"The Black King tried to blackmail Euphy?" Cornelia raged. "The swine! I should have had him sent to the firing squad! Prison is too good for him!"
It took several moments for Cornelia to calm herself enough to resume the interrogation. "And Euphy was in contact with you, but she never told me that you were alive." She glared at Lelouch. "Am I to assume that she was a Black Knight as well?"
Lelouch remained silent.
'It's true, isn't it? Why, Euphy?" Cornelia cried. "She's always had a rebellious streak… Whether it was sneaking out or that stunt she pulled on Tanabata… She was always fond of you too. But for her to do this…. Just because she's my sister doesn't mean that…"
"You'd really condemn Euphy if she was involved with us?" Lelouch asked. "Hypothetically speaking, of course. While we're still dealing in hypotheticals, do you think Euphy would willingly join the Black Knights if she thought they murdered her half-brother? Was she ever the sort of person who would resort to violence if there was another way?"
"I'm not the one being interrogated, in case you had forgotten, Zero!" Cornelia snapped.
Lelouch fell silent, but allowed himself a small smirk. Cornelia always had a weak spot for Euphy. It was a weakness in her defenses, and it gave him an opening to work with, but he knew that he wasn't out of the woods yet.
"Let's return to the matter at hand," Cornelia continued, glaring at him. "After you defeated the Black King, the Black Knights enjoyed a resurgence of popularity. We also have reason to believe that you continued your liaisons with Kaguya Sumeragi, and came into contact with this man." She took out a photo of a bald Japanese man, about seventy, with slightly tanned skin and wearing traditional black robes. "Taizo Kirihara. You knew him from your time at the Kururugi Shrine, didn't you?"
Lelouch nodded. "I knew Kirihara from before the war, yes." There was no point denying something that Cornelia had doubtlessly already checked. Kirihara had wielded great political influence back in the days of the Kururugi Administration, and had frequented the Kururugi Shrine to meet with the Prime Minister and observe his charges. These days, Kirihara was one of the leaders of the Six Houses of Kyoto. The Japanese people called him "Kirihara the Traitor" for collaborating with Britannia. But…
"Kirihara and the other heads of the Six Houses have been a thorn in my side since I arrived in Area 11," Cornelia scowled. "They make a good show of compliance, but they've been working to undermine me and support resistance groups, including the Black Knights, this entire time, I know it!"
She wasn't wrong, but there was no need to confirm that for her.
"You're not helping Kirihara, Sumeragi, or any of the others by remaining silent. It would be easy for me to order them to be executed for treason…. the same sentence you could easily face if you don't cooperate."
"The same sentence Euphemia could face, if you're convinced of her guilt," Lelouch retorted.
"I have a duty to the Empire to bring its enemies to justice!" Cornelia declared forcefully, but Lelouch could tell that the seeds of doubt were starting to grow within her and crack her resolve. No one was more important to Cornelia than Euphemia, and if forced to choose between the Empire and Euphemia's life, he knew it wouldn't be a contest.
"Let's get back on track, shall we?" Cornelia asked, once again assuming the implacable mask of Britannia's Goddess of Victory. "Spurred on by your successes, a number of copycat groups began to emerge throughout Area 11. The vast majority of these were but pale imitations that lacked any real ability to change the hearts of their targets, as the Black Knights could, but at least two were able to copy your methodology. "One, also operating out of the Tokyo Settlement, calling itself the Irregulars, and stole the heart of a Britannian military officer by the name of Madd, though reports of this were overshadowed at the time by the confession of the Black King. Soon thereafter, a group calling itself the Glinda Knights changed its first heart, made all the higher profile because they struck in Pendragon, and their target was none other than Fifth Princess Carine ne Britannia. Do you know anything about these groups?"
What? There were other groups of Persona-users acting within the Metaverse? Of course, he knew of the Black Mask, who was causing the mental shutdowns, but how could he forget something so important as this? No, he knew the answer to that. The Refrain was still interfering with some of his recollections, even while it brought vivid clarity to others. But this revelation was particularly troubling to him, especially that of the Irregulars…. Why should their existence bother him so much?
He shook his head.
"Perhaps this will jog your memory then. There was another criminal, going by the alias of Medjed, though unlike the Irregulars and the Glinda Knights, he appears to have been working alone. Given your testimony, it appears likely that Medjed was another individual using the Metaverse, though he did not use it change hearts. Instead, he committed numerous otherwise unexplainable acts of kidnapping, murder, and blackmail. His profile rose enormously when he publicly challenged the Black Knights soon after the confession of the Black King. Could Medjed have been the Black Mask who killed Clovis and you were searching for?"
Medjed. Yes, Rolo had mentioned him, and he had challenged the Black Knights… it was all coming back to him now.
"Medjed caught us by surprise," he told Cornelia. "He was an unwelcome complication to our plans. But Medjed wasn't the Black Mask."
"Medjed made his vendetta against you clear enough, but to this day, his true name and face remain unknown. Most people believe that you and your allies tracked down and eventually killed Medjed, as he was never heard from again after that summer. What do you have to say about that, Zero?"
Lelouch shook his head. "We didn't kill him." He couldn't clearly recall the details of their encounter with Medjed just yet, but he was sure that the others would not have allowed him to murder someone in cold blood. No, Medjed had….
He felt a sudden tightness in his heart. Medjed had targeted the Black Knights in a way that struck closer to them than any previous opponent. He had…
"Medjed targeted her, didn't he?" Cornelia asked him, pulling out a photo from her file and pushing it in front of her. It was actually one that she had shown him before, but now it was front and center.
Shirley Fenette.
"At a glance, she appears to be an ordinary high school student, but the circumstances surrounding her are anything but ordinary. First, the suspicious death of her father by a mental shutdown, which was blamed on your Black Knights. Second, she was reported missing around the same time that Medjed issued his challenge to the Black Knights. And last but not least, she showed a persistent interest in you, public enemy number one. She might not have helped steal your teacher's heart, and may have been merely a victim of abuse at the time, but are you going to tell me that Shirley Fenette is truly innocent in all of this? Did Medjed simply go after her because of her connection to you, or is there a deeper reason as to why she targeted?"
Lelouch frowned. He had wanted to protect Shirley's innocence… but it had not survived the encounter with Medjed. It was painful to recall the memories, but he had to. He had wanted to protect her and keep her from getting any more involved than she already was, but in the end…
"Shirley had developed a Palace of her own. We had to steal her heart," Lelouch admitted to Cornelia.
"Wait… are telling me that your next target was your classmate and not Medjed?" Cornelia asked incredulously. "How could someone like her even have a Palace in the first place? She doesn't match the profile of those you've identified as Palace Rulers at all!"
"Shirley's head was a mess… not only had she suffered at Coach Nu's hands, but her father had been killed, and she discovered that I was a Black Knight. Her conflicting desires and grief spiraled out of control." He sighed. "Shirley was never evil, but I failed to realize how distorted her heart had become. The signs were there all along, but I ignored them until it was almost too late."
"She could have turned you in at any time," Cornelia pressed. "I suppose your changing her heart prevented her from doing so."
He sighed. "No… Shirley couldn't have turned us in. Her heart wouldn't let her. That's part of why she suffered so much and formed a Palace of her own. At first, we were trying to make sure she wouldn't talk," he admitted. "But as soon as we realized exactly what she was going through, all any of us wanted was to save her, not only from Medjed, but from herself…."
A/N:
Just as Lelouch wasn't the only character to canonically receive a Geass power, others have awakened to the power of Persona elsewhere, broadening the scope of the rebellion against Britannia. But just who are these other Persona users? Readers of the Code Geass spinoffs may recognize these organizations, but due to altered circumstances, they are somewhat different from their canonical versions, the use of Personas simply being the most obvious change.
Medjed is obviously very different from the Medjed in Persona 5, but I think those familar with Code Geass might be able to make a very good guess as to Medjed's identity in this story.
I'm really pleased to see how the Tropes Page continues to develop, so thanks to everyone who's contributed to it! The characters subpage is still relatively bare, but hopefully we'll see that filled in some more soon!
As I am on a work schedule, it will probably be at least 1-2 weeks until the next chapter is out. However, I will say that I have really been looking forward to writing this fourth arc in Shirley's Palace, and I hope you will all enjoy it as well.