Me: First, I'd like to say thanks for all the reviews! I've never gotten so many on a story before. And thanks a bunch for all of the Story Alerts and Favorites too. It means a lot.

Suzaku: I never imagined that so many people would like it.

Me: Yeah, me either. That's why all of this makes me feel happy. Thank you so much, everyone!

I've got nothing else to say right now. I guess I should just start.

7 Years Ago

"Suzaku?"

The sandy haired boy looked up from the grass he was fiddling with in his hands. "Yeah, Lelouch?" he replied.

"Suzaku, do you think you could ever hate me?" The dark haired boy looked up, his facial expression solemn and serious, his violet eyes piercing.

Suzaku was surprised, and then he smiled and laughed. "Lelouch, I could never hate you. You're my best friend."

A small smile appeared on Lelouch's face. "Thanks. You're my best friend too."

Suzaku flopped down into the grass, then turned to face Lelouch. "Why would you ask?"

Lelouch's expression grew dark again. He looked down at the ground and played with a piece of grass in his hands. After a moment, he looked back up at Suzaku. "I… I just wanted to know. If I did something really terrible and couldn't fix it, I'd want to know if you would still be with me. If you would understand."

Suzaku smiled again. "I would stand by you no matter what."

Lelouch looked uncertain. "Do you promise?"

"Yes, I promise," replied Suzaku, a tinge of laughter in his voice. He always believed that his friend was much too serious on such matters, or any matter, to be forthright.

He reached out his pinky, and Lelouch took it and grasped it with all of his might.

Present Day

"Suzaku?"

Lelouch's voice rang loud and clear across the silent section of the ghetto. Tears welled in Suzaku's eyes, and he offered out his hand for Lelouch. Lelouch took it uncertainly, and pulled himself up with a grimace.

Violet eyes met emerald green. Suzaku smiled, and after a moment, so did Lelouch. "Suzaku. It really is you."

Suzaku threw his arms around Lelouch. Lelouch squirmed awkwardly for a moment, then relaxed and returned the embrace. As they drew apart, Suzaku wiped away a tear form his eye. "Lelouch, I can't believe that you're alive."

Lelouch realized it for himself for the first time. He pulled up his arms like a marionette and inspected his chest wound. He saw the blood, felt it dry on his shirt, and lifted it up. The area around where the bullet had entered was clean and unblemished. He lowered his shirt and his arms, and then started at Suzaku.

"How?"

All of a sudden, C.C. appeared from the shadows. "Geass," she said coolly. "The power of the kings. Suzaku possesses the power to resurrect not only other people, but himself as well."

Lelouch glanced at C.C. as she spoke, and then returned his gaze to Suzaku. "You brought me back to life?"

Suzaku nodded. "I'm not quite sure how, but somehow, I brought you back from the dead."

Lelouch shook his head. "I'm not sure how I can ever repay you. I can't imagine what would have happened to Nunnally if I died."

Suzaku smiled. "Nunnally. How is she?"

"Well. She's still in a wheelchair, and still can't see, but she's adjusted nicely to school life."

"That's good," said Suzaku. "I hope that I'll be able to see her again one day."

That's when Lelouch realized that Suzaku was in an army uniform. He scanned him up and down, evaluating the fact. Finally, he met Suzaku's eyes again. "You joined the army."

Suzaku nodded. "There was nowhere left for me to go. Everyone from my past had vanished, and after we split apart, it was my only option."

Lelouch had no response. The pair stood there in awkward silence, finally taking in the recent developments. Both had become generally oblivious to C.C. who had been listening to their conversation with diluted interest. Finally she turned to Lelouch.

"Lelouch," she said aloud. He turned to her, surprised. Suzaku looked up as well, equally as surprised as Lelouch.

"Yes?" Lelouch said, seeming to test the water. He had already deduced that there was something quite different about this girl, something that he wasn't sure he wanted to encounter.

She faced him full on. "I need to give something to you."

What could she possibly want to give to him? Thought Suzaku. But he watched as C.C. reached out her hand to rest it on Lelouch's shoulder. He had no time to resist, and jumped for a moment, then stood completely still. Both of their eyes were closed shut tightly, and their mouths moved and made words, but no sound was produced. Suzaku, not wanting to disturb the delicate connection, took a step back. He observed, quietly taking in the abnormal scene.

After a moment Lelouch opened his eyes suddenly and broke apart from C.C. He took a step back, and as Suzaku scrutinized his face, he could see a red bird slowly melting into his violet eye.

Lelouch stared C.C. down. "What just happened?" he said, his voice cold. "What did you just do to me?"

She put on her nonchalant attitude again. "I gave you the same power that I gave Suzaku, Geass."

"I can bring people back from the dead?"

She twirled a lock of hair. "Not necessarily. Your Geass could manifest itself in you many different ways."

He pondered this for a moment, and then spoke again. "What were you saying about a contract?"

"In exchange for the power that I have given you, you now must grant my one true wish. You and Suzaku now share the same responsibility, but since you are the latest recipient, the duty defaults to you."

"Great," muttered Lelouch. "Now, not only do I have to keep myself and my sister sheltered from the Empire, eventually defeating it, I have to fulfill a contract with a girl who can't die."

"Did you ever consider the possibility that this power could help you in your other two duties?"

"I wasn't really thinking about it, no."

"Well, think about it."

Lelouch turned to Suzaku. "Is she always like this?"

"I'm not sure," Suzaku replied. "I've only known her for about an hour."

C.C. smirked. "And now you're stuck with me for the rest of your lives, however long that turns out to be."

C.C. was apparently the only one who found this humorous, as both boys loudly exhaled at the mention of such a prospect.

They stood silently for a moment, when Suzaku finally said, "We should probably get moving. There's no telling when we could run into another soldier." He thought for a moment. "If I had my helmet I could see where everyone was. But I left it in the subway tunnel…"

The trio walked on, with Suzaku scanning the setting for any sign of a soldier he could salvage a helmet from. Finally, he spotted a lone patrol running out of a building. Suzaku turned to Lelouch and C.C. "Wait here."

He ran after the patrol, and when the man stopped, he crept up to him silently. Unbeknownst to the soldier, Suzaku stood right behind him until in a flash of movement, he stole the soldier's gun and had rammed him in a chink in his armor conveniently located over the solar plexus. The soldier fell to his knees, gasping for breath. Before the man could see his face, Suzaku took his helmet and rammed it onto his head. He took the gun, and put it up to the soldier's head.

He held his finger on the trigger, preparing himself to pull it. He swallowed deeply, and twitched his finger experimentally. The man below him pleaded steadfastidly for his life. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Lelouch yelled, "Wait!"

Suzaku looked up, surprised. Lelouch walked coolly up the other soldier, and kneeled down so they were at the same eye level. "Lelouch Vi Britannia commands you," he began, the Geass sigil beginning to burn in his left eye as he thought for a moment, "Forget us. Take off your armor and hide until the fighting is over. You will no longer serve as a Britannian soldier." The sigil flared in his eye, flapped once, and flew into the soldier's.

The man sat up. "At once, your majesty." With that, he took off his armor, leaving it lying in the street. He scampered off into an alley wearing only the thin jumpsuit the soldiers wore under their protective shell.

"Well," C.C. smirked. "At least now we know what your Geass can do."

Lelouch stood up as the sigil faded from his eye, returning it to its usual deep amethyst color. He dusted off the knees of his school uniform, soiled from the dusty ground. "It would seem," he began, smiling ever so slightly, "That I posses the power of absolute control."

"Fitting," Suzaku mumbled. "As if he didn't have that already."

"You're lucky, Suzaku, that I will take that as a compliment."

Suzaku grinned, feeling a bit nostalgic. In seven years, Lelouch's personality hadn't changed a single bit, from his slightly sarcastic attitude to his determination to stick to something he was working towards like it was flypaper.

Inside his helmet, Suzaku signed out as the soldier, whose name turned out to be Akahana Ochi. Navigating the easy-to-use software with several voice commands and his army ID, he signed into the system as himself. Welcome, Soldier four-oh-four, a semi-robotic female voice spoke through the helmet. Suzaku didn't acknowledge the greeting, instead navigating to the map showing both sides forces.

He began speaking to his small audience while focusing and interpreting the screen before him. "The terrorists have moved into hiding. They must've had at least one Knightmare, a couple of Sutherlands were taken out near the entrance to the ghetto."

"You don't need a Knightmare to take another out one," muttered Lelouch.

Suzaku paused for a moment, trying to contemplate how Lelouch knew this and in turn what he had been up to the past few years. After several seconds, he shook his head, clearing away the thoughts and focusing on what was on hand.

"Right now, the Britannians have sent out their forces patrolling the streets, searching for terrorists." He frowned, and zoomed in on their section of the ghetto. "In fact…"

"Hide!"

All in one instant, a patrol turned the corner onto the street, it's gun cocked and ready. Suzaku and C.C. dived for a nearby alley, but Lelouch, ailed by his unfit and clumsy body, tripped on his own foot and fell flat onto the ground.

Suzaku winced, hoping that the patrol hadn't seen him. But the Sutherland stopped in its tracks and a voice began emanating from the Knightmare.

"Get up," a female voice echoed. "And put your hands above your head."

Lelouch hesitantly obliged. "Who are you?" the voice spoke again. "What's a Britannian student doing in the ghetto?"

Lelouch stepped forward, and began speaking, a small, fatal smirk growing on his mischievous face. "My name is Allen Spacer, and my father is a duke. My ID card is in my breast pocket, and after you verify it I will request your protection."

The voice was silent for a moment, then a mechanical hiss escaped from the device and the hatch opened. An athletic woman slid down on a cable, her silvery ponytail swinging slightly as she pulled out her gun and aimed it at Lelouch. "Keep your arms up," she said sternly. "I'll retrieve your ID."

It took all of Lelouch's self-restraint to keep himself from grinning; the situation was playing out just as he had predicted. Another plan perfectly executed. Though, he contemplated, would it count as a plan if he thought of it in less than ten seconds? No, he decided. To be a plan, it would have needed to have gone through a first draft, a stage of heavy revision, and then to a final product.

As the pilot approached him, he concentrated on her face, waiting until she stepped out of the shadow of the monstrous Knightmare and into the daylight. Violet eyes met a steely hazel, and in a quick moment, the now recognizable sigil reappeared in the young Britannian's eye.

He stared in the pilot's eyes, and began speaking. "Hand over your Knightmare," he said as he lowered his arms. "And stay here until we are gone."

With a glazed look on her face, she nodded. She tossed the ignition key over to Lelouch, and said, "The activation code is X42YZ83."

Lelouch grinned deceptively as he deftly caught the key. He turned to Suzaku and C.C. "Well?" He spoke, holding his hands out in an Look-What-I've-Done manner.

Suzaku shook his head. "You scare me. You really do."

"That, my friend, is the intended effect."

C.C, faced Lelouch. "Well?"

"Well, as in what?"

"Well, as in 'What are you going to do with a Sutherland now that you've recently acquired one?'"

The corner of his mouth quirked. "Why, I'm going to be helping, of course."

Suzaku looked up suddenly, surprised. "Helping?"

"I think the Japanese deserve some help," explained Lelouch. "I'm here to provide it."

"You're insane."

"Confident, not insane."

"It's the same difference," said C.C.

Suddenly, something rang in Suzaku's ear. "Huh?" he mumbled. An image appeared in his helmet screen, informing him that he was being paged. Quickly, answered it.

"Is this Suzaku Kururugi?" A voice echoed through the helmet.

Suzaku jumped at the sound, the voice was quite unique, intriguing yet slightly annoying at the same time. Nevertheless, he answered, "Yes, sir," with the utmost confidence.

"Well, Kururugi," replied the voice. "I've got something waiting for you here, and I think you'll like it."

"Like it?" Answered Suzaku, utterly surprised.

"Yes, it's a project of mine, a special Knightmare. I'd like you to be the one to test it on the field."

Suzaku was taken aback. "Test it? But the higher-ups would never let an Eleven pilot a Knightmare Frame."

"Yes, well, given the circumstances I believe that they will make an exception."

"Erm… Yes, sir. Where would you like me to report to?"

"The temporary base. And hurry, the Lancelot is waiting for you."

With that, the call ended. Suzaku stood stationary for a moment, and then took off his helmet. Both Lelouch and C.C. were staring at him, their expressions confused and muddled.

Suzaku answered the unspoken question. "They want me to pilot a Knightmare. Something called the Lancelot."

Me: YES! YES, YES, YES! It's finally done!

Suzaku: After nearly a month of laboring over the computer…

Me: And more than several frustrated hours writing and deleting paragraphs at a time…

Suzaku: She finally managed to post it.

Me: I'm sorry so much for the wait. There's just been so much stuff going on, and I've been having major writer's block. In reality, I've rewritten the entire last half of this chapter several times.

Suzaku: Well, at least now you'll stop complaining about it.
Me: Yeah, you're probably right.

Oh, and just to clear something up, I wasn't going for anything SuzuXLulu in the beginning. I realized after proofreading this that it might come off that way.

I guess that's it. Thank you so much for reading this, I've put a lot of work into it!

R&R?

P.S. Does anyone know if there's any sort of tutorial online on how to make Lelouch's Zero mask? I have absolutely no artistic talent, and I've been wanting to try and make one. Thanks!