Title: Memories of Zero

Author: Teno Hikari

Fandom: Code Geass

Legal Disclaimer: Life isn’t fair and I don’t own Code Geass

Summary: What if Lelouch saw his subordinates as precious people rather than faceless pieces on his chess board? A collection of memories centered on the family ties between Lelouch and the Order of the Black Knights.

Warning: Unbetad, woe. Crack-ish?

Memory 023: Documentary

Diethard Ried was not obsessed. All he wanted to do was to make Zero, Lelouch Vi Britannia, into a symbol for God. There was almost no work to it, considering how the prince both captivated those who followed and supported; and terrorized those who opposed. All he had to do was direct the camera and capture the master at work.

Yet, he began to ponder. Most of the public adored Zero as much as his followers; but there were still a majority that feared and detested the founder of the Black Knights (Britannia mostly, but Diethard didn’t count them) because of the ominous mask he wear. One day Lelouch would remove that mask to the public just as he did to his Order, and Diethard wanted to be prepared for that day.

He had already told Zero long ago before the events on Shikine Island that he wanted to document him. That meant he would have to document Lelouch as well. However, when he eagerly insisted on following Lelouch around Ashford, the not-so innocent school boy had persuaded the rugby team to forcefully remove him off campus and smash his video equipment at the same time. Really, who knew Zero could be so camera shy?

No matter how much the Britannian explained the necessity of documenting for the history archives; Lelouch vehemently refused. The teenager had given up on words and avoided confrontation by ducking behind Tohdoh and The Four Holy Swords or sicking Tamaki and/or Kallen at him. So Diethard was forced to try another method: stalking.

Time: Monday, 0430 Hours.
Location: The Ikaruga, outside Zero's quarters.
Subject: Lelouch’s morning routine.

Diethard waits camping outside in an empty hallway by Zero’s quarters, camera ready and fixed on the closed door. Any second now, the leader of the Black Knights will come striding out of his room, dressed in his pristine academy uniform and ready to lead his double life. The doors open and its lights…camera… action!

Lelouch, the man who formed the United States of Japan and lead the Black Rebellion in the same day, staggers out into a hall like a drunkard - or Tamaki - outside at this time of morning. The teen’s hair was disheveled and he was still wearing the clothes he most likely slept in due to the wrinkles. Purple pajamas. They were purple pajamas that had prints of the Pizza Hut’s mascot, Cheese-kun all over them.

‘Obviously, this must be C2’s doing,’ Diethard thought to himself as he decided to continue filming and redo the morning entrance another time. Perhaps when Lelouch was less disoriented and more concerned about personal appearances on his own military vessel.

He followed Lelouch, whom he began to discover was notoriously uncoordinated this early in the morning. He obviously thought he was still at Ashford as it took him several minutes to stop walking into walls and locate the kitchen. The teen made a bee line straight to the counter and practically in his sleep, started brewing coffee and placing square shaped pieces of bread into the toaster.

As he waited, the teen let out a huge yawn as he stretched his limbs, while muttering how the witch kicked him out of the bed again. Now a little more awake, Lelouch started casting suspicious glances all over the room which caused Diethard to duck and take cover. Dammit, had Lelouch figured out he was being spied on again?

Diethard’s anxiety died down but his curiosity peaked when the boy hastily made his way over to the pantry. Instead of grabbing his usual brand of cornflakes, he had reached down far into the back and pulled out another cereal box which contents looked to consist of nothing but pastel colored imitation marshmallows and sugar coated flakes. The media manipulator felt his insides twist as if just holding the box would induce diabetes.

Unceremoniously, the teen dug his hand into the cereal, his face a mask of concentration as he seemed to be searching for something. Diethard’s brow furrowed when his unmasked leader grinned triumphantly upon pulling out a tiny packet before placing the cereal back into the pantry. Confusion turned into realization when Lelouch proceeded to eagerly tear open the plastic and placed the prize on one of his fingers.

Was that a… decoder ring?! Zero, Enemy of the Britannian Empire… was excited by a cereal prize? There had to be more to it… perhaps it was an authentic decoder ring that was slipped into the right box of cereal and…

‘What the hell am I thinking?’ Diethard wondered as he watched Lelouch turn back towards the counter.

The boy began to uncharacteristically hum a tune that Diethard recognized was a theme song to an anime some of the younger Black Knights often watched every Saturday morning. The prince poured his coffee, and as he waited for it to cool, began to spread a huge amount of strawberry jam all over his toast before leaning down to take a bite. Some of the fruit topping doesn’t make it as it spilled down his chin, leaving crimson streaks on the boy’s pale face. At this moment, Lelouch Vi Britannia wouldn’t look out of place in a vampire horror film. Diethard cringes, turns off his camera and he patiently waits for the teenager to drain his coffee before he can sneak out himself.

Hours later, Shogo Asahina was in a foul mood to learn that someone claimed his cereal prize.

Time: Tuesday, 1300 Hours.
Location: Ashford Academy, Student Council Club Room.
Subject: Vice Presidential Duties

From behind a cluster of potted plants – that was totally noticeable to every student who passed by – Diethard pressed a microphone to the closed club room doors with his camera ready. He was positively sure he wouldn’t see a repeat of Lelouch’s Monday morning self in public. His leader was simply too proud for that.

“Milly, where’s that… other item, we talked about?”

“I have it right here. Oh, I’m so glad you agreed to do this!”

“Whatever! Let’s get this over with. Shirley, make sure to collect those ballots!”

“No problem, Lulu!”

“Rivalz, have these distributed by the end of the day.”

“You got it, Vice Prez!”

Diethard smiled with pride, leave it to Zero to assume total leadership despite his Vice President rank.

“I’m going on ahead to check on preparations,” he heard his leader’s voice coming closer to the door and quickly drew back among his visible cover. He would finally capture Lelouch Vi Britannia on camera as the man who would topple their home country, as the man who destroyed and created worlds! The door opened and stepped out… a beautiful princess.

What?!

The Vice President in his trademark ‘Luluko’ guise shot a glare in the direction of the crowds of boys snapping their cell phone cameras off at him and quickly proceeded to the ballroom. Diethard stared, in shock and didn’t even realize he was still filming until a blue haired boy in a mini skirt approached him.

“Here you go, sir!”

Diethard blinked as he took the flyer for the Ashford Academy’s Annual Cross Dress Ball.

Time: Friday, 1500 Hours.
Location: The Ikaruga, …that is all.
Subject: Ready to give up

It had been almost a week and Diethard wondered if maybe the world wasn’t ready to see the unmasked side of Zero. Behind the mask of the leader of the Black Knights, was a teenager. A teenager, who was sloppy and uncoordinated in the mornings, failed to do a set of push ups in PE, cross dressed while letting people call him ‘Lulu’, and then stripped Britannian noblemen down to their birthday suits in underground Chess games. Diethard sighed quietly from within the dark space he was crouching in then switched off the camera and audio recorder. There was no way he could manipulate any of his footage to match Lelouch up to Zero and would trash all the data later. So much for documenting a part of history…

He waited for the voices outside to slowly fade away before making his move. Carefully, he slid open the door and allowed his steel blue eyes to glance about the room. No one was there, perfect! He stepped out, equipment in tow…

C2 shook her head as she sat curled up in Zero’s terminal chair while nibbling the crust of her pizza.

“It’s about time you came out of the closet.”

Time: Saturday, 1000 Hours.
Location: The Ikaruga, Diethard’s room
Subject: On Second Thought

As he re-watched the footage, Diethard leaned back in his desk chair and reconsider about destroying his research. In a way, he did achieve what he set out to do by capturing the one of the two lives their leader lead. Sure one was more spectacular than the other, but that didn’t make the life of Lelouch Lamperouge any less significant. In fact, it was admirable that the boy could actually have such carefree moments as he lead a crusade against Britannia.

His lips twitched in a small grin that finally broke out in laughter as he watched Zero who had stood alone before a military convoy, ran screaming in terror from a horde of raving fan girls. No, he could not bring himself to destroy these documented moments. Although he certainly wouldn’t be showing the videos to the general public; that didn’t mean Diethard would keep them all too himself. Zero belonged to all of the Black Knights after all.

Time: Sunday, 2200 Hours.
Location: The Ikaruga, Zero’s quarters.

“He’s gone too far!”

“Really, Lelouch,” C2 spoke while not bothering to hide her grin after they left the others who were too busy enjoying Diethard’s ‘documentary’ in the recreation hall, “it’s your own fault your plan backfired.”

“Shut up, witch! Argh! I didn’t think Diethard would actually show those!” the raven haired prince yelled while pacing, “Damn! What am I going to do?!”

“Give back Asahina’s decoder ring?”

“…”

“You really are just a child, Luluko-hime.”

“I said, shut up!”

Author’s Note:

Yeah no warm fuzzies here…