Disclaimer: I own Code Geass

Ch 2: Empress' Life

The afternoon sun peeked through the sparsely cloudy sky; the lush green plains below expanded till the towering concrete grey of walls cut them of—a reminder of its artificiality. The grass that grew, the wind that blew, the blooming of flowers and its wilting were all fine tuned till perfection to reflect the owner's taste.

The pristine white marble paths navigated through the flowers, bushes and ponds of the garden, all which lead to a circular marble dais in the middle where the lone figure of a girl sat.

It was Nunnally vi Brittania, the 100th Empress of Brittanian Empire.

Nunnally listlessly watched the zephyr sweep across the grassy plain of the newly remodelled garden. It was year and a half ago during her last visit to Tokyo that she had ordered a complete overhaul for the gardens here. Tokyo was a place Nunally grew up for large portion of her life, even if it was not her homeland, she felt the desire to create her personal haven to escape to.

"I wish brother were here..." Nunally murmured to herself.

At time like this when Lelouch's death resurfaced, to haunt her mind, she would escape to here for some solace.

Placing the cup back on the small oval table, Nunally leaned back on her wheelchair. The soft padding of the wheelchair caught and contoured around her back.

She proceeded to the usual emotional ritual to calm her mind. Closing her eyes, she recalled back to her memories. The horrifyingly vivid imagery watching her Zero stabbing her brother Lelouch flooded her vision, drowning her in torrent of emotions that came along with it.

'Brother...all I ever wanted...' Nunally stopped. She couldn't allow herself to be weak. It has been 12 years already since Lelouch died but the feelings she felt then and she feels now had no change. She wouldn't allow such a thing. She would continue dwelling on past selfishly no matter what others tell. Those memories, those feelings, however they may torment her mind, she treasured them very much.

With a relaxed sigh, Nunally opened her eyes letting the breeze greet her. She wished she could forever stay here, gaze unto the pleasant scenery but those careless days had long gone by. She was neither the little princess that played silly games with her brothers and sisters nor Nunally Lamperouge that would have fun with other student council members. Those peaceful and happy times had long by, and without her brother by her side, they would never come back either. Now she was a Empress. She had a duty; the duty to lead a nation, to enrich it and do her best to spread happiness.

The sound of footsteps from behind her brought Nunally out of thoughts. Nunnally didn't have to turn around to know who that was.

"Empress, the meetings will begin soon."

Suzaku—no he was Zero now, wasn't he? Yes. Zero's synthetic voice notified her. She snuck up a side glance to see him prostrate himself. Too formal, Nunally complained but didn't voice it.

It was perhaps just the day after Lelouch's death that Zero came to them. Nunnally remembered Zero offering himself to Brittanian crown to assist Nunnally. He of course was met with great criticism from Cornelia but Nunnally and for some reason Schneizel had helped him secure his current position of her personal bodyguard.

"Empress."

Zero urged but Nunnally didn't turn back, reluctant to face him and her duties. Nunnally had taken to role of Empress as a personal atonement, a atonement for not only failing to understand her brother's intentions but also allying herself with his enemy and ultimately caused his death directly or indirectly; but it was harder than she expected.

"How did brother carry such big burden on his shoulders?"

She asked to no one in particular. She didn't expect Zero to answer but she wished he would. Not only to this but many other questions but that wish of hers may never come to fruition.

"Sorry to have made you wait," Nunnally apologized after what must have been 5 minutes. "We must be late already now."

Zero shook his head, standing up to bow once again.

"I informed slightly early."

Nunnally replied with wry smile. Even though his voice was heavily synthesised through the systems in the mask he wore, she could feel Suzaku's gentle tone nonetheless. Only if he would show himself but...

"I do not have a identity," He responded, his answer was programmed and his tone emotionless. "I am just Zero, a symbol for justice."

Nunnally let out a mental sigh. In all this time with Zero, her doubts had all but confirmed. The more he tried to hide his usual habits, the more apparent they started to become in Nunnally's eyes. Many times she had tried to use some conversational baits as she had learnt from Schneizel but unfortunately for her, he didn't fall for them.

She had even once thought to even use her authority to compel Zero to reveal himself but she couldn't. She reasoned that it was not only dishonouring her brother's wishes but also that she simply didn't have that much authority over him. Afterall, Zero serves the crown out of his own will.

While she was with her own thoughts, Zero wheeled Nunnally across the long corridors of the palace. The halls were carpeted and the white walls were laced with golden boiseries and candle holders for purely decorative purposes. Britannia's obsession over medieval standards of extravagance never died out and he doubts it ever will. The palace in here looked very similar to one at New Pendragon.

Nevertheless, he hadn't ever thought that the Japanese government would allow the old Tokyo Government office to be used as palace. Perhaps they wouldn't have but during that time Ohgi was in official so perhaps he smoothed things out for them. It wouldn't be that surprising since Ohgi had shown great favourability to Nunnally after her ascension to the throne for whatever reasons.

As they navigated through the maze of corridors, each passer-by would bow gracefully to which Nunally would only return a small nod and a plastered smile. It wasn't much long that the two arrived front of a large oaken door. Zero halted.

"Empress, are you ready?" He asked.

"Yes." Nunnally replied naturally.

She might have hesitated, felt anxious or even wanted to turn away from her duties as Empress now, but it had already been so long now that she was plenty confident in herself. Though a part of her still wished she could have just returned to old times, she now had the burden of many people's lives over her shoulders. For her people, for her brother, she cannot turn away anymore.

"Yes" She reaffirmed.

Zero nodded and led her in.

In the year 2029, 11 years after Lelouch's death, a civil war broke out in resource starved nation of Zilkheistan, causing it to break apart in two parts. Initially UFN had decided to solve things diplomatically but when war had started to escalate to new heights, they intervened with their multinational fleet to calm things down. Faced with UFN forces, the two warring states of North and South Zilkheistan were forced into peace treaty. This of course would not have solved everything at all, much less in just year so UFN had seized all military power, forcing down peace and finding alternate solutions with a iron hand.

Nunnally of course knew all of this already. She had been directly involved in decision making process too but it still pained her to see the reports on the current situation. She had taken the initiative to be public face of this intervention and so she really wished to neutralise the situation there before this year had ended but it was already too late. Christmas is just a few days away and new year just a few more. She had planned to include the news about Zilkheistan's situation being neutralised in her new year's speech but now she would have to find something else interesting enough. She let out a sigh, putting the report back on her office desk.

The scientific research team of Lloyd and Cecile too were stationed there for mechanical assistance but it was rather forced upon them. Lloyd had already filed 3 appeals to return back to Brittania all stating the same reason: "I have a research to complete". Despite it being a appeal, it's demanding tone was palpable. There were also other issues like...

"Empress." Zero called.

Nunnally turned her tired gaze towards his obsidian black mask. She hated the fact the she could not tell what kind of face the man behind the mask made. Unable to see his face took away a great part of what made that figure human—or perhaps that was the philosophy behind it?

"You should rest," He tried to be soft but the synthesiser had no such functionality. "You have been sighing a lot lately."

"Have I?"

Maybe she has. Her job was never a easy one but for some reason she had started to get tired more often since she arrived in Tokyo. How strange.

"Yes. Maybe I should."

"Understood. Then I—"

"Tokyo." She said.

"What…?" Zero asked in confusion.

"I want to visit Tokyo." Nunnally ordered rather than wish.

"Your Majesty, we are in Tokyo."

Nunally would have landed a chop on this fool's head now if he didn't wear this mask. She almost let out a exasperated sigh. Now Nunally has another reason to hate that mask.

"I mean the city of Tokyo, the streets of Tokyo."

"We can't Your Majesty. Its dangerous." Zero immediately refuted.

Nunally was well aware the dangers of going outside. Ever since her ascent to the throne, while many of the has taken it well, there remains the groups of people that hated this. All for varying reasons but it was somewhat ironic that most of the people that openly hated her were Brittanians rather than oppressed Numbers.

'Die you demon's kin!'

One of the hate letters read.

'Aren't you also Brittanian? How could you let the numbers be free?'

Another letter read.

'You have it easy don't you? You could be the star because your demon brother did the work for you afterall.'

She had received many such letters in her early days just after ascension so much so that when furious Cornelia found out, she had ordered for thorough filtering of letters that would reach her. Nunally had taken most of their blames to heart however. Could she deny it that she gets to sit in her undeserved throne just because her brother had paved her way perfectly? She can't. Others might argue that Lelouch was too uncaring for such planning but of course Nunally knew better.

But even with all that aware, her selfishness got better of her, she wanted to visit the streets of Tokyo. Not as a Empress or a celebrity but just as a normal citizen.

"I know," Nunally replied after a long pause. "That's why you are here, aren't you?" Nunally challenged Zero with a grin.

After a long minute of hidden grimacing, Zero sighed in resignation.

"I understand but I will have to discuss with Princess Cornelia before all."

"Thank you, Suzaku."

Nunally smiled wide, referring to him by his real name. Zero flinched just the tiniest before correcting her in a much practised manner, causing a small chuckle from Nunally.

But back then Nunally didn't realise that this little selfish request of hers would lead to a very unexpected, and perhaps fateful meeting.

《ーーA/Nーー》

Hello there!

It's me again. Sorry I am terribly late on update and this chapter is very short because the chapter I originally planned to post needs some serious revisions, or perhaps I need to change the direction of the story I had originally planned in entirety. I have...(counting)...5 chapters already written other than this one but I will probably rewrite most of them to meet everyone's expectations.

I have read all your reviews and thank you very very much for taking time to review.

Even then though... you all are really amazing... I didn't expect them so fast and I overestimated myself that I could take the pressure. I will try not to disappoint you and also improve my grammar so support me (^^).

To the reviewer that commented about my habit of mixing of tenses: Thank you very much for the review, I will try to improve and do more thorough and frequent checks before uploading (unlike this one).

To "Guest-san" that complained about not stealing others ideas: I wouldn't have found out that such (incomplete) fanfics about Lelouch's kid existed if I hadn't searched them. On that note I think it's safe to say it's original concept that others also wrote on.

Next chapter will have a time skip, I hope this in-between chapter helps to ease the flow of time.

I don't have a schedule but I will try my best to deliver next chapter quicker than this one. Bye〜