Six

Only Human

Lelouch heard Nunnally yell as time seemed to slow. The explosion had come out of nowhere, and as the floor fell out under him, the former Eleventh Prince of Britannia felt the deadly flames of the explosion kiss his skin as he fell down along with the building. "Lelouch?!" Nunnally's voice echoed all around him.

"I-I'm…" Lelouch attempted to raise his head up, but to no avail. The Former Prince felt his will give as he began to drift.

"Lelouch!" He pictured his little sister crying, her eyes still clenched tight, her curse still with her, but now she was truly alone. He had been forced to abandon her, first by the will of his father, and now by the futility of his own mortality. The Prince felt everything move slowly, his mind fighting to make his existence last just a moment longer.

The world was a blur of orange flames as it flashed in and out of existence around the prince. Shaking his head, the prince looked around himself, and was aware of the pile of rubble all around him and the sharp pains that were erupting all over his body. Sucking in a deep breath of air, Lelouch sat up, finding the motion sent spikes of pain all down his back along with his abdomen that prevented him from moving. As the raven-haired prince lay there among the remains of the building's upper floors, he felt his belly begin to be soaked with a warm liquid. Without even looking down he knew what it was. Looking at his belly the prince saw the jagged pipe sticking out of his side.

The site of the wound along with the situation around him made his hands begin to shake uncontrollably. "Calm down, if you panic you'll only increase your heart rate and bleed out faster." Lelouch told himself as he inhaled slowly and tried to calm himself; he'd been trained for things like this. He also had to prepare himself for what would come next.

"Deep breaths. If I panic or let my heart rate rise too high, I'll pass out and die shortly thereafter." Lelouch thought as he cleared his mind and zoned in on his pulse, counting the beats. "Think about Nunnally, think about everyone else."

Gripping the pole, Lelouch began to pull himself forward as slow as he dared. Lelouch found his mental strength being pushed to the brink as it took everything he had to not react to the pain he was feeling. As it went on, he felt his pulse begin to rise, as did the pain. Every millimeter the prince slid off the jagged metal was more excruciating than the last, and the prince was particularly aware of the rise in his pulse as he fought off panic at the thought of every ounce of blood he was losing.

After what felt like hours Lelouch at last felt his body freed of the rod, but he found no relief. The gaping wound was now pouring out more blood than ever. Knowing he only had seconds to act, Lelouch pressed his left hand on the wound in a futile attempt to lessen the bleeding and pulled his knife out with the other. Finding his right leg could barely support his weight, the prince limped to one of the many open flames the raged all around him. The prince knew that if he didn't bleed out he would soon have to deal with the prospect of escaping the aflame building, the prospect of which grew dimmer by the second, but he could only focus on one life-threatening obstacle at a time.

Thrusting the flat of his blade into the intense fire, Lelouch waited until the blade had begun to glow, his head growing lighter with every second he waited. Once the blade was nice and hot, the prince lifted his shirt and looked at the nasty wound on the left side of his abdomen. Removing his hand from the wound Lelouch prepared himself mentally for the pain to come. Lelouch felt his heart race as he deliberately pressed the flat of his knife into the gaping hole in his side. The moment the hot steel touched his skin Lelouch's vision went red and he recognized the smell of his flesh searing as the wound began to cauterize. After a moment Lelouch removed the blade and placed it back into the flames so he could finish the wound upon his back. Pulling out the blade once more the prince looked behind him and, with his hands shaking, managed to press it into his skin once more.

Never more so than then had Lelouch wanted to pass out, to just rest, but he didn't really have that luxury. Tossing his knife aside, Lelouch slumped to the ground, his face covered in sweat. "Well I won't bleed out, but now I have to worry about infection." Lelouch said to himself was he took deep breaths. "I need to descend, the smoke may be escaping from the massive hole in the roof, but I doubt my luck will be so good on the climb down."

Rising back to his feet, the prince started to hobble toward the way he had come. Checking what he still had on him as he navigated the burning structure, the prince cursed upon finding his radio had been comprised from his fall. Tossing aside the busted device, he descended from building as it began to creek and fall apart all around him.

"I will not die here!" Lelouch said to himself, embers flying all around him as the growing heat of the building kissed his skin. "I refuse to die here!" Taking a few more labored steps forward until he felt his bad leg catch on a piece of debris sending him crashing to the ground with a audible thud.

"Perhaps this is your fate?" A disembodied voice entered his head. "Have you ever considered that?"

"Never." Lelouch said in reply pushing himself to back to his feet with grit teeth. "Fate holds no sway on me, you told me that."

"Perhaps I lied to spare you the pain of knowing you would never see her again."

"Then I'll die trying!" Lelouch as he stumbled toward the stairwell and looked at the sign that read 'twenty-seventh floor'. "That's nothing." Lelouch told himself as he hugged the guard railing as he slowly began to walk down the steps before him.

The climb down was long and Lelouch's head was pale from the loss of blood he had already sustained. Peering up Lelouch gazed upon the sign that read 'Seventeenth Floor'. Slumping down next to the sign Lelouch listened as he heard the building creak all around him as the sound of rubble falling filled the air. "It won't be long now." Lelouch said to himself.

Reaching into his pocket Lelouch pulled out the letter he had received. Unfolding it he noted that the paper was convert in soot and some of his own blood but he could still read what was written sloppy as the first time he had read it.

Brother,

I'm sorry about my spelling, most of the time I just leave it up to a scribe to write these sort of things, but I wanted to write this one myself. It's been so long since I've seen you and I don't know when I'll see you, soon I hope. It took me long enough, but I eventually convinced Schneizel to sneak this out to you, wherever you are. I've missed you more than you could imagine. I guess what I really want to say, is that I miss you. I love you brother, come home safe.

Love,

Nunnally

Lelouch smiled as he read the paper once more, he felt his stomach turn at the thought of leaving his sister alone. "I'll miss you Nunnally. I'm sorry." Lelouch said aloud as the building around him shook uncontrollably. Closing his eyes, Lelouch gripped the note tightly in his hand as the building fell all around him.

"That's it?" The voice scoffed, though it was now coming from in front of him and not from his own mind. "This is the great end of Lelouch vi Britannia?"

Opening his eyes, Lelouch saw the form of a women standing before him. She was clad in a black dress that had a purplish-red trim that glowed. Her hair was as black as coal at the roots but it's ends were the same purplish-red of her dress and eyes which looked deep within the prince. All around her was the endless stars of the cosmos, the floor beneath an endless plain of polished obsidian.

Where am I?" Lelouch asked as he looked around.

"You said you would die trying, didn't you?" The women mocked, ignoring his question.

"Haven't I?" Lelouch replied hotly still looking up at her from where he sat. "I'm not a god, I can't perform miracles!" Lelouch shouted in frustration.

"That's because you believe you can't." The women retorted with a frown.

"It's not about what I believe! I'm only human!" Lelouch cried out in frustration. "I'll die here pointlessly without having done anything real with my own life! Julius Kingsley is not who I am!"

"So, you truly do want to live on, to see your life go on?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Yes." Lelouch said slumping his head down in defeat.

The women chuckled. "Humans have more power than you know, would you like me to show you?

"What do you mean?" Lelouch replied as he looked at the floor.

"I've been ordered to offer you a contract Lelouch vi Britannia."

Lelouch gazed back up. "Contract?"

"Yes. There is someone who thinks you're going to be very important, why he thinks that I couldn't even begin to understand."

"Who is it?"

"That would be telling." The women smirked as she folded her arms. "Now, will you accept this contract?"

Lelouch thought for a moment before he had affirmed his decision. "I'll accept." Lelouch said under his breath, pulling himself to his feet. "I accept." Lelouch repeated aloud as he stood his weight mostly on his good leg.

The women smirked as she reached out and touched Lelouch's forehead. "Then you are hereby granted The Right of the God." In an instant, images flashed before him as he was what seemed like the entire cosmos as one until he saw the planet of Jupiter dominate his vision. All at once the planet began to crack as light poured out from it, spreading across the surface until it was fully alight, engulfing the prince in its blinding glory.

Stumbling backward, Lelouch looked up at the women who was smiling at him. Putting her arms behind her back she walked backward into the blackness, slowly fading out of existence until she vanished, leaving Lelouch once again standing on the seventeenth floor as the building was coming down around him.

Looking up, Lelouch heard the building go as the floors above started to tumble in on each other. Lifting his hand to protect his face, Lelouch felt something in him trigger as a symbol that looked like a bird appeared over his left eye.

Not even a second later the building had collapsed in on itself. The dust cloud flew up into the air close to a hundred meters. Shortly after the buildings remains were searched by the soldiers of the Middle East Federation who had only just recovered from the attacks of that day. To their surprise, they found a Britannian amongst the rubble covered in soot, unconscious but alive. Binding his hands, the men lifted him out of the remains of the building and dragged him away, as they failed notice the note in his hands that fell to the ground.

Opening his eyes slightly Lelouch noticed the men dragging him away. Looking up Lelouch found he was too tired to even move but allowed himself a small smirk before everything went black once more.

Authors Note:

We're back at it again! I really don't have much to say here as far as updates go, so I'll just get into Reviews.

Q: What's the name of that new Knightmare?

A: Blackmere (If you get the reference you are just that awsome).

Q: What is up with this old canon new canon stuff? And the enormous legends chapter thing? are the two stories related?

A: Legends = Old Story. The two stories are "related" but don't interact or affect each other. Legends is basically for people who want to read the old cannon.

Well hope everyone has a good friday and weekend!

Special thanks to BlackFruity

for beta reading and helping edit this chapter