Author's Note: Well, I've been meaning to write a Code Geass story for quite a while, and the idea for this story kind of hit me while I was writing an essay for English class. To explain the format, it alternates between present-day and flashbacks. Everything in present-tense is happening at the moment, and everything told in past-tense is a flashback.

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of its characters.

Warnings: Major Spoilers! Continue at your own risk if you haven't finished R2!

Suzaku stands in the center of the road, the afternoon sun blazing against his back, burning against the heavy black fabric that weighs on his skin. He hears the collective gasp of those gathered to see their emperor. It is quite a spectacular effect, really. Thousands of voices, all joining together at the same moment to form a single word: Zero.

He hated it, and yet for so long he had almost envied it. To have so many lips form his name, to hear so many voices filled with wonder and hope instead of spite and anger. But the moment he had hoped for, the moment where he would be a hero and not an Eleven, was tainted by the cruel hand of fate. The name the masses spoke was not his name. Kururugi Suzaku was dead and gone. It was Zero they cried out for. Zero they saw before them. Suzaku was not Zero.

He lunges forward now, throwing all of his thoughts behind him. He feels the weight of his cape as it catches in the wind. He hears the sound of gunfire, but it hardly registers in his mind. With graceful serpentine movements he avoids the shots fired in his direction. The voices that had spoken his name in wonder moments before let out screams of shock. He feels as if he is flying.

Suzaku had always been athletic, and Lelouch marveled at it. The brown-haired, green-eyed boy seemed to have all the energy in the world plus an ounce more. He had a sort of freedom to him, thought Lelouch. It was really quite strange. And Lelouch himself felt drawn to the boy without explanation. No matter what absurd idea his friend suggested, the other could not help but join in. Even if the idea was as absurd as the one Suzaku proposed today.

"C'mon, jump! It's not that bad, I promise!" he cried. Lelouch looked down from where he was perched at the moment: a rather thin tree branch that was fearfully far away from the surface of the pond, where Suzaku was now treading water and gazing up expectantly.

"I don't really believe this is such a good idea..." mumbled Lelouch, but by now he really had no other choice. He knew that Suzaku had a hold on him that he somehow could not refuse. He wondered if Suzaku knew it too.

Lelouch forced himself to move to the end of the branch, and before he had a chance to change his mind, he was falling. It seemed an eternity before he hit the surface. There was a painful smack and then he was sinking into the murky, lukewarm water. He did not sink far, however, before he felt arms wrap around him, and then he was pulled to the surface, fighting to fill his lungs with air.

"Suzaku," he gasped. "Let's never do that again." It was only then that he realized how warm Suzaku's grasp was, and how desperately he wanted him to keep holding on.

"Don't shoot! I shall be his opponent!" Jeremiah Gottwald lunges forward, blades out, ready to attack. Suzaku's heart skips a beat then, although no onlooker notices a change in his advance. Perhaps the plan has gone wrong. Perhaps Lelouch did not inform him. Suzaku pushes himself powerfully upwards, over his attacker. He falls for a moment, feeling the cape on his back catch in the wind once again. He lands with one foot on Jeremiah's shoulder and uses the momentum to lunge forward. "Go, Masked Knight." Lelouch was trustworthy after all. He shames himself for doubting his closest friend.

"Do you trust me, Suzaku?"

"Of course." The two friends stood side-by-side, aware of what was to come and yet reluctant to set it in motion. Suzaku was dressed as Zero, with the infamous mask resting in the crook of his arm. Lelouch had made it clear that Zero would become his only identity. As far as anyone was concerned, Suzaku was dead and buried. He turned to his friend and noticed an immense sadness in his eyes. It was as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He realized that it may not be so far from the truth after all. Kururugi Suzaku had died a soldier. Lelouch vi Britannia would die a tyrant. A monster in the eyes of his people. But with his sadness was a fierce determination to set everything right.

"Lelouch?" Suzaku asked soflty.

"Yes?"

"Out of the two of us, I think you turned out to be the strongest."

Suzaku leaps once, twice. He stops in front of Nunnally for the briefest of moments. He wishes that he could explain everything to her. He wishes to tell her he is sorry. But his time is short, and he notices how she flinches away. One more leap and he is there. Suzaku's heart is beating so fast that it hurts. Lelouch fakes surprise, stands. Suzaku is shocked at how realistic his hatred and shock seems. He can not help but notice his friend's violet eyes, his raven hair, his perfect face and skin. At this moment, he can not help but notice that his friend is beautiful.

Suzaku draws his sword. It catches in the light, and for a moment he looks like an avenging angel, albeit one in black. An angel with no wings. He drives his sword forward. There is nothing but silence as the world watches with bated breath. For a moment, he and Lelouch seem to be in a sort of embrace. "This is also a punishment for you..." Lelouch murmurs. He falls further still. "You will...keep on wearing the mask...as an ally of justice." He raises his hand, covered in blood. "You will live no more as... Kururugi Suzaku..." His hand leaves streaks of blood on the mask of Zero as Suzaku withdraws his blade and Lelouch falls forward.

The crowd chants the name that will haunt him from this moment on. He is a hero. And all Suzaku can do is cry.