house several hundred people in various sections. There is also a research wing, a large garage complex capable of fitting up to a hundred Knightmares and an extensive assortment of other vehicles, and a fairly good-sized military complex located within one of the base's inner areas."
As Zero spoke of each area, the described sections on the map were briefly illuminated in a different colour on the screen.
"How…how did we even get in here?" Kallen asked faintly.
"Ingress and egress into and out of Theta Base within the Settlement is only possible via several different types of elevators, each concealed within a different building that the Ashford Foundation has ensured is fully under their personal control. There are also several concealed access tunnels that allow entry into Theta Base from outside the Settlement, including the one we arrived through that deposited us directly in the garage area." Incognito replied. "All of the Settlement entrances can only be activated via remote activation from the Central Core within the base or through the use of a thirty-two digit password that is randomly generated once per week. There is even an entrance that now opens directly into one of the older, abandoned branches of the Fuji Mines, though that one is admittedly a very recent addition."
The sheer scale of the base took Kallen completely off-guard. Not only that, but the sheer reach that this showed the Ashford Foundation was capable of, to have even managed to get into the highly restricted Fuji Mines. Yes, the Six Houses had managed to do that, but it was still astonishing that a disgraced family of former nobles could…
…wait…
"How is it that you now have control over this place, Zero, if it was built by the Ashford Family?" she asked slowly.
"Because we were the ones that gave it to him." Incognito answered for him, making Kallen's gaze immediately snap towards the harlequin-patterned figure as she reached up and grabbed her helmet. The push of a concealed button had the back retract up, allowing Incognito to pull it off and reveal the smirking face of one Millicent 'Milly' Ashford.
"…eh…?" was all the only sound the half-blood could make as she stared dumbly at the grinning face of her she-devil of a Student Council President, her Britannian Student Council President, who was currently dressed in the costume of one of Zero's direct subordinates.
"Did you honestly think that it is only the Japanese, or any of the so-called 'Numbers', that could hold a grudge against Britannia, Kallen?" Milly offered softly, her usual exuberance replaced with something far sharper and colder. "You heard Zero mention what happened to my family. We helped build Britannia into the powerhouse that it is today and then we were discarded like used trash the moment we were no longer deemed valuable enough. So, to quote my grandfather, Fuck the Holy Empire of Britannia, and FUCK Charles zi Britannia!"
That rather bold statement left Kallen feeling more than a bit punch-drunk, as if the world had suddenly turned askew around her. Yes, she was aware that several dozen Britannians had joined the Black Knights in the recent months, including the media man Diethard Reid, but most of them had been commoners, people unhappy with the status quo in the Empire as well as those that had a problem with the Number and Area Systems in general. This…This was the fucking Heiress of one of Britannia's elite families declaring that the goddamned Emperor could go and fuck himself!?
More than that, this was the first time that someone she'd known from her 'Kallen Stadtfelt' persona had joined up. It caused a strange feeling to well up in her. It wasn't the sharp feeling of betrayal nor was it the heady rush of anger that she really thought she should be feeling right about now. No, this was a confused tangle of feelings that mixed incomprehension, shock, and pure disbelief.
"You may wonder why Incognito…or rather, why Millicent has revealed her identity to you so abruptly, Kallen." Zero offered solemnly as the lights flickered back on and the screen turned off. "That is because I have decided, and the rest of my circle has agreed, that it was high time that you were brought fully into my confidence. That is to say, we are here today to reveal our identities. All I ask, is that you try not to react too…explosively."
Then, before she could do more than blink in uncomprehending shock, Aegis, Augur, and Zero each removed their own masked helmets to reveal…Sayoko Shinozaki, Celesta Crossfield…and Lelouch Lamperouge.
What tattered remnants of her self-control she had left fled her then and there as Kallen's jaw gaped wide open as she goggled at the familiar faces around her. She couldn't believe it. How…why…? He'd…he'd…!
"You lied to me!?" she accused Lelouch once she managed to gather herself a bit.
"When and what?" the infuriatingly calm pretty boy responded, making her anger tick upwards another notch.
"You said that you couldn't risk joining the resistance!" she fired back.
"I said that I couldn't join the Black Knights." Lelouch corrected her simply. "A bit hard to join something that I helped create and am currently leading. A bit of advice for the future, dear Kallen; the wise warrior only speaks a few words and always chooses those words that they do say with great care. I have never lied to you since we met, my dear. I have used half-truths, omitted certain facts, have chosen my words to imply certain things when the truth was otherwise, and even employed more than a few bits of misdirection, but I have never told you an outright lie."
Pausing, Kallen ran through her past interactions with Lelouch and slowly came to a dawning realization that he was indeed right. Except for…
"And what about the title you are supposed to inherit?" Kallen pressed.
"The man whose title I will inherit does indeed exist, but his bequeathing it to me is a mere financial transaction. I paid off his debts and ensure that he will spend his final years kept in a suitably fine state of affairs, and in exchange I shall be the one to inherit his title." the boy responded with a smirk, sitting back in his chair slightly. "The man has no children and there are no surviving branches of his family close enough to make any claims, while his life of excess and father time will see him dead soon enough. I will be a noble by hook or by crook within the next few years."
The idea that someone could just up and buy a noble title like it was a nothing more than a house or a car simply boggled Kallen's mind. So much for the 'pride' of Britannia's nobility, she guessed.
"Dearie me, you are looking quite incredibly flustered there Kallen." Celesta offered teasingly. "Is it really such a shock for you to find that Lelouch and Zero are one and the same?"
Flushing, Kallen glowered at the second she-devil in her midst, this one with green hair rather than blonde. She had been worrying herself half-mad that she was falling in love with two separate men at the same time, and it suddenly turns out that they were actually the same man all along! Forgive her for being a bit out of it!
"I'm afraid that this is not the only mask that Master Lelouch shall be removing today." Sayoko offered, drawing Kallen's attention. The fact that Aegis was really the demure, yet somehow very intimidating, Honorary Britannian maid was honestly the least surprising of the reveals she experienced today. It actually made complete sense in hindsight; no wonder Lelouch was so willing to trust Nunnally's safety to the woman!
"Oh?" the red-haired freedom fighter drawled, blue eyes narrowing once again as she refocused on Lelouch.
"My surname is indeed 'Lamperouge' by my own decision, but it was originally my mother's maiden name." the black-haired teen explained, his voice quiet and strangely tired. "The name that I went by for the first decade of my life was Lelouch vi Britannia."
"…what…?" Kallen breathed out faintly, eyes wide and her mind utterly failing to process what she'd just heard.
"I was born as the 11th Prince of the Holy Britannian Empire and was formerly 17th in line for the Throne." Lelouch repeated blandly, violet eyes locked directly onto Kallen's. "I am the son of a murdered mother, the brother of a crippled and blinded sister. I am the son that was declared worthless and then sent to Japan as tool for his father's politics before being tossed aside and left to die when the invasion started. Worse, Nunnally and I barely survived an assassination attempt made on us by a group of Britannian Spec Ops during the dawning hours of the invasion."
"What the-!?" the Black Knight's Ace couldn't even form the words; this was just too much.
"I know, it took me quite by surprise at the time as well." the unmasked prince offered with a snort, placing his mask onto the table and staring at it for a moment before turning his attention back to her. "If it wasn't for the Japanese soldiers stationed at the Kururugi Shrine, we both would have died that night. I'm fairly certain that my dear father intended to use our murder, with blame placed firmly on the heads of 'the barbaric Japanese', as a justification for his invasion and subsequent conquest of Japan. But I digress, and I believe that we started a tad too far into our little tale. Let's start when my story truly began to unfold, my mother and her assassination…"
And so Kallen could do little more than listen as her crush began to speak of his days in Pendragon, spent with Nunnally and even the Pinkie Princess Euphemia. Of watching helplessly as his mother and sister were suddenly gunned down in a sudden flare of gunfire and violence on an otherwise quiet night, with him only spared by sheer luck. Of staying by Nunnally's bedside for hours after the operation that was needed to save her life. Of his young, hot-blooded appeal to his father for redress and the man's cold dismissal of his own wife's murder and his son's value.
Her blood seemed to both freeze in disbelief and boil in fury in the same breath as she heard him casually speak of how Charles zi Britannia had personally beaten him into unconsciousness with his own two hands for his 'insolence' before sending him and a still recovering Nunnally to Japan with nothing more than the most basic of medical treatment to ensure that they arrived alive. Even for a man known by the appellation of the 'Blood Emperor' for his cold-blooded elimination of most of his extended family during the Emblem of Blood, that kind of cold-hearted and needlessly cruel treatment of a child, his own son no less, who had just lost his mother, was still something that Kallen had trouble believing.
And yet, she couldn't bring herself to doubt Lelouch's words. There was something about the look in his eyes when he spoke, too much raw pain in his eyes when he spoke of his mother's death, too much hatred and fury when he spoke of his father, for this to be some kind of act or ploy.
"Lelouch believes that the Emperor was somehow involved in the murder of his mother." Celesta dropped in casually.
"What? But why?" Kallen was dumbstruck. "Even if she wasn't his consort, Marianne the Flash was easily one of strongest Knights of the Round to have ever lived! Why would he…?!"
"After the Emblem of Blood, one of the first things that my sperm donor did after officially claiming the throne was to break off a part of the former Imperial Intelligence Bureau and transform it into the Office of Secret Intelligence, a security agency that reports only to the Emperor himself and was given carte blanche to accomplish whatever tasks he sets to them." Lelouch explained tersely. "Using them, he was able to infiltrate each and every major noble family within Britannia and discover their deepest, darkest secrets. He then ruthlessly utilized that information to bloodily purge and utterly ruin several families that had been thought untouchable by even the Imperial Throne. He then informed all of the remaining families of exactly what had happened and how, and that if a single one of them plotted anything that would so much as inconvenience him, he would learn of it and then do the exact same to them."
"It was an utter and complete power play, and an extremely obvious one at that, but then again the Emperor has always favoured such blunt tactics in his tyranny." Milly offered acerbically. "It was scarily effective though, no noble family in Britannia dared to so much as step a toenail out of line for over a decade after that happened."
"The point of this is that the Emperor is a paranoid, controlling bastard when it comes to even his own courts and has been sure to infiltrate every aspect of Imperial Britannia to ensure that nothing will catch him by surprise there." Lelouch retook control of the conversation, his eyes dark and grim. "Every plan, every plot, every scheme, every bit of skulduggery; that man has a categoric need to know about it. I refuse to believe this kind of assassination attempt within the heart of Pendragon would have been able to occur without him at least hearing something of it. His explicit assistance is the only logical means that I can think of for a group of heavily armed assassins to be able to infiltrate Pendragon all the way to the Aries Royal Villa where we resided, execute an extremely blatant attack, and then seemingly disappear into the dark without leaving so much as a hint of their identity behind."
C.C. was quite glad that she had literal centuries of practice in keeping a poker face and controlling her body language, because she knew very well that Charles had possessed absolutely no clue that his yandere little hobgoblin of a brother had been aiming to take Marianne's life. Had the man been given even the slightest shred of forewarning about his brother's little plot, she was quite sure that he would have openly shot that runt of an immortal himself and then slapped him into a straightjacket before he time to regenerate and then tossing him into a tube that would have made the one she had found herself in look positively comfortable and homey by comparison.
A shame that Charles' little secret intelligence office now actually belonged more to his brother than it did to him.
"That…that honestly makes a disturbing level of sense." Kallen offered with a slow nod. Given everything that she had learned about Charles zi Britannia, she could easily believe that he, at the very least, had some greater knowledge of Marianne the Flash's death than he let on. If he really was that paranoid when it came to his own backyard, then…
"Wait!? What about the terrorist attack on Pendragon by the Wings of Talleyrand? How did they manage to get anything past him then?" she challenged.
"Ah, now that is a good question, and one with a rather simple answer." Lelouch replied, a slight smile forming on his face as he was drawn out of the memories of seven years ago. "Their leader, Lord Wilbur Millville was formerly the Head of Aerial Weapons Development for the Steiner Konzern, which is under the direct aegis of Sir Gino Weinberg, the current Knight of Three, via the family that led it, the Steiners. While the OSI officially has an unlimited warrant to act in the Emperor's name, even they are hesitant to try and test their authority against that of the Knights of the Round. That, combined with the far greater security that a military company has compared to the average noble family, and the fact that Millville kept his operations almost entirely 'in-house' before his attack, allowed his little conspiracy to remain entirely in one of the Emperor's few blind spots."
"Damn, so he basically used one of the Rounds as a living shield?" Kallen whistled. "Talk about ballsy moves."
"It was certainly an audacious course; one could go as far as to call it feckless. A single misspoken word or misstep could have doomed that entire conspiracy in an instant." Lelouch agreed absently. "And yet it nearly succeeded. Were it not for my sister, Marrybell mel Britannia and her Glinda Knights, the Knight of One may have well been forced to take the field to deal with the problem personally."
And that suddenly brought things sharply back into focus for Kallen. Lelouch was a Britannian Royal, one of the spawn of Charles zi Britannia himself. He was the son of the man who had ordered the conquest of Japan, the blood brother of both Clovis and Cornelia.
And yet, from everything she had heard, he had nothing to do with any of them. He had no reason to support or embrace Britannia; if anything, he had just as much reason as Kallen and many other Black Knights to hate it. He had been beaten and discarded by his own father; his own country had tried to kill him to help justify their conquest of Japan. Her mind was tearing at itself as she tried to figure out what to think.
"Okay…why are you doing all of this?" she asked, voicing the question that was near the forefront of her confusion. "The Black Knights, this rebellion…everything."
"Because I must. I am Zero, the Man of Miracles." Lelouch smirked. "I am the man who controls the Black Knights, the man who rose up to defy the Holy Empire of Britannia and all that it represents. And I intend to be the man who will bring Britannia to its knees and put my bastard father's head on a pike."
That last sentence was said with such a sharp and sincere hatred and yet it also rang with a cold-blooded fury. The effect honestly caused everyone around him, other than C.C. to flinch back slightly, even Sayoko.
The black-haired former prince then let out a calming breath in the form of a sigh, before once more focusing on her.
"You ask why I am rebelling, Kallen. My answer is simply 'how can I not?'" he elaborated. "Nunnally is blind and crippled. She will never walk again, and likely will never see again; not to mention those fevers that no doctor seems to be able to determine the cause of. Japan offered both of us more care and compassion while we were 'prisoners' here than any of our own blood ever did, save for less than a handful of my siblings who saw us off. I owe Japan for all that it did to help my sister, and I personally see freeing it from the Britannian jackboot as a good first step to repay that debt."
"A 'first' step?" Kallen asked with a blink.
"Japan has the largest reserves of Sakuradite ever discovered within its shores, Kallen. More than the rest of the world combined. Not only would Britannia never willingly relinquish its control over such a jewel in its crown, but you can bet that the Chinese Federation would be quick to make some form of play to take Japan for themselves in the aftermath of any war of independence, whether we fail or succeed. Only the distance between us, and the fact that both other major superpowers stand in their way, prevents the Euro Universe from trying to make their own attempt to claim Japan." the rebel leader explained. "Freeing Japan is but the first step; the second will be ensuring that we are capable of defending its sovereignty from any further invasion. After that…the future is too unstable for any for even me to try and set any concrete plans for our third step and onwards. It could be a counter-invasion of the Chinese Federation, or it could be brokering a deal or alliance with the Euro Universe, or it could be any one of countless other options that I've considered, all depending on how stages one and two end. What is clear, however, is that so long as Britannia remains firmly rooted in its ideals of Social Darwinism and expansion, and as long as Charles zi Britannia holds the throne, there will be no peace for us in this world."
Gulping, Kallen could hear that it was unquestionably Lelouch speaking now, yet now he was using the same charismatic, seductive manner of speech that Zero always spoke in, the way that had drawn her in and enthralled her like nothing else. How the hell had she not realized soon that the two were one and the same?! Had she been dumb, deaf, and blind or something?
'No, you hot-headed idiot. He has survived for over half-a-decade by hiding in plain sight, lying and deception are probably second nature to him by now; keeping me and everyone else in the dark was probably pretty easy compared to that.' she scolded herself. If she could manage to build a good enough false front that 'Kallen Stadtfelt' managed to avoid most scrutiny, then Lelouch, a bloody fucking royal that was probably breastfed on political intrigue, would easily be able to keep two identities separate. Which begged the question…
"Why tell me? Why now?" she asked.
"Because Kallen, you are one of three people that have all the information needed to decipher just who Zero is behind the mask." Milly answered for them this time, gesturing around her. "Theta Base will be the new central command headquarters for the Black Knights within the next two months at the longest, and, given time, no one here doubts that you would have been able to figure exactly where this place is located. That, combined with the fact that a bit of investigation would reveal that the Central Core, Theta Base's main command centre, is located directly beneath Ashford Academy, means that you are the likeliest person to figure out some of Lelouch's secrets on your own, maybe even mine too. Rather than letting you jump to conclusions when you figured it out, we decided that we needed to trust you in order for you to trust us. More-so, you're the first of the three that we've revealed everything to."
"Over who?" Kallen asked, some small sense of pride flickering to life in her chest at that particular revelation.
"Tōdō-sensei and Rakshata Chawla." Lelouch offered casually.
"EH?!" the redhead was left goggling once again. "Why me first over either of those two?!"
"Well firstly, I am pressing my suit." the Exiled Prince offered with a suggestive smirk and pointed look that made Kallen flush scarlet. "More seriously, because you are, as I explained when I first formed the Obsidian Knights, Zero's Knight of Honour, albeit without having taken the normal formal oaths. That kind of position entails…certain responsibilities and duties on me that I am loathe to dismiss. The most relevant is that I am to always keep my Knights of Honour informed of all things to do with my plans and safety. It would both dishonour and disrespect you if I tried to keep everything a secret from you for too long after making such a statement."
Ordinarily, Kallen was, to say the very least, dismissive and rather contemptuous of most Britannian laws and traditions. Outside of a scarce handful, those laws tended to be racist, sexist, bigoted, self-serving, outright distasteful, or some disturbing mix of several of those concepts at once. Britannian traditions, particularly the noble ones, were just more of the same, rarely giving any form of advantage to anyone who wasn't already in a position of power. But in this instance, she could be honestly grateful that certain traditions existed if they had pressed Lelouch to be honest with her.
In all honestly, Kallen had never felt as torn as she was in this moment. She felt as she was at war with herself.
On one side was the part of her that hated and loathed Britannia, Britannians and everything associated with them, the part that she had considered the 'real' her compared to 'Kallen Stadtfelt', wanted nothing more to haul off and slap Lelouch across his lying, royal face and storm off for daring to be a prince and lying through his teeth to her. That being said, that side of her had, mostly unnoticed to her before now, been slowly weakening and being chipped away at with her continued exposure to the 'good' side of Britannian society via the Student Council of Ashford and a few other people there, not to mention her own heart betraying her and falling for Lelouch like it had. More than that, she couldn't help but remember the lessons she'd learned from both Zero and her old martial arts sensei, Mamoru, about how most Britannians were fed Social Darwinist propaganda from the cradle to the grave. That in truth, most were less actively against other cultures and more simply passively following the lessons that had been forced on them their entire lives.
The other side of her internal war was a mixture of the soldier and warrior that Kallen Kōzuki had grown into, the girl in love that Kallen didn't want to acknowledge, and the part that she had used to craft and operate under the guise of the weak and sickly Kallen Stadtfelt. These parts, as a whole, understood that the subterfuge that Lelouch had been constantly using to cloak himself was something that he'd needed in order to keep himself and his sister alive for so long. That knew exactly how the Social Darwinists that ruled Britannia would use and abuse a girl as sweet and kind as Nunnally, just for having the misfortune of being blinded and crippled when her mother was murdered. This would be particularly true within the royal court; Charles zi Britannia would think nothing of simply marrying her off to some old bastard just serve his political ambitions or simply use her as a bargaining chip to keep a tight leash around Lelouch's neck.
A sudden sharp chill travelled down her spine at that rather foreboding thought; the very idea of Lelouch/Zero as a loyal (willing or not) part of Britannia's war machine. Someone who was at least an equal to Cornelia in the fields of strategy, tactics, and logistics while also a far more adroit and savvy politician and governor than Euphemia. He likely could have utterly crushed any and all resistance left in Japan and transformed it into a proper, peaceful little province of the Holy Britannian Empire within a few years if he was given access to even half the assets Clovis had had. That rather terrifying thought served to further quell any desire she had to slap the former prince.
Another realization came after that line of thought. The Black Knights, while they were now a powerful force in their own right, would be a great deal less effective without Zero's vision guiding them. As his words regarding Japan's future independence had demonstrated a few minutes ago, Lelouch had formed plans relying on both regaining Japan's independence and then KEEPING Japan independent. Kyōshirō Tōdō, as much as Kallen might have admired the man and his abilities, simply fell short when it came to proven strategic and tactical brilliance in comparison to Zero.
Against the likes of Cornelia, they might be able to squeak out some wins under Tōdō's leadership, but even she had heard rumours about the skill of Schneizel, the Second Prince and acclaimed 'Cold-Blooded Strategist', and everything she'd heard painted him as an even more dangerous opponent than even Cornelia. Against him? She wasn't sure if Tōdō could out-think that man. More than that, Kallen was fairly certain that Tōdō simply couldn't liberate Japan in the end, let alone keep it free.
Her ingrained hatred and distrust of Britannians were warring against her feelings for Lelouch and the cold logic of the situation that said they needed him…and neither side was able to gain an upper hand, which frightened Kallen more than she'd care to admit. That her feelings for Lelouch, for Zero, for both combined, were strong enough to stop her hardened hate cold made her wonder just how much like her mother she was. Yūko Kōzuki, after the marriage between her husband had been dissolved by the establishment of Area 11, had given up everything, her self-respect, her pride, her independence, to be a mere maid in the house of the woman her father had been required to marry by his family, just to be near her children.
Was she really like that? Was she the kind of woman that would willingly give everything up for what she loved, for who she loved? Kallen knew that her mother was still in love with her father, even after seven years, but the thought of being so…needy, so dependent on the love of someone else had made her try and lock those kinds of thoughts away, even as she had watched Ohgi's incipient attraction to Naomi Inoue (and unknown to him, vice versa) grow recently.
"I…" she faltered. "I need time…time to think…to process…everything. I need to come to terms with who…with what…you are, Lelouch. This…this is…a lot to take in."
"Of course." the boy offered with a smile of understanding and Kallen hated how that look made her heart skip a beat. "I doubt that I need to ask this aloud, but I humbly ask that you keep what you have learned here a secret from everyone not already in the know. For the moment, if we include yourself, Milly, Sayoko, and Celesta here, then that amounts to thirteen rather important people who know my real identity, including the six Heads of Kyoto House. Naturally Milly's grandfather is also on that list, and I hope to have Tōdō-sensei and Rakshata added to it by the end of the day."
"And Nunnally?" Kallen prodded.
"No, I have done everything in my power to keep her unaware of exactly what I am working towards and how I am trying to accomplish it. And I honestly hope for it to remain that way for as long as possible." the Exiled Prince stated firmly, Big Brother Protectiveness firmly on display, something that honestly settled Kallen just the smallest bit more. "Nunnally deplores violence and disapproves of it as anything but an absolute last means of self-defence. She refuses to understand just how precarious our position is if I don't revolt against Britannia. She cannot know about this unless it is absolutely necessary."
"You will have to tell her eventually, Goshujin-sama." Sayoko chided him gently.
"I am well aware of that, but I can at least delay it as long as possible. Nunnally is far from stupid, she is just as intelligent as I am, albeit in a different way. She will figure out that I am connected to Zero and the Black Knights in some ways sooner or later, I don't doubt that much." Lelouch offered with a defeated sigh. "I will not lie to her but until she asks directly, I do not wish to taint her view of me."
The thought of Nunnally, who loved, adored and doted on her elder brother just as much as he loved, adored and doted on her, actually hating him was so ludicrous that had things been less serious, Kallen would have honestly had trouble not laughing. As it was, things were still too tense for something like that, and she was well aware of how much Nunnally's good opinion mattered to Lelouch.
"I will keep things secret, from Nunnally especially." she promised aloud, earning her another smile.
"Thank you for that. If you will excuse me, this meeting has lasted a bit overlong and I have to move to the meeting with Tōdō-sensei and the House Heads. Kallen, I will leave you in Milly's capable hands to show you around the rest of Theta Base or even take you back to the Black Knight's current base if you need some solitude to process things." Lelouch offered as he replaced his mask onto his head, followed by Celesta and Sayoko. Kallen found herself automatically straightening to attention as she was confronted with Zero, Augur, and Aegis once more rather than her friends and love interest.
With a silent nod of farewell, Zero swept out of the room, the other two following behind him. Once they were gone, Kallen felt the tension rapidly drain out of her body, leaving her limp, boneless, and tired in her chair. She absently glanced at the digital clock set into one of the walls. It was barely two in the afternoon.
"I was NOT expecting today to be this damned mentally tiring…" she groaned out as she absently rubbed at one of her eyes.
"Yeah, sorry to have to drop all of this on you at once." Milly offered sympathetically, a slightly coy grin on her lips. "I had the advantage of basically forcing Lelouch into letting me in on his plans. I knew him before he came to Japan, so I was already in on a few big secrets, that assassination attempt at the Academy simply let me force my way into his confidence completely."
Kallen just sighed again. What she wouldn't give for a combat mission right now…
"Does this place have Knightmare simulators?" she asked, glancing to her 'guide.'
"But of course!" the Ashford Heiress answered with a smirk. "We've already got a number of them set up for Sutherlands, Burai Kai, Jinrai, Gekka and even one that can be used for the Kokuten, Guren Isshiki and Guren Nishiki, so whatever Knightmare you feel like piloting you can practice as you wish. Lelouch even plugged in several dozen scenarios of his own devising with some help from my grandfather and the combat data that we've managed to acquire so far. You can practice against what we know of Cornelia, her Knights, or even several of the current or former Knights of the Round."
A feral smirk flashed across Kallen's face. That sounded like just what she needed right now. "Good, I want to try and fight as many of them as I can with my Guren."
"Well that can certainly be arranged." Milly offered with a grin, before a tired look crossed her face. "I am honestly due for a refresher on Knightmare combat myself. It's been a while since I've been in a simulator and with all the hubbub recently…"
The two girls got to their feet and, after Milly quickly re-donned her Incognito mask, left the room and headed towards the Knightmare simulators. Kallen was feeling just a bit more relaxed at the moment and was honestly anticipating some mindless combat. No worries, no pressures, no need to consider anything but the enemy that was in front of her. Once she managed to tire herself out, then and only then would she be able to turn her mind inwards so she could fully process all of the revelations that had been heaped onto her today.
Later
Meeting Room, Secret Six Houses of Kyoto Base, Hidden Location
General Kyōshirō Tōdō, the last surviving general of the Imperial Japanese Army, could instantly tell that this was going to be no ordinary meeting. The requirement that he come alone, without even any of his Four Holy Swords, wasn't that unusual given Kyoto's need for secrecy, but there had been a subtle difference in the tone of that request that told him something new was happening.
Seating himself in the seiza position, he bowed his head to the five men and one girl who had supported the JLF unflinchingly for these past seven years and now funded the Black Knights, whose uniform he now wore albeit with a few minor customizations on his own part, taken from his old JLF uniform.
"General, as always we thank you for your prompt response to our summons." Lord Kirihara offered with a respectful incline of his own wizened head. "I apologize for the abruptness of this meeting, but a decision has recently been reached and it affects all of us here."
"Indeed?" Tōdō asked, a slight raising of one eyebrow being the only indicator of the stoic general's curiosity.
"Yes." Zero agreed as he entered the room himself, flanked as always by both Aegis and Augur. "My apologies for my lateness, gentlemen and lady, but my last meeting lasted longer than I expected and Kaname contacted me about a disciplinary matter at the main base on my way here that he felt needed immediate attention."
"Nothing too worrying, I hope?" young Akira Yoshida asked.
"A minor brawl caused by several lower-ranking members who had managed to set up a crude moonshine still within the base." the masked man elaborated with a shake of his head as he knelt at a halfway point between the House Heads and Tōdō himself. "The still is being dismantled as we speak and Kaname is handing out proper punishments before speaking to logistics to ensure that squirrelling away the components needed to make another will be far harder. Mamoru will be having those involved in that bit of foolishness going through PT to the point that they collapse for the next month, hopefully that will instil a bit of common sense into their heads."
"I would hope so." Tōdō offered, frowning at the sheer foolishness of such an act. "Were those involved at least off duty when they set about this…stupidity."
"They were indeed smart enough to at least wait until they were off duty, yes. It certainly helps that the ringleaders behind it were former JLF personnel." Zero stated as Aegis and Augur took their own places behind him like personal guards…which, to be fair, they were.
That news caused Tōdō's frown to deepen slightly. "I see, I will have to have a word with those involved personally, then." the aged samurai offered darkly. Woe be on those who would embarrass the memory of the JLF with this kind of tomfoolery.
"Quite." Lord Kubōin offered, bringing things back onto track. "Now that we are gathered here, I believe it is best we get to the meat of the matter as quickly as possible."
That got general sounds of approval from all those involved.
"General, you were informed not long ago that we suspected that the Chinese Federation were planning to make their own claim on Japan; it is the sad duty of both Lord Zero and we Heads of the Six Houses to confirm that the Chinese Federation, using the Japanese Government-in-Exile as a figurehead, are indeed planning a launch a full invasion of Japan within the next few months." Lady Kaguya offered, a hard look in her young eyes. "Our agents have already found a build-up of Gun-Ru Knightmare Frames near several of the ports closest to Japanese waters and the Federation's Sea of Japan Fleet has been steadily shifting from a passive defence and observation stance into a more aggressive one, testing the defences and reaction times of the Britannian Navy's occupation fleet."
"That soft-headed fool Sawazaki has lost his mind!" Tōdō growled out, hands fisting tightly in his lap. "He truly intends to have us simply replace one yoke for another!"
"Agreed. Sawazaki has well and truly crossed the line, selling out his homeland to become little better than another dog of the Chinese Federation." Hideyoshi Munakata offered with a scowl. "His betrayal of Japan cannot be countenanced or permitted to go unpunished."
"I'm certain that he's managed to delude himself into believing he is doing Japan some grand favour, but none here will ever agree with this foolishness." Saito Osakabe offered with a grimace. "Even without the Number System, the Chinese are no better than the Britannians when it comes to how they treat those they conquer, the people of India and Tibet will heartily attest to that. The Britannians at least offer some false hope with their Honorary Britannian System, the Chinese instead ensure all they conquer know they will forever be under their yoke. We cannot permit this invasion to succeed."
"Rest assured, preparations for our counterattack have already begun and I have already calculated their likeliest bridgeheads." Zero stated. "For the moment, it seems that the greatest majority of their forces will likely land and attempt to capture the fortress of Fukuoka on Kyūshū."
"But that fortress is the central control point for the western coastal defences of all of Kyūshū!? Assaulting it directly would be…" Tōdō blinked in shock at the sheer audacity of that plan, before his eyes narrowed as he quickly started to work the plan through in his own mind. "…no, I think I can see the calculus in this move, particularly given how happy the Chinese Federation is to take victories at the cost of the lives of its soldiers. If they manage to take the defenders by surprise and take the fortress with a single overwhelming attack, that will not only serve to demoralize the Britannian forces stationed to defend Japan and throw their defences into chaos, but it will also grant them a highly defensible point of rest and resupply to spearhead the rest of their invasion from."
"That was my reasoning as well, General." Zero agreed with a nod.
"Fortunately, the Fukuoka Ghetto has been slated for urban redevelopment for over a year now, so almost all of its inhabitants have been transferred to other Ghettos across Kyushu." Akira offered with a sigh. "It is not much of a silver lining, but we can at least be thankful that the loss of life among the Japanese in that attack will be minimal."
"Indeed." Lord Kirihara offered a small nod. "Moving on, there was a second point of this meeting, and it is the reason for the extra secrecy involved. Zero has decided that the time is appropriate for the Black Knights to move into their new central headquarters and the process is set to begin within a fortnight. As such, there is crucial information that all here have agreed needs to be shared before that occurs."
"Oh?" the General drawled out, a slightly confused mien taking over his body language.
"It is time that the veil of secrecy that I have drawn around my identity to be drawn back the slightest bit more." Zero offered, the Masked Revolutionary's blank mask turning to face the general. "Three new people are to be informed of it before the move occurs; Kallen Kōzuki, Rakshata Chawla, and yourself. The meeting I was attending to just before this one was to bring Kallen in on my secrets, now it your turn, General."
"I see." Tōdō offered, frowning slightly. "This seems to run counter to the lengths you have gone to in order to maintain your anonymity up to this point. May I ask why you are you choosing to do this now? I doubt that it has anything to do with the Chinese Federation's actions, so I can only assume that it has to do with this new base we will soon be occupying."
"Astute as ever. The two are indeed linked." the Regicide agreed with a slight inclination of his head, as if to concede a point to the older man. "This new base is located somewhere that the more intelligent or informed members of the Black Knights will be able to deduce rather swiftly. For most of them, I have prepared reasoning that should satisfy them, but for the three of you, any information I state would not suffice, and thus rather than risk…erroneous conclusions from being drawn and leading to rash decisions, I have decided to instead offer you the truth."
"The House Heads will state for the record now that we have been aware of Zero's true identity since our first official meeting with him." Lord Kirihara offered calmly. "And he retains our full support."
'Hm, a not-so-subtle warning that I will need to temper my own initial reaction. Just who are you Zero?' the old soldier mused curiously as Zero's hand went to his mask. A subtle click and the back of that clever little device folded up, turning the helmet into a folded mask that the younger man removed, revealing his face.
"…!" Tōdō instinctively drew in a breath, his eyes widening in shock as his eyes locked onto a face he had not seen in seven long years. Indeed, the first sight of those violet eyes brought back an immediate flashback to a slightly younger version of that same face staring back up at him, obviously scared but equally determined not to show it, as he held a pistol to the boy's head; leaving the general stumbling to recover his lost stoicism.
"It is good to see you again as well, Tōdō-sensei. At the very least I can say it is nice to finally be able to speak to you again face-to-face." Lelouch vi Britannia offered, a small, smug smile on his face. It was a smile that Tōdō was annoyingly familiar with from the first time that the overly cunning little whelp had managed to beat him at shōgi.
"…unbelievable. You actually managed to survive." the old general slowly shook his head in a mixture of amazement and disbelief. "When you and Nunnally vanished into the night after the surrender, I was sure that…"
"I truly cannot blame you for that assumption." Lelouch conceded with a nod. "It was…not an easy journey. Walking through the aftermath of the Gunma Massacre with Nunnally on my back nearly broke me in more ways than one, particularly given what an arrogant little intellectual I was back then. Luckily, Sayoko here managed to correct that flaw of mine after she came into my service.
He gestured to the woman who had formerly been wearing the Hann'ya mask of Aegis, allowing Tōdō to realize that both of his followers had removed their own masks as well. He vaguely took note of Auger's green hair and European features, but his focus was almost entire on the young Japanese woman that had been hidden behind Aegis's mask. There was something in the cool stare that she was currently directing at him that carried an air of danger that set all of Tōdō's well-honed instincts onto high-alert. While she was simply sitting in seiza at the moment, he could almost taste the aura of bloodlust that was carefully concealed behind that mask and being directed towards him.
He made a vague note not to let his guard down around this particular woman. He doubted that would be good for his health.
"Sayoko Shinozaki, of the Shinozaki School of Taijutsu. My Goshujin-sama has…spoken highly of you, Tōdō-san." the woman offered politely with a slight incline of her own head.
"A Shinozaki?" Tōdō had certainly heard of that rather famous family, if only in vague terms, from his times working amongst the various elite members of the Japanese government before the invasion occurred. An ancient clan of ninja that had managed to survive the purges orchestrated by Nobunaga Oda, a man who had loathed shinobi as a concept, that had slaughtered many of the shinobi clans during the Sengoku Jidai, and had managed to survive to the modern era acting primarily as bodyguards for hire. His colleagues had often said that if a Shinozaki was hired to accomplish a mission then no force in the heaven or of the earth would stop them from seeing it completed; regardless of whether that mission was industrial espionage, assassination, or bodyguarding. Having a Shinozaki on your retainer was not only a sign of great wealth, their services were not cheap, but one of great status, since only a scarce few were ever honoured with the ability to contact them in order to bid for their services.
They had hidden themselves after the invasion began, and this was the first time that he had even heard of one being sighted in the past eight years.
"Indeed, Sayoko has been utterly invaluable in safeguarding myself and Nunnally from harm over the past few years." Lelouch offered. "And yes, Nunnally is fine. Healthy, albeit still blind and disabled."
Some small part within Tōdō relaxed slightly at that news. Nunnally vi Britannia was a sweet and innocent child who the world at large had harmed and punished for no good reason. She was also the one person he knew that could temper her older brother Lelouch's stubbornness, often managing to get the mule-headed boy to acquiesce with but a few soft words.
"And I take it that she isn't aware of your alter ego?" he asked knowingly.
"Nunnally remains as disinclined to violence as ever, and is not predisposed to understanding the necessity of my rebellion against Britannia. That has not been helped by my own…overly protective treatment of her when it comes to how truly precarious our own situation is." the Exiled Prince admitted. "For the moment, I find it wise to keep her entirely out of this. It is a decision that Sayoko protests, but she has at least accepted the necessity of it for now."
'Ever the overprotective brother. That much has not changed at least.' the old samurai mused with some small amusement. He still remembered how it had taken Amane Hiiragi, Suzaku's governess and private tutor, more than two weeks to earn enough trust from the sharp-eyed and paranoid young Lelouch that he would allow her to aid him in Nunnally's care not long after they had been discharged from hospital after they had arrived in Japan, and the woman had obviously adored Nunnally from first sight.
Shaking away that odd sense of nostalgia, Tōdō focused on the here and now. "So, to the heart of the matter, then? What is your stake in rebelling against your homeland?" he asked gruffly. "Are you attempting to claim your father's seat on throne or is there something else you are after?"
"Until recently, I had honestly believed that I had cast aside my inheritance rights as a Prince seven years ago when I confronted Charles zi Britannia over my mother's death." Lelouch responded with a shake of his head, a moue of distaste on his lips. "Unfortunately, I have recently discovered that simply disavowing myself does not make it a reality; the Emperor himself must verbally acknowledge and accept such a declaration for it to come into effect. And my sperm donor, for whatever reason, never did so. Regardless, I have no desire to ever sit upon the Throne of Blood and would not seek to take it myself save as an absolute last and final resort. While I remain a Britannian by birth and nationality, that is the most I will give to the nation that discarded myself and my dear sister. I will not stop fighting until Britannia is broken and humbled, and the first step to see that occur is to liberate Japan and deny them the vast reserves of Sakuradite within its borders. That goal is an absolute necessity if Britannia is ever to fall."
"So this is a pragmatic joining of interests, then?" the general pressed.
"In part, but there is also the debt that I feel I owe Japan for the care Nunnally and myself were given when we first arrived on your shores; battered, bleeding, and broken in body, and haggard and worn in spirit." the raven-haired youth responded. "The fact that we are only alive today is due to both the excellent medical care that we were provided with, and the honour and sacrifice of the IJA soldiers that were assigned to protect us while we were staying at the Kururugi Shrine in the face of the sudden assault by a Britannian Spec Ops team hoping to assassinate us. Liberating Japan and ensuring that it remains free is my way of repaying that debt in full."
Kyōshirō Tōdō simply stared at the young, violet-eyed renegade sitting across from him. Even during his youth, Tōdō had seen signs of the young man that he would grow into, someone who mixed a brutal pragmatism with a strange but personal sense of honour. He and Genbu had done what they could to encourage the honourable side of the young man and temper the pragmatic side, and from the looks of it, if his ability to read the boy hadn't been completely destroyed over the past seven years, those attempts had borne some fruit.
It seems that Genbu Kururugi's decision, heeding the advice of several more moderate members of the Cabinet, to treat the vi Britannia siblings with full guest rights as opposed to shuffling them off as mere hostages, had paid off in ways the long-dead Prime Minister could never have imagined. He could not help but believe that finding out the hand he'd reached out in kindness was now being returned would have pleased his old friend greatly.
Genbu had always been sentimental in that way.
"Ha…so it would seem that Japan's future now rests in the hands of the spawn of the man who ordered its conquest." Tōdō couldn't hold in the snort of amusement that escaped him. "What a bitter irony. So you are with us, come what may?"
"I am." Lelouch responded seriously. "The Six Houses have purged the members that backed Kadzuki and almost every other resistance group in Japan has now joined with the Black Knights, who are now receiving Kyoto House's full support. As of this moment, the Black Knights are second only to the Britannian forces occupying Japan in terms of military power. Soon, we will be able to equal them once production of the BK-type Sutherlands, Gloucesters, and Jinrai is capable of ramping up. The only issue, the Chinese Federation aside, is the threat of Asahina doing something stupid and damaging the Black Knights from within."
Tōdō grimaced, Asahina's disquiet and resentment was indeed beginning to get out of hand. The first few times that he had acted out, he had been doing so on Tōdō's own orders in order to test Zero's abilities and nature as a leader, but he had since started to act on his own to openly defy or undermine Zero in whatever ways he could. Senba had even reported to him that Asahina had attempted (and failed) to start a pro-Tōdō movement within the Black Knights in an attempt to increase his own standing and influence on the organization. An attempt that had failed largely because of Tōdō's own open stance of endorsement of Zero.
"He has been acting increasingly…erratic…as of late." the general admitted with a frown. "I do not understand why he is so against following 'Zero' even after I gave you my support."
"Because the man is a fanatic and you are his icon. He can accept being below you since he views you as someone who stands above everyone else. He is happy to be a 'direct subordinate of the great General Kyōshirō Tōdō' since he views it as being as close as one can get to the truest and greatest form of power." the green-haired young woman who had laid Auger's helm to one side spoke up this time, her tone casual and bored as she dissected his subordinate verbally. "He was likely fine with you being under General Katase because the two of you had a history and your own respect for the chain of command. But 'Zero' is an unknown, and Asahina cannot stand to see someone he views as untrustworthy and undeserving overshadow his idol. The fact that you are openly supporting Zero is likely driving that fool half-mad in outrage and jealously if he hasn't deluded himself into believing it is all an act. If you do not put him firmly into his place quickly, I can predict that he will directly try and assassinate Zero or attempt to rally what few members of the Black Knights he managed to sway to his way of thinking in order to attempt a putsch."
"An armed uprising…." Tōdō grimaced at the thought. Even it was put down quickly, such a thing could easily draw Britannia's attention onto wherever it occurred. "You believe he would go that far?"
"At the moment, no; but it is likely that he will reach that point if something is not done to curb him." Lelouch offered with a frown. "Tōdō-sensei, you must bring Colonel Asahina into line soon or I may be forced to have him dealt with before his asinine pride leads him to taking either of the more extreme options he has available and he ends up wasting precious resources at the least, or causing the location of an important base to be discovered by all of Britannia, at the worst. I don't care if he simply remains a voice of opposition to my leadership or what have you, a commander who cannot deal with voices of dissent raised against him is not much of a leader after all, but everything we've seen points to him taking it much farther in the near future if something is not done."
Now, one might think that Kyōshirō Tōdō would be far more concerned with the fact that a Britannian Prince, exile and personally disinherited or not, was the best hope of seeing Japan liberated from Britannia rather than the actions of one of his own subordinates, but Tōdō knew Lelouch, he had known him when he was a boy and far less capable of hiding his emotions and thoughts. He knew just how deeply Lelouch's rage and hatred towards his home country went, particularly in regards to his father, and knew just how genuine his disregard for the Britannian Throne was. None of the actions that the boy had shown since Shinjuku had suggested anything about that had changed, and seemed to point towards the boy being sincere in his desire to see Britannia fall.
So long as his sister was safe and no one that he truly cared for was threatened, Lelouch would stay true to his word and do everything he could to liberate Japan and defeat Britannia. That did not mean that Tōdō was not going to take his own precautions, just in case, but, on the whole, the threat of one of his own subordinates rapidly devolving from a mere discipline issue to a true security concern was far a more immediately worrying matter.
"You have no objections to Lelouch remaining as the leader of the Black Knights?" Lord Kirihara asked in a probing manner.
"So long as his focus remains firm on defeating Britannia and liberating Japan, I have no issue continuing to follow his leadership." Tōdō answered honestly. "So far, his actions have all shown his commitment to those goals."
"Indeed." Kaguya agreed, smiling sweetly, a blush on her cheeks, and Tōdō couldn't help himself as he let out an amused chuckle, more old memories coming to the foreground of his mind.
"So, the little Empress finally managed to run you into the ground, didn't she boy?" he asked, recalling all the times the boy would somehow manage to briefly outrun Suzaku whenever Kaguya decided to pursue him in a more literal manner than one might expect of a young heiress.
"What can I say…she has proven herself both inhumanly persistent and surprisingly persuasive." the younger man offered dryly, though the small smile making its way across his lips belayed the tone of his voice.
The heaviest bit of today's business over and done with, the meeting quickly turned to several logistical and personnel issues that needed to be sorted through.
Later
Lelouch's Room, Lamperouge Wing, Student Council Clubhouse, Ashford Academy
"So, were you honestly expecting Rakshata's reaction to be…absolutely no reaction at all?" C.C. asked with an amused smirk. She was, as had become her preferred custom, only wearing one of his dress shirts to bed.
"I was expecting her take the revelation of my identity in stride, but I can honestly admit that I was not expecting her to be quite so blasé about it." Lelouch admitted with a rueful smile on his lips as he reviewed a few more reports before bed.
The Indian woman had merely tilted her head to one side when he had removed his helmet and learned his name and a bit of his history before causally promising to keep his identity a secret so long as he kept to his promise to aid in the eventual liberation of India, something that he was all too happy to agree to, before casually passing back a data drive full of her recommended improvement for the Ashigaru that would not only make it viable for mass production, but bring its overall efficiency and combat effectiveness up by a solid ten percent.
"Mmm. That woman can indeed be hard to read at times, but I suppose her apathy towards anything not directly related to her 'children' or Lloyd Asplund is useful for situations like this." the Immortal offered. "I am honestly surprised that Tōdō was so easy to win over. I was honestly expecting far more paranoia regarding your true motive from him."
"Sensei is a very smart man. The setup of that meeting showed that I have the full trust and backing of the House Heads of Kyoto, all of whom already knew my real identity, and am very obviously courting Kaguya, the Empress-Elect herself." the Exiled Prince listed with ease. "I don't doubt for an instant that he is even now planning out several 'contingencies' to put into place should I ever break my word, but in the face of such overwhelming political capital and soft influence, he decided to bow out without a fight."
As he had mentioned to Suzaku and the rest of the Student Council a while back, soft influence was something less concrete and more difficult to apply than hard influence, but what he'd neglected to tell them was that it's also harder to fight against if one knew how to apply it correctly. Today's meeting had presented Kyōshirō Tōdō with a fait accompli, Kyoto House united in their support of him without reservation or hesitation.
Him having Sayoko as an underling had also been a factor due to how notorious her clan had been before the invasion, but that was merely another bit of icing to top the cake.
C.C. for her part silently noted that Lelouch was missing the possibility that Tōdō had developed some genuine respect for him due to Zero's accomplishments, as well as what he'd known of Lelouch himself. Well, that, or he just considered the two things to be so obvious that they weren't worth mentioning.
"And what about…Kallen?" she asked instead.
At the name of his second Knight of Honour in all but vows, Lelouch grimaced slightly. "I am honestly taking the fact that she didn't immediately try and strangle me as a minor win." he offered. "As for the rest of her reaction…she has gotten better at hiding her emotions recently. I honestly cannot say one way or another how she will respond when all is said and done."
"Boya, you dumped information on her that pretty much set her world-view completely askew." the verdette laughed quietly. "If she'd made an immediate decision right there and then, I would have been very surprised and very worried about her mental health. Kallen is hot-headed, rash and headstrong, but she does know better than to take such an info dump and not then take the time to process it. Give her a week or so to consider everything and things will turn out alright, I wager."
"A guess based on the famous 'female intuition', Celesta?" the black-haired teen asked archly.
"You could say that." C.C. replied, a hungry tone to her voice. "Now then, how about you come to bed for the night…?"
"Minx." Lelouch sighed, a smirk on his face as he got up. "I suppose the reports can wait until tomorrow…"
As two lovers joined together once again, Kallen, lying in her bed in the Stadtfelt Manor, stared at the ceiling, deep in thought and wondering what the hell she should do.
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Next Chapter: Blooming Red Lotus
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