Code Geass – Euphemia of the Revelation
Shinjuku Massacre
Disclaimer – Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment and Ichiro Okouchi, so I don't own anything afflicted with Code Geass.
Warnings – Strong language, strong violence, Euphemia OOC (obviously), yuri, possible lemons in later chapters (unsure)
Rochelle li Britannia stood in the Command Centre of a huge purple vehicle known as the G-1 Base as it rolled its way into the Shinjuku Ghetto. She was currently standing at the left hand window watching a plume of smoke rise from somewhere not all that far from their location. Behind her, General Bartley Asprius and a few of Prince Clovis's advisors stood congregating round a rectangular table with a 3-D map of the entire area on the top. Prince Clovis sat behind Bartley looking nervously over at Rochelle. Why did this woman have to come along with him? Sure, it was her project that the terrorists had stolen, but Clovis did not see the reason why she should be here. In all honesty, he would have preferred if she had stayed back at the Viceroy Palace or Government Bureau Building as it was commonly known as to the people. He absolutely despised and loathed this woman with a passion. She was the reason he was so unpopular among the "Elevens", she was the reason he could not get any pro-"Number" legislations through and above all, she was the reason he had to put on a flamboyant façade of ignorance and arrogance. He was nothing more than Rochelle's puppet and it disgusted him to no end. This woman had a hold over him.
Though she had never openly threatened him in the past, Clovis knew that Rochelle had him eating out of the palm of her hand. He was not much of a leader and Rochelle used this to her advantage, getting him to do things her way, which meant oppression the "Eleven" population as she blamed them for the death of her youngest daughter, Euphemia. Clearly she was out for revenge and Clovis guessed that she was trying to get him to provoke a rebellion in order to find the perfect excuse to kill as many of them off as she possibly could. It sickened him to no end. He could understand that she was upset about the loss of her daughter, but taking out her grief on an entire race of people… that was going too far. However, he could not bring himself to stand up to her as he knew she could easily ruin him and damage his reputation among the Britannian population to the point where they would undoubtably demand his resignation as Viceroy of "Area Eleven" and his disinheritance and that thought terrified him greatly.
"They got away," Bartley's voice came in an outraged tone, bringing him back to reality as he remembered that the leader of his Royal Guard had been reporting in, "And you call yourselves the Royal Guard?"
"Uh, forgive me my Lord," the leader's voice came over the communicator in an apologetic tone, "The blast was mainly directed upwards, but…"
"Why the hell do you think I only told you people about this?" Bartley demanded furiously, clearly not happy about the situation seeing that the target had been discovered and had somehow managed to escape.
"W-we'll continue the investigation," the Royal Guard leader said through the communicator.
"Hold on there," Rochelle said as she turned round, "Just what exactly happened?"
"Well m-my L-L-Lady, we found the target, but unfortunately the soldier who discovered it had seen the target; that is, the real target and it turned out that a Britannian schoolgirl was there as well, obviously having somehow gotten caught up in this mess," the leader explained, "I don't know how though, but she was clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time. I heard reports that the truck transporting the target had crashed. Perhaps the student had gone to help them and be a streak of bad luck ended up with the terrorists."
Rochelle sighed, shaking her head.
"Boy oh boy, a Britannian's involved now?" she said quietly with a sigh, "What is the world coming to?"
"We were going to eliminate her, but in the confusion caused by the blast, she made off with the target," the leader said.
"I see," Rochelle said in a serious tone, "And what of the soldier who discovered it?"
"Dead ma'am," the leader replied simply, "He was an Honorary Britannian, Suzaku Kururugi. The search squad was up of Honorary Britannians in case something like this had happened."
"Excellent," Rochelle replied as the edges of her lips twisted into a sadistic grin, "Anyway, that does not change the fact that you allowed the student to make off with the target. I want you to find and retrieve the target and kill the student along with any Elevens you happen to see."
"Understood my Lady," the leader said.
Clovis paled at hearing this. Rochelle was willing to order the death of an unlucky innocent just to keep the project quiet. However, as he opened his mouth to protest, Rochelle spoke up again.
"The plan has moved forward to the next phase," she said, causing Clovis's face to turn pure white with horror as he knew what she was planning.
"B-but my Lady," Bartley protested with a shocked look on his face.
"Lady Rochelle, I really must protest," Clovis said with a tone of authority as he stood up from his throne and shot her a serious look, "You seem to forget that I am acting Viceroy of Area Eleven, not you."
"And you seem to forget that if knowledge of this project gets out, you'll be the one who'll be getting the blame," Rochelle replied with an evil smirk on her face as she had been clearly prepared for Clovis's attempt to assert himself, "You'll be disinherited."
That worked as Clovis found his knees shaking with fear and his legs felt like jelly, causing him to wobble and fall back onto his throne with a look of defeat as he let out a sigh. True, he did not really know what it was that Rochelle was working on. Heck, even his most trusted advisors and General Bartley knew more about the truth than he did. However, Rochelle had talked… or rather tricked him into providing funds for her project and he knew that if news got out, he would be seen as an accomplice and with Rochelle… if what she had just told him was anything to go by, she would manipulate the evidence and the media to ensure that he ended up getting the full blame while she escaped unscathed. He knew that Rochelle saw him nothing more than an expendable pawn that could easily be replaced and no doubt, she would ensure that they would replace him with someone who was totally loyal to her and who would obey her without question.
"Very well," he said quietly before his face adorned a serious expression as he moved to stand up, "Tell them back home that we're carrying out a planned urban renewal here."
He then walked towards the steps that led down to where Bartley and the others were.
"As Clovis, Third Prince of the Empire, I command you," he went on with a serious look, though inwardly he was suppressing the urge to vomit at what he was doing, "Destroy Shinjuku Ghetto; leave no one alive."
He held his hand out towards the table as if to emphasise his point as Rochelle smirked.
"Excellent," she thought to herself, "All is going according to plan. No doubt when news of this spreads, it'll provoke Elevens everywhere to rebel against the Empire and when that happens, I'll have every single one of them wiped off the face of the Earth. Mark my words you disgusting monkeys, Euphemia will be avenged and you all will cease to exist."
Clovis went back to his throne and sat down, placing his face in his hands with his elbows resting on his thighs.
"Just what have I done?" he thought to himself miserably.
In truth, he did not want it to end in bloodshed. However, Rochelle had been determined to have things go her way and Clovis now realised why she had come along. She had been planning on having the entire ghetto wiped out all along. It did not matter to her whether they had the target or not. She was using this whole affair as an excuse to extract her revenge and kill off as many "Elevens" as she could. That Britannian student who made off with the target must have been a godsend for her, as it had given her the excuse to have the entire ghetto massacred, though he suspected that she would have found some way to lay waste to the entire ghetto anyway, even if the retrieval of the target had been successful.
"Forgive me Euphemia, Nunnally, Lelouch," he thought as tears started to roll down his cheeks, "Forgive me for my weakness."
He knew that his deceased siblings would be glaring down on him at the moment for allowing such an atrocity to occur, especially Euphemia since he knew her as being quite peaceful and would never condone such a merciless massacre and the irony was that the mastermind was none other than her own mother, but even so, he knew that he shared the burden of guilt as it was in his power to stop this madness, but unfortunately, he was too afraid of Rochelle to act as he knew what she could do to him if he tried.
"Just how could such a heartless witch have such a loving daughter?" he thought to himself as he shot Rochelle a disgusted look.
"Also, I would like cameras to be sent out so I can bare witness to this spectacle," Rochelle said to the advisors in a commanding tone, which caused Clovis to shiver in fear.
Meanwhile, Sutherland Knightmare Frames started pouring out of the G-1 Base as they started demolishing buildings and shooting at the residents with their assault rifles and other weaponry. The residents all screamed and tried to run for their lives, only to discover that it was useless as bullets pierced their bodies and they dropped to the ground like stones; men, women and children alike.
One elderly couple were in the process of gathering their things so they could evacuate their apartment. The man looked out the window in disbelief as he saw VTOL gunships pass by and shooting down at the people as they futilely tried to flee the onslaught.
"W-why are they doing this?" he asked in disbelief.
"Dear, let's go," the man's wife said in a panicked tone, clutching a bag in her arms.
They both then quickly made their way to the door.
"Uh, hurry," the man said in fright.
However, as soon as they opened the door, they were met with gunfire and their blood splattered against the wall and window opposite the door with some even landing on a table.
Two soldiers entered the room, searching for more people with their guns at the ready.
"Okay, let's sweep the next floor," one said upon seeing that there was no one else in the room.
Elsewhere, Britannian tanks and Sutherlands were firing off shells into the ghetto at the buildings, as they had been ordered to destroy the entire ghetto.
"The enemy is garbage that could never hope to become even Honorary Britannians," one of the commanders said over the communicators, "Wipe out every last one of them."
One Sutherland stepped in behind another that was firing off a giant Knightmare-sized bazooka known as a giant cannon.
"Naturally," the pilot, Jeremiah Gottwald said from inside the cockpit with an evil smile on his face.
"Supervisor Jeremiah," another commander's voice came over the communicator, "General Bartley requests that you take command of…"
"Bartley has staff officers," Jeremiah spoke over the man's voice, even as he was still talking, "I haven't had this much fun on the front lines in ages."
He then pointed his assault rifle in a random direction and started firing it as if to emphasise his point. As the leader of "Area Eleven's" branch of the Purist Faction, Jeremiah absolutely detested the idea of Honorary Britannians and saw the "Elevens" as nothing more than a waste of space that deserved everything they got just because they existed and he took great pleasure in torturing and killing many of them, so when orders to destroy the ghetto and slaughter every last person within it came, he was rather excited, like a child who could not wait to try out their latest toy… at least that's what he kept telling himself.
He could not forget what happened seven years previously. He had been a guard at the Aries Villa in the Britannian capital, Pendragon, home of the Fifth Imperial Consort, Marianne "the Flash" vi Britannia and seven years ago, she had been mysteriously assassinated along with her son, Lelouch leaving her daughter a paraplegic and blind from psychological trauma as she had been there as well and like Lelouch had been caught in the crossfire.
Since then, he had been riddled with guilt over his failure to prevent the assassination and in order to try and forget, he immersed himself in battle and slaughter. He used his hatred of "Numbers" and his own self-proclaimed war against them as a means of escape. Not the best way to handle it, but unfortunately he was allergic to alcohol and his immune system was highly resistant to any form of drugs, including the hallucinogenic Refrain, which caused people to relive memories of their past. He had tried it once, but it did not last all that long and so, he looked to battle and racial hatred as his means of salvation. A smirk appeared on his face as he continued to cause devastation. Oh yes, this worked perfectly for him.
Back in the G-1 Base, Bartley and the advisors were watching the progress on the 3-D map and Rochelle watched the monitor in front of the table as it showed split-screen images of the massacre. Seeing the people helpless and being shot to pieces was something she found thrilling. The screams of helplessness and fear and knowing that nothing would help them was like music to her ears. She had longed for this for seven whole years since the news that her youngest daughter, Euphemia had died in the war. Since then, she had been filled with nothing but anger and hate that she directed towards the "Elevens", blaming them for Euphemia's death. Of course, she knew that Euphemia had been sent with Nunnally, the daughter of her arch nemesis, Marianne, but Rochelle did not really care about her and in her opinion, Nunnally had deserved to die because she had commoner blood and was "that disgusting witch's" daughter and in her condition before she had been sent away, Rochelle figured that she was better off dead anyway. Anyway, she absolutely detested the "Elevens" and would settle for nothing less than seeing every last one of them wiped off the face of the Earth.
Unbeknownst to everyone else in the room, Rochelle had intentionally lessened security round her project, knowing that terrorists would steal it under the mistaken assumption that it was poison gas. She had been the one that had provided them with the intelligence in the first place; a new kind of experimental poison gas and now her plan was coming together. This had been what she had hoped for; that the terrorists would make it into the ghetto, giving her the excuse to have it completely wiped off the map. The fact that the girl had gotten away was just a bonus for her, though she did not expect a Britannian student to get caught up in it, but still, the life of one Britannian did not matter to her compared to her plan to eradicate the "Elevens". No one in the room knew that she would have ordered the destruction of the Shinjuku Ghetto anyway and Clovis would be the one to shoulder the blame… all part of her plan, which she had dubbed, "Operation: Eleven Genocide".
Watching the massacre unfold before her eyes brought a smile to her face, even seeing a child who had fallen in an attempt to escape and struggle to get up only to by shot to pieces by a Sutherland's assault rifle was rather invigorating to her. She started chuckling to herself, causing everyone else present to stare at her nervously with a hint of fear hidden in their eyes; fear which was well founded as her chuckling escalated quickly into full-blown psychotic maniacal laughter.
"Yes, that's it," she said in a psychotic tone, "Kill them all, murder them, butcher them, mutilate them. Don't stop until they're all dead. I want to see a bloodbath."
Bartley and the rest of the advisors all backed away from Rochelle staring at her fearfully as if she was some kind of monster. This woman was clearly insane.
Clovis watched the scenes of the massacre as his face became pure white with horror as he listened to Rochelle's insane laughter. Apparently, his thoughts were the same as his advisors. Rochelle was clearly insane and never before had Clovis been more afraid of anyone in his entire life. He somehow knew that if he did move to call of this senseless slaughter, Rochelle would probably kill him. Her attitude simply repulsed him. How could she take delight in watching people as they were mercilessly slaughtered without any way of defending themselves? Had Euphemia's death really affected her so much that she had traded in her humanity for a chance at revenge? It seemed too unreal to be true. He knew Rochelle had a bit of a reputation that even made the Knight of Ten, Luciano Bradley, the "Vampire of Britannia" and self-proclaimed homicidal genius because of his known bloodlust and tendencies to kill even his own allies tremble in fear, but he never imagined that it was this bad. He considered himself glad that Rochelle had his back to him because he did not want to see the psychotic expression that he believed adorned her face at the moment. Her laughter and glee at what was happening was terrifying enough. He knew right then and there that if Rochelle had not ruined his chances of gaining favour with the "Elevens" before, then she sure as well succeeded this time as he knew of the potential backlash that this would create; something that he now was certain that Rochelle was hoping for in her insane campaign.
"Euphemia, Nunnally, Lelouch, forgive me," he mumbled, knowing that he was just as much to blame for this than Rochelle herself was because he could stop it, but was too afraid to do so, fearing for his own life.
He had to wonder just how on Earth could a tyrant like his own father and a psychopath like Rochelle could produce such a kind-hearted and peace-loving daughter such as Euphemia. He knew that Euphemia would not want this, even if her psychotic mother was doing it all to avenge her. Euphemia would no doubt be absolutely disgusted with her mother, especially if she learned that she had done it for her. He only hoped that his deceased siblings would find it in their hearts to someday forgive him from wherever they were.
Meanwhile, Euphemia and the green-haired girl were running underground after Nagata's sacrifice had allowed them to escape from the Royal Guard. Sounds of military weaponry being fired and explosions could be heard above ground and orange flashes were seen through gaps in the walls It did no take a genius to guess what was going on and Euphemia deduced that someone had ordered the military to lay waste to the ghetto in order to cover the truth about what the terrorists had stolen up.
The girl ran behind Euphemia and caught her foot on a stone protruding upwards, causing her to stumble and fall to the ground.
"What on Earth are you?" Euphemia said, upon noticing the girl had fallen and stopped running before placing a hand up to her face, "This chaos is all your fault, isn't it?"
The girl just looked up at Euphemia with an unreadable look in her eyes.
"You pose such a threat to Clovis's reputation that he's willing to bury he entire ghetto just for fear of discovering you," Euphemia went on, unable to believe what was going on round about her, "ARGH! But not only that, Britannia has… even killed Suzaku, my very first friend when my half-sister and I first came here."
The girl continued to stare at Euphemia as a sympathetic look made its way into her eyes. Her arms were still bound as was her mouth, so she could not answer. Euphemia had considered undoing the restraints, but with the possibility of having the Royal Guard on their tails, not to mention the chaos going on above ground, she decided to wait till they were in a safe before doing so. Besides, Euphemia saw the girl struggling to free herself and from the looks of it, she knew what she was doing and could very well free herself if given enough time.
However, Euphemia's thoughts were elsewhere at the moment. Why was Clovis doing this? Sure, she knew Clovis to be a coward who would duck for cover at the first sign of trouble and use his forces as human shields, but she never thought that he would be a particularly violent person. She did not think that he would be the type that would order a massacre of the defenceless… duck for cover at the first sign of trouble, yes; but go in guns blazing and killing innocents… she never thought that was his style, but then again, it had been seven years since she had last socialised with Clovis and he had no doubt changed these past seven years. She knew that people could change. She herself had changed from a kind, peace-loving Princess of Britannia to a calculating strategist with nothing but hatred and contempt for her own Empire… or more specifically; her father. Still, she had some of her old qualities, which was the reason she had gone to see if the occupants of the truck had needed help and now she was in this situation, unsure whether or not she was going to make it out alive.
"Damn it," she cursed, slamming the side of her fist against the wall, speaking with fury in her voice, "Damn it to Hell, why is everything so screwed up?"
One thing was for sure though, assuming she made it out of this alive, she vowed that she would make Clovis pay for this. She just could not wait to see the look on his face when she approached him, alive and ready to kill him for this atrocity.
"Not there," Lloyd Asplund said in a disappointed tone from outside his vehicle, the Special Research Division Transport, which was situated right next to the G-1 Base.
"It looks like he's gone to the front line," Cecile explained simply.
"Even though we brought the Lancelot here?" Lloyd went on, still sounding disappointed and a bit furious. Lying at the back of the vehicle, which was a transporter of some kind was a huge gurney draped in a black tarpaulin cloth with a pair of metal white feet with gold at the bottom sticking out.
"Now what'll we do?" Cecile asked curiously.
"We steamrolled our way in here, but we don't have a devicer to use it," Lloyd replied, still disappointed as he held up a Knightmare-activation key in front of himself.
Cecile sighed as Lloyd continued to look disappointed. He had been hoping to use this opportunity to test of his latest creation, the Lancelot, a prototype Knightmare Frame for the seventh generation mass production models. Unfortunately the "devicer" that had been chosen had already gone to the front line deciding that he was more comfortable with a regular Sutherland, or at least that's how Lloyd saw it. Of course when he spoke with Bartley, he knew that he had been lying about what it was the terrorists had stolen and was probably paranoid that he was trying to get his hands on it, but in truth, Lloyd did not care much for whatever it was the terrorists had stolen. Let Bartley keep his secrets. The data he was after was battle data for the Lancelot, so he could discover how well it functioned in combat and what potential weaknesses it had so he could eliminate them.
"Huh," he said, noticing two soldiers hauling a third one out from underground on a stretcher, "What have we here? Do I spot a potential devicer in our midst?"
Cecile just rolled her eyes as she shook her head. In her opinion, this man was a bit of a child and obviously had a few screws lose in his head. She had to put up with his childish behaviour day in and day out and he would often throw childish tantrums whenever one of his inventions did not work the way he wanted it to. Like Bartley, Cecile had to wonder if Lloyd enjoyed getting under people's skin as he seemed to do that an awful lot with the leaders of the other factions within Britannia and from the looks of it; he was not even trying, though it did seem to excite him. Cecile often wondered how he had not driven her to insanity yet. He regarded those who tested his inventions in the past as part of the inventions themselves and not people. To him, a person operating his invention was part of it and would not allow anyone else other than that person to operate his invention and he hated it whenever he was forced to do so. Cecile often felt like hitting him over the head whenever he got like that.
"Good," Lloyd's voice came, bringing her back to reality, "I'll take it, how much?"
Cecile noticed that he had already walked over to the two soldiers handling their injured colleague and looked at the injured soldier as if he were a product sitting on a supermarket self.
The soldier himself was a Japanese teenager with messy brown hair and green eyes.
"But Lloyd, he's an Honorary Britannian," Cecile said with a hint of worry in her voice.
In truth she did not mind the "Elevens", regardless of whether they had Honorary status or not and she was sure that this boy was a fairly decent and respected young man, but she was more concerned about the potential repercussions from Lloyd's decision; especially if this Honorary Britannian proved himself indeed worthy to pilot the Lancelot since she knew that many Britannians hated non-Britannians who were just as good as, if not better than they were.
"Yes, I can clearly see that, I'm not blind you know," Lloyd replied, giving his assistant a questioning look, "Your point?"
"He was born an Eleven and you know how the military are about letting them near Knightmares," Cecile replied, giving the soldier a concerned look.
"I honestly don't care much for the military and their rules," Lloyd replied with a shrug, "Those pompous self-opinionated bigots at the top seem to believe that Britannians are the only ones with talent and can't stand it when they're proven wrong. I say that you should salvage good talent wherever you can find it, whether it's Britannian or not. The main reason why Honorary Britannians aren't allowed to pilot Knightmares in my opinion is because of those assholes at the top being afraid that they'll prove them wrong and upset their status-quo on non-Britannians."
"Well said," Cecile thought with a rare, but brief genuine smile, glad that she and Lloyd were in agreement over something.
"As for our situation here, we need a devicer for the Lancelot and if the higher-ups don't like my choice of pilot then I only have two words for them," Lloyd went on, feeling that he was on a roll, "And those two words are, "Piss off"."
Cecile giggled at Lloyd's attitude and knowing him, that was not just an empty promise. He was no doubt foolish enough to actually stand up to them and say that. It would definitely be a shock to say the least. She could just picture the looks on the faces of the said higher-ups if Lloyd actually went through with it.
Meanwhile, Euphemia and the girl had found a way above ground and were currently laying low on a staircase that led up to an abandoned warehouse. After navigating the underground mazes of the old subway systems, they had both somehow ended up in an abandoned basement storeroom.
"Stay quiet," Euphemia said to the girl, looking back at her as she cautiously moved to crawl up the stairs, "Wait here."
However, her progress was halted by the sound of loud gunfire, followed by the thud of a body hitting the ground. Euphemia kept quiet, not daring to move as she knew whoever fired the gun was up in the warehouse.
"Report," she heard the familiar voice of the Royal Guard General say as he walked into the warehouse where six of his subordinates were already standing.
"We found only Elevens here sir," one of the subordinates replied as the General walked further inside, letting out a frustrated groan.
"You're sure it?" the General asked, sounding rather frustrated; probably due to the fact that he was eager to get the target back as quickly as possible, "That exit comes out here?"
"Yes sir," the same subordinate that had answered before replied, "It matches up with our map of the old city."
Euphemia had poked her head out from the floor to see them and turned back to check on the girl, but was surprised when she heard the sound of a child crying. However, before she even had the chance to think, she heard gunfire, causing her to recoil and clench her eyes shut in horror as after the gunfire ceased, all she heard was a thud and then, silence.
"Those heartless monsters," she thought angrily, "He was just a child. He couldn't even defend himself; just what are you trying to prove?"
She then started to relax just as the soldiers were getting ready to leave. However, just as she started to feel safe, her cell phone started to ring and unfortunately for her, the ringtone was so loud that it echoed throughout the warehouse, alerting the soldiers to her presence.
Quickly taking out her cell phone, she checked the caller ID and as she suspected, it was Shirley Fenette; one of her friends from school, who seemed to have an obsession with her and openly disapproved of her gambling ventures and she also had a habit of calling up on her at the most inopportune times. Unfortunately, this time, Shirley's habit had no doubt sealed her fate.
"Of all the times to call Shirley, it just had to be when I'm in danger of being killed," she thought furiously as she answered her phone.
Meanwhile, Shirley was standing outside in Ashford Academy's courtyard, completely unaware of what was going on in the Shinjuku Ghetto and therefore unaware that she may have potentially signed Euphemia's death warrant. She was awaiting an answer on her cell phone and was relieved when Euphemia answer.
"Hey Euphie, where the…?" she started to say in a demanding tone.
"Piss off Shirley," Euphemia furiously angry voice came, sounding rather quiet and hushed, though Shirley heard her quite clearly before the sound of Euphemia hanging up came across the phone.
Shirley just stood there for a minute, unsure what to think, but then Euphemia's words finally reached her brain, causing her to bring her phone in front of her face and glare at it as if it was Euphemia as she clenched her fingers round it.
"Of all the no good…" she started ranting furiously to the phone, "Ooh when I see you next time Euphie, you are so dead."
Back at the Shinjuku warehouse, Euphemia grunted as she was smacked into a wall as more of the Royal Guard showed up, two soldiers claiming the girl and pointing there guns at her as she attempted to make her way towards Euphemia, stopping her. Euphemia regained her balance before she fell and glared back at the Royal Guard, or more specifically, the General.
"What an appropriate location for a terrorist to meet her end," the General boasted with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"You disgusting monstrous scum," Euphemia replied with fury in her voice, "Cowards."
"Still, you did well for a student, but that's to be expected," the General went on, totally ignoring Euphemia's insult, "You're a Britannian. Unfortunately my clever young friend, you have no future."
He then rotated his lower arm upwards in a ninety-degree angle, revealing a gun in his hand and got ready to fire.
"Idiotic scum, that's what you are," Euphemia spat as she scanned the area, looking for the child she heard screaming before he had been shot, but since she did not know what he looked like, she just motioned her head towards the first child's body she saw, "What are you trying to prove by killing defenceless children; that you guys are better than they are? Big deal, anyone could beat up a child."
"You dare mock us?" the General spoke in an infuriated tone, glaring at Euphemia, "Do you realise who we are?"
He honestly had not expected that. Unfortunately, he took Euphemia's insult as a blow to his pride and being a Britannian who went along with the masses, blows to his pride was just something he could not stand, even though he knew that Euphemia did speak the truth, he would rather die than admit it.
"Officially, you are the Royal Guard under Prince Clovis la Britannia's command, but all I see are a group of overrated gorillas that enjoy killing and terrorising little kids because it makes them feel good about themselves."
"You disrespectful little tramp," the General said as his fingers tightened their hold on the gun in his hand and he moved to pull the trigger.
Euphemia recoiled and backed up against the wall as she clenched her eyes shut.
"She mustn't die," the girl, who had finally freed herself from her restraints shouted as she ran in front of Euphemia, but unfortunately, the General realised this too late to stop his finger from pushing against the trigger and he fired the gun.
The bullet hit the girl in the centre of her forehead just before the area between her eyes, revealing a strange insignia as the girl's eyes widened in surprise. Euphemia's eyes also widened in surprised, but if the General was also surprised, he did a damn good job in hiding it. The girl fell to the floor as blood started oozing out the back of her head.
"Y-You shot her," Euphemia said in disbelief with a surprised look of disbelief to accompany her tone.
"Lady Rochelle's orders were to bring her back alive if possible," the General said; his tone rather uncaring and indifferent as he had calmed down from Euphemia's earlier insults, though Rochelle's name did not escape Euphemia's ears, "Oh well, nothing can be done about it now. We'll tell our superiors that the Royal Guard found the terrorist hideout and killed them all. Regrettably the female hostages, being her and you had already been tortured and raped to death. What do you think schoolgirl? That would be an enlightening scenario to tell your family, wouldn't it? After all, it was only by your own bad luck that you got caught up in all this. Unfortunately, you've seen too much and pose a threat to Lady Rochelle, who by the way was the one who ordered us to kill you."
"L-L-Lady R-R-Rochelle…?" Euphemia asked in disbelief before regaining her composure, "As in the Imperial Consort to Charles zi Britannia, Rochelle li Britannia?"
"Yes, what of it?" the General asked, finding Euphemia's curiosity intriguing and decided there was no harm in telling her since she would dead soon anyway.
"Isn't Prince Clovis the acting Viceroy of Area Eleven?" Euphemia, repressing the urge to spit out venom as she spoke the words, "Area Eleven", as in her view, the country was still Japan.
"Ha, he's Viceroy in name only," the General scoffed uncaringly, "Rochelle li Britannia holds the true power here and this is all part of her grand master plan."
"Grand master plan, just what's she planning?" Euphemia asked with hatred in her voice as she was coming to understand what was really going on.
"Operation: Eleven Genocide," the General replied with a smirk, "It was her who gave the terrorists intelligence leading them to believe that they were after poison gas. The terrorists would lead us right to a ghetto where Lady Rochelle could start a massacre under the guise of a cover up, which in turn would hopefully provoke Elevens everywhere to rebel, giving her an excuse to wipe them all out and the thing is, if the truth of the girl is uncovered, Prince Clovis would get the blame while Lady Rochelle gets off scot-free since His Highness did provide funding for the project, though he doesn't know exactly what it is he's been funding."
"Why does that fool of a Prince stop the massacre?" Euphemia asked with gritted teeth, furious and enraged that her own mother was the architect of this entire crisis and was just using Clovis as a means to ensure that she got her way and to dodge blame.
"Prince Clovis unfortunately is too terrified of Lady Rochelle to act against her," the General scoffed with a laugh, "She could potentially ruin him you know. It's because of her that he's remained Viceroy for as long as he has, but he's expendable. If anything goes wrong, she could easily have him replaced with someone loyal to her and who will obey her without question. Now then, I believe that's enough talk. Time for you to meet your end schoolgirl."
Euphemia looked down at the girl's dead body as she contemplated her situation.
"How can this be happening?" she thought as she felt as if her whole world was caving in around her, unable to believe that her life was going to end like this and ironically, by order of her mother, "First Suzaku's killed… and this girl… Now I'm about to die… before I've had chance to do a single thing with my life
An image of her half-sister sitting in her wheelchair flashed in her mind. Nunnally was in the middle of the countryside with a rainbow-coloured meadow in the background to the right.
"It's gone in a heartbeat," she went on as she started to tear up, "Nunnally… I'm so sorry Lelouch, but I've failed both you and Nunnally. I'm so very sorry."
However, much to her surprise and amazement, the girl's hand suddenly reached up and grabbed her wrist and the next thing she knew, she was falling as she witnessed blue streaks of what could only be described as energy emit from her body as the areas off to both her side lit up with green lines like the schematics for a computer's circuits.
"You don't want it to end here, do you?" she heard a familiar voice boom in her head and she immediately recognised it as the voice in her head before she had ended up inside the truck.
"What?" Euphemia said to herself in disbelief as, unbeknownst to her, all the colours from her body vanished and she was silhouetted against a white background and looked a lot like a colourless drawing and started disappearing and reappearing in nearby locations so fast, it was as if there was more than one of her.
"You appear to have a reason for living," the voice went on as Euphemia felt like she was moving towards a dark blue mist like background with multi-coloured energy streaks highlighting her path very much like before when she heard the voice the first time
"That girl," Euphemia said, realising who the voice belonged to and realised that the girl had been the one who had spoken to her before.
However, even though her vision of the path towards the dark blue mist like background, she was still colourless against the white background, disappearing and reappearing.
"If I grant you power, could you go on?" the girl asked, much to Euphemia's surprise as she finally saw the girl, who was also colourless and against a white background like a drawing and who was also disappearing and reappearing in nearby locations so fast, it was like there was more than one of her, " I propose a deal. In exchange for this power, you must agree to make my one wish come true."
Her sight quickly changed to an image of a bright white light in the shape of a sword's point between two large circular objects.
"Accept this contract and you accept it's conditions," the girl went on as the light descended lower, highlighting the features of the two round objects, identifying them as planets, "While living in the world of humans; you will live unlike any other, a different providence, a different time, a different life."
Suddenly, what could only be described as feathers flooded Euphemia's sight as she felt as if she was now lying down and when the feathers cleared, she saw a wall with a strange symbol; the symbol that adorned the girl's forehead carved into it. She then saw a group of people she did not know with the same symbol adorning each of their foreheads and then a giant red planet before the blue background returned with the streaking highlighting her path returned.
"The Power of the King will condemn you to a life of solitude," the girl spoke as the entire area within Euphemia's vision became green like a mist, then red, then back to blue, then green, then red, then yellow and what looked like an entire galaxy appeared to be coming towards her, "Are you prepared for this?"
She then was assaulted with an image of her father with two of his guards on either side of him. He had his back to her and he appeared to be in some kind of temple, or maybe it was an area of the palace, Euphemia could not be sure.
"A convergence with the Ragnarok Connection?" he said in an astounded tone, "So the myth is beginning once again?"
Upon seeing this and hearing her father speak, she made up her mind, not liking the sound of this Ragnarok Connection and wondered if her father was planning on something that could potentially destroy the world. At first, it sounded preposterous, but with what she was experiencing right now, she had a hard time convincing herself that it was just one big hallucination.
"Yes, I hereby accept the terms of your contract," she said rather hurriedly as she extended her left arm to her side as she became pure black and moved backwards towards the white background with black streaks outline by dark reddish orange glows appeared very much like tree roots and then two cog connected together, indicating that the deal was done.
Back to reality, Euphemia noticed the girl's hand lying on the ground as she lay unmoving. She guessed that she must have used the last of her strength to give up this new power she could feel coursing through her body. She then stood up and turned to face the Royal Guard General, no longer afraid of him.
"Hmm," the General said curiously, wondering what was going on.
"Say, how should an exiled former Britannian Princess who has grown to detest her own country live her life?" she asked
"Are you some kind of radical?" the General said, ignoring the first part of her comment as he moved his arm to point his gun at her before he hesitated, realising that something was off.
"What's wrong, why not shoot?" Euphemia asked tauntingly as she had her right hand over her left eye, "Your opponent is just a schoolgirl who had once been Third Princess of your Empire before her father exiled her along with her blind and crippled half-sister as political hostages or have you finally realised as Lelouch so often said in the past before he was assassinated… the only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed themselves."
She then removed her hand from her eye as a straight reddish pinkish orange straight line appeared in the centre of her pupil before forming the symbol that the girl had on her forehead.
"What's happening here?" the General asked, for the first time feeling the need to be afraid as his arm holding the gun started to tremble.
"I, Euphemia li Britannia, Third Princess of the Empire command you," she started to say in a tone that held authority and did not expected to be questioned as she raised her arm to her side, "Now all of you… die."
The insignia in her left eye performed a flapping motion as the General and his subordinates all felt a strange sensation enter their eyes and the General even took a step back before giving her an insane smile and bursting into equally insane laughter.
"Happily Your Highness," the General responded in a frighteningly unnatural euphoric tone as he pushed the front of his gun up against the side of his neck near the end of the bottom of his face and the other followed suit, also flashing her insane grins, though they did not laugh.
Euphemia also noticed a strange reddish glow running along the outlines of their irises.
"Fire," the General commanded in a blissfully euphoric tone before firing the gun and the others soon followed.
Blood splattered everywhere as they all fell to the ground dead and Euphemia's eyes widened in shock at what had just happened.
"D-d-d-did I do this?" she whispered to herself after reality caught up with her, "D-d-did I just k-kill those guys?"
Author's Notes – An unexpectedly quick chapter… I'm impressed. I realise that many of you may think that Rochelle's personality may be over-the-top, but I'm an over-the-top kind of person. I tend to hype things up and blow them out of proportions, though don't ask me why. Even I don't know the answer to that. Anyway, as you can see, I made this chapter fairly different from the anime, giving Rochelle more speaking lines and highlighting her insanity and Euphemia will be having a meeting with her and Clovis eventually. Just need to get through the battle phase of Shinjuku first. You noticed that Euphemia's reaction to the deaths of the Royal Guard soldiers was not the same as Lelouch's; that was intentional and I did consider giving Euphemia a different Geass, but in my opinion, it just would not have gone with the story and would have been difficult to work with later. Next chapter will be the start of the Battle for Shinjuku and Euphemia's reaction to what just happened at the end of this chapter. There will be a surprise in store for you all next time, I can guarantee it.