Suzaku walked quickly through the halls. His thoughts were racing, running through every part of the jarring argument Lelouch and C.C. had just had. Kallen jogged and caught up to him, matching his pace. She shot him a look of concern.

"Okay, Suzaku? What just happened?" Kallen asked.

"If I knew, I'd tell you." Suzaku replied, letting out a sigh. "This is bad." It was extremely bad. The way they'd been talking, it was as if Lelouch had made a deal with a demon. For all Suzaku knew…

"Yeah, obviously. That was so much more intense than usual, and all of that stuff with bargains and stories… do you have any clue what that was even about? Kallen asked.

"No." Suzaku said, doing his best not to let how much that unnerved him seep into the word. Kallen seemed to notice anyway.

"…shit." Kallen said, after a moment.

"That pretty much sums it up." Suzaku replied.

"Should I be worried?" Kallen asked, a bit more quietly. Suzaku glanced at her, noticing the tension in her hunched shoulders and the wringing of her hands, and resisted the urge to put a reassuring hand on her arm.

"I don't think so. Not about Lelouch, at least. I can't speak for C.C.." Suzaku said.

"This is crazy. Seriously. They're both crazy." Kallen said, shaking her head. "Was he always like this?" She finished. Suzaku thought back to those old days at the Kururugi shrine, and shook his head.

"No. Well, not really. He's always been dramatic, but not… I don't even know what you'd call this." Suzaku said.

"Crazy." Kallen said. Suzaku snorted.

"I guess, maybe… I think 'possessed' feels more accurate." He said.

"What, like, by a ghost?" Kallen asked. Suzaku smiled, thinly. A ghost… not too far off.

"Sure, isn't everyone? Ghosts of the past, I mean…?" Suzaku said, sighing, before looking over at Kallen."Lelouch has always been troubled, but he's gotten a lot worse, and I just don't know why. From the way Milly talked, he wasn't like that at all before Clovis took him." Suzaku said.

"Right… wow, it's weird to imagine him as Milly's partner." Kallen said.

"Well, they were actually a lot closer than that." Suzaku said, absently.

"Oh. Oh, wait, really?" Kallen said. Suzaku glanced at her again, and realized his mistake.

"No, no, they weren't… involved, or anything. She's pretty much his foster sister. Didn't you know?"

"Milly never said anything… I guess I didn't really ask." Kallen said.

"Right… huh. That makes sense, now that I think about it. The two of us used to share stories about him over tea every once in awhile, but I don't think she mentioned him much outside of that." Suzaku said.

"That's so weird. Seriously—the 'secret prince training school' thing is the whole reason Ashford Academy got so famous last year. It's most of why my father enrolled me there in the first place. Why isn't she playing that up?" Kallen asked. Suzaku frowned.

"Milly wouldn't take advantage of their relationship like that—Lelouch is really important to her. I think, maybe, she feels guilty about what happened. It was her idea to go to the All-Youth tournament in the first place—the prize money and the publicity really helped the school. The way she tells it, they were barely scraping by before then." Suzaku said.

"Wait, guilty? What is there for her to feel guilty about?" Kallen asked. Startled, Suzaku plastered on a polite smile and nodded at two other first year students he didn't know as they passed them in the hall.

"The empire didn't know that Lelouch was still alive, Kallen." Suzaku said, quietly.

"I know that. 'Prince Lelouch, Back From the Dead'! Ashford Academy Ace Revealed as Royal Refugee'! It was in every newspaper for weeks. The guy's a celebrity now—most people would be grateful." Kallen said. Suzaku frowned at her.

"He didn't want that. He was in hiding, Kallen. From the emperor. This is Britannia we're talking about—do you think they just let that sort of thing slide?" He asked. Kallen stared back at him.

"They punished him for coming back? A friggin prince? Seriously?" Kallen asked.

"Well, the royal guard and some Knights of the Round took Lelouch away as soon as he got out of the hospital. Milly didn't hear from him again for months—she kept sending letters to Viceroy Clovis to forward to him, wherever he was. I don't know if Lelouch ever got them. His phone was disconnected, and his scroll, and he didn't show up in the news anywhere. I helped Milly look for him a few times, but there was nothing… it was as if he had just vanished into thin air." Suzaku said.

At long last, they'd reached the doors into the library. He went through, heading towards one of the stairways. They climbed up, reaching the second floor—the part of the library usually devoted to private study, among other things. Which, Suzaku was most definitely not going to think about.

"Albion's a long way away. Maybe he was just too busy enjoying the royal high life to say anything." Kallen whispered. Suzaku pushed open the door to the first empty study room he saw, while leveling an incredulous stare Kallen's way.

"You've seen him. Do you honestly believe that makes any sense?" Suzaku whispered back. Kallen looked at him, and frowned.

"No. I just don't understand what could have happened." Kallen said.

"We don't know. He hasn't said anything about it to either me or Milly, and I haven't asked. Wherever it was they took him… it was bad. Really bad. That's what my gut's been telling me, at least." Suzaku said, closing the door as Kallen walked in behind him.

"You do have a famously reliable gut." Kallen said, smirking a little. Suzaku flushed a little with embarrassment.

"It was one time, Kallen! How was I supposed to know he was a pop star trying to visit his sister? Skulking in a fedora, a trench coat, and sunglasses, outside the girls dorm, at night—!" He said, eyes narrowing as her smirk widened. "You know, nevermind. We're getting off-topic. This is serious, Kallen. It's no time to be joking around." Suzaku said. Kallen frowned at him, sitting down in one of the study chairs as Suzaku slid into the one opposite.

"I was just trying to lighten the mood a little, geeze. You don't need to remind me. Between the two of us, Suzaku, you're not the one with lives depending on that guy being sane." Kallen said, and Suzaku winced.

"Right. Your… friends. Maybe this is a good time to get to why I brought you here—I wanted to finish our conversation, from before. I want to know the rest of your story." Suzaku said. Kallen sighed, but met his eyes.

"Well, alright. What did you want to know?" Kallen asked. Suzaku took a moment to think.

"I… never knew that your mother was Nihonese. Or your brother." Suzaku said. Kallen seemed to shrink in on herself, looking away for a moment.

"Yeah. They were." Kallen said, with a finality that gave Suzaku a sinking feeling in his gut.

"Right… I know your brother is… well… gone. Is your mother…?" He tried. Kallen met his eyes, a spark of anger flaring.

"Dead. You don't need to treat me with kid gloves, Suzaku. They're both dead. Her name was Yuri, his was Naoto. They died at Britannian hands." Kallen said, her voice shaking. Suzaku stared at her, stunned and horrified. Kallen's bluntness did have its downsides… and as much as she was trying to give her normal show of bravado, Suzaku could tell it hurt her to say the words.

"I'm sorry." He said, softly. Kallen looked away.

"It's been awhile. Ten years, in mom's case." She said.

"The invasion…" Suzaku said. Faces flashed to the forefront of his mind, people he'd known in childhood, people who were now nothing more than ghosts… not even a grave marker to remember them by. "You were so young."

"Yeah. Didn't matter to the Britannians, did it? Or the Grimm." Kallen said, staring down at the table. "We were down in Osaka visiting family when the invasion started. Mom, Naoto and I. Our father kept calling, telling us to come back to Edo, where it was 'safe'. Mom didn't want to go, though—she was worried about taking us through the mountains. It wasn't safe… but then we heard that the Britannian army was burning their way west from Sendai, and everyone thought Osaka was going to get hit next. Mom decided our hotel wasn't nearly as safe as the estate in Edo, and we joined up with some others who were heading out onto the high road. We should have taken an airship… everyone was worried about the Britannian air fleet, but we should have tried." Kallen shook her head. "We made it about halfway through the mountains before we got stuck. There were a lot of Grimm following our caravan, and we only had one huntress… it was getting bad. I don't know the name of the village we took shelter in—I guess it doesn't matter much, anymore. It had some walls, some turrets, strong gates. I was trying to tag Naoto on one of the walls when the Morrigan came out of the sky." Kallen said, eyes distant. The dread that Suzaku felt at those words was a familiar one. He'd heard too many of these stories not to know how it would end.

"It was like something out of a nightmare. The sun was just beginning to set, and this thing dropped out of the clouds. I really thought it was a Grimm, before it opened fire, some sort of big whale—I still have nightmares like that, but the real thing was… worse. When it started to shoot, it was like thunder and lightning… like the whole world disappeared in a flash, like the wrath of some evil god. My memory gets a bit fuzzy after that. I'm not sure how we got off of the wall. I'm not really sure how we even survived—I think Naoto carried me back to the house we were staying at, since the next thing I remember is my mom hugging us and telling us everything would be okay. That's when the screams got louder…" Kallen struggled, trying to keep herself steady. Suzaku wasn't sure who she thought she was fooling, or why, but that was Kallen for you… and Suzaku refused to take that small bit of comforting pride from her.

"Everyone was panicking. We tried to run, but the gates had fallen, all of them, and the Grimm were everywhere. There was only the one airship. I think they used it for mail, or food, or something. They threw out all the cargo, but there still wasn't enough room. They let Naoto and I on it. Mom… stayed behind." Kallen said, voice failing.

"I'm sorry." Suzaku said. Kallen looked back at him, scowling as hard as she could. It didn't hide the tears in her eyes.

"Don't you dare pity me, Suzaku Kururugi. Don't you dare." She said. Suzaku flinched in surprise—that was not what he'd meant by that, at all.

"I care about you, Kallen. I won't pretend to ignore that this hurts you." Suzaku stared back, watching her carefully. "If you want to stop—"

"No." She said, looking down at the table. "No. We… we made it to Edo. I'm not sure how, there were so many packs of flying Grimm… but we made it. It wasn't long before Cornelia's men arrived, and her damned ship. Every day I saw it, the fucking Morrigan, floating just outside of anti-air range, taking potshots down at us. The rest of the fleet, too, but that's the one that stands out. You were there too, I guess—you must remember what it was like. Naoto and I made it to dad's place. It was hard… people kept trying to jump over the walls, break our things, set the house on fire. The whole Britannian foreign quarter got looted at one point or another. When the Morrigan finally flew away, we began to hope things would blow over... but then the food supplies started to run out. I don't know if things got bad in the Kururugi Citadel, but the rest of the city…" Kallen shivered. Suzaku remembered that well, watching from the walls. It was the first time he'd ever seen someone starve to death, just lying dead in the street.

"Then they broke through the outer wall, and Councilman Kururugi—" she paused, eyes wide. Suzaku schooled his features into as calm a mask as he could manage. His father's watch was heavy in his pocket… but there was no way she knew the truth. Thankfully, she continued.
"I… uh… I guess you know better than me… anyways, we made it through the occupation months. After the treaty, though, my father's wife finally came over from Britannia. I guess I looked Britannian enough that my father convinced her to let me stay—that bitch is barren and they needed an heir. But Naoto looked too much like mom." Kallen's hands clenched tightly on the edge of the table, and she stared down at them, voice shaking with anger and hurt. "They turned him out on the streets and tried to shut me up in the house where I wouldn't be a problem. My father never mentioned Naoto again, and one word about mom would set the bastard off. I managed to get out and run away to Naoto as much as I could, but he'd always send me back. He wanted me to be safe, I guess, or happy. Sit back and relax on blood money while he was out there fighting not to starve in the slums… you can imagine how I felt about that." Kallen looked back up at Suzaku. He didn't need to imagine—he could see it in her eyes, the same wretched serpent of guilt and fury he so often felt coiled around his own heart.
"He always believed we could do something, to stand up for Nihon. He and his friends used to do little things—get incriminating photos of corrupt bureaucrats or police officers and send them to newspapers, steal Britannian credit card info to loot their bank accounts, stage bank robberies, send threats to break up Britannian events, break their trains and blow up the bridges out to the military bases, burn military communiques… pretty much anything they could do that wouldn't attract more attention than we could handle from the Viceroy, or Lord Mengsk, or the Inquisition. I helped, when I could make the time. Naoto got a resistance newspaper started up, disguised as a manga, and I actually helped write the cover story—just silly and boring enough that no one would take a second look." Kallen smiled at that, sadly.

"It was working—Naoto's group was keeping the Britannians on their toes in Edo, and the bigger groups like the NLF were starting to take notice. He was making progress. We were making progress. But then, last fall, Naoto stumbled onto something big… too big. Some sort of project Clovis had his royal guard working on, out west in the Narita mountains near Kyoto. From what Naoto found in some aristocrat's computer files, it was some sort of bioweapon. He was worried they'd test it on a village, or on the city… I told him we should have talked to one of the bigger groups, let the NLF or the Blood of the Samurai handle it, but he refused. He said, if we let the big groups take it, they might use it, and they were just as likely to use it on civilians as Clovis was. He never did trust the bigger groups." Kallen said, sighing.

The thought of either of those groups getting their hands on something like that made Suzaku's blood run cold. He'd seen the pictures of what the NLF had done—the massacre of hostage families at Nagoya Central Station, the attack on Edo's Grand Stadium—and even if those were still less gruesome than the child bombers his distant cousin Aizen's 'Blood of the Samurai' made use of, they were still monstrous acts.

"Your brother was right." Suzaku said.

"No, he wasn't. He was stupid." Kallen said, glaring back up at Suzaku again. "We didn't have enough people. We barely knew anything about the place. All we had was one of Naoto's stupid plans, and… and he didn't even let me come along." Kallen looked away again, eyes tearing up. With deepening sadness, Suzaku knew where this was going.
"He told me not to worry, that he'd be fine. He left, and I waited, and waited, and waited… It was days before they made it back, and then it was only a few who made it. The rest were dead, or captured, and Naoto… no one knew where he was, until a few days later, when…" Kallen looked back at the table, fists clenched. "When Clovis hanged him. On live television. For 'betraying the just and merciful laws of Britannia'." She finished. Suzaku froze.

"…oh." Suzaku said, mind shuddering to a halt. He'd chosen to stop watching those executions, years ago. It was one of the few luxuries he'd allowed himself, not having to see the faces of those executed as they died. But Kallen's own brother had been one of them, and knowing that she must have been watching, Suzaku felt as if he'd been punched in the gut. It was difficult to even focus as she kept talking.

"He didn't tell them anything. Not even his real name. I don't think anyone checked… he didn't really have school records or anything, not since the Edo archives burned in the sundering. He kept us all safe, and he died alone, at Clovis' hands. My big brother." Kallen said, tears flowing thickly now. She tried to wipe them away before looking back up at Suzaku. "Since then, I've done everything I can to make sure his death meant something. I'll fight to my last breath for Nihon, and for Naoto."

"I… I understand, Kallen. And… I'm sorry. For everything." Suzaku said, breaking eye contact. He couldn't look her in the eye, not then. This was all his fault. He'd failed her. His way of doing things, his path, it was one of sacrifice. He'd always known that, accepted it, borne it. But knowing that it had all lead to these tragedies, to Kallen's rage and despair, somehow hit hard in a place he'd thought numb to it all by now. He couldn't afford this. It would be worth it. It had to be, somehow. Even now he was being selfish.
"I can see your point of view," he continued, trying not to let his turmoil show, "but… I still think you're going about this the wrong way. I don't see what vengeance and further hatred will solve. Maybe it will make you feel better, in the short term, and make everything hurt less, but long-term? We aren't going to out-fight Britannia. They have more resources than we could ever have, and they're crueler than we should ever be—they're better at it. Sinking down to their level just makes us into a weaker version of them, an enemy they know how to beat and beat easily. And for every battle we pick, every battle we lose, the empire will make innocents pay for it a hundred times over." Suzaku said. Kallen glared at him.

"So what? They'll make innocents pay either way. They make us live in misery and fear in our own homeland, every day, because that's the way they like it. You're really going to look me in the eye and tell me to sit back and take it? To ignore everything they've done, everything they're doing, everything they're going to do? Do you even realize the kinds of things they do to our people? The lives they force us to live?" Kallen replied. Suzaku bristled—of course he knew. Did she think he was blind?

"At least we're still alive, Kallen! At least we still have a chance for a future." Suzaku said.

"This isn't living, Suzaku. It's barely even surviving." Kallen said, staring him down. Suddenly, all Suzaku could think about were the people he passed every day, the beggars and refrain addicts, the sight of the ghettos, and he felt the heat rush to his face. She wasn't wrong.

"I just… I know, Kallen. I don't know what the answer is. But there has to be something that won't just mean more war, death, and destruction. There has to be a way to change things from within the system." Suzaku said. Bad as the ghettos were, he remembered a time when they had burned brightly. In the words of the Britannian missionaries, purgatory was better than hell. Things were better than they'd been, right after the war. Areas one, two, and four were almost completely free of the worst aspects of opression, most of the time, though they'd been under the empire's control for centuries now…

"This is Britannia we're talking about, Suzaku! You think your self-important ass can do anything to change it? The whole thing was built on betrayal and exploitation, right from the start! It'll chew you up and spit you out before you even get your foot in the door. You'll either end up dead or just as corrupt and evil as the rest of them." Kallen pointed at Suzaku's bag. "I've read their fucking history books—no one, not even an emperor, could stop the empire from doing exactly what it's always done. The ones who try, just get replaced." Kallen finished. Suzaku shook his head. Past failure did not make future success impossible.

"Maybe it's different now. We both know that there are Britannians who reject the system, who see how horrible and unfair it is. I'm not saying it would be easy, but if we could make Britannians with power see things differently in Nihon, we could make things better—Nihon is still a new part of the empire. There is still time for change. And if we make it work in Nihon, maybe we could do the same in Albion. The people living as numbers over there deserve better lives too—Nihon could be an inspiration for a better way for half of the world!" He said. Kallen was shaking her head, and Suzaku grimaced.
"Even if it doesn't work," he continued, getting a little angry, "even if we don't gain allies and respect through the system, just trying to do it is better than what you all have been doing. The resistance groups in Nihon have only made things worse for our people. More of us are dead today because of what they have done. While you and the Britannians fight over who gets to run things, our people get caught in the crossfire. They get the blame, and the punishment, while the resistance groups go on fighting an endless, hopeless battle. Temporary setbacks, sabotage, threats, even killing random Britannians—children, the elderly, ordinary people—solves nothing." Suzaku said.

"They're a part of the system, Suzaku. Maybe they deserve to die." Kallen said, coldly. Suzaku stared at her, horrified.

"You don't mean that." He said. Kallen looked away, tears gathering again.

"…no. No, I don't, but… it's just not fair, Suzaku. I can't sit back—after everything…! They took my brother from me." She said. Suzaku felt the guilt weigh even heavier in his pocket, and around his throat.
"He was the only family I had left, after my mom…" Kallen continued, staring Suzaku down again. "My father just threw them both away. Like they'd never existed. And that's just my problems—everyone is suffering. The Britannians make the rules however they like and they don't even play by them. Their dealers sell Refrain in the slums, and their police arrest us for using it. Their businesses hire thugs to bust up Nihonese competition, and the police look the other way. People get stolen off of the street, and no one cares. And look what happened to you, Suzaku!" Kallen said, standing. "You're kind, helpful, honest, a model student and citizen, and they treat you like trash. And not everyone has wealthy Britannian friends to bail them out—would anyone have even cared when you got arrested, if I wasn't around? Or Milly? If you didn't have that stupid Ashford academy uniform on, they might have just killed you and been done with it. Some of my friends ended up that way, and some didn't even get the chance to be arrested before the were murdered." Kallen said. Suzaku didn't want to meet her eyes, but she leaned in and Suzaku felt he couldn't look away.
"You know what it's like. Are you really so proud that you think you have the power to change all of it, by making them respect you? To change the mind of every Britannian? Even just most of them?" Kallen asked. Suzaku felt a surge of emotions flow through him—outrage, shame, fear, determination, sadness… He blinked tears out of his eyes.

"I… it's not pride, Kallen. I need to do this." Suzaku said.

"Well, I need to do this too." Kallen said, crossing her arms. It was such a familiar sight, Suzaku would have laughed, if he'd felt the least bit cheerful. He understood her position, now, a little better at least… and he found that he couldn't blame her for how she felt. Not after everything she'd been through… she too was drawn down her path, just as he was, by what had happened to them. Even if he completely disapproved of her choice of solution, it seemed that they at least agreed on the problem, and the goal of ending injustice. He felt a flicker of hope, at that thought.

"I… I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, for now." Suzaku said, trying to give her a supportive smile.

"Yeah. I guess so." Kallen replied. She looked… wary, of him. It wasn't pleasant to see, and Suzaku wasn't sure what to say. He struggled to find the words for a moment.

"Thank you for sharing this with me, Kallen. I'm sorry I made you relive all that, and… I promise I'll think on what you said." Suzaku said, offering a hand. Kallen looked at it for a moment, let out her own sigh, and looked back up at him.

"Okay, then… I won't promise to do the same, but if you'll at least keep my secret, it's all I can ask." Kallen said, taking his hand. Suzaku smiled, genuinely this time.

"It's good to be on the same page again." He said, earning a wistful smile back.

"So sentimental, geeze." Kallen said. Suzaku laughed.

"I guess you're right." Suzaku said, chuckling.

"You guess? You get weepy over the smallest things. I swear I saw you cry when Milly gave you an old tie as a parting gift." Kallen said. Suzaku felt a blush rise to his cheeks.

"Hey, that tie has a lot of sentimental value! You'd have cried too." Suzaku said.

"Sure, big guy. Sure." Kallen said, smirking. It somehow made Suzaku suddenly and unreasonably happy.

"Well, anyway… putting all of that aside, since we're here already, do you want to study for Port's quiz next week?" Suzaku asked.

"Oh. Uh, yeah, I guess so." Kallen scratched her head. "Damn—with everything else that's been happening, I forgot we've got actual schoolwork to do." Kallen said. Suzaku chuckled.

"Yeah, I know the feeling." He said, opening the book. "Alright, I think we were just covering Ursai…"

Studying with Kallen felt so normal, as if nothing had happened. But it was a momentary reprieve… Suzaku had a great deal to think about. At least his partner was still by his side.

Gods, he hoped they'd be able to salvage all of this, in the end.

"I know you're there."

Clang! Clang! Clang!

...

"It was stupid of me, I know. Speaking in front of Suzaku and Kallen like that."

Clang! Clang! Clang!

...

"I'm… not sure what's been wrong with me. This morning's events are no excuse."

Clang! Clang! Clang!

...

"Maybe it's this place. It seems so honest… innocent. Safe. Barely a mask to be seen… heh. It's too easy to let down my guard."

Clang! Clang! Clang!

...

"Dangers of relaxing, I guess. Losing control."

Clang! Clang! Clang!

...

"Even at Ashford, it was never like this. But I guess that was a different life."

Clang! Clang! Clang!

...

Clang! Clang! Clang!

...

Clang! Clang! Clang!

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"Nothing to say? That's unlike you."

Clang! Clang! Clang!

...

Clang! Clang! Clang!

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"Maybe I've lost my mind. Maybe you really were just a figment of my imagination."

Clang! Clang! Clang!

...

Clang! Clang! Clang!

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"Maybe this is all just a dream. I'll just wake up in my tent one day, and drop right back into the nightmare."

Clang! Clang! Clang!

...

Clang! Clang! Clang!

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Clang! … Clang! …

...

"Please say something."

...

...

...

"Fine. Keep hiding. I don't care."

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

...

Clang! Clang! Clang!

...

"Well, I have an idea about something else I can do, as an 'outlet'. Not quite as direct, but… I can't deny Ozpin had a point. I'm still working out the details… I'm going to need this thing here to hold onto some anonymity, though. The frame seems about ready."

Clang! Clang! Clang!

...

"I shouldn't have asked the headmaster directly about Torchwick. That was stupid. If I'm not more careful with this, I'll be putting our place here at risk, and that is unacceptable. But it's the only thing I can think of."

Clang! Clang!

...

"That should do it. Let's see if the glass fits… ah. Excellent."

...

"Well. I'll leave it in my locker for now. I'll need to pick it up again before tonight, but it would be a bad idea to just walk around holding it out in the open. I should go get to work on the rest."

...

...

...

"I'll see you tonight, then. Or… not."

"Will you please just stop laughing already!" The Schnee girl said, glaring at her teammates. "You can't breathe a word of this to anyone."

To be fair, Blake hadn't been laughing. But she had found the entire tale amusing… and her partner's reaction even moreso.

"Hahah—Oooh, you're not getting out of this one that easy, Weissicle!" Yang said, grinning back at Weiss. "This is the funniest thing that's happened all week."

"It is not! This is serious!" The Schnee girl hissed, glancing around in an effort to check that no one had heard. The humans hadn't, Blake was fairly certain, though Velvet a few tables away absolutely would have been able had she not been busy getting scolded by Coco Adel.

"You have to admit, it's an amusing turn of events." Blake said, doing her best to hide her smile behind her cup of jasmine green. The Schnee girl narrowed her eyes at her.

"I fail to see what's so 'amusing' about us almost getting caught in that maniac's room—and we could still be caught if one of the professors hears about it!" The Schnee girl said. Blake raised her eyebrows.

"It just seems out of character for you. You've been so straight-laced before now… if anything, it seems more like something Ruby would do." Blake said, glancing at their young team leader. Said team leader frowned.

"Hey, I don't just go breaking into peoples rooms!" Ruby said.

"Uh, sis? You literally just did." Yang said. Ruby flushed pink with embarrassment.

"Well—but—I mean—ugh!" Ruby said, pulling her hood over her face. "It was so awkward, you guys—and neither of you even answered my texts! Teammates are supposed to help each other out!" Ruby said.

"Yeah, well, we were kind of busy, sis! I had to kick Nora's butt at deadlifts, and Blake had…" Yang paused, blinking for a second. "Uh, books!" She finished. Blake looked over at her partner, bemused. Honestly…

"The new Violet Tsirbleu novel. I told you three times." Blake said.

"Right! She had that." Yang said, grinning. There was something endearing about her rambunctious airheadedness.

"Well I'm not sure how much help we could have expected from an airhead like you anyways." The Schnee girl said. Yang narrowed her eyes, and Blake did as well. The heiress had no right to insult Yang.

"Says the big-headed heir too snooty to sneak into a dorm without help." Yang replied.

"What did you just say to me? How dare you—!" The Schnee girl said, pointing. Ruby put a hand on her shoulder.

"Could you two just calm down for a second? It's over, and we're okay, and nothing bad happened." Ruby said. Surprisingly reasonable… Blake had questioned her choice as leader, at first, but the girl had already proven capable. She wondered how Ozpin had known.

"What's over?" Jaune asked, sitting down at the table. The Schnee girl stared at him, then at Yang. Blake hid a smile again.

"Don't you dare—" The Schnee girl tried.

"Weiss and Ruby broke into the prince's room and got stuck in a closet." Yang said, grinning smugly at Weiss.

"What?" Jaune asked, staring back and forth between the two, eyes wide.

"You can't just tell everyone about this!" The Schnee girl said, voice coming out in a panicked squeak.

"Hey, it's just Jaune. Who's he gonna tell?" Yang said, shrugging. Jaune pouted.

"I'm right here, you know." He said.

"Look, this could be terrible for my reputation, and Ruby's! We'd be seen as base, foolish miscreants. And what if the Britannian found out?" The Schnee girl said. Blake couldn't help but note the fact that her vocabulary made her sound like a b-list character in a century-old romance novel.

"Are you kidding? My little sister, sneaking into a prince's room to go through his things? I couldn't be more proud!" Yang said, beaming at Ruby. "It's not like she's gonna get in trouble. How could you be mad at that cute little face?"

"Yaaaang, stoooop." Ruby said, whining.

"Hey guys! What's happenin?" Nora said, bounding up to the table with Ren in tow. Looking quite stylish today—the man did have a flair for aesthetic. He had just come back from the spa, Blake supposed.

"My sister and her partner—" Yang started.

"No—!" The Schnee girl said.

"—snuck into LCKS's room and got stuck in a closet." Yang finished.

"Whaaaaat? Really?" Nora said, eyes wide.

"Stop this!" The Schnee girl said.

"Make me." Yang said, grinning.

"You got stuck in a closet?" Ren asked. The Schnee girl flushed bright pink, as Ruby dropped her head onto the table.

"We were just investigating their room, in case there was anything he was hiding in there. We were just about to leave before they came in." The Schnee girl explained.

"And you hid in a closet, with Ruby. You better not have tried anything funny in there, by the way." Yang said. The Schnee girl's face turned a new and interesting shade of crimson.

"I will pay you to stop talking." The Schnee girl said, fully serious. How very typical.

"Yang, please stop." Ruby said, raising her head and staring at Yang with a pleading expression. Yang sighed.

"Alright, alright. I can't say no to that face." Yang said. The Schnee girl let out a sigh of relief.

"Good. Okay. Let's just stop—" She began.

"Hello, everyone—what's going on?" Pyrrha asked, walking up to the table.

"Weiss and Ruby got stuck in the prince's closet!" Nora said.

"What?" Pyrrha asked, eyes wide.

"You treacherous little fiend!" The Schnee girl said, pointing furiously at Nora. "If you don't stop, I'll—! I'll… I'll make you regret it!"
"Psh, I'd like to see you try." Nora said, crossing her arms.

"Maybe we shouldn't just go spreading this around." Ren said, cautiously.

"Why were you in Lelouch's closet?" Pyrrha asked, incredulous.

"They were trying something 'funny'." Nora said, eyebrows waggling.

"No! No. We just had to hide when we were taking a look around. For evidence." The Schnee girl said, protesting.

"We didn't find anything though." Ruby said.

"That sounds like an incredible breach of privacy." Pyrrha said, crossing her arms. "I have half a mind to report you to professor Goodwich."

"Wha—but—you can't!" The Schnee girl said. Typical.

"Please, please don't!" Ruby said, pouting at her. Pyrrha looked at Ruby, and frowned.

"Oh… very well. Just don't do it again." She said, sitting down at her place. The rest of team JNPR soon sat as well, taking their customary spots.

"So, now that you've had a chance to look through his belongings, are you satisfied enough to leave Lelouch alone?" Pyrrha asked, pointedly not looking at The Schnee girl.

"I… I concede that I may have gone a little too far with this." The Schnee girl said, begrudgingly. Blake fought down a smirk.

"A little?" Yang asked, innocently. The Schnee girl shot a glare her way.

"A little. I'm still not sure why he's here, but… I may have been wrong to get so involved. He seems to be a seriously troubled individual, and I'm not sure further provocation would be wise." The Schnee girl said.

"He had this whole argument with his partner, C.C.—that green-haired girl. He seemed really scared, and sad." Ruby said. The Schnee girl stared at her.

"Scared and sad—? Ruby, he's deranged!" The Schnee girl said. Ruby frowned at her.

"He was upset, Weiss. It's different." Ruby said.

"You couldn't see his face, Ruby!" The Schnee girl said.

"I could hear him, though. He sounded, just… lost. Desperate." Ruby said. The Schnee girl scoffed.

"Wait, why couldn't Ruby see him?" Nora asked.

"There wasn't much room—Weiss was in front, with the keyhole." Ruby said.

"Oooh, you two were squeezed in there tight, then, huh? You're the big spoon?" Nora said, winking.

"Nora…" Ren said, exasperated.

"You vulgar little–! Let's just, talk about something else? Anything else." The Schnee girl said, positively glowering.

"I, ah, actually ran into the guy earlier today. He was with Professor Goodwitch—I think they were going to Professor Ozpin's office." Jaune said. That did catch Blake's interest; had the Britannian gotten in trouble with the headmaster, somehow?

"Huh. I wonder what that was about." Yang said.

"He mentioned something about cameras… maybe some paparazzi or something?" Ruby said.

"It must have been something a lot more sinister than that. Especially if it got him sent up to Ozpin's office." The Schnee girl said.

"Still seems like you're making a lot of assumptions again there, Weissicle. You sure you aren't just hot for the guy?" Yang said. The Schnee girl seemed to take a very deep, calming breath.

"Yang Xaio Long. For the. Last. Time. Continue to insinuate such untoward nonsense, and I will devote serious time and effort to crafting an appropriate, humiliating revenge. Desist." The Schnee girl said, staring Yang down. Blake narrowed her eyes—she wouldn't let that sort of thing pass without retaliation. Yang blinked, nonplussed.

"Okay, okay—but I'm still siding with Ruby on this one. He looks like a broody, mopey type. Maybe he's just having a hard time adjusting to life at Beacon." Yang said. There was something to that… he did remind Blake of herself, a little, when she'd first arrived, before Ruby and Yang had pulled her in. Britannian royalty, sure, but there was certainly an aura of 'mysterious troubled past' about the boy.

"It would make sense… I know I haven't noticed him spending time with anyone other than his team." Blake said.

"You know, we were going to have that picnic tomorrow… maybe we should invite them to come?" Jaune asked. There was an idea—it wasn't as if a few more people out at the fairgrounds was going to be a crowd.

"Woah woah woah—the prince is one thing, but his little friends? Red-hair girl and the Honorary Britannian?" Nora asked, frowning. Blake frowned; she'd heard those two arguing earlier.

"It couldn't hurt to give them a chance. They're impressive fighters—maybe they're good people, too." Blake said. Nora stared at her, then at Ren. He narrowed his eyes, then nodded.

"Oh… all right then. I guess there's at least the chance for a good fight if things go south." Nora said, leaning back with a sigh.

"Hold on a minute—you all can't be serious. That man is unsafe, his partner is crazy, and the other two are probably going to be too busy with each other to be any kind of good company." The Schnee girl said.

"Aw, Weiss… please?" Ruby said, staring up at her. The Schnee girl opened her mouth to say something, then seemed to lose her words.

"…fine." The Schnee girl said, shaking her head. "You're all crazy." She finished. Blake glanced between the two of them, intrigued.

"Speaking of crazy—were you guys here when Coco threw Cardin through a wall? What was that all about?" Nora asked.

"Oh, the Winchesters and the Adels don't get along. Everyone knows that." Jaune said. Everyone turned to stare at Jaune. "…what?"

"What do you mean, everyone knows that? I don't know that!" Nora said.

"Oh. Uh, it's just one of those things you learn growing up in Vale, I guess?" He said, laughing nervously. That was… odd. Unlikely. Blake could smell amateur half-truths a mile away, and this felt like one.
"Sky's blue, grass's green, Adels and Winchesters hate each other. The feud's been going on for… uh, I don't know how long." Jaune said, looking uncomfortable as the sudden center of attention.

"Huh." Yang said.

"This is a first." The Schnee girl said.

"Hey, I know things too, sometimes! You all don't have to look so surprised." Jaune said, crossing his arms.

"Of course you do, Jaune! We appreciate your insights greatly." Pyrrha said, beaming. Fooling exactly no one. Well, almost no one.

"Oh, stop it." Jaune said, smiling.

"Please, stop it." The Schnee girl said, frowning. Pyrrha shot her a glare.

"Anyway, I heard that it was something to do with Velvet. I guess Cardin tried to pick on her again, about being a faunus." Ruby said. Blake couldn't hide her frown.

Of course it was about the faunus. Blake had come to Beacon in part to escape this sort of prejudice, but she'd spent enough time in Vale's White Fang to hear how the Winchester family ran its agricultural empire—roping faunus families in with promises of their own farm and their own lands, trapping them in never-ending cycles of debt and reaping the profits of their labor. It seemed the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

"What an ass." Yang said. "I hate guys like that—the type that look at everyone else like bugs to squash. Especially when it's just because someone happens to have cute bunny ears." Yang finished. Blake felt a surge of appreciation for her partner, even if the 'cute bunny ears' was a bit demeaning. She'd hoped Yang would be a good choice of partner—the blonde wore her opinions on her sleeve, and didn't seem to have a prejudiced bone in her body.

"That's a Winchester thing too, actually. It's one of the big things they fight about with the Adels." Jaune said. The table stared at him again, for a moment, as he scratched his head.

"Well, it's horrible. The faunus are just people—they squash just as easy as anyone else if ya hit them hard enough." Nora said, biting into a pancake. The stares turned her way.

"Whaght?" She asked.

"You know, on that note, I've got studying I still need to do." The Schnee girl said, standing up.

"Oh yeah, me too—I guess we'll see you guys at dinner, but should we send someone to ask LCKS to the picnic before then?" Ruby asked.

"I could go ask them." Pyrrha said. The Schnee girl narrowed her eyes in her direction, but the others nodded.

"See you later, then!" Ruby said, following the Schnee girl out of the cafeteria.

"Lelouch?" Suzaku said, opening the door to their room. Kallen wasn't sure why, but she felt a bit anxious about this.

They hadn't seen the prince at lunch, or all afternoon—to be fair, Kallen had been at the gym, and Suzaku had been doing some sort of research in the library, so the prince might have been out somewhere else—but then they hadn't even seen him at dinner. It was unnerving, especially given the intensity of the argument that morning.

The door creaked open, and Kallen followed Suzaku in. She jumped a little in surprise when the prince suddenly stood and turned to look at them from his desk.

"Ah, there you two are." He said, nodding.

"Lelouch… have you been in here all day?" Suzaku asked. The prince shook his head, absentmindedly, grabbing up two small cardboard boxes from the top of his desk.

"Well, you missed dinner. Pyrrha Nikos came over to invite us to a picnic tomorrow." Suzaku said. The prince stopped, staring at him for a moment. Kallen got the impression that that was the first thing Suzaku said that he'd actually heard.

"Ah. Well. That could be nice, if you two are interested in attending. But we have more pressing matters." The prince said, handing Suzaku one box and Kallen another. Kallen stared down at her own—it seemed innocuous enough, which was actually somehow even more unnerving.

"What the heck…" Kallen started.

"I need your help. Both of you. I have an evening activity planned, but I need you with me for it to be viable." The prince said. That was not reassuring, and suddenly Kallen was even more nervous about what could be in the box.

"Lelouch," Suzaku began, cautiously, "what exactly do you—"

"No time. Our ride is on its way." The prince said, grabbing his own box before heading out of the door. The two of them stared at it, then at each other.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Kallen said. Suzaku frowned.

"I… agree." He said. Shaking his head, he began to follow the prince.

"What—what's even—" Kallen stuttered, before making up her mind and following Suzaku. They caught up to him quickly enough, walking down the halls. Kallen couldn't quite get up the nerve to look inside the box.

"Where are we going? What the Hell, Lelouch?" Kallen said. The prince glanced back.

"I'll tell you when we get there." He said. Kallen scowled. Her apprehension grew even more as they left the actual dorm building, beginning to make their way down the lamp-lit boulevard. They walked further and further from the main school, and the trees got thicker as they made their way into the outskirts. The evening air was a bit chilly, and the wind was uncomfortable on Kallen's skin. The shadows in the woods beyond the streetlamps were unnerving, and Kallen couldn't help but glance around with every creak and groan of the forest. They asked a few more times, but the prince refused to answer their questions. Suzaku kept following him, and Kallen wasn't about to leave her partner to deal with whatever this was alone.

Finally, the prince stopped at the fairgrounds, empty and dark. The sun was almost completely set, so the shadows were deep. The prince turned to face them, smiling expectantly.

"All right, we don't have much time. Open the boxes and we can get started." He said.

Kallen didn't want to open the box. Suzaku, however, did. And he pulled out—

"A… jacket? Lelouch, what…?" Suzaku asked. The prince nodded.

"Yes. A uniform of sorts." The prince said. Kallen opened up her own box, and found clothing as well. A jacket, a small hat, some sort of purple visor…

"Did you make these? Today?" Suzaku asked, incredulous. "You were gone all those hours, sewing outfits?" He finished.

"How the hell did you make these so quickly?" Kallen demanded. The prince shrugged.

"I helped Milly design new school uniforms back at Ashford. We went through a lot of different concepts—it wasn't hard to come up with something. The fabricator in the armory did the rest." He said. Kallen narrowed her eyes, putting things together.

"Oh, so you're the reason the girls skirts are so short!" She said, pointing at him. He looked a bit taken aback.

"Ah… actually, no. That was Milly's idea." He said. Which… made a little too much sense, actually.

"But, how did you get our measurements?" Suzaku asked.

"Listed in your files from Ashford. Milly keeps very detailed notes." The prince said. Another thing that made a little too much sense. Much as Kallen missed Milly, the girl was a lot to deal with, particularly in the locker room.

"Okay, but, why? What do you expect us to do with these?" Kallen asked.

"Find a corner behind a tree, put them on, put your other clothes in the box and hide them where you can find them, meet up back here in five." The prince said, nodding before turning around and striding off into the shadows of the fairgrounds. Kallen stared after him.

"He cannot be serious." She said.

"Yeah. This is… I don't know." Suzaku said.

"Why are we playing fucking dress up in the middle of the night? And what's he mean about a ride?" Kallen asked. Suzaku was quiet for a moment, then turned to look at her.

"I don't know what's going on, but he at least looked a bit more stable now than this morning. Maybe, whatever this is, we should play along? I won't ask you to do anything, uh, weird, but…" Suzaku sighed. Kallen looked at him, then glanced back at the shadows of the fairgrounds, and scowled.

"Ugh. Fine. But if stuff gets weird I'm going home." Kallen said. They parted ways, and it didn't take long for her to get changed. But oh, did she have notes. Particularly after seeing Suzaku's getup.

"Hey, asshole—" She shouted out in Lelouch's general direction. "The hell does he get pants and normal boots while I've got shorts and thigh-highs?"

"It's a good look on you." The prince called back. "Besides, you're always wearing shorts. I didn't think pants were your style. You can keep the shorts and shoes you were already wearing if it's really a problem, the jacket's the important part."

"B-but—I… you… urgh! Fine." Kallen said. It was pretty stylish, she supposed. The purple visor turned out to be mirrored, not shaded like she'd thought; aside from tinting everything a light violet, it didn't impede her vision that much. Still, she wondered if something was wrong with her eyes when she saw the prince stride out of the darkness. Surely the suit only looked purple because of the visor, but what the hell was up with that cape? And the mask he had tucked under his arm looked... Kallen didn't even know how to describe it. Some sort of weird fusion of helmet with dragon-like headspikes and an oval mirror face?

"We've played along so far, Lelouch. You going to fill us in on what's going on?" Suzaku said. The prince looked at him, then at Kallen.

"Well… I think you both know I've not exactly been... well. Up until recently, I was dealing with my issues by destroying Grimm, but that is no longer an option. So…" the prince paused. Suddenly, Kallen could hear something, a distant hum, growing closer.

"I've decided to take up an alternative. Something to occupy my mind with that might do genuine good... specifically, investigating some troubling criminal activity in the city. I don't know if it'll go anywhere, but I need to do something, otherwise..." He shook his head. "I'd very much appreciate it if you assisted me with this." The prince said. The humming was louder now, and Kallen realized it was the beating of rotors. She knew that sound well.

"You're… wait. I'm sorry, are you trying to become a superhero?" Kallen asked. The prince stared at her.

"What…? No. That's not it at all." the prince said.

"You're wearing a cape." Suzaku said, staring pointedly at it. The prince frowned.

"The cape and the outfits are merely distractions. They're meant to keep our identities hidden, for tonight at least." The prince said. Kallen couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"I'm sorry, our identities? Hidden? As in, secret identities? Hey—wait a second, are we supposed to be sidekicks?" Kallen asked. The prince stared back, dumbstruck.

"No! No, that's not what—this doesn't have anything to do with superheroes. This is a convenient fake identity for the sake of anonymity, nothing more." The prince said. Suzaku crossed his arms.

"Identity, Lelouch? I suppose you made up a pseudonym for yourself?" He asked. The prince looked irritated.

"Yes, Suzaku. I can't exactly go walking around the streets of Vale at night telling everyone I'm a Britannian prince." The prince replied. "Both of you, this is serious. There's some man going around stealing dust from the city, and no-one seems to know where it's going. The police don't have time to investigate."

"So, we're going to do what they can't? Like… superheroes?" Kallen asked.

"Like vigilantes. Lelouch—" Suzaku started.

"No. We're just investigating. If we find any information, we'll send it anonymously to the police, and they can handle it. No vigilantism." The prince said. Kallen frowned.

"What, not even a little vigilantism?" She said. The prince scowled, and she continued. "Seriously, what the hell? This is crazy. Not to mention dangerous." She finished. The prince shrugged.

"Well, if either of you don't want to come, you can feel free to stay behind. I'd rather do it with you than without you, but I'm doing this. I have to." The prince said.

Kallen looked at Suzaku, who looked back at her. It seemed like neither of them were certain about this, at all.

Their ride finally arrived. Kallen would have recognized a UH-144 Falcon anywhere, the Britannian's light troop transport VTOL of choice. The prince strode over and climbed on, sliding his strange-looking mask over his face, and looked back at them expectantly.

With one last look between her and Suzaku, they both decided. Who the hell didn't want to be a superhero?