Chapter 24: Knightmare

C.C. piloted the Nerug and fought Kallen in the Guren in order to keep her from heading to where Lelouch was fighting Suzaku. However, just then, a small red light began flashing with a small beeping noise. It was a signal; one that was received by only her and Jeremiah, who likewise noticed the small light from within his KnightCrawler.

The signal was set to be given to them when Lelouch drew his gun, telling them it was about to end. Jeremiah was in the midst of random fighting, but when he received the signal he slipped back behind the other troops and activated his cloaking system and vanished into the background, beginning to fly to where Lelouch was.

As for C.C., when she saw the signal pulled away from the Guren and looked at it for a moment as if deciding what to do now. After a few seconds, she suddenly smiled and turned her Nerug around and began flying away, activating her cloaking systems as well and vanishing from Kallen's sight.

"What the-" Kallen stuttered when this happened and looked around, thinking the Nerug was going to attempt a sneak attack while hidden.

When nothing happen, Kallen became confused; however, she soon shook her head and left the matter for later. She flew her Guren in the direction Lelouch had taken Suzaku as fast as she could, although her speed appeared to be diminished from the earlier backlash due to the Utsuri's efforts. She just had to hope she wouldn't be too late.

As that happened, Suzaku stood frozen with his sword running Lelouch through. After a moment, the command to 'Live on' that commanded his body lost its grip on him, and he immediately ripped the sword out of Lelouch and stepped back, dropping the sword in shock and guilt. "Lelouch…" He muttered, unable to understand the man who had caused this to happen.

When the sword was taken from his chest, Lelouch slouched forward and held the wound with both hands, having dropped his gun. He looked up at Suzaku with a sweat covered, regret-filled face. When he did, his bangs separated from his forehead and revealed something red tattooed over his skin. It was a red mark that looked like some kind of simple representation of a bird.

It was the Geass "Code". Suzaku realized that symbol was the thing that was keeping Lelouch immortal. But if Lelouch was immortal, there was no way that wound would kill him… right?

"I…" Lelouch choked out as his blood quickly dyed his white outfit red. "It…" It seemed like he was trying to give some kind of final sentiment, but Suzaku could do nothing but watch in horror. "Was it… enough?" He voiced a question.

The question was not aimed at any one person. He simply had to ask that question, hoping the answer would come to him. Suzaku was finally about to say something as he reached his hand forward to his friend, but before he could say a single word, Lelouch's body fell forward, hitting the floor hard.

"Lelouch!" Suzaku was suddenly shocked back into action. He ran forward and picked Lelouch up, turning him over and cradling him in his arms. "Lelouch! Lelouch!" He screamed out to his friend and shook him, attempting to wake him.

But all attempts failed to stir his state. Suzaku continued to call out to him with tears in his eyes until… "Lelou-" Suzaku cut himself off when he suddenly saw the red mark on Lelouch's forehead suddenly fade away.

Suzaku gasped at what he saw. Without the Code, Lelouch would have returned to being mortal, and he would be capable of dying. But what had caused it? Suzaku could not come to an answer to that question.

Had he somehow destroyed the Code with his sword? That didn't even sound plausible.

Did Lelouch do something to himself that made him vulnerable? That idea seemed much more reasonable.

Or had it been Lelouch's actions? Lelouch had purposely triggered his order to 'Live on' by shooting a bullet at Suzaku's head. Was the reason the Code having vanished because Suzaku attacked him while under the influence of a Geass? Was it possible?

Suddenly, a gush of air interrupted Suzaku's thoughts. He looked up and saw the KnightCrawlers the Nerug and Deirfgeis. The two machines landed in front of him, and Suzaku couldn't get his body to move. The Deirfgeis was piloted by Jeremiah, whose loyalty was to Lelouch and Lelouch only. And he was in on the plan to kill Lelouch a year ago in the first place; he would not have helped Infinite unless he knew it had been Lelouch.

However, he knew not who the pilot of the Nerug or what their intentions were. The KnightCrawlers then answered his question by their cockpits opening up. Out of the Deirfgeis, Jeremiah Gottwald was seen, and in the Nerug, Suzaku looked and saw C.C.

"C.C.!" Suzaku questioned, although it made perfect sense.

She had disappeared after their plan a year ago had been carried through and naturally had been the one to give him the Code to make him immortal. She had probably been with Lelouch this whole time, from beginning to end.

"So, I guess it worked after all." C.C. said surprisingly as she and Jeremiah lowered themselves from their mechanic weapons with solemn expressions.

Suzaku watched as the two of them began to walk closer to him. "What worked?" He asked frantically. "What did I do?"

"This was the goal line of this entire plan." C.C. told Suzaku without hesitation, stopping in front of him and looking down on Lelouch. "To completely erase all trace of Geass from this world, Lelouch had to die."

Suzaku was speechless. He simply gaped at C.C. with his mouth wide open, as if trying to say something, but had lost the ability to speak. "When I learned what Lord Lelouch's plan was, I did not accept it easily." Jeremiah chimed in, shutting his eyes in remorse. "But I followed him to this end nonetheless."

"Lelouch understood ever sense he obtained the Code – no – even before that he knew the true depth of despair that had been created by Geass. He wanted to end that cycle, and so devised this war." C.C. explained.

Evidentially they had no reason to hide the reason from Suzaku anymore, or it might have even been that Lelouch wanted it this way after he was killed. "So that… was it?" He asked, and looked down on Lelouch's face, and he realized that the expression on Lelouch's dying face was not one of anguish, but neither was it redemption. It seemed oddly peaceful, as if he was just sleeping, with no control over his facial muscles and they had just relaxed themselves.

Knowing Lelouch's reason for causing all this havoc in one way relieved Suzaku, although the level he had caused still seemed out of control. "Yes, he wanted you to know once he was dead. He knew you would understand." C.C. told Suzaku.

Of course, with Lelouch gone, that left an important question. "So what do we do about the Reverse Rebellion now?" He asked. There were still a few hundred KnightCrawlers fighting them outside, and they were under the impression it was to restore the rule of the Britannian Empire.

"We'll need to finish them all off." Jeremiah answered.

"There was also a reason behind the method Lelouch used." C.C. began. "Truthfully, there might have been a less drastic way to obtain this objective. But Lelouch chose to do it through means of the 'Reverse Rebellion' in order to weed out anyone who wanted the Britannian rule."

It made sense. The pilots of the Utsuri's had even said that they had originally had an assassination plot to get rid of Cornelia before Infinite had shown up. The number had been comparatively small, but people had answered Infinite's call. Had they been given time to sprout, those small seeds of danger could have evolved into something even worse.

"So, we must defeat the Reverse Rebellion." Jeremiah restated.

But suddenly, a voice rang out. "I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that; Jeremiah Gottwald."

The voice had completely caught all of them off guard. They frantically looked around to find the source of the voice, but saw nothing. "Who's there? Show yourself!" Jeremiah shouted.

When he had, a shape suddenly began to reveal itself in the air. When it had taking off its cloaking, it revealed itself to be the Tolecnal. Seeing that KnightCrawler, C.C. was the first to voice her surprise. "Bai; what on earth are you doing-"

"I am merely performing out the Reverse Rebellion's will. Its real will." The pilot of the Tolecnal replied, and then landed his machine in front of Jeremiah's and C.C.'s cutting them off from any form of counterattack, not that they would have had time to get to them anyways. "I have been aware of your schemes to betray the Rebellion for almost as long as I've worked for you." Bai told C.C., giving her a disdain filled growl along with his words.

"But how-"

"I am now the Commander of the Reverse Rebellion. In fact I have been for a while now; I had informed most of your recruits the truth, and then had them conceal that they knew from you. Leading them, I will bring about a new age of conquest and rule the world with an iron fist using my Geass!" Bai raged, stretching his machine's arms to the side as if basking in the glory of the moment.

But suddenly, yet another unexpected visitor appeared in the sky. Flying in straight over the Tolecnal, the Guren appeared. "Go to Hell!" Kallen screeched at its pilot and thrust her pulsar arm down on its head, quickly grasping it between the claws and using the radiation wave attack on it.

By doing so, the Tolecnal's armor expanded swiftly, followed by a near immediate explosion of the machine. The Guren landed and looked over the scene until she saw Lelouch, but upon noticing his state, gasped in terror.

"Lelouch!" She screamed out and immediately opened her cockpit.

Fumbling out as quickly as she could, she descended using the safety wire and jumped off when it was low enough for her to tuck and roll safely, and then began to run toward Lelouch. However, before she got close, yet another completely unexpected phenomenon, which seemed to have taken place as the norm in their current situation occurred.

If Kallen had moved any slower, she would have died, because just then, the Guren exploded. The blast had been so near her that though she was just outside the actual blast, the force of the explosion literally kicked her off her feet and threw her forward, causing her to fly over Suzaku's head and hit the ground hard.

"Kallen!" Suzaku called back to her, but she had been knocked out cold, and it wouldn't have been surprising if the blast had given her whiplash. The others all looked forward at the sea of flames that had spread out before them and tried to identify what had caused the Guren to explode.

From inside the flames of the explosion, they saw something standing at the center that was black. C.C. squinted to try and get a better look, but when she saw the full picture of what it was, she couldn't believe her eyes. As she realized what it was, the thing standing there waved its hand that kicked up a sudden gust that blew aside the flames to reveal itself completely to those in front of it.

The black, humanoid figure laughed, and Jeremiah and C.C. recognized the laugh as being the voice of Bai. "Impossible…" C.C. gasped, gaping at the suit that covered his body head-to-toe.

"What is that?" Jeremiah questioned, staring with profound curiosity at Bai's wear.

"C.C., do you know what's going on?" Suzaku asked in a hurry, thinking her reaction meant she understood what was going on.

"Is that… a Knightmare?" C.C. asked aloud, in pure disbelief of the black figure in front of her that should have only existed in her memories.