Lelouch knew that something was going on when he opened his eyes and saw glimpses of his life while a prince, during the Invasion of Japan, and living with his sister Nunnally at Ashford Academy. It quickly began to go dark as Lelouch thought to himself, 'Wait a minute. This isn't everything that happened in my life. What's going on?'
Turning around, Lelouch found himself in a very mysterious location. It had a lot of bright colors and he was standing on a bit of weird ground that was solid.
"Hello, Shining One. You must be wondering why your soul is here instead of in the collective unconscious of humanity, is it not?" a male voice called out.
Lelouch saw a man with white hair who wore a red and black striped shirt, matching shoes, a white frilled undershirt, and black pants stand on a floating platform that was approaching the former Demon Emperor. "Who are you?" he barely managed to say before the stab wound inflicted by Suzaku Kururugi flashed red for a split second and when it did, Lelouch crumpled to the ground while feeling agonizing pain before he groaned, "In life, I was the feared Demon Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia."
"I have many names but I am most commonly known as the Anguished One, Lelouch. As to why I called you 'Shining One' earlier, it was because I did not know your name and because your potential shines like a dark light to me. I brought you here so that I could give you an offer." the man said.
"What. . . do you want? Another. . . contract that involves. . . a wish?"
"No, I have no desire to ensnare you into a Geass contract. I cannot even grant one, for that matter. This contract merely requires that you abandon your physical form. In exchange, you shall be given the power of a Sword, an entity that fights for an Administrator such as myself. I am the Administrator of C's World, Lelouch. Within two months, a celestial war will break out between C's World and your world and I must acheive victory in order to seize the Heavenly Throne from Polaris, the Adminstrator of your world."
"I will serve you as a Sword, but why is this celestial war going to happen?"
"Polaris wishes to seize the Earthly Throne of C's World from me. I was originally a servant of her and as such cannot harm her directly, but I can create Swords who can harm her directly to get around that. I revolted from Polaris's dominion when she wanted to extermiante mankind during the Battle of Narita and I escaped here to C's World. Before then, I secretly protected yourself and your sister by subconsciously making Clovis and anyone else who might recognize you avoid going to Ashford Academy or anywhere else you were. Your bad luck started only after I escaped to C's World as when I revolted, Polaris went after me because of my helping you. I was unable to assist you while in C's World, if I had been I would have subconsciously made Suzaku not drag you to Charles zi Britannia. If I can win the celestial war and take the Heavenly Throne of your world, I can regress the world to before so that the tragedies that befell you during the last two years of life are erased from history."
"Very well, Anguished One. Will you have me gather other potential Swords as a Sword myself befoer the war breaks out?" Lelouch asked.
"Yes, Lelouch. Your sister Nunnally, Kaguya Sumeragi, Nagisa Chiba, Kyoshiro Tohdoh, and Suzaku Kururugi all have the potential to become Swords. I also believe that your half-sister Cornelia and her knight Guilford have the potential to become Swords as well." the Anguished One replied.
Power began to converge on Lelouch from multiple locations and when it was over his body transformed. When it was over, Lelouch's eyes opened and he realized that he was no longer in a human body. It was instead a vaguely humanoid body twice the size of an ordinary human covered in blue scale-like armor. Lelouch was then surprised when his right arm retracted into itself and was replaced by something that looked like an organic VARIS rifle. A green target that looked like Rolo appeared before the new Lelouch and he didn't hesitate to shoot at the fake sibling. Instead of an energy projectile, a blue particle beam twice the width of a normal Britannian was unleashed by the organic VARIS-like weapon and the beam disintegrated the target before striking part of the area.
"Surprised at what your new form can do, Lelouch?" the Anguished One asked.
"Not too much, but this seems like I'm what is called a Knightmare Frame." Lelouch asnwered.
"That form was intentionally made to resemble a Knightmare. Your left arm is also able to retract itself into itself at the wrist and replace itself with an organic weapon system that is similar yet more powerful than the VARIS rifle. You are now also able to collect the souls of the potential Swords by killing them with it. Suzaku however will need to be lured here into the Akasha Stratum and only then will I be able to restrain him and turn him into a Sword. Now go, Lelouch. We do not want Polaris to win this celestial war because if she does, she will attempt the same thing that you prevented Charles from accomplishing!"
Unknown location, two days later.
The sound of gunfire woke up Nunnally and by the time Sayoko finished helping her get dressed and in her wheelchair, a blue figure covered in scale-like armor and twice the size of an ordinary human burst into the room.
"Wh. . . What are you!?" Sayoko asked the figure.
"OΨ, %%Ω. . ." it replied before retracting its arm into itself and replacing it with something that looked like an organic VARIS rifle.
"H'μ σoρρυ N$nnαλυ, βuτ υo$ μuστ διε." the blue figure said before the VARIS-like organic weapon fired a particle beam that disintegrated both Nunnally and Sayoko. The blue figure immediately escaped elsewhere.
