The Grip of Damocles (episode)

The Grip of Damocles is the twenty-fourth episode of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2.

Summary
The Black Knights manage to board the Avalon, while Lelouch escapes in the Shinkirō with C.C. holding Kallen at bay long enough for him to escape. Using Nina's F.L.E.I.J.A. Eliminator, Lelouch and Suzaku successfully break into the Damocles. Believing Lelouch to be trapped, Schneizel sets the Damocles' self-destruct sequence and attempts to leave. However, Lelouch manages to outsmart Schneizel and uses his Geass to force him into obedience. Diethard flies into a rage, shooting a Geassed officer dead and holding Lelouch at gunpoint, calling him Zero and proclaiming that he shouldn't be alive and that his plan is finished, before Schneizel shoots him. In his dying moments, Diethard asks Lelouch to use his Geass on him, to which Lelouch responds that Diethard isn't worthy of it. Suzaku and Gino battle outside the fortress, with Gino unable to hold out against him. Using his last attack, Gino takes out the Damocles barrier, allowing Kallen to replace him in the sortie. Meanwhile, Lelouch confronts Nunnally, who reveals she has regained her sight which he thought she lost.

Plot
As one of the Ikaruga's shuttles takes off Minami asks Ohgi if it's ok for him to stay behind, but Ohgi answers that it's his responsibility to evacuate everyone. In the air, another FLEIJA bomb detonates, and Lelouch gives orders for his forces to keep charging in and force Damocles to fire FLEIJA continuously. Schneizel tells Nunnally that the next FLEIJA warhead has been prepared, so she pulls the trigger. Another FLEIJA warhead detonates, causing Lelouch to realize that real-time tactics are meaningless now. Jeremiah hopes to break through and attacks with all of the Sutherland Sieg's weapons, but they're deflected by a massive Blaze Luminous shield protecting Damocles. Cecile tells Lelouch that if Damocles continues to ascend, they won't be able to attack it anymore. Lelouch asks Suzaku if he can break through, but Suzaku says Damocles' energy output exceeds his own. C.C. launches in the Lancelot Frontier and says if their attacks are ineffective, it's the same as sitting around. Lelouch orders the remaining forces to gather around the Avalon and charge into Damocles. Lloyd asks if that's ok, and Lelouch takes his presence on the bridge to mean he has a solution. Li asks Schneizel if he intends to kill the hostages, and Schneizel gives him 10 minutes to rescue them. Milly comments to Rivalz that their student council members are fighting the world, and he laments not being able to protect Nina. The Avalon is hit from the rear by a Black Knights force led by Li's Shen-Hu, so Suzaku's Lancelot Albion moves to intercept. He and Li begin fighting with swords, and Suzaku cuts off part of the Shen-Hu's flight pack. He tries to make a killing blow, but he's knocked away when Tohdoh slams into him with his damaged Zangetsu. Tohdoh asks him what he desires, and when Suzaku answers that he desires the future, Tohdoh tells him that future is meaningless. Suzaku then slashes into the Zangetsu, forcing Tohdoh to eject his cockpit and be rescued by Chiba's Akatsuki Zikisan. Chiba attacks Suzaku, and while he's distracted, Li fires his baryon cannon at the Avalon and disables its primary float system. Black Knights forces invade the ship, and Suzaku slashes apart Tamaki's Akatsuki, forcing him to eject too. Inside the ship Li's forces search for the hostages. Lelouch tells everyone they've served him well and leaves the bridge. Schneizel wonders if he should fire FLEIJA and take out the Black Knights too, but he decides that would be too greedy. Lelouch tells Nina that what he's going to do is his own wish, and she says that must be Euphemia's wish as well. She reminds him that he'll have to enter environmental data into the final program or it won't work. She wants to come along, but Lelouch tells her she's given Euphemia's murderer enough help already. Nina says she can't forgive Zero, but she wanted to find her own answer from Zero. Lelouch meets with C.C. in the hangar, and she tells him he may have to kill Nunnally himself. He says he will if she becomes an obstacle to Zero Requiem, and C.C. asks if he hates her for giving him Geass. He answers that it's because of Geass he was able to take his first step, but just then Kallen's Guren SEITEN smashes into the hangar. She tries to blast Lelouch with her radiation wave, but C.C. attacks with the Lancelot Frontier. Lelouch escapes in the Shinkirou and flies toward Damocles. Schneizel orders his men to drop the Blaze Luminous and target FLEIJA at the Shinkirou. Nunnally pushes the trigger, and Lelouch begins the calculations to override FLEIJA 19 seconds before it detonates. Suzaku then grabs a lance attached to the Shinkirou and tosses it at the FLEIJA warhead, causing the bomb to disappear. Lelouch uses his absolute protection territory to keep a hole open in the Blaze Luminous and allow Suzaku to break through. Nunnally drops the trigger key and falls out of her wheelchair to look for it.

Schneizel comments that Lelouch has done well to force him to use his last strategy: escape and trap Lelouch inside Damocles before destroying it with FLEIJA. Lelouch and Suzaku speed inside Damocles, and a Vincent Ward following them is destroyed by Gino's Tristan Divider. Gino declares that he doesn't acknowledge Lelouch and cuts off the Shinkirou's right arm at the elbow joint. Lelouch fires his cannon, but Gino dodges. Suzaku steps in and tells Lelouch to escape, but Gino throws a sword through the Shinkirou as it speeds off. Lelouch ejects from the cockpit and escapes on foot before the Shinkirou explodes. Suzaku asks Gino if they have to fight, and Gino says he wants to protect what's in his heart. FLEIJA's target is changed to inside Damocles, and as Lelouch runs to the control room, Schneizel, Kanon and Diethard take an elevator away from there. Schneizel says that Damocles and FLEIJA are just weapons that can be rebuilt, but Kanon points out that the Toromo Institution doesn't have the resources anymore. Schneizel counters that many people will be happy to build the weapon that rid the world of its enemy - Lelouch. Kanon is worried that will lead to terrorism and thinks they should get Nunnally's opinion, but Diethard says the bait doesn't matter. Kanon asks if they're going to abandon her, and Schneizel comments that world peace can't be compared to a single life. Nunnally blindly searches for the key and says she must stop Lelouch. Outside, Jeremiah comes under attack from Anya's Mordred. Kallen destroys several Vincent Wards while fighting C.C.'s Lancelot Frontier. Kallen says C.C. fights for nothing, but when C.C. gives a reason, Kallen asks if that means she loves Lelouch. Kallen closes in and slashes into the Lancelot Frontier, forcing C.C. to eject the cockpit. Schneizel enters his shuttle and gets a video call from Lelouch in the control room. Schneizel asks if this is a checkmate, unaware that all the guards outside the shuttle have been Geassed. He asks Lelouch how he figured out his strategy, and Lelouch answers that he read Schneizel's nature. Lelouch says that Schneizel always plays chess from where he can't lose, but this time he'll lose. The Avalon crashes into the ocean, and Tianzi runs out of an elevator and greets Li. Sayoko says they're allies and that Lelouch threatened them, which Kaguya believes. On the Black Knights island Viletta asks about Ohgi. In a hospital bed Cornelia tells Guilford that Schneizel has no ambition and would've been a good king during a peaceful time. Lelouch asks Schneizel if he wants to control the world with Damocles and Schneizel answers that he just wants to create the peace everyone wants. Lelouch believes that Schneizel wants to suspend the world in its current state, and while Charles yearned for the past, he wants the future. Schneizel thinks the future will lead people to having ambitions, and Lelouch answers that people are always rebelling against misfortune. Schneizel tells Lelouch to kill him, and he's surprised when Lelouch taps him on the shoulder and uses Geass to order him to serve Zero. Diethard grabs a guard's gun and tries to kill Lelouch, but Schneizel shoots him. As he dies, Diethard asks to be killed by Geass, but Lelouch says he's not worth it. Lelouch orders Schneizel to deactivate the self-destruct, and Schneizel points out that Nunnally has the FLEIJA trigger. Outside, Suzaku continues to fight Gino and slices off the Tristan Divider's lower half, but Gino manages to destroy the Blaze Luminous generator with a slash harken and let Kallen in. Lelouch enters the room where Nunnally is and says he wants the trigger because it's too dangerous for her. He's shocked when she opens her eyes and asks if he's going to use Geass on her too.

Battles

 * Battle of Mt. Fuji (Continued)

Powers or Abilities used

 * Lelouch's Geass

Quotes

 * "Is there nothing left for the world except to cower before the crushing might of the F.L.E.I.A.'s?" -Sayoko


 * "The one thing I'll fight for is a future." -Suzaku


 * Conversation between Lelouch and C.C.
 * "Lelouch don't you hate me for cheating you out of your own life? By giving you your Geass I affected your life and drastically changed your fate." -C.C.
 * "That doesn't sound like you, the immortal witch. C.C. the Geass power that you gave me, it only put me on the path that would me to my destiny and nothing more. Everything that followed was my choice." -Lelouch
 * "In all my life I've never met a man like you." -C.C.


 * Conversation between Kallen and C.C.
 * "You have no country. You have nothing to avenge. You also don't have a shred of ambition. Someone who has no reason to fight should just leave." -Kallen
 * "I've made a reason to fight, a promise." -C.C.
 * "Are you saying that you love Lelouch?" -Kallen
 * "I don't know. I believe the time has finally arrived for me to stop accumulating experiences and start living." -C.C.
 * "That makes you sound almost human." -Kallen
 * Well done. Kallen I concede you win." -C.C.
 * "Don't care because to me it doesn't matter. Bye now." -Kallen
 * "Winning or losing i never would have thought that those feelings were still inside me, alive and well." -C.C.


 * Conversation between Lelouch and Schneizel
 * "I have a question. Were you intending to use the Damocles as a tool to dominate the world?" -Lelouch
 * "I wasn't. I only wanted to give everyone what they wanted. To bring peace to civilization." -Schneizel
 * "Disregarding humanities true nature?" -Lelouch
 * "That's a matter of opinion." -Schneizel
 * "Then you actually imagined that you could maintain the world in a perpetual state of now, but life without change might be called anything except life. It's nothing more than experience." -Lelouch
 * "But link those together and they become knowledge right?" -Schneizel
 * "Schneizel you truly are superior. So superior you can't even see it. Yes, Emperor Charles sought the past, you seek the present, but I seek the future." -Lelouch
 * "But the future may prove to be worse than the present." -Schneizel
 * "No, it will be better because no matter how long it takes people will continue to seek out happiness." -Lelouch
 * "Even though that will end up making people greedy. Ha ha ha ha. Your folly also knows no limit. You're really too emotional about this. Hopes and dreams are merely names for aimless fiction." -Schneizel
 * "You're restricted since you belong to the symbol known as the royal family which looks down on the world. I've seen it over and over. The people who struggle against sadness, those who seek the future, how they all carry on wishing for happiness. Human nature is why I chose Geass and to wear a mask." -Lelouch
 * "Lelouch you're contradicting yourself. You, who continually deny the will of others, are standing here before us affirming humanity. That's enough. Kill me now and be done with it, but a F.L.E.I.A. will still decimate you. We will gladly give our lives to bring peace to the world." -Shneizel
 * "And that's how I came to my decision, that I'd give you the gift of the words, 'You shall serve Zero'." -Lelouch


 * "What right have you to deny my existence? You have none." -Lelouch