Chapter 20: "Transgression" VI – The Broken Mask

Cornelia's Gloucester was shattered into pieces as it crashed onto the ground, the cockpit was in flames. Cornelia herself was severely injured, her head and left arm bleeding and she was lying on the ground helplessly. However, that was not what hurt the veteran warrior princess the most; it was what was revealed right before her eyes that had stabbed her heart hard.

"I see… Zero was you… this entire time…" she muttered in pain, both physically and mentally, "the burning hatred… towards the Britannian Imperial Family… Darlton… was right in his analysis…"

In front of the gravely injured princess stood a man in tight dark purple suit and a black cape. Unlike his usual appearance, the man took off his helmet, revealing his face. It was Cornelia's long lost favourite half-brother Lelouch vi Britannia, the supposedly deceased 11th Prince of Britannia. However, far from being a happy reunion, Lelouch was covering his left eye with his left hand, staring at his elder half-sister full of contempt, the aura of anger and hatred oozing from his otherwise flawlessly good-looking face.

"You… did all these… for… Nunnally's sake?" Cornelia spoke with apparently difficulty due to her injury. Nevertheless, by sharing a common responsibility of having a younger full-blooded sister to protect, Cornelia was able to immediately understand Lelouch's reason and motivation to start a full-scale rebellion against Britannia.

"Correct," Lelouch answered in a cold voice, "I shall demolish the present world, and then usher it into a new era!" The Gawain got closer to the ground while still airborne as Lelouch was speaking.

Cornelia was suffering from a mixture of strong but contradicting emotions: astonishment, relief, happiness, bewilderment, frustration, sadness, fury… her long lost favourite half-brother was still alive, yet he was the one who mercilessly murdered everyone close to her? "You killed all of them… for the sake of… such madness? Clovis? Even… Euphy?" she demanded in a weak, frustrated, incredulous and angered voice.

Nevertheless, Lelouch was not moved one bit and did what he did best: to answer a question with a question, and in a tone full of hatred and anger. "You're the one to talk, Big Sister, even though you idolized my mother, 'Marianne the Flash' so much…!"

Cornelia sighed. She understood that Lelouch was blaming her for the death of his mother, Consort Marianne vi Britannia, and wanted to take revenge on her even though it was not her fault. Seeing Lelouch being consumed by hatred and fury, Cornelia knew it would be futile to explain herself further. She adjusted her position and sat herself straight up while holding her injured left arm. "It seems… there is no point… to further this conversation..."

"How dare he…!" Guilford is enraged by the scene. How dare Lelouch treated his liege with such disrespect?

Kallen's mind is gripped by an uneasy feeling. 'Why? I don't even know if Princess Cornelia was responsible for Lelouch's mother's death or not, but I just don't feel what Lelouch did to Her Highness was right…'

"Lelouch's just a spoiled brat who threw tantrum at anyone related to the man who wronged him," Rakshata punctures the bubble that has engulfed Kallen's mind. "It's just that he was in possession of this tremendously powerful and convenient tool called Geass that allowed him to throw his tantrum in such a grand scale," the Indian scientist continues.

"Tsch! And that spoiled brat used that deplorable power of his to exploit us, the Japanese, to further his own objectives!" Chiba spats, recalling how she and her beloved husband were on the verge of being executed on that fateful day.

Anya remains quiet as the conversation among the audience continues, however she is also thinking inwardly about what ultimately caused Lelouch to throw his tantrum on Cornelia in such a callous way. 'Marianne, you were alive the whole time, yet you kept Lelouch in the dark, causing him to become a rampaging monster as he pursued a false revenge, hurting and killing people who truly cared for him. Even if the person got hurt was Princess Cornelia, your niece who admired and respected you despite your commoner origins, you still did nothing to prevent such tragedy from happening. Damn you to hell!' she seethes in a barely noticeable manner thanks to her poker face.

"Hmph!" Lelouch hissed in full contempt, taking off his left hand and revealed his Geass-bearing left eye. "Answer Lelouch vi Britannia's question!" he bellowed as he sent the Geass Sigil into Cornelia's eyes, twisting her mind into total submission.

"Go on," the Geass-subjugated princess responded in a monotone.

"Was it you, my dear sister, who killed my mother?" Lelouch fired his first question onto Cornelia.

"No," Cornelia answered, which didn't really surprise Lelouch. Deep down, he knew Cornelia admired his mother, and there was no reason for her to do so. The first question was more of a formality to cross Cornelia off the list of suspects for murdering the illustrious Imperial Consort.

"So who did that?" Lelouch fired the real question, his tone raised as he expected to finally learn the identity of the culprit.

However, what came from Cornelia was an unpleasant surprise to him. "I don't know," she said.

Lelouch narrowed his eyes. He seemed to want to call Cornelia a liar, but he knew that any answer came out from her mouth due to his Geass power of absolute obedience must be true, and so he interrogated his elder sister from a different angle to try to pry for the answer he wanted. "Back then, it was you, my dear sister, who were the head of the security team, were you not?"

"Yes," Cornelia replied.

"Then why did you withdraw the security team?" Lelouch demanded coldly. If the security team wasn't withdrawn from Aries Villa that night, his mother would not have been killed, and Nunnally would not have been blinded and crippled. It was Cornelia's fault that Nunnally suffered!

"That's because… I was asked to do so," Cornelia answered.

"By who?" Lelouch barked with anger. Who was the coward behind Nunnally's suffering?

Once again, Cornelia dropped a bomb, though having done so unbeknownst to herself. "By Lady Marianne."

"Wha..?" Lelouch was aghast at the answer. "Mother did?"

His mind was sent into total chaos. Did Marianne know she would be attacked that day? But if that was the case, why didn't she get both Lelouch and Nunnally out of the palace?

"What the hell?" Tamaki yells. "I don't understand!"

"Well, if Lelouch was aghast at it, then it is totally understandable that you can't understand it either," Rakshata ridicules the red-haired Japanese man as usual, causing the short-tempered Tamaki to groan. However, what Tamaki has just said this time is actually the general feeling of the audience: why would Marianne withdraw her security detail right before the night she was assassinated?

"Your Highness, do you know what happened that night?" Guilford asks quietly, "why did Lady Marianne order you to withdraw her security detail that night?"

"I have no idea either," Cornelia answers with detectable frustration, "I have conducted a detailed investigation into the whole matter, but all I have found was that father ordered Schneizel to transport Lady Marianne's body away right after she was assassinated, and so the coffin at the funeral did not actually contain Lady Marianne's body. There was simply no clue as to why Lady Marianne ordered me to withdraw her security detail that night, and why did father transported Lady Marianne's body away."

The audience gasps at hearing what Cornelia has just said. Not even Cornelia, the second most powerful contender to the Britannian throne, could find out anything about what happened at that fateful night?

"Just what was His Majesty trying to hide?" Gino is surprised that even Cornelia couldn't find any useful lead to the truth behind the assassination of a member of the Imperial Family.

"Well, I guess we just have to keep watching the footage to find out the truth," Zero interjects, bringing everyone's attention back to the screen.

Unsurprising to the audience, Lelouch finally lost his temper and composure upon learning a shocking and rather impossible truth from a geassed Cornelia. "What happened that day? Who was the one who killed my mother?" he yelled at Cornelia, giving up on asking well-thought out questions and instead unleashing his frustration on her.

Cornelia seemed to want to answer the question, but fell silent eventually.

"Grr… you don't know…?" Lelouch was once again frustrated and angered. He thought Cornelia, the former head of the security team at Aries Villa, would have known the answer. Yet, all he got to know was that it was his mother who ordered the security team to be withdrawn from Aries Villa on that fateful day. "Then, who know the truth about what happened? You have investigated what happened on that day, haven't you?" Seeing he was not going to get the answer from Cornelia, Lelouch demanded for a lead for him to continue his quest for the truth.

Inside Gawain's cockpit, C.C. was listening to Lelouch's interrogation of Cornelia half-heartedly as usual, instead paying attention to what was happening on the battlefield. Suddenly, she sensed something grave had happened, and she immediately reacted.

"Hey! Come back!" She yelled at Lelouch.

"I know! The Government Palace defence forces will be here soon," Lelouch hissed at C.C. Why was she so worried when everything was under his control?

"It's not that! Your little sister has been kidnapped!" C.C. cried as she piloted the Gawain to lowered one of its arm to the ground to pick up Lelouch.

"I have no time to hear your joke," incredibly, Lelouch didn't seem to believe C.C. for one bit, perhaps due to his bad mood of not being able to extract any useful information from his elder sister. He donned his mask back as he started instructing C.C., "We should now take Cornelia in as our hostage and imprison her at our Command Centre…"

Nevertheless, C.C. ignored his instruction and continued anxiously, "I know what's happening! She is your reason to live, right? She has been taken to Kamine Island!"

Lelouch scowled. 'Kamine Island? The one that is next to Shikine Island that has a military base…?'

He then abandoned his gravely injured elder sister who had just been proven innocent to Marianne's death, leaving her to rot next to the rubbles of her completely destroyed Gloucester.

"I am sorry, Big Sister!" Nunnally throws herself into Cornelia's embrace and hugs the elder princess tightly, tears falling down her blue eyes, "I am so sorry!"

This confuses Cornelia. Why would Nunnally apologize to her? "Calm down, Nunnally, why are you apologizing? You have done nothing wrong," the elder princess said. "Don't worry, even though I was hurt quite badly back then, but that was in the past, and I stand strong and sound now…"

"It's not that!" Nunnally shakes her head weakly, interjecting her elder sister, "Big Brother forced General Darlton to betray and hurt you, used his Geass to force you to answer his questions, and then he abandoned you and left you to die! He… he didn't even bother to contact someone to offer you medical help!" Nunnally cried as she buries her head into Cornelia's enormous chest.

"But that's Lelouch's fault, and while he had done some other unforgivable things, I don't really blame him for using his Geass on me to find out the truth behind the death of Lady Marianne. You don't need to apologize for that…" Cornelia tries to calm her younger sister down.

"But he did all those other hideous things for my sake!" Nunnally shouts as she recalls the scene when Lelouch was forced to choose whether Suzaku or Nunnally herself was more important to him at the end of the first disc, as well as how Lelouch ordered the Black Knights to take over the Ashford Academy during the Black Rebellion not because it was the best strategic place occupy, but because Lelouch wanted to use the Black Knights to protect Nunnally from harm, making it clear that for whose sake Lelouch did everything he had done ever since he had obtained the power of Geass. "He killed Clovis for my sake! He killed and exploited Sister Euphy for my sake! He… he forced your general to betray you, injured you for my sake! I was the reason why he did all that! I was the reason… why he did… all that…" Nunnally continues as she sobs, blaming herself for all the atrocities Lelouch had committed against Cornelia and Euphemia for her sake.

Cornelia closes her eyes and thinks for a moment. She knows that Nunnally is way too kind and has a tendency to take all the blame on herself, irrespective of whether she was capable of doing the things she wants to take responsibility for in the first place. Cornelia takes a deep breath, organizes her thought and begins in a gentle voice, "Nunnally, you are not responsible for Lelouch's actions. Yes, he may have said that he was acting for your sake, and yes, perhaps he was indeed acting for your sake, but he was not your servant or subordinate. No, far from it, he was your caretaker and provider, it was he who had full control of his actions. It would be presumptuous for you to take responsibility for his actions simply because he said he was doing things for your sake, and Lelouch, as an elder sibling, would be insulted if you insist on taking away the sins he has to bear. I say this as an elder sibling myself: what I have done is my own responsibility, and even if I did horrible things for Euphy's sake, I would feel insulted if Euphy insisted to take that responsibility from me simply because I was doing it for her sake – my pride simply wouldn't allow that. The same goes to Lelouch, your elder brother as well."

"Big Sister…" Nunnally hesitates as she listens to Cornelia's words, but decided to speak up nonetheless, "but it cannot be denied that I was the very reason Big Brother committed all those atrocities, which means I have caused those atrocities happened…"

"Then blame him!" Cornelia continues, "Blame him for not asking you before doing things for your sake. Blame him for not asking you before doing things seemingly for your sake. Blame him for not asking you before claiming to do things for your sake. I am sure that he would have preferred you to blame him than to take away his responsibilities and his sins. In fact, he would probably feel even worse if you take away the cross he bears instead of blaming everything onto him, because taking away his cross would mean that you are denying his very reason of doing the things he did," Cornelia explains, bringing Nunnally even closer to herself and hugs her gently, "so please, don't take away Lelouch's cross, and don't blame yourself for what he has done. This is you doing it for his sake, Nunnally."

"Big Sister…" Nunnally realizes that Cornelia is effectively defending Lelouch's pride to spare her heart. How she has inadvertently forced her beloved Big Sister to defend the murderer of her younger sister and trusted general? "I'm sorry, I forced you to defend Big Brother…"

"I am not saying all that only for Lelouch," Cornelia continues dotingly, "I am also saying all that for you."

"Oh, Big Sister… I love you…" Nunnally sobs as she buries herself into her elder sister's warm and gentle embrace. Cornelia smiles gently and strokes Nunnally's hair gently, placing her chin on Nunnally's head, "I love you too, Nunnally."

Kallen watches the Britannia sisters bonding with each other from a distance. 'Her Highness is such an elder sisterly, or even motherly, figure. Nunnally may have lost a doting elder brother, but she still has a loving elder sister by her side.'

Zero also watches the Britannia sisters quietly. 'This is so difficult for Nunnally. She is learning the side of Lelouch that Lelouch didn't want her to know, the not-so-good side of him that any elder brother would never want his younger sister to see. She told me that she knows the truth of Zero Requiem when Kallen came to us and asked us for advice on what to do with the three discs she has got from C.C. She believes that the people who were highly involved in Lelouch's insurgence against Britannia or were close to him have the right to know the truth, yet she cannot directly speak up for her brother even if she wanted to because she is the immediate successor to Lelouch's throne who, despite being the full-blooded sister of Lelouch, is expected by the world to right his wrong. Her saying anything in defence of Lelouch would most likely be received negatively and may even damage her current standing as the Empress that is supposed to give Britannia and the world a fresh start from the tyrannical rule of the Treacherous Emperor as per the Zero Requiem plan. Therefore, all she can do is to get this group of people together, persuade them to stay to watch the content of the discs, wait for the truth to roll out itself and let the audience to judge it themselves, all while either enduring harsh criticisms the audience is shooting at Lelouch, or to watch scenes that do not align with the image of a kind elder brother. It's good that she still has Princess Cornelia by her side to support her when some particular moments of the truth are not that good to know…'

In the dark underground storage space of Ashford Academy, Nina's tears were dripping onto her monitor on the Ganymede as she discovered she didn't have enough Sakuradite to blow up the entire Tokyo Settlement in order to kill Zero. "What should I do? I have to avenge Her Highness!"

"Thank God there wasn't enough Sakuradite!" Lloyd exclaims with a serious facial expression that is vastly different from his usual cheerful and carefree one, "otherwise none of us would be here today!"

When most people in the auditorium are confused to Lloyd's unusual comment and behaviour, Rakshata, being a fellow scientist, picks up Lloyd's meaning quick. "You mean this young lady here is responsible for the production of the F.L.E.I.J.A.?" the Indian scientist points at Nina, causing the latter to fidget and become nervous. The audience is shocked at this information, and all stare at Nina sternly.

"What?" Rivalz is shocked. "The F.L.E.I.J.A.? That bomb that almost destroyed the entire Tokyo Settlement? Nina?"

"So the creator of the F.L.E.I.J.A. was Nina?" Milly asks incredulously. The weapon ultimately responsible for the 35 million deaths in the Tokyo Settlement and the obliteration of Pendragon was created by her timid, bespectacled friend?

"What the…?" Guilford is shocked. The bomb that almost engulfed him during the 2nd Assault on Tokyo Settlement and caused his vision impairment was invented by this meek scientist girl?

"What were you thinking?" Shirley asks incredulously. "How could you want to blow us all up with your bomb?"

"How dare you… Asahina evaporated because of…!" Chiba fumes and barks at Nina. Tohdoh, Ohgi and Tamaki also stare at the fidgeting dark green-haired bespectacled girl.

"I… I am sorry! I wasn't thinking straight at that time!" Nina starts to cry as she apologizes for her past self, "I was too into avenging Her Highness, I… I thought I could have wiped Zero out with a weapon created based on the nuclear fission reaction I modelled during my spare time… I was only hoping to kill Zero and I didn't think of the possible repercussions…"

"Everyone, please," Zero steps in, "the true identity of the inventor of the F.L.E.I.J.A. is classified information to protect both the current world order from the devastating weapon, and Ms Einstein from possible harassment. This is done so because while she was the creator of the most deadly weapon ever existed in history, she wasn't the one who detonated them in the last two major wars humanity has fought. Please keep this a secret and do not tell anyone outside of this group."

"Even so, still…!" Chiba isn't going to give up, but she is interjected by Zero quickly.

"Recall how the truth of the death of Princess Euphemia is vastly different from what everyone believed it to be?" Zero says with his neutral, metallic voice, "rather than jumping to conclusion, I believe the best course of action for everyone here is to be patient and let the truth to be rolled out to us."

Everyone stays silent for a while before nodding with either sceptical or serious faces, including the intellectually-challenged Tamaki. The unveiling of the truth behind the SAZ massacre has allowed them to realize that the truth may not be as straightforward as they may have believed to be, and so they are willing to give it a chance and temporarily put down their riled up grudge against Nina and instead wait for the truth about F.L.E.I.J.A.-related events to eventually be revealed before them. On top of that, they also realize that what Zero has just said is right: it will be disastrous to the present world order if ambitious countries or people with malicious intentions get wind of who was behind the deadliest weapon in the history of mankind, and how to gain access to this person to persuade or force her to rebuild F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads for them. Even Tamaki understands the repercussions of having such information being leaked to the public.

As the battle surrounding the Government Palace in Area 11 continued, an orange, somewhat spherical Knightmare Frame with five large green spikes burst through the rooftop of the Government Palace and rose to the darkened sky.

'That was Jerry!' Anya muses. 'So he escaped from Bartley's lab during the Black Rebellion. I wonder when did he join Lelouch?'

"Lord Gottwald escaped from Bartley's lab?" Gino is surprised to see the seemingly berserked Jeremiah was calm enough to pilot a Knightmare Frame.

"How the hell did he do that?" Tamaki asks incredulously, "I thought Orange had gone crazy already?"

Zero remains quiet, but inwardly he seethes once again as he recalled that it was V.V. who assisted Jeremiah who chased after Lelouch, just as how the blond boy had arranged Suzaku to go after Lelouch. 'V.V., you manipulated everything behind the scenes…!'

Meanwhile, Nunnally was sleeping on her wheelchair, and V.V. was sitting on a stair step beneath her, apparently bored from waiting for someone's arrival. Both of them were in a strange dimension with eternal dusk.

"Isn't that the dimension where His Majesty usually stood in?" Gino observes.

Nunnally finally recalls why she felt that how her father sounded when he was talking inside that dimension was so familiar to her. 'So I was brought to that dimension by Mr V.V. Does that mean Mr V.V. was also a member of the Imperial Family? Perhaps my younger half-brother?'

Cornelia narrows her eyes. 'I was right, V.V. was related to the Imperial Family! Who's he exactly? And why did he bring Nunnally there?'

The Gawain landed in front of a cave at Kamine Island, with a temple relic built within.

"What is this relic? Do you have some sort of connection to this place?" Lelouch asked C.C. distrustfully.

"I don't know about this one," C.C. replied.

"Hmph, that means there are similar ones in other places?" Lelouch inferred. "Was Nunnally's abductor also a Geass user?"

"I don't know that much," C.C. responded. Lelouch frowned and stared at the green-haired witch suspiciously.

"It's true," C.C. said.

After a brief moment, Lelouch ultimately decided to trust her, since they are still accomplices to each other.

"Thank you," C.C. replied in a soft tone as she looked back to the raven-haired boy.

The screen then briefly showed that a VTOL was carrying the Guren heading towards Kamine Island as well.

"So that's when he abandoned us!" Tamaki yells at the screen. "We were so close to winning the battle, and he just tossed us all away!"

Ohgi, Tohdoh and Chiba all growl as they finally get to see the truth behind Zero's sudden and unannounced disappearance from the battlefield during the Black Rebellion.

"What a jerk!" Chiba is the first to bark, "he abandoned us just because he wanted to rescue one person? What about all our countrymen who trusted him and rallied behind him in helping him to stand up against Britannia?"

"I knew he didn't care about us Japanese from the start!" Tamaki yells. How dare he did that to all of them when he was brandishing the justice card, leading everyone to believe that there was a greater purpose in their fight against the world's only superpower, when in reality nothing meant anything more than a single person to the masked leader of the largest resistance force against Britannia in Japan?

Tohdoh, however, is not as quick as his anti-Britannian and short-tempered wife to yell out his thought about Lelouch abandoning the Black Knights and the Japanese. He is actually torn: his personal honour side is still infuriated at how Lelouch blew up Darlton like how he blew up Katase and abandoned Tohdoh's countrymen like they were worth nothing, but his military side nevertheless acknowledges that the effectiveness of Lelouch's strategies was key to the victories the Black Knights have reaped from Britannia that the JLF could ever have. 'I won't deny that he was a military genius and had brought us numerous victories, but how he did and prioritized things…' the esteemed Japanese general muses in frustration as he thinks back how amidst the Black Rebellion, Lelouch suddenly contacted him and abruptly transferred the command to the Japanese military leader without even giving some basic information of his entire plan to assault Tokyo Settlement to Tohdoh before cutting off any further communication, leaving Tohdoh in the dark due to not knowing the entire picture of the battlefield in spite of his experience, thereby giving an opening to the Britannian army to turn the table around and ultimately defeated the Black Knights, forcing them to flee to the Chinese Federation.

Kallen also thinks back to that time when an injured Ohgi contacted her and urged her to go after Zero and save him because Ohgi believed Zero was the one who could realize Naoto's dream. She tightens her fists as she gradually recalls what she later discovered at Kamine Island.

Back at Kamine Island, a giant green spike suddenly shot towards the Gawain. C.C. noticed it quickly and got the Gawain airborne to avoid the attack. It was Jeremiah!

"Exploration completed! Zero! Repent is now!" Jeremiah barked.

"Orange?" Lelouch shouted incredulously. Wasn't he fried to death by Kallen at Narita already?

"It's time for my wonderful vindication!" Jeremiah yelled as he piloted his Siegfried, a Knightmare Giga Fortress, to launch continuous attack at the Gawain using its multiple giant green spikes.

"Ugh! The parts damaged by Cornelia…!" Lelouch was slightly electrified by the shock caused by Siegfried's attack on the Gawain's cockpit.

"Ugh! There's only one shot left in the Hadron Cannon!" C.C. groaned as she was suffering from the same damage as Lelouch.

"It's time for my wonderful vindication!" Jeremiah repeated as he kept attacking the Gawain.

Suddenly, the Gawain turned to the sea and fired its last Hadron Cannon shot. This caused the sea water to quickly evaporate and formed a thick mist, engulfing both the Gawain and the Siegfried.

"Insidious isolation impudence!" Jeremiah started to shout gibberish.

C.C. made a quick decision. "I'll handle this lunatic. You go after Nunnally!"

"But we're out of energy!" Lelouch was worried about C.C. How's she going to win when the Gawain was depleted with energy?

"I'll be alright!" C.C. exclaimed. However, a brief moment later, her beautiful golden eyes looked down and she chuckles, "Well, I lied. I am a bit nervous, actually."

"Hmm?" Lelouch blinked. It was rare for him to see C.C. being so genuine with expressing her emotion.

However, before Lelouch can ask further, C.C. turned around and looked at him with a gentle smile. "You have to prevail, over your own past," C.C. said as she rose up from her seat and reached Lelouch, "and over the outcome of your own action."

C.C. then planted her mouth on Lelouch's, taking the raven-haired boy by surprise.

"…!" Shirley stands up knee-jerkily. "She… she… she took away Lulu's first kiss?" Her face is reddened because of a mixture of anger, embarrassment, envy and jealousy. How could C.C. do that to her?

Kallen bites her lip as well. 'I knew there was something going on between Lelouch and that witch… but to think that she has had his first kiss…!'

Rivalz silently bites his lip, or an imaginary handkerchief, to expel the jealousy accumulated in his mind as he saw yet another beautiful woman falling for Lelouch, this time even doing a mouth-to-mouth kiss. 'Argh…!' the blue-haired boy exclaims inwardly.

'Well, my two pretty friends are getting jealous again!' Milly giggles inwardly even though she is still troubled by the fact that Lelouch had betrayed their friendship and used Shirley, Rivalz and Milly herself as his hostages to fight against Suzaku, trying to enjoy the fun whenever she can. After all, the ability to enjoy even when being troubled by difficult situations was what got Milly through her years as the prized political capital of the Ashford family to restore their nobility in Pendragon, until she has finally been able to lose the shackle and pursue her dream as a TV anchor.

"Ha! I knew that green-haired woman was Zero's mistress!" Tamaki laughs. However, he is being ignored by the audience once again.

As the seawater mist finally dispersed, the Gawain landed and C.C. placed Lelouch down onto the ground.

"C.C., don't die," Lelouch said.

"Who are you talking to?" C.C. smirked at it.

"Hmph… you have a point," Lelouch also smirked before he put his mask back on.

C.C. then piloted the Gawain quickly back up into the air, confronting the Siegfried.

"I found you!" Jeremiah exclaimed at the sight of the Gawain, and started to attack it fiercely, "Let me apprehend you, Zero! You will be my stepping stone for me to return to my glorious days!"

C.C. piloted the Gawain slight away from the Siegfried, avoiding its attack and fired its finger slash harkens onto the Knightmare Giga Fortress, successfully destroying its energy system while getting the Gawain to stick behind the Siegfried.

"You know, you are really not the type of man that I'd like to commit suicide together with!" C.C. smiled as she pushed the control to boost the Gawain's engine, pushing the Siegfried towards the sea together.

'Lulu still cared for Ms C.C…' Shirley muses with a tint of hope restored, 'Lulu was still kind at the core. It must be the stress that had led him astray…'

"Ms C.C. committed suicide with Orange?" Rivalz is aghast. Not only did Lelouch get the beautiful C.C. to kiss him, she was even willing to die for Lelouch?

"Calm down, Rivalz," Milly pats the blue-haired boy's back, "Ms C.C. is immortal, remember?"

"Oh, that's right…" Rivalz scratches his head, but then he realizes something, "Hey that's not the point!"

"And what's the point?" Gino asks.

"The point's that Lelouch got a beautiful girl who was willing to die for him! Well, Ms C.C. couldn't die, but still!" Rivalz finally gets the thing that has stuck in his throat out.

This agitates Shirley, temporarily lifting her uneasiness about being betrayed by Lelouch during his fight with Suzaku. "I… I can die for Lulu too!" she exclaims.

"Shh… don't say that!" Milly immediately covers Shirley's mouth, "don't say something that no one wants to see it happening!"

Shirley calms down and apologizes. "Sorry, Madam President… I wasn't thinking straight…"

"Promise me, never said that again, okay?" Milly says with a semi-serious tone, which really means she is serious since most of the time she has been goofy and stuff when hanging out with her friends at Ashford. Shirley blushes but nods solemnly.

Next to Milly, Kallen remains silent, but she is thinking inwardly, 'I was willing to die for Lelouch as well when Suzaku was about to kill me for not letting him know where he was… though it was due to my blind loyalty to Zero...' she then tightens her fists and screams in her head, 'Lelouch, what did I mean to you?'

"…recorded," Anya takes a photo of the various facial expressions of her Ashford friends.

Back in the main battlefield in the Tokyo Settlement, the Britannian forces gradually turned the table around and succeeded in pushing back the Black Knights.

"Hold your ground! Victory's within our reach, stay strong!" Claudio Darlton, one of the five adoptive sons of General Darlton, exclaimed.

The Black Knights, on the other hand, were losing their grounds gradually. "What happened to Kouzuki?" Chiba asked impatiently.

"According to the instruction from our deputy commander, she went to aid Zero...!" a male member of the Black Knights responded.

"But we can't get a hold of Zero…!" another male member with teal hair of the Black Knights inside a Burai said. Suddenly, a shot was fired from the Britannian side, causing another Burai in front of the male member's Burai to explode, killing a female member with long, blue hair of the Black Knights who was in that Burai.

"No… Where the hell is he? Zero…!" the male member inside the Burai exclaimed angrily and in despair, seeing the female member whom he had admired for a long time just perished right before his eyes.

"Well, he had abandoned you and your crush long before you noticed," Gino answers that frustrated member of the Black Knights on the screen, "your lives and your struggles meant nothing to him."

Tohdoh, Ohgi, Chiba and Tamaki all frown, but say nothing more on the subject, now knowing full well that Lelouch did not rise up against Britannia for any bigger cause such as justice for all, the independence of Japan or the well-being of the Japanese, but solely because he wanted to ensure his younger sister's well-being and his own desire to know the truth behind his mother's death.

Unbeknownst to most of the members of the Black Knights save C.C., Zero had abandoned them to their own fate already, now only thinking of how to rescue his little sister. He navigated through the cave and reached a giant rock entrance inside the cave.

'What should I do? What if Nunnally's abductor is also a Geass user?' Lelouch mused. 'Well, I would still need to ensure Nunnally's safety first.'

Lelouch slowly walked towards the giant rock entrance, ready to touch it with his hand.

BANG!

Suddenly, a bullet flew pass Lelouch and hit the giant rock entrance, stunning Lelouch. A certain someone was walking towards Lelouch, slowing revealing himself from the darkness. It was Suzaku.

"Slowly turn around," Suzaku ordered Zero as he pointed his gun towards the masked terrorist.

'Suzaku? How did he get here?' Lelouch was shocked to see Suzaku, of all times, to be here at Kamine Island.

However, Suzaku didn't give time to Lelouch to think further. "Did you not hear me, Zero? I said turn around, slowly," Suzaku ordered again.

Lelouch decided to try to talk Suzaku out by using Euphemia's massacre incident. "Euphemia randomly murdered throngs of innocent Japanese," he began as he turned around, "and you still swear loyalty to that kind of woman…"

"Geass. Such a convenient power to have," Suzaku, however, interjected as he slowly walked towards the masked terrorist.

'Wha…!' this shocked Lelouch. How did Suzaku know about Geass?

Suzaku continued. "Hiding in the shadows, pushing all the blame to others and forced them to dirty their hands on your behalf. You're just an arrogant coward, that's your true nature," He then stopped at a distance from Zero while still pointing his gun towards Zero and, without turning his sight away from Zero, said calmly, "Kallen."

A shocked Kallen was revealed to be also inside the cave, pointing her gun at Suzaku from behind.

However, Suzaku was totally unfazed. "Don't you want to know the true identity of Zero as well?" he asked nonchalantly.

"What are you saying?" Kallen was enraged, though she was a bit shocked and confused as well when she heard what Suzaku said about Zero having what sounded like a supernatural power that could force people to do things for him.

"You have a right to bear witness as well," Suzaku continued as he raised his hand and ready to shoot at Zero.

"No, wait…!" Kallen exclaimed. She was torn: on the one hand, she did want to know who was behind the mask; on the other hand, she had the feeling that once the real identity of the person behind the mask was revealed, this person would vanish and left the Black Knights to themselves.

Regardless of what Kallen's thought was, Suzaku had already fired a bullet at Zero's mask, causing it to break into two halves and fell off, finally revealing the face behind the mask – it was Lelouch Lamperouge. The raven-haired boy had a stern expression on his face, and some strange red light was glowing from his left eye, something that shouldn't be found from a normal human eye.

"Kouzuki, you knew who Zero was back then?" Chiba barks at Kallen upon seeing the scene. "How dare you hid that knowledge from us?"

"She is right, Kallen," Ohgi concurs with Chiba, "why didn't you let us know? That's a vital piece of information for all of us!"

"I… I was not sure about that," Kallen stutters. "I… wasn't sure what effect it would cause to the Black Knights if they know that Zero was a Britannian student..."

"You could have just informed the senior brass and we could decide whether to inform the rest of the organization," Tohdoh says, also in disapproval of Kallen keeping the secret from him.

Kallen isn't entirely sure why she didn't tell the senior brass of the Black Knights about Zero's true identity either. 'Why did I not tell them? I knew it would be detrimental for the members of the Black Knights to know that their leader is a pure-blooded Britannian, but as General Tohdoh said, I could have informed the senior brass about it and let them decide whether to spread the information.' And then she suddenly realizes the true reason behind her non-action. 'Was it because I want to keep this as a secret about Lelouch that only I know?' The red-haired former ace of the Black Knights blushes hard as she realizes the real reason behind her hiding of the crucial information related to Lelouch, whether it was Zero's true identity or the fact that she has realized what happened on that fateful day, from the top brass of the Black Knights; it was due to her desire to monopolize information about the otherwise secretive boy that she has fallen in love with.

"I am sure Lady Kouzuki has her reasons," the present day Zero comes to her rescue, "why don't we focus back to see what happened next…"

Suddenly, the whole auditorium falls oddly silent, and most people stare at Zero. This makes Zero nervous. 'What happened? I haven't said anything strange, have I?'

"…just who are you, anyway?" Rakshata bursts the bubble. "Now that we have just seen Kururugi revealing the true identity of the original Zero on the screen, I am curious to know who you really are, Zero."

"Yea! Take off that mask!" Tamaki yells.

'Crap! I have chosen the wrong time to attract everyone's attention onto myself!' Suzaku realizes the blunder he has just made, 'to speak up as Zero just as when the footage is showing Zero's real identity being revealed was simply asking for trouble! What should I do now?'

Kallen muses as everyone's attention is on Suzaku, 'I owe you one, Suzaku. But even if I wanted to help you, I myself have just got out from a sticky situation, so I probably can't return the favour to you right now. Sorry!'

Kaguya, who has long guessed the true identity of the current Zero, also chooses to stay out of the situation. 'Well, my dear cousin, you have chosen to take up the mantle of Zero on your own. If you can't get yourself out of such a trivial problem, how could any of us expect you to lead the largest military group of the UFN? It's time for you to prove to me your worth as Lelouch's successor and the one masked hero of the world.'

Just as Suzaku quietly muses how to get himself out from this situation without resorting to violence, an unexpected help comes to his aid. "Let's wait for the discs to tell us exactly that, shan't we?" Cornelia speaks up, taking the audience by surprise.

"Why? Don't you want to know who this Zero is as well?" Rakshata is curious. Why would the warrior princess jump to Zero's aid when she is feeling the same as everyone else here in the auditorium, dying to know who the current Zero really is?

"Don't get me wrong, Dr Chawla, I am as curious as all of you in knowing who's behind the mask right now," Cornelia answers Rakshata's question as she turns to Zero's mask, "however, if there is one lesson I have learnt from this screening event, it is to have the patience for letting the answers to come before oneself instead of pressing for them. Had I not done that, I would have jumped to conclusion and never be able to learn the whole truth behind Euphy's tragedy, and I am sure that jumping to conclusions is the last thing everyone here would want to do in this screening event," the warrior princess says in a calm tone.

Cornelia's words have caused everyone to stop and think. Eventually, Tohdoh speaks up, "I concur with Her Highness, there are things we should not rush, especially when all we need is patience, and all the pieces of the puzzle will come together eventually. Let's drop this and return to the footage."

The two most respected military generals in the room have expressed their opinion, and the audience decide to heed to their advice. Zero lets out a sigh quietly, glad that he is able to somehow evade the premature revelation of his true identity.

The outed Lelouch did not speak nor move; instead, he just stood there and stared at Suzaku intently, his left eye's Geass glowing. Blood started to run down his face, most likely due to the bullet that shattered the mask had scratched by the top of his forehead as well.

Kallen was aghast. "Why…" her eyes were wide-opened in disbelief, her legs took a step back, before being too shocked and lost her strength to stand, collapsing and kneeling on the ground.

Suzaku was not as shocked as Kallen. Instead, he was visibly saddened by the revelation, closing his eyes and shook his head while temporarily lowered his gun, before regaining his composure. "I… didn't want to believe it," he said with a sad yet angered tone while staring at Lelouch, who murdered Suzaku's one and only liege and true love.

"Le… Lelouch is…" Kallen was still reeling from the shock due to the revelation, staring at her classmate and not being able to finish her sentence. How could the vice president of the student council in the most lavish school in Tokyo Settlement for Britannians be the leader of the largest insurgent group against Britannia in Area 11? What could he gain from the independence of Japan as a pure-blooded Britannian? And what Suzaku had just said about his special power… did he really did what Suzaku accused him of doing?

Nevertheless, neither of them were able to shake up Lelouch's emotion for one bit, who simply declared with a smirk, "That's right. I am Zero, the man who leads the Black Knights to challenge the Holy Britannian Empire, and the man who would eventually have the whole world in his hands."

Lelouch's unapologetic words pierced Kallen's already stunned mind. Did he just say that he would have the whole world in his hands? So Lelouch was really doing what Suzaku said he did with an absurd supernatural power on his unnaturally glowing left eye? What about standing with all those who had no weapons to yield? What about being the knights of justice? What about the independence of Japan and the freedom of the Japanese? Then, a sudden realization came to Kallen, and tears started to swell in her eyes as she was still trembling due to that realization. "… Did you exploit us, the Japanese…? Including me…?" she asked incredulously as her voice trembled.

"And as a result, Japan will be liberated!" Lelouch shot back at Kallen with a commanding tone, not denying the fact that he was indeed exploiting the Japanese and Kallen herself to "eventually have the whole world in his hands", acting as if he had done nothing wrong, "Why would you complain about that?"

Kallen was hard-hit by such an overbearing answer from the man she had once idolized as the saviour of Japan, and whom she was willing to sacrifice her life for even without knowing his true identity. She squeaked as tears fell down her cheeks.

"That son of a bitch!" Chiba cannot hold back anymore. She slams the armrest hard and yells at the screen. "So he admitted right into Kouzuki's face that he was just exploiting us to achieve his ambition of taking over the world!"

"That bastard! Exploiting us!" Tamaki yells as well. He once thought of Zero as his best buddy, even willing to sacrifice himself to save him. And Zero in the footage is now giving him this bullshit? Tohdoh and Ohgi haven't chimed in, but their scowling facial expressions are sufficient proof that they are not amused by what Lelouch said about the Black Knights either.

Kaguya, while also irritated by what Lelouch said on screen, is angered due to a slightly different reason. 'Lelouch, it's fine that you used us, the Six Houses of Kyoto and the Black Knights, to further your own goals. After all, we were also using you to achieve our goal of gaining Japan's independence from Britannia. It's actually not fine for you to gamble the future of my countrymen just for your own pursuits and, worse yet, not fulfilling your end of the bargain, leaving Japan still in the hands of Britannia after the end of the Black Rebellion instead of gaining independence from Britannia, the result that you had claimed to be what your actions would bring to us after you had so thoroughly exploited my countrymen, especially after you have deprived them of the opportunity to choose to live in the SAZ of Japan as well. Your actions have resulted in my countrymen losing everything, be it to enjoy a limited version of equality or the chance to regain full independence. That's simply unacceptable, even to me, Lelouch,' Kaguya tightens her fists as she thinks back to all those innocent Japanese who perished at the opening ceremony of the SAZ when Euphemia was forced to massacre them due to Lelouch's Geass; even though that was an unintentional order, Lelouch did ride on it and make it an intentional full-scale rebellion, and the fact that Lelouch abandoned this intentional rebellion and left the Japanese who rallied behind him with nothing but despair and suffering is something that Kaguya, the girl who devoted herself to the Japanese, cannot accept.

In the front row, both Nunnally and Cornelia frown at Chiba's insult that could imply an insult to someone else, but they both understand that it was just a bad word choice, and Chiba most likely doesn't mean to convey the secondary meaning of the expression, and so the Britannia sisters decide to stay quiet and give it a miss.

'You are not totally wrong in the literal sense, Mrs Tohdoh,' on the other side of the auditorium, Anya silently gives her approval to Chiba's choice of words, seething at the thought of the damned bitch who had robbed most of her life up till very recently, as well as arguably being the person ultimately responsible for turning Lelouch into a ruthless monster due to her inaction. 'Damn you to hell!' the quiet pink-haired girl screams in her mind.

Suzaku shook his head and closed his eyes as he listened to the dialogue between his classmate and the man who was once his best friend. Lelouch became Zero and did all those horrible things just because he wanted to have the whole world in his hands? What kind of excuse was that to break the rules and spill a sea of blood across Area 11? "I should have arrested you as soon as possible," he sighed.

"You noticed it was me?" Lelouch asked, turning his focus back to his best friend.

"I couldn't be sure about it, and so I have been denying it in my mind for so long because I wanted to believe in you," Suzaku continued with a saddened tone before he stared back once more at the man who took the Ashford Student Council members as hostages in an attempt to subjugate the white knight, "but you lied to us: to me, to Euphy… and to Nunnally."

Once again, Suzaku's heartfelt words didn't strike a chord in Lelouch's heart; the raven-haired boy clang onto Suzaku's mentioning of the word "Nunnally" and abruptly changed the subject. "That's right, the Nunnally you mentioned was abducted!" Lelouch said impatiently, taking Suzaku by surprise. Kallen also rose back up on her feet upon hearing the news that Nunnally was abducted.

However, Lelouch ignored his most loyal follower and continued to plead to his best friend, "Suzaku, let's call a temporary truce!"

Kallen tripped herself upon hearing what the leader of the Black Knights had just said. Her leader was calling a truce with her arch enemy right in front of herself? The guy who was going to kill her just a few moments ago when she was trying her level best to protect her leader?

Lelouch, however, paid no attention to his aghast most loyal soldier and continued his plead to his best friend. "I need your help! Together, we shall rescue Nunnally! There's nothing in the world that you and I can't do together!"

Kallen stared at her hands that kept trembling in disbelief as her leader's merciless words were flowing into her ears and piercing her mind. Did her leader just so easily choose Suzaku, the Knight of Princess Massacre and Kallen's arch enemy who almost killed her just a few moments ago, over herself, Lelouch's most loyal follower and the one who was willing to sacrifice herself to protect him from his biggest threat on the battlefield? Was she just an expendable pawn to her leader? Did her leader care nothing about all the Japanese who were ruthlessly murdered by the Britannian soldiers at the order of Princess Massacre? Was the whole rebellion against Britannia just a ploy for her leader to have the world in his hands as he had just claimed?

The audience is once again aghast at how selfish Lelouch was. Not only did he abandon the Black Knights to a hopeless battle against Britannia and not fulfilling his end of the bargain that he had proclaimed to Kallen earlier on the screen, he also abandoned his most loyal soldier at the drop of a hat while ignoring Suzaku's internal struggle on whether to trust the murderer of Euphemia or not altogether, going straight to demand for what he needed the most at that very moment. And if he was throwing away the Black Rebellion, then what about Euphemia's wronged sacrifice, the stepping stone that Lelouch had used to incite the Japanese to rise up against Britannia?

"And this was the founder and leader of the Black Knights, a man who completely ignored the legitimacy of the means and cared for nothing but the ends," Lloyd observes keenly and concludes succinctly, before tuning his voice back to the usual cheerful tone, "A very effective young man, wouldn't you agree?"

The present day Kallen once again breaks down emotionally: tears falling down her cheeks, shoulders trembling in agony. While she understands that those words were spoken by an earlier version of Lelouch and did not necessarily represent his final feelings to her, they were nevertheless way too merciless and cruel, the red-haired girl's lacrimal glands are triggered, and her emotional dam starts to crack.

"I am sorry, Kallen," Milly says in an apologetic tone, "I was so wrong to be so quick to ask you to trust him back when we were watching the scene about the Battle of Narita..."

Shirley is aghast as well. When she sees how Lelouch showed his care to C.C., she thinks that her Lulu was just temporarily led astray by stress and was still kind to others at the core, but the last scene where he so casually discarded Kallen has hit the orange-haired girl no less hard than it hit her red-haired friend. 'Lulu, how could you? How could you be so cruel to the girl who was willing to sacrifice her life to protect and fight for you without even knowing your true identity?'

Rivalz also stares at the screen in disbelief. While the blue-haired boy is friend with both Kallen and Suzaku and does not have the rivalry feelings Kallen had on Suzaku, he can also see how Lelouch should have sought help from Kallen instead of Suzaku in that particular situation. The way that Lelouch so blatantly discarded his most loyal follower and sought help from his most loyal follower's arch enemy at the drop of a hat and right in front of the said most loyal follower was such a shock to Rivalz, it greatly shakes the blue-haired boy's faith in his own friendship with Lelouch once again, after he has just seen how easily Lelouch used him and the rest of the Ashford student council members as hostages to fight against Suzaku.

Just as the Ashford group is still reeling from yet another blow at their confidence in how much did Lelouch really value their friendship, Cornelia sighs as she suddenly stands up, taking Guilford by surprise. "Your Highness, what are you…?" Guilford asks concernedly.

"To mop the milk my somewhat troublesome littler brother has spilled onto the floor," Cornelia says nonchalantly before walking towards the back of the auditorium and comes before Kallen.

The sobbing Kallen suddenly realizes the warrior princess, who is taller than her by almost half a head, is standing right in front of her.

"Your Highness…?" Kallen is perplexed. Before she can finish her sentence, however, Cornelia pulls Kallen into her embrace, stunning the sobbing red-haired girl.

"I'm sorry that you have to go through such unsettling emotional turbulence because of my unworthy little brother," Cornelia softly whispers into Kallen's ear as she gently strokes Kallen's hair. "I'm sorry."

Kallen is shocked at how gentle the warrior princess is; she has never thought that an ironclad woman such as Cornelia can be so gentle and caring to people other than Euphemia and Nunnally. Then, Kallen regains her sense and hurriedly says, "Your Highness, there is no need for you to apologize, it's not your fault at all…"

"I'd have made my little brother to apologize to you in person, but since he's no longer capable of doing that, it falls to me, his elder sister, to right the wrong on his behalf," Cornelia says, "I'm sorry, Kallen."

Cornelia calling Kallen by her first name strikes the chord in Kallen's heart. 'This… is just like the old days, when onii-chan had always got my back…' Kallen then sees a déjà vu of Naoto Kouzuki, her long deceased elder brother who always doted her when she was but a little kid. The mixture of nostalgia, relief and comfort that are flooding Kallen's mind have finally shattered her emotional dam completely. "Onii-chan…!" she exclaims as she buries her head deep into the elder purple princess' embrace, her shoulders trembling and her tears free-falling from her sapphire eyes.

Cornelia smiles and closes her eyes as she continues to hug Kallen tight and stroke her red hair gently, letting the poor girl to take all the time she needs to release all her long-suppressed sadness and ill-feelings away.

Nunnally observes the interactions between Cornelia and Kallen. 'Big Sister has taken a liking to Kallen even since she saw how Kallen used her old Glasgow to fight the Lancelot to return the favour to Big Brother and candidly thanked him for saving her earlier. It seems that had Big Brother ever had to choose a consort, Big Sister would most likely lend her support to…'

Contrary to Lelouch's high hope, Suzaku immediately raised his right hand again, pointing his gun at the man who forced the innocent Euphemia to soak her hands in a sea of blood just because he wanted to have the whole world in his hands. "Don't be ridiculous," the white knight bellowed.

"Ugh…!" Lelouch was taken by surprise. Hadn't his words reached his best friend's ears? Why did he not understand the situation? Why did he not get that Nunnally's safety should come before everything else?

Suzaku narrowed his eyes and stared at the man who so blatantly exploited and tainted Euphemia's name, dignity and honour for his own selfish ends. "Had you joined hands with Euphy first, we wouldn't be here in the first place! Had you combined forces with her, the world could've…"

"Everything's in the past, over and done!" Lelouch interjected, stunning his best friend.

"The past?" Suzaku cried out incredulously. Did the man who killed Euphemia just write her death off so easily by simply labelling it as a past event?

"You killed your own father, didn't you? Wallow in remorse when you have time for it!" Lelouch tried his best to pound in reasons into his best friend's fossilized head: the only important thing here was to cooperate with him and rescue Nunnally!

Sadly, Lelouch's "ends justify means" approach was in direct contradiction to Suzaku's belief in "means justify ends", and what Lelouch had just said only infuriated the stunned white knight even more.

"No, that's impossible for you!" Suzaku's voice and body started to shake in fury, his left hand reached up to his right to stabilize his aim at the man who sent a bullet through Euphemia's body and took the innocent maiden's life right before Suzaku's eyes.

"What?" Lelouch was perturbed. What nonsense was his best friend talking about? He should have immediately put everything aside and cooperated with him to save Nunnally, the one and only person that mattered in the whole world!

"In the very end, you'd betray the entire world, the way it's betrayed you!" Suzaku continued in an enraged tone, his right hand shook even more violently despite him using his left hand to try to stop the shaking resulted from Lelouch's proclamation to Kallen that he killed Euphemia and did all the other horrible things for the sake of having the whole world in his hands, "I must stop this sick, twisted dream of yours be realized!"

Lelouch had finally lost his patience, and decided to use another approach to subdue his best friend into cooperating with him to save his little sister. "You fool! Do you really believe the world can be changed by ideals alone?" he snorted, and then suddenly pulled out a small, pinkish device with a small green light from his pocket and attached it to his chest, "fine, shoot me if you want to! And I am giving you this liquid Sakuradite to aim at!"

"Nina, did you make that bomb for Lelouch?" Rakshata asks.

"What? No! I didn't, Dr Chawla!" Nina vehemently denies the accusation, her head and shoulders shaking. "I wouldn't…!"

"Relax," Cecile calms down the frightened bespectacled girl, "Rakshata was just curious, that's all."

"Wait, was that thing a mini-F.L.E.I.J.A.?" Ohgi asks urgently, catching everyone's attention. "If that's the case, then…"

"His Majesty's liquid Sakuradite device is more of an energy bomb than a nuclear bomb," Lloyd steps in and explains, "With that little amount of Sakuradite, it would not be able to attain sufficient energy and temperature to initiate the chemical reaction necessary for the process of nuclear fission to take place."

"Ok, I don't understand a thing about what you've just said, but all I get is that that thing is not a mini-F.L.E.I.J.A., correct?" Chiba asks impatiently, to which Lloyd nods.

Kallen squeaked as she saw her leader attached the liquid Sakuradite bomb onto himself. Her leader couldn't…!

"If my heart stops beating, this little thing will explode, and both of you will also be finished!" Lelouch threatened both his best friend and most loyal follower as he had eventually lost his patience.

"You bastard!" Suzaku screamed. How much lower could the man who completely destroyed Euphemia stoop?

Unfortunately, neither Lelouch's most loyal soldier's squeal nor his best friend's scream could move Lelouch by an inch. The bomb-attached raven-haired boy continued, "Alternatively, I'll make you a deal. Tell me who told you about Geass, and where are Nunnally and that person now?"

Equally unfortunately, Lelouch's brinksmanship tactic didn't work on the fearless and stubborn white knight who had sworn his unwavering loyalty to Euphemia and determined to cleanse and restore the wronged girl's tainted name, dignity and honour either. "What happens next is of no relevance to you!" Suzaku yelled, stunning Lelouch. Why would rescuing Nunnally not be relevant to him?

"Your very existence is an error!" Suzaku bellowed at the man who so brazenly fanned public hatred towards the blameless Euphemia for the deaths of the numerous Japanese at the opening ceremony of the SAZ of Japan for the sake of having the world in his hands, and it gradually became shouting, "You must be erased from the face of the Earth! Nunnally will be under my care…!"

Lelouch's emotional fuse was finally burnt. His best friend was a stumbling block that needed to be removed from the chess board after all!

"Suzaku!" Lelouch shouted as he swiftly pulled out and pointed his gun towards the stumbling block that impeded him from rescuing his younger sister.

"Lelouch!" Suzaku did the same and took aim at the murderer of his one and only liege and lover as well.

Both of them then fired their guns at each other, and Kallen squeaked at the Mexican standoff between her leader and her arch enemy who were once best friends, but stood polar opposite in their beliefs.

"No!" Tianzi can't stand to see Lelouch and Suzaku shooting each other. She screams and throws herself into Kaguya's embrace, while her elder Japanese friend hugs her tightly.

"Tsch, a standoff between two traitors," Chiba spats, "Kururugi betrayed his countrymen, Lelouch betrayed my countrymen, and both had caused us Japanese to suffer. What a pair of cowards."

"Well, Kururugi at least had a pretty legitimate reason to do what he was doing on screen just now," Rakshata adds, "after all, he had sworn his loyalty to Princess Euphemia, and it was his duty to see that his liege's tainted name be cleared and honour restored."

"Lulu just…" Shirley wants to speak up, but loses her words and can't go further. 'Lulu just wanted to rescue Nunna, but the way he did it…' she muses with sadness.

"Lelouch's a demon," Gino comments, "First, he abandoned his own army to a hopeless fight for personal reasons. Next, he discarded his most loyal soldier and called a truce with his most loyal soldier's arch enemy, who happened to be his best friend who had just lost his one true love to Lelouch, right in front of the said most loyal soldier who almost got killed by that arch enemy of hers. Then, Lelouch threatened to blow his best friend and most loyal soldier up if his best friend would not acquiesce to his demands. Finally, he pulled out his gun and fired at his best friend because the said best friend did not acquiesce to his demands. If he's not a demon, I don't know who is."

"I won't deny the fact that Lelouch was a military genius who had brought many victories to the Black Knights as Zero, but that man has no sense of camaraderie, friendship or kinship, spilling the blood of thousands of people not for any greater cause but for his own desire," Tohdoh scowls as he thinks back to all his countrymen who cheered for Zero at the stadium when Zero proclaimed the establishment of the United States of Japan, realizing that in the end, his countrymen had been deprived of both the opportunity to live a peaceful life inside the SAZ and the opportunity to become independent of Brtainnian oppression the moment Zero abandoned them for his younger sister, "he had no honour."

Most people in the audience agree with Gino's comment and Tohdoh's assessment on Lelouch's character, now having seen the truth hidden behind the dark curtain for so long. Not even the Ashford group speaks up against Gino and Tohdoh's words. In fact, the Ashford group is still reeling from Lelouch's apparent betrayal of friendship when he took them all as hostages to threaten Suzaku into submission. In the front row, Nunnally frowns with a tint of sadness at all these ill reactions towards her elder brother, but she has no other choice other than to keep her mouth shut due to the current political position her elder brother has put her into.

Zero, however, is thinking an entirely different matter. 'Lelouch, it seems that I have inadvertently foreshadowed what would happen in the future. I can't take back my words, and I still can't let go of the fact that you killed Euphy. However, I will reaffirm you this: I will abide by my own words and take good care of Nunnally.'


AN:

We have finally made it to the equivalent of the end of R1! Thank you all for your continuous support and generous reviews - they are what propelled me to keep writing this fanfic.

P.S. I foresee there will be questions regarding the reactions of the cast members to Nina's scene in this chapter, and my answer to those questions is this: please refer to point 3 in the AN in chapter 15.