Ohgi looked up from his paperwork at the sound of an incessant babble. Zero was as silent as usual as he entered the room, but the man walking beside him was not.

Even Ohgi, who was one of the most liberal and open-minded of the Black Knights, could not help but feel a sense of displeasure at the sight of Earl Lloyd Asplund. The bespectacled scientist was wildly unpopular with the former Japanese resistance for having created the Lancelot, the unit which had single-handedly snatched total victory from their grasp time and time again. In addition, the 'Earl of Pudding' had gained an infamous reputation from Rakshata's complaints about him.

It may have been Ohgi's imagination, but he thought he saw a hint of annoyance in Zero's body-language as the scientist continued his ramblings.

"Do you understand what I'm asking?" Lloyd asked, finally pausing to take a breath.

Zero stopped in front of the door to his private office. "It sounds like you want to take the druid system out of the Gawain and put it in an obsolete knightmare model to satisfy a teenage prince's sentimentality."

"Oh, no. I simply want to see if his ideas would actually work. It's quite a radical shift in design philosophy, and as a scientist it's got me very curious," Lloyd clarified. "I don't actually need to remove the druid system. I just need to examine it more closely so I can replicate it."

"And by allowing you to do so I would give Prince Schniezel access to both the druid system and whatever advances you create from it," Zero observed.

"Would that really be such a bad thing while you're at peace? I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. If the prince is wrong, then nothing will come of it. But if he's right, the new kind of knightmare we'd produce wouldn't be something the average soldier or even an ace pilot like Suzaku could derive any benefit from. Only people like 'little Lulu' and yourself could hope to pilot it effectively."

"Little Lulu?" Ohgi blurted out, shocked that a Britannian nobleman would dare refer to a member of the royal family in such a manner.

Lloyd laughed. "I heard from Suzaku and Nina that his friends call him that at school. I sometimes call the emperor 'Little Charlie.'"

"Send me detailed specifications of this knightmare you plan to build," Zero instructed Lloyd. "I want to know exactly what it should be capable of."

"Oh, goodie! Does that mean you've accepted my proposal?"

"I'll make my final decision after I've seen the blueprints and after I've spoken to Lelouch." With that, Zero entered his office and closed the door behind him.

"Thank you!" Lloyd called out from behind the door.

Kallen was nervous as she knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Kallen opened the door slowly. Euphemia was sitting at her desk, looking over what appeared to be a photo album.

"You wanted to see me, your highness?"

Euphemia looked up at her. "Please, have a seat."

Kallen sat down across the desk from Euphemia, who smiled at her.

"I wanted to speak with you since the meeting with your friends from Ashford Academy. You were so silent then."

Kallen stiffened, and Euphemia chuckled.

"Neither Suzaku nor Lelouch told me who you were. I may not be as smart as some of my siblings, but I'm not a complete idiot."

"I see," was all Kallen had to say.

"It was a surprise, seeing Zero's head of security and the girl who insulted me on Kamine Island in the same class as my brother and my knight. Why would a girl from the Stadtfeld family be mixed up in all this anyway?"

Kallen considered for a moment. Euphemia was either lying, or she truly had not done even a cursory glance into Kallen's background before asking to meet with her. A single conversation with Suzaku would have revealed the truth about Kallen's heritage.

"The truth is, I'm half-Japanese," Kallen admitted. She could see no more point in hiding what the princess could find out on her own so easily. "My mother is Japanese, and that's how I've always identified."

Euphemia nodded. "And so, when Zero arose, you decided to join the Black Knights."

"No. I was in the resistance long before Zero."

"You've been fighting since you were a child?" Euphemia asked in horror. "Why?"

Kallen glared at her, hiding her pain behind a mask of anger. "I joined up after my older brother died. He was the leader of the Shinjuku cell before the Britannians killed him."

"I'm so sorry," Euphemia said, looking genuinely saddened. "I know what it's like to lose a beloved brother."

She turned the album around and pushed it towards Kallen. "When I first met Suzaku, I told him that we shared a similar pain since he lost his father the way I lost my brother. What I didn't tell him, or anyone else, was that I wasn't really talking about Clovis."

Kallen picked up the album. A single picture took up an entire page. In the picture, three small children were 'attacking' a young woman in her late teens. It took Kallen a moment to recognize the woman, not because she looked so much younger, but because no one had seen Cornelia li Britannia so happy in many years.

Cornelia was being tickled by the children. The pink-haired girl and black-haired boy appeared to be about six years old, while the little blonde girl was about three.

"This was taken right after Cornelia was appointed to Lady Marianne's royal guard," Euphemia explained. "Marianne told us the tickling was part of Cornelia's 'initiation.'"

Kallen stared in awe. She had never seen Nunnally's eyes before. Here they were big and bright and the same violet color as her older brother. The little girl was so clearly full of energy it almost seemed like she could have leapt straight off the page.

But even in her blind and crippled state, Nunnally always seemed happy. The bigger shock was young Lelouch. Alone of the four subjects in the picture, he was looking directly at the camera, but he was no less thrilled than any of his three other siblings.

His eyes had changed so little in the decade-plus since the picture was taken. Even at the age of six, the same fiery intelligence everyone who met him recognized instantly was already apparently in those purple orbs. But like Cornelia, Kallen had never seen him truly smile before.

Kallen guessed that the reason Lelouch was looking at the camera was because it was Marianne herself who took the picture.

"After Cornelia was placed in Marianne's guard, I saw Lelouch and Nunnally far more than any of my other half-siblings. We were always pulling pranks on Cornelia," Euphemia explained.

Kallen pushed the album back towards Euphemia. She thought she knew what the princess was trying to do, but humanizing the Viceroy of Area Eleven after all the atrocities she had committed was a step too far for the Black Knight's ace. The last thing she wanted to hear was stories about how ticklish Cornelia li Britannia was.

"Lelouch really is your brother, isn't he?"

Euphemia nodded. "I guess it's one thing to hear people talk about it. It's another thing to see actual proof."

"I realize how lucky I am. Not everyone who loses a sibling finds them again seven years later." Euphemia's expression turned serious. "That's why I wanted to ask you: how do you feel about them, Lelouch and Nunnally?"

Kallen sighed. "I never really liked Lelouch. He always acted like he didn't care about anything. Now I don't know what to think."

"After everything he's been through, it's hard for Lelouch to trust people enough to open up to them. But he does care very deeply, just like Suzaku."

"But why do you?" Kallen demanded.

"Excuse me?" Euphemia asked.

"You weren't banished or had your mother killed. You're just a princess who's been pampered her whole life. You probably never met a Japanese person before now. So why did you set this all up? What does someone like Euphemia li Britannia care at all about the Japanese people?"

Euphemia smiled. "I started thinking about this after meeting Zero on Kamine Island."

Kallen's brow furrowed in thought. "Wait. You started planning this with Zero back then?"

"Oh, no. I didn't plan anything with Zero, and I didn't meet with him again until the opening ceremony. But I learned a lot about him then."

"You see, here I was, face to face with the terrorist who killed my brother Clovis, who has tried several times to kill my sister Cornelia, who has been trying to bring down my nation, and who was threatening me with a gun, and yet I was completely safe," Euphemia explained.

"He tried to keep up the tough guy act, acting like I was his prisoner and he could kill me at any moment, but I realized he didn't mean a word of it. I could tell that as much as he hated Britannia, as much as he hated my family, Zero had absolutely no hatred for me. My lineage, my nation didn't matter. All that mattered was that I hadn't personally done anything to earn his hatred.

Kallen stared at Euphemia with wide eyes as she continued.

"Britannian propaganda portrays Zero as a bloodthirsty monster who tries to kill as many Britannians as he can. But the person I saw on that island was someone who fights because he feels he has to. So I began to think, 'what if he didn't have to fight? What if there was another way? And that was the beginning of this special zone."

Euphemia smiled and looked down at the photo album. "What I want is to see people smile like that, whether they're the people I love or total strangers, whether they be Japanese or Britannian."

"Zero agreed to join you after you explained this all to him?" Kallen asked.

"Yes. I'm not so naïve to think I can change the world by myself. I knew I'd need Zero's help to make this work. I'd like your help as well, Kallen."

Kallen's eyes narrowed and her posture stiffened as Euphemia held out her hand.

"I'm sorry," she said, "but I've fought too long, I've hated Britannia too long, to take your hand now. I'm not here to take handouts from you or any other Britannian. I'm here for one reason, to rebuild Japan."

Euphemia withdrew her hand and nodded sadly. "I understand. But I still hope that, in time, we may become friends."

Lelouch rubbed his neck as he reached the keycard to his new house. Even if he had been a model student who never cut class, he would never have had to sit at a desk for as long as he was now required to. It was making his neck stiff.

Upon entering the apartment, he heard the conversation which had been going on come to an abrupt stop. Nunnally had unusually good hearing, and was instantly aware of the opening and closing of the front door.

"Welcome home, Lelouch," she called out.

Home. Lelouch in fact hated the house. It was a gift from Euphemia and Cornelia, meaning it was given to them by the Britannian government. It was also far too large for two teenagers and a maid. The li Britannias apparently expected Lelouch and Nunnally to instantly go back to living like royalty with many servants at their beck and call.

Lelouch had grown too independent over the previous eight years to want servants preparing all his meals and making his bed every morning. He liked cooking his own food and caring for Nunnally himself. And even if he did not feel that way, he could not trust anyone but Sayoko with Nunnally's safety.

He was glad Nunnally could not see how empty the house was with just the three of them there. It was a reminder of how little they actually had and how, despite Euphemia's best efforts and intentions, they could never truly regain what had been taken from them so long ago.

And yet, it was where Nunnally was, and that alone made it home.

Lelouch smiled as he stepped into the living room. Nunnally was sitting at the table with several schoolbooks scattered in front of her.

"Did your lessons go late?" Lelouch asked upon seeing the books. "I thought your new tutor would have left hours ago."

"I got so many calls from our siblings there wasn't much time for math, so the tutor said I need to study on my own tonight," Nunnally answered.

"I'd be happy to help. Sayoko, could you bring us some tea?"

The ninja maid rose and smiled at him. "It would be my pleasure, my lord."

Lelouch took a seat next to Nunnally and glanced over her books, which were all written in braille. He had arranged for Nunnally to have a private tutor until the new schools were completed. Now that their royal lineage was widely known, finding an instructor who could also read braille had not been a problem.

"Is there any part in particular you're having trouble with?" he asked.

"If it's not too much of a bother," Nunnally said. "I know how busy you are now."

"I'll always have time for you," Lelouch responded. "Compared to what I have to deal with all day, algebra's like a much-needed break."

Sayoko came back with their tea as Nunnally began explaining where her lessons had left off. The Japanese maid then left the siblings alone to talk.

"Looks like you've got it now," Lelouch said after Nunnally finally solved the equation which had been giving her a hard time.

"Yes, thank you!"

Lelouch leaned back. "So our half-siblings have been calling you."

"Some of them, anyway. Cornelia was so happy to talk with me. And Odysseus called three times!"

Lelouch could guess which of their other siblings had also contacted Nunnally, since they had called him as well after finding out he was still alive. The majority of their siblings had not called, and some, like First Princess Guinevere de Britannia only called because they felt it was dictated by their station.

There was very little love lost between the many offspring of Emperor Charles zi Britannia, a fact which Lelouch was sure Nunnally would have picked up on from who called and the tone of the conversations.

Nunnally looked down sadly, prompting Lelouch to ask: "Is something wrong?"

"It's nothing. It's just – I thought maybe father would have called too."

Lelouch winced. One of the gambles he had taken when revealing their true identities was that their father would not care enough to contact them. While being summoned back to Pendragon would potentially allow him to use his Geass to get the answers he sought, it also ran the risk that the emperor would separate him and Nunnally. Being ignored entirely was the best they could have hoped for.

But Nunnally did not think that way. Lelouch had told her the bare minimum necessary to convince her that they needed to go into hiding. He could not bring himself to tell her how their own father called her a "weakling" he had no use for or the true reasons they were used as political tools.

"I really hoped father might have changed his mind after all this time," Nunnally said.

Lelouch took her hand in his own. "We're still political liabilities. That hasn't changed. We've got Euphie, but that's the only part of our old family we're ever going to get back."

Nunnally squeezed his hand. "You're right. I should be thankful for what I have. All I need to be happy is to be with you."

"And I'll always be here by your side," Lelouch assured her. "Now, what do you want for dinner tonight? I can make fish, chicken, or meatloaf."

After Nunnally was tucked in for the night, Lelouch silently handed Sayoko a note with his orders for the next day. He had found a hidden recording device in his first sweep of the building, and had deliberately left it in place to avoid suspicion.

As he got ready for bed himself, his phone lit up with a text message from C.C. She was also under orders not to call him so their conversations would not be heard.

He opened his phone as looked at the message.

Just finished meeting with Chinese representative. They seem open to proposal.

Lelouch smirked.

It was time to see how Britannia responded to a real provocation,