Code Geass 1. Transmigration of the Soul

Flipped through the Code Geass manga again for the first time in a while. Because the anime came out first, the manga version of **Lelouch of the Rebellion** differed in many ways from the original version, contrary to how the usual manga-to-anime developments happen. I find the lack of Knightmares was a big one, as well as the various other things that set it apart from the anime made it an interesting read on its own.

It's not a complete departure, scenes are changed, characters are removed, but all the plot twists lead to to more or less the same outcomes in the end. But in reading it, I had an idea. Why not combine them? The idea of sending the hero back to the beginning of their journey is not an unexplored idea, in fact it's a rather common idea used in many different fandoms. There are even some good ones here on the site. But in combining the two worlds, anime and manga, well, we can have something wholly unique out of the deal.

Thanks to Sov for letting me bounce ideas off of you.

* * *

><p>"Hey Rivalz, you know what's cool?" Lelouch yawned after his question.<p>

"What Lelouch?"

"Giant robots."

"Huh?" Rivalz took a quick look of to his friend in the sidecar before returning his eyes on the road. The traffic that day was pretty light as he sped through the city, and Rivalz could afford to lose his attention every once in a while. "Where'd that come from? You never seemed like the giant mech kind of guy."

Flipping through his chess log, adding up his recent funds from an hapless noble with too much money and braggadocio on his person, Lelouch responded. "Never was, but they've been in my dreams lately." Finishing up his calculations he put away his book and glanced as they passed into the worse parts of town. "Having a lot of weird dreams lately."

"Is that why you've been even more quiet and drowsy then usual? I've noticed you snoozing away some classes." Rivalz grinned at the image of Lelouch drooling on his textbook, and narrowly avoiding the teacher finding out.

"Kind of." The day is the only time his nightmares don't assault him. "Might need to get some sleeping pills or something. You know anything that can chase away bad sleep and bad dreams?"

"Sorry man I don't have dreams, so I can't help you there." Rivalz made a sharp turn which thrust Lelouch to the side. "By the way we're taking a short cut today. We'll get home quicker." He said speeding past a dilapidated gate into the ghetto.

"You don't have dreams? At all?" Lelouch asked as they cut through the deteriorated numbered section of the town. Quick flashes of dirty people and broken buildings came and went as they passed through.

"Sometimes I _think_ I can remember a dream, but most of the time when my heads clear I don't remember anything." Rivalz paused a moment as he took a turn back into the developed part of town. "Told ya we'd save time."

"Never said anything to the contrary Rivalz." Before Lelouch could dispense more of his wit, the large television that beamed down on everything changed it's broadcast from the news to an explosion.

"_My heart is now torn in two halves!"_ The image of a building exploding and falling down was accentuated alongside the melodramatic speech. "_Being torn apart by the emotion of sorrow and frustration!_" The image of the ruined buildings were replaced by the image of a blond man with the captions:

**BRITANNIA**** EMPIRE**

**GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF AREA 11**

**3RD PRINCE CLOVIS LA BRITANNIA**

"_But I, your lord of Area 11, will not be succumbed to the terrorists, not now, and not ever!"_

"Man," Rivalz swallowed, "those terrorists don't let up, I think that's the 3rd time this month."

The former Japanese of the island, now relegated mostly as second hand citizens in their own country, have but two options. Swallow their pride and collaborate with the occupying forces, or resort to other means to fight against them. While many relegated themselves to the hope they could work for a decent living under Britannian rule, a minority went the guerrilla route. While not successful as many other Area rebellions, they did make the process of colonization hard.

_Although, _Lelouch wondered, _are these attempts doing any substantial damage to Britannia? Will the occupying forces care for bad PR among the natives and the settlers? As long as money flows into their pockets, it's not like lives matter to their conscience or-_

"-_battle of Justice!" _Lelouch thoughts were interrupted as Clovis's speech suddenly burst in volume, a grand orchestra playing behind his oration. "_The battle of Justice, protecting all lives...Everyone! Salute these brave_ _8 men and women of our nation who _gallantly_ gave their lives so others may live to see tomorrow!_"

The sounds of Britannian citizens they passed saluting their fallen countrymen drowned out the television. Clovis himself went silent, assuming the patriotic crowds would accompany the orchestra. The few Japanese likely silent or out of the way in the better parts of town.

_A war that seems like it'll never end, _Lelouch thought, _No matter how hard you cry, scream, wish, or pray, only action will change this world._

* * *

><p>"Lulu! Rivalz!" With astounding speed, to Lelouch anyways, Shirley Fenette came running at the pair. "Where have you guys been! You better not have been gambling again!" She admonished them outside the various classrooms.<p>

"Hey come on Shirley." Rivalz said trying to placate her. "It's not like we're spending our life savings on poker or anything. It's just some good old fashion intellectual gaming, with some cash prizes on the side."

Evidently this was the wrong thing to say to her. "I swear, Lulu you shouldn't be ditching class to do that." Turning to Rivalz, how jumped back at her gaze. "And you shouldn't be feeding his habit!"

"Hey now! You make it sound far more sinister then it really is you know!" He joked.

"I agree with Rivalz." Shirley jumped at the voice behind her. "It's not like the two are out dealing drugs or playing in some shady underground animal fighting parlors." Milly Ashford said.

"Indeed." putting his hand to the side of his mouth, Lelouch faux-whispered, "So when do you want your cut of the money boss?" Milly and Rivalz fell apart laughing, and Shirley became even more exasperated.

"I swear you two." Shirley shook her head. "You could have already graduated and made _real_ money if you put in as much effort in your schooling's instead of goofing off."

"Come on now Shirley," Rivalz protested, "don't you think that's being a bit generous. I'm a B+ student at best. Maybe 'Lulu' over here could-"

"Excuse me!" The group turned to see Lelouch holding a redheaded girl in his arms. She looked extremely apologetic. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall on you!"

"It's alright" Lelouch said helping her stabilize herself. "Are you OK miss? You look a little pale. Do you need help getting to the nurse?" He said in rapid succession.

The redhead waved him off here face looking tired and weary. "It's alright, just a little dizzy. I'll be getting to class now." And so she she left to a group of her friends, who took over Lelouch's job of inspecting her top to bottom and asking if she was all right.

Milly put her hand under her chin in an inquisitive manner. Before she could say anything, Rivalz answered the question on everyone's minds. "That's Ms. Stadfelt right? Kallen Stadfelt. She's in our class I think. It's rare to see her though. I wonder what's up with that"

"That's because she's sick a lot I hear." Milly answered. "I think the poor girl has some kind of breathing illness, or at least I heard. And I think her name is Stadfeld, not Stadfelt, Rivalz!" She declared, pointing at him.

"Sorry!" He backed up at Milly's sharp finger. "I never see her, the teacher doesn't even call out her name anymore, how should I know?" He tired to defend himself.

All the while they were arguing over Rivalz ignorance, Lelouch was thinking about the girl that just passed him. _She doesn't really look sick. Her paleness looks more like white face makeup then anything else. Her arms felt like they had some muscle._ All the while Lelouch was staring off in the distance and rubbing the side of his head, Shirley was looking at him and wondering why he was keeping his gaze so transfixed on Kallen.

"I'm just saying Prez," Rivalz said. "I don't even know half the people in my class, let alone Ms. No-show." Before anyone had a chance to say anything regarding his mild hypocrisy, a loud voice came from across the hall. "The textbook is wrong! It's Britannian propaganda and doesn't show Japan in a fair light!"

When they turned, they saw a dark haired young man, wearing a Japanese flag bandanna, shouting his grievances. He, and several others with the same bandannas and school uniforms, were in front of some political posters. Another shouted "It's been covered by the lies of the Britannian government!" He and several other students were carrying around signs and a large banner.

Some of their signs were in Japanese text, which most of the Britannians at Ashford academy couldn't read, or even tell which of the Japanese alphabets it was. The few English signs said things like **Kick the Britannia people out of school!** or **Opposing the discrimination of the the Britannian teachers!**

"Oh man." Rivalz sighed while the others looked on with various looks of discomfort. "I told you guys there ought to be separate classes for Elevens and Britannians." He shook his head. Before he could continue he was spun around by the dark haired student. "What are you talking about! This school was originally ours! A Japanese school. If there's anyone who should leave it's you Britannians!"

"Hold on!" Rivalz shouted. "There's no need to be violent!" Luckily for Rivalz, the Japanese students punch was stopped and redirected his blow back. "Stop it. No fighting in school."

The one who stopped him was Suzaku Kururugi, a fellow Japanese student. He turned to the various other student protesters. "You all better not be going around causing trouble either."

Incensed, one of the protesters shouted, "You bastard! You're Japanese too!" Suzaku flipped him over when he tried charging Suzaku. Another shouted, "Do you enjoy being a Britannian dog!?" Suzaku grabbed him and quickly spun him into an armlock.

"No more fighting! All of you disperse now." He pushed the student off. What he lacked in numbers he made up for in military training.

The students obeyed him, some grumbling about him being a disgrace to the country. "Aw man I thought I was going to die!" Rivalz faux-cried. None of them said anything to the boy who just stopped Rivalz from dying.

"Don't exaggerate." Milly said while letting out a sigh at the averted altercation, glad no one go hurt or worse.

Shirley gave him the talk down. "Well maybe you shouldn't have said something that dumb in public Rivalz. What did you expect to happen?" While shaking her head she looked over to find Lelouch, only to see him following and calling out to Suzaku. "That's weird, why's Lulu being friendly with an Eleven?"

"Maybe it's to thank him?" Both girls gave him a weird look. "What? It's not like Lelouch was going to be able to fight them off on his own. Better to keep a guy like that on your side."

Shirley bit her nail. "Maybe. We should probably go to class huh?"

* * *

><p>"Why are you avoiding me?" At the rooftop, with nowhere but down to avoid him, Lelouch started to question Suzaku. "You've been in the school for a while now. No calls, no visits, nothing?" Lelouch stood in front of the door as he said this.<p>

Suzaku sighed at his friend questions. "Lelouch, it's better if we aren't seen together." His face held a small bit of anger as he said this. "It has to be this way. You should know this by now."

"Suzaku!" Lelouch tried to reason with him. But all he could come up with were emotional pleas and nothing concrete, logical enough to sway the other young man.

"If I'm with you, your identity will be in danger. It's better safe then sorry." He turned away to look at the distance, thinking back to when they first met all those years ago. A rage filled little boy daring anyone to approach him and his ill sister.

"Risking someone finding out your link to the royal family is worth a little loneliness." Lelouch didn't have a response to that, memories of his youth and mothers grave came seeping back in as he tried to say something, _anything_. Suzaku made his way past Lelouch.

Before Suzaku left Lelouch tried to call out to him. "It's fine." Suzaku halted his attempts. "I don't mind." With those words he went downstairs and left Lelouch to ponder. _Suzaku, you don't fit in with this school. Not the Britannians and not with the Japanese._ He kicked on the railings. _But when will you realize your the one whose building those barriers, not everyone else, you idiot._

As Suzaku went down the stairs he passed a slightly older man, in a white labcoat and smoking. Normally Suzaku would berate him for smoking on school grounds, and especially in the building, but he wasn't in the mood or mindset to harangue someone.

"It looks like I've seen you somewhere before." The man said in a high pitched and jovial tone. Suzaku gave him a quick glance and an "excuse me" before continuing away. The man in the labcoat just smiled as his future colleague walked off.

* * *

><p>"Welcome back brother." A small but inviting voice came as Lelouch returned to his home on the school campus. His dear sister Nunnally, blind and confined to a wheelchair was there everyday to greet him home.<p>

Lelouch got down on one knee, smiling, and said "You knew it was me huh? Even if I didn't call out?"

"Well yeah." She held his hand. "I could tell it was your footsteps, because I can't see my other senses have to make up for them."

"Really? You're really awesome Nunnally." He said giving her a kiss on the cheek, which caused her to giggle.

"Anything cool happen today in school brother?"

"Well," he said leading her to her room, "I had a small talk with Suzaku, it's been a while since we were face to face let alone speaking to each other." He lifted her into bed with a "Hya!"

"I'm not _that_ heavy Lelouch!" She complained in good fun. "You're just weak. You better not have been ditching gym class!"

"Must be all the food I've been cooking, we're both gonna have to work it off." Both of them laughed at that, neither being the physically active.

"You really should invite Suzaku over sometimes. I'd like to see him again." She held his left hand in both of hers as she made her request.

"I will." Suzaku's words rang in his head as he said this. "I'll bring him, definitely."

"Goodnight big bro." "Good night Nunnally."

A different sorts of nightmare hit Lelouch as he slept. This one all too real and tangible.

"Mum! Nunnally!" The young voice called out to no avail. "Where are you guys!" He could hear it but he could not say anything. The fog shifted around him, but it felt like it was solid, like he was at the bottom of the ocean and crushed from the pressure. He saw the small figure in the fog coming near him. Running to him.

It _was_ him, young and still ignorant to the world's cruelties. "There you are." He saw his mother's visage, he _heard_ her, and when he got close enough to hug her, she was covered in blood.

Lelouch jumped out of his sleep, nearly falling out of his bed. _4 A.M._ He saw the clock tick just over to it. Deciding not to return to sleep, where nothing but annoyances and pain awaited him, he snuck off to the kitchen and gulped down a half-liter of ice cold water. Cracking his neck, he went and wandered around the house a bit.

_Damn it. Weird nightmares, familiar nightmares, Suzaku's avoiding me. Nothings going right._ He laid down on the couch and stared off into the blankness of the dark ceiling. _What should I do? Ask Sayoko for some tradition medicine? Ask a doctor for prescription? _He tried to blot out everything, achieve a kind of zen.

.

..

...

It didn't work. Too much was in his mind. The nightmare that he just woke up from. Suzaku. School. Nunnally. A giant bomb annihilating Tokyo. His mothers assassination. His father. The Ashford Academy and family. The image of Euphie smiling and covered in blood.

_What the hell is wrong with me. _He pounded his head at that last one. _Why!? Why am I imaging all this weird stuff. What the hell is wrong with me! _Almost as if sensing Lelouch's anguish, Nunnally could be heard silently wailing. Rushing over, as quietly as possible, he saw her tossing and turning and mumbling about "mum."

Carefully he sat down next to her and held her left hand with both of his. She gripped his hand tightly, still asleep, and slowly calmed down. For a while he just sat there, holding on to her and lost in his thoughts. _Nunnally. Because of our the scheming of the Britannian royal family, mom lost her life, and you lost your eyes and legs. I promise, I'll keep you safe, and nothing will ever hurt you again._

* * *

><p>Ironically, or not, he couldn't really tell, these same thoughts came to him when Rivalz woke him from the sidecar. His one good nights sleep had been in there of all places. Yawning and rubbing his eyes, he looked around on the sidewalk they were parked in. He vaguely heard Rivalz, who was grumbling about not having enough battery for his car.<p>

While gathering himself he noticed a changing sound in the sky and looked. A plane was there, but it's trajectory seemed off from what it should have been._ Is it going to..._

"Hey Lulu, earth to Lulu! You there?" Rivalz broke his concentration by waving his hand in front of his friend. Lelouch flinched back at that. "What's up man, I know you just woke up but come on! Pay attention, we got a fuel issue here.

"It's going to land soon." Lelouch stated, with no context.

"Huh." As Lelouch pointed upwards Rivalz saw the rapidly descending plane. "That military transport plane, it's dropping altitude and it's going to crash." Something about it called him. Like a pulsing beat.

"Huh." The blue haired boy saw it going down and down as Lelouch said. "Holy crap you're right!" He turned to see his friend running toward the thing, his helmet discarded on the pavement. "Lelouch! What the hell are you doing, get back here!"

Somehow Lelouch, of all people, was _running toward _a soon to be crash site.

Down near the crash site, away from the new city and near an already abandoned section of the ghettos, the plane lay ruined. Lelouch called out for any survivors, but got no response. "Didn't make it in time. Did the whole crew die?" It was strange, something in his chest started to contract, he needed to find what was in the wreckage but couldn't say why.

"Is anyone there?" No response. "If you can here me make some kind of sound!" It was to no avail. But near the back of the place he spotted something. A large metal spherical container, with various tubes and appendages sticking out of it. Lelouch touched it, and somehow the whole thing started moving, opening up for him.

In it, a green haired women with restraint clothes, and a sort of sigil on her head laid in the machine.

"W-what on earth is this?" _Why is there a human being in this machine?_ Before any more thoughts went through his mind, he noticed sparks coming from the machine. "Let's get out of here before anything blows out." He picked her up bridal style and left to a few feet outside the wreckage.

_Tied up completely. _Lelouch worked to undo her weird clothing's bands and restraints. _Why is she inside a transport plane of the military. What _is_ the military doing exactly._

*Chk* "And what exactly is a civilian doing here," asked a man in black military attire, "coming in here knowing full well this is a restricted area?" _The Britannian Military. _Lelouch noted there was a single leader, who held a gun to his head and had a scar on his right check, and a half dozen men behind him, all armed. He had to think _quick_ if he wanted to get out alive.

"Who is this girl?" _Maybe I can buy some time _"Why is she like this-"

"You're just some civilian!" He shouted. "You have no need to know. And now that you've seen this girl, you'll have to die."_ Shit, no._

"Please wait!" A man in strange military attire, fully disguised unlike any of the other Britannians was the one who pleaded for Lelouch. His distorted voice sounded almost familiar. When he took off his helmet, Lelouch understood why.

"Please don't kill him!" It was Suzaku. "This person, he's my friend!"

"Suzaku." _Impossible, him, in the military! _"You...why..." Lelouch couldn't think of what to ask, what to say.

"Suzaku Kururugi, do you think that it is appropriate for a trainee to back talk his superior." Suzaku's scarred leader asked him very slowly.

Suzaku flinched at his accusation. "No sir, I just-" Before he could get a word in edgewise, he was interrupted.

"Being disrespectful to your superiors gets you in serious trouble." His eyes widened at his predicament. "But," the man moved toward Suzaku, handing him the gun, "I'll make an exception this time. You can use this," he smiled ear to ear when he referenced his gun, "and shoot your so called 'friend'."

"Wha..." Both boys were at a loss, Lelouch practically seeing double now from all the stress.

Quickly tiring of his non-responsiveness, he shoved the gun into Suzaku's chest. "So? This is an order. Didn't you declare your loyalty to Britannian?"

"Yes sir, that's true." It seemed like all hope was lost, no one was coming to save him. Lelouch had no weapon, couldn't outrun these soldiers, couldn't convince them to spare him. It looked like he was going to be gunned down by the very institution he wanted to destroy himself.

"But, but I can't sir!" Lelouch snapped his head upwards. "I just can't bring myself to shoot at civilians sir. And especially not at him." Both of them smiled at his words, for just a moment things seemed alright. Suzaku's superior did not share in their momentary joy.

"Then you die." And with those words he shot Suzaku in the chest. Despite his armor, Suzaku fell immediately at the close rang shot.

His friend, one of the few people who knew his identity, who knew the real him, was just shot. "Suzaku." He reached out, whispering his friends name, desperate to see if he were alright. But before he could, old faulty electrical wiring caused a spark, and the wrecked plane exploded with debris and and dust.

"Shit," one of the men coughed, "we can't see anything." In a split second Lelouch picked up the girl and ran as fast as he could for some kind of cover and hiding. In a few moments the soldiers would find out they disappeared and they'd rush to find him.

In one of the nearby buildings, he stopped to catch his breath. While he did it, he noticed the girl had regained consciousness. "Who are you?" He asked panting. "Because of you." *pant* "All this happened." *pant* "Britannia." *pant* "Britannia, even Suzaku." He stopped trying to talk for a bit and concentrated on regaining air. All the while she just stared at him, unblinking and unmoving. He couldn't tell if she could even understand him.

Taking in a final deep breath, he asked "Who are you exactly?" He spend a moment aking in her appearance. He failed to get off the mouth cover, although given how it was situated over his lower face, she shouldn't have had any problems breathing or even talking.

"Is he there?" _They found us!?_ "Search!" _They're coming this way. _He grabbed the girl and pulled her toward the wall, squatting away from the entrance they came in. "Did they really escape to here." _That army guy, the one who shot Suzaku-_*RING* *RING*

_Oh shit! My mobile! _While trying to desperately shut it off, the soldiers spotted and surrounded him. One of them grabbed him and threw him to the wall and told him to stand up. "You stupid kid. If the plane hadn't crashed, or if you didn't have to stick your nose where it didn't belong, all this could have been avoided." The scarred military man made a mock tsk-tsk sound at Lelouch.

"What exactly is Britannia planning?" Lelouch asked dauntlessly, determined not to go out on his knees begging for this bastards twisted pleasure. "Who is this girl?" While Lelouch had a single gun pointed at his, the soldiers felt her important enough to surround her. _Why? Why is she so important they crowd around her, why did they stuff her in that container?_

"You have no right to know." The scarred military man said. "But, as a student, you've worked hard. Just as expected from Britannian blood. Sad to say, your future ends here." With no sign of said sadness, he took an aim at Lelouch's head.

"Don't kill him!" The green haired girl leaped from her captives and blocked the bullet, taking the headshot instead.

Everyone in the room stood dumbfounded, unable to speak or move for a few seconds. "Hey!" Lelouch said to her limp body. _She protected me. She jumped in without a moments hesitation._

"Yaaa!" Everyone in the room looked at the source of the scream, a women and several others were gathered outside of a broken hole in the wall, aghast after witnessed the shooting. "Someone help! A lady was just murdered!" She screamed in Japanese, which most of the soldiers couldn't understand, but got the general idea.

"Captain, what should we do with the witnesses?" One of the soldiers asked. The captain just shrugged as if it were obvious.

"They're Elevens aren't they?" The captain rhetorically asked. "It's fine, just shoot them and be quick with it." And without a moments hesitation the soldiers aimed their guns and went on their way to silence them, only a few making outside before they were gunned down.

"My apologies." The scarred captain returned his aim on Lelouch. "So many interruptions today it seems. You're almost lucky, seeing this, getting several stays, but in the end you out of chances boy."

-You want to end it, don't you young one?-

He felt his hand grabbed, it was the green haired girl. As soon as she grabbed him, it was like falling into an ocean, submerged into a some else. Indescribable outside of this realm of polychromatic currents.

All he could see, focus on, was purple and yellow flashing lights, everything else slipping away from him.

_The girl from just then, how._ He asked himself as he felt weightless hovering in a void of colors. He saw her just a distance away, she turned back to see him

-You have the will to live don't you?-

_It's the girl from just then!_

-Create a contract with me.-

_A contract? What?!_

-You seem to have a reason to continue living-

_I do! I have a reason! I need to live!_

-If you sign this contract, you can receive power, the power to live-

_What contract! What are you talking about?_

-I'll give you power. But you will have to grant my wish-

-Once the contract is created-

-Although you will live among humanity-

-You will live a different set of morals from then other people-

_What is this?_

-A different fate-

-A different time-

-A different life-

Lelouch saw something, a platform in the sky?

"The Ragnarok Connection," a voice boomed out, one he knew all to well "is it starting again?" His father. The man who's life he planned to end with his own hands one day. The man who he envisioned turn to nothing but specks of light by his own command.

-If you have such resolution-

Nothing else needed to be said, without thinking or letting her finish he declared. "Resolution? Sure. Let's do it, you and me. Let's make a contract!" He thrust his hand upward, and his request arrived.

"Heh, did the kid die of fright?" The scarred captain looked at the paralyzed kid, his blank expression completely unresponsive to his words or even the warning shot he fired near him. "Maybe we ought to kick him awake." The captains mean all laughed at his joke.

"Hehe." They all turned to see the just unconscious school boy snicker. And then they heard him erupt into a full whoop like a mad man. "Something funny kid?"Something about the way the schoolboy got up, sides practically bursting open with joy unnerved him. He gripped his left eye closed and smiled at the group.

"It's funny." A momentary pause to let them take in his word, and another for him to unveil his eye. The girls sigil now replaced his iris. "That dogs like you act so high and mighty yet you only pick on defenseless prey." All of them were under his control. "You're nothing more then scavengers, not fit to prowl among the true king of the jungle." All were enraptured by his power, his eyes gaze.

"I, Lelouch Vi Britannia, order you, to go on your knees and die like the animals you are!"

Another moment passed, silence pervading the room. The civilians just slaughtered as motionless and quiet as the men under his power. "Yes sir." In synchrony they brought their weapons to their heads. "With pleasure!" And in synchrony they shot themselves and died, defenseless as those they just put down for the crime of witnessing the army's crime.

For a moment Lelouch felt ill, his stomach about to exit through his mouth, but that subsided in an instant. _Those who kill should be ready to die. It's time for me to step up my game, time for me to exit my simple livings and move forward with my plan. To destroy Britannia._

He looked upward. He was ready to take on Britannia. His father, the army, the expansionist regime that caused so much suffering and hatred to happen. All of it would fall starting here, in Japan.

* * *

><p>And the die is cast. It's been a while since I wrote anything, any amount of criticism is invaluable to developing as a writer, so hit me with your best.<p>

Apologies to Sov for forgetting to mention him, can't do everything right the first time (despite my vain attempts).


	2. Night Time Conspiracy

First chapter got some good feedback. I'm fairly committed to the once a week update schedule.

* * *

><p>He stood in the quiet warehouse for nearly a minute after the enforced mass suicide before deciding to move. Outside he saw and heard a car and quickly thought how to get out of there. Scanning the corpses he looked for any available thing he could scavenge.<p>

_Gun? No I could leave fingerprints. Knife? No that's even more useless. _Spotting something sticking out of the captains pouch he quickly realized that was exactly what he needed. _A miniature explosive! That's it! I can either throw it at them, or..._ He looked up and saw a small hole in the ceiling, it didn't look big from down there but if he could throw it with just the right precision then...

_Here goes nothing._ Lelouch lobbed the bomb through the crevice and hoped for the best.

"Excuse me sir!" A camera man waved him down. The mostly unlit conditions provided Lelouch a bit of cover, and if the bomb went off as he planned he could get out quick. "Do you know what's happened here? Can you-"

The eruption outside made the cameraman flinch, while people with the news station were shouting to go to the source. "Wait here one moment, please!" As the cameraman jumped on the next exciting thing in his purview, Lelouch took a moment to inspect the green haired girl.

"Thank you, for saving me and for giving me this power." Holding her hand one last time he said, "I don't know how, but I know I'll see you again."

* * *

><p>"Your highness Clovis!" A portly dark skinned declared as he entered his bosses room. "I have bad news to report sir." He bowed as much as his stature would allow him after announcing this.<p>

"Is that so?" The blonde foppish Governor-General took his subordinates statement rather well. "Before you do so," he extended his arms to show two different suits on either side, "for the upcoming reporter interview which suit do you think would look best on me?" The two women who held onto his clothes were about to speak but Bartley paid them no mind

"Well sir, this isn't the time for this, you see-"

"Nonsense Bartley! Whether I appear in this passionate red ensemble," he gestured to it, with all it's golden pins and silks, "I would appear a burning agent of Britannia's power against the terrorists." He clenched his fist in a show of strength and anger. "But if I were to go with this calm blue suit," gesturing to the inviting sapphire shaded garb, "I would appear solemn and in mourning over the loss of our people. What the public thinks our leaders are doing is very important you know."

"Yes sir I know but this is far more grave then that. It is in regards to the military transport plane." After hearing of _that, _Clovis dismissed the women and beckoned Bartley to continue. " At approximately 1200 hours, the plane carrying the container had experienced some kind of turbulence and crashed over the ghetto, about 40 miles from here."

Clovis held up his hand, signaling Bartley to halt for a moment. "What about the crew and those sent to retrieve it. Surely it can't have been to hard to get in, hush hush the Elevens, and get out?"

Bartley looked particularly uncomfortable answering this. "About the reconnaissance team, sir."

A few awkward moments passed and Clovis waved his hand. "Yes? What about them?"

"Sir they encountered some Eleven rabble who saw the contents, and were put down. But the reconnaissance team themselves." He paused looking for the right words, his eyes beady and his arms trembling. "The best way to describe their state was that of a mass suicide sir."

Clovis tapped his fingers on his throne. "A mass suicide? Surely it couldn't have actually been that. Right, Bartley?" He leaned forward a bit after asking him that, almost daring his portly assistant to correct him.

"Their deaths were in such a way that the only way that could have happen was a mass suicide. The coroner doesn't see a way how it could have been a mass killing, and for it to be so meticulously arranged. Also..."

"More bad news." The blonde man was scratching his neck at this, a crashed plane, dead military men for nothing, and very likely they lost what was in the container. "The girl is missing."

"Yes sir." Bartley sighed. "We believe she may have been shot too, but they could not locate the body anywhere. Whoever did this must be some kind of brilliant and devious mastermind." Clovis could only manage the man who organised this.

* * *

><p>*whack* *whack* *whack*<p>

"Oh, Milly stop it!" Lelouch protested his "President's" abuse. After one more swat with her newspaper, Milly said, "Seriously Lelouch! It's one thing to ditch or sleep in class, but you will not do that to the Student Council!" Lelouch glared at her, as well as he could with baggy eyes, and then at Rivalz and Shirley, who were laughing at his plight.

"Regardless, violence doesn't solve anything Milly." He said hoping to calm the irate blond. "I don't see how beating me with a wad of paper will solve anything or give us more time."

"It doesn't. But it makes me feel better." She huffed and sat down.

Rivalz, looking content with the scene, merely said. "It's Karma Lelouch, this is what you get for ditching me yesterday." Lelouch tried again to glare at him, but a yawn broke his attempt at intimidation.

"That's not how Karma works Rivalz." Shirley corrected him. "But anyways, where were you yesterday Lulu?" Lelouch remained quiet for a bit after hearing that.

"Ah." The image of the mass suicide he forced the soldiers still bled through his thoughts. "Nothing much, just looking around. Didn't want to wait for Rivalz to get his car towed. Cost a bit but I eventually got a bus home." The last part was a lie, but most of his statement was devoid of proper context. Lucky neither of his inquisitors were particularly through in listening for errors or misleading statements.

"None of that is important now!" Milly announced with a punch to his palm. "We need to organize the budgets for the other clubs and the actives for the rest of the year, right now!"

The other three members just kind of shrugged. Shirley was the first to speak. "If we didn't procrastinate so much before we wouldn't _have_ to be so busy now."

"Aw come one Shirley, creeping deadlines always create the biggest rush of creativity and energy. I've probably gotten more A's and B's from doing that then actually working slowly and responsibly." He said proudly

"Maybe for you Rivalz it's easy, but some of us don't handle well with a guillotine over our heads." The orange haired girl snapped back. "What do you think Lelouch?" Lelouch was already back to napping, or trying at least with his head between his arms slowly tuning them out.

"Pay attention damn it!" Milly nearly busted the table in half with her punch, which jolted all of them up and awake. "We need to get this done today and heads will roll if it ain't done!"

"I would, but," Lelouch broke to yawn, "sorry guys I have stuff to do today, I got to get home early. Milly, you have my budget report and recommendations right?" She nodded, glancing down to the small folder he handed her earlier. "Alright that's my part and should cover half of the work, see you." He waved them off and left. "Well fine." Milly sighed. "I guess I'll have to work you two overtime." She turned to her unwilling cohorts. "Come my minions! To battle!"

* * *

><p><em>Today the destruction by terrorists forces has been at an all time high from the beginning of the year. Nearly 17 people died today in a JLF bombing near the former Spectacles Bridge. Luckily, while several people died, the intended target Colonel Addams was unharmed and the bridge sustaining only minor injuries. A member of the JLF was caught and is currently be interr-<em>

Lelouch shut off the TV after that. _No mention of the military transport plane, nor the deaths of the Japanese and Britannian soldiers._ The image of all those bodies, some of them his doing, jumped back into the forefront of his mind. Working backwards he remembered someone.

_Suzaku._ He had forgotten to check his friend in the heat of the action. That wasn't quite true, he remembered before he left but couldn't bare the thought of seeing his friend dead. Something about him was hopeful, almost positive that Suzaku wasn't dead and what happened yesterday didn't _really_ happen. Or at the least Suzaku was fine and didn't need him to check him out.

"Maybe." He murmured to himself. If he could obtain some kind of hypnotic eye power from a green haired women, why not have a little hope for his friends survival? "News doesn't have anything new, now what?" He could try and squeeze in a nap, or go and help his friends finish the budget.

Laying back he passed back into his dreams, and woken up 5 minutes later by a passing maid. "Are you OK sir? Do you need something."

He took this as a sign from above and got up, mumbling a quick goodbye, and went back to assist his friends.

* * *

><p>Turns out, they didn't even need him. "It's done, finally!" Shirley threw her hands in celebration over the fact, rather it was the 5th or so time she did. "And with only three people helping out." Apparently in the meantime, about an hour or so, Milly left to take care of some family business and Nina tagged in to take her place.<p>

"Hey!" Lelouch protested. "I gave my budget and you guys worked off of that, if it wasn't for me you'd be working all night."

Shirley just blew him a raspberry. "Oh don't complain Lulu. You ditched us just so you could go nap. If it wasn't for Nina arriving," she proudly pointed to their clubs final member, shying away from Shirley's praise "we'd have never finished so quickly."

"Well maybe I won't complain, I'll just bask in the fact-" Anything else he had to say was stopped when he noticed some students getting rough with each other. One of the students just got punched, which the entire group stopped to watch.

"You Eleven people ought to walk more to the side." In front of a group of 5 young men stood a tall and proud blond boy. "Leave some room for the Britannians, and remember your place here!"

Refusing to lay down and take the abuse, the boy on the ground shouted back, "I'm not a Eleven, I'm Japanese you hear me!" That didn't work well for the gang.

"Excuse me!" The blond put his hand on his chest, "Are you ordering around the Student Self-Defense Force around with your status as an Eleven?" He asked nearly laughing at the concept.

"Oh boy," Rivalz put his hand on Lelouch's shoulder and leaned in to whisper, "those guys are the self proclaimed 'Student Self-Defense Force.' I don't know if their parents are bigwigs or anything, but the school hasn't been doing anything to censure them, so watch out."

While the Japanese boy and the "Defense" Force were arguing, Lelouch spotted Kallen staring at the group. In fact he could noticed a lot of his classmates staring. "Yeah we probably shouldn't mess with them."

"Come on guys, lets go before they decide we're loitering or something." Shirley tried to coax them away from the goons but they stayed, curious to how turned out.

"Man I bet if that ninja guy from yesterday was here he'd break this fight up in a single punch." Rivalz joked.

It took Lelouch a second to make the connection. "Suzaku." Rivalz snapped his finger at that. "Yeah! That was his name!" Nina get a bit antsy at that. "Isn't that an Eleven name?" The other two member turned to look at her. "Why did he help out a group of Britannians?"

"Hmm-" before Rivalz could hazard a guess, Lelouch moved to confront the Student Self Defense Force. "Lelouch! What are you doing!?"

_Suzaku was willing to help out us Britannians despite everything, I can't just cower away when I have the chance to follow his lead. _"Excuse me, gentlemen." He laced the last word with a heavy dose of sarcasm as he stepped between the group and the boy on the ground. "Are you alright sir? Can you stand?"

"Uh, yeah." The Japanese student wasn't expecting to be harassed by a gang of posh Britannians, nor was he expecting to be helped by one today. "You should probably leave." Lelouch told him, as he dusted off his shoulders. "I'll handle this."

While his friends stood in silent horror, Lelouch turned to the group. "Gentlemen, It's rather rude to go around harassing students don't you think? He activated his Geass. "Quit being bullies and go _earn_ the name Student Self Defense Force."

They left rather quickly, mumbling about something. His friends remained stunned. "Lelouch." Rivalz broke the silence. "What did you say to them?"

"Hm? Oh nothing, just told them that bullying it no way to earn respect and to be nice." He honestly answered. They just stared at him. "What?"

"Well still." Shirley said. "You shouldn't make us worry like that." Despite her words, it really was just her who felt worried, taking in deep breaths after what she feared would be a beating.

Lelouch smiled at her. "Sorry Shirley, I'll try to avoid that." Shirley stayed quiet the rest of the day, red faced and too happy to say anything else.

* * *

><p>"I'm home!" Lelouch announced. He dropped off his bag next to the kitchen, feeling rather good about himself. "Are you there Nunnally?"<p>

"Brother, brother!" Nunnally exclaimed. "Come here I'm in the living room!" When he arrived he noticed a plethora of colors.

Sayoko taught me how to make origami." She held up a pink bird. On her table there were many other creations, like boats and a pony. The ones near Nunnally being small and rough, and on another table, what he presumed to be Sayoko's, became progressively impressive.

"That's beautiful Nunnally." He held it gingerly. They had some bends and creases, but Lelouch could tell she put a lot of effort into these little things. "Maybe I should try one day, I'll be as good as you and Sayoko."

"Sayoko's are _really_ good." She pointed to the little collection on the other table. "I felt them and it's amazing how many folds they had and how complicated they were."

"Miss Sayoko is really good at everything huh?" He felt a bit bad for then women, and himself, she's practically raised Nunnally since they arrived here. _Note to self, do something special with Nunnally soon. Maybe bring the Student Council along._

"Mhm! I've heard her sing, and do impersonations, and make jokes and-" she rattled off the other amazing things that Sayoko could do. All of which reinforced Lelouch's desire to make up for his negligence. _I could wait until her birthday? It's only two months from now._ He shook his head at his suggestion. _No I don't want to only do nice things for her on her birthday, it needs to be more often then that._

"Lelouch!" She shouted at him! _Nunnally never shouts! Not at me at least. _"You've been ignoring me haven't you." She pouted.

"Sorry." He mumbled. "Lost in thought planning something."

"Right." She crossed her arms and turned away.

"Really, I was thinking we should have a picnic soon, maybe next month."

She didn't say anything for a bit but turned and said, "Really? You don't want to wait for my birthday?" After saying that she huffed her checks. "Unless you forgot my birthday was _2_ months later."

"Nah, I'd never forget your birthday." Lelouch said patting her on the head. "Sometimes we should do an activity regardless of what day it is. If we only do things when we expect it, it gets predictable, and there's no element of surprise you know?"

"Well." She looked apprehensive but relented to him, mostly because she did really want a picnic. "OK we should." She held up her pinkie. "Give me your pinkie Lelouch."

He did and she wrapped hers around his. "Sayoko taught me this is how Japanese people make promises sometimes. So you _promise_ we'll have a picnic soon."

"Promise. But to keep a little bit of the mystique, I'm not telling you when it is. Alright."

She giggled at that. "So exciting!"

Later, after Nunnally had been put to bed, Lelouch stood outside his balcony.

_What to do, what to do. _He circled around the interior of the small area and thought about his plans, for Nunnally, for himself, for Britannia. This new eye power, he used it for the second time today with better motives then mass murder. Suzaku and the green haired girl still were stuck in his mind.

Just another sleepless night spend thinking.

_All I have to defeat Britannia is this eye._ He flickered it on for a quick moment, testing it slowly and quickly. _I don't feel it going on and off, I can't see any better. Yet, I still _know_ when it's on and off. Strange. _He'd been hesitant about using it since the incident with the army. His stand against the student army or whatever they called themselves was something he did in the heart of the moment. He felt like he knew all about the eye, it's range, it's single use, but still felt apprehensive about using it. Or overusing it. As if he'd lose his eyesight or worse.

_Dreams have actually abetted since I got my Geass. I wonder if it's a coincidence or not._

While he could have pondered that train of thought, or wondered how he knew what his power was called, he spotted some figures moving in the distance and heard the pitter-patter of nearby boots. _Who other then weirdo's and insomniacs are out this late?_ He squinted and crouched slightly to get a better look, and hopefully cover himself a little more in case they spotted him.

_Can't hear anything._ Annoyingly they stopped close to his place, some dozen feet away, but he couldn't make out a word they were saying. _Time to sneak out._ Quietly tiptoeing through the house, Lelouch made his way into the kitchen, unlocked the window, climbed through, and pushed it so it looked as if it were completely closed. Hopefully if he got spot he could sneak back in here.

Making his way around the side of the building, he ducked when he heard them moving. Luckily the dark schoolboy uniform he wore made him blend in with the shadow. Tiptoeing across the the trees, and keeping his distance, he noticed them going up to the main center of the Academy. _Those clothes, there's no doubt. They're some kind of militia types. Terrorists?_

Most of them wore black padded jackets, black pants, black hats, and matching black goggles. Their leader, believing in the idea that they need to stick out among their minions, wore a red ensemble. In fact, she almost looked like someone Lelouch knew._ Is that? No, can't tell from here._

Sticking low to inside the miniature forests, one of several that littered Ashford Academy's main expanse, Lelouch slowly made his way toward them. _So that's what they were aiming for. _The group had attached some kind of small explosive to Clovis's statue, _Good riddance_ Lelouch thought, and destroyed the head.

Unfortunately to the group, and Lelouch, the head only fell off, being mostly intact. If Lelouch were closer, or if it wasn't washed off by tomorrow, he might be able to read some of the graffiti they wrote.

_Japanese. Makes sense. Hope their little bomb doesn't alert everyone to them. _

Almost as if hearing his thoughts, and laughing at them, one of the men loudly proclaimed "This is Japan!" He stomped on Clovis's statue head and continued. "We don't need Britannia's lousy Governor for anything! Right Kallen?"

Kallen stood tall as she addressed her men. "Hmph! This school doesn't need any of this gaudy royalist crap. Just crushing it ain't enough!" Her men cheered at her words.

_So, it is Kallen after all. _Despite having no reason to suspect as such, Lelouch felt little shock over the fact that the ill red head was actually a member of some kind of gang or student activist group. _Looks like that muscle wasn't just my imagination. I wonder where they got those explosives, and why they thought bombing a statue in an academy was such a good idea. Wouldn't that risk exposing Kallen?_

While Lelouch was lost in his own imagination, and the Japanese activists were congratulating themselves, a loud whistle pierced the air. "What have you done to the statue of his majesty Clovis!"

_The Student Self Defense Force! _While Lelouch managed to hide from both groups, both sides knew where the others were, and the SSDF had plenty of backup. "You stupid bunch of activists! We won't allow you to disturb the peace here on the academy!" The student's gave chase to the activists, the back members calling reinforcements. The blond leader at the front continued to shout as he gave chase.

"You'll be caught and sent to the army when we're done with you! God have mercy on you because they won't." He declared.

"That's just the kind of people you Britannians are! Claiming peace while firing off your weapons on those who can't fire back!" Kallen threw down a smoke bomb, which obscured the student's path and sight. By the time it disappointed the activists were gone.

"_Just the kind of people you Britannians are" huh?_ As the students ran forward, where they could make out glimpses of the activists, Lelouch waited until everyone was gone. _Looks like no ones here. _Looking around to get a sense of his best bet, he noticed something left on the ground. _One of the activists must have left their transmission behind. _He smiled at this outdated little piece of technology_. This is going to be useful._

* * *

><p>A bright shining light peered down onto him, the room itself ablaze with white, white, and more white. Could it be? Had he truly died and entered the afterlife? <em>I always thought I'd be reincarnated into a frog or something. <em>

Suzaku started coughing at his thought of a frog, and bent up. "Aw so you've woke up!" A voice exclaimed a few feet from him.

Suzaku was wrong, the afterlife should not have contained his high pitched teacher. "This isn't what I'd thought Heaven would be like." He mumbled.

"Unfortunately, you still have many years to go until you can confirm your reservation outside of the pearly gaze." Lloyd got up from his computer and offered him a bottle of water, which Suzaku accepted and slowly sipped. "You're inside the school's medical wing, which has far more delicious food but less young nurses then a real hospital." He smiled at Suzaku. "So I guess you'll have to take your curses with your blessings huh my boy?"

If Suzaku were in a better shape he might have make some kind of comeback that he wasn't that kind of man, he might have blushed and mumbled something, but now he was far too tired to come up with anything. He settled for making some kind of sound halfway between a groan and a frogs ribbet.

"Well I guess we can work on your verbal skills before progressing to the fine motor ones. I'm not quite trained to deal with raising a child so excuse me if you end up missing a few fingers by the end."

"Huh?" Evidently it would take some time before he could understand Lloyd's jokes too.

"Just go back to sleep my boy and you'll be fine." He waved him off and returned to his computer.

For a bit Suzaku was quiet and nodded back. He reached over to scratch himself were he was shot, and he popped right back up. "My watch!" The first thing he noticed, not the pain or wound, was his missing watch

"Oh that." Lloyd walked over to a table on the other side of Suzaku's bed and picked up what remained of it. It was missing a large chuck around the the center of it. "This little thing blocked the bullet and saved you. Very _handy_ if _I_ must say so myself."

Completely oblivious to Lloyd's continuous line of jokes, Suzaku kept his attention on the broken timepiece. "Sir, what happened? I remember being shot and..." _Lelouch? No, why would he be there._

"For some reason they gave you to me, that is when they found you passed out at the plane crash site."

Everything clicked for Suzaku just then. "Sir, were their any others at the crash site!" _If Lelouch was still alive he'd probably be found with them or have escaped._

"No you were the only survivor Suzaku." He adjusted his armband and revealed a military insignia under it. "Just in case you were wondering why a school teacher would be at a military-restricted area."

_My teacher, a member of the military? I guess if I'm there no reason a teacher couldn't. But still, the idea of Mr. Asplund in the military is too weird._

"You really should invest in playing poker Suzaku, at least as practice." When he made a confused face at that his teacher laughed and replied. "You wear your emotions plainly on your face. I don't have to be psychic to know you're confused at the idea of me being a member of such a strict and uptight organization." Lloyd hit the mark dead on.

Suzaku turned a little red at that.

A muffled clatter of steps and a voice shouting 'Get them' could be heard passing by. "What's going on?"

Lloyd said, spinning in his chair, "Oh you know, Japanese activists have been going around defacing things and blowing up important pieces of property. Same old, same old, nothing for you to worry about."

By the time Lloyd quit spinning he noticed Suzaku holding his stomach and the door at the same time. "Don't bother, you're far to injured to go around running. At best you'll rupture something and end up back with me." He grabbed his student and moved him back to the bed. "At worst you'll get shot again."

"But sir." Suzaku tried, under intense pain in his intestines. "I have friends here in the school." Goddamn his stomach felt _radioactive _at this point but he pressed on. "I have to do this."

Lloyd sighed at his students adamancy. "I'll admit." He went over to his computer and knocked it. "I'm not much of a physical person, I'm in the military due to my technical knowledge not do to hard work or my fitness. I'll even admit you probably could, in your condition, force your way past me."

Given how thin his teacher looked, and the possibility he was a smoker, Suzaku agreed.

"But, do you really want your friends to be put in the position of burying their friend before they even graduate?"

For a while nothing was said in the room, but the silence was ended when Suzaku laid back on the bed and gave a quiet apology. "I can turn the lights down if you need to sleep." "Thank you sir."

* * *

><p>All through out the school there was fear in the dorms, some people having stayed up and others having been woken by the commotion.<p>

"Look!" A blonde freshmen cried out. "Over there I see some people!" Through the darkness of inside and outside, no one risking turning on the lights in case the terrorists targeted them, they could make out two vague shapes running. One of them was throwing back various bombs and distractions.

Down there, as they entered an empty wing of the school, one many cried out, "Damn it! I dropped my radio!" Everyone went to check theirs and one cried out he forgot his somewhere. "I had it just a bit ago I swear!"

"Enough!" Kallen ordered. "We have to focus on escaping first, we can't afford to get frazzled over lost equipment. As they ran up the stairs to the roof, focusing on escaping their pursuers, someone was listening into their conversation without them knowing.

"Damn it" Kallen yelled. She barely knew the layout of the halls in spite of going there. No doubt the student army knew it better then her. "We have to get up and do something to get them off our tails."

Running up to the final room upstairs, after what felt like forever running, they barricaded themselves outside and locked it with what they had. Mostly the belts the men had on them. The air inside the school was about as cold as the rooftop, and most of them were burning in spite of it.

"There's nowhere to run to. Kallen said breathless, leaning against the wall sweating. "We can't jump down or risk trying to climb into the windows, it's far bigger of a drop then I thought. Damn it." She never realized how big of a drop it was till now. Even if it were the second floor it probably would have hurt jumping out the windows.

One of her men, laying down and catching his breathe, said, "Maybe we'll be lucky and some other guys got away. Better that then all of us."

"Come out!" _Damn it they're already here!?_ Kallen thought. "We'll catch you arsonist bastards and turn you over to the coat. The activists could only see his one arm trying to force his way past the door, and to the shock of the activists, he had a gun.

"You're kidding." Kallen couldn't believe it. "They actually gave guns to these little punks?"

"Boss." One of her men said. "We're out of firebombs and our supply of smoke bombs isn't enough to hold off them all." They couldn't see but they could bet there was a dozen of the student army there. "Worst, even if we escape there's the danger they might have seen your face. We can survive being caught and interrogated, but we can't replace you."

"I know." Kallen punched the wall. "But I won't let you guys get caught, I won't let us fall to these Britannian bastards."

"_Do you want me to help you?_"A voice rang out on the radio. "_Do you want to get out of here?_"

"What?" Kallen couldn't believe what she was hearing, some kind of muffled voice over her line. "Who is this? How did you get this frequency!"

"_That doesn't matter. If you want to avoid being caught by the Britannians you'll just have to trust me._"

_Trust? Avoid them? Is this a trap? No, they're almost in anyways._ She saw them out of the corner of her sight starting to cut the belts with a small razor. "Alright. What do you want me to do?"

"Boss," one of her men protested, "what if this is a trap? They could be baiting us."

"I'd rather risk putting my hope in a lucky chance then just waiting to be caught." A split second after she finished a rope ladder fell right next to her. They all looked up to see a cloaked figure standing next to the light post.

"_Use that to climb down._" Lelouch said over the transmission. Kallen couldn't see his face but could make out him holding one of their radios. His hand covered up the lower half and distorted his voice. "_I'm sure even after the marathon you just had it'll be easy for you_."

After much time spent on one door, the armed student kicked open the door and exclaimed "Haha! Let's see your faces you activist bastards!"

Despite his words, they had long since disappeared. "Impossible!" One of them exclaimed. "How did they do it?"

"I see them!" One member pointed out to a group running away in the distances. Looking down under himself he noticed that, "They used a ladder!"

The armed student yelled at his subordinates to go chase them. Some ran down the stairs, other took the rope ladder hoping it wouldn't break. The blond armed student thought about shooting some shots at the activists, but dismissed it as impractical given how far they are and how dark it was.

The last one to leave, he was also the last to use the ladder. Halfway down he noticed something above him, rather someone. "Are you an activist?" The cloaked figure didn't reply. "Answer me!" He continued to do and say nothing. "Answer or I'll shoot!" He aimed his gun upwards rather awkwardly, having to keep one hand on the ladder.

That got a reaction out of him, reaching down to do something to the ladder. "You bastard!" The blond fired a shot but missed his face narrowly.

"Those who are ready to kill should be ready to be killed." With those near silent words to himself, Lelouch cut the rope with a knife. The blond boy fell down several feet and Kallen, hidden behind a wall watching this encounter, could hear him groaning in pain.

_That guy in the black cloak. Who was he? _She thought as she saw him walk away.

* * *

><p>"Morning Kallen!" The redheaded girl waved back to her friends. "Didja hear what happened last night? It was scary! There were terrorists on the campus and they blew stuff up!" The first girl shuddered.<p>

The other girl jumped in as her friend stopped. "They destroyed Clovis's statue, can you believe it?"

"Wow." Kallen said trying to look scared. "That sounds pretty serious. Is anyone hurt or was it just some vandalism?" She asked

As her friend answered her all animated, Kallen noticed Lelouch going from yawning to excitedly talking up someone, on a closer look she saw it was Suzaku, bandages sticking out of his clothes around the neck and walking like his midsection was in pain.

As she and her friends moved away from them Kallen wondered what was up with those two.

"Lelouch. I, I'm just glad you're OK." He finally confessed, having spent all morning thinking just what to say if he found him, or worse had to speak to Nunnally.

"Same here Suzaku. Are you getting teary eyed on me?" He joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Shut up you!" They both laughed at that and walked to class, Lelouch's exhaustion from the incident last night and lack of sleep, Suzaku's own pain and insomnia, all forgotten with the revelation the other was OK.

* * *

><p>Alright here are some more divergences from the manga, changes will be slowly accumulating from here on in. In case anyone is curious, the Spectacles Bridge mentioned is the real life Megane Bridge over the Nakashima River. I figured as part of their colonization attempts they'd try to stamp out local names in favor of their own (even if it's just anglicizing the original Japanese ones). The Colonel I mentioned is someone made up, it's likely there are smaller names in Japan who do their own dirty deeds and are so reviled by the locals that they'd be prime target for assassinations. He won't be of any real importance.<p>

I've also been trimming out some exposition from the dialogue, "we" (the readers) already know a lot of this stuff, so keeping it would be both superfluous, and make it far more stilted. Imagine if I, Ultra-Pop, writer of this story, interjected things you already knew, like how I wrote this story, into various dialogue, which I also wrote.

Over 175 diffrent viewers in one week, I have to admits that's pretty cool. I guess I should answer questions here, or at least clear things up if people don't understand things:

To Nicholas Diego: Not _exactly_ a crossover of the manga and anime, but close enough of a comparison.


	3. Confessions to a Dead Man

"You still haven't found it?" Clovis asked furiously. It had been 3 days since his aide Bartley informed him of the crash landing. "It's just one girl! How long do you need to find one person!?"

At first Clovis was alright with it, just a mistake, it's not his fault the plane crashed. Besides, no one would know about it if Clovis quickly recovered the contents of the plane. Right?

A day later he was annoyed that they hadn't found it.

Two days later he was angry at the incompetence of his men. 'She can't have gone too far.' he said.

On the third day was he furious that they couldn't find her. 'It's one girl with green hair, it's not that hard to find her in a crowd' he had screamed at them.

"A lot of the Elevens in the ghettos haven't been cooperating sir." One of his men explained. "They either know nothing helpful or just refuse to say what it is. We haven't _found_ any evidence of the latter," the man stressed, "but we suspect it at least."

"Goddamn useless peasants." Clovis muttered. "Worthless, traitors, or both, I don't care, force any information you can out of them." He send off the man. Turning to Bartley he asked, "Is sabotage really the only reason there is such a lack of results Bartley, is it?"

"Aside from that, most of the soldiers are looking for that 'missing canister' you told them to find. Without knowing they're looking for a girl, that makes it a whole lot harder. We have confirmed from some eyewitnesses, the news group, that there was in fact a surviving male at where the casualties were. But he disappeared and it was too dark for anyone to make his features out."

"At least we have confirmation there _was_ a second man there. I was worried recently it might have been the girl herself who did that." Clovis turned to leave. "Do whatever it takes to fine her. Burn down the whole ghetto and inspect the ashes if need be."

Bartley was startled at the immediate cutthroat demand his lord made. "Yes Sir." Neither men held any reservation about killing the Elevens, but to actively go out and slaughter them seemed counterproductive to Bartley. Regardless his lord gave him an order

_I must find her _Clovis thought looking at the photo of her containment machine_. If the Emperor find out what I've been doing behind his back, I'm dead._

* * *

><p>"Lelouch, are you really reading the news this early." Rivalz punctuated his sentence by yawning at the end.<p>

"Got to keep myself informed." Lelouch said scanning each line of the page.

"Maybe you should try reading outside of the comic's sometimes Rivalz. Women like smart and funny guys you know." Shirley teased.

"Nah!" He threw his hands up. "Too many words put together make my head hurt. Besides my charm can make up my lack of smarts."

While the two were bickering, Lelouch finally found what he'd been looking for the last few days. _They finally mention the dead Britannian soldiers. Stuffed in the back of page 5 and treated as a 'gas attack' by terrorists. Suzaku's fine, and I still haven't seen that girl. Did they get her? Probably not._

The sound of planes rushing through the air startled the three. "Whoa!" Rivalz exclaimed. "Look, it's the military planes!" He pointed to a group of 5 planes overhead.

Shirley, on the other hand, looked more bothered by them. "They've been deploying them a lot more often recently to deal with the terrorists. How troublesome."

"I think the reason they're so close to the campus is that Governor Clovis must be angry about his statute being destroyed."

Shirley giggled at that. "I can see it now." She tried to imitate Clovis's booming voice, standing on her toes and puffing out her chest. "'How dare they destroy my statute! I'll bomb the entire school and then they'll be sorry the messed with me!'"

While Shirley and Rivalz were laughing at her terrible impression, Lelouch wondered if it was the statute or if it were because of the green haired girl. _But why would they been looking for her here? They'd have no way of knowing that._ He waved that thought away.

"Hey Kallen." Lelouch heard some distance beneath him, he turned over to look down the buildings edge. "Kallen where ya going?" One of her friends called out.

Lelouch looked around to find a red speck in a green field. Funny enough she was near one of the tree's he probably hid behind two nights ago. _Kallen Kouzuki, she's the leader of one of the group of activists. Maybe I should..._

Breaking that thought he left, completely oblivious to the direction Shirley and Rivalz had taken their conversation. "Hey Lulu where are you going?"

"Downstairs." He answered. He was gone before Shirley could say anything else.

"Well," Rivalz tried to joke, "it's the honest truth right?"

"As opposed to the dishonest truth?" She grumbled.

* * *

><p>When Lelouch finally got downstairs, after taking a break to breathe for a minute, he found Kallen mumbling to herself underneath a windowsill, looking angry. He noticed a shaking window a few feet above her, likely some students playing their music loudly.<p>

He also noticed a few specks of building falling from up above her."Hey Kallen! Ms. Stadtfeld!" He called out.

She turned in confusion to the unfamiliar voice. She saw some Britannian schoolboy waving to her. "Look out!"

"Huh?" Before she could inquire as to what she should look out for, a brick narrowly missed hitting her, and crushed a flower next to her. "Eep!"

He ran, or briskly jogged, over to her. "Are you alright, do you need to go to the nurse?"

Confused for a second, and quickly going back to her ill girl routine, she said. "N-no, I'm fine. It didn't hit me thankfully. Who are you again?" She asked. "I kind of remember you but..."

"I'm Lelouch Lamperouge. I'm in some of your classes." Blank stare. "It's alright, I know you're probably not going to remember me, I usually sit in the back."

"Oh." She turned to look at the brick. "What was up with that?"

Quickly thinking of a way to segue into her actions from two nights ago. "I think it might have been some loud music, which vibrated the building. Maybe it was shaken loose from the incident? Although I didn't here of the terrorists attacking anything but the statue." He mused.

He saw her freeze up momentarily. "I don't think they went in any of the student dorms, just the school proper. All my friends told me the activists blew up was the Clovis statute."

"Activists?" Lelouch and Kallen both knew the difference between activists, people who generally went around vandalizing things for the sake of national pride, and terrorists, who went around killing people and committing violent acts for political reasons. But Lelouch knew that most Britannians considered them to be one and the same, and the only people who called them activists were generally supporters.

"Well." Kallen quickly thought of something. "My friends told me they weren't going around killing people, and that they were, well, not terrorists, I think." She ended lamely.

"Aw." He smiled at her. "I see. I was meaning to ask you something." Before he could continue he saw her friends waving to her. "Are those your friends over there."

"Huh?" She turned to see them. "Oh yeah." She didn't sound too happy about her gaggle of friends. "What did you want to ask me?"

"Oh nothing, I'll tell you after class. See you."

"Come on Kallen we gotta get to class." One of her friends started pulling her. "You can flirt later."

While Kallen denied flirting with him, Lelouch wondered if he ought to go to class or go nap again. "Napping, definitely napping."

* * *

><p>A short nap and one missed chem class later, Lelouch was back in the courtyard, blindly wandering around. <em>Too much time until next class, should have stayed in bed<em>. He thought yawning. He had finally gotten some good shuteye and definitely felt like he could face his next classes. Maybe. _At least I tied up some loose ends. If nothing else I have to show up for my last class and make sure Kallen's there_

While wandering and wondering about his plan, he noticed a brown headed boy cleaning his clothes in an outside sink. Underneath the stone awning he thought he saw..."Suzaku?"

He touched him on the shoulder, who flinched back as soon as that happened. "Lelouch? What are you doing here, shouldn't you be in class?" Suzaku said this inching up to put himself between Lelouch and his clothes.

"Ditching." Lelouch shamelessly admitted. "Are you?"

"No I don't have a class now, my last one ended early. You shouldn't be ditching Lelouch," Suzaku admonished and wagged his finger, "how do you expect to graduate?" He tried to stand tall but bent over as his stomach pain flared up again.

"By being me." Lelouch said holding him up with one arm. Suzaku instead gripped the wash and pried Lelouch's hand off. "Stomach still in pain?"

"Yeah. You're lucky to you never got shot." Lelouch just nodded, recollecting what he told Suzaku. _"some Japanese people heard the shot and started shooting where we were. The guy got hit and I managed to escape in the chaos."_ Whether Suzaku believed him just because he had no reason not to, or if he weren't in the best mood to be thinking about holes in his story Lelouch couldn't be certain. But he didn't pry.

"But enough about me," Lelouch took the offensive and peered around Suzaku's shoulder to see washed out Kanji, "what's this?" Lelouch already knew, but he wanted to see if Suzaku would say what he thought he would.

"Oh, nothing." Suzaku lied. Badly.

"I'm not the most fluent reader or speaker of Japanese," which was sort of the truth, "but if my memory serve me good is that 'Disgrace Japanese' written there?" Lelouch asked point blank.

"No." Lelouch stared at him, single eyebrow crooked upward. "It's actually 'Disgrace to Japanese' that someone wrote." Suzaku turned away and started scrubbing again. "Like I said, it's best if you and I aren't seen."

Lelouch just stood there for a few seconds, in silence. "You're an idiot."

"Huh?" The brown haired boy wasn't expecting _that_ response.

"Whether or not you think we should be seen together," Lelouch declared, "you're my friend and I'm not going to pretend we aren't just because some people might get upset, or even if it's dangerous for me."

Another period of silence hung over the two, Suzaku continued to scrub his shirt clean of the Kanji. "Class is starting soon." Suzaku said. "You should be getting to class."

"I know." He decided it was best now or never to ask. "Me and Nunnally are having a picnic in a couple of weeks. Do you want to come with?" Lelouch offered his friend. "Suzaku paused for a moment. When he turned he had a smile on his face. "No promises, but I'll ask my military superiors if I'm working that day."

"Alright." As he was walking away Lelouch shouted, "I'll text you the date later."

* * *

><p>During his last class of the day, Civics, Lelouch was called on to recite the methods of choosing educated rulers. A half muddled and yawning performance later he was told to sit down.<p>

"Wow Lelouch!" Rivalz said smiling. "That was terrible." Rivalz was also slacking off with him, both were playing cards underneath the table when the teacher wasn't looking. Lelouch was winning but slowly losing his edge, and cash.

"Shut up. Not like you could do better, I'm already passing so I don't care." The teacher evidently heard them and ordered them to shut up. "Sorry ma'am." They said, unintentionally, in unison.

As the class giggled, Kallen spied on Lelouch using a mirror to look back at him. _This guy, why was he talking to me earlier. And about the activists. Could he know? It could be a coincidence, but maybe he saw me, or is even the guy in the cloak._ As she slowly got out her mirror behind the book she was holding up, she saw him yawning some more and packing the cards away. Then he propped his head on his one arm and tried to sleep like that. _But probably not. Still, he stood up for that Japanese kid, so he can't be all bad._

She reviewed the facts. Lelouch Lamperouge lived with his disabled sister in a special building on campus. _Connections?_ He has no parents. He was on the student council. He spent a lot of time ditching class. He could be someone important bu-

*BZZZ* _Crap! Phone! _Some people around her were looking and turning in their seats to find the buzzing noise.

Technically it was her mobile radio that was buzzing, but she thought of the old thing as her secondary phone, given how much she used it.

"Excuse me, Teacher?" Kallen raised her hand. "My mother's calling me," she quickly came up with that as an excuse, "I think it may be important, may I?" She pointed outside the door. When the teacher nodded she power walked out of the classroom, making sure not to run and draw even more eyes.

"Hello." _The only person that can be calling me at school, on my mobile radio, has to be that man. _"Who is this?"

"_Who else?"_ Just as Kallen suspected, it was the man from two nights ago. _"What I need you to do is meet me Sunday night, 1900 hours sharp, on the school rooftop. Also, Ms. Kouzuki,_ her eyes widened at her name,_ keep a watch out for an announcement later today, something incredible is going to happen."_

"Hold on a minute!" To no avail, as the connection was cut. "Shit!"_ What has that? He called me just to tell me to wait for something? How is he able to mess with me so easily._ Stewing in her own anger for a minute, she peered back into the classroom, and saw Lelouch sleeping, oblivious to anything in the world. _Yeah there's no way that's him. _

Taking a minute to compose herself, she walked back in and thanked the teacher. Luckily no one asked her what happened and she sat back down. If she took a look back at Lelouch, she would have seen him smiling at his own expert timing and thespianism. If she looked and took note of him for a while she might have noticed a look of dread plastered on him.

For a minute she thought of asking him what he wanted earlier, but those thoughts were drown out by her worrying over the cloaked man.

* * *

><p>His helmet clenched on tightly, and walking a slow methodical stride, getting this deep into the Britannian military headquarters in Japan, was actually rather easy. There were a low amount of guards actually defending the place, most of the soldiers deployed out to take care of the Japanese terrorists, and anyone else in their way. The headquarters were designed with the of being a fortress, capable of withstanding attacks from the outside, thus the large amounts of firepower aimed outside. But infiltration? That was the key weakness here.<p>

A few applications of his Geass here and there, got him in much farther then he would have gotten without. In the distance, down the hall he was walking down, Lelouch could hear his half-brother shouting about blowing up Tokyo. "What are you waiting for Bartley? Move!"

As Bartley left Lelouch walked into the room, the door behind and to the left of Clovis's throne. "Hm," Clovis said noticing a masked soldier entering, "yes, what is it?"

No response. "Soldier I asked you a question, what is it?" Still nothing. Clovis banged his armrest and shouted, "Answer me you lout, why are you here?"

The masked man took off his mask. Seconds passed as Clovis's face passed from confusion, to realization, to horror, and finally to elation. "L-Lelouch? Is that you?"

_It couldn't be _he told himself_. My brother died here years ago. It can't be him. But, but,_ "It's really you?" He reached out to his brother.

And in response he had a gun pointed at him. Clovis froze at the sight of that. Lelouch's eye shone with a bird shaped sigil. "Obey my order's and answer my questions while keeping your mind." He put the gun back at his side after that.

For a moment Clovis felt a sense of vertigo. He lost all feeling in his arms, legs, everything. He heard someone say, "Yes my lord." A second later he realized he said that. "W-what was that."

"Call off your men and order them to treat the wounded and sick." Lelouch said dispassionately, his eye still burning with that strange symbol. Without any control over his body, the weightlessness coming back in, he reached for his transceiver and announced to everyone:

* * *

><p>"<em>Announcement to all units: This is Governor-General Clovis speaking. Cease all operations at once, including all troops firing and the destruction of all buildings. Treat all wounded persons found, Britannian and Eleven. Anyone violating this order will be court-martialed and shot for disobeying a direct order from the crown. Transmission over."<em>

Kallen, in a room of Japanese nearly about to be shot, was as confused as anyone. _No way, could this be what he was talking about._ She and her men were conducting an attempt to smuggle several groups of people away from the army. _What the hell did he do? Clovis ordered all these people killed just for being Japanese, and now he ordered them to treat them?_

"Alright you bastards." One of the Britannian men shouted. "Get over here and don't cause any ruckus, if I have to fire at one of you the rest are coming with them. There's no way I'm dying for one Eleven." Despite the mutual hostility and confusion, and the fact one of the groups were nearly shot, they followed the soldiers out of the room.

There wasn't any way out of the dank room, all the exits covered, so Kallen just laid low and followed in a group of people planning to sneak away as soon as she could. The implication that Clovis would order the wholesale slaughter of not just their people, but also his own for disobedience, terrified the Japanese. Those that that noticed the fear from the soldiers were sure if they should be afraid of them still, or to internally laugh at how even they feared Clovis

* * *

><p>He regained control of his body. "Lelouch, please stop." Clovis was breathing hard, his ability to retain his senses and the loss of control of them was making him sick and agitated. "What, what is that?"<p>

"The girl in the containment capsule, she gave me this power." At his dumbstruck expression Lelouch asked. "Did you know about this power? What she could give me?"

The sigil in Clovis's eye which signaled Lelouch's control burned in the blond man's eye. "I was informed by higher ups that she was immortal and she could be used for Britannia's greatness."

"Who are your higher ups?"

"They work for Schneizel. I was only give some information about what the Code R project did and what I could do to help." He answered. "I didn't really care about the minor details, only the results."

"Who killed my mother?" Lelouch already knew how he'd respond. He was sure of it, but wanted to test it. "Was it Schneizel?"

"I don't know who killed your mother, but I do know that Schneizel knows something about it."

_Damn. I'm no better then where I started. _A few seconds passed and the control over Clovis lapsed.

"Lelouch!" His brother exclaimed. "What is that power, what did you do to me?" He said panicking at the back and forth of his mind and body's autonomy.

"Before you die." _No, no please God_. "I want to get something off of my chest. The dead man tell no tales so it's best I give you everything I know." Lelouch stepped back slightly, his stone face turning into a grimace. "Even before I got my Geass, I've been feeling strange." He turned to look upwards.

"It's, it's something like, I don't know. Like premonitions and strange dreams. Giant machines, explosions killing millions, my own death. I saw other things I can't believe will happen. Things that didn't happen when they should." He looked up at Clovis. "But even as some things changed they still stayed the same. I saw my friend get shot, different time and place but for the same reason. I help out the Japanese escape from the army, but under completely different circumstances." He smiled. "And I saw myself killing you. For the many innocent lives you took. Just the first victim in my regicide quest. For what cause, for what purpose were you so cruel to the Japanese, brother?"

Despite both recognizing it as a rhetorical questions, his Geass activated and compelled Clovis to answer. "They are nothing but an inferior kind of human beings. It doesn't matter how many of them you kill. I feel as much compassion for killing a hundred Elevens as I do killing a hundred bugs." He replied honestly

Lelouch's hands, dripping with sweat before were now shaking in rage. Regardless he tried to continue "It's like my brain is being removed tiny strip by strip and being replaced. I feel like I'm going insane." His whole body was starting to quiver and sweat. "I'm honestly afraid I am insane. All this Geass, the activists, even the dreams are all just signs my brain is deteriorating and I'm trapped in it." He shook slightly and for a moment wondered if he should have done this at all. "All these visions slowly coming from my life now, from my death in a years time. I'm scared brother."

"Lelouch, please." He asked his brother, now calmer and trying to pry his way into his brothers heart. "I know it's been a rough few years, but can't we return it to the way it was? To the carefree days of our youth." That just made Lelouch laugh.

"I wish we could Clovis. Everyone does. But the past was only 'good' to us because we didn't have to face reality as the adults did. I learned that the hard way." He swept his free hand to the side, palm open and began shouting. "When out father tossed me and Nunnally aside to Japan as negotiation pawns I became an adult! When I had to guide my twice crippled sister through a war zone worrying every day we might day die, I knew there was never going to be a chance to even _consider _turning back!"

He calmed down quickly but continued talking "This nation has become my own. I am of ethnic Britannian descent, but I hold no more allegiance to the mother country. I will free Japan, and one day the world, from Britannia's grip." He punctuated his statement by clenching his hand.

Profusely uncomfortable with the way things have turned out, and long quit hoping someone would show up, Clovis was speechless. He had nothing left to say. His brothers words, his tone, the fact he was ready to shot him and could control him, all left him hopeless.

"I will destroy Britannia," Lelouch announced, as a statement of fact, and with his voice returning to a calm and steady pitch he continued, "starting with you. Clovis la Britannia, Governor General of occupied Japan and 3rd Prince of the throne, for the crime of mass murder of the Japanese people I hereby find you guilty." And without giving him a chance to beg for his life, Lelouch shot him once in the chest. He turned away and whispered a small goodbye to Clovis.

_Brother. You were always a hot tempered kid. You'd scream and cry every time you lost and didn't get your way, but you weren't evil. But whether you were raised like this, or this is how you naturally were, it doesn't matter. I'm sorry it had to be this way. Goodbye._

* * *

><p>By the time Kallen arrived Lelouch had been staring at the distance for nearly an hour, lost in thought. He wondered why he had confessed his strange dreams to Clovis, why he felt the need to tell someone at all. But regardless he felt better. When he heard footsteps coming closer and closer he knew who it was.<p>

"I came here just as you told me to." She announced.

"Do you ever come here and look at the skyline Kallen?" He asked. His voice sounded diffrent in two ways. One it sounded vaguely synthesized. Two he was speaking to her in Japanese rather then English like before.

"Not really." She confessed, not sure where he was going with this.

"It's terrible don't you think?" He threw his right arm outward. "On the right you have the thriving new metropolis and the economic heart of the region, built with bleached bone and cleansed with the blood of the masses. Where all the rich and privileged Britannians live and play."

He threw his left arm outward. "On the left is the ghettos, where the Japanese have been caged in after the war and made to dance around the destruction that comes daily of their homes, their lives, and their future. All because of Britannia, our enemy."

"What exactly are you trying to say? Are you telling me..." Before she could continue Lelouch made his claim.

"I want to destroy Britannia, and I'll need allies to help me on the way." He tossed her a brooch over his shoulder, something he pilfered from Clovis's belongings. Rather small, about a few inches long and wide. It was a small golden thing, held a lion face, and a hanging cross off of it.

"If you think I'm not serious, take the late Governor-Generals badge as a memento of my resolve. Keep it with you and remember I am your ally to the bitter end."

"Late Governor-General? You mean, you killed him? Clovis?" She asked amazed at his claim, if it were true she'd find out soon enough, there was no way they could keep something like this under wraps. "How can I be your ally if you won't show me your face? What's the point of all this subterfuge?"

"_Attention students of Ashford Academy, we have unfortunate news to tell you. The Governor General of Area 11, his majesty Prince Clovis has be reported to have died today..."_

At that moment Lelouch threw away his cloak revealing, "Zero. That is my name, my identity. I am a symbol of freedom, more then a man in the eyes of the people but still of them. I am the leader of the Black Knights. I am the hero to the weak and downtrodden, and I am the man who will liberate Japan and bring down the Britannian Empire. Now," extended his hand he offered, "will you join me Kallen?"

Elsewhere, watching the meeting, a lime haired figured smirked. "Well," she said as Kallen shook hands with 'Zero', "This will be interesting."

* * *

><p>Bit of a shorter chapter this week. The story has gotten over 500 views, 5 favorites, and 12 followers, which is cool. I'm a bit surprised there have been zero (heh) reviews since last week. Just a little surprised at that considering everything else has grown.<p> 


	4. Guilty until Proven Expendable

Here's where the manga chapters start getting shorter, about half as long from the first 4. I'm probably going to be merging a lot of them from here on in and diverging even more from the source material(s).

* * *

><p>"Are you sure you're OK Lulu?" Milly whispered.<p>

Lelouch groaned. "For the last time Milly, I'm good." The two were sitting in the clubhouse, sitting on one side of the long table. Rivalz was spacing out on the other side, Nina on her computer doing whatever Nina did, and Shirley bringing in paperwork the student council needed to fill out from a few other rooms.

Earlier in the day Milly told him she had something she wanted to talk about something. It took Lelouch an embarrassingly long amount of time to realize she was talking about Clovis. "It's been years since I even spoke to him, it's not a big deal." Lelouch mumbled. He really wished she didn't bring it up.

"Alright." Milly backed down. "But I want to talk to Nunnally later and see how she's doing. Got it?" She asked, well told, Lelouch, who just nodded. "Anyways, how's the work coming?" Milly was surprised that today of all days, a school holiday due to Lelouch's brother being killed, was the day he and Rivalz showed up bright and early to do their work.

"Fine." Lelouch held up his small stack of paperwork, several left to be signed and mostly done. "I think we'll be done by lunch."

Milly smiled at that. "And all because you two," her voice held a barely noticeable edge to it, "decided to show up." Rivalz heard that and snapped back to doing his work, knowing just who Milly was referring to.

A long period of silence passed in the classroom, the sounds of scribbles, paper shuffling, and computer noises providing miniscule. Lelouch sighed. "Is it too late to resign and find an easier club?" He asked.

"Yep!" Milly beamed. "Till death or graduation do us part." Lelouch sighed again, while Rivalz and Shirley giggled. "Less frivolity, more working!" Milly commanded.

More silence passed. Lelouch wondered why he came in this morning instead of ditching with Rivalz, who had begged him not to go. It was partially out of a desire to finish up his obligations to the club, but even more so he wanted just to be around his friends. While his bizarre dreams had stopped, for now, he felt in their absence a sense of homesickness like when he first arrived to Japan.

"Lulu?" Shirley asked. "You're scowling. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just out of sorts." He replied. "Haven't been getting a lot of sleep recently." Which was true.

"Is it those weird dreams you've been having?" Rivalz asked, not realizing it was just the wrong thing to say.

Lelouch's eyes nearly popped out of his head, and him nearly popping out of his seat. "Rivalz!" _What the hell man, don't just announce it to the world. _"Dude!"

"What did I do?" He threw up his hands in defense.

"Weird dreams?" Shirley asked, her and Milly staring at the blue haired boy. "What do you mean Rivalz?" Milly leaned over and asked "Come on, spill Lelouch's dirty secrets!"

"Uh, well." He tried to dodge the question as best he could and bucked it to Lelouch. "Your problem man, you tell them."

_One of these days Rivalz, one of these days. _"It's nothing, just some bad dreams that I've been having on and off." He glared at Rivalz. "Something I told _you_ in confidence."

"Hey you didn't make it seem so secret!" Rivalz shot back. "You just brought it up out of nowhere all casual like and just left it there like it was no big deal! How was I supposed to know it was some big thing that no one's supposed to know about it?" Lelouch wanted to contest his argument, but Rivalz was sort of right. Not that he'd admit that.

"Lelouch." Shirley leaned in over the table, and asked, "What's wrong? Tell us, c'mon." _When did she become so prying?_ He could understand Milly doing it, the blonde had little if any sense of personal space, but Shirley?

_God damn it Rivalz._ "It's, ugh, just personal stuff." All of them, even Nina tucked away in the corner, were staring at him. "It's nothing really." He was getting really agitated, like everyone was about to hold him down and vivisect him. "What!" He finally shouted. "What do you want from me!?"

"Lelouch, you don't have to be embarrassed about it." Milly said carefully. "All of us suffer from bad nights. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"I'm not ashamed of anything, I just want my privacy respected."

"Come on we won't tell." Milly said taking the offense. "Right guys."

"Yes ma'am" "Uh-huh" "You got it Ms. President." They all replied in turn. Apparently the were so bored from the work that harassing him was the only source of entertainment they could find

_Doesn't look like I'll be able to weasel my way out of this one._ Lelouch briefly considered using his Geass, but dismissed that under the idea he might need to save it against them for later. "Like I said, it's personal." He grit his teeth and after a moment got up to leave. "I'm going home, later." He said quickly and departed.

"Where are you going?" Milly shouted as he left. "We still got work to do." No response. _Maybe I pushed him a little to far?_

"It was probably a bad idea to bring that up?" Rivalz asked. Before anyone said anything, Milly darted off for Lelouch. "Milly, don't tell me you're ditching us too!"

"Lelouch!" Milly caught him down the hall from the council 'headquarters' and stopped him there. "Hold on a minute."

He sighed at that. "For the last time Milly I don't want to talk about it, it's nothing."

"I understand that but," she paused looking for the right words, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pried so much. I know how you can get when people try to force their way in." He didn't say anything for a bit, so she pressed on. "Nut you know you can trust us right? You don't have to hide stuff from us?" She said all this gripping his hand, making sure he wouldn't escape before answering her. She wasn't sure what he was going to say or do in response.

She didn't expect him to smile however. "I know Milly, like I said I don't think my weird dreams are anything important, just a lack of sleep and probably from staying up so much." He was lying through his teeth and he knew it, and was desperately hoping she'd accept what he said. "I'm sorry too for storming out like that. But I really just don't think my nighttime delusions are a big deal." Again he was lying as best he could, hoping to end the conversation quickly.

"If that's true then why were you so jumpy in there?" Milly asked, holding him like a tiger holds on to prey. "I understand if you want your privacy, but you were kind of acting a _little_ suspicious." If nothing else, she was right.

"I kind of felt like everyone was on my back." They stared at each other for a bit. "I should apologize to the others huh?"

"Either way you're going back to work and you're going to like it young man." She said faux-haughtily. "But if you want, I won't ask you about this topic for now and I'll get the others to back off." He sighed one more time and accepted his fate, although he was glad she dropped the matter, for now.

* * *

><p>Later in the day, far after they had finished with their work at the council, Lelouch and Milly headed to his house. Wanting to follow up and see how Nunnally was doing, eventually they got away from the serious topic of Clovis (who Nunnally barely remembered) and turned their girls discussion into a small girls night in. Even Sayoko got in on the fun with them.<p>

While a bit annoyed how the living room was turned into a fashion parlor, Lelouch was glad Nunnally had some more company then him and Sayoko. He had long since tuned out of their discussion and just watched the TV half-awake. Flipping through the channels he narrowly caught something, a familiar image.

"Hey guys be quiet for a second." The TV showed a large group of people gathered around a much smaller contingent. The screen showed a LIVE feed on the top right and the reporter started talking again.

"The identity of the lead suspect in Lord Clovis's murder has been released by acting-Governor General Jeremiah Gottwald_." What the hell?_ Lelouch thought. _What is the Britannian military up to now?_ Lelouch had this sinking feeling in his stomach, like everything was about to go bad really quick.

"According to the government report, the criminal was former Japanese and Honorary Britannian, Private Suzaku Kururugi." As soon as she said his name, the cameras zoomed into the boy in question. Dressed in a straight jacket, and visibly in pain, likely from his gunshot wound, he looked far less like the accused killer they claimed him to be.

"Oh no." Nunnally said cupping her hands over her mouth. "There's no way Suzaku could have done that. Right?"

"Of course Nunnally." Milly said holding onto the younger girls hand. "It must be some kind of mistake, there's no way Suzaku could have done that." The older girl had a sour look on her face, Lelouch figured she was trying to hold back some scathing comment about the military or Britannia at large. "Right Lelouch?"

"Yeah." He went to Nunnally's side and got on one knee. "Don't worry, I'm sure Suzaku will be cleared of this soon enough." While she gave him a small smile, he could tell she was troubled by this. "I'll be right back OK?"

For reason's he couldn't quite explain, he went upstairs to his room. Almost as if reading a script and knowing the plot demanded he go here, he followed his instinct and found the green haired girl sitting in his bed, eating pizza from a box on his bed.

"Hello," she said calmly, as if this were her room, "things are getting quite hectic aren't they?"

"You knew about Suzaku being arrested?" He knew she was going to be here, he _knew_ she was going to be here. That, more then anything, freaked him out.

"Perhaps. I can't say the military doing something rash to preserve their own image is a unique endeavor to Britannia. You of all people should know that considering how we met."

"Lady, I-" Lelouch sighed and turned around, "wait a minute, I need to clear out my house real quick."

* * *

><p>"You've met with a terrible fate haven't you?" Despite his student about to be executed for a crime he didn't commit, Lloyd was pretty cheerful. To him to made no sense to be even <em>more<em> depressing in the eyes of his student, so why not lighten his mood? "If it weren't for the internal squabbling of the military, I guarantee you wouldn't be in this position."

"You think I've been set up just so they'll save face." Sitting on the floor, his arms tied behind his back, for the last six hours meant that Lloyd's appearance was the shining light of Suzaku's day. Well more like a desktop light then anything else.

"Pretty much. It doesn't help your gun was missing, and that his _brilliant_ majesty was shot, alone and unguarded, with a military grade one of the same caliber." Lloyd was far from earshot of any of the guards, so he felt safe mocking the dead prince.

"I will admit that does look bad. I still don't know where it is. Do you think they took it from me when I was dropped off at the school?"

"Probably. No doubt it's lost in the confines of the bureaucracy. Even if they found it and it was capable of proving you innocent, I doubt the Purist boss Gottwald would allow it."

"Do you know him?" Suzaku was curious how Lloyd, a pretty silly man, knew about the internal politics of the military. Then again he was surprised Lloyd was in the military to begin with so really he'd be shocked at anything Lloyd did.

"I know of him, but from everyone I've heard he's a conniving piece of work. Should you some be cleared of this by our fair and unbiased judicial system, I'd recommend avoiding him."

"Is there any hope for me sir?"

For the first time Lloyd's smile faltered. "I'm afraid not my boy, your only hope would be the real murder confessing to it on live TV."

* * *

><p><em>"Explain this to me one more time." <em>

_"Basically, I'm going to rescue Suzaku, embarrass the Britannians, and establish the Black Knights as a credible force." He laid out his plan once more, but simplified for his room's invader. "It's going to be big and gaudy."_

_Well Lelouch, you better keep true to your promise. _C.C. thought. Sitting in the courtyard, a good distance away from the spectacle the military was making of Suzaku, she could see the action from a perfectly angled mega-TV. _Show me how big and gaudy you can get._

The camera's were making a big sweep of the gathered crowds, and the reporter was speaking of how dearly the people bayed for the blood of their "beloved" Clovis. On a large military tank Suzaku was tied to a chair, two armed guards on either side of him. Down on the streets the Britannians jeered him about Clovis, his Eleven status, and even calling him inhuman.

In the limousine that the tank was following, Jeremiah felt pretty content with himself. Lazing on his left arm, he thought to himself how brilliant his whole plan was. _Throwing the blame on an Honorary Britannian and quickly responding to the murder of a state official, truly a masterfully stroke of work I've done. _He wondered who would replace him, as his short tenure of acting-Governor General was soon to end. He wondered if they would send a prince or princess to lead Area Eleven.

Just then he noticed the limo stopped. Peaking out the window he saw a truck interrupting the processions. He climbed out, armed, and shouted, "Who is this? Vacate the premises immediately or be arrested for interfering with national affairs!" No reply. "We are armed and will not hesitate if you don't move!"

Just as he said that, the trucks sides unhinged, and revealed a man in black alongside some kind of hidden spherical object under a large cloth. The man in black, with a strangely shaped helmet, announced, "I am Zero."

The reporter immediately started speculating. "Could these people be the terrorists who have plagued Prince Clovis for the past several months? While there is no mention of any Zero character in our databases, many of the terrorists were single man jobs and often were not identified even in large numbers."

The trucks driver, listening to the radio coverage as she was at ground zero of the thing, was shaking profusely. _Can we really rescue someone under these conditions? If we fail, not only will Kururugi die, but so will we. _She swallowed what felt like a pound of copper and tried to calm herself. _It's ok, Zero promised he would be able to rescue him and without any casualties._ She thought back to their second encounter, and his declaration he'd save the man who'd been framed for his crime. _I just have to believe, I just have to believe._

Not wasting a single moment, Jeremiah aimed his gun at Zero. "Listen here Zero, get down on the ground and remove your mask or I will shoot." Instead of heeding his words, Zero let off a small laugh. "You think I'm joking."

"No Margrave, I have no doubt you'd shoot if you could." The mans eyebrow rose at the last word. "I have no doubt you'd risk your own life, but tell me," Zero removed the cloth covering the device next to him, "would you risk the lives of all these people?"

The realization that next to this Zero character was a, possibly active, gas canister, nearly made Jeremiah drop his gun. "Is, is that a-" He was shaking so hard he couldn't even finish. "Where the hell did you get that."

Underneath the mask Lelouch smiled. Jeremiah, despite his temporary position as the boss of all of occupied Japan, did not know everything privy to the royal house. While Zero knew the thing was a bluff and it was used to carry C.C., everyone else didn't. "It is indeed a gas canister. Now someone like me is already equipped to handle such a sudden release of toxins. But you? This crowd of civilians? Even your men, with their respirators, aren't equipped for this particular concoction.

Jeremiah grit his teeth. He wanted to counter his claims, say that his men would be able to withstand the attack. But he knew their suits were only meant to handle things like dust and debris inhalation, not heavy duty chemical warfare. "I-" He could hear the people wondering what the "generator" was. _Damn it, they don't know what's going on. No, that's a good thing. They won't panic and I can buy some more time if they just stay there. _"What do you want?" Jeremiah finally gave up his stall and asked.

"Why a simple trade my good Margrave." Zero said extending his arm outward, in front of the canister. "My device for the falsely accused Japanese."

"Falsely accused? Are you claiming that Private Kururugi is not the perpetrator." _Shit, can this get any worse._

"Correct. You see I know this because," he turned to address the crowd, "I am the one guilty of regicide! It was I, Zero, who slew Clovis." He announced.

In an instant, the crowd transformed from rowdy and inquisitive, to chocked and silent about Zero. "This guy killed Zero?" "No way!" "How could he have done it"

"I think that the exchange is very beneficial on all sides. You save the Britannians, an innocent man is set free, and my profile is even further increase." That last statement had Jeremiah gritting his teeth in rage. "I'll even keep your involvement in the Orange affair a secret, as an added bonus."

Now that statement threw everyone for a loop. The troops, the civilians, and Jeremiah himself. "What the hell are you talking about."

"Now, now." Zero said waving down his concerns. "Don't be so eager, I'm sure the shame of that incident would be far more humiliating then letting me walk off with Private Kururugi. Now," his masks eyehole opened and his Geass activated, "so let us go and don't allow anything to stop that."

A few moments for the Geass to set in and he complied. "Fine, take him and get out of here."

One of Suzaku's guards protested this. "Sir! We can't do that!"

"Don't question me damn it! Obey your orders and prevent any unnecessary bloodshed." 'Of Britannians' was the unspoken, but understood, part of his order.

The two guards literally threw Suzaku over to Zero, who went and immediately activated the canister. In the ensuing chaos, with Jeremiah holding off his men from firing on them, the truck began to move and it's side returned to normal upon start-up. The diversion gave them ample time to escape into the ghetto.

"You, Zero." Suzaku called out. "Was that canister..." Lelouch was so giddy with success he almost didn't even notice Suzaku's comment.

Zero turned to him and explained. "It was an empty one we refashioned, with a non-toxic smokescreen inside it." He went over and slashed the back of his straps holding his arms together. "I bet you're wondering why I killed Clovis, and why I rescued you."

"I am." Suzaku turned to him. Even in the dark Lelouch could see he had been roughed up, numerous scraps and bruises were on his face.

"Part of it was just my own humanity, how could I let an innocent man die for my crimes, but another party was my own vanity."

Suzaku squinted at Zero's words. "Vanity?"

Lelouch chuckled at his reaction. "I couldn't stand someone else taking the glory of slaying Clovis, a tyrant who oppressed the people and stomped out their lives as if they were dogs." He bend over Suzaku. "Like the army was about to do with you."

The truck abruptly stopped, and the sides opened again.

"It looks like you've been pretty roughed up Private Kururugi, I don't assume you have anymore naive expectations about what military service and internal politics are like?"

"I don't."

"And I presume you don't have any expectations of joining the Black Knights?"

"I don't." His eyes shone with a particular strength behind them. "I know you might find it foolish, but I want to change the system from within."

"I understand." Suzaku was surprised at that. "You're an idiot." Even more surprised at _that_. "But it takes all kinds to change the world. I truly wish some things could be reformed and not have to be torn down, but such is the way of the world." Zero mused. "I wish you the best of luck Private Kururugi, but be warned." He unveiled a gun. "Once you become a hassle to me I won't hesitate to end your life." And he put it away. "Godspeed."

Without saying a word, without really knowing how to reply, Suzaku left back for the city.

"Um sir?" Kallen called out from the front of the truck, having heard the whole conversation. "Are you sure that was a wise decision?"

"You can't force people to join you, you have to let them come. I know in due time he will abandon Britannia."

"Really?" She asked unconvinced. "He seems pretty loyal, like a dog that keeps getting kicked by it's master." Her tone exemplified what she said about him, and neither were at all positive.

Lelouch actually got a chuckle out of that. "Indeed, his loyalty will be what turns him against Britannia." When Kallen looked at him puzzled, he went on. "My plan is really just an extrapolation of what I know and what I'm hoping to happen. I won't do anything myself, indeed Suzaku's own conflicted heart will be his main downfall, and our best tool."

* * *

><p>Ooga booga foreshadowing!<p>

But in all seriousness I feel like the next few chapters are going to be more and more original, more divergent, and more interesting as a result. Until then, try and guess what Lelouch's "plan" will be.


	5. Explanations

If you're wondering what took so long for this to be updated, read the note at the bottom.

* * *

><p>In the early hours of the night, mere days after the Reveal of Zero as some members of the media have taken to calling it, walked two men. In the cover of night, and the safety of the Britannian urban settlement, they discussed their plans for the next few days. The old man, about in his late fifties, his fading gray hair accentuating his age, asked, "You sure the payment will go through?"<p>

His smiling compatriot, younger by about a decade and a pure brunette, replied with a chuckle. "Of course, until the new governor arrives the military is going to be more worried about inside problems. They won't notice a few batches of refrain coming into the country without proper oversight."

Their leather hard shoes causing the only sounds in the night, both kept a watch out in case of muggers or informants behind the street corners. "It's the whole Gottwald thing isn't it?" The gray man stopped to take out a smoke. "How'd that punk get in power then fuck up so bad? My drunken step-son could have handled that Zero and his Eleven friends easily." He grumbled, taking back a long drag.

"I've met Floyd, and I don't think that's far too off." They both had a chuckle at the idea. The last time he'd seen Floyd was passed out drunk in his associate's bathtub. "But yeah the deals going to be finished ahead of time. The shipments coming in tomorrow and it should be out of our hands before the new boss arrives."

"Good, good." The older man nodded. "You made sure to get rid of our paper trail?"

"Yeah, I dumped it in with a lot of old paperwork that's being tossed and burned" The brunette said proud of his forward thinking. "Any ways, do you know who's going to be the new Governor-General?"

"I do." Both flinched at the voice in the dark, a street away. Spitting out his cigarette, the gray haired man whipped out his gun faster then would be assumed for someone his age. "Who's there? Come out now!" He shouted into, as far as he could see, nothingness.

Both of them had the same thought when they heard that voice, the synthesized laugh that came across the empty street reinforced their belief. "I'd put that down if I were you, Tristan." He asked the slightly grey man. Tristan grit his teeth at the sound of his name, furious he was trying to be played, and spat out, "I don't think your in a position to be making deman-" before he could finish, Kallen appeared and kicked the gun out of his hand.

Stepping back Tristan heard several steps out of the shadows, and saw at least three laser sights on him. The Black Knights had been tailing them, keeping a far enough distance that the two wouldn't notice them despite their minor attempts to watch out.

"Tristan Joans, and Albert Marcus, what are two respected members of the government doing dealing drugs like petty crooks?" Zero's voice came in clear, even though they could only make out a vague shape from their position. His infamous mask looked more menacing and sharp then on the television.

"What do you want? Money? We got plenty, but we can't pay you if were dead and the military isn't going to help." The younger man, now identifiable as Albert begged. "If you let us go we'll pay any price."

"I don't want money from you," Zero said, "I want information. What has been happening inside the government since my feature debut?" His gun put away, Zero leaned back against the wall and casually crossed his legs standing. "Well?"

_The hell?_ The way Zero said it made Joans think of the incident a few nights ago like a pop star appearing for their first show, and that almost made him start laughing. Definitely not the best thing to do when you had guns pointed at you. "The Emperor was apoplectic, he's been sending the purists to every corner of the world as punishment for their embarrassment."

"I figured as much. Tell me, as I asked before, what are two members of the legislative assembly doing pushing refrain?" While neither man could see well, the only lights on the street being a few feet away, they could see some grunts and clenching of hands. "We've just been doing what every other noble and businessman does!" Marcus explained. "It's just business, people want a product and we supply it."

"Of course you'd say something like that." Zero said mockingly. "Tell me one more thing." Unbeknownst to everyone but himself, Zero smiled under his mask. "Which of Candida li Britannia's daughters are coming to replace Clovis?"

"Euphemia. Her sister's off fighting in Indochina front. How did you know one of those two were coming here?" The elderly man asked. He figured if they were going to die he might as well get some answers.

Instead he got a closer look at Zero, as he stepped toward the two. "Because I am a man of many talents, one of which is the power of insight." With that non-answer he stepped back. "Gentlemen," He extended his arms outward, almost like he was going to hug them from that distance, "would you prefer a shot to the head or to the chest?"

"What!?" "Wait give us a chance please!" Both begged to no avail.

"So you don't care? Good, I don't either." He snapped his fingers and his soldiers opened fire, killing the two men. "Good job everyone." He applauded, literally, and turned to leave. "We'll be busting their shipment of refrain soon enough." He announced to the joy of his henchmen

Ougi called out to Zero. "Sir, should we do anything about the bodies?" The two men were splayed out over the pavement, bleeding out of various parts.

"No, leave them as is." He looked down at the two, "This will spread even more paranoia among the upper echelon." The idea that Clovis, even with his lackadaisical security, was assassinated had been a huge blow to Britannia's image. But the idea that no one, not even the minor members of the royalist government, were safe from terrorists like Zero, would cause fear and paranoia to eat them out like a rot.

"Make sure you all are prepared for Tuesday night. This drug bust will be a propaganda coup the media won't be able to spin against us." As they departed, most knowing some kind of way around the checkpoints and security, Kallen tagged behind Zero for a bit. "Sir, are you sure I shouldn't go with you guys?" She asked hesitantly.

"Now, now Kallen," he admonished, "I can't have you keep skipping school, especially with your new role as student council member. How else are you going to graduate."

"My grades are just fine!" She protested. "Also, not to intrude sir," she evidently felt uncomfortable asking, "how did you know about that?" She had been approached by Lelouch the day after Suzaku was freed by Zero on the subject of her grades. Even through see had special waivers due to her sickness, she still needed to join a club. And with how late it was it was either that or a sports one.

He gave a small chuckle. "You'd be amazed how many Britannians in this part of Japan hate the 'motherland', and how many are willing to help me out either in money or information." When she stared at him, wordlessly pressing on, he continued.

"The Ashfords for one are a group thrown out by the Emperor himself." He said as he walked onward with her. "While they pine for their glory days as an aristocratic house, they aren't unwilling to help out the Japanese people, or even sponsor those willing to humiliate the imperial family. So long as they aren't directly implicated of course." He admitted.

Kallen gulped at that revelation. While she knew Milly's family used to be important, and ran the school, she didn't imagine they'd be behind things like backing terrorists. "So how did you come into contact with them?" She paused for a moment. "And does that mean they know of my identity?" The idea of a large group of people knowing what she was really doing filled her with a nauseous dread.

"Why through the old Japanese clans." He said. "Even if they've fallen in stature since the invasion, they still hold tremendous capital, knowledge, and contacts." As they turned into an alleyway, and opening a secret hole in the wall, he explained as such. "This is why Britannia tends to co-opt the existing power structure, letting them keep their power and privilege at the cost of their countrymen." Zero explained, revealing to her a glimpse into Britannian policy.

The room the entered lead all the way out of the settlement and into the ghettos, where most of the resistance members could escape. "There are also some students whose parents are members of anti-Britannian groups, usually the lesser clans, so me being able to keep an eye on them is," he paused to come up with the right word, "well I don't want to say _blackmail_, but it's insurance that the lives of their children won't be jeopardized by their reckless actions. The Ashfords desperately want to keep their involvement with Japanese forces hush-hush. So it wouldn't be good if their students were related to anti-Britannian forces. Or worse, the _students_ are the ones causing problems. "

At that moment Kallen started to wonder how deep Zero's connections went. The old clans, Ashford academy, what else?

"So the clans, they push everyone down, but keep some of them afloat with bribery?" Kallen sourly replied, thinking back on his words of how Britannia kept the clans in "power." Kallen sat down for a moment to think. And Lelouch was glad, even though it was just a brisk walk, he was tired and didn't want to climb down into the sewers just yet. "How can people do that?" She muttered.

"A love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It was true when Paul wrote it, and it stands true even today." He mused. Kallen stared at him weirdly. "Is something the matter?"

Apparently she didn't notice she was staring, or didn't notice _he_ noticed, and flinched back. "Oh no sir, I just something forget how philosophical you can get."

"It's my boisterous qualities that impede the visage of a philosophical man isn't it?" He asked dejected?

"Uh, yes?" She wasn't really sure how to answer that.

"You don't know what I said do you?"

Flushing she turned away. "Kind of?"

He sighed. "And this, Kallen, is why I'm making sure you stay in school."

* * *

><p>The next time Kallen saw Lelouch was, again, him sleeping in class. <em>That guy I swear, can't he sleep at home?<em>

While fuddling with her mirror, the teacher called him and asked if he was paying attention. "Yes ma'am." The speed from him snoozing to him paying attention was actually incredibly quick.

_I have to wonder, _Kallen thought as Lelouch sleepily drifted through his answer, _why is he always so sleeping? I spend a lot of nights out and you don't see me sleeping through my classes._ She figured it was just his lackadaisical attitude that all the rich schoolboys in this school held to some degree.

Meanwhile, after finishing his answer, Lelouch returned to his seat and started to talking with Rivalz. "So what else we have to do today?" He asked lazing back in his chair.

"Not much." The blue haired schoolboy said. "I think there's going to be a royal visiting the school."

That certainly got Lelouch's attention. "Really?" _There's no way._ "Do you know who it's going to be." He whispered.

Rivalz shook his head. "Just rumors that someones going to visit. You'd think the student council would hear something about that if it were happening?"

"Yeah, probably." _I need to talk to Milly immediately. If it's Euphie or Cornelia that are coming here, I need to find out _now_._

* * *

><p>The one day Lelouch actually wanted to see his blonde upperclassmen, he couldn't find her. The rest of the student council didn't know where she was. What he did find was far more interesting: Suzaku. While Lelouch overheard some people gossiping about him earlier, and him being released from confinement, a lot of them still held the idea that he was Clovis's killer, and involved with Zero.<p>

What was interesting at first was when he saw the Student Self Defense Force actually defending him. Hiding behind a wall Lelouch tried to make out what they were saying.

"For the last time," the injured blonde leader said, "I don't care what you think. The courts cleared Mr. Kururugi and that's final." With his good hand he pointed to the apparent leader of the harassers. "So back off or we'll arrest all of you."

Despite having around the same amount of manpower, and looking far less injured, the other boys backed off, glaring daggers at the student army.

"Um." Suzaku wasn't quite sure how to respond to this. So he settled for a simple, "Thank you." He didn't know why the former schoolboy thugs were going around defending Japanese students, but he would take what he got.

"We're the Student Self Defense Force. We defend everyone, Britannian or otherwise." Despite the blond boys words he didn't look too happy at them.

Content his Geass had actually did something good for once, Lelouch decided to leave before they saw him. Suzaku meanwhile continued on his way, lost in thought. Happy he was cleared of his accusations, he still felt angry it had to be the way it was.

_That Zero guy..._The image of a masked crusader (terrorist?) railing against Britannia had a certain appeal to Suzaku. Like an old school superhero. He shook his head of that. _No, he's just a gnat who can't even break the skin of the empire. The only way to change things will be through-_

Before finishing his thought he was ran into. Jolted out of his thoughts, he saw a pink haired girl. And little did he know this would be the most momentous person he would knock over in his life.

* * *

><p>Alright, you can see the chapter is a lot shorter, and I'm about a week late with this. Vacation is over for me, and so I have to get out of my hibernation and return to life. As much as I wanted to do a chapter a week, things are going to be more random from know on. I'll try to keep a once a week schedule but I make no promises.<p>

I'm not abandoning the story, I hate when people start something and get let it die, but updates are coming at a much slower pace from here on in. I hope you've been enjoying it so far, and stay until the end.


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Code Geass, Adventure, Drama