Code Geass FanFic

Takes place right after the end of the first season. In other words, after that cliffhanger.
So the starting situation contains spoilers. You have been warned.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. (Not the series, either.)

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Destiny of the Geass
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"Suzaku!!!!"
"Lelouch!!!"

Click

The gunshot echoed in the cavern and for a moment it seemed like time itself had stopped.
Then, the sound of a gun dropping to the floor followed by a louder thump as the owner of the gun also fell on the cold ground.

Karen's eyes widened, and a reflexive cry escaped her lips in the form of, "Zero!!"
while the gun she had been holding onto slipped out of her shaking hands.

The cry also brought Suzaku's mind back to the gruesome view in front of him.
There, only a few meters away, lay his best friend, bleeding on the ground. All the rage and hatred
he had been feeling just a few moments ago was all but gone, leaving him unable to deal with the sight before his eyes.

"L-Lelouch?" The voice was quiet, almost a whisper, and filled with mixed emotions ranging from guilt and regret to anger,
this time directed at himself.

The only answer was a pained grunt, as Lelouch attempted to rise up only to slump back down,
forced by the stabbing pain in his chest. Not stopping to think about it, Suzaku dashed the few meters between them and kneeled beside his friend, carefully turning him over to face upwards.

For a short while, they just stayed that way, Lelouch's head resting against Suzaku's leg.
It was the first time Lelouch had felt so peaceful since meeting C.C. and he wanted to enjoy it for as long as he could.
Suzaku, on the other hand, was shaking considerably, tears streaming down his cheeks accompanied by occasional sniffs.

Seeing Zero, as she had learned to adress him, resting against Suzaku made Karen feel somehow...irritated.
She didn't know why, especially since she should've been mad at Lelouch for using her and the other members of the Resistance,
but instead, she felt...jealous. And before she knew it, she had already sneaked up on the two, ready to knock down Suzaku.

But just as Karen was about to bring her fists down on the unsuspecting ex-Imperial Knight, Lelouch's eyes slowly opened.

"Su...zaku?" The voice was weak, almost humble, and not at all like the Lelouch the other two had learned to know.
Suzaku quickly wiped off his tears, turning his attention on the boy resting against him.

"Lelouch...What...what have I done? I-I didn't...I didn't mean it to end like this! After Euphie's death I just...I just..."
His voice trailed off, and the tears continued their advance despite his best efforts.

"It's...enough, already. I-" Lelouch was interrupted by a sudden, violent coughing fit.

After the fit had passed, Lelouch continued, ignoring the blood he had just coughed on his hands,
"I guess...I always knew this would be one game I would never live to see through. H-ha, ha ha..."
His laughter soon ended in another coughing fit, further bloodening his hands and clothes.

Suzaku was clearly taken aback by Lelouch's confession, and with strong disbelief in his voice, he asked,
"Then why?! Why did you do it? For Nunnally? Do you...Do you really believe she would enjoy a world created through sacrifice?!" Suzaku's willfulness was gradually beginning to return, along with his detestation for Zero's methods.

"Heh...No, she wouldn't have. But it would still have been better than living in this rotten world where the weak become sacrifices. She...deserves better. Better than we do, at least. Your method...would've been too slow, and that is why I chose my own path..."
A small, pained smile crossed the pale lips.

"So it really was for her..." Suzaku's newly gained strength was wavering, but it did not disappear.
Lelouch slowly turned his head to the side, looking towards the gate which led to where Nunnally was being held hostage.

"Yes... For Nunnally's sake, I swore I'd create a new, better world, even if I had to destroy the current one in order to do that."
A small pause, during which Lelouch's eyes closed once more. "But...That wasn't all."

Suzaku's eyebrow rose at this. "Then?" he inquired, feeling a need to know why Lelouch had chosen the path he did. Karen, who had felt like an outsider for a while now, was also eager to hear the whole truth.

"The other reason...was to avenge the death of my mother." Karen felt a slight stab of sympathy at hearing this from the person he had been serving under.

Suzaku, who might have condemned that as something horrible just a few days earlier, found it suprisingly easy to relate to his friend's reasoning. After all, he had himself come here for revenge.

"In the end...I never even found out who it was that ordered the assassination. Ironic, no?"
As if to emphasize his words, Lelouch burst into hysterical laughter, which was almost immediately stopped by a coughing fit, though.

After the coughing had ended, Lelouch seemed to rememeber something and opened his mouth as if to say something,
but no words came out. Instead, his mouth only moved, mouthing a single word – a name? Then, turning his face downwards,
a single tear trickled down his cheek and, for reasons known only to him, his face was distorted by deep sadness.

Seeing Lelouch so powerless, so...vulnerable, filled Karen with renewed hatred for the Britannia.
She wanted to do something for him, anything. Even if he had used her, she still wanted to believe in him.
It was a foolish sentiment, but she couldn't help feeling that way.

"Ze- I-I mean Lelouch?" Even if she held no grudge for him, there was still something she had to know.
Purple eyes turned to her but no words were spoken.

Karen, feeling suprisingly uneasy, asked the question that had been bothering her for a while,
"Um, Lelouch? Between...well, Lelouch and Zero, which one is the real you?"

"The real...me?" There was a brief silence as Lelouch thought about the question before giving a cryptic answer,
"You could say...that I am both. But at the same time...neither."

"Eh-?" The answer was nowhere near what Karen had expected, and even Suzaku seemed suprised.
But there was no further explanation as Lelouch's eyes slowly closed, strength draining from his body, until he just lay there, as if sleeping.

"L-Lelouch!?" Karen kneeled on Lelouch's other side, opposite of Suzaku.

It seemed like he hadn't heard her. Or perhaps he had already died? There was no movement, no voice, nothing.
His eyes were closed, and all the colour had drained from his pale face.

"D-don't die! You can't...you can't leave me!" Karen's voice was rising in volume, and she was clinging onto Lelouch's hand desperately while wetness was starting to form around her eyes. Suzaku was gazing at the ground, gritting his teeth while the memories of eight years ago were being reminded of by the current situation.

A single waterdrop dropped from the cavern's ceiling, making a plopping sound as it hit a small puddle of water.

"No, no, no, no, NO!!!!" Karen cried out, shaking her head in disbelief, tears flooding out like raging streams.
Suzaku closed his eyes, not wanting to see Karen, who was flailing desperately around screaming Lelouch's name.

But, as if summoned back by the voice calling his name, Lelouch's eyes slowly opened once more, and he hoarsely called out,
"Ka...ren?"

Both Suzaku and Karen winced and turned towards the voice, shocked.

Suzaku was the first to get the words out, "L-Lelouch?"

A broad smile spread across Lelouch's lips for a moment, before he winced in pain.
"I...Cannot die...not yet. I still have...something left to do."

"T-that's right! Zero...Zero wouldn't die from something like this!" Karen exlaimed, her voice relieved and a smile forming on her face.

"Some...thing?" Suzaku asked, his face showing both relief and anxiety, torn between his newly awakened feelings for his friend and his duty, both for Britannia and for the deceased Euphemia.

"Yes...Suzaku," he turned to face his friend, "I ask you to take care of Nunnally...Promise me you'll save her, Suzaku. I beg you.
"The once proud Lelouch was already dead. All that was left of him were the attachments he still held for this world.

Suzaku's face lit up, "Leave it to me. I will certainly rescue her. You have my word as a knight of Britannia. Ah-!"
An apolotegic smile, "No...as an old friend." A meek smile rose to Lelouch's face. "Thank you...Suzaku."

Karen was starting to piece the meaning behind Lelouch's words together, and a frightened expression manifested itself on her face.
"Wait-! You...you can save her yourself, Lelouch! I-I'll help you! We'll do it together!"

Lelouch slowly turned to face the red haired girl he had learned to trust - as a subordinate, of course.
"Karen...The Order of the Black Knights...I leave to you. Do with it what you will."

The girl's blue eyes widened, and she furiously started shaking her head, grabbing into Lelouch's hand as if to keep him in the world of the living by force.

With an amused look characteristic to him, he gazed at the two beside him like they were making a huge fuss out of nothing.
"Everything's settled then." A small pause, "Now that I think about it, I wonder when everything started going astray."

" Was it when I met C.C.? When mother was assassinated? From even before then?" The eyelids slowly started closing, while his voice kept growing ever stronger instead.

"You know, Suzaku...When I used the Geass on you to command you to live back in Shikinejima, I never thought it would end in my death." Suzaku's eyes widened, but Lelouch paid it no heed and continued on, "And that incident with Euphie...Truly tragic, that one. I had already agreed to co-operate with her, but then...my Geass, it went out of control. Hmph...I guess it doesn't matter anymore, though. What's done is done."

Suzaku had started shaking hysterically, going through everything he'd just been told over and over in his mind, fastforwarded.
And when the realization struck him, his face distorted with countless mixed feelings both from now and from way back,
and he very nearly collapsed on the floor next to Lelouch from the shock.

"Y-you mean... You mean it could've worked?! That nobody might not have had to die?!!"
His voice was desperate, as if he was clinging onto a single thread of hope with all his might.

"Yeah...If not...if not for this cursed Geass." Suzaku's mind snapped and he started giggling hysterically, while Karen could only listen in silence, trying to figure out what they were talking about. What this 'Geass' was, and how it had had such a huge impact on what had happened.

Finally, Lelouch's eyelids closed, and a bitter smile formed on his lips. With the last of his breath, he quietly whispered into the damp cavern, "I just wish I could've seen her...one more time. To say that I'm...sorry." With that, the last of his life fled him, and the body lying between the giggling Suzaku and the hysterically crying Karen grew limp.

Moments passed, and after the giggling and crying sounds had died out, there was silence.
It went on for what seemed like forever, the two figures just kneeling there beside Lelouch's corpse.

Abruptly, Suzaku opened his mouth, "He...always put Nunnally before himself. Even after he became Zero. It was..."
A sniff, "...the only path he could find." Karen, whose were eyes frighteningly empty, turned her head slightly towards the other.

Still facing downwards, Suzaku continued, "I don't think you knew, but...Lelouch...He was once a prince of Britannia."
A small flicker appeared at Karen's eyes after hearing about the past of the now dead Lelouch.

"Back then, he was still living in Britannia with Nunnally and their mother. But around eight years ago...his mother was assassinated. During the incident, Nunnally was also critically injured, losing her eyesight and ability to walk. After that, the two were sent here to Japan as political hostages, which is how I met them."

"Then..." Karen started, having finally regained her voice, "That's why he hated the Britannia so much?"
Now that she thought about it, it did make sense. She had never questioned Zero's hatred for the Britannia, but neither had she ever wondered where that hatred came from. At the time, it hadn't been important to her.

"Yeah...I guess Britannia's invasion to here was the last straw. At that time, seven years ago, he told me he'd find a way to destroy the Britannia for what it had done. I...never thought he'd really try it. It's...it's my fault! I-I-!"

A small hand firmly gripped Suzaku's shoulder, and a voice that had regained it's confidence told him, "Stop taking it all on yourself! He's..." the voice wavered a little, but quickly regained it's composure, "He's already dead!"

Suzaku's eyes bulged, but Karen didn't stop, "We can grieve all we want later, but right now, there is something we have to do! Something only we can do!"

Suzaku flinched at Karen's tone, but then he also realized it. "Nunnally!"
Karen nodded at him, turning towards the gate which hid behind it both Nunnally and the one who'd taken her.

She didn't know what lay in wait behind that gate, but whatever it be, she would let nothing stand in her way.
It was the least she could do for the dead Lelouch's soul.

And for her own.

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If you were wondering about the liquid sakuradite part, Lelouch bluffed it. (In this fanfic at least)
I actually planned to write it in there somewhere, but then forgot. And didn't feel like adding it afterwards.

The next, and most likely final, chapter will be done...when? No idea. I'll write it eventually, but it might take a while.
Of course, reviews might cough speed up cough the progress