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Fanfic / The Black Emperor

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A Code Geass What If? story by Primordial Vortex (who also wrote The Emerald Phoenix, Supernova (One Piece), and Legend of the Monkey God) where Lelouch reveals his plan to "obliterate Britannia" to Milly shortly after he and Nunnally are taken in by the Ashfords. Milly swears to be Lelouch's partner in his goal.

Can be read here on Fanfiction Dot Net. Currently on hiatus pending a rewrite.


This fic contains examples of the following tropes, in addition to those already present in the source material:

  • Adaptation Personality Change: Because of the "Milly Effect", Lelouch is less angsty and more playful, and has a rather strong perverted side.
  • Adaptational Badass:
    • C.C. is outright superhuman, because she can consciously push her body past its normal limits and heal off any damage as it occurs. Likewise, Lelouch is actually fairly athletic and highly skilled with his Blade Below the Shoulder.
    • Later chapters show Milly's a skilled marksman and gains a Geass for herself in the second chapter.
    • Euphemia not only gains her own Geass but is also an observant and intelligent commander from her years following Cornelia from battlefield to battlefield.
  • Adaptational Curves: Owing to some intensive training with Sayoko, Lelouch has a more muscular build than his canon counterpart does.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • Lelouch and Milly designed several prototype Knightmare Frames but had to can each of them for various reasons. One designed for long range artillery support was too heavy to move faster than a crawl; another that changed into a plane was exceedingly fragile and couldn't fly for long due to fuel constraints.
    • Lelouch views the Knightmare lances this way. While they can inflict a great deal of damage, they also require you charge straight at your opponent; otherwise they're just less efficient tonfas.
  • Berserk Button: Lelouch is quick to anger if somebody accuses him of being motivated by mere ambition. He emphasizes that he's not just out to take the throne of Britannia.
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: Lelouch and Kallen both use retractable blades strapped to their forearms.
  • Brutal Honesty: Kaguya has a tendency to tell the other members of Kyoto things they don't want to hear, such as calling the Burai a hunk of junk or insisting they should throw their support behind Zero.
  • Bullet Time: Kallen's Geass enhances her perception of time, allowing her to do things like cutting a bullet.
  • The Casanova: Lelouch and Milly are an unusual example of a Casanova couple. The two of them have a hobby of seducing girls with the intent of sleeping with them, sometimes together. Despite this, they still have a deep and genuine love for one another.
  • Cast from Calories: Implied to be the case for Kallen's geass, which increases the bio-electrical signals of her brain, cutting her reactions and perception of time in a similar vein to the Sharingan, however after saving the hostages from the rogue JLF members she's left as quote "...had run an entire marathon at full speed. Her stomach was growling and begging for food...Sweat was pouring from her in rivulets."
  • Chest of Medals: General Darlton has so many medals (all earned the hard way) that he has to keep them spread across several uniforms and just picks a uniform to wear each day.
  • Cool, but Inefficient: The Burai is touted as the first Japanese Knightmare Frame, but is noted by several to just be a Glasgow with improved armor on the forearms and a chest cannon. Unlike later models, Glasgows are fragile enough that an rpg can take one out and have such poor performance that Kallen, one of the best pilots in the world, struggles against average pilots in Sutherlands. As a result, when the Black Knights get a shipment of them, Zero strips them down to their cockpits and repurposes them as training simulators until his own Knightmares are completed.
  • The Coup: Discussed; when Kallen says that Milly and Lelouch had better not be using her resistance group in an attempt to take the Brittanian throne, Milly admits that it's not just for that reason, but they have to do it anyway to keep Britannia, and the rest of the world which has become dependant on them due to their conquest, from falling into anarchy.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: Nina lampshades that the Guren Mk. II relies so heavily on it's Radiant Wave Surger that said weapon getting damaged would cripple the machine.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: When Lelouch finally introduces himself to the members of Kyoto, Kaguya quickly becomes distracted feeling his muscles.
  • Easy Logistics: Averted. Building new 7th Generation Knightmare Frames or even replacing Gloucesters is a serious trial for Cornelia's forces in Area Eleven. Because Clovis never had a high spec production facility built, all Gloucesters have to be shipped from the mainland rather than manufactured in Area Eleven. Meanwhile, the Lancelot is a unique Knightmare which means every part is custom made, so even repairing the badly damaged Frame would take weeks. Furthermore, Cecile and Lloyd explain to Cornelia that it'd take months to properly design a 7th Generation Knightmare that any but the absolute best pilots could use, partially due to all the downgrades they'd have to make while still maintaining it's high performance.
  • Emotion Control: Milly's Geass allows her to manipulate the emotions of others, which she sees as colors, though it takes her some time to learn what color responds to what emotion.
  • Ethical Slut: Lelouch and Milly are quite happy to take other women to their bed but always do so together and are both plotting their campaign to overthrow Britannia and liberate it's colonies. Not only that, but every woman before Kallen was explicitly stated to be a one-time fling, Kallen, however, is made part of the relationship and both respect her boundaries as part of their actual love for her.
  • Everyone Has Standards:
    • Unlike canon, the students taking photos of the aftermath of the Shinjuku Massacre aren't excited by all the death and destruction but instead are horrified and are documenting things to keep Britannia from sweeping it under the rug.
    • Cornelia is shown to suffer night terrors from the civilians killed because of her refusal to negotiate with terrorists. She also makes a point of personally executing any rapists under her command.
  • For Want Of A Nail: The story premise asks what would change if Lelouch (accidentally) confided in Milly before the series start.
  • Fragile Speedster: Lelouch and Milly's Transforming Mecha was fairly fast but in order to keep the weight down, it had almost no armor.
  • Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Lelouch and Milly are about to have sex after he returns from the Shinjuku Ghetto, but they get interrupted by C.C.
  • Heel Realization: While most Britannians do have this after Zero's presentation of the Shinjuku Massacre, Nina is the most prominent example as she realizes that her xenophobia and dehumanizing thoughts of the Japanese population was the same one that caused the death and destruction in the ghettos. The loss of trust in the Britannian nobility, which up until that point was unquestionable, causes her to have a crisis of faith that leads her to joining the Black Knights.
  • Hero's Classic Car: Lelouch has a Rolls Royce Ghost and two Aston Martins.
  • I Have No Son!: Charles zi Britannia posthumously disowns Clovis after Zero exposes the truth about his actions in Shinjuku.
  • Impossible Theft: Lelouch manages to steal C.C.'s bra while she's still wearing it and without coming within arms length of her.
  • In Spite of a Nail: Despite evacuating the nearby city before the battle at Narita, Shirley's father is still killed in the landslide, though this time it's because he and his coworkers ignored the evacuation sirens.
  • Lady Killer In Love: Lelouch and Milly are truly, deeply in love with each other, but that doesn't stop either of them from sleeping with other girls, just that they do so together.
  • Lensman Arms Race: Lelouch and Milly were developing their own Knightmare frames well before the series starts. By the battle of Narita, the Black Knights are almost exclusively fielding Knightmares that are at worst slightly below Gloucestors in specs. Lloyd admits that it will be close to impossible for Britannia to regain total technological superiority due to the fact that the Onryo made their debut in the Battle of Narita and had some defects that will most definitely be improved on.
  • Lightning Lash: Lelouch's first Ace Custom, the Raijin, has a pair of whips that can be electrified.
  • Magic A Is Magic A: Geass can only affect the mind of its user and/or targets. Nina's Geass lets her send her consciousness into machines and access any of their files or move to other machines provided both have an internet connection, something Lelouch describes as "not quite over the line but definitely straddling it while flipping the bird".
  • Mighty Glacier: The Behemoth, one of Lelouch's and Milly's prototypes was intended to be a ranged artillery support Knightmare and has incredible firepower but moves slower than most actual artillery platforms.
  • Misery Poker: Kallen tells Lelouch, Milly and C.C. about how her family life took a turn for the worse (her parents were forced to split up, her father remarried to a complete shrew and left, her mother suffers abuse while working as a maid) after Britiannia conquered Japan. Then Lelouch says he wished he had it that easy, which initally angers Kallen... until he tells her what he had to go through (narrowly avoiding getting killed by OSI operatives, having to carry his blind and crippled younger sister around for weeks, coming dangerously close to starving to death before he's finally found) and she agrees he had it worse by the time he's done recounting.
  • Moment Killer: C.C. interrupts Lelouch and Milly right as they're about to have sex after he returns from Shinjuku.
  • Noblewoman's Laugh: Milly sometimes lets loose with one of these. The story calls it her "Queen Bitch laugh".
  • Not Completely Useless: The Behemoth is a Mighty Glacier that has such terrible speed and maneuverability that Lelouch and Milly were forced to scrap it. However, it proves useful as a sniper unit during Zero's debut, especially as it has multiple cannons and the ability to lock onto a different target with each one.
  • Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: the Six Houses of Kyoto to the point that while Lelouch knows he needs them for any sort of legitimacy in Japan, he really only trusts Kirihara and Kaguya, and even Kaguya is still somewhat dismissive of the former due to being too traditional.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Euphemia gets a Twitchy Eye when explaining to Cornelia how Clovis got routed in the battle of Shinjuku, Cornelia belatedly wonders if she was better off not knowing.
  • The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: Two that are well known are on opposing sides. On Britannia's side, there's the triad of Charles zi Britannia, V.V., and Marianne vi Britannia, and on the Black Knights side, there's Lelouch, Milly, Kallen, Nina, Euphemia and C.C. with Rakshata being something of a fringe member due to her expertise in Knightmare Frame Technology.
  • Parrying Bullets: Kallen cuts a bullet in two during the Kawaguchi Hotel jacking.
  • Perception Filter: Euphemia's Geass creates illusions showing people what they expect to see, such as allowing her to walk past her guards because they don't expect her to disobey her sister by leaving.
  • Polyamory: Lelouch and Milly are in an open relationship, both of them "playing with" pretty girls, sometimes together. They're also open to the idea of having relationships with sexy girls on a more permanent basis, and as of Chapter 5, they've formed a triad with Kallen.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Kallen and her mother Naomi eventually realize how much grief they'd caused each other over the years because they never really sat down and talked to each other. Kallen treated her mother like crap so she'd hopefully leave the manor and live somewhere else and be happy. Naomi stuck around despite the abuse because she wanted to be with her daughter.
  • Power Perversion Potential: Milly's used her Geass (which allows her to control emotions) to inspire lust in others, but only as a way to prove her power exists. Nina's Geass lets her upload her mind/soul into computers and accidentally watches some of Lelouch and Milly's "home videos".
  • Propaganda Machine: This is what is used to form most of the patriotic loyalty of Britannian citizens, once Zero shows the war crimes committed during the Shinjuku massacre, even some Britannian citizens begin helping the Japanese populace.
  • Shower of Love: In chapter 2, Lelouch jokingly accuses Kallen of wanting to have one of these with him. She responds by slapping him.
  • Shown Their Work: The story contains a scene of Kallen's mother recalling how she fell into drug addiction which takes cues from the story of an actual drug addict.
  • The Social Darwinist: Brittania under Charles natch. Interestingly, as Lelouch tells Cornelia, they aren't exactly wrong as nations have risen, conquered, fallen and been conquered since the dawn of civilization and will continue doing so till it's twilight. What angers him however, is that Britannia, is a Type 1 that takes away everything from the conquered people and leaves them with nothing but false promises of a better life as Honorary Britannians in a mockery of the Ancient Roman method.
  • Technopath: Nina is a variation, her Geass allowing her to send her consciousness into machines and utilize them as she pleases.
  • Three-Way Sex: Lelouch and his girlfriend Milly have "played with" other girls, though always together.
  • Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Thanks to his relationship with Milly, Lelouch has largely recovered from the Trauma Conga Line he had when he was ten. Kallen too is less acerbic than her canon self in R1.
  • Twitchy Eye: Euphemia gets one while explaining Clovis' utter failure at Shinjuku.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: When it comes to piloting, C.C. comes off as this compared to Kallen. While her immortal body is faster, stronger, more durable, and has better reflexes than Kallen, she lacks the redhead's raw talent for piloting Knightmare Frames.
  • War Is Hell: C.C. reminds Lelouch and company just how bad war is by paraphrasing Hawkeye's quote about it:
    C.C.: "A lot of people say that war is hell. What a joke. Only sinners – the truly terrible – ever find themselves there. War… in war… almost everyone is a bystander."
  • We Have Become Complacent: Britannia has become so used to having a technological advantage against anyone they fight that they flounder when the Black Knights field units that are only slightly worse than Gloucesters, the best Knightmares currently available to Britannia and only used by the best of the best.
  • What You Are in the Dark: Zero/Lelouch decides that converting Suzaku is a lost cause when the latter refers to the Japanese as Elevens in a discussion between the two of them. Even though the only people around were those sympathetic to the Japanese, he still refers to them by the "name" given to them by Britannia.
  • You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Kallen breaks years of habit of treating her mother as just another maid and calls her "mom" when she pleads with her to leave the Stadtfeld manor.

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