Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of its characters.
Note: This story will probably take place some time after Euphemia's death, but I don't think it's quite R2 yet…Anyway, it's definitely AU and has at least four OCs. OOC should be expected. I haven't watched as much of this series as I would like, so please bare with me if I get events and stuff wrong.
Summary: Before Suzaku and Lelouch knew it, they were already being swept up by the warmth of these two rays. As war between the Black Knights and the Britannian Empire continues to wage on, can they illuminate the right path to a better world? Is their warmth and love enough to untangle the bonds of a twisted fate?
Two seventeen or eighteen year olds walked down a hall of the Imperial Britannian Palace. The first girl had confident ruby colored eyes and long, rich bluish brown hair that fell to the small of her back. She wore a short, white, kimono-esque dress that barely fell below her hips, complete with long bell styled sleeves with a red ribbon running through it, along with blood red shorts that fell three inches above her knees, the color just slightly visible from under the dress. A red phoenix design was upon the dress, its elegant fiery feathers stretching even to the back. She wore on her head a stylish white hat with a red rose on the side. Her shoes were red open toed heels that clicked even on the carpeted floor. Around her neck was a blood red ribbon choker with a white opal styled in the form of a rose connected to it.
The other girl however had beautiful sapphire blue eyes, large with a sort of shyness, a timidity, akin to that of a frightened mouse. Her hair, like the other girl's, was bluish brown, only her hair fell nearly to her knees. She wore in her hair a blue rose with a lacey black veil falling down from it like a see through curtain. Her skin was pale compared to the other girl. She wore a blue high collared, no sleeved dress that fell to her knees, the front laced with black ribbon. The sides were slit at the hip, revealing that she wore black leggings under it, blue and black boots nearly reaching her knees. She wore disjointed black sleeves that started from her forearms, falling eventually into a bell style, with a blue rose design running the length. She wore a necklace that fell just below her collarbone, made out of blue ribbon with a black opal rose falling from it.
The girl with blue eyes held onto the other girls hand as they ventured further into the palace, smiling and greeting the other soldiers and officers as they passed. "Hikari," The blue eyed girl stated in a quiet and shy voice, "Do you think Princess Cornelia and Prince Schneizel will be there to greet us today?"
"I hope so, Lucia." Hikari answered with a sly smile, "I'd of course much rather talk to the two of them than getting an earful from Lloyd!"
"Well, you did you trash his Excalibur in Russia*." Lucia stated, "And it was the new model, too. He'll be furious with you; you weren't even in combat!"
Hikari's face flushed nearly a scarlet red, "Well…How was I supposed to know that mountain was insecure for landing on! I told him having a unit that only flies and lands is no good!"
"What's no good?" The two girls were startled by the voice of none other than Cornelia.
"Your Highness!" Lucia exclaimed.
Hikari, who had held her breath the moment someone had spoke, let it out in a loud and relieved sigh, "For a moment I thought you were Lloyd!"
"Oh?" Cornelia raised a brow at the two girls, "And Lloyd is more fearful than a Princess of Britannia?"
Lucia giggled when Hikari's face turned red again, "It's not that, Princess, it's just that Hikari recently totaled Lloyd's new version of the Excalibur, and she's trying to avoid getting yelled at by him."
Cornelia chuckled, "I see. In that case, you'll be relieved to know that Lloyd is no longer in the capital. On the contrary, he's returned to Area 11 with Cecile already. Come into the thrown room; we'll discuss more about your arrival back in Britannia."
The two girls nodded and followed their princess deeper into the palace, finally arriving at the huge, red carpeted thrown room. Cornelia walked up the small steps to the thrown and, turning, asked, "So, how was your time in Russia?"
"What can I say, Your Highness?" Hikari said grimly, "After all we were fighting a resistance group." Hikari's eyes were darkened by grimness, sparkling with a painful emotion.
"I know you dislike these kinds of missions." Cornelia stated. "So I've decided that you should be reassigned. Since you and your sister are friends of the Royal Family, I will ask you where you would rather go."
"Thank you, Princess." Lucia said quietly.
"We want to fulfill Euphemia's wish for us." Hikari said, "She told us…before…before that happened, that since we were still only seventeen, we should go back to school."
"Hm…" Cornelia said thoughtfully, "I understand. Then you will be reassigned to Area 11. I'll send Lloyd a message before you arrive there. In Area 11, there is a school called Ashford Academy where a Knight, Sir Suzaku Kururugi, is also attending school. However, I would never allow you two to live in dorm rooms. There is supposedly a house there that is used for the Student Council. I'm sure that there are extra rooms there that the two of you can live comfortably in for your time at the school. However, I do expect you to keep up with your military duties."
"Hikari," Lucia whispered, "We'll get to see Suzaku again!"
"Thank you, Your Highness." Hikari stated to their princess, "We shall leave immediately, if that's alright with you." Cornelia nodded and the girls immediately left to pack their bags.
Code Geass
Illuminating the Path
Chapter One
The Reunion of the Past
Suzaku sighed as he walked from his dorm room across the school grounds towards the Ashford Academy building. He passed by many groups of students on his way. He silently wondered if Lelouch were already there in the classroom. He felt extremely tired and knew it would be a hard day to pay attention to the teacher teach, but being the model student he was, he would have to listen. Suzaku let another long, drawn out sigh; oh yes, it was going to be a long, long day. What was worse was that he had Student Council after school today, too, and he wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to stand the insanity of it all.
"Morning Suzaku." Shirley said, drawing the boy out of his pondering, "Are you okay? You look like something's on your mind."
"Oh it's nothing, really." Suzaku answered, "Just…tired I guess."
"Hm? Are you sure? Well, I guess I'll see you in class then. We have around ten minutes still, but don't be late!" Shirley waved goodbye to the brown haired boy and ran off, probably to talk to Milly or one of the other Student Council members.
"Ten minutes?" Suzaku said to himself, "Is my clock in my dorm wrong or something? I thought I only had five…"
Suzaku frowned to himself. Despite his answer and how sluggish his body felt, she was right. Something was on his mind. Last night, when he was with Lloyd and Cecile, Lloyd had stated that he had something to tell him that was very important. However, by the end of his checkup there, Lloyd had either forgotten what it was that he had wanted to say, or simply didn't tell Suzaku because he probably thought it amusing to keep it from him. He had gone home, feeling exhausted and not really caring if he knew or not. Waking up this morning, he really wanted to know what had been so important. Not to mention he awoke with the feeling that something was going to happen today, but he wasn't sure if it would be good or bad.
A cute meow at his feet brought him out of his ponderings once more. Looking down he realized that a strangely elegant looking white cat with black stripes running across its back was playing with a poor cricket at his feet. "Well hello there, kitty." The cat peered up at Suzaku with big blue eyes at the sound of his voice. She wore a red collar around her neck with a silver tag reading Genevieve. "Are you lost?" He spoke gently to the cat, "Do you want me to help you find your owner?" Suzaku bent down to pet the cat, but she suddenly hissed at him and scratched his outstretched hand. "Ow!"
A giggle that sounded oddly familiar sounded from above him. Looking up, Suzaku was met with the sight of a shaking from laughter Hikari and a softly giggling Lucia, both having already dressed in the school uniforms but they're necklaces and head accessories remained. He stared at the two oddly familiar girls, captured by the beauty of their gem colored eyes. "Still having an aversion with cats I see." Hikari said playfully. She bent and scooped the white cat up into her arms, looking up at Suzaku with red eyes shining in amusement.
Flustered, Suzaku stood up straight with the red eyed girl, saying, "I happen to like cats just fine, but apparently they don't like me very much. Are you two new students? I've never seen you before."
The two girls gave him an almost pained expression as Lucia said timidly, "Y…you don't remember us then?"
"You do look familiar…" Suzaku said, frowning. He stared at the two girls who stood side by side in a fashion that gave him the odd feeling he'd seen the two girls standing before him in such a position before. An image of the garden he once had before Japan was invaded flashed through him mind: He and Lelouch sat in the garden sipping tea at one side of the table. Nunnally was on the side of the table, while sitting across from the two boys were two girls staring at them with identically large, but different in colored, eyes.
Suzaku's mouth dropped in realization. He stood frozen as he drank in the image of the two girls from his memories who were now suddenly teenagers, the same age as he, unaware of the other students surrounding them that had stopped to stare at the unfamiliar students as well. These two girls: Could they really be – ?
"Do me a favor." Suzaku heard himself saying suddenly, "You with the hat. Please take it off and put your hair up in pigtails. And you, pull yours back into a ponytail."
"Our names are not 'You'." Hikari said indignantly for herself and her sister, but nonetheless let Genevieve down and the two did as they were told.
As the two complied with his request, the seven, almost eight year old, memory of conversing with the two girls across from himself became clearer and clearer. It really was the girls from his past! Suzaku felt himself gasp when his heart momentarily leaped at the conclusion he had made, "It is you." Suzaku whispered. "Lucia and Hikari…"
"Bingo." Hikari said, satisfied and smirking, while putting her hat back into place.
"I don't believe it…" Suzaku commented numbly.
"Well you might want to pretty soon, since we're going to start attending Ashford Academy now too, Sir Knight." Hikari said, "And please, don't start crying!"
"I don't believe it." Suzaku repeated, "You guys are here…How? Why?"
The two looked confused. "What do you mean?" Lucia asked, "Didn't Lloyd tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
Hikari sighed exasperatedly, "God damn it, Lloyd."
"We sort of panicked this morning because you were supposed to meet us at the front gate." Lucia explained.
"Which Lloyd was supposed to have informed you of last night." Hikari did nothing to hide her obvious annoyance at the scientist's lack of communication.
Lelouch had just dropped Nunnally off at her class, leaving the middle school building and beginning the walk towards the high school building. He realized that he didn't have to do that, as Sayoko was perfectly capable of doing that herself, but he felt guilty for leaving his dear sister alone for such a long time because of the Black Knights and him being Zero and all. He figured that bringing his sister to class was the least he could do as an apology to her. Looking down at his watch, Lelouch's eyes grew wide. He only had five minutes till class would start!
"Great!" Lelouch shouted to himself as he had to begin running, "Running is definitely not my strong suit! If I'm late again, I'll get detention, and Milly'll chew me out for not going to the meeting this afternoon!"
As Lelouch drew nearer to the building, he was vaguely aware of the fact that there were so many students who still remained outside of the school building, more than usual. They all seemed to be whispering to their individual groups of friends and classmates about the same subject, shooting glances towards a common direction. Ignoring this fact, thinking that it was just simply a gossip thing, Lelouch soon saw Rivalz standing with Kallen, Milly, and Shirley, all of whom were doing the same thing.
"Hey guys, what's up?" Lelouch questioned Rivalz when they were within hearing range.
"Oh hey, Lelouch." Kallen greeted him.
"Suzaku seems to be talking to these two new girls." Rivalz explained, pointing in their direction.
"Hm both seem to be such nice rounded 8's if I do say so myself.*" Milly observed.
"M-Madam President!" Shirley stuttered, "Not with that again!"
"But you gotta agree with her, Shirley, those two really are easy to look at." Rivalz said, looking now with big eyes, "Right, Lelouch? You agree don't you?" When he received no answer, he looked around and realized Lelouch was no longer standing with them, but was walking towards Suzaku and the two girls. "Hey, Lelouch, wait a minute buddy! Tch. Wish I had that much confidence to approach such fine girls."
Lelouch, who had a better memory than Suzaku, recognized the two girls immediately. Disbelieving at first, he had to get a closer look to confirm what he thought. As he drew closer, he became more and more certain that they were from his past. Soon, he was standing just a few feet away from where Suzaku and the two were conversing, so caught up in catching up that they didn't notice all the people whispering and watching nearby.
"So where are you two staying?" Suzaku asked.
"No one's supposed to know, but," Lucia whispered.
"We're staying at this big building that's supposed to be used by the Student Council, rather than the dorms." Hikari kept her voice low too, "Princess Cornelia doesn't know it, but we were told by the superintendent that there's supposedly two other people living in it."
"Oh, uh, I guess so…Um, you two are still wearing those." Suzaku changed the subject, indicating their necklaces.
"Of course." Lucia replied.
"We'd never take these off, not since you and Lulu gave us them in the rose garden." Hikari finished.
"You…two…" Lelouch said slowly, his eyes wide in shock.
They turned to the speaker, and their eyes immediately showed their astonishment. It was their turn for their mouths to drop, gaping wide eyed at the raven haired, amethyst eyed boy. "Le…Lelouch…" Lucia whispered to herself.
To their great surprise, and of course to the girls in the surrounding area's horror, Hikari, without a word, lunged forward. She wrapped her arms around Lelouch's neck and pulled him tightly to herself, near tears, whispering thankfully in his ear, "I never thought I'd see you again."
*I know that this country was conquered by Britannia, but I don't know what its area number is.
*If you don't understand this, go back and watch episode 3 of the first season.
End Note: Okay, so that's the first chapter of this story. I hope you like it; thanks for reading! Please review!