Lelouch stood in an empty eternity, staring forward. The object of his staring unblinkingly reciprocated.
"What are you?"
"You may call me Lelouch Lamperouge," the apparent clone bowed with a flourish.
"Very well, Lamperouge, where are we?" while annoyed at the appropriation of his name, Lelouch had no time for games.
"Do you not recognize your surroundings, your majesty?" At those words, around him, the imperial palace took form around him, though the walls were devoid of the many paintings that normally hung there.
"How did I survive?"
"You didn't."
Lelouch grinned:
"So this is the afterlife then?"
"No."
"What is this place?"
"Ah, but it would be no fun to give you all the answers, would it?" The clone smirked.
"I, Lelouch vi Britannia, command you: answer me, what is this place and how am I here?"
The clone smirked and raised his hand, pushing aside the hair over his forehead.
"Again, I shall omit the answer to the first question for my own amusement. As to the second, well, you aren't."
Lelouch jolted awake in the middle of a dirt road.
"You idiot! Sleep somewhere else, some of us actually have work to do!" a cart driver shouted at him. Lelouch looked at him.
"Tell me, what is the date and where am I?"
"It is October 5th, 2018, your highness. We are currently in the Crown Colony of Mexico."
"Thank you. Now, forget me."
"Yes, your highness."
Lelouch had been walking down the road for hours. Though he could shrug off the effects of both hunger and thirst, exhaustion was not as easy to ignore.
He lay down beneath a tree.
Immortality... a bit of a surprise. Of course, the world can never know I'm alive... and that includes Nunnally. His eyes teared up a bit, and he began to chuckle. O cruel world, you grant me eternal life and tear away the one I would spend it with. At this he burst into great guffaws, and for a moment hit manic cackling, before choking up and succumbing to his tears.
It was nighttime when he awoke, having lapsed into sleep.
He dragged himself up from the ground, and continued to trudge along the road, attempting to decide on a course of action in his now purposeless life.
Up ahead he could see the brilliant lights of the Tenochtitlán settlement, a ticking timer for making his decision.
As he made his final approach, he suddenly realized: Shit. I'm still in my regalia. Complete with stab hole.
Luckily, the border checkpoints were empty, likely dismantled following his apparent death. Despite being near midnight, the city was just as busy as during daytime, with people bustling throughout.
He snuck into a clothing store, doing his best to avoid being noticed for who he was.
He grabbed a selection of clothes, far more plain than his usual sense of style, and walked up to the unlucky shmuck who had gotten the night shift.
"I would like these clothes."
"Yes, your highness."
He put on a pair of sunglasses and walked out the door. Sunglasses at night may be conspicuous, but they were nothing compared to the glowing Geass symbols in his eyes.
He sat in a park, staring at the fountain as it made various shapes and lit up in different colors.
So, here I am: alive with no purpose, wandering without a destination. The sides of his lips curled into a wry smile. I've evaded hell, only to be placed into a hell on earth; I do suppose death would have been the easy way out.
He sighted a couple kissing before the fountain. How nice it must be to have not a care in the world, no... I haven't a care in the world. How nice it must be to have something to care for, something to make life worth living...
He saw a green-haired witch, lying in a cart stuffed with hay.
"The power of kings, known as Geass, brings one solitude. Not quite accurate, is it?" She smiled, and looked up, almost as if she could see him. "Right, Lelouch?"
He awoke to the morning sunlight blazing in his eyes, even through the dark sunglasses he had worn to disguise his Geass.
"I suppose you're right, Cecilia," he lightly whispered. "And neither shall the code."