Your Move! (Yu-Gi-Oh!/Code Geass)

[Emstar]

Your Move! ​

The exiled prince of the most powerful empire in the world was bored out of his mind.

"I have to warn you, little boy," the woman said. His opponent sneered. "I'm the best player in my circles."

Lelouch watched as she opened up with the Queen's pawn. Pendragon system, a common opening for white, one that was often used by the amateur players amongst the nobility— so most of them, by Lelouch's standards.

I wonder if they all share the same tutor?

Lelouch quickly moved a pawn to E5 before tapping the clock and leaning back in the ridiculously stiff leather armchair.

"Come now, boy," the woman glared at him. "I'll take your pawn with mine."

Lelouch stifled a sigh as the woman captured his piece. He moved one of his knights to C6 and tapped the clock.

"Hmm, interesting. I think I'll move here. What do you do now?"

I've been running them ragged the last two weeks with the Asplund gambit. You'd think that word would get around and they'd actually do some preparation.

Lelouch mentally checked out of the game. The small tournament was remarkably uninteresting, and while taking the prize money donated by the hosts gave him no small sense of satisfaction, his heart just wasn't in the game itself.

Fortunately, it didn't really need to be. The minor nobility of Area 11 were abysmal chess players. Lelouch wondered at times if they simply liked losing money to each other constantly, or if it was some sort of bizarre social custom that he couldn't wrap his head around.

They were nothing like the nobility in Pendragon that he had played as a child. The royal court, despite its many failings and shortcomings, actually took itself seriously—unlike the nobility in the various administrative zones. Whether it was your hobby or your career, in Pendragon you either excelled or you were quickly replaced.

"The strong eat the weak! To the victor goes the spoils, and to the loser? Nothing. Such is life in this world."

That was the core outline of the emperor's philosophy on most subjects (and on the subject of his subjects). Lelouch never had the opportunity to play his father, but he had played against Prince Schneizel many times, and though he had never won a single match, he had made a good showing at most of them.

Schneizel was the only one of his siblings that the Emperor himself had deigned to play against, and the Emperor always won.

His current opponent wasn't even worth thinking about. Lelouch idly went through the motions, silently picking up and arranging the pieces into a hangman's noose. His opponent walked into his trap with a cocky smirk and a glint of superiority in her eyes.

"Queen to C3," his opponent said. She fanned her head lightly with a tiny folding fan. "What will you do now? Trade?"

Lelouch's face was the very mask of civility. "Queen to C1, checkmate. I'll take the prize money now."

The woman blinked owlishly. The referee leaned forward to inspect the board.

"Checkmate," the referee announced. "Win to the young master Lamperouge."

An attendant stepped forwards and opened a thin aluminum-coated briefcase. Lelouch's eyes scanned the stacks of bills as his opponent sputtered incoherently.

About the right volume, if they're all the ten pound denomination. Lelouch accepted the proffered case.

"Congratulations to the winner," the noblewoman said. Her lips were stretched taught into a thin knife of a smile. The woman extended her hand for him to shake. Lelouch couldn't help but notice the handmade Japanese folding fan in her other hand was a crumpled mess. No doubt the outlet for her frustrations.

Disgusting weasels, the lot of you.

But he couldn't sneer or mock her.

That wouldn't be in character for Lelouch Lamperouge.

"Thank you," Lelouch said. He forced himself to laugh politely, and he stretched forth his hand to shake his opponent's. "Perhaps if you practiced your opening moves a bit more. There's a book series called Opening Moves that I suggest looking into. Well written."

Is it my imagination, or is her hand covered in grease? Too much hand lotion?

"Oh, perhaps I'll give it a look," the woman said. There was a slightly taken aback look in her eyes. "If I can spare the time."

Ah yes. If you aren't wasting your time picking your nose and gossiping. God forbid you pick up a book and learn something.

"Of course." Lelouch said. He turned to walk out of the room, prize money in hand. Rivalz's share would probably be enough for a sizable deposit on a new motorbike, and even after spending a third of it on chocolates and wine to keep Milly happy, his share would be a decent chunk of cash. It was easy enough for Lelouch to pay Winsley to do his essays for the first half of the year, and have enough spending money to gamble on card games and chess matches for weeks afterwards.

Or maybe he would get something nice for Nunnally. Her birthday was coming up soon…

Lelouch walked over to Rivalz, who was standing beside his bike and nervously glancing at his watch. His fellow student looked up and gasped.

"Wow, that was fast!" Rivalz said, as he jerked his gaze upwards to stare at Lelouch. Rivalz's shoulder-length haircut bounced slightly, despite the copious amounts of hair product gluing the blue-colored mop in place. "We'll definitely make it back before lunch break ends, if we hurry up!"

"Yeah, sounds good," Lelouch said. He grabbed a helmet and jumped into the sidecar. "Let's get going then. Your share should be about six thousand, give or take a handful."

"Nice!" Rivalz shouted. He gingerly fastened his own helmet on and jammed the key into the ignition. "Sounds good to me, Lelouch. We doing this again next week?"

"Yeah, I guess," Lelouch answered. His response was automatic. "We'll see if the payout is good enough."

Rivalz gunned the engine and they merged into outgoing traffic.

Are we doing this again next week? Lelouch frowned. The question echoed in his head, disrupting his thoughts somewhat.

Is this what I'm going to amount to? Is this who Lelouch vi Britannia is? Just an academy student that bilks rich Brittanians out of their spare coin?

It had almost been a decade since his mother was assassinated. A decade since he and Nunnally were forced to go into exile. Forced into hiding.

Forced into a different life in Japan.

It had been a few years since Britannia had invaded and conquered the island nation of Japan. The nation, now called Area 11, was firmly under Britannian control, as were its resources: Rich veins of the mineral sakuradite, a mineral that was an indispensable ingredient throughout modern military technology.

The Japanese people were subjugated. Robbed of their nationality and culture, and even their right to call themselves Japanese, the Elevens existed as the bottom rung of the local class system. They were, functionally and economically speaking, in a position that was only a slight improvement over chattel slavery.

They zoomed down the highway and up an arching overpass. Lelouch looked out onto the city as the curving highway reached its apex. The Shinjuku ghetto was visible on the horizon on the left hand side. The wind whizzed by as Rivalz turned into the passing lane and kicked up the throttle. Lelouch turned his gaze to the right, where the rest of the Tokyo settlement was. If he squinted, he could barely make out the palace in the middle of the administrative district. That was where the viceroy, prince Clovis la Brittania lived and ruled from.

His older brother Clovis, like the rest of the world, had no idea that Lelouch was still alive. Milly Ashford and her grandfather Ruben were the only living Britannians who knew Lelouch and Nunnally's true identities. Their loyal maid Sayako was clued in as well, but she had served the two of them dutifully since their arrival in the country. The late Prime Minister, Genbu Kururugi had also known, as had his son Suzaku, but Lelouch hadn't seen Suzaku in years, since the day that Japan had surrendered.

Lelouch grit his teeth as a hot, blazing anger shot through him. The thoughts of the past had stoked the simmering coals that were eternally smoking in his heart, burning like a miniature furnace.

I swear, that one day, I will bring the empire to its knees! I will destroy Britannia!

Lelouch vi Brittania had made that promise, before he was forced to put on a mask and play his part. To act his role as the sweet honor student, the tardy student council member, the gifted but lazy genius that never applied himself. It was a tiresome performance, one that wore Lelouch down to his bones.

On some nights, during some quiet moments of solitude or while analyzing a chess game or a poker match, Lelouch could let the mask slip on the inside, just for an instant. But for the rest of the time…

"Here we are!" Rivalz called out, as they swerved through the back gates of the Ashford Academy campus and into the student council parking lot. "Quick, before lit class starts!"

"Right," Lelouch said. He unclasped his helmet and jumped out of the sidecar, stuffing the suitcase of winnings into his backpack as he did so. He followed Rivalz out of the garage.

"So what do you think for tonight? Card games? Nothing new is on TV, so…"

Is this what I amount to?

The flames licked at his insides.

Lelouch paid the minimum amount of attention to the chit chat, just enough to parse it. He gave his friend the responses that were required of him, no more and no less. The two walked quickly towards the main hall of the academy.

"Oh shit," Rivalz said, after glancing at his watch again. "We gotta go!"

Lelouch vi Brittania was a prisoner in his own skin.

But Lelouch Lamperouge was just an Ashford Academy student that was about to be late for class.

o-o-o​

Atem smiled.

He did it. Good job, Yugi.

"Now, are you ready, Yugi?" Atem asked, smiling at his younger counterpart. "It's your move."

Yugi trembled slightly at the popular turn of phrase. They had shouted it at many opponents in the past.

Together.

"Silent Magician!" Yugi Mutou yelled. "Attack his life points directly!"

The duel monster blasted Atem with a shining bolt of energy. Atem watched the point display on his duel disk slowly go down to zero, and an electronic chime echoed through the ancient tomb to signify the duel's end. The holograms winked out with a warbling noise.

Yugi dropped to his knees as Atem stepped forward.

"I lose, partner." Atem said. The pharaoh reached forward and brought Yugi to his feet. "Come now, Yugi. The King of Games doesn't belong on his knees! This is a great victory for the both of us."

"I...I was…" Yugi's voice shook slightly. Tears welled up in his eyes. "I was so focused on winning the game that I forgot what winning this duel would mean for us. You have to go now, right, Atem? By defeating you, I've sent you away for good!"

A pang of emptiness throbbed in his chest, but Atem shook his head. "No, Yugi. By defeating me you've opened the door for me to move on. Thanks to you, my spirit can finally be at peace in the afterlife. Fate brought the two of us together for a reason, and we fulfilled our shared destinies together. We've protected mankind from the return of the Shadow Games, and we've both grown tremendously along the way."

Yugi swallowed thickly. "I'm gonna miss you!"

Atem placed a hand on his counterpart's shoulder, and two pairs of purple eyes locked on to each other. "Yugi, we will never truly be apart. The gift of kindness that you've given me, and the courage that I've helped nurture within you, that will forever bind us together."

A brilliant gold light washed over the ancient tomb's interior as the Eye of Wadjet glowed. The relief on the tomb wall was really a door. One that led to the afterlife. One that had required Yugi's victory in the ceremonial duel to open.

One that Atem needed to pass through.

Well. I know what must be done.

Atem stepped forward to address the glowing eye. "I am the son of King Aknamkanon, the Pharaoh Atem!"

The light, already bright enough to be painful, increased in intensity until it was absolutely blinding. Atem lifted an arm to shield his eyes. His stomach lurched, and he suddenly felt himself falling.

Images passed through his awareness. The desert sands. Images of the Millennium Items. Children praying. The planet Jupiter. A spiral of tortured souls. A strange bird-like sigil. The ancient tablet of lost memories from the Domino City museum.

Atem blinked.

The light faded, revealing a small underground cavern that was different to the ancient Egyptian tomb he had just been standing in. Droplets of water fell from stalactites into puddles beneath.

Atem frowned. He looked around. The wall behind him had intricate geometrical figures carved into it, but no familiar hieroglyphics that he could spot.

This is not the afterlife I was expecting.

What happened?

Atem was broken from his quiet contemplation by the sounds of boots echoing in the distance. He quickly crossed the cavern's length and crouched behind a stalagmite as they grew louder. Six figures entered the cavern, all outfitted in body armor and gray fatigues, and each one had a rifle in hand.

Soldiers? Or mercenaries of some sort?

Atem watched as they quickly sweeped the tunnel with their guns and attached flashlights. He felt a spike of adrenaline run through his nervous system as one pair of footsteps came closer and closer to the corner he was hiding in. Atem pressed himself against the stalagmite and held his breath. He tensed his muscles, getting ready for when the—

"Oi! Over here!"

The footsteps stopped. "Sir?"

"This is what command was looking for. Barny, stay with me to secure the site. Gainsborough, head back to the ship and message General Bartley. I'm sure Tokyo will want to hear about this."

Tokyo? Atem thought. He frowned. So I'm in Japan? Or on an island near it?

"The rest of you sweep the other edge of the cave and through the rest of the island and report back after."

The orders were met with a chorus of responses and eager footsteps scattering in different directions.

Atem held his breath for a dozen heartbeats longer. Slowly and quietly, the ancient Egyptian pharaoh crept out of the cavern and out in the direction that the lone soldier had gone.

A ship of any size means I can stowaway and wait until they're back in the mainland, Atem thought. He needed to get back to civilization and find out what was going on. Were Yugi and his friends still in Egypt? Why was he suddenly transported to this strange place, and why were armed men searching the area around it?

At least I still have my deck.

Atem tracked his way through the island and down to the beach. Sure enough, there was a decent-sized ship that had landed directly on the shore. It looked fairly high tech and state of the art, as if it was a piece of KaibaCorp engineering straight out of the research and development lab.

Now he just had to figure out how to get inside without being caught.

"Alright, Atem," the pharaoh muttered. "Your move."

o-o-o​

Lelouch was escorted through the games and hobby shop by its proprietor.

"Thank you for the invitation, Mr. Tamaki," Lelouch said. "You said this player was good?"

"Yes, Mr. Lamperouge, very good," Tamaki said. "Game's already set up in the back room. I heard you were looking for a challenge. Give him a shot."

Kenshin Tamaki was an individual that he'd run into a few times during his 'after school activities' with Rivalz, and the man had taken a shine to him after their last few conversations. Last week he'd invited Lelouch over to his shop, swearing up and down that he'd finally found a worthy opponent for him to face.

Lelouch moved the heavy black stage curtains aside with a grunt of effort.

Clearly Tamaki used the back of the shop for some activities that he'd rather keep private, Lelouch thought. These things are heavy. Sound deadening?

There was a small wooden table in the center of the room, with two wooden chairs on either end. In the center was a well-worn chess set, pieces at the ready, along with two old, stopwatch-style timer clocks. At the far end of the table sat his opponent.

It was a teenage boy, around the same age as Lelouch. He was dressed in a dark leather jacket and tight jeans, with bands of leather around his arms. His skin was a very light coffee-colored brown, as if the boy had been out working in the sun all summer long.

Punk aesthetic. A gangster of some sort? No, too young. Just a Japanese teenager with an attitude, most likely. Though he doesn't look Japanese. There's a vague Mediterranean look to him… Europian? He's certainly not Britannian.

The boy had shocks of dark purple hair that stood on end, accompanied by a mess of blonde locks towards the front of his face that cut across the teenager's head like swathes of electricity. Lelouch wondered if the boy used the same hair gel that Rivalz did. Whatever it was, it kept his hair in place.

His opponent had a pair of dark purple eyes, and an intense gaze that pierced him like a bullet.

Lelouch pulled up the other chair and sat down. "My name is Lelouch. Lamperouge. And you?"

"My name is Yugi Mutou," the teenager said. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Lamperouge. Shall we flip a coin to decide who plays which?"

Lelouch held up a hand. "I'll play black, if you don't mind."

Yugi nodded, tapped his clock to start the timer, and proceeded to open up with the starting move of the Pendragon System. "I play pawn to D4."

Lelouch's spirits fell. And here I was hoping for something different. The nobility had stopped using this opening a few weeks ago, but apparently his opponent hadn't gotten the memo.

Ah well, perhaps he'll surprise me.

But Lelouch and his opponent moved through the opening moves of the Asplund gambit without deviation. He felt his lips twist into a frown.

"Queen takes B2," Lelouch announced tiredly.

"Knight C3. I end my turn."

Lelouch eyed the board for an instant. "Bishop B4."

"Rook B1." Purple eyes bore into him.

"Queen A3." Lelouch replied. He cocked an eyebrow at the other boy and glanced at the clock.

"Rook B3," Yugi said, with a frown. "And I end my turn."

"Queen A5," Lelouch said. "Why do you keep saying that?"

"Pawn E3," Yugi said. The boy gave a small shrug. "Apologies, it's a habit of mine."

Well, this is more interesting than I had thought. Lelouch surveyed the board. "Knight E7. A habit you say? Have you been playing for long?"

Yugi took several seconds to think, his eyes darting rapidly from piece to piece. "Bishop D3. No, but I am well-versed in several other strategy games."

Lelouch moved his knight to the G6 square and tapped the clock. "Let's eschew announcing the moves for conversation, shall we?"

Lelouch nodded slightly as Yugi castled kingside.

"Very well," Yugi said. Lelouch took the E5 pawn with his knight, which Yugi recaptured with his knight, and Lelouch completed the exchange by capturing the white knight with his queen. "I must confess I prefer card games, though this one is growing on me."

Yugi moved his queen over to the B file. Lelouch castled kingside and blinked as his opponent exploded down the B file, trading Lelouch's bishop and his knight in exchange for Yugi's rook.

How did I miss that?

Lelouch vi Britannia leaned forward in his chair, his eyes narrowed. "How long have you been playing exactly?"

"Evenings for the last three weeks," Yugi replied. Yugi moved his queen over and threatened checkmate. "When I'm not playing card games, of course."

"I see," Lelouch replied. "Interesting."

Lelouch negated the checkmate attempt with some maneuvering and a queen trade. The clocks counted downwards into the two minute mark on both sides, and the board became a flurry of pieces. Lelouch's pawns advanced methodically, and he sequestered his king behind a pair to better secure it.

"Is that so unusual?" Yugi asked with a frown. He moved his own king around the board while Lelouch advanced his pawns further. "It's certainly a complex game, but every opponent I've had, save you, has been disappointing."

"Mmmm." Lelouch said. "I should say the same. Usually I'm using my opponent's time to daydream."

Lelouch eventually won by barreling a pair of rooks down the middle of the board to destroy Yugi's defenses. He promoted a pawn and secured a quick ladder-mate soon after.

It was a win.

Not an absurdly difficult one, but one that he had to work for nevertheless.

"Excellent game, Lelouch Lamperouge," Yugi said. Yugi reached out for a handshake.

Lelouch stared at the outstretched hand for a long moment before grasping it.

"Mr. Tamaki," Lelouch said. He nodded towards the small suitcase that he brought with him. "Please split the money in there with my opponent. Mr. Mutou, would you care for another match? Say, this weekend?"

The corner of his opponent's mouth raised, forming an intimidating half-smile on the boy's face.

"I would indeed."

o-o-o​

Atem was lost in this strange world.

Despite a close call with the crew and some guards, Atem had successfully managed to sneak onto the boat and escape that strange island when the ship finally left. He snuck off the ship once it docked at the mainland, hiding in the back of a shipping truck with some cargo crates, and breaking out of the warehouse it had stopped at first.

Atem soon found himself in a Japan, and an Earth, that was vastly different from the one he was used to.

Truth be told, it wasn't the first time that had happened, but Atem hoped that it would be the last.

After a day or two of half-starved trudging through the streets of Tokyo, Atem had found a hobby shop and bartered with the owner. Room and board in exchange for a job. He had soon quickly been introduced to a few underground gambling rings. While Atem was not the best at the modern game of 'poker' he had played it a fair few times with Jonuichi, Hiroto, and Ryuji back in Domino City. He had earned his keep, and been introduced to the game of chess as well, which had its own following amongst the nobility and wealthy.

Duel Monsters wasn't a thing on this Earth, it seemed, which made the deck that Atem carried with him one of a kind. Atem had to wonder whether or not the ancient monsters that had inspired the game were present in this world, or if they too were gone. While he was without any of the Millenium Items or a cabal of ancient Egyptian sorcerers to ritually channel a proper duel, he could still feel something when he looked at his deck.

The ancient shadow magics that powered the duels were supposed to have been sealed away with his entrance to the afterlife, but instead of getting to the afterlife, Atem had found himself somewhere entirely different. He suspected the reason that he was here had something to do with the strange images that had flashed through his mind back at the tomb, after his duel with Yugi.

It was too much of a coincidence to not be related.

The weeks had slowly turned into months, and Atem still wasn't sure what, exactly, he was supposed to be doing here.

"You'll have to explain this card game to me at some point, Yugi," Lelouch said. The Brittanian student moved his king forwards.

But a gut feeling told him that it had something to do with this teenage boy that kept showing up to play games with him. The eddies of destiny flowed in mysterious ways, but they tended to move about in patterns over the years, and Atem found something strangely familiar about this situation.

"Sure," Atem replied, after a split-second hesitation. He hoped that Lelouch would chalk it up to his concentrating on the game.

When he made it off of the Britannian military boat and onto the mainland, he had used the name Yugi Mutou when going around the city. He quickly realized that this Japan was not his Japan. Domino City didn't exist here, and there was no record of a Yugi Mutou ever existing, not as far as Atem could find anyway. That wasn't the biggest obstacle for him, legally speaking, since a lot of public records were destroyed during the Britannian invasion.

Yugi Mutou was at least a Japanese name, and so using it would allow him to fit in more easily than his obviously Egyptian real name.

"Why is it that you do that?" Atem asked, as he moved a pawn forwards.

"Do what?"

"You tend to move your king more often than other players I see," Atem replied. He gestured at the board with a hand. "Is it just a precaution?"

Lelouch chuckled quietly. "Somewhat. I am a cautious person, you could say. But perhaps one could chalk it up as a matter of philosophy. The king should lead if he expects his subjects to follow in his stead, shouldn't he?"

Atem raised an eyebrow. "I see the wisdom. Are you planning on becoming a leader of some sort, then?"

His opponent laughed openly at that. "No, no. That's a quick way to torpedo your health, isn't it? Too much stress."

"Hmmm," Atem said. "You say that, but your playstyle seems to say otherwise. Perhaps you're destined for greatness, and you just haven't found your opportunity yet."

"Destiny, eh?" Lelouch adjusted himself in his chair and closed his eyes. There was a polite smile on his face, but Atem could tell that the Brittanian wasn't being entirely genuine with him. "I suppose in some sense, we're all walking on paths that were determined at our birth, aren't we?"

"Destiny is what you make of it," Atem countered. Lelouch advanced one of his pieces forward to capture more space.

Typical of him, Atem thought. Lelouch was always busy setting things in motion, making plans that would materialize further down the line. It wasn't often that he directly pressed an advantage, generally preferring to react to the other player's moves instead.

Three quarters of the games we play, you play black. What does that say about you, Lelouch?

"How about we make this one interesting?" Atem said.

"What do you have in mind?"

Atem smiled. "A wager. If I win, I get to ask a favor of you. If you win, you get the same from me."

Lelouch smirked. "Deal. I've won more than ninety percent of the games we've played, and the ones where you've eked out a win have been lucky victories. I'll take that bet."

"Luck had nothing to do with it," Atem said. "The pieces themselves pull through for me. Have some more faith in them yourself, and you might be unstoppable."

Lelouch covered up a bark of laughter with a polite cough.

"Really?" Lelouch scoffed. "That's a load of sentimental nonsense if I've ever heard any."

"Oh?" Atem replied. "And what happened to 'the king should lead'? Isn't that the same?"

That earned him a scowl from Lelouch, and a legitimately angry one at that. But though Lelouch's expression was stern, it also had shades of thoughtful consideration woven into it.

"It's different," Lelouch finally said. He moved a rook forward. "Check. At the end of the day, a leader has to lead. Blind faith in one's followers isn't going to solve any problems."

"Did I say anything about blind faith?" Atem countered. He moved the light-square bishop to intercede on his king's behalf. "A good leader would not have poor followers in the first place, would he?"

"I'll ignore the circular logic in that response," Lelouch said. "Take Britannia for instance. The Emperor rules strongly from Pendragon. He has a massive amount of resourceful individuals under his command, but does he have faith in them? No. They must prove themselves time and again, or they're cast aside like yesterday's trash. Faith isn't a component there."

Atem couldn't help but notice the emotion leaking into Lelouch's voice. "So?"

Lelouch blinked and looked up from the board. "So what?"

"Do you believe that that actually works?" Atem asked. He shook his head. "If that is all there is to his rule, then the emperor is not a very good king, is he?"

Lelouch's eyebrows shot up to the top of his skull. "Words such as that could get an Eleven like you in a hell of a lot of trouble, Yugi. I'd watch what you're saying if I were you."

"If you say so," Atem shrugged. Lelouch captured his bishop, and Atem in turn captured Lelouch's rook with a knight. "But I note that you didn't answer the question. Is the emperor's view a good one? In your opinion."

Lelouch didn't respond. Atem watched as Lelouch's face slid into a mask of pure neutrality. His opponent stared at the game board for a moment before moving his queen forwards. "Checkmate."

Atem looked down at the board. He nodded. "So it is. Nicely played. Now, as to our bet, what favor would you ask of me?"

Lelouch stared at him, the teenager's amethyst eyes meeting his own with the intensity of a Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

"What favor did you want from me?" Lelouch asked. "Out of curiosity."

Interesting question.

"I would have asked for your help in finding a purpose for me in this world," Atem replied. It was the truth, more or less.

Lelouch took that in without giving a reaction. "I see. Where do you currently go to school?"

"I do not," Atem said. The pharaoh hadn't really wanted to subject himself to more secondary school, not after experiencing it secondhand from his time in Yugi's body. Between weekly underground poker games and the occasional chess match with actual prize money, Atem now earned enough to rent a bedroom above Tamaki's storefront and pay for the necessities.

"Hmm."

Lelouch tapped his finger against his cheek.

"My favor is this: I'm going to pull some strings and have you enroll in Ashford Academy. You'll attend."

Lelouch stood up and began gathering his things. Atem raised an eyebrow. "And why would you ask that?"

Lelouch smirked and narrowed his eyes.

That boy is far more than he appears on the surface.

"Let's just say you're too intriguing for me to let you out of my sight."

o-o-o​

Finally, I get to play this oft-talked about game.

Yugi had somehow arranged for the creation and printing of an entire collectible card game in the last several months.

"How did you manage to get these made again?" Lelouch asked.

"I suggested the idea to Milly," Yugi said. "She was quickly on board after I pointed out how it could be monetized. Though I have to admit she became frighteningly enthused about forcing the art club to make images for the cards."

Of course she did. Leave it to Milly to reinvent slave labor through the power of the student council.

Lelouch chuckled nervously. "That sounds like Milly Ashford alright. Okay, I've read the rulebook and chosen my deck. Would you like to go first? We have about ten minutes until we get to that piloting elective you forced me to sign up for."

"It looked like an interesting class," Yugi said, shrugging. "But if you're fine with going second, I'll start. Shall we?"

The two shuffled each other's decks.

Lelouch nodded. He drew his hand.

Kunai with Chain, The Six Samurai- Yaichi, Temple of the Six, Shien's Scheme, and Swords of Revealing Light. Not a bad draw.

Lelouch could play the temple card, which would debuff Yugi's monsters as time went on. Then he could summon Yaichi and put the trap card Kunai with Chain on the field as well. In a pinch, he could play Swords of Revealing Light to stall, but Shien's Scheme would be useless until he had more monster cards in his hand.

"I set a monster face-down in defense position," Yugi said. "And I end my turn."

"I guess now I know where that habit comes from," Lelouch remarked. He drew a card, Kagemusha of the Six Samurai. "Alright, I play Temple of the Six. Every time I summon a monster fitting the conditions, I increment the counter on it, reducing your monster's attack according to the count times a hundred. I place a card face down and summon The Six Samurai-Yaichi, and I attack your monster with it."

Yugi flipped the monster and held up a finger. "Lucky for me, my Mystical Elf has greater defense points than your monster's attack points."

Drat, that's 700 points gone already from the difference.

"Your turn then, I guess."

Yugi placed a monster down on the field. "I play Berry Magician Girl, and I end my turn."

Lelouch blinked. That monster had very low attack, and Lelouch could easily dispatch it and score a points advantage. But it had an effect as well.

I smell a trap, Lelouch thought. But this is Yugi. Is he simply betting that I won't trigger it? He has two monsters on the field now. He could tribute-summon a powerful card next turn. Or does he expect me to think that?

My model of him isn't accurate enough to guess at his thoughts, so I won't.

Lelouch chose to forego the meta-level thinking entirely, instead opting to run a quick cost-benefit analysis on the pros and cons. Afterwards, he decided that it would be better to just spring the trap and attack the monster.

"Alright, well that was a bit fast," Lelouch said. Not really, but Yugi should have given him an option to activate cards before he loudly announced that he ended his turn. Was Lelouch supposed to interject loudly like some sort of cartoon villain? "So I'll activate Kunai with Chain, equipping it to Yaichi. I'll draw my card and start my turn now."

Yugi took this in stride.

Lelouch drew.

Mirror Force! Excellent. That'll make it possible to wipe his field one of these turns.

"I attack your Berry Girl Magician with Yaichi. That's— "

"Excellent, for when Berry Magician Girl is attacked, before the attack resolves, I can change its position! And when I do so, I can special-summon any Magician Girl monster to the field from my deck. I choose Dark Magician Girl!"

Lelouch's eyelid twitched.

Right, well I knew something was coming. He'd have found some way to summon something horrifying sooner or later, with that deck of his.

Lelouch had noticed that when he had the opportunity to thumb through Yugi's deck earlier. The strategy in it seemed to be to rely on several strong synergies between his monsters, stalling and buying time until one of them could eventually come to fruition.

It was one of the reason's Lelouch had chosen his deck as he did: the various summon effects and additional drawing allotments would allow him to get monsters out on the field quickly while his spells, traps, and effect monsters took out the monsters the opponent summoned.

"But the attack still goes through," Yugi said, concluding his spiel. He placed the Berry Magician Girl card in the graveyard. "So long, Berry Magician Girl."

Lelouch eyed the Dark Magician Girl. "I play Swords of Revealing Light and that's it for me. You can't attack for three turns or until you destroy the spell card."

The spell card would hopefully stop any shenanigans from happening, and give Lelouch some time to build up steam. He had a Mirror Force in his hand as well, so there was something he could do if Yugi negated it. Yugi was clearly angling for something, and it was important to disrupt whatever strategy he was setting up before it started picking up momentum.

Yugi nodded and drew a card. Amusement glinted in the blonde boy's purple eyes.

"I play Sage's Stone," he said, "which allows me to special-summon Dark Magician from my deck so long as Dark Magician Girl is on the field! In addition, his presence allows me to play Dark Magic Attack, which destroys all of the spell and trap cards on your side of the field!"

"What? You're serious?" Lelouch asked. He raised an eyebrow.

"Of course," Yugi said, somewhat taken aback by the question. "I would never cheat in a duel. Finally, I summon Queen's Knight and attack your monsters!"

"Alright then," Lelouch said. He shrugged and placed the cards into the graveyard.

Lelouch drew another card, Six Scrolls of the Samurai, and placed the trap card Mirror Force down on the field.

"I put a card face down, and then play Kagemusha of the Six Samurai. That's my turn. You're up," Lelouch said. He did his best to keep his poker face steady.

"Excellent, I attack and—"

Lelouch smirked. "I activate Mirror Force. Say goodbye to all those monsters."

Yugi's eyes widened. "Mirror Force! Oh no!"

Now it's time to mop up, Lelouch thought. He had interrupted Yugi's strategy, and Lelouch's deck would be able to quickly ramp up and summon more monsters. What could go wrong?

o-o-o​

A few turns into the duel and Atem was not in the best position. Lelouch was a brilliant strategist, and had a keen mind and good sense of tactical timing.

Atem looked at the cards in his hand.

Polymerization, De-fusion, and King's Knight. Atem frowned. And Big Shield Gardna on the field still. Lelouch's choice of deck is quite formidable and will be tough to beat. But my deck will see me through this, I know it! I just need more cards!

Atem placed his hand down to draw. Atem glanced at the card.

Yes!

"I play Pot of Greed," Atem said, a smile tearing itself across his face. "Which lets me draw two cards."

Atem drew, once, and then a second time. He eyed the two newcomers to his hand.

"I play Monster Reborn!" Atem said. He placed the spell card on the field. "And with it, I can return Queen's Knight to the field of battle."

Lelouch frowned at him. "You're not choosing your Dark Magician?"

"Oh, just wait," Atem said. He placed another card down on the field. "And I summon King's Knight, activating his effect as I do so, which lets me special-summon Jack's Knight from my deck!"

Lelouch narrowed his eyes. "None of those have a high enough attack power to destroy my monster."

Atem smirked "I'm not done. I play Polymerization. Using my three knights as tribute, I fuse them together, to summon the fusion monster, Arcana Knight Joker! And I attack your Great Shogun Shien."

Lelouch grinned. "I activate my trap card, another Mirror Force, which—"

"And I activate my Arcana Knight's special ability. First I must discard a trap card from my hand," Atem said. He placed a copy of Magic Cylinder into the graveyard from his hand. "And then I can negate the effect of your Mirror Force, and attack with my monster without fear!"

Lelouch cursed slightly. "Not so fast, Yugi. If it's about to be destroyed, Shien's ability allows me to destroy one of my samurai monsters to keep him on the field. I'll do so."

Lelouch removed his Legendary Six Samurai-Kizan from the field and placed it into his graveyard.

"Very well, Lelouch," Atem said. He nodded towards the other student. "I end my turn."

Lelouch drew a card and then frowned. "I play Legendary Ebon Steed, which increases Shien's attack and defense by two hundred points each. In addition, when Shien is about to be destroyed, I can destroy this card instead. I attack your Big Shield Gardna."

"This triggers my trap card, Magical Hats!" Atem said. He flipped the card over. "It allows me to choose two trap or spell cards from my deck, and place them face down on the field, and do the same with Big Shield Gardna, in a random permutation. You must choose which to attack."

Atem did this as he spoke, shuffling the cards onto the field and then shuffling his deck afterwards. Lelouch's eyes tracked the movements of his hands closely.

"I choose to attack the one to my right," Lelouch said. He pointed to indicate the card, and Atem flipped it over. Revealing the trap card Spellbinding Circle instead of Big Shield Gardna.

"Shame," Atem said. "Looks like my monster gets to live another day."

"That's it for me," Lelouch said. He leaned backwards in his chair.

"My turn then," Atem said. He drew a card, Summoned Skull. "I tribute Big Shield Gardna to summon Summoned Skull. First, my Joker will attack your Shien, and then Summoned Skull will!"

"I still have a small amount of life points left," Lelouch said. "And that's all you can do. My turn."

"It would be," Atem said. "But I play the quick-play spell De-fusion! This sends Arcana Knight Joker to the graveyard, and special-summons the monsters used as fusion material to the field. It's still my battle phase, and since their combined attacks exceed your remaining life points, I'm afraid you're out of luck, Lelouch."

Purple eyes stared at him with unmatched intensity.

"Let's play again."

Atem smiled. "Gladly."

They were marked truant for missing their classes that evening. Atem didn't very much care, since he found schoolwork to be remarkably tedious, a sentiment that Lelouch undoubtedly shared.

Shame I missed the modern military elective though, he thought wistfully. Being able to operate one of those giant robots is appealing. Maybe the teacher will allow me to catch up after school this week.

o-o-o​

Lelouch rewound the video back to the moment that Yugi drew his last card. This video was from the second camera he had installed in the lounge, the one above the bookshelf that was meant to give him an aerial view of the boy's hand and deck.

Lelouch set the playback rate to half speed and clicked the play button.

No sleight of hand, Lelouch thought. His eyes narrowed. Then how is he doing it?

Lelouch had slogged through several dozen games of Duel Monsters with the boy. He had lost all but one, and that duel was one where Yugi was heavily handicapped by the specific design of Lelouch's deck.

Yugi had calmly shuffled some cards in and out from his extra deck, before winning the next three matches. Generally with some insane stroke of luck or absurdly clever gambit.

"I would never cheat in a duel."

"By all accounts, it doesn't make any sense," Lelouch muttered. It was a card game where the decks were shuffled before each match by the opposing player. If he wasn't cheating with sleight of hands or magnets or something like that, then how was he doing it!?

Maybe I should ask him to duel me again without the jacket, Lelouch thought. Or we could just play in the nude. That would be pretty conclusive.

Lelouch snorted at the thought. He tapped a finger against his cheek and idly fingered the laptop's touchpad.

On a whim, Lelouch opened up the chess engine program that he had installed on his laptop. He filtered out his past games (he recorded every one, of course) to only include the ones wherein Yugi was the opponent. He highlighted them all, turned the engine depth to its maximum setting, and clicked 'analyze'.

Lelouch got up from his desk and walked to the kitchen to brew a large pot of tea and grab a few biscuits to munch on while the computer churned away at its assigned task. He returned, equipped with considerably more caffeine and a few spare bags of crisps, and began the arduous task of going through every single game play by play. While he had briefly reviewed the games before, this time he paid careful attention to Yugi's moves, specifically what the engine had to say about them.

Lelouch went through the first two games without much issue. His eyebrows shot up after the third game. He went through the fourth.

What? No way.

Lelouch tirelessly went through the rest of the games to confirm the pattern. After the final one, his mouth was slightly agape.

Two to three discrete moves every game, Lelouch observed. It was difficult to spot if you weren't going through everything with a comb. He probably wouldn't have noticed it if he didn't actually look at the games with the engine depth set to max either.

Every game they played, there were two or three moves that Yugi made, seemingly at random, that dramatically increased his odds of victory. They weren't merely good either, they were perfect, at least according to the chess engine on Lelouch's computer, which was custom made for him. Lelouch had paid Nina a small fortune worth of his winnings to design it, and it had taken the technology wiz half of her summer vacation to do so.

Lelouch leaned back in the crappy, uncomfortable wooden chair that he kept at his bedroom desk.

"Could someone really just be lucky? Inherently?" Lelouch asked aloud.

If you posed the question to him out of context, Lelouch would have laughed at the absurdity. It flew in the face of all laws of probability— random events were, by their very definition, random!

Now? He wasn't so sure.There was one thing he could be sure about though.

"There's something strange about you, Yugi Mutou."

o-o-o​

Atem hopped onto the back of the motorbike as Lelouch jumped into the sidecar. Rivalz stuck the key into the ignition and gunned the throttle.

The three of them had about ten minutes to get back to Ashford Academy before they were late for class. Rivalz had a stellar driving record. Atem wasn't very concerned either way. He had already sat through a few years of secondary school education while he was joyriding in Yugi's subconscious, and he and Lelouch made more than enough from their gambling winnings to pay for homework assistance and test answers.

"That was amazing, Lelouch!" Rivalz said. "Did you see how much that noble was sweating? I thought he was going to blow a blood vessel. Eight minutes and forty seven seconds is a new record for you!"

Atem cocked his head. The wind was howling in his ears, and he strained to make out Lelouch's response.

"It wasn't anything special," Lelouch said. The disappointment in his voice was palpable. "Really, you would think that the nobility would put up a better fight than that, but I suppose it goes to show how little time the aristocracy spends on anything interesting."

"It was somewhat disappointing," Atem said. "Though, it seemed that the shopkeeper you took over for was in a winning position, time constraints aside. A shame he didn't see it. Perhaps he was too nervous."

Lelouch's lips thinned into a frown. "Yes, I'm sure that that loud pig across the board from him was fairly distracting."

"Can't believe that the Elevens end up in situations like this!" Rivalz shouted. He veered in between lanes to pass a series of slow drivers. "Who in their right mind would try to gamble their debts on a game of chess? He's lucky that traffic wasn't worse for us on the way there!"

Neither Atem nor Lelouch commented. After a minute, traffic on the busy highway seemed to thicken, and Rivalz eased up on the throttle.

"Come on!" Rivalz shouted. "We were so close to making it back!"

A car horn blared from behind them and Atem craned his neck to see a massive freight truck tailgating the bike. Lelouch whipped his head back in alarm.

"Woah, come on now!" Rivalz shouted. "I got nowhere to go!"

A deafening crash and the screeching howl of torn metal roared through the air, and Atem whipped his head to his left in response. The sudden cacophony was accompanied by the unmistakable smell of burning rubber and a cloud of dust.

What the hell? Atem thought. Rivalz veered off of the highway, onto the shoulder, and the bike stopped with a screech.

Atem quickly hopped off the back of the bike, just as Lelouch was standing up from the sidecar adjacent to him. Atem got to the overpass guardrail first, Lelouch hot on his heels, and he peered over at the crash site.

"Damn, looks like the engine's shot. Maybe the belt?" Rivalz said. The blue-haired student was fussing around with the bike, which didn't seem to want to start again. Atem's eyes glanced back at the car accident, as something flashed in the dust cloud.

"Rivalz, come check this out," Lelouch said. He narrowed his eyes. "Yugi, do you see that?"

Atem opened his mouth to reply, but he stopped as a chorus of voices sounded out.

"Woah, what happened?"

"Ah, probably a drunk driver."

"Is someone going to help? Did anyone call the emergency number yet?"

The trio turned to look at the small crowd gathering on the small footbridge that ran parallel to the road.

"Idiots," Lelouch said. Lelouch turned and ran back down the highway, down to the closed off ramp that the truck had crashed right through. "He probably didn't see the barricade! We have to help. Come on!" Atem hopped the railing and followed closely on his heels.

"I'll stay with the bike, I guess!" Rivalz called after them.

Lelouch ran ahead and attempted to shift some of the rubble from the truck's main cabin. The vehicle had rammed through one of the concrete barricades at speed and continued on to slam through a warehouse wall. A bent support beam and crumpled sheets of metal were twisted around the truck's cab, preventing either of them from checking on the drivers. Atem didn't bother helping Lelouch, since there was no way the two of them would be able to shift the rubble quickly enough to be of any help if the drivers were actually injured.

"Lelouch!" Atem barked. "We should try to enter from the top, up the cargo ladder. This looks like a transport of some kind, it might have an entrance in the back as well."

"Right!" Lelouch yelled, and the two of them quickly climbed the ladder. Lelouch cupped his hands and yelled towards the cabin of the truck. "Hey! Is anyone in there! We're coming!"

Just as the two of them reached the roof of the cargo load, the truck lurched, and screamed into motion.The momentum blew them off their feet and they fell into the open cargo compartment. Atem landed on the metal floor of the container and rolled to his feet, but Lelouch crumpled in a heap next to him with a grunt of pain.

"Stop, we're in here!" Lelouch yelled. The truck swerved back and forth, rocking them around the interior.

Atem quickly jumped onto the pile of secured cargo crates in the corner and braced himself against the load with one arm, reaching out towards his friend with the other.

"Lelouch, grab on!" Atem yelled. Lelouch grabbed his outstretched hand and Atem hauled him to safety. The two crouched down in the corner and held on for dear life as the suns of heavy weapons fire sounded outside. The entrance to the cabin opened up and Atem held a finger up to his mouth in the universal symbol of 'be quiet'. Lelouch gave a shallow nod in response.

"Preparing to launch. I'm gonna give them hell!"

Someone walked from the cabin towards the back section of the cargo transport. A minute later and the truck wobbled forward something fierce, as something massive fell out of the back of it.

"A Knightmare Frame?" Lelouch whispered. "What the hell is going on? Are these terrorists?"

"Shh," Atem whispered. He held up a hand to stop his companion from speculating further. "We're not out of the woods yet. Whoever this is and whatever they're doing, there is at least one more of them here driving."

"Right," Lelouch said. His eyes narrowed. "Let's sit tight and wait for the truck to stop. We can make our way out or signal the military."

"Wait and see." Atem wasn't too confident that either of those ideas would work, but he didn't really have a plan on how two teenagers were going to disable one or more opponents that probably had guns.

Eventually the truck stopped and the driver's cabin cracked open again. The two tensed up and turned to look at the opening, but nobody came through.

"Alright," Atem whispered. "Let's move. If we run into anyone, we'll tackle them and restrain their limbs."

"Sounds good, let's go."

Atem walked up to the opening as quickly and as quietly as he could manage. A figure somersaulted through it and planted a boot in his face.

"Augh!"

Atem felt a burning flash of pain in his face as the kick broke his nose, and he fell backwards with the blow and crumpled onto the floor of the container.

"Are you Britannians?!" the figure yelled. "With these terrorists? What sort of scum would use poison gas on all these—"

"Wait!" Lelouch yelled. He put his hands up. "We're not with them!"

"Don't play dumb with me!" The soldier ordered. He wrestled Lelouch to the ground.

Atem righted himself and bolted forward, grabbing the soldier around the waist and hurling him into the container wall. The soldier lashed out with another kick and caught Atem in the ribs. The pharaoh grunted in pain and tried to hold on, but his grip failed as the soldier hit him with another blow.

This man has legs like a mule!

Atem backed up towards the entrance, Lelouch mirroring him. Atem brought his hands up to block more blows as the soldier stepped forward, but after two steps towards them the soldier froze.

"My God," the soldier breathed. "It can't be. Lelouch, is that you?"

What? Atem looked over to Lelouch. His eyes were wide, and his mouth was wide enough to fit a duel disk in sideways.

"It's me, Suzaku."

The soldier removed his helmet, revealing an older teenage boy.

A Japanese soldier? Atem frowned. As far as he was aware, the Britannian military was famously racist, and forbade anyone from a subjugated population—any Numbers, or so they called them— from serving in any sort of combat role.

But he knows Lelouch somehow. How?

The metallic orb in the cargo container started moving.

"Get down!" Suzaku yelled. The soldier sprinted forward and in one fluid motion, tackled Lelouch and forced a gas mask on the teen's face. With his other hand, he grabbed the collar of Atem's leather jacket and yanked him to the ground as well.

The sphere cracked open and released some smoke, accompanied by a brilliant rainbow light that flared up for an instant. The light faded, revealing a green-haired girl in a strange looking straight jacket.

Huh?

The three of them gaped at the woman as she wavered on unsteady feet. Atem quickly moved forward to steady her, and she crumpled over into him. He grunted and lowered her to the ground as gently as he could manage.

"That's… not poison gas," Suzaku said. Lelouch moved forwards and, after a moment of intense inspection, started undoing the woman's restraints.

"Suzaku," Lelouch said. "What the hell is going on here? Terrorists and poison gas?"

"I don't know," Suzaku said. He started unbuckling the green-haired woman. "It's what command told us. The terrorists must have kidnapped this girl for some reason. Are they traffickers too?"

Atem glanced towards the container's side exit. "Here, pry this open. Whatever is going on, we need to get out of here quickly."

"Agreed." Suzaku pulled the emergency exit lever and jettisoned the door with two swift kicks. "I'll jump down, the two of you lower her to me."

Atem and Lelouch did so without much trouble, and jumped down themselves afterwards. Atem's ears twitched at the subtle sounds of boots scuffing against gravel and he jerked his head up.

Floodlights turned on, blinding and illuminating the four of them. Atem squinted against the light, and he made out several figures on the far side of the building that were now visible.

Should have scouted ahead first. Damn! Atem chuckled bitterly. I suppose now I know how it feels to be on the receiving end of Swords of Revealing Light.

"Stupid monkey," one figure said. The man looked like some sort of military officer. "You think being an honorary Britannian will excuse you? Orders were orders."

Suzaku walked forwards. "Sir! I was told that there was poison gas, so I—"

The officer backhanded Suzaku. The Japanese soldier tumbled backwards, clearly shocked at the unexpected blow. The rest of the soldiers present raised their weapons, pointing them at Atem, Lelouch, and the mysterious girl in the straitjacket.

"Private Kururugi," the officer said. He drew his handgun out from his holster and held the weapon out. "This is an order: take this weapon and execute these terrorists."

Suzaku blanched. "But sir! These aren't terrorists! Look at their uniforms, they're clearly Britannian academy students!"

The officer spat to the side. "Listen closely you insubordinate little punk. They're terrorists. Now take this gun and shoot them dead."

Atem tensed up.

Suzaku swallowed and turned to look at Lelouch. He paused for a moment.

"I can't do that," Suzaku stated. "They're civilians, sir."

The officer paused. "I see."

The man held up the firearm and shot Suzaku in the back.

"Suzaku!" Lelouch yelled.

The Japanese soldier fell to the ground.

"Well Britannian schoolboys," the officer growled. "Not a good day to cut class. Collect the girl. After you've secured her, kill the students."

"Yes, my lord!"

This isn't right.

A brilliant flash lit up the cavern as the truck cabin exploded. Atem tackled Lelouch to the ground as a pile of rubble and shrapnel exploded everywhere.

o-o-o​

Lelouch winced as Yugi shoved him to the ground. He felt his wrist bend awkwardly against the concrete, and a jet of white-hot pain shot up his arm. Lelouch rolled with the impact and stumbled to his feet, quickly checking the environment. The blast had collapsed part of the ceiling, and the building had caved in. They would have to go down the tunnel's maintenance path and try to leave via one of the emergency exits.

What was that? A bomb in the truck?

"Quickly," Yugi whispered from next to him. "I'll grab the girl. We have to get out of here."

Lelouch nodded and stepped forward. Yugi picked up the girl—still unconscious, it seemed— in a fireman carry and slowly trudged after him. Lelouch tried to move his arm, but winced as another searing twinge of pain burned through his nerves. Lelouch clenched his teeth as a different type of burning sensation filled his body.

White hot rage.

Those soldiers—those bastards had killed Suzaku.

For the terrible crime of having a moral compass.

Lelouch ground his teeth together. His jaw started to ache.

Britannian scum. One day you'll answer for all of it.

I'll make sure of it.

o-o-o​

Atem and Lelouch carried the unconscious girl down two hundred meters of tunnel before the ground started quaking around them, almost causing them to trip and tumble tail over teakettle. They ducked into a nearby stairwell and started making their way upwards into a building.

"What the hell is this, Yugi?" Lelouch cried out, as explosions and Knightmare Frame gunfire rained down outside. "Who the hell is this girl? Is she the reason all of this is happening?"

The girl stirred and opened her eyes. The faint sound of conversation echoed down from the building above and Atem put a hand around both Lelouch's mouth and the girl's.

"Shh," Atem whispered, his voice barely audible. "Someone above us."

Footsteps echoed and the conversation grew louder.

"Looks like only Eleven trash in here," a soldier said.

They're passing overhead. If we're quiet for just a few minutes longer, they might just leave without realizing.

After several dozen heartbeats, Atem loosened his grip on the other two and let out a breath.

"Alright," Atem said. "Quickly and quietly, up the stairs."

They only made it up the first flight.

"Freeze!" A loud voice yelled. The command was accompanied by the sound of safeties being turned off en masse.

So Atem froze. He slowly turned around, and grunted in pain as someone shoved him into the wall of the stairwell. The back of his head cracked against the concrete, and his vision blurred. He blinked to clear his eyes.

The next thing he knew, the soldiers had pulled the green-haired girl to the side and had lined up in formation to fire at him and Lelouch.

"Fire!"

The green-haired girl twisted out of the hold the two soldiers had on her, and with lightning quick speed, jumped in front of a few of the rifles. Most of the soldiers held their fire at the unexpected interruption, but some did not, and jets of crimson blood sprayed out of the girl's back.

"They… they shot her!" Lelouch yelled, shock filling his voice.

Atem's eyes darted back and forth.

Come on, pharaoh! You've gotten out of tougher situations than this. Think! Think!

Atem's mind raced as he went through the possibilities.

Yugi had taught him long ago that the people of the world deserved kindness and compassion, not cruelty and punishment. It was a lesson he had taken to heart, and one that he had sorely needed.

But this world was not Yugi's world, Atem thought. These men just murdered this girl in cold blood.

There could only be one response to that.

When your enemy was dedicated to nothing but destruction, kindness and mercy were no longer on the table. What would you do then? What should you do then? The answer was surprisingly simple, at least for Atem.

You smote them down with all of your might.

Please, old friend. Atem focused on the image of the Dark Magician. If any monsters in his deck would heed his call, even in the sorry state that he was in, it would be the purple-clad sorcerer. I need your help once more!

Atem felt a thrumming response from the mental call, as if the spirit of his ancient friend was groggily awakening after five thousand years of deep slumber beneath the sands.

Atem no longer had the Millenium Puzzle, and he was without any supporting channelers or ritual gear, so calling on one of the ancient spirits would be dangerous, potentially fatal. Especially for a monster as powerful as the Dark Magician was, but he didn't see any other option. None that would get everyone out alive, at least.

The King of Games brought together all of his willpower and spiritual might for what might be the very last time.

And that's when Lelouch started laughing.

o-o-o​

Lelouch blinked as droplets of blood splashed across his face.

What?

Lelouch shook and fell to his knees. The girl's body rag dolled in front of him, a pool of dark liquid spreading underneath it. The green-haired girl in the straitjacket was silent and unmoving, reduced to a slowly decomposing pile of meat and bone and sinew by a few bullets.

"Ah well. We had orders to take the girl back alive if possible, but this'll have to do. It'll be such a sob story on the news. Two Britannian academy students, murdered by Eleven terrorists in the prime of their youth. I'm sure the public will shed tears."

First they kill Suzaku, now this girl… and we're next?

They're going to kill us, just like that?

Lelouch's hands trembled. He couldn't die now. He hadn't… he hadn't gotten a chance to do a single meaningful thing with his life! He had to get out of here. Nunally still needed him.

Something wet and sticky grabbed his wrist. Lelouch gasped. He looked down, but the concrete floor of the bombed out building faded from view. He felt himself falling backwards through empty space. Floating.

Paralyzed.

Lights danced across his vision, but Lelouch couldn't blink. He felt something tightening in his chest, and his heart raced, but he was unable to breathe. Pressure mounted in his head, uncomfortable at first, then it quickly ramped up in intensity until it was headache inducing, then it reached the point where it was agonizing. As if his skull was slowly being crushed by the weight of his impending doom, the inevitability of his death popping his psyche open like a bottle of champagne.

Lelouch tried to cry out in pain, but he wasn't able to scream either.

"You don't want your story to end here, do you?"

What? Lelouch thought. The feminine voice had rang out, seemingly from nowhere. Who is that?

"You appear to have a reason for living. A purpose."

Is this the girl? But she's dead, a lifeless heap in front of me!

"If I gave you the power, would you carry on?"

A kaleidoscope of images danced across Lelouch's vision. Some of them were clear. The green haired girl in the straitjacket. Chess pieces flying across the board. A gathered crowd of children. A floating spire of smoke.

Some of them were vague and formless, as if he was imagining them from half-forgotten memories experienced long ago. A desert filled with sand. Strange objects and tools made of gold. A silhouette surrounded by blinding light.

"I'll make a deal with you, Lelouch vi Britannia. You fulfill my deepest wish, and in return I'll grant you the power of the king. While you live in the world of humans, you will live unlike any other. The power of the king will condemn you to a life of solitude and loneliness.

"Do you accept?"

What choice did he really have?

Yes, Lelouch thought. I accept your contract.

Something clicked in his head. Lelouch blinked and the strange imagery faded away to reveal the blood-soaked concrete. Feeling returned to his limbs, and he shakily stood up. He clutched the side of his head, expecting an awful headache, but there was only a dull throbbing near his temple, on the left side of his head.

Despite the strange feeling, despite the pain in his arm, he felt good. Better than he had in years, as if a ten-ton weight was lifted off of his shoulders.

Lelouch laughed.

"The fuck? He's laughing!?"

Ah, right, the firing squad.

"Say," Lelouch vi Britannia purred. "What do you think of the Britannian prince who wanted nothing more than to destroy his homeland?"

The officer narrowed his eyes. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Oh, just thinking out loud," Lelouch said. He took his hand away from his temple. The throbbing wasn't going away. If anything, it was getting stronger with each passing second. "Say, why haven't you shot us yet? We're just teenage schoolboys. Hardly a threat. Guilty conscience, maybe?"

Lelouch looked up as the throbbing in his head reached a crescendo. His vision wavered slightly, and for a moment, instead of the firing squad of soldiers, he saw a pile of pieces on a gameboard. Puppets dancing on strings. Pawns, to be moved and commanded.

And if they were going to be commanded, then they might as well obey his will. It was an easy choice as to how. There was only one thing he wanted the soldiers to do right now, and he wanted them to do it more than he wanted air to breathe.

"I, Lelouch vi Britannia, command you!" Lelouch yelled. He felt something connect, something fundamental shift with the words. "Die."

The soldiers seized up for a second, their faces morphing into grotesque expressions of distress, before they saluted.

"Yes, your highness!"

Every single one of the soldiers drew their sidearms. With clockwork, methodical precision, each one of them put their own gun to their temples.

CRACK!

And then each one pulled the trigger.

Lelouch vi Britannia stared at the mess. The pulsing in his head slowed to a dull ache, and he exhaled shakily.

"Is this really happening?" Lelouch muttered. He almost thought to pinch himself to check that it wasn't a dream, but the headache and the burning sensation in his right hand were confirmation enough that he wasn't asleep. He had just… used mind control? He had just mind controlled the group of Britannian soldiers into committing suicide. That was what had just happened.

Either Lelouch had just skydived off of the deep end or this was real.

Huh. I should… I should double check that I haven't gone insane. Lelouch thought. He had just had a vivid hallucinating episode of some sort, either way you sliced it. It was probably a good idea to have the Ashford medical staff give him a once over and do some bloodwork. Just in case. What if all of this was just a stroke or an aneurysm of some kind? Or drugs? Or—

Lelouch's head snapped to the side as something slapped across his cheek.

"Lelouch!" Yugi barked. "While I'm not sure what just happened, we can talk about it later when we aren't in such grave danger! We need to get to safety, and quickly."

Lelouch blinked. "Right."

Yugi glanced over at him, purple eyes narrowed, his expression serious and searching. Yugi's face was utterly devoid of both the cheerful, cocky confidence or the calm, analytical gaze that Lelouch had grown accustomed to seeing on the boy. The ease with which his friend was taking the events of this insane day in stride was more than a little bit unnerving, almost intimidating.

There was a moment of silence as the two stared at each other, before eventually Lelouch turned away and quickly walked towards the other side of the building.

"Come on," Lelouch said. He cradled his damaged arm in his other hand as he walked. "We can make our way through the wreckage and through the basement to the neighboring building. We don't want to be found here."

"I'm not sure it's wise for us to be found at all," Yugi said. "But I agree that we should leave."

The distant sounds of explosions and gunfire rang out, and a giant, humanoid silhouette entered from the outside.

"The hell? Dead royal guards? And what are two Britannian schoolboys doing here!?"

A booming, electronically amplified voice rang out. A massive, bipedal mecha rolled into view from the shattered wall, screeching slightly as its tracks went over rubble and debris.

A Knightmare Frame, Lelouch thought. It looked to be a standard issue Sutherland model. Britannian military colors, with stripes that indicated the pilot was a pureblood supremacist to boot. Lelouch glanced upwards at the cockpit and tried to recall that feeling that he had experienced earlier when he had killed the soldiers with a single sentence. His pulse quickened and spiked, and with it his headache, but Lelouch felt something surge forward in his brain, just for a moment.

The Sutherland leveled its enormous rifle at the two of them.

"Are you two deaf? Answer me or I'll fire!"

"I order you to take us to safety, at once!" Lelouch shouted.

The Knightmare Frame paused in its advance.

"Who the hell do you think you are to order me?"

It didn't work? Thinking quickly, Lelouch put his arms in the air. Yugi copied his movements.

"My name is Alan Spacer," Lelouch lied. "My father's a duke. My I.D. card is in my jacket pocket. After you confirm who I am, I request that you escort us to safety."

Hopefully she buys it, Lelouch thought. The Purebloods, known officially as the Purist Faction, were a subset of the Britannian military that were incredibly bigoted and pro-nobility. Lelouch hoped that his story would be enough to convince the pilot to exit the frame, at the very least.

The Sutherland shifted and the cockpit door opened. Electronic motors whirred to life, and the elevator system, really more of a collapsible metal rod with an adjustable footstrap, lowered the pilot down to the concrete floor.

The pilot, a silver-haired Britannian woman, pulled out her sidearm and pointed it at the two of them. The gun's safety clicked off. "Keep your hands up. I'll take out your I.D. No sudden movements."

Lelouch's thoughts turned to the mysterious power. Why hadn't it worked? Did it require some sort of special condition? Was it the proximity to the target? Line of sight or direct hearing? Did the Knightmare Frame somehow block the effect?

I need to run a lot of tests.

A superpower with unknown requirements and limitations was of incredibly limited use. He'd have to spend some time figuring out exactly how the ability worked before it could be something he relied on. Unfortunately, Lelouch wasn't seeing a way out of the current situation that didn't require trying again.

As an absolute last resort, we can try to rush her.

The woman came within spitting distance, and Lelouch tried to activate his newfound ability again.

"Now hand your Knightmare over to me." Lelouch vi Britannia commanded. He felt the mental surge once again.

The pilot froze in her tracks. She twirled the sidearm and brought it forward, holding it out handle first. With her other hand, she held out the Sutherland's electronic key. Her lips curved into a small smile.

"Understood," she said. "The passcode for the machine's activation sequence is XG2-IG2D4."

"Thank you," Lelouch said. He took both of them, stifling a grunt as his right arm protested the motion. He was able to hold the ignition key with a weak grip, but his hand refused to close firmly. The fall earlier must have done something to the limb's tendons or ligaments.

The pilot stood in that position, a small smile on her face, and simply stared into space.

Unclear how long she'll be caught in that… trance. Better be quick about it.

The two quickly approached the Sutherland's entry elevator. Lelouch put a foot in the lift's stirrup, while Yugi squeezed his in the remaining space and gripped Lelouch's shoulders tightly. Lelouch triggered the lift, and the small mechanical apparatus ascended upwards, taking the two of them up into the Knightmare Frame's cockpit.

It was incredibly cramped, as the mechs were generally only designed to field one large person at a maximum, but Lelouch was able to squeeze himself in the very back, leaving the control area to Yugi.

"My right arm is useless," Lelouch said. He handed Yugi the Sutherland's key. "You'll have to pilot it."

"What's the plan for leaving?" Yugi asked. He inserted the key and began typing in the boot password. "Even in a Knightmare Frame, they aren't going to just let us waltz through the blockade."

Lelouch reached into his jacket pocket with his good arm and pulled out the handheld radio that he'd found in the back of the truck. He gestured towards the Sutherland's electronic map of the local region, where various triangular icons helpfully indicated the position of the Britannian military.

"It's simple," Lelouch said. "We help the terrorists win."

Yugi slowly turned his head at that. Two pairs of narrowed amethyst eyes locked together in a short staring contest.

Lelouch could see the gears turning in Yugi's head as he contemplated the idea. Eventually the blonde-haired boy turned back to the controls.

"I suppose that's acceptable, given the unethical state of things," Yugi said. The statement was resigned, with a slight tinge of disappointment. "Very well. Your move, Lelouch. What next?"

Lelouch glanced at the troop positions. His eyes glanced at a a pair of Sutherlands that were hounding a single red icon, likely the terrorist with the Knightmare Frame that had exited the back of the truck, and switched on the handheld radio.

"The west entrance," Lelouch stated. The pilot on the other side sputtered in confusion at his transmission. "There isn't time. If you and your friends want to live, if you want to win, you'll have to trust me."

Lelouch absentmindedly listened to the response, but his attention was drawn to the map, at the troop signatures and various buildings outlined over top of the square grid coordinates.

A lot more than sixty four squares, Lelouch thought. But this isn't quite the same, I suppose.

He smirked.

Finally, it's time for some payback.

o-o-o​

Atem walked towards the student council headquarters.

The large campus building used to be a ballroom of some sort that was originally intended to host visiting nobility, but it had gone unused until Milly had appropriated the whole thing for the student council. Given that her grandfather, Ruben Ashford, owned the entire academy grounds, none of the faculty had really objected. Milly, the de-facto student council president, continually insisted that as long as they didn't interfere with faculty matters directly, her grandfather was fine with letting them have the run of the place. It was unclear to Atem whether 'the place' was meant to refer to the student council building, or whether the student council was given free reign to rule over Ashford Academy itself.

This world is so strange, Atem thought, as he walked through the building to the Lamperouge family's living quarters. Lelouch had always said that the large apartment was due to Nunally's medical condition, and that Milly's grandfather did them a favor with the private quarters so that Lelouch could easily care for his little sister.

"I, Lelouch vi Britannia, command you!"

Now Atem knew the truth. Lelouch Lamperouge was just an alias, a mask that his newfound friend had worn for most of his young life. His true identity was Lelouch vi Britannia, crown prince in exile. Formerly the Eleventh Prince in the Empire's royal family, he was lost and presumed dead after the Britannian Invasion of Japan, along with his sister Nunally vi Britannia.

Clearly he had just gone into hiding, but why? Atem had his suspicions. Lelouch's mother was famously killed in an assassination attempt, and while he was a model Britannian in public, Lelouch was far from fond of the Empire and its nobility in private.

Atem knocked on the door and waited. He took the time to reflect on the day's events.

The mind control abilities that Lelouch had displayed were concerning, and he still had little idea how to broach the topic with his friend. Atem had seen firsthand at Battle City what access to mind altering abilities could do to a person, when Marik's abuse of the Millenium Rod had driven him deeper and deeper into the darkness.

Lelouch had ordered the soldiers to murder themselves with but a few words.

And that was horrifying. It was a terrible act, even accounting for the circumstances.

But the acts of the Britannian military far outstripped them. The senseless violence was abhorrent, and if Atem had the Millenium Puzzle on hand, he would have called down the Egyptian Gods and obliterated them all.

Eventually the electronic locks buzzed softly, and Atem took this as a cue to enter. He walked into the living room and over to the center couch, where Lelouch sat watching the news on the room's television.

Lelouch turned to him. "Well. I'm glad that I haven't scared you off today." He chuckled nervously. "I'll be honest, I thought you might not come back."

Atem reclined on the well-worn couch. "I will admit to being unnerved at what I witnessed, and the revelation of your identity." Atem shrugged. "Nevertheless, you are my friend. To walk out on you? This would betray the bonds of friendship that have grown between us these last few months. Instead, I'll choose to have some faith."

Lelouch quirked an eyebrow. "That heart of the cards philosophy again?"

"Of a sort," Atem said. He raised an eyebrow of his own. "It seems you might have the opportunity to employ it as it was meant to be used, sooner rather than later."

Lelouch didn't respond. The prince in hiding turned to stare at the television. Atem looked over at the screen as well, where several reporters were busy speaking about the events of the day.

"The military exterminated half of the Shinjuku ghetto, and now they're saying it was Eleven terrorists armed with poison gas," Lelouch said, his voice positively dripping with disgust. "And there's nothing but speculation as to who killed Prince Clovis, but I'm sure they'll find a scapegoat soon. Cowards and scum. They could hardly be more cliché, mustache-twirling villains if they tried."

"Indeed," Atem said. He paused. "But you killed Clovis, correct? Was it worth it?"

Lelouch eyed him for a few heartbeats.

"No," Lelouch finally said. "He knew nothing valuable about my mother's murder. He was likely just a pawn in the game, nothing more."

"What's your next move?" Atem asked. He looked over to Lelouch, who was leaning against the corner of the couch, staring out of the large, wall to ceiling glass doors that led to the room's balcony and the city beyond. The silence was broken by the faint sound of emergency sirens.

Lelouch turned towards him. "What was that, Yugi?"

The two stared at each other for a long moment. Eventually, Atem shook his head and stood up.

"What's your next move?" Atem repeated, as the distant sirens blared. He quirked an eyebrow at his friend. "I piloted the Knightmare Frame to get us out of there alive, and returned to have an open discussion with you. That's the end of my turn. Your move, Lelouch."

Lelouch didn't respond. After several minutes of waiting, Atem eventually turned to leave.

"Yugi."

Atem stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Yes?"

"Don't tell anyone about Shinjuku. Understand?"

Atem cocked his head. "Of course." Atem paused. "A word of advice, Lelouch?"

"I'm listening."

Atem's eyes unfocused as he went through his memories. He recalled his time in ancient Egypt, growing up in the hostile desert country, back when the pyramids were still young. Then he thought of his second life, as Yugi Mutou's shadow, confidant, and friend.

"I was born in a broken world," Atem said. "Of strife and conflict. It was a hard world. Very harsh and unforgiving. One learns some useful lessons in a world like that." Atem paused to gather his thoughts. "I met someone one day that taught me the world could be a better place. A brighter place.

"It is a hellish world that we live in. I can't fault you for your actions today. But I ask you to keep in mind that the world that you'd like to live in, the brighter world, will only exist if we make it so. You poke fun at my philosophizing from time to time, but I know that on some level you understand. What is it that you say, every so often?"

"The king must lead," Lelouch muttered. His gaze was distant and troubled.

But thoughtful.

o-o-o​

It was on that evening, sitting alone on that couch throughout the early hours of the morning, that Lelouch finally decided to work towards his ambition.

Clovis had played the opening moves. Lelouch thought. But Clovis wasn't my real opponent. Not really.

In some sense, his father was the opposing player that he had to fight against. From another perspective, his opponent was Britannia itself, and Charles was simply the one who happened to be moving the pieces around at the moment.

Hmm.

It wasn't enough for him to merely mind control a few well-placed targets and have them assassinate the Emperor. While that would greatly simplify things, it wouldn't allow Lelouch to get to the bottom of his mother's murder— if his suspicions were correct and his father was somehow involved— and it wouldn't really accomplish his goal of destroying Brittania.

No, if he just had Charles assassinated, then Crown Prince Odysseuss or Second Prince Schneizel would take the throne, and they would hardly be an improvement. And if he killed them, it would just be another one of his siblings, all of whom had spent their entire lives drinking the Emperor's poisonous philosophy. A succession of despots. Ad infinitum.

His true opponent, then, was the totality of Emperor Charles's Britannia, philosophy and all. And with a grand world-spanning empire, whose leaders proselytizes a winner-take-all, Darwin-esque philosophy of the strong eating the weak? The solution was obvious: only by demonstrating, thoroughly and utterly, the weakness of that very philosophy on the world stage, would he be able to destroy the empire once and for all.

Lelouch was going to need to start a rebellion.

"The king must lead," Lelouch muttered. Yugi's words had some strange wisdom in them. Maybe he'd finally be able to understand the boy's philosophy one day. He pursed his lips together as a pang of guilt and heartache slammed into his chest.

"Yugi, I order you to help me in my quest to overthrow Britannia."

In his quest to defeat Emperor Charles—no, his quest to destroy the empire itself, philosophy and all— there would be no greater ally. If he was to succeed, he would need allies, and he could think of none that were as unique as Yugi Mutou.

So Lelouch had done the obvious thing and ordered Yugi to assist him.

The wording of the command had been something he'd mulled over for hours, in the sitting room, while he kept Yugi waiting at the door. It was awkward, and stilted, but he was tired and it was the only way to be sure.

Yugi simply knew too much. He had to be sure that he wouldn't say anything to the Britannians, so his silence was a strict requirement of any order given.

But why stop there? Yugi was a terrifyingly impressive strategist. While he wasn't able to match Lelouch directly at his game of choice, Lelouch was a master at chess, while Yugi was an expert at every single game of strategy that they played.

But beyond that, he was lucky. Lelouch had no way of explaining it, but Yugi seemed to have a knack for coming out ahead, laws of probability be damned.

Lelouch had given his friend the order compelling him to follow.

He hadn't expected what would come next.

"Of course. I had intended to do so anyway, my friend."

Yugi's response to Lelouch's compulsion had chilled him to the bone.

I should think twice before using this ability on people close to me. While it was undoubtedly useful, Lelouch honestly wasn't sure he'd be able to stomach it again. He thought about compelling Nunally or Shirley to do something, suborning their free will in the process, and he shivered slightly.

But with Yugi? Given the events of the day, it was a foregone conclusion. Lelouch had to be sure. Had to. While his hand was forced, that didn't prevent him from feeling guilty about it.

Yes, I should be more careful in the future, Lelouch thought. Yugi had not responded similarly to the second order that would explicitly compel his silence with regards to the events in Shinjuku, which confirmed Lelouch's suspicions that his power had some sort of usage limit on a given individual.

One command per person perhaps?

He would have to be a bit more methodical in choosing which people and orders he experimented with in the future. Design some tests in advance, and not use the ability on anybody that would be in a position to cause problems for him if something went wrong.

Lelouch looked at the TV, where the footage showed Emperor Charles addressing the news of Prince Clovis's demise at the steps of the Pendragon Royal Palace. Lelouch leaned to the side of the sofa and reached over the chess board that he kept on the coffee table. He ran a fingertip over the black king's crown, before lightly grasping the knight to its left.

"Well, father," Lelouch vi Britannia muttered. "It's finally time for our duel. Your move."

Lelouch moved the knight forward.

---

Hello! This is a cute little one shot I wrote for a fest on AO3 that I'm crossposting here. I'm not sure if I'll come back to it -- if I do, it'll probably need several chapters of similar length (or an appropriate amount of smaller ones) to round things out.

I think it works fine as a stand alone at the moment, so I'm posting it as such. If I come back to it, I'll post in this thread, so watch it or leave a comment below if you're interested.