Chapter 46: Mind Games Part 2

Mao makes her move, and she'll ensure that she frees C.C. from Lelouch. To do it, she's prepared a whole list of surprised for them to handle as C.C. confronts her past.

"Welcome to my little game. Who wants to play?"

Mao's taunt was fused with laughter and madness. The woman holding onto the railing as she looked down on them was like an inverse of a ringmaster.

C.C. gasped at the sight of her former contractor. She looked different. She was older, but she could still see the child, and that hurt her in ways she couldn't describe.

Lelouch had no such feelings. “What the hell is this, Mao?”

"Oh, don't be yellow, Lelouch. Or do you prefer Zero? I personally like thief more—a violent thug thief!" Mao screamed at him, gripping the railing hard enough that her already pale hands turned white as snow.

“I didn’t steal anything from you.” Lelouch frowned, but that only seemed to further enrage their opponent.

“Liar! Lair, liar, liar! That’s all you do, all you are! I can see right through you, I hear all those nasty thoughts you have, you can’t fool me!” Mao yelled, pointing at him like he was accused of some heinous crime.

But, just as high as her wrath had climbed, she dropped it when she looked at the uncomfortable C.C., her eyes lighting like a child who had spotted her mother coming to pick them up. “At last, I see you again, C.C. It’s been so long, no, I’ve seen you, I’m not a liar like him, I’ve seen you for a long time now, but I couldn’t get close to rescue you. Too many annoying people, and those damned pets of the thief.”

‘She’s been watching us this long?’ C.C. wondered, as she had never even noticed. Sloppy, she was getting sloppy.

‘If she’s been on us for any length of time, why go through all this? Why not rat me out sooner?’ Lelouch thought, though he already knew that Mao could read minds, this would be tricky. ‘Just what is your game, Mao?’ Surely she had some means to protect herself from his geass, most likely some sort of transparent glass he wasn’t seeing around her.

"Yeah, I saw you. I heard you were in Japan, so I rushed over as fast as I could and found you right after Narita, in his arms.” Mao smiled even as she spat out how C.C. had been in Lelouch's arms then, which neither of them liked, knowing their moment had been intruded on.

“I hated it, he was lying to you, I just know it, so I’ll make you see it and then we can be together again, forever and ever.” Mao cheered, clapping her hands excitedly.

"Mao, " C.C. uttered, trying to keep her cool and approach this as she would have in the past with mistakes she'd made. But she couldn't do it. She couldn't just lock away her emotions and claim she lost them, not again. Out of all the mistakes she'd made, Mao was perhaps her biggest one, and now she was faced with the consequences of it.

“She’s insane.” Lelouch frowned, as he had no reason to humor her, not when she was presumably reading his mind and would see through such attempts.

Mao whirled around to glare at him, and if not for the glass she must have installed to protect her, he would have assumed she would have shot at him for that. "I'm not crazy, you thief! You're the crazy one; all you think about is bad things, murder, and fighting! No love, no nothing but bad things!"

Lelouch's face grew harder, as he didn't need a madwoman to tell him he was half-mad and constantly angry at something. He was well aware of that. “If I’m not mad dog in your eyes, why set this up?” He asked, as he doubted she cared for the Japanese or the Black Knights. She was only using that as a means to an end, that end seemingly being C.C.

But that begged the question: If she had been stalking them since their Narita date, at least, why not make a move on them? Or when he wasn't home? Why go through all this and set up an obstacle course? Was it being televised? Recorded?

“Because I want her to see it as well. Here you can’t lie to her or anyone else.” Mao presented what she had prepared for a sense of accomplishment and coming victory.

“What is this about, Mao? What do you want?” C.C. called her out, as none of this made sense.

"I'm a princess knight, and it's my duty to save you from the wicked beast there." Mao chirped, leaning so far over the railing that Lelouch half expected her to fall off and break her neck. Wouldn't that save their problems? “But I’m not going to fight him with swords, but with my brilliant mind!”

“You two are going to go through the obstacle course, and I promise you’ll see what I hear constantly from him. Then you'll leave him, and we can be together again," Mao explained, stressing the word constantly in Chinese.

“And why would we do that? You could just as easily report us to Cornelia anyway.” Lelouch asked, glancing at the course and seeing that it wasn't like it would be easy or safe for them.

To that, Mao smiled, all teeth and no warmth. "I won't need to; the course will handle you, wicked bad man. But if you don't want to, then I'll just email her. I already put all the evidence in; it must be sent."

That didn't leave them with many options, and with no one they could have called, not when his mind would be open and thus expose such plans. They just had to play Mao's insane games.

“Are there any rules?” Lelouch asked, gesturing to the course.

“Yup, yup!” Mao sang, twirling around as she rattled off those rules. “You need to finish the course in 10 minutes, and each time you fail, you gotta start from the beginning again. And no cheating, cheaters get shot!”

Lelouch wondered if that was just for him. Still, considering Mao was clearly not insane, he couldn't put it past the damned woman that she also planned to shoot C.C., a thought which only made his blood boil.

"Lelouch," C.C. called out. While both would go through separate courses, unable to help one another, she noticed immediately that she had the easier route. The first was a salon ladder, where hers had just 4 rungs while Lelouch's had 8.

"I know, I'll handle it," Lelouch assured her. They both grabbed the bars they'll need for this challenge. As he tested his grip on, Lelouch did think of his chances of completing this gauntlet in less than 10 minutes. 'It would have been easier if I had taken up Suzaku on his offer to work out together; he could have cleared this far faster than I ever could.'

He paused, as something came to him that didn't add up. ‘Wait, 10 minutes? Why such a long time? Aren’t these kinds of courses timed to a minute or less? Why give me such a massive time window?’

He was never a fan of such shows, not that they had a TV to watch them during those months he and his sister lived with the Kururugi, but Suzaku mentioned them a few times. But he never mentioned times being greater than a minute.

Glancing at C.C., he saw she was trying to get into the right mindset. 'Was it for C.C.? These sorts of things are meant for the best, and while she's in great shape, I wouldn't say she's built for something like this.' That seemed likely, but also…not. Mao could have given them 2 different times to finish. She had already given C.C. the easier of the courses to complete. Was it because there was something else happening here?

“Ready?” Mao, presumably reading his mind, didn't give him time to think and figure out her ploy. “Start!” Both of them rushed ahead, bars in hand. They hit the trampolines and jumped for the bars, and both managed to hook the first rungs without issue.

But a second later, one surprise made itself known: where C.C. was already moving to ascend, Lelouch's rungs proved to have been electrified. With their bars being solid steel, the current flowed through them into his hands and body, causing him to jolt. With a cry of pain, he let go and fell, hitting a mat that shattered on impact, dropping him into a small pool of ice-cold water.

“Lelouch!” C.C. cried out as Lelouch furiously broke the surface of the water. He took deep breaths as he broke more of the pseudo mat away, narrowing his gaze as he looked at the rest, now aware of the trap.

“And you start again!” Mao called out like a classic game show host, giggling at the sight.

“Mao, what is this?!” C.C. called out, having paused in her ascent to glare at her former contractor. The mad woman was completely unapologetic about her little last-minute surprise.

"It's an obstacle course. A bad man like him always has other people do his dirty work, so he has to handle things himself. He can quit now if he can't handle it!" Mao sang, her giggling getting worse.

C.C. would have protested that, if not for Lelouch, who had managed to crawl out of the pool. Wet, cold, thoroughly angry, but not throwing in the towel yet. “Keep going, C.C. I’ll catch up…”

“But-”

“We’re on a timer, we can’t afford for both of us to be slowed down by her surprises,” He glared at the rest of the course, much more wary than he had been a minute ago, but he wasn’t going to leave. “I’ll manage, it’ll take more than a shock to take me down.”

Mao smiled as she listened to their conversation, but she only felt disgust for the masked terrorist and murderer. 'Oh, I know, but I don't want you to go down so easily, I'll make you reveal it, you damned dirty thief.'

As C.C. turned back and continued with her salmon ladder, she proved herself capable by handling the rest of it with ease. Once at the top, she pulled herself onto the walkway and advanced to the next stage: the rumbling dice. Simple enough, it was made up of 3 overhangs, each with the 'dice' ready for her to grab. However, she'd need to roll the dice into position if she wished to make it to the other side, preferable without falling.

'Why Mao, why do all this?' She couldn't help but think, as Mao…Mao was never like this when she had given her geass and raised her. She was childish, straightforward, and had simple desires. She hated puzzles and problem-solving, so why make one like this? Where did she even get the idea, as they didn't watch them back in China?

As C.C. tried to figure out the puzzle that was Mao's schemes and goals, Lelouch got back to the starting position, jumped off the trampoline, and hooked the bar. Now, knowing what would happen, he was able to grit his teeth as the electric shock hit him, taking considerable effort not to move as he waited. After a few seconds, he was shocked again and remained still. And then another.

Mao was about to ask if he was in pain before he stood up. "Four seconds." Lelouch ground out as he was shocked again. "Four seconds between each one. I guess even you didn't wish to make this impossible."

Mao frowned at that statement but didn't dispute it. "If I wanted to play unfairly, I would have electrocuted the water you fell in, " she said as Lelouch slowly started making his way up the salmon ladder. Stopping each time and letting the shock pass twice hurt, but it gave him the space to properly time each lunge up. Otherwise, he would land on the next, get shocked, risk losing his grip, and be sent right back to the start.

With C.C., she had just made it to the second set of rumbling dice. It wasn't as hard as it could be, but it wasn't the physical side of things that she was focused on, but the mental one.

'It just doesn't make sense. What does she get from this?' C.C. asked as she spared Mao a glance and found that she was smiling again, her gaze locked on her contractor and lover. C.C. worried for them both, as she couldn't tell what Mao was thinking, not when she was preparing game show-like challenges for them.

As for Lelouch, she could only imagine what he was feeling, as Mao wasn't special to him. She wasn't anything but an opponent, and while she couldn't pierce his head when they met, she had seen how he conducted himself enough to know he wasn't going to let this slide. Should he reach Mao, one of them will die.

She couldn’t let that happen, but how?

Mao could hardly contain her excitement. It was such a relief to be close to C.C. again and hear absolutely nothing, her mind silent, beautiful, and still. Not like others, their annoying, unimportant, and selfish desires.

And then there was Lelouch. She wondered how he could think of using the toilet if she had never met someone with a mind as warped as his. Then it seemed like every waking moment, he was screaming in that head of his for violence, blood, and destruction. And now, those screams and screeches are louder, angrier, and more animalistic. It perfectly matched the pissed look he had on his face.

He could stay silent all he wished, but she could hear it loud and clear. "Just like I thought, it's nothing but malice, hate, and murderous thoughts. Such a terrible man, a real monster, I'll show you, C.C. I'll show all of it and then….then…" She blushed, but at the same time, her eyes glazed over, as if lost in some bittersweet memory.

She quickly shook her head to banish such thoughts and instead focused on C.C. as she made it to the third and final rumbling dice. "You go, C.C. I know you can do it. You're having a great time, much better than those idiots I had tested this."

C.C. paused as she looked at the challenge and then towards Lelouch's and worried about how bad things had been. “You didn’t.” She hoped she hadn’t.

Mao waved it off. “What? I needed a way to see if all of this worked, and they were so willing to help if I didn’t tell people how evil they were. They weren’t as bad as Lelouch the brother killer over there, but they were just awful or cowards.”

She didn't kill anyone, not by her own hands anyway. If the people who found out the lies told to them by her pawns did that, that was on them. Not her fault that it tended to happen a lot.

With Lelouch, he had already reached his set of rumbling dice and found that his was predictable longer than C.C.'s. As she had to handle just 3, he got 5. Before he jumped into it, he inspected it for any obvious dangers.

‘They’re metal, so they could be electrified.’ He suspected, and it would be a major pain if he were to fall now and need to start over. Mao was…kind enough to install a timer for them at the end of the course, so he could see he had already lost 2 minutes; he couldn't afford to lose more. ‘They’re also thicker bars than C.C.'s, is that to make it harder to grip them?'

‘What, the breeze, but shouldn’t there…’ He was about to jump for the first dice when he noticed something. The ceiling was still up, but holes in the walls let in cold air from the ghetto. Nothing strange about that, but with how bright the lights were, they were primarily aimed towards Mao and the obstacle course, giving enough of a difference for him to notice dust.

He saw how the dust moved, which didn’t match what it should have been, not if Mao had taken precautions, but...that didn't make sense. She had this entire place built, watched him and C.C. for weeks, surely she would have, but maybe…

Testing this, he turned his gaze to Mao and thought something. ‘Tell me, Mao, do you know C.C.’s real name?’

Mao clapped like a proud mom as she saw C.C. land on the second platform, clearing the second challenge without difficulty. She really was amazing, wasn't she? Oh, she knew it was true. "And you made it across, C.C.! I knew you would. Now you get to face the flying squirrel. It'll be easy. I added it so you have a break!" Her attention focused on C.C., who looked up to her former contractor with grief and shame.

To Mao's anger, that look vanished when C.C. and her heard Lelouch barely suppressing the ache-filled scream with a ground-out curse.

But she could take glee in why Lelouch had such a reaction, as even from where she stood, she could see how red his hands had gotten, almost like he stuck them into a bucket of red paint.

“Mao…” C.C. turned back to her, demanding an explanation for why her contractor’s hands were cut up and bloody.

“Looks like he’s discovered that his poles break and can give some nasty cuts if you grip too hard.” Mao laughed, as she had been sure his dice's bars had a second outer layer made from some nasty glass. Not enough to sever fingers, she did need to ensure it could be passed, and her happy helpers had been able to get through it…some of them at least.

But it wasn't the best part as Lelouch, with hands covered in gashes that made it painful to grip, changed his position so he could force the heavy dice to roll forward. Once he did so, he was sprayed in the face with a fine red mist that got into his eyes and had him shaking about in pain and anger, his grip loosening through it as he struggled to remain in place.

Mao clapped at the sight of his misery, as she heard his anger grow hotter, if that was even possible. “Oh, those dice are filled with pepper spray dispensers; getting those right took a long time.”

“Mao, stop this!” C.C. yelled, as she would end this here and now; she was armed, and she wasn't afraid to shoot Mao.

Mao wasn't scared about the command; she had too much fun watching the monster shake his lies away. It wouldn't be long till he exposed his true nature, and she was proven right! “Nah-ah, I won’t stop it unless he admits defeat and calls for it. Besides, I’m not the bad guy, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not!” Mao stomped her foot repeatedly, each one harder and louder than before, her eyes growing frenzied till she managed to calm down, at least a little.

Yes, she was the princess knight, and princess knights had to keep their cool like total heroes. So, she’ll keep it up, even though she really, really, really wanted to kill Lelouch and be done with it. “The pepper spray is watered down, more vapor, so it's still got a chance, but it can quit any time he wants!"

She said the last part louder than the rest to ensure Lelouch heard it, but he didn't so much as turn a furious stare her way. He just did his best to wipe the damned pepper vapor from his eyes and continue, his hands screaming at how badly he was cutting them up.

Mao leaned on the railings, nodding her head side to side as she looked at him, just keeping quiet. "Oh, he's gone silent, but I can promise you, he's thinking all sorts of horrible things that he wants to do to me, that's such a horrible thing, isn't it, C.C.? He's just a monster, so we can leave him here and run away together!"

“I won’t let you do that, Mao. This will end tonight.” C.C. growled under her breath as she approached the 3rd challenge. If she could get close, she could end this before some challenge crippled Lelouch.

Again, Mao’s gaze shifted as something ugly and painful passed through her mind, but she smiled. Because she knew she would win, she had to win. “Oh, it will, C.C…it will…”

Line Break

By the time Lelouch's bloody hands pulled him onto the platform between the second and third obstacle, he was in serious amounts of pain, and C.C. had already almost done with the 4th part of the obstacles, the body prop.

However, he didn’t let himself break when his mother was killed and he was denied justice. He didn’t let himself break when he had Suzaku burn his stomach wound closed when they got too close to a band of scavengers who didn’t care he was a kid. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to let this break him.

So, he'll do what he always did; he has the free space for it: Think.

'I can work under the assumption that if that is the case, it would help if I had help, but…no, it's undoubtedly unique. It's why she wanted Chantal here.’ Lelouch hissed as he slowly moved, feeling at his hands and hastily, yet methodically, removing any glass still in his flesh. It hurt a lot, but he could power through it, keeping to his thoughts as he left his body almost work on autopilot.

'She's not after my life; she could have taken it. She's after something else; all this is just some sort of mind game to get it. I suspect I know what that is,' He looked to where Mao stood, the madwoman cheering for C.C. as his lover pushed through the much easier part of this, but even from here, he could tell she wasn't happy about this.

With the last of the glass out, he could open and close his hands with only minimal agony shooting through the blood-soaked appendages. But he didn't have time to rest or a proper means to care for his hands, so he just called upon the King's armory and pulled out a tool. Not a weapon, but a pair of steel gauntlets

“Pick up the pace, Lulu-wait,” Mao finally turned her attention to him and noticed his new gear. Blinking, she whined. "Oh, no fair, I didn't know you brought gloves!" That response only further confirmed what Lelouch suspected.

"I wouldn't want to get my blood all over the place," Lelouch replied, playing things close to his chest.

"Is that what you're worried about? Oh, what a well-trained dog you are!” Mao mocked him. She had already done enough, as he saw a sign to the side of the track which read:

‘Danger: Don’t fall in totally not water, not a fun time.’

A glance down showed that the pool beneath him wasn't covered up like the last one, but it wasn't clear or blue, as water should be, but a mysterious white and silver color. After the pepper vapor stunt, he wouldn't be surprised if it was filled with irritants designed to get into his wounds or eyes. I could even be low-grade poison, diluted enough to not be fatal, despite the literal pool of the stuff-

But certainly enough to ruin his day. More so than the idea that, should it be fall, he'll need to start again, and he did not have the time for that.

But he didn't let it get to her as it took a running start, hit the trampoline, and went flying. Knowing what was coming next, he braced himself for the sting as his wounded hands grabbed onto the 2 bars. It wasn't just that the 2 handlebars could swing independently, but the fact that his hand holds were metal and he could feel that they were heated.

His gauntlets were built for war, not this, but he would use every second of protection they could get him as he started to build up a swing. He would need it as his net was moved side to side, so he would need to time this.

"Don't let it get to you, Lelouch. Once she's in your head." C.C. called out from further ahead in the course.

"I'm well aware, but I'm not so easily cracked. I've faced down killing machines with nothing but wit, plans, and a shotgun; I can handle a lunatic with delusions of grandeur," Lelouch replied as he threw himself forward, his hands already uncomfortably hot, with him hissing as he gripped at the net, its looseness making it a struggle as it felt the jolt in his shoulders, but nothing pulled.

As he climbed his way to the top, Mao kept on talking. “Nah-ah, I’m right and you’re the crazy one, running around in that stupid costume, what are you? 5?”

'First, it was electric shocks, then non-shatterproof glass, and then it burned. If I’m not careful, I’ll be down both hands by the end of this insanity.’ Lelouch ignored Mao's taunts as he managed to pull himself onto the next platform, which, as he noticed, only put him higher up on the course. He recalled that the water in the first pool wasn't especially deep.

Line Break

'He's falling too far behind.' C.C. bit her lip as she had finished the 6th and final obstacle,  the crazy cliffhanger, and finally reached Mao's level. The time read 4 minutes left, but Lelouch was still at the 4th, and with how things were going, she couldn't be sure he would make it in time, and she wasn't about to let this continue.

“You made it, I knew you would, C.C.!” Mao welcomed her, but she didn’t approach, keeping her distance.

“You have what you want, don’t you, Mao? You have me. So, end this and let him go; this isn't worth it." C.C. tried to talk sense into Mao, make her stop this before she did more damage than she already had. She moved to add something, but Mao exploded at her request.

"It's worth more than you know! It's worth everything!" Mao screamed, her eyes almost feral with rage as she turned and pointed at Lelouch as he struggled through the Body Prop, the narrow walls slick with grease and oil as it had dealt with buzzing in his ears from speakers built into it and painful, awkward body contortions he needed to pull off to advance.

Despite all she'd put him through, Mao looked unsatisfied with his torment. She wanted him to feel just a fraction of what she felt as she slammed her fist against the railing. "He took you, he's lying to you, it's the only way, the only way this makes any sense! You promised that you'll love me, stay with me, that you'll be right with me, and then you vanished!"

C.C. bit her lip so hard it bled at Mao's words, as she could hear it, through the anger and madness, she could hear the little girl she once cared for crying, and she only felt more self-loathing because of it. "But I know you didn't want to, you were taken, and I know who did it! It was him," Mao whispered, shaking as she almost tried to convince herself of her words. “He took you and brainwashed you, made you see him as something worth anything, but I’ll show you…” Mao moved forward.

“Stop it!” C.C. yelled, pulling her gun on her. The woman stared down Mao, her greatest failure, her biggest slip of judgment, and the mark of her descent into a true witch. And yet, her arm was shaking as she felt tears forming, yet she stubbornly refused to let them fall. She didn't deserve it; she didn't have that right now.

"Just…stop it, that's…not what happened, I lied to you, I left because I wanted to, and now, I'm going to finish what I should have years ago."

Lelouch had just passed the Body Prop, his joints and muscles sore and nearly at their limits, when he heard a gutshot. His eyes quickly turned in the direction of where Mao and C.C. were, only to see the former dropping to her knees and holding at her shoulder. “C.C!”

Mao, having also pulled her gun out, laughed. She should be dead. C.C. was a really good shot, Mao would know, but she wasn't. Even when Mao drew her own gun, C.C. didn't shoot, which could only mean one thing, and Mao couldn't be happier. “I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! I knew you couldn’t pull the trigger, and that’s because you really care for me! So, you didn’t leave me, you didn’t lie, you were taken and he’s puppeteering you right now, but when you see him as the vile beast he is, his wicked spell will be broken!”

"You're wrong. I was the one using you, right from the start!" C.C. pushed back on the statement, and something passed through Mao's gaze again. Only it lingered just a little longer as the woman's face twitched, her smile growing strained and stretched.

“You really shouldn’t lie like that; you told me lies were bad! Stop making her lie, Lelouch!” Mao yelled as she shot C.C. again in the other shoulder, and then again in the leg, and again in the other leg.

“Mao, I swear I’ll rip your fingers off and make you eat them!” Lelouch roared from below as he was getting closer.

Mao didn't care fr his threats. Oh, she knew they were legit, she knew he would rip her to pieces if he got his hands on her, his mind has been nothing but bloody murder this entire time! It was what she wanted him to try, but right now she just wanted him to shut up! "This is all fault, so shut up, I don't care!" Mao roared right back as she ripped her headphones off and pressed them to the mic. “Listen, listen to this, this is truth, this is C.C.!”

“Thank you, Mao. Mao, Mao. Rest up, Mao. Good job, Mao.”

Though it, messages like that, spoken by C.C. in soft Mandarin, echoed through the building. Lelouch paused…how was she listening to that on loop? As he fell into a stunned stupor, C.C. was left in a losing battle to keep her tears at bay. The bullet wounds hardly hurt; she had been through worse over her years.

But this was the first time in a long time she was confronted with a wound she couldn't shrug off. She remembered saying all that to Mao. She remembered all of it and didn't forget a single day, single moment. She could never forget her time with the only person she had ever seen as a daughter.

Following that, she never forgot how she had left her because she was a coward. After all, she couldn't just let go and be what she had pretended to be, even when pretending had long turned into reality.

Mao was also crying, tears of joy, anger, longing, and so much else she couldn't describe as she held onto the headphones like they were the only things keeping her mind and heart together.

“That’s her, the real her. She was everything I had, everything!” Mao cheered even as she choked on her sobs. Through teary eyes, she glared at Lelouch with every bit of anger she could. "And you took her from me, you black hearted monster, stole her away and twisted her to say horrible things!"

"She…you took her and left me all alone, without a word, without a reason. You made her up and abandoned me like my parents. But I know she wouldn't, she wouldn't, she wouldn't!" Mao was losing it, her reality shaken and falling apart at the seams, but she desperately held onto it, tried to stitch it all together, and make it right as rain.

“Mao! Stop this!” C.C. begged her as Mao bent and pulled out a case, opening it, she revealed a massive rifle.

“Forget it, I’ll make you break, I’ll make you show what you are, you damned monster, show that ugliness you keep locked up to us both!” Mao declared as she walked back to the railing, prepared to force the beast out by any means necessary. Still, when she looked down, she saw Lelouch standing on the platform, his body covered in oils, bruises, and burns.

And in his hands, he held a bow, an arrow already notched.

“Wha-when did-!” She didn't get the chance to wonder where it got it, or how she hadn't heard his thoughts about having something like that when Lelouch fired, taking but a moment to aim for her head.

“No!” C.C. cried as she saw the arrow hit Mao.

Line break

"Ow…my head," Mao whined as she started to come to, wondering what had happened.

"I wouldn't move." Her eyes shot open as she saw she was pushed against the wall, her arms and legs tied up as Lelouch stood across from her. C.C. sat to the side, looking…Mao didn't know what to make of that look, as it sure was happy. “You’ll just make yourself feel worse.”

“What…how, you shot me, I saw it.” Mao grasped for the last memory she had, spying him with the bow, and him relishing the shot.

“I did,” Lelouch held his hand out, and in a show of sparks of red and black light, the bow formed. A refined, gloriously decorated weapon bearing the mark of geass on one side, and the symbol of the Black Knights on the other. "Kings and nobles loved to hunt, which means I could use an arrow like this one."

As Mao looked on in stunned shock at him just summoning weapons, he summoned an arrow and showed her its head, which was large, thick, and blunt. “It's used for smaller games and delivers a kill without pulverizing and tearing apart the meat. Against people, with the right bow, it'll just knock you unconscious for a bit." Lelouch explained that he allowed the arrow and bow to fade back into the armory.

"But how? How did you do it?" Mao asked, as this made no sense, all of it. Why did he? Why was she? How did he do it?

“Get the bow and arrow? I would think you'll know since you can read minds…but you can't read mine, " Lelouch said, which angered the restrained woman who tried to break her restraints. She didn't care if she couldn't hope to beat this savage; she wouldn't let him talk down to the power C.C. gave her!

"Lies, I hear it loud and clear, and I hear how you want to beat me, stab me, rip me to pieces!" Mao declared that, as she was hearing it now, she had been hearing from him when she woke up, and it was the same as always with him.

“Wrong,” Lelouch stated with such conviction and power that she didn't immediately dispute it. Instead, he was in the eyes, seeing the mark of geass flash in his eye, while he saw the marks permanently burned into her eyes.

"But…how? You can't be immune to geass, unless your Shinbuki?” C.C. finally spoke up, as she was happy Mao was alive, but she had so many questions and concerns that she didn't know where to start. But she supposed she could start with Lelouch proving immune to mind-reading.

Lelouch shook his head. "Also wrong, King's Armory is a vault of all the weapons, armor, and tools ever used by kings and warriors. It has no impact on my resistance to geass." If he was honest, he was more suited for a means ot fighting than just a passive defense as Kirihara's staff provided. Maybe one day he'll find a means to add the old man's staff to his armory, but for now…

“Then how did Mao not hear your thoughts?” C.C. asked, as she had never heard of people being immune to geass—resistant, perhaps, but not immune. But…Mao would have surely noticed if she couldn't read his mind; it would have been like hers…right?

"Because I already had a mental defense, though I didn't think it would ever work like that." Lelouch sighed as he tapped the right side of his head. It seemed quiet, but he was never free of the storm. "What Mao was hearing…was the tempest in my head. She heard that raw violence, bloodlust, and couldn't piece through to my core at the eye of the storm."

Mao looked dumbfounded by that reasoning, ready to argue it as she had read the thoughts of the mentally insane before, just fine, but…wouldn't it mean she would have heard his? And if he was just controlled by those savage, horrifying, and monstrous impulses and thoughts, how could he stand there like it was nothing? “No, you…you can’t be…but.”

“Let me guess, it sounded like a mass of people in there? And you only assumed it was one voice, one mind because they all wanted similar things?” Lelouch guessed, as he had been dealing with that for years now, ever since the invasion, and he was baptized in Japanese blood, from when he took his first life.

He could feel it in his heart, his wrath laying hand on his shoulder, as she predated such feelings, such chains which seemed to bind him to the dead, and only seemed to grow heavier as the years went by.

‘Was that why?’ C.C. thought about it, recalling when she had given him a geass. She hadn't been able to read all that deep with him; it was all surface thoughts and desires, but when she had tried to venture deeper, she always hit that spiral of chaos. 'But wouldn't that mean his connection to C's world is…?'

“How….how are you sane?” Mao asked, for the first time, addressing him without any bite. She was just tired, frustrated, and envious. She needed to avoid crowds and needed C.C.'s voice just to keep from screaming, but he had it with him all the time?

“Define sane,” Lelouch tried to joke, but it didn’t land as he sighed and stepped back. “But we can talk about that later, right now…you two need to have a serious talk.”

He gave the stage to Chantal, who looked like she didn't want to be there, but after a breath, she chose to stay. This… was a long time coming, and she wouldn't waste this chance.

She wouldn’t make another mistake.

Unlike before, Mao didn't grow happy or excited at C.C. getting close. Even as the green-haired woman stroked her cheek, she didn't feel relief; she just felt lost, alone, and scared. “C.C…I couldn’t save you…I couldn’t….I wasn’t good enough.”

Mao started to cry, as it had just become too much. With everything falling apart, she asked the question she had been waiting so long to ask: “Why did you leave me?”

Chantal couldn't help herself as she pulled Mao into a hug, not caring that she was now taller or that her figure had more developed.

She just wanted to hug her baby girl and do all she could to ensure she knew how sorry she was for hurting Mao so deeply. “It was never you, Mao. It was me; I was the horrible one. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…It was because I was a coward. I gave you your geass so you could fulfill my wish, but I grew to love you. I loved you too much, and I still left because I was thinking of myself."

Mao wasn't able to hug back, and even if she was, she wasn't sure she would have, as none of this made sense. She just felt anger bubbling to the surface, but she was too tired to scream and short-tempered anymore. "But…but why? If you loved me, if you cared, why did you leave? We could have been together forever." She sobbed, as she wanted that so bad; why was she robbed of it?

"Because I didn't want you to kill me anymore," C.C. whispered, which made both Mao and Lelouch gasp. They wondered what the hell C.C. could mean by that as Chantal slowly raised her head, her eyes red with tears, but she had the face of a woman who had made her bed and would now lie in it.

"I…I need to tell you both some things about what my true wish is, " Chantal said before she told them everything.

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And we're back with the next chapter, which I would have liked to put out last week, but with a blackout, I didn't have much of an option. Now, I've made a ton of changes. While I have the end-game in mind and other important moments, others need to be workshopped much closer to when I actually handle the chapter. Case in point, this one, as making Mao a girl, that's easy, he was a she in Nightmare of Nunnally. The big thing was how to address this, as you'll see it as you read through. However, this fundamentally differed from how Mao handled things in the main story, if the whole horror-infused Japanese game show setup wasn't a big enough clue for it.

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And we're done with the chapter, and man, was that a lot. Funny how in the smut timeline, Lelouch just had to fuck her. Mao was on their side; that was easier than this. Still, it was perhaps more rewarding to write since I got to explore more of C.C. through it, and how she handles what I like to imagine is her biggest regret, giving Mao geass and building him up like she was. Anyway, by the time she realized she had become like the nun, it was too late, but unlike the nun, she cared more for Mao than her desire to die, but she couldn't handle it…so she ran.

As for the hints that Mao didn't have a means to read his mind, she didn't know his geass, she didn't set up a means to block it from the jump, so if Lelouch had figured it out sooner, like meme Batman, this entire chapter wouldn't have happened. She also didn't hear his thoughts about C.C.'s real name; otherwise, she would have freaked out like a cannon. She didn’t even know about his shinbuki, as she said bring weapons, but said nothing about that, else she would have planned for it, or banned him from using it.

So while yes, part of Lelouch and this…other did want her dead, he wasn’t only thinking about that, and when it came down to it, he spared her life. From his own trial to gain the new weapon, we saw that he wasn't just angry. He can enjoy slaughter, but he's not ruled by it, and because of that, he spared Mao.

Mainly for C.C., as he can clearly see how she cares for this complicated mental patient, as he has his own complex feelings towards his mother, who he knows helped put his father on the throne and killed probably thousands for his father. And then there’s Kallen and her situation with her mother and how that turned out. But also, for her, as he already heard how the voices drove her insane, he has experience with that fight and how it's a never-ending battle to retain oneself through it.