AN:

From this chapter onward, readers will notice the story content of this fanfic starts to diverge from that of the original TV animation version quite considerably. Spoiler alert to all those who have not watched the movie trilogy version yet – please consider to pause reading this fanfic until you have watched the movie trilogy version for better reader experience.

My other advice on how to enjoy this Fanfic would be to note that while readers are omniscient on what happened to the characters, the characters themselves in the story are not. Instead, they only possess partial knowledge to everything that had happened in the past. One interesting thing about this story is that readers will be able appreciate and enjoy the discrepancy between what you know and what they know, and try to see things from the character's perspective by putting yourself in their shoes – why does he/she think that way? Why does he/she prefer this over that? Why does he/she appreciate/despise something/someone? Always keep an open mind and you may discover something you have not noticed before about the series.

That's all from me for now, happy reading!


Chapter 10: "Initiation" VIII – Who is Zero? I

Ohgi was leading his group entering a stowed-away vehicle. Upon entering, they were shocked not only at how luxurious the interior of this stowed-away vehicle was, but also seeing the masked Zero already sitting inside.

"What are you waiting for? Come in. As of now, this place will be our hideout," Zero told Ohgi.

"Do you mean we now work together?" Ohgi asked as he and his comrades walked into the vehicle.

"Yes. We're comrades, after all," Zero said.

"Holy cow, what the hell is this place?" Tamaki exclaimed. Having spent the last seven years in the ghetto, he had never seen anything as luxurious as this stowed-away vehicle before.

"Just how did you get something as impressive as this…?" Ohgi muttered in disbelief.

"I borrowed it from a rather libertine nobleman who indulges my requests," Zero casually explained.

"You asked for it, just like that?" Ohgi asked incredulously. How could that happen so easily?

"Don't worry, there are no strings attached," Zero assured the worried Ohgi.

"I have to admit, that vehicle impressed me quite a bit when I first agreed to join the Black Knights," Rakshata recalls, "at least it made the rebellion much less sufferable than your ordinary rebellion against the strongest empire on planet Earth."

"I can vouch for that," Kallen agrees with Rakshata, "before Lelouch joined us, we had to live with much worse equipment and conditions. With that vehicle, we could at least take a break on comfy chairs and even play pools to relax!"

"Well, now we know that Lelouch got that big-ass vehicle from that nobleman by using his Geass power," Tamaki snorts, "Tch, he was lucky to have that power with him. Only if I also have that power…"

"You would have messed with every pretty women you see," Kallen finishes Tamaki's sentence with a deadpan expression.

"Yes… No! I will never do that!" Tamaki suffers from a Freudian slip, revealing his true desire. Every woman in the auditorium stares at the rebellious Japanese man in contempt. Ohgi, Tamaki's long-time friend, promptly looks away, as even the sitting Prime Minister of Japan doesn't dare to challenge a collective female fury.

"Hey! Don't look at me like that! I was going to say that if I got that Geass power, I would have taken all those big-ass vehicles owned by the noble Brits to the ghetto areas, so that we could all live a more comfortable life!" Tamaki hastily defends himself, but to no apparent avail.

"I would have believed you if you said you were going to snatch all alcohol from the corrupted Britannian nobles, Tamaki," Chiba says, also with a deadpan expression, "but to do something as complicated as to try solving housing problems in the ghetto? I don't think your head is good enough to process that."

Tamaki shrinks back to his seat, still angry at how others seem to think he is not up for the job of improving housing conditions for his fellow Japanese in the ghetto areas. However, he says nothing more as even he himself understands that he is not going to win the argument any time soon.

In a quiet downtown bar, Jeremiah and Villetta were having late night drinks at the bar table, chatting about the recent development of things. Apparently, things had not gone well for both of them.

"So, about this Orange thing…" Villetta began. Jeremiah scowled in annoyance as soon as he heard the "O" word that had caused him a great deal of embarrassment and possibly cost his entire military career.

"Sorry to bring it up," Villetta immediately apologized upon seeing Jeremiah's bitter facial expression, but nevertheless continued, "Is this whole thing true, though? That you can't remember anything about when Private Suzaku Kururugi was taken."

"I don't except you to believe me," Jeremiah stared at his drink with a painful expression on his face, knowing that it sounded too much of a convenient excuse for the cock-up in transferring Suzaku from his cell to his court martial.

However, to his utter surprise, Villetta seemed to believe him. "During the whole Shinjuku incident, I suffered some sort of memory lapse also," the military woman explained.

"You did?" Jeremiah asked incredulously while turning his face to Villetta. So it wasn't only him who had suffered such memory lost?

Villetta looked back to her drink. "By the time I regained my senses, my Sutherland had been stolen. But right before that entire gap in my memory, I remember running into some high school kid."

Jeremiah quickly caught on to the hint. "So you think it was that student?"

"I can't remember his face, but there may still be a way to get to the bottom of this," Villetta answered.

"So Coach Villetta had already suspected Lulu to be Zero right after she lost her Knightmare Frame?" Shirley exclaims in disbelief as she is surprised by how observant Villetta was.

'Chigusa…' Ohgi muses. He is surprised to learn that his wife had already suspected Lelouch to be Zero at such an early stage of events.

"Lady Ohgi was a competent military officer," Cornelia chimes in, "I have spent about two months working with her and a few other people in an attempt to rescue Lelouch's prisoners, and she has been nothing but resourceful and determined to rescue Prime Minister Ohgi and the others," the warrior princess glances at Ohgi for a moment before turning her attention back to Shirley, "Had she been born to some Britannian noble family, she would have gone much further than what she had achieved while serving in the Britannian army."

"Ha! Ohgi, you got lucky there!" Tamaki suddenly joins in the conversation.

"Huh?" Ohgi is confused.

"I mean, if Villetta was born to a Britannian noble family, she probably wouldn't have come to Japan in the first place. How else would you find yourself such a gorgeous wife then?" Tamaki winks at Ohgi as he elbows him with an "I understand you, bro" look. Ohgi's face turns red immediately.

"You may have to be careful though, Ohgi-san," Chiba suddenly interjects. "It seems that Villetta was quite close to Orange, no?"

"Huh? No, Chigusa wouldn't…" Ohgi suddenly gets nervous.

"Rest assured, Prime Minister Ohgi," Guilford steps in, "Lady Ohgi and Lord Gottwald's relationship was purely professional; as far as I can recall, there were no rumours about them throughout my time here in Japan."

"Yes, Jerry hasn't met Lady Ohgi ever since he was declared MIA at the Narita Mountains," Anya also vouches for her caretaker and business partner of an orange farm.

Ohgi scratches the back at his head and sighs with a nervous smile, "I see…" 'Good to hear…' he muses.

It was night time, and the bright, full moon was shining through the open roof into Ashford Academy's swimming pool. C.C. stood on the 10-metre (32.8-feet) diving platform and dived into the water, while Lelouch was sitting on a sun bench besides the pool, reading filled application forms submitted by prospective members of the newly formed Black Knights. One particular profile caught his attention:

Black Knights Membership Applicant File (!Secret)

Diethard Reid

[Education] Imperial Britannia Central University, Faculty of Law Graduate

[Place of Work] Hi-TV, Area 11, Tokyo Settlement Branch, Press Bureau Staff

"Hmm, a Britannian?" Lelouch smirked as he was reading Diethard's profile, "He looks too confident to be a spy. Perhaps an extremist?"

"Isn't it wonderful? How the number of recruits keeps growing," C.C. casually commented as she was free-floating on the water while facing the sky, wearing a blue one-piece swimsuit with Ashford Academy's school emblem printed near the front left bottom side of the swimsuit.

"A swimming pool date with Lulu at night...!" Shirley can't contain her jealousy towards the lime-haired girl any more. How come that woman kept doing everything she was dying to do with her darling Lulu?

Kallen doesn't fare much better than her orange-haired friend either, staring at C.C. on the screen with displeasure. 'While we were working our asses off, that bitch was doing whatever she pleased, and what's worse, Lelouch actually indulged her! Damnit!'

'Dang! Why is it that I have never had the fortune to do anything like that?' Rivalz's teeth are gnashing as well, frustrated by the fact that he has never had a swimming pool date with a pretty girl ever before.

On the other side of the auditorium, Rakshata gazes towards the teenage girls who are all jealous of C.C. "Teenage romance, huh? Too much dream yet too little action," she ridicules with a smirk.

"AHA! Like you are an expert in romance!" Lloyd quips.

"Well, at least I am borderline better than you, Earl of Pudding!" Rakshata shoots back.

"Hold on, you two! Please don't fight!" Cecile quickly steps in to stop the two scientists to bicker. After all, what's the point to fight over something that neither of them are actually good at?

Guilford is concerned on an entirely different matter. "I wonder why Diethard had decided to join the Black Knights. Didn't he have a well-paid job and good social standing already? Why would he risk his life to join a rebel organization, an organization where the majority of its members were Japanese? Was he an extremist as Lelouch had suggested?"

Tohdoh chimes in, "Actually, I am not entirely sure about his motive as well. He seemed to be extremely devoted in Zero's cause, but as I saw it, he didn't seem to have the same level of enthusiasm as we had in helping Japan to be an independent sovereign nation again."

"Meh, he was in just to make himself looked as cool as I am!" Tamaki snorts, but his borderline egoistic comment is duly ignored by the rest of the audience.

"I think I may know the answer," Cecile puts forward her conjecture as she has the attention of the rest of the audience, "we have seen how passionate he was in shooting a good footage of Zero's debut. He might have joined the Black Knights for the same reason – to satisfy his journalistic pursuits."

Cornelia considers Cecile's conjecture for a moment and quietly agrees. 'Yes, that would explain why the man eventually defected to Schneizel – I recall he said something about Schneizel's emptiness had surpassed Lelouch's chaos. That journalist did not believe in any cause; he just wanted to get the most juicy and controversial footage in the world!' she sneers internally.

Even though C.C. was showing her enticing body figure that was further accentuated by the gentle moonlight, Lelouch was totally uninterested in it and instead kept staring at the laptop while responding, "And it was simpler than I ever expected. 'While I bitterly hate the Britannians, I refuse to condone terrorism' is the prevailing view of most Elevens."

"Then does that mean the Elevens support the Black Knights for the most part?" C.C. asked.

"Which in turn makes it easier for us to operate as a whole. It's a huge help that people don't report our activities to the Britannian authorities," Lelouch explained in a cold, analytic tone, "Plus, I hear some group called Kyoto offer to send us some Knightmare Frames. The number of informants has been increasing quickly, too. The Japanese can't resist jumping onto the bandwagon. As long as I create the right opportunity for them…"

"Hence the 'Knights for Justice' act," C.C. got herself up from the pool water, smirking.

"Since everybody loves a hero, what better hero would there be than a knight who fights for justice?" Lelouch asked rhetorically, but his facial expression was no doubt one that belonged to an evil mastermind.

"Huh, I kind of doubt that's what a real knight for justice would say," C.C. chuckled sarcastically.

"He… he was just using us!" Chiba snarls at seeing how Lelouch reasoned the rapid growth of the Black Knights. "You all saw what he said? He was putting up an act to fool us Japanese to be his pawns!"

"Darn! I knew we shouldn't have followed him!" Tamaki yells.

Tohdoh, Ohgi and Kaguya all frown upon seeing this revelation. How Lelouch put it was indeed disturbing, but on closer inspection, he only described his recruitment tactics at best and said nothing much about Lelouch's real goals of founding the Black Knights. In other words, one may be wary about Lelouch's true views about the Japanese and the members of the Black Knights, but that is far from confirming that Lelouch did use the members of the Black Knights as nothing but his pawns.

Nunnally is shaken at seeing this scene as well. 'So cold, so calculating, and that evil mastermind face… but towards the very end, it was also his true intention to bring peace to the world,' the young Empress muses with a confused and worried expression on her face, 'I don't understand, Big Brother. If you have intended to save the world, why would you put up that sort of face and say things like that?'

Cornelia shakes her head in disappointment. 'Lelouch, didn't you realize that by deceiving the masses to fight for your own ambition, you were acting exactly like father, the man who you despised the most? I bet if father had known what you were doing, he would have been nothing but proud of the fact that his son was as merciless and heartless as he was!'

Villetta and Jeremiah visited Diethard's office sometime after their late night drink at the bar. All three were a bit downcast as all of them were demoted after the "Orange" incident.

"Yes, I was demoted from my position, in very much the same way that you were," Diethard grunted. He might be filled with passion at the moment he was filming Zero's debut, but after the hype was gone, he still had to face the reality of demotion. Jeremiah stared at the blond journalist intently.

"That's why we would like to ask for your help," Villetta explained, "We have no intention of letting the situation end this way, and we have the sneaking suspicion that you don't either, correct?"

"Is that so? Well, who can say," Diethard answered perfunctorily.

"Don't you want to find Zero?" Jeremiah turned to the man, catching his attention.

"Are you familiar with Ashford Academy?" Villetta continued, "I want to investigate a male student attending there. I think he may be working with Zero."

Diethard quickly keyed in "Ashford" into the search engine on his web browser as Villetta mentioned the name.

Jeremiah continued. "Villetta and I are going to be shipping out with the military soon for duty, and we will be stationed in the Narita Mountains. Therefore…"

That caught Diethard's attention. "Narita? Isn't that where the Japan Liberation Front (JLF) headquarter is rumoured to be located?"

"You may be a bit too perceptive for your own good," Jeremiah hissed.

"You have overestimated me," Diethard gave Jeremiah a smile as he narrowed his eyes.

"So that's how Lelouch got to know about our Narita operation?" Cornelia finally knows how the top military secret was leaked. "I have endeavoured so much to make sure the entire operation to be a complete success, and to think that the whole plan was utterly ruined by a mere TV producer...!" Cornelia has never felt a greater urge to find out where the said TV producer is now and choke him to death.

"Princess, do you think Orange deliberately leaked the secret to Reid?" Guilford quietly asks Cornelia as he recalls previous discussion on why would Jeremiah eventually be loyal to Lelouch.

The purple princess holds down her anger and considers for a moment all the information she has seen on the screen so far. She then answers her knight, "I would say no, Guilford. From what we have seen so far, Gottwald was not aware of Zero's real identity up to that point, nor did he know about Reid's intention to join the Black Knights. Hence, he didn't have a good reason to leak the information to the Black Knights or, if he somehow had decided to leak such information, to someone he didn't know to be a member of the Black Knights at the time."

Guilford thinks for a moment, before playing the devil's advocate, "but Reid is a TV producer, and by profession, he would be a good conduit to leak any secret information."

"Hmm… I get your point, but I still think that the evidence presented to us so far are still circumstantial at best. To determine whether Gottwald had defected at that point of time still requires some definite direct evidence," Cornelia reasons, and then showing a smile to Guilford, "But I like how you are being my sounding board. Thank you, my dear Sir Knight."

"Oh… you are welcome, Princess," Guilford is apparently not prepared to suddenly see the softer part of his princess, and he blushes.

Cornelia keeps smiling and cups Guilford's hand on the armrest.

The scene then switches and show the streets in Tokyo Settlement. Shirley was carrying a few bags as she strolled across a footbridge and saw Lelouch rushed to a shop located right underneath the footbridge.

"Lulu?" Shirley shouted and tried to catch Lelouch's attention from the footbridge, but Lelouch appeared to not have heard her call and went straight into the shop. Shirley rushed down the bridge and reached the entrance of that shop, panting.

"Huh?" Shirley looked around the shop as she slowly walked in. The shop was dimly lit, and it seemed to be selling some sort of antiques, books and some strange masks. Shirley didn't see Lelouch anywhere in the shop; instead, she saw the shopkeeper behind the desk, and he seemed to be using a monocle to inspect something on the table.

"How may I help you, Miss?" the shopkeeper slowly raised his head and asked Shirley in a polite yet somewhat husky voice. His pupils were encircled by red rings.

Shirley immediately back off and stepped outside the shop, "Oh, nothing, sorry for bobbing in. I thought I saw someone I know entering your shop," she answered the shopkeeper.

The door shut and Shirley looked up above the door before she turned right and walked away. "That's strange… this is the third time already…"

"You have been following Big Brother, Shirley?" Nunnally asks curiously, "Had you figured out Big Brother was Zero already back then?"

"Not really, Nunna…" Shirley tries to organize her words as she responds, "Well, we have gone out together a couple times, and so we were quite close… or at least I think we were. I noticed Lulu kept running to random places alone from time to time, and so I always kept an extra eye on him whenever I was on the street. And the scene we have just seen on the screen was the third time I saw him going to strange places."

"What? You were going out with Lelouch?" Kallen is aghast at this newly revealed information. 'How did he have the time to do that with all those Black Knights operations?'

"Have you tried seducing Lelouch?" Milly suddenly cuts into the conversation.

"Wha...?" Shirley can't believe her ears, and her ears go red with her face, "No, Madam President! We were just going out normally! What were you thinking?"

"Oh, come on Shirley, you do know Lelouch was quite thick when it comes to romance, don't you?" Milly simply cannot forgo this chance to tease Shirley, "you will need to play the role of a hunter instead of a prey."

"I… I...!" Shirley is so embarrassed, her face gets as red as the Guren, steam coming off her head.

"…recorded," Anya quietly takes a photo of the steaming Shirley.

Rivalz watches the interaction between Milly and Shirley. He has never felt more urge to bite a piece of handkerchief in his life. 'Dude… I am so jealous! Lelouch didn't even need to do anything and hot girls are already fighting with each other to get into his trousers! Argh…!'

Nunnally and Cornelia are watching the Ashford girls talking about their romantic interest. "Well, it seems Lelouch was very popular with the girls," Cornelia chuckles while talking to Nunnally.

"Yes, he was," Nunnally also chuckles, "Back then, basically every girl in Ashford Academy had a crush on Big Brother, even if he never returned their feelings and acting cold and distant."

"Every girl in the Academy? That would be more than a hundred girls!" Cornelia is surprised.

"Yes, something like that. Things can blow way out of proportion whenever the girls have a chance to get Big Brother's attention," Nunnally says with a mischievous tone.

"And did he seriously date anyone?" Cornelia starts to get worried about her dead brother's love life back when he was a high school student.

"No, not really," Nunnally recalls, "I think the closest thing Big Brother had ever got was him going out with Shirley several times."

"I see," Cornelia says. 'Well, Lelouch had certainly got the beauty gene from Lady Marianne and the womanizer gene from father, but I'm glad that Lelouch had exercised self-control when he handled his relationships with girls,' the elder sister muses.