Author's Note: I have to give my apologies to all those who read my story for the lateness of this chapter. I had written it out before Christmas and I happily went to visit relatives over the holiday period. When I returned, I attempted to update my story on the third, as I said I would, only to discover that I had no internet access.
When I attempted it the next day, I was irritated to discover that my files had been corrupted, causing me to need to write this entire chapter out from scratch. I have taken precautions against this happening again (external hard drives are so useful) so I will be uploading the next update on schedule.
You've been patient enough, so, without further ado, ON WITH THE FIC!
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Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass. If I did, I wouldn't be writing on a Fanfic site, would I?
"Kallen"-Speech
'Lelouch'-Thought/mental communication
"{Die}"-Geass Command
"Halt!"-Loudspeaker
"Roger."-Radio/Walkie-Talkie
Chapter 8: The Meeting at Tokyo Tower
Kallen's Room, The Stadtfelt Estate, 8:57pm
Lying on her bed, clad only in panties and a light top, Kallen was impatiently awaiting nine o'clock. She had barely been able to hold herself back from opening the package left to her by K-1 until she had gotten back to the estate.
As soon as she had entered her room and locked the door, she had ripped the package open, to discover two things contained within: a slim mobile phone, coloured red and black, and a discreet headset in the same colours that was obviously for the phone.
She had deduced fairly quickly that K-1 would be calling her on it at nine, so she made sure that she was alone in her room at that time. Not that she had much to worry about. Her stepmother was out at another party and would doubtless be sleeping with a man she had met at the aforementioned party.
Kallen's lip curled in contempt. She couldn't stand the woman and wished that she could get rid of her somehow.
Aside from her stepmother, the Mansion was quiet tonight; most of the servants had been given the night off. The only one who hadn't was her birth-mother.
The look of contempt on Kallen's face deepened. Her mother, Yūko Kōzuki, had fallen lower than she could stand, in Kallen's opinion. She had sold her pride and became a maid at the mansion of her Britannian lover, the Earl of Stadtfelt, and endured countless hours of abuse from Kallen's stepmother and the other maids, all of whom were pure Britannians.
Kallen shook her head at her mother's stupidity (as she saw it) and wondered why the woman put up with it all: abuse from her mistress, abuse from her co-workers and, to top it all off, being ignored by her own daughter.
Kallen quashed a sudden surge of guilt ruthlessly. 'She deserves it for losing all her pride as a Japanese citizen!' Kallen reasoned to herself, not entirely successfully. All her current thoughts froze and dissipated when the phone held idly in her hand began to buzz. The caller display, rather than reading 'K-1', instead merely displayed a single number -'0'.
'Huh? Zero? What the….?' Kallen thought in mild surprise before her conscious mind kicked in and reminded her she had to answer it.
Quickly checking to ensure her mother wasn't around, Kallen sat up and answered the phone with a cautious "Hello?"
"Hello, Q-1." The instantly recognisable voice of K-1 answered her at once, "I trust you are alone?"
"Of course." Kallen replied, "I noticed that the caller ID came up as 'Zero'. Is that your actual code-name or another red herring?"
"It's my new code-name. 'K-1' will be my battlefield designation from now on." The newly rechristened Zero replied, sounding somewhat amused.
"By the way, I haven't heard of anything that significant that happened in Shinjuku, aside from the Purebloods being given a spanking." Kallen remarked with a small smirk.
"My sources tell me that the Britannians are scrambling to keep it under wraps until they have a planned response ready." Zero replied, seemingly unconcerned by Kallen's questions. "I severely doubt that they will be able to keep it a secret for much longer than another day, so please be patient and you will see a little of my work."
"Alright." Kallen replied, somewhat sceptically.
"Now, on to business, shall we?" Zero said seriously.
"That's fine with me." Kallen replied. Finally, she could get some answers. "Who are you? Why did you help us in Shinjuku?"
"I'm afraid I will have to decline to answer the first question, Q-1." Zero replied seriously, "After all, you wouldn't want me to go around telling people about your alter ego to all and sundry, correct?"
Kallen scowled. "That's another thing, how did you know about that?"
A laugh came back across the phone. "It actually wasn't as hard as you might think. There aren't that many blue-eyed redheaded girls in the country, especially in either the Ghettos or the Settlement. Using my sources in both, I eventually came across your dual-identities and made the connection." After pausing to allow Kallen to absorb and digest just how easily her cover had been blown, Zero continued.
"Tell me Kallen, how it felt…to win?" he asked. Kallen blinked. What was this guy getting at? She took the question at face value, however.
"I…That is, it was….satisfying." Kallen replied softly. "We -the Japanese that is- haven't won a battle against Britannia since Itsukushima. I never thought it would be possible and yet, yesterday…" She trailed off.
"You handed a Prince of the Realm a humiliating defeat." Zero finished for her, "Not to mention preventing the massacre of hundreds of innocent civilians."
"It was our fault that happened in the first place." Kallen replied heatedly, "If we had planned it better-"
"If', Kallen, is unimportant. Hindsight is always 20/20." Zero told her flatly, "Recognise your mistakes, learn from them and move on. Ensure that the next time, you don't make the same mistakes. In this way, you give the deaths caused by your own errors meaning and reason."
Kallen bit back a snarling retort with considerable effort. As sanctimonious as it sounded, Zero had a point. Exhaling loudly, Kallen replied, "Fine. I'll try."
"Good." Zero sounded approving. "To answer your second question from earlier, I dislike one-sided slaughters and decided to intervene when I found out about it. Besides, I was trapped in Shinjuku myself, so the quickest was to affect my release was to help you terrorists."
"We aren't terrorists!" Kallen snarled. She could hear a sigh down the phone line.
"You stole poison gas from Britannia. Regardless of your intentions, that was terrorism." Zero replied a touch coolly. Kallen was about to snarl back, but Zero spoke over her.
"To get back to the purpose of this call, I wish to speak to your leader. Ohgi, isn't it?" Kallen's breath caught in her throat. He knew about Ohgi? How?
"How do you know who Ohgi is?!" Kallen hissed into the phone, the hand holding the phone tightening until the plastic creaked with strain. Kallen exercised control over her emotions and forced her hand to loosen its grip slightly.
"Once I knew who you were and that you had lost a brother, it was fairly easy to consult the old records to discover who your brother was and who his associates were." Zero explained, "Anyway, as I said, I wish to meet with him. Can you make the arrangements?"
Kallen thought it through. "He won't meet with you alone." She told him, "Nor will he be able to meet with you inside the settlement proper."
"I expected as much. Two days from now, Sixteen-hundred, Old Tokyo Tower's Observation Platform. You are to come as well. He can bring at most five others. Bring this phone when you do." Zero rapped out before he hung up.
Kallen tried to call the number in the directory, but got a 'disconnected line' message.
'Damn.' Kallen thought as she glared at the phone. 'Well, it can't be helped.' She sighed as she laid herself down on the bed again. She thought of what the reactions of her Resistance Cell were going to be.
'Ohgi will be apprehensive, Yoshida will be cautious, Sugiyama will be against it, Inoue will follow Ohgi's lead, ditto for Yoshitaka, and as for Tamaki…..he'll go against the majority just to make a statement. Idiot.' Kallen listed the main members of her Cell in her mind and sighed. She considered everything. They had to meet with this guy. He knew too much about them and had to be either contained or killed, their lives depended on it.
Sighing again, Kallen reached over and picked up her own mobile phone, picked it up and started to dial Ohgi's number. She anticipated a long, exasperatingly irritating, phone call.
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Lelouch's room, Student Council Clubhouse, Ashford Academy
Lelouch looked at the phone in his hand and sighed. Kallen was quite right: her group weren't terrorists. He had acted like they were because he had to illustrate how they had been slipping down a slope that would have eventually culminated in them doing some horrific act of some sort.
He didn't doubt that, had they not lost the capsule, the Resistance Cell's initial intention would have been to follow the plan that Naoto Kōzuki had been responsible for creating, but had it actually been poison gas he suspected that this Shinichiro Tamaki person would have done something grossly stupid, as was his wont according to his interrogation with Kallen.
He needed to appeal to them, to make working for him sound far better than remaining a mere terrorist-slash resistance fighter. Unfortunately, being constantly in hiding from the infrequent Britannian security sweeps and probes, the Resistance fighters were likely professional paranoiacs, and would not trust him easily, if at all, initially.
C.C., who had been reclined on the bed during the phone call, now sat up and hugged him from behind. Lelouch had sensed her arousal as soon as he had walked in to his room. It had been all he could do to put her off until now.
When she had told him about Milly and Nina, he had merely nodded. He had suspected for a while that his oldest friend was bisexual; the video merely confirmed his suspicions. He had, of course, destroyed the disk with the footage on it at once, despite C.C.'s protests. No point leaving incriminating footage like that around.
Interestingly enough, C.C. said she had found the footage she had seen 'hot'. Lelouch privately agreed with her, but didn't show it outwardly.
"Lelouch…." C.C. purred sensually. Lelouch grinned ironically. Looks like he wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight either…
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Timeskip-The Next Day
Lunchtime, Student Council Room, Ashford Academy
Lelouch was just finishing his lunch when his phone rang. Looking at the caller ID, he recognised Jeremiah's number. He stood up and walked over to the far wall before answering it, his voice low.
"Yes?"
"My Lord, an urgent matter has come up that I think deserves your attention." Jeremiah spoke in an equally low voice that still conveyed urgency in it's tone.
"Go on." Lelouch replied. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Milly and Rivalz trying to edge closer in an attempt to eavesdrop on his conversation. He directed a slight frown at the pair, eliciting a hasty retreat from the pair.
"My subordinate, Sir Kewell Soresi, came to me about an hour ago with a plan which is very much in the line of thinking with the Pureblood ideals." Jeremiah reported, "What he proposes, quite bluntly, is to frame an Honorary Britannian soldier for the murder of Prince Clovis, giving the Pureblood Faction, i.e. myself and Villetta, the excuse to disestablish the Honorary Britannian system."
Disgust filled Lelouch. It was this kind of blatant and thoughtless racism that disgusted him the most about his countrymen. Saying that, it was one of the dozen or so scenarios he and Jeremiah had worked out as the most likely Britannian response, as distasteful as it was. The ebon haired boy let out a breath before he spoke.
"I expect he also chose the sacrificial lamb as well?" Lelouch asked, his voice barely showing any trace of anger.
"He has indeed, My Lord: Suzaku Kururugi." Jeremiah's voice sounded grim. Lelouch went white with shock.
"He…he's alive?" Lelouch whispered. He had told Jeremiah of his friendship with Suzaku the previous day, so his Knight knew why he was so shocked right now.
"He is. He apparently got lucky enough to only get a minor cracked rib from the bullet that coward of a Royal Guardsman hit him with." Jeremiah reported. "A million-to-one chance. Private Kururugi seems to have some unusual luck."
Lelouch had used the time Jeremiah had been talking to recompose himself. The rest of the Student Council were looking at him with concern mixed with curiosity at what could make him lose his composure like he had.
"What have you told him?" Lelouch asked.
Jeremiah snorted. "I told him I'd consider it -after I had finished my paperwork. He ran off then in case I strong-armed him into helping me finish it."
Lelouch smiled. "Well done. Now this is what I want you to do….." The exiled Prince swiftly outlined his plan to Jeremiah in quick, concise sentences while keeping his mouth covered. He suspected that Milly could lip-read, and he wasn't eager for her to find out what he was up to right at this particular moment.
"Are you certain that is what you wish to do, My Lord?" Jeremiah asked after Lelouch finished speaking, "It seems somewhat hazardous for Private Kururugi and yourself."
"Trust me, I'll have all perquisites for the plan to work cleared far in advance." Lelouch reassured his Knight. "I'll call you later with the full details. Bye." Lelouch hung up and walked back over to his almost finished lunch.
"Lulu, who was that on the phone?" Shirley asked. Lelouch looked at her as he sat back down.
"The owner of the casino I frequent. He wanted to try to ban me from his premises." Lelouch replied mildly, "I convinced him otherwise."
"Lulu! You shouldn't be gambling in the first place!" Shirley scolded him furiously, "You should focus on your schoolwork! Look at what happened the last time you went gambling!"
Lelouch visibly winced. "I take your point. I promise that I'll cut back, OK Shirley?" He sent a small smile in her direction, prompting the orangette's face to do a passable imitation of a tomato.
"By the way, thank you for spending time with Nunnally yesterday. I know she likes spending time with you and she does enjoy you visiting her." Lelouch said, tactfully changing the subject.
Shirley recovered somewhat and gave a genuine smile of joy. "Its fine, Lulu. I enjoy visiting her as well. How is she today?" she asked.
"She had a small fever this morning, so Sayoko is staying with her at the moment." Lelouch replied with a small frown, and then dismissed it. "She ought to be recovered fully by the end of school."
Milly frowned. "Nuna's been getting these small fevers fairly frequently." Lelouch nodded.
"The doctor's say that she shouldn't push herself too hard. Both Sayoko and I try to tell her that, but she is an exceptionally stubborn person when she wants to be." Lelouch said with a shrug. "Eventually, she overworks herself and gets a fever. Then it's just rinse and repeat."
"Stubborn, eh? That reminds me of a certain overprotective older brother of my acquaintance…" Milly teased him. Lelouch eyed her with scant favour. Evidently she was getting him back for his teasing yesterday.
Lelouch knew a losing hand when he saw one, so he deftly changed the subject. "Oh yes. Milly, I managed to convince Miss Stadtfelt to join the Student Council. She'll be coming over after school to be introduced to everyone."
"Aww." Milly pouted, "You take all the fun out of it if they just agree like that!" Lelouch sweatdropped as she began muttering under her breath and a faint dark aura surrounded her.
Clearing his throat, Lelouch addressed the blue-haired secretary. "Rivalz, can you scrounge together some food for the party? I'm afraid the stocks in the kitchen are a bit low at the moment."
Rivalz nodded. "Sure, as long as you pay me back for my new bike parts I had to get yesterday."
"Done." Lelouch said. "Oh, and no alcohol."
The secretary pouted a bit at this. "But-"
"No Rivalz." Lelouch said sternly, "I don't drink, neither does Milly, Shirley, Nina or Nunnally and I doubt someone whose body is weak will either. So, no alcohol."
"Fine." Rivalz relented reluctantly. Shirley and Nina threw Lelouch looks of gratitude and appreciation.
Lelouch cordially nodded back and headed off. He had a new plan to coordinate with Sayoko and C.C.
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Timeskip-After School
Student Council Clubhouse, Ashford Academy
Kallen's Perspective
As she walked towards the Clubhouse, Kallen was more than a little apprehensive. She was going to meet the Student Council that Lelouch had told her about.
'They don't sound too bad.' She thought, 'From what Lelouch told me yesterday, the more problematic ones are Milly and the xenophobe.'
The redhead shook her head at the reality of a xenophobic girl living in a foreign country. You would have thought her parents would have more sense than that.
Upon arriving at the Clubhouse, she shook her head again at the extravagant building and knocked on the door. A heartbeat later, the maid from yesterday appeared and escorted her in.
Following the maid -Sayoko, she reminded herself- Kallen caught her first sight of the Ashford Academy Student Council.
A tall, classically beautiful girl with shoulder-length blond hair was placing trays of finger food on the table that had been placed in the centre of the ball room. Following her was a boy with blue hair and an entranced gaze fixed on the blond.
'OK, the blond has to be Milly Ashford and the guy the secretary.' Kallen deduced from the snippets of information Lelouch had told her the day before.
Sitting in the corner was a green-haired girl typing away on a terminal. Her hair was in a pair of pigtails and she wore glasses. She also gave off a frail and timid aura, leaving Kallen to conclude that this one was the xenophobe.
A pouting girl with orange hair flounced in. "Madame President, Lulu wont let me help him carry in the rest of the food!" the orangette huffed.
The blue haired boy snapped out of his not-so-secret daydream to say, "He does have good reason, Shirley. Last time he let you carry plates, you tripped up and smashed the lot."
This little speech earned him a small glare from the girl -Shirley- and her pout deepened.
"Aw, how cute." Milly teased. " 'I want to help my Lulu in the kitchen so he'll see how womanly I am!' Is that it, Shirley?"
Kallen had never seen someone blush that much ever; the girl's face resembled a giant tomato. "MILLY!" Shirley shrieked in acute embarrassment and mortification.
Evidently deciding that now was as good a time as any to interrupt, Sayoko gave a small cough, drawing the attention of the Council members.
"Lady Ashford…" Sayoko began, but was interrupted by Milly.
"Sayoko, we've been over this a hundred times. My name is Milly, so please use it. You know how much I dislike standing on ceremony." Milly scolded the maid.
"But I'm employed by the Ashford Family!" Sayoko protested, " I have to refer to you as such."
"Not unless there are people outside the Council here, Sayoko." a voice interjected smoothly. Lelouch strode in, wearing an apron over his uniform and another tray of food in his hands. As he set it down on the table, he continued.
"While you have to call her 'Lady' in public, you are among friends here, so please drop the formalities." When Sayoko still looked somewhat intransient about the whole matter, Lelouch added, "I can make that an order if you prefer."
Sayoko rolled her eyes at this. "Lelouch-sama, why is it that you only use your authority at times like this?" she asked in a resigned tone.
Lelouch grinned. "A person with authority has to choose the right times to use said authority, otherwise there would be no point in having it in the first place." the ebon-haired boy replied, a slight note of teasing evident in his voice.
Looking around at the grins on the faces of the Council, Kallen concluded that this was a frequent argument and had become something of a habit between Sayoko and Lelouch.
Shaking her head slightly, Sayoko continued with what she had been about to say. "I have brought Miss Kallen Stadtfelt."
With that sentence, the attention of the Student Council switched to Kallen, who started slightly at the attention she was receiving.
"Kallen, glad you could make it." Lelouch said, nodding at her with a small smile. Kallen shyly responded with a nod of her own.
"Introductions are in order, I believe." Lelouch continued. "Well, starting at the top, the pretty lady over here is Milly Ashford." He gestured at Milly, who flushed slightly at being called pretty but recovered with admirable alacrity.
"Nice to meet you, Kallen. I'm sure we'll become good friends." Milly said, an unidentifiable light twinkling in her eye. Kallen recalled that Lelouch had told her that Milly was fond of teasing people.
"Hi." Kallen mumbled, keeping 'in character' for her shy, sickly self, even although it made her want to throw up.
"Over here, we have Rivalz Cardemonde, the secretary of the Student Council." Lelouch continued with the introductions. Rivalz paused in pouring himself a glass of juice to give her a quick wave.
"Yo. If ya need anything, let me know. Chances are I can get you it." Rivalz said with a grin.
'I'd like one Japan, without the Britannians, if you please.' Kallen thought dryly as she nodded back.
"The shy girl on the computer is Nina Einstein, our resident genius." The green-haired girl went 'eep!' with fright when Lelouch introduced her, but still managed to stutter out a greeting.
"Hi Nina." Kallen said kindly. The poor girl looked as if she was going to faint.
"Over here, the cute girl with the orange hair is Shirley Fenette. She's also a member of the Swimming Club."
"LULU?!" Shirley yelped in shock, going even redder than when Milly was teasing her. Kallen stifled a giggle and said, "Nice to meet you Shirley."
Shirley swung her head back around to face Kallen, her face still rosy from her blush. "Nice to meet you too Kallen." she said as she eyed Lelouch out of the corner of her eye, a slight amount of worry present.
"Big Brother, could you grab this tray?" a sweet voice asked from behind the group. As the council parted and turned, Kallen caught sight of the speaker.
An adorably cute girl in a wheelchair approached, a tray of food in her lap. She had waist length sandy brown hair and wore the uniform of the middle school division. Her eyes were closed, which puzzled Kallen.
"Here Nuna, I'll get it." Shirley said and started forward, but was intercepted by Milly, while Sayoko picked up the tray.
Milly looked over at Kallen. "This is Lelouch's sister Nunnally." she said by way of introduction.
"I'm still in middle school division, so I can't be on the council yet." Nunnally said, somewhat forlornly.
"That's alright, you're an honorary member in our book." Rivalz said kindly. Nina nodded in agreement.
"Hello there. It's a pleasure to meet you Kallen." Nunnally said with a smile and a slight bow.
Kallen found herself smiling back. She really was too damned cute for words. "Thank you. You as well." She replied.
Lelouch stepped towards Nunnally and knelt beside her. "Hey Nunnally. How's that fever?"
"It's gone." Nunnally said quickly. Evidently too quickly for Lelouch's liking as he pressed the back of his hand to her forehead and frowned.
"Sayoko, can you go and get Nunnally's medicine for me please. Her fever is still here." he called at the maid, who nodded and vanished down a corridor, only to reappear seconds later carrying a bottle in one hand.
Kallen blinked at this. As Lelouch fed a protesting Nunnally her medicine, she asked, "Do you keep a spare bottle here just in case?"
Shaking his head as he re-screwed the bottle, Lelouch replied, "No, we live in the Clubhouse. It would be….challenging for Nunnally to live in the dorms, so the Dean lets us live here as a favour."
"It really is nice of him to do us this favour." Nunnally added, pulling a slight face at the taste of the medicine, "I get to live with my brother, so I'm happy."
Kallen felt like she had been kicked in the stomach. Just for an instant, she saw herself and her brother taking the place of Nunnally and Lelouch. Exerting rigid control over her face, she didn't allow a single flicker of her melancholy mood to show on the surface.
After that, the Council got down to the business of the afternoon: welcoming their new member into their ranks. Kallen was startled to discover that Lelouch was a highly skilled cook and had almost single-handedly cooked the entirety of the food laid out on the table, the sole exception being a couple of boxes of pizza he had ordered from Pizza Hut.
After a while, Rivalz turned the TV on. The news was on and the content took everyone off guard. Prince Clovis, Viceroy of Area 11 was dead. No details were given as to the circumstances of his death, other than the fact it was murder.
Kallen was stunned. This is what Zero had done? He had assassinated a Prince of the Realm? She recalled what he had said to her the previous day, '…be patient and you will see a little of my work.'
Around her, the Council were in shock. Nina was trembling like a leaf, only abating somewhat when Milly put a hand on her shoulder, Rivalz was gaping like a fish, Shirley looked sick, Nunnally was crying softly and Lelouch looked like a statue.
Then an announcement from the leader of the Pureblood faction, Jeremiah Gottwald, came up. He was standing in the Area 11 Administrative Centre's State Broadcast room, two ranks of the Pureblood Faction standing at ease behind him and his second in command, Villetta Nu, standing off to the side.
Jeremiah gave a long and pompous speech about the virtues of Prince Clovis that made Kallen want to spit in disgust. Another part of her took in the sight of the man she had forced to eject back in Shinjuku. So he was the leader of the Purebloods, eh? That must have been a blow to his ego.
The newscaster reappeared after Jeremiah's speech, a serious expression on her face as she spoke. "This just in: a man has been arrested and charged with the murder of Prince Clovis."
The screen switched to that of two uniformed soldiers frogmarching a man in a prisoner's restraint jacket, with a pair of armed soldiers in front and behind them.
"The suspect, an Honorary Britannian, is Suzaku Kururugi, a former Eleven." The newscaster spoke as the viewers watched the figure of Suzaku struggle and his mouth moved, probably protesting his arrest, until one of the soldiers restraining him smacked him across the jaw, temporarily silencing him.
After that the party broke up and everyone went home. As Kallen sat in the limo she was forced to ride in order to blend in with the Britannians, she thought on what she had seen today.
'The man called Zero…what is his agenda?' Kallen wondered, her brow furrowed in thought. All she knew about him was the sound of his voice and that he knew the identity of both herself and her Resistance Cell. He also seemed to be an excellent strategist and tactician, to judge by how he had directed them at Shinjuku.
Well, they would find out tomorrow hopefully. It had taken her over an hour of begging, pleading, threatening and coercing to convince her group to meet with Zero. The only one who had voted against the idea in the end was Tamaki as she had expected. Sometimes, she wondered how someone as idiotic as Tamaki could survive something as simple as walking down the street -the man was so dense he had his own event horizon.
"Tomorrow, we shall see." she murmured aloud.
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Timeskip-1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Living Room, Ashford Academy Student Council Clubhouse
Lelouch was finishing up his homework when a quiet knock on the door made him look up. Sayoko stood in the open doorway, looking concerned. This set off alarm bells in Lelouch. Sayoko was very much unflappable in almost any situation, so she must be seriously concerned at whatever it is that brought her here.
"Sayoko?" He queried. Sayoko bit her lip softly before she spoke.
"Lelouch-sama, Milly-sama is here. She wishes to speak to you….alone." Sayoko reported.
Lelouch frowned. Milly usually talked to him and Nunnally together if it had something to do with the Ashford Family's internal politics, so it couldn't be about that. Nor was this likely a social visit owing to the impression Milly had left on Sayoko when she had come in.
"Did she say what it was she wished to discuss?" Lelouch asked.
Sayoko shook her head. "No, but when I used my….gift on her, her aura was a rapidly shifting mix of white and red. I also got impressions of worry, fear and anger….directed at you, My Lord."
"At me?" Lelouch said in surprise. What the hell could have made Milly angry at him? The exiled prince sighed heavily.
"Well, I had better find out what it is I have done to evoke Milly's wrath." Lelouch said as he got up.
C.C., who had been lounging on his bed, regarded Lelouch lazily.
"Do you need Sayoko?" She asked evenly.
Surprised, Lelouch shook his head. "No. She's in the office section of the Clubhouse, correct?" he turned to Sayoko for confirmation. She nodded.
"Good. I need to have a…discussion with her in private, so this is good timing." The green-haired immortal said, a sly grin crossing her face as she spoke.
Lelouch shuddered when he saw that grin. It was far too reminiscent of Milly's own grin which stated, to all those who knew her well, 'I have mischief planned and no-one can stop me from doing it. No ifs ands or buts about it.'
Flashing a concerned look at Sayoko as he left, Lelouch walked off to look for Milly, leaving his maid to the tender mercies of the immortal.
When he reached the office on the first floor of the Clubhouse, He spotted Milly. She was still in her school uniform and was sitting in the visitor's chair of the office with her legs crossed, the top leg swinging back and forth nervously. She was fidgeting in her seat and was tugging nervously with a lock of her hair.
All in all she was nerves personified at the moment, which puzzled Lelouch. Milly was almost as unflappable as Sayoko. It took a lot to unnerve the Ashford heiress.
Shaking his head, Lelouch walked over and sat behind the desk. He had a feeling that whatever had succeeded in unnerving Milly, he might want some space in between himself and his childhood friend.
Just in case.
Milly started when Lelouch sat down in front of her. Evidently she had been lost in thought and hadn't noticed him until ha had entered her line of sight.
"Lelouch! You scared the hell out of me!" Milly scolded him, "Make a noise when you enter a room!"
Lelouch hitched an eyebrow. "I did. You were too caught up in your thoughts to notice me."
Milly flushed in embarrassment. "Oh, shut up." she muttered, making Lelouch grin before he became serious again.
"Might I ask what brings you here at this time, Milly? I can only presume it is something serious if you are missing your weekly dinner with your father?" Lelouch asked.
Milly eyed Lelouch for a moment before she spoke. "I know."
Lelouch blinked. "Beg pardon?" he asked.
"I said 'I know.'" Milly snapped.
"I'm sorry." Lelouch said slowly, "But I'm afraid you're going to have to be a little more specific. Exactly what is it that you know and what does it have to do with me?"
"Theta Base." Milly said simply.
Lelouch's eyes widened almost imperceptivity. "I'm not sure-" he began only to be cut off by Milly.
"Oh give up with the denials already." Milly sighed in mild frustration. "Did you really think the Ashford family would leave a complex as extensive as that with no security cameras? We built the place after all!"
Lelouch regarded her for a moment before deciding to drop the façade.
"I disabled every camera I could find," Lelouch said calmly, "And I eventually traced the off-site security monitoring station and destroyed it."
Milly stared at him like he was a stranger. "Lelouch that was only the primary one, the one known to most of the family. There was a secondary station known only to the head of the family and the heir that activated after the first went down."
Lelouch cursed. "I knew there was another one, but Nunnally fell ill when I was going to go looking for it. It went clean out of my head afterwards." He gave Milly a searching look.
"Just what prompted you to check on it today of all days?" he asked curiously.
"Your reaction to Prince Clovis' death." Milly replied. "Everyone showed some sort of visual sign that they were taken off guard -except you. Almost as if you were expecting it and had steeled yourself for the announcement."
A wry smile crossed Lelouch's face. "I didn't think anyone was paying attention. Should have known I wouldn't escape your eye." He joked.
"Be serious Lelouch!" Milly shot at him, "I saw the footage. I saw Sayoko enter with a Sutherland. Just where did she get a Sutherland?"
Lelouch returned her intent gaze with a flat look of his own. "Someone as smart as you has probably already guessed where." he said.
Milly closed her eyes and massaged her temples. "Shinjuku. You did more than run around like a civilian, then."
"I directed the terrorists against Clovis' forces and caused about 80% casualties among the Knightmares." Lelouch said with a chuckle. "Clovis always was bad at chess."
Milly opened her eyes and threw Lelouch a piercing look. "You did more than that, didn't you." She spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, as if she knew the answer.
"The answer is a lot more complicated than you might think, Milly." Lelouch warned her, "For what he ordered done, both within Shinjuku and without, Clovis would have earned an execution, even if he was a prince."
Milly frowned. "You do realise that I have to hear the details of this now that you've dropped such a tantalising hint?"
"I suppose so." Lelouch replied with a sigh of resignation. He then launched into a summary of events that hit the highpoints of The Shinjuku Massacre and the Battle of Shinjuku, only omitting the power of Geass, C.C.'s current location and his future plans.
After he finished, Lelouch carefully watched Milly sitting in silence as she processed what she had been told. This was a gamble. He had a fairly good idea about how his childhood friend would react to his tale, otherwise he would have used Geass on her for her own good, but there was always the human factor to consider, the unpredictability of a human mind and how it will react to any given situation.
'Then again, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?' Lelouch thought in wry amusement.
Milly let out a sigh as she raised her head to look at Lelouch.
"I suppose I can't really blame you for doing what you did, Lelouch." the blond-haired girl said at last, a serious expression on her face. "After what you went through during the Second Pacific War, It is perfectly understandable that you would step in to prevent a repeat of the Gunma Massacre."
Lelouch nodded cautiously when Milly paused, then gulped slightly when her face shifted into a searing glare.
"But, regardless of the reasons, how could you? How could you risk yourself like that?" Milly hissed at him, "How could you risk leaving Nunnally alone? How could you?!"
Lelouch leaned back in his chair, unconsciously trying to get away from the glaring woman opposite him. She was currently more intimidating than Cornelia had been the first time he had danced with Euphemia!
"Milly…" Lelouch said slowly, then stopped. Two streams of tears were falling from Milly's eyes even as she glared at him.
Lelouch stood abruptly and walked around the desk to stand next to Milly's chair, the girl's glare following him as he did. Kneeling down, he wrapped a very surprised Milly into a hug.
"L-Lelouch?" Milly managed to squeak out, her face turning cherry red.
"Sorry for frightening you." Lelouch whispered to her softly, "I promise to be more careful, alright?"
Milly slumped forward slightly and then returned the hug. "I thought I lost you and Nunnally when Britannia invaded Japan. I cried for over a week. Then, when you and Nuna showed up at our mansion….I've never been so relieved." She whispered, "I swore then to do everything I could to protect you and Nunnally. If I lost you again, I-I don't know what I'd do."
"I know. I know." Lelouch said soothingly. "But Milly, you do understand why I have to do this, don't you?"
Milly grumbled for a moment before nodding slightly. Lelouch gently squeezed the girl in his arms before releasing her and returning to his own seat. Drumming his fingers on the table, Lelouch regarded Milly thoughtfully as she wiped the tears away.
"I trust that I can count on your discretion in this matter, Milly." he said once the Ashford Heiress had pulled herself together.
Milly nodded briskly. "Of course. I won't lose you or Nunnally to anything again, and I certainly won't risk you both by tattling on you!" Milly's face then became worried. "Just promise me that you'll be careful."
Lelouch looked Milly in the eye. "You have my word that I will not take any unnecessary risks, but there are risks on the battlefield that are unavoidable."
Milly nodded in reluctant agreement at the qualifier.
"I would also appreciate it if the monitoring station you used could be….removed from the equation." Lelouch continued, "I would prefer not to leave a hole in my security that can be -and has been- exploited."
"I'll try." Milly said, doubt edging her voice, "But as I said, only myself and my Grandfather know about it, and Grandfather is too busy with Ashford Family business to have the time to check it. I really don't think that you are in any danger of being exposed."
Lelouch looked at her for a moment before he shook his head slightly. "Milly, this is not negotiable. It is far too risky to leave unattended." His voice was firm and unyielding on the subject.
Milly's eyes widened fractionally. This wasn't the voice of her childhood friend or her schoolmate or even her fellow council member; this was the voice of a leader. Fully in control and exuding a commanding presence that made the Ashford Heiress blush slightly.
"I-I'll try, Lelouch. That's all I can promise." Milly said as she schooled her face into something resembling her normal countenance.
The exiled prince nodded his head. "That's all I ask." he told his childhood friend solemnly.
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
The Next Day, Ashford Academy Auditorium, 12.00
Lelouch stifled a yawn as the principal of the High School Division droned on about 'what a great loss it was for the Empire to have lost a great leader' with the death of Prince Clovis.
'You wouldn't say any of that if you knew the depths of his depravity.' Lelouch thought darkly as he tuned out the man's voice and focused on the conversation he had had with Milly the previous night.
The fact that the Ashford Family had the ability to spy on his trump card was more than slightly worrying for the exiled Prince. Only two things stopped him ordering Sayoko to search for and destroy the place.
Firstly, the limited number of people who had knowledge of the surveillance room. Only the former Lord Ashford and his appointed Heir, Milly, even knew about the room's existence. With the number of duties that even a cast-down Lord possessed, it was highly unlikely that the man would check the room unless his attention was directed to it, leaving Milly the only one who would be using the surveillance room frequently, at least until she disabled it.
Secondly, Milly had given her word that she would render the room unusable. Until he had reason to suspect that she was deliberately procrastinating the destruction of the room, he had to trust that she was working on it.
Lelouch was drawn from his ruminating when the Principal stopped talking and dismissed the students, much to Lelouch's considerable relief.
As he walked out of the Auditorium and into the hall, Shirley caught up to him.
"Lulu, is it me, or was the principal even more….patriotic than he usually is?" The orangette asked with a small frown on her face that Lelouch found rather fetching on her.
"He's adjusting to the new political climate." Lelouch explained, "When General Bartley, Prince Clovis' second in command, disappeared after the assassination, it left a power vacuum that was swiftly filled by the Pureblood faction."
Shirley flinched at the mention of the fanatical Royalists. Hardly surprising, considering the Purebloods considered collateral damage to be an inevitability rather than a possibility to be avoided.
"And of course the Purebloods are going to try to make a statement about their beliefs on how the Area's should be run. The Principal is just trying to dodge any attention they might send his way by acting like one of them." Lelouch finished with a wry look on his face.
"Wait, the Purebloods are gonna what?" Shirley asked as she came to a halt and turned to face her ebon-haired crush.
"Well, from what I've gathered, the Purebloods believe that only pureblood Britannians should serve in the military, so the person they've arrested for assassinating Prince Clovis, Kururugi, is likely not the culprit." Lelouch said as he maintained a neutral expression at the injustice that had befallen his naïve and loyal friend.
"The military wouldn't make an accusation like this without proof, even the Purebloods!" Shirley protested.
'Ah Shirley. How trusting and naïve you are.' Lelouch thought fondly as he replied to her, "Think about it Shirley. Kururugi was an Honorary Britannian Footsoldier. How would he have gained access to a weapon? Unless they are decade-long enlisted, Honorary Britannians are not allowed firearms."
Shirley's eyes widened at this unknown piece of trivia.
"Furthermore, how would he have gotten close to Prince Clovis? He was the Viceroy of Area Eleven, constantly under round the clock guard and surveillance. How did Kururugi get past all of the cameras and guards? I don't recall any cameras reported as destroyed, nor any Royal Guards reported killed." Lelouch continued, shaking his head as he did.
"No, Kururugi is a scapegoat. Whoever really killed His Highness got clean away." Lelouch concluded quietly, standing close to Shirley so only she could hear him, making her face flush bright red.
"Hey Lelouch!" a voice called from behind him. Rivalz jogged up to his side. "Got anything planned for later on? Classes have been dismissed for the day and some people want a rematch." As he spoke, Rivalz made a motion with his right hand that resembled moving a chess piece.
Shirley's eyes narrowed as she snapped out, "You guys are not going gambling!"
Rivalz flinched back at the vehemence in her voice. "Yeesh, don't be such a stick in the mud." he muttered weakly, earning him an even stronger glare from a bristling Shirley.
"No, she's right. I should cut back on gambling for a while." Lelouch interjected swiftly, before Mount Shirley erupted, "Besides I have an appointment this afternoon."
"An appointment?" Shirley asked, distracted from her death glare at Rivalz, who sighed in relief and wiped his brow of imaginary sweat at his reprieve.
"I have to go to the tailors." Lelouch told them with a small smile.
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Unknown Location, 13.00
"Is my order complete?" Lelouch asked softly.
The only other occupant in the room was an elderly man who frequently served as the lure for attracting arrogant nobles seeking a chance to 'prove their noble mental superiority' over a 'lowly commoner' in a game of chess. He also ran a very select costume business, which had thrived under the dandy, party going Prince Clovis. It was to this man Lelouch had addressed his question.
"Yes. Everything is just as you requested. It is being worked on by the finest in the field. Once the slide-system is complete, it's all yours. It should be finished momentarily" The man replied in a monotone. He also had red rings around his eyes.
"And my other two requests?" Lelouch enquired.
"Ah. They were somewhat more difficult to accomplish, but I have confidence that they will be completed within the next three days." His Geassed henchman replied.
"Very good." Lelouch said approvingly. "Well then, Fool's Check."
Upon the uttering of the last two words, the old man jerked somewhat and blinked blearily as he peered through his specs at the young man standing across from him.
"Mister Lelouch?" He asked, "Sir, what are you doing here? I don't believe we've made any, ah, arrangements for a short while."
"I came to have a small chat with you." Lelouch told him, truthfully, "You just spaced out for a while there, and I was a bit worried."
"Did I? Oh dear, I am sorry sir." The old man said, distress crossing his face.
"Have you been sleeping enough? I have told you that you need to have at least six hours of sleep." Lelouch asked sternly.
"I-well, that is….no." The costume maker deflated somewhat. "There has been a rush of orders for appropriate funeral and mourning wear, so I'm afraid time gets a little away from me."
Lelouch sighed and gave the man a stern look. "Please make sure to get at least ONE good night's sleep a week. I know that you are busy, but you need sleep as much as anyone. Understand?"
"Yes sir." The man replied, wilting under Lelouch's gaze. A knock on the door distracted him.
"Yes?" the costume maker called. The door opened, revealing one of his assistants. He had a pair of metal suitcases in his hands and his eyes bore the red rings of someone under the control of Geass. He set his burdens down, bowed at the old man and retreated out the door.
"What in the-" The old man began to say, before Lelouch cut him off.
"King's Gambit."
At once, the old man came to attention, red rings flickering into existence around his irises. "Milord." he said crisply.
"Confirm that my items are in order." Lelouch told him briskly. As the man opened the first case and began sorting through its contents, Lelouch began thinking of his meeting with the Resistance Cell in a couple of hour's time.
'The ones who will come are the main movers and shakers in the Cell. Thanks to the information I acquired from Kallen, I can predict, to a certain extent, how each of them will react, but what is vitally important is that I maintain the upper hand.' Lelouch withdrew a small data card from his pocket and looked at it with a grim smile. 'And thanks to my Knight, I have just the thing to keep them off balance and allowing me to maintain the upper hand whilst simultaneously being seen as generous and thoughtful.'
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
15.55, Old Tokyo Tower Observation Deck
Kallen Kōzuki walked through the exhibits on display in what had once been a symbol of Japanese pride and had to restrain herself from smashing the blatantly obvious pro-Britannian propaganda that made up the overwhelming majority of the exhibits.
'Any person with a whit of common sense wouldn't believe half of this stuff!' Kallen thought angrily as she forced herself to walk normally rather than storm forward as she felt like doing, 'Like that exhibit! Seppuku isn't just a form of ritual death! It's also a way to die with honour rather than be tortured to death by your enemies! Damn Britannians!'
Kallen was wearing her Ashford Academy uniform so as to seem inconspicuous among the crowd. Old Tokyo Tower was a popular meeting spot for various reasons and for various people. Kallen would have preferred to wear her Resistance outfit, but she had been overruled.
Trailing a few meters behind her, Ohgi, Tamaki and Sugiyama were walking together and making a great show of observing the exhibits whilst simultaneously keeping a weather eye on Kallen.
"Ohgi, I still say we shouldn't meet with this guy!" Tamaki stage whispered to his friend as they looked at pictures of the initial beachheads made by Britannian forces during the Second Pacific War.
"Tamaki, enough!" Ohgi whispered back, "The decision was made by vote and you were the only one who voted against it. You didn't even have to come along!"
"Someone has to keep it real around here, Ohgi." Tamaki replied disdainfully.
Kallen, meanwhile, looked up when a ding-ding-dang-dong chime was issued by the public address system.
"Attention please. Paging Miss Kallen Stadtfelt of Ashford Academy. One of your personal effects has been turned in at the kiosk on the Observation Deck. Please come and pick it up before closing time."
Kallen immediately made her way to the information kiosk, with Ohgi's group (not so)stealthily following her.
"Hello, how can I help you?" The woman behind the counter asked brightly. Kallen mentally cringed at what she wore -a pale pink blazer with a matching skirt and bonnet. You couldn't offer her enough money to wear that!
Kallen removed her Ashford Student ID from her pocket and showed it to the woman. "I'm Kallen Stadtfelt. I heard the announcement. I believe you have something of mine?" She stated politely.
"Ah, Miss Stadtfelt. One moment please." The woman said before kneeling down underneath the counter and emerged holding a crimson purse. "I'm assuming this is yours?" she asked as she held the purse out.
"Y-Yes, thank you." Kallen managed to get out as she took the purse and examined it for a moment. It was slightly too large to fit into her hand and was embroidered in gold thread with a symbol that she didn't recognise. It resembled a flapping bird bisected by a sword.
"Um...did you happen to notice who handed this in? I'd like to thank them." Kallen asked the woman after a moment.
"I'm sorry, I didn't notice." The woman replied. Disappointed, Kallen thanked her and turned away, missing the red corona around the woman's irises.
After she reached a reasonably isolated area, she opened the purse and peered at the contents. Inside there was a folded sheet of paper and nothing else. Removing the paper, she unfolded it and read the message printed on the paper.
"Q-1-
You might want to tell Tamaki-san to keep it down, I could hear him on the other side of the Deck.
Board the outbound train on Loop line 5 and bring your 'shadows' with you. Have the phone at the ready.
-Zero"
"Tamaki, you idiot!" Kallen hissed quietly as she threw a small glare at the loudmouth standing a few meters away from her, causing him to quail and shrink away from her angry gaze.
She calmed herself down as she looked at Ohgi and jerked her head at the elevator before she walked off. Getting the idea, Ohgi nudged his team into following her.
Once the elevator was closed and en-route, Kallen gave full vent to her spleen at Tamaki, making the arrogant man cringe and hunch his shoulders in an effort to endure the tide of verbal invectives and chastisement being heaped upon him by his fellow redhead.
After a couple of minutes of browbeating Tamaki, Kallen calmed down and handed the note over to Ohgi, who winced after reading it.
"Jeez Tamaki, you are loud if he heard you across the entire damned deck!" Ohgi said as he shook his head in wonderment, causing Tamaki to pout childishly and let out a "Humph!" of displeasure.
"Call Inoue's group and have them meet us at the station." Ohgi told Sugiyama, who nodded and snapped his phone open and began dialling.
Ohgi turned to Kallen. "Kallen, you're our primary contact with this Zero character, so we'll leave most of the talking up to you, OK?"
Kallen smiled at him. "That's fine. Once we get into serious talking, I'll turn it over to you."
Tamaki snorted. "I say we find him and silence him, then go home."
"And that short-sightedness is why you're not the leader, Tamaki!" Kallen said contemptfully.
Tamaki was forced to throttle anything he would have retorted back at her, as the elevator shuddered to a halt and it's doors creaked open haltingly.
The walk to the nearby monorail station was relatively uneventful, only broken by the arrival of Minami and Inoue, and the occasional sulky whining by Tamaki.
Once they boarded the monorail, Kallen was a bit unnerved. All the passengers were sitting or standing perfectly still, unmoving save for breathing. Not talking, not fidgeting.
It was too weird for words.
Abruptly, the phone she had been holding loosely in her hand began vibrating. A quick glance confirmed that it was Zero and she quickly answered it.
"Hello?" She whispered. While the passengers were eerily non-responsive, she wouldn't fall into the assumption that they were of no threat to her.
"Thank you for coming, Q-1." The by now familiar voice of Zero responded to her voice almost immediately, "Now, face forward and look to your right. Tell me what you see."
Frowning, Kallen did so. She saw the Britannian Settlement, prompting a surge of loathing to rise up within her.
"I see the Britannian City. It was stolen from us, and built on our sacrifices." She said, keeping her voice low with considerable effort.
"And on the left?" Zero queried, his voice devoid of emotion and inflection.
"I see our city. Remnants of a desiccated city after the Britannians sucked it dry." Kallen replied, anger slightly colouring her voice at the sight of the Ghettos' crumbling buildings and assorted rubble left over from the Invasion.
"Good answer." Zero said, approval clear in his voice, causing Kallen to unconsciously grin with pride. This was not missed by Ohgi or Tamaki, who raised an eyebrow apiece at this sight.
"Make your way to the front of the train, your escorts as well." Zero directed, before hanging up.
Kallen looked at Ohgi and jerked her head at the door leading to the next compartment before advancing that way herself, swiftly followed by the rest of her group.
Walking along the aisle of the compartments, Kallen noted that every single person on the train seemed to be listless and unresponsive. She wondered what could cause such a thing, but quickly dismissed her musings as the last compartment was just ahead of her.
As the door hissed open, Kallen walked through the entrance - then halted as she beheld a solitary figure standing on the other side of the compartment.
The figure was slightly taller than herself by perhaps two inches. He -She?- wore a long black cloak with gold edging and a cape concealed the figure's head. The unknown figure, presumably Zero, was also facing away from them, a fact that irritated Tamaki once he entered.
"Hey! Turn around and face us!" He yelled indignantly at the caped figure, shaking his fist in his fit of pique. Kallen rolled her eyes. What was the point of shaking his fist at a person who could not even see it?
"Shut up, Tamaki!" She snapped at the impulsive man.
"But-"
"I said, shut up!"
Tamaki closed his mouth with an audible click as her second admonishment was accompanied with one of her glares that, to be frank, scared the living hell out of him. No way was he going to risk Kallen losing her temper with him. The last time that had happened, Tamaki had received a black eye and a slight concussion from being TKO'd.
Just then, the train entered a tunnel, plunging them into semi-darkness. And it was then that the cloaked figure whirled around to face them.
'Looks like Zero has a flair for the dramatic.' Kallen thought wryly. She immediately began examining the figure before her.
The cape/cloak she had noted earlier was wrapped around him -definitely a male, she absently noted- and concealed most of his body. His legs were clad in a dark purple bodysuit that Kallen could only presume covered most of his body. It was his head that made Kallen raise an eyebrow in puzzlement.
His head was concealed behind a black and indigo mask that had five spikes on the sides and rear. A golden bird-like symbol was emblazoned on the chin area of the mask. At his neck was an elegantly tied white cravat.
All in all, Zero exuded a more than slightly intimidating aura. Kallen concluded that she would have to be very cautious when dealing with him as there were too many unknowns about him.
"Welcome, Resistance Fighters." The masked man spoke, his voice blurred and unrecognisable by the voice modulator that was apparently built into his helmet, "I am Zero."
"You were the one behind the ceasefire at Shinjuku?" Ohgi questioned, making Kallen roll her eyes. He had completely forgotten his own order!
"I was."
"Did you also kill Clovis?" Inoue interjected.
"I did not pull the trigger myself, but his death was at my order, yes." Zero replied, "And no, Suzaku Kururugi was not the triggerman."
Kallen silenced any other questions from her group with a glare before stepping forward. "Zero, I am Kallen Kōzuki. Before we begin, I would like to thank you for 'arranging' the ceasefire. We would have been dead if you had not."
Zero inclined his head towards her. "As I told you before, Ms. Kōzuki, I will not allow innocents to suffer at the hands of a power mad maniac. Saving your lives, as fortuitous as it may have been, was merely incidental to preventing the deaths of the remaining civilians in Shinjuku."
Unfortunately, the eternal idiot called Tamaki decided to butt into the conversation.
"Take of your mask and show us your face!" he sneered, "We cant trust you otherwise!"
Zero's faceless mask turned to regard the redheaded man. Although no face could be seen, Zero had the air of someone who was smiling.
"I was wondering when you would speak up, Shinichiro." Zero remarked.
"Don't use my first name!" Tamaki bleated, "And use honorifics damn it!"
"Now Shinichiro," Zero said placidly, "'Who' is only the form following that of 'What' and what I am is a man in a mask."
"We can see that." Sugiyama remarked dryly.
"Of course you can, I am not casting doubts on your powers of sight." Zero said. "I am merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is."
Tamaki's face rapidly turned puce at the obvious talking-to-a-young-child tone Zero had taken whilst his head was pointed at Tamaki in particular.
Kallen, while mentally laughing her head off at the fury present on Tamaki's face, maintained a neutral expression as she spoke over anything Tamaki might say. "A good point. I think that Zero has earned his privacy for leading us to victory over a battalion of Knightmares, gifting us with state of the art Knightmare frames, preventing a massacre of the inhabitants of Shinjuku that refused to evacuate and orchestrating the death of the instigator of the aforementioned debacle. Wouldn't you all agree?"
Mutters of agreement came from the rest of her companions essentially sealed any hope Tamaki might have had of unmasking the man before him and, as he so often did, he reacted without thinking and charged Zero with a cry of anger and frustration.
"Impulsive aren't we?" Zero remarked as the angry man drew close to him. With a snarl, Tamaki drew his fist back and punched at Zero….
….only to miss the black clad man completely. Tamaki blinked in surprise. That wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to punch the masked guy and then beat the crap out of him, because he, Shinichiro Tamaki, was just that awesome.
Instead, the masked guy had seemed to blur and vanish from his sight and now Tamaki was stumbling forward, trying to regain his balance, due to his punch leaving him overextended. Once he managed to get himself under control, he looked around for his target -then froze when he spotted him.
Zero stood two steps to the right of his former position, his cloak as unruffled as it had been before Tamaki's charge and his head cocked to the side as if examining the redheaded man before him like a biology class dissection experiment.
"You overextended yourself on that punch." Zero commented, "I would guess that any martial arts training you've had has been either entirely self-taught or somewhat lacking in the theory-to-practical-applications area."
"It's been the former." Yoshida said.
"Shut up!" Tamaki yelled as he directed another punch at Zero, which was dodged with the same ease as the first.
"Damn you, stay still!" the angry man yelled at Zero.
"What kind of idiot would actually stay still when he's being attacked?" Zero replied derisively.
"Tamaki!" Ohgi shouted, a mix of anger, frustration and resignation in his voice, "Stop this at once!"
"Like hell!" Tamaki shouted as he charged recklessly at the masked man once again, his arm drawn back for another strong punch.
"Give it up." Zero told him coldly as he stood in his original position, "You are completely out of your league. I could defeat you with the greatest of ease should I wish to."
"BRING IT!" Tamaki howled as he swung his fist at his opponent. A sigh of resignation could be discerned from the masked man.
"As you wish." Zero remarked. He did not, however, alter his stance. He merely brought his arms out from under his cloak and held them at the ready. When Tamaki's third punch drew near, Zero reacted with lightning reflexes and caught the incoming blow with a single hand.
Tamaki gaped at what Zero had done. He had caught his punch! No-one had done that before! Except Naoto, but he didn't count, 'cause he was Naoto!
"There are twenty-seven bones in each hand." Zero remarked idly, "And the interesting thing about the arm's bones in general is that if any of the bones are broken, the entirety of the arm has to be immobilised in order for the bone to heal, due to them being interconnected to such a high degree. I would imagine the same could be said for the feet as well."
As he had been speaking, Zero had grasped Tamaki's hand and gradually increased the strength of his grip, until the redheaded man was howling in pain.
"I trust-" Zero said, his tone becoming dark and heavy with emphasis, "-that such a thing will not have to happen in order to cease your attacks upon my person?"
"OK, OK, I get it, just let my hand go already!" Tamaki yelped.
"Of course." Zero said, his voice sounding more amicable, and he let go of the hand he held captive.
Tamaki staggered back, cradling his abused appendage and glowering at Zero. He felt a hand land on his shoulder and looked up into Ohgi's furious eyes.
The hot-headed man gulped. 'I am so not looking forward to when we leave.'
"Tamaki, stand back and do not say so much as a word unless I tell you to." Ohgi said, his voice full of a quiet authority that he seldom used.
"But-" Tamaki started to protest.
"Now!" Ohgi ordered, his eyes flashing dangerously. Sagging in defeat, Tamaki slumped to the back of the group, still cradling his hand.
Turning to face Zero, Ohgi bowed to him. "Zero, I apologise for the actions of Tamaki. They were uncalled for."
Zero shook his head. "Tamaki clearly acted without your approval and consent. It would be foolish to blame you for his foolhardy behaviour."
Ohgi stood up straight. "Thank you for your understanding."
Zero waved a gloved hand in dismissal. "It's of no concern. Shall we get down to business now?"
Ohgi nodded. "Yes, that would be a good idea."
Zero spread his arms, indicating both the Britannian side and the Japanese side. "Tell me….are you all aware of the difference between Britannians and Japanese? The Settlement and the Ghetto…can you fully grasp the two?"
"Is this guy for real?" Sugiyama muttered incredulously.
"We are." Ohgi replied, "The gulf between us and them is vast. It is why we resist them."
"No." Zero said, letting his arms fall to his side and be covered by his cloak again, "Britannia will not fall to terrorism."
Ohgi looked stunned. "Fall?"
"I told you, we are the Resistance, not terrorists!" Kallen railed at Zero.
"Indeed you did." Zero replied to Kallen courteously, "But, no offence intended, stealing poison gas is most definitely a terrorist act. Not only for the moral reasons, but for the fact that anyone having possession of poison gas is in violation of international law, a law that even Britannia hasn't dared to break."
"We didn't know that it was poison gas until the day before the raid." Kallen protested.
"You should have confirmed what it was before you laid any plans to steal anything." Zero reprimanded her. "As it is, I was fortunate to come across the van with the gas canister. I disposed of it."
"WHAT!?" The entire group yelped, including Tamaki.
"It had to be done." Zero stated implacably. "What would have happened if a stray round pierced the capsule and released the gas?"
Kallen froze, the blood draining from her face. "Shinjuku would have become a necropolis." She whispered in horror at the revelation.
"Precisely." Zero nodded at Kallen. "I got one of my…associates…to remove the truck from immediate sight and then removed it full after the battle."
"Wait, what happened to Nagata?" Kallen asked, somewhat recovered from her shock.
"The man in the cab?" Zero queried. When Kallen nodded, Zero withdrew a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Ohgi. "This paper has the location of an unmarked grave….the last resting place of your friend."
The members of the Resistance Cell looked stricken at this news. "How'd he die?" Inoue asked.
"The cab exploded." Zero replied.
"He must have been discovered by Britannian soldiers." Yoshida opined.
"By members of Clovis' Royal Guard no less." Zero informed them, "They were taken by surprise and all perished in the blast."
"Well, at least he took some of the bastards with him when he went." Ohgi sighed, "he would have been happy with that."
"Anyway," Zero said, "Terrorism is little better than childish nuisance to Britannia. Know your enemy. It is not people, but Britannia itself! If war you must wage, wage it not on the innocent!"
"That's easy to say, but hard to act out in reality." Inoue pointed out, her eyes flashing with restrained anger.
"Yeah! Why should we trust you? Behind that mask you could be anybody" Tamaki sneered, only to flinch back as he became on the receiving end of the glares of both Kallen and Ohgi.
"While I again apologise for Tamaki speaking out of turn, I am forced to admit that he has a point." Ohgi said reluctantly. "Will you remove your mask?"
Zero raised a hand and touched his mask. "Very well…I shall show you."
The Resistance fighters looked surprised.
"But rather than my face, I will show you my power." Zero continued, "Tomorrow, Suzaku Kururugi is being transported amid much hullabaloo and fanfare to his trial. If I can accomplish that which you believe impossible, will I have earned your trust?"
Ohgi and Kallen looked taken aback. "Are you crazy?" Kallen asked, "The Purebloods will be there in force! The acting-Viceroy could be there for all you know!"
"I'm quite certain people will call me crazy." Zero replied with a small shrug, "But will you trust me if I effect the freedom of Suzaku Kururugi? I require an answer."
Ohgi looked at the rest of his group to gauge their opinions, then turned back to Zero and nodded. "Should you get Kururugi out of the hands of the Britannians without innocent casualties, we will trust you." He told the masked man.
"Excellent." the masked man almost purred as the train came to a halt at a station. "I believe that this is your stop, but I require Ohgi and Ms Kōzuki to remain behind momentarily."
The rest of the group grumbled at this but left at a walk, occasionally looking over their shoulders at Zero and their two leaders.
"What did you need to discuss with us?" Kallen asked, suspicion in her voice.
"Naoto Kōzuki." Zero replied, causing Ohgi and Kallen to jerk slightly in surprise.
"Naoto? But he's…." Ohgi trailed off.
"Yes, he is dead." Zero said softly, "But I began investigating his ultimate fate once Ms Kōzuki here told me Clovis had, and I quote 'ordered his death and disposed of his body as if it were trash.'"
Kallen froze. "W-What did you find out?"
Zero took something out of his pocket and passed it to Kallen. It was a small data card, no bigger than Ohgi's thumb. The redheaded young woman raised a shaky eyebrow at Zero.
"That data card contains details on your brother's…interrogation…and the location of his body as of yesterday." Zero told her, "It is due to be shipped back to the Britannian Homeland in a weeks time, at the bequest of your father, Earl Stadtfelt. I would advise that you not watch the interrogation."
"I-But, How did you get this?" Kallen sputtered, "And how did my father find out about Onii-sama's death?"
"To answer your second question first, I believe your father was aware of the activities of both yourself and your brother and had placed or bought people in key positions to inform him if one or both of you were captured." Zero told a startled Kallen and Ohgi. "Unfortunately, he was not informed of your brother's capture until after his death, so there was little he could do but demand his son's body be returned to him for burial."
"I…see." Ohgi said softly. "Come to think of it, Naoto did say he was sure that the Earl knew he was involved in the Resistance. He didn't say how he knew though."
"It is up to you what you do with the information I have given you, but I again stress that you shouldn't watch the interrogation. Believe me, watching a family member die is agonising to have to endure." Zero said sadly. Kallen felt a lump in her throat as she somehow sensed he had been forced to do so in his past.
"Who?" she asked softly. Zero seemed to regard her for a moment before he answered.
"My mother. She was gunned down from behind." He replied so quietly she could barely hear him.
"I'm sorry." She whispered.
"Thank you. I must be going now. If any of you wish to help me with my plan, please contact me before midnight tonight." Zero said as he walked off, his cape billowing behind him until he was swallowed by the shadows and could be seen no more.
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Next Chapter: Zero Debut
Author's Note: AAAND that's a wrap. Whew! This is my longest Chapter to date and it's got me concerned I put too much into it. Reviews please!
On a lighter note, the poll is closed and the winner, by a grand total of 97 votes, is Zero no Tsukaima (Familiar of Zero): Saito the Onmyoji. I thank everyone who voted and now pose an additional question for you all.
I currently have the first chapter of ZnT:SO written up. Do you want me to upload it or should I wait until I have finished The Prepared Rebellion before I do?
See you on the 30th!