Late. Again. I had a party, which is a rarity in my life. Sue me.
Er, please don't sue me. figure of speech.
Tamaki holsters his weapon.
The people who had know him when he was part of the Black Knights, those who knew his bumbling, switcheroo personality were stunned at the cold ruthlessness he had just shown.
And not a single brag in sight.
"Tamaki? What are you doing?"
"My job." The short response is said in Tamaki's voice, but once again, it doesn't fit the mental image they had formed during the Black Knight era.
"Ok then, who hired you?" the Lelouch that wasn't dead asks in the calm demeanor that was his trademark as both Zero and Emperor Lelouch.
"Oh just of people that actually cared about me. See, the Black Knights - yeah I was technically a part of them, but when was the last time I was allowed to do anything important? Hell, when was the first time? I was always shoved to the side. And it's not like I was incompetent! Oh, Lelouch always had eyes only for Kallen, no place for any other budding pilots."
He one eye literally lights up as his voice climbs a level on a volume knob. "I survived a ton of things you didn't, you know. I was part of the rebellion was before Zero existed! Out of the people Zero first contacted, I was one of three survivors from the start to the end! Even in battlefields that Titans of war died in, I survived! The four holy swords are now one, but there's still Tamaki!"
Madness had crept into his voice, but still, several of the Black Assassins saw he had a half-baked point. Yes, all that was true, except he was pretty useless in battle. At least against the so called "Titans of war," but so was the general masses.
Lelouch considers briefly that he had regarded Tamaki in with the regular cannon fodder. Maybe he should have put him on infiltration?
Well, as they say, hindsight is 20/20.
"I obviously underestimated your skills. Maybe if you had demonstrated your skills more openly, I would've recognized them." Lelouch tilts his head amiably.
"I did show skills. You remember Narita? You were busy fighting Suzaku over there while the rest of us 'regular' troops fought Britannia's finest. No, not Cornelia herself. Just her royal guard, the ones sane enough not to be in close proximity to the four holy swords. It's just that your star Kallen was trying to beat a specially built Knightmare unit right in front of you. Oh, she lost by the way. My squad won, for the most part."
Lelouch looks at the clearly broken man, wondering just how bad a state his mind was currently in. If was anything like his physical appearance, it was in quite a horrible state.
Suddenly, Tamaki's eye-light dims. "Anyway, I need to go report my success. You better hope I never have cause to come after you." he smirks. "After all, I just proved I could get you without too much trouble."
Tamaki crouches down and launches himself upwards, grabbing onto a chandelier and jumping away and incredible speeds.
Kallen looks shaken. "If I'd known he'd turn out like that, I would have just killed him back when I had the chance."
Of all people, Suzaku came to his defense. "Hey now. He did a lot of good for the Black Knights. Didn't he once shield Ougi and the bridge of the Ikaruga from incineration?"
"Yeah, I guess he wasn't all bad, but he was intolerable when not fighting."
C2 nods.
"All that aside, he now believes us to be the enemy." Lelouch looks down at his clone's corpse. "We still need to rescue the real Gregor, as well as figure out how to spin this so that we don't cause an all out war. I have a very bad feeling about this."
Kallen, Nunnally, and C2 volunteer to head for the dungeons while the rest figure out what to do with the clone's corpse.
Lelouch suggests hiding it and replacing the emperor, seeing as they were genetically identical. Suzaku disagreed, because they had much communication to do, and suddenly switching sides again would raise way too many eyebrows. Lady Kaguya suggests telling the world the truth about the clone and the real Lelouch, which was instantly shot down by all remaining bystanders. Jeremiah only offers his opinion that he'll follow Lelouch whichever plan he follows, which elicits a small grumble from Suzaku.
Then the three girls reappear, Gregor suspended between C2 and Kallen. "Let's get out of here. We need to get Gregor somewhere where he can recover."
Lady Kaguya turns to Lelouch. "How long was he in those dungeons? he looks a little more than half starved!"
Lelouch started to speak, but hesitates. "How long did I tell you before? Since we blew up the house, right?"
Lady Kaguya just shakes her head and starts for the Knightmare units along with the rest of them.
Everyone piles intot heir assigned Knightmares, Lady Kaguya content to sit behind Lelouch in the spacious Dai Shōri, and The unconscious Gregor in Suzaku's cockpit.
Then the fleet leave the ground right before a worldwide communications hijack starts.
"The emperor has been brutally murdered. He had offered the olive branch of peace, but received the typical violence that the Black Knights and their ilk demonstrate. We must not let them continue to rule our lives with an iron fist! From this day forth, any aid offered to the Black Assassins or any other group using violence to achieve their ends will be jailed.
"We believe that they have just left the palace of our great emperor. If anyone sees any of these Knightmares, please report it.
"That is all."
The picture of a general fades, revealing a grainy picture of the Knightmares.
Over the comms, there is a definite "Oh shit." but nobody could tell from who.
o-o-o-o
Back on bloody Kamine island. Kallen was seriously thinking of destroying the place with her new Guren. She was sure it was up to the task.
Anyway, all the survivors of the incident (somehow, the clone Lelouch was missed even with the real one right in front of them) sit around a large fire, picking fish meat of the fish bones.
The fire wasn't so large that Lelouch couldn't be talked to be those across the fire though.
Nunnally and Kallen had gotten the prime positions on either side of him, and they mercilessly badgered him with questions.
He smiles slightly. "Hey, if you all calm down, I can tell you what happened after I died on my royal float." he says in the even tone he often used when talking to those that new less.
In other words, all the damn time, according to Kallen.
"Let's see. I took my father's code, which is a sort of immortality device. C2 has a code as well. I Unfortunately had to die to activate it. So, Suzaku killed two birds with one stone. Then C2 and I went into hiding for a while. We roamed about for a bit, eventually making out way back to Japan. It was then that we built all the Knightmares you see now. It was a fallback plan that we obviously needed. During these preparations, a certain soldier found us, and tried to take us in to be tried in court.
"He failed to drag us to court after two bullets to the knees didn't mean we were incapacitated. We ran away, to what became out main base of operations, to be precise. The soldier managed to track us down, and even busted into our home base, with the intent of killing both of us. I don't know exactly his thoughts, but when he put two bullets through my head and I was back alive mere minutes later, we had to sit him down and explain our situation. I'm sure you've guessed by now that Gregor was the soldier. He eventually saw our side, and we came up with the disguise idea.
"Erm, then we sat and watched for seven more years."
Silence falls, only disturbed by the fire's crackling.
"That's really weird." Lady Kaguya finally says. "I always knew Zero thought differently, but that was either really abridged or your abilities to convince people to do your bidding didn't go away when you lost your Geass."
Rather than looking chagrined at the comment, Lelouch looks pleased. "Thanks! It's one of the few things that I still look forward- Er, it's... I'm still good at convincing people."
It says something about the way Lelouch speaks that no one quite knew if he genuinely slipped up or he had added that in as a joke.
Soon, after answering a few more questions, Lelouch decided he was tired. "Alright, I'm heading to bed. We'll continue question and answer in the morning."
"Wait!" Nunnally asks, "You two told me you were dead. Are you both that good actors? If so, how can we trust you?"
"Let me answer those in the opposite order they were asked. You can't trust us. C2 and I are unknowns to you. We could be lying, or telling the truth. You have no way of verifying it either way. However, as far as I can tell, we haven't told you any lies. As for Lelouch, I discarded that name and persona long ago. Now, I am L2. An immortal warlock, with no ties to the previous life I led."
Nunnally's eyes narrow, but she accepts the response without complaint. Though to her, Lelouch would always be Lelouch.
o-o-o-o
The night brought a stiff wind. L2 sits on a rock that looked slightly more comfortable than the rest and stares at the ocean's reflection in his helmet. He was once again on the garb of Zero. It still fit perfectly, since he hadn't physically changed in 12 years.
Sand crunches behind him. He doesn't need to turn around to tell who it was.
Only one person on the planet would stop just within normal speaking range and not announce her presence, but expect him to notice and acknowledge her.
"Kallen. What's on your mind?"
Kallen starts. Oh, right. He always did this. "I had some more questions for you." She moves up beside L2 and sits down. He barely glances to the side, but her sharp vision catches the movement even in the dim light.
"I went over your story with my Geass, and it seems to make a lot of sense."
While it was a statement, it sounded almost like a question.
L2 nods. "It was the truth as I know it. Not that my word means much, but it is how I remember events."
Kallen lets the silence stretch. "I've missed you, you know. Suzaku was never the same, despite how hard he tried. I did forget sometimes, but he always lapsed back into somebody else before I could lose myself in the illusion."
"I chose Suzaku because he was there. I'm glad he fulfilled his role well."
Once again, silence.
"You still haven't actually asked me any questions." L2 stops staring at the mask and looks up at the stars.
"Okay, here's one. Is Gregor actually immortal, or was that always you?"
"No, just me. Gregor is an Excelent man, much better than I. I just borrowed his face for some very good reasons."
"Why didn't you tell me about your plan?"
L2 turns his head and looks her in the eyes. "You would've tried to stop more, or insisted that you got dragged down with me. No offense, but you are a terrible actress. If I had told you my plans, I would've been outed by your radiant smile."
Kallen narrows her eyes. "Okay, wiseass. Here's a real good question." her voice strains and breaks a bit. "When you kissed me back when you were emperor, did you mean it?"
"That," L2 flops back on the rock he was siting against. "Is a very good question."