Author's Notes: Here's Chap 9 ^.^.

I said I'd post in a few hours, but I'm not sure if I should be, considering that I didn't get any interesting reviews to answer ^^ Oh well.

Reviewer Response Time!...
JK, not this time, lol

Thanks to Otaku HoLic, XT3, and Umbra8191 for reviewing :)

" " for dialogue

Italics for thought (or stress when just a word or two)

"Bold Italics" is speaking in a different language (other than English)

Mask 9: I Am Zero

Vi Britannia Residence
1730 hours

"Can that woman really eat this much pizza?" Rafael sounded doubtful as he put down the phone. "Pizza Hut didn't believe me at first."

Lei replied, "Who knows? She is a monster."

Silence.

"…Can we really believe that stuff about geass, Lelouch?" Minoru looked at their prince, who was staring at his laptop's screen.

"I don't know."

There was silence.

Lelouch vi Britannia, the Prince of Masks, was admitting that he wasn't sure about something. For his 'Masked Soldiers', that was a first.

As if he could hear their thoughts, he added, "But it doesn't really matter. We'll pretend it's true, and she won't get any more pizza if it turns out to be some sort of sick joke. Better safe than sorry."

"But it's quite convenient that she can't give us geass," noted Rafael. He tried to mimic the green-haired woman's arrogant voice, "Cuz, 'You can only get it when you lack the power to live on.' What a great excuse."

"Still, who would have believed in immortality?" countered Hazel, pushing her long black hair behind her shoulders, "I certainly wouldn't have, before this."

Lelouch had fallen silent. What worried him wasn't geass, but rather what she'd said after that:

Flashback
45 Minutes Ago

The Guard was silent; deciding whether or not to believe in what the witch had called geass. To them, it sounded like something you'd find in myth.

Lelouch had changed the topic, asking, "You said you knew my mother?"

C.C. smiled. "I thought we'd settled this already, boy."

"You don't have a right to call His Highness 'boy'." replied Minoru hotly.

The prince ignored C.C.'s condescending voice. "Do you know how she died?"

Suddenly, C.C. averted her eyes. "No."

"But you have an idea, right?" C.C. was silent.

Lelouch sighed. "Fine, then how about I ask something different? What about a certain blond boy that was close to the Emperor a few years back? Seven years ago, to be exact."

Surprised, C.C. turned and locked eyes with Lelouch. "How do you know about V.V.?"

Lelouch stepped closer, shocking his guards with his excitement, "V.V., are those initials? What's his real name?"

Regaining her composure, C.C. smirked. "I'm not telling you."

She doesn't know, guessed Lelouch. "Fine, then is he like you?"

"If you mean immortal… maybe."

Lelouch swore she was mocking him. Tightening his hands into fists, he'd retorted, "Very well, you no longer seem to want to chat. We'll be talking later." With that, he'd turned and left the door, his Guard only moments behind.

Flashback End

"Say, boss, what was that about V.V.?"

The prince was startled from his thoughts by Emeka's question. Now the entire Guard was looking at him. Clenching his hands into fists, he said, "He's the one who had my mother killed."

Hazel frowned. "But didn't you say he was close to the Emperor? Why'd he secretly kill the Emperor's wife?"

Lelouch's hands tightened even more. "It wasn't in secret."

There was moment of silence. Emeka asked, "What did you say?"

Lelouch sighed. "My father knew. He even agreed to it."

Now there was a real silence. After a while, Rafael whistled. "No wonder you don't like the bastard."


One Day Later
0800 Hours

"Lelouch, you need to see this!"

Lelouch looked towards his closed bedroom door. It was unusual for Emeka to yell. Forgoing his miniature camera/communicator, the prince put on his black and white watch. He made his way out the door, down to the source of the shout.

He entered the living room on the first floor. On one side was a flatscreen TV, where the news was on. Looking around, he found that all five members of his Guard had gathered, including Emeka.

He saw his African guard gesture to the monitor. Looking, he realized what the anchorwoman was saying.

"We repeat, Suzaku Kururugi, son of former Japanese Prime Minister Genbu Kururugi and an Honorary Britannian, has been arrested for the assassination of Clovis la Britannia."

After a few more comments, the screen changed to show Jeremiah, backed by Purists, making some speech or another praising Clovis and denouncing Honorary Britannians.

Lelouch hardly noticed what they were saying. That man must be a scapegoat for the Purist Faction. It made sense. By quickly pinning the blame on someone, they showed the 'capabilities' of the Purist Faction. The scapegoat could be easily believed, considering that Suzaku Kururugi was the son of Japan's former leader. And since he was an Honorary Britannian, it would aid the Purists in get ridding of the Honorary Britannian System, which that faction despised. The perfect scapegoat.

Jeremiah's intelligence isn't half bad, decided Lelouch. Everything's going exactly as planned

"So, what're we going to do?" Lei's question brought Lelouch from his musings.

He smiled. "Who said we're going to do anything?"

Rafael spat, "You wanna just leave him to die? You know he's innocent!"

Lelouch's smile turned to a smirk. There was something entertaining in provoking the hotheaded Rafael. Maybe this is how C.C. feels with us, he realized. "No, not at all, I just wanted to judge your feelings on the matter."

He glanced at the monitor. The anchorwoman was announcing that Suzaku would stand trial later that day. Lelouch turned and walked out the room. Over his shoulder, he said, "Get your Guard outfits on. It's about time you all got Sutherlands."


1500 hours

"Come at me!"

The Sutherland complied, bringing its submachine guns up towards Rafael's cockpit.

Just in time for Lelouch and Emeka to fire from the nearby windows. Trapped in the open street, the Sutherland couldn't find cover and was soon destroyed.

"That was too easy," joked Rafael, "I could take a hundred more."

"You just stood there. We did all the shooting." reminded Emeka.

"Both of you, stay focused." warned Lelouch, "We've got no idea where the other two ar-"

"Shit! When-"

Lelouch turned just in time to see an explosion from a window across the street. Where Emeka had been. He saw a flicker of purple through the window. An enemy Sutherland.

"Rafael, regroup!"

"Rog-" Rafael's knightmare burst in flames as a second enemy Sutherland shot from down the street.

Lelouch cursed, "Crap! When'd he get behind us?" The prince backed his Sutherland further inside the building he was in. Then he crouched, gun ready.

Suddenly, a purple mass flew through a glass window. Instinctively, Lelouch fired.

Only to find that it was the broken remains of one of his comrades.

He heard the whir of slash harkens. Before he could react, a real Sutherland burst through a glass window to his right. Lelouch opened fire, obliterating the knightmare frame before it touched the ground.

He didn't have time to reload. Instead, he heard the whirring of slash harkens behind him. Not having enough time, Lelouch jumped into a hole in the floor, dropping his Sutherland to the ground floor. Damn it, they've broken my tempo. To make matters worse, my gun's out of ammo.

After a while, a Sutherland dropped onto the same floor. However, Lelouch was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, the enemy knightmare's cockpit went black. Lelouch had jumped up one floor through the hole, only to ambush the attacker. He drove his blunt stun tonfas into the Sutherland's cockpit.

Then everything went black for Lelouch.

Lelouch wiped the sweat off his forehead. After a while, he opened his cockpit. "Nice try. Maybe next time, Minoru."

"How'd you know it was me?"

Lelouch smiled. "Your tactics are too obvious. You may be a very skilled fighter, but you don't think before charging into a mess."

He turned to a Chinese teenager with short black hair. "Nice tactic, using the building to sneak up on Emeka. Good idea throwing Emeka's cockpit, but you took too long to move afterwards."

The Chinese teenager smiled at the compliment. "Thanks. Though, the throwing thing was Hazel's idea."

"Interesting tactic." Lelouch turned to the Korean. "Out of curiosity, why did you use yourself as bait?"

Hazel pushed aside her long black hair. "If the king can't lead, how can he expect his subjects to follow?"

Lelouch smiled. "It seems our chess matches are having some effect, after all."

"So, now what?" asked Rafael. Quite frankly, the Brazilian was tired of being blown up. Half his job was to blow other things up.

Lelouch smiled. "Now we put this training to good use."


Shinjuku Ghetto
1900 hours

In a small part of Shinjuku ghetto, a number of terrorists sat in their hideout, watching the news through an old, small TV. On the monitor was a Japanese teenager in prisoner's garb being displayed and moved on an armored personnel carrier, which was escorted by four Sutherlands. The leading Sutherland was driven by Jeremiah Gottwald, the temporary viceroy of Area 11.

"Do you think that Suzaku kid really did it?"

Kallen glanced at Yoshida. "I've got no idea. My guess, though, is that it was that woman giving us orders."

"That's impossible." retorted Tamaki, "We all know they left us to die. 'Go to point L-15'. Right, so we can get slaughtered! I wouldn't be surprised if they were Brits."

"Well, I didn't hear you protest when she said it." noted Ohgi.

"Well…" Tamaki couldn't think of a reasonable excuse.

"That's because we thought they were trustworthy." explained Inoue, "They gave us small victories, only to betray us later."

"What I'm wondering," said Kallen aloud, "Is how they knew my name. Or that I was in the Glasgow."

Minami thought aloud, "Say, you don't suppose they interrogated Nagata to find out?

Yoshida answered, "I found Nagata's body in the subway. He was full of cuts, so it's not impossible."

"Monsters." summarized Inoue.

"Hey, wait a moment." Ohgi said, "These are all just assumptions. We can't say for sure that that's what happened."

"It doesn't matter anyways." Minami sighed. "There's no way to track three faceless voices."

Kallen's attention was on something else. "Hey, Ohgi, can you turn up the volume?"

"Why?" Then he saw that the procession had stopped. He turned on the sound.

"Something's happened! This is an unscheduled stop! Has something gone awry?"

After a few moments, the monitor changed to show the open bridge in front of the small procession. A white and blue car was heading towards the camera. "I-I don't believe it! It's Prince Clovis's personal transport!"

The small car kept coming closer and closer to the Japanese prisoner, coming to a stop a mere 100 meters away. At the front of procession, Jeremiah shouted indignantly, "You dare desecrate His Highness's transport? Come out of there!"

As if to comply, the top part of the car, which was covered by a Britannian flag, burst dramatically into flames. Behind the disintegrated flag stood a black figure.

Looking much like a hawk, or a bat, the man had a mask similar to those of Prince Lelouch's Guard, except that it was pointed on the bottom, with a half dozen spikes facing behind him on the back. His body was covered by a large black cape with a red underside.

"I am… Zero!" he proclaimed.

Immediately, the media went crazy. "Who is this man calling himself Zero? This masked man who's standing in front of a full military convoy! Is he a terrorist coming to Kururugi's rescue? Certainly not the wisest of such, if that is the case!"

Jeremiah smirked. What an idiot of a terrorist. "I've seen enough, Zero." The Purist Faction leader shot his gun in the air. In response, four Purist Sutherlands that had been on standby fell from their aerial transports, surrounding the masked man. "First thing's first, why don't you lose that mask?"

The masked man lifted his right hand as if to comply, but, instead, he continued to lift his hand above his head, snapping once with his black-gloved fingers.

At first, Jeremiah didn't understand what had happened. Then he heard the whirring of landspinners behind him. Looking back at the convoy, he managed to see Villetta's Sutherland get knocked to the ground. One of the three Purist Sutherlands that had accompanied him had apparently defected, next going after Kewell with stun tonfas.

Jeremiah retracted and closed his Sutherland cockpit, and he brought up his submachine gun to bear on the defector. However, the alarmed cries of the spectators reminded him of the danger of accidently killing them. Damn it, I can't use my gun on him. Hearing more sounds behind him, he turned back to the man that called himself Zero.

Of the four surrounding the terrorist, two 'Purists' had defected, quickly disabling the other two with their tonfas. Quickly, Jeremiah pointed his oversized gun at Zero, the apparent cause of confusion. "Order your men to stand down!"

"My men?" The masked man seemed amused. "I think you're mistaken. These are all your men. Fellow Purists, just like you."

"Like hell they are!" Jeremiah, not willing to believe that his comrades had betrayed them, "Just spit out what you want!"

The man chuckled ominously. "My request is simple. Release your scapegoat."

"Scapegoat?" Jeremiah was growing more nervous as time passed, and it showed in his voice. "What do you mean?"

"I think you know full well who I mean. Suzaku Kururugi, son of Prime Minister Genbu Kururugi. You thought that the public was foolish enough to believe that he'd killed Clovis." Zero tapped twice with his foot, and the car slowly approached Jeremiah's Sutherland. "If you don't want things to get complicated, I suggest you hand him over now."

"As if I could! This man is charged with regicide, charged with the murder of Prince Clovis! I can't just hand him over."

"Regicide?" Again came that low, ominous chuckle. "I think not. After all, it's impossible to kill a man twice."

"What are you saying?" Jeremiah was infinitely close to pulling the trigger, but even he wanted to hear what this man called Zero had to say.

"I'm saying that you're mistaken, Jeremiah." responded Zero,…

"For I am the one who killed Clovis!"

Again, the media went crazy. "Can it be? This man named Zero is claiming to be the real assassin! So what does that mean for the previous suspect, Suzaku Kururugi?"

"What the hell? He's the guy that killed Clovis?" Tamaki was incredulous. As were most of the terrorists. They'd narrowed the possibilities to either the mystery woman from Shinjuku or Suzaku. They hadn't even considered that someone else might have been responsible.

Back on the bridge, Jeremiah gritted his teeth. All his comrades had either defected or been disabled. The only way to avoid a complete disaster was… He pulled the trigger of his gun.

Nothing happened. He pulled on the trigger again.

Nothing.

A feeling of déjà vu appeared as his monitors went red. One system after another was breaking down, until Jeremiah couldn't do anything. He pressed the button to open his cockpit, but even that refused to work.

Starting to really panic, Jeremiah furiously tried to eject. However, his knightmare was no longer his. He could only stare in confusion as a single blue screen popped up at the bottom right of his center monitor, saying, 'Speakers Activated'. Then, to his surprise, he heard his own voice.

"Understood, we'll release him." After a moment of incomprehension, Jeremiah desperately started pulling levers, pressing buttons, anything that might work.

Instead, he felt his Sutherland move of its own accord, turning towards the prisoner. Speaking at the two guards next to the Japanese man, he heard a perfect replica of his voice order, "Release him!"

After a few moments' hesitation, the guards complied. He heard Villetta and Kewell shout over their speakers, asking what he was doing. He wished desperately that he could tell them what was really happening, but his knightmare refused to listen to him.

He could only watch as the rogue Sutherland that had taken out Villetta and Kewell opened its cockpit. Out came a second masked man. However, his outfit caused even more murmurs to immediately spread throughout the cloud.

It was the same as Kira's. The mask, the patterning on the clothing, the gold outlines… everything was an exact replica of the costume of Prince Lelouch's Guard's Vice-Captain. The only difference was that, where there had originally been a pure white was an equally pure black, and where there had originally been a bright blue was a mysterious purple.

The 'dark' Kira walked over to the freed Suzaku, escorting him to Zero's transport. Then, the onlookers could only watch as the other two rogue Sutherlands also opened, revealing a 'dark' Blackheart and a 'dark' Rogue. Without saying anything, the three guard lookalikes escorted the Honorary Britannian into the back of the car. If any onlookers had been inside, they'd have been able to see the 'dark' Rogue press a remote.

Almost instantly, gas spilled out from the sides of the bridge, as well as from all the Purist Sutherlands. Within Jeremiah's, he finally managed to eject, but the gas filling his cockpit was different from most, quickly put him to sleep. This was a blessing in disguise, considering the swarm of reporters that tried to surround his ejected cockpit.


2000 hours

"Congratulations, Mr. Kururugi. You're now free."

The Japanese man only stared at the masked terrorist known as Zero. They were in some abandoned warehouse, and the other masked soldiers had moved to guard the perimeter. "I'm not going to join you, if that's what you're thinking."

Personally, Zero had no intention of asking, but, out of curiosity, he asked, "Why is that? If you go back, you'll just be abused again."

Lelouch saw that his words had a big effect on the Japanese man. Not even the Honorary Britannian could avoid the truth in his words. No, especially the Honorary Britannian.

Lelouch saw the Japanese man tighten his hands into fists. "That may be true," Lelouch could tell the coming words had been well rehearsed. "That may be true, but I can't agree with terrorism. Nothing good will come from endangering the innocent!"

Zero cocked his head. "But who said anything about terrorism? I'm not a terrorist, but a knight. A knight for justice. Notice, I didn't endanger a single civilian life today. Rather, the ones who endanger the innocent are people like Clovis, who uncaringly ordered the massacre of innocent civilians."

Even through his mask, Lelouch could see that his words were having effect. But, he had no use for a single Honorary Britannian. With a twirl of his cape, Zero walked away. "I'm not really asking you to join me, but I am asking you to consider who is truly in the wrong."

With that, Lelouch called his guards away, leaving Suzaku to consider what he'd said.


Area 11 Administrative Building
One Day Later
1000 hours

"Suzaku Kururugi, you have been hereby cleared as a suspect to regicide. You are free to go."

After hearing that, Suzaku walked out the building in a daze. He was free. Until just now, he'd resigned himself to being executed, mainly because he didn't believe anything could be done about it. Maybe Zero was right…

"Watch out!"

Suzaku comes to his senses just in time to catch a falling Britannian woman. From where, he could only guess.

His first guess was that the woman would yell at him for touching her. That's how almost all Britannian men, women, and children acted.

To his surprise, the woman shakes her bright pink hair out of her eyes to smile. "Thank you."


Unknown Area
1300 hours

"Are you sure, Clovis?" Emperor Charles zi Britannia was standing on a raised stone platform, seemingly without walls or supports.

Another, younger voice spoke out, "That's quite interesting, Clovis."

"Brother!" The Emperor turned around in surprise. "I-I didn't know you were here."

Standing on the other side of the platform was someone who couldn't have been older than ten, based on his face and frame. "What difference does it make, Charles?" The boy smiled, "You know what this means…"

The Emperor regained his composure. "Hmph. It doesn't have to be him. Someone could have faked his voice."

"But, dear Charles," the boy walked closer. "Your own son is telling us that Lelouch was responsible for his death. I think we oughta trust him."

The Emperor narrowed his eyes. "You're just itching to kill off one of Marianne's offspring, aren't you?"

The boy shrugged. "It doesn't matter whether they live or die, as long as the plan succeeds. I just think they're making you grow soft."

"You said the same thing about Marianne." noted the elderly man.

The boy seemed to consider. "Then, how about we make things a bit more interesting?"

The Emperor narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

The boy walked closer. "Simple. I'll send one of my men to kill him." Seeing his brother's expression, the boy adds, "BUT, if that man fails, I'll let you kill him anyway you choose." The boy stopped a mere few inches from the Emperor. "It's certainly much better for you than just having me send assassin after assassin."

"One of your men?" Suspicion filled the Emperor's voice. "As in a geass user?"

"That's correct."

"That's absurd. From what Clovis is saying, Lelouch barely knows about C.C. He might not even have geass."

The boy raised his brows. "So you admit that it's Lelouch who killed Clovis?"

After a while, the Emperor turns to look beyond the platform, away from his brother. "…Fine, I accept your deal."

The boy smiled. "No need to be so solemn, Charles. It's not like I'm giving you geass a second time."

Author's Notes: Ha! Bet most of you forgot that last scene from the canon, :P lol, jkjk. But, I know I didn't remember Charles talking to the dead Clovis. And, looking at other Prince Lelouch fanfics, I'm guessing not many others did either, lol.

To help anybody who's having trouble remembering, it's from the beginning of episode 6, before the opening. A Geass Order official tells Charles about receiving Clovis's remains, and Charles responds by saying he'd been talking to Clovis in the World of C, presumably about Lelouch murdering him… Anyways, if you're memory's bad like mine and you forgot, you might want to rewatch it to remember. In the anime, it was a short, really unimportant scene, but in a situation where Lelouch is right where the Emperor and V.V. can get him…

Anyways, Lelouch does not have geass yet, in case anybody forgot.

Also, since this fanfic focuses on Lelouch, I hope you'll understand that I'm not going to show Suzaku and Euphie's date in detail, primarily because most of it'll be the same.

Again, sorry if you think it's a bit short, but my writing time is being slowly shortened, making it harder to make good, long chaps. I'm actually not sure when I'll be forced to stop due to time constraints. For all I know, this could be my last chap for a few months, tho I'm pretty sure I'll squeeze at least one more in.

On a side note, by this time, how many readers guessed (correctly) that Rafael was partly based off Tamaki? I loved that idiot enough to make an oc off him in the same anime, lol ^^ Of course, they aren't identical, but Tamaki was the base for most of Rafael's personality.