Chapter 11: A Pretty Fucked Up Old Man.

AN: Hey guys, it's been a while. Sorry about the delay.

Hannah : Originally, I planned it for between chapter 3 and 4, just after Shirley kills Lelouch. Lelouch spawns one seconds before Suzaku stabs him in the chest during the Zero Requiem, he groans "Oh come on!" then he spawns at Kamine Island where the two fellow friends are pointing guns at each other. I can still plan it for later, which is one of the advantages of this fanfic, so yeah, I can.

The Justice and Death : Well, today.

Have a good read.


"Suzaku-sempai!"

Suzaku raised an eyebrow. He was sitting on a bench at the Ashford Academy park, waiting for his next course to begin and profiting of the nice weather like all old people did –Suzaku was mentally 87-, when he was interrupted by three male students.

"You're super cool!" One said.

"We apologize, we shouldn't have mistreated you." The second added apologetically.

"We were in the wrong." The third said, nodding.

Needless to say, these three students had all red circles around his eyes. And, oddly enough, these three teens were the ones who tried to paint some racist slurs to Suzaku's locker and clothes.

"Repentance is a gift." Suzaku said wisely. "And forgiveness is a virtue. Spread the good around you and your wrongs will be forgiven."

Lelouch stared at the scene from the window on the first floor with, well, a neutral expression on his face.

'Suzaku's still an old man on the inside.' Lelouch thought. 'Well, a pretty fucked up old man anyway. I imagine it must have not been good for his sanity to keep its identity secret for more than sixty years. I remember when I was his age, so carefree, so oblivious of what fucked up situation I was into, taking care of my grand children, and even my great-grandchildren with all the tenderness I had.'

Lelouch nearly had a nostalgic smile on his face, but he wiped out from his face as he remembered what happened next. 'But then I died … well, not really. It would have been good to die then, I had accomplished what any good time-traveler dreamed to accomplish, but it wasn't enough for this stupid Jupiter-consciousness thingy…'

"Lelouch, I'm scared!"

The raven haired time-looper turned to see his shy and xenophobic classmate, Nina Einstein.

"Don't worry." Lelouch said casually. "He doesn't bite."

"He's an Eleven." She squeaked. "Who knows what they're up to?"

Lelouch showed Nina a grim look. "Well, on one hand, we kind of conquered their country, destroyed their homes and let their family to die or starve to death. Let's be honest a minute; if I were an Eleven, I wouldn't say no to a killing spree."

Nina gasped. "Do you think he's … he's …?"

Lelouch shook his head. "No amalgams. Not all Elevens are bad."


The dinner was over at the Lamperouges. Nunnally had met Suzaku again, and the scene was more or less the same as the dozen times it happened. Needless to say, the narrator was lazy.

"So…"

"So?"

"What do we do?"

"What do you do, you mean."

Lelouch was checking his computer on his bedroom, while Suzaku was standing two feet behind, staring at him in slight annoyance and trying to persuade him for bringing peace to the World.

"Oh come on." Suzaku groaned. "Why don't you want to help me for making the World a better place?"

Lelouch kept on being focused to his computer. "That's quite ironic, coming from you."

Suzaku narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Lelouch sighed. "You were the one constantly making a drama about me actually doing something useful, and now that I am doing exactly what you expect me to do, a.k.a living the life of an ordinary teenager who doesn't have the power to bend everyone into his will, you still complain."

"But I…" Suzaku tried to retort, but then realized something. "I was wrong. I was wrong the whole time. Bad methods can achieve good results, being a good and strong guy isn't enough to change the world, and sometimes you have to play dirty in order to win the game, is that what you wanted to hear?"

Lelouch shrugged. "I don't care about hearing the truth. I already know it."

Suzaku winced. "You didn't answer my question. Why?"

Lelouch turned his chair and stared at the green-eyed young-old time traveler with a dull look.

"Every time I die, I go back at some moment of my first life, a.k.a the original timeline we both know." Lelouch explained with a condescending tone. "Most of the time it is in that crappy warehouse in the Shinjuku Ghetto, sometimes it is when I'm still a child, or even a baby. Everything I do is pointless, the good actions, the mistakes or even the cruelties I do are erased just after my death. So, why bother?"

Suzaku lowered his head. "I understand your point of view, but …"

"But I don't want to help you anyway." Lelouch interrupted him, guessing what he was about to say.

Then he turned back to his computer, as if nothing important was being discussed.

"Why?" Suzaku asked again, hiding his frustration.

"I'm not very enthusiastic at repeating the same things over and over." Lelouch said simply.

"You could always change your methods." Suzaku objected.

"I've always changed my methods." He retorted. "Destroying Britannia by creating the USA to replace it? Check. Creating the United States of Earth with Zero as its leader? Check. Becoming Emperor and actually not acting as an evil one? Check. Conquering the World as the Emperor while turning Europe and China into heartless dictatorships to legitimate my rule? It was only last week, and it wasn't even interesting."

Suzaku shook his head in disbelief. "You could always advise me, that's all I'm asking."

Lelouch snorted. "Advising someone who'd advise my Geassed brother… What's your Geass power doing exactly?"

Suzaku shrugged. "I think it has to do with turning people into the good side."

"And, oddly enough, these people obey you." Lelouch mused while tapping to his computer, doing his business as usual.

"They do." Suzaku acknowledged.

"It's probably because you still have the natural aspect of the 'leader of the good side'." Lelouch guessed. "I mean, what sort of nekketsu protagonist would you be if you didn't want to persuade the bad guys to join your cause?"


V.V was ecstatic. He finally found out a phone. He had been wandering in this Chinese desert for, like, four days, starving to death despite being unable to die.

He composed the phone number of his brother. Because, yeah, V.V knew the personal number of Emperor Charles zi Britannia

"Charles?" V.V asked. "It's me, Vercingetorix."

Then, the blonde midget heard a loud splash from across the phone. "Big brother? I'm on the privy right now!"

V.V raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah?"

"I couldn't contact you." Charles stated. "Would you mind giving me an explanation?"

"Of course, little brother." V.V said reassuringly. "You know I never hide anything from you."

'Except a couple irrelevant things.' He thought for himself.

"So?" The Emperor asked as another splash happened.

"The Geass order." V.V said worryingly. "We've been attacked."

"Impossible!" Charles shouted. "Who dared?"

"I don't know." V.V stated matter-of-factly. "We didn't see it coming: two missiles destroyed the order AND the Twilight gate. My bet is on the Chinese…"

"This felony shan't be unpunished!" Charles roared. "I am declaring war to the Chinese Federation!"


Back with the two fellow time-travelers…

"Tell me, Lelouch." Suzaku said sternly. "Why did you use your Geass on Euphemia?"

Lelouch rolled his eyes. "After all these years you've still haven't gotten over it…"

"Shut up." Suzaku muttered.

Lelouch sighed. "You see … before the massacre, Britannia wasn't really a problem for the international community."

Then he imitated some sort of conservative European old man. "Britannia? Well, of course there's some racism and violence against minorities but, come on, there are terrorists, and terrorism is bad." Lelouch then retook his normal voice. "They just prayed Britannia wouldn't invade their country and averted the gaze because they knew they were weak, which was a pity. But after the whole World witnessed a massacre like this, Britannia became a monstrosity to their eyes, an enemy to take down at all costs for the entire World. At least that was how I imagined it... No, wait."

Suzaku blinked. "What."

Lelouch shook his head. "It was in my first life and I wasn't as fucked up as now. I had a conscience back then."

Suzaku raised a finger in order to say something, but Lelouch interrupted him.

"I know what you're going to say and I'll just answer that you don't know how I really am at this moment. The Zero Requiem, me conquering the World and slaughtering the World was an act of pure altruism compared to what I'm able to do right now. I still had a conscience back then, but before the massacre, it was even worse. I was merely a kid who wouldn't dare hurt an innocent willingly. The whole thing was obviously an accident."

Suzaku blinked in confusion. "What do you mean an accident?"

Lelouch turned his chair and focused again on his computer. "Geass can become fully-active, you knew that? By the way you really have to be careful with your power."

Suzaku tried to digest the whole thing about Euphie's death being an accident. "Yeah, thanks for the advice."

"I'll help you a bit." Lelouch said suddenly while tapping on his computer. "I have nothing important to do anyway. But I'll just give you, what, 1 hour of my time a day, I really hate doing all the same things again and again and sometimes I do them by reflex."

"Okay." Suzaku said slowly. "What things?"

Lelouch just shrugged. "You know, the usual stuff. Hacking the research center of Dallas to wipe out all of the data concerning Nuclear fission and entering the system of the forbidden city to order an exercise launch of two experimental missiles on the Geass order."

Suzaku's face brightened. "Oh, so I wouldn't have to worry about the FLEIJA and the Geass canceller? Neat."

Then he observed Lelouch who was focused on his computer for about 15 minutes. "Is that what you're doing right now? Hacking some Britannian system?"

Lelouch shook his head. "No, it's just my homework."