August 26th, 2018. Tokyo Dome, early evening.

"WHO'S NEXT?!"

Up in the control room, Cecile snatched the comms earpiece away from Elle with a quick apology before settling herself with a sense of calm and control she wasn't really feeling.

"Suzaku," she said as soothingly as she could. "The fight's over. You've won."

"That fucker's Valkyries–"

"Have been taken into miss Nu's custody, just like you planned. She reported that all four of them surrendered quietly. They're not a threat anymore."

"Darlton–"

"Is standing right here in the box with me. He seems a little perturbed by your stressed condition, but he hasn't made a move to leave the room and he knows he can't beat you after the show you've put on."

For his part, Darlton looked a little affronted by her blunt phrasing, but made excuses to go attend to Cornelia rather than argue the point.

"...he just left to help Cornelia lick her wounds," the bluenette amended. "But that just reinforces what I said, that he isn't concerned with continuing your fight. I promise, nothing bad's going to happen if you put down your sword and come home now."

For a long moment, the only response she got was the pilot's wild, ragged breathing. Eventually, however, the Lancelot's eyes returned to their usual green, and the Knightmare put its twin MVS back into their sheaths. "Keep talking. Please."

He sounds like he's going to be sick… oh no, Cecile thought with wide eyes, was this the first time he's ever…? "Of course. So, the current plans once we RTB are…"

While Cecile said whatever came to mind as a verbal distraction for Suzaku, Elle twisted in her chair to look at Lloyd with a frown, before then turning it on her father. "Now that Darlton's gone, I think it's time one of you explained this."

To illustrate her request, she swiveled her laptop around to show everyone else a screenshot taken during the height of the last duel.

A purple banner had imposed itself over the Lancelot's schematics and damage reports, boasting three words clearly legible for all to see.

G-Particles confirmed.

"I'm afraid I need the Prime Minister's permission to talk about that," Lloyd airily replied without any hint of regret or remorse, retrieving a phone from his pocket while going to leave the room. "Fret not, however; I expect it won't be terribly long in coming…"

Euphemia frowned, her concern for Suzaku compounded by this latest development. "Earl Asplund, you're not leaving this room without at least telling us if this is potentially dangerous for Sir Kururugi."

"Not as far as the existing research suggests," came the utterly unconcerned reply, before Lloyd closed the door behind him.

Next to Euphemia, Merrybell's fingers idly traced the grip of her sword. "Is that man always so…?"

"It's arguably worse when he's not," Elle groaned into her hand. "For now, we need to go check on Suzaku."

Euphemia rubbed at her forehead, trying to massage away a budding migraine. "I… fear I'm going to be delayed on that account. As Viceroy, I need to report the Knight of Ten's death to Lord Waldstein before someone with a less favorable perspective can beat me to it. Sister, would you…?"

Merrybell nodded, giving Euphemia a reassuring shoulder squeeze. "Of course; I've already put the facility on security lockdown. While you're coordinating with the Homeland, I'll handle everyone on the ground here and make sure your Knight has at least enough time to start getting himself back in order. ...although, I'd suggest you speak with the Valkyries first. Any testimony they can give above the late Knight of Ten's wrongdoings should help to improve our case considerably."

"...you're right. Thank you for reminding me about them."

With a longing glance through the control room window at the departing Lancelot, and then at a steady Cecile talking to Suzaku over their radio, Euphemia watched Elle shut off her laptop and run for the door before sedately following. Damn this Viceroyship…

Having parked Lancelot in the massive truck trailer that served as a cramped mobile hangar, Suzaku leapt from the cockpit and ran back outside just as Schnee and Reed were coming out to the lot.

"Captain, you look unwell…! Is something wro–?!"

When he was fighting, he seemed just short of invincible, Schnee thought, staring with wide eyes at a shuddering Suzaku as the latter threw up into a storm drain. So how the hell is it possible for him to look so… so vulnerable now? "Do you… think we ought to come back later?"

"I don't know," Reed murmured, just as surprised to see how frail and even pitiful their commander looked, despite his having beaten a world-famous ace pilot in single combat just minutes earlier. "Miss Nu told us to appraise him of the situation… maybe we should pretend we didn't see anything and wait for him to notice us?"

"Bit late for that, you two're louder than you think... ugh…"

Sheepish at having been caught out, the pair of graduate pilots approached, with Reed extending him a handkerchief. "Sir, have you… suddenly come down with something? An earlier meal disagreeing with you, perhaps?"

Suzaku looked up at the pair with unfocused eyes, making Schnee take a step back.

Sick nothing, he looks like death warmed over!

"Food... trouble? Nothing of the sort," Suzaku muttered as he took the offered handkerchief and wiped his mouth clean with it. "I just erased a human life for the first time since I was ten, and I can't sort out my fucked up head and process all the other bullshit on my plate at the same time. Thanks for the hankie, by the way."

Schnee and Reed shared a worried glance. "Captain, are you admitting that you're mentally unfit for duty-"

"What do you mean, you killed someone when you were ten?!"

Suzaku stared at the two, before quietly muttering to himself that he hadn't meant to say any of that out loud. "Fuck it," he groaned at a more normal speaking volume, "I'll just brief everybody all at once later. Where are Viletta and Oran- ...Gottwald?"

Reed snapped to a salute. "Miss Nu is interrogating the Valkyrie Squadron, and Lord Gottwald is coordinating on-site security with the Glinda Knights."

"We've been told to treat the facility as under information quarantine until instructed otherwise," Schnee added.

Suzaku crossed his arms and gave the pair a nod, anxiously tapping a finger against his own bicep as he mulled over what they'd told him. "Alright, then at this point I need to be–"

"You need to stay right there and let me check you over!" Elle called out as she emerged, before giving Schnee a foul look he immediately flinched away from.

I guess it's really true, Sir Kururugi wasn't the only one offended by my outburst this morning…

"I–I'm just giving a report! And I apologized for earlier!"

"I know you did," Elle snapped, "and thank you for demonstrating some basic human decency that too many of our other countrymen fail to wrap their heads around. But just because Suzaku's willing to let it go so quickly for some unknown reason, doesn't mean I think you've earned forgiveness yet. Now unless you have any other business with Suzaku, I advise you two to ask Viletta or the Glindas how you can be useful."

Schnee nodded, eager in his shame to be anywhere that wasn't in the vicinity of Elle's wrath, while Reed paused. "Begging your pardon, but if I might ask a brief question while I'm still here… Orange, Captain?"

Suzaku stared at the red-eyed youth for a long moment, before suddenly catching himself with a start. "Oh, you mean Gottwald? It's because he's from Florida, they grow oranges there. Y'know, just like how Idaho's famous for potatoes."

Schnee couldn't help but cringe at the comparison. "My Lord," he asked with a shaky voice, "I know I haven't done anything that would remotely give me grounds for asking favors since we've met… but I would dearly appreciate it if you refrained from nicknaming me 'Potato'."

"Sure thing Spud," Suzaku said with a smile and a clap on the shoulder. "Now how about you run along now before Elle gets any more impatient?"

"At once, Sir – hang on, that's even worse!"

Suzaku shooed the pair of rookie pilots away, before turning to see Elle's vindictive smile as she came close. "Don't be too hard on the kid, he's learning how to be better."

"Maybe," she allowed. "But more importantly, how are you doing?"

The pilot didn't answer Elle at first, save to hesitantly, almost questioningly extend a hand for her cheek.

What's he… is it because–? Oh, Suzaku…

The redhead softened and leaned into his touch, before pulling him in for a peck on the cheek and a tight hug as Suzaku relaxed in her embrace. "I'll… probably get better at some point," he whispered.

"Attaboy…"

While some people were bonding over victory and the hopeful future summoned in its wake, others… weren't having such luck.

Shogo Asahina, as one such example, woke up coughing on a futon and aching all over his body.

"Nice that you finally woke up," said a familiar voice next to him. "There's a lot we need to talk about."

"Oh fuck you Chiba..."

"Not on your life, buddy."

Asahina paused in his flailing around for his glasses, turning to look at his comrade in concern. Their cursing each other out a bit had usually just been how they showed their friendship to each other, but for the first time he could remember, Chiba wasn't in a mood to respond in kind or to snap at him that it wasn't the time.

"...we got captured, didn't we?" he asked with a heavy sigh.

"Your glasses are on the table in front of the fire, and no we didn't. I managed to talk Kururugi down from killing you, and then escaped in the confusion when his rescue team broke into the tunnel. Inoue from the local cell helped patch you up, and now we're back in our safehouse."

Patting himself down to find he was still clothed, albeit covered in bandages underneath, Asahina crawled over to the small tea table in front of the roaring fireplace and found his glasses.

"Well, it's a good thing we managed to avoid capture… but I can't imagine we'll get another shot at Kururugi again."

Asahina waited, expecting Chiba to give him either a spirited denial that they could still make another opportunity, or a bitter admission that they'd have to return back to Narita. When neither was swift in coming, he even began to wonder if the local resistance cell had made a request of some kind that she wasn't impressed with...

"He asked me to join him," she eventually admitted. "Kururugi said that he and the Viceroy could open a diplomatic path for Japan's restored independence inside of three years… that he wanted a Japanese like me ready to put a sword in his back as a reminder that we deserve justice too. I… I've been thinking of taking him up on it."

Asahina tried to stand up in outrage, only for his body to fail him mid-attempt. Even more humiliating, Chiba was right there to catch him rather than let him hurt himself further by falling on the table or into the fire. "How could you ever even think such a thing?!" he demanded. "We swore an oath to the Colonel!"

"And he's content to stand back and watch while Katase sends the entire JLF to ground," she snapped, "hoping to spend the next generation hiding like a tumor in hopes of a glorious rebirth when and if the Britannians ever grow fat and lazy again!"

Asahina struggled in his weakness against his partner's grip, not even knowing for himself whether he wanted to attack Chiba or just to get the hell away from her. "I'm not any more impressed with it than you are, but orders are orders! Are you really so unconcerned with the shame your betrayal would bring Colonel Tohdoh – to all of us after everything we've done for you?!"

Chiba didn't let go of Asahina, but she did slap him. "I do appreciate everything he and you've done for me – but you're acting like there's honor in letting me and every other woman in the JLF be forced into mothering a new generation of soldiers as long as you pretend there's nothing you can do about it, all because our leaders are too tired or cowardly to face a serious Britannia themselves when they can make it their children's problem instead!"

Asahina opened his mouth to explain that no, it wasn't at all honorable to go along with Katase's plans to kick the can down the road but that as samurai they were still bound by loyalty to their superiors, only for a sobbing Chiba to headbutt him. "I have a possible chance to make our dream of a free Japan real! To save countless of our countrymen and restore their lives to peace! That's more important to me than trying to cling to a life without shame or disgrace, so you can pick up your sword I brought back with us and either turn it on Katase, or turn it on me!"

Asahina stared at his teammate and comrade of many years, almost as if truly seeing her for the first time.

The hot tears of grief and pain running down her face… her quavering voice… the way her entire body shook and shivered with emotion as she held him steady, yet relied on him at the same time to keep herself steady.

She was demanding him to make an impossible choice… but then, wasn't it her right after being given one of her own? And she'd made a decision, at that. To stand and act for their countrymen's sake rather than to just bow her head and pass off responsibility to someone else.

It was, in a sense, the most admirable thing he'd ever witnessed.

It was also, looking inward, a path Asahina just couldn't bring himself to share in. "...or I can get a white robe," he whispered, and teared up further as the fury on Chiba's face immediately turned into horror.

"No… nonononono, I didn't mean it like that! You don't have to-!"

"I do," Asahina insisted. "I can't go against my masters like you can… but I can't bring myself to stop you, either. There's only one other place my sword can turn."

"I… I won't let you suffer," Chiba promised.

Traditionally, it wasn't proper for a woman to assist with such matters… but Asahina could think of few comrades he'd rather have at his side for the occasion.

From this point on, there really was no turning back for either of them.

"Just so you know," Asahina quipped with an exhausted grin, "I'm gonna laugh at you on the other side if you choke."

Even as her tears kept coming, Chiba couldn't help but smile as she lightly punched him. "Oh, you bastard…"

Later that evening, back at the arena…

Euphemia let out a sigh, before composing herself and nodding to Oldrin that she could open the door and let everyone in.

Cornelia entered first with Guilford, then Jeremiah, then Lloyd, and then finally Suzaku almost made a double take at the Valkyries when he saw them.

Liliana caught the odd reaction, and narrowed her eyes. "Something on your mind, Captain?"

"It's nothing, some of you just… reminded me of someone else," he awkwardly muttered. "I'm sorry for staring."

"That sort of thing can be dealt with later," Merrybell said as she bade everyone sit down. "Right now, your attention is needed on more pressing concerns."

Even Lloyd knew an order when he heard one, and the room's attention was focused onto Euphemia at the desk of whatever building manager's office she'd taken over for the moment.

"...Sir Kururugi," she began, before shaking her head and letting the true scope of her frustrated exhaustion show. "Suzaku, you made a bad call out there."

"Your Highness?"

"After speaking with the members of the Valkyrie Unit, I can overlook your dismissal of my prior wish not to kill the Knight of Ten in the heat of the moment. But when you invoked my authority to declare an Armed Intervention on him – to treat the matter not as an act of self-defense or even a duel, but as a punitive legal action being carried out against a criminal to strip them of their power and assets, you severely overstepped our bounds."

Fists clenched on the desk, Euphemia continued, "Lord Waldstein responded to the news of today's incident with implied accusations of sabotage; of suggestions that Sir Bradley's machine was tampered with just before his sortie and that his unexpected demise was the result of premeditated murder. I've been ordered to ship both you and the Lancelot to Pendragon so that the Knights of the Round can assess your ability for themselves, and verify that together you are formidable enough to stand among the Rounds legitimately. In effect, we're under trial by combat for treason on the basis of assassinating an agent of the Crown and for undermining the Empire's war efforts on other fronts."

Suzaku scowled, but didn't move from his seat. "The Rounds had to have known what kind of scum Bradley is. If they plan on luring me into a trap so they can avenge him and keep his dirty laundry from being aired like this, then I'm not afraid to give them all the same as he got."

"There's a time for brashness and a time for silence," Cornelia snapped. "You've already put the Viceroy under considerable risk, and now you're talking about going on a warpath against the entire Knights of the Round?!"

"Deleting them solves our current problem, right? Tell me who else would have the spine to pick a fight with us after that, and I'll put them on the list too."

"That isn't the issue-!"

"General Cornelia," Euphemia tensely cut in, "sit back down. Sir Kururugi, I appreciate your show of loyalty – and we're going to have words about that shortly. As it stands, you're going to be shipping out on the Sub-Viceroy's Grandberry aerial carrier as soon as the Lancelot and its requisite service equipment and materials for repairs can be loaded for transport. Is that understood?"

When each of the two in question gave her a stiff nod, the Viceroy continued. "Good. As for myself, I'm still set to remain in charge of Area Eleven pending the trial results, and at the very least will be responsible for overseeing the sakuradite distribution conference this weekend at the Lake Kawaguchi Convention Center. Margrave, General, you two will be coordinating security for the event –"

"Hang on, what?!"

Startled but not entirely surprised by Suzaku's outburst, Euphemia tried to massage away her headache, willing literally anyone else to deal with it on her behalf. "The event's been in planning since before Clovis's death," Viletta explained, "and was announced to the public while you were comatose from your fight with Zero."

"And that's in just a few days?! Fine, then the Rounds can wait until it's over!"

Merrybell stood at the edge of the Viceroy's desk, her sword loosed a few inches from its sheath. "Now is not the time for you to go testing boundaries, Kururugi!"

How convenient that I can rely on my sister to get angry and give him such orders in my place, Euphemia tiredly thought. Or is my hesitancy to do so itself the problem?

"I don't give a damn if the Emperor himself gets on his knees and asks me," Suzaku snarled, "I'm not going out of town when an event like this makes such a tempting target for anyone who wants to get at you!"

Merrybell hadn't been in the same room as the unruly pilot for more than an hour or two, cumulatively, but the behavior on display was quite unlike what Euphemia had described to her. Rather than lash out, she held her peace for a second and studied.

Anger was a secondary reaction to feeling something else… often to pain, or to fear. And with a few seconds' observation, she was ready to make an educated guess.

"It's obvious to me that you know something we don't," she concluded. "If you're not going to share it with us now, then sit down, wait, and hold your tongue until everyone else is dismissed. That's an order!"

"And before you get any bright ideas," Euphemia added, "you are going to Pendragon ASAP. Anything that gives so much as an appearance that we could be dragging our feet on this will only weaken our position and put us further at risk."

Seeing the continued resistance in his eyes, Euphie hardened her heart and loaded a metaphorical pistol. She softened her voice, and gave him a tender look. "Suzaku, I know you're desperately worried about me, and it means the world that you're trying your best to protect me… but going against me like this is only going to do the opposite of that. You don't want to deliberately put me in danger, do you Suzaku?"

As she imagined would happen, his rage flared white-hot and then burnt out all at once, the young man crumpling back into his seat in frustration and instant defeat.

"...with all due respect," Cornelia began. "I must suggest that Sir Kururugi be removed from duty until he gets his act together. I don't know if today was the first time he killed an enemy in combat, but there's no justification whatsoever for these outbursts."

"Notwithstanding his trip to the Homeland, he is," Euphemia assured her, before turning to the dark-skinned woman sitting between Suzaku and Jeremiah. "Miss Nu, for your service to date, you are hereby officially pardoned of suspected involvement in the Blood-Purist Coup, restored to the title of Knight, and will take formal command of Celestial Being until Sir Kururugi's return from the homeland. Formal ceremonies can be arranged at a later date..."

For Suzaku, everything else passed in a daze until Lloyd suddenly slammed the door shut, leaving only himself, Suzaku, and Euphemia and Merrybell in the room.

"I don't know what on Earth is wrong with you today, but I intend to have it resolved now," Euphemia swore. "Whatever's on your mind about the sakuradite distribution conference, get it out of your system."

"Look, I can't just… if I said it plainly, you'd think I was crazy-!"

Merrybell huffed. "You already did a fine job of making yourself look crazy earlier, what's a little more?"

Suzaku growled in irritation scratching at his head. "Ugh, whatever… just listen, there's a major chance that the JLF are gonna show up and take everyone at the resort center hostages, and then Zero comes in after that to save the hostages and make himself look like a fair and balanced hero to both the Britannians and the Japanese-"

"That's quite an imaginative scenario," Merrybell noted, gaze focused even more on him like a hawk at his mention of the infamous masked man. "Do you have any evidence to back it up? Maybe your kidnappers told you something before they escaped yesterday?"

Euphemia gave her sister a long look. "Sub-Viceroy, are you implying something?"

"I'm stating outright that this is incredibly suspicious," she replied, "and I don't like having as little concrete information to go on as I do."

"Look, I can't tell you how I know-"

"Why not? You know it's absurd to expect trust from anyone else without them giving the same in kind, don't you?"

As Suzaku grit his teeth, ready to scream, Lloyd clapped his hands. "You've seen it with your Geass, haven't you boy?"

When the other three all stared at him as if just remembering that he was present, the scientist preened. "Geass," he cheerily repeated himself. "An as-yet ill-understood phenomenon that happens when human brainwaves are filtered through or interact with a certain particle field. During the climax of your little soiree earlier, my Lancelot detected and reacted to exactly such a particle field that you yourself somehow generated… and my, you won't believe the data we got from that."

His glasses seeming totally opaque in the blinding reflection of the room's lighting, the scientist grinned. "Or maybe you in particular will believe it, Kururugi. ...oh, and you Princesses needn't worry too much; as promised, the Prime Minister agreed that I can tell you this much – so long as it stays just between us, of course."

"A phenomenon interacting with brainwaves… are you talking about ESP?" Merrybell asked with an arched eyebrow. "Psychic powers?"

Lloyd met the question with a derisive scoff. "I certainly wouldn't be quick to use such pop-science terminology myself... but for practical purposes, I suppose you can think of it as such. For anything beyond that you'd like to know, I think the better source might be Kururugi himself."

Suzaku froze up in panic as Lloyd abruptly turned off the room's light switch to cast the four in darkness – and then Suzaku's iris began to glow a dull red, the pupil framed within it by the image of a crane in flight.

"In Eden's name-!"

"Turn those lights back on right now!"

Lloyd obediently did so, with a sweating Suzaku falling to his knees. "What… what the fuck…?"

At once, Euphie rushed to his side. "What's wrong? Is it true? Are… are you having some kind of… some kind of vision?!"

"It's like walking through a kaleidoscope… countless possible alternative presents and futures everywhere I look… sometimes it just starts up on its own and I can't turn it off, and sometimes I can make it focus on showing me something useful…"

"My, my, my," Lloyd crooned. "I wasn't quite expecting possible testimony in favor of multiverse theory from this, but I won't complain."

Merrybell swallowed, looking from Lloyd to Suzaku and then back again. "...I can confirm with the Prime Minister that this isn't – some kind of joke in ill taste, right?"

The silver-haired scientist flinched away from her in mock offense. "But of course!"

"Suzaku," Euphie whispered, "it's not safe for either of us if I let you stay here as long as you want. But you can still tell us what you see and give us a chance to prepare for it – what's wrong?! Why are you crying like that?!"

The pilot choked back a sob, punching the floor in frustration. "I'm sorry, Euphie… I'm so sorry…!"

"There's no need for these sorts of dramatics," she promised, "I'm sure whatever you think you've done isn't so bad– ah?!"

Before she knew what was happening, Euphemia had been wrapped up in a tight hug, Suzaku crying into her shoulder. "I lied to you before. Lelouch is alive."

The passage of time and the blood in Euphie's veins both seemed to freeze as the harsh whisper crept through her mind.

"...what did you just say?"

"Lelouch is alive," he confessed in her ear. "I saw him that day at Shinjuku, right before I was shot… and then I met him again at Ashford Academy. I don't know the details, but he's the one who killed Clovis, with some kind of Geass of his own – Lelouch either is Zero, or is masterminding him; he's trying to make you fail so he can better justify his revolutionary war, he plans to burn the whole world down and start it over on his own terms…!"

With some effort, Euphemia pried Suzaku off of her and forced him to look her in the eyes. "The reason you kept this from me before now was because you wanted to try and save me from having to acknowledge him as a possible enemy, didn't you?"

When he nodded, she slapped him. "That's for going overboard just like Cornelia always used to. I'll accept your apologies later, but right now I'm absolutely furious with you and there are other issues that need dealt with. Next question. You said Lelouch is alive, now what about Nunnally? Did she survive too?!"

"I… I haven't seen her in person, but I'm certain that she's at Ashford with Lelouch…"

Euphemia took a deep breath, resisted the urge to vent out her frustrations again, and forced herself to be grateful for the revelation that two of her beloved siblings hadn't been slaughtered like animals after all.

"I have one last pressing question for you, Suzaku, and then I'll need some time alone to process all of this – there's no need for such panic; yes I'm upset with you, but no I don't hate you, and I'll get over it eventually. You said earlier, in front of everyone, that you were content to be a machine. That you'd take my enemies and turn them into memories. I appreciate that devotion, Suzaku, but your outbursts then and about the other Rounds just a bit ago have me worried. I need you to promise me that your loyalty has limits, that there's some kind of line you'd sooner kill me than cross."

Suzaku stared at her with wide eyes, color draining from his face… like he suspected what was coming and was trying to deny it with every fiber of his being. "What… what are you saying-?"

"I'm saying that I can't fully put my trust in a single-minded robot that's too personally loyal to think for itself. I have to know that if I ordered you to do something completely horrible – like, to kill all the Japanese-"

"Don't even joke about that."

"I'm not joking," Euphemia insisted. "I need to know you have a moral compass that doesn't only revolve around me! Promise me that if I even thought of trying something like that you'd stop me!"

"I… I promise, Euphie. I wouldn't let you do it… and whatever tried to make you do it, I'd somehow find a way to save you from it."

It wasn't exactly the answer Euphemia had wanted.

But his promise to find a third option, to stay by her side and save her even if he also had to stop her…

"Oh, you stubborn boy… go and get some rest," she whispered around a quick kiss. "You're going to need it."

As she stood and helped Suzaku back to his feet, Merrybell stepped forward with a frown. "Now wait just a minute, something still isn't adding up. I'm not letting you walk out of here until I know exactly what prompted that big breakdown of yours in the first place. Unless whatever upcoming hotel incident you're afraid of is that big of a problem…"

"Oh no," Suzaku replied, suddenly changing his voice as if doing an impression of someone else. "You've got it all wrong. When I really want people to follow my orders, they will not resist me. Whether it's to shoot me, to grant pardon to Suzaku, or any order at all."

"Oh now you're just being silly," Euphie huffed.

Merrybell narrowed her eyes. "Stop playing with us."

"I'm serious," Suzaku insisted as he opened the door, clearly continuing to quote someone, before turning back to look at the royal sisters. "For example, if I told you to kill all the Japanese it wouldn't matter how you felt about it."

The door shut once more on a dead silent room as he left, those inside quickly beginning to realize what had been implied.