Shattered Masks

Shattered Masks
By Eline

Request (at one of) the kink meme(s) for Schneizel non-conning Suzaku and Lelouch. And forcing them to play with each other. Smidgen of Suzaku/Lelouch/C.C.--OT3!

R2 SPOILERS HERE! Spoilers for R2 until Episode 23!

While I still have the energy to be cheesed off by Schneizel and his utter bastardry (because his motives are blah-what-motives-I’m-just-doing-it-cos-I-can-blah), let’s have the AU BAD END.

In BL-gamer-speak, that means the non-con, everything goes down the crapper ending. So here be non-con, horrible downer ending. There’s plot in here. If you don’t want plot with your porn, please skip the first part. And the last part.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The klaxons blared discordantly even as the flagship shuddered in its death throes around them.

“The hull’s been breached in multiple places! All systems are failing! We have to evacuate now, Your Majesty!” Cecile shouted over the wail of the alarms.

Most of his forces had been taken out by the Black Knights and the lost of his flagship was just the last straw. Lelouch tasted the bitter irony of a possible defeat as he looked over the tactical screens for the last time. He had sent C.C. out in the Lancelot Requiem when the shields had failed along with the hostages in an escape craft. The tide of the battle had turned then and it was only the thought of the pact that they had yet to fulfill that had prevented Lelouch from going down with his ship.

Suzaku and C.C. would probably have something to say about over-the-top theatrics. Lelouch took scant comfort in the fact that they had to alive before they could verbally chew him out or use sarcasm on him.

“Lelouch-sama! We should get to the escape craft!” Sayoko was usually so proper, but she broke with protocol to push him towards the emergency escape route that would lead to his personal craft. Cecile would be taking another craft with the skeleton technical crew that had remained.

The Avalon shuddered again, but this time as though something large had bumped into it.

Another hit? Lelouch’s thoughts turned darker as another similar shudder rocked the ship. Knightmare frames? A boarding party?

“Hurry, Lelouch-sama!” Sayoko cried, obviously sharing his suspicions. She was outrunning him to no-one’s surprise but Lelouch supposed that she should go ahead to ready the escape craft.

The passageway narrowed--and exploded in a hail of shrapnel and fire.

The world went white then red.

Then all he could see and smell was smoke and ashes. There was a dull ringing in his ears and nothing much else. He thought he called out Sayoko’s name as he stumbled forwards but he could not be sure.

Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire, succumbed to the smoke.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

For a long while, he was in a soundless, lightless black void.

His hearing came back to him first.

Brief fragments of sound. Then voices. There was a bright light above him. People . . . he could hear their voices.

Then the blackness came again and he knew nothing.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Awareness returned slowly. He felt as though he was waking up from drug-induced bad dream. His throat felt sore.

He was alive. Someone had kept him alive.

Frantically marshalling his thoughts, Lelouch fought to clear his head in order to analyse the situation.

There was a dull pain at the back of his head that seemed to go all the way down to his neck. His limbs . . . seemed functional if immobilised. There seemed to be people moving around where he currently lay on a semi-padded surface.

It was too good to hope that he was with allies. After all, he had made it a point to alienate practically everyone.

Someone moved closer, practically brushing the side of whatever he was lying on. “His Highness would like the results in by tomorrow.”

“We’re not miracle workers!” someone else protested. “His Highness knows that we’ve only had thirty-six hours at most. And the results cannot be determined until the subject is--”

The first speaker cut in rather rudely. “Can’t you do something about that?”

“His Highness” was Schneizel--Lelouch had no doubts about that. He also knew that he had to take any chance that he could to win free before it was too late. The two people arguing over his head should be within range . . .

He opened his eyes and activated his Geass--

Or at least he tried to. A stabbing pain flared up behind his eyes and he was forced to stop as his head throbbed in agony.

“It works then,” the second voice above him said after a pause.

“I will inform His Highness at once.” The rude one moved away at speed as Lelouch cursed the sudden inability of his Geass to function. Of all the times it could have chosen to act up . . .

While Lelouch waited for the pain to stop, the people around him bustled about, obviously excited about something. The skin of his neck felt inflamed. There was something . . . under his skin back there. He felt a chill that had nothing to do with the fact that he was clad only in what felt like a paper hospital smock. What in the world had they done?

There was precious little time to work out what had happened to him. A group of helmeted guardsmen arrived in the next moment to release him and then stuff him unceremoniously into a restraining suit.

The tightly confining sensation of being unable to move brought up unpleasant memories. His limbs felt like rubber and he doubted that he was physically able to fight back as he was physically dragged out of the too-bright room that had hummed with the noise of some sort of machinery into a dim corridor. The guards rushed him along without a word--no doubt a good tactic to keep prisoners confused and nervy before interrogations.

Hell, it was working.

Their final destination was a small room furnished with only one table that had been bolted to the floor and three chairs that had been arranged on different sides of it.

The guards pushed him down on one chair and stepped aside as a tall figure in white entered the room.

“Schneizel,” he whispered, his voice roughened by the inhalation of too much smoke during the downing of the Avalon.

“I’m not Older Brother anymore?” With a semi-amused smile, Schneizel slid into the chair opposite Lelouch and waved the guards out of the room. He did not appear to be wearing any eye-protection of any sort . . .

Biting back a barrage of curses, Lelouch squeezed his eyes shut against the onslaught of pain as he tried to activate his Geass and failed again. When he could hold his head upright again, he looked up to see Schneizel observing him with that insufferably calm expression that had always infuriated him whenever they had played chess.

“Schneizel,” Lelouch rasped. “What . . . is this thing?”

“A crude device at best. It was cobbled up on short notice for your special condition,” Schneizel said. “Your Geass requires the optical nerves that connect the eyes to the brain in order to function. The implant merely triggers an extremely painful sensation in your cortex every time your Geass activates.

“I would caution you not to try it too often,” Schneizel added, calm in the face of Lelouch’s outrage. “My specialists have no idea how much your cortex can take before you cause yourself permanent harm.”

Cold to the pit of his stomach, Lelouch forced himself to remain calm in the face of the loss of his triumph card. Schneizel had found a way to neutralise his Geass--or at least render him incapable of using it.

How long had it been since his capture? That man back there had mentioned thirty-six hours at the very least. The cold feeling solidified into dread. What had happened during those hours when he had been out while Schneizel’s cronies had been playing around with his brain?

C.C.--with their contract unfulfilled--and the hostages? Sayoko and the technical crew with Cecile? If Sayoko and the others were still alive--

“Lelouch, even now you’re counting the survivors, trying to salvage something from this mess,” Schneizel said gently. “You just don’t know when to give up.”

“This isn’t a chess match!” Lelouch shouted, shocking even himself with his outburst. “And I’m not seven-years old anymore!”

“No, it’s not, the stakes are much higher now,” Schneizel agreed. “At least to you.”

At least to me? “What do you mean?” Lelouch demanded.

“All those lives you’ve put in the way of harm--you actually care about them despite your supposed callousness, don’t you?” Schneizel had the bloody gall to look amused. “You would have been a lot more convincing if you had started to shoot the hostages and throw them off the bridge when the Black Knights attacked.”

It was fortunate, Lelouch supposed, that he could not move in the restraints. Now he just had to prevent himself from responding to Schneizel’s mind games. Don’t give him the satisfaction. Just don’t . . .

But Schneizel was not even going to allow him that.

“You should see what the search and rescue teams found on the ground,” Schneizel continued and Lelouch knew he was not going to like this. Not one bit.

“Stop glowering at me like that--it doesn’t suit you.” Schneizel turned to his personal communicator. “Have our special guest brought in.”

“You should be glad. Your knight has a strong will to live,” Schneizel said, watching Lelouch’s expression as he spoke. “It took a while to even put a scratch on his Knightmare Frame. I think the energy filler exhausted itself before he went down. The escape mechanism had been damaged and it’s amazing that he survived it all with only a broken arm.”

Lelouch could not keep the stricken look from his face any more. He had deliberately not thought of Suzaku because--

We have yet to fulfill our pact.

Of all the names and faces that Lelouch had counted, he had not counted Suzaku.

It was not supposed to end like this.

Suzaku’s survival was no miracle. His fault. The Geass he gave to Suzaku. In the end, Suzaku could not even have a warrior’s death on the battlefield.

The door practically opened on cue and a pair of guards marched in with one restrained prisoner supported between them. Lelouch could see Schneizel’s hand behind it all--stage-managing everything just for this moment when the guards deposited Suzaku on the last chair.

In spite of himself, in spite of everything and Schneizel sitting there watching his reaction, a part of Lelouch was just relieved. At least he knew the fate of one of his own. Suzaku had a broken arm, but it did not look as they had bothered with a cast before strapping him into the restraining suit.

“King and Knight--I believe I win,” Schneizel said.

Lelouch dared not hope least it showed up on his face or anything else that Schneizel could read. C.C. was still out there. They had not fallen together--

“--And as for the missing piece, I will find her . . . You can be assured of that.”

Schneizel was bluffing. Lelouch did not look at Suzaku, knowing that his knight could at least present a stoic exterior under pressure. Schneizel had to be bluffing. If he had C.C. or even the slightest clue about her whereabouts, he would have flaunted it before them.

Shaking his head, Schneizel stood up and pointed a small remote unit at the wall, which revealed itself as a schematic screen of the battlefield. “The Britannian Forces have been routed. Only you two don’t know that the battle is over.”

The pinpoints of light that represented the remains of the Britannian Army were few and scattered. Lelouch knew that if he continued to look at them as just ciphers in a game, he could stave off the horrify implications for just one more day. Even if it did mean becoming more like Schneizel.

"I thought that you two might like to see each other, what with you being old friends and allies." Schneizel's gloved hand was resting on Suzaku's shoulder and Lelouch had to stop himself from looking at it.

Schneizel never did anything without a reason. He's playing games with you. He's doing what he always does. Playing mind games.

A game at which Schneizel was a master of. In spite of his control, Lelouch felt his heart rate speed up.

"And you have nothing to say?" Schneizel asked. "Even now?"

Taking hold of the collar of Suzaku's restraining jacket, Schneizel pushed Suzaku face-down on the table in front of Lelouch.

What is he doing? What is he up to? Lelouch caught Suzaku's eye, staring up at him in the fitful light from the screen.

Don't react. Whatever happens, don't react.

"Perhaps Kururugi here would be more amicable to discussing your foolhardy plans for world conquest?" Schneizel slipped a hand under Suzaku's bent waist and Lelouch could not deny understanding of his intentions anymore.

"Schneizel . . ." Lelouch tensed against his own bonds. "You can't do this . . ."

"Officially, you don't exist. The 99th Emperor of Britannia went down with the Avalon and his Knight of Zero perished on the field. The bodies were not found and probably never will be." Suzaku tried to move, but Schneizel clamped a hand around what was probably his broken arm and the knight subsided.

“Schneizel, it’s got nothing to do with him. If you want to settle accounts with me, you already have me,” Lelouch tried to keep his voice level, tried to sound reasonable even as Schneizel undid the fastenings that held the pants of the restraining suit in place.

I know what he's doing. And I know what he wants.

But knowing was not the same as seeing Schneizel pull down the back of Suzaku's pants. Knowing that Schneizel had set this all up was not the same as watching him get ready to--ready to--

"You don't have to do this--Schneizel--Older Brother--" Lelouch was aware of his voice becoming more frantic. Schneizel would do it--there were no limits to what Schneizel would or could do to get what he wanted. "Older Brother!"

Suzaku was silent when Schneizel pushed forwards, penetrating him with little preparation. But his eyes were still on Lelouch. This doesn't matter. He's trying to get to you. Don't react.

It was Lelouch who would not accept it. He would not accept Suzaku suffering this violation just because Schneizel wanted to screw with his head. He would not accept Suzaku forgiving him for being responsible for this mess.

“If you want me to say it, I will--you’ve won! All right? You’ve won already!” Lelouch tried to stand up despite the binding straps that held his ankles together. A moment later, he lost his balance and crashed to the floor.

“Lelouch!”

Ignoring Suzaku’s cry of alarm and the pain in his shoulder, Lelouch crawled forwards. “Older Brother . . . You’ve won. Please stop . . .”

He reached Schneizel's legs and fought to get upright. "Older Brother, you've already won . . . you don't have to do this. I'll admit that I;ve lost . . ." Lelouch did not care what he looked like, begging Schneizel on his knees. Just as long as he would stop.

Schneizel just looked at him as though he was some annoying puppy that had done something embarrassing on the carpet.

He did not notice when his pleas became ragged sobs, or when Suzaku called his name, telling him that it was useless to beg Schneizel for anything. All that mattered now was getting Schneizel to ignore Suzaku.

When Schneizel stepped back and released Suzaku, Lelouch almost collapsed in relief.

"If you want me to stop now, are you willing to take his place?" With a casual shove, Schneizel pushed Suzaku off the table and approached Lelouch.

Too tired to speak, Lelouch managed to nod. If this was the price, then he would pay it.

There was no fight left in him as Schneizel hauled him up. In the background, Suzaku was cursing, but this was acceptable to Lelouch.

He could accept this, Lelouch thought as Schneizel laid him on his back on the table. It was not that high a price. Schneizel just wanted to see him humiliated. He kept telling himself that even when his half brother freed his legs and pushed his knees apart.

Focusing on the pain radiating from that horrible implant, he tried to ignore the sensation of Schneizel’s gloved hands on his thighs. Schneizel was taking more care with Lelouch than he had with Suzaku. Lelouch would have preferred to be over as quickly as possible, but Schneizel obviously had other plans.

“Lelouch!” Suzaku had stopped swearing at Schneizel from where he lay on the floor. He was just watching them now, still furious and red in the face from struggling against the restraining suit.

Lelouch was sorry that Suzaku had to watch this, but Schneizel probably would have insisted. He grimaced as Schneizel pushed into him and tried not to let it show for Suzaku’s sake.

It . . . hurt. But he refused to cry out as Schneizel thrust into him, pressing his legs back into a painful position to allow him more access. Lelouche did not look at his half brother, knowing full well that Schneizel’s expression would not have deviated from that smugly calm façade that he always wore.

He had not expected to be able to look at Suzaku, who held his gaze steadily throughout the whole ordeal. Without words, without touching him, without looking away in pity or disgust. It was almost bearable like that.

Schneizel must have noticed, for he paused in mid-thrust.

If Lelouch had been looking at Schneizel’s face, he might have seen a brief shadow of some other emotion flicker past before it was erased as quickly as it had came.

“I have been terribly selfish,” Schneizel said, moving his hand across Lelouch’s hip to brush against his cock. “Pleasure is meant to be shared after all . . .”

“No!” Lelouch squirmed as Schneizel stroked him. He did not want to enjoy this . . . this perversion of what he had shared with C.C. and Suzaku. “Stop that--”

“It’s not your place to demand anything,” Schneizel reminded him and Lelouch went limp. The defeated had no rights. He allowed the invasive touch even though his skin wanted to crawl right off his flesh and bones.

* * * * * * * * * * * *