Code Geass – Euphemia of the Revelation
Prelude to destiny
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)
Summery – AU fic. What if instead of Lelouch going to Japan with Nunnally, Euphemia went instead. The assassination of Marianne vi Britannia also cost her son, Lelouch his life; being caught up in the crossfire along with Nunnally. Euphemia, who was close to Lelouch and Nunnally suspects something and confronts her father about it, only to be disinherited and shipped off to Japan along with the crippled and blind Nunnally as political hostages of the ruling Kururugi Family. However, one month later, talks broke down and war broke out between Japan and Britannia, a war only lasting one month due to Britannia's new weapons, the Knightmare Frames. Forced to go into hiding with the help of Lady Marianne's friends in the Ashford Family, Euphemia bides her time, waiting for the opportunity to strike and bring down her father. Seven years later, events lead to her gaining the power to do so as well as investigate the reasons behind Lady Marianne's death and build a world where her half-sister can find happiness. However, will she succeed, especially when her enemy happens to be her own full-blooded sister, Cornelia and more importantly, will she eventually allow herself to be consumed by her hatred and lose sight of her goal or will she be able to retain her humanity and fulfil her aims?
The date was August 10th in the year, 2010 on the Imperial Calendar. The Holy Britannian Empire had just declared war upon Japan. The far-east island had held fast to its neutrality and now Britannia looms as the world's only superpower. Rights to Japan's underground resources became a hotly disputed issue, straining the already deep-rooted diplomatic tensions between the two sides. In the deciding battle for the mainland, Britannian forces introduced into combat the humanoid autonomous armoured knight, known as the Knightmare Frame. The enemy's forces were far greater than anticipated and the Knightmares obliterated the Japanese line of defence on the mainland with little effort. Japan became a dominion of the Empire. The country was striped of its freedom, its rights and its name. Area Eleven, the defeated and once proud nation of Japan was rechristened with a mere number.
September 12th 2010 a.t.b.
Euphemia li Britannia stood by a harbour amidst the ruins of what was once a Japanese town. Her younger half-sister, Nunnally vi Britannia was already in the car that was nearby. Two men in grey business suits were nearby standing in front of a burning building and not making any attempt to put the flames out. There was clearly no point. Not far from her, sitting on a fallen piece of debris was her new friend and son of the late Japanese Prime Minister, Genbu Kururugi who reportedly committed seppuku upon realising that his country was doomed to lose, Suzaku Kururugi. He sat looking down at the ground, refusing to look at the ruins of his country. It was as if he was refusing to acknowledge what was going on round about him.
The sight of it absolutely sickened her. This was the fault of her father, the 98th Emperor of Britannia, Charles zi Britannia. The question on Euphemia's mind was, why? Why had her father sent both her and Nunnally off to a country that he invaded not even a month later? She remembered confronting him over the death of the Imperial Consort, Lady Marianne "the Flash" vi Britannia and Nunnally's mother after Lady Marianne had been assassinated by unknown terrorists and both her children, Lelouch and Nunnally had been caught up in the crossfire. Unfortunately, Lelouch's injuries cost him his life and Nunnally was crippled from the waist down and the trauma had caused psychological blindness, leaving her as a blind paraplegic. However, their father, whom was also Euphemia's father had turned a blind eye to the incident, dismissing it as if it were nothing.
Euphemia felt her blood boil as she remembered the confrontation she had with her father and how in her anger, she had renounced her claim to the throne as Third Princess of the Holy Britannian Empire, only to discover that her father had already disinherited her and Nunnally, calling them both weak; Nunnally due to her current situation and Euphemia because he felt that her views on life were too pacifistic for his taste and made her weak. From hearing that, she understood her father's true colours. He was a tyrant; a cold heartless monster that believed in strength and in the philosophy of the strong will crush the weak. To him, she had been nothing more than a sandbag that was weighing him down and he had used her confrontation over Lady Marianne's assassination as an excuse to cut her off. That infuriated her. She had been a nice and kind person by nature and had been pretty close with Lelouch and Nunnally despite Lady Marianne's commoner status, which had many of the other Imperial Consorts look down on her despite the fact she held the title, Knight of Honour and had once been the Knight of Six due to her phenomenal Knightmare piloting skills.
No doubt, it had been a possible motive for her assassination, since Lady Marianne performed the duties of a noblewoman so well; so well in fact that she made many of the arrogant nobility look like amateurs and Euphemia knew that those types of people did not like being outdone by those they considered inferior to them, which they felt Lady Marianne was due to her commoner status and the fact that she had managed to hold her own, even when ganged up on by the others probably only added to their fury. Basically, to Euphemia, it was a case of Lady Marianne was better at being a noble than the nobles themselves were and they could not stand that fact.
The car that Nunnally was in and which was waiting for her belonged to the Ashford Family, a former noble family that had fallen into disgrace after Lady Marianne's assassination. Lady Marianne had been a friend of theirs and a benefactor to their company, the Ashford Foundation and she even test-piloted their Knightmare Frame, Ganymede. However, after the assassination, the family had fallen from the Emperor's good graces, which led Euphemia to believe that that had been another possible motive for Lady Marianne's assassination, though she only came to that conclusion after overhearing part of a conversation between to members of the Royal Court. Thinking about it, she wondered if perhaps some of the Ashfords' rivals believed that them having an Empress as a benefactor would give them an unfair advantage as far as competition went and the Ashford Foundation could very well have access to resources that the others would not.
Anyway, Euphemia had called the Ashfords and asked for their help. She remembered her father saying how both she and Nunnally were dead to him and she decided that now was the best time to make him believe that that had become a reality before he discovered them both alive and could find new ways to use them to further his ambitions. Now would be the best time for them both to disappear and officially be declared dead.
"I'll make them pay," she said to no one in particular, causing Suzaku to raise his head and look at her, "I swear it in the name of my dead brother and Lady Marianne that I will make them all pay."
"Euphie?" Suzaku said in a confused tone, staring at his friend with a questioning look on his face.
Euphemia turned to him and gave him a gentle, satisfying smile. She did not mind the nickname as both Nunnally and Lelouch had called her by the same nickname. She remembered her time with them before that awful incident. It had been peaceful and she always thought that life was simple. She believed in peace and favoured negotiation as opposed to all-out war. She despised conflict and always believed that it could be avoided. However, upon seeing her father's true colours, she felt that she had been slapped in the face. Some people were beyond reason and force was the only thing capable of stopping people like that. Her father was one such example. He did not believe in negotiating. If he wanted something, he sent the military in to take it by force, like with Japan. Japan would not agree to Britannia's proposals on the trade of Sakuradite, so Britannia had just gone in and taken it. That enraged Euphemia to no end. The people of Japan would no doubt suffer because of this and all because her father could not accept things as they were. He was a power hungry tyrant and dictator. As much as it pained Euphemia, she knew that she had to go against everything she believed in to bring him down; but considering what he did to her and Nunnally, it was a price she was willing to pay. He had taken everything from her and so, she would take everything from him and all those who followed his lead in abandoning her and Nunnally.
"Don't worry Suzaku," she said with a smile, before her expression hardened into a serious look of determination, "I swear that someday I'll make things right. I swear that one day, I'll eradicate this corrupt Britannia. I'll see it burn."
The look in Euphemia's eyes scared Suzaku. It was a look he had never seen in her eyes before, nor did he ever imagine that kind, sweet Euphie would ever adorn such a look. He did not know what it was, but something in Euphemia's eyes told him that she was not just making an empty promise. He knew that Euphemia had every intention of making good on her statement or at least die trying and that scared him. This was so unlike the girl he had come to know the past two months.
He had to admit that at first, he was not too thrilled at the idea of his father playing host to a pair of princesses, believing them to be stuck-up snobs that would boss him around; getting him to carry out even the most simple of tasks. However, upon meeting Euphemia and Nunnally, seeing Nunnally's state and the fact that Euphemia introduced herself in a polite manner had caused all his animosity to vanish. They were not the stuck-up snobs he had envisioned them as and Euphemia even helped with his chores and took care of Nunnally herself. After a while, the three of them became fast friends. Euphemia had been very kind and polite and when Genbu had scolded Suzaku when he caught them both doing chores, Euphemia stood up for him, claiming that as a guest, she was obligated to earn her keep. That had touched Suzaku and he realised that this girl; princess or not clearly was not like what he envisioned her as.
As for Nunnally, she had a hard time accepting things and for the first few days, she threw tantrums and broke whatever she could get her hands on, though Euphemia had helped calm her down. However, she was not what he envisioned her as either and for her, he was willing to do things for her, though Euphemia insisted that she would be the one to do it, though she did allow Suzaku to help, as Suzaku let her help with his chores. She obviously felt indebted to him for that.
However, seeing Euphemia now, he could only wonder if "Euphie", the girl he had come to know had died because this was so unlike her. He pictured Euphemia with her nice and gentle smile and who was so kind and caring towards him and who was willing to stand up for him.
"Sorry Suzaku," Euphemia said, bringing Suzaku out of his thoughts as she gave him a sad look, "But Nunnally and I have to go. You understand, don't you?"
Suzaku nodded with a smile.
"Of course Euphie," he said, though in truth, he did not understand at all, but he knew that Euphemia had her reasons and did not question them, "You're doing this to protect yourselves."
Euphemia nodded with one of her usual characteristic smiles.
"Yes and I hope that we'll see each other again someday," she replied, giving him a polite bow before making her way to the Ashford Family's car.
Maybe Euphie was not dead after all Suzaku figured with a content smile.
However, Euphemia's thoughts were elsewhere.
"I wasn't totally lying Suzaku when I said this was for protection," she thought as she gave her friend a sad glance from inside the car as it started to drive off, "I am doing this from our protection, but not from the people you're thinking. We're doing this for protection against that man."
Her face twisted into a bitterly furious expression as she thought of her father; the demon that had dumped her and Nunnally here and left them for dead.
However, unbeknownst to anyone, a lone figure stood atop a nearby hill watching as the car drove off. Closing her eyes, the woman sighed as she started to walk away as soon as the car was out of sight.
"I understand," was all she said before becoming silent again as she walked off in the direction of the car.
2017 a.t.b.
Sixteen-year-old Euphemia Lamperouge sat in the student council room of Ashford Academy completely bored out her brain. It was lunchtime and she had nothing to do. Sure often slipped out with her friend, Rivalz Cardemonde to gamble in order to earn enough money to support her and her half-sister, Nunnally. Sure she was living with the Ashford Family and they still had a lot of money left over from their fall from grace, but Euphemia had refused to accept money off them, unless she was desperate. The way she saw it, she wanted to earn her way through life and felt that accepting money from the Ashfords would be leeching off them and given how the head of the family wanted the family's former status restored, Euphemia felt that she could not afford to worsen their troubles by leeching off their finances.
She had been lucky so far. She won most of her gambling games; simply because her opponents were either nobles that thought too highly of themselves and relied on their status and their overconfident looks to scare their opponents into submission or making mistakes or they believed that Euphemia was a pushover because she was a girl. In some cases, it was a combination of both, though she had played against female opponents before; usually overconfident noblewomen that believed they were untouchable because of their status. Boy did Euphemia prove them wrong and she enjoyed doing it; knocking those who thought too highly of themselves of their high horses and sent them crashing down to reality.
Chess was her favourite game, though she only took it up because she saw how good her half-brother, Lelouch was so good at it; so good in fact that the only one who ever managed to defeat him was their half-brother, Schneizel. It was Lelouch that taught her how to play and showed her effective strategies. To her, Lelouch had been amazing as he had been able to turn the tables even when it looked like he would lose. She learned everything she knew about chess from Lelouch and she had yet to come across an opponent that she could not defeat aside from her older full-blooded sister, Cornelia, her half-brother, Schneizel since even Lelouch could not defeat him himself and finally, Lelouch himself before her exile and she also managed to play her half-brother Clovis to a stalemate before beating him in a rematch.
"Hey Euphemia," a boy's voice came, bringing the former Britannian Princess out of her thoughts, "Come on let's go. The principal's in trouble."
"Thanks Rivalz, I was bored," Euphemia replied as she got up out her seat and walked towards the blue haired, grey eyed boy with a smirk; glad that she had an excuse to slip out.
She only ever left whenever she heard of gambling events and knew where they were held. She never left to look for events when she did not know where they were. After all, she had classes and she always made sure to finish things up quickly before it was time to head back. She was not the sort of person that strung her opponents along before finally defeating them, though the notion was tempting and perhaps irresistible if not for the fact she had a set time limit before she had to get back to class and so far, she had never been late once.
"So, old Ruby-boy's in need of my assistance, is he?" Euphemia went on, in a somewhat prideful tone, "What's he gone and done this time?"
"Beats me," Rivalz replied with a shrug, "Probably on the losing end of some nobleman's game."
Ruby-boy was Euphemia's nickname for the principal, Ruben K. Ashford whose son was head of the Ashford Family. The Ashford Family now had an academy in the Tokyo Settlement of what Britannia now called Area Eleven, which was once Japan that they founded after they fell from the Emperor's good graces and despite Ruben passing on the title of Family Head to his son, he still ran the academy as its principal, which was where his granddaughter, Milly attended. Ruben had been a good friend of Lady Marianne, almost like a fatherly figure to her. He was a kind and gentle man who did not hold Lady Marianne in contempt because of her status as a commoner; one of the many reasons, at least in Euphemia's mind that the Ashford Family had fallen into disgrace. He had been kind enough to accept her plea for help despite having never met her in person before, though she was sure that Nunnally had vouched for her since she was Lady Marianne's daughter.
"Not Area Eleven, this is Japan," Euphemia thought bitterly, shaking her head in disgust, overhearing some students discussing the area.
However, she just continued to walk onwards. People who sympathised with "Numbers" were not well liked and regarded as traitors by the masses, which angered Euphemia greatly. These people were not "Elevens"; they were Japanese and unfortunately for her, being Britannian herself had earned her hateful and scornful looks from the Japanese as she passed a few of them by over the years. That did not sit well with her, though she could not blame them for their hate-filled glares. The majority of Britannians did look down on the Japanese and treated them like dirt, so it was not surprising that they tarred all Britannians with the same brush. However, instead of directing her hatred back at the Japanese, she turned that hatred towards Britannia… or more specifically, her father and each time a Japanese person sent her a glare, her hate for her father only grew.
Mentally snorting to herself, she continued to follow Rivalz out the building to his motorcycle.
"I suppose we best get this over with," she thought to herself with a sigh.
Author's Notes – Well this is a new fic. As I said in the Author's Notes of my Orangette Destiny fic, I may start new fics while working on others, but that doesn't mean I've abandoned them. For my Naruto fic, I still have writer's block caused by trying to get college placement sorted and I've decided to take a break from Orangette Destiny. This is just an idea that just came into my head out of nowhere after watching episode 22 of R1. As you all know, Lelouch is dead in this fic, but don't think that Euphie's going to be a female version of him. I like Lelouch a lot and I plan on having him being an influence on Euphie… like being able to influence her from beyond the grave. Personality wise, Euphie will have some traits in common with Lelouch, but will have traits that will keep her true to her cannon self. For example, she won't be as willing to do things as Lelouch had been without considering the consequences and I don't plan on doing carbon copy anime scenes with Euphie being in Lelouch's place, though I will admit that some scenes will be like that. Also there will undoubtably be yuri in this fic and possible lemons, though I'm very wary about Lemons because, as I said before in one of my Author's Notes for my Naruto fic, the practice Lemons I did were kind of dry and boring, I fear that putting in a Lemon would cause me to turn the fic into a PWP and I don't want that.