"Your Highness, the riots are…"

"We know, get out." Zero's voice resonated powerfully from his mask, but there was an exhausted edge to it. He hadn't slept in two days, and only a few hours at a time for the three days before that.

Euphemia touched his shoulder. "Maybe if we talk to them…"

Zero slapped her hand away, ignoring her hurt expression. "They won't listen, Euphie!" He tore off his mask and she flinched from Lelouch's thin, wan face. "Why the hell should they? You're the princess who manipulated them into exchanging their iron shackles for silver ones and I'm the heroic leader who sold them out to you! A gilded cage is still a goddamn cage!"

"Your Highness?" Suzaku's worried voice came from the other side of the door. "Are you alright?"

"Fine." Euphemia waited until Lelouch fit his mask back on. "You can come in now."

He did, shooting a glare at Zero – possibly for yelling, possibly just for existing. They'd never quite managed to see eye-to-eye. "Do you need anything?"

"We're just dealing with the latest riots…"

"No. We're not." The fatigue was gone from Zero's voice, replaced by a dark certainty. "You're going to have to deal with the riots. I'm going to organize them."

"…what?"

Zero bowed mockingly. "I'll be taking my leave, Your Highness. Your plan for a freer but still not free Japan has failed. I appreciate the effort, enough to offer you 48 hours to talk your sister into withdrawing from Japan completely before a full-scale war breaks out. Good day."

Suzaku had already drawn his sword. "We're not going to just let–"

"Stand down, Sir Kururugi!" Euphemia called out, slightly panicked. "Zero, don't, we can still…"

"No, we can't." Zero's voice was less mocking, more gentle. "It was a foolish dream, Euphie. Nothing – not Nunnally's kind world, not the release of Britannia's stranglehold on the country… nothing's worked out. You were foolish to have asked for it, and I was foolish to have followed you. The only way I can atone for that is to truly free Japan." He turned around. "Consider how you may atone when you speak with Cornelia."

"Zero, please…" But Euphemia was speaking to a closed door.

48 hours later, Japan was a battlefield. 'To the last man standing' was the rallying cry of the Japanese as they fought the Britannians.

Suzaku mowed them down with a hardened heart – he'd given up his Knighthood the moment Euphemia was sent back to Pendragon.

Nunnally never saw Lelouch again.