"Nanally, no matter how loud you yell, they won't come." A boy with dark hair and violet eyes said mater-of-factly. He looked to be about ten years old, well mannered, and very intelligent.
"But mother said that-!" A girl that looked to be about six, long dirty-blonde hair, and darker violet eyes tugged at the boy's sleeve.
"Forget what she said! Father would never let her come." The boy was obviously upset.
"Lelou! How mean of you to talk about father like that!" Nanally, the girl, also seemed upset.
Suddenly an older girl with violet hair and eyes walked into the room, followed by numerous personal guardsman, and Lady Marianne, Lelouch and Nanally's mother.
"Children, did I heararguing~?" The woman, Lady Marianne, spoke with a musical tone.
"Uh... N-no! Not at all!" Lelouch and Nanally said together.
"Good." She patted both their heads, then walked over to the violet-haired woman. "Cornelia, may I have a word with you?"
"Yes M'Lady."
They had a whispered conversation, then Cornelia and the guardsmen left the room.
"Huh...?" Lelouch said accidentally out loud. Neither he nor his sister had ever seen their mother without surrounding guards.
"Children, would you like to go and play in the grand hall? There is much more light and space there." She was suggesting that they should all go spend some time as a true family without guards for a change.
Some hours later, the two siblings were racing each other up and down the grand hall's staircase, their dear mother laughing.
Lelouch was nearing the top of the stairs and Nanally was resting at the bottom with her mother, when suddenly there came a loud firing of guns. Nanally screamed as her mother fell onto her, bleeding and in pain.
"M-mother!" Lelouch's eyes widened with both fear and sadness. He stood, frozen where he was, gunfire surrounding him and his sister.
"I... Love you two..." Their mother's voice was barely audible over the gunfire.
"Mother... MOTHER!" Nanally screamed and cried over the gunfire.
That all happened seventeen years ago; long before the immortal witch that calls herself "C. C." or "C2" entered Lelouch's life.
Lelouch has been on the run for eight of the last seventeen years, hiding in secret. His friend and rival, Suzaku Kururugi, only wounded him. Now Lelouch is living in one of the nations not under the Holy Britanian Empire's rule: The United States of America.