A/N : Surprise, surprise: I don't own Code Geass. Am working on it, though ;)

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The year is 2019 a.t.b.

Four months have passed since the death of the Demon Emperor Lelouch:
Four months without war in the world, a premiere since more than a century.

Few people know Lelouch is the man who secured the peace, and even fewer know the means he employed to make peace possible:
Geass, the power to give one absolute order to anyone.
The Power of Kings has served its purpose.

But Lelouch did not truly die.
Can the man with the Power of Kings truly renounce it?
What makes him a King, embracing his power or forsaking it?

At this point, it is impossible to know.

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Code Geass R3: Lelouch of the Redemption

Turn 02 – The Servant and the Cat

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Britannia; New-Pendragon

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Lelouch put his mug back on the makeshift table. 'And they call this coffee' he said with disgust.

'You really were too pampered, boy' C.C. replied. 'That drink is a lot better than many I've had.'

'Still, we could afford something more decent if you didn't spend so much on pizza' Lelouch countered – the battered chair he was sitting on creaked to emphasize the point.

'You're the one who won't go outside because he's too scared' C.C. said, cradling the cheese-kun on her lap.

Only a month before those words would have hurt Lelouch; now he only smiled. 'There's no use arguing with you, is there?' he said.

'Of course there isn't. I'm C.C., remember?' She smiled too.

Lelouch sighed. Those little arguments with his "accomplice" were about the liveliest events he'd experienced since he'd woken up to find he was being smuggled by C.C. to the Britannian Motherland. Not that the days which had followed had been uneventful. Lelouch had only agreed to help C.C. find a hiding place so that he could think of some way to die for good, an idea C.C. resolutely opposed.

It had been a hard time for both C.C. and Lelouch. That they'd managed to secure a small prefabricated home in the outskirts of the capital city Nunnally had founded was something of a small miracle considering the two accomplices had been hardly speaking to each other at the time they acquired it. They had been exchanging harsh words on quite a few occasions, and Lelouch had been reminded how good C.C. was at that kind of exchanges. There had been moments of sheer exasperation. 'You won't understand' Lelouch had once said. 'I have to die.'

'Of course' C.C. had replied sarcastically. 'You're not being selfish like some other people with a death wish.'

Those words had acted like a wake-up call for Lelouch. He'd hated the sight of his accomplice embracing her coming death in the World of C - something C.C. had done because there had never really been a place where or a time when she had been happy. The reasons why Lelouch had not been able to see happiness in the future had indeed been different from C.C.'s, but that had hardly mattered. Lelouch knew exactly how it felt to watch someone you cared for choose death other life, and even though she wouldn't say it in so many words, C.C. evidently cared for him. And one of Lelouch's guiding principles was never to hurt when you aren't prepared to be hurt.

Still, what Lelouch experienced could hardly be qualified as "living"…

Neither he nor C.C. understood how he'd become immortal while retaining his permanent Geass. Nor was there a Code to be found anywhere on his body, as Lelouch had been rather embarrassed to learn from C.C.

C.C… The ageless witch was the only person for whom Lelouch was still Lelouch, pretty much the way only he knew C.C.'s true nature. Each of them was the only person for whom they could be themselves. Whenever anybody else was involved they had to either lie or pretend not to exist.

The latter option had been Lelouch's preferred one for quite a while. He could easily have gotten his hands on whatever was needed to disguise himself and forge a new identity if he'd used Geass, but the young man had resolved never to use that power again unless the only alternative was his identity being discovered. He needed to practice being someone else anyway before he could risk venturing outside again. Any slip-up could be disastrous; he had to stay locked inside his home until he was absolutely certain he wouldn't betray his true identity.

'Or you could put that mask back on' C.C. had once said, teasing him. But Suzaku was Zero now, and Lelouch had no intention to play that role again.

Distracted as he was by his musings, Lelouch had not seen C.C. fetch a smartphone she'd somehow gotten her hands on. 'Here' she said, handing it to Lelouch. 'I looked ridiculous enough asking a neighbor how to make that thing work, so you'd better enjoy the show.'

"The show" was a video recording of Nunnally meeting with and shaking hands with Ōgi, who was now Japan's first minister, and Suzaku wearing the mantle of Zero – he's gotten used to this Lelouch mused, half-listening to the commentator who talked about the "historic conference" in which Britannia would release Japan from its status as "Area", the first of many scheduled to be returned by Britannia to their populations. So far Japan was the only Area where a local government was ready to take over from the Britannian administration.

Lelouch smiled wistfully as he saw his sister playing her part as Empress of Britannia. He had been surprised to find out she'd been the one to succeed him on the throne of the Holy Empire, yet he remembered their confrontation on Damocles, and how she'd pretty much chosen to make the sacrifice he himself had made. He'd protected her from the consequences of such a sacrifice, and now his little sister no longer needed his protection – what protection she needed, Suzaku would offer.

Once again, C.C. brought him back to the present. 'No thanks?' she said. 'You don't have regrets about this, do you?'

'Of course not.' Lelouch smiled sadly.

C.C. sat back down in front of him, and she resumed hugging her cheese-kun. 'This is all that will be left of her, eventually' C.C. said, carefully not looking at her accomplice.

'I have already given up on everybody' Lelouch said resolutely. He picked his coffee back up and bravely took a sip. 'The sole exception is a witch who just won't leave me alone.' He coughed.

There was a moment of silence. C.C. was still avoiding Lelouch's eyes, and he took to cradling the hot mug in his hands while his accomplice was absent-mindedly rocking her yellow stuffed toy.

Then, eventually: 'You don't hate me for what happened to you, do you?'

Lelouch fixed his gaze on her. 'Of course I don't' he said. 'Neither of us could have guessed I would stay alive.'

'It's not that.' C.C. hugged her cheese-kun even tighter. 'I'm responsible for you experiencing the same kind of existence I've been.'

'Wasn't it your plan when you first offered me a contract?' Lelouch said.

C.C.'s gaze dropped even lower. 'I'm sorry.'

'The fact you are is the reason I won't hate you' Lelouch put his mug down. 'Besides it's not like I have to face that life alone.'

C.C. opened her mouth as if to speak, but she said nothing.

Lelouch sighed. 'I give up.'

C.C. sighed. 'What a surprise' she said with exasperation.

'I mean, you didn't seriously expect me to drink all of this?' Lelouch said, starting towards the sink to empty his mug.

C.C. stared at him. 'Who cares about that coffee?'

'It was a nice thing to do' Lelouch replied simply. 'Thank you, C.C. I appreciate the gesture.'

C.C. blushed. Her gaze dropped back to the cheese-kun in her lap. 'That last part didn't sound like you' she mumbled.

'I thanked you for something, but I didn't say what' Lelouch replied.

C.C. snorted. 'Now that is more like you.'

'You know that's the kind of trick expected from a warlock, don't you, witch?'

C.C.'s eyes found Lelouch, who was now standing with his back to the sink, facing her. 'You might yet become a pretty decent warlock, you know' she said with her peculiar grin.

'There are still many things I don't understand, though' he replied.

C.C. looked puzzled. 'Like what?'

'Like why it is always warlocks who do the dishes.'

C.C. couldn't help it. She laughed.

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A/N : Did I hear "hiatus" in the back? ^^"

This story didn't leave my mind, and it's nice to read about people subscribing nearly a year after the last chapter was posted - it does bring a smile at the start of another day at work :) It's hard to write down anything resembling a decent chapter whe you don't get to write in longer than twenty-minute bursts, though ^^" Story planning is advanced, story writing is hopelessly behind :(

If people do still read and appreciate the beginning of this tale I'd be happy to know :) Hopefully I'll get down to a more manageable workweek after the winter and will be able to get to the meat of this story. I did drop a hint about how this is going to go very wrong, though ;)

See you around! -LB