Chapter 21: "Transgression" VII – Knights of the Round
"Suzaku!"
"Lelouch!"
Both of them fired their guns at each other, and Kallen squeaked some distance away from the two men. Everything happening right before her eyes was too surreal.
It turned out that neither bullets killed their respective targets: Suzaku reacted quickly to Lelouch's incoming bullet by moving his head to the left, causing the bullet to only hit his mobile communication device attached to his right ear; while Suzaku had aimed at Lelouch's gun from the very start, thus only pushing Lelouch's right hand back by virtue of the bullet's strong propelling force, giving Suzaku a long enough window of time to jump into the air and threw his signature spin kick towards Lelouch, knocking the raven-haired boy down onto the floor before he could re-aim his gun at Suzaku.
"Zero!" Kallen exclaimed as she saw her arch enemy subjugated her leader, reacting knee-jerkily to go rescue Zero from his enemy.
"He's Lelouch! The man who exploited the Japanese, who exploited you!" Suzaku yelled as he quickly pointed his gun at Kallen while still staring intently at the man who killed Euphemia as he was detaching the Sakuradite bomb from the said man's chest. Kallen, already shaken by what she had seen and heard so far, came to a complete halt as Suzaku forced her to realize who Zero really was and what Lelouch had said to her when he was outed by Suzaku.
"And you still want to protect a man like him?" Suzaku questioned Kallen as he finally detached the Sakuradite bomb from Lelouch and threw it away.
Kallen finally came to her sense amidst the huge confusion and doubt that was shown before her very eyes and occupied her mind respectively. Suzaku was right – the man behind the mask was not a faceless hero of justice or saviour of the Japanese, but Lelouch Lamperouge, a man who had just admitted and said right into her face that he exploited her and the Japanese for the sake of having the whole world in his hands, seemingly possessed a supernatural power that could force people to do things for him, who apparently cared nothing about the suffering of the Japanese, their struggles for freedom and independence from Britannia or Kallen's own feelings when she saw how her leader abandoned her at the drop of a hat and called for a truce with her arch enemy who nearly killed her just moments ago because she was trying her best to protect her leader, and who did not hesitate for a second before suddenly pulling out a bomb and threatened to blow everyone up if he couldn't get what he wanted from her arch enemy, having zero regard to her own life. The red-haired girl then closed her eyes, turned around and ran away from the two men with her heart completely broken.
Suzaku stood victoriously as Lelouch lay down on the ground, defeated. Suzaku stared at Lelouch emotionlessly, while Lelouch smirked.
"Zero, I will end your existence," Suzaku announced in a matter-of-factly manner.
Nunnally's heart sinks as she sees how the two best friends and two people closest to her heart fought against each other. 'Why? Why things had to be like this? Couldn't we have just lived peacefully together like we did in the old days, Big Brother and Suzaku?'
"This is so sad! Weren't they friends?" Tianzi is saddened by the scene of two friends fighting each other, even burying her face into Kaguya's chest when Lelouch and Suzaku shot each other. "Why do they have to fight each other like that?"
Kaguya shakes her head mentally and answers her young Chinese friend inwardly. 'That's because Lelouch had betrayed Suzaku, Euphemia, his Ashford friends and the Black Knights, while both Lelouch and Suzaku have betrayed the Japanese. Suzaku might have exaggerated in how he phrased it, but he wasn't entirely wrong when he accused Lelouch of betraying the entire world.'
"Tsch, so that's why Zero never returned to the battlefield and caused our defeat in the Black Rebellion," Tamaki spats.
"But if Suzaku-kun had defeated Lelouch right there, how did Lelouch return as Zero? Shouldn't Kururugi have executed Zero on behalf of Princess Euphemia already the moment he prevailed? Wasn't Zero's death the reason why the Emperor awarded Suzaku-kun a position within the Knights of the Round?" Tohdoh is confused. Why was Lelouch able to return as Zero one year after the Black Rebellion if he had been utterly subjugated by Suzaku on Kamine Island?
"I am confused as well," Gino adds, "I have always thought that Suzaku was elevated by His Majesty because he successfully killed Zero that ended the Black Rebellion, and the Zero that appeared a year after was not the original one. But that's certainly not true anymore since I now know that the original Zero was Lelouch from this screening event, and he obviously lived until nine months ago."
Guilford nods to Tohdoh's question as well. "General Tohdoh is right. As Her Highness' personal knight, Kururugi should have avenged Her Highness right there and then. I wonder what happened after Kururugi had subjugated Lelouch. Did Lelouch somehow find his way out of the situation?"
"Well, they did work together in the end to take over the world, so perhaps Lelouch somehow used his genius to convince Kururugi to work with him in the one year he disappeared from the surface of the Earth?" Rakshata says.
"But we have just seen how angry Suzaku was when he was tricked into Lelouch's trap, and the anger he had just displayed on the screen should not be fake," Rivalz points out.
"Nevertheless, it is a fact that they worked together to conquer the world at last, right?" Rakshata elaborates, "and while we know that Lelouch had already cast his Geass on Kururugi and couldn't do that to him again, we have also seen how good he was with words and how good he was with giving latent commands with those underground operators. Perhaps he somehow succeeded in persuading Kururugi to be his spy in Britannia."
"But we have just seen how Kururugi was not convinced by Lelouch to help retrieve Her Majesty," Guilford joins in the conversation, "so I am not sure how possible your conjecture is…"
"Remember the smirk on Lelouch's face just shown on the screen when he was subjugated by Kururugi?" Rakshata continues, "I don't think a defeated person would have smirked like that when being subjugated. Perhaps he still had some other tricks under his sleeve that had successfully turned Kururugi into a mole in Britannia. Kururugi may be strong in terms of body muscles, but Lelouch's the one who had the brain muscles. Once Lelouch had calmed down from his frenzy about rescuing Her Majesty, it was entirely possible that he came up with ways to convince or trick someone as simple-minded as Kururugi into helping him."
The audience falls silent for a moment to ponder the possibility of Rakshata's conjecture. They don't really think that Rakshata's conjecture is right, but at the same time, they can't think of a better explanation when they know that Suzaku was the polar opposite of Lelouch, in that the brown-haired boy was a man who justified the ends with the means, and there seems to be no other possible explanation as to why Suzaku ultimately sided with Lelouch in the end apart from him somehow being tricked by Lelouch into helping him.
Suzaku's apparent betrayal to Princess Euphemia has caused some uneasiness among the audience, Cornelia in particular. 'Kururugi, you had sworn your loyalty to Euphy. The scene up till now shows that you had your loyalty to Euphy intact up till that point of time, and I applaud you for that. However, what happened to you when you suddenly switched your allegiance and supported Lelouch instead?' the elder sister of Euphemia muses with a mixture of frustration and anger in her mind while still patting Kallen's head gently, not understanding why her dearest sister's knight would have eventually colluded with Lelouch, especially having just seen how the white knight subjugated the murderer with apparent fury. Now that she knows the whole truth behind the SAZ massacre and knows that Lelouch killed Euphemia out of mercy, while still angry at the fact that Lelouch had killed her dearest younger sister, the purple-haired princess is not so much holding grudge against Lelouch for the fact that he killed Euphemia, but more about how Lelouch destroyed Euphemia's name for his own objective and how he deliberately used his Geass to humiliate Darlton's honour, dignity and beliefs. However, the Suzaku at that moment should not know about any of these, and the only course for him to show his loyalty to Euphemia under that circumstance was to execute Lelouch on the spot to avenge her. How did Lelouch get out from that? Did Suzaku renege on his oath he had sworn to Euphemia?
Tohdoh thinks for a moment. 'When we confronted during the Battle of Mt Fuji, Suzaku-kun said that he just wanted a future. Could it be that Rakshata's reasoning is right – Suzaku-kun was tricked by Lelouch?' he then takes a quick glance at the current Zero and muses, 'I see, Lelouch must have promised a rosy picture to Suzaku-kun, leading him to believe that he could have achieved what Princess Euphemia wanted to achieve. And then when he found out what Lelouch really wanted was just world domination and abject terror, he realized his mistake and took on the Zero mask to…' "I see, Suzaku-kun is… was an honourable boy after all. He did not throw away the honour I had instilled into him during the kendo lessons when he was a mere child."
"…!" Chiba wants to retort, but she quickly halts herself when she realizes that it is her beloved husband speaking, and she definitely doesn't want to go against her husband's words in public. However, a great doubt occupies her mind. 'Kururugi was an unforgiveable traitor. I know he was dumb and I understand that he might have truly fallen in love with that Britannian princess, but did he really retain the last bit of his honour as a Japanese after having done what he did to Japan?'
Meanwhile, the Britannian reinforcement fleet was on its way to Area 11. Schneizel sat on the throne inside the flagship, with Kanon standing right beside him. In front of the 2nd Prince and Prime Minister of Britannia, a number of operators were communicating with on-site soldiers to collect the latest information and relay any orders from the Prince to the frontline. Suddenly, an operator turned back to the Prince and reported, "There's report from the Tokyo Settlement that Princess Cornelia was injured!"
Incredibly, Schneizel remained totally unfazed by the report and did not even twitch his eyebrows at the news that his younger sister was injured, calming staring blankly to the front. His aide-de-camp Kanon, however, had a question in his mind and asked his Prince, "Do you think it was Zero's doing?"
"I am not sure," the Prince casually answered as he put up his right arm on the arm rest and rested his head on his right hand, "however, if that's the case, then for Zero to be so sucked up by this chess piece known as Cornelia would be…"
"How dare he referred to Her Highness as a chess piece?" Guilford bellows in fury as soon as Schneizel on the screen finished his sentence. To refer the upright, noble and regal princess as a mere chess piece is an unforgivable insult, even if Schneizel was (and still is) the 2nd Prince and Prime Minister of Britannia!
Cornelia, on the other hand, remains unfazed at Schneizel's comment. She calmly walks back to her seat after having calmed Kallen down, and doesn't seem to care being called a chess piece by her elder brother at all, which does not align with the princess' character as most of the people in the audience know it: the purple princess should be fiery and easily agitated by unworthy comments against her, and she should have reacted violently accordingly.
This has piqued the interest of Rakshata. "Your Highness, forgive my curiosity, but aren't you offended by His Highness' chess analogy?" the tall Indian scientist asks curiously.
"There is no point to get angry with any chess analogy that comes from a chess addict," Cornelia answers, taking some by surprise with her bluntness, "in fact, for one to be considered a chess piece by a chess addict simply means that one is significant enough to be put onto the chessboard for the chess addict's consideration. In other words, it is more of a compliment on your ability than an insult on your expendability."
Ohgi, Tohdoh, Chiba and Tamaki are all surprised at Cornelia's apparent ease in shrugging off something that the four Japanese consider to be an insult when Lelouch did the same thing to them on the Ikaruga when being confronted about his real identity. Ohgi, who thinks that Schneizel is a good man, wonders if it was a cultural misunderstanding and decides to ask his Britannian wife quietly, "Chigusa, I still don't understand why Her Highness doesn't take it as an insult. Is it a Britannian thing to compare living people with some lifeless chess pieces?"
Villetta shakes her head and answers quietly, "I don't quite understand it as well. I think I would be pretty offended if I were to be compared to a chess piece. In fact, we've all just seen how agitated Lord Guilford was when he saw how Prince Schneizel compared Her Highness to a chess piece. Perhaps more than a Britannian thing, it is a Britannian Imperial Family thing."
"I see…" Ohgi says while inwardly thinks, 'okay, so this is just a family culture thing of the Britannian Imperial Family. It's good that I am culturally sensitive enough, or else I may have wronged Prince Schneizel due to cultural misunderstanding.'
The screen switches to the strange dimension with eternal dusk. An apparently sleeping Nunnally seemed to be waking up finally.
"Big Brother… huh? It can't be…?" Nunnally tried to called for Lelouch as she woke up, but then the resonating voice immediately alerted the perceptive young girl that she was no longer on Ashford property. The little girl was scared: where did V.V. take him to?
"Long time no see, Nunnally," suddenly, a majestic bass voice greeted. It was the blind and crippled girl's father and the 98th Emperor of Britannia, Charles zi Britannia, "when everything's completed, let me tell you what have happened, slowly," the Emperor then turned and walked away.
Right one stair step under Nunnally, a seated V.V. stood up as Charles took his leave. "Speaking of which, it seems that he was caught by that boy," he told the leaving Emperor.
"That bastard…" Chiba seethes as she sees the man ultimately responsible for Japan's suffering in for most of the last eight years. Ohgi, Tohdoh and Tamaki also growl as they once again see the 98th Emperor of Britannia on screen.
The present day Nunnally recalls that conversation, or rather her hearing the words of her father, in a strange dimension where the sound resonated a lot more strongly than what she is used to hearing. Now that she can see what actually happened in that dimension, she has deepened her believe that V.V. was also a member of the Imperial Family. The strange thing, though, is that she doesn't recall seeing V.V. on any of the government documents detailing information about members of the Imperial Family. 'I wonder where Mr V.V. is right now?' the Empress muses.
Cornelia, however, frowns deeply over two things that have just been shown on the screen. 'Father said he would tell Nunnally what had happened "when everything's completed", that means he was up to something that not even I knew. What was he up to? And did Schneizel know about it? Also, it seems that I am right to guess that V.V. was indeed a member of the Imperial Family, but judging on how he spoke to Father, he didn't seem to be father's son. And last I checked, none of my siblings have had any children, meaning that he probably wasn't father's grandchildren either. So, who was this V.V.? Could he be some lost cousin or nephew of mine? Why was he in that secret base located in a desert in the Chinese Federation?'
Back in the Tokyo Settlement, the Black Knights were losing the battle and they started to flee. Inside the G1, acting Deputy Commander Diethard Reid was ordering the troops to retreat, while a visibly distressed Kaguya was crying helplessly after learning the news that Zero had gone missing.
"That's right! Our mission has failed!" Diethard shouted through the communication system, face-palming himself with his right hand, "Inform all to retreat at once!"
"Retreat? To where?" Tamaki shot back incredulously through the communication system.
"Either go underground or overseas will do!" Diethard shouted back in distress.
Kallen, on the other hand, was retreating as she piloted the Guren away from Kamine Island. She was screaming in despair, tears gushing out her sapphire eyes as she finally realized she had been exploited and ultimately betrayed by the leader she had come to idolize.
And then there was C.C., who sank the Gawain into the sea with Jeremiah's Siegfried. The lime-haired girl was shown being drifted by the sea current as she was bleeding considerably.
Regardless of what happened under heaven, time moved on mercilessly as the screen showed the moon slowly turns from a full moon to a crescent one while the Earth was self-rotating.
Kaguya, Tohdoh, Ohgi, Chiba and Tamaki all think back their defeat at the Black Rebellion with a bad taste left in their mouth. Everything went so well for them and then suddenly, the whole thing crumbled because their leader abandoned them midway for unknown reasons, which they now know was because he wanted to save his little sister. They also know now how little they all meant to their leader compared to Nunnally or even Suzaku, seeing how Lelouch easily sought to call a truce with their arch enemy at the drop of a hat. In short, whether Japan was able to regain its independence or whether the Japanese could break free from the chains of Britannia mattered not to Lelouch; just as he himself had told Kallen, Lelouch simply considered what the Japanese members of the Black Knights were fighting for to be a side result of his own pursuits.
"Well, at least we were lucky to have the backing of the Chinese Federation and we're able to flee to there when all the chips were down," Ohgi comments as they are all sinking into their recollections of their escape to the most populous country in the world.
"And don't forget about me, I've helped you to connect with the India Military Zone leaders for refuge," Rakshata joins in the conversation in her usual relaxed tone.
"Of course, Rakshata, it… was thanks to you that me and Urabe-san were able… to hide ourselves from Britannia," Kallen, having just recovered from her emotional turbulence thanks to Cornelia's help, expresses her gratitude to the Indian scientist, and the said Indian scientist nods with a satisfying smile on her face.
"Kaguya, don't be sad!" Tianzi tries to console her friend as she sees how Kaguya cried with such a helpless expression on the screen. "I will always have your back!"
"Thank you, Tianzi, you are the sweetest girl I've ever known!" Kaguya cheerfully thanks her Chinese friend, in which the young Chinese girl smiles back at her friend as well.
Inside a dark, empty throne room, Emperor Charles was sitting on his throne, staring at the front with a stern face. Appeared before him were two people: Suzaku, who knelt to the Emperor of Britannia; and Lelouch, who was put into a straightjacket, his hands tied to his back and subdued by the strong and brawny Suzaku, who gripped Lelouch's hair and pressed his face onto the floor.
Charles gazed at his renegade son intently, before beginning to speak, "Lelouch vi Britannia, the former 17th Heir in line to the Throne. It has been awhile, my son."
"Tsch… you bastard!" Lelouch tried to raise his face from the floor to look directly to his father, but Suzaku applied even more force to press his head down. "I won't let you use your Geass," Suzaku said coolly to the man who sent a bullet through Euphemia's body and killed her. Lelouch grunted at the situation he was in.
Tamaki is the first to laugh sarcastically at the sight of Lelouch being subdued in front of the Emperor. "Ha! He should be happy for that, shouldn't he? After all, he'd got what he said he wanted right before the start of the Black Rebellion: to get the Britannian Emperor to face him one-on-one. Ha!"
The Ashford Group is torn on this. On the one hand, their feelings are deeply hurt by Lelouch's callous way of using them as hostages when fighting against Suzaku; on the other hand, their numerous interactions with Lelouch and their memories of the lazy, goofy yet kind vice president of the Ashford Student Council has caused them to be saddened when they see how Lelouch was subjugated before the ruthless Emperor of Britannia, who showed no emotional ties to his fallen son and daughter and whose eulogy to Clovis was nothing more than a raging political rally.
Nunnally is half-saddened and half-puzzled. She is saddened to see that her Big Brother was deemed to be a criminal by the Empire, but at the same time, she was also puzzled as to why Alicia Lohmeyer, Nunnally's advisor during her tenure as the Viceroy of Area 11, insisted that she could not go see her Big Brother because he suffered from amnesia. 'Did they lock my brother up in a prison cell? But if so, how did he get out of it? I'd imagine he'd be put into a maximum security prison with no chance of escaping, most likely with countermeasures against Geass in place…'
"I see, so Kururugi took him to His Majesty for a proper trial and sought justice for Her Highness," Guilford observes, "as expected from the boy who always insisted on doing things in the right way, to the point where he was willing to obey Prince Schneizel's order to die with Zero back on Shikine Island."
A row behind Guilford's, Tohdoh nods with approval of how Suzaku did things: it was indeed a more proper and honourable course of action to give a proper trial to Lelouch and have him answered to his crimes than to just execute him on the spot, which Tohdoh believes would be something that Euphemia would have preferred as well, now knowing that Euphemia was an honourable lady instead of the despicable Princess Massacre Tohdoh originally believed her to be prior to seeing the whole truth behind the SAZ massacre. "If that's the case, then a more probable explanation as to why Lelouch reemerged later would be that he somehow escaped from his prison confinement, possibly by using his Geass power. Suzaku-kun was eventually tricked by Lelouch to help him, just as Rakshata has just conjectured."
"…" Chiba once again stops short at saying anything contrary to her husband despite her instinct suggesting something else. 'So Kururugi really did the honourable thing? Could that father-killing and country-selling imbecile did that? I am confused…'
"Your Majesty, may I humbly ask you for a favour?" Suzaku spoke up, "Would I be so blessed to be admitted as a member of the Knights of the Round, the twelve strongest warriors of the Empire?"
"What?" Cornelia is aghast at what she has just seen and heard from the screen. "Kururugi, you…? You renounced your allegiance to Euphy just because you wanted to advance youself in Britannia?" she bellows at the scene with detectable anger. So Suzaku didn't execute Lelouch on the spot to avenge his liege, nor did he send Lelouch to a proper trial for what he did to Euphemia, but simply traded him to the Emperor for a position of power instead? To be awarded a position among the Knights of the Round for avenging Euphemia was acceptable since Euphemia no longer lives, but to abandon his loyalty to Euphemia and switching his loyalty to the Emperor instead without first asking for justice for Euphemia was simply an act of betrayal to Euphemia and a breach of oath! How shameless was Suzaku to do that?
Guilford is shocked at this 180 turn of event, not expecting Suzaku would have said such things to the Emperor. The loyal knight of the 2nd Princess of Britannia scowls at the scene with disapproval, "I can't believe it. Her Highness had just passed away and not even had her proper funeral at that time, yet Kururugi was already trying to switch his allegiance to His Majesty on his own volition in order to climb the ladders, abandoning the oath he had sworn to Her Highness?"
"As a reward for capturing Zero?" the Emperor inquired.
Lelouch was shocked and infuriated. Suzaku was going to sell him out to the Emperor for a reward? "You…!" he bellowed at his best friend incredulously.
"I have told you this before already, Lelouch," the cold and indifferent Suzaku said to the murderer of Euphemia and the real culprit responsible for the deaths of the countless Japanese at the opening ceremony of the SAZ of Japan, "I am going to change this world from the inside."
"Even if that means you need to sell out your friend in order to do so?" Lelouch demanded his best friend incredibly.
"Yes," Suzaku answered without any hesitation, not even bother to look back at Lelouch, as if the man who completely destroyed Euphemia was some sort of commodity for Suzaku to hand in to the Emperor in exchange of a position among the twelve most powerful elites of the Empire.
"Grr…!" Lelouch couldn't believe it. How dare Suzaku did that to him? Wasn't he his best friend?
"Tsch, so Kururugi was just a bastard and a heartless monster who abandoned his allegiance to the fallen Britannian princess and sold out his friend in exchange for a position of power in Britannia," Chiba spats, "but that's kind of expected – after all, he sold his country to Britannia in the first place by killing his father, then betrayed his countrymen. There was nothing to prevent him from selling his friend out and betraying his liege when he saw a chance to further elevate himself in Britannia." The hard-headed Japanese woman does not have any sympathy for Lelouch because of what he had done to her countrymen, the Black Knights and her JLF comrades, but she despises the treacherous act Suzaku was doing even more due to the cumulative crime Suzaku had committed in Chiba's mind.
"Suzaku-kun… where was your honour?" Tohdoh can't believe what he has just seen. How could Suzaku knowingly abandon his oath to Princess Euphemia and do such despicable things as selling out a friend for a position of power? That was certainly a wrong means to achieve the ends!
"Back in that cave on Kamine Island, Lelouch did scold Kururugi for being a fool who thought that the world could be changed by ideals alone," Rakshata says with a tint of frustration when she sees her conjecture isn't right, "I guess Kururugi heeded to his advice."
"Suzaku… how could you?" Shirley can't believe it. She may know about the truth of the Zero Requiem and that Lelouch and Suzaku had worked together, but she knows nothing about things prior to her contact with C.C., and Suzaku selling out her beloved Lulu to his merciless father who abandoned him and Nunnally when they were mere children was just a low blow from someone who had so far insisted that the means justify the ends. "How could you sell Lelouch out like that?" Shirley exclaims in astonishment. Next to the orange-haired girl, Anya also disapproves what Suzaku was doing on screen underneath her unbreakable poker face expression.
Both Milly and Rivalz are shocked as well. The docile, friendly Suzaku was selling his best friend for a high position in the Empire? Okay, perhaps not best friend anymore because Lelouch had killed his one true love, but still, not asking for justice but instead for a change of allegiance, thereby abandoning a previous oath to someone else was not something an upright knight should have done in the first place!
"Man, that makes Suzaku's speech about abiding by the rules back on Shikine Island pretty hypocritical," Gino comments as he shakes his head in disapproval as well, "I mean, Suzaku selling out Lelouch to His Majesty to achieve his goal of changing the world from the inside was essentially of the same nature as Lelouch exploiting Princess Euphemia's forced massacre to achieve his goal of demolishing the world and ushering it into a new era from the outside: both destroyed someone else's purpose of life to achieve something that they wanted. Plus he didn't ask for justice for his fallen liege first before being awarded a place among the Knights of the Round, which was the most problematic part of his action in his capacity as Princess Euphemia's knight. I don't think Princess Euphemia would have been amused by what Suzaku's doing here."
Charles liked Suzaku's answers to Lelouch's question. He then stood up from his throne. "I order you, now that you are a Knight of the Round, to cover Zero's left eye."
"Yes, Your Majesty," Suzaku dutifully replied and complied, also pulling Euphemia's murderer's hair to lift his face up. Lelouch grunted at the pain caused by the pull.
"You're a Britannian Prince, yet you rebelled against your own country. What an unworthy son of mine you are," Charles said to Lelouch as he slowly walked towards him and gazing at his son's right eye. "Nevertheless, there are still ways to use you," Charles then stopped right in front of his unworthy son while gazing at his right eye.
"What…?" Lelouch was confused. What was the Emperor talking about? And then, the most shocking thing happened right before Lelouch's still opening right eye.
"I am going to modify your memories. Those related to you being Zero, those related to Marianne, and those related to Nunnally," two red sigils started to emerge on Charles' eyes.
"It can't be… Geass?" Lelouch was utterly shocked. His father also possessed the power of Geass?
"What?" Cornelia slams the armrest as she sees the shocking revelation, exclaiming in utter disbelief and anger, "father had Geass as well?" How was it possible that more than one of her family members possessed Geass? Is her whole life of serving a capable father and emperor who brought glory to the Empire a lie? That everything was built with the power of Geass?
Next to the purple princess, Guilford is also surprised by the revelation. He may not be close to the Emperor at all, but he did respect how illustrious the Emperor's reign had been before Lelouch took over. However, it all now seems like a sham, knowing that the Emperor might have cheated by using a mind-twisting supernatural power to build his enormous empire.
"His… His Majesty also possessed such twisted power?" Gino asks incredulously, his body shaking uncontrollably due to a mixture of surprise, anger and fear. Cruel as Charles might have been, Gino still holds a large amount of respect for Charles' success as an Emperor, who brought wealth, land, power, glory and prestige to Britannia in just a single generation's time. The revelation that Charles may have achieved all those seemingly impossible feats because he was in possession of a mind-twisting power simply shatters the towering figure of Charles inside Gino's mind, who has always looked up to it and served as one of the Emperor's knights with pride.
"AHA! So even His Majesty Emperor Charles had Geass," Lloyd exclaims in his usual cheerful tone, as if he has made yet another scientific discovery, "Does that mean that Geass is a power only the members of the Imperial Family can have? Perhaps Your Majesty and Your Highness may… ouch!"
"Stop it, Lloyd!" Cecile immediately pulls Lloyd's ear hard to stop him from continuing his rather tactless and rude question to Nunnally and Cornelia. "I am sorry, Your Majesty and Your Highness! Dr Asplund has little knowledge in proper human interaction. He did not mean what he's just said!" Cecile frantically bows to the Britannia sisters and apologizes on her boss' behalf, fearing to incite fury from the warrior princess.
"No offence taken, Ms Croomy," Cornelia calms Cecile down, "and in fact, I think I ought to thank Dr Asplund for asking the question, so that Nunnally and I have the opportunity to explain ourselves to all those present in the auditorium." Cornelia pauses for a brief moment, scanning across the audience, and continues, "I do not possess Geass." The purple princess than looks at Nunnally.
"I do not possess Geass either," Nunnally picks up where Cornelia has left off, "and I speak with high confidence that Schneizel doesn't possess Geass either, for the simple reason that had he possessed such power, he would have used it long ago already."
Kaguya sinks into her thought upon seeing such shocking revelation and listening the discussion among the members of the audience on this issue so far. 'Since Nunnally, Prince Schneizel and Princess Cornelia don't possess the power, this rules out the possibility that Geass is a power passed down through the bloodline. We already know that Lelouch got the power by signing a contract with C.C. when he was cornered at Shinjuku. Does that mean Emperor Charles also signed a contract with C.C. in order to get his Geass? But how did that happen and when did that happen? And why did C.C. stay on our side if she was the one who gave Emperor Charles Geass?'
"Still, it was a shock to learn that Emperor Charles also possessed such power," Ohgi says, "To think that we'd been fighting with an enemy in possession of such a supernatural power all this time without knowing it…"
"Damn! Does that mean we couldn't have won without Lelouch?" Tamaki exclaims.
"What are you saying? We have Kyoshirou on our side…" Chiba tries to refute the outrageous suggestion Tamaki is making.
"But, if the Emperor had a Geass, how were we supposed to fight against him?" Tamaki points out.
Chiba wants to retort, but in a rare occurrence, she is out of words to shut Tamaki down. Tamaki is actually right: there is no way for them, mere mortals, to fight against the Emperor's Geass power! "Damn! So there was no way for us to win besides having Lelouch to be our leader?" Chiba slams the armrest of her chair hard, frustrated at the realization that her husband has been right all along: there was no way the Black Knights could have defeated Britannia or pulled more than 40 countries together to form the UFN without Lelouch. "To think that we couldn't have won without that demon who almost executed us nine months ago…!"
"I see… so that's why C.C. insisted that we must restore Lelouch as our leader back then…" Ohgi says as he recalls how after a period of time post-Black Rebellion, C.C. suddenly reappeared before the defeated Black Knights hiding in the Chinese Federation and insisted that they must go rescue Lelouch and reinstate him as their leader. Then, Ohgi realizes something else. 'Wait, I remember Kallen became extremely down when she met up with us in the Chinese Federation, and we now know that was because of what happened on Kamine Island. But then she suddenly became very enthusiastic about rescuing Lelouch after C.C. reappearing before us. Was that because…' "Kallen, did C.C tell you about Geass?" the tall Japanese man turns his head towards the younger sister of his deceased best friend.
"Yes, she did, after I told her what happened at Kamine Island and questioned her about Lelouch's glowing left eye," Kallen confirms Ohgi's guess. "After she had told me things about Geass, we then proceeded to plan how to retrieve him from Babel Tower."
"I thought your heart was broken already after being betrayed by Lelouch on Kamine Island?" Gino asks curiously. "Why would you agree to rescue Lelouch?"
"…because despite what he had done to me, it was undeniable that he was the reason why the Black Knights had been successful up till that point. C.C. helped me to realize that," Kallen explains with a tint of hesitation, not sure whether she should go that deep after it has been revealed to the audience that she was brutally betrayed by Lelouch on Kamine Island, "and so Lelouch had to become Zero again to finish what he had started for the Black Knights and for the things he said to me on Kamine Island... also, I needed to see him again to confirm something…"
"…to confirm whether he had used his Geass on you?" Milly quickly gets what Kallen wants to say, to which Kallen nods her head.
Meanwhile, Anya quietly observes the discussion and thinking happening in the auditorium with her usual poker face. 'Not there yet, still some more lines to connect the dots. Just you wait for it, Marianne, I am dying to see what Her Majesty and Her Highness' reaction would be once your true self gets exposed!'
"Forget everything and become an insignificant nobody," Charles continued.
"Stop it!" Lelouch yelled angrily and helplessly, struggling to turn away from his father's gaze, "do you intend to take them away from me again? My mother, even Nunnally?" However, Suzaku mercilessly applied pressure through his fingers and prevented the man who murdered Euphemia and destroyed her name, honour and dignity from closing his right eye.
Charles ignored all the struggling and cursing Lelouch was making, continuing to finish his Geass command, "Charles zi Britannia engraves into you…"
"Stop!" deep down, Lelouch knew he couldn't escape from what was going to happen, but he screamed nonetheless.
That didn't move his father by an inch, just as how Kallen's tears and Suzaku's heartfelt words didn't move Lelouch by an inch back inside the cave on Kamine Island. Charles continued to ignore Lelouch's struggle and said the final bit of his sentence to complete his Geass command to be cast on his renegade son, "…false memories of a false life."
Lelouch exclaimed in despair as his mind gradually fell into darkness.
"What can I say? 'Like father, like son'?" Gino sighs. He doesn't know what to say after learning something as astonishing as his liege actually possessed a supernatural, mind-twisting power, though he is not that surprised about how similar Charles and Lelouch were in terms of being merciless to other people: after all, they were father and son, and they both possessed the terrifying power of Geass.
"It sure was," Rakshata responds. The audience seem to agree with Gino's assessment as well, seeing how similar Charles and Lelouch were when treating other people cold-heartedly. Some of them, mainly the Ashford Group, actually feel bad for Lelouch despite the previous shocking revelations about how he apparently used them to fight Suzaku: to see someone they knew suffering from such cruelty, even if that person did pretty much the same thing to others, is nevertheless unsettling to witness. Seeing a quiet auditorium, Rakshata says nothing further on the subject.
Zero closes his eyes upon seeing this scene. 'It seems that C.C. was kind enough to omit what happened in Euro Britannia, when I was escorting Lelouch to Europe and made him to endure thirst while carrying out Emperor Charles' order…' he thinks back the time when he and the brainwashed Lelouch, then under the alias of Julius Kingsley, met up with Grand Duke Augusta Henry Velaines in Sankt Petersburg and seized his power with the Imperial Scepter, only to be overpowered by Shin Hyuga Shaing, the Grand Master of the Order of Michael, and his forces after he somehow saw through Lelouch's real identity during a chess match and partially weakened Charles' Geass effect on the brainwashed Lelouch, causing Lelouch to suffer from serious headache. Both of them were subsequently jailed by Shaing until Shaing somehow died in an operation somewhere, and the Emperor sent a brown-haired boy, who Suzaku had learnt at a much later stage of things to be Nebiros, to retrieve them back to Pendragon, where Charles once again cast his Geass on Lelouch to wipe out his memories as Julius Kingsley before placing him back to Ashford Academy.
As most people in the audience are still reeling from the fact that the 98th Britannian Emperor possessed the power of Geass as well, Cornelia suddenly realizes something strange. 'Lelouch was a rebel and terrorist against Britannia. Given how ruthless father was, he would have either sentenced Lelouch to death or locked him up somewhere remote to civilization. Either way, he didn't need to geass Lelouch; it would be redundant to do so.' And then she recalls that one key sentence her father said before casting his geass on Lelouch: "Nevertheless, there are still ways to use you". 'Does that mean instead of executing or imprisoning Lelouch, father wanted to use Lelouch to do something else? What did father want to use Lelouch for?'
After the failure of the Black Rebellion and Lelouch being geassed by Charles to forget everything about Marianne, Nunnally and him being Zero, Nunnally was being escorted and welcome back to Pendragon as Princess Nunnally vi Britannia, received by Ms Alicia Lohmeyer, a career civil servant appointed by the Emperor to be the blind and crippled princess' advisor. According to Britannian news reports, Nunnally disappeared during the Far East incident, i.e. the war between Japan and Britannia 8 years ago, and it was later revealed that the Six Houses of Kyoto had abducted her as their hostage. The news article further claimed that as Kyoto fell apart following the failure of the Black Rebellion, the Area 11 government, with the assistance offered by the Stadtfeld family, was successful in retrieving her and returned the princess home safely.
Kaguya frowns at how Britannia blamed the whole thing on the Six Houses of Kyoto. She may not be in good terms with the other members except Kirihara, but the false information disseminated by the Britannian media was an assault and insult to Kyoto as a group, which is something that she cannot accept.
Nunnally frowns as well. Back then, she was in total confusion when being sent back to Britannia, and even after she had assumed the position of Viceroy of Area 11, Lohmeyer was strict in controlling what sort of information would come her way, and apparently this news report about how she was discovered and escorted back to Britannia did not reach her desk.
Shirley, being the only Ashford person who has her true memory back and knows for sure that Nunnally had been attending and staying at Ashford Academy the whole time until the Black Rebellion, is shocked at how the Britannian media twisted the facts and buried the truth. 'They blamed Nunna's disappearance to some people who had no knowledge about her whereabouts at all, and they hid Lulu's existence as well!' she then recalls that time when Lelouch was asking her about what was happening in the Shinjuku area when Clovis was ordering a massacre there, and the news reported nothing on that besides saying that there was traffic congestion in that area. 'Just how much more truth was kept from us by the media?'
Suzaku was going to attend his first Knights of the Round meeting, and as he stood before the opening door of the giant and well-ornamented meeting room, a red dagger suddenly flew his way. Suzaku caught the dagger with apparent ease.
"Oh, it's you, the new Knight of the Round," an orange-haired man wearing a Knight of the Round white coat said with a playful yet condescending tone.
However, Suzaku ignored the attack launched by the orange-haired man and his condescending speech. He entered the room and introduced himself to his new colleagues gathered around two rectangular tables on an elevated and well-decorated platform inside the spacious room, surrounded by comfortable light purple armchairs. "I am Suzaku Kururugi, recently being appointed as the Knight of Seven. Please to meet you all."
"I am the Knight of Ten, Luciano Bradley," the orange-haired man introduced himself before continuing in his condescending tone, "I heard you were with Prince Schneizel's Camelot Engineering Crops previously. Did you get here through that channel? Or did you get here through Princess Massacre…?"
"Damn you, Bradley…!" Cornelia seethes, her fists tightened and rage rising up her head, "How dare you mocked Euphy…?"
"Your Highness, it is not worth it to be angered by such scums!" Guilford quickly tries to calm his princess down, though he himself is also irritated by how the former Knight of Ten so blatantly used the deceased 3rd Princess of the Empire to provoke her knight. Next to Cornelia, Nunnally frowns in disapproval as well. How dare he referred to her tragically killed sister in such an unbecoming way?
Suzaku immediately scowled upon hearing Luciano so blatantly insulted his true liege. However, before he could react, a tall, blond young man among the ranks of the Knights of the Round stood up. "Sir Luciano, please watch your words," the blond, young man warned as he stared at Luciano, in which Luciano stared back at the blond man with visible annoyance. His actions caught the attention of two of his female colleagues' attention, one with long, straight blonde hair and another with light pink hair tied up in a ponytail. The pink-haired girl took a photo of the two confronting colleagues.
The blond, young man then turned to Suzaku and smiled cheerfully, "I am Gino Weinberg, the Knight of Three. Please to meet you!"
However, Suzaku replied in the same distant, void-of-emotion tone. "The pleasure is mine."
Bismarck Waldstein, the Knight of One, smirked at seeing Suzaku successfully passed Luciano's "unofficial test" to new members of the exclusive club of the Empire.
As Suzaku approached the tables on the elevated platform, the pink-haired girl kept taking photos of her new colleague. This took Suzaku by a bit of a surprise.
"Huh? You were the one at Shikine Island…?" the pink-haired girl realized she had seen her new colleague somewhere before. The pink-haired girl turned out to be Anya Alstreim, who was on board of the Avalon when Schneizel was visiting Shikine Island not long after Suzaku was knighted by Euphemia.
"Hey! Those are us!" Gino says cheerfully to Anya, "I am finally appearing on the screen!"
Anya nods in agreement, but says nothing more.
"That orange-haired man is cruel!" Tianzi exclaims, "He threw a thick knife at his new friend!"
"That was a dagger, Tianzi. It is a weapon used in battle," Kaguya clarifies things to the Symbol of Unity of the United States of China, who until very recently was locked inside the Vermillion Forbidden City in Luoyang and still knows little about the outside world, "and Suzaku was not that orange-haired man's new friend. They were colleagues."
"Colleagues?" Tianzi is confused by the new term Kaguya has just mentioned.
"Colleagues are a group of people who work together, but they may or may not be friends," Kaguya explains, before playfully winks to the young Chinese girl, "but I will always be your friend."
"Yay! We are friends forever!" Tianzi cheers.
On the other side of the auditorium, however, comments are not so mild. "Tsch, so that bastard finally got what he wanted: a high position in the country that oppressed his own countrymen," Chiba spats, "What a coward. Not even his new colleagues, save one, seemed to welcome him to join them."
"Coward! Bastard!" Tamaki yells as well, but everyone ignores him.
Next to Chiba, Tohdoh closes his eyes and has a serious facial expression on his face. 'Suzaku-kun, didn't you see that not even your Britannian colleagues saw any honour in you? While I don't particularly agree in principle, I can still understand why you swore your loyalty to Princess Euphemia, for she was a genuinely good person who was willing to sacrifice her claim to the Britannian Throne for us Japanese; but to abandon your oath to Her Highness for a position of power in Britannia was simply going too far. In a sense, what you did was worse than what Lelouch did – at least he didn't bow to anyone to get what he wanted, whereas you bowed to the Emperor for this.'
Zero ignores all the insult against his real self and stares at the screen, recalling the day when he first met his Knights of the Round colleagues. He has been friendly to Gino and Anya while being indifferent to most others, yet he particularly despised Bradley. 'Only if I had the opportunity to duel and slay him for his transgression against Euphy,' he muses.
It was evening, and a nervous Nina was carrying a luggage while standing on the side of the pavement of a bridge. She was wearing a light green dress and a tortilla sunhat, despite the weather being foggy and the time was in the evening. Suddenly, a red sports car driving on the other side of the road turned 180 and drifted to a halt right next to Nina, causing the timid Nina to squeak a bit and took a few steps back. The window lowered and was revealed to be Earl Kanon Maldini, Schneizel's aide-de-camp.
"Would you be Ms Nina Einstein?" Kannon asked with a smile.
"Ye… Yes, I am," Nina responded nervously, quickly pulled out a letter sealed by wax from the side of her luggage, "this… is a recommendation letter by Dr Asplund."
"Yep, I've heard from him about you," Kannon said with a relaxed tone, "do we have the pleasure to have you to assist His Highness Prince Schneizel?"
Nina's trembling due to a mixture of happiness, humility, nervousness and timidity. "The… the pleasure is mine."
"AHA! Nina you were too nervous!" Lloyd comments nonchalantly, "Kanon wasn't that scary, was he?"
"N…No, Dr Asplund," Nina answers timidly, "it… it was the first time I was directly engaging a noble, so I was a bit nervous about that."
"Stop teasing Nina, Lloyd," Cecile scolds her boss as she pulls Nina into a hug, "Nina has been a commoner for all her life, of course she would be nervous when facing and talking to a noble by herself for the first time!"
"But I am a noble as well. She didn't seem that nervous at all when we talked here at Ashford Academy!" Lloyd protests.
"That's because your behaviour has made it hard to see you as one of them!" Cecile sighs in defeat.
"AHA! That just means I am special and amicable," Lloyd chuckles.
Inside a dark room of the Palace in Pendragon, Bismarck was briefing Suzaku on how to behave with his new identity as a member of the Knights of the Round while concurrently being someone who was born as a Number in a conquered Area instead of a Britannian. The discussion then drifted towards Geass.
"About Geass…" Suzaku asked Bismarck.
"Except your good self and me, none of the other Knights of the Round know anything about Geass," the Knight of One said, "of course, the members of the Office of Secret Intelligence (OSI) also know about Geass," Bismarck then turned his head to the back slightly and ordered, "Come!"
Behind the Knight of One, a woman with long, silver hair and a short boy with brown hair and violet eyes slowly came before Suzaku. "The person-in-charge is Lady Villetta Nu, and Nebiros will be shadowing Lelouch," Bismarck explained to Suzaku.
"That's Rolo!" Rivalz exclaims, "What were he and Coach Villetta doing there?" Milly, Gino and Nina are all confused as well: what was Rolo doing there? And what is this "Nebiros" thing?
"You are…" Suzaku looked at Nebiros intently. He recalled being retrieved by this boy from Euro Britannia where both him and Lelouch were being locked up in a cell by Shin Hyuga Shaing. So his name was Nebiros?
"Yes, I am. In this mission, my alias will be Rolo Lamperouge, and I will play the role of Lelouch's younger brother," Nebiros, or Rolo Lamperouge, responded with an emotionless face.
"I heard you possess a Geass that can stop your opponent's sense of time?" Suzaku asked.
"That's my ability," Rolo answered.
"So that's you, the one whose heart will stop beating when the Geass power is activated," Suzaku said in a matter-of-factly fashion, void of emotion.
Rolo lowered his head, narrowed his eyes and grunted, but said nothing more.
Villetta, who was recently ennobled as a baroness of Britannia, decided to help Rolo out. "His ability as an agent is first-rate. Furthermore, this mission is only to have him to shadow Lelouch to check whether his memory has returned. This can hardly pose any problem to him."
Suzaku stared at Rolo for a brief while before turning back to Bismarck, asking intently, "Lord Waldstein, why did His Majesty not only rewrite Lelouch's memory, but also the memories of all the students at Ashford Academy? Among the members of the Black Knights, there are those who fled to the Chinese Federation. I don't think it is necessary to let Lelouch to return to Ashford Academy as a student."
The screen then cuts to another scene, where Charles stood at his usual spot in the strange dimension with eternal dusk, his back facing a knelt down Bismarck, who reported his conversation with Suzaku to the Emperor.
"Oh? Kururugi said that?" the Emperor asked.
"Yes," Bismarck replied, "and although I have managed to convince him about placing Lelouch back at Ashford Academy as a student, there is a chance that Kururugi may realize that it was actually a trap to lure out C.C."
However, the Emperor simply smirked and was totally unfazed by what Bismarck was worrying about. "No big deal, such a trivial matter," the Emperor said.
Everyone in the audience is stunned by what has just been shown to them, for various reasons.
"I don't understand. So Rolo was just pretending to be Lelouch's brother the whole time?" Rivalz asks incredulously, "but I distinctly remember he has been there all the time…"
"That's because the Emperor had rewritten our memories!" Milly interjects with a tint of anger in her voice, "and Suzaku knew it the whole time!"
"I can't believe it…" Shirley is aghast. How could Suzaku do that to them? Weren't they friends? Shirley knows what Suzaku did for the world at the end, but she is still shocked to learn that the always stubborn and just boy had done such horrible things to her and her friends in Ashford Academy.
Nunnally frowns upon hearing what Milly has just said, recalling the fact that Suzaku had lied to her about the whereabouts of her elder brother throughout her tenure as Viceroy of Area 11. She has got over it after having spent nine months with Suzaku as Zero and realized what both of them did for the world, but her old antagonistic memory once again emerged at this moment when seeing how Suzaku knew what happened to Lelouch and kept the truth from her, and she feels a tint of anger towards Suzaku for keeping her only full-blooded brother away from her for more than a year.
"So that means that we have been geassed by His Majesty as well? But how come I don't remember it?" Rivalz is still confused. Nowhere in his memory can he recall he has ever met with the 98th Emperor of Britannia before!
"That's quite obvious," Lloyd chimes in, "When His Majesty rewrote your memory, he had also wiped away the part where you have met him in person from your mind, so that you don't remember a thing about it."
"I can't believe it… His Majesty rewrote my memory without me even realizing it?" Nina is shaking at the new revelation. She may be an insider of the Zero Requiem, but even she wasn't aware of all the intricacies related to the inner workings of Emperor Charles' court. Now that she knows the Emperor possessed Geass, it is quite clear to her that despite the fact that she had joined Schneizel's research team at the time, the Emperor, being the absolute ruler of the Empire, would have little trouble to get her in front of him and had her memory rewritten without anyone noticing. "I…" Nina shivers in fear at the new realization.
Current and former members of the Black Knights have a different concern, though. "Villetta, you were working under the Emperor and with that Rolo boy from the very start?" Chiba demands, "Why didn't you tell us anything about that?"
Villetta doesn't know what to say about that. "I… I deem that part of my life unimportant to the cause of the Black Knights, but I apologize for not telling you about that sooner…"
"Hell! Who to say that was unimportant to us? You might even have been a spy for the Emperor!" Tamaki yells.
"Stop it! Chigusa has always been on our side!" Ohgi immediately steps in to defend his wife.
"So you are saying that she was on our side when she shot you down during the Black Rebellion?" Chiba rebuts, stuttering Ohgi for a moment.
However, the Prime Minister of Japan decides to ignore what he considers to be a trivial point and continues, "Besides, she was the one who informed me about who Zero really was, and that Lelouch possessed Geass and how she suffered from it. We would never have known the truth behind the mask had she not been on our side!"
Chiba and Tamaki are still not convinced by Ohgi, however, and the two sides seem to be going to bicker on that further. Seeing that, Kaguya decides to jump in to rescue Villetta. "I believe the most important thing was that Villetta revealed the truth behind the mask of Zero, and the supernatural power that he possessed. Whether or not she had worked for the Emperor is a moot point; she was a Britannian military officer, and in theory, she had always been working for the Emperor before she joined our side."
Chiba and Tamaki feels that something is off in Kaguya's argument, but since they are not full time politicians, they couldn't find the flaw in Kaguya's argument. Adding the fact that Kaguya is now the Chairwoman of the UFN, they have decided to concede the argument to show proper respect to the young Japanese stateswoman who commands a great deal of respect worldwide. Separately, Villetta and Ohgi nods to Kaguya to show their gratitude as well.
"Well… gotta give credit to where it's due, plus she saved us from our execution nine months ago," Tamaki says finally, acknowledging Villetta's contribution to the Black Knights. Chiba doesn't say anything to show her tacit agreement on this as well.
"About Suzaku-kun," Tohdoh suddenly changes the subject, "by cooperating with Emperor Charles to geass Lelouch, he seemed to have thrown his honour out the window completely and accepted the use of Geass as a means to achieve the ends." The eminent Japanese general takes another quick glance at the current Zero and thinks in his head, 'so it was Suzaku-kun who actively sold Lelouch to the Emperor for a Knight of the Round position. This still doesn't fundamentally undermine Rakshata's observation that Lelouch's genius could have convinced Suzaku-kun to cooperate with him, but it would cast the doubt of why did Lelouch seek help from Suzaku-kun if Suzaku-kun had sold him out to the Emperor. Perhaps Lelouch had no other choice that he had to put down his grudge against Suzaku-kun? But that would mean that the two were merely exploiting the other to achieve their respective goals. Lelouch's goal was clear: to dominate the world. What was Suzaku-kun's goal though? Was it the same scenario in Rakshata's conjecture, only that Suzaku-kun was even dumber than I thought? But then if Suzaku-kun was still loyal to Princess Euphemia, then perhaps he stabbed Lelouch to death as Zero to avenge Her Highness after all? But that's too late, Suzaku-kun, it was only a very small drop of honour that you have regained after losing almost the entirety of it the moment you abandoned your oath to Princess Euphemia for a position of the Knight of the Round, as well as the things you've done to the world as the Knight of Zero.'
"Yea! That too!" Tamaki immediately jumps in once again, "I was too concentrated on Lelouch, I almost forgot about that father-killing and friend-selling bastard!"
"Well, what do you expect from the brat who not only abandoned his country, but actively helped the oppressors to oppress his own people as well?" Chiba spats. Now that the scenes are focusing on Suzaku, she finds it a waste of opportunity not to condemn the damned renegade son of the former Prime Minister of Japan who betrayed his own country.
Just as the current and former members of the Black Knights have started their tirade against Suzaku, the Britannia sisters are concerned with what their father said on screen. 'Father didn't execute or lock up Big Brother because Big Brother was used as a trap to lure out C.C.? Why did father want to do that?' Nunnally is both surprised and saddened by the fact that her father didn't kill Lelouch not because of paternal love, but because Lelouch was useful to him. It seems true that the Emperor did not care for any of his children. 'However, why did father say to me that after everything's been completed, he would tell me what have happened?' Nunnally muses in confusion.
Cornelia recalls an earlier scene where her father was laughing hysterically after Lelouch had geassed Euphemia into massacring the Japanese, and the seemingly preposterous observation that the Emperor seemed to have known who Zero was from the very beginning, but never intervened nor telling her or any other Britannian officials about the true identity of the masked terrorist. 'I see it now. Father's only objective was to lure C.C. out for his own plan that I still have no idea of. He never ever cared about Euphy's safety and well-being and exposed her to the dangerous power of Geass.' The purple princess grits her teeth, seething over the fact that her father had done nothing to prevent the mind-twisting power to ruin Euphemia's life and reputation. 'Damn him to hell!'
Zero is listening to the conversation and inwardly reflected on what his past self did, 'I have been fooled by Emperor Charles and Lord Waldstein into believing they were putting the Geass power under control, not realizing their ultimate goal. What a fool I was.'
Suzaku was having his regular communication sessions with Rolo, hearing his report on Lelouch's situation. Rolo reported that Lelouch's daily routine and his friendship with others had not changed, and the only possible concern is that the raven-haired boy liked to visit an illegal bingo hall, and Rolo intended to go and keep a close eye on him.
"Fine. I will be joining a campaign in Europe next week. If anything comes up, please contact Lord Waldstein," Suzaku instructed.
"Yes, my Lord," Rolo saluted before ending the communication.
Suzaku felt uneasiness even though what Rolo reported were all towards the good side of things. 'With his memory altered, Lelouch can no longer be considered as being guilty. Yet, why am I so irked by it? The current Lelouch doesn't even remember who Nunnally is…'
The scene then showed a beautifully smiling C.C., in her white straightjacket, drifted quickly by the sea current towards the camera.
"C.C.'s still in the sea?" Rakshata is amused, "just how long had she been in the sea for?"
"She's like a mermaid!" Tianzi exclaims, recalling the story she has read not long before this screening event.
"It must be a difficult time for her," Cecile sympathizes the immortal witch, "she must have her eyes constantly busted and eardrums constantly punctured by the high water pressure, and a hard time in avoiding all the aquatic predators like sharks, killer whales, poisonous jellyfishes, giant octopuses…"
What Cecile has just said scares Tianzi. "Oh no!" the young Chinese girl cringes at Cecile's overly graphic description on how C.C. suffered in the sea.
Just as Kaguya and Nunnally are trying to calm the cringing Symbol of Unity of the United States of China, the other members of the audience are irked by Suzaku's inner monologue. "Make no mistake, Lelouch's evil because of abandoning and exploiting us, but what the hell was Kururugi's thoughts?" Chiba spats, "who was he to judge whether Lelouch was guilty or not when he himself was equally guilty, if not more?"
"Hell yea! A hypocrite!" Tamaki yells at the screen as well, but nobody pays any attention to him.
Nunnally frowns at the scene again. 'I knew this long ago already, but to see Suzaku thinking it loud in his head…' the young Empress may logically understands that just as what her elder brother had done were in the past already, what Suzaku did to her that alienated herself from her dearest brother was in the past as well; however, she still cannot mentally act as if nothing upsets her when being directly confronted with such information.
"Despicable," Tohdoh mutters upon seeing Suzaku's thought. Internally, he feels sad to see that his former disciple has abandoned his honour for something as shallow things as power and prestige.
"…recorded," Anya takes a photo of the various reactions the audience is showing dutifully.
