Chapter Eight

a/n I do not own Code Geass, or any other anime you've ever heard of.

Lelouch walked down the street, trying not to show the anxiety he knew he couldn't hide. Anyone else would be fooled by his calm demeanor, his confident expression, but Lelouch knew he couldn't lie to Mao.

And yet…he had beaten him before. Lelouch faced Mao thrice, and in the end, Mao was dead and Zero wasn't. He wanted to see that as proof that he was stronger, but the truth was that Mao could have destroyed him at any given time. That was the difference between the two Geass users. Mao wanted to have fun, but Zero played to win. And yet, despite his demented psyche, Mao was every bit as dangerous as Schneizel.

Lelouch saw Mao at the designated meeting place. When Mao called him, Zero asked to meet him there. It was secluded enough so they could speak privately and open enough so no one could pull out a gun and shoot the other unnoticed.

"So I was having a pleasant evening with a girl that's been stalking me since who knows when," Lelouch began conversationally, "and then I got a phone call from my least favorite psychopath."

Just as C.C. gave him the power to command people, the witch gave Mao the power to read minds. He could hear the conscious thoughts of anyone within five hundred meters, but if he focused on just one person, he could—

"You idiot!" Mao shrieked angrily. "What were you thinking, sending her out in the middle of a battle? Are you crazy?"

Lelouch considered pointing out the irony of Mao questioning Zero's sanity, but decided it wouldn't be appropriate.

"Or original," Mao added.

"I doubt C.C. is in any real danger," Lelouch replied. "Whatever the JLF are doing to her, I hardly believe they are cutting her apart with chainsaws and stuffing her in suitcases."

The reason Zero wanted to speak with Mao face to face instead of over the phone was that even though they were too far apart for Mao to read his mind, Lelouch wanted to be able to see his expression. The man was utterly transparent, and anything involving C.C. got under his skin like nothing else.

"You're one to talk, Lelouch. Tell me it's foolish to care about people when you're standing on Nunnally's grave."

"Could we stop bickering like children?" Lelouch suggested. "I can't provoke you because you know what I'm thinking, and you can't provoke me because I know you can read my mind. And anyway, I have a proposition for you."

"You need my help," he stated.

"If you want to see it that way. You aren't my only solution, but you could solve a lot of problems for me. Sooner or later, I'll need to eliminate the Japan Liberation Front. They're using too much resources and manpower that I need, but if I attacked them, the Black Knights would be…hesitant to work against a supposed ally."

"And they might realize that you're manipulating their hatred for Britannia for your own ends," Mao concluded. "And since I already know that, you have no problem at all asking for my help."

"You find out where the JLF are hiding, I'll recruit a small army, and C.C. will be free in a few hours," Lelouch replied. "The trickiest part will be the aftermath. In the end, it will be a race to see who can double cross the other first. I'll have several times you're fire power, but you'll have a few seconds head start. Is that a gamble you want to take, Mao? I don't."

Mao burst out in a fit of hysterical laughter. "I don't believe it!" he exclaimed, clapping. "I don't believe you expect me to join the Black Knights! You really are crazy!"

"I could make you head of investigation and interrogation. Do you know of anyone more qualified for that post than you?"

"Not in the whole world," Mao affirmed. "And I suppose after that, we share C.C. between us? I get her weekends, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and you get her the rest of the week or something like that?" He laughed and clapped his hands together before stopping suddenly. "But what if I don't want to share?"

You don't have a choice. "Do you know why C.C. left you?" Lelouch asked dangerously. "The power she gave me isn't a fraction of what she gave you. You could change the world with what you have, but what have you done? When was the last time you did something more ambitious than get rich cheating in poker? You've had your power for over half my life, and what have you made of it? What have you made of yourself?"

"You claim you love C.C., and you believe she loves you back," Lelouch continued. "I can't confirm nor deny that, but I will ask you this. Do you think that really matters? If you force C.C. to chose between me and you, she'd chose herself. Whether or not she loves you, if you get in her way, she'll kill you. She might hate herself for it, but she did last time, and she'd do it again. She has her own agenda, you see, a contract she wants fulfilled. You couldn't fulfill it, so she moved on."

"Who says I can't fulfill it?" Mao growled.

"Can you?" Zero asked neutrally. "Did C.C. even tell you what the contract was? She told me. Could you do it?"

Mao's face twisted in rage and pain as he registered Zero's thoughts. "I…I don't want her to die! I want us to be together!"

"Exactly! And if you did take her code, she would die, and you would live on for a few more centuries until you found someone who could fulfill a contract with you. That's a long time, Mao. Do you think that after all that time, C.C. would still be waiting for you in the next life, or would she have moved on? However, if she stays with me, I'll take her code, and if you want, the two of you can die together."

"You know me as well as I know myself," Lelouch continued. "But I know a few things about you, too. You do not control your Geass; your Geass is the bane and torment of your existence. You obsess over C.C. because her mind is silent to you. However, if you try to steal her and take her to your secluded corner of the world, she will kill you and come back. If you keep her locked up and in chains for the rest of your life, then you will spend the remainder of your days with her hating you, and you will die with her cursing your name."

"That's not true! She loves me!"

"Am I lying?" Mao didn't respond. "If you join the Black Knights, you get everything you want. I will be forced to keep C.C. around you to keep you in check, and I know how you like playing games with people. How would you like to play your games with the entire world? And if you help me, I'll give you something you want."

Mao's eyes narrowed behind his visor before his mouth burst into a wide grin. "Is the Devil going to want his tongue back anytime soon? Because you are really overusing it."

"The last time I played my brother, Schneizel, in chess, we ended in a draw. The last two times I played you, I was humiliated. Help me beat my brother in chess, Mao, and I'll use my Geass to command you control yours."

"I assume that when you say chess, you're not talking about the board game."

"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about."

"But how do I know if that will even work? Not even you know for certain."

"It's a calculated risk. I cannot command a dying man to live, but I can make people forget certain things, which they can't do consciously. And even if it doesn't work, then that is one less weapon that I can't use against you. Ultimately you lose nothing."

As long as he is useful to me, I have no reason to kill him. As long as he needs me, he will not kill me. It occurred to Zero that Mao had never offered his services to Britannia, nor gone to the police to turn Zero in, even when it suited his purposes. If he had, then wouldn't he have received respect, prestige, and power? If the Black Knights could use his help, then Britannia certainly could.

Britannia would give him power, and use that to control him. Mao chose freedom over power, and always had. But if that was the case, then he would have no reason to—

"I'll do it," he said.

"You'll…you will?" What are you playing at? Mao waited to say yes until after Zero realized why he would say no.

"Sure I will," he said freely. "I mean, I can't leave C.C. locked in some prison cell by a load of terrorists, and being in the Black Knights might be fun…unless you can find someone better qualified for the head of investigation and interrogation."

Mao didn't answer Lelouch's mental question, and he could only assume that was deliberate. "Fine. First of all, we need to find C.C. You know what you have to do, right?"

"Of course I do. I just have to find something that the entire Britannian military hasn't been able to figure out yet."

"There's a military prison not too far from here where they're interrogating some captured members of the JLF. Do you know where it is?"

"I do now."

WWW

"He doesn't know anything."

Villetta's shoulder's sank almost imperceptibly. "You're sure, Guilford?"

"I had a chance to talk with Kururugi after the battle," he replied. "He seemed to be feeling guilty about failing the mission, but not about betrayal. If he were a double agent, he would feel nervous that he might be suspected, but not guilty about letting Lady Cornelia be captured. In his eyes, I saw shame, but not fear."

Villetta glanced over her shoulder to see if anyone was listening. This was her lead, and she wasn't sharing. "Zero is connected with that boy. I know he is."

"Does Kururugi know this?" Guilford asked. "Perhaps the connection is one sided."

"It…could be," she admitted.

"And Suzaku is by all accounts an honorable man."

"Yes, but that alone is suspicious. There is no way a man of his skills and talent would settle for what we're paying him. If he is an honorable man, he could work as an honorable man anywhere, even under Zero. Zero definitely spoke to him. Why else would he have deleted the Lancelot's communication history?"

"He has an alibi. It both explained his actions and fits with what we know of Zero. And the fact that he didn't bring up the fact that he deleted the history is further proof that he had no foul intentions."

"Yes, but you can't deny that his failure to protect Princess Cornelia benefits him."

Once, long ago, Guilford would have considered someone like Villetta beautiful, but that was before he became the princess's knight. After taking commands from Lady Cornelia, knowing her beauty, ferocity, passion, her indescribable majesty, it was as though he had dined on Mount Olympus, and could never again be content in the company of mortals.

"But I could have won!" Suzaku had said. "If I were…someone else." That seemed like an innocent enough statement. Guilford himself had been ill content with his own limitations, now more than ever. But what if…You could have won if you were…who? It was no secret what Princess Cornelia thought of Elevens. If you were a Britannian, would you have tried harder? Hard enough to win?

"You're right," Guilford said slowly. "He did seem optimistic about Princess Euphemia being the new viceroy."

"And you're not?"

"Lady Euphemia lacks experience. She knows nothing of war, and Area Eleven has already captured two members of the royal family in the past month. It could be on the verge of revolution within the year. In gentler times, in more peaceful circumstances, she might make a suitable ruler, but now…"

"Perhaps Princess Euphemia's coronation is exactly what Zero wants," Villetta suggested.

Guilford considered the possibility. "If not, he will just target her too, but I can understand that."

"And suppose Zero convinced Suzaku that it would be better for the Elevens if this area had a more…benevolent ruler. That would explain the Lancelot's communication history."

Guilford shook his head. "When I spoke with him, he accused himself. If he were guilty of conspiring with the enemy, he would have defended himself. If Suzaku betrayed us, he did not do so consciously."

"So you don't think Zero used his…abilities?" Villetta asked.

Guilford narrowed his eyes carefully. "No, and I don't think you should mention that to anyone."

"Why not?"

"We don't know what that thing is capable of. His ability to force hallucinations into a man's head in the middle of battle is more than I ever would have believed. But if the general military learns about Zero's ability to control people, things could get very bad very quickly."

"What do you mean?"

"Suppose I walk up to General Dalton one day and murder him, but later I deny doing it and claim amnesia, who would know? Did I kill him because Zero forced me to, or merely because I wanted to? If that kind of information gets out, the excuse, 'Zero made me do it,' could utterly liberate everyone from responsibility. If people find out about this, the empire will fall to chaos."

WWW

"Have you found anything yet?" Zero asked over the phone.

"You know what, I'm starting to think you don't believe I'm taking this seriously."

Zero gritted his teeth and forced the irritation out of his voice. "Where are you?"

"I'm more than five hundred meters away, if that's what you're asking," Mao replied.

Like I can believe that. "No, I mean, have you found the JLF headquarters yet or anything?"

"Well, I'm getting there, I'm getting there. It's not like what's-his-face had an exact idea either."

"From the military prison?"

"Yeah, that's it. I'm not really free to talk. Taxi cab drivers get suspicious over the most peculiar things. I don't suppose you could have Geassed me a driver before we split up. I'm running out of cash."

"Do you think you're close?"

"I'm either really close or almost out of options. How about you?"

"I have about fifty Britannian soldiers and police officers, two of which have Sutherlands."

"That's it? Did you stop to get a milkshake along the way?"

"I can't use my Geass on civilians. They would just get in the way, but if I get another knightmare or so, that should be enough. When I play, I don't waste pieces."

"Man, that's cold."

"Is there a point to mince words with a mind reader?"

"I guess no more than there is to arguing with a…with a…hey, what do you call a guy who can force people to obey him?"

"A commander."

Zero imagined that Mao was rolling his eyes on his side of the phone. "I knew that. But what I meant was—oh, you know what I mean. Hey, I bet this is the first time you worked with another Geass user since you screwed that Rolo kid brother of yours. Man, remind me never to save your life."

"You're trying to provoke me," Lelouch replied. "It's not going to work."

"I'm not trying to provoke you," Mao protested. "If I were trying to provoke you, I'd bring up the cat festival. You know, I think that's why you work so hard to keep your identity a secret. If your men saw you with whiskers and furry ears, would they follow you, or just laugh?"

"The furry ears have nothing to do with it, you deranged psychopath."

"Do you mind if I quote you…on…oh my."

"What?"

"Hey, you said so far you got fifty men with guns following you?"

"Yes."

"And two Sutherlands?"

"Correct."

Mao paused. "Can any of them swim?"

WWW

Mao yawned widely. "I really should be asleep by now. It is way past my bed time." By how much, he wasn't sure. Most of the people around him thought it was around three thirty in the morning, but then again, most of the people around him thought Lelouch vi Britannia was the undisputed ruler of the earth.

"You're sure C.C.'s on that ship?" Lelouch asked.

"Sure? No. That I know of, none of the JLF over there is thinking about her obsessively, but that doesn't mean anything. Some people are just weird that way."

They were on the waterfront, looking at the ship the Japan Liberation Front was using as a temporary base. More than sixty armed men were commanded to follow Zero's every command and three Sutherlands. None of the knightmares were aquatic, but that's what the helicopters were for. Some of the men were wearing JLF uniforms. Where Zero got those uniforms, Mao had no idea. He wasn't inwardly gloating about his own cleverness in that respect, so it probably wasn't that interesting in the first place.

"So that's the plan, huh?" Mao asked after Lelouch got done thinking of it. "Seems sort of, I don't know, basic."

"No miracle is impressive if it's understood," he replied sagely. Mao managed to disguise his laugh as a fit of coughing, but Zero wasn't convinced. He turned to his troops. "You five, come with me. The rest of you, do not kill me or do anything detrimental to the mission. Also, obey Mao's orders unless they contradict mine."

Zero got in one of their stolen motorboats with his chosen men and sped off, thinking big, confident thoughts, but mostly hating Mao for being forced to rely on him, and despising him for knowing more about him than he did of Mao.

When Lelouch was at a good distance, Mao turned to the men. "So," he said. "You people have do what I say, right?"

"Yes sir!" they said in unison.

"Well, let's have a little test, shall we? All of you, turn to the right."

They did.

"And now to the left."

They did.

Oh man, I could do this all day. "Now stand on your head."

WWW

The marine behemoth loomed against the city lights as it rose and fell with the waves. Backed by hapless pawns, the creator and architect of the Black Knights rocked gently in its frail craft as his men readied their grappling hooks. Lelouch dialed Mao.

"Hey Mao," he said. "Are you abusing the authority I gave you?"

"No!" he said defensively. "…yes. But that doesn't matter. Does hapless mean the same thing as helpless? It doesn't? Thanks."

"Mao…"

"Not yet. The guard will change in just a little bit, and you'll have about forty seconds before the next one comes."

Zero waited a bit before telling his men to throw the hooks, and they started to scale the ship. They were halfway up when Mao called back.

"What is it?" Zero growled, cursing him mentally.

"Uh, no, I didn't know how hard it is to answer a phone while climbing a rope, but I can imagine it now," Mao replied, answering his unspoken question. "I thought you might want to know that it was forty seconds until the next guard gets there. It was thirty seconds until the next one gets close enough to see you."

"What?"

"Such foul language I hear in your head," Mao commented. "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Or…head? No, I guess not."

Lelouch looked up at the remaining distance and estimated their remaining time. It was going to be close, but he couldn't risk the guard noticing a couple of grappling hooks on the side of their ship. To his chagrin, he was the last one to get to the top, and the only one panting for breath when the guard came.

The guard looked at them suspiciously despite their JLF uniforms. "What are you doing here? If you do not have important business on deck, you should be asleep."

Lelouch managed to catch his breath to speak. "Sir!" he said urgently. "Bad news. I just saw a saboteur board the ship! The entire JLF is in danger!"

"What? A saboteur? Who?"

Lelouch smiled inwardly as he activated his Geass. "Me."

WWW

Mao climbed aboard the ship. "Man, that was easy. Listening to you climb up that rope, I was expecting something horribly traumatic."

Shut up. "Launch the attack on the starboard side," Lelouch ordered the remaining troops on the shore over the phone.

"You do know that we could just waltz down to wherever they're holding C.C. and have you Geass everyone who asks us what we're doing. We don't have to bombard them and wake everyone up."

"And you know that I've made my decision and there's nothing you can do to change my mind, so that leads to the question of why you bothered saying anything at all," Lelouch replied.

Mao shrugged. "Maybe I'm just crazy."

"Arguably."

"Although this isn't the first time you've risked the lives of people you care about for the anterior motives in your plans."

"Are you ever going to stop talking?"

"You know the answer to that as well as I."

Pity. The Sutherlands landed on the ship, and the entire JLF rose up in alarm. "Let's go."

It was like swimming upstream, moving against the sudden current of the army. With all the people flooding toward the invading soldiers and knightmares, Lelouch realized the risk of getting killed in the crossfire.

"Now that would be anticlimactic," Mao commented. Lelouch ignored him.

"Let us through," Lelouch told a guard when they arrived at the prison quarters, regretting that the man's helmet covered his eyes. "The general has business with one of the prisoners."

"I can't let you in without a signed order," he replied. He turned to Mao, who had refused to don a JLF uniform. "And who are you?"

"I'm with him," Mao said. "And besides, you know me, Arashi. Sorry about Sulu, though. Tough break man."

"What are you talking about? I've never seen you before in my life! And why aren't you in uniform?"

"Well, you might be used to that thing, but I'm not. A majority of Britannian princes think your uniform is itchy and rides up in the back like nothing else."

All three guards stared at Mao. "What?"

Idiot. "Let me explain," Zero interrupted. Shoot the one on the left on my signal. "This man is a representative of the Chinese Federation, you see, and—" He pulled out his gun and shot him at the moment that Mao shot the other, and they shot the third as one.

"You know, I'm just going to come out and say it because I know you never will," Mao said. "But we make a pretty dang good team."

"Free the prisoners," Zero ordered. "Make sure they know this is a Britannian rescue mission."

Mao grinned wide and knowingly. "It will take a lot more than that to keep me in line."

"What?"

"By the way, that fruity guy who wants you dead is down there too."

"Who?"

"Orange."

Zero made some quick calculations. "Keep track of him. The other prisoner's can go wherever they wish, but don't let Orange get too far."

Mao left Lelouch to guard his back and descended into the prison cells. He searched the minds of the inmates for memories of a green haired beauty, but if any of them had seen C.C., they weren't thinking about her obsessively. That didn't make much sense to him, but if he learned one thing about people in his life, it was that they didn't always make sense.

"Hey, Orange," he said. "I—"

"MY NAME'S NOT ORANGE!"

"…Right. Jeremiah. Lord Jeremiah. I'm part of the Britannian special forces. We're here to free you people."

"You don't look Britannian," Jeremiah replied. "You look Asian."

"My…superiors…would like a word with you afterwards. Said something about "restoring your noble status?"

"What can I do to help?"

"Have you seen a girl being held here? About this tall, green hair, amber eyes, unsurpassable beauty, and a weird tattoo on her forehead?"

"I think so, yes. The far room that way, for special prisoner's, I saw someone like that taken there."

"Good," Mao said unlocking Orange's cell. "Now I want you to free the rest of the prisoners in the name of the Holy Britannian Empire."

"Yes sir!"

Mao strode to the indicated cell and opened it up dramatically. "C.C., your knight in shining armor is here to save you."

C.C. stared at him with surprise, slow recognition, and finally, shock. "Oh no. Oh please no."

"Now that's not very nice."

"Please tell me there's someone…rational, behind this."

Mao sighed heavily. "You know, a lesser man could get really jealous talking to you. You've aged really well, by the way. Eight hundred years look good on you."

C.C. laughed finally. "You haven't changed a bit, either. You're just taller."

Mao grinned back, deciding that she wasn't going to mentioned her new contract with Lelouch, and he wondered what that meant. "Let's go!"

WWW

Ultimately, the rescue mission went perfectly. Zero accomplished everything he had hoped to, and more. Just a few loose ends remained to be tied up.

"You of the JLF," he commanded, "return to their services as normal, revealing nothing of what you did tonight. And if you get the chance to assassinate General Katase, take it. As for the rest of you, return to your lives, but when Zero commands the world, obey!"

The men left to follow his orders, likely not even aware they were complying. With that, Zero returned to C.C., Mao, and most importantly, Jeremiah Gottwald.

The Britannian stood up and saluted him smartly. "No need for that, Gottwald," Lelouch replied, motioning him to sit. "C.C., Mao, I would like a word with this man in private, if you please."

"No problem," Mao said before leaving. "Come on, C.C., these sort of conversations can take weeks."

"If I may ask," Lelouch asked Jeremiah, "how did you obtain custody of the Japan Liberation Front?"

"I, regrettably, fell in the battle of Narita. When the JLF was evacuating the area, they found me and captured me. They took me prisoner because they…suspected that I had dealings with Zero."

"Have you?"

"On my life and honor, I swear I have not."

Lelouch resisted the urge to laugh. Life was cheap, but Orange had gone through human experiments and madness in another life to regain his honor and prove to Britannia that he was no traitor. For a while, Lelouch thought that that was what was most important to him.

"I remember the Kururugi incident," Lelouch said. "Years of loyalty and dedicated service lay forgotten and buried under the veneer of an incident that no one really understood. I have no doubt that you are no traitor, but I have come to the conclusion that Britannia is unworthy of your services."

Jeremiah blinked, dumbfounded. "But do you not also serve the Empire?"

"No. I serve the Black Knights."

Jeremiah rose to his feet in rage, speechless.

"And I offer you the chance to join us."

"Never! Regardless of the trust and status I have lost, my loyalty has always been to Britannia, and I would die before I betrayed my Empire!" He turned to leave.

"Your loyalty has always been to Britannia?" Lelouch repeated. "I was under the impression that you were once loyal to someone else. A woman. Empress Marianne."

Jeremiah spun around. "What do you know about the Empress?"

"You were her guard at Aries Palace the day she was assassinated. On the day she died, you were charged with her protection. Since then, you have sought to redeem yourself in the eyes of the empire. But you need to do more than redeem yourself in the eyes of the empire. You need to redeem yourself in mine." Lelouch vi Britannia removed his helmet, showing his face. "Do you recognize me?"

WWW

Kallen made her way into the hideout, wondering where Zero's plans would take the Black Knights. Zero had been leading them from a vain hope to something that she could really sink her teeth into. She wondered how long it would be before it stopped being hit and run and started being more hunt and pursue. They just got another letter from the Kyoto group, and that could only be good.

With Ohgi, Tamaki, and the others, she stepped into the meeting room, and what she saw stopped her dead.

Zero sat back comfortably on a grey coach. To his left sat a woman clutching a yellow stuffed animal with light green hair that fell down to her waist. At her side sat a tall Chinese man with white hair and a visor over his eyes.

On Zero's right sat a Britannian.

"Orange!" Kallan gasped. "Or…Jeremiah! You!"

"What is this?" Tamaki demanded. He turned to the green haired girl and jumped. "Holy—wha…what is going on here?"

Zero didn't seem the least bit startled by their reaction. If anything, it seemed like he had expected it. "Gentlemen, these are some of my associates, Mao, C.C., and you've already met Orange. They will henceforth be part of the Order of the Black Knights."

Kallen's jaw dropped in stunned silence. Tamaki, on the other hand… "What?" he shrieked. "I mean—what?"

"I'll have to side with Tamaki on this one," Ohgi said. He gestured toward Orange. "Not only is this man a Britannian, but he is a member of their military and has fought against us already. How can you expect us to trust him?"

"Yes, I fought against you before, but I didn't know who Zero was then!" Orange protested.

The room fell silent. Mao tried not to laugh.

"Wait," Tamaki started. "So you let this two faced Brit see your face, but not us, who've been supporting you from the start?"

"I don't know what you're so worked up about," Mao said. "His face isn't that much to look at, let me tell you."

"Him too?" Ohgi asked, sounding betrayed. "You let these new people know who you are, but leave us in the dark?"

"You don't know that," Kallen said suddenly. "We've just met these people now, but that helping us out from behind the scenes the whole time, right?"

"No, actually I just met this guy last night," Mao said.

Mao acted like the whole thing was some big joke. C.C. seemed bored, like no matter what happened, it wouldn't affect her. The only one who seemed to take things seriously was the Britannian, and he seemed to know that nothing he said would help his position.

"Zero," Ohgi said. "You've always done things your own way and kept your secrets, and I understand that, but we've been with you this whole time, and we deserve your trust as much as anyone. I think we have the right to see the face of the man we're working for."

Well, that was blunt. Kallen wanted to see Zero's face too, but she thought bullying him could backfire.

"Tell me, Ohgi," Zero said calmly. "What makes a man? What is he? Is it his birth, his heritage, as our enemies preach? Or is it his actions, his decisions?"

"It's the second, of course."

"Then how will you profit by knowing the name my mother gave me, or seeing the face that is a genetic mix of my ancestors? But this mask I wear is the face I have chosen, and Zero is the name I give myself."

WWW

Zero sat alone in his office. That could have gone smoother, he thought. But it didn't matter that much. Ultimately, the Black Knights would obey him because they had no choice. Desperation could make very loyal friends.

But now Zero had to deal with more pressing matters, like the letter from the Kyoto group that he held in his hand. They were interested in giving the Knights more funding, but they wanted to meet with Zero personally before they were willing to commit. Last time, the Kyoto group made an almost identical request, and Zero could deal with them the same way, but…why should he?

Last time, he took a gamble that out of the ten hypothetical members of the group, he'd meet with the one that he already knew personally. That might work again, but there was only a one in six chance that he would meet with the same man.

Zero leaned back in his chair. Why not? Zero thought. I think I'll take the initiative this time.

WWW

"I can't believe this crap!" Tamaki complained. "I mean, who does Zero think he is, anyway?"

"Our leader, commander, founder?" Kallen suggested. "He made us into an organized force instead of just a rabble of terrorists."

"Thanks, Kallen," Tamaka scoffed. "I'll come to you next time I need someone to point out the obvious."

"I'm just saying that he's already proven himself plenty," Kallen said. "So if he wants to make some…unexpected recruits, we should trust him."

"Unexpected is right," Tamaki muttered. "Bringing that Brit in here was bad enough without that freaky dame."

"Who, C.C.?" Ohgi asked.

"Yeah. I saw her at the battle of Narita. A Knightmare feaking sat on her, and she's not dead."

"Wait, she's the one Zero was asking about afterwards?" Kallen asked.

When they were clearing out, Zero asked what happened to a certain girl who was with him. When he was told that she died, Zero didn't seem upset or anything.

He just laughed.

"She'll turn up in a few days," he had said.

"And what's with inviting that Brit to join the Black Knights in the first place?" Tamaki carped. "I mean, they're the enemy!"

"No they're not," Kallen said suddenly, remembering her friends from school. "We're Heroes of Justice, right? We fight against Britannia not because of what they are, but because what they do is wrong. If we resort to prejudice and racial discrimination, we're no better than them. The way I see it, is that if someone, even a Britannian, hates what the empire is doing, then…"

Her voice trailed off as a raven haired boy in a school uniform flashed in her head. Ideals? Their only ideals are that people like you aren't worth crap! There's not a Britannian out there who wouldn't sell out their best friend for a decent promotion!

If he hates what the empire is doing—my mother was gunned down as a victim of political intrigue. My sister was there to watch—even a Britannian…

Kallen wondered how Zero would react if she invited a Britannian to join the Black Knights.

Outside the door and down the hall, Mao burst out laughing.

WWW

a/n Man, that took forever! I was almost done with the chapter when I got a sudden bout of writer's block and started playing videogames (bad idea). Although I still believe that any time reading Dr. McNinja is time well spent. But yeah, Mao is really fun to write, and two Geass users and a genius strategist is worth a small army in my book. Thanks for all the reviews, and next time I leave a cliff hanger, I'll try not to go AWOL.