There was something poking him. Repeatedly.
Groaning, Lelouch tried to roll away from it.
In what was probably the archetypal injustice of the universe, it came back.
Mumbling an incoherent curse, he tried to swat the offending digit away, but his arm impacted only air. With a huff, he gave up, sinking more deeply into his pillow.
The poking resumed on his other side, and Lelouch was finally forced to open his eyes in order to glare malevolently.
"You idiot, Suzaku, let me sleep!"
"Good! You're finally awake!" his best friend responded, completely incongruously. Suzaku's smile was far too happy for whatever unholy hour of the morning it must be, for Lelouch to feel so tired. (This being a very private interior suite, there were, unfortunately, no windows to judge the time by, and Suzaku was blocking his view of the clock.) "What's the last thing you remember, Lelouch?"
Lelouch frowned, fishing around for whatever felt most recent. Cornelia didn't stab me again, did she? He sat up slowly as he tried to recall, but he didn't feel any obvious protests from his body. His head was a bit fuzzy, though...
"My Code! I was trying to use it to project memories!" He looked at Suzaku hesitantly. "Did it work?"
"Um, not unless the memories you were trying to project were of yourself suddenly falling unconscious."
"Yes, it was quite a dramatic success, if the person you were trying to overwhelm was yourself," C.C. added, from where she was lounging against the door frame.
He scowled in response to her sarcasm. "I wasn't trying to flood him. I just wanted to carefully show Suzaku a few select scenes."
"I told you that sort of control is incredibly hard to achieve, Lelouch," C.C. scolded him. "You should have spent the time mastering the focusing techniques I showed you, rather than trying to charge straight into this. I had the Code for centuries before I was able to project images at will, and even at my best, I couldn't do it very specifically. What you want to do could take a millennium to learn."
"I don't have that long," he told her with a frown.
"Of course you do. You have forever," she replied flatly.
"I know I do, but Euphy..." He trailed off, not wanting to think about what his failure would mean.
"You were thinking that you could use your Code to project memories of things she forgot?" Suzaku asked, apparently only just catching on.
"Of course. Why did you think I was suddenly so insistent to try this out, even though C.C. told me not to?" Lelouch asked, glad to find that he could stand up without any dizziness.
Suzaku winced, looking contrite. "I thought you were just eager to test out your power. I'm sorry, Lelouch."
"There's no point apologizing when he brought this on himself," C.C. told him. "You've always been so stubborn about these things, Lelouch."
"It's not like you spent your first few centuries completely focused on learning to project memories," he objected. Besides, I'm clearly much smarter than C.C., and mental ability has to count for something, right? "Maybe there's some way to speed up the process, or maybe there's another way to clear the conditions." There has to be something I can do to help Euphy, and I'm going to keep trying until I find it.
"C.C., are you even sure Lelouch's Code works right?" Suzaku asked. "I mean, it seems to take him a really long time to heal. Could it be that because the contact was so minimal during the transference, things didn't work right?"
"Yes, that's something I want to know, too, C.C.," Lelouch seconded. "Is a Code transfer truly an atomic operation? I mean, effects like healing, sigil manifestation, cancellation of the Geass that came from the Code, psychic memory projection—do you get every one of those effects to their full potential, all at once?"
"If you end up with one ability, then you end up with them all, Lelouch, and it is up to you to develop them."
"I'm not going to let you off so easily, with such a vague statement again," Lelouch said, remembering how she had mislead him about the placement of the Geass sigil. "The transfer may eventually either totally complete or not, but that doesn't tell me whether there could be some point, initially, where only part of the effects of the Code have been fully transferred."
C.C. frowned. "You always ask such difficult questions, Lelouch. I can tell you that I have no remaining abilities now. Since the powers of a Code are eternal and cannot be destroyed, if I don't have them, then I know you do. Whether you got the full potential of the healing ability at the same moment as you became able to manifest the sigil..." C.C. shrugged. "I don't know the order, if there is one, and it doesn't matter, anyway. You have it all now."
"Are you really sure?" Suzaku asked.
C.C. sighed. "The longer something has had to make an impression, the better you remember it, right? Someone who has a Code is linked to the collective unconscious, and therefore making an impression. Someone with a fully developed Geass is making an impression. But Lelouch only recently took on the Code, and his Geass was only fully developed for a few months before that. It's true that preemptively preparing and focusing can speed certain abilities, like healing or memory projection, but it can't make up for years and years of experience."
"But I need to find some way to make this memory transfer work quickly," he insisted, frustrated.
"Lelouch, if you try to force open the gates of your memories without knowing how to do it correctly, you may end up locking those gates, instead."
"Locking?" Suzaku asked worriedly.
"She means that I could accidentally seal away my own memories. But it's unlikely, Suzaku."
C.C. gave him a disapproving look, undermining the credibility of his calm dismissal. "You're not constantly accessing all your memories all the time; most of the time most of the gates are closed. It's easier to simply lock a closed gate than it is to pull it open so that anyone could wander in. Especially for someone as secretive as you, Lelouch, forgetting will be easier than projecting."
"But forgetting is the whole problem in the first place, isn't it? I have to find some way to make the reverse happen."
"If you're going to continue with this despite my warnings and without even learning how to focus your powers correctly, then at least have a safety measure in place."
"Safety measure?" Suzaku prompted, and Lelouch shot her an annoyed look, already seeing the most likely end to this conversation and not liking it one bit.
C.C. smiled deviously. "Because you two share a very special bond—"
"I'll handle the explanation, C.C.," he told her, before she could say anything too embarrassing. "What she's actually referring to, Suzaku, is the nature of our Contract, of Code and Geass. As you know, a Code is linked to the entire collective unconscious of humanity. My Code also contains a complete backup description of everything that I am: my body, my personality and memories. Theoretically, I should be able to use the part of my Code that describes my memories to project them into the part of any mind that is connected to the collective unconscious."
"As for how your Geass fits in, think about it this way: in terms of atoms and molecules, you're made up of the same basic building blocks as me, but in a slightly different physical arrangement. When I granted you a Geass, it was made of the same basic building blocks as my Code, but in an arrangement unique to you. Unlike a Code, your Geass isn't directly linked to the whole of the collective unconscious and doesn't contain a copy of your memories, which is why you can't project them the way I theoretically could. However, you do have a direct link to my Code and therefore my memories. Through the link the Contract provides, you might be able to unseal any memories I accidentally sealed."
"That's not quite the way I would have described it, Lelouch," C.C. pouted.
"That's because you would have insisted on inserting ridiculous innuendo in every other sentence!"
"At least my explanation would have been exciting. You practically put Suzaku to sleep with your overcomplicated statements."
"Well, it was a bit long winded—"
"Thorough. It was thorough," Lelouch corrected him.
"Right. In any case, the thing I don't understand is why you didn't show me how to unseal your memories first thing, just in case. And then master this focusing stuff, while you're at it."
Lelouch scowled. He really wished C.C. hadn't brought this up. "The chance of my accidentally sealing any memories is very low, so why waste our time on things that aren't going to help Euphy? I'll be fine, as long as I remember enough to unseal anything that is accidentally sealed."
"Lelouch, what if you forgot how to do that? I won't help you anymore, if you don't show me how to fix things if something goes wrong."
Lelouch reran his calculations, frustrated, but he couldn't see any way to get Suzaku to agree to continue without addressing the issue. C.C. already refused, so I have to convince him. "But Suzaku, in order to do that you'll have to—to access my memories. To be inside my head, essentially."
"Oh, I think I understand now," Suzaku said with a frown. "The reason you didn't show me before is because you don't trust me."
"I didn't say that!"
"You so rarely say what you really mean," C.C. interjected.
"You stay out of this," he told the unrepentant interloper. "Suzaku, don't you want to help Euphy?" he tried asking, knowing that would be the best way to convince him.
"You know I do, Lelouch, but how is having a second person with amnesia going to help her? If you really want to help, then why don't you try having a little faith in me?"
Lelouch looked back and forth between C.C., who had moved to indolently lie across Lelouch's bed, the very picture of bored unconcern, and Suzaku, who stood facing him with all the determination of a stubborn mule. Lelouch ran all his mental simulations three times and found he still didn't like any of the outcomes.
"Suzaku, my mind is a very ugly place."
"But it's not the ugly parts you're scared to show, is it? It's all the soft, tender, romantic—"
"Enough, C.C.! Who was the one who spent so much time amnesiac, because she neglected to show me how to unlock her memories?"
C.C. pouted. "That was different. I had no idea I'd end up sealing them along with my Code."
"Are you sure it's not because of all the soft, tender, romantic—"
The sudden beeping of Suzaku's watch interrupted Lelouch. "Sorry. It looks like Zero has to go on duty now," Suzaku said, picking up his mask. "You two behave while I'm gone. Oh, and tell Euphy and Cornelia I'll be back in time for dinner, okay?"
"What? But I thought you didn't have to leave until noon."
Suzaku blinked. "It is noon, Lelouch. Why do you think I was so impatient for you to get up? I wanted to at least speak to you before I had to leave. You were out for almost three hours, you know."
"Three hours?!"
"Yes. I was sure your Code must be broken, but maybe being a slowpoke is actually an essential part of your makeup. It could be that this is payback for all that time you spent sleeping through class and ditching gym. Anyway, I have to get going now, so goodbye!" Suzaku called cheerfully, as he headed for the door.
"Sure, just insult me and run."
C.C. smirked. "He is right about one thing: you certainly do spend a lot of time unconscious, Lelouch. One might almost think the Demon Emperor has built up some bad karma."
"If that sort of thing actually worked, karma should have killed my father off long before I did," Lelouch grumbled.
"Well, since you think it has no effect, why don't you head over to inform Euphy and Cornelia that Suzaku will be back for dinner?"
A spike of fear went through his heart at the mention of his elder sister's name. Why does anyone let that madwoman carry a sword around? "I said karma is a myth, not Cornelia's temper." He still wasn't convinced that stab wound was completely healed.
"Surely you're not afraid of your own sister, are you?"
"She's only my half sister."
"Oh, so you are scared of her."
"I didn't say that." Unfortunately, refusing to admit the truth didn't make it any less relevant. Clovis, Darlton, the Glaston Knights, Euphy... I've taken so many things from her. Even Guilford was nearly killed because of me. Not so terribly long ago, his own anger and pain had provided all the justification he'd needed to attack Cornelia, but now, knowing that she'd only been an innocent bystander, one of the few who had actually attempted to investigate his mother's assassination, it was much harder to still see her as the betrayer, rather than the betrayed.
My mother had every opportunity to let Cornelia know she was alive, and yet she abandoned her, too. Father deceived Cornelia the entire time, dangling false approval before her to spur her forward in fighting the wars he couldn't be troubled to handle, and I...even though Cornelia has been kind to Nunnally throughout, I killed her own little sister and tarnished Euphy's good name forever.
Despite her harsh, vengeful, militaristic policies when she'd been Vicereine, on a personal level, Lelouch knew that he was the one in the wrong in their relationship. However, as he wasn't willing to admit to C.C. how uncomfortable he was with facing Cornelia in the presence of his most innocent victim, Lelouch really had no excuse not to go to Euphy's suite—although he still did his masterful best to delay for the next three and a half hours. Finally driven out of the room by C.C.'s incessant smugness, Lelouch was much more concerned with what awaited him when he had to confront Cornelia again (and what he could do to ensure she really did keep her silence, as calling her "sister" once likely wasn't enough) than with his current surroundings.
That was an unfortunate miscalculation.
The arm that darted out to cover his mouth was a complete shock, and the one that slipped around his waist to pull him backwards into an unused suite was expected only because Lelouch had figured out by that time that he was under attack. From the strong grip and the size of the hand, he estimated that the owner was most likely a tall man, probably in good physical condition.
If my existence is discovered...
The clear threat to Zero Requiem motivated Lelouch to struggle desperately. We all sacrificed so much! I can't let the plan be threatened now! Unfortunately, his frantic efforts didn't gain him anything but a trampled foot and a painfully banged wrist, as the door clicked shut behind Lelouch and his assailant.
So physical strength is not my forte. I'll just outwit whoever this is.
With the sharp sound of the lock echoing his ears, Lelouch was finally released, so that he could turn around and look into the placid smile and ice blue eyes of Schneizel el Britannia.
"Hello, little brother."
...Shit.
It was at about that time that Lelouch truly began to panic.
