Chapter 05: The Struggles of Moving On

It's been years since the fighting stopped, but for some, they struggle to find a means to live in the peace because of whatt they've done, or what they were forced to do. Good think they have people in thier lives who can help.

When Lelouch came to power, many things desperately needed reform. It wasn’t just the military, or Britannian policies against non-Britannians, or the several other issues most would have brought up.

But one issue that caused countless headaches was the issue of Britannian territory. Lelouch did not cede any land, either allowing countries to gain independence or to return to the now defunct E.U. This meant he had to handle how to incorporate them into the empire proper, not as areas but as legitimate and fully ruled and administered regions of the empire, which…was tricky.

Britannia wasn't like the E.U. or U.F.N.; it didn't have member states. It wasn't even like those smaller member states like Germany or the Scandinavian countries. For them, if they gained territory, it was made into a province or state within the greater country, no issue. Britannia could not do that as its regions were, in medieval times, owned by noble families of incredibly high rank and importance; the larger or more influential the lands, the greater their influence at court.

It was enough that Charles's first five wives all came from families that controlled some of the most important regions in Britannia, as his father used their marriages to gain their loyalty.

When his father came to the throne, Britannia was largely on the American continent and was split into nine Grand Duchies. Well, by the time Charles died, he had led them to conquer most of Africa, western Europe, and Japan, and like the bastard he was, he never left any instructions on how these areas would be incorporated.

Lelouch would agree with his brother, as in Schneizel's notes, he lamented about this and how little their father seemed to care whenever he brought it up, leaving it to the Prime Minister to handle the shit show it left because he was too busy plotting to kill God.

Well, it took two years of work, meetings, surveys, and ample use of the carrot and stick, but Lelouch had done it. Now, Britannia was made up of 23 Grand Duchies, including Japan and Euro Britannia, with dozens of smaller regions spread throughout it run by lesser families. This required him to break most of the most powerful noble families' control and split, fuse, or separate their lands and holdings.

Did they like it? No. Had some plotted to assassinate him and his advisors in his early reign? Yes. Had they succeeded, of course not, but it gave him excuses to remove them and elevate families who wouldn't be so…stubborn on accepting change.

But for one, Nina Einstein, she had only cared about such things as they impacted her research. The woman, as always, was hard at work in her lab in the County of Nuevo México. It was far from where she had first built and tested a working F.L.I.E.J.A., over 600kms to the northeast of it, and this was not by accident; it was something she had requested from the emperor, as she wanted as much distance between the Pandora's box and the new developments she's made with the research as she could.

As always, the 28-year-old was hard at work in her lab, one that made what she had working under Schneizel seem like the Ashford clubroom with its scale and equipment. The bright lights kept the entire place illuminated as she typed away at her computer, several tablets lying around her, open to other reports, schematics, and notes; a notebook lay to her side. Nina would stop at random intervals, either for a few moments as she consulted one of the tablets, or for a few minutes as she wrote something in the notebook before returning to the computer.

The space only had her, with the sounds of typing, the air conditioning staving off the worst of the desert heat, and some other equipment whizzing and humming in the background. She didn't speak and hardly made sounds as she worked at the speeds she had long grown used to, speeds that had made interns envious at times and jealous at others, but most ended with concern.

It was misplaced. She was fine, this was fine. She was totally fine with how fast and hard she worked. It was a mercy, really, as she was one of the lucky few who could work free and didn't find themselves facing the axe or the noose, so she’ll keep on working.

She was the best in her field, the child prodigy who never stopped and never would. She had already found ways to turn F.L.E.I.J.A. technology into peaceful power generation and been the main lead on the first reactors and the next two generations that followed, each improvement over the other. But there was more to the research. She was sure of it; she just needed to…

"Dammit…another failure. What am I missing?" Nina cursed as she watched the program take in her data and run a probability simulation: 70% chance of failure within 36 months.

“Nina?” Someone spoke up, Nina being slow to turn from her work to tell the intern or assistant she would need another cup of-

“Hmm?” She didn't recognize the woman standing behind her as any of the staff, but when she recognized her a moment later, she nearly fell out of her seat. “Hmm!”

Could one blame her? Princess Marrybell Mel Britannia was standing right there. The woman was older, the same as her, the years having only made her more into a fine rose of the imperial bloodline. She might have given up all rights to imperial succession, but she was still a princess, though she didn't dress like it. She wore a more conservative business casual outfit, a black sunhat held in her hands.

"You didn't hear me come in, did you?" Marrybell smiled, looking at how frazzled Nina looked at seeing her. Part of her suspicion was that it was because even now, she still had some resemblance to her kinder sister, but she didn't give such thoughts to the time of day.

“N-no, I was busy.” Nina picked herself up, fretting over how…unprofessional she looked. Even Lloyd could keep up appearances. Wait, Cecile did that for it. Oh no, she looked like Lloyd did unsupervised!

Marrybell chuckled, masking it with her hand. “So I saw. I've been standing here for a while, and you just kept working." She told her, which got Nina to blush, as she had been too absorbed in her work again. She was lucky she didn't go out often, as someone could grab her purse, and she wouldn't even know if she was in the zone.

Marrybell learned forward, eyeing the screen and its lines of code and equations, none of which she could understand. Still, she saw some of the notes on the tablets, including designs for a  Frey reactor. “What is it this time? I thought the last reactor was your best one yet.”

“It’s not for energy production; it’s for medical research.” Nina corrected as she looked at the screens, but she could easily read what was happening, having worked on most of it.

“Oh?” Marrybell asked, as Britannia was already known for its advances in science. Though the emperor called it more of a nuisance on account of how it could never heal Nunna's legs, yet allowed some crazy mind reader to survive being shot to pieces and return within days to threaten him and those he cared about.

Nina slumped, a glimmer of frustration in her words. “If I can just get the stupid math and formulas right, I can start working on something which could be used to study and treat most cancers.”

"That sounds incredible, but I would slow down; people might think you're aiming for another Order of Saint George." Marrybell joked, glancing towards a picture on the wall, though not on Nina's desk. One that showed her getting the empire's highest civilian reward a few years ago.

Nina's face twisted. She didn't look happy in the picture, and she didn't look happy now, looking at it. “I don’t like them…”

“You don’t like them, or you don’t like having them?” Marrybell asked, leading to Nina growing silent as the princess tried a different angle. “Nina, when was the last time you slept?”

“Exactly 11 hours, 12 minutes ago,” Nine replied after looking at her watch to confirm it. "I'm keeping track. I'll work for another 48 minutes, sleep for 6 hours, and rest for an additional 4. That should be adequate time before I can get back to it."

Marrybell sighed, as she had a feeling Nina would treat herself less like a person and more like a machine that just needed a recharge and a cool-down period. “Did you know the big day’s coming up?”

“Big…oh….oh,” Again, it took a moment for Nina to recall the date and its importance. “I admit, it might have slipped my mind.”

"Well, will you attend? Not every day an emperor rules for a decade of peace and growth, " Marybel stated, before glancing to the side, a pinch of bitter fury bleeding into her words. “Especially with Britannia.” She loved Britannia, truly, she did, and she loved how much it had changed for the better, but Lord, did they have a terrible track record with emperors?

Before their father claimed the throne, he and his siblings had been tearing the court and country apart, trying to take power. Before them, their grandfather's reign had been known for economic imbalances and rising poverty.

Nine looked away, back to her work. "I can get more done here. Don't worry; I won't keep the staff; they'll be free to attend or just spend time with family.”

Marrybell didn't let her just end things; she placed as comforting a hand on Nina's shoulder as possible. "And what about you? You can't expect us to just let you keep on working here. Nina, you're almost always the first to arrive and last to leave, and that's only because sometimes you work overtime, just like you're doing now. I didn't see a single intern, but you know who I did see?"

“Francis?” Nina winced.

'Francis, and he says you've been here since 5AM, it's 4PM, Nina. And unless you're lying to me, you worked up and got here quickly this morning." Marrybell told her, eyeing the woman up and down just in case she was lying, but Nina shook her head. She was being honest. Marrybell could ask Francis, or another of the lab's janitors. He regularly spotted her working late and, at times, cleaned the lab around her as she worked.

“Your highness, I,” Marrybell stopped her, turning her chair around so she could properly talk to Nina. She grasped Nina's hands into hers.

“Not your highness, stuff, Nina. We’re friends, right? Just call me Marrybell.” Marrybell smiled, leading to Nina growing a little bashful. She had a slight crush on the princess, which had long faded. But in its place, she had formed a strong friendship with Britannia's chief counter terrorism expert.

"It wouldn't be a good idea for me to head out," Nina whispered.

“Did I ever tell you that Euphemia and I never got along?” Nina looked up at Marrybell, surprised she had brought up something like that, but hadn't gotten along with Euphemia. Euphie was a ball of positivity and hope, who would-

Marrybell chuckled as she shook her head. "Don't give me that look. We might have looked similar, but we wouldn't be any more different.” Marrybell explained, looking out the window at the deserts that hugged the city's outskirts.

“She was…kinder than me, more willing to talk than kill. I…Lelouch and I were so very alike that we just wanted to hunt those who hurt us. It's why I formed the Glinda Knights and was such a zealot when it came to fighting terrorists." Euphemia opposed it, and they had gotten into so many arguments about it. How ironic that it was Schneizel who played peacemaker for them.

"Then Euphie was killed…by Zero and I..." Marrybell paused, as even a decade after it, it still hurt, and she knew it also hurt for Nina. Not just the loss of someone so beloved and kind, but also how they insulted the fallen princess with their actions in her name. "I thought for so long that was it. Euphie tried to extend a hand, and she was gunned down for it. There was more to it, but I refused to see it, and ended up doing so many horrible things because of that anger."

“Then you saw Lelouch take the throne," Nina asked, as she knew…some of Marrybell’s actions in that period, not from what she told her, but from reports and word of mouth. Kanon had often discussed them with her, even though he often put a positive spin on things.

When she looked into it herself, she could say she was horrified by it, almost as much as Marrybell looked as she looked at her hands, hands covered in the blood of hundreds, thousands even. And for what? How could she destroy terrorism when Britannia, under her father, created it? When every campaign, every occupation, created potentially tens of thousands more?

“And I booked it right back to Pendragon to see it myself. And he told me everything.” Marrybell stated that she could look back now and laugh at the encounter, but in the moment?

"I…didn't know that," Nina replied.

"I don't like talking about it, it wasn't the most…friendly or happy of family reunions, but our family was never normal, or loving. I had him dead to rights then and there. He had dismissed Suzaku and Jeremiah, not a single person there, and I was armed." Marrybell stated, waving off Nina’s lack of knowledge about this. "But I didn't do it. I thought it was a weakness at the time, but I've come to understand it was perhaps the first real strength I've shown in years."

“The strength to forgive him?” Nina asked, only for Marrybell to burst out laughing.

“God no!” She replied through the laughter, eventually getting control over herself. “I still hate him for it, for becoming a terrorist and slaying Clovis and Euphemia.” Suzaku might have forgiven the empire, but Marrybell wanted to shoot him. Not kill, but maybe once or twice in the leg.

"What I found the strength to do was give him a second chance, to give myself a chance at being more than the Massacre Witch, and I think we've done pretty well for ourselves," Marrybell replied, as she was Britannia's counter—terrorism expert. Still, she had also gone into other fields and was now leading the ministry of agriculture, helping to create the policies which would feed the people, not police and kill them.

"Are we forgiven for our sins? No, I don't think we ever will be, but we can't spend our lives punishing ourselves and denying ourselves this gift of connection to those we love. We'll keep working to atone and to build a better world, but we should take time for ourselves." Marrybell told Nina, who took time to think about her words momentarily.

“...I’ll try.”

“Nope, I won’t accept that,” Nine looked up at Marrybell as she jumped to her feet, hands on her shapely hips. "You're Nina Ensiten, one of the smartest people on the planet, and a master of science! Science does not believe in tries, it believes in cans and cant’s.”

Nina looked even more confused by that statement. "That's a horribly oversimplified statement which pierces into inaccuracy."

"Don't care, you're coming with me, we're going to have fun! Oldrin!” At the call, the up till now absent Oldrin seemed to appear out of thin air, as dutiful as always to her best friend and princess.

The knight held a phone in her hand, having just finished a call. "I've already called her supervisors. It turns out Nina has been building up paid time off, so we could snatch her for the next month, and she'll still have time to spare."

“Then let’s go!” With that, the former soldier and still incredibly strong princess grabbed Nina like a sack of potatoes. They matched out, ignoring Nina's complaints and how red she was. At least no one but Francis would see, and the middle-aged man knew how to keep a secret.

Line Break

As Marrybell carried Nina out of her lab, far to the east, in the town where Jeremiah set up his farm, two others enjoyed a nice dinner. The little Floridian restaurant was a far cry from Pendragon's places, and the meals and drinks would be seen as insults to what they had once enjoyed.

And yet Gino and Anya could say without a doubt that they would eat here once a week for the rest of their lives and be happy. The evening heat was settling down, but the lazy ceiling fans still spun, while the lights both within the establishment and on the streets outside their window came on, lighting up the small town.

To the side sat a bar packed with workers, most local shopkeepers, and farmers who came in for a drink or to spend time with friends. The loud, chaotic atmosphere seemed so much warmer than the galas the two former Knights of Round had attended.

Anya had arrived straight from her shift at the hospital. She was still wearing wrinkled scrubs, a faint smear of something, coffee, he hoped, on her sleeve. It was coffee, as she had taken to the drink in recent years to power through those long shifts, and even before then, when she would study until late to finish medical school.

Still, Gino would confidently say she made the tired doctor work, and work like a Swiss watch. At 25, Anya was even more beautiful than she'd been in years past, her build having filled out but still on the light side. Her complexion, once pale, had grown tan from the years of farm work at Jeremiah's place and the holidays the two always enjoyed, just traveling through Britannia, finding the most fun thing they could do.

Her pink hair was longer, tied into a giant bun on one side and a long ponytail on the other, all while she still had enough hair out to frame her face and flow down her back. When he asked her about it once, she smiled and said, 'It's wait, so I chose it.' Honestly, he didn't mind; seeing her with the crazy haircut and how much it would light up her red eyes made him love it more.

"You look like you performed tirage on a raccoon, which didn't go down without a fight." Gino joked. "Or did someone go gurney racing and not tell me?"

Her laugh brought a deep sense of joy to his heart, even if she was exhausted from her work. "If only my day had something that fun happen. No, we had an allergic reaction because someone didn't know their cousin couldn't handle cats and got him several for a birthday present." Gino didn't stop her as she listed other events of her day.

"A broken wrist since some kids decided they would practice to be knights of the round table with bats for swords," Gino couldn't help but laugh at that. "And a grandma who insisted the vending machine stole her money and hits a lot harder than a below 160cm 80-something should be able to."

"Good thing they had a former Knight of Round on staff to handle that for them," Gino commented, getting a half-hearted glare from Anya as their food arrived. The middle-aged waitress gave Gino a wink, walking away with a bit more sway in her hips.

Anya caught how his years traced it. His best friend had fallen hard for the older woman thing, but she would appreciate it if he could focus on the story and then chase some tail.

"Oh, they did, and they sent me to handle it. Turns out the vending machine never eats anything. She somehow managed to drop the note, and it slid under the machine." Anya would have slammed her head into the table if not for the steaming plate of mashed potatoes, gravy, and meat loaf waiting for her.

“And I bet you didn’t just leave things be.” Gino guessed as Anya dug into her meal, eating it lying, she hadn't eaten all day, which, knowing her, was probably true. He really needed to get her to break that habit of skipping meals; she was skinny enough.

“I would have just given her 5 pounds and been done with it, but I didn't have my wallet and no one was around by that point, so I had to stretch and scrape under the damn thing to retrieve the last money, at which point she thanked me, handed me a cookie, and left." Gino laughed at the story as he took a bite of his meal.

“Well, we don’t have vending machines at the office. We have the café, which never has enough drinks and sells only the most overpriced middle-of-the-street sandwiches." Gino spoke in a tone similar to a noble's, getting Anya to giggle for a change. "The scale model for our new jet did divert off course, thanks to a strong wing, and crashed into some inflatable flamingos."

"Why'd you even have those?" she asked, knowing his job at this aerospace company was…eccentric, but this seemed like a special kind of crazy.

"I asked, and I've gotten six different answers since I started working there. The last one had something to do with alien bio-weapons, which were also fluffy and adorable." Anya smiled as she looked at Gino as he talked about things.

Gino had always been tall, second only to Bismarck in height back during their Knight of Round days, with a muscular build that matched. But in the years since, he'd gone and found some extra inches to pack in. He had grown slimmer as he spent less time focusing on strength these days than he did on general health, and with how much camping and hiking the two got up to, he was certainly in better shape than most.

His hair, on the other hand, had changed, as he had long ditched the 3 braids and cleaner aesthetic of their knightly and noble past, and went with a more average cut, with the sides of his head shaved down to better show off the 3 ear piercings on his right hair and 2 of his left. On a recent trip down to Southern Britannia, he got tats done along his right arm, from the elbow to wrist. He had another on his neck, which he thought read something cool.

But he had just been duped and now had a tattoo that read 'Sucker' in Spanish, though he never seemed bothered and just laughed about it. It certainly helped make him stand out when he wore his company uniform of a plain blue dress shirt and brown pants. Gino got away with rolling his sleeves and popping the collar to show off his ink.

"And then my boss lost his shit when Sampson asked, 'But boss, isn't that what you asked me to do?'" Gino laughed as he finished the story. "I swear, it wasn't just me who struggled to keep from laughing as the man seemed close to throwing his table through the window."

"He wasn't clear with his instructions, so he couldn't get mad." Anya teased the man who wasn't there.

"Pretty sure that's why he didn't throw the desk, but man did he look pissed afterward." Gina chuckled, sipping his ice-cold beer as Anya had gone with some locally produced wine. "Well, it would be fun to have stuff like that around the hospital, especially the pediatrics floor; kids would love it."

“Sampson has that effect on people. Pretty sure it’s why his wife is pregnant.” Gino absentmindedly added, causing Anya to choke on her food as she had to beat her chest to relieve the block.

“Again? How many is that now?” Anya asked, as she had already heard stories of the cuddle bear that was Sampson and had seen him with his wife and massive family around town now and then.

"This would be baby number 8, and I was invited this time for the baby shower," Gino replied, pulling out the invite for Anya to see.

"You're part of the office family, then," Anya teased, but she had to pause to yawn into her hand. Her eye bags looked worse, which caught Gino's attention.

"You good? You seem…well, wiped, more than usual?" Gino asked her.

"Like you just said, I'm always wiped. No one tells you how long and tiring a shift can be until you teach your second year at medical school." She shrugged, a tired smile forming on her face. "But I'm still here, and I'll still clock in tomorrow because I love my work, even the craziness of it.

Anya loved this meeting as well, and the place they chose, as they had always loved coming here and had made friends with the owner and his staff—even a certain middle-aged waitress, whom she bet would be climbing into Gino's sheets one of these days.

But at times, she couldn’t help but think, and what she would think about always lowered her mood. She didn’t like to speak about it, but now was perhaps a great time to. “Hey,” She softly called. “Do you…ever get those moments?”

It was a vague question, and yet Gino, the man who knew her best and whom she would trust with just about anything, could tell what she was talking about from how she slumped and how her eye grew just a little vacant and unsure.

“Sure do, always comes at the weirdest moment. I could just be going through my day, helping with some tasks, or sitting at home, and boom," Gino snapped his fingers. "It's there and I feel like my clothes don't fit me, even though they do."

“Or that maybe it’s not your laughter you should be hearing, but someone else. I wonder if we should laugh for them, because of what we did…” Anya voiced, pausing her meal as she looked at her half-eaten food.

“I don’t think so,” Gino shook his head, as he wasn’t like Anya. He had walked into that life knowing what it meant, at least, he thought he did. Sometimes he wondered if he had just been a fool, as it took something like Tokyo for him to question it all. "We're ourselves, Anya. No one else, no one holds our chains or pulls our strings. So, we should live for ourselves, and try our darndest to make things fun for others as well.”

That made sense, yet it didn't help her as she clenched her spoon. "Even when you hear an alarm and you know you're needed, but just for a moment, you freeze and think back to what other alarms sounded like, and what that meant." It had been years, but she always needed to rush for the Modred when an alarm went off. It had nearly failed her an exam back during her medical school days, as she froze and went the wrong way during a simulation of receiving accident patients.

If not for the school therapist confirming it wasn't her being rebellious, she might have just failed the class instead of being given the chance to retake the exam the following semester. "Waking up in tears as you pray it's not some cruel dream, that you're…you, no one else is there."

"Or the sound of jet engines being tested sounds like fighters flying overhead, or something heavy dropping, making you want to dive for cover. Or even driving to and from the damn store, making you feel like your seat isn't right, it's nothing like a cockpit should be." Gino sighed, as he knew of his friend’s past, every miserable part of how they came to know each other. “You think we’ll ever stop measuring calm by how temporary it feels?”

Anya shook her head, stating with a hollow chuckle. “Hell if I know.”

"But…maybe it's not how we should think about it. Maybe it's about appreciating the present and all that." She waved it off with an amused look.

“Well, I sure as hell enjoy every day I’m not waiting for some new orders and country to conquer, you?” Gino asked, lifting his mug up.

"Loving the fact that the only voices in my head are all the memories I've made with you." Anya did the same with her wine glass.

“Weellllll,” Gino started, which had Anya smacking his shoulder.

"Christ, Gino, you're 27, not 7. Just say it, " she told him, trying and failing to keep her laughter in as Gino always made the dumbest faces.

"What, it makes you laugh!" Gino rebuffed as he crossed his muscular arms. "But if you're so stubborn, I wanted to bring up the coming party in the capital. Are you going?"

She tapped her sneaker-covered foot a couple of times in thought. "Jerry's going, and he'll probably ask me to come as well, but I don't know. Feels… strange to celebrate peace when half of me still expects it to end.”

Gina nods. “Yeah. But maybe showing up means we still believe in it.”

Anya smiles, small but genuine. “Then maybe I’ll see you there.”

“Yeah,” Gina replied. “Maybe you will, since we'll go together.”

"Oh, are you asking me out?" Anya joked, only for Gino to reach for her hand, and with a face as serious as he'd been when he first got out of prison, he said-

“Yes.”

Anya's brain froze, and it took several seconds before she responded, and when she did, "…The fuck, I thought your type was MILFs!" She yelled so loud that several other tables heard, and when they turned and saw who it was, with a embarrassed Gino slamming his head into his hands. A red-faced Anya was up on her feet; they could put two and two together. Seems like Gino finally asked out Anya.

At the bar, the waitress from earlier grumbled as she handed one of the regulars 200 pounds, the mechanic smirking as he pocketed the money.

“That’s your response?!” Gino yelled back before the two got into a very public argument about the entire thing, their faces growing all the more flushed as the customers and staff all laughed and went back to their own things.

Let the youth sort out their feelings.

Line Break

This was not a chapter I planned to work on, not today of all days, but it was something of a request from the person who commissioned it. Not for it to be moved, oh no, that would have been easy, they wanted 2 chapters this week, and man, did it mess with this, but I braved through it, and got it done! Now, as for the topic of the chapter, it took some time to work it out during the planning phase, as while I wanted this to be a mainly wholesome story(as Lord knows we all need it), I didn't want to be confusing fluff if that makes sense.

And so far, I've introduced the eldest royal children, their mothers, their father, Milly, Rivalz, Guilford, Suzaku, and Cecile. I needed to bring in others, as again, this is kinda supposed to be the happy ending for everyone, as it can be…yeah, there'll be exceptions, just ask the one-armed Tohdoh, but I don't want it to really be a big thing. Hell, I focused on Naoto, the elder, Ohgi's son, in the last chapter. I could have kept up with him in this, but I thought of a much better idea.