Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass, if I did we'd have twice the Table-kun, and half the Nina.
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Lelouch was walking along a catwalk overlooking the factory produced and maintaining the Bristols. A smirk on his face, things were going very well for him, exceptionally well in fact. His little sister had gained a Geass and was an enemy of Britannia as well, he had gained information from Clovis and had placed a Geass on him at last, the Bristol was being mass produced now, and he came out of it all smelling like a rose. "Lord Lamperouge," a brown haired and blue eyes officer of the military said walking up to Lelouch, "I am Kewell Soresi, my superior officer is Jeremiah Gottwald of the Purist Faction. I'm here about the construction of the Bristols…"
"Yes, yes, I gather that. Get to the point," Lelouch said looking at Kewell from the side of his eye, "What is it that the Purist Faction would like?"
"Custom paint-jobs on the Bristol's delivered to our officers in the military, if only to indicate who we are. With our performance with the Bristols in the Shinjuku incident we were decided to be the group to carry out their deployment in battle," Kewell explained, handing Lelouch a board with a design on it that incorporated the Britannina symbol as its main symbol and several smaller add-ons.
Lelouch accepted it and looked at the design, "This is doable without any particularly difficult additional work. Very well I'll send this down to the painters. Who designed it?"
"I did," Kewell said simply, "It's why I was given the honor to come down and present it."
"Then you can do the honors of delivering it to them then, tell Vyse I gave the go ahead to accept this request," Lelouch said handing the design back to Kewell, and then turned to leave.
Kewell sighed, "Um, my lord, I've been compelled to ask this by the way. You're not seeing anyone are you?"
Lelouch stopped cold and looked back at Kewell through his right eye, "…dare or someone curious?"
"The latter my lord," Kewell responded, slightly regretting he had gone through with it.
"No and I'm not searching, I'm far too busy with various things to think about that sort of stuff," Lelouch answered, and then walked off this time.
"Good lord, that man is intimidating," Kewell said breathing out in relief, "How did someone that young develop that kind of personality?"
Lelouch walked into a closed off hanger, into a room with a truly gigantic Knightmare being built inside of it, nearly three times the size of a normal Knightmare, it was currently only in it's basic frame form. No armor or equipment had been added to it yet. "Ah, Lord Lamperouge," a man in your typical white labcoat said when he noticed Lelouch, "Progress is moving along very well, thanks to the information we received in the technology exchange with pudding earl we've solved multiple issues with the frame's size and weight."
"Good, explain," Lelouch said walking around the catwalk to get a better look at the machine from all angles.
"Well, solving the mobility issue we're incorporating the float system into the suit's frame. While it increases the overall energy cost of the frame it reduces the stress on the mechanical parts greatly and will allow us to use the Mark Three armor the Bristol couldn't handle. The Hadron Technology would be very useful if it was finished so we decided to not exchange information for it, but the companion technology, the VARIS is useable. We're currently developing it as this frame's main weapons. We're also taking the MVS and Luminous technologies and equipping them to the frame and additional weaponry. Using the heavy frame technology as the base, it will be the strongest frame in existence," the researcher continued his explanation, "There will be some issues in flexibility but we're solving it as we speak. Has a name for this frame been decided yet?"
Lelouch remained quiet for a moment, and then said, "Belial. That will be its name. The WF Zero Two Belial." Lelouch smirked, "Very good, the strongest frame in existence. It's only a matter of finishing it."
That night, Lelouch returned home, having completed his rounds amongst the various factories under his control, and walked into his study where Kallen was waiting for him, "I trust you have something you wish to speak to me about now?"
"Yes, it's about that frame that hit the field, the Bristol. You said it had weaknesses?" Kallen asked him.
"So you intend to fight," Lelouch stated, a light smirk on his face as he took a seat, "Amongst other things there are several weaknesses in the armor that will disable the machine, but you have to deliberately hit them in order to make it work. An important power line exists on the side of the neck, hitting it will disable the Bristol easily but it can only be hit from the front. Right below the cockpit where it meets the main body is another important power line that will cause an auto-eject if hit, but it's hard to get to. These are obvious weaknesses if you study the Knightmare enough. But they're also well guarded, meaning that even if you know where they are you aren't likely to be able to hit them without great skill or a powerful knightmare, preferably both."
"I see, and you're developing the Knightmare than can beat it," Kallen said, looking at him, "But then, my Geass could do it couldn't it?"
"Indeed, without the ability to see you or know you're coming then they'll never be able to defend against it," Lelouch said with a smirk, "Now do you want to hear my plan?"
"Yes," Kallen answered immediately, Lelouch smiling in response.
"Good,"
Atop the Britannian government headquarters, inside a replica of a palace from the mainland, Clovis La Britannia was painting a picture, a sad expression on his face as he did so. "Hello, Clovis," a voice whispered in his ear. Clovis shot his head around to see who it was, yet he couldn't see anybody, then the voice came from in front of him, "Over here."
Clovis turned his head again and standing before him was a man in a black cape, a black suit, and a strange hawk-like helmet. "Who are you?" Clovis demanded, glaring at the intruder.
"Zero," the man introduced himself, "A pleasure to meet you again, after having escaped yesterday thanks to the intervention of that man."
Clovis dropped his paintbrush, "You were the one threatening me yesterday…what did you do to me? Why can't I remember what happened?"
Zero disappeared and then reappeared behind Clovis, "Because I am a wizard," Zero said, brushing his hand along Clovis' right temple, "I can easily erase your memories, as I erased the memories of your men. I could even force you to answer any question I want, no matter how embarrassing. No matter how dangerous."
Outside the room, in a hallway leading up to the room, Lelouch was being led to the room by a rotund and balding general, General Bartley Asprius. "I'm terribly sorry but I don't think he'll see you now Lord Lamperouge, he's currently painting and he hates to be disturbed while he's doing so."
"I'm a patient man General Asprius, I can wait a while," Lelouch said as he activated the secondary function of his Geass behind his eye patch, the ability to reactivate a command.
In the room with Clovis and Zero, Clovis' eyes took on a dull look, Zero chuckled and said, "Tell me Clovis, do you know the weaknesses of the Bristol?"
"Yes…it was revealed…two power lines, one near the cockpit and one on the neck…" Clovis said dully, "It's also heavy and not that agile."
"Good, then what do you believe happened to Lelouch Vi Britannia?" Zero asked.
"It's believed that he died alongside his sister seven years ago. But no one is certain because his body was never found," Clovis replied.
"Do you believe Lelouch Lamperouge is Lelouch Vi Britannia?"
"No, I suspected it, but he looks very different and all DNA tests paint him as someone else. He can't be Lelouch Vi Britannia," Clovis answered, "But…I think…that he is. He is, just like him. That brilliance is just like him. If anybody could hide seven years it would be him."
Zero paused a moment and asked, "What was his sister like?"
"Nunnally Vi Britannia…she was a kind girl, someone who was so incredibly pure. It was hard to believe she was a member of our family looking back on it now. She was a political hostage alongside him. She died in the attack on Japan, burnt alive by the collateral damage caused by cluster bombs. If Lelouch was alive…really alive, he would be, furious with father. Lelouch and Nunnally were always so close, the only other person who was really close to them was Euphemia."
"What did you think of Lelouch?" Zero asked.
"He was my rival you could say, I could never beat him in chess, he was always so brilliant. The only person to ever consistently beat him was Schneizel. And even then the matches were always close. It's likely he would have been named father's successor over everybody else if he had continued to be so promising, if his mother had lived instead of being assassinated," Clovis said, "I was so jealous of him, his future was so bright. And then I couldn't help but pity him, for everything to be taken from him like that."
The door opened as Bartley and Lelouch walked in, Zero looking up as Clovis was released from the Geass. "Wha…what happened," Clovis asked as Zero seemed to vanish from sight, and then reappeared by the window, "What…what did you do?"
Zero laughed aloud, his voice carrying over the room, "Why I made you reveal all your secrets, my dear older brother," Zero said, with a dark chuckle he added, "I am back, to change everything."
Zero vanished again just as Bartley pulled a gun to prepare to shoot Zero, only to lose sight of him just a moment too soon. "Brother?" Lelouch asked, "Your highness, who was that?"
"Bartley, Duke Lamperouge, what you heard does not leave this room, do you understand me?" Clovis said frantically, getting up from his painting and looking at the two of them, "Bartley, come, we have a lot of work to do, Duke Lamperouge if you would stay here for a moment. I'll get to your business in ten minutes, can you wait that long?"
"Of course your highness," Lelouch said with a respectful bow, "And I can keep a secret, I work in the weapon development industry after all."
"Good, thank you for your understanding Duke Lamperouge," Clovis said as he stormed out of the room, Bartley quickly following him, leaving Lelouch alone in the room with the painting.
Lelouch walked towards the painting to see what it was, and was left surprised at what he saw. It was his mother, with himself and Nunnally at her knees as his mother sat down. Lelouch's eyes softened, for what was the first time in years, looking at a picture from his past, from a gentler time where he was truly happy. It didn't last long, Lelouch's eyes returned to their normal intensity as he reminded himself who was responsible for their deaths, and would have liked to have also been responsible for his death. He was determined, he would destroy Britannia, and he would do it with the help of his new sister and his new life.
Clovis returned quicker than he said he would, "Ah, I'm embarrassed," he said when he noticed Lelouch was looking at the painting, "I don't usually let people see that side of me."
"You're really quite good your highness," Lelouch said, smirking as he looked at Clovis, "Who are they?"
"The woman is Marianne Vi Britannia, the boy is Lelouch Vi Britannia, and the girl is Nunnally Vi Britannia. They all died seven years ago, Marianne was assassinated, and the children died in the invasion of Japan," Clovis said sadly.
"The boy…he's that masked figure, or at least that is who the masked figure is claiming to be?" Lelouch asked, a little surprised at Clovis' expression.
"…yes, that does not leave this room," Clovis said, "Lelouch…is supposed to be dead, but if he really is alive, then…he's turned his back on the Empire."
And that's where I'll end this chapter. Sheesh, this fic is pretty hard to do at times. This Lelouch really is pretty hard to write. Well good practice for me. Well without further ado, onto the questions…
1) Do you think Kallen's little questions about Nunnally and Lelouch's past is going to change her opinion on him at all?
2) You just got a glimpse at the real Knightmare Lelouch is building, and it's every bit as monstrous as this Lelouch. So with what little you know of it, what do you think?
And that's all, now press that review button before you get double teamed by Lelouch and Kallen.
Ciao for now
Tis has been a message from your unfriendly neighborhood LunaticChaos