Requiem

Suzaku Kururugi, former Knight of Zero, now transcendent ghost of an ideology stepped into the gaping void of darkness that was His Imperial Majesty's war room.

The walls of the space were covered with monitors, tackboards, digital readouts, and whiteboards.  It was a unique mix of the modern and technological which sent a pang, briefly, through his heart for a country he barely remembered.  Pushing away unproductive thoughts, he turned to the overly-plush couch where a figure in bleached-white robes reclined listlessly, a half-empty glass of wine swirling in his hand.  Sitting on the ground beside him, consuming yet another slice of pizza, was the ever-unflappable green-haired witch his best friend had let lead him astray-

No, Suzaku inwardly shook himself.  Even though a part of him might resent CC for what she'd offered Lelouch... there was enough blame to go around and come back again.  All of that was ignoring even how hard-headed his friend always had been in the first place.

Distantly, the phantom of a sunny day and whining cicadas flashed across his mind, that same firm determination he'd so often seen on Lelouch's face...

…so completely absent at the moment.

He wondered what the world would think, if they could see their Emperor right now, looking every day of his seventeen years and all the more lost for it.

Having never been privy to the private moments of Charles zi Britannia, he couldn't help but wonder... even if he personally doubted, whether or not his friend's father had ever had moments adrift in the enormity of his decisions, even just oneiota of faltering resolve...

“Do you ever get the feeling the world hates you, Suzaku?”  Lelouch asked, watching a screen through the colored distortion of the wine glass.

For a moment, all the sound in room was of a witch chewing at her snack.

Suzaku sighed.  “Lelouch... we can't go through with it now-”

“The hell we can't!”  The Emperor of Earth roared, a sudden fit of violence striking him as he threw the crystal drinking flute at a monitor, shattering what was doubtlessly a priceless heirloom and and cracking a very expensive monitor at the same time.  “It's set.  We planned it out.  I dienext month!  This changes nothing!”

Suzaku shook his head, unmoved by the frothing anger of the most powerful man on the planet.  “Lelouch, listen to yourself-”

“Like that's ever done any good.”  CC snarked, and the ace devicer couldn't help but glare at her.  Golden eyes rolled.  “If there's anyone he shouldbe listening to, it's you.  I tried.  Jeremiah and Anya tried.  Cecille and Ninatried, though I don't think Lloyd laughing madly in the background helped exactly.”

Suzaku closed his eyes.  “Lelouch-”

“Don't.”  The Demon Emperor spat, collapsing back onto the sofa like a puppet with its strings cut.  “Just-don't.”  He plucked the bottle of wine from where it sat within a bucket of ice and took a swig straight from it.  “I've come too far.  We're beyond the point of no return.”

“You're not bleeding out in the middle of a crowded parade route, so I don't think we've quite come that far yet.”  Suzaku stated firmly, beginning to let slip his temper.

“I might as well be!”  Lelouch yelled, another flare of frustrated anger burning bright before reducing itself to a smoldering ember.  “I destroyed dynasties, crushed monopolies, wiped out political opposition using military force!  I've driven the world to the brink of destruction!  Annihilated anyone who could challenge me!  This can't continue Suzaku!”

Suzaku closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and counted to ten.  “That isn't your decision to make.”

“The fuck it isn't!”  Lelouch cried with a snarl, showing just how frayed he truly was, how terribly the last month had stressed him, as he verbally lashed out with profanity.  “It's the least the world can do for me, to let me decide how I'm supposed to die!”

“I thought that was my prerogative.”  The Japanese knight asserted quietly.

Something like a dawning, pleading, horror rose in Lelouch's eyes as his arms went limp.  CC sent him a reproachful look he ignored, the green witch reaching up to take one of his hands in hers.

“No, Suzaku... please... don't do this...”  Lelouch closed his eyes, tears beginning to bead at their rims as he pressed one hand over them.  “I'm supposed to die.  I made my peace with it.  I want it to be over.  To make up for all the things I've done, all the things I thought I had to do, all the horrors I've inflicted...”

“All the times you saved the world?”  Suzaku asked coldly, banishing the fading remnant of his childhood self, the part of him that wanted to reach out and envelop his friend in his arms.  “You were Zero, you stopped Charles' nihilism.  You stood in Schneizel's way when he nearly enveloped the world in self-destruction.  You even fought you own friends and family, the army you built, when they betrayed you.”

“And it's all worth nothingif the world isn't better off for it!”  Lelouch spat, standing back up and allowing the bottle of win to tumble free.  “That was the plan!  I die, martyr for all the world's hate invested in me and cleansed so that they could have a new chance.  A new, fresh, start to try to build a better tomorrow!  To make Euphie's death-”

“You don't get to decide what her death means!”  Suzaku fired back, his voice a corona of wrath as he jabbed a finger at Lelouch.  “You swore to methat your death was for a brighter future, if that wasn't a lie then how can you knowingly go forward with this face after what's happened?!”

Suzaku jerked his finger and stabbed towards a monitor where a European city lay in ruins.

Neither teen had to look to see what they already knew was playing.

A scene of rejoicing, of maddening happiness in the streets as Britannian military forces paraded through the streets, so contrary to what had been happening just three months prior.  Where before, the world had looked upon the Britannian occupation with fear and loathing, now they waved flags, cheered for the empire, sang the praises of the royal-eyed demon sitting on the world's throne.

One of the news stations flickered, a long-distance shot under high magnification taking up the whole of the screen as an anchor's voice read over it.  Though the feed was muted, as all the devices were, script across the bottom gave clear enough evidence to what was being discussed.

[-debris being moved, but all imperial military personnel agree that the alien menace has been struck down.  Casualties still coming in, but reports indicate numbers ranging in the tens of thousands at each site.  Slave encampments and inhuman treatment of prisoners are seeing record numbers at recruiting stations.  Massive military expansion being planned, experts say-]

Lelouch turned away as if burned.

“Please.”  He begged quietly.

Suzaku felt a bit more of his soul wither as he hardened himself and swallowed back the bile in his throat.  “Nunnally could be a symbol of peace.  She can't take the throne at a time like this.”

A choked sob crawled out of Lelouch's throat even as CC rose up beside him, her eye venomous at Suzaku, but deeply thankful as well.  Suzaku felt his fist clench at the sight of the two together, salt on the ever-raw wound of his lost love, and shook himself.  A bloom of self-satisfaction at the pain Lelouch obviously felt drove a new wave of self-recrimination flooded him.

“You asked me to kill you.”  Suzaku said quietly, closing his eyes slowly and opening them with new resolve.  “I hereby announce that I have slain the Demon Emperor and his tyrannical despotism, to leave in his place the Ninety-Ninth Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia, upon whom the fate of the world and the protection of all humanity shall rest so that he may atone for the wrongs he has committed.  By order of Euphemia li Britannia.”

Lelouch fell to his knees, CC catching him at last moment as he slumped against her.

“I... accept... this geass.”  Lelouch ground out, the words a soul-deep ache.

“I will be marshaling the troops, your majesty.”  Suzaku stated formally, stiffening, as he turned around with a slight nod to CC in parting.  Walking briskly from the mortuary, he turned to his side as the door shut automatically behind him with a hiss.

Jeremiah Gottwald stood at attention, a look of deep compassion on his half-metal face.  “I received the whole of the transmission, Sir Kururugi.  Do you wish any cuts or omissions?”

“No.”  Suzaku shook his head.  “Air it as-is.  We're done with the lies and the madness.  Shewould want the world to see him as he really is, now that he can't play the monster.  I deluded myself into thinking she ever really would have understood this plan at all.  It's long passed time for a requiem to his requiem.”

~Much Later~

Ohgi stood, his old Black Knight's uniform fitting awkwardly and loosely after months of unappetizing prison food in conjunction with a near-complete lack of exercise, and the emotional pit he'd fallen into at the announcement of his imminent execution... all of them had substantially weakened him and cut the once semi-muscular figure he'd been proud of.  Or, at least, the figure that Viletta had been proud of.  His heart rang with regret and sadness as he remembered the argument they'd had just before he'd left for this meeting.

A man in Britannian uniform, his face an impassive mask of stone marred by muted disgust and-jealousy?  Ohgi inwardly steeled himself as the man spoke.  “Former General Kaname Ohgi, Second-in-Command of Private Military Organization the Black Knights.  His Imperial Majesty will see you now.”

“Thank you.”  Ohgi nodded, walking through the open doorway, pausing briefly at the derisive snort he heard, but firming his resolve to ignore all impediments to his goal.

Walking into the large room, he took a deep steadying breath as he approached the grand dark-wood desk strewn with papers, tablets, and various other documentation.  Sitting in the luxurious chair behind a world's worth of administration duties was the deceptively lithe form of the bo-no, man, he'd followed into battle so many times.

“Your Majesty.”  Ohgi greeted, bowing with a hand across his torso, fist against his heart, just as Viletta had drilled into him.

The words were ash in his mouth.

“Ohgi.”  There was a certain bitter humor in the name as it left the Emperor of Earth's lips.  Tired orchid eyes slid up, regarding him for a moment, before returning to his work.  “I granted you this meeting as a final clearing of the balance between us, but I have a great deal of work to do.  What do you want?”

Ohgi worked saliva into his suddenly dry mouth.  “My re-enlistment was turned down.”

Lelouch vi Britannia nodded silently, and the Japanese man could almost see the ghost of that black helm overlaid as his fingers rose to intertwine thoughtfully.  “There were specific individuals within the Black Knights whom I issued orders were not to be allowed back into the service.  You were among them.”

It was at once a shock akin to a slap in the face and... entirely expected.  Ohgi closed his eyes.  “Please... Your Majesty, Zero-sama.  The fight that's coming... I'm just as human as any other soldier.  It's my fight too.  I know we have history-”

A hand upraised stopped the words flowing from his mouth and Ohgi wondered-

-had Zero's hands always seemed so delicate?

Lelouch shook his head.  “This isn't because of that.  I can hardly hold you to a standard I, myself, failed to meet.  While your liaison with Viletta Nu prior to the first Black Rebellion was unfortunate, I associated with your group initially because of your predisposition to peaceful resolution.  Killing a woman whom you could not be sure knew anything dangerous would have been anathema to the ideology of the Knights.  The fact that the Rebellion failed because you put your personal desires above those of the organization, too, can be a criticism laid at my feet.  I left the field of battle and removed myself from the chain of command, taking with me a strategic piece of military hardware to see to the safety of my sister.”

“I wasn't-”  Ohgi started, but couldn't bring himself to say the words.  I was talking about how I betrayed you, not that.

The Emperor chuckled.  “Better men than you and I have been outsmarted by my brother Schneizel.  You were a cog within his plan, a man who has simple aims and goals, someone who's strings were easy to pull to the ends he wished.”

Ohgi stood taught, forcing himself to face the criticism of his leader.

“That was why I always kept you so close, you know?”  Lelouch asked rhetorically, another twisted smile tugging at his lips.  “You were... so normal.  A person able to sympathize with those on the streets, with those who had lost family and friends.  Someone without grand ambitions.  Apolitical, lacking an agenda, honest to yourself and forthright with your resolutions.  You were a good person.”

His eyes widened slowly, surprise and shock at the praise.

“Truthfully, in some ways, I saw a great deal of commonality between us.”  Lelouch admitted, leaning back tiredly in his seat.  “I tried to ignore it as much as possible, of course, because it made me uncomfortable.  The way you lived your life for Kallen, the way I lived mine for Nunnally, the way we made bonds which kept us from taking that single step further that would win.  Viletta... Shirley...”

Violet eyes closed briefly in pain, and Ohgi looked away, not able to stomach the intimacy of that expression.

“...but, though I faced that choice time and time again, I repeatedly took that final step.  Where you never did.”  The Emperor sighed, shaking his head as he opened his eyes.  “Go homeOhgi.  You have a pension, go back to school, find a teaching job.  Live your life, be a father to your child and a husband to your wife.  You've earned it.  You'll be happier for it.”

The older man's throat closed up, tightening to the point he almost couldn't breathe as tears stung his eyes.  “Zero-sama... please.”  He bowed.  “I dishonored myself.  I sold you out.  I committed treason.  Please, I will do anything, anything but that.”

The sonorous knocking of a grandfather clock's pendulum was the only noise within the room as the silence between them stretched to eternity.

“There is a position in logistics.”  Lelouch stated finally, sighing.  “You will never see another battlefield, never take command of another formation.  You'll spend the rest of your enlisted days running tables and counting numbers.  You're not the type of man who should have ever been anything more than that, Ohgi, and I won't see any more blood on your hands, but I find myself too short on skilled experience to turn down an offer this resolved.”

Tension flooded out of Ohgi and he felt almost as though he might collapse, but managed to maintain standing just barely.

“Thank you, Your Imperial Majesty.”