「Somewhere in the Tokyo Settlement, Britannian Secret Operations Black Site」
The Pure Bloods military group stood in a dimly lit room. They stood at attention, their hands folded behind their backs. Nothing other than a superior posture was accepted. No one bent a knee, no shoulder sunken. Their heads were held high as their focus was directly on someone standing before them. Their leader, a man known as Jeremiah, a man who was more loyal to Marianne than anyone else.
Standing beside him was a young woman, Villetta Nu, with her Bluish Teal hair which appeared almost a silver grey. Her golden eyes traced over the faces whom were all too visible.
"You all must be wondering why I've brought you here today..." The man of the hour, Jeremiah spoke. He dressed in his noble attire, white gloves and an overcoat. His hair beaming flamboyantly in the dim light as if it had its own lighting source. "Our Emperor Charles Vi Britannia has betrayed us."
His very words could be seen as treason, high treason, against the Emperor of the State. However, this just made everyone tense. They wouldn't speak up in front of their superior officer, he wouldn't say this without some way to back himself up. Be it the ability to gun them all down, or kill them himself.
Many of their eyes went to Villetta Nu who wore a simple stoic expression, looking over them like a man eating hawk. She was his subordinate, she always was around him. She hadn't left his side, not once, never. They knew this.
"We are Britannians! We are the Purebloods! Our Emperor wants us to merge with the lesser breeds! Non-Britannians!" He put his hand up above his head in a fist, bent acutely at the elbow. "We cannot let this stand! We must revolt, for BRITANNIA!"
Propaganda, askew ideals. The person who instilled this very mentality was the Emperor himself. Pure bloods, the prejudice against non-britannians in the numeral system. Now it was being repurposed. this ideology, was going to become a weapon.
"ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!" Villetta shouted as she gave the Britannian Salute. The room erupted into shouts and proclamations.
"ALL HAIL PURE BRITANNIA! Down with the Emperor!" They began to shout, adding onto the line with a single word. A word which incites violence through prejudice.
Kewell was gone, many members of the pure blood faction were missing. It was clear that the battle between Zero's Terrorists and other groups had muddled their strength. Politically they were losing power, militarily they were quickly being discarded as mere fanatics by the new Sub-Viceroy's Administration.
Chaos weakens the front lines. War was like a game of charades. Distract your opponent, there are no rules, just don't let see your true allegiance. Send in your bishop, the Knights and your King. Your enemy fights with swords, bows and arrows. Your armies fight with bayonets and muskets that spew volleys of lead.
All of a sudden the building shook. What was that?
"Ms. Nu," Lord Jeremiah stated as he held out a hand towards the woman who stood beside him. "I order you, give me your gun." His voice sounded sincere, and the sound behind his voice, it sounded like if she were to defy this order, he would personally kill her.
"My...My Lord... What is the meaning of this?" Villetta asked curiously, cautiously. She wasn't not going to follow his orders.
But why was he asking this of her? The men all looked at her, why was he trying to disarm his subordinate. She squinted at him in return, undoing the clip that held her gun in its holster and handed over the handgun.
Grasping the weapon by the barrel, he took hold of it, taking out of her hold. The ground began to vibrate beneath them. The building shook again, violently this time. It felt as if any explosion had occurred.
The other members of the group all drew their pistols and turned towards the door. They could hear something coming towards their location. It wasn't huge, it didn't sound like a knightmare frame. Not any frame that they've heard of.
"You three!" Jeremiah said as he pointed towards a group of men who were closest to the door. "Go outside and see what it is. If you can, come back and report!"
"Yes My Lord!" The three of them shouted in turn and rushed out the door. However a few moments passed and there was gun fire. The sound of a reverberating hum filled the ears of those closest to the door. Every movement it made, wishing and whooshing, were amplified.
The first thing that made it to everyone's attention however, before the guns began firing, was the smell relative to the scent of burning Ozone.
Entering from the corridor was a man dressed in a set of cyberpunk samurai armor, was a man wearing a hood, a scarf over his mouth and nose.
The men began to open fire, yet as they fired, the rounds just bounced off of him. It was like he was using a personal sized variant of the Blaze Luminous, an energy shield. He cut them down, one by one, making his way towards their Lord Jeremiah. All unsuspecting that he had come here as according to plan.
Villetta stared at the man, her eyes widened as she could suddenly recall him. Where she had met him. It was the man who stole her Knightmare Frame, used the geass to overwrite her thoughts and actions.
"What... What is this?" Villetta looked over towards the man who was her immediate superior, someone who she served closely. "Give me back my gun." She reached out for it, but he took a single step away from her.
"You can't be serious," Jeremiah said as he'd look over her for a moment. "Do you stand against Lelouch vi Britannia?" In that moment the woman froze hearing the name of a Prince believed to be deceased.
"What are you talking about?!" Her brows creased angrily as the last man dropped to the ground, bisected from shoulder to waist. "Lelouch vi Britannia is dea–"
"Dead?" A voice echoed as he entered the room, patting Graham's shoulder as he walked into the center of the massacre. His eyes gazed over the dead Britannian soldiers in the room. He then focused his sights on Jeremiah and Villetta. "I am very much alive, I assure." He gave a delightful bow, then straightened his back.
Her eyes narrowed on the boy who entered the room. He couldn't be anymore than seventeen. All of his traits matched that of the late Prince who was reported to have died seven years. The way he put his hand on his face, his grandiose gestures he put forth, they all matched his demeanor.
"What is the meaning of this?" She pointed at the Prince, the man who stood beside Graham.
"I will obliterate what Britannia is, and what it stands for. Be it through change or complete destruction, it will crumble in my hand." Lelouch stated as he held his arms out to his sides, grinning deviously.
"Lord Jeremiah, you can't be serious!" She turned and looked at her Lord as he simply gave her a gaze and a smile.
"My Loyalty is to Lady Marianne vi Britannia. They were abandoned by the Empire, the Emperor let her die." He looked to the young man known as Lelouch. "So I will protect and serve their children, as proof of my Loyalty. I will also Obliterate Britannia," He turned to face her, her pistol still in his hand.
"My question is... Will you stand beside Britannia as it crumbles? Or will you join the True Heir, with me, and end its corrupted reign?" Jeremiah smiled brightly at his little ultimatum. Will she choose to die here with the rest of Britannia, or will she join him and the Prince?
"You've changed." Villetta's eyes narrowed on the man before her, before looking towards the Samurai. She drew a holdout pistol from her sleeve, it was a mini-four shot, it had four little barrels.
Just as she aimed the weapon at the man who had his sakuranite energy sword drawn, something flashed in the back of her mind. A possible reality being inserted into her thoughts. Feelings she didn't understand and a face she didn't yet recognize.
An eleven who saved her at the docks after she found out Lelouch was Zero. How she was gunned down by an Academy Student who was known other than a Britannian known as Shirley.
"Wha...Eh?" A confused expression passed through her face as she dropped the weapon. Soon after she even dropped to her knees. As if she was flashing through things that may have happened if everything had been different. Her eyes then centered on Graham, his eyes both revealed the Geass.
"I don't want to die..." Muttered a man crawling on the floor. He had no arm, his leg was hanging by a string. It was more like dragging himself with one arm, he was bleeding out as he was getting closer to the door.
Villetta turned her head and looked at him, watching as Graham pulled a pistol off his hip and shot the man through the head after briefly standing over him. "Who... Are... You? Where did thee memories come from?"
Both Jeremiah and Lelouch looked towards Graham, raised brows on all their faces. "What memories?" They both blurted out as Jeremiah stepped down from the elevated position he was on with Villetta.
"If I hadn't befriended Lelouch, things would have gone down differently," his eyes narrowed on Villetta and then to the others. "Those memories are from a world without me."
In the moment he had said that, the memory of her having a child with an Eleven popped up in her mind. Her arms almost immediately dropped to her sides. What was going on here? Why was he saying such things? Was he insane? No, that would be rationalizing it.
Those memories were throwing her emotions in every single direction. Even though they didn't happen like they were suppose to, the idea that the birth of her child was nearly averted, made her angry.
"If you want the future you saw and felt, you will follow us." Villetta suddenly paused, another ultimatum. Her eyes narrowed on the man. With those eyes of his, he could force her to do anything without her having to comply to begin with. Yet he was giving her a choice, nonetheless.
Lelouch stared at the man who was beside him. He had given her memories of what would have happened if he wasn't there? What did he mean not there? He narrowed his sights on his friend before looking forward to Jeremiah who nodded.
"I don't quite understand what you did to her, or what you're saying." The Prince said as he looked over at his friend. "But what's the point of what you're doing?"
Graham smiled quietly to himself, looking at Lelouch who was looking through him. Trying to figure him out as if he was some sort of rubix cube, a puzzle. "The point? Villetta is an imperative asset to the Black Knights. Just as Jeremiah's loyalty is to you. Believe, she'll help reach the condition that is suitable to your goal."