Blackbird
Chapter One
thebluefrenchhorn
On March 18th, 1999, Charles zi Britannia was found dead in his quarters, his wrists sliced open. Before him, hair spread out like a dark halo and neck twisted in a decisively unsurvivable manner, lay the mutilated corpse of his fifth wife.
As the tide of history turns, swallowing them beneath its murky waves, the world roars…
Kururugi Suzaku knew he was going to die. He knew it as he knew his age, nineteen, and shade of his late mother's eyes. However, he was not going to die today, for Suzaku had one thing that his opponent did not - something to live for.
The fight was fast-paced, Suzaku pressing hard on the offensive as his opponent bobbed and weaved. She was a nimble thing and perhaps the dirtiest fighter he had ever been pit against.
There weren't necessarily rules in the dingy little fighting pit that housed the forefront of Western Britannia's human trafficking; in fact, quite the contrary. But, Suzaku had grown accustom to the animalistic desperation that overtook the majority of his opponents and the slim figure before him was anything but that. She fought with a variant of cold rage, anger bubbling just beneath the surface as if the very existence of Suzaku angered her despite this being their first encounter. Suzaku ignored it; after all, an opponent was an opponent and he was determined to make it out of this alive.
As his fist shot forward, colliding hard with her shoulder, Suzaku blinked in surprise, for as the girl fell backwards, so did he. Somehow, in the midst of his attack, she had swept his legs from beneath him, sending both of them crashing towards the cold, hard cement below them.
Before he knew it, Suzaku was beneath her.
"You can straddle me instead after this fight," one of the spectators jeered, his eyes taking note of their current position. "Even a whore like you can do better than some Japanese scum."
As one hand fisted itself in Suzaku's hair, yanking it, the other struck Suzaku with anger. "I'm Japanese, asshole," she hissed, her voice sharp. "And once I'm done with him, I'm going to beat you into a bloody pulp."
Capitalizing on the sudden distraction, Suzaku lurched forward, smashing his head into hers. She fell backwards into a heap and although Suzaku was certainly going to feel that tomorrow (assuming that he were to survive), adrenaline propelled him onwards as his fist collided with her jaw, pushing the redhead even further away.
They were on their feet in an instant; although, the girl certainly looked a bit worse for the wear. Clearly disoriented, she did little to stop Suzaku's following hit and took both his punch and subsequent kick face on.
If they were perhaps better nourished and not living off the pitiful handfuls of scraps that somehow constituted as a meal in the eyes of their capturers, maybe the fight would have lasted longer. But, for all her determination, Suzaku knew that his opponent could only hold on for so long. Hit after hit rained down upon her, but she stood fast, eyes narrowed as she used her remaining strength to lash out at Suzaku, landing a punch here or there.
It wasn't enough.
The crowd knew it wasn't enough.
And, like animals, they pushed forward towards the cage, howling with glee and growing more rambunctious as the apparent end was drawing near.
"Rip her heart out!" a voice shouted.
"Make her beg for it," a rather sadistic spectator said, his eyes tracing over the girl's body until settling upon her chest. "Get her on her knees."
Ignoring them, Suzaku approached the girl.
"I'm sorry," he whispered as he wrapped his hands around the girl's neck, her feeble attempts at escape coming nowhere close to breaking his grip. His green eyes were filled with remorse, for Suzaku was truly sorry - he always was. Sorry that these beings, barely living and certainly not considered human, were to die, slain by his own hands, and even more sorry for the light, the flicker of hope and determination that was the girl he slowly strangled to death. Suzaku was selfish. Suzaku wanted to live. "I hope you can find peace."
Just as her eyes began to roll backwards, a shock ran through Suzaku and he immediately released her. Like the strings of marionette being cut, she fell limply onto the ground, her head lolling to the side. Disregarding her still form, Suzaku glanced confusedly from his bracer, a variant of the shock collar, and up into the stands where disappointed faces and a portly man hobbling forward greeted him.
Nothing like this had happened before, especially never at the climax of a fight. Nobody wanted to end the entertainment, Suzaku thought angrily, not when the kill was the best part.
But, ended the fight was and Suzaku felt his entire world warp as the man approached the fighting cage, beady eyes full of panic and mouth set into a weak smile. "Ah, today's your lucky day...ya' see, ya' have a buyer."
Disclaimer: I hold no authorization towards the Code Geass fandom
Author's Note: So, I haven't written fanfiction in awhile, but I've recently started rewatching Code Geass and this idea just ran into my head. What would happen if Charles zi Britannia died before the plot could even take off? The concept is probably about as taboo as one could get in this fandom, but I was pretty interested in exploring the technicalities of finding a suitable replacement for him. Plus, I like politics soooooo, this might just be one gigantic guilty pleasure for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . Also, this is kind of a testing chapter (which is why it's not that long) to see how interesting you guys find this idea, so I'd really appreciate the feedback. As always, thanks for checking my story out and I hope y'all have a nice day :)