The moment his feet touched the ground, the corrupted armor that Ludger had donned so many times before encompassed his body, blood red light flowing between the cracks. "What are you going to choose!" his other self demanded of him, charging at him in full speed. Ludger was conflicted. On one hand, this was the last Waymarker needed to reach Canaan. This was the last obstacle to bring an end to the corruption of the world. He needed to defeat this opponent, for the sake of everyone he cared about.
But...
'This is Elle's father...' Ludger thought, the grip of his spear tightening. 'He's me... this is how I would turn out... But... he did that to protect Elle...' He shut his eyes closed, waiting for the impact to strike him. 'No... I can't! I won't do this! For God's sake, this is...!'
"I won't... I won't kill myself!"
Ludger's voice reached Victor's ears, and the man gritted his teeth. 'So... this is your...' he thought, just stopping short of Ludger. Then, he did something that shocked everyone. Victor grasped the tip of his other self's spear and stabbed it into his own body. Ludger's eyes widened, and Elle felt something wet fall down her tears in great force. "You can't... afford to... hesitate..." Victor gasped in pain, the spear embedded deep into his chest. Slowly, piece by piece, his Chromatus was breaking apart, dispersing into black wisps. "You have... to protect her... from now on... You... are me... You'll... protect her..."
Ludger's shock did not leave him, and felt Victor's hands pull the spear out. At the tip was a black cog that spun in darkness. The man felt all of his strength leave him, and his body fell to the ground. Elle screamed for him, running to his side. Ludger was too shocked to say anything, he just continued to stare at the man.
"No, Daddy!" Elle screamed desperately, tears flowing down her face. Victor's mouth curled into a smile, his gloved hand, so stained with blood, reached to caress her cheek. Every time he looked at her, the image of his wife, Lara Mel Marta, flowed back into his mind, her smile radiant enough to brighten the room.
"Don't cry... Elle..." he told his little girl, his body slowly becoming numb. He had been so angry then, so full of hate when he heard their proposal to offer Elle to the Prime Dimension. How could they? She was just a little girl! They were his friends! They should have tried to protect her! And yet... even Julius sided with them. He still remembered when the agents came to his house, demanding he hand Elle over. His response was their death, even that snake bastard Rideaux. His rage blinded him then, and by the time he snapped out of it, he found Bakur's corpse on the other end of the spear.
"No... Daddy... please..."
After Bakur's death, Victor left Spirius, taking Elle and Lara with them, hiding away from the world. He didn't expect his friends to find them so easily, and nor did he expect them to still cling to the belief that he should forfeit Elle to save their own skin. Once again, he felt rage. They were at the lakeside when it happened, and this time... Victor knew what he was doing. Jude was the first, his chest cut to ribbons, and then it was Leia, her head smashed into the ground. Alvin stood in front of Elize, his back riddled with holes. A gaping hole was where Rowen's heart should have been. Elize's body had been bisected, her legs no longer apart of her body. Julius had a spear lodged in his skull. His body was trembling, blood splattered everywhere.
He almost didn't hear Lara's horrified screams when she saw the bodies of his closest friends laying around them. It was only a few months after that she had passed away, leaving only Elle. He tried to raise her the best he could, to keep her safe. He didn't care what happened to him. Becoming a catalyst was not what he was concerned about. It was his daughter's safety that mattered.
'Why?' he questioned himself as he began to sing his family's tune, feeling Rolo's head rubbing against his pale skin. 'Why... did we have to be born into this life?'
When Elle saw his body slowly starting to crumble away, her sobbing grew. "NO! DADDY! DADDY, PLEASE! GET UP!" she screamed and pleaded and begged, but there was nothing anyone could do. He couldn't help but smile, nodding slightly to his true self. Ludger stiffened, but gave a grave, yet determined nod. The cog shattered, revealing it's white splendor.
'I killed Bakur, my friends, and even my brother...' Victor thought, recalling his life up to this point. He was cherishing these last few moments with his daughter. He didn't care if his life was nothing but a sham. He didn't care if his daughter was not real. He did not care if this world was a copy. To him... this was all he needed. 'I did everything... for her...'
He felt a tear stream down his cheek, darkness overcoming him with each passing second. He would vanish, and his world would be gone. And yet... he knew she would be alright. After all, he would be with her... the real him... her REAL father.
'I was willing to destroy the world for her...' Victor, formerly called Ludger Will Kresnik, thought as he heard the sound of his world shattering at long last, taking him along with it. 'I... have no regrets.'
...
...
...
"If you had the power to destroy the world, and create it anew, would you become a God... or a demon?"
"Wh-wha...?!" Victor gasped. His eyes snapped open. Shock and confusion marring his face. What happened? He was supposed to die. No. Rather...he was supposed to no longer exist, fallen into the abyss of time.
"How is this possible?! Where am I?" He demanded.
"You...are in my domain..." The entity answered.
Victor looked up to the source of the sound, only to witness the empty darkness surrounding him shatter into an entirely new setting.
He stood on a golden brick platform, marble pillars standing tall and proud were stationed at either side of his, leading down to the steps behind him. In front of him was the most beautiful sunset he had ever scene. The very sight of it rekindled joyous moments of the past; when everything was peaceful and serene. The platform stood high in the sky, breaching the clouds and reaching the heavens.
"Where...is this...?"
"As I have said before, you are in my world: The World of C..." The entity, now sounding as the meld of a multitude of voices, responded.
"C?" Victor asked. Was that the being's name?
"Indeed it is." The voices answered, reading the man's thoughts. "More specifically C...The Great Spirit of the Soul."
"Great spirit...of the Soul...?" Victor questioned. His face then hardened. "If you really area Great Spirit...Then you would know of Origin and his trial?!"
"Ah yes..." The entity remembered. It had been so long since he has heard those words, as Origin had chosen to test humanity, performing the Soul Purification process by himself, despite the burden he would be placed under. "Origin, the Great Spirit of the Void...It's been so long since I have last seen him and Chronos..."
"Why have you brought me here?!" The raven haired man demanded. "I was supposed to have disappeared. My soul was meant to go to Canaan to be purified!"
"I have brought you here to give you a choice..." C answered.
"...A choice?"
"Yes. If you had the choice to start over...would you accept?"
"Start...over...?" Those very words had been his intended wish to give to Origin. One that would've granted him a truly peaceful life with his family in the Prime Dimension.
"Yes. Allow me to show you..." C called forth a series of images, all of them showing the life of the one individual who became his World's Messiah...
Victor couldn't believe what he was seeing. The whole world around him began to unravel itself, revealing so many images. The first was a child with black hair and violet eyes, his fists clenched together as he glared at out the ruined city in front of him. Pile of rubble stretched out as far as the eye could see. "I swear... I swear Suzaku, so help me! I will one day... OBLITERATE BRITANNIA!" the boy vowed, anger seeping through his body. A brown-haired boy saw the boy's expression, and became crest-fallen, as if saddened to see his hate.
"W-what... is all of this?" Victor asked, startled.
"Fractured Dimensions..." C began to explain to the bloodstained Kresnik. "...are not the only realms of existence. What you see is a world unlike your own. Spirits cannot interfere with this world, as they do not carry mana lobes, but neither do they have the access to Spyrix technology, which harms us..." The world shifted again, this time it showed the boy who was much older, dressed in what looked like a uniform, completely black with gold trims. His face was handsome, his hair grown out to the nape of his neck, and his features regal. "In this world, a nation known as Britannia began to dominate the world, conquering country after country. Their might was formidable, for they possessed a powerful weapon... a Knightmare." Blasting through a ruined wall was what looked like a humanoid machine, steel colored purple with crimson shoulders and a black torso, armed with a rifle.
"They strip the rights, country, and history of those that have been trampled underfoot by their hand... not even their name is spared. However, there was a young boy who challenged the state of this world."
"Say... how should a Britannian who hates Britannians live his life?" the boy asked whimsically, the Knightmare vanished as if it was never there. A group of soldiers stood in front of the boy, their guns at him. Victor watched the boy carefully, studying him like a hawk. "What's the matter? Why not shoot? You're opponent is just a school boy. Or, perhaps, you finally realize..." his hand fell from his face, and Victor's eyes widened when he saw the left eye shift from violet to red, a strange symbol in the form of a bird with curled wings.
"Behold, a power that rivals even Chromatus..." C told Victor. "The Power of the King... Geass."
"The only ones who should kill... are those prepared to be killed." The boy looked the soldiers in the eye, defiance and strength burning brightly. "Now I, Lelouch vi Britannia, command you. All of you..." The symbol shifted, flapping its wings and diving straight into the eyes of the soldiers. "Die."
It took only a second before the soldiers began to laugh madly, aiming their guns at their jugulars, promising a quick death. "Happily, your Highness!" the soldier shouted in glee. "FIRE!"
Victor almost couldn't believe what he saw. "That boy is a prince of Britannia, but he had chosen to defy the will of his country." C continued. "His holds the Absolute Power to compel anyone to follow any order he gives them."
"I don't understand..." Victor shook his head, glaring at everything around him. "Why are you showing me this?! What does this boy have to do with me?!"
"Because... he is like you." The bloodstained Kresnik's eyes widened. "He was willing to throw away everything he built... everything he created... for the sake of one little girl." The scene around him changed again, this time to what looked like a lavish, yet plain living room. The boy was at a table, dressed in casual clothes, sitting beside a girl with long hair. Victor's heart ached when he saw that her eyes were closed, and that wheels were attached to her chair, which was metal instead of wood. "I wish the world were a gentler place..." the girl said softly to the boy. He could only smile, taking her hand into his. "When you can see again, I'm sure it will be... Nunnally."
"She is the boy's sister..." C informed him. "She lost both her sight and her legs... To him, that girl is the world." The world changed, and this time, a new figure stood before Victor, in the middle of a crowd, standing before the humanoid machines, the Knightmares. He was adorned in a high-collar cloak that hugged his body, the tips stretched out and curled almost like the wings of a bat, a one-piece purple suit underneath the cloak with gold tailings. At the neck was a white cravat, but what surprised Victor was the mask. It was black steel that covered the entire head, bearing five prongs that resembled a crown, and a purple orb where the face should be. Around the orb was a gold mark, a much wider version of the avian symbol that appeared on the boy's eye. "I am... Zero!"
"He took up a mask, and fought against the world... all to create a new world, one where his sister could find peace." C showed him one final image, one that shook Victor to his core. It showed the black haired boy, and the masked figure, Zero. The latter had a purple sword in hand, the blade poking out through the boy's back. "However... in the end, he sacrificed his own life to bring about that world. To that end, he became a demon to the world."
Victor said nothing. C was indeed correct, this boy was much too like him. 'He was only a boy...' he gritted his teeth, fists clenching. 'And yet... he made the same mistakes I had done...'
C showed him the boy's life story, from beginning to end. "Allow me to ask you this, Ludger Will Kresnik..." Victor flinched from having been called by his old name. "If you had the power to destroy the world, and create it anew, would you become a god... or a demon?"
"Neither." he answered. "The Chromatus only knows how to bring an end to a world. That boy... Lelouch... he is the one that creates new worlds in their place."
"Well said... I have yet to repay that boy for saving my life, as well as the souls that dwell here... I represent the collective subconscious of man, thus I am all of those that dwell within this world."
"And why did you bring me here?" Victor asked, growing impatient.
"Tell me, would you desire a second chance?" C asked him, startling him. "To fix the wrongs you have done? To ensure that this boy does not repeat the same mistakes?"
Victor was silent.
"If you were reborn... would you protect that child?"
...
"...yes."
"If you wielded the power of the Chromatus... would you destroy the world for his sake, as you had done for your daughter?"
"Yes, I would."
"Then, answer me... Victor..." the world returned to its original state, back to the orange-tinted domain. "Would you choose to defy Britannia, to create a better future?"
"I would!" Victor shouted.
In the end, there was silence.
"…..Very well then. Ludger Will Kresnik, you have affirmed your decision with resolution. But I warn you…..once you restart your life, you will no longer possess any memories of your previous existence. Are you willing to part with such things?"
"…..Yes. I am!" Victor shouted in resolve.
"Then it is settled…..!" The clouds of C's World parted, revealing a pillar of white light, slowly inching closer toward the fractured Kresnik, whose body was now encloaked in an ethereal glow. "You shall be reborn...as Victor vi Britannia!"
Victor closed his eyes, letting the words sink in. He would be reborn in a new world. A world without Spirits. A world without spyrix. A world without fractured Dimensions. A world without the burden of Origin's Trial.
In silence, Victor's physical form slowly dissipated into a orb of crimson light with a white sphere reminiscent of a cog in the center. It was soon swallowed up in the shining pillar.
The die had been cast.
The wheel of fate set in motion.
Zero Hour is approaching once more...
To be Continued…..
Preview:
"You've got spirit, I'll give you that. In fact, it reminds me of the Black Knight of Britannia." Then, just as quickly did it appear did the smile turn into a malicious smirk. "However..."
"Mindless murder?" Lelouch shook with rage, glaring at one of the people of the country that made his and his brother and sisters' life a living hell. "Then why don't you just obliterate Britannia!" "Agreed." Victor nodded. "You keep saying that you're a Holy Empire, but you stoop so low as to use chemical weapons? If anyone is committing mindless murder, it's you bastards." "...Lelouch? Victor-niisan?" The two stopped, their eyes widening. Finally, Victor recognized the voice, and stared in wonder. "It can't be..." he whispered as the solider dropped the gun and removed his helmet, revealing a youth with brown hair and green eyes. It was... "S-Suzaku?"
I would like to Thank Demons Anarchy of Pride for his help with this chapter. I highly advise to check out his stories. They are all awesome. You rock man!