.

You fancy yourself a god, Immortal Emperor. You're not a God; you're a parasite, feeding off a world longing for the future. You cannot accept a world that does not want peace, so you force it upon them. The memories of love and loss and life and death, you would take that away from them, their humanity, all for the sake of some misguided ambition.

Zero, the Masked Knight
Sunrise Entertainment: Zero, Knight of Justice 2107.

The world of C began to crumble as Lelouch stood and stared at the great sphere resembling Jupiter as it revolved in the sky. He watched as the Sword of Akasha pierced the great eye that seemed to watch the proceedings. A loud wail came up from the platform as the image shattered and the great cogs that made up the unconscious reality of man began to fall apart. A pressure that Lelouch never noticed in his mind lifted and the familiar red tint of his eyes from his Geass was fading.

"You see, there was nothing you could do." Charles boomed. The emperor looked content at seeing his life's work fulfilled. Marianne was beside him, wrapping the emperor in an embrace. This wasn't all bad, Lelouch supposed. He looked up at the dying manifestation of humanity. However, it was genocide and the death of free will. "In the end, there is only destruction in our future. This was the only way."

Lelouch stood there in thought for what seemed an eternity, for with the loss of the psychic bridge that had brought him here there was no real way to return to the world of the living for him. The great gas giant even now was fading away, the sigil of Geass like an old scar across the pale orange giant because this was fate. Lelouch thought that all he did was only to further his father's goal. A world divided by war was the best catalyst for creating a weapon to end war. The deaths of millions another statistic to prevent further bloodshed, a weapon to leave humanity in the dust of its past so that one man might experience true happiness.

"No." Lelouch said, stretching his hand out to meet the forgotten freedom of mankind. "There is always another way." For an instant, he thought he saw a hand reach out from the dead giant to him. His father looked outraged, which was what Lelouch wanted. He was furious, his own son wanted to undo his life's work.

"You fool, there is no other way. No dead god can change that." The emperor scoffed, his arms crossed as Marianne looked worriedly from her son to her husband and back. She seemed to want to stop them, but now that the world was at peace, there was nothing else she could do or that needed to be done. Suzaku Kururugi had already accepted his path, why could his own errant son do the same?

"That is where you are wrong, father, where you have always been wrong. You seek stagnation and the past, a world driven by the ultimate lie of peace. You said it yourself back when Clovis died, the only true way is to forge a path to tomorrow." he said, as the great eye opened and the sigil of Geass appeared above again.

"No! You fool, you will destroy yourself." Charles roared, as Marianne watched in silent shock as her son began to fade from reality. "Geass is the ultimate sin in this order, and its power no longer has its claws over humanity, it is pointless to use it now."

"Even so, that is my desire. God! Collective Unconscious, if you can hear me, if you've ever heard me, then I beg you to listen. Please, don't ever stop the march of time!" Lelouch cried out. A loud rumble shook the foundations of the sword as the Geass symbol flared from the eye of the giant and in that instant he saw Euphemia, smiling at him, and Clovis disapproving but understanding. The pink haired princess took the tired rebel's hand as the blond prince put a hand on his shoulder as Lelouch felt himself dragged over the edge into the abyss.

"Go, brother. The future of mankind once more rest on your shoulders."

Lelouch was falling. He felt the wind rush in his ears, and the echoes of Euphemia and Clovis followed his descent through the infinite darkness. His fears melted away, and Lelouch felt a rush of peace. Oblivion or infinity, that's how it would end for him, this way he thought, he could atone for his sins. The images of the two dead royals appraised him as he fell, and he felt light, without the burdens he had or the ghosts of his past that haunted his dreams.

The fall seemed infinite, and Lelouch felt the passage of time and space around him. Deprived of sight, he listened only to the roar of wind and the flap of his clothes as he rushed downwards. Like a stoned dropped from a great height he knew he would soon reach the bottom.

Great warmth rushed over him and he felt himself standing on the edge. Rather, he was floating. A great set of rings stood around him in every direction and dimension. Further out, he could make out more rings as they turned lazily on their axis and spun like so many coins a child would flick with a finger and spin for their amusement. The space around burned like fire, yet did not give off heat.

Time is not set in stone. A voice boomed from beyond, or it could have been from inside Lelouch's mind. It will deliver all to an end, even those that find itself beyond its reproach. An image of the emperor, and the tiny child-man that he had seen around Pendragon in his youth, appeared before Lelouch. The former disappeared into particles, then was shot, beheaded, and smothered as a baby. The latter was stabbed, burned, and crushed by something. Everything that was, is, or might be is contained within my archives, the libraries of fate, time and space.

"What are you? Where am I?" Lelouch asked, looking around as the rings continued to spin. Looking back, the one he had exited was dull, where the others were bright, and caution tape kept it closed. Looking around, several others were marked in this way.

Have you heard nothing I said? I am fate and time and space, the Collective Unconscious. I am what Charles zi Britannia wanted to destroy. I am God. It boomed; the image of one of the masks appeared before Lelouch, but covering the space around it was cloth like a cloak and shadows in the image of a man.

A great many trials lie ahead of you, for humanity needs a shepherd to guide it through to its end. You shall be its shepherd. The voice maintained. Then, Lelouch saw it, the path forward that his wish had created. A different time and a different providence, armies that clashed above the earth and upon it, weapons that turned cities to ash and brilliant pinpricks of light that shattered great shadows. He saw ships like great seeds falling to earth to wage war, and he saw division, great behemoths of onyx that spat beams of iridescent crimson death.

Night and day held no meaning in these visions of space above, stars in their multitude spun in the vastness of space as worlds uncountable held their different fragments of life where it converged in the nothingness of beyond. A realm of paradoxes, a realm of uncontrolled madness spilled its brilliant blood out of a great tear in reality, like a great drain or a single weeping eye that gazed out on an alien realm.

All this and more await you in your path. Yet only you can choose this fate. Child of man, only you and your people has a chance at stopping the coming darkness. It stretched out its hand. I can no longer intervene, but I will be watching.

"This Geass, I do solemnly accept." Lelouch said, reaching to the voice's hand. He felt a burning sensation, images, countless emotions, and raw determination, the strength to move on. "Will I remember any of this?"

Yes, but first thing's first. You have a past to shape. The voice said, and Lelouch was flung into darkness, yet he smiled, even as he felt himself dissolve into the gate he was directed to.

A/N:

Hello again everyone, I'm checking and rechecking the old chapters before I continue with the story. Yes, you read right, Fate Reforged is back. I'm mostly over the entire ordeal and I'm happy to announce that I'm taking things one step at a time. You've all been by my side since the beginning, and I won't let what happened rule and ruin my life any longer. Hopefully, you haven't abandoned this story just yet. I can't promise consistent updates, but rest assured, I'm back and committed to at least finishing R0. Where I go from there is up for debate, though I'd like to finish the initial book and its sequel that finishes the timeline's differences up to the end of Code Geass.

Arilia