Death Note: Lelouch of the Rebellion
by BlackFeatherz29
Random plot bunny that I felt like I just had to write. I am aware of the similarities of both Code Geass and Death Note, but I am much more sympathetic toward Lelouch than Light for reasons that should be plainly obvious. I do not believe that personality-wise Lelouch is the same as Light. And let's not forget Lulu's absolutely talentless physical condition; he certainly isn't as all-around perfect as our honored Yagami Light.
I have changed some elements of both Death Note and Code Geass, so excuse the liberties that I have taken. C.C. is a bit more... sadistic in this one? Hmm, I guess that would be the way to describe it. She's definitely not Ryuk's clone, though. That would be scary.
I watchd the English dub of Code Geass while typing this. Many lines from Suzaku and the leader dude who shot him are stolen from there, so please excuse my copying them. And now, to the feature presentation!
Through Suzaku's iron grip he caught a fleeting image of a young, green-haired girl, gracefully falling back. The next time he blinked she was gone, displaced by a whoosh of air.
In her place was a flat black object. "Death Note," it read.
"Don't look!" came Suzaku's voice, though it sounded shaken.
'Understandingly so,' thought Lelouch, trying to break free of Suzaku's weakening grip. Once free, he took an experimental sniff of the air, he found he sensed no foreign substance in its depths. He reminded himself that many poisons had no smell or taste, but what were the chances of there being any sort of poison gas sealed in a capsule with an object? It just didn't make sense.
And what was with that vision of a girl? A cautious few steps toward the unsealed capsule told him that the object placed in it was nothing more than a notebook. It was preposterous that he could mistaken a book for a girl.
'Death Note,' he mused. Either it was some sort of bad joke or it was a secret weapon of some sort. Of course, he had no way of judging what in the world the Britannian military had to do with a notebook. 'Or could do,' he reminded himself. This was Britannia he was thinking about. He could not trust his instincts when it came to them.
Lelouch glanced back at his friend's shocked figure, still sitting on the dirt floor. "It... wasn't poison gas?" Suzaku asked, sounding as if he was trying to convince himself of the truth.
"It wasn't, " Lelouch confirmed, walking up to pick up the notebook. He paused a fraction of a second before touching its smooth cover. Judging the weight carefully in his hand, he concluded that it really could not be anything except an ordinary notebook.
'Which just serves to confuse me more,' he thought, eyeing the object in his hand with suspicion. If this was just an ordinary notebook, what would Britannia want to do with it?
Some secret code that was written in it? He flipped it open, eyes scanning rapidly over its blank lined pages. It couldn't be.
He did not know at what exact moment, but he suddenly became aware of a prescence looming over him. Lelouch took a careful glance over his left shoulder, then screamed.
An ethereal being wafted in the air above him, a girl with a cloud of bright green hair and clad in a hideous combination of black leather and metallic jewelry. In his complete and utter shock, Lelouch was not even aware of falling hard onto the steel floor of the truck bed or of Suzaku's worried cries.
"So you can see me..." the girl whispered, giving him a calculating little smile. "This will suite my purposes nicely."
"... louch! Lelouch, what's wrong?"
He could not take his eyes off of that being in the air. Lelouch managed to point a shaking finger at her and whisper "Su-suzaku..."
"What is it?" his worried friend asked, alternating between concern for Lelouch and squinting into the space which he had pointed to. "What are you looking at?"
"He will be able to see me if he touches the notebook," the girl supplied, smile widening.
Lelouch blinked, then gave a hard look at Suzaku and thrust the notebook into his hands. "Take off your gloves," he said, hoping that he wasn't going crazy.
Suzaku glanced curiously at his friend, but decided to do as he was told. Slipping off his army-regulated gloves, he picked up the notebook by one corner, expecting some sort of epiphany at the moment of contact.
He was not disappointed. Suzaku could not surpress a cry of surprise as he laid eyes upon the otherwordly creature floating in the air.
"Lelouch... what is that?" he asked, glancing at his friend, who had by now mastered his fear.
"I don't know," Lelouch replied, standing up. "I have no idea what the notebook has to do with her, but I have a feeling that they both mean something important to Britannia."
Sure enough, the sounds of soldiers' boots met their ears as they both turned, apprehension filling their throats.
"You ungrateful monkey," growled the voice of their leader, a tall man with a rough-hewn beard. "Being an Honorary Bitannian does not excuse you."
Running up to him, Suzaku exclaimed, "Sir, but I was told that this was poison gas!"
"How dare you question your orders!" the leader cried, eyes blazing.
Meanwhile, Lelouch felt a cold tinge of fear creeping through his insides. 'This is bad,' he thought. 'For Suzaku, this could be fatal to him if his superiors were to find out...'
The leader of the soldiers seemed to have organized a plan. With a sneer, he began,"However, in light of your excellent military service, I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself, Private Kururugi."
Lelouch saw his friend glance down with anxious eyes, seeing the handgun that was now being offered. Lelouch unconsciously tightened his grip on the black notebook, which he had hurriedly picked up off the floor.
"Execute this terrorist." Both young men gasped in shock, glancing at each other.
"But he's not a terrorist!" Suzaku cried, seeing the panic in Lelouch's eyes. "He's a civilian who just happened to get caught up in all of this!"
The leader's eyes grew cold and hard. "You insubordinate little shit! You are disobeying an order! Did you not swear your loyalty and your might to Britannia?"
"Yes..." came Suzaku's hesitant voice. Looking back at a shaken Lelouch, Suzaku knew he couldn't do it. "I... I can't, sir."
"What?"
Lelouch could only stare in shock as he saw his friend's fate being sealed in front of his eyes.
"I can't sir." said Suzaku earnestly, giving his friend a small smile. "I won't shoot an innocent civilian. I'm sorry, but I can't follow your orders."
"Very well." Before either of them could react, a gunshot pierced the silence.
"SUZAKU!" Lelouch cried as he watched his friend fall to the ground with a dull thud.
The leader gave him a mocking sneer. "Well, Britannian schoolboy. Not a good day to cut class, is it?" To his followers, he commanded, "Get the notebook. After you have secured it, kill the boy."
"Yes, my lord," was the ringing reply.
Before the frozen Lelouch could react, an explosion tore from the truck and enveloped the area with a thick screen of smoke. The leader yelled angrily, coughing, and Lelouch saw his chance.
Willing himself to move, he stood up shakily and ran blindly away from the soldiers, still clutching the notebook.
He hardly noticed the ethereal girl flying effortlessly after him.
As explosions continued to rock the foundation of the ghetto, Lelouch stopped for a moment to catch his breath, though his blind panic gave him no room to calm down.
Glaring heatedly at the floating girl, who wore an expression of complete obliviousness on her pretty face, he yelled, "This is all your fault, isn't it?!"
She shrugged. "So what if it is?"
He couldn't believe his ears. Giving a frustrated roar, he clutched at his forehead, unable to believe all that he had just witnessed. "Not only that, but Britannia has just killed Suzaku!"
The boy squeezed his eyes shut, kneading his face with his hands. The green-haired girl stared at him, eyes narrowed in calculation.
Yes, he was the perfect one. He was the one who was going to amuse her...
"Aren't you going to do anything?" came his angry voice. "There are people dying all around you, and it's all your fault!'
She looked even more uncaring, tossing her hair with an arrogant flip of her head. "Why should I care? People die every day."
Lelouch clutched his shaking fist, supressing the urge to slap her. "You have no right to sit up all high and mighty over them," he ground out, fury seeping through every word.
She glanced down at him coolly, studying his expression. And then she came down, standing on slim legs, her silver trinkets tinkling and looking none the less lovely.
"Ah, but I do believe that I have a right to stand up 'high and mighty' above those poor defenseless people," she said, approaching him with enough posture to make a model jealous. "You see, I'm not human like them. I see death everywhere; I suppose you could say that I am death."
She paused to let these words sink through this boy's obviously intelligent yet supremely thick head before continuing. "Humans like to call us... shinigami. Death gods. We are the ones who end the lives of humans in this world. It does not surprise us when we see people die. Would a human feel sorrow for a bacteria's demise?"
The boy looked as if he was going to try to argue, so she put a pale finger over his lips. "I'm not done yet, boy. I offer you a deal."
He looked surprised, blinking. She nearly giggled; he indeed was his son. Just as good-looking and fun to toy with.
She pointed to the notebook clutched in his arms. "First, take a look at that." The boy slowly drew it out, suspicion clouding his face.
"That is my Death Note. This is how I take the lives of people."
Lelouch could not stop staring at that unsuspecting black notebook, now abominable beyond all belief in his eyes. He nearly threw it onto the floor in disgust, but the green-haired girl stopped him.
"It is foolish and immature to throw that away," she said, sounding almost as if she was scolding a child. "This object holds immense power... and I am offering it to you to use."
The boy stared at her with undiluted shock. Such was his shock that he really did drop the notebook this time, albeit on accident. The girl shook her head, chuckling a little. "Yes, boy, I am really giving it to you to use. You shall have the power of a shinigami as long as you grant me my one wish."
"I won't."
Those two frightened but firm words made her pause to look at him. Lelouch was glaring at her, eyes ablaze with self-righteous anger and a bead of cold sweat sliding down the side of his face.
"I won't use this horrible notebook. I have no right, nor do I have any use for such a despicable thing."
The girl only smiled serenely at him and floated back into the air. "Well, whatever you want. You will give in to the desire sooner or later." Her lip curled up as her smile turned feral. "I know that you will."
The sound of a volley of bullets stopped Lelouch from emerging from the underground stairwell. He grimaced as he slid down back into the tunnel, knowing the massacre that was occuring only yards away from him. He heard the thud of a dead body falling right outside his hiding place.
"Report," came the cold voice of the leader.
"I'm sorry, sir, but there are only Elevens here, sir," came the voice of one of the soldiers responsible. An annoyed 'tch' was heard from the leader.
"You sure of it? That exit comes out here."
"Yes. That exit matches up with our map of the old city."
Lelouch tensed as he realized that they were still searching for him. Now where would he go? They knew where he was... He started as he heard the frightened wails of a young child from within the circle of the dead and then squeezed his eyes shut as he heard machine gun fire silence those cries. A tear slipped through his eyelids.
And that was when his cell phone rang. Lelouch cursed mentally, fumbling to switch it off, but he knew it was already too late. The thin trilling of his ringtone had just nailed the lid of his coffin shut.
Sure enough, as he was thrown back by the Britannian soldiers into the back wall of the warehouse where he came up short, there was no escape possible.
"What an appropriate location for a terrorist to meet his end," sneered the leader of the soldiers, standing directly in front of Lelouch by a few meters.
Lelouch gritted his teeth, shaking. "You... you scum..."
"Granted, you did well for a student, but that's to be expected. You're a Britannian, after all. Unfortunately," here the murderous leader leveled a gun at him, "you have no future."
The sound of the gun cocking made Lelouch wince and shrink back in an involuntary recoil. And then he was aware of a gentle tapping at his shoulder.
He cracked open his eyes to see the green-haired girl floating right next to him, prodding him with an amused look on her face.
"You certainly have a way with getting yourself in trouble," she said conversationally, as his face contorted with rage at her. "Oh, boy. Don't be mad at me. I'm helping you, see?"
She waved a pale arm at the soldiers, making a rude hand gesture. "Look. I froze time." At his silent shock, she continued. "So, Lelouch Lamperouge... or should I say Lelouch Vi Britannia? It makes no difference to me."
"I offered you a choice, and you refused to take it. Now that you are in this situation, what do you expect will happen? They will shoot you and you will die, just like your friend Suzaku. And that will be the end of your life."
Lelouch trembled as he looked down, recognizing the truth in her words. The soldiers had no qualms about killing Suzaku; they'd do the same to him in a heartbeat.
He really was going to die. It was too early; he was too young to die! He hadn't done a thing with his life yet, and now it was slipping away. And... Nunnally...!
"I see that you have seen the light," came the girl's mocking voice. "You don't really want it to end here, do you?"
'No... no, I don't!'
"Then I shall offer you the power of a Shinigami once again. You will have the power to manipulate a person's fate, and the power to end a life by your own whim. You will be lonely in life and you shall get no reward for your actions, but you now hold a chance to change the world. Do you accept?"
New resolve streamed through his veins. Lelouch made his decision then and there. "I... I accept!"
And then time unfroze.
Picking up the notebook at lay forlorn by his side, Lelouch stood up, his face layered in shadow.
"Say," came his voice, now no longer frightened or panicked in the least. "How should a Britannian that hates Britannia live?"
The leader started, interest piqued. "Are you some sort of radical?" he asked. Then he saw the smile that had spread over the student's face as the boy opened the notebook and wrote something in there with a pen picked out of his pocket.
A pause. "Are you afraid to shoot?" the boy asked, snapping the notebook shut and lifting his wrist to look at his wristwatch. "How sad. Your opponent is only a schoolboy. What have you got to fear?"
The leader felt strangely anxious as he beheld the boy's fierce purple eyes that locked onto his.
"Or is it... that you've finally realized that the only ones who kill are the ones who are prepared to be killed?" The smile grew wider as the seconds ticked by.
"You people who kill innocents are nothing but two-bit murderers, trying to justify your cheap tactics with royal authority. That also has to go with my wonderful long-lost brother, who I will deal with later."
"But now... justice will strike you first."
The Britannian officer felt his blood grow cold.
And then the moment came. The schoolboy grinned serenely and swept his arm out in a majestic hand gesture. "Now... Lelouch Vi Britannia commands you all..."
The leader felt his feet move of their own accord. With growing panic, he realized that he had performed a full about-face and was now facing the ranks of his officers, his gun still leveled and his finger itching at the trigger.
"...DIE!"
And then the shooting began. The bullets shot out of the barrel of the gun, striking the hearts of each of the soldiers with calculated precision. Within seconds, the men were all dead, save for the wretched leader, who was now bathed in his mens' blood and shivering with horror.
Attempting to turn his head to glance at the calm youth who leaned against the warehouse wall, he found that he could not. "What... what are you?" he whispered, terrified.
He heard a cold chuckle. "Me? I'm just a schoolboy." Then the leader's arm moved suddenly of its own accord and attached itself to the side of his head. The man had only a split second to realize what was about to happen before a bullet lodged its way into his brain and he fell amongst his men, dead.
This day, the world would never forget. Though virtually unknown toward the beginning save for the occasion of His Highness Clovis la Britannia's assassination, this would be known as the day Zero was born.
Zero, who eliminated the world's most corrupt Britannian nobles and most notorious murderers without ever setting foot inside either mansion nor cell. Zero, who epitomized the force of divine justice in a time of corruption. Zero, who was worshipped and hated by the most vehement of people of all races.
Zero, whose life was cut short (as people say) when the 99th emperor of Britannia, His Majesty Lelouch vi Britannia, ascended the throne.
That's it, boys and girls. I ended this with a finalized note because I will not and cannot be forced to continue writing this. I am currently preoccupied with load of homework so severe that I cannot for the life of me escape it, and an AU romance fic that I am three weeks late for updating.
As a personal belief, I do believe that Light's fate won't be the same as Lelouch's. Also, there is no L in Lulu's world. Suzaku is way too stupid, and by gods, the Emperor is definitely not as cool as L.
Feel free to speculate about what happened after this :) I'd love to hear thoughts from you readers, so please review!