Risks and Sacrifices

Chapter Six

"How do you fight someone smarter than yourself?" Rand whispered. "The answer is simple. You make her think that you are sitting down across the table from her, ready to play her game. Then you punch her in the face as hard as you can."
-Wheel of Time

Rivalz had never been in a hostage situation before, and being tied up next to Milly and Shirley wasn't that bad. It gave him a chance to spend some quality time with the Student Council President and more importantly to show off his courage by heroically saving the day or something. Unfortunately, he was a gutless coward, Nina's ramblings about the thermonuclear properties of Sakuradite were freaking him out, and that Villetta lady had a way with words.

"For hostages to work," she had said, "Zero needs to think that you are alive. He doesn't need to be correct."

Out of the four of them, the only one who didn't seem nervous was Shirley, convinced that Lelouch was going to save them and had dozed off.

"So, explain to me again why the crazy lady thinks he's Zero?" he said.

"The Sakuradite must be protected from the inferior chemical reaction with oxygen, as demonstrated by outdated refining techniques..." Nina rambled.

"Because she's crazy?" Milly suggested. "She hasn't done anything to make me think she was sane."

"Yeah, but it would be pretty neat if he were Zero, you know? I sure could use a Masked Messiah right now, even one worshiped exclusively by Elevens."

"To take advantage of the unique properties of the substance, the Sakuradite must be refined not just chemically, but atomically..."

Milly rolled her eyes. "I know who Lelouch is, Rivalz, and he's not Zero."

"Then who is he?" he said suddenly.

"What? You know who he is."

"I know he plays chess. I know he enters impossible games with small fortunes on the line, bored." That had never bothered him before, but a few thousand dollars was enough of a risk to keep any normal man's interest.

"The Sakuradite must be separated, its crude isotope from its unstable one..."

"But you, you've known him, like, forever, right?" Rivalz asked.

"Lelouch is...a friend of the family," she said, but even he could tell she was hiding something.

"Come one, you can tell me. I swear I will take the secret to my grave, even if it takes me all day."

"With a half-life of sixty six point six years, the isotope must be kept..."

"His family fell out of favor in court several years ago, and the Ashford family does not turn their back on their allies. Even inconvenient ones. If you want the rest of the story, you'll have to ask him."

"Right, because he's stupid enough to show up to this death trap."

"He might surprise you," she said. "But if we could escape on our own, I wouldn't complain."

"Predicted neutrino emissions of one every..."

Rivalz looked around the basement they were trapped in. Why Villetta had chosen the Student Council beach house, he would never know, but the place was full of junk that they had never gotten around to throwing away, like a mannequin in a hula skirt. Rivalz wasn't sure what it said about his mental state that he had named the mannequin Betty, but it was staring at him.

"Hey, Milly?" he said suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"If we both make it out of here alive, will you go out with me?"

"What? You're asking me out now?"

"Um, yes?"

Milly burst out laughing. At first Rivalz thought she was laughing at him, but it sounded more hysterical than mocking.

"So is that a..."

"Sure, why not?" she said finally.

"Great! So, Friday?" The entire situation seemed very surreal.

"No, I'm going out with the rugby team Friday. Thursday."

"Thursday works," he said. "Wait, all of them?"

Without warning, the entire building shook violently and the single light bulb flickered out and died. Beside him, Shirley stirred. "He made it," she said, still half dreaming.

"Military applications probable."

WWW

Orange peered at the beach house through his binoculars. He, Sayoko, C.C., and Mao waited in a stolen jeep about a mile away. Sayoko sat at attention, scanning their surroundings. Lelouch told him that she was a kunochi. Orange asked what that was, and he said ninja, which seemed to be Japanese for assassin. C.C. looked bored, staring off at nothing. Lelouch had been vague about her abilities, but assured him that she would be vital to keeping Mao in line.

Mao leaned back in his chair with his feet up on the dashboard. "Vil's got her buds in Knightmares hidden, one in the trees and another in the sand. She figures that in five minutes, if no one shows, then Z is planning something, so she's going to blow the joint and run." He grinned and winked at him. "Literally."

"And you know this how?"

"Because I'm omniscient," he said like it was obvious. "It's a side effect of being crazy. Or maybe I have it backwards."

Orange frowned, but the people with him were handpicked by Lelouch himself. True, with Kallen hanging back with her Guren, they comprised all of the Black Knights who knew Zero behind the mask, but it took much to get into his confidence.

"Five minutes," he repeated. He was no master strategist to pull out genius on a given moment, and five minutes was barely enough to come up with anything at all. "C.C., you're in charge. Find the two other Knightmares, and have Kallen take them out as quickly as possible. Sayoko, do what you can to free the hostages. As for me..." He used to work with Villetta. He knew her. "I'll try to stall her, keep her from doing anything tricky."

Villetta, for her part, probably thought he was dead.

Mao started laughing. "Hey, boss."

"Yes?"

"Blow her mind."

WWW

Euphemia had never expected to spend much time in prisons, but ever since the Utopia disaster, she never seemed to be able to stay away. She wasn't on the inside of the cell anymore, but that didn't make as much of a difference as she had hoped.

"So, you want me to release you," she summarized.

"No! Well, yes," Gino said. His hands fidgeted absentmindedly and Euphemia hadn't seen him blink since she arrived. "I mean, I won't be much good to you locked up in here. No, see, I want to join you."

The main difference, she decided, between the Britannian prison and the Black Knights' prison was light. Euphemia's prison was kept lit, day and night so the prisoners couldn't hide anything. Gino was illuminated by a single light bulb, and even that was dying.

"You already swore allegiance to our enemies," she said. "Why should we trust you?"

"I swore to fight Britannia's enemies," Gino said. He clenched his fists. "I assumed they would be armed."

Well, we're armed now, she thought. She turned to Suzaku.

"I fought him at Utopia," he said. "If he killed any civilians, he did it before I got there."

"I didn't—" he started, but Euphemia silenced him with a wave of her hand. She had seen Cornelia do that before, and was a bit surprised to see it work for herself.

"Go on," she said to her knight.

"The one who escaped, Luciano, didn't fight me. I think Kallen engaged him near the end of the battle, but until the Black Knights showed up, it was just me and Gino. Everyone else was...busy. If Luciano had wanted to talk to you, I wouldn't even have brought you here, but it says a lot that when he escaped, he left Gino behind."

"If it were up to you," she said, "would you trust him?"

Suzaku hesitated. He looked at Gino, then back to her. "I don't know. He didn't kill civilians at Utopia, but he did fight me while I was trying to protect them. Yes, he was following orders, and no, that doesn't justify anything, but the more you hide from your sins behind the wall of authority, the more sins you need to hide from." He looked away. "I've fallen into that trap as much as anyone."

Euphemia turned to Gino. "Again, I ask you, why should we trust you? And why make your offer to me, instead of Zero?"

Because he's not that gullible, she thought. Lelouch wouldn't even consider his offer.

"Because I am loyal to Britannia," he declared. "Yes, now Britannia is Emperor Charles, but it doesn't have to be! If I am going to fight for Britannia like I promised to, I'd rather fight for a Britannia I can believe in."

Euphemia looked at Suzaku, but he just shrugged. She should probably talk to Cornelia first. She always knew what to do. Lelouch, too. His men did capture Gino in the first place, and...and they all knew best anyway.

She ground her teeth. If they won, then she would sit on the throne as the Ninety-Ninth Empress of Britannia. Some people whispered that she was just a figurehead, someone with enough royal blood to satisfy the Britannians, and weak enough to be controlled. But Suzaku believed in her. He always had; that was what had attracted her in the first place. Cornelia believed in her, if grudgingly. Euphemia wasn't sure that she would, but Cornelia finally admitted that her little sister had grown up. Even Lelouch believed in her, and he hadn't believed in anything since his mother died.

It was time she started believing in herself.

"Sir Gino Weinberg, do you swear loyalty to...no." Loyalty was what had gone wrong with him. "Do you swear to protect the weak, shield the defenseless, and strike down the oppressor, until death?" It was the oath of the knights errant, taken by good men who tired of bad kings.

Gino stood up and knelt down. "I swear."

WWW

Orange opened the front door and stepped inside. He wasn't shot on sight. So far, so good.

Villetta stood on the far side of the main room, tan, platinum blonde, and as lithe as he remembered her. She turned to him, gun in hand. "It's about time you..." Her eyes widened in shock.

"Were you expecting someone else?"

"Jeremiah," she whispered. "You're dead."

"They've spread worse rumors about me."

"But...Narita..." She wasn't pointing her gun at him, but she hadn't put it away, either.

"I was captured by the JLF and escaped shortly afterwards. I haven't been in touch recently, but I hear you've been busy. We made an odd pair, back then in the Purist Division; me with my blundering ideals, and you, cunning, ambitious, and never even wanting something to believe in." He smiled at the memory. "I hear you've started kidnapping Britannians now."

Her eyes widened, then narrowed suspiciously. "Are you here to kill me?"

"Yes."

She scanned the exits to see if he had back up, but found nothing. "Zero sent you, didn't he? You've really betrayed us, then."

Orange shook his head. "I have betrayed no one. I have only ever been loyal to Empress Marianne. Zero is just the mask of her eldest son." She had a right to know. Besides, she knew too much to be left alive as it was.

Her eyes widened in surprise. "What? Jeremiah, you told me yourself that her children died here in this area long ago."

"So did I," he said, "according to the reports."

"And, and your Empress's son just magically came back to life and decided that he'd rather be a masked terrorist than a prince? Use your head, Jeremiah! How does any of this make sense? I've been following Zero practically since the Shinjuku incident. I've met people who started hallucinating their greatest fears in the middle of a battle, people who have abandoned their duties without warning and don't remember a thing!

"I brought Guilford to his house once. Every lead we had on Zero went back to Lelouch Lamperouge, and in the middle of our conversation, Guilford dropped the whole thing and wouldn't even think of looking back into it. And where is he now, Jeremiah? With him! And you know what our lead was? A secret meeting between Lelouch Lamperouge and Princess Euphemia, and now the former viceroy has started a civil war. Everyone who talks to him throws away their entire lives and does what he wants." Villetta pointed a finger at him. "Just like you."

"My loyalty is my life," Orange said, but words sounded weak. It didn't bother him that so many things fell into place for the prince; Lelouch planned thing through further than most people could even imagine.

But Orange remembered the old days, back when he led the Purist Faction with Villetta at his side. He had been a different person back then. He had been Jerimiah.

Then Zero had appeared before the crowd, called him Orange, and the name had stuck. What happened next, he had watched a hundred times on video trying to figure out what happened and why he couldn't remember any of it.

"You followed your loyalty down the rabbit hole," Villetta said, "and found nothing but lies, Jeremiah. Do the math; nothing adds up."

An explosion shook the building. "What was that?" she asked.

"The Guren," Orange replied. "Like I said, we're here to kill you."

"What? You..." She raised her gun and pointed it at her.

Orange smiled sadly. "What will that do against a Knightmare?"

"Nothing," she said. "But I can kill you."

"Yes," he admitted. "If that is what you want." They had made an odd pair, back in the day, but they had balanced each other, and while Orange served under the son of Marianne, he had another loyalty to those who had served under him. He didn't move.

Villetta threw her gun away and it clattered across the wooden floor. "I did this for you, Jeremiah. I want you to know that."

"What?"

"You died in disgrace because of him. I thought that if I managed to bring him in, that somehow..." She laughed bitterly. "In the end, this was all just a joke to him. And you know what? You were the punch line, Jeremiah. Out of all the people he could have sent after me, why do you think he picked you?"

A second explosion hit, and the molten remains of a Knightmare crashed through the wall. The building collapsed on itself.

WWW

Captain Ernest Marcuse of the Fourth Ground Division waited for Zero's image to appear on screen. Many of his colleagues in the European Union resented taking orders from the enigmatic warlord, but Marcuse wasn't content to lose as slowly as possible—and that's what they had been doing across Europe, until Zero offered to take command.

Others thought it was easier to let another make all the decisions, but it wasn't. Sure, the battles went smoothly, but between them Marcuse endured the nagging fear that accompanied the leap of faith, that someday he'd be left alone in the middle of plans he never understood.

A face finally appeared on screen, but it wasn't Zero's obsidian mask. It was a narrow face lined with years of determined anger and a hairline that had receded enough to make the face look that much more angular.

"Zero?" he asked hopefully.

The man shook his head. "I am Kyoshiro Tohdoh, Head of Military Operations of the Black Knights. Zero is indisposed."

"He is? That's horrible. How long will he be busy?"

"I don't know."

"Because we can hold off on the assault for a few hours if we have to," Marcuse said. He felt beads of sweat forming on his forehead. "There's always a risk of the ambush being discovered, but..."

"A few hours won't be enough," Tohdoh said. "I'd help you if I could, but I do not know Zero's plan any more than you, and I've looked at your military experience, and I doubt I could direct your forces better than you could."

"So, that's it," Marcuse said. "I'm on my own, then?" His forces were in prime position to drive the Britannians out of Venice, but Zero's plans were never that straightforward, and even Marcuse could tell that they didn't have the strength to hold the city.

"The only help I can give you is the advice that has held my people through eight years of defeat, conquest, and revival."

"And that is?"

"Endure," Tohdoh said. "And in enduring, grow strong."

WWW

Orange waited for the dust to clear. He had missed the worst of it when the building collapsed, but Villetta hadn't.

Kallen opened the hatch of her Knightmare and looked down at him. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry. Rakshata has been Frankensteining my Guren so much with Lancelot tech, I barely know how anything works anymore. The Slash Harken switch turns on the float system now and the boosters don't do anything at all!"

Orange coughed out a lungful of dust. "I'm fine."

"And the...the hostages?" she asked. "Did they get out in time?"

Orange felt a moment of panic. He had left Sayoko in charge of rescuing the hostages while he stalled, but he hadn't seen her at all.

"Your friends are safe," Sayoko said, appearing out of nowhere. "They will wake up shortly."

Kallen sighed in relief, and Orange remembered that while the hostages were taken as leverage against Lelouch, they were Kallen's friends too. "Hold on," Kallen said. "Why are they asleep?"

Sayoko blinked in confusion. "Did they need to be awake for this?"

"Well, no, I guess not." Kallen looked at Orange and shrugged. "So, mission accomplished. If you climb on my Knightmare I can fly you back to the others, or would you rather call?"

Before he could answer, he heard the rumbling of their jeep driving towards them. C.C. and Mao had remained at a safe distance, but had somehow known that the danger had passed.

Kallen scowled at their direction. "How do they do that? I didn't tell them that it was safe to come, you didn't tell them it was safe, Sayoko didn't—you didn't, did you?"

Sayoko shook her head.

"Right, none of us said anything, but as soon as everyone is taken out, here they are."

"You could ask them," Orange said. He looked at the pile of rubble that had crushed Villetta. He felt cold. Mission accomplished.

Kallen rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that will get me far. Mao will tell me something nonsensical, and C.C. will tell me nothing at all.

The jeep arrived with C.C. at the wheel, and Mao jumped out and climbed up the pile of rubble. "And the Red Queen screamed, 'Off with her head!'" He clapped his hands and laughed.

Kallen shook her head. "Sometimes I don't even want to know what you're talking about. So how did you know that it was safe to come back here so soon?"

Mao looked up at her. "I already told you, I'm crazy."

Kallen looked at Orange as if to say, See what I mean?

"No, that's what you told Orange," C.C. said.

"I did?" Mao looked down at him. "Oh, yeah." He looked down at the pile of rubble at his feet. "Well, her mind is blown. And so are this place's property values. Sometimes I just love my job."

"Yeah, this has been loads of fun, but I need to get back to base now." Kallen closed her hatch, activated the Guren's float system, and flew away.

Sayoko entered the jeep, making less sound than a shadow. Mao jumped off the pile of rubble to follow her, but stopped to turn back to Orange. "You know," he said, "it doesn't add up." Orange looked at him in surprise. Mao flashed him the grin of a man who knew too much and cared too little. "But that's what makes it fun."

WWW

Zero sat in judgment, and Lelouch sat in chains. As he looked around the courtroom, Lelouch knew something was odd, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Zero slammed down his gavel, bringing the court to order. "Lelouch vi Britannia, you stand accused of murder, perjury, and manipulating the beliefs of those who follow you for your own ends. How do you plead?"

Lelouch blinked, trying to clear his mind. Technically, Zero did all those things, not Lelouch. "Innocent."

"Then we may begin. Will the defendant make the opening statement?"

"I will," said a large, white haired man to Lelouch's side. Lelouch did a double take as he recognized him, and would have tried to strangle him, or shoot him, or something if his hands weren't chained to the table. The emperor continued. "Lelouch is innocent of those crimes, because they are not crimes. The only law is what can be done, and the only punishment for breaking that law is reality.

"My client has been accused of murder. What of it? We all live at the expense of others, some just more directly than others. The food you eat starves the weak, and the bed you sleep in sends another to the streets. Perjury? Lies? Crimes against justice? Hah! Any man who is foolish enough to believe a liar has gained more in cynicism than anything he has been conned out of, his life included.

"Finally, I reject this institution of law. Zero, your ideals are a joke, the abstraction of justice is a sham, and this court is a farce."

Lelouch hung his head and wondered if it was too late to declare a mistrial and request a different lawyer. The emperor clapped a hand on his back paternally, winked at him, and said, "Don't worry, son. We got this."

"The court will now hear the opening statement of the prosecutor," Zero said.

"About time," Mao said, jumping to his feet. Lelouch groaned inwardly. "Honorable member of the jury," he said, and Lelouch noticed the jury stand was occupied by only one person, Nunnally. Her eyes were open. "Are, uh, are you doing anything Friday night?"

"What?" Lelouch interrupted sharply.

"Um, actually I already have a boyfriend," Nunnally replied.

"What?"

"Huh. Anyway, the accused is guilty of all that murder and stuff because I said so, and hey, I wouldn't lie to you." He sat down.

"Now we will move on to the next order of court business," Zero said. To his side sat C.C., typing down the court transcripts. "Would the prosecutor call the first witness?"

"Oh, me again," Mao said, rising to his feet. "Well, let's start with Lelouch the Accused. Lelouch, let's begin with an easy one. Where are we?"

Lelouch rolled his eyes and glared at Mao. "We're in my dream. I'm usually the last one to agree with him, but the emperor is right about one thing. This court is a farce, a farce of my own subconscious."

"You see?" Mao said, turning to address the court. "Lelouch the Accused claims that this is his dream, when we all know that this is mine."

"Yours?" Lelouch looked at Mao with contempt. "You are as egotistical in my dreams as I am in real life. Hold on, if I'm dreaming, then I've overslept."

He closed his eyes and forced the part of his mind that was still active to plow through his thoughts. He had better things to do than hallucinate vividly while unconscious, and he scheduled his intercontinental battles to take place within a few hours of each other so he wouldn't be able to. That meant that someone—he couldn't remember who—had an army waiting for him to take over, and that meant that he had to wake up.

"I'd like to change my plea to guilty," he said. "You do have the death penalty here, don't you? Of course you do, it's my dream. I'd like to be executed on the spot."

"Very well," Zero said. "You have been weighed in the scales of justice and have been found wanting." He stood up and drew a golden sword. "The sentence is death."

"Get on with it," Lelouch said.

Zero appeared in front of him. "Any last requests?"

"Sure. If Sigmund Freud arrives before I wake up, I want you to feed him to Cornelia."

"Agreed." Zero put a hand on Lelouch's shoulder, drew his sword back, and whispered, "They care not about your ideals, my friend. They care only for the price in blood." Zero then plunged the sword into his own heart, and Lelouch jolted awake with a phantom pain in his chest.

He opened his eyes and realized that he was wearing his mask. Had he fallen asleep in costume? And...in handcuffs?

Where am I?

WWW

"I don't know where he is," Kallen said. "He was in his office when we left."

Ohgi shook his head. "We checked. We've been turning the entire submarine upside down looking for him, and we've got nothing."

Kallen frowned. Even though she was technically in charge of Zero's honor guard, the man liked to keep his secrets. "Was there any sign of a struggle?"

"Not that we could see."

Kallen shrugged. "So our mysterious leader has mysteriously disappeared. Maybe in an hour or two, he'll mysteriously reappear." She imagined Zero returning with Schneizel or some other Britannian official at gunpoint, and smiled.

"Yes, he's mysterious," Ohgi agreed, "but he's usually mysteriously reliable. He's left half a dozen international campaigns hanging. Tohdoh is trying to salvage what he can, but he's not Zero."

"Did anyone see anything?"

"Nothing. No one heard anything, saw him leave, nothing. I have some people going through the security cameras, but Zero never allowed any in his office, or his quarters, or anywhere he might want to take his mask off."

"If anyone could sneak out of here unnoticed, he could." In fact, if Lelouch took off his costume and put on a Black Knights uniform, no one would look at him twice. "But why would he want to? And why wouldn't he have come back yet?" Her eyes widened and her mind raced. "Wait, maybe he was lured out and he didn't tell anyone because he thought he could handle it on his own."

Or he couldn't trust anyone here, she thought. If something else from his personal life came up, like the hostage situation, he wouldn't have anyone to send but himself, because everyone who knew him as Lelouch was gone. Everyone except...

"Have you seen Suzaku around?" she asked.

"Euphemia's knight? No. I thought they might have something to do with it, but they're our allies, technically, and we have nothing to accuse them with."

"What? No, I don't think they did anything, I'm just wondering if you've seen Suzaku."

"Well, he's Euphemia's knight, so I assume he's guarding her quarters."

"Right," she said, and she took off at a run.

Along the way, she realized that for once she wasn't the first to assume that a group of Britannians were up to something. I've gone native, she thought. Of course, the first Britannian she took a chance on turned out to be a two faced liar with a four digit IQ, but still...

The Britannians, Cornelia and Euphemia and their entourage, were kept on the far side of the submarine. Kallen didn't know if that was part of some political power-play to inconvenience them or to keep them from the many, many Black Knights who hated them, but it sure made getting there out of her way.

She nearly bumped into Cornelia on the way there. "You!" she gasped. "I need..." Guilford reached for his gun, but Cornelia watched her with amusement as she caught her breath. "I need to talk to your little sister's pet human. Do you know where I can find him?"

"He'd be in room forty-two B, just down the hall," Cornelia said, pointing. Kallen started down the hall. "I know you're up to something," Cornelia continued. "You people are agitated, and even more secretive than usual." Softly, she added, "He's always up to something."

Kallen didn't respond and dashed down the hall, counting the doors. When she got to room forty-two, she saw a tall, blond Britannian that she had never planned on seeing again.

"You!"

The former prisoner, the Knight of the Round that they had captured, smiled at her as he stood in front of the door as if a guard. "Hey, I've seen you before. You're..." His face paled. "Oh, hello."

Kallen looked at him with disgust. "What are you doing out of prison?"

"I was officially pardoned by Her Majesty, Princess Euphemia li Britannia." He stood up straighter and tried to look confident.

Kallen didn't have time for any nonsense. "Out of my way. I need to talk to Suzaku."

"I'm actually guarding this door," he said with a weak chuckle. "But I can knock if you like. Do you want me to knock? I'll knock." He knocked. "You know, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Gino. Gino Weinberg. What's your name?"

Kallen looked at him and remembered running through the streets in the middle of a warzone, remembered her house collapsed with her mother still inside. She didn't answer.

"So, there's a good chance that we're going to be going to battle together."

"You mean on the same side this time?"

Gino hesitated. "Yes. Did you pilot a Knightmare at Utopia?"

Before she could answer, Suzaku opened the door and stuck his head out. "Yes? Oh, hello, Kallen."

"Kallen!" Gino noted. "So that's your name."

"Hey, Suzaku. So you're guarding her room from the inside, now."

"I, uh, don't know what you're implying, but Princess Euphie wanted my advice on something. Do you need anything?"

"Yeah, I need to talk to you in private. It's important."

Suzaku looked behind him before responding. "Sure. Do you want to come in?"

"In private," she said again.

"Anything you can say to me, you can say in front of Euphie."

Kallen hesitated. She didn't like the princess, but she didn't know her either, and her Special Administration Zone idea seemed like a good idea, but then it wasn't, but Lelouch was a prince too, technically, and he said that Euphie knew who he was already, but...but she was in a hurry.

She came inside and closed the door behind her. "Did Lelouch talk to you before he disappeared?"

"What?" Suzaku said. "No, I didn't even know he was gone. What happened?"

Shoot. She was a bodyguard, not a detective! "Like I said," she said slowly, as if explaining to a child. "He disappeared. No one knows why, no one knows how."

Suzaku looked at Euphemia. "Did he say when he'd be back?" Euphemia asked.

"And no one knows when," Kallen said. "It looks like he just walked out, but not like he planned on being gone so long." She seethed in frustration. "Look, you've known him longer than I have," she admitted to Suzaku. "Can you think of anything that he'd leave for without telling anyone about?"

"Nunnally," he said immediately. "If he thought she was in danger, he'd drop everything."

"He's always been protective of her, even before she went blind," Euphemia mused. "Um, from the...short time that I've known him."

"I already know he's your brother," Kallen said. "But seriously, nice save." Suzaku gave her a pointed look. "What? I'm far too stressed out now to pretend I like her."

"It's alright," Euphemia said. "It doesn't matter, anyway. Nunnally is still here. I saw her with that girl from the Kyoto House a few minutes ago. What was her name? Kayuga?"

"So, basically we're nowhere again," Kallen said. Euphemia smiled apologetically.

"Hold on," Suzaku said. "When Zero's gone, who's in charge of the Black Knights?"

Kallen paused. Zero hadn't set up a line of succession that she knew of, mostly because if anything happened to him the organization would fall apart no matter who led them. But people put a lot of stock in who was closest to him, so Ohgi? He was one of the oldest members of the Black Knights, and he used to lead Kallen's own cell. But, no. He only took charge when no one else could, and if he had the choice, he'd follow...

"Tohdoh," she said. "Kyoshiro Tohdoh. He has the most military experience, and he's legendary."

"Tohdoh?" Euphemia said. "Suzaku, isn't he the one you said..."

"Trained me?" He nodded.

"Wait, Tohdoh trained you?" Kallen asked. "How did you get...when did..."

"My father used to be the prime minister," he explained. "But that doesn't matter. I know Tohdoh." He turned to Euphemia. "And he does not make compromises. He would not have approved of our alliance."

"Wait," Kallen said. "You don't think that Tohdoh of all people would have done something."

Suzaku shook his head. "No, but he will."

"Look, Tohdoh trusts Zero and knows that he wouldn't have had you join us without a good reason."

"A reason that he understands and will be able to fulfill in Zero's absence?"

Before she could answer, her pocket radio beeped. It was Ohgi.

"Please tell me you have good news," she said.

"Well, I found Zero leave on the surveillance cameras," he said.

"That's great!"

"Yeah, but the bad news is...the bad news is something you'll have to see for yourself."

WWW

Kallen watched on screen as two children walked into Zero's office and walked out with Zero tied to a chair. There was a boy who looked to be about fourteen and a girl who was even younger. They pushed the chair through the halls as boldly as if they owned the place, and no one tried to stop them.

"I don't understand it either," Ohgi said. "I already called in some of the people who must have seen it happen. Some of them nearly tripped over Zero as they went by, but none of them remember seeing anything."

Kallen stared at the screens as Zero passed from the view of one security camera to another. He was in full costume, slumped over as if asleep. Or dead. She felt cold.

"So, they just walked out with him?" she said stiffly. "How did that happen?"

"I don't know! Ever since Zero came, impossible things have been happening. Wonderful, unbelievable, impossible things, and I stopped understanding things when they stopped making sense. And now," he motioned towards the screen, "this."

"And now he's gone." Kallen focused on faces of the two children, memorizing every detail so if she ever saw them again... "So where is he now?"

WWW

"You're on the BBAF one zero zero one Avalon, flagship of his royal highness, Prince Schneizel el Britannia."

Lelouch looked around. He didn't recognize the room he was in, but it wasn't a prison cell. The guards made bars redundant. There were eleven of them. Schneizel always did have a lousy sense of humor.

He was in full costume down to his cape, but the mask was not his. The mask lacked the switch to open hatch in front of his left eye. As long as he wore the fake mask, he could not use his Geass.

"We have orders not to kill you," one of the guards continued. "We are, however, permitted the use of a freezer to store your limbs should we need to amputate them." There was no malice in his voice against his enemy, or even pride in victory. There was only discipline, the virtue that all Britannian soldiers learned by rote even if they discarded it with each promotion. "The drugs should be wearing off by now. Prince Schneizel will see you now. You will come with us."

Drugs? That would explain how he slept through his abduction, but not how he was abducted. He stood up and felt dizzy, but not terribly so. "Good," he said. He followed the guards out of the room, who watched him and kept a hand on their weapons at all times. Lelouch almost laughed at that, as if he, unarmed and handcuffed, could overpower even one of them. Besides, they led him to Schneizel, and he wanted answers.

He had always wanted to see the inside of the Avalon, but found himself disappointed. It had always been controlled by his immediate enemy, whether Schneizel or Suzaku, and had come to represent Britannian majesty and power. But the inside was just like any other piece of Britannian engineering.

Schneizel awaited him in the bridge with a far more impressive view. He looked up from where he sat and greeted Lelouch with a smile. He was as confident and relaxed as ever, and appeared no more pleased that he had captured Zero, by some impossibility, than he was that the sun had continued to rise.

"Zero!" he said. "You're up. Please, sit down."

Lelouch looked around the bridge and sat, willing to play the man's game until he figured out what it was. The only other face he recognized was Suzaku's scientist, Lloyd, who had involved himself with other projects in the absence of the Lancelot.

He looked at Schneizel and focused on two questions. Why am I still masked? Schneizel of course knew who he was, but he called him Zero. For the benefit of the crew, perhaps? Why would he protect his enemy's secrets from his own men? Lelouch was a Britannian prince, though, and it might damage morale if the people knew that all the destruction he had caused was the fault of a member of the royal family. When Suzaku had captured him, Zero had been officially executed, but his identity was never revealed.

The question, how did I get here, was more difficult. Schneizel shouldn't have even been able to find the Black Knights' submarine without being noticed, let alone board it and capture him. Although...Lelouch had been drugged. If Schneizel had somehow snuck assassins on board, or bribed someone who was already there, then his agents could have drugged him before the assault and the Black Knights, leaderless and confused, would fall.

And then what? After capturing Zero, would Schneizel have ordered the submarine sunk? Unlikely. Schneizel had the resources to keep prisoners, and if Zero merited a trial, Euphie and Cornelia did too. And Nunnally...she was still alive, hopefully, even if Schneizel wasn't expecting to find her there.

I never should have brought her on board, he thought. I should have found some neutral location for her, and...and...but neutral locations were running out.

There was a third issue that Lelouch didn't even want to think about. Why was he wearing a fake mask instead of his own? Hopefully Schneizel didn't know that he could tell the difference, and had installed the fake mask with a tracking device or a remote explosive should he try to escape. The more likely reason was that, if the only difference between the masks was that the one he wore prevented him from using his Geass, then Schneizel had help from someone higher up, maybe V.V. or the emperor himself.

On the bright side, Kallen would not have been there during the battle, and when he was captured before, she and C.C. had been able to find him and bring him back, and they didn't even have the help of Orange, Sayoko, and Mao. Well, the help of Orange and Sayoko at least, if Mao couldn't be trusted. It was a setback, but a minor one.

"I apologize for the unfortunate circumstances surrounding your arrival," Schneizel continued. "It could not be helped. I have long looked forward to meeting with you in person, and, our voyage to the Britannian mainland being a long one, perhaps you could indulge me."

He motioned to a chessboard on the table between them. He moved the white king's pawn forward two spaces, a basic opening, but it had survived because it worked. He looked up at Lelouch expectantly.

"Your move."

WWW

a/n I am back. It's been a while. Endure, and in enduring grow strong is a quote from Planescape Torment. It's a great game, especially if you enjoy morbid humor. I tried something new in this chapter, where I would end a scene with a question and begin the next scene with the answer in the first line as a way to maintain the flow of action. I don't know how well it worked, but it was an interesting idea.

The part about waking up by dying in a dream has nothing to do with Inception. I was going more for the idea of adrenaline as an internal alarm clock, with something from the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems that I have forgotten since I last took anatomy.

I've never been good at killing characters, even characters I don't like. There's a good chance that Villetta was just knocked out and will wake up, climb out of the wreckage with no memory of who she is, fall in love with a complete stranger, get her memory back, and start killing people. Or maybe she really is dead.