Thanks everyone who's reviewed and favorited and everything so far, honestly, nothing makes me happier than opening my inbox and seeing those review alerts XD And I appreciate criticism as well! As one reviewer pointed out to me, the Lelouch side of this might feel rather rushed right now. Sorry about that, I'm working to make that a bit more subtle, just trying to speed things along as quickly as possible so we can finally get to the LuluRolo confrontation so many of you have told me you're dying to see ^^ The pacing will slow and even out after that point, I promise!
And for those who were wondering, this fic begins starting between episodes 16 and 17 of the first season. Just clearing that up.
Disclaimer: Don't own Geass, ect.
For a moment, Lelouch felt frozen in place, his mouth agape as he processed what he'd just heard. It was only when he felt Nunnally slide her hand into his that he snapped out of his stupor and forced a smile.
"What are you talking about?" he said gently, soothingly. "C.C. has been telling you silly stories again, has–"
"You're lying, Onii-sama."
Cut off in his denial, the brunette boy could only blink in shock as his little sister gave him that unnerving cold smile again. "I've gotten very good at telling when people are lying," she went on, giving his hand a light squeeze to illustrate his point. "Of course, I get a lot of practice with you..."
"I-I wouldn't lie to you!" Lelouch sputtered, aware that he was becoming desperate. This wasn't supposed to happen, she wasn't supposed to...
"You're still lying, even now." Nunnally gave a little sigh, shaking her head. "You really must think I'm stupid..."
"O-of course I don't, Nunna–"
"Liar!"
The volume the small girl had shouted at left Lelouch a little more than stunned. Never before had he ever heard her raise her voice. Gone was her chillingly sweet smile, now replaced with a frown and a furrowing between her brows.
"You're terrible, Onii-sama..." Nunnally stated quietly. "To have been Zero all this time...and then even when you've been revealed, you keep lying about it? How cruel..."
"No, but..." Lelouch protested, until he spied her hands fisted in her nightgown's skirt in anger. His voice dropped to a weak, pained whisper. "Nunnally, I've done it all for you...Nunnally...!"
Yet another of those horrible, tense silences that had fallen in and out of their conversation followed. The prince watched his sister's face, gripping the arms of her wheelchair in anxiety. Then she let her head hang down, so her hair fell like a curtain around her face.
"Onii-sama," she pronounced delicately., the syllables sharp on her tongue. Lelouch found himself leaning closer, biting his lower lip.
"When did I ever ask for that?!" She snapped so suddenly that Lelouch stumbled backwards in surprise. "How dare you use me to justify your sins!"
"No...N-Nunally..."
A sharp knock on the door broke in before either of the siblings could continue, and Sayoko opened it a crack, sticking her head into the room.
"Dinner is now ready," the maid said, glancing between the two as if wondering just what she had interrupted. Surely they had not been arguing, for she'd never seen a pair of siblings that got along so well as those these...
In an instant, Nunnally raised her head and gave the Japanese woman a grateful smile. "Thank you, Sayoko-san!" Already she was wheeling her chair towards the door. But in the doorway, she paused an tilted her head back towards Lelouch's direction. "Aren't you coming, Onii-sama?"
The prince looked at her in disbelief, before gritting his teeth and standing. "No," he said, perhaps a bit too tersely. "I'm not hungry."
"Oh?" Nunnally questioned, a terrible little smile on her face, turned away so that Sayoko could not see it. "You aren't lying, are you?"
Seeing her grin, he looked away. "No. I've lost my appetite.
----
C.C. didn't even look up as Lelouch reentered the room, this time carefully closing the door to avoid the noise it would make. With a sigh, he collapsed into the chair in front of his desk. He rested his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, a picture of defeat. Minutes passed and the room remained silent, until in exasperation her lowered his hands and glared at the green-haired girl sprawled across his bed. "Well?"
"Well what?" she replied cooly, keeping her eyes on the plush toy in her arms, the large smile stitched onto it's face.
"Aren't you going to say 'I told you so'?"
Amber eyes turned to look at him, and Lelouch was surprised to see pity in her gaze. "Even I'm not cruel enough to mock you over this matter," she said. "The person you trusted more than anyone else in the world has betrayed you. Nothing in the world is as painful as that. It's enough to leave you reluctant to trust anyone else ever again."
From her pained tone, Lelouch had to wonder if she spoke from personal experience.
"The question is," C.C. continued, sitting up and eyeing him warily. "What will you do now?"
Lelouch was silent.
"Will you endure and continue being Zero? Or will you simply give it up now?"
A pause and an intake of breath, then, "I've already come too far to give up now. Too many people...Clovis, Shirley and her family, Mao...I've hurt too many people. To stop now would be an insult to them. And besides," he gave the witch a weak smile. "The Black Knights trust Zero. How could I betray them like that?"
C.C. shot him a smirk. "Good answer."
It was barely a moment before he was frowning again, however. "But," he said, rather pessimistically. "Nunnally knows that I'm Zero. And after the little talk we just had, I doubt she'd be willing to keep any secrets for me. I can't use the geass on her..."
"Can't, or won't?"
"Can't." Lelouch scowled at her and shook his head. "I need eye contact, and it's not as if I can pry her eyelids open."
"Yes, I doubt you'd have the physical skill needed to overpower a blind, crippled little girl."
Lelouch flipped her off.
"Either way," C.C. ignored him and went on, "We don't know whether she's told the Emperor yet," At the thought, Lelouch grimaced and gave an audible groan, and C.C. continued to ignore him. "But regardless, I don't think there's any chance that Zero's identity will be revealed."
Lelouch contemplated this for a moment before nodding. "Aa. At least, I doubt anyone associated with the Britannian empire would make my identity public. If the population found out that Zero was a Britannian prince, it's likely there would be riots, and the Empire could loose its credibility."
With that, he spun his chair back to facing his desk, flipping open his laptop. Within moments, he was typing away, speaking as he worked. "I'll just have to make some adjustments to my plans for the future, but otherwise nothing has changed."
"Adjustments?" C.C. couldn't manage to hide the tinge of curiosity in her voice.
The raven-haired boy nodded. "Mm. Production of that airship Rakshata had been thinking up will be put into effect, and we'll speed up the process of moving our base of operations outside of Japan. I'll need to you go back to the Chinese Federation for a bit for that...and I may have to reveal my identity to the Black Knights. If Britannia actually were so stupid as to give away who's behind Zero's mask, it'd go over a lot better if I told them myself first and did damage control while it's easily manageable."
C.C. watched soundlessly as Lelouch typed, her lips pressed together in a pitying expression. She put her Cheese-kun plush aside and stood, taking careful steps over until she was standing behind his chair. Wordlessly, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and he froze, his hands paused in midair over the keys. After a moment, he leaned back into the embrace, knowing better than to question a rare act of kindness from the witch.
Her tone was unusually gentle. "You're trying so hard to keep moving forward, aren't you? Even when hurting like this..."
"Shut up." C.C. ignored his rude tone, and the single tear running down his cheek.
She held him like that, leaning her cheek against his head, for a few minutes. Eventually his voice broke the silence, weary and more pained than Lelouch wished he sounded.
"C.C....what did they do with that child...with my real sibling?" It didn't sound like he retained much hope at all for that infant's life. Likely, he didn't want to give himself false hopes only to have them dashed immediately. The green-haired girl allowed herself a small smile.
"Don't sound so depressed. They didn't kill it."
At her words, Lelouch perked up very quickly. "Really?" he asked, trying not to sound too anxious. "Then, where...?"
C.C.'s face fell slightly. Apparently she didn't much enjoy being the one to tell him the next part.
"With the person who murdered Marianne."
His face fell to match her's as she continued.
"With the Emperor's older brother, the head of the Geass Cult. The immortal, V.V."
----
V.V. sneezed.
Rolo cast the tiny blonde a strange look. "Do you have a cold, V.V.-sama?" V.V. scowled and shook his head, as an older man heavily covered in robes hurriedly handed him a tissue. Rolo almost found the sight amusing, one of the more elderly leaders among those running the Cult falling over himself to tend to a prepubescent-looking boy.
"I don't get sick," he insisted, taking the tissue and wiping his nose. "Someone must me talking about me..."
"Huh?"
"What, you've never heard of that before, Rolo?" The teen obviously hadn't, given his confused expression, and he shook his head. "It's a Japanese superstition," V.V. explained. "They say that when you sneeze, someone somewhere is talking about you. Given the current situation in Japan, with the emergence of Zero and the Black Knights and such, you would do well to know about these sort of things. No doubt we'll start getting requests for assassinations over there soon, all the most important people in the world are heading to Japan now..." V.V. trailed off, the current fighting and this Zero person apparently being topics he needed to consider carefully.
Rolo couldn't really say he cared much. At least the ship rides to Japan would be much shorter than the ones to Britannia he was normally forced to take.
Gah. Another short-ish chapter. Sorry about that, next one is a long one though, so look forward to that (though my hands are already sore just thinking of typing that one...ugh). Bit of C.C./Lulu in this chapter for all those fans (yes, I adore C.C. as well =D).
Cookies to anyone who can name the OVA trilogy this chapter title is referencing~! And as always, reviews are loved greatly! Make my day, please~!