A/N: Hi everyone, and welcome to the first real chapter of this interesting idea. :-) Looks like enough people liked the prologue, so I'm gonna give this a shot.

I'm not much for answering reviews, but know that I totally love reading them and they encourage me to keep writing. One person did mention a division between my Author's Note and the beginning of a chapter, and I want to apologize for that. My family is in the middle of a move and I don't have access to a computer right now. This is all done on my phone, and for some reason, when I copy and paste into my account, it doesn't retain any of my bold words or italics. I tried to fix that as you may have seen at the end of last chapter, but touch screens are so...touchy. :-( If that happens again, many apologies. Maybe I can make it to the library to fix that...

Disclaimer: I only recently discovered Code Geass, so there is no way I own it.

Chapter One

Okay.

Deep breath.

This just happened.

Giving off all the air of a person in charge and overconfident, no one would never have guessed that Lloyd was panicking.

He really did it.

I'm back at the beginning.

He wanted to giggle hysterically.

Oh, the things he could upgrade on the Lancelot ahead of time! As soon as he found Suzaku, he could get a head start on everything.

And maybe fix stuff.

Lloyd knew that was why he was really back here. To fix stuff.

He wanted to scoff.

Of course he'd change stuff. He was a scientist. An engineer. He would take advantage of the knowledge of the future, and he would better his exploits.

But he knew that the reason he'd been sent back was more...emotional.

Lloyd had emotions, make no mistake. He showed his enthusiasm for his beloved experiments on a regular for others to witness.

No, his issue was the touchy feely emotions.

Maybe, just maybe if he'd been a little more feeling, maybe Suzaku wouldn't have turned out so bitter.

Maybe a lot of things wouldn't have happened.

Lloyd shuddered.

He knew about Zero Requiem. He knew what Suzaku had done in the end. How he'd donned that damned mask and taken over the role of his once worst enemy/best friend.

He remembered the day that it all started. That day he had taken the Lancelot to go after Zero. When he'd gone to kill the man who'd killed his love.

He'd punched Lloyd.

It had hurt, and in more ways than one.

Lloyd liked Suzaku. He was a bright young man, and innocent in his very naive ways of thinking. And he was an absolutely brilliant devicer.

When Suzaku had gotten bitter, when he'd become a Knight of the Round, swearing loyalty to a man that personally, Lloyd had always despised, it had made him extremely disappointed.

Shaking himself, Lloyd brought himself back to the present. Or the past.

Whatever he was supposed to call it now.

He took a deep breath, and then realized he was at the entrance to the subway. He remembered the first time, how he'd wandered around for a good fifteen minutes mourning the lack of devicer, and how he'd come across Suzaku's unconscious form. The fact that he was an Eleven and that he seemed to have been shot in the back hadn't phased him. As soon as Lloyd had realized the boy was alive, he'd not hesitated to drag him back to the Lancelot. It was only at Cecile's insistence he get checked out by a medic that Lloyd had let him go. He'd been perfectly fine with just rousing the boy and stuffing him in Lancelot's cockpit.

He did feel bad about that mindset now.

Really, he did!

God had shown him things that he'd not previously known about Suzaku. He'd shown him the stubborn boy who disliked royalty, the most kindhearted friend who carried a crippled girl on his back. The loyal brother who stuck beside a prince during the worst moments of their lives.

And the sacrifice he'd made to save a brother and sister.

Lloyd hadn't been particularly surprised that Suzaku was responsible for killing his father. But it had sent a uncharacteristic surge of sadness through him as he realized that Suzaku had grown up too fast.

Grown up too fast and yet was so naive.

They were going to have a lot to work on. It almost made Lloyd want to face palm.

Because if God wanted him to change things, and Suzaku was a main contender in the way everything worked out, then Lloyd was going to change Suzaku.

As if on cue, he rounded the corner to where a truck-he found out later that it was the truck that C.C. had been held in-had apparently blown up. It didn't much look like a truck anymore, but the burning rubber from the tires was a bit of a giveaway.

And there, lying motionless on the ground, was Suzaku.

Lloyd wasn't sure what to think. For one awful moment, he thought that maybe, just maybe this was all a dream. Or even, perhaps God had decided to punish him for something, and Suzaku was really dead.

It was a strange thing to feel panicked over the welfare of another human being.

That hadn't happened in a long time.

Hurrying forward, glad that Cecile hadn't decided to follow him because if she had seen him expressing concern for someone he hadn't met yet, my...he'd end up in the nuthouse faster than he could say Avalon.

He couldn't help himself as he reached a hand and held it to the pulse point where the neck and chin meet. It was slow but steady.

Lloyd sighed in relief, and then immediately rebuked himself.

Stop being such an emotional wuss!

But it didn't help.

It had made him despise things even more so than he had before, and now he felt a burning fury that he'd felt only on rare occasions to see the clear bullet hole in Suzaku's lower back. He knew that if the pocket watch hadn't been there, the bullet would have torn straight through the boy and he would have bled out in a matter of five minutes. As it was, if he was remembering correctly from the previous timeline, Suzaku had acquired three broken ribs and a cracked one for his trouble. Lloyd had been fairly impressed when he'd operated the Lancelot at 94 % accuracy with that type of injury. Lloyd himself had been in an accident a few years back working with some of his machinery that had simply bruised some ribs, and that had been utter hell for him for days.

Quelling the fury as he pursed his lips in disapproval, Lloyd gently rolled the teenager over.

Suzaku was too young to be getting shot in the back by corrupt soldiers. Anyone was, he supposed...but still.

Deciding he'd be nicer this time, instead of dragging Suzaku back to the Lancelot, he simply picked up the boy bridle style. He nearly laughed, and he wished for a moment that Anya was there to snap a picture. Suzaku would be mortified for life.

But the thought of Anya sent a whole new world of thoughts if the future through his head, and he was frowning again.

How in the name of anything good was Lloyd supposed to fix this mess?!

Tada!

Sorry for a shorter chapter. I was trying to go for 2,000 words on average after the prologue but this seemed like a good stopping point. No worries for next time though! This was all Lloyd's inner dialogue. I'm trying to get into writing his character. He puts on a fake front for everyone but you never get to see the real him, I think. Apologies if I make him seem angsty, but I have a backstory for him that I wan to incorporate into this fic that will hopefully explain some of that. Otherwise, until this story really gets moving I'm trying to get his interactions with people canon-like. It will change though. Beware of some angst/humor mix.

Please review!