AN Notes: And here I relent a little, and give you poor sods a teaser – a pseudo chapter, if you will – making you all believe that I decided to continue this story. Well, heads up; I didn't. However, you may consider this the epilogue, dealing with how everything goes down afterwards.
I'm hoping to keep everything vague in this, so that you may decide, for yourselves, what happened to Lelouch after the events of the actual one-shot.
So... I guess At the Hands of Betrayal is a one-and-a-half-shot.; not just a measly little one-shot.
Heh. I spoil you guys, I hope you know that.
Kaname Ohgi looked around the Ikagura's main meeting hall cum conference room. Nearly everybody that had been present during Lelouch's explanation was here; Cornelia, Schneizel and Lelouch himself were noticeable exceptions, but that was to be expected after the disaster that last meeting turned out to be.
"What now?" Ohgi asked the group, unofficially being the one in charge at the moment, he took command of the situation as far as he could manage. "Where do we go from here?"
"What do you mean?" Tamaki damn near shouted as he plopped his ass into the biggest, most comfortable chair available. "It's over isn't it? We've won."
"That remains to be seen." Tohdoh responded as he opened his eyes. "We originally agreed to trade Lelouch for Japan, and since that isn't possible any longer, we're technically still an imperial territory."
"Bloody Brits, going back on their word like that!" Tamaki's voice raised to higher and higher volumes as he spoke. "Why should we suffer for what just happened?!"
"Because it was partially our fault." Ohgi responded with defeat in his voice. "And Britannia isn't much better off at this point either, Tamaki. The world over now knows about the FLEIJA weapon, so the Empire is poised on the brink of another international conflict."
"Not to mention that with Lelouch's-" Kallen whispered to herself, all though loud enough for most of the assembled group to hear her.
"That's enough of that Kallen." Ohgi's voice was gentle, almost reassuring. "Whatever happens now, isn't his concern – and he is none of ours."
"But!"
"I understand what you mean, Kallen. It's just..." Ohgi trailed off.
"That Brit bastard used us! He lied to us, Kallen." Tamaki screamed at her. "How can you defend him?!"
"We used him just as much as he used us!" Kallen snapped back at the idiotic man. The room fell silent at her remark. While it was true, to an extent, that they had used Zero for their own gains, they had largely thought of him as an ally. Someone that would do anything to defend them, no matter the cost. But they were wrong, it seemed. Zero had abandoned them before – and they ignored it – but they couldn't do so a second time. Not with so much at stake.
"Kallen," Ohgi's voice was barely a whisper as he spoke. "Please, don't do this."
"Do what, Ohgi?!" Her scream caused the man to flinch. "Defend that man that gave us hope?! That gave me hope?" Kallen's voice trailed off into a murmur.
"Kallen..."
"I'll..." Kallen turned away from the group and began to walk towards the door. As it opened, and she placed her foot passed the threshold, Kallen turned back to face Ohgi one last time. "I'll see you later." And with that, the door closed behind her.
"Good riddance." Chiba let out a sigh after Kallen left the room. "The last thing we need to deal with is someone that sympathizes with that royal bastard."
"Nagisa!" Tohdoh bit out a reprimand. "No matter her opinion, Kallen is a valuable comrade and you will treat her with respect."
"Yes sir!" Her response was instant, even if it lacked it's usual luster. "I apologize."
"What a mess." Ohgi collapsed back into the chair behind him. "How did we ever get ourselves into this..."
"We trusted the words of a known enemy over our very leader. A shameful display for our organization." Tohdoh replied to the rhetoric. "We didn't even verify Zero's identity for ourselves before holding him at gunpoint."
"There is that..." Everyone glanced towards Tamaki as he raised his voice. "Why did we do that?"
"The evidence was there, even if questionable." Ohgi replied dryly. "I think we were all just looking for someone to blame for the destruction of the Tokyo settlement, and Lelouch was as good a target as any."
"Still." Tamaki pressed on, "don't you think that it's just a little bid odd of us? I mean, we followed the guy since day one, and yet... this!" The auburn haired man just shrugged a little. "What's the deal?"
"I don't know. He's done plenty of things to abuse our trust before, but somehow this was the tipping point." Ohgi replied with a sigh. "I guess this was as far as we could go."
"He is the one responsible for the massacre of the Japanese at the S.A.Z.. Remember, Tamaki." Chiba's voice carried with it a conviction born of hatred. "Then he had the gall to blame it on Euphemia and start a failed rebellion."
"It wasn't really his fault though, was it?" Ohgi said after a few moments hesitation. "He lost control of his Geass at the worst possible time." Everyone just glared at the man. "I'm not saying it absolves him of the guilt, only that he hadn't meant for it to happen."
"Even still, he took advantage of it." Tohdoh replied. "Worse yet still is that he left us to die during the Black Rebellion last year."
"Did he really, though?" Ohgi asked the group. "What do you think, Deithard? You've been oddly quiet through this whole ordeal."
"Hmm?" The blond Britannia man snapped his eyes to Oghi, as the man's question shook him from his train of thought. "What do I think?"
"Yeah, give me your opinion as a fellow Britannian."
"Well..." Deithard let out an over dramatic sigh as he spoke. "It's not like we weren't winning when he left Tokyo. What ever business came up that was important enough for him to see to alone and by himself was probably worthy of his time."
"Still." Tohdoh spoke as he sat straighter in his chair. "It's not like it couldn't have waited for a while, if only so he could ensure our victory."
"What do you think he went to do anyways?" Tamaki asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. "Does anyone even know where he went?"|
"I overheard him and Kallen talking about it once." Ohgi said as he furrowed his brow. "If I remember right, I think he went to Kamine Island. To those ruins he stole the Gawain from Britannia at."
"Why did he go there?"
"No clue. They never said anything about his motive. Only that he was captured by Suzaku there, and brought before the Emperor." Ohgi said slowly. "I think that's what got Suzaku promoted to a Knight of the Round."
"It makes sense." Tohdoh's voice was strangely calm. "It'd match up with Zero's reported execution. Though why they let him live is a mystery."
"Knowing that the Emperor had a Geass also explains why Ze – Lelouch, sorry, couldn't do anything to save us. He had his memories replaced."
The group fell in to silence as the thought on that for a moment. That the mysterious power of Geass even existed was unnerving. But to know that the Emperor has since traded his for immortality? Frightening.
"Lelouch vi Britannia." Tohdoh spoke softly, lost in memory. "He and his sister were sent to live at the Kururugi shrine before the invasion. If I remember right, they were here for a year before Britannia got impatient and decided to annex our nation."
"Did he now?" Ohgi said with a small gasp. "I hadn't realized he'd been in Japan for so long. Do you think?"
"Possibly. It's a definite factor to consider."
"What was he like? As a child, I mean?"
"In a word?" Tohdoh didn't even try to hide the smirk that crept across his face. "Troublesome. He and his sister were sent here as bargaining chips for Sakuradite distribution. He was defiant, and would disobey any command given to him by his host family. Because of this, he and Suzaku never did get along for the longest time."
"A spoiled prince and a obstinate child. Still, there was one redeeming quality that no-one could find fault with."
"And that was?"
"He completely disregarded his own well-being for anything that came to his sister. She was blind, and bound to a wheel-chair, unable to perform most basic tasks on her own. He did everything in his power to see her smile, and that included tolerating Suzaku's presence. She'd grown quite attached to Kururugi in the short time they had been there. Lelouch couldn't bring himself to deny her anything."
"Blind..." Ohgi's voice trailed off.
"And crippled!" Tamaki's voice was full of energy.
"So... that's why he was so desperate to take the Viceroy alive, and why he snapped after the FLEIJA..." Ohgi's voice hitched a little at the realization.
"The new Viceroy was his sister. Nunnally vi Britannia." Tohdoh replied with a sad smile on his face. "We condemned him for ignoring our plight afterwards, but he was concerned about his sister; as any of us would have been."
"Except, even more so. Nunnally was his life, if he hadn't changed that young boy you knew back then."
"I doubt very much that he changed all that much, if even a little."
The small gathering fell silent again. Ohgi and Tohdoh were regretting their recent actions, now that they knew a little bit more about the man that had once been their leader. Tamaki was openly bawling like a child, raving on about the poor, tortured soul that had been Zero. Chiba kept a scowl on her face, refusing to believe that Lelouch could have a gentle side to him. Diethard wasn't visibly shaken, nor did he seem to care one way or another. To him, all that this had revealed was another piece of the puzzle that had been his own, personal God.
An exiled prince, rebelling against his homeland and his very family in the name of Justice; all a false mask that hid the reality of a selfless child fighting for his sister. It was tragic, yet epic. It was just the sort of tale you could find in ancient Mythology and Folklore. That such a auspicious man could have risen from the depths of mortality, abandoning all sense of self-value, to do what he thought he must. All so that no others would have to tread the hallowed ground he had walked ever again.
The scope of this Epic was maddening; and he had so foolishly given up the rights to document it. To record it for history, so future generations could have seen the magnificence, the glory that was Lelouch vi Britannia; exiled prince and revolutionary!
Diethard broke down and wept. He wept for his ignorance.
It was after minutes had passed, that when everyone had gathered some semblance of control, and the meeting was poised to move on, that Tamaki had spoken once more. And did his voice ring truth echoed in their thoughts.
"Well. Fuck."
And so thou wept; mourned my departure. Hearts rent from the loss of mine providence.
And at the words of thine enemies didst thou descend upon me; as carrion swarms to the rotted carcass of wild beasts – savage, remorseless and hungry.
And thou did weep. For thou were lost amongst thine selves, no longer able to move as a whole, and crippled as individuals. Knowledge of thine betrayal forever seared into heart and mind; burned with white hot flames into thine souls.
And thou didst not yet understand the full truth behind thine actions, of the world yet to come. The world sowed by thou hands and reaped by thine foes.
For in it, the Sword of Damocles hangs poised to plunge; and the single thread that bears its weight has begun to strain.
