Your Past, My Future
Chapter Seven
a/n I do not own Code Geass.
Lelouch saw his friend walk down the path to his house. "Hey, Suzaku," he called. "You made it."
Suzaku smiled at him. He had an easy smile, one that was neither forced nor one of convenience. Lelouch smiled like that every now and then, but it wasn't frequent. "Of course I made it," he said. "I wouldn't miss it for anything. Hey, Nunnally. It's good to see you."
"Hello, Suzaku," she said with a smile. She had an easy smile too, devoid of malice or guile. Lelouch wondered if he was the only false, treacherous liar among them. Probably, until his best friend snapped and showed his true colors.
He got up to fetch the tea. He was going to lay a trap for Her Royal Ruthlessness later on, and his plans were always formulated perfectly, followed through without a flaw, with one exception only, and that exception now sat making small talk with his little sister.
Lelouch poured three cups of tea, and picked out something special for his old friend. If he used too little, Suzaku would walk away with an upset stomach and shrug it off. If he used too much, Suzaku would keel over dead at Nunnally's feet, and his sister, Lelouch was sure, wouldn't appreciate it.
Lelouch toyed with the idea of using his Geass to make Suzaku betray Cornelia at the right moment, but he decided against it. He saw what happened to Orange, he saw what an unexplainable failure could do to someone, he saw to what depths a man could sink to redeem himself after that sort of thing, and Lelouch would not do that to Suzaku. Yet.
Lelouch returned with the tray of tea and distributed the cups. Suzaku picked up his and was about to take a sip when he stopped. "What's wrong?" Suzaku asked.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You were staring at me just now," Suzaku said.
"I was?" Lelouch asked. "Sorry. I must have zoned out. By the way, how's work treating you?"
"Pretty good," he said, taking a sip. "Right now I'm basically a mechanic working for a mad scientist. It's usually interesting."
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The Japan Liberation Front was a horde of idiots, sloppy, crude, inefficient. The same could not be said of the Black Knights. Their work as Heroes of Justice served to attract public support, but more than that, it was practice. People could say what they liked about the Order, that they were two faced terrorists, or that they were nothing more than an illegitimate police force that couldn't be bribed, but no one could say that they were inefficient.
Zero saw to that.
He led then carefully through the mountain pass, forbidding the use of any communication that could be traced, ensuring—
His cell phone started ringing. "Shirley?" he answered. "What is it?"
"Oh, nothing Lulu," she said. "I just...wanted to see how you were doing." She sounded nervous for some reason.
"I'm fine," he said, a bit faster than he wanted to. "I'm just busy with something right now."
"Something? Or someone?"
"What?"
"Ah, sorry, Lulu, I—I didn't mean to—it's just that—are you avoiding me?"
"Am I…what? That's ridiculous, Shirley. I've just been…really busy recently." That excuse sounded lame, even to him. "But if it really bothers you, then we can get together and do something later—anything. Just...not right now."
"Really?" she asked excitedly. "Well, my dad sent me some tickets for a concert next Saturday, well, I mean…"
"Sure. Right. Whatever. I have to go now. Later." He hung up quickly.
Are you avoiding me?
Yes, he was. Every time he saw his cheerful, loving friend, he remembered her shot, lying on the floor, bleeding out her life and confessing her love for him. And why? What reason had she to love him? It never did her a shred of good. Every now and then, he toyed with the idea of using his Geass to make her fall in love with someone who didn't have plans involving immersing the world in war and carnage, but he never did.
It would have been so much easier if she hated him. Hatred he could handle. Hatred was…familiar. He was practically raised in it. Suzaku hated him after he found out what he did. After the Second Battle of Tokyo, Zero was hated by the Britannian Empire, the Black Knights, and practically the entire world. That was the result, to some degree or another, whenever people found out who he really was.
And yet, Shirley didn't hate him. She loved him. Despite all reason and logic, she loved him, even though she had every reason not to, especially after he killed her—
He dialed quickly his cell phone.
"Lulu? What is it?"
"Shirley! Your father. Does he have a work phone?"
"A…what? Why? Do you need to talk to him?"
"Yes. What's his phone number?"
"Hold on, let me get it. What do you need to talk to him about?"
"It doesn't matter! Just tell me his number, woman!"
"Alright, alright!" She gave him her father's phone number. "But what is this about, anyway?" She was told that men used to ask a father's permission before dating his daughter, back when it was called courting, and Lelouch was admittedly a very classy man, but…
"It's for a—"screw the believable lie—"school project," he said. "But anyway, I have to go now."
Lelouch hung up before she could say anything else and thought about what he could say to her father. He knew that he worked nearby Narita. Originally, he died in a landslide at this battle, but before his funeral, Zero was never really aware that he existed.
"Hello?" he asked, feigning a panicked voice. "Is this the next of kin of Shirley Fenette?"
"Yes," the man said carefully. "I'm her father. Why?"
"Mr. Fenette, I have some bad news. I'm afraid your daughter was hit by a car."
"What?" he shrieked. "But—when? Is she okay?"
"It doesn't look good," Lelouch replied, playing on his paternal fears. "She's in critical condition in the St. Alfred's Hospital. How long will it take you to get here?"
"Well, if I leave work now, I could get there in about an hour."
Lelouch paused as though doubtful. "Do hurry, sir. She won't last much longer."
Hopefully, he would be gone before the battle started. Zero gave the Black Knights the signal to go to the next point, and he started thinking about Shirley. Some people thought of emotional attachments as weakness, but Zero didn't. It was just the opposite; it gave him purpose. Knowledge, power, without purpose, was meaningless, but with every attachment, every purpose he gained a wall of what he could not allow to happen.
Zero's purpose was simple. He had to destroy the Britannian Empire and protect Nunnally. Could he do that? Yes. But could he destroy the Britannian Empire, protect Nunnally, and also protect Shirley, Kallen, C.C., Euphie, Suzaku, Ohgi, Tamaki, and every other hapless fool he cared about? He doubted it. And so he tried to push those around him away, because even he couldn't save everyone, and so he couldn't afford to let anyone close to him.
But that day, when he saw Shirley dying in a pool of her own blood, when Kallen lost to Xinke and was captured by Britannia, when C.C. lost her memories…he did what he could to keep his distance from them, but it didn't work. None of it worked.
He found a small cabin which served as an outpost for sentries of the JLF and went inside. He used his Geass on the guards and sat down and waited until he saw C.C.
"You know," he said. "One of these days, you're going to have to tell me how you travel so easily. You don't own a car or anything, and none of the Black Knights brought you."
"You over think things," she replied. "And you are far too cautious. I don't fear for my own life; I only fear for yours. I don't have your restrictions. Why? Did you want me to stay at home?"
"Actually, I'm glad you came," he confessed. "The first Battle of Narita ended in a stalemate, and if you hadn't shown up, I could have died."
"Do you think that that sort of thing is going to happen again?"
Zero shook his head. "Perhaps. I hope not. I can't expect my opponent to make the same moves because I have not made the same moves. I hoped that I could keep things the same until my decisive victory, but I've already changed too much to rely on my memories. At the hotel, Kallen wasn't even supposed to be there, and she was, and Princess Euphemia was there last time, but she wasn't."
"Is that really that significant?" C.C. asked.
"Possibly. All the hostages were removed safely, but Nina never came in contact with the princess, so she's less likely to go made with vengeance should Euphie die. That should be a good thing, but its implications are too many to calculate. And there's still the matter of whether the Emperor has my same advantage."
"I told you everything I know," C.C. said.
"You told me that the Emperor probably isn't from the future. 'Probably' isn't a very precise term. 'Probably' is even less useful than knowing that he definitely is from the future. I can't plan for a 'probably.'"
"I've spoken with your mother a few times," C.C. replied. "She was on the Sword of Akasha in your timeline, and so was I. I'm not from the future, she's not from the future, and Suzaku's not from the future. By these statistics, your father has a twenty five percent chance of being from the future. Thus, he probably isn't."
"And like I said, witch, that doesn't help."
C.C. sighed and cast her eyes upon the snowy mountains and the clouds. "Do you think your friend Suzaku will be joining us today?"
"I doubt it," Zero replied. "I had him over today for tea and poison, and it should have set in by now. Even if he's too stubborn to go home, he won't be fighting today. Not unless he's a complete idiot with a death wish."
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"Oh, man, I think I'm going to be sick."
Suzaku sat doubled over in pain. Something in his stomach was strongly disagreeing with him. He felt cold, sweaty, and dizzy at the same time.
"You don't look well," Cecile agreed. "Maybe you should take the rest of the day off."
"Not well?" Lloyd laughed. "You look downright horrible!"
Cecile gave Lloyd a withering look, which he completely ignored. "Do you think it was something you ate?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "The only weird thing I ate recently was—" Cecile's jelly, but Suzaku didn't want to say that—"I didn't eat anything weird. But still, a lot of kids at school don't like me because I'm an Eleven, so this could be just a bad joke."
"Well, if it's a joke, I'm certainly not laughing," Cecile replied. "I think I have something for upset stomachs. Do you want me to get it for you?"
"No, I'm fine," Suzaku protested. "I'll just—" throw up—"walk it off."
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When they reached the final point of their journey, the Black Knights started laying out excavators. "So what's all this digging about, anyway?" asked Tamaki. "Are we making a hot spring or something?"
"No," said Zero. "We are…modifying the environment for battle."
"Figures," Inoue muttered. "So who are we fighting today?"
"Britannia," he said simply. "By the end of today, Princess Cornelia will be in our custody."
Kallen's head jolted forward. She knew that Zero was ambitious, but Cornelia wasn't chicken feed. She was ruthless, intelligent, and one of the better pilots in Britannia. And if she was backed by an entire army, capturing her would be impossible…so if anyone could do it, it would be Zero.
"We're going to do what?" Tamaki asked. "I don't suppose you could have mentioned that beforehand."
If he had would anyone have come? Kallen thought dryly. This sort of thing would be even more dangerous than when they rescued Suzaku. That time, Zero had told them before what they were going to do, and with the exception of her and Ohgi, no one had shown up.
"But the Japan Liberation Front is right here," Ohgi said. "We're just going to back them up." He glanced at Zero hopefully. "Right?"
"Ohgi, do you not trust me?" Zero asked.
"What? Of course I do!" Ohgi exclaimed. "I'm the one who asked you to be our leader in the first place."
"If you want me to lead you, then I want you to trust me."
"Well, yeah, but—"
"What the heck is that!" Tamaki yelled.
Zero glanced at the aircraft dropping knightmare frames all around them. "That," he said, "is the begging of the end."
"You can say that again," Tamaki screamed. "Our end. Are you trying to get us killed, or are you just crazy?"
"Hold on," Kallen interrupted. "Zero wouldn't lead us here if he didn't have a plan."
"That's what he always says!" Tamaki protested. "But look around you! We're completely surrounded! Does it even matter to you that we're all going to die, or are we just pawns in your game?"
"Of course you are just pawns in my game."
"What?"
"Just like I am a pawn in yours," Zero continued. "You follow me because you need my help to win your game, and I lead you because with your help, we can overcome our foe. It will take a miracle to escape from here alive, and a greater one to escape with the captive princess in tow, but every savior requires a miracle to prove himself."
"Follow me today, and I will give you that miracle of salvation. Follow me tomorrow, and we will give that miracle to the world. But if you doubt me, if you think that you can survive without my help, then someone, please, shoot me now, because if I do not have your absolute trust, then I cannot lead you. If you do not believe in me, I cannot save you."
The Black Knights hesitated, looked to the approaching Britannian forces, backed down, and ultimately submitted. Zero asked for trust, but Kallen recognized that what the Black Knights gave him wasn't trust. The Black Knights were desperate, and they would hate him for it, but they would follow him in desperation.
"Good," Zero said. "Thank you. Q-1? Do it now!"
Kallen grabbed an excavator with her Guren's silver claw and channeled energy through it. Moments later, the earth itself shook with her fury and crumbled, falling into a rock slide into the Britannian military.
The battle between Britannia and the JLF had already started, but the Black Knights' role in the fight was just beginning.
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The earth shook beneath her. Cornelia wasn't caught in the landslide, but she still felt the ground tremble.
"What the—what just happened?" she demanded.
"Your Highness! We've lost both Alex's and Darlton's battalions!" Guilford replied.
For a rockslide to happen right here, right now, it couldn't be a coincidence. "Find Alex and Darlton. I want to know exactly what we have left and what we have to work with."
"Yes, your Highness, but we've lost the entire eastern flank. I think it would be wise for you to withdraw."
"If I'm too scared to risk my life in this fight, I have no business winning," she snapped. "Even with this landslide, we have the JLF cornered. If we win here, then the only enemy left in the country is the Black Knights."
"Yes, your Highness," Guilford replied dutifully. A pause. "From Alex's and Darlton's battalions, we've suffering an eighty percent casualty rating."
"What?" So few…the line of command would be completely obliterated, the enemy could break through!
"And there's more," Guilford continued. "Karius's unit saw an enemy unit of Burai approaching, but they're not JLF. He believes them to be the Black Knights.
Zero! Yes, the landslide had Zero's name all over it. And yet…from what she knew of the Black Knights, they were well organized, yes, but not well funded. They never had more than machine guns and an old Glasgow before. They apparently got a decent sponsor, and Zero wasn't a fool to be trifled with…but to have all my enemies right here…
It was too good a chance to pass up. Cornelia still hadn't forgiven Zero for the way he humiliated her in Saitama and Kawaguchi, and she would have her revenge. There were rumors that she had sworn to drink Zero's blood. That was utterly ridiculous and rather disgusting. Some people whispered that she intended to leave bits of Zero in every settlement in Area Eleven. That wasn't true either, but the idea had some merit.
"Right," she decided. "Have our men regroup. We'll face Zero's little pets head on."
If nothing else, Zero, I will kill you this day. And this time, I'll make sure it sticks.
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Zero led the Black Knights down the mountain. "Remember," he told them, "our objective is to find and capture Princess Cornelia."
The Burai cut through the confused, scattered Britannian forces they found with ease until they ran into the Purist unit.
"ZERO!" Jeremiah roared. "Is that you? I, Lord Jeremiah Gottwald, challenge you to fight me, right now!"
One day, when he knew who Zero was and what he fought for, Jeremiah would become one of his most ardent supporters. But right now, he was just in the way. "So," Zero replied patronizingly. "You're still here. Sorry, but I have an engagement with her Imperial Majesty, and I don't have time for your nonsense, Orange."
C.C. shifted uncomfortably in the cramped space in Zero's Burai. "Aren't you unnecessarily provoking him?"
"MY NAME'S NOT ORANGE!"
"Of course not," Zero replied calmly as Kallen intercepted Jeremiah's charge. "People behave foolishly when upset, and this man is easy to upset." The Guren's silver claw latched onto the Sutherland's head, utterly destroying the knightmare. "You see?"
"Huh. Have I mentioned that it is horribly cramped in here?"
"You may have," Zero replied nonchalantly. "In a few weeks, I hope to obtain the Gawain. It's a two seater and can fly."
"Great," she muttered. "I'll hold my breath."
"Don't complain," he said. "You're the one who wanted to protect me." He turned on his communicator. "Q-1, finish off the rest, and meet up with us at point 2-F. Everyone else, follow me."
"So, are you sure this is how I saved your life last time?" C.C. asked.
"To an extent, C.C. Last time you relied a great deal on luck, which I find entirely too fickle."
They met more resistance, but nothing overwhelming. Cornelia didn't have the reinforcements to crush them, and the Britannian military was unaccustomed to anything else. But this was something new to the Black Knights as well. For them, this wasn't just war, it was the offensive, and as members of a resistence, they could fight like madmen when backed into a corner, but to take a step forward was to take a step into the unknown.
Zero realized this when they were pinned behind the rocks with a squad of Sutherlands shooting at them. But of course, this is the test. If we win, we're true soldiers. If we die, we never would have amounted to anything anyway.
"Zero!" called Ohgi. "Do you think we should call Kallen for support?"
"No," Zero replied. "If she leaves her position, we fail our objective."
"So what do we do? Do you have a plan?"
"I always do," Zero replied, opening his hatch. "Good luck, C.C." he said, lowering the witch to the ground.
"You owe me for this," she muttered, walking calmly towards the enemy with the serenity that only an immortal could manage.
The Sutherlands stopped firing and looked at the solitary, unarmed girl approaching them. "Halt!" one ordered. "Are you trying to surrender?"
Yeah, that will be the day, C.C. thought, pressing her hand against the knightmare frame's cold steel. "I hope Zero doesn't get into the habit of making me do this."
The pilot stood, paralyzed, as the darkest moments of his past came back to haunt him.
"Sir?" one of this comrades asked. "Sir, what's going on? Answer me! Are you alright?"
C.C. cut the connection. The pilot screamed as he gained control of his limbs even though the nightmare still hadn't left him.
"Now!" ordered Zero, using the maddened, wild firing pilot as a distraction. The Black Knights cut through the confused Britannians like butter.
"Zero," Ohgi said. "I'm picking up a reading. Princess Cornelia's honor guard met some members of the JLF, and the princess separated from the rest of her troops."
Zero took a moment to calculate this. "C.C., how long can you keep this up?"
"This isn't as difficult as it looks," she replied calmly, despite having come very close several times to have an armor piercing round go through her skull. "It's not like this is going to kill me or anything."
"N formation," Lelouch ordered. "Stay here and draw away as much of the enemy's forces as possible. Ohgi, Tamaki, come with me."
Lelouch had seen an alternative future, and though his foreknowledge was imprecise at best, he retained one major advantage: he knew whom he was fighting. He knew his enemy, he knew Cornelia. He knew what she was thinking, what mattered to her, what she would do.
He found Cornelia in a ravine, facing off against Kallen in her invincible Guren Mk-II. In the entire mountain side, this was the most ideal spot for an ambush. Cornelia had probably planned to use it as such, but, unfortunately for her, so had Zero.
"Princess Cornelia li Britannia!" Zero called out. "This is truly an honor. Shall I ask for your surrender, or shall I merely have you forcibly torn from your knightmare?"
"Zero—you…" she growled. "You will pay for underestimating me!"
Her Gloucester charged at Kallen, completely oblivious to what she was getting into. The Guren dodged her every strike, out maneuvered her at every step, and limb after torn off limb, overpowered her. Zero's plan was being executed perfectly, until the Lancelot, with a falcon's grace and an ox's subtlety, blasted through the ravine and stood at Her Majesty's side.
Impossible! But—Suzaku! He was supposed to be sick. From what Lelouch gave him, walking would make him queasy. He was in no state to fight, unless…come to think of it, the description "complete idiot with a death wish" fit Suzaku like a glove.
But no matter. Fighting or not, he was still sick, and that should give Kallen the advantage she needed, and even though Suzaku had more experience with the Lancelot than Kallen with the Guren, Zero knew his fighting style enough to make up the difference.
However…
The fate of the world could very well depend on the outcome of this battle. There was no reason to fight fair.
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The Lancelot had one purpose, and that was to fight. Suzaku had one purpose, to pilot the Lancelot. Out of everyone who had tried, Suzaku was the only one who could make it work. Sick or not, if he could make a difference in this battle, if he could save someone, he would.
He was sick and wanted to throw up, but that was nothing he hadn't suffered before—at home in bed, admittedly, but Princess Euphemia asked him to save her sister, and even if it killed him, he wouldn't let her down.
He used his VARIS rifle to blast his way through the ruble left from the landslide. The motion made his upset stomach try to rebel against him, but not yet. He forced his sweating, shivering hands to steady the Lancelot controls—just for a little bit longer.
"Princess Cornelia! Are you alright?" he asked.
"You're my back up?" she asked incredulously. "What a terrible irony. No matter. Be careful with the red one. He's fast."
"Yes, your Highness."
"Kururugi Suzaku," came Zero's voice. But he didn't speak on the open air, he used the Lancelot's private frequency. "How kind of you to join us."
"Zero!"
"Last time we spoke, Kururugi, I saved your life, because I knew you were innocent. But in the end, you submitted yourself to trial, because you knew in your heart, you were guilty."
"But I…I didn't kill Prince Clovis! You did!"
"I'm not speaking of Prince Clovis, Kururugi. I'm speaking of you. You put on a show of flawless obedience, you pretend to care so much about human life, but in the end, you're just a murderer, patricide!"
The last word came out as drop of venom, the poison that had been consuming him for years. As if on signal, the red knightmare came at him, unbelievably fast.
"All these years, Suzaku, you've been risking your life, trying to get yourself killed in atonement for your endless sins. You're not a hero, you're a liar and a fool who seeks to die."
"I—I had to!" Suzaku protested, trying fruitlessly to block the red knightmare's attacks.
"Yes," Zero sneered. "To bring peace to your country, to save it from annihilation. You rationalize your crimes to yourself, but can you explain them to your father? Because he's waiting for you, I assure you. Him, and the countless others who've died in the war you've cheated them of, and the untold millions who've died in poverty and squalor from Britannia's oppression."
"They're waiting for you, Suzaku. After all these years, their blood still cries out for justice."
Suzaku stood at the edge of a cliff. His Maser sword had already been disintegrated, and he raised his VARIS rifle to score at least one hit on his opponent. The red knightmare knocked the rifle downward, destroying the earth beneath them. The cliff Suzaku was standing on crumbled, and the Lancelot plummeted.
The prototype he piloted lay broken on the hard ground. He waited for the Black Knights to come down, to finish him off as he lay defenseless, but no one came. They will take my honor, my victory, but not my life. How cruel.
Suzaku opened the Lancelot's hatch, got out, and finally, managed to throw up.
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Kallen pulled Cornelia out of her knightmare and held her weak, helpless form in her iron grip. At first, their mission seemed so impossible, but now, it seemed too easy. That was Zero's work, that was the miracle he had given them. She looked at the man who had given them this victory, and smiled.
"All units," Zero ordered. "Our mission is accomplished. I'm ordering a withdraw."
"Hey, Zero," Kallen said. "It's only been a few weeks since Clovis died. At this rate, the emperor will run out of children. What will w do then?"
"After than…we kill the emperor. And we'll work it out from there."
The escaped in the chaos from the fleeing members of the JLF. The regrouped with the rest of the Black Knights, and Zero reviewed the casualties. Surprisingly, there were very few. They lost a lot of Burai, and a few were shot, but most of them got out alive.
"And C.C., the girl with green hair," Zero said. "What happened to her?"
"Your friend who was with you in your Burai?" Minami asked. "I'm sorry, Zero, but…she's dead."
"Is that so?" Zero replied calmly. "What happened?"
"Well, she was in the middle of the battle," Minami explained nervously. "She was shot by an enemy Sutherland, and then she was crushed by one."
"Did you retrieve her body?" Zero asked.
"Did you want us to?" he asked. "I'm sorry, but we didn't. Uh, if you don't mind me asking, Zero, who was she?"
"An accomplice. She'll turn up in a few days."
Accomplice? Friend? Kallen wished she could say something, but it didn't help that she never even saw this girl.
Zero started laughing. He laughed a cold, cynical laugh. "Enough of this," he said. "It's time we leave. We'll be entertaining royalty tonight, and we must prepare a prison cell fit for a princess."
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Suzaku was never afraid of death. Not his own anyway. Until today, he didn't know he was afraid of anything, but he was now. He was afraid of Zero.
It wasn't that Zero defeated him, Suzaku could handle that. What got to him was the way Zero knew him so completely, how he could stir up all of Suzaku's darkest sins and slam them in his face. How did he know what happened to his father? How did he even know he was piloting the Lancelot, for that matter?
"Kururugi Suzaku. You have the look of someone actively tormenting himself."
"Sir Guilford!"
"I saw the same look in the mirror fifteen minutes ago."
"Ah—I'm…sorry, sir. It's all my fault."
The knight gave him a look of sheer condescension. "Are all Elevens so conceited?" he asked. "This is not your fight, Kururugi. It is not your loss, your responsibility. It's not your shame."
"Princess Euphemia gave me the order to save her sister," he protested. "I failed. That's shame enough."
"You faced an enemy stronger than yourself, and you lost. Do you find shame in that, Kururugi? Protecting Princess Cornelia wasn't your responsibility, it was mine."
"But I could have won! If I…" If I wasn't sick, if Zero didn't bring up my father's murder…but those were excuses, nothing more. If I…"were someone else."
Guilford laughed. "If only it were so easy." He paused for a moment. "Do you ever wish that the past would just stay dead?"
Suzaku's head jerked up. "Yes. Now more than ever."
"So it happened to you, too?"
"What do you mean?"
"I've spoken with some of the other pilots, and there's a recurring story. In the middle of the battle, I…started hallucinating. I saw things…people who have died that I wish for all the world would just stay dead. When the vision ceased…I had lost control of my knightmare, lost control of myself. Is that how you lost to Zero?"
Suzaku shook his head. "When I got there, Zero started talking to me, and like a fool I listened to him. He…he told me things about myself, secrets that I've never told another living soul, sins that I've hoped were long forgotten. I was…I was so lost, I could barely fight back as one of his Black Knights destroyed me. And now…they have Princess Cornelia."
"And that makes Princess Euphemia the new viceroy," Guilford said. "Those were Cornelia's last orders, to protect Euphemia."
"With Euphemia as the new viceroy…" Suzaku mused. "I think she'll do a great job. Don't you?"
Guilford shook his head. "No."
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It was a few days after the battle of Narita that he got the phone call.
"Hello? Is this Zero?"
He was just on his way to a meeting with the Black Knights. "It is. Who's speaking?"
"General Tatewaki Katase, of the Japan Liberation Front. I'd like to thank you for your assistance at Narita."
"You're welcome."
"Would you be interested in joining forces?," Katase suggested. "Dividing ourselves only benefits Britannia."
"You're free to join the Order of the Black Knights any time you like."
Katase didn't laugh. "Considering the difference in numbers and resources, Zero, it would be more prudent for you to join us."
"I can be a part of no organization I am not the head of," Zero replied. "Please forgive a proud man for his desire for independence."
"An alliance then."
"Sounds intriguing," Zero admitted. "What's the catch?"
"The catch? The catch is you, Zero. We can't tell whose side you are on, and so we cannot entirely trust you. All of us would have died in Narita if you had not intervened, but many more would have survived if you contacted us beforehand. And then there was the matter at Kawaguchi Lake."
"And what must I do to prove my intentions?"
"I believe that you managed to capture the former viceroy, Cornelia. If you are indeed an enemy of Britannia, there is nothing you can do to her that we would not do, so much more willingly."
Zero considered the proposition. He realized that the only times he had been in contact with the leader of the JLF, it was when Katase was in mortal peril. The man was, apparently, a shrewd leader otherwise. He would have had to be, to have gotten as far as he did. And yet, something still didn't make sense.
"Who gave you this number?"
"During our evacuation of Narita, we found a girl who cannot die. She's not Japanese, but she claims to know you."
C.C.! "And I suppose she sold you my phone number in exchange for a box of pizza."
"You keep strange company, Zero."
You have no idea. "Thank you for retrieving her. I was starting to worry that Britannia had captured her."
"We will always accept your help should you offer it, Zero, and should you require ours, we always pay our debts. But if you want our trust, then you'll have to earn it. And in exchange, we will gladly return your peculiar friend."
"So C.C. and Cornelia become peace offerings between our organizations," Zero summarized.
"If you like to see it that way."
"It wasn't too long ago that I was a peace offering in such an exchange. It ended in betrayal, but only because one of the organizations was led by a cold-blooded, double crossing, treacherous snake." It runs in the family. "However, you're organization lost more men than mine. It does seem fair for you to have the greater share of the spoils. I'll have to think about it."
Fools. This was a two player game. There was no room for a third party. The JLF was nothing more than a relic from the past. It had no place in the future Zero was creating. They would dissolve and become part of the Order.
He entered the hideout and began the meeting.
"First of all," he said. "What is the status of our prisoner?"
"She remains under twenty four hour surveillance," Ohgi reported. "She behaved suspiciously three times so far, and was tranquilized each time. Her food is being drugged, leaving her generally lethargic."
"Good. Now we will begin the next stage in our operation."
"Are we going to go after the new viceroy?" Kallen suggested. "Or would that be too predictable?"
"That would be too unnecessary," Zero replied. "Remember, when Clovis died, he was only replaced by someone more competent. If we remove Princess Euphemia, it will be the same. Princess Euphemia is a puppet, nothing more. It would be so much more effective to kill the puppeteer while his hands are occupied with the marionette. Moreover, Euphemia is not like Cornelia. In an impossible battle, Cornelia would fight and die rather than lose. Euphemia would grow frightened and make concessions. We, the Order of the Black Knights, will give her that fear."
WWW
"Lulu! You're late!"
"Sorry, Shirley," Lelouch said. "I told you I was going to be a little late. You're all wet." It was raining hard than night. Shirley was drenched and probably freezing.
"Oh, that's okay," she said cheerfully, getting close to him under his umbrella. "You have your ticket, don't you?"
"Of course I have. Now let's get out of the rain. The performance is starting."
"By the way, the other day when you wanted to talk with my dad, what was that about?"
"It doesn't matter anymore," Lelouch replied as they moved into the theater. "He didn't answer the phone, so I ended up using someone else."
"Oh. You know, I got to see him that same day. He got a phone call saying that I was in the hospital, and at the time I thought that it was just a dumb prank, but then there was this huge landslide that killed all these people that my dad worked with. When I heard about it, I realized that if he hadn't come home that day, he might have been buried alive."
"That's an awfully optimistic viewpoint," Lelouch replied, with a convincing tone of skepticism.
"Hey, Lulu? You're sure that you never called him that day?"
"I'm sure," he said calmly. "If he thought you were in the hospital, you couldn't expect him to answer his phone."
"Oh," she said thoughtfully. "I wonder who called him then."
"I haven't the slightest idea."
"Hm. Maybe I have a guardian angel or something."
"Yeah, that must be it."
Her eyes widened suddenly and she looked at Lelouch as though in a new light. "Hey, Lulu? Do you—"
"Sh, the concerts starting."
Throughout the entire performance, Lelouch saw Shirley flashing a smile at him out of the corner of his eye, but he pretended not to notice. He wouldn't be surprised if she suspected something, but even if she knew for certain, he could trust her. She'd proven herself in the past. Even with Zero responsible for her father's death, she still hadn't acted against him, and now, she would have even less motive.
"What did you think?" Shirley asked afterwards as they were exiting the concert hall.
"I thought it was pretty good," he said neutrally. "But hold on a minute. Some maniac has been calling me during the entire performance. I probably should call him back just in case it's important."
Lelouch put some distance between him and Shirley. If the call was important, then whoever called probably wanted to speak with someone besides Lelouch.
"Hey, time travel boy! I was wondering when you'd managed to squeeze time between the Black Knights and your personal love life to call me back."
Lelouch froze. Knowing about the Black Knights was explainable, but the only person he told about time travel was C.C., and that was not C.C.'s voice.
"Who is this?"
"What, you don't remember me?" the man asked. "Maybe you're not as smart as you think you are after all." Lelouch heard laughter on the other line. Childish laughter. And...clapping.
"You!"
"Yes, me," he said. "Me, me, me, me, me. But enough about me. How's C.C.?"
WWW
a/n You know, I was surprised at how many people wanted me to avoid Shirley's father's death. I mean, it seemed obvious to me that Lelouch wouldn't let that fiasco happen again, but maybe because I actually know where this story is headed. A lot of other people wanted me to develop more the relationship between Lelouch and Kallen. I will, I promise, I just haven't that much in this chapter because, believe it or not, a war zone is a terrible place for that sort of thing, and that took up most of this chapter. I think I mentioned this before, but I really don't like writing fight scenes. I do like, however, reviews. Over ninety reviews so far. You people really are amazing.
By the way, I did change the order of a few things in this chapter. In the canon, the date with Shirley occurred after the meeting with the Kyoto group, but with the slightly different way Zero shook the world, there is no guarantee that the Kyoto group would want to meet on the same day, that Cornelia would attack on the same day, or that Shirley would get tickets for the same day. In any case, the chronology of these sort of events is only for dramatic effect, and the dramatic effect was suited better in this story this way.