Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or Sword Art Online; this work falls under the principle of Fair Use under the Copyright act of 1976. I am not making any money off of this.
Author's Note: This is my first fanfiction, so I would ask you to bear with me as I find my own voice and style, and hopefully develop as a writer. That said, please enjoy!
Prologue: "The Forgotten Emperor and a Brave New World"
2018. The year when Britannia's 99th Emperor, Lelouch vi Britannia, died at the hands of Zero, who was, in fact, his best friend. With a final smile, he fell upon the steps of his own throne and passed in the arms of his sister, whose cries were drowned by the marchers' cheer for the savior of Britannia, savior of the world, Zero. A few days later, Nunnally vi Britannia, Lelouch's sister, took the throne. With the evil of Lelouch buried in the past, the world took its first steps towards world peace.
Contrary to public knowledge, however, the day of Lelouch's death was not his end. In his sister's arms, clothes draped in his own blood, his life force wavered, then came to a stop. People marched onto the road, freed the captives of the Empire, and cheered for Zero, the killer of Lelouch. Drowned out in his sister's cries, Lelouch took his breath of life. He had returned.
In her grief, Nunnally didn't notice Lelouch's reemergence, and he gave no clue to his return. Two arms, covered with red fabric, took her away from his body, overpowering her struggles. Zero cried out, shouting, "Lelouch, the demon, is dead! Rejoice, for today begins a new era for Britannia, and the world! An era of peace!" He jumped below the Emperor's car and onto the road, leading the marchers, as Lelouch lay motionless on the ramp, and to all eyes, he was dead.
Some time later, a figure clad in white approached the throne and towered over the former emperor. "It is time," she said, then nodded to her four associates. They raised Lelouch carefully but surely, like a corpse, covered him with a bag, and moved him away from the road, and into a building. A cool breeze welcomed him as the doors opened. He heard a door open and footsteps rushing around him. People spoke indistinguishably. More footsteps. Another door opened.
The feel of this room changed. Even through his bag, he felt colder. He was placed down on a smooth and hard surface, then heard someone opening a bag, similar to his own, and the sound of a liquid spilling, then of a body being inserted into the bag. The new bag was then deposited somewhere in the room, and Lelouch was picked up again. More footsteps. A faint card swipe from a little above him, and then the sound of a sliding door opening. They were moving towards the sound. He heard the ding of an elevator, the clicks of buttons being pressed, and the closing of the sliding doors. For a while, the only thing he heard was the hum of the elevator as it went into the earth. None of those who carried him spoke, and from the amount of footsteps that he heard, he guessed that the one other person who didn't hold him must've been the one who spoke before they took him. All according to plan, he assured himself.
Eventually, the elevator doors opened, and again he was carried shakily into another hallway. The footsteps echoed in here, and then another card swipe, and another sliding door opened. Lelouch was carried forward a few steps and then placed down on a more comfortable surface, like that of a hospital bed. He heard the zip of the bag opening, and then felt the onrush of bright light filtering through his eyelids, but he still didn't open them. Only when he heard the soft calling of his name by the same voice as the one of the figure clad in white did he slowly lift his eyelids.
The bed he rested on was covered in a light blue sheet, confirming his suspicions that he was placed on a hospital bed. He lay in the center of a small, metallic gray room. Adjacent to the right wall was a chair with some clothes on it.
"Are all the conditions cleared?" he asked the voice.
"Yes, Lelouch," it replied.
Then, into his view came a woman, whose green hair reflected brilliantly in the light. She looked at him with golden eyes, eyes that have seen more than any human eyes on the planet. Beneath her nose she carried a small smile.
"Suzaku did his part. By killing you, the Zero Requiem is complete, and Nunnally will soon become the 100th Emperor of Britannia. Other than yourself, there were no other casualties. And of course, none of them know that you're still alive. Thanks to you, the world will now move towards peace."
Lelouch rose and returned her smile.
"Yes. Now, people will look towards the future, instead of the past. And I shall live to see all of it: I inherited my father's Code," he said, brushing his hand over his chest, where the mark lay. "I shall never know death."
Her golden eyes held a great sadness as he said that, but her smile did not diminish.
"C.C., it is time that we initiated our plan," Lelouch said, "and move to that woodland cabin that I spoke of. It's cut off from any populated areas in Japan and hidden well enough for me to live there. I will not be able to leave that place, but you should have no problems in terms of mobility, so I would request of you to be my bridge to the world. From now on, I will see the world through your eyes."
She looked at him in silence, her smile now faded. She already knew all of this. They had discussed it back when they agreed on the Zero Requiem. He took her silence as confirmation, and moved on.
"Is our transport here?" Lelouch asked.
She nodded. "Yes. Sayoko is driving us. We'll go through the old subway lines, so we won't encounter anyone."
Lelouch stood up and grimaced at the bloodstained clothes that he wore. "I'll have to change out of this." He went over to the chair and inspected the clothes that lay on it. A black shirt and gray pants, and beneath those a black jacket with a high collar. "Is this also part of my identity alteration?" he asked her as he looked over the new garments.
C.C. turned to face him. "Yes. Apart from your physical appearance and personality, every other detail regarding you will change after we leave this building. Your new official name will be Cloven, used sparingly enough. You won't be moving anywhere, really, so you will see little use for it." She wondered why he was asking her this; he clearly knew it all already, given that he was the one who planned his own withdrawal from the public eye. The thought of his eternal solitude from the world tightened her fist, but when she realized what she was doing, she relaxed it.
His gaze was away from her, but still, she sensed that he noticed. He made no noise, no movement, but the guise that he emitted of the Emperor of Britannia was not there, if only for a moment. At the moment's passing, however, it returned, and no more was said between them.
They left the building a few minutes afterward through a hidden elevator at the other end of the hallway from which they came. It stopped a few floors beneath ground level and opened to a deserted roofed parking lot. A small, black car was waiting there, and Lelouch could see Sayoko waiting in the driver's seat, clad in a dark, brown coat. It was strange to see her without her maid uniform, he thought, but he knew that everything was going to change now. He laughed at himself for thinking it.
C.C. led the way, and both entered the back of the car, saying nothing. Sayoko contemplated Lelouch through her rear-view mirror for a moment, before driving forward out of the parking lot and into the old subway lines. Without the train tracks, they now acted as make-shift roads, but no one used them anymore because they didn't connect with the main highways, and generally led to the old ghettos. For a long time, the only things that lit the car were the dim, white lamps that sent a soft, metallic flash across the car's interior at regular intervals, making everything within visible then threw it back into the darkness. When C.C. spared a glance at Lelouch, she saw him resting against the window, asleep. What evil dreams seek you now, you reviled hero? Can you still seek shelter within sleep from the hateful world you saved? Such were her thoughts as she watched him, and as she looked upon his distorted face, tears streamed down her cheeks and upon the rug of the car, grieving his future, lost in another time.