Death Note Fan Fiction / Code Geass Fan Fiction ❯ Zero vs Kira ❯ Investigation ( Chapter 4 )

Zero vs Kira

By

CrossoverManiac

 

Death Note is the property of Tsugumi Ohba. Code Geass is the property of Sunrise. This story is a work of entertainment only.

 

 

Chapter 4: Investigation

 

Flashback: Ashford Academy-Night of the Black Rebellion

 

`Lelouch will pay'-that thought played in V.V.'s mind in a loop that would end only with the death of Marianne's bastard children. His mind clouded with the image of his little brother Charles slipping away. “I should have killed them both along side their mother,” V.V. mumbled to himself. He darted from shadow to shallow until he made it to the front entrance of the student council building, which was guarded by some of the Black Knights. There he waited for an opportunity to strike, and Lady Luck provided him the distraction he needed. An antiquated Knightmare Frame piloted by one of the students came out of nowhere. The pilot was ranting that she would avenge Princess Euphemia. Perfect! As the guards directed their attention at the mayhem caused by the student, V.V. gunned them down and ascended the stairways towards the room Lelouch and Nunnally stayed. He clenched tightly in his hands the automatic rifle that he murdered Marianne with. How fitting he would kill them too with the same weapon. Die Lelouch. Die Nunnally. But before he could barge into the room, a petite girl with pink hair stepped in front of him.

 

“Knight of Six, what are you doing here?” It was Anya Alstreim, one of the twelve Knights of the Round.

 

“I came to check on you, V.V.” There was something odd about her. Anya was smiling playfully. She was the complete opposite of how Charles described her. The Knight of Six was suppose to be a somber, quiet girl; detached from the world around her. But she's grinning like a naughty preschooler plotting some sort of mischief.

 

“Stand out of my way,” V.V. ordered, “I have important business to tend to.” Then V.V. realized something: the Knight of Six knew his name. V.V. stopped in his tracks. “Did the Emperor tell you who I am?”

 

Anya grinned. “I've known that for quite some time, brother-in-law.” Anya pulled a submachine gun, the same make and model, from behind her and fired. V.V. felt fiery darts piecing his back gouging a path though his vital organs. The immortal child collapsed.

 

“What comes around goes around, brother-in-law,” Anya gloated over the fallen V.V. As V.V. was losing consciously, he stared at his attack standing right beside the Knight of One, Bismarck Waldstein.

 

 

 

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Lelouch was greeted at the door of the once high school storage room turned makeshift hold cell by Ohgi. “Are all the high-ranking officers who survived here?” Ohgi didn't answer but, instead, gazed down at the floor. “Ohgi!” Lelouch yelled.

 

Ohgi snapped at attention. “Ye...ye...yes, Zero.”

 

“Are all of the Britannian officers in this room?”

 

“Yes, of course,” Ohgi opened the door for Lelouch.

 

Five Britannian officers were handcuffed to each other with the officer on the far left handcuffed to a boiler pipe running into the radiator.

 

Lelouch moved in front of the prisoners. “Soldiers of Britannia cooperate with me and no harm shall come to you.”

 

“Colonel Brandi Patterson, R74241C,” the woman on the right of Lelouch droned on. The others went along Patterson. Standard Britannian protocol when captured by the enemy was to give name, rank, and serial number; nothing else.

 

Lelouch made a gesture to the guards. They understood the unspoken order and pounded the prisoners with their rifle butts.

 

“Enough,” Lelouch commanded. The guards ceased beating the prisoners and backed away.

 

“Soldiers of Britannia, will you continue your defiance of Zero or will you,” the slit on Lelouch's mask opened, “answer truthfully all my questions as long as you are in this room?” The five POW's were now under the sway of Lelouch's Geass.

 

“We'll answer whatever you ask of us,” Patterson said.

 

“What unit do you belong to?”

 

“My second-in-command and X.O.,” Patterson said pointing to the two men besides her, “were assigned to the 731st Armory the day after the massacre.”

 

Lelouch then recalled the missing laptop stolen from the armory. “Where were you stationed before being assigned to the 731st?”

 

“Fort Huxley in Phoenix.” So far, it appears Kira knew who to strike from the laptop he/she/they took. The records would be a month old. Changes prior to that would go unnoticed.

 

“What about you Major...” Lelouch glanced at the name tag on this coat, “...Price. When were you assigned to Area 11?”

 

“A week ago.”

 

“Did you replace an officer killed in the Armory massacre?”

 

“Colonel Horace York was promoted and assigned to the European front.”

 

“Diethard,” Lelouch called on his cell phone, “there's a colonel in the Britannian army named Horace York on the EU front. Check and see if he's dead or still alive.”

 

Twenty minutes later, Diethard paid Zero a personal visit with some files on hand.

 

“Is Horace York still alive?”

 

“No, he died yesterday of a heart attack, and he wasn't the only one. I had a feeling you were looking for victims of Kira outside of Japan.” He waved the files in his hand.

 

“Did they all transfer from Japan within the last month?”

 

“I noticed that as well.”

 

“Are they recent transfers as well?”

 

“All except for the man on the far end; he's the head of the medical corps. He was probably spared because of his non-combat role.” The prisoner in question had the Britannian medical corps' distinct patches and insignia.

 

“Perfect,” Lelouch addressed the medical officer. “Did the Britannians examine the victims of the 731st Massacre?”

 

“Yes, autopsies were performed on of the victims.”

 

“How many?”

 

“All of them.”

 

Under his mask, Lelouch gritted his teeth. This isn't good. The Britannians wouldn't have wasted their time if they found something right away. They were as desperate as him to find out how so many soldiers just dropped dead for no reason.

 

“Did they find anything?”

 

“Only that they died of heart attacks. There were blood samples in the restricted area where they performed top secret weapons testing, but none of the soldiers were cut so it's believed the blood came from the perpetrators.”

 

“What about DNA evidence?”

 

“Sorry, but the samples were contaminated with industrial-strength cleaning solvent. The DNA strands were too badly damaged. Whoever it was is knowledgeable in forensic science.”

 

Should have known it wasn't going to be that easy, thought Lelouch. He turned his attention back to Diethard and asked, “Those are the only officers that transferred?”

 

“We won't know until I get a chance to look over the personnel records, though I believe they might have been one or two more that Kira missed but were killed during the battle by our own men.” Diethard said as he fanned himself with the files.

 

“Everything seems to revolve around that single event,” Lelouch huffed.

 

“Do you think the attack on the armory was perpetrated in order to obtain the Britannians' personnel files, and if so, why wait a whole month to attack?”

 

“The real question is `how' and not `why'.”

 

 

 

Lelouch and Diethard left Ashford Academy to pay Rakshata a visit at what was left of the 731st Armory. They were escorted by one of the Black Knights though the cracks and hole-ridden hallways into a door labeled `RESTRICTED AREA-TOP SECRET CLEARANCE ONLY'. On the other side was a room around the same size and height of a high school gymnasium. In the center of the room was a huge piece of machinery. It was a giant metallic rectangle with a transparent coil on the corners with a giant crystalline claw on the end of a giant `arm' hanging over the designated test area. The machine had gaps in it and loose wires hanging out. There were also protective concrete barriers surrounding the machine. The barriers were six feet tall with a tampered cross-section that thickened at the bottom. One of them had an instrument panel built into it. Rakshata was on a ladder inspecting the machine.

 

“Rakshata,” Lelouch said sternly, “what are you doing here?” The Indian scientist frowned at Lelouch. “We went to the morgue to check on your progress, but, instead, we find you here. I ordered you to supervise the autopsies.”

 

“I'm an engineer, not a doctor. I deal in servos and circuitry, not dead bodies.” Rakshata had a sour look on her face when she mentioned `bodies'.

 

“I needed you at the morgues to confirm or dismiss the theories on how Kira kills.”

 

Rakshata climbed down the ladder. “Already done; and neither of them fits what we know about Kira's powers.”

 

“Is that so?” Lelouch wasn't so sure if that was true or Rakshata is just trying to do a rush job because she doesn't like dealing with corpses.

 

“According to our first hypothesis, a directed energy weapon was used to paralyze involuntary muscle functions stopping the heart similar to how tazers can cause paralysis of voluntary motor functions; possibly a plasma or particle-beam weapon. And that Kira's ability to eliminate multiple targets across the globe at the same time is merely showmanship and that Kira is really an organization armed with experimental weapons.”

 

But Rakshata shook her head dismissively. “The problem with our beautiful theory was some very ugly facts. Particle and plasma weapons leave very, *very* distinct signs. I could tell just by looking at the bodies that they weren't used. The autopsies only confirmed it. Besides, I could tell it was a long shot by watching the footage of the Britannian Emperor and his son Odysseus dying. If it was a directed-energy weapon, the bystanders would have been caught in the path of the beam.”

 

“What was the other theory?” Diethard asked.

 

Rakshata took out her pipe, lit it, and took a drag. “Radio-controlled capsules containing poison; similar to the transmitters fed to birds and salmon to track their migration. They're the size of a grain of rice and lodge itself in the stomach, though it's possible they can be made even smaller.” Rakshata sucked hard her pipe and was taking puffs without a pause. Diethard worked around plenty of heavy smokers in the news room to know Rakshata was taking a smoke to calm her nerves. “The medical examiners peeled those Britannian soldiers layer by layer like onions, and we still couldn't find anything. By the way, how did you get them to do the autopsies? They're Britannian doctors.”

 

“I'm persuasive. Get back on subject.”

 

“We didn't just concentrate on the digestive tract. We check the lungs, in case it was somehow inhaled however unlikely that was, and then we checked under the skin...”

 

“This is asinine,” Diethard protested. “Is this all you can come up with Rakshata?”

 

The Indian scientist stomped her foot. “I don't see you coming up with a better explanation!” Diethard backed out of arm's reach of Rakshata.

 

“Settle down!” Lelouch held his hands up. “Diethard, Rakshata is doing the best she can.”

 

“But Zero, none of these explanations are satisfactory. What organization is large enough to pull this off without being noticed? Someone would have found out about their plans long before they could pull it off.”

 

“I'm aware of how improbably our hypotheses were,” said Lelouch, “but we set distinct criteria for how the deaths occurred: the ability to kill from a distance even from across the globe, without a trace, and in large numbers.” Nonetheless, Lelouch shared in Diethard's frustration. If Kira's method of killing wasn't found, the Black Knights would be at his mercy. Though the forensics was fruitless, the investigation has shown one pattern: Kira must know the identity of the intended target, but was it because he has to know the victim's identity or just know who to target? And it didn't explain how he killed the soldiers in the base. No, that assuming he didn't find out before hand. The blood on the floor might have been from the attempt to gather that information. No, it didn't make sense. Knowing the target is one thing, but having to know the target's identity?

 

“Diethard, pass down the order: under no circumstance are the Black Knights are to reveal their true identities. Anonymity may be the only defense we have against Kira.”

 

“Understood,” Diethard nodded and exited the room.

 

“Rakshata, concentrate only on Kira. Our survival may depend on it.”

 

“But I am.” Rakshata tapped the machine with her pipe.

 

“We're already been though this. The Britannians shipped most of its components back to the capital. There isn't enough of it here to tell us what it was for.”

 

“What if Kira is a Britannian military experiment gone wrong?”

 

“No!”

 

“If you give a chance I'm sure...”

 

“No! The only concern you should have is to examine those bodies.” As Lelouch spoke, Rakshata sighed disdainfully. Just then, Lelouch's phone rang. “Yes, Ohgi,” Lelouch said in an annoyed voice. “What is it now?”

 

“There's an incident at the royal hospital. It's that Kururugi guy; the one piloting the Lancelot. He's held up in one of the rooms in the hospital.”

 

“What's he doing there?” Lelouch panicked.

 

“I don't know. He was there when our forces took it over. He didn't offer any resistance, but then, all of a sudden, he went berserk.”

 

“I'm on my way. Don't take any action until I get there, and no harm is to come to Kururugi.

 

Ohgi huffed. “Yeah, sure, whatever Zero.” Lelouch made a mental note to find out what's been bothering Ohgi and to straighten out his worsening attitude.

 

 

 

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Zero, Ohgi, and eight rank-and-file Black Knights exited the elevator to the ICU, intensive care unit. The hospital was in relatively good shape. The Black Knights faced no resistance taking the facility. It was now being used to treat their own.

 

The ICU showed no signs of the battle that took place just yesterday except for some bullet holes along the wall in front of the room on the far end of the hallway.

 

Ohgi pointed to the door in front of the bullet-ridden segment of the hallway.

 

“Kururugi is inside?” Lelouch asked.

 

“Of course he's inside! That's why I brought you here!” If Lelouch wasn't busy dealing with Suzaku, he'd put Ohgi in his place for that outburst.

 

“Suzaku Kururugi,” Lelouch called out from beside the bullet holes. He heard the metallic clicking of a magazine clip inserted into an automatic weapon and a round fed into the chamber.

 

“Zero, is that you?” Suzaku asked.

 

“It is, but what are you doing here?” Lelouch had been so preoccupied with Kira that it just occurred to him Suzaku was not in the battle. “Are you not the pilot of the Lancelot? Wasn't your duty to Britannia?”

 

“I jointed the Britannian army to change things from within. But now it seems so pointless. The only thing in this world that really mattered to me is gone. Even so, I won't let you have her.”

 

“Have who?” Zero peered into the room.

 

“Don't come any closer.” Suzaku stood in front of the now deceased Euphemia. “I know what you've been doing to the people Kira murdered. Even I didn't think you'd stooped so low. So, I slipped away from your guards and saw it with my own eyes.” Suzaku's eyes blazed up in rage. “I won't let you desecrate Euphie's body.” The autopsies is what got Suzaku riled up.

 

“I assure you, Suzaku Kururugi, Euphemia's remains will be treated with the utmost care.”

 

“LIAR!” Suzaku yelled. The submachine gun vibrated as Suzaku's hand became unsteady. “I saw what you did to Cornelia. I almost didn't recognize her. I'll die before you do the same to Euphie!”

 

Suzaku, Lelouch thought in the back of his mind, you are so quick to throw your life away. It was Mao claimed. Suzaku had a death wish; one that's been with him since the day he murdered his father seven years ago. What did Mao say? Oh yeah, `a bad child wanting to punished'. Lelouch made that terrible decision to bend the will of his best friend to save him from himself.

 

“Suzaku Kururugi, you honestly think Princess Euphemia would want you to sacrifice yourself for her lifeless corpse?”

 

“EUPHIE DIDN'T WANT TO DIE IN THE FIRST PLACE!”

 

“Suzaku,” the slit over the Geass eye opened, “live; live for Princess Euphemia.”

 

Lelouch didn't want to his Geass on Suzaku, but it was either that or kill him.

 

“I must live for Euphie?” Suzaku repeated Lelouch's command.

 

“And you won't be able to if you don't surrender. Even you can't fight your way out.”

 

Suzaku laid down his weapon. The Black Knights cornered Suzaku and aimed their rifles at him. Suzaku then snapped out of his gaze. “What's going on? How did you get in here? Where's my gun?”

 

“You finally accepted the futility of your actions and surrendered,” said Lelouch.

 

Suzaku lunged at Lelouch, but the Black Knights held him back. “No, that's not true. I...”, Suzaku struggled to remember. “What did you do to me? I don't remember giving up.”

 

“It must be fatigue from the stress.” It wasn't Lelouch's best lie, but it would have to do. “It's affecting you mentally.”

 

“Forgive me Euphie,” Suzaku cried.

 

“Take Princess Euphemia to the morgue and inform Rakshata no autopsy will be performed on her.” Lelouch ordered. He then said to Suzaku, “you may stay with her highness until arrangements can be made to deliver the body to the Britannian homeland.”

 

“Thank you, Zero,” Suzaku breathed a sigh of relief. The Black Knights and Suzaku carried Euphemia's body away on a stretcher.

 

“Zero,” Ohgi said staring at the hospital bed Euphemia once occupied. “That deal you made with Kururugi?”

 

“What about it? You'd rather if I string her up and put her on display?”

 

“No, you got it all wrong. Make the same deal with me that you made with Kururugi!”

 

 

 

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Lelouch glanced over Ohgi's apartment. It was rather well kept. The furniture was the best a Japanese man could afford without being an honorary Britannian. But one thing struck him as odd; a laptop on the table playing footage of Ohgi's home from varying angles. Lelouch saw himself and Ohgi in the window display on the center left. He waved his hand around while looking at the monitor. There was a hidden camera in the light fixture.

 

“You kept your Britannian prisoner under close watch?” Lelouch asked rhetorically.

 

Ohgi nodded. “I'd plan to get information about the Britannians from her. Things didn't work out as planned, though.” Ohgi looked away from Lelouch conflicted between the lost of his beloved and the shame of being caught keeping secrets from his comrades in arms. “Chigusa and I grew close.”

 

“You fell for her, didn't you?”

 

“Yeah, some terrorist I turned out to be.” Ohgi led Lelouch to his bathroom. In the tub was the body Villetta Nu immersed in water and ice. She was still dressed in the same outfit that Ohgi found her in. Her hair spread out over the ice cubes floating on the surface of the water. Despite the discoloration of the skin, the first stage of decomposition, she looked like an angel asleep on the clouds in the sky and the ice cubes glittered like diamonds. “I fall in love with the enemy.”

 

“I'll order Rakshata to stop the autopsies. There's nothing to be gained from this butchery. She can go back working on finding out what the Britannians were testing when Kira killed them. You can make the burial arrangements for her.”

 

Ohgi tensed up and braced himself for the consequences of keeping this a secret from Zero. “I accept my punishment for keeping secrets from you, Zero.”

 

“I'll deal with you later, but right now, there's more pressing matters. Ohgi, did you find her before or after the 731st Massacre?”

 

Ohgi paused for a second. “About three days before the massacre.”

 

“And the Britannians wouldn't have listed her MIA until she's gone missing for 72 hours *after* the report's been filed and it wouldn't have been reported right away. It's safe to assume those killed by Kira were active military personnel in combat rolls and assigned to Japan at the time of the massacre, which would include the soldiers killed in the armory. If this was the result of an unknown organization, they wouldn't have bothered tracking down one missing Britannian officer with amnesia and kill her. Kira was unaware of neither her nor the soldiers that transferred after the massacre. If Kira was doing something to the Britannians, then how was he able to harm your lover?”

 

“Well, actually,” Ohgi interrupted, “we didn't go that far in our...” Ohgi shut his mouth when it occurred to him he wasn't exactly on good standing with Zero. “Nevermind,” Ohgi said apologetically.

 

“And if Kira did do something to them before the attack, let's say, poison them; then why steal the personnel files in the first place?” Could it, Lelouch thought, Kira has to know the identity of his victim?

 

 

 

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Ashford Academy

 

Was Lelouch dead? The question plagued Milly's subconscious. Lelouch went on an errand. It was just before the school assembly when the Emperor was giving his international address; before he was struck dead. Fearing Kira's threat, Milly invoked her authority as the president of the student council and demanded Lelouch stay put. She even tried the last refuge of scoundrels and invoked patriotism and Lelouch's responsibility as vice-president to attend the event, but Lelouch wouldn't have any of it. No doubt his `errand' was to gamble a nobleman out of his money. He sidestepped the meeting and ran off. He hasn't been back since. Though, not being at the school might be a good thing. Ashford Academy was now the Black Knight's headquarters.

 

The students who didn't flee the school when fighting broke out were herded into the assembly hall for safe keeping. The chairs were piled outside to make room for the students to sleep on the floors, which was a difficult task. The floor was thinly-carpeted and offered as much comfort as a boulder covered in moss. Body heat and the perspiration from the students made the assembly hall into a sauna. Milly, Shirley, Nunnally, and Rivalz were busy fanning Nina who passed. The guards refused to let the girl out for fresh air. They locked the exits except for the main one and that was heavily guarded by Black Knights with machine guns. In the enclosed space, the six guards could easily wipe out the remaining students in a matter of seconds. Milly felt a tap on the shoulder.

 

A woman dressed in a sultry version of the Black Knight uniform, short skirt, no sleeves, which was tight enough to highlight her hourglass figure and ample bosom poked her on the shoulder. But what struck Milly the most was that the green-haired woman was more Britannian in appearance than Japanese.

 

“You? Is this boy a student?” The boy the green-haired woman pointed to was Lelouch.

 

“Unfortunately, he is.” Milly said spitefully. “Lelouch, where the hell have you been?!?

 

“Big Brother!” Nunnally rejoiced.

 

Lelouch gave her little sister a hug. “I glad you're safe Nunnally.”

 

“Don't change the subject, Lulu.” Milly scolded.

 

“Milly, I can explain.”

 

“Don't bother. You went gambling again! They probably found you in a casino. We were worried sick. I thought you might have been killed!”

 

“Hey settle down!” A guard yelled.

 

“Don't worry, I got it covered.” The green-haired woman said. “You,” the green-haired girl addressed the student council. “Tell the other student that this boy is our go-between. He'll be in and out the detention center coordinating with us. You answer to him, and he answers to us. Understood?” The others nodded. “As for you,” she said addressing Lelouch, “if they get out of line, it'll be your neck on the line.”

 

“Yes, ma'am,” said Lelouch.

 

“Why she's on their side?” Shirley asked. “Isn't she Britannian?”

 

“More like EU going by the accent.” Milly commented.

 

“And why did they put you in charge?” Rivalz glowered suspiciously at Lelouch.

 

“Convenience, I guess,” Lelouch said with a sheepish grin on his face. “I just happened to bump into them, and when they checked my I.D., they sent me back to the academy.”

 

“There's something on the news.” A student pointed to the large screen TV in the front of the assembly hall.

 

“Dammit! They weren't supposed to leave that off.” Lelouch cursed.

 

“What was that Lulu?” Milly asked.

 

“Umm...nothing.” Almost slipped up that time, Lelouch ostracized himself in his mind. Lelouch ordered his men not to give out outside information. If the Britannians were to retaliate, misguided students may try to stage a revolt and get their classmates killed in the process.

 

“Look like the Brits picked their new emperor,” a guard scorned. “The guy must have a death wish.”

 

Milly gasped when she saw the figure on the screen. “It can't be.”

 

“What's wrong, Prez?” Rivalz asked.

 

“It's my fiancé, Lloyd.”

 

Standing between two barrel-chested security guard was Milly's fiancé, Cecile and Suzaku's boss, and the inventor of the Lancelot Knightmare Frame, Lloyd Asplund dressed in the royal uniform donned by the late emperor Charles Britannia.

 

 

 

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Looks like Lloyd got himself quite a promotion...or the world's most hazardous job. Will Lloyd be next on Light's list of world leaders to kill? What happened to V.V.? What will Lelouch do with knowledge gained in his investigation of Kira? Tune in next time for Chapter Five of Zero vs. Kira.

 

And thanks to the people who read and comment on my fic. And apologies for taking so long. Between writer's block and real world stuff, I haven't had the time. But now I got over my writer's block and my priorities straight (who needs the real world when you have anime LOL), my hope is that I can get the chapters out in a much faster rate.

 

Fan fic notes:

 

The timeline for this fic starts at the point in the Death Note series between the time Light met Misa Amane and his imprisonment by L and one month before Lelouch and just after Shirley shot Villetta Nu and discovered Lelouch is Zero.

Assuming it takes Light three seconds to write a name, and an average of ten minutes per hour to rest his hand, he could write about 1000 names in the Death Note per hour. From 10 am to late at night, I estimate the death toll in the Black Rebellion contributed to the Death Note to be 10,000 to 12,000. Light concentrated on the command structure of the Britannian army leaving the enlisted personnel to the Black Knight.

I'm also assuming that C.C. has a British accent since she spent most of her immortality in the region of the world and dialects set in by early adulthood, though with my luck, she's probably French.

Shirley has yet the find the note she wrote Lelouch where she rediscovered Lelouch's identity as Zero.

I also assumed the time between Shirley shooting Villetta Nu and Lelouch finding out Suzaku was the pilot of the Lancelot is one month. But odds are this happened over a longer span of time. So just go with me on this.