This is the story that I mentioned in the latest chapter of Ice and Fire, as I promised here it is. It's a bit different compared to Infy and Cathy, but it's another one of those small changes creating larger waves. So enjoy this first chapter.

The Rose of Geass

Prologue

Hadim Al-Malouf knew he was going to die. There was just no way around that horrible destiny, it was ordained when the Middle Eastern Federation's capital fell last week. All that was left of a military that had held back the infidels of Europe for centuries was nothing more than the unit arrayed around him, exhausted, low on supplies, and with hardly any morale left. Everyone knew what was coming.

Yet their oath could not be broken, nor ignored. They were the last to his will.

"Contacts, lots of contacts," came the cry of his gunner, causing him to turn bleary eyes to the heads up display at the large cloud of dust in the air, a dead giveaway of a large enemy formation on its way.

Good, at least they would be able to kill some infidels before they met Allah.

All around him were the last remaining Bamides and tanks of his country, piloted by hardened and capable men who had claimed many Britannians in combat.

"Ready up," he commanded, knowing full well they had the range over the invaders before they had to close the range, which allowed them to rack up kills, and the formation they were using would leave them with the butcher's bill.

However, the hope that they would accrue a body count to please Allah disappeared abruptly when the dust cloud came to a stop well outside of their range, but well within visual. It took a few moments for it to dissipate, but when it did, Hadim's blood chilled at the sight before him.

"It's her," one of the men whispered, terror easily discernible in his voice, "Shaitan's Bride."

"The Bitch of Britannia," another one said.

"Crimson Death."

"Blood Princess."

Their source of terror was a lone Knightmare that stood in front of dozens of Gloucesters and Sutherlands, the white, with red and gold trim, and a rose painted on its left shoulder. Adorned on the head was a single horn that jutted upwards to the sky.

Everyone in the Middle Eastern Federation knew that Knightmare and it's pilot. Ever since Britannia had invaded, they had been inundated by stories of a single knightmare that had claimed hundreds, maybe even thousands, of their comrades, so much so that it had developed into the type of story that was whispered in fear that it would appear.

And now it stood before them in all of its glory, the Lancelot, piloted by a woman who had become legend herself in her dramatic rise up the ranks. Here to kill them all and add to her already bloodstained reputation.

Then the strange peace was shattered as the Lancelot charged towards them by itself. It was insane, there was no way that it could survive the fifteen Bamides and various assortment of tanks that were arrayed defensively, yet it did it nonetheless.

"Open fire," he commanded, keeping his voice as calm as possible, even though he could feel an edge of panic trying to assert itself.

As a whole, the Bamides fired, while the Lancelot continued its charge and was wreathed in explosions. A moment of hope that they had defeated it disappeared violently as a pair of small green projectiles came out from above, causing a Bamides to explode, causing panic as suddenly the Lancelot was amongst them, a glowing pistol in each hand as everyone stood there frozen for what seemed like an eternity.

Then it was moving, like a wolf amidst a herd of sheep, what had been an organized formation was suddenly turned into chaos as the Lancelot took advantage of the Bamides' critical flaw in that it was both unwieldy and designed as a long-range weapons platform.

"Spread formation, engage it at will," he shouted, even as another Bamides exploded, gone was one of the pistols, instead replaced by a longsword that glowed impossibly red, the Lancelot somersaulting and pirouetting like it was a gymnast, only it brought death at every turn, either through the pistol it held in its left hand, Slash Harkens that disemboweled and crushed, or the sword that met no resistance regardless of what it cut. Tank, armored vehicle, Bamides, it didn't matter what tried to do, they fell all the same, like chaff before the wind.

And then death came from Hamid, even as he snarled, firing the large cannon and missiles in a full-on alpha strike upon the Lancelot, but it swerved to the side as the shell flew by harmlessly, then its hip mounted harkens launched into the ground, suddenly allowing it to take to the air, the Lancelot once again contorting its body before the sword was aimed downwards straight towards him. He wasn't even able to scream before the blade cleaved through the cockpit, the Knightmare quickly pulling out the blade and launching into the air as it exploded, slash harkens flying back into their hardpoints as it then landed into the ground, Factspheres opening up on the shoulders, tracking any other threat, but then closing when it didn't.

"Threats eliminated," came the voice of the pilot after a moment, seemingly detached from the reality of what they had just done. Instead, it began moving back to the gathering of Knightmares that were awaiting her, at the front of the group a very unique Gloucester, it's cape fluttering in the wind. As the Lancelot, came to a stop before it, the cockpit bloc of the purple Knightmare opened up and a figure with dark pink as she stood up, her expression neutral even as her eyes kept upon the white and red Knightmare..

She was Princess-General Cornelia li Britannia, second princess of the Britannian Royal Family, and Chief General of the Imperial Army. The reason she was here was to finish the capture of the newly minted Area 18, which was now complete thanks to the efforts of the Knightmare before her as it pulled aside, its cockpit also opening up and slid open, allowing its pilot to step up and look over to the Princess.

Unlike the Princess, the pilot of the Lancelot had red hair that trailed down to shoulder blades, expressive cerulean eyes were firm and hard at the moment. She was dressed in the attire befitting her status as one of the most elite in the Empire, a crimson cape matching her hair color accentuating the uniform that all Knights of the Round wore.

"Rather flashy of you, Kallen," Cornelia said, a smirk finally appearing on her face, the redhead not responding immediately, instead reaching into front pocket to pull out a metal case and flipped it open. Cornelia's smirk fell into a grimace as the woman in question extracted a long, thin, tapered cigarillo out and placed it in her lips. She then flipped open a lighter with "MvB" engraved into it, and proceeded to light the cigarillo and deeply inhaled it, her eyes coming back to the Princess, the tobacco stick extricated from her lips.

"It's probably going to be a decent while before I will have the opportunity to stretch my legs like that, Nelly," she finally said, as if the cigarillo had served to allow her to collect her thoughts, "considering I'm Bismarck's little fire extinguisher, I don't exactly get free time to do something like this. Odds are he's going to ship me off to Eastern Europe again to keep the Europeans in check. If I knew killing Bradley would leave me taking up his job, I would have just left cut off a limb or something."

Cornelia could not help but sigh at the reminder. It was a bloody affair that still had left aftershocks within the Knights of the Round that were felt today. To many observers it was an act of impulsiveness by a newly minted Knight of the Round, but to Cornelia and others who knew Kallen Stadtfeld, it was a coldly calculated move that was intended to both send a message and remove a threat to her.

It had been a simple incident, during the reception celebrating her Knighting, the Knight of Ten, Luciano Bradley, had tried to crash it by confronting Kallen. It had been a simple intimidation tactic, Bradley had been quite vocal in disapproval of Kallen from the time she had been scouted til her knighting, insisting that a "weak half-breed woman" did not belong in the Knight. When no one stopped it, he chose to make a scene of it.

Only it did not work out as he had expected, instead of being intimidated by a man a decade her senior, she had instead cited an extremely antiquated, but still in practice, challenge to a duel, one that did not have any restraints from death taking place if the loser did not yield. Believing that he was handed an opportunity to fix a mistake by the Emperor, he agreed to the rules.

What had been expected for Kallen's impetuosity to be her death turned into a shock as not only did Kallen defeat Luciano, but she didn't even give him time to yield, lulling him into a sense that she would be easy to kill, she had instead turned it on a head when Luciano took to the offensive, ending with her beating him with her rapier. It had been a shock to everyone that the Vampire of Britannia could be killed by a teenager so handily, but it had happened.

As a result of that, Kallen had been forced to absorb both Luciano's own Valkyries but take his role as the Empire's attack dog, sent to any trouble spot to eliminate enemies of the Empire. The Emperor had honestly not been pleased by the event publicly, but privately, Cornelia had learned, he had been impressed by the young Stadtfeld.

Then again, she should have known exactly what Kallen would have done, considering she had sponsored the redhead from the very beginning. It wasn't that odd for members of the Imperial family to be patrons for soldiers in order to gain loyal soldiers and additional prestige based upon who they supported, what was unheard on the other hand was for a fourteen year old to be taken under wing, but that was what Cornelia had done when she had met the young girl who would become what she was today. Of course, it helped that Schneizel and Clovis had also assisted, interested in why she had taken an interest in Kallen.

What ended up was what stood here before her, the Knight of Two at the age of sixteen, and now at seventeen one of the most feared Knights of the Round in the world.

"You would be surprised at what life throws at you, Kallen," she finally said, "it appears that Clovis has run into some trouble in Area 11."

This earned a grimace from Kallen as she was busy experiencing the cigarillo, sighing, she just shook her head, "What did that ponce do now?"

"He's trying his best to hide it, but it seems that the locals are getting a little troublesome for him."

"Figures," was the muttered response. Everyone knew, well, with the exception of Clovis himself, that Kallen was not a big fan of her younger brother. Then again, when the interest of Clovis has been to try and dress up Kallen in all sorts of designs that he had created, some of them extremely...risque, there was no shock to it. Kallen tolerated him because of his patronage, but she tried her best not to be around him, "Who is it this time? The JLF? The Blood of the Samurai?"

"Interestingly, no. It's actually a new group calling themselves the Black Knights."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. They just came out of nowhere a few months ago and have been steadily making gains in the Area. Even the JLF seems to be giving ground to them willingly."

"That's rather odd," she admitted finally, turning to look out towards where the smoke was rising, "the JLF has always been rather fiercely independent of its holdings, suddenly giving up to a newcomer seems….strange."

"Indeed, that's why I've been ordered to Area 11 to assist Clovis. Along with you."

This caused the redhead to turn back to her, "Has Bismarck approved of this?"

"Actually, he was the one who suggested it. Something about you needing a break from running around."

Flicking the cigarillo, Cornelia was treated with a rarity, Kallen actually giving a small smile instead of her usual lack of expression or smirk.

"He always seems to have my well-being at heart."

"I also wanted to discuss with you about something else, but we can deal with that on the plane."

Kallen nodded, turning her gaze back towards the battle one more time, as if there was something else on her thoughts. But a shake of her head in dismissal seemed to end that, causing the redhead turning back to her.

"You ever get tired of this, Cornelia?"

"I would be lying if I didn't say no. But there are some things that have to be done in order to preserve the future."

"The future," Kallen snorted, "what future?"

"Kallen…"

"I have to go check in with Lloyd and Cecile, Princess," Kallen interrupted, her informality gone as she sat back down into the cockpit, "I'll meet you at the airport. Liliana, Marika, Kirney, Adriana, we're going."

Before Cornelia could say anything more, the cockpit slid closed and the Lancelot powered up again, landspinners already squealing as they gained traction and the Lancelot was taking off, four Gloucesters falling in behind it.

She knew she had fucked up, watching as the Lancelot disappeared, talking about a future with someone who had theirs torn away from them at a young age would of course leave a large amount of bitterness. She could even understand that, considering her own losses in the last decade. She had to wonder what Lelouch would have thought while he was in her shoes.

"Darlton," she finally said, weariness evident in her tone "let's go."

TRoG

"So, this is confirmed?"

"Yes, our sources within the Viceroy's Palace have been able to confirm that Cornelia will be arriving here in two days with her army group."

The other man fell silent in contemplation. Then again, it was expected, it was an inconvenience to their plan to have the arrival of additional forces to Japan.

Japan, that was the name that they were fighting for, at least for him. It was his home, ripped away from him by Britannia in its never-ending quest to conquer all. It was the reason they had invaded Japan, for its large reserves of Sakuradite to power their war economy.

"I had hoped to avoid this at least for a longer time," the other spoke, "While we can adapt to the change in circumstances, this is an opportunity to fulfill my other objectives."

Other objectives, he thought, then he remembered. Even though their primary objective was to destroy Britannia, he had another objective, one more personal and dear to him, something that even nearly a decade later haunted him.

"We'll continue as planned, Suzaku. I doubt Cornelia is truly prepared for what is coming."

Suzaku Kururugi, the head of the Kururugi family nodded in acceptance. He was more handy with a weapon in his hand than to be the one to make the plans. No, that role belonged to someone far better than he could possibly dream.

"There is also the fact that the Knight of Two is coming as well."

"Oh," there was a chuckle, "well, that will certainly be something entertaining. After all," the figure slipped out of the shadows to reveal the grinning visage of Lelouch vi Britannia, his left eye ablaze with the sigil of Geass, "I would be a poor gentlemen if I ignored my dear fiancée."

And there you have it, the beginning of a new story. Already you can see there are some significant changes that have taken place in the timeline. Just what happened with Kallen, what happened to cause Suzaku to side with Lelouch, how does Lelouch have Geass, why is Clovis still alive, and maybe, more importantly, how the hell is Kallen and Lelouch engaged?

Welp, you'll just have to wait until next time to find out.