Lelouch applies the last of the specially designed makeup to his prisoner's face.
While not his favorite skill to brag about, he had always known how important makeup was to improve the appearance of someone. Conversely, it could also be used to artificially give someone bruises, bags under the eyes, and a nasty, nasty cut.
The new emperor smiles at e sullen prisoner, snapping the case closed.
"Do you think your friends will make it? I actually think they will, personally."
The prisoner glares one bloodshot eye at him.
"That goody-two-shoes troupe of yours definitely wouldn't hesitate to save their righteous leader."
"I don't condone all for one mentality."
"Yet more that's changed in the time since you lead your little army. I seem to recall a story about you where everyone else died to protect you."
"Oh? Who told you that?"
"I have my sources." Lelouch steps back to admire his work. "Hmm. I think you need a bit more black around the eyes."
"What is the point of this? It's only going to cast you in a harsher light."
The emperor smiles. "Why tell you and spoil the secret?"
o-o-o-o
Nunnally wakes up on a bed of leaves. She looks around to get her bearings. The first person she sees is Suzaku, resting with his back against a tree. When she stirs, he looks back and moves over to her.
"Hey. Are you feeling alright?"
Nunnally does a quick mental check. "Everything seems normal, why?"
Suzaku squats down to her level. "After the battle, you... you had an adverse reaction."
He sits down and lies next to her. "You really don't want to kill anyone, do you?"
Nunnally shakes her head. How Suzaku tells this is unknown. Maybe he felt the wind, but he responded nonetheless.
"When I joined the military, I was told to kill people lots of times. I never killed anyone despite my orders to the contrary. In fact, I've almost died multiple times because of that. Once under the Emperor's service, I eventually had to start killing, especially since the knights of the round were targets to anyone wanting to prove their worth. Im telling you this because, well, I'd like you to make a decision. When I finally started killing my opponents, I lost something. If you want to remain with us, you are probably going to have to kill someone, face to face. I am willing to cover for you if you want to go home instead. Don't respond right now, think about it for a few minutes. I won't stop you if you follow us, I won't stop you if you go. I wouldn't want to force this burden on anyone."
Nunnally lies on her bed of leaves. They look at the stars, which had come out as she slept.
"I'll continue. I need to do this, see if that man is my brother, even if I have to become a murderer to do it."
Suzaku sits up and acknowledges her choice. Before he leaves, he places a hand on her shoulder.
The comforting gesture is the last thing Nunnally remembers before she drifts back to sleep.
o-o-o-o
Suzaku, Jeremiah, Kallen, and C2 sit around a small fire.
"Nunnally says she wants to continue. She says she wants to determine whether or not the emperor is actually Lelouch or not."
C2 opens her mouth to speak, but stops herself. Se had told them her "Opinion" multiple times.
Jeremiah leans against a log. The firelight bounces off of his false eye, causing odd shadows around the base of the trees. "C2. My loyalty was to Lady Marianne, and then to Lelouch, her son. Currently, I have no loyalties except to you. I know you dont believe that the new Lelouch is the old Lelouch, but what would happen if he was?"
C2 again starts to say that he isn't Lelouch, but cuts herself off. "Well, if he really was Lelouch... I'd still want him dead. He is supposed to be dead. Suzaku killed him. If he is still alive, he betrayed the trust of even his two closest allies and the ones in on his Zero Requiem. So, he deserves to die."
Jeremiah nods. "I can understand your point of view. I am still trying to decide where my loyalties will lie if it turns out he survived. It's... an odd circumstance. Before he died or pretended to, Lelouch have me a number. He told me if it was ever called, to follow whoever calls no matter who. But if that is actually him, then I have a duty to him."
C2 notices that for the first time she could remember Jeremiah looks stressed.
Well, after his augmentation and subsequent rampage.
Kallen throws an errant stick onto the fire. She doesn't say anything, but C2 can tell she also has reservations.
This was going to be an interesting night.
o-o-o-o
The next morning, the rescue part sets out early, to protests from the less militaristic of the group. Nunnally and Lady Kaguya both just wanted sleep.
As soon everyone was awake enough to fly, they boarded their Knightmares and flew the rest of the distance to the mainland uneventfully. As soon as they enter Britannian airspace, C2 had prepared for a lot of contingencies. She had prepared for being attacked outright, being ambushed, and being forced to disarm, even if they had developed something similar to a gefjun disturber that worked on the sheilded Knightmares.
Really, assuming your Knightmare can be disabled is good practice. You can't die as easily if you expect it.
But she didn't plan for the actual event that happens. As they approach the shore of what would've been California in another universe, close to thirty Knighmares rise up out of the nearest military installation and hail them.
C2 opens the channel. "Yes?"
"Please identify yourselves."
"We are the Black Assassins. We've come for our leader." C2 puts effort into sounding confident.
"Good! Just the people we are looking for. We're to escort you to the capital ourselves."
There is a good long silence. Finally Kallen cuts in with "What?"
"The emperor wishes us to bring you before him now. You are going to be allowed to retain your weapons as a sign of good faith. He wishes that you will come bearing an olive branch rather than a unsheathed sword."
The radio goes quiet, but doesn't disconnect.
"Emperor Lelouch also wants me to tell a girl named C2 and a man named Suzaku. 'On the Sword of Akasha, I gave the world a choice. Do you grant me the same?'"
C2 freezes. Suzaku's stunned face appears on her console. C2 switches to an alternate channel and checks behind her. Lady Kaguya had fallen back to sleep.
"C2, only three people survived that-"
"You, me, and Lelouch." C2 finishes grimly.
C2 switches back to a public channel. "We accept your escort. We will come bearing an olive branch, but our sword shall also be strapped to our side."
The Knightmare pilot seems satisfied with this answer.
Kallen's face shows up on another monitor. "What's the Sword of Akasha?"
"Something that should never have existed. Something evil."
Kallen wisely decides not to press further.
o-o-o-o
As they dismount their Knightmares, Kallen looks around at the Black Assassins.
C2 and Suzaku are nervous, looking at each other. Both of them were big supporters of the theory Lelouch is dead, but whatever that message had been had rattled them.
Nunnally obviously was hoping Lelouch was alive. She didn't really care about the consequence she just wanted her brother back.
Jeremiah is as stoic as ever. Kallen wonders if he finally figured out where his loyalties lay.
Anya looks... blank. As always.
Lady Kaguya alone looks confident. And why not? She had only known Lelouch as Zero, and during his reign as emperor she was against him. She really didn't care either way.
Kallen acknowledges that her own emotions were getting in the way.
She leads the procession into the building. Several of the men salute as they pass, adding a layer of weirdness.
Finally, they arrive at a set of double doors. Two men see them approach and open the doors just as they reach them. Inside is a long chamber with Lelouch at the end. He stands beside something that looked (if one was feeling uncharitable) like a porta potty.
"Ah welcome! I hope none of my soldiers gave you a hard time?"
Kallen looks at the others. Aside from Lady Kaguya who looked rather disinterested she was the most stable looking at the moment. Thus, she speaks up.
"No, no problems. We've come for two reasons. First of all, we would like to have Gregor returned to us. Second, we would like to ascertain your identity."
The emperor nods. "Of course! And you shall have both. But first, would you like something to eat? We have things prepared."
C2 narrows her eyes.
The emperor smiles at her. "I managed to get one of those pizzas with the weird hotdog crust things for you."
C2 eyes go back to being wide.
"Sure, why not? You had all day to kill us, why start now?"
The emperor shows them to a side door and they all smell delicious smells coming from the area beyond the door.
Sure enough, a giant table full of food. The hungrier members of the Black Assassins almost fall upon the food. Kallen restrains herself.
"So, where's Gregor?" she asks.
"Safe. That is a suspension chamber back there, and he'll be safe until we pull him out."
Kallen resists the urge to "insist" that he release Gregor now.
"Besides, don't you want to know my situation? How I survived?"
Seven pairs of eyes lock onto his.
The emperor gets a sad look in his eyes. "Am I correct in assuming you all have ideas about how I'm either alive or an imposter?" Seeing nods, he continues. "Well, the truth is, I'm not the real Lelouch."
Nunnally sets her head in her hands.
"But I am Lelouch vi Brittania."
Kallen crosses her arms. "Well, which is it? You can't be both."
"I am both. I'm a clone of Lelouch, taken right before his death. That's why I look like he did during his reign. I'm about-" he thinks for a second. "I'm about two months old now. I still have all the memories of when the real Lelouch was alive."
The room falls into stunned silence.
The clone sighs. "I initially wanted you dead as you probably assumed I would. I... The people that cloned me don't like you. I was told to eliminate you. I was told you all betrayed me. I prepared everything with the intent of deceiving you into killing each other. I even learned to use stage makeup and painted bruises and scars on Gregor.
But then two things happened: first, I captured Gregor. He told me very little, but he did tell me enough to get me to question my motives. The second was Nunnally."
The girl in question perks up. "When the you started flying out towards this building. My creators decided against my wishes to have you all killed. I asked if they could at least let Nunnally live. See, Lelouch always loved his little sister, and by extension, so do I. When they told me they'd spare her, then sent out a platoon of Knightmares to wipe you out, I realized these people may be liars. I think I might have been conditioned to listen to them, because I'm sure Lelouch wouldn't have taken their word for it, and I did."
He frowns. "The Geass order. You took out one of their lieutenants not even a month ago. They also created me. I'm just a product to be used to them. My battle strategies and my knowledge of Geass are good assets to them."
The room again falls into a stunned silence.
The emperor sips from his cup. "I'm sure you're all skeptical. I would be as well. But it's the truth as I know it."
Kallen is unable to keep her hand from shaking. "You know, I'd really like to just leave now."
Lelouch raises an eyebrow. "Aren't you forgetting Gregor?"
"Yeah, we'll take him too."
Lelouch smiles sadly again. "I'm sorry, but I have a condition to his release. It's not hard to fulfill."
He leans in towards Kallen. "You have to kill me."
Nunnally screams. "No! I won't let you die again!"
C2 and Suzaku start arguing heatedly. Jeremiah and Anya sit passively. Lady Kaguya has her head in her hands.
Kallen grabs him by both shoulders. "Why?"
"Because." He pulls a trigger, the one Zero uses, out of his pocket. "The real Lelouch is also here."
In the chamber beyond, a large thunk of something unlocking reaches the ears of six stunned Black Assassins.