A/N: I own nothing, especially any and all properties related to Code Geass

A/N 2: Shout out to users dw77, dripley77, Z98, and Slavok. Their works provided me with ideas on how to write this story, and in what direction to take it.

A/N 3: Any and all criticisms are welcome. I'm starting out, so this will help out with future installments/stories.

The Demon's Resurrection and the Queen's Promotion

Prologue: Danger and Play

Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just living in my head – Coldplay

In my beginning is my end – T.S. Eliot

The Geass Master wandered around the Sword of Akasha and wondered what might've been had Ragnarok succeeded. Charles zi Britannia would have certainly got his wish; the entire human consciousness would have melded together into one collective. But he agreed with Charles' son Lelouch: it would have been a stagnant world. And to the Geass Master, a stagnant world would have been a boring one, something that would have been unacceptable.

Continuing his stroll around the extra-dimensional space that he had lived in so long, the Geass Master was glad that he decided to arrange for Lelouch to receive his Geass. He had introduced Geass into the mortal realm many centuries ago, back when he could remember his actual name. But no one, in all those years, had used to such spectacular effect as Lelouch Lamprouge. The Geass Master had chosen the young man for this power so that he could oppose his parents and Ragnarok; he did not expect to be so entertained by Lelouch's choices with his powers. First with the Black Rebellion, then with Zero's "resurrection", followed by his sabotage of Ragnarok and capped off by the Zero Requiem; all this had provided the Geass Master with an unrivaled source of entertainment. But now that the Zero Requiem had come to its end, he felt disappointed with the outcome. It's never a pleasant end to a story with the hero dying, and the number of bodies it had taken to reach that conclusion was a bit too high, even for the Geass Master's taste. He also felt that Lelouch had gotten a somewhat bad deal out of the affair: the "Demon Emperor" was a nice kid at heart, and it was a shame that he would be remembered as a monster for eternity. The Geass Master felt he should do something for him, as both a gift of gratitude and a gift of consolation.

These thoughts, the entertainment wrought from Lelouch's Geass, the dis satisfactory ending, his gift for Lelouch, swirled around the Geass Master's brain as he tried to make up his mind. Then it came to him a flash of inspiration: He could send Lelouch back in time and see if prior knowledge of events could lead to a better outcome. But this idea was quickly dismissed. The Geass Master had done this before, and he had gotten mixed results: Some had achieved better outcomes, but others had either gotten the same results or somehow had performed worse. In any case, the idea had been done before, and the Geass Master wanted to try something new. He toyed with a few other ideas for a few minutes, but nothing seemed to appeal to him. Suddenly, he had an original idea, one he hadn't done before: Send two people back, each with the same goal, but unaware of each other and their similar circumstances. The Geass Master smiled, delighted with the scenario he had devised. He suddenly felt the presence of the gods, who were worried that his plan would expose them to the risk of Ragnarok succeeding this time. The Geass Master brushed offed their concerns. Where was the fun in any of this if there wasn't any risk involved? Besides, if his faith in the two he had chosen turned out to be misplaced, there were preventive measures that could be enacted to thwart Ragnarok's completion. With the concerns of the gods addressed, the Geass Master went to enact his scenario. This was the most interesting idea that he had had in years, and he was not going to waste any time seeing what would happen.

a/n: That covers the setup. The story proper begins with the next chapter. Sorry if the Geass Master seems a bit vague now, I'll flesh him out in a later chapter