Disclaimer: I don't own code geass, so what else is new?

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After about an hour, the three dried off and changed back into their regular clothes.

Lelouch couldn't help but feel a little more lighthearted and cheery thanks to Allua and Suzaku's depression seemed to slowly disappear with Nanuq's help.

"Well now, that was fun wasn't it?" Roderick asked with a smile as they walked back into the park itself.

"You know, months ago, I figured that there was really nothing left for my life. I guess I was proven wrong." Lelouch admitted with a smile.

"Not like that's really a bad thing in this case." Suzaku said with a smile as Roderick's phone rang.

"No, I suppose not." Lelouch said as Roderick walked a few feet away so he could talk on the phone.

"I wonder if Mr. Berkenbridge has any idea of just how insane his brother really is." Suzaku said .

"I wouldn't doubt it if he does. Uncle Roderick's something else, that's for sure." Lelouch agreed. Then he saw a bunch of people surrounded around a small habitat a few feet away. "Hey, what's over there?"

The two of them walked over as Roderick continued to talk on the phone.

It was a small island like habitat covered in trees and bushes and surrounded by water.

"Are those…….. Penguins?" Suzaku asked surprised. "I thought they lived in icy water.

"Apparently these guys come from south America." said Lelouch pointing to a sign which read 'Magellanic penguins,' and showed that they came from the coasts of Chili and Argentina. "It says they're a warm weather penguin."

"Oh, I didn't know there was such a thing. Normally when you think penguin, you think icebergs and walruses." Suzaku admitted.

"Yeah, I'm kind of surprised too."

Then Roderick walked over to join them."

"Mr. Midnighstar has brought a new friend to join us, so we need to go meet them up front." he said.

"A new friend? Who?" asked Lelouch.

"I don't know. It's a little girl. One of the most recent rescuees. So we might as well go get her now. They're waiting."

"This means you're going to have to behave." Lelouch said with a smile.

"Oh gee, whatever will I do if I can't make any dirty jokes?" Roderick said sarcastically with a smile. "I'm perfectly happy with that."

So the three of them headed to the front together where they found Quatre Midnightstar standing in his flight suit waiting, but they didn't see anyone else around him.

Though Lelouch had to admit he felt better only seeing Quatre and his kind blue eyes as opposed to Mr. Malachai with his yellow eyes and crest of blood.

"So where's this little girl?" Roderick asked.

Quatre smiled and leaned a little to the side so that they could see the little girl with blonde curls and bright blue eyes behind small wire rimmed glasses that was trying to hide behind his legs.

"This is Mercy. She's not exactly the outgoing type. So far she's worse than Kit. Even I can't get a word out of her. The only thing I managed to get was her name. Her parents died in a car accident and she was left all alone with no other family." Quatre explained.

Lelouch looked at the little girl in curiosity as Roderick and Quatre talked, just to notice that she was regarding him with just as much interest as he was with her.

Roderick and Quatre paused in the middle of their conversation as Mercy came out from her hiding place and skipped over to Lelouch, smiling up at him.

"Hi!" she said cheerfully.

"Hello there." said Lelouch kneeling down to her level and returning the smile.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"I'm Lelouch."

Mercy giggled. "Like the emperor that died back home." she said surprising them. "You look like him too."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" he asked her.

"I think it's a good thing. Nobody liked him, but my daddy said he wasn't really as mean as he made everyone think. Daddy told me that since the world wouldn't agree to be nice to each other, the emperor forced them to agree. That's what my daddy said anyway." she shrugged smiling. "So…… it's like he did something bad to make something good happen. Does that make sense?"

Lelouch couldn't help but smile. "That makes perfect sense Mercy." he said. "At least, it does to me anyway."

Mercy giggled even more. "I like you." she said. "You understand me."

"It nice to have people understand you, isn't it?" Lelouch said with a smile.

"Yes it is." said Mercy smiling. "Will you be my friend Lelouch?"

"I would be more than happy to be your friend Mercy." Lelouch admitted, happy to find someone that actually understood what he had been trying to get across in his plans, even if she was only seven or eight years old. "How old are you?"

"I'm seven years old." she said proudly.

"Well I'm glad to see that you talk Mercy." Quatre said with a smile. "Kit said you did, but I had yet to hear you."

Mercy giggled and jumped into Lelouch's arms.

"I like Lelouch for some reason." she admitted, wrapping her arms around his neck as he picked her up.

"Well that's good because you'll be spending the rest of your day with him and Suzaku."

Mercy turned to Suzaku and smiled. "Hi Suzaku." she said with a tiny wave.

"Hello Mercy." said Suzaku smiling back.

"Anyway, I'll leave you four alone, I need to get to work." said Quatre. "Have fun Mercy."

"Bye bye Mr. Midnighstar."

After Quatre had left they had gotten onto the subject of what to do next.

"Are there penguins here Mr. Spencer?" Mercy asked. "I love penguins."

"Then I suppose we should head back to the penguins." Roderick shrugged. Then he looked at his watch. "I believe we have enough time to see them and grab some lunch before we have to meet Lisa."

"Who's Lisa?" Lelouch asked curiously.

"She works with the dolphins." said Roderick. "We have to meet her at two, so let's go see the penguins for Mercy now."

So the four of them went back to where they were, only this time they went inside the building that sat behind the Magellanic penguin's habitat.

Watching the penguins swim with Mercy by his side made him feel like Kit was with him. Mercy's giggles and smiles were just as infectious if not more.

"Hey! Look at that one Lelouch! He's fuzzy!" Mercy giggled pointing to a penguin that was quite obviously molting.

"He's molting Mercy. He's loosing his feathers so he can grow new ones." Lelouch explained.

"Ohhh! I didn't know that they lost their feathers." she said in curiosity. "Why?"

"I don't know that." he admitted with a shrug as they stepped off the moving walkway behind Suzaku and Roderick.

"Then how'd you know what molting was?"

"Because I learned it in school. I can't remember why though."

"Are you in school now?"

"No. It's summer vacation here I guess, but even then, I spent so many months out of school back home. Not like it matters, I'm so far behind on my history in this world anyway……" he paused realizing his was rambling.

"Oh, Well, Mr. Midnightstar said I get to go to school with Kit since he's my bestest friend here." she said. "I get to stay with Kit and his daddy."

"That means you're stuck with me too. I guess Suzaku's staying at the Sanctuary and he's only here for a few days."

"Oh, so you're staying with Kit's daddy too?"

"Kit's daddy decided to adopt me instead of Mr. Midnightstar." Lelouch admitted. "I guess they both decided that it would be best for me if I stayed with him instead of going to the sanctuary."

"Ohhhhhh. Ooooh! What's that?!" Mercy asked gleefully running over to another habitat.

"Puffins." said Roderick smiling as Mercy looked at them in curiosity.

"Awww! They're so cute!" she said cheerfully.

Lelouch and Suzaku just chuckled at each other as Mercy ran back and forth following the little puffin that was racing through the water.

"Alright, I know you love the penguins and puffins Mercy but we should go eat lunch before it gets any later." Roderick said kindly.

"Awww…… okay." she sighed disappointedly.

"I'll tell you what Mercy, if you're good, I'll buy you a stuffed penguin to take home, how does that sound?" Lelouch said, deciding to start spoiling his new little sister early, just like he had done with Nunnally, and like he planned on doing with Kit.

"Oh, you don't have to." she said honestly.

"I want to." Lelouch admitted, picking her up as they walked out of the building.

"He spoils his younger siblings." Suzaku admitted to her with a smile.

"You look really familiar." Mercy admitted, looking at Suzaku as she leaned her head against Lelouch's shoulder.

"That's because he was my knight Mercy." Lelouch admitted. "So usually when someone saw me, they saw him too."

Mercy's eyes opened wide in curiosity. "How could he be your knight? You don't have such a thing here"

"I was the emperor that nobody liked Mercy." Lelouch admitted.

"Oh wow!" she whispered in awe. Then she frowned slightly. "So, was my daddy right? You just acted mean to make everyone agree?"

"He had it pretty much figured out. Now granted, it did go a little deeper than that but it sounds like your daddy figured out the overall basics."

"So……. You weren't gonna have all those people killed?"

"Absolutely not. They were my friends. I didn't actually want to hurt them. But I didn't want them to know what was going on either. I just wanted the world to think of me as a very nasty, very scary guy." he admitted. "Then I had Suzaku here kill me. Well, try to kill me anyway, as you can see that didn't go according to plan. Who was your daddy anyway Mercy?"

"My daddy used to work at the palace. But I guess he knew you when you were little. He said you didn't seem the type to start a war without a reason and that you were faithful to your friends. So I guess daddy figured there was a reason for you to do what you did. He also said you probably don't remember him though cause you were really little."

"How did he know I didn't actually take a turn for the worse?"

"I don't know!" Mercy shrugged smiling. "I don't know how my daddy thought. I just believed what he told me."

"I guess that's a fair enough explanation." Lelouch shrugged.

"So if you didn't die, what happened?" Mercy asked.

"I don't really know. I just remember waking up here, wondering if I was dead. Leon said I was unconscious for over three weeks. AS for what happened during that time, I have absolutely no idea." he admitted.

"Oh, see Mr. Midnighstar found me on the street after my daddy died, I didn't have a mommy. I guess he felt bad for me." Mercy shrugged.

"Well considering that he adopted Kit's daddy after he tried to pick pocket his wallet as a little kid, Mr. Midnighstar seems to feel sorry for a lot of us."

"Well I think it's a good thing. Not very many people care like he does."

"That's very true Mercy." Lelouch agreed with a nod.

The two of them continued their conversation until they sat to eat lunch.

After lunch Roderick agreed to let Mercy spend twenty minutes in the playground which resulted in Lelouch tumbling head over heels when he tripped on the rope bridge making Mercy and Suzaku laugh as they tried to help him up.

The rest of the day went by quickly as the three of them made new friends during very interesting interactions including one with a dolphin that knew exactly where Roderick's ticklish spot was making everyone laugh as be burst out laughing when the dolphin continuously poked him in the side, tickling him.

After that it wasn't long before it was time for them to start heading home, Mercy sitting beside Lelouch in the backseat hugging the new penguin he had gotten her as he promised.

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Ginger:Okay guys, sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up. I've just been super busy and super tired lately between work and school, and if Midorchi_Chan's wondering why I know so much about training, I work at sea world as a vendor and I'm going to school to become a trainer. There's my explanation. Anyway, thanks to my usual group. Like I said, I'm sorry to keep you guys waiting!