Requiem for a Dream [Suzaku x Lelouch]

VIII. I Will Follow You into the Dark

1918 – Pacific seaport of Vladivostok in Siberia

Suzaku has begun to lose hope.

It has been half a century since Suzaku had any power or influence over the fate of his nation. With the fall of the last dynasty, there was no easy way to re-enter the new government that was built in its place. Now, he is one anonymous soldier among thousands of Japanese troops who have been sent on a military intervention in Siberia. While many here in Vladivostok would rather be anywhere else, Suzaku volunteered for this post. He wanted to be as far away as possible from Japan.

Japan's ruthless commitment to imperialism has dishonored Suzaku in every way. Japan's hostile takeover of Korea in 1910 broke his heart, and now he has seen his leaders use this horrific worldwide war to try to leverage colonies for themselves. The Japanese cabinet had no cause to enter the war except greed. Suzaku has no interest in seeing Japan become a global power – all he wants is peace. But the decisions have been out of his hands for decades, and he is powerless against the tide of expansionism. Even as troops are dying by the hundreds abroad, Japan is in chaos at home. Wartime inflation has led to unsustainable food prices, and his people are rioting in the streets. The Japanese army has been deployed on its own people to bring the protests to a halt.

And so, rather than be deployed to fight his own people, Suzaku volunteered for Siberia. Here he has seen new horrors. He now can tell frostbite from hypothermia, so often has he seen his comrades in arms freeze to death. He knows the difference between a wound that is lethal and one that only became lethal because of a lack of medical attention. He has seen child soldiers blown to bits by the disturbing force of this century's new weapons. Each night, Suzaku shivers in a tent that was not designed for such frigid temperatures, and he curses Lelouch vi the Endless for forsaking them all.

It is on a night like this when Suzaku is visited by Destruction. He feels a mighty force enter his tent, and when he opens his eyes, he realizes with a jolt that there is a woman with long magenta hair sitting cross-legged beside him. When he sits up and lights his lantern, he can see immediately that she is not human. After meeting Lelouch and CC, Suzaku can spot one of the Endless anywhere.

"Suzaku Kururugi," she says in a stately voice.

"Which one of the Endless are you?" he asks. He's too tired and cold for formalities, and by now he is sick of the Endless and all that has become of his life since the moment they entered it.

"If I told you, I'm afraid you wouldn't welcome me," she replies honestly. "But please, call me Cornelia."

"Alright, Cornelia. Why are you here?"

"It's my brother. Lelouch."

Suzaku narrows his eyes with contempt. "I want nothing to do with him."

"Please hear me out," Cornelia begins, but Suzaku cuts her off with sharp words.

"He's forsaken us here. I haven't met a single person who has had a good dream in years. They only have nightmares, if they dream at all."

Cornelia sighs heavily, nodding with understanding, but Suzaku isn't finished.

"How could he abandon the world now, when he's needed most? He's a selfish, spiteful creature and I never want to see him again. If he cared at all, he would have done something by now."

Cornelia has lost her patience, and she glares at Suzaku. "Are you done?"

Suzaku huffs a sigh and shrugs, knowing full well that Cornelia will not leave until she's said her peace. Cornelia leans forward and makes eye contact with Suzaku.

"Has it ever occurred to you that Dream might need something to live for, too?"

Suzaku furrows his brow. "What are you talking about?"

"You blame him for the nightmares. I blame you for the nightmares. All of you – humanity. Dream is your collective unconscious. He is made of humanity's hopes and dreams and nightmares, too. He is crumbling under the darkness of it all and you, Suzaku Kururugi, you have abandoned him."

Suzaku says nothing, but he doesn't look away from Cornelia's gaze. He traces her eyes for truth and finds it there; she looks so angry she might cry. He feels his resolve crumbling as worry bubbles up in his chest. What state must Lelouch be in to bring his Endless sister to tears?

"He's been fine all this time without me," Suzaku says uncertainly.

"No," Cornelia responds coldly. "No, he hasn't."

The ice in her tone sends a chill of dread down Suzaku's spine, and a terrible thought occurs to him suddenly.

"Can an Endless die? Can Lelouch – is he dying?"

"In a way, yes, he is dying. Although we don't die in the way mortals die, we can change, and it is like a death. Delirium was once Delight. The thing that Lelouch is becoming will not be Lelouch as you know him."

"Please take me to him," Suzaku says urgently. He hasn't forgotten his resentment, not entirely, but the idea of a life without Lelouch is enough to move him to action. However difficult Suzaku's life is now, however he despairs for his warring planet, he suddenly understands that a life without Lelouch would become empty in a way that is terrifying.

"You're already there," Cornelia replies.