Author's note: Fair warning. This one gets a bit... darker.

Subconcious Influence

No matter how high you climb or how far you fall, there's always someone behind the scenes pulling all the strings.

The air was heavy. Oppressive. Despite the joy and excitement of the people below, the interior of the Gawain was suffused with the weight of what was about to happen.

Lelouch, Zero, the young man who would change the world, was on his way to the most difficult fight of his life.

He would be ready. Every eventuality had already been planned for. The possibility of betrayal, the loyalty of the sub-viceroy's guards, the difficulty of getting her alone, dozens of escape routes, and the exact times and locations where each of his soldiers needed to be in order to defame the woman who would oppose him by offering exactly what his followers were looking for.

"We're on final approach. Touchdown in three minutes." C.C. informed him from the front of the cockpit.

"Perfect." Lelouch replied, donning his helmet as he leaned into the seat. "We'll descend slowly. It's only right that we should give the people a show on a day as big as this."

She merely nodded, well-versed in his love of dramatic action by this point. Lelouch allowed her to take control of their flight, pressing his hands together as he went over his strategy for what must have been the hundredth time. Everything had to be perfect. Any flaw could prove disastrous, and with so much on the line, he couldn't afford to let that happen.

Yes. He was ready. He was in control. He was-

"Ooh!"

-not alone.

With a start, he realized that a young girl had all but appeared beside him, dressed in a yellow and green outfit and wearing a black hat upon her head. Some kind of blue sphere hung in front of her chest, suspended by vein-like tubes that snaked back beneath her outfit. What was much more concerning, however, was the fact that she was currently reaching for the control panel.

"Don't touch that!" Lelouch chided, swatting the child's hand away. She pouted in annoyance, but he didn't have time to deal with that right now. He had a mission to accomplish, and everything had to be-

"Don't touch what?"

He looked up to find C.C. turned back towards him with one eyebrow raised and an expectant look on her face. He frowned for a moment.

"What?"

Apparently that hadn't been the answer she was hoping for, because she gave him a strange look before shaking her head and turning back to piloting the knightmare frame. He gave a silent sigh. When this was over he'd need to have a discussion with her about distracting him during missions. It wouldn't do to have him miss something because of needless questioning.

"Wow! Look down there!"

Lelouch's eyes drifted towards the viewing display, and was quickly filled with the sight of thousands upon thousands of people filling the grand stadium below. So many elevens… soon to be Japanese, had come to celebrate this momentous occasion. Their hope poured out in the form of resounding cheers as the Gawain started to draw closer, growing stronger with every passing moment.

A smile formed beneath his mask. The more people, the better.

"Can we go down there too? I wanna see what's happening!"

His mind was touched by a moment of curiosity to witness just what Euphemia was planning for the celebration. No, hold on. That wasn't right. There wasn't going to be a celebration. After all, he-

"What are you doing!?" C.C. demanded with a sharp look back, snapping him back to the present. Lelouch did a double take, only just realizing now that he'd been taking over the controls and angling them towards the crowd instead of the designated landing area.

"I… nothing." He replied, quickly correcting their course. "Nothing. I have it under control."

Just what the hell was he thinking? Ignoring the fact that he'd already gone through great pains to plan exactly how this whole event would go, dropping a fifteen metric ton war machine on top of a bunch of civilians was not going to help him.

"Lelouch, are you feeling all right?" She asked, a touch of concern entering her voice. "You need to stay focused. If you're not prepared for this, everything we've been working for could be lost."

He grit his teeth in frustration, both at himself and at her.

"I am focused." He hissed, making a distinct point to keep his voice even. "I am perfectly prepared. Now… please… bring us down."

She kept looking back at him, but he refused to meet her eyes right now. Eventually, she turned back and resumed the descent, headed for the staging point where they'd meet his half-sister face to face.

He shut his eyes, forcing himself to calm down. It wouldn't do to show weakness in front of the enemy. He wouldn't be beaten by nerves.

Neither of them noticed the girl bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet behind him.

A short while later, his rough start was all but forgotten. Things had gone even better than he'd hoped. Not only had he successfully touched down and made it past security, but Euphemia had agreed to meet with him alone in her own command center. This was his game now.

As the three of them got situated, he flicked several switches on the nearby control panel, killing the room's power feed and leaving them in darkness.

"You're taking a lot of care, aren't you? Even though the cameras are off." Euphemia asked, keeping up her welcome expression despite the ominous turn.

"Is it bed time already?" Asked a strange girl beside her, wearing a simple yellow and green dress.

"Because I've been hiding for a long time." Lelouch responded, biting back a wave of fatigue that struck him out of nowhere. Now wasn't the time for such things. "The fault of a certain empire, I'm afraid."

He reached into his hidden pocket, slowly and deliberately pulling out the pistol he'd stashed inside.

"Woah, what's that!?" Questioned a young girl, drifting up to his side to get a better look at the weapon.

"This is a needle gun, made from ceramic and bamboo." He explained, his eyes never leaving Euphemia. "It can't be picked up on a detector."

Her expression didn't waver, but she couldn't hide the note of worry in her voice. Whether it was concern for her own safety, or for him, he couldn't tell, and he didn't want to.

"Lelouch… You wouldn't shoot me, would you?"

"No, I wouldn't." He conceded. "You'll be doing the shooting, Euphy."

"Huh?"

"Why would she need to shoot? Are you gonna have a duel?"

"This ceremony is being broadcast worldwide." He went on. "And the world's going to see you, a Britannian princess, shoot Zero. What do you think will happen then?"

This time, she kept her voice even and carefully neutral.

"Violence would break out, I imagine."

He smiled, and continued. "Right. Zero will become a martyr, tricked into a deathtrap, and your popularity will crash to the Earth."

The girl at his side sniffed, frowning up at him. "That sounds mean. Wouldn't it be better just to have a spell card match instead? I'll have one with you if you want."

"What kind of nonsense are you saying?" Euphy demanded, interrupting the strange thought of a card game that had entered his head. "Help me rebuild Japan…"

"If you arbitrarily push it upon us from on high, you're being just as bad as Clovis was!" He shot back. A hollow sense of satisfaction filled him at the way she flinched from the mention of their brother as if she'd been struck. "All conditions for this situation have been cleared. After hovering near death, Zero will be cheered when he makes a miraculous recovery. People don't care about reason, but they can't resist a good miracle. Now, take the gun."

He spun the pistol in his grip, holding it out to her. She merely stared at him in disbelief.

"There can be only one messiah." He reinforced when she made no move to disarm him. "Once they see you're a false one, the people will-"

A surge of pain exploded in his skull, emanating from his eye. With a cry of pain, he doubled over, one hand flying to the affected area as he felt something within him snap. Through the pain, he cursed the fates that had seen fit to push this on him now of all times.

"Lelouch!"

"Hey mister, are you okay? You don't look so good."

"Stop it!" He snarled, lurching back from her touch. "Stop giving me your pity! I won't take your charity! I have to achieve this on my own! And for that, I'll stain your hands with blood, Euphemia Li Britannia!"

His eye burned, forcing down the anguish that had been drowning him a moment ago as he prepared his Geass. No more song and dance. He would-

"I've given up that name!"

"Eh!?" He stopped, frozen in shock at her declaration.

"There'll probably be an announcement from the homeland soon, but I've given up my claim to the throne."

The girl who'd been poking curiously at his dropped pistol looked up at the declaration. "Wow! She must really like you if he gave up her name like that."

"Why?" He questioned, feeling a sickening weight settle in his stomach. "Not because you accepted Zero, is it?"

She merely smiled sadly.

"A price had to be paid for doing something this selfish, right?"

He paused, taking a breath as the information sunk in. His mind was already reshuffling the factors he'd long thought immovable, shaping them into a new and unfamiliar view of things. This was not how his plan was supposed to go.

"It's easy for you to give it up, isn't it?" He accused without force. "I suppose you did it for my sake."

"You're as conceited as ever, I see." She said with a small laugh. "I did it for Nunnally! She told me herself 'As long as I can be with my brother, I don't need anything else.'"

"So that's why she did it?"

"And that's why you…?!"

"And that's what made up my mind." She concluded. "It made me consider what was truly important to me. So do you see, Lelouch? I'm not giving up anything that's truly important to me. And don't worry! I won't tell anyone about you!"

He could hardly believe what he was hearing. A humorless chuckle rose from his throat as he demanded "and Cornelia?"

"It's not like we'll never see each other again." She answered, looking a bit less pleased as she thought of how her elder sister would react.

"You're a fool." He declared. "An amazing fool."

She pursed her lips. "I may not have been able to beat you at games or studies, Lelouch, but…"

"But in your own way, you ended up winning it all." He finished for her. "When I think about it, more than being a sub-viceroy, or a princess, you were always just plain Euphy."

Her face softened, as a warm expression took hold. With the same slow deliberation he'd shown when ordering her to shoot him, she held out her hand.

"Then will you do this with plain little Euphy?"

Silence fell. One that he knew beyond any shadow of a doubt would shape the course of history. This decision would change everything. Beside him, the girl who'd been watching in rapt silence looked back and forth between the two of them.

"Are you gonna do it!?" She demanded, practically shaking with eager impatience as her private show reached its climax. "Are you!? C'mon! C'mon! You gotta, right?"

"You… You are the worst enemy I've ever faced." He conceded, taking her hand. "You win."

Those two words sealed his fate, and the fate of everything he'd worked for. In a way, an enormous weight had been lifted from his shoulders. After spending so long seeing the worst humanity had to offer, he couldn't help but feel proud of this defeat.

"Let's find out a better use for this special zone of yours." He said as her face melted into an overjoyed smile. "Oh, but I won't act as your subordinate, all right?"

"Right!" She agreed, overcome by happiness as the sound of one person clapping filled the room. After a pause, she added "still, you don't have much faith in me, do you? Did you really think you could get me to shoot you just by threatening me?"

"Yeah, what was all that about? Aren't you two friends?"

"Oh no, that's not it." Lelouch replied, speaking before he could even think of stopping himself. "If I order someone to do something, no one can resist. To shoot me, to dismiss Suzaku, any order at all."

He'd admitted it. He'd actually just admitted the use of his powers in front of another person. Why in the world had he done that…?

"Oh, you're just being silly now." Euphy said with a smile. A note of relief hit him. Of course she wouldn't take it seriously. He opened his mouth to say that yes, obviously he was just having a bit of fun when…

"Really!?"

He paused.

"Can you really, actually make people do things?"

For some reason, he felt compelled to argue the truth.

"Anything at all?"

He would need some kind of example though. One that carried enough weight get his point across.

"Even if it was something she didn't want to do? Even if it was something bad?"

Somehow, his thoughts drifted towards darker seas, as extreme cases pushed their way to the forefront of his mind.

"Like something really, really, bad even?"

Yes. That one should do it. Something really, really, bad that she would never consider doing. That would be more than enough to make his argument.

Humoring the desire to confirm his hidden truth, he turned to Euphemia.

Deep within the Palace of the Earth Spirits, Satori Komeiji looked up from the book she was reading to find her younger sister in front of her. This alone was not reason for concern. Koishi came and went as she pleased, and could never be found unless she wanted to. What was much more noteworthy was the expression on her face.

She looked… thoughtful. Somber even. It was a much heavier display than she'd seen from the girl since she'd closed her third eye and sealed herself off from the conscious world.

"Koishi?" She asked lightly. "Welcome back. Is something the matter?"

The younger of the Komeiji sisters didn't answer right away, choosing instead to stare at nothing with her unfocused gaze. After several moments of silent contemplation, she seemed to decide on what to say.

"Sister?" She asked. "People don't like being shot, do they?"

Satori blinked. She was no stranger to the odd, and often random, things that her sibling would say during her visits, but that was peculiar even for her.

"No, I don't believe so." She replied carefully, recalling several of the danmaku duels she'd had with intruders since the incident with Utsuho. "Why? Did something happen on the surface?"

Koishi didn't reply. Her expression shifted from thoughtful to something approaching outright troubled. That alone was enough to raise alarms in Satori's head, but she knew that trying to get a direct answer out of the girl when she wasn't in the mood to talk was a futile effort.

Before long, the younger sister wandered off, wearing that same mask of almost-worry as she strolled away without direction. Satori watched her depart.

With a sigh, she made a mental note to get in contact with the shrine maiden to find out if anything major had occurred. Whatever it was, something bad had happened, and it ever fell to her to mend the damages that her sister had unintentionally caused. It wouldn't be the first time she had to write a note of apology to an angry shopkeeper whose wares had been shifted around, or pay reparations to cover a broken statue.

Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something different about this one.

Shaking her head, she stowed those thoughts away for later. Koishi might have been a prisoner to her impulses, but it wasn't like she was openly malicious.

So, really, how bad could it possibly be?