Chapter 11: Lelouch



"That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing"

--From the Qumran Emerald Tablet, discovered in Area 18 by the Reynolds expedition


I stood on the catwalk and stared. 7.4 million pounds of malevolence stared back at me through bandages the width of bed sheets. It smiled. Boulders of enamel gleamed under fluorescent lights. I heard footsteps and turned away.

Behind me, C.C. ascended the final rung of a ladder and brushed her hair from her face. It flowed obligingly over her shoulder. I don't say 'flowed' lightly—most girls' hair sort of flops, or sits. C.C.'s flowed. I suppose her immortal metabolism had something to do with it.

I pointed at the EVA.

"Ugly bugger," I said. "Fits the 'I am become death, the destroyer of worlds' quote better than the FLEIJAs, don't you think?"

C.C. stepped beside me, hands behind her back.

"Wait until you see what's hovering above NERV," she said.

I turned around and tried to maintain my whimsical smile. It was better than a guilty one, at any rate. My shoes plinked on the catwalk as their soles caught on the grates.

"Uglier than this?" I said.

C.C. nodded.

"Considerably."


And indeed, it was. Eight blunt prongs stuck out of the Angel like fingers, sprouting from a bowl-like dish with an eye in the center whose red pupil and green iris made it look a bit like an olive, complete with pimento. It was not, however, appetizing. Our satellites recorded its endless stare, but not for long.

"AT field activated!" someone said.

The screen dissolved into static. White fuzz reflected from the Command staff's faces like mechanical firelight.

"So it's just floating there?" I said.

Ritsuko's eyebrows furrowed. The mismatch between her black brows and blond hair exaggerated the effect—a sort of 'attractive scientist meets Groucho Marx'.

"The Hanged Man…" she murmured.

C.C.'s eyebrows rose a fraction. Her pupils had expanded in the darkness, which gave them an eerie catlike look. More than usual, even.

"Or the Wheel of Life," C.C. replied. "Either interpretation fits."

"Numerically, there's a stronger case for—"

Ritsuko was interrupted when an orange globule formed from the Angel's thorax and rocketed toward earth. It touched down somewhere in England. The explosion was a tiny dot on our map, but must have lit up the sky for miles.

Maya looked up from her console.

"Doctor Akagi, the Angel is dropping pieces of itself enclosed in AT fields."

Light and shadows from the monitor accentuated the lines on Ritsuko's face as she leaned forward to type commands to the MAGI. It made her look every day of her age, and then some. Another globule fell to earth.

"Estimated time until it's over NERV is three hours," Hyuga said.

C.C. smirked. She sauntered along the console, brushing her hand across it until two lines appeared. She rubbed the dust off with a flick of her fingers.

"So much for suspension and patience," she said.

Ritsuko pursed her lips, but said nothing. I did.

"Sorry, C.C., but am I missing something?"

The witch silenced me with a finger on my lips. Note that this was not a romantic gesture; it just shut me up faster and was subtler than clapping a hand over my mouth.

"Never mind," she said.

She knew that I was too curious for that, and I knew that she knew, and so on ad infinitum. Unfortunately, we had bigger problems.

The doors flew open. I saw a flash of red out of the corner of my eye, registered it as a NERV jacket, and found myself pinned against the wall before I could react further. To my credit, I processed the situation quickly enough to realize that I was not in imminent danger of getting my face smashed in.

"K-Katsuragi? Take your hands off me! What's the meaning of this?"

As it turns out, I was half right. Misato didn't hit me, but she crinkled a paper into my face hard enough that the effect was similar.

"Traitor! What have you done to Asuka?"

I felt antsy tingles in my chest, and suppressed them. I took the paper. Someone had cut out letters from a newspaper and arranged them into sentences….except that they were all from the same newspaper.


LeLOucH,

Give c.C. BaK. tHIs is wARnINg


"Where did you find this?" I said.

Misato replied through clenched teeth. Her grip didn't loosen.

"Asuka gave it to me. We found her in your apartment."

"Found her? How is she?"

Misato said nothing.

"Take me to her," I said.

The temporary commander of NERV didn't move.

"Let me rephrase," I said. "Asuka holds Britannian knightly rank. Take me to her or face criminal charges when Ikari and Fuyutsuki return from whatever they're doing in Antarctica….assuming the human race survives that long."

Katsuragi exhaled, and her grip on my collar relaxed enough that I could pull away.

"If you're responsible for this…"

Misato trailed off, but her threat remained.


No matter. I jogged down the hall as quickly as my out-of-shape asthmatic lungs could manage. As usual, Katsuragi was a fool. Why would I hurt my own pawn?

"Pawn?" C.C. echoed with a smirk.

"Pawn," I said.

Her smirk didn't recede. If an artist ever asked me how to capture smugness, I would direct him to my favorite witch.

"You're a good liar," she said. "Even to yourself."

I rolled my eyes—the conversational equivalent of throwing raw meat to the sharks. C.C. bit.

"Dare I say it? Almost paternal…"

"Shut up, C.C."

A pause.

"No," I said. "On second thought, I have a better idea: Explain this note."

Her eyes widened when I handed her the paper.

"Impossible," she whispered.

"What?"

"Mao."


I arrived in a bright room, as if every light had been turned up to its maximum to scare the bogles away. Unfortunately, memories are harder to dispel than ghosts. Asuka had curled herself into the corner, hugging her legs close to her body. She rocked back and forth.

"What's—"

I stopped. Saw the noose made from bedsheets.

"—Oh…"

Jeremiah stood at attention a few feet away, holding an assault rifle as his eyes scanned the room. He gave me a helpless sort of look. The Second Child's eyes had become red and puffy, reminding me how close to her childhood she still was. She gave me a look that I hadn't seen since she was a few years old. My hopes did a nosedive.

Nunnally once said that I have two masks: Lelouch vi Britannia, the emotionless chess master; and Lelouch Lamperouge, the warm, caring high school student. I'm neither, of course. All the same, both personas can be useful. I softened my voice and assumed the second.

"Asuka?" I said.

"Go away!"

I took a step closer. Another step. Asuka's voice rose to a screech.

"You're just using me!" she said.

"That's not—"

"Nobody cares. Only Mama cared, but I didn't love her enough to follow her, did I? Was it really too much to ask? I could be with Mama right now if I'd just joined…He was right. What sort of worthless daughter lets her mother die alone?"

A thought struck me: Even Section 2 wasn't this incompetent. Which meant…

Asuka sobbed. I could finish that thought later. When I sat next to her, Asuka balled herself up more tightly and buried her face between her knees.

"Go away," she said.

Her tone was almost pleading.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," I said.

Asuka tried to shoo me away, moving her arms like a puppet getting her strings jerked. When it didn't work, she pulled her hands back quickly—too quickly—but I'd already seen the red lines on her wrists.

Determined girl…

I turned to Jeremiah.

"You removed the razors?" I said.

He nodded.

"Where's Sayoko?" I said.

"She's coming."

Good. Very good. Sayoko could comfort people much better than I could.

"And Jeremiah?" I said.

"Yes, Majesty?"

"After Sayoko gets here, I want you to start looking for a man wearing a robe, visor, and headphones," I said. "White hair. Speaks with a Chinese accent."

He gave me a quizzical look.

"Kill him," I said. "Painfully."

C.C. looked at the floor—almost too subtle a movement to notice, but not quite. I pretended I'd missed it.

Jeremiah gave me a grim smile. I should probably mention here that Jeremiah helped me bring Asuka up—though I've never determined whether she was Jeremiah's pet project or the daughter he never had. In either case…

"Gladly, Your Majesty."

I sat down again and stroked Asuka's hair, but it was like touching a warm statue. Her head hung limply between her knees. I've never been happier to see Sayoko than when she arrived twenty minutes later. At that point, I grabbed C.C.'s arm and pulled her from the room.

The Operations Director was waiting for us.

"Well?" Misato said.

"I'm placing Asuka on suicide watch," I said.

Her jaw clenched.

"In case you haven't noticed, there's an Angel out there," she said. "We probably can't beat it with three pilots, let alone two."

My fist clenched involuntarily. The fingers relaxed v-e-r-y slowly.

"Asuka is in no state to pilot a machine that feeds on emotional trauma," I said.

"—Which you caused, for all I know. Let our psychiatrists examine her."

"Over my dead body," I said.

Misato opened her mouth…

"And yours," I added. "Sayoko's uncannily accurate with edged weapons."

She closed her mouth. The respite didn't last long, however.

"You have two hours to come up with a better plan," she said. "Trauma or no trauma, I can't risk Armageddon."

"And how many children are you willing to risk to get revenge for your daddy?" I shot back.

Then she slapped me.


SEELE-04-Mirandola: So the Tenth Angel is targeting the Unmoved Mover directly…

SEELE-05-Waite: How much of the Trismegistus Network has been destroyed?

SEELE-01-Lorenz: The Tenth Angel has obliterated the Iranian, British, and sub-Saharan thought elevators so far. Our Russian base is next.

SEELE-06-Dee: Unacceptable.

SEELE-02-Mathers: And probably deliberate.

SEELE-03-Yeats: Certainly deliberate. Tell Ikari that if the delay continues, he'll find himself neck-deep in Britannian knightmares.

SEELE-00-ADAM: Coraxo chis cormp od blans Liucal aziazor paeb soba lilonon chis virq op eophan od salbrox cynixir faboan U nal chis Coust ds saox co casg ol oanio yor eors vohim gizyax od math cocasg plo si molui ds pa ge ip larag om droln matorb cocasb emna L patralx yolci math nomig momons olora gnay angelard Ohio ohio ohio ohio ohio ohio noib ohio caosgon Bagle madrid i zirop chiso drilpa Niiso crip ip nidali…

KNagisa: …Or in layman's terms: Get moving.

SEELE-01-Lorenz: Very well.