Chapter 32: "Glorification" VII – Schneizel's Guise
A disquieted Nunnally lowered her head as Lelouch terminated the communication channel and refused to listen to what she had to say. As Kanon and Diethard started to walk away, Schneizel and Cornelia knelt down on each side of their crippled younger sister.
"Are you alright, Nunnally?" Cornelia asked concernedly.
"That must have been very hard for you, Nunnally," Schneizel followed, "I thought showing him the power of the F.L.E.I.J.A. might convince him to surrender."
However, Nunnally was concerned about another thing. "Brother Schneizel, are the people of Pendragon really all right? Are you sure they are safe?"
"There is no need to worry," Schneizel answered in his usual charming tone, "we have had them evacuated well in advance."
Schneizel's answer caused Cornelia to narrow her eyes in suspicion. Schneizel told her that the F.L.E.I.J.A. would be dropped at a sparsely populated location right outside Pendragon to minimize its impact to the dwellers in the Capital, so why would Schneizel tell Nunnally that all Pendragon residents have been evacuated in advance when there was no need to do so?
"But, the next time it will be used on people… on Big Brother and others, right?" Nunnally trusted Schneizel and kept inquiring.
"Only if they are blocking the path to world peace," Schneizel slowly stood up.
"Brother Schneizel, could you let me have the Damocles Key?" Nunnally asked, taking Schneizel by a tint of surprise. However, Nunnally continued with a serious face, "I can neither fight for something nor protect someone. Therefore," the youngest Britannia's facial expression turned downcast, "at least… let me bear the sin of using it."
"Nunnally…?" Rivalz is shocked to see what the on-screen Nunnally had just suggested, "she was the one who… fired the F.L.E.I.J.A. during the Battle of Mt Fuji?"
"Nunnally…" Shirley feels sad that the always docile and gentle younger sister of her Lulu's, who up till this point remained innocent and hands free of blood, would actually want to bear the sin of using the F.L.E.I.J.A. How did things turn out that way?
'Nunnally may seem gentle, but under that docile surface lies a strong mind,' Milly muses, 'she is indeed Lelouch's full-blooded younger sister and a child of Lady Marianne and Emperor Charles.'
On the other side of the auditorium, however, the focus of the discussion is different.
"See, Prince Schneizel was pretty restrained in using the F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads," Ohgi observes, "He said he would only use it if Lelouch and Kururugi were blocking the path to world peace, which means if Lelouch hadn't done what he did, Prince Schneizel wouldn't have launched those F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads in the first place."
Cornelia and Kaguya frown at Ohgi's comment, but they say nothing in return.
"Yea, he seemed to be a nice guy!" Tamaki yells again, trying to attract the audience's attention to him.
"Well, at least he seemed to be the comparatively less evil of the two," Chiba spats. Her anti-Britannian tendency has compelled her to despise Schneizel automatically, and while she is still in doubt of Schneizel because of that smile he showed right before the first ever F.L.E.I.J.A. being detonated on Tokyo Settlement and how he apparently tricked the Black Knights into ousting Zero for practically nothing, prima facie evidence thus far has indicated that the blond prince was the better one between the two rotten apples when compared with Lelouch's tyrannical rule, his deceitful tactics and his lack of care for anyone else besides himself.
In the front row of the auditorium, Nunnally recalls that conversation she had with Schneizel, and how she realized after she has ascended to the throne that he had lied straight into her face. 'I was too naive back then…' Nunnally muses as she tightens her grip on the armrests of her wheelchair.
Back in Lelouch's room on the Avalon, Lelouch swiped all the chess pieces on a chessboard to the floor as he sat on the chair, his right hand grabbing his chest and panting as if he had a cardiac arrest. Apparently, Schneizel's last minute revelation of Nunnally's survival and Lelouch's own forced bad-guy performance to Nunnally had dealt an effective blow to the 99th Emperor's sanity.
"Lelouch!" Suddenly, a Suzaku in full Knight of Zero gown approached, grabbed the enmeshed Lelouch's collar and lifted him up the chair. "Our strategic objectives remain unchanged. We can't stop this just because we found out that Nunnally is still alive, or else the Zero Requiem will have no meaning!" He then threw a stunned Lelouch onto the floor, turned and walked out of the doorway, "Remember your promise."
Lelouch can only gazed the exiting Suzaku with bewilderment.
Nunnally is saddened to see how her Big Brother was hurt after their first conversation since the F.L.E.I.J.A. blast at Tokyo Settlement. 'Big Brother…' Nunnally muses in regret. She thought it was the best course to use the power of F.L.E.I.J.A. to deter Lelouch from committing more sins after listening to everyone around her, but she apparently hadn't taken into account that she might have been deceived by Schneizel in the first place.
Cornelia, while still being critical of Lelouch, also feels a tint of sadness at the sight of her brother suffering like that. 'Schneizel was more than artful in hiding and revealing the fact that Nunnally was still alive, and he played the card remarkably well, dealing an effective damage on Lelouch's mind.'
She then notices that the Knight of Zero seemed to have mentioned some sort of a plan that he was trying to push through despite Lelouch seeming have doubt of the plan after learning Nunnally was still alive. 'What is this "Zero Requiem" that Kururugi was trying to push Lelouch into continuing? Was it to destroy the Black Knights and lay the legend of Zero to rest?' she muses puzzlingly.
'Lulu…' Shirley is saddened to see her dear Lulu struggled so much as he discovered his younger sister was still alive. It breaks her heart to see the two loving siblings were being pitted against each other by Schneizel.
'Suzaku…!' On the other hand, Kallen scowls as she sees how Suzaku's adamant in pushing through the Zero Requiem plan, 'did you so want Lelouch to sacrifice himself…?'
"Suzaku," C.C. followed Suzaku out of Lelouch's room and called him. Both of them stopped and stood right outside the doorway.
"I'm his sword. It's my job to rid him of his enemies and his own weakness," Suzaku asserted before he turned to the lime-haired girl who was staring at him with a stern face before changing into a curious one, "C.C., you're his shield. Your job is to protect him."
"You've certainly made that sound easy," C.C. complained as Suzaku was walking away.
"You're his accomplice, aren't you?" Suzaku did not turn back as he spoke.
"My accomplice…" C.C. murmured as she stared at the departing Knight of Zero.
'To make sure one's liege wouldn't trail off from what he's doing or had decided on… that's true loyalty, Lord Kururugi,' Jeremiah commends inwardly.
"Wait, I don't understand. What were Lelouch and Suzaku trying to do?" Rivalz asks.
"Well, according to what we've seen by our own eyes, they were planning to dominate the world, duh," Chiba spats.
"Hell yea!" Tamaki yells, "I almost forgot how power hungry that Kururugi bastard was!"
'Was it, though?' Milly has her doubts as well. Although what Chiba said does not seem wrong, Milly could somehow feel that there was still something more behind. 'Just what were you two planning to do, Lelouch and Suzaku?'
Next to Chiba, however, Tohdoh is bewildered at the turn of events as he thinks inwardly. 'This is strange. It almost seemed like Suzaku-kun was the one who insisted on the world domination plan… what happened?'
Meanwhile, inside the dark grand hall of the Sky Fortress Damocles, Cornelia was utterly shocked by what Schneizel had just revealed to her.
"What about it?" Schneizel asked in his nonchalant tone.
"You mean… all the people in Pendragon are…" Cornelia asked incredulously. Her intuition was, quite unfortunately, right.
"They have vanished. It was better for them than a life swearing loyalty to Lelouch, wouldn't you say?" Schneizel replied, still in his nonchalant tone.
"But, you told Nunnally that…" Cornelia still couldn't believe it. How could he be so calm after making all their family members and millions of loyal subjects of Britannia vanished, on top of lying to Nunnally like that?
"Lies are convenient. To consolidate Nunnally's determination to fight against Lelouch, it would be better not to let unnecessary information flowing into her ears," Schneizel replied with his trademark charming and calm voice that, if one were to look into it, was nevertheless utterly ruthless.
Jeremiah tightens his fists upon hearing what Schneizel had just said on screen. 'Your Highness, how dare you lie to Lady Marianne's daughter like that…?' just as his fury starts to melt his patience and propels him to apprehend Schneizel for his crimes, he forcefully suppresses that urge by recalling why Schneizel was spared in the first place, 'that's right, His Majesty's plan requires an abled and consummate mind to help run the government that had been devastated by the last great war, and His Highness is essential to the success of His Majesty's grand plan. I must not allow my emotion to hijack my loyalty to my liege's eldest son. All Hail Lelouch.'
Guilford and Gino, who know nothing about Lelouch's plan, are both shocked and angered by Schneizel's insolence towards the 100th Empress of the Empire. "How dare His Highness deceived Her Majesty like that?" Guilford hisses.
"Such callousness… I see now why Lelouch didn't accept His Highness' offer to help back when he was caught at the Kururugi Shrine," Gino observes, "that man cannot be trusted."
On the other side of the auditorium, Ohgi can't believe his ears. Did Schneizel just admit on screen that not only did he lie to his younger sister, he also killed millions of people with no regrets? That can't be! "No, Prince Schneizel must be… there must be a reason for this… uhm…" Ohgi keeps blabbering until he finally comes up with a sufficiently feasible idea, "yes, it must be, as he said, to ensure Her Majesty's resolve to stop Lelouch from committing more crimes. Yes, that must be the reason why he told a white lie…"
'A white lie? A lie that evaporated the entire population residing in Pendragon was a white lie?' Kaguya scowls as she muses inwardly. A few seats next to her, Cornelia also frowns at what Ohgi has just said to convince and console himself that Schneizel was forced to lie to Nunnally for some greater purpose.
Nunnally tightens her grip upon hearing this. To learn the truth after ascending to the throne was one thing, but to hear her elder half-brother directly admitting it, and apparently with no remorse, is another. 'Schneizel, how could you…?' It became apparent to her that of all the blood relatives Nunnally had talked to since she had returned to Britannia, only Cornelia and Euphemia have never lied, deceived or concealed information from her; Charles, Schneizel and Lelouch had all either lied or concealed information from her in one way or another. 'I should have touched Schneizel's hand back then to see through his lies,' Nunnally thinks inwardly and with regret, 'had I done so, the people in Pendragon would not need to die…'
Meanwhile, while Tohdoh is glowering at Ohgi's rather ridiculous reasoning, his wife Chiba isn't all too shock about Schneizel admitting lying to Nunnally and killing millions of people without regrets, and her view holds: Schneizel was still slightly better than Lelouch. After all, Lelouch had been lying to Nunnally the whole time and killed her JLF comrades, the Japanese at the SAZ inauguration ceremony and countless others as well, so it comes down to who had used the evil power of Geass to bend one's mind. Since Schneizel didn't use it, Chiba still thinks that on balance, Schneizel was the slightly better one of the two irreversibly rotten Britannian apples.
"Brother, is this how you manipulate others?" Cornelia was disappointed at Schneizel. He was no different than Lelouch – actually, he might even be worse than Lelouch!
Schneizel decided to switch away from a topic he couldn't convince his younger sister. "Even those commoners who denounce wars would rely on police, right? Everyone knows deep down that crimes cannot be stopped, as the desire of every human cannot be denied," Schneizel continued as he walked closer to the control panel on his side of the aisle and started to press the buttons, showing a world map on the giant monitor behind a goddess statue towards the end of the grand hall, with the current location of the Damocles and 21 spots scattered around the world, where F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads were expected to be launched and hit at a press of the button as he continued, "Hence, there is no need for winning hearts, espousing ideologies or any that sort of thing; we should just use the right system and irresistible force to achieve peace, don't you think?" the prince asked.
Cornelia stayed speechless as she was staring at the 21 places all over the world where the F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads were poised to be dropped at, while Schneizel smiled gently and without a trace of malice as he gazed at his younger sister. After Cornelia had finally took in what Schneizel had planned for and what he said, she narrowed her eyes as she stared at her elder brother intently, "you…"
"What?" Ohgi shouts and jerks up from his seat in complete disbelief. So that was Schneizel's plan all along? "But… but… but…" Ohgi points at the screen with his hand and finger trembling, "but that… that… that… I… I… I… he… he… he…"
Everyone else less Cornelia, Zero, Jeremiah, Anya, Lloyd, Cecile and Nina are utterly stunned as well. So Schneizel intended to nuke the whole world into submission?
"Ka…Kaguya…" in the front row, Tianzi is shivering in fear upon learning Schneizel's delirious plan.
"It's alright, Tianzi, I'm right here," Kaguya immediately tends to her younger friend. While Kaguya is shocked at the magnitude of Schneizel's plan as well, she can't help but to feel mollified by seeing a flabbergasted Ohgi who has insisted throughout the screening event, at least since the start of the screening of the second disc, that Schneizel was the only good man of Britannia.
"I can't believe it…" the observant Villetta is obviously not as blind as her husband in trusting Schneizel, but even she is stunned by what Schneizel had planned for, "that would destroy the entire world!"
"I thought we'd only agreed to use the F.L.E.I.J.A. against Lelouch?" Tohdoh also demands incredulously. How could Schneizel aim the F.L.E.I.J.A. at everyone on Earth?
"He's insane!" Chiba shouts incredulously, "Was he trying to play God and discipline the entire human race?"
"Damn! I knew he was insane!" Tamaki yells as well, but everybody else is too shocked to notice him yelling.
"He's deranged!" Kallen exclaims as she gradually recovers from her emotional breakdown after finding out Lelouch had yet again deceived her on the staircase of the Ashford student club house, "I can't believe we were actually fighting on his side!"
"Prez, that's…" Rivalz is shocked to the core, he doesn't even know what to say anymore. So the Prime Minister of his country, the man deemed by everyone as the wisest among the next generation of members of the Britannian Imperial Family wanted to slaughter everyone, and forced those who were lucky enough to survive a holocaust to cower in fear of the F.L.E.I.J.A.?
Milly is shocked as well, but her training as a TV newscaster has prepared her well for breaking news moments like this, "Well, it seems that His Highness' vision was not that much better than Lelouch's after all, I'm afraid."
'I see, so that's why you and Suzaku had insisted to walk down that path…' meanwhile, being one of the very few within the audience who knew the truth behind Zero Requiem, Shirley muses as she is once again saddened by the fact that her endearing Lulu no longer lives.
"…recorded," Anya takes a photo of the various shocked faces in the auditorium.
"Fabulous!" a voice came from the entrance of the grand hall, causing Cornelia to turn to the source of the voice. It was Diethard, who walked into the grand hall and was followed by Kanon, "It turns out to be right for me to follow you. Such perfect emptiness and kaleidoscopic transformation that completely surpassed Zero's chaos!" The TV producer sounded exhilarated as he walked towards the 2nd Prince of Britannia, after hearing what he told his sister.
"Damn! That's why he betrayed us?" Tamaki yells as he finally gets to know why Diethard suddenly disappeared from the Black Knights shortly after the ousting of Zero, "so he's after Zero, after all!"
"He's just like Lelouch, someone who only cared about his own goals and used other people for that!" Chiba hisses with contempt.
Next to Chiba, Tohdoh scowls at finally getting to know the actual reason why Diethard left the Black Knights. 'I see… I thought he was after power and prestige, but it seems that he was one crazy man who just wanted to witness something out of the ordinary. To think that he was one of our top brains…' the eminent Japanese General tightens his fists upon realizing that the top two brains of the Black Knights actually cared nothing about Japan's cause and were only in it for extremely selfish reasons.
"Diethard you scum…!" Villetta seethes as she sees on the screen once again the man who shot her into the sea and imprisoned her after her reunion with Ohgi somewhere in the Chinese Federation. Ohgi would have done the same as well had he not been shocked still and stupefied by Schneizel's morbid plan.
Kaguya frowns as well, but for a different reason. 'He might be working towards his own goals, but he's undeniably valuable to us as a media and intelligence specialist. The root cause of his departure is still the fault of Ohgi, who unknowingly and naively endorsed Schneizel's words and caused the ousting of Zero, as well as punching and threatening Diethard in private for private grudges…'
Meanwhile, Milly, a newbie media person, is stunned by Diethard's words. Unlike the Black Knights Group, the tall blonde girl actually understands what Diethard really wanted. 'Mr Reid simply wanted to witness and record something spectacular, and so once Zero, the man of miracles, was ousted from the Black Knights, he had nothing more to record with the Black Knights and eventually left them in search for something that was truly worthy of being recorded. He was basically doing what his media instinct commanded him to do…' she muses.
"Your Highness, I have got into contact with the Black Knights," unlike the exhilarated TV producer, Kanon stood near the entrance and calmly reported to Schneizel, "They said they would agree to cooperate with us if you are going to take out Lelouch."
"Thank you," Schneizel thanked his aide-de-camp before turning back to Cornelia with a smile, "people who have experienced Lelouch's tyrannical rule first hand would have no other choice but to rely on some better ideas."
However, Cornelia didn't buy her elder brother's smile. "Is that why you've overlooked Lelouch's atrocities until now?" she demanded with a stern face and voice. How can Schneizel let millions of loyal Britannian subjects to die in vain like that? Where did his noblesse oblige go?
"That's the way to minimize the losses and damages caused," Schneizel continued to explain with his gentle and equanimous smile intact, as if nothing of importance had ever happened, "even if we have to lose one or two billion of lives, as long as we can achieve a state of permanent peace, then…"
"He smiled when he said he's willing to sacrifice billions of lives?" Rakshata can hardly believe what she sees and hears, "is he even fit for the office of Prime Minister of Britannia?"
"No way… no way… no way… there must be something that I have overlooked… overheard I mean… well both overlooked and overheard is what I am trying to say… there's no way that… that… that…something must… must… must… err…" Ohgi is still in a state of strong denial.
"Kaname…" Villetta is worried about her shell-shocked husband.
On the other side of the auditorium, the Ashford Group is shocked as well.
"He's out of his mind!" Kallen exclaims, "To lose one or two billion of lives was not a problem? How could he say that?"
"This… was insane," Gino is shocked as well. He never knew that underneath that gentle smile of the 2nd Prince and Prime Minister of Britannia was such a horrid thought.
Unlike the many shocked people in the audience, Jeremiah, who knows the truth of the Zero Requiem, remains calm. 'His Highness had lost his mind… good that His Majesty prevailed at last and brought peace to the world without having the world to suffer what His Highness intended to incur as the cost of achieving world peace.'
"You're wrong!" Cornelia exclaimed. That was not the way a member of the Imperial Family should treat the Empire's loyal subjects; that was just an abdication from the responsibilities the ruling class of the Empire should bear! She moved her cape and pulled out her sword, "Peace that is forced upon people is not…!"
However, before she could even finish her sentence, Schneizel snapped his finger, and a submachine gun suddenly probed out underneath a goddess statue in front of the giant monitor and started shooting at Cornelia, gunning her down before she could reach Schneizel.
Schneizel's tone remained unmoved the whole time. "How sad, Cornelia," the phlegmatic prince stated without even a tint of emotion in his words.
'Princess…! Huh?' Guilford tightens his fists as he sees the scene where his princess was gunned down by Schneizel. Before he gets infuriated enough to say something, though, Cornelia has been quick in wrapping his fists with her palm. Guilford nods understandingly to his princess, while Cornelia smiles back at Guilford as well.
"Big Sister…" Nunnally also gets agitated by the scene. She knows Schneizel could be ruthless under that perfect mask of his, but to witness it directly on screen is still too much for the young Empress to bear.
"I'm fine, Nunnally," Cornelia quickly consoles her worried younger sister, "someone rescued me out of the Damocles afterwards and I recuperated in a hospital on Horai Island."
Just as Cornelia is trying to calm Nunnally down, a vigorous discussion is happening a few rows behind the Britannia sisters.
"This is nuts. How can such an insane man still be Prime Minister of Britannia?" Chiba exclaims, "what if he once again wants to control the world with F.L.E.I.J.A.?"
"That's right! We can't let him to be the Prime Minister anymore! It's too dangerous!" Tamaki also yells in agreement.
"He's basically a threat to the current world peace we have right now," Tohdoh also says worriedly, "now that Xingke is no longer around, there is no one who could stop Prince Schneizel if he really wants to revive his plan…"
"And he still has Earl Maldini by his side to help him as well," Villetta also says worriedly, "he might not look like much when compared to the dazzling Prince Schneizel, but the Earl is actually a very capable man on his own accord."
"Well it's good that we now know what he thinks, so that we won't be fooled by his gentle demeanor and warm words ever again, at the very least!" Rakshata chimes in.
"Yes, we must remove him from office at once…!" Ohgi, to his credit, finally snaps out of his state of denial relatively quickly thanks to his nine-month on-the-job training as Prime Minister of Japan as he realizes that the world is in big trouble, even though his composure has still not recovered yet. Nevertheless, he can care less about his composure as he turns to Nunnally and pleads impatiently, "Your Majesty, perhaps you should remove Prince Schneizel from your government…"
"There is no need to do that," Cornelia swiftly but calmly interjects, stunning Ohgi and all the panicking others.
"But why? He's abnormal! He even gunned you down! He… he is a scourge to world peace!" the disenchanted Ohgi demands incredulously. Why would Cornelia defend Schneizel even after he had gunned her down so mercilessly?
"Schneizel has no real desire of his own," Cornelia starts to explain, "he was born with everything: clothes, food, palace, power, intellect, good looks, and so on. He has everything. Also, he was born the 2nd Prince of Britannia and therefore did not have the bear the immense pressure of having to succeed the throne, and so his personal desire and emotion gradually died down and resulted in the complete emptiness that Reid had mentioned when he barged into the grand hall of the Damocles."
"But if he had no desire, why did he want to take control of the Damocles and destroy the world?" Chiba demands. What Cornelia has just said doesn't make sense to the hardheaded Japanese woman: if Schneizel truly doesn't have any desire, shouldn't he be in some sort of monastery and spend time on studying or thinking about something vague and complicated?
"That's because he thought that using the absolute and unrivalled system of force to subject everyone in the fear of devastation was the best way to achieve permanent peace, which is what most people have desired for the longest time," Cornelia answers, "But now that peace has already been achieved, Schneizel has no real reason to repeat what he did because the cost does not justify the benefit of doing so; he will only follow what has been established by Nunnally and the UFN to keep the peace as much as he can."
"Princess Cornelia is right," Zero joins in the conversation, "and I can further assure you that as long as I'm around, Schneizel would never try to destroy and rule the world with the F.L.E.I.J.A. or any other weapon of mass destruction ever again."
Most in the audience who don't know the truth behind the Zero Requiem are stunned by Cornelia and Zero's words. Just how…
"Let's get back to the footage to find out the truth, shan't we?" Jeremiah steps in and captures the attention of the audience, "I was late for the event, but according to what Zero has just told me when I arrived at this auditorium, you have been learning the truth of everything that has happened gradually by being patient, correct?"
"Lord Gottwald is right," Guilford chimes in, "let's calm down and keep watching the footage."
"Well, if you say so," Tamaki shrugs at Jeremiah's words. He still has a big deal to cut with Orange, and he doesn't want to ruin his relationship with his potential business partner.
The rest of the audience also calm down, or at least attempt to calm themselves down and switch their attention back to the screen.
Back at Ashford Academy, the Avalon kept floating above the school ground while a number of Vincent Ward Knightmare Frames were also floating nearby to guard it.
Inside a medical room on the Avalon, Jeremiah was taking care of a significantly injured Sayako. Sayako informed the teal-haired man that Schneizel had used another escape craft as a decoy during the Second Assault on Tokyo Settlement to get Nunnally out of the blast, and he had been planning to use Nunnally against Lelouch the whole time.
"You are Japanese, correct?" Jeremiah suddenly asked curiously, "Why didn't you follow the Black Knights, but instead follow His Majesty?"
"Huh?" Sayako was surprised about Jeremiah's question. She hadn't really thought about it until now, but her first reaction upon getting out of Schneizel's control in Cambodia was to head straight to Lelouch to tell him what had happened to Nunnally.
"I see, you are also following the path of chivalry," Jeremiah said.
Sayako slightly tilted her head towards Jeremiah. "Perhaps I am," she answered.
"Well, that's enviable loyalty," Gino commends, "very respectable indeed."
"An honourable lady," the present day Jeremiah commends Sayako once again.
Kallen feels jealous and ashamed at the same time. On the one hand, she is jealous of Sayako getting to work besides Lelouch the whole time; only the other hand, she is ashamed that she wasn't as knowingly loyal to Lelouch as Sayako was. 'Sayako-san… you are truly extraordinary,' Kallen quietly muses.
Guilford also nods to Sayako's loyalty to Lelouch. While he still cannot forgive Lelouch for twisting his mind to exploit his loyalty towards Cornelia, he can appreciate and respect the unwavering loyalty Sayako had exhibited, especially under such difficult circumstance.
Meanwhile, Inside Lelouch's room on the Avalon, Lelouch was sitting on the edge of his bed and inclined forward slightly, while C.C. was sitting back-to-back with him on his bed.
"You understand why I must become evil, right?" Lelouch started to mutter, "Under the Damocles, human lives would become nothing more than mere puppets."
"However, Nunnally is on board the Damocles," C.C. spoke softly, causing Lelouch to narrow his eyes in anguish, "Since the very beginning, what you have done was all for her."
"I… can no longer afford her special treatment," Lelouch continued as he slowly straightened his back, pushing C.C. back up a little as he mustered his resolve once again after the shock he had suffered from the news that Nunnally was still alive. "Since I possess the power of the king, I have my responsibility to bear as well. For the sake of all the lives that were lost since this has begun, we cannot stop right here! Right, C.C.?"
C.C. closed her eyes in realization and leaned her head against Lelouch's neck, her left hand holding Lelouch's right. She said nothing in return.
This scene greatly confuses most people in the audience. What did Lelouch mean when he said he must become evil? Sure, it is now clear to the audience that Schneizel intended to terrorize the world with the F.L.E.I.J.A., but why must Lelouch become evil because of that? Couldn't he simply defeat Schneizel and rule the world righteously? And what's more, Lelouch eventually terrorized the world with F.L.E.I.J.A. as well, which made his reign no different than a hypothetical Schneizel's reign.
"I don't understand!" Tamaki yells. Now that he knows that even Schneizel was not the "good side", he doesn't know anything anymore.
"…" Chiba wants to call Lelouch a hypocrite for his apparent contradictory words with his later actions, but she stops short at doing just that as her mind is somehow clogged as well by the fact that no side involved in the Battle of Mt Fuji was the "good side" after all. Was Lelouch wrong in stopping Schneizel? Definitely not. Was Lelouch right in what he did afterwards? Absolutely not. So what is good and what is evil? That is the question that Chiba cannot figure out the answer.
'This is… messed up,' Tohdoh muses with frustration as well. Now that it is clear to him that neither Schneizel nor Lelouch were doing things in the best interest of Japan and to the human race in general, he is just as confused as everyone else about what to believe in anymore.
'Lelouch, what were you trying to achieve? Why must you have acted the way you acted?' Cornelia is frustrated at what Lelouch's true motive was behind his world domination campaign besides stopping Schneizel, but then apparently doing the same thing Schneizel was going to do if he had succeeded. What was the point for Lelouch to do that when it was apparently not something he really wanted to do, but something that he had to steeled his mind into doing it?
Meanwhile, among those who know about the Zero Requiem or have figured it out on their own, their focus are on the interaction between C.C. and Lelouch. 'Lady C.C. was clearly saddened there when His Majesty was determined to walk down that path… I hope she feels better now,' Cecile muses.
'Grrr… Ms C.C. was with Lulu on the bed again…!' Shirley feels jealous about the lime-haired girl for doing something she had wanted to do with her Lulu for the longest time yet again. She is also saddened that Lelouch eventually didn't allow her to help with his plan despite having gone on several dates with her before the whole Geass thing came into play in his short life.
"…" Kallen simply has nothing to say besides biting her lip and tightening her fists in regret. 'Lelouch…' she muses.
'Lady C.C., I hope everything's well with you, now that you're on your trip to retrieve His Majesty's soul…' Jeremiah quietly muses as all others are sinking into their respective thoughts.
The battle between Lelouch's Britannia and the UFN has finally begun. With the destruction of Pendragon, the internal governance paralyzed and its armies checked by corresponding UFN forces around the world, the only force Lelouch could directly deploy was his reoccupying force in Japan, over Mt Fuji. As Schneizel joined forces with the UFN, it was the perfect timing for the final jousting to take place.
"While we do not approve the use of the F.L.E.I.J.A., our first priority now is to unify the world," Xingke declared at his commander seat inside the control room of the Ikaruga, "This battle…"
"This battle is the ultimate test of the world!" Lelouch stood on the cockpit of the Shinkirou in his imperial white gown as gusts of wind continued to hurry against his tall yet thin stature, holding a beautifully decorated sword in his right hand and declaring to his soldiers and followers. "Defeat Schneizel and the Black Knights, and there shall be no one left to stand in our way. This world shall be destroyed and then recreated by Lelouch, the one and only Emperor of Britannia!"
As Lelouch was making his declaration, all his key team members were preparing for the upcoming battle as well: Jeremiah and Suzaku both listened to Lelouch's words attentively as they were in their respective pilot seats and their Knightmare Frames in their respective formations; Cecile, Sayako and Arthur the cat all stood in attention inside the Avalon commander room; while Lloyd, Nina and a small team of geassed soldiers were monitoring the progress of the assembling of some highly technologically advanced weapon inside the research area of the Avalon.
"Crush them! Destroy Schneizel and the Sky Fortress Damocles! Crush them all!" We have nothing to fear. My name…" Lelouch then swung his well-decorated sword and pointed it to the front, "…shall be the future of the world!"
"All Hail Lelouch!" the Britannian soldiers saluted and chanted in unison.
"Arthur!" Shirley sees the student council mascot also on board of the Avalon, "he was on Lelouch's side as well?"
"Who brought him onto the Avalon, anyway?" Milly is curious.
"Suzaku did," Cecile answers, "he brought Arthur with him to Britannia, and then we just kept him on the Avalon since we're moving around quite a lot."
On the other hand, Chiba is once again confused about how Lelouch's actions did not match with his words. "I don't understand. He seemed to be sad and all that regarding what he's doing when he was in the bedroom with C.C., yet he's still doing it no matter what. He's contradicting himself!" the hard-headed Japanese woman exclaims in frustration.
"Yea! I totally don't understand what he's trying to do!" Tamaki vents his frustration out as well.
"I think I have got a lead," Rakshata says, capturing the attention of the audience.
"What's your take on this, Dr Chawla?" Gino is curious.
"Remember how at the beginning of the second disc, he struggled in his secret hideout about using Suzaku to his advantage right after rescuing General Tohdoh from execution?" Rakshata elaborates, "He said to himself that it was pathetic of him to even think of exploiting the hidden secret that Suzaku had killed his father in order to persuade Suzaku to join him, yet he nevertheless did that when both of them were in that sandy trap surrounded by the Gefjun Disturbers on the Shikine Island. Perhaps it's the same thing here?"
The audience thinks back and recall that scene when Lelouch was contemplating the matter inside his cargo ship hideout. "Yes, I remember that," said Kallen, "we had a discussion on why would Lelouch do such contradicting things, and the conclusion we have reached back then was that even if Lelouch knew that he would regret for something he was about to do, he would nevertheless do it if he considered it necessary to achieve his goals."
"That's right," Rakshata continues, "it may be the same thing here: dominating the world with force was not something Lelouch truly wanted to do, but he considered it necessary for him to do so because he had to keep the F.L.E.I.J.A. away from Prince Schneizel's hands. Therefore, he kept doing what he was doing despite he didn't really want to do it, but once he was successful, he eventually succumbed to the irresistible temptation of unlimited and unchecked power, finally becoming the treacherous tyrant we come to know now."
Those among the audience who don't know the truth about the Zero Requiem think about Rakshata's hypothesis for a bit and find it quite plausible, since the reasoning and deduction are based on Lelouch's past actions that they have all seen not long ago. Rakshata is quite happy with how her hypothesis is received by the audience, and she turns to Lloyd, "What do you think about my hypothesis, Earl of Pudding?"
"AHA! A sound deduction based on His Majesty's past actions," Lloyd says in his usual cheerful tone, but then quietly muses, 'though that's not exactly what happened, Rakshata. Still a good and educated guess nonetheless.'
On the UFN side, Kallen is staring at the screen, seeing the Shinkirou heading back to the Avalon. "Lelouch…" she murmured. Inside the Mordred, Anya was looking at the photos on her phone, showing the Ashford Student Council members digging up sweet potatoes from the field. "I will make both of you into records on my hard drive," Anya said as she closed the flip of her mobile phone.
Inside the control room of the Damocles, Schneizel and Kanon were discussing matters pertaining to Anya's reliability due to her memory loss affected by Geass earlier during the 2nd Assault on Tokyo Settlement. Suddenly, there was a communication request sent to them from the Avalon through an open channel. Schneizel was a bit surprised by that, but he quickly accepted the communication request nonetheless.
"Good day, Schneizel," Lelouch appeared on the screen and greeted. He then noticed a grinning Diethard standing next to Schneizel, but Lelouch didn't comment on Diethard's betrayal nor did he say anything more on that.
"Lelouch, if you wish to surrender, now is the time," Schneizel began, "we have the F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads ready on our side."
"The F.L.E.I.J.A.? Can you really launch them at me?" Lelouch ridiculed Schneizel as he put up a secondary window on the screen, showing all the UFN representatives, including Kaguya and Tianzi, were all held hostages on the Avalon and were under the control of his geassed soldiers.
"Tsch, he's still that merciless child who didn't care one bit about other people!" Chiba hisses as she recalls how Lelouch tried to threaten the UFN and Black Knights into submission by having Suzaku to pilot his Lancelot Albion to suddenly burst through the roof of the Ashford School Gym and held all UFN representatives at gunpoint.
"Argh! Neither side was the good guy!" Tamaki has both his hands holding the top of his head as he screams, "This is nuts!"
Xingke and Kallen were both angered by how Lelouch was using the UFN representatives as his shield against the F.L.E.I.J.A. However, Schneizel remained unmoved. "I see. However, Lelouch, when world peace is compared to a few lives…"
"You're not launching the F.L.E.I.J.A., Schneizel!" Xingke appeared on the screen and interjected the conversation angrily.
However, Schneizel still remained unmoved. "I understand that each UFN member nations have elected their respective acting representatives already?"
"We are prepared for the worst case scenario, but that doesn't mean that lives can be thrown away in such a meaningless way!" Xingke asserted. Lelouch simply chuckled sinisterly while Schneizel still seemed unmoved.
"Get the Shenhu ready and inform the entire military structure about it!" Xingke has made the decision and ordered as he got up from his commander seat.
"Well then, let's start the match, shall we?" Lelouch said.
"But of course," Schneizel said before the communication channel went off. He then turned to Kanon, "Kanon, it's just as you have thought."
"Yes, the Black Knights is now at your command, Your Highness," Kanon replied.
"Ha… convey to our forces to switch to pattern Sigma," Schneizel ordered and the UFN forces started to spread out.
The Battle of Mt Fuji thus began.
"Xingke…" Tianzi once again misses her most trusted General upon seeing his image on the screen.
Ohgi is once again aghast at how calculative Schneizel was, as well as his nonchalance to sacrificing everyone else under his gentle guise. It is obvious that had Xingke not intervened, Schneizel would have no problem launching a F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead to kill all the UFN representatives with Lelouch together! 'And I always thought that Prince Schneizel was a good man…' Ohgi cringes at his sudden and definitely belated realization on how naive he has been in politics until now.
In the front row, Kaguya takes a quick glance at the cringing Ohgi. 'It seems the thick man in the room finally realizes what was under Prince Schneizel's gentle and kind facade. Well, that's not the best thing to have, but willing to realize one's mistake late is still a lot better than not willing to realize one's mistake when it's clear that one's mistaken,' she thinks inwardly, knowing that a lot of people would not be able to turn around when what they have believed in for a long time is suddenly revealed to be false all along, a prime example being those who believe in extensive conspiracy theories would likely reject anything that runs contrary to their deep beliefs, regardless of how outrageous those conspiracy theories are or how sound the things that run contrary to those theories may be. As lamentable as Ohgi's naivety in politics to have believed in Schneizel's facade of gentleness is, the Japanese Prime Minister deserves full credit for being willing to accept reason and evidence to snap out of his fantasy and face the harsh reality, however painful and difficult it may be to do so.
Next to Ohgi, Villetta scowls, but for an entirely different matter. 'Diethard, you were only after "interesting" things, first abandoning the purist faction and joined Lelouch for the chaos he was able to stir up in the world; then abandoned us, the Black Knights and joined Prince Schneizel for how hollow the man was in his emotions? I see now, you're a goddamn hedonist who didn't believe in anything except your own pleasure!' she hisses in her mind as she fixes an angry stare at Diethard on screen.
"The enemy forces are arranging into a wide-field aerial formation," Cecile reported to Lelouch as Arthur the cat was resting on the top of the monitor, looking at Cecile.
"The traditional battling formation…? Very well," Lelouch thought for a moment before instructing his forces, "Stretch our left wing. Assume the Half-Moon Spear formation."
"Yes, Your Majesty," Cecile responded and started to convey the instruction to the geassed Britannian Army.
"It seems that their main wings are undermanned," Kanon observed as the monitor showed the movement of Lelouch's Army and reported to Schneizel.
"Have Lord Weinberg's company advance," Schneizel decided, "Keep the enemy's left wing from extending."
"Yes, Your Highness," Gino responded and conveyed the instruction to Gino's team.
"Checking my move?" Lelouch closely monitored the battlefield on the screen, then decided his next move. "Reverse the direction of our left wing!"
"But that would break up our formation!" Cecile warned.
"That's fine," Lelouch replied, and the Britannian units moved accordingly.
"Lord Weinberg, halt your advance, now!" seeing Lelouch reversing his Army's left wing, Schneizel immediately reversed his order as well.
"But why?" Gino demanded, "We should strike where they're in disarray…"
"That's a baiting opening," Schneizel chuckled, "I'm not buying that."
"He's not falling for it…?" Lelouch tapped the armrest of his throne a few times before making his next move, "Switch our battle plan to Ursa Major formation!"
"Sixth company, follow Lady Alstreim, move to the north east direction and elevate 40 degrees," Schneizel issued his next order accordingly.
Lelouch saw an opening and immediately ordered, "Bombardiers, prepare for anti-air combat!"
However, Schneizel read his younger brother's move and instructed, "Lady Alstreim, stop there, climb 200 metres (656 feet) and stabilize."
The Britannian brothers' constant moving of their units but without any actual attack caused confusion to some people, one prime and vocal example being Tamaki. "What the hell? There's no fighting at all!" the red-haired man was grunting inside his Gekka cockpit.
"You're wrong," Tohdoh narrowed his eyes and said, "Battles between two masters are decided in an instant."
"An invisible battle is now raging between the two of them," Xingke added as he, too, was observing what was happening over Mt Fuji.
As the two Britannia brothers were moving their units here and there to joust for the right to dominate the world, Nina was fighting her own battle with Lloyd and some Britannian soldiers as well. "I must hurry… the battle has already started!" she muttered.
"Wow…" Rivalz is amazed by the "chess match" between Lelouch and Schneizel. "I've never seen Lelouch being challenged like that before back in the bingo hall!"
"Well, I did ask Lelouch to take me to see one of his games in the bingo hall, but he never took me there," Gino sighs, "I guess this should make up for that, though."
"Argh…" Shirley is irritated again as she recalls how frequent Rivalz used to bring Lelouch to the bingo hall to bet on chess games.
"It's so boring to me when they kept moving us here and there, you know," the present day Tamaki complains about it again.
"Well, at least they kept you on the battlefield," Rakshata chimes in.
"What do you mean?" Tamaki is confused.
"Because once the real fight had begun, you'd be retired from active combat sooner than you thought," the Indian scientist ridicules, to which the proud Japanese man grunts but doesn't say anything in return.
"…recorded," Anya takes a photo of a grunting Tamaki and a smirking Rakshata.
Cornelia, on the other hand, is watching the jousting between Schneizel and Lelouch with intense interest. She supports neither of them, and so she is merely observing their tactics as a master tactician and accomplished military leader herself. 'I was in the hospital during that time and didn't get to see how they moved their chess pieces on the chessboard. Although I knew the result of the battle already, it'd be interesting to see how Lelouch eventually prevailed over Schneizel.'
"We're being surrounded!" Cecile warned Lelouch as Arthur the cat was still lying comfortably on the top of her monitor.
"Tsch… Countermove!" Lelouch decided to launch the attack first, "Reinforce the front line with Suzaku's Lancelot. Hold at combat speed 4! Ward's company is to follow him!"
"You haven't changed, Lelouch," meanwhile, Schneizel smiled as he saw Lelouch was finally making the first actual move, "You'd rather attack my frontline than to defend your own flanks, and that's how I get my small window of chance. Xingke?"
"Tsch… he has already incorporated our skills into his consideration as well?" Xingke hissed as he piloted the Shenhu to lead the charge at Lelouch's forces.
"The enemy forces are approaching!" Cecile warned as the Zangetsu and Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight Elements followed the Shenhu's lead.
"Hold fast! Live up to His Majesty's expectation!" Jeremiah encouraged his company as his Sutherland Sieg started to shoot missiles at the inbounding enemy units. The Vincent Wards and Gareths of Jeremiah's company were also shooting at the enemy units as well.
However, these 7th Generation Knightmare Frames were no match to the 9th Generation Guren. "Once we have defeated Lelouch, this battle will be over!" Kallen shouted as she launched the Radiant Wave Surger and microwaved a Gareth unit into explosion.
"If we smash their line, it'll be a free-for-all!" Chiba exclaimed as she piloted her Akatsuki Commander Model to destroy a Vincent Ward as well.
"Tsch…" Jeremiah hissed, "They're punching through…!"
At the same time, Lelouch narrowed his eyes as he saw his formation being teared into two pieces by the inbounding enemy units.
"Should we call back Suzaku?" Cecile suggested.
"No, if we do that, we'll be falling right into where Schneizel wants us to be," Lelouch responded as he issued another order to his Army, "Draw in the battle line! Fall back and regroup!"
"Your Highness, this is really a 'you know that I know you know I know that you know I know you' contest between the two," Guilford comments as he, too, is watching the battle on screen with intense interest.
"Quite so," Cornelia nods, "though Schneizel was definitely more mature in this and never let his emotion overrode his head, giving him a slight advantage against Lelouch."
"I still don't understand how Prince Schneizel could always be so calm and collected, though. Has he ever been angered over something?" Guilford asks curiously.
"No, I don't think so," Cornelia answers after a moment of thought, "his emotion's dead, and he's basically an empty vessel with an exceptionally clever brain in it. Everything's chess to him and he has no attachment to anything or anyone whatsoever."
Meanwhile, Tohdoh is also appreciating the military tactics used by both Lelouch and Schneizel in the Battle of Mt Fuji. 'Regardless of the fact that neither side was the righteous one, it must be acknowledged that this battle was one of the most intellectually-demanding battles in the history of mankind, fought by the two smartest minds in the world after the demise of Emperor Charles and his 5th Imperial Consort. As a military man, it was actually an honour to be in it and survived it…'
"Don't lose the momentum! Push forward!" Xingke realized that this was their chance to tear up Lelouch's forces, and the Chinese General immediately encouraged his allies to keep charging. A missile hit on the Blaze Luminous shield of the Avalon and caused violent shaking of the battleship that sent the UFN representatives on board panicking. A scared Tianzi was seen hugged by an equally scared Kaguya, who had tears swelling on her reddened and angered face.
"Guren, you're too far out! Match your pace with us, we can surround them!" Xingke noticed Kallen was piloting her Knightmare Frame to charge at the enemy alone and warned her.
"I understand, but…!" Kallen replied as her Guren shot the slash harkens and destroyed yet another Vincent Ward.
"Don't rush! If we beat their vanguard, we'll isolate the Avalon!" Xingke said as he piloted the Shenhu to fire its Baryon Cannon, destroying a vanguard Dreadnought.
"The Dreadnought is destroyed! They're breaking through!" Cecile reported in a worried tone while Arthur the cat was still looking at her in a relaxed manner.
"I'd never thought the Black Knights would be such a formidable opponent to me," Lelouch murmured, "however, my soldiers are…"
"For His Majesty!" back on the battlefield, a geassed soldier inside an armless Gareth shouted fanatically as he piloted the Gareth to keep shooting missiles at the Zangetsu.
"How pathetic, soldiers controlled by the power of Geass," Tohdoh piloted his Zangetsu to hit off all the incoming missiles and pierced through the Gareth with its Break Sword, "therefore…!" he then piloted the Zangetsu to slice through the Gareth, causing it to explode with the geassed soldier.
Gino tightens his fists as he sees an excellent Britannian soldier fallen not because he so chose to fight for his country, but because he was doped by Geass into fighting like a mindless boar for the usurper of the throne. 'This was just as General Tohdoh had said back then, pathetic,' Gino thinks inwardly, 'I don't get it, Lelouch. If you were that clever, even if you usurped the throne, why didn't you rule Britannia with tact? Why did you insist on making everyone your slave and not try to endeavour into winning their loyalty and trust to you?'
Jeremiah, however, doesn't seem to be sad at the slightest. In fact, he is extremely proud of the fallen geassed soldier as his unwavering loyalty to his liege's eldest son trumpets in his heart. 'You had done well, unknown soldier, in serving His Majesty with all you'd got. All Hail Lelouch.'
Meanwhile, Zero recalls what happened right after Lelouch and himself had declared themselves the 99th Emperor of Britannia and the Knight of Zero respectively: the entire Britannia was shocked to see a previously unknown young boy suddenly declaring himself having eliminated the fearsome Charles zi Britannia, and the old aristocrats were either outraged by the act of regicide, or exhilarated by a godsend opportunity to expand their sphere of influence within the Empire. Whichever way it was, the aristocrats revolted against the new Emperor, only to be put down by forces led by Jeremiah when Zero was focusing himself on getting ready to fight heads on with his former Knights of the Round colleagues.
Jeremiah was indeed an effective commander and an ace Knightmare Frame pilot, easily putting down strong regional aristocratic families such as that led by Earl Rosenkreuz. However, for a large empire such as Britannia, the Emperor could not only rely on a few loyalists to run it, and thus Lelouch did something extraordinary: he mass-geassed Britannian soldiers who did not revolt against him but instead joining him either out of necessity, such as needing the salary to feed his or her family; or out of speculation, hoping to gain the favour of the new Imperial ruler in order to get a fast pass of climbing the societal ladder of the highly stratified empire. Little did they know that they would all be geassed into mindless slaves of the new emperor, their free will succumbed to the absolute mind-twisting supernatural power and doing anything the young Emperor ordered them to do, including dying for him for nothing in return, as exemplified by the death of this unknown geassed Britannian soldier shown on the screen now. In fact, the number of soldiers being geassed by Lelouch into absolute servitude was so great, Lelouch actually had to make a timetable for the soldiers to come before him to be geassed in shifts.
'All… were for the peace we have now,' Zero thinks inwardly as he watches the geassed soldier being killed, 'and I shall do my utmost to protect this peace built upon thousands of those who sacrificed, including this unknown soldier, for making such peace possible.'
"Now is the moment," Schneizel said, "let's destroy both of their wings." The Black Knights then moved away from the Ikaruga as its Hadron Cannon were opening and calibrating the angle.
"Target both enemy wings," Xianglin instructed as she ordered, "Fire!"
As the Hadron Cannon shot through and destroyed countless Britannian units, Ohgi was staring at the monitor and mused, 'Zero, how regrettable that things turned out like this…'
Tohdoh, Chiba and Tamaki all glower at this scene. Now that it is clear that it was Ohgi who gave a significant push to them into Schneizel's trick, Ohgi's thought shown on the screen just seems extremely sarcastic to them.
'It's indeed regrettable, but it was because of you and not Lelouch,' meanwhile, Kaguya hisses in her mind, 'it's your idiocy that had forced Lelouch to be driven away in exchange for our own survival under Prince Schneizel's F.L.E.I.J.A. threat on the Ikaruga!'
Ohgi bites his lip as he now realizes he was actually helping someone who planned to destroy the world with F.L.E.I.J.A., potentially sacrificing billions of people in the process. 'I… I…' he doesn't even know what to say to himself now after learning how things actually were behind the scenes.
"Lelouch!" Suzaku called urgently as more and more Britannian units were being wiped out by the Hadron Cannon. Lelouch then produced a remote control and pressed it as he praised how the Black Knights were able to force him to use his next tactic.
Mt Fuji started to shake in an unnatural way as some pinkish light came out from the canal built to mine the Sakuradite out of it.
"Damnit!" Xingke realized something went wrong, but it was too late.
"Energy chain reaction! Below us!" an operator on the Ikaruga warned immediately.
"What? Impossible! He timed this to…!" Ohgi stood up and yelled in disbelief: Mt Fuji erupted suddenly and blasted countless volcano rocks into the sky, destroying the majority of the UFN battle units.
"All units! Switch on your radiant shields… ugh!" Tohdoh immediately instructed the Black Knights to protect themselves from the volcanic eruption, but it was too late.
"Zero…!" Ohgi exclaimed with disbelief as a large volcanic rock hit the Ikaruga and sank it from the sky.
"Ohgi-san! Please respond! Minami-san! Rakshata!" Guren was still floating in the volcano ash-filled sky, and Kallen was calling her comrades aboard the falling Ikaruga desperately.
"How… how could this be?" inside the Damocles, Diethard couldn't believe what he saw. Lelouch actually ignited a volcano to obliterate the Black Knights!
"He used the underground Sakuradite to…!" Kanon was stunned by Lelouch's tactic as well.
However, Schneizel was still unmoved by everything that was happening right before him. "With this, Lelouch's ground forces are wiped out," the imperturbable 2nd Prince of Britannia said.
Inside the Shenhu, Xingke was staring at what happened in front of him angrily. "How careless was I… although this is one of Lelouch's basic tactics, to think that he'd actually sacrificed his own forces…!"
"Tsch! He really didn't care about anyone, even his own forces!" Chiba hisses as she sees the image of her beloved husband being hit by a volcanic rock before turning to Tohdoh and says in relief while holding his right hand, "I'm glad you were fine at last, Kyoshirou."
"Nagisa…" Tohdoh is touched. He didn't really think about these things back when he had focused himself on restoring Japan's independence from Britannia, but as he lost all his JLF comrades, especially his liege and the three members of the Holy Swords who served him with loyalty one after one, he eventually realized that he, too, has a soft spot in his mind, and he cannot be more grateful for the love Chiba has showered on him that makes his life complete.
In the front row, however, the focus of the discussion is different.
"That's horrible!" Tianzi exclaims, "all those people were hit by volcano rocks…!"
Kaguya, while trying to console her younger friend, muses with sadness. 'All these unnecessary injuries and deaths were the result of Schneizel's treachery and Ohgi's idiocy. Had Lelouch not been ousted from the Black Knights, none of this would have happened…'
A few seats next to Kaguya, Cornelia is focusing on the tactics used by both sides. "That's the same tactic he used against us at Narita," Cornelia observes and says to Guilford.
"Indeed, Your Highness," Guilford agrees with Cornelia, but he is at the same time puzzled, "however, why wasn't Prince Schneizel surprised by it? Even if his emotion was dead, he should still have retained the ability to get surprised at something he couldn't foresee I suppose?"
"Well, that simply means that he's foreseen Lelouch using such tactic already," Cornelia shrugs.
What Cornelia has just said shocked Tohdoh, who overhears her conversation with Guilford. 'Does that mean…?' the Japanese General muses.
Inside the Avalon, C.C. was slowly walking towards her pink Lancelot Frontier. "With that, the enemy's strength has been drastically depleted. Which leaves the Damocles…" she said nonchalantly.
"…to destroy!" Suzaku bellowed as his Lancelot Albion flapped its green energy wings wide open.
Despite the decimation of the Black Knights and the readiness of Suzaku and C.C. to counterstrike, though, things turned out to still not be in their favour.
"Regrettably, the one who's been checked is you," Schneizel said as he switched the communication to the sky garden where Nunnally was in and spoke with his gentle elder brother voice, "Nunnally, targeting is completed. Now that the Black Knights have been decimated, we have no other choice but to use the F.L.E.I.J.A..."
"I understand…" Nunnally's voice and hands were trembling as the Damocles Key flashed red and activated. She paused for a moment before finally mustered up the determination to press the button with her fidgeting right thumb. "Big Brother's sin shall be wiped away by me…!"
And a F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead was launched from the Damocles.
'This is horrible…' Nina muses with great sadness as her body trembles once again, 'it was because of my invention that Nunnally had to bear the sin of sending thousands of people to oblivion…'
Meanwhile, Lloyd stares at the screen with uncharacteristic seriousness. 'So the F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads were launched by Her Majesty back then,' the usually eccentric scientists thinks inwardly, 'well, only if we could have sped up the development of the F.L.E.I.J.A. Eliminator, then Her Majesty wouldn't have to bear the same burden that Nina has been bearing since the first F.L.E.I.J.A. was dropped at Tokyo Settlement.'
Jeremiah also scowls at the scene. 'Only if I could find and rescue Her Majesty out of His Highness' control back then… forgive my incompetency, Your Majesty,' the teal-haired man apologizes inwardly to Lelouch.
"It's coming! The F.L.E.I.J.A.!" Cecile reported to Lelouch as she saw the incoming F.L.E.I.J.A. on the screen.
"So they launch it here?" Lelouch responded calmly and collectedly, starkly contrasting Cecile's worried expression, "Special Company 3!" he ordered.
"Yes, Your Majesty!" A group of Vincent Ward and Vincent Commander Model Knightmare Frames approached the F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead, and three of them jabbed their spears through the F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead. However, that didn't stop the F.L.E.I.J.A.; quite to the contrary, the warhead exploded as soon as it was jabbed, engulfing the entire Special Company 3 into it.
"The Avalon shall keep falling back," Lelouch seemed totally unfazed at the evaporation of his Special Company 3 to the parlous weapon, continuing to issue his orders, "all forces, keep attacking the Damocles to force it to empty its F.L.E.I.J.A. arsenal!"
"He's sending his forces to death!" Chiba exclaims. Seriously, what sort of soldiers would follow such self-destructive orders?
"That's the reason why he had all his soldiers geassed," Cornelia observes, "otherwise, no one in their right minds would have obeyed such suicidal orders which, however regrettably, was necessary to go against the devastating power of the F.L.E.I.J.A."
"But still…!" Chiba simply can't accept such cruel ways of using people. It was inhumane for Lelouch to deprive the Britannian soldiers of their free will and ordered them to go to die like that!
Cornelia sighs. She may be a merciless military commander on the field as well, but to do what Lelouch was doing on screen with a straight face is beyond her moral limit; she could not have ordered her own troops to certain death like how Schneizel and Lelouch did. There was simply no honour in fighting such wars, and this is something Cornelia tends not to get involved into whenever the situation allows.
As the blast started to contract, the weather turned terrible as huge waves started to conquer the ocean and volcano ashes greyed the blue sky. The screen then showed the Ikaruga crashed on the ground, and Ohgi fainted inside.
"Ohgi! Ohgi!" "Ohgi-san!" Tamaki and Kallen both yelled through the communication channel, waking the fainted Japanese man up.
"This is not the time to play dead!" Tamaki yelled.
"It couldn't be… you two shielded us?" Ohgi asked in disbelief as he saw the Guren and Tamaki's Gekka right outside of the Ikaruga's bridge.
"Heh, we were only able to protect the bridge, though. You are on your own now. Hang in there," Tamaki laughed before he turned his attention back to the battlefield and restarted the engine of his Gekka. "Let's go, Kallen!"
"Oh great. Who's the guy giving orders now?" Kallen laughed as she piloted her Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight Elements back to the sky as well.
"Thank you, Kallen and Tamaki, for saving Kaname," Villetta thanks both Kallen and Tamaki as she sees how Ohgi almost got killed by the crashing of Ikaruga had Kallen and Tamaki not intervened.
"No problem, Villetta!" Tamaki gives a big smile while using his index finger to rub his upper lip slightly. This is the first time he is thanked by someone for his actions since the start of the screening event!
"That's nothing," Kallen smiles back at Villetta, "Glad that I was close enough to the Ikaruga to save everyone on time."
"Well, guess I'd have to thank you two as well," Rakshata chimes in, "thanks for saving us."
"Well, I think everyone has to admit that you and Kouzuki did well there," Chiba says, "good job there."
"Heh, so you've finally realized how great this Shinichirou Tamaki really is…" Tamaki immediately gets his nose high. Finally… finally! Rakshata is not ridiculing him!
Tamaki is finally getting his longed vindication from his peers.
Another F.L.E.I.J.A. exploded as Lelouch's forces kept falling back. "Another F.L.E.I.J.A… again?" Kallen felt wrong about the continuous explosion of F.L.E.I.J.A. The warhead rendered tactics useless on the battlefield and wiped away lives too easily.
"The Ptolemy Fleet is obliterated! The operation…" back on the Avalon, Cecile turned back and reported to Lelouch as she saw another F.L.E.I.J.A. explosion had taken out yet another vanguard to the Avalon. Arthur the cat was no longer lying on the top of the monitor, but sitting right in front of Lelouch and his throne as Sayako was standing right next to the scowling 99th Emperor of Britannia.
"The operation shall continue!" Lelouch sternly ordered, "The Avalon falls back as ordered to keep its distance from the Damocles! All units, attack in waves and force the Damocles to continue launching the F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads!"
Lightning pierced through the darkened sky as the Damocles slowly moved forward from the back of the formation. "Nunnally, the next round is now ready to be launched," Schneizel kept talking to Nunnally in his trademark gentle and calm voice, but the blind and crippled girl was saddened and had tears sneaking out from her closed eyelids.
"Ye… Yes…" Nunnally replied weakly as she pressed the button on the Damocles Key again, launching another F.L.E.I.J.A., eliminating another hoard of Britannian units.
"How could Prince Schneizel be that cheerful in his tone?" Shirley cannot suppress her frustration at the situation anymore and exclaims, "Nunna was already crying for the deaths caused by the F.L.E.I.J.A., yet he's talking as if nothing happened!"
"His Highness was ruthless…" Rivalz trembles in fear, "how could he be that calm in ordering the deaths of thousands and thousands of people…"
"Tsch…" Gino hisses. At the time, he was focusing himself on the combats happening in the battlefield and didn't pay too much attention to what was happening inside the Damocles. Had he known that Schneizel actually tricked everyone into taking the burden of the sins required to achieve his own goal, he would have immediately turned back and rescue Nunnally, the rightful ruler of Britannia, out of Schneizel's control without a doubt.
The present day Nunnally bites her lip as she sees this from a third person perspective. She was too focused on her goal to wipe away Lelouch's sins, she didn't pay much attention to the way Schneizel was speaking to him. 'I've been thoroughly deceived and induced by Schneizel to fire the F.L.E.I.J.A. back then. How awful…'
"…tactics have become useless," Lelouch muttered as he saw another round of significant loss of his units to the F.L.E.I.J.A.
"However, once we're able to get inside, they will not be able to use the F.L.E.I.J.A.!" Jeremiah shouted inside his cockpit and led his company of Vincent Wards to attack the Damocles. However, all their attacks were blocked by a giant energy shield that covered the entire Sky Fortress. "Blaze Luminous?" Jeremiah was shocked.
"Such a huge…!" Sayako also stared at the shield in disbelief.
"The Sky Fortress Damocles was originally designed to achieve absolute air supremacy," Cecile explained, "If it reaches a certain altitude, we'll have no means to stop it!"
Inside the Damocles, Schneizel merely smirked at seeing how Lelouch's forces couldn't punch through the Blaze Luminous shield.
"Tsch…!" Lelouch hissed before he bellowed, "Suzaku! Can you punch through that thing?"
"I'm trying, but their power output is in a different league than mine," Suzaku explained as he piloted his Lancelot Albion to keep firing at the Blaze Luminous shield of the Damocles, before adding a crucial piece of information, "I don't think they can fire the F.L.E.I.J.A. now, though."
"However, if our attacks can't break through their shield, we may as well be spectators," C.C. said worriedly as she launched her Lancelot Frontier from the Avalon to get to the frontline.
"The world can only remain silent and cower before the absolute might of the F.L.E.I.J.A…" Sayako said as Arthur the cat turned and faced both Lelouch and Sayako.
Everyone in the audience who don't know the truth of the Zero Requiem scowls at Sayako's words.
"So it really didn't matter whether we had prevailed in that battle or not…" Tohdoh tightens his fist as he realizes that no matter who won in the last battle, the end result will likely be the same. "Damnit!" the eminent Japanese General slams the armrest of his seat with frustration and anger.
"Tsch! We were all pawns to these two horrible men…" Chiba hisses as well, realizing that no matter which side she had chosen, she would still be a pawn to someone's world domination plan.
Meanwhile, Guilford is seeing things from a slightly different angle on the issue. "Your Highness, it seems that we're lucky to have Lelouch to prevail in the last war instead of His Highness," he whispers to Cornelia sitting next to him, "after all, we were successful in our resistance movement against Lelouch's tyrannical rule because of his arrogance and carelessness. I don't think that would ever happen if it was Prince Schneizel who took over the world."
"Hmm…" Cornelia is carefully considering Guilford's point. 'That might be true since an empty vessel void of emotion such as Schneizel would never let down his guard. Lelouch, while extremely clever, was prone to making mistakes here and there owing to inexperience and his gigantic ego. Perhaps it was indeed better to have Lelouch prevailed over Schneizel…'
"Well, that's sort of peace if you ask me," suddenly, a bespectacled man with lavender hair walked into the control room of the Avalon. It was Lloyd.
"All remaining forces shall now mass around the Avalon!" Lelouch ordered with a stern face upon the entrance of Lloyd into the control room. "We're going to launch a direct assault on the Damocles with our hostages on board!"
"Are you sure about that?" Lloyd asked as he looked at Lelouch with his usual smile on the face, while Cecile looked at Lelouch with a worried expression.
"The fact that you are here means you've had it figured out, right?" Lelouch replied.
"Though the rest would depend on Suzaku and Your Majesty," Lloyd continued.
"Oh? Seems like you and your disciple had made something interesting?" Rakshata asks curiously.
"AHA! It was Nina's own work, I was just helping her on the side!" Lloyd says in his usual cheerful tone.
"Dr Asplund did help me a lot, so…" Nina blushes at the praise she's got from Lloyd.
"Be proud of yourself, Nina," Cecile softly encourages the timid and shy bespectacled girl, "it was thanks to your hard work that we were able to win that battle."
"Ms Croomy…" Nina is touched by the warm encouragement from the blue-haired beauty. The blue-haired beauty in question simply smiles back in response.
"Cecile, you are not half bad as well," Rakshata comments.
"Huh?" Cecile is caught off-guard by the compliment that the Indian scientist is offering to her.
"You were a commoner by birth, right? Unlike that Earl of Pudding next to you," Rakshata says, "yet, you worked your way up the ladder of the highly stratified Britannian society with your all-rounded skills, from assisting Earl of Pudding in his research to operating battle airships in a full-fledged battle. I have always wondered why the Britannian Empire hadn't given you a peerage for your hard work yet."
"Oh, you're giving me too much credit…" this time it is Cecile's turn to blush.
"I agree with Dr Chawla," Villetta chimes in the conversation. "I have worked hard to earn my peerage in the past, so I know how hard it was to climb that ladder, and how deserving you are for one, Ms Croomy."
"AHA! People are finally appreciating how good my assistant is!" Lloyd claps his hands cheerfully.
"Lloyd!" Cecile raises her voice, embarrassed. She then quickly turns to Villetta and says, "thank you for your praise, Lady Ohgi."
Villetta simply smiles back in return.
"…recorded," Anya doesn't miss the chance of taking a photo of a blushing Cecile.
Suddenly, someone was firing at the rear of Lelouch's accompanying fleet. It's the Black Knights led by Xingke Li, the Chinese General now serving as the General Commander of the Black Knights. "By our hands, you shall be…!" Xingke bellowed.
"I shall not allow you to sink the Avalon!" Suzaku immediately piloted his Lancelot Albion back to the rear to stop the Shenhu. "I shall stop Li!" Suzaku's pupils were encircled by red rings.
"You who without any morals…!" Xingke yelled as he piloted his Shenhu to engage in a close-range sword fight with the Lancelot Albion. However, after a few rounds of sword-crossing, Suzaku gained the upper hand and got behind the Shenhu, ready to slice it in half. "It's the end for you…! What?" Suzaku shouted as a damaged Zangetsu suddenly flew by and knocked the Lancelot Albion off the Shenhu.
"Kururugi!" Tohdoh bellowed as he piloted his Zangetsu to once again hit on the Lancelot Albion with its Brake Sword, "You turned your back on your country in order to climb in rank… What is it you are fighting for?"
"The one thing I want to fight for is a future!" Suzaku shouted back and destroyed the Zangetsu with its MVS, showing the performance difference between a 9th Generation Knightmare Frame and a 8th Generation Knightmare Frame. Tohdoh's cockpit was then ejected from the destroyed Knightmare Frame and caught by Chiba's Akatsuki Commander Model.
"Tohdoh-san!" Chiba shouted as she piloted her Knightmare Frame to shoot at the Lancelot Albion, preventing it from stopping the Shenhu to shoot its Baryon Cannon at the Avalon, destroying the Avalon's Blaze Luminous shield.
"Damn!" Suzaku looked back at the Avalon.
"Oh? Should I say, well done?" on the Damocles, Schneizel was also pleasantly surprised by Xingke's performance.
"Xingke!" Tianzi cheers for her favourite General of all times.
"Ah, the rare footage of when Mrs Tohdoh still called General Tohdoh 'Tohdoh-san'," Gino quips, greatly embarrasses Chiba. "Wha… What are you saying?" Chiba demands while blushing hard. Next to her, Tohdoh doesn't fare any better either: his face goes dark red due to his darker skin tone.
Separately, Milly is having a small chat with Rivalz. "It's quite amazing, isn't it?" the blonde girl begins, "I mean, when you think about it, our Student Council members are fighting for and against the whole world. Even Arthur participated in the war as well!"
"What? Is that sarcasm?" Rivalz says, "Because I couldn't stop Lelouch from walking down that path…"
"Don't beat yourself up," Milly consoles the blue-haired boy, "you did try to ask him, it was he who ignored you right before that conference with UFN."
"I tried, but…" Rivalz is still downcast about his last direct encounter with Lelouch. Why wouldn't he respond to him?
"You really did," Milly says gently.
"The primary floating system is damaged! The damage level has reached 75%!" an operator on the Avalon warned.
"Is this Avalon going to fall…?" Lelouch scowled as he gripped tight on both of the armrests of his throne.
As Shenhu was leading several other Knightmare Frames to intrude the Avalon, Suzaku piloted his Lancelot Albion as quick as possible to stop it. However, his path was blocked by Tamaki's Gekka. "Hold on, hold on, hold on!" Tamaki yelled as he was once again trying to exert his manly presence in the battlefield, "Well, the now me is drastically different from the past me, and…!"
However, no matter how different the Tamaki at that moment was from the Tamaki in the past, one thing remained unchanged: Suzaku was able to take him out with one single hit, slicing his Gekka into two pieces.
"…!" Tamaki's pride was severely damaged. How come this happened to him every single time? "Even I… got pride, you know?" Tamaki yelled at the top of his lungs as he piloted the upper part of the Gekka to turn around and kept shooting at the Lancelot Albion. However, none of those attack damaged the Lancelot Albion a bit, and Suzaku simply shot a slash harken to send Tamaki's cockpit on ejection as the upper part of the Gekka exploded.
"Tsch… I couldn't make it on time!" Suzaku was frustrated as he saw the Shenhu and the other Gekkas were entering the Avalon.
"Well, you did slow down the Lancelot Albion, giving General Li the window to lead his man barging into the Avalon," Rakshata commends Tamaki.
"Yep! I was great!" Tamaki's nose gets higher and higher, "Just like the previous scene when I saved the Ikaruga from crashing to the ground, this time I did my best and impeded that Kururugi bastard from stopping General Li to get into the enemy airship to rescue the hostages! This great Shinichirou Tamaki…"
Seeing Tamaki going on and on about how great he was has earned chuckles from the Indian scientist, and she decides to take a light jab at Tamaki's pride once again. "Having said that, you were still being ejected from your Knightmare Frame as soon as you engaged with the enemy. You sucked at piloting Knightmare Frames."
"Hey! I did not suck at piloting Knightmare Frames…!" Tamaki yells back, unaware that the audience is smiling at the bickering between the two warmly.
Inside a dock of the Avalon, Xingke got out of the Shenhu and drew his sword out. "If we engage them in close combat, we have a chance to win," he started dashing forward as he instructed his team, "Take over their power and communications. Then rescue the hostages!"
"Understood!" Xianglin replied as she, Gu and other men all followed Xingke's suit and dashed forward.
Lelouch stood up from his throne and didn't seem too worried about the Black Knights' intrusion into the Avalon. "This is enough," Lelouch said to Sayako, Cecile, Lloyd and Arthur the cat, "this airship shall land on the Pacific Ocean. You shall now follow mission Apate Aletheia."
"Master Lelouch…" Sayako took a step forward, seemingly worried about Lelouch.
Lelouch turned back and gazed at Sayako. He spoke in a soft tone, "You've worked hard all along the way," he then turned back to Lloyd, Cecile and Arthur the cat, "I thank you all for the resolve you've shown." He then turned back and started to walk away from the throne with a serious facial expression on his face.
"Yes, Your Majesty," Lloyd, Cecile and Sayako all saluted.
"Meow," Arthur the cat saluted as well.
Meanwhile, Schneizel was evaluating the circumstance in the control room of the Damocles. "Can we launch the F.L.E.I.J.A. here?" Schneizel asked Kanon in his trademark calm tone as if it was no big deal to do so.
"The Blaze Luminous shield is still on, and we should probably wait for the warhead to reach criticality," Kanon advised.
"I see. Even though this is an excellent opportunity to wipe out the Black Knights…" Schneizel muttered before putting up a smile on his face once again, "...no, that's not good. I should not get greedy," he ridiculed himself with the same equanimity he had shown when talking about sacrificing billions of people for his permanent peace plan for the entire world.
"He wanted to wipe us out?" Kallen cannot believe what she has heard just now. "How dare he…?"
Ohgi is once again aghast at how ruthless Schneizel actually was, and he doesn't know what to say anymore. "He… he can't… he can't… but we… we… we were… we were…" the Prime Minister of Japan stutters.
Tohdoh glowers deeply. 'Now that we know Prince Schneizel's ultimate objective back then, I'm not surprise that he wanted to wipe us out with Lelouch together. But still…!'
"He's definitely worse than Lelouch!" Chiba exclaims as her the balance in her mind about the evilness of Schneizel and Lelouch finally tips, "at least Lelouch had the decency of not wanting to geass us back on the Ikaruga!"
"Hell yea!" Tamaki also yells in agreement with Chiba.
Guilford can't believe what he has heard as well. "His Highness wanted to wipe out his own forces and relied solely on the F.L.E.I.J.A.? But that's…"
"Guilford, the Black Knights were not his own forces," Cornelia corrects her knight, "only the F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads were."
Guilford is aghast, but quickly recalls that Schneizel told Cornelia on the Damocles how there was no need for winning hearts, espousing ideologies or any that sort of thing, but instead relying on system and force to achieve permanent peace. 'I see… so that's why he wasn't surprised when Lelouch caused the eruption at Mt Fuji and wiped out the majority of units of the Black Knights. Rather, he was waiting for that moment, so that he could use the F.L.E.I.J.A. while also wiping out the Black Knights. What a heartless man…'
Cornelia, however, is concerned about another matter. As the only one among the audience to have received a complete Britannian Imperial Family education that included in-depth Greek mythology appreciation lessons in its demanding curriculum, Cornelia notices the special meaning in the mission code Lelouch had used. 'Apate is the goddess of deceit, while Aletheia is the goddess of truth. Does that mean Lelouch wanted to hide the truth by deceiving others?' The purple princess scans through the auditorium and gazes at Lloyd and Cecile. 'Apparently they know something that the rest of us don't. What are they hiding? Or rather, what did Lelouch want them to hide from us? Lelouch, What were you trying to do here?'
