Prologue: A Friend's Passing
I have to find Brother! Rolo Lamperouge thought as he quickly dashed down a shut down escalator in the train station. I have to help hi-
"Rolo?"
He gasped as his path crossed with that of Shirley Fenette, one of his brother's oldest and best friends. "Shirley? You're here?" His heart sank slightly when he noticed the handgun she held at her side, finger barely itching the trigger.
"Answer me, Rolo..."
He shifted his gaze back to her light yellow green eyes. "Hmm?"
Her eyes pierced his as she asked, "Do you truly... love Lulu?" Rolo paused. She expounded, "Rolo, I love Lulu! But... What about you?"
"What a question!" He answered with boyish innocence, "Lelouch is my only brother, so of course I love him!"
Shirley smiled hopefully, "Then, you're on Lulu's side, right?" Rolo noted that she moved her finger away from the gun's trigger. "Right?" Rolo gave a slight gasp as he was taken slightly aback at the question. Shirley pleaded, "Please! Let me join you! I want Lulu to be safe too! I can help you protect him!" An unsure gaze of unease fell upon Rolo's face as the orange haired friend continued, "I want to bring all the happiness back to Lulu's life! Then, maybe he can be together with her sister, Nana!"
He gasped. In a split second, he activated his Geass power given by V.V. to stop time. With Shirley frozen, Rolo casually walked over and positioned the gun in Shirley's hand toward her stomach. "I'm sorry, Shirley." He coldly stated, "But I'm the only family Lelouch needs."
He pressed down the trigger an casually walked away. Once his Geass timed out, the gun gave a resounding bang, plunging a bullet right through Shirley's abdomen.
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"Right, I've sent Jeremiah on ahead." Lelouch spoke over his phone, gasping as he rushed through the train station, "He'll take care of any obstacles in the way." He ran up an escalator that had shut down, "Don't try to fight him! He just came over to our side."
He hung up his phone as he reached the top. Before nearly taking off down a straight corridor, he noticed a lone body lying in the middle of a large room to his right. His heart sank as he recognized it. He ran over to it and gasped, affirming his fears. His best friend, Shirley Fenette, lay face up in a pool of her own blood, still puddling from a gunshot wound in her stomach.
"SHIRLEY!" Lelouch knelt at his friend's side. As he noticed the blood still pouring from her pink blouse, he stuttered, "Wh-who did this to you?"
At the sound of his voice, Shirley struggled to open her eyes, "Oh, Lulu... I'm glad... we could talk... at the very end..."
"Don't say that! It's not the end!" Lelouch whimpered as he tried to dial an emergeancy number on his phone, "I'll call a doctor, so just-"
She placed her hand on his phone and stopped him. "Ever since my memories have come back, I've felt so very afraid,"
Lelouch gasped as he recalled the time he used his Geass power to order Shirley to forget that he had ever existed. He remembered that he had done that because he inadvertently killed her father in one of his battles to bring down the Brittanians. He figured Jeremiah had used his Geass Canceler on her at some point after that.
Shirley weakly continued as her crimson lifeblood pooled around her, "A... teacher who wasn't a teacher.... Friends who don't... have memories to share.... Everyone... was just... lying.... It was like... the whole world was spying on me.... That's the world... you've been fighting all by yourself... isn't it? All alone.... So, that's why I... wanted to be someone who... would at least be truthful to you..."
Lelouch's eyes began to water, "Sh-Shirley..."
"Lulu..." Her strength was rapidly failing, "I... love you... Even knowing... you caught my father in all of this.... I simply... couldn't hate you..." Lelouch started heaving sobs as Shirley continued, "Even when you made me forget everything..." Shirley began to squeeze Lelouch's hand tightly, "I still fell in love with you... Even though... my memories were tampered with... I kept falling in love... with you all over again..."
"NO, SHIRLEY! YOU CAN'T DIE!" Lelouch screamed as he removed his purple contact lens, revealing the bird-like, crimson Geass power in his left eye. As all the other times when he gave an order, the bird-like power flew from his eye to Shirley's.
But it was no use. Her wound was gushing blood like a geyser. She was physically unable to obey this order. "No matter how many times I am reborn... I'll keep falling in love... with you Lulu..." Her blood began drenching Lelouch's boots, "I suppose... that it's simply fate..."
"NO, DON'T DIE!" Lelouch cried out as he sent another wave of Geass into her eye. "I ORDER YOU NOT TO DIE!"
"So... Is that okay then, Lulu?" Uncontrollable tears streamed from Lelouch's eyes as she continued with little strength remaining, "And as I'm reborn... I'll fall in love with you... over and over..." Her eyes slowly closed, "I'll... keep... falling... in love... with..."
Shirley's hand let go of Lelouch's as she breathed her last. Lelouch gasped as it fell limply into the blood pool. Hysterical, he grabbed her lifeless shoulders and shook them, "Shirley? SHIRLEY!" He could only stare down at his lifeless friend's serene face, his tears dripping on it. Defeated, he screamed to the heavens, "GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!"
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Lelouch sat silently on his knees watching over Shirley's body, unsure of how much time had passed. All he could do is wonder who had murdered his best friend.
"That was a close call, big brother!" Rolo strolled over and spoke contentedly, "Shirley regained her memory. She had a gun, and she was coming after you."
"I see." Lelouch spoke, emotionless, "So, you were the one who killed her..."
"Yes!" Rolo answered with a glimmer in his chocolate eyes, "I did it for you. I have to eliminate your enemies!"
"Rolo..." Lelouch stood up, burning rage building inside of him. He pondered all the ways he could maim, torture and kill his facade of a brother. Most of his heart, soul, and mind agreed that he should just take Shirley's handgun and shoot him where he stood. Instead, as Zero, the secret Masked Leader of the Anti-Brittanian Coalition, the Black Knights, he decided that he wished to use Rolo just a little while longer, then do away with him. He threw on a false small and turned to him, "You handled that situation very well. If it weren't for you, everyone would have known about my secret."
"Exactly!" Rolo smiled, "And it isn't just your secret anymore, brother."
"True." Lelouch commented, "So, shall we destroy the Geass Order now?" This took Rolo slightly by surprise, "The Black Knights can wipe out the source of Geass once and for all."
"Big brother, we can't! There are still Geass users there!"
"If we don't do this, we can never win." Lelouch glared, "Remember, this is for our happiness, for the both of us."
"For both of us?"
"That's right. V2 has begun to suspect you." He paused, "Are you afraid of V2?"
"Well..." Rolo hesitated, "He was the one who found me... Still..." He gazed into Lelouch's purple eyes, "Lelouch, can I really believe in you?"
"Of course," Lelouch lied with a persuasive, silver tounge, "we're the only brothers we have, aren't we?"
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Lelouch sat motionless on the crimson couch in his quarters of the Black Knight's Battleship, hands crossed on his forehead.
"You seem a bit down today." his partner, C.C.--the person who gave him his Geass power-- commented as a piece of cheese stretched from her mouth to her pizza slice, "What's wrong?"
He replied without moving a muscle, "I have finally located where the Geass Order is. Jeremiah and Rolo provided me with key information. We're sending in the Zero Squad to wipe it out."
She raised an eyebrow, "Isn't that just a research facili-"
"WE'LL CRUSH THEM!" He turned and glared at her. His eyes were red, clear that he had been crying.
"Oh?"
He placed a crooked, gloved hand over his left eye as he shifted his gaze to the ground, "The power of Geass which they unleashed caused Shirley's death..."
C.C. sighed, "So, that's what this is about."
He continued, "She was killed by Geass!"
The green haired companion stared with her equally green, piercing eyes, "So, now you're going to wipe out the order as atonement to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else?"
Lelouch scowled, "You said Geass is the power of the King. There can be only one King, so only I alone shall bear it! I will erase Rolo. I'll erase Geass from all the others! It's power to make people sinful will be obliterated from this world!" His voice began to falter, "I-I owe that to Shirley, at the very least!"
C.C. cocked her head coolly, "And are you going to erase me as well?"
He shot his gaze back to the floor, "You know I cannot do that. You are eternally young, and immortal."
She cocked her head to the other side, "V2 is also eternally young, and also immortal."
He growled, "I will find a way to neutralize him and leave him helpless... And there's always the method that Clovis-"
A knocking on the door interrupted them, "Brother? It's me, Rolo. Can I come in?"
"Rolo..." Lelouch venomously mumbled, clenching his fists together in his lap. He gave a fake cheerful reply as he adorned an equally false demeanor. "Of course!"
The electronic door opened immediately and Rolo walked in, his cell phone in hand. "I just wanted to check up on you, big brother." He sat down next to Lelouch. "I know Shirley was a close friend of yours. I just wanted to see if you were alright."
Lelouch smiled, "I'm fine. You saved me from her, remember? She was going to kill me."
Rolo returned the smile with his own, "I had to. Like you said, we're the only brothers we have-"
Without warning, Lelouch's cheerful face twisted into one of flaming animosity as he grabbed Rolo's hand that was holding the phone. He held it up, revealing a small, heart-shaped locket dangling from the bottom. "Where did you get this?"
"What?" Rolo gasped.
Lelouch set a burning glare on him as he began to raise his voice, "This was Nunnally's locket! Why do you have it?"
"Brother, don't you remember?" Rolo asked worriedly, "You gave it to me for my birthday! It's my most precious treasure."
"LIAR!" Lelouch screamed as he stood up. "I gave that locket to my sister, Nunnally, on her birthday!"
"Brother-"
"YOU ARE NOT MY BROTHER!" Lelouch exploded, "You are experiment, sent here to fool me! You are a failed test subject, and nothing more! I have only one sibling, and that is Nunnally! Now, get out of my sight!"
Rolo began to cry, "Lelouch... Y-You promised... You promised happiness..."
"My happiness will only come when you are dead and Nunnally is safe!"
With that, Rolo, dashed out, tears streaming down his face. Shadows covered Lelouch's eyes as his arms and legs began to tremble.
C.C. commented coyly, "You should really try being more kind."
He bitterly mumbled, "I cannot heal if I rely on kindness."
With a flip of his cape, he trudged into his restroom, placed his hands on the sink and gazed into the mirror. It wasn't pretty. His purple eyes were now crimson from crying, and his messy black hair hadn't fared much better. He took out his left contact and wiped eyes. "How ridiculous..." He muttered as he stared at his reflexion, "Be more kind..."
When he spoke those words, his Geass activated and his vision was replaced with that of blue circuits rearranging themselves. When his vision returned, he heart fell into his stomach, realizing that he had accidentally used his Geass on himself. He also noticed that the vision had been blocked by long, pink hair.
Confused, he gazed back into the mirror, only to greeted not by his own reflexion, but that of a small, yellow pony with huge, turquoise eyes, almost completely covered by an even larger pink mane. He gasped as he spoke in a soft, feminine voice, "I'm a horse?!"
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