#supergeass

She hadn’t been around when they had met Metatron, the angel hiding in the guise of a man named Odysseus, or when Metatron had found Suzaku. She had been too busy recovering from her trip through and then out of Hell. Euphemia rubbed her chest at the memory, sure that she still ached from the repetitive motion of hacking through demons and running as fast as she could. It was a phantom ache, Euphemia had already healed her vessel, but her grace remembered the sensation.

Euphemia swayed in place, torn between two directions.

What she should do was go after Lelouch and Suzaku. Nunnally was in trouble and Nunnally was as much of her charge as Lelouch. She had agreed to that in the moment when she had agreed to help Suzaku fight the civil war. Nunnally’s life should come before anything else.

But then there was Naomi. The angel had never directly hurt her, she had just talked, just explained. There had been nothing beyond what Lelouch had done to any of the people he had manipulated. But Naomi had hurt Suzaku, had worked him over until Suzaku had become the soldier that he had been before any of this all started. Euphemia hadn’t stayed around to see the end, she had just fled to help Lelouch and Nunnally, because she didn’t want to make the choice that Suzaku had been forced to make. Now she regretted it. She hadn’t been important or a danger, so Naomi could have talked to her about her plans.

Euphemia let her hand drop back to her side, nodding to herself. There was one thing that she could do to help them. She would follow the information to the source and figure out what was going on with Naomi. Maybe then they could manage to close Hell as well as save Nunnally.

She took wing, flying up to Heaven and where she usually found Naomi.

Euphemia was prepared to see the white room and Metatron being interrogated, she hadn’t expected anything else from Naomi. Instead, she saw that the white room was a mess, the chairs tossed to one side and the desk pushed almost to the wall. She flung open the door, ducking a swing as Naomi backed past her.

The angel glanced over at her, using the one hand that wasn’t holding her sword to motion away. Euphemia shook her head, looking over to who Naomi was fighting.

Her mouth dropped open as she saw Metatron advancing on her with one of Naomi’s drills. He looked calm and collected compared to Naomi’s panic. Euphemia licked her lips and let her blade slide out. There was no other choice for her in the end. She waited for Metatron to pass her before flying into the room, lunging at his back.

He spun to face her, parrying her attack with a swiftness that she hadn’t expected from a scribe. Euphemia stumbled backwards, jumping to the side to avoid falling over a chair. She settled into a crouch, gripping her sword tightly as she watched Metatron.

She couldn’t see Naomi around him, but she hoped that the other angel would get what she was trying to do. With the two of them, they could kill Metatron and stop him from what he was doing. And then she would get her own chance to save Suzaku after everything that she had done to him. Euphemia nodded to herself, shifting her weight to the balls of her feet, waiting for the attack.

When it came, she twisted to the side, yelping as the drill bit slashed down her arm. Euphemia stumbled back a step, giving Naomi room to dodge in and swipe at Metatron. But the scribe was expecting the attack, Euphemia could tell by the way he shifted easily to the side.

Naomi fell with a shout, her blade clattering off to the side. Metatron stood over her, the drill in hand.

Euphemia lunged forward, forgetting about the battle. They could come back and fight another day, especially when Naomi had allies in Heaven. And they had Suzaku. There were still angels in Heaven that thought that Suzaku could solve their problems. There was a way out for them, even if they won.

She grabbed onto Naomi’s shoulder, taking flight as Metatron came after them again. She felt metal slide along her wing as she took flight, not enough to wound but enough to deflect her flight.

Euphemia grunted as she landed heavily in a human’s heaven, closing her eyes as she caught her breath. She was aware that Naomi was pulling at her wrist, Euphemia shaking her off for a moment. She got carefully to her feet, looking around as angels surrounded them. And, by the way that Naomi was acting, they weren’t a friendly faction. Euphemia narrowed her eyes, pushing Naomi behind her and brandishing her blade.

The other angels stopped, but they were just waiting for her to move. They would probably all attack at once and they would aim for Naomi first. Naomi was unarmed and obviously hurt, bleeding from multiple places where Metatron had scored a hit. Euphemia was the only one with a blade, and one blade against ten angels wouldn’t be enough. It was the kind of ambush that only Suzaku or Gino could have gotten out alive. She swallowed and settled into a crouch, feeling Naomi press against her back as they waited for the attack.

---

Suzaku landed in Naomi’s office, glancing around. Naomi wasn’t there, but everything was in disarray. He frowned, taking a step back as he surveyed the room.

Every time he had been in the room, it had been neat. Now it looked like a disaster area and he could see bits of blood splattered on the floor and on the desk. Even the equipment that Naomi used for interrogations was scattered on the floor, including the drill. Suzaku shivered at the sight of blood on the bit, forcing himself to walk forward. Naomi wasn’t there, so he would be safe, even if it meant that he wouldn’t be getting the information he wanted.

Naomi had said that Metatron was lying, but he wasn’t willing to accept it. Metatron had been the only angel that had told him the truth to him from the beginning. He still had no idea what Naomi had wanted from him, expect that she had wanted the angel tablet and for him to kill Lelouch.

He walked over to the drill, going to crouch beside it when he felt something press against his neck. Suzaku froze, staring at the drill before slowly straightening up, feeling the blade move with him. He clenched his hand into a fist, ready to call on his blade if he got the chance. Then, carefully, he turned his head to see who had him.

Suzaku narrowed his eyes when he saw that Metatron was standing behind him, the angel smiling.

“She told you that I was lying?” Metatron didn’t wait for him to nod, just laughing and pressing the blade against Suzaku’s neck. Under the pressure, Suzaku began to back away, aware that Metatron was moving him back towards the one upright chair left in the room.

He didn’t take his eyes from Metatron, even when he was shoved back into the chair. It was only when the restraints clamped down that Suzaku began to thrash, his mind going back to the last time the chair had been used. Suzaku screamed, arching his back and pressing his wrists against the restraints. Even if his vessel broke, he could just heal it. But he was not going to let himself be used again, it had happened too many times.

Suzaku settled back against the chair, panting for breath. He eyed Metatron as the angel moved around him, attempting to kick him only t miss. Suzaku hissed and tried to push himself upright, his heels pressing against the end of the chair.

Metatron walked over and shoved him back down, Suzaku grunting as he felt ribs break. Metatron just chuckled and patted his chest, Suzaku feeling the ribs knit again. “Don’t struggle so much. You and I have one more thing left to do.”

“Let me go.”

“Don’t you want to know?” Metatron leaned in with a smile. “I would. Then again, I enjoy stories, I enjoy knowing what is going on. You don’t. You’re just a soldier, which is why I needed you. You would never question orders.”

“Let me go.”

“Of course. But I have one thing that I need from you.” Metatron leaned over him, Suzaku gasping as the angel slit his throat. He clawed at the armrests, trying to pull away from Metatron even as his vessel tried to draw in a breath. Suzaku looked over at Metatron, watching as the angel pulled out a small vial. He tried to ask a question, only able to make a soft gargle.

The noise seemed to amuse Metatron, the angel laughing as he held the vial in front of the wound in Suzaku’s throat. “What you were doing was the beginnings of a spell for me, one that will help us all. Heaven isn’t going to close, Suzaku, but the angels are going to learn a lesson. And all I need from you is your essence. After this, you get to live out your life on earth with the humans you value so highly. When you’re done, come and find me. I’ll listen to your story.”

Suzaku coughed weakly, flinching away as Metatron healed the cut in his throat. He tried to sit up, feeling a bit woozy. His head flopped to the side, Suzaku panting for breath as he watched Metatron tuck the vial with his grace away. Suzaku closed his eyes when Metatron patted his head, too weak to pull away any longer.

“Be sure to tell me everything, Suzaku. I’ll be waiting.”

A cool hand was rested on his head, Suzaku gasping as he was sent away. For a moment, he was disoriented, Suzaku automatically trying to correct his flight. There was nothing when he called on it, Suzaku flailing before he landed hard on something. He yelped as his head hit the ground and then he blacked out completely.

---

Lelouch burst into the old church, not bothering to step around the devil’s trap as he charged for Nunnally. He caught his sister around her waist, pulling her away from Mao. “Nunnally, stop!”

She grabbed onto his arms, Lelouch flinching at the blood that he felt against his arm from the cut on one of her hands. He looked up at her as Nunnally stared back at him, her eyes wide. “What are you doing Lelouch?”

“It’s going to kill you, Nunnally! The trials are going to kill you.”

“So?”

He almost let go of her at that. Lelouch tightened his hold, shaking his head. “No. I’m not going to let you do that.”

“Why not? It’s what we’ve wanted, Lelouch.”

“I want Hell closed, but I want you around after this.”

“After everything that they’ve done-”

“I don’t care! It’s all worth nothing without you Nunnally, nothing.”

She stopped struggling for a moment, her eyes wide. Lelouch swallowed and pressed his forehead against her shoulder. “Please, Nunnally. Don’t make me lose you.”

He was shoved away again, Lelouch letting her go. He stumbled back into one of the walls, staring at his sister as she walked back over to where Mao was slumped in his chains. For a moment, she looked like she was going to ignore him and go through with it, but then she turned.

“Why? After everything that you’ve been telling me, after how hard we’ve been pushing ourselves and Nina, why?”

Lelouch shrugged. “Because it isn’t worth it.”

Nunnally scoffed, her bloodied hand hovering close to Mao’s face. “What part of it? Our mother? Father? Everyone we cared about? What part of it isn’t worth it Lelouch?”

“You dying.”

“I’m not important.”

“Yes you are and I’m not doing this without you Nunnally!” Lelouch slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor. He stared at his hands, preferring that to his sister. “I tried to live a year without you Nunnally, and it didn’t work. Shirley and I…it was like I was dead already and stuck in Heaven. Part of me enjoyed having that, but I hated it. It wasn’t Shirley and Isabel that I liked, it was the idea of having that. After the Apocalypse, I wanted something normal. I wanted a reward.” Lelouch laughed, aware of how broken it sounded. “But it wasn’t a reward without you. That’s why there’s no light at the end for me, because the end will either be with me dead or you dead. And I can’t have the latter.”

He took a deep breath, watching as his hands shook. “And…I understand why you didn’t look for me, Nunnally. I understand what it feels like to lose everything and just wallow, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it. But…Nunnally, I just-”

Lelouch cut himself off as he heard Nunnally sit down beside him. He glanced over at her, watching as bright light flared in her veins. He winced and looked away, allowing Nunnally to turn his head back to her.

His sister stared at him for a moment before she sighed and slumped. “What do I do about this then?”

“We’ll figure that out. Let your big brother handle this.”

Nunnally shook her head. “You can’t just take control of everything, Lelouch. Let me carry some of the load.” She held out her bloodied hand to him. “Let me help you.”

Lelouch felt the corner of his mouth twitch up into something like a smile, but he didn’t answer. Nunnally probably didn’t need to hear his answer either. They both knew that Lelouch would continue trying to shoulder everything, and Nunnally would continue to stop him. They had always existed like that. He sighed and reached into his pocket, pulling out a cloth and wrapping it around her wound. “We’ll figure it out.”

“Yes.” Nunnally stood up, offering her hand to him. Lelouch took it and hauled himself up, watching as Nunnally swayed for a moment. He reached out for her only to have her push him away. Nunnally shook her head and gestured to where Mao was. “But what about-”

Lelouch lunged forward as Nunnally fell, grabbing his sister around her waist. He buckled under her weight, straining to keep them both upright until Nunnally flickered back into consciousness.

She grabbed at his jacket. “Lelouch? I don’t feel so well.”

“It’s alright.” He turned his head to kiss her temple. “I’ll take care of you.”

She frowned. “You don’t have to.”

“Let me do this one thing. Let me just be your big brother for a while.” He didn’t get a response, Lelouch glancing down at Nunnally before hauling her towards the door.

He could feel her trying to help, but Nunnally just seemed to have the strength to cling to him. Lelouch gritted his teeth, turning so his shoulder would take the brunt of the force of the door. He didn’t know where to turn to fix Nunnally, not after the trials had damaged her. They would have to turn to Nina to find out what happened after they stopped the trials, especially so close to the end. Lelouch couldn’t stomach having to see Nunnally suffering for the rest of her life.

Lelouch lost his hold on her as they stumbled outside, managing to keep Nunnally from falling down the steps. The two of them crumpled to the ground, Lelouch leaning back against the railing as he hauled Nunnally into a sitting position. Maybe he could get something to hold her over, at least until Nina was finished translating what he needed.

“Suzaku! Euphy!” He paused, waiting for the familiar rush of wind and the sounds of wings. When it didn’t come immediately, Lelouch stood up, screaming as loud as he could. “Suzaku! Euphemia!”

When the silence continued, he got ready to try again, stopping as he stared up at the sky. It was lighting up, and it wasn’t sunrise, not for hours. Lelouch dropped to a crouch beside his sister, his mouth dropping open as he saw bright pinpricks of light beginning to form before they resolved themselves into falling stars. He stared at them, trying to count and then giving up as it began to look like it was raining.

Lelouch looked down at Nunnally as she used him to pull herself upright, not minding her grip on his arm. She pressed close to him, staring at the sky as well. “What’s happening?”

Lelouch shook his head, unable to voice his answer. It was too inconceivable to him, especially in such a mass number. Instead, he closed his eyes and pressed his face against Nunnally’s hair, feeling her hold him tighter.

She patted his arm, Lelouch feeling her hands shake when they stopped. “The angels are falling, aren’t they?”

But the biggest blow was the fact that Suzaku hadn’t come back with Lelouch.

When both Lelouch and Suzaku had disappeared, Euphemia had been worried because she couldn’t feel them anymore. She had searched for them, but she hadn’t been able to make herself go up to Heaven, not while she could still remember the bodies of her brothers and sister sprawled around her. How could she go home after doing that to her family? Then again, where could she go after playing God? There was no place left for an angel like her, an angel that had managed to fall in every way possible.

The worst part was that she hadn’t suffered for her mistake. She had lost her memory and worked to heal people while Suzaku had searched for her and fought the hallucination in Nunnally’s head. She had been too late to save Nunnally and Suzaku, she had just had to watch as Suzaku had taken the punishment meant for her. She had almost backed away from helping Lelouch and Nunnally go after the Leviathans while Suzaku, still half crazy, had volunteered immediately. Suzaku had also been the one sent to Purgatory, the home of the monsters that Euphemia had subjugated. He had suffered through the penance made for her and Euphemia had done nothing.

She let go of the tree to drop her face into her hands, wings spread for balance. She had failed in all the ways an angel could fail and she wasn’t punished for it. What she wanted to do was to just rip out her grace and let herself become a human. That would be a suitable punishment for what she had done. But Lelouch and Nunnally still needed her, in case something bad happened to them. And Suzaku needed her now that Gino was gone. Who else would pull him from Purgatory? Her penance would be to help Lelouch and Nunnally, but it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough.

Euphemia took a deep breath, trying to coax some air into her lungs around the blockage in her throat. She knew what sorrow felt like, she had felt it during the civil war when angels were dying around her and when Suzaku had lost confidence in her. This was something worse, this was more like survivor’s guilt, because there were so many that deserved to live more than she had.

She pulled her wings closer to her, wrapping herself in them in the almost childish idea that she wouldn’t be hurt by the world if she couldn’t see it.

Euphemia remembered the one of the few times that Suzaku had been able to stop fighting in the civil war, when he wasn’t with the Lamperouges. She had once been his confidante, the angel that he was the closest to. Euphemia had once taken pride in that, like she had once taken pride in her deal, because she had been able to give Suzaku the edge he needed in the war and a way to visit his humans.

He had told her of the one time Diethard had tried to convince Lelouch to say yes to Michael, how Lelouch had come back from the experience looking shaken and frightened. Lelouch had never told Suzaku the whole truth, just snippets of what had happened. But Suzaku had told Euphemia that the first thing that Lelouch had said to him was “Suzaku, you can’t change. Understand?”

Suzaku had taken it like the order it was. Euphemia knew that Suzaku would follow that order to the end of his life, because it had come from Lelouch, one of the humans that meant the most to him. But she couldn’t help but think that Lelouch had wasted his time worrying about the wrong angel.

The blood was making stick to her. Nunnally made an effort not to make a face at that thought. After spending nearly her entire life hunting, the thought of blood sticking to her shouldn’t have made her so disgusted, but it was the blood of a hellhound and it was splattered all down her front, even over her jeans. Nunnally was sure that she had gotten some of the blood in her mouth, even though she had turned her head to the side after she had made the cut. She rubbed a hand over her mouth. She would rinse it out later.

Lelouch stopped pacing, Nunnally focusing on her brother as he stood in the middle of the room. There were probably better places to have this confrontation, but Lelouch wouldn’t let her. The look on his face said that he wasn’t going to let this go until he was satisfied.

“Lelouch, I-”

“I thought that we had already agreed on this, Nunnally. I would do this.”

She shrugged, trying her best to look sheepish. “It was an accident. I just acted.”

The way that Lelouch narrowed his eyes told her what she needed to know. Her brother didn’t believe her, he just thought that she had ignored his order and had gone on with what she had wanted to do. He probably just thought that she was being stubborn and overprotective. Lelouch had just come back from Purgatory and was trying to deal with Euphemia and what she did. He was friends with a varcolac and Suzaku was nowhere to be seen. It was a lot and Nunnally had already told him that she was watching him to be sure that everything was alright. Lelouch probably thought that she was trying to look after him again.

But that wasn’t it. It had honestly been an accident when Nunnally had acted.

She had run into the barn and had seen Lelouch on his back with the hellhound on top of him. She had panicked, because it had looked like her brother was about to die, and she had seen that once already. Nunnally wasn’t sure how much worse actually being able to see the hellhound had made the situation, but she hadn’t been able to focus on her brother in the barn. Her mind was back in the house in Illinois, with Lilith possessing Nemo’s body as she gloated over Lelouch. She had only been able to see Lelouch being dragged off of the table and being torn apart before her eyes.

Nunnally would have stayed frozen in place if she hadn’t tried to step forward, stuck in the memory of the last time her brother had been pinned by hellhounds when she couldn’t move. The fact that she was free to act was a revelation and a saving grace, because it meant that she could save him. Nunnally was sure that she hadn’t been thinking about the trials in the moment she had dove for the knife. She was just thinking that she could save her brother from the hellhounds and keep him from going to Hell. By killing this one hellhound, she could reverse everything that had happened to them since Lelouch had been pulled out of Hell.

It was impossible to rewrite time, but it had been the closure that she had needed. Even pinned to the ground with a hellhound snarling over her, Nunnally had felt a faint sense of victory when she had gutted it. Even with it’s black blood pouring onto her, it was a victory, because she had saved her brother. It was her belated attempt to make up for helping with the apocalypse.

Nunnally took a deep breath and met Lelouch’s gaze. “I just acted, Lelouch.”

“No. You were trying to do the trials for me. I said that I could handle it.”

“You did, and I know you can. But don’t you dare try to tell me what I was doing.” Nunnally took a deep breath to keep herself from shouting at her brother. Now was not the time to let out years of anger at him. Lelouch was defensive, and yelling would get her nowhere. “I was just trying to save you.”

“I had it under control.”

“You might have, but I am not ready to lose you again!” She swallowed and took a step back. “Do you really think you’re the only one that has a fear of hellhounds? What about me? I might not jump every time a dog barks, but I do panic when I see a dog coming after you. Will this be the time that you’re killed again? Do I have to watch you get torn apart? And how will you get back this time now that Suzaku isn't here? Euphemia has never been to Hell and she’s not a soldier, Lelouch. How will I get you back then?”

Lelouch stared at her for a moment, Nunnally almost sure that he understood. Then he held out his hand. “Give me the incantation, Nunnally.”

“No.” She took a step back from him. “It won’t work for you, but it will work for me. I’ll do these trials if I have to, because I’m not letting you attempt to kill yourself through them. Schneizel, Rolo, Gabrielle, Clovis, Shirley, Isabel and Suzaku might not be around to save you, but I am. And I will keep saving you until you get it through your head that I don’t want a world without you. It’s not worth it if you aren’t around.”

“Nunnally…”

She reached up to wipe tears away from her face. She didn’t want to be crying now, it would turn Lelouch from paying attention to wanting to comfort her. Nunnally took a deep breath and looked away from her brother, taking the moment to collect herself. When she was sure of herself, she looked back at him. “I need you to promise that you will let me do these trials.”

“I can’t. They could get you killed.”

“They might, but you’re there.” She smiled at him. “I’m trusting you to guard my back and the same should go for you. I just got you back and I’m not giving you up again. So, promise that you let me do these trials, because I’m not going to let you die. And I promise to fight until the end.”

She offered her free hand to him, carefully hiding the paper behind her back. This was not about the trials anymore, it was about the two of them figuring out how to fix what had happened between them.

Lelouch had survived thirty years in Hell being tortured before breaking, but Suzaku would never hold that against him. It was written that Lelouch would break and so it would be. Charles Lamperouge had never been destined to break, Lelouch had been the one secret that Heaven had had, the one thing that could one up Hell, at least until Lelouch had sold his soul. But Heaven had been prepared for that too.

Suzaku was still proud that he had been chosen, taken from his position to watch over earth to join the siege of Hell. He had gird himself for battle and charged in beside the rest of his brothers and sisters, knowing full well that he would probably die in the effort. He was just a foot soldier after all, no one special. It was his job to hold against the demons, to fight to clear a path to the Righteous Man. As long as more angels got past him he had done his duty.

But it hadn’t turned out that way. Suzaku had managed to push on when all those around him had fallen, even the captains who had been given the honor of retrieving the Righteous Man. Suzaku had watched the last one fall, standing by his brother’s side as the angel had crumpled under the onslaught of demons. Suzaku remembered getting mad then, tearing his way through the demons with his blade and wings, a creature of light and anger. Hell had burned brighter that day with the light of dying angels and his own fury.

And he had been the one who had found the Righteous Man. He had been the one to find the twisted, part demon that had once been human. He had been the one to stand before him, pulling Lelouch back from the soul that he had been torturing and throwing the knife away. Then he had grabbed the tormented soul before taking flight, twisting through the chains that had made up Hell. He remembered the screeches of the demons as he had flown out of their reach and the way that Lelouch had grabbed at him. Suzaku wasn’t sure if the soul had wanted to push him away or had been trying to cling, it didn’t matter. His mission had been accomplished.

He had been the one to pull the Righteous Man out of the pits of Hell, the one that would keep the apocalypse from happening, because he had the man that could stop it. He had saved the world. Even better, a lowly soldier had managed to piece together the broken body of the Righteous Man, although Suzaku had felt some doubt about his skills. Still, he had been given orders, to retrieve and revive the Righteous Man. He had followed the orders to the letter and then had returned to Heaven singing that Lelouch Lamperouge had been saved.

Now, he was being summoned, the one to meet the Righteous Man and tell him his mission. All from a lowly foot soldier. There were a chance for a promotion, one that Suzaku wanted badly. It was a chance to serve on the front instead of just remaining behind to watch. He wanted to save humanity, the race that God had told them to look after. Suzaku wanted to be there when the apocalypse was stopped and glory in a world saved.

He landed carefully, tucking himself back inside of his vessel. A storm was whipping up, a side effect of his excitement for the meeting. Suzaku wanted to banish it away, but he was sure that it would just appear again. He shook his head, carefully schooling his expression into something more acceptable. He was an angel, he didn’t get excited.

He thought he heard Schneizel shouting for him, but Lelouch ignored it in favor of looking for his sister.

Nunnally just had to be around. He would tear through all the buildings in the town, kill any ghosts that came at him, to get to her. Schneizel wouldn’t be able to stop him from that. Schneizel wouldn’t be able to understand, he just thought they were trying to get Nunnally again, but he was more interested in the end game of the Yellow-Eyed Demon. Lelouch needed to know that Nunnally would be alright.

Charles had told him that he would have to kill her, which was something that he would never do. No matter what his father ordered him to do, Lelouch would never harm Nunnally. There would be a way to figure out what to do to help her, Lelouch would do anything to make it happen.

A crash made him jump, Lelouch reaching for the gun at his hip. He had the presence of mind to raise a hand to Schneizel to tell him to slow down and look around. Lelouch glanced back to see Schneizel nod, the man already circling around to the left. They would have to work through the town methodically, much to Lelouch’s impatience. He tightened his grip on the gun and took a deep breath, forcing himself to concentrate.

He couldn’t just rush around, because he might miss Nunnally or get himself killed. He couldn’t die, not while his little sister needed him.

There was a shout. Lelouch spun to face the main street with his gun raised. He only kept it up long enough to determine that what was coming at him wasn’t a ghost but a human before he slid the gun back into its holster. Then he was running towards his sister.

“Nunnally!”

She jumped at the sound of her name, turning to face him. Lelouch thought he saw a relieved smile on her face as Nunnally stumbled toward him, clutching at her arm. His gaze dropped to the bloody sleeve on that arm, Lelouch almost ready to change course to find the person that had hurt his sister, but that could wait until he was sure that Nunnally was safe.

He was distracted from his mad sprint towards his sister by something moving in the shadows. Lelouch slowed down enough to see that it was a person, his eyes fixing on the knife that glinted in the moonlight. He almost stopped, Lelouch opening his mouth to shut a warning, only for it to come out as a choked out scream.

Nunnally didn’t get the message in time, Lelouch seeing her frown before her body jerked as the man stabbed her in the back.

“No!” He pulled out his gun as the man twisted the knife in Nunnally’s back before yanking it out. Lelouch fired off two shots, both of which missed as the man ran off. Lelouch cursed and threw the gun to the ground, not worrying about the man in favor of rushing forward to catch his sister before she fell into the mud.

Lelouch gathered Nunnally against his chest, brushing her hair out of her face with one hand as the other went to press against the wound. He flinched at the blood that he felt through her shirt, trying his best not to think about the space where his hand wasn’t supported by Nunnally’s skin.

“’louch?”

“I’m here.” Lelouch titled his head down to rest his forehead against Nunnally’s head. “I got the message, I’m here. You’re safe.”

There was no response, Lelouch swallowing and rubbing Nunnally’s back with the hand that wasn’t putting pressure on her wound. He felt her breath out against his face, just a short puff of air. He couldn’t feel anything else. Lelouch having to swallow around the lump that was growing in his throat before he could speak. “Stay with me, Nunnally. Just hang on and we’ll get you back. I’ll take care of you. You’re not going to die.”

He lifted his head to look around for Schneizel. The other man would need to drive so he could be back with Nunnally. He wasn’t going to leave his sister, not when she needed him so much. Not when he needed her so much. “Schneizel!”

Nunnally slumped against him, Lelouch flinching and clutching her close. “Sh. I’m sorry. We’ll get you out of here, alright?”

There was just silence in response.

Lelouch choked down a sob, ducking his head to look at Nunnally’s face where it rested on his shoulder. His sister’s eyes were closed and he couldn’t feel her breath, he hadn’t since she had said his name. He knew what it meant, but he was not willing to accept the answer.

He gave her a little shake. “Nunnally? Nunnally answer me.”

She flopped limply in his arms, Lelouch staring at his sister’s body in shock.

It didn’t make any sense. He had done everything he could to give her anything she wanted. He had given up everything for her many times over, and Lelouch didn’t regret any of it. He had driven as fast as he could to get to her, hadn’t stopped looking from the moment she had disappeared. He had disobeyed every order from his father, every sane advice that he had gotten from hunters for his sister. All of that had to add up to something, it had to mean something. Because it couldn’t mean that he had failed to protect her.

But she wasn’t responding to him, wasn’t breathing. She was dead.

Sure that he was safe, Kanon bent down to pick up the head. Neither the head nor the body had started to animate again, which meant that they had the time to dispose of this body, and the ones that were still in the warehouse. Security wasn’t an issue, all the staff in the warehouse had been Leviathans. The problem would come when they blew up the warehouse, another in a long chain of storage facilities that Dick Roman had used. From the initial map that Kanon and Schneizel had figured out, they were almost done with the last of the facilities that were staging points for the Leviathan’s plan.

He made a face at the ooze still dripping from the head, walking back into the building. He had chased after the one runner, leaving Schneizel to deal with the last few in the warehouse. Even after recovering for six months, Kanon was wary about leaving Schneizel alone. Dick was dead, but that didn’t mean that any of the other Leviathans wouldn’t panic and shoot him again. They were all desperate now that their leader was dead, broken into factions. There were still a few trying to finish up Dick’s master plan, but most of them were just on a rampage, lost and confused. Kanon had made a point of going after those that were still trying to kill the human race, the second group wasn’t too hard to find.

What confused him the most was the silence from the Lamperouges.

Neither Schneizel nor Kanon had made an effort to contact Lelouch and Nunnally after Schneizel had been healed, not even when Schneizel had recovered completely. That had been Kanon’s fault mostly, because he had been afraid that they would haul Schneizel back into going after Dick Roman and Kanon was not ready to lose Schneizel.

With Dick dead through mysterious circumstances, Kanon had thought that the Lamperouges would try and find them, but the pattern hadn’t been followed. There was still time for contact, although Kanon was still reluctant to do so. He and Schneizel had a job to finish. He didn’t want to get caught up in whatever trouble Lelouch and Nunnally had gotten themselves into this time. Besides, it wasn’t a crime to want to enjoy his time with Schneizel, especially now that Schneizel had recovered.

Kanon opened the door to the warehouse with his shoulder, holding up the head as Schneizel turned to look at him. “Last one.”

Schneizel made a vague motion to his left towards the boxes, a few of them already rattling as the heads tried to rejoin the bodies. Kanon sighed and dropped the head into one of the few empty ones. “We need to find a better way to do this.”

“It’s on the list.” Schneizel didn’t look up from the quick tally he was doing of the bodies.

Kanon sighed and leaned back against the shelf, carefully rolling his shoulder. He had taken a hit earlier, nothing bad but certainly enough to bruise. It would be a pain when they hauled the bodies to be burned. So far, it was the only way of disposing the bodies that they knew of, although it didn’t seem to stop the heads from rattling around in their boxes. Kanon would want to burn them too, but he didn’t know if it would actually help and it was far better to play it safe than risk another Leviathan infestation.

Schneizel took a step back, nodding to himself. “Done here. Just need to finish up the clean up.”

“I'll haul, you set the charges.” To Kanon’s relief, Schneizel didn’t argue.

Kanon leaned down and started to drag the bodies outside. Hopefully, the blast from the warehouse would be enough to hide the pyre, although the cops weren’t likely to look too hard. All that they knew was that something fishy had happened in Roman Enterprises, courtesy of a false trail that Kanon had laid out as soon as he could. With some luck, the government would help them take down by removing funding and investigating, although it was more likely that the law enforcement would die instead of actually managing to kill any of the Leviathans. Thus far, he and Schneizel had managed to stay ahead of all of them, meaning that there was very little loss of life and very little attention on them.

He paused in the midst of dragging, sparing a moment to watch as Schneizel walked around the warehouse. It was a habit from when Schneizel was recovering, that Kanon had to see that he was still alive. Kanon still remembered the nightmares that he had woken up from, sure that Schneizel was dead. He just needed a reminder that Schneizel was still alive and would remain that way to continue through his day.