Entropy 5: (R1;4) His Name is Zero
Following the news report the screen went black, indicating the episode was at an end.
"Okay..." Gino huffed and crossed his arms, taking a quick look at Zero. "So, are you actually going to show up in this next episode? Or did Lelouch rescue Suzaku and you weren't even involved?"
"Uh," Zero began, "I did rescue Suzaku, or, that is to say, I, Zero, did, but I'm not actually the same-"
Kallen interrupted him.
"I sure hope so. If this drags on we might not even meet the Black Knights until Episode 8!"
"My friends..." Zero tried again. "I must tell you the truth! I'm not the same Zero that you all know. The one to first take up the mask was-"
"How many episodes are there, anyway?" Nunnally had already paused the DVD as Milly entered the conversation. The blonde looked to Lloyd beside her and he shrugged.
"I saw about 25 when I put the disk in."
"What, that many?"
Gino raised a hand, drawing attention for his question.
"When do I show up?"
Anya groaned and pulled out her phone.
"Ugh, we could be here all day!
"Oh, c'mon!" Zero looked between the set of seats on each side of the main aisle. "I'm trying to tell you all something important!"
Cornelia huffed.
"I don't care about any of this. Just skip to the part with Euphy. I need to know the truth!"
Rivalz shook his head and raised his voice.
"No way! I want to go straight to the end! Why did my best friend take over the world and why did he have to die!?"
"What the HELL!?" Anya spat over the growing argument. "My phone doesn't get reception here!?"
"Hey, don't leave me in suspense - I wanna know when I show up. The Knight of Three's important enough to be appearing soon, right?"
Kallen had stood up in the chaos and gone to the DVD player to check something, and she reeled in horror at what she found.
"This says we still have, like, 10 hours left on here!"
"How much is on the second disk?"
The audience had descended into a roar of conversation and argument, and Xingke began to rub his temples.
"This is madness..."
Surprisingly, the person to reply was Nina.
"No. This is entropy."
"E-e-n-turo-pi?" Tianzi sounded out the strange word, trying to figure out its meaning.
"The gradual building of chaos in a closed system," Nina explained, simplifying the concept down as best she could, though still feeling the phrasing was inaccurate. "This theatre is the closed system, and the longer we're in it the more chaos we'll generate."
Jeremiah leaned forward to get closer to the girl a row ahead of him.
"And what do you think the final result of that chaos would be?"
She adjusted her glasses, nervous at the cyborg's glare, and answered quietly, simply.
"One hundred percent entropy would result in-"
"BLEhCH!" Xingke, thankfully sitting in the first row, vomited a glob of blood onto the carpet in front of him, finally quieting the others down. He received a dozen stares at once, quite unwelcome, and wiped his mouth. "Everything's alright. I'm fine. But can we just get on with this, please?"
Without waiting for confirmation Nunnally tapped the play button on the remote, feeling slightly edgy herself. The Chinese soldier meanwhile grabbed a cloth from his pocket and busied himself cleaning up his mess.
"Do you know anything about this weapon, Suzaku Kururugi?" Jeremiah questioned, sitting across from Suzaku at a table, presumably in an interrogation room. "It was the one used to rob Prince Clovis of his life."
Suzaku denied it, of course, and was rewarded for his truth by having his chair kicked out from underneath him.
Sayoko elbowed Jeremiah beside her slightly, and a series of glares were cast upon him from the others in the room. He merely shrugged.
"Yes, yes, I was wrong to do that. Why don't you all yell at me now and get it out of your systems for later?"
Cécile was about to start when Kallen gave a derisive laugh.
"Naw, don't worry about it." She glanced to Zero, just long enough for him to know she was looking at him. "I like seeing Suzaku roughed up. I hate that guy - always will. He deserved it."
"Deserved it?" Cécile questioned angrily. "Suzaku didn't do anything wrong!"
Zero began to answer.
"In all truth, I'm afraid Kururugi wasn't entirely innocent, even back then. He-"
"Yeah, whatever." Kallen dismissed Cécile with a wave of the hand. "You can keep sticking up for Suzaku if you want, but nothing's going to change my opinion of that idiot."
"Just like nothing will change people's minds about Lelouch?"
The redhead scowled at that.
"We'll see, now won't we?"
There was a brief scene of Lelouch putting Nunnally to bed, followed by Tamaki complaining to Ohgi in their dingy base. It seemed he'd wanted their terrorist cell to take credit for Clovis' assassination.
"Naoto," Ohgi muttered, staring at a picture of his best friend, long dead, "I'm not cut out for this."
Something about the picture onscreen caused a tingle to start at the back of Ohgi's mind, and he thought he heard a voice from the speakers around the theatre - like a whisper from beyond the veils of reality, brash and bothered.
'You can say that again...'
Ohgi jumped in his seat and turned his head back and forth, but there was no one there. It was just Villetta next to him and the other members of the audience. Nobody else seemed to have heard the voice either, and once it ended the whisper didn't come back, but even after scratching his scalp the tingle wouldn't go away.
Next was a brief clip of Benjamin Scrud, the proprietor of a small costume shop and partner in crime with Lelouch and Rivalz when it came to gambling, under the influence of Geass. He recounted the command he'd been given from Lelouch, confirming he knew exactly what to do.
"Once the slide system is in order it's all yours." Apparently he was in the process of making something for the young prince, but only Rivalz in the audience recognized the man and what he meant. "Once I've erased all the evidence I should forget this ever happened, right?"
"Tohdoh-san," Chiba whispered to the stern-faced man beside her. "That man... He was on Schneizel's list."
Tohdoh nodded.
"The list of suspected victims of Geass. Indeed, our betrayal of Zero seemed to be based on accurate information after all."
Though they tried to keep it to themselves, they spoke just loudly enough for Gino, who was still flustered wondering when he was going to appear on the big screen and wasn't paying attention, to overhear. He raised a brow and blinked, unsure if he'd heard right.
"... You what, now?"
The setting jumped back and forth between Lloyd and Cécile and Lelouch, explaining the Pureblood plan to dismantle the Honourary Britannian system. If Clovis' death could be pinned on Suzaku it would lend credence to Honourary Britannians being a liability in the army, and worse, in society in general, and Jeremiah would have little trouble as Area 11's Acting Consul in revoking the status from any and all Elevens.
'Damn him!' Kallen frowned to herself at one of the clips that flashed onscreen and cast a quick glare to Zero. 'Suzaku had a 94 percent operational efficiency? On his first time with the Lancelot!? My best average is only 93 percent! GOD, I hate him!'
"Orange!" Ohgi growled to the man-machine across the aisle, focusing on the more pressing issue of Jeremiah's treachery. Of everyone assembled, he had the most reason to be angry. If not for Naoto convincing him to join La Résistance he probably would have applied for Honourary Citizenship. "You're despicable!"
Jeremiah wasn't all too concerned. Lelouch changed his views, and nothing anyone said about his past could affect him now. Besides, he could kill everyone in the room bare-handed with his augmentations if he chose to. If nothing else, he could still hold that over their heads, and that single fact alone was enough to keep him grinning.
"Like I said, get it out of your system."
Villetta tapped Ohgi on the shoulder and whispered in his ear.
"I was in on the plan too."
"Oh." Ohgi shut up real fast. "Right."
It was time for Kallen's meeting with Lelouch at Tokyo Tower, and contrary to his recorded instructions over the phone in the shower scene, Ohgi, Yoshida, and Sugiyama came with her. At first they thought Suzaku was the one to contact them, but then an announcement went through on the PA calling for Kallen to pick up 'her' phone that had been 'lost'.
Not a moment after doing so she received a call, the phone's display showing the caller ID: ZERO.
"Whaaaaaa...?" Rivalz questioned slowly, his tone starting low but rising in disbelief.
Gino's jaw dropped, as did Milly's.
"No way."
Anya grinned and raised her phone, a bright flash coming from its forward lens.
"At least the camera function still works. You should see the looks on your faces!"
"E-hem?" Rakshata frowned at the pinkette across the aisle. "No photography in the theatre, please?"
Jeremiah swiveled in his chair to face Diethard.
"You handled His Majesty's memorial program very well. A little too weepy for my tastes, but..."
Guilford harrumphed, turning his head back to address Jeremiah.
"Well, Gottwald! You sound almost loyal to Britannia right here. Too bad Zero knew about 'Orange' and blackmailed you with it."
Jeremiah only laughed back, deep and closed-mouthed.
"That's right, Lord Guilford, you always did want to know about 'Orange'."
"So you're finally admitting you were involved in a scandal?"
The disgraced Margrave, the cyborg assassin, the paragon of loyalty placed two fingers over his bionic left eye, adopting a pose reminiscent of Zero.
"'Orange' is the only truth I follow. It is the symbol of my LOYALTY - the beginning of my redemption and the end."
Gino leaned over to Nina, the person sitting closest to him, and spoke in a hush, a hand to his mouth.
"That guy's awesome."
Anya leaned in over Gino's seat and smirked.
"You have no idea how right you are."
Kallen and her terrorist friends had boarded the train as per Lelouch's instructions, and as they swept their vision around, checking for the elusive person ordering them around, the one they were to meet, the one who'd saved their lives in Shinjuku, Kallen's new phone went off again.
"Face forward and look to your right. What do you see?"
"The Britannian city. It was stolen away from us and built on our sacrifice."
"And on the left?"
"I see our city - remnants of a desiccated city after the Britannians sucked it dry."
"Redundant much?" Lloyd hummed, earning a shush from the others.
As soon as the theatre was quiet once more, and only the dark strums of background music coming from the screen were able to be heard, Rivalz made a quick comment.
"Hey, Sir Weinberg, I totally get what you mean about the spy stuff."
The blond grinned back.
"What'd I tell ya? Sexy!"
At Lelouch's direction, Kallen and the others made their way through the train, pushing by fellow passengers left and right, none seeming bothered by the girl or her Eleven friends.
"I wish you guys brought me along."
"Tamaki," Kallen began as reply, shaking her head, "we didn't bring you along because you didn't WANT to come along."
"You should'a brought me anyway!"
Not paying the two any mind, Milly pointed to a couple of the passengers onscreen.
"Is that...?" There seemed to be orange around their irises.
Finally, in the last car of the train, Kallen gasped, a dark figure standing before her, back turned.
"Was it you?" she asked. "On the phone?"
No reply. She tried again.
"Well!? Was that you in Shinjuku? Was that ceasefire your doing!?"
The music onscreen built with a drumroll, and at the last second, as a thump of deep brass and strings sounded, the figure turned just as the train entered a tunnel, casting a shadow over everyone. The figure was none other than the masked hero: Zero.
There was silence in the audience then a deep breath, the beginning of an eruption...
LLLLLLLLLLLL
Lelouch yawned as he made his way down the stairs to the kitchen. Sleeping in all morning and afternoon was new for him, and it wasn't entirely unpleasant either. In the kitchen sitting at the table was C.C., a plate of pizza in front of her and a stack of still steaming boxes at its center, and she waved a greeting to her fellow immortal as he approached, a strand of cheese connecting the bite in her mouth to the slice in her hand.
Lelouch waved back, another yawn inflating his chest and stealing his words. His right palm was marked with arcane slashes of red.
"Well, look at you," C.C. chided playfully as Lelouch went to the fridge, pulling an orange and a container of milk from its chilled confines. "I never thought I'd see the day you started acting like a proper immortal."
"Yes, well," he replied honestly, "maybe I'm starting to get used to it. Your bad habits have finally begun to wear off on me."
"Don't be such a prude, L.L."
"I'm only as prudish as I need to be around an unrefined woman such as yourself."
C.C. fluttered her eyes and smirked.
"You wish to see how refined I can be, gallant sir?"
"No, thank you." Lelouch had acquired a plate of his own and filled a glass with milk, and now he sat at the table, opposite C.C. "If it pleases, m'lady, I'd rather not wear masks anymore."
"You're a party pooper."
Lelouch grabbed a slice of pizza and chuckled.
"And you don't do your own laundry, so we're even." He took a bite, savouring the taste of cheese, spice, and overwhelming grease, a taste he realized he'd never fully appreciated until he became immortal, and chewed for a moment, a thought coming to mind. "By the way, where's Jeremiah? Shouldn't he be done harvesting for the day?"
The sun was starting to set already through the window of the farmhouse, and C.C. shrugged.
"Mm, no. He and Sayoko and Anya went out for a bit this morning before the sun was even up. They got invited to some meaningless get-together."
Lelouch hummed in mild disinterest, finishing his slice of concentrated happiness and sitting back.
"That sounds nice. They need to get out more anyway."
"They wanted me to come along too. You, however-" C.C. smirked, "-for obvious reasons, were not invited."
Lelouch chuckled again, true mirth still feeling foreign on his lips after so long laughing to cope with tragedy.
"What a shame. Maybe next time?"
"Maybe. They said not to wait up."
"Oh well," Lelouch shrugged again. "I'm sure they're having a good time. And more pizza for us in the meanwhile! Pass the Hawaiian, would you, Cassandra?"
LLLLLLLLLLLL
"WHAT THE HELL!?"
Almost everyone in the theatre exploded in shock and fury, for one reason or another. Gino, Milly, Rivalz, and Tianzi were the only ones to not already know that Lelouch had been Zero at the start, or ever, and they were suitably astounded. Meanwhile, the others who shouted were beyond dismayed at the manner in which Zero first appeared, in utter incomprehension at how Kallen and her friends could have joined such a clearly untrustworthy character after such an overly theatric introduction. Tamaki was just mad that he didn't have the foresight to go along and witness Zero's birth like Kallen and Ohgi.
"Lelouch is Zero!?" Rivalz stood up and pointed to the one currently wearing the mask. "Then who're you!?"
Zero stood up.
"I was in the process of explaining to you just that, but you insisted on interru-"
"Did anyone else know about this!?" Milly demanded, her head twisting to check everyone's expressions so fast it looked like it was about to tear off.
"Yeah," Kallen replied with a shrug. "All the Black Knights know. Well, the officers do."
Tianzi nervously raised a finger in the air.
"I didn't."
"And you?" Milly turned next to Cornelia and Guilford.
"We found out separately." Cornelia and Guilford exchanged a look. "But we did know before coming into this."
"Alright then, who's Zero now? Is that you under the mask, Lelouch?"
Zero remained calm, as calm as possible despite everyone interrupting him every time he started speaking. He got the distinct feeling nobody respected him.
"I am Zero - no one else."
Chiba stood up in a huff and scowled at the hero.
"No! No more games! We couldn't trust the first Zero, so why should we trust you? Who are you!?"
"I am Zero, and Zero is no one. He also everyone. He is an idea, and for that reason his identity is irrelevant."
Rakshata threw back her head in a loud laugh, stealing the spotlight.
"Nice save there, but really, who are you?"
"Are you someone we know?" Ohgi questioned next.
Kallen rolled her eyes.
"Leave him alone." She waved a hand in Zero's direction dismissively. "The way this..." She frowned and gestured to the screen, paused on the image of Zero facing her and the other terrorists down. "Well, whatever this is, it's going over every detail, so I'm sure you'll all find out who he is eventually."
There was a moment of silence as the girl's words were processed, then Lloyd raised a brow.
"What do you mean 'you'?" he wondered, a devious smile playing at the corners of his mouth, threatening to ruin his poker face. "Does that mean you already know who Zero is right now behind the mask?"
Kallen nodded and answered nonchalantly.
"Yep."
To this, Zero tensed, his guard up and his whole body primed to bolt for the door.
"Uh, really?"
"Yep."
"Do tell, then, Miss Stadtfeld," Sayoko said gently, a look of calm hiding her internal debate over whether Lelouch would approve of executing everyone who knew too much.
"No." Kallen's quick reply stayed Sayoko's hand, but garnered an angry grunt from the others in the theatre. "You'll just have to wait to find out like everybody else."
Before anyone could say anything more, Kaguya interjected helpfully, placating the growing outrage with her natural loli charm.
"We could make it a game, actually," she offered. "The moment anyone figures out who Zero is, just chime in."
Tianzi was the first to reply.
"I like games!" She clapped, and slowly but surely the others relaxed, calmed by the innocence of the still young Empress.
Sensing the time was right, Kaguya snapped her fingers.
"Alright, let's start then! GAME STA-RU-TO! Who already knows who Zero is?"
Everyone was taken aback by her enthusiasm, to varying degrees, but eventually the first hand was raised: Kallen's. Then came Tohdoh's, much to Chiba's astonishment beside him. Lloyd raised his hand next, accompanied by a giggle, followed by Cécile and Nina. Jeremiah's group was next, Sayoko and Anya joining him a second after him, then finally Empress Nunnally herself lifted a hand, indicating she too knew the answer to the best-kept secret in the world, much to Zero's horror.
"Y-Your Highness?" he stuttered, feeling suddenly naked before her. "You... You know, then? About...?"
Nunnally didn't answer, instead pointing the remote to the screen and turning off the pause.
Zero stood swathed in his cape and made his declaration.
"Britannia will not fall to terrorism. It's little better than childish nuisance. You should know your enemy: It is not people, but Britannia itself! It is a war you must wage, but not on the innocent. Take up your sword! Fight for justice!"
The audience sat transfixed, the aura of invincibility surrounding Lelouch, even onscreen and not in person, almost absolute. His words sent a shiver down Kallen's spine, her more than perhaps anyone else in the room, igniting the same awe and wonder she'd first felt for the masked man, and stirring her inner well of thoughts, old emotions of love and loss hitting her like a brick.
'Why, Lelouch? Why did you have to go?'
Jeremiah had his arms crossed and was nodding, an almost fatherly look of approval and pride on his face, the expression mirrored on Sayoko beside him. Gino was grinning, on the very edge of his seat, and in front of him Rivalz scratched his head.
"That's Zero, alright. But underneath the mask is Lelouch. How could he have gone from wanting to save the world to wanting to destroy it?"
"A better question," Cornelia added tersely, "would be, 'how much of what he's showing here is the truth?' All we know is that he became Zero and then eventually the Demon Emperor. Clearly, only one of those two extremes was his true self."
"Are you so sure about that?" Lloyd floated the question with an unmistakable tone of mischief. Rakshata agreed.
"He sounds pretty honest right here. If he truly didn't believe his own words, then we wouldn't have believed them either."
Chiba scoffed from the front row.
"Nonsense! We had no choice but to believe in him. He used his Geass to control us!"
Kallen had had enough.
"Oh please, that's all easy enough to say, isn't it? Hiding behind that mask, why should we even trust you?"
Ohgi and the others followed Kallen's lead, agreeing the mask had to go. Then, after a prolonged moment of silence, as if debating what to do, Zero gave his easy reply.
"Very well. I'll show you. But rather than my face, bear witness to my power!"
Villetta and Ohgi tensed, waiting for the Zero onscreen to use his Geass. But then, strangely, the moment never came. The ancient sigil was not unleashed and not a one of the terrorists were put under its control.
"If I deliver to you the impossible," Zero offered, "then I might have earned your trust."
"Sooooo..." Gino whistled, hands outstretched, showing he was waiting for an answer. "You guys said you got geassed. When, uh... When did that happen again?"
"Hmph!" Chiba didn't even spare the Britannian the courtesy of a glance as she made her excuse. "He must've waited until later to use his Geass!"
"Un-huh..."
Anya leaned forward again, placing an elbow on the back of Gino's seat. She set her cheek against her palm and smirked, her face next to Gino's.
"Methinks the Black Knights doth protest too much."
Apparently much later Suzaku sat in a cell, bound in a straightjacket and joined by Lloyd coming to visit. The scientist confirmed something for Suzaku, the audience understanding through his vagueness that neither Lelouch nor the girl, C.C., had been found dead in Shinjuku. That covered, the topic fell to more immediate concerns.
"You may be getting a trial but no one is pulling for you, certainly," he said, just as blasé as ever.
Suzaku wasn't having it though.
"But the courts are where truth comes to light!"
Kallen began to laugh derisively while Kaguya slapped a palm to her face, embarrassed at her cousin's seemingly nonexistent comprehension of reality.
Zero couldn't help but agree, though he kept the thought to himself. Suzaku had been a fool. And he'd died a fool, too - a fool that destroyed everything and everyone around him in his quest for power; a quest he refused to admit was only for himself and his own ego. In the end, that quest for power had turned everyone against him, and no matter what else had happened, he had to accept it: He'd been the one to ruin his relationship with his best friend beyond repair. There'd been a chance, a singular moment in which they could have regained their bonds and rekindled their trusts, but he'd let it slip through his fingers, setting in motion the chain of events that would condemn both himself and his friend to their dooms, alone and unloved in a sea of regret.
Lelouch had been the Zero everyone deserved. But he... He, the new Zero, was the one everyone got instead. What a twisted end, a tragedy worthy of the great poets of yore!
Onscreen the night had finally arrived, and the procession carrying Suzaku to his trial, to his noose, rolled down the street to a chorus of cheers from misinformed Britannians. Jeremiah was in the lead in his personal Sutherland while Suzaku kneeled upon an open-topped vehicle behind him, bound and gagged by a shock collar as if he was already confirmed to be guilty. Along the sidelines Diethard watched from a news van, filming the whole thing and orchestrating the camera angles like a master propagandist.
He scoffed.
"What a circus this is." He paused, frowning bitterly. "And I'm as corrupt as any of them."
"Oh-ho!" Tamaki laughed, pointing crassly to the screen as he habitually did when something amused him. "I always knew Diethard wasn't such a bad guy! You remember me sayin' that, right, Kallen? Yeah, 'course you do, 'cuz I'm an awesome judge 'a character!"
Kallen stifled a laugh and patted her friend on the shoulder.
"That's right, Tamaki. You can't pilot a knightmare through a single battle, but at least you're a 'good judge of character'."
"... I'm a good pilot..."
There was a series of clips, one flashing after the other, one of them being none other than Kaguya herself.
Tianzi clapped and cheered at her friend's appearance onscreen. Kaguya, meanwhile, crossed her arms, a cute, pouty frown settling on her face.
"Is a one-second cameo all I get?"
Then something unexpected happened, something unexpected to the people onscreen, though not to those who'd already lived through the event in the audience. Jeremiah stopped the convoy as he received an alert on his comm.
"Acting Consul Jeremiah!"
Jeremiah tapped the transceiver hooked over his ear and responded.
"What is it?"
"Vehicle approaching the main highway from '3rd. We just let it through as you instructed, but..."
"Do you believe the target could be a terrorist vehicle?"
"Well, sir, it's Prince Clovis' car."
Guilford raised a brow, glancing back at Jeremiah. The other man seemed perfectly content, even pleased with what he was seeing, the beginnings of his downfall in Britannian society, at least until Lelouch the Demon arrived on the scene. So he truly wasn't in league with Zero - with Lelouch - at that time, planning to hand Suzaku over from the start? But still, that left the question of 'Orange'.
Tamaki and the other members of Ohgi's team watched the scene on their TV, and Tamaki growled that the convoy halting, apparently something 'Zero' had predicted, was nothing more than a coincidence.
"Well," Lloyd giggled, "aren't you a charming fellow. I first took you for one of the 'useful idiot' types, but here you're proving yourself to be a sceptic extraordinaire!"
"Oh, yeah..." Tamaki trailed off as his mind valiantly attempted, and failed, to supply him with a witty retort. "Actually, I became Zero's Number One Fan, like, right away."
"Is that so? Ah well, my mistake. I guess I was right about you after all - quick to attach yourself to the biggest boss in sight. And who could be bigger than Zero, am I right? After all, he's larger than life."
"Uh... Yeah... Wait, are you makin' fun a' me?" There was no malice in his tone, in fact being a legitimate question. Tamaki never got his answer though, instead receiving only a light giggle from the knightmare engineer.
The procession stopped, and from the other direction came a single vehicle, white and gold, draped in the flag of Britannia. It was Prince Clovis' personal car. Or so it seemed at first glance.
In the driver's seat was Kallen, dressed in the fineries Clovis preferred on his chauffeurs, and she also wore a nervous frown.
'Hope they can't tell it's fake.'
Sure enough, the vehicle had been patched together and given a coat of fresh paint, but was not in fact the same one Clovis had used. There was a blur, indicating a flashback, and the origin of the car was revealed. Zero stood atop a mound of trash in a junkyard, and before him was Kallen and Ohgi, the only ones who'd been willing to work with him. He showed them a picture, what he needed them to fabricate, and set them to work. Though they could hardly believe it, he said they didn't need anything else to save Suzaku.
"Ah," Jeremiah said quietly, in awe of his liege. "It was a ruse. I see now!"
Almost everyone was nodding along, each secretly, or in a few cases not-so-secretly, amazed at Lelouch's cunning. Rivalz snapped his fingers.
"I always wondered how Zero got that car. But why'd he want it to look like that?"
"So Jeremiah wouldn't fire on him without listening first." Nunnally replied immediately, knowing the exact answer from Lelouch's own mind. "He knew...! He knew exactly what buttons to push!"
Kaguya agreed.
"He was always a smooth-talker. He knew exactly what people needed to hear." For a second a wave of melancholy hit the girl. "I should know. It's politics one-oh-one."
"You dare desecrate His Highness' transport!?" Jeremiah's voice echoed across the bridge, amplified by his knightmare's external speakers. "Come out of there!"
The cobbled-together car stopped before the procession and the flag across it disappeared into flames and cinders, revealing a shadowy caped figure standing atop the cab. It was Zero.
"I am," he declared for all the world to hear, brazen and proud, "Zero!"
The media went berserk, every news report in the Empire covering Zero's grand entrance before a full military convoy. Everyone was watching - the Ashford Student Council, Ohgi's team in their ghetto, even the Japan Liberation Front, Tohdoh casting an intrigued look at the masked man on his screen, the one who would go on to destroy the world and build a new one in its place.
"Okay," Gino clarified, a glint in his eye, starstruck. "I retract my previous statement: Lelouch didn't have brass balls. They were forged from pure adamantium!"
Some of the girls blushed, but Rakshata laughed.
"Impossible. With our current metal-working techniques we'd never be able to replace the testicles with fully functioning adamantium prosthetics."
Next was Sayoko's turn to laugh, and she wrapped her arm around Jeremiah, glancing between his legs.
"Actually, Miss Chawla..."
Behind his mask Lelouch looked grim. There was a fire in his eyes, determination in its purest form.
'Now to return the favour, Suzaku.'
Zero couldn't believe it. Was he imagining it?
'But, he said...!' he thought to himself. 'Lelouch said he only saved me to reveal himself as Zero! I knew he lied back then, but I didn't think this would be the truth he kept from me. Why would he purposely tell me something to make me angry!?'
"He knew exactly what people needed to hear."
Kaguya's words from before popped to the forefront of Zero's thoughts, and for the first time he gained some clarity into the inner workings of Lelouch's mind. And with it came a chilling pang of doubt and sorrow in his breast.
'Back then, he told me what I wanted to hear. Because I wouldn't believe him if he told the truth. No! Lelouch...!'
Jeremiah decided he'd seen enough, and with a shot from his pistol the signal was sent, several more Sutherlands landing from VTOLs around Zero's perch.
"First things first," he said gruffly, again allowing his voice to be broadcast from his knightmare's speakers. "Why don't you lose that mask?"
Zero began to comply, bringing his fingers to his mirrored helm, but rather than remove it they continued on, pointing to the sky, and snapped together. In immediate response, somehow triggered by the action, the humpback section of the car behind him fell apart, revealing a menacing capsule.
Cécile was quick to gasp, registering the meaning of the sight onscreen a little faster than the others around the room.
"The poison gas!"
Meanwhile, across the aisle, having finished cleaning his earlier spit-up of blood, Xingke sat back and smiled, thoroughly amused.
"But there was no poison gas."
Behind his mask Zero grinned and confirmed the audience's thoughts, predicting Jeremiah's response to the sinister, but ultimately harmless device in his possession. Suzaku knew though, and he began to alert the Margrave about the capsule's secret, but his shock collar stopped his speech.
In his news van Diethard began issuing orders rapid-fire to his underlings, but they refused to follow them, frightened by the display of several-tonne war machines brandishing rifles, and the mysterious terrorist holding the entire crowd hostage with a chemical weapon.
"Amateurs!" Diethard spat, and he grabbed a camera and flung himself from the vehicle, getting as close to Zero as he dared.
All the while, Jeremiah bartered with the masked man.
"FINE!" He eventually relented. "What are your demands?"
"An exchange. This for Kururugi."
"Like hell!" Jeremiah glanced back to the prisoner behind him. "He's charged with high treason for murdering a prince. I can't hand him over!"
The crowd was in silent suspense, a feeling shared by the audience witnessing these events in their entirety for the very first time.
"The man who killed Clovis," Zero finally announced, receiving a close-up from Diethard's camera and looking square into its center, "was MYSELF!"
Again the media went wild, Diethard along with them, a gleam of overflowing excitement in his eye. Jeremiah wasn't so easily pleased, and he levelled his pistol straight at Zero's head.
"Careful," the masked man warned, his tone suddenly shifting to become almost goading. "You don't wish the public to learn of 'Orange', do you?"
Guilford gave short and haughty scoff at his once-friend's expense.
"And now we finally get to see what you were hiding all this time."
Jeremiah shrugged.
"You and me both."
A slot in Zero's mask retracted, revealing his left eye, and he spoke the words:
"You'll do everything in your power to let us go. Your prisoner as well!"
"Oooooh~!"
While everyone else collectively slapped themselves for not guessing Geass was involved sooner, Jeremiah spoke up to be heard.
"I said I didn't remember. I said I didn't mean to let them get away. But did you listen? NO!" Guilford had already begun to apologize to the cyborg for taunting him to the brink of insanity while Cornelia frowned, refusing to admit her error, but Jeremiah ignored them both. Instead, he bellowed a long and hearty laugh. "JEREMIAH GOTTWALD IS FINALLY VINDICATED! AH-HA-HAHAHAHA!"
In his Geass-induced delirium Jeremiah released Suzaku, who quickly made his way to Zero. The two conversed, and were promptly joined by Kallen.
"Side-note," Gino added mischievously, "Kallen, you look fine in that chauffeur outfit."
Hearing that, Kallen almost retched. Right next to Gino, though nobody noticed, Nina was blushing, nodding her unspoken agreement with the Knight's assessment.
Zero pulled a remote from under his cape and pressed a button, and the gas capsule opened, spewing forth billowing purple plumes of smoke. Villetta and Kewell reacted in anger, moving to stop the rogue's escape, but Jeremiah, still under the effects of Geass, intercepted them, spouting profanities and threats of demotion for not letting Zero leave unharmed, and in all the commotion Zero grabbed Suzaku and Kallen in his arms and jumped from the bridge, falling safely into an open getaway vehicle courtesy of Ohgi.
Tianzi bounced in her seat, a childlike grin consuming her face.
"This is so exciting!"
Rivalz puffed out his chest and raised his chin.
"That guy was my best friend," he declared, pride in his voice.
Gino raised his arms in defeat.
"That's it! I don't care if he was a demon, Lelouch was awesome. As of this minute, I'm his number one fan."
"Sir Weinberg!" Guilford glared at his fellow Britannian, utterly appalled. "Lelouch is the greatest villain in history!"
"Yes, I know, and I'll be the first to condemn his wrongdoings. He was a bad guy, sure, but he was an entertaining bad guy."
"Besides," Anya agreed with a shrug, "everyone knows the villains are always the coolest."
"Exactly! Of everyone here, I knew at least you'd have my back, Anya."
The silent responses Gino received from the others in the audience were mixed, but lay heavily on the side of disapproval, especially from Cornelia and Guilford. Others, like Milly or Tohdoh, bore more reserved expressions, unable, at least for the time being, to reconcile what good they knew of Lelouch with the later atrocities he'd committed. As for Tamaki, his response was anything but silent.
"Oi! That's not fair! I was his best bud way before you!"
Gino in turn raised his brows at the fiery-tempered man, intrigued at the challenge.
"Are you proposing a fanboy-off?"
"Bring it, panzy!"
Back in the ghettos, safely away from the Area 11 Colonial Army and police now searching endlessly for them, Zero decided to have a little chat with Suzaku. It didn't go well.
"Britannia is rotten." The shadowy hero gave his verdict. "If you wish to bring change to this world, then join me!"
Suzaku demanded an explanation for killing Clovis. Zero gave it. He questioned the use of poison gas on the crowd. Zero stated it was only smoke - a bluff, the result being not a single death.
"The result?" Suzaku asked, not expecting an answer. "That's all that matters to you, I suppose."
"Come join me. The Britannia you serve is a worthless dominion."
"Maybe that's true, but... But this nation...! It can be changed for the better. And from within."
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Kallen was already starting to lose her temper with Suzaku's rhetoric. "Britannia wouldn't change. You were used as a GODDAMN SCAPEGOAT and you still don't think MAYBE the problem goes a bit too deep for PEACEFUL CHANGE!?"
Cornelia frowned and looked away, but added her agreement.
"She's right. Britannia was an authoritarian system designed to be resistant to change. That's the nature of the Leviathan."
Tohdoh sighed and shook his head, hating to say it but realizing the truth could not be denied.
"Kururugi was a fool - a pawn - from the start to the end. Britannia would no more bend to his whims than the mighty oak in a light breeze. A system such as that could only be broken in twine from the force of a great windstorm."
Suzaku refused Zero's offer, returning to face his court-martial even knowing the whole system was bent on finding him guilty. He left with a single parting phrase:
"And any ends gained through contemptible means aren't worth anything."
"MORON!" Kallen screamed at the Suzaku depicted to the theatre. "You. DAMN. MORON!"
Tears of rage, and something else, streamed down the redhead's face as she howled fruitlessly at the screen, willing Suzaku to change his mind and prevent Zero's downfall - Lelouch's downfall. She couldn't care less about that idiot, but the fact he'd ruined Lelouch as well was unacceptable. Because of Suzaku foiling Lelouch at every turn, and driving him to his wits' end... Because of Suzaku Lelouch could never tell Kallen if he loved her or not. And that's why she could do nothing but scream her frustrations in vain.
"You'd rather sell out your own people for your ideals than actually DO SOMETHING TO HELP!? Your ideals are GARBAGE! I HATE YOU!"
Nobody said a word as Kallen vented her fury, some sharing her thoughts, others not wanting to get involved. Nunnally looked to Zero questioningly. He was trembling. And if she listened carefully, she thought she could hear him sniffling in despair, the sounds distorted through his mask's voice synthesizer.
LLLLLLLLLLLL