Turning Points: Teamwork

by elarielf

AU/"What if" story - What if Kanon never followed Suzaku to his rendez-vous with Lelouch? Together, Suzaku and Lelouch can accomplish anything, including breaking down Lelouch's inherent mistrust of other people, even his father. Sometimes the road to hell is paved with the best of intentions and not every turning point leads to a happier ending.

3. Negotiations

Being a Knight of the Round usually carried a considerable amount of weight.

Usually, however, there weren't four other Knights of the Round on the field at the same time as Suzaku.

And, more importantly, usually the Knight of One wasn't commanding the Britannian fleet.

"Prince Schneizel has ordered–"

"I've heard His Highness's plan, Sir Kururugi. But until I hear from His Majesty, we will continue to defend Area 11."

Suzaku bit back a sigh. "Sir, the Black Knights are retreating! Zero has kept his end of the bargain. If we continue this fight, we'll just be slaughtering them while they're not fighting back…"

Sir Waldstein shook his head, scowling angrily. "Sir Kururugi, are you Prince Schneizel's man, or the Emperor's?"

Neither, Suzaku thought rebelliously. He'd been Euphemia's when she'd asked him, but before and since then, he'd served Britannia as a son of Japan, for Japan's sake. No matter what Lelouch thought of his service, Suzaku had never turned his back on his own people.

"You are a Knight of the Round. You've sworn an oath to Charles zi Britannia that should override all other loyalties. If you have a problem with that, you're free to renounce your noble rank to be hunted down as a traitor."

That was true enough. On the battlefield, only the Knight of One or the Emperor himself could order a Knight of the Round. Even Princes and Princesses had no standing. Schneizel could make suggestions, and they would be given an enormous amount of weight, but Suzaku and the other Knights didn't answer to him.

He answered, however, to Bismark Waldstein.

Suzaku took a deep breath. "Sir, I respect and admire you. And my oaths haven't been broken." Yet. "But Zero has agreed to this, as has Prince Schneizel, in whom the Emperor has allotted a great deal of authority over the Empire itself. I can't, in good conscience, turn my back on this opportunity."

"What opportunity?" Sir Waldstein asked shrewdly. "The opportunity for Britannia, or for Japan?"

Suzaku set his jaw. "The opportunity for peace, sir." There was no point in continuing to talk. "If you won't order the retreat, I will." And he'd deal with the Knights of the Round already on the field, one way or another, on his own.

"This will be remembered, Kururugi," Bismark said. He sounded oddly satisfied, as if he'd just won a bet with himself.

Suzaku moved onto the battlefield itself, barking out orders to pull back, to return to base, to let the Black Knights retreat safely. There were some commanders who balked at his orders, who attempted to go over his head and contact Sir Waldstein, but the Avalon's communications had been cut just after Suzaku's conversation with the Knight of One, to allow Schneizel to organize the withdrawal of the Britannian troops from the UFN countries.

Grudgingly, most of the regular forces followed Suzaku's orders. Still grounded, Gino and Anya cheerfully radioed in to Suzaku that they were staying put, and let him know that Nunnally was protected and being moved back to the secured areas of the base, now that the Black Knights were no longer an imminent threat. Suzaku breathed out a sigh of relief that his promise to Lelouch was being kept, and turned to his last major problem on the field.

"Sir Bradley. Prince Schneizel has ordered us to allow the Black Knights to retreat."

Luciano's bark of derisive laughter made Suzaku's shoulders tense up. "The Prince is in no position to deny me such good sport!" He shot down two more retreating Black Knights, cackling as he did so. "They should know better than to present the nape of their necks to the Vampire of Britannia!"

Suzaku's fingers ached to launch at his 'ally'. "This is your last warning, Luciano. Fall back!"

"Over my dead body!"

A flash of red caught Suzaku's attention out of the corner of his eye, and suddenly the Guren was there, like a crimson angel, complete with translucent wings. Luciano's Knightmare's head was caught neatly in its right hand.

"Doable."

Suzaku had seen Kallen use the radiation wave unit before. He'd never seen it so effortlessly destroy another Knightmare, though.

It was almost anticlimactic.

"I'm leaving now," Kallen said, as the remains of the Percival fell to the ground. "Okay, Suzaku?"

Suzaku breathed out. "Okay, Kallen."

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

The Shinkiro landed beside Lelouch, and Jeremiah let down a cord to lift Lelouch up to the cockpit.

"How is the withdrawal going?" Lelouch asked as he keyed in his code and unlocked the Shinkiro's defence system.

"Well," Jeremiah answered. "Kururugi has taken the reins of power as ably as possible, and Kouzuki has returned to the field. By the time we arrive, it's likely that the fighting will be completely over."

That was good timing. The last thing Lelouch wanted to do was end up dead just before the finish line. "Then we'll return straight to the Ikaruga."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Kallen just beat them there, looking none the worse for wear after her captivity, apart from the pink ballgown she'd been fighting in.

Lelouch allowed himself to smile behind the mask. "They didn't offer you a flightsuit?"

"Like I'd take a Britannian uniform," Kallen shot back, falling easily into step beside Lelouch. "What are you thinking, Zero?"

"We'll discuss that when we gather everyone together," Lelouch said. "For now, all I can ask is that you trust that I'm still doing this for Japan."

"That doesn't sound suspicious at all," Kallen muttered, veering off to her bunk to get changed while Lelouch organized a meeting of every high-ranking UFN and Black Knight that could attend.

Everyone, even Kallen, looked exhausted. As they should be – they were fresh off the field of battle. Lelouch kept his explanation simple; "Prince Schneizel has offered to meet us as equals at the negotiating table. He has the authority of the Empire behind him and, as our allies from the former EU can testify, has ratified treaties on his own in the past. It's our best chance for peace and reconciliation. If, however, it's vengeance you're looking for, I'll lead the Black Knights back onto the battlefield at once."

Even with fatigue rolling off them in waves, the Black Knights hesitated. It was Kaguya who spoke up first. "Peace is what we had, Zero. The peace of the occupied and enslaved. What we were fighting for was freedom. How likely is Prince Schneizel to grant us that?"

Extremely likely, with Lelouch's geass active. "Schneizel knows the cost of ongoing war, and the rewards of favourable peace. It won't be cheap, Britannia's energy needs require enormous amounts of sakuradite, but it can be accomplished without further bloodshed."

"And what about you?" Kallen asked. "What are you planning on doing once Japan is liberated?"

She wasn't asking Zero, she was asking Lelouch. Lelouch would have preferred that she ask him privately, but it was too late for that now. "My responsibilities don't end with this battle, Kallen." To anyone else, that would sound like Zero was pledging to remain CEO of the Black Knights. To Kallen, or the former C.C., it meant nothing, as Lelouch's responsibilities didn't always mirror Zero's.

Indeed, Kallen didn't look satisfied. Neither did Xingke. "This won't end with Area 11. Unless the Emperor is willing to risk the loss of the rest of the Areas, the war isn't over."

"The Emperor…" Lelouch set his jaw behind his mask. "The Emperor will be dealt with in time. Until then, the Prime Minister is willing to deal. I can only recommend strongly that we take advantage of this opportunity. If, however, the UFN prefers spending the lives of its soldiers to negotiating with its resources, then the Black Knights will follow their will."

Phrased like that, there was only one possible response.

"We'll open talks, Zero," Kaguya assured him. "But keep the Black Knights on standby. This may be the best plan, but it's still a gamble."

True, but Lelouch had stacked the odds as far in their favour as he could. With this done, he had no more need of the Black Knights.

He'd upgraded to Schneizel, the one man both Clovis and Cornelia agreed would have the answers Lelouch sought, as well as the power to take down the cruel and corrupt Empire Lelouch loathed.

All thanks to Suzaku's wide-eyed demands for peace.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Once the last of the Black Knights and Britannian soldiers had left the field, as soon as the Avalon had landed, Suzaku returned to the base, determined to ensure that Nunnally was safe.

She may not have known it, but her life was the only thing standing between this tentative peace and all-out war.

The hanger was bustling with engineers and pilots going over their Knightmares, assessing battle damage. Suzaku's Lancelot had been essentially untouched, and he left it for Lloyd and Cecile to get to once they had the chance, leaving orders for the FLEIJA to be removed at their earliest opportunity. With the loss of the Percival and Luciano, they might have had their hands filled, if they'd been expected to design another eighth-generation Knightmare for a new Knight of the Round.

Suzaku regretted precisely nothing about letting Kallen go after she'd taken that monster out.

He moved between the harried groups of people, only paying them scant attention until something familiar caught his eye.

"…Rolo?"

If the boy hadn't frozen, his shoulders hunching as he tensed, Suzaku might have thought he'd been mistaken. Despite his smaller stature than most of the other unremarkable people rushing to and fro in the hanger, there hadn't been much more than a flash of soft brown hair and that odd reddish-purple eye colour.

But he had tensed, and Suzaku felt his pulse speed up; Rolo had been turned by Lelouch, that was clear enough after the Black Knights' attack on the Geass Order's hidden base in China. But he was still an assassin. What was he doing here?

Suzaku kept one hand close by his firearm as he moved towards Rolo. "Has Lelouch ordered you to ki–"

Between one blink and the next, Suzaku found himself face-to-face with Rolo, his gun pressing against Rolo's temple, the bones of Rolo's wrist held so tightly in Suzaku's free hand that he could feel them move against each other. "What…"

Rolo gasped, clutching his chest with his left hand as the knife he'd been holding in his right clattered against the floor. "How did you do that?"

A year ago, Suzaku would have had no idea what had happened. Now, at least, he had a few guesses. "Did Lelouch use his geass on you?" If Suzaku could move to protect himself without knowing it, then perhaps Rolo had something similar…

Rolo laughed. "My geass has nothing to do with nii-san. But you…"

That made a disturbing amount of sense; how Rolo could have been such an accomplished assassin at such a young age, why he'd been sent after Lelouch, who had a geass of his own. It had only been the geass placed on Suzaku to live that had saved him from whatever Rolo had been able to do. And they both seemed to know it.

"I have Lelouch's protection," Suzaku said, gamely bluffing as hard as he could. "We're on the same side."

Rolo didn't look convinced, but he wasn't exactly in a position to do anything but nod. Suzaku released him and holstered his gun as Rolo rubbed life back into his wrist.

"So that's why nii-san didn't want me to kill you at Ashford," Rolo muttered to himself. "He was protecting me." He looked strangely heartened by that.

Suzaku decided not to react. "What are you here for?"

"Lelouch wanted me to get Viceroy Nunnally out of the line of fire," Rolo said. "Then he changed his mind."

"Ah." Of course Lelouch wouldn't have just relied on Suzaku. "And now?"

"I'm staying here in case he needs me here. Sayoko's returned to Tokyo proper, in case Lelouch needs someone there."

Sayoko? The maid? Suzaku felt like he had a lot of catching up to do. "Is Nunnally safe?"

Rolo shrugged. "She's unharmed, and still guarded by Britannian soldiers."

So she was safe unless the Emperor ordered his Knights to move against her. Suzaku hoped that Gino or Anya would hesitate and come to him first if they were ordered to hurt Nunnally, but he was pretty sure Bismark wouldn't. "I'll keep her safe."

For a moment, Rolo's eyes flashed and his lip curled in something that looked like hatred. The expression was gone in an instant, but Suzaku had seen it, and was surprised by the force of emotion there.

This was the boy Lelouch had trusted with his sister, a boy who seemed to revile her.

Not for the first time, Suzaku strongly questioned Lelouch's judgement.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

"Do you have clearance to be here?"

Lelouch removed his contacts. "I do. Please take us immediately to Prince Schneizel."

"At once, sir!"

C.C. clutched at Lelouch's hand, huddling behind him awkwardly as they moved through the Viceroy's Palace, where Schneizel had just taken up residence. No one paid them much attention, with the chaos of the battle's aftermath and the clear escort they had. Even as they entered the more secure area that housed the royal living suites and offices, they were allowed passage with only the minimal amount of questions.

Lelouch was still technically wearing his Zero costume, only the bottom layers. Apparently purple pants and a tight black sleeveless turtleneck weren't out of place here. C.C. was also dressed rather conservatively for her, still wearing the white shorts and tank top under a pale pink dress, with only the white boots showing of her usual outfit.

They blended in, but C.C.'s lack of comfort was even higher as she tugged on her unfamiliar sleeves.

The guard stopped in front of a door and knocked. Lelouch waved him off. "That will do."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

Lelouch pushed the door open and swept into the room, dragging C.C. behind him.

Kanon looked up from the tablet he was working on, while Schneizel continued with a quiet conversation behind his desk. C.C. hid behind Lelouch as the door closed and Kanon approached them.

"Your terms have been met. Prince Schneizel is just now finishing with the North Africa deployment, and all the Britannian forces will have withdrawn within the hour. What are you doing back here?"

Lelouch managed to put on the proper aloof expression appropriate for talking with 'the help'. "I need to talk to my brother."

"About her?" Kanon asked, raising an eyebrow at C.C.

Lelouch shrugged. "Among other things." Schneizel ended his phone call and Lelouch raised his voice. "Privately."

Schneizel took the hint. "Kanon, give us a few minutes." Kanon bowed and backed out of the room, grudgingly but gracefully.

"Odysseus is a little suspicious, but he's willing to follow me until father countermands my orders. It's a good thing Cornelia isn't around."

Lelouch had to agree. "She's being held on the Ikaruga for now. I haven't decided what to do with her yet. More importantly, I need to talk to you about my mother."

"Marianne." Schneizel's eyes blazed red for a moment, then he relaxed. "What would you like to ask?"

"You disposed of her body?" Lelouch asked. Schneizel nodded. "Why? How come the Emperor asked you to do something so unimportant?"

Schneizel shrugged. "He didn't want her buried. That was when he started holing himself away in the palace chapel rather than focusing his attention on ruling his Empire. Her loss affected him far more than he made it seem, Lelouch."

Lelouch hadn't wanted to hear how his mother's death had affected his father. If he'd loved her so much, why had he exiled her children at his earliest opportunity? And to a country he was planning on invading. "So he didn't want to bury her." Maybe he hadn't wanted his commoner wife to contaminate his mausoleum of nobles. "Who killed her?"

"We don't know. I can tell you this much; it wasn't rebels. The attack came from inside the palace itself. One of the other queens, perhaps. Cornelia did investigate, but she never found anything."

Was that all? All that work, to find that Schneizel knew barely more than Clovis or Cornelia. "You know nothing?"

"I know that father exiled you and Nunnally because he was worried about your safety inside the Ares Villa. I know that he spent more time with Marianne that with his other queens. I know that Zero was one of the first things he paid attention to since Marianne's death."

That was oddly flattering, but Lelouch had the idea that it was more about Clovis's death or the geass Zero had. From what Lelouch had gleaned before C.C. had lost her memory, Charles was very interested in C.C.

Speaking of… "If you can't give me more information about my mother, then I charge you at least with guarding this woman." Lelouch pulled C.C. forward. "She's important. I want her kept safe and away from any conflict."

Schneizel looked C.C. over and smiled. "Easy enough. We'll just say she's Kanon's mistress."

"Kanon's…"

"Everyone will assume she's mine, but that I'm not willing to give her the protection and weight of my recognition, so she's not important enough to assassinate. The perfect balance of privileged and useless."

Lelouch had to admit; that described C.C. in a nutshell.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

"Why do you think Zero agreed to peace this time, Suzaku?" Nunnally asked after they were left alone.

Suzaku looked away from her, despite the fact that she couldn't see him. "Probably for several complicated reasons." It was best not to lie to Nunnally, she could sense it, but he needed to obfuscate a little.

"Do you think he'll keep his word?"

"I hope so."

Nunnally smiled and held out her hand. It had been a while since Suzaku had nestled her tiny palm on his, and he'd forgotten how delicate it felt. "Nunnally…"

"You're still so troubled, Suzaku. I wish I could help."

"You already have!" Suzaku insisted. "You still believed in Euphy even though…" he trailed off. "You've done so much for the people of Area 11, with no recognition. And you've given up so much. That you haven't lost yourself to hatred and anger is a huge inspiration, Nunnally."

Nunnally's smile gentled. "It's because I have so many things and people that are important to me. You have important people too, don't you, Suzaku? People you want to protect?"

He did. Japan, Britannia, Nunnally, even Lelouch. The students at Ashford, Gino and Anya, Kaguya and Kallen. Suzaku had cursed his powerlessness before, even while bowing to his orders. Now, he had no excuses, and beside Lelouch he could actually protect all of them.

"You're right, of course. As long as I can stop myself from being selfish…"

Nunnally covered his hand with her own, squeezing once before releasing him. "You let me have faith in Zero, and stopped his betrayal from turning into another massacre. You can trust yourself, Suzaku."

"Thanks, Nunnally." It had been close, but even with the recriminations he'd suffered after Zero's million followers had been 'exiled' from Japan, Suzaku was comforted by the fact that he hadn't allowed his need for answers, for revenge, to recreate Euphy's legacy in full. And since then, Nunnally had made significant headway in equalizing Area 11.

Lelouch was going to take that away from her, when he took Japan away from Britannia. It was an unfortunate, but necessary, sacrifice.

"I think I'll sleep for a while," Nunnally said. "This has been an exhausting few days."

Suzaku nodded. "Call for me when you wake up." He wasn't going to leave her alone until he knew she was safe. He bowed and backed out of her room, closing the door carefully behind him and turning towards…

"Lelouch?"

Lelouch, dressed in casual clothes with a schoolbag slung over his shoulder (and C.C., whose head poked out of the room three doors down from Nunnally's) looked up, surprised. "Suzaku. I can explain…"

"What are you–" Suddenly aware of how exposed they were, Suzaku stormed down the hall, pushing Lelouch and C.C. into the room and slamming the door behind them. "You could be recognized! And what is she doing here?"

C.C. ducked behind Lelouch, her eyes looking up at Suzaku, huge and scared.

Lelouch looked between them. "You know each other?"

"V.V. told me all about her and her connection to you," Suzaku spat. "I know she's the one to blame for all this." C.C. trembled, and Lelouch unconsciously stroked his hand over her hair, like when he'd calmed Nunnally when they were kids. Seeing that made Suzaku incensed. "I can't believe you're letting this witch near Nunnally!"

C.C. whimpered and Lelouch shot Suzaku a withering glare. "You think you know far more than you do, Suzaku. Whatever C.C.'s done in the past, right now she's not a threat and she's under my protection."

"Your protection?" Suzaku shot back. "What does that even mean, here surrounded by Britannian soldiers? You're not Zero here, and no one's intimidated by you."

"Schneizel's protection, then!" Lelouch said.

Suzaku stared at him. "You did it, didn't you?"

"…what?"

"You wouldn't be this comfortable leaving that here, within Schneizel's reach, unless you'd used your geass on him."

Lelouch finally backed down, his eyes dropping almost in shame. "I…"

"Dammit, Lelouch! That wasn't part of the deal."

"It wasn't explicitly disallowed either!" Lelouch snapped, as if he'd been ready for this fight and had already prepared. Suzaku took a deep breath to snap back, ignoring the way C.C. cringed.

"…am I interrupting something?" Schneizel asked from the door.

Perfect.

OoO-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-OoO

Lelouch immediately took advantage of Schneizel's arrival to try to stall the argument. "Nothing. The room is perfectly adequate. C.C. and I will stay here for the night, but I'll return to the Black Knights tomorrow. Have food delivered at regular intervals, please."

"Of course."

Suzaku snorted. "It's like you're keeping her prisoner."

"I'm keeping her protected. And what do you care, anyway?" Lelouch said, keeping his temper better in front of his brother. "You have one job, Suzaku. Keep Nunnally safe while I deal with everything else."

"Well, what if Nunnally sees you or C.C.?" Both Schneizel and Lelouch turned to Suzaku, who slowly turned pink as he realized what he'd said. "I mean… what if she finds out you're here?"

Lelouch shrugged. "I won't be here long." Suzaku didn't look satisfied with that.

"Have you planned for that?" Schneizel asked diffidently. "Nunnally finding out you're Zero?"

Lelouch felt as if cold water had been poured down his back. He'd managed to keep Zero a secret from Nunnally while they'd lived together through a series of half-truths and outright lies, aided by Nunnally's faith in him. When Suzaku had ambushed him, after his memories had returned, with a phone call to Nunnally, Lelouch had even managed to talk with her without revealing his identity. She knew he was alive and somewhere 'out there', but she didn't know what he was doing.

And Lelouch had intended to keep it that way, indefinitely.

Suzaku gave him a cool, almost cruel, smile. "Didn't think that far ahead, did you?"

Schneizel looked between them in exasperation. "This is no joking matter. She'll find out eventually."

"I know!" Lelouch snapped. "I… I know." Except… "Unless we take Zero out of the equation completely."

"No, master!" C.C. cried out suddenly, rushing up to Lelouch. "You mustn't kill yourself. There has to be a better way."

It was worth it for the look of confused horror on Suzaku's face as C.C. clung to Lelouch's arm. Schneizel just smiled benignly.

Lelouch untangled himself from C.C., giving her a reassuring pat on her head. "I wasn't thinking of that. I was thinking that to maintain the peace, we need something for the world to latch onto, for the populous to fear. Something… someone that will be so demonized and hated that the thought of war will be synonymous with the thought of him. An everlasting peace, as long as tales are told of his villainy."

"That's… actually not a bad idea," Suzaku said, sounding admiring.

"I'd thought of father for that role," Schneizel said. Of course, he would have thought this through as well. "Or, it needn't be a person at all. The Damocles project is showing significant potential. All it would take would be the detonation of a few FLEIJAs; ten, at most fifty, thousand deaths. The specs…"

Lelouch was already shaking his head. "It can't be a thing. People don't work that way. They fear the boogieman, not the car crash. And father is already loved in Britannia." He pursed his lips. "Odysseus isn't…"

"He's a good man, Lelouch," Schneizel said. "Weak, basically a patsy, but a good man. Your goals don't include making victims of innocents. Not anymore."

Damn him, he was right. But that more or less ruled out using FLEIJAs. Lelouch knew full well what the theoretical damage a nuclear bomb could do; he had no interest in finding out what that meant in reality.

"Euphy would make a good demon," Schneizel said thoughtfully. "She's already nearly universally hated."

Lelouch wasn't quite fast enough to hold Suzaku back from grabbing Schneizel by the collar, dragging him until they were face-to-face, noses less than an inch away. "What did you just say?"

"Calm down, Suzaku." Lelouch turned to Schneizel. "Euphy and Nunnally are both off limits."

"Then it's either father, or we'll turn Zero into the demon."

Suzaku slowly released Schneizel. "It should be the Emperor."

Lelouch frowned. "But if Zero–"

"No." Suzaku said, facing Lelouch. "You're not getting out of this that easily. You're going to be Zero until there's lasting peace. That's what you promised."

"But–"

Suzaku stood up. "Lelouch. Come with me?"

Lelouch hesitated a moment, then nodded and took Suzaku's offered hand.