paradisalost | (no subject)

Who: C.C. and Lelouch
What: Now that the two have settled in, they reunite face-to-face.
When: Early afternoon, 10/9
Where: Room 707
Rating: PG-13 at most, there's bound to be some angst.

As strange as it may be, Lelouch had come to accept that yes, he was alive. He was sure that many of the people from back home would find this situation unfair. Not only was he alive again, but he didn't have to pay the consequences of his actions. Potentially only two people knew who he was and what he had done. It disturbed him that he had been here before, made connection, and couldn't remember any of this. Apparently he was like a son to someone. Would he have confided in that person? He needed to find out.

But before all of that, there was something else he needed to do. One of the two people who knew the truth about him seemed to be bound to him by fate. The two of them showed up at the exact same time, from the exact same time line. Though something seemed a little off about C.C. It was most likely shock from seeing him alive again, but he wasn't sure if that was it. Then again, he didn't feel entirely like himself. It was like little fragments of himself had been shaken all around him during his death and subsequent resurrection here. His mind continued to think at a mile a minute until he arrived at her room. Unlike with the others, there wasn't any hesitation. He knocked on the door and then took a step backwards.

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C.C. had resumed her usual habits almost right away. After all, why wouldn't she? A strange new place with strange new faces... There was nothing out of the ordinary about that to her. Over one hundred years had allowed her to see places even stranger than this one. Well, almost. So she was not alarmed nor even worried. This was just yet another bizarre chapter in her miserable, unending life.

The only variable, however, was Lelouch. Like most of the other people she knew he should've been dead. But he wasn't. Through some bizarre power this castle had brought him back to life and now he was one again her responsibility. Accomplish, partner... No, he was just another face to.

Sprawled out on her bed in her white undergarments she heard the knocking and knew it was him. "It's open."

If it was anyone else, he would have walked straight out the door as soon as he saw them in their undergarments. But with C.C., this was pretty much run of the mill between the two of them. As he walked in, he took a look around the room, and then focused his gaze on her.

"I see you're settling in rather well, which is to be expected." She was endless, she had already witnessed so many changes in the world they were from. What was one more? He took a seat on the ledge of the bed and closed his eyes over. While he was happy to see her, being around her often had a calming effect on him. After everything that had happened, other than Suzaku, she was the only one he felt he could be completely honest with. And even with Suzaku, there were secrets he held from him.

"I wonder what the purpose in us being here is. I'd like to think there is one, but at the same time I realize that this could be nothing more than a way for the castle to entertain itself."

C.C. rolled onto her back and stared absently at the ceiling, arms folded over her flat stomach. "The people I spoke to seemed to think it was the latter."

Actually no one had really given her any real answers. Then again she hadn't exactly asked. It didn't matter to her either way but she knew Lelouch would search every square inch for them. She would help as needed though it felt more out of obligation now.

"Did you know you can ask the castle for anything you want?" C.C. said absently. "Maybe Kallen wished you here."

Although her tone was almost dead serious it was quite clearly a joke.

"Perhaps. Though if it worked that way, if the majority of other people from our world show up here, I'll be dead on the spot." A wry smirk crossed his lips. Only a handful of people understood why he did what he did. The rest of the world rejoiced in his death.

"I don't trust the gifts the castle gives us. Nothing is ever free, there's likely to be a cost behind everything that it gives us." It wouldn't surprise him if the castle tallied the number of requests a person made. Then when one of the chaotic events that he had been informed of took place, the more requests the person made, the more chaotic the event was for them.

C.C. smiled wryly. Right he was. If anyone else from the Black Knights or Britannia showed up there would be trouble. She had to wonder, though, what would happen if someone died within the castle walls. If the castle could bring the dead to life then maybe everyone had been given the immortality curse.

She tilted her head back to peer at him upside down. "I don't know," C.C. said with a small shrug. "Someone mentioned something about a price upon entering the castle. It takes something away from you."

"Apparently everyone loses something upon arriving here. Most often it's a person, but it can be other things." He still wasn't sure what he had lost. "My Geass still works properly or so it seems. I used it on someone in the town by near by."

He was still gauging how effective it was. Like back at the academy when he had given one of the students the task to make a mark on the wall, he had done something similar with someone in the town. He planned to check up on them again in a couple of days. "It doesn't feel like there are any holes in my memories, if someone was missing in my memory, other things wouldn't add up. So, it's likely a skill of some sort."

C.C. looked thoughtful. In that case she hadn't lost a memory either, assuming what Lelouch theorized was correct. Her memories added up just fine.

"A skill but not your Geass. The most obvious thing to take would be your Geass. Technically you shouldn't even have it anymore anyway."

Because he was technically dead. Even having him sit right there talking to her hadn't quite convinced C.C. we really was alive.

"I guess we'll figure out what you've lost in time," C.C. said after a moment of silence. "I wonder if you can get it back."

"Perhaps the castle did not want to work with the most obvious, rather it wanted to take something from me that will be more of a unique challenge."

If he had lost him, he wouldn't have considered it much of a loss. The reason he accepted the contract was to change the world he had lived in. He needed the power to make a more immediate and powerful difference. Without it, it might have taken years, even a lifetime to turn Nunnally's peaceful world into a reality.

Now that he had fulfilled Zero Requiem and shed so much blood in the process, there wasn't very much he desired or deserved. He had no plans to abuse his Geass, if he used it, it would likely be to protect those he cared about who were here or gather information on escaping from this place.

"I can't see the castle willingly giving us back what we lost, unless it grows bored and might do so temporarily. Let people have a taste of being complete, then take away a piece of them again."

C.C. finally rolled over and sat up, long hair spilling over her shoulder as she sat back to back to him. Though her back did not touch his. She wondered if the castle was really that picky. Did it choose or did it simply take the first thing it could grab onto? To be honest she wished there was some way to find out what it was without hopeless trial and error.

"How cruel. You're probably right." What would the point of losing it be if they could just get it back? Maybe she had lost her immortality. Maybe she could finally die. But no, if the castle brought the dead back than she was immortal either way.

She glanced over her shoulder at him. "Then should we test all your known skill sets and see what doesn't add up?"

Lelouch looked over his shoulder at her for a moment, as a sense of de ja vu came over him. The last time the two of them had been sitting like this, he was mentally preparing himself for what was to come. Now they both had to prepare themselves for a whole new world. He looked forward again and leaned back a little, lightly resting his back against her own.

"Unfortunately, that seems like the most effective solution for the time being. If my memories were not taken from me, it's most likely a skill. I suspect it's nothing physical."

He smirked lightly. If the castle had taken a physical ability away from him, well, he probably wouldn't even notice. He was already pretty terrible at most activities, though he was somehow able to carry both Nunnally and C.C. around in his arms without much strain. Go figure.

C.C. glanced over her shoulder when his weight rest against his back. She looked at him uncertainly but the expression is gone just as quickly as it appeared. She looked away again, thoughtful.

"Heh. If it's something physical you aren't missing anything important," She replied, almost like she read his mind.

The castle seemed to pick and choose at random. The most important skill you hadn't wasn't necessarily what was lost, or so Arthas had told her. Still... Lelouch had a lot of useful mental skills. This might take awhile if they had to go through them all.

"What's your most important skill?" She pondered.