"Who is this mysterious masked individual that claims to know the identity of the late Viceroy's killer, and for what purpose are they interfering with the prison convoy?! Could they be a rebel mastermind?!"
As if in direct response to the frenzied questions of a distant news anchor, the man in the mask promptly spoke up, his voice amplified by a hidden microphone.
"I am… Zero!"
The crowd of civilians surged with mixed reactions of uncertainty and trepidation, as could be expected, while Margrave Gottwald retrieved a pistol from within his jacket. "I've seen enough of your little stage play, Zero… effectively immediately I'm shutting it down!"
As he shot a signal flare into the sky with a resounding bang, VTOL overhead transports opened up to deploy a trio of additional Sutherlands in formation around Zero's stolen fancy car.
"Now why don't you drop that mask," he commanded, "and see if your showmanship doesn't earn some minor mercy from the courts?!"
Seeming completely unperturbed by the worsening odds he found himself against, Zero casually raised a hand to his face before snapping his fingers – as the display pavilion behind him fell apart to reveal a large spherical canister that immediately set Gottwald and everyone with him on edge.
That's the canister that Clovis destroyed Shinjuku for, he realized with a cold sweat. Even if it was actually holding some kind of medical specimen back then, for all I know he might have since filled it with actual poison gas! Regardless of whether it may be genuine or a bluff, he's still taken every Britannian here hostage without them even knowing it!
"Allow me to share my counteroffer," Zero replied. "You allow me to depart with the prisoner, Ichiro Kageyama – and in exchange, I give you this."
Desperate to stall for time until he could think of a way out of the situation, Gottwald wracked his brain for something he could use – and blessedly, the second prisoner was quite close at hand. "These men have been found guilty of high treason! Why would you only ask for the one prisoner and not both?!"
Just as the words left his mouth, Gottwald's earpiece crackled as someone brute-forced their way onto his radio frequency. "DO NOT allow any form of eye contact with him! Put on sunglasses, or a helmet, or drop back down into your Knightmare – I don't fucking care how ridiculous you think it makes you look, just do it! I'm en route to assist!"
That was… Kururugi?! I don't need help from such a loose cannon!
"Why not Konoe, you ask? Because I've no use for a rabid dog that bites anything in front of it."
Before Jeremiah could even begin to fully process that, Zero continued to speak as the car beneath him slowly rolled forward.
"Furthermore: you massacred against innocent civilians at Shinjuku, on Clovis's orders, all for this canister behind me. Kageyama and the other Eleven insurgents took up arms to defend themselves against an unforgivable evil – and for all her pretty words of peace and coexistence," he mocked, "Euphemia has failed to alter the policy that any act of rebellion is to be punished by death – even if that act is done in defense of innocent lives! WHERE IS THE JUSTICE IN ANY OF THAT?!"
When Jeremiah leveled a sidearm at Zero, the latter shrugged it off with the confidence of a veteran poker player out to fleece an amateur. "You intend to shoot? I think you know full well the risks of such an action; a single Eleven for scores of precious Britannian lives should be quite the bargain for you."
"Tch…! Even if I wanted to, there's no way Kageyama can be handed over; he murdered Prince Clovis!"
"I find it rather telling that you classify the execution of a monster denounced even by his immediate successor and sister as a crime to be punished," Zero noted with disdain. "However, you are incorrect in laying the responsibility for Clovis's death at this man's feet. The man who killed your precious Prince… was none other than myself!"
The assembled crowd of civilians roiled in fear at not only Zero's proclamation, but the sheer lack of shame with which he made it.
"All infantry units," Gottwald hissed into his earpiece, "reprioritize to crowd control! This will become a stampede if we can't get a handle on it!"
As the ground security group began trying to subtly usher and lead civilians away without causing a panic, a new Sutherland dropped onto the overpass behind Zero's car. "As long as we're negotiating," the pilot boomed through its external speakers, "here's my counteroffer – you turn yourself in, and in exchange Kageyama gets a stay of execution. Not just him, but all the other accused rebels in the prison system who've been waiting to have their cases processed. One man's freedom for all their lives should be quite the bargain, right?"
The Sutherland, boasting a pink pauldron and a coat of gray primer on the rest of its body that suggested an interrupted paint job, leveled an arm-mounted launcher directly at Zero and his vehicle.
"How clear it is," Zero replied with what might have been a note of melancholy, "that the more things change, the more they stay the same. You speak to me of sparing lives… but only to the extent that allows you to continue denying the Japanese their freedom! To everyone across Japan witnessing this event, I ask only one thing – do not allow this vile hypocrisy to go unchallenged!"
Zero punctuated his call to action with a dramatic sweep of his arm… which disguised the toss of a flashbang grenade that went off midair, blinding most of the civilians and security forces alike. Mere seconds later, the canister on his truck promptly opened and began to release a thick black fog into the area, spilling out into the crowd.
The gray Sutherland pulled the trigger on its weapon and launched a capture net at the vehicle… only for Zero to leap out of the way and tackle the Knightmare to the street.
"WHAT THE HELL–?!"
Without missing a beat, Zero kicked the side of the Sutherland's face so hard the entire head turned left in the direction of the impact.
"You beg and scrape for Britannian charity to protect you from your own failings," Zero spat. "I, for one, won't play by the rules of tyrants!"
To drive the point home, Zero gave the Sutherland's head another sweeping kick with equally devastating effect, this time causing it to face towards the right.
With a furious yell, several more kicks followed in quick succession before Zero finally saw fit to disengage and jump off the side of the overpass.
"Nina…! Nina!"
The green-haired girl in glasses almost jumped in her seat at the unexpectedly close shout, only to realize after several panicked seconds that the arms wrapped tight around her were just Milly giving a supportive hug. "That… that masked," she squeaked, struggling to even get out the words.
"Inconceivably, Zero appears to have handily defeated Sir Kururugi's Knightmare on foot! Could this menacing man of mystery be a Britannian malcontent?! This reporter can imagine no other explanation for a feat so clearly Closer to Eden!"
A pitiful whine escaped Nina's throat at the summation. The Elevens were scary enough, now there are Britannians out to make it worse too?!
"I'm sure it'll turn out okay," Milly soothingly whispered in her ear. "Look, Suzaku's machine is already getting back up."
Sure enough, the news camera had turned its focus from the departed Zero to the gray Sutherland as it rolled onto its front and rose to a knee. Nina wasn't sure if Suzaku was deliberately trying to put on some kind of show, or if it were normal for a Knightmare, but somehow she could tell from its 'body language' that he was absolutely furious.
As the crowd was evacuated amidst the roiling black smoke, the gray Sutherland opened its cockpit, before one of the standard purple ones rolled over next to him.
"Margrave Gottwald appears to be having a heated exchange with his counterpart in Celestial Being! Can we get a camera close enough to pick up what they're saying – what do you mean we have to leave?! The story unfolding before us is–! …all civilians are being ordered to evacuate the area," the newsman lamented with a frustrated sigh.
The last thing the camera managed to catch before it was forcibly turned to the street was Suzaku leaping free of his Knightmare and leaping over the guardrail.
"We'll attempt to get a helicopter in the air to continue following this developing story if at all possible… but for now, it's been confirmed that Celestial Being is deploying assets to assist the military in its pursuit of Zero, a masked individual who claims to have personally slain the late Prince Clovis and is therefore likely connected with the terrorist organization that was operating in Shinjuku Ghetto."
"He… he jumped," Nina muttered in disbelief and muted horror.
Even if he was an Honorary Britannian, he… he was nice the other day at school, and then he just jumped off that overpass and killed himself…!
"I don't think so," Milly slowly replied, making Nina realize she'd spoken her fears aloud. "I mean, that Zero character just beat up a Knightmare with his bare hands, and not just anybody can do crazy stuff like that."
It's like the newsperson said, Nina silently agreed. He has to be Closer to Eden, like they say the Knight of One is…!
"What if," Milly whispered. "What if Suzaku's the same way? What if the reason he jumped was to give chase, because he's just as strong as Zero?"
Nina turned and stared at Milly as if she'd grown a second head. "...but the Church says only Britannians can be Closer."
Milly pursed her lips in thought. "The way I always heard it, it wasn't that only Britannians can be Closer – because there were legends and stories about demigods and stuff all over the world," she explained. "Rather, most of the verified people who are called Closer to Eden in recent history were Britannian, and the Pope uses that as another justification for his rhetoric that Britannians are better than everyone else."
Nina considered that for exactly two seconds. "I'm not sure if I should be more worried about the heresy in contradicting the Pope, or the treason in contradicting the Emperor," she admitted. "But either way, it makes me really uncomfortable and I don't like it…"
The blonde batted her eyelashes, content enough for the moment to keep Nina distracted from the news reporters speculating on whether that cloud of black smoke had been as toxic as it looked. "Nina, you wouldn't rat me out to His Majesty right?"
Touching her elbows together to lift and emphasize her breasts, Milly gave her roomie a pout. "If we can just keep this between the two of us, I'll do anything~"
Nina couldn't help herself; for a long moment, she licked her lips and stared before eventually shaking her head. "No, Milly, this isn't a good time for that–"
"Maybe it isn't," the blonde conceded, "but keeping your focus on the news when there's nothing either of us can do about it is just going to make you anxious and miserable, and where's the sense in that?"
"But, uhm…"
"Staying informed is important, sure, but we can just as easily catch up on everything tomorrow when at least some of the dust will have settled and there's more fact than speculation. And if it were really an emergency we had to deal with," Milly continued, "our phones would be screeching with an evacuation alert or something by now."
Nina… couldn't think of a counterargument to any of that. "I… I guess you're right, then. Good night, Milly."
Watching her roommate retrieve a pair of headphones and tuck herself into bed, Milly suppressed a sigh before bringing her attention back to the news. "Good night, Nina." Here's hoping you, at least, can have one.
The television turned off with a soft click.
Our feet hit the ground and Suzaku immediately tucks into a roll to disperse the impact shock starting to race up our legs.
Damnit, I wish I could just say 'fuck all this' and go curl up in bed… snuggling with a hottie optional.
"If not for Zero's little stunt," Suzaku all but spits out in contempt as he rises to his feet, "we might literally be doing that right now."
I'm going to be so fucking livid with him, just as soon as I get over the panic attack from you JUMPING US OFF A FUCKING BRIDGE–
"I'm not letting us die that easily," he replies while scanning the area around us. "Not when I can imagine how much Euphie and the others might cry over it."
…that's a horrible motive for self-preservation, Suzaku, and I hate how easily I can relate to it.
Suzaku runs to some Japanese on the street – the only nearby civilians – if they've seen a masked person running by, first in Britannian and then in Japanese, only to be scorned and given no information whatsoever.
Damn these people, so caught up in their petty grudges and pride that they can't see the potential consequences…!
Before I can do more than commiserate, a jabbing pain erupts in our skull as the world around us breaks into a hatefully familiar kaleidoscope.
Zero to the left of us.
"Damn it, of all the possible times…!"
Zero to the right of us.
"I don't know why you're surprised," the growing crowd of Zeroes mock us as one.
And in every other direction, that fucking mask infinitely multiplying over and over again until it's all we can see in any direction.
"You look at the world around you and have to delude yourself into seeing anything more than despair. Is the constant reminder of that delusion and its frailty not a fitting punishment?"
"Shut… shut the hell up…!"
Suzaku falls to our knees as we break out in a cold sweat, Zero's omnipresent mask even overlapping on itself to cover the ground.
As our body starts to spasms from sheer stress and we struggle not to puke, the infinite masks all blend together into a near-seamless wall of black – only for massive gloved fingers to rise up on all sides like a cage.
Zero… much as I hate to admit it, he's more than just some asshole genius in a snazzy costume.
Even calling him a King doesn't do enough justice to what he represents.
In the context of Code Geass as a world, as a setting… he's the center. Like a black hole, his presence and actions exert an overwhelming gravity around which everything else revolves.
And that is what we've decided to make our enemy.
After a long moment, Suzaku grits our teeth and raises our head to stare defiantly at the truly colossal mask staring down at us like it's the fucking Death Star. "...so what if my hopes are hollow? So what if I'm afraid of accepting life? Even if I keep backsliding three steps for every step forward I take… at least I'm still walking at all!"
"Everyone fucks up now and then," I continue as we properly return to our feet. "And hell, we're probably experts at it! But I'd rather get back up knowing I'll fail than just stay down and admit defeat to the likes of you!"
"And yet you still persist, though hope itself fills you with dread?! No greater proof can exist that you lack the qualifications to change the world than your self-defeating cowardice!"
Like skyscrapers, Zero's colossal hands all start to close in on us.
"You're right about one thing," Suzaku admits. "Hope terrifies me. The both of us, even. We've gotten so used to disappointment and tragedy that imagining anything else feels like a stupid fantasy."
"The world's fucked," I explain. "Any way you look at it, that's just common sense. Only a delusional fool of an idiot would think things can get better."
The supermassive Zero stiffens as if in alarm when he sees our smirk at the pain in our head abruptly starting to subside.
"We've been wrong before," we say together with a clearer mind than feels normal. "And with any luck, maybe we can be wrong again about this."
The vision abruptly shatters as the Kaleidoscope effect seems to refract in on itself until it barely remains over our field of view like some kind of AR overlay. We remain alone on the empty street, but… but now the Geass visions are far more subdued. Not as intrusive anymore.
"That's one problem sorted," Suzaku huffs, "but we still need to find Zero and stop him before this madness can go any further–"
As if in response to the idea, the phantoms of other worlds before our eyes rearrange and reconfigure into scenes of Zero running along ghetto rooftops, one hand up to his mask as if managing a radio transceiver.
If your Geass is one that shows us possibilities–
"Then let's follow the lead and see where it ends up!"
"Q-1, report!"
"Thanks to your distraction, we made it out of there alright with Kageyama – and I put a bullet in Konoe too, while I was at it."
While Zero had at one point considered letting the Britannians keep hold of Konoe to give him whatever execution they found appropriate, ultimately it had been decided against in light of the possibility that he might spill information that he hadn't already. And while capturing him to confirm with Geass what, if anything, he had told interrogators had been a strong temptation in its own right, in the end leaving him behind had been necessary for public image reasons.
The world had to see that Zero's fight was for the defenseless, not the indefensible.
"More importantly, what was with you manhandling that Sutherland?! You could have told us you can do that! HOW can you do that?!"
"If I had, you wouldn't have believed me. Continue along escape route A3 until you reach point B7, and then drop into the subway tunnels and scatter."
"Aren't we rendezvousing with you?!"
Zero felt a shift in the wind, and lept to the side as a fist drove a hole in the roof where he'd been standing an instant before.
"Another matter has come to demand my attention," he calmly replied. "Rest assured that I won't be long in resolving it."
Turning to properly address the new arrival, Zero offered a small nod. "You look more determined than I had anticipated."
"I might be a broken mess, Lelouch, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you go unopposed."
Noting Suzaku's aggressive footing, Zero raised his arms and resigned himself to a fight. "You would do well for yourself to lose track of me and let Euphemia console you. Stubborn as you may be, you're not prepared to make the kind of bitter decisions it will take to win this war."
Suzaku scoffed, his own Geass eye flaring. "You don't have any business talking down to me about resolve when you don't have the guts to make me join your side with Absolute Obedience…"
Jabbing a pointer finger at the malevolent masked man, Suzaku let out a snarl. "– is what I would have said if you actually had it instead of The Zero. I bet you must have been laughing your ass off on the inside, watching me make a fool of myself trusting you with the parameters of a power you don't even have…!"
"At no point have I done anything of the sort. …although I expect you're blindly treating everything I say as a lie."
"We've finally caught up to Zero," an absolutely ecstatic Deithard Reid announced, "and it seems Sir Kururugi has him cornered on that rooftop!"
This was it! After years of peddling the same rote propaganda, for the first time that Reid could clearly remember he felt alive!
At long last, he could bear witness to true history being made and share it with the world!
Celestial Being? Bah, a mere appetizer! Sure, Kururugi's impulsive naivete had presented an acceptable break from the monotony, but it would only be a matter of time until his internal challenge to Britannia's systems were ruthlessly crushed from above.
But Zero, on the other hand? A mysterious masked figure who, with almost no personnel and a few tons of scavenged material, could emerge dramatically from the shadows and force the entire world to take notice?
"This kind of thing is what I've always dreamed of," he whispered.
If you had any sense at all, Kururugi, you'd get out of the way and let history take its course.
"I appreciate you coming over to spend some time with me, Shirley. I know I told Lelouch that I wouldn't mind being alone tonight, but…"
Nunnally could practically hear the older girl's smile. "It's no problem, Nunna! Lulu and Miss Sayoko both being out must be totally new for you, right? …but where is Lulu, though? It's really not like him to leave you alone like this; I swear, if he's out gambling again…!"
Did Lelouch not tell anyone else about his date with Miss C.C.?
An instant after she'd thought the question to herself, Nunnally's heart sank.
Lelouch didn't even tell any of our friends at school she exists, did he?
What an unfortunate disappointment. Her goofy big brother probably didn't even realize that Milly and Shirley both fancied him, as over-worried as he tended to become over her.
…which, if Nunnally were completely honest with herself, a very small and secret part of her deeply enjoyed. But which was also still a problem for Lelouch's relationships with his friends.
I don't want to lie to my friend, she thought with a frown. But I don't think it's right to save Lelouch from needing to take responsibility for this himself…
Nunnally smiled at the idea that came to mind; not only because she thought it was funny, but because it genuinely did make her happy. "You really do care about him a lot, don't you Shirley? I think you might make a good wife someday."
"Hu-bu-w-WHAAAAAAT?! A, a, a, a wife?! Oh quit joking around, there's no way I could think about anything like that, I mean I haven't even been able to tell him I like him yet, I mean that if I did like him then I wouldn't have been able to tell him I like him yet, but there's nothing going on between me and him so it doesn't even matter anyway and even if there were then it wouldn't be a big deal and besides I'm sure white doesn't look that good on me anyway–"
She's totally fantasizing about it, Nunnally belatedly realized. "Oh, I know! Maybe there's something fun or interesting on the TV we can watch for a little while?"
If the deep, relieved gasp hadn't been enough of a clue how much Shirley appreciated the change of subject, her anxious back-and-forth pacing almost skidding to a stop told Nunnally all she needed to know.
"Great idea, Nunna! I'm sure there aren't any soaps on this late at night, but something will come up! What sounds good to you, maybe a cooking program? Oh, or maybe a trivia game show! There are tons of – oh my gosh…"
Of anything the Princess incognito might have imagined would come out of the older girl's mouth, that horrified whisper wasn't on the list.
"Shirley?"
"I, I could never have imagined it! Sir Kururugi and the terrorist Zero are in pitched combat!"
Sir Kuru– Suzaku?! He's fighting someone?!
"I… I think maybe," Shirley anxiously began, "maybe we should try and find something else–"
"No, please don't!"
Too late, the panic cleared out of Nunnally's throat as she realized how dramatic and unusual her plea must have been; after all, she hadn't even gotten to meet Suzaku when he was at Ashford the other day, so to Shirley it must have seemed incredibly suspicious…
"That's… that's the new transfer student who's joining the student council, right? Aren't you worried about him? And… and besides, I want to be able to tell Lelouch what happened tomorrow if he asks about it…"
After a few seconds during which she strongly debated whether to pry, Shirley swallowed. "Um, Suzaku just tackled whoever he's fighting – some guy in a mask and fancy suit – off the side of some building in the ghetto," she said in outright disbelief. "They look like they're trying to punch the heck out of each other on the way down. It's almost like a scene from one of those superhero comics Rivalz gets caught with in class sometimes; if not for the live news banner on the bottom of the screen, I'd be pretty sure this was an action movie and not actually happening."
If not for Shirley's blessed ignorance and reassuring presence, Nunnally might very well have screamed at the image of Suzaku jumping off a building.
"I've never seen anything like it," the obviously excited newsman on the TV shouted just loud enough to be heard over the roar of helicopter blades. "Minutes ago, we witnessed Zero humiliating Sir Kururugi's Sutherland with his bare hands – but now he appears to be matching him blow for blow! Could it be possible that Suzaku Kururugi, an Honorary Britannian, is Closer to Eden himself?! If so, then wouldn't that open the possibility that Zero is an Eleven himself?! Our Empire hasn't seen two such superhumans appear at once since the debuts of Sir Bismarck Waldstein and Lady Marianne vi Britannia!"
Having gained an estimation of Suzaku's punching speed, Zero clipped him in the jaw just hard enough to be a distraction before twisting in freefall, tucking into a roll, and then stomping the soldier's stomach to send him rocketing even harder to the street below.
Such a blow might well have been fatal to most opponents, nevermind the ruthless concrete eagerly waiting to embrace its victim.
But Suzaku Kururugi had always been stronger than everyone around him.
He'd always been tougher.
And as he proved by reaching out to catch the streetlamp in his peripheral vision, swinging around it like an acrobat to bleed off the worst of his momentum?
He'd always been faster.
Quickly raising his gaze back to the air, Suzaku had only a moment's glimpse of Zero running down the side of the building like a ninja before the masked menace lunged at him with a haymaker.
For all his life up to that moment, Suzaku had never known someone with physicality that could even begin to match or exceed his own.
Even when more than outmatched in terms of skill against vastly more experienced opponents, like when Tohdoh had been teaching him swordsmanship before the invasion, sheer overwhelming power had been enough to at least make for a near-even contest.
The gloved fist slamming into his face hard enough to rattle teeth was a wake-up call, telling the disgraced son of the Prime Minister that the world he'd been used to living in was well and truly over.
"WHO ARE YOU, SUZAKU KURURUGI?!"
Recovering his balance mid-flight, the Honorary Britannian managed a three-point landing that left him skidding for several meters. Shaking out the impact and wiping some blood from his mouth, he glared up at his opponent. "You just said my name, what the hell kind of question is that?"
Basking in the impromptu spotlight provided by a circling news helicopter, Zero swept an arm across his chest before leveling Suzaku with an accusing pointer finger. "The kind you've been doing everything in your power to run away from."
Suzaku stiffened at the words, even as Zero kept his imperious stance atop the streetlight.
"Are you the son of Japan's last Prime Minister? A student of Tohdoh the Miracle Worker? A pet hound for the Britannians to kick or play with as they wish? Who are you? Do you even know?!"
For a critical second, Suzaku sat there paralyzed by the pointed questioning.
So I take over, stand up, and grab hold of a nearby wrecked car. With an anxious breath, I use Suzaku's strength to lift it up over our heads –
"RIGHT NOW I'M YOUR ENEMY, ZERO!"
– and I chuck it at him for everything we're worth.
Zero dodges out of the way without any problem, of course… but I'm already charging at him and yanking Suzaku back into the driver's seat with a metaphorical wake-up slap to get his head back in the fight.
Before Zero can land, Suzaku goes into one of his signature spinning kicks – and nails it, sending Zero flying through a shattered window and into a dilapidated hospital.
You're the only one of us that actually knows how to fight, Suzaku. If you go down like that again and he decides to capitalize on it, we're hosed.
I can't promise anything, Suzaku replies in frustration. But as long as you're around to help stop him from locking me up too much, I think we've got a chance.
A chance!? In the Nightmare manga, that asshole goes around stopping bullets in midair and ripping the ground open with his mind! "The Zero" is a Geass with applications so damn varied that it borders on reality warping! What makes you think we have any kind of chance?!
As Suzaku chases after Zero and leaps into the hole we sent him through, our mouth sets in a grim frown. "Because he raised his arms to block my kick," he explains. "If he's worried enough to take deliberate defensive actions, then that means he isn't completely invulnerable like you saw in that comic. Maybe this Zero's Geass is of a similar nature, but isn't remotely so powerful."
Maybe… or maybe it is that powerful, and he's just fucking with us…
All across the islands formerly named Japan, eyes of the people were honed tightly on the unfolding brawl in Tokyo.
"C'mon Zero," Tamaki hollered with a half-empty beer in his hand, "beat that Britannian dog black and blue! Show the son of a bitch what he gets for turning his back on the Japanese!"
Ohgi, who'd just come back from the mission to rescue Kageyama with Kallen in tow, shot him an exasperated look. "If I'd known you were going to be his number one fan, I might have had you come along on the mission with us…"
At the same time, in another safehouse a few districts over, Shogo Asahina narrowed his eyes at the screen. "Tamaki and Inoue didn't tell us about this Zero character. I might have expected these amateurs would hide information from us…!"
Nagisa Chiba, popping open a can of tea for herself and setting one next to her partner in crime, hummed thoughtfully. "...no, an idiot like Tamaki would have bragged himself to death about having an ace like this in hand, and I doubt Inoue would have been able to stop him. Either they weren't cleared to know in the first place, or he only made contact with their group while they were in Narita."
"So what do you think about Kururugi? As much as I might prefer an honest fight… in light of what we're seeing now, I'm ashamed to admit that killing him will likely call for poison, or use of a sniper."
"Asahina, you know I have other orders–"
"I don't give a damn what Kusakabe said," he snapped. "Or what General Katase approved of. Even a woman of your status shouldn't lower herself to bait for a goddamned animal–"
The unmistakable sound of a blade being teased from its sheath instantly shut him up. "I appreciate your consideration for my status," she replied. "It's genuinely more than I expect from anyone outside our immediate circle. But the order isn't just Kusakabe's, or Katase's. It's the Colonel's as well; I trust your intention isn't to shame him with such blatant disobedience?"
It took only a second for Asahina to realize his mistake, and to bow his head in repentance. "You're right, Chiba. I allowed my contempt for the traitor to get the better of me, and lapsed in my judgment as a consequence. Once our mission here is completed, I will answer for this disgrace before our master as a samurai."
After a moment, Chiba slid her blade fully back into its sheath. "I know you will. And I won't let it be forgotten that your impatience stems in part from concern for a comrade. Were our situations reversed, I don't know that I wouldn't suffer a similar lapse… and I know that if I did, I could trust you to pull me back from it."
"I wonder, Kururugi… Do you blame the Japanese for your own emotional frailty? For your inability to live with yourself as a servant of the occupying invaders that even now continue to step on their throats with a smile?"
Suzaku was beginning to suspect that kicking his opponent into the building had been a serious mistake.
Zero had wasted no time in making use of the complete lack of internal lighting, taunting the soldier from the shadows.
A chill raced up his spine in the sinister air.
"Does it make you feel stronger… to make yourself an obstacle to their freedom?"
In spite of himself, and in spite of the supportive mind within him, Suzaku hesitated.
And Zero immediately punished that moment of weakness with a vicious knee to the back.
A punch followed, but Suzaku was able to regain his footing and catch it. "Their freedom from what?" he asked through clenched teeth. "Responsibility for the innocent people who die in their acts of rebellion? Freedom from accepting the basic reality that their precious 'Last Prime Minister' and his administration were the ones who provoked the invasion by betraying their ally, Britannia?! Or maybe you're talking about the freedom to HIDE BEHIND A MASK FROM CONSEQUENCES LIKE A COWARD!"
Suzaku swung a fist at Zero, intent on punctuating the point by shattering his mask – but he'd taken too long, and left the enemy plenty of time to parry the strike and use a judo-like throw to send Suzaku flying overhead.
"So what if the invasion was a consequence of your father's shortsighted ambitions? Do you seriously think it's just to hold an entire people accountable for the failings of their leaders?!"
Even while upside down in the air, however, Suzaku was able to hit Zero in the shoulder with a Pele Kick that sent him skidding. "If it's really such a despicable meme, Mr. Obliterate Britannia, then blame yourself for passing it onto me!"
For perhaps the first time Suzaku had noticed, Zero seemed to stumble at the accusation – and as he tumbled down the decrepit hospital hallway, he took the precious moment to catch his breath.
"You talk about freedom for the Elevens, but you're the one doing more damage to that cause than anyone! Not even an hour ago, Euphemia was crying for that terrorist who helped you kill Clovis!"
Zero went still at the declaration, seemingly content for the first time to step down from the podium and let his opponent preach instead. "Is that so?"
"While you were organizing a riot to complain about that boot on the Elevens' neck," Suzaku continued, "she's been trying to work out ways to actually remove it! She wants to give rebels who fought back against her brother's reign a chance at reintegrating into society, at getting some measure of their old lives back! Letting them teach their language again… taking steps to preserve some of their art, architecture, or other forms of culture… social welfare programs specifically targeting Japanese for a hand up so they can have a comfortable and dignified life the same as any Britannian, with all the same equal protections under the law… hell, someday maybe even representation in the Area Parliament! The Japanese could have had ALL OF THIS, AND NOW YOU'VE GONE AND THROWN THOSE POSSIBILITIES TO THE WIND LIKE BURNING GARBAGE!"
"If Princess Euphemia is truly so powerful as to permit all those things," Zero scoffed, "and compassionate enough to wish to do so, then I see no reason why tonight's affairs should stand in her way."
If Zero had happened to blink under his mask at that moment, his perception would have been of Suzaku seemingly teleporting from several meters away… to very nearly taking his head off with a furious haymaker that Zero only dodged by a hair's breadth.
"DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME, YOU SMUG PIECE OF SHIT! Euphemia can only get away with as much as her demonstrated ability to keep control over the Area allows! With how you just pissed all over our attempts to start de-escalating tensions, she'll have to sign off on someone like Margrave Gottwald lacing up that boot you're so mad about, or risk being replaced with someone even worse like her sister Cornelia! Someone who'll jump at the idea of crushing the Elevens down into the dirt until they've no more fight in them than worms! And it'll be a direct consequence of what YOU did tonight, you… you…!"
As Zero continued to duck and weave between Suzaku's furious storm of punches, he watched the latter's expression change from pure rage to one of dawning epiphany, which then quickly turned to horror as he slowed to a stop. "...you acted out tonight because you want things to play out like that," he realized. "You're banking on it, because when some hardliner like Cornelia comes around to take over as retaliation for your actions, you can point at them as evidence to the Japanese that your warnings to never trust Britannia were prophetic."
"I told you before that you were better off going home quietly than trying to defeat me," Zero replied. "I wasn't just talking about fisticuffs."
The man in the mask extended Suzaku a hand, as if to silently say You can't beat me, so come on and join me.
Trembling with emotion, Suzaku took a long step back. "...do you have any idea how many people are going to die on both sides of this conflict because of what you've done? How many lives are going to be ruined, to satisfy your definition of winning?"
Zero held firm, stepping forward to match the pace of his opponent's retreat. "I don't enjoy the necessity of what I've had to do," he insisted. "But the carnage you've foreseen… together, we can manage the worst of it! We can mitigate the damage, and ensure a cleaner result than either of us would be able to achieve alone!"
For several seconds, the only sound was a muted roar of outside military equipment gathering strength to move on the building.
"You're right," Suzaku slowly admitted. "There is still one last chance to change fate."
Zero relaxed… until he realized that Suzaku's Geass had flared to life again.
"I won't be able to look anyone at Ashford in the eyes ever again, and Nunnally will hate me beyond words if she ever finds out… but I'll find a way to live with that."
"What?"
Zero narrowly dodged the incoming strike, startled by the blood-chillingly blank expression on Suzaku's face. "I don't enjoy the necessity of what I have to do."
Now thoroughly alarmed, Zero danced away from a high kick that caved in the crumbling wall behind him. "Have you gone mad?! Throwing away the certainty of our common victory for some pathetic pretense of peace?!"
When Suzaku replied, his voice was almost utterly flat. And for the first time in their fight, it was difficult for Zero to read his tells and predict the next move. Was it total despair that caused the race traitor's Geass to blaze so brightly? Was it blinding wrath that filled his flesh with such tension? "I've paid a man's life to curtail wider bloodshed before. Isn't it your position that the ends justify the means? Why aren't you proud that I'm coming to terms with the lesson you and so many other versions of you all tried so hard to teach me?"
"Do you seriously believe that killing me will be enough to stop the wheels I've set in motion tonight?! Even if you expose my identity to the world, you risk sowing the seeds of a civil war in Britannia itself!"
Zero made to sidestep a swing at his mask… only to realize too late that it had been a feint as Suzaku caught him in a charging tackle. "That's a problem for tomorrow, when you're not around to make it worse."
With no further words, Suzaku slammed Zero through the hallway and into an abandoned conference room… and then kept pushing through the opposite wall, continuing for several meters to use Zero's battered form as a bulldozer.
"You fool… at this rate you'll collapse the building on top of us!"
A faint, bitter smile lit up Suzaku's face, cluing in Zero that the words to follow would be worse than anything he'd dared to expect.
"If I'm lucky."
Shirley Fennette desperately wanted to be doing anything else besides watching the live news broadcast, knowing that someone she almost-technically-sort-of knew personally was fighting a crazy terrorist with his bare hands.
Anything else other than grappling with the realization that the next time she saw a cute (but not as much as Lulu) and nice guy she was supposed to be sharing a classroom with, might instead be at his funeral.
…if he even got one.
Sure, Suzaku was famous and was close with the Viceroy, but from how she'd used to overhear Lulu and Milly talk sometimes in years past, Shirley wasn't unaware of the possibility that he might be thrown away and forgotten about in an attempt to save face.
Shirley hoped it wouldn't come to that.
Nobody deserved a fate that horrible.
After the fight had gone inside the building, the news had eventually moved the live feed to a smaller picture-in-picture screen in the top corner, while talking heads drooled and salivated over the earlier few minutes of footage about Zero they'd been able to gather beforehand.
If there were a word for the experience, it had to be… surreal.
Another suitable fit would be disturbing.
Like, I knew Britannia gets into a bunch of wars and stuff, and that's why my dad's job moved here, but…
Seeing with her own eyes the way the news – the news, which was usually boring and only talking about grown-up stuff – treated the life of someone she knew like it was… like it was some fancy dress or something that was neat to gawk at for ten minutes and then be forgotten about?
Tears pricked at her eyes.
"I feel like I'm gonna be sick…"
"Shirley?"
Oh crap, I didn't mean to say it oud loud…
"Suzaku might die, and they're… they're treating this whole thing like it's a show. It's sick and wrong and messed up… is, is this what the Elevens see all the time when they look at us?"
A small hand found its way into Shirley's and offered a tight squeeze. "...I don't think they even see us," Nunnally sadly replied. "What you're seeing now on the news is the only thing they see."
Shirley hadn't meant her question that literally, but it made sense. She didn't really hate Elevens herself when a lot of her classmates did… but she knew Miss Sayoko was pretty cool, and Suzaku had seemed nice too.
If her classmates never got to know any Elevens like Miss Sayoko or Suzaku, and only saw terrorists like Zero on the news, then maybe that made it easier to understand why.
"...I just thought it was weird and kind of dumb before," she whispered as tears began to fall in earnest. "I didn't realize how sad it is…"
"What's this? Ominous rumblings are being reported from inside the condemned building! Could the combatants be about to emerge? Has a victor been decided in this contest of modern-day titans?!"
"What's happening, Shirley?"
While Shirley was in the middle of wiping her tears away in order to see, the building's second floor ceased to exist as the upper floors on half of the building fell onto it, before crumbling inward and causing enough structural damage to take the rest of the building with it.
At the same time, one of a few side cameras managed to catch Suzaku and Zero leaping out through a window instants before they would've been crushed, tumbling to the ground amidst a cascade of broken glass.
The pair continued trading blows all the way down, until at the last second Zero was able to flip Suzaku underneath and drive him back-first into the pavement before using him as a springboard to leap away.
"They're… they're still fighting," Shirley whispered in horror. "They just came out of a crumbling building from two stories up and Suzaku hit the street pretty bad…"
A street news camera shook in its handler's haste to get closer, the view focusing in on Zero. The masked rebel's fancy suit and cloak had taken several rips and tears, revealing scuffed and dented body armor underneath it. The helmet, however, remained nearly pristine save for accumulating dust on it. "If you can't see that a justice that denies freedom is base tyranny," he declared, "then you are truly beyond reason!"
The camera panned over to a few meters down the street, where a bloody and bruised Suzaku was stubbornly trying to stumble to his feet.
"Freedom," he hacked out around a bloody cough, "that doesn't answer to justice… that's just a pretty word for chaos!"
"...I don't get it," Shirley sobbed. "They're beating each other to death over… what, words?"
"They… have different ideas of what right and wrong are," Nunnally explained, choking on the words as she said them. "They both think the other is evil and needs to be stopped. It's like how police don't talk out their differences with robbers."
When framed that way, Shirley thought she understood it. "And… both of them think that the other one is the robber, and that they're the police?"
While Shirley and Nunnally were horrified to witness the devastation, other eyes were locked on to the news with eager anticipation.
"C'MON," Tamaki whooped, "THAT TRAITOR'S ON HIS LAST LEGS!"
In a rare moment of complete agreement, Kallen pumped a fist in the air. "FINISH HIM OFF, ZERO!"
"My wayward student," Tohdoh lamented in Narita. "If only your determination had been set on another path –"
"– then you could still be on the right side of this war," Chiba concluded in her Tokyo safehouse. "If Zero can just break Kururugi…"
"...then maybe my cousin can finally be brought to his senses," Kaguya whispered in hope from her Kyoto penthouse.
Back on the battlefield, Zero dashed into reach and hit Suzaku with a devastating fist to the cheek that turned his head and made him spit blood… and quickly followed it up with more of the same, raining one mighty blow after another down on the battered Honorary Britannian before finishing with a mighty kick that hit with a sickening, audible crack and almost lifted Suzaku from his feet.
For a long second, time itself seemed to still, as if captivated by what must have been a finishing blow.
And then Suzaku captured the rebel's leg before he could retract it, before taking Zero down with a dragon screw leg whip that sent him spinning. As Zero, for the first time, cried out in pain and shock, Suzaku immediately followed it up with another dragon screw while maintaining control of Zero's leg…
"Maybe… I can't… beat you to death," Suzaku gasped, "but… I can still… stop you from escaping!"
…and taking a hold of Zero's other ankle while he was stunned, Suzaku rolled Zero onto his front and twisted his legs into a sharpshooter hold as Zero started writhing in pain.
As Zero scrambled on the street for anything he might be able to use for leverage, he looked up and saw squads of infantry approaching to assist now that he'd been immobilized.
Time had run out. This had to end now.
With a roar of effort, Zero dragged himself and Suzaku half a meter towards a manhole cover, pried it free, and in an incredible display of flexibility beaned Suzaku in the back of the head with it.
Reeling from the blow, Suzaku broke the hold and fell on his back as blood poured from the point of impact… just in time for Zero to get up on his good knee and repeatedly start smashing Suzaku's arms and legs with the heavy piece of steel as screams of agony rang out across the street.
In the prior days, Suzaku Kururugi had been trying to make himself a symbol of Euphemia's power… of Britannia's power, and of its potential to do good, in the public consciousness.
Now, all over the islands that had once been called Japan, voices cried out – some in sympathy, some in terror, and others in bloodthirsty glee – as that symbol was broken before their very eyes with almost mechanical precision.
And at the same time, Zero was becoming a symbol in his own right – a symbol of proof that Britannia's power was not absolute. That Britannia's justice was at best incomplete, and at worst a complete farce.
"You stubborn, delusional fool," Zero whispered. "The stakes we play for are too great to accept defeat. Did you ever even consider a backup plan if your path were to fail?"
Suzaku's conscious mind gave out, leaving me behind to deal with a Nightmare straight out of hell and absolutely nothing left in our broken body capable of resisting its will.
With every last scrap of energy we've got, I raise up our bloody and battered arm to point right at Zero's mask to shut him up, pushing past how every bone and muscle in it screams at me not to… before twisting our wrist to flip him the bird.
"War… mongering… nar… cissist… you're the last… motherfucker… who can… talk down… to me…"
As suffocating darkness starts to crowd in on my vision, Zero stands up and runs off into it. I try to roll over, to push myself up so I can chase him, but… but my body, Suzaku's body, just won't move.
There's nothing left in the tank.
Bastard's probably laughing at us under that mask, knowing that if we tried to go after Lelouch at Ashford nobody would ever believe that a twig like him could be Zero.
People in white start getting in my personal space, shouting at me with flashing lights, but… fuck, I can't hear a word they're saying. I know we fucked up and failed, it's not like they gotta rub salt in the wound…
He played us like a damn fiddle…
"Kururugi's pulse is weakening! Where's that bloody defibrillator?!"
"If you stimulate his heart now you'll just make him bleed out faster!"
"Walk and chew gum at the same time, you two! Medevac copter is en route, ETA two minutes! Hospital's pulling his chart and will have blood ready for transfusion on arrival!"
"SUZAKU!"