Rivalz was tending to his motorcycle when Suzaku arrived.

"Hey, buddy. Haven't seen you since the prez's graduation event," the fun-loving student council member said without looking up from his bike.

"Sorry about that. You know I've been very busy," Suzaku responded. "I guess Lelouch is now the president with Milly gone."

"Yeah. The change is doing wonders for our budget, but Lelouch is such a stick in the mud compared to the prez. School's a lot less interesting now."

"Speaking of which, where is Lelouch at the moment?" Suzaku asked.

"Oh, he's out with Shirley."

Suzaku's eyes narrowed. "I see."

"I guess the prez. helped Lelouch see what everyone else realized a long time ago. Seriously, the guy may be the best chess player in the world, but sometimes he's just so blind."

"You've got that right," Suzaku said with a small smirk.

Suzaku walked into the school and made his way to the library. He found Villeta and Rolo sitting in the control room with two other OSI agents.

"What happened yesterday?" he asked.

"Eyewitness testimony and video surveillance at the Ikebukuro station shows that a single assailant attacked and injured several guards before escaping. There is no evidence that the suspect acted with the aid of anyone else, or that the incident was related to terrorism," Villeta explained.

Suzaku turned to Rolo, who was examining the heart-shaped locket Lelouch had given him. "What about Lelouch? Did anything seem off about him yesterday?"

Rolo's fist closed around his phone and the locket. "It's hard to say. Lelouch seemed unusually upset when he came home yesterday."

"Upset about what?" Suzaku pressed.

"I'm not sure. He wouldn't talk about it, which isn't so unusual in and of itself. But I haven't seen him so visibly upset by anything since the Babel Tower incident."

Suzaku scowled and looked at the main screen of the control room. Lelouch was entering a fancy café with Shirley. It was not an establishment Lelouch had been to before, so there were no surveillance devices inside.

There was no direct evidence linking Lelouch to Zero or the Black Knights and plenty of evidence that he was not involved at all, but Suzaku could not allow himself to believe it. There were too many coincidences, and the current Zero knew too much about how the Knight of Seven thought to be a new person.

Seeing Shirley with Lelouch also troubled Suzaku. The conversation they held outside the station the previous day strongly implied that she knew that Lelouch had once been Zero. If he really was not the current Zero, it would be the height of irony if Shirley was the one who jogged his memory of his true self.

Lelouch and Shirley sat down at a table next to the window.

"Is this really all right?" Shirley asked as the waitress poured them water.

"Of course." Lelouch raised his hand to his left eye and removed the purple contact lens. He looked the waitress directly in the eye.

"Please ignore anything in our conversation which is not directly related to our orders."

The waitress looked at Lelouch like he was crazy for slightly over one second before her eyes glazed over. "Of course," she said.

Shirley gasped. "So that's … that's it."

Lelouch put his contact back in. "It's called Geass. Mine gives me the power to give a person a single command."

"And you used it to make me forget."

Lelouch looked uncomfortable. "I thought if I kept you at arms length you'd be safer and my enemies wouldn't use you to get to me."

"Enemies … " Shirley repeated.

"There are others like me who have Geass power. The emperor's Geass allows him to rewrite memories entirely. He used it on you and the rest of the student council to erase your memories of Nunnally. That man who attacked us in Narita had the power to read minds."

Shirley shuddered. The man with the visor had appeared out of nowhere and yet instantly knew all of her deepest secrets and vulnerabilities.

"How many … how many people like that are there?"

"I don't know. Too many. Rolo is one of them."

"Rolo?" Shirley asked. "So … are you really brothers?"

"No," Lelouch declared with an air of finality. "Rolo was an assassin sent to keep an eye on me, just like Villeta. He's on my side now, but he's still very dangerous."

Shirley could not believe it. Sweet little Rolo, an assassin?

"And what about Nunna?"

Lelouch closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Nunnally and I are siblings. The empire is using her as a hostage to try to control me."

Shirley looked down in thought. Nunnally was helpless. That anyone would think to use her in such a way was despicable.

The waitress came to take their orders. Lelouch ordered an omelet sandwich and a coffee while Shirley ordered just a cappuccino.

"But then the empire must know who you are," she asked.

Lelouch nodded. "They know I was Zero. They don't know that I've reverted to being Zero. I've managed to get all the people who were spying on me at the school to work for me instead. And with Sayoko filling in for me Lelouch and Zero have been in different countries at the same time."

"But why - "

Lelouch raised a hand and glanced to the side with a serious expression. She turned to see what he was looking at.

A middle aged man in a Britannian security uniform who had been sitting and eating on his own at a table near the door when they entered was going into the men's room.

"I'm sorry, but could you excuse me for a moment, Shirley?" Lelouch asked.

Lelouch got up and followed the man into the restroom.

As Shirley waited the waitress came back with their drinks.

Shirley took a sip of her cappuccino and stared at the door to the men's room.

She was still unsure what she thought about the entire situation. Even if she could look past the death of her father, she was Britannian, and Zero was Britannia's greatest enemy.

She was also terrified, not for her own safety as much as for Lelouch's. She still only had a tiny glimpse into his world, but it was enough to realize how dangerous that world was.

And yet, it was Lelouch's refusal to tolerate injustice, his need to act when he saw others suffering, that drew her to him and made her fall in love with him in the first place.

After several minutes Lelouch came out of the restroom. He was pulling on the collar of his school uniform as if it was too tight.

"What was that about?" Shirley asked as he sat down.

Lelouch glanced back at the restroom, where the guard was opening the door. He put on his hat and exited the café.

"That was one of the security guards at the government bureau. He frequents this establishment during his lunch break, and now he'll help me collect intelligence on the security arrangements at the bureau."

"Is this how you're going to come up with a plan to rescue Nunnally?"

Lelouch raised his hand over his left eye. "No. At least not at first. There's someone else being held at the bureau I promised I'd save."

Kallen Kouziki sighed in resignation as the door to her cell opened.

"Took you long enough," she said without looking up at her captor. "So am I here for torture? Or maybe execution? Do what you want with me."

"I'll do no such thing."

Kallen looked up, startled by the soft but familiar voice.

Sitting before her was the Viceroy of Area 11.

"It's been such a long time. Hello Kallen," Nunnally said.

Suzaku was waiting at the front of the student council building when Lelouch and Shirley returned.

Fighting down his own anger, Suzaku forced himself to smile.

"Hey, you two! How's it going? Did you have a nice date?"

Shirley looked unsure how to respond. It was Lelouch who answered.

"You know, we managed to have some peace and quiet for once, so I'd call that a success."

"I see," Suzau said, his eyes narrowing into almost a glare.

Lelouch met his gaze with a frown.

"Shirley, why don't you go on ahead? There's something I need to talk to Suzaku about."

Now Shirley looked worried. Something was wrong. Suzaku knew it. The way Lelouch's voice changed as he asked to speak something could mean only one thing.

Lelouch was upset about something and attempting to hide it.

Suzaku quickly made up his mind. Since he was not sure what was going on, the most prudent course of action would be to have their conversation in a place where they were the most unlikely to be overheard by any students or staff.

"Let's meet on the roof," he said.

Lelouch nodded.

The walk up to the roof was tense. Suzaku followed behind Lelouch, keeping a careful eye on his former friend.

When they reached the rooftop balcony Suzaku paused. Lelouch was still facing away from him, his hands clenched into fists.

Suzaku closed the door behind them and turned back to Lelouch.

"So, what did you want to -"

Lelouch spun around and swung his fist at Suzaku, striking him in the face. The Knight of Seven, being caught completely by surprise, was knocked down by the blow.

"Ow!" Suzaku yelped. He sat up and rubbed his cheek. "What was that for?"

"What kind of knight are you?" Lelouch screamed.

Suzaku looked up at him in shock. Even if Lelouch was Zero, it never occurred to Suzaku that the other boy would go so far as to strike him.

Lelouch was shaking with an uncontrollable rage.

"The one thing – the one thing that kept me calm when all that craziness started yesterday was the knowledge that you were with Shirley. I thought: 'No matter what happens she'll be safe with Suzaku.'"

"So tell me," he continued, breathing heavily, "why it is I found Shirley running back into an evacuated building by herself, holding a gun?"

Suzaku's eyes widened, this time in horror. "I-I-"

"You saw Shirley throw herself off a building! How could you leave her alone right after that?"

Lelouch lowered his head and his voice softened as he began to cry.

"If I hadn't found her when I did, Shirley would have … would have …"

Suzaku stood up and approached Lelouch. He took hold of the hand Lelouch had struck him with.

"You broke two of your knuckles," he said softly.

Villeta found Suzaku waiting outside the school nurse's office. He held an ice pack to his cheek.

"Is it true?" she asked. "Did Lelouch really assault you?"

Suzaku looked at her with a sad grin. "He did more damage to himself than he did to me."

"Still," she said, growing worried, "why would he do that? Assaulting a knight of the round is a crime punishable by death."

"I agree," Suzaku said. "It's not the sort of action he'd take if he was Zero."

He sighed. "Maybe the evidence is all correct. Maybe it really is someone else this time."

"What are you going to do about it?" Villeta inquired.

Suzaku sighed. "I'm not fond of executions. Plus if we charge him it'll cause all sorts of problems at the school and with the mission to capture C.C. I anyone asks, we'll just say the two of us fell."

"Are you certain?" Villeta pressed. "Even if he's not Zero right now, he remains a threat, and he just gave us a golden opportunity to get rid of that threat for good."

Suzaku gave her a hard glare as he summoned his authority as a knight of the round.

"I know you hate him for getting you demoted and causing Lord Jeremiah's death, Villeta, but the emperor could have killed him back when I captured him. He made the choice that Lelouch was more valuable alive. If we are going to overrule the emperor's decision, it had better be for a good reason."

"I see."

After Suzaku left to return to the government bureau, Villeta entered the nurse's office.

Lelouch held up his right hand, the middle and ring fingers of which were now bound together.

"What were you thinking?" she demanded.

"I wasn't," Lelouch admitted. "I let my anger get the better of me."

He bunched his hand into as much of a fist as he could mange in front of his face. "The whole time we were heading to the roof all I could think about was how Shirley almost died … because I left her with Suzaku."

Lelouch let out a little chuckle. "That girl is going to be the death of me."

Villeta stared at Lelouch in wonder. This boy could stare death in the face without flinching. He manipulated the wills of others without a second thought, and blackmailed her with a smile. And here he was going to pieces over a girl.

Lelouch frowned as he examined his hand. Without the full use of all his fingers his efficiency in the Shinkiro would drop dramatically. He needed each and every digit to enter the calculations for the absolute defense field. Even with Britannian medical science it would be a while before he could participate in a battle again.

'No matter,' he thought to himself. 'I need time to plan anyway.'

There was someone who needed to be rescued, and a cult of superpowered zealots to be defeated.

"Contact Lord Jeremiah," he instructed Villeta. "I need to speak with him now."

Shirley sat down at her desk and took out the pictures she had saved.

Her old photographs of herself and Lelouch were gone, destroyed by Lelouch after he had erased her memories of him. But she had accumulated new ones over the previous year.

It was surprising, now that she was looking at the pictures again, to see how carefree Lelouch seemed in almost all of the photos. But if it was true that the emperor had rewritten her memory as well, then he really had been

"Lulu," she whispered.

"What I don't get is why," she said, putting her cappuccino down. "Why do all this? You had a good life at school, didn't you?"

"Please, Lulu," she begged, "I have to know: what is the truth, and what are the lies?"

Lelouch looked down in sadness.

"The truth is that it was all a lie," he said. "My whole life was nothing but lies. Even my name was a lie."

Shirley's eyes widened and she trembled.

"The truth is, Lelouch Lamperouge never existed. It was a name I made up to keep my true identity safe."

Sitting at her desk, Shirley took a big breath.

Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that she had fallen in love with a prince.