Suzaku earned an actual, official reprimand for his role in Kallen's escape, though not because anyone knew that his actions had been intentional. Lohmeyer had found the shattered Refrain and quickly pieced together that Suzaku had been threatening her with it but was stopped by Gino. She didn't know why the door's lock had failed to engage, however.

Other than that, Suzaku spent his time tending to his responsibilities and worrying about Euphy. Other knights of the round were starting to be transferred to Japan, starting with the knight of one, Bismarck. He was a quiet man who seemed to accept Nunnally's defense of Suzaku and Anya's handling of Kallen's escape and Gino's "death". And he didn't pry into Suzaku's conversations with Euphy – though he always made sure to have the tender parts of their conversations when he was absolutely certain no one was listening.

The only major thing of note immediately after Euphy's escape was a coded message to him from Schneizel. Loathe as Suzaku was to do anything for the man, he knew he had to keep up appearances. The message itself was simple: install a program into HQ's security. "Consider this a favor for me - K," the message ended with.

Suzaku had no choice but to do it. He waited for security to change their shift, marched into security, and begun uploading the program.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for him to get caught. "What're you skulkin' around here for, eleven?" Luciano Bradley said, slipping into the room and crossing his arms to watch Suzaku.

Suzaku glanced up from the USB port where he'd put in Schneizel's program. "Merely installing something for the Prime Minister," Suzaku said.

"Is that so?" Bradley said. He stomped past Suzaku and began typing on the computer. "Huh, looks like whatever you're installing is affecting cameras around all of HQ. Especially the hangers."

"If you don't believe me, talk to the Prime Minister yourself," Suzaku said stiffly.

Bradley smirked. "Relax, Kururugi," he said, "I'm in on it too. Gotta wait for you to be done before I enact step two." He frowned and said, "I almost feel sorry for the sucker who has to handle Bismarck." Then a smirk crossed his face and said, "we were gonna blackmail Weinberg, but he's dead now. Maybe you'll work though. Someone who's dealt directly with geass, unlike the rest of us."

Then Bradley left.

Suzaku frowned and waited for the program to finish installing, then pulled the USB out and crushed it. "Geass?" he muttered under his breath and went to dispose of the USB. "Who told Bradly?"

The next few days were frantic for Euphy. She hadn't realized what she was getting in to when Lelouch basically pressed her into his military organization – especially considering that they functioned as the UFN's military and all day new weapons shipments came to the island. She first saw the ships coming in on her morning jog (not something she'd ever been able to do, and by the end she wasn't entirely sure if it was something she wanted to keep up). She saw more ships during breakfast and then lunch and then dinner. And she saw ships in the evening.

The bulk of the day was training. Kallen was a surprisingly harsh taskmaster, and by the end of the day Euphy was sore both from running laps and from being pushed further and further to the limits in her knightmare. Lelouch arrived at one point and announced that, excepting tomorrow, she had four days (including today) to get ready for the next operation. He also told Kallen that he had given Euphy the day off tomorrow, but she would get another 12-hour training day after that.

Euphy was able to call Suzaku during lunch and chat a little with him, but she couldn't say much and didn't want to tell him what she was doing. She knew he wouldn't be happy at all if he knew what she was doing – or that Lelouch had put her into it with no input at all.

Dinner at the mess hall also ended up being lively. Kallen had not found out that Shirley was at the island before then. "I knew you were a Black Knight now, somehow, but what are you doing here?" Kallen had said when Shirley sat next to them.

"Zero's teaching me communications!" Shirley said cheerfully.

"Zero himself?" Kallen said.

"Well, he helps, but he's usually busy," Shirley said. "My post's to be in his office, but people like Mr. Reid have been helping me out."

"Everyone's going to think you're his mistress," Kallen groaned, "it's bad enough when they think I am."

"Why do they think that?" Euphy said.

"Kaguya," Kallen said, nodding to a Japanese girl cheerfully chatting with one of the chefs. "She's said before that Zero's harem would be her, CC, and me."

Shirley frowned. "He said CC's not like that to him," she said.

"She said yesterday she's not," Euphy said quickly. She glanced behind her at Kaguya again. "She looks familiar."

"I think she's Suzaku's cousin," Kallen replied.

"Oh yeah, Kallen, Zero asked how Gino's doing," Shirley said.

"Oh, fine," Kallen said, "I told him that if he behaved, he could eat with us."

"Really?" Shirley said, "are you sure he won't, you know-"

"I don't think he wants to sell out a royal," Kallen said quietly, after looking to make sure she wasn't overheard. She looked at the clock and said, "I suppose I'll go get him." Kallen left.

"Does Zero think he can get Gino to flip?" Euphy said.

"I think so," Shirley said. She giggled and said, "he actually thought about just ordering Kallen to seduce him, but CC and I talked him out of that."

A kind-looking brown-haired man came over. "I feel like I've seen you two before," he said.

"Oh, you're, uh, Ohgi-san, right?" Shirley said.

Ohgi nodded and reached out his hand. "And you are?"

"Shirley Fenette, sir," Shirley said. "And this is Euphemia Black."

"Pleased to meet you, Ohgi-san," Euphy said cheerfully.

"So, how's Viletta doing?" Shirley said.

"Vi-viletta?" Ohgi said. "What makes you think-"

"She disappeared a few days ago, I thought she went to go talk to you," Shirley said. She shrugged and said, "that's what I told Zero, at least."

"Uh, you told Zero?" Ohgi said, taking a step backwards – into Rolo. His face was blank.

"Zero wants to talk to you," Rolo said, looking at Ohgi. Then he looked at Shirley. "And you as well."

"Me?" Shirley said. Rolo nodded, and Shirley sighed and got up. "Alright."

Shirley and Ohgi left, leaving Rolo staring down at Euphy. "Hello, Rolo," Euphy said, "please, sit down."

"Why?" Rolo said, "I don't-"

"You're my brother, right?" Euphy said, "shouldn't I learn more about you?"

Rolo cocked his head and seemed to contemplate her for a few seconds. Then he nodded. "Let me get some food," Rolo said.

He returned after a bit and sat next to Euphy. "You seem very close to Lelouch," Euphy said, "is he close to you?"

"Yeah. Lelouch took a shot for me, even though it'd be easier to let me die," Rolo said.

Euphy smiled. "That sounds like something he'd do," Euphy said. "For the people he cares about."

Rolo smiled. "Thank you, Euphemia," he said.

"Please, call me, Euphy," Euphy said, "or maybe 'big sister'. I think I'm older than you!"

Rolo smiled a little more. "Euphy," he said, "what's Nunnally like? Lelouch seems really attached to her."

"Nunnally's a very sweet girl," Euphy said. "When Lelouch and Nunnally were younger, they always fought. Lelouch and Nunnally could both be brats. But after Nunnally lost her eyesight and legs, Lelouch took over as kind of a father to her, as much as he could. He's always doted on her."

"Do you think he likes her more than me?" Rolo said.

Euphy giggled. "Rolo, I think he likes Nunnally more than anyone. Nunnally's the most important person in the world to him. But give him time, and I think he'll love you just as much," she said.

"Do you really think so?" Rolo said, holding up a flip phone that a little pendant swung from. He stared at the pendant. "Euphy?"

"Well, Lelouch is close to me now, even after everything that's happened between us," Euphy said. "And I'm sure that Nunnally will love you too."

"You think so?" Rolo said.

Euphy nodded. Kallen and Gino returned a few minutes later. Gino was instantly the center of attention to. "What, I'm just a POW, that's all!" Gino said, as Kallen escorted him to get food and then back.

"You could at least not draw attention to yourself," Kallen said.

"Well, it's me and three Britannians here," Gino said. He looked at Shirley's vacant place and said, "and someone's food."

"That's Shirley's, she's with Zero right now," Rolo said.

The buzz around Gino subsided, and the Black Knights went back to their meal. Gino leaned in and whispered, "how are things, your majesty?"

"Fine," Euphy whispered back. "Gino, are you-"

"Look, I'm not here by choice, but I'm gonna do Suzaku a solid and keep an eye on you, at least," Gino said. Then he leaned back yawned widely. "But prison sure is boring."

"Well, unfortunately, we have no way of entertaining you," Kallen said.

"Sure you could," Gino said. "We could go on a date. Get some Pizza Hut or something."

"I don't think a CO and a prisoner should be going on dates, Gino," Kallen said, with a hint of bemusement in her voice.

"Well, there's a simple solution!" Gino declared, "just-"

"No," Kallen said matter-of-factly.

Gino started pouting, but Euphy tuned them out as Shirley and a relieved-looking Ohgi approached. "I told you Zero wasn't going to do anything to her," Shirley was saying, and she took her seat back. Ohgi went to get food. "Oh, hello, Sir Gino!"

"Hey, Shirley!" Gino said, "I was just trying to convince Kallen to go on a date with me."

Shirley crossed her arms. "Well, if Kallen said no, you shouldn't keep pushing, right?"

"She didn't say no, though, she said it wouldn't be proper," Euphy said.

Kallen closed her eyes and said nothing. She looked as if she was trying to ignore the conversation. Ohgi returned at this moment. "What's up?" he said.

"Dating," Rolo said, "I guess."

"Who's dating who?" Ohgi said.

"Me and Kallen, hopefully," Gino said.

Kallen shook her head slowly. "Well, prisoners and officers shouldn't date," Euphy said, "that's what Kallen said."

"And what if Gino here wasn't a prisoner?" Ohgi said.

"He's the enemy," Kallen said.

"That doesn't stop Euphy," Rolo said.

"That's different," Kallen said.

"Oh, are you dating a Britannian soldier?" Ohgi said, glancing at Euphy.

Euphy held up her hand to show Ohgi her ring. "My fiancé is in the Britannian army," Euphy said.

Shirley squealed in excitement. "Really?" she said, grabbing Euphy's hands, "congratulations!"

"I'm surprised you didn't know," Kallen said dryly. "Now, how about we do something besides discuss dating, before we try and set the feminist movement back 50 years."

"There's no harm in having fun, Kallen," Shirley said, crossing her arms.

Gino laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, Kallen," he said, "I shouldn't press you on this."

Kallen finished off her last slice of bread and stood up. "If you weren't a prisoner, and you weren't working for Britannia, then I would go on a date with you," Kallen declared. Then she left.

"I hope you have more moral fiber than turning on Britannia just to go on a date," Ohgi commented.

Gino shrugged. "My heart is with the homeland," Gino said, "Kallen's pretty hot, and she has a winning personality for sure, but I don't think she'd like dating a traitor." Kallen returned from putting her food tray away and she sat next to Gino again. "So basically, I won't turn on Britannia unless I have a good reason."

"Serving a murderous emperor and a crazy, genocidal regime isn't enough?" Ohgi said.

Gino blushed and looked down. "Well, uh, when you put it that way-"

"You've got five minutes to finish your food, loverboy," Kallen said.

"Y-yes ma'am!"

Euphy could tell that Kallen wasn't actually as annoyed with Gino as she acted, since the rest of training for the night she was actually comparatively softer. "Do you think Gino will turn on Britannia in the end?" Euphy asked her.

"I don't know," Kallen replied. "I kind of hope so."

"Why's that?"

"I won't deny that he… intrigues me."

Euphy smiled at this but decided to keep the rest of her comments to herself.

"My, my, what a place."

Euphy had invited her old doctors to see her apartment that night. Suzaku would be visiting tomorrow, which she was extremely excited for, but she didn't want to cast her other friends from that time aside.

Dr. Eberhardt was examining her bookcase and Dr. Westinghouse was looking through her bathroom. "This is nicer than our apartment," Westinghouse commented.

"You two share one?" Euphy said.

Eberhardt nodded. "We're actually married," he said, "have been for a little while."

"I thought you were just engaged," Euphy said.

Eberhardt smiled. "We were, once, I guess it just slipped our mind to tell you," Eberhardt said.

"Euphemia, I heard you're getting training off tomorrow," Westinghouse said.

"Oh, yes, Suzaku's coming to visit me," Euphy said happily.

Westinghouse smiled warmly. "Please tell him hello from us," she said, "if possible, come visit!"

Euphy nodded. "That would be nice," she said.

Westinghouse walked over to Euphy's bed, that she'd put a case on. "I've got some medicine and stuff that should come in handy," Westinghouse said, "Zero's orders." She put aspirin and ibuprofen away then returned to her bag. She took a bottle of pills out and handed it to Euphy. "And this is for you."

She went back to stocking Euphy's cabinet while Euphy looked down at the bottle. It merely read "COCP" on the side. Curious, she flipped it over… and blushed. "Uh, Dr. Westinghouse," she said, "this – this isn't from Zero, is it?"

"He wanted to make sure you had something. He left that up to me," Westinghouse said.

Euphy quickly stowed the pills away. "I'm… going to go talk about literally anything else," Euphy said. Westinghouse smiled and shrugged.

Euphy went to talk to Eberhardt. He had finished examining her kitchen knives. "Quite nice," he commented. He turned and looked at the bookcase, and said, pointing at her book on the American Rebellion, "but I'm glad to see that book."

"Oh, yes, it's a very nice one," Euphy said, picking the book up, "it's the only one I took from prison."

"I remember giving it to you shortly after you woke up," Eberhardt said. "You might not remember, though."

Euphy nodded. "You've read it before?"

"Read it? Oh, something like that," Eberhardt said. He took the book from Euphy, flipped to a page, and then tucked the corner down. "Look at this page later. It's a nice painting."

"Thank you, Doctor," Euphy said.

"Of course, Princess," Eberhardt said.

Westinghouse finished stocking Euphy's cabinet and emerged from the bathroom. "I think we need to head back to our shift," Westinghouse said.

"It was nice to talk to you," Eberhardt said.

"Mmhm! Thanks, guys," Euphy said cheerfully. "Even for – well-"

"It's really more for future use," Westinghouse said, "I left a piece of paper with instructions."

"Um, thank you," Euphy replied, feeling a little awkward.

Westinghouse and Eberhardt left. Euphy waved them goodbye and decided to read Westinghouse's paper. She grabbed it from the bathroom and moved to the couch to prepare to read it…

And almost sat on her book. "Oh, yeah," Euphy said aloud, and she opened to the page that Eberhardt indicated.

It was farther in the book than she had read to. She flipped the page open and saw a set of two paintings. The first was of Benjamin Franklin, the famous traitor to the American Rebellion. And on the other was a painting of George Washington crossing the river Delaware. She knew this picture of course. Lelouch had loved it as a child. She smiled at this memory – and then noticed that someone had drawn on this one.

Specifically, they had drawn a circle around one of the rowers: a black man who looked remarkably like Max Eberhardt.

Cornelia li Britannia had been in many deserts. The Sahara, the Mojave, the Arabian, the Patagonian, the Kalahari, the Great Basin, the Syrian. She hated each one. And she hated this one, the Gobi desert, with a fiery passion to eclipse them all. Because she was almost out of water.

At least she was almost at her destination. She looked up at the mountain, surrounded by the desert on all sides. It was conspicuous, but to a normal person it was also unremarkable.

Cornelia was not a normal person. She knew a hollow mountain – a mountain fortress – when she saw one.

She stole away into the mountain easily enough. It was the hub of the Geass Directorate, that her careful study and questing had uncovered over the last year. She had known that Euphy would never have turned on the Japanese – nor, for that matter, that Darlton would turn on her – and her investigator had wound up here.

The mountain itself needed an easy in and out. It wasn't very large, and if she had to guess, it was for lookouts. Inside, the Directorate had a fairly impressive city situated inside of the very cool city. There were a handful of researchers walking around, but Cornelia avoided them all. She instead headed into the depths.

She passed empty prison cells set into the walls and found sets of laboratories at the lowest level. She picked the nearest one to go into and found… children.

Children, chained up and covered in filthy rags. A sign reading "Failed experiments" was mounted on one wall. "What hell is this?" Cornelia said.

She heard a door open at the entrance of the building. Cornelia quickly hid inside of a cabinet and watched through a crack as two white-garbed men dragged in an emaciated, nearly naked girl. The girl was doing her best to cling to her head, despite the men's best efforts. "Another one," came the voice of another man.

"Yeah, the director tried his best," one of the other researchers said, "no dice."

"Do you think this will ever work?" the third researcher said.

"Who knows?" the first researcher said. There was a shuffling voice and the same man said, "for heaven's sakes, get her clothes and medicine."

"She almost killed me!" the second researcher said.

"Can you blame her?" the first said, "geass acceleration does that."

"I don't get what she did," the second said, "accelerate something like Rolo's I get. But this?"

"Yeah man, I don't know," the first said.

Cornelia waited for them to throw her in a cage and get her her change of clothes and leave before coming out of the cabinet. The girl was now dressed and was unconscious. Cornelia didn't know if it was from a coma or sleep.

Still, she looked at the clipboard hung next to her cage: '0191' was listed as her 'name', and underneath it, 'Geass: Read Memories(?)'.

Underneath that was graceful, slender handwriting that read, 'FAILURE' and, beneath that, 'ACCELERATED - FAILED'.

The girl stirred and one eye opened slightly. For a brief second, Cornelia saw the same red symbol that had been burnt in Lelouch's eye last year. The girl's eye closed again.

Cornelia frowned and mentally filed this away. Then she went back to her infiltration.

Suzaku arrived the next day in disguise. While Euphy had meant to meet him alone, for security reasons Lelouch had sent Jeremiah to keep an eye on him. Suzaku, for his part, looked rather uncomfortable, at least until Euphy flung herself around him and gave him a deep kiss.

They walked back to her apartment, hand-in-hand, ignoring a few of the early workers' stares and Jeremiah quietly following them. They reached her apartment and, before they went in, Euphy turned to Jeremiah. "Can I show Suzaku where I work?" she said.

Jeremiah shook his head. "Not at this time," he said.

Euphy frowned but nodded. "Come inside, Suzaku," Euphy said, and he stepped in.

Once alone, Suzaku took off his disguise: a black wig, his wrap-around sunglasses, and a fake black mustache, as well as a rain jacket. "I never thought I'd be here," Suzaku said, "on the Black Knights' island."

"Me neither," Euphy said.

Suzaku walked around her little apartment, examining her television, bed, computer, and bathroom and minikitchen. "Zero said he got me one of the nicer ones," Euphy said, "he doesn't want this to be like a prison for me. Says he owes it to you."

"Do you have to stay in here all day?" Suzaku said, peering into the bathroom, probably at her small shower-bath.

"Oh, no," Euphy said. "I work with Kallen now."

Suzaku turned around. "Kallen's a pilot," Suzaku said, "Euphy, are you-"

"I want to help Zero," Euphy said. "It's what Lelouch would've wanted."

"Lelouch, huh? He's been missing for the last few days," Suzaku said, his face quickly turning sour. "And Shirley's gone too."

"Where is she now?" Euphy said, deciding to act oblivious.

"Her mother's not saying," Suzaku said with a sigh. "She says that she's on a trip with friends to Australia but calls her every night."

Euphy wondered if Lelouch had used his geass on Mrs. Fenette, or if Shirley was lying to her mother, or if Mrs. Fenette knew her daughter had run off to join the Black Knights – the ones who had killed her husband. Probably the first or second one, but Shirley's easy-going attitude made Euphy think it was the third. She decided to worry about it later, like that painting with Eberhardt or his ancestor.

So instead, she went over to her door and locked it. "Suzaku," Euphy said, "did you come here to talk to me about Lelouch and Shirley?"

Suzaku blushed and looked down. "No," he said, "I came to see you."

"Good," Euphy said. "Your disguise should be good enough that we can take a look at all the non-critical places."

"Even after what Gottwald said?" Suzaku said.

"I can check with Zero," Euphy replied. "I think he'll listen to me. He says he's interested in my old ideas, so why not trust me here too?"

"You're… you're not working with him, are you, Euphy?" Suzaku said.

"Why wouldn't I?" Euphy said. "Schneizel wants me dead. Father doesn't care what happens to me. Cornelia is gone. The Empire has no future for me. But if I can help this Zero make the kind of world Lelouch and I dreamed of… then I'll do it."

They spent the rest of the morning enjoying themselves. It felt good time to finally spend time with Suzaku, without the crushing guilt of the massacre hanging over her and as fully herself. And now that she was fully in her mind, she was able to do all the things she'd wanted to do with Suzaku but had been barred for security reasons. Whether it was making an actual breakfast for the first time together since before the massacre, or playing chess or video games against each other, or even talking about relatively pointless things like Arthur or Ashford or Nunnally's habits.

Someone knocked on the door around noon. Euphy sent Suzaku to hide in the kitchen and went to the door. She opened it to reveal Kallen. "Jeremiah talked to Zero," Kallen said, "he said you can at least take Suzaku to talk to Gino."

"Thank you, Kallen," Euphy said. Kallen nodded and left. She relayed this to Suzaku. "Let's visit him after lunch," Euphy told him.

"Yes, my lady," Suzaku said.

Once lunch was over, Suzaku donned his outfit and they made their way towards the prison cells. No one paid much attention to them – there were plenty of couples in the Black Knights, after all, and Euphy was in a Black Knights uniform. They were met at the prison entrance by Kallen.

"Welcome to Japan, Suzaku," Kallen said, and she slid the prison door open.

They followed Kallen into the depths of the prison, ending at an elevator that the three entered. "Where's Gino?" Suzaku said.

"Zero gave him a nice prison," Kallen replied, and the elevator began rising. A few minutes later, they reached a mostly-empty upper cell. The guard standing at attention by the elevator was dismissed by Kallen, and she went and switched off the surveillance.

"All clear," Kallen said.

Gino glanced over from his cell at this and saw Euphy with her arm linked with Suzaku's. "I was wondering when you were gonna show your ugly mug," Gino said, "how's it going with the viceroy, Suzaku?"

"Gino," Suzaku said, taking off his wig, "I swear I didn't mean for you to be caught."

Gino laughed. "Zero made it look like I died. My rep's intact at least," Gino said, "and it's not like I ever got along well with my folks. I just hope that Anya's not sad."

Suzaku smiled a little. "She's barely reacted. I think Nunnally was sadder," he said.

"So how are you doing here, Sir Gino?" Euphy said.

"Having the time of my life," Gino said. He leaned back on his cot and looked at Kallen. "Back when we had her in prison, I asked her if she would ever come back to Britannia as a Stadtfeld. Now she's trying to recruit me."

Suzaku looked down. "I would say to do the right thing and follow your orders, but…" Suzaku said, trailing off.

Gino sat up from his cot. "What's the story, anyways," Gino said, "what's Princess Euphemia doing alive? Why did you suddenly start killing the Japanese anyways? We heard the rumors even in Pendragon that you were dating an eleven."

Euphy flinched as memories of the massacre ran through her mind. "Well, I-" Euphy began saying.

But Suzaku cut her off. "She was forced to," he said, "I can't explain it well, but…"

"Something went wrong, and a massacre was started," Kallen said. She looked at Euphy and said, "isn't that right, Euphemia?"

"Yes," Euphy said.

"Huh," Gino said. "But then, why did you defect to the Black Knights?"

"Schneizel tried to have me killed," Euphy said. "My doctors saved me, but…"

"Are you sure they weren't secret Black Knights operatives that tricked you?" Gino said.

Both Euphy and Suzaku shook their heads. "It was Kanon, for sure," Suzaku said darkly. "They wanted to murder Euphy because she was a loose thread."

"What do you mean?" Gino said.

"I think Schneizel plans to overthrow the emperor," Suzaku said, "he's having me and the other knights of the round running odd jobs at HQ. Bradley said Schneizel's going to do something to Bismarck." He paused then said, "I think he knew that my loyalty in the upcoming civil war was based on Euphy. So…"

"Better to kill me," Euphy said. "Then claim Suzaku for his own."

"Then that means that the government is lead by a guy who's gonna try and kill his majesty," Gino said, standing up. "I can't- does anyone know?"

"I don't know how far his conspiracy goes," Suzaku replied. "I know Bradley's in. Bismarck's not. I don't know about the others."

"Well, I- I-" Gino sat down again and grabbed his head. "I need to think about this."

"I'll come back in a second," Kallen told him. She turned to Suzaku and Euphy. "Visiting time's over. Let's go."

They were deposited back at Euphy's apartment, which they spent a little more time in, cuddling and watching movies. Then they decided to take another walk around outside and ended up eating dinner outside as the sun set. Fortunately, no one pried. Euphy did notice Lelouch watching them one time – but he was gone before Suzaku turned around to look.

At the end of the night, they returned to Euphy's apartment. "When are you leaving?" Euphy said.

"Zero said either tonight or early in the morning," Suzaku said. "Either way, I have to be back before anyone goes looking for me."

"Then… can you leave tomorrow morning?" Euphy said. She was starting to blush, she could feel it, but she pressed forward: "I… I want to spend the night with you."

"What do you mean?" Suzaku said, reddening. "You don't-"

She silenced him by kissing him more forcefully than she ever had, wrapping her arms around his neck. They broke away, and Suzaku swallowed. "We're getting married, Suzaku," Euphy said, leaning close to his face.

"My lady, I'm not sure-" Suzaku said, but Euphy cut him off with another kiss.

"None of that 'my lady' stuff," Euphy said. "Just 'Euphy' or 'Suzaku'," Euphy said. "No princesses, no sirs, no ladies… just us."

"I-I-" Suzaku looked down into her eyes. Then he smiled – a weak smile, but a smile nonetheless. "Yes… Euphy," Suzaku said. "If this is what you want."

And Euphy responded by hugging him, very tightly. "Yeah. I want to be with you, Suzaku. To at least have this night together. I want to squeeze out every hour I can out with you before you have to go again." She put her head against his chest and said, "so for tonight, I don't want to be Euphemia the fugitive and Suzaku the errant knight. I just want to be Euphy and Suzaku." She could hear his heart beating and his lungs slowly breathing in and out.

"Alright," Suzaku said, and he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly. "That's who we'll be. Just Suzaku and Euphy. Just us." He leaned in and kissed her again…

A/N: It's up to you to decide what Euphy and Suzaku were up to after the scene change. Meanwhile, the plot thickens. This part actually saw heavy rewriting before I posted it today. Cornelia's little scene actually builds on a theory I saw somewhere a while ago, but I'll say it's not one that I actually subscribe to...