Zero, saviour and guardian of the world, was dying.
Not of old age. Not of a degenerative disease. But from the stomach full of shotgun pellets he had taken while hunting down a terrorist cell who had been behind an attack on Empress Nunally vi Brittania and Prime Minister Kaname Ohgi and other political leaders to commemorate the 12th anniversary of FLEIJA bombing in Tokyo. Thankfully the principals were secured, unfortunately among the casualties were the Prime Minister's family and several prominent members of the Black Knights, including their commander Kallen Kozuki.
The manhunt, codenamed 'Rattrap' became a year long, global chase. Ably assisted by the Black Knights under the command of Jeremiah Gottwald and Cornelia Guilford (apparently she and Sir Gilbert had got married after the Second Black Rebellion), the terrorists were hunted down, cell by cell. Financiers were bankrupted and jailed, agents were discovered, interrogated and terminated. And their fighters were hunted down to the last man.
Their leader happened to be Schneziel el Brittania. Apparently Geasses wore off over time, especially when the caster himself was dead. So, dear ol' Schnezy decided that he should go and achieve his earlier ambitions for the throne.
So, why the attack? Apparently, Geass can cause mental instabilities, especially if a person had been under it for long periods of time and have beaten it on their own. So, he should have been subjected to a strait jacket, a padded cell and kind and helpful psychologists with all kinds of medical treatments.
Instead, after serving as the Prime Minister for Brittania for five years under Nunna, he resigned from office and went travelling. And got himself an army.
Labelled 'The Knights of Avalon' they had stayed off of everyone's radar by lying doggo until the attack. He would have then used the confusion of the attack to distract everyone as all his well placed cronies would take over from their now-dead leaders, while Schneziel would have himself crowned Emperor of Brittania. Then, once he had secured his position, his cronies would handover ownership of their countries to Brittania.
Considering he had failed in his primary objective and his idiot co-conspirators jumped the gun, the Black Knights were able to immediately make a massive headway against them. Backed by a vengeful Brittanian Empress and a grief stricken Japanese Prime Minister, with a lot of global cooperation because of outrage, they had begun destroying the organisation and salting the earth with them.
Boiling down to this. Zero flat on his back, in the supervisor's office of a Knightmare production facility in the Australian Outback, that was self-destructing around him. Schneziel was dead from a bullet to the head, while Zero would be joining him soon as he bled out from the shotgun blast to the gut.
'So, this is how it all ends, huh?'Zero thought wryly as he could feel his strength leave him.
"Zero, goddamit come in!" came Gottwald over the radio. The Knight of Orange was one of the few to have forgiven him completely.
"This is Zero. Zeus is EKIA"he replied, nearly coughing up more blood. The helmet feeling heavy, Zero took it off, revealing the bearded face of Suzaku Kururugi to the world for the first time in a decade. Breathing in the superheated air surrounding him like it were a fragrant bouquet, Suzaku continued, his voice pained.
"All Black Knights, withdraw. Mission accomplished" he ordered. Gottwald's objections were overridden by the flurry of acknowledgements that Suzaku received. Looking around, Suzaku found a console nearby. Pulling himself up, he leant against it, propping himself up. Stumbling, Zero's helmet in his grasp, he exited from the office.
"Black Knights, Command. Be advised, we are reading multiple energy readings from the target area. Please identify"came the voice from the base they had launched from. The response is immediate.
"Black Dawn! I say again Black Dawn! Multiple ICBM launches! I..."whoever it was was cut off abruptly as Suzaku's world was drowned out in pink light.
Euphie...
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"Cut! Cut! This is fucking ridiculous"came a voice as Suzaku regained consciousness.
Huh?was the first intelligent thought to run through his head. This wasn't heaven, hell, or any of the various sub-dimensions of the death realm.
To be perfectly honest, Suzaku had expected to end up in the stomach of the Shinigami for all the crimes he had committed.
Kin killer. Oath breaker. Mass murderer.
The White Reaper.
If he hadn't left Euphie alone that day, none of that would have happened.
Deciding to have a look around, he saw what looked like a movie set, with a guy dressed up in a Hawaiian shirt so loud, it should have been written up for disturbing the peace, a pair of 'kill me' orange shorts, a strange green and white striped bucket hat and wooden geta. He had a paper fan in his right hand. He was blonde, with a scraggly beard, with his eyes hidden under the brim of his hat.
His crew was even more motely than him. Ahugeguy with a moustache and spectacles was monitoring the sound and lighting, a little boy with red hair and the most violently anti social expression on his face with a baseball bat and a sweet looking little girl with her black hair pulled into pig tails, holding a camera.
"None of that was supposed to happen!" said Hat-and-Clogs as he threw a pile of paper up in the air in disgust. He then proceeded to throw a temper tantrum as he kept screaming obscenities, while dancing around like a madman. Sharing incredulous looks with everyone else, Suzaku decides to say something when suddenly the dancing mad man just stops, points a finger at him and yells one word.
"RESET!"
And everything fades to black again.
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