Lelouch came to in a strangely lit world, surrounded by sky, without the Shinkiro in sight.

But he wasn't alone.

"Lelouch."

The last time Lelouch had heard his name spoken by that voice, in that tone, his memories had been taken and he'd lost his purpose, his life, his very self.

But this time, he was unrestrained, fully prepared, and armed.

He slowly reached for his gun, his eyes fixed on his father – or rather the lower half of his father's body, not wanting to risk another exposure to his geass. Lelouch knew that his geass had limits, one of which was distance, but he wasn't sure about his father's. They were fairly far apart, his father standing at the top of a long, wide flight of stairs that seemed to hover in space and Lelouch standing at the bottom. Too far away for Lelouch's geass, but too close to take a risk on his father's.

"It's been a long time, my prodigal son."

Lelouch vaguely considered pretending his memories were still gone, but wrote that plan off almost immediately as too unbelievable. "Your pet knight isn't here to hold me down this time."

Charles laughed. "And so what would that change? You're still weak, still struggling uselessly against forces you can't understand. And your geass is useless against me."

"I wouldn't say that," Lelouch retorted. "My geass works instantly, awaiting only a command. I remember exactly how excruciatingly long yours takes to work."

This time, the laughter was outright mocking. "Then try it! Match your will against mine."

Anger almost made Lelouch's eyes raise to meet his father's, to meet his challenge. He probably would have, if something small and blond and red at his father's feet hadn't caught his attention. "V.V.…"

Lelouch shook off his horror. Of course V.V. had been injured by the crash, but he was immortal and if he healed as fast as C.C., he should be fine within minutes (or less, depending on how long Lelouch had been out of it). "Is that was this is? A trap set by you and your code bearer?"

"Hardly. V.V. lied to me one time too many. His existence became intolerable."

Now it was Lelouch's turn to laugh, dry and sharp. "Not even an Emperor could do anything about that."

"Your habit of underestimating your opponents is tiresome," Charles retorted smoothly.

"Well, V.V. did say that I reminded him of you," Lelouch shot back, his mind racing. If he approached his father, with V.V. lying in wait, he could easily be trapped by V.V.'s code and then ensnared again by Charles's geass. But none of C.C.'s powers seemed to work at a distance – she'd needed physical contact to do whatever she'd done to Suzaku and she'd kissed him to give him his geass (and that was probably necessary – Lelouch was about 85% sure). So distance was an asset. But the risk of falling into his father's geass while using his own still remained valid.

Nevertheless, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. With this, Lelouch could be assured his answers, his revenge, and enough power to ensure that no one would ever hurt him or Nunnally (or Suzaku, or Japan, Rolo, Kallen, Shirley, Jeremiah…) again.

It was worth the risk.

V.V. wasn't moving. Even if he'd died, this should have been enough time for him to recover. So he was clearly a trap. Lelouch kept his eyes on him, and on the faint bloodstains Lelouch could see on the hem of his father's cloak. "Why did my mother die? Even if you didn't kill her, you must have known about it, you must know who did it and why."

"You expect the truth after coming here cloaked in lies and masks?"

Lelouch kept his eyes fixed below his father's waist as he started climbing up the stairs, slowly taking his gun out of its holster. "I expect the truth after having it hidden from me for eight years."

"Is there a tolerable amount of time that lies have to fester before they become evil?"

"You said V.V. lied to you and so you found his existence intolerable. How should I feel any differently towards you?"

Charles laughed. "Or, conversely, I to you, Lelouch. Your lies have certainly–" Lelouch's eyes shot up, his geass already active.

"Lelouch vi Britannia commands you: Follow my every order from this moment forth!"

Lelouch looked away as soon as the geass took hold, not willing to give his father the opportunity for even a latent chance at wiping his memory.

"Understood."

Lelouch felt a surge of victory run through him. He'd initially planned just to take out V.V. and his organization – but to somehow net his father… "Deal with V.V."

Charles moved like a marionette, stilted and wooden, as he bent down and picked V.V. up by his hair. Lelouch watched, oddly uncomfortable with the utter disregard his father showed the immortal boy, as Charles turned and tossed V.V. past Lelouch, onto the ledge Lelouch had started from.

The dull thud of the body hitting the floor actually made Lelouch flinch, the sound less like that of a human hitting a solid object and more like a bag of trash. Was that because V.V.'s body was a child's, or because something had happened…

This was a bad idea. But Lelouch couldn't imagine C.C. tolerating being handled like that, for any reason. V.V. certainly didn't seem any less arrogant than C.C., so… Lelouch backed down the stairs nervously, returning to the lower level and circling around the childish body, looking for clues. He couldn't see anything in the mess of hair and blood that indicated anything other than a dead body.

Lelouch's eyes flickered up to check on his father, patiently awaiting his next orders. Something was wrong, deeply wrong. Lelouch disengaged the safety of his gun, relying on the fact that even immortals had to recover from gunshots delivered at point-blank range, and bent down to touch V.V.'s neck, feeling for a pulse.

Nothing. And the body, while still as soft and supple as a living person's, was cool.

C.C., even 'dead' from gunshots or shrapnel, had never gone cold.

Lelouch looked up at his father. "What did you do? How did you…"

Charles didn't answer. Lelouch stumbled back from the supine corpse that had once been the immortal V.V., wiping his fingers frantically on his pants. "What did you do?"

Immortals were immortal. They couldn't die, that was the point. So how had his father…

Lelouch raced up the steps, caution thrown to the wind in a burst of confusion and unaimed rage. It was always like this – his father's powers proving time and time again to be good only for death and destruction. He hadn't saved Marianne and he hadn't helped Nunnally, but he could destroy whole nations and wipe his son's mind of everything important and kill immortals. There was nothing good or noble or admirable that came from this man.

"What did you do? Answer me."

Charles looked at him with the exact same unimpressed expression that Lelouch remembered from when he was a child, demanding answers and accountability from the one man who owed it to him. Even in the hot frenzy of his fury, a part of Lelouch recognized that look and took a step back, bracing his arms defensively as if he'd forgotten the gun in his right hand.

"You still do not understand? I have ascended past the mere power of kings; I am beyond the power of guns or swords now. No matter how you attack me it's useless!"

Right. The gun. Forgetting in the heat of the moment all the answers he wanted, all the wrongs he wanted this man to make right, Lelouch lashed out, firing three shots before he even realized what he was doing. His father fell back, still looking remarkably unimpressed, and Lelouch inhaled hard, realizing that he'd actually been holding his breath since asking his question.

Then the impact of what he'd done hit him.

He approached Charles gingerly, almost bending down to check his pulse or breathing, but there were three blood-covered holes in the middle of his chest. There was no way he'd survived that.

Lelouch fell to his knees beside the body and tried not to cry. He wasn't sad, or afraid, or really anything specific, but the flurry of emotions running through him (relief, regret, shame, anger, confusion, even a smug, victorious elation) were almost too much to bear. For a single, pure shining moment, he stopped thinking and just felt.

"Lelouch!"

The sharp bark of Suzaku's voice, anxious and a little afraid, caught Lelouch completely off guard. It wasn't just unexpected, it was close to the last thing Lelouch would have expected, had he any expectations. He didn't turn to look, kept his head bowed over his father's body, palming his gun. There were six shots left, provided that Suzaku's voice was the harbinger of some new trick.

The sound of multiple people rushing up the steps towards him seemed to bear that out. Lelouch braced himself for whatever metaphysical bullshit this odd world had to throw at him, turning shoulders first, leading with the gun, then his head.

Which left him aiming dead center for Kallen's forehead.

Fortunately, her surprise overcame her instincts and rather than disarming him and slamming him into the nearest hard surface, she just stopped and stared. Lelouch stared right back. "…Kallen?" He lowered his arm.

"What the hell?" she demanded, anger predictably winning over surprise.

She certainly seemed real. And the Suzaku standing behind her, eyeing Lelouch suspiciously, also looked quite real. But illusions would, wouldn't they? "What are you doing here?"

"We followed you," Suzaku said. "I'm just surprised Rolo isn't here."

"He went after that annoying knight," Kallen answered. "The one I was fighting, so I took off after you."

"Ah." Suzaku looked a little bit shamefaced at that. Lelouch glared at him and he shrugged. "I might have told him that I was backing Lelouch up."

Kallen frowned. "You… Lelouch, were you keeping this from us?"

"That I had a Knight of the Rounds in my pocket? I was going to print off a pamphlet, but there was never enough time," Lelouch snapped. "Of course I was keeping it from you." His glare never moved from Suzaku. "Of course, even if I hadn't been, it's no longer valid, is it, Suzaku?"

Suzaku shrugged. "Honestly? All promises and threats aside, I don't think I could ever really fight against you, Lelouch." He grinned. "You should know that by now."

Yes. Lelouch really should have. He rose and stepped away from his father's body, pinching the bridge of his nose. At least this explained, somewhat, the tendrils of energy that had been reaching behind him. But, in that case, what about C.C.? They'd reached for her as well.

Kallen was looking past Lelouch, her eyes focused on something below them, on the lower platform. Ah, of course – she and Suzaku would have prioritized Lelouch, but C.C. wouldn't have moved past V.V.'s body as casually. Lelouch was just about to turn and look himself, when a flicker of movement at his feet caught his attention.

His father sat up.

Suzaku shouted in surprise, catching Kallen's attention, and they both drew their weapons. Lelouch, knowing full well that his father had been dead moments ago, didn't bother, stumbling back in terror. "He… he was…"

"Why now?" C.C.'s voice rang out, as she slowly climbed the stairs. "Why take V.V.'s code now, Charles?"

"C.C.," Charles drawled, ignoring her question. "So good of you to come."

Lelouch couldn't take his eyes off him, his eyes drawn to the palm of his father's hand where the geass sigil sat, dark and red, even as C.C. brushed past him to face Charles. "You've gone out of your way to invite me. And now I'm here." She cast her eyes dismissively at Lelouch. "You can let the others go now."

"C.C.…" Kallen's hand shook. "First Suzaku and now you… is anyone on the side they started on?"

C.C. smiled, cold and secret, never turning from Charles.

He smiled in return, just as cold. "Very well. In return for your presence, I shall grant your Wish."

"Wish?" Lelouch asked. "C.C.'s Wish… you know what it is?"

"You should know it just as well," C.C. said. "If you spent half as much attention on those around you as you do on those who oppose you, you'd be in a much better place. My Wish is simply this: To die."

Lelouch swallowed hard. "Like V.V."

"Precisely. In the final stage of geass, the user attains the position of the one who granted them the power. Thus you, and Charles, have gained the power to kill me."

"But he… he took V.V.'s code. How could he take yours as well?"

Charles shook his head. "Oh, C.C.'s code was never meant for me. I could carry it for a while, before passing it on, but there's no need for that now, is there… Marianne?"

Lelouch stopped breathing.

"Ahh, if only V.V. had managed to finish his job, we could deal with this all at once," a pleasant alto voice sighed. "But it looks like things are getting overly complicated again."

Lelouch turned, not sure what he'd see, but…

"Mother?"

She looked just the same as she had eight years ago, before she'd been gunned down by… whoever had killed her. Her youthful appearance should have triggered some doubts in Lelouch's mind – people didn't just stop aging, after all. But all he could think of when he saw her was that she was alive. By whatever miracle, she was alive.

"Impossible," Suzaku breathed out. "She was dead. Lelouch, you said you saw her body!"

"Don't worry, he did," Marianne reassured Suzaku. "And it is quite dead. But I'm not. And, with C.C.'s code, when I return to my body, it won't be either."

Even stunned, Lelouch's brain worked faster than most. "You have a geass." He turned to C.C. "You gave her…"

"Of course. Marianne was… a friend," C.C. said. "It's nothing like the geass I gave you, Lelouch. That was…"

"So that I would kill you?" Lelouch said.

"Exactly." C.C. shrugged. "But you put it to use in the meantime."

"How long?" Lelouch demanded. "How long have you known that my mother wasn't really dead? How long have you and this man been working together? How long have I been able to kill you?"

"Since a few moments after her death, since he and V.V. were children, and since Euphy."

Lelouch reeled back as if struck. "All that… everything about being my ally, watching me struggle to solve my mother's death…"

"That was sweet," Marianne interrupted. "I must admit, I'm quite touched. But Charles avenged me well enough." She swept past Lelouch in a graceful rush of hair and skirts, and the scent that lingered after was so nostalgic… She took Charles's arm and smiled. "V.V. was the one who killed me, and even went so far as to go after my son." She shot Lelouch a look of pure love. "Charles and I have been protecting you and Nunnally all this time, Lelouch – that's why he took your memories of being a terrorist, and why I watched over Nunnally as Anya."

"Anya?" Suzaku asked, stunned. "I don't…"

"When V.V. killed me, my geass allowed me to hide in her mind. I made her a knight, gave her skills and abilities she never could have known otherwise, and placed her at the side of a princess." The look she shot Suzaku was rather more wry, and a little disgusted. "Nunnally did have her own knight, chosen by her own will, but he was never around. Out gallivanting with terrorists rather than caring for his charge."

Lelouch shook his head. "No… no. That's not… you abandoned us to the Japanese, then attacked them at the slightest provokation." He turned to his father. "You took all my precious memories – about mother and Nunnally as well as of Zero." And then he rounded on his mother. "And you stole someone's body, their future, and let us believe you were dead, leaving us without any protection for nearly a decade!"

"You don't understand," Charles rumbled, his voice oddly gentle compared to his usual imperious tone. "It was for your own good – all of it. Japan was necessary for our ultimate plan, a plan V.V. betrayed. A plan that requires C.C.'s code."

Marianne moved towards C.C. "You don't mind, do you C.C.? I know you've had fun playing with Lelouch, but that's not necessary anymore. You can go rest now."

Lelouch stood between them, one hand outstretched as if to hold his mother back. "No, wait. Wait. What plan? What are you two doing?"

"Saving the world," Marianne said, simply.

"The Ragnarok connection," Charles elaborated. "The dissolution of lies and masks, of the barriers between the past and the present, of life and death. The kinder, gentler world that both Nunnally and Euphy wanted."

"Ragnarok…" Lelouch had been classically trained as a prince, and many of those habits had turned into individual study on matters such as languages and literature. "The destruction of this world, and the creation of a new one."

Charles nodded, looking oddly pleased. "Precisely. Our minds will be opened to one another's, the departed will rejoin us, and there will be no choice but peace."

Kallen barked a harsh laugh. "You're joking, right? You invade countries, kill and dehumanize their people, and you expect us to buy that you were doing it for peace?"

Charles's pleased look disappeared under a sneer of disdain. "You know nothing of this."

"You killed my brother and turned my mother into a drug addict!" Lelouch made a soft noise, and Kallen rounded on him. "You can't seriously believe him, Lelouch! After everything he's done, after what he did to you and Nunnally… what, it's okay to try to kill you because this connection thing can just pop you right back?"

"That's not…" Lelouch took a deep breath. "That's not the point, Kallen. This isn't about you, or me, or Nunnally," he turned to Suzaku, his eyes soft and apologetic, "or Euphy. And it isn't even about Japan and Britannia. It's about humanity. And the freedom to choose."

"Lelouch, what…"

Lelouch ignored his mother. "Lies and masks are part of what makes us human. Taking those away, taking away our ability to fight, makes us lesser creatures. Do you really think that just because nothing can be hidden, that everyone will always agree? What you want, what you're trying to create is a world without freedom, without choice, and without individuality. A world where everyone is a slave to everyone else." He laughed. "All men will be created equal then, but they won't be human or anything close to the lowest person alive now."

Charles shook his head. "I thought you, with your unique geass, would understand. But you persist in fighting, even against your own interests." He drew himself up, looming over Lelouch. "Stand aside. This won't be stopped by your childish impudence."

Lelouch closed his eyes. "C.C., my geass has evolved enough to take on your code?"

"Yes."

"How?"

C.C. sighed. "When a geass user kills a code holder, the code can be taken forcefully, given freely, or forced on them. If you or Marianne killed me, I would give up my code freely."

"Don't meddle, boy. Marianne is prepared to do what is necessary, you are not."

Lelouch nodded. "I understand." He stepped to the side, moving away from C.C. so that Marianne just had to step forward to touch her. "C.C., after all we've been through, even if it was a lie on your part, I can't take your life. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," C.C. said. "It was asking a lot in the first place." She smiled at Marianne. "And no matter what's between us, you've always been willing to take this step haven't you?"

"Since the day we met," Marianne said, smiling back and reaching for C.C.

The sound of a gunshot rang out before they touched.

Everyone froze. Except Charles, who fell back, his face fixed in an expression of mingled disbelief and anger.

"Charles!" The pained cry broke Kallen out of her stunned inertia to reflexively defend Lelouch as his mother lunged towards him, grabbing Marianne in a restraining hold. Despite Kallen's training, Marianne almost overcame her, desperate to get to her son and husband.

And then Suzaku was there, at Kallen's side, helping. Kallen grunted as she tried to restrain Marianne's arms. "Thanks."

"No problem."

Lelouch ignored them all, bending down at his father's side. "You brought this on yourself. Your avarice and greed, taking everything in sight, even things you didn't need. You were a horrible father, and a worse Emperor, and I will not be alone in rejoicing in your death."

The bullet hadn't hit Charles's heart, lodging instead in a lung. It made for a slower death, as Charles drowned in his own blood, but it gave him the chance to reach out, his hand gripping as tightly as it could around Lelouch's neck. "Ungrateful… fool. You've lost here… as much as I have. The world… will never… be yours. You will leave… and return… to Schnei…zel's…"

He stopped breathing. His hand fell. Lelouch shuddered as he felt the departure of his geass, leaving him feeling cold and numb.

A moment ago, he'd been awash in emotions – victory, anger, betrayal, hurt… Now there was nothing.

He stood and looked down as his mother, pinned down to her knees by Kallen and Suzaku, tears streaming down her face as she stared at the body of her husband. "You can go with him, if you wish."

She looked up at him. "Lelouch… you…"

Lelouch smiled, and even that felt cold. "I will see to it that Nunnally and Anya are taken care of. You have no more responsibilities here. You died eight years ago, mother. Let go."

Marianne lunged for Lelouch, breaking free of Kallen's hold and almost out of Suzaku's. "You killed your own father, and now you're asking me to die as well?" Suzaku flinched, but kept his hold tight until Kallen regrouped. "Monstrous child!"

"Perhaps I am. But that doesn't change the reality of the situation." Lelouch's eyes flickered around to C.C. "Perhaps C.C. will allow you to leave, but I plan on taking only Suzaku and Kallen out with me, and I doubt they'll allow you to possess Anya again. Outside the World of C, without a body, you will be trapped, unable to move on." He had no idea how he knew this, or how he knew how to leave this strange world. He just did.

But then again, he'd instinctively known how to use his geass from the moment he'd received it as well. He wasn't questioning it anymore.

Marianne shook her head. "No, no it's…" She turned to C.C. "You won't leave me here, will you?"

C.C. looked at her, an expression of genuine sadness cracking her blank mask. "It's over Marianne."

"No, I can… I can take his code and then we can–"

"Kill your own son?" Lelouch asked rhetorically. "And how will you attempt to justify yourself this time? You can hardly claim it was for my own good."

Marianne struggled in Suzaku and Kallen's arms, and Lelouch just shook his head. "Let her go." Suzaku and Kallen looked up at him, incredulously. Lelouch smiled. "It's fine. Let her go."

Once they did, Marianne rushed to Charles's side, cradling his head. Lelouch spared a fleeting thought over the fact that V.V. hadn't had anyone to do that for him.

He turned away. "Suzaku, Kallen, let's g–"

C.C. slapped him.

It was kind of a surprise.

"You betrayed me." Her voice was flat.

"I suppose I did." So was Lelouch's.

"Ah… Lelouch?" Suzaku said, looking worriedly between him and C.C.

Lelouch nodded to C.C. "We'll discuss this later." He turned back to Suzaku and Kallen with a smile, one that felt more natural. "Come on. We still have to deal with Anya and the Tristan and the rest of the Order." He turned to leave, following the lines of power he could sense connecting this world to the 'real' one.

Kallen moved next to Suzaku, lowering her voice so that Lelouch almost missed it. "That's spooky."

"Yeah…"

Lelouch looked over his shoulder at them, and they straightened up like children caught passing notes in class. "Come."

"…coming."