The Human Element

Chapter 7

A/N: As requested by SerenSeren; detective type Suzaku investigating our suspect, Lorraine. Of course, things have been changed to fit the AU, but the general concept is the same. Enjoy!

That smirk. He hated that damned smirk.

Things used to be different when they were kids, and Suzaku had once found little Lorraine's smirk to be quite cute, especially when it took lots of effort to even receive an emotional response. But now, Lorraine was a mass murderer. She had killed his love, Princess Euphemia. In one of the most secure prisons in Britannia, located right within the capital city of Pendragon, Lorraine still smirked. Suzaku hated it.

"Where are the remaining Black Knights hiding?"

"I have no clue."

"What are the amount of troops you possess?"

"No idea."

"The whereabouts of Todoh Kyoshiro?"

"Who?"

Oh, he was so close to snapping. He breathed in deep and exhaled slowly through his nose. Suzaku continued.

"Is there any financial information that you're willing to share?"

Lorraine actually laughed at that question. "From the pockets of Britannia's finest, of course!"

He was surprised that she had even answered. "Any numbers that you could give me..?"

Her violet eyes stared blankly at him. "I failed Grade 5 math."

For Kami's sakes! He seethed at her. Her smirk presented itself before him once again, and Suzaku had a very strong urge to smack Lorraine across the face, childhood friend be damned. It took almost all of his willpower to keep his facial features clear of any emotion, something he had always struggled with. But this time, he would not let Lorraine even think that she had won against him again. Instead, the brown haired teen opted for something different. He clapped his hands.

Within a couple seconds, a Britannian Guard entered the interrogation room.

"What is it that you needed, milord?"

Ah, how good it was to be in control. One of the many perks of capturing the mighty Zero. "The prisoner is being rather unresponsive. I trust that you and the rest of the Guards might be able to persuade her to talk?"

The guard swallowed, his only hesitation before nodding. "Of course, milord."

Suzaku turned to leave, but before he stepped out he whispered to the guard, low enough that Lorraine could not hear him, "Follow the correct procedures. Afterwards, she is to be brought before the Emperor, so make sure that afterwards she is at least…presentable." Suzaku soon stepped out, and Lorraine began to laugh. Not the same gentle laugh that he had rarely heard as a child, but a dark, manic laughter.

Minutes later, the laughter turned in to screaming.

It must have been a whole day before he came back, but Lorraine was far from broken. She was a genius, after all, and no stranger to physical pain. There was nothing more that Britannia could do to her that she would not endure. But for some reason, deep down, Lorraine knew that they could have inflicted far worse pain. But why?

Her childhood friend sat across her just like he did yesterday. The room was dark and foreboding, just like it should be. A long strip of one-way glass took up a portion of the wall to her left, a single plain table lay between her and Suzaku Kururugi.

"Have you come to ask any more questions?"

He said nothing, and for a few moments they simply sat in silence. A guard came in and placed a small plate topped with Britannian apple pastries before walking out wordlessly.

Suzaku gestured towards the plate, before saying, "Are you more willing to talk today?"

Of course, he was talking about both the pastries and the torture. Lorraine had to suppress a snort. I see through you a bit too easily. "That depends on how good these are."

She picked out one from the top, and chewed slowly. They might have been drugged, of course, but she knew Suzaku wouldn't play like that. It would have hurt his stupid sense of honour and chivalry, after all. They were pretty good, all things considered. It had been years since she had eaten a Britannian-made sweet, since she had always kept a stash of Japanese candies hidden for Nunnally. She decided to humour Suzaku.

"Let's start this again," Suzaku said slowly. "Where are the remaining Black Knights?"

"Besides the ones that you've already captured, I have no idea," she answered honestly. "We had a couple safe houses in the Tokyo Settlement, but I'm assuming my troops had enough common sense to stay out of that general region for the time being."

Suzaku scribbled down some notes. "And what of the amount of troops you command?"

"A bit over 5000, I'm pretty sure. Around 4000 of those were military." Okay, she might have been lying about those numbers a bit, but it was close enough to the truth that Suzaku would have no idea. The best lies were half-lies, after all.

"The whereabouts of Tohdoh Kyoshiro?"

She scratched her head like she was thinking. "To be honest with you…I couldn't say. I have no idea how far Tohdoh's old military connections lie, so I wouldn't be able to say for sure. However, I do know that he is in Japan. The old man never had any strong connections with outside nations, especially not the Chinese."

"That's true," Suzaku laughed. "He was always a bit anti-social."

Lorraine snorted, and just for the smallest second, it felt like they were friends once again. But some things couldn't last, and both their smiles faded.

"And…"

"And what?" she prompted him.

"And what about Euphie..?" Suzaku asked her, slowly and cautiously. His eyes were surprisingly vulnerable. When Lorraine didn't answer, he elaborated. "Why did you have to…" he trailed off.

Lorraine was silent, her face a mask of stone. Of course she knew why she had to do it. Lorraine had made a mistake, a stupid mistake that came along with a stupid joke. And her sister, sweet Euphymia, paid the price. But she knew that Suzaku couldn't know that; he wouldn't believe her anyway. There was no point in telling the truth, and Lorraine vi Britannia had lived a life of lies.

"What about her?" she smirked.

His fist came without warning, slamming in to her cheek and knocking her off her chair. She fell to the ground, hands clutching at her face, before his foot swung right at her gut. When nothing more came, Lorraine coughed up blood.

Suzaku glared down at her, his green eyes stormy with rage and hate. He was trembling in anger, but Lorraine had expected this reaction. "Get up," he hissed. "Up!" When she didn't respond, he grabbed her by the collar and forced her to her feet. Slowly he dragged Lorraine across the room towards the door.

"Be grateful I didn't get the chance to kill you," Suzaku seethed at Lorraine. "You have an audience with your father."

A/N:

Hi everyone! I know it took a bit to get this one done, but I hope you enjoyed. Thanks again to SerenSeren for the really cool prompt. As you can probably tell, this is in between R1 and R2, before Lorraine (Lelouch) is brought before the Emperor to be Geassed. An original scene, as you can tell, sort of my what-if Suzaku interrogated his prisoner before what actually is shown in the anime. Also, yes Lorraine can be a jerk, but that's her character too.

Next update will probably be some more GATE, but it might take a while. I'll be going out of town in 2 weeks, so that's going to delay the chapter. I do have a bit more free time this week, though, so I'll be getting started for sure. I hope you're all looking forward to it.

I was going to buy a Switch, but the damn thing is out of stock (again). It's always out of stock everywhere I go, which sucks because I've been ready to buy it for a while. I also bought the latest Fire Emblem, which is really great so far.

Anyway, I hope you're all having a good time. Happy early Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians! Let's enjoy the celebrations while we can. See you in the next update.

-DYFM