A/N: I'm sorry for the long hiatus. It's because I ended up getting stuck at writing the last few conflict scenes and end up multi-tasking on other latter chapters. Which led to some rewrites and me side-tracking to other works as a means to try to recover my focus. And then, there's this personal matter, I guess. Aside from life getting in the way.


Chapter 16.501 Marionette


Lelouch had to refrain himself from revealing any kinds of emotions in front of the nobles and royal relatives as he spoke clearly to convince everyone that he was indeed the eleventh prince that's been missing for many years. And as Cornelia had drilled him for the past weeks, he recited the official statement that she had drafted out prior in order to explain to everyone as to why his survival during the Britannian's invasion of Japan with his sister was kept secret and he only appeared again now. Half of the speech was slightly altered and the details fabricated as to not include his involvement with the Japanese rebellion movement. Since there was no need for the masses to know of the little details after all.

Of course, the cover story was also written in such a way that it didn't clash with the statement Schneizel had made a few months ago when they 'miraculously' found Nunnally. Regardless, throughout his speech, Lelouch kept preparing himself to face even more objections from the rest of the nobles in the hall. Since his father's earlier announcement of wanting to put him on the throne while bypassing all of the proper formalities was shocking enough.

But strangely, none came. It was as if no one else dared to oppose his father's decision after seeing how his father quickly shot down his older siblings' objections earlier.

That realization somewhat daunted him. It made him realize that despite the fact that his father had used to leave the task of governing the country to Schneizel, it didn't mean that his father has lost his touch or his shrewdness as a ruler. In fact, his father was still quite a schemer...

Lelouch could felt a chill running up his spine.

Why did he feel as if he wasn't the one being in control right now? Despite the fact that it was his own actions that derailed his father's in continuing to complete the Ragnarok Connection plan, his father seemed to make it too easy for them to turn towards a different path that did not involve the collective consciousness. It was as if... the Ragnarok Connection plan was never his father's main goal. It was as if, his father had always anticipated his actions to turn out the way he wanted to happen!

Lelouch suddenly felt as if he couldn't breathe...

Could it be? Aside from the Ragnarok plan, was there some other schemes that his father could always go back to?

xxx

The moment he saw the emperor leaving the hall Lelouch immediately went after his father. Since this was the only other time he could approach the man immediately while the nobles and the rest of his siblings were still distracted by the chaos. He didn't even bother to care that the only sound that reverberated around the hallway was just his own.

No matter what, he had to know for sure...

"You planned for this all along, isn't it?" Lelouch exclaimed the moment he was able to catch up to his father.

The towering figure slowly turned around to face him, giving him a bemused look. "Why are you so alarmed? Hadn't the current circumstances worked into your favour?"

Lelouch bit his lips as he admitted that his father's words were true.

"With your existence returning back into the limelight and the new power that you will now wield as you please, you can finally achieve all of the things that you have sought to achieve. You could free that tiny country you've grown to be attached to and create a better world for your sister. What other qualms that you're dissatisfied with?"

"That's not it!" Lelouch exclaimed. "I'm just asking WHY did you not tell me beforehand that you're planning to place me as a direct successor. If I knew I would have definitely—"

Charles gave him a bemused smile.

"Would you really continue to go through with revealing yourself today if I told you about this?" asked his father as Lelouch couldn't choke out a word. His father gave him another piercing stare. "Have I planned for all of this to happen? Why are you asking a question that you already know the answer?"

Lelouch started to open his mouth to answer. But then a faint memory from a distant past suddenly pop up into his mind as he stared up to his father in horror.

Somehow, it felt to him that he was just a mere pawn who was just been elevated into a position of the king by the real 'king' piece in his father's chess game.

xxx

Suzaku and Nunnally watched the rest of the live broadcast in silence until the end. Once it was over, Nunnally wheeled herself towards her desk. She appeared thoughtful.

"Suzaku... do you think that my brother would be all right?"

Suzaku gave her a brief glance before turning away.

"I don't think it was in my place to even cast my doubts on him."

Nunnally glanced towards Suzaku worriedly. "Can't you ever forgive my brother for what he did to Euphie?"

Suzaku glanced up at her immediately, noting that Nunnally had continued to train her eyes towards him. He still couldn't get used to this current Nunnally. Now that she was able to regain her sight, it felt as if Nunnally was able to see through his heart. Even from afar.

And that scared him at the thought of Nunnally being able to see how ugly his heart has become now.

"It's not that," he started to say. "Even if I could... forgive him, it wasn't as if Lelouch would be able to accept me again after all of the things I've done to him. How could I even hope for his acceptance? These past months we've been fighting as enemies, even before I was aware that he was Zero—After all that, how could either of us go back to how it used to be before?"

Nunnally just gave him a mournful look. "Shouldn't you be able to understand my brother the best? Do you really think that you can't get back to the way we used to be?"

Suzaku gave Nunnally another questioning look. "What about you, Nunnally? Now that you're aware of Lelouch's other life, what would you do now? Have you reconciled with the fact that it's was Lelouch that killed—" Suzaku bit his lips as he noticed Nunnally becoming slightly tensed at his words, "—how he... killed Euphie himself?"

He could see how much distress his words made Nunnally feel at the moment, but he just had to—if Lelouch wouldn't explain things properly to him, then maybe through Nunnally—Even if he might be hurting her at the moment; if only he could get a hint of what were Lelouch's true thoughts...

Lelouch's true intentions...

Then maybe he could—

Nunnally bit her lips as she glanced back towards Suzaku, her eyes that became clouded before were now clear. "I trust my brother. He told me that he'll tell me the whole truth once everything was over. The reason why he killed Euphie... Brother Clovis too, I'm sure he had a good explanation about it."

Suzaku sighed. The reason why Lelouch killed Clovis... shouldn't really be hard to guess, thought Suzaku. But with Euphie, that one could be quite complicated. But he could see a kind of conviction in Nunnally's eyes that shows how much she still trust her big brother so he might as well try to believe in her at least. He smiled weakly at her.

"You are really a strong person, Nunnally-chan."

xxx

Lelouch bit his lips. He just couldn't believe that he was still being led around by his father. Just when he thought he'd broken free and taking charge for once, it turned out to be...

"I was right, wasn't I? Even back then... even before I truly understood anything, I was right, wasn't I? You did plan to have me succeed the throne after you! Regardless of the fact you had Odysseus as the crown prince, or about those other succession lines! All these times, this had always been your goal!"

The emperor didn't even react to any of his words. Without answering him, his father turned around again as he took his leave. Lelouch clenched his fist as his eyes started becoming teary.

"Answer me this," he spoke again before looking up towards his father's retreating back. "Back then, if I haven't acted up against you, would you still have sent Nunnally and me to Japan under the pretence of protecting me from V.V.? Or whatever it was that you've said last time?"

Alas, his father didn't even bother to answer that last question.

xxx

"Lelouch!" cried Kallen as soon as she found him standing by himself at the corridors. "Don't run off so suddenly like that! I've barely got time to react... and it's still chaotic back at the royal halls!"

Kallen stopped herself from talking further as she noticed that Lelouch was standing very stiffly.

"Lelouch? What's wrong? Gosh, you looked so pale—" she spoke again, just as Cornelia and Jeremiah arrived at their side.

"Lelouch?" she asked again as Lelouch's eyes appeared unfocused. She gave a cry as Lelouch started to gasp for air and clutching his chest in pain.

"Lelouch?!" she exclaimed in alarm as Lelouch collapsed in her arms.

xxx

"...make him and those other idiotic people your puppets."

Lelouch shook his head frantically before turning around and slashed the empty air behind him with his sword. There was no one behind him, yet the voice had sounded so near. He stared at his hand holding the sword as he wondered how he got it in the first place.

And then the sword disappeared into thin air and immediately his surroundings started to change...

The next moment Lelouch realized that he was his younger self again, facing his father as the gigantic man loudly announced his exile. Every word that his father has said to him, he heard it all over again. How his father told him that he wasn't alive, to begin with, how everything that he ever had was never his. That the dead has no rights... and how he—like the rest of the royal members of his family—had a role to play. And his role was to lay the foundation to Britannia's rule over Japan.

How could he accept that? Why should he aid his father's goal when his father didn't even want to care about him and Nunnally? His own children!

It was something that he loathed to do for his father, thus he refused to do exactly THAT from the very moment he and Nunnally arrived at the Kururugi Shrine. Instead of trying to turn the Kururugi household—or more like convince Kururugi Genbu—into betraying his own people and serving him, he just played up the role of 'hostage' that was shoved onto him. As well as protecting Nunnally on his own. That's all he wanted to do.

"But you did end up achieving that anyway, with our powers. We had the Japanese people looking up to us as their leader. And if you had wanted it, you could've really turned them all into your puppets. Because we had the means to make that happen..."

Lelouch turned around to see 'Zero' standing before him. He glared at the figure with contempt. He frowned at his double's words but then it dawned on him.

His Geass!

"I did that because I needed the power to fight back! It wasn't because he told me to do so! And I never tried to turn any of the Black Knights into my puppets!"

"What difference does that make?" his alternate persona countered back. "In the end, you did gain the very ability that allowed you to make anyone obey you!"

"Just as it was meant to be."

"NO!" Lelouch cried out as his doppelganger disappeared. Yet in its place, his father's image loomed before him.

"...each member of the royal family has a role to play..."

"... your role alongside Nunnally will be to lay a foundation for Britannian presence in Japan."

"...you are dead."

"...as you are dead, you have no rights..."

Without warning, random shackles came out of nowhere and bound his arms and legs. Lelouch tried to free himself from the shackles but every time he broke one of the shackles off him, few more shackles came out from the darkness to bind him. Some of the shackles caught him on the nape of his neck, the base of his back... until he was nothing more than a life-sized marionette controlled by—

xxx

He woke up with a start to find himself back in his own room.

"Lelouch! You're awake!"

Lelouch turned his head to his side as he saw Kallen looming over him worriedly. He struggled to move as she helped him sit up on the bed. Lelouch glanced down at himself as he took note that Kallen had changed his royal outfit to a more comfortable one.

"Ne, Lelouch... what happened? You ran off so suddenly, it took a bit of time for me to catch up to you! And when I did, you just—" Kallen bit her lips as she continued, "You were delirious all the way back here in the car that Cornelia had to call the doctor over to check on you. What happened to you?"

"Are you ill?" Kallen asked again before shaking her head. "No, that's a silly question. How would you not feel shaken after what happened earlier? Of course, you'd feel faint after suddenly being told that you're now the next in line to the throne when we're just expecting for your title to be restored—!"

Lelouch pulled her over without warning before hugging her tightly.

xxx

Kallen slowly lifted a hand over Lelouch's head before starting to run her hand over his hair. Another hand started rubbing his back in small circles as she hoped that the movement would calm whatever it was that's troubling Lelouch. In response, Lelouch buried his face even deeper on the crook of her neck as he continued holding her tightly.

She smiled weakly.

Lelouch must've been so scared. He told her before that the royal ceremony hall was one of the places he had terrible memories from. He hasn't told her what really happened back then but she figured that it must've been when Lelouch was exiled by his father. She tried to reassure him that it would be different now, that everything's gonna be alright because she's with him now. How wrong could she be?

Kallen took a long breath.

"It's alright... Lulu. We'll figure out what to do now. It'll be fine..."

To be completely honest, Kallen wasn't really feeling fine right now either. But Lelouch was so distraught at the moment that she...

"I wonder..."

Kallen pulled away from him as Lelouch continued to look down.

"I wonder if he'd been planning things so far ahead to the point he manipulated everything to work in his favour."

Kallen frowned. "What did you mean?"

Lelouch shrugged. "He said that he sent me and Nunnally away for our safety. But even if that was his intention, the way he sent us away was... much too cruel for anyone—even more, two children—could take." He glanced up towards her.

"He told me I was dead to him. That from the very moment since I was born until then, I was never alive, to begin with. There was nothing that I've ever made or received has ever been mine, that all of it was from him." Lelouch let out a long sigh. "He said that Nunnally was just a weakling. And because of that, we have no rights to anything. Since the dead has no rights."

Lelouch bit his lips. "Those words had always haunted me, haunted my nightmares. Because of those words, I resolved to not depend on other people besides myself. I tried—whenever possible—to be able to support myself and Nunnally without depending on others. I vowed... to no longer allow myself to be used by others the way my father had treated me and Nunnally. He used us... as bargaining chips to lull the Japanese government into a false belief that Britannia wouldn't attack them. Look what it cost them."

Kallen gently squeezed Lelouch's arm to comfort him. He continued, "These past years I've been living like a dead man... until my path crossed with yours as well as meeting C.C. who gave me my Geass."

Lelouch let out a heavy sigh.

"All this time, I've fought him with the thought of shattering the world of cruelty that he created at the cost of discarding me and Nunnally. All these times, I sought the kind of power that would allow me to turn things around against him. I gained that and started my rebellion against him."

"All that is well, but what if... me gaining this Geass, my rebellion, all of this was part of his plan all along? What would that make me? All these times I thought I was acting by my own will—MY CHOICE—but what if that was just a mere illusion I'm seeing?"

"...in the end, was I just a puppet under my father's control?"

Almost instantly, Kallen felt a strange lump suddenly forming inside of her throat. She thought of Lelouch's achievements for the past year, all of the admiration she felt for him... all those things, that was on Lelouch. NOT his father! She wanted to say something to counter Lelouch's argument that he was his father's puppet.

But nothing comes to mind!

"Lelouch, you're not—!"

Without warning, the bedroom's door burst open as Cornelia marched in towards them. The second princess looked so fierce.

"Snap out of this, Lelouch! Don't you dare go weak on me!"

Kallen backed away without thinking, as she watched the two Britannian royals glared towards each other in confrontation.


A/N 2: I guess I'll end the chapter with this. Because seriously I don't know what else to add on this. Also, because I put this on hiatus for very long anyway so I might as well put it out already.

That aside, my father passed away last week. Because of that the limbo I'm already in with the writer's block got even worse. But I guess, I still need to fight on, huh? I'll try to resume the rest of the chapters, but it'll take time. Thank you for being patient.