Suzaku wrinkles his nose. In disgust he lights a cigarette, hoping it will overpower the sickness is his mouth. He is a much different man than he was that day long ago in the church, but something about this man is so fundamentally repulsive to him that the feelings of horror span across time and change and bloodied hands. If these days Suzaku spills wells of blood, then Lelouch spills blood enough to cover the planet and create those things the old world used to have-- oceans. 

"You think after that you can just slide into easy retirement?" Suzaku spits.

Lelouch's eyes slide close. This way he might be mistaken for an angel. "This damage to my memory made me want to live quietly, with a different name and a different way of life."

"Excuse me if I find that hard to believe."

Lelouch sneers at him. "Sorry I haven't been by to confess lately," he drawls. "Are you now going to judge as God judges?"

Suzaku drags on his cigarette, hate boiling in his gut-- for Lelouch, but also for himself. Lelouch has a very particular talent of making Suzaku feel like shit.

"Why are you here?" Lelouch asks abruptly.

"To take you away."

"Where to?" 

"If you're asking for a final destination, I don't know. However, I do know that I need your help. I turned Augusta upside-down looking for you." Suzaku stands and withdraws Zero's gun from an inner pocket. He throws it into Lelouch's lap where it catches the double-sun and shines as darkly as his mask used to. Lelouch glares down at the thing. "Know a woman named Rakshata? I mentioned I knew you and she fixed it for free."

"Why?" Lelouch asks quietly. "Why are you handing Zero back his gun?"

"I thought you'd need it, where we're going."

Lelouch lifts his chin haughtily and looks out the window. "I'm not your dog."

Suzaku grinds out the rest of his cigarette and takes a deep breath. "But there's something you want, right?"

Lelouch looks at him, straight-faced. He is not questioning but rather ordering with his expression alone that Suzaku explain himself or leave.

"Say... are you familiar with a town called Carcases? It's a tiny town in Southern Cornelia."

If he's not mistaken, Lelouch flinches.

Suzaku continues, "Something strange happened there six months ago. It's residents suddenly disappeared without a trace. Everything in the town looked completely normal... only, the people had vanished. The calvary went in there and combed the place over but didn't find a single soul. One calvaryman, however, did discover something odd... A man's name painted in the monument in the town square. It was in red, and they say it read..." Suzaku doesn't smile when Lelouch leans forward, brow knitted. "Schneizel."

And there crosses the darkest look Lelouch has ever achieved without Zero's mask. Suzaku takes it upon himself to leave and let Lelouch stew.

He waits outside. Eventually Lelouch joins him, fully dressed and tall again in the heels of his boots.

"You know," Lelouch sighs, and he raises his gun that has a sheen like glass and his lips twist and his eyes flare. "I was rather fond of this life. Of my friends and of my little brother."

Suzaku gulps down his split second admiration. "Thems the breaks. Someone's gotta get tough or someone else is gonna cry."

Lelouch walks past him. "Is that why you kill now?"

Suzaku sighs, swallows his hate. The man he used to be is gone, torn apart by the savagery of this godforsaken planet. Now he feels there is an evil that good alone cannot overcome, and rather than stay righteous and be swallowed, he will dabble in evil to defeat the greater evil.

He hefts up the cross and carries it on his shoulders, and he follows the back of the demon.