Stifling. That was the word. Lelouch was sick of it. Boring routine days with the same thing happening over and over again. It was suffocating. Everyday, watching Britannia conquer more and more of the world, reducing other countries to mere numbers, making their inhabitants less than human- less than Britannians. It was sickening. And the worst part was, Lelouch could only continue on with his boring but peaceful days, unable to act to bring down the empire that he so despised. It was infuriating and at the same time it was crushing. He was powerless. He was small, insignificant. His father was not, and so he could do nothing to rebel. If his father, the emperor Charles zi Britannia had discovered his existence, then Nunnally would be in danger.
Lelouch detested acknowledging that man as his father- fatherly was the farthest you could get from his personality. Charles vi Britannia treated his children not as the children they were, but instead as chess pieces, mostly pawns, and bargaining pieces. Many of his siblings were content to live in such an environment. They thought nothing of the harsh treatment of the conquered countries. They thrived in the gossip and backstabbing of the nobles of Britannia. And perhaps, given enough time, Lelouch would have become that way as well, someday. If that incident when Nunnally lost her sight and legs and his mother her life had never come to pass, Lelouch would have likely grown to be exactly like Schneizel.
But pass it had, and Lelouch had realized the truth. The truth that his mother was not killed by terrorists of a conquered country, but instead, she was murdered by the nobility of Britannia itself. Although he was not entirely sure of the details, he was certain of that fact. The noble-born despised Marianne, a commoner whom the emperor had taken a liking to. They thought she didn't belong with those who were born into their positions. So they disposed of her. Lelouch rebelled against his father, and he and Nunnally were sent away- to Area Eleven, where Charles vi Britannia no longer had to concern himself with their existence. Eventually, Lelouch was thankful for this, because he broke away from the complete influence of his father and both he and Nunnally were far away from the reach of the nobles. If they dared to lay hand on a favorite wife of the Emperor and got away with it, then surely no one would miss the youngest prince and the crippled princess.
And it was also due to that that he met Suzaku. Suzaku was his best friend, and he helped him take care of Nunnally. For that, he was thankful. And while they hadn't had contact in a while and Lelouch often wondered what happened to him, he knew that he could trust Suzaku. He was a good guy after all. But still, Lelouch felt suffocated by these uneventful days. He was unable to do anything at all, even with his abilities, which were many. Though lacking in stamina, his brain was amazing and it could even be said that he was a genius. But the emperor had many on his side, and as one powerless person, he could do nothing to defeat the emperor. He could do nothing to help Nunnally live in a peaceful world without conflict or war.
That was why when one day, in the slums of Shinjuku, when a certain green haired woman offered to grant him power, he took it. The power to command people. The power of a king. Through a contract, C.C. had given him the power of Geass.
And she told him.
"If you had the strength, you could live. This is our contract: In return for my gift of power, you must grant one of my wishes. If you enter this contract, you will live as a human, but also as one completely different. Different rules, different time, a different life... The power of the king will make you lonely indeed. If you are prepared for that, then."
Indeed, he was alone. Even later, fighting alongside the Black Knights, even beside Suzaku, even with Rolo, who adored him, and even with Nunnally, he could not tell anyone the truth. But she was always there, even if she was not his. If not for her, he would be dead. If not for her, he would have never even gotten out of those slums alive, shot and killed by a nameless Britannian soldier. He, a fallen prince of the great empire of Britannia, would have died quietly without anyone but nameless soldiers knowing he had died. If not for her, he would have never met Kallen, never formed the Black Knights, never even have been able to stand against Britannia. He owed her everything.
"I was dead until the moment I met you. I was a powerless corpse pretending to be alive. Living without power, without the ability to change my course, was akin to a slow death."
Their contract was formed, and time passed. Fights between the rebels and Britannia was everywhere, and plans were made and destroyed and put into motion all the time. There was never a day which either of them regretted it though. Lelouch refused to go back to the days in which he could do nothing but watch, and C.C. was certain that if it was Lelouch, he could fulfill his promise to kill her.
"Geass is similar to a wish; don't you think? It is a request to someone to give you the power to achieve what you can't on your own."
It was only at the end, after many days and weeks and months spent at the other's side that they both realized that they were not alone. C.C., despite her saying that her immortality cursed her time to stop and instead subjected her to an endless accumulation of experience found that the more time she spent at Lelouch's side the more her time began to move again. She felt alive, like a human, and for the first time, she began to feel that living by his side wouldn't be so bad. Her heart, previously drowned by a limitless loneliness, began to feel his warmth. Lelouch, though seemingly cold, was a man of passion, and of life, and he fought desperately for what he wanted. And slowly, she began to want the things he wanted too. She wanted him to be happy. And at the end, when he came up with the Zero Requiem, and his dream was about to be realized, she couldn't make him stay. She realized that she loved him too late. She went to a church, which she swore never to set foot in again after the nun she had formed a contract with had betrayed her. She knelt at the altar, and prayed to a god she had long lost faith in.
And when the fatal sword struck, and she heard the cheers of the people, she felt an all-consuming despair, and simultaneously an intense hatred for the people who celebrated the death of the "Demon Emperor", despised those who scorned and spat of the name of a man who was so good, so gentle, and they would never truly know. These people would never realize the extent to which he selflessly sacrificed himself to create a world in which they could live peacefully. For days, she was bitter. She did nothing. She suffered, she cried, didn't eat, but her Code refused to let her die. She wanted to die more now than ever before, because her first wish- to be loved- was granted, but then that love was torn away.
But it seemed that God had finally smiled upon her, and when the news that the Demon Emperor's body was missing, she first felt rage. After all, the media and the rest assumed it was a crime of hate against Lelouch. But when the next day came about and she found a man whose face was hidden, every part but those intense violet eyes- she knew the truth. She would recognize those eyes anywhere. Lelouch's body wasn't stolen. He had walked away from his grave and found her again. And her time, again began to move. Her despair melted away. And there, on the spot, she confessed all the things she held inside, professed her love to him and told him her name, only to find that she had already told him in her sleep.
Later, he explained that while he wasn't expecting it to happen, his father's Code had activated the first time he died. He was just lucky he wasn't buried yet. And due to a series of lucky events, he found clothes with which he could disguise himself with (a wig and clothes that covered much of his body and face) and escaped without being recognized, and found enough information to deduce where C.C. was residing and returned to her side.
Of course, their life afterwards wasn't easy. Lelouch's face was famous and easily recognizable. And while they had on their side that Lelouch had died publically and most people wouldn't believe that he was still alive, to avoid unnecessary trouble they disguised him and moved far out into the country, where there were less people to recognize him and they lived out the rest of their days carefully but happily enough. And finally, immortality didn't seem so bad. After all, because of that, they had an eternity together.
"If happiness had a form what would it look like? It might be something like glass, because one doesn't notice it normally. However, it is actually there. As proof, if you change the angle you look at it, the glass will reflect light. It will state its presence and existence more eloquently than any other thing in this world."