Nothing Left - Ch.14
Author's Note: An update?
P.S: Wow it's actually an update.
P.S.S: I've realized waiting around for 13 chapters is extremely boring especially with no fluff in it, so I thank the people who have been patient and apologize to them. Sorry for the wait. Oh and I know im screwing the whole Geass series in accuracy, but remember this story was started a tthe beginning of R2.
P.S.S.S: i've also realized a long time ago how gay this P.S thing is, but...
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Shrine of Akasha. 7:00 P.M
C.C had been rushed to the emperor upon arrival, which struck her as odd. She'd imagined that there would be few who could recognize her on sight, even in the capitol building.
Now, she was waiting for Charles to fulfill both of their wishes. At his side, V.V stood, pleased that his pact with his friend and partner could finally come to fruition. Charles took his time in preparing...after all, C.C was here, and she wasn't going anywhere. C.C didn't mind waiting a bit longer...
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Ashford Academy, Lelouch's Room. 1 day later. 4:00 P.M.
Lelouch Lamperouge always took his life systematically, considering every possibility or outcome in any situation presented to him. That meant also considering every consequence of an action or mistake. It may have seemed tedious to any normal person, but this was the habit of a genious whose ambition had led him to become a hunted man.
Right now, however, the only thing he could think of was the consequence of his action.
He'd always regarded Kallen as a special person, someone valuable and priceless to him-both as Zero and as Lelouch. She was undoubtedly a Knightmare pilot on par with the Knights of Rounds, and as a person, she was passionate, gentle, and pure of heart. Of course, the pure of heart part never really shone through that nightmarish hatred for Britannia.
If Lelouch were to take qualities such as her personality and her dominance on the battlefied into account and put them together, she would undoubtedly add up to someone that Lelouch needed in order to survive. How many times had he let Kallen take matters into her own hands in the field, how many times had it been up to her to shift the tide of battle? She would be his trump card, and everyone else under his command would be more or less than a last resort in comparison. As Zero, this mentality of needing her typically became a common thing. As Lelouch, until quite recently, he didn't really give a damn about her. Though he would have never allowed harm to her as Lelouch, he still saw her differently than how Zero did.
As smart as Lelouch was, he hadn't realized that he'd been fooling himself all this time...in the sense that he'd seen and cared for little other than a young, beautiful woman for weeks without even considering his feelings for her. He'd been too preoccupied with his own thoughts and concerns for the future.
Friendship had been enough for Lelouch. That is, it had been, until Lelouch had kissed her.
The actual event had been so random, Kallen had asked Lelouch to check her artificial eye (to see if it looked exactly like her real one). Next thing either of them knew, they were locked in a long and passionate kiss.
Now, as Lelouch recalled the event, he remembered how fragile she looked, how beautiful she was, how her breath had intoxicated him when their faces had closed in...
And he also remembered how, even as he was in her embrace, even as their lips met...that there was a feeling in him that he'd made a grave error. It was not that Kallen wasn't the perfect woman to love, it was that Lelouch was afraid he wasn't the one who should. A marked man who'd taken lives in pleasure, a man who's mind was sardonic in nature, and a man who stood a good chance of not dying from natural causes...
It was as if he thought she hadn't done anything regrettable. To Lelouch, she was a guardian angel he never deserved to have. He still hadn't realized that Zero hadn't been the only evil in the Black Rebellion. Kallen, Toudou, Shogo, Nagisa, Diethard, everyone who had supported Zero was, in a way, a part of Zero and his sardonic ambition. Zero was not a person, he was a symbol, and people followed him to the death until the Black Rebellion had failed. When Zero had returned, the Elevens happily embraced him yet again, he was a divine symbol. They would die and they would kill for him. Kallen had killed for him, and each time had ran the risk of dying. She was invulnerable when Lelouch knew nothing about her, in the early days of Zero. As he did get to know her, he found that she was still invulnerable. Noone could break her, and she could worm her way out of any situation, and kill any foe. A lesser pilot of the Guren could never match Lancelot, and a lesser woman in comparison to her would be any woman that had ever walked the Earth.
But the fact still remained...they'd killed people. They'd started war. Without Kallen, Lelouch might have perished against the Lancelot much quicker, and without Lelouch, Kallen would have perished in battle with the Britannians, without a suitable leader or Knightmare to match her skills. Perhaps the world would have been a better place without them.
The grand scope of things, however, was not what Lelouch was thinking about now.
Rather, he was thinking if he'd just closed a door to his friendship with Kallen and opened one to something deeper. Lelouch was not prepared to go that path, and if need be, he would break her heart, (if, truly, she loved him too). Even though neither of them were in immediate danger as they had been in the Black Knights, Lelouch always ran the risk of being discovered. Especially with Madam "Nutjob" President around, she'd tried the exact same prank again and had been disappointed to find that Lelouch wasn't very impressed.
Many people wished they were a genious. But Lelouch, on the other hand, would tell them that geniouses often thought too much.
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Shrine of Akasha. 5:00 P.M
Charles didn't know whether to be pleased or not. It turned out that C.C only had part of the 'Code' to unlock Ragnorok. He'd assumed she would be half of the key, and V.V would be the other half. However, both Charles and Lelouch, as a result of being bonded to them, also held a piece. That meant the only thing standing between Charles and the end of the world (or as Charles thought of it, The New World), was Lelouch.
The Emperor gazed out at the clouds once more. C.C and V.V watched expectantly.
A slow smile formed on his lips. He'd had fun with his games, but they'd grown all too boring.
A few minutes later, in front of Gino Weinburg, Anya Earlstreim, Bismarck Waldstein, and Suzaku Kururugi, the 98th Emperor of Britannia gave his private soldiers a simple command:
"Capture him."
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The Chinese Federation. Forbidden City Outskirts, 7:00 P.M
"Contact,"muttered Toudou.
Shogo stepped out of the shadows and waved to the figure. The figure waved back.
"That's him."
Shogo sighed. The last man he'd waved to had turned out to be a man drunk on sake who'd thought he should take a walk in the forest.. Shogo had, at first, expected that man to be the contact, cleverly pretending to be a drunkard and...relieving himself on an oak tree. Unfortunately, Shogo had overestimated the acting skills of the supposed contact and had waved to him when he'd straightened up. Amazingly, the drunkard had seen him even through what must have been hazey vision. The man started to fumble with his belt to produce a rifle, but Toudou, checking to make sure the man was indeed not his contact, fired on him with a silenced pistol. The man went down, and the duo added a rifle and a corpse to their collection.
"I presume he speaks Japanese?" asked Shogo.
Toudou nodded and motioned for the man to get into cover.
Shogo saw that this man was no fool, he ducked into the brush, checked for any unlikely passerby's, glanced at the walled city, and creeped his way through the darkness (it had been a particularly short day). Shogo saw an old style sword on the man's waist, and instantly knew this was noone to trifle with.
"Sword always means badass...,"mumbled Shogo.
Toudou did something between a chuckle and a snort before keeping a lookout for any snipers in the brush.
"Quickly. We may have already been spotted at such close proximity."
The man nodded, and he quickened his pace. His footsteps were no louder.
After what seemed like an eternity, the swordsman finally reached them. Shogo recognized him from the Chinese Embassy.
"I am Li-Xingke."
"And this man is Asahina Shogo," said Toudou.
Xingke nodded politely. Shogo felt like shooting him.
'Fucking official, carrying that sword like he's high and mighty...might as well be another Eunuch General, he's around them all the time...'
"Now then, we'll begin as planned, if there is nothing more to prepare,"said Li-Xingke as he turned back towards the Forbidden City.
Toudou coughed, Xingke turned around.
"What is the reason?"
Xingke frowned,"We agreed not to speak of it."
Toudou pressed him gently,"I'd rather like to know."
"Bah...we agreed on the terms. I aid you in capturing Tianzi if only Tianzi remains unharmed and under my care and judgement."
"It sounds as if you'd like to kidnap Tianzi for whatever reason, and then kill us once you have her so we would not turn him over to 'Lord' Zero."
Li-Xingke could have gone a lot of ways with his next reaction. But what he did totally set him apart from Shogo's impression of him being a Eunuch.
"Yes."
Shogo smiled,"There is no Lord Zero for us anymore. We don't wish to harm Tianzi or even touch her."
Li-Xingke chuckled a bit,"A subordinate of the Master of Lies wishes to sway my guard for his own purposes. Shall I play along, or shall I cut him down and report them to the Eunuch's? Perhaps both?"
That would have sounded like a threat, but neither Shogo or Toudou saw it as one. In fact, that remark turned out to be the icebreaker.
Toudou offered him a drink. Xingke accepted and rested his back to a tree.
"So...Tianzi does not interest you?"
"Not in the least. We just wish to break the forging alliance between the Federation and the Holy Britannian Empire."
"Reasonable."
Shogo stayed silent. He would not let Xingke double-cross him, and despite Toudou's friendly act, he was sure Toudou felt the same. None of the three were fools. They were warriors from two seperate worlds, and working together would mean breaking their codes of honor, and most importantly, their bond of trust between allies.
Xingke held up a small control panel he'd fastened to his waistband. It had a button sticking out its side.
"When I press this, every Knightmare Barracks and Surface to Air site will be detonated. Get your Burai and meet back when I signal you with a searchlight."
For many lives this night, all hell would break loose. The battle of the Forbidden City, and the battle to capture Lelouch...noone could ever predict how many lives could have possibly been lost. Noone could predict how the carnage would rip apart the world.