Your Past, My Future
Chapter 11
a/n I own nothing, at least that's copy righted. You know, since this story is set in Area Eleven, should I do something special for the eleventh chapter? On the other hand, the main character is Zero, and I skipped chapter zero entirely.
An antic grandfather clock ticked in the hallway. Lelouch resisted the urge to smash it. He shouldn't be this nervous, he told himself, but he couldn't help it. He hadn't seen Euphemia since he murdered her, and she hadn't seen him since he was ten. She was his greatest mistake, and for Lelouch's plan to work, he would have to draw her into things again.
The doorbell rang. Euphie and Suzaku stood behind the door. Lelouch paused for a moment, freezing into his memory the image of the two of them. As soon as they stepped inside, he'd make pawns of them, and they'd never be the same.
"Lelouch!" Euphie threw her arms around him. "It is you! You're…really tall."
"Euphie, you haven't changed a bit," he replied.
"I…haven't? Really?"
"Not since I saw you on the news yesterday. Come in."
Suzaku hesitated by the doorway. "I don't want to intrude on your family reunion. I'll just wait outside."
"Get in here, Suzaku, you'll do no such thing," Lelouch said. "We're all friends here, and if this were a real family reunion, I'd be pretending to be dead."
Euphemia laughed as she walked in, then stopped dead when she saw Nunnally.
"Euphemia," Nunnally said with a smile. "Is that really you?"
Euphemia didn't move. Of course, Lelouch realized. The last time they saw each other, Nunnally could walk and see. Euphie knew she was still blind, but must have somehow figured that she could walk again.
"Take her hand," Lelouch whispered.
She nodded, snapping back into focus. "Nunnally! I could barely recognize you. Last time I saw you were just a little girl, and now you're a young woman!"
"And you're the viceroy!"
Euphemia's smile faltered, and although Nunnally couldn't see it, she seemed to sense it anyway.
"But, you never wanted to be, did you?" she said softly.
"I'm in over my head," Euphie admitted. "Cornelia wasn't planning to step down until after the Zero business cooled down, and now…well, a warzone was never my forte."
"No," Lelouch said sitting down, "but I've noticed that fighting fire with fire isn't nearly as effective as water."
Euphemia sat down too. "What do you mean?"
"I'll tell you," he said. "But first, let me ask you a question. Do you think that Suzaku is going to sit down some time tonight, or is he just going to stand over there and loom?"
Suzaku caught himself and sat down quickly, awkwardly. He'd been as stiff as a soldier the whole evening, for some reason. Did he not feel like he belonged here? He had been in love with Euphemia before she died, and knowing Suzaku, that had probably happened when they first met.
"He saved my life a couple months ago," Lelouch said offhandedly.
"He did?" Euphemia asked. She turned to Suzaku. "You did?"
"He's making it sound like a bigger deal than it was," Suzaku mumbled.
"You did take a bullet for me," Lelouch said.
"Wait, start at the beginning," Nunnally instructed. "I never heard this story either."
"Well, do you remember the Shinjuku incident?" he began.
"Yes," Euphie replied. "I visited the ruins there when I first arrived."
"Well, I was there when it happened. I was on my way home when the terrorists and the military started fighting, and my luck dropped me in the middle of it. A squad of soldiers found me, and their officer gave the order to shoot first and identify the bodies later."
"Oh dear."
"He took out a handgun, and I imagine in order to avoid the blame if I turned out to be innocent, handed it to Suzaku and ordered him to fire."
"Oh dear."
"So Suzaku, being Suzaku, gave his commanding officer the gun back and told him he could shove it where the sun doesn't shine."
"That's not what I said," Suzaku protested.
"That was the gist of it," Lelouch replied. "Though maybe giving him his gun back wasn't your best idea, after he, you know, shot you."
"I got better," he said, trying not to meat Euphemia's admiring gaze.
Sayoko came in and served them tea.
"But anyway, fire and water," Lelouch said.
"Oh, please, Lelouch, I don't want to trouble you with my problems."
"Don't be silly. I don't want to draw you into my problems either, but I would if I had to. Anyway, I assume that you have advisors telling you how to handle the Zero problem. They're saying that you can defeat Zero through sheer military power. Draw him out of hiding, lay a few traps perhaps, and finish him off. He started this war, and when he'd dead, it will all end."
Euphie nodded. "That's almost exactly what they tell me."
"And they're all wrong. Zero didn't start this war. This is a continuation of what started seven years ago, and all the rage and pride and dreams of the Japanese people are made manifest in the Black Knights. You could try to kill him. They'd probably just put another man in a mask and a cape and keep up the façade, though, and the man's slippery. Cornelia tried to kill him, and she's better at that sort of thing than you are. Consider, though, the alternative. If you cut off the head of a snake, the rest does stop moving, but the same thing happens if you cut out its heart."
"They aren't fighting for revenge, no matter what people tell you," he continued. "You kick a man when he's down for revenge, but you don't tackle a giant. They're fighting for a better future. I could kill Suzaku right now if I wanted to, and the police would take my word for it that I had a good reason to. Is there any justice in that? In any of that?" He tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "But the Britannians allow it because it is convenient for them, and they're the ones with the biggest guns. But what if you changed that? If you give them a place where they can be Japanese instead of just Elevens, where they can be treated like human beings, you will be the hero that Zero never could be. The people will withdraw their support, and the Black Knights will fall."
Euphemia opened her mouth and closed it again. "That could work," she whispered. "It could, and even if it doesn't stop Zero, it would…but that's a huge change. I can make simple laws, but even as the viceroy, I don't have that kind of power."
"No, but as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures," Lelouch said. "Zero managed to kill or capture both of you predecessors in the last few months, and people are scared. If you tried this during a time of peace, the people would laugh at you, but if they think you have a plan that can restore order, they'll be tempted. Who does have the authority to do this?"
"Schneizel."
"Oh, well in that case there should be no problem. I remember playing him in chess when we were younger. He would never accept trades just to clear the board, and even when I lost, I still had more than half my pawns."
Euphemia frowned.
"He doesn't like senseless violence or excessive use of force," Lelouch translated. "It's inelegant."
"Ah." She paused for a moment. "Do you…do you think that Cornelia is still alive?"
"Of course. I doubt she's comfortable, but if they killed her, they'd gloat."
"Good, because when she's free, she's going to want to see you again."
"Will she? I remember that you were always her favorite sister, and she was always kind to Nunnally, but besides that all I can remember about her is the time she threw me in a lake."
"I remember that!" Nunnally said.
"Wait, what happened?" Suzaku asked.
"Cornelia picked me up, and threw me in a lake," Lelouch explained.
"No, I mean why."
"Lelouch put a frog on my head," Euphemia said.
"You did?" Suzaku asked. "That doesn't seem like you at all."
"I didn't know you could scream that loud," Nunnally said to Euphemia.
"I was five," Lelouch replied defensively to Suzaku. "Five-year-olds aren't known for their excessive intelligence."
"Wait, you couldn't have been five," Euphemia said. "I know I was seven at the time, making you, what? Eight? Anyway, why are we talking about this? Oh yeah, of course Cornelia would love to see you again. She was devastated when she heard that you two had died. We all were." She fell silent for a moment. "Do you think you'll ever come back home?"
"This is my home."
"You know what I mean, Lelouch. I know you didn't leave…on the best of terms, but we're your family. What harm could it do?"
What harm could it do? It could do a wonderful amount of harm, if he planned it right, and Zero usually did. There was enough snake in him to make his way through that nest of vipers, and once he was there, how hard would it be to smuggle in the most loyal of the Black Knights as his personal guard? Heck, with his Geass, he wouldn't even need his Knights. Even if the emperor knew what he could do, from the inside Lelouch could reduce the imperial palace to a smoking ruin.
And Nunnally would be with him every step of the way.
Lelouch shook his head. He would risk his life, he would risk the lives of his knights, but he would not risk hers. "No, not now. Later, maybe." When the emperor is dead.
"Oh. Okay, but Lelouch? Clovis was killed a few months ago thinking you were dead. Don't take too long."
"I won't."
Euphemia looked at the clock. "Well, it's getting late. I should get going. It's been nice seeing you again."
"Don't be a stranger," Lelouch said getting up. "Our doors are always open."
"Oh, I'll be back," she said. "Now that I know where you live. Now that I know that you live."
Suzaku and Euphemia left, but Euphie stopped and turned around. She looked thoughtful. "Lelouch? You're right. If it weren't for Zero, I wouldn't have a chance of getting your idea passed." She gave him a meaningful look. "Is Cornelia really alright?"
Lelouch narrowed his eyes. Euphemia nodded seriously. His eyes widened. She figured it out! She managed to do it again. Either he had underestimated her or he was getting sloppy. Not that it mattered, though. She didn't turn against him last time she found out that he was Zero, and nothing substantial had changed this time around—except that Cornelia was his prisoner. Hopefully that wouldn't make a big difference. Even then, he still had his Geass.
"I doubt Zero's so foolish as to mess with someone like her," he said.
She grinned broadly. "I knew it!"
Suzaku, who had gone ahead to get the car door for her, turned around. "Knew what?"
"It's nothing," Lelouch said quickly. "By the way, are those snipers on that rooftop over there?"
"Yeah, they follow me around everywhere," Euphemia said casually. "Just ignore them. They're pretending to be invisible."
"Comforting." They drove away, and Lelouch stayed outside on his porch long after everyone else had left. "Well, I did it," he said to the darkness. "I promised to help you with the Special Administration Zone, and I did." He smiled. "What's the point of repeating history if you can't fix your mistakes?" Euphemia had no idea what she was getting into with her project. She was a remarkable person in many ways, and had been the only person to trounce him so completely before Lelouch realized that he didn't have to win against her. And yet, she was so perfectly innocent that she thought that you could drop a stone in a lake and not get a few ripples.
"But what do I know?" he said to himself. He'd been wrong before. Maybe the Special Administration Zone wouldn't be a complete disaster again. Maybe this unending catastrophe of war and death would end, and peace would be won through peace. That would be horribly anticlimactic, and Lelouch hoped it wouldn't end that way. Well, at least mostly.
His phone rang.
"Ohgi?
"Zero, sir," he answered. "We are ready to invade Kaminejima Island. We can leave as soon as you get here."
Kaminejima Island, the Island of the gods. Everything ended there for Zero, twice. He could get to the Sword of Akasha from there, maybe even the emperor himself. Lelouch smiled to himself. He could find a new beginning there this time, or, if he really did meet the emperor, end it all.
"Sir?" Ohgi asked. "What exactly do you expect to find there?"
Zero didn't often share details with his men. For all they knew, it could be a drill, or they could be charging into the jaws of death. He respected the way they followed him regardless.
"I expect everything, Ohgi," he said. "I'll be there within the hour."
WWW
Mao spun around in his swively chair. Some people could focus on a swively chair, but Mao couldn't even finish a game of FreeCell. It was all about perspective. He couldn't tell himself that the room was spinning around a stationary point, not when his stomach was doing calisthenics. A lot of people had different perspectives. Most of them were wrong.
Todoh flickered toward him, or at least it looked like that with him walking and Mao spinning. Mao stepped out of the chair and stood still until the room stopped spinning. Todoh thought disparaging thoughts, but waited patiently.
"Todotodoh," Mao said. "Dotoh. Todoh." He extended his hand. "Mao."
Todoh examined the hand for a bit longer than polite before taking it. "I understand you're the head of interrogation."
"Torso too," he replied. "I'm still working on the limbs, though. And I suppose you're just familiarizing yourself with everyone else in this merry band of heroes." He dug through the man's darkest memories. One of these days he'd meet someone who had never done anything he was ashamed of, and then Mao would be fantastically screwed. It hadn't happened yet.
"I suppose, yes," Todoh said evenly.
Filthy liar. "And you are not at all investigating our enigmatic executive, and certainly not trying to pin a murder on him."
For an instant Todoh's face twitched—a slight narrowing of the eyes—but the moment passed, and his face was once again carved from stone—as if that made a difference. "Now why would I do that?"
Mao realized that he was probably smiling more than he should, but he couldn't help it. "You tell me. You had the word 'bloodhound' written behind your faces from the moment you got here."
"Zero had the most to gain. It could have been Britannia, but there's no point in assassinating the leader of one organization without the other. Perhaps whoever tried to kill Zero failed, or hasn't happened yet. I do not accuse him. I only wish to know the truth."
If you knew half the truth, you'd kill him on sight. Of course, if he knew the other half, he'd kill Mao too.
"Well, if you want to know about Zero, you've come to the right guy. Anyone else you talk to is going to be lying or wrong." Todoh and the Four Holy Swords had already talked to several people, C.C. included. She got fed up with them pretty quickly, and when push came to shove came to blatant accusation, she told them that she did not enjoy her stay as a prisoner of the JLF, she did not care that their leaders were killed, and she cared even less who did it. Mao grinned. She could stare down a lion when she wanted to. "But as for me, I know Zero better than I know myself."
Zero thought that as he left Mao something to entertain himself with, he wouldn't cause any trouble. The inconsistency with that idea could hold several coffins.
"Do you think he did it?"
He could get Todoh to kill Zero, but what would be the point? It would be as much fun as going to the police, and nearly as inelegant.
"Zero kills people," Mao said. "He's not afraid to get his hands dirty, in fact, it's almost like he goes out of his way to keep everyone else's hands clean."
Todoh raised an eyebrow. "Go on."
There wasn't any point in winning if you didn't have fun, and Mao wasn't sure that he wanted to win at all. You could die or watch the credits scroll down, but either way, a game over was a game over.
"You know what I'm saying? What I'm really trying to say is this." Kallen. She worshiped the ground Zero walked on; she'd jump when he said jump, and hover until he said land, and where there was love, there was at least as much hate. And if you cut someone up and put her back together inside out, she was still the same person. There was little difference between a saint and a psychopath from the right perspective, and maybe only Mao knew that he was neither. He was just enjoying the game. "Zero knows how to cook."
"Cook?"
If he could get Kallen to kill him, the only thing better would be to get Nunnally to do it. All the parts were already there, and it would be enough of a challenge to be interesting. He grinned. "Yes. Lasagna, cake, pizza. He can cook it all. Me, I can't cook anything. Never eat anything I cook. It might kill you. The only thing that I can make that isn't fatal is cyanide, and let me tell you, nothing is more awkward than having someone ask you what you're laughing at instead of dying."
Cook up a plan, cook up a scheme… Todoh struggled to find some hidden meaning behind his words. Mao managed not to laugh.
WWW
Kallen checked and rechecked the systems of the Guren. She hadn't had a chance to use it in a real fight since Narita, and she had started to hunger again for the speed and power she experienced before.
"I take it you are Kallen."
Kallen turned around and saw a dark skinned Indian woman with blonde hair and a white lab coat. "Yeah," she replied. "You're new?"
The woman nodded. "Mostly I followed my child here."
"You have a kid here?" Kallen asked. The woman couldn't have been older than thirty. "How old is he?"
"Seven months, almost to the day," she said, stroking the painted metal of the Guren.
It clicked. "Oh, you mean you designed my Knightmare," Kallen realized. "Wait, you designed my Knightmare? That's amazing!"
"You're too kind," she said. "My name's Rakshata, by the way. I'd like to know how the Guren performs in combat."
"What can I say? The Guren's perfect."
Rakshata laughed. "Perfect? If it were perfect, I wouldn't have been able to design it, and you wouldn't have been able to pilot it. No one could. Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing you pilot it firsthand tonight."
"You're coming with us?"
"Of course. There wouldn't be much point to raiding a Britannian research facility without a scientist present."
"So Kaminejima is a research facility now?" Kallen asked, sounding more bitter than she meant to. "First I've heard about it. Of course, no one told where we were going until today." It shouldn't bother her. It wasn't like she needed to know, and the less people who knew, the less chance information could be leaked, but Zero trusted her, didn't he? That green-haired woman probably knew, and that creep Mao…
"I know exactly what you mean," Rakshata laughed. "Kids and their secrets. He'll grow out of it eventually."
"How do you know how old he is?" Kallen asked. "No one even knows what he looks like."
She shrugged, tapping her pipe. "No, but I talked to him. His Hindi is pretty basic, but his English is almost as good as his Japanese, if not better."
Kallen shrugged. "So is mine." She didn't have an accent that anyone at school could notice, and no one knew she was half Britannian unless she told them. She realized that Rakshata probably didn't.
"Exactly," Rakshata continued. "So if Zero speaks both perfectly, and he started learning English seven years ago after the Britannians took over, then he couldn't be much older than you."
Kallen wasn't sure what she thought of that idea. In a way it made since. Kallen had made up a background for Zero, about how he had fought during the first war and was back for revenge, but if he was old enough seven years ago, why did he wait until now? On the other hand, giving Zero a precise age felt wrong somehow, like trying to make him merely human. She knew she was being irrational, but people failed. Zero would have to be a lot more than human to keep his impossible promises, and to tie him down with human things like an age…
"A lot of people learned English before the Brits made us," she said, a little defensively.
Rakshata shrugged. "It's just a theory. Even if I'm right, it wouldn't make a difference."
"Still, you shouldn't share it with people. Some people might not like the idea of following someone my age."
She frowned. "What difference would his age make if he wins?"
"None, but people are, you know, funny that way."
Rakshata put her pipe back in her mouth without comment as Zero's voice came over the intercom. "Black Knights, load into the submarine. We are ready to move out."
Kallen grinned as she jumped into the cockpit. Finally.
WWW
Kallen was the heart of the inferno, her right hand the grip of destruction, and her footprints the marks of ruin. The Sutherland before her swelled like a cancerous tumor and exploded into flame, and the flame dispersed into nothing.
Oh how I've missed this! Kallen thought as the futile resistance of the island's standing forces scattered. She duck and wove around the remaining gunfire and latched her claw onto another KightmareShe was done running, done hiding. She was fury and vengeance and—the battlefield fell silent. Kallen looked around and realized that the last enemy Knightmare had fallen. Well, that was easy, she thought, slightly disappointed. Behind her, the machines lay cut to pieces and shot full of holes, but half of them were warped and melted by her hand.
"You fight well," Todoh said from his Knightmare.
"Um, thanks," she said. She grew up hearing stories about the famous miracle man, and how he had managed to win a battle against Britannia without any Knightmare frames. It felt weird meeting a childhood hero, and even more leaving him in the dust.
They drove into the cave where the research facility was. The scientists and remaining soldiers were huddled in a corner trying not to look frightening. In the back was a huge black and gold Knightmare that, despite the battle that just ended, wasn't even being used.
"Ah, the Gawain," Zero said, as though he recognized it. "And right on schedule too. My compliments to Schneizel's R. and D."
"Wait, so we invaded this place just to get you a new Knightmare?" Tamaki asked. "What's so great about that one?"
"It is the first and only eighth generation Knightmare to date."
"So they're up to eight now," Tamaki noted. "And it's three times as big. Can that thing even move?"
"It can fly."
Tamaki stopped dead. "Can I have one?"
"We'll see how long it takes to reverse engineer it."
Rakshata arrived behind the forces with C.C., Mao, and the other noncombatants. "Flying isn't the problem," she said. "Making it energy efficient is the only tricky part. I'll have it ready in a month." She frowned. "But I'm on the verge of a breakthrough with the Gefjun Disturber, and I don't want to push that back again."
"So are we just taking the thing and getting out of here?" Kallen asked.
"Not at all," Zero replied, descending from his Knightmare. "Squads Zero and One, stay here and watch the prisoners, everyone else, I want you guarding the entrance. Rakshata, we don't have much time before reinforcements arrive, but gather as much information as you can from what they were researching here. Mao, get what you can from the prisoners and help Rakshata however possible. C.C., if you could assist me…"
C.C. and Zero approached something attached to the wall. It seemed to be a large and intricate door made entirely out of metal, but Kallen didn't see any way of opening it short of breaking it down.
They stood in front of it. "Any ideas?"
C.C. shook her head. "I've never seen this one before. You'd know how to fix it better than I would."
"I've never fixed one of these before. You have."
"That was a different me."
"So? If you've done it before, you can do it again."
"I could figure it out, but that would take more time than we have," C.C. replied. "Although…the thought elevator is based off of memory and thought, so try remembering what it was like last time."
"I am remembering."
"Well, remember harder."
Kallen shook her head. Here they were in a secret enemy research facility, and all Zero wanted to do was stare at a wall. He probably had a good reason, but the only thing more boring at staring at a wall was staring at someone else staring at a wall. Off to the side, Rakshata was trying to hack onto one of the computers.
"Well, the password's not 'pudding,'" she muttered. "I guess that proves that he isn't in charge of this." Rakshata turned to Mao. "Could you do me a favor and squeeze the password out of our prisoners?"
"Sure thing." Mao turned to a group of prisoners huddled together with their heads down and called out, "Hey, you, egghead in the middle. Yes, Eddie, I'm talking to you. What's the password?"
One of the Britannian's looked up from the group incredulously and more than a little frightened. "How did you know my name?"
Mao shrugged. "How do you know your name? Actually, password first, then name."
"Um, you understand, sir, that with security protocols and all, I do not know the access codes. Only one member of each lab unit has the codes, and he, um—"
"Died," another Britannian supplied. "Killed himself a few minutes ago."
"Right," the first man, Eddie apparently, continued. "Security protocol, sir, mandatory suicide and all. I'm sorry I can't be of assistance."
"Ah, that's too bad," Mao said sympathetically. "Did your imaginary friend stuff himself in the imaginary incinerator too? Or is there a real incinerator here?"
"Uh—"
"Hold that thought." Mao turned back to Rakshata. "It's trombone. Every other letter is upper-case, and the last E is a three."
"What?" Eddie squawked. "But—why did you ask me what the code was if you already knew?"
"Yeah, a lot of things don't make sense," Mao said conversationally. "Oh lookee, shiny lights!"
Without warning, brilliant red light flooded the room through the cracks on the wall Zero was working with.
"What the—I think I missed something," Kallen gasped to herself.
C.C. smiled smugly at Zero. "Told you."
"I don't know what I'd do without your centuries of experience in trans-dimensional travel."
C.C. laughed lightly. "Shall we get going then? If we leave now, we can kill the emperor and get back before it's time to go."
Zero hesitated, then shook his head. "I will go, but I'll go alone."
C.C. narrowed her eyes. "I won't have you die on me. I'm not going to interfere with your ambitions, but when you start taking foolish risks—"
"I've considered the risks. The emperor cannot finish his project without you, and I'd make terrible bait if I were dead. You can protect me best by staying here."
"Hold on a second!" Kallen called out, getting out of the Guren. "I really don't understand half of what you're talking about, but it sounds like you have a dangerous plan to kill the emperor, you're going to do it alone, and you want to leave behind about a hundred people who would be willing to die for you."
C.C. looked at Kallen as though she had never seen before, then turned back to Zero. "Hey, I have an idea," she said. "Why don't you take her with you? She's more expendable than you are."
"Yeah, I—I don't like the way you phrased that, but yes, if I can come with you, I'd rather go than stay here waiting to see whether you come back alive."
Zero paused to consider that before giving in. "Do you still have your visor?"
"My visor?" Before they had decent funding, the Black Knights all wore visors to cover their faces. "Yeah, I have one in the cockpit."
"Wear it," Zero instructed. "You will keep your eyes covered at all times. Also, I'm afraid you will have to leave the Guren here."
She stopped. "I can't take it with me?"
C.C. laughed. "You'll be going up a thought elevator," she said, as though that should mean something to her. "If it can't think, it can't come with you."
Kallen shrugged. She fought against Britannia long before she had a Knightmare to pilot. "Okay, I'm ready."
"Good," Zero said. "Orange!"
Jeremiah pivoted his Knightmare towards them. He hadn't gotten out of it since they came here. "Yes sir?"
"Q-1 and I will be gone for a moment. If Britannian reinforcements arrive while we're gone, take the Guren, the Gawain, and everyone else and leave. Do not fight or engage the enemy to buy us time, just leave. If I do not contact you within the week, I have further instructions in my office which I want disclosed."
Orange hesitated, but only slightly. "Understood sir."
Zero turned back to Kallen. "Q-1, if you will come this way?"
Kallen stood with Zero before the glowing wall. Looking closely, she expected to see some control panel, but there wasn't even a power cord. Though if Zero could kill a tyrant on the other side of the world with it…she realized that she understood none of what was going on. But she didn't need to. As long as Zero was in charge of everything, it'd all work out. "So, how does this thing work?" she asked as the red light started getting brighter.
"It's odd, actually," he said. "After all the times I've used this, I have no idea."
WWW
There was no sun in C's World, but the clouds illuminated the Sword of Akasha with the orange light of a perpetual dawn. The shrine looked different from the last two times he was there, but beyond superficial differences in the stone structures, there was no emperor. Zero sighed and closed the eye slot of his mask.
No luck to speak of, he cursed. He knew it was a slight chance to begin with, catching the Emperor alone in is personal study, but a little luck could change the entire course of the war. He didn't have nearly enough resources to take on the entire Britannian army, but he'd just have to find another way to assassinate the old tyrant.
Because Kallen was here, he should have pulled out a gun for the sake of appearances, but it wouldn't make a difference, really. Kallen pulled out her gun instinctively before she even realized where they were, but finding no enemies, she started looking around.
"Holy crap!" she said, looking over the edge. "We're floating! How are we floating? Where are we?"
"Alone, unfortunately," Zero replied. "This is a project the Emperor is working on, and he frequents the place occasionally. It was a slim chance that I'd catch him here, but it was not a chance I could pass up."
"So, you've actually met the guy before? In person?"
He dropped hints occasionally, though mostly just for the air of mystery. "Yes. There is…history between us. And blood. A great deal of it, but there will be much more before I'm finished."
"What…what is this place for?" Kallen seemed dazed, overwhelmed. Zero might have been the first time he came here too, if the emperor had not been there to focus him with hatred, and he hadn't had previous experience with what could only be described as magic.
"I confess I know little about this world, but this structure is called the Sword of Akasha." Zero kept an eye on the entrance. They didn't have time to waste here, but if the Emperor arrived, then it wouldn't matter whether they made it back. "With this, he means to kill death, individual consciousness, time. Life, too, by association. I think he imagines that he can recreate the world to make up for all the senseless wars he's caused."
"Huh."
Zero hesitated. The chance of the emperor strolling in here was slim, and the chance that Britannian reinforcements would arrive on the island was definite. "We should go, Q-1. We're wasting time here."
"Na…o…to."
Zero turned quickly. "What?"
Kallen stood at the edge of the abyss with one foot over the edge. Her visor dangled from her fingertips as she stared, as though dreaming, at nothing. Naoto? He was Kallen's brother, wasn't he? He led her resistance cell before Ohgi. "Q-1? It's too dangerous to stay here. We should leave."
Kallen stared off into the distance. "Can…Naoto come with us?"
"What? There's no one out there."
"Yes he is," she protested. "He's right here, I can hear him!" She reached outwards about to fall off the edge.
"What are you doing?" Zero grabbed onto her shoulder and tried to pull her back. He knew there were risks to bringing her here, but he didn't expect this. Was there a defense here against people who didn't have a Geass? No, Suzaku could come here.
"He's…right…here."
"You're brother's dead, Q-1," he shouted. "Throwing yourself off a cliff won't change that! Kallen, please! I need you."
She gasped for breath as though she were underwater and fell backwards into his arms. Her visor fell off the edge into oblivion. "I—I can still hear him."
"We should go."
She nodded and they started for the exit. Kallen stopped and glanced over her shoulder. "You really didn't hear anything?"
"No."
"But—"
"Q-1, I owe you an explanation, and I promise that I will give it to you, but this is neither the time nor the place for one."
"Right, Zero. Of course, Zero. I'm right behind you."
They went down the thought elevator and found the research lab just as they had left it.
"Well, it looks like someone had fun at the family reunion," Mao grinned.
Zero glared at him. He had gone too far—no, he was referring to Kallen. "Orange, have the reinforcements arrived yet?"
"No, Zero sir," Jeremiah replied. "We have time yet."
"Good. Rakshata, have you gotten everything you need?"
"Sure, sure. We got the major access codes, and we'll just take the computers with us."
"Mao, do the scientists know anything important?"
"Important? That depends. Cassio knows how to juggle, and Antony can do a rubix cube. So no, they don't."
"Then there's no point in bringing them with us."
As the others left, C.C. worked the thought elevator back to how it was before, and Zero had a few words with the huddled scientists about what they did and did not see.
WWW
It was getting late when they returned to their base, even by Zero's standards. It was nearly four in the morning, but instead of worrying about getting a decent night's sleep—a lost cause by now—he was stalling. He smiled bitterly behind his mask. He was terrified, really, he dreaded what he was going to do, but he couldn't do otherwise without sowing his own destruction.
"What they were working on was amazing," Rakshata went on, continuing her report enthusiastically. "Crude, occasionally, and unethical without question, but amazing. The Druid System AI is unlike anything I've ever seen, and the neural interface system could revolutionize Knightmare frames, if you don't mind getting your head cut open for the cerebral implants. Again, unethical." She paused. "I also found a great deal about something called a 'Geass canceller,' and as much as I don't want to discount someone else's research as superstitious nonsense, but it seems like a lot of superstitious nonsense, unless someone…tries to kill you with magic."
Zero wasn't sure if he could restore Jeremiah to his former state, or even if he wanted to, but the Geass canceller would be useful against the Geass Directorate.
"How much longer until the Gefjun Disturber is operational?"
Rakasha shrugged. "It can handle a diameter of thirty meters or so, but it will be a while before its ready for the scale you want."
"If you installed the generators into a moving circuit, would that help the range?"
She frowned. "Like a whirlpool, you mean? It could work, I suppose. What do you have in mind? Are you going to attach the generators to a bunch of Knightmares and have them run around everyone?"
"I like to know my options. That is all, then."
Rakshata nodded and exited his office. Kallen was waiting outside. Zero motioned her to enter. She looked anxious, more off balance than he had ever seen her. No, she had been like this once, that night that ended the Black Rebellion, with his mask in pieces at his feet.
"I would like to ask you a few questions about what happened on the Sword of Akasha."
She nodded and sat down.
"The Sword of Akasha allows access to the mutual consciousness of the human race," Zero explained. The Emperor seeks to change that consciousness to eliminate all separation. There would be no difference between the living and the dead, there would be no lies—" He stopped, considering something that he had never thought of before. Would he…no, he wouldn't oppose C.C. in that matter. Or…either way, that was for another time. "There would be no lies, except the ones people tell themselves, although I know little else except that the emperor does not have everything he needs to commence Ragnarok." He paused. "I understand you encountered your brother."
She nodded, but didn't speak.
"Did you see him or just hear him?"
"I heard him," she whispered. She fell into a grin. "Sorry, I'm a little freaked out by all of this. I was fine until…yeah."
"Could you hear anyone else?"
"No."
"Could he hear you?"
"I…I don't know. I could barely hear anything at first, then I thought I was just imagining it, then I started listening for it, and…and he seemed so scared, like he was drowning, and ready to pull me under just to breathe." She took a deep breath to stop trembling. "Do you think that the emperor can really…"
Zero shook his head. "Memories are integral to that plane of existence. And when someone dies, death corrupts the mind so even your memories are tainted by it." He thought of Shirley, lying in her own blood, even though he saw her at school every day, and Nunnally, on the final day, lost in that impossible explosion, now at home. And there was his own mother, riddled with bullets and put in her coffin, waiting for him with a smile on the Sword of Akasha ready to destroy the world.
"Nothing can bring them back," he whispered. "But it is interesting how you could communicate with a deceased blood relative." None of his family did, but he did shoot Clovis and Euphemia personally, and he doubted that they would want to talk to him afterwards. And Nunnally, well, he was as responsible for her death as for everyone's. "Let us assume that the emperor can do the same. He would have been able to talk to Clovis minutes after I killed him."
"So?" Kallen asked. "You never tried to hide it."
"No, but I killed him before I had my mask."
Kallen gasped. "Did he recognize you?"
"I assumed that the dead would keep their secrets, which they apparently do not. And if Clovis knows, then the emperor knows. And if my enemies know who I am, I have no reason to keep anything from my friends."
He had nothing to be afraid of, at least that's what he wanted to believe. And if Kallen was going to find out, it would be best for her to find out on his terms. Lelouch took off his mask.
WWW
a/n Huh, I guess I did do something special for chapter eleven. That was completely unintentional, but so was everything else. Just to clear things up, yes I do mean to finish this story in the next chapter, but just like the anime had a sequel, so will this. And as much as I like cliff hangers, I will not end it like in the anime. I mean really, how can you end something mid-gunfire? What kind of ending is that anyway? A dramatic cliffhanger, now, that's different. Also, before you ask why Lelouch would help Euphemia do something that could destroy the Black Knights, well, first of all, he promised to help her with the Special Administration Zone, and despite his lies, repeating history is his chance to keep the promises he couldn't before. Also, it works out with his own plans, which you'll see later. I don't know much about the Sword of Akasha, so a lot of that I'm making up, but the Emperor mentions speaking to Clovis posthumously, and after Euphie dies, the first thing the Emperor says is, "He did it!" Or maybe the Emperor is crazy and hallucinates occasionally.