A/N: Code Geass has been my favourite for months now, but with final ep it unquestionably surpasses anything else I've ever seen. I would never normally put out a fic with this little editing, but I've been writing non-stop since final ep aired, and if I can't get some of it out there it might kill me ;D So this is for Suzaku. Because he suffers just as much as Lelouch, he deserves his redemption just as truly, and after all he's done, he becomes just as true a hero.
Spoilers for everything. Reviews very much appreciated.
The Last Time to Kneel
It was strange.
Pushing the blade in was hard; harder than anyone could ever have guessed. But it was hard to really worry—it was hard to really believe it would kill him, as unbeatable as he'd been—and he seemed so certain, so safe, when he smiled that way. So pushing the blade in was easier than it could have been.
It was callously tearing it out and leaving that body to fall that really killed him.
Behind the mask that still smelled a lot like Lelouch inside, it was all Suzaku could do not to scream, let alone not to shake. It was all Suzaku could do not to die there, but he knew that he had to stand strong, powerful, undaunted and still, however much his eyes blurred with tears, however much his body felt like it would go beyond just shivering and break right apart. He could not shatter into the air, and he could not melt into the ground, and he could not leave, leave it all and follow Lelouch and be free from this. He could not scream. He could not so much as let his sword arm shake. The world was watching. The world was waiting.
And his prince—his life—his Lelouch—had ordered him to be its hero.
This was the last time to kneel. This was the last time he would obey. Lelouch had left this all to him, and he could bow down no longer, not to anyone. This was his last order. And for something he'd wished for, something he'd wanted for such a long time, once, it was unimaginably painful.
More than anything, as he had so many times, Suzaku just wanted to die too.
But his turn was not yet come. His freedom was many years away. His penance was only just beginning.
And as Suzaku looked out on the crowds and refused to shake, as Suzaku looked down at his life bleeding away below him, beyond his reach, by both their hands, he made his promise one last time, in a whisper that would never pass the mask.
"Lelouch…for you, I'll do it. For you. For Euphy, and everyone else we killed."
He could hear the chant rising, the name cutting through the scream, the power that Lelouch had known would come. The shout he'd told Suzaku he'd hear. He could hear the people coming together in his new name. But mainly he just heard the ringing in his head and the way his heart refused to stop beating; the strange loudness of the tears on his skin and his own voice, echoing quietly inside the mask.
Quiet. Choked. Absolutely certain. "For you, Lelouch, I will complete Zero Requiem."
And he clenched his fist round the hilt of Zero's sword, and flung his will at the world the way he'd watched Lelouch do so many times.
"For you. For the world."
He couldn't see Lelouch's eyes from here, but he felt it in everything when the spark went out. And to the watching world, he did not waver for an instant.
"For the future."