AN: So... I've watched Code Geass, and I must admit I am fan-clubbed against my head. It's been some time since after seeing something I wanted immediatly to go back to the beginning and watch it again. Since Harry Potter actually. There were only first 4 books published then and I actually read them three times in a row. I was young and didn't know what animal this fanfiction was. So now I stoically suppressed the urge to press play on the first episode of the series, read some fanfics, though unfortunately I seem so in love with the original at the moment that any interpretation puts me off.

But that doesn't mean I can't interpret what may have happened after... So I chose the third option of quenching my thirst for Code Geass and decided to just write something... Not necessarily good, but it's more of a therapy. And, btw, aren't those soundtracks just awesome?

Disclaimer: Obviously... not mine. (I am crying here)...

Warning: It will probably be slash of Suza/Lulu variety, but I'm not sure how large part of the plot it will be. And when I write slash and tend to go into detail. So there, warned...

Chapter 1: The Code, or There and Back Again

When he died, he thought it was the end, the one way road to the Collective, where he would see Euphie and Shirley and all the others he dared to care for and lost. Instead he arrived in the sickeningly familiar platform in the skies of C's world.

"No… How could it be…" Lelouch refused to believe that something went wrong. Just a few more moments and he will be absorbed into the flow of time.

Cruel laugh filled his ears through the illusion of the empty heaven. Just as it happened during his conversation with his father, the surroundings changed. He found himself in a small study with a bookshelf filled from top to bottom with books bearing the hated Geass symbol.

"Why…" one look into the full-length mirror divested him of any doubt. The Geass symbol proudly glowed, hugging his neck like a filthy collar.

"I see… So you haven't parted without a gift, eh, Father?.." He vividly remembered Emperor Charles throttling him with his immortalized arm before evaporating.

"Why didn't I think of this before? Does C.C. know? The damn witch never tells me anything… It would be unfortunate if I revived during my funeral," he glanced around noticing a chessboard, a comfy armchair and another bookshelf that held books bearing his crest on the binding.

'Well,' Lelouch thought, 'as long as I stay dead I can make use of this library. I can do nothing but wait for now …'

Just before Lelouch vi Brittania was jerked back to the reality, he concluded that the study was a crude representation of his mind. The bookshelf on the right contained all the knowledge and memories gained during his lifetime. The one on the left, however, was something entirely new. It was essentially the Code. But possessing the Code didn't equate knowing and understanding it. Even the first volume gave his genius mind great trouble. He didn't know how much he spent trying to crack it, even willing his mind to dumb down the knowledge somewhat for his benefit. The teen was on the verge of giving up and meditating on the alternative methods of deciphering when he breathed.

His body felt cold and stiff, his eyes saw nothing but darkness. He tried to move but his muscles didn't immediately comply. The restarted heart pushed blood through dead veins. And it was painful, so very painful. It hurt to breathe, his heartbeat was a torture, screaming seemed simply impossible with his constricted throat. It hurt to exist. Was it what C.C. went through every time she died and came back to life? But she acted so blasé about it… Practice, maybe?

In the end, he could move. He opened his eyelids, but only darkness greeted him again. His searching hands found silky material – above, below, on the sides.

So he was in the coffin after all. Had he been buried already? But where? How? How much time had gone by?

He could never boast about his physical strength but as no help was coming he pushed with all his might against the lid only to fall on his back exhausted. Again… And again.

Really… Who was he kidding? Did he actually think that the people of the world wouldn't make sure that the coffin of the Demon Emperor was closed as securely and tightly as possible? He was surprised they hadn't burnt him.

He was either going to get outside of the tomb with supernatural powers or with some outside help.

'C.C.! Would you abandon me like this? Don't you know? You damn witch…'

The Code so far proved useless. It didn't amplify his strength, it didn't place his mind outside to analyze the surroundings, it didn't help him possess or command anyone, he couldn't even contact his green-haired accomplice. The only thing it has done so far was glow dimly in the restricted space of the coffin. Thanks to it he discovered that he had been buried in his royal outfit sans sword tear and blood stain and that the lining was black. Very striking. He snorted.

It was getting harder to breathe. And he was afraid. Afraid to die. Because he knew he'd be back alive and ready to die again.

Dying from suffocation was even less pleasant than having a sword run through his body.

Lelouch didn't stay long in C's world this time. He only had time to have a brief look around before he was suffocating again.

The next time he died, he called for C.C. Maybe she could hear him from the C world.

And the next round again…

"C.C! ...! Save me! C.C.!"

There really is fate worse than death. It's experiencing death over a hundred times over. If there was hell, he was no longer afraid.

"C.C.!"

His logical reasoning and brilliant mind had disappeared. Memories… scattered. Only strange name C.C. remained. The agony became dull and bearable. The glowing power that would break this vicious cycle was almost within his grasp. The less his mind processed and remembered the closer it came. So one time he chose to forget.

The entity tried to breathe. But there was not enough oxygen in the place it awakened. Its vessel was malfunctioning. It had to change location. And so it did.

The Code wasn't simply knowledge. It was more of a program, an artificial mechanic that existed to fix any glitches in the machine.

It had no idea how strange it would have looked to anybody, had anybody been lucky enough to look at the sky and see a person standing on thin air high in the sky as it was completely normal. Why not? It knew how the machine worked; it knew how to bend some small parts of its mechanism for its benefit.

It's been a long-long time since it was conscious to do its work properly but it has been even longer since the world and the entity have been created.

It observed and would have been pleasantly surprised, had it known what a pleasant surprise felt like. As it was, it observed the fact that the machine was working well, it even learned to repair itself to an extent. Another fact was that its vessel was conscious, intelligent, and even before accommodating the Code, it… or rather he, proved himself a good mechanic, stopping another Code possessor from destroying part of the machine, not that it would have mattered in the grand scheme of things, but a world lost here and there accounted for some major repair works.

This… intelligence, this primitive consciousness was the reason the Code's own power and mind were suppressed and manifested only in limited ways. But it's been many cycles and this part of the machine was performing admirably. Perhaps it was best left alone for now, fending for itself.

The Code decided it merited going dormant once more, but… not before fine-tuning its vessel. Had it felt any emotions, it would have admitted that it was fond of this human… Lelouch. But as it was, he was just useful. He had an understanding of the plan and the Code would make sure he functioned as long as it was necessary.

TBC

... - is obviously the mysterious name of our favorite green-haired immortal.

Reviews are appreciated but not pressured.