Interlude 19: 怨霊 (Onryo)

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The metronome of the clock endlessly repeats as I sit in the lotus pose, seeking a peace I am forever denied. My body endlessly thirsts for battle. For it is only there that I can lose myself. That I can forget for a time, the scarification of my heart.

It is near eight pm, Moscow standard time. Ten hours till the Fifteenth Air Assault Corp leads the charge into an incursion towards Białystok, Poland. An incursion that as the Knight of Seven, I have been given command over.

The sniff of disdain that escapes my lips is one I don't bother to suppress. This is a waste of time. I don't give a damn about Europia. They're stupid enough to think they can win this war despite their factionalism and infighting, even when the fire is at the castle gates.

True, losing the First and Third Fleets forced Britannia to hold their invasion plans and build up. Even this attack, is just a distraction. A reminder that though a blow has been struck, death clad in funeral white still stalks their lines.

白き死神。 (White Reaper.) The name Europia dubbed me after witnessing my decimation of their forces.

No retreat. No surrender. No mercy.

They had their chance to walk away. All of them did. They could have done something less foolhardy than facing me. They knew we were coming, and yet they chose to fight.

Once, I would have hesitated. Given them a chance to surrender. To walk away and fight another day. That man would have let some of them live.

That man died the same as she did. Betrayed by a treacherous coward in a mask. A man who came under flag of truce, only to unleash hell itself when I wasn't there to protect her.

I told her not to trust him. She wouldn't hear me. She believed him honorable, a man of justice.

いいかげにしろ! (Like hell!)

Meditation is a lost cause tonight, as usual. With practiced movements, I stand up, taking up the sword stance I was taught by Master Tohdoh all those years ago.

..Another betrayal that must be answered. My former master is a man without honor to side with a despicable villain like Zero.

"That..., that was one of the most beautiful things I ever heard. Thank you, Suzaku."

My footing fails me, I'm forced to sway backwards, backflipping in a spin to regain my footing, sweat pouring down my brow as my head throbs from remembering...Euphie.

"I would never have chosen a coward. I chose YOU. Because you're one of the finest men I've ever met. A man worthy of the title of Knight. And I won't let my knight...no. The man I love, tear himself apart. Not when he doesn't deserve it. And not when I can help,"

Stop it.

"It's not the same, no. But I don't care. I'm doing this because it's right. And if both of us don't care? Then no one else matters."

Stop it! I don't want to hear it!

"Suzaku...I COMMAND YOU TO LIVE FOR THE SAKE OF OUR LOVE!"

"やめろ!!!" I scream out as I drive my fist down into the mats of the training hall I'm practicing in, the material shredding from the force of my blow, hand shaking in place as tears drip down my face.

やめろ。。もいいです。。 (Stop it...no more..)

Every night I see her. Every night I relive it. Every night, I watch her die again.

She was my light, my hope for a better future, proof that even someone as wretched as me could be loved. We loved each other more than anything else in this world-

"Because I love you, you stupid delusional asshole!"

There it is again. That unknown voice. Something about it sets my spine to tingle, my heart to ache with longing. Who is it? Who is that person who haunts my waking life alongside visions of my lost princess?

I do not know. I can recall no details of the voice, only the words, the feeling, some primal recognition deep within that calls to me.

Unsteadily, I rise to my feet, clenching my fists as I strike the standing dummy anchored in place for practice, the body oscillating slowly as my blows strike in rhythm.

...But it's pointless to speculate on the identity of a ghost. I have a duty, a mission. To crush Europia, to ensure that the empire conquers the world. To make the world pay for the cruelty of taking the woman I love from me.

Her dying in my arms, or from being shot would have been bad enough. But no, Zero was far too capricious in his mad cruelty.

"Would you rather be the pitiful delusional moron with a death wish you were before?"

Ha! Death wish? I thought I longed for death before, when I was alone and suffering the guilt of my father's murder at my own hands.

That was a kindness, a soft rain of dew, compared to the agony my heart endured on the day of the SAZ's fall.

My eyes widen in mute horror at the sight on the screen in front of me.

Euphemia, eyes wide as Zero stabs her through the chest with his sword, holding her in a dip as if this were a dance.

"My apologies, your highness. Sadly, I cannot permit you to stop my designs with your paltry efforts."

With an artistic flourish, he pulls his sword out, the blood splattering across the stage, his cloak, and the shocked eyes of the onlooking Japanese near the stage.

"But fear not. Your death will be poetic and worthy of remembrance," the masked man says, turning his cloaked features towards the audience.

"People of Japan! I ask of you now, will you settle for scraps? The dregs of what was taken from you, a mere fraction of what is owed in redress for years of suffering and wrongs endured by the people of this land?!"

His right hand moves to hold Euphemia upright by her hair, blood pouring from her wound onto her dress as she looks at him, frightened, unable to speak, head shaking as if to plead for him to stop.

"Or will you remember the pride you once held? The spirit that this land, and all others under Britannia's sway has forgotten? Will you forsake the easy life of largess and supplication, and travel the hard road of blood, vengeance, and retribution richly deserved?"

No, no, no, no! Don't do this! Please! Just let her go! Don't drive my people into this madness!

"What say you, fallen subjects of a country long since dead? Will you play the puppets to dance for a princess' amusement? Or will you stand up and fight to repay the reaper's debt inflicted on you?!"

"こたえろ、日本人!" (Answer me, Japanese!)

Pulses of sound from my heart thunder in my ears as my fists clench, unable to breath as the seconds drag on...until…

"日本万歳!" (Long live Japan!)

"たつけて、ZERO-さま!" (Save us, Lord Zero!)

"ブリタニアへの死!" (Death to Britannia!)

"ZERO! ZERO! ZERO! ZERO! ZERO!"

As if struck down by a bolt from the heavens, the dream of cooperation and a peaceful existence for the Japanese burns and dies. All because of one man.

Zero makes a cutting gesture with his arm, silencing the crowd with a single motion.

"If war is what is desired, THEN WAR IT SHALL BE! I recognize and respect the resolve before me this day! And as warrant of my resolve, I GIVE YOU PRINCESS EUPHEMIA, SHE WHO WOULD HAVE MADE YOU INTO BEGGARS IN YOUR OWN LAND, TRAINED DOGS WHO WOULD BARK ON COMMAND!"

No! No! No! DON'T! I start running for the hangar, jumping into Lancelot's cockpit, praying I can make it in time, praying I'm not too late to save the woman I love...

The broadcast continues on one of my monitors as I take off, his left hand curling into a fist as his right holds her helplessly by the hair, tears running down her face, a look of betrayal and sorrow apparent there.

"彼女をバラバラにする。" (Rend her to pieces.)

And with that declaration, he rears his arms back, and throws her off the stage into the maddened and bloodthirsty crowd.

"HELP ME! PLEASE! SOMEONE! SUZAKU!" she screams as she falls, the beasts in human skin advancing on her, heedless of her pleas.

Lancelot's FLOAT system immediately hits the redline, putting the system in danger of overheating as I streak across the sky, face as pale as my frame's visage, sonic booms shattering windows in my wake.

I can't see her. I can't see Euphie. All I see...is an endless mass of people. Grasping, clawing, burying her in bodies...

No. Not people. Monsters.

"EUPHIE!" I scream out as I pull Lancelot into a dive, hurtling towards the stadium, dodging the gunfire from Black Knight knightmares, speeding past the Gawain's Hadrons as I throw it aside with a single kick, and finally hitting a three point landing that strains the servos in the legs from the impact.

In mere moments I'm out of the cockpit, a sword in my left hand, as I try to force my way through, my self control straining to not cut my way through every person in my way.

"動け!!!" my voice rings out hoarsely as I desperately slash and throw people aside, uncaring where they land, hoping against hope, praying I was in time. (MOVE!)

Finally, moments stretching longer than I could ever comprehend later, I find her. And I almost wish I hadn't, for the sight of what they did to her scars itself into my mind.

Her hair, beautiful and the color of roses, torn from her head, patches of raw bleeding skin apparent on her scalp. Her arms, twisted, broken, one ripped from her shoulder a short distance away, the wound still coursing ichor onto the ground. Her legs...bent unnaturally, bruises apparent everywhere, bones sticking out and bent unnaturally. Her dress, shredded to pieces of fabric unable to conceal the horror of what has been done to her. A piece of glass embedded in her throat, vibrating as blood pours out of the wound. Her jaw, dislocated, part of her face crushed by trampling feet, as the light fades from her eyes.

I run to hold her in my arms, tears staining the ground, her life's blood pouring onto my uniform as a baptism, looking into her eyes as I shake my head from side to side in disbelief.

Even now, even like this...I love her with all my heart. And as she smiles at me for the last time, and the breath of life leaves her at last...I feel my heart die inside.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha…"

Instantly my head turns towards the mocking laughter, Zero seated upon the shoulder of the Gawain, clapping slowly as he looks down at me.

"Ha ha ha ha. Marvelous. Simply marvelous. A tragedy worthy of inclusion alongside the Iliad and Le Mort de Artur. I could not have asked for a finer performance, Sir Suzaku Kururugi, Knight of Euphemia," he says with a flourish of sarcasm so thick that one could walk on air using it.

Zero! Betrayer! Monster! Demon!

"You...I won't forgive you for this. I'll see you defeated, your armies broken, your evil extinguished forever, MURDERER!" I scream at him, still holding Euphie's broken body to my side.

Like a tengu standing from a crouch, Zero rises, gazing down imperiously at me, cape fluttering in the wind.

"Will you stop me then? You, who has thus far failed frice to stop me from shedding royal blood? I think not, white knight."

Four? ….No. He can't mean..there's no way he could have-!

"An artist of butchery, an angel seated in white, a prince clad in black, and now, a would be savior cut down by the people she sought to bring to salvation."

He's lying! He has to be lying! How could he possibly have found-?!

With a backhanded toss, he throws down a wrapped bundle the size of a fist in front of me.

"If thou darest to doubt my claim, look within yon bundling and see the inevitable truth that is my victory."

Fingers trembling, my left hand grasps the bundle, tearing the paper open...only for a scream of agony to escape my lungs as I behold what is within it. A bloodied origami crane, and a black king piece, broken in half.

"ゼロ!! お前を殺して!!!" I bellow with rage burning in my blood, fury I never imagined erupting in me at the brazenness, the depravity, the utter disregard of humanity in this demon's entire demeanor. (ZERO! I'LL KILL YOU!)

With a hand across his waist, Zero bows in a manner meant to mock the very royalty he's butchered to me, "Then, let us meet on the field of battle, Lancelot in mourning. And let destiny itself decide who shall triumph. But for now? I have a war to enact in earnest! 天下布武!" (TENKA FUBU!)

The Gawain crosses it's arms as it rises into the air before darting off into the sky silently, leaving only ruin in its wake as I sit there, holding the pieces of my broken heart.

As the stolen knightmare rises into the sky, a thought strikes me. Looking at the rampaging civilians, the security forces trying to regain control, the scattered fires and wreckage..

Why did I ever think these people were worth saving?

If this is what they want, this demon is the savior they claim as their king?

I'm sorry Euphie. We tried. We gave them every chance to be reasonable, to try and make the empire a better place, to create a better world without bloodshed.

But they spit on your sacrifice, your dream. And in doing so, they earned whatever damnation awaits them in hell. Lelouch, Nunnally, Euphemia, forgive me, the man you loved perished with you this day...

Solemnly, my arms aching with the weight of my burden, I march to the waiting Lancelot, as my heart turns to stone and ice.

A knock on the door rouses me from my contemplation of past woes.

"Yes?"

The door opens to reveal Cecile Croomy, Lloyd's assistant. A decent woman, in an indecent world.

Looking at me with what I'm sure is concern, she speaks as I close my eyes, letting my breathing settle.

"Suzaku, it's 11pm at night. Shouldn't you be resting for the battle tomorrow?"

Rest. Hmph. Why should I hurry to bed? It will simply be more of the same. My greatest mistakes played out in a montage of agony, over and over again.

"I was restless. Was there something else, Lt. Croomy?"

I can see her flinching at the stony tone in my voice. Or perhaps it's the look in my eyes that makes her look away from me.

The look of a man who has lost the meaning of his life.

"No, but-"

With a turn of my heel, I hold my left leg up vertically, legs aligned in a straight line from the ceiling to the floor.

"Then leave me. I wish to be alone."

With a heavy sigh, she leaves the room, the automatic door shutting behind her. She was kind to me before...that.

Better she separate herself from what I've become. Better she not be enveloped in the poison that now grasps my heart.

"A SINGLE PERSON CANNOT REDEEM THE POISON THAT IS BRITANNIA AS IT IS!"

Gritting my teeth in pain as that voice, that accursed voice rings within my skull once again.

Who are you?! Why are you haunting my memories?! Why can't I remember who said that to me?!

仕方がない... (No help for it.)

If I'm to rest at all tonight, it will have to be with medicinal aid. Replacing the mask on my face, I exit the training room, the air of menace around me causing anyone crossing my path to avoid my presence. Just as well. My tolerance for most people wears thin.

Finally. My private quarters. A room no one has access to on this base, save me. A place I can be alone, to let my heart cry it's mournful sound with none to hear it.

As I remove my mask, two things on my desk catch my eye. One, the badge of honor that was Euphemia's gift to me, a sword topped by a circle holding a crown, four white angelic wings emanating from the highest point of the badge.

The latter..a jet injector loaded with a soporific tranquilizer. Enough to put me into a dreamless slumber for six to eight hours.

Pity I can't take it every night. Unfortunately, even a knight of the round cannot gainsay the chief medical officer in the field. Clearly they have been forewarned of my preference for such things.

The injector gleams in the soft light as I press it against my bicep, liquid flowing into my body as I pull the trigger.

There. Now I'll have some peace for the night.

I used to like this time of day. The quiet of the previous day giving way to the new dawn, dew drops gathering on leaves, cicadas chirping in the summer. Now? It's nothing but a bitter reminder of happier days.

Lelouch, old friend, what would you think of me now? Would you scorn me for what I've chosen? Would you have sided with Zero prior to his murder of my princess? Or would you rejoin your forsaken homeland, just to claim vengeance for Euphemia? A question that has troubled me at times, which I shall never have an answer for.

Nunnally...even thinking about what that...that...雑種...did to her...sets my blood to boil within me. (Mongrel.)

The guards standing at attention before the command center salute as I enter through the automatic door, the base commander flinching in place as I deliberately break the silence of my approach by clicking the heels of my boots together.

"Lord Kururugi, my apologies for not greeting you properly. We thought-" he slowly says as he turns around, trying to make excuses for his lack of decorum. I don't give a damn.

"How soon till the air assault corp is ready to depart? I need to make a change to the plan."

The man frowns, "My lord, we were told the attack vector had already been plotted. The men are finishing their preparations as we speak. May I ask what the change is?"

A soft glow emanates from the eye sockets of my mask as my synthesized voice echoes through the room, "We're not launching a bombing raid. We're razing the base at Białystok to the ground."

Hmph. Did he think that this was going to be business as usual? That a knight of the round was sent here for no reason?

"My lord, we cannot pierce the defenses of the outlying base. You'll be risking men's lives pointlessly for nothing. I cannot in good conscience order an assault on the city for no reas-"

Another flinch as I step towards him, gazing into his eyes, noting the barely hidden fear in them. I do not relish the fear men have for me, but I can and will use it if I have to.

Contemptible means, perhaps. But what does it matter? A man who lets the woman he loves and two of his best friends die to a rabid dog, is contemptible to the core.

"You can and you will. I will lead the assault myself. Białystok burns today. Am I understood?" I say, my tone brooking no argument, hand read beneath my cloak to physically threaten the man into compliance.

Fortunately, he has enough sense to recognize the obvious.

"...Yes my lord. Any further changes to our orders?" he says, clear reluctance and resignation in his tone.

"No quarter."

Did I strike a nerve? This time he appears to be getting closer to anger at my demand.

"My lord, you cannot order no quarter! Once the enemy realize we're giving no quarter, they will fight twice as hard! We'll take unnecessary losses and-"

Whatever he was about to say is cut off by my gloved right hand emerging from my cloak, slowly closing into a fist inches away from his face, faster than he can react or perceive, his eyes widening as he falls to silence.

"No. Quarter."

His head gives a grim nod as his only response, followed by a salute.

"Good. Prepare to sortie."

Fabric swishes through the air as I turn on my heels, exiting the room with nary a sound.

Europia means nothing to me. None of this does. It's merely following orders, biding my time till I find out what I really want to know.

Where THAT MAN is. Zero.

You took Nunnally from me. You took Lelouch from me. You took Euphemia from me. You took my country from me. You took...any hope and meaning in this accursed and worthless life from me. So in return, I will see your vile ambition die screaming.

Leather heels click on the hanger floor as I enter the hanger set aside for my use.

"Ah, our esteemed devicer graces us with his presence. What diabolical act shall we participating in today, hmm?"

It amazes me that even here, the closest he's ever been to the frontlines, Lloyd still maintains his gadfly demeanor.

"Praise Mara! He can be taught!"

Grrr, go away, damn you. I don't need to be haunted by this, not now. I have a mission to lead.

"..Is Lancelot Shiromori ready?"

Lloyd adjusts his glasses, his face betraying nothing of what he's thinking. Then again, with him? He may simply not care what I do with his precious machine as long as he gets good data. Just as well. It's easier to deal with him than Cecile.

Whenever I interact with her, there's a vague sense of...something from her. Disappointment? Cringing? Loss? Perhaps she mourns who I once was.

"Oh the Lancelot is ready, though I can't say much for the name, or the paintjob. Why you insisted on making it monocolor, I'll never understand. Some sort of Eleven cultural thing, I assume."

My hand touches the left leg, looking up at the gleaming pure white visage of my knightmare.

白い森。 (White Forest) A name chosen to reflect Lancelot's new purpose. Also a cross cultural reference. Mori is also latin for death.

"Something like that. I'm deploying now."

Lloyd waves me off as I ascend via the rappel line, "Have fun slaughtering the EU. Do try not to get too much blood on my Lancelot, will you?"

A snort of amusement escapes me as I settle into the cockpit, tapping a button on my mask to link it's optics with targeting systems as I open the comms to the air assault teams.

"This is Sir Suzaku Kururugi. All fighters will carry bunker buster and incendiary weaponry. Use the bunker busters to soften up the armor, then drop the napalm. Paratrooper units will follow after KMF units break their lines. Remember, no quarter is to be given."

"Yes, my lord!"

My hands tighten on the controls as I take a deep breath, hands gripping the controls, my spirit stilling in the one place that I truly feel I belong right now.

The battlefield.

"Lancelot Shiromori, launch."

With a hum of thrumming power like thunder contained, I launch into the skies, countryside passing by below me as dawn breaks across the horizon, Lancelot itself blending seamlessly with the clouds.

In what feels like mere moments, we're over the border of Poland and descending towards the base at Białystok. The base's positioning means it's just outside the city limits, meant to be a line of defense against air attacks. And given that it's a military base, a fair amount of neighboring infrastructure has sprung up around it by consequence of personnel being assigned on a long term basis. Which regrettably means none of it will survive what's coming.

But they made their choice. They chose to fight Britannia. And so, they will die. That is the way of the world.

Lancelot draws it's VARIS rifle from it's back as it descends through the clouds, barrel expanding to hadron blaster mode as I take aim.

"On my mark, deploy bunker busters, then incendiary. I want nothing standing when this is over."

Are you watching this, Zero? Are you seething in anger, helpless and impotent rage as the base and city around it burns? Or are you callously watching with your heart unmoved, like it was at the SAZ?

"Mark."

Red and black light fills the air as the hadrons shriek cuts across the light of dawn, explosions dotting the ground as I sweep the beam, bombs falling from the heavens in it's wake. G-forces press me back into my seat as my eyes narrow, Lancelot's snowy visage screaming towards them the last thing any of them will ever see on this earth.

Flak rounds and missiles turn from my escort to focus on my path, the gunners doubtless having been told to focus on bringing down the infamous 'White Death'.

馬鹿者。 (Fools)

A barrier of shimmering green in the shape of a cone springs to life as emitters along Lancelot's torso project the energy into being. With the core luminous cone, I can shrug off whatever I cannot dodge.

"All units, concentrate your firepower on the white unit! There is a four rank promotion to the man who brings down the white death! FOR EUROPIA!"

Too little, too late. Lancelot Shiromori holsters it's rifle, instead drawing twin MVS as I pull up from my dive, slashing through Panzer Hummel units hastily deployed from hangars to stop me.

The Hummel isn't the worst design I've ever seen, that goes to the Chinese Gun-Ru. In terms of long range combat, it's superior to the Sutherland, and a reasonable match for the Gloucester. The firepower of it's arm cannons is superior in terms of defensive ability for holding positions.

But?

My MVS cleaves through a unit as I pass by, getting ever closer to the damaged and burning command center.

It's utterly useless in close quarters.

"My lord, you're in our firing solu-!"

A snarl escapes my lips as I pivot out of the way of a rifle burst, my left slash harken piercing through the errant KMF.

"Deploy. Don't worry about friendly fire for me."

"...Yes my lord."

With the grace of a dancer, I pirouette from an enemy behind my back, launching myself into the kururu kick, just as the bombs start falling.

"We surrender! We surrender!"

Enemy comms chatter starts filling with pleas to surrender, that they think we will show mercy.

Did that man show mercy? Once, I would have accepted it, let them walk away to fight another day.

"This is Colonel Dabrowski, base commander! We surrender, just stop the bombing!"

Once, I was a better man.

Watch, Demon King Zero. Watch as I demonstrate my resolve. A flick of my controls opens my comms to all channels.

"Denied."

Fires crackle as a pregnant pause follows my order. Are they surprised that I would reject the offer? Or surprised to receive a response?

"Who are you?! We told you that we surrender! Where is your honor, sir?!"

Planting the left foot of Lancelot backwards, I adjust my stance as I sheath my blades, unholstering the VARIS in it's Hadron blaster configuration, the extension rotating into position from my right shoulder

"My name, is the Knight of Seven. You know me, as Biała śmierć." (White Death)

Lancelot's right arm raises the rifle's barrel, aiming directly at their base.

"You had your chance to surrender."

Hadrons glow as the targeting sight in my mask lines up with my eye, and by extension Lancelot's own systems.

"Now, death on white wings comes," I whisper, adjusting the barrel to wide aperture mode for maximum coverage.

"Damn you, we surrender! What kind of a monster are you?!"

The kind that only a man who has lost everything can become. I have one last task to finish, one final mission to fulfill, before I can join them. Even if it means I suffer for my evil karma.

The VARIS rifle's barrel glows green and red, just before a wide beam of red screams out, slamming into the base walls, which hold for moments before buckling, Europia command personnel screaming in agony over the comms before falling silent.

"All Hail, Britannia."