Fanfic: Death Plays Chess - Stage 04 - Part 2
Title: "Death Plays Chess: Stage 4 - The Black King is Zero! - Part 2"
Author: J.J.
Warning: It's unbetaed. It's an AU. It contains SPOILERS for the whole "Code Geass" and some Japanese words (the Dictionary is at the bottom), Chess and Death’s references, plus everything you might find in an ordinary episode of "Code Geass".
Notes: This had been building up in my mind from the moment I set my eyes on "Code Geass" and so, now that the series is ended, I thought to type it down.
Disclaimer:
"Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch" belongs to Sunrise. I'm merely using its characters and setting because I love them...
Ehy, Do I own something here? Oh yes, I own the plot and a sensible heart which would surely break if you give me harsh reviews... so please be honest but nice ok?
Summary: Can some different moves change the result of the game?
‘Whoever fights monsters should see to it in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.’ (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Tokyo Tower had once been the tallest artificial structure in Japan but then, during the war, part of it had been blown down and what remained of the structure had been turned into some sort of museum about Japan’s defeat and its occupation. Since the museum held nothing truly precious the surveillance was pretty lose and cameras were so few it was easy not being picked up by them. In addition to this visitors were always present, even if the place was never crowded.
Lelouch was pleased to notice Kallen had come there for their meeting and had come also a bit earlier than what he had requested her. Rolo instead had frowned and, as soon as Kallen had stepped away from them and into another room without seeing them, had pointed out that the girl hadn’t come alone. Three Japanese guys were following her, looking after her like silent protectors and Rolo was sure they couldn’t be Britannian spies who were investigating on her. They just weren’t careful enough and seemed too nervous and worried for her safety.
“It’s not unexpected,” he replied. “Probably they’re just other terrorists. Maybe among them there’s that Ougi-san she mentioned when I used my Geass on her.”
“You told her to come alone. She didn’t respect the pact,” Rolo pointed out. “She’s not trustworthy.”
“Respecting it would be a luxury a terrorist couldn’t afford. Don’t worry, as I said this isn’t unexpected,” he stated giving a look at his watch. It was almost time. Good. “Time to drop this phone we ‘found’ at the service counter, Rolo” he announced in a quiet whisper. Rolo frowned but followed him in silence.
As soon as they had done (and Lelouch, using his Geass, had made sure the girl at the counter wouldn’t be able to describe or recognize them as the ones that gave her it) they left the place. Lelouch waited an appropriate time before dialling the number of the phone they left at the counter, a phone who had Kallen’s name and school written on it and, in its memory, a single phone number labelled under the name of ‘Zero’ using his phone’s other line, the one that used the phone number that matched with the one he recorded on her phone. He had to use his Geass quite a bit to make impossible to connect that second phone line to him but he wasn’t the type to run unnecessary risks. He had three siblings to protect after all.
His conversation with Kallen was simple. He just told instructed her about which train line to reach and which train to take and to freely carry along her ‘friends’ then, as he heard her surprised gasp, he cut down the communication. Silly girl, he thought. Had she really thought he wouldn’t think she would bring back up? Had she really thought he would miss how those three Japanese boys kept following her and looking at her everywhere she went but neither making a move to her or acting as if they were expecting the chance to pull her in a secluded corner and have their way with her?
“You know, sometimes I wonder how terrorism manages to survive,” he admitted with a sigh. “They’re so naïve and incompetent… though I admit they’re probably very determinate. Maybe they simply weren’t made up for this life… and if they’d been a choice they would have done something different… like being teachers or something…” he murmured with a melancholic smile. If the world were different… if the chain of hate had never existed…
“Don’t get too attached to them, Niisan,” Rolo warned him. “You’re a Britannian and they’re Elevens. They won’t care for you and they won’t hesitate to sell you to the best offering. You must not trust them.” Lelouch ruffled his hair finding cute how his little brother worried for him.
“I know. I’ll be careful, don’t worry,” he assured smiling down at him before wrapping his arm around Rolo’s shoulders and pulling him close. “You’ll have to be careful as well. I wish you wouldn’t get involved in this…”
“Where you go I follow. It’s as simple as that,” Rolo assured leaning against him. “You’ve just to tell me what to do and it’ll be done.”
Jeremiah’s chat with the Junketsu-ha hadn’t really improved things. They plainly had refused to let Lloyd Asplund or any of his assistants testify for Kururugi-Ittouhei. Fine, so he too wouldn’t trust Lloyd but they were just setting up the boy and he told them so quite fervently, declaring that, in this way, they were letting the real culprit free to go. Kewell had retorted saying he was taking too at heart the life of an Eleven, accusing him to lack in loyalty to the empire and Jeremiah, completely furious at that point, had retorted he believed they were hiding the truth because they likely were accomplices of the one who shot. Shipman had felt insulted, declaring he wouldn’t put Jeremiah under arrest merely because that wasn’t the moment to argue between Britannians but, more likely, because, even if he was filling in as Soutoku’s substitute, he simply didn’t have the gut to do it in fear of repercussions. Anyway Shipman’s words were mostly ignored as Jeremiah and Kewell had been about to start a fight and had stopped solely because someone (a blond guy from television that had been hanging around at many important social events and whose name Jeremiah couldn’t remember) had knocked at the door. Jeremiah and Kewell had composed themselves and Jeremiah had left even if they both knew it wouldn’t end there.
Later that same guy from the television had tracked down Jeremiah and had offered him a drink.
Jeremiah noted the man was appropriately obsequious without falling in the bootlicker category and, even if he was very good at dealing with people, it was impossible not to think he’d been seeking out Jeremiah merely because he had sniffed a scoop. He introduced himself as Diethard Ried, a Britannian TV producer who’d just received the job to show to the masses Kururugi Suzaku-Ittouhei’s travel toward the courthouse.
Jeremiah considered the pro and the con of telling him something. Media manipulation was a powerful weapon but one over which he had no much control. He wanted to save Kururugi-Ittouhei, not to cause troubles to Britannia. If the masses were to know a bunch of idiots were setting Kururugi-Ittouhei up merely to get promoted and to destroy the Meiyo Britanniajin system… who knew which would be the Elevens’ reaction? They might try to cause even more troubles than they were as of now…
“Kakka, I only aim to disclose the truth… there are rumours that Kururugi Suzaku was behind the poison gas terroristic attack as well and…” the man began to say but Jeremiah interrupted him.
“Rumours mean nothing. Have you proofs?” he asked irritably.
“There are no secure proofs, that’s why I’m turning to you for help, Jeremiah-Kakka. I’ve heard you too were in Shinjuku and…” the man insisted. Stubborn fellow. But maybe they could help each other…
“You wouldn’t come questioning me unless you were having suspicions those rumours were false, would you?” he asked and the man smirked before modestly saying he ‘only aimed to find out the truth and present it in the best way to the masses’.
“Truth…” Jeremiah echoed. Truth had needed to keep hidden so many times, he admitted to himself thinking at his master’s current condition. “Oh well… if you want the truth why don’t you search for someone who can testify where Kururugi-Ittouhei was when His Highness was shoot?” he asked. The blonde producer looked doubtful as he shook his head.
“There are many who can testify he was…” he began.
“Then find someone who can testify he wasn’t,” Jeremiah cut him. “Someone of high social status and maybe with people under him. Someone like… a Hakushaku, perhaps?” he offered with a slight smirk before finishing his drink in a single gulp.
“Does such a person exist?” the journalist asked in an unbelieving tone but Jeremiah could already see the man trying to think up at the possibilities.
“Who knows?” he commented, standing. “I’m merely suggesting what you need to find, nothing more…” he explained. Lelouch-sama would probably have handled the thing better but Jeremiah was nowhere close to his master’s level and so this was the best he could do. He could only hope it would suffice and not turn into a huge mistake…
Rolo, hand in his pocket, fingers sliding on his locket, was watching out of the window of the nearly completely filled second car as the train they were in was continuing his ride across the border of the settlement. The Britannian side of the Tokyo settlement was no different from any other Britannian settlement but the option was to look at the other window and watch the ruined buildings of Ghetto passing by and so he contented himself with the view. Around him there were solely people under his brother’s Geass, people who wouldn’t move until they had finished with their business there and that wouldn’t pay attention to the odd clothes his brother was wearing. Rolo, who wasn’t wearing anymore his student’s uniform but casual clothes and a cap, was pretending to be the same as them so as not to be noticed when the terrorists would reach his brother. His eyes moved on him, standing alone in the first car, and saw him ending another phone call he was having with ‘Q-1’ and smiling at him before wearing that odd tulip shaped helmet that completely hid his face from vision. The game was about to start, Rolo thought as he mentally prepared himself for any eventuality.
Q-1 arrived short later, followed by other three Eleven boys and, with them, she entered in the first car, pausing next to the entrance. His brother, on the opposite side, was giving his back to them. Rolo could hear them talking to his brother thanks to a transmitter he’d placed in the first car. They wanted to know if he’d been the one who called them, if he’d been the one behind the cease fire order in Shinjuku. His brother turned toward them as the train entered in a tunnel causing the light to be dimmed.
The rebels didn’t seem appropriately impressed, murmuring among them he was a ridicule guy (and Rolo had to privately admit that his brother’s clothes were misleading in that sense) but Niisan went on as nothing was wrong. He gestured theatrically as he told them he had them to have that ‘tour’ because he wanted to have the appropriate mindset.
One of the Japanese boys moved forward agreeing there was a hopeless gap between themselves and Britannian saying that was why the resistance existed. His voice and manner of speaking were suspiciously similar to P-1. Probably he was P-1, the leader of that pitiful terrorist group they had helped out in Shinjuku. If their leader had come out in the open to meet his brother, it was either Nisan had picked up their interest or that they were really desperate.
Anyway Niisan interrupted him, informing him that terrorism would never win against Britannia, that it was just childish harassment to it. Their real enemy weren’t the Britannians but Britannia itself and that, if they wanted to fight, then it would be war and not terrorism, a war in which innocent civilians shouldn’t be involved and they would have to administer justice.
As the other stared in surprised silence Q-1 complained heatedly it was easier said than done and that they couldn’t believe him since he wasn’t showing them his face. This pushed the other to react and agree with them. Rolo tensed, worried they would try to do something, and readied himself to act if necessary. His brother instead remained unimpressed and agreed to show them something… however, he said, they wouldn’t see his face but his power. He asked them if they would believe him should he make the impossible possible. However, even if he put it as a question it was clearly a statement. Rolo rested his forehead on the window and, for just a moment, he stopped paying attention to the discussion, lost in his own thoughts. Even if he’d seen many times his brother turning the impossible, possible he still wished he wouldn’t talk about doing it as if it was a really easy thing but, by now, their time was up. Light filled the car as the train left the gallery, his run slowing down as it came closer to its next stop. It was time to leave.
Rolo took a deep breath then the Geass’ red symbol showed up in his right eye as his power activated and expanded around him like a round red bubble, that caused everyone caught in it to stop moving. The bubble enveloped the terrorists but didn’t touch his brother who removed his mask and his cape and calmly left the train. Rolo did so as well, dissolving his power only when the doors were closed and the train was about to move again. The terrorists wouldn’t realize what had happened. To them it would be as if his brother had, all of sudden, magically disappeared from their sight since their perception of time had been stopped by his Geass.
Zettai Teishi no Kekkai.
‘Seal of Absolute Suspension’.
That was how his power was named. Whoever entered in his range would have his sense of time stopped and therefore be frozen on the spot, unaware of what was going inside him.
He closed his eyes, hand closing around the locket in his pocket, but he could still see clearly with the eyes of his mind himself, a homeless, starved, dirty and wounded orphan of nearly six in rag clothes, trapped in some sort of facility by some weird dressed guys, being given that power by another blond, long haired child in noble clothes. That child’s offer hadn’t been that different from the one his brother got…
‘You don’t want to die here, do you? I’ll help you, I’ll give you the power and the means to live on but, in return, you’ll be my servant. This is a contract. In return for power I want you to forever serve me doing everything I’ll ask of you…’
… and he had accepted it. Well, no, not really, he hadn’t had the chance to say yes or no, he’d just been given that power and then left with the option to obey to that child’s orders or face the consequences his disobedience would bring. He had been obedient. He’d been obedient until…
“Rolo? Is everything all right?” Niisan concerned voice asked him, cutting through his memories, his brother’s arm wrapped around his shoulders.
Niisan.
_Niisan_…
‘Don’t worry; you won’t have to do that anymore. You’re my little brother and I’ll take care of you…’
“I’m all right. My thoughts just… got sidetracked,” he assured as he smiled at him.
“I’ve told you it wasn’t necessary for you to do this,” his brother told him, worry and frustration mixing in his voice. “My power would do just fine. Or I could have come up with some other thing. You shouldn’t overuse your Geass; actually I would prefer you won’t use it at all and…”
“Niisan, I’m fine. Really,” he assured even if he was enjoying being fussed over. “If I use it inside the time limit it’s not dangerous and, as your Knight, I’m supposed to be the one who keeps you safe…”
“As my brother you’re supposed to keep yourself safe,” his brother countered, frowning.
“You keep me safe, Niisan, so there’s nothing for me to do in that department. Don’t worry about that. You keep me perfectly safe,” he replied, still smiling at him, resting his hand on the top of the one his brother was keeping on his shoulder. The other boy looked at him sceptically and seemed about to discuss some more when Rolo spoke again. “Shouldn’t you change? Even without mask and cape I still think your clothes are a bit too eye-catching…” he suggested and his brother smiled down at him, holding him even closer.
“Fine, fine, but you’ve no fashion sense, Rolo,” he complained. Rolo just continued smiling and mentally hoped things would never change among them.
Suzaku was sitting on the floor of his cell, while his prisoner’s clothes (which looked as the one of the green haired girl he’d seen in Shinjuku) were keeping his arms tied behind his back and his legs bound together. The wounds he got from when the soldiers had beaten him up hurt and the fact he’d been in that position for way too long didn’t make his situation any better but he didn’t mind. He had much more important things to worry about like was Euphy still alive? Lelouch? Rolo? The green haired girl they found and tried to help? He still didn’t know…
He sighed tiredly and felt like he’d been forgotten in that dark and small prison. He was innocent, he hadn’t lifted a finger against Clovis-denka but he was guilty of other things so, after all, that was a fitting place for someone like him, a place in which he should have ended long ago, he admitted to himself with another resigned sigh. Even when the court would be forced to release him because he was innocent, this wouldn’t change the fact he deserved to be stuck into a jail for the rest of his life and… and even if he’d only done what had to be done he… he…
“Congratulations!” a cheerful voice exclaimed, startling him and he raised his head to see that Lloyd-san was right in front of his cell, smiling at him with his usual grin, with another man Suzaku had never seen before and that was studying him, frowning slightly. “The people you asked about weren’t on the list of casualties!” Lloyd-san clarified in the meantime and Suzaku breathed in relief. Thanks God at least his friends were alive. Meanwhile Lloyd-san took a stool and sat on it, evidently planning to stop there to chat with him. The other man remained standing. He looked like some Britannian noble, was wearing a blue uniform and a dark cape with the Britannian symbol was hanging on his left shoulder.
“But you are truly in an unfavourable position. Even when you go to the trial no one will be on your side. They even refused to let me or my underlings to testify for you…” Lloyd-san went on, his usually cheerful voice sounding a little more serious.
“But… but courtroom is a place where truth is revealed…” he countered, looking from Lloyd-san to the unknown man in confusion. The man next to Lloyd-san shook his head in silence, as if he was thinking Suzaku was really naïve.
“I think that ‘truth’ is something covered up most of the time,” Lloyd-san replied.
“If that’s really how the world works, I don’t want anything to do with it!” he stated, feeling disgust at that idea. Covering up truth? Wasn’t that lying? Where was justice in that? Courtroom, trials, weren’t supposed to bring justice?
“I appreciate your honesty and sense of justice but… aren’t your words childish and egoist?” the man next to Lloyd-san said, speaking for the first time. “Life is a cruel and unfair mistress and men are forced to compromise most of the time to protect the ones they care for. Even those coward idiots who’re trying to use you as scapegoat are persuaded they’re doing so in order to protect someone. In your disregard of lies aren’t you stepping over the people who’re forced to sacrifice the truth in order to allow their beloved ones to live? Aren’t you giving up your life when there are people who deem it precious and want to protect it?”
“Goals reached with the wrong means are meaningless!” Suzaku protested heatedly. “How could I accept such way of acting?”
“If I were asked to choose between saving my master’s life with the wrong means or acting according to rules and letting him die I would gladly sacrifice my pride, my honour and my life in the remote hope it would help him to survive,” the man countered calmly. “But maybe this is something an Eleven like yourself wouldn’t understand,” he added as if he was trying to anger Suzaku, to get a reaction out of him.
“Oh, that would be an impressive feat, Jeremiah-kei! I had no idea there was something you valued more of your honour!” Lloyd-san exclaimed, clapping his hands and stopping Suzaku from having to rise to the bait.
“Idiot! Of course my loyalty to my master takes precedence to everything!” the other snapped immediately, losing his composure and looking ready to strangle Lloyd-san, who raised his hands in front of himself protectively.
“Sure, sure, but weren’t you here to try to help Suzaku-kun instead than to just criticize him and his ideals?”
“You…” the man, Lloyd-san had called him Jeremiah-kei, began clenching his fists then, with an evident effort and a snort, turned his gaze away from Lloyd-san and on Suzaku back again. Suzaku tried to guess why that man wanted to help him but he was a total stranger to the boy and he didn’t even seem to like Japanese that much so… why? “Kururugi-Ittouhei, the crime of shooting a royalty is an unforgivable one and, if you’re being used as a scapegoat to cover up the real criminal or merely to let the Junketsu-ha take advantage of this, be sure I’ll use any mean to have the trial declare you innocent, no matter if you’ll like it or not. That’s the loyalty of Jeremiah Gottwald, keep it well in mind!” Then, said so, the man, Jeremiah Gottwald-kei, marched away. Suzaku blinked then turned to Lloyd-san.
“Weird guy, isn’t he? But he’s very determined in trying to help you. So, Suzaku-kun, don’t give up on hope, okay?” the man asked him before standing and taking his leave, leaving Suzaku alone with his dark thoughts, populated by the ghosts of his past and his lack of hope for the future.
Jeremiah was marching swiftly out of the prison, irritated with the boy beyond belief. His master was forced to hide the truth, to hide his name and the fact he and his siblings were alive, and Jeremiah was forced to do the same, all in hope no one would harm Lelouch-sama, Euphemia-sama, Nunnally-sama and Rolo-sama and that boy dared to say with the wrong means they would accomplish nothing? Then what would he expect them to do? To let the same guild of assassins who murdered Marianne-Kouhi discover that the boys were still alive and hope this time Koutei-Heika would care enough to protect them? What?
“Jeremiah-kei, you shouldn’t take Suzaku-kun’s words so at heart. He’s young, you know,” Lloyd pointed out all of sudden, startling him. Jeremiah scowled. He had been so angry hadn’t noticed the man had followed him.
“He’s an idiot,” he stated, irritably. “The perfect device for someone like you. Be sure I’ll get him out of that trial alive, should I barge in with my Southerland and threaten the court with it in order to get _you_ to testify.”
“Hum… I don’t think the trial would hold validity if you’ll do something like that…” the other replied.
“Then what _you_ suggest to do?!” Jeremiah snapped. “You claim to be so smart but, so far, you hadn’t accomplished anything.”
“Oh, but I’ve no authority over those half political, half military matters, you know…” Lloyd reminded him with one of his stupid grins. “But you’ve really changed a lot from the time we were studying together at Teiritsu Colchester Gakuen.”
“I thought you said you didn’t remember that time,” Jeremiah muttered through gritted teeth, reminding the previous discussion he had with the man. “That your policy was not to look back on the past.”
“Oh, I guess my memory finally kicked in,” the other replied airily. “Back then you were intolerant, self centred, obnoxious, boring and very racist, not mentioning pompous, full of yourself and really prone to get mad,” he went on as if really, he could see nothing wrong in his words. Jeremiah in the meantime closed his eyes and really considered if he wouldn’t do a great service to the empire murdering him on spot.
“Lloyd…” he hissed.
“… And now look at yourself, ready to violate rules just to save an Eleven! Isn’t this the most amazing change?” the man asked. “I wonder what could have caused it!” he added with a perfectly innocent grin.
“I’ve started playing chess against a very talented person,” Jeremiah muttered, sounding rather irritated. “And if you’ve to know I truly hope that, as soon as that brat will be free he’ll ride again your toy and blew it up, possibly involving you in the explosion,” Jeremiah stated, which wasn’t quite true since he knew that would displease his master and his mistresses also (probably the only one who wouldn’t care would be Rolo-sama) but…
“So mean, Jeremiah-kei…” Lloyd commented, not looking hurt at all. “But congratulations! Here there’s a present from Cecile for you as her personal thank you,” he said handing him a disk.
“What’s that, something that might explode?” he asked without daring to touch it.
“Didn’t you mention to her you’ve a nephew who likes Knightmares? That’s the first video of my beloved Lancelot in its first action! He’ll love it!” Lloyd explained with a grin.
“Isn’t this supposed to be under military secret? I don’t want something that’ll put the boy in troubles…” Jeremiah asked warily. Sure, Rolo-sama would love to get it but…
“Oh, no, don’t worry, it really doesn’t show anything that can constitute a secret…” the man assured waving the disk carelessly. Jeremiah ripped it from his hold.
“Then thanks her for me but be sure if it’ll cause damage I…”
“Scary, scary! It’ll be harmless, I swear it!” the man exclaimed placing his hands in front of himself as if to shield himself. Jeremiah snorted. “But I also really hope Suzaku-kun will be freed soon. It’s a big loss for us to lose a perfect Devicer like Suzaku-kun, his operation efficiency was 94%, you know?”
“I don’t see why you don’t ask Schneizel-denka for another one, or is that everyone who has an ounce of brain would stay clear by your toys?” Jeremiah retorted. “Really, I don’t see why His Highness throws away the Empire’s money financing all your projects… but as of late His Highness had seemed to sponsor every military project that catches his fancy… makes me wonder what he’s up to…”
“Yes, Schneizel-denka is a great patron!” Lloyd agreed enthusiastically then his expression became slightly sharper. “Or are you implying he’s preparing to move war against the Chuka Renpo maybe? Do you think that’s why he’s doing so much to improve our army?”
“Don’t be absurd. Schneizel-Denka had never made a secret of the fact he prefers to use diplomacy instead than brute strength. If he’s trying to equip us better it might be because he thinks it’ll be the Chuka Renpo that’ll move against us,” Jeremiah replied even if there was also another possibility, one he had discussed with Lelouch-sama, going in his mind.
A coup d’état.
It seemed impossible to think the apparently calm and gentle second Ouji would do something like that and yet…
‘Schneizel-Aniue has always been kind to us… but he was a strategist first and a gentle man after. He talks about people’s sufferance… but he had never experienced it. You don’t become Saishou just being kind… his kindness is just a psychological weapon he learned to use very well… and back then he already had power enough to orchestrate an assassination… He’s second in line of succession. So close and yet not close enough and much smarter than Odysseus-Aniue… I wouldn’t be surprised if he would decide that it would be more productive for the empire if _he_ were to take my father’s place instead than Odysseus-Aniue… and if he were to do it now…’
… yet it was a possibility. The imperial household was at war with itself. It had been proved with the murder of Marianne-Kouhi and the attempted murder of her children and…
“War is the mother of creation, you know,” Lloyd commented in the meantime, still grinning even if it seemed a darker grin somehow. “If there’s a war ahead of us I’m sure the progress science will make will be among the deciding winning factors… After all Japan mainly lost the war merely because they hadn’t Knightmares…” Jeremiah snorted.
“Science’s just a tool. Even your pretty toy is useless without Kururugi-Ittouhei, and also that Tohdoh guy managed to strike a victory against us without Knightmares. It’s people who’ll make the difference. Commanders, pilots, soldiers, their loyalty, their intelligence, their discipline, their will… it’ll be humans who’ll make the difference, be sure of this. And I’m sure… there are ones who can even make the world itself bend at their will… and if I’m lucky… I’ll be with one of them when this will happen…”
It was late in the evening and Nunnally was with the other in the Seitokai’s room, watching the news, watching them as they reported the transportation of Suzaku-kun to the courthouse. None of her siblings was with her; it was just her and the other Seitokai’s members minus Kallen-san who, by that time, had already returned to her home. Oniisama and Rolo-Niisama had been missing by the moment school lessons had ended and not even Rivalz-san had an idea about where they could possibly be. Probably trying to gather up proofs about Suzaku-kun’s innocence, she guessed. Euphemia-Oneesama had remained home for almost all afternoon but she had paced in the house nervously like a caged tiger and, in the end, as evening had come closer, she had declared she had to go for a walk or she would grow insane and hadn’t been back yet. Oniisama won’t like she was out alone at that hour but Oniisama wasn’t there and so… so… she stared at the screen trying to catch a glimpse of Suzaku-kun, disappointed that the screen so far was merely showing the street on which he would have to pass, a street around which a crowd was waiting, waiting for him to show, waiting in order to insult him, feeling desperation and helplessness grow inside her. This was so unfair… why was Suzaku-kun being… why?
Unknown to her Jeremiah was on the same street as well, close to the television vehicle. Some of the men under him were there as well. The Junketsu-Ha was escorting Kururugi-Ittouhei with some of its Knightmares just in case some terrorist would try to come and free the boy but Jeremiah doubted they would lift a finger should the people collected there become a bloodthirsty mob.
Actually, considering the latest report on Clovis-denka’s health said His Highness was recovering well, they might aim to get rid of Kururugi-Ittouhei before Clovis-denka will have the chance to deny the boy’s involvement in his attempted murder.
So Jeremiah and some of his most trusted officers had come there in disguise, so as to make sure this won’t happen.
‘Goals reached with the wrong means are meaningless!’
He snorted as he thought back at those words. They were brave and noble words but… but whoever had been behind Marianne-Kouhi’s death was enjoying his accomplishment by too many years by now. Even if he privately admired the boy and felt inferior to him… his idealism was a luxury he wasn’t allowed to have anymore.
He turned his attention on his surroundings and it was in that moment he noticed it, or better, it was in that moment he noticed ‘her’…
“Euphemia-sama…” he whispered under his breath before running to reach the girl, who was nervously wandering through the people, trying to manage to get a glimpse to the street and failing. The crowd wasn’t bulging and she couldn’t get past it. Uncaring of protocol Jeremiah wrapped his arms around her and dragged her away from it. She was startled at first then, recognizing him, she complained and begged him desperately to let her go. “Euphemia-sama, there’s the television here! Don’t you realize you could be filmed and someone might recognize you?” he whispered to her, holding her close and pulling her behind the television van.
“But that’s why I disguised myself!” she protested evidently thinking that casual clothes, sunglasses (worn in the evening, no less!) and a cap would suffice. “Jeremiah-Jisama, please, I have to see Suzaku, I have to rescue him, to… to…” She gripped his uniform, eyes filled with tears. “Oh, it’s all my fault, if I hadn’t…” She paused in mid sentence as the Junketsu-Ha’s Knightmares and the vehicle transporting the boy appeared. “Suzaku!” she called trying to reach him. Jeremiah didn’t let her go even if the sign of the girl almost mad with grief was hard to bear. He was forced to silence her so that she wouldn’t draw further attention on herself and felt her tears dripping on his hand. He could feel her trembling, sobbing, and held her close attempting to soothe her as he had done when she was a child and she’d been scared to death because Lelouch-sama’s fever was too high and they couldn’t even take him to a doctor in fear they would discover who he was.
He saw Knightmares and vehicle coming even closer and recognized Andrey Shipman on the leading Knightmare. Behind him there were Kewell and another pilot whom he didn’t know. The last Knightmare’s pilot was inside the cockpit, apparently unwilling to parade as the other three were doing. He wondered if it was Villetta. Kururugi Suzaku-Ittouhei, guarded by two soldiers, was in the vehicle in between the four Knightmares. He was staring at the floor and Jeremiah hoped the bruises covering his face wouldn’t be clearly visible by their position. Euphemia-sama struggled some more in Jeremiah’s grasp seeing him, then, probably losing hope to free herself, she went limp and he had to support the poor, sobbing girl. He had the nagging feeling that boy was more than just a friend to her…
Then, without real explanation, the Knightmares and the vehicle stopped. Jeremiah looked at them in surprise, pulling Euphemia-sama even close and trying to hide her form with his cape as he contacted his men and asked what was going on but they had no idea. Then… then he saw it. Clovis-denka’s personal vehicle moving toward them from the opposite direction. Euphemia-sama stared at it numbly, whispering a weak ‘Clovis-Niisama?’ but Jeremiah knew it couldn’t be His Highness. The reports were encouraging but not to the point he could believe Clovis-denka would leave the bed and come there. That vehicle was a fake, it had to be.
The same thing should have been thought by the Junketsu-Ha as well as Shipman intimated to whoever was inside the vehicle to come out of it. In that same moment the Britannian flag on the vehicle took fire and burned completely at an amazing speed revealing the shape of a man wrapped in a cape and whose face was covered with a mask… or some sort of helmet really…
He heard Euphemia-sama gasping and covering her mouth with her hands as if she was trying to silence herself as she stared at the masked man with eyes wide open. He stared at him as well, feeling confused.
The man introduced himself as Zero.
Zero.
Nothing.
Weird… as his manner of speaking that seemed to hold some air of nobility and that had nothing of the usual terrorist tone. Was he an Eleven? Jeremiah couldn’t tell. Shipman shot once in the air with his gun and four more Southerlands joined him, immediately circling Zero’s vehicle and aiming their weapons at him. Then Shipman intimated him to remove his mask and Jeremiah thought that, Eleven or not that Zero guy had to be a fool for coming here. He felt Euphemia-sama tremble in his arms, this wasn’t the best show for such a sensible girl, he thought as Zero moved his hand toward his mask but then, instead than removing it, he raised his arm and snapped his fingers. In that moment the panels behind him fell, revealing a metallic half spherical thing. It took a moment for Jeremiah to recognize its shape. He squeezed against himself Euphemia-sama but he knew this wouldn’t protect her at all. That thing… that thing was the same thing they had been chasing down in Shinjuku… The cockpit of the fourth Southerland opened and the pilot, Villetta as he had been expecting, having recognized it as well called Shipman.
That capsule… that capsule was the one that the terrorists stole… the one full of poisoned gas… that guy… that Zero… had taken them all as hostages… and only few of them knew it.
‘What should I do?’ Jeremiah thought frenetically. ‘If that capsule will open Euphemia-sama…’ He had to take her away but… but how? They would never manage to get far enough and…
“Do you want to try shooting me now? You should know what’s in the capsule,” Zero told to Shipman calmly, sounding perfectly in control of the situation. Shipman stared at him then turned to the other as if asking for help but no one could offer him advice so he unwillingly asked to Zero which was what he wanted. It was rather obvious really. Zero wanted to exchange the capsule with the boy. However… Shipman couldn’t let free a man who’d been accused of trying to kill a royalty either and he said so.
“You’re wrong, that guy isn’t the culprit,” Zero began to say in a calm tone and somehow this seemed to scare Euphemia-sama even more as she began to shake her head, covering her mouth with one hand while the other stretched toward the masked guy. ‘No, no, no, no,’ he heard her whisper but he had no time to guess to what she was referring as Zero continued talking. “The one who shoot Clovis…” he went on and turned toward them… no, toward a camera actually, Jeremiah noted, apparently the TV producer had left the van and now was filming Zero by himself and Zero had noticed and was looking straight at him and this seemed some sort of grotesque, horrible show… “… it’s me!” Zero finished after a theatrical pause and Euphemia-sama tried to scream ‘no!’ as Zero said so but Jeremiah managed to suppress the girl’s scream in his hand and the noise generate by the crowd commenting that revelation covered what little of her voice escaped him perfectly. He stared at her in confusion as the girl resumed crying and shaking her head, thinking that evidently the stress of having been in Shinjuku, having her brother shoot, her innocent friend arrested and now having the culprit in front of her was too much for her to cope. “For the life of one Eleven, you can save many Britannian lives. I don’t think that’s a bad deal,” Zero continued and, well, at this point, technically it wasn’t… but it wasn’t something a Britannian officer can accept anyway and Shipman was of that opinion as well. The Knightmares charged their weapons at Zero and Jeremiah mentally prayed this won’t trigger him to release the poisoned gas. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Zero challenged him. “I’ll announce it… Egg.”
‘Egg? What is that supposed to mean? Is it some secret code?’ Jeremiah wondered and, like him, everyone around him. In that same moment, taking advantage of the confusion, the vehicle on which Zero was began to move forward again.
“I’ve set things up so that, if I’ll die, it will be in the public spotlight,” Zero went on and Euphemia-sama clung to Jeremiah, as if to beg him to do something but unable to find the words, merely shaking her head. “If you don’t want that to happen…” Zero continued before making another dramatic pause. “… let us go with all your strength! Do the same for that man over there!” he stated and, in that moment, happened the unbelievable.
Shipman, between the surprise of all his men, agreed to do just so, ordering to the soldiers to give Kururugi-Ittouhei to Zero. Well, not each of them was surprised apparently. One of the soldiers next to Kururugi-Ittouhei simply bent to untie him and then forced him to stand, beginning to lead him out of the vehicle. The other soldier seemed to complain but, all of sudden, he wasn’t in sight anymore, as if he’d fallen on the ground. As Shipman was busy arguing with Kewell, Villetta and the other pilot, the soldier escorted Kururugi-Ittouhei to Zero, who’d also dismounted from the vehicle he was over and walked toward him with his red haired female driver and it was in that moment Jeremiah realized it. That soldier too was Zero’s accomplice. However he didn’t manage to do something about his discovery as Zero pressed the button of a mechanism he was holding in his hand, causing the poisoned gas to begin coming out of the capsule. Jeremiah immediately grabbed Euphemia-sama’s hand tightly and tried to run away with her before it would be too late. The crowd soon imitated them. Jeremiah heard the people screaming and the sound of Knightmares fighting among them as he dragged Euphemia-sama away, wishing the girl would stop turning behind and concentrate on running away, but didn’t really stop to check how things were going for Shipman and his men, merely ordering his own to retreat as fast as they could, thanking any God he knew that the poisoned gas hadn’t killed them already and thinking that, actually, for having been such a dangerous poisoned gas… well, it wasn’t so effective. Actually… he had the nagging suspicion it wasn’t poised gas at all… His thoughts were interrupted by an explosion. He knew that type of explosion, it was clearly the explosion of a Knightmare but… but there was nothing he could do. Euphemia-sama’s safety would always come first in his book. And so he kept running.
Not much later Kururugi Suzaku was walking through the city. He was untied and alone even if he still wore the prisoner’s uniform. That guy, Zero, had managed to carry him away, in the ghetto, in what once should have been a theatre. He had asked him to become his ally against Britannia.
But Suzaku had refused.
He couldn’t side with someone who had tried to commit a murder and had used such low tricks to free him. Suzaku wanted to change Britannia from the inside and had told him so, then he had turned down his offering and had decided to go to the trial anyway, even if Zero, as Lloyd-san and Jeremiah-kei before him, warned him the whole thing was triggered so as to judge him guilty. But Suzaku wanted to respect the rules at any cost, wanted to prove that Elevens and Meiyo Britanniajin weren’t the type who would hide in fear but face any accusation moved against them openly.
It was almost touching how Zero tried to stop him, how he told him he was being an idiot, that he would die if he were to do it. He reminded him of Lelouch, really, but Suzaku had taken his decision and didn’t mind to die if he could live by his rules. So he thanked Zero for saving him and told him he’ll manage to arrest him for attempting to murder Clovis-denka the next time they would meet then left.
“You realize if you continue on this way you’ll end straight in front of the courthouse, don’t you?” a voice asked him all of sudden, startling him. He turned and saw Jeremiah-kei walking right toward him, a frown on his face.
“Yes. I want to take part to the trial,” he replied. “Please, arrest me and take me there or I won’t be in time.”
“You know, I don’t know if to admire you or to commit you to a mental institute,” the other replied studying him carefully. “You should value more your life or you’ll end up solely causing the ones who care about you to cry,” he stated then motioned behind himself. Suzaku followed his gaze and his eyes widened.
“Euphy?” he murmured. The next second she had thrown herself in his arms, hugging him as tightly as she could and he was doing the same. “Euphy, you’re alive, you’re well, I’m so glad you’re alive…” he kept repeating as she cried on his shoulder and repeated his name over and over ‘Suzaku, Suzaku, I don’t want them to kill you, Suzaku, Suzaku, I don’t want you to die…’ “Euphy… Everything will go well, Euphy. I’m sure justice will prevail and…” Jeremiah-kei smacked his head hard, interrupting him.
“You’d better hope you’ll get out of that trial alive, or I’ll strangle you myself for causing so much pain to Euphemia-sama, Nunnally-sama, Lelouch-sama and Rolo-sama,” he warned.
“Suzaku…” Euphy began, and her eyes, still filled with tears, were staring at him pleadingly but then she forced a smile. “I’ll trust you, Suzaku,” she said. “So please, come back alive…” she begged and he embraced her again.
“I will,” he promised. “I will…”
“Kururugi is an idiot,” Rolo muttered. His brother didn’t reply, just kept walking, head down. It hurt to see him like that. “Kururugi is giant idiot,” Rolo corrected himself in a louder tone. Niisan had done all that to save him, had even confessed committing something he hadn’t done and Kururugi… “Kururugi’s the biggest idiot in world history!” he stated, feeling frustrated. He felt his brother’s hand resting on his head, ruffling his hair.
“Thank you for helping me in that, Rolo,” Niisan simply said with a sad smile and this didn’t make things better at all because Niisan was sad and… and…
“You should have used your Geass on him,” he muttered grumpily, not knowing how to help.
“Suzaku will understand. In time he’ll understand and will join us on his own,” his brother stated but, for once, Rolo believed firmly he was wrong. Kururugi Suzaku was a stubborn idiot who believed to know what was better and how people should act and would realize he was wrong only if he had truth slammed in his face. Repeatedly. And hard. But he kept his opinion for himself. At the moment his brother looked depressed enough.
“So why those gloomy faces?” Euphemia-Neesan’s cheerful voice greeted them as they were about to enter in Ashford Gakuen.
“Euphy? What…” Niisan began to say as they stared at her. She was smiling but her eyes were red and puffy and her smile looked as sad as Niisan. Then, without saying a word, she ran to them and embraced them both. “Euphy? What are you doing out here? Is everything all right?”
“I love you two so much, do you know that? So much… I won’t know what to do if something were to happen to you…” she murmured and they stared at her in surprise. She hadn’t been there, had she? She hadn’t understood what they had done, had she? Then Rolo felt Niisan embracing him and Euphemia-Neesan as well.
“That’s the same for me, you know that, don’t you,” he murmured burying his face in her hair tiredly, like a child in search of protection. Clumsily Rolo embraced the two as well, making some sound of agreement. It was odd to embrace the both of them. He knew Euphemia-Neesan was kind with him but he’d always thought only Niisan cared for him and now… now he wondered if it was possible she too… but he didn’t want to delude himself. She was a kind person and she probably was including him merely out of kindness. Nothing more. Thought it would be nice… because being like that, hugged by both his siblings felt so good he… he…
For a while they remained like that, embracing each other in silence, then… they simply parted and began to walk toward home. As they came close to it Nunnally, who’d probably been expecting them and had seen them through the window, ran out of the door and reached them, hugging them all one after the other, laughing and crying at the same time as she was saying that people weren’t suspecting anymore of Kururugi and that, if everything were to go well, he might be acquitted. Rolo wondered if there was a reason to make such a fuss about that idiot being released. He would never understand the interest his siblings had for that guy.
“Oh, I was almost forgetting,” Nunnally exclaimed all of sudden which wasn’t nothing new, Rolo thought, since she forgot things all the times. “A friend of yours came to visit you, Oniisama,” she announced and then she turned to look behind her. They followed her gaze and they all stared as they saw, right in front of the door of their home, the same green haired girl that had given Lelouch the Geass and that was now welcoming them back.
JJ’s usual ramblings, notes and what else
So, hum, the bit about Ashford being taken as prisoner by the Japanese during the war had been made up for this fic. In the canon version Ashford Gakuen was likely built after the war and not before. I’ve also given to Darlton the grade of colonel and assumed he became a general after that war. It’s canon instead that both Jeremiah and Darlton took part to it (even if I’ve no idea if Jeremiah was under Darlton’s command or in which regiment he was).
Of course there were no ghosts at Ashford Gakuen. In this fic the rumour had spread thanks to Lelouch’s handmade traps…
And yes, the siblings knew Jeremiah had been one of Aries guards even if, at the time, they didn’t really know him well. Had they been older they would have forgotten him entirely.
For who’s wondering, at the end of the flashback Jeremiah had managed to activate one of Lelouch’s handmade traps that hadn’t been dismantled by the earthquake and got a nasty blow on the head.
According to some tales Clovis’ mother is named Gabrielle and disliked Lelouch and Nunnally on the basis they were the children of a woman who was a commoner and a warrior.
According to the Picture Book 4.33 Jeremiah has a younger sister named Lilycia.
Sophie Wood is Shirley’s roommate and, according to Sound Episode 12.55 she’s interested in Yaoi. I found her surname in ‘Code Geass Perfect Stage Fan Book’.
Andrey Shipman was one of the soldiers mentioned in the dead list for the battle of Narita shown in ep. 12. He was listed before Jeremiah.
Dictionary (for who’s unfamiliar with the ‘Code Geass’ universe)
-kei: Lord
Aniue: "Brother" or "Older Boy"
Devicer: How a Knightmare pilot is called.
Eihei: Palace guard
Hakushaku: Count
Henkyouhaku: Margrave
Issa: Colonel
Ittouhei: Private
Jisama: "Uncle" or "Older Man"
Jisan: "Uncle" or "Older Man"
Kakka: Excellency
Knights of Rounds: A unit of twelve elite soldiers under direct command of the Emperor. They operate outside the standard Britannian military and are given special privileges and authority.
Ojisama: "Uncle" or "Older Man"
Royal Panzer Infantry (RPI): The official designation for common Knightmare Frame infantry within the Britannian Army.
Saishou: Prime minister
Shogun: General
Souridaijin: Prime minister
Teiritsu Colchester Gakuen: Imperial Colchester Academy
Zettai Teishi no Kekkai: Seal of Absolute Suspension
For more info:
http://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/
Don't grumble silently, please let me know what you're thinking of this!
Send me your comments!
Author: J.J.
Warning: It's unbetaed. It's an AU. It contains SPOILERS for the whole "Code Geass" and some Japanese words (the Dictionary is at the bottom), Chess and Death’s references, plus everything you might find in an ordinary episode of "Code Geass".
Notes: This had been building up in my mind from the moment I set my eyes on "Code Geass" and so, now that the series is ended, I thought to type it down.
Disclaimer:
"Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch" belongs to Sunrise. I'm merely using its characters and setting because I love them...
Ehy, Do I own something here? Oh yes, I own the plot and a sensible heart which would surely break if you give me harsh reviews... so please be honest but nice ok?
Summary: Can some different moves change the result of the game?
‘Whoever fights monsters should see to it in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.’ (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Tokyo Tower had once been the tallest artificial structure in Japan but then, during the war, part of it had been blown down and what remained of the structure had been turned into some sort of museum about Japan’s defeat and its occupation. Since the museum held nothing truly precious the surveillance was pretty lose and cameras were so few it was easy not being picked up by them. In addition to this visitors were always present, even if the place was never crowded.
Lelouch was pleased to notice Kallen had come there for their meeting and had come also a bit earlier than what he had requested her. Rolo instead had frowned and, as soon as Kallen had stepped away from them and into another room without seeing them, had pointed out that the girl hadn’t come alone. Three Japanese guys were following her, looking after her like silent protectors and Rolo was sure they couldn’t be Britannian spies who were investigating on her. They just weren’t careful enough and seemed too nervous and worried for her safety.
“It’s not unexpected,” he replied. “Probably they’re just other terrorists. Maybe among them there’s that Ougi-san she mentioned when I used my Geass on her.”
“You told her to come alone. She didn’t respect the pact,” Rolo pointed out. “She’s not trustworthy.”
“Respecting it would be a luxury a terrorist couldn’t afford. Don’t worry, as I said this isn’t unexpected,” he stated giving a look at his watch. It was almost time. Good. “Time to drop this phone we ‘found’ at the service counter, Rolo” he announced in a quiet whisper. Rolo frowned but followed him in silence.
As soon as they had done (and Lelouch, using his Geass, had made sure the girl at the counter wouldn’t be able to describe or recognize them as the ones that gave her it) they left the place. Lelouch waited an appropriate time before dialling the number of the phone they left at the counter, a phone who had Kallen’s name and school written on it and, in its memory, a single phone number labelled under the name of ‘Zero’ using his phone’s other line, the one that used the phone number that matched with the one he recorded on her phone. He had to use his Geass quite a bit to make impossible to connect that second phone line to him but he wasn’t the type to run unnecessary risks. He had three siblings to protect after all.
His conversation with Kallen was simple. He just told instructed her about which train line to reach and which train to take and to freely carry along her ‘friends’ then, as he heard her surprised gasp, he cut down the communication. Silly girl, he thought. Had she really thought he wouldn’t think she would bring back up? Had she really thought he would miss how those three Japanese boys kept following her and looking at her everywhere she went but neither making a move to her or acting as if they were expecting the chance to pull her in a secluded corner and have their way with her?
“You know, sometimes I wonder how terrorism manages to survive,” he admitted with a sigh. “They’re so naïve and incompetent… though I admit they’re probably very determinate. Maybe they simply weren’t made up for this life… and if they’d been a choice they would have done something different… like being teachers or something…” he murmured with a melancholic smile. If the world were different… if the chain of hate had never existed…
“Don’t get too attached to them, Niisan,” Rolo warned him. “You’re a Britannian and they’re Elevens. They won’t care for you and they won’t hesitate to sell you to the best offering. You must not trust them.” Lelouch ruffled his hair finding cute how his little brother worried for him.
“I know. I’ll be careful, don’t worry,” he assured smiling down at him before wrapping his arm around Rolo’s shoulders and pulling him close. “You’ll have to be careful as well. I wish you wouldn’t get involved in this…”
“Where you go I follow. It’s as simple as that,” Rolo assured leaning against him. “You’ve just to tell me what to do and it’ll be done.”
Jeremiah’s chat with the Junketsu-ha hadn’t really improved things. They plainly had refused to let Lloyd Asplund or any of his assistants testify for Kururugi-Ittouhei. Fine, so he too wouldn’t trust Lloyd but they were just setting up the boy and he told them so quite fervently, declaring that, in this way, they were letting the real culprit free to go. Kewell had retorted saying he was taking too at heart the life of an Eleven, accusing him to lack in loyalty to the empire and Jeremiah, completely furious at that point, had retorted he believed they were hiding the truth because they likely were accomplices of the one who shot. Shipman had felt insulted, declaring he wouldn’t put Jeremiah under arrest merely because that wasn’t the moment to argue between Britannians but, more likely, because, even if he was filling in as Soutoku’s substitute, he simply didn’t have the gut to do it in fear of repercussions. Anyway Shipman’s words were mostly ignored as Jeremiah and Kewell had been about to start a fight and had stopped solely because someone (a blond guy from television that had been hanging around at many important social events and whose name Jeremiah couldn’t remember) had knocked at the door. Jeremiah and Kewell had composed themselves and Jeremiah had left even if they both knew it wouldn’t end there.
Later that same guy from the television had tracked down Jeremiah and had offered him a drink.
Jeremiah noted the man was appropriately obsequious without falling in the bootlicker category and, even if he was very good at dealing with people, it was impossible not to think he’d been seeking out Jeremiah merely because he had sniffed a scoop. He introduced himself as Diethard Ried, a Britannian TV producer who’d just received the job to show to the masses Kururugi Suzaku-Ittouhei’s travel toward the courthouse.
Jeremiah considered the pro and the con of telling him something. Media manipulation was a powerful weapon but one over which he had no much control. He wanted to save Kururugi-Ittouhei, not to cause troubles to Britannia. If the masses were to know a bunch of idiots were setting Kururugi-Ittouhei up merely to get promoted and to destroy the Meiyo Britanniajin system… who knew which would be the Elevens’ reaction? They might try to cause even more troubles than they were as of now…
“Kakka, I only aim to disclose the truth… there are rumours that Kururugi Suzaku was behind the poison gas terroristic attack as well and…” the man began to say but Jeremiah interrupted him.
“Rumours mean nothing. Have you proofs?” he asked irritably.
“There are no secure proofs, that’s why I’m turning to you for help, Jeremiah-Kakka. I’ve heard you too were in Shinjuku and…” the man insisted. Stubborn fellow. But maybe they could help each other…
“You wouldn’t come questioning me unless you were having suspicions those rumours were false, would you?” he asked and the man smirked before modestly saying he ‘only aimed to find out the truth and present it in the best way to the masses’.
“Truth…” Jeremiah echoed. Truth had needed to keep hidden so many times, he admitted to himself thinking at his master’s current condition. “Oh well… if you want the truth why don’t you search for someone who can testify where Kururugi-Ittouhei was when His Highness was shoot?” he asked. The blonde producer looked doubtful as he shook his head.
“There are many who can testify he was…” he began.
“Then find someone who can testify he wasn’t,” Jeremiah cut him. “Someone of high social status and maybe with people under him. Someone like… a Hakushaku, perhaps?” he offered with a slight smirk before finishing his drink in a single gulp.
“Does such a person exist?” the journalist asked in an unbelieving tone but Jeremiah could already see the man trying to think up at the possibilities.
“Who knows?” he commented, standing. “I’m merely suggesting what you need to find, nothing more…” he explained. Lelouch-sama would probably have handled the thing better but Jeremiah was nowhere close to his master’s level and so this was the best he could do. He could only hope it would suffice and not turn into a huge mistake…
Rolo, hand in his pocket, fingers sliding on his locket, was watching out of the window of the nearly completely filled second car as the train they were in was continuing his ride across the border of the settlement. The Britannian side of the Tokyo settlement was no different from any other Britannian settlement but the option was to look at the other window and watch the ruined buildings of Ghetto passing by and so he contented himself with the view. Around him there were solely people under his brother’s Geass, people who wouldn’t move until they had finished with their business there and that wouldn’t pay attention to the odd clothes his brother was wearing. Rolo, who wasn’t wearing anymore his student’s uniform but casual clothes and a cap, was pretending to be the same as them so as not to be noticed when the terrorists would reach his brother. His eyes moved on him, standing alone in the first car, and saw him ending another phone call he was having with ‘Q-1’ and smiling at him before wearing that odd tulip shaped helmet that completely hid his face from vision. The game was about to start, Rolo thought as he mentally prepared himself for any eventuality.
Q-1 arrived short later, followed by other three Eleven boys and, with them, she entered in the first car, pausing next to the entrance. His brother, on the opposite side, was giving his back to them. Rolo could hear them talking to his brother thanks to a transmitter he’d placed in the first car. They wanted to know if he’d been the one who called them, if he’d been the one behind the cease fire order in Shinjuku. His brother turned toward them as the train entered in a tunnel causing the light to be dimmed.
The rebels didn’t seem appropriately impressed, murmuring among them he was a ridicule guy (and Rolo had to privately admit that his brother’s clothes were misleading in that sense) but Niisan went on as nothing was wrong. He gestured theatrically as he told them he had them to have that ‘tour’ because he wanted to have the appropriate mindset.
One of the Japanese boys moved forward agreeing there was a hopeless gap between themselves and Britannian saying that was why the resistance existed. His voice and manner of speaking were suspiciously similar to P-1. Probably he was P-1, the leader of that pitiful terrorist group they had helped out in Shinjuku. If their leader had come out in the open to meet his brother, it was either Nisan had picked up their interest or that they were really desperate.
Anyway Niisan interrupted him, informing him that terrorism would never win against Britannia, that it was just childish harassment to it. Their real enemy weren’t the Britannians but Britannia itself and that, if they wanted to fight, then it would be war and not terrorism, a war in which innocent civilians shouldn’t be involved and they would have to administer justice.
As the other stared in surprised silence Q-1 complained heatedly it was easier said than done and that they couldn’t believe him since he wasn’t showing them his face. This pushed the other to react and agree with them. Rolo tensed, worried they would try to do something, and readied himself to act if necessary. His brother instead remained unimpressed and agreed to show them something… however, he said, they wouldn’t see his face but his power. He asked them if they would believe him should he make the impossible possible. However, even if he put it as a question it was clearly a statement. Rolo rested his forehead on the window and, for just a moment, he stopped paying attention to the discussion, lost in his own thoughts. Even if he’d seen many times his brother turning the impossible, possible he still wished he wouldn’t talk about doing it as if it was a really easy thing but, by now, their time was up. Light filled the car as the train left the gallery, his run slowing down as it came closer to its next stop. It was time to leave.
Rolo took a deep breath then the Geass’ red symbol showed up in his right eye as his power activated and expanded around him like a round red bubble, that caused everyone caught in it to stop moving. The bubble enveloped the terrorists but didn’t touch his brother who removed his mask and his cape and calmly left the train. Rolo did so as well, dissolving his power only when the doors were closed and the train was about to move again. The terrorists wouldn’t realize what had happened. To them it would be as if his brother had, all of sudden, magically disappeared from their sight since their perception of time had been stopped by his Geass.
Zettai Teishi no Kekkai.
‘Seal of Absolute Suspension’.
That was how his power was named. Whoever entered in his range would have his sense of time stopped and therefore be frozen on the spot, unaware of what was going inside him.
He closed his eyes, hand closing around the locket in his pocket, but he could still see clearly with the eyes of his mind himself, a homeless, starved, dirty and wounded orphan of nearly six in rag clothes, trapped in some sort of facility by some weird dressed guys, being given that power by another blond, long haired child in noble clothes. That child’s offer hadn’t been that different from the one his brother got…
‘You don’t want to die here, do you? I’ll help you, I’ll give you the power and the means to live on but, in return, you’ll be my servant. This is a contract. In return for power I want you to forever serve me doing everything I’ll ask of you…’
… and he had accepted it. Well, no, not really, he hadn’t had the chance to say yes or no, he’d just been given that power and then left with the option to obey to that child’s orders or face the consequences his disobedience would bring. He had been obedient. He’d been obedient until…
“Rolo? Is everything all right?” Niisan concerned voice asked him, cutting through his memories, his brother’s arm wrapped around his shoulders.
Niisan.
_Niisan_…
‘Don’t worry; you won’t have to do that anymore. You’re my little brother and I’ll take care of you…’
“I’m all right. My thoughts just… got sidetracked,” he assured as he smiled at him.
“I’ve told you it wasn’t necessary for you to do this,” his brother told him, worry and frustration mixing in his voice. “My power would do just fine. Or I could have come up with some other thing. You shouldn’t overuse your Geass; actually I would prefer you won’t use it at all and…”
“Niisan, I’m fine. Really,” he assured even if he was enjoying being fussed over. “If I use it inside the time limit it’s not dangerous and, as your Knight, I’m supposed to be the one who keeps you safe…”
“As my brother you’re supposed to keep yourself safe,” his brother countered, frowning.
“You keep me safe, Niisan, so there’s nothing for me to do in that department. Don’t worry about that. You keep me perfectly safe,” he replied, still smiling at him, resting his hand on the top of the one his brother was keeping on his shoulder. The other boy looked at him sceptically and seemed about to discuss some more when Rolo spoke again. “Shouldn’t you change? Even without mask and cape I still think your clothes are a bit too eye-catching…” he suggested and his brother smiled down at him, holding him even closer.
“Fine, fine, but you’ve no fashion sense, Rolo,” he complained. Rolo just continued smiling and mentally hoped things would never change among them.
Suzaku was sitting on the floor of his cell, while his prisoner’s clothes (which looked as the one of the green haired girl he’d seen in Shinjuku) were keeping his arms tied behind his back and his legs bound together. The wounds he got from when the soldiers had beaten him up hurt and the fact he’d been in that position for way too long didn’t make his situation any better but he didn’t mind. He had much more important things to worry about like was Euphy still alive? Lelouch? Rolo? The green haired girl they found and tried to help? He still didn’t know…
He sighed tiredly and felt like he’d been forgotten in that dark and small prison. He was innocent, he hadn’t lifted a finger against Clovis-denka but he was guilty of other things so, after all, that was a fitting place for someone like him, a place in which he should have ended long ago, he admitted to himself with another resigned sigh. Even when the court would be forced to release him because he was innocent, this wouldn’t change the fact he deserved to be stuck into a jail for the rest of his life and… and even if he’d only done what had to be done he… he…
“Congratulations!” a cheerful voice exclaimed, startling him and he raised his head to see that Lloyd-san was right in front of his cell, smiling at him with his usual grin, with another man Suzaku had never seen before and that was studying him, frowning slightly. “The people you asked about weren’t on the list of casualties!” Lloyd-san clarified in the meantime and Suzaku breathed in relief. Thanks God at least his friends were alive. Meanwhile Lloyd-san took a stool and sat on it, evidently planning to stop there to chat with him. The other man remained standing. He looked like some Britannian noble, was wearing a blue uniform and a dark cape with the Britannian symbol was hanging on his left shoulder.
“But you are truly in an unfavourable position. Even when you go to the trial no one will be on your side. They even refused to let me or my underlings to testify for you…” Lloyd-san went on, his usually cheerful voice sounding a little more serious.
“But… but courtroom is a place where truth is revealed…” he countered, looking from Lloyd-san to the unknown man in confusion. The man next to Lloyd-san shook his head in silence, as if he was thinking Suzaku was really naïve.
“I think that ‘truth’ is something covered up most of the time,” Lloyd-san replied.
“If that’s really how the world works, I don’t want anything to do with it!” he stated, feeling disgust at that idea. Covering up truth? Wasn’t that lying? Where was justice in that? Courtroom, trials, weren’t supposed to bring justice?
“I appreciate your honesty and sense of justice but… aren’t your words childish and egoist?” the man next to Lloyd-san said, speaking for the first time. “Life is a cruel and unfair mistress and men are forced to compromise most of the time to protect the ones they care for. Even those coward idiots who’re trying to use you as scapegoat are persuaded they’re doing so in order to protect someone. In your disregard of lies aren’t you stepping over the people who’re forced to sacrifice the truth in order to allow their beloved ones to live? Aren’t you giving up your life when there are people who deem it precious and want to protect it?”
“Goals reached with the wrong means are meaningless!” Suzaku protested heatedly. “How could I accept such way of acting?”
“If I were asked to choose between saving my master’s life with the wrong means or acting according to rules and letting him die I would gladly sacrifice my pride, my honour and my life in the remote hope it would help him to survive,” the man countered calmly. “But maybe this is something an Eleven like yourself wouldn’t understand,” he added as if he was trying to anger Suzaku, to get a reaction out of him.
“Oh, that would be an impressive feat, Jeremiah-kei! I had no idea there was something you valued more of your honour!” Lloyd-san exclaimed, clapping his hands and stopping Suzaku from having to rise to the bait.
“Idiot! Of course my loyalty to my master takes precedence to everything!” the other snapped immediately, losing his composure and looking ready to strangle Lloyd-san, who raised his hands in front of himself protectively.
“Sure, sure, but weren’t you here to try to help Suzaku-kun instead than to just criticize him and his ideals?”
“You…” the man, Lloyd-san had called him Jeremiah-kei, began clenching his fists then, with an evident effort and a snort, turned his gaze away from Lloyd-san and on Suzaku back again. Suzaku tried to guess why that man wanted to help him but he was a total stranger to the boy and he didn’t even seem to like Japanese that much so… why? “Kururugi-Ittouhei, the crime of shooting a royalty is an unforgivable one and, if you’re being used as a scapegoat to cover up the real criminal or merely to let the Junketsu-ha take advantage of this, be sure I’ll use any mean to have the trial declare you innocent, no matter if you’ll like it or not. That’s the loyalty of Jeremiah Gottwald, keep it well in mind!” Then, said so, the man, Jeremiah Gottwald-kei, marched away. Suzaku blinked then turned to Lloyd-san.
“Weird guy, isn’t he? But he’s very determined in trying to help you. So, Suzaku-kun, don’t give up on hope, okay?” the man asked him before standing and taking his leave, leaving Suzaku alone with his dark thoughts, populated by the ghosts of his past and his lack of hope for the future.
Jeremiah was marching swiftly out of the prison, irritated with the boy beyond belief. His master was forced to hide the truth, to hide his name and the fact he and his siblings were alive, and Jeremiah was forced to do the same, all in hope no one would harm Lelouch-sama, Euphemia-sama, Nunnally-sama and Rolo-sama and that boy dared to say with the wrong means they would accomplish nothing? Then what would he expect them to do? To let the same guild of assassins who murdered Marianne-Kouhi discover that the boys were still alive and hope this time Koutei-Heika would care enough to protect them? What?
“Jeremiah-kei, you shouldn’t take Suzaku-kun’s words so at heart. He’s young, you know,” Lloyd pointed out all of sudden, startling him. Jeremiah scowled. He had been so angry hadn’t noticed the man had followed him.
“He’s an idiot,” he stated, irritably. “The perfect device for someone like you. Be sure I’ll get him out of that trial alive, should I barge in with my Southerland and threaten the court with it in order to get _you_ to testify.”
“Hum… I don’t think the trial would hold validity if you’ll do something like that…” the other replied.
“Then what _you_ suggest to do?!” Jeremiah snapped. “You claim to be so smart but, so far, you hadn’t accomplished anything.”
“Oh, but I’ve no authority over those half political, half military matters, you know…” Lloyd reminded him with one of his stupid grins. “But you’ve really changed a lot from the time we were studying together at Teiritsu Colchester Gakuen.”
“I thought you said you didn’t remember that time,” Jeremiah muttered through gritted teeth, reminding the previous discussion he had with the man. “That your policy was not to look back on the past.”
“Oh, I guess my memory finally kicked in,” the other replied airily. “Back then you were intolerant, self centred, obnoxious, boring and very racist, not mentioning pompous, full of yourself and really prone to get mad,” he went on as if really, he could see nothing wrong in his words. Jeremiah in the meantime closed his eyes and really considered if he wouldn’t do a great service to the empire murdering him on spot.
“Lloyd…” he hissed.
“… And now look at yourself, ready to violate rules just to save an Eleven! Isn’t this the most amazing change?” the man asked. “I wonder what could have caused it!” he added with a perfectly innocent grin.
“I’ve started playing chess against a very talented person,” Jeremiah muttered, sounding rather irritated. “And if you’ve to know I truly hope that, as soon as that brat will be free he’ll ride again your toy and blew it up, possibly involving you in the explosion,” Jeremiah stated, which wasn’t quite true since he knew that would displease his master and his mistresses also (probably the only one who wouldn’t care would be Rolo-sama) but…
“So mean, Jeremiah-kei…” Lloyd commented, not looking hurt at all. “But congratulations! Here there’s a present from Cecile for you as her personal thank you,” he said handing him a disk.
“What’s that, something that might explode?” he asked without daring to touch it.
“Didn’t you mention to her you’ve a nephew who likes Knightmares? That’s the first video of my beloved Lancelot in its first action! He’ll love it!” Lloyd explained with a grin.
“Isn’t this supposed to be under military secret? I don’t want something that’ll put the boy in troubles…” Jeremiah asked warily. Sure, Rolo-sama would love to get it but…
“Oh, no, don’t worry, it really doesn’t show anything that can constitute a secret…” the man assured waving the disk carelessly. Jeremiah ripped it from his hold.
“Then thanks her for me but be sure if it’ll cause damage I…”
“Scary, scary! It’ll be harmless, I swear it!” the man exclaimed placing his hands in front of himself as if to shield himself. Jeremiah snorted. “But I also really hope Suzaku-kun will be freed soon. It’s a big loss for us to lose a perfect Devicer like Suzaku-kun, his operation efficiency was 94%, you know?”
“I don’t see why you don’t ask Schneizel-denka for another one, or is that everyone who has an ounce of brain would stay clear by your toys?” Jeremiah retorted. “Really, I don’t see why His Highness throws away the Empire’s money financing all your projects… but as of late His Highness had seemed to sponsor every military project that catches his fancy… makes me wonder what he’s up to…”
“Yes, Schneizel-denka is a great patron!” Lloyd agreed enthusiastically then his expression became slightly sharper. “Or are you implying he’s preparing to move war against the Chuka Renpo maybe? Do you think that’s why he’s doing so much to improve our army?”
“Don’t be absurd. Schneizel-Denka had never made a secret of the fact he prefers to use diplomacy instead than brute strength. If he’s trying to equip us better it might be because he thinks it’ll be the Chuka Renpo that’ll move against us,” Jeremiah replied even if there was also another possibility, one he had discussed with Lelouch-sama, going in his mind.
A coup d’état.
It seemed impossible to think the apparently calm and gentle second Ouji would do something like that and yet…
‘Schneizel-Aniue has always been kind to us… but he was a strategist first and a gentle man after. He talks about people’s sufferance… but he had never experienced it. You don’t become Saishou just being kind… his kindness is just a psychological weapon he learned to use very well… and back then he already had power enough to orchestrate an assassination… He’s second in line of succession. So close and yet not close enough and much smarter than Odysseus-Aniue… I wouldn’t be surprised if he would decide that it would be more productive for the empire if _he_ were to take my father’s place instead than Odysseus-Aniue… and if he were to do it now…’
… yet it was a possibility. The imperial household was at war with itself. It had been proved with the murder of Marianne-Kouhi and the attempted murder of her children and…
“War is the mother of creation, you know,” Lloyd commented in the meantime, still grinning even if it seemed a darker grin somehow. “If there’s a war ahead of us I’m sure the progress science will make will be among the deciding winning factors… After all Japan mainly lost the war merely because they hadn’t Knightmares…” Jeremiah snorted.
“Science’s just a tool. Even your pretty toy is useless without Kururugi-Ittouhei, and also that Tohdoh guy managed to strike a victory against us without Knightmares. It’s people who’ll make the difference. Commanders, pilots, soldiers, their loyalty, their intelligence, their discipline, their will… it’ll be humans who’ll make the difference, be sure of this. And I’m sure… there are ones who can even make the world itself bend at their will… and if I’m lucky… I’ll be with one of them when this will happen…”
It was late in the evening and Nunnally was with the other in the Seitokai’s room, watching the news, watching them as they reported the transportation of Suzaku-kun to the courthouse. None of her siblings was with her; it was just her and the other Seitokai’s members minus Kallen-san who, by that time, had already returned to her home. Oniisama and Rolo-Niisama had been missing by the moment school lessons had ended and not even Rivalz-san had an idea about where they could possibly be. Probably trying to gather up proofs about Suzaku-kun’s innocence, she guessed. Euphemia-Oneesama had remained home for almost all afternoon but she had paced in the house nervously like a caged tiger and, in the end, as evening had come closer, she had declared she had to go for a walk or she would grow insane and hadn’t been back yet. Oniisama won’t like she was out alone at that hour but Oniisama wasn’t there and so… so… she stared at the screen trying to catch a glimpse of Suzaku-kun, disappointed that the screen so far was merely showing the street on which he would have to pass, a street around which a crowd was waiting, waiting for him to show, waiting in order to insult him, feeling desperation and helplessness grow inside her. This was so unfair… why was Suzaku-kun being… why?
Unknown to her Jeremiah was on the same street as well, close to the television vehicle. Some of the men under him were there as well. The Junketsu-Ha was escorting Kururugi-Ittouhei with some of its Knightmares just in case some terrorist would try to come and free the boy but Jeremiah doubted they would lift a finger should the people collected there become a bloodthirsty mob.
Actually, considering the latest report on Clovis-denka’s health said His Highness was recovering well, they might aim to get rid of Kururugi-Ittouhei before Clovis-denka will have the chance to deny the boy’s involvement in his attempted murder.
So Jeremiah and some of his most trusted officers had come there in disguise, so as to make sure this won’t happen.
‘Goals reached with the wrong means are meaningless!’
He snorted as he thought back at those words. They were brave and noble words but… but whoever had been behind Marianne-Kouhi’s death was enjoying his accomplishment by too many years by now. Even if he privately admired the boy and felt inferior to him… his idealism was a luxury he wasn’t allowed to have anymore.
He turned his attention on his surroundings and it was in that moment he noticed it, or better, it was in that moment he noticed ‘her’…
“Euphemia-sama…” he whispered under his breath before running to reach the girl, who was nervously wandering through the people, trying to manage to get a glimpse to the street and failing. The crowd wasn’t bulging and she couldn’t get past it. Uncaring of protocol Jeremiah wrapped his arms around her and dragged her away from it. She was startled at first then, recognizing him, she complained and begged him desperately to let her go. “Euphemia-sama, there’s the television here! Don’t you realize you could be filmed and someone might recognize you?” he whispered to her, holding her close and pulling her behind the television van.
“But that’s why I disguised myself!” she protested evidently thinking that casual clothes, sunglasses (worn in the evening, no less!) and a cap would suffice. “Jeremiah-Jisama, please, I have to see Suzaku, I have to rescue him, to… to…” She gripped his uniform, eyes filled with tears. “Oh, it’s all my fault, if I hadn’t…” She paused in mid sentence as the Junketsu-Ha’s Knightmares and the vehicle transporting the boy appeared. “Suzaku!” she called trying to reach him. Jeremiah didn’t let her go even if the sign of the girl almost mad with grief was hard to bear. He was forced to silence her so that she wouldn’t draw further attention on herself and felt her tears dripping on his hand. He could feel her trembling, sobbing, and held her close attempting to soothe her as he had done when she was a child and she’d been scared to death because Lelouch-sama’s fever was too high and they couldn’t even take him to a doctor in fear they would discover who he was.
He saw Knightmares and vehicle coming even closer and recognized Andrey Shipman on the leading Knightmare. Behind him there were Kewell and another pilot whom he didn’t know. The last Knightmare’s pilot was inside the cockpit, apparently unwilling to parade as the other three were doing. He wondered if it was Villetta. Kururugi Suzaku-Ittouhei, guarded by two soldiers, was in the vehicle in between the four Knightmares. He was staring at the floor and Jeremiah hoped the bruises covering his face wouldn’t be clearly visible by their position. Euphemia-sama struggled some more in Jeremiah’s grasp seeing him, then, probably losing hope to free herself, she went limp and he had to support the poor, sobbing girl. He had the nagging feeling that boy was more than just a friend to her…
Then, without real explanation, the Knightmares and the vehicle stopped. Jeremiah looked at them in surprise, pulling Euphemia-sama even close and trying to hide her form with his cape as he contacted his men and asked what was going on but they had no idea. Then… then he saw it. Clovis-denka’s personal vehicle moving toward them from the opposite direction. Euphemia-sama stared at it numbly, whispering a weak ‘Clovis-Niisama?’ but Jeremiah knew it couldn’t be His Highness. The reports were encouraging but not to the point he could believe Clovis-denka would leave the bed and come there. That vehicle was a fake, it had to be.
The same thing should have been thought by the Junketsu-Ha as well as Shipman intimated to whoever was inside the vehicle to come out of it. In that same moment the Britannian flag on the vehicle took fire and burned completely at an amazing speed revealing the shape of a man wrapped in a cape and whose face was covered with a mask… or some sort of helmet really…
He heard Euphemia-sama gasping and covering her mouth with her hands as if she was trying to silence herself as she stared at the masked man with eyes wide open. He stared at him as well, feeling confused.
The man introduced himself as Zero.
Zero.
Nothing.
Weird… as his manner of speaking that seemed to hold some air of nobility and that had nothing of the usual terrorist tone. Was he an Eleven? Jeremiah couldn’t tell. Shipman shot once in the air with his gun and four more Southerlands joined him, immediately circling Zero’s vehicle and aiming their weapons at him. Then Shipman intimated him to remove his mask and Jeremiah thought that, Eleven or not that Zero guy had to be a fool for coming here. He felt Euphemia-sama tremble in his arms, this wasn’t the best show for such a sensible girl, he thought as Zero moved his hand toward his mask but then, instead than removing it, he raised his arm and snapped his fingers. In that moment the panels behind him fell, revealing a metallic half spherical thing. It took a moment for Jeremiah to recognize its shape. He squeezed against himself Euphemia-sama but he knew this wouldn’t protect her at all. That thing… that thing was the same thing they had been chasing down in Shinjuku… The cockpit of the fourth Southerland opened and the pilot, Villetta as he had been expecting, having recognized it as well called Shipman.
That capsule… that capsule was the one that the terrorists stole… the one full of poisoned gas… that guy… that Zero… had taken them all as hostages… and only few of them knew it.
‘What should I do?’ Jeremiah thought frenetically. ‘If that capsule will open Euphemia-sama…’ He had to take her away but… but how? They would never manage to get far enough and…
“Do you want to try shooting me now? You should know what’s in the capsule,” Zero told to Shipman calmly, sounding perfectly in control of the situation. Shipman stared at him then turned to the other as if asking for help but no one could offer him advice so he unwillingly asked to Zero which was what he wanted. It was rather obvious really. Zero wanted to exchange the capsule with the boy. However… Shipman couldn’t let free a man who’d been accused of trying to kill a royalty either and he said so.
“You’re wrong, that guy isn’t the culprit,” Zero began to say in a calm tone and somehow this seemed to scare Euphemia-sama even more as she began to shake her head, covering her mouth with one hand while the other stretched toward the masked guy. ‘No, no, no, no,’ he heard her whisper but he had no time to guess to what she was referring as Zero continued talking. “The one who shoot Clovis…” he went on and turned toward them… no, toward a camera actually, Jeremiah noted, apparently the TV producer had left the van and now was filming Zero by himself and Zero had noticed and was looking straight at him and this seemed some sort of grotesque, horrible show… “… it’s me!” Zero finished after a theatrical pause and Euphemia-sama tried to scream ‘no!’ as Zero said so but Jeremiah managed to suppress the girl’s scream in his hand and the noise generate by the crowd commenting that revelation covered what little of her voice escaped him perfectly. He stared at her in confusion as the girl resumed crying and shaking her head, thinking that evidently the stress of having been in Shinjuku, having her brother shoot, her innocent friend arrested and now having the culprit in front of her was too much for her to cope. “For the life of one Eleven, you can save many Britannian lives. I don’t think that’s a bad deal,” Zero continued and, well, at this point, technically it wasn’t… but it wasn’t something a Britannian officer can accept anyway and Shipman was of that opinion as well. The Knightmares charged their weapons at Zero and Jeremiah mentally prayed this won’t trigger him to release the poisoned gas. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Zero challenged him. “I’ll announce it… Egg.”
‘Egg? What is that supposed to mean? Is it some secret code?’ Jeremiah wondered and, like him, everyone around him. In that same moment, taking advantage of the confusion, the vehicle on which Zero was began to move forward again.
“I’ve set things up so that, if I’ll die, it will be in the public spotlight,” Zero went on and Euphemia-sama clung to Jeremiah, as if to beg him to do something but unable to find the words, merely shaking her head. “If you don’t want that to happen…” Zero continued before making another dramatic pause. “… let us go with all your strength! Do the same for that man over there!” he stated and, in that moment, happened the unbelievable.
Shipman, between the surprise of all his men, agreed to do just so, ordering to the soldiers to give Kururugi-Ittouhei to Zero. Well, not each of them was surprised apparently. One of the soldiers next to Kururugi-Ittouhei simply bent to untie him and then forced him to stand, beginning to lead him out of the vehicle. The other soldier seemed to complain but, all of sudden, he wasn’t in sight anymore, as if he’d fallen on the ground. As Shipman was busy arguing with Kewell, Villetta and the other pilot, the soldier escorted Kururugi-Ittouhei to Zero, who’d also dismounted from the vehicle he was over and walked toward him with his red haired female driver and it was in that moment Jeremiah realized it. That soldier too was Zero’s accomplice. However he didn’t manage to do something about his discovery as Zero pressed the button of a mechanism he was holding in his hand, causing the poisoned gas to begin coming out of the capsule. Jeremiah immediately grabbed Euphemia-sama’s hand tightly and tried to run away with her before it would be too late. The crowd soon imitated them. Jeremiah heard the people screaming and the sound of Knightmares fighting among them as he dragged Euphemia-sama away, wishing the girl would stop turning behind and concentrate on running away, but didn’t really stop to check how things were going for Shipman and his men, merely ordering his own to retreat as fast as they could, thanking any God he knew that the poisoned gas hadn’t killed them already and thinking that, actually, for having been such a dangerous poisoned gas… well, it wasn’t so effective. Actually… he had the nagging suspicion it wasn’t poised gas at all… His thoughts were interrupted by an explosion. He knew that type of explosion, it was clearly the explosion of a Knightmare but… but there was nothing he could do. Euphemia-sama’s safety would always come first in his book. And so he kept running.
Not much later Kururugi Suzaku was walking through the city. He was untied and alone even if he still wore the prisoner’s uniform. That guy, Zero, had managed to carry him away, in the ghetto, in what once should have been a theatre. He had asked him to become his ally against Britannia.
But Suzaku had refused.
He couldn’t side with someone who had tried to commit a murder and had used such low tricks to free him. Suzaku wanted to change Britannia from the inside and had told him so, then he had turned down his offering and had decided to go to the trial anyway, even if Zero, as Lloyd-san and Jeremiah-kei before him, warned him the whole thing was triggered so as to judge him guilty. But Suzaku wanted to respect the rules at any cost, wanted to prove that Elevens and Meiyo Britanniajin weren’t the type who would hide in fear but face any accusation moved against them openly.
It was almost touching how Zero tried to stop him, how he told him he was being an idiot, that he would die if he were to do it. He reminded him of Lelouch, really, but Suzaku had taken his decision and didn’t mind to die if he could live by his rules. So he thanked Zero for saving him and told him he’ll manage to arrest him for attempting to murder Clovis-denka the next time they would meet then left.
“You realize if you continue on this way you’ll end straight in front of the courthouse, don’t you?” a voice asked him all of sudden, startling him. He turned and saw Jeremiah-kei walking right toward him, a frown on his face.
“Yes. I want to take part to the trial,” he replied. “Please, arrest me and take me there or I won’t be in time.”
“You know, I don’t know if to admire you or to commit you to a mental institute,” the other replied studying him carefully. “You should value more your life or you’ll end up solely causing the ones who care about you to cry,” he stated then motioned behind himself. Suzaku followed his gaze and his eyes widened.
“Euphy?” he murmured. The next second she had thrown herself in his arms, hugging him as tightly as she could and he was doing the same. “Euphy, you’re alive, you’re well, I’m so glad you’re alive…” he kept repeating as she cried on his shoulder and repeated his name over and over ‘Suzaku, Suzaku, I don’t want them to kill you, Suzaku, Suzaku, I don’t want you to die…’ “Euphy… Everything will go well, Euphy. I’m sure justice will prevail and…” Jeremiah-kei smacked his head hard, interrupting him.
“You’d better hope you’ll get out of that trial alive, or I’ll strangle you myself for causing so much pain to Euphemia-sama, Nunnally-sama, Lelouch-sama and Rolo-sama,” he warned.
“Suzaku…” Euphy began, and her eyes, still filled with tears, were staring at him pleadingly but then she forced a smile. “I’ll trust you, Suzaku,” she said. “So please, come back alive…” she begged and he embraced her again.
“I will,” he promised. “I will…”
“Kururugi is an idiot,” Rolo muttered. His brother didn’t reply, just kept walking, head down. It hurt to see him like that. “Kururugi is giant idiot,” Rolo corrected himself in a louder tone. Niisan had done all that to save him, had even confessed committing something he hadn’t done and Kururugi… “Kururugi’s the biggest idiot in world history!” he stated, feeling frustrated. He felt his brother’s hand resting on his head, ruffling his hair.
“Thank you for helping me in that, Rolo,” Niisan simply said with a sad smile and this didn’t make things better at all because Niisan was sad and… and…
“You should have used your Geass on him,” he muttered grumpily, not knowing how to help.
“Suzaku will understand. In time he’ll understand and will join us on his own,” his brother stated but, for once, Rolo believed firmly he was wrong. Kururugi Suzaku was a stubborn idiot who believed to know what was better and how people should act and would realize he was wrong only if he had truth slammed in his face. Repeatedly. And hard. But he kept his opinion for himself. At the moment his brother looked depressed enough.
“So why those gloomy faces?” Euphemia-Neesan’s cheerful voice greeted them as they were about to enter in Ashford Gakuen.
“Euphy? What…” Niisan began to say as they stared at her. She was smiling but her eyes were red and puffy and her smile looked as sad as Niisan. Then, without saying a word, she ran to them and embraced them both. “Euphy? What are you doing out here? Is everything all right?”
“I love you two so much, do you know that? So much… I won’t know what to do if something were to happen to you…” she murmured and they stared at her in surprise. She hadn’t been there, had she? She hadn’t understood what they had done, had she? Then Rolo felt Niisan embracing him and Euphemia-Neesan as well.
“That’s the same for me, you know that, don’t you,” he murmured burying his face in her hair tiredly, like a child in search of protection. Clumsily Rolo embraced the two as well, making some sound of agreement. It was odd to embrace the both of them. He knew Euphemia-Neesan was kind with him but he’d always thought only Niisan cared for him and now… now he wondered if it was possible she too… but he didn’t want to delude himself. She was a kind person and she probably was including him merely out of kindness. Nothing more. Thought it would be nice… because being like that, hugged by both his siblings felt so good he… he…
For a while they remained like that, embracing each other in silence, then… they simply parted and began to walk toward home. As they came close to it Nunnally, who’d probably been expecting them and had seen them through the window, ran out of the door and reached them, hugging them all one after the other, laughing and crying at the same time as she was saying that people weren’t suspecting anymore of Kururugi and that, if everything were to go well, he might be acquitted. Rolo wondered if there was a reason to make such a fuss about that idiot being released. He would never understand the interest his siblings had for that guy.
“Oh, I was almost forgetting,” Nunnally exclaimed all of sudden which wasn’t nothing new, Rolo thought, since she forgot things all the times. “A friend of yours came to visit you, Oniisama,” she announced and then she turned to look behind her. They followed her gaze and they all stared as they saw, right in front of the door of their home, the same green haired girl that had given Lelouch the Geass and that was now welcoming them back.
JJ’s usual ramblings, notes and what else
So, hum, the bit about Ashford being taken as prisoner by the Japanese during the war had been made up for this fic. In the canon version Ashford Gakuen was likely built after the war and not before. I’ve also given to Darlton the grade of colonel and assumed he became a general after that war. It’s canon instead that both Jeremiah and Darlton took part to it (even if I’ve no idea if Jeremiah was under Darlton’s command or in which regiment he was).
Of course there were no ghosts at Ashford Gakuen. In this fic the rumour had spread thanks to Lelouch’s handmade traps…
And yes, the siblings knew Jeremiah had been one of Aries guards even if, at the time, they didn’t really know him well. Had they been older they would have forgotten him entirely.
For who’s wondering, at the end of the flashback Jeremiah had managed to activate one of Lelouch’s handmade traps that hadn’t been dismantled by the earthquake and got a nasty blow on the head.
According to some tales Clovis’ mother is named Gabrielle and disliked Lelouch and Nunnally on the basis they were the children of a woman who was a commoner and a warrior.
According to the Picture Book 4.33 Jeremiah has a younger sister named Lilycia.
Sophie Wood is Shirley’s roommate and, according to Sound Episode 12.55 she’s interested in Yaoi. I found her surname in ‘Code Geass Perfect Stage Fan Book’.
Andrey Shipman was one of the soldiers mentioned in the dead list for the battle of Narita shown in ep. 12. He was listed before Jeremiah.
Dictionary (for who’s unfamiliar with the ‘Code Geass’ universe)
-kei: Lord
Aniue: "Brother" or "Older Boy"
Devicer: How a Knightmare pilot is called.
Eihei: Palace guard
Hakushaku: Count
Henkyouhaku: Margrave
Issa: Colonel
Ittouhei: Private
Jisama: "Uncle" or "Older Man"
Jisan: "Uncle" or "Older Man"
Kakka: Excellency
Knights of Rounds: A unit of twelve elite soldiers under direct command of the Emperor. They operate outside the standard Britannian military and are given special privileges and authority.
Ojisama: "Uncle" or "Older Man"
Royal Panzer Infantry (RPI): The official designation for common Knightmare Frame infantry within the Britannian Army.
Saishou: Prime minister
Shogun: General
Souridaijin: Prime minister
Teiritsu Colchester Gakuen: Imperial Colchester Academy
Zettai Teishi no Kekkai: Seal of Absolute Suspension
For more info:
http://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/
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