1 Chapter 1: The Origin of Charlemagne el Britannia

Everything written here is the truth, the truth about how I found myself in a new world, forced into a new life that I thought was over. This the story of how I found myself in the world I knew as Code Geass, where I met new people, made new friends, learned to love and discovered that this new life I found myself in was worth fighting for.

Many stories like to start at the beginning. However, mine starts at an end. That end being the day I died for the first time.

I can hardly remember because over the years I seemed to forget more and more of my past life every day.

Whether it's my brain gradually shutting down from years in a coma, or my current life was overwriting my past one.

What I do remember was that I died in a car accident, the cause of said accident was mainly myself, or rather my actions to save a little girl from running out into traffic.

Yeah, I saved the little girl who escaped without a scratch but I wasn't so lucky, and the truck and all eighteen of its wheels ran me over.

As I lay there taking my last breaths while the paramedics worked on me, I felt I had lived a good life.

While I hadn't done anything extraordinary or lived past twenty, I was strangely content that if I was going to die, at least, it was for something.

When I awoke after I expected many things but a very comfortable bed inside of a room that made five-star hotels look cheap.

The good news was I was alive and in perfect health, the bad news, I wasn't in my body.

Instead of my twenty-something body, I was used to, I was now a blond-haired blue-eyed teenager lying what appears to be my room.

I got up grabbed some clothes from the walk in closet and went to explore.

At the time, I thought I was dreaming. However, I felt totally aware, and this mansion seemed too real for all this to be a lucid dream.

Reaching what looked to be the dining room; I saw that the table in the center had a feast prepared for a king.

Sitting at the far end of the table reading a book was a tall, beautiful blonde haired woman in her early forties who merely smiled and told me to sit down and eat before the food got cold.

Seeing no harm in partaking of the stranger's hospitality, I did just that.

A few minutes later the women called out to someone else, looking in the direction she was looking I saw a familiar face.

By familiar I meant, I knew that face, but never expected to see it in person, or in real life.

Sure enough clear as day a tall, handsome young man walked into the room, he had corn-silk blond hair that fell to the back of his neck, with light purple eyes, and a gentle face that was smiling at the women warmly like a child to a parent.

I didn't need to hear the women say his name to know who this was.

It was Schneizel el Britannia 2nd prince of the Holy Britannian Empire.

The only problem with that was the only Schneizel I knew was a character in an anime.

But here was a younger looking version of him that closely resembled his age during the anime.

Still unsure of what was going on I merely pretended that breakfast was more important than conversation so I could learn more about what the hell is going on.

Schneizel and the women exchanged small talk and asked what she planned for the day.

It was strange though even if I knew Schneizel from the anime, it didn't explain this familiarity I had with him and the women he was talking with.

Then Schneizel asked how I was. I merely said I was fine which made him grin for some reason.

Ok don't freak out, don't freak out just stay calm and go with it. If it's a dream I'll just wake up, but this had to be one of the most realistic lucid dreams I've ever had.

He then went on to ask me how I was doing, I merely responded I was all right, as I decided that short brief answers were my best option at this point.

I decided short and brief answers were best here to let them do the talking so I could learn more.

Nodding and saying that he was glad, as he didn't have as much to spend time with family anymore.

And that it was nice to sit down and have a meal with his mother and brother

Wait, did he mean me?

The women who I now knew was Schneizel's mother went on to say that she felt it was wonderful to have the family back together and to see both of her sons.

My fork stopped halfway from my mouth, as I was stunned.

Apparently, I shared the same mother as Schneizel and was his younger brother.

I decided that I had enough shocking revelations for breakfast, and got up saying I was full while I fully intended to go back towards my room to figure this dream out.

My mother it seems had a sad look as she watched me get up to look while my brother shot a concerned look at my retreating form.

Once I made it back, I went back to the bed and laid down closing my eyes seeing if I could wake up from this dream.

Sadly all my attempts to break out of this dream proved to be ineffective, so I decided to search my room for clues.

I found books in the library written by authors I never heard about, a large wardrobe containing many princely outfits that looked to be a mix between old European nobility and traditional formal wear, but no clues as to how this is all possible.

Finding a computer in a study area, I decided to see if the Internet had the answers, or whatever they called their equivalent in this world.

Sure enough, it did, but it also gave me more questions.

I found out that everything pointed to the fact that I wasn't in my world or universe anymore.

Somehow I was starting to believe that everything was real around me, and I wasn't dreaming.

Thinking back, I could remember the accident and waking up here in a younger body, but anything else felt like a blur.

My first thoughts led me to believe that I was dropped into a new universe in a new body after I died as some form of reincarnation, or I was in a hyper-realistic coma and was stuck in a world of my delusion.

But part of me knew the last part was unlikely as I could still freshly remember my last moments before waking up here.

So if I'm going to be living in an anime I guess it could have been worse, I might as well make the most of it.

When I woke up the next day, I had woken up in the same place I had gone to sleep.

Though as strange as it may sound only further advanced the idea that I was living a new life in the world of Code Geass.

As exciting as that may sound my life was certainly not.

After spending most of the Sunday meeting my new family and searching for clues as to my predicament, I had responsibilities it seems in this new life.

As a thirteen-year-old prince, it seems I had apparently a pretty full schedule.

From various lessons involving everything from your school basics to military tactics, and politics.

I caught on to the curriculum pretty quick, but history proved to be tricky for me what with having learned an alternative history to the one I was currently trapped in.

I also had to go to meetings with close family allies with my mother whose name I learned was Corrine, and my name is Charlemagne el Britannia 4th prince of the Holy Britannia Empire.

Then meeting with the other families that made up the royalty of Britannia.

This meant getting dressed up for all these social events; fortunately, I had a butler named Colin to help with that and all the minor house stuff.

I still never understood half of the fashions that existed here from elegant dresses, elaborate robes, and so many capes.

However, Colin was an expert who knew just what I should wear for every event and saved me from future embarrassment multiple times from wearing the wrong robe and shoes to the wrong cape length for a day out.

My life at home was surprisingly ordinary.

Well as normal as it would get being a part of the royal family.

With the multiple guards, handlers, and security I was hardly alone outside of the palace or my home.

It took some getting used to being the center of attention whenever I went on a trip with my mother to various locations around the homeland.

Getting the prince treatment everywhere was nice but after a while felt fake and forced.

My mother was a warm and kind woman who seemed to care for her children very much and wanted the best for us.

My relationship with Schneizel however, was an unusual one.

He was constantly on the go meeting with people, working on getting a degree in school and pursuing his projects.

But when we did spend time together he seemed to care genuinely about what I was doing and had planned. It was strange to think that the man who would become one of the most dangerous and psychotic people in the world apparently loved his family. But I guess that could be said for most psychopaths in this story.

However, I took this with a grain of salt, as this could be the same Schneizel who wouldn't think twice to betray anyone in his way.

So I always had a feeling of caution when I was around him, worrying that if he found me in his way he may or may not get rid of me.

I knew he was just as charismatic as his anime counterpart as he could charm almost anyone but did this mean he was just as manipulative, cunning, and ruthless only time would tell.

My father, the emperor, was non-existent in my life, the only times I saw the old bastard was when he was at court or making a big speech, yelling about evolution, social Darwinism, and hailing Britannia.

Besides the fatherly neglect he also never seemed to give me the time or day even though I never saw him as my father, it still pissed me off that he never cared or didn't have any other expression other than looking pissed off.

Maybe that what he wanted, though, for his children to fight for his attention and prove themselves worthy to be emperor by achieving more just for their father to notice them.

But I wouldn't play his game I had already died and wasn't planning on dying due to trying to impress the old bastard, no I was going to live for myself and my happiness.

I was lying underneath of a tree in one of the many gardens that make up the surroundings of the house we lived at.

However, the house was more mansion than a house, and it was situated on a large estate that featured a picturesque landscape.

I was currently staring up at the clouds pondering the past few months since I arrived here.

It was certainly strange at first, but everyone I met seemed to know me from the past or this body's history.

But I didn't dwell on it. Instead, I got to learning more about my half siblings.

I was close to most of the principal members of the royal family from the anime.

Some of them were also in the same garden because my mother was hosting a party to celebrate the official start of spring if there was one thing that was different here from my old world was the sheer amount of parties we went to.

The nobles and royals seemed to have them almost every week for nearly every reason from garden parties to masquerades there was always somewhere to be.

That place to be today was my home, but most of the royal siblings kept to themselves as most were too young for court politics.

Looking around, I saw Cornelia standing guard ever watchful over her charges, Lelouch, who was currently engaged with Schneizel in a chess match which I assumed from his frustrated features he was losing, and Nunnally, who was playing with flowers with Euphemia. Clovis was somewhere painting landscapes or something, Guinevere and Odysseus were conversing with my mother, and the other guests discussing politics and court intrigue which to me felt like a waste of time.

Lying back down on the soft grass I thought about the huge family which I just recently got to meet and didn't bother to know most of them.

Odysseus, the crown prince and oldest sibling, he was a kind and caring brother who wished for all of us to be a kind and loving family, however, I knew that most would turn out to be bad apples. Which wasn't hard to believe even if you knew the future as our father wasn't exactly a saint. He was mostly an accepting and loving older brother who was nice to everyone and was not easy to anger. Whether that was because he was spineless or humble, I didn't know.

Guinevere, the first princess, was a prideful and vain woman who only wanted the best in life. She was a very selfish individual who was keen on buying the best things money could buy, and with her being a princess she did just that. I never was one for shopping and material possessions like she was, but we were courteous to each other, and she had would always try to dress her siblings up in her latest designs which I was the victim of on more than one occasion.

Cornelia was a strict older sister, who deep down was a kind and caring women to her family and close friends. She acted as an older sister to me whenever we were together when Schneizel was gone doing whatever businesses he does. She expected nothing but perfection in my life and let me know it if I was slacking off or slipping up. But nevertheless, she was a kind and caring person as well.

Euphemia was every bit of what I expected her to be like. She was so sweet I felt I would get sick from being too close to her, but she had the habit of sticking around and acting as the glue that held people together. She looked up at me in a weird older brother way like Cornelia was my older sister she was the younger one. So I was unofficially their middle brother. I don't know how many tea parties I was forced to attend because I couldn't say no to Euphemia and too scared to say no to Cornelia

Clovis and I were never really close, no matter how nice I was, or tried to get along he just seemed not to like me. From time to time, he would just glare at me in contempt for just existing. It also didn't help that we had nothing in common. He was self-absorbed, jealous of others, and easy to anger that didn't help my case as a glance at me seemed to set him off.

Nunnally at this point still had the function of her legs and her big eyes were still wide open and full of energy. She was a little spitfire who bugged me to play along with some of those tea parties that Euphemia threw. She was a child who loved everyone equally and new no pain or sorrow. Which made it hard for me to know that she lose so much in this next year.

Finally, the prodigal son himself the main character, everyone's favorite although he didn't know it, was a brat. To me at least, since my brother is one of the best chess players in the world I quickly lost interest in trying to learn and get to his level. But this did not deter Lelouch in an attempt to defeat me to add to his list of victories over his siblings. After I spurned every one of his requests he still insists on a game. But right now he is a momma's boy with a sister complex in the works from what I could tell. He was declared a genius at a young age and was destined to do great things; boy did they know how right they were. Still, we got along fairly well, but his nagging about the importance of chess in our lives got annoying after a while, so I avoided him altogether whenever possible.

I was genuinely surprised when I first met all these characters that I had almost forgotten that they were people as well. Or I'm a character, wait no. They are individuals who love, hope, dream and have goals for the future.

But why am I here then?

An apple knocked me out of my existential one responsible was a smirking Milly Ashford who had another apple ready in hand.

Milly and the Ashfords were part of the small exception of nobles that got invited to some of the better parties thanks to their reputation for throwing their own huge parties.

It was at one of these parties which I first met Milly as she was easily outrunning a fuming Lelouch over a prank.

After merely covering for her she reappeared in front of me drafting me into her service of pranking and mischief.

Thanks to Milly I could never say the days living in Pendragon would never be boring with her around.

As I went with her to plot our next prank part of me felt grateful to her for reaching out.

Ever since I got here, I felt like an outsider even though I was related to half the people around me.

Milly was one of the first people to get me out of my self-induced shell and start living again, one practical joke at a time.

As we ran from a fuming Lelouch over something about a missing chess piece or was it a plate, I knew that life here wasn't going to be so bad.

My life in Pendragon went on quietly, but after a while, I was thinking about what I would do for the future.

I had landed in nine years before the story even starts, so I had time to prepare.

The question was what do I do to prepare for a revolution, countless wars, and a conflict between superpowers to decide the fate of humanity.

I decided that my best course of action was to join the military and be at the center of things to come.

What I would do then I still didn't know.

So I went to the one person I knew who could teach me about such things, Cornelia.

To say she was surprised was an understatement but as a head of Empresses Marianne's royal guard, she told me she was too busy to train me herself.

Instead, she directed me to a man who mentored her a general Andreas Darlton.

The hulking general had just perfected new training regimen for prospective pilots that he used on his adoptive sons who would later become the Glaston Knights.

I was put through countless simulations, drills, and exercises both in knightmare simulators and outside of them.

The man was a demon drill sergeant, but I couldn't disagree with the results as I went from a total novice to being passively ok in just a few months.

This training would continue along with my studies, but Darlton made sure I was familiar with tactics, strategy, and planning.

I wasn't a genius when it came to strategy and planning, but what I did excel at was adapting to the changing circumstances of the battlefield.

I always went in and solved the problem myself, but I was quickly reprimanded for my stupidity as it has gotten me killed in many simulations.

During this time, I had also met another person who would impact my future though it was completely on accident at where else, a party.

It was at Ares's villa for some reason that didn't matter I was avoiding Milly because I was dead tired from Darlton's training, didn't have the energy to do one of her schemes.

I ran into someone, and I was quickly punched me knocking me on the ground flat on my back.

My attacker was a scowling Alya Alstreim, who would later become my personal knight, but right now she looked like she wanted to kill me.

She started yelling that I should apologize when I asked why because she was the one who punched me.

She pointed out a younger version of herself who was on the ground with tears in her eyes.

I had just run into Anya Alstreim and her over-protective older sister.

I quickly apologized to both of them which satisfied Alya while Anya said it was just an accident.

I learned that Anya was to be living at Ares's villa to learn from Lady Marianne.

While Alya was studying to go to West Point to become a knight, when I told her I was training to become a knightmare pilot as well she quickly challenged me but with no way to settle that problem she would wait until we could go to the academy to join the military.

The next day I learned that last night Empress Marianne was assassinated with Nunnally crippled by a terrorist attack.

However, I knew better, as no one would suspect a short blonde hair immortal midget of an uncle to come in with guns blazing.

What I noticed in the following days was that people forgot Anya like she had never existed, but I was the only one who could.

Not even her sister Alya was spared from the emperor's geass as he sought to protect his wife rather than the innocent little girl who he had just robbed of her free will in life.

I guess I had found another reason to hate my dad, and Marianne now as she is possessing little Anya to fend off death.

Eventually, a week later we were all gathered together in the throne room to watch Lelouch confront the emperor over his mother's death.

It went exactly as it did in the flashback part of the anime.

It boiled down to Lelouch whining about the obvious death of his mother and renouncing his claim to the throne like you'll keep that promise. To the emperor bullying his son in front of everyone to make him seem like the strong leader he was. So all in all an afternoon wasted as both Lelouch and Nunnally were sent off to Japan without even the chance to say goodbye to their family.

After the Vi Britannia's banishment, I continued to train under Darlton and met with much of my family to keep up.

Eventually, negotiations between Japan and the Empire broke down, and war broke out.

This lead to my lessons to be suspended for a few months during and following the war as General Darlton went with Cornelia to Japan to fight and look for Lelouch and Nunnally.

However, her search proved unsuccessful as the two were presumed lost in the chaos of the war.

During this time, I hung out with Alya and Milly as I was now their only friend that they had in Pendragon.

However Milly seemed to get depressed, I found out that her family was thinking of relocating to the newly established area eleven to escape the pressure of political and economic rivals taking advantage of them losing their support from the Vi Britannia family.

Although I knew next to nothing about the Ashford Foundation I quickly made a proposal to Milly's grandfather too but the majority in his company in exchange for funding his new education enterprise for a Britannian student studying overseas. The deal went through, and I became the Ceo of the Ashford Foundation. Through a little rebranding and relocating I established Anaheim Electronics to take over where the previous owner left off. With a little push in the right direction on projects to pursue, as I knew what kinds of knightmares and technology would become significant in the future.

Still, the last few weeks were nice to be with people who didn't see me like royalty, but as a friend.

Soon it was time for Milly and me to say goodbye, it was a tearful goodbye, and I wasn't sure that her parents would be able to pry the inconsolable girl off of me.

Even though she was leaving everything, she has ever known and leaving all her friends behind.

But I promised to keep in touch and to meet again in the future.

She made me swear every kind of way she knew and promised divine retribution if I forgot about her.

Although I think that would be impossible for me to forget someone like her.

I was going to see Cornelia ask her advice on how to be a better pilot and commander.

But I saw she was talking to an energetic woman in white who was calling her Nellie, a nickname that my sister seemed to hate but something about this person made her hold back.

Before I could speak up the woman wine colored hair spotted me out of the corner of her eyes.

She asked Nellie who this was, and Cornelia said I was her younger brother.

I asked my sister if she could give me some pointers on being a better pilot when the woman just came up to me and seemed to size me up then hugged bringing my face to her generous bust.

To say I she caught me off guard was an understatement, I blushed every shade of red while my shocked older sister merely looked on.

This strange woman then went on to say she'd help out such an adorable boy like me, and that she would be my older sister.

My actual older sister Cornelia seemed concerned, but she didn't argue and even said it was a great idea and opportunity to learn from a knight of the round.

I then realized the knight of nine Nonette Enneagram was hugging me to death, and just offered to mentor me.

I was grateful for the opportunity, but the look of relief and pity for me my sister was giving me had me concerned.

If the training from Darlton was hard, then Nonette's was hell.

The simulations seemed next to impossible; the physical demands were that of Special Forces, and she liked to have live Knightmare training which although utilized non-lethal weapons she still beat me handily.

Whenever she would be in Pendragon I would be her unofficially squire assisting her all manners of things from shopping to attending to her every whim and need.

Still I couldn't argue that her training was starting to show as the years went by I got better by leagues and bounds, even if I was her glorified servant.

However, it was during one of my live training sessions with Nonette that something strange happened.

I was doing ok holding my own, but I knew she was holding back considerably.

When she deployed a smoke grenade I lost sight of her, desperately trying to find her I felt that something was coming from behind me, so I spun around and parried a blow from the stun baton of her Sutherland.

I surprised the both of us as to how I could have dodged let alone parry her attack.

However, my small victory was short-lived as Nonette quickly countered a beat me yet again.

But she did compliment me afterward but said that we should increase the difficulty and intensity tomorrow.

I paled at that but thought back to what happened.

I didn't have any reason to do what I did; it was just instinct I guessed.

However, as the training went on I kept pulling off impossible maneuvers, while this meant Nonnette increased her ferocity I had to rely on my new sixth sense just to survive this women's wrath.

After a while, I theorized that my sixth sense was a type of pre-cognition that allowed me to detect and foresee enemy attacks when I fought.

Why and how this was, I didn't know as I focused on surviving the training from the Knight of nine.

Eventually, I turned 15 signaling two years since I arrived here in this world.

I was off to go to West Point for an individual officers program for knights, and prominent nobles, the same my sister went through.

My tearful mother was wailing about her little boy growing up so fast, Schneizel wished me luck; Euphemia was in tears about me leaving, Cornelia along with Darlton and Gilford gave me the advice to work hard, saw me off.

While Nonette much to my embarrassment, gave me another death hug saying she will wait for the day we will be reunited.

When Cornelia tried to get me out of the Knights clutches she just replied she was only doing her duty as my older sister, her reasoning got mixed reactions varying from amusement to multiple sighs as this was normal for Nonette as I had learned over our time together.

West Point much like the one from my world was where the best and brightest went to join the military being from royalty I didn't need to apply; I just needed to meet the entrance requirements. Which I did thanks to the training from Darlton and Nonette.

The time there was spent between practical learning the in and outs of the military, physical fitness, combat skills, piloting skills, and how to be an officer.

It wasn't all that different from what I was learning from before so I quickly became the head of my class.

Even though I was doing well, I found that making friends wasn't as easy as almost everyone was from other noble families who just wanted to get close to a prince or didn't want to get on my bad side.

So I spent the better part of my first year alone.

That didn't change until my second year when I met Alya Alstreim again. She remembered me from three years ago, but all memories of her little sister Anya were removed by my father.

She was also the top of her class and didn't try to make friends instead strived to be the very best.

Which I guess was part of the reason she came to me one day in my third year asking me to make her my knight of honor.

When I asked why she explained that she was the only one in the entire academy who could compete with me regarding skill in a knightmare, so why should anyone else be considered.

She wasn't wrong about being one of the best, and I had gotten along with her well enough up to this point, so I agreed.

However, as I didn't see it as a big deal making her my knight of honor got around to the others in the Academy and this raised the pressure on the both of us to work harder.

Eventually, I graduated in four years while Alya graduated in three due to her extreme efforts to close the gap between us.

Graduation was a grand affair in which most of my family and siblings attended minus the emperor who didn't care for the lives of his children anymore.

I had just edged out Alya for the top rank in the class.

After graduation, there was a party and a few weeks later was the official knighting ceremony for Alya to become my personal knight.

It was a modest affair with no crowd or spectacle just close family from both sides though it lacked my father as usual and Anya who was hiding away somewhere being a slave to Marianne's soul.

After five years of training, I was going to fight. I thought I was prepared for what that meant and ready to face the upcoming challenges, but I was wrong.

Little did I know that the events to come would change me, I learned that the horrors of war spared no man, and among the chaos of the battlefield, I would find my reason for living, as well as hope for a future in a world that currently had none.