Entropy 6: (R1;5) The Princess and the Witch
Kallen sat down in a huff.
There was nothing anyone could say to her outburst; no tactful way to approach her in such a hate-filled frame of mind. And it wasn't as if she was wrong to get angry either. It was entirely true that Suzaku had been naïve. Most the audience could agree on that much. But still...
"Don't you think you're being too harsh?" Cécile began after a period of silence. "Suzaku only wanted to do the right thing. His heart was in the right place!"
Kallen was about to respond, hate flaring in her gaze, but Tamaki beside her spoke up before she could.
"Like hell! What part of helping Britannia keep us down was doing the right thing!?"
"He said it clearly. Suzaku wouldn't support terrorism, even if the ones doing it were right. That's why he didn't join Lelouch - because terrorism is wrong!"
"I...!" Tamaki reeled back, momentarily at a loss for words. Kallen picked up for him.
"Yeah, so what? Everyone knows terrorism is bad, but we weren't terrorists. The Black Knights were a rebel ARMY!"
Lloyd let a mischievous grin slide onto his lips and offered a thought.
"But by that point the Black Knights weren't formed yet, so what initial impression other than 'terrorist' could Suzaku have had of Zero? Not wanting to associate with him seems pretty logical to me."
"Lelouch was never a terrorist!" Kallen wasn't having it. There was no way she was going to budge on this issue. "He raised us up and gave us the power to fight! And he saved Suzaku's life! He proved to him he was honourable!"
"But his methods weren't," Cécile corrected, playing devil's advocate. "Assassinating Clovis and using his Geass to get what he wanted was hardly honourable."
From the front row Xingke listened to the argument carefully, and noticed a continuing trend. People were quick to label Lelouch's actions as dishonourable regardless of context, or even in spite of it. He'd been picking up on it ever since the Black Knights overthrew Zero after the Second Battle for Tokyo. All of Lelouch's actions as Zero that originally received unanimous praise were immediately cast in a negative light as soon as opinion of his character changed. All of a sudden Zero saving Suzaku from Jeremiah became Lelouch using Suzaku's trial as an opportunity to steal the spotlight. Zero rescuing one million Japanese from Briannian occupation became Lelouch acquiring one million conscripts.
And while Xingke did agree, some of Lelouch's actions were rather cutthroat - taking Tianzi hostage during her wedding being at the top of his list - he could hardly fault their effectiveness. After all, if there was one thing he and Lelouch shared, and that these DVDs were only confirming, it was the desire, above all else to achieve results.
"It depends what your definition of honourable is," Xingke answered Cécile. "Killing an enemy commander is an immutable facet of warfare. It's accepted and expected. Clovis was in command during the Shinjuku Incident, and that made him a target."
Chiba glanced over to the Chinese warrior, unamused.
"And Geass?"
Lloyd snickered.
"I'd contend that it was just a weapon like any other - a versatile and effective one though, to be sure - and you're all just sore and claiming it was unfair because he was the only one who got to have it."
Cécile levelled a consternated frown at the bespectacled madman next to her.
"Whose side are you on anyway?"
Kallen shook her head, her opinion on the matter still unwavering.
"We did what we had to, and so did Lelouch." She spoke quietly, not answering anyone in particular. "What other options did he have? What other option did any of us fighting Britannia have!?"
"But," Milly dared interject, "Kallen, you really were terrorists before Lelouch became Zero. I don't know what I would have done in his situation, but I can see why Suzaku wouldn't want to join you."
"Milly..." Kallen relented slightly.
"And," Cécile began again, continuing her defense of Suzaku's actions, "Suzaku didn't want to be a terrorist either. He thought it would be better to repair relations between Japanese and Britannians than divide them even more with violence. Can you honestly say Lelouch's tactics were better than a nonviolent solution?"
"Chivalry demands nobility in all things." Gino spoke up, consternation in his tone. He didn't sound like he fully agreed with his own words. "Even if Lelouch was beyond cool, I'm honour-bound by the Knightly Code to side with Suzaku. His approach was pure of heart while Lelouch resorted to roguish insurgency. Suzaku had the moral high ground - 'Any ends gained through contemptible means aren't worth anything.'"
Xingke frowned, growing slightly frustrated that the Knight of Three hadn't taken his earlier words to heart.
"And any ends gained through spineless means aren't worth anything either. My country is proof of that. If the people hadn't risen up with violence then the corrupt Eunuchs would never have been brought to justice."
"No!" Tianzi's declaration caused Xingke to jump in surprise. "Hurting people only makes things worse. If you want everyone to be happy then hurting them won't help. The harder you would try to bring happiness the more people you would hurt, then nobody would be happy!"
"Empress, I'm afraid it's not that simple."
"No. It's wrong!"
Tohdoh lowered his head slightly and furrowed his brow.
"It is the will to fight that must be noble, not the methods by which one carries out that will."
Ohgi's jaw dropped, appalled at what the senior officer was saying.
"And you think Lelouch's will to fight was noble? Look at what happened because of him! He attacked everyone - used his Geass power to turn everyone against each other!"
"Ohgi," Kallen began slowly, venom in her every word, "are you saying you're siding with Suzaku?"
"Maybe I am!" He looked to Villetta and took her hand in his. "In the end the Black Knights solved our differences with Britannia through treaties, not violence. Maybe if we'd chosen the peaceful route from the start then Lelouch the Demon would never have gained power!"
Kaguya raised a brow, perplexed at the Japanese Prime Minister.
"But that was only after the Black Knights grew enough to present a serious threat to Britannia. Diplomacy didn't exist before that point."
Something about Kaguya's words struck a chord with Gino, and he frowned in thought.
"But Suzaku's plan was actually working. He became a Knight of the Round by helping Britannia, a position where he could actually make the changes he wanted to see. Peacefully! He did that by going through the system, just like he said. How can you argue with those results?"
"No. Suzaku's plan was not working," Zero said quickly, not letting anyone get the chance to interrupt. "He progressed within the Britannian system, but not honestly, as he initially intended. He learned that only power can change the world."
Kallen scowled.
"Yeah, you would say that, wouldn't you? Like you ever cared about the powerless and not just yourself."
"Of course he cared for others!" Cécile shot back. "He said it right there in that last scene. He went back to his trial to be wrongly found guilty of killing Clovis, all so Britannia wouldn't punish all Japanese in retaliation! If anything, he cared for others too much and not for himself at all!"
Rivalz shook his head.
"I'm starting to get mixed up. Are we talking about Suzaku? Or Zero? I mean, not the Lelouch Zero, but the new Zero. I mean... I can't keep track of all this."
"Might I venture a thought?" Every head turned at Jeremiah's powerful voice. "I believe Suzaku was right. However, even as I say that, I believe Lelouch was correct as well."
To the first statement there was a small murmur of confusion from the audience, punctuated by outbursts from a few of its more vitriolic members. To the second statement came a thunderclap of outraged and confounded responses. The cyborg clarified.
"Suzaku wanted to change Britannia from the bottom-up. Lelouch wanted to destroy Britannia from the top-down. What I believe is, quite simply, that they each held a single piece of a greater solution to Britannia's tyranny."
Rakshata let out a long hum as she caught onto Jeremiah's logic.
"You're suggesting a two-part plan."
"Destroying Britannia was indeed the proper course, but its total defeat would only result in more atrocities. Changing Britannia was also correct, though could never be done by someone without power and without a receptive populace."
Cornelia quirked a perceptive brow.
"Destroy Britannia's corrupt rulers through war. Meanwhile supply a populist shift in attitudes..."
Milly nodded along.
"Both Lelouch's plan and Suzaku's plan at the time same."
"And after that," Kaguya considered, "when the top echelon of power is empty, step in and make the positive shifts necessary for rebuilding."
Tohdoh's eyes widened.
"Suzaku's ideal of peaceful change after adopting Lelouch's top-down approach."
It was quite the revelation, and for almost a minute contemplative silence reigned. Zero sat in dumbstruck awe. That he and Lelouch could have both been right in equal measure at the same time was a sobering thought, and one he'd never considered before but now consumed him. Of course the best solution to Britannia's imperialism was to join forces! From the very start they constantly attempted to reach out to each other, all along unconsciously knowing the path to true peace. After all, there was nothing Suzaku and Lelouch couldn't do when they worked together.
After a time, Lloyd let out a sigh and shrugged.
"What if, what if. The perfect solution is always so clear after the fact, isn't it? And in the moment people may be too stubborn to make that compromise anyway!"
"That's right," Ohgi growled. "There's no use getting hung up over what could have been. Besides, Lelouch and Suzaku seem innocent in this recording, but it doesn't change the fact they ended up as power-hungry monsters!"
Nunnally held back a frown and gave a noncommittal response, more for herself than anyone else, raising the remote and pressing the PLAY button.
"I think we're all beginning to have our doubts about that."
Behind his mask Zero was outraged. Suzaku - that fool! Was he so eager to throw his life away? And for what? To keep Britannia from cracking down on the Japanese? How could he be so suicidally selfless?
Or, the question didn't occur to him, could Suzaku's apparent altruism in fact be selfishness in disguise?
If he hadn't been so concerned that his friend was walking back to the gallows of his own accord, Lelouch might have considered his own actions instead of just Suzaku's. But, as removed from that drama as she was, in a darkened theatre watching the curious scene unfold, Kaguya was able to do just that.
It was clear to her and everyone else that Zero - that Lelouch - had truly wanted to save Suzaku's life, to pay him back for what happened in Shinjuku when he took a bullet for disobeying orders. It was Zero's driving, and apparently only, motivation that night. However, getting Suzaku on his side and away from the enemy would only be the immediate result.
With her keen wit and sense for politics, Kaguya could see - see as clearly as if it had actually happened and not been left among the infinite what-ifs of the world. Just as Suzaku said, if he fled from his trial Britannia could use the incident as an excuse to persecute other Elevens. And under such renewed predations at Britannia's hand, the fires of rebellion might ignite more brightly than ever before within the Japanese, drawing them quite conveniently into Zero's waiting fingers.
Of course, he didn't indicate such a result was part of his original plan, but Kaguya knew Zero - they'd been engaged for marriage, after all - and she knew he was always thinking far in advance. No single action was ever performed for its own sake with him. So, unless it was proven otherwise in an upcoming scene, Kaguya was convinced Zero had additional motives for saving Suzaku.
It was ironic, actually, though the pieces were not yet in place for the audience to see it, and not even Kaguya herself. Without realizing it, both Zero's and Suzaku's actions that night, of attempting a rescue and then turning himself back in anyway, were the results of simultaneously selfish and selfless intentions.
Back at Ashford Nunnally sat in the dark listening to a radio broadcast of Zero's grand debut, and at a rustle from behind her she turned her head.
"Miss Sayoko?" she asked, unsure of who was there.
From the shadows behind her appeared a figure, though it was not the maid as she expected. It was a woman, thin as could be and garbed in white, locks of long green hair falling gently over her shoulders.
There was a collective gawk from the audience at seeing C.C. alive, even though they were all aware she'd somehow survived being shot in the face. Sayoko and Jeremiah were slightly disturbed by the image, their protective instincts kicking in at the strange woman entering Nunnally's home at the time, unbidden. Nunnally remained largely impassive, a frown on her face and her eyes narrowed in deep concentration, as if trying to solve a puzzle her in head. Rivalz sat in mild contemplation.
"Maybe she's not an alien," he said with a shrug. "I think the evidence really stacks up: She's clearly a ghost."
From across the aisle Kallen glanced at her friend with an incredulous stare, but Rivalz didn't waver. He furrowed his brow and pointed to the screen, now black, indicating the episode was at an end, and defended his new conclusion.
"Look - it's right there - she just phased in, just appeared out of the shadows! Like a phantom!"
Cornelia crossed her arms and sat back, exasperated with the boy.
"Are we really having this conversation again?"
"Oh, come on." Rivalz wasn't finished yet. "It explains everything! Like, how did she survive getting shot? She's a ghost! Good luck trying to shoot her when she's already dead!"
Tamaki seemed to actually consider the idea.
"I dunno about that, kid. Last I checked, ghosts don't bleed, and there was a lotta blood coming outta her head when she got shot in the first episode. I think it makes more sense that she's a zombie, just like I said."
"She couldn't be zombie," Milly quickly replied on her friend's behalf, "the gunshot would've destroyed her brain!"
"Oh yeah..." Tamaki scratched at his goatee. "I still don't think she's a ghost though."
"Vampire?" Gino suggested.
"No, she was awake in the day." Lloyd shook his head. "Werewolf?"
Cécile frowned to the mad scientist.
"I hope you're not being serious."
Kallen crossed her arms and muttered her own guess under her breath.
"Succubus bitch..."
"Oh!" A new idea occurred to Milly. "What if she's immortal? Like Dorian Grey!"
She was met with a thoughtful look from Rivalz.
"Okay. But how's Geass involved with that?"
Anya, in the back row, rolled her eyes. This was all pretty entertaining, watching everyone else argue and muddle about in their wild mass guessing, but if this one DVD still had several hours left on it then they could be doing this for days. She wasn't so sure about Jeremiah or Sayoko, but she was inclined to agree with C.C., the audience was comprised of mostly stupid, silly people, and it wouldn't be long before their squabbling began to grate on her nerves.
"C.C.'s an immortal witch," the pinkette said loudly, hoping to end the pointless debate.
Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect, Rakshata being the first to respond, laughing as she chided the younger girl.
"That's ridiculous! Such a convoluted solution couldn't be the case. Instead, have you considered that she's some kind of science experiment gone wrong?
"C.C. was being researched by Clovis and his team, and there's a picture of her from a hundred years ago on a battlefield. The truly most obvious explanation is she's a failed super-soldier created by Britannia to win the Great War! That explains her regenerative ability, her apparent invisibility, and, in terms you would all understand, her telepathy. Not only that, she can somehow awaken others' minds and imbue them with a portion of her own power in the form of Geass."
There was astonished silence from the audience and a slightly exasperated groan from Anya, and after a moment Rivalz finally conceded.
"A super-soldier? Yeah, I guess that makes sense."
The next episode began with a scene of white sand under a clear sky. Then, thunderclaps of cannonfire as a unit of Bamides opened fire. The Bamides were huge, bipedal command tanks designed by the Middle Eastern Federation, a group of countries conquered by Britannia over the course of 2017, then reconquered again for the United States of China under Zero's watchful eye, and were designed in response to Britannia's humanoid autonomous armoured knights.
The shells echoed across the dunes and landed amidst an enemy line of tanks, Britannian, tearing into the shorter ranged vehicles and throwing up clouds of grey smoke.
Lloyd let out a loud laugh, highly amused.
"What a way start an episode - with literal guns blazing!"
He was quickly shushed, but Cornelia and Guilford exchanged a look, remembering fondly what was coming next.
From the smoke emerged a team of dark purple knightmares, Gloucesters, armed with rifle, cannon, and lance, and they weaved around the incoming fire with chilling ease.
Among their number was Andreas Darlton, and he grinned with satisfaction as he closed with the enemy, raising his frame's cannon to fire point-blank at a Bamide's undefended belly.
"Shoddy, oversized imitation knightmares!" he bellowed in his cockpit with a mix of delight and distaste, quickly being joined by Guilford, adding his own thoughts almost as counterbalance to the general's remark.
"They would have been wise to surrender from the start."
"Darlton..." Cornelia lowered her head in a moment of quiet lament, and Guilford laid a hesitant hand atop her own, earning an appreciative look from the warrior princess. She nodded to her lover, face tight, feeling somewhat deflated despite the exciting action onscreen. "I wish he could be here, Guilford."
The knight nodded back.
"I as well, Princess. I as well."
One by one, the Bamides were felled, cruelly quick, as befitting Cornelia's Royal Guard, and to complete their humiliation a great explosion erupted behind their line. Cornelia had penetrated their forces entirely and personally annihilated their base, and in her gold-trimmed knightmare, standing atop twisted metal and surrounded by dancing fire, she glowered down at her dying foes with disdain.
Those originally aligned with the Black Knights scowled at Cornelia, Tamaki and Kallen the most upset by the princess's violence, while Xingke and Tohdoh merely shared a grunt of disapproval and watched on. Nobody said a word though. Her actions thus far onscreen were limited and weren't too heinous, but they brought up bad memories and were only a prelude for what was to come.
Gino wasn't quite so serious about it.
"Way to go, Princess. I guess a flair for the dramatic runs in the family?"
Cornelia regarded the Knight with an offended glare.
"I don't follow."
"You know, like Lelouch when he rescued Suzaku! Or like Prince Clovis. You were just standing there like a badass."
"I..." The warrior woman was temporarily at a loss for words. "Should I thank you for such a comment?"
"If you wish. But I was really just wondering. What d'you think, Nina?"
Gino peered to the bespectacled girl beside him, lost in her own thoughts, hoping for an answer. She eventually gave one, wistful and breathy.
"I think so too. Even Princess Euphemia..."
"You can say that again," Tamaki cut in with a laugh, thinking himself quite clever. "Ya can't be any more dramatic than gunning people down in the streets."
"Imbecile!" As Cornelia rose in her seat he realized he really shouldn't have said anything. "Do you have jelly for brains? Euphemia was put under Lelouch's spell! He ordered her to kill those people!"
Tamaki stood up as well.
"I knew that! And don't call me stupid, you royal windbag!"
Gino, Milly, and Rivalz exchanged disturbed glances, and Tianzi looked to Xingke beside her questioningly. This was the first they'd ever heard about Lelouch's involvement with the Princess Massacre incident. They were about to say something, ask if that damning accusation was true, but they didn't get the chance. Before another word was said, Kallen reached out a hand and pulled Tamaki back down, not particularly in the mood for another argument. Cornelia was still standing though, Guilford not daring to temper his lady's rage, and Nunnally decided to intervene once more.
"Now is not the time to speak of that. And I'd prefer we not let our feelings control our judgements. Sister,-" she addressed Cornelia softly, "-we'll continue watching and see what truly happened."
Her words seemed to strike her sister, and at last the Witch of Britannia stood down. Deference was paid the Britannian Empress, and after a few moments everyone had calmed down and refocused on the screen.
Throughout the short talk of Euphemia Zero was particularly silent.
It was much later that night, after Zero rescued Suzaku, that Lelouch returned home in a slump. He'd expected to be greeted by darkness and solitude, but what he found instead was every light in the dining room on and two girls sitting at its table folding origami. One shouldn't have been up so late. The other shouldn't have been alive.
C.C. glanced up immediately at his entrance.
"Welcome home, Lelouch."
The look on his face was priceless. For one of the rare times in his life, Lelouch was struck dumb by what he saw, an embarrassingly private look of surprise matting his features where usually was the face of a cold and brooding prince.
"Thank goodness!" Nunnally was quick to address Lelouch once C.C. stopped speaking.
As she began to prattle onscreen, the Nunnally of the present, eyes wide in awe of what she had not seen that night, felt something inside her. She brought up a hand to her mouth, stifling a laugh. Twenty whole seconds passed as Nunnally's former self spoke, and Lelouch didn't move a muscle, his face frozen into a humourously grotesque expression of utter bafflement.
Others in the audience weren't quite so reticent to let out a giggle or two, even the lingering ill feelings from the shouting matches they'd shared just minutes before not keeping them from enjoying Lelouch's predicament. It was heartwarming, but Nunnally had a feeling such an end to hostilities between them wouldn't last.
"Your friend goes by such an unusual name," the younger Nunnally laughed. "Only her initials!"
"Ooooh," Tamaki nodded along. "I always thought her name was Cici."
Kallen blinked at her friend beside her.
"What kind of name is Cici?"
"How am I supposed to know? English ain't even my first language!"
"I wonder..." Nina put a finger to her temple, striking a contemplative pose. "What do you think her initials stand for?"
"Eh?" Rivalz was a little confused. "Didn't you tell me once that you worked with her?"
"Well, yes, but, I only saw her in passing, and that was only for a little while when I was in Lel-..." The girl caught herself just in time. "I mean, while I was in the Demon's employment."
"Right," Lloyd quickly added. "And Cécile and I never found out either. How about you, Black Knights?"
Tohdoh frowned, and Chiba, watching his expression for guidance, spoke up.
"What does it even matter what her name is?"
"Perhaps," Kaguya hummed to herself, "that's a question we'll have to wait on for an answer."
"I was just wondering," Nunnally continued unhindered, blind to the discomfort Lelouch obviously was feeling at C.C.'s presence, "is C.C. your girlfriend?"
"Uh..." The prince still couldn't even process the fact C.C. was alive in the first place, nevermind figure out an answer for his sister.
C.C. showed no interest in the conversation, answering blandly while staring at the paper crane she was folding.
"He made a promise about our future together." She cast an almost menacing look at Lelouch, veiled with indifference. "Right?"
While Lelouch grew even more consternated, Nunnally gasped at the scandalous statement. Could it be they were engaged for marriage? Oh, what a thought that was! Shirley would be so disappointed.
The scene hadn't been going on for long, but the audience was already lost in a giggling fit, even Xingke sharing a small laugh at Lelouch's expense with Tianzi, though some wet blankets were interspersed among them, Cornelia, Chiba and Tohdoh, and Kallen being the most reserved. Cornelia was simply determined to be in a bad mood, while Tohdoh was silently mulling over the facts in his head, trying to make sense of the unflappable Lelouch's less than stoic response onscreen. Kallen was eyeing C.C. with resent, arms crossed.
'What a bitch.'
"No!" Lelouch was quick to shoot down the idea he was romantically involved with the somehow living dead girl. "No, that wasn't what she was talking about. It's like, uh... She's kidding around."
The greenette let out an infuriatingly calm reply, a little too quick.
"No, I'm not."
Kallen's frown deepened.
'What a bitch!'
Flabbergasted, Lelouch stepped forward, ignoring Nunnally's worrying about his future with C.C. and took a cup of tea from the table, throwing it to the floor.
"Oh, C.C., look what you've done. You're soaking wet!" As he took a firm grip of C.C.'s arm and pulled her from her seat, there was a quick cut to Lelouch's eyes. To say they were filled with murder was an understatement. "C'mon, let's get you to the bathroom and into a dry change of clothes."
Seeing the trick he'd played on her, Nunnally put on a cute frown and pouted as almost everyone else giggled a little more. He actually took advantage of her blindness!? If she wasn't still sad he was gone, she might've been a little upset and wanted to have a word with him.
Once in private, Lelouch dropped the easy tone he used around his sister and grew deadly cold. He demanded C.C.'s name. She smirked at him and replied quite simply that it was C.C. Lelouch wasn't having it.
"That's not what I meant! Why aren't you-"
"-supposed to be dead?" C.C. interrupted, just as snide as before.
The way the exchange onscreen was going only evoked bad memories in Kallen, and she felt the same irksome feeling she so often used to get from C.C. boil up within her.
'What a bitch!'
C.C. confirmed that she'd given Lelouch Geass, much to his lack of relief. Even so, he expressed his gratitude, finally feeling slightly more in control of the conversation. Geass sped up his schedule, after all: The quest to obliterate Britannia.
"He's really serious about it..." Gino murmured to himself. "He wanted to fight Britannia."
The giggles had mostly quieted down by now, and aside from Kallen, stewing in her seat, and Gino, trying and failing to understand how Lelouch got from the plan to destroy Britannia to ruling it and becoming a diabolical supervillain, most everyone was quietly fixated on the screen. Rivalz checked back and forth.
"So... Am I the only one who notices she's wearing a straightjacket? Yes? Just me, then? Okay..."
Villetta gaped.
"And now she's undressing..."
"I knew she was Zero's mistress!" Tamaki grinned in triumph. "This is gonna be great!"
Xingke once again placed a hand over Tianzi's eyes while Kaguya's grew large and star-filled, a devious smile on her lips. Kallen reeled back, getting ready to explode at what was about to happen...
The audience needn't have gotten their hopes up. C.C. explained that only a small faction of the Britannian military was looking for her then slipped into Lelouch's bed, pulling the covers up to hide any naughty bits.
"WHAT!?" Lelouch began losing his cool again. He clearly still had a long way to go before he fully grew into the role of unfeeling manipulator. "You expect to stay here!?"
"A gentleman would sleep on the floor."
"How dare she!" For the first time, Chiba spoke up on Lelouch's behalf, outraged at C.C.'s behaviour. She didn't like Lelouch, that much she was certain about, but the way C.C. was treating him, her unasked and unwilling benefactor, was revolting to her. "That impudent...! Tohdoh-san, how dare she!?"
Tohdoh simply let out a frustrated grunt. Oddly, it was Cornelia who gave her growled agreement, still feeling enough familial attachment to Lelouch to grant him at least this much of her sympathy.
"Of all the ungrateful...!"
"Ah," Rakshata began assessing the scene, not listening to Chiba or Cornelia, "it's one of those kinds of relationships."
Tamaki raised a brow, once again slightly confused, and ventured a guess.
"You mean they're gonna hate f-?"
Kallen quickly interrupted before her friend could finish, her face red, and not just with fury.
"Don't go there, Tamaki!"
"Don't joke around." Lelouch wasn't about to give up just yet. Placating him, C.C. riposted.
"My being caught would cause trouble for you, too."
"It's dangerous to stay together."
"If I wander the streets they'll find me."
"This isn't about you. It's my situation."
C.C. frowned and rolled over in bed, away from Lelouch.
"I hate stubbornness."
"Aaah, gip," Tamaki groaned loudly as he realized any chance of fooly cooly had just disappeared, quickly joined by a much quieter curse from Kaguya, mimicking his crude phrasing.
"Double gip."
Kallen meanwhile let out a small breath of relief.
"You sure take things casually don't you?" Lelouch tried one last time to get answers out of the mysterious C.C. "How did you manage to survive before this? What did you do before now? And what's the deal with that so-called Contract you spo-"
"Good night, Lelouch."
"Mm," Nunnally hesitated to speak, halfway addressing everyone else. "I find it somewhat difficult to like Miss C.C. so much, now. She's very..."
"Bitchy?" Kallen offered quite helpfully. "You don't even know."
Ohgi perked up his ears and found a reason to interject.
"Now, Kallen, you're being a bit unfair."
"Why should I be fair? It's all C.C.'s fault Lelouch got Geass - or did you forget? She's the real person to blame for the Demon Emperor! So, you tell me, Ohgi. Why should I be fair?"
Zero turned up his mask's synthesizer volume and cleared his throat a bit, the sound quite loud enough to catch everyone's attention.
"I think we can all safely decide for now that we don't like C.C." In a strange twist, nobody interrupted him. "Perhaps as we learn more of her, our opinion will change?"
Kallen rolled her eyes and relaxed, leaning her head back against her hands.
"Doubtful."
In the days following Zero's first appearance, although not joining together to combat Britannia's rule, multiple renewed attacks of terrorism were committed by Japanese resistance groups, inspired by the masked man's bold stand against the Empire. What's more, the scandal of 'Orange' trailed Margrave Jeremiah wherever he went, putting a tremendous rift of distrust between him and his fellow soldiers. What he'd done, nobody knew, but the prevailing assumption was that he was somehow in league with Zero.
"So," C.C. wondered to Lelouch one morning, sitting on his bed in nothing but a white dress shirt and munching on a slice of pizza, "what did Orange turn out to be anyway?"
It was frustrating that C.C. asked so many questions yet refused to answer any herself, even important ones as to the nature of Geass, or how she'd survived death, but Lelouch gave in eventually.
"There is no Orange. It's something I made up."
"Er..." Guilford looked to Jeremiah again, so changed from how he once was - stronger, less severe, content, and wearing such a strange mask over his eye - and attempted to apologize once again. "Jeremiah, really, I know now's not the time, but..."
"Think nothing of it, Lord Guilford," came Jeremiah's easy reply and a wave of the hand to dismiss the topic. "From here out, I don't want to hear a single apology for what happened to me because of Orange. Everything that I am now, I owe to that word. Everything that I have-" he smiled at the thought of Sayoko beside him, "is because of that single word. If given the choice, I wouldn't undo the disgrace it brought me; not for all the rule of the world. Mine is an honour even greater."
After a moment Guilford gave a quick nod, from one man to another, ending the issue once and for all, and everyone continued to observe the show in silence. Then Rakshata was struck by a thought.
"I've been wondering, actually, Jeremiah why you joined Lelouch. We know he used his power on you once, which means he couldn't do it to you again. So, if being controlled by Geass isn't the reason, what is?"
The cyborg didn't reply, only smiling and returning his gaze toward the screen.
"The world is destined to descend into greater chaos."
Gino grinned to himself, quite amused with Lelouch's prophetic statement, or, more accurately, he reasoned, promise.
"Epic one-liner."
When Suzaku's trial for the murder of Prince Clovis finally came to an end, after much deliberation he was acquitted due to lack of evidence. Although he should have been happy with the verdict, as Suzaku stepped outside from the courthouse he was only perplexed. It didn't make sense to him. Even with Zero admitting to the killing, he was certain it wouldn't be enough to overturn the case against him. How had he gotten a fair trial?
He didn't have time to think about it as a voice, a girl's, came from above him.
"Out of the way, please!"
Cornelia's face dropped.
"No."
"Look out below!"
The girl, young and beautiful with wavy, long pink hair, dropped, seemingly from the sky, straight into Suzaku's bewildered arms.
"What." To anyone paying attention, it would seem as though Cornelia's brain had short-circuited.
"Is there something wrong?" Suzaku asked the strange girl dumbly after a brief exchange of greetings.
Contrary to all expectations, the girl smiled wide and replied.
"Yes!" she said cheerfully. "There is something wrong!"
"Pff-WHAT?!" Lloyd and a few others exploded into laughing disbelief.
"The truth is," she continued, "bad guys are chasing me. So, considering the circumstances, could you help me, please?"
Tianzi gasped and took hold of Xingke's arm, expecting a suspenseful chase sequence to start. Cornelia meanwhile was still trying to get her head around the bizarre way in which Euphemia and Suzaku met for the very first time. Zero lowered his sight away from the screen.
Among those who lost their trust in Jeremiah due to Orange, Kewell and many other Purebloods too were the most upset. Their faction of the Area 11 Colonial Army was discredited because he gave in to Zero's demands, and now the Purists were a laughingstock around the entire Tokyo Settlement. Something drastic had to be done to rectify such a situation.
Then, before the audience could dwell on Kewell's plan to 'remove' Jeremiah, the scene cut back to Suzaku and Euphemia, walking about the city almost like a couple on a date. The undercover princess introduced herself as Yuffie, and didn't even wait to hear Suzaku's name. He was like a celebrity, after all. She already knew who he was. But, then, he knew something about her as well.
"You lied before," he said, looking away dramatically. "There's no one chasing you at all. Right?"
Tianzi let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, relieved that they weren't going to get chased.
"Meeoooww!" was Yuffie's reply.
"What."
This time Cornelia wasn't the only one to have such a reaction to the non sequitur.
Yuffie had come across a stray cat and ignored Suzaku, instead kneeling before it and trying, and seemingly succeeding, to communicate with it.
"Meow meoowww. Oh, does the kitty's paw hurt?"
"Arthur!" Every member of the original Ashford Student Council exclaimed at once, recognizing the ornery feline instantly.
Ohgi blinked at Kallen.
"You know that cat?"
"Yeah," she nodded back in disbelief. "He was our mascot at school. We never knew where he came from, but... I guess we do now."
"Meow, meow, meoowww! Meow meow?"
Letting Yuffie's lie slide, at least for a while, Suzaku went to say hello to her new friend. Arthur took one look at him, thought for a second, then deliberately bit his outstretched finger.
Seeing this, Zero instinctively balled his fingers into protective fists. Even after a year not seeing him, he still couldn't shake the reflex. Nunnally looked on curiously.
"So that's Arthur?"
Eventually Arthur scampered off and Yuffie dragged Suzaku with her, though he didn't protest much, on a fun trip around the city.
"Ohhhhh..." Nina quietly whimpered in horror, the first glimmer of realization hitting her that Euphemia had been in love with another from the very start.
Unfortunately for her, Cornelia overheard the shy girl's lament and shot her an unnerved glance. Something about the sounds she was making at her sister onscreen made the normally powerful princess very uncomfortable.
As for Zero, he'd returned his gaze to the screen, showing in bright colour the day he'd met Euphemia, as if some invisible force had been watching and recording every moment. By this point everyone had more or less gotten over the eeriness of seeing themselves and their actions caught on camera, but for a brief moment the feeling hit Zero again, harder than before. That, and a sinking feeling.
The video showed a montage of moments from Suzaku's date with Euphemia, and as it went on Zero felt long repressed emotions swell in him. Feelings of love. Of loss. She was radiant and youthful, he could see onscreen, clearer than even in his rose-tinted memories. Her violet eyes shimmered with wonder and excitement, as if all the horrible things to come never would.
Zero knew he'd have to see this eventually. The very second he saw himself onscreen he knew the whole ordeal of Lelouch's journey, and his, would be shown, and that meant Euphemia would be soon to appear as well. He thought he'd prepared himself, mentally, emotionally, for the sight of her, cheerful and very much alive, knowing how it all ended, but he couldn't stop himself from shuddering as his eyes grew teary behind his mask.
"Please don't cry, Suzaku." There was a voice - HER voice - whispering from the theatre speakers just above the melancholy tune playing for the montage. "I am with you. Always."
Zero turned his head back and forth rapidly, checking for the source of the voice, so serene and angelic, but there was no else there, just the others of the audience now glancing questioningly in his direction at his sudden movement. Had no one else heard it?
Composing himself once more, Zero returned his eyes to the screen, the dark emotion within him suddenly gone, replaced with a feeling of lightness, as if he were completely weightless. His tears had dried as well.
The others went back to viewing too, but Ohgi's gaze lingered on Zero. He'd reacted as if someone called out to him, just how he himself had reacted when he heard a ghostly voice over the speakers. Could it be that Zero was hearing things too?
The day went well between them, both Suzaku and Yuffie having a splendid time and learning much about each other. They were happy together, their personalities naturally in tune. Before the day was done though, Yuffie asked Suzaku to show her one more place. This time she wanted to go to Shinjuku.
At Ashford, Lelouch was sitting by himself, ever by himself, checking the news on Suzaku on his laptop, always looking out for his friend, when Kallen hesitantly approached him.
"Lelouch? D'you have a minute?"
Lelouch looked up from his work to meet eyes with the redhead standing weakly before him, portraying her false self as a sickly teenager.
"Mmhm. What is it?
"About that phone call the other day?"
She wanted to know about the call in the shower she'd received from Zero. In efforts to understand her new leader better, perhaps caught by 'Zero Fever', like many other girls her age who would fall to it over the next couple years, Kallen asked if Lelouch could find out Zero's caller ID. Maybe if she had that she could find out his true identity! And then...
Lelouch fed her a lie.
"It was a school phone, so I'm not sure w-...!"
C.C. was behind Kallen, prancing about as if she wasn't a government secret whose leaders would purge entire districts to keep secret. Kallen followed Lelouch's eyes and turned to see what he was looking at, and in the heat of the moment, desperate to keep his Contractor from public sight, Lelouch took hold of Kallen's face and turned it to face him.
Several members of the audience choked back a laugh at the embarrassed blush on Kallen's face onscreen, and the even more embarrassed Kallen blushing in her seat. Anya didn't even try not to laugh, enjoying every second she was able to feel something deep inside.
"You were so into him!"
"Was not!" Kallen shot back, a little too quickly and a little too loudly.
Gino slumped in his seat and turned to speak to Nina beside him, the closest person to confide in.
"Well, it looks like that's it for my chances with her."
Nina cautiously patted the Knight on the shoulder, a strange sense of camaraderie passing between them at knowing the ones they loved had, in her case, and would ever have, in his, eyes for someone else.
"Hey." Villetta blinked at the scene and turned her head in surprise as Ohgi whispered to her. "Do you know if this weird comedy stuff happened a lot?"
She shivered as traumatic flashbacks of her time as a gym teacher at Ashford passed before her eyes. Oh, horrors that no mortal should ever have to see or endure! Milly Ashford was truly an evil genius to rival even Lelouch himself.
"Too much."
It was much later that day when Suzaku and Yuffie made it to Shinjuku, or what was left of it. It was a sad sight, pitiful really, ruined buildings only half-standing and makeshift shrines for the dead scattered among them.
Elsewhere, Jeremiah was in his Sutherland, pursuing a supposed sighting of Zero. If all went well, he reasoned, he would claim the terrorist's life and regain his honour. Unbeknownst to him though, it was a setup, a plan made by Kewell and his flunkies to have him killed, coincidentally set to take place in Shinjuku. At the very least Jeremiah still had Villetta though, the buxom woman in her revealing G-Suit uncovering the plan from some of its conspirators.
"Before you even say anything about my outfit," Villetta began, meeting eyes with Tamaki, now a row ahead of her, "just don't."
Luckily for her, Tamaki was too interested in what came next onscreen to pester the woman. Finally, for the first time Tamaki was getting a scene all to himself. Some Ashford students were taking pictures of Shinjuku and its wounds, and he and Minami and Yoshida were accosting them, angered that they were making light of the massacre the ghetto endured only days ago.
Suzaku and Yuffie had been closeby, and wanting to keep the conflict from growing into outright violence Suzaku inserted himself between the two parties. Tamaki didn't like that. Not one bit. If it had been anyone else he may have stood down, but seeing Suzaku made his blood boil.
"Stinkin' traitor!" Tamaki spat. "And he always beat me! I never got shot down in a knightmare except by him! And then he goes and beats me up in person too!? I wish he could be like C.C. and come back from the dead just so I could hit him! Just once!"
Zero spoke, addressing the angry man.
"If he were here, I'm sure he'd let you."
Once the danger had passed, the two Britannian schoolboys returned to their true selves, impudent, self-entitled brats, their personalities a product more of their affluence than their nationality, and they berated Suzaku. As an Honourary Britannian, why hadn't he protected them immediately? Why hadn't he killed Tamaki for stepping out of line as an Eleven?
Yuffie took one step forward and slapped the insolent fools.
"Hm!" Kallen hummed in consideration, as if surprised at her own thoughts.
She was met by a stare from Zero's blank, reflective mask.
"Is something wrong?" he wondered back, gentlemanly, just as Zero was supposed to be.
"I always thought Euphemia was just a puppet princess who couldn't think for herself." She nodded slightly, just enough so Zero understood she wasn't speaking to the mask, but the person behind it. "Maybe I was wrong."
Lelouch confirmed to C.C. what Rakshata had earlier surmised, that his Geass required direct eye contact and a host of other factors, and began to muse to her, almost soliloquizing the inner strife that was his thoughts.
"Is it good to be strong?"
In Shinjuku Suzaku was doing the same with Yuffie.
"Is it bad to be weak? Back then, when I was ten, the world seemed like such a terribly sad place - a world without any hope at all."
It cut back and forth, Lelouch and Suzaku, each with different words and meanings behind their statements, yet still saying the exact same thing.
"Starvation."
"Disease."
"Filth," Lelouch growled. "Decay!"
"Racism."
"Constant war and terrorism!" The prince was growing angrier with every word, every new crime he believed the world guilty of.
"Living in a never-ending cycle of hate." Suzaku was growing more solemn with every word, every new sorrow he believed the world afflicted with.
"Rats running in a wheel!"
"The cycle must be broken. Somebody has to do it!"
C.C. appraised Lelouch's thoughts, speaking dismissively.
"How idealistic."
"Of course," Suzaku continued, "it's doubtful that the one who does it will make all the bad things go away."
"I'm not that arrogant," Lelouch finished Suzaku's thought. "And so..."
"No one should lose more of the people they love. At least, a world without war..."
The audience was silent, even Zero transfixed at what he was seeing. All along, he and Lelouch were thinking the same thing. It was just as Jeremiah said. Both of them had been right, and both of their approaches may have worked in theory, but for the first time Zero realized what the difference was: Geass.
They both knew what had to be done to achieve the kinder, gentler world they sought, but such a result was only possible through Geass. Because Lelouch had the power, it was he whose plan was destined to succeed, and Suzaku who should have joined him. And if the roles had been reversed, if Suzaku had been given Geass instead, then it would have been Lelouch who would've been best served by joining him.
It was a moment of rare clarity for Zero, when he truly felt connected to Lelouch, like they were one being of single mind. What had come between them? What had ruined their friendship so? Why were they, who always wanted the same thing, destined to fight and hate each other, even to the very end? He'd felt better before, but once again Zero couldn't help but blink as splashes of tears dripped down his cheeks and stained his fabric mask, covering what wasn't concealed by his helmet.
'I miss you, Lelouch.'
Kaguya gawked. Maybe she was just grasping at straws, but an inkling of a thought was working itself out in her mind. Suzaku and Lelouch were the same. They wanted the same thing!
The cycle must be broken.
... It's doubtful that the one who does it will make all the bad things go away.
He brought the world together.
She looked at Zero, sitting by the aisle next to Nunnally in her wheelchair, and saw him. She didn't see the cape or the gloves or the cravat, she saw him. She saw the man behind the mask for what he truly was. She raised her hand.
"I know who Zero is."
C.C. was beginning to become interested with what Lelouch had to say, or perhaps more likely the conviction with which he spoke.
"And to have this utopia you'd...?"
"How would you do it?" Yuffie asked Suzaku.
"It's simple," Lelouch said, looking down at a chess set in his room and picking up a white knight. He used it to knock over the black king. "When somebody wins, the fighting will end."
Now C.C. was honestly intrigued.
"Somebody?"
Xingke's eyes widened as enough puzzle pieces finally fit into place for him to see the bigger picture. Lelouch loved chess, that much was evident. As Zero, he'd even designated Kallen as Q1, the queen, because she was his most powerful soldier. It followed that if he were to designate a chess title to himself then he would be the king. Not exactly strong, but of absolute importance. He was, therefore, the Black King, king of the Black Knights. And Suzaku had long been called the White Knight, from Pendragon to Beijing.
That on its own wasn't enough to prove who the new Zero was, but it opened a new corridor of thought, previously closed from the understanding that Suzaku Kururugi was dead. If only he assumed a conclusion, assigning an identity to the man behind the mask, Xingke could trace the steps back, then forward once more, each event leading to the Demon Emperor's assassination cascading perfectly into the next, aligning just as perfectly with the previously hidden truth of Suzaku and Lelouch's characters. Everything fit. Everything. And added all together, going back to the beginning of where things got turned about, everything pointed toward a sickening possibility: The Black Knights had, at least in part, wrongly betrayed Zero.
"Eh-hem," Xingke coughed, getting attention for himself as he raised his hand. "I also have discerned Zero's true identity."
Gino frowned, looking at Kaguya then Xingke in frustration.
"What? Both of you got it? Jeez, don't make me feel stupid."
Cornelia silently fumed. Everyone was figuring out who Zero was beneath the mask, yet somehow she couldn't? What a bother! It felt as though everyone was in on a secret, a grand conspiracy, just the sort of thing she hated. If and when she too found out, would they try to hold her to secrecy? And when she refused, what then?
'Damn,' she mentally cursed to herself. 'And I'm without my weapons! Nunnally purposely disarmed me and everyone else before we came here. Is she part of this? How far does this go!?'
Zero breathed heavy beneath his mask, stress now overcoming him and adding to his already emotional state. Lelouch's plan was crumbling before his very eyes and he could do nothing to stop it. Zero Requiem had seemed like such a good plan at the time, yet all it took was a little bit of behind the scenes action sequences and a few lines of dialogue to bring it to ruin? To be fair, it was a plan made in delirious despair, the pain of Nunnally's supposed death weighing on them and making them both want to die more than ever. And, in the end, perhaps it had all been one big excuse for Lelouch to do just that, nevermind if the world peace part of it worked or not.
Zero checked around the theatre. It seemed like almost everyone had figured out his identity already. What was the point of hiding it any longer? It was all going to come out soon, anyway. He closed his eyes in resignation and began to unfasten his helmet.
LLLLLLLLLLLL