[fanfic] Decayed, pt.5 [Code Geass]
Mar. 4th, 2011 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rex_sunTitle: Decayed
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Code Geass
Character(s): Lelouch-centric. Euphemia.
Summary: (Kinkmeme request.) Suzaku dies in Shinjuku, and Lelouch sets off on a different path: one that is destined to decay with time.
Status: Part five, ongoing, incomplete. Unedited.
Everyone is startled and confused, forgetting temporarily how to act like enemies with such a sudden show of trust between their respective sides' leaders. Still, Zero submits himself to being patted down by the Knight, and Euphemia is patted down roughly by Kallen. Before each party leaves, Euphemia's Knight presses a radio into her hands. Zero has to assure Kallen that such a precaution will be quite unnecessary on his end.
It is some time before they are finally left alone, but when they are, the air is sickly between them. The room is dark, the power of Narita having been damaged in the landslide. The smell of wet dirt permeates the entirety of the city, indoors and out, soaking into plant life and wood. It reeks like rot.
Euphemia is battling something; Zero can see it in her eyes. Sadness, hope, fear, and strength. Zero wonders when Euphemia became so brave.
"Lelouch."
Zero gasps, the sound distorted oddly by his voice scrambler.
"Lelouch, it's you, isn't it?" she asks softly. "I haven't told anyone about you, I swear. Let me at least see your face."
Half of a minute must go by, but it seems like longer, Zero caught in a purgatory of indecision and Euphemia gazing at him imploringly. At length, Zero brings a hand to his mask, removes the helmet, and becomes Lelouch before her. She smiles at him, a light shiver running through her body, and tears well up.
"Lelouch..."
Strangely enough, it sounds like she cherishes the name.
After that, Lelouch is a little perturbed by how easy it is to sit down with his little sister and discuss things, simply and without malice. He keeps his mask close by and seriously debates the merits of Geassing Euphy into submission. But then, Euphy isn't quite like Cornelia; she's younger, and not a soldier. As innocent as a Brittanian can manage.
Euphy asks after Nunally. Lelouch gives a vague answer about her being safe and tucked away.
"Tell me, Euphy. Why that woman as your Knight?" Lelouch finds himself asking, curiosity overriding the tenseness of the situation.
"I was being pressured to get a Knight, because of, well..."
"Because of the unrest caused by the Black Knights?" he interjects astutely.
"Yes," she concedes. "Her name is Viletta Nu. The ceremony has been put on hold. She was quite valiant at the battle of Narita."
Euphemia speaks without pride or interest, and changes the subject with neither hurry nor any lingering.
"Lelouch, given the situation, I'm forced to ask you. What is it that you desire?" She looks up at him with blue eyes so like the rest of his family that it makes him sick.
He feels his face twist into something cruel. "The destruction of Brittania," he says, and somehow it sounds bolder by saying it to a princess as opposed to a group of ragtag terrorists or one little boy from another little boy.
"The hatred you must feel for us," Euphy says, again close to tears.
"Brittania has destroyed, killed, or threatened everything I have loved and held most dear," he offers in cold explanation. (Mother, Nunally's exhuberance, his childhood his happy home, the new home he had found in Japan, Suzaku... Even Ashford is not safe while Brittania reigns. It seems as if life is never finished dealing Lelouch blows, a never ending cycle of pain and fear with no hope for solace.)
"Euphy. I doubt you have any information that would be new for me, but... Do you have any knowledge of the situation in which my mother was murdered?"
She shakes her head, and Lelouch sees a hint of fear in her eyes. "I'm sorry. It seems as if my sister, Cornelia has investigated it extensively, though." She takes a breath and plunges back into dangerous and more dangerous territory. "Isn't that why you captured her?"
Lelouch stands and looks down at her, attempting to keep the emotion from his countenance. "As opposed to killing her, yes."
Euphy's eyes widen and her small pink mouth fall open. A trembling begins inside of her as she says, breathlessly, "Please... don't kill her."
Lelouch smiles again, bitterly. "Funny. Nunally begged the same."
Euphy's eyes widen, and her and her small pink mouth falls open. "Are you-- are you planning to kill me as well, Lelouch?"
Lelouch stares her down, not staying a word. He can feel his Geass eye burning. She springs to her feet and backs away quickly, her hand clutching the radio, one finger on the switch. Poor, sweet Euphy. Understanding is setting in.
"You've changed," she whispers in fright. "You're not the same, you're not the brother I knew--"
What must his face be telling her, Lelouch wonders.
Right when she seems about to break enough to call for help on the radio, Lelouch sighs and sits back down, as non-threatening as can be. "I'm not going to shoot you, Euhpy."
She is crying in earnest now, biting off her lip gloss.
"You're not a commander like Cornelia," he continues. He looks at the ground, not her. "You don't have the heart to do anything like Clovis did. I didn't kill you during the hotel jacking, and I have no intention of killing you now. Though..." He steeples his fingers together and rests his chin on top. "I should capture you, too, if only to shove a big middle finger in the face of Guilford and the rest."
Euphy blushes at his crudeness-- the crudeness he has learned in gambling dens and highschool locker rooms and only partially adopted --and then manages a tiny, nervous giggle at the easy, lukewarm smile he sends her way.
"You scared me," she admits.
"I know," he says. "I'm sorry."
"What will it take to get my sister back?" she asks.
Lelouch fights down a rising bile as the smell of rot begins to overwhelm him. "Nothing."
"Nothing? What do you mean?"
"As in, I won't be returning her."
"So you'll--!"
"So I'm going to keep her, and if only because both of my favorite little sisters asked, I'm going to keep her alive. Brittania won't be getting her top commander back, but neither will they be getting her body back." It pains Lelouch to say this, almost physically so: he wants to get it done with, eliminate the enemy commander, shoot her in the face like Clovis, pay her back for Saitama. He wants to throw her body into a ditch and leave it there in the sun. In the forest this time, to let her grow fungus.
But, if nothing else, Nunally would be even more displeased with him than she already is. And if Lelouch doesn't have Nunally, what in this world does he have?
"Of course," he reminds her, "you have my name. You might be able to destroy me with that. Maybe. And I have your sister, who I am not entirely opposed to killing. We're at a standstill, Euphy."
"Lelouch, please. I can't see a resolution to this... There must be a resolution!" Euphy pleads with him.
"Certainly there is a resolution, Euphy," he says, and though he smiles it is no joke when he says, "This all will stop when somebody wins."
The negotiations are straightforward, if only because Lelouch was straightforward, and they aren't really negotiations at all. It was merely Lelouch being honest for once, and Euphemia despairing for it.
Before they return to their respective entourages, Lelouch gives her one last option, and he means it mostly as a joke (but not entirely):
"You could always join the Black Knights, if you didn't want to fight me anymore."
And the look on her face is a sort of blankness, almost as if she didn't hear the statement, except she is staring straight into Lelouch's eyes, somewhere into middle-ground where imagination lies. Her eyes don't change as Zero dons his mask and holds open the door for the princess.
"Very well then," she says, suddenly with a smile. "I never really wanted to fight you in the first place."
Zero's heart leaps, then squeezes itself, then pounds furiously. A tightness is throbbing behind his burning Geass. He knows something is wrong, but he can't quite put his finger on it.
"I will come with you. Please accept me."
"...yes," Zero says, because he doesn't know what else to say. What he's hearing is a little outlandish, and it's taking his brain a moment to process it. And besides that, now is not the time to speak of it, as Euphemia's Knight, Viletta Nu, rushes forward. Now is the time to take action.
Euphemia beats him to it. She holds up her one good hand, and the Brittanians stop like dogs before their master. The Black Knights and the JLF, however, continue forward. Ougi looks questioningly between them.
“Guilford, Knight of my sister. Dalton, my sister’s top soldier. And Lady Viletta, my Knight. Please excuse me. I am no longer on your side. Henceforth, with Zero’s agreement, I am a member of the Black Knights.”
Zero can’t help but laugh a little, high and cold, because the entire building seems to have frozen over in shock. Viletta is slowly turning into The Scream, and Guilford and Dalton are not much better. Even the Black Knights’ mouths are hanging open, all staring in wide-eyed incomprehension or disbelief.
“This is true!” Zero announces, stepping up to stand beside Euphemia. “Euphemia has decided it. Then we will be on our way, dear Brittanians. Thank you.”
Zero turns on his high heel and begins to march back to his transport. Euphy curtsies awkwardly to the Brittanians, holding her skirt with one hand, and then follows after Zero closely. Zero and Euphemia get all the way outside, into the bright sunlight where a row of Knightmares are facing eachother off, before all hell breaks loose behind them. People are calling their names, orders are being screamed at the top of the screamer’s lungs, and gunshots are being fired.
“Zero, you bastard, what did you do to Princess Euphemia?”
“Back off! She said it herself!”
“Do you hear me, go after them!”
“Zero!”
“Don’t you dare let that madman take away another of our princesses!”
“Kallen, get to Zero, protect Zero!”
At once, Knightmares on both sides are being raised and arming. Kallen and Chiba grab Zero and Euphemia, respectively, and duck their heads down as bullets fly. The two are shoved into the transport and Chiba slides in with them, gun drawn, tense and ready to pounce as she glares out the window. Zero has a confused look at the chaos-- Kallen jumping into the Guren; Viletta running screaming angry towards her own Knightmare; Tohdoh and Guilford locked in a terrifyingly close firefight --before two Burais wheel in front of Zero’s transport and another covers them as they make their retreat back to base. Just before the transport turns a corner, the fireball resulting from a well-placed radiant wave surge lights up the back window.
Chiba huffs, trying to calm her breathing, and throws a nasty, stunned, almost offended glare towards Euphemia and Zero.
Euphemia, shaking where she sits, can only whisper, “I’m sorry.”
Zero leaps to the radio in the transport's console and phones in immediate backup. Ougi's voice fuzzes into the communications as his burai pulls up beside the transport.
"Zero, are you alright?"
"Yes, Ougi, switch now with Chiba!"
"Thank you," Chiba says, the least hostile she has managed towards Zero since she met him. Away from the battle, Chiba hops out of the transport and Ougi hops from the Knightmare and they switch places. Chiba wheels away towards the battle, weapons activated.
Ougi stares incredulously at Euphemia, forgetting temporarily how to speak. It is strange indeed to see the two so close together; the groomed finery that is the royal princess Euphemia versus the rough-fingered former school teacher turned terrorist turned second in overall command of the army poised to retake a country, Ougi. But Ougi is nothing if not polite and gives Euphemia the tiniest of bows. She inclines her body as much as he does, rethinks, then bows a little bit deeper.
"Hello," Ougi stutters with a refined accent that he practised for speaking in English.
"It's good to meet you," Euphemia replies with natural refinement. She pauses then adds, "Sir."
Ougi blinks at her slowly, thick eyebrows as high as they can travel up his forehead.
"Ougi, your mouth is open," Zero supplies helpfully. Ougi snaps it shut with a click.
"I apologize for all the trouble," Euphemia continues. "I didn't think it would come to blows."
"Oh, well, er," Ougi stumbles for a bit, then seems to remember his position, and his voice strengthens tenfold. "We welcome you into the ranks. We will find a place for you, surely. But, if I may ask-- excuse me, Zero, sir -- what in the world did you two discuss? Why is a princess of Brittania willingly joining the Black Knights?"
Euphemia smiles sweetly, disarmingly at him. "It's really rather simple. I don't want to fight against Zero." Zero feels that tightness behind his eye throb again. It's distractingly painful.
"Also," Euphy continues, tilting her head down thoughtfully. "I want to be with my family. My dearest family, that is. That's understandable, isn't it?"
"So this is completely coming from you?" Ougi measures out his voice carefully.
"What do you mean?" innocent Euphemia asks.
Ougi shifts uncomfortably before trying again. "That is, you, Euphemia, have made this decision without taking the advice of your family."
Understanding what he means, Euphemia nods seriously. "Yes. I decided this when speaking with Zero. After this, I can no longer return to Brittania. But I don't care. This is what I've chosen."
She and Ougi stare at each other again very solemnly, and finally Ougi says, "Okay." And that is that, and Euphemia li Brittania becomes a Black Knight.
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Code Geass
Character(s): Lelouch-centric. Euphemia.
Summary: (Kinkmeme request.) Suzaku dies in Shinjuku, and Lelouch sets off on a different path: one that is destined to decay with time.
Status: Part five, ongoing, incomplete. Unedited.
Everyone is startled and confused, forgetting temporarily how to act like enemies with such a sudden show of trust between their respective sides' leaders. Still, Zero submits himself to being patted down by the Knight, and Euphemia is patted down roughly by Kallen. Before each party leaves, Euphemia's Knight presses a radio into her hands. Zero has to assure Kallen that such a precaution will be quite unnecessary on his end.
It is some time before they are finally left alone, but when they are, the air is sickly between them. The room is dark, the power of Narita having been damaged in the landslide. The smell of wet dirt permeates the entirety of the city, indoors and out, soaking into plant life and wood. It reeks like rot.
Euphemia is battling something; Zero can see it in her eyes. Sadness, hope, fear, and strength. Zero wonders when Euphemia became so brave.
"Lelouch."
Zero gasps, the sound distorted oddly by his voice scrambler.
"Lelouch, it's you, isn't it?" she asks softly. "I haven't told anyone about you, I swear. Let me at least see your face."
Half of a minute must go by, but it seems like longer, Zero caught in a purgatory of indecision and Euphemia gazing at him imploringly. At length, Zero brings a hand to his mask, removes the helmet, and becomes Lelouch before her. She smiles at him, a light shiver running through her body, and tears well up.
"Lelouch..."
Strangely enough, it sounds like she cherishes the name.
After that, Lelouch is a little perturbed by how easy it is to sit down with his little sister and discuss things, simply and without malice. He keeps his mask close by and seriously debates the merits of Geassing Euphy into submission. But then, Euphy isn't quite like Cornelia; she's younger, and not a soldier. As innocent as a Brittanian can manage.
Euphy asks after Nunally. Lelouch gives a vague answer about her being safe and tucked away.
"Tell me, Euphy. Why that woman as your Knight?" Lelouch finds himself asking, curiosity overriding the tenseness of the situation.
"I was being pressured to get a Knight, because of, well..."
"Because of the unrest caused by the Black Knights?" he interjects astutely.
"Yes," she concedes. "Her name is Viletta Nu. The ceremony has been put on hold. She was quite valiant at the battle of Narita."
Euphemia speaks without pride or interest, and changes the subject with neither hurry nor any lingering.
"Lelouch, given the situation, I'm forced to ask you. What is it that you desire?" She looks up at him with blue eyes so like the rest of his family that it makes him sick.
He feels his face twist into something cruel. "The destruction of Brittania," he says, and somehow it sounds bolder by saying it to a princess as opposed to a group of ragtag terrorists or one little boy from another little boy.
"The hatred you must feel for us," Euphy says, again close to tears.
"Brittania has destroyed, killed, or threatened everything I have loved and held most dear," he offers in cold explanation. (Mother, Nunally's exhuberance, his childhood his happy home, the new home he had found in Japan, Suzaku... Even Ashford is not safe while Brittania reigns. It seems as if life is never finished dealing Lelouch blows, a never ending cycle of pain and fear with no hope for solace.)
"Euphy. I doubt you have any information that would be new for me, but... Do you have any knowledge of the situation in which my mother was murdered?"
She shakes her head, and Lelouch sees a hint of fear in her eyes. "I'm sorry. It seems as if my sister, Cornelia has investigated it extensively, though." She takes a breath and plunges back into dangerous and more dangerous territory. "Isn't that why you captured her?"
Lelouch stands and looks down at her, attempting to keep the emotion from his countenance. "As opposed to killing her, yes."
Euphy's eyes widen and her small pink mouth fall open. A trembling begins inside of her as she says, breathlessly, "Please... don't kill her."
Lelouch smiles again, bitterly. "Funny. Nunally begged the same."
Euphy's eyes widen, and her and her small pink mouth falls open. "Are you-- are you planning to kill me as well, Lelouch?"
Lelouch stares her down, not staying a word. He can feel his Geass eye burning. She springs to her feet and backs away quickly, her hand clutching the radio, one finger on the switch. Poor, sweet Euphy. Understanding is setting in.
"You've changed," she whispers in fright. "You're not the same, you're not the brother I knew--"
What must his face be telling her, Lelouch wonders.
Right when she seems about to break enough to call for help on the radio, Lelouch sighs and sits back down, as non-threatening as can be. "I'm not going to shoot you, Euhpy."
She is crying in earnest now, biting off her lip gloss.
"You're not a commander like Cornelia," he continues. He looks at the ground, not her. "You don't have the heart to do anything like Clovis did. I didn't kill you during the hotel jacking, and I have no intention of killing you now. Though..." He steeples his fingers together and rests his chin on top. "I should capture you, too, if only to shove a big middle finger in the face of Guilford and the rest."
Euphy blushes at his crudeness-- the crudeness he has learned in gambling dens and highschool locker rooms and only partially adopted --and then manages a tiny, nervous giggle at the easy, lukewarm smile he sends her way.
"You scared me," she admits.
"I know," he says. "I'm sorry."
"What will it take to get my sister back?" she asks.
Lelouch fights down a rising bile as the smell of rot begins to overwhelm him. "Nothing."
"Nothing? What do you mean?"
"As in, I won't be returning her."
"So you'll--!"
"So I'm going to keep her, and if only because both of my favorite little sisters asked, I'm going to keep her alive. Brittania won't be getting her top commander back, but neither will they be getting her body back." It pains Lelouch to say this, almost physically so: he wants to get it done with, eliminate the enemy commander, shoot her in the face like Clovis, pay her back for Saitama. He wants to throw her body into a ditch and leave it there in the sun. In the forest this time, to let her grow fungus.
But, if nothing else, Nunally would be even more displeased with him than she already is. And if Lelouch doesn't have Nunally, what in this world does he have?
"Of course," he reminds her, "you have my name. You might be able to destroy me with that. Maybe. And I have your sister, who I am not entirely opposed to killing. We're at a standstill, Euphy."
"Lelouch, please. I can't see a resolution to this... There must be a resolution!" Euphy pleads with him.
"Certainly there is a resolution, Euphy," he says, and though he smiles it is no joke when he says, "This all will stop when somebody wins."
The negotiations are straightforward, if only because Lelouch was straightforward, and they aren't really negotiations at all. It was merely Lelouch being honest for once, and Euphemia despairing for it.
Before they return to their respective entourages, Lelouch gives her one last option, and he means it mostly as a joke (but not entirely):
"You could always join the Black Knights, if you didn't want to fight me anymore."
And the look on her face is a sort of blankness, almost as if she didn't hear the statement, except she is staring straight into Lelouch's eyes, somewhere into middle-ground where imagination lies. Her eyes don't change as Zero dons his mask and holds open the door for the princess.
"Very well then," she says, suddenly with a smile. "I never really wanted to fight you in the first place."
Zero's heart leaps, then squeezes itself, then pounds furiously. A tightness is throbbing behind his burning Geass. He knows something is wrong, but he can't quite put his finger on it.
"I will come with you. Please accept me."
"...yes," Zero says, because he doesn't know what else to say. What he's hearing is a little outlandish, and it's taking his brain a moment to process it. And besides that, now is not the time to speak of it, as Euphemia's Knight, Viletta Nu, rushes forward. Now is the time to take action.
Euphemia beats him to it. She holds up her one good hand, and the Brittanians stop like dogs before their master. The Black Knights and the JLF, however, continue forward. Ougi looks questioningly between them.
“Guilford, Knight of my sister. Dalton, my sister’s top soldier. And Lady Viletta, my Knight. Please excuse me. I am no longer on your side. Henceforth, with Zero’s agreement, I am a member of the Black Knights.”
Zero can’t help but laugh a little, high and cold, because the entire building seems to have frozen over in shock. Viletta is slowly turning into The Scream, and Guilford and Dalton are not much better. Even the Black Knights’ mouths are hanging open, all staring in wide-eyed incomprehension or disbelief.
“This is true!” Zero announces, stepping up to stand beside Euphemia. “Euphemia has decided it. Then we will be on our way, dear Brittanians. Thank you.”
Zero turns on his high heel and begins to march back to his transport. Euphy curtsies awkwardly to the Brittanians, holding her skirt with one hand, and then follows after Zero closely. Zero and Euphemia get all the way outside, into the bright sunlight where a row of Knightmares are facing eachother off, before all hell breaks loose behind them. People are calling their names, orders are being screamed at the top of the screamer’s lungs, and gunshots are being fired.
“Zero, you bastard, what did you do to Princess Euphemia?”
“Back off! She said it herself!”
“Do you hear me, go after them!”
“Zero!”
“Don’t you dare let that madman take away another of our princesses!”
“Kallen, get to Zero, protect Zero!”
At once, Knightmares on both sides are being raised and arming. Kallen and Chiba grab Zero and Euphemia, respectively, and duck their heads down as bullets fly. The two are shoved into the transport and Chiba slides in with them, gun drawn, tense and ready to pounce as she glares out the window. Zero has a confused look at the chaos-- Kallen jumping into the Guren; Viletta running screaming angry towards her own Knightmare; Tohdoh and Guilford locked in a terrifyingly close firefight --before two Burais wheel in front of Zero’s transport and another covers them as they make their retreat back to base. Just before the transport turns a corner, the fireball resulting from a well-placed radiant wave surge lights up the back window.
Chiba huffs, trying to calm her breathing, and throws a nasty, stunned, almost offended glare towards Euphemia and Zero.
Euphemia, shaking where she sits, can only whisper, “I’m sorry.”
Zero leaps to the radio in the transport's console and phones in immediate backup. Ougi's voice fuzzes into the communications as his burai pulls up beside the transport.
"Zero, are you alright?"
"Yes, Ougi, switch now with Chiba!"
"Thank you," Chiba says, the least hostile she has managed towards Zero since she met him. Away from the battle, Chiba hops out of the transport and Ougi hops from the Knightmare and they switch places. Chiba wheels away towards the battle, weapons activated.
Ougi stares incredulously at Euphemia, forgetting temporarily how to speak. It is strange indeed to see the two so close together; the groomed finery that is the royal princess Euphemia versus the rough-fingered former school teacher turned terrorist turned second in overall command of the army poised to retake a country, Ougi. But Ougi is nothing if not polite and gives Euphemia the tiniest of bows. She inclines her body as much as he does, rethinks, then bows a little bit deeper.
"Hello," Ougi stutters with a refined accent that he practised for speaking in English.
"It's good to meet you," Euphemia replies with natural refinement. She pauses then adds, "Sir."
Ougi blinks at her slowly, thick eyebrows as high as they can travel up his forehead.
"Ougi, your mouth is open," Zero supplies helpfully. Ougi snaps it shut with a click.
"I apologize for all the trouble," Euphemia continues. "I didn't think it would come to blows."
"Oh, well, er," Ougi stumbles for a bit, then seems to remember his position, and his voice strengthens tenfold. "We welcome you into the ranks. We will find a place for you, surely. But, if I may ask-- excuse me, Zero, sir -- what in the world did you two discuss? Why is a princess of Brittania willingly joining the Black Knights?"
Euphemia smiles sweetly, disarmingly at him. "It's really rather simple. I don't want to fight against Zero." Zero feels that tightness behind his eye throb again. It's distractingly painful.
"Also," Euphy continues, tilting her head down thoughtfully. "I want to be with my family. My dearest family, that is. That's understandable, isn't it?"
"So this is completely coming from you?" Ougi measures out his voice carefully.
"What do you mean?" innocent Euphemia asks.
Ougi shifts uncomfortably before trying again. "That is, you, Euphemia, have made this decision without taking the advice of your family."
Understanding what he means, Euphemia nods seriously. "Yes. I decided this when speaking with Zero. After this, I can no longer return to Brittania. But I don't care. This is what I've chosen."
She and Ougi stare at each other again very solemnly, and finally Ougi says, "Okay." And that is that, and Euphemia li Brittania becomes a Black Knight.
