tampered | log; ongoing

Current Mood: calm

log; ongoing

When; March 17, early evening
Rating; PG ~~is for PIKA GUNDAM!~~
Characters; Lelouch vi Britannia [

lel0uch ] & Setsuna F. Seiei [

denyurgod ]
Summary; All the more reason to despise the deities and their curses. Setsuna demands to meet with Lelouch personally after he has the pleasure of seeing the Tianzi, Shirley, and Lelouch's memories.
Log;

If the desire to rise up against the deities was borne from the sheer futility and peculiar monotony of living within the city, and if, before, Lelouch vi Britannia had no real motivation to harbor any form of deap-seated hatred towards the deities... now, now he certainly had something to lay blame on the deities for. The past few curses had been nothing but disastrous to his cause, and if he didn't play his cards right tonight, it was highly possible that what little of the new rebellion he had become would never see any form of development... or fruition.

The abandoned shed in Xanadu; Setsuna had demanded they meet as soon as possible, but Lelouch knew that he could afford to be slightly late. He needed the time to prepare. For one, he was well aware of the strong disadvantages he had in physical prowess. Though death could no longer have so great an effect on him, having died once already and the city having very different laws regarding the living and dead, he still disliked the idea, the prospect, of being so completely vulnerable against Setsuna. That is, should things go beyond diplomatic

He made a mental note of what Setsuna would want answers from; the Tianzi's memories, Zero, Shirley and everything surrounding her death. It was highly likely- no, it was completely possible that Setsuna had an idea of what Geass was. There was the option of coming clean and explaining the situation in detail to Setsuna, in an attempt to win the boy's trust but--

But, Lelouch had to admit, he had very little trust himself in Setsuna. That trust of his was reserved for a very small number of people, and none of them were present in the city.

As he neared the abandoned shed, he stopped, in thought, before looking backwards for a brief moment. Then, when satisfied, he continued walking towards the shed. The night was cold, but not too cold. Spring was definitely just beyond the corner. It allowed him to wear a light jacket that he zipped up, to shield from the cool winds.

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Admittedly, he had never entirely put his trust in Lelouch, but he never knew that what the Emperor did back in his world was this grave.

Perhaps he should have thought of it better, but once he had seen more of what Lelouch had done in his world from The Tianzi and the girl he had gathered was named Shirley, an irrational anger took over and all he wanted right now was to hear why and what exactly is Lelouch trying to achieve, starting a rebellion within the City? He had wanted to believe that his intentions were plain, but from what he had seen, it was most likely anything but.

He rounded a corner and felt the the gun hidden underneath his tunic brush against his side. No matter what happens, he wouldn't let this person cause further conflict within the City. If, in the end, this was Lelouch's true goal, then he would end it. Because he was—is—a Gundam Meister.

He finally reached the abandoned shed and met face-to-face again with the Emperor. He frowned, obvious anger, with perhaps the slightest undertone of confusion, evident in his features.

Edited 2009-03-17 09:55 (UTC)

Lelouch put on a calm exterior as he entered the shed and when his eyes met with the boy's, he smiled and nodded his head slightly in polite greeting. "More talking for the two of us?" he said in a friendly tone, even though he was well aware of the suspicions that must be brewing in Setsuna's mind.

He would deal with Setsuna, one way or another,

No sense in wasting his time. He gave the other man a glare upon hearing the latter's greeting.

"You told me you didn't commit acts of terrorism."

"And by acts of terrorism, what do you mean?" Lelouch said calmly, and then waving his hand. "I understand you saw the Empress' and Shirley's collective memories; however, I would like to hear from you, Setsuna."

He stepped closer then, and then added, "I will explain my side of things." It almost resembled a warning in execution.

"You pointed a gun at and kidnapped The Tianzi, and killed Shirley's father," he sharply stated. "Committing such acts against others..." The image of a younger, more gullible him, pointing a gun at innocent civilians, not hesitating to pull the trigger, flashed before his eyes. But he quickly shook it away and focused on the man before him. "I do not ally with people who do not hesitate to inflict further pain and suffering."

Edited 2009-03-17 14:50 (UTC)

Reasoning with Setsuna and explaining the step-by-step of his plan concerning the Tianzi then was not going to get him anywhere, Lelouch knew. It was likely that whatever logic he threw at the Gundam Meister would only be ignored, or worse, the Meister might not even comprehend it all. Such had been his problem with the Order of the Black Knights, and his very reason for the need to limit what they knew of everything. He had to find the right counter quickly; one that was suitable for one such as Setsuna, someone who thought in a very particular way.

"I will not explain my reasons for committing those acts as Zero," Lelouch said finally, and with the same unfaltering smile on his face. Confidence; it was a thing that needed to be kept up, even in appearances only. "However, Setsuna, if I may ask; by telling me that you do not ally with people who do not hesitate to inflict further pain and suffering-- do you mean to say that you wish to achieve everything in a peaceful, quick, and painless matter? Answer me this," Lelouch gestured towards Setsuna; a beckoning gesture as he implored the boy to talk. "and I shall share my side of things."

"I do not know about a peaceful manner to end conflict," he was quick to respond. "Peace talks only lengthen the pain and suffering. While politicians debate, people are suffering. While their talks lengthen, people are dying. The only way to end the distortion is to fight, to eradicate conflict at its source. That is how I will achieve it."

The Meister's words almost made Lelouch smile in amusement. Such hypocritical words; did he really understand what he was saying? Lelouch could pin him down by those words alone, but he also knew that for Setsuna to be able to say those words with such sincerity, then he must also believe them. Any arguments using Setsuna's own words had the danger of simply flying over the boy's head.

It was tricky, but Lelouch was willing to gamble... if only in a slightly safer manner.

"That is how I achieved it myself," he said calmly. "It's true that the means I chose lead to pain and suffering, and that some casualties were irredeemable, but it was a responsibility, a stain I was willing to have on my hands for the sake of achieving my goals. To end conflict, one side must fully take responsibility, accept the consequences of change, and carry the burdens that come with it... in my world, that had been my order, The Order of the Black Knights."

"Celestial Being didn't resort to kidnapping. Never did we attempt to kill civilians." The words were spouting with him barely thinking it over. "We only exist to intervene in conflict that arises, none of them of our own doing. Resorting to the acts the Order of the Black Knights have committed only makes your Order terrorists." At the last sentence, the accusatory tone had returned.

But a pause came shortly afterward. In the end, wasn't Celestial Being the same? To accept the consequences, the burden of trying to change the world... In the process, many lives were lost. Dr. Moreno, Christina Sierra, Lichtendal Tsery, Lockon Stratos...

Were they right? Did they change the world? Or had it been a futile attempt?

He quickly shook his thoughts away. Either way, Celestial Being was nowhere near what the Order of the Black Knights were. "It is barely the same."

"It was never within the Order of the Black Knights' plans to kill civilians," Lelouch explained calmly. "And the kidnapping..." he trailed away and laughed lightly at this, "if it could be called that based on a fraction of a memory. I merely stepped in to finish what the Empress' aide, Xing-ke, had been meaning to do all along, what he did not have the power to to do to provide his little Empress the freedom she deserved; go against the Holy Britannian Empire which, if I may point out, desired to marry one of their princes to the Empress, to ensure future rule of the Chinese Federation. The Chinese Federation was no better in this regard; they sold their dignity, their Empress, to the Britannian Empire for their own advancement... even with the full knowledge of the sheer disrespect, the disregard of existence, the Empire practices towards its Honorary citizens."

He stopped there and waited on Setsuna for a response. He knew he was laying contradictions right there; for one, he had introduced himself to Setsuna as the Emperor of Britannia... but he was doing it on purpose, of course. Let the Meister question him, and Lelouch vi Britannia will answer accordingly.

Setsuna was silent for a while. The Tianzi... though his encounters with her were brief, he knew she was a good person. He had to admit that the Tianzi did not need to go through such an ordeal, to have her freedom taken away from her for the sake of politics.

But Lelouch's statement begged the question Setsuna didn't hesitate to ask: "Then how come you became the Emperor of Britannia, if you had been going against it?"

The bait had been bitten, just as Lelouch had expected it would be; even if he was prepared to handle the situation if it had gone another way.

"To end conflict at its very source..." the former Emperor began, using the same words Setsuna had used. "Hadn't you said just that? In order to achieve peace and force the world to unite against a common enemy, to discard their minute differences and, in the end, settle arguments by diplomacy and not war."

If it were anyone else from his world, he would have plainly stated that it had been his desire to rule the world all along, that it had been a game that was enjoyable to its end. However, he was reluctant to use Geass on Setsuna just yet; he was well aware of the dozens of factors present in the city that might require he use Geass on Setsuna to counter with... The situation now was too soon yet.

"Of course, such and endeavor had its high price, one that I paid willingly."

Once again, it was a bait; he waited on Setsuna to ask on.

Celestial Being wasn't an enemy, Setsuna almost started, but then he realized that Celestial Being did become an enemy of the world. The doubt he had about their own actions had began to rise again, but he quickly forced it away.

"You are not making sense," he quite bluntly stated.

Well, perhaps it was too much to ask of Setsuna to follow his train of thoughts. With Suzaku, he had much the same problem; and he supposed, Setsuna's age was a factor as well.

"Perhaps," he said with a laugh. "to you, that is."

Gesturing with his hand, he continued talking again. "To fully destroy the Holy Britannian Empire and wipe its iron grip on the world, one had to destroy its very foundations... and I, as the Emperor, did just that."

He paused, and then corrected himself, "Of course, destroy in the sense that it no longer held as much power as it did before. To destroy it literally would have had drastic ramifications on the world."

The frown returned. "To become an Emperor, you killed the girl's father?"

He wasn't about to forget that. Lelouch's father might have disowned him, but he was sure it was not the same for the girl, from what he had viewed. If only Lelouch knew what it was like to lose—

He quickly shook the thought away and darted another question. "To destroy an Empire... How?"

Edited 2009-03-17 16:56 (UTC)

Lelouch hadn't wanted to elaborate on Shirley's father's death; it was such a minor thing. However, he also sensed how invested Setsuna was in the matter. It would be best if he addressed the matter accordingly.

"Shirley's father had nothing to do with becoming an Emperor; his death was an unavoidable death... one that I would have prevented, if I could," he paused here; that was a lie, of course. It had been a necessity then, and while causing Shirley that grief was something he hadn't wished to do, for the Black Knights to survive... it had to be done. And there was the fact that things then had certainly been different. "A casualty of war."

He changed subjects. "If I explained it in detail, would you understand?" Lelouch paused here, as if to wait for an answer... but he continued again after a moment. "In the end, I allowed the Empire to be defeated. Even if that's something none of the people from my world, remaining in this place, may have had the pleasure of knowing yet..."

Upon the mention of casualties at war, he had been reminded yet again of what happened back in his world: The death of his parents, Lockon's family... He could have prevented it, if he could. If only he had done something, back then...

But he didn't allow himself to dwell on it any further and turned his thoughts to Lelouch's second statement. "You ended something you ruled?"

"Yes," Lelouch said simply in response, smiling. And then, after a moment, he added casually, "Of course, as I said already, not in the literal sense. I merely acted to squash the rampant sense of entitlement present in the nobility, and the grossly unfair class system."

The explanation was lost on Setsuna. He knew nothing about what came after war, just that any conflict that arises must be ended. Was the Emperor trying to confuse him deliberately? Aside from that, there were several things he still doubted about Lelouch, such as what the girl mentioned about erasing her memories. He didn't quite understand, but he was more than certain that whatever Lelouch was capable of, it had great potential to be dangerous to everyone in the City.

"What abilities do you have?" he demanded.

It was endearing to be reminded suddenly of Suzaku in the situation; reasoning with Setsuna was much like reasoning with Suzaku. There were things they simply couldn't be expected to grasp. Well, no matter; Lelouch would make do with what he had at the moment.

"What kind of powers do you think I possess?" Lelouch questioned back. "If you want specific answers, Setsuna, I ask that you question me with what it is exactly you wish to know."

The video he watched replayed in his mind. A pool of blood, the dying girl, Lelouch kneeling beside her and her proclaiming that she couldn't hate him even if he did all these acts that were clearly a source of pain, acts that thoroughly enraged Setsuna.

He held his stare as he spoke up. "That girl, she mentioned about you erasing her memories. Do you have that ability?"

"That ability?" Lelouch echoed, but though his face betrayed no great change in expression, behind the mask of calm, he was certainly beginning to weigh his options. Two roads, two options. He could tell Setsuna of the Geass, just as Setsuna was all too willing to divulge the existence of his Gundam. That would be a fair course of action. However, Lelouch also knew that that could only lead to complications; the mere existence of Geass could turn Setsuna against him. If even he was aware of the atrocities Geass could force people to do, and know of its horrors, then with how much more disdain would this justice-driven individual perceive the Geass with? No, he couldn't chance it. For now, he had to skirt around the topic.

"No," he said finally, void of any trace of remorse for doing so. After all, he justified, in essence, his answer was not a lie at all. He was merely keeping the whole truth from Setsuna. He had no power to erase memories; he could divert attention from it, but in the end, what was done and what had been experienced... could never be truly forgotten. His power lay in the ability to force people to doing things against their will... He was technically within the boundaries of correctness. "I didn't erase her memories."

He paused and added, in hopes of salvaging the situation with a little dramatic, "If I did... I might have been able to prevent Shirley's death."

The confusion remained in Setsuna's mind, but the remorse Lelouch displayed seemed sincere enough that he couldn't help but think he was the same, in a sense: There were things he regretted doing, and even now, he found himself questioning the very actions he took in their world, the ones he had once been so certain of.

And he believed that Lelouch, at least, wasn't like the others in his world, the ones who only fought to create conflict, the ones who only wish to further lengthen the wars that cause never ending anguish in the world.

"She stated that you erased her memories." This time, though, the voice held noticeably less anger.

Lelouch knew that he could answer that truthfully as well. "There was someone--" Lelouch paused, once again, for dramatic effect, but only briefly. "Someone who knew Shirley was my classmate, and that I was Zero; these two truths altogether. He used her to do things- for her sake, I won't talk about it. However, the end result was her forgetting everything pertaining to that event... even myself."

He sighed and turned away. "Before her death, she regained her memories once more--" he brought a hand to his lips and glared at the floor beside them. This time, however, he didn't need to call upon the actions to actually feel the remorse flooding in his very being. "I had no part in it... but if I had had the power then, I would have ensured she never remembered."

He met Setsuna's eyes with his; to prove his sincerity. "She'd be alive today, if it weren't for me, Setsuna. It's a fact I live with every day."

He met Lelouch's gaze, but only briefly; The regret he saw in his eyes caused him to look away almost as a reflex.

That had been enough to convince him that Lelouch was being truthful, or at least in that area. She was obviously an important person to him, and someone important one can't possibly want harm to befall on no matter the situation. Guilt was something that resulted from a situation that could have been prevented otherwise.

Especially when somehow, one felt that he was responsible for—

"I see," he finally spoke up. "Then tell me. What is the real reason you are organizing a rebellion?" He raised his eyes back to Lelouch at this point. "Do you really intend to end the deities?"

Edited 2009-03-18 14:01 (UTC)

"In part," Lelouch began quietly. "However, if it proves to be impossible, then I intend to lessen the deities' power over us and provide more freedom to the people in this place."

"This place- the city -" he continued, elaborating with his right hand. "It brings people from other worlds indiscriminately, forces them into situations, curses, that may sometimes lead to death... when they die here, they cannot truly die, but it also means that whatever obligations they have left in their world will be unfinished."

A pause; Lelouch knew he could afford to tell Setsuna a bit about his world. By doing so, he hoped also to force Setsuna ever closer to his goals. "A few months ago, the city chose to bring the 100th Empress of Britannia; my predecessor and someone who would, no doubt, use her powers to help bring peace to the world, instead of forcing it to bow down to her country's prowess. Thankfully, she has been returned to our world safely... but if something had happened to her, there is no doubt that the peace which we all strove for would have reason to be threatened."

He clenched his fists; "I cannot allow this city and its deities to destroy that future we paved for ourselves. I intend to do everything within my power to prevent even the possibility of that outcome existing."

Part of the reason that Setsuna wanted to end the deities is not just to eliminate the suffering here, but to find a way to return to their world. And Lelouch was right; If something happened to his comrades here, how would they manage to fight in their own world? They were still needed there. The Gundams, the Meisters, Celestial Being... They still needed to fight.

He might not understand the entirety of Lelouch's situation back in his world, and he might not even trust Lelouch or his words fully, but what was important was that, for now, they had a common goal.

"Fine." Getting a favorable response, he had little more to say to Lelouch. He turned away and walked towards the exit, but once he reached the entrance of the abandoned shed, he stopped.

"But if you do anything that would only further inflict suffering on the citizens," he started without turning around, "I will end you."

Edited 2009-03-19 13:22 (UTC)

"I'll remember that," Lelouch said with a friendly smile, even if behind his mask he was already listing numerous reasons for why that would be impossible, futile, and simply foolish. "In any case, now that we've smoothed a few ruffles--" He waved a hand, as if what had just happened didn't almost destroy what little partnership they had. "-- how about deciding on a name for our group, Setsuna?"

"We're going to need a name to gather people under."

Setsuna blinked and glanced over his shoulder.

"A name?"

The former Emperor laughed lightly at the expression that was suddenly on the boy's face. "A name," he repeated. "We can't be referred to simple as the rebellion; we need a name that inspires people as well. I'd use the name "Order of the Black Knights", but seeing as that name was used already in my world, it would be inappropriate. Besides, it has to be a name that is befitting of what we're trying to accomplish in this world."

"After all, aren't we going against godlike entities in this world, instead of a world, a system that is run by humans and therefore more susceptible to defeat? We will need something appropriately grand."

His brows drew together, and a frown formed on his face. "Think of one yourself," he stated, before turning away again and leaving.

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