Unfortunately
I do not own Code Geass
Sorry about that

She watches him. Not that she has a choice; after all, she's bound hand and foot to the stark metal pole behind her, ramrod straight. He sits there, on his throne, gazing imperiously forward with those eyes, those violet eyes she could never resist. Even when they first met, his eyes captivated her, and they still did, even when he was leading her to her own execution... at his hands.

He never looked at her, never fixed her with that look, the one that took both her breath and any hope of conscious, rational thought away without so much as a by your leave. Why wouldn't he look at her? Was she really nothing to him, just a former means to an end? Then again, she should be thankful. As long as he shunned her, she could pretend she didn't love him still, pretend just that little bit longer. Maybe she could die pretending.

But in the back of her mind, in that little pocket of subconscious pondering no-one really paid any attention to, she notices that he never looked anywhere but straight ahead, amethyst eyes never wavering. And she wonders why.

The parade continues. The streets are lined with people, hundreds, thousands of people all watching him go past. Not a soul among them loved him. He was the Demon Emperor, the man who held the entire world hostage to his whims. Any one of them would have killed him, and all of them would worship his killer as a god. For it wouldn't be murder to kill Lelouch vi Britannia - oh no, it would be justice.

It's funny what you think of before you die, she thinks, as she notices what little security he has for a man surrounded by enemies. Why would that be strange? Nobody could challenge him anymore. He'd already taken care of that. He'd betrayed everyone and anyone he knew for that sort of power at least once. But she doesn't care about any of them. What hurts, what she had cried herself to sleep about every day of her incarceration, is that he'd betrayed her. Her! Of all the people in the world, he'd betrayed her. She should hate him, and a part of her did - hated him for being the one she loved, even now. Hated him for her inability to let him go. Hated him... for not loving her back.

The parade continues, and in that fragment of fractured thought that noticed everything, she adds the second irregularity, that odd lack of security for a man who seemingly valued his power and his life above everything else.

The parade stops. She turns her head, away from his too-beautiful, too-cruel face, wondering what could delay him from his task. And then her head whips back towards him, for in the distance stood Zero, masked man of miracles... and one of the alter egos of Lelouch vi Britannia. The very same Lelouch vi Britannia who sat almost indolently on his throne right in front of her. She wonders vaguely what the hell is going on, and can't quite quell the traitorous thoughts that hope nothing will happen to Lelouch.

Then Zero starts to move, and she knows it is not Lelouch under that mask, however much she hoped such an impossibility was true. Beside her, as her subconscious screams at her, the great General Todoh asks a question.

"Is that...?"

Before he can finish, she cuts across him, for she knows what the only answer can be. Who is Zero? Zero is not a man, he is an ideal. A belief. Zero is like being Japanese. And so she answers him.

"It's Zero. Zero."

But she knows the man who outruns Knightmares is not the real Zero, and so does Todoh. He is Suzaku Kururugi, the Demon Emperor's Knight of Zero... and he has been dead ever since that final, catastrophic battle for fate of the world.

And as he draws closer to Lelouch, too close to dodge the gunfire any longer, a voice shatters the staccato rhythm of bullets hitting empty air, and silence falls again.

"Stop! I will deal with this interloper myself!"

And with that, Jeremiah Gottwald, sometimes known as Orange, for that is the name of his loyalty, blurs towards Zero. Jeremiah was human once, but he is now a cyborg and no mere man can defeat him. But Zero is not merely a man, and so it should come to her as no surprise when he launches himself into the air, a foot pushing off Orange's shoulder, as if he is merely a path to his goal. And as Jeremiah falls to the ground, having failed his mistress for what could be the last time, she swears she can see him smile. And then it all clicks into place with a single thought.

'Is this what Suzaku and Lelouch had to do?'.

And as this Zero, this masked impostor, reaches the dais upon which the old Zero sits, the Demon finally, finally turns to look at her. He is smiling. And in that smile is everything she ever wanted... except a future. The sword pierces his heart, and she screams a howl of pure desolation, of soul-rending torment when she realizes she will never see those eyes, feel that smile, hear that voice or any of the thousand and one things that made him Lelouch... as she realizes the crushing depths of their respective betrayals.

She remembers half-heard words, things she dismissed as only what she wanted to hear. Wishful thinking, a mind corrupted by her love for a traitor. Snippets of conversation in hangers, on stairs, even in that brief, one-sided visit during her captivity, for she would not speak to him then, not ever again. But now she knows what he meant, when he'd told her "Kallen, I hope one day you'll understand why you never knew the truth.", before he'd turned and walked away.

She'd thought he was mocking her, since the only reason he hadn't said anything to her was because otherwise she'd have been able to stop him. It's only now she realizes just how right she was. Her mind shatters into a thousand 'what-ifs?', and she's not sure if it will ever repair itself. She hopes it doesn't, because at least this way she'll get some of the punishment she deserves.

As he falls, and as his queen's loss finally becomes apparent to her, a tear rolls down the cheek of a woman far, far away, for she knows the price he has to pay, and so she prays for him because no-one else will. She does not truly believe; after all, the closest she's ever come to Jesus has just been impaled on his very own sword. But no-one else will pray for the world's greatest hero, and so she must. And this, a certain golden-eyed, green-haired witch thinks, is a greater tragedy than any of Shakespeare's most famous works.

Her saviour topples to the ground, sliding past the flag of Britannia and coming to rest next to his sister, the very same sister he has had in chains since he seized her along with the rest of the world. He leaves a stain of blood that obscures this symbol of nationalism, and even as she screams, the captured queen wonders if this is intentional, wonders if he has planned even this.

His sister, his once blind, crippled sister gazes at him with her bright blue eyes. They well up with tears, for even though she knows he is a monster, he is her onii-sama and he cannot be dying. She takes his hand, and all at once her mind is overloaded by images, by flashes of insight. And then she realizes what he has done. He begins to speak, speak what will be his final words.

"I destroy worlds and create them..."

He trails off, almost out of strength. His face is a mask of peace. No, not a mask. He has worn so many of those in his life, but she can tell this is real. He is at peace. And with his final breath, he exhales one last word.

"...anew."

His sister screams, begs, pleads, but his eyes will not open again. It's almost as if his sight was traded for hers. Far above, held captive against her will, which screams at her to run to him, to hold him even though she knows he is gone and to touch her king one last time, Kallen can see the culmination of his journey. Even through her tears, she can see he has come full circle.

Everything began with his sister, and now his corpse lies beside her, the corpse that created the perfect world he'd always promised her. But his sister did not want a perfect world, not without him. He made her world perfect simply through existence, and now he'd sacrificed himself to create just another one of his lies. Because there could be no happiness, no true joy without him.

The Emperor's troops were retreating, running, doing everything they could to get away. Except for Orange. As the crowd called Zero's name, as he flourished the sword to flick the last few drops of blood like he was wiping away the tears that fell freely inside the mask, Lord Jeremiah did not run, for that was not the name of his loyalty. He returned to his master's side; the cyborg would not allow the unknown saviour's body to be defiled by those he had given his life to protect.

Finally, the queen was released from her captivity. No, captivity was the wrong word. She had not been removed from the board because she was too dangerous, no, she had been removed from the board because it was too dangerous for her. She'd noticed, towards the end, that whenever Lelouch played chess, even against himself, the queen had been sacrificed almost immediately. But after she was gone, each and every game had been a bloody, vicious affair, and too often the only pieces of note left were two knights and a king. She'd wondered why, back then, and the irrational part of her that craved his approval thought he was sending her a message. It was only now that she realized what that message was.

She runs to him, to the man she'd served with all her might, the man she'd thought she loved once, because to run to Lelouch could destroy everything he'd built to achieve. She ran to Zero, hating herself and hating him for making her choose between him and the world, even though she knew it was what he wanted.

Kallen would never be able to forgive Lelouch for leaving her, and she'd never be able to forgive Suzaku either. But she would always love him, and she would always serve Zero.

She watches his sister from the depths of her own despair, watches her very soul be torn into pieces by the actions of one man. Nunnally looks up, her azure gaze meeting Kallen's own sapphire blue.

There is no light in their bright blue eyes. For he is gone, and they no longer have any hope.

But in between his prisoners being freed, his substitute's never-ending adulation and the sheer misery of the two most important women in his life, nobody notices his fingers twitching slightly. Nobody except Lord Jeremiah Gottwald, the Knight of Orange.

Author's Note:

First things first, if you've read this and haven't done so already, listen to 'No Light, No Light' by Florence + the Machine. It fits the theme of this story perfectly.

This was originally written as a one-shot to satisfy both my inner romantic and to give myself some hope that Lelouch could still be alive (tell me, if I told you that after I finished that episode for the first time, the second thing I did was direct my intellect into determining what ways Lelouch could still be alive within canon and analysing the last moments of the scene to try and find evidence that he did indeed survive, what would you think of me?).

However, I have actually written another two chapters beyond this point, and I'm in the process of planning an actual storyline that will hopefully be interesting.

So, why haven't I posted the extra chapters, I hear you ask? Well, I don't know if they're any good since I haven't had anyone but myself look at them; I'm not all too happy with them anyway.

So, what I want to know, dear reader (assuming you exist, of course, since I don't know if anyone has or will read this. I could just be talking to myself. Don't worry though, that happens a lot. I'd say it's quite normal, but it's me we're talking about. I associate with normal much the same way Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres does with Ron Weasley. Unwillingly, and I'm not quite sure why it exists) is, based on what you've read thus far, whether I should continue this or give up whilst I possess some small remaining fraction of credibility.

So, to anyone who will bother to review this story, please tell me if I write and post more chapters, or move on to something new. An explanation as to why you made your decision, no matter how small, would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway, that's about it from me for now. Except to tell you that the first thing I did after I finished Code Geass was be ashamed that I wasn't crying.

Until next time, if indeed there is a next time,

Magery