The door shut quietly behind their mother who had bid them good night. The room was illuminated with a pale light from the full moon, highlighting her brother's sleeping face. However, the worried look on her mother's face would not let her rest, especially after the sneering threats she had received earlier that day from her half-siblings. Making sure to not wake her brother, Nunnally threw her covers to the side as she jumped down to the floor, her small feet barely making a sound. Softly padding her feet on the floor, she ran to the door and slowly opened it; peeking an eye out to see if anyone was out. When there was nobody, the six year old girl squeezed through the opening before gently shutting the door back.
She silently ran down the immensely long hallway of the Aries Palace, the place lighted by the soft moonlight shining through the colored panes. Her silky, light chestnut hair bounced off her shoulders as she searched for her mother's bedroom, the location lost in her mind. She stopped as she heard the familiar sweet sound of her mother's voice coming from the lower level of the building. Suppressing a giggle when imagining what her mother would say when she saw her, the young girl stayed low as she ran down the stairs; glancing through the rails for her mother. Her light violet eyes spotted her mother at the other staircase, seemingly in a conversation with somebody she couldn't quite see.
Making sure she was hidden, Nunnally crept behind the tall, marble pillars; listening intently to her mother. She stopped short when her mother ran down the steps to meet the unknown person from before. She realized that the person her mother was speaking to was a small child, looking a little older than her own brother.
"…I have asked that everyone leave, even telling Cornelia to remove herself. What is this urgent need of yours?" Her mother's voice sounded stranger than Nunnally had ever heard. It sounded colder; different than the warm, sweet voice that she and Lelouch always heard. She hugged onto the pillar she was hiding behind as she continued to watch her mother.
"Forgive me for coming here alone," the child said in a voice not unlike the voices of her half-siblings like Carline. "Charles wasn't able to make it."
"If it's about the Sword of Akasha-"
"What? No, it's about Charles."
Marianne looked down at V.V. questionably. "Ever since you met Charles," V.V. continued, "he's changed. He acts as if it's a joy for the two of you to be in such understanding of each other."
The mocking smile on his face along with his unforgiving eyes put the woman on edge. She didn't like the way he was talking and she knew that the conversation would end badly. V.V. had never liked her; she had always seen the seething glares he would send at her when he thought her back was turned. But seeing as she was standing in front of him unprotected, she had to make sure not to make him upset. She raised a hand to her chest as he continued to speak. "At this rate, the pact that we've kept for so long with will be rendered non-existent."
"V.V.-"
"Even in mythological times, it was always the women who seduced the men into evil." The room seemed to suddenly drop in temperature at the tone of his voice. The innocent childlike face of his mismatched with the way his words dripped off of his tongue so easily.
"Empress Marianne!" She stiffened at the voice she heard and she whirled around to see two of her guards walking down the stairs toward her. Hadn't she told Cornelia to keep everyone out?
"What are you doing here?" she asked hurriedly, lifting the edges of her dress up as she started up the stairs. "I told you to remove yourselves-" Her words were silenced as she heard the too familiar sound of gunshots ring through the air. She felt as if little balls of fire ripped through her, excruciating pain enveloping her entire body. She could barely cry out as she fell to the ground. She could feel the warm blood seep out from under her; and as she watched it she knew that it was also her life seeping out as well. She couldn't believe that she had been foolish enough to come see V.V. alone, and now she was paying for it.
"It's over," she could hear V.V. say behind her. Her vision swirled as she tried to stay conscious, the long fingers of death reaching towards her. "Yes, begin covering up the situation. We'll use Nunnally as a false witness."
A small cry caused her to push away the foggy haze in front of her eyes as fear took over her. There was Nunnally, her young six-year-old daughter, staring at her, eyes wide in horror and fear. How had she gotten there? But survival won over her protectiveness of her children as she felt power, her Geass, that she had never called upon before grow in her left eye. As she drew her last breath, she looked her daughter straight in the eye and she could feel herself leave her body and jump into Nunnally's. She immediately fell into the back of her daughter's mind and rested.
/
Nunnally felt an overpowering urge to jump to her feet and run away as fast as she could. Her young mind couldn't comprehend what she had just seen. She ran in the shadows of the giant hall, straight back to her own room. She could hear loud footsteps far behind her, probably coming for her like that boy had said. Tears ran down her cheeks as she swung the door open as hard as her small hands could and jumped straight into her bed, the door slamming shut behind her. She ducked under covers as she shook, feeling her small heart pounding against her chest. Her breathing was labored as she tried to stifle her sobs; desperately trying to convince herself that what had happened had been her own imagination. Slowly but surely, as she thought more and more that her mother's death was only a bad dream, her sobs lessened until it was only a few hiccups.
"Nunnally?"
At the sound of the heavenly voice, she slowly peeked her eye out from the safety blanket she had created to see Lelouch. She could see the worry in his eyes as he took in the sight of her tear-stricken face. "Onii-sama!" she cried as she threw the blanket off of her and jumped straight into his arms. The boy could barely hold his ground as he caught his sister, surprised. The sobs she had held back once again freely fell down her cheeks. She felt her brother's strong arms wrap around her and she could feel his warm breath against her neck as he whispered soothing words to her. She gripped his sleeves tightly as she tried to stifle her cries. That night, Marianne died and Nunnally was reborn.
AN: A new story that I thought of recently. I was playing with this idea for a while and decided to try it out. Please don't flame me considerably, some nice thoughts about the story or my writing is fine. This is the prologue and later chapters will be much longer.
