Chapter 2: Losing Its Essence.

Kallen Kozuki was a loyal soldier, even when she knew her leader was an exiled prince with a superpower who was also her classmate in class. After Zero's rescue on Babel tower, Kallen began to see the human behind the mask, and after her own rescue Kallen knew that this human needed support now more than ever.

They were on the elevator and Ohgi called her to bring Zero in a hangar. Suddenly, Zero started to act oddly.

He pushed the stop button.

Then he removed his mask, and Kallen could see his expression.

There was something in his look that showed some sharpened maturity and … boredom?

"Hey Kallen." He said casually. "How are things going?"

She tilted her head. "Are you okay?" Then she lowered her eyes. "Oh, I understand."

Lelouch blinked, then massaged the bridge of his nose. "Oh, he had to send me there."

"What?" Kallen asked confusingly.

Lelouch shook his head. "Forget it. There's something more urgent right now."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

He took a more mysterious tone. "Our nakamas want to get rid of their captain."

Kallen gulped. "Really?"

Lelouch nodded. "Yes. It's a conspiracy. Schneizel has brainwashed them, making them think that I'm a Britannian prince with a power to mind-control people."

There was an awkward silence for a few moments.

"But … everything is true." Kallen said neutrally.

Lelouch nodded again. "Yes, but there are no proofs. Schneizel just has a 'recording' of Suzaku talking to someone called 'Lelouch' about something called 'Geass' and the testimony of an OSI agent who was in the purist unit before."

"Oh." She said simply. "But in that case, they will have a hard time believing Schneizel, especially since he just killed millions of his compatriots with the FLEIJA. I'm sure Ohgi and, especially not, Todoh, will believe him."

There was a moment of silence where Lelouch fought to restrain a laugh.

Then he burst out laughing.

"What did I say?" Kallen asked, annoyed.

"Oh, Kallen, I love you, I really do." Lelouch said between two laughs.

She blushed hard. "Really?" Kallen asked, startled.

Then something came to her mind.

"Hey! Why do you laugh if your sister just died?" She exclaimed.

"My sister isn't dead; she's in a plane for Cambodia." Lelouch explained.

Kallen widened her eyes.

"It's a long story." He said simply.

Lelouch put his mask back and pushed a button in the elevator.

"What are you going to do?" Kallen asked.

Zero shrugged. "Don't know. I'm going to flee and stop my father." The elevator stopped. "But first …"


Kyoshiro Todoh was a man of honor and a very wise man. That was why he decided to betray his leader Zero, the man who turned a group of twelve honorable proud Japanese resistant fighters who were planning to unleash poison gas into the only defense force of forty-seven democratic nations. Some simple-minded fools might tell him that he, along with his comrades in arms, would betray these nations, that they would destroy any hope for defeating The Britannian Empire, but these people didn't know that Zero was not a good person. He was a bad man, an exiled prince who wanted nothing but to use the innocent Japanese resistance for his personal gain. Zero, no, Lelouch, had a power that could mind-control people. It made sense; since no sane Britannian Princess would slaughter Japanese civilians … Todoh began to realize it when Cornelia said to them that her little sister was innocent. If the members of the Royal family were slaughtering the Japanese, it was because evil Lelouch was controlling them for gaining public support. On top of that, Lelouch used his Geass in the Black Knights, surely on Todoh, and that was why Todoh decided that he would kill Lelouch.

The doors of the hangar's elevator opened, revealing Zero and Captain Kozuki.

When the masked messiah and his sexy bodyguard were standing in the middle of the hangar, the spotlights switched on and turned to the two people without whom the Black Knights wouldn't survive.

"Surrender, Zero!" Todoh shouted.

"How dare you …" Chiba began, but she was interrupted by her former leader.

"How chivalrous of you." Zero said, with his charismatic tone the people both feared and admired. "You prefer to kill me rather than Schneizel, simply because you know that I'm now harmless."

That shut them up.

"You prefer to kill someone who gave you what you couldn't even dream to have." He continued. "Power, pride, dignity, victories, and, what is the most important, a just cause to fight for."

"We know about Geass…" Sugiyama began, but Zero ignored him.

"You prefer to hit on an unarmed person instead of the man who possess a weapon that just killed millions of people. Have the Black Knights lost their essence?"

Kallen's heart beat faster than ever. It was the leader she admired who just said those words.

Zero put a hand to his mask. "If you think for a second that you have the strength necessary to kill me, when you were considering killing your best pilot and one of your dearest comrades just because she would refuse to stop shielding her leader, then you're wrong!"

He removed his mask and let it fall.

Zero's face belonged to a Japanese young man, completely random. There were red circles around his eyes.

The Japanese guy, under the effects of Lelouch's Geass, made two middle fingers to the people who were threatening him and Kallen.

"I don't believe it." Ohgi said, angrily.

"The little bastard!" Tamaki shouted philosophically.

Kallen couldn't help but laugh.

"You'd think that you could screw me?" The mind-controlled Japanese guy asked, a taunting smirk on his face. "But no one screw with the king of bastards!"

There was something on Schneizel's face that screamed 'murder'.

Lelouch was leaving the Ikaruga in a stolen Akatsuki.

He stretched his arms while his Knightmare Frame was leaving the aerial ship. "I hope Kallen will be able to find me, I'd like to know what their reaction was. But first, I have to stop my father from killing God. Everything's simpler now that I know how to take a Code."

Lelouch had a satisfied smile on his face.

He quickly abandoned it once he saw all that purple.