"This is a little boring," she said quietly to herself. "I don't mind helping her out, but it's a little dull."
Her auburn locks gently flayed in the breeze as she playfully kicked her feet over the edge of the roof she was perched on. One of her raven-winged terrors, a little on the smaller size at only about five feet tall as it was perched alongside her, gave a small cat-like growl as if to say it too was getting bored of being there.
"Hmm, getting hungry?" she asked aloofly as she scratched beneath its jaw. It ruffled its wings in delight. "Don't worry, I'm sure she's almost done."
The roof she was perched on was the watchtower of this military base. It was a modest sized base, nothing too fancy or special. It was an average size runway, a base that clearly had been converted over to accommodate newer air worthy models of Knightmares. That explained the tall watchtower on the base's edge; a pseudo air traffic control tower. Anyone landing here now, however, would need to rely on their own abilities and vision, seeing as the tower's staff lay dead on the floor inside.
Down below a short distance away there was fire and smoke from several other buildings; a couple warehouses failing their dragon fire resistance tests. One of the beasts, much larger than her current companion, was awkwardly walking between buildings. To her it looked bored too, not finding anyone willing to challenge it, and not seeing fit to bathe everything in sight in flames.
"You see," Shirley said airily as she stood up on the ledge of the tower's roof. "She's coming out now, so that means we're all done tonight."
The tower shook a little, jostled by another large dragon brushing alongside of it. It gave a low, guttural, roar as it arced its head towards Shirley. It was like it was asking her if she was ready to go. She responded by grabbing up the sword that laid beside her, an unseemly blade that looked longer than she was tall, and thin, with a slight curve. Its shape said it was likely a Japanese sword, though its length didn't at all match up, and it made little sense why she would have one. Nonetheless, sword in hand she leapt from the tower and onto the dragon's back. Its master aboard it stepped forward to clear itself of the tower, took a couple more steps as it beat its massive wings, and with a tremendous force from its legs pushed itself upwards and caught the air, flapping its powerful wings to gain height.
It took a few minutes before the beast reached cruising altitude, a surely stunning sight to be up with the clouds looking down on the spots of light that were the cities of Britannia at night. To be able to enjoy such a sight without the sounds of an engine in your ears, just the whoosh of the air flowing by, was breathtaking. She loved it. It had been so terrifying yet exciting the first time she'd experienced it. She thought it was insane to even be in a position to do something like that at the time, but here she was now, as if it were the most natural thing in the world to be riding a dragon through the cool autumn skies over Britannia, its princess doing the same right beside her. A fairytale no doubt. Yet she couldn't tell you one way or the other if she were awake or asleep.
"Thank you for coming with me again tonight," Euphemia shouted out from atop her dragon. As boldly and surefootedly as if she were walking down a street, she hopped from the back of her dragon over to Shirley's and sat herself down there.
"It's my pleasure. How'd it go?"
"About as expected," Euphemia chuckled playfully. "But it's good that we're getting closer now. It would have been better if Marrybell helped us out more, but that's okay."
"Still, it's a relief. You're so close now," Shirley said enthusiastically, turning to face Euphemia. "I'm so glad I followed you," she said, leaning in and giving Euphemia a tight embrace.
"No, thank you, Shirley. I don't know that I could've made it this far without your help."
"You're so very modest, Lady Euphemia," Shirley said with a warm smile. "Thank you again."
"Geez, Shirley. You're too kind to me," Euphemia responded bashfully, a shy chuckle following after.
When the two first met, neither likely had in mind an evening like this, on any level. Mythical beasts aside, it wasn't exactly as though they ran in the same circles to have cause to know one another. But the strange credulity of fate intervened.
You can only fiddle with a person's mind so much before it can cause substantial damage. The effect of Geass on a basic level isn't uniform in its effect to begin with. If Lelouch were to order someone to kill, it carries a different impact on a trained killer than a civilian who has never killed anyone before. It is again different if you tell them to kill a random stranger, or to kill someone they know and care about. Any number of additional factors can come into play, including faith, intelligence, and age.
The scope and scale of the power can also be very important to this evaluation. To order to kill thousands, depending on all of those earlier subjective elements, is different from an order to kill just one, or the suppression of one memory may be different from the suppression of many.
The coercive effect of Geass naturally presumes you are forcing a person to do something they are not otherwise inclined to do. You don't need to force someone to obey your orders if they are inclined to do what you would otherwise ask. You wouldn't need to read people's minds if they would simply tell you what you want to know by asking. It is not a surprise, therefore, that repeated exposure to the compulsion of Geass may begin to warp the cognition and personality of the individual. The process and effects are that much worse were you to have one person exposed not only to one Geass multiple times, but to a number of them time after time.
Shirley Fenette was first exposed to the power of Geass several days after her father died. Attending school with Lelouch, she had grown very fond of him, even though the two never quite made it to the point of being a couple. Still, she loved him deeply. It was why she could endure the travails of having discovered he was the one responsible for her beloved father's death, forgive him for it, had her memories erased on two different occasions, and still forgive and love him anyway.
She had come to suspect Lelouch's identity as Zero, confirming it when she saw his face after a battle between the Black Knights and Cornelia's forces. Conflicted on what to think or even feel, she asked Lelouch out into the city, intending to talk to him about it. The Geass user Mao was nearby and read her mind prior to the meetup. A relatively passive incursion by the standards of Geass, Mao would use the knowledge of her mind to try to entrap Lelouch, all part of Mao's bid to get to C.C. He would try to get Shirley to shoot Lelouch by playing on her fear, anger, and confusion.
To save himself, and her sanity, Lelouch used his Geass to force her to forget all about him. The effect is that her memories of even events he was involved in were vague to the point of being like faintly remembered dreams where even his face couldn't be seen.
This works briefly, until the inconsistencies in daily life begin to raise doubt. An unfinished letter, crumpled and left behind a desk, jogs memories of the secret she found, and she soon finds herself questioning her memories and reality. Before this can get too far along, the Black Rebellion and its Battle of the Tokyo Settlement strikes. In the aftermath of the failed rebellion, and the cage set up for Lelouch by his father, Shirley once again had her memories tampered with, this time restructuring everything she once knew. Not only is Lelouch being Zero stricken once again, but so is the knowledge of his sister, Nunnally, the latter replaced with the brother Rolo.
This more perfected memory manipulation lasted without cracks for nearly a year. Its effects only came undone when, as she was walking through the city, she passed under the effects of Jeremiah Gottwald's Geass Canceller. All at once the memories that had been suppressed thanks to Lelouch's and Charles's Geass were brought back to the fore.
Shirley found herself in a whirl of emotions. The boy she was in love with was the leader of a rebellious, terrorist, organization fighting her homeland of Britannia. He was also the prince of that land. And he held a supernatural power to compel others to abide his will. His father, the emperor, held a similar power. Her world, which had until then seemed so simple and straightforward, was now a murky puddle. Who could she trust? Who could tell her the truth of anything? How much of what she thought she knew even now was truth, and how much was just more lies and deceptions?
She called Suzaku out to talk to him about it, but realizing that he had to have been involved in part of the deceptions and lies as well, she couldn't contain the mental anguish any longer. She became suicidal, nearly falling from a ledge to her death when both Lelouch and Suzaku showed up and she panicked over her realization of her inability to trust anyone.
Shirley Fenette's life came to an end on that tragic summer day.
Her love was rewarded with a fatal bullet from Rolo, the boy serving as a double agent, who considered her a threat. She knew too much about Lelouch's secrets, was too close to Lelouch, for Rolo's liking. As Lelouch's cover at the school was nearly fully blown, there was a scramble in the city between Lelouch's accomplices trying to protect his identity, and the Britannia forces seeking him out. Shirley met Rolo in that chaos and revealed to him her knowing of Lelouch's secret, as well as her willingness to help him save his sister, Nunnally.
And so, using the auspice of her being a threat to Zero's identity and Lelouch's safety, Rolo killed her.
The last thing Shirley could remember was her hazy vision slipping away into total darkness, her body feeling cold enough to want to shiver, the pain in her abdomen from where she was shot, and Lelouch's pained voice begging her, commanding her, not to die. "If only I could," she thought as she felt herself slipping away.
And then suddenly she was awake.
It was confusing, to say the least. The memory was too painfully vivid to refute the idea it was reality and call it just a lucid dream. The words she said, the words he said to her, were far too clear to be the remnants of a waking nightmare.
She wasn't home in her bed, nor was she on the steps where she felt herself bleeding out. This didn't seem to be any sort of hospital either. "Where am I?" she thought as she sat up. Reflexively she flinched, expecting a sharp pain from where she'd been shot. Yet, to her surprise, she didn't feel anything like that at all.
She started up again, setting one foot off the side of the bed and to the floor. She suddenly felt cold. It wasn't the cold of a cold floor, but a coldness all over her body. It was gripping, terrifying. What was worse was that she knew this feeling so distressingly well – a chill she couldn't help but wonder if she might ever forget. It was the chill of death seeping all over her body.
"But I'm not dead," she whispered aloud, almost to the point of tears. "That was just a very bad dream. I didn't die, so… this coldness…"
"You shouldn't be up right now," a soft voice said to her. There was an open door on the other side of the room from the bed. Shirley staggered in seeing the person's face.
"P-pr-prin…" Shirley hadn't realized how hoarse her own throat was. It hurt as though she had been screaming for a long time.
"Why didn't I notice earlier?" she thought. "No, I didn't pay it any attention, that's why. That cold…"
"It's okay, you've already come a long way. Just relax a little longer, okay? Right now you just need to rest a little while longer, alright?"
"Euphemia…" she struggled to say, feeling she had to affirm her thoughts at any cost.
"Yes. Now just lay down and gather your strength," Euphemia said, easing Shirley back down.
"I see, so I am dead," she thought to herself as she laid there, looking up at the ceiling. "That coldness… and Princess Euphemia… that's the only explanation. Princess Euphemia already died. There's no way she could be here, taking care of me like this, if we weren't both already dead."
Shirley turned her head to the side, here eyes glazed in the sorrow of recognizing her own mortality. In that moment of acknowledging her death, a tsunami of emotions struck her with so much ferocity it was too much to even cry. It just made her feel numb, as if her mind was adrift separate from her own body.
She was dead. Same as her father. She would never return to school to see her friends. Never graduate. Never marry and have kids…
"Lelouch," she softly whispered, tears streaking her face. It startled Euphemia a little to hear Shirley's voice. She looked to the girl and softly stroked Shirley's hair.
"I'll never get to see Milly, or Rivalz… I'll never see Lelouch again. I'll never get to tell him how much I love him… Frustrating… this is… so… frustrating!"
She felt like screaming. All of her thoughts were engulfed in a seething rage and sadness. She was so angry, and she didn't even know at who or what just then. It felt in her bones like she should just lash out at anything around her, yet she didn't know how.
And in the next beat, it hit her again… that she was dead. And in that moment, it dulled her fury and left only sadness and regret. That unease set her adrift into unconsciousness once more.
When she next woke, she was alone. It took her a moment to recall where she was, but that passed fairly quickly. She sat up, tenuously testing herself to see if anything felt out of place or strange. That already too familiar feeling on coldness was still there, but it was less potent as it had been previously. She didn't feel any pain anywhere, an equally comforting and distressing fact. As she swung her feet over the side of the bed and tested the floor, she found herself actually quite light on her feet, disarmingly so. In fact, as she took stock of herself, she actually felt very good. It was a feeling she only knew from a long rest after a swim meet, that feeling of having been totally drained and then recovering all the way back.
She could hear the sound of a news broadcast. She couldn't quite hear what was being said, but news programs had the same sound and cadence to them, so it wasn't hard to tell. She realized that it was probably late afternoon by how dim the room was. She thought about going to the window to peek outside, but decided it was less important than seeing the rest of this place.
She didn't think too hard about it, but she had more or less reasoned that she wasn't in any immediate danger. How could she be? She was already dead. Whatever the afterlife was, she at least knew Princess Euphemia was here too. There was no reason to fear kidnappers or stuff like that, so looking around couldn't be any harm, right?
The hallway was lit by artificial light, confirming it was at least close enough to dusk to need it. From the looks of it, this seemed to be a rather ordinary house. It certainly didn't have the look of a palace or anything fancy. She hadn't thought too hard about what it would be like to die, so she had no idea what to expect. Even so, once you reach a certain age you at least have some illusions about what it might be like, how it might look. Unfamiliar middle-class house with a nearby TV on was not exactly the normal thing one envisioned.
The end of the short hall opened up to a large space and a staircase just to her right that went up to a second floor. The open space was a living room and a kitchen. The living room was nicely furnished in keeping with the overall feel of a middle-class home. As she thought, there was indeed a television in the room, and it was showing a news program. The volume was fairly low, Shirley realizing it was likely done to keep from disturbing her while she slept in the other room. But with the quiet of the house otherwise, the sound travelled easily.
Sleep? Thinking on it now, she was confused. Do the dead sleep? Well, yes, they sleep an eternal sleep. Sleeping wasn't the weird part, it was waking up. Or was it? Was this what the afterlife was? It was… confusing.
As Shirley approached the sofa she recognized the flamingo-pink tresses of Princess Euphemia. It caused her to freeze.
The 3rd Princess of the Holy Britannia Empire was famed for a long time before she was ever seen in public. She was often regarded as a perfect image of a dainty princess, and had many fans. Being a Britannian she couldn't say for sure how those outside of Britannia felt, but from her perspective Princess Euphemia was idolized by many. Lots of girls like Nina looked at her and saw a beautiful young woman with such an enviable station. She didn't have the harsh demeanor or frivolous nature that her older sisters had, so it made her seem more approachable. And she wasn't known for being the firebrand that so many of her other family members were. She seemed like someone so distant, yet so close you might be able to touch her.
That was precisely it right this moment – she was such an ephemeral being, yet she was close enough Shirley could literally reach out and touch her. She looked to have fallen asleep while watching the television, sitting neatly with her hands folded in her lap. It was like looking at a life-sized doll, all the more surreal when considering this woman was supposed to have died more than a year ago after perpetrating a horrible deception and massacring numerous civilians. Zero killed her… Lelouch killed her. There was so much she could ask her about what happened, about how things led to that point.
The temptation was too much. Seeing the princess sitting there in a simple powder blue dress, lightly ruffled, completely defenseless and seemingly unaware of the possibility of anyone being around her, it was too enticing to venture just placing a small hand on her porcelain-like cheek.
As Shirley leaned in tentatively there was a hissing noise. It startled her, causing her to step back abruptly. She bumped the coffee table, disturbing a bowl of fruit set at the center. An apple and a couple oranges rolled off to the floor. Shirley watched as a small creature, about a foot and a half long, hopped about near the table, chasing after the fruit. It went around to the other side of the table, blocking her view of it. Caught in curiosity of it, she slowly peered around the table to get a better look.
The creature was black, lizard like, but about half the size of a chicken. It also seemed to move about like a bird, with quick and precise movements of its head. But despite having what looked like wings, it was no bird she'd ever seen. It looked scaly, not feathered. And it had a fairly long tail that looked to account for nearly half it's body. It was strange, yet also cute, as it snapped at the apple, snipping away bits in its angular jaws and swallowing them whole.
"As long as you don't scare them with sudden movements, they'll react calmly too," Shirley heard a voice meekly say. It was unquestionably Euphemia's, and it caused Shirley to turn in awe. The day of her surprise appearance at the school festival was the last time she'd heard that voice so close by. She remembered feeling fortunate to have been a member of the Student Council, to be able to get that close and see and hear the princess. And now, that princess was alone with her in this room, speaking to her so casually.
"Princess Euphemia…" Shirley squeaked out, suddenly unsure of what to say.
"Do you think it strange to not be fearful of such an unusual creature?" Euphemia asked, walking by Shirley and kneeling beside the small dragon. She scooped up the apple in one hand, the dragon in the other. It looked at her with confusion, as if a puppy wondering where it's meal was going, but she held the apple close again as she eased both to the top of the coffee table. It went back to nibbling off pieces of the apple, as Euphemia retrieved the oranges that had fallen and placed them back in the bowl at the center of the coffee table.
"Are you really… Princess Euphemia?" Shirley asked, the first question her mind could get to.
"I'm not allowed to call myself a princess any longer, but I am Euphemia li Britannia," she answered, not immediately looking away from the dragon. She turned and offered a sorrowful smile and said, "It's nice to see you up and about, Ms. Shirley. I suppose you have quite a lot of questions now. I'll try to answer anything I can for you."
"You… I… died…" Shirley said breathlessly, her mind spinning too quickly with how much she wanted to get out.
Euphemia walked back to the sofa and sat down. She invited Shirley to sit with her. "Yes, we did. We both died. And now we're here."
"Where… is here?"
"A house in Motegi, about ninety miles north of Tokyo."
It took Shirley a moment to understand what Euphemia said. The words didn't make sense. They were dead… in a house north of Tokyo? Why? That didn't seem to make any sense. Even if they were ghosts, why a random house in a random town away from Britannia? What did that house have to do with anything, let alone their deaths? She glanced at the television and saw the news report.
"What happened?"
"You don't remember?"
"N-no, I mean, yes… but I meant…" she skittishly tried to explain.
"It's okay. Just take a deep breath. You can take all the time you want," Euphemia calmly urged.
Shirley did as Euphemia suggested, taking a deep breath, and exhaling slowly. "We did die, didn't we? Zero shot you last year… and Rolo shot me."
"That boy… I've been told he was pretending to be Lelouch's younger brother. That my father locked away everyone's memories of Nunnally so that boy could blend in easier."
Shirley hesitated again. She knew the answer, but despite how calmly she seemed to say it, Euphemia seemed very angry. "Yes, it's true. Everyone at the school was made to forget that Nunnally was Lelouch's sister. They told us we had to watch a special address from the emperor, and when he came on the screen he used that power, like Lelouch's, to change our memories somehow."
"It's a little different from Lelouch's. My father's changes people's memories. Lelouch's allows him to give one person one irrefutable order."
"Is Lelouch okay?"
"Yes, he's alright. He's still fighting, but he's okay."
"Are we really dead?"
"No, we're not dead."
"W-what? But you said…"
"You asked if we died. And we did. But we're no longer dead."
"No longer dead? What are you talking about?"
"It's just as I said. You were dead, and then I was able to bring you back."
Shirley collapsed to the floor, the strength leaving her body all at once. She wasn't sure if it was relief or depression. Dead, but brought back to life… neither thing made sense. Why did she have to die? How could someone bring her back to life?
"I get it," she said with a nervous laugh, her eyes wide and glazed. "You were injured so badly they thought you died, but you made it through, right? I mean, I know what it's like in games and TV shows and stuff, but I've heard people can survive a gunshot. I'm sure the royal family…"
"Told everyone I was dead, and placed all of the blame for what happened on me. Then, as soon as they could, they threw me in a box and tried to forget about me. They have no idea right now that I'm here."
"That's…" Shirley was struck by how angry Euphemia sounded. There were instances where she'd made stern public announcements while sub-viceroy, but to hear such anger from her was jarring. And the allegation was no less startling. Did Britannia really not know that she was alive? A whole year and they didn't know that the 3rd princess wasn't dead?
"And you said you remembered, right? Then you know that the boy named Rolo shot you." Shirley tensed up, her hand drifting to the spot where she was shot. She hadn't even checked to see if there was a wound there yet, but the memory of the spot was indelible. "But I suppose there's no need to worry about that anymore. You're the second awakening."
"Awakening? The second one…" Shirley pondered. She could only assume that Euphemia meant that the phrase was referring to them; Euphemia was the first, and she was the second. It had an ominous sound to it, as if she was describing the beginning of a zombie horror flick.
She'd forgotten all about the small creature eating the apple until it gave a small shriek. It'd apparently had as much of the apple as it wanted. Like a child done with dinner, it left its food there and hopped off to go about whatever play it was interested in for now. It hopped off the table, spreading its wings to catch a little air, and glided a short distance above the floor and behind the sofa.
"What is that?" Shirley asked.
"A dragon, one of the tiny ones."
"One of… right…" she stammered, growing increasingly fearful she was in the midst of some lucid and terrible mental delusion.
"I'll explain everything from the beginning," Euphemia said softly, offering Shirley a seat once more. She could see how distraught and confused Shirley was, as though imagining it was not easy enough. Shirley accepted the offer this time. And the two had a lengthy discussion.