Episode Three – The Graves of Friends

It was just like what had happened with C.C., and yet… not. She felt like she knew the man standing before her, though she had not met him before.

Only this time, it was a reasonable thing to feel…

There was not a soul in the world who did not know his name.

"Lelouch vi Britannia…" Anastasia whispered. She started to step back, but found only empty air behind her. She very nearly fell again, drawing laughter from both C.C. and Lelouch once more.

"Anastasia Holcomb," Lelouch returned the greeting as Anastasia hastily regained her balance, "Or should I call you Sato Akemi?"

Anastasia couldn't answer. What did you say to a tyrant who had, supposedly, been dead for a decade? She stayed where she was, standing at the edge of a marble platform, suspended between two columns, suspended between the world's most infamous villain and a girl who, somehow, made her even more nervous than he did. He, at the very least, was human…

Lelouch's eyes glittered with humor in the golden light that surrounded him. They were a blinding violet, intense and intelligent, that made Anastasia shiver. He looked good, for someone who had been dead for ten years. Young. Like he had not aged a year since his death.

As far as Anastasia could see, nothing had changed between this Lelouch, and the pictures in the papers of his death. Except, perhaps, that now he was no longer coated in his own blood.

"What do you want?" She breathed, shivering slightly, wishing that she could run back down those long stone stairs. Just wishing she could escape. But knowing that she had no way to get out of wherever this was. Not without their permission.

"C.C. told you," Lelouch replied evenly. He didn't seem at all concerned by Anastasia's fear. It was as though he had expected it. As though he had expected every word she was speaking now.

She didn't like that feeling.

"Told me what?" She asked in a harsh whisper. C.C., standing on the stair behind her, gave another mocking laugh. Lelouch just responded with a chilly smile.

"You hate your life," He observed, starting towards her. Anastasia didn't dare to back away; she was too close to the edge, and she had no way of knowing how far she would fall, "You hate being unable to do anything."

"Yes," She agreed. Because that was all she could do. Tell him the truth.

"You see more than most." He continued, "You are not blind, like the fools who walk around you."

"How do you know?" Anastasia whispered. He He He had almost reached her now. Standing barely three feet away, he suddenly looked; and felt; larger than life.

It was C.C. who answered.

"When the panic started," She murmured, "I chose you because you didn't run."

"You were expecting it, weren't you?" Lelouch asked, taking another step closer. In spite of herself, Anastasia flinched; he was so tall. And very close, "You were expecting an invasion. Why?"

"It was inevitable." She answered hurriedly, "The human race is not meant for peace. Someone will always be vying for control."

"So she is perceptive," C.C. spoke to Lelouch now, as though Anastasia wasn't there, "But does she have what we need?"

Lelouch shot C.C. a glance, silencing her.

"You remember, don't you, Anastasia?" Lelouch continued as though he had not been interrupted, "More than anyone should remember."

"Like a picture," Anastasia whispered, "Like a movie. Every sight, every sound. I remember."

Lelouch smirked lightly.

"That is what we need."

Without another word, he reached out, placing his long fingers over her face. Anastasia gasped as he gripped her by chin and temples. His strength was unnatural. Impossible. What was this creature?

"What are you doing?" She demanded as a shudder ran down her spine. Vague images began to flicker at the back of her mind.

"You want the power, don't you?" Lelouch prodded gently, "You want the strength to do what you have never been able to do? To stop what only you can see is happening?"

Anastasia could not respond. Her vision half obscured, she was sinking in the brilliance of his violet eye. A symbol burned brightly in that eye, shining into her mind, invading, and bringing with it all the sights and sounds and terrors of war. She began to shiver violently.

"Will you make this contract with me?" He whispered.

And then Anastasia was falling, plummeting from a height which she could not fathom. Darkness surrounded her, and yet it was not darkness. It was a great expanse of whiteness, of nothing, filled with scratches and indefinable lines. She was falling, and yet she was standing within this great whiteness.

Then it all changed, and Anastasia's lips parted in a scream which produced no sound.

There were other people here, and yet there were not. She was all alone, because only she seemed able to see the others. Billions of silhouettes, each one vaguely resembling someone she knew, their faces morphing in and out of view, in and out of each other. They shambled aimlessly across a great plain of white, and yet the shambled with great purpose, all moving in the same direction, at the same painfully slow pace.

Slow, was it? Anastasia began to wonder if they were going fast, and she was, in fact, the one who was moving slowly…

"Well, Akemi?" Lelouch's voice came to her as the vision flickered, flashing the many brilliant colors which she had seen reflected in the symbol in his eye, "Do you wish to contract this power?"

Anastasia caught her breath, though it made no sound here. Images of great beings, falling, struck down by an even more ultimate power. Pictures of people running, screaming. A church, with a bleeding child strung across its door, screaming for her mother…

"Do you want to change these things?"

A burning desire invaded her faltering heart. She opened her mouth, and with this desire, her voice sounded once more.

"I accept this contract."

Searing agony shot up her spine, and the white world burst with colors. But once again, she had no voice with which to scream. Her spine stiffened, crunching together around her nerves. Her hands spread open as she lost all control over her muscles.

And then the white was gone.

~v~

Everyone in the room jumped as Tamaki's fist came down on the table, upsetting several bottles of water in their owners' laps. Everyone except Kallen, at least. The young woman, seated at the head of the table, was so lost in her own thoughts that she hardly registered Tamaki's explosion.

The panic the previous night had been a distraction to her ever since. She had hardly registered what the Black Knights had gathered to argue about. She was too lost in her own disturbed thoughts to really try to pay attention. What were they going to do…?

She was vaguely aware of Tamaki screaming something about the weakness of the Black Knights. How they had abandoned so many people by agreeing to that stupid treaty and destroying their Knightmares. Well, that was true. If the Black Knights had been fighting with a full arsenal, they could have stood a chance at the palace. But no… that wasn't quite right…

Now he was shouting about how they should have kept a closer watch on the Chinese Federation. That was true, too. How could they have been so foolish as to believe that all of the great powers of the world would just give up their weapons for the sake of peace? Mankind had been fighting for much too long for that. War was all that men knew…

And yet, somehow, that wasn't quite the reason, either…

"And where was Zero that whole time?" Tamaki screamed. Kallen became fully aware of his voice only when he spoke that name.

"What do you mean, Tamaki?" Ohgi asked in a weak voice. He was still trying to keep a cap on the calm in the room, though the newly-returned Kallen could see that pretty much every other member of the Knights wanted to pull out their gun and shoot the man. He was being so noisy…

"I meant that, in the old days, Zero would never have gotten stuck in there! He would have found a way to escape with the Empress! I tell you, something is wrong with Zero! He isn't performing like he used to!"

If they had jumped at Tamaki's explosion, they quite nearly fell out of their chairs when Kallen shot to her feet, upsetting her chair.

"That's it!" She gasped, a blaze of battle flaring in her eyes once more.

"K-Kallen?" Ohgi gasped. Tamaki, too, looked more than a little surprised. When had she started agreeing with him?

"We've lost the mainland," Kallen stated, suddenly animated, leaning against the table she had nearly thrown at them, "We've lost most of our colonies with it. All of our Knightmares were in the hangar near the palace. Most of our guns were held in our mainland bases."

"So far, you haven't said anything good." Kallen glared at Cornelia when she spoke.

"That's my point." Kallen answered urgently, "Zero would never have let this sort of thing happen, back then. Not if he was going to disappear."

"So, what are you saying?" Chiba asked sharply, "He's not helping us, so he must be dead? Really encouraging."

"No," Kallen disagreed, shaking her head rapidly, "I'm saying that there's been something different with him. Something wrong with the way he works. Ever since he killed… L-Lelouch."

Several of the Knights glanced among themselves when she choked over his name. It was no secret that Kallen had been a school friend of the demon emperor. And it was widely suspected that she had not supported his death.

"I'm not sure I understand…" Ohgi murmured.

"We have to look for Zero," Kallen pushed forwards, ignoring the mutters and glances that she was receiving from all directions, "Zero can help us, if we can help him. I'm sure of it."

There was a moment of silence.

"Well…" Ohgi murmured, "I suppose it's decided, then."

"Alright, fine!" Tamaki snapped, "We'll find out what happened to Zero. But how exactly are we supposed to know where he is? He's disappeared, Kallen! Along with everyone else who was in the palace!"

Kallen fell silent, thinking. The Knights held their breath.

If anyone would know where Zero was, it would be-

"I call a break." Kallen murmured, not looking up. There were stunned whispers around the table, "I'll call you when I have more information."

~v~

"Are you ready, Anastasia?" Lelouch's voice seemed to echo in her mind, rather than coming through the air, though Anastasia could see his lips move when he spoke.

They stood now on the edge of the vast marble platform, in the same spot where he had invaded her mind. But hours had passed, and now, many hundreds of things had changed.

Her life just the first among them.

"Yes," She whispered, lifting her face to gaze at him through the film of the mask. He looked tired, somewhat distracted. And yet, there was a new energy to him. His impossibly bright eyes were even more brilliant than they had been.

There was triumph there, now.

"This will be difficult." He reminded her as she tugged absently at the towering collar of her cloak. It forced her to hold her head much higher than she normally would have, gave her an appearance of incredible arrogance.

An appearance that was not, perhaps, misplaced.

"I know," Anastasia answered.

"You remember what I have told you to do?" He asked quietly, "It is absolutely crucial that you make contact tonight. Any later, and it may be too late."

"I understand,"

A tiny smile flickered at the corner of Lelouch's lip.

"You are a valuable tool, Anastasia." He told her, "Even I could not have predicted these results. Your Geass is powerful beyond anything that I had imagined."

"Then the war will be over just that much faster."

Lelouch laughed quietly. Somewhere in the distance, Anastasia could hear C.C.'s laughter mirroring his own. It was eerie, how these two moved around each other. As though they shared one mind, one soul.

"Do well, Akemi." Lelouch murmured, "And do not expose us, as I did."

Moving a bit awkwardly in this unfamiliar uniform, Anastasia bowed to him.

"Yes, Zero," She whispered.

And then she turned and started back down the golden marble staircase.

~v~

The first thing Malcolm knew as he woke was blinding pain. Intense agony, riding up and down his spine in an endless torrent. He wanted to scream, to cry out. But something was bound into his mouth, and kept him from making a sound.

Hat had happened? He couldn't remember anything. He had been patrolling after the panic. There shouldn't have been anyone, or anything, out that night. No invasion, none of the frightened citizens. So where was he? Why were his hands shackled down to the hard, cold surface on which he lay?

His eyes flew open. There were voices here, with him. Faces.

A man in a white coat standing over him. Laughing at his expression. Malcolm tried to speak, to demand what they were doing to him. But all that came out was senseless mumbling, and all that he received for an answer was raucous laughter.

"You will be of great use to us, Malcolm Tresset." Malcolm's head snapped around as the woman spoke, but she was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he was confronted with walls of mirror, with the image of his terrified face reflected a billion times on every side.

"Yes," The man who stood over him agreed, "Great use."

And then a mask was clapped over his mouth. It only took a moment before Malcolm sank away again.

~v~

Nunnally shifted nervously on the rocky cave floor. With no way to keep track of the passing of time, she had no way of knowing how long it had been since Suzaku had gone. She had begged him not to leave, begged him to stay and rest some more. Regain more of his strength.

But Suzaku had always had an uncanny ability to heal. And, as he said, it was necessary that they find out where they had landed…

That didn't stop Nunnally from being terribly frightened. What if Suzaku never came back? What if the Federation was out there, and they killed him or captured him? So many things would end, then. Zero would be unmasked. Her brother's sacrifice would be revealed.

She would be left alone to die on this forsaken island, wherever it was.

Something moved towards the mouth of the cave, and with a whimper Nunnally began dragging herself across the cave floor, further into the darkness. Footsteps echoed off of the slick walls, and Nunnally raised one hand to cover her mouth and stifle the sound of her terrified gasps.

"Don't be frightened, Nunnally," The voice was calm, coaxing. Nunnally's eyes widened.

She knew that voice. It came from a time before her brother had changed. When he had still lived with her.

Had still cared for her more than anything in the world.

"C.C.?" She whispered, lowering a hand from her mouth.

And in that same instant, another voice came from the cave mouth.

"C.C.?" Suzaku cried.

~v~

The gravel crunched softly under Kallen's feet as she entered the massive graveyard. She gazed around through tired, uncertain eyes. In the back of her mind, she was wondering when this had become a place of peace and solace for her. Graveyards… most people were frightened of them, weren't they?

But then, two of her very close friends were buried here…

It was to their graves that she walked, now. Her steps were nervous, quick and uncertain. It was the way everyone walked, these days. She had noticed it on her way here. People were frightened, always ready to bolt, when the bombs started to fall. She wondered why she was like that, too? She knew the Federation wouldn't invade immediately. They were busy on other landmasses, taking other large empires, absorbing them into one before they had to confront the weakened Black Knights. The Chinese Federation had time, and they would take it.

So why was Kallen so nervous…?

She traveled in a daze between the long lines of graves. They were all different; different sizes, shapes, types of stone. But most of the difference lay in what was written on them. Kallen hardly saw the names; most didn't have names, they had been too badly burned when they were found to be identified. Most just said "mother" or "child" or "woman", and gave the dates of their death.

It was these dates which scalded themselves within Kallen's mind.

Almost all of these deaths had occurred during the revolution.

It had taken years for Kallen to really recognize the consequences of the war she had waged at Zero's side. She wasn't sure exactly when she had realized it. Perhaps it had been when Shirley died. Perhaps when she killed Suzaku.

Perhaps… she had not realized it until Lelouch had been slain.

She had a horrible feeling that this was the truth. The deaths of two of her friends had not mattered as much as the death of that villain…

And as she drew close to the graves of those two dear friends, she realized that their deaths still didn't matter as much as his.

Shirley and Suzaku, buried side-by-side, in the rather small section of the graveyard which was reserved for the dead whom the army had been able to identify. These were the only names that she saw as she approached. Shirley and Suzaku. She didn't even really register their last names. Those names hadn't mattered to her when they were together. They had just been Shirley and Suzaku. Students at Ashford Academy. Friends in the Student Council.

Or… so she had tried to convince herself.

There was a discomfort now, as she analyzed what she had really thought of them. An uncertainty. Why… did she feel something akin to hatred?

But she knew why…

Suzaku was easy to explain. Their friendship had been shattered when she had learned that he was the pilot of the Lancelot, and when he had learned that she was the pilot of the Guren. Whatever warm feelings they had for one another had been shoved into the back corner, disposed of for the time being, in the face of something which was much, much more important. In face of a foolish war which had killed millions, and changed little.

But Shirley? Her discomfort with Shirley was neither as reasonable, nor as simple to understand. At first, she had thought it was because the girl was so… off. Always distracted, always losing things or forgetting things, always tripping or messing up. A weak girl. The sort of girl which irritated Kallen.

But she wasn't so sure. Could it had been… possibly… because Shirley shared Kallen's secret affections for Lelouch?

Kallen shook her head viciously. She had come here to think, perhaps to pray, to come up with a plan for finding Zero. But she couldn't concentrate here. There was too much uncomfortable history. Too much she wished that she could change.

She didn't really think about where she was going when she moved away from the graves. She just drifted, lost in her own emotions. Everything seemed to be falling apart around her, and she knew that, in the best of conditions, she wasn't the person that she would go to for help.

If only Lelouch were here…

Kallen looked up just in time to avoid slamming into the grave in front of her. She gasped, dodging to one side. She had walked all the way to the furthest corner of the graveyard without realizing it. This was the corner she usually avoided; the corner that they had fenced in with bars that made the area looked like a jail-cell, with the branches of a gnarled oak as a ceiling. Kallen shuddered, peering into the shadows beyond the fence.

There was only one grave here, isolated by iron bars from the rest of the graves as a symbol. A warning. For this was not just the grave of a victim of the war.

This was the grave of the cause of it.

"Lelouch…" She whispered, moving slowly forwards. Why had she come here…? What had driven her here, of all places? She had never visited his grave before. She had avoided it at all costs.

Carefully, she opened the wrought iron gates, and stepped onto the undecorated soil beyond. The grave was small and flat, with no grandeur. Because Lelouch had deserved none, right? Once it was proven that he had never really been Zero… he no longer deserved that glory…

Why didn't Kallen believe her own thoughts?

"Oh, Lelouch," She whispered, kneeling before she really thought about it to touch the slick stone. It had not been graced with a name; that was unnecessary. Everyone looking at that prison-like corner would have known who rested within, "What am I going to do? How do I find Zero?"

She almost screamed when her cell phone rang. Flopping back on the bare dirt, she scrambled to pull the little device out of her back pocket, flipping it open. Hastily, she crushed the phone to her ear.

"M-moshi, moshi?" She gasped, startled by the sudden call.

But the low, intense voice which answered her greeting was ten times the shock.

"It's good to hear your voice again, Q-1."