Your Past, My Future
Chapter Four
a/n I do not own Code Geass
Every since he joined the military, Suzaku had always followed orders. Britannia had little patience for insubordination, and even less for Numbers. So, when Princess Euphemia had told him to go back to school, he had obeyed her without question.
He did have questions, of course, he just didn't voice them. For example, he wanted to know why a princess of the Holy Britannian Empire would care about his education. But, to be honest, he probably would have obeyed her even if she wasn't royalty.
"My name is Kururugi Suzaku," he said, introducing himself in front of his class. "I'm an honorary Britannian, and I'm going to be going to school here."
He looked at his classmates. Their faces looked back at him with expressions mixed with fear, shock, and disgust. No surprises here. But then he saw a face that did surprise him. A very familiar one.
Lelouch.
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Lelouch looked at Suzaku as he introduced himself. This was, for Zero, the third time his friend had transferred to Ashford Academy. Last time, the second time, Suzaku came to spy on him, to see if Lelouch really was Zero. Both of them pretended to be friends, both of them tried to destroy the other. Needless to say, their friendship had been stretched.
However, the third time, would be much like the first time Suzaku started school here. In Suzaku's mind, he and Lelouch were still friends. And so Zero would have to play along.
After class, Lelouch tugged on his collar before going on the roof. Before the war, they had invented a code of body language just for fun. Well, Lelouch invented it. Suzaku mostly memorized.
Suzaku followed him up a few seconds later. "Hey, Lelouch," he said. "I can't remember the last time I used that code. Why did we spend so much time working on it when we were younger anyway?"
"It was a game and we were ten," Lelouch replied. "Practicality was the exact opposite of our objective."
Suzaku laughed easily. "By the way, after the war I found a record saying that Lelouch vi Britannia and his sister had died. Who are you now?"
"I changed my last name to Lamperouge, but I kept the name my mother gave me."
"Lelouch Lamperouge," Suzaku said. "I like the alliteration. It's catchy."
"Thank you."
"I was pretty worried about you after the Shinjuku incident. What happened to you?"
"That's rich," Lelouch said with a laugh. "You get shot in the back, and you're worried about me. That is so like you. What happened was that the soldiers ran into some terrorists, and in the commotion I managed to escape."
"And that girl in the capsule?"
"I don't know."
Suzaku looked off into the distance. "We should probably pretend not to know each other at school. People might start asking questions, and it could blow your cover and people might find out you're a prince."
"Do you think that an Eleven can make it through a school full of Britannians on his own?"
"None of these Britannians have guns," he said with a laugh. "I can take care of myself."
"That's ridiculous, Suzaku," Lelouch said. "You were always hopeless on your own. But if you want to be an idiot, well, that's your decision, not mine." Lelouch turned to leave, then stopped. "Have dinner with Nunnally and me tonight. When you were about to be executed, I promised her that you'd see her again."
"Of course," Suzaku said. "I'll be there."
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"They say he's the one who murdered Prince Clovis," said a student.
"But I thought Zero did that," said another.
"Well he must have done something," the first replied. "Why do you think they arrested him in the first place?"
"Do you think he's a terrorist?"
"Definitely. Just look at him! That is, without a doubt, the face of a killer."
Kallen looked at the face in question. If anything, Suzaku's face looked lonely and a little sad. What made people say that he looked like a killer, Kallen couldn't begin to understand.
Britannians are all idiots, she decided.
If Kallen could have one wish, it would have been to be able to say that out loud. But she couldn't. It might be suspicious, and besides, she was a sick, frail, little girl. If she did anything too aggressive, people might figure out that she wasn't.
Instead, she left the room and called Ohgi.
"Hey, Kallen," he said. "How's it going for you?"
"It sucks," she replied. "If I go much longer pretending to be as weak as a kitten, I think I'm going to throw up."
"Try it," Ohgi suggested. "It will make your sick act more convincing."
"Ha, ha. Any news from Zero?"
"No. I was hoping that he would have contacted you. Princess Cornelia arrived, and she's been doing things I would have sworn were impossible."
"Like what?"
"Like make me miss Prince Clovis. I'm starting to wish that Zero hadn't killed him in the first place."
"Yeah, well, maybe Zero will kill the rest of the family, too," Kallen said with a laugh.
"We can only hope," Ohgi replied. "How's school going for you?"
"I've had perfect attendance for the past week," she said with disgust. "Do you remember the last time that has happened to me? I mean, Zero has done some pretty amazing stuff, but it seems he won't do it if it's not grandiose enough for him."
"Rescuing accused murders doesn't seem very grandiose to me," Ohgi said. "But the publicity he got out of the Suzaku event was incredible."
"Oh, about the Suzaku event, well, he's here."
"He's here?"
"Yes. Kururugi Suzaku, son of the late Japanese prime minister, accused murderer of Prince Clovis, and now Ashford Academy's first Honorary Britannian student."
"No way," Ohgi whispered.
"Yes way."
"Do you think that…"
"Maybe. They went off together, but he never tells us anything."
"I wonder what Zero said to him back there," Ohgi said.
"Do you want me to ask him for you?"
"Who? Suzaku or Zero?"
"Either," Kallen said.
"No," Ohgi replied. "Zero won't answer anyway, and we don't know whose side Suzaku's on."
"Do you want me to do anything?"
"Not really."
"Fine, fine," Kallen said. "Although it is odd. Ashford's one of the best schools in the country. There's no way someone like Suzaku could have afforded this place alone."
"Don't ask him about that either."
"Do you want me to talk to him at all?"
"You probably shouldn't," Ohgi replied. "Don't forget, you're pretending to be Britannian. If you talk to him, it might arouse suspicion."
"You're always like that," Kallen complained. "You're always telling me to be careful."
"I'll stop telling you to be careful when you finally are."
"I'm always careful!"
"Sure you are."
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That night, Lelouch greeted his sister when she arrived. "Welcome home, Nunnally."
"Good evening, Onii-sama."
"I have a present for you," Lelouch said, just as he had said the first time. But he wasn't doing it out of habit, or nostalgia. He was doing it for his sister.
Suzaku gave Nunnally his hand, and she recognized it immediately. "This hand…" She took it, felt it, and her tears flowed over it. "This hand…"
"Hello, Nunnally," Suzaku said. "It's good to see you again."
"You…you're back. I thought you'd be gone forever, but you're back," Nunnally sobbed. "Just like Lelouch promised."
They ate dinner together, just like they did years ago, just like they did when they were still friends, and hadn't been on opposite sides in this unending war.
Afterwards, Suzaku left to go home, but then he stopped and turned around.
"Nunnally said that when I was accused of murder, you promised that I'd be back. How did you know that they'd drop the charges?"
"Call it a gamble," Lelouch replied. "You don't strike me as the kind of person who would let himself be killed so easily. You have too many people counting on you."
"And if I was executed?" Suzaku asked. "What would you have told her then?"
"I would have figured something out," Lelouch said indifferently.
Suzaku thought about that and laughed. "You haven't changed a bit. After all these years, you're still the same Lelouch."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you remember the first time we met, when you first came here?" he asked. "My father put you up in my old clubhouse, and you started describing to Nunnally what a beautiful mansion it was, and then I saw you and was like, 'What are you talking about? That's not a mansion, it's just a dinky little shed."
"And then I tried to hit you," Lelouch supplied.
"You hit like a girl back then," Suzaku laughed. "And then Nunnally asked what was going on, and I realized that she was blind, and you were just lying to create a pleasant world for your little sister." Suzaku looked him straight in the eye. "I guess, after all this time, you're trying to do the same thing."
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"That man," C.C. said in Lelouch's bedroom afterwards. "He's that soldier from before."
"Yes," Zero replied. "In my other future, he became a Knight of the Rounds. He has caused me no end of trouble. Suzaku has always fought against me, hunted me, and in my most desperate hour, I decided to trust in him as a friend. I bowed before him, as I have done before no man in my life, and begged him for his help, and he stomped my face into the dirt and betrayed me."
"Then tell him to die," C.C. suggested. "That would be the easiest solution."
"It would be," Lelouch admitted. "But in the beginning, I had countless opportunities to kill him, but I always sparred him, hoping that he would later join me, or that I could just go around him. But right now, I could command him to die, or deliver his Lancelot and die, or join the Black Knights, or countless other things."
"Then why don't you?"
Lelouch hesitated. "Because I don't need to. He's too predictable to be that great of a threat, and this time, I won't waste my Geass on him to save his life. And if he gets in my way again, I can always kill him. And there's nothing he'll be able to do to stop me."
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Never in his life had Suzaku commanded such respect among his peers. His classmates immediately went silent in his presence, and they always gave him a wide berth when they saw him coming down the hallway. Of course, that was probably due to more a fear of contamination than anything else.
"I can't believe they let an Eleven in here," a girl whispered.
"Oh, I'm sure he's not so bad once you get to know him," suggested a girl with orange hair optimistically.
"That's, uh, not really a good idea," said another.
It wasn't really surprising. This was just something that he would have to change. Changing things was, after all, the reason why he joined the Britannian army in the first place. Eventually, they would come to terms with the fact that he was a human being just like them. Until then, he would deal with anything they gave him, because he could take it.
So far, all that meant was evil eyes, cold shoulders, and—as he opened his locker—extra laundry. Suzaku looked at his gym shirt and found graffiti all over it. Well, that's a waste of time, he thought. It would have been a lot more trouble if they just hid it somewhere.
Suzaku took it to a sink to try to wash the paint off. His shirt was covered with racial slurs, telling him to go back to the ghetto because this school was too good for the likes of him. Well, apparently not, because that is not how you spell ghetto.
"I'll never understand how you do it."
Suzaku looked up and saw Lelouch behind him. "Well, it has a lot to do with the right kind of soap."
"No, not your shirt, you!" he retorted. "I could never bow down to my enemies like you do. You could throw every student in this school out a window if you wanted to, but instead you just take it, like you're laughing at a bad joke that isn't funny just because you know you're expected to."
"I can't imagine you bowing to anyone," Suzaku replied. "But it's not as bad as you think. After you get though all the discrimination, they're not bad people. There's a lot to admire about them, and some of them actually have respectable ideals."
"Ideals? Their only ideals are that people like you aren't worth crap! They make gold out of your blood, Suzaku, and build their mansions on the graves of your ancestors. Don't talk to me about their ideals, because there's not a Britannian out there who wouldn't sell out their best friend for a decent promotion, and if you keep on following them, you'll end up just like them!"
Suzaku stepped back in surprise and blinked slowly. "What happened to you?" he whispered. "When did you become so…jaded?"
"Gee, I don't know," Lelouch sneered sarcastically. "Maybe I'm still just a little bitter about how they came over to this country eight years ago."
"Seven years ago," he corrected.
"Time is relative. And where, where, where did that cat come from?" Lelouch pointed at Arthur, a stray cat that Suzaku had found two days before.
"What, you don't like cats?" Suzaku asked, unsure about this change in conversation.
"I like cats," he said. "I just don't like that one." That stupid cat stole my mask once and nearly blew my cover!
"Well, I sort of found him," Suzaku replied vaguely.
"And you took him home with you?"
Suzaku nodded.
"Suzaku, cats don't like you. Cat's hate you. I have never met a single housecat that didn't try to scratch, bite, or claw at you every chance it got."
"Well, it's sort of a long story," he said with an embarrassed smile on his face.
"What happened?"
"Well, I was minding my own business the other day, when out of nowhere, a girl fell right into my arms. I mean it. She just fell out of the sky. She said that some bad men were chasing her and she wanted my help. Why are you laughing at me?"
"Nothing," Lelouch said. "It's just that you're the only person in the entire world who could pull something like that off."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing. Carry on."
"Right," Suzaku said. "So, I knew it was a lie from the start, but I decided to just play along. But every time I tried to ask her who she was, she changed the subject. Once, I asked her a question, and I found her talking to a lame cat. We bandaged the cat's leg, and when she finally left, I sort of ended up with, well, Arthur."
"So you went on a date with a mystery girl, and kept a scruffy animal to remember her by," Lelouch summarized.
"Pretty much."
"Does the phrase hopeless romantic mean anything to you?"
Suzaku laughed. "Yeah, well you didn't see her."
"I suppose I would have had to. Did you even get her name after all that?"
"Sure," Suzaku said. "Her name was, um, Euphie."
Lelouch stopped suddenly. "Euphie?" he repeated.
"Why? Do you…"
"No," he said quickly. "I just…" He swallowed. "I need to go."
Lelouch left quickly, just to get away. He realized suddenly that it was with Euphemia's death that it had all gone wrong. If Suzaku took the cat to remember her, well, he kept that cat with him for more than a year after she died, and when they met for the last time before battle at Tokyo, Suzaku had brought up her death.
He had always hated Suzaku for selling him to the Emperor, for betraying him, but if Suzaku had killed Nunnally, well, Lelouch wouldn't just stop at killing him.
And Princess Euphemia…she shouldn't have died like she did. She shouldn't have died at all. She wanted nothing more than to bring peace to the world. She forgave Lelouch for killing Clovis without a second thought, and asked Zero for his help with the Special Administration Zone, and he promised her that he would help. Lelouch had been lying for most of his life, but he kept his promises, and he promised Euphie that he would help her.
And then he killed her.
And that's when it all went wrong.
So many times, he told himself that if he had the chance, he would do it all over again. But now that he actually had that chance…
"So. How long have you been so vehemently anti-Britannian?"
Lelouch turned around, and saw Kallen looking back at him. But it wasn't Kallen Stadfield's eyes staring at him. Her expression was that of Kallen Kouzuki.
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The first time Lelouch played this game, he had done everything possible to keep anyone from suspecting that he was Zero. But that was, in retrospect, a waste of time. The second time Suzaku was transferred to Ashford, it was with the full purpose of spying on him. He had every reason to suspect, but Suzaku hadn't done anything until Lelouch had told him as bluntly as possible who he was. It wasn't that Suzaku hadn't caught on, he just didn't want to believe.
And Kallen… If she had more reason to suspect him to be Zero, then maybe it wouldn't have been such a shock to her when she found out, and maybe she wouldn't have questioned him at gunpoint afterwards.
"Just how much of that conversation did you overhear?"
"I overheard something about Britannian ideals," Kallen said.
"I suppose this should be a fairly embarrassing situation for me, but then again, if you didn't agree with me, you would have confronted me right now."
"You seem pretty sure of yourself."
"I took a psychology class last year." It was next year, technically, but Lelouch doubted that Kallen would check.
"Let's just say I'm curious."
Lelouch thought for a moment. He had no reason to tell her everything, but did he have any reason to lie? And if he didn't tell her something, she might start asking questions.
"Did I ever tell you what happened to my sister?"
Kallen thought of that sweet faced, gentle blind girl in a wheelchair. She shook her head.
"Long ago, when I lived in Britannia, my mother was gunned down as a victim of political intrigue. A high ranking Britannian official didn't wish to punish the perpetrator, so he reenacted it, but the second time she was killed by terrorists, and the second time, my sister was there to watch. Her legs never healed from the bullet wounds, and the psychological trauma prevents her from opening her eyes to this day."
Kallen's eyes widened as she stepped back. "That's…that's…I'm so sorry."
"For what? For bringing it up?" He laughed mirthlessly. "I have my sister's wheelchair to do that for me on a daily basis."
"I can't believe…that's horrible," she whispered. "But, what did your father do when he found out?"
"You're asking a lot of questions," Lelouch noted. "And you don't seem half as sick as you were twenty minutes ago."
Kallen's expression grew more cautious, but she didn't back down. Q-1 seldom did.
"But it's like I told you," Lelouch said before leaving. "My father didn't wish to punish the perpetrator."
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Cornelia was not a princess to be taken lightly. She was no pampered flower, no spoiled fool. That was her brother, Prince Clovis, and it was his blood that she would avenge.
Zero.
The audacity of such a man was astounding. To waltz past layers of security, shoot a son of the Emperor, and just walk away without a trace was an insult. And then to publically announce it in front of a number of knightmares and leave unharmed with a prisoner, well, that was not a slight that Cornelia would allow to pass unpunished.
"He didn't show," she stated.
"No," Darlton said.
"One of the largest fronts in the resistance falls, and Zero is nowhere to be found. What will it take to find this man? An invitation? 'Zero, you are cordially invited to face judgment for murder and sedition.'"
"He does seem rather…egoistical," Dalton suggested.
"True," Cornelia admitted. Zero proved that in his public confession. "Very well, if fighting Elevens with guns won't summon him, perhaps killing Elevens without them will. Dalton, have the men surround the Saitama ghetto. If we have to eliminate every Eleven in that squalor for Zero to surface, then so be it."
And if it didn't work, she wasn't losing anything important.
If Princess Cornelia had to burn the entire ghetto to the ground to find the man who killed her brother, she would.
If she had to burn the entire country to find that man, she would.
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"It's a trap," C.C. said. "You know it is."
"It's an invitation," Lelouch corrected. "It would be rude of me to turn it down."
"You're rather reckless, aren't you?"
"Not at all," he replied, packing his Zero costume. "Cornelia's making the same mistake I did the first time she tried this. I played against her using the same tactics I used against Clovis, even though she knew what I did then and was expecting it. This time, she's going to use the same tactics she used against me the first time, and I know exactly what to expect."
"So if you know what she intends to do, what are you going to do?"
Zero closed his suitcase and started for the door. "I'm going to win."
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Zero waited in Saitama in a soldier's uniform for a knightmare to find him. Any knightmare would do. He had stopped using this trick after the Black Knights had enough funds to obtain their own frames, but there was something delightfully effective about using the enemy's weapons against them.
He wasn't going to make the same mistake he made the first time. Zero underestimated Cornelia the first time, but she was more than twice the strategist Clovis was, and twice the pilot Zero was. But she suffered from the same arrogance, the same illogical sense of invulnerability that plagued the royal family.
Then, finally, a Sutherland's pilot took the bait.
"What unit are you apart of?" the pilot asked. "Give me your name and ID number."
"My name is Arthur Doyle, of the third reconnaissance company," he responded dutifully. "I managed to capture this disc from a terrorist. I'd like you to escort me to the headquarters."
"A disk?" The pilot opened the hatch of his knightmare and got out. "In that case, I'll have to confirm your ID."
"You could try," Zero replied, pulling out his suitcase. "But instead, you are going to put on this costume."
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Princess Cornelia watched the radar for some sign of resistance. All of the leaders were killed early on, and so far the only thing that was happening was slaughter. Then it happened.
Five separate squads of Sutherlands were destroyed in distinct locations simultaneously without warning. Before she could devise a counter attack, two more squads were taken out as well as the bridge. Cornelia took a moment to admire the strategic brilliance of the attack before giving her orders.
"Have all units withdraw."
"But your Highness," an officer protested. "We still have a major advantage."
"No, if we remain, we'll only waste resources. This is exactly what happened in Shinjuku, it's Zero's signature. Now that we know he's there, it's time we leave."
She watched her units withdraw. Zero was ambitious, and would try to assassinate her if he had the chance, and to do that, he would have to be…
"I'll when this one." she promised.
She watched as her knightmares retreated. Zero was, in all likelihood, piloting one. A Sutherland activated its transponder and a distress signal.
Predictable. "Eliminate it," she ordered. A squad of knightmares moved to obey, but all of them were intercepted in transit.
"Nice move," she admitted. "Perhaps this is the real Zero after all." She played the game for a few more rounds, and every time the resistance came out ahead, but Cornelia was too smart to let herself blunder too greatly. And finally the withdraw was complete.
"All knightmare pilots," she ordered. "Open your hatches and show your faces!"
One by one, the Sutherlands opened up and revealed their pilots. If you're here, Zero, then—
A Sutherland opened fire on the others. Before Cornelia could order to have him taken alive, a Gloucester drove its lance into the knightmare frame, destroying it in a burst of fire.
Desperate. "Go through the wreckage," she ordered. "Find out who the pilot was."
A team pealed back the burning steel to uncover the hatch. The charred flesh that used to be the pilot's body was unrecognizable, but the mask stuck to the man's blackened skull wasn't. A soldier removed it and handed the mask to Cornelia.
She the mask of Zero high above her head and proclaimed loudly to her troops, "Zero is dead! Prince Clovis is avenged! All hail Britannia!"
ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!
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ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!
Suzaku watched the announcement with surprise. Zero was a murderer and a terrorist, and he had incited war and rebellion, but that man had saved his life. He had spoken to Suzaku as though he knew that he would do great things.
And now he was dead.
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ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!
Kallen stared at the television screen in shock and fear. This can't be happening. She barely knew the masked man, but he appeared out of nowhere as a godsend in Shinjuku. And when he showed himself to rescue Suzaku, he had walked and spoken so confidently, it was like he thought that he could do anything.
And she had started to believe him.
And now he was gone. Britannia took him, just like Britannia took her brother. That's all they do, Kallen thought bitterly. All they do is take.
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ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!
Lelouch watched as, for the third time in his memory, Zero was pronounced dead. But every time Zero died, he came back, untouched, unvarnished, as if her were a god to bring justice to a corrupt world. Just as his foes rejoiced in his death, they would fear him all the more when the world saw how death fled from him.
ZERO IS DEAD!
Zero threw his head back and laughed.
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a/n And thus we have the fourth chapter. The battle of Saitama was the first time Zero made a strategic mistake, so it's the first time he made a significant change. I like Suzaku's character because I like the idea of best friends being mortal enemies. It worked in X-men, it worked in Unbreakable, and it worked in Code Geass. As always, I appreciate reviews. While I may not admit it, I do take into account the suggestions you give me.