"So... We succeeded." An authoritative, masculine baritone rumbled with the weight of years. "Killed God and everything."

"So it would seem." A small boy, seemingly not even approaching puberty yet, responded.

"And yet..." The man stumbled verbally, at a loss for words and waving his hands in confusion from atop his austere throne.

"And yet all that accomplished was sending us either back in time, or into a parallel universe temporally disjointed from our own." The boy finished for him, dispassionate and expressionless in a way that looked uncanny on his youthful features.

"... I don't know about you, brother, but I think this plan's cooked."

The boy sighed and slumped down, sitting cross-legged and looking more disheartened than anything. "I'll... look into it more, but we'll need to develop some other plan of action just in case you're right."

"One that doesn't involve killing the only wife I genuinely like and making her eldest our most powerful adversary." The man said firmly, violet eyes narrowing with a sense of finality that brooked no discussion on the matter.

"Okay, I'll admit it Charles!" The boy cried, a borderline tantrum brewing behind his eyes, "I screwed up and I'm sorry! I won't do it this time!"

The Emperor, Charles zi Britannia, nodded as he rose. "See to it that you don't, brother." Then the larger man turned, addressing the lone other figure in the room as he departed. "Bismark, come. I had best pay a visit to my dearest wife and children."

You'd think I'd be inured to supernatural shenanigans at this point, Lelouch thought to himself, but every time I think I've found the farthest ends of absurdity, things find a way to get even weirder.

He honestly wasn't quite sure how to feel at that moment. He'd failed, quite spectacularly at that; Suzaku fucking Kururugi had betrayed him once a-god-damn-gain, right there in the World of C, and allowed his bastard tyrant of a father to complete his abhorrent assimilation plot to strip away all human individuality. Everyone he'd known was either dead or worse, he'd failed to protect Nunnally, he'd failed to honor the Euphemia's real memory, he'd failed to keep Kallen safe, he'd failed to fulfill his end of the bargain with C.C., he'd failed and failed and failed over and over and over again. And yet there he was, in his bed in the Aeries Villa, nine years old again and wondering just what the fuck was going on. And his door was being opened.

"Oh, what fresh hell is this," he grumbled, sitting upright in his princely bed and frowning bleary-eyed at the offending silhouette; small, childlike. One of two possible outcomes. "Come to do the job more thoroughly, V.V.?" He growled, narrowing his royal eyes in the most withering glare a child could manage—in his case, a very effective one.

"Guess again," a little girl said, "big brother." Lelouch blinked, sliding out of his bed in a confused daze as his eyes adjusted and revealed the truth to him.

"Nunnally?" He said hoarsely, "What're you—"

"You weren't the only one sent back." The girl said simply, striding towards him—right, she hadn't been crippled in the assassination yet—and perching primly on the edge of his bed, leaning against him as if searching for some kind of solidarity. Solidarity he gladly gave her, as the last he'd known his precious little sister had been obliterated in the destruction of the Tokyo Settlement. They both needed the comforting presence of someone else in that moment, he surmised. "I... What's going on, Lelouch?" She asked tentatively, "Why are we back here? What happens next? What are we going to do about... about—"

"Your Highness, I— oh." Came another voice, masculine and familiar. "Please forgive me, your Highnesses, I'll—"

"No, Jeremiah." The prince ordered in a tone long practiced in what he decided to call the first round for now, "Report."

"I simply... that is, I... Er..." The azette Knight of Orange stumbled over his tongue, face contorting in consternation as he attempted to explain something he himself couldn't understand, let alone elucidate. "I wanted to..."

"We were brought back, too, Orange Boy." Lelouch smirked as the man visibly flinched at the appellation. "Sorry for doing that to you, though."

"There is no need to apologize, your Highness." The guardsman said, bowing deeply, "I was proud to bear that title in the end, and I somehow doubt events will transpire in like fashion again."

The once-revolutionary nodded, "Speaking of, come in and close the door." He ordered, tightening his embrace on his little sister ever-so-slightly. "We have much to discuss."

"Just so, your Highness."

The first thing she'd done had been to leap, crying, into her brother's arms. The second thing she'd done had been to convince herself not to slug him for dying and leaving her alone, since he obviously hadn't done that. The third thing she'd done had been to excuse herself and go back to bed, letting her family think it had just been a nightmare; she wasn't entirely certain that wasn't all it had been. But no, it had been to visceral and lasted too long to just be a dream; too logically structured in continuity. And in the end, it had felt too...

The redheaded Black Knight—well, she supposed she wasn't a Black Knight now; probably couldn't even qualify as a revolutionary—shook herself and blinked back tears, willing away the memories-to-be, if that's what they were, and sat down on her bed. She had a lot of questions, no answers, and no plan of action. At least one of those things needed to be solved tonight if she was going to get any rest, and she could already think of a few different ways to accomplish that. The one she most wanted to do, sadly, was also the one she couldn't do yet, but she had the luxury of knowing exactly how to get a hold of a different option. Sure, she liked to think of herself as Japanese, but she was still half-Britannian; never let it be said Kallen Stadtfelt couldn't scheme and plot when she needed to. Even if she wished the whole time she could just turn to Zero—well, she guessed he was "just" Lelouch vi Britannia right now, Eleventh Prince of the Realm and somewhere in the bottom half of the line of succession for the throne—for whatever his master plan invariably would have been.

Maybe this time around she could actually pull one over on him. Keep him from pushing her out just like that. While she was wishing for the impossible, maybe she just outright prevent the invasion. Hey, she'd apparently traveled back in time; to Kallen in that moment, all bets were off.

Suzaku wasn't an imbecile. Sure, he wasn't the strategic or diplomatic savant that Lelouch was, or the engineering prodigy Lloyd was, but he had an appreciable IQ and level of self-awareness, however poorly utilized one might feel those things to be with him. So he was able to reach a few rather sound conclusions given his limited understanding of the situation.

One, he was indeed back in the past before the invasion and subjugation of Japan.

Two, Lelouch almost certainly would be as well; they'd both been in the World of C when the Emperor "slew God," so if Suzaku got sent back it stood to reason everyone else there had been as well. Which included the Emperor and Empress Marianne, now that he thought of it.

Three, Lelouch would almost certainly arrange for him to suffer a very painful death for selling him out a second time.

Four, Euphie was most likely still alive in this timeline.

Five, he quite possibly would never see her again anyway. After all, their first meeting had been because Zero arranged for Suzaku's acquittal in the case of Clovis' murder, and if Lelouch was back in the past like he was—which was highly likely if not outright certain—it wasn't hard to imagine the Eleventh Prince holding enough of a grudge and being wary enough of the tactical threat he posed to just let him be executed this time. He could arrange for Zero's grand reveal some other way, no doubt.

Then again, Suzaku pondered as he got up from his bed and stared glassy-eyed into the night sky, if Lelouch was back right now in the same time period, he would probably end up altering the timeline radically enough that Zero would never appear at all. Maybe even save his mother from her assassination and waylay the Second Pacific War in its entirety. A guy could hope. Man, why was everything to do with Geass so complicated?

Marianne vi Britannia nee Lamperouge slumped over in her chair in her study, expression uncharacteristically haggard even as the rest of her was as pristine and graceful as ever, as she turned over the events of the last twenty-four hours of her perception. She came to a lot of conclusions, some of them tentative, but one of them quite firmly established, in recognition of everything her son had said in the World of C and the unyielding defiance he'd shown right through the very end.

This wasn't going to be fun.