The sleek black car wound its way through the mountain roads, leaving the Gothic spires and perpetual smog of Gotham far behind.
Lelouch gazed out the passenger window, watching as urban sprawl gave way to dense forests and rugged terrain.
"Where exactly are we going?" he asked, glancing at Goku, who drove with relaxed confidence despite the narrow, winding road.
"Somewhere special," Goku replied with a small smile. "Somewhere I found during one of my... explorations."
Lelouch raised an eyebrow. "These 'explorations' of yours seem to take you to increasingly remote locations."
Goku chuckled. "The best places usually aren't easy to reach."
They had been driving for nearly two hours, having left Gotham shortly after breakfast. Goku had appeared in Lelouch's doorway that morning with a simple invitation: "I'd like to show you something. Just the two of us."
The request had been unexpected but not unwelcome.
Since regaining his memories, and the Scarecrow incident, Lelouch had been consumed with his nation-building project, spending most of his time researching and planning. A day away from his computers might provide fresh perspective.
The road narrowed further as they climbed higher into the mountains, eventually becoming little more than a dirt track. When it finally ended at a small clearing, Goku parked the car and turned to Lelouch.
"We'll need to go the rest of the way by... alternative means," he said, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
Lelouch looked around at the dense forest surrounding them. "I didn't bring hiking boots."
"We won't be hiking," Goku assured him, stepping out of the car. "Come on."
Curious despite himself, Lelouch followed. The air was crisp and clean, so different from Gotham's perpetual haze. Birds called from the treetops, and somewhere in the distance, a stream burbled over rocks.
Goku stood in the center of the clearing, looking up at the sky thoughtfully. "It would be faster if we flew directly, but I think the journey is part of the experience." He turned to Lelouch with a grin. "Besides, I want to show you something along the way."
Before Lelouch could question this cryptic statement, Goku placed one hand on the car and the other on Lelouch's shoulder. A strange sensation washed over him, like being enveloped in warm light.
"What are you-" Lelouch began, but his words caught in his throat as he felt his feet leave the ground.
The car, with Goku and Lelouch alongside it, rose steadily into the air. Trees shrank beneath them as they ascended, the forest canopy becoming a green carpet stretching in all directions.
"Is this - are we-" Lelouch struggled to form coherent questions as they continued to rise, the car still perfectly level beneath Goku's palm.
"Flying? Yes," Goku confirmed casually, as if levitating vehicles was an everyday occurrence. "Don't worry, the car is perfectly secure. I'm maintaining a Ki field around all of us."
Lelouch had witnessed Goku's extraordinary abilities before, but this casual display of power - lifting a two-ton vehicle with apparently no effort - still managed to astonish him. Especially the control it would take since he's heard from Mark about their little adventure in space.
As they ascended higher, the landscape spread out below them in breathtaking panorama. Mountains rolled away in all directions, their slopes covered in ancient forests.
Rivers cut silver paths through valleys, and in the far distance, the hazy outline of Gotham was just visible.
"This is what I wanted you to see," Goku said softly. "Perspective."
Lelouch understood immediately. From this height, human constructs - even a city as imposing as Gotham - seemed small and temporary against the vastness of the natural world.
"It's beautiful," he admitted, his analytical mind momentarily quieted by the sheer majesty of the view.
Goku nodded, pleased by the response. "Now for our actual destination."
They began moving forward, still carrying the car with them. Lelouch found himself gripping Goku's arm as they accelerated, though the ride remained surprisingly smooth.
"You can open your eyes," Goku said with gentle amusement. "I promise not to drop you."
Lelouch hadn't even realized he'd closed them. He forced his eyes open, determined not to show fear. The landscape below was changing rapidly as they flew over mountain ranges and forests, each more spectacular than the last.
After what seemed like both an eternity and no time at all, they began to descend toward a mountain peak unlike any Lelouch had ever seen. It rose in isolation from the surrounding ranges, its summit flattened into a perfect circular plateau.
As they drew closer, Lelouch could see that the plateau was actually a crater, its edges rimmed with strange crystalline formations that caught the sunlight and fractured it into rainbows.
Goku set the car down gently on a flat area just outside the crater's edge. "We walk from here," he said, his voice carrying a reverence Lelouch rarely heard from him.
They approached the crater's rim in silence. When they reached the edge, Lelouch stopped, momentarily stunned by what lay before him.
The crater contained a perfect circular lake of the deepest blue he had ever seen. The water was so still it mirrored the sky above like a flawless sapphire.
Around the lake's edge grew flowers unlike any on Earth - blossoms with translucent petals that seemed to shift colors as they moved in the gentle breeze.
"What is this place?" Lelouch whispered, afraid to break the perfect stillness.
"A reminder," Goku replied, his voice equally soft. "Of what exists beyond our everyday concerns."
He led Lelouch down a narrow path to the lake's edge, where a flat rock formation created a natural seating area overlooking the water.
"This mountain was formed by a meteor impact millions of years ago," Goku explained as they sat. "The crystalline structures are alien in origin - fragments of the meteor that survived entry. The flowers evolved to draw nutrients from the unusual mineral composition."
Lelouch studied the otherworldly blossoms with new appreciation. "How did you find this place?"
"I sensed it," Goku said simply. "Certain places have... resonance. Energy signatures that stand out if you know how to feel for them."
They sat in comfortable silence for a while, watching as the sun climbed higher in the sky, casting ever-changing patterns of light across the lake's surface.
"You didn't bring me here just to show me a pretty view," Lelouch said finally. It wasn't a question.
Goku smiled slightly. "No. Though I did think you might appreciate the beauty." He turned to face Lelouch directly. "I wanted to talk about your plans. Your vision for this new nation."
Lelouch nodded, unsurprised. Of course Goku would have noticed his intense focus on the project. "And what do you think of them?"
"I think they're ambitious, well-reasoned, and coming from a place of genuine desire to improve the world," Goku replied thoughtfully. "I also think they're shaped by your past experiences in ways you might not fully recognize."
The reference to his previous life was oblique enough to navigate around the compulsion that still prevented direct discussion, but clear in its meaning.
"Perhaps," Lelouch acknowledged. "But isn't that true for all of us? We're shaped by what we've lived through, what we've learned."
"Indeed," Goku agreed. "The question is whether we're being guided by those experiences or controlled by them."
Lelouch considered this, looking out over the perfect stillness of the lake. "I believe my goals are sound," he said finally. "This world's systems of justice are fundamentally broken.
The same criminals terrorize innocent people repeatedly because the consequences are inadequate.
Resources are distributed inequitably. Power corrupts because it lacks proper checks and balances."
"And you believe you could do better?" Goku's tone held no judgment, only genuine curiosity.
"Not alone," Lelouch clarified. "But with the right framework, the right people, yes. I believe a better system is possible."
Goku nodded slowly. "I don't disagree. But I wonder about your methods."
"You're concerned about the potential for violence," Lelouch guessed. "About whether I'm simply repeating patterns from my past."
"I'm concerned about you," Goku corrected gently. "About whether this path will bring you peace or just new forms of conflict."
The statement caught Lelouch off guard. He had expected questions about ethics, about practical considerations. Not this personal concern for his well-being.
"Peace was never my primary goal," he admitted. "Justice was. Is."
"And what if achieving justice requires sacrifice?" Goku asked. "Are you prepared for that cost again?"
The question hit close to home, referencing Lelouch's final sacrifice in his previous life without directly naming it.
"If necessary," Lelouch said firmly. "Though I would prefer to find another way this time."
Goku studied him for a long moment, his eyes reflecting wisdom far beyond his apparent years. "I believe you would," he said finally.
"You've learned from your experiences. That's why I'm not opposing your plans, merely questioning them."
Lelouch felt a surprising rush of gratitude at this statement.
The fact that Goku was taking his ambitions seriously, treating them as worthy of consideration rather than dismissing them as the grandiose dreams of a teenager, meant more than he had expected.
"May I ask you something in return?" Lelouch said, seizing the moment of openness.
Goku gestured for him to continue.
"Why don't you act?" Lelouch asked, the question that had been building in his mind for weeks finally finding voice. "With your power - and I've seen only glimpses of its true extent - you could change everything. End wars. Eliminate hunger. Restructure entire societies.
You could rule this world, or all worlds, and make them better places. Yet you choose to live as an ordinary student, raising three teenagers in Gotham. Why?"
He paused, then added more specifically: "Is it because of some cosmic law that binds you? Or is it your choice?"
Goku was silent for a long moment, his gaze fixed on the distant horizon. When he finally spoke, his voice carried that formal cadence that emerged when he discussed profound matters.
"It is my choice," he said simply. "One made with full awareness of the alternatives."
"But why?" Lelouch pressed. "With what you're capable of-"
"Because it doesn't suit me," Goku interrupted, his tone gentle but firm. "Because I have learned, through bitter experience, that imposing my will upon reality - no matter how well-intentioned - leads to consequences I cannot fully predict or control."
He turned to face Lelouch directly, his eyes suddenly ancient and weary. "You may think your sins are great, that they require redemption. And perhaps they do, by ordinary standards. But compared to mine..." He paused, seeming to weigh his words carefully.
"Compared to one thought a vengeful god by most and previously themselves, your sins are like a drop in an ocean of blood."
The admission sent a chill through Lelouch, though not of fear or shock. He had suspected something of this nature.
His Geass, evolving beyond its original capabilities, had shown him glimpses of the truth.
When he looked at Goku with his power activated, beyond the beautiful rose-colored light that surrounded him, Lelouch had begun to see faces - countless faces of echoes left by souls long departed.
Had begun to hear their moans, their cries, their final moments echoing across time and space.
The scale of death that surrounded Goku was almost incomprehensible. Not dozens or hundreds or even thousands, but entire worlds.
Civilizations. Galaxies. All extinguished by the being who now sat beside him on a rock, looking out over a peaceful lake.
"What do you think of me now?" Goku asked quietly, his voice carrying a hint of hidden vulnerability Lelouch had never heard from him before. "Now that you know something of what I was?"
Lelouch remained silent for a long moment, considering the question carefully as the stars began to appear in the darkening sky above them. When he finally spoke, his voice was steady and certain.
"I don't see you any differently."
Goku looked at him in genuine surprise. "How can you say that, after what I've just told you?"
"Because your sins, however vast, don't change mine," Lelouch replied. "We are both carrying the weight of our past actions.
We are both seeking to be different than we were, to redeem ourselves in our own ways." He met Goku's gaze directly. "It would be hypocritical of me to condemn you when I myself have blood on my hands."
He paused, then added more softly, "And perhaps selfishly, I don't want to look at you differently. I care for you. You've been..." He hesitated, struggling to find words that would express what he meant without sounding overly sentimental.
"You've been the father I never truly had," he finished, the admission more difficult than he had anticipated.
It was a sentiment influenced by his new life, by the years he had spent being raised by Goku in this world.
But it was also a stark contrast to his previous existence, where his biological father, Charles zi Britannia, had been an uncaring tyrant who had abandoned his children for his own ambitions.
Goku's expression softened, a gentle smile replacing the worry that had lined his features. Without warning, he reached out and ruffled Lelouch's hair affectionately.
"Hey!" Lelouch protested, ducking away from the gesture with an annoyed expression that belied the warmth he felt at the simple act of affection. "I'm not a child."
"No," Goku agreed, his smile widening. "You're not. You're a brilliant young man with extraordinary potential. But you're still my son, in all the ways that matter."
The simple statement settled over Lelouch like a comfortable weight, grounding him in this new reality they shared.
"Does this mean you'll support my nation-building project?" he asked, trying to redirect the conversation away from the emotional territory it had entered.
Goku laughed, the sound echoing across the still waters of the crater lake. "It means I'll help you think it through properly. Consider all angles. Prepare for consequences you might not have anticipated."
His expression turned more serious. "It means I'll be there, whatever path you choose, to catch you if you fall."
"I don't intend to fall," Lelouch said with characteristic confidence.
"No one ever does," Goku replied wisely. "But knowing there's someone to catch you makes it easier to take the leap."
As darkness settled fully over the mountain, the crystalline formations around the crater's edge began to glow with a soft, pulsing light - blues and purples and greens shifting in hypnotic patterns.
"We should head back soon," Goku said, though he made no move to rise. "Mark will eat everything in the refrigerator if we're not home for dinner."
"Mikasa would stop him," Lelouch pointed out.
"Mikasa would try," Goku corrected with a fond smile. "But Mark's appetite when he's been training is a force of nature."
Lelouch smiled at the familiar domestic concern, so incongruous against the backdrop of their earlier conversation about cosmic sins and nation-building.
"Five more minutes," he said, gazing up at the stars now visible in their full glory, far from Gotham's light pollution. "I rarely get to see them like this."
Goku nodded, following his gaze upward. "The universe is beautiful," he said softly. "Worth protecting, despite all its flaws."
"Is that why you chose to be our guardian?" Lelouch asked. "As a form of protection?"
"Partly," Goku admitted. "But mostly because you three needed someone, and even before my remembrence I needed purpose. We found each other when we all needed a family most."
The simple truth of the statement resonated deeply with Lelouch.
For all his strategic brilliance and ambitious plans, for all the complexity of his past life and current goals, it was this basic reality that mattered most: they had found each other.
They had become family.
"Alright," he said finally, standing and brushing dust from his pants. "Let's go home before Mark devours everything and Mikasa has to restrain him physically."
Goku laughed, rising to his feet with fluid grace. "She'd enjoy that too much. Last time she had him in a headlock for ten minutes before he admitted defeat."
"Only because he's still learning to control his strength," Lelouch pointed out as they made their way back up the path to the crater's rim. "Once he masters it fully, their sparring sessions will be... interesting."
"Mikasa has surprises of her own," Goku said cryptically. "She's more than she appears to be, even to herself. Especially with how I'm recently training her."
As they reached the car, still parked where they had left it at the edge of the crater, Lelouch paused to look back at the glowing crystalline formations one last time.
"Thank you," he said quietly. "For bringing me here. For trusting me with your truth."
Goku placed a hand on his shoulder, the gesture conveying more than words could. "That's what fathers do," he said simply. "Now, let's fly home. And this time, keep your eyes open for the whole journey. The stars over the mountains are worth seeing."
As they rose into the air once more, the car suspended effortlessly beneath Goku's palm, Lelouch did as suggested.
The night sky spread above them, countless stars burning in the darkness, acting as almost a guide and witness of the two.
Of father and son, finding their way together.
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all liked the chapter!
Do tell me how you found it.
So, how I see this family is like this.
Lelouch is basically Goku's oldest and most mature and trusted son,
while Mikasa is his middle child, his daughter that he cares for very much, who both brothers are very protective of while she is equally as protective of them,
and Mark the youngest son who's quite doted on by all.
So yeah, I hope you all liked the chapter and I hope to see you all later,
Bye!)