Your Past, My Future

Chapter Nine

a/n I own nothing. Kind of like last time, in that respect.

Tsunako glanced up from her desk when she heard someone walk in. Hundreds of people came in regularly, men in business suits with more greed than money, but this person was just a student, still in a school uniform. Relative? Unlikely. Tsunako couldn't see any family resemblance between the student and her boss, Kirihara Taizo, but she doubted that the boy was old enough to be involved on Taizo's level of business.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. He was tall, with black hair and violet eyes. "I'd like to speak with Taizo."

"Do you have an appointment?" she asked doubtfully.

"No, but he's not in a meeting with anyone right now, is he?"

"I can't let you in without an appointment."

He smiled confidently, far too arrogant for her liking. "But he doesn't know that I don't have an appointment, does he? No one knows his schedule, but you, correct?"

"What sort of business, exactly, do you have with him?"

"Personal business," he said. "I'm a…friend of the family, you could say."

Tsunako reached for the phone. "Fine, I'll ask him if he wants to see you. What was your name?"

"I'd rather it be a surprise, actually," he said, still smiling. "Why don't you just tell him I have an appointment?"

His left eye flashed with…something, and her brain stopped working entirely. For a moment, she could no longer see, feel, think, she could only here that voice, as though the voice of God, from the furthest reaches of the universe.

"Yes," her mouth said passively. "Yes, of course."

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Kirihara Taizo's eyes widened slightly when Lelouch entered the room. "Lelouch!" he whispered. "I wasn't expecting to see you again. You must be in some serious trouble."

"No," Lelouch replied. "My father still…is this room secure?"

Taizo pressed a few buttons under his desk and deactivated the security cameras. "Absolutely."

Lelouch wondered how many people were suspicious of Taizo's dealings. Probably not many. The man had a flawless persona of a corrupt businessman, and few knew how much of the bribes he took ended up in the pockets of resistance leaders.

"My father still doesn't know if I'm alive," Lelouch continued. "Or at least doesn't care. No, I'm here to discuss the Kyoto House's further funding of my organization, the Black Knights."

Taizo's eyes grew round, and then a slow smile crept along his face. "Unbelievable," he whispered. "So you're…"

"Yes."

He sat down heavily. "You could have just waited for the meeting tomorrow night."

"I could have," Lelouch admitted. "But the Kyoto representative would want to see my face, and I wasn't sure which one I would meet. You know me as an enemy of Britannia, but Osakabe, Kubouin, and Munakata might have been difficult to work with."

Taizo gave him a firm stare. "You've done your homework, kid, I'll give you that much. Even for the leader of the Black Knights, knowing the names of four of the five leaders of our group is quite a feat."

"I figured Kaguya admired me too much to be an unbiased judge."

"Five for five, then," Taizo said with a laugh. "How'd you pull that off?"

"I have my ways." I read the obituaries. "But it's not a leak Britannia has access to."

The old man leaned back in his chair. "By the way, admire is an understatement. Last I checked, Kaguya had a Zero action figure."

"Wait, they make Zero action figures now?"

"Yeah, sure. Zero action figures, posters, plushies…I'm telling you, kid, copyright your merchandise when this is over, and you'll be rich."

Plushies? I don't know how I feel about that. "Yes, well, I'm not in this for the money."

"Really?" Taizo asked. "Then why did you come here?"

Lelouch stopped short and laughed. Seven years ago both Lelouch and Taizo had submitted to Britannia's reign, waiting for the right moment to strike back. Lelouch stopped laughing and smiled darkly. "I'm here for the Knightmares."

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Euphemia thought that her mind would explode any minute. She wasn't in charge of Area Eleven for a week before realizing that not only in the centuries of Britannia's history, the empire had as of yet failed to make an area capable of governing itself, but that she was in no way capable of pulling it off.

"And you should choose a knight as soon as possible," Guilford said.

Right. Not only were there procedures, protocols, policies, Clovis's first annual art show since his death, there was also the resistance movement that already took two of her siblings.

"And I couldn't just have you be my knight, right?"

Guilford shook his head. "I will protect you with my life, but until my death I remain your sister's knight. But a knight is more than someone who can protect you. It's not enough for him to understand your will, he has to believe what you believe, want the same things you do, and by the same methods."

Euphie looked at a list of possible candidates for knighthood, but she couldn't focus. "Do you think she's alright?" she whispered.

"Lady Cornelia is without equal," Guilford assured her. "There is nothing she can't handle." Then, almost to himself, he added, "Zero will regret taking her."

"If she were here…she'd be able to tell me to call her Cornelia when I call her viceroy and viceroy when I call her Cornelia and she'd know the difference between viceroy and vicereine, and…everything would be alright."

Guilford hesitated awkwardly before responding. "I understand, your Highness. You've lost two siblings to this country already, but I promise you, it will go no further."

Euphemia smiled weakly and looked down at her desk. "That's what Cornelia told me…seven years ago."

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The meeting with Taizo went perfectly. The full backing of the Kyoto group, their funds, equipment, research, could hold the Black Knights over for a long time. Now Lelouch had another meeting, this one with Kallen. It was when he was heading in that direction that he saw Suzaku.

"Hey, Suzaku. You look terrible."

He grunted in response. Suzaku kept staring into the distance, a sunken, haunted look in his eyes. He jumped slightly when Lelouch touched him on his shoulder.

"Oh, hey, Lelouch, I didn't notice you there."

"I noticed. What's wrong with you?"

"I'm fine, I just haven't been getting a lot of sleep recently." He paused. "Lelouch? What do you think of Zero?"

"A lot of things, actually. Why?"

"Nothing," Suzaku replied. "A lot of people are talking about him where I work. Some say he's an incarnation of justice, others say vengeance. Some people say he can't be killed." Lelouch forced himself not to smile. "I ran into him last week."

"You did?" Lelouch asked, sounding surprised.

"He saved my life back when I was accused of treason and regicide," Suzaku explained. "He's been turning up every now and then since…like cancer. He…I never told you this, Lelouch, but I…my father didn't commit suicide. I killed him."

Lelouch nodded. "Makes sense."

"What?" Suzaku asked. "You're not surprised?"

"I figured it out a while ago, actually," Lelouch said. "You forget, I was born a Britannian prince; political assassination is in my blood. The prime minister's security was too good for an assassin to get in and out unnoticed, and in life or death your father was too stubborn to give up, so you killing him was the only logical explanation."

"What?" he gasped. "But you—does Nunnally…"

"No, of course not. She doesn't believe that good people kill their fathers, but personally I find the status of patricide rather admirable."

"You can't kill your father," Suzaku responded dutifully. "That'd be treason."

"How do you think the Emperor came to power? It's practically a family tradition. And besides, are you going to arrest me?"

"Well, no…"

"Furthermore, in the case of the former prime minister, while his death led to the death of thousands due to abuse and disorganized resistance, it adverted the deaths of millions who would have died in a fruitless struggle against an undefeatable force. If that happened to the emperor, the effect would only be magnified."

"The ends justify the means?" Suzaku summarized.

"Can you think of anything else that could?"

"That doesn't change the facts," he whispered. "I'm a murderer."

Whoop-de-doo. "You were ten," Lelouch corrected him. "Ten-year-olds are notoriously stupid. When I was ten, I went up to the most powerful man in the world, and told him he was a cold-blooded, heartless, soulless monster." He paused. "I was right, of course, but it still wasn't one of my better ideas."

"Do you still hate him?" Suzaku inquired. "After all this time?"

Lelouch nearly laughed. "I'm starting to question the merit of an absolute monarchy as a whole. The empire has failed to produce a single decent ruler for a good fifty years now."

"You sure about that?" Suzaku asked. "I'm not sure what you mean by decent, but Princess Euphemia doesn't seem that bad."

Lelouch hesitated. "No. No she's not. What do you think of our new viceroy?"

"I think she'll do great," Suzaku said, lightening up at last. "She's not like any of her predecessors that I've known, so some people don't think she can handle the tough decisions, but I think…I think she's really going to change things around here."

Lelouch smiled, finding the missing step in a plan he formulated long ago. "Do you know why I've had Lelouch vi Britannia officially dead for all this time? Because if my father knew I was alive, he'd use me and my sister as political tools just as he did seven years ago, and if any of the other princes or princesses knew, they'd use me for personal gain as well."

"I can't imagine Euphemia doing that," Suzaku said.

"You know what? Neither can I. And I'm sure that Nunnally would be thrilled to see her again."

"So why don't you tell her you're alive? I'm sure she'd be glad to see you too."

"I could, but I have no excuse for being in a government building, there are security cameras everywhere and guards that have been serving the royal family for decades. So why don't you do it?"

"What? But—me? She barely knows me! Why don't you just…give her a phone call or something?"

Lelouch rolled his eyes. "Can you imagine what that would be like? 'Hello, I know you can't see me or recognize my voice, but I'm your long lost brother who legally died seven years ago.' Even if she does believe me, I'll find out later that she had me on speaker phone."

"Yes, but how am I supposed to talk to her about something like that?"

"Oh, I don't know," Lelouch said, rolling his eyes and turning away. "Use your personal brilliance and ingenuity that always comes up at the worst possible times. But I have to go now. Let me know how it turns out."

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Lelouch met with Kallen at a park near the edge of the settlement. Whether he was meeting with Kozuki or Stadtfeld, well, he'd just have to find out.

"Hey, Lelouch,"she called over to him. "So I heard you and Shirley went on a date the other day. How'd that go?"

"It went okay," he replied conversationally, aware that any local gossip could have answered that question just as well. "We were interrupted at the very end, but it went okay."

"I heard she planned it, got the tickets, and even asked you on it," Kallen said with a laugh. "I wonder who wears the pants in that relationship."

"Did you bring me out here just to belittle my masculinity?" he asked with a scrutinizing glance. "Because you can do that at school."

"Actually, I was just thinking about something she mentioned about you the other day. She was talking about how smart you are, but how you never do anything with it. So I was wondering, what do you think?"

"Good heavens, woman, did you bring me out here because you wanted to hear me talk about philosophy? You desperately need a hobby."

"I already got one," she laughed. "It's a killer. But I wanted to know what you think of, well, Britannia, for starters."

Lelouch gave her a crooked glance and raised an eyebrow. "Well, it's a more effective system against cruelty and chaos than total anarchy, but anyone not fanatically subverted by their overwhelming propaganda can see what they truly stand for."

"Such as…"

"Corruption, greed, power, control, I think I've already talked to you about this. What exactly are you getting at?"

"Well, if Britannia's so bad, have you ever thought about doing anything about it?"

"I have, actually."

"And?"

"And I've found out the difference between a revolutionary and a philosopher. As mostly everything else, it is a matter of power. I am free to think about what needs to be done, and to know what needs to be done, but powerless to change it." He saw Kallen trying not to smile, so for good or ill, that was what she wanted him to say.

"So what would you say if I could get you that kind of power?" she asked. "What would you say if I could make you one of the Black Knights?"

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Kallen led Lelouch through the headquarters of the Black Knights, hoping that this wasn't a terrible idea. What's the worst that could happen? she thought. Zero could decide he wasn't trustworthy and have him…silenced. Maybe I should have run this idea past Zero first. But she had gotten this far because of instinct. Instinctively she knew to follow Zero, and instinctively she knew that Lelouch could be trusted.

"You're not the first Britannian to join the Order," Kallen said. "We've got a Britannian military guy and a journalist, both well-known and both fairly high up. You'd recognize them, but until you're officially in, it might be in your best interests not to know a whole lot."

"Right," Lelouch said. "Don't reveal any 'I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you' secrets. I'm quite fond of my life. And that's Zero over there, isn't he?"

"The one and only. Want to talk to him?"

Lelouch looked at her as though she was joking. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Of course it is. If you get Zero's approval, no one here will ever bother you again."

"And if he doesn't give me his approval?"

"Uh, well—too late! He's coming. Don't worry, just let me do the talking."

Zero walked towards them, a confidant stride. He never wandered without direction, but emanated power and control wherever he went like a leader should.

"Hello, Zero," she said. "I was just showing around one of the new recruits."

"And you are?" Zero said, directly to Lelouch.

"Lelouch Lamperouge, Zero, sir," he replied formally. "It's an honor."

"Indeed," Zero said slowly. "Q-1, go to the south-east sector and speak with Orange. He's been wanting to talk to you. And as for you, Mr. Lamperouge, come with me."

Zero turned and left. Lelouch followed after him, giving Kallen the look of a convict on death row. Oh no, she thought. I've killed him.

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Lelouch looked around to see if anyone was watching them. The hallway was empty, so the two of them darted into a closet.

"Like I said," Lelouch smiled, taking off his school uniform. "Piece of cake."

"I'm starting to think you deliberately overcomplicate things just for the thrill of it," C.C. replied, taking off the black cape and freeing her hair from the obsidian helmet.

"Nonsense. I've used that tape recorder trick so often I've lost count. This plan was the epitome of simple."

"You could have just used your Geass to tell her not to try to recruit you," C.C. replied. "I'd consider that simple."

"And rob myself of this golden opportunity?" Zero scoffed. "Of course not!"

"You just forgot you never used it on her in this timeline, haven't you?'

"I've done no such thing. And for future reference, next time you impersonate me, I don't strut like that."

"Sure you do. You strut around like you own the place."

"I do own this place," he said. "And I don't strut."

"If you say so," C.C. replied, pulling on her white boots.

For a moment neither said anything. "I'd be very surprise if Mao didn't see this coming."

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"Hey, Orange! There you are!" Kallen called. "Or, Jeremiah, sorry."

The Brittanian shrugged. "Call me whatever you like," he said easily. "It makes no difference. What can I do for you?"

"Zero said you wanted to talk to me about something."

"Ah, you would be, uh, Kallen, was it?"

"Yes."

"I understand there's been a great deal of turmoil since I joined the Black Knights."

"Don't worry about it," Kallen said. "You just go bad luck being the first Brit to join. With Diethard we have two, and a few more will join us in a while." I hope.

"Of course, a group fighting for equality will realize the hypocrisy of racial prejudice, but there's also the matter of Zero's mask. It bothers people, doesn't it? It makes people feel like they're not trusted."

Kallen rolled her eyes. "You have no idea. I've gotten so fed up with their bull crap most of the others suddenly go mute as soon as I enter the room."

"Does it make you feel less trusted, knowing that I know his face behind the mask and you don't?"

She stopped and looked at him. It wasn't a taunting question, not an "I know something you don't, ha ha" sort of thing. For a moment she wondered if Zero asked Orange to poll the loyalty of the Black Knights, but no, Orange would be a horrible choice, no one would trust him to tell him anything.

"If Zero wants to be specific about whom he shows his face to, that's his choice, and even if he doesn't tell me why, I trust that he has a good reason for it. And that is all the trust I need."

Orange's severe face broke into a grin. "Perfect , Kallen, truly. No wonder Zero spoke so highly of you. Throughout my life, I've known people loyal to the people they serve and people loyal to themselves. I've been someone loyal to the people I serve and loyal to myself. But someone who is loyal to an ideal, that is rare indeed. Zero showed me his face because he knew that I would not have helped him otherwise, but should his ideals fail, should he go mad with power and become a tyrant, I would not oppose him. That's why he needs people like you, who follow him for what he believes in, to keep him true. Zero wanted me to let you know that the trust he has for you goes beyond his mask and deeper than his face."

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Mao was stuck with his head in a beehive. The constant buzzing, chittering, chattering, maddening ceaseless wibble wobble, it was maddening. This is why I avoid crowds, he thought as he cranked up the volume on his headphones.

"I love you, Mao," the soft voice whispered. "Oh, Mao, you're so smart. Ah, there you are, Mao. Could you get that for me, Mao?"

And then, the voice fizzled and stopped. "What?" Dead batteries. "Lousy piece of junk." But a place this big had to have some batteries somewhere. "That guy doesn't pay me enough for this job." Or at all. "Cheapskate." I guess I'm too much of an occupational hazard to be credit worthy. The he saw a familiar face he had often seen though another's eyes. And speaking of occupational hazards…

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Orange wasn't really that bad, Kallen decided. Being a Britannian, Kallen expected him to be pompous, arrogant, and snooty like the rest of them…but they weren't all like that, were they? Some of her friends at school were just regular people worried about their own lives. Sure, they had an impressive tolerance for racial inequality, but they really had no more power to change it than anyone else, and a lot less incentive to do so.

"So, how's your new recruit doing?"

Kallen turned and saw one of the new guys, Mao, staring at her. At least, she thought so. He still wore that cheap visor over his eyes, and his smile was a bit too smug for her liking.

"Oh, he's fine," Kallen forced herself to say. "Uh, Zero wanted to talk to him about something."

"Show the new guy the ropes?"

"Sure."

"Just like he does with all the new recruits?"

Kallen gave him a hard look. "Alright, what is it?"

"You do know, of course, that your little friend crossed the point of no return this afternoon when you told him about us. If Zero gives him the thumbs up, he'll spend the rest of his life in fear and die a traitor to his country. And if Zero gives him the thumbs down, well, the little blind girl is going to spend the rest of her life wondering when her big brother's coming home."

What—but, how could you know that? "Shut up," she whispered. "Just shut up."

Mao kept on smiling and went on. "And that nice girl, Shirley, she'll cry." He laughed. "Like a sponge, she'll never stop, and never know what happened. But you'll know, not that you'll be able to tell anyone. Although, Zero's not the type to get his hands dirty. Kings and princes, sure, no problem, but students? Hey, maybe he'll get you to do it. You know, like a test of loyalty sort of thing. And besides, what are friends for?"

"Shut up, you disgusting, twisted little thing!" she yelled. "I don't know how or why you've looked up so much about my life, but let me tell you something, Mao. Zero doesn't work that way. It's not part of his 'Heroes of Justice' idea, and besides, he doesn't need to give me a 'test of loyalty,' because he already trusts me, okay? So you can just take your freaky, sick ideas, and stuff them up your scrawny backside, because no one wants to hear about them."

Mao just shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Well, of course Zero trusts you. He's not the one you've let down. Little Q-1 always follows orders, always does what she's told. Not like the good old days."

"What?"

Mao cleared his throat and spoke in a different voice, a voice he couldn't possible have heard, a voice Kallen had for so long heard only in her dreams. "I said pull back, Kallen, it's too dangerous." He pulled out a second voice, high pitched, girly, mocking. "Don't worry about me, big brother, I can handle this." "That's an order, Kallen. Get out of there, now!" "You never think I can do this, but you're wrong!"

Then, out of all things, Mao started giggling, like it was some terrific joke. "On a side note," he said suddenly. "Do you know where I could get some batteries? Mine just died."

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Usually when Lloyd and Cecile were busy designing their contraptions, Suzaku took the opportunity to get caught up on his homework problems. Cecile could translate for Lloyd when he tried to explain what the molecular structure of metal had to do with its ability to conduct electricity, and as the two of them designed Knightmares for a living, high school physics was nothing to them. But still, Suzaku found the way Lloyd could do sine functions in his head rather frightening.

Right now, however, Suzaku was working on a different problem. "If someone wanted to talk to Princess Euphemia without anyone overhearing, how would that work?" he asked. "Um, hypothetically speaking, of course."

"She's probably busy getting ready for the art show," Cecile replied. "What did you want to talk to her about?"

"Oh, nothing," he lied. "I was just…curious how it would be done." Yeah, that sounds convincing.

"Well, you did save her life once," Cecile said. "She'd probably spare you a moment if you asked her to."

"I didn't save her life more than anyone else," Suzaku protested.

"And you let her sister get captured," Lloyd added helpfully. "Though no more than any—ow! That's my leg!"

Cecile smiled sweetly. "You know, if you're not busy, why don't you turn this report in down at the office."

"Sure."

"And on your way back, take the opportunity to look at some of paintings on display. Some of them are pretty nice, and it'll be too crowded later on."

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The locked door vibrated with a well-placed kick. It was already dented, but it still held.

"When I get my crowbar, you'll be so dead you'll enter the afterlife on life support!" Kallen screamed. "If you think for one second that—Zero!"

There he was, black cape and all, right behind her.

"Uh, Zero, sir! This isn't…I was just…"

The door burst open and Mao stepped out of the bathroom. "Hey, Z-man!" he said cheerfully. "You were looking for me?"

Zero faced him, but didn't utter a word.

"Well, what did you expect me to do?" Mao asked, as if in reply. "No, I mean…sure, no problem…oh, yeah, I'll do that then." He sauntered off. "Oh, and by the way, you are a lot of fun, Kallen. We should do this again sometime."

Don't kill him, don't kill him, don't get in your Guren and crush him into a fine paste…

She forced herself to face her commander. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I shouldn't have lost my temper like that."

"Q-1," he said softly, without anger or judgment. "Don't let him get under your skin. It's what he's good at. It's what he does. I'm hoping that he'll prove to be more of an asset than a liability, and that will depend, more than anything else, on the mettle of my men."

He sounded tired, and suddenly very old. "I understand," Kallen said. "I won't let it happen again."

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Mao was waiting for him down the hall. "So, are we going to get started now or what?"

Was that really necessary? Zero asked.

"No, not really," he said with a shrug. "But then again, what is? And no, I'm not going to make this easy on you. It's your fault that I have to be here in this den of chattering idiots, and you have no idea what an uncontrollable Geass can do. And don't give me your nonsense about the Massacre Princess, you know that worked out too well for you to have been entirely accidental. I have to listen to Tamaki on the other side of the complex think about how much his butt itches. And you know what? It never stops."

Did you examine the prisoner?

"Oh yeah, yeah I did. She was still pretty loopy on sedatives, but I did find out that she hates your guts, she loves her little sister more than life itself, and her favorite color actually is purple. And you won't believe what her natural hair color is."

Anything…useful?

"What do you mean by useful? Oh. Well, like I said, she was still sedated. You'll have to wait until the Happy Drooling Monkey Princess can think straight before I can get you anything. What else?"

The Four Holy Swordsmen have contacted me. I did not expect this because Todoh was not captured, so they do not need our help. Perhaps they only wish to help us against our common enemy, but…

"But you don't want to take any chances."

You are not to speak, only to listen.

"Right, got it."

In fact, I want you in another room entirely.

Mao laughed. "Anything you like. By the way, you do know that when we have these one way conversations, to the casual observer, I'm the one who ends up looking crazy."

Yes, it amuses me.

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It felt good to be away from that horrid desk, with those horrible stacks of papers, in that horrible, wretched mess of politics. How Euphemia got involved in all this political mumbo jumbo in the first place, she would never understand.

Because Dad's the Emperor. Oh yes. That.

She wished that she could just look at the paintings that decorated the walls and enjoy them, but even the upcoming art show had politics in it. She had to give one of them an award, and if she awarded the wrong painting, people would talk. It would reflect what kind of ruler she was. She thought about picking one of Clovis's paintings, he had so many and it was his show, but people would take that to mean that she was mourning his death and not moving on in life like a good little viceroy, and that would be bad.

There was another painting she really liked. It had a nice little cottage in the woods, but it was painted by an Eleven, and if she picked it, then it would also be bad.

Another painting had her father, tall and bold, with his arm raised and his hand clenched in a fist. It was extremely accurate and more than a little frightening, and probably the most politically correct one out there, but there could be half a dozen reasons she didn't understand why that painting could be bad as well.

Then she saw a familiar face admiring one of Clovis's works. She glanced back at her body guards. "You know, I don't think I'm going to be assassinated in the middle of an art gallery before someone can sound the alarm. Why don't you take a break for a while?"

"Are you sure that's wise, your Highness?"

"I'm not going to sneak out a window when no one's looking again," she said with a forced laugh. "I just need a moment to…be me. Alright?"

Her guards nodded in agreement. "Understood your Highness. Take your time."

The painting Suzaku was looking at was the one Clovis made of Empress Marianne and her children, Lelouch and Nunnally.

"My brother painted that after those two died," Euphemia said. "See, that's why they're all together and smiling, because Empress Marianne died a year earlier."

"Princess Euphemia!" he said with a jump. "I'm sorry, I—"

"It's okay," she said quickly. Why were people always like that? When he just knew her as Euphie, he gave her all the respect she needed. But when she became Princess Euphemia…it wasn't even that. It was PRINCESS…something or other, and that was it. After that, everyone was sputtering incoherent apologies, worried that she was going to have them gunned down for looking at her weird.

"Those two children died here, you know," she said softly. "They came here as political hostages, then the war happened and…"

"Yes, I know," Suzaku replied. "They stayed with my family while they were here?"

"They did? Oh, right, they were sent to the Japanese prime minister's family, and you're his…yes, that's right."

Suzaku seemed to be easing up a bit more. And you two would have been about the same age, wouldn't you? Euphemia thought, looking at a ten year old Lelouch standing with his mother and little sister. He seemed so happy in that painting…although, the last time she saw him, after his mother's death, he wasn't happy at all. His eyes seemed so dark, so vengeful.

Don't die with those hateful eyes, she prayed. Please.

"Suzaku?" she asked. "Were they…were they happy here?"

"I remember…whenever Nunnally went anywhere, Lelouch was right behind her, describing everything she couldn't see. She didn't have anything, but she seemed content with that. And Lelouch…after we got to know each other, he tried to teach me to play chess, proclaimed me to be a hopeless case after a few weeks, and proceeded to trounce all of my father's military strategists."

Euphemia laughed out loud. "That is so like him!"

"I remember when I was a kid, most of the other kids my age were intimidated because of who my father was and expected me to be a miniature version of him."

I couldn't possibly imagine what that's like, she thought with a smile.

"But Lelouch…I don't know if he ran into that sort of thing before hand and was sick of it, or coming from the world's number one superpower he didn't think that the leader of Japan was powerful enough to be intimidating, but either way, he wouldn't have any of that nonsense. He was, actually, the best friend I've ever had."

They both stared at the painting until Euphemia broke the silence. "Um, when he was here, Lelouch didn't, well, mention me or anything, did he?"

"Actually he did," Suzaku said. "He wanted me to tell you something."

"Really?" It seemed nearly impossible that Lelouch could have predicted that she would have come here several years after his death for Suzaku to tell her anything at all, but then again... "What was it?"

Suzaku looked around first to make sure no one was listening before he answered.

"Can you keep a secret?"

WWW

a/n Well, here it is. I actually laughed a few times while I was editing it. The other day I was reading the reviews for this story, you people are awesome, by the way, and I started thinking, "The next chapters already half done, there are all these people wanting to know what happens in the story you've deliberately drawn them into, and you spend your time playing videogames, you jerk." And so I've successfully guilt tripped myself into finishing this.

Some people have commented that Lelouch doesn't seem as smart in this story as he does in the cannon. Well, there are two very good reasons. First of all, I can only tell you about his plans beforehand if they later fail, because if they fail you need to know why, and if they succeed, telling you would kill the suspense. Also, I can't write a character smarter than myself without taking the laws of physics and probability and throwing them out the window, which I try to avoid.

By the way, does anyone know the names of Euphemia's body guards? There are two of them, a guy and a girl, and I can't find their names anywhere.

Oh well. Thanks for being awesome. If no one read or reviewed, I would have started doing something else ages ago.