Headquarters of the Order of the Black Knights

"Sayoko-san, are we the only people here?"

Sayoko looked up from the letter she was penning on the dresser and smiled kindly at Nunnally. "That's right. Cornelia, Guilford and Darlton left almost an hour ago; they didn't say where they were going. Tōdō and Chiba have gone to buy supplies."

She turned back to her letter. She wasn't writing to anybody in particular, nor would she actually send it anywhere, but she did it anyway. It was more like a diary, but there was something about the letter form which seemed to help her sort out what was on her mind much more easily. She knew she wasn't the only member of the Order of the Black Knights to do exactly that, but nobody seemed to speak about it; even Nunnally didn't ask her what she was doing.

For years, her life had been fairly routine. Spending her days as a maid to two children was far from difficult, especially considering how mature Lelouch was at a young ages, and there seemed to be relatively little that could go wrong. That had all changed when Lelouch drafted her to help with his conquest of the world. In the beginning he told her that his only goal was to help the Japanese gain their independence, but to somebody he had lived with for years, it was clear that there was no way he would stop at that. With Lelouch reaching adulthood and Nunnally only a few years away, she'd found a renewed purpose in helping Lelouch achieve his goals.

Even amongst the unpredictable nature of the "missions" Lelouch would send her on within Ashford Academy, she'd managed to find something of a routine, albeit an unorthodox one. He had always given her fairly specific instructions when she had a "mission" and would always find her when he required something else. Not being included in the decision-making process, Sayoko was forced to do very little thinking of her own.

Now Lelouch was dead and her only duty remaining was her original order to protect Nunnally. Unfortunately for her, there's only so much a maid – even a super maid – can do to protect somebody who is living with people as strong and heavily armed as those in the Order of the Black Knights.

Even so, the Black Knights seemed to be crumbling away. It was a fact that nobody ever mentioned, but she could tell that everybody recognised. Their faith in Zero was waning, morale had taken a hit and they seemed to be at the end of the road. They lived or died at Schneizel's whim.

She was fortunate, in an ironic sense, that Nunnally was crippled. One day, when the Black Knights were no more, Nunnally would leave them and she would go with her. She may have regained her sight, but a paraplegic Princess was an easy target. If she stayed out of the world of politics, Sayoko would be there to protect her. If she accepted her role as a Britannian Princess, Sayoko would be there regardless: Nunnally would never let her go.

"Chiba said that she might buy us a hot meal from the international market, though," she said with a smile, turning back to face her. She penned the last line onto her letter and tucked it away in a breast pocket.

Nunnally seemed pensive. "I haven't eaten something like that for years…"

"We used to eat it all the time; do you remember? Every Saturday, me, you and Lelouch…" Sayoko trailed off in horror, hands flying up to cover her mouth.

Nunnally hadn't spoken Lelouch's name since the day he died. Even when the other Black Knights spoke of him, she remained silent. It could have been a simple unwillingness to involve herself in any conversation which might have slighted her dead brother's memory, but Sayoko saw it as more than that. While not explicitly stated, it had become something of a taboo for his name to be mentioned around Nunnally. Everybody had gone to great lengths not to break this taboo after realising it existed, but Sayoko had been the first to let one slip in a moment of reminiscence.

"Nii-san?" Nunnally repeated, slightly startled that somebody had mentioned Lelouch to her. For a moment Sayoko thought she was going to react badly, but her eyes slowly softened and a slight smile crept onto her face. "Yes, that was nice, wasn't it?"

"You're not…?"

"Angry?" Nunnally suggested kindly. "I know you've all been trying not to mention him, but there's no need to. I don't see Nii-san the way the world does."

Sayoko moved closer to her. "What do you mean?"

"Nii-san was never the Demon Emperor," she continued in a soft voice. "He never deserved the world's hate. I've heard them talk about him. I've heard the things they say. It hurts, but they don't know any better and Lelouch wouldn't have wanted me to tell them."

The soft padding of shoes on carpet could be heard in the hallway. The sound stopped at their door, unnoticed to them.

"I don't think you understand, Sayoko-san, but at least you don't see him they way they do. There are only two people I've never heard speak badly of nii-san: Kallen…"

Sayoko leaned in slightly.

"…and Zero."

Neither noticed the soft footfalls trail away from their door.

Basement

'Zero knows something about Lelouch,' Tōdō realised, thoughts swirling around in his head. After overhearing what Nunnally had said, he knew he had a lot to think about and a crucial decision to make.

He was dragged out of his thoughts and became instantly on guard as he saw Zero walk up the ramp, slipping behind a concrete pillar just in time to avoid the man seeing him. He looked out from behind it and watched as Zero, carrying a large messenger bag, headed through one of the stairwell exits and disappeared from sight.

Narrowing his eyebrows, Tōdō stepped out from behind the pillar and leant against it sideways. The car park under their building had two levels and the exits were only accessible from the top level. Zero had come from the bottom, but in the hours he had been down there, Tōdō had only seen a single green sedan enter – a minute or two earlier.

It was almost a certainty that Zero was the one driving the car. But where could it have come from? It wasn't a vehicle belonging to the Order of the Black Knights; that was for sure. Tōdō would have known if it was. In his years of military service, both as a leader and a soldier, he knew that there were some things that needed to be kept from your subordinates if you want to be an effective leader. A vehicle was an expensive asset, however; with seemingly no real purpose behind purchasing it, the two most obvious scenarios were equally frightening.

Either Zero was doing something behind their backs or he no longer cared for their cause.

Tōdō's train of thought was cut off immediately by the sound of a car driving up from the bottom level. He ducked back behind the pillar and watched in a state of semi-shock as the same green sedan he had seen earlier headed up the second ramp to the exit.

He had been down there for twenty minutes and hadn't seen a single person other than the driver of the car – he was certain there was only one occupant – enter. Zero had gone, so who was driving the vehicle? He was Tōdō Kyōshirō – one of the most highly trained soldiers in the world. For him not to notice somebody within less than a hundred metres of him was virtually impossible. He may have been somewhat distracted, but he doubted his awareness would suffer enough for that to happen.

He'd spent the last two hours in one of the Order of the Black Knights' vehicles trying to come to a decision with no result, but this latest development was enough to tip the scales. Something had to be done about Zero. If it meant killing him and taking the mask himself, he would do it.

For Japan.

It wasn't hard to catch up to Zero, who was about to leave through the building's main entrance. That, in itself, was suspicious to Tōdō – why would he bother parking the car in one of the Black Knights' buildings if he was planning to leave anyway?

Making himself seem inconspicuous in the back corner of the large hall, he watched as Zero entered the small cloakroom near the doors and retrieved a black trench coat with a hood. It was unrealistic to expect that Zero could live in an urban area without exposing himself in public, so members of the Black Knights commonly wore heavy, hooded coats so that the choice in clothing would be associated with the entire group, not just with Zero. If it did end up associated with Zero, it would be no less discreet than if he wore his mask in public.

He followed from a manageable distance, paying careful attention to the reaction Zero was receiving from people who passed him. They weren't able to differentiate him from any of the other Black Knights, of course, but Tōdō paid attention to every sideways glance. He had been far too careless dealing with Zero; it was possible that the public might have realised something that he hadn't.

A few blocks later, Zero stopped at a café and took a seat near the back. Tōdō immediately crossed the road and sat in the window of another café. He deliberately chose a seat with the majority of its view blocked by a large neon light, although he could see through the gaps easily enough.

Zero pulled out a second chair opposite him and held up two fingers to a waitress. 'Probably ordering coffees,' Tōdō thought. 'But why two? Is he meeting somebody?'

The waitress returned with the two coffees and Zero accepted them, placing one in front of him and one on the table in front of the other chair. Five minutes had passed, yet still nobody had shown up. Zero sat suspiciously still for almost fifteen minutes, seemingly uninterested in either coffee. Eventually he stood up and made to leave.

Tōdō watched him go with a raised eyebrow. 'He was definitely meeting somebody behind our backs, but it looks like they decided not to show. The question is, who was it?'

He quickly stood and followed Zero. After four blocks and two corners, he found himself entering a fairly dense park. 'Was this the secondary rendezvous location, or is he meeting somebody else?'

It was in that moment that he realised he had allowed himself to get too close. Zero stood silently in front of him, within talking range and staring down into the small river he was standing next to. There was no point hiding now: Zero knew he was there.

"Who were you meeting?" Tōdō demanded. His teeth were firmly clenched in anger and a clear threat hanging in his voice.

"You."

Of all the replies he had expected, that was not one of them. His own mind had formed some guesses, notably "Schneizel" and "Kanon," but he was willing to consider almost anyone – anyone but himself.

"Don't lie to me, Zero."

"I am not lying," Zero stated plainly. He had yet to turn around and face him. "I received warning of your presence before I arrived. I knew you would follow me."

Tōdō snorted. "Enough of your games. Who were you meeting?"

"I even bought you a coffee. Don't you like coffee?"

There was something different about Zero, he realised. The Zero he knew was confident, but not to this extent. The depth of Zero's planning, if the story about giving him the opportunity to stop stalking him were true, was also far more cunning than anything he'd seen from Zero since the days of Lelouch. He had a theory, but he didn't like it.

"You've been hiding yourself from us," he accused.

"Hiding myself?"

Tōdō took a step forward, bringing him to within an arm's reach from his rogue leader. "You have been deliberately neglecting the Order of the Black Knights. The skill you've shown today is far above and beyond what you have been consistently applying towards our goals."

"I see. What do you believe I am doing?"

He seemed calm. Unnaturally calm. It was not the response which would be expected from somebody caught betraying their comrades.

Tōdō narrowed his eyebrows. "You are creating your own resistance force. You have abandoned the Order of the Black Knights."

"That is correct," Zero replied instantly, turning around to face him. "I no longer have any use for the Order of the Black Knights."

Tōdō had been confident in his theory, but actually hearing it confirmed felt like a punch in the stomach.

"You're serious." It wasn't a question.

"I've had this planned well before I met you. I fully intended to dispose of the Order of the Black Knights from the very beginning."

Tōdō reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of knives, switching one into his other hand. He didn't want to do what he was about to, but it seemed like he was quickly running out of options.

"Who are they?" he demanded, raising one of his knives and pointing it at Zero's throat.

Zero didn't even flinch. "What do you mean?"

"I told you, Zero! Don't play games with me!" His hand shook with barely repressed rage. Everything he had worked for was turning to dust before his eyes, and the man responsible wouldn't even give him enough respect to dispense with the childish mind games.

"You will be a member of my resistance force, as will Chiba Nagisa," Zero informed him, opening his bag and withdrawing two brown parcels. He handed them over one by one. "This one is Chiba's. This one is yours. You will find instructions inside the package. Tell nobody else."

Tōdō accepted the packages – having been quite literally placed on his arms – for lack of anything else to do. His glare, however, only intensified. "You make it sound like I have no choice. What makes you think that I would desire to join a traitor like you after what I've heard today?"

"That is because you have no choice," the voice of Zero boomed back at him, eerily reminiscent of the old Zero – Lelouch. "We have power that the people of the world will never have. For years they have struggled for freedom, but they are ultimately asking for something they cannot achieve themselves. We are bound by the People's Wish. This is our duty, for the sake of the world's future."

Tōdō took a step backwards. "So you are still fighting for the same reasons."

"You must do what is right for the world. That is the only choice," Zero replied, ignoring him and beginning to walk away. After a few steps he stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Don't be late."

Room 277

Tokyo Settlement International Hotel

Shirley sat at a desk against the wall twirling her pen. A fairly detailed section of Zero Requiem lay on the table next to her notepad, written in her own handwriting with red annotations between the lines and in the margins. To minimise risk, never would the entire plan be documented at any one time; both Lelouch and herself had memorised the entire contents well enough to be able to reproduce the key points verbatim at will. Instead, when it was necessary, they would write out a section of the plan for adaptation and burn it before moving onto the next. These sections were known as "Phases."

She had never been a stupid girl. She had maintained consistently high grades back at Ashford Academy and was quite good at chess for a beginner, but she would never come close to Lelouch's strategic ability. Zero Requiem was, in its entirety, beyond her, but she quickly found that immediate tactics came far more easily. With Lelouch's role stretching him far more thinly than her at most times, she had ample time to devote to preparing contingency plans for anything which could possibly go wrong. Her plans were never anywhere close to perfect, like the ones in Zero Requiem were, but it was quantity, not quality, which was critical when it came to contingency plans; given a wide choice of options, Lelouch would easily be able to select the best within seconds and improve it on the fly.

A sound at the door drew her attention, the doorknob rattling as though somebody was either opening it with a key or checking if it was unlocked. She quickly hid her papers and made her way across the room. Lelouch would have taken a gun, but she refused to take a life. Not until she had no other choice. Before the month was out, she would have blood on her hands and Zero Requiem would be unstoppable.

The door swung open and closed, locking itself as C.C. limped in, supported by a man in a dark, hooded coat. Shirley tensed for a moment, but relaxed when she saw the light reflect off a gold plate underneath the hood.

"Jeremiah?"

The man in question let go of C.C. and pulled the hood off his head, staring at Shirley in bewilderment. "You're that girl Rolo killed at Ikebukuro, aren't you? How are you alive?"

"I wasn–"

"–Where is His Highness Lelouch?" Jeremiah almost demanded, his eyes flickering around the room, but not finding the one he had sworn his allegiance to for all time.

Shirley took a step backwards, eyes wide open in fear. She'd never met Jeremiah Gottwald, but she'd seen pictures of him and heard Lelouch speak of his exploits. She'd also caught sight of him once or twice as he ran through Ikebukuro Station, trying to kill Lelouch. It was all too easy for her to reconcile that man with the one standing before her and, even though she knew he would be arriving that day, seeing him up close was a whole lot scarier to her than discussing his involvement with Lelouch.

"He's out. Take me to the bed," C.C. requested airily. She took a few steps by herself before falling and being caught by Jeremiah.

"She's lost a lot of blood," he told them, grunting slightly as he lifted her up. He carried her over to the bed and laid her down, taking a seat by her side. "She's been shot in the head. I'm not moving until I can speak with Lelouch."

C.C. sat up. "He will be back later today. He has things to attend to."

Jeremiah placed his palm on her chest and gently pushed her back down. "You need to rest. Even if you are immortal, you need time to recuperate from a bullet wound."

She snorted at him and pushed his hand away. "You're hundreds of years too young to be telling me to rest."

He was saved from having to insist as she lay down once again and rolled onto her side, facing away from him. Her behaviour was very childish for somebody who had just claimed to be wise beyond his years. It was a wonder Lelouch had put up with the woman for so long.

"Jeremiah," Shirley began hesitantly. "Lelouch is sorry for deceiving you and he…um…"

This time it was his turn to snort. "If Lelouch was sorry for every person he deceived, he'd never get anything done."

"Then you don't–"

"If he is alive, then it doesn't matter. It's my duty to serve him."

Shirley was about to respond when the doorhandle shook again and it opened, admitting two more men in hooded coats. Suzaku quickly slipped off his coat, oblivious to Jeremiah's presence.

"Suzaku?"

"Jeremiah?" he ventured curiously, looking up at the sound of the man's voice. "Lelouch said you'd be here at some point, but he didn't tell me you were already here. I guess he didn't want to contact me any more than necessary."

"Actually, I brought him in today. Lelouch has been busy with The Hangar over the past few days," C.C. commented, sitting up and showing that she was clearly wide awake.

Jeremiah pushed her straight back down again. "You need to rest."

Suzaku chuckled and Shirley let out a small giggle at the frustrated expression on Jeremiah's face and the irritated one on C.C.'s, drawing both of their attentions simultaneously. C.C. rolled back over onto her side and Jeremiah fixed a suspicious glare on the man standing next to Suzaku, who still hadn't spoken.

"Who is that?"

Suzaku made to respond, but the man held a hand out to silence him, unbuttoning his coat and dropping it to the floor.

Leaping to his feet, Jeremiah snarled and allowed the bloody spike to extend out of his arm. "Maldini! What's going on here?"

"It's been a long time since you called me Kanon, Jeremiah," he replied softly.

"Those days ended when you sided with Schneizel, Maldini!"

Suzaku held out his own hand to placate Jeremiah. "He's on our side now."

Jeremiah scoffed. "Maldini is loyal to Schneizel and Schneizel only. Why would he, of all people, turn against him?"

"Let's just say Schneizel wasn't who I thought he was," Kanon replied sadly.

Suzaku nodded and Jeremiah reluctantly disengaged his weapon, accepting the explanation at face value for the moment. The other occupants of the room turned to Kanon and gave him sad, but supportive, smiles. They knew how deep Schneizel's betrayal of his trust was; it wasn't a nice feeling to know that they were the ones who shattered his idealised perception of the man, but it wasn't fair to leave him in the dark.

"It's been too long to start calling you 'Kanon' again, Maldini," Jeremiah said, sitting down again. His voice was laced with almost none of the disgust it had previously held, but contained a little of something else: hurt.

"Did the switch work out okay, Suzaku?" Shirley asked, hesitantly trying to draw the focus away from Kanon and Jeremiah. "You took a long time."

Suzaku sat down on the couch. "Tōdō came down and sat in the back of one of the Black Knights' vans while I was waiting for Lelouch in the basement. He didn't see me, but he was at the bottom of the ramp, so I couldn't leave. I sent a message to Lelouch telling him to wait until Tōdō was about to leave, but he ended up staying for hours."

Kanon shrugged. "Lelouch and I got something to eat while we were waiting."

Suzaku was about to retort an indication of his jealousy, but pulled up short when he saw the blood seeping into the bed spreads under C.C. and caked on Jeremiah's sleeves. He jumped up off the couch and rushed over to the bed. "Blood? Who's bleeding? Why?"

"Relax, Suzaku," C.C. said, sitting up to speak to him. Jeremiah tried to push her back down, concerned that she'd injure herself again, but she swatted him away. "Some Britannian soldiers shot me. I'll be fine."

After checking that she wasn't missing any limbs or anything like that, Suzaku nodded and sat back down on the couch, allowing his heart rate to return to its regular rhythm. He supposed he shouldn't have worried too much. Between an immortal 'witch' – as Lelouch called her – and a seemingly invincible cyborg who could very well be immortal as well, a few drops of blood were hardly a cause for concern.

For the first time since entering, Suzaku had a chance to look around. Since the thwarted execution, he had been busy with making the necessary preparations within the Order of the Black Knights and familiarising himself with the changes Lelouch had made to Zero Requiem, so he hadn't seen the hotel room before.

A desk was set against the side wall – on the same side as the couch he sat on – and the large bed hosting C.C. and Jeremiah was to his left, against the far wall of the room. The wall opposite him was made up of floor-to-roof, heavily tinted windows. Doors to the kitchen, bathroom and a second bedroom were next to the desk. It was evident that Lelouch had avoided getting one of the best suites – if they were found out, the search would likely begin from the most expensive rooms first – but he had definitely made sure that they would be comfortable. It would still have cost a lot of money to stay in, but something told Suzaku that Lelouch had no intention of ever paying any hotel bill.

Suzaku creased his eyebrows and looked at the room's occupants as it fell silent, each person locked within their thoughts. C.C. had been pushed back onto her side by Jeremiah, perhaps more aggressively than she would have liked, but Jeremiah wasn't one to care for gentleness. Jeremiah himself was outright glaring at Kanon, who was still standing in the centre of the room and avoiding his gaze with a mixture of guilt and sadness on his face. Shirley stood near the door, trying to think of something to say which would ease the tension.

Jeremiah was the first to break the silence. "Where is Lelouch? You still haven't proven that you're actually working with him."

"They are. Lelouch told me I would be staying here with them," Kanon replied smoothly, causing Suzaku's response to die in his throat.

"This has nothing to do with you, Maldini."

Kanon was slightly taken aback at the icy tone, although he had been expecting something along those lines.

"Please," Shirley interjected, taking a few steps towards them. "Don't fight. Can't you be friends?"

"Not with this man," Jeremiah immediately replied. Kanon's face fell a little further.

"Please, we need everybody to work together."

It took several minutes of pleading on Shirley's part to convince him that he needed to tolerate Kanon's presence – though by no means be 'friends' with him, as Shirley had suggested – to achieve Lelouch's goals and, even then, it was only on the condition that Lelouch would later give the order himself.

Lying on her side and facing away from the others, C.C. opened an eye as they managed to come to an agreement. A slight smirk began to form on her face.

All of their pieces were coming together.

Zero Requiem would not be denied its purpose.

Tokyo Docks

It was early morning by the time Lelouch returned to The Hangar, parking one of his many 'borrowed' cars in a back corner and covering it with a black sheet. He'd been forced to leave a few of them under the Order of the Black Knights' headquarters for situations such as these, where he had been forced to hand his current vehicle over to Suzaku during a changeover.

A small steel door at the side of The Hangar allowed him to exit the building without having to open the bulky front doors; with his Geass he had made sure that those who would usually patrol the area at night had been made to ignore anything unusual, but added precautions were necessary in case of something he had not anticipated.

Lelouch was pleased that Laroque had allowed him to select the meeting place. It said a lot for the man's trust in him that he was unconcerned about a potential ambush. Then again, they had never agreed to come unarmed, so he was potentially quite dangerous even by himself. It was not a concession Lelouch ever liked to make, at any rate; there had rarely been a time in the last few years when he had not carried a pistol on him for added security.

He sped up his steps. The meeting was to take place in a similar building to The Hangar, but on the opposite side of the docks. He would have chosen The Hangar, but there were things there which he didn't want anybody to see until it was necessary – especially somebody of unconfirmed allegiance.

The area was silent when he arrived, save for his own quiet footsteps. He walked around to the back and entered a code into the number pad next to the door. He had acquired this building, along with a few others, at the same time as The Hangar in case he ever needed it for any reason. Only he, and now Laroque, knew the entry code, having surrendered it over the phone when suggesting the building as a meeting place.

'He's here already,' Lelouch noted, seeing the figure standing near the back of the dimly-lit building. He walked calmly towards it, the click of his shoes against the hard floor echoing throughout the large shed.

"Laroque."

"Zero."

The first thing Lelouch noticed about the cloaked man was the mask. It was ovular in shape and slightly larger than the average head, but that was almost all that was notable about it. Its purpose didn't seem to be intimidation, but rather solely to conceal identity. Instead of artistic shaping and designs, it was coloured entirely in black. There were no eyeholes, either; he appeared to be able to see without them, just as Lelouch could.

"It's been a while."

Laroque remained silent for a moment, although he appeared to be staring at him intently. "We've never met."

"Of course you would say that," Lelouch responded, smirking behind his mask. "It's true, I guess; I've never met you as you are now."

"How did you find me? My identity isn't exactly common knowledge," Laroque asked quickly, as though he had been waiting to hear the answer for some time. "Although with both Schneizel and yourself knowing it, maybe it is."

"I didn't begin to seriously track you down until a few years ago. Even with my abilities and resources, it was almost impossible to find more than a vague trail of deregistered internet accounts and deactivated credit cards, both under pseudonyms," Lelouch began, a barely-detectable hint of frustration in his voice. "You have been extremely cautious of anybody associating you with your old self, haven't you?"

Laroque turned his head to one side. "I wanted to live my life without the threat of Britannia hanging over my shoulder. I wanted to forget about 'Laroque.'"

Lelouch acknowledged his motives with a nod and continued. "When I finally did track you down, I was pleasantly surprised to find you so close to home: in Japan. I had anticipated travelling to Britannia or Europe in order to convince you to offer your services to my cause, but, with you in Japan, everything was far easier. I had more time, of course, but I also had the opportunity to attempt to discover your views on the war. Were you on our side or would I have to convince you to reject Britannia? It wasn't until two years ago when I not only had my answer, but also a face to go with the name 'Laroque' – something I had been seeking for a long time."

Laroque remained silent, listening carefully to everything Lelouch revealed before he made any sort of response.

"Who would have thought that the former Knight of One would have considered the Battle of Narita, where Britannia was humiliated by the Order of the Black Knights, to be as favourable as you did?"

"I was wrong!" Laroque finally interjected heatedly, his voice echoing off the walls. "I'm not naïve enough to think that wasn't what was needed, but too many people were killed in that landslide for what was accomplished."

Lelouch didn't miss his use of the word 'we.'

"I've lost almost all of my friends because of this war," Laroque finished sadly, his voice only a fraction of the volume it had been before.

Neither of them spoke for a few moments. Laroque was too caught up in his misfortune to respond and Lelouch was perfectly content to stand there and analyse him. He seemed human, that was for sure, but he was not acting as expected. Lelouch thought he would either be somewhat carefree or a hardened warrior, but he seemed to be stuck in between, as though he hadn't yet decided who he was.

"What if I told you that I could bring them back?" Lelouch asked slowly, but confidently, staring straight at the general location of his eyes.

The man in front of him remained silent. He seemed to be ignoring the question until Lelouch caught sight of his fist tensing by his side. "No…Nobody should have that kind of power, Zero."

"You have it yourself," Lelouch replied with a chuckle. "Geass."

Laroque was completely taken aback. "How did you know that?"

He was vulnerable. He had weaknesses. He wasn't the kind of warrior who could strike fear into the hearts of his enemies without his knightmare and his name.

Good.

Lelouch didn't want him to become a monster again, but he would need to remember how to kill before they ran out of time. Zero didn't need another leader; he needed a soldier – somebody whose abilities would win them the war.

With Laroque on his side, he would be three pieces away from becoming invincible.

"You were never part of the original plan, but after hearing about the Special Trainees – about you – I began to gather information."

"What do you know?" he asked warily.

"Your parents were half French and half Britannian," Lelouch began slowly, testing the waters. "Your mother never cared much for Britannia, but your father was as patriotic as they came. Since the moment you were born, he raised you as a weapon."

Laroque winced audibly. Some scars could never quite disappear.

"Not just any weapon, either – Britannia's weapon. He enlisted you with the Special Trainees alongside Anya Alstreim to undergo intense military training and psychological modification," Lelouch continued. Another man might have shivered at the thought of what sort of 'psychological modification' procedures Charles Zi Britannia might have employed and to what ends, but Lelouch was unfazed. "Your mother tried to stop your father, but was only able to achieve a compromise: you would wear a mask – the one you are wearing now – and allow nobody to know more than your surname, save for the Emperor. It was her hope that you would one day escape the Britannian military. You did."

"How do you know all of this?" he replied, his voice laced with suspicion.

"She talked."

Lelouch watched in amusement as Laroque's stance shifted from indicating confusion, to shock and, finally, to fury. He had controlled the conversation from the very beginning, allowing him to script almost every word in advance. Mao, Schneizel and now Laroque – there wasn't a person in the world who was anything less than transparent before his omniscient eyes.

"It was you?" he growled, stepping towards Lelouch. His hand snapped to his pocket and withdrew a pistol, releasing the safety and placing the tip against the forehead of the Zero mask with an audible click. Lelouch showed no reaction; he had anticipated this. "You tortured my mother? You're the one who killed her?"

"No, Schneizel got there first. I extracted my information from one of his officers."

Lelouch smirked underneath his mask. Shirley would be disappointed in him for playing on the man's thirst for revenge, but she wasn't there. Laroque would not turn him down now – not when he was offering a chance to avenge his mother.

Laroque drew the pistol back just enough to click it against the mask of Zero again, reaffirming his intentions if he received an inadequate answer. "Then you were planning on torturing her to discover information about me?"

"I had planned to ask her a few questions, but I have ways of extracting information which do not require torture."

Laroque removed the pistol and held it by his side, keeping the safety disengaged. "Geass."

Lelouch ignored him. "One year before the invasion of Japan, you were brought before the Emperor and asked to become a test subject. Charles Zi Britannia wanted to identify a set of characteristics a person required to be assured of receiving a Geass suited to military application and, ultimately, be able to predict what sort of Geass any particular person would receive."

"It would have given him an invincible army," Laroque agreed with a slight shiver. "He would have access to any ability he ever wanted and be able to keep the number of active Geass users to a minimum. Anybody who would receive a Geass that may have been a threat to him would not be given one."

"If the test was successful and you received a military-biased Geass, he would have V.V. also bestow one upon, then Knight of Five, Bismarck Waldstein," Lelouch continued, giving a slight nod to acknowledge Laroque's understanding of the former Emperor's goals. "It was far more successful than planned, however. Your Geass allowed Britannia to reach the fourth age of knightmare development a full decade earlier than expected. The world was caught off-guard and Britannia conquered the majority of it with virtually no resistance. You were given the title of Knight of One less than a month after receiving your Geass."

Lelouch waited for a moment in silence. If he had read the situation correctly, Laroque would take up the story from here. He had rarely been wrong in the past and this would prove no exception. A smirk graced his lips as his predictions became reality and confirmed what he had known from the start: the entire meeting had been a mere formality.

"I led many of the assaults on Japan. My knightmare, the Merlin, was untouchable in battle; it was the most powerful frame every made," Laroque began slowly, regret and pain intertwined throughout his voice. "They never give you time to think in the army: you will begin to question both them and yourself. I killed hundreds of people and caused thousands more to die, but I never received anything other than praise. My mother had left my father and fled the country months earlier so I…"

He faltered.

"…I killed my father and escaped, taking my mother's maiden name. They call me 'The Deserter' now. You already knew that, though, didn't you?"

Lelouch nodded. "Yes."

"I've been in wars before, Zero. It took me years to regain my humanity, sometimes having to pretend to be something I'm not, so I thought that I could avoid this war like the last two you have waged."

"War is not something which should be avoided by those who believe in something," Lelouch declared, the booming voice of Zero echoing off the walls in the darkened building.

"I know," Laroque replied firmly.

"You once said that you'd protect everyone from me. That was never necessary, but it appeared that you had lost the will to fight. It pleases me that you have not."

Laroque nodded, slipping the pistol back into his pocket. "If I was to join you, you would need to give me something."

"What?"

He took a moment to collect his thoughts. "I know you can't really give me my friends back, but I need to be assured that we will win; I will not kill again for nothing."

Lelouch chuckled, the soft grating sound emanating from behind his mask quickly morphing into an eerie full blown laugh that would have pierced the nerves of the toughest man. "You underestimate me. It is true that I do not have the power to bring back the dead, but I can give you both what you are asking for and what you have already given up on."

Lelouch could almost hear the man's heartbeat as he slowly moved his hand to his mask; it was well known that not even the Black Knights themselves were permitted to look upon Zero's true face. He schooled his expression into the very picture of neutrality and released the locking mechanism, dropping the mask dramatically at his feet.

"Le–" Laroque began, taking a step backwards in shock. He raised a visibly shaking hand and pointed it towards him. "–Lelouch?"

"Will you join me?" Lelouch asked firmly, his voice exuding raw power even without the amplifier embedded in his mask. "I ask you this, former Knight of One…"

A glint flashed in the back of his eyes.

"…Rivalz Laroque."