Shu gazed out the massive window, out towards the vast, luscious grounds of Pendragon Palace, which lay deep in the heart of the Holy Britannian Empire.

It was strange to him; just a week ago, he had been betrayed by his followers as he led them to freedom outside the GHQ controlled Loop 7 of what was left of Tokyo, almost killed by a dear comrade who had seemingly returned from the dead, and left to die by everyone he'd known and loved, abandoned by the kingdom he was rightfully entitled to. But today, he'd woken up lying in a grand, plush bed, in what he learned to be one of the many suite rooms in the Royal wing of the Britannian Imperial Palace, thousands of miles away from the kingdom that had rejected him.

It had been the Emperor of Britannia himself that had contacted him in the early hours of the morning, nearly seven days ago, when Shu and his only ally in the world at the moment, Yuzuriha Inori, had been hiding out in an abandoned office building. The Emperor had appeared surprisingly young, not much older than Shu himself, and he had dark raven hair and brilliant amethyst eyes, pale skin and a delicate, yet regal looking face.

-"Greetings, Ouma Shu. I am Lelouch Vi'Britannia, Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire. I realize this sudden communicate must be surprising and unexpected, and you may not believe it, but I'd like to off you my assistance, as one king to another."-

Shu had been within the grasp of an infectious fever from the lack of proper treatment of his severed arm, and had been mostly convinced that he was hallucinating, and was unable to answer coherently. 'Why would the ruler of the only country that had the means and power to stand up to the United Forces alone, be calling me and offering his help?' It had to have been an illusion, he'd reasoned.

But it had been Inori who had talked with the young Emperor, seeing that Shu wasn't capable of doing so himself. "Shu . . . ." she'd murmured, "he's hurt. There's no way out of here. They're hunting him. His arm . . . he's really sick . . . ."

Lelouch's half-benevolent, half-smug expression did not change, -"I understand, Yuzuriha Inori-san."-

Inori's eyes narrowed at the use of her name, but she continued speaking, "Can you get him out?" she said, "Out of this place . . . to somewhere safe . . . ?"

-"Of course I can. Since Ouma Shu isn't in any condition to negotiate with me himself, we will wait until he's recovered from his wounds to discuss more . . . pressing matters. I'll be sending three of my most trusted followers to retrieve the two of you. Is this acceptable, Yuzuriha-san?"-

Inori glanced down at Shu, whose half-lidded brown gaze was uncomprehending and unnaturally bright. He needed to get his arm treated immediately before the fever raging through his body got any worse. "How will we know these . . . followers of yours?" she asked skeptically.

Lelouch's smile widened slightly, as he was impressed by this girl's survival instincts. -"Their names are Jeremiah Gottwald, C.C., and Kururugi Suzaku. When they arrive, ask them who, they serve. They will reply, 'Zero, Knight of Justice'. Should they reply with anything other than that, they are not my agents. Does that suffice?"-

Inori had agreed, not that she'd necessarily trusted the purple-eyed angel-man-king, but with Shu's condition having been what it was, she'd feared she didn't have much of a choice. After making him as comfortable as possible, she'd left Shu in his feverish daze to wait downstairs in the shadows for the too-perfect, too-knowledgeable Emperor's subordinates, careful to keep her gun within easy reach. She didn't have to wait long.

Sure enough, a slight woman with long blonde hair, clad in white, a tall teenage boy with curly brown hair and emerald eyes and another tall male with bluish hair and a strange, yet ornate orange half mask on one side of his face, approached the building. Inori drew her gun, holding it tightly, ready to eliminate them, should they turn out to be the enemy. The three strangers at the foot of the stairs, gazing at her hiding place like they knew she was there.

"Are you Yuzuriha Inori-san?" the green-eyed male asked in a polite, non-threatening tone.

"Who are you?" Inori demanded, letting the names the Britannian Emperor had said run through her head.

"Kururugi Suzaku." The brown-haired teen said.

"Jeremiah Gottwald, at your service, my lady." The blue-haired male announced with a bow.

"I'm C.C." the blonde woman with the startlingly bright amber eyes said softly, a faint smile on her lips.

"Who . . . do you serve . . . ?" the pinkette girl asked, only slightly less wary as the names matched up.

"Zero, Knight of Justice." The three of them replied in unison, without even a moment's hesitation.

Relief flooded through Inori's veins as she lowered her gun, stepping out from the broken pillar she'd concealed herself behind. "Shu . . . . Shu's upstairs . . . please hurry. He's badly hurt."

Shu had struggled as much as he could when approached by three hazy people whose voices and hands were defiantly not Inori's. Then there was Inori's soft, breathy voice, tight with some unknown emotion, the feel of her soft, cool hands on his burning face, "It's alright, Shu." She called soothingly, trying to get him to relax, "these people . . . they're here to help you."

What happened after that was all a blur to Shu; words, sounds, images, sensations, they all morphed together into one disjointed, distorted mess, all blended together until he'd woken up that morning, suddenly and surprisingly full of clarity. At first, he hadn't known where he was, and nearly panicked, but a servant who had come in a few minutes after his initial awakening had been kind enough to inform him that he was in the wing reserved for royal guests inside Pendragon Palace, at the center of Pendragon City, the capital of the Holy Britannian Empire, that he'd lain in a fever-induced delirium for close to five days since he'd arrived, and that his fever had finally broken late the night before.

"His Majesty, the Emperor is most anxious to meet you in person, Ouma-dono. I will inform him you are fully awake." The young man with scruffy blonde hair and dark brown eyes said, bowing low to Shu once again, turning to leave.

"Wait!" Shu called after him suddenly.

The servant stopped and turned back, "Yes, Ouma-dono?"

"Where is my . . . companion, Yuzuriha Inori?" he asked slowly, still wary of this whole situation.

The blonde thought for a moment, "Yuzuriha-sama is with Her Highness, Princess Nunnali, and Lady C.C., I believe. Would you like me to also inform her of your awakening, Ouma-dono?" he said.

"Yes . . . please." Shu answered quietly.

"Will that be all, Ouma-dono?"

Shu nodded, "Yes. Thank you."

The servant had left and this was where Shu found himself, standing in front of the window, gazing upon a land that was not his own, a land not destroyed and devastated by war and the Apocalypse Virus . . . . It was a beautiful sight that filled him with a sort of enraged, envious sorrow. He put a hand up to feel the stump of his arm, which was now clean, neatly bandaged, and nearly pain-free, memories flickering through his mind unbidden and unwanted, but so strikingly clear. 'I almost died . . . would that have made everything better? Would that have saved everyone . . . ?'

"Shu!" the sound of a familiar voice calling his name startled him out of his shell of thoughts.

He turned quickly, "Inori!"

The petit pink-haired girl ran up to him, throwing her arms around him, burying her face in his bare chest. "You're okay . . . Shu . . . !" she whispered.

"Yeah . . . I'm okay." Shu murmured back, wrapping his one complete arm around the girl's shoulders.

It was then he noticed that Inori's stained, torn, dirty black butterfly cloak was gone, and that she was clad in a stylish, beautiful dress, in the fashion of Britannian royalty. It was crimson red in color, embroidered with gold braiding around the edges of the close fitting long sleeves, the v-neckline, and the delicate waistline that gave way to a floor-length skirt, though it had a long cut up the left side, revealing much of Inori's pale left leg, wrapped in sheer white silk stockings, which ended with her small feet clad in dark red satin flats, trimmed with the same gold braiding. Her bright pink hair was in its usual style, but with the addition of a brilliant red rose tucked behind one ear, and it almost made Shu sigh with relief when he caught sight of Inori's handgun strapped to her exposed thigh. She looked like a Britannian princess, minus the gun.

Shu opened his mouth to attempt a compliment on how pretty she looked, but a new voice stopped him.

"That's wonderful, Inori-chan!"

Both Shu and Inori turned in the direction of the voice, surprised. A young girl with long, wavy pale brown hair and bright blue eyes sat smiling delightedly at them from her wheelchair. Behind her, loosely gripping the handles of the chair was the same blonde woman who appeared in Shu's convoluted memories of the past seven days.

"Your Prince is okay! I'm so glad~!" the girl in the wheelchair gushed, clapping her small hands in excitement.

"Nunnali-hime-chan . . . ." Inori said softly.

Shu blinked, looking from Inori to the crippled girl, "You're . . . Princess Nunnali?"

Nunnali nodded, "Inori-chan has told me all about you Shu-kun! Welcome to Pendragon Palace. My big brother has been very excited and I can only assume it's because you're here~!"

"Y . . . Your brother, Your Highness?" Shu echoed, confused.

"Lelouch, the Emperor, is my older brother." Nunnali replied cheerily, as if it were the most normal thing in the world for one's older brother to be the ruler of a very large and powerful country that no one had yet dared face head-on.

Shu recalled what he knew about the infamous Emperor Lelouch Vi'Britannia.

It had only been a few years since the young king had shaken the whole world by taking the throne by storm, supposedly by killing off the previous Emperor, his own father, but since then, numerous changes had happened within the vast Britannian Empire. Lelouch had almost completely revolutionized the entire kingdom by abolishing the aristocracy, long known for its corruption and greed, and by returning control of previously conquered areas back to their original leaders.

He'd destroyed all symbols of his father and had taken an almost autocratic hold on his own government, exerting complete and total authority over his realm. And yet, the people adored him, they sang his praises everywhere, the high nobility almost willingly gave up their power to him for some reason, and supported and endorsed everything he did, and his siblings, the other princes and princesses of Britannia, raised no objections when he took the throne, claiming to have murdered the former Emperor.

The military was under Lelouch's sole control, and it was a well known fact that the young Emperor was a tactical genius, one who could predict the enemy's movements by reading the very nature of those in command, and he was so feared on the battlefield, that not even the United Forces dared try and 'bring the tyrant to justice'.

And then there was all the talk of the illustrious Knight of Zero, Kururugi Suzaku, a former Japanese citizen who had willingly left behind his Apocalypse Virus-devastated country to follow the then Eleventh Prince of Britannia. No one really knew how the two of them had met, or why the Knight continued to serve the Emperor, but there were a multitude of rumors flying around about the two of them.

All in all, Shu decided that above everything else, Lelouch was a very powerful ally, as well as a very dangerous enemy, if there ever came a time when they stood against each other. 'But what does he want with me . . . ? Why would he go out of his way to get me and Inori out of Tokyo?'

"Shu . . . ?" Inori's voice again penetrated his gloomy mental meanderings, making him realize that he'd been staring off into space once again.

"It's nothing, I was just thinking . . . ." he assured her with a half-hearted smile.

"I think Brother and Suzaku are in a meeting right now, so we have some time to find you some clothes, Shu-kun, and then we can all have some breakfast. Does that sound good?" Nunnali said, glancing up at the woman who was pushing her wheelchair.

The woman nodded and her lips curved up a bit, yet her eyes, staring straight at Shu, gleamed knowingly for some indeterminate reason. The look sent a chill down Shu's spine, and made him wonder if he'd just walked into a trap of some sorts.

"Are you certain, C.C.?"

"Yes. The power Ouma Shu exhibited, the power given to him by the Void Genome, is very similar to that of a Geass. Every living person has Geass cells in them, a like an infant, sleeping Geass power, dormant and unnoticed. As I've told you before, Lelouch, those with a higher amount of Geass cells inside them are more likely to attract a contract, but, keeping in mind that a few people have such vast amounts of Geass cells, they can actually awaken their Geass power themselves, through sheer force of will. I suspect that whatever that thing was that fell from space ten years ago, causes genomic resonance in the Geass cells in normal people, causing them to mutate. It's like being granted a Geass without the contract, but because there is nothing to stabilize the activation of the Geass cells, there is nothing stopping the cell mutation. Thus, the Apocalypse Virus."

"And what of the Void Genome itself?"

"The Void Genome is a phenomena that is unlike anything I've ever come across. It's the man-made equivalent of the contract you and I share, Lelouch. It grants a specific Geass-like power to a person injected with it, without the need a contract to stabilize the cells, because the cells are already stable."

"So . . . it could be used to create a large number of Geass-users without the need of the immortal contract."

"Theoretically, anyways. I imagine that it's incredibly hard to produce such genomes, not to mention that they'd all have the same power. And the certain qualifications have to be met for the Void Genome to actually bond successfully to the subject."

"Yes, as far as we've been able to discover, they were only able to make three Void Genomes. The current whereabouts of the first one are unknown, despite my efforts. The second was consumed by Ouma Shu, recently stolen by Tsutsugami Gai. And the third still remains within the grasp of the GHQ . . . . Is it really that hard to bind with the Genome?"

"I'd say it's a miracle that Shu even survived the bonding. There is a very limited percentage of people who have the potential to successfully take the Void Genome into their bodies. Shu had the qualifications. And, if it all came down to it, I suspect that Suzaku would be able to viably absorb the genome."

"And what about me? Would I be able to hold the power?"

"If it didn't kill you, it wouldn't do you much good. Your own Geass would overpower the genome and kill it from within you, rendering it null and void. That being said . . . as a Geass wielder, you are most likely completely immune to the Apocalypse Virus, due to the stability of your Geass cells. That's about as much as I can tell you for right now, Lelouch."

"So, the Power of the King, the Void Genome, is comparable to the power of a Geass . . . . Ouma Shu and I are bound by more than just royalty it seems . . . . This could be greatly useful in achieving my goals . . . . But first, we'd need to retrieve the third Void Genome, and give Shu back his power. Then we will make our move to take Tsutsugami Gai out of the picture, and seal our ties with the fledgling kingdom of Japan."

"Hm. You make the most interesting faces when you're plotting, Lelouch."

"We're going to need Ouma Shu alive if this plan is going to work. I want you, Suzaku and Jeremiah to head to Loop 7 immediately. Use the Knightmare Frames. Find Ouma Shu and make sure that he gets back here alive."

"And what of Yuzuriha Inori?"

"Bring her as well. I suspect that neither of them will go anywhere without the other."

"Much like you and a certain brunette I know . . . ."

"Be quiet, C.C.. This has nothing to do with Suzaku and I! Beside, their personal connection is not the only reason I'm interested in her."

"Oh?"

"I want to know why the sound of her singing voice causes genomic resonance that reverses the mutation of the Geass cells. You saw it too; I know you want to know as well."

"Fair enough. I'll go summon the troops, then."

"C.C., make sure the GHQ do not know you're there, or that you were ever there in the first place."

"I got it. Goodbye, Lelouch."