Nothing Left - Ch.1

Author's Note: I got sucked into Code Geass, and found that I just had to write this. Hope you like it. This is going to be 2-4 chapters most likely. Note that Suzaku does not know that Lelouch has resumed his role as Zero, he thinks that Zero is an imposter this time.

Summary: Everything he had ever done was for Nunally. For her happiness. Now she was dead, and it was all because of him.

Setting: R2 Episode 6. Note that it starts with a few lines of the ending of this episode, but I shape my own story after.

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of its characters

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"Come with me!,"yelled Zero to Nunally. Suzaku Kururugi had taken away too many victories from Zero, and now, Suzaku was trying to take Nunally away from him.

They were in the floating fortress that was taking Governer Nunally to the mainland, the Order of the Black Knights had intervened and assaulted the battlecruiser. The mission to capture her already became a failure when three of the Knights of Round had come. Dozens of Burai led by subordinate black knights had been destroyed in mere minutes, and two of the Holy Blades were lost, along with their Knightmares. Toudou had had to pull out of the base and rejoin the Guren Type Two to fight off the Knights of Round.

The Z0-1 weapon Lancelot tore into the artificial courtyard where Nunally and Zero were, causing a vacuum effect due to high altitude. Meaning that there was a suction pulling on everything inside the courtyard. Despite facing the experimental weapon that was the new generation of Knightmare, all the terrorist leader could do was try to reach Nunally. Gentle, sweet, Nunally who had never done a crime in her life. She who had been denied the right to even pull a crime because of Britannia.

"Nunally!,"shouted both Lelouch and Suzaku. Suzaku accelerated the Lancelot gently and grabbed Nunally, who had threatened to fly out of her wheelchair due to her delicate form. Lelouch took a few steps, unfortunately losing his attraction to the ground in doing so. Suzaku saw him, and was tempted to destroy the "imposter" Zero. But a wild thought wormed its way into his mind, 'If it was Lelouch, how could I kill him in front of Nunally?' He shook his head from the thought. Lelouch was at home. For now, he was Suzaku's best friend. This man was not -could not- be Lelouch. Unfortunately for Suzaku, his thoughts kept him from actually acting until it was too late to do anything about Zero, the fortress shook with an explosion, and dropped nose-down.

Lelouch was blessed with a moment of luck - he landed on Lancelot's foot, right before Lancelot tore off through the hole it made, leaving the doomed ship. As soon as they were clear of the falling ship however, Lelouch did his most irrational and foolish calculation ever: he took out his pistol and fired the Knightmare's cockpit. Though the bullet did nothing more than make a bang! sound, it was enough for Suzaku to fumble with his controls, and the hand sheltering Nunally involunteraly jerked, forcing her out of safety and into a wild free fall.

Lelouch immediantly jumped off the Lancelot, trying to catch Nunally as she fell. He didn't even remember to scream while he fell to his death. He was inches away from Nunally's arm, he moved it closer, and tried to accelerate his fall. Lelouch reached out and grabbed Nunally, but she could tell who's gloved hand it was and jerked away.

"Nunally! It's me!"

"Lelou-?,"before she could finish, Lelouch grabbed hold of her again, and this time the confused girl didn't pull away.

'If we die...we die together,' he thought. That sentiment did not come to pass.

Meanwhile, the Guren had just used the special Gefjun pulse emitter to paralyze the two other Knights of Round Knightmares, Tristan and Mordred. Toudou had managed to get his damaged Knightmare to safety, unfortunately leaving Kallen with only her Nuclear Pulse Emitter and the Float system to defend herself. That's when the Guren registered two foreign thermal objects falling behind her. Her first thought was missiles, but then she saw the black cape of Zero fluttering in the air, and realized that the only hope for Japan and his sister were falling to their deaths. Forgetting the two Knights of Round, she pushed dangerously hard on the forward control, grinding the gears and machinery together. The Guren moved forward at once, outstretching the hand without Rakshata's modification.

The Lancelot was still unmoving, Suzaku pleaded and pushed on the controls, even though he knew that he was stuck. When that arm jerked, it did two things, move counterclockwise, and grind two dangerously close gears to the point of breaking. The Lancelot was still only experimental, the Guren was not, so the Guren was able to move despite the grinding. Any other time the Avalon could pick Lancelot up and fix the glitch. This was not that time. He couldn't even use the other arm to catch Nunally, or move the float system for that matter. The arm had somehow crossed two circuits or machines, and were making it so the body could not move up or down.

Kallen prayed that when she caught the two falling figures, they would not die upon hitting the hard metal of the Guren's hand. Even though they were holding hands, Kallen could not take both of them on her hand, they would be killed upon hitting the steel. If she let them fall into the water, they would be killed the same way, due to the fact they had fallen from such a height. There was only one option. She could grab the clothing of one of them, not the neck of course, but any other place in the body, and hopefully the clothing would not snap while she took them into her hand. However, if she did grab one, the other would have to let go because of the sudden halt of the partner.

It didn't take a genius to figure out who was more important.

She grimly took hold of Lelouch's billowing cape, which only connected to his shoulders, not the neck, and could only watch as Nunally was forced to break her hold. She would hit the water in only a few seconds, and the force of the initial splash would...be enough.

Abandoning his last sense of rational thought, Lelouch leapt from the Guren's hand and dove to Nunally again. When he hit the water, he was not affected due to the diving board length drop. He sputtered for a moment in the cold water before diving, and there he saw her.

She was an angel that was losing its light. That was the only thing that could describe the scene. She was already dead, but Lelouch didn't even care, the madness of the moment told him that as long as Nunally's form was with him, it would be all right. He tried to swim to her, but before he moved more than a few feet, he found himself hoisted into the sun by the Guren. Kallen had opened the cockpit for him.

"Lelouch! Get in!", she pleaded. She knew he wouldn't though, he was sitting on the hand, mouth wide open, his eyes twitching in their sockets. He fainted. Kallen cursed and closed the cockpit as she saw the Britannian helicopters approaching. She hurried back towards the Knightmare carrier, sheltering Lelouch from harm.

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-Order of the Black Knights H.Q-

Toudou carried the unconscious masked man silently. When the Knights had first seen him, they had mistaken the condition for death, but even when it was confirmed that he was alive, the Black Knights started whispering amongst themselves. The great leader had been defeated, and he had barely escaped with his life, not to mention that Governer Nunally was dead, causing unrest among the Japanese - after all, a child for governer was more innocent than a hardened brigadier general, or anyone from the military for that matter. The failed assault had certainly set them back by quite a huge amount. Senba of the Four Holy blades had perished in the battle, and two of the Holy Blade Knightmares had been lost, their pilots barely escaping. The other member of the Holy Blades, Ubare, had fallen to the Vincent in the Babel Tower weeks earlier, leaving only Toudou's broken Knightmare as the last reminder of the group. Popularity for the Black Knights had been shaken due to the killing of an unarmed, innocent child (Britannia was quick to blame the Order as the ones at fault, when it was they who put her in that position in the first place). Dozens of Burai had been lost as well, and the Kyoto Group refused to replace all the losses, commenting that the attack had no reason to fail while they had the Guren. Seeing Zero's broken body did nothing for morale. Even the loud mouth Tamaki was silenced upon seeing the "invulnerable" leader helpless.

Kallen followed Toudou as he carried Zero to his private quarters. She actually dreaded the awakening of her leader. Nunally had been his sister, and the one thing Kallen could say about Lelouch the student (that was good) was that he cared for that little blind girl more than he could ever care for himself.

Toudou layed down the leader in his bed, made a silent prayer, and walked off. Kallen watched Zero in fear for a moment. If Lelouch had lost his will to fight, than Japan was doomed. Karen Kozuki could never exist, there would be only that hollow, quiet, Kallen Stadtfeld. C.C suddenly appeared, almost making Kallen jump.

"Is he able?", asked C.C.

"He fainted."

C.C got a funny look on her face,"Lelouch? Faint?"

Kallen faced the inquisitive witch almost angrily,"His sister is dead."

C.C actually gasped at that, a rare enough thing.

Kallen continued,"She died right in front of him. I'm scared."

The green-haired woman tilted her head questioningly,"For him? Or for yourself?"

Kallen stared C.C down again,"What does that mean?"

"I'm sorry if it sounded like I thought you were selfish. But everyone is fighting for themselves here, not only you."

It was Kallen's turn to be confused,"What are you talking about?! I fight for Japan! We're all fighting for Japan together. How is that selfish?"

C.C shook her head,"It seems to me like the Japanese cannot let their past go and embrace Britannia's rule. There is nearly half the world that agrees with Britannia, and the Japanese do not care for those that do. They only believe in their conquered country, and give their lives for it. That is why it is selfish to fight for something because you didn't like it. It doesn't really matter to me though, as long as it gives Lelouch the power he needs."

Kallen could tell that there was no point arguing with C.C, so she instead posed a question the Black Knights murmered amongst themselves:

"Why did you give Lelouch the Geass? Why do you follow him? Why-?

"I do not follow him. He is my partner in this contract. I gave him the Geass because he was the most suitable person for it. Now let me ask my question again, are you scared for Lelouch, or for Karen Kozuki?"

Kallen, though indignant, did not answer immediantly. She did not think she cared much about Lelouch, the dark haired boy, always manipulating someone, whether at school or in the battlefield, and smiling while he did it. She cared for Zero, she was scared for Zero, and that was what she believed. But Zero was Lelouch, so that must have meant she cared for Lelouch. That didn't sound right either.

She shook her head, all she had succeeded in doing was throughly confusing herself. In a way, she felt as if she had a deep love for Zero, and a great disliking for Lelouch. They were two halves on the same coin, and she couldn't just take Zero's half and walk away.

"I am scared...for Lelouch, and for myself,"she finally decided. She had meant to say that she was scared for Zero, but she finally realized that Lelouch and Zero had always shared the same beliefs, the same lives, and the same loves. She wanted to respect and care for Lelouch as much as she did for Zero, because Karen Kozuki knew the pain of loss he had been carrying all his life, and knew the pain of losing her family. Naoto had meant as much as Nunally did to Lelouch, and her mother, who now confined to a Britannian cell for twenty years, was also another loss in her life. Kallen could never be strong enough to keep moving as Lelouch did. That boy had lost his mother and first handedly witness it, and was able to move on. He was able to renounce a title as Britannian prince, forcing him out of the comforts of his life. He was able to come to terms for Nunally's losses and love her all the same. He was able to rally an entire country of people under his will, and still keep that calm smile on his face every day. Kallen shivered at the kind of man it took to live on after all of that.

And now she was scared that he had finally lost the last string holding his broken body together. She was scared for herself too, what if she had to be Kallen Stadtfeld for good? What if she would die without making the mark on the world she wanted to make? What if she was seperated from Lelouch and his friends forever?

Kallen snapped herself out of her thoughts,"C.C, I have a truck parked in the building. I'll take Lelouch back to the academy. Maybe you should stay here and watch over the Knights?"

C.C shook her head again,"Right now, I think Lelouch is the one we need to worry about."

All Kallen could do was agree.

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Part two soon, as in the more reviews I get, the sooner it comes.