The Power of the King

It was cold. The air, while fresh, was notably thin. Also, his back hurt.

These were the first things that the boy noticed as his consciousness returned to him.

Looking around, the black-haired boy found nothing more than stone and sparse vegetation. No, there was also a nearby stream.

He was on a mountain. With his knowledge and observational skills, he only took a few seconds to arrive at that conclusion.

The next task to clear was to determine what particular mountain he was on. Briefly considering his options, he considered that many mountains have towns or settlements built at their bases. If this was such a mountain, he could analyze the architecture and style of the town to deduce what country he was in, at the very least. If no town was present, he would still be able to narrow down the list of potential mountains.

He briefly critiqued his plan and determined that it was satisfactory. For now at least.

Within thirty seconds of having regained consciousness, the boy had already formulated the first step of a greater plan, a plan to find out what the hell was going on.

Such is the mind of young Lelouch, who had now made his first move.

‘Where the hell am I?’

Out of all the thoughts running through the boy’s mind, that one was the loudest.

‘Throughout all of my military training, I have never seen vegetation like this. The larger plants, like the trees and vines, give the impression of somewhere in the South American continent. However, most of the underbrush is exactly what grows in the Britannian homeland. Furthermore, I haven’t even seen some of these plants before.’

‘On top of all of that, this place gives me a weird vibe. It’s like there’s some sort of faint presence. It sort of reminds me of… Kamine Island? I was too focused on keeping Kallen under supervision, so I never paid too much attention to it.’

That train of thought led his mind to how he got here in the first place.

‘Am I… am I dead? What happened in that… place… with the Emperor? Why did Lelouch fail? What happened to us, where did Lelouch go? If I’m dead, is he as well? But then, is C.C. dead as well? I thought she was immortal, like His Majesty.’

‘... This isn’t the time or place to overthink things. Right, the first thing I need to do is get to high ground and look for any signs of civilization. I need to find a hill, a large tree, or… a tree on a hill over there.’

And thus, Suzaku made his first move.

The girl was content to lay down on the roof of the building she had never seen.

“So that’s what happened. If his Geass were more powerful, he could have succeeded.”

A drop of water dripped from a gutter.

“Even still, he managed to throw quite a wrench into your plans. It’s amazing to see how strong it has become ever since that day.

Drip.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t wish to participate in your plans any more. The things that Lelouch said weren’t wrong.”

Drip.

“True. That man is more hardheaded than Lelouch, but only sometimes. I can see where he gets it from. I don’t know what you see in him.”

Drip.

“Please, before our connection fades, hear me out. If you both continue to follow this path, Lelouch will continue to oppose you. Your goals are against everything he believes in, and I agree with him. I’ve known how wrong your plans were since the very beginning. I never opposed you because the plan meant that my wish would be granted.”

Drip.

“Oh please, why do you always say things like that? I’m telling you, he and I are jus-”

…

“The connection has faded. I suppose I should go look for him before he gets into even more trouble.”

And thus, C.C. made her first move.

Working his way around the mountain, Lelouch looked around for civilization. He could see plenty of towns and cities in the distance, but they were too far away to make out the architecture.

His eyes eventually came to rest on a city not at the base of the mountain, but built directly onto the mountain.

Ignoring the uselessness of such a design, he analyzed the style.

It was like some sort of childish parody of Britannian architecture, much like one would find in a child’s picture book. There were spires built on top of towers, which themselves sometimes branched off of other towers.

He wondered what sort of skill it would take to make such a city stable. After all, it looked as if it would only take one earthquake or landslide to…

“It’s even more destructive than I’d anticipated. We did succeed in isolating Cornelia’s unit, but we could have been a bit more accurate. Perhaps I should have consulted a physics teacher or asked Nina to tutor me in probability.”

Snapping out of his flashback, he finally remembered how he arrived there in the first place and what he was doing before he regained consciousness.

He remembered the Emperor and his plan to create a permanent past.

And he was not happy. No, not in the least.

In fact, one could say that Lelouch Vi Britannia - Eleventh Prince of the Holy Britannian Empire - was pissed.