"I'm going to volunteer if Lloyd's name is called."

"Yes, dear," Lelouch sighed, reaching over to grab the tangled sheets from where they'd been thrown at the side of the bed, wanting covers before the sweat cooled on his body. There was no point in fighting over this now; the Reaping wouldn't happen for months.

"I'm serious," Suzaku said, rolling onto his side, his monstrous endurance perking him back up just when Lelouch wanted to allow himself to drift off into post-coital unconscious bliss. "I'm not leaving you alone out there."

Lelouch gave in and wrapped himself around Suzaku, covering them both in the sheet. If they had to have this conversation, at least he'd be comfortable. "What brought this on all of a sudden? The announcement was weeks ago."

"I want to protect you," Suzaku said, as if it was obvious. Which, granted, it was. "I'll train and prepare and, when the Reaping comes around, I'll make sure that I'm coming to Pendragon with you."

"Hasn't it occurred to you that maybe you'd be of better use watching over Kallen and Nunnally and the rest?"

Suzaku shook his head. "I can't just stay here and hope for the best. You've already worked things through with Kallen. I've thought about this, and I can't just leave you alone in the arena without me to watch your back."

Lelouch just laughed and snuggled closer to Suzaku. "Without you to watch my back, Suzaku? As I recall, my back was rather exposed last time, when Luciano wasn't mounting it."

"And thank you for bringing that up," Suzaku, the bastard, dug his fingers into Lelouch's side, tickling him mercilessly. "Are you saying you want to be free to shop for another Luciano?"

Lelouch dismissed that almost as soon as he started to consider it. It wasn't as if any of the Victors would fall for Lelouch's act like Luciano had. None of them would be as unhinged or desperate or, frankly, as stupid as Luciano had been. And even if they were, the odds of Lelouch finding someone who wanted what he had to offer a second time around was extremely unlikely. "No, that's certainly not part of any plans."

Suzaku nodded firmly. "Then I'm coming."

This time, Lelouch took his time to think that over. Apart from his initial impulse of wanting to deny Suzaku's plan and protect him from the violence of the arena, Lelouch was also prioritizing Nunnally again, placing her well-being in the hands of the one person Lelouch trusted above anyone else.

But he had to also take into consideration the fact that he and Suzaku just worked well together, as a team. Together, they could accomplish far more than either of them could alone. It was inevitable that Lelouch would be sent to Pendragon, and without Suzaku he really would be going alone. Nunnally had protection. She had their mother, Kallen, Kallen's little… group. The entire rebellion Lelouch was building behind her back would be devoted to her safety. And then there was the rebellion itself – new and uncertain and Suzaku was a risk to it, given the fact that he was subtly against it and couldn't hide his emotions and opinions. If he came to Pendragon with Lelouch, he wouldn't be a threat to the morale of those in Area 11, making Kallen's job much easier, and Lelouch could selfishly indulge in having Suzaku at his side.

The main problem remained the same as it had been during the last games. If he and Suzaku went together, only one of them would make it back. Lelouch's gambit in the previous game had only been permitted to succeed to further his father's agenda, his plot to incite a rebellion that would inevitably lead to a Britannian victory over the Numbered Areas once again. They wouldn't have that impetus this time, with the public used to their story by now, no longer shocked by noble self-sacrifice or spurred to action by proof of a love truer than death.

This time, the games would only have one Victor. That is, if they went through as planned. Lelouch hadn't made any specific plans as of yet, but he would have more resources than he'd had last time. Last time, he'd been surrounded by children, frightened and ill-prepared children. This time, the Tributes would be adults, Victors. Adults who had lived their own lives, made their own sacrifices and choices, and who now could fight on their own terms.

Well, some of them. Lelouch wasn't foolish enough to believe that age and experience alone were sufficient to foment courage. And twenty-four people, within a city of millions, didn't seem like much. But twenty-four warriors, set free within a city of sheep… that was something Lelouch could work with.

And, as always, his favoured tool would be Suzaku.

"Lelouch?" Suzaku asked, a gentle prodding to bring Lelouch back to him and out of his lonely thoughts.

Lelouch smiled easily. "Alright, Suzaku. I'll let you have your way this time. But you'll owe me."

Suzaku just laughed and wrapped his arms around Lelouch. "So I guess that means you agree."

Lelouch chuckled, but didn't deny it.

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

The next day, as Suzaku and Kallen went out hunting for more supplies, Lelouch spent the day with Lloyd, running over the list of previous Victors; their skills and their weaknesses, the likelihood of their being chosen or volunteering, and their relationship to Area 11 or, most specifically, to Lloyd.

There were the obvious ones – the only two surviving Victors from Area 12, for instance, who were, like Lelouch, chosen out of necessity. They were both elderly (one of them had fought before the first Quarter Quell and was over sixty) and, while likely useless physically, would be a good source of experience. Then there were the Victors in Areas 1, 2, and 4 – where the question was less who would be chosen and more who would push their way to the front of the pack to volunteer to go back to their place of glory.

Area 1 was, to Lelouch at least, fairly predicable. Cornelia must have known that Lelouch would inevitably participate, and she would find a way to enter herself. Even after the 'mercy' he'd shown her, she was undoubtedly after his blood. Her male companion would be one of the three male Victors, and that was a difficult choice.

Area 2 was more complicated yet, given that the competition between possible Tributes had often, in the past, been fatal to several of the candidates. With only eight Victors to choose from, the thought of culling that down before the Reaping even started had its attraction to Lelouch. Of course, it was probably what his father had hoped for as well, decreasing the number of strong Numbers who might be incited to fight against Britannia.

But it was one of the pictures in Area 4 that caught Lelouch's attention. Gino Weinberg, Victor of the Seventieth Hunger Games, was just a few years older than Lelouch and Suzaku. He'd be nineteen at the next games, but he already had a reputation as a playboy and something between a flirt and a slut. He smiled at more people than he slept with, but the margin wasn't nearly as wide as most people's. Lelouch, knowing the price that Pendragon levied against their Victors, couldn't help but wonder how much of that reputation was Gino's doing, and how much of it had been forced on him.

Lloyd made a soft, curious sound, and Lelouch found himself wondering if Lloyd had been forced to pay a similar price. "Lloyd?"

"Hmm?"

"After your victory, were you ever treated as a… trophy? Amongst the Britannians." That was putting it delicately.

Lloyd looked at him for a long moment, and then shrugged. "When I won, I was just fifteen, with no idea of the possible costs of victory. I had no family, no connections, and nothing much more than a foolish, boyish pride. When given the offer of luxury and comfort in return for my submission, I decided the price was too high. Of course, I hadn't been aware at that time of the variety of ways in which one could experience pain at the hands of a disappointed, but creative, pimp. Eventually, another Victor took the world's attention and I was forgotten."

Lelouch couldn't help wondering if he would have made that choice, even without Suzaku and Nunnally's futures hanging in the balance. He had no great love for pain and it was so easy to talk himself into giving up his pride for something more tangible. Would he have defied Britannia as Lloyd had? It was impossible to tell, but the fact that Britannia had faced defiance from its Victors before, and seemed to place little import on it, was rather comforting.

"Have you decided yet?" Lloyd asked, apparently out of nowhere.

Lelouch frowned, looking down at Gino's picture and seeing only a smiling face and nothing of the possible torment behind it. "Decided what?"

"Between me and Suzaku, of course!" Lloyd said.

Lelouch gave a half shrug. "It's not up to me." There was a long, disbelieving pause and Lelouch sighed. "And if it was, I'd be keeping Suzaku out of it."

Lloyd laughed. "So he found a backbone of his own, did he?"

Lelouch couldn't really argue that although, in hindsight, Suzaku had had a backbone of his own the whole time. He'd followed Lelouch only when it had coincided with his own interests, and gone rogue whenever it pleased him. His own interests were always his first priorities, although sometimes his own interests were as simple as keeping Lelouch happy.

"He's free to make his own choices, and always has been," Lelouch said. "Whether I agree with those choices…"

Lloyd laughed and Lelouch knew that he didn't have to finish that sentence.

They were about to move on to Area 7's Tributes when Suzaku burst into the room, in a complete tizzy. "You were right!"

Lelouch and Lloyd exchanged a look. They were both used to generally being right, but neither of them were used to Suzaku announcing it in such a dramatic fashion. Lelouch turned to Suzaku. "…yes?"

"Area 8 is revolting!"

"I didn't find it that bad," Lloyd said, his voice pitched to reflect perfect sincerity. Lelouch couldn't help it; he laughed.

"This isn't funny!" Suzaku snapped. "They blew up one of the factories, with the workers still inside, and thousands of people are dead."

It wasn't funny. But it hadn't been funny for a long time and Suzaku was only now realizing that. "How do you know that, Suzaku?" The only person Lelouch knew with access to that kind of knowledge was the mayor, and it was unlikely that Pendragon would let even him know the truth of the situation.

"I met two people who fled from there," Suzaku said, still clearly upset. "They were injured and starving they told me everything. They'd barely escaped with their lives."

Lelouch had to admit that sounded more compelling than hearing it from Milly or her father. "Where are they now?"

Suzaku frowned a little, calming down. "They're going to Area 0."

Area 0? Lelouch had no idea what to say to that. Almost legend, Area 0 was kept alive only in the memory of those few who had survived the Dark Days of the first rebellion against Britannian rule and in the yearly memorial tribute that was as mandatory to watch as the games. The memorial, recorded in the still-smouldering ruins of what had once, according to history, been a bustling, lively city, was taped every year by a new fledgling reporter, dressed in layers and layers of protective gear, miles away from the craters and plumes of toxic smoke that were all that was left of the Area.

There was no reason to search Area 0 out, unless it was to scavenge through the ruins for the weapons and refined sakuradite that had been processed there before the rebellion, before Pendragon realized how risky it was to keep them in the hands of Numbers. Suzaku, of course, knew that.

"They claim that the memorial video from Area 0 isn't real. It's staged."

Now, that was intriguing. "How?" Lelouch asked.

"It's simple," Suzaku said, seemingly delighted at the opportunity to show off to (or show up) Lelouch. "The reporter is on a stage and the footage of Area 0 plays behind them. We saw special effects like that during the Hunger Games, and they'd only had a week or so to put it all together."

It did, when Suzaku put it that way, sound quite simple.

"It's been seventy-five years," Suzaku continued. "Don't you think something would have changed in all that time?"

"Not necessarily," Lelouch argued, but it was mostly reflexive at that point. He had no idea how long it would take to recover from the devastation that had wracked Area 0 after Pendragon had finished with them, but seventy-five years did sound almost impossibly long. "And even if this is all true, even if Area 0 was inhabitable, what makes you think that it would be any sort of refuge? Where were they when Pendragon stole our children and forced them to fight and kill? Where were they when we starved while Pendragon basked in luxury and waste?"

"I don't know," Suzaku said, voice small. "I don't know, but they… the refugees from Area 8 have hope, Lelouch. They could barely walk they were so hungry and tired, but they still had hope."

Lelouch shook his head. "We have hope too, Suzaku. It's why Kallen and I–"

"Their hope led them to believe in something bigger than themselves, to search out answers that they had faith were still out there. Your hope is leading you to abandon the only home you've known and lash out against anyone who's wronged you in any way. It's different."

"It is," Lelouch agreed. "The main difference being that my hope isn't based on wishful thinking and fairy tales."

"Are you saying that because you mean it?" Suzaku asked. "Or are you saying that because you don't want anything to take attention away from your glorious rebellion?"

"My glorious rebellion?" Lelouch demanded. "I won't even be here to watch it unfold. It might have been my idea, but it's Kallen's now. I have to leave her in charge of my plans and my hopes and my sister and… and trust me, Suzaku, a magical land full of weapons and warriors would be lovely, but it's not real."

They couldn't rely on supposition and faith. They needed facts and flesh-and-blood people willing to risk their lives for the cause. Area 0, while a lofty dream to aim for, was far to risky to even consider. They had each other, and that was all they could count on.

"There's a bird," Suzaku said. Lelouch frowned, not following. "Apparently there's a bird in the right hand corner of the memorial video. It flies past the same place at the same time and even loops. They didn't get a full half hour footage of smoking ruins."

Lelouch had never noticed that although, to be fair, he'd rarely paid anything like close attention. "Are you sure?"

"No. But that's what the people from Area 8 said. I just think that it's not impossible and, if Area 0 exists, I can't help but feel like they'd make a better ally than an enemy."

Lelouch couldn't argue with that. "Fair enough. And as long as you're not taking off for Area 0 any time soon, I'm content."

Suzaku smiled for the first time. "I'd never leave you."

"Yes," Lelouch said smiling back wryly as Suzaku moved closer. "You mentioned."

And just like that, all arguments and conflicts were forgotten as Suzaku leaned in and kissed him. But Suzaku's comment about the bird wasn't forgotten, and Lelouch made a mental note to revisit it in the future.

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

As they waited for the Reaping day, Lelouch and Suzaku fell into a pattern. Suzaku split his time between hunting and training with makeshift swords and spears, working with Lloyd to improve his natural abilities at combat. Lelouch split his time between reviewing the previous Victor's games and outlining plans and watching Suzaku improve his natural abilities. He had to admit the latter was rather self-indulgent, but Suzaku would occasionally catch him watching and force him to train with him. Lelouch could hold a sword properly, but it didn't take many blows before his arms grew numb, and he was hopeless at unarmed combat. He was better with smaller weapons; the knives that Rolo had wielded with cold deadliness, the bow and arrow that Kallen had grudgingly lent them for a few days. The worst, however, was when Suzaku decided that they needed to work on endurance and chased Lelouch around the Victor's Village, inevitably catching him and subjecting him to the humiliating torture of being tickled.

It was hugely undignified.

It was after one of those 'training sessions' that Lelouch retreated to Milly's house, hiding away in one of the few refuges that Suzaku wouldn't follow him into, as he still thought he was in Milly's black books for the incident with the rabbit and the carpet and covering it over by moving the armchair until her father had to hunt down the source of the odor. Lelouch had never told him that Milly didn't hold any grudge, having found it amusing and finding Suzaku, generally, adorable.

Milly was out, but her father was in, watching the memorial video. This time, the reporter was a young girl, not much other that Lelouch, looking small and delicate and very brave in her protective gear, recounting a brief history of Area 0 and the folly that had led to its downfall. Behind her, the ruins smoldered and smoked, as they had every year Lelouch had seen this.

Lelouch couldn't help it. Ignoring the dithering woman, he fixed his eyes on the upper right hand corner of the screen, watching for a sign that he'd missed every year since he'd decided that Pendragon (personified through his absent father) was deceitful and manipulative. For a few minutes there was nothing, and Lelouch figured that Suzaku and his refugees from Area 8 were just indulging in wishful thinking.

And then a crow flew past, just cutting through the right corner of the screen, clearly taking off. Lelouch must have made a small sound, because Mr. Ashford looked up from the TV and smiled. "Hello, Lelouch. Didn't see you there."

Lelouch chuckled nervously. "Sorry, I was just… looking for Milly."

"She's not here," the mayor said, gesturing to the couch. "Take a seat."

Lelouch sat down a little awkwardly, shifting slightly. Mr. Ashford was debatably the most powerful man in Area 11, apart from the head of the Peacekeepers, and Lelouch had always been close with his daughter. It wasn't that Mr. Ashford was a particularly intimidating man, but every time they were alone together, the question of Lelouch-and-Milly hung in the air between them. Lelouch would have hoped that his engagement would have prevented that awkwardness, or possibly his imminent death, but it was still there, unaddressed but unwavering and, most of all, unnerving.

"I'll bet you didn't know that Pendragon sends these videos to the leaders of each Area a week before the official air date," Mr. Ashford said. "I suppose it wouldn't look very good if we reacted poorly in public to any of them."

Lelouch hadn't known that. But it did make sense. "The games are in realtime though, aren't they?"

Mr. Ashford nodded. "The games are meant, in part, to shock." The memorial video ended and he turned off the television. "I obviously can't say this in public, Lelouch, but… I'm so sorry you're going back there."

Lelouch felt himself go pale. That was a dangerous thing to say, almost treasonous. "Sir!"

Mr. Ashford shook his head. "This is a safe place. It's swept for bugs weekly." He smiled weakly. "And not by the local Peacekeepers, either."

That was almost worse than the apology – the acknowledgement that the Peacekeepers weren't here for the Area's own good. Lelouch gaped at the mayor, unable to think of anything to say to that, wanting only to change the subject. "Sir, would you have recordings of the memorial videos from the previous years?"

Mr. Ashford looked momentarily disappointed, then his smile returned, only more shrewd this time. "Of course, Lelouch. Anything for such a good friend of my daughter's." He went to rummage through the recordings from years past, while Lelouch was left to ponder over the meaning of those words.

The Ashfords were the hand of Pendragon in Area 11. They enforced and upheld the directives and laws passed down from their Britannian masters. Their loyalty was beyond reproach, mainly because their own best interests coincided with Britannia's. It would have taken a man with very large-picture view of the world to see any future problems that might arise from such a patronising, yet symbiotic relationship.

Perhaps Milly's father was just that far-seeing, however. Maybe all this treasonous talk was to let Lelouch know that he was on their side and, more importantly, that his daughter was as well. He could have been doing his best to wrangle a promise of protection from Lelouch for his family, which would also have explained the disappointment.

"Here you go," Mr. Ashford said, handing Lelouch the old recordings. "About ten years worth should do it, no?"

Lelouch took the recordings with a smile. "Nicely, yes, thank you sir." He met Mr. Ashford's eyes and nodded very slowly, very emphatically. "I hope to be able to return this favour in the future."

The look of relief on Mr. Ashford's face was all the proof Lelouch needed that he'd understood the man's needs and fears. "I hope you don't have to, Lelouch. But I appreciate the thought."

The thought that Lelouch had basically just promised amnesty to the most visible servants of Pendragon was washed away almost instantly the moment he played recording after recording, watching the patterns of smoke and the placement of stones and the flight of that damned bird year after year after year.

Suzaku came up behind him. "What're you doing?"

"Area 0 exists," Lelouch said with utter certainty. "Now we have to take that into consideration as well."

Suzaku smiled, as he almost always did when Lelouch used the word 'we'. "We'll meet up with Kallen and Lloyd tomorrow." He wrapped his arms around Lelouch's neck from behind and placed a kiss on the back of his head. "For now, just come to bed."

Lelouch wasn't even slightly tired. "Alright."

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

By the day before the Reaping, everything was set. Kallen and Lelouch had worked out a series of secret signals that he could pass along to her if it seemed like things were getting out of hand in Pendragon, and Milly had been very carefully brought into the revolutionary fold. There had been a few fires to put out, namely some of the adults who had a problem with being led by adolescents, but Lelouch had put them in their places with a rapid-fire delivery of likely scenarios that he outlined and demanded solutions to them. The furthest any of them had gotten was to the third before tripping up.

Otherwise, everything had run almost unnaturally smoothly. The Peacekeepers kept their grudging distance from the mayor's daughter and the Victors, following the unspoken protocol that had maintained the balance between the three powers in the Area for generations. Meanwhile, the rebellion had swelled to over a thousand, far more than even Lelouch could keep track of, although he did ensure that every group had only one of two members who knew the other members, and that there were at least two layers of insulation from the newer recruits to him or Kallen.

The plan was generally simple. Those who were most useful in the forest – the miners and few townsfolk that Suzaku and Kallen had trained for wilderness survival – would leave first. Milly would keep her ears open for any suspicions from the Peacekeepers, and at the first sign of questioning, they would start a rumour of an illness. At that point, the younger children and older adults would join the others, the first 'victims' of the plague, while their family members and close friends were placed in quarantine, to join them within a few days. They had the manpower and the supplies to carry it off, and Kallen had gone over enough crisis scenarios with Lelouch to be prepared for almost anything.

She, along with Nunnally and Marianne, would have to stay in the town during the initial interviewing process, while the Britannian media were still around. Once they left, however, Nunnally was slotted to be one of the first victims of the plague, with Marianne followed soon after. Milly planned to stay until the near end, assuring Lelouch that she could do more good in town than in the wild. Kallen had agreed, and Suzaku, and Lelouch was outnumbered, especially since he agreed as well, and it was only his promise to Mayor Ashford that had made him want Milly out sooner.

He trusted Kallen to convince her to leave before things got too dangerous.

It was strange. He trusted Kallen. A lot. He hadn't really seen that coming. In fact, if he'd had to choose between her or Suzaku at his back, Lelouch would have had to think for a moment.

Which felt a little disloyal to Lelouch, but it wasn't as if he'd have a choice in any case. The moment he stepped on the stage, at Cecile's side, overlooking the empty field where all the children should have been waiting to be Reaped (or not, but no one's stomach clenched in fear at that idea), Lelouch's choices were over. The usual patriotic propaganda played behind him and then Cecile stood up to the microphone, taking a deep breath to start her usual spiel.

"You know what?" Her voice echoed eerily over the deserted meadow. "There's no point to this charade. Suzaku, if you would?"

Suzaku froze, his eyes darting back and forth between her face and Lelouch's and Lloyd, standing beside him. No one offered him any kind of order, other than Cecile's invitation, so Suzaku swallowed and climbed up to stand beside Lelouch, stiff and awkward. Lelouch reached out and took his hand, threading their fingers together, and Suzaku shot him a wavery, grateful smile.

"Alright, then. Area 11, once again, your Tributes."

Silence greeted Cecile's apathetic announcement. Then Lloyd started clapping, the insincere slow applause of an unentertained.

"Congraaaatulation, you two!"

Mr. Ashford hustled Lelouch and Suzaku off, glaring at Cecile as he left the stage, but Lelouch felt that overall, that had been done just about as perfectly as he could have imagined.

There were no farewells this time, an entire contingent of Peacekeepers escorted them to the train.

"Wait, what about Lloyd?" Suzaku asked.

"He's not coming," Cecile said. "With all the Tributes being former Victors, there's no point in bringing along mentors."

Suzaku turned to Lelouch, grabbing onto his forearm. "Did you know about this?"

"I knew it was a possibility," Lelouch said shortly. "Area 12 has only two Victors to choose from, and couldn't bring a mentor along in any case. This way, it looks more fair." It also meant that fewer Numbers would be in Pendragon this year, and raised Lelouch's suspicions that something was going to happen during the games, something plotted against them – the Victors amongst Victors.

When they got into the train, Lelouch verified his theory, and watched the Reaping in the other Areas. As he suspected, the Areas with the most Victors had volunteers step up – Area 1 had Cornelia and a tall, elegant man who had eyes only for her. Area 2 had two vicious-looking veterans and even Area 3 had two volunteers, a tall lazy woman who dwarfed everyone else on the stage, and an earnest middle-aged man with calm, patient eyes who stepped up in place of an elderly, stooped man.

Area 4, however, was the most remarkable. When Gino Weinberg's name was called no one stepped up in his place, and he looked willing enough as he smiled and waved to the cameras. But when the female Tribute was called, Anya Alstreim, someone stood in front of her, protective and overly dramatic, dressed in silks and petticoats and made up like either a whore or a clown.

"I volunteer!"

It was so obviously a parody of Lelouch's actions when he'd stood up for Nunnally that Lelouch was stunned into an incredulous silence as he watched, a small part of him impressed by how no one laughed. Their escort was a young man, early to mid twenties, and seemed quite overwhelmed by the strong personality of the old man, "Taizou Kirihara, female Tribute for Area 4!" Gino embraced him warmly and knelt at his feet, pledging his devotion to his fair maiden, while Kirihara tittered. Literally tittered.

Suzaku came up behind him and cocked his head to the side. "What on earth…"

Lelouch shrugged. "Area 4, your Tributes."

"I think we are officially no longer the most interesting thing to watch," Suzaku said, bemused.

Lelouch reached around behind himself, and pulled Suzaku down. "You're still the only Tribute who'd draw my eye."

Suzaku smiled and leaned closer. "Area 5 is starting."

"Shut up and kiss me, idiot."

The rest of the Reaping was relatively smooth, with no one else stepping up to volunteer until Suzaku, although there were several defaults with only one option for a male or female Tribute in one Area or another. Area 12 had both defaults, and the Reaping ended on a rather dull note. Lelouch smiled at the attempts from Diethard to liven up the ending, but there was too much dissonance between the proud Tributes and the mocking Tributes and Lelouch and Suzaku's tragic story and the resigned plodding of those who'd had no chance.

This wasn't the grand spectacle that had been planned. That alone was enough to please Lelouch, and Suzaku reaped the full rewards of that pleasure until Lelouch collapsed, exhausted beside him, exquisitely sore and satisfied and entirely prepared to take on all of Pendragon and every single Victor for Suzaku's sake.

And, this time, with Suzaku at his side.