Lelouch had scarcely finished talking with Jeremiah when his phone began ringing again. With a sense of foreboding, he picked it up.

"Hello, Lulu," a mocking male voice said on the other end. "This is your number, isn't it?"

Lelouch knew that voice.

"Medjed!" He hissed. "Impossible! I-"

"Saw me die?" Mao laughed over the phone, a murmuring sound behind him. "I'll admit, Lulu, you and your Black Knights really did a number on me. Not only did you gang up on me like the thugs that you are and leave me a bloody mess, but that wicked witch who was so helplessly in love with you was oh so devious when she shouted that something was behind me. She had to have known that I wouldn't believe someone as conniving as her!"

"You fell into frigid water! You were being dragged down by a Shadow! You should have drowned, died of hypothermia, or succumbed to your injuries!"

"Fortunately for me, as her Palace began to collapse, a hole opened up in the side of the ship, allowing me to escape."

"You still should have drowned if you were under for that long!" Shirley's Palace didn't collapse right away because he hadn't taken or destroyed Treasure, but her Cognition had changed and eventually spelled its doom, as she no longer saw herself as being on a sinking ship. "Don't tell me. Did your Persona-"

Mao clapped. "Very good, Lulu! Fortunately, Momus allows me to endure what would kill others!" He laughed, but his tone quickly became bitter. "It leaves me a wreck afterward though. Fortunately for me, while that girl's father was busy experimenting on me, he also implanted epinephrine auto-injectors into me, as a failsafe against his most advanced guinea pig dying during the big test and sending all his hard work down the drain. They wouldn't have saved me from drowning in that water by themselves, but they gave me the strength to get back on my feet in spite of the pain. Oh, it hurt like you wouldn''t believe, Lulu! But from there, I just had to blackmail a hospital into giving me the best treatment available, and here I am. Britannian medical science really is amazing!"

"What do you want?" Lelouch demanded impatiently. "You said you'd admit defeat if we could find you and rescue Shirley. But that was a lie, wasn't it?"

"Don't act like you're one to play fair, Lulu. Besides, nothing is owed to the wicked besides righteous judgment!"

"Mao! If you're thinking of harming Shirley again-!"

"That would be boring. She's already spilled all her secrets. But what would your dear sister think if she learned that her beloved big brother was really the leader of the Black Knights?"

"What have you done to Nunnally?!" Lelouch seethed with rage.

"Oh, she's quite safe," Mao sneered. "But not for much longer. I've taken your precious sister into the Metaverse, to a place where no Shadows will interrupt us. You know, it was all too easy. What good is security when I can just bypass it in the Metaverse? Once I was in the Cognitive version of her room, I just had to cross back into the real world, snatch your sister and gag her before she could cry for help, and pull her into the Metaverse with me. I'll be returning to the Metaverse myself shortly. But don't think I'll give you such a generous deadline this time. If you don't face me by midnight, your sister will die. Come alone. Don't you dare bring the Black Knights with you, if you value your sister's life!"

"How do I know that you haven't already hurt Nunnally?"

"You don't, Lulu. But where would be then fun in that? I'll see you soon." Mao let out a last laugh, and then hung up.

At once, Lelouch's mind sprang into action. His only priority was rescuing Nunnally. Intellectually, he realized that his judgment was compromised just as it had been when he had learned Shirley had been kidnapped, and once again he would earn himself a tongue lashing from the other Black Knights for acting on his own, but he would deal with their disapproval once Nunnally was safe.

Of course, he had to find where Medjed had taken Nunnally first. Nothing Medjed said could be entirely trusted, but presumably Medjed wanted to confront him and force him to admit to being the leader of the Black Knights in front of Nunnally before attempting to kill both of them. If true, that meant that Mao wanted to be found, and so he couldn't have taken Nunnally very far. Therefore, Mao was likely in part of the Metaverse that corresponded to Ashford Academy. With the disappearance of Shirley's Palace, there were no longer strong Distortions over the campus, and thus the Shadows had dispersed as well.

He ran toward the Clubhouse, activated the MetNav, and made his way to Nunnally's room as quickly as he could. He doubted that Mao would have simply remained put in the Metaverse, but as soon as he eliminated that possibility, which he might otherwise overlook, he could begin systematically narrowing down his options.

There was no sign of Mao or Nunnally in the Metaverse version of her room, but when he reverted to reality, he encountered none other than Sayoko.

"Master Lelouch!" Sayoko said as he appeared, from her perspective, to materialize out of thin air into Nunnally's room. All things considered, she took it rather well. "You entrusted me with your secret of being a Black Knight, but I never imagined you were in possession of such a technique! Even I, the successor of the Shinozaki School, am incapable of teleportation. Or perhaps you have the power of complete invisibility instead."

"There's no time, Sayoko!" he said, not bothering to correct her. "Nunnally's been taken!"

"I did think it odd that Mistress Nunnally wasn't in her room, but there were no signs of a struggle. Do you know who has taken her?"

"He goes by Medjed."

"The same Medjed as the one on the news, I presume?"

"Yes. He's extremely dangerous." Mao's Persona hadn't posed the Black Knights much trouble in their last encounter, but he was clearly unstable, and in spite of her seemingly superhuman physical prowess, Sayoko had no supernatural powers of her own. "If I don't find him by midnight, he's going to kill Nunnally!"

"Do you have any idea where he might have taken Mistress Nunnally, Master Lelouch? As you know, I am trained in the protection and rescue of VIPs behind enemy lines, and it is my duty, if need be, to neutralize any threats to you or your sister."

"I was going to check the chapel next, but all I'm sure of is that he's somewhere on the Academy grounds." He shook his head. "No, that's not right. You wouldn't be able to find him, no matter how thoroughly you searched the Academy, because he's not in this Ashford Academy at all."

"Another world, then," Sayoko murmured. "So that is your true power. That's how you were able to steal from all of those powerful individuals completely undetected... and how Medjed abducted Mistress Nunnally from under my nose."

"To oversimplify, yes," Lelouch admitted.

"Can you bring me into that world with you?"

"I can... but Medjed will kill Nunnally if he realizes that I'm not coming alone!"

"As with all things, I will be discreet, Master Lelouch. While you distract Medjed, I will locate and free Mistress Nunnally."

That... could actually work.

"Thank you, Sayoko. I'll give you a call once I pin down Medjed's location."

He felt that his bond with Sayoko had grown stronger than ever, and the Hierophant resonated within him in turn.

xXx

While Lelouch had assumed that using the chapel as a reprise of their previous encounter might appeal to Mao's sense of theatrics, there was no sign of either Mao or Nunnally there. He felt his panic rising to new heights.

This was exactly what Mao wanted, wasn't it? Mao wanted him to tire himself out, running every which way across campus, arriving before him exhausted, and hence in no condition to fight. Mao would be in the last place on campus, or rather, its Metaverse counterpart, that someone would ordinarily think to look, so that he'd arrive shortly before the deadline, so that he'd be as anxious as possible, further hindering his ability to fight back effectively.

Lelouch took several breaths, forcing himself to calm down, at least to the extent to which that was possible with Nunnally missing. What part of campus would be practically beneath notice?

Come to think of it, there had been a sound in the background when Mao had called. It had almost sounded like water…

The underground circulation system! It connected to the vast network of pipes and tunnels that ran throughout the Tokyo Settlement. He had partial access to it as a member of the student council, and had snuck down there a few times before as a means of surreptitiously getting off campus, though during Viletta's reign at the academy it had been nearly impossible to use, as members of the SSDF were constantly on patrol through the corridors. There were portions of the circulation system that were actually surprisingly spacious, with a wide observation platform around the central drain area, so there was more than enough room for Mao to hide himself and Nunnally in there.

They were there. Here was certain of it.

"Sayoko, I think I've figured out where Medjed took Nunnally! Meet me at the elevator leading to the circulation system!"

"Affirmative, Master Lelouch," his maid replied on the other end. "I am already on my way."

As Lelouch hastened across campus, he almost ran into a girl, dressed in the same uniform as the rest of the girls in Nunnally's class.

It was Alice.

"I'm sorry," the twin-tailed blonde girl said, looking up to him. "I almost didn't see you."

What was she doing here, now of all times? He knew from Jeremiah that Alice was not who she claimed to be. Whether she was an imposter, or if her records had been redacted, she definitely was not an ordinary student. That made her an unknown quantity, and thus a danger to himself and Nunnally. He hid his unease from Alice though, not wanting to give her cause to suspect him in turn.

"Have you seen Nunnally?" Alice asked. "You're her older brother, right? I've been looking all over campus for her, but I can't find her anywhere."

Alice was also looking for Nunnally? He couldn't have her following him! The last thing he needed was for her to get pulled into the Metaverse with him.

"Nunnally had to head out to the hospital for some routine tests," Lelouch lied. "It's nothing to worry about. She'll be back later tonight."

"Nunnally didn't say anything about a hospital visit," Alice said pointedly. "And if there's nothing to worry about, then why are you running around like that? Nunnally says you always try to get out of physical activity if you can avoid it. You were barely looking where you were going either."

Damn! Alice, or whoever she was, had seen right through him!

"Sorry, got to go!" he shouted, running past her. It would only heighten her suspicion of him, but he wasn't going to waste any more time coming up with a better alibi that might not even work when Nunnally's life was in the balance.

xXx

Sayoko was already at the elevator when he arrived. After quickly checking that he hadn't been followed by Alice, he accessed the elevators controls, only to find that they had been hacked to lock him out. That was all the proof he needed. Mao had been here. Thankfully, it didn't take him long to override Mao's amateurish code with his own hack, giving him control of the elevator once. The system in the Black King's Palace had been far more secure. He supposed that it had simply been a delaying tactic on Mao's part.

"You never cease to amaze me with your gifts, Master Lelouch," Sayoko smiled. "I would have been hard pressed to break into that system faster."

"Is there anything you haven't been trained in?"

"I'll tell you when you're ready," she said simply.

Lelouch activated the Metaverse Navigator as soon as they had finished riding the elevator down to the circulation system, using the keyword of "Mementos". While they were nowhere close to to the entrance to the subway station, under which the Palace's sprawling, Shadow-infested tunnel system manifested, trial and error had shown him the aboveground portions of the Palace, where its Distortion was low, extended across the Tokyo Settlement, and very likely beyond.

As always, he felt a twisting sensation as they left reality behind them.

"We're in. Welcome to the Metaverse, Sayoko. You'd hardly be able to tell that this isn't reality, but it exists alongside the real world. Parts of it are far stranger and more dangerous though."

"I see," Sayoko said, her eyes taking stock of their surroundings like the professional that she was. "I shall be careful."

"Remember, you can't let Medjed see you."

She nodded. "Do not fear, Master Lelouch. I shall see you sister safely reunited with you." With that, she took off with a leap, and began quickly but silently making her way forward.

Lelouch was left alone in the tunnel. He had no doubt that Sayoko would do her job with her usual efficiency. He had a problem though.

While he was underground, where the public's Distortion was slightly stronger, he still remained in plain clothes. It seemed that the public's collective Cognition would only view him a hostile intruder into their Palace, thus forcing him into his thief attire, if he entered the subway system proper. It didn't matter to him if he appeared before Nunnally in his regular clothes or in his thief outfit, as her blindness meant she wouldn't be able to see him anyway, but he needed his mask to be able to summon his Personas. Then again, this was the Cognitive world. If his own will of rebellion was strong enough…

Mustering his willpower, Lelouch unleashed his rebel's heart. At once his thief attire replaced his regular clothes, while his mask materialized over his face. That was better, and fascinating as a proof of concept. It made him wonder if he could manipulate Cognition in other small ways in the Metaverse, though he doubted that he would be able to successfully do so deeper within a Palace, where a Ruler's Cognition would override other influences.

Lelouch dismissed that line of thought. He would have plenty of time to experiment later.

It was time to face Mao.

And this time, he would be sure to finish the job.

xXx

Mao was waiting for him on the observation platform. Around them, water cascaded in artificial falls, to be collected in the pool below, filtered, and recirculated through the system.

"You never cease to impress me, Lulu!" Mao clapped. "Who would have thought you had a place like this under your school? Luckily for me, I got dumped down here when that girl's Palace collapsed."

Now that he was no longer in his own Metaverse attire, Lelouch saw that Mao had a far more disheveled look than the stylish image that he had once projected, as if he had scrounged up his outfit from whatever he had been able to steal after his escape from the lab in Narita. Parts of it approximated the costume he wore as Medjed, including a long, pale blue coat that he wore over his shoulders. Other parts were new to Lelouch, such as a dark blue cap that Mao wore backwards. But the individual pieces looked as if most of them were either a size too big or small for him. Mao was also heavily bandaged, and it looked like one of his legs was encased in a cast. Even the finest Britannian medical science couldn't fully heal such serious injuries in less than a week.

Mao should have been in no condition to fight. At the same time, Lelouch knew that he couldn't afford to underestimate Mao again. After all, a cornered animal was the most dangerous.

"Where's Nunnally?" Lelouch demanded. The more he could keep Mao focused on him, the better. So far his opponent hadn't noticed Sayoko's infiltration, and Lelouch intended to keep it that way.

"How impatient." Mao smirked. "We'll get to that soon enough. Do you have any idea why I called you here, Lulu?"

"Revenge. Why else?"

"That's true, but there's more to it," Mao replied. "When I watched you fight that evil witch's Shadow, I saw how you were the one unifying the other Black Knights. There's no need for me to risk myself in such a lopsided fight. Seven against one is hardly fair. But if I kill you, the Black Knights will surely crumble, and my goal of putting an end to their false justice will be realized."

"That makes no sense! Why set up such an elaborate plot? You could have ruined us at any time with no risk to yourself simply by revealing our identities to the media, as you originally threatened to do."

"You just don't get it, do you Lulu?" Mao laughed, madness escaping from under whatever pretenses he tried to maintain and echoing through the chamber. "I wouldn't expect you to understand. Nobody wallowing in sin can understand my righteous mission and the hammer of justice!" His bearing became even more erratic. "Those Irregulars, when we first escaped from the lab… You'd think they'd be grateful… But they said that process of awakening to my power had driven me insane. They called me mad!" Mao gestured wildly. "But I'm fine! Perfectly fine!"

Looking on contemptuously, Lelouch drew his gun and aimed it at Mao. "One last time, Mao. Where is Nunnally?"

"How naughty of you! You'll have to beat me first, Lulu!" Mao clutched his head and began groaning in pain.

Lelouch fired, but Mao's Persona, Momus, appeared and disintegrated the bullet with a stream of red and black cursed energy launched into its path.

"How predictable. Isis!" With immunity to both bless and curse spells, Isis would render Mao's primary means of offense useless, and would grant him further protection on the off chance that Momus had spells that could cause instant death. It would hardly surprise him with all of Mao's talk of righteousness and smiting the wicked.

"Very impressive!" Mao clapped. "How does it feel to present a different face to every person that you meet? Gaining their trust, manipulating them for your own selfish ends?"

Lelouch ignored him. "Agilao!" He ordered. Isis blasted Mao with flame, setting the ends of his coat on fire.

Mao whipped off his coat and threw it to the ground, stamping on it to extinguish the flames. "You'll pay for that, Lulu!" Dropping down, he picked up something that had been lying on the ground behind him.

A chainsaw.

"You may have all of those fancy Personas, but this'll cut you down to size!" Mao grinned, revving the chainsaw up to its maximum speed. "En garde!"

Mao dashed toward him, moving faster than a man with his injuries had any right to, pulling the chainsaw back for a swing that would bisect him if it were allowed to strike its mark.

"Shiki Ouji!"

The chainsaw's blade struck Lelouch's side, but its teeth could not bite into him, and its forward momentum halted as if it had instead struck an impenetrable wall.

Mao's eyes went wide. "What? That's cheating!" He whined.

Lelouch responded by punching Mao in the face with one hand, and proceeded to stab Mao with the combat knife that he had stolen from the Black King's Palace in the other. However, Mao had staggered back from Lelouch upon being punched, limiting the depth of the wound. Snarling, Mao tossed the chainsaw aside, and grabbed the weapon slung on his back, a shotgun.

Mao fired, but it too had no effect, the bullets stopping in midair inches from Lelouch's face.

"I guess it's time to stop playing around!" Mao shouted as he leaped backwards, putting more distance between himself and Lelouch. "No matter who they are, all sinners will eventually fall to the almighty hammer of judgment! Now find your salvation in death!" His expression contorted. "Momus! Megidola!"

The demonic jester appeared, and fired what appeared to be multiple laser beams at Lelouch. The lasers were pure energy, unaligned with any element, and as such, none of his Personas had any sort of innate resistance to it. The lasers would have sliced anyone who wasn't a Persona-user to ribbons, but they still seared deeply into Lelouch's flesh.

He had gravely underestimated his opponent. Mao had been holding himself back all along.

"You got cocky, Lulu!" Mao taunted, advancing on him, Momus floating above him. "Now you must pay the price. I'd originally planned to cut off your arms with my chainsaw so that you couldn't summon those pesky Personas of yours, but you've made that rather difficult, I'm afraid. I suppose a few uses of Megidola will do the job though! Then I can take you to see your precious sister in your dying moments! Of course, I'll kill her in front of you just before you expire, so you can know how utterly you failed."

"You'll do no such thing!" A female voice suddenly called out.

Two girls leapt down onto the platform behind Mao, accompanied by Sayoko. One of them was unmistakably Alice, though she was now masked behind a visor not entirely unlike those sometimes used by Knightmare pilots, and draped in a long red and gold cloak that gave her the appearance of a knight. The other, the one who had spoken, seemed to be about the same age as Alice, and wore a blue bodysuit, also similar to what a Knightmare pilot might wear, though with cutouts unnecessarily exposing parts of her abdomen and upper arms. Her mask resembled a red bird in flight. In many ways, this girl seemed distressingly familiar to Lelouch. Her hair was blonde, like Alice's, but its long, wavy tresses were identical in style to his sister's. Her voice even sounded something like Nunnally's, only lower and threatening. But it couldn't be Nunnally! This girl's eyes peered out from beneath her mask, fully open, and she walked forward without difficulty, when Nunnally's legs had been irreparably damaged.

Could this strange girl be… Nunnally's Shadow?

"I'm sorry I took so long, Nemo," Alice said to Nunnally's blonde doppelgänger.

"I must apologize as well, Mistress Nunnally," Sayoko added. "Though I must say, I never expected you to have such a daring alter ego in this world."

"I'm the one who should apologize," the strange girl said, all while keeping her eyes locked on Mao. "He caught me in the real world, and I could hardly summon my Persona when I was tied up."

Lelouch's brain refused to process what he was hearing. It simply couldn't be. Nemo? Nunnally? There had to be another explanation!

Mao turned to face them. "Irregular," he spat, glaring at Alice. "I should have expected you to interfere." He glanced back at Lelouch. "You brought your maid as well." His eyes turned back to the strange girl. "And you... How was I to know that the Black Knight's sister was a Persona-user all along?!"

"B-Black Knight," the strange girl stammered, her eyes moving past Mao to Lelouch. Her menacing facade cracked, and suddenly she seemed small and vulnerable. "Br-brother?"

That was definitely Nunnally's voice, and this time as he knew it!

Mao looked from Nemo/Nunnally to Lelouch and back again.

He laughed.

"Judging from the looks on your faces, neither of you knew, did you? That your dear big brother was secretly the leader of the Black Knights! Or that your precious, helpless little sister was moonlighting as one of the Irregulars! This is rich! Even I never imagined that it would get this juicy!" A malevolent grin spread on Mao's face. "Of course, lying is a sin. And sinners must be-"

"Arsene!"

"Elizabeth!"

The demonic thief charged Mao. At the same time, a new Persona rose over Nemo/Nunnally, garbed in a queenly dress. It too rushed at Mao, forming a pincer with Arsene. Momus swerved, as if trying to ascertain which was the greater threat to its summoner.

Mao didn't have that much time, and subsequently failed to defend adequately against either. Momus dissipated under the combined assault, and Mao collapsed to the ground. He wasn't moving.

"Is he-" Nemo/Nunnally began nervously.

Alice went up to Mao, feeling for a pulse, and then delivered a swift kick to his head.

"Out cold," she said innocently.

"He's not going to be incapacitated for long," Lelouch said testily as he finished healing himself with his Persona. "He's far more dangerous than either of you realize." He took out his gun.

You're going to kill him?" Nemo/Nunnally asked.

"Master, allow me," Sayoko said. "She doesn't need to see this. I can rejoin you when the deed is done."

"No! I have to do it!" Lelouch replied fiercely. "I should have done so the last time when I had the chance! If I had, then-"

"I wouldn't know that you were a Black Knight, big brother," Nemo/Nunnally said, her voice suddenly firm again.

Lelouch stared at her.

"You lied to me, Lelouch," she continued. "What about that pinky promise we made together?"

"What are you-"

"Don't try to deny that you're my big brother! Even though I haven't seen you with my own eyes in years, I'd still recognize your voice anywhere, Lelouch! Sayoko wouldn't accept such orders from just anyone either."

"I followed you here too," Alice added. "You weren't as careful as you thought you were. So it's kind of pointless to try to convince us otherwise."

"I was not expecting you to have such power," Sayoko said, regarding the twin-tailed girl. "I would have failed in my mission, had we not both shared the same goal."

"Hey, you didn't do bad at all," Alice reassured her. "You can move almost as fast as me, even without a Persona. And my codename's Speed for a reason."

"Answer me, big brother!" Nemo/Nunnally pressed.

He was cornered, his futile attempts at denial collapsing. He supposed wasn't inconceivable that Nunnally's hair could change colors when when in the costume of a thief. Kallen's hair changed styles all by itself, from straight to spiky, whenever she entered the Metaverse. But to think that Nunnally had been operating in the Metaverse without his knowledge...

"Guilty as charged," he conceded. "But if I'm guilty of breaking that promise, then so are you, Nunnally. Shall we both eat a thousand needles then? Or shall we waste even more time arguing about which of us is more of a hypocrite, sister?"

"You didn't have to do this, Lelouch," Nunnally said. "I never asked you to become a thief who steals people's hearts. You don't need to change the world all for my sake! I was happy just being with you."

"It may have started out that way, but don't think this is just about you, anymore, Nunnally. But what are you doing here anyway? Don't you realize how dangerous this place is? You could be-"

"Alice and her friends needed help!" Nunnally shot back. "Was I supposed to turn my back on them?! I helped change the heart of a man who was after them, but that's my sin to bear!"

"You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into, Nunnally. Just let me-"

"No!" Nunnally shouted in uncharacteristic anger, her eyes flaring gold for a moment. "I can see again here! I can walk again! I'm free of that wheelchair whenever I come here!" Nunnally's eyes widened, as if horrified by her outburst. She began crying. "You've been the best big brother I could have asked for, and you never abandoned me, even though I was blind and crippled… but I can't go back to being that way!"

Something clicked in Lelouch's mind. "Cognition."

"Huh?" Nunnally asked.

"I don't know exactly how or when you awakened to your Persona, Nunnally," Lelouch continued, "but you must have had a strong desire to stop closing your eyes to the world around you. This world is shaped by people's desires. That's why you can see here."

Nunnally nodded. "I did."

"But your blindness has always been psychosomatic, hasn't it, Nunnally? If you could will yourself to see here, there's no reason why you can't open your eyes in the real world if you truly want to. You just thought that since you were no longer in the Metaverse, you wouldn't be able to see in the real world, and so you couldn't."

"What about my legs?" Nunnally asked slowly.

Lelouch frowned. "That's an actual injury. I don't think you can wish it away in the real world with Cognition alone."

"Wow… look at you two," Alice murmured. "You were all furious with each other a few minutes ago… But now… You two really are family."

"They faked your death after that fire so they could use you as an experimental subject for Code-R, didn't they?" Lelouch asked, his eyes boring into Alice for any sign of deception.

"Yes," Alice replied quietly.

"And your sister?"

"You're nosy, aren't you?" Alice said, giving him an odd look. She cast her eyes down. "My sister really did die in that fire."

There were so many more questions Lelouch wanted to ask, but at that moment, Mao started to stir again.

"We've waited too long!" Lelouch snarled. "I'll do it now!"

"Alice nodded, but Nunnally pleaded, "Please don't kill again, brother!"

"I haven't killed anyone… yet," Lelouch said grimly as he took aim. "Clovis deserved it for what he did, but I wasn't the one who killed him."

"But-"

"Listen, Nunnnally! He's too dangerous to be left alive! One phone call, and he can have all of us arrested and hauled before the Viceroy, and then we'd either be taken back to the homeland or executed! He kidnapped Shirley, tried to kill her, and almost succeeded! Who knows how many other people he'll kill if he walks away from here? And even if we could somehow turn him in alive, he'd be killed all the same, only by Britannia. I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to dissect him first, so to learn more from him. You might even say we'd be doing him a favor by giving him a quick death, not that he deserves it!"

"I-"

"This world is cruel, Nunnally. You can't change anything or save anyone if you're afraid to get your hands dirty. Now, I-"

A shot rang out. Mao gasped as a hole opened in his chest, blood blossoming out. The gun fired again, blasting Mao's head open, a mess of brains and gore spraying everywhere. Lelouch doubted that even Mao's Persona could save him from two clearly fatal wounds in such short succession, especially with his brain destroyed. But he hadn't been the one to fire...

"Sp- Alice! What have you done?" gasped Nunnally. His sister trembled violently, as she stared at Mao's blood that had spattered onto her, doubtlessly reliving the night that their mother had been murdered, the trauma that had caused her to lose her vision in the first place. To her credit, Nunnally did not close her eyes again, though she averted them from Mao's corpse, and she looked like she was going to be sick.

Alice holstered her own weapon, smoke rising from its barrel. "I know you didn't want to see that, or to have that on your conscience, but your brother was right. The two of you were wasting so much time arguing that you were going to let him recover. I couldn't risk that. I failed my sister once. I'm not going to fail you. Besides, I'm already a murderer. I had to kill just to survive after I escaped from that lab. I'm glad that you allowed me to pretend to have a normal life and to be your friend, but I knew it couldn't last. At least I was able to protect you, and spare your brother from becoming a murderer as well."

"You needn't have bothered," a cold voice said from above them. "I was about to eliminate him myself."

The four of them looked up in the direction of the voice. They saw a man, dressed from head to toe in black, his face concealed by an armored helmet.

Lelouch felt his blood run cold. He couldn't recognize the voice, but there was no doubt as to who this man was, or rather, his role.

It was the Black Mask.

This was the man who had killed Clovis, Shirley's father, and so many others.

How much had he overheard? Had the Black Mask been there the whole time? No, that wasn't what was important now. At once, Lelouch moved protectively in front of Nunnally. Alice and Sayoko did the same, standing at his sides. His mind was racing. They had to fight. There was no question about it. But how could he-

"You will not harm them!" Sayoko shouted, throwing a pair of kunai at the Black Mask. They were effortlessly deflected with his own blade.

"Think again before you do something foolish like that," the Black Mask called down. "You don't stand a chance against me. If you force me to fight back, it will be your own undoing."

"Why show yourself then?" Lelouch replied. Do you expect us to surrender to you?"

Not at all. Consider this a warning, Black Knights and Irregulars. You are being watched. If you continue to involve yourselves in these matters, there will be no escape for you."

"You're going to let us go?" Lelouch asked incredulously.

"As of yet, I have no orders to eliminate you," the Black Mask replied. "I would prefer to keep it that way."

"Then why has almost everyone else related to Code-R ended up dead?" Alice retorted. "An assassin shows up in the Metaverse, and you expect us to believe it had nothing to do with you?"

"Clovis said he had an assassin working for him, but that the assassin would kill him if he revealed Code-R to the public," Lelouch said. "He said this assassin was called the Black Mask. That's you."

"You appear to be laboring under a delusion, Black Knight" the assassin replied. "Whoever said that there was only one Black Mask?"

"What?"

"There is another with the title of Black Mask," the assassin continued. "I know not who. But I can say this. I only kill the truly guilty, who would stop at nothing, even killing innocents, if it would advance their goals. I carry out their duly ordered executions. Don't compare me to that other Black Mask."

"You serve Britannia!" Lelouch shouted. "What justice can be found working on the behalf of its tyranny?"

"You may have good intentions, but your methods are woefully misguided. Changing a few hearts will never bring about that which you seek. I do what is necessary." The Black Mask turned. "Now go! I'll forget that I ever saw you here for now. Go back and lead your normal lives. I won't turn you in. But if we meet again in this world, then I will not be able to show you such mercy a second time. Be glad that it was me you encountered and not my counterpart, for I am sure he would not have let you leave this place alive."

With that, the Black Mask vanished from sight.

A/N:

This chapter underwent significant revisions, given feedback that I received those I shared a draft of the chapter with, but I think it made it significantly stronger, so many thanks for them.

The reveal of Nunnally being a Persona-user has been planned and foreshadowed in the story for some time. At first, I actually wasn't planning for her to be a Persona-user at all, but the more I thought about it, Nunnally really is more similar to her brother than may be obvious at first glance, as is particularly made clear in the second season of the show. I also made the decision to make Nunnally a Persona user after all early enough in the story that I was able to adjust things accordingly. I did tell some readers that she wasn't going to be a member of the Black Knights... but she is one of the Irregulars in this story. The timing of the reveal was also different than originally planned, but when a number of readers pointed out that it would be disappointing if Mao were to simply die for real after Lelouch's first encounter with him, in stark contrast to his resilience in canon, I decided that I could subvert the basic "Nunnally Held Hostage" scenario in Episode 16 of the show to lead to a different set of reveals.

I couldn't have Lelouch be the one to actually kill Mao, though he was going to if Alice or the Black Mask hadn't intervened, since that would make his recollections in the last interrogation scene false. However, Alice is the one who killed Mao's counterpart in Nightmare of Nunnally, and she is also shown to be violently protective of Nunnally there, so I figured that she could fit as Mao's killer in this story.

And yes, Mao really is dead this time.

Just as there are multiple groups of Persona-users in this story, there's more than one Black Mask. Or is there? It's a precarious situation that Lelouch finds himself in. But even Black Knights and Irregulars need some time to relax...

Stay tuned!