Her eyes are wide open and she can see. She can see for the first time in so, so long and the sun is bright and her brother is dead.
There is blood- sticky, red, and fresh- all along the metal ramp. Blood stains his pretty white robes and his limply hanging fingers and she clutches those red-stained fingers so tightly she imagines the bones might snap from the pressure.
"Brother, I can't live without you! I love you I love you I-"
She had called him vile. She had called him the devil. She had scorned him and turned him away all because he had given her transparent lies all to protect her. All she can remember are those evil, despicable things she had spat at him with no remorse, even as he hurt and ached deep in his heart.
Lelouch's eyes do not flutter open. His fingers do not twitch and his mouth does not move.
"Don't leave me! You can't leave me like this, brother!-" Language fails her and she dissolves into half-syllables and incomprehensible sobs. Her fingers, bit to the quick, dig half-crescents into that bloody, limp hand.
Around her there are cheers of the peasants. They chant for a masked killer with his sword drawn. They chant with their unrestrained jubilation for her brother's death.
"Brother-"
So much she wants to say. She would take him as a killer and a monster- she would take him with her arms wide open and a smile on her face. Confessions and affections are one lump in the back of her throat and she can only cry into his cold hand as the people's cries press on her ears.
She opens her eyes and she can see- a clear blue sky; a sun so bright; people free from a dictator, cheering and beseeching their savior. She can see all these things, but she cannot look past her brother's face, cool and still, with a dieing smile still at his lips.
xxx