Suzaku careened down the road as fast as he could, Zero's signature cloak snapping around his body as he blurred. The faster he got there, the faster this could be over – the faster he could kill his best friend and his worst enemy, so they could accept one another's sacrifices and save the world, one through an obvious, public death and one through a secretive, hidden life. It would be fair to say that Suzaku had… mixed feelings about that.

He could hear the crowd's whispers and shouts as he tore past them, the wind created by his passage snatching their noise and tossing it to all four corners of the earth. However, even as he kept his head dead to sprint, he could tell that they weren't fully focused on him, as if something else strange was happening ahead, and that made him a little confused. Sure, Lelouch's float stopping for no apparent reason would be slightly surprising, but enough to draw their attention away from the sudden appearance of Zero? Now that made no sense.

It was with this confusion in mind that Suzaku topped the slight hill in the road before where the float was due to be stopped – it had been blocking his view of the street ahead, so when he finally got over it, he was expecting to see Lelouch's float sitting there.

It wasn't.

As far as Suzaku could tell, it was a couple of hundred metres further back than that, and… what the hell is Lelouch doing? Wha… what are Kaguya and Kallen doing released? He kept running, despite almost stumbling the first time he saw what must have been the reasons the crowd weren't as focused on him as they should have been. It didn't really change anything all that much, however – Suzaku needed to get close to him, albeit with the current change in the situation he kind of wanted to know what was going on first.

It had only been about fifteen seconds since he topped the hill, but he'd covered almost half the distance between them. Lelouch must have decided to actively notice that an apparently-dead Zero was racing towards him with a sword (the man would have seen Suzaku at the same time as Suzaku had seen him), because he turned away from what looked like a piece of Demon Emperor grandstanding, flicking both his arms to the side slightly, like he was loosening them.

But he wasn't – that was the gesture in their own sign language for 'Trust me'. Which usually preceded one or the other getting into a lot of trouble, and sometimes both depending on what mood their minders were in at the time. Right now, Suzaku thought that might be a bit of an understatement. He kept running, like the Demon Emperor hadn't given him a signal, because to the public, how could he have?

He could see the Sutherland escorts preparing to fire upon him when Lelouch held up a hand – they immediately stopped moving and stood to attention, so Suzaku slowed down to a walk. Now that he didn't need to keep moving to avoid getting killed, there was no point sprinting, not when a cool, calm and collected walk would be much more suited to how the scenario seemed to be playing out. He strolled towards the stopped float, only about fifty metres away. Jeremiah walked up to him, blades out even though they both knew he wasn't going to use them – they had appearances to keep up.

Once he was close enough to talk to Suzaku without anyone overhearing, Jeremiah started to speak.

"I don't know what the Emperor is doing, but I have a feeling he wants to talk to you."

"Thanks, Jeremiah, I never would have guessed." Suzaku said, grinning underneath the mask. "Now, exactly what has happened while the float has been stopped here?"

"The Emperor has been playing a 'game' with the prisoners. So far, the only two to have participated have won the 'grand prize'. Kaguya is now the Chairwoman of the UFN, as Lelouch rescinded his role when she asked for it, as per the rules of the game once she won. Kallen went second, and when she won (because we both know she was going to), she asked for Lelouch as her one request. I have no idea what that means, but I have a feeling the Emperor is, if you'll forgive my colloquialism, trying save the world and get the girl. I just have no idea how."

By now, almost everyone was staring at Suzaku and Jeremiah, as they seemed to be in a frank conversation. Zero and the Demon Emperor's most loyal servant now that Suzaku was supposed to be dead, chatting amiably while surrounded by Lelouch's forces, metres away from the Emperor himself. While said Emperor had just relinquished his hold over the UFN and had just been passionately kissed in public and slapped in the face in the space of a few seconds, according to what Jeremiah had just told him. Suzaku wondered how many of them thought they'd stepped into the Twilight Zone or something like that.

Jeremiah abruptly turned and gestured toward Lelouch, indicating that their conversation would be of no further use to either of them. Suzaku started walking up the ramp, passing Schneizel and Nunnally, although he did slash the latter's chains apart, because that's what Knights of Justice did, help save little girls from big, bad dragons. Jeremiah followed behind, a completely unnecessary escort – not only because Suzaku wouldn't do anything to Lelouch until after their discussion, but because they both knew that even the cyborg wouldn't be fast enough to stop Suzaku from killing Lelouch if he wanted to.

He noticed Kallen moving slightly closer to Lelouch until she was next to him, as opposed to standing at his shoulder, and she whispered something to him briefly that made him smile – and it was a proper smile, not a Demon Emperor smile, so Suzaku knew he wasn't faking the amusement. Or happiness. Or whatever it was. The man started to speak just as Suzaku reached the top of the dais, his voice obviously enhanced by a microphone of some sort.

"Well well well. Fancy seeing you here, Zero. Come to join the party?"

"In a manner of speaking." Suzaku said as he shifted the sword slightly in his hand – all part of the show, of course, even if he was just going with the flow.

"Say, Zero, do you know how simply, infuriatingly, tediously boring absolute power is? I say jump, and they're midway in the air before they bother to ask how high. I mean, come on. Where's the fun in that? There's no challenge any more. It's just so… easy."

"If it bothers you so much, you could always just turn yourself in."

"But that's boring too! Sitting in jail, with nothing to do, and no-one to talk to. Until I decide to escape, of course, which would equally be easy and quite frankly not that much fun past the first few minutes either. I mean, all I want is an interesting life. Is that too much to ask? I thought I had it with this whole Emperor lark, but quite frankly I'm quite over that now. I just don't know what to do next!"

"So you're saying… you did all this because you were bored?"

"Mostly. I mean, it's one thing knowing you're a genius, but it's another thing proving it to the entire world unequivocally. And you have to admit, it was fairly easy. You'd been fighting Britannia for, what, two years or more? And then you died. Or, at least, you were supposed to. Obviously you're not, since you're standing here listening to me ramble.

Anyway, and then I come along, and three or four months later we're standing here, me not only as Britannia's Emperor, but as uncontested ruler of the entire world. Well, I used to be, until Lady Kaguya won two-thirds of it off me in our little game. Now that… that wasn't boring.

But I've already taken over the world once, and I can't be bothered doing it again. So I'm stuck with Britannia, but I don't even want that either! I suppose I could abdicate, but I wouldn't know what to do with myself afterwards!"

At that, Kallen leant forward and whispered to Lelouch – unluckily for the both of them, she'd forgotten about the microphone, and her next words were broadcast throughout the world.

"I could think of a few things."

Suzaku coughed, interrupting the shocked silence as Kallen flushed bright red and Lelouch looked like he would rather be somewhere else. With someone else. Seconds passed, and then Lelouch broke from his reverie and started speaking again.

"Yes, quite. Very well then, I think that's that decided then. I, Lelouch vi Britannia, sole ruler of the Holy Britannian Empire and CEO of the Black Knights, hereby relinquish the throne to Nunnally vi Britannia and return the Black Knights to Zero. Now, if you'll excuse me?"

As he spoke the last sentence, he reached out, collected Kallen's hand as she once again blushed bright red, and moved to walk past Suzaku. He reached out, grabbing Lelouch by the arm, and drew close enough to whisper without the microphone picking it up.

"Okay, I've probably gone completely insane for letting this happen (as have you, I might add), but whatever, I'm sure we'll figure all this out later. But don't you have a lot of Geassed minions? I can kind of see what you're trying to do here, but nobody is going to trust anyone if your soldiers are still around."

"Ah, yes."

Lelouch spoke into the microphone, so the entire world would hear his words.

"I, Lelouch vi Britannia, hereby release all those involuntarily sworn into my service from my control, starting tomorrow. From then, you are free, and always will be. For those of you who still consider yourself under my influence, I offer the services of one Jeremiah Gottwald for the period of one month, equally starting tomorrow.

Right, well, I'd better be off. It's been so nice to have had a proper chat"

"What if I was to stab you now? Right now?" Suzaku asked, because Zero had no reason to let the Demon Emperor go.

"Well, then you could cherish the look of surprise on my face. 'Cause I'd be surprised, Zero, really I would. And just a teensy bit… disappointed. And of course, you wouldn't be able to cherish it for very long. After all, I did specify my armies were to be released from their servitude tomorrow. Not today. Who knows what sort of orders they might have if I were to die?"

Suzaku almost laughed – trust Lelouch to have done the thinking for him.

"Goodbye, Zero."

"Catch you later." Suzaku replied, because he couldn't think of anything witty to say.

"No you won't!" Lelouch said, almost too cheerily.

Kallen and he then proceeded to walk down the street in the direction the float had come from; with one in the robes of a Britannian Emperor and a funny hat, and the other in the clothing of a prisoner and spiky red hair, they looked about as strange as the events of the past fifteen minutes. The crowd watched them in utter confusion, glances alternating between the pair and Zero, and then at each other, and then back at Kallen and Lelouch, most likely wondering what the hell was going on.

Then three gunshots cracked through the air, and Lelouch stumbled before dropping to one knee, hand pressed to his chest. Kallen screamed, and Lelouch removed his hand – it was completely soaked with blood. His blood. He looked at it almost bemusedly before speaking.

"Well, isn't that something." he said, before collapsing completely to the ground.

Author's Note:

Is it just me, or am I getting into the habit of ending chapters with someone shooting at Lelouch? I mean, both chapters of Second Chances, and now this chapter here... I guess I'm growing sadistic in my old age.

Anyway, welcome back to the third installment of Impulse! I hope you've enjoyed the last two chapters (ye gods I love writing over-the-top Lelouch. Bonus points to anyone who can guess who he's channeling this chapter. Shouldn't be too hard), and that you've enjoyed this one in turn!

By the way, I've probably forgotten to mention this until now, but I do love reviews and everything else as much as the next author. Because I must admit, I am kinda sad that the last chapter got no (zero, zilch, nothing) reviews at all. Ah well, one must endure =P

Until next time,

Magery