"Geass power is similar to a wish, don't you think? It's a request to someone to give you the power to achieve what you can't on your own." - Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire

The White Knight had thought this would be simple. Teach the world to hate one man, then kill that man to bring peace. Suzaku Kururugi would die, but he'd been seeking death for years. Lelouch vi Britannia would die, but that friend had been the destruction of everything that the woman he loved had been. Zero would live on, as a Knight for justice and peace, but he'd always claimed to be that.

It wasn't until he stood on the horizon, facing down the prisoner convoy that the 'Demon Emperor' had so elegantly planned allowing for his death to be as public as possible, that he realized what he was about to do.

The White Knight had become the Black Knight. The Black King had become the White King. They'd removed everything else from the board and the king had deliberately placed himself into checkmate, surrendering to his friend. The Japanese Soldier, who had vowed to change Britannia from within, had given up and decided that results were what mattered. The Britannian Prince, who'd always thought the results were what mattered, had given up and changed the Empire from the inside.

His chest was so tight when he broke for the convoy that he honestly wasn't sure how he could breathe. His vision blurred by tears when he reached the throne. And his heart sinking into his stomach when he saw the peaceful and satisfied look on Lelouch vi Britannia's face as he accepted his death with open arms.

The knight had no idea how he'd managed to thrust the blade forward. Or maybe the demon had stepped into it. Either way he could feel the blood soaking his gloves. The world slowed to a stop, all sounds drowned out and he closed his eyes to try and clear the tears. To try and push away the gut searing regret, realizing what he'd just done. This was killing his father, all over again.

'I wish there had been another way...'

The Black Queen had thought the demon's death would bring her joy. He'd betrayed them. He'd betrayed her. They were all just pawns to him and he never cared.

When his own alter ego appeared on the horizon, a cold shock of painful clarity shot down her spine. It took her only an instant to realize it had all been a ruse. That the man in the mask was Suzaku Kururugi, and this was what he and Lelouch had had to do. They say your life flashes before your eyes when you die. For Kallen Kozuki-Stadtfeld, it was certainly true; she felt her heart stop while her world was ripped out from underneath her, all her beliefs disproven in a single, horrifying scene right before her eyes. Every memory she held of the man about to die flashed back through her. A eulogy stuck on fast forward.

She should have known when he'd so emphatically declared his intention to rescue her that she was more than a simple pawn. More than a piece on his chessboard. She should have known when he said she had to live that he'd been pushing her away. She should have known when she caught him with refrain that his life was quickly losing meaning to him.

So she struggled against her bonds for the first time that day. She screamed words without knowing what they were. She couldn't even hear them, although they'd been shouted at the top of her lungs. And when the blade broke through the Emperor's heart, it felt like it broke through hers as well. He had pushed her away and she had let him. His most loyal follower, and she'd betrayed him in the end. Leaving him to trust his closest enemy instead. Leading him... To this.

She closed her eyes, tears streaking down her face, unable to watch the scene as the Demon's body was cast down the ramp. All sounds drowned away. She'd protected him for so long. But now, in his final moments. She'd failed him.

'I wish I could have saved him... '

Miles away, a witch prayed for the first time in centuries. She prayed for another way. She prayed for the soul of a demon. She prayed for his forgiveness, because she knew that, if he'd been successful, no one else would. She'd contracted him to grant her one true wish. He had been unable to fulfill that contract, but he'd tried to leave her with the best gift he possibly could. A happy and peaceful world to live out the rest of her immortality in. He'd lost the will to live. Kallen had been captured. Shirley had died. He'd thought Nunally had. She herself had lost her memories. Then Rolo had died to save him. Then his mother turned out to be the very thing he despised. After all of that, having saved Kallen and having discovered Nunally still remained, but it was only her hatred of what he had become that had caused her to open her eyes...He blamed himself for all of it. He'd lost the will to live months ago. And nothing was going to bring it back.

'Let him find peace in another life.' She begged the Collective Unconscious. God.

When the White Knight opened his eyes he was was immediately confused. Instead of looking through a tinted visor at a crowded parade, and the corpse of the friend he'd just murdered, he was looking through his own eyes at a white ceiling. Instead of standing, he was lying. And his back hurt like hell.

Two heads moved into view. The very familiar visages of Lloyd Asplund and Cecile Croomy, the latter holding a familiar shattered watch that he'd hadn't seen in over a year. The watch that had saved his life…

… Two years ago. In Shinjuku.

'What the hell?'

The Black Queen was scared to open her eyes. Maybe, like Nunally, she could just not open them again. So that she wouldn't have see his lifeless body laying on the platform, soaked in blood.

She did open them, however. Entranced by the naive thought that maybe it was all a dream. A terrible nightmare she'd be able to wake up from.

The sight that greeted her instead... Was the cockpit of a Glasgow-class Knightmare Frame. A cockpit she hadn't been in in well over a year, ever since she'd gotten the Guren before the battle of Narita. Which meant...

A glance down at the tactical map before her revealed a familiar sight; a map of Old Shinjuku.

'Can I… Can I save him?'

"Lelouch vi Britannia commands you, now, all of you! DIE!" declared the Black King, his left eye flaring red with the power of Absolute Obedience. A chorus of gunshots answered the order, followed by a staccato rhythm of Britannian bodies collapsing to the crumbled stone underneath.

He laughed maniacally at his new power. This was the missing piece. He could do it. He could beat Britannia.

Oh yes...This was going to be glorious.

Disclaimer: This work is a non-profit piece written solely for artistic purposes and the enjoyment of others. I do not claim any ownership of Code Geass or the characters involved in this story. This will be the only disclaimer posted for this work, it applies to every chapter.

Author's Note: Yes, this is another time travel story. I enjoy the concept, but the execution of many stories on this site are attempts that I find lacking, so I'm taking my shot at it. My motivation for writing comes in bursts and I am prone to losing interest, as evidenced by all the abandoned stories on my account. I will do my best to finish this one, but I give no promises. I hope that what I do write will give everyone a starting point from which to make their own conclusions about how this alternate universe will turn out. I hope you enjoy!