From the Author: Hey all, this is going to be a one shot right now where things went differently in Code Geass Season One's episode 22, so it is AU in a sense. The Idea just popped into me head a month ago for some strange reason and bugged me non stop to be written. Hope you all like it.
Discarding the Mask
"I will help you create this Special Administrative Region of Japan" Lelouch sighed at his half sister, Euphemia, who smiled with innocent joy.
After such heated arguments and harsh shouting, Lelouch vi Britania, better known as Zero had been bested, by his own half sister. The Elevens would finally be regaining some freedom, and it would soon be time for the Black Knights to disappear until they were needed again.
"But... if I had been serious about you shooting me Euphie," Lelouch spoke with a casual smile on his face, "You wouldn't have been able to disobey."
Euphemia pouted, "Have you so little faith in me Lelouch?"
Lelouch chuckled lightly, "Absolutely not my dear sister."
He gestured to his left eye and continued with his explanation, "With my power Geass, I could order you to do anything... Shoot me... Shoot Suzaku-"
"Stop this instant Lelouch! Its not funny!" Euphemia's pout quickly turned into a frown of concern. What had gotten into her brother's head? Geass? Shooting him or Suzaku?
Lelouch smiled, "Oh, but its true Euphie. For example, if I ordered you to shoot the Japanese right now, you would have no choice but to obey."
Everything went downhill.
Lelouch could not comprehend what had happened when Euphie had suddenly seized up and started gasping, "No...no...I- I can't do that... I won't..."
Then he understood, his hand rising to touch his right brow close to his now permanent Geass. He had ordered Euphie, a sweet gentle soul to commit an act which was so repulsive to her, and there was nothing she could ever do to disobey. Even worse, the act of Euphie shooting a Japanese would cause the entire Special Administrative Region to fail, Euphie's reputation would be torn assunder, and she would be emotionally scarred for life. Euphemia cried out in apparent pain and fell to her knees, sobbing.
Desperately, as if hoping against hope that perhaps somehow, by some miracle, he could maybe... just maybe cast another Geass on Euphie to cancel his terrible order using his newly strengthened Geass, Lelouch cried out, staring into Euphie's red rimmed eyes, "Ignore that order Euphie! Ignore it! PLEASE!"
Alas, it was all in vain.
"Yes... I think I will shoot the Japanese." Euphemia leapt for the ceramic gun, grabbed it and was out of the G1 command center, sprinting for the Stadium stage... where thousands of Japanese people awaited her arrival.
"EUPHIE!" Lelouch screamed.
Hurriedly donning his mask, Lelouch sprinted after Euphie, faster than he had ever done, further than ever in his life. But Euphie, had always been faster, and Lelouch was losing ground. Quickly.
Thirty seconds... I need thirty seconds to reach Euphie- and then what do I do? SHIT! For all of Lelouch's intellect, there was nothing that could have helped him stop Euphie. Is this how fate is trying to torment me?
Euphie was out of the G1 mobile base, still hidden from, but a mere hundred meters from the crowd. There was nothing to stop her, until she spotted a tuft of brown hair and focused her attention at the unconscious man on the floor. It was Suzaku.
Shoot! Shoot him! He's a Japanese! In her Geassed state, Euphie raised the gun mechanically, training it right on Suzaku's heart. Her fingers began to tighten on the trigger. Shoot the Japanese! Shoot them! Shoot them! SHOOT THEM!
NOOO!! a tiny part of Euphie's mind protested violently, causing her body to seize yet again as she fell to the ground for a second time, clutching her head. The red rings around her eyes flickered wildly as the Geass struggled to overpower her new found will power.
In that time while Euphie had been struggling with her inner-self, Lelouch got his thirty seconds. Lurching through the doorway of the G1 and gasping uncontrollably for air, he spotted Euphie next to an incapacitated Suzaku and feared the worst. Had his order to his dear sister caused his own best friend to die?
No, he wouldn't let any more Japanese die. He would have to find a way to save Euphie, and then... then he would shoulder the blame for Suzaku's death, perhaps fabricate a story to say Suzaku had sacrificed himself to stop a bullet when Zero tried to shoot Euphemia?
Summoning the final dregs of his stamina, Lelouch charged up to Euphie's side and snatched the gun out of her hand. She provided no resistance as she continued to mumble, "No... what am I thinking?... no... no..."
Lelouch let out a small sigh of relief. As long as he had the gun, Euphemia wouldn't be able to do anything. Then his eyes focused themselves on Suzaku, and he frowned. He had no wounds. In fact, he looked perfectly fine, apart from him being unconscious.
"So your Geass really went out of control boya." C.C. popped up behind Lelouch, startling the hell out of him.
"You Wi-" Lelouch stopped in mid sentence.
C.C. was a granter of Geass, was capable of doing some other amazing things like invading minds and was an immortal to boot. She had probably been discovered by Suzaku and was knocked out by her, but that was unimportant to Lelouch then.
Lelouch grabbed C.C. by the shoulders and demanded, "Can you get rid of the effects of Geass? Or maybe... at the very least try to give Euphie a Geass so she could fight my Geass off? Answer me C.C.!"
"No."
The witch's answer nearly shattered Lelouch's sanity. Euphemia's will collapsed at that exact moment as well, and she turned to Lelouch smiling eeriely, "Can you hand me the gun please Zero? I must shoot all the Japanese."
Suzaku fortunately regained consciousness at that moment and groaned. Euphemia glanced down at Suzaku and tripped as she started to stand. In such a weird twist of fate that Lelouch would never ever have expected, Euphie had started to fall just as the recently awoken Suzaku had managed to gather enough senses to try to catch her.
Their lips crashed against one another.
Lelouch's jaws dropped almost comically at the sight, and then, much to his surprise, C.C. muttered, "Hmm... this might work. You let me do what is needed right, boya?"
"What?" Lelouch stared at C.C., refusing to believe what he had heard.
"A kiss? How in Heaven's name could a kiss solve this?" Lelouch cried
C.C. ignored him and stepped up to the frozen couple on the ground. Suzaku was frozen because he was not expecting the kiss at all. Euphie on the other hand, was still because her mind was in a total mess, part of her enjoying it and the other screaming at her to shoot Suzaku.
Both didn't get to break apart when C.C. hugged both of them together tightly as the symbol on her forehead began to glow. Lelouch saw C.C.'s intent, and fell silent. Perhaps Suzaku, the trusted Knight of Euphie and his closest friend could save her with the help of a witch.
Back on the stage, General Andreas Darlton was getting anxious. The Princess had been 'talking' to the terrorist Zero for nearly a quarter of an hour. He was having some serious doubts about the Princess's safety and was tempted to go into the G1 himself if the situation continued. Sighing in frustration, Darlton changed his mind and hoped Zero was probably trying to secure some kind of deal with Euphemia that need some time, but swore to walk into the G1 if they didn't show up in the next ten minutes.
Meanwhile, C.C. had brought Suzaku and Euphemia into the world of C. Suzaku looked around at his surroundings curiously. To his left was a portrait of him playing with Lelouch when he was young, with Nunnally sitting close by sniffing flowers. Before him, was a more recent portrait of him sharing some free time with Euphemia on the Government Building's Aries Villa replica.
"What's going on?" Suzaku muttered to no one in particular.
"We're in the world of C, the world of the unconsciousness, or sometimes known as the spirit realm if you are so curious boy. We're here to save your princess." came C.C.'s reply as she sneaked up on Suzaku who defaulted instantly to military training, pinning C.C. to the floor.
His eye widened in recognition. "You! What are you doing here? What do you mean we're going to save Euphie. What happened. Why did you knock me out. Is this a plan to get rid of me and Eu-" Suzaku's rant was cut short.
"Geez boy, your more demanding than Zero you know?" C.C. sighed.
Suzaku fell silent immediately.
Seeing as how he didn't look like he was going to start talking again, C.C. continued her explanation, "As for why I knocked you out? That was by accident. My powers were out of control at the time. As to saving the princess? Zero's and my so called powers are connected, so when mine went berserk, his did too, and it made your Princess go crazy. To sum it up, no this is not a plan to kill you or the girl. It is more like, 'Zero and I messed up big time and are trying to fix the problem for yours and the girl's benefit'."
C.C. made a mental note to tell Lelouch that he owed her pizza for shouldering some blame for his mistake.
Suzaku squatted over C.C. for a moment wondering if the lady was sane, when loud, familiar shouts startled him.
"SHOOT THE JAPANESE!"
"NO! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"
Suzaku's head jerked up as he leapt off C.C.. The sound had come from just around the portrait of his childhood. He faced it and tensed, preparing himself for whatever trap he thought Zero had set up for him. The sound of footsteps were heard, and then around the corner came...
Two Euphies?
"What the?" Suzaku cried out as both princesses screeched to a halt.
He glanced down at C.C. who simply cast him a look that said 'I told you but you just didn't wanna listen.' Suzaku returned his focus to the Euphemias just in the nick of time. One of them was pointing a standard Britannian pistol at him. Yelping in surprise, he leapt to the left just as the bullet whizzed past his shoulder.
"NO!" Cried the other Euphie, pushing the other holding the pistol down onto the ground.
Both girls started struggling about and Suzaku lost track of their movements in the swirl of fabrics. Looking down at C.C. again, he growled, "How do I fix this? Tell me NOW!"
C.C. smirked, sending shivers running up and down Suzaku's spine.
"Zero's power caused the girl to develop an alternate personality, if I were to put it simply. This alternate persona is quite the opposite from the real girl and could cause serious problems if she took over the girl's body. So in order to solve this, this alternate girl must die." C.C. stated, as if it were the easiest thing to do.
But Suzaku was having none of that. He could never kill some one, especially one that looked like... like his most important person. Two cries of pain forced his eyes back on the tussling girl's, only to see both of them bleeding from shoulder wounds that looked strangely like mirror images. It was strange. From the looks of it, only the real Euphie could have been shot, so why were both of them injured?
"Ahh... I forgot to mention that your Princess will probably die too when the Evil persona dies, meaning she must cheat death in order to be returned to normal." C.C.'s smile widened nastily.
Suzaku was at a complete loss. So he had to find the guts to kill the evil version of his precious person, and then some how snatch the real Euphie from death's hand? That sounded more and more impossible than ever the more he heard from the green haired woman's mouth.
Seeming to read his mind, C.C. spoke, "It is the only way to solve this, and I cannot help, as I am the one who is holding you all here and will be the only one who can bring you all back. You must do this on your own boy. My help can only come at the end of your crisis."
The real Euphie had heard the conversation and shouted over to Suzaku, "No! There must be another way to do this. There's no need to kill!"
Evil Euphie just cackled evilly, "Hah! I'm a part of you! You can only get rid of me and die yourself, or let me exist to conquer your mind and body, so that I may shoot the Japanese!"
Both Euphies were back to struggling with each other, although it was more subdued with both of them having injuries.
"Th evil persona is not truly manifested yet boy, but it is growing more into a reality as time passes. You have little time to decide." C.C. muttered, frowning at Suzaku.
Suzaku's confidence was completely shredded. Looking around desperately, he tried to keep his sights away from the fighting Euphies to think clearly without having to look at the pained or sickening expressions. He eyes caught sight of a picture of him and Shirley having a conversation when he had just entered Ashford.
Suzaku was wondering about his feelings for Euphie and was at a complete loss. He just sat on the roof of the Academy staring into space, when Shirley had come up for fresh air and spotted him. She then struck up a conversation that taught him many things.
Flashback
"Shirley, what does it mean to love another truly?" Suzaku whispered.
Shirley looked startled at the question, but smiled nicely and thought for a minute. Then she spoke, her words chosen very carefully, "Well, I guess it can mean you truly love someone when you are really willing to die for them or even kill for them. Loving someone truly also means that no matter what they may become in the future, a monster or a cheater or a liar or if they never return you love, you still love them all the same."
Suzaku looked up at Shirley in surprise. He had never expected her to have so much knowledge on relationships or to be so mature. Shirley was deep into her thoughts and never caught Suzaku's looks that he was giving her.
"But at the same time, to love someone truly, you must always remain true to your heart and most importantly, you must always learn that in true love, you must be able to let go of your love if you have to, be it to another, or maybe to death. As long as your feelings remain and you do not force yourself on the other person, your love is true... in a sense." Shirley finished, and snapped out of her lecture daze.
Blushing furiously, she gushed, "Oh I'm so sorry Suzaku! I hope I didn't bore you?"
Suzaku just smiled widely and thanked the confused girl, before sprinting off to carry on his military duties...
End Flashback
Filled with resolve, Suzaku sprinted to the two Euphies and broke them up, grabbing the real princess by the waist and forcing the Evil one against a picture of himself with the rest of his colleagues at the Government Building.
"No. Please Suzaku! Don't kill her!" Euphie begged
The evil Euphie added her own voice, "You don't have the gut to shoot me Japanese."
Suzaku simply ignored the evil Euphie and stared into the real Euphemia's eyes, "Please bear with it Euphie."
Then he kissed her, as gently as possible, to distract her from what he intended to do. Euphemia's eyes closed as she wrapped her arms slowly around Suzaku. He leveled the pistol at Evil Euphie's heart.
The evil persona of Euphemia hissed and made an attempt of escape, but Suzaku would not let that happen, he fired, missing the heart because the evil entity had managed to twist right, but it was enough, the bullet went right through the corrupt being and it emitted a loud unearthly scream before falling to the ground, dead.
Euphemia let out a small cry and slumped, and Suzaku broke from the kiss, and looked on helplessly at his precious person's breathing began to slow. She had fainted from the new wound to the lungs, and blood was leaking out, fast. It was rather strange to Suzaku, that he was in some mystic realm, and that he had been forced to kill, in a way, his own loved one, and then watch as she bleed to death.
"You have proven your worth boy. I will help the girl now." C.C. spoke with a spooky tone.
Suzaku's head jerked up, "What?... But I thought... the only way..."
"If you think that I brought you here to let the girl die, then it would have been faster if I let Zero shoot her in the real world." C.C. smirked, as she walked over to the pair, raising her arm to touch Euphemia's forehead, "It will definitely not heal all of her wounds, but it will help."
Suzaku looked down to see the wounds disappear as if it were never there, but he was still worried, speaking in a panic stricken manner to C.C., "But did Euphie get injured in the real world?"
The simple shake of C.C.'s head was all that was necessary to lay to, the rest of Suzaku's fears as the tension in his body during the past few minutes left his body. Grabbing hold Suzaku and Euphemia, C.C. muttered in an annoyed manner, "Let's get back."
They faded from the world of C, and soon, Suzaku had a serious headache as he opened his eyes to the real world again. Zero was standing over all three of them with a posture that that was best described as extremely worried. Suzaku stared at the masked Lelouch for a second before his face blossomed into a snarl and he leapt for the masked man, grabbing him by the lapels.
"You idiot! You could have gotten Euphie killed!" Suzaku hissed.
"I won't deny that what happened was my fault." Lelouch whispered guiltily from behind the mask.
Suzaku only got angrier and raised a fist to give the man a good beating, but the weakened voice of Euphemia stopped him, "Please, don't do it Suzaku. I don't really know what your talking about, but I don't see Zero doing anything wrong, so stop."
Suzaku looked back at the Princess, who had woken up and was finding support from a rather unwilling C.C.. Strange, why doesn't she remember what Zero did to her? Suzaku mused, but decided to let the matter rest until Euphie recovered more. She looked like she was in a pretty bad shape.
There was the faintest hint of eye-bags under her eyes and her softened voice made it obvious that she was exhausted, probably from her little misadventure. Suzaku tried really hard to inch his fist closer to Zero's mask again, but found it impossible, not when he had already disobeyed Euphie once to kill her evil persona.
He let go of Lelouch who promptly stepped back and spoke to Euphemia in his most polite and regal voice, "You have my sincerest of apologies for the matter Euphemia li Britannia, I hope you will accept them."
Then, he bowed, deeply, to the stunned princess, as Suzaku stared in surprise. The great Zero, the almost unbeaten Revolutionist, the mastermind of some of the greatest defeats of Britannian history, the slayer of Clovis la Britannia and the one who nearly caught Cronelia li Britannia, was bowing to a meek, pacifist princess.
"Please raise your head Zero. I forgive you, even though... I don't really know what your talking about." Euphemia spoke kindly, rubbing the back of her head.
"But my actions have made it such that I cannot deem myself worthy of participating in this joyous events. Thus I must take my leave." Zero's voice issued from the mask, tired and weary.
Motioning for C.C., he trotted towards his waiting Gawain as C.C. helped Euphemia to Suzaku's side. Without pause to hear Euphemia's attempts to make them stay, Zero hopped lightly into the Gawain's cockpit followed by C.C.
The hatch closed with a hiss and the Gawain powered up, lifting itself into the air. As he piloted the Gawain over the stadium of now very surprised Japanese and Britannians, Lelouch activated the external speakers and spoke, "People of Japan! I, Zero have personally accepted Princess Euphemia's proposal for the Special Administrative Region of Japan and will support its existence... However, as payment, my Black Knights and I will disband and disappear."
He let the silence hang as the people absorbed the information before continuing, "Still! If there ever comes a time when Britannia forgets its pledge, even with Princess Euphemia's interventions, we will return to fight once more. With this, I shall take my leave. My Black Knights! We have accomplished our objectives! We're leaving!"
The Japanese in and out of the Stadium erupted into loud cheers, some chanting, 'Zero!'.
Not wanting to stick around and let the Britannians try to retrieve the Gawain, Lelouch quickly flew away. The royal guards started to pursue on Darlton's order, but Euphemia's voice rang out to the stadium, "I, Euphemia li Britannia order all soldiers to stand down immediately! There is no need to chase Zero!"
Darlton cursed in his head as he gave in to the Princess's order, it looked like Cornelia's bright idea to catch Zero at the stadium was ruined.
The rest of the proceedings for the Special Region went smoothly, discounting the part where Schenizel el Britannia arrived out of the blue to announce that as part of protocol to establish good inter region relations, Euphemia would have to be wed to the highest ranking official, or at least the child of the highest ranking, who was obviously Suzaku.
Since Euphie wasn't quite ready to lead yet, and Suzaku had absolutely no political training, Schenizel also announced that the couple would have to study politics in the Tokyo settlements for three years before returning to the Special Region. In the mean time, the NAC would have to pick up the slack. No one was going to complain, after all, the Japanese basically got to rule themselves.
Cornelia almost marched in to the Region herself, upon learning of what was to become of her sister, but one talk with Schenizel by phone convinced her otherwise. It was a joyous occasion for the Japanese, and they only got happier when an ecstatic Euphie kissed a shell shocked Suzaku in front of national television.
In Pendragon Castle, Charles di Britannia frowned, he never expected the accidental Geass to be countered. But it was of little consequence to him, his plans to start Ragnarök were unaffected. He would let his little children continue as they pleased. The incidents they caused, were after all, trifling matters...
Finally, as the sun began to set upon the land of the rising sun, the Order of the Black Knights got back to their temporary base, where the weapons were promptly sent into secret arms caches just in case the Black Knights needed to return again...
By the time the clock struck 8, everything was packed or hidden away, and the Knights held a final party, its members preparing to head their separate ways. Ogi had found a lady he liked and was shifting to the Special Region. The Holy Swords and Toudou were still wanted people, so they contented themselves plans on heading as discreetly as possible to one of the Black Knights' safe houses, a small respectable, comfy bunker on a deserted island in Japan.
Kallen stared forlornly at her fellows. It no real party, just simple drinks, cheering and goodbyes. Most of these people had places to go to, families to return to, homes to be rebuilt, but she had nowhere to go. She would not call the Stadfeld household her home. She could not even go to school for Suzaku would surely report her to the authorities as a Black Knight. It would be suspicious if she just shifted to the Special Region; Suzaku would suspect Zero had some plan up his sleeve and arrest her. She sighed.
"Something the matter Kallen?" Zero spoke from behind her.
Startled, Kallen spun to see her leader, and an idea sparked in her head, "Ah! Zero... well.. uh... you see... I kinda don't have a home to return to, so... could I... possibly go to your...your-"
"No." came Zero's simple reply.
Kallen's heart sank.
"But could get a contact who could help you." Zero's words lifted Kallen's spirits up on high again.
"As I understand it, you attend Ashford, so I think my contact there can get you a place to stay there." Zero's tone was confident, but Kallen's had felt her spirit hit rock bottom.
"But Zero, the pilot of Lancelot attends Ashford... I mean sure he's going to the Special Region, but he may take the politics courses in Ashford for the three years, like they said on the news and-" Kallen really didn't have luck completing sentences that day as Zero chuckled, cutting her off.
Zero fished out a contact card from his pocket and handed it to Kallen, "I know all about that Kallen, but this contact of mine is a close friend of Suzaku's, so I doubt he would have problem's convincing Suzaku to let you stay.
Him? Close friend of Suzaku? Who- Oh don't tell me... Kallen looked down at the card and almost swore in front of her leader.
Kallen spoke enough only for Zero to hear, "Lelouch? He's your contact?"
It all made sense to Kallen then, why the students at school had always been noticing that Lelouch went missing on the same days Kallen did sometimes. That Lelouch was probably running errands for Zero to help our operations... that means he probably knew I tried to assassinate Suzaku and he knows I'm Japanese! That prick!, Kallen thought darkly, Well at least I'll be able to find a place to stay for a while. I need to have a good chat with that Lelouch.
"Is there a problem, Kallen?" Zero's head tilted ever so slightly.
Kallen wiped the frown off her face, grinned as widely as she could for her leader and said, "Not at all! Thanks a lot for your help, Zero! I'll be going to say goodbye to my friends then!"
She sprinted towards the rest of her comrades to have a chat. Beneath the mask of Zero, Lelouch smiled, Perhaps... I will have a normal and peaceful life with Nunnaly now... well, as normal as being an abandoned Prince's life can get.
Calling for his remaining Black Knights' attention, Lelouch, or rather, Zero spoke, "My dear comrades! The fight is done, and we have accomplished our goal of a free Japan, so I shall bid you all farewell, and hope that there will not come a time, when we have to return."
"There is no need to cheer or say anything for me!" He spoke hurriedly, as the Knights started to shout, "Zero!"
"All I ask of you" Lelouch spoke with a tone of finality, "Is that you all will live your lives to the fullest with your new found freedom. Good Bye."
In the silence, Zero walked out of the base in his usual regal posture, with C.C. faithfully by his side. The Black Knights watched, as he disappeared into the blackness of the night. After a sometime, the base emptied, and the lights were extinguished as the remaining Black Knights left for their new lives. Hours later, a teen gang would find Zero's mask, discarded in the dumpster in a lonely alley of Tokyo Settlement. The teens would of course hand it over to the authorities.
The news the next day proclaimed that Zero had now truly disappeared, with the discovery of his discarded mask, and that the mask, would be placed at the Government Building lobby on Prince Schenizel's order, to serve as a memorial of Zero's Black Rebellion.
Everyone in Area 11 and Japan was now happy at least. Japan, even if it was a small parcel of land, was free, and Peace had returned to the area.
No longer was there the need for Zero to fight for justice...
But...
Was everything truly over?
Charles was still there with his plans for Ragnarök...
V.V. was still plotting his evil deeds of killing Marianne's children...
So what if Zero was not needed anymore...
Was there a new need...
For Lelouch vi Britannia?
Fin
From the Author: Well... this is it, though I may continue this fic if the Ideas continue to bushwhack me, but it definitely is not my main story right now, which is To Begin Again. As for all of you who are wondering how C.C. got Suzaku and Euphie into the world of C? That's just because this is an AU fic, and C.C. can do that here. Hope you enjoyed, and I would welcome your reviews. Criticisms are accepted, as long as they don't include cussing.