Video (backdated to Sunday Night)

[king]

[ Arthur's hands are shaking, and therefore, so is the Forge. But it's obvious, even in the dim light, that he's blood-spattered. But underneath the gore sluiced across his face, his jaw is firmed, his breathing slow and deliberate. ]

I'm so sorry. If I'd realized, I never would have —

[ No, he needs to start earlier than that. ]

If — someone who knows Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks could collect their bodies from the ruins...

[ No, that's not the place either. He swallows, hard, guilt shadowing his eyes. ]

[ Filter: Priscilla, Byakuya. ]

I have done — a terrible thing. I'll be stepping down from my position as Vice Commander, of course. And I would like to turn myself in to be judged at Themis.

Someone will have to be assigned to bring in Bellatrix. She fled into the Mist. I honestly thought she was no longer a threat to anybody, but I was wrong.

I've been wrong in a lot of things.

Comments

[Voice]

[strategizing]

Arthur, are you all right?

What happened?

[Voice]

[king]

I'm afraid I've made a grievous error, Lelouch.

[Private // Voice]

[strategizing]

[Lelouch has seen the guilt in Arthur's face, and the other circumstances make it likely that the error was a costly one.]

[As someone who has his own share of grievous errors on his hands, Lelouch worries for Arthur. What this will do to him if it actually involved him taking someone's life.]

Tell me how it came to happen.

[Private // Voice]

[king]

It was Bellatrix Lestrange. She called for assistance over the Forge. I thought I was saving her, from some terrible beast, and instead I ran through one of the only truly good people in this city.

[Private // Voice]

[strategizing]

An intentional manipulation on her part, no doubt. The fault for this does not lie with you.

It seems whatever period of calm we had relating to her actions is at an end.

: [Private // Voice]

[king]

I trusted her. I trusted that she had changed. I fought in her defense!

[ How many more people can betray him? Who next? ]

[Private // Voice]

[strategizing]

[Lelouch knows that broken trust makes the betrayal all the more bitter.]

She must be found before she can answer for what she has done. I do not know what happened to change her before, if she truly changed, or why she has changed again.

[Private // Voice]

[king]

I know some people are looking for her, but I'm sure more would be welcome. Regardless of ... anything else, she must be tried.

[Private // Voice]

[strategizing]

Then I will see what I can do.

What will you do, Arthur? [If he were going to search, he would have surely included himself in "some people".]

[Private // Voice]

[king]

I've turned myself into Commander Kuchiki. I'll await trial in Themis.

[ What else can he do? He must trust in the justice system here. ]

[Private // Voice]

[strategizing]

Is that really necessary? [It was a mistake, an accident. Is a trial necessary in a case where it can be ascertained that it was nothing more than that?]

[Private // Voice]

[king]

Of course it is. You have nothing more than my word that the attack was no deliberate. Two people are dead — there must be a trial.

[ And whether he is given an official acquittal or the chance to serve his penance, Arthur feels his own guilt will be greatly relieved. ]

[Private // Voice]

[strategizing]

I would trust in your word, but I take your point. A trial would prove it more fairly to Anatole at large.