God's Sword

Chapter 1

God's Sword

Helltanz's notes: There is no yaoi. Yaoi is a lie :p no seriously there will be no yaoi at all period the end I fail to see why people make things when there is clearly nothing there, I digress. Seriously enough with all the Suzu Lulu.

Now onto other matters this story is AU pretty much consider the main point of divergence from after episode 24 of R2. Most of this is an introduction of things, background information and such, to the situation of the setting.

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Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass understand?

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Chapter begin

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Prologue: A brief lesson on modern history

Lelouch vi Britannia the ninety ninth Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire. If someone were to ask what he was? They might be answered that he was the demon monarch. That he was the man who conquered the world.

Zero the Hero of the people. An enemy of tyrants everywhere. This man was the leader of the Black Knights. The charismatic founder of the UFN. The masked man who saved the world from evil. At least that last one is what they would have said years ago.

Ultimately they were the same person really. It was that unfortunate truth that caused the rise of the modern UFN. In 2018 members of the Black Knights Officer Corp, particularly members of the form JLF, and original Black Knights Organization, conducted the coup against Zero that has since become known as the Betrayal on the Ikaruga.

In 2018 Lelouch vi Britannia, aka the terrorist Zero, succeeded his father, Charles di Britannia, as sovereign monarch of the Holy Empire of Britannia. No one knows what happened to the 98th Emperor of the Holy Britannia Empire. There are some who claim he had abdicated the throne in secret and that was the cause of the Betrayal on the Ikaruga. Lelouch's period of rule has been characterized first by a small civil war, and the now legendary appointment of a number to the newly created Knight of Zero position, and the creation of the Imperial Guard. His regime had been a massive reformation, and reshaping of the empire. Jeremiah Gottwald had been made a knight of the round, given command of the newly formed Imperial Guard, and set loose on the rebelling nobility.

That had been the end of one era, and beginning of the new. Without a coherent leadership of the various noble factions the Imperial Guard crushed the rebels under Gottwald's leadership. It however had not been long before the next great problem reared its head, Schneziel. The former second prince destroyed Pendragon with the Damocles. In the battle with the floating fortress things had changed, and Lelouch had laid down the beginning of the Requiem plan.

Schneziel and the UFN who had allied with them were beaten, at a heavy cost. Still they had been beaten and the UFN effectively decapitated leaving only a minor resistance. In that period of time it took to mop up the now disorganized UFN military, the remaining forces of EU had time to establish a defensive position. It hadn't mattered the EU holdouts eventually fell to the superior technology and numbers of the Imperial Guard finally uniting the planet under a single government. Lelouch in his security, confident of his plan, enacted the Requiem. Still the plan had worked, up until something he had failed to contemplate occurred.

So Lelouch died before the world's eyes. Cornelia accession to the throne was a logical step. She had support within the Britannian military, and Nunnally the only other possible candidate would never be accepted due to her assistance of Schneziel during the Damocles Affair. Thus Cornelia became Empress inheriting the largest nation on the planet in the post war years.

Diethard's fail safe package were a series of carefully distributed tapes, funnily enough in the form of a documentary. It set the stage for the great shake up of the UFN. Things changed as the world reeled from the aftermath of not just the Requiem, but Diethard's last great story. The inability to trust the Black Knights caused the abolition of Paragraph 17 returning to all the members of the UFN their national militaries.

-Prologue conclusion-

Not for the first time did the dark haired immortal laugh raucously at how foolish everything was. Diethard apparently had a fail safe in place the revelation had been uproarious to say the least and damn near ruined everything.

It appeared that the reporter had not been so convinced of the stability of his position otherwise within the UFN, or maybe Schneziel hadn't trusted the UFN. Either was understandable given how quickly the Black Knight leadership had betrayed their founder.

Suzaku had joined the ranks of the dead soon enough for good when Britannians claiming to fight in the name of the true emperor launched an attack. Whether the Emperor they claimed was true was Lelouch or Charles was at present still unclear. Still things had come apart quickly.

He didn't really care the plan for the requiem had failed. The final count of fatalities amongst the Black Knights had confirmed that Kyoshiro Todoh had died in battle, injuries sustained, and with Lelouch 'dead' plus Li Xingke succumbing soon after the final battle due to both a mix of injuries and his rapidly degenerating condition of health.

These deaths had left Ogi in charge of the Black Knights. It was a position he was ill suited for. Ogi most useful capacity was in the matter of logistics at best suited for running smaller scale operations independent of larger forces. Ultimately though that fact had saved him and the Black Knights Ogi could competently run the modern peacekeeping force, even if at times he could be a bit reckless in his pursuit of the UFN mandates.

In any event the world was furious not simply with the Lelouch but with those who were in charge of the Black Knights. Contrary to what the UFN attempted to justify most of the former, especially the former single digits, Areas of Britannia had chosen to side with him in the battle against Schneziel as well as against the Black Knights. This held true against the EU, and against the pockets of UFN resistance during the Ascension War.

Even now certain areas hailed him as the liberator while neighbors reviled him as the demon, though of course the revelation of him as the true Zero had upset the populous greatly. That fact was what complicated everything.

Because of this the United Federation of Nations, and the Black Knights had barely survived the public referendums that were demanded in the wake of Diethard's final, postmortem, broadcast to the world. Still they had survived, and actually emerged better for it in many ways for the post war situation.

That had been nearly four years ago had he continued his life he would have been in college or perhaps more likely ruling the world. In truth Lelouch had completed college or at least college curriculum.

He hadn't destroyed Schneziel's Damocles, but he had changed it the whole thing had been repainted black and optic camouflage had been added along with numerous Gefjun disturbers. The Blonde Prince had meant for the fortress to be completely self sufficient a task Lelouch had no problem with.

Britannia had been on the forefront of technology, as had the EU the conquest of the world meant he had access to all of that during his, admittedly, brief reign. The EU had been able to field their first generation of Airships during the war. The new designs had been rushed though and that had left uncorrected design flaws, which had meant they had fared poorly against his refined designs.

With the extreme damage to the Mount Fuji region it meant that Japan would have been in a great depression. It would be one that would last for years until production stabled out again. Of course the UFN and Japan's allies would never let that happen that way. Japan was not restored to its pre conquest state, but it was well on the way to recovery.

Not that it mattered Lelouch during his reign had assembled the brightest minds in Britannia as well as extracting large amounts of Sakuradite prior to blowing the mines.

The Sakuradite extracted had still needed to be refined but it was significant amount.

In all truth claiming the Damocles had been just an extra special icing on the cake, refurbishing it had required a lot of effort to keep it concealed but with the resources at his disposal it had been still doable.

Lelouch vi Britannia stared at the ebony surface of the room, a feature that had been apart of the reconstruction. Amongst others were the gardens being converted to hydroponic areas for growing foodstuffs.

Cornelia was having problems controlling the nation from either his own supporters or those who supported the regime which had preceded his own. Not that it really mattered most the opposition was on policy or such nonsense. He almost pitied the once feared Witch of Britannia well almost, she had plotted to usurp him after all. Of course Cornelia was for the time being the best person to handle the job.

Slowly he walked to look out over the world. The Damocles's observation deck presented a view unlike any other.

Nina's weapons the abominable FLEIA were still intact here not that he had any need to use them. No doing that would completely ruin his 'retirement', though it was only that in name there was still quite a lot of work to be done. The world was a mess. That imbecile, Diethard, had nearly ruined everything with that last fuck you of his. It must have been his hope the recording would protect him from any Black Knight betrayal.

Overall the world was still unstable and that was what he was going to have to listen to for the next bit of time. "The Middle Eastern Federation's reconstruction is going as planned I take it?" He inquired turned to the shadowy forms who had entered the ante chamber.

"Yes my lord the reformations started during your public regime have continued though the Princess Cornelia has continued to receive less support from the Middle East, and the measures have only continued through due to the stranglehold in parliament." Responded one of the masked figures…

Cornelia had been the one to formally establish Area 18 after it made sense that there would be some lingering resentment due to this.

Lelouch had expected this. Cornelia was the present Empress, though for the most part large numbers of people refused to acknowledge her as this, other than recognition from the UFN and the restored nobility her real support was the military.

A large number of the common folk had accepted Lelouch as emperor when Cornelia had ascended to the throne it might of well have become a military dictatorship seeing as for the most part the nobility had been given back their positions and advantages by force of arms. Of course Cornelia could not strip Lelouch's own appointments to the nobility without risking an uprising of the same nature Lelouch had faced.

Admittedly it was by no means a true military dictatorship but the nobility had gained more rights than the common people, and many of their old powers restored to them. Not all, but most of them. To attempt to return everything to the previous status quo would have embroiled the country in civil war. To much wealth had changed hands during Lelouch's regime, and Lelouch had elevated people to noble status for his own reasons.

"Our biggest issue is another war, or our own side's extremists disrupting the plan," Lelouch remarked at last, "Cornelia's situation is unstable, and fighting the EU in the middle east at present would be difficult. Taking steps to correct this should be our priority."

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The Black Knights of the United Federation of Nations were failures. It was the conclusion that he had come to after the betrayal on the Ikaruga. Following the restructuring of Britannia he had assembled the resources to establish a second formation of the Black Knights, originally it would have operated with out his input. This was due to the fact he doubted he would survive the completion of the Zero Requiem.

All that was irrelevant now, exactly how he was immortal, the precise way he had acquired the code, was something unknown to him. It was still the case however he was now immortal, Lelouch vi Britannia now possessed his perfected Geass and the Code so far his attempts to artificially replicate the later had only met with moderate success though his blood seemed to hold the key to figuring it out.

CC seemed to have disappeared. Lelouch knew well enough that she was alive and more than likely with the fully healed but amnesiac Marianne. That though was speculation seeing as the body had vanished shortly after his own departure.

Cornelia on finding out Marianne had apparently been in a coma this entire time, and was now, missing had thrown quite the hissy fit one might have said. Even so the information was closely guarded and few people knew.

Lelouch did not particularly care and frankly he doubted whether CC would come and join him here. It would have been useful knowing exactly how many other code bearers existed out in the world, certainly such beings could prove to be a real problem should they start handing out Geass.

Most of the data from the Code R project, undertaken by Clovis so long ago, had been destroyed though it hadn't been hard to recover certain parts of the data. Jeremiah's cybernetic upgrades would have been easily recreatable, had that been his desire, with just the mere assistance of Rakshata and as to the related information to the code well Lelouch regenerated quickly enough to speed the process along. Of course Rakshata was busy being employed by Japan, and the UFN to keep their systems up to date so her help wasn't immediately forth coming.

Not that it mattered at the present they were no farther at creating a new Code then they were when they had started not that it mattered. Obviously a new code wasn't his goal, what he wanted was to understand the power of the code, and possibly unlock the methods through which it increased the capabilities of the physical body and of course the regeneration would have been quite useful. These objectives had made with slight progress.

Perhaps with time it would be possible, and after what was it that he did after all have in spades but time to spare. Yes Lelouch had plenty of time, besides all of this was merely for academic purposes.

He had not great application to apply such knowledge for now he was merely content to watch as the earth continued its foolish strife riddled existence and at least attempt to make sure they didn't take things to over board.

After his reign and the resulting shock of Diethard's announcement among other factors from previous events the world had been in no position to immediately go off to war and that had given him the opportunity to manipulate things just how he liked, it helped since he still retained his Geass.

In due time he would no doubt make his return, that was of course something that was an obvious fact. Eventually he would have no choice but to interceded and prevent mankind from going to war again.

Knightmares had not changed radically over the intervening years, what would in time become known as the Antebellum period. The time between the previous war and the coming one.

Even though the style of design hadn't changed much their capacity had grown more, as had the size of machines to an extent.

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Descending to the surface of the Earth was a simple task, especially with the stealth technology that existed and that the world was still rebuilding and orbital technology was made illegal in the wake of the Damocles's disaster. Not that something as trivial as a bunch of whiny politicians and outcry would slow him down. Most certainly not with his retaining the namesake of the disaster.

Avalon, Ikaruga, Great Britannia, as well as their successor models they were inferior to the craft he was using mainly because of the power system, and indeed the weapons outfitted on the craft. On one hand that kind of luddite thinking avoided another war, and arms race, on the other it kept people from moving forward.

The trust lost in the UFN's Black Knights had caused the reemergence of national militaries, and thus the loss of a massive chunk of funding. Coupled with that the increase in regional violence, yeah it was sufficient to say the United Federation of Nations was not living up to its expectations.

The interceding years had not however seen much in the way of technologies being developed though. Minor breakthroughs had occurred, but most efforts went towards rebuilding the damage done by the last war.

Cornelia was so eager in restoring the status quo of Britannian and preventing the chaos that had cropped up elsewhere in the world that she had to put in people who supported the policies of one of her two predecessors. Lelouch and Charles.

Meaning that those new nobles were very likely to oppose certain policies or in this particular case support Lelouch's endeavors.

Due to the fact that the Black Knights had weakened these past four years did not mean they weren't wimps. No they still had pretty advanced machines ninth and tenth generation Knightmares. Tenth in the case of their ace pilots. The trimmed down Black Knights were now a dedicated peacekeeping force meant to intervene as opposed to occupy.

The lack of major advances in the field of military technology meant that thus far while advances had been made technology wasn't so different from four years ago.

Lelouch was easily a step ahead of them and unfortunately certain factions were occasionally able to pull off similar feats of advancements.

In this case well apparently some one had, from the money trail it appeared to be originating from the EU, gotten a hold of the original Tristan Development Program among other files.

So it thus appeared there would be a transforming Knightmare frame that could well join the fray soon enough As it stood the Black Knights actually had even noticed the development of the machine or more precisely the armament programs of what were the remains of the EU.

Considering the Machine was fighting both the Guren and the current Tristan, due to well... the fact Ogi clearly was incompetent, but the fact the Knightmare was holding its own indicated the design was impressive.

Ogi should have known better than to send Black Knights into Britannian airspace Cornelia would be furious, and they risked a response from Britannia's military. A military that remained in far better shape than most other powers.

Still the fact they had chased the high mobility machine across so near to Britannian territory well it was worrying. Whether it was simply this group of nations in the recovering EU or if there was a faction manipulating the group for whatever purpose it didn't' really matter. There had after all been no indication that Geass was in anyway involved in this.

"Get them ready for launch," He grumbled finally. Their design was based off the final Knightmare frame that Kyoshiro Todoh had piloted, and indeed died in, the Zangetsu. They, the knightmares in question, were the planned to be the next standard mass production machines in 'his' Black Knight's arsenal at least for the coming time. The machines were, as his subordinates frequently remarked, superior to the traitors' machines.

The spiky decorative armor, and hair pieces had been removed, and additional armor as well as an integrated energy wing type flight system had been installed in their place. Further more the radiation shield had been removed in favor of refined MSV particle shields, the cockpit had been also replaced with a typical cockpit arrangement and said cockpit was inside the armor. Really a lot from the initial design had changed but still it was clear there was a relation ship between the two Knightmare frames. The larger yet more armor made the design appear less skinny.

Steady advances had been made, at least for them given what they had access to and the lack of restrictions in comparison to others, this was the twelfth generation of the Knightmare frame. The Yggdrasil drive superconductor transfer system was still in use though in a slightly different form. The Eon was larger than the Galahad. That in itself didn't actually say much as most ninth generation, and following elite frames, were at least that size due to the inclusion of larger longer lasting and more powerful power plants. It was a natural progression of design meant to allow longer operating times.

With the eleventh generation nuclear power was capable on Knightmares of course the system had still been in the testing phases and was by no means perfect ready for mass production, the twelfth generation was another step closer. Of course with the prohibition on nuclear research anything after ten was not expected in the near future from the rest of the world.

In the meantime the Eon's predecessors also launched. It was his desire that the real, as Lelouch considered them use a frame that was wholly their own. It was a goal that had not yet been fully realized. These were likewise based off of Todoh's Zangetsu with many of the same changes that were present in the Eon, without the nuclear engine however the Epoch was smaller and lacked several higher power systems, which made the Eon a real powerhouse.

"We have a visual on the KMFs." Announced one of the dark clad troops, they weren't going to tip their hand but if this really was an eleventh generation frame well that could be a real problem.

Judging by its agility, and the fact it was carrying a double barreled Hadron rifle, yeah that basically seemed to confirm it was at least an extremely advanced tenth generation and that was at the least. He paused watching the red machine respond. Oh well it seemed Rakshata hadn't lost her touch at least though the Tristan was missing an arm.

Rakshata had remained with the Black Knights and the Earl of Pudding, restored to that position had returned to Britannia. Well rather Rakshata worked for the Black Knights because her designs were used, and the UFN offered her funding.

For now they would keep the stealth system activated, and just observe the battle while the Knightmares dealt with the actual fighting. No matter what happened Lelouch hardly expected the United Federation of Nations, Kallen and Gino, or this supposed European machine would be able to score a decisive hit against the other, besides there were presumably European forces approaching, a submarine carrier.

Whatever the case the six Eons should be more than enough with the support from the eleventh generation Epochs. Given a few more months the complement of the Eowyn would actually be filled to capacity, but for now he had limited numbers spread across the globe.

Lelouch vi Britannia, the true Zero surveyed, the unknown Euro war machine. Well beside it being a garish orange the machine had two arm shields laminated armor, like the original Tristan rather than the MSV or Radiation Shields used by other elite frames.

"Analysis complete," Announced the Druid system that was tied into the ship's sensors as well as filtered the reports from the Knightmares regarding the enemy.

They had already acquired all the information in regards to the new versions of the Guren and Tristan via more intrusive methods of intelligence. So really all that was left was studying this new one.

Energy output was high but not as high as one would expect from a fusion reaction, but much to high to be a regular Sakuradite power source, it was something they would need to look into.

It could potentially mean the EU would be able to field Knightmares with significantly longer operating times without violating the nuclear research ban, there was also the issue of the particle emissions, which it seemed were weaponized. It was actually much the same as that of their own Energy Wing system, a development that could also be a problem.

Six blasts sizzled through the air forcing the three Knightmares to separate from their melee.

The Guren was covering for the Tristan, which really wasn't what Lelouch was concerned about. No, right now, he was wondering what the hell were these two doing this far out without support.

This merely reinforced his belief Ogi should not have been allowed to hold the position of commander of the Black Knights. The man was overstretching units that in real fights needed support. Not that it mattered he had no reason to launch personally. While it was true his piloting skills, among other things had improved vastly he really saw no point in joining the fray.

Apparently the trio, Gino, Kallen, and the European machine weren't expecting the company. The garish machine rotated and fired its long double barreled Hadron gun, which the other Knightmares scattered to avoid. Not that it mattered what it did against twenty machines this wouldn't last long.

Besides judging by the sudden spike in radio activity it seemed the EU frame would be retreating soon enough. Especially given the fact the submarine carrier was getting nearer to the scene of the battlefield.

Intervention might have to be sped up it seemed that the EU were making headway in the development of Knightmare frames, besides Kallen and Gino had already seen his machines and would know well enough they weren't Britannian machines. Not that Lelouch cared about such a thing, as it was he had Damocles so they couldn't touch him.

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The rolling hills of the Carolinas made a splendid view, and the large estate was generally quite pleasant. Of course in the general state of things one didn't have Knightmares parked in ones front lawn. So that was the most obvious thing that was amiss about the scene.

Kallen and Gino descended from their respective machines, in front on either side were three each of the Eons, and what was arguably worse was seated at the picnic table was clad in what was basically a black version of the outfit he had worn as Emperor, minus the hat, was Lelouch.

"Well this is an amusing turn of events," He remarked right before Gino, perhaps idiotically, charged at the dark haired former, and supposedly dead, Emperor. Lelouch for his part seemed less than impressed.

It was a rash move. Lelouch had dismissed the estate's guards only because he wished not have so many observers, there were still the six knightmare pilots to contend with.

Kallen on the other hand, responded by screaming and charging towards the two males in a full on run, "GINO NO!" The next thing the blonde, and seeing as Cornelia had restored his title as well, noble was aware of was nothing short of pain so agonizing that he was wishing he was dead and then blissful unconsciousness.

"How bothersome," Lelouch released his grip on the Knight of the Round's wrist which allowing the blonde to slump bonelessly into a heap on the grass. Once upon a time CC had done the same thing to Suzaku while the later had been in his knightmare, it was a useful tool.

The pilot of the Guren slid to a halt, so much for having to go about saving Lelouch. As far as that went she was slightly disappointed. "What happened," She managed to inquire in surprise, "and exactly what is going on your… and these machines?" Her speech was getting erratic as she attempted to decide what questions were more important.

Kallen stared glancing around. These weren't Black Knight New Days, or Britannia's modern war machine. Black armor, lots of heavy armor, which was a definite Britannian trend, and the different set on the machine's back were clear this was a whole different family of design. Even so there were minor similarities, jarringly so to the Black Knight's design, but the lack of spikes, and in their place more rounded or sloped surfaces made a distinct difference.

"Relax," he commented silkily. "I have no intention in further destabilizing the world, as to my continued survival it would take more than a sword to kill me," OF course he hadn't known that when he had gotten stabbed but he wasn't about to tell her that little fact now was he.

Kallen stared in disbelief, "What, what are you talking about? What is going on here, why Lelouch tell me?"

"You're in Britannia," He stated, making a point of ignoring her question. "has Ogi gotten that overconfident he is just going antagonize Cornelia." The emperor remarked standing, his hair had grown long over the last four years falling like a waterfall down his back. "The Black Knights of the United Federation of Nations are a failure. Kallen, no beyond that Japan will only be re conquered if Ogi antagonizes Cornelia. You should understand that fact," Of all the superpowers Britannia, with the exception of the loss of Pendragon, had escaped with its homeland had been left nearly intact.

Japan by comparison was wrecked. It wasn't just the Sakuradite mines either in many places infrastructure was in shambles from the wars and destruction. Rebuilding was happening but not even four years was enough to fix everything.

She didn't bother disputing with him about Ogi, the only reason she had agreed to take this mission was because Gino had asked and the possible danger of the European machine to world peace, after all she had her own problems. "What are you saying?"
"Saying," He sighed brushing a gloved hand through his hair, "What must I say, there is nothing that needs to be said." Lelouch walked forward, "I have no desire to further disturb the world, all of the people seem prepared to do that on their own. In the end I have deemed that the United Federation of Nations are a failure. You should just go back to school, and turn away from this pointless fighting." He remarked to his former ace pilot, "There is no reason for you to remain with that bunch of traitors."

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Ogi was suffice to say furious to here Lelouch was alive. What was worse was they couldn't bring this to the floor of the United Federation of Nations because then it would get out. Of course at the same time they couldn't keep it a secret. No that would be impossible with the constraints placed on them following the public referendums after word was learned of the betrayal aboard the airship Ikaruga.

His bad day worsened when one of the Britannian's spoke up his tone rather imperious, arrogant, and above all a curiousness that could not bode well for anyone. "Rakshata how is it we couldn't see this airship of the Emperor?" Demanded one of their watchdogs.
Ogi's frown deepened, the Britannian would surely inform Cornelia of this turn of events, and she had already angry of him trying to stop those damned Europeans and their new top of the line Knightmare frame.

The Europeans had slowly been rebuilding their home continent and had steadily begun not only not paying attention to the United Federation of Nations but now going so far as to outright ignored the body's mandates on military matters.

What was more people were blaming him and the Black Knights instead of Lelouch they just couldn't see that Lelouch was the bad guy that he was the monster. Then again there was no real way to explain things in a way they could understand.

Rakshata's explanation did little to help assuage the situation. The combination of Gefjun disturber technologies and the optical camouflage, plus whatever else Lelouch had incorporated into the design meant Lelouch could conceivably deploy where ever he liked. This news was not received well, by anybody in the room.

The European watch dog had taken far to much pleasure in reminding all present of just how effective Lelouch's Advance type Logres heavy cruisers had been during the last war. That normally would have opened up a round of jokes about how the Europeans' should know since they had been on the receiving end of the brunt of the Advanced class.

Those ships had fallen into Cornelia's care after Lelouch had ceased direct rule of Britannia, but their capacity incorporating an advanced shielding system had been the bane of their opposition during what too many people in Britannia were calling the Ascension war.

These heavy cruisers had handled both the infant EU's Airships and the few Ikaruga class ships mustered against them with relative ease. The ships that deserted Britannia to fight against Lelouch had found themselves outgunned by the design as well indicating Lelouch had modified them beyond regular spec.

It was a sore reminder of just what the Demon Emperor had been capable of, worse still was that the ships had generally deployed Gareths into the battlefield alongside block IIb Vincent piloted by fanatical shock troops.

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Lelouch sat alone in the grand room. Schneziel has made this equivalent to a palace, no a city all upon its own, even with his modifications much of that still remained in some form or another. Here the Emperor played the piano the mournful slow melody echoing through the room.

Expansion was slow but there was no real worry not with the ban on space technologies imposed by the UFN after his supposed death.

His fingers moved gracefully depressing each key in turn, the world of C was no interest to him, that sort of thing didn't interest him. The world's nations all of them were all violent enough on their own with out things like the Geass Cult to stir them up further so there was no point.

Cornelia's problems weren't really his concern either, nor were the problems of the world, he'd only get involved if he was asked, only if he was needed. It would have to be if one of those two conditions were met.

The Europeans they were gearing up, the remnants of the Euro Universe were forming closer ties with one another.

As he had told Kallen the United Federation of Nations were a failure perhaps things would not need him to get involved but it appeared that would not be the case. A large portion of the world's nations were not industrialized even though they had representation the population differences meant they continued veritably the same beyond that the UFN was just a squabbling schoolyard where countries bickered with one another.

Such things didn't concern him, the world politics were meaningless the larger nations held sway and Cornelia held a great deal of that sway.

Whatever it hardly mattered no doubt he'd need but make a single appearance to the people of the world just by himself and he'd have their entire attention drawn all to him and just to him. In truth he'd have to concern himself with the Europeans they were a real particular problem.

Unlike all those years ago Japan was a small fry, well at least to him, the damage done by the Fuji explosion had forced the rest of the world to develop alternatives and of course to reach out for less easily accessible Sakuradite sources. Those development projects had actually been good for the world economy.

A man set a tablet down and mused on the situation, Still it was only a matter of time before everything went to hell the Black Knights under that bumbling idiot traitor were mainly Japanese if they tried something like the Oriental incident Cornelia would respond the same and that would cause all manner of problems.

Time passed slowly and the Emperor's fingers danced across the keys of the grand piano, and he continued to play the sad soft melody letting the music fill the room that he resided in.

All his plans had contingencies he concluded that in all likelihood there would be complications that would cause things to go not as he desired, but such was to be expected.

Britannia was going to, or at least the Parliament would know of his survival soon enough perhaps as early as the end of the week. The news would spread quickly after that the gossiping nobles would see to that. It would start as a rumor but slowly it would gain momentum until all knew that he lived.

Cornelia was rather simple to predict, and even to manipulate. She had always been straightforward that made it easy to figure her out. It was a known fact that Britannia's relationship with the United Federation of Nations was strained or more specifically the relationship of the Holy Britannian Empire with the Black Knights was strained. The Empress would be furious with them, notably with Ogi.

Deciding a course of action would still require forethought of course. As it stood the fact was that the Europeans were still going to be an unknown factor, and that would notably be a particularly bothersome problem. No he amended it was the French and their allies that would be the problem. The fact was they were going to be a problem.

Even though the wars that had raged on and off since the eighteen hundreds had died down they were not forgotten.

France and its puppets would not forget such slights but they were also knew that they were in no position to fight Britannia. They would move quietly as they could building up and branching out, focusing on rebuilding their military and economies.

Going on current intelligence the French were upgrading to seventh Generation frames for their mass production types.

Had the capitalized on the Panzer Hummel when they had had the chance they might have been able to come out in better shape. The fact was however that with the advent of the seventh generation Knightmares became much faster, which was something that greatly reduced the effectiveness of the Panzer Hummel.

It was because of this that the Europeans were finally getting into the game in regards to melee weapons for Knightmare frames, this of course meant a drastic change in the tactics they would use. Such a change and upgrades would delay a European offensive or so conventional projections had seemed to imply. Unfortunately simply because that had been what intelligence had indicated did not mean such was indeed the case. It seemed the Europeans were on the fast track to making their move in regaining their status as a superpower.

Japan was another issue the wide scale broadcast by Diethard had sown quite a large bit of trust amongst the population of that country. Apparently the populous had was divided between supporting the Black Knights and viewing the surviving command staff as a gaggle of idiots for listening to the nonsense spouted by the second prince and then betraying their darling Zero-sama.

Killing, or attempting to kill, Zero had done a splendid job of setting up to different political groups. Again Diethard's broadcast had caused a mess and that mess had escalated to convincing people to look deeper into the situation at hand. No body knew about geass, and trying to talk about was dismissed as delusion.

Lelouch sighed soon word of his life would spread and cause all manner of cacophonies to erupt from the masses. Some would call him monster, and devil, while others would call him to return and be the Messiah. Britannia's Lelouch supporters would call for him again to assume the throne and lead the Empire where Cornelia was incapable. Those who were in Japan who supported him would want the Real Zero to make his return and punish the corrupt.

There were other concerns which worried him, if his immortality was recognized their would be problems that would arise amongst the masses. Perhaps the worst case on one hand would be the fanatical devotion to Zero being turned into a religion, which would really be a bad thing.

Ogi would likely be removed if he allowed his personal feelings to guide him to pursue Lelouch rather than focusing on his duties or in the same course over stepped his boundaries as the de facto leader of the Black Knights. Especially likely given the stunt that the man had pulled, especially now that they knew Lelouch was still walking, metaphorically speaking, the earth.

When the UFN, as a whole, became aware of that fact by and large it was obvious they would freak, it to put it simply was clear that Requiem had been a failure. Even after four years the people of the world were preparing to go to war.

All his work in regards to that had been nearly undone and in all likelihood it would all come undone in the course of time. Even Euphemia's crimes had not been forgotten as he had hoped. Of course no one knew of his own responsibility in that massacre, explaining such was next to impossible.

Finally the music stopped if the world desired a war so be it, he would show them one more time what foolishness such things were.

Lelouch paused, he disliked the idea of requesting Jeremiah once again reenter his service and again join the battle. The man would have no objections, he was a true knight some one ready to do what was ordered even if it was something he agreed with. What bothered him about asking Jeremiah to again take up arms was that the man had already done so much, but he might need the man's prowess.

Suzaku was dead, Todoh was dead, Li was dead, these were only a few so many were dead the heroes of the war were gone or broken.

He was Lelouch vi Britannia, Zero, he would twist and manipulate turning some back again convincing them to return to his side if such was needed, but first he would need to take stock of the situation.

From high above the planet the dark clad figure observed the world looking down on the blue and white sphere from the immense floating sword of darkness spread around planet were numerous satellites concealed, from this massive fortress Lelouch watched as the people down below teetered once again on the precipice of the abyss.

Another man cleared his throat, causing the emperor to turn, "What is it?" Lelouch inquired, "Has another issue cropped up or do they know yet?"

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Chapter conclusion

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Helltanz's notes: Lelouch will probably come off as a real bastard at times in this fic if you think canon Lulu making Kaguya cry was bad well the mind fuck he'll do Cornelia in my opinion will be worse. EVILGRIN

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