Coup d'�tat

November 2nd, 2022 a.t.b.

After ordering the staff on duty out of the room that served as his communications hub, Lelouch set up the secure channel to the required frequency and waited. Precisely ten minutes after he had received that call, the screen that received all incoming transmissions flickered to life. Punctual as always, his older sister was a stickler for protocol and duty.

Although not so much in the days after the failure of the SAZ in Japan and the discovery of certain projects that had been going on in secret while she had been Viceroy. Of all his siblings, Cornelia alone had remained largely neutral in the war--and not just because of where Euphemia stood on the matter.

It was possible that Cornelia disapproved of him even more than she did Suzaku--or rather Suzaku’s relationship with Euphie. But she had not been happy about the situation in the Empire in the recent years and if Lelouch’s own conclusions had been correct, the state of affairs had been going downhill even before the coup had been launched.

The Emperor had been increasing distant from court and various world affairs--including the continued expansion of the Empire. The war fronts had been largely dictated by Schneizel and Carline had been making unsubtle moves towards becoming Cornelia’s successor as commander in chief of the military.

Whatever drove Cornelia to make contact with him--via Euphie no less--had to be important. Which was why he accepted the transmission immediately and toggled the cone of silence over the console for additional privacy.

“I’ve found something,” Cornelia said without preamble as the audio and visual transmission began. “It’s about one of Schneizel’s pet projects.”

Lelouch leaned forwards. It was not often that Cornelia looked uncomfortable and slightly worried at the same time. But this was Schneizel after all. “With regards to?”

“Weapons manufacture. An insider contacted me. She’ll explain it to you herself.”

Lelouch resisted the urge to swear. Schneizel had many interests in that field.

“She’s on her way with an escort. They should be arriving in Pendragon at oh-eight hundred hours, provided they get air clearance and refuelling at Providence in . . . about six hours time.”

“Who is this insider?” Lelouch asked even as he reached over to send the necessary instructions to Providence.

“That’s the other thing. She said she knew you from school. Do you remember Nina Einstein?”

Lelouch was surprised for the first time in a long while. “Nina . . . yes, from Ashford. I heard she was on a scholarship--”

--courtesy of the Second Prince. Cornelia nodded as comprehension dawned on him.

“She was actually looking for Euphie,” Cornelia added and Lelouch knew about that as well. “But I suppose I was easier to find.”

Ah. There was the crux of the matter.

“I made a promise,” Lelouch stated. He was not offended--if anything, he and Cornelia agreed on this one thing. “Euphie is with Nunnally. You know we’d do anything to protect them.”

“See that you do,” Cornelia said brusquely before signing out. Lelouch took a deep breath. He did not blame her--he would not entrust Nunnally’s safety to anyone else.

After the transmission ended, Lelouch sat back in the chair, flexing his fingers unconsciously as he pondered this new addition to the current set of complications.

There were too many coincidences. Was it Suzaku’s power unconsciously exerting its influence again? Lelouch had scoffed at first when he had heard the explanation of how that strange power manifested itself. Random chance and a bunch of interrelated events leading up to a point were not the result of one person standing at the right place at the right time. That was what thorough planning was for.

Until Suzaku proved it one too many times on the battlefield that thorough planning only worked up to a certain point.

Lelouch did hate depending on forces he could not explain on top of the factors he could not control. He had better start planning in advance . . . and quickly.

* * * * * * * * * * * *
September, 2010 a.t.b.

“Is everything . . . all right?” Nunnally asked tentatively as she felt her brother stop pushing the wheelchair. They were outside, taking in the air after another autumnal shower. There was hardly any wind, but Lelouch had insisted that she wear her coat and tuck a rug over her knees.

The Ashfords were temporarily lodging in one of the prefab houses while their actual residence was being built on their new holdings. It had not taken long for the Britannians to start dividing up the new settlement.

"It's going to be fine." He said that a lot these days. As though he could will it to be so. But it was not all right, he thought as he stared stoically at the shiny new buildings being erected on the cleared land that had used to be part of the megapolis of Tokyo.

They were officially dead and like the new city being built on the site of the former ruins, the Lamperouge siblings had come into existence.

It was almost the same situation as before. Lelouch was constantly by his sister's side and he never left her alone if he could help it. He dared not.

The Ashfords were starting up a school to capitalise on the influx of expatriate Britannians who brought their children with them. It was understood that Lelouch and Nunnally Lamperouge would be integrated into the system as discreetly as possible as students. The Ashfords would have assigned them legal guardians--in name only--and they would be living on campus in better-than-the-average-student housing. Courtesy of their current protectors, of course. Even now, Lelouch wondered what possible advantages a pair of disinherited royal siblings would confer in the long run. But the fact remained that they were dependents.

Lelouch hated being dependent on anyone for anything. Except for Suzaku, he conceded, no longer begrudging the other boy's contribution to what had been the happiest months of his relatively short existence.

In these past weeks, he had often wondered where Suzaku was and what he was doing. Lelouch hoped he was all right. Safe and unhurt, at least. With people that he could trust, at the very most. But he had very little faith in most adults at the moment.

Had it been such a good idea to leave with no possible way of contacting each other? Amidst the bustle of the new settlement, Lelouch thought that it might have been a mistake.

They were amongst Britannians again and he was too heart-sore to open himself again to the kindness of a stranger.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The house was a two-storey standalone with a backyard he could spit across and a front porch that was barely large enough for Angela Nakamura’s motorcycle.

To Kururugi Suzaku, who had grown up the Japanese equivalent of a mansion with acres of land surrounding it and the ancestral shrine, it resembled a shoebox. But that did not matter any more. Not when half the residents of Tokyo were currently homeless.

The woman he was staying with was both a Britannian citizen and a Japanese citizen. She was supposed to make sure he went to school and was his guardian for the duration of time when he was not visiting his relations in Kyoto. She was probably someone working for the government--the new Britannian government.

She brought him into the house with his very small bag of clothes--all provided for by the Britannian agency that was overseeing his placement--and showed him to her guest room. Now it was his room.

There was a bed, a wardrobe, a desk and a chair. The curtains looked like they had just been hung recently and the whole room was spotlessly clean.

“We can get some more stuff for you later,” she said, more than a little uncomfortable in his presence. She spoke to him in Japanese and said that she would continue to do so if he was all right with that.

Suzaku had nodded. No doubt he would be learning Britannian in his new school soon.

“I’ll let you settle in then. The bathroom’s to the left. Dinner at seven,” she said briskly and backed out of the room.

There was not much to unpack. He went to the bathroom down the very short hall to wash up before dinner.

Some effort had been made in the preparation of dinner. His erstwhile guardian had made it known that it was not a particularly good effort, but Suzaku found the noodles and chicken perfectly edible. He thanked her for it and there was a brief struggle for the right to do the dishes before she exerted the adult privilege of sending him upstairs to bathe.

Suzaku finished his shower and for the want of something to do, drew back the curtains to look around outside at his new neighbourhood. His room faced the road and beyond it in the distance, the ruined expanse of what once was the metropolitan nerve centre of Tokyo. He leaned out further as something caught his eye in the darkness. Had there been some movement out there? A light that had blinked on for a moment--

He was almost halfway out the window when his guardian knocked at his door and popped her head in.

“Just thought I’d say g--” She froze completely when she saw him. “Is there something I should know?” she asked carefully.

“I just wanted to see . . .” He gestured abortively at the window.

She looked at him for a moment, then said, “Get your coat. We’re going out.”

Suzaku was surprised. It was past ten o’clock and she was apparently proposing an excursion. But she had a certain energy that swept him along in her wake and he found himself wearing the helmet once again.

“This trip is a secret, you understand?”

Suzaku nodded. He understood that they might be doing something that would cause trouble for her. Something they should not be doing.

They were on the expressway moments later. A slight autumnal chill was in the wind as they sped along at what could have been illegal speeds. Fortunately for them, the road was mostly empty at this time of the night.

She pulled up at the side of the arched span of motorway that overlooked both the new settlement and old Shinjuku.

They got out and went to the guard rail on the Shinjuku side. The devastated landscape was dark but it was not before long a small spark was seen weaving in and out of the ruins. And it was not the only one. The lights were probably candle-ends and emergency torches. The survivors were there, amongst the damaged buildings and downed skyscrapers, scrounging an existence in whatever remained.

Suzaku did not know how long they stood there in silence. Just that she eventually ushered him back to the bike and drove them home.

* * * * * * * * * * * *