“Disappointing!” Lelouch said, tutting and shaking his head. He was - maddeningly- standing just barely out of reach. She tried anyway, and her hand was cut off at the wrist.“Try a little harder next time.

“Now. Where was I? Ah yes! I was about to feed on these two, and then -”

“No.”

“What? Who dares -”

C.C. lifted her head and saw her. She was sitting in between them. In between Lelouch and the crumpled warriors on the floor. Her eyes were clear of tears. Determined. Gentle, but determined. There was a passion showing in them, not a trace of fear or anger or even disappointment. The only emotion C.C. could see was love.

“You?” Lelouch laughed. “You would stop me?”

“I don’t know what you’ve done to my big brother,” Nunnally said. “And I don’t care. This is my command!” she declared, and her left eye lit up with the symbol of Geass. “Go back to your normal self! Stop being so - so cruel and heartless!”

The vampire’s shoulders shuddered and shook, and a deep rumbling laugh echoed throughout the room. “Foolish girl! That power has no effect on me at all!” Which was true enough. It made sense, after a fashion. Vampires were cut off from the rest of humanity. She would have better luck commanding a cat. It was the same reason she couldn’t affect them with her Code.

“But if you are so insistent on being involved, then I suppose I can just drain your blood as well!” Lelouch said, baring his fangs and reaching out towards the girl. To her credit, she didn’t budge. Not a single inch. Not a flinch not a blink, nor did she waver or look away for a single moment. “I’ll be sure to drain you dry, and then - And then I… I…”

“Nunnally?”

The malevolance was gone. In its place a strange kind of tenderness. Hesitant, as though the voice had caught itself in the act of doing something it had sworn never to ever do. The vampire was trembling. Not from the cold. Not from fear. It was an internal struggle, and from her position Nunnally must have seen something that made her break out into a smile.

“Yes, big brother! It’s me!” she said. “Please, you’re stronger than this. Fight it off! For me?”

“I - I must,” Lelouch stammered, his finger brushing against Nunnally’s cheek in a sign of affection. C.C. looked again at the monster, and gasped. This was not the power of kings at work! It was an older power, working to drag out a single, shining thread of humanity from deep within the bottomless abyss that was a vampire’s black soul!

“I… Must… Feed,” Lelouch snarled, and his finger pressed against Nunnally’s throat. “I… Must feed… And return to moth-”

“Only a man can kill a monster,” C.C. said. Her fingers closed around Lelouch’s ankle. He gasped and looked down at her in shock and fear. “So it was. So it shall always be.

“Let the monster be slain.”

C.C. took a deep breath and prepared her attack. She concentrated all her power, all of her strength and thought long and hard about the love these two must share. How envious she was of how deeply they cared for one another. When was the last time she had allowed herself to feel that kind of connection to another? When had she last been allowed to feel it?

“By the man within,” she finished, seizing hold of that single thread of humanity that Nunnally had dragged out to the surface and sent along it a message from her Code: A memory image of Lelouch’s past.

The vampire convulsed and shrieked. “Urrrrry!” it whined, over and over again. She could almost share the memories with him. His life had been so full of misery and heartache. His mother’s death must surely be in there. His sister being left blind and crippled, his father dismissing the pair of them to a land he would soon invade. A nation humbled. An Area established. A brother he had played with in his youth, probably slain by his own hands. She could see none of it, but she could imagine it so very clearly.

Yes, Lelouch. This is who you are. You are not a monster. A monster cannot care for another. A monster has no soul, no guilt, no regrets. Only men and women can feel these things. A monster is not a man, and that is why only a man could ever truly kill a monster!

Suzaku and Sayoko rose behind Nunnally, rubbing their heads and staring as Lelouch’s humanity seeped back into his very being. His fangs receded into more normal sized canines, his eyes returned to their more natural colouration and his skin was no longer cold to the touch. C.C. stood as well, having recovered from his previous attack.

-Lulu's Bizarre Rebellion Chapter 10