Disclaimer: Code Geass does not belong to me but to Sunrise, CLAMP, and Bandai Entertainment.
A/N: Because most people are unaware of this fact, 'PXLight' is a joint account; my friend and I are using it to post our fanfics on this site. Knowing this, our respective chapter updates will not be delayed due to the other; I just wanted to let you know that (if you are aware of my friend, Oki's, fic "Corruption" in this category as well, then you would understand my slight concern).
I was re-watching episode 6 in Code Geass R2 and this idea just swelled into my mind. I tried to resist knowing that this would absorb a lot of my time (and I do relish the moments of freedom I possess between school and life) but, in the end, I lost the battle. I suppose that is more or less good news for all of the readers out there... oh well.
I know that a lot of this chapter will seem rather redundant, but I implore you to still read it. It was an effort to portray the scene and I do not want it to go to waste. It can also serve as a good recap, I suppose; reminisce on good times. However, this will be the only chapter that previews this much of the same information as the actual episode, so do not worry about having to go through something like this ever again.
Even before I write, I already look forward to the outcome.
I pray that you read and enjoy!
"You're Zero, aren't you? The terrorist. Have you come to kill me as well?"
Zero stopped in his tracks, unwilling to come any closer to the Britannian princess. Perhaps it was because of the feelings swarming in his mind; the fact that he managed to get this close to accomplishing the mission brought up a sense of euphoria. However, just the sight of seeing the girl was enough to drive him into a temporary state of insanity. Overwhelming feelings of happiness, sorrow, longing, and anger washed over him as he remained silent.
The resounding footsteps abruptly halted, instigating courage into the crippled girl before him. The princess was unable to walk and was blind; sound was what she relied on to tell her of what was occurring. Noticing that the feared terrorist and the most hated enemy of her country was in front of her, a cold chill was sent down her spine. She shivered with fear. However, when she realized that he wasn't as aggressive now and was passively listening to what she had to say, she did her best to remain calm and continue.
"Like you killed my brother Clovis and my sister Euphie; am I to die by your hand today? Even so, I would like for you to wait just a moment... please." The girl cringed as she felt tears building up in her eyes. In her mind's eye, the menacing image of a black cloaked man in an evil mask stood over her, filling her body with despair. The same man was apparently before her, unmoving. She wouldn't be able to help herself if he was to do anything, but the adrenaline rushing through her veins forced her on.
For a moment, she paused. The sounds of the birds tweeting increased; she was jealous of their bliss. Their noise was starting to get on her nerves instead of the calming effect they were supposed to have in this Garden of Eden. Their frivolous flapping aggravated the butterflies which caused them to scatter all at once. For a moment, a wall of white, scaled wings surrounded her, but it wasn't enough to keep Zero away. Perhaps enveloping herself with such beautiful creatures wouldn't be enough to prevent the terrorist leader from killing her.
What was she thinking?
There is no time to be dwelling on such irrelevant thoughts.
After scrambling to gather whatever remnants of courage she could find within herself, she clenched her fists and pointed her face straight across from her as though making eye contact with her opponent. She sighed outwardly. Unable to keep the sorrow out of her voice, she said, "I-I think what you are doing is wrong!"
"...And how is that?" a mechanical voice replied calmly. The voice alteration device installed shifted the resonation of the sound the man's normal voice created so the princess was unable to distinguish even the gender of this 'Zero' character. Still trying her best to conceal her emotions, the princess steeled herself up. She muttered a small mantra under her breath.
She was the new Viceroy of Area 11 after all.
Viceroy Nunnally.
And there's no way in hell that a terrorist would intimidate a person such as herself.
Unfortunately, this wasn't enough.
The sounds of battle outside boomed; it shook Nunnally up. "Right now, Zero is standing in front of me." she reminded herself, part of her wanting to seek some form of courage from this fact but knowing that it would be for naught. Her lip quivered; the tears wouldn't stop building up, but she forced them down once again.
The voice of Lelouch through the phone suddenly came back to her.
"...I love you!"
"Lelouch..." she pleaded in her mind. "Give me the courage I need!"
Seeing that Nunnally didn't have a response, Zero continued. "It's Britannia that is wrong." he remarked indifferently. "The Emperor believes that might is always right. Do you approve of that?" The way he said the words felt rather cold and contemptuous; almost as though they didn't belong in the terrorist's mouth. He voiced them out with a slightly choppy feel, almost as though those words together didn't want to even be heard in the same sentence.
However...
"Zero asked me a question!" Nunnally screamed out in her mind, bile rising up her throat. Fear and panic swept over her; she wouldn't be surprised if she were traumatized by this event for the next few months. Sweat descended from her face as several different thoughts raced through her mind. "Now I have no choice but to respond!"
Unsure of what to say, only one word hesitantly dropped out of her mouth. "W-well..." That could possibly be the weakest protest the young girl had ever used in her entire life. She sulked in her seat, the embarrassment driving her deeper down into the abyss of agony.
"Viceroy Nunnally, you are just being used." Zero declared coldly.
'Used'.
The word ticked her off slightly. There is no way she would allow that. Thinking this, she finally found words to say and shot out of the abyss. Still remembering her memories of her brother Lelouch, she recollected herself and stopped quaking in fear within the confines of her wheelchair. "You're saying they sent a blind and crippled girl to win everyone's sympathy; then you're wrong."
Zero made a questioning noise; he was slightly surprised by what the Viceroy had said. She was claiming that his assumption was incorrect and the way she said it was rather vehement... could it be...? He allowed the girl to continue, wanting to listen to what else she had to say with a small fear lurking at the bottom of the pit.
"I asked them to send me." Nunnally declared, choking down a sob. "That's why I'm here."
The disguised terrorist gasped sharply for a split second, feeling his face twitch beneath the mask and veil over his face. The Viceroy's proclamation dented his ironclad demeanour. He had assumed that Nunnally was just acting as a political tool for the empire of Britannia; that she was a mere pawn that the Emperor was using to control him specifically. However, judging from this new revelation, it turns out Nunnally was thinking for herself and actually wanted to come and seize control of this war-torn country.
This made her a target.
This put Zero's beloved little sister on the borderline of death.
There was a heavy silence that followed. It enveloped everything; even the birds caught on and quieted down. The butterflies stopped flying and took their respective places upon the white flowers of the secluded garden on board the Logres-class airship. A deep sense of foreboding sat upon all those in the room as the two people remained still.
A white dove suddenly fluttered between them loudly. A feather flipped off of its wings and landed on the ground before Zero, who had finally snapped out of his trance-like thought process. "Y-you requested it?" He was taken slightly aback by this, but nevertheless, he had to push onward.
"I think that with a peaceful approach, I can make the world a better place." Nunnally responded. "That's why I want to carry out Euphy's plan; to make the Specially Administrated Zone of Japan!" Her intonation grew until it was almost fearsome at the tip of the declaration. She hadn't discussed her intentions with anyone else before this and became nervous that sharing government plans with the terrorist would cause severe repercussions in the end.
But then she told herself that this was right.
Perhaps the beginning of her peaceful approach was with Zero.
That's what Euphy was going for as well, wasn't it?
If Euphy was willing to forgive Zero, then she should be prepared to do the same.
"You'd have that returned?" Zero inquired in a manner that was surprising. Nunnally couldn't help but feel good about herself; the courage Lelouch lent her was amazing. She could almost see the look of surprise on the terrorist's face; she was affecting him and not appearing weak and cowardly before such a menacing figure. If her brother could see her now, she knew he would be so proud.
"Zero..." Nunnally pleaded softly. "Won't you please help me try to rebuild it...?" She extended her arm out courageously, praying in her mind that he would accept the offer despite what an off-chance something like that would be. However, if her beloved sister Euphemia could give him a chance, then so would she. Her hand met air and simply hung there; awaiting the gloved touch of the other it was pointing to.
Unbeknownst to her, Zero gasped sharply once again and staggered away from the hand. Just that posture reminded him of what had occurred a year ago when the exact same thing happened. He could just see Euphy's smile as she offered him the same offer just before he made one of the most tragic mistakes he had ever made and was forced to kill her. A single tear streaked down his face as he could only watch his sister continue to beg.
"People can start over!" Nunnally persisted, bringing her arm back down to her side. "Please!"
Another rumble shook the room, this one seeming to be a lot closer than the rest of them. The room was also on a slight slant, hinting that somehow, the engines had been shot down and they were falling into the ocean as of now. This left Zero with a bit less time than he had been anticipating in order to calculate what his next move should be.
"What do I do...?" Zero thought to himself. "I can't reveal Zero's identity to her but I can't take her by force either. I can see now that it would only traumatize her." He snapped out of his train of thought when he realized something important. "Is that crashing sound getting closer?"
Suddenly, the muted noise of war burst through into the garden at an intense rate followed by the sound of rushing wind. The smell of sea air rampaged in along with sakuradite emissions. A hole had been formed through the roof of the garden and from that hole came the Lancelot Conquista being piloted by the Knight of Seven, Suzaku Kururugi.
"Suzaku!" Zero growled as his most hated enemy appeared before him. Literally throwing away any objections he had against taking his beloved sister back by force, he sprinted towards her, fighting against the current of wind that was trying to suck everything out of the garden like a vacuum.
Zero focused only on Nunnally, who helplessly clung onto the side of her wheelchair to prevent herself from being thrown into the air due to the powerful force of the wind. Lancelot Conquista was closing in much faster than Zero, but it was still a distance away and it had to take the time to turn off its Blaze Luminous Cone.
"Escape with me!" Zero cried out desperately, feeling his cape flutter violently behind him. It was pulling him back.
"Nunnally!" Suzaku yelled out from his Knightmare cockpit.
"Suzaku!" Nunnally screamed towards the sound of the oncoming Knightmare just as Zero was only a single metre from her. The powerful updraft the Lancelot Conquista's float system caused caught onto Zero's cape, creating a gale as powerful as an F1 tornado.
Zero reached out; he was almost there! He wouldn't allow his cape to be the thing that prevented him from his reunion! Just as soon as he felt his cape drag him off the ground, he instinctively released the clip holding his cape together, allowing it to fly off. Now only in his elegant suit, he reached Nunnally just as Suzaku did, ripping her out of the wheelchair and dragging her off before correcting his position and lifting her on his shoulder like a fireman. A tremendous burst of energy kept him going and this time around, the breeze too was helping him onward. Perhaps luck was finally on his side.
The warmth of his sister beside his caused tears to form in his eyes, but he had no time to think. Using even the energy reserved for his complex thoughts, he forced his legs to keep on running despite the extra weight at a speed that Suzaku could be proud of. A rather stupid thought popped into his head, "Perhaps at this speed, I could run up the wall too..." He rolled his eyes and continued on, casting such a foolish temptation away.
Realizing that she had been captured and was now being taken away against her will by Zero, Nunnally tried her best to resist, but she was suddenly thrown onto his shoulder. Her head had impacted into his hard mask as well and gave her a concussion. She could only slump helplessly as she was carried off by the terrorist, unwilling to think what would happen as a result. Her head beat feverishly as her heart fluttered, utterly terrified.
Suzaku's Knightmare ended up crashing into the wheelchair, smashing it to pieces, only watching helplessly as Zero turned the corridor and bolted out with the princess. Tears formed before his eyes; he was unable to bear such a mistake. He couldn't chase after them and even if he did reach them, Zero would escape in the time required to carefully and precisely retrieve Nunnally. He burst back through the hole in the roof of the craft furiously and caught sight of the Guren Flight-Enabled Version cradling both the cape-less Zero and Viceroy Nunnally back to the ship down below.
He pointed his VARIS gun at the speeding red Knightmare in an attempt to damage its float unit and fired. However, he missed as the impact the Logres-class battleship caused said ship to explode. The force impacted the Lancelot heavily along with the other Britannian forces out of the way and only served to help out the Black Knights as they withdrew.
"ZEROOOO!" Suzaku roared over the intercom as the Guren landed safely on board the cargo ship belonging to the Black Knights. He was unable to fight back due to the damage his Knightmare. The explosion had damaged his float unit and he was unable to maintain air combat status. He was forced to land in the water as the flames of defeat cast a shadow over his face. His hair hid his eyes as he slammed his fists down on the dashboard, his eyes wild and his teeth gnashing. "You BASTARD!" he screamed. "NUNNALLY! ZEROOOO!"
One final gratifying attack from the Guren's Wide-Range Radiant Wave Surger caused his unit along with the remainder of the crafts around them immobile, allowing the Black Knights to escape unharmed. The pilot of the Guren, Kallen Kouzuki, landed onto the deck of the cargo ship and they set back off to the Tokyo settlement, leaving behind three defeated Knights of the Round and the remaining carnage from the successful Black Knights mission alone in the ocean.
"Step back." Zero commanded monotonously as he walked through the ship to a private room. The Black Knights remained silent as they stepped aside, allowing their masked leader to pass down the hall with the Viceroy pounding tiredly against his chest in protest. Zero was carrying Nunnally bride style, cradling her body in his arms. She had given up trying to resist a long time ago and could do nothing but that. To Zero, it was slightly amusing, but considering that it was his sister protesting to his touch, he was hurt emotionally. In addition, the adrenaline was wearing off and a wave of fatigue clung onto him; only the sense of euphoria was pushing him on.
Zero stepped into the private room where he had a grey hospital wheelchair waiting for his sister. The room itself was a simply cargo room; there was no decor. The four walls were grey and the only pieces of furniture in there were a bed, a sink, a toilet (with a bar on the wall to its right to help Nunnally a bit when she needed to use it), a table, and a chair. There was a porthole on the wall, but it was too small to fit a head, let alone for Nunnally to escape.
He gently placed Nunnally onto the wheelchair tiredly and then walked over to the lonely chair by the small table, picked it up, and placed it underneath the door handle of the door in order to bar it. He refused to allow anyone in. Zero then sat down onto the bed, the thin mattress bouncing slightly before it settled. He eyed the princess carefully; she was unable to pursue many options due to her disability, but he never knew what could happen. He didn't bother tying her up or binding her; she was helpless in this situation and there would be no point.
"S-So what are you going to do with me...?" Nunnally whimpered hoarsely. She was slightly traumatized by what had occurred and her body hurt from the method Zero chose to carry her. Tear streaks remained on her face and the rocking boat did nothing to help her motion sickness. She flinched when she felt a gloved hand rub her back. It was soothing, but considering that the only other person in this room was Zero, this just frightened her even more. Perhaps she would be tortured into revealing information she didn't possess before she was brutally killed and discarded. Maybe today was the day fate had chosen for her to be reunited with Clovis and Euphy. The prospect was terrifying and she tried her best to remain calm.
"Lelouch..." she murmured under her breath. "P-Please help..."
Zero snuck behind her and had been leaning in and listening. At the sound of his name, he raised an eyebrow. "...I'm not going to do anything to you." Zero whispered into her ear, the voice changer in his mask making the sound rather raspy. He wanted to do everything in his power to try and calm the princess down despite the circumstances. The terrorist leader relaxed and tried to make the atmosphere as calm as possible, almost as though he believed his aura was capable of forming such a scenario. "Except one thing..."
He stopped rubbing her back after realizing that it wasn't going to do anything to help, moved to the front of the wheelchair, and knelt before the princess. "Please Nunnally, I pray that you stay calm." He removed his gloves and threw them onto the bed. The black leather gloves performed a messy flip in the air before falling limp on the mattress. After this, he gradually placed one of the princess's palms into his own.
"Th-this hand—!" Nunnally was exceptionally frightened, but she didn't jerk away. She was familiar with the touch; it felt so foreign but at the same time so familiar. Fresh tears poured from her face; possibly caused by the saltiness of the ocean air coming in from the (now open) broken porthole on the wall or the overwhelming feelings that came over her like a hormonal teenager.
Seeing the tears fall off of Nunnally's face created a sad smile underneath Zero's mask. He had already been aware of his sister's uncanny sense of touch; she was capable of knowing certain pieces of information by the feel of a person's hands. Nunnally was able to tell if a person was lying, what emotions they were experiencing, and even the identity just by feeling the miniscule details of their palm. He guessed that this was because she sensed the tiny differences in heat which was how items such as lie detectors worked. As for identities, she would hone in on the unique patterns of each hand.
After feeling the details of the hand carefully, she winced when her suspicions had been, in a sense, confirmed, though she still couldn't believe them. As for the man behind the mask, he hadn't intended to reveal his identity so quickly, but considering the trauma his sister had faced after this kidnapping ploy, this was necessary. Once he realized that particular pieces had clicked in his sister's mind and she had an idea of who he was, Zero was surprised to find that one of Nunnally's hands was up in the air and coming down at his face. In the anger caused by her indecisiveness, she instinctively slapped the mask off of Zero's face.
Lelouch hissed in pain.
Nunnally's hand was throbbing now; the impact was hard and it hurt to hit the steel plating of Zero's mask. However, she still found joy in the accomplishment of knocking the mask off in one blow. Her fingers felt around the man's face, but then noticed another obstruction; the cloth. She insisted on pulling the veil that covered Zero's face and calmly examined the details of the terrorist leader's face. Her hands shivered with anticipation as her fingers probed the angle of his nose, the sharpness of his jaw, and the softness of the skin. Zero didn't move as she did this; he gave in to her intentions. She smiled sadly as her fears drifted away.
"Nunnally." Lelouch said softly, finally using his real voice. He smiled lightly, allowing for his little sister to feel his frown relax and take a more enlightened form.
"Is it really you... Lelouch?"
"...Open your eyes."
"B-but..."
"Just trust me."
The reason Nunnally kept her eyes closed wasn't just because she was blind; she had also lost the capability to open her eyelids. In order to open her eyes to just mere slits, she had to force them up for the first time in eight years using her hands. It was difficult; there was something in her mind forcing them closed, but she did her best for the man kneeling in front of her.
Zero took this opportunity to do the one thing he had wished to do ever since that day in the Shinjuku ghetto. He tightened his fists as he twisted around to look behind him, making sure that no one else was around to see. The door was firmly shut and still barred by the chair he had placed from a few moments ago. Taking in a deep breath, he looked straight into the dulled, grey, dead, unseeing eyes of his sister and said, "Lelouch vi Britannia commands you, see once more the world around you! Rid yourself of your blindness and gaze upon that which you have been unable to view!"
His left eye flared as his Geass literally soared into the eyes of his sister. Nunnally's brother watched in awe and amazement as colour returned to her eyes. The grey irises gradually became a deep indigo. Her eyelids began to function properly and, for the first time in eight years, she began to blink.
Nunnally gasped as light poured into her vision, a locked door leading to an unused portion of her brain opened, thus allowing her to see once again. The light was brilliant and for a while, she could only see a wall of white light. However, after a few gasps of exhilaration, the blurred sight of Zero's true face cleared up and the once blind princess could finally see the bright face of her beloved brother. He was in a blue and gold suit and a cravat hung lazily around his neck. His brilliantly sparkling amethyst eyes gazed lovingly into hers as a smile that she hadn't seen in eight years graced his smooth porcelain face.
"L-Lelouch—!" she whispered gratefully. "I... I can..."
"You need to trust me, Nunnally." Lelouch stated calmly, though underneath was a layer of rejoice that he could hardly contain. "Please, that's all I ask of you. Please trust me." And with those words, he picked up the mask of Zero that had been discarded on the ground, reset the plates from the impact, and then placed it onto his head with a resounding hiss. With the voice of Zero, he looked back to Nunnally. "Don't worry. Just stay here and I promise I will be right back. And then I'll explain everything."
He placed the chair to the side and stepped out of the door.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. ^^ Please comment and review and such; criticism is very much appreciated as well. Any suggestions to the continuation of the plot or perhaps volunteers for beta-readers are welcome as well. As most of you understand, reviews provide motivation to update, which is always wanted. At most, the wait will be approximately two weeks.
I'll see you all next chapter! =D