Chapter 31: "Glorification" VI – Good Intentions, Evil Acts
A month has passed by since the Tokyo Settlement was obliterated by the F.L.E.I.J.A. Inside the rebuilt K-TV studio, Milly was reporting the news that Emperor Charles would make an important announcement at the Imperial Palace in Pendragon, noting that the Emperor himself had not made any public appearance in the past month.
-Pendragon, Capital of the Holy Britannian Empire-
Inside the palatial throne room, all the important members of the Imperial Family, high nobles, senior government ministers and heavyweight members of parliament congregated, waiting for the Emperor's arrival. Standing in the front of the congregated crowd were Odysseus eu Britannia, Guinevere do Britannia and Carine ne Britannia, 1st Prince, 1st Princess and 5th Princess of Britannia respectively.
'Odysseus, Guinevere, Carine…' Cornelia feels nostalgic as she once again sees her deceased siblings who were evaporated by the F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead Schneizel had dropped on Pendragon almost a year ago. She fondly remembers Odysseus as the only elder brother who always took care of all his younger siblings, never had any cross words with anyone and, starkly different from Schneizel, treated everyone with sincerity and no ulterior motive. As for Guinevere and Carine, while Cornelia might not have seen eye to eye with either of them, she still cherishes her bonds with them as sisters. It was such a pity that, to the best of Cornelia's knowledge, all three of them died because of Schneizel's heartlessness, to which Cornelia regretted not discovering it earlier than she should.
Nunnally also fondly remembers Odysseus as the gentle eldest brother who treated her with respect and gentleness after she returned to Pendragon after seven years of exile in Area 11, but she doesn't have much emotional ties with the other two elder sisters of hers: Nunnally hadn't interacted much with Guinevere throughout her time in Pendragon and was not that close to her eldest sister, while her relationship with Carine was not on the best of terms because of the two princesses' polar opposite beliefs, Nunnally being a pacifist while Carine a warmonger.
Villetta looks at the congregated high nobles and important figures of the Empire as she internally muses about her fortune and misfortune of being forced to join the Black Knights. 'I so very wished that I could join the high nobles inside the Pendragon Palace like that, but it was exactly because I wasn't able to that had enabled me to escape from the F.L.E.I.J.A. blast that annihilated the palace, thus sparing my life. I have also found the man that I love and who loves and cherishes me back in return. How strange was fate in fiddling my own destiny…'
Jeremiah, now seated next to Anya in the auditorium, stares at the high nobles standing in the crowd on the screen with contempt. 'Tsch, a bunch of venal parasites that sucked blood from the Empire for their own motives and gains…' he then salutes to the images of the three members of the Imperial Family on screen, 'Your Highnesses, I regret I wasn't able to save you from Prince Schneizel's attack on the Capital. May you rest in peace and know that our Britannia has become a better nation under His Majesty and Her Majesty's impeccable and steadfast stewardship.'
"Didn't somebody say that His Majesty was missing?" Carine asked. She was confused as to why her father suddenly called everyone into the throne room today after his unannounced one-month absence from his throne.
"Lord Waldstein was the one who reported that. Now he is gone as well," Guinevere said, also confused.
"As for Schneizel and the others, where are they?" Odysseus was more concerned about the whereabouts of his eldest younger brother and the Prime Minister of the country.
"No idea. There have been no words from Cambodia yet," Guinevere shrugged. She didn't really care much about what Schneizel was up to, but nonetheless responded to Odysseus out of respect to her only elder brother.
"Presenting His Majesty!" an Imperial Guard announced the entrance of the Emperor, and all those present in the throne room stood straight and remained silent as the Emperor made his entrance into the throne room. However, what they saw next shocked them, as well as the world-wide audience in front of a monitor: a raven-haired teen boy in school uniform walked into the throne room and sat on the throne.
"I'm the 99th Emperor of Britannia, Lelouch vi Britannia," Lelouch smirked and crossed his left leg on top of his right as he shredded his Zero mask and introduced his true self to the globe for the very first time. This caused an uproar among the attendees inside the throne room, Lelouch's brother and sisters among them.
"Huh? Is this for real?" Carine asked incredulously.
"You're still alive?" Guinevere couldn't believe it as well. Wasn't Lelouch dead eight years ago during the war between Japan and Britannia?
"That's right, Big Sister," Lelouch smirked as he turned and faced his eldest sister, "I've come back from the depths of hell."
'His Majesty had indeed come back from the depths of hell,' Jeremiah stares at the scene as he thinks inwardly, 'Lady Marianne was assassinated, him being sent to Japan at the age of nine as hostage in Japan, and then subsequently abandoned by the Empire… yet he made it back to Pendragon and became the 99th Emperor of Britannia. Lady Marianne must be proud of what her son had achieved. All Hail Lelouch.'
Kallen, Milly and Rivalz all recall how shocked they were when they first saw Lelouch suddenly appearing on the screen, sitting on the throne and proclaiming himself Emperor of Britannia.
"Dude, my eyeballs nearly popped out when I saw Lelouch appearing on the screen!" Rivalz says, "I thought I was dreaming!"
"I almost couldn't continue to report when I saw Lelouch appearing on the screen," Milly recalls, "it was one hectic day in my career."
'Lelouch…' Kallen muses. She knows what was going to happen next, but she nevertheless feels sad that she didn't understand the things he did back then until it was too late.
"I'm so glad to see you're back, Lelouch," Odysseus said with sincerity as he slowly walked towards the steps of the throne, catching Lelouch's attention, "when we've found Nunnally, I was wondering if you were alive as well…" the gentle man then paused for a moment before switching to a more worried tone, "however, aren't you carrying this joke a bit too far? That's the throne of our father…"
However, Lelouch paid no mind to the sincerity of his eldest brother and simply interjected him with a face filled with disdain for what he considered to be nothing more than a mediocre man, "Charles zi Britannia, the 98th Emperor, has been eliminated already, by my own hands."
"Wow… I thought Lelouch would have changed after he had learnt the whole truth behind the death of Lady Marianne and the plight he and Her Majesty had suffered, but no, he was still being unforgiving to His Highness Prince Odysseus, even though he knew that his own brother had nothing to do with his plight or his grievance to begin with," Gino observes.
"Well, you can't really blame Lelouch here, can you? I mean, all of them were shit," Chiba scorns as she points at Odysseus on the screen, "look at him, he looked just like his devil of a father, I'm sure he'd killed loads of people himself without a blink of an eye…"
"Mrs Tohdoh, I ask you to stop denigrating His Highness Prince Odysseus at once!" Jeremiah immediately steps in and demands. He doesn't really have a problem for Lelouch to talk to Odysseus like that because Lelouch was already the Emperor by then, but Prince Odysseus, being a member of the Imperial Family, was still someone Jeremiah would protect unless otherwise instructed by his lord and master, just like how he rescued Cornelia from certain death right outside the underground Geass facility in that desert in the Chinese Federation, but then subsequently confined her in that small room on the Ikaruga.
"What? I am just speaking the truth…" Chiba wants to shoot back at the teal-haired man who, by the way, actually assisted Lelouch's tyranny, but somehow was, alongside the numerous Britannian soldiers who served under Lelouch, pardoned by Nunnally shortly after her ascension to the Britannian throne, in the name of "writing an end to a tragedy that could otherwise go on and on and on… and for the world to come together to turn over a new leaf".
Seeing another argument is about to be ignited, Zero immediately steps in, "Please, Lord Gottwald and Mrs Tohdoh, this event is meant for us to learn the truth and the whole truth, not debating on facts and partial facts," the masked avatar of justice then turns to Chiba, "I think this has been exemplified quite clearly during the second disc, regarding the whole truth behind the SAZ Massacre and the role Princess Euphemia had in it."
"… fine, do what you want," Chiba hisses as she realizes that she must concede, owing to now knowing the truth behind the tragic end of Euphemia.
In the front row of the auditorium, though, Lelouch's disdain towards Odysseus irks Cornelia. 'Lelouch, how dare you…?' the purple princess thinks inwardly. She wouldn't mind had that disdain been directed towards Schneizel, but to direct such unjust disdain to the genuinely gentle eldest brother who truly cared about each and every one of his younger siblings is too much for Cornelia to tolerate.
'Big Brother…' Nunnally, on the other hand, is simply sad to see how Lelouch treated Odysseus so lightly and disrespectfully. She thought that Lelouch would have got over his hatred against his own family after clearing all questions pertaining to the death of his mother, the reason for his father to expel him and Nunnally herself from the Imperial Family and the real culprit behind that fateful night in Aries Villa. She also wouldn't feel too much if such disdain was directed towards Guinevere, who cared about nothing but a luxurious lifestyle; or Carine, who was a warmonger that derived pleasure from blood and violence. But for her Big Brother to do that to their gentle eldest brother who had neither wronged him nor had any problematic personal trait aside from perhaps indecisiveness simply showed how Lelouch didn't really fully recover from his PTSD, not even after learning the whole truth behind his very reason to hate his own family.
"What…?" Lelouch's announcement caused another round of uproar and disbelief among those who were present in the throne room. However, Lelouch paid no mind to them and continued, "Hence, I shall be the next Emperor!"
"What the hell are you saying? That's impossible!" Carine said incredulously. How could a long-lost brother of hers suddenly come out of nowhere, claiming that he had killed their father and declaring himself Emperor of Britannia?
"Remove that fool from the throne! He's guilty of murdering His Majesty the Emperor!" unlike the gentle Odysseus who was genuinely happy to see his long lost brother back to their family, the petulant Guinevere immediately turned to the back of the throne room and peremptorily ordered a group of elite Imperial Guards to remove Lelouch from the throne, showing no mercy or kinship to her resurfaced younger half-brother. The elite soldiers acted immediately upon the order of the 1st Princess of Britannia, starting to rush to the throne with their halberds. However, Lelouch simply stared at the guards without flinching.
Suddenly, someone else in student uniform jumped down the ceiling, doing a spin kick to send all the approaching Imperial Guards into the air and away from the throne and Lelouch. This someone landed right in front of Lelouch, gradually stood up and stared at the crowd intently. It was Suzaku Kururugi, the MIA Knight of Seven after the Black Knights' Second Assault on Tokyo Settlement almost a month ago.
"Suzaku… why?" Kallen couldn't believe what she saw on the screen. Why would Suzaku, Lelouch's mortal enemy, be joining Lelouch?
"Allow me to do the introduction," Lelouch smirked as he started to speak again to the stunned crowd in the throne room and to the international audience while Suzaku moved a bit to the side to allow the camera to capture both him and Lelouch on screen, "this is Suzaku Kururugi, my personal knight. He shall henceforth be known as the Knight of the Round that is above all other Knights of the Round, to which I grant him the title 'Knight of Zero'."
"He's spinning again!" Tianzi exclaims. The scene reminds her of the first spin kick Suzaku had thrown at Lelouch in Shinjuku, both in person and in a Knightmare Frame fight.
"Well, he loved spinning, obviously," Kaguya jests.
"That's so cool, though…" Rivalz is once again envious about Suzaku's physical abilities. If he could be as half fit as Suzaku was, then perhaps Milly would…
At the back of the auditorium, the two geniuses are looking at the scene with apparent amusement. "Two boys in student uniform taking over the Holy Britannian Empire just like that. What a scene," Rakshata remarks as she chuckles.
"AHA! That looks quite cool though!" Lloyd says cheerfully, "very novel and very sharp if you ask me!"
Back at the Ashford Group, Kallen is thinking inwardly. '"The Knight of Zero'… the knight who served Zero,' the red-haired girl murmurs as she stares at the same scene that got her confused the previous time, now understanding everything beneath the facade Lelouch was portraying to the world. 'I should have been your "Knight of Zero", Lelouch… why did you once again choose Suzaku over me?' She recalls that moment at Kamine Island when Lelouch chose to ask for assistance from Suzaku to rescue Nunnally instead of from Kallen herself. Of course, having guessed the true nature of the Zero Requiem herself and now knowing that Lelouch truly cared about her, Kallen fully understands why Lelouch didn't choose her to be the Knight of Zero from a rational perspective, but it was still a difficult pill for Kallen to swallow from an emotional perspective. 'I'm your Queen, your Knight, your most loyal soldier, Lelouch. If you so desired, I would be more than happy to… to…' her face then blushes at the imagination of a scene where she plays a similar role Marianne had to Charles.
In a separate room in Cambodia, Bismarck, Gino, Nonette and Monica were all staring at the monitor with contempt.
"Just as I thought…" Bismarck glowered.
"Suzaku…" Gino scowled at the absurd scene as well. How could he abandon his oath of allegiance to the Emperor and sided with Lelouch, who publicly proclaimed himself to have killed the Emperor and usurped the throne?
Meanwhile, on the Ikaruga, Kaguya was also staring at the monitor intently, but didn't say anything.
"Sir Bismarck, Dame Monica…" the present Gino mutters as he saw his deceased colleagues once again. The tall, blond man holds great respect to the Knight of One, who was the leader and mentor to all other Knights of the Round; Gino also has a good working relationship with Monica, who was always gentle to everyone outside battle and held no prejudice against anyone, including Suzaku, an Honorary Britannian. The fact that Suzaku mercilessly killed Monica with no remorse, even though they had become enemies at that time, upsets Gino a lot. In between Jeremiah and Shirley, Anya also seems to miss Monica as well, though she has remained her poker face and makes it difficult for others to tell what she is thinking exactly at the moment.
In the front row, Guilford is curious about the current whereabouts of another Knight of the Round. "Your Highness, do you know where Lady Enneagram is right now?"
This, quite rarely, send shivers down Cornelia's spine. "Well, who knows? But I am sure she's having a lot of fun with the Glinda Knights," the warrior princess shrugs, trying not to think too much of her rather difficult senior back at the military academy they both attended.
"Well… I guess I have to wish Lady Zevon all the best as the new leader of the Glinda Knights, then," Guilford sighs. As Cornelia's personal knight and lover, the bespectacled man knows perfectly well how difficult it could be when dealing with that carefree woman, and he can only hope that Oldrin Zevon, the current leader of the new Glinda Knights, is able to contain that wild woman and doesn't let her run rampage, something that even the Witch of Britannia would have a hard time to do…
"That's no good, Lelouch and Lord Kururugi," Odysseus kept trying his best to persuade his younger brother and the Knight of Seven that doing such things in front of a camera was not a good idea, "to pull a trick like this in front of international broadcast…"
"Is that so? Then allow me to make it simple for you to understand," Lelouch once again ignored his eldest brother's earnest plead, stood up from the throne and took away his contact lenses, revealing two Geass Sigils on his eyes before declaring loudly while staring at everyone in the throne room, "Acknowledge me as Emperor!"
"I insist that you stop joking around like…" Odysseus continued to try to talk his younger brother out of his trick, but sadly, he couldn't finish his sentence before the power of Geass twisted his mind that compelled him to say, "Yes, Your Majesty!"
"All Hail Lelouch!" Guinevere and Carine, both geassed, saluted their estranged brother that they otherwise would not have paid any heed to.
"All Hail Lelouch! All Hail Lelouch! All Hail Lelouch! All Hail Lelouch! All Hail Lelouch! All Hail Lelouch! All Hail Lelouch…!" everyone in the throne room were geassed and saluted Lelouch as well, who smirked evilly. Behind the side entrance to the throne room, C.C. narrowed her golden eyes as she gazed at Lelouch disapprovingly.
Villetta looks at the scene and feels relieved again that she did not end up in that room that she had always dreamt to have been in before she met Ohgi. She also can't thank enough for Cornelia's timely advice when they parted on the Ikaruga that had led her to choose the right path of building a happy family with the man she loves with all her heart.
Meanwhile, Chiba is irritated. "Just like that? He just geassed everyone like that?" she spats, "He forced everyone to acknowledge him as the Emperor of Britannia, especially after his grand standoff against his parents that involved himself lecturing them not to force their 'good' intentions onto others?"
"Tsch, he just wanted to be Emperor and controlled everyone else!" Tamaki snorts as well, once again losing faith in his "best bud" as the screen compels the red-haired Japanese man to recall what Lelouch had done to the world and to Tamaki personally.
"I don't understand," Rivalz asks frustratingly, "after he'd learnt the whole truth from his parents, he still geassed his brother and two sisters with no hesitation, even knowing that they played no role in his mother's 'death'?"
"Well, such is the traditional way imperial siblings treating one another," Tohdoh comments, "they were rivals to the throne, plus they were conceived by different mothers, so I guess Lelouch had never been close to any of the three of them."
Kaguya listens to the conversation and thinks inwardly. 'Well, there are so many anomalies to what General Tohdoh has just said, though, such as Lelouch to Nunnally, Princess Cornelia to basically all of her siblings and especially Princess Euphemia, V.V. to Emperor Charles, and so on. The Britannian Imperial Family was one true special and spectacular group to behold, mixing obsessive kindness and callous manipulation together…'
It was a few days after Lelouch had proclaimed himself the 99th Emperor of Britannia. A group of Britannian units led by Bismarck Waldstein, the Knight of One, was quickly approaching Pendragon.
"Lelouch vi Britannia is not the one who succeeds the previous Emperor's desires and wishes," Bismarck announced, "this is the time to show where our loyalty lies!"
"What could a long-lost prince possibly do even if he returned out of nowhere…? Huh?" Dorothea Ernst, the Knight of Four, snorted before she noticed something on the screen of her Palamedes Knightmare Frame. "An interceptor? Just one?" the ebony Knight asked incredulously.
The screen then showed a serious-looking Suzaku inside the cockpit of the Lancelot. However, this Lancelot seemed to be different from the one before: it has a pair of green energy wings attached to it.
"That was a tough time!" Lloyd exclaims as he recalls the days he, Cecile and the Camelot staff were working day and night to upgrade the Lancelot to the point where it could match with the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight Elements, "we just had one month to finish all the upgrades, but we did it at last!"
"Yes, that was a tough time," Cecile sighs as well, "and the upgrades were actually not a full but expedite one, so in terms of spec, the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight Elements was still a bit better than the Lancelot Albion."
"Well, now you know how great my child was, Earl of Pudding and Cecile?" Rakshata chuckles after hearing what Cecile has just said, "my Guren was unmatched by any other Knightmare Frame."
"AHA! But I also did the upgrade on that thingy," Lloyd snaps back, "she is technically our brainchild."
"That's because you tampered with my child without my consent!" Rakshata shoots back, "how dare you…?"
"Stop it, you two!" Cecile immediately steps in to stop the bickering of the two scientists, "why do you have to fight over this again like that? And for the record, I was the one who put the energy wings onto the Guren…!"
"As long as I have this Lancelot Albion…" Suzaku muttered as he suddenly launched his Knightmare Frame in lightning speed, shocking Dorothea. "I can't track it…! Huh?" she then realized something was wrong as her Palamedes was shaking. "I… got hit…?" and then her Knightmare Frame exploded, and the heroic Knight of Four was no more.
"Hmph? So that is the Albion?" Bismarck saw the destruction of Dorothea's Knightmare Frame and looked back at the Lancelot Albion. As the Lancelot Albion started to shoot green energy bullets from its energy wings, the Galahad dodged them while most other Britannian units were destroyed.
"So this is what a 9th Generation Knightmare Frame can do…" Monica observed, but before she could finish her sentence, the Lancelot Albion suddenly appeared right in front of her Florence Knightmare Frame and pointed its VARIS particle rifle at the Florence. "Suzaku Kururugi…!" Monica tensed up and tried to react, but sadly, before she could have done so, her Florence was already sent into flames, and the comely blonde Knight of Twelve was no more either.
"Dame Dorothea, Dame Monica…" Gino sighs with great sadness and regret as he sees his former colleagues vanished on the screen, especially Monica. He was concurrently fighting Suzaku at that moment, so he didn't have much attention or time to spare a thought for her, but now watching the scene from a 3rd person perspective, he just feels down to see one of his friendly and capable colleagues had fallen because of Lelouch's unilateral and unrecognized usurpation of the Britannian throne. Next to Shirley, Anya is also saddened to see Monica, one of her friendlier colleagues, got caught in a fight that, although for an ultimately good and laudable cause, nevertheless sacrificed a lot of people who shouldn't be in the process. The pink-haired girl, however, keeps her perfect poker face intact and doesn't let her emotion spills out of her mind.
In the front row of the auditorium, Cornelia frowns as well. 'Lady Ernst and Lady Kruszewski… Two excellent warriors loyal to Britannia fell because of Lelouch and Kururugi…' as the warrior princess, she prized capable fighters and Knightmare Frame pilots, and to see the two capable lady warriors died like that is something Cornelia feels painful to witness.
Inside his mask, Zero apologizes to both Dorothea and Monica internally. 'Lady Ernst, Lady Kruszewski, I held no grudge against you. I'm sorry that you had been caught into the fight between Lelouch and Schneizel, and that you probably never knew what Schneizel was trying to do, but such was the risk and destiny of soldiers who battled on the wrong side of the battlefield. May you rest in peace now and know that the world has since become a better place to be.'
As Suzaku was mercilessly slaughtering his former colleagues, Gino tried to hammer reason into Suzaku's head. "Open your eyes, Suzaku!" the tall blond man yelled through the communication channel, "it's still not too late for you to return to the right side!"
"Return to the right side?" Suzaku shot back as he was destroying the Tristan's two Megiddo Harkens one by one, "it's the opposite, Gino. If you have sworn fealty to Britannia, you should join me instead! Or are you planning to fight against Britannia?"
This has greatly shaken Gino's mind. "Fight against Britannia… Ugh!" Suzaku took advantage of this tiny slit of opportunity to disable the Tristan, causing it to fell onto the ground.
'To keep fighting for His Majesty even if it was against former friends and allies… that's true loyalty,' next to Anya, Jeremiah nods to Suzaku's devotion to the Zero Requiem plan, 'I misjudged him during the 2nd Assault on Tokyo Settlement. He's the true Knight of Zero.'
'Suzaku…' Shirley looks at the screen worriedly. Being one of the few who actually knows Zero Requiem, Shirley can see that while Suzaku had already refrained himself from engaging in an all-out battle to preserve his first true friend among the Knights of the Round, the new Knight of Zero still had to basically seal his heart and mind off when fighting Gino.
However, unlike Jeremiah and Shirley, who both know the truth behind the Zero Requiem, Gino, even to this day and after watching the footage recorded in the previous two discs, still doesn't understand Suzaku's sudden change in belief and allegiance. 'Why, Suzaku? What were you trying to achieve with Lelouch by staging a coup d'etat and illegally overthrew His Majesty, the one liege that a real Knight of the Round was supposed to be loyal to?'
"Suzaku Kururugi! I have heard that your goal was to become the Knight of One. However…" Bismarck manoeuvred his Galahad to draw out its Excalibur sword as the Lancelot Albion was attacking the Galahad with its slash harkens, "I am the one and only Knight of One! I shall not hand the position to you!" As Bismarck asserted his claim to the honourable title, the stitch covering his left eyes was broken, revealing a Geass Sigil as he opened his left eye.
"I am the Knight of Zero, who has surpassed the Knight of One," Suzaku countered.
"For such a title lacking in honour…!" Bismarck bellowed as the two Knights engaged in battle in the air. Although the Lancelot Albion enjoyed a significant generational advantage against the Galahad, the Galahad was able to hold his ground and used its slash harkens to swing away the Lancelot Albion from Suzaku's intended trajectory.
"How come he knew where I was piloting the Lancelot Albion to?" Suzaku was stunned.
"My Geass allows me to see into the future!" Bismarck said as the screen suddenly turned red and showed the trajectory of the Lancelot Albion in the next few seconds. The Galahad immediately used its Excalibur sword to hit at the Lancelot Albion's MVS, causing the latter Knightmare Frame to be thrown away from its trajectory again, shocking Suzaku once more.
"To think that I would actually use this power besides fighting Lady Marianne…" Bismarck smirked as he recalled the good old days when he challenged "Marianne the Flash", the strongest Knightmare Frame pilot of his generation.
'Lady Marianne… I see, so even the Knight of One was no match to "the Flash" of the Empire,' Jeremiah muses, 'Your Highness, you were truly superb. I am proud to offer my complete loyalty to you, your son and now your daughter. I hope you will be proud of the great things His Majesty, your son had done for the world.'
"…" next to a clearly exhilarated Jeremiah, Anya keeps her lips tight and refrains from saying anything about the scene. She has since expelled the ill feelings towards Marianne that had burdened her mind when Nunnally and Cornelia came before her to apologize for the atrocities the deranged raven-haired woman had done to her, but that doesn't mean that she can let go of her vengeful feelings against Marianne, so she naturally feels frustrated when she sees how Jeremiah, her business partner and caretaker, gets all excited about the mentioning of the woman she hates the most. Nevertheless, Anya understands how zealously loyal Jeremiah is to the woman, and she doesn't want to start an argument with him that she knows Jeremiah would never yield. She also realizes that she can never tell Jeremiah about the footage shown to the audience about Marianne before his arrival at the auditorium, and she is now thankful for all the additional orders some people somewhere in the world have placed that made Jeremiah to have to run additional errands to do the delivery today and arrived late for the screening event.
"So that's it, even the Knight of One possessed the power of Geass, even though he seemed to have sealed such power until this moment," Cornelia snorts even though she had guessed it by virtue of the close relationship between the 98th Britannian Emperor and the Knight of One. Cornelia would have been excited to learn from Bismarck that even he could not fight against Marianne without his Geass, but now that the purple princess had learnt of the truth behind the perfect mask of the 5th Imperial Consort to the 98th Emperor of Britannia, she simply doesn't feel any excitement when hearing great things about "the Flash" of the Empire anymore.
"To think that the Knight of One had Geass as well… it seems that the true strength of the Empire did not lie in its technology, but its control over this supernatural power," Guilford comments with a tint of disappointment. As an upright warrior of the Empire, he used to believe that it was technology and the hard work of the Britannians that had built what Britannia was before Lelouch took over the helm, "how wrong I was…"
"Seeing into the future… that means Sir Bismarck has the power to foresee any moves made by his opponent," Gino observes, "but still, even though he had sealed that power, he's still the mightiest knight of the Empire… his strength was almost immeasurably great."
"All of my moves were predicted with precision!" Suzaku bellowed, "However…!"
"Suzaku, I am broadcasting this battle to the whole world," Lelouch spoke through the monitor to Suzaku.
"That's right, for the sake of the Zero Requiem, I shall not be defeated!" Suzaku responded.
"Therefore, you must live!" Lelouch ordered.
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Suzaku replied with force as two red rings encircled his green pupils.
Meanwhile, Bismarck continued to use his long-sealed Geass to predict the trajectory of the Lancelot. "The title of the mightiest knight of the Empire shall always appeared with my name…! What?" the invincible Knight of One declared as he once again exerted his dominance in the Holy Britannian Empire. However, he was then shocked as he noticed that the predicted trajectory of the Lancelot was becoming shorter and shorter, leaving less and less reaction time for Bismarck to react on. 'Is it due to machine performance? Or is it Kururugi's…'
Inside the throne room, Lelouch was observing the battle between Suzaku and Bismarck. 'Suzaku possesses extraordinary will power, and he even turned my Geass command "to live" into his own weapon. You're indeed superb.'
"Even if my moves were all predicted, how about this?" Suzaku shouted as he piloted his Lancelot Albion to launch a head-on attack on the Galahad.
"Head on?" Bismarck was infuriated. How dare Suzaku insulted him by giving up on trying a bit harder to fight him?
"AHA! Look at how great my Lancelot was performing!" Lloyd is excited to see how his Lancelot had dominated the Galahad, the most powerful 7th Generation Knightmare Frame ever built.
"Lord Waldstein did hold his ground, though," Cecile comments, "and even though he was using the power of Geass, it's actually very impressive that he could do that despite the significant generational disadvantage between the two Knightmare Frames and the fact that Suzaku is… was an excellent pilot who had been using the Lancelot for almost two years. Recall how the Lancelot couldn't even make a scratch on the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight Elements back during the 2nd Assault on Tokyo Settlement."
"Well, and don't forget that MVS Excalibur," Rakshata chimes in, "even when being divided into two and equipped on the Tristan Divider, each one of them was still extremely powerful. Imagine how powerful they were when still as one single MVS sword."
"And Lord Waldstein said he needed the power of Geass to fight Lady Marianne in her Ganymede," Lloyd adds, "I so wish I had Her Highness as my devicer! It would have been great… ugh!"
"Stop being disrespectful to Lady Marianne!" Cecile immediately stops Lloyd by pulling his left ear, fearing of attracting the ire of Cornelia and Nunnally.
"But… ok…" Lloyd wants to keep going on, but shuts his mouth upon seeing how serious Cecile's face is. As tactless as he sometime is, being an earl of the Empire, he still knows that there are certain boundaries that one should not cross, at least not too often.
Kallen listens to the discussion amongst the Knightmare specialists in the auditorium. 'They are right, for someone who could hold his ground when there was a two-degree generational disadvantage in Knightmare Frame combat to claim that he actually needed to use Geass in order to fight Lady Marianne… I wonder why Lelouch didn't inherit any of her genius in being a Knightmare Frame pilot, though? Hadn't he perfectly inherited her acting ability and beauty?' Kallen wonders. And then something strikes her mind as she gazes at Nunnally at the front row, 'wait, children usually inherit from both of their parents. Lelouch had inherited the beauty and the acting ability of his mother, and he probably inherited that ruthlessness and smartness from his goddamn of a father… would that mean that had Nunnally not been shot in her legs, she might have…?'
The infuriated Knight of One then manoeuvred his Galahad to be in a strike pose. "Are you looking down on me?" Then, the two Knightmare Frame crossed swords and quickly separated from each other.
"Ugh…!" Bismarck realized something went wrong as his Galahad started to divide into two pieces. It can't be…!
"Lady… Marianne…" Bismarck muttered his last words before the Galahad exploded, and the Knight of One was no more as well. The Excalibur that the Galahad used was divided into two and fell down, plunging into the ground.
On the ground, a frustrated Gino inside the cockpit of his damaged Tristan was still trying to reason out where he should have stood. "Am I… a Britannian? Or am I… what should I fight for right now?" the blond knight yelled as he punched the side of his cockpit, not knowing what should he do and who should he fight for.
"That's a smart move Kururugi had taken," Guilford comments, "by going heads on, it reduces the fight to a mere contest between machine performance and piloting skills, in which Kururugi trumped the Knight of One by a large margin in the former and perhaps by a horse nose in the latter thanks to his 'live' Geass command."
"To think that the almighty Knight of One would have fallen and met his end like that…" Gino sighs, "The Galahad was made superannuated by technological advancement. Had Sir Bismarck also piloted a 9th Generation Knightmare Frame, I don't think he would have lost to Suzaku."
"I guess so, but battlefield is not the place to find fairness," Kallen says, to which Gino reluctantly agrees – he himself was one of those who benefitted by having an advanced Knightmare Frame such as Tristan to easily overpower his foes until the situation reversed when he was facing the Lancelot Albion.
Cornelia, on the other hand, simply stares at the screen without much emotional fluctuation. 'Well, Lord Waldstein's defeat officially marked the end of father's reign and the complete control Lelouch had yielded over the Empire in name and in deed. It's certainly an abrupt end to one era and a sudden start of another.'
Towards the back of the auditorium, Jeremiah is concerned about Bismarck's last words. 'I see, it seems that Lord Waldstein's loyalty lies in both His Majesty Emperor Charles and Lady Marianne, but he might have some more feelings towards Lady Marianne than he had ever let on. It must have torn his heart the moment Lady Marianne had decided to marry Emperor Charles,' the teal-haired man muses, 'however, Lord Waldstein, by fighting against His Majesty and siding with Prince Schneizel, you had chosen the wrong side. If you were truly loyal to Lady Marianne, you should have acknowledged His Majesty's claim to the throne and served him with absolute loyalty as well. Your wrong choice had sealed your fate and your eventual and unavoidable demise. All Hail Lelouch.'
The screen then shows that a portrait depicting Charles was burned in flames, while a statue of the 98th Emperor of Britannia was seen destroyed and fell onto the floor.
Tianzi frowns at the scene. As the only Chinese among the audience, she places much more importance on filial piety, the first and foremost moral behaviour to observe according to the teachings of Confucius, than anyone else in the room. No matter how Lelouch felt he was wronged by his father, which Tianzi now believes to be disputed at best because it is revealed by the footage that Charles seemed to have done all the things he could to protect Lelouch and Nunnally from V.V., it was still an intolerable act to Tianzi that Lelouch had destroyed and burnt down everything related to his father's legacy, which was grave immorality in Tianzi's eyes. Now that the scene is plain enough not to shock and distract Tianzi from seeing the crux of the problem, she is also displeased as she thinks back how Lelouch had geassed his father to kill himself in the second disc, as well as how he geassed "God" to eliminate his parents in that strange dimension with eternal dusk in the current disc. Nevertheless, she says nothing on this subject as she observes that no one in the room seems to have any problem with it, not even her closest friend Kaguya. The young Chinese leader judges that it will be best for her to keep this uneasy feeling with her for the time being.
-Exelica Garden, Imperial Palace, Pendragon-
Inside the beautiful Exelica Garden, Lelouch was wearing a set of white gown and a pair of write boots, sitting on the stair steps of a pavilion leading to a large lake in front of it; Suzaku was wearing a bluish Knight of Zero uniform decorated with white, yellow and red on the chest that were accompanied by black arm and leg cloth, standing next to him. Their horses were drinking water from the large lake.
"So soon after ascending the throne, the name Emperor Lelouch has already become part of history," Suzaku said as he gazed at the lake in front of him, "All because of you dismantling Britannian traditions and culture."
"That is just the opening act," Lelouch said, "from now on, I will spill even more blood, so much blood that would make the name 'Princess Massacre' blurry enough not to be recalled by anyone and disappeared from people's memories."
This stunned Suzaku. Was Lelouch also doing this for Euphemia? "Lelouch, you…"
"It's not only for Euphy, but Nunnally as well," Lelouch kept staring at the lake in front of him. "We've both lost so much. Far, far too much. However, to move forward into the future, we need to first take over the entire world!" Lelouch declared with determination, but immediately turned to a sarcastic smile on his face, "Hmph, just saying those words makes me laugh."
Cornelia is aghast at hearing this. 'Lelouch was doing all those atrocities to wipe away people's memories about the SAZ incident? So that was the reason why Kururugi teamed up with him?'
'Big Brother…' Nunnally muses with sadness. 'Had I known it earlier, Big Brother may not need to die because of his plan…'
"Dude… so that's what Lelouch was trying to do?" Rivalz is shocked by what Lelouch had just said on screen, "So Lelouch was deliberately making himself a killing spree to make up for his past mistakes? But that's…"
Milly is shocked at what Lelouch had just said as well. 'That's… a bit extreme, wasn't it? Lelouch, you were the smartest guy I have ever known, and all you could come up with was such a ruthless plan that would see you kill thousands and thousands of people and make you the ruler of the entire world? I thought you could have done much better than such a straightforward… no, intellectually lazy plan!'
Unlike Rivalz and Milly, Kallen and Shirley both knew the truth behind Lelouch's actions as Emperor of Britannia, and seeing how Lelouch had set out on his final sprint to expiate his sins of causing Euphemia to have her life, name, honour and dignity tarnished because of him is heartbreaking to know. 'Lelouch, you moron… have you thought of the people you would leave behind for such a stupid plan?' Kallen muses with utter sadness, 'I… I…'
'Lulu…' Shirley is also sad as she witnesses how Lelouch spoke of the plan as if it was just another plan of his, 'so that's the root reason for you to do such a selfless act for the world…'
"What?" on the other side of the auditorium, however, Chiba glowers in disbelief. "Because he wanted to make up for his previous gigantic cockup, he's going to deliberately create an even bigger cockup, so that people would forget about the previous cockup? What sort of a plan was that?"
Next to Chiba, Tohdoh also frowns as he learns of Lelouch's objective. 'He's trying to make up for his mistakes made at the SAZ inaugural ceremony…? But how…' then, Tohdoh recalls everything he knows about Lelouch from this screening event and the fact that Suzaku is the current Zero, coming up with a hypothesis in his mind, 'Lelouch was a man who did not fret at lying. He lied to his friends at Ashford Academy, he lied to me about General Katase's death, and he once lied to Suzaku-kun about his true identity as Zero. I don't see why he would not lie again to Suzaku-kun as he took over Britannia. I now know from their meeting at Kururugi Shrine that Suzaku-kun was still an honourable boy who cares about justice and willing to work with Lelouch, so it was highly probable that as Lelouch had lost everything, he made some empty promises to Suzaku-kun in that strange dimension, something along the lines of him allowing Japan to be liberated from Britannia in exchange for his loyalty. Lelouch did end up allowing Japan to be independent again as he released all Areas from Britannia's grip, but then suddenly declared war on the UFN and kick-started his world-domination campaign. With his intellect, it should not be difficult for him to set a trap to kill off Suzaku-kun when he was about to prevail over us, and it was then that he had revealed his true intention of stepping everyone under his feet, first by turning Japan into an Imperial Crown Colony of his. However, Suzaku-kun survived thanks to his strong physique and his Geass, yet he could not return as Suzaku Kururugi, whose name was already tarnished as Lelouch made him the Knight of Zero, and so he had no choice but to return as the masked hero Zero and killed Lelouch out of rage and vengeance for Princess Euphemia. Hmm… that actually makes sense according to what have been shown so far in today's screening event. I see, I think I've finally got the truth of what happened on that fateful day.'
Just as Tohdoh thinks he has got the truth behind Lelouch's world domination campaign, Villetta scowls at what Lelouch had just said as well. "I understand his logic, but the plan itself was too selfish: he's planning to cause numerous innocent people to lose their lives just to make other people to forget about the previous massive bloodshed that was caused by his indiscretion with his Geass. In a way, he's doing exactly what he accused his parents of: he's forcing his good intention onto the entire population by slaughtering a portion of it, which was no different from an evil act." Next to the silver-haired beauty, Ohgi also scowls at the screen with disdain. How could Lelouch speak of such a horrid plan like nothing special?
"Your Highness, it seems that Kururugi joined Lelouch because of what Lelouch was trying to do, which would help to rid of the obnoxious title 'Princess Massacre' from Princess Euphemia's name," Guilford observes and whispers to Cornelia.
"I understand that, Guilford, I do," Cornelia is torn inwardly. A part of her is actually happy to see that Lelouch was willing to take actions to remedy his mistakes that wronged Euphemia so horribly, but another part of her pointedly refutes the idea because she is keenly aware of the insufficiency of Lelouch's plan in completely cleansing Euphemia's name, dignity and honour. "Guilford, I understand that Lelouch had the intention to make up for the situation he caused to Euphy, and I certainly appreciate that, but it simply wouldn't do," Cornelia says as she elaborates her thought, "In fact, what Lelouch attempted to do was no different than to instigate damnatio memoriae on Euphy, wiping away her existence from the records of history. And that begs the question: what was the meaning of Euphy's life, then? Wouldn't her ideals, her struggles and everything she had fought for become meaningless if her existence was wiped away from people's memory? Lelouch's plan was no doubt well-intended, but just as how he had accused father and Lady Marianne of with their 'Ragnarök Connection', Lelouch was forcing his good intention on Euphy that was no different from an evil act as well!"
"Your Highness…" Guilford is shocked and upset at the same time, after listening to Cornelia's reasoning. He now sees the flaws in Lelouch's plan despite the huge price Lelouch was willing to pay.
"However, you're still determined to do it. Isn't that right?" suddenly, a female voice came from behind, causing Lelouch to turn back. It was C.C., his accomplice, together with Lloyd and Nina, all riding their respective horse. C.C. was in her usual white straightjacket, Nina in her reddish military uniform, and Lloyd in his brownish noble dress, reminding the audience that apart from being an eccentric scientist, he was an Earl of Britannia as well.
"That's right, all for the sake of Zero Requiem," Lelouch stood up and smiled to his immortal witch, before he turned to Suzaku.
"Yes, Your Majesty," Suzaku saluted with his left fist on his right chest.
"Well, what should we do about that particular problem then, Your Majesty?" Lloyd asked.
"That's right, that's the reason why I took over Britannia in the first place," Lelouch said.
"Is it true that Schneizel's seriously considering that?" C.C. asked incredulously.
"Yes, he is," Nina replied, "the current Prince Schneizel has become a completely different person once he got the F.L.E.I.J.A. in his hands," Nina lowered her head as she responded to C.C., still reeling from the disaster caused by her invention on the Tokyo Settlement.
"That's right," Suzaku said, "I originally thought that after Emperor Charles has been dethroned, Prince Schneizel would have helped to keep the power balance in the world, but…"
"Who would have thought that His Highness would be so determined to achieve what he is thinking of," Lloyd sighed before continuing, "however, what surprises me more is the current members assembled right here and now. May I assume that you are all ready to bear the consequences of the means and ends you are going to take?"
"Even so, is there a need to continue all this?" C.C. seemed to have doubts about the necessity of what this "Zero Requiem" would do, whatever it was.
"You're wrong, C.C., you've got the wrong idea," Lelouch turned back from the group and stared at the lake once again, "I couldn't contact Sayako, who was sent to Cambodia. That only means one thing… we must proceed to the next stage of our plan before Schneizel makes his move."
"Huh? What's wrong with Schneizel's plan? Wasn't he trying to achieve peace in the world?" Ohgi is puzzled. This has earned him deep frown from Kaguya and Cornelia, who are surprised at how adamant Ohgi is in supporting Schneizel without knowing his true nature.
"Tsch, he must be worried about Prince Schneizel stopping him from dominating the world!" Tamaki yells, thinking he has got the lead to Ohgi's question.
Milly observes something else, though. "Nina, you have signed up to Lelouch's plan from the very beginning?"
"Yes, I did," Nina replies, "I wanted to correct the mistakes I have made with the F.L.E.I.J.A."
"But you didn't! Lelouch was still threatening the world with the power of the F.L.E.I.J.A.!" Rivalz exclaims. He still remembers that day when Lelouch made his proclamation to the world that he's got the F.L.E.I.J.A. under his control and forced the world to bow before him.
"That's…" Nina doesn't know what to say. She knows Lelouch's actual plan, but she doesn't want to spoil it as the footage continues to unveil the truth.
"…that's why we were all arrested after the Battle on Mt Fuji," Cecile jumps in to rescue Nina.
"I see…" Rivalz is downcast, "I really hope Lelouch hadn't walked down that path, though…"
"Ms Croomy…" Nina whispers, "thanks for saving me, but is it alright to say that…?"
"No worries," Cecile whispers back as she winks at Nina, "also, I didn't lie, did I?"
Meanwhile, Cornelia finally understands that there is a secondary objective of Lelouch's actions. 'I see it now, Lelouch, you've predicted what Schneizel wanted to do with the F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads from the very start, and you were prepared to forestall him. Kudos to you on that, for even I didn't realize it until it's too late. But that wouldn't make much sense as they should be if what you did afterwards was essentially the same – didn't you also threaten the world with the F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads and forced everyone to obey you unconditionally? How's that different from what Schneizel was trying to achieve, except perhaps you did it with your human emotions intact than Schneizel would have had he succeeded?'
A shocked Milly was rushing into the control room as her K-TV colleagues were handling and editing all the images regarding Lelouch's ascension to the throne and Suzaku, the brand new Knight of Zero, defeated the Knight of One. "Hey, hey! Did you hear the news?" Milly asked urgently.
"You mean the announcement made by Emperor Lelouch, right?" the TV producer asked.
"Yes, I'd never thought he would have applied to join the UFN!" Milly said incredulously as she inwardly mused, 'What the hell is Lelouch thinking?'
Just as Lelouch was on his personal transport flying across the Pacific Ocean, Shirley, wearing a yellow blouse and a deep blue skirt, was pushing her pink suitcase on a street, apparently ready for her own trip. As she walked past the entrance of a bamboo forest, the orange-haired girl suddenly noticed that a lime-haired girl in white straightjacket was looking at her intently.
"C.C. approached you?" Kallen asks incredulously. Why would the usually hard-to-spot C.C. appear right in front of Shirley out of nowhere?
"Uhm… I bumped into Ms C.C. when I was on my leisure trip… by coincidence," Shirley stutters. She, too, doesn't want to spoil the truth as the footage keeps revealing it to the audience.
"Coincidence?" Kallen is doubtful whether such encounter was purely coincidental. 'Was C.C. trying to recruit Shirley into Lelouch's plan?' Kallen muses, 'But why would she do that, knowing full well that Lelouch would be upset upon knowing that his friend was being dragged into his suicidal plan?'
The day has finally come for the negotiations to be held at Ashford Academy for Britannia's application to join the UFN. As the Black Knights were lining up the important checkpoints around the school premises and Kallen, the Captain of the Zero Squad of the Black Knights, standing right at the front gate of the school to receive Lelouch, Milly was doing a live covering of the event for her K-TV audience. Suddenly, she noticed the arrival of the Britannian Emperor's personal transport at the school ground. A Lelouch in white imperial gown slowly emerged from his personal transport and slowly walked towards the ace of the Black Knights.
As the enthralled crowd outside the perimeter fence were cheering at Lelouch and Lelouch smiling and waving back at them, a blue-haired boy climbed onto the top of the perimeter fence, shocking Lelouch. It was Rivalz.
"Lelouch!" Rivalz shouted distressingly, "Tell me, Lelouch! Why didn't you ever tell me who you were… ugh!" However, before he could finish his sentence, the blue-haired boy was pulled down by two Black Knights foot soldiers. "That's too disrespectful to the Britannian Emperor!" a soldier scolded.
However, Rivalz kept going. "But, but we were friends! I was friend with that guy, Lelouch…!"
Lelouch merely stared at Rivalz coldly for a moment, and then turned and walked away.
Lelouch's cold demeanor hurt Rivalz a lot. "Hey!" Rivalz screamed as the Black Knights soldiers prevented him from further approaching the Britannian Emperor.
Tohdoh nods to himself. 'I am right, Lelouch did only care about conquering the world and tricked Suzaku-kun into helping him while stabbing him from the back at last. Good that Suzaku-kun survived from such contemptuous attempt of playing with everyone else's sense of honour.'
Milly frowns at how Lelouch treated Rivalz so lightly. 'Lelouch, I thought you were thirsty for power before seeing the footage, but now I know that you were planning to remedy for the bad reputation forced onto Princess Euphemia due to the SAZ incident and to fight against Prince Schneizel because of some plan His Highness had cooked up… however, I still don't see why you would treat your friend like that. That's simply too cruel!'
Gino is also frustrated at seeing how Rivalz was being treated. 'Lelouch, how could you treat your friend like that?' He pats Rivalz back and says, "It's alright, man, you still have us."
Rivalz is still upset that Lelouch hid the truth from him and treated him so coldly back then, but he is a cheerful guy and is always ready to move forward. "Thanks man, I appreciate that," he smiles back at Gino, who returns an even bigger smile.
"…recorded," Anya takes a photo of the guys of the Ashford Group. Knowing the truth behind the Zero Requiem, Anya is looking forward to seeing their reactions when the ultimate truth is out.
Kallen was escorting Lelouch to the gymnasium, which was where the conference were to be held. They strolled across the school ground with no one else around, and they were about to enter the Student Club House.
Kallen suddenly remembers what is going to happen next. 'Oh no… I am going to be teased to death by Milly…' she cringes inwardly.
"How nostalgic," as they entered the Student Club House, Lelouch smiled and tried to do some small talk to break the ice in his first time meeting Kallen since they parted ways on the Ikaruga.
Kallen remained silent for a moment, but then, and perhaps not as how Lelouch thought she would have reacted to his small talk that meant nothing more than merely filling dead air, started to speak way more than Lelouch had expected she would as they walked into the Student Club House. "I… am thankful to you. If it weren't you, we'd have all been dead back in the Shinjuku ghetto, and there wouldn't be the Black Knights," the red-haired girl said without looking back to Lelouch as Lelouch remained silent and his lips sealed, "I was glad, proud and honoured to be needed by our masked leader Zero. However, when I learned that Zero was Lelouch, my mind went into chaos and I didn't understand things anymore. Nevertheless, I still saw you kept fighting Britannia after that…"
Lelouch didn't say a word.
Tamaki and Ohgi, the original members of the Kouzuki Resistance Cell, are shocked to see how frank Kallen was even after being betrayed by Lelouch twice. Although both men have briefly recalled that Shinjuku episode during the screening of the first disc, that scene has long been shelved in the back of their head as they both grew out of their past self and embarked on their respective new journeys, Ohgi being the Prime Minister of Japan and Tamaki being the owner of his own business.
"Well, Kallen's not wrong," Tamaki says as he turns to his long-time friend, "Ohgi, maybe you've got it wrong after all!"
"…" Ohgi's firm belief that Lelouch was the bad guy is finally shaken a bit by his friend's insistence and by recalling how they could not have survived in Shinjuku without Lelouch's help. 'Perhaps… I got it wrong? But then why would he want to execute us all nine months ago? And not to mention how he had threatened Chigusa…'
The one-way conversation inside the Student Club House continued. "Yet, you are working with Suzaku now. What are you planning to do?" Kallen asked as she started to go up the staircase as Lelouch followed, "Are you seeking power? Social status? Or is it just another game for you? Even until now, I still keep asking Ohgi-san and others whether you have really just used us, or there was more to it. Was it because you fell into Schneizel's trap back then?"
Still nothing from Lelouch.
'Kallen… why are you so stubborn?' Ohgi muses with frustration, 'why you still couldn't see it by then that Lelouch had used us? You saw how he rejected my earnest plead for the truth that day on the Ikaruga, and how we would never get to know Lelouch's ulterior motive had Prince Schneizel not kindly informed us? Why did you keep accusing Prince Schneizel of being the bad guy when he was about the only good man in Britannia?'
Tamaki and Chiba, however, keep getting headache. Unlike Ohgi, they have both seen how Lelouch seemed to have been forced to lie to them after having listened to Kaguya's analysis. But to them, it was still a fact that Lelouch ended up trying to execute them all almost nine months ago. "Argh! I don't know anymore!" Tamaki exclaims with deep frustration in his head. Everything is getting more and more complicated as he gets to know more and more of the stuff that he didn't know before!
Kallen then stopped and turned to face Lelouch. "Lelouch, what do I mean to you?" she demanded, "On the day you left the Ikaruga, why did you tell me 'Kallen, you have to live'?"
However, Lelouch simply stood still, stared downward and did not answer Kallen's question.
Seeing no reaction from Lelouch, Kallen then decided to do the boldest thing she had ever done: she went forward and took a two steps down the staircase, approached Lelouch and held his face with her hands, and before the shocked Lelouch could react, she closed the gap and planted her lips onto his.
'Lady Kouzuki would have made a great Imperial Consort to His Majesty,' Jeremiah muses as he evaluates in his mind Kallen's worthiness to the eldest son of his true liege, 'she's an ace Knightmare Frame pilot who controlled the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight Elements, the most advanced Knightmare Frame in the world; she had worked with His Majesty from a very early stage and was one of the few who knew his true identity as the masked hero Zero; and she is of the same age as His Majesty. She might not have been as elegant as Lady Marianne, but she's still young. I also heard that she actually got good grades as a student at Ashford Academy despite frequent absents from school. I'm sure she would be able to learn all the things needed for Imperial Court life in no time.'
"They did look good together," Cornelia discusses the scene with her knight Guilford as well, "they would have made a fine pair had things turned out differently."
"Indeed, Your Highness," Guilford agrees with her liege, "had they been on our side, they would have made a pair of fine rulers of one of the Areas and did good things for the loyal subjects of the Empire."
"Kallen…" Nunnally's face goes all red as she half-covered her apple-like face with her hands. Unlike the one C.C. did to Lelouch back in Shinjuku that was clearly transactional, Kallen's kiss was purely emotional, and she meant what she wanted to convey to Lelouch through the kiss: she deeply loved him.
"It's… it's not like that, Nunnally! I… I…" Kallen's face becomes as red as an apple as well. 'Goddamn it, how could C.C. let this be seen by Lelouch's younger sister…!'
"Well, well, well… as expected from the bold and fearless pilot of my child," Rakshata giggles at how embarrassed Kallen is right now, "it seems like you were the only one in the Black Knights, besides that mysterious witch of course, to be able to stun that boy like that."
"Rakshata, I…" Kallen's apple-like face is quickly becoming a Guren-like face.
"Kallen, you… you… you…" Shirley demands incredulously, can't even finish her sentence due to the shock. How dare Kallen kissed her date like that?
"Oh my… Kallen, you sure were a lot bolder when nobody's looking at you, weren't you?" Milly teases, causing the red-haired girl to blush even harder, though deep down in the tall blonde's heart, she is both happy for both of her friends, while being jealous of her red-haired friend who did something she long wanted to do, but never had. Next to Milly, Rivalz is biting an imaginary handkerchief, once again jealous at how Lelouch seemingly attracted all the beautiful girls to him with apparent ease.
Kallen covers her face with her palms. She really doesn't want to let the audience to see this, but alas, C.C. is certainly not going to let go of such a juicy scene, just to mess with the red-haired girl. 'Damn you, witch!' Kallen internally cursed the lime-haired girl, who is probably smirking right now somewhere in the world for not editing out this part from the footage.
On the other side of the auditorium, however, the comments are not so light-hearted and harmless. "Kouzuki, did you know what you were doing?" Chiba is fuming, "How could you… how could you kiss the demon who tried to execute all of us nine months ago like that?"
"Kallen, you… err… that is… err…" Ohgi doesn't know what to say. 'How would Naoto feel about this?' he muses worriedly as he starts to ponder how would Naoto Kouzuki, Kallen's elder brother, Ohgi's good friend and a leader of an anti-Britannian group that strove for Japan's freedom, would have felt about his younger sister falling for the Treacherous Emperor of Britannia.
"Were you geassed?" Tamaki asks tactlessly, totally forgetting that Kallen had already been geassed at a very early stage and could not be geassed by Lelouch again.
It was Tamaki's rash question that triggers the originally embarrassed Kallen. "No, I wasn't! I… I… I…" Kallen stutters for a bit, but her straightforward personality means that she can suppress her volcanic emotion towards Lelouch no longer as pressure keeps building up on her by virtue of the continuous bombarding questions aimed at her, "I… I loved him! I loved his pretty face! I loved his magnetic voice! I loved his slender body! I loved his cool demeanor! I loved his genius! I loved how he turned the impossible to possible! I loved how despite his cold and tough exterior, he had a soft spot inside! I loved his everything! And now that I know what I really meant to him… I… I…" tears start to gush out from Kallen's eyes with the erupting emotion that has just been released, and everyone in the auditorium is stunned by Kallen's sudden outburst.
"Kallen…" Milly quickly turns to a much more serious face as she pulls her tearing red-haired friend into her arms while staring at Tamaki, "Uhm, Mr Tamaki, right? I think you're just a bit too unrefined to ask such a question to a fair maiden."
"Hey! What do you mean by 'unrefined'? I'm about the finest man you can find in town…" Tamaki yells back, but before he can finish his rant, Tohdoh steps in. "Enough!" the stoic general bellows as he fixes a stern stare at the unrefined cafe owner who was once the Supporting Officer for Internal Security of the Black Knights, causing Tamaki to shrink back to his seat quickly and quietly.
Ohgi can only stay speechless as he finally realizes how emotionally invested Kallen is to the founder and former masked leader of the Black Knights. 'I am sorry, Naoto. I didn't keep your little sister under watch sufficiently that she had fallen for someone she shouldn't have… forgive me, my friend,' the Prime Minister of Japan muses with an apologetic tone to his prematurely deceased friend.
Kallen and Lelouch both closed their eyes as they kissed, and reopened them as their lips separated. Sadly, there was a stark difference between what were shown on their faces: while Kallen's blue eyes were clearly enamoured and shining, Lelouch's violet eyes were unmoved and stone cold. After a short moment, interpreting Lelouch's silence as a sign of rejection, Kallen finally lowered her eyes with sadness filled in them and whispered disappointingly, "Farewell, Lelouch."
Kallen then stood in attention and resumed her official role. "The UFN Supreme Council is scheduled to convene at the gymnasium," the Captain of the Zero Squad of the Black Knights informed the 99th Emperor of Britannia before turning and kept climbing the stairs on the left hand side, walking away from the most significant guest ever came before the UFN Supreme Council.
Unbeknownst to the departing Captain of the Zero Squad of the Black Knights, Lelouch finally murmured the phrase, "Farewell, Kallen."
The tearing and bereft Kallen is heartbroken to see and hear Lelouch's murmuring on screen that she couldn't back then. 'Lelouch, you… you… you deceived me again…' the red-haired girl is utterly devastated to once again learn about Lelouch's true feelings towards her after everything has become too late.
Milly keeps patting Kallen's back. 'Lelouch, you're a coward,' the blonde girl inwardly scowls at the raven-haired boy's secret response to Kallen's last plead for the truth. A row before Milly's, Shirley also frowns at the scene, both because Kallen kissed her dear Lulu, and how Lulu cowardly not responding to Kallen's burning feelings to him.
In the front row, Kaguya sighs as she watches the scene and seeing Shirley and Milly's faces. 'Well, well, well… I know you were one of the brightest minds of our generation, but sometimes the most logical response is simply not the most appropriate response, Lelouch,' the Japanese young girl muses disapprovingly as well, not because she doesn't understand Lelouch's reasoning, but because Lelouch's response was simply a bad one to a maiden's truest and purest question.
"Kallen…" Nunnally also feels bad for Kallen. Although the younger sister of Lelouch personally tends slightly towards having C.C. as her sister-in-law, that doesn't mean she won't accept Kallen as her other sister-in-law. After all, Nunnally had almost 107 aunts back then, and there wasn't really anything that would stop Lelouch from marrying to more than one woman, so to speak.
Cornelia, who favours Kallen to be her sister-in-law, frowns at the sight of Kallen breaking down once again because of her insolent younger brother. 'Good grief, after breaking Ms Fenette's heart, you broke yet another maiden's heart again, my dear brother. I know you were not intentional in doing that, but still… this is going to the extreme where it starts to force people to reconsider whether father's "marry-them-all" approach was actually that bad after all,' she muses as she also thinks back of her 107 aunts she had, thanks to her father's rather overgrown harem.
"…recorded," Anya takes a photo of the various reactions of the ladies in the auditorium. Under her perfect poker face, though, she also does not approve Lelouch's way of treating Kallen despite knowing perfectly well why Lelouch had to do it in such way.
Meanwhile, Cecile and Jeremiah were piloting the Avalon to Japan as Arthur the cat was sleeping comfortably on the throne. Back at the gymnasium of Ashford Academy, Lelouch reached his podium and greeted Kaguya Sumeragi, the UFN Supreme Council Chairwoman, formally submitting his application for Britannia to be admitted into the UFN in the presence of the representatives of UFN member nations. As Kaguya gazed at Zero, she recalled a conversation she had with the senior brass of the Black Knights.
-Flash back-
"To seal-off Zero-sama?" Kaguya asked incredulously. How could that be?
"Yes, regarding Zero's true identity and the matter of Geass, since Britannia is also hiding it, I believe it will be to our best interest not to talk about it as well," Xingke, the General Commander of the Black Knights, advised, "Zero, the hero whose identity remains a mystery… it would be best to let him be remembered by the people as an avatar of justice."
-End of flash back-
Just as Kaguya was getting out of her flashback and about to give her response to Lelouch's request, the Lancelot Albion suddenly broke through the ceiling of the gymnasium and landed right behind where Lelouch was standing. It then held Kaguya at gunpoint with its VARIS particle rifle.
"What would you do now, Kaguya Sumeragi?" Suzaku threatened.
Kaguya was infuriated. How dare her cousin held her at gunpoint for the Britannian Emperor? "Suzaku Kururugi, you quisling…!" she exclaimed with her beautiful face contorted by fury.
Back on the Ikaruga, Ohgi was stunned to learn that Lelouch had taken the UFN representatives as his hostages. "Why?" he asked in disbelief.
'Well, things were getting interesting now,' Lloyd muses, 'let's see how those who don't know the truth react to it.'
"Did Lelouch think that it was the UFN who annihilated Pendragon?" the present day Ohgi, now his belief about Lelouch being the bad guy had been shaken a little by Tamaki, finally got the chance to think through it from a third person perspective and tries to deduce what actually happened back then, "perhaps that's why he took hostile actions against the UFN representatives…"
"That's not the reason, Prime Minister Ohgi," Jeremiah speaks up, "you would have noticed that in an earlier footage, His Majesty had already mentioned that his actions were to counteract and forestall any possible actions taken by His Highness."
Ohgi is aghast. 'To counteract and forestall Prince Schneizel's actions? But I thought Prince Schneizel was forced to use the F.L.E.I.J.A. precisely because Lelouch tried to dominate the world with terror by holding all UFN representatives as his hostages? What happened?'
"Who knows?" the Tamaki on the screen yelled back, "Just as everyone thinks that Britannia is raising its hand to join us as friends, they suddenly send their troops to Japan."
"Deputy Commander!" an operator interjected, "it seems that Pendragon, the Capital of Britannia, was hit by the F.L.E.I.J.A.!"
The operator's report shocked everyone on the Ikaruga. "Why? What is happening?" Tamaki demanded incredulously.
On the Avalon, Cecile was assessing the damage caused by the F.L.E.I.J.A. "The radius of destruction is approximately 100 kilometres (62.1 miles). Our assessment shows that it was caused by a F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead with its limiter removed," Cecile stared at the monitor with a serious expression on her face as she continued to report to Lelouch, "and there is a fortress floating in the sky above Pendragon, built by the Toromo Agency in Cambodia." A chess-shaped fortress was seen floating above a giant crater.
Hearing Cecile's report and knowing that he didn't manage to forestall Schneizel's move after all, Lelouch immediately left the gymnasium as his soldiers kept holding the UFN representatives at gunpoint, all while Suzaku started to pilot his Lancelot Albion away from the gymnasium as well.
"Lelouch, it was just as you have predicted," Suzaku said.
"Yes, that Sky Fortress Damocles should be thought of as being capable of loading all the F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads manufactured that one time," Lelouch said as he got back to his personal transport, with C.C. sitting next to him, "I wanted to place the UFN completely under my control before that man made his move, but…"
Jeremiah tightens his fists. 'As expected from His Highness… the only other person who was on par with His Majesty and His Majesty Emperor Charles. His Majesty was right to be wary of his moves all along,' the teal-haired man muses.
Ohgi is once again aghast at what he is seeing on screen. "Lelouch already knew Prince Schneizel was going to use the F.L.E.I.J.A.? Then why did he insist on taking all UFN representatives as hostages? Had he not done that, I'm sure Prince Schneizel would not have been forced to use the F.L.E.I.J.A., and everything would have turned out better for all of us without all those bloodsheds…"
In the front row, Kaguya is once again disappointed at Ohgi's naivety. How did this guy become the Prime Minister of Japan again?
Suddenly, there was a communication request sent via the Imperial Private Channel to Lelouch's personal transport. "The only other person who knows about this Channel and calls at this moment would be…" C.C. said as Lelouch grunted before he accepted the incoming call request.
"Do you find forcing others into submission something you enjoy, Lelouch?" Schneizel appeared on the screen and asked directly in his calm voice, without even the normal pleasantries he was extremely good at dishing out to his interlocutors.
"Schneizel…" Lelouch narrowed his eyes as he hissed in contempt.
"I have gathered all the F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads," Schneizel informed his younger brother who proclaimed himself Emperor of Britannia not long ago.
"Are you suggesting that you are rising up against the Britannian Emperor?" Lelouch challenged his elder brother. Schneizel might have gathered all the F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads, but with what he had prepared in advance, Schneizel would be no match to him!
"It's regrettable, but I do not recognize you as the Emperor," Schneizel still said in his calm voice while Suzaku was also watching and listening to the conversation between the two Imperial brothers.
"I see," Lelouch smirked, "so you are saying that you are the most suitable one to be Emperor?"
"No, you've got it wrong, Lelouch," Schneizel still spoke in his trademark calm tone, but his answer took Lelouch by genuine surprise. What did Schneizel mean? Who he would consider to be suitable to be seated on the imperial throne?
To Schneizel's credit, he didn't keep the suspense going on for long. "The one who's suitable to be Britannia's ruler is… her," The screen then moved away from Schneizel and focused on a blind, crippled girl with sandy brown hair seated on a wheelchair.
"Wha…!" Lelouch, Suzaku and even C.C. were all shocked to see the blind and crippled girl in question. It's Nunnally! The screen then pulled away from Nunnally to capture the image with a wider angle, showing Nunnally sitting in the middle, with Schneizel, Cornelia, Diethard and Kanon standing on both sides.
"Nun…" "Nunnally…" Lelouch and Suzaku were utterly shocked. Wasn't Nunnally dead when that F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead blast on Tokyo Settlement?
"Long time no see, Big Brother," Nunnally said in a serious tone that Lelouch had never heard before as she made a declaration herself, "I am the one and only Empress of Britannia."
"That was… surprising," Lloyd comments, "how His Highness presented Her Majesty out of thin air caused a lot of surprise."
"Prince Schneizel was also good at, or perhaps even better than Lelouch in surprising others," Rakshata observes, "and what's more, His Highness did not rely on the cheating power of Geass to do that."
Jeremiah tightens his fists. 'Had I been able to find Her Majesty after the F.L.E.I.J.A. blast in the Tokyo Settlement, then…'
Shirley is also surprised, but she is surprised at seeing how surprised Lelouch was. 'Lulu was even more surprised than that time when he discovered Suzaku to be the pilot of the Lancelot,' she muses as she recalls what happened during the screening of the first and second discs, when Lelouch discovered that Suzaku was the pilot of the Lancelot that had been a thorn to his rebellion against Britannia all along. Shirley is becoming more and more thankful to C.C. for compiling the three discs, allowing the orange-haired girl to see the many facets of her love interest that had been hidden from her.
Zero also tightens his fists upon re-watching this segment of the past. 'Schneizel foresaw Lelouch's actions and had suppressed the news about Nunnally's survival until that moment to maximize the effect, knowing full well how important Nunnally was to Lelouch. He's truly a master of manipulation.'
Back on the Ashford Academy premise, Lelouch's soldiers were holding the UFN representatives as hostages and literally cornered them to a corner of the perimeter. However, the news that Pendragon was annihilated by a F.L.E.I.J.A. had inevitably caused discussions among the soldiers, even though they were all geassed by Lelouch to be his slaves.
"Stop the rash act of yours!" suddenly, Jeremiah jumped from the Avalon floating slightly above the school ground and landed on it, stunning the Britannian soldiers as he continued, "it's too reckless to spread the news that Pendragon was annihilated!"
"No, I'm afraid that's true," a female voice came from behind of Jeremiah. The teal-haired man immediately turned back and saw an injured Japanese woman being held at gunpoint by two of the geassed Britannian soldiers. It was Sayako.
"Please… convey the message to Master Lelouch… that…" Sayako then collapsed before she could finish her sentence.
The present day Nunnally recalls her short reunion with Sayako in Cambodia. 'Sayako, you knew what Schneizel was going to do, that's why you…' tears start to swell in Nunnally's eyes.
Cornelia recalls the report of people escaping from Cambodia right before she boarded the Damocles with Schneizel, Kanon, Diethard, Nunnally and a few more associates. 'I see it now, that maid already knew what was going to happen and wanted to keep Nunnally's hand clean without compromising Nunnally's own free will. She's indeed an excellent and loyal knight to Nunnally,' the elder pricness muses approvingly.
Meanwhile, Lelouch's eyes were twitching. The image of a breathing Nunnally was such a shock to him, he couldn't even talk without stuttering. "Nun… Nunnally, you're… still… alive…?" Next to Lelouch, C.C. also gazed at Nunnally's image in surprise.
"Yes, thanks to Brother Schneizel," Nunnally simply answered.
'Even Ms C.C. was surprised…' Shirley muses as she notices how the no-reaction C.C. was also shaken by seeing a living Nunnally again.
"Nunnally, do you know what Schneizel has done?" Suzaku interjected. Schneizel must have fooled Nunnally, if only he could reveal the truth to her…
"Yes, he has launched a F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead on Pendragon," Nunnally replied calmly, shocking Suzaku. Nunnally actually knew what Schneizel did to the people of Pendragon?
"If you know that, then why…?" Suzaku demanded, but was quickly retorted by the younger vi Britannia. "Are you saying that Geass is the right way, then?" Suzaku was stunned and had no words to respond to her question.
"Big Brother and Suzaku, you have been lying to me the whole time, haven't you? You've kept me from the truth the whole time. However, I have finally learnt the truth," Nunnally continued before saying the one thing that Lelouch did not want to hear from his dearest sister, "Big Brother, you were Zero, weren't you?"
This caused Lelouch to cringe violently, while C.C. had regained her usual calm face and simply shot a glance to her cringing accomplice as Lelouch's personal transport had finally landed on the dock inside the Avalon.
"Why…?" Nunnally tightened both of her fists, "Was that all for my sake? If that's the case, then I…"
"That was an easy yet difficult question," Milly sighs as she listens to what the Nunnally on screen had just said.
"But Lelouch really loved Nunnally, and he literally started rising up against Britannia for her!" Rivalz exclaims, "I am sure they will reconcile their differences and…"
"Did you forget what happened at last?" Milly interjects Rivalz with a sad tone.
"At last? Oh…" Rivalz doesn't get Milly's drift at first, but then quickly recalls what happened nine months ago on one of the main thoroughfare in Tokyo.
"Hahahahaha…" suddenly, Lelouch laughed evilly, confusing Nunnally. "For your sake? As my younger sister, you're quite the shameless one, aren't you?" Lelouch suddenly retorted as if Nunnally was his enemy.
Nunnally was shocked. She had never faced this side of her elder brother before, who was always kind and gentle to her.
"Do you think it's just natural for people to help you all the time out of sympathy and pity?" Lelouch continued to scold Nunnally with a stern voice while C.C. turned away to the other side, "It's so easy to criticize others while you keep your own hands unsullied. You're… the quintessence of the rotted aristocrats that I've soundly rejected," Lelouch's hands started to shake, but the blind girl couldn't see it.
"How… come…" Nunnally's voice's shaking. So her brother had despised her from the very beginning?
Lelouch put down his shaking hand and once again stared at the screen with a pair of piercing eyes. "I don't do this for anyone's sake. I take over the world for my own sake. If you dare to collaborate with Schneizel to stand in my way, all that awaits you would be your total destruction," He then switched off the communication channel.
"Big Brother, I still have something to say…" Nunnally pleaded, but it was too late; the line had been cut off.
"…so Lelouch did conquer the world for himself," Ohgi observes, "well, he seemed to be a bit shock when Her Majesty reappeared before him, but I guess that unlike the caring Prince Schneizel, Lelouch had decided that fulfilling his ambition was even more important than his younger sister, just like how she was more important than all of us Black Knights combined back during the Black Rebellion."
"Tsch, so he didn't really care for anything or anyone besides himself," Chiba spats. Next to her, Tohdoh scowls at the scene as well.
"Hell yea! Only for himself!" Tamaki immediately yells as well, but nobody is paying any attention to him.
"Big Brother…" unlike the Black Knights Group, the present Nunnally, who is not blind anymore, notices the shaking hands Lelouch had when he was "denouncing" Nunnally back then. With her eyesight back, Nunnally can now fully see that Lelouch was lying to her.
Kaguya sighs inwardly as she mentally compares the instant scene with the very first scene of the first disc shown in this screening event. 'This was simply a rerun of what happened to Lelouch nine years ago when he was thrown out of the Imperial Court by Emperor Charles, only that Emperor Charles was a lot better at hiding his true thoughts and played the role of the villain much better in order to conceal the truth from V.V.'
Cornelia, on the other hand, is even more confused. 'I was too furious about what Lelouch did to Euphy and Darlton back then, I didn't realize his hands were shaking that violently. Indeed, everything that has been shown to us in the footages clearly tells us that Lelouch had been doing everything for Nunnally's sake, so he was clearly lying there. Did he lie because of his pride? No, he was willing to throw his pride away just to try to get Kururugi to help him to save Nunnally back at the Kururugi Shrine. Did he lie to protect Nunnally? Possibly, but that wouldn't explain why he chained her and sent her to the execution ground on that fateful day… Why?'
AN:
I just realized that this story now has 1k+ followers (as of 15 Jan 2021)! Never thought I would see this when I first started out, so thank you again for your continued support and generous reviews to my work.
