Code Geass: Lelouch of the Revival
Synopsis:
All went according to what Lelouch, Suzaku, and C.C had planned during their one month stay in Baghdad, Iraq. Yet they failed to factor in one simple thing. Waking up in an unknown place, battered and bleeding, Lelouch tries to understand how he's alive and what's left for him to do in the world that he created.
Prologue
It was finished. The Zero Requiem, once realized, would enable the world to cast aside their differences and move on to form a much kinder, gentler world that encompasses the previous one filled with hatred. It would also usher in an era of peace, long forgotten by the countless wars that brought nothing but destruction and sorrow to the different areas—no, countries that Britannia had forcefully taken. But now, everything would be returned to what it has should've been.
All thanks to the person that the world will surely remember—Lelouch vi Britannia, the 99th Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire, the Black Prince, the Demon Emperor.
And only a few truly knew what his intentions were.
'It's done.' He thought to himself, not even knowing how he was still able to think. The last thing he remembered was Nunnaly grasping his hands, muttering words he no longer remembered probably due to how close he was to dying.
But he was at peace with dying, without him in the picture. The world he envisioned and desired for his sister would finally be realized—a kinder and gentler world that no longer judges based on ethnicity, but on character. He knew from the start that he cannot erase the judgmental side of people, but this was definitely better than the classist, social darwinistic perspectives that Britannia had been promoting under Charles zi Brittannia's reign.
Drip…Drip
'Hmm…' Lelouch muttered in his thoughts. He wondered how long this state of his would last until he finally passes on into the afterlife or whatever awaits him on the other side. There had been numerous research on how brain activity continues for as long as ten minutes after death. While met with speculation, this would've served as one of the chances in which he could prove the hypothesis-of-sort. Maybe he was undertaking those last few minutes, or maybe this was already the afterlife itself—a dark vast plane in which one is forced to relive and contemplate all that he has done in life for eternity.
'What a damning situation that is.' He thought. His life was certainly not a life by a saint. Marred with the blood of thousands, if not millions of people, and being forced to relive and contemplate all that he had done? Well, that was something he couldn't stomach, but if it were to be his punishment, then so be it. Lelouch can't deny to himself that he wasn't sinful. In fact, he devised Zero Requiem as a two-part plan: One, to bring peace to the world and two, to atone for his sins, particularly to his own sister, Euphemia li Britannia, of which she was wrongly defamed.
Drip…Drip
'Well, I need not to dwell on those thoughts anymore' He said to himself in melancholy. 'Death is surely a doorstep away.' He chuckled as he went silent. Quietly waiting for whatever it was on the other side…
Drip…Drip
Drip…Drip
Drip…
Drip.
Undisclosed Location | September 24, 2018 a.t.b | 01:00 AM
Lelouch woke up with a gasp, seemingly desperate for air, judging from his fast irregular breaths. After calming down his breathing to a healthy pace did he only realize another predicament.
He was in pain.
And not the bearable kind. It hurt to try and move his hands, it hurt to try and move his legs, it even hurt to look around and see where he was, but from what he could see—with his still-adjusting vision—and feel, he was in the middle of a large, dimly-lit area that was spanning at least twenty meters in the four main directions, a ceiling that was about nine meters in height, and four bridges connecting to a podium in the very middle of the room.
Drip…Drip
"There goes that sound again." He said in a strained voice, not knowing entirely how it was strained as he finally notices yet another of his current predicaments.
He was hanging from the ceiling.
He looked up and saw that both of his hands were bound by clumsily-tied knots connected to the length of the rope that was looped through one of the things Lelouch had no strength to comprehend and went back down, finally being tied to a sort-of cylindrical ornament a few meters from Lelouch. The only good thing out of that was the fact that he was only about two meters from the ground.
Drip…Drip
He tried to get down by slowly wriggling his wrists from the knot, ignoring the gnawing pain that came with the action. Slowly, but surely, he was getting somewhere.
Drip…Drip
Until the knot loosened and he fell to the ground.
Pain overtook all of his senses, as he didn't think that falling from a height of two meters would cause him this much. What was surprising for him was the puddle of liquid that was also on the ground. While it was indeed dim where he was not, he easily concluded what the liquid was based only on its metallic smell and taste due to his head falling face-down into the puddle
Blood.
'So that was the dripping sounds that I've been hearing.' He thought as he tried to move towards the wall at the edge of the podium without causing himself that much pain. It took him about ten minutes to do so, but he did manage to position himself against the wall as comfortable as he could be in his current situation, which was nigh impossible.
And he proceeded to do one of the most useful things he could, think and analyze the current 'mess' he was in, and if even they intended to keep it clean. The best way to do that was to gather all of the information he could, based on the current situation, and then work from there.
Now able to get a better look at his body. Lelouch couldn't even begin to describe what had transpired. It seemed that he was still in his garments on the day that Suzaku killed him, but this time his clothing was ripped in almost all places. He suspected that his plan to have his body delivered to a specified funeral home where a Geassed embalmer and funeral director were to prepare his body, place it inside a coffin of his own choosing, deliver it to New Pendragon to where he ordered it to be received by his sister, and decided to leave it up to her on what she would do with his remains.
Other than his clothes, there were about five more stab wounds of different sizes than he had recalled, all of them still bleeding, although not as much as he had thought. He also seemed to have various cuts and bruises along his arms and legs, the fabric supposed to be covering them cut up and discarded when this was done to him, and to top it all off, he currently had a massive headache for God-knows-what reason. Whoever, no, The people who did this to him were obviously ordinary citizens, judging from how some of his wounds were inflicted randomly, and on how he was tied in the middle of the podium.
While he couldn't see his face, he definitely felt that someone decided to put a vertical gash on his face directly over his left eye. It was even a miracle that he could still see perfectly with both his eyes, disregarding the fact that the area he was in was dimly-lit, thereby affecting his vision, but he didn't find that surprising anymore.
What was surprising however was that he was still alive after all of the beatings, cuts, scrapes, and stabs that he had received, not to mention the huge amount of blood that formed a puddle in the middle of the podium where he was hanging from earlier.
But for him to live through all of that, he would have to-
No.
No.
"Why did this have to happen?!" He said, obviously irate, although hardly noticeable aside from the despair and sadness in his voice as he muttered those words. This definitely ruined the entire purpose of Zero Requiem, how can the world be at peace when he, the person who was dubbed as 'the enemy of the world', was still alive? While it was given that he had already been killed, all it takes is for one person to see him at the right place and at the right time, and given his history with these so-called 'chances', he'd be damned if he didn't take extra precaution this time.
Tired from everything that he had discovered and done, he decided to rest for a while, still wary of his surroundings.
Living Quarters, Tokyo Metropolitan Residential Building, Tokyo Settlement | September 24, 2018 a.t.b | 11:20 AM
A full day had passed since the culmination of Zero Requiem, and Suzaku—now Zero—was sprawled on his bed, still in his Zero attire sans mask, bloodshot eyes staring at the ceiling of his room. In the end, he was able to avenge Euphemia and 'kill' Lelouch with his own hands.
'But why am I crying?' Suzaku thought as another tear escaped his left eye. Although he had a hard time admitting it to himself, he was still one of Lelouch's trusted comrades, or at least he liked to think he was. Countless thoughts were now circulating inside Suzaku's mind, yet there was one that kept on repeating itself all throughout.
That he had killed his only best friend, and he could do nothing about it.
Letting go of a deep sign, Suzaku got himself out of the bed, and proceeded to get himself ready for whatever tasks this day had for him. Nothing bad would actually happen, right?
"No, I take that ba—" before Suzaku had a chance to finish what he was saying, a ringtone resonated from Suzaku's personal phone. 'Odd' he thought as it was one Jeremiah Gottwald who was calling him.
Needless to say, he answered it immediately, only to go through several expressions of shock, anger and sadness, all within the span of the 15 seconds it took Jeremiah to deliver his message. After Jeremiah hung up, he dropped his phone to the ground and involuntary sits on his bed, both hands holding his head as he processed what he had just heard.
'How can Lelouch's body be missing?!'
Author's Note:
So, this is the first chapter! Please tell me what you think, whether it be positive or negative as it will definitely help in improving how the story will be constructed, and how to direct its flow.
Also, according to the sources I've read, Pendragon was situated either in Arizona or New Mexico. New Pendragon in my story will be situated in Richmond, Virginia. The choice of city is based on Schneizel's map showing which cities/countries he would attack.
Thank you for reading! Till next time!
Xero Infinity