Chapter Three: A Farewell to Arms

Arc One: Child Of War

Opening: "Swaying" - Soraru

"LELOUCH!"

The harsh, throaty voice of Suzaku Kururugi surprised the Britannian Prince, but it came as little relief as he hung for dear life from the rear bumper of the truck, his legs wrapped around the exhaust like a koala gripping a tree, his thighs gently roasting as he clung upwards, his back barely inches above the granite ground rushing past. His arms were already aching from gripped the ends of the steel endplate. Using what he could of his scattered awareness, he called back in a frightened scream "SUZAKU?"

He would never admit it to anyone or anything, but Lelouch Vi Britannia was positively terrified. His brain worked best at an arm's length, working things out from a safe distance. This was emphatically not his comfort zone, and that in and of itself scared him. He was terrified of not just his precarious situation, which did scare him, but the situation of not being in control, of having his life not in his own hands, that truly shook him to his core.

And this, hanging inches from death, was certainly life out of his control.

He remembered the Knightmare, blood red, rush towards him like a bull seeing pure rage. He didn't think the pilot had seen him, but he felt it as it slammed into his shins and sent him spinning like a top over the edge of the precipice. It was only luck that his legs tangled on the exhaust structure. Lelouch detested luck, as an extension of not being in control, but he thanked it a thousand times as he watched the red terror zoom away from view.

His eyes drew upwards, as he saw, in the faint of light, a hand reach down from above. The hand looked muscular and worn, and while Lelouch's vision began to fade with the gases beneath the engine wearing his breath to dust. He tried to hold on to the steel of the end of the truck, but he felt his arms give way as his eyes shut for the fall.

"TAKE MY HAND LELOUCH!"

Lelouch, consciousness fading, let go of the bumper.

Immediately, he felt a sharp pull on his wrist, as his hips snapped back from their forwards facing position to back with the momentum of the truck. His spine pulled this way and that as he flailed back.

But he didn't fall. He was acutely aware that he should have died, should have his face mashed into the pavement, should have hit the deck at over 50 kilometers per hour, should have had his spine ripped apart as his skull splintered with the smashing impact of his disembodied head meeting concrete, his organs spread over a mile of tunnel.

But it didn't.

Instead, he felt his chest meet metal, not stone, and gently, like the warm embrace of a welcoming friend who had just pulled him back from the brink of death, and he heard the sounds of soft chuckles, interspersed with tears shared between him and his saviour.

"Lelouch…"

He couldn't respond in words for a moment, just gripping onto Suzaku's arms. His jaw shivered, like he was cold as the arctic winter, but his shelter guarded him from the snow. He whispered, through the shivers "Thank you.."

Suzaku pulled him into a standing position, though his legs were shaking horribly. Now that his mind had reengaged, he found the whole experience somewhat embarrassing.

Life or death situations were emphatically not for him.

With the help of Suzaku, they made their way down towards the cabin of the truck to force the driver to stop, but just as Lelouch found his feet, the truck smashed to a halt down the longitudinal axis, hurling Lelouch and Suzaku to the front of the container as the floor seemed to stop, their feet being pulled out from under them. The pair of them clattered against the front wall, falling on top of each other as the dust settled.

Disoriented, Lelouch tried to right himself and work out what happened, feeling his senses return to him one by one. His vision, of grey metal meeting grey dust and more grey ground as he regained his sense of touch, the palm of his hand grating against the granite ground as he fell out of the truck. Then, his hearing, Suzaku screaming.

Then, his smell. Blood, thick and rich, like that day.

He gagged, still on his haunches, nearly emptying his stomach as he craned his neck at the cabin, wishing he hadn't as he saw a hand sticking out of the cabin, in a position bent over backwards where an arm had no business being. He stood up, and ran over to the truck door and tried to pull at it with numb limbs, to no avail.

"Su…" he panted, as he continued to pull against the door. "Hel… get him out..."

Suzaku came to his relief, tearing at the door as Lelouch fell back and allowed himself to get some oxygen back in his system and think. With each breath, his world regained colour, and his thoughts grew more orderly, like a library of books that had all fallen off the shelf that he was replacing one by one with calm precision, satisfying his desire for clear understanding as the floor of this hypothetical mental library cleared. Now that that was cleared, he thought about the situation. The truckers were likely terrorists, and the fact they were armed with Knightmares certainly ruled out a few. They were in a warehouse somewhere, that only led out through the main doors and the tunnel, which meant this was likely the destination.

Then again, if going down the tunnel wasn't part of the plan, they could be anywhere. A quick flash of his watch told him it was 12:31:22 by his time, about 15 minutes since they left the tower. Minus ten minutes for the sidecar, and that was five minutes down the tunnel. At the speeds they were doing, for five minutes, that could only result in around 4 to 5 kilometers travel distance. Adding to that that the authorities would have seen them enter the tunnel, all signs pointed to one conclusion.

They needed to get out of there.

Lelouch dragged himself up, seeing Suzaku dragging a wounded Japanese man out onto the floor. He was dressed like a worker in industry, clothes more likely to disguise than identify, and a pistol on his lap. Lelouch walked across, scuttling his movements with suspicious looks aside as he approached, slowly and carefully. He placed a hand on Suzaku's shoulders, busy at work tending to the man's wounds.

"We need to leave."

Suzaku didn't look up, indeed didn't respond for a moment before he wrapped his jacket around the man's most serious wound on his stomach. Once his attention was wrested, he responded "Of course." Turning to the man, he asked in a soothing tone "Can you stand?"

Lelouch saw the man respond to the fellow Japanese teen, nodding and saying "I'll try… but.."

"What?"

"The container…"

Lelouch and Suzaku exchanged looks. They hadn't much time, but in the mans few breaths he seemed to fixate on it. It was curious, and so Lelouch investigated leaving Suzaku to further aid the man. The container was spherical, and thick. It was far to heavy to lift, but as he slowly creeped down, laying his palms against the edge, there came a harsh hydraulic hiss, and it collapsed open.

The Japanese man, hearing the sound, screamed in terror.

However it was in vain, for as Lelouch fell back in surprise, the container opened, splitting like an egg hatching, releasing the bird inside into the cold, empty world. Lelouch looked up, and saw what it contained as the sides fell away.

It was a woman. Not a girl, the term didn't seem to fit the long, seemly body and old, weary face that seemed young, yet ageless, as if frozen in time. She had long, green hair, uncut yet still slick, with her body restrained in a straitjacket. She had fallen forward, betraying her 5'6 height to the teen who was leaning against the wall in surprise, almost to the point where he forgot their situation.

"Lelouch? Are you alright?"

"It's… a woman."

She squirmed indignantly as the rebel gasped in shock. Not what they expected, Lelouch noted, as he knelt down above her, Suzaku arriving moments later, placing a hand on her shoulder to pull her front into view, the light catching in her amber eyes and pale skin.

After taking a moment to wrap their heads around this, the boys regained their senses and ripped the mask from her face, freeing her lips and throat through the air, allowing her to draw lungfuls of oxygen as if coming back to life. Lelouch and Suzaku exchanged concerned looks yet again as she panted, before she smirked, and barely was able to eke out "Took you long enough?"

Lelouch recoiled, responding out of annoyed instinct "You want back in the canister?"

"Lelouch!"

"Lelouch…you are Lelouch? No….?"

Both eyes pivoted instantly to the green haired Britannian, whose eyes in turn lay on the dark haired heir she had just managed to name. The stoic teen in question hardened his eyes to narrow slits as he asked "Do we know each other?"

She didn't respond for a moment, instead choosing to adopt a thoughtful pose, before cryptically yet sarcily responding "No… no not anymore… sorry sunshine, you don't have it anymore. Blame your boy toy."

Both Lelouch and Suzaku practically fell back in shock. It took all of Lelouch's patience to not go into a tirade he had practised many times against Milly, Reuben's zealous granddaughter about how he was not gay, but the sensible side of his head clicked back into gear.

"Either way, we can't stay here." Lelouch hissed, pulling her up by the back using the limits of his meagre strength to bring her to her feet.

"Thats no way to treat a lady."

"My heart bleeds for you. Now shift."

After poking her in the back, they moved out, Suzaku carrying the injured Japanese man and Lelouch trying to keep the woman somewhere within view, walking towards the exit like the beginning of a bad joke, which suddenly turned sour as they heard a hail of bullets and screams outside, followed by the whirs of a Knightmare Frame, sending the group running back to the truck.

"Scout, check that building!"

"Nay, I'll do it myself."

The flurry of voices was punctuated by two, a man and woman just outside amplified by speakers over the noise, the former gruff and commanding and the latter more eloquent, yet still carrying a ruthless edge. Lelouch ushered the other three to hide in the truck. If they saw Suzaku or the other Eleven, they would almost certainly die. His only chance was bluffing, and so he stood alone in front of the truck, putting on the appearance of terror that demeaned yet in this case aided him.

In but a moment, a large Sutherland, a Knightmare of fearsome proportions, walked in, soulless head surveying the area and electric eyes focusing in on him.

"And why is a Britannian student in a place like this?!"

So this was the woman. At the very least, dealing with one individual is far simpler, despite her elevation. After all, the weakest link-

"Are you deaf? Answer me or I'll-"

-is the human one.

"My name is Allen Spacer, my father's a Duke. My ID card is in my breast pocket. After you confirm who I am, I'll request your protection."

It came in a moment, and it worked like a charm, as she responded "Keep your hands up in the air, I'll take out your ID."

She disembarked, climbing down the spine of her Knightmare, revealing her tanned, long body and straight hair to the onlookers she was aware of and not aware of. Lelouch began to think of the next step of his plan, as he heard the truck drivers gun cock behind him, stopping the woman in her tracks. Lelouch sighed.

"Really, I wish you'd stop doing that Suzaku."

After sufficiently restraining the woman, whose name turned out to be Villetta Nu, with tying her hands behind her back and having Suzaku train his gun on her. It still irked him to no end that Suzaku, supposed beacon of pacifism and honour, pulled that little stunt, and without consulting him to boot, but he had no time to pay it mind, as they had some questions to ask. After some resistance, she told them that there was fighting throughout the Saitama Ghetto, where they were, ordered by the Viceroy.

"And where is he?"

He felt Suzaku stare holes into the back of his head even without looking, but his was a one track mind, focusing on objectives. This was one area Suzaku had it right; one needed a plan of action, and a single minded focus unique to the Japanese teen Lelouch always admired. In this case, he had to approach this issue from the top down. He had to get to Clovis.

Villetta sighed, eventually responding "In his mobile command centre." She likely assumed they would get apprehended at the door. Fortunately, he was Lelouch Vi Britannia.

"Suzaku, given that our friend here has been so nice, I think you can agree we can leave her here. Take care of the man, I think he had a radio. I'll contact you again once I've secured an exit."

"Good afternoon to you too Lelouch."

"Have the kettle ready for me."

With that, Lelouch hopped into the Knightmare, a surrounding made instantly familiar by his experience in his mother's Ganymede. The controls were electric, not hydraulic, and the levers were far stubbier, likely a cost cutting measure during mass production compared to the one off Ganymede. The UI was much more high tech, but most of the HUD was labelled.

"And they say the military is smart." Lelouch chuckled at the label above the eject button that said 'DO NOT TOUCH', before somewhat embarrassedly realising his mic was on. Flipping the black switch, he fired up the forced induction Sakuradite reactor, Yggdrasil drive firing into boiling life, contrasted by his pedestrian pace out of the gate. He had no intention of crashing.

Bumbling along, he eventually broke the encirclement and reached the oversized camper van that represented Clovis' base. Disembarking with his usual confidence, he began to search for a way in. He generally found that if you looked like you were meant to be there, he would go unmolested. The front door was not ideal, and the service entrance had a password. Prince Clovis's personal entrance was obviously impossible, but-

Lelouch paused in thought. Why was it impossible? No one would expect it. It was almost certainly password protected, but his brother was a creature of habit. On top of that, he knew most passwords were easily guessed. It had to be six letters, so there was a limited selection. After trying "123456", and several other common passwords, to no avail, he dialled through some people he had been close with, such as "Euphie", "Nellie", and in an amusing attempt to test Clovis's hubris, "Clovis", all failing. He thought and thought, racking his brain and growing more frustrated.

But could it be? In a moment of insight, he wondered. Everyone had forgotten him, no? He had vanished, forgotten, like a leaf, once admired then forgotten with convenience. And yet, unconsciously, he found himself typing, slower than before "Llouch"

ACCEPTED

This shocked him, and yet on some level it didn't. It made no sense, but then it would have made no sense to think of it. It was the reverse of cause and effect, an inverse cause and effect; he didn't know how he'd thought of it, and he didn't know how Clovis thought of it. It made no sense. In that sense, it was almost a genius password. But it made no sense of any other kind.

But even so, the door was open, a fact Lelouch only reconnected with his situation at the last moment, hopping in as it slid closed. He was now inside.

From here, it was easy to proceed. A stolen map and borrowed conversations led him deeper inside, to a central room. Clovis, alone, looked as if he was already losing control of the situation. Lelouch couldn't help but chuckle. From what he remembered, Clovis was never good at this game, and even these rebels could pose a challenge. But it was time plenty. He stepped into the room, and as Suzaku had already cocked the gun, he had to try look somewhat intimidating without the sound effect.

"Clovis."

The man, to his credit, took the surprise of staring down the barrel of a gun with some good grace, not freaking out or screaming, but looking down with a grimace. He sighed. "What is it you wish, sir?"

"Call a ceasefire. I'd like a chat, and I have no hopes for a massacre. Though it may be too late."

Clovis seemed torn. The thought occurred to Lelouch to ask where the hell everyone was, but priorities. But either way, Clovis needed a push. He stepped forward into the light, and heard a gasp.

Far away, Suzaku stopped for a moment, panting his heart out as the lines moved. As he leaned against the mortared brick, a shout went up as intercoms blared.

"Attention all forces! Cease fire at once!"

It was Clovis's voice, and even as his radio fired up with confusion, he knew exactly what had happened. Gritting his teeth, he roared into his microphone, taken from the man in the truck "Wait for me at their command centre!", before he began sprinting down the battered street, brick and dust thrown up by the shifting of his feet, leaving a brown trail in his furious wake.

Meanwhile, Clovis was coming to terms with the fact his brother was not as dead as he once thought, stuttering "Lelouch… how are you alive? You weren't at the Kururugi's… We thought you were dead!"

"Reports of my death were greatly exaggerated. I left the Kururugi's home the night of the invasion, and now I have returned. I must say, I can really tell how much you lamented my absence. I was surprised by that password. Still-"

But Clovis saw his out, responding "But I never forgot you! I never forgot! You were the reason I became damn Viceroy! I didn't want to do this! I just wanted to paint! But remembering you, I wanted to do what you didn't have the chance to! You were an inspiration for all of us! Euphie didn't stop crying for weeks! Cornelia went into near depression!"

Granted, Euphie would cry over losing a pet doll, but Cornelia surprised him. Indeed, this tack as a whole took him by surprise. He was expecting an appeal to power, or perhaps a threat. This whole heartfelt appeal came somewhat out of left field to the more stoic Lelouch. Perhaps Clovis was a better strategist than he'd given the man credit for. Unless he was going about it the wrong way entirely, and Clovis was just insanely lucky that sincerity put Lelouch off. Either way, Lelouch's finger slowly departed from the trigger, as he slowly walked up further, before chuckling at himself and explaining "Don't stop now, you've got me on the ropes."

It was quite out of character, but for whatever reason he couldn't take this situation seriously. Here he was, about to make his reappearance on the world stage, and here he was corpsing.

"Suzaku, oh how you have ruined me." he wheezed out, before continuing. "Oh my, even Cornelia? Turns out I may yet be human. How the hell…" He had to pause again. This was so embarrassing, he was talking as if Clovis was his friend! His pure and total surrender completely disarmed him. Handling a surrender was not something Lelouch was used to. Usually, opponents had far too much pride to give in before the fight. In a sense, Clovis' cowardice saved him. He sighed, as he resumed "I'm glad we've had this chat, but pleasantries must conclude. I must admit, I learned a lot, but-"

"LELOUCH!"

Somewhere inside himself, Lelouch knew, lay a patient man. Unfortunately, that patient man seemed awfully hard to find today, as his face turned to thunder and he turned around to begin yelling, only to have his fury matched by the sheer disgust oozing from every orifice, pore, and inch of flesh Suzaku had on his body like a primordial gas, going to war as they stared each other down, with Clovis cowering in the corner.

"Lelouch, stop what you're doing this goddamn instant."

"Suzaku, he betrayed us both and he's oppressing your people-"

"Which is why we can use him."

Lelouch suddenly paused once again, beginning to realise today really wasn't his day as Suzaku walked over to Clovis, now hiding under his throne. Suzaku knelt down and offered him an arm up, and standing beside him, turned towards Lelouch, looking down at him. Lelouch was fairly sure that was intentional, and it frustrated him. Suzaku began to monologue, demeaningly hissing as far short of a yell he could manage "Let me explain something. I think you seem to forget I was there that day too. I want to see justice and fairness in this world just as much as you do, but the method matters. People living to see a better life is what I consider the end goal, and killing the King at this point is completely antithetical to that. When that-"

He paused to point at the gun.

"-is what you carry with you, everything looks like a target. Remember what I told you?"

"Not what you want, how you will get it. Look at me, right now, how will you do anything."

"Yes, I do, Suzaku. I do..."

"So look at me. What is your plan? Not to take out the King, but to achieve your goal. Never confuse the two."

Lelouch leaned back, nearly falling against a chair as Clovis followed up with a rather pathetic "Please?" Of course, he wasn't thinking about him. Beyond his initial pride, Lelouch was surprisingly unimaginative. He was very spontaneous, and while he could plan ahead and think outside the box, he only thought about what he wanted to focus on, keeping his train of thought on the straight and narrow. It was not in his nature to brood, for he rarely allowed himself to slip, and so as soon as the surprise faded, he was instantly deep in thought trying to prioritise.

Justice was a pretty big issue. Spiting Britannia was up there too, and his father in particular. Safety for Nunnally. And to do it with the least casualties to keep Suzaku from exploding with righteous fury. This was an interesting puzzle. That was all there was; if you wanted to put it mathematically, he had his inputs, and his job was to design a function to create the ideal output. Clovis and Suzaku now cautiously approached, recognising Lelouch's 'Deep in thought' face, though they both flinched as he asked in a far more concerned voice, "What happened to that soldier, Vilcha, was it?"

Suzaku paused, then sighed. "Villetta?"

Now Clovis looked surprised "What did you do to Villetta?"

"She's tied up to a lamppost outside. When I told her what you were going to do, she gave me the password without a fuss."

Both Clovis and Lelouch shuddered at Suzaku's oft-forgotten strength, before Lelouch resumed his thinking. Military power, both symmetrical and asymmetrical, was largely put out of his means. But then again, why was that an issue? Why was that an issue when he considered the people involved, because people, when it came down to brass tax, were not rational beings. He had to appeal to a bipartisan audience, and nationalism wasn't going to cut it. In fact, the conclusion was surprisingly simple when he put it that way.

He stood up, looking even more smug than usual, which, looking at Clovis and Suzaku, worried them. He rubbed his palms together in anticipation, before smirking.

"I have a plan."

He's back.

Lelouch went through some development this chapter. Up to this point, he's been "eh" on the whole pacifism malarkey, but now he's all onboard. For now. Still, I'm not pleased with this chapter. Despite being the same length as the other chapters, it feels significantly shorter, and I'm struggling to make it longer without ruining the flow. Either way, from now on Suzaku and Lelouch are working together fully.

And with that, I hope to see you next time. Following on, in For Hearts And Minds, Chapter 4; The Sakura Wall. While I'm away, be safe, be ready to take on your siblings, and please rate and review!

~Eth0