Chapter 1: A Change in Will

The Father acts as the balancer of the Force, he who carries its will out. And recently, it's will has shifted, onto the Unknown Regions, onto Earth, onto a select group of people, starting with an exiled royal siblings who will come to play mjor roles in the times yet to come.

The Force. It was a power of nature that has long been studied through the countless millennia. It existed long before those who could wield it were but a concept in the minds of the fabric of reality, and it would continue to exist long after all life came to an eventual end, no matter how many more countless centamillennia it took.

And yet, despite all this time, the millions who spent decades, if not centuries, of their lives studying it, oh so few seemed to grasp what the Force was. For the old man, dressed in elegant and yet simple robes as he walked through a luscious and vast garden, he pondered these things.

It was true that the Force was divided into the Light and the Dark, but it also wasn't. It never was, and it never will be. For these were but two sides of the same coin, as natural as night and day. To each was their sovereign domain, one which the other held no dominion, yet held sway all the same. Because of this meaningless yet necessary difference, life split the Force into two faces.

For the Jedi, they bowed their heads in the Light and dedicated themselves to peace, compassion, and selfishness. To a Jedi, the Force was their ultimate master, friend, and ally. It was never to be used for themselves. Still, in the service of the galaxy, and to embody that, the Jedi cut themselves off from the galaxy they sought to protect, living separate lives with separate values to the common man. All to ensure that they couldn't be corrupted by temptations and sins that existed in everyday life.

To the Sith, the Force was their ultimate tool, weapon, and resource. They raised their heads in defiance of the dark and were fuelled by their anger, fear, hatred, and greed for all things. To those who called themselves Sith, the Force was their ultimate tool, weapon, and resource. It existed only to benefit them and allow them to pursue their goals regardless of how they affected others. True Sith lusted for complete domination over their peers, the galaxy, and life itself. They revelled in their corruption.

Two sides, two views, and despite all that each had learned, they had yet to grasp the full picture of the Force.

The Jedi were correct in believing that the Force had a will. Still, they were almost wilfully ignorant in their belief that it was a powerfor good and balance, as they understood it. To the Sith, they too were accurate in portraying the Force as just a means, wishing for destruction. Still, they ignored that the Force didn't only wish for change and destruction.

What the Force sought wasn't some Jedi ideal of balance or Sith notions of power.

These two sides, the Light and the Dark, were at war with one another, a falsehood as accurate as claiming that life was a constant battle with death. That white and black stood against one another.

What Light and Dark were, what his two children were, were the difference between an excess and an absence—two extremes of life, from the positive to the negative. Yet even this was not as simple as some would believe.

The Force was both good and evil. It was both the might of destiny and a proponent of free will, an arbiter of balance and an agent of chaos, the source of all creation and the progenitor of all destruction. It bonded all things together and yet could tear them apart on what could be called a cosmic whim.

There were so many things and contradictions, for that was life, that was existence. From the plants and the beasts, to the people, planets, and even stars, followed this. And then there was he, he who ensured the Force could continue as it always did, ensured that the galaxy never fell to one side, no matter what that felt, but for all his power, he was but a servant, in many ways, no more important than any one of the countless trillions who lived in this galaxy.

It had been long since darkness could truly rise its head, but the Light could never defeat it. It grew through rot, apathy, corruption, and hubris. Perhaps unfortunate, but this was the will of the Force.

But… recently, there has been a change in the will of the Force. He had seen it and the fates of those it wished to use, empower, imprison, and liberate. Gazing up towards the bright Light of the skies above, he let out a hum of thought.

“I wonder…if they will do what so many couldn’t, will they be the first, will they become the knowledgeable, we shall see…we shall see.”

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The afternoon sun was beautiful, the blazing ball of yellow turning shades of orange and red as it set beneath the horizon, colouring the landscape all sorts of shades. During the time they spent at the Kururugi shrine, they had the chance to experience it many times, and Lelouch always described it to his sister the best he could.

But he couldn't see it now when smoke braided low across the land, bloating nature's majesty with death and flames. War had come to Japan, and it had not been kind. Japan was a small nation in a world of Superpowers. It never aligned with any of them, played them off one another for its own gain, but its government had believed they had plans in place.

Despite its size, Japan had a large military focused on its air force and navy; its doctrine was simple. Ensure no invader could even make landfall, and should they do so, make it that supply by air or sea would prove as bloody as possible. Suzaku would often brag about it and show off pictures he had of their latest fighter jets, destroyers, and submarines. He spoke about how people like Tohdoh were not so rare that Japan had plenty of skilled commanders, commodores, and admirals who would see them safe should Britannia or China ever make a move.

When the invasion came, it wasn't through the news that the Japanese navy or air force intercepted the invasion force. There was no official declaration before hostilities began.

No, they realized the invasion had come when they spotted what seemed to be dozens of bombers flying deep into the Japanese heartland. Lelouch still had no clue how, but Japan's plans to keep the invaders out had failed. Early warning systems never sounded the alarm, patrols didn't radio any unusual sightings, and within the first hours, Britannia could catch its navy and air force by surprise, wiping out dozens of ships and hundreds of warplanes.

Perhaps his family would chalk it up to the Japanese being lazy, incompetent, so much lesser to them that they couldn’t even put up a proper fight. But Lelouch knew better. He didn’t have proof, but he knew in his heart that somehow, his father had gotten to those in charge of defence. The emperor had undermined Japan's greatest strength through bribes or assassinations to ensure his invasion would meet as little resistance as possible.

But he seemed to have kept the army intact, and the Japanese army fought like hell.

As his father must have wanted, it allowed him and Britannia to unveil their latest weapon of war, the Knightmare Frame.

Lelouch could still recall seeing his mother practice with the Ganymede; it was one of the few precious memories he still had of his time in Pendragon. But when he saw the latest model of Knightmare, he realized that in the little under 16 months they'd been gone, Britannia had drastically improved the design for its long-awaited invasion of Japan.

The result was that Japan’s ground defences buckled and shattered. Britannia took land at speeds that would make the Mongol horde jealous, leaving nothing but destruction in its way. He could see those scars in the land; he had seen them since they escaped the Kururugi shrine, even after they parted ways with Suzaku to try to make it to the newly established Tokyo settlement.

Knowing that major roads would be clogged with Japanese fleeing the invasion. Soldiers were rushing to try to catch the invaders, and Lelouch had made the choice early on that they would stick to backroads, service roads, and footpaths.

But even if they didn't see many people, they had seen plenty of corpses. Lelouch could still vividly recall the sight of a farm, what had to have been a small family-run operation that employed a couple of dozen. Its fields were already burned, bodies of the occupants littering those fields and roads, clear signs they had tried to flee, but failed.

The less said about the half-naked bodies of women, the better.

Soldiers did it…no, not soldiers, monsters, beasts in human skin. Cruel, vile, and wicked. Mindless pawns following the orders of the parasitic nobility and indulging in the most basic of urges while doing it. He hated it. He hated his father for refusing to seek justice and banishing them. He hated the nobility for their vices and egos. He hated Britannia for its excess and evil. He hated the world for being so twisted. He hated himself for being so weak that he couldn’t do anything but watch and hide like a scared rat.

He hated, hated, and hated more. Hated till it transcended mere hate and turned into something deeper, stronger, a flame which burned in his breast with the force of a star. In that new emotion, this primordial animosity, he had made his vow to Suzaku, and even if it cost him his life, he would see it done. He would destroy it all, slaughter every guilty party like the animals they were, and ensure Britannia could never rise again.

"Brother, will we get there in the evening?" Nunnally, precious Nunnally, one of the few things he still had that he did not hate, asked him. His sister was riding on his back, her eyes closed.

Lelouch could hate how he was grateful that her trauma left her blind; she did not need to see any of what he and Suzaku had seen, she didn't need to know the truth, which lay in ruins around them, left to rot in the summer sun.

“Afraid not, Nunnally. But I promise we’ll get there by tomorrow. We can ride the bus the rest of the way.” Lelouch was quick to reassure her.

Nunnally frowned. “Wouldn’t someone recognise us?” She didn't know everything, but knew enough that being spotted would be bad. Father had sent them to Japan because he was angry, and the brother never said whether he wasn't angry anymore.

"No, I've already made us some disguises. We'll just blend in with the rest of the Britannians moving in." Lelouch smiled, as it made the trip into a dead man's home all the more worthwhile. He had gone in to get food and water for them and found he had been one of those cosplayers and had all the stuff on hand. Lelouch had a couple of outfits and wigs to mask their appearance.

“What will happen then?” Nunnally’s follow-up hit him in the gut.

“I…I don’t know, but I’ll keep us safe, Nunna. Don’t worry about that.” He turned away from the conversation, adding with a mutter. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Nunnally's frown only grew, as she couldn't see his face. She couldn't see anything anymore, but she had gotten used to it, and even found ways to help with it; she couldn't explain it, but for weeks now, she could…sense him and others. She knew where they were in a room sometimes, could hear them even when they weren't there, but right now, it meant she could feel his emotions.

Brother was almost burning with anger. It seemed to flow from him and coat his body. She wondered if she opened her eyes, would she see it surrounding him? She didn't know, and she didn't want to. It was scary enough to just feel it. She didn't want to see her brother looking anything close to how their father did.

Lelouch moved with the growing practice of someone who moved only in shadows. His body was weak, but he could tough it out, holding his sister tightly while keeping his breathing soft and steady, just like Suzaku showed him.

Entering a forest, Lelouch wondered where they'd make camp for the night when, out of nowhere, he got an…urge—no, not an urge, but a feeling. He came to a stop, looking around as he wondered about the nature of the feeling.

“Brother?”

Lelouch shook his head. “It's nothing, Nunnally. Just my imagination." He assured her, but he found himself leaning towards this feeling and thus, with no reason against it, decided to follow it. They swapped their paths and entered another one that led deeper into the forest, away from where they'd find the bus stop.

It was fine; it would make hiding easier until they got there. He had pored over the maps of the area dozens of times, memorising all the landmarks. He could find their way out even if the path was longer than he thought.

But something felt…off. There was a tick in the back of his head as they moved. It would grow less intrusive when he followed and turned in new routes, but he had no clue why. He would even bother with this because he could still make out some landmarks and kept tabs on their speed and direction.

Eventually, they came to a cave that seemed unnaturally dark inside, as the setting sunlight didn't penetrate at all. It wouldn't be good, and they would need to make a fire when they went in, deep inside, to avoid being spotted, but-!

That feeling returned, stronger than before. A moment later, there was a snap as something or someone stepped on a twig.

“Don’t move,” Lelouch froze as Nunnally gasped, Lelouch turning around to spot not just a single soldier, but 20 of them. All wearing full gear, rifles raised. They were trapped. “We found some more Japs, boys.” One of them called out, Lelouch freaking out as he tried to figure out a way out of this before they got shot up.

"Tiny, aren't they?" another called out. They couldn't see his face, but Lelouch knew the man was sneering at them.

"All these Japs are tiny, an island of midgets, I tell you." Another laughed, joined by several others, though at no time did they lower their weapons. They had to know they were children, but they still looked ready to kill. In fact, why were they out this far? The last village was an hour's work in the other direction, and Britannia had already liquidated it and its inhabitants.

Wait…those feelings, he…was it some sort of early warning? Were they here…because of them?

‘A lot of good that did. I had an early warning, and I still couldn't escape them!' Lelouch berated himself, but he never once lowered his increasingly hateful gaze from the soldiers.

“Brother.” Nunnally whimpered.

Lelouch breathed, keeping his anger in check before speaking up. He spoke in clear English, making sure his Pendragon accent was clear. "We're not Japanese; we're Britannian."

"Oh, really, and why the hell would some Britannian brats be all the way out here?" The apparent captain of this group of soldiers didn’t believe it, or he wasn’t listening. Lelouch and Nunnally had clear Britannian features, and while they were a little dirty, it wasn’t enough to prevent them from seeing that.

It only fed into his suspicions of why they were really here.

“We got separated from our parents; we were going to the bus." Lelouch lied.

The captain snorted, lowering his gun but raising his hand instead, demanding something. “Then you wouldn’t mind handing over your ID.”

Lelouch’s blood ran cold. “What?”

“You heard me, boy. ID. Now.” The captain demanded something rare. Britannians carried their IDs but rarely used them; at least, royals or former royals like them didn't use them. But it was a worse situation, as even if he had wanted to give them to the soldier and pray it wouldn't blow up in their faces, he had gotten rid of them.

The captain seemed to grow irritated and was about to yell at them when one of his men made a sound of eureka.

“Captain, I recognise them, that’s the prince.” Nunnally held onto her brother tighter, Lelouch mistaking it for fear as the man outed them. Maybe she thought they would be safe and wouldn't be harmed now that they were the emperor's children.

Lelouch only saw it as another nail in their coffin, as if they had been chasing them down despite knowing they were Britannian. It meant they probably already knew their identities.

Perhaps one of their many half-siblings decided to clean out. They had never been liked back home, and their exile had to be celebrated as the emperor finally getting rid of the half-breeds.

“A prince?” the captain asked, listening to his soldier explain it. When the man finished, the captain sighed and looked at his men, all 20. "Well, I'll be dammed. I didn't think I'd run into you here."

Without a moment’s hesitation, he shot the man who identified the man in the face, several other shots followed as other members of the squad turned on each other, and shot up their surprised and unprepared fellow soldiers.

Nunnally screamed when she heard the gunfire. Lelouch held onto her tighter, but his face was painted in horror as he looked on at the bodies, 8 people, dead before they even realised it.

He hated them, these people…these were part of the problem, part of the empire he hated. So he shouldn’t care they died like dogs, that the worms would have their meals, but…not like this.

He wanted to be the one; he had to be the one who killed them, who killed as many Britannians as he possibly could. It was his right! But…more than that, a small part of him, a part he never would have listened to otherwise, wept at their fates, as even wild dogs could trust their pack…right? To be betrayed was an ugly thing he wouldn't wish upon even these bastards.

“What did you just do?” Lelouch whispered as the captain turned back to them, not even acknowledging the murders.

"Can't have any witnesses, " the man admitted. Lelouch finally got the final piece he needed as he looked at the man, something passing in his eyes.

“You…you people killed our mother.” He whispered, Nunnally’s hold tightening as her breathing picked up. Were…these really them? The same people who killed her mother? Who shot her? Who blinded her?

She reached out, but not with her hands, and could feel it. She could feel their presence, and she grew angry for reasons she could never understand as a child.

The captain didn't deny or agree to the statement as he and his men prepared. “You don’t need to know that. The dead don’t need info about anything.”

Time seemed to slow; Lelouch could feel his heartbeat pound in his ears, his body growing sweaty as fear spread through him. 'Is this it? First mother, and now we’re going to die? I…I wasn’t able to protect Nunnally? How useless can one person be?’

No. He stomped down on that fear and allowed fury to finish the job. His hold on his sister tightened, and that feeling in his head only seemed to grow: 'No, I refuse. I will not let them harm her. No one will ever hurt those I love ever again.'

Much like his sister, Lelouch would do something he couldn't explain even if he had noticed. Glaring at the man with all the hatred he could muster, all his convictions to protect his baby sister, the 12 soldiers all started to feel warm, unusually so. That heat seemed to draw pause as it pierced deeper into them, instilling an odd sense of dread in them.

Even the captain, who had been moments away from pulling the trigger, found he couldn't. His hand shook, and his hand started to sweat, but he didn't do it. He found he couldn't—not when this kid's gaze seemed like something out of hell.

“You killed mom…you killed mommy…” Nunnally started to cry, her anguish fuelling her brother's rage. This rage seemed to intensify the feeling of heat across the bodies of the soldiers, a few openly crying out in pain as they felt their fingers start to bleed profusely, as their flesh started to decay. One fell over, his knees decayed to the point that standing brought him immense pain.

But there was more to it. It wasn't just Nunnally's anguish and fear feeding into her brother, but her rage as well. A rage she had never truly felt, yet it was being cultivated by the shroad of anger around her brother. A bond between them created a self-maximising loop. “Why did you do it? Why did you hurt us?”

“Stop, please make it stop!” One of the soldiers started crying, wanting to rip his helmet off, wanting to get the weight off his rapidly decaying flesh and run, but his legs didn’t move.

The captain was getting the worst of it; one arm had already fallen limp, and pain was unlike anything he had ever felt racing through it from the tips of his fingers to his shoulder. His hand felt like someone had taken a bread knife to it and sliced over and over, all while a jagged, messy cut had salt poured into it. “Just kill them and be done with it-”

“I hate you!” With Nunnally's scream, an invisible wave of something slammed into them, not just knocking them over, but throwing them as if they had been struck by a wrecking ball, for many of the soldiers.

Many of them cried out in stunned shock and pain as the first impact cracked or broken bones, their cries were silenced as their bodies slammed against the boulders and trees like they had been launched from a catapult.

Only the captain was spared, and yet he didn't feel safe; he didn't feel lucky. He felt like he would get the worst fate for even as they heard the sounds of bodies snapping on impact, these two children, brats he had been assured would be easy kills, glared at him and him alone.

“What the hell was that?” he uttered, dimly away. His other arm fell limp, leaving him unable to fight.

Nunnally raised her head, revealing that her once closed eyes were open, and in them lay cracks. Her once pure, innocent violet seemed to glow, but through them both were cracks that carried a sick, terror-inducing shade of yellow. Her brother was much the same, the boy snarling like a wild beast as his sister condemned him. “You hurt us, you killed Mother, you're all bad. And bad people need to be punished."

Lelouch blinked, and at least, the captain felt his control over his body return, but when he tried to move, he uttered a single word. “Stay.”

"What?" The wounded, confused, and terrified captain hardly heard him, but again, he found he couldn't move, no matter how much he tried; it was like his body was locked in place.

“Stay, don’t run. You don’t get to run, not anymore.” Nunnally whispered, her soft words carrying such hatred to them. The yellow in her eyes glowed brighter as she used it again, sending a direct blast of Force to the man's gut. He should have been bent over, sent onto his face in the dirt.

But he wasn't; he remained in place. Lelouch held him in place as his sister hit him again, and again, and again. Each strike was stronger, coming in faster, striking him in more places. His torso was battered, each hit cracking and breaking bones. His arms, already useless, were shattered. One of whom nearly ripped from the socket.

All the while, he screamed. The captain screamed in agony and begged for mercy. But it didn't come. It would never come. Eventually, Nunnally's wrath got too careless, and when she fired off a blast, it blew a hole in the captain's head, taking off a chunk of it in the process.

It was only as they watched his bloody body slump that the two siblings released him, and as the body fell, so did they. Both left feeling exhausted, confused, angry, and alone.

Lelouch turned to his sister, wondering when and how she opened her eyes and why they looked so different. His sister wanted to ask him when his eyes got the cracks, only for a new voice to speak up. "So you've regained your sight? That's good." Calmly, an old man walked out of the cave, his presence unlike anything they had ever felt.

Unlike with the soldiers or most adults they had encountered, they didn't feel scared with him. But…they didn't feel safe either. It was as if the elder, with eyes that seemed to have seen countries rise and empires fall, sparked a completely balanced reaction in them.

The Father gazed into them and nodded. Kneeling, he offered them a helping hand. "Come, children, we have much to do, and little time to do it."

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At long last, we are here. I have produced another Star Wars x Code Geass crossover, and I'm a lot more confident in this one than the first. It got proper planning, editing, and rewrites to ensure the story wouldn't just be whatever I felt that particular day. Also, this one doesn't take place during the Old Republic. Still, rather than the commission wished, it's taking place in the Prequals timeline, so right at the end of the Galactic Republic period, which I appreciated, as it's easier to work with that timeline, as I know more about it, and getting info when I don't is also easier.

This chapter had a lot going on, and I would have cut things down, but I ultimately thought it would be best to present things as you'll see them. It had some challenges, but I managed them when I realized I was thinking too hard about this.

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Okay, so…that happened, though it wasn't as long as it could have been, as this was just a prologue. But I think this is the first time I've seen a Nunnally this pissed and/or cruel in a story, and I wrote it :). For the force abilities, I really played fast and loose with them and how they could be achieved. Lelouch and Nunnally demonstrated the most abilities for a reason: their bond, which manifested as a force bond.

Without realizing it, they were amplifying each other's abilities and emotions, which only increased those abilities further. Even before then, it was in effect, as it's why Nunnally gained some form of Form Awareness, and then her brother when he picked up that they were being tailed. As their interaction with the would-be assassins went, Lelouch's intense hatred, amplified by his sister's fear and hate, saw him using a weakened form of Deadly Glare. In contrast, Nunnally just used basic yet effective Force Telekinesis. Afterwards, both siblings, thoroughly lost in their fury, used Mind Control and…you saw what they did.