"So. Elliot huh?"
"I like it. It suits me well."
"It's a joke. I can see how you twisted you're name to get that."
"Lighten up. There is no way we will be found out."
"That is slightly less of a concern than the fact that you called Zero by his real name. When Lelouch Vi Britannia traded places with him, that secret was well kept."
"Didn't stop me from knowing it, did it?"
"I guess not."
o-o-o-o
"TIME TO DIE!"
The Guren S.E.I.T.E.N rockets past the ShinkirÅ, dive bombing a group of the Geass Knightmares. An entire fleet had decided to attack the ShinkirÅ and the Guren at once. Kallen had instantly gone into action.
Suzaku had managed to twist his hadron cannons to bear on the majority of the group. Kallen had successfully destroyed a great number of the Knighmares, so all thats left are the remnants, which were getting increasingly tricky to mop up.
As the Wave surger hand closes on one of the last Knightmares, Suzaku reflects on how the fight had gone so far. The knighmares, nicknamed Burai point fives for their apparent performance level, had an unusual quality: any structural damage set of a large explosion that instantly vaporized the machine and pilot.
These suicidal people had no chance against Kallen, but they still kept coming. It took Suzaku a minute to realize that the Geass Knightmares were trying to latch onto him and detonate.
Suzaku fires his slash harkens at the nearest one, causing a detonation. This leaves two left, both of which Kallen dispatches in short order.
"This is the most resistance we've encountered from them so far." Kallen's voice comes across the radio. "Do you think we're getter closer?"
"It's hard to tell. Any more enemies in the area?"
"None that I can see."
"Good. Head back to headquarters, and let's report what we've found out."
o-o-o-o
Nunnally felt like her head was on fire. Her wardens had been sticking needles into her skin all day, and she had been made to drink a foul concoction which had sapped her strength. By her reckoning, which could be faulty do to being drugged so often, she thinks she been held for about a week. in that time she had to have been in the same room as the human lie detector at least ten times.
From what she knew about Geass, Nunnally managed to figure out that he had lost control of his Geass. He sequestered himself in his room which occupied the central most chamber of the fortress, at least according to the guards. His Geass was to detect lies, and only lies, or else she'd be expendable by now. She couldn't imagine knowing when everyone was lying. It must be a living hell. Even worse would be the ability to read minds. That would be worse then hell.
Suddenly, Nunnally's head began to hurt ten times worse. A woman she had never seen before stepped into her cell.
The woman looked a lot like Cornelia, but with the strange garb of these Geass users and electric blue highlights running through otherwise blond hair. Her right eye is lit up with a Geass symbol.
"Hello, sweetie. Are you not feeling well?" The woman twisted her mouth into the semblance of a sympathetic smile. "Do you have a headache? My brother tends to have that effect on people."
"I believe that's your specialty, Jennifer."
The lie detector walks into the room right up to Nunnally. "Meet my sister, Jennifer. She has a knack for causing pain, particularly headaches."
Jennifer sticks out her bottom lip. "That's no fair. I wanted to string her along for at least a while."
"Oops." He looked less than apologetic while saying that. "Anyway, We have come to get the information we need. Every time you lie, Jennifer here will up the pain until you can no longer think. If she's not careful, you may never think again, so I advise telling us the truth."
And they set to work, with the questions being asked drowned in increasingly louder screams.
o-o-o-o
Zero, Kallen, Cornelia, Lady Kaguya, the Empress and Clovis sit around a war table, discussing the data gathered in their latest fight.
"I can't figure out where they're coming from. they just appear from any direction. They don't seem to be tacticians, and just charge us until they're all dead." Zero has his hands clasped behind his back.
Kallen really felt out of place in this meeting. She's not one of the higher ups in the Brittantian system, nor one of the rulers of the most influential countries.
A voice startled her out of her thoughts. Lady Kaguya had grown up to be the leader of Japan, and is one of the most popular figures in the U.F.N. "Have you been able to establish contact with any of them?"
"No, they don't respond to hails. My guess is that they don't even have conventional comms, because we can't find the signal they use to to communicate."
Cornelia stands. "How do we know that they are communicating at all? They may just be told to attack back at their base and sent towards you, Zero."
"Then they wouldn't be able to get us, seeing as we vary our course on a regular basis."
Cornelia frowns at this. Lady Kaguya crosses her arms and asks then question no one would bring up. "What if they're actually using Geass?"
o-o-o-o
Nunnally is experiencing pain previously unimaginable. Jennifer is looking more and more worried. The girl had stopped screaming and had curled up into a ball half an hour ago.
"She can't take much more of this before her mind is garbage, you know."
"I know, but I need to find out who is behind the mask. If I don't, the director will-"
"I know. Maybe we should give up for now? I can't increase her pain levels much higher anyway."
"Fine." He walks over to the whimpering form and gives it a swift kick. Nunnally showed no reaction. "Tomorrow at 0700, got it?"
Jennifer nods. The man walks out of the room. Jennifer looks at the body on the ground. It didnt seem to be moving at all. She leans down to see if Nunnally's chest was moving.
The next thing Jennifer knew, She was lying on a bed in the hospital ward.
o-o-o-o
Zero suddenly collapses on the floor of the command center, an unearthly scream overloading the speakers that modified and boosted his voice.
Kallen rushes to his side and starts to pull off his helmet before realizing what she was doing. She froze with the helmet disengaged but still covering his face. Lady Kaguya rose up out of he seat and issued a command for everyone to leave the chamber.
The rest of the crowd understood and practically ran from the room, two of them with phones already in their hands.
Zero is still screaming, but he is muffled by his helmet, on which the speakers had shut down. Kallen still stared at the mask, wondering who should would find underneath. With an increasing sense of dread, she slowly starts to lift off the mask.
As she does, the eyepiece opens, revealing a green eye, pulsing purple and red.
Kallen quickly reapplies the mask. "Is anyone outside that can help me with him? There's something wrong with his eyes!"
Cornelia and Lady Kaguya charge in with medical kits. Cornelia has hers partially open already.
"Get him some eye drops, if we do anything else we may make it worse."
Just as soon as Cornelia prepares the drops and gets ready to pour them into the eye, the eye returns to normal, before closing and rolling up into Zero's skull.
Kallen grabs his handkerchief and stuffs it into the eye socket, then picks up Zero and rushes him to his room.
"You know, I always harbored hope that Zero was still Lelouch." Lady Kaguya states blankly. "I wanted to see him again, and ask him what he was thinking during his reign as emperor. I.. I just don't know..."
"You should know that Lelouch is dead, you were there when they confirmed him dead."
Lady Kaguya sighs.
o-o-o-o
Back in his quarters, Suzaku removes his mask. Kallen is in the room, but looking in the other direction.
"I appear to fine now. What did you say my eye was doing?"
"It was pulsing different colors, mostly red and purple. Geass purple."
"I hate that accursed power! I HATE IT!"
Instantly, Suzaku realized he has made a mistake to raise his voice. he had overcome the voice filter and Kallen had heard his true voice. She had stiffened.
"I... I think I've heard your voice before. I can't place it though."
"You used to know me. Then I became Zero. The fact that you know who I was is why I kept this secret all these years."
"Right. Sorry. I'll go now."
"Wait. I have to ask you something." He takes a deep breath. "If you need to, you can remove my helmet. Only if there is no other choice, and no one else is in the room."
"Understood."
"You won't like what you see. I can almost guaranty that."
"I'll go tell the others."
Kallen leaves the room.
Why? Why had Lelouch Geassed him to live? Now, any time Suzaku's in danger, he has a feeling of dread, waiting for his Geass to activate. In fact, it had gone off right before he had collapsed.
Oh crap.
As he once again becomes Zero, the command post is rocked by an explosion, lighting up the cold night.