Chapter 36
Lelouch found it strange. It was only now that he was completely alone and making his way down the sidewalk towards Ashford (after hopping a train of course), that he realized he had hardly spent a waking moment alone in the last six months. Edith gave him alone time, but it wasn't true independence like this. She was always nearby and would come running if she even suspected he needed her. And on the base, he'd been surrounded by his fellow soldiers.
Right here, right now, no one knew where he was. It was liberating and he reveled in it, knowing it wouldn't last. But for now, he was on his way to Ashford to see if they couldn't cook him up a real welcome.
He knew how to get on and off campus secretly, so there wasn't too much worry about being recognized. And if Milly and the others weren't at the clubhouse, he could always call them and wait in his old suite. It would be perfect. Even on such short notice, he was sure they'd make time for him.
He didn't get even remotely close to Ashford, however, before he heard a voice he thought he knew amplified over a loudspeaker a few streets away. He paused, listening to the one-sided conversation as the sound of gunfire echoed off the nearby buildings.
"Surrender now and you'll be given a fair trial, you arrogant Elevens."
He was about ninety percent certain that that was Jeremiah Gottwald's voice. Glaring he reached into his pocket and turned his phone back on. There were no messages waiting for him, which meant no one had tried to contact him.
He called Edith and didn't even wait for her to ask about his disappearing act before demanding answers. "What the hell is going on?" He growled as he began making his way closer to the commotion. "What happened?"
"I'm not sure. The Viceroy and General Bartley suddenly left the party, stating urgent business." Edith said quickly. "But they didn't give an explanation of what's happened. What's going on, Lelouch? Are you safe?"
"Did Clovis ask you where I was or ask you to contact me?"
"No."
Lelouch growled in frustration. "Clovis has mobilized military units within the city. He's out of line." Lelouch grumbled. God damned terrorists just had to wait to attack until after he'd snuck away. If he'd been there, he'd have been the one in control. Lelouch was supposed to have supreme authority over anything dealing with the terrorists. "Go back to the house, Edith. There's no point in you waiting around the Viceroy's Palace."
"Lelouch! Are you safe? Where are you? I'll send a car to pick you up."
But he wasn't given a chance to respond because at that moment he came within view of the freeway and saw what all the fuss was about. He arrived just in time to see a rusty Glasgow burst out of the back of a speeding semi and shoot down two helicopters bearing the standard of Clovis' Royal Guard.
"Shit." Lelouch breathed, then snapped his phone shut and turned it off without another word. He did not want her calling back.
What the hell was going on? Since when had the terrorists had Knightmares? And what was their target? He'd heard rumors that the JLF were suspected of having Knightmare frames, but those were supposed to be customized, Japanese knockoff models, not Glasgows. None of the other groups were supposed to have enough resources or organization to possess Knightmares.
Was it Kenshiki?
No, probably not. If the Kenshiki had already moved their operations to Toyko, their first target would have been the Viceroy's Palace. And striking now would have been ideal since both himself and Clovis along with many prominent Britannians were in attendance there. He was almost tempted to call Edith back and ask her to find a news station, but decided against it when the truck that had been transporting the Glasgow barreled into what was once the old subway line not too far away.
A Knightmare he could do nothing about in his current state. He would have to trust to Lord Gottwald to take care of the Glasgow and hope he could manage it. The Eleven pilot was obviously very good – even from just the few minutes he'd been watching here he could tell. There was no way a normal pilot could make a Glasgow keep up with a Sutherland – but he was sure Gottwald was no amateur.
As for the truck driver however, now there was a situation he could deal with, as it looked like no one else was about to.
He reached for the gun he had strapped to the side of his calf, thankful that he'd decided to bring it even to Clovis' party. Ever since he'd declared war on the Kenshiki, he hadn't left the house without being armed and never without an escort until now.
He assumed the truck would have had to decrease it's speed once it had entered the subway tunnels which would hopefully give him a chance to close the distance. As far as Lelouch knew, the tunnels had been abandoned shortly after the invasion came to an end, so who knew what kind of state the terrorist's chosen route would be in.
Maybe going in alone wasn't the smartest plan, but he couldn't guarantee that any backup he called for would actually come and in the meantime the truck was getting away. Clovis obviously wanted to keep him out of whatever mess this was. That was the only explanation for his Royal Guard chasing terrorists down a busy freeway.
Of all the soldiers in Area Eleven, Clovis' Royal Guard were the only ones who were legally exempt from his orders. They weren't under his command and he couldn't make them fall in. They were Clovis' men and took their orders only from the Viceroy. It was questionable if even the Emperor would be able to countermand them.
And without an established force to back him up – those Knights he'd requested had probably yet to be notified of their change in command and Hector and the others were still playing nice with Cornelia in Area Eighteen – if Clovis really was trying to keep him out of it, there was no limit to the number of times he could be given bad information and misdirections.
So, no, going alone into the subway after a truck that was carrying at least one terrorist was probably not the safest. But unless he wanted to sit this one out – which he categorically refused to do – there weren't a lot of options. If he could get to where Clovis was, he could trump his brother and take command, but without holding Clovis in check when he did it, the likelihood of success was slim.
Clovis could be anywhere at the moment. He could still be at the Viceroy's Palace for all Lelouch knew and conducting this operation remotely, which would entail a forty-five minute commute back in the direction he'd just come from. No, he wasn't going to seek out Clovis without a plan. Even calling Edith at this point to track the Viceroy down was unlikely to be successful. Instead, he'd take out the source of the commotion (or one of them – and a much smaller one compared to the Glasgow rampaging down the freeway, in his opinion).
Providing, of course, that he could catch up with it on foot.
He was pretty sure he'd never been more thankful for all of the miles Harken had made him run until now. The subway was dark – pitch black – causing him to have to run blind the further he made his way from the entrance, but with one hand trailing against the wall at his left, he was able to make what he considered reasonable time.
He could hear the truck rumbling along down the tunnel ahead of him, the sound of the engine echoing and distant though he became aware after a time that he was gaining. As expected, the truck had had to slow it's speed considerably when entering the tunnel. The floor was littered with debris and garbage that had been collected there over the last seven years. Lelouch himself had found himself face first on the ground a handful of times after tripping blindly over objects he couldn't see. He thought one of them had been an abandoned shopping cart, but he wasn't entirely sure and he didn't bother trying to confirm if he was correct, though he did note that he thought his hand was bleeding from the encounter. It was too dark to tell for certain, however.
He panted slightly as he ran – surprised that he'd remained at least marginally in shape after the months away from Basic Training – and didn't attempt to mask the sound of his approach. His prey wouldn't be able to hear his footsteps over the sound of the truck's motor anyway so attempting to be stealthy now would just end up slowing him down. No, what he was aiming for was haste.
And it was with that single-minded thought running through his head – that he needed to hurry – that he didn't even notice he was being approached until it was too late. His gun was knocked from his grasp and what felt distinctly like a fist collided with his face before he was roughly knocked off balance and sent crashing to the ground.
He wasn't even given the opportunity to fight back before he felt a weight settle over him, knees pinning his arms to the ground at his sides and a hand pressed firmly against his collarbone – restraining him but ready to strangle at a moment's notice. His sudden fear overwrote the pain the attack had caused.
"Where is it? Where's the poison gas?"
. . .
And Lelouch found himself laughing. Laughing because fate, it seemed, couldn't help but keep throwing them together today. Of all the people he'd thought to meet down in this tunnel, this soldier was one of the last.
"Suzaku Kururugi, I'd appreciate it if you got off of me." He said calmly and felt the entity above him shift in surprise before a gloved hand pulled the hat and disguising sunglasses (which he hadn't bothered to remove since he'd been running blind anyway and anonymity seemed more important) away from his face. Obviously, the soldier had night vision.
"Lelouch?" Suzaku asked before hastily standing up and pulling him to his feet. "Are you okay?What are you doing down here?"
"I'm fine, and I'd ask you the same thing, but you already let that one slip. Poison gas, huh? That's what this is about?" He mused as he dusted himself off.
"You weren't briefed?" Suzaku asked in surprise.
"No, Clovis is trying to hide this from me. Hence why I'm stumbling around blind through a subway tunnel instead of taking command. Tell me the orders you were given. No. First, I suppose we should do this officially . . ." He said before standing straight and looking at where he assumed his one time friend was. He wasn't exactly sure what he thought of Suzaku's enlistment, but right now he didn't really care either. He was a much needed asset that Lelouch was sorely missing and he was going to take advantage of it. "Suzaku Kururugi, I, Lelouch vi Britannia, request your service as a soldier of Britannia. Do you accept? Will you follow my orders?"
Suzaku sucked in a hiss of surprise before chuckling. "Yes, your highness." He said somewhat sarcastically.
"Good. Now find my gun that you so nicely kicked, I believe, out of my grasp and we'll be on our way." Lelouch ordered and then felt like a fool because he was forced to just stand there helplessly blind in the dark while Suzaku scoured the debris surrounding them.
"Here." Suzaku said and, Lelouch assumed, held out the weapon.
Lelouch opted for simply holding out his hand and making his friend place it in his hand instead of groping around for it in the dark. Once rearmed, he began turning his mind to logistics.
"You lead." Lelouch said before reaching out to grab Suzaku's wrist. "And move quickly."
"You know where the poison gas is?" Suzaku asked as they started off, playing an absurd game of follow the leader.
"I imagine it's in the truck I was following. I don't know why else it would require a Knightmare to protect it." Lelouch said as he concentrated on keeping up with Suzaku. "What were your orders? Tell me what's been happening. I was out of contact for a while."
"We received orders to search the subway tunnels for the terrorists. If we find the poison gas, we're supposed wait for the Royal Guard to come in and reclaim it." Suzaku explained while weaving a path for them through the debris of the tunnel.
"How many terrorists are there?"
"We don't know."
Lelouch frowned, dissatisfied. "How many soldiers were sent into the tunnels?" He asked again. That number should at least reflect somewhat just what kind of resistance Clovis was expecting.
"There were fifteen at my drop point. I'm not sure if there were other drops or not, though."
So. . . almost three squads had been sent into the tunnels to search for the terrorists. So then, odds were high there was more than just that one truck they were after. "I see. I suppose you should radio that corporal and tell him you've been requested for service elsewhere."
"Oh, he's not here. I'm not here with my regular squad. I was recruited specially for this mission." Suzaku said. "Because we're going into the ghettos, the Royal Guard requested Honorary Britannians."
Lelouch's steps faltered, pulling Suzaku to a momentary halt as sickening dread pooled in his stomach. "You mean everyone sent into the subways are Japanese?"
"Yeah. Are you okay?" Suzaku asked.
"Fine. It's nothing." He lied.
Well . . . it might be nothing. Lelouch might simply have been jumping to conclusions and paranoid. Just because the entire group Suzaku had been sent in with had all been Japanese didn't necessarily mean that Clovis would view them all as expendable and have them all quietly executed once this mission was over. Maybe he was just being a pessimist (only it was so like Lelouch's luck that he would finally be reunited with Suzaku just to have him die a day later). Maybe Clovis did really send them into the subways because they'd end up in the ghettos.
Maybe . . .
But he doubted it.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, keep going. We can't lose that truck." Lelouch ordered and followed along in silence for a while, listening to the rumble of the truck up ahead.
Would Clovis go so far as to execute his own soldiers? Yes. Lelouch knew that already. Those soldiers who had captured him that day so many months ago had been executed for assaulting him, so he knew that his brother felt no remorse for ordering the deaths of his men. But would Clovis execute his own soldiers just to keep a lid on this poison gas situation?
It was a bit extreme. Sure, if the public found out that their Viceroy had been developing chemical weapons in secret, his reputation would take a hit since he liked to present himself as benevolent. But it wasn't as though he'd used it on anyone (yet), so the information would probably have acted as a deterrent.
In fact, if Clovis did let it slip to the media that he had this kind of weapon, he was betting all of their problems with the Kenshiki would disappear. Of course, it would be like fighting terrorism with terrorism, but Lelouch doubted that the Kenshiki would risk the lives of thousands of Japanese just to pursue their vendetta against Clovis.
. . . Well, this line of thought had some potential. Not that he would ever actually use it, but the threat would make for a good bartering piece. Perhaps he'd use it as an ultimatum on the thirtieth (or more likely the first of October if Cornelia's continued silence on the subject of his subordinates was anything to go by) and see what happened.
Up ahead, the sounds from the truck were becoming noticeably louder now and they were drawing close. Lelouch heard a loud revving of the engine and spinning of tires and smirked. It seemed like the terrorist was stuck. The tunnel was also becoming somewhat lighter as he could now make out Suzaku's silhouette in front of him.
He and Suzaku slowed their approach, melting into the shadows next to the wall (which, of course, was easier for Suzaku as his combat armor was all black as opposed to Lelouch's orange sweater) as they crept forward. Up ahead, they could finally see the truck, it's headlights bathing the tunnel in a pallid, yellow light.
The tires spun again as they were watching and Lelouch noticed the truck had gotten itself stuck in a crack in the foundation (he was pretty sure he'd tripped in one of those earlier too), front tires sunk at least halfway into the hole.
The door opened and a man jumped out, his curses echoing down the tunnel towards them as he surveyed his situation. Lelouch didn't give him the chance to find a solution, however, and raised his gun.
"Lelouch!" Suzaku hissed in protest as he pulled the trigger. The driver collapsed, sliding down the side of the truck and leaving a bloody smear. "You didn't know for certain. What if he wasn't a terrorist."
"Suzaku, he was driving the same truck I personally witnessed a rogue Glasgow emerge from. Also, there's no reason for anyone else to be down here, especially not driving a truck. Look around. Does this look like a common thoroughfare to you?" Lelouch asked impatiently before cautiously approaching the truck. But it seemed the driver was alone.
He approached the downed terrorist and wasn't surprised to find him still alive and struggling to gasp for air around the hole in his chest. Lelouch had never been a crack shot, so the likelihood of him completely eliminating the terrorist with anything less than a lucky shot had been slim. The fact that he'd only ever shot someone once, and that it had taken the entire magazine to bring the man down (he'd ignore the fact that he'd been suffering from a concussion at the time), was a pretty good indication of his skill with a pistol. It was easier in a Knightmare because the console could calculate the trajectory in to solidly factual numbers.
Grimacing, Lelouch fired another shot. It had been unlikely that the man would have survived his wounds if he'd been left alone anyway.
"Lelouch!" Suzaku protested again, this time more loudly before he sighed in disappointment. "You've changed."
"You heard about what I did in Area Eighteen, didn't you, Suzaku? About those civilians?" He asked darkly as he glared at the seeping corpse below him. He was well aware of the rumors the Britannian newspapers were trying to suppress (probably at the behest of Schneizel).
"That was true?"
"Yes. That was true. I killed countless civilians in my raid on Qal'a Al Kuthban. So don't think putting this terrorist out of his misery is going to cause some kind of irremovable stain on my conscience. Think of it as a humanitarian act. He wouldn't have survived anyway." Lelouch said bitterly before stepping over the man's corpse and reaching into the truck to turn it off. No point in letting anyone else find the truck the same way they had. He left the lights running off the battery however because he was quite sick of running blind.
"You don't have to be so cold about it." Suzaku grumbled.
"We're soldiers." He said in response, as though it excused everything. In all honesty though, he'd had to force down his revulsion before pulling the trigger.
Glancing around the cab of the truck, he chuckled when he found an old school walkie-talkie taped to the dash with masking tape. And these were the high tech terrorists who had a Glasgow? He'd thought they'd have had better equipment.
He stuffed the device into the pocket of his hoodie, sure that it would come in handy in the near future before pushing open the adjoining door into the trailer.
. . . And there it was.
That giant orb of hoses and valves couldn't have been anything else but Clovis' precious poison gas. So he'd been right. Still, now it warranted the question of just what he wanted to do with it now that he'd found it.
Clovis was being naughty and he didn't really think he deserved to have his toy given back to him quite yet. Plus, now that Lelouch held this ace, there was no reason for Clovis to continue leading this military campaign. Lelouch would take command and destroy the terrorists at his leisure and this would turn into nothing more than a routine eradication rather than a recovery operation.
He felt an uncanny sense of trepidation as he approached the capsule, as though someone were watching him. It rose the hair on the back of his neck as he hefted his gun back up at the ready and glanced around the muted confines of the trailer.
There was no movement, no sound – just an eerie stillness that did nothing to set him at ease. Casting one last glance around the trailer he moved to the loading door closest to the capsule and hauled it open.
"Suzaku, come in here and see if you can help me move this." Lelouch ordered, half as an excuse for company and half because if he was going to take this poison gas as his own, he wasn't going to be able to use the truck to move it (as it was inexorably stuck and wouldn't be getting out any time soon).
"You found it." Suzaku said in surprise.
"Yes. And I'd like for you to not mention that we've found it to anyone." Lelouch grumbled as he backed away from the door to give Suzaku room to climb in and went back to examining the capsule.
"About that . . ." Suzaku hesitated.
"Yes?" Lelouch asked as he mused on the best way to move the thing. Obviously, the terrorists had moved it on to the truck with a forklift or a pallet jack or something of the sort. Another quick survey of the trailer revealed that whatever they had used hadn't been brought with them.
"The HUD in my helmet is running an auto-recognition software . . ." Suzaku explained.
Lelouch sighed. He'd worked with auto-recognition software at AKTP but had never been in a situation where it's use was required in the real world. "Meaning that the moment you saw it, notice was sent to Clovis' Royal Guard. Remove your helmet."
"Um, why?" Suzaku asked, but Lelouch was pleased that be began moving his helmet anyway.
"Because I'm not sure if I want to give such a potentially dangerous weapon back to Clovis." Lelouch said as he took the helmet from Suzaku and placed it face plate down on the floor of the trailer. But now that the Royal Guard had already been notified, that made stealing this thing much more difficult.
He pushed against it, careful to avoid any hoses or anything that looked important for the mechanics of the bomb, and found that it was surprisingly light for it's size. It was only a hundred and fifty pounds, give or take. So between the two of them, they ought to have been able to lift it . . . if it hadn't been such an awkward, unwieldy shape.
But that still didn't help him. Even if they found a way to carry it, removing it from the truck and the tunnels would take time. They'd have to move slowly and they'd be perpetually afraid of setting the thing off. Plus, the Royal Guard would be pursuing them and they wouldn't be so hindered. Add on top of all that, that Lelouch suspected somewhere in Suzaku's armor was a gps transmitter so they could keep tabs on the Elevens that had been sent into the subway and it equaled out to an impossible situation.
He couldn't steal it.
He cursed under his breath as he continued to examine the capsule. Obviously the gas was trapped inside the metal shell which was probably it's delivery system. If he could open it up somehow, it was possible he could collect whatever ingredients had been used to make the deadly gas from inside. But it was also extremely possible that he'd end up gassing himself and Suzaku along with anyone else in the subway tunnels or their immediate surroundings.
He wasn't quite feeling suicidal yet, despite the turn his life had taken since he'd been returned to the royal family. So he didn't really want to tempt it. But still, it wouldn't be the first time he'd risked his life.
"What would you use it for?" Suzaku asked.
"Don't be an idiot." Lelouch grumbled, picking up immediately on Suzaku's hesitance. "I'd never use it. But just think. Clovis is the one who's been developing this thing. Who do you think he wants to use it on? I suppose I understand why these terrorists decided to steal it."
"But still, it's his. I doubt he'll just give it to you and stealing it will probably piss him off."
"Suzaku, who would you rather had this thing? Me or Clovis?" Lelouch asked candidly, finally turning his full attention to his friend.
Suzaku hesitated. "I'm not sure."
Lelouch scowled in annoyance before turning away with a disgusted huff. "Well, thanks anyway for the vote of confidence." He said sarcastically as he searched for some kind of seam or access panel on the capsule.
But he hadn't even laid hands on it again when a high pitched hissing sound began emanating from the capsule and he found himself thrown to the ground by Suzaku for the second time that day (if his tailbone hadn't been bruised before, he was sure it was now) and Suzaku's gas mask shoved roughly into his face, even though it wasn't properly sealed.
At that moment, only two thoughts ran through his head. The first was 'Oh shit!' and the second was that the hand Suzaku was holding over his own nose and mouth would do nothing to protect him. Not to mention that both of their eyes were exposed and potential entry zones for the gas.
But it wasn't iconographic clouds of green vapor that emerged from the capsule. Instead it was green . . . hair?
Lelouch blinked as the form of a young woman slumped out of the cage of concave metal plates and collapse on the floor of the truck. What the hell?
He pushed the gas mask away from his face and glared at Suzaku. "This isn't poison gas, Suzaku." He pointed out quite obviously.
"We were told it was poison gas!" Suzaku argued, claiming ignorance. Not that Lelouch didn't believe him. He doubted Clovis would have been able to stir up quite as much of a fuss if he'd told his troops that the terrorists had stolen . . . a girl from him.
The girl in question didn't move. She laid completely immobile and for a moment he wondered if they hadn't been arguing over stealing a corpse. But then her chest rose and it was quite apparent that she was still breathing. She stared at him unblinkingly with amber eyes as he finally took stock of their current situation.
He was still being tackled by Suzaku, who had gone unsurprisingly slack in his shock, while a girl had just emerged from what was supposed to have been a poison gas canister (it obviously wasn't). Just the girl was enough to send him into a mental frenzy as he tried to figure out their situation, but in addition to all that, was the fact that the Royal Guard was currently moving in on them to collect the girl that this whole mess was all about.
Just what the hell was she?
Well, if anything, this made things easier though. She'd be easier to move than the capsule was at least. Which is when he noticed she was wearing something akin to a full body straight jacket.
He shoved Suzaku off of him and crawled towards her, relieved that she didn't panic or struggle. Whatever Clovis had been doing to her, he doubted it was nice if the fact that she had been crammed into that capsule was any indication. She didn't react at all except for her eyes tracking his movements.
"I'm Lelouch. I'm going to let you out of this." He said reassuringly before reaching for the first of the restraining buckles.
Still no reaction.
"Suzaku, help me with this. And quickly, before the Royal Guard get here." Lelouch ordered, fingers moving deftly from one buckle to the next.
"You're still going to steal it. . . er, her?" Suzaku asked.
"Until I figure out what exactly is going on." Lelouch nodded as he finished the last restraint on her arms. They fell limply at her sides and he carefully pulled her into a sitting position, leaning heavily against his shoulder.
"Can you walk?" Lelouch asked as Suzaku finished freeing her legs, but the girl gave no indication she'd even heard him let alone a favorable response.
Grumbling under his breath, he looped one of her arms over his shoulder and pushed himself to his feet. He found that she could walk, if a little unsteadily, and helped her down out of the truck before jumping down himself. Suzaku followed, still seemingly at a loss of how to make sense of the situation – not that Lelouch was doing any better in that particular exercise either.
They began making their way back down the tunnel – there was air movement nearby so Lelouch figured there had to be an exit soon – stumbling blindly because Lelouch refused to let Suzaku put his helmet back on. If he was being tracked, it was likely from the helmet. If it wasn't, then they were in shit either way, unless Lelouch sent Suzaku away.
But he had no intention of doing that. Because even if he did send Suzaku away it would be nothing more than ordering his friend to go die in some dark corner. The Royal Guard already knew Suzaku had seen to capsule so if they found him away from it (or it's contents) they'd probably kill him as a traitor.
But they'd have to be lucky to be able to explain their way out of this anyway. He had absolutely no idea what the fuck was going on.
The girl didn't say anything, not even when a faint light appeared up ahead marking an exit (causing both Lelouch and Suzaku to sigh in relief). Granted, it was probably an exit in the ghettos and as he and the girl were quite obviously not Japanese it probably wouldn't be safe, but it was a way out of this chthonic hell. It was nice to be able to see where he was going again.
"There!" A voice said loudly behind them and Lelouch bit back the instinct to groan in frustration as a squad of nine men – who's silhouettes he could barely make out in the semi-blackness – began rushing forward.
Beside him, Suzaku saluted as they were confronted with Clovis' Royal Guard. Lelouch rolled his eyes and didn't react – neither did the girl, though he was coming to expect that from her. He wondered if she was brain dead.
"404, you're in direct violation for your orders. You were not to approach the target. Nor were you supposed to move her." One of the men sneered. Well, it seemed the Royal Guard were aware of the contents of the capsule.
"But we were told it was poison gas, sir." Suzaku tried to argue.
"You follow your orders, Private. Being an Honorary Britannian wont excuse your insubordination."
"This man is above your reproach." Lelouch said finally, unwilling to watch Suzaku reprimanded any further. "He is under my command and is following my orders."
He took a step forward to draw their attention to him and almost possessively supported the girl against his side. "Prince Lelouch vi Britannia?" One of them asked in surprise as they shared a nervous glance.
"Yes." Lelouch answered simply.
This situation was bound to get ugly. It was unlikely the guard would leave without the girl, but Lelouch wasn't willing to give her up either. Regardless of the fact that he didn't know what Clovis was using her for, he wasn't about to simply surrender her. But he was going to be pissed if she turned out to be some ex-lover of the Viceroy's. And not only for the blatant waste of resources.
After a long, awkward moment, one of the Royal Guard members finally reached for his radio. "Your highness, we've found the target."
"Good." Clovis sounded relieved as his voice echoed through the device loud enough for Lelouch to hear.
"But we've encountered a problem. The target . . . well, she's with Prince Lelouch."
"Lelouch? You mean Lelouch is there? With her? Now?" Clovis demanded panicked. "How did he get there so quickly? He's supposed to still be at his party."
Well, it seemed his brother hadn't noticed his absence. He'd been gone for at least an hour by the time he'd stumbled upon this disaster. But the panicky tone in his brother's voice had set Lelouch on edge. Clovis had always been rash when he was put under pressure.
"Yes, my prince." The Royal Guard answered.
For a long time there was no reply as both parties stared awkwardly at each other in the silence. Lelouch knew that trying to convince them to back off would be more than a waste of breath and the Royal Guard knew that they didn't have the authority to order him to do anything. They were at an impasse, or so Lelouch had thought.
"You had your orders. I expect you to see them through." Clovis said with a resigned sigh.
"But, Viceroy!" The Royal Guard's spokesman protested.
"No one is allowed to know about her. Especially not another member of the Imperial family. And most especially not Lelouch."
Lelouch felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach as he rapidly realized just what orders Clovis had given to his Royal Guard. They were not at an impasse. Lelouch and all his vaunted 'authority' counted for nothing against nine armed men trying to kill him. His only assets were his gun and Suzaku's.
He subtly shifted the girl behind him so he wouldn't be using her as a human shield and noticed the way that Suzaku not-so-subtly moved so he was standing in front of him. Apparently, Suzaku thought shielding him with his body was a good idea, but it might have been more effective if he'd at least drawn his weapon so he could fight back.
"We're really sorry about this, your highness. We have orders to dispose of anyone who comes in contact with that girl." One of the guards explained.
"Your apologies are meaningless. If you kill me, you can be assured of only one thing. That I will be avenged. Clovis may have supreme authority in Area Eleven, but there are others who have more power and who have less love for him than I do. You have to realize that he's given you a death sentence. If you follow your orders, you will be executed for the murder of a prince. I assure you the Prime Minister will be able to see through any subterfuge Clovis can concoct." The threatened. Intimidation was his last recourse.
"But if we don't kill you, Clovis will have us executed too." The guard explained. "So, between a definite and a maybe, I'll go with the maybe." He said as he raised his gun.
"I won't let you hurt Lelouch." Suzaku said firmly before he was moving . . . like some kind of lethal circus acrobat. Lelouch had never seen Suzaku fight like this before. During the invasion, Suzaku had had all of the technique down, but none of the physical strength to put those moves effectively into use. And earlier that day Suzaku had been fighting purely defensively.
But this . . . this was Suzaku lashing out. Rage, maybe, or his desire to protect Lelouch, he wasn't sure, but Suzaku was striking back. And striking effectively. The first hit dropped the Royal Guard's spokesman and put Suzaku in the center of their formation.
After that, Lelouch lost track of the hits. His friend had turned into some kind of whirling dervish of punches and kicks, though none seemed to hit as hard as the first. The funny thing about throwing a martial artist into the center of a group of armed men, is that they don't particularly want to shoot for fear of missing and hitting one of their allies.
Suzaku managed to knock two more to the floor - one unconscious and one gasping for breath through a crushed larynx – whilst fending off the attacks of the others before one of them finally got over their fear and fired.
"Suzaku!" Lelouch cried in horror as his friend dropped to the ground and blood bloomed on the dirty concrete beneath him. A lot of blood. "You bastards!"
He raised his gun to retaliate, heedless of the fact that it was only him against six and that he should have been running for his life. Suzaku shouldn't have had to die for his sake. He shouldn't have protected Lelouch. No, Lelouch shouldn't have dragged him into this mess. He should have simply sent Suzaku on his way when they'd run into each other in the tunnels earlier.
He pulled the trigger and was satisfied when he got the man who had shot Suzaku in the throat, before he felt a firm grasp on his arm tugging him out of the way of an incoming bullet.
That girl!
That girl who had heretofore remained weak and shambling held his arm with surprising strength as she wordlessly pushed him behind her and took three bullets for him – two in the chest and one in the head.
"No!" He cried helplessly, catching her falling corpse as his world continuously spiraled out of control. He sank to his knees under her dead weight, staring in horror at her pale, blood-spattered face.
First Suzaku and now this girl. This girl who hadn't known him from Adam. Why had she done it? Why had she saved him? She probably hadn't even known who he was. So why the hell would she die for him?
And what the hell would happen now?
The Royal Guard's barrage came to a stunned halt as they realized they'd just killed the objective of their recovery operation. "God damn it." One of the remaining guards grumbled. "We were supposed to bring her back alive if we could, but we'll just tell Clovis that you killed her rather than let us have her."
They raised their weapons again and Lelouch knew for certain that he was dead. There was no one who was going to miraculously come to his aid in the knick of time. No one knew where he was. And even if someone did know, his allies in this country were surprisingly few.
He was going to die here. Die without accomplishing any of his goals. Without avenging his mother. Without killing his father. Without creating a better place for Nunnally.
Nunnally!
Who was going to take care of Nunnally? She'd be completely alone. There would be no one left on this earth who truly loved her. And who would protect her? Who would make sure she didn't get dragged back into the same hell he had been. Who?
No. No. He categorically refused. He couldn't die here. He couldn't. There had to be some way. Some loophole. Some way out. What did he have to barter with? How could he outsmart them? They couldn't hold the complete advantage. There had to be something they didn't expect. Some way, some how, he had to survive this. For Nunnally.
The girl's body spasmed in his arms and delicate fingers closed around his wrist. For a moment he was confused as he felt himself being dragged away from reality, almost like struggling to wake from a lingering dream. At least, he thought that situation, with Suzaku dead and the Royal Guard bearing down on him and some mysterious girl dead in his arms, was reality.
Maybe. But this new place felt familiar too, like an overwhelming sense of deja vu that sent his senses spiraling. Somehow, he knew that spacescape. He knew these confused images that continued to flash before his eyes. He knew those images of men and woman, could name them and tell stories about them. Rivalz. Nunnally. Milly. Hector. Nunnally. His father. Edith. Shirley. His mother. Nunnally.
He laughed almost madly because he'd always thought it had been ridiculous. That one's life could flash before their eyes when they stood on the precipice of death. He'd never actually believed, but here was the proof. He was going to die.
"Do you want to live?" A voice echoed around him, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time as his world faded all to white.
The answer was obvious. He wouldn't be freaking out right now if he didn't want to live. "Yes." He answered desperately.
"Then I propose a deal. I will grant you a power that will grant you a life like no other. The power of kings will condemn you to solitude but grant you a different life, a different providence. In return for this power, you must make my one wish come true. If you accept this contract, you accept it's conditions. Do we have a deal?"
Was this a joke? Some bone of false hope tossed to him by a malevolent deity hoping to utterly crush him? No, even if it was, he couldn't risk it. He would do anything right now to ensure his survival so he could go on protecting Nunnally.
A second before he answered a white-washed image of that girl from the capsule flashed before his eyes. She stared at him mutely, hand held out in offering, and he understood that this was a gift from her. Her last gasp was being devoted to him.
"Yes. I accept the terms of the contract." He said firmly as he reached for her hand, only to have the vision disappear and to find himself thrust back into reality.
Somehow, he knew instinctively what to do. The power she had granted him needed no instruction, the directions were engraved deeply into his mind. He carefully set the girl on the floor at his feet and stood.
"Well, at least you decided to die on your feet like a real man." One of the Royal Guard's smirked.
Lelouch didn't waste time bandying words with a dead man. Instead he let the power – Geass, his subconscious whispered to him – flare magnificently in his left eye. "I, Lelouch vi Britannia, command all of you to die!" He ordered vengefully as a sigil shaped like a bird faintly overlapped his vision, like an afterimage caused by a camera flash.
The men didn't hesitate even for a moment before turning their guns on themselves with pleasure. But even this mass suicide wasn't enough to sate his need for vengeance. He finished off the two men Suzaku had knocked unconscious with his own gun before collapsing onto the floor next to the dead girl and burying his face in his hands.
He needed to think. This power was amazing, but he was sure it wasn't absolute. He needed a plan. Where he was going . . . what he was going to do . . . Clovis had to pay. All of this madness was his fault. Suzaku and that girl were dead because of Clovis.
The newspapers had had it wrong. He wasn't a god of victory. If he was a god of anything, it was vengeance. Clovis would pay. He would make Clovis despair his actions before he killed him. Suzaku . . . Clovis would have killed him either way. He should have been able to protect his friend better. If only the girl had given him this power sooner. If only . . .
But it was no use agonizing over what if's.
All he could do now was move forward. Avenge them. He needed to find Clovis and he needed to find a safe way to get there. The ghettos were no place for a Britannian, let alone a Britannian prince who had sworn to destroy all resistance in the country. Not to mention there would likely be an army of Clovis' soldiers between him and the Viceroy.
If Clovis raise the hue and cry for him, it was guaranteed that at least some of them would be willing to carry out his orders. Some of them would be willing to kill to appease the Viceroy, even if their victim was to be another prince.
He grimaced. This situation was complicated. He didn't have the benefit of anonymity at all and so he had to assume that everyone he met could be an enemy. He likely wouldn't find help from any of the Britannians or Elevens he came across . . .
No, that wasn't true. There was one man, at least, that would possibly lend him aid. He hoped. And he just so happened to have nine radios programmed with the Britannian forces' frequencies. The foggy outlines of a plan formed in his mind as he relieved the nearest corpse of it's radio and scrolled through the presets.
Here's to luck and the tattered remnants of loyalty.
An:
. . . So . . . how much do you love me for updating again so soon? Even I didn't expect to get this finished this quickly but the story kind of took on a life of it's own and pestered me into writing it in the scant hours of free time (which should have been devoted to nap time between the time I get home from school and have to go to work) I had available. I'd initially intended to write the next POV as part of this chapter as well, but Lelouch's pov ended up longer than I expected so it will have to start the next chapter.
So comments about last chapter . . .
Okay, about the whole Private 404 thing . . . I get that it's funny, but that's the number they had for him in canon. Honestly. I found the transcripts online and they referred to Suzaku as 404, so that's where that comes from. Though some of your comments were fairly amusing. :D
I'm glad so many of you enjoyed the party scene last chapter. I was a little iffy about it at first, but I'm glad it went over well.
Also, to my reviewer 'Beloved Nightmare', I believe I already stated this, but if you want a response from me, then you have to sign in. Also, my review responses are pretty sparse anyway. I generally only reply if your reviews are really excellent and you pose questions to me that actually take some thought to answer and aren't spoilers. Sorry, but I'd rather spend my time writing the next chapter than replying to reviews (and I'm sure most of you prefer that too). Not that I don't read them all and appreciate them.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It seems like a lot of things are happening and I can foresee the Shinjuku incident taking up several chapters yet. I'll definitely try not to simply paraphrase canon when it comes to dialog because I know that annoys me when I read fanfiction, but some lines will inevitably be the same, I think. Apologies in advance.
Please read and review. I'm off now to vegetate for a couple hours while playing Oblivion before I start the next chapter. I've got 3 days off work (seriously, this never happens!) and over a weekend too, so I'll see how far I get into the next chapter before I have to get back to the grind of work and school. Thanks for reading!
Allora