Chapter One
A Fallen Emperor
"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
-William Shakespeare, Hamlet
He thrashed, struggled. Where was the top? Which way was up? Down? Oh dear God... He was going to drown. The bubbled made it so hard to see- why were there so many?- as he tried to find the top. The surface. Air. He had to. He had to live. Oh, God, please let him live.
He opened his mouth to scream, the water flushed in and-
Lelouch vi Britannia opened his eyes, calmly staring at the ceiling. That dream, the drowning... What the hell was that supposed to mean? He'd had that dream since he'd come back from-
Oh God...
He stood up running to the mirror.
"That was just a dream..." He whispered to himself, "You didn't actually... Mom couldn't have..."
But looking at himself, he saw his two eyes, normally a kind lavender, encompassed with the glowing red power of Geass.
"Holy Christ..."
He'd been doing this every morning for the past three days he'd been back in Tokyo.
He caught his breath, grabbing his contacts off of his nightstand. He put them in, blinking as his eyes became used to them, once more their natural lavender.
He changed into his uniform, and went into the living room, where his constant companion, C2, was sprawled on the couch. A DVD of The Bachlorette TV show was stopped at it's Main Menu.
"Did you fall asleep watching this?" Lelouch asked as he turned the TV off.
C2 groaned, sitting up, "Perhaps I did." She grumbled, throwing her legs off of the couch, "But you don't even sleep very much anymore." She looked at him, seeming a bit worried, "You need to sleep, Lelouch. I know you have nightmares. We all do. But sleep is necessary." She looked at the wall beside her and mumbled, "I'll sleep in there with you if you want..."
Lelouch stared at her for a second, "Wha-? I- What're you-"
She smirked at him, "You have to go to school, now, Lelouch."
"What?"
Dong, dong, dong
"I'm late!"
He grabbed his bag and whipped out the door.
C2 smiled as he left, "That boy is such a moron."
...
Lelouch followed the herd of students going towards the auditorium, his blood humming in his ears. A sadistic, ludicrous excitement was filling his body. An assembly that not even the teachers knew about? Ooh, he knew what was happening.
They were going to declare Emperor Charles dead.
For several days, he'd been considered missing, but Lelouch knew the truth. At his own son's hands, Charles zi Britannia was dead.
The thought made Lelouch ecstatic.
He met eyes with Suzaku across the hall, who maneuvered around the flow of students to walk beside Lelouch.
"You think they're going to?" He whispered, continuing to look ahead as if they weren't even speaking.
"I hope so." Lelouch responded, doing the same, "Zero needs to make a grand reappearance."
Suzaku nodded, "If we do that, I'm supposed to be on sight."
"Yes."
"And shoot..." He looked back and forth nervously, "Shoot you?"
"Yes." Lelouch didn't look at him as he spoke, "You heard C2. As rare as it is, one can have Geass and Code at the same time. I'll live."
Suzaku nodded.
"However, you must let Zero make his speech. Make a show of having difficulty getting to him."
Suzaku nodded.
"Understood."
"Good. Now, let's go make a show of this."
...
Schnizel was there on the big screen, his face much to large for Lelouch's tastes.
"... And so," The First Prince of Britannia said solemnly- fake, of course. It was he who ordered the Emperor's execution- "it is with great sorrow that I announce that our Great Emperor, Charles zi Britannia... Is dead."
Instant uproar. Beside him, Lelouch felt Suzaku tense, and growl, "Zero. I know it was you."
He sounded so menacing, if the two of them weren't working together, Lelouch would have thought him to be prepared to kill.
"And so!" Schnizel's voice cut through the commotion, "The one who committed this horrific crime. Come forth, or we will pick through every settlement on this planet to find you. Is this understood?"
There was a loud, world-wide chorus of "Yes! My Lord!".
The only one who didn't say it was Lelouch, glowering at Schnizel.
It was you who asked Suzaku to kill him. Is it because the one you sent didn't do it? Did you not get any satisfaction from that? Well, you'll know full well who killed him, don't you worry, My Lord.
...
The student council room was silent.
The four people in the room said nothing.
"Wow..." Milly Ashford sighed, "I come back to be Headmistress and... And we find out the Emperor's been murdered."
Suzaku slammed his hand on the table.
"It was Zero!" He shouted, "It had to be!"
"Why do you say that?" Rivalz asked.
"He's the only one with enough man-power, and enough reason to try to annihilate the Emperor!"
"If I were the one who killed the Emperor," Lelouch said, "I would probably Japanese."
Suzaku stared at him, and so did the others, at the out-right use of the word.
"I mean," Lelouch looked up, "or a part of the European Union. They were the last to be over-run by Britannia, and therefor have every reason to try and rebel, as we saw with the Black Knights." He grabbed the King off of the chess board in front of him, "If I were Japanese, I'd have one of the biggest populations in one small space on hand. That's a lot of man power. I'd rile my fellow Japanese up, because if I were them, I wouldn't stand for the oppression, discrimination and racism that they get every day." He turned the King in his fingers, "And when I don't stand for something," He snapped the King in half, "I destroy it."
His friends were silent.
"But..." Rivalz laughed nervously, "You're not an Ele-" He cleared his throat, "I mean, you're not Japanese, s-so..."
"No." Lelouch looked up at him, "I'm not. Obviously."
Suzaku laughed nervously.
"Yeah, I mean, you're so white, vampires cower away in fear."
Milly snorted.
"Hey!" Lelouch stood up and started to chase Suzaku around the room, "Get back here!"
"If you can catch me, maybe I will!"
"Oh, you little-!"
The group laughed as Lelouch desperately tried to catch Suzaku.
...
Zero stood in front of the Black Knights, pacing back and forth.
"Uh..." Tamaki said nervously, "You gonna say anything, Boss?"
Zero simply kept pacing.
"Zero?" Kallen said nervously.
"Oh, just let him do that." A woman's voice said.
The group immediately turned, weapons drawn.
"Hold your fire!" Zero shouted, the group listening.
"Thank you." The owner of the voice, a woman with long, emerald green hair, said, "Usually when he paces, he's either debating whether to kill someone, or is incredibly nervous."
"Which one is it, Boss?" Tamaki asked.
"Both." Zero replied.
They didn't mock him for being nervous. After all, he was human. And it is in human nature to want to live, and he might not after speaking the truth of what he did.
"I'm going out there." He finally said, "I want you all to watch the perimeter of the building, some on the ground, some inside, and some in the air."
"Yes, sir!" The group chanted in union.
"Good."
"Long live Japan!" Ohgi shouted.
The group chanted the phrase back, and the plan was set into motion.
...
"Are we through?" Zero asked Ohgi through his earpiece.
"Just about, Boss... There!"
Zero stepped onto the roof's edge.
Immediately, there were screams. Some, of terror.
But so many were of hope.
"Britannia!" He shouted, knowing he was on every screen in the Empire, "I speak directly to you, and to Prince Schnizel. You say you wish to know who it was that killed Emperor Charles? Well, before you find out, let me tell the world something. Schnizel had issued an execution order for the Emperor long before he died."
"LIAR!" Suzaku's voice run through the shocked silence.
"Ah, Sir Kururugi, what ever do you mean?"
"I mean-" He struggled to get through the crowd, "You're a liar!"
"All men lie, Sir Kururugi. It is but human nature. However, I don't lie about this. Prince Schnizel issued an execution order. But..." He let that hang in the air for a second, watching Suzaku's well-trained face look terrified, "The one he sent did not complete the execution. For the one who killed Emperor Charles zi Britannia, was me!"
He watched as Suzaku broke through the crowd and ran into the building.
He made as though he was shocked, watching the door he knew Suzaku would not come out of.
"Well, Sir Kururugi!" He called, "If it is a battle you wish, then it is one you will get!"
"Zero, look out!"
But Tamaki's voice was too late as Suzaku's elbow crashed into the back of Zero's neck, and he tumbled forward, screaming in pain.
Suzaku put the gun to the back of Zero's neck.
"It is also but human nature to die."
...
I FINALLY THOUGHT OF A GOOD PLOT FOR A FANFIC FOR THIS SHOW HOLY SHIT
But yeah. I really like the thought of Lelouch gaining Code after killing his father, and I alternated the plot as you can see.
The name of the story is a play on a quote from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
"One may smile, and smile, and be a villain. "
―William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Because I'm really really into Shakespeare right now.
Anyways love the story. Love me.