Chapter 33: "Glorification" VIII – The Grip of Damocles
Inside the Avalon, Lelouch and Nina were walking down a corridor side by side. "…I understand. This is just my personal wish, but…" Lelouch said.
"This is Princess Euphemia's wish as well, right?" Nina asked.
Both then stopped as they reached the corridor crossway. "That's why I must do it," Lelouch muttered.
"But for the device to be completed, the environmental data need to be entered into the final programme," Nina turned to Lelouch and said with a serious expression, "You should let me go with you."
"No. You've done enough for me already, Nina," Lelouch turned to Nina and said with a thankful tone, "Even though we were both members of the Student Council and I was the first to recognize you, but for you to actually help Zero and the enemy of Euphy, that's too much for me to ask for already."
Nina gazed at Lelouch for a moment before finally speaking once again, "I won't find it in my heart to forgive Zero. Maybe not for the rest of my life. But… this is separate from that. I simply had to find my own answer to everything that has happened. That's all there is to it." She then turned left at the corridor crossway and walked away.
"You are… truly amazing," Lelouch muttered before he turned right and walked towards the opposite side.
"AHA! You've certainly grown up, Nina!" Lloyd commends the bespectacled girl cheerfully.
"Dr Asplund…" Nina blushes. Although she had been praised by Schneizel right after the successful detonation of the F.L.E.I.J.A., her heart was filled with hatred against Zero at that moment; her normal self is still not used to be commended by others.
"Come on, young lady, be more frank and accept the praise already!" Rakshata also offers her encouragement to Nina as she smiles to the timid girl, "if you could stand tall and speak like that to the most treacherous man ever treaded the Earth, you can certainly take complements from someone like the Earl of Pudding!"
"Rakshata's right, Nina," Cecile smiles at the dark green-haired bespectacled girl.
Just as Cecile is also encouraging Nina, Milly gazes at her timid friend from the other side of the auditorium as well. 'Nina, you've certainly become a lot more mature after all that had happened in the past year, no longer the shy girl who only stayed at the corner of the Student Council room. I'm happy for you.'
In the front row, however, Cornelia is triggered as she heard Nina mentioning Euphemia's wish. 'Euphy's wish? To dominate the world and to subjugate everyone to tyranny? What on earth was she talking about? How could that be Euphy's true wish…?' Cornelia is close to call out Lelouch for deceiving Nina into helping him, but what stops the purple princess from doing so was Nina's determination being shown on screen, about how she would likely never forgive Zero yet still being willing to help Lelouch. In fact, Cornelia's gut feeling is telling her loudly that Nina was not deceived by Lelouch into helping him, and there was actually more to what is being shown on screen. Coupled with what Cornelia has deduced from the mission name "Apate Aletheia" that Lelouch had mentioned to Lloyd, Cecile and Sayako before he left the commander room of the Avalon, she is almost sure that Lelouch was after something else than world domination. 'What is it? What are you trying to do?' she demands inwardly.
Inside the dock, C.C. had just landed on the floor from the cockpit of her pink Lancelot Frontier Knightmare Frame.
"C.C., are you alright?" the approaching Lelouch asked.
"How rare for you to ask that. Are you worried about me?" C.C. asked mischievously.
"You're a valued combatant, you know," Lelouch smiled as he answered. C.C. smirked and looked to the left hand side, staring at a rhombus-shaped Knightmare Frame shield with a spike at the centre of it that was specifically made for her Lancelot Frontier.
"Then, will you be escorting me?" Lelouch continued smiling while walking towards C.C.
However, that caused the lime-haired girl to turn back to look at him with a worried expression on her face. "So you're really going out there? If you do that, you may have to attack or even kill Nunnally."
Lelouch stopped right in front of C.C., and his face changed to a serious expression, "I have no choice if she stands in the way of the Zero Requiem."
Cornelia would have exploded had she not been suspecting that something else was going on, now that she has got the hint of the Greek mission name Lelouch had given to Lloyd, Cecile and Sayako. 'This "Zero Requiem" thing… what was it? Lelouch, what were you planning after all?'
Next to her frustrated elder sister, Nunnally bites her lip. 'Big Brother, I now see that we both thought similarly and had the same determination to strive towards the same goal. However, you should have told me your true intention before it was too late…'
Meanwhile, for those who have not yet been able to see things that far, the sense of disbelief prevails. "I can't believe it, Lelouch's actually going to kill Nunnally just for his world domination plan?" Rivalz asks incredulously. After he has got back his memories and have watched the footage until this moment, the blue-haired boy finally understands why Lelouch was willing to fight against Britannia for the crippled young girl who was once blind as well. However, he is now shocked and confused by how Lelouch was willing to throw away everything, even his own younger sister that he cherished more than anyone else, to conquer and rule the world with terror.
Milly also scowls at what Lelouch had just said on screen. 'Why? Why would you treat your little sister like that even though it's clear that you still cared about her? Just… why? Lelouch?'
'Even Lady C.C. was worried… Your Majesty, only if you had noticed the true intention of His Majesty, then perhaps things could be smoother than it actually was,' Jeremiah muses to Nunnally as he witnesses the internal struggle C.C. had when Lelouch was possibly going to fight against Nunnally.
"Lelouch, don't you hate me for cheating you out of your own life?" C.C. turned away and looked down on the floor, saddened. "By granting you Geass, I affected your life and drastically changed your fate."
Lelouch was taken by surprise for a moment, but quickly quipped back, "That doesn't sound like the immortal witch speaking." However, despite Lelouch's joking tone, C.C. turned and gazed at him with a saddened yet serious expression, seemingly inviting Lelouch to blame all his misfortune after obtaining the power of Geass onto her.
However, Lelouch answered in another direction. "C.C.," the raven-haired boy switched to a serious tone, "the Geass power you gave me only put me on the path that will lead to my destiny and nothing more. Everything that followed was my choice..."
Chiba is pleasantly surprised. "Oh, I thought he would blame everything onto the witch," she says, "well, it's refreshing to know that he at least owned up to his faults."
"Despite his numerous flaws, I guess I can respect this virtue of his," Villetta concurs. In the history of mankind, women all too often got the blame for things they were not responsible for: Helen of Troy, Anne Boleyn of England, Marie Antoinette of France, etc. Even if one confines oneself to look at the last decade or so, there was V.V. who blamed Marianne for what he perceived as a gradual deterioration of his closeness with Charles and a possible nullification of his oath with his brother of creating a world without lies, despite the fact that Marianne was in full support of that plan as well. For Lelouch to actually grew out of the historically "easy way out" tailor-made for men by blaming everything that went wrong on a woman and instead owning up to what he had done was something that not even Lelouch's harshest critics can complain about.
Tohdoh nods at Lelouch's choice of not blaming C.C. as well. Too often, people are prone to blame all that went wrong on someone else, particularly on someone who was perceived or considered as a witch. The fact that Lelouch didn't blame his wrongdoings on C.C. even when being invited by C.C. to do so has earned Lelouch some respect back from the stoic Japanese General.
The lime-haired girl smirked at Lelouch's answer and started to walk towards Lelouch. "This is my first time ever meeting a man like you."
"C.C…" Lelouch also walked towards the lime-haired girl, and the two were about to kiss…
BANG!
Suddenly, a giant 9th generation red Knightmare Frame busted through the wall and appeared in the dock, shocking the about-to-kiss C.C. and Lelouch and forced them to both take a step back.
"Kallen!" Lelouch exclaimed as C.C. quickly reacted and hurried back to her pink Knightmare Frame.
"I shall stop you!" Kallen exclaimed with tears on her beautiful blue eyes, "Farewell!"
Suddenly, a few missiles were shot from the rhombus shield of the pink Lancelot Frontier to the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight Elements, forcing the latter to use its Radiant Wave Surger to block the incoming missiles. This gave Lelouch the needed time window to rush into the cockpit of the Shinkirou as the pink Lancelot Frontier tackled the Guren onto the ground.
"Leave this to me, get to the Damocles!" C.C. shouted through the open channel.
"You stubborn…!" Kallen hissed as her chance to stop Lelouch had been voided.
Lelouch turned back to C.C. "Hey! But your opponent is the Guren! There's no way…!"
"I'm happy that you are worried about me," C.C. said in a mesmerizing tone, touching Lelouch's heart.
"Wow, I didn't know you could be that jealous, Kallen," Gino chuckles, causing the red-haired girl to have a reddened face. Meanwhile, Ohgi is cringing. 'Sorry, Naoto, I didn't know your younger sister was that into the Treacherous Emperor… forgive me for not looking after Kallen better…'
"You're indeed a fiery girl, Kallen," Rakshata chuckles as well, "I am glad that my child was of help to you at the right moment."
"You've got it all wrong! I didn't know they were going to… to…!" Kallen exclaims, "I just happened to be bursting into the Avalon at that moment, nothing more!"
"Say what you want, Kallen, but the fact remained that you said you were going to stop Lelouch from kissing Ms C.C. by killing him out of jealousy," Milly quips.
"No I didn't! I… I was just trying to stop him from doing the wrong thing!" Kallen shouts back.
"The wrong thing being kissing Ms C.C.?" Milly seeks clarification like any good journalist would.
"Ye… no! The wrong thing being to dominate the world by force!" Kallen exclaims before hissing with full force inwardly. 'God, why did I burst into the Avalon at that exact moment…? No, it was your fault, C.C., you seduced Lelouch into kissing you right when I was bursting into the Avalon! Damn you, witch!'
"Don't worry, Kallen! You've done the right thing!" Shirley, on the other hand, gives Kallen a big thumbs-up and a dazzling smile. Apparently, the orange-haired girl is pleased to see someone had stopped the lime-haired witch from stealing the lips of her dear Lulu.
"It's not that… argh…!" Kallen is going to explode. Sure, she has already admitted to the audience that she loved Lelouch, but that doesn't mean that she is now open to being teased about her love to Lelouch. 'Why didn't you edit this out, witch? This has nothing to do with understanding the truth whatsoever!' the red-haired beauty curses the lime-haired witch inwardly, who is once again probably smirking somewhere in the world because of how Kallen is embarrassed by the uncut scene.
The Shinkirou took off from the dock inside the Avalon and started to jet towards the Damocles. "I must succeed in this move. No matter what!" Lelouch placed his fingers on the keyboard control panel and exclaimed with determination. Five more Britannian units followed his lead, forming a triangular formation.
"Enemy Knightmare Frames approaching. The Shinkirou is leading them," meanwhile, an operator on the Damocles reported to Schneizel as Lelouch and his team showed up on the radar screen of the Damocles.
Schneizel gazed at the monitor, void of emotion. "Lower the Blaze Luminous shield away from the F.L.E.I.J.A. launch tube immediately. We're going to redirect our aim at the Shinkirou," he instructed. Schneizel then seemed disappointed at his opponent as he sighed, "Lelouch, discarding your life at the end? How ungainly."
"Realignment, complete!" the operator reported.
Schneizel nodded and then gazed at the monitor on his left hand side as he once again spoke gently to his younger sister. "Nunnally, this would bring it to the end. Can you do it?"
"Yes, Brother Schneizel…" Nunnally responded in her slightly trembling voice.
As the Blaze Luminous shield covering the F.L.E.I.J.A. launch tube was lowered, Schneizel gently told Nunnally that it was time to fire the F.L.E.I.J.A. at her full-blooded elder brother. Nunnally obliged and pressed the button on the Damocles Key, launching the warhead towards Lelouch and his formation.
"Nunna…" Shirley is utterly saddened by the scene, 'so Nunna did fire a F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead at Lulu as Prince Schneizel misled her to…'
"No…!" Rivalz is aghast as well. How could the most loving younger sister have shot the deadliest weapon of all at her beloved elder brother? That was insane!
'Prince Schneizel was indeed a terrific manipulator of people's emotions…' Milly muses with a tint of fear. With nothing but words and the manipulation of the flow of information, Schneizel had got Nunnally to fire the deadliest weapon at the person she cared about the most. How terrifying was that?
'Forgive me, Lady Marianne, I could not stop the tragedy of your children fighting each other,' Jeremiah quietly muses his apology to his real liege, 'but at the very least, I am happy to report that both survived this last Great War fought by mankind.'
'I am sorry, Big Brother, I…' watching from a 3rd person perspective, Nunnally finally realizes what a horrible thing she had done to her dearest brother upon being deceived and fooled by another elder brother of hers.
Next to Nunnally, however, Cornelia is watching the scene with intense interest as the tactician side of her has fully awaken. 'Alright, Lelouch. Show me what you've got up your sleeve to go against Schneizel and his F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads,' the warrior princess muses with high expectation on what is going to be shown on the screen.
Everyone else except Zero, Lloyd, Cecile and Nina are also intrigued as to how Lelouch stopped the F.L.E.I.J.A. from exploding. How did he perform that miracle back then?
"Good, now entering the data!" Lelouch muttered as his fingers started to dance at lightning speed on the keyboard, the monitor flashing multiple small windows with bar charts, area charts, lines of command in programming consoles, environmental data tables, etc.
Back on the Avalon, Nina was running along a corridor. 'The F.L.E.I.J.A. changes composition each and every moment. If we collide it with the reaction corresponding to that composition, we can prevent it from reaching criticality,' she mused.
At the same time, Lloyd and Cecile were crawling slowly through the ventilation duct as Arthur the cat rushed through the duct and led the way. 'However, you need to input the local environmental data just prior to the detonation within a 19-second time frame,' the bespectacled lanky scientist thought inwardly as he was crawling slowly forward through the ventilation duct.
'And even if you complete the programme, you'll only have 0.04 seconds to execute it,' Cecile looked worried as she was crawling forward slowly behind Lloyd.
"What the hell?" Tamaki exclaims incredulously, "That's impossible to do!"
"19 seconds and 0.04 seconds…?" Rivalz is shocked as well, "that can't be done! I mean, I know Lelouch was super smart, but no one could have done that in such a short time frame!"
"Not to mention the fact that Lelouch didn't have that sort of physical reaction time even if he was able to finish the 19-second part," Gino observes.
'Lulu...' Shirley closes her eyes and starts to pray.
Time was almost up and Lelouch was still typing in and processing the environmental data. The F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead started to glow pink in preparation for the explosion, and Schneizel looked at the scene with content on his face. "Peace… is achieved!" He exclaimed with serene happiness and satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Inside the Shinkirou, Lelouch finally finished his work and pressed enter, loading all the processed data onto the Anti-F.L.E.I.J.A. System named "F.L.E.I.J.A. Eliminator". "Suzaku!" Lelouch shouted as he pulled his gaze away from the monitor and turned to his left hand side.
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Suzaku and his Lancelot Albion immediately got into position and took the javelin-shaped F.L.E.I.J.A. Eliminator ejected by the Shinkirou.
"Grrr… Ahhhhhh!" Suzaku bellowed as the Geass red rings encircled his pupils, pushing his action and reaction capabilities to the extreme. "Now!" Suzaku shouted as he manoeuvred his Lancelot Albion to throw the javelin towards the exploding F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead.
As the F.L.E.I.J.A. Eliminator stabbed into the warhead and started to integrate with it, Nina was hiding herself in an abandoned storage room of the Avalon, worriedly praying to her one and true goddess, 'It should work in theory. But… Princess Euphemia…!'
Just as Nina was praying to Euphemia, Schneizel stared at the monitor intently to watch how the exploding F.L.E.I.J.A. would vaporize his younger brother, all the UFN representatives and the key members of the Black Knights in order to bring the version of world peace he wanted.
That didn't happen.
Instead, the expanding blast suddenly turned black and imploded, eventually disappearing altogether.
"The F.L.E.I.J.A…" "Disappeared…?" both Kanon and Diethard were utterly shocked at what had just happened before their very eyes. Schneizel couldn't believe what he saw either before narrowing his eyes, 'I didn't expect them to have made a toy like that…'
Back on the Avalon, Nina was also in awe of how Lelouch and Suzaku had successfully turned her theory into reality.
Everyone in the audience, with the exception of Zero of course, is in awe of what Lelouch and Suzaku did on screen. They pushed their brain and brawn to the extreme and performed a miracle in 19 seconds and 0.04 seconds!
"Well, that was impressive," Rakshata commends the raven-haired boy, "he would have made an excellent research assistant had he chosen to tread the path of science instead of some meaningless world domination campaign."
"Both His Majesty and Suzaku did their best and saved us all," Cecile says, "it's thanks to them that we are all here today."
"It's still amazing to see how Lelouch and Suzaku were able to turn our theories into reality," Nina says before once again singing her praise to the one true goddess that she believes in wholeheartedly, "although it must be Princess Euphemia who was watching over us and helped us to succeed…"
"AHA! That's why good devicers are important to research!" Lloyd exclaims, "With good devicers, you can bring out maximum potential from your creation!"
Meanwhile, Cornelia can offer nothing but praise to Lelouch's brilliance as she is clapping her hands approvingly. "To analyze, calculate and input multiple sets of data that are changing every moment correctly is simply something that only he could have done and no one else. Schneizel may have the brain to do that as well, but I doubt his fingers could move as dexterous as Lelouch's could since he's a lot more used to having someone else to do the tedious work for him."
"Kudos to Kururugi as well. Without him, Lelouch would not have been able to get that javelin to stab the F.L.E.I.J.A. on time," Guilford adds, to which Cornelia also agrees.
Jeremiah salutes to his liege's eldest son and the Knight of Zero inwardly as pride fills his heart. 'Your Majesty and Lord Kururugi, you're simply brilliant. I salute you. All Hail Lelouch!'
Tianzi is shocked to learn that she and Kaguya were so close to death, while at the same time also shocked at being saved by Lelouch's extraordinary skills. After a brief moment, the young Chinese girl has decided to be shocked more by Lelouch's extraordinary skills. "Kaguya, that's amazing!" she exclaims.
"Yes, Tianzi, Lelouch's amazing," Kaguya smiles at her younger friend. She is also shocked to learn that she, Tianzi and all UFN representatives were so close to being vaporized by Schneizel's F.L.E.I.J.A., and it was how calm Schneizel was about vaporizing them all that has caused some distress to the young Japanese girl's mind. 'That man was sick. He had no human emotion at all. No wonder he's an excellent and flawless politician – nothing could corrupt him,' she muses with fear in hindsight.
Meanwhile, Ohgi, still in his shocked state, is once again shocked. He had relied on Zero's miracles to achieve success when still fighting against Britannia, but as time passed by, he automatically took them for granted and, once he had learnt that Lelouch possessed a supernatural power, he simply assumed that all of his miracles were by virtue of the power of Geass. However, this scene has shown him that it was not Lelouch's Geass power, but his peerless brilliance that was the basis of his success. Ohgi has finally realized that even without the Geass power, Lelouch was still a formidable leader and opponent, and there was no way for him to prevail over either Schneizel or Lelouch had he needed to lead a resistance against a Britannia led by either of them. Coupled with his new discovery of Schneizel's ultimate goal, the tall Japanese man suddenly feels an immense sense of guilt for unwittingly falling for Schneizel's trap that forced Lelouch away from the Black Knights. 'I… I… I… What have… I done…' he stares at his trembling hands in regret.
Just as the Prime Minister of Japan is falling into despair and regret, the Ashford Group seems to be exhilarated by what they have just seen on the screen.
"Dude… he's amazing!" Rivalz exclaims, "I know he was smart, but I didn't know he was that smart!"
"He had mudded his brilliance by his mediocre grades and laziness towards student council work very well," Milly sighs, "well, I actually encouraged him to enjoy his life more, but still… I guess I had actually encouraged him to further suppress his potential that he had been suppressing already."
Shirley is mesmerized by this serious side of Lelouch. 'Lulu… you were so handsome when you're so focused on your work and your fingers dancing on the keyboard… if only had you been serious when you were at Ashford Academy as well…' Not far from Shirley, Kallen also shows a similar expression on her face, admiring the brilliance of the man she has fallen in love with. Behind them, Gino shakes his head a bit but nevertheless applauds Lelouch and Suzaku's amazing teamwork – it was executed awfully well.
"…recorded," Anya takes a photo of both Shirley and Kallen's mesmerized facial expression.
Contrary to the slightly amazed Schneizel, Lelouch had no time to spare to celebrate his success. He immediately rushed his Shinkirou to the F.L.E.I.J.A. launch tube of the Damocles and used his machine's Absolute Defence System to block the closure of the Blaze Luminous shield. "Now! Fly in!" Lelouch exclaimed to Suzaku and the ensuing Knightmare Frame Formation, to which they all obliged and quickly flew through the opening before the Blaze Luminous shield covered the launch tube again, less the last one that unfortunately did not make it and exploded as it was caught by the Blaze Luminous shield.
"They've got through the blaze?" Kanon shouted incredulously.
"They sure did," contrary to the frantic Kanon, Schneizel simply smiled at it.
Once it had got through the Blaze Luminous, Suzaku manoeuvred his Lancelot Albion to start shooting at the exterior of the Damocles to make way for the formation to enter, causing the Sky Fortress to shake violently and Nunnally to lose her grip of the Damocles Key as it fell onto the ground. The crippled and blind girl eventually fell onto the ground as well as she was frantically trying to retrieve the key.
'I'm sorry, Nunnally,' the present day Zero apologizes inwardly, 'only if I had collaborated with Jeremiah to keep searching for you after that first F.L.E.I.J.A. had blasted the Tokyo Settlement, then you wouldn't have to suffer like that…'
As Lelouch and his company burst into the Damocles, Schneizel, for the first time, was shown to have an irritated expression on his otherwise always charming face. However, in only 5 seconds, Schneizel regained his composure and reverted back to his usual smiling face. "I applaud you, Lelouch, for forcing me to implement my final plan."
This shocked both Kanon and Diethard. Is their prince really going straight to the last resort?
"Yes, the Damocles will henceforth be the cage for Lelouch and his company. After we have got out of here, we shall use the F.L.E.I.J.A. to eliminate this Damocles," Schneizel smiled gently as he continued, "this would be such a fine coffin for him. I wonder if Lelouch would find this to his taste."
"That man's sick!" Tamaki yells. "What's wrong with him?"
Villetta actually agrees with Tamaki this time. Schneizel was about to kill his younger brother, yet he was smiling at it – not a smile out of malice, not a smile out of ambition, but a simple, genuine smile. How sick one has to be in order to act like Schneizel did?
Next to Villetta, Ohgi simply watches the scene in horror as he hears what Tamaki has just said. Now that his fantasy about Schneizel is shattered, all he can see is a maniac who saw no problem in firing the F.L.E.I.J.A. at anyone with a gentle smile. The contrast is so great, Ohgi doesn't even know what to believe in anymore. 'What happened? How did we get into a situation like this…?' he keeps asking himself inwardly in a frantic manner.
Just as Ohgi is still in his confused mode, Rakshata catches something interesting. "By the way, I think that's the first time ever I've seen irritation on Prince Schneizel's face," she remarks, piquing everyone's interest.
"Indeed, I have never seen Schneizel being irritated by anything even since he's become Prime Minister," Cornelia says, "that's actually a big achievement for Lelouch right there."
"AHA! This is such a battle of brains!" Lloyd exclaims, "Too bad I wasn't able to witness it in real time myself!"
"Lloyd…!" Cecile is worried that Lloyd will attract the ire of the members of the Imperial Family and their Knights.
Next to a worried Cecile, Nina simply scowls at the 2nd Prince of Britannia. 'I knew this already, but… I really shouldn't have fallen to his sweet words and made that bomb for him…' the bespectacled girl muses in regret. Sure, she has tried her best to remedy her mistake and helped the Zero Requiem to fruition in order to contribute to a gentler future to mankind, but deep down in her heart, she knows that her bloodstained hands will never be cleaned, and she will never be able to face Euphemia, her one and true goddess, with such a pair of dirtied hands. 'O… forgive me, Princess Euphemia…' she muses in utter sadness and regret.
As Suzaku's Lancelot Albion was leading the way while Lelouch and his company followed suit, they turned at a corner when suddenly someone destroyed a Britannian unit following the Shinkirou. It was the Tristan Divider Knightmare Frame. Unlike its previous iteration, this new Tristan wielded two swords repaired from the split MVS Excalibur once held by the now fallen Galahad.
"Lelouch, I do not recognize your Britannia!" Gino bellowed before he started attacking, "be gone!" The Tristan Divider then swung one of its swords at the Absoluate Defence System and broke through it, disabling the Shinkirou's right arm.
"See, that's how strong the split MVS Excalibur swords were," Rakshata, the person who turned the MVS Excalibur into two swords wielded by the Tristan Divider explains, "with one swing, it could easily break through the strongest existing defence system of a Knightmare Frame controlled by one of the smartest brains in the world."
"AHA! This just tells you how powerful the original MVS Excalibur was," Lloyd adds, "the sword wielded by the man known as the Knight of One!"
"Indeed," Gino agrees, "actually, swinging either of them was quite demanding for my Tristan already. To think that they were originally one single sword swung by Sir Bismarck… his power was truly immeasurable."
Zero listens to the discussion and sweats a little as he thinks back his battle with Bismarck's Galahad. 'It seems that I won that battle largely thanks to the 2 degree of generational difference between Lancelot Albion and the Galahad, as well as Lord Waldstein's arrogance and pride that had let his guard down. And to think that even he would need his Geass to be able to fight Lady Marianne… just how strong she really was?'
"What? What kind of power is that...?" Lelouch was shocked that there was something that could actually break through the Shinkirou's Absolute Defence System. He immediately manoeuvred the Shinkirou to open its Diffusion Structure Phase Transition Cannon and fired at the Tristan Divider, but Gino easily dodged it due to their immense difference in Knightmare Frame piloting skills and experience. The shot instead punched through the walls of the Damocles, and as it reflected back inside, it forced both Knightmare Frames to reposition face to face in a larger emptied area, when Suzaku immediately intervened and piloted his Lancelot Albion in between the Shinkirou and the Tristan Divider.
"Lelouch, go ahead!" Suzaku exclaimed, "There's an enemy to be defeated and someone to be rescued. It's all up to you. Go!"
"Understood…! Ugh!" Lelouch immediately piloted his Shinkirou towards the right and away from the Tristan Divider. However, Gino quickly threw his right sword towards the fleeing Shinkirou and immediately brought it to the ground. Lelouch exclaimed as he quickly jumped out of the cockpit of the Shinkirou and started to run towards the stairs before the Shinkirou exploded.
"Gino, do you insist on fighting me, no matter what?" Suzaku asked.
"Yes, I will do whatever it takes to protect the things I needed to protect!" Gino bellowed.
"And I'm fighting for the same reason!" Suzaku bellowed back.
"You…?" Gino piloted his Tristan Divider to spin and gain momentum before its sword crossed with the Lancelot Albion's MVS.
Lelouch was seen running up a long stair as fast as he could. 'Is Schneizel on the control and command floor? Or is he…' he mused.
"Am I the only one to find how unreliable Suzaku was?" Kallen speaks up.
"How do you mean, Lady Kouzuki?" Jeremiah is curious.
"Well, right after Suzaku told Lelouch to leave Gino to him and to go ahead, Gino immediately threw one of his swords that disabled and destroyed the Shinkirou. Shouldn't Suzaku have been able to at least block Gino's attack on the Shinkirou if he's going to say those 'assuring' words out loud?"
"Now you mention that…" Jeremiah also sees where Kallen is coming from. Judging at how things turned out after Suzaku's words, he was indeed not too reliable as Lelouch's knight…
"Lord Weinberg was also a Knight of the Round," Guilford chimes in the discussion as it revolves around Knightmare Frame battles, "they were both great Knightmare Frame pilots, so I guess anything could have happened."
'Err… well, Gino acted too quickly and it didn't threaten my life, so I was caught off guard by that…' Zero quietly muses at the scene, as he himself also find it sort of ridiculous that Lelouch had to immediately evacuate from the Shinkirou right after he told Lelouch to go on and leave Gino to him.
Separately, Shirley looks worried as she sees how Lelouch was trying to run up the stairs. 'Those were a lot of steps on a long staircase… Lulu had fought really hard inside the Damocles,' the orange-haired girl muses.
"To think that a guy who couldn't outrun a girl to rush up that long staircase… he worked hard on that," Rivalz comments, to which Milly and Nina nod to.
Villetta also stares at the running Lelouch. 'Well, Lelouch, it seems that all the PE supplementary lessons I had forced you to take paid off at last… you should thank me for not letting you to slack off from those lessons,' The former swimming coach and PE teacher at Ashford Academy muses with a tint of proudness on how hard she had fought with the brainy boy in forcing him to take all the PE lessons he actively attempted to skip on a daily basis.
Inside the empty commander room of the Damocles, the monitor showed that a F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead was set to detonate within the Damocles. It turned out that Schneizel, Kanon and Diethard all went inside a fast-moving lift, sinking down the floors rapidly.
"The Damocles and the F.L.E.I.J.A. are simply machines after all. We can always rebuild them," Schneizel explained to Kanon and Diethard.
"But sir, neither the Toromo Agency nor Rosenberg has the resources to do that…" Kanon warned in a whispering voice.
However, Schneizel was unmoved. "Yes. But Lelouch is now the enemy of the world. If it turns out that our system had destroyed him, there will be plenty of organizations happy to build the F.L.E.I.J.A. for us."
Kanon hesitated at Schneizel's plan. "Isn't that basically terrorism?" he asked hesitantly, "Besides, we should probably also consult Princess Nunnally before doing that…"
"Where is the need to do that?" Diethard suddenly chimed in with a cold tone, "a bait has no opinion, after all."
Kanon was aghast. "Your Highness, you don't mean… to abandon her?" he asked incredulously.
Schneizel still remained unmoved by the question. "World peace and one single life… it's sad to say, but they are not comparable."
Back in the Sky Garden, Nunnally was frantically trying to retrieve the Damocles Key, believing that she must stop Lelouch from committing more sins. She was unaware of the fact that she had been abandoned by Schneizel to death already.
"That bastard!" Jeremiah hisses at the sight of Diethard showing disrespect to the daughter of his true liege, "how dare he suggested to abandon Her Majesty like that…?"
"Nunna…" Shirley is getting worried. Although she knew that Nunnally eventually did not get vaporized by Schneizel's F.L.E.I.J.A., it is still a disheartening scene to see a blind and crippled girl being abandoned to death like that. Behind the orange-haired girl, Milly, Rivalz and Kallen all scowls at what Schneizel and Diethard had decided to do as well.
The present day Nunnally tightens her grip on the armrests of her wheelchair as she is utterly saddened by what she has just seen. 'Brother Schneizel, you not only used me to fight against Lelouch, you even abandoned me …?'
"Nunnally, I'm here," Cornelia reaches out and holds Nunnally's trembling left hand with her own right hand, "I'll always be on your side."
"Big Sister…" Nunnally's tears fall out from her eyes as she starts to sob, recovering from the shock that her seemingly gentle and nice elder brother that she had mistakenly trusted had abandoned her so callously and coldly. Cornelia pulls Nunnally into her embrace and pats her head gently.
Just as Cornelia is comforting Nunnally, Guilford finally understands what Nonette told him right after rescuing Cornelia from the Damocles. 'I see, that's why Lady Enneagram said that Earl Maldini was Prince Schneizel's "lost humanity". The Earl didn't always agree with His Highness' inhumane approach and was doing the best he could to save people whom His Highness had already abandoned, and it was thanks to him that Lady Enneagram was informed to barge into the Damocles to rescue Her Highness from a slow and painful death after being gunned down by His Highness.' Guilford decides to silently salute to the aide-de-camp of Schneizel who had worked tirelessly behind the scenes to redeem the sins his liege had committed.
Right outside the Damocles, Jeremiah was leading his company to keep punching through the UFN's defence line around the Sky Fortress. "This is the bridgehead," Jeremiah announced, "All units! This is my stage where I shall do my very best!"
Suddenly, the Mordred appeared and shot its Stark Cannon towards the Sutherland Sieg. Jeremiah was able to pilot his Knightmare Giga Fortress to dodge the attack, but the numerous Britannian units behind him were too slow to do so and got destroyed.
"I dislike… the currently Lelouch," Anya said stoically inside the cockpit of the Mordred.
"The Knight of Six!" Jeremiah exclaimed in excitement, "what a fitting opponent for me!"
"You were fighting each other?" Rivalz is surprised to see Jeremiah fighting with Anya. Aren't they business partners of the Justice Gentlemen Orange Farm?
"Yes," Anya replies succinctly.
"Yes, it was a battle filled with honour," Jeremiah reminisces, "we fought fair and square. Nothing more, nothing less."
"And now you are both operating an orange farm?" Rivalz is curious. How did the two get together to run a business now after fighting like that?
"Yes," Anya replies succinctly once again.
"After everything that had happened, Anya had nowhere to go, so I invited her to join me at my orange farm," Jeremiah explains, "and she accepted my invitation."
"Yes," Anya adds succinctly, as always.
Below the descending Avalon, the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight Elements flashed through the battlefield and destroyed numerous Vincent Wards trying to attack the Guren. She then proceeded to attack the pink Lancelot Frontier, which either dodged the red Knightmare Frame's attack, or were shielded from it thanks to the Britannian units accompanying it.
"You are not fighting for a country, and you have nothing to avenge! You don't have a shred of ambition either!" Kallen shouted, "Someone who has no reason to fight should just leave!"
"I've made a reason to fight. A promise," C.C. replied as she manoeuvred her machine to dodge the Guren's giant metal claw.
"Are you saying that you love Lelouch?" Kallen dropped the pretense and demanded as she piloted her Guren to shoot a wide-range Radiant Wave Surger attack, to which C.C. quickly dodged while six allied units came in front of her to shield her from the attack, all vaporized as a result.
"Who knows? But I believe that the time has finally arrived for me to stop accumulating experience," C.C. said in a saddened tone.
"That makes you sounded almost human," Kallen hissed at the immortal witch as the Guren shot its slash harkens to disarm the pink machine.
"As expected from you…" C.C. struggled to manoeuvre her Knightmare Frame to dodge the Guren's attack, but to no avail in face of the strongest Knightmare Frame pilot who was piloting the most advanced Knightmare Frame in the world.
"Kallen, you win…" C.C. said as the ejection system of the pink Lancelot Frontier activated.
"That doesn't really matter," Kallen said with no emotion in her tone, "goodbye." She then piloted her Guren swiftly away and headed towards the Damocles before the pink Lancelot Frontier exploded, sending its cockpit parachuting down the Pacific Ocean.
"To think that I still care about winning and losing…" C.C. smirked.
"That's it, Kallen! Good job!" Shirley cheers for Kallen as she beat up the pink Knightmare Frame, sending the girl who dared to steal the lips of her dear Lulu into the sea.
"Wow, not only did you want to kill Lelouch to stop him from kissing C.C., you also wanted to kill C.C. just because she loved Lelouch?" Gino asks.
"…" Kallen blushes hard and doesn't know what to say. At the last scene, she can still insist that she didn't know the two were about to kiss and her actions were not out of jealousy; here, it is clear that she was fueled by jealousy when she sliced the pink Lancelot Frontier into pieces and sent C.C.'s cockpit ejected.
"And you were so cruel to Ms C.C., saying that she sounded almost human when she said she wanted to start to live again," Milly quips.
"…" Kallen really has no words to say: she was being petty back then.
"Please, don't be harsh on Lady Kouzuki," Jeremiah comes to the rescue Kallen… or not, "His Majesty was simply too deadly attractive to the ladies. Things like this were bound to happen."
"Are you trying to help me or not?" Kallen screams at the top of her lungs. What Jeremiah has just said doesn't help her at all!
"…recorded," Anya dutifully takes a photo of the embarrassed Kallen and a puzzled Jeremiah.
Back inside the Sky Garden in the Damocles, a crawling Nunnally was still frantically trying to retrieve the Damocles Key. "The key… where is the key? It's got to be here… I have to stop Big Brother… and it's all up to me to do it. If only I could… huh?" the young girl suddenly stopped her movement and, miraculously, turned her head towards the Damocles Key.
Meanwhile, Schneizel, Kanon and Diethard were boarding an escape craft in the dock, guarded by seven security guards outside and two right at the entrance. As the trio walked into the cabin of the escape craft, the monitor at the front of the cabin suddenly switched on and was loading something, taking the three men by surprise. As the loading was complete, the screen showed the back a blue chair inside the Damocles control room gradually turning around. It was Lelouch. "I've been waiting for you, Schneizel," a smirking Lelouch said.
Unlike the shocked Kanon and Diethard, Schneizel simply closed his eyes and then reopened his eyes while smiling, "I see, so the one who's got checkmated was I," he commented offhandedly. Outside the escape craft, the guards started to gather at the entrance; their eyes were all encircled by red rings.
"How come he's so goddamn calm?" Chiba hisses, "Wasn't he being checkmated?"
Tohdoh frowns as well. 'Did Prince Schneizel still have something up his sleeve?'
"That's a virtue and vice of Schneizel," Cornelia explains, "his emotion was dead and he wasn't capable of showing violent emotional changes."
Villetta is pleasantly surprised at how Lelouch made it in a relatively short period of time. 'To think that Lelouch actually got to the escaped craft to geass all those security guards, rushing to the control room and started the conversation with Schneizel without panting due to muscle fatigue… seems like my supplementary PE lessons did man you up a bit, Lelouch.'
"I see," Schneizel took his seat, sounding unusually but characteristically calm and collected, "would you care to enlighten me on how you saw through my strategy?" the blond prince enquired as his elbows rested on the two armrests comfortably and his fingers on both hands crossed right in front of him.
"It's not your strategy that I have seen through," Lelouch replied, "It's your nature. You only play games that you couldn't lose."
Schneizel remained unmoved and closed his eyes. "That's how you know I would abandon the Damocles?" he asked slowly.
"Schneizel, I shall make sure you will lose this time," Lelouch asserted.
"That means," Schneizel opened his eyes and gazed at the screen phlegmatically, "I shall be killed?"
Kaguya is stunned by the way Schneizel asked Lelouch whether he would be killed. 'Prince Schneizel didn't seem like he cared at all. Was he trying to buy time through his conversation with Lelouch, so that someone else would be able to come over to get him out of the sticky situation he was in?'
Meanwhile, the Avalon finally landed on the Pacific Ocean. Inside it, Xingke was directing his team to take control of the airship while rescuing the UFN representatives onboard. As he was communicating with Gu, the lift in front of him opened, and he immediately took a defensive stance. However, to his surprise, inside the lift stood the UFN representatives, Lloyd, Cecile, Sayako and Arthur the cat.
"Xingke!" Tianzi snuck out of the jam-packed lift and rushed towards her favourite General.
"Your Majesty! Are you alright?" Xingke immediately knelt down to catch Tianzi's hands.
"Yes, we were saved by those people over there!" Tianzi smiled as she turned around and pointed at Lloyd, Cecile and Sayako. Xingke immediately stared at them with suspicion.
"General Li, we are your allies!" Sayako said sincerely as Kaguya slowly walked out of the lift.
Xingke stared at the three people originally on Lelouch's side sceptically for a moment before finally demanding, "You betrayed Lelouch?"
"We were coerced by him!" Sayako took a step forward and pleaded as Xingke and Kaguya were gazing at her suspiciously while Tianzi was gazing at her gratefully, "However, since Lelouch is no longer here…"
Kaguya chimed in and turned to Xingke. "At the very least, we believe that they think dictatorship is wrong. On this, I think we can trust them," she suggested.
"I understand," Xingke replied after a split second of quick assessment of the situation.
Most people in the audience are puzzled to see how Sayako accused Lelouch of coercing Lloyd, Cecile and herself into assisting him. After all, Sayako wasn't forced to join Lelouch's team, but did so on her own volition. Why would she tell Xingke that she and the others were coerced by Lelouch?
"Just what are you guys hiding from us?" Rakshata questions Lloyd and Cecile.
"AHA! We were simply rescuing the hostages and handing them back to the UFN," Lloyd casually remarks.
"We supported His Majesty because we knew what Prince Schneizel was going to do," Cecile explains, "but I believe you would agree that holding hostages to threaten others is not a widely accept act, and so we decided to return the hostages to the Black Knights when His Majesty left the Avalon."
"But didn't you know that by doing so, you would infuriate Lelouch and get yourselves into trouble?" Rakshata demands.
"That was the reason why we were all apprehended by His Majesty and locked into the prison cell with you after the Battle of Mt Fuji," Cecile continues to explain.
Although the blue-haired beauty's answer is convincing and reasonable enough to stop the Indian scientist to question further, doubts still remain among the audience. None of them keeps pursuing, though, because Cecile's answers are just inclusive enough that they can be seen as clearing any further doubts about Lloyd, Cecile and Sayako's motives and whether they knew the consequence of betraying Lelouch. However, Cornelia distinctively remembers the mission name Lelouch had given to Lloyd, Cecile and Sayako before he left the Avalon: "Apate Aletheia". 'Ms Croomy's answers seem plausible enough, but there must be more to it. Did Lelouch order them to release the hostages back to the UFN? But if that's the case, then Dr Asplund, Ms Croomy and Ms Shinozaki were simply following his orders and there should be no reason for Lelouch to lock them up afterwards as well. It would be difficult to believe that the three actually betrayed Lelouch, though, given how they all volunteered to join Lelouch, and how Lelouch treated them with respect and never abused them,' Cornelia muses in frustration before she finally scowls in disdain, 'Damnit, Lelouch, what were you trying to do?'
Meanwhile, on Horai Island, Villetta was worried about Ohgi. "The final battle is most likely taking place within the Damocles now. Ohgi, I mean, the General Secretary…" she spoke to Claudio Darlton, the lone surviving member of the Glaston Knights, hesitantly.
"Either way, you're saying he's okay, right?" Claudio turned back and asked gently, to which Villetta nodded.
"Chigusa…" Ohgi is touched by how his then-fiancée was worried about his safety. He holds his wife's hand tight.
"Kaname…" Villetta happily rests her head on Ohgi's shoulder. Watching back how difficult it was for the two to become an item has reinforced their love to each other.
The camera then switched to a ward, where a purple-haired woman was lying on the bed with her right arm bandaged. "In the end, my elder brother didn't kill me," it was Cornelia, alive but injured and exhausted, "He doesn't have any strong desire on anything. If it were a more peaceful time, he would have been an excellent Emperor. I was a fool not to have seen that," she said as she turned her head slightly to the right, gazing at the person sitting on the stool next to her bed and extended her right hand to that person, to which that person received the hand while trembling.
The camera then turned to the person sitting on the stool – it was Guilford with his sunglasses on. His hair no longer ties to a ponytail, but freely spread down his back. "Your Highness…" his voice trembled as he had finally reunited with his one and only liege after more than a year of separation, ever since his last conversation with her amidst the Black Rebellion in Tokyo Settlement.
Cornelia is touched and mesmerized by her knight's unwavering loyalty to her. "You… are still willing refer me as such…?" she asked gently and lovingly to her knight.
Guilford could only continue to sob.
"How did you get out of the Damocles, Your Highness?" Gino asks curiously.
"It was Lady Enneagram who led several members of the Glinda Knights to rush into the Damocles amidst the Battle of Mt Fuji, rescued Her Highness and brought her to the hospital on Horai Island," Guilford explains on behalf of his liege. Although Cornelia was not wrong to have thought that Schneizel didn't kill her in the end, it was a fact that Schneizel didn't offer any help to the dying Cornelia either: he simply didn't care whether Cornelia would stay alive or die gradually after being shot down in the dark grand hall of the Damocles, just as how he cared nothing about the survival of Nunnally by ordering the Damocles to be destructed by a F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead, or the survival of all his other half-siblings by throwing a F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead at Pendragon and vaporized nearly all of them. It was all thanks to Kanon's covert communication with the Knight of Nine that had allowed the dying Cornelia to be immediately sent for medical attention on Horai Island and saved the warrior princess' life.
"And how were you rescued from that F.L.E.I.J.A. blast over Tokyo Settlement?" Gino continues to ask.
"I was simply lucky enough not to have my cockpit caught by the blast," Guilford continues to explain, "nevertheless, my eyesight still suffered quite a bit from the strong flash of the blast as I was too close to it, hence the need to wear coloured glasses."
"I am so happy for you two to have survived," Nunnally smiles at her elder sister and the bespectacled knight. After so many tragedies that had happened in the past two years, it was a relief to her to see that at least her elder sister and her knight came out alive, with all limbs and parts intact.
"Thanks, Nunnally," Cornelia smiles back.
"I thank you for your kind words, Your Majesty," Guilford gets off of his seat and kneels down before Nunnally respectfully. As he was about to rise up after thanking Nunnally, though, someone suddenly holds his face.
"Huh? Your Highness? Wha… hmph!" Guilford was about to ask what Cornelia is doing, but he can't finish his words as Cornelia seals his lips with her own, which only breaks after a few more seconds have passed.
"Your Highness…?" Guilford blushes hard as he struggles to stand up. His princess has certainly become a lot bolder to express her feelings in public lately…
Cornelia doesn't say anything, but merely smiles back with a slight blush on her face, which, to Guilford, is the most beautiful smile he has ever seen on a woman's face.
Nunnally simply smiles warmly at the interaction between her elder sister and that elder sister's knight.
"That's right, Emperor Charles sought the past; you seek the present. But I desire the future," Back on the escape craft on the Sky Fortress, Lelouch continued his conversation with Schneizel through the monitor as the fight outside the Damocles was still going on.
"The future may be worse than today," Schneizel interjected.
"No, it will be better," Lelouch rejected Schneizel's idea, "no matter how long it takes, people will continue to seek happiness."
Schneizel laughed at what Lelouch had just said. "That couldn't be more moronic. That's just emotion!" he then narrowed his eyes and smirked, "That's enough. Kill me now. However, you will also be eliminated by the F.L.E.I.J.A. Let our lives be offered to world peace… huh?"
However, before he could finish his sentence, someone tapped on his right shoulder, causing him to gaze back. It was Lelouch.
"That's why I would now gift you…" the Lelouch on the monitor said, before the Lelouch who tapped Schneizel's shoulder continued, "the word 'you shall serve Zero'."
"You never intended to kill me in the first place…?" Schneizel asked incredulously, but he could never finished his sentence: two Geass Sigils flew from Lelouch's eyes right into Schneizel's and rewired the blond prince's neural system immediately.
"You… Your Highness…" a doped Kanon restricted by a geassed security guard muttered hopelessly, while a doped Diethard was trying his best to fight the effects of the drug injected into him by another security guard as Schneizel got up from his seat and knelt before Lelouch due to the effect of Geass. "Damn, a recording? Selecting the appropriate footages to forge a conversation with Schneizel… that is supposed to be my expertise! I was careless!"
"Schneizel, your willingness to let yourself be killed is exactly what led to your defeat," Lelouch remarked as his elder brother knelt before him.
The audience watches the scene in awe. Lelouch predicted Schneizel's thoughts and pre-recorded his conversation with him?
"That's… that's so cool!" Rivalz exclaims, "He actually predicted what one of the smartest men of Britannia had to say and made it like a conversation with pre-recorded footage!"
"This is the ultimate 'I know that you know I know you know I know you know I know you know I know you know me' game," Jeremiah says in awe, "His Majesty never ceased to surprise me with his genius. All Hail Lelouch!"
"AHA! His Highness got outsmarted completely this time!" Lloyd casually comments, "His Majesty had finally prevailed over his biggest rival of all time!"
"I'm also surprised at how Schneizel was so willing to throw his life away," Kaguya comments, "I thought he still had some tricks under his sleeve, but it seems that he was ready to blow up the Damocles to kill everyone on board, including himself, to achieve the state of peace he wanted."
Kaguya's comment makes Guilford to think once again about Nonette's words, on how Kanon was Schneizel's "lost humanity" – Schneizel was so void of human emotion, he didn't even care whether he could stay alive or not! 'Lord Maldini, I sincerely thank you for informing Lady Enneagram on time to save Her Highness,' the loyal knight cannot thank Kanon enough for his timely move that ultimately saved Cornelia's life.
Meanwhile, the Black Knights Group is thinking something else. "Wait, but Lelouch geassed Schneizel, so wouldn't that make Schneizel still stay loyal to Lelouch?" Chiba asks concernedly.
"I don't think so. Lelouch's dead now, I don't think that Geass command matters anymore since the person that Schneizel was supposed to be loyal to no longer exists," Rakshata reasons.
"Well good to hear that, otherwise we would be in big trouble if Schneizel suddenly wanted to revive Lelouch's tyrannical rule," Chiba says.
However, Cornelia is not convinced. 'Was it just a slip of the tongue? I heard Lelouch said "you shall serve Zero" as he cast his Geass on Schneizel. Why serve Zero but not Lelouch vi Britannia? Was it just for convenience? Or was it just another little mistake he made because he was too hyped that he had finally beaten Schneizel? Wait…' she then notices something and glances back at the current Zero. A rather preposterous thought then suddenly comes to her mind which she finds too ridiculous to even contemplate it at all. 'No, that couldn't be it… it would be too wild of a thought. Why would he do that? There is no way that was the case…' she muses.
"Grrr…!" Diethard strove to stand up and shot the security guard drugging him dead, and then quickly pointed his gun at the security guard apprehending Kanon before slowly turning to Lelouch. "Zero, your story has already ended. You can't stay alive!" the TV producer then moved his hand and pointed his gun towards Lelouch, though his hand was shaking both due to the effect of the drug and his anger towards how Lelouch had disrupted Diethard's script.
BANG!
Suddenly, someone fired a shot. It was not Diethard, and it was not the security guard apprehending Kanon either; it was the geassed Schneizel.
"Ugh…!" Diethard's heart was shot through and he started to lose strength, falling down on the ground. "You have no right to deny my existence," Lelouch calmly remarked as Schneizel put his gun back in his pocket. At the same time, Kanon stared at the geass-controlled Schneizel in disbelief.
"Z… Zero…" Diethard knew his time was limited, "at least… finish me with… your Geass…"
"Diethard, you are not worthy enough for me to cast my Geass on you," Lelouch placed his contact lenses back on his eyes. Diethard gasped in despair at Lelouch's response before finally drawing his last breath and closing his eyes for good.
"I see, so Diethard was killed on the Damocles," Tohdoh nods in realization, "no wonder we haven't heard from him ever since."
"Tsch, who did he think he was?" Chiba spats, "did he really think that he was the director of his movie, and we were his actors and actresses? Lelouch's actually right that Diethard had no right to deny his existence. Actually, he had no right to deny anyone's existence when it comes to it!"
"That's still savage for Lelouch to do that, though, denying the wish of a dying man," Gino comments.
"Yes, but thoroughly justified," Villetta spats at the dead Diethard on the screen, "that damned TV guy deserved that kind of death!" Next to Villetta, Ohgi nods to his wife's comment as he also seethes at Diethard's dead body on the screen.
"The constantly coat-turning TV producer had finally received his judgement at the hands of His Majesty. What a fitting end for him," Jeremiah comments as he recalls his days working with the TV producer in the Area 11 Government, as well as when both were members of the Black Knights.
"He's also the only few that did not change his objective from the beginning to the end," Milly observes, catching everyone's attention.
"How do you mean, Lady Ashford?" Guilford asks curiously.
"Everyone's goal had changed as time passed by: Lelouch abandoned his plan of obliterating Britannia and instead became the ruler of it; Her Highness gave up the military and focused on clearing Princess Euphemia's name after the SAZ incident; His Highness abandoned his duty to administer Britannia and instead pursued the use of the F.L.E.I.J.A. to achieve his version of world peace; the Black Knights grew out of their initial mission of liberating Japan and became the military force contracted to protect all UFN member nations; so on and so forth," Milly explains, "Mr Reid, however, had been seeking to record historic moments from the very beginning to the very end, and all his coat-turning actions were in service of that goal."
"Well… be that as it may, he must still be lambasted for all the horrible things he'd done on us!" Villetta hisses. She is so mollified to learn that the goddamn TV producer no longer lives and, what's even sweeter, his last wish brutally denied.
Kaguya, on the other hand, is once again amazed at the power of Geass. 'Prince Schneizel, a man who possessed no emotional ties to anyone and who's willing to cast his life away at the drop of the hat, still had his mind and will bent so easily… such was the terrifying power of Lelouch's Geass of Absolute Obedience.'
Outside the Damocles, the fight between the two Knights of the Round continued. "You, who grew up in a comfortable environment thanks to your noble status, would never prevail over me!" Suzaku bellowed.
"How daring are you to say that…!" Gino hissed back. However, Suzaku swung his MVS and sliced the Tristan Divider's sword in half, and eventually slicing the Knightmare Frame itself in half as well.
"This is the result, Gino," Suzaku said.
"Nope, my mission is complete," Gino casually responded back. It turns out that right before the Tristan Divider was sliced into half, Gino had shot its Slash Harken at the Blaze Luminous energy system attached on the outer wall of the Damocles and destroyed it. "Kallen, it's your turn!" the blond man shouted.
"Thanks, Gino!" the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight Elements appeared and used its Radiant Wave Surger to resist the closing Blaze Luminous shield. "Suzaku, it seems the time to settle things on our crossing paths has finally come!" the Red Lotus of the Black Knights bellowed.
"That's hypocritical for Kururugi to say that, considering that he, too, grew up in a comfortable and privileged environment as the son of Prime Minister Genbu Kururugi," Chiba hisses, "he might have suffered after Japan was conquered by Britannia, but he could not deny that fact that he was born to a very wealthy family with high social status at the very start!"
Meanwhile, Tohdoh commends Gino's performance on the screen just now. "Lord Weinberg, you were a good team player there," the eminent Japanese General says, "you made Suzaku-kun thought that he had won over you, whereas in reality you had achieved your strategic objective, something that Suzaku-kun was too assured by his 'victory' over you to notice."
"I thank you for your praise, General Tohdoh," Gino bows slightly to Tohdoh as he responds cheerfully.
Zero also reflects on this battle. 'Tohdoh-sensei is right, I was too caught up with the one-on-one fight with Gino, I didn't realize what he was trying to do. I must take note of this, now that I serve as the leader of the Black Knights.'
Back inside the Damocles, Lelouch was slowly walking towards the wheelchair, where Nunnally sat on, in the Sky Garden. As Lelouch approached, Nunnally identified the footstep sound and said, "Big Brother, it's you."
"That's right," Lelouch replied in a calm tone.
"Are you here for the Damocles Key?" Nunnally asked.
"Correct, that's too dangerous to you," Lelouch replied.
"That's why," Nunnally said, "I will not turn my sight away anymore." She then slowly opened her eyelids, revealing her bluish, limpid eyes to Lelouch for the first time since eight years ago.
This stunned Lelouch. 'She broke that man's Geass… with her own will?' the raven-haired boy exclaimed inwardly.
However, Nunnally gave Lelouch no time to ponder further. "Big Brother, are you going to use Geass on me as well?" she demanded in a serious tone.
"Nunnally, you broke father's Geass with your own will?" Cornelia is surprised.
"Yes, Big Sister, but I had only broken the blindness part and did not retrieve my memory until Jeremiah used his Geass Canceller on me that I have finally regained the memory sealed by father," Nunnally replies.
Cornelia is in awe of the mental strength her younger sisters possess: Nunnally broke Charles' Geass with her own will, while Euphemia also broke Lelouch's Geass when she was on her deathbed talking to Suzaku. 'I certainly have strong-willed younger sisters whose will shall never be underestimated,' Cornelia muses.
Next to Cornelia, Guilford also sinks into his thought. 'The Princesses of Britannia are surely not to be underestimated: Princess Cornelia, Princess Euphemia and Empress Nunnally… they all possessed strong will and mind to fight against adversities they faced, however great the adversities were. What a fortunate man I am to be able to serve as Princess Cornelia's knight,' he muses.
At the back role, the Ashford group is understandably not quite happy about what they are seeing on the screen. To them, Lelouch had always been a loving elder brother to Nunnally and a gentle Ashford Student Council Vice President, while Nunnally had always been an adorable younger sister to Lelouch and a sweet honorary member of the Student Council. To see them directly confronting each other is something that is too out of the ordinary that causes immense discomfort to the minds of the Ashford group.
"…recorded," Anya takes a photo of the serious expressions on the faces of the Ashford group as everybody is staring at the screen intently to see what is going to happen next.
