Chapter two: Awakening

Lelouch was having a bad day, possibly one of the worst in his entire lifetime, and that was saying something. Apparantly, death and the hate of the entire world weren't enough in fate's eyes, as he was currently in the process of getting his ass handed to him, courtesy of his demonic ancestor, in order to awaken his demon blood.

The man was fast; his eyes couldn't even follow him.

All he saw before a fist was rammed into his stomach, was a barely visible, feral grin on his ancestor's face.

What the hell?! The dark prince screamed internally, as the punch that had just connected with his body broke more than a few ribs and liquified his insides, sending him flying across the arena until his body skidded to a halt on the ground. If this man, Kurozaku, was using even a fraction of the power Lelouch witnessed before, what chance did he stand? Nonetheless, he quickly got to his feet, wincing as pain shot through his body.

Weren't there less...painful ways of awakening his demon blood? There probably were, but judging by the wide grin on his ancestor's face this was the most entertaining one. Well. for him, atleast.

Before the dark prince could even regain his bearings, the demon was infront of him again, seemingly having raced across the arena in less than a second. This time, he didn't even have time to widen his eyes as another punch connected with his face. Much like before, his body was sent reeling across the arena and into the far wall.

Hm, his blood is beginning to boil, and his body is already more resilient already, but... Truth was, he overdid it with that last punch, but his descendant seemed to be okay. Well, relatively speaking, of course. With a chuckle, Kurozaku set into motion again, nothing but a blur to the human eye.

Meanwhile, Lelouch had just picked himself out of the wall, his body having left a light indentation in it. With a groan, he fell down to a knee, but quickly scanned the arena for his demonic ancestor, who seemed to be having a blast during all of this.

Much to the dark prince's surprise, the demon was nowhere to be found. Lelouch used the brief moment of reprieve to clear his head; his vision was still blurred and he could hear a perpetual ringing noise in his ears. Against his better judgement, the demon emperor let his head hang for a second, taking deep breaths in order to calm his nerves. Then, something caught his attention. His shadow; it was... growing? That was odd, since he wasn't making any such movements. But if it wasn't him that was moving...

His eyes widened, Shit! With all the strength he could dredge up, the dark prince threw his body to the side, and not a moment later witnessed the space he had just occupied buckle and shatter under the sheer force behind the axe-kick that crashed down onto it.

This man wasn't joking, he really wasn't holding back. Lelouch quickly used the chance to create some space between him and the demon.

Large amounts of dust and debris were thrown up, which upon settling revealed the damage the attack had done. Lelouch's eyes widened at the crater in which he could see the vague silhouette of the black clad, his eyes burning fiercly as he glared at him.

"You call yourself my descendant?! Stop dodging like a pathetic human and fight me like a demon!" With that, the demon set off in another blur of motion and appeared before Lelouch again, who quickly raised his arms up in a meagre defence as the demon sent several quick jabs at him.

In hindsight, that wasn't such a good idea, as the punches hurt like hell; each one felt like a concrete brick being smashed into his forearms.

"Pathetic!" With a high kick that he blocked with both his arms, the demon emperor was sent flying into a wall yet again, the pain of his left arm being snapped like a twig not yet registering. A mix between a groan and a wince escaped his lips as he stood there, barely able to support his weight due to all the pain he was in. He thought about just what he could do to even the odds, if just a little, if he wanted to survive this ordeal. His gaze flickered over to the racks of weapons in the far end of the arena, A weapon? No...he's too fast. Geass? That wouldn't work either, he knows about my powers already... In the end, he came up with nothing that he could use to his advantage; his whole body was just too weak. He was unsure of whether even Geass could help him now, given the knowledge the demon no doubt had about him he would quite possibly have countermeasures for it, provided he would even stay still long enough for him to actually use it.

His train of thought was derailed as his ancestor shot across the arena again. Within less than a second he was just a few feet away from the dark prince, and in a great display of agility, jumped and landed right infront him in a crouched handstand. The demon emperor didn't even have a second to react before the demon pushed himself up with his arms and used the momentum of the sprint to kick him below his chin and launch his body up the air. Just as he was halfway up the ceiling, the demon appeared before him again and buried another fist into his stomach, this one surpassing every previous one in the sheer force behind it. He felt his body pushing into and breaking the wall, which greatly contributed to the total amount of broken bones in his body. Debris and dust were thrown up into the air, and cracks spider-webbed from the point of impact to all around him for an impressive distance, almost reaching up to the ceiling.

With a widening of his eyes, the dark prince began hacking and coughing out large amounts of blood, some of which splattered on the demon's jacket and face, but he didn't seem to mind. That last punch had practically turned his whole midsection into a bloody pile of mush. Luckily, his spine was still intact, though that was a rather meagre consolation all things considered.

His vision was blurred and his head was swimming. Pain the likes of which he had never even felt before burned through his body. The dark prince could barely register the cold, icy eyes glaring at him; barely register the demon's words as he floated in front of him. But at the same time they were clear as day, taunting and mocking him.

"To think that mydescendant is such a weakling...pathetic." With that, he cocked his fist back to deliver one last punch.

Time seemed to slow down as the fist came flying towards Lelouch. The dark prince could see every detail of it, and even noticed that the air around it distorted, but that didn't matter now. All that mattered was the fact that he was going to die. Again.

A part of him relaxed at that notion; he would finally be at peace, so it didn't matter, right? It wasn't like he asked for this 'second chance' in the first place. But then, there was that part of him that was roaring and shouting like a wild beast that was confined to a cage, desperate to live...and to fight.

What was that?

As if to answer his question, he appeared before a set of large, metal pillars in the middle of another black void, not unlike the one he was in before. Those pillars, upon closer inspection, were bars. Huge, metal bars that were about twice as wide as he was. They seemed to go on forever, both in size and in numbers, continuing on far into the darkness.

Peering into the cell-like structure, he noticed a dark, reddish black and thick mist floating just above the ground, and filling most if not all the space in the cage. The fact that it radiated a powerful and malevolent presence didn't make it seem any more appealing, but the dark prince felt...drawn to it.

After a moments hesitation, he swallowed and entered the cage. It wasn't like he had any more options available at this point. With that, he proceeded into the cage and the presence increased seemingly a hundred-fold; he could clearly feel the rage, malevolence, power and killing intent that it radiated.

Steeling himself once again, he reached out to the mass. As soon as he was about to touch it, the mist latched onto his arm, and continued climbing up the limb. The demon emperor tried to pull away, but the mist had a strong grip on him, and more of it latched on to his legs and torso. Withing seconds, his entire body, save for his head, were covered in it.

It took all the selfcontrol he could muster to not panic. With a few deep breaths, the dark prince calmed his nerves, even as the mist climbed up his neck. Then, purely on instinct, he activated his Geass, but instead of the usual red on violet, his irises were crimson and the symbol was black. This seemed to affect the mist as it receded, not back into the cage, but seemingly into Lelouch's chest, until none of it was left.

Lelouch stood there for a moment, eyes still blazing blood-red. Suddenly, he threw his head up, and began laughing; it wasn't in his usual voice though. It had a deep baritone, and sounded evil and manical.

Meanwhile, Kurozaku was intent on ending his descendant's life, Shame it has to end like this, but, oh well

"Hm?" That was all the demon got out before the space around Lelouch exploded, sending the demon flying, who however, unlike Lelouch, didn't end up in a wall. With a series of graceful backflips, the demon regained his footing on the other side of the arena, observing the crater in the wall, from which Lelouch seemed to float down to the ground.

As he touched down on the ground, his form slouched over, the midnight black bangs of hair overshadowing his face.

What...is this? He brought his hand up, only to raise a brow at what he saw. Long, viscious claws had replaced his nails. But that wasn't the only change in his body; he could feel two fangs poking out his upper lip, and brought a hand up to carefully examine them. Even his hair had grown longer, reaching down to about mid-back in an untamed, slightly spiky mess. Then there were more extreme changes; looking down his body, he noticed that the upper part of his imperial garb had been shredded, revealing muscles that he didn't have before. They weren't overly large or bulging, but they had definitely grown, most probably to support the power flowing through his body...

The dark prince looked around himself, and saw that energy he had seen in that cage swirling around him slowly. Then, with one swift motion, the energy condensed back into his body, which was apparantly an extremely painful process as Lelouch's head snapped up and he let out an inhuman roar which seemed to shake and reverberate through the entire arena. What was going on? Was this his 'demonic' side? If so, it felt rather good. Hell, it felt fantastic! The dark prince felt better than he ever had; invincible even!

"Do you feel the power coursing through your body?"

Oh and how he felt it; it rolled off of him in waves and whirled around in his body like a maelstrom. Then he felt something else, something...primal. It was his demonic blood; coursing through his veins, dancing and pounding, urging him to fight and to kill. And, lo and behold, a demon infront of him, just waiting to put his power to the test.

What said demon saw made him smirk; Lelouch's irisis were a deep crimson, as if filled with blood, while the Geass symbol was completely black. What was currently taking place could only be described as the most intense staredown in history.

The staredown continued for a few moments before the two demons shot forward, the speed with which they shot off enough to shatter the ground beneath their feet. With a loud crash, and even more of the ground around them breaking by the created shockwave, the two clashed in the middle, and the real fight began.

"Now we can dance!" The older demon shouted with a wild grin on his face as he dodged and blocked his descendants attacks, which had already become much faster and more powerful. While his strength and speed were now through the roof, Kurozaku still had no problems keeping up. That wasn't to say that the ones he was relegated to block didn't hurt, but that only made his grin widen.

What neither of the two saw or felt were the pair of violet eyes watching them from the entrance of the arena, "Wow, he's really strong!"

The two were now solely focused on each other, their fight more an intracate dance than a battle between two demons. They both gracefully ducked and weaved through each others attack, blocking those that they couldn't dodge, and immediately countering them with more fists and kicks.

"Yes, excellent!" Kurozaku shouted as he ducked down to dodge a fist, only to jump up as Lelouch attempted to swipe his legs. He quickly regained his footing, and weaved between the flurry of punches Lelouch threw at him. They were fast, nothing but a blur of motion to the human eye. But Kurozaku was no human; after having enough of dodging, his eyes glowed and quickly locked on to each fist, before catching them with unbelievable timing and precision.

What he didn't expect however was the kick that followed from below, prompting him to let go of his now demonized descendants fists as he jumped back. But he didn't waste any time, and quickly shot forward again, only to have two feet buried into his stomach as Lelouch dropped back and crouched into a one handed handstand, twisting his body back and using the demon's momentum to launch him into the air.

"Wow," Lelouch regarded his body for a moment; he had never really fought before, yet here he was, beating up his demon ancestor. The dark prince filed away those thoughts for later. Then, with speed that'd put many humans and demons alike to shame, Lelouch shot up in the air, a few feat away from Kurozaku, and brought his foot down in an axe-kick that connected with Kurozaku's chest, sending him rocketing down into the ground.

The demon's body met the ground with an explosive force, enough to almost turn the whole arena into one, huge crater.

Once Lelouch touched down on the ground, it was as if he had just awoken from a sort of trance. The human-turned-demon brought his hands up and regarded them with a smirk, This...feels great.

The injuries he had sustained during the beginning of the fight had long since healed, all his senses were heightened and his body felt like a powerhouse. In short, he felt absolutely amazing!

"Intoxicating, isn't it?"

Lelouch's head snapped up and he saw the demon he had just rammed into the ground standing there. He seemed perfectly fine; his clothes weren't ripped or torn, and the demon emperor couldn't see one scratch marring his body. All that seemed to bother him was the small amount of dust on his shoulder, which he quickly brushed off.

"Why aren't you-"

"Dead? Injured?" A chuckle followed before he continued, "Please, I am a demon lord, and what you witnessed back there was barely ten percent of my power." Kurozaku idly regarded his hand, "Long ago, I set a limiter for my power output in place, that way I can release my power according to the situation."

The demon emperor's eyes widened. Even at this percentage, he had no trouble tossing him around like a ragdoll. Given, he was a human before, but still...the dark prince didn't want to think about just what the man was capable of once he released all the restraints he had seemingly set in place. He discarded that thought and adressed the matter at hand, "So, I'm a demon now, huh?"

Kurozaku regarded him for a moment and spoke with a thoughtful voice, "No, you're a half demon; because of how long your demon blood has been dormant, you didn't turn fully into a demon, but we'll discuss that later. For now..." Something akin to...pity, flickered in the demons eyes, but Lelouch didn't have much time to think about it as an agonizing pain shot through his body.

He immediately crumpled to the ground, writhing and screaming in pain; pain even worse than the ass-kicking that Kurozaku had delivered to him. His muscles tensed and spasmed painfully...it seemed like they were ripping themselves apart. Hell, it felt like his whole body was trying to rip itself apart while being dunked into liquid fire.

Kurozaku simply turned his head to the entrance of the arena, "Lydia, the seal, quickly."

Not a moment later, a girl, no older than fifteen cheerfully bounded into the arena. She had vibrant violet eyes and shoulder-length black hair that framed her face in wild bangs. Her outfit consisted of a short-sleeved and high collared blue top with black adornments, contrasting with her delicate, pale skin. She also wore a pair of black shorts, and leggings of the same colour underneath that. Fingerless, black gloves with a blue Geass symbol on the back, a pair of simple black shoes and a blue and black striped scarf wrapped haphazardly around her neck completed the outfit.

As soon as she was infront of the black clad demon, she smiled brightly, "Here you go, father!" With that, she handed him a necklace with small metal crest on it. The metal was an odd black in colour, but the insignia was even odder. It was vaguely recognizeable as the Geass symbol and seemed much more intricate.

Meanwhile, Lelouch was still screaming and shouting out his agony, his mind somehow refusing to let him pass out; strange, seeing as that would've been the case when one was in such unbelievable amounts of pain.

The girl held a finger to her mouth, "Is he going to be okay?"

The demon just waved her off and crouched down next to Lelouch, "This is only the beginning, the pain will get worse...a lot worse. But you have to endure it." With that, Kurozaku brought the amulet up to his face and whispered some sort of incantation, after which he slammed his palm with amulet into his descendants chest. True to his words, this seemed to crank the pain up to new levels, evident by the inhuman roars and cries of agony the now half-demon let out.

Kurozaku then stood up and turned to the young girl, "Lydia, have someone prepare a room for him and stay with him. I have to attend to something."

The girl nodded happily, "Yes, father!" She quickly moved to Lelouch's still writhing and shouting form, and layed her hand on his chest, thouch in a much gentler way than the old demon did, and the two seemed to sink into the ground.

Kurozaku looked at the spot where to the two just vanished and then smiled, before sinking into the ground himself.

One week later

"Ugh..." The dark prince stirred, and with a lot of effort, cracked an eye open. Memories of what happened during, or rather after the battle flooded his mind, and he could still feel the lingering pain. It was like a hangover, only ten times worse. Cautiously, he turned his head to the side, only to stare directly into a pair of violet orbs.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Yay! Nii-san is awake!" The person whom he now identified as a young girl, squealed excitedly, causing Lelouch to wince slightly; as a half-demon, his senses were heightened considerably, so a high-pitched, female squeal from point-blank was rather unpleasant.

Then, something else registered in his mind, "...Nii-san?"

The girl, who was currently happily dancing around the room stopped for a moment to blink at him, "Father said that you were also his descendant." She tilted her head to the side, "You are, aren't you?"

Lelouch's eyes widened a fraction and he answered her question with one of his own, "Wait, you're his daughter?"

The young girl brought a finger to her chin, "I'm not his real daughter, but I'm also his descendant. I don't know how I ended up here, but it was a few years ago, and father found me. I've been living here ever since."

Lelouch nodded, "So, that means we're related, huh?" Actually, any idiot could've deduced that; vibrant, violet eyes and midnight black hair were an uncommon combination of traits, after all.

"Yep!" She exclaimed in what seemed to be her usual cheerful demeanor, "That makes you my nii-chan!"

The dark prince couldn't help but chuckle at her demeanor, "Yeah, I guess so." His chuckle died down, and he gained a thoughtful look on his face, which his self proclaimed little sister didn't miss, "Is anything wrong, nii-chan?"

The half-demon looked up at her, "How long have I been out?"

Bringing a finger up to her lips, she struck a thoughtful pose, which Lelouch found to be rather cute. "Well, it's been one week since you awakened, but you only just passed out two days ago. Before that, you were still screaming and shouting in pain."

That caused his eyes to widen again, and more memories flooded his mind, "What happened back then?"

"You turned into a half-demon, but I'm sure you know that the transformation was...painful. But it was for me, too, if that's any consolation," she stated with that same bright smile on her face, "Father used the amulet so that you wouldn't go out of control, so it wasn't too bad."

Yeah, I remember... Back then, he was still in too much pain to ask what he was doing with that odd amulet, but whatever he did, it increased the pain considerably, "What was that amulet for?"

The young girl giggled, "You ask a lot of questions, nii-chan." Still, she explained, "If father wouldn't have used the amulet, your transformation would've gotten out of control. Basically, you would've gone on a rampage, attacking anything and anyone in sight."

The demon emperor let the information sink in, nodding absently. He brought one of his hands up, and noticed that the claws, while still very much present, weren't as long and as...feral as before. His hair was still just as long, and even messier now. Considering the fact that he hadn't showered for more than a week, that was a given. The dark prince looked over to the mirror on the nightstand next to the bed, and noticed that the fangs were still there...and that his eyes were now a mix between crimson and violet, and actually seemed to alternate between the two colours, as if it was a lake that took on other colours by reflecting the light.

"So, I'm a half-demon now, huh?"

"Yep, just like me!"

Lelouch smiled at her. Frankly, this all seemed so...surreal to him. One day, he completes his plan to rid the world of its hate, and the very same day he turns into a half-demon. Then again, he couldn't be sure whether that happened on the same day. For all he knew, a year could've been between his death and his awakening in the Realm of Shadows. Still, he didn't mind it at all. In fact, it felt good to be able to continue on living. Hell, he was only eighteen years old, and even during those eighteen years, most of his experiences consisted of hardships.

But now, he could start anew.

"Say, where is father?" Once the words left his mouth, he blinked. Why did he just call him father? It sounded natural, actually, but he clearly wasn't his father. In the end, he chalked it up to another change caused by his demon blood awakening.

"He left an hour ago, I think for a meeting of the Council of Elders."

"Council of Elders?"

The young girl blinked at him again, before giggling, "Oh right, you don't know. The Council of Elders is a council of the strongest demons in the Realm of Shadows. Father'll tell you more once he's back," she struck a thoughtful pose again, "Atleast, I think so..."

Lelouch laughed again, which quickly turned into a fit of coughing as pain burned through his body again.

"Nii-san, you should sleep a little more for now." Her tone was now serious and...worried. Lelouch just nodded wearily, suddenly feeling tired once again, but another thought struck him, "Hey, how long have you been here?"

She gave him another one of those beaming smiles, "One week."

Lelouch began coughing again, "One...week?!"

His response was another smile, "Yeah, father told me to take care of you," the smile widened a fraction, if that was even possible, "After all, you're my brother."

The dark prince felt a smile spread across his own features as he regarded the young girl, "Thank you..." He blinked; he didn't even know her name.

"Lydia." The smile never left her face.

"Thank you, Lydia..." He drawled, slowly slipping back into a much need and much deserved slumber.

There you go, chapter two. Let me know if you want more, I have tons of ideas for this story that just refuse to leave my head.

Reviews are as always very much appreciated!

Until the next chapter!