Author note - I always felt bad that Euphie was killed, so I'm going to pretend she wasn't. I'm honestly not sure where this is going to end up or how it will turn out, but the idea is nagging me and I can't help myself. I'm just going to let the story guide me with the vague little idea bubbles floating around in my cluttered brain. Some of the character's actual stories will be twisted for the plot. I apologize if I upset anyone with my little fine tuning of characters.
I don't own Code Geass, but it is amazing and sad and my heart can't take it sometimes.
Euphemia li Britannia blinked. It was hard though. Her eyelids felt like they each weighed a million pounds. It wasn't only her eyelids that felt heavy. She could barely feel her body. She tried to wiggle her big toe like she'd seen in the movies, but couldn't tell if it worked. She couldn't hear anything either besides the sound of her shallow breathing. What was this thing on her mouth? She turned her head slowly to look around. Her soft lavender eyes taking in her surroundings. At least that part of her body seemed to be cooperating.
Why was Suzaku crying? She blinked at him and opened her mouth, but all that came out was a breathy whisper. It was enough though. He looked at her. He looked so sad. Why? She blinked as the thing around her mouth moved and a yellow tinted glass moved. Where did that come from? They stared at each other for a moment. Euphie wanted to talk, but her throat felt raw.
"Euphie I have to know. Why did you issue that order at the stadium?" Suzaku asked quietly. His voice cracked at the end. His green bore into her. Order?
"Order? What are you talking about?...Nevermind that." She took a couple of deep breaths or tried to and looked back at him. "Suzaku you're Japanese aren't you?"
Wait. Why? Where is this feeling coming from? Why does she feel the need to kill Suzaku? She felt her chest clench painfully. No. She would never kill Suzaku! She loves him. He is her heart, but he was Japanese. The Japanese must die. All of them….but Suzaku… Suzaku… she won't kill him. No. NO. NO! What was wrong with her? Why did it hurt? Her chest was burning. It was on fire. Stars exploded in her vision. Suzaku was calling to her. She needed to stay with Suzaku! She turned to look at him and saw the tears in his eyes again. She smiled fondly at him. He didn't need to cry. She couldn't hear him anymore and her vision blurred then turned black.
XXXX
Euphie scrunched her face and then blinked a couple of times. She slowly took in her surroundings. She was laying on a bed with a breathing apparatus. A blanket was pulled up over her shoulders to keep them warm. Where was she? She couldn't remember anything. The last thing she remembers was talking to Lelouch at the assembly. The rest was blank.
She tried to sit up, but pain raged through her chest. She laid back down quickly and took deep breaths. Tears collected at the corners of her eyes. After the pain subsided to a dull ache, she tentatively raised her hand to inspect the area. There was a bandage covering it. When did she get hurt? She couldn't remember.
"Ummm…hello?" Euphie tried calling out. Her voice too scratchy too high pitched. Her eyes scrunched in confusion. She tried again. "Is anyone here?"
The door slid open revealing a man with black hair and a white doctor's robe. "I see you're finally awake. Hello miss. I'm doctor Raynott. How are you feeling?"
She watched as he pulled a chair up next to her bed and removed the breathing machine. "I'm confused. Where am I?"
"You're at a hospital recovering."
"Recovering from what? What happened to me?"
"You don't remember?"
"No. I was talking to Zero before the Special Administrative Zone assembly and then I don't remember anything." Euphie watched as the doctor wrote something down on his clip board.
"Interesting. So you don't remember going before the assembly and making a speech?"
Euphie's delicate pink brows furrowed again. "No…umm…but did it go ok? Are the Japanese happy now with the Zone?"
The doctor wrote down some more notes. "We'll talk later about it. I'm going to check your vitals ok?"
Euphie nodded and complied with the doctor as he poked and prodded her. "Umm… has anyone come by to see me? Like my sister…or…anyone?"
The doctor smiled at her kindly and patted her head. "You're sister is really busy right now, but I'll make sure to let her know you woke up."
The doctor was on the way out and Euphie tried to sit up, but cried out in pain at the quick movement. He came back and helped her ease down again. "Please before you go… did a boy come by at all?"
The doctor looked at her with what she only assumed was a huge dose of sympathy. "Try to get some rest miss."
"My name is Euphemia, but you can call me Euphie you know" she smiled up at the kind doctor as he made a hmm noise and then he left the room. Euphie blinked when she heard a lock slide into place. Did he just lock the door? Why?
XXXX
This continued on for the next weeks. The doctor or sometimes a nurse would come and check on her. They would ask her questions that she couldn't answer. They always referred to her as miss and never Euphie even though she requested that they do so. They would come and they would leave. The door always locking behind them. Yes it was locked. When she was strong enough to move around on her own, she had checked.
They were the only two people she ever saw. Her sister never came by. Suzaku never came by. It hurt her feelings. She didn't understand. She would ask the doctor and his nurse, but they would never give her a direct answer. She would ask about the SAZ, but they wouldn't answer those questions either.
They cut her long flowing pink hair to about shoulder length, gave her new clothes and really good meals. They gave her anything she wanted to keep herself occupied. Books, puzzles, stuff to doodle with. This wasn't enough though. She was healthy now. Why wouldn't they let her leave? She was frustrated and utterly confused.
Then it happened one day. The nurse was helping her and she got an urgent page. The nurse ran out of the room, but forgot to lock it. Euphie grinned slyly and crept from the room. Freedom! She felt giddy with excitement. She took her time exploring to make sure not to get caught. She paused when she looked out of a window. There was nothing around them except trees and trees for the eye to see. Mountains in the distance. No other buildings. Nothing. Her heart stuttered at that. Where was she?
She was creeping back to her room in confusion when she passed an open door. "I don't understand why she can't remember anything about the SAZ assembly or anything after it. I haven't seen a case like this. At first I thought it was split personalities, but none of her behavior's line up with it."
"I also don't understand it. The young lady seems like a caring and loving individual. Never once has she exhibited the violent nature she did at the stadium when she killed all of those people."
Euphie blinked in confusion. They weren't talking about her were they? They couldn't be. She would never kill people…what? Maybe they confused her with someone else. Her heart hammered in her chest as she listened to them list off different theories for her extreme personality shift. She didn't even recognize all of the medical terms. Schizophrenia? What was that?
As she listened and her stomach threatened to expel the delectable lunch she had, she came to a startling conclusion. She wasn't just in a hospital. She was in a mental institution...for unstable and crazy people. Her lungs started going into overdrive as she tried to process the new information. Is that why Cornelia and Suzaku hadn't come to see her? Did they think she was crazy?
She hid in a nearby room as she heard them leave. After a minute or so, she peeked her head out of the door to make sure they had left. She then crept into the little office room they had been using. The computer screen was still active and she saw herself standing at a podium. Her hand shook violently as she reached over to the mouse, directed it to the little play icon and clicked. She watched in unbelievable terror as the little image of her on the screen started speaking and ordered that all Japanese be exterminated. She flinched in the chair she was sitting at when her thin delicate finger pulled the first trigger of the gun shooting into the audience. Her heart increased to inhuman speeds as blood and chaos filled the screen. Her vision had started getting black splotches in it as her lungs refused to bring in any oxygen to her desperate body. She was just conscious enough to watch Zero shoot her and then she was falling the ceiling appearing out of nowhere before her eyes.
XXXX
The next time she woke up, she was lying in a bed. Not her bed. She sat up slowly and blinked a couple of times. The memories from what she had seen came slamming back at her in an instant and she fell back against the bed as the wind was knocked out of her. She held her head pulling at her hair as she screamed. No! She didn't do that! She would never do that! She didn't notice the door sliding open, but she did notice the needle being shoved into her arm.
She woke up a little bit later. She felt numb. Her hands felt heavy. She tried moving a finger and watched with curiosity as it slowly twitched. She looked around the unfamiliar room and noticed the camera in the corner. As more feeling started to return to her body, she carefully pushed herself to a sitting position. The wall in front of her looked like a window, but she couldn't see through it. Memories again assaulted her still sluggish mind and she took deep breaths even though it felt like the air was going nowhere and her lungs were still deprived.
The door slid open again and the nurse cautiously approached her. "Miss?"
"My name is Euphemia li Britannia!" Euphie cried as tears started cascading down her face. "I demand to see my sister Cornelia this instant!"
The nurse looked at her and slowly shook her head signaling no.
"What!? Why not!? I am a princess! I didn't do what that video showed! I couldn't! I would never do that!" Euphie cried violently and her body shook with tremors. Another nurse that she had never seen came in and held her down. "No! Don't touch me! Stop it!" She saw the needle that the familiar nurse was holding. "No please don't! I want my sister! Please!" The needle stuck her arm and she felt her body go slack.
She woke up the next time and just laid there. She didn't have any fight left in her. Nothing made sense. She felt broken. Her mind tattered and blowing in the wind. She turned her head to the side when she heard a clearing of a throat. It was the doctor this time.
"How are you feeling?" he asked in a quiet voice.
Euphie turned her head away and looked back up at the ceiling. She didn't trust her voice. She didn't trust her thoughts. She didn't trust herself anymore.
"You saw the video and based upon your reaction, I'm sure you have some questions or feelings. You can talk to me about it."
"N-no…" Euphie whispered. If she talked about it, it would mean it was real. "Why won't you let me see Cornelia?"
"We keep Princess Cornelia up to date on your condition, but we thought it would be better to assess what had happened without a third party element."
"What's wrong with me?" Euphie asked again barely above a whisper. "I wouldn't do that…"
"That's what we've been trying to determine."
"Does Suzaku Kururugi know what I did? Have you been in contact with him?" Euphie turned back to look at the doctor.
He shook his head and gave her that over sympathetic look again. "In the eyes of the world Euphemia li Britannia is dead. Zero killed her. Knight Kururugi doesn't know that you are alive."
"Oh…" Euphie could feel the prickling at her eyes and the pressure on her chest. "Can I talk to him and let him know I'm alive?"
"No."
"Can I talk to Cornelia?" Euphie felt the wet trails fall from her eyes to the pillow beneath her head.
"I'll see what I can do. She's been eager to see you for a while now. Maybe it will actually do some good for you."
"Thank you…" Euphie turned on her side and pulled the blanket over her head. Her heart hurt so unbelievably bad. Suzaku didn't know she was alive. He must be devastated. She would have to get better and go find him. It was the only option. Suzaku was her other half. She needed him and he needed her.
XXXXX
Euphie would never get to see her sister in the hospital because she was gone before her sister arrived. Euphie woke up that night to a small boy with long golden wheat hair sitting at the foot of her bed.
"Hello Euphemia. My name is V2."
Euphie listened to the boy talk. He told her about Geass and how that was what had been used on her by Lelouch. Sweat formed on her body as she listened to him explain. She couldn't find her voice and just listened. She finally did and asked how it was possible that she didn't feel Lelouch's order anymore in her system. He shrugged and said he wasn't sure. Maybe it was because she had nearly died or that her own willpower was stronger than the order in the end. He said it didn't matter in the long run and he reached out his hand to her. "I can give you that power too if you form a contract with me. The power to help save the world. Make it a kind and gentle place. That's what you want isn't it?"
Euphie swallowed. To save the world and make it gentle. To make everyone smile and feel happy. A world where bad things didn't happen. A world where the massacre that Lelouch had ordered wouldn't happen. Yes. Yes that was what she wanted. She reached her hand out and touched the little boys.
She was instantly transported to a world filled with nameless floating and merging bodies. She floated there completely naked, but she didn't feel embarrassed. She didn't feel panicked. For the first time in however long she had been locked up, months, a year, she didn't know, she felt at peace. An overwhelming calm settled over her body.
"Euphemia li Britannia do you accept the contract."
"Yes" she answered firmly.
She blinked a couple of times. As quickly as the world of swirling bodies had come, it was gone and she was sitting on the hospital bed again. V2 handed her a bag.
"Euphemia is dead. You can't walk around with that bright pink hair anymore. In the bag is a change of clothes and hair dye. I didn't know what color you'd prefer so I got a bunch. You could make a rainbow if you wanted to." V2 let out a little chuckle. "There is a path outside of the hospital on the left side. Take it and you will find a black car pulled off of the road. Hopefully you can drive. Oh there's some money as well. Have fun." V2 waved and walked out the unlocked door. He would keep an eye on her out of curiosity to see what power her Geass would choose and then he'd find a way to use it to his advantage.