Story: Code Geass: Divide By

Just a rough draft for an idea I was toying with. Let me know what you think of it, and if you think it can be improved upon.



It hurt like hell when the sword piereced his chest, but Lelouch wanted nothing more than to laugh and laugh. He'd done it. All of the world hated him. Despised him. They would cheer at his death, and with his very last breath the world would be destroyed and reborn. Suzaku - sorry, Zero - pulled the sword out, and suddenly it seemed rather impossible to maintain his balance. He toppled down the stairs, barely feeling it as his lifeblood flowed out of him, leaving his body increasingly numb.

He had landed next to Nunnally, who appeared to feel every bit as numb as he even if for entirely different reasons. The spark of realisation dawned in her eyes, and he knew that she understood. So too would the Black Knights, now that they had seen it. Zero Requiem. Between them, led by a new Zero, the Black Knights would ensure the world would be at peace, be free, move forward into a bright tomorrow. A tomorrow without him.

"Lelouch, are you...?" tears formed in Nunnally's eyes as she choked the words out. " You mean... Everything you've done until now... Oh, big brother, I love you."

"Yes. I... I destroy the world and create it anew," Lelouch said, what he knew would be his final words. Life flashed before his eyes, so rapidly he could barely believe it. He didn't have the strength in him to go any further than this. His eyes felt heavy. Too heavy. And it was so cold, he didn't even feel numb any more. Was this death?

"You can't leave me!" Nunnally screamed, her voice in agony the last words he would hear. "You can't! Please open your eyes, big brother, please! Big brother!"

The darkness claimed him before he even knew it. Jeremiah would take care of the rest, while Zero escaped. The prisoners would be free, his troops - former troops would leave and he would be dead. Remembered as a monster, a demon, a tyrant to end all tyrants. How true that last description was! He oculd not hear. He could not feel. He could barely even think. Soon even that would be taken from him. His thoughts. His mind. The last remnants of existance would be torn from him and in that moment he would venture into that undiscovered country. What lay beyond death, if anything even did? For now it was merely a void, shy of anything. Even darkness and silence held no lease in this place. How long would it take before he was finally gone? Ah! But time meant little to him anymore. Without the beating of his heart, without his breathing and all those other little biological cues his sense of time was rather skewed at the moment. Was it an hour since the darkness took him or mere seconds? He could not say. All he could do was almost float in the nothing and wait for true oblivion.

Gunfire. Screams. Panic. Lelouch's eyes opened at the sudden intrustion to his eternity of nothing, and he took in a frightening scene that sent his blood cold. He saw soldiers gunning down civilians in cold blood. Knightmare frames wandering around picking off anyone that they could and then pursuing the rest with a ruthless diligence. What was happening? Was this... was this hell? It looked familiar, but from where? He unconsciously rubbed at his wound - and found it gone. No signs of injury. No blood, no scar, but there was a rather large hole in the front of his uniform.

What the hell was going on?!

"Well, look at this!" a rather nasty sounding voice said from behind him. "We've got some kid on his way to a party! Too bad for you, party's cancelled!"

"No, wait! Don't sho-"

The bullet struck him in the back of the head and passed out through his right eye. Lelouch collapsed to the ground, feeling the darkness taking him once again... Only to snap away at the last moment, leaving him with a splitting headache as he crawled to his feet and rubbing the back of his head. No blood. No sign of the soldiers. He was alive, and still in the middle of a warzone.

He had died and been reborn. Like a phoenix from the flames, springing back to life! Lelouch staggered through the buildings, confused and disoriented. He needed to find his bearings! Needed to figure out what the hell was going on. Why were these people killing civilians? Where was he? How did he get there? How did he survive being shot in the back of the head at point blank range?!

Lelouch allowed himself to slump against a wall, and started to really think about his situation. The soldiers hadn't recognised him even in his uniform. Come to think... the uniform would only serve to attract attention. He needed to wear something else, stay out of sight until he had a better handle on what was happening.

"I, Lelouch vi Britannia, command you...now all of you...die!

The voice echoed in his ears if not in reality. That was... him? It was followed by the sound of insane giggles and gunshots, prompting Lelouch to inch carefully over to a nearby window so he could see... So he could see himself and an apparently dead C.C. and a whole bunch of geassed into suicide soldiers. That was him! It was... It was him! This was not possible! How? How could this be?

This was enough to prompt his memory of the area. It couldn't be! Shinjuku Ghetto! He was in the past, at Shinjuku Ghetto! And there was his own past self, lost in wonder at the new power he had acquired with absolutely no knowledge of -

Ah. He didn't know, did he? The power that he wielded, the limitations of it, the other geass users he would likely encounter. Haha! Oh, but he could so easily march in there and tell himself everything. Warn him of the things to come and -

Just at that moment a knightmare crashed into the building, and a familiar voice ordered the past Lelouch around. As smooth as silk, he was able to appropriate the Knightmare with his new found  geass ability.

"Where the hell is my Knightmare?!" Villetta yelled, and there was something rather satisfying in seeing that. "You! Over there! Show yourself! I see you skulking in the shadows! Come out with your hands up!"

Well, damn. Maybe he shouldn't have been staring into the room like that. In an instant Villetta had picked up a gun and was pointing it in his general direction.

"I won't ask a second time."

In a swift, fluid motion he ripped the cloak from his back and wrapped it around his face. Lelouch knew that escaping her was not likely right now, especially given that the geass had already been used on her. Which raised interesting questions about whether he still had the power, and if journeying into the past somehow altered his limitations... But now was not the time to rely upon such mattesr. Nor was it the time to rely upon another thought that had occured to him that he had been ignoring. Too many unknowns playing with him at the moment. Too many variables that could play against him, and right now he was going to have to keep his identity hidden as long as possible.

His face suitably covered, he stepped around the corner with hands in the air. "Take off that mask, I want to see who I'm talking to."

"Wouldn't you rather learn more about the one who stole your Knightmare?"

"You saw him do it?"

Lelouch stepped forwards. Villetta's eyes narrowed. This had better work, or he'd be unleashing all manner of hell, upon both his current and past selves. "It might do well for you to take me to see Prince Clovis. I have... news that may interest him."

"I'm not that stupid! But I will take you in for questioning. I'll even let you keep that mask wrapped around your head until we get there."

He walked towards her with hand on the back of his head, with her little suspecting that Lelouch held no fear of death. Not after facing it twice in the same day. As he approached and she stepped aside to let him pass without wavering in her use of the gun for a single second, Lelouch knew he had to time it perfectly otherwise he might be finding out if his theory was correct the hard way... Which meant... A single step forward and then! Pretend to stumble, fall backwards, and -

She grabbed his arm mid-fall, spun him to the floor face down, and held the gun to the back of his head.

"Try not to be so clumsy again," Villetta said. "I'm not likely to be so nice a second tiiiii-"

It worked like a charm. He'd seen C.C. pull something like this on occassion, unleash the memories of an individual to torment them with but a touch. This confirmed his theory in a rather less painful way than the alternative: Not only was Lelouch in the past, but now... Now he was immortal! Villetta slumped towards the ground in a twitching heap, letting Lelouch easily slip out of the building. For now he would have to find a place to hide. Hide. Plan. And be damned careful about it. He had already destroyed the world to rebuild it once. If it had to be done a second time? So be it! Except! This time the Emperor, this time his father would not know what hit him.

"I am no longer Zero," he said to himself. "I am what remains when Zero is divided. I am Infinite, and I shall use this opportunity to repair the mistakes of the past!" This time there would be no Massacre Princess. This time, Shirley would live. This time, this time, this time... The potential was truly infinite! But he knew too well by now that only fools rushed in. Plans needed to be drawn. Allies. He needed allies. And he needed to think about what he knew now that he did not know then...

Left behind in the ruined building, among the dead soldiers was a scene that Infinite did not, could not be aware of. Villetta rose to her feet with ragged breath and wide eyes. She patted at her belly and muttered a single word before rising to her feet and storming out of the building with tears in her eyes.

"Ohgi..."