"Did we really make the right decision?" Milly asked anxiously, gathered with the other Black Knights, sans Leila, in Mementos. As the late Viceroy's supposed girlfriend, there was, in spite of the crimes Clovis had confessed to, the strong expectation that she would appear at his state funeral and appear at least a little sorry about his death, so she was already on a plane to Pendragon.
"The Viceroy had it coming," Kallen replied coldly. "Death was what he deserved."
"I mean, we didn't kill him ourselves, but it still feels like we did," Milly frowned. "He warned us about the Black Mask. Yes, what the Viceroy did was unforgivable, but wasn't ruining his reputation in front of the entire country enough? No one should die that way…"
Kallen laughed bitterly. "Maybe if he hadn't died just when he was about to tell us all exactly what Code-R entailed…"
Lelouch nodded grimly. "Mark my words, Diamond, they'll make Clovis into some kind of a martyr. I would bet my life on it. They'll say he wasn't himself, that he was under duress, and that we made him say things that weren't true. Or that he realized the error of his ways, and with nothing but contrition in his heart, he heroically gave his life in an attempt to expose the rogue scientists who acted without authorization of the crown. All hail Britannia!" he concluded scathingly.
"What?" Milly gasped, appalled. "How could you get that from the broadcast that we saw?"
"Don't be naive. Hi-TV was one of the few stations that showed more than the first minute of the broadcast. Since he was taking his time, being all melodramatic even as he delivered his confession, he had only just gotten to the bit about the treasury by then. Most viewers probably didn't see the part about Code-R live. I'm sure Hi-TV will be subject to a hefty fine too. Rumors will circulate, of course. Pirated versions of the speech already abound on the internet, and Britannia can't take them all down, no matter how hard it tries. But it can spin a new narrative, and plenty will be happy to swallow it rather than accept that the Third Prince was less than a paragon of virtue. Still, it won't fool everyone, and some will start to ask questions about society, questions that don't have comfortable answers, so that's a win for us."
"Well, for good or ill, people are talking about us now," Arthur shrugged. "We should check out that barrier and see if we can get past it now."
"Right," Milly nodded, still looking uneasy. "Well… what are we waiting for?" she asked, nervous laughter in her voice.
They headed down from the entrance, and there was the Cognitive Glasgow, waiting for them. On an earlier trip to Mementos, Kallen had taken to painting it red, like the Knightmare Frame she claimed to have back in reality, and she had been pleasantly surprised to see that the color had stuck.
"Everyone aboard?" Kallen asked as she took the Knightmare's controls.
"Cramped as always, but yes," Milly replied.
"Oh, quit complaining!"
Kallen steered them down to the first barrier with little fanfare; the Shadows barely seemed to pose a challenge to them anymore; they had fought significantly more powerful foes in Clovis' Palace.
"This is it," Arthur said, peering up to look at the display. "Is the barrier still there?"
"It looks it," Kallen frowned.
"Let me try something," Lelouch said, disembarking from the Knightmare. He walked over to the barrier, and touched it with an outstretched hand.
There was an immediate reaction. The stone groaned, sliding apart on each side to grant him entrance into the darkness that lay beyond.
"We're in," he smirked.
"Nice going, Zero!" Arthur grinned. "Now let's take a look!"
"It's still so dark down here," Milly murmured as Kallen brought the Knightmare past the now-opened barrier, spiraling further down into Mementos. "If it weren't for the Knightmare's searchlights or the sensors in its Factsphere, we'd barely be able to see a thing… There'd only be those dim red lights in the walls…"
"Those lights creep me out," Kallen frowned. "They almost seem like… a living thing…"
Ordinarily, Milly might have continued her line of teasing from their first trip into Mementos, insinuating that Kallen was afraid of ghosts. But all Milly managed was a subdued, "Yeah."
"Are you sure we aren't going around in circles?" Milly asked after a while.
"I don't think so," Lelouch replied.
"It's hard to tell," Arthur said. "Everything looks the same down here. If only we had Bishop here with us. She could probably see the route ahead for us."
Kallen suddenly perked up. "Did you hear that?"
"No," Milly replied. "What was it?"
"Listen!" Kallen said. Flicking switches and buttons on the Knightmare's console, she powered its systems down.
"What's got you so worried…" Lelouch murmured.
"Everyone, be quiet!" Kallen hissed, uncharacteristically anxious.
And so they listened. It was faint at first, but there was definitely something there… the sounds of rattling chains. Arthur's fur stood on its ends.
"I have a bad feeling about this…"
"I don't like this," Kallen said, trembling. "Not one bit…. I feel cold…. Naoto…" she whimpered.
If even Kallen was terrified, then they were truly in trouble. Lelouch felt it too now… It wasn't just a feeling of killing intent… Something far more sinister was searching for them…
"Queen, get us out of here, now!
"R-right!" Hurriedly, Kallen powered the Knightmare up again, its searchlights illuminating the tunnel.
A grim apparition came into view before them… a tall humanoid figure that seemed to float above the ground, garbed in tattered robes with a wide, bloodstained collar. At its sides, it dragged along a pair of long-barreled revolvers that reached down to the hem of its robe. Chains wrapped around its torso in an "X" shape, and its face could not be seen, hidden beneath a white sack, tightly fastened around its neck by a rope, save for a single, glowing yellow eye, peering out from a tear in the fabric, the surrounding material dripping with blood.
"T-that's…!" Milly cried.
Death itself stalked Mementos. It might not be the traditional depiction, but the conclusion was inescapable.
The Reaper had come.
The Reaper turned its head, locking them in its sights, and began gliding toward them, an implacable harbinger of doom.
Kallen engaged the Glasgow's Slash Harkens, harpoon-like projectiles mounted in its shoulders, embedding them in the ceiling and using them to pull the Knightmare up, just as The Reaper fired a pair of rounds that flew through the space they had occupied just moments before. Deftly twisting the Knightmare around, Kallen disengaged the Slash Harkens and pushed off, reversing the Knightmare's direction and revving its landspinners.
"Disabling limiters. Core Luminous at maximum output! Full throttle!" Kallen shouted. "Hang tight, everyone!"
Kallen raced the Knightmare through the winding tunnels of Mementos at breakneck speed, The Reaper in hot pursuit of its prey.
"Do you even know where you're going?" Milly asked in a panic.
"It doesn't matter, as long as we're away from that thing!"
The Knightmare rocked violently as something impacted into it. Alarms flared on the console, flashing red and delivering damage reports.
"We've lost an arm!" Milly shouted.
"I know that!"
"Queen, you're overloading the Yggdrasil Drive! Glasgows were never designed to be pushed like this! We'll have a critical failure in less than thirty seconds!" Milly continued to panic.
"If you think you're so knowledgeable about Knightmare's because of your family's old company, then you drive next time! We'll be dead anyway if we can't get away from this thing!"
"Queen, leap onto the parallel tracks!" Lelouch commanded.
"Are you-"
"Do it!"
Kallen grasped his meaning and obeyed, leaping from the main tunnel into one that had opened up alongside it… straight into the path of an oncoming train.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
"Ten seconds!" Arthur cried.
Kallen continued to hurtle along the rails toward the train. Glancing at the display of what was behind them, Lelouch saw that The Reaper was still following them.
Just as planned.
"Five seconds!"
"Auto-Ejection System Failure" the console displayed.
"We're so going to die!" Milly said, covering her eyes.
Four seconds remained.
"Now!" Lelouch ordered.
Three seconds.
"Manual override!" Kallen shouted, hitting buttons furiously.
Two seconds.
"We've won," Lelouch smirked.
One second.
G-forces battered them as the cockpit of the Knightmare rocketed away from its body, while airbags filled and took away what little personal space they had in their already cramped quarters.
Detonation.
They felt the shock wave pass by them. Glancing at the displays, Lelouch saw shrapnel from the Glasgow's destruction pelt The Reaper.
The explosion appeared to blind The Reaper for a moment, but otherwise it seemed barely inconvenienced by the blast. Recovering, The Reaper looked up, and leveled its twin guns at them, ready to fire.
The train's horn sounded.
With a loud thud, the train crashed headlong into The Reaper, smashing it against the engine, and carrying it into the unseen depths of Mementos.
There was a hiss as the cockpit opened up.
"Did… did we… did we kill it?" Milly asked hopefully.
"I don't think so," Lelouch replied. "Death doesn't die easily. It will be back."
"How are we supposed to explore Mementos like this?" Arthur whined. "There's no way to beat something like that in a straight fight! It's far too powerful!"
"We're going to have to walk back to the surface," Kallen murmured. "A pity. That Knightmare was starting to grow on me. I even gave it a paint job and everything…"
"We're all alive. Isn't that what matters?" Lelouch asked. "By the way, that was some amazing piloting, Queen. We couldn't have done it without you."
"I.." Lelouch couldn't see Kallen's face clearly in the darkness, and it was covered by her lotus petal mask anyway, but he had a feeling that she was blushing. "It was your plan in the end that saved us, Zero," she said after a moment. "I was only trying to put as much distance between us and that thing as I could."
"Okay, before you two get all lovey-dovey, we should get going before that thing gets back up here and finds us," Milly said, a teasing tone finally returning to her voice.
"Hey!" Kallen and Lelouch said in unison.
"See what I mean, Arthur?"
"Just knock it off, Diamond!"
xXx
"Welcome back to my Velvet Room, Trickster," Igor said, lazily leaning his chin against an arm as he sat cross-legged in his chair. "For what purpose have you come to me today?"
"You never told us about that thing down in Mementos," Lelouch said angrily. "Are you trying to get us killed?"
"Mementos holds many secrets, Trickster," Igor replied, his rictus grin the same as ever. "But I assume you are referring to The Reaper."
"That's not any ordinary Shadow."
"Indeed, it is not." Igor paused. "I believe Tsu could provide the most concise explanation."
"As you have no doubt already realized, Inmate, The Reaper is an aspect of Death itself," Tsu began. "Unlike more benign manifestations, once drawn to a place, The Reaper hunts down those who linger too long there, bringing a swift and inevitable demise. This one patrols Mementos, the Palace of the Public, and eliminates any who disturb its peace."
This one? Did she mean there was more than one Reaper?
"You're lucky be alive," Tsu replied. "But do not think you can escape Death forever." She cleared her throat.
"Death is not a hunter unbeknownst to its prey," Tsu recited. "One is always aware that it lies in wait…"
"Though life is merely a journey to the grave," Shi suddenly spoke up, surprising Tsu and causing Igor to look on intently, "it must not be undertaken without hope. Only then will a traveler's story live on, treasured by those who bid him farewell." She paused. "Do not let your life end, Mr. Inmate, with your tale left unwritten…"
That was surprisingly poignant, especially coming from Shi.
"Did you come up with that yourself?" Lelouch asked her.
"Um… I… I don't know… it just came to me, Mr. -" Shi stammered. "Please, I'm sorry if you didn't like it."
"It is a poem for everyone's souls," Tsu explained. She gazed down at her sister. "But I don't know how or when you learned the rest of the verse. I never taught that to you." Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You don't even know how to read, so you couldn't have learned it from a book. That's why I handle the Compendium."
Shi couldn't read? She may have the appearance of a young girl, but she was still an otherworldly being of the collective unconscious, one with unfathomed power at that. The revelation was startling to Lelouch.
"I'm sorry, Big Sister," Shi said, hanging her head.
"It's sentimental nonsense, really," Tsu said dismissively. "What hope is there to be found? A traveler only leaves pain in the hearts of those bid him farewell. I don't know why I even bothered to bring it up." She folded her arms and turned away from Lelouch.
"No," Lelouch said, shaking his head. "I think you brought it up because it means something to you. To both of you."
"You presume much, Inmate," Tsu replied, still not looking at him. But perhaps her tone was softer now?
"Now this is interesting…" Igor said, leaning forward. "To think that a human would cause you such consternation, Tsu… or move Shi to speak so eloquently…" He chuckled. "How very amusing. Continue to pursue this bond with my blessing, Trickster."
"Master!" Tsu exclaimed, clearly flustered, while Shi remained silent, but blushed faintly.
The resonance of the Death arcana within Lelouch told the real story.
"I never imagined that it would progress so quickly…" Igor murmured. "You may yet exceed my every expectation, Trickster."
xXx
"I never imagined that the Black Knights would be so bold!" Diethard gushed some time later, meeting with Lelouch in a seedy bar on the outskirts of the Tokyo Settlement. "Timing the assassination of the Viceroy in the middle of a live broadcast! What a spectacle! Of course, there were fines, but the increased interest in our coverage will more than make up for it! Everyone knows now that Hi-TV is where to turn to if you want the unvarnished truth."
"You mean your truth?"
Diethard chuckled. "You understand quickly, Mr. Lamperouge. There is no such thing as objective truth in journalism. Oh yes, some may pay lip service to such a lofty ideal, but they aren't being honest with themselves. Yet I believe that we can be honest with each other. What matters is who can create the best story to rally the opinion of the masses one way or the other. History is written by the victors, and the news helps shape history."
"With all due respect, them killing the Viceroy like that makes no sense," Lelouch replied. "The brutality of the murder would only serve to make people ignore and turn against their message."
"And you would know what their message is, Mr, Lamperouge?" Diethard chuckled. "Never mind that. Clovis may be gone, but you remain a surprisingly well-connected individual. Your paramour, the Countess, will have arrived in Pendragon by now to attend tomorrow's state funeral for Prince Clovis. There, she will meet with some of the most powerful men and women in the Empire, Through her, we can have a privileged inside scoop that would be the envy of lesser reporters, who waste all of their time focusing on the style of the nobility but none of the substance, hardly better than paparazzi or tabloid writers."
Lelouch did not bother correcting Diethard's incorrect assumption that Leila was his 'paramour'. As long as Diethard labored under that delusion, he could be controlled.
xXx
Wearing black was becoming all too familiar to Leila. She felt no love for the one she dressed in a mourning gown for now, but appearances had to be kept up. That was one of the key lessons her parents had taught her over the course of the dangerous game that had been and still was her life. To appear insufficiently sorrowful in the vipers' nest of Pendragon itself was to invite suspicion upon herself, and her new friends in turn. Of course, there would be those in attendance who either felt nothing or were wondering how they might profit from the Third Prince's untimely demise, but they were playing the game too, and would know to maintain a certain level of decorum, at least in public.
She felt overwhelmed by it all. While Clovis had confessed as planned, and Shinjuku had been saved, it had all gone disastrously wrong since there, and she felt out of her depth here.
She had found herself approached soon after her arrival in Pendragon by the 88th in line to the throne, Princess Marrybell mel Britannia, who had to be about her age and had rosy hair and deep blue-violet eyes, and her Knight, a certain Oldrin Zevon, also of a similar age, who wore her blonde hair in twintails, and had a small beauty mark beneath one of her green eyes. Leila recalled Lelouch speaking at least somewhat favorably of the Princess as a friend in his childhood, though she would never risk mentioning Lelouch's survival here of all places.
Princess Marrybell had inquired about what she planned to wear to the state funeral, and when Leila had told her, replied that it wouldn't do at all. The expectations for mourning were far higher when the deceased was royalty, especially if you were the beloved of the deceased. Wearing the same dress as she had worn to her parents' funeral would be viewed as an insult to the Third Prince, and a faux pas she should avoid at all costs in Pendragon. Before Leila had known it, the Princess and her Knight had whisked her off to have a new, much more elaborate dress tailored for her. As much as she appreciated the help, Leila vaguely had the feeling that Marrybell was having too much fun with the whole situation, almost as if she was a little girl excitedly playing dress up with a new doll. And while she could not refuse something that had been specially made for her at the expense of another, her new dress, floor length and complete with a diaphanous black veil, made her feel like she was being treated as if she was Clovis' widow in all but name, though no noble would ever recognize her to have a claim to royalty. The top of the dress was also cut far lower than she would have liked, practically flaunting her bust, but Marrybell had brushed off her questions when she asked about it with a mysterious smile.
The next day, Leila approached the Imperial Palace, the grandest of a complex of towering edifices and lush parks, carefully cultivated for the royal family's enjoyment and made ever more extravagant by the dry heat of the surrounding desert. The palace district took up nearly a third of the imperial capital's total area, positioned along the major axis of the city, accessible on each side by Pendragon's main boulevard, St. Darwin's Street.
There were seemingly interminable self-introductions that she had to make to any noble of consequence. Eventually though, she met Clovis's heartbroken younger sister, a twin-tailed girl with the same blonde hair and blue eyes as her late brother. Leila couldn't bring herself to tell the young princess that the older brother whom she had idolized had barely mentioned her at all, but instead sympathized with her and offered sincere words of condolence for her loss. As monstrous as Clovis had turned out to be, he was still family to this girl, and the pain of losing her own family was still fresh. Besides, she wasn't the sort to intentionally rub salt in another's wounds, especially one innocent of her brother's crimes.
"Well spoken, Lady Breisgau," another voice said as Clovis' sister departed, "but see to it that you see to your own need to grieve. To suffer two tragedies so close to each other is a trial that few can endure. You handle yourself with dignity, but you are hurting as much, if not more than any of us. It was kind, what you did for her, but if you give too freely when you are already worn so thin, the mask you wear will surely crack."
She turned around. "Prime Minister Schneizel!" He was a giant of a man, in any sense of the term, famed for both his strategic and diplomatic prowess, and towering over her at six feet and seven inches. Like her, he had light blonde hair, and violet eyes that seemed to pierce through her with an overpowering intellect. Could he see through her deceptions, even now? He was dressed in a royal purple tunic, over which he wore a long white jacket with golden trim, epaulettes, and a high black collar. His voice was effortlessly charming, while lacking the pretension of Clovis', though that made him all the more dangerous. It was said that Schneizel could persuade people to agree to just about anything and leave thinking they had gained something valuable, while always keeping the upper hand himself. Thankfully the Prime Minister and Second Prince of Britannia did not seem to show the same sort of interest in her that his late half-brother had; the attentions of one prince were exhausting enough.
"I'm sorry for my reaction, your Highness," she said, composing herself. "I just wasn't expecting you."
"There is no need for you to apologize, Lady Breisgau," Schneizel said, holding up a hand slightly. Leila tried not to show her discomfort at being referred to as such. To her, "Lady Breisgau" meant her late mother, whose death was still all too recent.
"May I introduce you to my brother, Crown Prince Odysseus eu Britannia?" Schneizel asked. He gestured respectfully to a slightly older man standing behind them. 'Inoffensive' was the first word that came to mind, seeing the Crown Prince. Like his siblings, he was blessed with natural good looks, with a strong chin, a neatly trimmed light brown beard, and blue eyes, but his charm was more superficial. He lacked the same spark that Schneizel, Lelouch, or even Clovis had. Twisted and conceited as he was, Clovis had legitimately been a skilled artist, she would concede that in private. But as far as she knew, Odysseus lacked any such talents. He was a figurehead, a puppet, while Schneizel pulled the strings.
"I'm sorry that we couldn't meet under happier circumstances," the Crown Prince told her. "It would have been a pleasure to have you as a member of our family. If there is anything we can do for you, you need only ask."
"Thank you, your Highness."
"His Majesty, the Emperor, will be delivering the eulogy shortly," Schneizel told her, extending a hand. "We would be honored if you would join us on the dais. There is a chair reserved for you there."
Nodding, Leila politely took the Prime Minister's hand, even as her heart was thumping in her chest, surely so loud that it would betray her. She was going to be on the same stage as the Emperor of Britannia, whose tyranny her parents had rebelled against?
Her chair was tall, gray, and uncomfortable, and faced a crowd of how many thousands in the massive hall? Behind her was an arrangement of countless white roses, and an enormous portrait of the late Third Prince, stories high and clutching a red rose against his chest. "All Hail Britannia" began playing, and then the words she had been dreading were pronounced.
"And now, his Royal Majesty, the 98th Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire…"
Emperor Charles zi Britannia advanced to the podium, clutching it tightly with white gloved hands. Even at 62, he was an imposing figure, slightly shorter than Schneizel, but much greater in girth. He had the same violet eyes that Lelouch did, but they were filled with only pride and cruelty. He wore a rather ridiculous white wig, styled into curls, a fashion that should have died out long ago, but no one would dare say that to the Emperor's face, and a royal blue-violet suit, with a black cape falling from his shoulders.
To most Britannians, he wasn't just a man, or their Emperor. He was as close to a living god as one could get, an invincible symbol of the overwhelming might of Britannia.
The Emperor began his speech, his voice naturally booming and made deafening by the loudspeakers throughout the hall.
"All men are not created equal…."
xXx
Another mandatory assembly in the gymnasium, this time to watch Clovis' State Funeral… On their way here, Shirley had been fretting about some gas leak near her father's workplace and some unseasonable weather in Narita, only for it to turn out to be nothing. But now that they were assembled, they were forced to stand at attention and listen in silence as his father, the Emperor, spoke.
Wait, was that Leila on the stage, near his brothers? There had only been a brief glimpse of her before the camera cut to focus on the Emperor, but he had been sure of it.
"Some are born swifter of foot, some with greater beauty. Some are born into poverty, and others born sick and feeble. Both in birth and in upbringing, in each his scope of ability, every human is inherently different! Yes, that is why people discriminate against one another, which is why there is struggle, competition, and the unfaltering march of progress. Inequality is not wrong… equality is!"
Lelouch clenched his fist. Nearby him, Kallen had a similar reaction.
"What of the E.U., which made equality a right?" the Emperor continued, "Rabble, politics by a popularity contest! What of the Chinese Federation, with its equal distribution of wealth? A nation of lazy dullards! But not our beloved Britannia…. We fight! We compete! Evolution is continuous! Britannia alone moves forward, advancing steadily into the future! Even the death of my son Clovis demonstrates Britannia's unswerving commitment to progress! We will fight on, we shall struggle, compete, plunder, and dominate! And in the end, the future shall be ours! All hail Britannia!" He swung up his fist in a salute.
xXx
"All hail Britannia!" Again and again, the crowd chorused those words. If the Emperor had been deafening, this was something else entirely.
Only a passing mention to his son? Leila could see not dwelling on Clovis' crimes - why would the Emperor even acknowledge them? But the Emperor had turned what should have been a somber occasion for those assembled into a propaganda rally for his Social Darwinist ideals.
And these people embraced it wholeheartedly!
The Emperor strode from the podium. For one terrible moment, the Emperor paused, and Leila felt his gaze meet hers, as if threatening to crush her like an insect. But the Emperor immediately seemed to lose interest in her, and continued on his way, leaving her to sigh in relief.
xXx
"Lieutenant Colonel Kusakabe… For your crimes, you have been sentenced to death… Is there anything you would like to say?"
"You think you've won?" Shadow Kusakabe snarled. "You're just a worthless…"
A shot rang out, and Mementos was silent once again.
A/N:
This will be my last update on this vacation. The pace of updates will slow going forward to once every few weeks (if all goes well) due to increased demands on my time, but as you can see, I have plenty of inspiration for this story, and once I get another good chunk of time, I can easily write a lot of chapters in succession.
A Knightmare probably wouldn't actually explode in that way in the "real" world. But the public's cognition, from movies and TV is that critical failure = BOOM! and that's what matters in Mementos.
The poem that Tsu and Shi recite is the game over message in Persona 3, modified slightly at the end, but I believe it fit their Confidant arc, and the overall theme of the chapter, Death.
I decided to write Clovis' State Funeral scene mostly from Leila's perspective, as Lelouch's is well known to us. As for the Emperor's speech, it is taken verbatim from the show, as an important establishing part of his character and ideology.
See you next time!
Edit: This story has also now spawned its own fan fiction, Wings of Rebellion Gaiden. It is an alternate, what-if side story to this one, and should not be considered strictly "canonical" to this one, but, per my discussions with the author of that story, I may adopt details of his story that serve my purposes into my story, and vice versa. Think of it how Code Geass spawned a number of spinoffs with shared elements like Nightmare of Nunnally, Suzaku of the Counterattack, etc. which are not canon to each others, but occasionally share references or certain plot threads. The "unseasonable weather in Narita" is a nod to that side-story.
I am also embarrassed to realize that I have been spelling Schneizel's name wrong this whole time! I will be fixing this error where I can find it!
Edit 2: In accordance with the note in Ch. 19 about the correct use of noble titles, the usual mode of address for a countess is "Lady", so changed Schneizel's dialogue slightly.