Author Notes: Hey guys. I'm just starting to come back to my fanfic writing. See what you think of this one.
"So Schneizel, shall we call it a draw?" Zero asked, folding his fingers together in front of him. The blond prince smiled.
"Don't underestimate the power of the white king," he spoke confidently.
"You wouldn't," Lelouch muttered. Everyone gasped as Schneizel put the white king right in front of Zero's black king and pawn. Lelouch snarled behind his mask. He wouldn't be handed victory. Before he could pick up his king to move it back behind his pawn, a pink blur rushed from the crowd, and he felt something long and sharp run through his cloak and into his abdomen. "Agh!" he yelled out in pain, hand immediately going down to the wound site as he partially doubled over. Kallen was shocked and began moving in. Suzaku and the other Knights of the Round began from the other side behind Schneizel. Said prince was stunned when he saw the attacker. Kaguya, the Empress, and the Eunuchs were all surprised as well, the Sumeragi running out of the room to help her so-called husband.
"Zero!" Nina shrieked. She tore her hand with the knife back out and reared for another attack before Kallen grabbed the back of her arm. "Princess Euphemia will be avenged!" Everyone gasped, having just registered what had happened. Nina elbowed Kallen away, the girl flinching from the hit to her chest. The brunette shoved Zero and the chair over, the man falling backward with a loud crack as the back of his mask hit solid granite tile. She raised both of her arms up and aimed for his heart, but she was tackled from the side and subdued by Suzaku, the knife getting tossed to Anya. "No, Suzaku stop! LET ME KILL HIM!" The boy was stunned wondering why he really was saving the enemy of the empire. "You as Euphemia's knight should understand! … Of course not, you're just an Eleven!" Gino put a set of cuffs around her wrists and got her up. Suzaku rubbed his forehead before he heard Kallen.
"Master Zero!" she yelled. The back of his mask had been cracked wide open, and a small patch of blood was collecting behind the man's head. His cloak was also heavily stained with blood.
"Suzaku, I've got this!" Gino started. "You and Anya help Kallen with Zero. Your Highness, it would be best you left with your guard in case something happens. Schneizel nodded before taking one last look at the collapsed masked man on the floor.
"Loyd, tell the Avalon to prepare the medical bay for an emergency treatment: stabbing, head trauma, and cranial bleed!" the knight commanded his mentor. The silver-haired Earl nodded and sent the call. "Guards, get a stretcher, NOW!" he yelled at the Chinese Armsmen. He spotted Kaguya. "Don't touch him! If he has neck injuries you might paralyze him Kaguya." He was keeping as clear a mind as possible. Suzaku noticed the crack beginning to creep up and over the crest of the mask. Even though this Zero needed to be unmasked, if it was Lelouch under there, it would be best to keep that hidden until they were somewhere more secluded.
"Okay Suzaku, Lady Anya, one-two-three," Kallen spoke, grunting as she helped lift her leader onto the stretcher. She and Suzaku ran with armed escort outside and into a field where Avalon medical staff were waiting. The mask had cracked completely in half, but it hadn't separated for Suzaku to see the man's face underneath. "Where's the medical bay Suzaku?"
"When we get inside, it's on the second level, down the main hall three spaces. There'll be a large sign," the knight replied. The cloth on the stretcher had been stained with blood from both the head and abdominal wound. "He should make it…there!" Kallen and Suzaku brought him into the prepared room and placed him on the operating table.
"Miss, you'll have to stay outside, authorized personnel only," spoke one of the doctors.
"If I can't be here to be sure and protect Master Zero, then Suzaku can't be allowed in either," she protested. "Knowing you, traitor, you'd kill him while he had no chance."
"Regardless of your hatred for me, the code of chivalry would never let me do something so vile, Kallen," Suzaku replied. "But that's fair, you're worried. I'll stay outside so I can keep an eye on you."
"What? You expect little old me to do something on an air fortress swarming with guards?"
"Yes," Suzaku replied flatly. "You are not allowed to reveal his identity or take any pictures do you hear me?" he asked the medical staff. The doctor in charge nodded.
"Protecting his identity Suzaku, how hypocritical."
"Is it Lelouch again?" the boy asked plainly, darkly. Kallen gasped and turned toward him in shock. "Don't forget I turned him over to the emperor the first time, and you, you ran away like a coward instead of defending him. He might have escaped if you'd stuck around."
"You shut up," the young woman replied quietly, lowly. "I don't know if Zero is the same person now," she lied. "But back then, to find out it had been my classmate, a Britanian…I couldn't take it. I felt used, betrayed…"
"He really wanted to see Britannia burn Kallen," Suzaku told her. She gasped. "Lelouch hated Britannia with every fiber of his being, especially the emperor. We were friends way back before the war with Japan, and that war separated us. His sister Nunally was crippled and blind, so he was alone and always wanting to avenge her injury. He blamed Britannia for it." Suzaku continued explaining how he'd known Lelouch and what he'd said after Kallen had fled that time on Kamine Island. He covered everything while conveniently leaving the fact out that Lelouch had been a banished prince and heir of Britannia.
About an hour after they'd started talking, the head doctor came out and said Kallen wouldn't be allowed in, but Suzaku could see the patient. The boy gave the Black Knight Ace one look before getting up and entering the medical office. He asked all the examiners to leave and reminded them to not say one word of his identity or his description before turning and looking at the bed. A small flush was riding the pale cheeks of Lelouch, still unconscious and half naked, but alive.
"Why am I surprised it's you, Lelouch?" Suzaku asked allowed. "That anyone else could have come up with such a radical and risky escape plan for the Black Knights from Japan…how naïve of me. Emperor Charles said that if you awoke as Zero, we'd have to use Nunally, but you knew that. You always feared having Nunally being used as a tool, but now that she's in Britannia… you were worried it was already happening weren't you? Why am I sympathizing with you?... You're a murderer Lelouch, a schemer, a deceiver, a murderer…and yet I can't bring myself to kill you right here and now. Why?" His look was of anger, both at Lelouch and himself. A small groan and cough resounded from the bed, and Suzaku was silent as Lelouch brought a hand to his face, rubbing his eyes as he sat up, grunting at the pain in his side from the stab wound. Lelouch blinked a few times before he realized his mask was missing. His eyes darted around for witnesses as he removed the lens from his eye.
When his gaze fell on Suzaku, Lelouch grew stoic, body relaxing, but the knight knew that the man before him felt trapped. "If you're here," the prince began, "then the Black Knights are already under attack on Horai Island aren't they?" Suzaku said nothing. "And since Kallen isn't in here, then she's been taken into custody…I take it this is the Avalon? Does Schneizel know it's me yet, and what of the emperor?"
"The medical Examiners are under an oath of silence, you can make it permanent with your Geass in a few minutes if you wish," the knight replied. Lelouch was surprised. "Put the lens back on or I'll have to knock you out with an electric shock." Suzaku held up a remote signaling he was serious. "You're not going to give me another curse Lelouch."
"I couldn't if I wanted to," the boy replied. The knight looked at him suspiciously. "My Geass is limited to one command per person I use it on, no exceptions. I take it you didn't know that, and neither did the Order."
"Sorry to say I don't believe you," Suzaku replied.
"Shoot me," Lelouch said sternly as his gaze narrowed, Suzaku stunned. The red, emblazoned eye staring right into his own. "Lelouch Vi Britannia commands you to shoot me, shoot Zero…"
"Crap," Suzaku gasped. He paused, carefully examining himself from within his mind. His eyes were locked with Lelouch's. Seconds went by, and nothing happened.
"It's like I said," the boy began as he placed the blue lens back over his eye, "I can only give any person a single command, and my Geass will never work on that person again. I can't use it on you, Kallen, Valetta… or anyone else I've used it on."
"So you did use it on the Black Knights, you're despicable," Suzaku spoke back harshly.
"No, I haven't used it on them, and I only used it on Kallen way back before I became Zero to figure out if she'd been the Knightmare ace back in the original Shinjuku incident. Everything else has been here will, and the same goes for the Black Knights. I haven't used it on any of them."
"You came to the Emerald City to use it on Schneizel didn't you?" Suzaku inquired, still standing at the far side of the room.
"Hmph, not until I beat that man in chess am I going to dilute him. I was aiming for Odysseus, though I hadn't expected three Rounds members or the chess match with Schneizel. Be lenient on Nina; that girl has been through too much, and so have I."
"Why did you cast your Geass on Euphemia Lelouch, I wanna know once and for all why she had to die." The boy gasped before looking down into the sheets both shamefully and in repentance. "Answer me Lelouch, and depending upon your answer…" the prince heard the click of a gun in his captor's hands. "I may or may not choose to kill you right here and now, so that everyone's suffering will stop." He wasn't lying.
Lelouch removed the lens from over his eye and looked at Suzaku again. "Without this lens, any declaration or declarative phrase of any sentence…would be interpreted by my Geass as a command and be placed upon whoever's eyes I look into." Suzaku was surprised and lowered his gun. "I've lost voluntary control over it, so C2 had to find an old contact developed by the Geass Order so everyone would be shielded at school or whenever I'm not wearing my mask." So, his power has consumed him and separated him from everyone he cares about… Suzaku thought to himself. "Suzaku, you remember when I asked to have a private talk with Euphy?"
"Yes, right before she came out and gave the order to slaughter the Japanese," the knight spoke darkly, raising his gun again.
"You met C2 and collapsed that day." Suzaku remembered it well, the odd visions. "She came out to try and find me because that was right when my Geass evolved." Suzaku's look made him continue. "I was having a pleasant, joking chat with Euphy, and I was immaturely bragging about how I could make her do anything, even 'kill all the Japanese if I wanted to.'" Suzaku growled and brandished his weapon, angry as Hell with the boy in front of him. "Suzaku, I had lost control midway through the chat and not realized it. My Geass gave her that command without me knowing." Suzaku gaped, eyes wide in terror. "She immediately yelled saying she didn't want to kill anyone, and that she didn't want to think that way, but her eyes glowed with the red glow of one being controlled. I tried to command her to disregard killing the Japanese, but it was worthless. I tried to stop her with my own hands, but then her guards got in my way in the stadium. You…saw the result."
Suzaku was silent, his arm lowered and loose. He dropped the gun from his trembling hand. "Suzaku, I am so sorry that I made Euphemia do that, and I'm sorry you had to watch me shoot her. I'm sorry she had to die because of my mistakes. Everyone in the Black Knights had wanted to join the Special zone, and at the time, I was going to hand them over. I wanted all of this to end so Nunally and I could live happily together inside the zone, but the Power of the King isolates everyone who obtains it. I was forced to make the most of her massacre, and then everything spun out of control, like it was about to again during these next few days. Maybe it would be best if I died tonight, disappeared from the world…" Suzaku looked up again, seeing the prince's head hanging low. "But someone still needs to look after Nunally… Suzaku, I know I have no right to ask this, but (Punch) ugh," he gasped as he fell back onto his pillow holding his very sore face.
"Shut up," the brunette told him. Lelouch gazed at him with his Geass eye. "I'm not taking your life Lelouch, and I won't hand you over to the emperor…but as for Nunally, I will do what I can."
"Suzaku, you can't be serious; you'd be killed for treason if someone found out. Besides, I can't get away from the enemy air fortress in my condition alive," Lelouch stated harshly. "I'm done playing this game with the emperor. You can't change the world, even with my power, there was no hope. Someone would have killed me either in battle or like how Nina tried tonight."
"Lelouch, you can't just abandon the Black Knights and all the people who were hoping you'd defeat Britannia for them, and I won't let you. Schneizel won't find out because I'm going to bring the medical examiners here. You are going to brainwash them, and then you're going to give me a knock-out drug. I'll say I can't remember any of it. Before I bring them back, I'm going to prepare one of the jets in the dock so you and Kallen can escape. I'll bring you the key. Before I get back, fix your mask so none of the cameras show who you are. You have my cell number, so we'll talk some other time."
"Suzaku…" Lelouch spoke, but the Knight of the Round was out the door ushering Kallen in before he could say anything else.
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Author Notes: Review Please! What did you all think?