The Black Queen

I sped through the ghetto at top speed. Glancing out of the corner of my energy filler status. This damn red, one-armed Glasgow - crappy as it was - was my ticket to meeting with Lelouch again. As expected, the warning light pinged on, indicating the presence of less than half an hour of juice left in that Sakuradite battery. Everything had happened as I'd remembered it so far...Not that there was a whole lot to remember or her memory was that great, but I was being chased by two Sutherlands just as I had been, and I was in the same general area. So, any moment now, I should hear his voice. Calm and commanding, directing me to the West Entrance and directing me to my victory. Except this victory? This one is insignificant now. We would do so much together again. And this time? We would do it right. I would not doubt him. I would not betray him again.

I debated heading for the train tracks myself, remembering the plan of fending off the two Sutherlands. Hell, with my skills as they were now, even in this hulking piece of crap, I could probably take the pair myself. But any deviation from the script now could scare Lelouch off. At least until he'd given me my beloved codename. Q-1. His queen. His most powerful and most trusted piece...At one time I considered that an insult. I was nothing put a piece on a board game to him. All for his amusement...But he'd continued that game even after my removal from the board. He was the King. And if the king didn't lead...how could he expect his subordinates to follow? Whether he'd ended up as the Black King or White King, and whether Suzaku ended up as the Black Knight or the White Knight, the color didn't matter. The fact that he hadn't considered himself more than a piece on the board, and, after all. When the game was over, the King and Pawn go in the same box. But the game never ended for me I was set to the side. Protected and coddled by the one I was supposed to protect.

Not anymore.

My musing was broken by the voice I so longed to hear again. "The west entrance. Use the tracks and move to the west entrance." The voice of a fallen angel, at least in my opinion. Knowing what I knew now, his intentions had always been pure. He would create a better world for his sister. And if he hadn't been able to do it for her, then he would do it for her memory. And he would make sure no one else he cared about got hurt like Euphemia, Shirley, Nunally and C.C. had.

I almost forgot to voice my non-existent suspicions. Blindly following what was supposed to be an unknown voice on the radio? That would be a giant question mark, even to him. "Who are you? How'd you get this frequency?" I asked, carefully guarding my excitement and joy at hearing him. Forcing my voice to sound skeptical and distrustful. A question I already knew the answer to...at least the first part, I never did find out how he got our frequencies, but it hardly mattered much. The emotion in my voice was a complete lie though. No better than my sickly facade at Ashford Academy. I'd failed to trust my faith in him once. Once. And he was dead because of it. Never again. I have a second chance now, and I'm not going to waste it!

"That doesn't matter. If you want to win, you're just going to have to trust me." 'Not a problem, my king.' I thought in response, deftly guiding my Glasgow up onto the tracks and locking the landspinners to the tracks themselves. I didn't ask what I was supposed to do this time when I saw the train. I knew. I also knew he would tell me whether I asked or not. I didn't even wait for the command, by the time he had voiced his instruction I was already in mid air, ready to crash down on top of the first car. I smirked when I heard one of the two purists behind me fall to Lelouch's slash harkens, and I turned to face the second head on while he was crippled by the gunfire from my king. 'This is just like riding a bike…' I mused, turning around to finish the crippled mech, knowing full well that the man would eject before I got there…

And then my left eye began to burn. My world slowed to a crawl and I felt...free. Like the rest of the universe around me was weighed down by some invisible iron blanket, and I remained the lone free individual. I shot forward like a bolt of lightning. The purist had no chance, my slash harken buried into the head of the Knightmare, and my one-arm swung hard, slamming into the chest of the unit. I watched in absolute confusion as the chestplate crumbled in on the cockpit of the unit, and then it was over. The iron blanket lifted and I descended back to the place of a normal girl. The ejection triggered again, but the result was...spectacular. The jets of the mangled cockpit triggered the detonation of the rest of the Knightmare around it, and the cockpit didn't go far at all. Over a few buildings, but obviously, the cockpit module had had to fight through the friction caused by the damage I'd done.

'What the hell just happened?' I asked myself, noting that my left eye no longer burned. I reached up a hand to the eye in wonder. Had that had something to do with it? Did I do that?

I don't know what I did, but somehow I called on it again. I reached out for that burn. Wanting to know if I could call for it. And sure enough it came, the iron blanket falling again and the world slowing down around me. Not that there was anything moving in my immediate area except for resistance members. I dispelled it quickly.

'What is happening to me?'

The White Knight

"Did you read the manual?"

"Cover to cover." Technically, it wasn't a lie. I hadn't bothered to even look at the damn manual for the Lancelot, much less pick it up. But I didn't need to. Somehow I'd woken up in the past, but that didn't change the fact that I'd memorized every word that sat between those covers over a year ago. And I knew the Lancelot. I knew it as if it were a second skin.

This time around, I was far less concerned with saving Lelouch than I had been the first time around. I knew full well my best friend would get himself out of this...He started this. I was more concerned about how to take it easy on the resistance members without it seeming like I was holding back. The methods I'd used before hadn't exactly been brutal, I had mostly showed off the Lancelot's speed, agility, and blaze luminous. All the blows I had inflicted had been non-lethal. But it would be nice if I left some Knightmares intact. Lelouch obviously didn't need them. His rebellion would work with or without them, but they might make some things easier.

It was almost like a dream when I sat in the pilot's seat of my Knightmare. I still wasn't exactly sure that it wasn't. But so far I was feeling pain. I could see. I could hear. I could touch. I could smell. I could taste. This dream, if it was one, was incredibly real. And it was dragging on through some otherwise mundane occurrences. It just felt like I was going through the motions. What exactly could I even change that mattered in this world until after Lelouch saved me from my sham of a trial at the hands of the Purists?

Probably not much. I could spare a few Sutherlands, if they were smart enough to run away. If even one survived for Kallen to use, he'd be in much better shape than he'd been the first time around.

Kallen. It was amazing. In another world we might have been partners and the best of friends. Doing our best to protect Lelouch. But due to circumstance and no small amount of stubbornness, we were enemies to the last. Would that be any different now?

It was of little concern. I felt the rush again when the Lancelot launched, and a plan settled into my head. If I remembered things right, this was about the time Lelouch had broken off from the rest of the resistance to confront Prince Clovis. An action I would attempt to keep him from pursuing, if not for the fact that C.C. had explained what Clovis had done to her when he'd experimented on her. Not to mention he'd ordered the extermination of everyone in this entire ghetto just to find her. Resistance or not.

Prince or not, brother or not, that bastard deserved what was coming to him.

But Lelouch would eventually get to him and call for a ceasefire. Which meant I just had to dance with the rebels for a bit. The Lancelot certainly had the speed, maneuverability and defense to do it. I could toy with them. I could let them know it. Cecile would probably see it as me taking it easy because of my injury. Lloyd would probably see it as me testing to see what the thing could do. The resistance would think I was some kind of cocky noble who thought of them as some sort of game for my own amusement...heh.

That would be ironic, wouldn't it?

The resistance tried, but it was far too easy. Toy with them I did, I skimmed past a few Knightmares as if they weren't even worth my time, used my slash harkens on others as an anchor point to swing myself out of the line of fire and behind some buildings. Damaging them, but not destroying them. It was instinct. I did it without even thinking and somehow, I wasn't even paying attention to the battle. Compared to the fight with Kallen's Guren S.E.I.T.E.N., this was child's play.

I couldn't join Lelouch. No. That would change too much. I would never become Euphemia's knight. I could bring him the Lancelot and pilot it, but that would be betraying Lloyd and Cecile. I couldn't do that. But what I could do…

Yes. That would do.

This time, Zero would have a mole.