Chapter 14: Geass vs Geass

"Shit!" Tamaki is the first to express his feelings upon seeing the scene, but others quickly join him.

"So she knew who he was?"

"Why didn't she ever say so?"

"This doesn't make any sense!"

Quickly, amidst the words of several audience members, a loud noise is heard, which can quickly be seen to come from Zero kicking the ground hard several times.

"Please remain calm," Zero says as he finally saw that everyone had stopped talking when they heard him. "I can see that this is quite surprising to all of you, but we would be wasting our time if we spoke without first thinking about what we've seen."

"What could we possibly think!" Rivalz looks at Zero in complete disbelief. "Shirley knew that Lelouch was Zero! That doesn't make any sense!"

Milly nods quickly. "That's right! It doesn't make sense that Shirley knew about it."

"Really?" Guilford asks skeptically. "Miss Fenette never really acted strangely in front of the Demon Emperor? Anything to indicate that she knew about his identity?"

Milly frowns slightly. "Well... there was a moment where Shirley acted like she'd never met Lelouch, like they were complete strangers, but we thought it was just a fight between them, but then she went back to acting normal."

"The situation certainly looks strange," Xingke breathes heavily for a moment as he closes his eyes. "The fact that she acted as if she'd never met Lelouch is certainly odd, but it could be explained in any number of ways, though the fact that she's acting like she did before doesn't make much sense."

"Maybe it would be best if we just watched the next episode right away," Cécile suggests. "The safest thing to do is to tell us what happened between the two of them, which would be better than simply discussing and speculating about something we'll see soon."

Zero nods. "I agree with Miss Croomy, it would be best if we simply continued on to the next episode."

They all quickly nod at Zero's words, but it can see the members of Ashford's group glance nervously at each other.

"Lelouch..." Milly's mind quickly flashed back to various memories of when Shirley had acted as if she had never been friends with Lelouch. "Please, please tell me you didn't hurt her in any way."

Nunnally for her part seeing that everyone had prepared, starts the next episode, quickly skipping the summary as she could see that it was the same as the previous episode.

Immediately the screen goes completely black, but before long the title of the episode is displayed; "Geass vs Geass".

"Are we going to see another Geass?" Gino was surprised at what he read on the screen. "I thought we were going to see what happened with Shirley."

"Maybe we'll see both, after all, we've seen that several different events happen in one episode," Sayoko says with a smile. "Maybe what happened with Miss Shirley will appear during the first half of the episode, while the other Geass user will appear during the second half."

Tohdoh nods. "It's most likely, maybe the two are even connected in some way."

Milly listening to Tohdoh can't help but clench her fist in worry. "Shirley, let's hope nothing bad happens."

"That makes sense, though I wonder who has the other power," Tamaki says, rubbing his head. "Maybe it's that weird guy with the visor."

Ohgi agrees with Tamaki. "That's for sure, plus with this we can see if a Geass really is always the same power or if it's different for each person."

"It will undoubtedly be the most interesting part of this episode." Schneizel smiles eagerly, while his eyes show great curiosity.

"Command to 4-0-1!" A soldier's voice is heard, as the battle-damaged harbor is shown. "Move to 9 o'clock to suppress the enemy, then rendezvous with the main force!" The Lancelot is seen using his weapon to defend against the Guren's wave trigger, though it is quickly destroyed. "Special C.P. suppression unit to all knightmares! Code Alpha Combat! Alpha nine! Confirm current situation and report!"

Rivalz angrily raises both hands. "Oh come on, I want to see what happened between Lelouch and Shirley!"

Tohdoh can't help but let out a sigh. "It looks like we're going to have to see the rest of the battle first."

"Unit 9-0-3!" Another soldier's voice is heard. "Alpha nine, confirmed!"

Kallen for her part decides to retreat, using the knightmare's smoke to get away from the Lancelot.

"No, wait!" Suzaku shouts as he sees the Guren move away.

"Don't chase him!" Darlton orders over the comm. "Protecting the Viceroy is now the top priority!"

Cornelia just looks fondly at Darlton again. "You really cared too much for me, Darlton, though I suppose that was to be expected considering how you really are."

Far away from where the battle is happening, Ohgi can be seen trying to communicate with Zero on his radio.

"Zero!" shouts Ohgi in desperation. "Answer me, Zero!"

"Ohgi, is that you?" C.C.'s voice comes out of the radio, confusing Ohgi. "It's me, C.C."

Cornelia looks at Ohgi. "C.C. contacted you on Lelouch's radio?"

"Yeah, it seemed a little weird to me at the time, but I thought there must be a reason," Ohgi says trying to remember that night. "But it doesn't make sense now, she shouldn't have grabbed Lelouch's radio seeing what we know."

"That leaves two possible explanations," Xingke says with a frown. "The first is that Miss Fenette had left that place before C.C. arrived for some reason, and the other is that C.C. herself somehow made Miss Fenette a non-issue."

Milly looks completely worried at Xingke. "You mean she might have done something to Shirley? She didn't hurt her, did she?"

"I doubt that Miss C.C. did anything to Miss Fenette that could seriously or permanently damage her," Schneizel said calmly. "She knows that Miss Fenette's father's death affected Lelouch quite badly. Doing anything to her would only make things worse."

"Not to mention that it might make Lelouch not want to work with her anymore," Cornelia adds. "The worst thing she could have done was repeat the same trick she used against Kururugi," she says.

Rivalz nods quickly. "That-that makes sense, but it's still strange."

"In fact, both possibilities are very strange," Kaguya says, closing her eyes for a moment. "It would be best to get on with the episode."

Unnoticed, Villetta can be seen shrinking back in her seat, knowing quite well what had happened.

"How is Zero?" asks Ohgi worried.

"All right, but he can't move now," C.C. replies, "Give the order to stand down. If this continues, we will be slaughtered."

Ohgi as he listens to C.C. turns his head slightly as he hears a noise, only to end up seeing Diethard, who is heading towards him.

"Yes, you're right," Ohgi replies to C.C. when he sees that it wasn't an enemy coming up behind him. "I understand."

"Don't you think you took her orders too easily?" Guilford asks Ohgi. "You didn't even ask her to communicate with the Demon Emperor first, or anything that could prove that her words were what the Demon Emperor wanted."

Ohgi averts his gaze a bit embarrassed. "I don't know, I just trusted that C.C. was telling the truth, after all Zero had trusted her to impersonate him during our meeting with Kyoto, plus by that time we all knew that she was some kind of partner or friend of Zero's."

Lelouch looks down at his helmet near where his cockpit had crashed, the young man seeming to be fully recovered, while C.C. quickly approaches him.

"Well, at least we can see that Lelouch was completely fine, so Shirley couldn't have shot him anyway," says Gino, letting out a sigh of relief.

"B-besides, Shirley doesn't seem to be there, so she'll probably end up leaving the place for some reason," Nina adds.

At Nina's words, the other members of Ashford's group let out their own sighs of relief, finally seeing that nothing bad had happened to Shirley there.

"Then we're just left to see the reason why Miss Fenette left the place," Zero says, looking at the screen. "Maybe Shirley ran away because she couldn't accept that Lelouch was Zero, I couldn't blame her, I might have acted the same way if I hadn't..."

"Are you sure about this?" asked the green-haired immortal, who was wearing Lelouch's clothes plus a cap that somehow managed to hide most of her hair. C.C.'s words causing Lelouch to only make a few sounds of confusion as he came out of the trance he seemed to be in. "This is pathetic. You're so affected that you can't give orders, and Cornelia..."

Lelouch turns to face C.C., interrupting her. "Listen to me. My gun is gone. Whoever has it now must have taken it when I was unconscious."

"If that's true... it means they saw your face," says C.C., seeing the gravity of the situation.

"Then she left with Lelouch's gun," Kaguya frowns. "That could end up being a big problem."

Xingke nods. "Yes, an obviously upset teenage girl and a gun are never a good combination, much less in this case."

"I don't remember any kind of report of a teenage girl carrying a gun, so at least she couldn't have caused anything that would draw too much attention," Cornelia says, clenching her jaw.

"There were at least two people," Lelouch says with a frown, then looks down at the ground, making several bloodstains appear all over the area. "One who shot and the one who was shot. Two..."

Milly's eyes go wide at the words and blood displayed on the screen. "W-wait, so you're telling me that..."

"Shirley was attacked by someone else, or she shot someone else," Kallen finishes Milly's words, even though the redhead herself can hardly believe them.

"But that doesn't make sense!" Rivalz protests, completely confused. "Shirley never seemed to be hurt in any way, and she would never shoot another person."

"That's right," Milly seconds, clasping her hands together. "Shirley didn't go to school the day after this, but she quickly returned to class without any injuries, and she would never shoot anyone under any circumstances, she was too nice to do that."

Jeremiah nods. "It's rather peculiar the whole situation, as we can rule out that Miss Fenette was the one who was shot if your words of her are the truth, and her personality does not seem that of a person who would be willing to shoot another, especially seeing as it seems she was unable to shoot His Majesty even after discovering he was Zero."

Ohgi closes his eyes for a moment, not noticing how his wife shrank back even more in her seat. "Maybe there was actually a third person? Maybe that one shot the second one while the girl just walked away from everything, maybe it's that other Geass user."

"It's certainly a... possibility, but it also has its own problems for it to work, plus I also wonder where the body of the person who was shot is, it's weird that it's not at the scene," Xingke says, holding his chin. "We'd better keep looking, that way we'll probably get the information we're looking for."

Everyone quickly nods, though Milly can't help but look at the screen worriedly. "Please don't let anything bad happen."

Lelouch's weapon can be seen on a desk, while a hand next to it seems to be writing some kind of letter or note, but some drops of water fall on the note, causing the paper to be ruined, whereupon the person who was writing grabs the note to crush it with his hands, all this while the person's faint sobs are heard.

"Shirley?" A girl's voice is heard, as the person who was writing the note is shown to be Shirley, who quickly hides the gun in her shirt when she hears the voice. "What are you doing so early?"

Shirley looks out of the corner of her eye at her roommate, who looks tired from waking up so early. "No, it's nothing."

"So Miss Fenette did leave, even though she had the gun," says Schneizel, and then lets out a small laugh. "At least we can at least eliminate the possibility that she was the victim of the shooting, we can only see if she was the one who fired the shot, or if it was really someone else."

"It had to, it had to be someone else, no way Shirley would shoot someone," Milly thinks looking at Shirley with concern.

"There's also the fact that she decided to go back to what appears to be her dorm room, instead of going to the police," Cécile says, looking at the teenager with pity.

Lloyd laughs at his assistant's words. "That's right, it seems that she at least at the time had no intention of informing anyone of His Majesty's true identity."

"It's no surprise, it must have been quite a shock for her to find out," Rakshata says, smoking her pipe. "She's probably trying to collect her thoughts, and then decide what she's going to do."

Shirley's companion gives a flirtatious smile. "I bet it's a love letter. Is it for Lelouch?"

Shirley is obviously affected by the question, causing her to look down at her crumpled note again, and then let out a weak laugh. "Perhaps it is."

All the members of Ashford and several others couldn't help but look at Shirley with much pity, even Cornelia, who was upset at having to watch what she considered a waste of time, couldn't help but feel bad for the young girl, knowing how painful the whole situation must be for her.

"Weird, normally this sort of thing wouldn't matter this much to me," Cornelia thinks biting her lip as she hunches over. "It seems that somehow seeing her and the other students so many times has really gotten to me, even though I always thought it was a waste of time... It really is strange."

"Poor thing," Ohgi lets out a sigh as he feels the guilt growing in him. "Not only did she lose her father because of us, but she also found out who Lelouch was, and in the end she... I need to go apologize to her mother, for everything we did."

The exterior of Ashford is shown as time passes, until finally it appears to be midday.

"Do you want to see Princess Euphemia?" asked Suzaku sitting in the council room, near him were the other members, with the exception of Lelouch and Shirley.

Nina coos a little at the question. "T-to thank her... I just want to thank her.

At her words and behavior, a blush appears on Nina's face, and she tries to cover her face at the reminder that her feelings for Euphemia are now common knowledge to everyone in the room, and the activities she did when she was alone in the council room.

The others in the room also react to Nina's words, with several looking at the young woman with pity or embarrassment, while others just averted their gaze, Cornelia being the only one who stared at Nina without pity or embarrassment, only feeling a mixture of anger and discomfort.

"Aghh, I don't want to have to listen to her talk about Euphy," Cornelia thinks with a grimace of distaste as she shivers slightly in her seat.

"She risked herself to protect Nina during the hotel takeover," Milly said, looking at Suzaku, then looking at Nina, who was blushing at the memory. "She stood up and said, 'I'm Euphemia', right?"

"I see," Suzaku says looking at Nina.

Rivalz for his part leans forward. "I want to see her too!"

"Why?" Milly asks curiously.

"Well, she's a princess! I could marry into royalty!" Rivalz's words made Milly's expression change to one of skepticism and annoyance.

Immediately Rivalz cringes as he can feel Cornelia's withering gaze on him, the poor boy could only let out a pathetic shriek at Cornelia.

"I see, so that's what you wanted when you met my sister," Cornelia's words only made Rivalz somehow manage to sink further into his place. Cornelia herself though speaking calmly, to the surprise of all those who knew the great love she had for her sister. "I'm afraid to say that would have never happen, no matter the situation, understood?"

"Yes," Rivalz replied weakly as he tried to see someone to help him, but everyone quickly averted their gazes, not wanting to meddle in the matter, except for Zero, who just stared at Rivalz, making Rivalz only feel even more afraid for some reason.

"I'm sure you'll never meet her with such impure motives," Nunnally says with a smile, as if she's simply talking about the weather.

A pair of chuckles came from the lips of Lloyd and Rakshata, both scientists laughing at the young Empress' words.

"Wow, I didn't expect to hear that from you, Nunnally," Kaguya says, also smiling in amusement.

"Well, I didn't want Sister Euphemia to ever make such a mistake," Nunnally says, not at all embarrassed. "She deserved to be with someone who loved her for who she was, not for being part of our family."

Cornelia nods as she looks at Rivalz. "That's right, I myself would destroy anyone who tried to date Euphy just for her status."

Rivalz could only swallow his own saliva in fear. "Note to self: never mess with Lelouch's family in any way," suddenly Rivalz's mind flashes to the original reason why Lelouch started his revolution, making the teenager shudder. "How lucky I never tried anything with Nunnally, I actually dodged a bullet."

"I-impures?" Rivalz depressedly bows his head to the ground, while Nina also shrinks a little at the young girl's words. "That's a bit harsh, don't you think, Nunnally? You're on my side, aren't you, Miss Presiden...?" Rivalz tries to approach Milly, but Milly pushes him away with a rolled up piece of paper.

"Don't take your evil affection out on me just because Lelouch isn't here," Milly says annoyed, shoving Rivalz with the paper. "Nunnally saw right through you, just like I did."

Nunnally can't help but let out an adorable giggle. "Still, I'd like to see Princess Euphemia too," Nunnally's words surprise Suzaku and Milly, who turn to look at Nunnally. "What do you say, Suzaku?"

"You wanted to see Princess Euphemia?" Gino says in surprise. "But that could get you found out."

"I know, but I still wanted to see sister Euphy again, she's always been my favorite sister," Nunnally replies with a smile.

"Uh, it's just that she's a member of the Royal Family, and..." Suzaku is interrupted by the sound of the room's phone ringing, so Suzaku quickly answers, "Hello, Ashford Academy Student Council."

"Suzaku?" Lelouch's voice is heard from the phone.

Suzaku quickly smiles as he thinks he recognizes the voice. "Lelouch?"

"Is there anything unusual there?" Lelouch asks.

"Yes," Suzaku replies seriously, making Lelouch a little nervous, though the Japanese man's expression quickly changes to a smile. "You're not here."

Is hear over the phone how Lelouch chokes slightly on his saliva. "Hey."

"That sounded really gay," said Tamaki, causing several of them to choke on their saliva at the red-head's unexpected words.

"T-Tamaki!" Ohgi looks at his friend in complete disbelief. "Y-you can't say something like that!"

"Hey, I'm not judging them," says Tamaki raising his arms. "But you can't tell me that didn't sound like something a girl would say to her boyfriend, even Zero seemed surprised by Kururugi's words."

Most people in the room just stood in silence, not knowing what to make of Tamaki's words, while others like Lloyd and Rakshata just laughed, amused by the situation.

For his part, Zero simply gripped his seat tightly, trying not to notice Nunnally and Kallen's glares at him. "I, no... I didn't... I didn't sound like a girl talking to her boyfriend, did I?"

"Can we just get on with the episode?" Tohdoh asks as he sighs.

Nunnally quickly nods and continues the episode, still watching Zero out of the corner of her eye.

"Shirley didn't come today either," Suzaku looks with a sad look at Arthur, who was at his feet trying to grab the phone cord. Lelouch for his part doesn't make a sound at Suzaku's words for a couple of seconds. "You've been missing a lot of classes lately. You should take school more seriously!"

"Okay, Mr. Honor Student," Lelouch replies as you can see Kallen was also in the council room, the redhead reading a book, though she was away from the others. "Can you give Nunnally a message for me? Tell her I'll be late tonight," along with Lelouch's words part of his face is shown, which has a smile on it.

Suzaku hearing Lelouch turns to see Nunnally. "Did you say tonight? More like every night. What's the point of going to the same school if I never see you?"

"They really sound ga..."

Chiba quickly stomps hard on Tamaki's foot, causing him to stop talking to simply let out a cry of pain.

"Thank you," says Cornelia, for once truly grateful to the Japanese woman.

"Don't thank me, I just wanted him to shut up too."

Suddenly Arthur jumps towards Suzaku, causing him to give a scream that surprises Lelouch, who was in the Black Knights' base, dressed in his Zero costume, only not wearing the mask.

"What's going on?" Lelouch asks when he hears the noise.

"Ag, nothing. Wait, Arthur!" Suzaku screamed again, then cut the call.

Lelouch looks at his phone in confusion. "What kind of game are they playing?"

"A pretty painful one," Zero thinks holding his hand as he remembers Arthur's bites.

"So, apparently..." C.C. raises her head, showing that she was standing next to Lelouch.

"Yes. Suzaku doesn't seem to know anything about me," Lelouch says calmly. "That eliminates one group, the military."

"Besides the army and the Black Knights, I can't think of anyone else who could have been in that place," C.C. says, looking at Lelouch curiously.

Tianzi looks at the screen in confusion. "Don't he remember seeing Miss Shirley?"

"It's not uncommon for someone to not remember what happened shortly before losing consciousness," Rakshata says with amusement.

"Someone from the Japan Liberation Front could have survived," Lelouch theorizes.

C.C. just closes her eyes while raising her head. "And so they just stole your gun?"

"I think I'll have Ohgi look on the black market," Lelouch approaches C.C., and then sits down on the same sofa she is sitting on.

"And the blood?" C.C. asks, leaning back.

"They're collecting it, but it'll take a long time," Lelouch replied, then recalled the moment he'd seen Shirley. "Besides, I thought I saw Shirley in the battle."

Schneizel nods. "So Lelouch only thinks he saw Miss Fenette, but he's not sure he really did, it makes sense enough, after all Lelouch would surely have gone looking for her immediately if he was sure she was there."

"Now the problem will be to see what he does with his suspicion," Guilford says, causing several Ashford members to tense at the reminder that something had happened between Lelouch and Shirley.

"The girl who kissed you?" asks C.C.

Lelouch chokes on his saliva again, then looks at his accomplice in annoyance. "That's enough of that!"

"I was just making sure I didn't get the wrong girl, lover boy," C.C. says nonchalantly. "But if she was there, then there's something we need to know, and we'd better find out fast."

Kallen frowns. "I can't believe C.C. would still be joking at a time like that."

"Why are you surprised?" Tamaki says annoyed. "We could already see that she didn't care about the girl in the first place."

"I know, but it's still annoying to watch."

In the Viceroy's building, Cornelia and Euphemia can be seen seated on their thrones, in front of them were Darlton and Guilford.

"In this last operation and also at Narita, they were specifically targeting you, Your Highness," Darlton says.

"Taking out the leader is a standard tactic in combat," Cornelia says, not giving Darlton's words much thought.

"They also eliminated Prince Clovis," Guilford says, his words causing Cornelia to frown.

Like her counterpart, Cornelia also frowns at the reminder of her half-brother's death. "Clovis... I hope you're resting."

"Zero isn't simply fighting Britannia," Darlton said, looking directly at Cornelia. "He has a deep hatred for the royal family, and he wants blood."

"Hate?" Euphemia said as she began to remember what happened at the hotel.

"Euphemia, you were willing to sacrifice yourself for those commoners," Zero says in memory. "You haven't changed a bit."

Guilford shook his head. "I still don't understand what the Demon Emperor meant by saying that to Princess Euphemia, it doesn't make sense with the way he's been acting."

"It's really strange, Lelouch had no reason to tell her that," Ohgi settles back into his seat. "Maybe he just got carried away when he saw his sister again."

Nunnally listening to Ohgi again feels that feeling of jealousy she had felt before. "Big brother, was it really just that, why, why didn't you ever tell me the truth? Maybe if you did everything would have been different... Big brother."

Euphemia at the memory just looks at the ground with an indecipherable expression.

"Be careful, Euphy," Cornelia says, rising from her throne to approach her sister, catching her attention.

Euphemia looks at Cornelia with confusion. "Huh?"

"I don't want another crisis like the one that happened at the hotel," Cornelia runs her hand over her sister's face.

"Why don't you assign her a knight?" said Guilford.

"A knight?" Euphemia says in confusion.

"If Princess Euphemia has a knight to protect her at all times, we can build a Royal Guard around him," Guilford looked at both sisters. "As Sub-Viceroy, Princess Euphemia is entitled to a personal champion."

Guilford hearing the words he had said long ago looks at Cornelia with shame. "Your Highness, I'm really sorry, things might have been better if I had never proposed that Princess Euphemia get a knight."

"Don't blame yourself, Guilford," Cornelia gently grips her knight's arm. "There's no way you could have known what would happen when you said those words, you were simply thinking of what was best for Euphy."

"So he was the one who made Euphy have to have a knight," Zero thinks looking at Guilford. "I honestly don't know how to feel about that."

In the Lancelot's maintenance room, Lloyd and Cécile can be seen facing the mighty knightmare.

"This saving people's lives thing... at first I thought he was, you know, sensitive, but now, I mean, it's more like an obsession, isn't it?" Cécile asks Lloyd as various moments of Suzaku on the Lancelot are shown.

"Miss Cecile," Zero looks at Cecile, who was looking at the screen with a sad expression. "You really were good at noticing when there was something wrong with me, I should really thank you in some way."

"His performance data is still solid, isn't it?" Lloyd says as he uses his computer, next to him can be seen a strange food that appears to be a steak dipped in soup, with various sweets around it. "Is this a good time to test that novelty on him?"

"But we're still fine-tuning," says Cécile worriedly. "What I'm saying is that treating Suzaku as if he were just another part of the machine could have serious consequences. We'd better deal with the human problem first."

"But in the end I couldn't do it," Cecile thinks looking discreetly at Zero. "I'm sorry Suzaku, I wish I could have stopped all of this from happening, I wish I had realized how bad you really were... I wish there was a way for me to apologize properly."

"Excuse me, but aren't you treating him instead of someone else?" Lloyd asks his assistant.

Cécile's eyes widen nervously "I'm not sure about that, but..."

"Hmmm?"

"You're quick to pick up on nonsense like that, aren't you?"

Lloyd lets out a laugh. "I'm the boss, so you're stuck with me."

At Ashford Academy, Shirley's roommate can be seen in front of her dormitory door, in her eyes it can easily be seen that she is being controlled by Lelouch's Geass.

"What are you doing here alone?" asked a student approaching Shirley's classmate with a friend.

"I'm waiting. I need to wait until they finish disinfecting my room."

"Wait, so Lelouch and C.C. are in Shirley's room?" Rivalz says uncertainly.

Milly nods. "It seems so, they're probably looking to see if it was really Shirley who took Lelouch's gun."

"Why should I go through a girl's underwear?" C.C. asks inside Shirley's room as she rifles through the drawers of clothes, turning to look at Lelouch. "This is going to cost you!"

"It always does," Lelouch replies, looking in other drawers.

Quickly almost all the men avert their gaze, none of them wanting to see the underwear of a teenage girl, while the few who don't turn around like Gino or Rivalz are quickly forced to do so by the women present at the meeting.

"None of you can see the screen until everything is okay," Milly says for once in a serious tone as she holds Rivalz's head so he doesn't look at the screen.

"But Lelouch is doing it," Gino says with amusement.

Kallen quickly frowns. "Lelouch is only in Shirley's room for something important, and yet he had C.C. be the one to check Shirley's underwear instead of doing it himself."

"Hmm, you could do this alone," says C.C. "She'd be delighted to know that the man she loves was looking through...

"That's my problem," says Lelouch, interrupting the immortal.

Villetta looks at C.C. in exasperation "Really? She shouldn't have to joke around at that moment, let alone about that sort of thing."

"It's no use bothering at this point, it's obvious that C.C. doesn't care at all," Xingke says.

"So Lelouch did know that Shirley was in love with him?" Kaguya asks curiously. "Seeing that he doesn't seem to be surprised by C.C.'s words."

"I think she already made her feelings pretty obvious by kissing him after her father's death," Tamaki says, scratching his head.

Sayoko shakes her head. "True, that should make it obvious that Miss Shirley's feelings were romantic in nature, but many times I've seen similar cases where there's nothing romantic, the person was simply looking for some kind of affection or comfort to distract them from the whole situation."

"Maybe, but it's obvious to us that this wasn't the case, and it looks like it was to the Demon Emperor as well," Chiba crosses her arms, then looks at Milly. "You said there was a moment where they acted like they didn't know each other, but there was nothing that said the Demon Emperor knew about her feelings?"

Milly frowns trying to remember. "I can't tell, I honestly can't remember if Lelouch acted like he knew about Shirley's feelings, maybe he did, but I can't remember."

"Me neither," Rivalz says, while Kallen and Nina nod as they can't remember either.

"Well, I guess we can just wait and see what happens," Tohdoh says, standing his ground.

C.C. sits on the bed in the room while holding Shirley's diary, then opens it and looks through it. "Once again, you're making a big deal out of nothing. Well, there's no trace of that gun in here. And her diary only goes up to the 14th."

"The 14th?" Lelouch asks as he holds a box in his hand.

"Yes."

"That's the day his father died," Lelouch says to himself as he tries to open the box, but by mistake he ends up throwing it, causing its contents to scatter on the floor, so C.C. tries to see what was inside while Lelouch looks at it in confusion. "What are you...?"

"It's a bunch of pictures of you," C.C. says, grabbing a handful of the photos.

"Of me?"

Tamaki looks at the screen while blinking. "So she was a stalker?"

"Shirley wasn't a stalker!" Milly says annoyed. "We can see that she was in some pictures with Lelouch, plus it's not uncommon to have pictures of your friends."

"It may not be weird to have pictures of your friends, but it's certainly weird to have several of them of one guy in a box, several of which were obviously not taken with his consent," Cornelia said with a frown, as she remembered that several times the paparazzi tried to take pictures of her and Euphemia. "Whether you want to admit it or not, it's weird."

Milly clenches her fist. "Shirley was just in love with Lelouch! She would never have hurt him in any way!"

"Believe me, Miss Ashford, no one is saying that Miss Fenette planned to harm Lelouch in any way," Schneizel says with a gentle smile. "It's just that, for us, and more specifically for several of my sisters, having our pictures taken without our consent has always been a bit of a sensitive subject, but believe me when I say that my sister wasn't trying to insult Miss Fenette, right?" Along with his words, Schneizel looks at Cornelia, who reluctantly nods.

"I see," Milly says, still annoyed. "I suppose I can understand your position, but I'd still prefer it if you didn't talk about it anymore."

Schneizel nods. "Undestood. Well, let's get on with the episode."

"How could our suspect be so sweet?" C.C. asks, amused by the situation.

Lelouch frowns in annoyance. "Stop saying it like that!" Lelouch turns his head, so he can see a book showing the downtown monorail schedules. Lelouch quickly opens the book, so he can see a schedule marked. "Narita?"

"Why would she want to go back to Narita?" Tianzi asks in confusion.

"Maybe so she can think about what happened to her father," Nina replied, looking at the ground.

In Narita, near where several bulldozers were trying to fix all the damage caused by the landslide, Shirley can be seen in front of a monument.

Shirley checks her bag, which had a picture of her father and Lelouch's gun in it, though Shirley quickly zips the bag shut.

"Lulu, how could you do this," thinks Shirley completely depressed.

"Yes, how could he do that?" A male voice was heard, causing Shirley to turn her gaze, only to end up seeing the albino man with a visor who had appeared in previous episodes. The man starts clapping out of nowhere. "It's a very nice monument, don't you think so, Miss Shirley Fenette?"

Tamaki quickly points to the screen. "It's that man!"

"That's right, it looks like he's really the other Geass user, considering the title of this episode," Tohdoh says with a frown.

"Not only that, we also just proved that our theory about each person having a different Geass is true," says Schneizel looking curiously at the albino man.

Ohgi looks at Schneizel in confusion. "How? We haven't seen him use his Geass in any way."

"No, we have," Jeremiah says, surprising Ohgi. "That man was able to answer Miss Fenette, or to be more specific, he was able to answer what Miss Fenette thought."

"Wait, so you're telling me that...?"

"His Geass, it must give him the ability to hear another person's thoughts," Sayoko says, interrupting Rivalz.

Tianzi looks at Sayoko in surprise. "Hear thoughts? How is that possible?"

"No idea, the ability of the Geass to give such a power to someone is still a mystery."

"This complicates things," says Rakshata putting her pipe aside for a moment. "With Lelouch's Geass we could rationalize it by thinking of that power as some kind of hypnosis or mind control of some kind that was generated by the Geass giving some kind of subliminal message."

Lloyd nods. "That's right, but a power that allows the user to hear other people's thoughts, it can't be explained that way, it can't be explained in any rational way at the moment, it's just like some kind of... magic," the last word is said with almost disgust on the scientist's part.

"But didn't we already see someone who could hear thoughts when we talked to Miss D.S.?" Tianzi asked.

Schneizel nods. "It's true that we already knew that Miss D.S. was able to read our thoughts somehow, but we don't know anything about her, and she didn't seem to have any Geass either, so her ability to do so could have another explanation, while what we already knew about Geass makes it strange to think that mind reading is possible thanks to that power."

"There's something else, too, that makes that power even more dangerous," Kaguya says, drawing the attention of several in the room.

"What?" asks Gino, confused.

Anya looks at Kaguya. "It's the fact that he wasn't looking Shirley in the eyes, right?" Kaguya just nods at Anya's words.

"Exactly, so far we knew that Lelouch needed to make direct eye contact with the person he was trying to control with his Geass, but in this case it doesn't seem to be necessary to look the other person in the eyes, only to be close to them, and we don't know what the distance limit is."

Schneizel nods. "That's certainly the most important thing we've learned, for we now know that a Geass is not a type of mental manipulation that can be explained scientifically, that you don't always need to be under the same circumstances to use it, and that every Geass is likely to be different."

"Which is why we might encounter extremely dangerous Geass that we wouldn't know how to counter," says Cornelia, gritting her teeth.

Ohgi, finally processing everything he had just heard, couldn't help but sink into his seat as he ran his hands through his hair. "My god, it's... it's even worse than I could have imagined."

"Kaname..." Villetta tries to hold her husband's hand as a sign of support.

Tohdoh just shakes his head. "That information really puts us in a deplorable situation, because now we know that we might have to face hundreds of people with completely different powers."

"Damn it!" Chiba shouts, slamming her seat. "Why does everything always have to be so complicated!"

"It's no use getting angry or worried, we can only try to prepare as much as we can," Xingke says, then looks at Milly. "I think you should write this down in your notebook, Miss Ashford, it's quite important."

Milly, coming out of the stupor she was in from all the information, quickly nods as she takes out her notebook and writes about the Geass.

"Things are really getting complicated," Zero thinks as he thinks about the whole thing. "Well, it doesn't matter, after all no matter what I'm up against, I have to defeat it anyway."

"With that matter settled, I think it would be best to move on, don't you, Your Majesty?" Schneizel asks Nunnally.

Nunnally simply nods, as she kicks off the chapter, though her head is also filled with thoughts from what she had just heard. "Could there really be more people with the same power as my big brother? How... How am I supposed to stand up to them? I don't... No, I have to, it's the least I can do for my big brother."

"Who...?" Shirley just looks at the stranger in confusion.

"Man, we were so close!" said Tamaki inside the Black Knights' vehicle, which was advancing through a tunnel. "We had her right there!"

"Next time I'll defeat that White Knight," Kallen says as she looks at some notes.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Tamaki says.

"Yes, Tamaki was defeated in the first minute," Sugiyama adds with a smile of amusement, making him and other members laugh.

Ohgi for his part doesn't laugh and just keeps his eyes down. "The JLF ship..."

"Hmm?" Kallen looks at Ohgi in confusion.

"Why did it explode?"

"It self-destructed," Tamaki says as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"No, it didn't," Chiba thinks grunting as she is annoyed at the reminder of Katase's death.

Tohdoh also tenses at Tamaki's words, but the General makes no sound. "General Katase... No, I can't get distracted now, I must think about how to deal with the Geass."

Ohgi looks up to see Tamaki. "We contacted them and told them we would help, right?"

"That's why Zero took action," Tamaki waved his hand. "I know. They wanted to see his face!" Tamaki starts laughing.

"You're not doubting Zero again, are you?" Kallen asks Ohgi.

Ohgi looks at Kallen. "You see, Kallen? We couldn't just trust him completely, we saw what really happened."

"You don't need to tell me, Ohgi, I saw it too," Kallen says annoyed.

"Well, it's just that..."

Footsteps start to be heard, interrupting Ohgi and causing him and Kallen to look up to see that it is Diethard approaching.

"Yes, it's just that the time was too convenient, wasn't it?" Diethard asked, looking at Ohgi. "Then, what do you plan to do if it was all Zero's doing?"

Kallen annoyed gets up from her seat while looking annoyed at the blond. "What are you insinuating?"

"Yes, Diethard!" Tamaki looks at Diethard with derision. "I heard you got scared and ran! A cowardly Brit has a lot of balls talking to his superiors like that!"

"I was doing an evaluation, that's my new job here," Diethard replies with a smile. "Ohgi, you accepted it too, didn't you?"

Kallen surprised by the words turns to look at Ohgi. "Huh?"

"Oh, that's right," Ohgi replies. "Even Zero approved."

"Did he really do it?" Gino asks, looking at Ohgi.

Ohgi nods. "Yeah, I guess Lelouch must have realized what really happened, so I guess that's why he allowed it."

Away from the Black Knights a train could be seen going at high speed, inside it could be seen Lelouch in his civilian clothes, and C.C., who was wearing a strange dress, accompanied with a small hat.

"What the hell is she wearing?" Tamaki asks with a chuckle as he looks at C.C. "It looks like something a stupid doll would wear."

"It's a rather... unique outfit," Villetta also looks quizzically at C.C. "It honestly didn't look like the kind of outfit she'd like."

Rakshata lets out a laugh as she relaxes in her seat. "Who says she chose it? For all we know it could have been Lelouch who gave it to her, after all she seemed quite content to simply wear her straitjacket and Lelouch's clothes."

"I can't imagine him buying those kinds of clothes," Cornelia says, grimacing at the mental image.

"It would be a rather odd image," Xingke lets out a small laugh. "Besides, it would say quite a bit about Lelouch's taste in clothing."

Chiba snorts. "Please, we could all see the outfit he wore when he was Emperor, he would definitely buy that kind of clothing."

"Well, that would explain the dress we saw her wear on a few occasions," Lloyd holds onto his mentor as he remembers the past. "It was certainly quite striking."

"What dress?" Kaguya asks curiously. "I don't remember actually seeing C.C. at any event after Lelouch became Emperor, much less wearing a dress."

Cécile smiles as she puts her hands together. "It was a beautiful black dress with gold parts and red jewels in various parts, similar to His Majesty's outfit."

"Yes, it looked like a black, female version of His Majesty's suit," Lloyd adds with a laugh.

Jeremiah puffs out his chest with pride. "It was a truly spectacular dress, certainly something worthy of His Majesty."

"Why would it be worthy of Lelouch?" Rivalz asks. "I could see him giving some specs, but it must have been a designer who did it."

"Not at all, it was His Majesty who designed the dress in its entirety."

Kallen looks at Jeremiah skeptically. "Did Lelouch design a dress?"

"That's right, I remember him saying he planned to give it to Miss C.C. as a gift and proposal."

"A proposal for what?" asks Guilford.

Jeremiah shakes his head. "I'm afraid I don't know, His Majesty was rather quiet on the matter, even I was surprised."

"M-maybe we'll find out in one of the episodes," Tianzi suggests.

Kaguya nods. "It's a possibility, I guess we'll just have to wait."

"So, do you love her, this girl named Shirley?" C.C. asks out of the blue.

"I don't know," Lelouch answers, looking at the window.

"Do you hate her?"

"I don't know."

Tianzi looks at Xingke, an expression of confusion can be seen on the Empress' face. "I don't understand, how come he doesn't know whether he hates her or loves her?"

"Feelings can sometimes be confusing and contradictory at times, and Lelouch is most likely in one of those moments," Xingke replies kindly, causing Tianzi to nod.

Forher part, Milly just tenses up at Lelouch and C.C.'s exchange, "Lelouch, how could you not know if you hated her? I understand that you didn't know if you loved her, I can understand that, but it should be obvious that you didn't hate Shirley, no one could hate someone like her."

C.C. frowns. "Then why are we going to Narita?"

"You know the reason why," Lelouch replies, looking out the window. "Because there's a chance she might know who I am."

"What if she really knows who you are? Are you going to kill her?"

Lelouch hearing C.C.'s question finally looks back at her, showing that Lelouch was surprised by the question. "Huh?"

"That question must have come as quite a surprise to Lelouch, I doubt he had even thought at one point that he would have to kill Miss Fenette," said Schneizel, leaning on his arm.

"Obviously not, she was just an innocent student," Ohgi seconds with a frown.

"Not to mention that Master Lelouch just a couple of days ago had indirectly killed Miss Shirley's father, something we can see that affected him quite a bit," Sayoko adds, looking pityingly at Lelouch.

Tohdoh nods. "Yes, Lelouch wasn't thinking at all about the possibility of finishing her off at the time."

C.C. seeing Lelouch's expression is silent for a moment, but after a couple of seconds she finally says, "If you have someone you don't want to lose, you should stay away from them."

"So, that's... from experience?" Lelouch asks, staring at C.C.

"No," replies C.C., looking at the window. "It's a way of life."

Cornelia shows an annoyed expression. "That's a terrible advice, pushing away the person you love only makes it so you can't protect them when you should."

"But it's better to keep them away when you're going to do something dangerous, after all even if they're by your side, there will be times when you can't protect them," says Nina wringing her hands.

"In the end, both keeping them away and keeping them close has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on the situation," Schneizel says calmly. "What interests me most is the fact that Miss C.C. seems to take that view as a way of life."

Gino nods. "It's certainly strange, it didn't seem like C.C. was someone who cared about that sort of thing, much less enough to say those words to Lelouch."

"It will certainly be appealing to see why she thinks that way," Xingke says, closing his eyes for a moment.

Kallen for her part ignored all the talk, only clenching her fists as she listened to C.C. "So it was because of you, it was your words that made Lelouch make me... Why, why do you always have to be the one to influence Lelouch the most? If it wasn't for you I could... I really, really hate you so much right now, C.C."

"He's a cruel man, isn't he?" asked the albino man in front of Shirley, both of them still in the same place as before. "Lelouch."

Shirley takes a step back. "H-how do you know about Lulu?"

"He tricked you, didn't he?" The man takes a step forward. "He never told you he was Zero."

Shirley's expression changes to one of horror as she drops her bag. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"The same mouth that ordered your father's death stole a kiss from your tender lips," the man says, approaching Shirley as he ignores her questions. "He's a very bad man and you like him. The punishment must be measured. To him. And to you."

"What do he mean, for her?" Rivalz says confused. "Shirley has never done anything wrong before."

Jeremiah shakes his head. "We can't say that, we still don't know what exactly happened in the harbor and the theory that there could have been a third person is almost impossible, so there's only the possibility that she really did shoot someone that night."

"But that doesn't make sense!" Milly protests, pointing at Jeremiah. "Shirley would never hurt anyone!"

"Maybe she fired in self-defense, after all, she was in the middle of a battle," says Gino, trying to calm Milly down.

"That wouldn't explain about deserving punishment, after all you can't punish someone for defending themselves in that situation," Anya said grabbing her phone.

Ohgi shakes his head. "It's all very strange, I wish they'd show it now so we could see what happened."

Villetta could only cringe at the others' words, especially Ohgi's, "Kaname..."

Shirley looks at the man in confusion. "For me?"

"It's everything," the man smiles, and then the moment when Shirley discovered that Lelouch was Zero is shown. "Everything that happened that night."

"Finally!" Tamaki says excitedly.

Several others are also excited to finally see what happened, but the Ashford members only get nervous.

Shirley was still aiming at Lelouch while trembling, but when she heard a voice, she turned her head.

"That's Zero!" Villetta asks, approaching the scene, until finally to lift Lelouch's head by his hair. "Well, well, this is a surprise. The student is Zero himself! And he's a Britannian, too," Villetta finally starts laughing.

The attention of the room immediately shifts to Villetta, who can only try to avoid the gaze of the others.

"Were you there?" Ohgi whispers as he looks at his wife in surprise, but his expression quickly changes, to one that would easily belong to someone who had just discovered the meaning of life. "Wait, that's where... That's why I found you there?" Villetta's expression made the answer obvious to Ohgi, who could only sink back in his seat.

"I see, so that's what happened," Schneizel says to himself with a smile of amusement, though he quickly glances at Villetta. "I guess this means it was you who was shot by Miss Fenette, right, Miss Ohgi?"

The former prince's words only made the pregnant Britannian woman flinch as she closed her eyes, but she finally opened them to look at Schneizel. "Yes, it was at that moment that Shirley shot me, though luckily it was not a lethal shot, so I was able to survive."

"W-why?" Rivalz asks incredulously. "You weren't planning to hurt her, were you?"

"It was for Lelouch," Milly says with her head down before Villetta can answer, quickly drawing everyone's attention to her. "It was to protect Lelouch, wasn't it?"

Villetta seeing Milly's state could only nod slowly, causing the young blonde to only clench her fists tightly.

"Why would she do that?" Cornelia asks in confusion. "She's just learned that Lelouch was literally the man who caused her father's death, so why would she protect him?"

"Maybe it was just because she was confused," Kaguya proposes uncertainly. "All that happened in a very short period of time, maybe it was just too much for her."

A stony silence spread through the room after Kaguya's words, as few believed that the young girl's explanation was correct, but they had no other way to explain Shirley's actions.

Milly simply clenched her fists tighter as she stared at the ground, not looking up for a moment. "Shirley, you... You really, really loved Lelouch too much."

"So Shirley shot someone just to protect Lelouch, even after finding out he was Zero? It's strange, this is all very strange," Zero thinks with a frown, but quickly lets out a cough as he saw that everyone was still silent. "Your Majesty, maybe we should continue with the video, it's no use just staying quiet."

Nunnally quickly nods as she continues the episode, though in her mind she thinks other things. "Shirley did you really shoot Miss Ohgi just to defend my big brother? If it was really because of that, I can only apologize and thank you, sorry for everything and thank you for protecting him."

Villetta keeps laughing, until she finally stops as she pulls Lelouch's head back down. "When I bring him to Viceroy Cornelia, she'll make me a noble! Not just a Knight of Honor, real nobility! And he's still alive, too! What kind of grand execution will they have in store for him? Of course you'll be rewarded too..." Villetta turns to look at Shirley, only to see that she is now pointing the gun at her. "Stupid of me... He's your boyfriend, isn't he?" Villetta starts running towards Shirley.

"Lulu!" Shirley's words are accompanied by the effect of the screen going black, while the sound of a gunshot can also be heard.

No one in the room says anything at the scene, the audience members can only furrow their brows as they endure all they have to see, though a few small whimpers can be heard from the Ashford members, especially Milly.

"So you're an assassin too," the albino man says as the scene returns to show him and Shirley near the monument. "Just like Zero."

Shirley immediately stiffens. "No, that's not true! I just...!"

"And you actually used your father's death for your own benefit!" says the man leaning closer to Shirley.

"Huh?" Tamaki looks at the screen in confusion. "What do he mean, she used her father for her benefit?"

Ohgi rubs his neck, also confused. "No idea, I don't see why he would say something like that, in fact, she did the opposite, we could even see it in her attitude at her father's funeral."

"No!" Shirley's words are heard as the moment when she had kissed Lelouch in the rain is shown. "I just... I just...!"

"You cunning little woman! You knew he'd feel sorry for you, didn't you? So you played it for all it was worth."

Chiba looks at the albino in disgust. "Really? Are he really implying that she used her father's death to simply kiss a boy? How stupid!"

"Well, it's not completely impossible that it happened, but if it really did, it was probably unconscious," Lloyd says with a sly smile. "Or maybe he's actually right."

"Shirley wouldn't do that!" Milly protests, standing up and glaring angrily at the scientist. "She was kind, she wasn't a manipulator! Don't you dare say she could do that!"

Lloyd just lets out a laugh. "But we can all hear him, and he's the one who has the ability to hear people's thoughts..."

The scientist lets out a cry of pain as he feels his assistant grab his ear tightly, making Lloyd unable to finish speaking.

"Now you've gone too far, Lloyd!" Cecile grabs Lloyd's ear harder, making him let out more sounds of pain. "Don't say another word! Besides, we don't know if he's telling the truth, he could easily be lying!"

Rivalz nods. "Yes, it must definitely be a lie. That guy is just trying to mess with Shirley."

"Yes!" says both Nina and Kallen, both agreeing with Rivalz.

"I think it would be best if we refrain from talking about this, as we don't know anything about this man, so as Miss Croomy said, he's probably lying," Zero says, calming things down a bit.

Nunnally nods. "Yes, I can't see Shirley using her father simply to get my big brother's attention, so surely the man is lying."

"Well, we'd better follow the chapter, so we can find out," says Xingke, settling into his seat.

Shirley shakes her head with all her might. "You're wrong!"

"Did his compassionate look make you feel good?"

"Stop it!" Shirley shouts, covering her ears.

"Playing the role of the tragic heroine again?" asks the man as Shirley reflects in his visor.

"No, I'm not doing that!"

"A girl who kills and then goes looking for attention?" Mao continues to mock Shirley. "Only evil witches do that."

"I didn't... I never meant to..." Shirley just closes her eyes, her words almost sounding like a plea.

The man finally stood right in front of Shirley. "You knew there was another girl who liked Lelouch and you wanted to take him away from her. Now you have to pay the price, Shirley," along with his words the man brings his face close to Shirley's, who finally gets down on her knees while trying not to cry as she covers her face with her hands. "Do you want to carry these feelings for the rest of your life? All by yourself? Unless you atone and completely release your heart, both you and Lelouch will be lost in your sins... forever," the man claps his hands, while it can be seen through his visor, that the Geass symbol is on his eye.

Tohdoh nods. "I guess that confirms it completely, he has a Geass that allows him to hear people's thoughts, though it was pretty obvious by now."

"I don't like his words, not at all," Kaguya says with a frown. "It seems like he's trying to manipulate her."

"Most likely, after all he is using her own thoughts against herself," Schneizel let out a small laugh. "The question now would be what he's looking for in doing so, what he might get out of manipulating Miss Fenette."

Cornelia looks at Schneizel. "Could it be that he wanted her to turn Lelouch in? If she told what happened and gave up Lelouch's gun, there's a good chance Lelouch could be arrested."

"I don't think so, after all he could easily have murdered Miss Fenette to grab the gun and present that story, there was no need to tamper with it."

"Maybe there's a reason he can't do it himself, maybe he's even some kind of criminal," Ohgi proposes.

Xingke shakes his head. "If he really was a criminal, then he wouldn't be able to walk the streets so easily, besides, if he wanted to just get rid of Lelouch for some reason, he'd just have to find a way to kill him, after all he already knew who he really was."

"It might have something to do with C.C., after all, she's almost certainly the one who gave him the Geass," Nina says.

Zero nods. "All those theories are possible, but we'd better continue, after all we'll probably get the answer in this episode."

The screen goes black for a moment, but eventually changes to show the same spot with the monument, but this time Shirley or the man are nowhere to be seen.

"I thought she'd be here," Lelouch says in annoyance.

"We'll have to split up and look for her," C.C. says as several workers and knightmares are shown trying to fix the situation on site.

"Do you even know what Shirley looks like?"

"Why wouldn't she do it?" Tianzi asked. "She saw several pictures of her."

Kaguya approaches her friend. "Surely it's just Lelouch trying to mess with C.C., after all he should know that she'd definitely know what she'd look like."

"What's the matter with you now?" C.C. asks with amusement.

"The chance is so small," Lelouch thinks, passing near the workers. "I doubt she's even here."

"What if she really knows who you are? Are you going to kill her?" The words C.C. said on the train show up again in Lelouch's memories.

"No, wait," the moment when Lelouch noticed the blood on the harbor floor shows again. "There was someone else here. Where did they go? And what were they doing with Shirley? Calm down. Work from the beginning."

Suddenly Lelouch's phone starts ringing, and when he checks it he sees that it's Shirley calling him.

"Shirley?" Lelouch says in surprise, then answers, "It's me. Where are you calling from?"

Instead of Shirley's voice, the albino man's laughter is heard. "Haha, where indeed?"

Lelouch in surprise starts to look around, hoping to see who he had heard, only to turn around and see that the man was right behind him. "Who are you?"

The man doesn't answer Lelouch, and instead just hangs up with Shirley's phone, to throw it at Lelouch, causing it to fall to the ground.

Milly immediately tensed up. "How dare he do that?! What did he do to Shirley!"

"I don't think he's done her any harm, at least not physical harm," Schneizel says, thinking about what the man's target might be. "It's obvious that he seems to have some fixation with Lelouch, so surely he knows that hurting Miss Fenette can only end up backfiring on him."

"I hope so," Kallen says worriedly as she watches the screen. The other members of Ashford are in the same situation as her.

"You bastard!" Lelouch looks at the man in anger. "What did you do to Shirley!"

"Ooh, I like that, that scary face," says the man as he begins to clap his hands slowly. "The face of a man whose wife was stolen."

Lelouch angrily leans forward. "What the hell did you do with Shirley!"

"Do you want to know?" asks the man, stopping his clapping. "Then you'll have to accept my challenge. You specialize in this, don't you?" The man pulls a chess piece out of his pocket, showing it to Lelouch.

"Do he really want to challenge Lelouch with chess?" Rivalz lets out a laugh. "That guy is finished, there's no way Lelouch is going to lose."

Guilford shakes his head. "Are you forgetting that man has the power to read other people's minds? Chess is a game of pure thought, being able to know exactly what your opponent is going to do in itself gives you the victory."

"Not exactly, after all, even if you know what your opponent is going to do, it won't do you any good if you can't see everything on a larger scale, to see what would be the best move," says Gino.

"That may be true in many cases, but Lelouch surely thought about that sort of thing in the middle of the match, so he would only have to listen to Lelouch's thoughts to also know what the best move would be," Cornelia said with a frown. "Even if he was a complete novice, he'd probably win if Lelouch also thought about the best ways to return his own moves."

Schneizel for his part only sharpens his eyes at the chess piece, the smallest of frowns can be seen on his face. "Then that's what he wants to do. You certainly find yourself in a difficult position Lelouch, after all that man is the worst opponent for the likes of us, I wonder, what did you do to finally defeat him."

Far from where Lelouch and the man were, as the sun was setting, C.C. can be seen in front of a motorcyclist.

"Are you familiar with Balinese art? I don't have a picture, but I can paint it in the Batuan style."

The biker looks at C.C. in disbelief. "What, am I supposed to wait here while you do that? I don't think so. Why don't you go ask the police or the soldiers?"

"I'd rather avoid that kind of boring crisis," C.C. replies while in the background you can see the mountain car coming up.

"Then why don't you get up on something high and look around?"

"All right. Forget it," C.C. says, then looks up at the car, through which she can see Lelouch and the albino man through the windows. "Hmm? What's Lelouch doing now?" C.C. blinks a couple of times, when suddenly her eyes go wide as she recognizes the albino man. "It can't be... Mao!"

Gino approaches the screen. "So C.C. does know him, so she's probably the one who gave him the Geass."

"Besides, now we know his name," Kallen says with a frown. "Now we just need to know why he's against Lelouch and why he accepted a Geass."

"With the first, we can assume that it has something to do with Miss C.C.," Sayoko closes her eyes for a moment. "The second is more complicated, we don't know anything about that man, we don't even know how long he's had the Geass or when he met Miss C.C."

Zero nods. "Discovering his origin and why C.C. decided to give him a Geass as well is definitely the most important thing at the moment, it might end up helping us search for more potential Geass users."

Inside the car, Lelouch and Mao can be seen playing a game of chess.

"Is he the one?" Lelouch thinks, looking at Mao and moving one of his pieces. "Or another witness? I'm sure this chess game is just a ploy. His real goal is to lure me to an isolated place."

"You know, I've never really played this game before," Mao says, looking at Lelouch.

"Calling my cell phone... Was he being theatrical?" Lelouch's gaze hardens. "No, he didn't know what I looked like. That means he didn't see me that night. And he didn't have time to find a picture of me. He didn't plan it, he's winging it. Which means..."

Mao looks at Lelouch again. "Isn't there an opening you can use? Shouldn't you think about the game a little more? You could lose," Mao's words and his move make Lelouch frown.

"Liar, you've played this game before!" says Lelouch, making a move of his own.

Outside the car, C.C. rides up the mountain on a motorcycle, obviously the one that belonged to the biker she spoke to earlier.

"Lelouch, even you..." thinks C.C., advancing up the mountain. "No, because it's you, you'll never be able to defeat Mao!"

"So C.C. also thinks Lelouch can't win this time," Tohdoh says, leaning on his hands.

Schneizel nods. "Things really don't look good for Lelouch, it'll be interesting to see how this whole thing turns out."

Lelouch showed an expression of pure shock when he saw the position he was in in the chess game. "Impossible... He beat me?"

Rivalz also looked at the board in disbelief. "I can't believe it, Lelouch really lost, I've never seen that happen before. I know that guy could read minds, but I still can't believe it."

"You can see it was a shock to Lelouch as well," Xingke said at the former Prince's expression. "I don't think he expected to ever lose at chess."

Cornelia shakes her head. "He didn't, the only person who could defeat him even as a child was Schneizel, he'd never lost to anyone else."

That's right, my big brother only lost to Brother Schneizel," Nunnally seconds, looking worriedly at Lelouch. "Big brother... I wish you didn't feel bad, after all you only lost because of his ability to read minds, you would have definitely won if it was a normal game."

"So, we can assume this is my victory, mhh?" Mao smirks mockingly at Lelouch, as the car finally reaches its destination, causing all the pieces to fall from the impact.

"How could he predict all the moves I made?" thinks Lelouch incredulously "Who is this guy?"

"C.C. never told you about me?" Mao asks Lelouch, causing him to become alert, while Mao just smiles and claps her hands at his reaction. "Well done! In an instant you came up with 14 possible identities for me. And one of them is precisely correct," Mao finishes his words by removing his visor, revealing the Geass in both of his eyes.

Tamaki's eyes widen in surprise. "14 identities? But it had only been like a second! How the hell did he think of so many in such a short time!"

"Not only that, but he also had a correct one," Ohgi says just as incredulous at Lelouch's intelligence. "How can someone his age be so smart?"

"It's no surprise, we've already seen how fast he can think, though he's certainly quite impressive," Rakshata smiles as she smokes from her pipe. "It's really a pity he didn't follow the path of science, it would have been very interesting to have him help me."

Schneizel lets out a small chuckle. "Lelouch's mind is certainly interesting to watch, but I have to say I'm more interested in the man right now."

Cornelia turns to look at her brother. "What are you interested in? We already knew he had a Geass."

"It's true that we already knew that, but I find it interesting that he has it in both eyes, unlike Lelouch, who only has it in one."

Tohdoh nods. "It's certainly interesting, after all we don't know if that's due to something about his Geass in particular, or if it's something else."

"Maybe it's something that happens over time," Nina suggests. "Maybe he had the Geass in one eye first, but then it appeared in the other eye as well for some reason."

Xingke nods. "It's a good theory, but it wouldn't explain why it happens, or what the effects of it happening are, after all we don't know exactly what the Geass is in the first place."

"It will certainly be interesting to see how the Geass works in its entirety," Schneizel says with a curious look on his face. "We'd better get going, so we can see what we want to see."

"He has a Geass too!" Lelouch thinks as he activates his own Geass immediately.

"Let's see now," Mao says, quickly putting her visor back on. "For your Geass, you must look directly into someone's eyes. Oh, I know all the rules for your little gift."

"You can read minds!" says Lelouch.

"That's just what my Geass does."

Lelouch stops abruptly as he leans over to Mao. "What the hell did you do with Shirley? Tell me, what did you do? Did you kill her?"

"Of course not!" Mao replies with a smile on his face, while just behind him, Shirley can be seen passing by through the window.

"Shirley!" Milly can't help but scream at the sight of the orange-haired girl.

Rivalz relaxes a bit in his seat. "That's good, she doesn't seem to be hurt."

Seeing Shirley, Lelouch's expression changes to one of surprise. "Shirley!"

"Now, let the punishment game begin," Mao says as Shirley starts pointing a gun at the window.

Quickly everyone in the room immediately tenses up at the sight of Shirley pointing a gun out the window.

"W-what is she going to do?" asks Tianzi worriedly, although no one is able to answer her, as they are also confused by the situation.

"Zero..." Ohgi says, looking out to sea at the harbor where the previous day's battle had taken place. "You weren't yourself yesterday. Why do I have this feeling?"

Rivalz hits his seat with his head. "Oh come on, I want to see what happened with Lelouch and Shirley!"

Ohgi and Villetta for their part just looked at each other, both nervous as to what was about to happen.

Ohgi looks down, but as he does so he notices someone bleeding on the breakwaters of the harbour, and as the camera zooms in he can see that it is Villetta.

"Did you find her?" Kallen asks Ohgi with a mixture of confusion and curiosity. "Wait... That's how you two met?!"

Ohgi is silent for a moment, but finally says, "Yes, I found Chigusa injured, so I took her to my house to try to heal her."

"How exactly did it all happen?" Cornelia asks suspiciously. "Your wife seemed quite interested in simply moving up in Britannia, so how did she end up falling in love with you, after all you are Japanese."

"It was because of his kindness," Villetta replies quickly, before Ohgi can say anything. "I ended up falling in love when I saw how kind he was to me even when I was Britannian"

Gino nods slowly. "It makes sense, I suppose, but then why didn't you go public with Lelouch's identity?"

"I didn't remember," Villetta replies, technically not lying. "The gunshot I'd taken made it so that I honestly couldn't remember what had happened, it wasn't until much later that my memory of the whole thing returned."

Cornelia opens her mouth to try to say another question, but is quickly stopped by the Schneizel, who comes closer to whisper to her, "Believe me I'm curious about the whole thing too, but I doubt it will do us any good to ask questions right now, I can see that both Prime Minister Ohgi and Miss Ohgi will surely get defensive or try to evade questions, the best thing would be to just continue with the recording, so we can see what happened." Cornelia looks at Schneizel for a moment, but finally nods reluctantly.

"Are you all right?" Ohgi asks, reaching out to Villetta and holding her in his arms. "Talk to me! Hey! Come on!" Villetta finally squirms a little, much to Ohgi's delight. "You're alive!"

"So, it's you... Zero," Villetta says barely, obviously delirious, not realizing how much her words surprise Ohgi.

Kallen looks at Ohgi suspiciously again. "Did you know she knew about Zero? Why didn't you ever tell?"

"I-I... was still a bit unsure about Lelouch's attitude, so I wanted to try Chigusa's information first," Ohgi admits, averting his gaze.

"That's treason!" Kallen glares angrily at Ohgi. "You couldn't just hide something like that, it could have been important!"

Tamaki nods, also frowning. "Yeah, that's not right, Ohgi! You didn't even tell us!"

"I was planning to, I was really planning to tell you as soon as I got the information," Ohgi says, holding up his hands in defense. "But when Chigusa woke up and I could see that she didn't remember what had happened, I didn't think it was necessary to tell anyone anymore."

"That's complete absurd!" Guilford let out a snort. "No matter what the situation is, you couldn't just hide something like that from your superior, plus even if she had given you information, you'd have no way of seeing if she was telling you the truth or just lying to you!"

"Chigusa would never lie to me!"

Cornelia shakes her head in exasperation. "You can say that now, but at the time you knew nothing about her, what you did was nothing more than a foolish thing that could have put the lives of your companions at risk."

Kaguya nods. "I have to agree with her, the fact that you withheld information of any kind is unacceptable, now how can we be sure you're not hiding something else from us?"

Ohgi can only sink with his head down. "I had to, I needed to get more information from Zero, besides if I had told Zero about Chigusa... No, I couldn't tell him, he would have done something to Chigusa."

Tohdoh let out a sigh. "We should save this discussion for later, now is not the best time to discuss Ohgi's actions."

For a moment Kaguya is silent, but finally nods. "Okay, we'll save this for when we're done watching these recordings, but I really hope this was the only thing you didn't tell us."

Ohgi just nods awkwardly, while Villetta tries to comfort her husband by holding his hand.

Back at the railcar stop, Lelouch, Shirley and Mao can be seen on the stairs of the station, with Shirley still aiming at Lelouch, while Mao himself is behind Lelouch.

"Shirley, that gun is..."

"Yes, it's Zero's gun, your gun, Lulu," Shirley interrupts Lelouch, causing him to tense up.

"Why don't you use your Geass?" Mao asks, making Lelouch see it out of the corner of his eye. "I'm pretty sure you haven't used it on her, have you? Of course, if you do, I'll shoot you myself," Mao pulls a gun from his pocket, pointing it at Lelouch.

Gino lets out a sigh. "Now things are really looking bad for Lelouch."

"Yes, he's in a complicated situation," Anya echoed, though the young woman didn't show any concern on her face.

Jeremiah snorts. "I'm sure His Majesty was able to resolve the whole situation somehow."

"Can he read any thoughts, or only those on the surface?" Lelouch thinks, looking at Mao. "Are there conditions to his Geass, a time lapse, a time limit? And what does he seek? If he plans to kill me, then..."

Mao stops pointing at Lelouch as he holds out his arms. Keep thinking about it. That's your strong point, isn't it? Thoughts spinning round and round and round..."

"Shut up!" Lelouch shouts, losing his temper.

"This is a fitting death, poetic justice for a thief like you," Lelouch looks confused at Mao for his words.

Cécile shows an expression of confusion. "A thief? What is he talking about? His Majesty never stole anything from him."

"Maybe it's the Geass he's talking about," Lloyd proposes with amusement. "He might consider it theft that His Majesty has a Geass as well as him."

"I doubt it, maybe it would make sense if he had lost his own Geass after Lelouch got one, but he didn't," Rakshata smokes from her pipe. "I think he might be talking about C.C., seeing his words about the expression of a man whose woman is taken from him, surely he believes that Lelouch somehow stole C.C. from him."

"It's the safest possibility, after all it's the only thing next to the Geass that binds the two of them together," Xingke says, thinking about the matter.

Kallen frowns. "So it's all C.C.'s fault? Is it because of her that all this is happening to Lelouch and Shirley?"

"We can't say that at the moment, we still have to see what the real relationship between Miss C.C. and him is," Sayoko says.

Zero nods. "Yes, we can't blame someone until we see the whole situation."

"Lulu..." Lelouch immediately turns around when he hears Shirley's strange words. "We'll atone for our sins... We have to! I'll even die with you."

"What?" Lelouch blinks in complete confusion.

Milly covers her mouth in horror. "Shirley... Shirley wanted to die with Lelouch?"

"It seems that learning that Lelouch was Zero and the guilt over shooting someone was too much for her," Xingke says ruefully. "But no doubt it was Mao's words that finally made her decide."

Cornelia nods. "Yes, she was probably very affected by everything, having to listen to her deepest thoughts probably pushed her over the edge."

"You bastard!" Milly gritted her teeth in fury. "I'll never forgive him!"

Kallen nods. "Neither do I!" The other members of Ashford nod as well, just as angry as Milly and Kallen.

"She's already killed once," Mao says, making Lelouch look at him. "She shot the person who saw your face, all to protect your little secret."

Lelouch returns his gaze to Shirley. "So the blood was..."

"It's time to finish this together, Lulu."

"Yes, yes," Mao smiles wider. "Sinners must be punished."

"You put her up to this!" Lelouch shouts angrily at Mao, but he quickly stands still as he realizes something. "I see. He reads minds, and it's easy for him to confuse and control them."

Mao claps again. "Yes, that's right."

"No, don't let him fool you!" Lelouch yells at Shirley. "Shirley, he just..."

"Come on, are you really saying this?" Mao asks with amusement. "The guy who lied to her from the beginning?"

Shirley on the verge of tears for a moment stops pointing at Lelouch. "Stop it!"

"If murder is a sin, then this absolutely increases the sin!" Lelouch says, trying to convince Shirley.

"Oh, I like the rhetoric, very pithy," Mao says, causing Lelouch to refocus on him for a moment.

"Shirley, did you really kill someone?" Lelouch asks as he points at Mao. "And if you did, was he the one who was controlling you?"

"She pulled the trigger and she knows it," Mao says. "When you hide your sins, it only gets worse."

"He's just trying to confuse you, Shirley!" Lelouch shouts, trying to take a step forward.

"Why don't you shut up!" Shirley shouts, closing her eyes and finally shooting at Lelouch, who narrowly misses the bullet, but manages to make Lelouch fall, causing all the photos he was keeping inside his jacket to fall to the ground.

Several people in the room are also surprised by the sudden gunshot.

"Shirley, no!" Milly shouts, staring at the screen with her eyes wide open. "Please don't do something you'll regret! Please."

Shirley keeps her eyes closed for a moment, but when she opens them she sees the pictures, causing her to go completely still as tears begin to gather in her eyes.

The Ashford members can only look down, unable to bear the sight of Shirley in such a state.

"Shirley," Zero clenches his fist tightly. "That bastard, how dare he...? I hope he's rotting in hell."

"Why are you hesitating?" Mao asks behind Lelouch. "He's the one who murdered your father. Don't you know he's a sinner? Kill him right now."

"But..."

Lelouch tries to get up while holding his shoulder. "Shirley..."

"I just..." Shirley looks at Lelouch directly. "I don't want to..."

"What the hell is wrong with this girl?" Mao asks, exasperated by Shirley's attitude, and then points at Lelouch. "Her thoughts are just a whisper now. Well, I guess I..."

But before Mao can do anything, Shirley fires again, this time making both men nervous.

"Stop it!" Shirley screams in despair. "Stop it!"

"That's fine. Consider it over," Mao says, standing up as if nothing unusual is going on, then walks over to the car. "You two do whatever you want."

Chiba looks at Mao in disgust. "What the hell is wrong with him? He's acting like nothing weird is going on!"

"He's probably insane," Tamaki says with disgust.

When Mao finally enters the car, Shirley falls forward, obviously exhausted from all that had happened.

"Shirley!" Lelouch shouts worriedly as he grabs the orange-haired girl before she can hit the ground.

"How annoying!" Mao goes through his things to pull out a rifle. "It was so dramatic and juicy. Now I'll have to kill them the old boring way," suddenly the car starts moving again, much to Mao's confusion. "Who did that? Why could I feel it?" Mao checks the window, through which he can see C.C. pointing a gun at him.

Guilford approaches the screen. "Is she planning to shoot him?"

"I don't think so, her expression doesn't look like someone who's willing to shoot, at least not in that situation," Sayoko says, clasping her hands.

"C.C.!" Lelouch says, surprised to see his accomplice.

"I knew it!" Mao shouts excitedly as he throws his rifle to stick to the back window of the car, while he takes off his visor and headphones, all so he can continue to see C.C. "Finally we meet again! It's really you!"

As the headphones fall to the floor, C.C.'s voice is heard from them, which says, "Are you awake, Mao? Forgive me, Mao. That's the way. See, Mao? You can do it! Thank you, Mao."

"What the fuck?" Tamaki grimaces in disgust.

"That guy is sick!" says Villetta, disturbed. "What kind of person has something like that?"

The others in the room also show their obvious revulsion and disturbance at the sound of the headphones, several even cringe at the whole situation.

Tohdoh sighs. "Now at least we can be sure that he thinks Lelouch took C.C. from him somehow, there's no longer any doubt about it."

"That's right, now we'll just have to see why he's so obsessed with her," Xingke says.

"You look beautiful, C.C.!" Mao says, still glued to the window, as the car drives away. "I love that new look! C.C., I'll come see you as soon as I can! I promise! I promise!"

"Mao..." C.C. simply watches Mao walk away. "I never thought you would come out among people.

Kaguya grips her seat tightly. "She looks... sad."

"Yes, there seems to be something more to the relationship between him and Miss C.C., at least something more than just an obsession on his part," Jeremiah says, looking skeptically at the scene. "The problem will be to see exactly what the relationship was."

"Shirley, it's all right," says Lelouch, still holding Shirley. "It's all over now."

"Lulu, I really did kill someone..." Shirley says weakly. "That's why I..."

Lelouch interrupts Shirley by hugging her tightly. "It's because of me. It's not your fault."

"And I shot you," Shirley says as tears flow down her eyes.

"I'm alive."

"But I shot you!" Shirley sobs as she clutches Lelouch's back tightly.

"Shirley, any sin you commit is my burden."

Nunnally can't help but hold his seat tightly as the moment of Lelouch's death came to his mind. "Big brother, you were always like that, you always tried to bear all the sins, no matter what... Why, why did you have to be like that?"

Shirley sinks deeper into Lelouch's arms. "I wanted you to be nice to me."

"What's wrong with that?" Lelouch asks without letting go of Shirley.

"Even when my father died..."

Lelouch moved away a bit as he grabbed Shirley's shoulders. "Don't worry. It's time for you to forget all the bad things that have happened to you."

"I can't do it!" Shirley shakes her head.

"Yes, you can!" Lelouch says, getting Shirley to look him in the eye. "I'll help you forget all this."

"Impossible."

Lelouch grips Shirley tighter, while Shirley's reflection can be seen in Lelouch's eyes. "Shirley, I'm sorry about your father. If I could be reborn in a new life, I would..." Along with his words, Lelouch activates his Geass.

"Lulu, don't!" Shirley begs, but it's too late, for all her memories, like the pictures she had taken, are completely submerged in pure darkness.

"Did Lelouch use his Geass to erase her... memory?" Nina says incredulously. "I didn't know he could do something like that."

Ohgi also looks at the screen in complete surprise. "We didn't either, we just thought it could give orders, not erase someone's memories."

Milly just looked at the ground. "So that's why, that's why Shirley acted like she'd never met Lelouch before," the sound of the young blonde's heavy breathing is heard. "It's not fair, none of this is fair."

"But haven't we seen it before?" asked Gino scratching his head. "When Lelouch made some girls forget to see Arthur with Zero's mask."

Tohdoh shakes his head. "It's not really the same thing, at that moment he only made them forget about a single moment of something that had just happened and hadn't really affected them much, while with Miss Fenette he seems to want to make her forget several events quite important to her, so it's hard to think how Lelouch managed to make Miss Fenette forget everything that happened with her father and he being Zero, not to mention that she apparently forgot her entire relationship with Lelouch, something that logically should have been much more complicated, after all something must have replaced that memories so that Miss Fenette would not feel that she forgot several hours of her life out of the blue.

"So that's what happened, I didn't know Lelouch's Geass could do something similar of what the Emperor did," Zero thinks with a frown. "Lelouch, I can't say if what you did was the right thing to do, but I surely would have done something similar if I had found myself in your shoes."

For her part, Anya can't help but tremble at the knowledge that Lelouch had erased Shirley's memories. "No one should do that, no matter how painful the memories are, they're still important, too important to forget them like that."

"Anya, are you all right?" Jeremiah asks Anya when he sees her trembling.

"I-I just, I just don't like the idea of making someone lose their memories," Anya's response makes Jeremiah remember when he used his Geass canceler on Anya, so he tries to comfort her by putting his hand on her head.

Already at night, at the place where Shirley and Mao had met, Shirley can be seen in front of the monument, and she turns around to start taking a few steps, but quickly stops.

"Oh, hello," Shirley says as she shows that in front of her was Lelouch. "Did you lose someone in your family too?"

Rivalz looks down with a depressed expression. "She really doesn't remember anything... I... I can't believe it, but at the same time it explains so much."

"Was it the right decision?" Milly wonders in her thoughts as she tries to stop tears from coming out of her eyes. "I understand that you wanted to protect her, but to do something like that... Things could have been different, Shirley might still be alive... Lelouch."

"No, I didn't lose someone in my family," Lelouch replies with an almost blank look on his face. "It was a friend, someone, really important."

"I see."

"But I didn't know," Lelouch continues. "I didn't know until after I lost her. Then I realized how much she meant to me... Her smile saved me. I'll never be able to argue or laugh like that with her again."

"I see," Shirley's voice is heard as the stars show in the sky. "You loved her, didn't you? You must feel terrible."

Lelouch takes a step back as he looks down at the ground, a sad smile plastered on his face. "Right now... I don't know anymore."

"Oh, Lelouch," Milly thinks, looking pityingly at the young man. "Even then you can't be sure you loved her... That was cruel, both to you and Shirley."

"Well, the morning always comes again."

"What?" Lelouch looks at Shirley confused by her words.

Shirley continues to look at Lelouch with a smile. "I must say it's funny. I know I came here for a reason, but I can't remember exactly what it was now. Maybe it's because I've already left everything behind, something I wanted to let go of. Maybe it was something I thought I couldn't forget. Maybe it was full of sadness. But morning still comes, doesn't it? That's why you shouldn't try to repress your thoughts like that."

"Yes, you're right," Lelouch gives another sad smile. "I feel the same. Thank you for everything," and with those words Lelouch turns around to start leaving, while Shirley can do nothing but watch the person she had previously loved disappear into the darkness.

As the screen went black at the end of the episode, no sound is heard for a moment, until finally Milly lets out a loud sigh, which she had been holding back for quite some time.

The council members quickly look worriedly at Milly, who after sighing is silent for a moment, until she laughs sadly.

"This, this is... I don't even have words to describe it," Milly laughed again as she covered her face with her hands and leaned forward. "I wanted to know what happened, what could have happened with Shirley and Lelouch, but... I didn't expect something like this and now part of me wishes I'd never seen it."

Rivalz and the others also lean down to look at the ground, all having similar feelings to Milly.

"Would you like to take a moment to go to the bathroom and clear your thoughts?" Schneizel asks politely as he stands up. "I think you all have enough to think about on the matter, it would be best to give us that time."

"Thank you very much, but we already did that with the previous episode, we don't want to waste any more of your time," says Milly haltingly, her face still buried in her hands.

Ohgi quickly gets up and coughs. "N-no, it's fine, in fact, I need to go to the bathroom for a bit too."

"Yes, me too," Tamaki quickly follows Ohgi's lead. "I need to go to the bathroom."

"Then it's decided, we'll all take a few minutes," Schneizel clasps his hands together gently. "Of course, if Zero or Her Majesty has no objection to it."

Nunnally shakes her head. "It's all right, actually, I'd like to think about what I've seen, too."

"If Her Majesty agrees then so do I," Zero says as he stands up. "Well, I'll meet you here in a few minutes, please try to relax as much as you can."

Zero's words quickly cause everyone in the Ashford group to leave the room, while almost everyone else stays, with only Nunnally, Zero, Ohgi and Tamaki leaving, the first two to discuss on their own and the last two to try to keep up appearances of what they said earlier.

"Poor things," Cécile says with a sad expression after seeing that Ashford's group has finally left. "All this must be terrible for them."

Xingke nods. "They're certainly seeing some pretty rough stuff, especially with the relationship they have with Lelouch and Miss Fenette. "

"D-do you think he really loved her?" Chiba asks unexpectedly, drawing the attention of the others in the room. "I mean the Demon Emperor, do you think he did love her?"

"That's a rather unexpected question, especially coming from you, Miss Chiba," Schneizel says with a strange smile. "You didn't seem very interested in Lelouch's relations, may I ask where your question comes from?"

Chiba simply clasps her hands as she sighs and relaxes in her seat. "I don't really know, I guess I feel sorry for her, no girl her age should have to go through something like that, so part of me would like to think that at least the Demon Emper... Lelouch did return her feelings."

"I see, well I honestly can't say, this sort of thing was never really my forte," Schneizel lets out a small chuckle. "But honestly, I find it odd to think that he did love her considering how he acted towards her before all this happened."

Cécile looks at the former Prince with a frown. "That doesn't mean he didn't love her, His Majesty said so himself, that he hadn't realized how important she was to him until he lost her."

"It's true that the Demon Emperor's attitude doesn't prove he didn't love her, but his words about valuing her don't say he loved her either, after all, he may be talking about simply losing a good friend," Guilford says, rubbing his legs together. "Maybe he did love her, but we saw that he wiped her memory in the end, which is why he wouldn't allow her to be near him."

"But Miss C.C. said you needed to push away those you cherished so you wouldn't lose them, surely Master Lelouch simply followed her example," Sayoko says with a frown as she stands her ground.

Cornelia shakes her head. "He may have meant to, but when you love someone you also have to respect their choices and desires, but Lelouch erased her memory, even when she begged him not to."

"She was obviously traumatized by everything that had happened, you don't always have to let those you love do what they want, or at least not when they are in such a state of mind," says Rakshata smoking her pipe.

Tohdoh taps his seat a couple of times. "Maybe we're digging too deep into this, after all Lelouch may not have loved Miss Fenette, but he did have feelings of a romantic nature towards her to some extent, which would be normal considering their ages."

Kaguya nods with a melancholic smile. "I think that's the possibility most likely to be right, after all we probably haven't seen everything that happened between the two of them yet, we should reserve our judgement until then."

A peaceful silence followed Kaguya's words, until Lloyd finally broke it with his usual tactlessness.

"Are we going to tell them?" asks the scientist with a smile as he looks at the door to the room. "Shall we tell the ones who left about the whole argument? We might get more information from them."

Xingke shakes his head quickly. "No, the last thing they need is for us to ask them questions about this or ask for their opinion."

"I agree, we'd just make things harder for them," Schneizel seconds, relaxing in place.

Cornelia sighs. "Well then, we can only wait for them to return."

I hope you enjoyed this next chapter of the translation, it was certainly full of various events.

I edited a part that I forgot to put, where Tohdoh says the difference between what happened with Lelouch erasing Shirley's memories and when he did it with his classmates to make them forget Arthur, but it's already fixed. Thanks to Kurosu Cross for pointing out that mistake, I wouldn't have noticed it otherwise, also thanks to Marche V for pointing out some typos, those should also be fixed by now..

The text below is the original chapter notes.

Hello, how are you, I hope you don't notice the small delay of this chapter... Okey, seriously, I'm sorry for the delay, but these two weeks have been a real odyssey, literally every day I had to take an exam, make a presentation, or send an important work, in fact today I had to get up at 5 in the morning to take an exam and several works, but I think I can say that at the moment things have finally calmed down, so there should be no delay in the next chapter, and I may even get it out before Wednesday if I'm lucky, being the best case scenario that I get it out on Sunday.

This chapter was hard to write, mostly due to the fact that again much of the chapter turned into the council members feeling bad for Shirley, something I can only write so many times before it gets repetitive, but the next chapter will anyway start with the council's thoughts on what they just saw, though I will try to delve into them in an interesting way. I've honestly found that Shirley and her subplot is a bit difficult for me to write in this story, mostly due to the fact that the only people close enough to Shirley to have deep and natural thoughts are the Ashford members, and Ohgi being a teacher and feeling guilty, and even then only Milly and Suzaku are the closest to them, while the others never really had very deep interactions with Shirley.

If I'm being honest, I was never really a fan of the whole Shirley sub-plot, I always found it weird how Lelouch before her father's death barely paid attention to her at best, and ignored her at worst, but then there's the whole thing about him maybe loving her, I get that they wanted to touch on not knowing what you have until you lose it, but I think it would have worked better if they hadn't made the relationship between the two so one-sided at the beginning. But obviously I can't bring my personal opinion into this kind of story, that would ruin things, so instead I put the adults arguing about it, with some thinking he did love her, while others think he didn't, in the end I guess it depends on your point of view, personally I think he had feelings for her, but he didn't exactly love her, though surely my opinion on how a healthy couple should work is guiding some of my opinions.

Surely everyone knows what C.C.'s dress is, but if for those who don't know just google "C.C. Empress dress", and the fact that it's a gift from Lelouch comes from a picture drama, where it's said that Lelouch offered the dress to C.C. as some kind of proposition, but she turned it down as she didn't agree with Zero Requiem, although later she does wear it for some reason that I honestly can't remember at the moment.

Sorry if this chapter has more grammatical errors than usual, as I said before, I didn't have much time to write, so I had less time to fix mistakes, but I'll try for tomorrow or the day after tomorrow to republish the chapter without the errors, but for the moment I'm publishing it at once.

I hope to see you in the next chapter, don't hesitate to leave a comment, they always help to improve this story.

Chapter edited on 04/25/21. This in itself removes several of the errors that I was unable to review due to time.