Chapter XII
Her warmth bathed him with an infinite peace. Her essence engulfed Suzaku as they lay in bed, their hands grasped under the sheets in a loving embrace without inhibition. She had secretly come to him in the middle of the night, somehow entering his home without Arthur reacting, and crawled into bed with him. He found her next to him when he opened his eyes.
He had been speechless, but she gently put a finger to his lips when he was about to speak. She leaned in and kissed him. She smiled at him, and he smiled back, accepting her. He brought her body close and passion erupted without reserve, giving raise to extreme elation. Falling asleep in each others' arms.
"Hello lover," she said sweetly, the next morning.
"Hello, yourself," he replied playfully. Suzaku brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed it. Her eyes twinkled with reflective moonlight and her skin glistened with seductive moisture.
"I miss you," she said.
"I miss you, too," he answered.
Suddenly, he began to hear the sound of a soft, but distressing hiss in the far off distance. Then it became more prominent, louder. Is that Arthur?
He turned to check, but the cat was no where to be seen. He thought it was his imagination, a noise he was unfamiliar with as this was his first night sleeping in his new home. Then looked back to her. He frowned, sadly. She wasn't there. The only thing that lay beside him was the book he had been reading just before he fell sleep.
It had been a dream. Nothing more than a man's fantasy, but it had been so vividly real. Oh, Euphie, I miss you so much!
He folded up into a fetal position under the bed sheets and felt like crying. But he had to understand and comprehend the reality that she was gone. Euphie was never coming back!
Suzaku heard Arthur continue with his angry, distressing sounds, and even growling.
"Arthur," his voice muffled under the sheets, "go back to sleep." But the cat continued.
Opening his eyes, he looked for Arthur.
The cat was standing on the floor near the edge of the bed with his hackles erect, as if in protective stance, or scared of an unknown something. Arthur was staring at the closed Juliet bedroom doors that opened out to a patio.
Arthur sensed danger. Something, or someone, was on the property. Arthur is better than a security system or a watch dog. Speaking of the security system…it's silent.
Suzaku glanced briefly at a clock on the wall, it was 2am.
Was it an Empirical guard? Did Gino order a guard to come against his specific order?
Suddenly, Suzaku shot a glance to the bedroom door as floor boards creaked in the hallway. Arthur didn't let up his guard, facing the patio.
His mind jumped into high gear. As a pilot of a Knightmare Frame, if not the most best designed, he had honed his instincts to both detect and determine impeding danger. And with Arthur's confirmation, he knew there was trouble.
"You have my attention now, Arthur," he said. "Someone is in the house." And they found a way to disable the security system. Maybe a couple of guards would've been prudent?
He swiveled out of bed. Wearing only a pair of shorts, he reached for a robe to cover himself. Then he pulled open a drawer in his night stand and grabbed a pistol.
Arthur jumped off the bed and went to the door. Then scratched at it, wanting out.
Without allowing for the door to open half way, Arthur raced out into the hallway, bumping Suzaku's leg. He was like a predator out for his prey.
"Arthur, come back here!" But the cat ignored his plea.
Arthur ran into the sitting room down the hall. It was the biggest room in the house. The room was dark, all the curtains were draw—making it pitch black.
He heard a thump. And all was quiet. Arthur was silent.
"Arthur," he quietly called out. "Where'd you go?"
He groped the wall and flicked on a wall switch, then stopped short. Three armed masked men stood before him. With his pistol in hand, he said, "What the hell are you doing in my house!" He saw Arthur immobile on the floor. Sticking in his side was what looked like a tranquilizer dart.
The three men faced Suzaku, weapons at ready, cocked and aimed. Two of them looked like typical masked marauders in dark clothing, but the third, and most likely their leader, wore an open black leather jacket with a red and black intricately designed dragon tattoo across his muscular chest. It seemed to wrap around his body like a serpent. He stood tall, was fair skinned, and had dark hair. He stood between the other two, as if to affirm Suzaku's assumption. And in one hand was a golden luger, its partner was holstered on his left side. In his other hand was the tranquilizer gun he had used on Arthur.
Suzaku looked upon the man with disdain. "Arthur better make a full recovery!"
The leader laughed. "You should be more concerned with yourself and not some stupid feline."
"That so-called stupid feline is my friend and means more to me than the world! How did you get in here, and more importantly, know that I would be here?"
"People and their pets, what a pathetic relationship," said the man with obvious dislike. "And it doesn't take a genius to follow a Knight of the Round."
Suzaku ignored the obviousness of the second explanation, he was always being watched.
"You've obviously never had a companion," he said of Arthur.
The leader laughed again. "You really need to get yourself a woman, they made better 'companions'." The other two laughed. "However, I did have a 'companion' of my own. A human one, a brother, and he meant the world to me. And you killed him, Suzaku Kururugi, Sir Knight of the Round; you, and your heathen royal brethren!"
Suzaku's eyes narrowed. "Who are you referring to? Wait, I know you. You were one of the Eleven's protesting at the fence when that man was killed by a firing squad. I remember, you were shouting the loudest, cursing at me, as I presided over the execution." Suzaku paused, then realized, and said, "He was your brother?"
The man sneered. "Yes, and now I'm going to execute you!"
Suzaku dived out of the way of a shot from the man's luger as he brought it to bare, and took refuge behind a couch. But it didn't hold up, and after a couple of shots, the bullets zipped through easily, whizzing past his head within inches.
He moved quickly, scampering to a safer location. And while doing so, fired off a few shots of his own. They went wild, however, missing all three men—but they ran for cover, anyway. He was normally a good shot, but his position and having to move swiftly caused miscalculation.
I managed to crack Zero's helmet, breaking it off him with a precise shot without killing him on Kaminejima Island, but Lelouch was standing still at the time…
It wasn't so simple this time.
Following a series of shots from his assailants as he bolted for cover, Suzaku took refuge behind a protective wall. Some bullets bounced off, others embedded themselves in the supporting beams. Taking the angle of those shots into consideration, he quickly fired back, striking one of the two henchmen in the chest. He fell back from the impact, recoiling from the shot. Unfortunately, he survived, wearing a bulletproof vest.
But not their leader, he was exposed.
The man's name who was executed was Daisuke Chika, that name was etched into Suzaku's mind forever. But he was not the only one person who had tried to kill him since becoming a Knight of the Round, calling him a traitor for turning his back on his people.
After investigation, it was learned Daisuke Chika had an older brother named Hachirou. Both of whom were members of some sort of freedom fighter liberation group. There were so many that detested the Empire that Suzaku couldn't recall the name of the specific group at the moment. But Suzaku did recall the tattoo on the man shouting from the fence, one and the same.
And suddenly, Suzaku knew his past had come back to haunt him—with a bloodthirsty revenge!
Suzaku took a shot, but missed when Hachirou veered to the right to avoid it. He fired back, and Suzaku ducked behind the wall. The bullet carved a gash across a corner and nearly took a slice of his left cheek off.
One of Hackirou's henchman fired at Suzaku, as well, but Suzaku was protected. Until the other henchman managed to sneak around to expose his other flank. Suzaku dived out of the line of fire, and behind a grossly oversized scratching post for Arthur that had been delivered to the house within the last couple of days that Suzaku later found. It had been a gift from Gino.
The bullets became embedded in its thick hardwood framework that was covered with a soft material used for grip.
Sorry Arthur, he thought.
Suzaku took a shot, quickly turning, and made a kill, sending a bullet in the same man's forehead that had snuck up on him. The assailant dropped like a stone.
Suzaku turned back to the others, still hiding behind the toy post. It was a sturdy position.
After that, the weapons fire intensified profusely, and bullets ripped through the cat structure. Eventually, it would be torn to ribbons. And Suzaku couldn't fire back, trapped behind it as enemy fire soared. He knew eventually they'd get wise, and one would cover the other, while the other maneuvered around to a more accessible position to kill him.
And that's exactly what began to transpire.
Suzaku was prepared, training for scenarios like this during his years as an infantryman.
He pushed back and toppled Arthur's toy post, temporarily distracting the second henchman before their plan could fall into fruition, then fired, sending bullets coursing through his neck. The man fell back, blood sputtering from his neck like an out of control foundation.
Two down, Suzaku thought, just the leader to go!
But that was when he felt it, from a fourth man, someone who had held back in case back-up was needed. Suzaku fell for a typical Pincer Movement, where two separate bodies of troops converged on the enemy—one in secret. Suzaku felt a sharp prick in neck, a dart.
I should've known…
He pulled out the tranquilizer dart and dropped it, but the effects of the sedative were quick. He stumbled forward, gun in hand, but his vision began to blur, and he fell to his knees, dropping his weapon.
This was it, he thought. This is where it was going to end.
Hachirou stood before him, towering like a deity, luger in hand, and pointed it at Suzaku's head.
Suzaku looked straight up its barrel. He had done so much, come so far—become a Knight of the Round. He wanted to fix the system from within. He had sacrificed so much!
But now it was all going to be taken down by this Eleven revolutionary with a grudge.
"Nooo," he said, reaching out. But Suzaku grabbed at air, and collapsed at Hachirou's feet.
"Sweet dreams, good knight," Suzaku heard Hachirou say with a chuckle.
And with that, Suzaku collapsed into darkness.
To be continued...