az: I had never thought myself a very good storyteller. Heck, I kept coming up with a good story and end up breaking my heart all over on some really depressing scenes... till at some point made me feel hard to put it to writing. But thanks... for the reviews. I’d like more people to give opinions on my writing. I do not expect all praises... that’s silly and I do not want unrealistic-totally-unrelated-worshitness from people either. But I just needed to know whether or not people like reading my piece of the writing realm... and that, by receiving responses, made me a happy camper.

Con-crit isn’t a must. Just an honest review will do. And I hoped I could be given more brain to convert the scenes in my head to writing... because that’s... hard. I kept losing track. If there’s any mistakes... feel free to review and tell me. Because I’m my own beta and I might missed some. Anyway, thanks to all who reads... and/or review.

Oh yea... the chapter title was named that because... I have no idea what better title to put.

Disclaimer: Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch is copyrighted by Sunrise as well as character designs by CLAMP. I’m only borrowing the fandom for the sake of the fic and the love of it. Note: This fic will take place in a probable future and will be in an Alternate Ending/What-if scenario.

Shadow Sun

Chapter 2: At world’s end

By honou-no-izumi alias izzu alias Izumi Ishtar

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“Lelouch...?”

Huh?

“Lelouch... wake up, silly—”

He opened his eyes to find himself in a beautiful garden. Everything around him was strangely bright. And he totally had no recollection as to how he had arrived to this place.

“How long did you intend to sit there in a daze, Lulu?”

He gasped aloud as he turned around. A brotherly figure bowed down over him and pulled him up by the hand, forcing him to stand. He staggered as he felt a little light-headed. The man chuckled.

“That’s what you get for staying under the sun too long...”

He blinked.

His brother Clovis was grinning at him like silly.

He frowned. Something was wrong in this scene. But he could not place in his mind on what was wrong.

Someone was calling at them from afar. He turned his head towards the direction to find Euphie running towards them. Again he felt uneasy but he could not place it on what was wrong. A woman followed closely behind her as Lelouch gasped. He walked towards her in a daze as he held out his hand towards her...

xxx

“Mo—ther—”

The man who had kept the vigil by the bedside woke up startled. He glanced towards the unconscious lad as he saw a stray tear falling down his cheek. He shrugged as he caressed the lad’s face fondly. The man frowned as he felt warmth on his skin.

The lad’s fever had not gone down still. He was still burning up.

The man took out a soaked hand towel from the side table before folding it and placed it on the lad’s forehead. The lad started to mutter things again in his restless slumber. Beads of sweat kept trickling down from his forehead as the child started to moan in pain. The man sighed as he took the lad’s hand and kissed it softly.

“You’re safe... Lelouch. Calm yourself... I’m here.”

“I’m... not... dead...”

The man blinked in surprise as he heard the child’s voice. Without hesitation, he buried his face beside Lelouch's as he wrapped his hand around the child’s small frame.

“No. You’re not dead... Lulu. You’re alive.”

The man smiled again as he felt the child calming down before tightening his hold over the lad’s hand...

xxx

Don’t regret... after making that decision...

Suzaku gasped as he woke up from his nightmare. He sat up as he wrapped his arm around his legs. His thoughts wondered over the nightmare that he had. And ironically, it was neither about his father, Euphie nor was it of the deaths of almost every single member of the Kururugi household. It was about Lelouch.

In his dreams, the scenes of his previous encounters with Zero replayed again over and over. Every time he woke up suddenly from one nightmare and slept again, another scene replayed in his dreams. But unlike the actual incident that was replayed, every dream of his encounters and battle against Zero ended up with him defeating Zero and killing Lelouch. Every time in his nightmare, he would see Lelouch’s broken and lifeless body on the ground and his hands soaking with the blood of the eleventh prince. And like every time those nightmares haunted him, Suzaku would wake up drenched in sweat and crying for the loss of his former friend.

Suzaku had given thoughts about this, why he had been having these dreams even more than that of his late father or anyone else whose lives that he could not save. Could he... felt remorse and felt that he was obliged to mourn the said former prince of Britannia?

But he killed Euphie!

On normal situation, this could be well understood. Lelouch was after all... his best friend.

But Lelouch killed Euphie in cold blood!

Suzaku pulled a quilt around himself. Suddenly he felt... cold. Images of Lelouch, staring back at him in accusation for everything that he did and chose to do start to haunt him again. As if those cold stares of his could really pierce his heart for real and tore it open. No, that was wrong. His heart at the moment did felt torn and hurt as if a sharp knife had pierced into it. Regardless of his personal issues... regardless of his personal agenda, Lelouch was an important person in his life. Not saying that Euphie was not... nor the rest of the people he cared about, but that was still an undeniable fact. No hatred could ever possibly destroy that, no matter how great it is. He had said earlier that he had felt what intense hatred was and vowed to commit murder in the sky. Even then, that intense hatred could not fully overcome the sorrows that had still existed in his heart which what had prevented him to commit the act of murder that he had vowed to do.

He wondered... if that was the same thing that Lulu had felt. That time... despite the earlier outburst from him that made it seemed that he had finally snapped to insanity, Lelouch did appear full of remorse during that last moments that they had talked. As if he had carried the burden of the world on his back.

Suzaku laughed bitterly. “Damn you Lulu. Even in death... would you not let me be?” he muttered to himself.

His thoughts wandered towards the last dream he had that had jerked him awake earlier. It was about that incident when the whole academy had gone into frenzy because of Arthur the cat. In that dream, he and Lelouch had raced towards the bell tower and reaching the roof. But unlike what had actually happened in the past, in this dream... he could not catch Lelouch’s hand in time and he had fallen and broke his neck. In that dream... he had let Lelouch die.

That dream made him think. Had that had actually happened... would Euphie be alive still? The incident in Narita would not have happen and Shirley’s father’s life would not have been taken. As well as numerous other lives! But in return...

He knew what other lives would be lost instead. Come to think, had he failed saving Lulu’s life that time... he wouldn’t be able to stay there anymore as well. Things would have ended differently.

How fate can be so cruel. The more he think about everything that had happened up to this point as well as other consequences of it had it happened differently, the more that he felt... that things would have been better happen as it had been. The possible outcomes that he had thought of in his mind had turned even more frightening and worse than the original outcome.

But then... would that mean, that it was Euphie's fate to die so early? What kind of justification was that?

Suzaku sighed. Tonight would be another sleepless night again... after all.

xxx

She glanced outside as she remained at the balcony, watching her surroundings. It has been two days since the Tokyo coup detach happened at the city and she was surprised that this area received less impact from the incident. She wondered if it had been because the Order had proceeded to make their move further north and securing those territories as theirs while leaving the area near Ashford intact or the fact that The Brittanian fleet did a very good job protecting the area.

C.C sighed. Perhaps Kallen had convinced the Order to leave this place alone. Most of the people here were younglings after all and Kallen's friends were also here. Hmmm...

She heard the sliding door slide open as she turned around. She smiled.

Nunnally cocked her head towards her. “C.C... you’re here, right?”

“Yes I am... Nunnally.”

“Did you see Sayako? I can’t find her since yesterday.”

C.C frowned. The clubhouse had several other servants managing the place so she hadn’t notice much among them. But then again, yes... that Sayako person. She was the one taking care of Nunnally most of the time. Come to think about it, ever since she had returned to the clubhouse after putting Gawain hidden some place... she had not seen Sayako around. So did something happen?

“C.C, can you help me? Since Sayako wasn’t around—”

C.C blinked. “What do you want me to help?” she asked as Nunnally held out an origami crane. C.C cast the girl a puzzled look.

“Unh...”

“It’s a crane. Sayako told me before, that if one fold a thousand of these one can have their wish granted.”

C.C smiled again as she knelt beside the girl. “So... what is your wish, Nunnally?”

Nunnally shrugged.

“I... wished for a kind world, to exist. But... right now—”

“—you wished for Lelouch’s safety, aren’t you?”

Nunnally nodded. “I wanted brother... to be safe, and happy. Brother had always protected me and cared for me, to me... he’s the kindest person I ever knew. But ever since Mother... died, brother had never really seemed happy...”

“Hmm—? I thought he was happy... he had you, and the others in the student council—”, said C.C as Nunnally nodded.

“Yes he does but because of who we are... how we had to hide our real identities, there are times I felt that brother had always taken the entire burden into himself. I know that he had been happy, living here with me... with Milly, Shirley, Rivalz, Suzaku, Nina and everyone but when it was just between the both of us; he always... seems like he tried so hard to be strong for me. Sure, we had fun while spending time with each other, he would laugh with me—but other times, we’d talk about our past and on mother... and I’d noticed how brother had always kept his emotions bottled inside. It’s... not all right to keep everything bottled inside your heart, isn’t it? It hurts... especially if you face it all by yourself. But brother... he always there whenever I was depressed, yet he never allowed anyone to comfort him during his down moment. It made me feel... useless. I wanted to do something for him.”

“—and now, knowing that he was somewhere out there—knowing that anything might have happened to him—it pains my heart. If brother had died—”

C.C placed a hand on her head.

“He won’t. I think... Lelouch won’t let himself die so easily, he had you. Hadn’t he?”

Nunnally smiled. “You’re a kind person... C.C—”, said Nunnally as the C.C chuckled to herself. Her... kind? Perhaps. C.C stood as she started pushing Nunnally's wheel chair around towards the door.

“So, shall we go? Making the origami cranes... you’d teach me, won’t you Nunnally?”

Nunnally nodded excitedly as C.C followed the girl. She smiled in relief as the other girl strolled towards her room.

“You must have been proud... Marianne, to have such kind-hearted children—”, she mused by herself as Nunnally turned around towards her, puzzled. C.C smiled as she joined the girl towards her room...

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az: was listening to various angst-inducing tracks that includes Geass OSTs, Jigoku Shoujo OSTs as well as Linkin Park’s What I’ve done and other songs to get the inspiration running. I hope I didn’t disappoint anyone the way this plot is going... and the plots even goes as far as going further pass the intended ending in my head... oh dear. Even then... I’m not making a sequel out of this (crazy you) and concentrate in the other prequel Geass as well as other plans. Thanks if you enjoyed this piece. You made my day.

A short chapter. Because the third would probably explain the missing scene in this.