November 9th. Another Sunday.
Rina Hazuki had spent the day catching up on all forty-plus episodes of Code Geass that had aired so far through the paid video-on-demand service on her internet TV. With eleven-thirty still a few minutes away, she turned on the television and settled in to watch episode nineteen of the second season.
The show was a massive hit, though until recently she had only heard about it in passing and never seriously considered watching it herself.
That changed when someone urged her to give it a try. A handful of Rolo-focused fan videos she stumbled across on Z-Tube did the rest, and just like that, she found herself faintly curious.
Then she started watching, and she could not stop.
It was genuinely, thoroughly brilliant.
As for all the talk online about how emotionally brutal the show was, she did not really see it that way. She was a Rolo fan, after all, and as long as Rolo was alive, it did not count as brutal in her book.
If anything, Shirley was dead, C.C. had lost her memories, Suzaku had become a traitor in Lelouch's eyes, and now even Nunnally was gone. When she thought about it that way, the only ones left at Lelouch's side were Kallen and Rolo.
Kallen only worshipped Zero. Rolo was the one who truly loved him, or at least that was how Rina saw it.
Back when Nunnally had turned against Zero and Lelouch nearly fell apart, it was Rolo who stayed by his side. Now, with Lelouch suffering an even greater blow, she had a quiet feeling that episode nineteen would see Rolo step up again and make all the difference once more.
At eleven-thirty, the episode began right on time.
In the aftermath of the nuclear explosion, both sides declared a temporary ceasefire.
Rolo helped Lelouch back to the base and spoke gently. "Hang in there, brother."
"What about Nunnally?" Lelouch asked, his voice hollow and lost.
Rolo did not answer that directly. Instead, he said, "I'm right here with you. We've made it this far together, haven't we?"
A phone rang. Rolo took it out and answered the call.
But the heart-shaped charm hanging from Rolo's phone caught Lelouch's eye, and in an instant, the memory of Nunnally flooded back. He snatched the phone from Rolo's hand and demanded furiously, "Why do you have this? This was supposed to go to Nunnally. It was meant for her! How could someone like you ever replace her? You're nothing but a fake!"
He hurled the phone to the ground.
Rolo lowered his head and said nothing.
Lelouch kept going. "Have you still not figured it out? I can't stand you. I've wanted to kill you so many times. The only reason you're still alive is because it kept not working out."
Rolo looked up slowly, his voice trembling. "Brother?"
"Get out! Don't ever let me see you again!" Lelouch shouted, pointing at the door.
Rolo's eyes went wide, his expression pure disbelief.
"Get out!" Lelouch roared again.
Elsewhere, Schneizel, second prince of the Empire, stepped onto Black Knights territory while Lelouch was away. He exposed Zero's true identity, revealed Lelouch's Geass to the Black Knights, and laid out files on every member who had been subjected to it.
When the Black Knights realized that Lelouch had used his Geass on a number of their own people, the shock hit them hard.
They had already begun to doubt the Zero that Lelouch portrayed.
After learning the full truth and seeing just how ruthless and calculating he really was, the wavering among them turned into something much deeper.
With his goal achieved, Schneizel made his demand: hand Lelouch over to him.
The Black Knights hesitated, but Ohgi, as their second-in-command, agreed. He had only one condition in return: give Japan back to them.
The deal was struck, all of it done entirely behind the backs of Kallen and Lelouch. Kallen, still in the dark, tracked Lelouch down and brought him to Warehouse Four. Inside, Ohgi, Tohdoh, and the others had already set their ambush.
Kallen still wanted to stand by his side.
She leaned close and whispered, "Answer me, Lelouch. What am I to you? If being with you means something, then answer me!"
Lelouch was about to respond when he noticed Schneizel standing in the shadows.
Realizing the whole operation had been orchestrated by Schneizel, Lelouch understood he had no way out. He let out a laugh. "You're only just figuring this out? You were all just tools to me. Nothing but pieces on a board."
Then he turned to Kallen. "You were an especially fine piece, Kallen."
He lifted his chin slightly. "That's right. It was all just a game of chess from the very start."
"Was it?" Kallen's expression fell.
Tears slipped from her eyes. She stopped fighting, said quietly, "Goodbye, Lelouch," and walked away.
Once she had moved far enough, Lelouch whispered, "Kallen. You have to live."
"What?"
Kallen felt something was wrong.
She turned back around, and in that same moment, a volley of bullets tore toward Lelouch.
In the split second before they hit, a Knightmare Frame burst through the wall and threw itself between Lelouch and the gunfire.
"I'll protect you, brother!"
Rolo activated his Geass, grabbed Lelouch, and tore out of the base.
The others scrambled after them, opening fire on Rolo's unit.
Rolo's Geass could stop time perception within a small radius, but every time he used it, his heart stopped. Pushing it to a wide area could be fatal outright.
Lelouch knew this. "Rolo, that's enough," he said. "I don't have any reason left to stay alive."
"No, brother. Because..."
"I've always been someone else's tool. The Order's tool first. Then yours."
Rolo kept one hand on the controls and pressed the other to his chest, his face twisted in pain, but he refused to stop pushing his Geass.
Flashes of memory played across the screen one after another, underscored by the faint, delicate sound of a music box that wrapped itself around every frame.
"Yes. I knew I was being used. But those days still happened. They were real."
"Because of those memories, I finally felt like I was living as a person, not a thing."
"So I've already... I've already..."
"I am not a tool!"
"This is... my own will!"
His voice broke into something raw and loud by the end.
Then he pressed a switch.
The Knightmare released a concentrated beam of energy that tore through an aerial escort ship, and Rolo drove them both deep into the forest beyond.
As Rolo lay dying, Lelouch said quietly, "Rolo... why did you save me? I only ever..."
"Because you lie too much, brother," Rolo answered. "You were lying, weren't you? All that talk about wanting to kill me. About hating me."
"You saw right through me. I guess that's what makes you my little brother."
"When it comes to you, I just know."
Rolo's eyes closed, and his head fell gently to the side.
He was gone.
"I know," Lelouch said softly.
He placed Rolo's phone, heart charm still attached, into Rolo's open hand. "Your brother is a liar."
The episode closed on Lelouch's monologue.
"Nunnally. Rolo. Shirley. The Black Knights. I've lost everything."
"Is this what I deserve? A punishment?"
"But because of that..."
"Thank you, Rolo."
"The life you gave back to me... there is still something I have to finish."
"Yes. I still have..."
"Father. Charles zi Britannia. On my way down into hell, I'm taking you with me."
The ending theme played, and episode nineteen was over.
Rina had not even noticed when the tears started falling.
Everything had gone exactly as she expected. Rolo had come through for Lelouch again and played the most important role of anyone. But never, not for a single second, had she imagined that Rolo would die. She had not imagined, even slightly, that this episode would destroy her this completely.
"You've got to be kidding me."
"That was my Rolo!"
"Why does it have to hurt this much?!"
"Who was the person who told me to watch this show? I'll never forgive them!"
She muttered under her breath as she wiped her face with a tissue.
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