Chapter 6: "Initiation" IV – The False Classmate

Inside the Student Council room at Ashford Academy, Milly Ashford was not happy with Lelouch dozing off while everyone else was working hard on some urgent budgetary matters. "Wake up Lelouch!" Milly hit Lelouch's head with a white paper roll, "I know you were sleeping. Your hands stopped moving."

"Well, you don't have to beat me up over it, do you?" Lelouch replied with a slight frustrated tone.

Rivalz Cardemonde and Shirley Fenette chimed in the discussion while Milly was trying to have her minions to concentrate on working on the budget to ensure that there would be some money left for the school clubs and for the Student Council to organize school activities. Nina Einstein was sitting at a standalone desk not far away and was working on some documents. Rivalz suggested that Milly should have told the school clubs about the lack of funding after the deadline so that the student council didn't need to work on it at all, to which Lelouch immediately agreed.

"GUTS!" Milly suddenly shouted and everyone else was stunned.

"Are you trying that guts spell again?" Rivalz asked.

"I really don't think that your magic's gonna do a whole lot," was Lelouch's response to Milly's "spell".

Shirley wasn't happy that Lelouch was such a letdown and decided to be "charmed" by the "spell", "Actually, it's got me going, Madam President."

However Milly was looking at something else. "You're a 10. From what I've seen in the girls' bathroom anyway, you've been filling out in all the right places, huh." A sly smirk crept up Milly's face. Rivalz stared at Shirley's womanly parts in a dirty way as well.

Shirley's face went red. "What, what are you talking about, you perv?"

"Hahaha! Those were the good old times!" the present day Milly laughs as she sees her past-self making fun of Shirley. She really misses those days - she now has to remain upright and be professional all the time when working at the TV station.

"Geez! Madam President, you are really a dirty old man on the inside, aren't you?" the present day Shirley doesn't fare much better than her past self, her face goes red once again upon seeing how she was being teased by the she-devil of Ashford Academy.

Rivalz is in a more precarious situation. On the one hand, he is so tempted to take a good look at Shirley's figure once again; on the other hand, he can't do that when so many other people, especially a number of them being dignitaries, are present to catch him doing so red-handed. The angel Rivalz and devil Rivalz are fighting hard on this mental tug-o-war.

"What were Lady Ashford and Ms Fenette talking about?" Tianzi, being the innocent girl she is, doesn't understand the point and inquires her wiser and more matured Japanese friend.

"Don't worry, Tianzi, it won't be a problem for you until much later," Kaguya carefully words her answer to avoid any awkwardness.

Tamaki turns his head and looks at Tianzi. "Little girl, that blondie was saying that…"

"Erk hm!" Kallen immediately steps in to cut off Tamaki's attempt to corrupt the young Chinese leader, "Your Majesty, please ignore that idiot. Kaguya-sama is right, you don't have to worry about what Milly had said there; it was just some normal chit-chatting between girls in high school."

"Hey! I am not an idiot!" Tamaki exclaims, but no one pays heed to him.

"Ah… I wish I can go to school one day as well. It seems so much fun!" Tianzi says.

Sometime after the events at the Student Council room, Lelouch was walking into his classroom when he saw Kallen being surrounded by several other girls. Lelouch suddenly realized that the red-haired girl, while looked sickly and had a different hairstyle, was the same terrorist girl Lelouch saw inside the lorry that carried the "poison gas" container the other day. Lelouch went back to his seat while kept staring at her with keen eyes.

"What's up, buddy? See something you like?" Rivalz suddenly appeared behind Lelouch, giving an "I understand you, bro" look as he continued, "You've got a thing for her, don't ya?"

However, Lelouch seemed totally unfazed at Rivalz' comment, simply remarking that it was a rare event to see Kallen in class as she had never attended any class since the start of the current school term.

Rivalz narrowed his eyes and continued, "Kallen Stadtfeld. They say she's sick or something, and she barely showed up at school last year either. Still, her grades are at the top of the class. She's also a member of the Stadtfeld family, which means she's well-bred and rolling in money. Man, you sure know how to pick 'em."

Shirley gazed at Lelouch as the boys were talking about Kallen.

"Oh… how cute! Shirley you are so into your dear Lulu!" Milly laughs as she looks at the embarrassed Shirley, who doesn't say anything but to pull her red face down into her arms and knees.

"…recorded." Anya dutifully takes a photo of the embarrassed Shirley.

"Well, Rivalz my friend, it seems you have completely misjudged Kallen's character!" Gino grins as he points out how Rivalz' assessment of Kallen was so off from the truth.

"I didn't know!" Rivalz retorts, "Who would have thought a sickly girl would have been a member of the Black Knights? Man, she has put up a good act!" Rivalz turns and looks at the present Kallen, still can't believe how Kallen has fooled everyone back then.

"Well, that's the point of it, to hide my identity as a member of the Black Knights," Kallen looks back to Rivalz with a smirk.

Rakshata looks at the "Ashford group" chatting about all the teenage lovey-dovey stuff with a playful glance, but the glance sudden turns into a thoughtful one, 'While you were all thinking about things spawned by your raging teenage hormones, have you noticed how Lelouch paid no mind to those things at all? In that regard, he was so similar to the Earl of Pudding, the only difference being that while the Earl is interested in science only, Lelouch was all about his own goals.'

The screen then showed Kallen having lunch with her friends on the lawn. A bee suddenly kept pursuing Kallen while her friends all screamed and ran away from it. Kallen retreated to behind the bush, ensuring that no one could see her before resuming her real character and hand-chopped the pursuing bee.

"God, I hate this! I'm sick of acting like a freaking invalid!" Kallen was irritated about having to put up her act in school, regretting her choice of fake persona as she tried to vent out her anger by taking a good bite on her sandwich. Suddenly, she noticed a raven-haired male student was staring at her with a pair of cold and calculating violet eyes. 'Crap, he saw me…' She quickly resumed her sickly persona and asked in a meek voice, "Can… can I help you or something?"

"Answer my questions," Lelouch fired up his Geass and took control of Kallen.

"Lelouch, you!..." Kallen can't believe her eyes. So Lelouch did use his Geass on her? She is relieved that the order was not making her into his slave or to do some crazy things, but the fact that he had used his mind-twisting power on her is still an uneasy revelation to red-haired beauty.

Ohgi frowns. 'Lelouch, I gave you the benefit of doubt, but you…'

Tamaki, being much more tactless, simply yells on spot, "Ha! I knew the guy was a fraud! I have warned everyone at the very start but no one paid any attention to what I said!"

Kaguya also bites her lips, but says nothing. 'Zero-sama… did you never trust us as your comrades?' She closes her palms and slowly balls them into fists.

"Were you the one piloting the Glasgow in Shinjuku?" Lelouch started questioning Kallen.

"Yes," Kallen answered in a monotone that neither her original persona nor her sick persona would adopt.

"Why terrorism?" Lelouch pursued.

"Because I'm Japanese, though technically I'm half Britannian." Kallen replied.

Lelouch was surprised by her answer. "Half-blood? But why go so far?"

Lelouch asked a few more questions before he was satisfied and released Kallen from his Geass. Kallen regained her sense and hastily put her sickly girl act back and asked meekly, "Um, did you want something?"

Lelouch replied nonchalantly as he turned around and walked away, "No, I got what I wanted already." He then realized that it might be better to actually have Kallen not to reveal to anyone about her role played in Shinjuku, and so he turned to Kallen again, firing up his Geass and ordered, "Don't tell anyone about Shinjuku."

However, the Geass didn't work this time around. "Huh? What do you mean, about Shinjuku?" Kallen asked as she frowned at what Lelouch had just said, "Why would you say that?"

Lelouch was surprised, and quickly issued another order in a threatening tone, "Go back to class."

That didn't work either. Kallen became wary, stepping a step forward. "As soon as I get an answer to my question, I will," she demanded.

Lelouch mused in surprise. 'It's not working? What's going on here?'

"So apparently His Majesty's Geass only allowed him to issue one absolute order per person," Lloyd deduces as he observes the interaction between Kallen and Lelouch on the screen.

"That does align with the depiction on the effect of his Geass on screen," Rakshata joins in, "remember how every time the screen shows that when someone got cast with Lelouch's Geass, there is a twist in the target's neural network? I think that matches with the Earl of Pudding's observation that Lelouch's Geass could twist one's mind once only."

"Still, that's a dangerous and abhorrent power to possess," Chiba chimes in, "to think that he was our leader… it makes me feel sick," she spats.

"That's right!" Tamaki yells again, seeking to make the focus to be his important self, "What a damned power!" Sadly, most people choose to ignore him altogether and says nothing.

It was already night time and Lelouch still hadn't got back to his room. A Japanese maid was shown sitting opposite to the wheelchair-bound Nunnally, who was folding a paper crane while wondering if Lelouch would be late again to get home tonight. Nunnally told the maid that she would wait for her brother to have dinner together because they have made the promise. The maid finished folding the paper crane and handed it to Nunnally.

The blind girl took the paper crane and touched it in order to determine what it was. "Oh, a bird?" she asked the maid before praising the maid's work. "Amazing! The Japanese are so skillful." The maid gave a smile to thank Nunnally's praise. Suddenly, Nunnally slightly turned her face towards the door.

"Lady Nunnally?" the maid asked as she also turned her head towards the door. It then opened, and Lelouch walked through the door, "I'm sorry I'm late."

"Hi, Big Brother! Welcome home." Nunnally greeted Lelouch with an innocent smile.

"Yes, welcome home, Master Lelouch." The maid also greeted.

"No place like it, Sayoko. Right, Nunnally?" unlike his cold behaviour towards others, Lelouch displayed a genuine smile as he greeted his younger sister and her maid, Sayako Shinozaki.

"Nunnally, you could tell that Lelouch was getting back home from that faraway?" Cornelia asks, apparently impressed by Nunnally's exceptionally strong perception. Not even a veteran warrior like herself could do something like that!

"Yes Big Sister, I have sort of developed the ability to sense the slightest sound or movement after I couldn't see things anymore," Nunnally answers.

"That was impressive, Your Majesty," Guilford praises, "it would be a very useful skill to have on the battlefield."

"He finally smiled!" Tianzi suddenly chimes in, and everyone looks at her with a slight tint of surprise before the young Chinese girl continues, "you know, he hasn't smiled at all until just now. I thought he didn't know how to smile!"

Nunnally takes in Tianzi's comment. 'I knew Big Brother was always tense and worried about something, but being able to see that with my own eyes, it becomes even more painful to actually see that Big Brother was never happy about anything besides seeing me… had you not enjoyed your time with our friends in Ashford Academy, Big Brother?' she muses, slightly downcast to learn that her brother was never happy with his life.

Zero is quick to notice the change of mood of the Britannian Empress, and he taps her shoulder lightly while giving her shoulder a slight squeeze. Nunnally gives a silent thank-you to Zero, knowing that he is trying to make her feel better. 'That's right… I have to stay strong and protect this new world Big Brother has left to me,' she muses.

The scene switched to a lab facility, in which several white straightjackets were shown hanging on the wall. It turns out that Bartley was discussing the way forward with a group of lab researchers upon the demise of Prince Clovis.

"As you all know full well, the project was a complete failure," the bald General said, "Therefore this research division is being gutted."

"Wha…? But–!" the researchers couldn't believe the news.

Bartley cut off the researchers as he continued, "I've set up a place in Narita for you. Move everything out there. While we may have no memory of it, the fact remains that other staff officers and I left Prince Clovis alone. I'm going to be called out on the carpet for this back at home. When that happens, should His Majesty learn that this experiment has got on without his knowledge, I…"

The lab researchers knew they have no other choice. "Understood, sir. We'll start preparing immediately."

As they spoke, it was shown that the lab contained several containers similar to the one that was used to contain C.C. in the lorry, as well as several lab reports on the table, apparently written based on the experiments performed on C.C., who was bound to a chair with her head covered by a brain scanner. Another photo was also shown, but it was a monochromatic one, showing a young girl that looked like C.C. escaping from a battlefield with war trenches.

The audience is stunned. That was an old photo no doubt, so how come the girl in that photo looked so much like C.C.? C.C. looked as young as she was in that old photo when some members of the audience last saw her just a little bit less than a year ago!

"Was that someone who was related to C.C.?" Tohdoh offers his guess.

"No, that's Lady C.C.," surprisingly, it is Cecile that voices out.

"How can you tell?" Chiba is curious.

"You can tell from her eyes," Cecile reasons, "people may be able to change their appearance or even their behaviour, just as how Lady Kouzuki had shown us earlier when she was hiding her identity at Ashford. However, one can still tell from one's eyes, the 'window to the soul', on whether someone was pretending to be another person. That deadpan gaze was a signature feature of Lady C.C., and I don't think there is anyone who can replicate that so perfectly."

"Wait, trench warfare was a relic of the past already. If that girl in the old photo was indeed C.C., how would it be possible that she hadn't aged a bit?" Guilford is once again perplexed by how C.C. appeared to have defied logic here and there, first having lived through a deadly gunshot that shot through her head, and then seemingly not aging throughout the years.

As the audience is still pondering whether it was indeed C.C. in that old photo, the scene cuts back to Nunnally and Lelouch, where Lelouch was seen cutting the steak into smaller pieces for his blind younger sister as they were chatting about the day.

"Sayoko was just teaching me about the art of origami," Nunnally said happily, "Fold a piece of paper in the correct way, and you can make birds, boats, almost anything." Nunnally then spooned some soup to drink, but quite a bit of it escaped her mouth and slid down her chin.

"Easy there. You don't have to tell me everything all at once, you know? It's not like I'm going anywhere," Lelouch smiled as he picked up a handkerchief and wiped away the overflowing soup from Nunnally's chin. Nunnally gave an appreciative smile. "Thank you, Big Brother."

"You are welcome," Lelouch showed another rarely seen genuine smile of his to Nunnally, but it was then turned into a perplexed expression as Nunnally apparently felt that her Big Brother was somewhat scary last night.

"Did I? Sorry. I just have a lot on my mind, is all," Lelouch looked away, narrowing his eyes.

Sensing Lelouch's uneasiness and wanting to switch the mood of the conversation, Nunnally quickly told Lelouch about a Japanese folklore she had heard from Sayako, which involved getting a wish come true after having folded a thousand paper cranes. Lelouch told his sister he didn't really have a wish, but he would like to know if Nunnally had any wish.

Nunnally thought for a short while. "I wish the world to be a gentler place," she answered.

"When the day finally comes that you can see again, I'm sure that it will be."

"Really?"

"Of course! I promise you," Lelouch said, but immediately thought to himself, 'The truth is that there are very few paths our future can take. The Ashford family is sheltering us for now, but how long can that last? We'll end up being political tools, or casualty of imperial ambition. I have to build a world where Nunnally can at least find happiness.' "Hmm?" Lelouch was taken by surprise when Nunnally held his pinky with hers, taking the raven-haired boy from his deep thought.

"Sayoko taught me this the other day. It's called a Japanese promise," Nunnally explained to Lelouch as she sang a song with her lovely voice, "Cross my heart, hope to die, eat a thousand needles, if I lie. Pinky promise song."

"Well that's scary. I may have to eat a thousand needles someday," Lelouch said in a jolly tone.

"That's right. So I'd better not catch you telling lies, okay?" Nunnally smiles playfully.

'We sheltered Lelouch and Her Majesty?' once again, Milly's own recollection does not align with what is being shown on the screen. 'Wait… Lelouch was from the Imperial Family, and Her Majesty is of course from the Imperial Family as well, so obviously they were siblings… yet I recall it was Rolo who was living with Lelouch that whole time?'

Her blue-haired friend is kind enough to spell out her thought. "Hold on, it should be Rolo who was living with Lelouch, right? I swear, what had just been shown on screen was not what I recall from my memory!" Rivalz exclaims. "Something is wrong!"

"What are you talking about?" Cornelia doesn't understand what his brother's friend is talking about. "Lelouch and Nunnally are full-blooded siblings, of course they would have lived together. And who is that 'Rolo' person you were speaking of?"

"Rolo, Lelouch's younger brother!" Rivalz explains, "Though we have never seen him again after the Second Assault on Tokyo Settlement."

"I don't follow," Cornelia replies, "as far as I can recall, I don't have a brother named Rolo."

Shirley, who has been relieved from the effect of Emperor Charles' Geass, knows exactly why Milly and Rivalz don't remember what have just been shown on the screen. She decides to jump in. "Madam President, Rivalz, the truth is that… is that your memories have been altered!"

"What?" Milly and Rivalz both look at Shirley perplexedly.

"Uhm, how should I explain that… we…" Shirley stutters as she is trying to put her words together. But alas, the thing about Geass is so complicated, she doesn't know where to start.

"Well, as mentioned a few times before, everything will be revealed in due course," Zero decides to jump in to help Shirley, "Rest assured that there will be an explanation to whatever you find strange in your memory. I suggest we move on."

"Wait, does that mean you know what happened to us?" Rivalz keeps pressing Zero, but is stopped by Milly.

"Alright, we will trust your words, Zero," Milly responds, knowing that she will get the answer eventually. However, she can't help but think, 'Lelouch, did you use that power to alter our memories? If so, why did you do that?'

Cornelia, on the other hand, focuses her attention on the interaction between Lelouch and Nunnally. 'It seems Lelouch had devoted himself entirely into taking care of Nunnally to the point where he could not find happiness from all other aspects of his life, not even when he was with his friends. How awful that father had sent them to a foreign land and let them suffered like that!' Cornelia once again curses what her father had done unto her favourite half-siblings. Well, not so much for Lelouch now, but definitely for Nunnally.

Meanwhile, Kallen was speaking on the phone with Ohgi. Kallen thought her school life was stifling and wanted to go back full time to the resistance movement, but Ohgi believed it was their former leader and Kallen's deceased elder brother Naoto's wish to see Kallen going back to school. A photo showing Naoto, Kallen and Ohgi sitting next to a river was shown on the screen, with all three genuinely smiling, apparently enjoying their field trip back then.

However, Kallen was dissatisfied with how things were going for her, and wanted to figure out whether Lelouch was related to the voice in Shinjuku. Back in class, as Lelouch sat down after having answered a question, both of them mused about whether to eliminate the other should the other find out about their secrets as "the voice"/terrorist.

"You two were basically thinking the same thing! That just showed how you two were meant to be together!" Milly laughs and winks at Kallen, focusing on the two's identical train of thought while ignoring what exactly they were thinking about.

"Hey, it's not like that!" Kallen is embarrassed by Milly's teasing, before she realized Shirley is shooting her a jealous gaze. 'God, I guess Milly would never stop teasing me and Lelouch in front of Shirley… damnit, if only her TV fans knew the devil that resides inside her mind!...'

"Well, putting aside the whole 'I need to eliminate you' thing, I find your smile on that photo much better than your smile while at school," Gino sudden chimes in, typical of his character.

"Huh? You mean that photo of me with Ohgi and onii-chan?" Kallen is confused.

"Yeah, that. That smile is a lot more genuine than what you had put up in school, well, at least those smiles you'd put up as shown on the screen just now," Gino continues, "a lot warmer. And attractive."

"Those were the good old times," Ohgi joins in the conversation, "Naoto and I still had to worry about things such as fighting against Britannia, but we were able to take breaks every now and then to enjoy some quality time with family and friends. Kallen wasn't part of the resistance back then, so apparently she wasn't being burdened by all the heavy responsibilities."

Guilford silently compares Kallen's genuine smile on the photo with that of his liege. 'Her Highness also had those genuine smile whenever she was spending time with Princess Euphemia. How the wars waged by Britannia had robbed the genuine smiles from both Her Highness and Lady Kouzuki. Now that we have finally attained world peace, I hope Her Highness would once again be able to find true joy with Her Majesty.'

Meanwhile, as Bartley was escorting the remains of Prince Clovis back to the Homeland, the purist faction had initiated a coup against the disgraced general, with Jeremiah leading it. Jeremiah tore off the cover of the transport carrying Clovis' dead body.

"I hope you can see how determined we are now!" Jeremiah sneered at the aghast Bartley.

"But I've already told you!" Bartley exclaimed, trying to explain to the purist faction's leader, "Just ask the others! They'll testify that… !" However, it didn't work.

"That you don't remember? Still cling to that ridiculous excuse?" Jeremiah hissed, "Ducking the blame? You're pathetic! I shall not allow you to remain at His Highness' side for another minute!"

"Ironically, after the 'Orange' incident, that was the exact same reason Orange gave us to defend himself from his blunder to let Zero got away with Kururugi," Guilford comments.

"If that's the case, then I think it is safe to assume that what Jeremiah did back then was a result of Lelouch's Geass," Cornelia adds in, "but that would mean Lelouch had basically destroyed Jeremiah's career. Why would Gottwald swear his loyalty to Lelouch then?"

"Perhaps Lelouch cast his Geass on Orange to force him to be loyal?" Guilford deduces.

"That was what I thought as well, but as we have just seen previously, Lelouch could only cast Geass on someone once. If Lelouch had indeed forced Jeremiah to be absolutely loyal to him, then wouldn't it make much more sense for Lelouch to have Jeremiah to betray us during the battle at Narita?" Cornelia reasons, "From what I recall from that battle though, Jeremiah didn't betray us; quite to the contrary, he fought against the Black Knights vehemently and was crushed by the Guren, according to Lady Ohgi's report after the battle."

"Indeed… I guess we just have to watch on to see what exactly happened then," Guilford responds.

Back at Ashford Academy, Lelouch took Kallen to the Student Council club house, which was opulently decorated and unnecessarily large. Apparently, the club house was built as a ballroom for hosting various special occasions.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Kallen asked. However, before Lelouch could respond, he was cut off by Shirley's voice. It seemed that she and Rivalz were helping Nina to find something related to her research. Suddenly, the gate of the club house opened automatically. Milly appeared, wearing a green apron and pushing a large cart of food into the club house.

"Were you able to find it? I finished up on my end, shall we dig in?" Milly spoke as she was pushing the cart into the club house area. Both Rivalz and Shirley were impressed by the delicious food they saw on the cart, apparently prepared by Milly herself.

"Um, what is all of this?" Lelouch was confused.

"Lelouch, don't you know? I thought that's why you brought her here," Milly answered as she was putting the different dishes of food onto the tables, "We're inducting Kallen into the student council. It was my grandfather's idea, actually."

"The principal's?"

"He thought it to be the best option available, with her poor health she'd have a harder time with regular club activities," Milly explained as she was working on the arrangement of the dishes on the tables, and then she turned her head to Kallen, "Oh, I'm Milly, the president of the student council. Pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, thank you," Kallen was surprised, but quickly put on her sickly mask and greeted meekly, "the pleasure's all mine."

Shirley, Nina and Rivalz all rushed to Kallen to introduce themselves and welcome Kallen to join the student council. As they were exchanging pleasantries, a motor sound approached the group; it was Nunnally in her wheelchair, holding a stack of pizza and an assortment of cake.

"Shirley, I'm sorry but do you think you could set these on the table for me?" Nunnally asked the cheerful orange-haired girl.

"Oh, sure, thanks, Nunna!" Shirley happily obliged.

Kallen was surprised to see Nunnally; she would never have thought that she would see a blind and crippled Britannian one day. Seeing her confusion, Milly explained to Kallen, "This is Lelouch's younger sister."

Nunnally explained to Kallen that she was still not an official member of the student council because she was in the middle school section, but Rivalz assured Nunnally that she was considered to be an honorary member of the student council. Nunnally turned and faced Kallen again with a smile, "Hello there, it's a pleasure to meet you, Kallen."

At that instant, Kallen dropped her usual tensed expression whenever she put on the act, and instead greeted Nunnally back with a genuine smile, "Thank you. You as well."

"To think that we Japanese had suffered all this time when you Britannian students were having such lavish school life... disgraceful." Chiba sneers at the sheer gaudiness of the club house while thinking about all the sufferings her fellow countrymen have to endure in the ghettos.

"Err…" Shirley, being the kind-hearted girl she is, wants to respond to that but can't find the right words.

Cornelia jumps in to defend the Britannian teenagers. "Don't blame the students, Mrs Tohdoh. They had nothing to do with how things were run back then. If you really need to find someone to blame, then blame the Britannian Government led by my father."

Chiba is about to explode and tirade against Cornelia about her iron fist rule during her tenure as the Viceroy of Area 11, but Tohdoh holds his wife's hand and stops her from doing that. "Her Highness is right, Nagisa. Those young people over there were just normal citizens that had no say in how the country was ran back then. Also, there is no point to stir up heated discussions again about the past when we have all moved on towards a better future." Chiba growls but says nothing more.

"Hey Prez," Rivalz whispers to Milly, "I still find it strange that I don't remember Her Majesty being part of the student council. It should have been Rolo!"

Milly simply closes her eyes and shakes her head. "Let's trust Zero and keep watching the video footage to find out the truth behind all the confusion about Rolo," she whispers back.

The screen suddenly turns to show the Tokyo Settlement again, and a female voice came in. "We interrupt this broadcast with breaking news. Viceroy Clovis has passed away! Viceroy Clovis has passed away!" the broadcaster said twice before she continued, "Acting Viceroy Jeremiah Gottwald is holding a press conference at the state broadcast room right now."

The camera moved to Jeremiah, who was standing behind a podium, with Villetta and other military officers, apparently all members of the purist faction, standing on his two sides. "Prince Clovis has been taken from us! He fought for peace and justice against the terrorists," Jeremiah said in a solemn tone, "He died a martyr. We must all bury our sorrow, and carry on his will!"

The blonde broadcaster then continued, "According to the latest information we have received, the suspect is an Honorary Britannian: Private Suzaku Kururugi, a former Eleven and honorary Britannian." The TV then showed Suzaku being restrained by two Britannian soldiers as he was being escorted, and Suzaku got slapped on his face when he was trying to speak to the Britannian soldiers escorting him.

"Martyr my ass!" Tamaki hisses, "He was just a mass murderer who killed everyone in Shinjuku!"

Cornelia exercises great self-restraint to not scold Tamaki for trampling her deceased half-brother's tomb; she knows that however idiotic the Japanese man is, he didn't say anything wrong about Clovis – he was indeed a mass murderer. Nevertheless, it is clear to both Nunnally and Guilford that the purple princess is extremely unpleased about Tamaki's comment, her fists clench hardly and eyebrows frown deeply.

'Clovis, I can't defend you for your crimes, but I do hope that you now rest in peace and focus on your drawings instead of politics,' Nunnally muses quietly.

Inside a dark interrogation room, Jeremiah was interrogating a tied-up Suzaku in straightjacket, when several purist officers were surrounding the embattled Honorary Britannian. A gun put inside a transparent bag was placed on the table.

"Do you know anything about this weapon?" Jeremiah asked Suzaku, "It was the one used to rob Prince Clovis of his life. The barrel striations leave no doubt, and we've done a little homework on you as well. You're the eldest child of Japan's last Prime Minister, are you not? Your motive here is clear."

"You're making a mistake!" Suzaku defended himself with a loud and clear voice, "I have never ever laid eyes on that gun…" before he could finish his sentence, though, an officer simply kicked down his chair, and Suzaku fell down onto the floor.

Jeremiah ignored what Suzaku had said and continued, "We've found your fingerprints all over this weapon. You're also suspected of murdering members of the Imperial Guard. Come clean now, and you'll be judged as an Honorary Britannian, not some worthless Eleven."

Suzaku being Suzaku, however, didn't yield. "I've… done nothing!" Suzaku insisted. Rather expectedly, the Honorary Britannian's answer wasn't taken in well, and got a kick in his face for not giving the answer Jeremiah wanted.

"He's been treated like dirt, yet he still believed in Britannia and served it?" Chiba snorts in disgust, "just how deluded he was to think that he could have salvaged things from within Britannia when he himself had been treated like shit?"

"Well, there you go, the 'Knight of Error'," Kallen can't hold back her contempt against Suzaku as well, fixing a stare to Zero, "never woke up from his delusion, and never listened to reason."

Cornelia, on the other hand, is perplexed on what she has just seen on the screen about Suzaku. She turns to her knight and asks, "Guilford, let's say for some reason, you were forced to serve the EU army and was subject to treatment similar to how Kururugi was being treated by Jeremiah. Would you still remain loyal to the EU?"

"No," Guilford replies, "and as a matter of fact, I don't think anyone in their sane mind could."

"Nor would I," Cornelia agrees with her knight's view, "so my question is, given the circumstance that he was in, why would Kururugi remain loyal to Britannia, even going so far as to swearing himself as Euphy's knight? Had I been in his position, I would most likely have chosen to join the Black Knights instead."

"Perhaps due to his… err… emotional suppleness to Princess Euphemia?" Guilford carefully worded his response to avoid inflaming his liege. However, Cornelia simply shakes her head a little and giggles at Guilford's rather interesting choice of words.

"Emotional suppleness… you sure have good mastery over the English language, my dear Sir Knight," Cornelia smiles, "It's alright, I have got over the fact that Euphy was into a non-Britannian already… the least I can do is to respect her choice of her knight, if nothing else."

"Princess…" Guilford scratches his head a bit, embarrassed by his overreaction in expecting Cornelia's rage upon hearing things about her darling younger sister's relationship with the Kururugi boy.

"However, that's not the point," Cornelia resumes a more serious tone, "recall that Kururugi hasn't met Euphy yet before he voluntarily left Zero and went back to the court for his trial? That means he did not choose to stick to Britannian rules because of Euphy; it was due to something else."

"Indeed," Guilford falls deep into his thought. "It seems the only thing we can conclude right now is that Kururugi was adamant about following the rules, or more specifically, Britannian rules. I suppose we will find the answer later on as we continue to see things being unfold to us."

Cornelia simply nods and turns back to the screen.

Back in Nunnally's bedroom, Lelouch was tucking Nunnally into her bed. However, instead of going to sleep immediately, Nunnally was worried at what she heard from the news.

"That was Suzaku they mentioned on the news, wasn't it?" she asked Lelouch.

"Yea… it looks like he's still alive." Lelouch answered somewhat hesitantly, knowing where the conversation was going.

"Yeah, it's been ages. We haven't seen him since the war ended. Even we… Big Brother?" Nunnally went on worriedly.

"What is it?"

"What the news said wasn't true, was it?" Nunnally asked.

"Of course not. Suzaku would never do anything like that," Lelouch tried to calm his younger sister down, "They've just made a mistake."

"Yeah… must be," Nunnally held Lelouch's right hand as she fell asleep.

"Right. Well… Good night, Nunnally." Lelouch said with a determined look on his face.

'Nunnally… you are always the kind-hearted girl,' Zero quietly thinks in his mind. 'I'm sorry that I worried you.'

Kallen is about to scold how naive Suzaku had been again but refrains from doing so, seeing how Nunnally was genuinely worried for him. 'Damnit, Suzaku, all you did was standing on the wrong side and keeping both Lelouch and Nunnally worried for you!'

Tianzi also gets worried as she watched how Nunnally became worried about Suzaku. "I hope he was fine!"

Kaguya pats her friend's back lightly. "It's alright, he did get rescued afterwards. You'll see that very soon."

"Great!" Tianzi simply cheers innocently upon being assured by her trusted friend that Suzaku was fine.

Back at the Camelot facility, Lloyd was frustrated. "We've lost the most crucial part of the equation!" Llloyd scowled.

"Can we do something about it?" Cecile asked.

"I wish we could. The other units never let go of a good pilot. And even if we got one, they'd never match his readings…" Lloyd kept talking, but apparently he was more worried about not having someone to pilot his Lancelot than for Suzaku's fate.

"You should tell them that, perhaps they'll let Suzaku go," Cecile tried to come up with suggestions to help Suzaku to get out the sticky situation he was in.

"He's an Honorary Britannian, they'd never listen," Lloyd reasoned, "Ever since Bartley's downfall, the purebloods have controlled the military, and I am gripped."

"Well, that was interesting," Rakshata starts, "how the downfall of the General who carried out the massacre against the people in Shinjuku actually made the situation worse for the Japanese. Oh and also, how the Earl of Pudding is unsurprisingly only interested in Kururugi as a 'part' of the Lancelot, instead of seeing him as an individual."

"Well, he was the main equipment to a fully-functioning Lancelot, so what's the problem with that?" Lloyd asks.

"In hindsight, removing Prince Clovis from the political stage in Area 11 might be a bad move," Kaguya ignores the verbal stabbing between the two scientists and chooses to comment on the political matters instead, "it seems that by removing Prince Clovis, the purist faction, which was much more extreme in terms of their political ideals of ensuring distinctive treatments to those who were Britannians and to those who weren't, had got rid of what prevented them from rising to power."

"I agree with Kaguya-sama on that," Tohdoh chips in, "though I'd say that's really an observation with hindsight and we couldn't blame the move to remove Prince Clovis from power as something wrong in terms of freeing Japan from Britannian's grip, since the Prince was nevertheless the representative of the Britannian Crown and all the oppression that entailed back then. However, I do think that we should take this as a lesson for our future operations, always think a few steps ahead before actually executing something major enough to greatly affect the situation." The other politicians and military leaders in the audience all nod to Tohdoh's comment.

"Alright," Gino chimes in, "so I guess we get to see the debut of Zero next?"