Characters: Lelouch vi Britannia, Charles zi Britannia
Setting: Thought Elevator, mid-R2 Episode 19
The bullets never came.
One second, Lelouch vi Britannia stood frozen in betrayal, surrounded by the accusing glares and drawn weapons of the Black Knights—his own allies.
The next, the air shimmered.
The Thought Elevator activated.
He fell.
Through light. Through memories. Through pain.
He crashed onto solid marble, gasping. White pillars spiraled around him, and a crimson sky stretched beyond the horizon.
"Lelouch."
The voice that had once commanded an empire. Cold, absolute, imperial.
"Father..."
Charles zi Britannia descended the steps of the Thought Elevator like a god from the heavens, eyes glowing with knowledge and the will to reshape the world.
"You have been betrayed," Charles said flatly, looking down at Lelouch. "The world rejects you."
"Because of you!" Lelouch spat, rising. His fists clenched. "Because you let Mother die. Because you turned away. I created Zero because of you!"
"And they turned on you," Charles said. "As they would have turned on me. As they will turn on anyone who seeks to disrupt their fragile lies."
Lightning cracked across the sky. The world trembled.
Then, the space around them shifted.
The Thought Elevator showed them a vision.
The Vision: The World Without Charles's Gambit
Lelouch knelt alone in a throne room, clad in the robes of an Emperor. His eyes—golden with the power of a god—were tired.
Beside him stood Suzaku, masked as Zero, blade in hand.
"This is the world you would create," Charles muttered.
They watched Lelouch die at his best friend's hand.
They saw Nunnally cry out, realizing too late the truth of her brother's sacrifice.
They saw peace, born of martyrdom. And silence.
A silence that buried the truth forever.
Back in the Thought Elevator
Charles turned to Lelouch, who had watched the vision in stunned silence.
"That is what becomes of your path," Charles said. "A world that praises you only after your death. A lie to end lies."
"And your path leads to domination," Lelouch hissed, teeth bared. "To chains masked as unity."
"But together," Charles stepped closer, "we can create a world without lies and without sacrifice."
Lelouch's eyes widened.
"For once, my son, let us stand together—not as Emperor and rebel—but as family."
A long silence followed.
Then—Lelouch nodded.
"For Nunnally. For the world."
Epilogue
Lelouch vi Britannia never returned to the Black Knights.
Instead, whispers emerged of a new alliance: the Emperor and his prodigal son, both reborn through the Thought Elevator.
Together, they dismantled the power structures of the old world—not through death, but revelation.
The world did not need a Zero Requiem. It needed truth, delivered not by martyrdom, but by conviction.
And so, Charles's Gambit changed the fate of all.