Chapter 15: Vendetta
The late Charles zi Britannia is an unforgivable coward, hidden behind a thousand layers of tyrannical shells. He will pay for my mother's retribution with no value of redemption!
-Lelouch vi Britannia
Part 38: Revelation
Lelouch rode a white horse within the monumental palace of his ancestors with a rapier around his waist. He approached a tall cliff, gazed below and concentrated on the sandy shores from afar. He noticed troops stationed at the area and figured they were after his fleet of terror. Lelouch tugged the reins on his horse and galloped back the opposite direction, heading towards the imperial throne room. Lelouch stepped off his horse, drew his rapier and slashed the two guards who were stationed at the gates. Lelouch was never trained in the art of fencing or any form of swordsmanship so he relied on pure rage to slaughter anyone obstructing his goals. Lelouch entered the palace doors only to find nobody in sight. "Where is everybody? Show yourselves and challenge me!" Lelouch yelled into the bare scape as his voice echoed back into his ears, "Or are you all cowards like my father; especially Charles zi Britannia!"
Lelouch swung his sword madly in the air and walked up the grand stairs to the second floor. He approached the throne room with his blade tightly gripped between his fingers and hollered, "I know you are in here father! There is no way you would waste your life dying before achieving world conquest!"
The doors to the throne room flung open when Lelouch was only two metres away. He ran to the doors and discovered his father's back facing him. "I knew you would be here on a day of national celebration. You were never a man of festivities because you never cared for 'the mundane,' Lelouch taunted as he glared at the late emperor venomously. His father turned around and said, "You are a disappointment Lelouch my son, you are the greatest disappointment to me yet!"
"You are the same, father. I will make you pay for this injustice, this cruelty, for your sins," Lelouch offended.
"What have I done wrong?" emperor Charles stated boldly.
"You have killed too many of the innocent and I know you were the one who ordered my mother's death! To kill your own wife and cripple your child is the epitome of evil for a family man. Not only that, you managed to get away with it!" Lelouch exclaimed.
"So what if your mother died from my orders and your sister crippled from a minor miscalculation? You yourself have killed many of my fellow Britannians out there as well. How do you respond to your hypocrisy?" his father countered with the same point.
"I was forced to stain my hands red, by you and your empire's evils, for if you did not kill mother, I would still be living here, sheltered under the blessed care of the palace ladies. I killed your citizens to free the exploited others from the fear and suffering of despotism!" Lelouch defended.
"I do this for a noble cause as well," Charles proclaimed.
"What did you say? You call torturing over three billion people a noble cause?" Lelouch asked.
"Do you know why your mother, the great "Marianne the Flash," left you?" his father asked.
"You and your brother killed her!" Lelouch replied with utmost confidence, "You do not deserve to ask me such trivialities!"
"Wrong!" his father said as he pointed at Lelouch.
"Stop thinking you are always right, killing a loved one is not something to be proud of!" Lelouch scolded.
"She hasn't died yet," Charles said.
"What are you talking about you villainous lout? I clearly witnessed my mother's death. I was at the scene of the crime!" Lelouch said.
"You have much to learn about me, your mother and yourself, my insolent son," Charles said.
"What are you talking about," the ex-Britannian prince inquired.
"I will not tell you, I will show you!"
The throne room morphed into a temple-like structure in the sky with sixteen magnificent pillars on top of a massive platform, supporting a well-crafted roof. Floating stairs descended from the platform in every direction in perfect uniformity to the clouds.
"Where is this place," Lelouch inquired in shock, "Is this a realm of illusions?"
"Quite the contrary my son, you have much to learn about existence," the old emperor said, "Where you lived in is the mundane realm of dreams and false hope, where actions and events are coped with lies and deceit. This is truth, this is paradise!"
"You are an old fool, there is no way this could be reality. Reality is never a paradise," Lelouch retorted. His father stared at him and did not speak a word.
"Answer me directly you wretch! Why did you kill my mother?" Lelouch returned for what he came for: Answers.
"Your mother is still here. Her body might be gone but her mind is locked safely for a new beginning," the emperor said.
"That is a lie, an elementary lie! There is no way she is still alive, I witnessed her murder, I witnessed everything!"
"You have witnessed the bare minimum my son, what you saw was just another illusion generated within a world of lies."
Lelouch reached for a gun from his bosom and fired three shots at his father's chest. He fired another bullet into the old emperor's head and watched him fall. Lelouch walked to the motionless corpse, drew his rapier and carved into his father's intestines.
"I have done it! I have slain the beast and rid it from ever terrorizing every spirit on Earth!" Lelouch exclaimed, "You were a fool father to have died so vainly."
"I have not died my son," the emperor rose from the dead.
"Impossible, you have Code?" Lelouch said as he looked dazed.
"You are the fool! You think I can die from three bullet wounds? I am a god now and you cannot kill me with merely guns and swords," the immortal father spoke to his mortal son.
"This can't be, but where did you get the Code?" Lelouch asked.
"I received Code from my brother Victor, seeing you cut him up into pieces!" the old emperor pointed at the head of his child-like twin on a pillar. The eyes were white like marble and the mouth wide opened.
"You knew I will come and kill you so you consumed his almighty power to preserve yours!"
"Correct, my son! You were always quicker than the rest."
"You are a coward like none other!"
"What about you? You conceal your identity as the great mastermind Zero, you too are a coward!"
"Shut up, I must do so to get here!"
"I have enough of this senseless chat. I have proof that you mother is alive, behold as she is still here!"
Lady Marianne appeared before the two like collection of dust in the flesh as the particles collected into her form, immaculate and identical to herself seven years ago. Lelouch gaped at the spectacle and dropped his sword.
"Hello Lelouch, I am still here, your mother. Come and embrace me like the way you used to," Lady Marianne said sincerely.
"No! You are not real! These are just illusions," Lelouch said in disbelief of what he had just witnessed.
"This is genuine my son, your mother is still alive despite leaving you in that morbid world you call life," emperor Charles said.
"This is impossible," Lelouch cried.
"Lelouch, we can live as a family again, bring Nunnally so we can rejoice under the adoring sun like we used to," Lady Marianne said.
"What would you do to Nunnally and I," Lelouch asked.
"We will release your soul to the world of truth. There we will live as immortals in another world: this world. It is a better world where nobody hides, where nobody cheats, where nobody lies," Lady Marianne explained.
"So you would leave with father to a make believe reality where nobody hides, nobody cheats or lies; abandon every other Britannian to suffer in a global war?" Lelouch asked.
"Wouldn't you want to live with me, Nunnally and Euphemia in this wondrous paradise?"
"Listen to your mother; you killed everybody dear to you. You killed all your friends and family. You lost all hope out in that worthless world," the emperor said.
"Impossible! My friends aren't dead! I have Nunnally to take care of! I have a responsibility!"
"How foolish of you, your friends from Ashford Academy were all slaughtered in the parade outside and their memories were transported to our paradise before the celebration! Your only responsibility is to submit Nunnally's presence to us for your mother and I would appreciate if the two of you join us," Charles said.
Lelouch stared blankly and thought about what he heard, "My friends were all in that parade? Shirley, Milly, Rivel and Nina? But why, why would you come here to die?"
"They died because of you! They died as a sacrifice for your shrewdness, your selfishness! But your mother and I have given them salvation. Think about it, if you come with us, you will see Clovis, Euphemia, Cornelia and Odysseus again. You can only atone by crossing to our side," Charles said.
"Come over to this perfect world and live life an immortal," his mother said.
Lelouch glared at his parents, shielded his eyes and dropped to the ground in sorrow. He pounded his fist to the solid surface that was the ground while tears dripped from his eyes. "Never! I will never cross over to that world of dreams. There are still people out there who require my help! I trust whatever you said about that world is true but I will never believe it to be real! I do not believe that I killed my friends! These are lies, all lies!" Lelouch contested their claims adamantly.
"She is telling the truth Lelouch," a second feminine voice trailed from behind.
"C.C. is that you?" Lelouch asked. He could recognize that voice from a mile away.
"Yes it is me, I once lived in that world and it was as real as the passion between us," C.C. said.
"No C.C., why did you follow me? This is my personal Vendetta," Lelouch said.
"I came to tell you my true desire," she said with a sorrowful stare.
"You want a son; I will give you that when the time comes," Lelouch said in distress as he placed his hands on his chest to say 'on my honour.'
"If I wanted a son, I would have gotten that centuries ago. But I never wanted one and stalled until this moment. What I want is for you to fulfill your true end of the contract," C.C. said with a dull voice.
"What could that be?" Lelouch asked in anxiety.
"Kill me," C.C. said with her eyes closed.
"What," he gawked at the enchanting figure.
"I said kill me!" the beautiful witch said with tears flowing out of her eyes, "Kill me and you can stop your father from destroying mankind."
"I cannot kill you! I love you ever so dearly, you mustn't sacrifice your life for my ambitions," Lelouch cried as it touched his heart in pain to see her here.
"Then you are no use to me anymore, you will perish from this world and I will have to find somebody else," C.C. said.
"Is that why you gave Mao Geass? You wanted him to kill you as well?" Lelouch asked for clarification.
"True."
"Then why do you want me. Why do you love me? We are husband and wife dammit!" Lelouch thrashed at the floor.
"I married you so I can forgive you. If you kill me, I can at least die happily," C.C. said as she gazed into his eyes tenderly.
"Aww, C.C. you and my darling son are married? Congratulations, but if you die, I will not have a grandchild," Lady Marianne said with her hands enclasped.
Lelouch could not take this anymore and concluded by closing his eyes. He forgot about him ever coming to this surreal place and emptied his memories of the image in his mind. The temple began to shake as his mind cleared.
"What is this?" Charles shouted in shock, "How is this possible?"
"I figured this world can only exist if the people in it exist. I knew it father; this world you absorbed yourself into was all your creation. Now you revealed it to me, I have equal entitlement to its authorship; I have the power to dismantle what your mind formulated for I am you!"
"This can't be! The Codes were locked such that your mind cannot unlock its intricate infrastructure!" Charles said in panic.
The emperor glared at C.C. and said, "C.C., what have you done!"
C.C. shrugged and said, "I have unlocked the Codes for him to see, I cannot let my only love in my entire life to die so this is my way of saving him under your expense."
"C.C. you sly fox!" the emperor yelled, "I curse you ten thousand times!"
The temple continued to crumble as Lelouch continued to clear every constituent fragment of this perfect world, he forgot about Victor, the bullets in his father's incorporeal body, his mother and the grandiose structure around him. Charles grabbed onto C.C's neck and watched her suffocate. Lelouch started to release everything in the scenery and opened his eyes. Charles and Marianne began to dissipate into the air around them as Lelouch tried to forget about their existence.
"I don't know how you are able to do this but you will pay with your life!" the mad emperor screamed while he and his wife slowly dispersed into the realm of non-existence.
A red flash of light was released from Charles' disintegrating body and was lifted into the air. The flash transformed into an electrolytic bolt and darted into Lelouch's eyes. He felt a numbing shock throughout his body that knocked him to the floor, crying for help. Lelouch's eyes throbbed in excruciating pain as his eyes glowed demonically red. The environment collapsed and it reverted back to its original form, the throne room, now without an emperor to sit on the throne. Lelouch struggled to move and eventually gained strength to crawl. He crawled to the imperial throne and lifted his weak build by hoisting himself via the throne's arm. He sat on the throne, gazed at a distance surrounded by a ray of light through the windows outside and declared, "I am Lelouch vi Britannia, emperor of Holy Britannia! I AM LELOUCH VI BRITANNIA, EMPEROR OF HOLY BRITANNIA!"
C.C. was lying on the floor and had just awoken from her painful suffocation. She rubbed her eyes to relieve herself from drowsiness and looked around. She noticed Lelouch, who sat in his father's place and opened with a voice of admiration, "My love, you have won! You ended your father's tyrannical reign and now you can begin liberating the world as you've planned!"
"What good is an empire to govern when everybody around you is dead?" Lelouch asked his benevolent wife.
"Lelouch…," C.C. said softly.
"I can finally rid the world of torment and create a new and gentler world but my purpose is lost when all of my subjects are dead to me. Somehow, I feel cheated by my father for he stripped the world bare of hope," Lelouch converted his triumph to desperation.
"What are you talking about," C.C. inquired.
"Somehow, I feel that my accomplishments were directly linked to a good resolution. Now I have grasped it in my hands, the world is empty. The people will hate me for slaying their beloved emperor. At the same time, many of my kin, my dear friends had to die for this day to come. Some died unintentionally, some indirectly, some were killed by my own two hands and I regret for all I've done. I feel despair for the innocent lives who were sacrificed for my empty ambitions. Could this be Geass or my hollow victory?"
"There is no reason to blame your powers or sulk over a hollow victory, the cause has become effect and it simply cannot be undone. Now you can redeem all those lives by making this place hospitable once more. I trusted you Lelouch and I came here to grant you your wish, fulfilling my end of the contract. You have the power to save the exploited by giving them freedom and rights, something your father so obstinately denied."
"You know C.C."
"What dear?"
"I finally agreed with my father for once. Ironically it was just before his death," Lelouch said with a light chuckle.
"What was that," C.C. inquired with a stupid stare.
"You are a sly fox," Lelouch said as his light chuckle erupted into laughter, "When you started to talk about dying, I knew you were lying. At that moment, I figured there was something you wanted me to undermine and you just said that to buy me time for my escape as well as the destruction of my father's stupid dream."
"But that was my original wish. I did want to die," C.C. said truthfully.
"What? You wanted me to kill you?" Lelouch looked utterly confused.
"Not anymore. I found your personality too interesting to resist and I fell in love with you," C.C. said as she turned to face him. Tears flowed out of her eyes. She ran to her lover's side and sobbed all over his lap.
"Never again will I harm you C.C., I will love you forever," Lelouch said, drying her tears with a touch of his fingers.
Lelouch placed his hands on top of her fingers and stood up. She followed and looked directly into his handsome, purple eyes and said, "I will be your queen."
"Alright but you mustn't show your face to the world or the Black Knights will begin speculating about Zero," Lelouch said.
"You have my word," C.C. said and curtsied.
They held hands and cuddled on the emperor's seat in the vacant throne room. Lelouch gazed up at the domed ceiling and thought silently, "The Imperial Dragon had been slain and my visions for world peace are within my reach for now I am emperor. No matter the isolation I have to feel or the lies I must conjure for this probable dream to exist, I cannot turn back like a coward in a mask anymore; I have to move forward and reform this wretched world and undo its dreadful history."