Lelouch of the Empire

The Homecoming

Disclaimer – I do not Code Geass. Code Geass is owned by Ichirō Ōkouchi, Sunrise Inc. and CLAMP

Warnings – Strong language, violence and lots of OCs (hopefully not Mary Sues)

Cornelia's private jet, over the Pacific Ocean 12th/13th September 2010 a.t.b.

Lelouch sat back on the sofa in Cornelia's private jet as he drummed the fingers of his right hand along the edge of the armrest while seemingly watching TV. Cornelia, for her part sat in a rather comfy looking chair of her own to the right of her half-brother, though she was a few feet in front of him, and facing the wall to Lelouch's left and she also appeared to be watching TV on a separate set. It had been a few hours since Lelouch had gone over his plan to leave his sister in Japan; now "Area Eleven" after Britannia had conquered the island nation. Needless to say, neither Byakko, Suzaku, Kaguya nor Nunnally had agreed with him despite knowing the reasoning behind his decision; heck, even he, himself did not really agree with what he was doing. As much as he did not want to admit it, he did realise that Suzaku, Byakko and Kaguya had all been right when they said that he was abandoning her. Even if he did not want to see it that way, he knew they were right. He was effectively abandoning his sister.

"But it's for her own good," a voice inside his head told him, "You know what could possibly happen if you take her back with you."

That much was true, but unfortunately, that knowledge did not make it any easier and it still did not change the fundamental fact that he had left Nunnally in a foreign land among people who mostly did not like her very much and he had to admit that he would not put it past some of those people to actually go and kill Nunnally just to get rid of her. Fortunately, he had decided to enlist the help of his mother's old allies, the Ashford Family in the hopes of appeasing the Kururugi Family, but in truth, he had no idea if that would actually work. He was really taking a gamble with his sister's life and despite having faith in Byakko, Suzaku and Kaguya; he knew that ultimately, they would not be enough to protect her forever if the Kururugi Family decided to act. Sure, he knew that Byakko hailed from a family of ninja and that she had threatened to start a blood feud unless the Kururugis backed off from the Britannian Prince and Princess, but unfortunately he knew that that threat would not keep them at bay forever. What he had discovered and what the Kururugi Family did not know was that, with the exception of her niece, Sayoko, who was currently under the employ of the Ashfords and a few others, Byakko was on rather bad terms with the majority of her family, though he did not know the full details. After all, it was none of his business and he decided that it would be safer not to pry. Like everyone had told him, his plans did have its flaws; flaws that could end up costing his sister her life and Lelouch could not help but fear that he had unintentionally signed Nunnally's death warrant.

Nonetheless, what's done was done and there was no point in fretting over it now. He would just have to proceed from here and hope for the best as far as Nunnally was concerned. One of the things he was planning though was finding a way of getting in contact with Byakko once he had returned to Pendragon. He would have to find a way to get in contact with her without the communication being intercepted. It would be suspicious if he was caught communicating with his former benefactor back in the "area" where he had been before it had become an "area". If the communication was intercepted, it would draw unwanted attention and cause his entire plan to unravel. Someone may begin to suspect that Nunnally was still alive and that was something he was determined to avoid at any cost. He knew that his return would be considered a big thing among the people back in the Homeland and undoubtedly; he would probably end up being hounded by those who were curious about his stay in "Area Eleven" and so, he decided that it was best to wait until all the excitement and hype over his return had died down before he even attempted to get in contact Byakko.

Taking a brief glance at his older half-sister, he could tell that what she was witnessing on her TV set was definitely affecting her. What she was seeing was the footage that Lelouch had taken with his video camera while he had been in Japan, which documented life before the invasion and what was really going on during the invasion and Lelouch could tell that it was now past the point where the invasion had begun. Unfortunately for Lelouch, Cornelia had enlisted in the military and was first and foremost, a Britannian Soldier and to his disappointment, she had bought into Britannia's Social Darwinism rhetoric. However, she was still his half-sister and she, along with her full-blooded sister, Euphemia were the closest half-siblings to him and Nunnally before his mother had been assassinated, plus he knew that Cornelia had idolised and looked up his mother for her accomplishments during her military career and was one of the few who did not few Marianne in contempt due to her status as a commoner and so, Lelouch had decided to put his faith in her due to her past with his mother.

Needless to say, Cornelia had been rather relieved and ecstatic to see him and Nunnally again. According to her, their father had already declared them dead before the invasion force had even set foot on Japanese soil, which he had pretty much suspected all along, but what had been rather shocking to hear was that the Emperor had declared them dead even before sending the invasion force, which meant that the Emperor had apparently lied to the masses. He had declared them dead just so he could send in the invasion force. No doubt many had assumed that the Japanese had murdered both him and his sister, which meant they would be all for the invasion in "retaliation" for their "murders". Cornelia had at first been rather sceptical that it was Lelouch at first, though she had agreed to come and pick him up and Cornelia was aware of his plan and knew that Nunnally was still alive. In fact, she had met up with Nunnally went she had arrived at Tōkyō's main airport. Nunnally, Byakko, Suzaku and Kaguya had accompanied Lelouch as if part on an entourage in order to see him off.

Needless to say, Cornelia also had misgivings about his plan to leave Nunnally and had been very vocal in her opposition and for a while, Lelouch had feared that she would also take Nunnally as well. However, he did manage to calm her down and get her to relent after he explained the situation to her, though Cornelia had said that he was just being paranoid. Nonetheless, she eventually agreed to let Nunnally stay, though he could tell that did not like it in the slightest.

"Though I bet it's because Nunnally will be in the company of newly crowned, Elevens," Lelouch thought to himself in disgust as he shot his half-sister a brief glare.

It was no secret that Cornelia had a very low opinion of, not just "Numbers", but all non-Britannians in general. It was also no secret that she had helped in establishing a few of the "Areas" that Britannia now controlled, though Lelouch had to admit that despite his half-sister's disgust for the "Elevens", she had, surprisingly managed to keep things civil while talking with Byakko. Cornelia's misgivings were mainly centred round the Kururugi Family and it was clear that she did not trust them with Nunnally and Lelouch had to admit that he agreed with her there. Fortunately, he had given Byakko advanced warning of Cornelia's apparent xenophobia and despite Cornelia constantly bringing up point after point; Byakko had also kept her composure in check, though it was clear that neither Byakko nor Cornelia liked each other. The knowledge of the Ashford Family's involvement was probably what appeased Cornelia, Lelouch had figured. She knew that the Ashford Family had close ties to Marianne and that Ruben had apparently been like a second father to Marianne and so, she had decided to go along with Lelouch's plan, though before she had left, she had threatened the three Japanese members of his "entourage" that she would enact serious retribution if Nunnally came to any harm while under their watch and it was clear that she also did not trust any of them either and had gone along with Lelouch because next to Euphemia, he was her favourite half-sibling and he trusted them.

When Lelouch had told Cornelia about what he had seen and how the Britannian soldiers were killing the civilian population for no reason, since it was clear that Japan had already been beaten, Cornelia, had informed him that that was normal and that there was a reason behind it. She had explained that despite beating Japan, there was the possibility that there were those who would continue to resist and fight on. She explained that some people just refused to accept the fact that they were beaten and so, the massacres of civilians was basically to demoralise the Japanese and intimidate them into accepting Britannian rule and to destroy their fighting spirit and eliminate any sense of hope they may still possess. Cornelia herself had even participated in a few of those massacres while on the battlefield while fighting to establish past areas. However, Lelouch was rather thankful that she was with the majority who just killed people outright and did not mess around and torture their victims to death. He was furious and disgusted with his half-sister, that much was certain. During his time in Japan while the invasion was going on, he had grown to hate the Britannian Military for what it was doing to the Japanese people and knowing that his favourite half-sister was an accessory to such war crimes had been rather shocking.

However, Cornelia had been more than willing to defend herself. She had been on the battlefield. She knew how intense and desperate things could get. However, somewhere along the line, Cornelia had lost sight of her morality and had come to view all non-Britannians, even those who willingly and genuinely chose to co-operate as enemies of Britannia and she told Lelouch stories of how Britannia's enemies treated their Britannian prisoners and even had footage of such atrocities that the enemy soldiers had given to the Britannians in order to show them what happened to those who crossed them. Basically, it was an attempt to intimidate the Britannians into fleeing. Unfortunately for the enemy soldiers, most of the time, all it did was courage the Britannians to push on with their campaigns in order to avenge their fallen comrades and that was what Lelouch was currently watching on his TV set. He was watching the footage that Cornelia had brought with her. Basically, what he and Cornelia were doing was exchanging footage in order to justify their claims, though why Cornelia had brought the footage with her was beyond the ten-year-old prince, but nonetheless, he was glad that she did.

"All men are not equal, eh," he mused aloud in a mocking tone, "It seems the footage here and the footage I captured begs to differ."

He was familiar with what he was seeing. He had seen plenty of what was going on in the footage while he, Nunnally and Suzaku had been navigating their way through an invasion-ridden Japan. However, the difference between what he was seeing now and what he had seen back then was that in the footage of what he was seeing now, it was Britannians who were victims and their would-be tormentors were the ones doing the killing and some of them were just as psychotic as some of the soldiers he had seen who had tortured the Japanese to death. Some of those non-Britannians did the exact same thing and with the same sadistic smiles on their faces. Needless to say, Lelouch was horrified at seeing what he was seeing and it brought back memories of what he had witnessed during the invasion of Japan. Despite the fact that this time, the tables were turned and it was the Britannians who were the victims, it still frightened him and looking over at Cornelia, he could tell that she was feeling the same way. A look of pure shock, horror and disbelief was clearly written over her face and she was also shaking her head in denial.

"No, no, no, this can't be…" she was currently muttering to herself in disbelief, unable to believe and not wanting to accept what she was seeing, "Impossible…"

Okay, Lelouch would admit that from what he saw, he learned something. He learned that just because Britannia committed such atrocities on a daily basis did not necessarily mean that their enemies were any better. He would admit that the people dishing out the torture in the footage he was seeing were just as bad, if not even more so than the Britannian soldiers he had witnessed during the invasion of Japan. There is a saying that two wrongs do not make a right and Lelouch could honestly say that up until now, he had never given that saying much thought. Sure, he had heard it before, but up until now, he had taken it for granted and failed to realise its importance. However, now he was coming to realise the importance of that saying. When one stoops to the same level of their enemies then they become just like their enemies. No doubt those people were angry and furious that Britannia had come to take everything away from them. They had a legitimate to be angry, but unfortunately, that did not justify what they were doing. Sure, he knew that if he were to converse with them, they would beg to differ, but then again, they had gotten so caught up in their anger that they failed to realise just how far they had fallen and how similar their treatment of the Britannians had become to the Britannians' treatment of them and Lelouch could not help but shudder as once again, he wondered if he would turn out like that.

He remembered just before he headed to the airport that he had considered the possibility of himself becoming just another soldier of Britannia and going on to commit such atrocities and earning Nunnally's eternal hatred. He was indeed furious with Britannia. He was furious with the Emperor and his rhetoric. His ultimate goal was to kill the Emperor and take his revenge for what had befallen him and Nunnally. However, looking at the footage and remembering what he had seen in Japan, he could not help but wonder if perhaps it was a premonition of the future. He had to wonder if he would become so obsessed with taking his revenge that he would ultimately lose himself to his anger and let it consume him and end up becoming one of those psychopaths in the footage that he was witnessing. He suddenly clenched his eyes shut as if fearing that he would hallucinate and see himself in the place of the torturer. It was definitely something that terrified him to no end and he felt an overwhelming sense of panic threatening to wash over him as he started to hyperventilate. Suddenly, he found himself wanting to back out of his own plan. Heck, even right up until Cornelia's jet had touched down in Japan, he had been hoping that an opportunity for him to back out would present itself, but back then, it had been nowhere near as strong as it was right now.

"Lelouch, calm down!" Cornelia said, upon noticing her half-brother's panicking state, though she really wanted something to take her mind off what she was seeing.

Fortunately, hearing his half-sister's voice had brought him back to reality and he took a series of deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling in a calm manner to help himself calm down.

"Calm down, Lelouch," he thought, chiding himself, "You're not there yet and besides, there's no guarantee that that's how you're going to end up. Besides, what's done is done. You made your bed, so you might as well sleep in it."

"My apologies, Sister," he said to Cornelia, speaking aloud.

Cornelia said nothing and just nodded and went back to watching the footage that Lelouch had captured. Needless to say, it had been rather shocking and at the same time, though she did not want to admit it on account of her pride, enlightening. The footage she was seeing documented Lelouch's stay in Japan. At first, it had been nothing shocking. It had shown the Japanese going about their daily lives, though some did shoot glares at the camera and Cornelia guessed that they were glaring at Lelouch, though they did not move to assault him and pretty much ignored him; pretending that he was not there. That was simple enough. He was clearly documenting the lives of the people round about him and despite them not taking too kindly to him, probably because of his heritage as a Britannian Prince, they tolerated him and allowed him to film them, though there were a few occasions in which the people demanded that he go elsewhere, which he did. However, the footage soon became a whole lot darker when the invasion started. Basically Lelouch had started to film corpse-ridden landscapes with the corpses of Japanese civilians who were unfortunate enough to get in the soldiers' way. However, what shocked Cornelia most of all was that some of what Lelouch had filmed showed Britannian soldiers massacring Japanese civilians; some who surrendered and others who had been in the process of fleeing the scene. This in itself did not really affect Cornelia all that much as she had done pretty much the same thing in the past and understood the reasoning behind it, but what really shocked her was that some of those soldiers did not just kill their victims outright. Some of the groups of soldiers had taken great delight in slowly torturing their victims to death and not only that, what Cornelia found most shocking was that some of the victims were just children and Cornelia could honestly say that it made her feel rather nauseous. She quickly put her hand to her mouth as she felt herself wretch as the contents of her stomach threatened to come up and pour over the floor.

Disbelief was the feeling that she could honestly say was the most dominant emotion she was feeling in the sea of various emotions that washed over her. Sure, she had seen such atrocities before. The footage she had brought with her and Lelouch was currently watching was full of such atrocities. However, in the footage she had brought with her, it was the Britannians who were the victims. However, in the footage that Lelouch had captured, it was the "Elevens", then Japanese who were victims. Cornelia was not stupid and she was not so close-minded to the point of disregarding the similarities between the footage that Lelouch was seeing and the footage that she was seeing. The similarities were as clear as day. The Britannian soldiers in the footage who tortured there victims to death and who had also removed their helmets and facemasks had expressions on their faces similar, if not identical to the captors of the Britannian soldiers that were being tortured in the footage Lelouch was seeing. This was sickening to say the least and Cornelia suddenly felt as if she was seeing the world through the eyes of a Japanese civilian despite the fact that Lelouch had been the one to film the footage. Maybe that was because he had experienced the invasion from their perspective. He had seen things from their end and Cornelia would have to agree that it was not pretty. However, despite seeing such undeniable proof of Britannia's atrocities, which she knew she had been complacent and even participated in, part of her mind just refused to accept it, which was why she was shaking her head and repeating denial after denial. Many Britannians would probably argue that as non-Britannians, they deserved it just because they were not Britannian, but unfortunately for Cornelia, the moment she tried adding that excuse to her reasoning, the logical part of her mind refused to allow her to grasp hold of it. Sure, anyone could argue that someone deserved everything that befell them just because they were alive, but in truth, the Britannians who used that as a justification clearly had not seen what it was like for someone like that. They did not know what it was like for someone to have their home taken from them and to be taught that they deserved it just because of the race they were born into. These were people who had done absolutely nothing to Britannia and who had shown no interest in Britannia whatsoever. Even Cornelia would agree that had those people been left alone, they would have posed no threat whatsoever to Britannia. These were people who had just wanted to get on with their lives.

"Oh my, what have I…?" Cornelia said aloud, her eyes widening as a horrifying realisation washed over her, "No, why… It's not… I didn't…"

"Do you see now?" Lelouch asked, upon noticing his half-sister's epiphany, "I will admit that the people in the footage you've shown me have no justification for what they're doing. In truth, they've lost themselves to their anger and grief over losing everything they had. However, Britannia came to their lands with the sole intention of driving them out and it's really no surprise that they feel justified in their treatment of Britannian prisoners. In Japan however, I witnessed people bow their heads in surrender only to be killed anyway. You may have used this footage to justify merciless slaughter of countless unarmed innocents, but to me all it shows is that just because one side is bad, it doesn't mean that the other is good. From I've learned here, I can safely say that both sides can be just as bad as each other. One side being bad does not automatically make their enemies good. What was it they said, the world is not black and white; it's greyscale."

Greyscale was a computing term meaning two hundred and fifty-six shades of grey. It was the appropriate term, Lelouch figured in describing the world in reference to the shades of grey that the world really was. He could use the Chinese Federation and the EU as a perfect example. Just because Britannia had invaded Japan to get their hands on its vast Sakuradite reserves did not mean that the Chinese Federation or the EU would act to defend the Japanese had Genbu's do-or-die resistance gone ahead. In fact, Lelouch knew that neither the Chinese Federation nor the EU particularly cared for the Japanese and would have only acted to protect their own interests and would only use providing the Japanese with help and humanitarian aid as an excuse to stake their claim in Japan. In fact, Lelouch, while doing research had discovered that the Japanese were pretty much resented by all three superpowers. It was not hard to see why, though. After all, Japan had the largest reserves of Sakuradite on the planet and had practically been playing the three major superpowers against one another in order to manipulate Sakuradite distribution. Lelouch knew that there was an element of jealousy involved as Japan had been seen by the three superpowers as a backwater nation and the fact that they had access to the majority of the world's most sought-after resource had rubbed them the wrong way and it did not help that Japan had been perfectly aware of this and like Lelouch had thought before, Japan had gotten pretty smug and had rubbed it in the three superpowers' face at every opportunity believing that they were untouchable due to the fact that if one superpower dared to invade, the other two would also do so and it would have led to a world war. What Japan had not counted on was that a solution to this problem would come into existence and Britannia had been the first one to think of it, which was why it was now in control of Japan. The bottom line was that had the Chinese Federation and the EU intervened, it would not be because of any concern for the Japanese; it would have been to prevent their possible elimination from the world's stage and the Japanese would have been caught in the crossfire. In fact now that Lelouch thought about it, if all three superpowers had concentrated on Japan, there was the possibility of it being a four-sided war with Britannia VS the Chinese Federation VS the EU VS Japan with the Japanese fighting to gain their independence from all three superpowers.

"Greyscale?" Cornelia said, bringing Lelouch out of his thoughts.

"What I mean is, the world's different shades of grey, not black and white," Lelouch answered with a sigh, "Nothing is absolute and distinct. The enemy of your enemy isn't necessarily your friend. Take the situation in Japan for example. If the EU or the Chinese Federation decided to try and force Britannia out, it won't be out of concern for the Japanese. It will be because of Japan's Sakuradite reserves. Believe me; neither the EU nor the Chinese Federation would care for what happened to the Japanese. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the other two superpowers resent them just as much as the Britannians do due to having the world's largest reserves of Sakuradite."

Cornelia just nodded, too shocked and depressed to even correct her half-brother as Japan was now "Area Eleven". She did admit that he did have a point and Cornelia found it hard to believe that Lelouch was still only ten-years-old. Even before he and Nunnally had been sent to Japan, Lelouch had been a smart boy, wise beyond his years. He was able to beat her at chess despite her having more experience than him. In fact, when it came to chess, Lelouch was a prodigy in his own right with their half-brother, Schneizel being the only one he had yet to defeat, but then again, Schneizel had also been a prodigy in his youth and he was vastly more experienced than Lelouch. Not only that, but Lelouch seemed to possess knowledge that one would find impossible for a ten-year-old to possess and remembering having discussions with Lelouch in the past, Cornelia had felt as if she was conversing with someone far older than Lelouch himself was and she once jokingly stated that perhaps he was an adult trapped in a child's body.

"I will say this much though," Lelouch went on, bringing his half-sister out of her thoughts, "Those who torture their victims to death… they're in a minority and the majority don't mess around and just kill their victims outright. At least in those cases, it's over quickly and I'm glad that you're in the majority."

"I just want to get the job over and done with as quickly as possible," Cornelia admitted as tears suddenly started rolling down her cheeks, "Like you said, at least for the victims, it's over with quickly. I just don't see the point in torture for no reason. There was no reason to torture those people, so I just killed them and that was that."

Lelouch nodded feeling rather touched by Cornelia's honesty. He could see that the footage he had shown had been a major blow to her. It had been shocking to learn what was really going on. Sure, Lelouch admitted that Cornelia had participated in such acts in the past and he could say that if not for the minority of psychopaths, Cornelia probably would have disregarded it as nothing and dismissed it and probably would have accused him of sympathising with the "Elevens". He knew how strong Cornelia's belief in Britannia's rhetoric was. However, with the footage he had shown her, he knew that he had shaken her beliefs. He had shown her what it was like from the oppressed people's point of view. He had also shown her their lives before the invasion, which was probably a factor as well; people just going about their daily lives, not really caring about much other than their own concerns.

"Survival of the fittest, that's Britannia's way, right?" he went on, hoping to shake his half-sister's beliefs even further, "All of what I've shown you is a result of that rhetoric. People, who were just only concerned with getting on with their daily lives suddenly having everything taken from them and why, all in the name of progress and evolution? Tell me Cornelia, if mankind is all about conflict and struggle, how is that supposed to lead to peace? All men are not equal, I'll agree with His Majesty there, but should that be used as an excuse to treat those who are different with derision and scorn? What about Nunnally? It the strong survive and the weak are cast aside, does that mean that she's to be cast aside because of her disabilities? What about Euphie? She's very much like Nunnally in terms of personality and I don't see her growing up and getting with Britannia's program. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if His Majesty decided to throw her to the wolves when the first opportunity presents itself. She's definitely not cut out for life in the Royal Court."

Cornelia flinched with each question and statement her younger half-brother hurled at her. Even the mentioning of her own sister, which normally would have sent her flying into a rage only seemed to worsen the blow; that and she had to admit that Lelouch was right. Euphemia was indeed not cut out for life in the Royal Court and with her kind and caring nature, she knew that Euphemia would not last all that long and like Lelouch had said; Euphemia probably would only end up being sacrificed and discarded at the first available opportunity. That was the way of the Royal Court. It was nothing more than a pit of vipers or perhaps a river with shifting currents that could change at a moment's notice. Both Lelouch and Cornelia knew how the Royal Court worked. They were lessons that had been force-fed to them since they were children. The nobility were constantly struggling with one another, each jockeying for position as they tried to gain more and more power for themselves. Kindness and friendship did not exist in the Royal Court. What was in their place was temporary alliances whenever one set of interests aligned with another and they only lasted till one group's goal had been obtained. Yes, Cornelia had seen it all too often; the picture-perfect fake, almost porcelain smiles that the nobles had practically painted on their faces with a proverbial olive branch in one hand and a proverbial dagger in the other, which was hidden behind their backs, ready to be plunged into their so-called ally's back the moment they dropped their guard. Genuine kindness and friendship like Euphemia possessed only guaranteed a quick end. The nobility were all poised, all watching one another with their daggers ready for use at the first sign of weakness from their fellows. Of course, not all nobles were like that; some were genuinely kind and caring, but unfortunately in the Royal Court they had been forced to discard their "weakness" and adhere to the climate lest they dare risk ruination. That was something Cornelia did not want for her sister and was quite determined to keep her away from it.

Nunnally was another thing. Like Lelouch had said, because of her disabilities, Britannian rhetoric demanded that she be discarded and thrown to the wolves and Cornelia knew that Lelouch would never do that. Heck, she, despite her firm beliefs in Britannia would never do that either. She would never abandon Nunnally and leave her to fend for herself. She knew that with Nunnally, it made her look like a hypocrite and that she would undoubtedly be accused of taking a myopic view due to the fact that Nunnally was her half-sister. It would be like saying, "Yes, the strong survive and the weak perish, but Nunnally's an exception because she's my sister". She knew this and yet, had it not been for Lelouch showing her the footage he had captured, she undoubtedly would have decided that she did not really care. It was an unfortunate defence mechanism that Cornelia seemed to possess. Whenever encountered with undeniable proof that she was wrong about something, she would automatically decide that she did not care and just stick to her beliefs regardless… at least right up until she saw Lelouch's footage and after witnessing soldiers killing unarmed civilians and in some cases, torturing them to death, all of a sudden, she found that her usual defence mechanism just was not enough anymore. Somehow, she found that she could not just ignore it and say, "I don't care". Seeing the helplessness of the Japanese and hearing their agonising screams along with the laughter of their tormentors caused her usual defences to crumble and fall.

Survival of the fittest, was this what that rhetoric led to? Did that rhetoric really lead to suffering and conflict? Sure, she tried reasoning that struggle was what made people strong, but did it really lead to peace? The answer was definitely staring her right in the face and she knew that she had been wrong. Britannia was wrong. After conquering an "Area", Britannia proceeded to pacify the area and try to beat ideas such as hope and resistance out of the native populations, but unfortunately, martyrdom had a tendency of working both ways. Sure, witnessing Britannians being murdered encouraged Britannians to fight to avenge the fallen, but Cornelia now realised that it worked the other way as well. By going around and massacring unarmed civilians, Britannia, instead of scaring the natives into submission, they were having the opposite effect and actually encouraging them to resist. Both sides practically made martyrs out of their fallen to encourage conflict. All men were not equal. Cornelia had believed that to be the truth and now she had to admit that the Emperor was only partially right. In many ways, people were not equal. Each individual person was unique in their own way. Aside from physical differences, there were also other differences such as some people were better at some things than others were stronger than others. However, when it came to the emotional side of things; that was where the Emperor was wrong. People had similar emotional responses regardless of their race. Just as the Britannians were looking to avenge their fallen, non-Britannians did the same. Viruses made no distinction between race and though some did fare better than others, it was clear that all people were equal as far as viruses were concerned. She now knew what Lelouch was trying to tell her. Whereas the Emperor was right in that not everyone was equal, that was no excuse for conflict with those who were different from you.

"Oh god, I'm a… I'm a war criminal," Cornelia stuttered as the tears increased in frequency; as if a dam that had been holding them back had burst, "I'm a monster."

"Monsters don't cry," Lelouch spoke up, "I can see that you're really regretting your past actions, isn't that right?"

Cornelia nodded as she remembered in the past when she had murdered unarmed civilians. Some of which she remembered had bowed their heads and informed her of their surrender.

"Die like the filth you are, you rotten barbarians," Cornelia had remembered responding to one such incident in New Zealand, which was now "Area Nine".

"This isn't a battle, this is murder!" she remembered a man yelling at her and her response had been to just scoff in an uncaring fashion and mow him down.

That was right, it was indeed murder. However, Cornelia had been so convinced that she was doing the right thing that she had just blown him off and ignored his words. Back then, her line of thinking was that the people she had been killing were enemies of the Empire and had to be mown down. She had believed that their surrender had been a ruse, so that when the soldiers had turned their backs, they would move in and kill them. She had seen mercy as a sign of weakness. However, only through seeing Lelouch's footage did she realise that perhaps, some of those surrenders had been one hundred percent genuine. It left a bitter taste in her mouth as she realised that she had murdered countless innocents and all because of her country's twisted rhetoric and paranoia.

"You do realise, Lelouch, that I'll probably be deployed in future and be expected to do more of this," Cornelia said with a sad sigh, "I hate to say it, but it's unavoidable."

Lelouch just sighed as he knew that she was right, but then again, it brought up his own situation as well; the possibility that he could possibly end up in the same situation.

"If it's any consolation, I'm afraid of the possibility that I may end up becoming the same," he admitted with another sigh, "That's why I panicked earlier. To me, the footage both of what I've shown you and you've shown me is a possible premonition of the future. I shut my eyes because I feared that I would see myself doing the exact same thing. I have to wonder though; does psychosis like that originally start out as a coping mechanism?"

"Possibly, who knows?" Cornelia said with a shrug.

"Anyway, for what I'm planning, I know that I may end up losing sight of my goal and become just as bad, possibly worse than what I'm setting out to destroy," he went on with a shudder as he knew that he would probably end up using horrendously immoral methods to bring the Emperor down out of necessity.

He knew that in order to survive in the Royal Court, he would have to stoop down to their level otherwise he would be finished. It was not nice and he hated himself for it. Innocents would undoubtedly die in future because of him and he was under no illusions that he would be seen as an angel either. In fact he was aware that he could very well end up being seen as a monster far worse than the Emperor ever was and on that note, he knew that if he were to just outright kill the Emperor, then the chances were that he would just be seen as a martyr since he knew that Britannia's Social Darwinism was far older than the Emperor. Britannia had embraced the idea of Social Darwinism ever since Queen Elizabeth III and her supporters had fled the original homeland and the unofficial "Area Zero" for the Americas and Charles Darwin came up with his theory of evolution. All the Emperor, who by coincidence was called Charles zi Britannia, did was cultivate and nurture Britannia's rhetoric, reiterating it to for his own twisted purposes. Killing the Emperor outright would not end Britannia's rhetoric. Lelouch knew that he would have to be patient and wait for an opportunity to arise; an opportunity to show the Britannians just how wrong they were and how diseased and twisted they had become and also find a way to do it and make sure there was no possible excuse they could use to escape having to face up to it; then and only then will he concentrate on dealing with the Emperor.

"There's no guarantee that I'll come out of this smelling of roses," Lelouch went on, "The world's greyscale and despite my good intentions, I'll probably end up going to Hell when I die. You know what they say; the road to Hell is paved with good intensions. Some of the worst atrocities come from those with the best of intensions in mind."

"Just what is it that you hope to achieve?" Cornelia asked curiously with a hint of fear in her voice; fear of Lelouch getting in over his head.

"The complete and utter destruction of the Holy Britannian Empire," Lelouch admitted with a hard look on his face, staring at Cornelia as if daring her to object, "I want to build a world in which Nunnally can find happiness and which we can be ourselves and not have to fear assassination or what others think of us."

Cornelia's eyes widened in shock at hearing this.

"You want to… Lelouch, do you have any idea what the consequences of that could mean; that is, assuming you're successful," the elder half-sibling said in complete disbelief.

"What, you're not arresting me for treason?" Lelouch asked in genuine surprise as he really believed that Cornelia would object and detain him.

Despite what he had shown her, he had expected her pride to force her into conflict with him.

"How can I after what you've just shown me?" she replied with a wince, indicating that she was still having a hard time coming to terms with what she had seen, "Anyway, are you aware that Britannia's destruction would create a power vacuum and set the EU and the Chinese Federation against one another as they fight to obtain Britannia's old territories and having the world's largest supply of Sakuradite, I doubt Japan will go unscathed."

"I'm not going to destroy Britannia per se, at least not literally," Lelouch explained in his defence, "What I mean is I'm going to destroy the current system Britannia works by. If I were to just waltz up to the Emperor and kill him… assuming I'm not mowed down by his Royal Guard or the Knights of the Round, the people will mostly view him as a martyr since the rhetoric he spews had been there since before he was born. No, just outright killing him would be bad in the long term. What I plan to do is find some way of proving Britannia wrong and making sure that there's nothing anyone can use to come up with an excuse to get out of facing up to it. I want Britannia to take a long hard look at itself and know that what it's doing is immoral, barbaric and wrong and once I've achieved that, only then will I deal with the Emperor."

"So you plan to discredit him, is that it?" Cornelia asked curiously, wondering whether or not if it was possible.

"In a sense," Lelouch admitted with a nod, "Though discrediting someone is when you take something they do or say and twist it in such a way that people interpret it as something else entirely. I plan on using the truth to "discredit" him as you say."

"That's still discrediting, Lelouch," Cornelia said simply as she folded her arms.

"So then, Cornelia, what will you do?" Lelouch asked curiously, "You know what I'm up to. Are you going to haul me in for treason?"

Cornelia shook her head.

"Then I guess the footage I've shown you was more effective than I thought," Lelouch commented with a smile.

"Though, I'll say it again, I'll be deployed in future and probably end up committing those same atrocities," Cornelia said with a grimace.

"Well, I'll probably end up no better, but I will say, if you must, could at least try and keep it to a minimum?" Lelouch asked and Cornelia just looked down at the floor in shame.

"No promises," she said simply, "It may seem suspicious."

"Too bad," Lelouch groaned, clearly not happy with the situation.

From then on the two half-siblings sat in silence, each contemplating their respective situations and Cornelia, re-evaluating her views on Britannia.

Outside the Kururugi Estate, "Area Eleven" 13th September 2010 a.t.b.

It was the early hours on the morning on the day after Lelouch had left for Pendragon and the sun had yet to raise its light from above the horizon. However, despite Britannia's invasion, the Kururugi Estate remained virtually untouched despite being out in the open and easy to spot. However, somehow the Britannian soldiers had overlooked it and left it alone, which would be considered strange due to the fact that the estate had housed the Japanese Prime Minister and his family. Not that the Prime Minister actually mattered anymore since he was dead. However, members of his family could easily be seen as symbols of hope by the Japanese and thus Britannia would have perfect reason to raid the place and arrest or kill the occupants inside. After all, killing those who could be seen as possible symbols for resistance could possibly demoralise the Japanese further, at least that's how Britannia saw it.

However, even as those thoughts passed through the woman's head, she found herself dismissing them almost immediately since those particular facts did not interest her. Standing behind a nearby tree as she watched the estate's guards on their regular patrols, ready to spring into action and protect the occupants inside from any dangers that may make themselves known, she had to admit that she undoubtedly would fall into that category if she were to be caught. Not that she was planning anything that would hurt anyone inside, but then again, the majority of occupants in the estate were of no interest to her whatsoever and even the one occupant that was of interest to her, she had no intentions of actually harming them. Unfortunately, she knew that the guards would not see it that way.

The Kururugi Estate was a traditional Japanese mansion that seemed to had been built during Japan's Sengoku jidai era and was fairly large with a really huge garden that housed a variety of plants, trees and even a pond that was home to a variety of small fish. The woman had to admit that in the daytime on a sunny day, the place was picturesque as the sun bathed the estate in its golden light. However, for the moment, that was not her concern at the moment either. She had to admit that the area was beautiful since she had explored it countless times before while she had watched Lelouch and Nunnally from a distance, but right now, her main concern was getting inside.

Earlier she had had witnessed Lelouch discussing his plan to return to the Homeland alone with the Kururugi matriarch and her son and despite having walked off once the conversation had ended, she had been told to return and to make sure that his sister was okay. After all, her brother had just up and left her with a group of complete strangers… well maybe complete strangers was not the word she was looking for since Lelouch had gotten to know a few of them fairly well, but the main concern was that very few if any of the Kururugi Family actually liked Nunnally and the woman had been told to make sure that no harm came to her as there was the possibility that Byakko Kururugi could not be trusted. Not that the woman particularly cared or anything, but still, whatever helped alleviate her boredom, she was willing to play along for now.

"Not what you had planned, but unfortunately you must make do," she mused to herself, thinking of the one who told her to keep an eye on Nunnally, "Though someday, I will make a contract with Lelouch and he will fulfil my wish."

Lelouch's departure had been such a major surprise for her as wel,l for she had been planning on approaching him someday so that she could form a contract with him. She had formed a contract with countless others in the past, but none of them had been able to fulfil her wish, either because they died before reaching the point where they could have effectively fulfilled her wish or had been driven insane by the power she had given them. Her last contractee however, had been a rather unique case. One could argue that the latter was true, but in truth even when she made the contract, the woman could tell that her contractee had absolutely no intentions of fulfilling her wish and had decided to use the power they'd been granted for their own ends. Not that the woman cared since she would have normally gone off and found someone else, but she had stayed since this particular contractee had helped to stave off her boredom; that and she was also curious as to what they were up to.

Nonetheless, eventually she had left out of boredom after her contractee had apparently died and now here she was in Japan watching a disgraced Prince and Princess and she had decided that the Prince would be the one who would help her fulfil her wish. She did not know what it was, but she had a feeling that this time, Lelouch would be the one who would finally help her fulfil her wish. There was something about Lelouch that seemed to set him apart from everyone else, though she could not place her finger on exactly what it was. She had made countless contracts before and none of the others were anything special and Lelouch certainly did not look like he was anything special; especially since he lacked physical fitness. However, despite this, the woman somehow knew that he would be the one that would help her fulfil her wish; it was just a feeling she had, though she argued that she had had similar feelings before with her past contractees, but this time the feeling seemed to be even stronger than normal. Somehow, she knew that this time would be different.

"Don't get your hopes up," she told herself, shaking her head, "You're just getting desperate."

"Hey, who's there?" a voice came from nearby, startling the woman.

"Shit!" she cursed, realising that she had spoken aloud and had alerted the guards to her presence.

She was about to get up and flee when a light suddenly shone behind her, causing her to turn and standing in front of her, dressed in a dark grey business suit with black shoes, dark grey trousers, a white shirt, a tie and jacket the same colour as his trousers and armed with a flashlight in his left hand and a handgun in his right was one of the guards from the Kururugi Estate. Unfortunately for her, the guard shone the light right in her face and the brightness obscured her vision and so, she was unable to make out any individual distinguishing features; not that she cared or anything since now, she knew that she was in hot water.

Meanwhile, inside the estate, completely unaware of what was going on outside, Byakko Kururugi lay awake in her futon with her hands clasped behind her head. For some reason, she just could not sleep. She did not know why, but something just refused to let sleep claim her and so, she found herself staring up at the ceiling while thinking about recent events and knowing that now, she was playing host to a Britannian Princess; not that she really minded. After all, Nunnally and her brother, Lelouch had both become like a second son and daughter to her and she found that she pretty much enjoyed their company. It had been six to seven months ago with the two Britannian Royals had arrived as political hostages for the duration for the Sakuradite negotiations and Byakko had frowned when she learned that her husband, Genbu had not been particularly all that welcoming to them and had assigned them an old disused tool-shed that was falling into a state of disrepair and unfortunately, it had been their son, Suzaku's self-designated play area and Suzaku was definitely not happy at having the Prince and Princess staying there. As far as he was concerned, that was his property and he felt like Lelouch and Nunnally were trespassing and it did led to fighting between Lelouch and Suzaku, though they made an effort to avoid one another whenever possible, but when it was not possible, they would always fight and Byakko remembered breaking a few of their fights up. She remembered how at first, Lelouch had been very distrustful of her, though he was polite when he spoke to her. She had disagreed with Genbu's attitude towards them and had decided to go and complain, but Lelouch assured her that it was okay and Lelouch even politely refused the servants that she had assigned him and his sister as Lelouch had decided to do everything himself, though the way he put it, he wanted to prove that he was alive and not just an animated corpse and that had confused her, but she had decided to just leave it since back then, Lelouch had been rather weary of her and did not completely trust her.

However, over time, she and Lelouch had become rather close, much to Suzaku's chagrin. In fact she recalled breaking up a few of Lelouch and Suzaku's fights and reprimanding both of them and forcing them to apologise to one another, though neither had meant the apology, but both just accepted it anyway just so they could get away. She remembered though that her closeness with Lelouch had put a strain on her relationship with Suzaku and she remembered many times in which he complained to her about how she no longer had time for him and was "kissing it up" to the Britannian Prince and no matter how many times she had tried to explain it to him, he just refused to listen and Suzaku had become like a whining child throwing a temper tantrum at not getting his way and Byakko had seriously started to fear that he would do something drastic to Lelouch.

"But that was not meant to be," she mused with a chuckle and then her smile turned into a grimace.

She remembered attending a meeting between Genbu and Taizō Kirihara and Genbu had dragged Suzaku along in order to teach him a lesson about the adult world. Negotiations with Britannia over the Sakuradite were not getting anywhere and so, in one last ditch effort to prevent a Britannian invasion, Genbu had decided to divorce her and marry Nunnally instead, which had made her sick to her stomach. Her husband had decided that he was going to divorce her in favour of a girl who had not even turned ten-years-olds. It was disgusting, but then again, she never had gotten on all that well with her husband anyway. All she was to him was a means of producing an heir and she had accomplished that when she had given birth to Suzaku and so, Genbu did not really need her anymore, though he still kept her around due to who her family were and he feared retaliation if he tried to get rid of her. However, he was confident enough that if he married Nunnally, then he could have Britannia deal with the Shinozaki Family and the Kururugi Family, despite their dislike of the Britannian Prince and Princess had agreed, though she was sure that they were seeking a means of escaping the watchful eyes of her family; most of whom she was on bad terms with, but none of the Kururugis knew that. Anyway, Byakko was rather infuriated and disgusted at Genbu and feared what he was planning on doing to Nunnally since Genbu seemed to have a thing for handicapped children. She remembered that in the past, Genbu had visited children's disabled hospitals as part of a series of publicity stunts and provided funds to them and she also remembered one time she had discovered a twelve-year-old girl in crutches who had broken her left leg sitting in the estate's main ima (Japanese living room) and who had told her that Genbu had invited her there, which had shocked her beyond belief and she had gone and demanded an explanation from Genbu, but Genbu assured her that he was not planning on anything inappropriate with the girl and was basically embracing his kind and caring side, though Byakko had remained sceptical. Nonetheless, nothing happened to the girl and from what Byakko could see, Genbu had been sincere when he told her that he was not going to do anything to her, but Byakko wondered if perhaps that had been because she had happened to catch him beforehand. It did not really matter since after the girl left, neither she nor anyone else had entered the estate since then.

Anyway, Nunnally had somehow gotten wind of Genbu's plan and had disappeared with Lelouch frantically searching for her. From what she heard, after Lelouch had confronted Suzaku about it, believing that he had a hand in her disappearance, Suzaku had decided to help look for her and he found her in one of his secret bases that he had dug and somehow managed to convert into a room. However, he had fallen right into it and in an attempt to get out, he had accidentally caused the room to flood, though he managed to put Nunnally atop a box and seeing how the box could not support both of them, Suzaku had stayed in the water manoeuvring the box to make sure that it did not tip over. Nonetheless, Nunnally had been found and Suzaku had been bedridden for a few days with hypothermia, though it was then that Lelouch and Suzaku had become friends and later, Byakko had been relieved that Kaguya and Nunnally also became friends after three boys had attempted to mug Kaguya and Nunnally came up and offered herself as a target and then Lelouch came to her defence and when he was overpowered, Suzaku had come and chased the boys off.

That had been one of the happiest days of her life since she had been hoping that Lelouch and Suzaku would become friends and not only that, but Lelouch had gone to Genbu and managed to talk him out of marrying his sister, though she was still unsure how he managed to pull it off, but she knew that Genbu had not been all that pleased and the Kururugi Family had gone back to despising Lelouch and Nunnally. However, eventually Lelouch had opened up and he told her about what had happened, how his mother had been assassinated and how Nunnally had been crippled and blinded in that same attack. He also told her how his father, the Emperor had dismissed the whole affair and how he had gone to demand an explanation when his patience had ran out and how he had told his father exactly how he felt about him to his face, which was why he and Nunnally had been sent to Japan and after Lelouch told her what the Emperor had said to him, his comment about wanting to prove that he was not just an animated corpse suddenly became clear. His father had practically told him that he had been dead to him from the moment he was born and that everything he had, the Emperor had given him and so, Lelouch was doing everything himself in a bid to prove his father wrong. He wanted to prove that he was not what his father said he was, that he was capable of looking after himself.

That had been really shocking to hear. It was shocking to hear that a man had banished his own children to a foreign land and why, just because his son wanted answers as to why he had disregarded his wife's death and had thrown a tantrum when his father callously called his sister weak. What sort of monster was the Emperor of Britannia? Lelouch had every right to demand answers since the Emperor did not look as if he had particularly cared about his wife after she had been assassinated. She did however, find that strange though. From everything she had learned about Britannia beforehand, Marianne vi Britannia had seemed to be his favourite wife. Of all the Emperor's Imperial Consorts, Marianne had stood out the most and it was not because of her status as a commoner. Yes, Byakko knew that Marianne had made an awful lot of enemies in the past. Marianne had been a phenomenal soldier and had been the Knight of Six when she had ascended to the Knights of the Round, but her commoner status had earned her contempt from the nobility and that was even before she had married into the Imperial Family. Marianne had been a prodigy in the military and had even attended academic schools that were normally reserved for the nobility, but that had earned her a lot of hostility and the fact that she did so well had only served to rub the nobility the wrong way. They had been infuriated that a mere commoner had had the gall to surpass them and prove that their views on the world were wrong. However, she had caught the eye of the then-Prince, Charles zi Britannia and when he had become Emperor, he had made her an Imperial Consort and from what Byakko could determine, she had been Charles's favourite, so it had surprised her to learn that he had callously dismissed her assassination.

"Could their relationship have turned sour in private?" the Kururugi matriarch wondered curiously.

That would possibly explain it. After all, what was shown to the public did not necessarily reflect what went on in private. It could be possible that somewhere along the line, Charles and Marianne had had a falling out and had maintained the illusion that everything was fine to prevent the public from poking their noses in their business. Byakko knew that if the public had gotten wind that the Emperor and one of his consorts were having marital issues then the press would be all over the story trying their best to get to the bottom of it. If indeed, Charles and Marianne did have a falling out, then it would also explain why Marianne had been killed in the Aries Villa. According to Lelouch, the homes of the Emperor's Imperial Consorts were some of the most tightly guarded homes in all of Pendragon second only to the Imperial Palace. There was no way terrorists could have snuck in, murdered his mother and managed to get away and from what Lelouch had told her, the attack had occurred in broad daylight and so that led Lelouch to believe that his mother's assassination had been an inside job and after summing everything up, she had to say that she agreed with him and if indeed Charles and Marianne had had a falling out, it would make sense as the Emperor would have high enough security clearance to order the security off the premises while the assassins moved in.

"But to fall out with her to the point of wanting her dead?" Byakko went on, "Just what could have happened between them that was so upsetting that the Emperor would want her dead?"

Of course, she was only speculating a possible motive. She honestly did not know what had happened and therefore could not say for sure what happened, but she did have to admit that there was something about the whole thing that did not sit too well with her. Something definitely was not right there. In any case, Lelouch had confronted his father and he and Nunnally had been sent to Japan as a result and judging from what Lelouch had said and from the negotiations were going, she could honestly say that even months before the actual invasion, she knew that Japan was going to be invaded. The lives of Lelouch and Nunnally did not matter in the slightest to the Emperor. Effectively, they had been sent to Japan to die and the invasion force had ultimately been their executioners. To the Lelouch, it must have felt like the war had been his execution. She did remember Cornelia, Lelouch's half-sister when she had met with her telling her that the Emperor had declared Lelouch and Nunnally dead even before the invasion force had left Britannia and that sent a raw passionate fury rushing through her veins. The Emperor had practically lied to his own people and had attempted to martyrize his children just so he could have an excuse to invade and the Kururugi matriarch found herself agreeing with Lelouch when he had said that the Emperor had sent him and Nunnally to Japan when he had already planned to invade anyway.

"That monster, how could he treat his own children like that?" she thought as she felt her hands ball into fists from behind her head, "He sends two of his children to a country that he's already planning to invade and why, because his son throws a temper tantrum after receiving an answer to a question that he had a legitimate right to know?"

She shook her head in disgust as she relaxed her hands. Charles zi Britannia was an inhuman monster for what he did to his own children and she had to wonder if he expected that their Japanese captors would end up killing them for him and Byakko knew that when the invasion begun, the Kururugi Family had called for Lelouch and Nunnally's deaths and Byakko found herself threatening to get her family to start a blood feud to get them to back off, though she knew that that would not hold up forever. In truth, there were elements in the Kururugi Family who did not like her in the slightest and had expressed extreme disappointment in Genbu's choice of wife. Basically, they did not like the fact that she was a kunoichi and they hated the ninja for their lifestyle and saw them as "dishonourable cutthroats" and some had even gone as far as to accuse the Shinozaki Family of bartering her off for some ulterior motive.

"Unfortunately, they happen to be right," Byakko thought, shaking her head in disgust as she remembered that her own brother, the head of the Shinozaki Family had indeed bartered her off to Genbu with an ulterior motive in mind.

However, despite that, none of the Kururugi Family knew that because of that, she was on bad terms with the majority of her family. In fact, the only one she could honestly say she was on good terms with was her niece, Sayoko, who was coincidentally under the employ of the Ashford Family; the same Ashford Family had had supported Marianne and whom Lelouch had told her to get in contact with, which she had done when Lelouch had left.

As far as Lelouch's plan was concerned, she did have misgivings and did not agree with him, but the knowledge of what his father had done to them had caused her to go along with the plan. Lelouch had decided to go back to Pendragon, effectively abandoning his sister and leaving her with them and Byakko had been shocked, but after hearing Lelouch out, she had reluctantly agreed since she did not want the Emperor getting his hands on Nunnally either. Lelouch had told her that despite Nunnally's disabilities, the Emperor could still use her as a means of controlling him and threatening to have her pay for his failures and Byakko agreed that that was a possibility and she definitely would not put it past the Emperor to do something like that.

Anyway, despite her misgivings and disagreements, she had done what Lelouch had said and she found herself thankful that he had given her advanced warning of his half-sister, Cornelia. Despite being able to remain civil, Byakko had known that Cornelia did not like her in the slightest. From Cornelia's body language, it was clear that she had wanted to get the whole thing over with as soon as possible and for a while, it seemed as if Cornelia was going to take Nunnally with her as well, but Lelouch had managed to dissuade her, though Cornelia did threaten her if any harm befell Nunnally and it had caused the Kururugi matriarch to gulp as she knew from Cornelia's tone that that was no empty threat and that she had every intention of following through on it if anything happened to Nunnally and she could not help but worry about the Kururugi Family as they would certainly most likely try to harm Nunnally. However, fortunately, Lelouch's plan to enlist the aid of the Ashfords had helped appease them to a certain degree. Though they did state that they did not want Nunnally staying in the estate any longer and decided to have her occupy one of Genbu's many properties that he had purchased over the years. Genbu had a lot of private properties that the public did not know about and he frequently used them for retreats, so there was no problem there. Nunnally would be moved to one of Genbu's retreat houses and when she had contacted the Ashfords, they had been sceptical at first, but upon hearing Nunnally's voice, they had relented, though she had arranged a meeting with Ruben K. Ashford scheduled for much later in the afternoon in which they would discuss the arrangement.

However, her ears suddenly perked and twitched as she heard a high-pitched wind/whistling sound and recognising it as the sound of a projectile pushing the air in front of it while travelling at speed, she immediately shot up into a sitting position and jumped out of her futon just as a kunai knife came in through the open window and landed where her head had been on the floor. Tied to the handle of the kunai was a piece of red string that had a note attached to the other end. Her look darkened as she glared down at the note, even as she reached down to pick it up, still on guard in case whoever had thrown the kunai decided to launch another attack.

"Red string," she growled furiously, "Red string, there's only one person I know who would use red string."

She then walked over to the light switch in her room and turned on the light and waited a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the light, she then took the note and read it.

"Dear Byakko-chan," the note read and Byakko growled even more furiously as she knew exactly who she was dealing with and to say that she hated them would be a massive understatement, "If you managed to dodge my attack from your futon, then it proves that your escapades as Genbu-san's shufu has not caused your skills to diminish. If not, then that's just tough. Anyway, assuming that you survived, I would like to have a word with you concerning your mission…"

Byakko grimaced as she read that part. Of course, the only reason she would be contacted in that manner was to do with her mission; the ulterior motive that some of the Kururugi Family suspected the Shinozaki's had for bartering her off to Genbu.

"If you want you know the details, then I suggest you get your ass in gear and get out here otherwise I'll just keep harassing you," the letter went on and Byakko actually chuckled.

"Well at least she's honest about what she'll do, I'll give her that much," she mused to herself before continuing to read.

"I will, however, tell you that Kamichi-sama, your esteemed onī-sama is not too happy with you at the moment, but if you want to find out more, then come and meet me outside at the nearby hilltop west of the Kururugi Estate and please be quick about it; you already know that my patience has a very short fuse, your beloved giri no ane, Shinozaki Yukari, formally Hayamoto Yukari," the letter concluded.

"Yukari, you bitch!" Byakko seethed and she ground her teeth together, "I swear that if not for the fact that you married my brother, I'd have killed you long ago; beloved giri no ane my ass."

She then walked over to the closet in her room and after opening the door, she armed herself with a variety of kunai, shuriken and other equipment that a ninja would normally use since she did anticipate a fight with sister-in-law. She wanted to be prepared; especially considering that in all their previous encounters in which they had come to blows, Byakko had not managed to score a single victory against Yukari. Once she had assembled her weaponry, she then jumped right out the open window, still in her nightdress, knowing that with Yukari's patience, she would not have time to get dressed before her sister-in-law came back to investigate and mount another attack.

Pendragon's Main Airport, Britannian Homeland 12th September 2010 a.t.b.

Cornelia's private jet had just touched down at Pendragon Airport and Lelouch was getting ready to disembark. So this was it, he figured. Here he was back home in the Britannian Mainland. Unfortunately for the ten-year-old prince, he did not get much sleep during the long seventeen-hour trip and so, he felt rather tired and jetlagged, though thinking about the trip, since he crossed the International Date Line, he was still in the 12th of September despite the fact that the flight had taken over seventeen hours and he had left Japan about nine o'clock at night and it was night right now here in Pendragon. In fact, Lelouch could tell that it was around about ten o'clock at night and so, with this in mind, he joked about how he had arrived back in Pendragon only an hour after he left Japan since he had left Japan round about nine o'clock, Japan's local time and arrived back in Pendragon round about ten o'clock Pendragon's local time, which was an hour after nine, which was when he left Japan.

Upon exiting the doorway and stepping onto the stairway that had been attached to the plane, the young prince groaned as he looked down and saw the one thing he had grown to hate perhaps even more than he hated the nobility; journalists and reporters. Cornelia, who was beside him to his left, had told him that she had contacted the media and announced his survival and that she was going to collect him, though Lelouch had been relieved to hear that she had not mentioned Nunnally. The last thing he needed was his whole plan falling apart all because Cornelia had let it slip that Nunnally was alive. Anyway, he was not too happy at the media's presence upon his arrival as he knew that he was likely to be hounded and bombarded with a series of awkward questions that he would rather not have to answer. Despite his tiredness, he was able to notice that the congregation of reporters had also caused a crowd to gather round about them and he could hear the people cheering him while talking amongst themselves. To them, it was probably a miracle that he was alive; especially considering that the Emperor had already declared both him and Nunnally dead before sending the invasion force. He would not be surprised if that bastard of a man had given some big speech about how he was sending in the military to avenge his "dead" son and daughter. It made his blood boil just thinking about how the Emperor had lied to the masses. Their father had lied while knowing that his children were still alive. He wondered if perhaps the Emperor had been expecting their Japanese hosts to turn on them and kill them. That would seem plausible; especially since the majority of the Kururugi Family had wanted to do so right from day one when he and Nunnally had first arrived in Japan. It took everything he had just to keep his face neutral as he felt his rage bubble up from the deepest reaches of his soul as he silently cursed the Emperor.

"Prince Lelouch is that really you?" one reporter asked as Lelouch and Cornelia reached the bottom of the stairs, though Lelouch just continued to walk on ahead of him.

"Prince Lelouch, could you please spare a few words," another asked as the entire entourage attempted to get closer, only to be held back by the airport's security.

"Prince Lelouch, His Majesty, the Emperor reported that you and Princess Nunnally had both been murdered by those barbaric Elevens, do you have anything to say on this?" a third asked as the entire crowd fought against the security guards; all wanting to get a word from the returning prince.

Lelouch just grimaced as he walked on as he pondered whether or not to answer them. Two things he hated about Britannia were the media and nobles. He was under no illusions of his standing in the Royal Court. He was the son of a "commoner whore" who had somehow managed to bewitch the Emperor and seduce him. As far as the majority of the nobility were concerned, his very existence was a crime. To them, he was nothing more than a bastard and a mistake and they reviled him for it. He knew that very few of his half-siblings and the nobility would be happy to see him. He knew that the majority of them were probably hoping that he and Nunnally would perish during the war with Japan and then they would be rid of the tainted vi Britannia branch and wipe away a stain on their family history. However, the majority of his half-siblings had mostly kept their contempt for him and Nunnally beneath the surface, only displaying it whenever they felt they could get away with it. He remembered at his mother's funeral, most of his half-siblings had all gathered round and attempted to comfort him, saying how sorry they were, but Lelouch knew that that had been a lie. In truth, the majority were glad that Marianne was dead and he would not have been surprised if, after they returned home, they had celebrated the demise of the woman who had become the bane of their existence.

The nobility were no better; in fact they had been worse since they had been more open in their contempt for Marianne and her children and Lelouch's eyes narrowed as he remembered overhearing two members of the nobility discussing Marianne's death and what hurt the most was that they had known that he was in earshot and had intentionally insulted his mother and said scornful and hurtful things about her just to get a rise out of him. To the nobility, Marianne had been a threat. She was a threat to their warped views of the world since she had, time and again proven them wrong and they just could not stand that. They could not stand the fact that a commoner had proven herself to be just as good, if not better than they were in certain areas and it infuriated them to no end that a commoner had dared challenge the status quo and had the gall to surpass them and prove them "inferior". In fact, he remembered one instance in which Carine ne Britannia's mother, Henrietta ne Britannia had been harassing him and Nunnally and Marianne had intervened while piloting the Ganymede, the Ashford Family's prototype Knightmare Frame when they were still considered part of the nobility. All Marianne had done was slap the Ganymede's hand down in front of Henrietta and stared at her while adorning a deceptively kind and gentle smile and Lelouch remembered how Henrietta had even wet herself with fright before running away, feeling rather humiliated. Nonetheless this did not help their standing in the Imperial Family's hierarchy; in fact, it had ultimately only made things worse for them as the nobility felt that Marianne had been showing off and had used the opportunity to rub her "superiority" over them in their faces. Lelouch remembered in the past seeing the glares that the nobility had given his mother when they believed she was not looking. The way they glared at Marianne; it was as if they regarded her as some kind of freak of nature and not as a fellow human being. It had terrified him that the nobility regarded his mother and by extension, him and Nunnally as monsters in human clothing. To them, they were not even human, but something else entirely. One man actually had the gall to go up and insult Marianne to her face and told her exactly how he had thought about her, though Marianne's sweet smile did not leave her face and Lelouch remembered how his mother had reached over and whispered something in his ear and though he could not tell what it was she had said, it had clearly unnerved the man and he had given Marianne a wide-berth after that and had seemed rather hasty in his bid to leave once that particular function was over.

Anyway, pushing thoughts of the past to one side, he concentrated on the present problem at hand; the reporters. He hated reporters, he despised them. Officially, it was a reporter's job to go out and report news. Unfortunately, the editors of a few of the newspapers that employed them were not interested in reporting news; they were more interested in selling newspapers so that they and their benefactors behind the scenes could become even richer than they already were and by selling newspapers, that meant twisting the truth the hyping it up; making it seem bigger than it actually was and in some cases, it was just plain lies spun from comments or actions that were deliberately taken out of context in order to ensure that the masses would come to the interpretation they wanted them to come to. Lelouch knew that he had to be careful here. Anything he said or did; even something remotely harmless, could easily be twisted to create a life-ruining scandal that could ultimately ruin him. That was why he hated reporters. There were those among them who had built their entire careers out of ruining the names of good upstanding people and while on that note, remembering the footage he had captured in Japan, he had ultimately decided not to release it to the media as he knew that they would undoubtedly edit the footage and twist it in such a way in order to turn it into one big pity party for him and he knew that any attempt to correct them would only succeed in labelling him a "Number Sympathiser". It did not help matters that many of the media companies were either owned or backed by members of the nobility and so, Lelouch, knowing that he was vastly unpopular with the nobility as well as the majority of his family, was sure that many of the newspaper editors were under orders from their noble benefactors to dig up whatever dirt they could find on him and hype it up so they could ruin him. It did not matter to them that he was only ten and it definitely did not matter to them that he had just returned from a warzone. He was nothing more than a blight on Britannian Society and had to be eliminated. He knew that things such as age did not matter to the nobility and he knew that they would definitely not pull their punches when they went after him. Whenever a member of the nobility fell into disgrace, their entire family also paid the price; even the innocents. He remembered hearing a story of a how a former Viscount had been framed for treason and not only was he executed, but his entire family were also executed along with him and the youngest had only been two-years-old; not even a toddler and yet he had been killed just because of who his father was.

"Prince Lelouch, where is Princess Nunnally?" a reporter's question came, managing to penetrate his mind and pull him back into reality.

"Unfortunately, I'm afraid to say that my beloved sister is no longer among the living," Lelouch finally replied, though it was a lie.

He decided that he best answer at least a few questions since even silence could be used for a possible smear campaign.

"His Majesty, the Emperor stated that those barbarians in Area Eleven had murdered you and Princess Nunnally, what are your comments on that?" another reporter asked and Lelouch recalled hearing a similar question earlier.

"I'm sure that it must've been a misunderstanding of some sort, either through a breakdown in communications or perhaps the Elevens had lied to His Majesty," Lelouch replied, trying his absolute best to keep a neutral expression and not throw up at having just defended the Emperor.

He hated it. He hated speaking up in that man's defence and he, more than anything wanted to speak his mind and let everyone know exactly how he truly felt about his father. He felt himself shudder at having just defended his worst enemy. He felt like he wanted to take a knife and run it through his own heart. Unfortunately he knew that showing his true colours would be suicide right now. He would be playing right into the nobility's hands and he could not afford that right now. Right now, he needed to concentrate on survival. He needed to wait and bide his time. He needed to work on gaining the Emperor's trust and gather potential allies as well as navigating his way through the ever-changing river currents of the Royal Court and he must be ready to change direction and go with the currents on a whim as the currents were easily unpredictable and prone to change at the drop of a hat.

"Hey, give the boy some room!" Cornelia suddenly shouted as she glared at the reporters, "Can't you see how tired he is!"

She honestly could not believe the nerve of those… those parasites. Lelouch was tired and jetlagged and had just returned from being in a warzone. He was no doubt traumatised on top of everything else and yet, those insensitive morons were trying to get right in his face and were rather excited to hear about his escapades as if he were some hero out of a fictional story. True, she had been the one to inform the media of his survival, but that had only been because she was unsure of what their father would do if she just gone and picked up Lelouch and brought him back in secret. She knew the reason why Lelouch and Nunnally had been sent to Japan in the first place. She knew that it had been because Lelouch had lost his temper with the Emperor and their exile had been his response. However, never in her wildest dreams had she thought that the Emperor would invade before getting his two children out of there or at least give them advanced warning and not only that, but seeing Lelouch and Nunnally and how they had both been in good health, she had come to understand that the Emperor had lied when he had declared them both dead. Their father had lied. He had declared them dead and had sent the military to invade Japan when he knew full well that they were both still alive.

Rage overcome the Second Princess as she remembered hearing her father's speech on how Lelouch and Nunnally had both been murdered in cold blood and how he was sending in the military to "teach the Japanese a lesson", though when he had made that speech, he had not acted like the grieving father and seemed to use the whole event to reiterate Britannia's age-old rhetoric like he had always had done at such events. Cornelia was furious that their father had lied to them; lied to the people. How could a man do something so horrible to his own children? All Lelouch had wanted to know was why no one was doing anything about the death of his mother and when the Emperor just brushed him off in disinterest, Lelouch had understandably lost it and lashed out in anger and the Emperor responded by sending him and his sister to a country that he was already planning to invade in the hopes of martyrizing them and use their "deaths" as an excuse to invade.

Why? That had been the question that dominated Cornelia's mind. Why had their father gone ahead and done this? Marianne was supposed to be have been his favourite among his one hundred and eight consorts. She knew that Marianne was the Emperor's favourite since she was the one that Cornelia often saw in the Emperor's company. Cornelia remembered how she and Euphemia had been frequent visitors to the Aries Villa in the past and so, naturally they have been quite close with Lelouch and Nunnally. However, Cornelia looked up to and revered Marianne for her skills. She idolised Marianne and remembered how she had once been the Knight of Six before she had married Charles. Cornelia had been born before her father had become Emperor and Marianne was about ten years older than she was. What really had set Marianne apart from the rest of the military was that she had only been a teenager when she had enlisted in the military and her skills were unmatched and seemingly flawless. However, gaining favour with her father had elevated Marianne to the Knights of the Round and she had proceeded to help her father end the Emblem of Blood, a dark time for the Imperial Family which was marred by deception and in-fighting over succession to the throne. She had met Marianne at the age of six and had been rather taken in with Marianne's kind and sweet smile and how kind Marianne had been to her. Marianne's smile, that was what the Second Princess had adored the most about her. It was a rather peaceful and sweet smile that seemed to light up the mood in a dark or depressing situation. Cornelia had found herself enlisting in the military, wanting to follow in her role-model's footsteps. She wanted to be just like her in the hopes of someday impressing her and Marianne was indeed impressed with her. In fact, Marianne had eventually elevated her to being in charge of her personal guard, which handled security round the Aries Villa. That had been one of the happiest moments of her life and she took her job really seriously as she just wanted to be close to Marianne.

Unfortunately, the night before she was assassinated, Marianne had been behaving rather strangely and had ordered her to withdraw the villa's security for some reason and despite her misgivings; Cornelia had followed through on that order, though now she wished that she had not since it has cost Marianne her life. At the time, before the assassination, Cornelia had thought of it as nothing since it had not been the first time that Marianne had ordered the security detail to withdraw and Cornelia had no problems with that since she figured that Marianne had just wanted some privacy and everyone was entitled to their privacy. However, that time she had an ominous feeling, sort of like a bad omen and despite bringing up her concerns with Marianne; Marianne had dismissed those claims as paranoia and assured her that she would be fine. However, it had ended with Marianne being shot the next day and if that was not enough, Nunnally had apparently been caught in the crossfire and had been paralysed from the waist down and if that was not enough, the trauma of what she had witnessed had caused psychosomatic blindness. Afterwards, she had decided to mount an investigation, but it did not really get anywhere and if that was not enough, the Emperor had demanded that she cease her investigation and had deemed it a waste of time.

"But why?" Cornelia thought to herself.

That did not make any sense. Why did His Majesty call off the investigation? Marianne was supposed to be his favourite and yet, he had callously dismissed her assassination as if it were nothing. Rumours had been flying in the Royal Court that perhaps they had both had a falling out and His Majesty had had a hand in the assassination himself, but Cornelia knew that that was not true. She had often seen her father and Marianne in one another's company plenty of times before, even when they were not aware of her presence and from what she could see, their relationship was not under any strain whatsoever. In fact, they seemed to have gotten closer than ever. Okay, the only disagreement Marianne and the Emperor had was when it came to their children with Marianne trying to encourage the Emperor to spend more time with her children and the Emperor had objected, but it had not led to a massive falling out between them and definitely not to the point where the Emperor had wanted Marianne dead. Aside from that, everything between them was fine, so His Majesty could not have been behind it; though Cornelia had to admit that it was possible that he did know something about the assassination and was suppressing it for some reason, but if that was the case, then why? What possible reason could the Emperor have for suppressing the truth about his favourite consort's assassination?

She did however; remember that the previous night when Marianne had asked her to withdraw the security detail that Marianne had been behaving rather strangely, though she could not really put her finger on it just what was odd about her. Marianne seemed normal when Cornelia saw her and nothing seemed out of place. However, for some reason, Cornelia had felt as if she was getting some rather strange vibes from Marianne and despite appearing to be normal, something had told Cornelia that Marianne was not her usual self. She could have sworn, though that when she had brought up her misgivings about leaving her on her own that Marianne's look had seemed to darken somewhat, but it had been so brief that Cornelia had just passed it off as her imagination or perhaps Marianne had been in a rather dark mood and had managed to regain her composure before she could lash out. That would make sense, she supposed. Perhaps Marianne had been in a dark mood and had just wanted some privacy to calm down.

"But that still doesn't explain why His Majesty's so intent on suppressing the truth," she thought to herself, shaking her head as she decided to put those thoughts to the back of her head and focus on the present.

In any case, the reason she had told the media of Lelouch's survival was because she was fearful that their father would have him disposed of before anyone could learn of his survival had she brought him back in secret. By going to the media and using the masses, she was sure her father would think twice before trying to eliminate Lelouch since it would draw too much suspicion if he was suddenly pronounced dead again. However, had she known that she would have been returning to a hyped-up media circus of insensitive story-hungry parasites, she would have not told them that she would have been arriving in Pendragon and instead would have diverted her jet to another airport in the Homeland and announced his return after he was safely in the Imperial Palace.

"I'm sure that the Prince is fairly capable of answering for himself," one reporter shot in response to her earlier comment.

Anger suddenly washed over the Second Princess as she found herself reaching for a handgun that she had holstered at her left hip and before anyone knew what was happening, she raised the handgun and fired. The unlucky reporter felt as if his heart had suddenly leapt into her throat as he squeezed his eyes shut and raised his hands in a futile defence as he tensed up, expecting to fall to the ground dead. However, after a few second and realising that he was still alive, he rather hesitantly opened his right eye and saw Cornelia with her arm outstretched in front of her, holding her handing with smoke rising up from the end of the barrel. However, it took just a moment for the poor reporter to realise that the gun was not aimed at him, but was aimed a little to the left of his head and looking behind him; he saw that the bullet was firmly lodged in the side of the door of an airport tanker. He then relaxed and breathed a sigh of relieve.

"Next time, it'll be for real," Cornelia warned with a challenging glare as if daring him to challenge her again, "Next time, I won't miss."

She then looked around to see that her little "performance" had stunned the rest of the reporters and the surrounding crowds into silence. They all stared at her with looks of shock and disbelief written all over their faces, unable to believe what had just happened. Even Lelouch, who was beside her looked up at her with an identical look on his face. However, Cornelia just ignored him as she glared around the airport.

"Any more questions?" she asked in a furious tone that promised serious repercussions to anyone who did have more question.

One brave soul however did look as if he was about to speak up, but upon noticing him, Cornelia focused her glare on him and her eyes narrowed. Fortunately, the man happened to get the message as the small amount of courage he had managed to gather seemed to leave him and he appeared to wilt under Second Princess's furious gaze.

"Come on Lelouch, let's go," she said in s tone of finality as she grabbed Lelouch by the hand and practically dragged him towards a waiting car.

Lelouch, upon noticing that he was involuntarily moving suddenly came out of his daze and yanked himself free of his half-sister's grip and walked beside her towards the car, which caused Lelouch to gag as he laid eyes on the car. The car itself was mostly white aside from the tyres with a triangular roofed front, a golden grill over the front and at the top of the roof section. There were also golden frames round the edges of to windows, golden handles on all four doors and golden rims round the two circular light at the front with one at each side and to finish the look, on top of the each of the lights was a small golden flagpole, each one adorning the flag of the Holy Britannian Empire. However, the front of the car seemed to dwarf the main seating area and it did indeed look a bit cramped.

A man suddenly stepped of the front right-hand side of the car and walked round to the back left door and opened it. The man, who was obviously the chauffeur, appeared to be a middle-aged man with short brown hair that was slowly giving way to grey. He also had a rather thin moustache at the top of his upper lip the same colour as his hair and rather intelligent looking dark brown eyes. However, he wore what could only be described as an inverted stereotypical chauffeur uniform with mostly white attire aside from the shirt, which was back and even the hat was white as from the short visor at the front, which was black. However, looking inside the car, Lelouch raised an eyebrow as he saw; sitting over at the car's right hand door and gesturing for him and Cornelia to come in was his older half-brother, Schneizel.

"Is he really that obsessed with the colour, white?" Cornelia thought as she took in the uniform of his chauffeur as well as the colour of his car.

However, both Lelouch and Cornelia followed Schneizel's gesture and got into his car. Once they were both inside, the chauffeur closed the door and walked round the front of the car to the right hand front door where the driver's seat was and once he got inside and strapped himself in, he then started up the car and started driving out of the airport.

"It's really good to see you again, Lelouch," Schneizel greeted with a smile.

However, Lelouch just let out a tired grunt of acknowledgment, but otherwise, remained silent as he sat back and stared down at his knees. Schneizel then frowned at Lelouch's lack of greeting, wondering if perhaps Lelouch had come to hate him and believed that he had been in on their father's plan to invade Japan.

"Umm, Schneizel, I'm sure that Lelouch here is just tired," Cornelia said rather hurriedly in a fretful tone, upon noticing her half-brother's lack of a response, "He didn't get much sleep on the way over here and so, he's come down with a bad case of jetlag."

"I guess that's understandable," Schneizel replied, nodding in acceptance.

"Sorry, Schneizel," Lelouch said as he turned to look at his older half-brother, "Cornelia's right, I'm just tired. It's nice to see you to, I suppose."

"Yes, well, anyway," Schneizel said as his look became rather serious, "I'll cut straight to the chase since I'm sure that you don't want me to beat around the bush."

Lelouch nodded, wondering if he was going to have an audience with the Emperor. Of course he would have an audience with the Emperor, he knew. The Emperor would probably want to know how he survived his "execution", especially considering the fact that he had declared him and his sister both dead before sending the invasion force. However, Lelouch had to wonder if the Emperor had wanted to see him right away upon his arrival. It would be just like that man to take advantage of him right now. Right now he was tired and was not thinking straight. It would be the perfect opportunity to rile him up and goad him into lashing out again, thus providing the Emperor with the excuse to send him off the future "Area Twelve". He knew for a fact that his father probably would not take too kindly to the news of his survival and would probably just send him elsewhere as a political bargaining chip… what was he saying, political bargaining chip; more like a sacrificial lamb since he knew that anywhere the Emperor sent him, he would invade anyway without giving him advanced warning in hopes that he would die in the invasion. It would be Japan all over again. The only difference is that this time, he would be alone. He had been aware that perhaps the Emperor would not give him the chance to redeem himself and probably just send him to another country he was planning on invading. However, he had not told Byakko, Suzaku, Kaguya or Nunnally that since he knew that they would probably worry about him and end up wondering if he was dead or alive and he feared that they would attempt to find out and that their attempts may unintentionally reveal that Nunnally was still alive.

"Oh well, at least if I die, Nunnally will be safe," he thought to himself.

Indeed, his plan was really a gamble and he had no idea if whether or not the Emperor would give him the chance to redeem himself. His whole plan hinged on the Emperor deciding to give him a chance to prove himself and he was not really sure if whether or not he would act in the way Lelouch expected. However, even if he decided to send Lelouch to another country as a bargaining chip, Lelouch had already been in the process of formulating a plan on how to adapt to that.

"You'll be happy to know that His Majesty is expecting you tomorrow between noon and one o'clock in the afternoon," Schneizel stated, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"Really?" Lelouch said as his eyes widened in a mixture of relief and disbelief.

"Yes," Schneizel confirmed with a nod, "So you can sleep off your jetlag tonight. You'll be staying with Cornelia and Euphemia."

"I see," Lelouch said with a nod, breathing a sigh of relief as he pondered his situation.

Why had the Emperor decided to wait? Now would be a perfect opportunity to goad him into lashing out at him. He was tired due to jetlag and Lelouch knew that whenever he was tired, he was always quick to anger when someone rubbed him the wrong way. Just what was the Emperor playing at? Was he perhaps trying to lull him into a false sense of security? Make it seem like it was safe all so he could spring an elaborate trap when Lelouch came to see him the falling day? Those thoughts and more dominated the young prince's thoughts and he could not help but feel a bit paranoid as he wondered just what it was his father was up to.

"Any particular reason why His Majesty decided to postpone his meeting with his wayward son?" Cornelia asked with a hint of suspicion in her tone as it was clear that she had similar thoughts running through her mind.

"To be perfectly honest, I'm not really all that sure," Schneizel admitted with a sigh, "The excuse His Majesty gave was that it was late and that he was tired."

It was clear from Schneizel's tone that he also had his own suspicions since he had also been rather close with Lelouch and Nunnally and in fact, he had been Lelouch's mentor when it came to chess and he had to admit that he rather admired his little half-brother since despite being just a child, Lelouch was the only person who could provide him with a good challenge. When Lelouch had first gotten interested in chess, he had gone to Schneizel and demanded that he teach him how to play, which he did, but Lelouch was different from his other half-siblings. Lelouch had told him not to hold back and give it everything he had and in that first game with Lelouch, he had beaten Lelouch rather easily, but rather than cry over his loss like a whining child, it only made Lelouch more determined and over the years Lelouch had gotten better at the game and in fact had improved so much that Schneizel found himself actually having to try and win rather than just sweeping Lelouch under the rug like he had done his previous opponents. Schneizel could easily defeat anyone in chess without putting in much effort, but Lelouch… Lelouch had kept him on the alert and he soon found that he could not defeat Lelouch as easily as he had done in the beginning and he definitely could not defeat Lelouch as easily as he had done his other opponents. Even the toughest of his other opponents paled in comparison to Lelouch. Lelouch and Schneizel were both in a league of their own when it came to chess.

"You know as well as I do that that's just bullshit," Cornelia said, bringing her half-brother out of his thoughts, "If you'll pardon my use of crude language."

"I have to agree with you, Cornelia," he said simply, "And I'm in no mood to reprimand you for your crude language, dear sister."

That much was true. Just what could the Emperor be up to? Normally whenever one of his children returned from abroad, he would demand that they come see him upon their arrival; sometimes into the early hours of the morning. It did not seem to matter to the Emperor what time it was and it led to many of the Princes and Princesses joking that their father never slept. However, this time, he had decided to wait and that worried them both. Lelouch was their brother and they knew that he had overstepped the mark when he had lashed out in anger despite having a good reason for doing so. They both knew that their father would not be happy to see Lelouch alive again, especially considering that he had pronounced him and Nunnally both dead before the invasion of Japan had gotten underway. Schneizel had been rather livid with his father after finding out that Lelouch was alive. Their father had lied, not just to them, but to the entire population of Britannia when he announced that the Japanese had murdered Lelouch and Nunnally when he knew full well that they were still alive and yet, he had sent in the invasion force without giving them advanced warning. The war in Japan had been Lelouch and Nunnally's death sentence, Schneizel figured. Lelouch had dared challenge the Emperor and in response, he and Nunnally had both received what could only be described as a suspended death sentence when they were sent to Japan; probably to lull the Japanese into a false sense of security since he figured that the Japanese believed that Britannia would not attack so long as their Prince and Princess remained their captives and then when the invasion force landed, the Emperor had probably been counting on the Japanese killing both Lelouch and Nunnally, thus doing his dirty work for him.

"Oh by the way, Lelouch, where's Nunnally?" Schneizel asked curiously as he just realised that Lelouch had come back alone.

Lelouch's eyes widened in shock at Schneizel's query and he suddenly found himself pondering on whether or not if he should tell Schneizel the truth or not. He shot Cornelia a look, silently telling her to keep quiet as he thought it over. Sure, he could easily say that Schneizel was one of the few of his half-siblings he actually liked and he knew that Schneizel liked him as well, but the question was, could he be trusted? Lelouch wanted to believe that he could, but unfortunately he really was not all that sure. Of all the Imperial Princes and Princesses, Schneizel was the overall favourite to succeed the throne when the Emperor finally passed away and Lelouch knew that he had his ambitions firmly fixed on obtaining the throne. Despite being the Second Prince and Odysseus being Crown Prince, Lelouch knew that Odysseus was clearly not cut out to be Emperor and Lelouch could honestly say that he had no problems with Odysseus whatsoever since whenever the subject of Marianne came up and the subject of their commoner blood, Odysseus was neutral and did not go out of his way to harass them like many the others did, but neither did he put in much of an effort to help them. Odysseus's main problem was that he was just too nice and tried to be nice to everyone and his performance in many areas came across as quite plebeian in comparison to Schneizel and in truth, Lelouch felt that Odysseus was quite a mediocre person and seemed to lack drive and ambition; probably due his position as Crown Prince deluding him into believing that when Charles zi Britannia finally dies, he'll end up inheriting the throne without having to work for it.

"What a fool," Lelouch thought as he shook his head in disgust.

He knew how things really worked. Charles zi Britannia, 98th Emperor of Britannia was famous for ending the Emblem of Blood, a dark period in the history of the Imperial Family rife with deception and backstabbing in which the Princes and Princesses all fought one another over succession to the throne. However, Charles had practically managed to put down all his rivals and come out as the last man standing and the throne had been his prize. However, Lelouch knew that Charles was planning on forcing his children to fight and compete over the throne. It was one of the reason he had been sent to Japan after all; during his outburst, he had effectively renounced his claim to the throne having had enough of the infighting over who would succeed the throne. Basically, Charles was planning on reigniting the Emblem of Blood, only this time, he would be the one who was calling the shots. The Imperial Princes and Princesses would compete over the throne and there in lay why he wondered if he could trust Schneizel or not with the knowledge of Nunnally's survival.

Schneizel did have his ambitions set on ascending the throne; there was no doubt about that. However, in order to do that, he would have to deal with the competition and unfortunately, the competition happened to be his various other half-siblings. Sure, Lelouch had no interest in ascending the throne himself; he was planning on destroying it as well as everything else that made the current Britannia what it was and that would undoubtedly put him in direct conflict with Schneizel. Sure, right now, he and Schneizel were loving brothers… well, half-brothers, but that could change in future. Schneizel knew of Lelouch's intelligence and knew that he could end up becoming quite a dangerous enemy and so, with that in mind, Lelouch figured that Schneizel would need some insurance to ensure that Lelouch did not double-cross him and Lelouch could think of nothing being better insurance for keeping him in check than his sister. If Schneizel knew of Nunnally's survival, he could use that knowledge to manipulate him into doing whatever he wanted with serious repercussions for Nunnally if he attempted to betray him. He definitely would not put it past Schneizel to do something like that. Schneizel's ambition was the throne and Lelouch's ambition was to destroy the throne. Those were conflicting goals and he had seen enough to realise that ambition and greed could turn even the closest full-blooded siblings against one another.

"Nunnally's dead," he said quickly before too long since he knew that his hesitation in answering would provide the answer for him, "We were hiding out in a country house that was bombarded by an airstrike. Unfortunately, I could not get both myself and Nunnally out, so I, I panicked and…"

"Discarded her to save yourself," Schneizel said, finishing Lelouch's sentence for him with a frown, looking disappointed in his younger half-brother.

Lelouch winced at the way Schneizel phrased, but ultimately decided to go with that and then gave a nod.

"Yeah," he lied while inwardly grimacing, hating himself for inventing such an elaborate lie, "Having her on my back slowed me down and when I heard the explosions getting louder, I panicked, threw her off my back and ran off. So yeah, in that instance, I lived up to Britannia's rhetoric. Nunnally in her state was weak and she was weighing me down, so I cut her off as if she were a sandbag and saved myself. It was either save myself or we both died."

Both Cornelia and Schneizel were both taken aback by the amount of genuine hatred and bitterness in his tone as he said that and tears started to well up in his eyes, though Cornelia knew that they were probably a result of the lie he had told Schneizel and no doubt, he was hoping that Schneizel would interpret his grief as shame over having "left his sister to die", though she could not understand why he did not want to let Schneizel in on Nunnally's survival, but for now, Cornelia decided that she would play along for now and then confront Lelouch about it later

The rest of the ride to Cornelia's estate, Capricorn Villa was rather silent as Lelouch was silently chiding himself for coming up with such a horrible lie, though he was more upset that he had said something that would make the Emperor proud and would have undoubtedly hurt Nunnally if she knew what he had said.

Author's Notes – That chapter 2 up and it took longer than I thought. Sorry for the delay, but I ran into writer's block as I was trying to think of a way to write this chapter without plagiarising Allora Gale's Dauntless (which was an inspiration for this fic). I hate plagiarism and I'm afraid of plagiarising other people's work, so if I unknowingly have done so, I apologise. Anyway, last time you may have noticed that I put the Seven houses of Kyōto instead of Six Houses; that was intentionally since in Knightmare of Nunnally, Suzaku once mentioned that his family had been a part of the Six Houses before he defected and despite only showing five members in the anime, the Code Geass wiki mentioned a sixth member that was mentioned, but was never shown, so I combined the two together and came up with the Seven Houses.