[blurb] Those That Never Leave [Code Geass]

"Ougi Kaname?"
 
Ougi looks up at Zero, expecting Zero to continue. But it was not Zero who spoke. Ougi looks at the frozen frame of the masked man, and then slowly recognizes the voice and its source. Ougi and Zero simultaneously look down, to see the dull, wet eyes of the Emporer slide open and come into focus.
 
In shock they stare at it, not quite comprehending. And then everything falls apart, and the body relaxes in their arms. Zero and Ougi stumble forward with the sudden change in the distribution of weight and the body crashes into the floor. Behind them, Nunally screams.
 
Ougi is the first one to react, and he does so in a surprising way: he leaps to the door and shuts it, engaging once more all the locks. The door closes on the faces of a few Black Knights who had come running by Nunally's scream, but who weren't around-- thankfully, Zero thinks later --to hear the Emperor's body speak. They pound on the door and Ougi, flipping switches on to illuminate the room, calls through the crack for his soldiers to stand down. They do, and Ougi turns slowly back to the corpse which--
 
--which may not be a corpse after all.
 
The body twitches once or twice on the floor, but it does not otherwise move or again speak as the three in the room stare at it. Ougi, bravely, approaches first and turns it onto its back.
 
The eyes are the most living part of it. It is still pale as death and just as unmoving, but the eyes are blinking, half-hooded, shining, and looking back and forth, all around the room. As if the Emperor was waking from some deep sleep.
 
Zero can see the cold sweat breaking across Ougi's forehead. He lays his bare hand on the Emperor's neck.
 
"There's no pulse," the man whispers.
 
"I killed him," Zero confirms, just as quietly. "He died. The body was rigid, you felt it."
 
Trapped in a paradox and clueless as to Zero's growing epiphany of horror, Ougi checks for every sign of life in the book. He looks into the eyes and puts his ear to the chest-- to the pierced heart, expecting it to beat despite the gaping hole in it. Puts his hand to the lips and fingers on the wrist.
 
"Nothing," he says, face twisted into the most intense frown Zero has ever seen. "Nothing!"
 
Zero turns back to Nunally, who looks on with wide eyes and a hand to her mouth, shivering as she presses herself to the wall.
 
And then-- just at that moment-- the Emperor draws a shuddering, gasping, deprived breath-- the breath of a man close to drowning breaking the water surface --and springs back to life.

[blurb] Deceptions [Code Geass]

Suzaku looks up, only to find himself at the bad end of a gun barrel.

The Black Knights. Their uniforms nearly blend in with the encroaching darkness here in the ghettos, away from the neon shining lights of the Britannian city, but their guns shine by the moonlight. Suzaku stares down the closest man, but they're all carrying guns, and Suzaku feels his mind start to go hazy under the power of that damn Geass curse.

Suzaku snarls and tightens his grip on Lelouch's arms. With all the murderous intent he can muster, Suzaku turns his gaze back to Lelouch-- ready to see that horrible, superior smirk on his face, that terrible feeling of being played sinking in his gut even though he expected this all along --but... Lelouch is afraid.

And Lelouch, also, has a gun pressed right up against his head.

"W-wait!" Lelouch breathes. His face is stony, but Suzaku can hear the barest shiver in his voice. "Why are you--"

"Well, how convenient!"

Suzaku draws in a sharp breath. That voice-- the metallic, robotic voice of the Zero mask --sends a shiver up his spine. Suzaku fights the Geass threatening to overtake him and charge at the gunmen so that he may turn, one hand still clutching Lelouch's arm, and face his nemesis.

Zero melts out of the darkness, tall and thin, just like Lelouch but even taller. Suzaku gapes at the figure, startled and confused enough to forget temporarily about the guns aimed at his head.

Zero says, "I set one trap and caught two mice. You make things too easy, Kururugi, coming here where my people are wired."

Suzaku tries to say something, but can't. He stares at Zero, drinking in the appearance of that uniform, that faceless mask, and then swings his head to stare at Lelouch. But Lelouch, like Suzaku, is entranced, eyes wide and mouth in a tight frown.

"Y-you..." Suzaku whispers finally. Lelouch whips his head around to Suzaku, startled that something so venomous is being directed not at Zero but at him. "What kind of game is this, Lelouch?"

"Me!" Lelouch snaps, scandalized. "They're here for you! Sir knight of seven, man who captured Zero one year ago!"

"...what?" Suzaku feels his brain go numb, not from Geass this time but from his own confusion. Suzaku looks back at Zero, as if he can find some sort of answer in that clueless mask.

Zero laughs darkly. "Poor boy. So he really has lost his memory?"

Lelouch opens and closes his mouth, working like a fish. He appears to be dumbfounded, and finally says, "Memory? You're mistaken! I haven't--"

Zero pushes on, interrupting Lelouch smoothly, and even Lelouch, who would bow usually to no one, is cowed by Zero's sheer oppressive presence. "I heard there was some sort of amnesia. The Black Knights were constantly trying to retrieve him, after all, but there was never any response."