Your Past, My Future

Chapter Two

a/n I mentioned this before, but I don't own anything. Not yet anyway.

Rivalz and Lelouch road down the highway as fast as the motorbike could go. Any other day, Lelouch would be enjoying the wind in his face or simply reading a good book, but today was different. Today he would either obtain the power of the Geass, or his chance would be lost forever. Ether he would be reborn, or forever live in death as his powerless existence continued.

"I still can't believe you forfeited the match, Lulu," muttered Rivalz. "I mean, you were winning! It couldn't have been that hopeless."

"You're right," he admitted. "I could have won, but it would have been a win without victory."

Rivalz considered the money he gambled—and lost—on Lelouch's victory. "I'm not quite sure I get what you're saying."

"Do you remember that news report about the terrorists? We don't know how toxic the poison gas is, so we can't go around it, and I'm honestly not interested in waiting for everything to clear up, so the only way we can get home safely is to get home before they release the gas."

"You know what? I would have been just fine waiting for everything to clear up, but"—

"Rivalz! Go left!"

Rivalz swerved his bike instinctively. "What? But they said that that truck"—

"Is on the road to the right! To avoid it, we go left!"

"But this is K-47! That news lady said"—

"No, she said it was on A-52, I'm sure of it!"

"But, I thought…" Rivalz swallowed hard and looked at the road grimly. "Lulu, I hope you know what you're doing."

They road on grimly for a few moments.

"Uh, Lulu?" Rivalz asked nervously. "Does that truck look familiar to you? Because it does to me."

It was the same truck that they had seen on the news, the same truck they had supposedly been avoiding.

"It seems that you're right," Lelouch said calmly. "I appear to have been mistaken." Something about his blatant, nonchalant admission of defeat reminded Rivalz of his last chess match.

"That's it, Lulu, I'm out of here," he said, swerving toward an exit.

"Rivalz, no!"

Again, Rivalz instinctively obeyed, and again, he cursed himself for doing so. "Look what you've made me do!"

"If we take the exit, we run the risk of running into them again! The only way to be safe it to get in front of them!"

"Then let's turn around!"

"Tell me, Rivalz," he said calmly. "Have you looked behind you recently?"

Behind him he saw an assortment of armored cars and helicopters with unfriendly machine guns. "But that's the Britannian military."

"And they'd shoot us without a second thought."

"But we're Britannian students!"

"That's one possibility," Lelouch replied. "Do you think they'll ask questions before or after our autopsy?"

Rivalz moaned on the inside. "So what are we supposed to do now?"

"Go faster. If we pass the truck, we'll"—

A hook shot out of the back of the vehicle, latching onto a helicopter and pulling it to the ground in a blast of fire. Out stepped a crimson Glasgow which fired upon the other military units.

"Oh crap, we're dead," moaned Rivalz. "We are so dead right now."

"No we're not, Rivalz. Just go faster. Trust me!"

"Trust you?" he repeated. "If it weren't for you, I'd be miles away, waiting for this mayhem to blow over!"

"That could have taken forever. It would have been boring."

"Boring? Is your life so trivial to you?"

Lelouch smiled grimly and looked at his friend. "If you don't take the right risks, you're life can mean very little."

Rivalz looked forward with a whimper. "I hope you're right." Famous last words.

Zero eyed the approaching ladder on the side of the truck intently. The truck wouldn't crash and let him climb into it like last time, but if he could time it right, it would work just as well. He unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up carefully. When they were on the same level as the ladder, he grabbed the steering wheel and turned it into the truck.

"Lulu, stop! What the heck do you think you're doing?"

"Don't worry about me!" Lelouch shouted, grabbing onto the ladder. "I'll be fine, just get out of here!"

Rivalz looked at him frantically. "Have you gone mad? I know how you like to play the hero, but this is suicide!"

"No, it's not," he replied firmly. It's taking the right risks. "Don't die."

The truck swerved into a subway as concrete and darkness separated Lelouch from his old, oblivious friend. He knew all along that he would have to encounter C.C. again, but every way he could think of involved some risk. He could have told Kallen that he knew she was part of a resistance movement, but he couldn't be certain that she wouldn't slit his throat before he could say he wanted to join. He could have revealed his existence to Prince Clovis, but his half-brother would have no reason to tell him about C.C. and would probably just send him to Britannia.

And so he had decided to wait. Wait and hope that his encounter with the immortal witch was fate, a course of action that bore the least threat to his personal safety. But what of Rivalz? Would his fate be to die in the crossfire on his way home? And if he did survive, Lelouch's actions were more than slightly suspicious. Would he talk?

For the hundredth time, Zero told himself that he worried too much about the future, and as he climbed the ladder and dropped into the hatch, he steeled himself for the present.

"I've been waiting for you." Clairvoyant thoughts echoed in his mind with the clarity of a pin drop.

"Waiting for me?" Zero replied coldly. "I've been trying to find you for weeks." But he smiled. There was at least the certainty that within that cold, metal sphere awaited someone familiar. It would have been a cruel joke if the Emperor had known what he was doing and replaced C.C.'s capsule with real toxic gas.

It made sense, though, that if something had happened on the Sword of Akasha that sent Zero into the past, then Suzaku and the Emperor would have suffered the same fate. That the Emperor hadn't intervened on this occasion could mean that Lelouch was wrong in that respect or that the man was biding his time for a greater trap.

He longed dearly to be able to talk to C.C. about this matter. Zero had never encountered anything about time travel, but surely C.C. with her centuries of experience would tell him something. No, scratch that. If he asked her, she would probably look wistfully at the sky and change the subject.

Lelouch examined the capsule, trying to find a way to open it. He tried to remember how it had happened last time. Luck. The truck had crashed, opened up, and somehow the capsule burst open. Luck had always been fickle with him, and he tried to depend on chance as little as possible. Not once but twice he had managed to steal defeat from the jaws of victory.

The first time, the Black Knights were on the verge of retaking Japan when his sister, Nunnally, was kidnapped. The characteristically honorable Suzaku had succumbed to his thirst for vengence, and for the first and only time, Kallen's faith in him faltered. The second time they were again on the verge of retaking Japan, when Suzaku managed to pull a nuclear weapon out of nowhere, and then right afterwards the Black Knights betrayed him.

In short, luck was not his friend.

Unable to read the instructions of the capsule in the darkness, Lelouch looked around for something he could use for a flashlight.

"Hey, driver!" he called. "Is there some way you can turn the lights on back here?"

The driver shrieked in surprise. "What the—who are—AAAHHH!"

The entire vehicle jolted suddenly, throwing Zero into the air and off his feet, and—wham—what had—screeching, the sound of scraping metal on concrete, throbbing, numbing aches, and—we're stopping. Dizzy, Lelouch stood on unsteady legs and stepped out of the truck. It had fallen on its side during the…did it crash?

Lelouch didn't know. He was still underground and could barely see, but he—why hadn't he remembered sooner?—had his cell phone. He activated the flash light function to try to see which wheel to turn to get C.C. out.

Suddenly he heard a noise behind him, and a dazzling kick knocked him to the ground. Zero looked up and saw a single Britannian soldier.

"Stop this!" the soldier ordered. "Give yourself up. I don't want any unnecessary deaths."

Zero looked at the capsule and the soldier who stood between him and his Geass. "Unnecessary deaths?" he repeated incredulously. "You, who serve in Britannia's military talk to me of unnecessary deaths? Your precious empire is built off of unnecessary deaths, and until Britannia is reduced to dust and ash, there will be no end to these unnecessary deaths!"

The soldier frowned and took off his helmet. "Lelouch? Is that you? Why have you become a terrorist?"

Suzaku! "You! Suzaku, do you remember the Sword of Akasha? The Ragnarok Connection? The Freya bombing? Tell me!"

Confusion spread over Suzaku's face. Pure, honest confusion, but only for a moment.

"Get down!" he shouted, tackling Lelouch and covering his face with his own gas mask as C.C.'s capsule burst open. Suzaku let the bright, white light spill over him for a few, long seconds before he realized…that he was just fine. Whatever was in that container, it wasn't deadly.

In fact, he thought as the inside of the capsule shown with bright, cold light, it looked human.

A thin girl bound in black straps all over her clothes fell out of the container. Suzaku and Lelouch got up to untie her. "So, what exactly are you doing here?" Suzaku asked. "I mean, I know how you feel about the empire, but…"

"Don't be ridiculous," Lelouch snapped. "Britannia still needs to be destroyed, but if I wanted to accomplish something, becoming a terrorist would be the last thing I'd do. I just managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." Or maybe just the opposite.

"Then how exactly did you wind up down here?"

"I heard about the terrorists on the news, and my friend and I thought we could avoid it by cutting through the subway system," he lied. "Then we got separated and I ran into that truck, and I thought I'd try to help." That could actually work. He made a mental note to tell Rivalz to believe that next time they met.

"I understand," Suzaku said with relief. As part of the Britannian military, he would have no choice but to act against an enemy, but if that enemy were an old friend, well…

"You imbecile!" roared a familiar, unpleasant voice. "A Britannian isn't allowed to touch that thing, and certainly not an Eleven!"

Bright lights blinded him for a moment before he could make out the forms of his unit leader and fellow soldiers. "But I was told it was poison gas!" he explained hurriedly.

"You have no right to question me!" his officer growled, despite the obvious fact that the girl inside the container was neither poisonous nor a gas. Apparently, in the army the sky was whatever color one's superiors wanted it to be, and the subjective reality of military life was something Suzaku still hadn't gotten used to.

"But despite your appalling lack of sense," his leader continued, "you've got guts, so I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself." He handed Suzaku a pistol. "Kururugi, eliminate the terrorist."

"What? But, he's no terrorist," Suzaku explained. "He's just a civilian and wound up here by accident."

"What? How dare you!" There were many words that could describe his commanding officer, but "understanding" wasn't one of them. "Have you or have you not sworn allegiance to Britannia? This is an order!"

Orders are orders, but I've already made my decision. "I have sworn allegiance to Britannia, and would gladly give my life for the empire. But I can't give you his life. He's a civilian and an innocent man, and I cannot—I will not—kill him." He turned and smiled at his friend, his voice devoid of fear or passion.

"Then so be it," replied his officer coldly.

Lelouch knew what was happening before it happened, but he still flinched as the gun went off, leaving a bullet in his friend's back. The unit leader looked menacingly at him as Lelouch tried desperately to communicate with C.C., but it wasn't working. He knew she had some telepathic abilities, and she transmitted her powers through touch, so he held her hand tightly, thinking, Wake up, C.C.! The Geass, give it to me! I'll promise you anything you want, just give me your power!

Nothing. She gave him a sleepy look, but gave no sign that she heard his thoughts.

"Sorry kid," the officer said with a chuckle. "You look like a Britannian student, so Kururugi was probably right about you, but it looks like you just have really, and I mean really, bad luck."

"I can't die now," he whispered. "My life can't end in this pathetic, helpless state. Do something, you witch! I need you!"

"Are you talking to it?" the soldier asked, pointing a gun at him. "If you knew what that creature was, you'd understand why I have to kill you right now."

Lelouch flinched when he heard the deafening crack of gunfire, and felt hot blood splash against his face. Just as Suzaku had taken a bullet for him, C.C. had too. Zero still gripped her fingers, hoping that whatever it was that was preventing her from making a contract with him would dissipate.

"Pity," said the officer. "I wanted to take her alive, but the terrorists managed to kill the hostage before we could retrieve her." He glanced at a fellow soldier.

"Understood," said his underling. "I will inform our superiors immediately."

"You don't want to kill me," Lelouch said suddenly. Even without his Geass, he still had an ace up his sleeve, one that, if nothing else, he could use to stall. "I'm a personal friend of Prince Clovis."

The soldiers burst out laughing. "Ha! If I had a dollar for every time I heard that from a man about to die, I'd be richer than a duke!"

"It's true," he replied with a calm smile, although he still gripped C.C.'s fingers tightly just in case she felt like doing something. "We used to play chess together, years ago. Go ahead and call him and he could verify it for me." Crap, they aren't buying this. "My name is Lelouch vi Britannia, and I—"

FLASH!

"Is your life precious to you?" Her words rung with clarity and peace, as only one who has no fear of death could manage. "Are you so desperate to live? Yes, I perceive you are. So a gift I give to you, my black king, a gift of great power, and of unfathomable loneliness. The power of kings will give you a new life, a different life, and in return, you will grant me my desire. This is our contract. If you accept…"

"I command you to die!"

Zero's vision cleared as power—blessed, familiar power—burst out of his left eye, and each one of those butchers in front of him, with the same mad giggle and grin, leveled their weapons to their heads and—"Yes, your Highness!"—blew their brains out.

C.C. lay in a pool of her own blood, and anyone else would have assumed her dead, surrounded by the dead, and she would be safe here for the time being. The only living problem that remained was Suzaku.

Lelouch picked up a gun and pointed it at the unconscious figure of his old friend. You've sought death for a long time, haven't you? he thought. The guilt of killing your father has tormented you to this day.

Zero cocked the gun and tried to keep his hand steady. I could save a lot of trouble in the future by killing you right now. He tried to think of all the times Suzaku had gotten in his way, of all the times he had stood against him, hunted him, sold him out, betrayed him, leaving everything he cared about in ruins…but he couldn't.

All Lelouch could think about was how his old friend had risked death to save his life twice in the past five minutes.

"WHY CAN'T I KILL YOU?" he shouted, throwing away the gun. "We've always been enemies before, haven't we?"

But no, they haven't. Since he became Zero, yes, they were enemies. But that hadn't happened yet. This was before the Black Rebellion, before the Massacre Princess, before the Black Knights…Heroes of justice. That's what Zero had called them. Heroes of justice, against all who oppress the weak and powerless.

Right now, Lelouch's first and oldest friend lay fairly weak and powerless before him. Lelouch sighed, picked up a transmitter, and called for help.

WWW

Villeta blasted down a feeble wall with her Sutherland and fired into a crowd of screaming Elevens. When she had joined the elite pilot knightmare corps, she thought her days of cleaning up trash were over. She hoped for a chance to prove her courage and her strength, but so far, the greatest threat was that the Elevens might bleed on her Sutherland enough to make it rust.

"Emergency! Can you hear me, this is an emergency!" her transmitter crackled through the static.

"This is K-7," she answered. "What's the situation?"

"We met some resistance in the old subway system," the voice explained. She heard gunfire. "We have them pinned down, but we won't hold out much longer! We request immediate assistance."

A few men with guns weren't really much of a challenge, not for someone with a knightmare frame, but it was better than wading through filth up here. "I'm on my way."

WWW

Zero waited until a suitable knightmare frame showed up. It was a large, violet weapon.

"What the—what happened here?" the pilot demanded.

Feigning injury in a soldier's uniform he had donned, he clutched his side as though concealing a wound and replied, "The enemy got away through a side tunnel. I can take you there, but we've obtained an enemy information disk that I'd like you to hold so it doesn't get damaged."

Villeta got out of her knightmare in the trusting, gullible way that Zero thought shouldn't be allowed in the military. He laughed, took off his helmet, and activated his Geass.

"Behind me is a girl with long green hair. Hide her somewhere where she won't be found," he ordered. "Also, there is a young man here who was injured, but he's still alive. Tend to his wounds until medical help arrives. And, as you won't be needing it, I would very much like your Sutherland."

She handed him her key, observing his demands with the exact obedience that only the Geass can compel. Zero laughed as he climbed into her knightmare, but when he looked at the outdated, archaic controls, he stopped.

"What kind of joke is this? This piece of junk can't even fly!"

WWW

Kallen shot her Slash Harkens at an enemy copter, knocking it to the ground. The Britannians were massacring her people, and out of everyone in Shinjuku, she was the only one with the weaponry capable of providing any resistance. Against even an outdated knightmare, Britannian helicopters and tanks wouldn't stand a chance. Against other knightmares, however…

Two enemy Sutherlands appeared behind her. "Hey, it's that Glasgow!" one said. "We've been looking for you."

Crap! Her Glasgow already lost an arm, and those two Sutherlands were in mint condition. If she had the same model at them, it would be different, but as it was…

She ran. Maybe she could lose them if—"Go west."

"Huh? Who is this?" The voice was using her resistance unit's frequency, but he didn't sound like anyone in her unit that she knew.

"Who I am doesn't matter," he replied. "If you want to win, then trust me."

His voice seemed so calm and clear in her world of smoke and fire. She didn't think that anyone could pull a win out of a hopeless situation like this. An escape, maybe, but a win? Impossible. It was so absurd it was actually tempting.

This stranger wanted her to trust him? Well, she couldn't. But she was desperate, and that was close enough.

WWW

Q-1 made her way to the western exit. She always showed the greatest loyalty of the Black Knights, and she was the greatest pilot he knew. From where he stood, Zero could see her old Glasgow approaching a freight shipment of Sutherlands.

"When you reach the train, jump on top of it," he ordered. She followed through with unquestioning obedience. Whatever caused her to be so trusting, he never really understood. He shrugged. Maybe she was just too naïve to think that he would sacrifice her for his own ambitions.

The train slowed down the pursuing Sutherlands enough for Zero to get a decent hit. He fired his Slash Harkens at the first before they even knew what hit them, and when the other Sutherland found himself outnumbered, he evacuated.

"Wow, that worked!" Q-1 exclaimed. "But who are you, anyway? And how'd you get a Sutherland?"

"As I told you before, who I am doesn't matter," he replied. "And as for my knightmare, Sutherlands aren't difficult to obtain, if you know where to look. But I must thank you for your trust. As a show of gratitude, tell your friends that they can help themselves to whatever they find in the train. I'll give you further orders in fifteen minutes."

WWW

Zero leaned back as he considered his counter-attack. Even minor Britanian nobles were more arrogant than intelligent, and Prince Clovis wasn't just nobility, he was royalty. He had the strategic capacity of a dead fish, and firmly believed, despite all reason and logic, that he was invincible. That made it—

His cell phone started ringing. Rivalz. Oh yeah.

"Hey, Rivalz," he said. "Are you alright?"

"Alright?!" he shrieked. "You go off and hijack a bunch of terrorists, and you ask me if I'm alright? I was worried sick about you! Have you gone nuts? Have you lost your mind? Did you ever think what it would have been like for me if I had to tell the whole student council how you got yourself killed in a spontaneous burst of idiocy?"

Please stop ranting. I have a victory to plan. "Rivalz…"

"What were you thinking? 'Hey, look! There's some mortal peril over there! Let's get closer!'" he said sarcastically. "You're usually pretty smart, man, but that's just stupid! I mean, you're a chess player, not some secret agent of the empire!" He paused. "Are you?"

"A what? Rivalz, I honestly think that's the most ridiculous thing you've ever said."

"Uh, Lulu, this isn't one of those, 'I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you' things, is it?" he asked suspiciously.

"If I said yes, would you tell the whole school about it by tomorrow?"

"…I might not."

"Rivalz, listen to me," Lelouch said firmly. "You are blowing things way out of proportion. I'm fine. Ask me tomorrow, and I'll be able to explain everything to you, I promise. And I'd appreciate it if you would please not mention this to anyone at school until you know all the details. You know how rumors fly around, and apparently I already have a harem of Eleven girls to run while running the largest trafficking of refrain in the country, and I'm not sure I could handle being an imperial agent as well."

"Alright," Rivalz conceded after a moment's hesitation. "But you had better give me a pretty darn good explanation tomorrow morning."

"I will," Zero said. I'll give you an explanation you won't be able to disbelieve.

After hanging up, he turned to the first predecessors of the Black Knights. The Britanians still had Kallen's Glasgow on radar, but they had no idea the terrorists had obtained Sutherlands. None of his Sutherlands had their transponders online, so unless they moved exactly as ordered, his army would fall to chaos.

"P-1, 4, and 7, are you in position?"

"Yeah, we're here," said the leader of the pawn formation.

"Good. Q-1 should be arriving shortly, followed by two enemy Sutherlands. Eliminate them."

A few seconds later, to blue dots on the radar disappeared. Four more Sutherlands approached from the west. The path they were taking provided fairly good cover, except at one spot.

"N formation, go three hundred meters north, and prepare to fire at ten o' clock." He couldn't see his own pieces move, but he could see the enemy's pieces fall. Prince Clovis continued sending a few knightmares at a time, hoping that his numerical advantage would somehow make up for his unfavorable position and abhorrent lack of skill, until, eventually he panicked, and sent in everything.

"Clovis, my old friend, you never did have a knack for subtlety," he whispered. "If I recall, when we played chess I would start out with a few pieces missing to make it more even, while you were forever tripping over your superior numbers." And apparently, after all these years, his methods haven't improved.

"All units, fall back to the central location and get underground and spread out as planned. Q-1, get underground too, but wait until they're on top of you."

When the enemy Sutherlands arrived, they looked around and saw nothing. Then the ground disappeared beneath them. Zero looked at his radar as every individual Britanian knightmare was systematically eliminated, and he laughed. To anyone else, his laughter would have been called maniacal; to him, it was mostly nostalgic.

"Ah, this brings back memories of my first battle of Shinjuku." Now, how had this event ended? Oh yes. Lancelot.

Zero considered what to do when his least favorite knight in shining armor appeared on the scene. Suzaku would be facing superior numbers, but he was an exceptional pilot, and the Lancelot was superior to any number of Sutherlands. If Kallen had her Guren Mk-II, if the Four Holy Swordsmen were with him, if Zero was supported by a disciplined army instead of a rabble of terrorists, then it would be different. But as it was, it would probably be best to retreat.

Next time I go back in time, he thought, "I'll bring the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. back with me."

"Good work," he said to his units. "Now, I would like to invite all of you to leave."

His order was met by a series of protests, too instantaneous to be understood, forcing him to reluctantly clarify.

"The Britanian military has an experimental knightmare frame, which I expect them to release shortly," he explained. "If you see a white and gold knightmare moving incredibly fast, feel free to engage it, but it won't do you any good." Zero cut off another stream of protests by simply turning off his transmitter.

He wasn't worried about them. Suzaku valued life too much to do anything more than destroy an enemy's knightmare. His red queen was too skilled to be accidently killed by the white knight anyway, and the remainder of the terrorists were already expendable, and besides, the best way Zero could help them was to have a little chat with his dear half-brother.

Lelouch checked his radar. Prince Clovis's command headquarters was directly northwest of him, but that was also probably from where the Lancelot would emerge. So if I circle around and approach from behind…Zero also had the advantage of a knightmare. Last time, he had to eject beforehand and reach Clovis on foot, and that took forever. This time, it would be over that much sooner.

WWW

Kallen stared blankly at her transmitter. "Leave?" she asked incredulously. "We can't leave now! We just took out, like, twenty Sutherlands in one hit!"

No response.

"Uh, hello?" she asked. "Mr. Mysterious Voice Man? Are you still there?"

Nothing.

"He must have turned off his transmitter," said another resistance member. "I guess he decided—AAAHHH!"

"What happened?"

"I-I don't believe it!" said another member. "That guy took out four Sutherlands in one go!"

"He did what? Who?"

"Some white-head knightmare frame. I've never see—AAAHHH!"

White? "Do you think that it's the same one that…"

"Maybe," said another. "The voice said—"

"That voice isn't here anymore!" Kallen snapped. She didn't know who the guy was who was directing the attack earlier, and she certainly didn't know this white knightmare that he refused to even confront, but I know who I am! And I'm not going to run away without a fight!

"No one is invincible!" she proclaimed. "If this guy can be killed, then I'm going to do it, no matter what!"

She turned around her Glasgow and found the Britanian knightmare quickly. It was a model she had never seen, faster and stronger than anything she'd ever faced. With her outdated Glasglow, Sutherlands were pretty tough, and this guy was taking out Sutherlands like butter!

Kallen jumped down and fired her Slash Harkens, but the knightmare just caught it. "Bad move," she grinned, and retracted the cord, pulling him into range for her to…

Miss.

The white knightmare jumped over her, firing his Slash Harkens into another Sutherland and yanked him back, trying to smash the two of them together. Kallen managed to roll into a jump at the last second and fell into the rubble. The knightmare took out his sword to finish her off when…

"All units, pull back immediately!" The voice echoed on every radio frequency in the area. "This is Clovis de Britannia, steward of Area 11. I order all units to withdraw! There is no need for further destruction of this land. Cease fire, and tend to all who are injured, be they Britanians or Elevens. I repeat, this is an order."

The white nightmare looked down at her with what she would have called, if she hadn't known that it was impossible, a confused expression in its eyes before he obediently turned around and left.

WWW

Clovis turned off the loud speaker and leaned back in his throne, rather vexed at having a gun pointed at him. "Well, I did it," he said. "So are you done, or is there something else you wanted me to do? I could sing a song, if you like, or maybe I could interest you in a game of chess."

"Actually, I was under the impression that we just got done playing a game of chess," Lelouch replied, taking off his helmet. "As usual, I started out with a material handicap, but despite your numerical advantage, you left yourself wide open."

Clovis blinked in recognition. "What—but—Lelouch? You're alive! You have no idea how happy I am to see you!" His enthusiasm would have been more convincing if he weren't so frightened. But even in their childhood, Lelouch had been terrifyingly intelligent and ruthless (in chess, at least), and after his mother's death, he had grown bitter, and when he left Britania, well…

It wasn't exactly on the best of terms.

"You're happy to see me?" Lelouch asked. "I doubt that. You're not exactly the kind of person who would be happy to die."

Clovis's face paled. "What? But—please, Lelouch! We grew up together! It doesn't have to end this way! I'm your brother!" he cried desperately. Lelouch's face remained impassive. "Why?"

Zero looked at the first man he had ever killed with his own hands. If Clovis died, he would just be replaced by someone more competent, but if the Emperor was from the future, Zero couldn't risk letting his father know that he was too. Also, if he strayed from his actions in the past, his knowledge of the future would no longer be reliable. In short, Clovis had to die because he had before.

"Sorry, brother," he said before pulling the trigger. "Force of habit."

WWW

a/n You know, the two things I hate most in fanfiction are when they spend half the time going relating the canon verbatim and long, detailed, tedious fight scenes, and then I ended up doing both. Oh well. I didn't see any point for him to drastically change things his first battle because, really, why change perfection? I mean, Zero had zero casualties the first time (no pun intended) until Lancelot showed up. And as I mentioned before, he will know the future until he changes it, so as a weapon, his foreknowledge can only be used dramatically once. Of course, if he doesn't use it at all, it serves no purpose. But anyway, I just want to thank everyone for their support and encouragement—reviews are awesome. To be honest, I'm kind of surprised that you people seemed to like this as much as you did.