I am as shocked as you are. My cohort Lady Lily Anne got this rolling, please enjoy the insanity and review.

"Do I really have to do this?" C.C. rolled her golden eyes at the petulant whine of her ward as she was being gently fitted by an army of seamstresses and courtiers. It was only the immortals acknowledgment that the young teen was uncomfortable not being in direct control of her surroundings that kept her from making a scathing comment on decorum.

That, and said royal being incessantly jerked around as her dress was brought in with an armory's worth of pins and sewing needles while being surrounded by a bunch of empty headed gossips.

She and the young princess had that much in common, suffering the presence of idiots was incredibly taxing on ones calm.

"Yes," C.C. stated flatly as she sifted through nearly seven years of reports from the position she'd abandoned upon Lady Marianne's assassination. V.V., the brat he was, truly had no idea what the hell he had been doing and just trying to make heads or tails of his bang jacked budget was giving her a headache.

She truly could not wait till the day Charles just let her off the traitorous little hobgoblin.

"Why?" This was a resigned statement rather than a whine so C.C. felt it deserved more than a terse response.

"It is your first public appearance since your return that doesn't involve you wiping out an entire army on your own in a fever infused blood frenzy. Chuck went through a lot of effort to put this entire facade together and now you have to do your part to keep the veneer shiny and smooth."

Princess Luluka let out a withering sigh at that, "I hate it when you use logic and experience on me. I naturally want to argue but I have to bow to what you've learned in your extended lifespan."

C.C. froze at that, lowered the report, and took in the Princess's smug visage a moment as a single lime green brow rose up incredulously.

"Did you just call me old?" The princess shrugged minutely while smirking, then gasped and scowled as the motion caused her to get poked with a pin. "Well played, I at the very least don't have to worry about you messing up the polite double talk of upper society. That being said Kallen and Suzaku aren't happy about this either, they are both experienced at this sort of thing but it has been awhile for them so they're being re-tutored on how to behave in their new positions."

Luluka blinked in honest confusion at that, "They are better educated than most of the Royal family. We ran a bloody insurrection maintained solely through our ability to move through all social levels seamlessly without warranting any extra attention for crying out loud."

"Exactly, without warranting extra attention. They are High Nobility now, they are more important than everyone else in the world aside from the Royal line and the Emperor himself, so they have to learn how to properly act as the consorts of the Demon of Britannia."

Luluka couldn't help it, she broke away from the grabby hands of the ladies taking in her dress to give the immortal an incredulous stare, "My consorts? Seriously? Don't they know we have been posing as family for years?"

"Kallen and Suzaku are beautiful by anyone's standard, are quite obviously not related to you, just as obviously completely devoted to you, and a ménage à trois makes for a better sale on the overall story regardless. After all, you are the daughter of Charles zi Britannia, who would ever question your greed in claiming the Red Queen and the White Knight for yourself?" C.C. shrugged in an uncaring manner as she motioned for the women to get back to work on the royal.

Rather then reacting negatively, she was, after all, experienced with teasing of a sexual nature thanks to her dearly departed girlfriend, Luluka simply let out a tired sigh as she slowly raised an arm to pinch the bridge of her nose. Thankfully, she'd been obvious enough with her motions that the seamstresses didn't end up poking her again.

"Bloody Britannia...all right, anything else I should know about this evening?"

C.C. hummed a bit as she snatched a slice of pizza off her plate and tore a bite out of it as she plucked the evening itinerary off the edge of table, "Hmm, being held in the Gardens of Isabella su Britannia. Lets see...lot of media elements, guests are mostly your various stepmothers and half-siblings, a handful of courtly hangers-on and the like as well. Charles plans on making an appearence and... Oh."

Luluka's back stiffened at that, "Oh? I don't like 'Oh', 'Oh' is usually followed by colorful expletives as enemy artillery rains down on your position."

C.C. sighed as she tossed the paper, and pizza, aside.

"You'd be right on that account, apparently Isabella arranged for multiple potential suitors to be there and try to claim your hand, or at the very least discuss betrothal contracts."

There was a moment of silence before Luluka let out yet another tired sigh, "Witch, have you ever had a doomsday device? A method of mind searingly incomprehensible violence that could bring humanity to its knees in a manner that it would never likely recover from? A device that you helped put together out of nothing more than your complete and utter apathy towards mankind and you keep it in reserve as a potential method of just spiting the world for existing?"

C.C. blinked, thought of Ragnarök, and nodded, "Yes."

"You ever get tempted to press the little red button just to watch the fools run around in panic as the fireworks begin while you are comfortable in the knowledge their collective idiocy had been ended by your hand?"

C.C. hummed as she played with a loose lock of hair then, nodding once again chirped out, "Every other day, at least."

Luluka sighed in relief, "Good...glad to know I'm not alone in that regard."

Watching her ward in a slightly more agreeable light C.C. turned back to her reports smirking slightly, "You truly are the most interesting person I've met since George...I think I'll be sticking around awhile longer. Just to keep an eye on you of course."

Luluka scoffed rolling her eyes, "Of course."

Two hours later, most of which was once again spent getting dolled up by Odysseus and having her hair done, Princess Luluka vi Britannia was escorted to a limo along with C.C. and they were soon on course for Manchester Way and the su Britannia flower gardens.

There was a comfortable silence for a time, but eventually C.C. spoke up in a light tone, "The Aries Villa will be finished with its upgrades and restaffing by the end of the week by the way. Lord Jeremiah and Lady Sayoko have gone a bit...overboard on assuring themselves that your safety is guaranteed."

Luluka snorted at that as she met the immortals gaze, "What's the damage?"

C.C. resisted the urge to laugh as she shook her head, "Low three hundred million sterling. I'm fairly certain the only place more secure than your childhood home is the Imperial Palace, and honestly I'm not really sure about that one. Last I heard through the grapevine was that you had recently acquired pop-up surface to air missile turrets in your back gardens."

The princess sighed at that shaking her head slowly, "You know if I wasn't a billionaire I might be annoyed with them...anything else?"

C.C. nodded as she handed a pill and a bottle of water to the royal, "Yes take this." Normally paranoia would demand she do anything but, yet if C.C. had wanted her dead she had a couple months to do it in a far less conspicuous manner. Taking the pill with a swig of water Luluka handed the bottle back as she cracked her neck while tilting her head to the side.

"What was it, I know you wouldn't tell me before taking it by the by, so spill."

C.C. snorted in amusement, "A Xanax, seriously I am the head of the OSI again, been essentially assigned as your retainer, and have to answer directly to Chuck for your actions. You are about to be surrounded by the most self entitled, selfish, condescending, and petty women in the entire world. If I didn't dope you up with something to calm you down, emergency services would be storming this area in a few hours only to find the gardens burnt to the ground and you laughing maniacally covered in blood standing upon a pile of well dressed corpses."

Luluka stared at her a few moments tilting her head to the side while tapping her chin, then nodded as she turned her gaze back to the window, "You aren't wrong."

C.C. replied with a dry, "I know."

As the car stopped before the su Britannia gardens Luluka glanced over to the immortal witch while sighing lightly, "When will Suzaku and Kallen get here?"

The limette shrugged, "Honestly? No idea, don't worry though I know you can handle this. I'm heading to the security room, just make nice, play the perfect little princess for the cameras and play them like a fiddle, just like you always have."

Luluka stared at her a few moments, reached over squeezing the immortals hands fondly, then she popped the door and made her way up the staircase.

Thankfully Arizona at early evening wasn't that hot, a little stifling at times sure, but with the pleasant breeze blowing off the surrounding rivers cooling the city of Pendragon off, it all felt rather comforting.

It...felt like home.

Entering the building proper the princess was escorted through several rooms containing marble pillars, decadent art, and well dressed servants going about their business.

Shows of power that the lady of the house probably thought were subtle but came off as the clumsy actions of a plebeian, not that Luluka would ever point it out to Lady Isabella. The posturing of these idiots was too funny to give up due to a bit of helpful advice after all.

Finally arriving at the back gardens, which seemed to consist of a hedge maze, dozens of a small islands of roses, and far too much ivy all lit with gas torches and lamps, the princess casually handed her calling card to the courtier at the top of the steps.

He glanced at it, eyes widening, before coughing lightly into his gloved hand, "Announcing the Third Princess Luluka vi Britannia, Fifth in the line of secession, and the Demon of Britannia."

She smirked at that, Cornelia always balked whenever she was called out as the Witch of Britannia, an epitaph given by those she had crushed beneath her heel, much preferring her homelands title of 'The Goddess of Victory.'

Luluka knew who she was though, just as Lelouch before had.

Luluka was a Demon, her enemies and allies alike labeled her as such, and they would all soon realize how right they were.

Prowling down the staircase and ignoring the mutterings that she had arrived without escort the Princess snatched a stem of wine off a passing waiter's tray and downed it in two gulps. Dropping the expensive crystal glass in a potted plant she grabbed another and made a beeline for the only person who she could truly get along with here.

Sidling up to the man she sipped her fresh drink, eyes shifting about the area before speaking, "I am so so so sorry about Lancelot."

Earl Lloyd Asplund glanced at her a moment before smiling widely, "Think nothing of it princess. The combat data you acquired, plus being able to look over Rakshata's machines was more than worth it, plus with your rather stellar success being caught on camera my budget has been increased tenfold."

She blinked at that, grinning widely in turn, "Truly? I'm glad to hear that. While I'm being forced to finish school with my friends I've been given a rather arduous assignment that begins upon my graduation which will require keen minds to complete, would you be willing to help?"

He 'hmmed' at that a moment before shrugging, "I can't see why not, what did you have in mind?"

She grinned wickedly at that, "A three hundred meter long, five hundred meter wide, energy shield equipped airship armed with hadron cannons and rapid fire VARIS CWIS systems. Oh, and I have two other devicers that actually exceed me in Knightmare combat skills and we are all willing to submit to testing to further improve your future models."

Lloyd was silent for a very long time, eventually he finished his wine, nodded and met her gaze through his round glasses, "I'll arrange for my family to be formally sworn to you by the end of the week. Does your mystery ship have a name?"

Luluka took another sip from her glass nodding in turn, "The class does, the Logres air battleship. As an aside, I have a few ideas for the Lancelot and the new frame you recently cooked up, the Gawain, if you're willing to hear me out that is."

Lloyd scoffed at that rolling his eyes to the sky, "Willing to hear her out she says. The only surviving daughter of Marianne the Flash, the only devicer that could handle my prototype, and the woman who used said prototype to defeat an army single handily, asking if I was willing to hear her out. Yes my dear girl, I'll hear you out, but for now, I need to get some legaleeze rolling so I can fully commit to your projects, ta."

And just like that, the worlds most brilliant sociopath wandered off into the crowds leaving a bemused princess to her own devices.

Said royal was taking in the surrounding gardens with a clinical eye, not really approving or judging of anything as she sipped on wine and made small talk with the various bobble-heads wandering the area. She honestly wasn't one hundred percent sure if this casual greeting was a slight or not, on one hand she could easily see her compatriots arranging for the various leaches to end up being redirected. On the other, she could see all these petty little courtesans arranging the lack of interest in her as a slight, which, really, didn't bother her at all.

With that she sighed as she embraced her mild buzz and took in her surroundings silently wishing Suzaku and Kallen would show up already.

While the gardens hosting her return party to upper society were classy and well kept Princess Luluka had a hard time finding beauty in them after her time in Japan. It wasn't that she'd gone native or anything mind, although she was rather fond of koi ponds even after the frog incident, rather it was six years of planning an insurrection that had changed things.

Imperial Gardens were, to the last, regimented, regulated and absolutely calculated to the finest degree to look as pompous, pretentious, and perfect as possible, while trying to make it look like no effort at all was exerted. It was a work that turned the wild beauty of nature into something rigid, utilitarian, and controlled completely negating the chaos of the real world.

So while Luluka would acknowledge the fact that the gardens were Britannian perfect, she saw no real beauty in them because she had spent over half a decade coming up with the most hair brained, off the wall, and chaotic methods to wage war against the worlds most powerful nation.

Because, really, there was just so much beauty in well planned out and executed destruction.

Rigging up a series of Sakuradite infused nuclear weapons to cause a miles wide sink hole in the ocean that consumes two entire fleets and not even leave a ripple behind in the process? Art.

Hedge mazes so well manicured they looked like plastic, and you are supposed to giggle demurely at the many hidden floral trappings within as if they were clever rather than calculated? Not Art.

This wine was amazing though, or at the very least had high enough an alcohol content where Luluka could forget about how uncomfortable she was with all this attention long enough to babble to herself about the shrubs...Where the hell were Suzaku and Kallen?

This rather irritated and approaching drunken thought was interupted by a lithe little redhead teen staring up at her in awe, "Sister Luluka? You...do you remember me?"

Staring at the blue eyed girl a few moments Luluka nodded in recogonition, "Ah little Carine ne Brittania, how are you doing sister? Still playing Civ I assume?"

The girl seemed to writhe in pleasure a moment at being remembered by the Demon of Britannia as she grasped Luluka's hand not holding a wine glass, "I'm...yes I am still playing strategy games but... Really, I...just wanted to talk."

"Oh? about what?"

"The war! Your war! You challenged father and won! I want to hear about it all! Your victories, your losses, I want to know the gory details!"

How endearingly bloodthirsty, she liked the girl already.

"Well...first off I needed money, and as it turns out noblemen are idiots and will pay up even if you are just a slip of a girl who beat them at a game of chess, pride comes before the fall and all that. Once you get a bit of capital, that's when the investing starts."

She realized, with a bit of shock, that she'd been talking to her little sister for over an hour on the finer points of toppling an empire in the most amusing manner possible. What drew her from her rather enjoyable reverie was the realization that she was now surrounded by dozens of her step-mothers and half-sisters, all of them pointedly ignoring her as they nattered on to each other.

It was...almost amusing, considering the fact that all it would take to end them was for her to tear off the Geass inhibitor at her throat and order them all to die.

But...Well... They offered no real threat, they ignored her, she ignored them, they thought they were snubbing her, and she didn't care since they had always angered her regardless. Win win really.

Thankfully Carine was a slightly sadistic little thing so the following lead in worked well for how buzzed and pissed off Luluka was at the moment.

"When did you kill your first man? I mean...you are Zero after all, you had to have killed people personally right?"

The gathered ladies gave the slightly wild-eyed redhead glares of disdain but said teen was too starstruck to care. Luluka for her part took another sip of her wine and despite wavering into slurring territory she managed to keep her composure.

"Hmmm, I was ten, actually. About...two...three weeks after Suzaku and I buried Nunnally." This caused several people to cough uncomfortably or avert their eyes but Luluka was too far gone to care at this point. "Anyway, they pinned us down in a small one horse town, you know one of those places with a gas station and a drug store and little else. At that point we were desperate for food, practically ravenous really."

She laughed darkly at that earning a few concerned glances as she continued on, "Oh man, post industrial societies have no infrastructure in place for long term disaster scenarios...ah well. Anyway Suzaku and I split up and I got cornered by a pair of guys in the drug store, they recognized me and one of them decides he always wanted to find out what a royal pussy felt like. A real Shakespearean there..."

At that all the gathered women stopped sneering as horror etched on their faces while the Princess continued unabated, "Now at this point I'm running on little more than adrenaline and spite. Just recently buried my little sister, and having had to fight for my survival in a war zone for weeks. So, I snapped."

Carine leaned forward with an awed expression as she prodded her sister on, "What happened? What did you do?"

Luluka sipped her wine before shrugging, "I bit out his jugular, tore is clean open actually. Was the most bizarre feeling, having still pulsing strands of flesh stuck between your teeth... Anyway he fell on the ground screaming in agony as his buddy just stood there in horror as I licked my lips clean of the dying mans blood and swallowed it all down. I was so starved at the moment it was the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted, and I wanted more. At that point Suzaku followed the sounds of confrontation and stabbed the other guy through the throat with a spear we'd made out of a broom handle and a bayonet and that was all she wrote."

She sipped her wine again and shrugged, "It was memorable I admit, but really I had topped that a dozen times by the time I was thirteen. You can do so many interesting things with a car battery."

There was nothing but silence to meet this tale, Carine looked enamored, everyone else looked queasy.

Eventually one of the older women coughed loudly to gain everyone's attention, it was Guinevere's mother Isabella the hostess of this little party, and apparently she had something to say about Luluka's little tale.

"Well, I do hope you received a medical screening after that, no telling what you caught forcefully consuming bodily fluids from an Eleven after all." Her disdainful sniff and wording were a nice added touch Luluka decided as she in turn responded with a laugh and a shrug of her shoulders.

"Oh that isn't a worry, I know he was clean."

Cue another sniff, "Oh? How would you know that?"

Luluka's grin turned feral at that as she prowled away from the gathered ladies, "Simple, Office of Secret Intelligence operatives are required to be up to date on all vaccinations before being sent out on field duty. I was in the clear."

Sauntering away as she sipped her wine Luluka couldn't help it as her grin shifted into a self satisfied smirk while the gathered Royals stood there in dead silence.

All but Carine that is, the petite redhead rushed to her side a bottle of wine in hand as her blue eyes stared up to her half sister in awe.

"Who else have you killed?"

Drunk, high, and pissed off, Luluka shrugged in amusement.

"Well there was this one shithead in Tokyo who tried to get me into bed through a chess match, then through blackmail..."

The weird part is I never intended Carine to become an apprentice of sorts but it looks like that is exactly where she is heading.

Huh...

Well, please review