Madame, Monsieur, bonsoir ...
Welcome, welcome to the world that shakes in its foundations, as one who would be King is risen again.
My friend hath ventured back to the place where his resolve was forged, his plans still nebulous in their infancy.
Patience, my friend. Patience. You who share with me the aeons, the value thereof is not lost to you, nor is it too dear a price to pay for one to whom payment means naught.
We step forward into a new age, though chance and happenstance, where old acquaintances meet and pains are revisited.
The girl who would give power, and the one who would receive it. We know that one well.
My friend, the stage of destiny is set.
Show to those who would avoid retribution your heart of hearts.
Let them gaze upon it as they lie, dying, in a gutter of their own creation.
---
0^2:To sit upon the frozen throne
a Code Geass/Gankutsuou fic
by Griever
---
one: Suzaku of the Rebellion
It wasn't the flash, or the sound that arrived first in his mind. No, instead, it was the smell. Spilled blood on spent gunpowder.
Then came the rest.
Prior to this, he'd been a rookie. His scores exemplary, but lacking sorely in experience. This had been a chance for him to prove himself, and to start on that one endeavor that he'd set for himself when Area 11 had still been known as Japan. It was his life. The atonement for his sin.
What had started as a simple recovery of a stolen chemical weapon, and his first combat deployment, had turned into something far, far more grave before his eyes.
Kururugi Suzaku had known Lelouch Vi Britannia.
Once.
As the sounds of gunfire faded off into the distance of the abandoned subway tunnel, and the bodies of Britannian soldiers fell limply to the ground under the cold gaze of those purple eyes, he realized that this person whom he had once and would still called friend was far from the same.
Then the truck that lay crippled behind the school uniform clad Lelouch lurched, and before he knew what was happening they were running, the three of them - himself, Lelouch, and the green-haired girl who'd supposedly been a 'chemical weapon' - the ceiling of the tunnel collapsing in the wake of the truck's detonation from, most likely, a self-destruct charge.
And, to sunlight filtering through curtains, soft linens and the smell of freshly brewed tea, and gentle sounds of harp strings being plucked did Kururugi Suzaku awake with a startled gasp.
***
"Yes, it was a mostly ... impulsive decision," Lelouch said. "I'm sorry if it inconveniances you. If you wish, we will depart within the hour."
"You're getting ahead of yourself, I think," she replied, sitting back against the heavy mahogany desk. "After all, you were hardly identified ... you've gone to enough lengths to avoid that, don't think I don't remember."
"Is that simply your opinion, then?"
"It's the opinion that matters to you, right now," he was informed. "I dare say that this _is_ my area of influence, Lelouch. Humble as it may be. My lord."
"Tsk," the young man shook his head. "What would your family say?"
"They would say I do my duty as a retainer of the rightful scion to the Ashford family, Lulu. You know that much," Milly Ashford, Ashford Academy Student Council President, official heir of said family, replied.
"Mm. I suppose ..."
A knocking on the office door interrupted whatever he was about to say.
"Yes? What is it?"
The door opened, allowing a dark-haired young man in the same school uniform as Lelouch was wearing inside.
"Though you might know, your guest's awake, boss."
Lelouch nodded, thoughtfully, then folded his hands behind his back and cast one last glance outside the window that made up most of the wall opposite the door.
The campus of Ashford Academy stretched out below, peaceful and aesthetically pleasing to the eye, with students and teachers going on about their duties seemingly oblivious to the world outside its walls.
"Thankyou, Rivalz," he said a moment later. "We'll pick this up another time, then? I'm sorry for the interruption, but ..."
"Oh, go on now, we know how you get," the blond girl laughed faintly. "Do remember you still need to attend classes, no matter what extracurriculars you take, Mr. Vice-President."
"I'll keep that in mind," Lelouch responded as he strode out, purposefully.
"Maaaan ... he's been that spaced-out since he came back dragging the Eleven along," Rivalz commented as Lelouch exited. "It's annoying."
"Well, he has his reasons, you know," said Milly. "But right now, that's nothing to do with us."
"True ... say, now that you mention it ..." the boy turned to her, face hopeful.
"Dream," a hand whapped his across the head ",on. What I mean was getting the rest of the Council together and discussing the quarter's budget."
"B ... but that's _boring_!"
"It still has to be done, nya."
"Yes, madame-President, whatever you say, madame-President, would you like coffee with that, madame-President?"
"Yes please, Rivalz," she beamed at him.
"... sarcasm is totally lost on you, isn't it?"
"Nya?"
***
"Where _is_ this?" Suzaku's mind was in turmoil as he sat up, and promptly winced at the stab of pain coming from his midsection.
A glimpse downwards confirmed that it was wrapped in bandages, but that wasn't an immediate concern. Ot was simply one less immediate than the rest.
"Ashford Academy, Suzaku-sama."
The words finally drew his attention to the other occupant of the room - one who seemed entirely out of place in the utterly Britannian decor of it.
She was a creature of almost elfin beauty and porcelain-like skin, clad in what looked like a classically Japanese kimono of fine crimson and cream silks, fingers caressing the strings of a small harp that rested in her lap. She seemed no older than he himself was, at first glance, but when he consciously tried to appraise that the estimate appeared to slip in his mind, and he realized she could have just as well been a year or two younger as well as perhaps as much as up to a decade older.
"How did I ... no, they'll be looking for me," he said, more to himself really. "How did you know my name?"
He made to get out of bed, before the woman motioned for him to halt.
"Please, Suzaku-sama, do not risk upsetting your injury. You are protected, here. Lelouch-sama will explain shortly."
"Lelouch?" Suzaku's eyes went wide. "Then I wasn't ... that wasn't a ..."
"Dream?"
The voice was unexpected, coming from beside the bed but on the other side, and Suzaku's head whipped about in surprise.
Green hair, amber eyes, and still clad in the clothes he'd first seen her in ...
"No, Kururugi Suzaku. It is no dream ..." the girl trailed off. "Though you may wish it were, after a time."
"Quite," said the both familiar and drastically unfamiliar voice of Lelouch, as its owner entered.
"Lelouch!"
"It is good to see you again, Suzaku ... though, for a reunion, these circumstances are not quite what I would have hoped for."
And that, the bedridden teen remarked to himself as memories of the last day flashed to life in his mind, was the understatement of the damn decade.
***
+Shinjuku-ghetto, twelve hours ago+
He came to in a flash of light and pain, crying out at the world, and for a moment wondered whether this was what it was like - being born - before he regained his senses and stumbled away from the green-haired girl's hand.
The touch lingered on his cheek, setting synapses ablaze, the pain ramping his remaining sense up into the ridiculous momentarily.
Below their perch, the cavity in the side of what had once been a skyscraper, he saw the frantic scramble.
Man, woman, child. A family, stumbling through the rubble, their faces masks of desperation, bleeding from small nicks and injuries but ignoring that in the simple favor of just wanting to get _away_.
And when two Britannian soldiers stepped out from the building the family had come from, rifles to shoulders and aimed at the unarmed refugees, Suzaku felt something within him snap, and something else _react_.
The fear. The panic. The desperation.
All those things, he suddenly knew the escaping Japanese were feeling.
All those things, he somehow gathered.
All those things, he _pushed_ at the soldiers with all he could.
One of the two shuddered, and a moment later Suzaku could see his hands dropping the weapon, and scrabbling at the helmet even as legs gave way, sending him to his knees and then collapsing to the ground.
The other gave a shriek, so high as to be earsplitting from even that distance, as he fell to the ground as well, desperately scrambling backwards with head whipping around from left to right ...
Suzaku looked, and somehow he _knew_ that it was his doing.
"Geass," the girl said, from beside him. "This power is yours. The contract you made with me. How will you use it, I wonder."
***
"Well, I suppose one must make do, regardless," Lelouch glared at his handheld. Not that he'd been told something he hadn't suspected already, but experiencing it first-hand was another matter entirely.
He turned back to face his companions.
"So, have you decided? Act, or do not. Save or damn them, or be content with watching from the sidelines. It's all the same, really, in the end. Death is death."
Suzaku's eyes were haunted, and for a moment there was a tinge of regret to his own resolve, but it was quickly squashed.
"After all, wasn't that what you said? Your dream of peace?"
The Japanese teen's head shot upwards, eyes locking on Lelouch.
'There. Now ...'
"One way or the other, there will be peace, after all. You don't have to do anything."
The onetime prince grinned mirthlessly.
"Just sit and wait, and let my dear brother's soldiers slaughter your countrymen in Shinjuku to the one, and that's peace too, right?"
"But ... I'm just ... I know fighting, but I don't know, wouldn't know, where to start."
"Their blood on your hands, then."
"No!"
"Then do something about it! She gave it to _you_, after all. The power of despair. The power of hope. _Be_ their hope."
Suzaku stood, hands clenched at his side, for an ever-lasting minute before whirling around towards the devastated room's exit to the tune of gunfire and the backdrop of rising smoke.
"Suzaku!"
And as he reached the door, Lelouch's voice froze him.
Green eyes met purple.
"Ask me. I don't care much for all this, but we were, or maybe we are, friends. So ask me."
Understanding dawned.
"Will you help me?"
"Of course."
***
The Frame shuddered as stress tore at it, but better stress than shells and bullets, she supposed.
Not that it looked like she'd be able to cop out on the lattermost two for much longer. It was a simple enough equation, really. One that didn't requite anything like a combat calculator to be completed.
She was good at what she did, and confident enough to know it, but an old and damaged Glasgow just wasn't going to cut it against these odds.
Hell, it was a testament to her skills that she was still _in_ the fight and not captured or dying in a burning wreck.
A Slash Harken rocket anchor tore up the ground her Knightmare had been occupying a moment ago, and its source - a Britannian Sutherland - opened up on her temporarily airborne Frame with its Rifle, scoring a glancing hit before the red-painted rebel machine disappeared into the gap between two buildings.
The Sutherland made to follow, the wheels of its Landspinner spurs kicking up debris as it shot towards the alley, weapon at the ready ...
... before the Glasgow came down from above, close to seven tons worth of metalloy - more, if its arm hadn't been blown off early in the engagement - using the Britannian Knightmare to break its fall.
And indeed, it left the Sutherland quite broken in its stead.
Karen Stadtfeld, nee, Karen Kouzuki or the resistance, breathed a sigh of relief at the maneuver's success before her breath hitched at the sight of the _other_ Sutherland drawing a bead on her from too short a distance to dodge and too long a distance to counter without a functional ranged weapon system ... one she did not have, it having been lost with the missing arm of her Knightmare.
She still made the effort, throwing the Glasgow into a mad dash for cover.
Gunfire sounded.
At first, she didn't know what was happening, before realizing that it was the Sutherland that was taking fire, jerking like a puppet with its strings cut for a moment before the cockpit separated and shot into the sky on rocket-exhaust plumes from the ejection system.
Instinctively, her eyes tracked the path of fire, and widened as they set on another Sutherland.
"What the ...?"
"Is your Frame operational?" Her radio squawked to life, in concert with the Sutherland's head unit turning to face her.
"Y ... yes! Who are you? Are you with the resistance? How did you get your hands on a Sutherland?!"
"A friend."
"Right, and I'll believe that because?"
Words of scorn died on her lips before they could be completed as an odd feeling of confidence surged through her body ...
"It doesn't matter if you believe it or not, Glasgow-girl," another unfamiliar voice sounded on the frequency. "The question you should be asking yourself is 'Do I want to win?' and 'If it's help, can I afford to turn it down?'."
"Win?"
***
+Ashford Academy, present+
"We did manage to force a standstill, if you'd care to remember, for long enough to allow the people a chance to leave safely. Thank you, Haydee," Lelouch said, sitting down by the window and taking the offered cup of tea before facing the prone Suzaku again. "Clovis will likely try and twist it to his own ends, and he'll not likely risk simply firebombing the ghetto ... so I guess congratulations are in order, Suzaku. You managed to stop the killing, for a little while."
"We ..." the Japanese teen stated. "We managed, Lelouch. I couldn't have, by myself. I'm no strategist. I just ... it's really ironic. I can fight, but ..."
"Yes, well, it's been said that fighting for peace is sort of like fucking for virginity, if you forgive my crassness," was the reply. "Futile, disappointing, and ultimately makes you look very very silly."
Suzaku noted he was the only person in the room who actually blushed at that.
"So, what happens now?" He finally managed, accepting his own cup of the brew from the kimono-clad beauty with a thankful nod. "I guess they're looking for me?"
"Mm. Getting injured in the middle of that wasn't particularly fortunate, but no," Lelouch's lip quirked in a faintly mocking manner. "Private Kururugi Suzaku was recovered from the rubble of the tunnel by a Knightmare pilot sent to investigate the area, and is now in recovery, pending examination - though I'm given to understand that he stands to get a minor commendation for managing to void the dangerous chemical substances stolen by the terrorists despite the booby-trapped vehicle they were being transported in exploding."
There was silence.
"Say what?"
"Or so the reports say. Really, my friend, did you expect that train had stopped in the middle of a combat zone on its own, or that it just so happened to be one carrying Sutherlands into the Settlement?"
"You had this _ready_ in _advance_? Lelouch ... are you ... were you working with the terrorists?"
"Ah. The proper terminology is 'rebels' I believe, and yes. I mean, you did as well, did you not? But I assume you mean, before that? Then, no, not in so many words. In fact, what I had in motion can be said to no longer be wholly ... relevant, given recent developments."
"Meaning?"
"I merely had the right tools in place, realized this, and made use of them accordingly."
Suzaku pondered this for a moment. "A Knight, you said?"
"Guilt. Anger. Helplessness. Self-loathing. Loyalty, and yes, even friendship - all can be used as tools, Suzaku. And make for efficient tools they do, yes, my friend?"
The words, though spoken in a perfectly normal tone of voice, chilled him to the bone.
"As to your earlier question, I suppose that now you rest. Heal. And wonder. You've dealt with two devils to put you where you are now, after all. If that doesn't bear thinking on, nothing does."
Lelouch stood, setting aside the empty cup, and turned to leave. The kimono-clad woman, Haydee he'd called her, rose to follow, and as they reached the door of the room Suzaku finally found his voice again.
"Lelouch ..."
"Yes?" The Britannian teen didn't as much as turn around.
"Thank you."
"Really? You'll be retracting those words soon enough, I wager, Suzaku."
"Thank you all the same."
"Hmm. As you like, then."
The door opened, then closed, and left the Japanese teen in the room with only hitherto silent green-haired girl for company.
***
"You were being cruel, Lelouch-sama."
"Admonishments, Haydee?"
"No, Lelouch-sama. Merely an observation."
"Well then, observe away. Still, tell me, what do you think of this?"
"Suzaku-sama is very troubled, but ... begging your pardon, Lelouch-sama, I have not seen you this _alive_ in a long time."
"Alive? That would be an interestingly accurate way of putting it, wouldn't it? I suppose I do feel more alive, then. How does it suit me?"
"It suits you quite well, Lelouch-sama. I am happy to see you like this. A man cannot live on revenge alone."
"Can't he? Then what facet of my revenge would you be, my dear?"
"Your willing tool, Lelouch-sama."
"Oh? Then my precious, willing tool, walk with me."
"Always."
***
END suzaku of the rebellion
***
The speaking voice at the beginning here is Gankutsuou and not, as it was at the end of the prologue, Lelouch. I wanted to keep a bit in tune with the spirit of that show. Besides, it's fun to be an annoyingly vague bastard sometimes.
Tell me what you think.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm