“Daddy?”

A blur shot past him into the rubble and Shirley followed shortly afterwards, frantically tossing her mask aside while Schizoid Man pulled bricks away from LH - No, Joseph. Her father? She must have just realised just now before he - Lelouch watched and listened, his mind recalculating with the new information and running through “what ifs” almost against his own will.

“Daddy, no!” Shirley cried, cradling her father’s head. She removed the heart shaped mask from him and choked out a renewed and deeper sob. Tears fell from her cheek onto his. It was almost strange how peaceful he looked, when his tone had been so fraught with fear, anticipation and dread. “How did this happen? It’s like a nightmare. You can’t be dead! You can’t have let them force you like this! You were so - So gentle and patient! Please, open your eyes. Tell me you didn’t do all of this just for our sake. Please open your eyes, just for a little while, please!”

“Your… father?” Lelouch said. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t how this was supposed to happen. “How… How could that be? How can he be your father? The odds of that - ” A few ways he could have put an easier end to this manifested in his mind. Reveal her identity, forcing him to realise the paradox of fighting his daughter to protect his daughter. Pretend to take her hostage. Use Shirley’s personal knowledge to find a way in past the trauma, past the fear. He’d probably have a dozen more by the time he woke up tomorrow. This is the curse of hindsight.

“Lulu,” Shirley sniffed. “I thought we were supposed to be protecting the weak. I thought we were- We were supposed to save the innocent! We’re the good guys, aren’t we? Then why did you kill him?” she demanded. “He was a good person! He didn’t deserve this! Why did he have to die?”

“Because this is what Britannia does to people,” he said, regretting it immediately. This was not the time for a lecture. But it was the only answer he had. “The strong take the weak and grind them down under the pretense that this will help them in the long run. I’m sorry, but the man you knew as your father was already dead by the time we met him tonight.”

Lelouch stepped forward with the intention of placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. However, Schizoid Man barred his path and shook its head. Very well. His presence here must only be making her feel worse as it was.

“Go home,” he said, turning away while fury greeted him like an old friend. “Get your mother somewhere safe and wait for my signal. There’s something I have to do.”

“W-Wait,” Shirley yelled, but Lelouch paid no heed. He limped off towards the main street, where he could hear the main conflict still raging on. Damn his leg! He could only hope this wasn’t making the injury worse. “Lulu, where are you going? Come back, Lulu! Come back!”

“Sorry,” he said without looking back. “There’s still a chance the person that drove your father to fight us is still alive out there. There is still a chance he could do the same thing to someone else.

“It is my intention to fix that.”

[...]

“Understood” Ohgi replied. “ Will Zero be making an appearance?”

No. That didn’t seem likely. Not now. Not ever again. “She is otherwise occupied with another Stand user,” Lelouch said. Which was true enough. Her father was a Stand user. She was occupied with her grief at his death. “Focus on your instructions.”

[...]

“Feh,” West shrugged. “That arrow’s a fake, right? Probably made it in case you needed to screw with us a bit, left the real one somewhere safe, right?” How? How did he see through it? Had there been a glimmer of light he hadn’t taken account of that revealed his trap? “See, I knew you were gonna try to force me out of Harder somehow. No clue how you’d try it, but that was a good attempt. Taking advantage of my lack of speed? Very nice. But I don’t much feel like playing no more.”

Lelouch kept quiet, but his brain was already whirling. Bullets would have no effect on him. A knife would break on his skin. Dumping a building on him wouldn’t work. But think! There had to be something. A weakness. Some sort of weakness that he could identify and use.

“Come on out and throw down one on one! Are you a man, or a -”

Which is when he was hit by the bus. More precisely, that was when the bus landed on him. From above.

Where did that come from? Lelouch wondered, until his eyes fell down the street at the figure standing there, stock still. The sight made his blood run cold. She shouldn’t be here! What was she doing here? Why hadn’t Shirley gone back home?

He made himself visible to her and Schizoid Man had him by her side in the blink of an eye, where he could stand in the shadows unseen. It departed almost as quickly, and yelled “Ora!” while punching the top of the bus. “Ora!” it yelled again, releasing another blow with its other fist. “Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora! Oraoraoraoraora!”

“Shirley!” Lelouch whispered, ignoring the attack for the moment. “You shouldn’t be here! What are you -” No response. He made her mask invisible to his eyes alone, and winced at what he saw. Her eyes were completely unfocused. Her expression, completely still and devoid of emotion. She was simply standing there still as the grave. Was she in control of her Stand, or was it in control of her?

“Ora!” Schizoid Man yelled again, then wiped a bead of sweat from its forehead. It floated down to the side of the bus, leaned against it and produced both cigarette and lighter. After drawing a long drag from the cigarette, it was tossed aside and the still lit lighter was placed into the bus gas tank. Lelouch had to physically drag Shirley away from the resulting explosion. She was further gone than he expected. This was a worst case scenario: Unless she learned to control her Stand, she might get them both killed!

“Right!” West yelled, and the remains of the bus flew into the air like watching a meteor strike in reverse. The man stood in the street with a terrible fury in his eyes that fixed on the pair of them. He shifted modes, and his Stand hovered in front of him protectively while the cuts and burns caused by briefly handling the vehicle closed up, and then he changed modes again. No opportunity for attack was permitted. West was seething like a bull about to charge, his eyes were full of rage and there was - hold on. Wasn’t that… “I’m through playing mister nice guy! The two of you and me! Right here! Right now! Let’s end this! But keep in mind, mister invisible! You can’t hurt me no matter what you do! I am a one man army! You hear me?! A one man army!”

End it? Yes. They would end it. But not the way that West seemed to think it would end. For all of his preparations, for all of the power he wielded he still had one particular weakness that could be exploited under specific circumstances. If he wanted to stay in Harder, then let him. It would not avail him anything… But in order for him to exploit it he would have to take a terrible risk.

Given the choice between that and allowing them both to be killed, and allow this maniac to continue his rampage? There was only one way out of this. He would have to risk it. He would have to risk shattering whatever was left of Shirley’s mind.

-Lulu's Bizarre Rebellion Chapter 19