1:The Lost Prince

The sun was bearing down on them, a heat haze boiling around them as the three children trudged across the open ground of the fields. "Big Brother," a small, frightened voice said from behind one of the young boys, "What's that smell?"

"It's nothing," the boy said, sweat pouring from his hair and face. "We're just passing through a garbage dump is all." He said, making sure to watch his step. His shoes were covered in blood, and the poor boy would have heaved what food they had managed to find if he had been weaker willed than he was.

Behind him, easily keeping pace, even though he was horrified about where they were, was another boy around the same age as he. "Lelouch - " He started.

"Just keep walking, Suzaku," Lelouch said without turning around. "Don't think about anything other than that."

Suzaku nodded, his eyes on the tiny girl perched on Lelouch's back, her eyes forever closed, and her legs useless. All three children were badly burned by the sun, their skin an angry red, but they kept going. What more could they do, surrounded by corpses as they were.

The once proud and beautiful Japan was now nothing more than a memory. Her people stripped of their nationality, and reduced to Numbers. On August 10th of the year 2010, Lelouch and his sister, Nunnally vi Britannia lost the second home they had come to cherish almost as much as their first.

The day wore on, and finally, after walking until the sun began to sink below the mountains, Lelouch was able to set Nunnaly down on clean, untainted ground.

Suzaku went about making a little campsite for them, even scrounging a few blankets from a plundered convenience store. Nunnaly lay asleep beside her brother while the two boys sat around a fire that was burning softly.

Lelouch looked off across the ocean, frowning as he saw Brittannian VTOLs coming toward the small island nation. A frown that easily turned to a snarl of pure fury, and hatred. "Why?" He growled, his fists clenching tightly, "Why can't he just leave us alone!" He cried, angry tears flowing from his eyes like violet rivers.

"This is my fault," Suzaku frowned, depressed as he looked at his friend, "Lelouch, I...my dad, I - "

"No," Lelouch growled, looking at the boy, "Don't you get it, Suzaku? The only reason they attacked is because of us," he said as the air crafts passed over head, "My father sent us here to be his bargaining tools, and the rest of my so-called siblings decided to get rid of us!" He snapped.

Suzaku was a little stunned at his friend's fury, "But I - "

"All I wanted was for him to visit Nunnaly in the hospital after Mother was killed," the boy said, shaking with fury, "But he couldn't be bothered to do even that!" He yelled, "Instead he had me beaten, and disowned both of us! Nunnaly never so much as looked at him wrong, and he threw her away without a single thought!"

"And my dad..." Suzaku started, but felt his hands begin to shake. Looking down at them, all he could see was the blood on them from...what he had done.

Lelouch looked at him and smiled, "Your dad was a great man, Suzaku," he said enviously, "I wish my father was more like him." He shook his head, "I honestly wish he had kept fighting, but I guess this was better than having the entire continent massacred."

"Y-Yeah," the boy nodded, looking down at his hands again, willing himself to calm down.

Lelouch sighed and stood up, looking out across the sea once more as more VTOLs came toward the newly christened Area-11. "But mark my words, Suzaku," he said, "One day, I am going to obliterate Britannia!"

Suzaku looked at him sharply, "Lelouch, you can't mean that!" He shouted, standing, "You've gotta think about Nunna! What'll she do without you if you get yourself killed!?"

Lelouch turned to his friend with a grin, "What? You're saying you wouldn't look after her?"

"Of course I would!" Suzaku roared, his face flaming, "What I mean is...how the heck are you even gonna do that?! You don't even like to exercise! The only time you did that was when Kaguya, or Todoh were chasing you around the house!"

Lelouch felt as if a huge weight had him on on the head. "I...I guess I'll have to start strengthening myself," the boy said, looking down at himself. "Yeah, definitely gotta work on that." He said, remembering how heavy his little sister had felt, and she was so small and frail. "You'll help me, right?"

Suzaku shook his head, frowning, "I...I don't want to cause any meaningless deaths, Lelouch," he said, his mind being made up even as he spoke, "I'm going to try to become one of those Honorary Britannians...and become a Knight."

Lelouch's eyes widened, "Are you crazy?!" He yelled loudly before looking down at his sister to make sure she was still asleep, "Suzaku, you're a Number, now, Number's don't become Knights! Hell, they can barely hold jobs that make them enough to feed themselves! You'll end up in one of those pit rings Odysseus likes to attend fighting another Number until you're killed!"

"Maybe," Suzaku nodded, relenting the point, "But there's gotta be another way, Lelouch...and if I can work my way up high enough, maybe I can...join the Knights of the Round...and then I can try to take the title for Knight of One, and - "

"Die trying," Lelouch stated, "Suzaku, my mother was a Knight of the Round, and even she fell into the Knight of Two position. They guy that holds Knight of One is seriously powerful if he could beat my mom."

"Yeah, I know, Lelouch, but I have to try," he said, smiling at his friend, "If I can take that title, I can claim this entire land to rule over as I see fit. I can make it Japan again."

Lelouch stood staring at his friend, his mouth agape, and then he closed his eyes, grinning, "I get it, Suzaku," he sighed, "But, while you're fighting, and clawing your way to the top, I'm going to try and do things my way...so I guess, once we're somewhere safe - "

"We go our own way," Suzaku nodded. "Just promise me something, Lelouch?"

"What?" The boy asked.

Suzaku held out his hand, "Promise that we'll always stay friends?"

Lelouch cocked his head curiously, "Even...even if we end up fighting each other?" He asked, which made the other boy flinch, but the smile never left his face.

"Yeah, even then," he said, "We got off to a bad start, but I've never thought of anyone else as my best friend before."

Lelouch smiled and reached for his hand, "Me either, Suzaku...thanks for everything."

The two boys then settled in for the night, Lelouch falling asleep fairly quickly as his exhaustion caught up with him. Suzaku did not fall asleep immediately, but sleep did finally overcome him, his mind wandering to his father.

When morning came, however, it was to find Lelouch rising early. He carefully gathered up his sister, and snuck away from the still sleeping form of Suzaku, "See you at the finish line, Suzaku." He whispered.

Suzaku, one eye cracked open, nodded to his friend as he left, "See you there."

In going their separate ways, Suzaku was picked up by what remained of the Japanese military, and brought into one of the few settlements that was left standing after the attacks. The Holy Britannian Empire had already established military training areas of their own in the small nation, and Suzaku found himself entering in hopes of fulfilling his dream.

For the young Eleven, the next few years of his life would be grueling. But, through his sheer stubbornness, and determination to succeed, he would become an Honorary Britannian.

As for Lelouch, the boy would keep walking with his little sister clinging to his back for days to come. The two stayed clear of the populated areas, living off the barest scraps of what they could find. Through it all, Nunnaly never complained. Her silence was what kept the young boy going. He wanted to hear her happiness again. Her laughter. The smile on her face when he did something for her. He wanted her to see again. He wanted her to walk again!

That determination made him stronger with each passing day. With so little food, the boy's mind and body were put to the test. He foraged for edible fruits and berries where he could find them. Hunted what game he could find using traps, and other methods. All the while, his small body grew stronger; tougher.

For weeks the brother and sister traveled together. He walked with her on his back until his feet began to bleed, his shoes worn down to the barest of scraps. But the Britannian military had begun searching the surrounding forests for resistance against their rule.

It was on one such sweep that the two were found. But not by soldiers.

Lelouch had been running with Nunnaly clinging to his back from the soldiers when he ran headlong into her. He had almost landed on his sister from the shock of running into someone, but was steadied by a gentle hand reached out to him. He looked up at her in surprise, violent eyes meeting those of molten amber surrounded by waves of lime-green hair. She was dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono of blue cloth with sunflowers stitched into it, her hair tired back into a long braid running down her back.

At first she said nothing as the boy looked up at her, and his sister wondered what was going on. "Big Brother?"

The woman smiled gently at her, reaching out to pet her hair, the gentle touch soothing her worry. A frown marred her face for a moment, and Lelouch saw some sort of red symbol on her forehead glow briefly. He heard Nunnaly squeak in surprise, which worried him...until he turned around, and saw her violet-blue eyes looking around them in wonder.

Stunned, the boy looked up at the woman, a question on his lips, but he couldn't get anything out, no matter how much he tried. The woman smiled at him, and held out her hand, "Come, child," she said in a gentle voice, "I'll lead you somewhere safe."

Lelouch frowned at this, and looked at the ground, "There's no place that's safe from Britannia."

The woman cocked her head for a moment, smiling, "So? Why don't you make a place that's safe from them?" She asked, reaching over the boy, and taking Nunnaly from his tired back, and holding her in her arms, looking at the boy, "Venez, les petits." She repeated, speaking clear and fluent French, holding out her hand to the young boy once more. Lelouch reached for her hand, feeling comforted by the use of the language as his mother had often spoken to him in French when she was still alive.

Lelouch and Nunnaly stayed with her for days to come until she led them to a small estate. A familiar estate where a dear friend to the pair when they were royalty. The Ashford family estate was just as he remembered it. Opulent, but somehow modest. The woman, however, did not go with them to meet their old friends, and disappeared soon after sending them on their way.

Lelouch felt saddened by her departure, he hadn't even thanked her for what she had done for Nunnaly, and he was fairly certain that it had been her doing. He hadn't even gotten her name. More than saddened, he felt ashamed that he hadn't thanked her, or learned her name.

The Ashford family was elated to open their doors, and find the two children, thin and malnourished as they were, on their doorstep, and were quick to take them in as their own, never to let a soul know of who and what they were. As far as anyone knew, the family vi Britannia was dead and buried. Lelouch would adopt the name Lamperouge, of which there was now a small noble family established in Area-11. They were a branch family of the Ashfords. The heir of the house was a girl two years Lelouch's junior at age eight, and she became just as dear to the former prince and princess as if she were a blood-related sibling.

But, even though Lelouch had found a safe haven for his little sister for the time being, the exiled prince's rage at his own country festered into pure hatred. It was at the tender age of ten that Lelouch vi Britannia began to plot his revenge.

=x=

Seven Years Later

A transport truck speeds through the Tokyo settlement of Area-11, swerving in and out of the traffic to avoid their pursuers. The driver screeched around a car in his path, and slammed his fist against the wheel, "Perfect!" He snapped to his partner beside him, "After we finally steal this thing ...!" He snarled, looking in the mirrors, seeing the Military VTOLs coming for them, "It's all because Tamaki couldn't stick to Naoto's plan, and now we've got a shit storm on our hands!"

"Look," his partner, a woman, said, "Just keep going. We can still make it," she said, pointing at a picture clipped to the dashboard, "Remember who you're doing this for." She said. The picture was of a man and a woman, and their small child. The drive grit his teeth and nodded.

Meanwhile, someone else was having a crisis of their own as the man sweated heavily in front of the chess board, his hands shaking as he tried to decide how best to make his move as the timer buzzed.

"Your time is up, Sir," the assistant said, "From this point on, you will be required to make your move every twenty seconds." The poor man groaned while his opponent, a well-dressed, and rather round noblemen, filed his nails without so much as a care.

"Very well, I'm game," he said, blowing dust from his nails as the doors to the room opened up. He was surprised to see not one, but three young people entering the room, "Ah, what do we have here? Did your substitute finally arrive?"

The man on the losing side heaved a heavy sigh of relief as he stood, "Oh, thank heavens! I'm saved!" He exclaimed, walking up to the young man standing in front, "How are your studies doing? Is all well?"

The young man, a student, the noblemen saw, was tall, and lean. He had a light build with wiry muscle hidden beneath his uniform. His light black hair hung loosely just above his eyes, violet orbs that actually made the man nervous.

"Yes," the young man said, his voice smooth and confident, "Ah, about our arrangement?"

The man nodded, "Yes, of course, the same as always if you haven't changed your mind?"

He nodded, "That will be fine."

The noblemen chuckled, "And what do we have here?" He asked arrogantly, "You've asked a school boy to stand in for you?" He laughed.

The boy in question gave the man a bored look, "And what do we have here?" He mimicked, "A noblemen."

The man chuckled as a blue-haired boy, and a younger, pink-haired girl came up next to the boy, "I envy you young people," the noblemen said, "you have so much free time on your hands these days," he said, lacing his fingers together, "Time for regrets, perhaps?" He sneered as the boy took a seat at the chess table, "What's your name?"

The boy leaned back in his seat, "Lelouch...Lamperouge."

The girl came up to his left side, "You'd do well not to underestimate my brother, good sir," she said politely, her eyes blue, and cold as ice, "If you do, you may come to be the one with the regrets."

"Hmph," he snorted, gesturing to the board, "We'll see about that, won't we?"

"That we shall," Lelouch smiled as he picked up the King.

"Whoa, hold on a minute, Lelouch," The blue-haired boy said as he looked over the game board, "I ain't a chess player, but even I can tell this is a lost cause!"

The girl frowned at him, "Rivalz, that's mean," she said, pouting cutely, "Lulu's gotten out of way tougher spots than this."

"And yet he starts with the King," the man laughed, "I find that to be a rookie mistake!"

Lelouch smiled thinly as his eyes narrowed in a predatory manner. "Let's find out, shall we?"

Yeah, new story...so not new for me :p

Let me know what you think about his one. Gotta love CG, and someone please tell me when R3's coming out! XD

Leave a review if you liked the start-up...pretty please (-_-)