This is the end!!!!!

Chapter 20: Best-guess conversation

It had been two weeks since the ASEAN Army put down The Leader's rebellion, and it was the first time since that day that Lelouch and Andrew were able to find time to meet with each other. It was just as well; Kira, Nicolette, and even CC were scheduled to be discharged from hospital that day.

"So, 'Luke'," Andrew began, when he met him in the hospital atrium. "You owe me many explanations." They walked across the floor, to the banks of elevators waiting at the other side.

Lelouch nodded. "That I do," he replied. "Let's start with the inevitable: How did I come back to life? Lightning, and a bit of CC's Code."

"The thing that makes her immortal?"

"The very same," Lelouch said. The elevator arrived with a soft ding and they went inside, followed by no one. Lelouch pressed the button for the eleventh floor and the doors closed, shutting them in.

"Are you immortal now as well?" Andrew said, following up on Lelouch's explanation. "Or are you just-?"

Lelouch shrugged. "According to CC, she gave me 'half her Code'," he said. "I can only assume that that's what's keeping me alive. I think I'll have a normal lifespan, a normal length of years."

"Right," Andrew said. "I assume you'd like to know something as well. The orange juice."

"You spiked it," Lelouch said. Not a question.

"I didn't know it was spiked," Andrew defended himself, as the elevator doors opened to the eleventh floor. "Kira did get the aphrodisiac from Peters though. We just didn't know what it was. Thought it would be laxative or something."

"And you just happily let Kira put it in our juice?" Lelouch was appalled. "What if Nina had drank it? Or someone else?"

"Peters told us that only you and Char- CC drank it." They were walking down the corridor to ward 1133, Nicolette's. "Now that you think of it, how did he know that?"

"My guess is that he had Shirley with him all along, and she was spying for him," Lelouch said. "What I don't get is why didn;t she speak until The Leader used the Unmasker control word?"

"Unmasker," Andrew repeated. "Maybe she was conditioned to wear a false façade until she heard the word, and that façade included pretending she couldn't talk. Maybe they had multiple control words." He shivered. "Scary thought."

They stopped before Nicolette's ward. "I'll go in first," Andrew offered. "After all, she did try to kill you."

Andrew led the way in ,and found Nicolette already all ready to go, changed out of her hospital gown into her casual clothes.

"Nicolette," Andrew greeted her, "How're you feeling?"

"Pretty good, actually," she said, "Considering my case was more mental that physical... They'd had to get a specialist from Britannia to come take a look at me." She made a face. "'Specialist' yeah, right. They say he's a farmer. Can you believe that?"

Lelouch nodded cautiously from behind Andrew. Nicolette saw that and laughed. "Don't worry, your majesty, I don;t feel like killing you anymore." Her face fell. "On the other hand, I don;t think I'll be able to do any art anymore either. My creativity's just gone and..." She shrugged. "It's just gone."

Andrew nodded. "We'll be going to check on the other two then, if it's okay with you," he said. "You can go wait for us in the atrium or something, if you get bored." He followed Lelouch out, who seemed very eager to get shot of Nicolette.

"She seems better," Andrew said, during the short walk to ward 1141, CC's ward. Lelouch wasn't as convinced as he was.

"You never know," he said. "I don't know how Jeremiah's Geass canceller works. It might cure her, it might not. The only person I know who ever got the canceller used on them died."

They stopped before ward 1141. "You want to go first?" Andrew offered the doorknob to Lelouch.

"Might as well," Lelouch braced himself for whatever would be inside, tried to anticipate how CC would react, and opened the door.

CC was sitting up in bed, looking slightly out of the window, a forlorn expression on her face. When she heard the door opening, she turned to look-and her face lit up with a glorious smile.

"Luke!" she exclaimed. "You've finally come to take me home!"

Lelouch shook his head to clear it. "Sorry," he said, "What did you call me?"

CC looked puzzled. "I called you by your name," she said, "Big brother." Her eyes finally registered Andrew standing there. "Oh, hi, Andrew! You came with Luke to pick me? How sweet." She looked at Lelouch again, then back at Andrew.

"Listen, Luke..." she said. "There's something else I need to say, and I need to tell only you alone, so... could you get Andrew to wait outside, please?"

Andrew nodded quickly. "Sure, I'll go," he said, and ducked back outside the door. He couldn't make out the whole conversation, but he did hear Lelouch's yell of disbelief.

"So," he said, when Lelouch stumbled out, ashen-faced, "What happened?"

Lelouch shook his head. "Later," he said. "I'll tell you later. For now, though, she thinks she really is Charlotte Carol Overton ,and I'm really Luke Overton. What the hell am I supposed to do?"

"Okay," Andrew said, "But that wouldn't have-"

"I know, I know," Lelouch said impatiently. "It's... much more shocking than that. I'll tell you later. I myself need to get over the shock first."

"Up to you," Andrew said, heading for the stairwell to get to Kira's ward, 1217, one floor up.

Just before they reached the door to the twelfth floor, Lelouch shook his head. "Stop," he said. "There's something you need to know about Kira. He's got a Geass."

"A- excuse me?!" Andrew almost shouted, and the stairwell echoed with his exclamation. "But... I thought you needed a Code-bearer to give you one or something?"

"Yeah, I know," Lelouch said. "But his was different. He had, like, half a symbol in one eye and half in another eye, and... I don't know! We just got to be careful, okay?"

"What's his Geass do?" Andrew demanded suddenly. "If we're going in there with someone who's potentially dangerous, I don't want-"

"It gives you luck," Lelouch said. "So I guess... It's thanks to him that we survived." He exhaled explosively.

"Guess I'll tell you what CC told me, too," Lelouch said. "She's pregnant. I did it."

Andrew's jaw dropped. He closed it with some difficulty, and an expression of deep thought came to his face. "Then... wouldn't that mean she's mortal now? I mean, I don't think she;d be able to bear children if she's like two hundred plus years old or something, right?"

Lelouch stared at him in silent disbelief, then began to shake with laughter. "Andrew..." he said, "You're thinking of this at a time when we should be focussing on the consequences of this problem? What are you thinking?"

"The consequences seem pretty obvious to me," Andrew shot back. "You got her pregnant, you take care of her and the child."

Lelouch sighed. "You're right," he said. "Come on, on to Kira's ward. I'll figure out what to do later."

As they walked down the corridor to ward 1217, Andrew said, "What're you going to say to Kira?"

"First, I'm gonna ask how he got his Geass," Lelouch replied. "Then I'll ask him how he's been."

But when they opened the door to ward 1217, it was empty.

My gosh, that's the end of this story. I can hardly believe it... To be honest, this chapter is a total rewrite. The original chapter 20 was, I felt, way, way too cheesy and rushed.

It's been two months (shock!) since I started work on this story way back in June, when I was on leave. Three months, if you count by my uploadings. Thank you, all you people who regularly read my story and keep waiting every week for an update. It's because of you all that I continue writing every week! =)

Oh yeah, I put a few allusions to other literary works, and modified some things from this world to fit within the story. If you don't know what they are, here's a list:

Literary works:

Dr Victor Frank Einstein: Dr Frankenstein

Dr Shelley (Dr Einstein's colleague): Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein

Nina's colleague, Joyce Kell: , as in Dr Jeykell and Mr Hyde

Mr Harker: Harker from Dracula

Real life:

White Mountain: Mt Shasta

Goggle (in chapter 2): Google, of course

St Francis International Airport: San Francisco International

Benning Wentworth: Portsmouth, New Hampshire (I just picked a location at random from wikipedia and my geography isn't so good)

Shinbashi (I looked it up on wikipedia, apparently it's near to Ginza, so I thought it'd become a sort of Shinjuku replacement within the Code Geass universe)

Mr RD Peters: Russell Peters. I just thought it'd be cool if he was a teacher. I really regretted killing his character off.

Alois-A (From chapter 6, what Kallen's mother is suffering from.): Alzheimer's disease.

Thiamine deficiency (From chapter 10.): Beriberi.

SSH-53 Helicopter (The one CC flew to Singapore.): MH-53 Pave Low

F-11 fighter (possibly a variation of the F-1 fighter)

Ky Lee: MM Lee Kuan Yew, one of Singapore's founding fathers. Sorry if I offended anyone by killing off the character named after him so fast. Please don't read too much into it, it's just a fanfiction.

Ultiman (Singaporean Knightmare): A play on Ultimax, a Singapore Army domestically-built light machine gun.

SAR-15: A cross between an AR-15 and a SAR-21.

Golan Cornershooter: CornerShot

Right, I think that should be all.

Again, a really big thank you to all of you who read my fic week after week! I'm amazed that I could have so many followers. If you're waiting for my next fic, then... I guess I'll have to say, I'm sorry, but I'm gonna be really busy till the end of the year. I'm even going out of the country in November. Sorry to any of you who didn't like me making Singapore a terrorist country. Like what I wrote above, it's just a fanfiction.

SO, in all, thanks for staying with me till the end! Hope you all can continue reading me if and when I start another story! Till the next time, see ya! =)

Lelouch and Andrew waited for the elevator in silence. Kira was gone, to only-God-knew-where, and they had to break the news to Nicolette. Who knew what she would do. And to make things worse, there was CC to deal with, who now thought that she was really Charlotte Carol Overton and that her brother Luke had made her pregnant.

Neither of them broke the silence until Andrew said, "Lelouch, I've been wanting to ask you this one thing... It's been nagging at me but I never had the nerve to ask it..."

"Ask, then," Lelouch said, as the elevator doors opened. He got in first, and Andrew pressed the 'Door Close' button behind him. "Stop hesitating."

Andrew took a deep breath. "What was it like..." he asked, "What was it like... when you died? What happened when you died?"

Lelouch didn't answer. At least, not until they were about to reach the atrium.

"Nothing." Lelouch said.

"There was nothing."