This took place in the original series' universe and not where Lelouch got resurrected; and when they thought that Nunnally died after the Fleija explosion.

The self-proclaimed and newly-hailed young emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire slumps on the couch, an act that he would never portray infront of the palace residents despite the fact that they are all geassed as his slaves. His Imperial Hat, which works as his crown, is ungraciously tilted to the side of his head looking as exhausted as its master.

"And Oddyseus?" Yet his voice manages to carry out a sense of authority that rings in the four corners of their room.

The Knight of Zero's lips remain on a thin line, a look that had been permanently etched on his face since this charade began. His emerald eyes continue to drill into the figure before him though his glares are unreciprocated. "He is still training with the army."

The emperor nods. "Keep him there. He is a timid man who was willing to be Schneizel's puppet as long as it wouldn't hurt his reputation. His lack of passion to lead and stand on his own is as disgusting as the past emperor's extreme ideologies on ruling. At least we can put him to use in the military."

"I understand, Your Majesty."

The knight does not leave at once. Instead, he stands there, looking down at his emperor with contained tension that has been flowing through his veins ever since the Massacre Princess's incident.

From the royal bed, C.C. watches with calculated detachment the interaction that is happening before her.

"Lelouch," says the knight, dropping the honorifics just like how his voice drops a couple of octaves.

The emperor finally looks up and bestows Suzaku the attention he wants. And from her place, C.C. could see how the boy's amethyst eyes are tired and lowered.

What could have warranted his limited energy causing him to look like a zombie?

"What is it, Suzaku?" he exhales, exasperated.

"Only a week had passed since you became the emperor. You're just starting to destroy the old ideologies of Britannia and recreate a system that no one will be able to disobey yet you seem too tired. It's just one week, Lelouch, hold yourself together and keep this act of yours rolling."

At this, Lelouch glares at his friend. Friend? C.C. ponders. Can there relationship still be considered as friendship after every tragedy that happened between them? Too much shrapnels of deaths, betrayal, and lies have wounded their feet when they tried to close the distance separating their opposite principles. Blood of their families and friends had tainted and twisted their emotions leading to impulsive decisions and premature vengeance. It is actually a wonder, at least to C.C., that they are still able to carry out a truce and work together again. Perhaps, that is one thing that made their bond distinct – that despite everything that they've been through, the two of them are always in each other's frame of mindset. Together, inseparable. One could not function properly without the other, be it just as a passing thought or as a long forgotten memory. And that togetherness that even the two players are unaware of is what leads them to where they are right now.

An emperor and his knight.

Who would have thought?

Ah, indeed, who would have thought.

Lelouch does not rise but his piercing glare is enough to remind them that he is the ruler of this country. "I haven't forgotten, Suzaku. I will see to it that our plan comes to fruition and reject those who will attempt to stand in our way."

"Make it happen or else those innocent lives lost during your phase as 'Zero' will be disrespected… Especially, Euphy's."

A bitter smile appears on Lelouch's lips, a smile that C.C. often sees on the boy's face these past few weeks. " 'Phase', huh?"

Finally rising, the young emperor comes eye-to-eye with his equally young knight, his sluggish appearance is quickly replaced by regality that only those who possess royalty in their blood are capable of exuding. His disheveled hat righted itself as he turns his head to his subordinate. "Is there anything else that you have to report?" he inquires authoritatively.

"That's all for now, Your Majesty."

"Then you are dismissed."

Her amber eyes follow her accomplice's figure as he disappears into the dressing room. Suzaku, on the other hand, turns to leave the room when she stops him. "Suzaku."

He glances back at her and watches as she slowly sits up on the bed, Cheese-kun in between her arms. Those emerald eyes tell her how he perceives her - a disheveled immortal witch lounging on the royal bed that only emperors lie on, not quite fitting in their surroundings, a girl whose goals are unknown.

They didn't really get close since that incident at C's World. He might be part of Lelouch's entourage now, but there is still an invisible barrier that separates the witch and knight with only the emperor bridging the gap between them. Their common denominator. Yet, she feels that she knows him well enough. From the very start of the rebellion, he has always been in Lelouch's agenda, from being a friend he wanted on his side so badly to being his strongest obstacle in defeating Britannia. Through Lelouch, she had known how Suzaku thinks, his principles, his beliefs, his story. That's why she had told him that they were similar before. Those emerald eyes long for the death that never comes just like hers.

Yet, sometimes she senses that the Japanese despises her. That thought always amuses her.

"C.C.," he responds in that voice of civility and assessment.

"I see that you still like to talk about the dead."

Ah, what does she intend in starting this conversation? They haven't even exchanged much words in the past month that they are together. She remains the bystander as the two became the main characters in their story. Why is she meddling now?

Suzaku turns his full body towards her, immediately and obviously defensive against her statement. Yet, he pretends to be in the dark. "What are you talking about?"

She flips her hair over her shoulder and smirks at him. "You still use the 'Euphemia Card' against Lelouch. Always reminding him of that incident, always reminding him that he killed her, like a tape that is playing on loop. Aren't you getting tired of hiding behind Euphemia's shadow just to achieve your personal goals? Aren't you tired of disrespecting the dead?"

She made him mad, she can clearly see it. His fists are balled, his jaw set. She cannot say that she is delighted by getting this reaction from him. She isn't sure about herself bringing this sensitive topic between them, but she likes to go on.

"Don't use Euphy's name for the sake of defending him. No matter what happened, at the end of the day, Lelouch killed her and all the Japanese who were in that place. He was the one who massacred them, not Euphy. Yet, it is her name that…"

"But aren't you even now?"

"Huh?"

She stares at him, her amber eyes digging into his green ones. It is fortunate that Lelouch isn't around, or else, he would be clearly and greatly upset by what she is about to tell Suzaku. Ha, she is being immature right now. Later, when she is lying on the bed again playing with Cheese-kun, she would ponder, and probably laugh at, on how foolish she looked while hurtling painful words at Suzaku.

"You killed Nunnally and millions of people in Tokyo Settlement by firing the Fleija. You killed his sister, your childhood friend, yet he never blamed that on you. The both of you had killed the people you treasured the most. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

"You!" Suzaku stalks towards her. Heavy footsteps and heaving chest are all directed towards her and for a moment she was worried. Is he going to hit her? Slap her? She had crossed the line, made a stupid analogy with two different circumstances and there's fire in Suzaku's eyes that would be hard to extinguish.

But he manages to stop at the foot of the bed. "You have no right to speak like that," he growls. "I never wanted for that to happen. It was all because of the 'Live' command that Lelouch gave me that's why I was able to fire the Fleija. The 'Live' command that came from his geass." His eyes widen, realization dawning on him. "And the geass that came from you. Euphy was under the influence of geass, too. C.C… it's you who killed them."

Silence.

Ah, she does not have a comeback for that, does she? Because everything that he said was true. Everything that he had mentioned had already compiled as a heavy rock of guilt weighing her heart down and she carries it from the very beginning until now. She already knows about that Suzaku.

When she doesn't respond, Suzaku keeps on looking down at her and adds, "Your relationship with him, or rather, your arrangement with him, is still hard for me to comprehend, but I admire Lelouch for being able to live with you despite of all the things you have put him through. He calls you a witch? Well, that's a very fitting term."

And he leaves.

After a few more moments, after C.C. laid down on the bed again hugging Cheese-kun tightly in her arms, Lelouch comes out of the dressing room. His imperial robe is replaced by a plain black polo paired with dark pants. His hair strands are sticking together, wet from washing his face. Settling, he sits on the edge of the bed with his back on her. Hunched.

"Suzaku is right. You seem tired. Did something happen?" she asks softly.

"What is this? Suzaku and you are getting close?" he asks back in an attempt to be playful.

She smiles. "Are you jealous?"

He shakes his head and a few droplets of water landed on her arm. "Witch."

It sounds different when it comes from him. She likes how his voice form that word. Perhaps, from now on, she would allow only him to utter it. Really, she's being childish.

"I was giving orders to my sisters earlier, and Nunnally suddenly came into my mind. That's all," he continues. "There is no need to worry whether I'll be able to carry the plan because I will no matter what. I just… sometimes, I forget and then I remember…"

That Nunnally is dead.

C.C. rises and leaves Cheese-kun on her place. She takes a seat beside Lelouch but does not dare to touch him.

Observing him closely, she realizes that he looks exactly the same after he pulled the trigger on Euphy - body bent forward, elbows on his thighs, trembling hands, eyes hidden behind his fringe - but a hundred times worse. She remembers that dreadful day, how fast the events happened as if they were all running out of time. Tragedy after tragedy. Devastation, horror, and hopelessness.

And Lelouch was caught in the middle of it all.

With the Japanese badly in need of something to believe in, someone to hold on to, he only had a brief time to mourn for his sister's death before he was out on the stage, giving false hopes and dirtying the name of the sister who he truly loved for the sake of obliterating Britannia.

She could still clearly remember his suppressed cries on her chest, the shake of his body as he tried to let out all of his grief and composed himself as the ruthless symbol of justice in a very short amount of time. How taxing it was to wear another persona after his other one was completely destroyed.

But now…

Charles and Marianne are gone. Suzaku is at his side. Britannia is at his mercy. There is still the problem with the Black Knights and the Knights of the Round but those could be handled later. Everything that they are doing right now are all part of the plan to gather the hatred of the world. Activities that do not require his immediate presence, just his name and words.

Right, now…

"There's no need to rush," she says.

Finally, Lelouch looks up at her, revealing those dead amethyst eyes. Suzaku and she was wrong. He isn't tired. He is purposeless.

After all, Nunnally had been his sole fuel to do the things that he had done. And now she is gone.

All those resolve to fulfill the promise of recreating a peaceful world that he shows them is another mask he wears. He is functioning heavily on guilt and false sense of justice, even though he wouldn't admit it.

And where was C.C. when he lost his beloved younger sister? Not by his side.

She locked herself away in the Museum of Memories which she herself does not know the reason why. He was all alone in this tremendous grief and it is catching up on him. Bits by bits. Sorrow by sorrow.

"Take your time," she tells him. He gazes at her as if those are foreign words he cannot understand. "I'll be right here."

He lets out a deep sigh, his breath carrying the unsaid loneliness of his heart. "You… I always left you in my room before. And Nunnally had spoken greatly of you." There's a chuckle of disbelief in his voice.

"We had bonded when you're away," she begins. "She taught me how to do origami while talking my ears off about her admirable older brother." The image of the lovely, gentle girl crosses her mind and she can't help but smile.

"Really?"

She nods. "It became a regular afternoon session, after she arrived from school. We would sit by the dining table with colorful papers all around us. Sometimes, Sayoko would join us, too. Nunnally asked how you confessed to me."

A frown, but it is a good-natured frown if there is such a thing. "Why would she assume that I was the one who confessed to you?"

C.C. raises an eyebrow. "Wouldn't you?"

"Please tell me you didn't supply her with those ridiculous stories while I was away. Forget about it, of course you did. Once, she asked me if we would get married after high school. "

"Ah, I told her that you were madly inlove with me."

"C.C.! You witch!"

The glint in his eyes is starting to return and she feels a strange sense of triumph in her chest. "I liked her smile," she confesses. "She had a beautiful smile."

"She did, didn't she? It was untainted and genuine, her gratitude for the kindness someone had shown her. But she didn't know that she was kindness herself."

"She always smiled whenever she talked about you."

"..."

"She was immensely and forever grateful to you, Lelouch."

It is a long time before one of them speak again, but when Lelouch does, his voice breaks. "I'm grateful to her, too." He runs a hand down his face as he takes in a deep breath.

"C.C… it's you who killed them."

She wonders what he thinks about when he looks at her right now. Does he blame her for all the deaths of his loved ones? Does he hate her for giving him geass and drastically changing his life – a life that is now filled with blood and betrayal?

Why is she still here, Lelouch? Why do you still allow her to stay by your side? Why aren't you lashing out on her? Why haven't you lashed out on her? Is it the promise of making her smile that ties you down? You do understand that you don't have to fulfill that, right?

What a silly boy.

You are too kindhearted. Just like Nunnally.

"I'll just sleep this off." Lelouch shaking his head snaps her out of her thoughts, startling her with the sudden decision.

"Hmmm?"

But Lelouch is already lying down on their bed with Cheese-kun beside him. He puts his arm over his closed eyes. "I need to be up early for tomorrow. Being an emperor is not all fun."

"Who said that it was? Don't worry, I'll watch over you."

He opens an eye and peers at her. "Like you always do?"

She smirks. "Right. Like I always do. Because you are my warlock."

A soft chuckle then silence. C.C. listens to his quiet breathing like a mother would to her child. Suzaku's words earlier come back to her.

"Your relationship with him, or rather, your arrangement with him, is still hard for me to comprehend, but I admire Lelouch for being able to live with you despite all of the things you have put him through."

Sometimes, she does not understand, too. In her century's worth of lifetime, this is one of those things that she wouldn't fully comprehend. How they became deeply connected with each other that even words are not enough to describe their relationship.

But it is the same for her, too, Suzaku. Your relationship with Lelouch is a puzzle that only the two of you could complete. You, in a very special way, fit together like a key and a lock. You are each other's strength and weakness and she had never seen a bond like yours in her life.

And she bets, after the requiem, after Lelouch dies and Suzaku takes over the role of Zero, when she is away and travelling alone again, this chapter will be her company in her solitude.