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The Final Gift

By Gaerdir

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"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." - Friedrich Nietzsche

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Lelouch stared blankly into the violet sky.

The events of the day still seemed unreal to him. It had all happened so fast. He had been sure of victory; the Black Knights were pressing forward, crushing all Britannian resistance. Kallen was overpowering Suzaku, who was rendered helpless, with the Lancelot severely damaged. Sayoko had managed to find Nunally and was ready to rescue her.

Then it had struck.

The cause of the explosion, as he later later learned, was called a FLEIJA; a massively destructive device that had leveled the entire Tokyo Settlement in an instant. The Governor's Residence, where Nunally was staying, was swallowed up in the blast.

Nunally...

Even then, Lelouch had known. There was no way for a crippled, blind young girl to escape such a massive explosion, even with the help of a trained ninja; and his loss of communication with Sayoko only proved that fact.

Yet, for once in his life, his mind refused to listen to reason. How could Nunally be dead? He had wanted to reconstruct the world and abolish Britannia to ensure a happier life for her, a time when she could look towards the future with no fear of manipulation or being a piece of a political game. And now... now she was gone forever.

He had thought he had overcome this months ago, when Nunally had made her first public appearance as the new Viceroy of Area Eleven. He was sorely mistaken. To this day, he had refused to think of his mortal struggle with the Britannians as beyond Nunally; he had resolved that his actions were for the welfare of the world, but in his moment of weakness, he had proven that he truly did not believe so. He had ignored the pleas of the Black Knights and commanded – no, screamed - at them to find Nunally, and he could sense their growing disgust and unease about him as Tohdoh ordered them to retreat. He had locked himself inside his room, and lashed out at Rolo, the only person who had tried to give him consolation.

Rolo... perhaps his behavior towards his pseudo-brother had been unwarranted. From the beginning, Lelouch had been the puppeteer, displaying brotherly love whenever Rolo grew doubtful. He had been pulling the strings all along, and he thought he had created the perfect slave in this Britannian spy; but Rolo grew far too attached to him than Lelouch would've been comfortable with. He began to kill people Lelouch loved dearly, out of jealousy, driven by some childish belief that only he and Lelouch could share a close bond. Indeed, there were times that Lelouch wanted nothing more than Rolo's death, yet now that Rolo was dead, he couldn't even feel any satisfaction.

With his last actions, Rolo had proven to Lelouch that he truly thought of him as a brother, as a person he was willing to give up his life to protect, no matter if he was simply being used. In a way, his love for Lelouch was as strong as Lelouch's for Nunally.

How strange, thought Lelouch, that such revelations should come to me after his death, when they are rendered useless. Shouldn't he have realized the genuine love that Rolo had held for him earlier,? He had been the only person who had shown Rolo any human love and emotion at all; everyone else in his pitifully short life had used him and disposed of him. Indeed; he may have been born a nameless assassin, but he died proudly as Rolo Lamperouge, Lelouch's loving younger brother.

Rolo had saved him from the Black Knights when Lelouch wanted nothing more than to die. Through this, Rolo had reminded him that his existence was not governed by Nunally; that there were others willing to die for him. And what use would their deaths be if he simply gave up now? Indeed, Nunally may be dead; but what about the Japanese, continually oppressed and massacred by the self-righteous Britannians? What about those who had died in the course of the war, fighting for justice from Britannian dictatorship? Was he, Lelouch Lamperouge, the masked knight for justice, Zero, going to let them die in vain, simply because one life was lost? Indeed, Nunally may have meant the world to him; so he would let her death give him strength. She was killed due to the heartlessness of Schneizel, who needed an opportunity to speak diplomatically with the Black Knights in order to instigate them against him. He had fired the FLEIJA, knowing that the shock following the destruction would leave the Black Knights suddenly aware of their own frailty… and therefore more open to peaceful discussion.

It was true that the Black Knights still existed, but Zero was the head of the cobra. There was no question that Kaname Ohgi was now the new leader of the Black Knights, but under his command, they would turn complacent. The bite would lose its venom, and eventually, it would simply stop biting altogether. They would simply become tools in Schneizel's hands.

Lelouch knew he was the only person who could liberate the people of the world. He alone possessed the King's power now; following Rolo's death and Charles's killing of V.V and subsequent possession of the Code, he was the only person who still had the original Geass. But that dream, Nunally's dream, would have to be put on permanent hold. Charles zi Britannia was plotting something, and his gut instinct told him that the idea was flawed and weak. All he knew about what was happening was that the current Emperor had planned something for this day itself, something that would rock the foundations of this world itself. Before that happened, Lelouch had to think of a way to stop him and whatever he was planning to do with the Earth.

But stopping an immortal being that is immune to Geass was not going to be easy. There was only one way of doing it, and Lelouch knew how. This would be his last gift to the world, the sacrifice that they would never know. Perhaps he was damning the people to the continuation of Britannian rule; but Schneizel had a good heart, better than Charles zi Britannia at the very least. He had shown that in his wholehearted approval of the Japanese Special Zone.

Schneizel...I hope you haven't changed. Even when we were young you hesitated to sacrifice pawns on the chess board unless you absolutely had to. I entrust the world with you; show me that you treat you subjects in real life the same way you treat them on the board!

He turned, facing Kamine Island, the place where he was sure his father was.

Well, Father, he thought. I hope you're ready to repent for your sins. Because now, we're going to spend quite some time together. If I have to go to hell, I'm going to take you with me!

FIN