…-And why should I accept your offer, God?
-You forgot what the life really was. In pursuing the Ragnarok you lost your sight. Ironically, Nunnally was less blind than you ever were. World never needed what you wanted.
Chapter I
Agreement with D.S.
Charles slowly opened his eyes, letting off a pained sigh. Instead of his throne room, he was in C`s world, lying on the invisible floor, only with Jupiter-like planet above him.
He got up from the floor, wounds in his chest started to ache much less than they did before.
A lone silhouette was approaching him. In a figure he could see every familiar person he ever met and the ones he never met or even heard about.
"It`d be nice if I didn`t have to meet you once again, D.S." Charles murmured.
"But you knew it was unavoidable. If you had only listened to what we said to you, our next meeting would`ve been in at least 20 more years." She, if D.S. could be called a woman, spoke in scolding tone. "If you dropped your idealist convictions, you wouldn`t ended up as you did."
"Yet again, remind me why do you decided to bring me back in time not once, but twice?"
"Because the world is still not fixed. What Lelouch did was no small feat, but it was still not enough. Any attempt to bring him back was met with a total rejection. His philosophy of 'mistakes make who we really are' is noble, yet irrational. He ordered us to continue with the march of time. Though he is truthful to his convictions even now, we, the world itself, still needs more.
In other words, your plan broke him, sealed a lot of his potential behind a barrier that won`t be broken without broking Lelouch himself. So, we found another way – you. In the end, you should repair what you destroyed."
As she spoke, Charles felt a heavy wave of headache, two different memories of his life conflicting one another.
"What you fell right now is a result of our attempt to bring you back in time. We knew that you would disobey our words, but you would never understand why you were wrong if you didn`t endure through the cursed world you yourself tried to make. You tried and failed to kill Lelouch twice. So, you had to see what the world would look like if you succeeded."
He grimaced. "My brother may have lied to me, but the oath we made to kill the God was alive in me ever since. How could I forgive this insolent son if he was blind enough to follow your sweet words?"
It was the first time ever that Charles saw her facial expression change. She smiled, as if his words were incorrect. "Really? You influenced the first real military battle Lelouch ever won, by ordering OSI to shot him. You had even concealed it as a misfire from one of the guard's rifles. Then you began a purge within military against Lelouch`s loyal followers in a different timeline, that supported his reforms of the Empire when he became an Emperor himself."
Charles tried to cut her, but she persisted, "You guessed right about how Nunnally and Lelouch were connected as siblings, as they`d burn the entire world before either of them died. And yet, in your fury, you ordered all of this. Your emotions took control over your actions. It was surprising to some part of us that you fell low enough to never even consider a reaction to your own actions.
Your hands killed Lelouch in order to save your plan, and you didn`t realize it was doomed from the start!"
The scenery then begun to change around them.
"And this, Charles, is the summary of what you did to the world."
Charles found himself in a G1 Command Base – a standard command post since early 2000`s. The room was filled with soldiers and officers, all wearing the standard Britannian military uniform of their class. Before him was Clovis – long forgotten son, who observed from his throne the situation on the ground.
Judging by their reactions, he was invisible. His eyes wandered to one of the screens, where he saw the current date – 15th of August 2017 a.t.b. On the main screen he could discern current location of viceroy`s search units. 'Heh, Clovis, you truly didn`t know anything about her. Not even a thought crossed your mind that I knew her.'
His light laugh was cut short by D.S. reappearance in front of him. She shushed him, guiding his eyes back to the main screen.
"Your Highness, we found the girl…" the officer on the screen begun, immediately interrupted by a relieved reaction from Clovis.
"Fantastic! Bring her here, and you will be rewarded for your service!"
Officer stuttered, "W-we found her captured by local elevens and a Britannian traitor. We killed all of them, but she sadly had passed away from the wounds."
Clovis sighed. "It doesn`t matter. Bring her body to the G1." As the officer saluted and begun issuing orders, something kept nagging Clovis. Something didn`t add up.
"Major, could you show the scene of her murder? It`s quite rare to hear about a traitor within our ranks joining the terrorists, especially here." It was truth. Even the so-called 'reformers' or 'liberals' usually avoided the densely-populated ghettos – Britannians were too much hated for the dissidents to cooperate with the locals.
It`d also be quite strange if she suddenly resurrected before brought back into the capsule, so a cover-up story about her survival may be useful, even if it targets only his subordinates.
"…Are you sure about this, Your Highness? The entire warehouse is filled with blood of those monkeys, it`d better for your highnesses wellbeing not to see the result."
"No, I need to see it. She may be alive, and lose her life as the result of it."
Officer begrudgingly conceded, ordering a soldier behind him to transmit everything he sees to the G1. 'He didn`t lie – this is nothing short of slaughterhouse,' Clovis thought to himself, observing the transmission. A sea of blood and a field of murdered terrorists was in his view. Question regarding whether they were really terrorists even though all of them were unarmed didn`t cross his mind.
"Wait, is that a Britannian student?"
Officer looked back, "Oh, you mean that one under the wall? Yeah, we also were surprised to meet that boy over there. We had to resort to violence, as he resisted the arrest. Unfortunately, one of our rifles fired a bullet before he could be tangled, too much terrorists were shot for it to work properly."
Clovis was looking on the body. It was familiar, but he couldn`t say for sure what or how exactly. "An Ashford student, huh… Come closer and show me his face, we may need to send a letter to Ruben Ashford over his students participating in literal terrorism."
As the eleven soldier was approaching the boy, the image on his helmet camera begun to improve, depicting his face features with much more detail and with less grain. Half of his face was covered in dust, and another in bloodied forehead.
He paled, as he begun to recognize who was killed.
"It couldn`t be… No, he had died seven years ago, it`s not possible!" Clovis was shaking in his throne, causing surprised glances from his officers. "Shit-shit-shit, why it happened to be you of all people to be here?" he mumbled to himself.
"Take the boy immediately to the medical bay!"
"But what about that girl?"
"Escort him as quickly as you can! The girl can be recovered by another group."
Officer saluted, ceasing the connection.
Clovis` eyes became teary, "You shouldn`t have been here! Me, Cornelia – all of us… Did we left you to die here? Why haven`t you ever asked us?"
He felt the urge to run to the medical bay, before stopping in thought. "Bartley, with me. When we identify him, make sure to get me any information on his close people. Search thoroughly if he has any kind of relatives here. No matter what happened - be ready to make a cover-up story for this."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
"Was it this that you so wished for me to see?" Charles asked, trying to ignore the unnerving image of Lelouch he just saw.
"No. I want you to see, how foolish you were. You may hide it very well, may pose as a stoic emperor, but we can see what you really felt about this. I can show you anything that happened in this, alternate timeline, just for you to reconsider your life choices. There is no anything too traumatic, there is only truth. Didn`t you wished to create a world devoid of lies? Enjoy."
With that, D.S. disappeared into thin air, leaving Charles to observe.
September 7th, 2017
Tokyo Settlement
He stood before a crowd, no, before an army gathered around their leader – Zero. He circled around Zero, as she was entering the stage. Kallen and Jeremiah were following her. Even Euphemia stood by her side. Before this particular day, he observed quite a lot of events, how Nunnally conducted her own investigation, how she begun her revolt, how she got Britannians to join her. All that were beginning to make a toll on his resolve, but this one was the biggest - the day Japan was officially lost to Britannia. In their rampage through the Britannian forces in Area 11, the entire world observed first major Britannian defeat ever since the Humiliation of Edinburgh.
"To the people of Japan and to entire world! Britannia was deemed to be undefeated. The day when Area 11 would regain its true name of Japan was for many only a faraway dream. And now – Japan is now free and the first step of liberating the world from Britannian oppression was done!
We have always strived to make a better world. World devoid of prejudice, of corruption, of hatred and of war. Because Japan of the past is destroyed and will never be resurrected, I, Zero, hereby proclaim the creation of United States of Japan as a new independent nation! This new Japan will resemble everything we wish to create, with equal opportunities to all and able to protect the week from the oppression from the strong."
The crowd roared in support, before Zero raised his hand to get back on track.
"What many fail to see, is that the world is flawed. What USJ will represent is a standard we wish to share to our neighbors. We do not wish to be subjected to the wishes of either Paris or Beijing, but to truly be equals among equals.
We achieved our freedom, but the fight won`t be over until the freedom of every oppressed peoples will be achieved. My message to the world will be the following: the days of imperialism are numbered. The world will be liberated from all tyrants inhabiting it and we won`t stop until the tyranny of Charles zi Britannia is destroyed!"
Charles`s ghost stood near her, observing her speech. He could see that beneath the mask her face resembled nothing but fury and resolve, even bigger than of Jeremiah or Kallen near her.
All across Japan, in Japanese districts in E.U. cities, in every Black Knight regiment across the wide defense perimeter people begun chanting the name of a person, whom they were grateful for this victory.
"Zero! Zero! Zero! Zero!"
"So what now, Charles?" D.S. materialized near his left shoulder, "Are you willing to rewrite the history again, listening to our advice?"
His eyes wandered through the scene. Battle-hardened veterans filled the streets celebrating their biggest victory yet. They didn`t look at the damage previous battles made; nor did they value ruined buildings more than their regained freedom. City looked post-apocalyptic, and yet there was no such atmosphere in crowds around Zero, only the feeling of hope for a better future filling the air around. Their Burai`s were bruised and damaged, their pilots tired, but there was no doubt – this army would go further, crushing everything it sees. And only two years later, their dream was achieved, with their hopes and dreams resulting in a much worse world he would hope for. The hope they have now won`t bring back the people that could rebuild the world into something worth living in.
D.S. placed her hand on his shoulder, with her palm emitting red glow. "Charles zi Britannia, are you ready to save the world and the man who will bring it to a new era?"
"Yes, but on one condition" he responded, his eyes go to meet hers, "Can I take her with me? To have her to be with me on this?"
"You`ll see," was all he heard before the world around him dissolved into a white nothingness.
A/N: I intended to delay posting it on the later day, but it seemed that my first chapter was too much confusing. Perhaps it has to be with either my poor knowledge of English not conveying everything I want or with my yet insufficient writing skills. We`re all learning, though it really isn`t an excuse if I failed to bring my idea of the first chapter into life. So, here`s it, the second chapter.
To the Reviews: I do not intend to make it SI, but expect it to be Charles-centered fic (how unexpected), with a lot of the stuff being added on the way. About the first chapter I agree, it may`ve been better explained, perhaps I`ll rewrite it later.
Most of his life was not covered by any canonic material I could find, nor is the Emblem of Blood or Marianne`s life before meeting Charles. So expect some AU.
Thanks for the feedback, it always helps.