A/N: So this is far more well-received than I could have ever thought. Hmm, interesting. Hopefully this chapter answers some of your questions... or not really.

Thanks for the support~

Zero Gravity
by N. Silvutra Mayhem

Advent 03: Painting the Picture

Lelouch thumbed the directory and idly watched the pages flush by. Briefly, he wondered if Suzaku, having taken a seat at the edge of a bed, would have cared or had any real suspicions to his motives.

Unlikely. He believed they were making preparations for the Zero Requiem, after all.

Devising the Requiem hadn't been difficult. It was the only option for either of them to redeem themselves; the only option where they could change their wrongs into something slightly less wrong, where their sacrifices would be for the people and not to further their goals. They were drenched in the blood of their victims—they did not deserve the opportunity to create their own goals.

But he remembered.

22 days ago.

Absolute Obedience. The power to control a person's mind and bend it to whatever form. It disregarded all predefined morals; it disregarded all the target's thoughts and principles; it was absolute.

It had tamed the gods. It killed both the wielder's parents. And yet, Lelouch could feel nothing but content as he blinked twin glowing, Geass-filled eyes. He had rejected Charles di Britannia and Marianne vi Britannia's ideals; neither mattered in the great scale, not anymore.

He'd killed his father. He'd found his mother's killer. The feeling knotted within deep within his chest could be nothing but relief.

Right?

"C.C.," he asked without turning around, still staring where the Ragnarok once stood tall, staring at nothing but the bleak, empty expanses of grey that echoed his heart. "Will you come too?"

"You want me to at least smile when I die, right?" Lelouch shot her a glance. She smirked at the reaction. "What are you guys going to do from now on?"

Standing stiffly in the gilded white uniform marking his place as a Knight of Round, Suzaku's grip on his sword wavered. "Huh?"

"You rejected Charles and Marianne's plan, and chose reality; to let the flow of time continue. But..."

"Yes," Suzaku muttered, sword falling into en garde. "I must have revenge on Lelouch for Euphy."

"So what?"

Lelouch turned around to stare his best friend down, an alpha commanding dominance from the pack.

"So what?" he repeated. "What happens after you kill me?"

"What... do you mean?"

"If you kill me, what will change? Euphy may be avenged, but what of your sins?"

"I... I—"

"The two of us are entrenched in sin. There should be a way to make amends, whilst redeeming the world to a better state."

"So you have a plan?" C.C. asked.

"Yes," replied Lelouch. "It will be the Zero Requiem—"

Before he could finish, the ground beneath them shook and buckled, as if an invisible goliath were rising from the cloudy depths. The ascent shattered, dissolving into nothingness, and the main platform began to crumble at the edges. The World of C was collapsing.

Their surroundings began to flash, and Lelouch stumbled over his feet—stopped from falling only by the firm grip on the back of his coat.

"Suzaku..." Lelouch mumbled.

"If you're going to die, I'm the one going to kill you," Suzaku stated. "Until then, I want to know what you mean by Zero Requiem."

Lelouch nodded. "Fine. C.C., how do we leave?"

"The door at Kamine Island is destroyed," said C.C.

"Then how did we get in?" Suzaku asked.

"I had a marker. If I try to leave, it's impossible to know where we'll end up."

"But we can still leave," said Lelouch.

"Yes. There are seven other Thought Elevators in the world. We'll most likely end up in one of them."

"I'll take that chance. Let's go."

The chance landed them in the Province of New Jersey. It took a while for him to track things down, but with the aid of his Geass things were made significantly easier.

"How long until preparations are complete?" Suzaku asked suddenly, breaking through Lelouch's thoughts.

"A while," replied Lelouch. "You should go find something to do until then."

Suzaku glanced up from where he was inspecting his sword against the yellow fluorescent lights, the only component of his Knight uniform he'd been allowed to keep. The slim silver blade was unmarked, the hilt understated, as the blade was nothing but a conventional ornament wielded after a three month crash course. There was no way to link it back to the Knight of Seven.

"I said; I'm staying with you until you die by my hand, and you can't make me change my mind."

"I had no intention of trying."

A scoff. "Where's C.C.?"

"She's still looking after the Sutherland. Why?"

"No reason."

Lelouch raised an eyebrow over the directory, then sighed. The thick book was placed on the table's surface, disturbing a few lingering dust motes, then he leant back in the cheap, plush chair by the window and steepled his fingers.

"Not here?" Suzaku asked, having looked up again at the sudden movement in the corner of his eye.

"No; it's unlikely."

"Are you sure what we need is in the Olympic Peninsula?"

"It's the best lead yet."

"What if we don't find it?"

"We'll have to. It's a crucial part of the Zero Requiem."

Suzaku sheathed the sword and then placed it beside him. Then he fell back against the mattress, resting his head in his arms. "You say that, but it's only a matter of time until Schneizel acts."

"There is still a week before construction of the Damocles is complete. If we don't find it by then... we will have to continue the plan regardless."

A brief pause followed, as Suzaku frowned and mulled it over in his head. Then: "You said travel to Pendragon will take four days."

"Then we will see what we can do in the four still remaining. Tonight we'll stay here, then tomorrow morning we'll cover Port Angeles."

"Fine. As long as you fulfil your part of the deal."

Lelouch smiled. "Of course."

The Cullen family home could often be described as timeless, three storeys of white-painted walls rising from the depths of the earth. It made a grandiose silhouette against the dark, endless forest that stretched to either side, an unfathomable impression on any who set eyes on its form.

But after a century of nonexistence, such a sight could easily be ignored.

When he closed the front door behind him, Edward didn't bother announcing his arrival. Doubtless his family would have heard his Volvo before he even reached the driveway—failing that, Alice's precognition would have alerted them to the same thing. So it was to no surprise that Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie did not react when he entered the living room.

"Check," said Jasper. He glanced up toward Edward, the action more courtesy than necessity. "Welcome back."

Don't say a word about that bishop, his thoughts added. One look at the chessboard easily revealed why, it being a snare lying in wait until the right moment to leap across the battlefield.

"Thanks, and don't worry about me," Edward replied. The corner of Jasper's mouth twitched in relief.

A scowl graced Emmett's features, even as he moved his rook to H-2. "You two are conversing again."

Edward shrugged. Something so obvious didn't need an answer.

"You know," he said instead, changing the subject, "I met someone today."

"Was she pretty?" asked Emmett, a little too quickly.

"It was a guy."

The sound of soft footfalls reached their ears, and Edward heard Alice's thoughts and felt the mental grin before he saw her at the bottom of the stairwell. "Was he pretty?"

"I'm being serious," Edward said. "He blocked my ability."

A solemn chord entered the room at those words. All playfulness was gone; no normal human could block a vampire's skill. Yet despite the tension, the unnaturally calm and rational thoughts drifting from everyone's mind made Edward send a look of thanks in Jasper's direction.

"So that's why you seemed more concerned than normal when I saw you talking with Bella," said Alice.

"Did you manage to see him?"

She shook her head. "I only tuned in afterwards. You know, you really should be careful – I actually saw you ripping her apart. But I did get a fuzzy image of black hair. Is this the one?"

Edward scanned her thoughts. Fuzzy was an understatement, considering the image was nothing more than a black blob suspended atop another that could have barely been passed off as a body in the middle of the room. Even so—

"Yeah, that's him."

"So?" asked Emmett. "Have you tried searching for the guy?"

Alice crossed her arms. "Ask me after you try looking for a floating snowman."

A toothy grin. "And that's why I don't."

"Anyway," she said, looking to Edward again, "do tell. What did he look like, how did he block the ability, whether his fashion sense was any good or not – the usual."

"I can't say anything about his fashion sense, but... he almost looked like one of us."

"Almost?" asked Rosalie, glancing up from the glossy magazine in her lap. You can't be almost a vampire.

"Pale," Edward said, and began counting off his fingers. "Pretty. Inhumanly alluring. Only..."

"Only...?" said Emmett.

"Only with purple eyes."

"They could be contacts," said Rosalie.

"They could be, but I don't know. Oh, Emmett," he added, when a stray thought reached him, "you're in check."

Three pairs of eyes, everyone in the room who had been looking Edward's way, trailed down toward the chessboard. Jasper lifted his fingers off the bishop threatening the enemy king five squares away.

"Checkmate in three moves," said Alice, nodding solemnly. "King C-7, Knight B-5 takes Pawn and check again, King—"

Emmett didn't let her finish as he stood up and flung his arms into the air, knocking his stool to the ground.

"Alright, alright!" he said. "You win, you win. I'm going to stick to baseball."

Rosalie closed her magazine, and the sound of pages hitting pages was all too loud to sensitive ears. "Contacts don't hide golden eyes into purple."

"It's true that red eyes and blue contacts can make purple," said Alice, echoing the conclusion that settled in all their minds simultaneously.

"What about opaque contacts?" asked Jasper.

Rosalie was already shaking her head before he finished. "Opaque contacts don't work well with vampires, you know that. It cuts off a third of our vision."

"Hey, Edward," said Emmett, "I think you're forgetting something really important."

There was a brief pause when Edward heard the thoughts. Then he closed his eyes, and lifted a hand to massage his temples. In that time, Emmett reached down to the stool to prop it upright and sat on it again.

"Wait, let me get this straight." Emmett said, leaning forward. "You're not serious, are you?"

"Serious about what?" said Jasper.

"This guy, mind reader extraordinaire and one of the smartest people alive right now – well not alive, per se, but you know what I mean," Emmett added, "didn't check if the guy had a heartbeat."

Edward rolled his eyes then headed for the staircase, amidst Alice's giggles and Rosalie's flat stare.

"If you need me," Edward said, "I'll be in my room."

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A/N: The Twilight cast, as usual, are more iffy on characterization than the Geass ones, though I did go for a sibling approach. Whilst re-reading for the description of the Cullens' house, I do have to give Meyer one thing – her narrative style is pretty nice. If only the characters were as good.

Please review, I'd love to hear what you think so far. :)

Next— Advent 04: Death of a Friend