Life under the 100th Empress, Nunnally vi Britannia, was not so bad for most. Numbers and Britannians lived equally, and eventually the citizenship of numbers was returned to their country of origin. The Elevens were once again Japanese. Terrorist organisations, or freedom fighters, whatever you wished to call them, were mostly disbanded, as the world came to a sort of peace. The focus of the Empress was to solve more human-orientated issues, like world hunger, and the massive difference between the upper and lower classes.
Upon the death of the Demon, Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia, all prisoners bound for execution that day, and those merely imprisoned for opposing the almighty ruler of the world, were released. And in their number were two young men, once high-standing: a prince who took it upon himself to take up his father's throne, and the prince's aide. Yet, even with the Prince permitted to advise his Empress sister, and re-instated as Prime Minister, the charm of Geass failed to leave him. His eyes, not piercing and confident as they once had been, were now forever dilated, and almost phased out.
…Geass is rather like a wish…
Nobody complained about Schneizel, nor his interactions with his staff, or with Empress Nunnally and her Knight of Zero. He seemed uncharacteristically submissive, but people assumed that Lelouch's Geass had left the world with him.
It had not.
And none, perhaps, knew it better than the ever-loyal Kanon Maldini. In these days of peace and high morale, he suffered. The man he served seemed an imposter, laced up in the skin of the second Prince (who, naturally, along with his other siblings, had renounced his claim to the throne for Nunnally to succeed to power). The aide had lived in hope for some time now that his Prince would return to his usual self, and that Lelouch's hold would fade as the natural order of things factored in the Emperor's absence. But, no cigar.
"My Lord?" he enquired of the blonde, who sat reading the newspaper, awaiting his daily instructions from the Knight of Zero on Empress Nunnally's behalf. Otherwise he would continue in his usual manner, fulfil his duties, eat on schedule, and sleep at the usual time.
"Yes, Kanon?"
The aide moved forward, and leaned against the Prime Minister's home desk, tilting his head, a button undone….a pose that, two years ago, would have provoked some response. But, as always, the violet-blue gaze that set on him was…apathetic, to say the least. Indifferent. Ignorant, even, of a life they'd lived for a fair time before Lelouch had tricked his master into checkmate.
"What is it?"
Nothing. Not a damn, effing thing. Kanon returned to a usual stance, straightening the silks that fell from his shoulder pad. "I wondered if you were going to go to bed with me today, but I'm supposing you're not."
"….it's not in my given schedule."
Kanon smiled at the Prince, a strained, thin smile that took much effort. "I'm…feeling off-colour. Might I retire for the day?"
It created no sense of concern or even intrigue as it might once have done. Instead, the plain face of a man who should never be associated with the word, simply nodded and returned to surveying the news. "You've grown out your hair."
"Yes, my Lord."
"…mm," and there wasn't even a note of interest as he waved Kanon away to go and be ill elsewhere.
A day to himself meant something, however. He had an audience to request. Whoever wore the Zero mask now- and he suspected from the change in nature, the protective flare, and the battle skills that it was Kururugi, despite reports of his death (or perhaps because of them)- must have some inclination of the power of Geass, a way to control it, a power of their own. And if not, he knew too well that it was within Zero's power to change his master's commands. Schneizel's order had been to obey and serve Zero…and therefore it was 'Zero' who held the ace, here. Perhaps, with enough appeal, he could have him call in Jeremiah, who he knew to also possess a power of his own- that of negation. If the command came from Zero or The Empress, then Jeremiah would most certainly obey, in the name of Marianne.
"Good day to you, Kanon. How is my big brother?" The Empress asked with a smile and a kind voice, though her eyes were far more judgemental than anyone could have anticipated. There was fierceness in that frail body that could only have come from her mother. Nobody had expected it, but it was most certainly there.
"As always, Empress," Kanon said with his signature smile, care-free expression and bow. Has he not been the Prime Minister's aide, then perhaps he would not have been so easily granted an audience. However, as always, she had her Knight with her.
"Is there something wrong? Some business I need to know about?" And she held out her hand, for his, to see the truth. Some called her a White Witch, for her ability to read into the hands of those she touched, and in all truth it gave Kanon a minor sense of fear…but for Schneizel, he would be truthful.
"I must be honest, Your Majesty, I…have come of my own accord." And he rested his hand in hers, and her head tilted a little, eyes softening. "Though, it does regard your brother, Prince Schneizel."
"No longer a Prince," The Knight of Zero's voice- whoever's through a voice changer- was clear cutting and unforgiving of this intrusion. "If you have worries over the Prime Minister, you are supposed to submit them to the pastoral facilities made available to y-"
"But he is my big brother," Nunnally reminded her Knight, and he fell silent, holding his hand to his shoulder and bowing to acknowledge her will to hear this out. "What's troubling you, Kanon? Is my brother in some kind of trouble?"
And Kanon dropped to his knees, bringing his other hand up to hold onto one of Nunnally's between both of his, kissing her knuckles and resting his head against them. Filled with concern, the Empress rested her free hand upon the grown man's head, gave his oddly-tone hair a light stroke and bade him to speak of what troubled him.
"Empress….Prince Schneizel remains always under Zero's power. Before your referendum, when Lelouch vi Britannia became Emperor, he used his Geass upon my Lord to have him obey Zero always."
"Is that true, Zero?" She asked her Knight, who had been told that Schneizel would serve him loyally, so long as he appeared in Zero's mask and costume. So long as he believed him to be the vigilante-turned-hero. Zero nodded, expressing his belief that she was aware of this. "I did think…but I wasn't entirely sure," she admitted. "I thought he had been told to give up his claim, that's all."
"No, ma'am," Kanon said, looking up at her with a sort of plea in his expression that few had seen. He was not a man who begged easily, nor one who was often thrown off his nature. But, desperate times… "He serves Zero, for as long as Zero exists. And whilst I see it has brought peace to our world…I…I have to admit that he is not the man he used to be. And I don't see why he shouldn't be permitted to be. Please, ma'am, your brother Schneizel was a good man, with the interests of his people at heart. He only wanted what was best for the people he served, and he would have given his life to see it through. If he understood what has happened here, and how the world has come to peace, he would support it, and support you, whole-heartedly. Even with his claim to the throne relinquished, I don't believe he would be bitter about it, because it was never due to pass to him anyway. He simply wanted everyone to co-operate. And I know, in my heart, that he never wished to see Prince Lelouch dead. Even when we found out that he was Zero, he wanted to protect him, and the Japanese people, and you, of course."
"I believe my big brother is still a good man," The young Empress agreed, not sure where he was going with this. "He is still himself in that sense."
"But…" it was wrong to contradict her, but it had to be done, "What few self-interests he had have gone. He has no free will, no happiness, no understanding of his own doings. He makes decisions based solely on instructions."
Perhaps it was still not enough information. "I know," he continued, "That you must have loved people and lost them," though he was speaking more to Zero here, despite looking at the Empress, "Perhaps even those under the power of Geass. You are for justice and for free-will and liberation…then I beg of you, liberate my Lord. Explain to him what has happened here and he will support you, and if he does not…then I shall go with him far away, to the corners of the earth where no one will find us and ask for opinions. Out of reach of somewhere he can make changes."
"I think, Mr Maldini, that you love my big brother maybe as much as I do." And of course he didn't dare to say that he loved him more. "My sister, Euphy, was once placed under my brother's Geass, and acted so against her nature. I know, very strongly, that those who loved her most suffered to see it, not simply because of the deaths of so many Japanese people, but because of what became of her as a consequence." Suzaku and Cornelia both had suffered, and acted to avenge. And so, seeing Kanon shared some semblance of that pain, she big him to stand, "You have acted bravely coming here in his defence, and I will ensure that Zero and I find some way to end this plight for you."
"Jeremiah-"
"Silence!" The Knight of Zero said, and swiped his hand commandingly through the air, in a crude gesture of what Lelouch once achieved theatrically when he wore those threads. Suzaku Kururugi, you wear a dead man's clothes, his shoes, his mask, his identity…do not wear his burdens too…do not wear his hatred and cruelty.
"Kanon Maldini, please return to my brother's side and show him the same loyalty you have shown him always. Regardless of what happens." She would give him no promise it seemed, which was- he supposed- only fair. The Empress had been used and lied to so often before she had ascended, that perhaps she, like her siblings, held a flare for revenge.
Days came and went, and as they did, the aide came to understand that he had over-stepped his mark, and been denied. Meetings ended, and the Prince returned indifferent as he had been for the past two years. He went to bed, alone; woke, alone. And Kanon returned to his state of depression, knowing things would never return to the old days. He would never be Schneizel's aide 'in private' again, and he envied his younger self the ability to even joke about it with young and naïve strangers who knew no better.
Perhaps he would marry the idiot Nina, whose prejudice would see her killed in this modern society of acceptance. She had seemed keen enough, and they'd been friends, albeit for the sake of buttering her up for Schneizel to control. But, on some level, the friendship had been true. They still spoke and socialised, and she still stared at the Prime Minister from afar with vain hope of being noticed. Kanon often considered informing her that the ridiculously tall, broad-shoulder God of a man didn't swing that way…but then, these days, he didn't seem to swing anyway at all. Asexual. Unaroused. Unimpressed.
He sighed; stirred tea, served tea, drank tea himself, and looked over his paperwork as his Lord read the paper, waited for his phone call and- as usual- noted how Kanon was growing his hair out.
"Yes, my Lord."
"…mm…"
The aide continued with his paperwork, filing things, stamping them, collating, scribbling and signing.
"You know, you're not supposed to call me 'my Lord' any more," Schneizel noted, not looking away from his paper. In his head, Kanon grew angry, knowing that Zero hearing Kanon's continuation of calling his master 'Lord', 'Sire', 'Prince' and so on had caused the Knight to order Schneizel to correct him. "But your continuing loyalty is appreciated, as always, Kanon. Why is that?"
"As I told you once before, my Lord, it is because yours is a future I would like to see. Even now, despite everything, that remains the case." Someone had to suffer, for the rest of the world to benefit. Had Lelouch not proven that? His death, his defeat, had created a better place and left a trail of triumph and joy in his wake. "If you've been ordered to fire me, then you must do so, but I will not go of my own volition. And even with no official place by your side, I will continue to seek to be a part of your life." He continued writing as he explained, not wishing to see the deadpan absent expression, or the lifeless half-man that invaded his lover. "Souls can be drawn together, you said."
"I did..." The Prince acknowledged, confused behind his paper before the harsh glow of Geass took control of him again, and he looked to his aide, blank: "You've grown your hair out."
Kanon's head bowed, his writing hand poised over the form he now stared at, despairingly. He swallowed. "Yes…my Lord."
The phone rang. Zero, with his daily demands of Schneizel. But Kanon picked it up, and did not hand it over, not permitting his Lord to realise who the caller was.
"Kanon Maldini! You will hand me over to the Prime Minister right this second."
"Suzaku Kururugi, I thought that you, of all men would understand what I was asking. If he were Euphemia….Suzaku…."
"My name is Zero. Sir Kururugi the traitor is dead. Hand me over to Schneizel el Britannia." But despite the distorted voice behind whatever contraption shifted his speech inside that mask, Kanon held hope that he'd heard the slightest mite of mercy in his tones.
"The phone for you, my Lord." And Schneizel's dead eyes appeared behind the folding paper. "It's Zero."
"Kanon?"
"My Lord?" he looked up briefly from his paperwork, faced with the front page of a newspaper as always. The face behind it unseen, and the carbon mask shifting headlines daily.
"Tea."
"Yes, my Lord," and he abandoned his station, to do as ordered. Though, honestly, it was more the place of the service to provide tea at his bidding, Kanon had always made his master's drink. Perhaps it came from a fear of being poisoned, and a trust in Kanon's loyalty. Perhaps it was merely that the aide had perfected the art of Schneizel's perfect cup of tea after years of doing this. But all those notions were empty now. It was simply routine for the puppet of Geass.
The china cups were old now. They held the face of the Empress on her coronation, and had been given as a gift to the Prime Minister's lodgings and house of government to aid in celebration. They gave a clear ring when the spoon tapped the golden rim, after he had stirred in the quarter teaspoon of sugar (why even bother with so little? But it had always been Schneizel's way. A little of good things, but not enough to indulge. So self-sacrificing).
He returned to the office, to the wall of newspaper, and set the tray down, moving the saucer and cup to the desk, along with a plate of shortbread. There were always four biscuits on the plate, and Schneizel always ate two and a third, without fail.
Routine.
He sensed the newspaper lowering, as usual. Sensed Schneizel's looking over his appearance, as usual. And knew what would come next.
"You've grown out your hair."
"Yes, my Lord," he poured milk into the cup until it was the colour of his master's flesh, and then set the small jug back on the tray.
Fingers lifted his loose side-lock of hair back behind his ear. A hand that was not his own. Tips that hadn't touched him in two years, and now brushed his cheek and the cartilage of his ear as the loose brown length of hair was kept from dipping its ends in the teacup by accident.
"I said, you've grown out your hair, Kanon."
The aide dared to look up. "Yes, my Lord."
And he smiled.
…Geass is rather like a wish…