Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass. I make no profit from writing this fanfiction.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and followed! You all are the best. :D
Several lines of dialogue were taken from [dub] canon in the production of this fic.
Never Mind
Diethard yawned. He'd finished the work Zero assigned him, and his blood was itching for excitement. There were more boring parts being part of the Black Knights than he'd expected when signing up. He wished something would happen.
His whole face lit up when his phone started ringing, especially once he noticed who was calling. (Diethard might have had a little—er, huge—fanboy crush on Zero. Everyone in the Order of the Black Knights noticed, but they all let it slide because their masked leader himself didn't seem bothered by being treated like an honest-to-god idol.)
"Diethard!" Zero's urgent voice was barking orders at him before he even said hello, making the blond media man's heart race in response. "This is a Code Red. I repeat, a Code Red. Gather a team and rendezvous at Ashford Academy…"
Lelouch's fingers trembled the tiniest bit as he moved his chess piece. He looked up at Mao and knew the cracks in his mask were widening with every play, and Nunnally was inching towards death with every turn. He'd told Suzaku to stay with Nunnally underground. If the bomb went off, he'd lose both of them. He couldn't afford that on a personal level, and Mao knew it, the damn bastard. Every trick he thought of was easily sidestepped by the mind-reader, and Lelouch began to despair of wriggling out of this one. His eyes kept straying to the rigged pendulum scale linked to the chessboard, and he found it harder and harder to focus.
"I'm afraid you're not the type of person who can keep your mind empty. There's a part of you that's a critic, constantly watching your own moves. And there's another part that's an observer, watching the critic, watching you. You're that kind of person," Mao psycho-analyzed him.
Lelouch glared at him and kept trying to win. The chess match continued, one-sided, and Lelouch truly began to fear for his sister's and best friend's lives. Mao was crushing him effortlessly. Was this how trapped his opponents felt when they played against him? But nothing so precious was on the line—
Mao scoffed, "Ah, your last plan is failing as well. You underestimated me. That's why your sister is—"
The chapel doors burst open, and Ohgi and Diethard barreled through with guns up. Inoue and Yoshida slipped in behind them as back-up. They all froze upon seeing the situation.
Lelouch spared his Knights a shocked glance. What are they doing here?! Dismissing them seconds later, he turned his attention back to his opponent. Nunnally's kidnapper was a bigger concern.
The chapel doors burst open, and Ohgi and Diethard barreled through with guns up. Inoue and Yoshida slipped in behind them as back-up. They all froze upon seeing a desperate Britannian boy standing across from a bandaged man from the Chinese Federation. In between the two lay a chessboard, rigged to some sinister looking machine with a pendulum scale.
Diethard's eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he took it all in, remembering how Jeremiah and Villetta had shared speculations about how a Britannian student was linked to Zero. They'd asked him to research Ashford Academy, but his digging hadn't resulted in anything worthwhile. The boy spared them a surprised glance before turning his attention back to his opponent.
"Mao," murmured Inoue, voice barely audible in the chapel. "That's the guy Zero had us hunting."
Stunned, the white-haired player—Mao—whipped around to face the Black Knights before turning and pointing an accusing finger at the Britannian boy. "You!" he raged. "You deployed the Black Knights after all? But how!" He fiddled with a white chess piece before grinning maniacally and shouting, "It doesn't matter! Your sister is dead! Dead, dead, DEAD!" And before anyone could react, he threw his chess piece on the scale, making the needle swing into the red zone.
Anguish and shock washed over the Britannian boy's face, and Ohgi took a step forward to help. Yoshida took hold of the original resistance leader's elbow and held him back, noticing how dangerous that move would be considering the circumstances. Ohgi stopped with a grim look, continuing to watch as the black-haired student suffered and let out a strangled cry—"Nunnally!"—and fell to the floor. The light in his purple eyes dimmed, and he seemed frozen to the world even as the crazy man took out a small camera and sneered, "Let's see if she's burst into tiny pieces yet!"
Seeing as the target was distracted, Ohgi signaled his team to move. Before they'd taken two steps, the glass window opposite them shattered as a somewhat familiar Japanese teenager busted in. Lightning quick, he dodged bullets and sucker-punched Mao in the face, sending the man's visor flying and making him drop his weapon in the process. The brunet student-soldier kicked the gun out of reach, and Yoshida ran forward to grab it.
The Black Knights moved to surround the two, listening as the Japanese boy introduced himself. "I am Warrant Officer Suzaku Kururugi of the Britannian military, and you are under arrest."
A brief, instinctive fear ran through all the Black Knights' minds that the boy soldier was talking to them as well, but his attention seemed zeroed in on the crazy one. The black-haired Britannian student lifted himself to his feet in the background, slowly coming out of his daze. Inoue and Ohgi offered him reassuring smiles, but he only blinked at them and looked at his classmate, uttering a quiet and pained, "Suzaku."
Mao stared up at Suzaku incredulously. "You disarmed the bomb?!"
The Black Knights recoiled. What bomb?
"But that's impossible!" Mao screamed. "You'd have to have matched your speed to the pendulum!"
"That's right," Suzaku agreed. "After Lelouch showed me which line to cut."
The Britannian student took a hesitant step forward. "I showed you…?"
Suzaku foolishly took his eyes off the unbound criminal for a moment to look at the other boy. (It was a good thing the Black Knights were there to make sure Mao didn't get away.) "What are you saying? It was your plan. Cut the line and bust in here when I heard you scream."
"My plan…?" The black-haired student seemed to suddenly realize something, and he took out his reflective phone to stare at his face.
The Black Knights glanced back and forth between the two Ashford students and the white-haired man. Something wasn't adding up here. Diethard's brow furrowed at the questions on top of questions.
Suzaku started to grab a bandaged arm, but the man struggled. Yoshida rushed forward to help, passing the extra gun to Inoue along the way. Suzaku blinked at the back-up, evidently only now realizing that he had company. He shot a confused look at his classmate, kept safely behind a defensive line.
"Yes, it's exactly what you're thinking," yelled the white-haired man, still twisting about. "That broken boy is the almighty Zero. What a let-down, isn't he? I beat him. I beat him." His maniacal laughter rang around the chapel, tapering off into the sky through the broken window. It was a miracle no one from the school came to investigate.
At Mao's words, Ohgi gasped and took a step back. Inoue turned around to stare at the boy, eyes widening. Diethard gave him a cursory look but only nodded, leveling his gun at the laughing madman as if to communicate, 'Yes, and?'
Suzaku looked hurt and betrayed, dropping the criminal's arm as his attention shifted. Yoshida was too busy trying to restrain the target by himself to fully process that his masked leader's identity had just been disclosed.
The Britannian boy himself—Zero? For real?—slowly stepped forward at the revelation, pushing past his Black Knights. His now hard gaze was trained on the screaming target.
"No, that's not the best I can do!" shrieked the madman from out of nowhere. "You, you think you're so clever, Lulu! Coming up with all your plans and back-up plans, and then using your Geass on yourself to forget!"
Suzaku kept staring wide-eyed at the Britannian student, and the Black Knights looked amongst themselves in confusion. Diethard remembered Villetta's and Jeremiah's accounts about strange memory loss. Could it be true? Did this boy, did Zero, possess a supernatural power? Was that the source of his miracles?
The madman continued, "Don't think that gives you an edge! You've already used your little trick on yourself, so you can't do it again. I'm still not beaten and you're out of options. You can't win."
The unmasked Zero stopped and raised a condescending eyebrow.
"What do you mean, you already won?" yelled the bandaged man. "Maybe I'm outnumbered, but I'm not going down yet. Remember that I can read everyone's thoughts at once, so I'm always a step ahead. Some of them have delicious secrets, too!" His mad flailing earned him one free arm, and Yoshida struggled to keep him in check.
Mao could read thoughts? That explained the one-sided conversation. Unless he really was insane. Or maybe… Diethard inched to the side to cover the Britannian student more fully, mind racing. Zero wasn't the only one with a power, then. Ohgi almost dropped his gun, looking a little panicked. Diethard spared him a second of wondering. Did Ohgi have something to hide?
Mao rounded on Suzaku, who was still staring at his classmate with a mentally scarred expression. "Take this brat, for example!" the white-haired man sneered, grabbing the brunet schoolboy by the collar with his free hand. Suzaku startled and began struggling, but Mao shut him down quick with a loud, "Don't bother trying, father-killer!"
Suzaku immediately froze, his expression twisting even further. His breathing quickened and his eyes dilated in shock.
The Black Knights seemed taken aback by the revelation, and their gazes on Suzaku ranged from accusing to sympathetic. Even Yoshida let go of Mao and stumbled back, eyes wide. The black-haired Britannian student looked stunned.
Sensing he had the advantage, Mao dragged Suzaku a few steps back and kept ridiculing, "You killed your own father seven years ago. He called for do-or-die resistance, and you thought stopping him would end the war." He held Suzaku out in front of him like a meat shield and kept ranting, "What a childish idea. The fact is, you're a murderer!"
"That's not true! I just…I…" Suzaku protested weakly, his words trailing off.
Diethard tilted his head, eyes hungry. It seemed Zero wasn't the only one with a thrilling story. He wished he had his camera so he could document this.
"How lucky for you that no one ever found out. All the adults lied to protect you," Mao sneered.
The Britannian boy stepped forward and spoke, voice slightly questioning, "All the reports said his suicide was a protest against military action."
"A big, fat lie! All of it!" Mao revealed, apparently reading the truth straight out of Suzaku's mind.
"A lie…?" echoed the Britannian boy.
Ohgi gasped. "You mean…the war was…"
"I didn't have any choice! If I didn't, Japan would have—" Suzaku tried to explain and sent a desperate, pleading look at his classmate—Zero?—before staring back at the mind-reader.
"That's how you justify it in retrospect? Well, it explains your death-wish!" snapped Mao.
Suzaku physically recoiled, mouth dropping open even further. He struggled to get out words but only managed pained croaks. Inoue cringed in sympathy at the obvious emotional torture he was enduring.
"You want to save people's lives? It's your own wretched soul you're trying to save. That's why you're always charging into danger, placing yourself on the edge of death!"
Hyperventilating now, Suzaku let out a scream of pure raw agony and fell to his knees.
"You're no hero! You're just trying to wash the blood off your hands! A little brat, begging to be punished!"
"Mao, never speak again!" The look on the Britannian student's face morphed into pure rage, and he flung his arm out in a manner identical to Zero's.
The Black Knights were astounded when the white-haired man suddenly started making choking and gargling noises instead of words. (Ohgi actually dropped his gun, he was so startled.) The black-haired boy lurched forward and aimed a weak punch at the bandaged man, standing over the fallen Kururugi boy protectively. (Yoshida winced at how pathetic his punch was. Inoue mentally went 'Aww' because it was touching how Zero tried so valiantly to defend his classmate.) Zero had always stood back and worked his mind games and tricks from a reasonable distance; the Black Knights had never seen him go in for a punch. Kururugi must be really important to him to have evoked such a reaction. Following his lead, the Black Knights again started to surround their target. (Ohgi had, by this point, thankfully picked up his weapon.) Mao clutched at his throat and somehow escaped their circle, staggering quickly down the chapel aisle.
Still glaring, the Britannian boy snapped, "Don't just stand there. Yoshida, Inoue, after him!"
It was a testament to how much they still inherently trusted him that they immediately jumped into action and followed his orders. There would be time later for answers, after the current threat was neutralized. Between the two of them, they were easily able to chase down the Chinese man (who seemed distracted by his odd guttural noises) and tackle him to the floor. Yoshida kneed Mao in the back and kept him pinned, and Inoue threatened him with a loaded gun in his face.
The boy—Zero—breathed a sigh of relief before spinning around and kneeling next to his fallen friend. "Suzaku?" he ventured softly. "Is he…did you really…?"
Suzaku gave him such a look of guilt and self-loathing that the black-haired boy only nodded.
"I see," the Britannian boy said, his voice as comforting as the Black Knights had ever heard Zero. He went on to spout crazy politics about the cover-up being necessary for both sides of the war, but his reassurances and justifications did the trick and helped Suzaku visibly relax.
Still catching his breath, Suzaku leaned closer to the Britannian boy and asked desperately, "And are you really…?"
All the Black Knights froze, their ears pricked.
Instead of answering outright, the Britannian boy turned the question back on the soldier. "What do you think?"
Suzaku closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. "I think…it would explain why you're missing so much class, Lelouch." His eyes popped open and he amended, "No, really. I suspected you at first but I didn't want to believe it, so I convinced myself I was imagining things. I guess I'm not too surprised."
Diethard raised an eyebrow in the background. The Kururugi boy had suspected Zero's true identity but kept his ideas to himself? This story was turning into a hit.
"But you're still mad," the boy—Lelouch—discerned.
The brunet snorted. "Well, yeah. Of course." He glared and accused, "You got Nunnally dragged into your illegally dangerous messes! She almost died, Lelouch!"
The black-haired boy flinched away, his face twisting. Lowering his head in shame, he mumbled, "Mao had nothing to do with my rebellion."
"Uh huh," Suzaku skeptically shot back. "That explains why you called the Black Knights in to deal with him." He turned his glare on Ohgi and Diethard.
Diethard cocked his head at the Japanese teen. "Don't look at us. We're not the ones who killed our own fathers and interfered with the war."
Jerking back, Suzaku wrapped his arms around himself and looked down at the broken window glass, suitably shut down.
"That's enough," chastised the unmasked Zero. "Everyone is here for the same reason: to subdue Mao and save Nunnally. I wasn't going to take any chances, so I admit I went a bit overboard with the back-up. I wasn't picky about who answered my call when time was running short, Suzaku. My Knights dropped everything to help with this emergency. I didn't know how things would play out against a psychotic mind-reader, so I used all the resources at my disposal. Diethard, you will apologize to Suzaku for your harsh comment. That was uncalled for." The rebuke flowed seamlessly from his explanation, as if it was all one big point.
Inclining his head, the blond Black Knight murmured, "Understood, Zero." Cold blue eyes peered at the mess of broken Japanese boy on the floor, and the media man apologized under his breath. His gaze cut back to the proud Britannian boy. "How did you force Mao to stop talking?"
Ohgi nodded frantically. "Yeah, that was really freaky!"
"Was it one of your miracles?" called Inoue, still jabbing her gun in her target's face.
Suzaku cocked his head, as if he hadn't realized his classmate had managed something abnormally spectacular in the wake of all his emotional distress. "What happened, Lelouch?" he asked slowly.
The Britannian boy smirked. "Shall I show you in action?"
"Yes!" begged Diethard, resisting the urge to jump up and down. He was dying to see Zero's power up close and personal.
Looking a bit apprehensive, Ohgi nodded wordlessly and gripped his gun tighter.
Inoue and Yoshida glanced at one another briefly before staring at the Britannian teen and shrugging. They were more focused on Mao.
Smirk growing, Lelouch walked over to Inoue and Yoshida. In his usual commanding tone, he ordered, "Kill Mao and dispose of his body properly. When you're done, go back to base and forget everything that happened here today."
"Yes, Zero," both Black Knights said mechanically. Inoue pulled the trigger right in Mao's face.
Suzaku screamed, sounding horrified, and jolted to his feet. Ohgi shrank back with a full-body shudder. Diethard grit his teeth and stood his ground, eyes never leaving Zero, wondering how his leader had managed to pull it off.
The two Black Knights picked up Mao's body between them and started hauling it away, as if they didn't notice anything else around them. Their movements were a bit stiff and stilted, but nothing else seemed out of place as they carried the corpse away from the scene until they were all out of sight. Amazingly, no one seemed to notice two suspicious people carrying a dead body away from a popular, prestigious school.
"How did you do that?" Diethard asked eagerly.
"Why did you do that?" Suzaku added, his disturbed eyes trained on the bloody bits of Mao still scattered on the floor. He couldn't stop trembling.
Chuckling, Zero answered, "It's my Geass power. It lets me control people. Watch." Ignoring his classmate's question, he turned to Ohgi and initiated direct eye-contact. "Wait for me to bring you supplies and then clean up the mess on the ground. When you're done, go back to base and forget everything that happened here today."
At once, Ohgi froze up and replied, "Yes, Zero, of course." He went to sit idly in a pew and stare unseeingly at the wall.
Suzaku dry-heaved. "Lelouch, I don't understand," he whimpered. "This is all so…"
"This is amazing!" gushed Diethard. "You can really make anyone do anything you want? They have to obey you? And then they forget what they did? Zero, that's such a wonderful power! Can I see it again, Zero, please? Please?"
Blinking, the boy Zero tilted his head and walked over to Suzaku. "Don't worry, Suzaku," he murmured, in that same warm, caring tone he'd used with the brunet before. "Forgetting today will be a mercy for you. And…I'm sorry. About everything."
"Wha—" Suzaku gasped, going quiet as the Britannian boy interrupted him.
"—Suzaku, leave for now, forget what happened here today, and then treat yourself to something good. You deserve it, my friend," the Britannian teen ordered softly, his lips curving in a bittersweet smile.
Green eyes widened but in a second, like the others, the Japanese boy robotically complied and left the chapel, presumably putting everything from his mind.
With a sigh, Zero murmured to his back off in the distance, "Forgive me, Suzaku. I never wanted to use the power on you. But, this is what's best. You've been too traumatized today, and if I can free you of any of your burdens…"
Diethard narrowed his eyes. "Kururugi's your friend?" he asked, not judgmental but a little taken aback. Forget hits. This story was going to be a blockbuster.
"He's my best friend," Zero explained, his violet eyes glinting. "But, Diethard, you won't remember any of this—"
Diethard yawned. He'd finished the work Zero assigned him, and his blood was itching for excitement. There were more boring parts being part of the Black Knights than he'd expected when signing up. He wished something would happen.
A/N: So, an AU branching off from R1 Episode 16. Lelouch has now used his Geass on Suzaku, so I wonder what would happen on Shikine Island. And Lelouch knows the truth about Genbu's death, but Suzaku doesn't know he knows. What an interesting dynamic. If someone wants to continue any of these oneshot ideas, message me. :D
The Black Knights were just a byproduct of Lelouch's paranoia and over-planning in this one, but they did still, for a short time before getting their memories wiped, discover some of their leader's secrets.