A/N: By the way, along with the main story, I'm going to be doing 'side chapters' which will just be kind of one shot mini stories that happened at some point, but not at a specific point in time. If you have any requests, message me or put it in a review. Like if you want to know a little bit more about Rai's past, or if you want to see something happen that's not really an important part of the story or whatever.
The bell was ringing. Echoing throughout the entire campus as Rai walked to class with Lelouch. Rai was still on edge, and nothing Lelouch could say would make Rai relax.
I know that Mao is still alive, but I can't tell Lelouch without him suspecting something. He reluctantly trusts me now as it is. I'm sure he still believes that I might rat on him at any moment. Whatever happens, I can't let Lelouch know that where I come from, he's just a character in a show. Although I know he can be a good guy…I also know that he'll use me given the chance if it will help him reach his goals. But Mao's going to kidnap Nunnally. I think that he actually has already done it. Crap, what am I going to do? Since I've decided not to play safe anymore, and actually interfere with the story a bit-I still need to be careful. I know only what happens if it has nothing to do with me. Even if I want to change everything, I can't just going around and do whatever I want. There is a possibility that I could make things worse. Damn, it's like walking a tight rope for the first time, and there's a bed of spike beneath you instead of a net. Rai was so caught up in his moping that he didn't see Suzaku run up to them and missed part of the conversation Lelouch and Suzaku were having.
"Hey I thought you were in Engineering?" Lelouch asked Suzaku. Rai felt puzzled by this. Suzaku had told the others that he was in Engineering, so why did he tell Rai about the Lancelot on the day of the funeral? Lelouch was Suzaku's best friend, if anyone Lelouch should've been the one Suzaku would tell that to.
"Uh-We're shorthanded so they move me around." Suzaku explained. Rai tried not to frown at the lie.
They're such close friends that they're practically like brothers…and yet they keep so many secrets from each other. Rai had to fight the sad look that was threatening to appear.
"Still, how about dropping by for dinner more often? Nunnally misses you. Are you free this evening?" Lelouch asked. Rai shifted his weight from one foot to the other nervously. He really didn't want to be late for class, and all the other students were hurrying past the three boys.
"Yeah I could come tonight, but are you sure it's okay? I don't want to cause any one-AH!?" Suzaku finished his sentence with a yell of surprise when Rivalz nearly ran him over with his motorbike when he came screeching to a stop. Suzaku held his school bag in front of him like it was going to protect him from Rivalz's bike. Rai had to jump out of the way so he didn't get hit, but he bumped into Lelouch.
"Hey! Lelouch!" Rivalz's voice was several octaves too high for Rai's liking when Rivalz scrambled off the bike.
"What's wrong?" Lelouch asked, not seeming remotely surprised. There were a few people who stopped and stared at the display that Rivalz was making of himself. Rai gave them an apologetic smile. Why did he always hang out with people like this? Rai himself didn't like to make much noise, but everyone else around him seemed to.
"I heard the President's out doing a blind date-thing again!" Rivalz spoke breathlessly.
"Yeah, today." Lelouch answered.
"Today?!" Rivalz screamed. Rai took a step away from the overly dramatic boy. "Why didn't you tell me out it?!" Rivalz demanded angrily as he grabbed the front of Lelouch's shirt. Lelouch didn't seem remotely bothered by it. He just leaned back a bit from Rivalz.
"Because it'd make you cry." Lelouch told him.
"Boys don't cry!" Rivalz growled.
"It's okay, I didn't know about it either." Suzaku sighed. Rai smiled reassuringly at him. Rivalz one the other hand turned his wrath to Suzaku.
"Don't your emo routine!" Rivalz snapped.
"Emo?" Suzaku wondered. Rai couldn't help but laugh at the puppy-like confused look on Suzaku's face.
"I guess compassion is not in fashion these days." Lelouch sighed. "So anyways, are we on for dinner tonight with Nunnally?" Lelouch asked Suzaku.
"Sure." Suzaku agreed. Lelouch suddenly took off into a run. "What about school?!" Suzaku reminded him.
"Don't worry I'll be right back, I'm just going to go tell her about it." Lelouch explained over his shoulder.
"My life is over, and he's worried about dinner!" Rivalz complained, sinking to the ground. Rai patted him shyly on the back.
"There, there. You'll find a girl I'm sure…eventually." Rai told Rivalz.
"Is that supposed to be comforting?" Rivalz asked, pouting up at Rai.
"Not really." Rai smiled cheerfully as he said it.
"Gee, thanks." Rivalz muttered crankily. Both Suzaku and Rai laughed, and then the three of them went to class.
"A fight? Shirley and Lelouch?" Suzaku asked Rivalz, looking over his shoulder. He was crouching on the ground, holding out a spoon filled with some type of food and feeding it to Arthur. Kallen was sitting on her knees in front of Suzaku, with Arthur sitting right next to her and eyeing the spoon with his tail swishing against the carpet. Rivalz and Nina were sitting across from each other at the meeting table, eating pizza. Rai was sitting with his back against the book shelves, playing a hand held game that Rivalz let him borrow but listening as well.
"Right," Rivalz confirmed. "She's pretending she doesn't know him and the President said we're supposed to play along." Rivalz explained. "Oh right-what's up with her blind date?!" Rivalz bemoaned. Rai stood up and nicked a piece of pizza while no one was looking, and then sat back against the book shelves.
"Never mind that," Suzaku redirected the conversation. "If Shirley and Lelouch are fighting-." Suzaku sounded worried.
"Leave them alone, it's just a little lovers' spat, that's all." Kallen interrupted him calmly. Suzaku looked to her.
"But you-." He tried to say something.
"Don't think that way. I've got nothing to do with him." Kallen said forcefully, looking at Arthur instead of Suzaku as she spoke.
"So he hasn't taken the plunge yet, huh?" Rivalz inquired. He was now resting with his head on the table and his arms out like a pillow.
"Plunge?" Nina asked.
"Well Lelouch with theories but he's not so good with the real thing." Rivalz elaborated.
"R-real thing?" Rai was sure Nina was blushing from the way she talked.
"I mean he doesn't have 'experience'." Rivalz said. Nina looked away, embarrassed about something.
"'Experience'?" she asked.
They suddenly all heard Suzaku shout in pain. Rivalz sat up straighter and they looked to see Arthur had bitten Suzaku…again. Arthur was growling somewhat.
"What's the matter, you don't like your food?" Kallen asked Arthur.
"Arthur, why do you always do this?" Suzaku whined slightly. Rai put down his game and reached out to Arthur. Arthur eyed Rai for a moment, and then released his hold on Suzaku and walked lazily over to Rai. Rai placed Arthur on his lap and scratched behind both of the cat's ears. Suzaku pouted somewhat at Rai when they heard Arthur purring. "You need to teach me how to do that." Suzaku told Rai.
Rai simply smiled at Suzaku. Then the door to the meeting room slid open. Lelouch entered. He was completely out of breath and wearing a headset for his phone.
"Hey Lelouch, what happened to you and Shirley huh?" Rivalz asked as he waved. Lelouch gave him a funny, distracted look.
"Huh? What?" Lelouch asked. His eyes scanned the room.
"Just give her some flowers." Rivalz advised.
"And what about your classes? You better go-." Suzaku was about to scold Lelouch, but then he saw the panicked look on Lelouch's face.
"Excuse me." Lelouch turned to leave. "Oh, and I'll talk to you later about dinner." Lelouch told Suzaku. He exited the room quickly. Suzaku and Rai shared a concerned look. Rai nodded and then handed Arthur to Kallen.
"You think he's going gambling again, huh Arthur?" Kallen asked the cat. Arthur meowed in reply. Suzaku and Rai both stood up and followed Lelouch out of the room. They found Lelouch standing on the middle landing of a staircase, frowning at a photograph and in deep thought.
"Lelouch." Suzaku called out. Lelouch gasped as he saw Suzaku and Rai coming up the stairs towards him. His fingers slipped on the photo and it dropped to the ground. Suzaku and Rai saw it before Lelouch could pick it up. "That's…" Suzaku whispered. Suzaku frowned darkly. "I thought so, something's happened to Nunnally." Suzaku summarized.
Lelouch began walking away, and Suzaku and Rai followed him. "Who kidnapped Nunnally? It can't be a Britannian, or someone from the royal family?" Suzaku guessed.
"No. This has nothing to do with our bloodline." Lelouch told him. "Just a psychopath who wants to keep a girl all to himself…and Rai." Lelouch explained, glancing at Rai. Rai refused to answer when Suzaku tried to ask about it, simply mumbling darkly under his breath about bad luck and libraries not having enough escape routes. They searched all over the school grounds.
"So he's threatening you?" Suzaku inquired.
"Yes, an investigation could reveal who we are, that's why…I can't go to the army or the police." Lelouch said. He knelt to the ground, resting for a moment. Lelouch stared into nothing, thinking.
"Then there's no choice, we'll have do it on our own." Suzaku paused for a moment when he thought of something. "This isn't about your gambling though, is it-?"
"It has nothing to do with that." Lelouch cut him off.
"Okay…Do you have any leads?" Suzaku asked.
"Just this photo. I know that he's somewhere very close by watching me." Lelouch said. He suddenly gasped. "And now that I think of it I heard the sound of running water to!" Lelouch realized.
"Water?" Suzaku wondered.
"Where in the school would there be running water like that in the background?" Rai asked. He hated this, he already knew, but he couldn't tell Lelouch and Suzaku or else they might get curious as to how he figured it out so quickly especially since he had never been near the place where Mao was hiding Nunnally.
"The Circulation System!" Suzaku said. Lelouch stood up and the three of them practically ran to the building where the Circulation System was under.
They went inside and quickly found an elevator. "Something's still off though," Lelouch used his keycard to open the elevator.
"What?" Lelouch asked. There was a beeping sound as the machine scanned Lelouch's keycard.
"Normally you'd honed in on that." Suzaku pointed out. Lelouch posture went rigid for a moment.
"It's harder to stay cool and think things through if you're loved ones are at stake." Rai muttered. Lelouch made a frustrated noise as he pocketed his keycard.
"What is it?" Suzaku asked.
"He changed the codes. We'll have to hack into the system." Lelouch said, already beginning to fiddle with the keys on the pad.
"But that against school rules." Suzaku argued. Rai rolled his eyes.
"And I've been called a boy scout." Rai teased. Suzaku and Lelouch had no clue what Rai was talking about, so they ignored what he said.
"I'll change them back later." Lelouch dismissively said.
"Then let me do it." Suzaku offered.
"Too late," Lelouch told him as the elevator doors finally opened. "I got it." They entered the elevator.
"That was fast…" Suzaku frowned. The monitor in the elevator pinged on and Lelouch worked on it. "You're a little too good at that." Suzaku scolded.
"The Student Counsel has partial access to these areas." Lelouch explained. The elevator descended.
"Lelouch I see, this is how you've been getting off campus isn't it? Your little 'escape route'." Suzaku didn't look pleased.
"Huh? Uh yeah, sometimes." Lelouch mumbled. There was a tense silence.
"Don't get too mad at him Suzaku. I know how to do that as well…granted Lelouch was the one who taught me, but whatever." Rai shrugged. This simply made Suzaku scowl lightly at Lelouch.
"You're a bad influence." Suzaku accused. Lelouch laughed a bit, but it was hollow.
The elevator came to a stop and they hid on either side of the door, with Lelouch and Rai on one side and Suzaku on the other.
"How does it look?" Lelouch asked as he tried to look out without actually sticking his head out. Suzaku was using the reflection off his cell phone to see out the doorway.
"You were right, the door's guarded. There's a machine gun linked to the security camera." Suzaku reported.
"Where'd the guy get a machine gun? Don't they run background checks on people before they let them buy weaponry?" Rai grumbled moodily. The Black Knights found it easily to buy weapons so the answer was already obvious.
"The lag on these systems is timed .05 seconds." Suzaku said. He pocketed his cell phone.
"That means we can't access it this way. We'll have to head back up and disable them man-?!" Lelouch was trying to come up with a plan, but any plan he could've thought of was shot to hell as Suzaku suddenly sprinted out of the elevator without warning. "Wait!" Lelouch shouted. Rai could hear the machinegun fire as it targeted Suzaku. Rai and Lelouch peaked out the door and saw Suzaku evade the shots, run up a wall, and kick the machinegun, destroying it. Suzaku landed gracefully on the ground.
"Are you a soldier or a ninja?!" Rai asked him.
"Of all the reckless moves…" Lelouch muttered.
"Come one, let's go." Suzaku said, turning back to look at the other two. "Nunnally's waiting for us."
They raced down the hall. Suzaku in front, Rai in the middle, and Lelouch was lagging behind.
"Nunnally!" The three of them shouted.
"Lelouch, Suzaku…and Rai?" Nunnally asked. "Is that you?"
"I'm so sorry!" Lelouch apologized.
"Wait!" Suzaku warned Lelouch.
"I'll cut you loose!" Lelouch told Nunnally.
"Wait!" Suzaku and Rai repeated.
"Look up there." Suzaku pointed.
That's when they saw the bomb.
"A bomb." Lelouch muttered gravely. His headset turned on and he listened to it for a moment. When the other person hanged up he let out a short growl.
"Nunnally, we're going to defuse the bomb." Suzaku told the girl. He then smiled kindly at her even though she couldn't see it. "It's okay, don't worry. Lelouch and I can do anything together, you know that."
"That's right." Nunnally agreed, smiling as well. Lelouch studied the bomb.
"It's motion sensitive. Solenoid inside supplies the energy that keeps it constantly moving. If an external force interferes with the motion, then the bomb…" Lelouch observed.
"Explodes." Suzaku and Rai finished at the same time.
"Moving Nunnally even an inch will trigger it. That's the way it's set up." Suzaku said, also watching the bomb. Rai was pacing back and forth behind them, since he couldn't do anything to help. He knew nothing about bombs…Okay that was a lie, but they didn't need to know that.
"Can you calculate its range?" Lelouch asked Suzaku.
"It would wipe out everything within five or six hundred meters. Minimum." Suzaku answered. There was a silence, with the creaking of the bomb swinging over Nunnally being the only noise for a few seconds. "Do you think you could disarm it?" Suzaku asked.
"Theoretically. The power line to the detonator would need to be severed. Since he's not a pro at this, I'm sure I could figure out which lines are dummies. Still, we need to find another way to do it." Lelouch said.
"Why? If we chose the right one?" Suzaku questioned.
"Because you'd have to cut the line without disrupting the motion." Lelouch explained. "Which is impossible." Rai rolled his eyes, but it was unseen by the other two boys. With Lelouch and Suzaku around, nothing was impossible. If they had joined forces in the very beginning of the series, Lelouch would've taken over everything with ease.
"I'll do it." Suzaku confidently volunteered. "There's no choice."
"No, Suzaku! We don't have enough information to pull it off!" Lelouch refused.
"There's a time limit here! We can't afford to play it safe! As for information, it's starring you right in the face. I'm a soldier Lelouch, can you use that information?" Suzaku argued. Lelouch didn't say anything at first.
Then he came up with a plan.
Rai walked next to Lelouch. They had left Suzaku with Nunnally and headed to the school's church. That's where Mao was hiding.
They entered and saw Mao. His arms were bandaged up and one was in a cast. He was wearing his brown boots and gloves, as well as his sunglasses, headphones, a black hat and a lavender shirt with the same color pants. He stood when he saw the two boys.
"Well if it isn't Casanova and Little Rai!" Mao greeted. Lelouch's face was neutral, but Rai scowled at Mao's nickname for him.
"Stop calling me that!" Rai demanded. Mao ignored what he said and began clapping as Lelouch and Rai walked closer.
"No weapons, no strategy, you didn't defuse the bomb, didn't deploy the Black Knights, or your friend." Mao listed off as he kept clapping. "What's wrong Lulu?" He finally stopped clapping.
"I'm not explaining anything to you." Lelouch said. "The final game, is it ready?"
Mao nodded with a serious frown.
"Let's put on end to this." Mao said, pulling off a cloth that was covering the table behind him. "With your specialty."
There was a chess game laid out as well as a scale. Lelouch stood on one side of the game board, with Mao on the other. Rai sat down in the front pew and watched quietly. Mao began explaining what he was planning. "You see, the scale is the bomb's detonator and its cancelation switch." He picked up a black piece. "The chess pieces we capture will go here." He demonstrated by putting the piece on the side of the scale next to him. The meter above the scale had a black arrow, which was now leaning to Mao's side instead of being in the middle. "If the needle swings all the way towards me, the bomb goes off. "If it swings towards you, the bomb will be disarmed. In short, if you win the game your sister's life will be saved."
"Your mind is twisted." Lelouch growled at Mao. "No wonder C.C. left you."
"Provoking me won't work. I can read your thoughts, so I know what you're trying to do." Mao reminded Lelouch. "And don't bother thinking that Rai could simply run up and press down on your side of the scale. Because if he even so much as twitches from the position he's in right now, I'll set off the bomb." Mao warned, smiling at Rai when he said the last part. The game started.
Rai hated having to sit still; it wasn't in his nature to not move around. But he didn't even scratch his (now very itchy) nose.
Lelouch was losing even though the game had just barely begun. Mao let another piece clank into his side of the scale. "I'm afraid you're not the type of person who can keep their mind empty." Mao told Lelouch. "There's a part of you that's a critic, constantly watching your own moves. And there's another part that's an observer, watching the critic-watching you. You're that kind of person." Mao chuckled after he spoke. "By I know all your thoughts so I'm always a step ahead. You can't win." Mao captured yet another one of Lelouch's pieces.
"And you're the type of person that likes to hear him self talk. Do you ever find yourself answering back? Because Mao, you seem like the person who argues with himself…and loses." Rai snarled.
Mao actually gave Rai a fierce look because of that.
"Hush Little Rai, there's no need to get moody." There was a bit of a dark edge on his voice as Mao spoke. Mao dropped another piece onto the scale. Lelouch glanced from the board to the scale and then made a frustrated noise.
Mao did his annoying clapping thing again "Bravo! You're plan is to think of seven things at once to confuse me and trip me up!" Mao said, very amused with Lelouch. Lelouch moved one of his pieces. "But you see: if I focus my Geass directly on you it's easily to tell which one is your true thought." Lelouch gritted his teeth at this proclamation. Mao took another piece. Lelouch glowered at him. "Aw, your last plan is failing as well. You underestimated me." Mao tossed the piece up into the air and then caught it. "That's why your sister is…" He tossed the piece onto the scale. It made a sharp rattling noise as it landed.
The arrow on the scale was almost completely pointing to Mao's side. Lelouch watched it, frightened. Mao smirked at Lelouch's panicked expression. "'What do I do? I'm out of strategies! I can't call for back up as long as Nunnally's being held hostage!'" Mao quoted what Lelouch was thinking as he pulled something out of his pocket. He dropped a coin on the ground, which caused Lelouch to gasp, thinking it was another chess piece on the scale. "Sorry, sorry." Mao fake apologized. "I dropped it." He picked up the coin and placed it in his pocket.
Lelouch gasped again. Mao clapped once. Lelouch's gaze went back to the board. "Your turn, better hurry." Mao taunted. Lelouch reached out a hand to the board. "Lookie, lookie, time's running out. Your little sister's not going to make it."
There was a pause as Lelouch lightly touched one of his pieces. "Ah, is that the right move?" Lelouch looked up at Mao. "Are you sure you want to do that?" Lelouch had the appearance of a small, terrified child who was lost. He looked to the ground.
"Isn't this enough?" Lelouch asked quietly.
"Huh?" Mao asked.
"Please stop it, Mao." Lelouch begged in a soft voice.
"I can't hear you very well." Even if Rai couldn't see it, Rai would have definitely heard the smug smirk in Mao's voice.
"You've got everything you wanted, let Nunnally go!" Lelouch shouted, looking imploringly at Mao. Mao frowned for a moment.
"Aw?" Mao pouted, tilting his head to the side.
"I admit it," Lelouch whispered, looking sideways at the ground. "You have beaten me!" he sounded like he was on the verge of tears. Mao chuckled, which built up into a flat out fit of laughter as he clapped. He pointed with both hands together at Lelouch.
"Very well said, you finally speaking the thoughts from the deepest part of your soul! Huh?!" Mao exclaimed. Lelouch was biting his lower lip and quivering as Mao spoke. "That feels great! Fantastic! ...but no," Mao picked up one of his own pieces, making Lelouch gasp at him.
"Mao don't, please!" Rai pleaded. Mao glanced at Rai before placing the piece down somewhere else on the board.
"This is…" Mao paused. Lelouch looked horrified at Mao. "Checkmate." Mao picked up Lelouch's king, and tossed it onto his scale.
"Noooo!" Lelouch howled, sounding like a wounded animal. "…Nunnally…" Lelouch whispered as he fell backwards. He sat on the floor and stared up at the ceiling. Rai yelled out as well, running up to Mao, ready to attack him. Mao simply grabbed both of Rai's wrists with one hand and held the smaller male to him. Mao pulled out a small monitor. "Hm, let me see if she's burst into little pieces." He looked at the screen and let out a noise of surprise.
Mao looked more closely at the monitor while adjusting his grip on Rai so that his arm was around Rai's waist and pinning Rai's arms to his sides. He pressed the zoom on the monitor. Rai also looked and saw Nunnally was fine. "What?! Why is she…?!" Mao asked.
"Lelouch, she's okay!" Rai told him. Lelouch sighed in wonderful relief.
The noise of glass breaking flooded the church as someone jumped in through the window. Mao took a step back, holding Rai even tighter.
"How did you?! You kept me focused on you!" Mao snarled the accusation at Lelouch. Suzaku landed on his feet and turn immediately to Mao. Mao pulled out a gun, but Rai kicked him in the knee cap as hard as he could, causing Mao to let go of him and drop the gun. The moment Rai got away Suzaku swung his fist at Mao and connected. Mao's headphones and sunglasses flew off as he was hit. He landed on the ground. Rai picked up Mao's gun and trained it on the mind reader.
As Mao sat up, Suzaku stared down at him coldly.
"I am Warrant Officer Suzaku Kururugi of the Britannian Military. And you are under arrest!" Suzaku said. Although his tone was even, there was an underlying anger in it.
"Suzaku…" Lelouch whispered in surprise. He was now standing
"You disarmed the bomb?" Mao asked in disbelief. "Impossible! You'd have matched you speed to the pendulum!"
"That's right." Suzaku said. "After Lelouch showed me with line to cut."
"I showed you?" Lelouch asked in a low voice. Suzaku looked back at him.
"What are you saying?" Suzaku asked. He went back to glaring at Mao. "It was your plan. Cut the line then bust in here when I heard you scream." Rai snickered at this.
"My plan?" Lelouch wondered. His eyes widened and then he pulled something out of his pocket. It was his cell phone, which had a reflective surface like a mirror. Lelouch looked far more confident now. "Mao, it seems it's my checkmate." Lelouch told Mao. Mao stood up slowly, and Suzaku got into a fighting stance as he did.
"Lelouch, don't tell me that you-." Mao growled. Lelouch smirked at him, but didn't say anything. However, he was thinking something. "That's ridiculous!" Mao gasped. Suzaku grabbed his arm. "You bet everything on one friend?! What if he failed you?" Suzaku pulled out his own cell phone.
"Sayoko, everything's fine now. Right. Go ahead." Suzaku spoke into the phone. On the forgotten monitor lying on the floor, the maid that always helped out with Nunnally appeared and untied Nunnally.
"You think you've beat me huh?" Mao hissed, taking a step towards Lelouch. Suzaku stopped him from getting closer.
"Stop it!" Suzaku ordered. Mao struggled.
"Get your hands off me, father killer!" Mao snarled. Suzaku let out a gasp and stared at Mao in terror. "You killed your own father seven years ago." Mao scoffed. "He called for do or die resistance, and you thought stopping him would end the war. What a childish idea! The fact is, you're a murderer!"
"That's not true!" Suzaku denied. "I just-I…"
"How lucky for you that no one ever found out, all the adults lied to protect you." Mao sneered.
"But his suicide was a protest against the military action." Lelouch said.
"All a big fat lie, all of it." Mao told Lelouch.
"A lie…" Lelouch whispered.
"I didn't have any choice!" Suzaku argued, looking at Lelouch. "If I didn't, Japan would've-."
"That's how you justify it in retrospect?" Mao butted in. "Well it explains your death wish!" Suzaku gasped. "You want to save people's lives?" Mao looked at Suzaku's hand on his arm. "It's your own wretched soul you're trying to save! That's why you're always charging into danger. Placing your self on the edge of death!" Suzaku started to hyperventilate, and let out a pained howl as he fell to his knees before Mao. "You're no hero; you're just trying to wash the blood off your hands!"
"Noooo…" Suzaku sobbed.
"A little brat begging to be punished!" Mao pried Suzaku's hand off his arm as he sneered this.
"Mao!" Lelouch growled in a voice that was almost inhuman. Mao looked to the young prince. He gasped and let go of Suzaku's hand. "Never speak again!" Lelouch used Geass on Mao.
"No!" Mao tried to cover his eyes, but it was too late. Rai rushed to Suzaku as Mao tried to speak, but couldn't. He was making odd choking-like sounds instead. Lelouch ran past Rai and Suzaku and tried to punch Mao. Mao dodged out of the way and ran for the exit.
"Mao!" Lelouch shouted. Rai turned from Suzaku, and in his kneeling position, fired the gun. It hit Mao in the shoulder.
Mao stumbled out into the daylight.
C.C. was standing in front of the church, a gun in her hand. She had a sorrowful look on her face.
"I did love you, Mao." She told Mao. Mao tried to talk again as he ran towards C.C. "Mao, I want you to go and wait for me. In 'C's' world. C.C. pressed the gun, which had a silencer on it, to Mao's neck. She shot him. Mao fell to the ground after making a strangled noise.
The door slid shut again.
Lelouch walked away from the altar, and then turned around to look at Suzaku.
Suzaku was still on his hands and knees, staring at the ground. Without thinking Rai pulled Suzaku into a hug, with Suzaku's head resting against his chest. He rested his chin on the top of Suzaku's head as he felt the other boy begin to shake. Tremors rattled Suzaku's body as he pressed against Rai.
"I just…I just…" Suzaku's voice was hoarse as he whispered. His hands gripped the front of Rai's uniform.
No one said anything for a long time.