Euphemia of the Personas

Whisked Away to the Velvet Room

Disclaimer – I do not own either Code Geass or the Shin Megami Tensei Persona franchise. Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Gorō Taniguchi and Ichirō Ōkouchi and the Shin Megami Tensei Persona franchise is the property of Atlus.


"Please stop this!" a Britannian officer called out, after Princess Euphemia li Britannia had just barged right past him and three other officers and commandeered the Portman Knightmare Frame that one of his cohorts had brought, "Think what you're doing."

Unfortunately for him, it was too late. By the time he had finished talking, the pink-haired Princess had already entered the cockpit and was already making off in the direction where Suzaku was currently holding Zero.

"But they'll stop with the Princess out there," Cécile Croomy said worryingly, shooting her superior, Lloyd Asplund, a look of concern and panic as both looked on helplessly.

"I'm not sure they will, unfortunately," Lloyd replied honestly in a helpless tone with a frown on his face, making it clear that he was just as upset as she was.

It was a day after Princess Euphemia had knighted Kururugi Suzaku as her Knight of Honour. Afterwards, the first order of business was that the Princess was due to meet a very important noble arriving at the military base on Shikine-jima, or Shikine Island, from the Britannian Homeland. Since Suzaku was her Knight of Honour, he was obligated to accompany her. However, since Suzaku was still afflicted with Advanced Special Envoy Engineering Corps or Camelot, or even the Britannian Special Research Division, they were also entitled to come along, since Suzaku was also their test pilot for the Z-01, codenamed, Lancelot, the prototype Seventh Generation Knightmare Frame, and there was always the possibility that it may be needed.

Unfortunately, that hunch has ultimately proven to be correct. Thanks to Lloyd, news of what their supposed-to-be-secret rendezvous with the nobleman had been leaked and uploaded to the Net, and undoubtedly, the Black Knights, "Area Eleven's" greatest, and most wanted terrorist organisation, led by the mysterious masked man, Zero, saw it as an opportunity to cause mayhem. At least, that was how many of the Britannians present saw it. Anyway, Princess Euphemia had ordered Suzaku to provide assistance to the regular forces based on the island. However, Suzaku had, unfortunately, been led into a trap; a Gefjun Disturber, as Lloyd called it, which was theoretically capable of disrupting the chemical and mechanical processes of Sakuradite-based technologies… at least Lloyd had thought that it was only theoretical until a few minutes ago when he saw one in action.

It had been obvious right then that Suzaku, and not Princess Euphemia, had been the target, as had been initially feared. However, the higher-ups had then apparently decided that it was a golden opportunity to put an end to Zero once and for all by turning his own trap against him. Suzaku's task was to restrain Zero while they bombarded the area with missiles. Effectively, they were sacrificing Suzaku just so they could get rid of Zero, and if that was not enough, it was a Para-Level One Order; an order from someone very high up in the hierarchical ladder that could only be countermanded by either three ranking military generals or the acting viceroy. In other words, despite Suzaku being Princess Euphemia's Knight of Honour, she was powerless to stop them, which was why she had commandeered the Portman. Her plan was to make her way to where Suzaku was in a bid to stop the attack.

"That little idiot, just what does she think she's doing?" the officer that had tried to stop her cursed with a furious look on her face, "Does she realise that by the time word reaches the base that she's on her way, then it'll be too late to call off the attack."

"Ah, let the bitch go," one of the other officers said in a rather rude and uncaring tone, causing a look of shock to appear on the faces of all others present.

"Watch your tongue, you do realise that…" one of the other three officers started to say in an attempt to reprimand his colleague.

"What, that I'm disrespecting Royalty?" the first officer said with a rather rude scoff, "She clearly sympathises with the Elevens, why else would she run off to save her precious Eleven Knight?"

"She's still the Third Princess of the Holy Britannian Empire," another of the four put in.

"And what a disgrace she is," the first officer went on in a spiteful tone, with a look of pure disgust on his face, "To think that a member of the Imperial Family, one of the Emperor's own children, would actually go on to become a Number Lover. If you ask me, if she perishes in the attack then she'll be doing all of Britannia a massive favour."

From the side Cécile's eyes widened in shock after hearing what the officer just said. Sure, she knew that not all Britannians agreed with the Emperor's rhetoric and there were those that even sympathised with the peoples that Britannia had conquered. However, the majority of them were not really in a position to do anything about it. To many Britannians, for a member of the Imperial Family to be labelled a "Number Lover"… such a thought was unfathomable. The fact that it was true in the case of Princess Euphemia, Cécile knew, had to leave those men, and who knew how many others if they found out, feeling rather disgusted, but never had she imagined that any of them with voice their opinions openly. In their minds, a Number Lover being a member of the Imperial Family was an intolerable and unpardonable crime against Britannia.

"Be that as it may, Princess Cornelia won't be happy once she learns that her sister's been caught in the attack to kill Zero," the officer that tried to stop Euphemia pointed out; bring the bluenette out of her thoughts.

"If Princess Cornelia had the guts, she would have executed that disease of a sister of hers years ago," the officer who voiced his opinion about Euphemia said in frustration, his tone just as spiteful as before "She may talk a big game, but when it comes to her sister, she's pathetically weak. No matter, it's not like we'll get into trouble or anything."

"Huh, what do you mean?" the officer who had first voiced his disapproval of him disrespected Euphemia said curiously, completely forgetting that his colleague had just effectively badmouthed the Second Princess of the Holy Britannian Empire.

"Think about it, we're not really on Her Highness's radar," the disrespecting officer said in a rather arrogant and smug tone, "When Princess Cornelia finds out, it'll be Lieutenant-Colonel Fayer alone who'll suffer her wrath, and not us. After all, he's the one ultimately in charge of the base, so it'll all be his fault when Her Highness learns of this."

"Oh, I think I understand now," one of the others said with a sigh of relief, as they all started to relax, and then, they all burst out in rather boastfully smug laughter, confident that Princess Cornelia would be none the wiser to the fact that they had disrespected both her and her sister, plus the knowledge that they would be let off scot-free while their superior would be the one to face the consequences of their failure.

However, unbeknownst to any of them, Lloyd had looked on with an uncharacteristic stoic look on his face. Anyone who knew him would have expected him to be up in arms over the fact that they would be sacrificing the Lancelot, which he pretty much fawned over as if it were his child. Suzaku, as an individual would have meant absolutely nothing to the eccentric earl, had it not been for the fact that, as the Lancelot's pilot, in Lloyd's mind, he was just another cog in the machine that was the Lancelot; an essential cog that was needed for the Lancelot to function efficiently.

Looking at her superior, it was clear to Cécile that Lloyd was not happy, but she was surprised to see that he was unusually silent. Looking at his hand that was hanging by his side, Cécile's eyes widened as she saw that he was holding a tape-recorder and from the looks of it, the recorder had picked up everything that those officers had said.

"Insurance in case someone tries to steal my ideas and pass them off as their own," Lloyd said, as his sour mood appeared to disappear for the time being, and he explained the reason for the tape-recorder, as if he had read her mind, and a somewhat mischievous smile materialised on his face, seemingly from out of nowhere, "I'm rather peeved that they're sacrificing my Lancelot and I need to vent my frustration somehow. This recording is going straight to Princess Cornelia."

Cécile then gave a concerned look in the direction of the four officers, fearful that they may had noticed, but fortunately, they were too caught up over their rather smug relief that Princess Cornelia would probably overlook their failure to stop her sister to have realised that the eccentric earl had caught their disrespectful discussion regarding Princess Euphemia on tape, and it caused her to breathe a sigh of relief.

Lloyd could not help but chuckle to himself. It was true he carried the tape-recorder around in case someone tried to steal his ideas and pass them off as their own. In the event of that happening, Lloyd had planned to get a confession out of them and then go to the media with the recorded confession. Of course, he would never expect his main rival, Rakshata Chawla, whom he knew was the one behind the Gefjun Disturber, to stoop that low, but he knew that there were others like him and Rakshata who were perfectly willingly to resort to such underhanded tactics.

As for why he was using the tape recorder. Well, like he told Cécile, he was not happy that the Lancelot was going to be a casualty of the higher-ups' plan to eliminate Zero, and despite being powerless to stop it, he figured, after listening to those four talking bad about Princess Euphemia, that recording what they were saying and handing the recording to Princess Cornelia was his way of making himself feel better.

"Boy, won't those four be in for a shock when Princess Cornelia comes a-callin' regarding their disrespectful comments?" the eccentric earl thought, as a rather evil looking grin slowly crept into his face.


Meanwhile, Euphemia was racing towards the battlefield where Suzaku had been ordered to restrain Zero. She veered the Portman off to the left slightly before resuming her path.

"Suzaku, you can't die now," she thought to herself frantically.

She honestly could not believe what was happening. She swore that this had to be some kind of conspiracy to do away with Suzaku. She had only just knighted him, and yet, because of his ethnicity, it had been decided that he was to be sacrificed in order to put an end to Zero, at least that's how Euphemia saw it. That had to be the reason that he was being sacrificed; she was sure of it. Those close-minded fools just refused to acknowledge or accept Suzaku regardless of his services to the Empire.

Remembering back before he had gone to help the Shikine Forces deal with the Black Knights, someone objected to his involvement under the assumption that he could effectively turn the Lancelot against them. Similarly, at Tōdō Kyōshirō's prison break, which had been shown live on television while she had been at the Clovis Memorial Museum where she had been holding a press conference because of an art contest, and at first the Britannians had cheered for the Lancelot, but upon seeing that the pilot was a mere "Eleven", their attitudes quickly changed to revulsion and contempt and many saw his refusal to pursue the retreating Black Knights as proof that he was in cahoots with them.

"Simple-minded fools," Euphemia thought to herself angrily, "Don't they realise that if Suzaku had been plotting against the Empire, then he would have already made his move long before now?"

Yes, that was true. Suzaku had more than enough opportunities to betray the Empire, and yet, he remained steadfast and loyal. Honestly, with some of those prideful idiots, it was like talking to a brick wall. Even if that was pointed out to them, Euphemia was sure that they would just find some excuse, even a rather flimsy and ridiculous one, to hold onto their delusional beliefs. She would not be surprised if it turned out that instead of fearing that he may turn against them, some of the more stubborn ones actually wanted him to turn against them; that way they could easily say that they were justified in hanging onto their beliefs.

Of course, she was not stupid. When she stole the Portman, she had told the officers to contact the base and tell them that she could become a casualty, in a bid to stop the attack, but she knew the chances of success were slim. By the time word reached whoever it was that issued that Para-Level One Order, it would probably already be too late to call off the attack, and yet, despite knowing this, Euphemia had not cared one bit about the possibility that she could potentially end up being caught in the crossfire and had gone ahead and charged ahead anyway. Perhaps she could save Suzaku from the attack somehow, though, being honest with herself, she absolutely had no idea just how she was doing to accomplish that feat, but at the same time, she did not care.

"Para-Level One Order, just what is that and why haven't I heard of that until now?" the pink-haired Princess wondered curiously, since it really was the first time she had heard of such an order.

Apparently, a Para-Level One Order was an order that could only be overturned by three ranking military generals or the acting viceroy; in this case, her sister, and apparently, despite Suzaku being her Knight of Honour, she was powerless to countermand this order. That was what she hated the most; being powerless. She really wanted to help contribute to the Empire, but also help the Japanese People in getting at least some semblance of independence, even it it just so happened to be rather small. However, unfortunately, her position as Sub-Viceroy meant that she was only just a figurehead, which she deemed a position of power that was nothing more than a façade. In theory, she had power, but in practise all the decisions were made for her and she was only meant to reinforce those decisions. Cornelia held the real Power in "Area Eleven".

She also knew that she could not count on Cornelia to overturn the Para-Level One Order. Euphemia knew that her sister absolutely hated Suzaku just because of his ethnicity, despite him saving her life, not once, but twice at both Narita and Yokosuka-kō or Port Yokosuka, and besides, even if Cornelia was perfectly willing to overturn this order, by the time word reached her, it would already be too late, which was why Euphemia had taken matters into her own hands. Knowing that there was possibly no way of stopping the attack. Her initial plan had been to get to Suzaku's location and find some way of getting him out of there without getting herself killed, and if that meant Zero was still alive, then so be it. She just did not want Suzaku to die.

Besides, in regards to Zero, she had her suspicions about his true identity, and she wanted to confirm those suspicions for herself. Remembering back to Kawaguchi-ko, or Lake Kawaguchi, when she first met Zero, he had told her how she "had not changed", which led her to believe that he knew her personally, and remembering how her half-siblings, Lelouch and Nunnally had been sent to Japan as political hostages before war broke out, and knowing that he had legitimate reasons to hate the Imperial Family, Euphemia could not help but suspect that Zero may in fact be her thought-to-be-dead half-brother, Lelouch. After all, the Emperor had made no attempt to rescue them when the invasion started. In fact, remembering back, the Emperor had claimed that Lelouch and Nunnally had both been murdered by the Japanese even before the invasion force had left the Homeland. The whole reason for the invasion in the first place was to avenge the fallen Prince and Princess; so if Zero was indeed Lelouch, then it meant that the Emperor had effectively lied.

But unfortunately, Euphemia doubted that Lelouch would see it that way. In his mind, he and Nunnally had probably been abandoned by everyone, the li Britannia siblings included, and left for dead. Remembering asking why Zero had murdered Clovis, Zero had told her that it was because he was a child of the Emperor, but despite her being a child of the Emperor herself, Zero had spared her and complimented her on revealing herself to save that poor timid bespectacled girl after she had unintentionally antagonised some of the terrorists assigned to guard the hostages.

Of course, she knew there was a possibility that she could be wrong and that Zero was not Lelouch, but she just had to see for herself.

"The time is at hand," a voice, barely above a whisper suddenly echoed in her mind, seemingly to come out of the blue, which brought her out of her thoughts and back to reality.

"Huh?" Euphemia said aloud, jumping in surprise as she looked around trying to find the source of the voice.

However, unsurprisingly, she found that she was alone in the small confines of the Portman's cockpit.

"Am I hearing things?" the pink-haired Princess asked herself.

The voice, itself, did not sound as if it had come from any external source. In fact, if Euphemia had to hazard a guess, she could have sworn that the voice had come from inside her head, and thinking about it, she could not help but be brought back to that strange dream she had had the previous night about the mysterious robot girl called Unit #031, whose inner thoughts she could somehow hear, and who had been made to fight other units of her model for some purpose that she did not know. She also remembered hearing a similar voice… or perhaps it was the same voice, after having woken up and coming back from the bathroom, but at the time, she had ignored it, passing it off as her imagination due to tiredness.

Ever since she started the day, she had managed to keep that weird dream in the back of her mind, especially when she learned that someone had decided to sacrifice Suzaku in a bid to kill Zero, but after hearing that mysterious voice yet again, memories of her dream came flooding back to her, and the unnerving thing was that she could still clearly remember everything that had occurred in that dream as if it had been real; from how she could somehow hear Unit#031's inner thoughts to how the robot girl effortlessly defeated seven other units in just under five minutes to how unnerved she was when she noticed the scientist with the tie and neatly combed hair; Yūma Ishida, or Ishida Yūma, she remembered him being called after reading his nametag. She even remembered how at the end of the dream, Unit #031 had noticed her despite how she had been invisible to the scientists, and then that mysterious bluish white butterfly entered her field of vision before everything erupted in a sea of white before she woke up.

"No, why am I thinking about that now?" the pink-haired Princess said to herself, shaking her head, "It was just a silly dream."

However, even as she told herself that, it was obvious that she was unconvinced. Something about that dream just did not add up with her. Dreams tended to fade over time, leaving behind vague details and even with the few clear details that some people's minds managed to salvage, one could not determine what the entire dream was about. However, Euphemia could still clearly remember everything despite having fallen back over to sleep and having another dream, only her second dream seemed more natural and she could not remember it at all.

Looking at the monitor of the Portman's cockpit, Euphemia noticed the edge of a cliff up ahead. Thinking fast she brought the Portman to a halt, but then, she noticed a huge shadow hovering overhead.

"That's my brother's Avalon," she said in astonishment, looking up towards the massive ship.

All she saw was bullets being fired from the assault rifles of the Black Knights' Knightmares bouncing harmlessly off the craft's Blaze Luminous shield. Euphemia could not help but remember that Suzaku had used the Lancelot's Blaze Luminous shield to protect her from a Chaos Mine after the now-defunct Pureblood Faction had gotten into a civil dispute, and Suzaku had tried playing peacemaker, but the late Lord Kewell Soresi, who had become a fatality during the skirmish at Narita, had unfortunately, due to his own arrogant stubbornness, had refused to back down and unleashed a Chaos Mine just as she run out between them in a bid to stop the fighting herself. Fortunately, Suzaku had noticed her and had come to her defence.

However, putting that to the back of her mind, she frantically pushed the cockpit's exit button, causing it to open up, and once she had been lowered to the ground, she burst into a run towards the edge of the cliff while holding up the skirt of her dress, looking up at the Avalon and then opened her mouth in a vain attempt to call out to them, but then, everything seemed to stop for a brief moment, as Euphemia saw a mysterious figure briefly flash before her eyes.

The vision had been so brief that Euphemia could not accurately make out what the figure actually looked like, but she did see enough to realise that it had been the figure of a woman with dark hair, though she could not tell the exact colour and that her eyes were either red or brown, but before she could contemplate this further, her entire vision, once again, like in her dream, exploded into a sea of white.


A little while later, after the Avalon had moved back out to sea and the Black Knights had scattered, the Britannian Forces were preparing to mount a search and rescue party for Euphemia, a bluish white butterfly, similar to the one from Euphemia's dream, from Euphemia's dream emerged from the abandoned Portman that Euphemia had commandeered and flew a short distance away before a black butterfly emerged from the surrounding forest and flew straight towards the bluish white butterfly.

The bluish white butterfly must have noticed its black cousin, since it stopped and turned its head in its direction and just hovered till the black butterfly came to within a few feet of its position, and then, both butterflies appeared to vanish before, almost immediately, two men appeared standing where the two butterflies had been hovering.

The man standing where the bluish white butterfly had been had long black hair tied into a ponytail and wore a white mask over his entire face. The mask also had a purple butterfly's wing painted over the right side was the mask where the eye was situated. The man also wore black shoes, white trousers, a white coat, a dark grey-almost back shirt and a black tie.

By contrast, the man standing where the black butterfly had been had no such mask, though he did have a dark tint to his skin. He had shoulder-length white hair with the right side in front of his shoulder and the left side behind his shoulder and also had a dark brownish red right eye. His left eye was covered by what looked to be a clock reading the time at twenty-five past two. He wore dark grey shoes, dark grey trousers, and a dark grey waistcoat over a white shirt, a red coat over both his waistcoat and his shirt with gold outlining at the collar and dark grey outlining at the borderline between the sleeves and the cuffs. He also wore white gloves and bolo tie with a dark grey ribbon and a circular golden front.

"Ah, so this is where you've been all these years," the man in the mask said, as he folded his arms, not seeming all that surprised to see the other man as if he knew who he was, "How long has it been since we last saw one another?"

"I'm surprised to see you here, Philemon," the man with the clock over his eye said curiously, making it clear that he knew who the masked man was, "I was of the sense that the accord between us had been settled for the moment."

"And so, you came to this world, intent on sowing the seeds of chaos, as you always do, Nyarlathotep," the man in the mask, Philemon, said with a hint of seriousness in his voice.

"I merely guide mankind towards its inevitable destruction," the man with the clock over his eye, Nyarlathotep, said, shooting Philemon a small glare, "And unlike in our own world, there is no accord between us here, so you can't take steps to interfere this time."

"I'm not intending to," Philemon answered simply, "Though, it seems that our world and this world have become connected somehow. I was here to merely watch over Euphemia li Britannia."

"Ah yes, her," Nyarlathotep noted dismissively with a seemingly uncaring shrug of his shoulders.

"You know, I've seen this world's history and how it differs from the history of our world," Philemon noted, sounding somewhat impressed, "I take it that that was all your doing."

"Need you have to ask?" Nyarlathotep stated somewhat smugly, with a look to match, which only served to confirm what Philemon had said, "It's been over two thousand years or so since we last saw one another."

"Two thousand years, from your perspective, maybe," Philemon stated, sounding rather intrigued, "However, from my perspective, it's only been about, what, eleven, twelve or maybe even thirteen or so years. In our world, the year is 2011 AD."

"Really, so not only was I banished from our world after my defeat, but I also must've somehow been hurled through time as well," Nyarlathotep said, as obvious bitterness made its way into his voice, indicating to Philemon that he was still rather sore about his previous defeat, despite the fact that over two millennia had passed from his perspective.

"I've also seen the future of this world," Philemon went on to explain, "As I'm sure you have as well. Had she not whisked Euphemia away, she would have gone on to establish a Specially Administrated Zone for the Japanese people, which would have ultimately led to her demise after her half-brother's Geass power raged out of control."

"Yes, I'm aware," Nyarlathotep said with a slight chuckle as he turned to face away from Philemon, and a small smile formed on his lips, "It also leads to the Black Rebellion, which fails all because he never took necessary precautions to protect his sister."

"And that's because he never anticipated that anyone would know his true identity," Philemon mentioned, as he thought of the green-haired girl, "It's mostly that C.C. girl's fault for withholding such important information from him. I bet she never even considered that withholding that information could also put Lelouch at risk. Anyway, what I'm curious about is why you allowed her to whisk Euphemia away. I know you, Crawling Chaos, that incident at the SAZ would have been your doing if it had gone ahead, and I know that you don't take too kindly to others interfering in your own plans, unless of course you have some ulterior motive in mind."

Despite his face being covered by a mask, Nyarlathotep knew that Philemon was giving him a suspicious and inquiring look, like he knew he was up to something.

"And what makes you say that?" he asked, feigning confusion, as he turned back to face his rival with an obviously fake confused expression on his face, though he knew that Philemon clearly saw right through him, "It could be that I'm genuinely interested to see what becomes of young Euphemia."

He then paused and then appeared to disappear before another man appeared to appear in his place.

This man had the same dark tint to his skin that Nyarlathotep had. However, he had long pink hair and dark purplish blue eyes. He wore red and white sneakers, orange trousers and a green and white sweater with a red choker around his neck. The green of his sweeter ran from his hips up to his stomach and the white from his stomach upwards. Looking at this new man, one would instantly realise a resemblance to Euphemia. In fact, he looked very much like a male clone of Euphemia and his clothes seemed to be a male version of Euphemia's casual clothing.

"You obviously plan to use this to your advantage, don't you?" Philemon said, not being affected by the appearance of this male Euphemia clone in the slightest, "However, there is no guarantee that Euphemia will survive."

"I can always hope," the male Euphemia clone said with a rather unnervingly sinister smirk before he disappeared, and then, Nyarlathotep reappeared in his place.

"Yes, I suppose you can," Philemon said with a nod of acknowledgement, as if he were still talking to the male Euphemia clone, "But after Lelouch loses and the Black Rebellion collapses, thanks to that V.V. character kidnapping his sister, his former best friend, Kururugi Suzaku hauls him before the Emperor, who then proceeds to seal away his memories with a Geass of his own and send him to Europe under the alias, Julius Kingsley to help with the EU War."

"And once that's accomplished, Lelouch is sent back to Ashford along with the Student Council with Rolo, his fake brother," Nyarlathotep went on, picking up from where Philemon left off, "Although I have to say that Rolo was only a replacement after one, Orpheus Zevon, murdered Clara Lanfranc, who was initially supposed to be Leleouch's little sister. Anyway, after a trip to Babel Tower, orchestrated by the OSI, Lelouch regains his memories, turns the Black Knights' "Final gasp" as someone put it into their spectacular rebirth and forges an uneasy alliance with Lí Xīngkè of the Chinese Federation, who seeks to use him in his quest to dispose the Dà Huàn'guān or High Eunuchs for those that don't understand Chinese."

"Yes, and that's after he murdered Viceroy Calares and then uses his Geass on Gāo Hài to allow him and the Black Knights entry to the Chinese Federation Consulate," Philemon went on, as Nyarlathotep paused, "His next act was to free his subordinates from Gilbert G.P. Guilford, while at the same time forcefully recruiting his fake brother with the intention of discarding him once he reunited with Nunnally, but then, Suzaku returns to Area Eleven and attempts to trip Lelouch up by having him talk to Nunnally, who volunteered to become the next Viceroy in order to re-establish Euphemia's dream of a Specially Administrated Zone."

"Yes, but fortunately, thanks to Rolo and his Geass, which freezes people's perception of time, Lelouch is able to outwit Suzaku, and then the mission to capture her ended in failure, but Lelouch, after spending some time despairing over the fact that his plan and Nunnally's plan contradicted one another, he finally enacts a plan to keep his sister out of harm's way," Nyarlathotep said, as Philemon paused to catch his breath, "Basically, he agrees to convince one million Japanese to participate in exchange for exile, but has all one million participants dress up as Zero, which results in them all being exiled before Prince Schneizel el Britannia, Second Prince and Britannia's acting Prime Minister comes up with a plan to annex the Chinese Federation into Britannia with a political marriage been his older brother, Crown Prince Odysseus eu Britannia and the Tiānzǐ, Jiǎng Líhuá."

"Yes, but the Black Knights crash the wedding and Zero makes off with the Tiānzǐ, effectively ending his alliance with Xīngkè and forcing the Dà Huàn'guān to forge an alliance with Xīngkè, even giving him the Knightmare Frame, Shén Hǔ as a token of their sincerity…" Philemon went on, as Nyarlathotep stopped to rest.

"But they intended to betray him," Nyarlathotep added, interrupting his rival, "But not before he captures Kallen Kōzuki… or is that Kōzuki Kallen of the Black Knights and all because there hadn't been time to replace the Guren Nishiki's energy filler, but Suzaku came along and had her turned over to the Britannians, probably to deprive Lelouch of a useful asset, since Kallen's skills a Knightmare Frame pilot have proven useful to Zero/Lelouch in the past."

"That was the Battle of Xiǎopéi, where Xīngkè knocked Lelouch of his high horse," Philemon went on, not seeming all that bothered that his rival had interrupted him before, "I believe that it was by taking advantage of the years of neglect of the underground utility piping designed to deliver water to the homes of the Chinese people that Xīngkè was able to gain the upper hand. However, thankfully, taking advantage of the Dà Huàn'guān's betrayal of Xīngkè, Lelouch managed to trick them into revealing their true colours to their own people, which led to riots to break out all over their territories, and causing the Britannians to effectively abandon them before Xīngkè killed them and rather reluctantly and grudgingly rebuilt his alliance with Zero."

"Though Xīngkè's loyalty is ultimately to the Tiānzǐ," Nyarlathotep pointed out, "He made that point perfectly clear; that he will not be subordinate to Zero."

"Unfortunately, the organisation known as the Geass Order, or more specifically, V.V., or Vincent zi Britannia, as he was once called, sent a rebuilt cybernetic Jeremiah Gottwald to assassinate Lelouch with a Geass Canceller built into him, though, it's a mystery how he, or the Siegfried for that matter survived the crushing water pressure after C.C. forced him down to the bottom of the ocean with the Gawain," Philemon went on with a sad sigh, "Unfortunately, Shirley Fenette unknowingly was in range when Jeremiah activated his Geass Canceller, which eventually lead to Rolo killing her, though Lelouch managed to convince Jeremiah to switch sides and leads an attack on the Geass Order."

"Rolo murdered Shirley Fenette because she mentioned Nunnally to him," Nyarlathotep said, thinking about the issue with a gleeful smile, "Lelouch may have been planning to reunite with Nunnally, but Rolo planned to kill her because he saw her as a threat to his standing in Lelouch's life, and killing people is the only way he knows how to solve a problem and deal with threats. Anyway, at the Geass Order, Lelouch, after a combined attack with Cornelia on V.V. in the rebuilt Siegfried, meets his father, who stole V.V.'s code effectively murdering him, and C.C. or Cera Serville, as she was once called reveals the true nature of her contract before sealing her Code away reducing her to an innocent ten-year girl trapped in a teenaged body."

"The ratification of the UFN, the so-called betrayal of Suzaku when he and Lelouch arranged to meet him and Schneizel's aide, Earl Kanon Maldini, had Suzaku followed without his knowledge, which led Lelouch to believe that he had genuinely betrayed him again," Philemon went on with a sigh, "But somehow before that meeting, he managed to use his Geass on Guilford in order to convince him that he was Cornelia whenever he executed a certain gesture, which helped him in escaping. However, unfortunately, the damage had been done and when Suzaku tried to warn Lelouch about the F.L.E.I.J.A. weapon that that Nina Einstein girl developed, which is basically this world's answer to a nuclear weapon, he was too furious to listen, and unfortunately it led to said weapon being used, even if it was because of the command that he placed on his former friend not that long ago."

"Yes, and not only that, but it was believed that Nunnally had been caught in the blast radius, though, despite Kallen being freed, Lelouch's resulting depression led to his half-brother capitalising on the situation and convinced the Black Knights to betray him," Nyarlathotep summed up with a nod, "Though Schneizel didn't exactly lie… at least not completely."

"No, he basically withheld certain bits of information," Philemon pointed out with a sigh, "All he did was make comments that could be easily misinterpreted as being true, produce that small snippet of Lelouch's so-called confession about Lelouch intentionally using his Geass on Euphemia to Suzaku and let the Black Knights' minds do the rest. I'm sure that after the deaths of over thirty-five million people, none of them were thinking straight, even willing to gun down Kallen when she came to Lelouch's defence, which ultimately caused him to tell the Black Knights what Schneizel wanted them to hear in order to get Kallen away from him, and since he believed that Nunnally was dead, he believed that he had nothing left to live for."

"However, Rolo came to his rescue, despite him telling his fake brother how he truly felt about him, and Rolo was able to evacuate him off the Ikaruga, but overuse of his Geass ultimately cost him his life," Nyarlathotep went on, continuing to narrate as Philemon stopped to rest, "This gave Lelouch the resolve to at least stop the Emperor and seal them both away in C's World for eternity."

"C's World, this world's version of the Sea of Souls," Philemon said, making an observation, "However, it was then that Marianne vi Britannia revealed that she had a Geass of her own that she had used to escape death by transporting her soul into Anya Alstreim, and after assuming control of Anya's body, she restored C.C.'s memories and then made her way to Kamine-jima, where Lelouch, Kallen, Suzaku and Euphemia, the latter of which would have been sent had she not intervened."

"Yes, but it was after the F.L.E.I.J.A. that Suzaku realised that he had been naïve, and he made his own way to Kamine-jima, intending to kill the Emperor himself in exchange for being made the Knight of One once Schneizel became Emperor," Nyarlathotep went on, before giving an uncharacteristic shudder, but he almost immediately regained his composure, "And they all met up with one another in C's World, and upon finding out the truth about what his parents were really planning, Lelouch killed them both, stopping the Ragnarök Connection by using his Geass to request that "God" doesn't "stop the march of time"."

He then let out another shudder and the last part of his statement seemed to come out more of spiteful embittered hiss, something that did not go unnoticed by Philemon, which caused the masked man to raise an eyebrow from behind his mask.

"And it was only after that, that Lelouch and Suzaku finally joined forces, coming up with the idea of the Zero Requiem in which, Lelouch became 99th Emperor of Britannia and amassed all the world's hatred onto himself with Suzaku faking his death at the final battle between Lelouch and Schneizel in order to become the new Zero," Philemon went on, ignoring Nyarlathotep's brief change in demeanour for the time being, "But, before that, he first put on a façade of benevolence, abolishing his father's corrupt system, and even had Suzaku kill all but two of the remaining Knights of the Round, with the survivors, Gino Weinberg and Anya Alstreim defecting to the Black Knights. Afterwards, under the façade of having Britannia join the UFN. However, Schneizel had his own plan to ensure World Peace with his Damocles Sky Fortress; by elevating the Damocles to a certain height, it would be in a position to destroy any city anywhere on the planet with its payload of F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads."

"And if that wasn't enough, Schneizel revealed that Nunnally was alive, but by then, Lelouch had already gone too far to turn back," Nyarlathotep remarked with a slight mocking chuckle, "But he was able to win by exploiting Schneizel's flaw in that he only involves himself in situations where he knows that the outcome will end in his favour, though instead of killing him, he used his Geass on him to force him into "serving Zero"."

"Yes, Schneizel only plays games in which he knows for sure that his chances for victory are one hundred percent," Philemon went on, again, noticing the change in his rival's demeanour, especially when it came to Lelouch and how he chuckled at Lelouch discovering that Nunnally was alive, "Any drop in his chances of winning, even if his chances are still, let's say, ninety-nine point nine-nine percent, and he always forfeits, but always in such a way that he's able to save face and preserve his public image. Anyway, once Schneizel's defeated and Suzaku's seemingly dead, two months later, he pulls off the coup de gras with his Zero Requiem, by having Suzaku appear as Zero and kill him on live worldwide television. With this, he hopes that mankind will stop fighting amongst itself and move towards the future."

"Bah, what a load of hogwash," Nyarlathotep stated with a scoff, "Does he honestly think that by uniting the world against him, then peace will reign supreme for the rest of eternity when he's gone? He's a liar that contradicts himself. The truth is that he had fallen to despair even before he started his rebellion and merely wanted the rest of the world to experience that same despair. All that talk about "creating a better world" for his sister was nothing more than a lie he told himself in order to shield himself from that particular fact. Heck, he even once admitted that Nunnally was nothing more than an excuse, which is probably why he never abandoned her. He probably knew that Zero Requiem was, at best, a short-term solution, but he never really cared what became of the world, or his sister for that matter. After all, if a solution like Zero Requiem did achieve what he said it could achieve, war and conflict in our world would've ended with the defeat of the Axis Powers at the end of World War II."

"If that's what you believe, then fine, I won't waste my breath arguing with you," Philemon said with a shrug, "Besides, it's not like any of that will happen now, though I think that the Kyūshū Invasion will still happen though."

"It'll be interesting to see how Suzaku handles it without Euphemia around to "commend him to love her", as she put it," Nyarlathotep said, putting all thoughts of Lelouch and the Zero Requiem to the back of his mind, "But I must say that I find it strange that you'd take an interest in her, the Britannian Imperial Family are all descended from the Celtic Super King, Alwin I, and the price for my assistance in repelling Julius Ceaser's invasion was that he and his descendants all inherited my curse."

Philemon said nothing, though he did raise an eyebrow from underneath his mask, something that Nyarlathotep appeared to notice, despite his rival's face being completely covered.

"I will admit that at first glance, Euphemia may seem defective, in that she escaped my curse, but that's only because of her sheltered upbringing," Nyarlathotep went on to explain, "Give her a few weeks in the real world and the cruelty she'll undoubtedly experience and witness will cause my curse to surface in her."

"I fail to see your point," Philemon said with a shrug.

"Feh, I guess you must've gotten cocky since my defeat at the hands of those wretched humans, you don't normally involve yourself with humans that have been tainted by me," Nyarlathotep said in a mocking tone as he shot his rival a boastfully smug look.

"Not true, Kurosu Jun was "tainted" by you, as you put it, and I still lent him my assistance," Philemon countered, causing Nyarlathotep to nod in acknowledgement.

"But only after Suō Tatsuya, Amano Maya, Lisa Silverman, Mishina Eikichi and Mayuzumi Yukino defeated him when he was under his Joker pseudonym, and after that, I stripped him of his Persona-summoning abilities," he pointed out, "And he only regained those abilities because that Mayuzumi woman sacrificed hers in exchange, and besides, I still won that time."

"Yes, but thankfully, they were able to undo everything you did," Philemon countered and then gave his rival a look from underneath his mask, "And though I'm aware that young Tatsuya's refusal to have his memories sealed away gave you the opening you were looking for to re-establish the original timeline, you still lost."

"True," Nyarlathotep said with a bitter growl, as a look of fury materialised on his face, "Even though two thousand and seventeen years have passed from my perspective, I still remember that wretched day as if it were yesterday."

"And it leads me to my original question, since you obviously have plans for Euphemia, why allow her to take her away, thereby forcing you to amend your plans?" Philemon asked curiously, "I know I stated this before, but it's not like you to sit back and accept when someone else commandeers someone you have plans for."

"And I told you, I'm interested to see how this will turn out," Nyarlathotep replied, despite the fact he knew that Philemon knew that he was lying, "Besides, Euphemia already has a connection to her, and not only that, but for the past three years, ever since that buffoon, Clovis la Britannia, became Viceroy, I have sensed the presence of a resident from our world coming and going from this world. I gather that he must be one of her unknowing agents."

"Really, I was not aware of this," Philemon said in genuine surprise, since he honestly had no idea that someone had been coming and going between the two worlds, "I wonder, could Euphemia have been the intended target?"

"Possibly," Nyarlathotep said with a shrug, "Not that this person would be aware of their intended purpose, mind you."

Philemon paused for a moment to think things over, and then, after going over everything they discussed, he sighed.

"Well, I think that it's about time to bring our discussion to an end," he said as he turned to face away from his rival, but stopped and then looked back, "However, Crawling Chaos, I will say this much, in that by allowing her to take Euphemia, you may very well have traded one defeat for another."

With that said, he then appeared to vanish into thin air and the bluish white butterfly from before took his place before it flew away.

"We shall see," Nyarlathotep said, after his rival's comment caused him to wince in surprise, as he wondered if Philemon had deduced the real reason for allowing Euphemia's departure before he then regained his composure and shrugged.

With that, he also appeared to disappear into thin air, only to be replaced by the black butterfly from before, and like the bluish white butterfly, it also flew off.


Meanwhile on board the Black Knights' submarine, which was situated not far from the island, C.C. sat in the room that Lelouch had been using as his quarters, musing over the turn of events. She knew that Lelouch, Suzaku and Kallen had been transported to another island, Kamine-jima. However, the thing was, Euphemia was supposed to have been transported there as well, but then she felt some interference with Euphemia, like someone had hijacked the teleportation technique and used it to whisk Euphemia away elsewhere.

"How strange," she thought to herself with a mixture of curiosity and nervousness, "I had no idea that something like that could be done."

She knew that her fellow Code Bearer, V.V., had been responsible for sending the trio to Kamine-jima, but Euphemia disappearing off the face of the Earth was not V.V.'s doing, of this, she was certain, and she knew that V.V., himself, was equally at a loss to explain it. Someone else had clearly intercepted Euphemia and had taken her away, though, for what purpose remained a mystery. C.C. honestly had no idea that it was possible for a Code Bearer's teleportation abilities could be intercepted and hijacked. Such a thing had initially been unheard of. One Code Bearer could not intercept another's technique and hijack it. It was, as far as she knew, impossible.

However, before she could ponder this further, her Code suddenly flared to life out of the blue, and then, all of a sudden, the green-haired self-proclaimed witch felt an overwhelming sensation of pure unrestrained terror wash through her mind, causing her to lurch forwards as she stumbled. She had no idea where this feeling had come from, but it was so powerful and so overwhelming that she suddenly fell to her knees as if a great weight was suddenly bearing down on her. Placing her hands on the floor to stop herself from falling over, she suddenly started to breathe rather heavily and sweat quickly emerged from her skin, and before she knew it, she was sweating rather profusely.

"No!" she said in alarm, as she started to tremble, unable to shake off the overwhelming amount of terror that she was feeling, "The Crawling Chaos… Nyarlathotep! What's he doing here?"

She continued to tremble as the fear continued to plague her. She honestly had no idea why she was feeling this way or where those feelings originated. It was exceptionally rare for her to experience any emotion other than stoic boredom or desperate amusement whenever something amused her. However, this was terror on a level that she could not even begin to fathom, nor she dreamed could possibly exist. Whatever managed to cause this level of terror was definitely something C.C. knew that she would not want to meet on a dark night.

"Nyarlathotep…!" she repeated in a rather terrified tone, though for the life of her, she did not know why she said it or why she was so terrified.

She knew next to nothing about this Nyarlathotep. The words had just left her mouth automatically. However, as her code continued to flare, knowledge about this Nyarlathotep suddenly flooded her mind, causing her to hyperventilate, as the feeling of terror she was feeling suddenly increased.

"Impossible…!" C.C. breathed in a horrified gasp.

Yes, the knowledge of Nyarlathotep came into her mind. She now knew that Nyarlathotep was bad news and that his very presence caused fear to grip the hearts of others.


The first thing Euphemia realised after her vision exploded into a sea of white was that she was standing in the middle of a really dense fog. The entire area surrounding her was a somewhat sinister dark shade of grey, and looking up, she saw that the sky was pitch black. All she could see was the fog that surrounded her. Looking down at the ground, she noticed that she appeared to be standing on a tarmac surface, either a road or a pavement, she was not sure which. Another thing that she noticed was that she was completely alone. There did not appear to be another soul around for as far as the eye could see, which in this thick-layered fog, was not all that far.

The last thing Euphemia remembered was that she was racing towards the battlefield where Suzaku was restraining Zero and she noticed her half-brother, Schneizel's flagship, the Avalon, moving in over the battlefield, and she had exited her stolen Portman and attempted to run towards them. However, she remembered seeing a female figure briefly flash before her eyes before ending up here. The figure's appearance had been so brief that Euphemia could not make out any of her features aside from their dark hair and that their eyes were either red or brown, but she could definitely tell that it had been a woman.

Before she could continue to get her bearings, she suddenly heard what sounded like the soft whirring of a car engine that seemed to be getting louder and noticing a light shining from behind her caused her to turn around, and she saw a pair of headlights in the distance that appeared to get bigger as they came closer, causing Euphemia to strain her eyes and she lifted her hand over the tops of her eyes to further shield them from the light, since she had gotten somewhat used to the darkness surrounding her.

Very soon, the car that the headlights were attached to came into view, causing Euphemia's eyes to widen as she saw what appeared to be a velvet blue-coloured stretch limousine trundling slowly towards her. She could even hear the tires grinding along the tarmac. The limo's license plate registration read, CH-8700, leading the pink-haired Princess to believe that it was a foreign car.

Studying the limousine, Euphemia saw the headlights were actually a pair of circular headlights on either side of the silver grill at the front, which had a triangular top, and on top of the "roof" of the grill was a small staff that had the letter, V sitting atop it and the V was decorated in leaves, which were part of the structure, as they were the same silver colour. There were also five windows of either side of the car, and the back headlights were rather thin vertical red rectangles with rounded corners. The truck of the limousine was almost non-existent, and studying the front, the make of the grill reminded Euphemia of the make of the Rolls Royce style engines. The top of the front was also triangular in shape with the top of the headlights having flat roofs.

"Don't tell me that I'm in another weird dream," she thought to herself with a mixture of fear and frustration, as she remembered her dream from the previous night.

It was not long before the limo pulled up alongside her and came to a stop. Before Euphemia could even contemplate this, the front door of the left side of the limo opened up and out stepped a man that the pink-haired Princess guessed must be the driver, though upon studying him, the pink-haired Princess could honestly say that he looked more like a hotel porter than a chauffeur.

"Hello there," the man greeted in a polite tone, as he followed up with an equally polite bow, "My name is Theodore, and I know that this is all so sudden, but my master has been waiting for you."

Euphemia just stood, blinking in shocked surprise and astonishment with a look of pure disbelief plastered on her face, unsure on how to respond.

Studying this Theodore character, Euphemia saw that he had short, neatly combed platinum blonde hair and brownish orange eyes. He wore a pair of black shoes, black trousers that seemed to have two deep blue stripes with a black stripe between them running vertically down either side. He also wore a black shirt, a blue necktie and the weirdest jacket Euphemia had ever seen. His jacket appeared to be black on the inside with a blue outline at the collar. The jacket was also two different shades of blue with the lighter shade running down the front and sides of the sleeves with a darker blue running down the centre of each stripe, giving the appearance of two light blue stripes at the sides in the same vain as the sides of his trousers. The sleeves, themselves had black cuffs with four small golden buttons forming a square pattern above the tops of the hands and a black stripe ran along the centre of the lighter shade of blue vertically along the side and the tops of the shoulders. Also, at the front were for golden buttons forming a square. Each button was also highlighted by a black circle, which held it in the centre along with a thinner blue circle and another, black circle that was thinner than the first black circle. The jacket also had a small black back belt at the back between the lower abdomen and waist, which was pinned to the jacket by two small, though slightly oversized golden buttons. He also wore white gloves over his hands and a small blue hat with a black stripe running vertically along the centre of the sides and a silver circular badge pinned onto the left side which displayed the letter, V.

However, rather than wait for Euphemia to recover from her shock, Theodore walked over to the right hand side of the limo, and Euphemia found herself following him, though she did not know why. She found that she could not stop herself and that her body seemed to be moving of its own accord, which caused her to panic. However, Theodore seemed oblivious to her panic as he opened the back door of the limo and brought his arm over his front, gesturing for her to go inside.

"The master is inside," he informed her, shooting her what appeared to be an apologetic look, as if he understood that she was scared and confused.

For her part, Euphemia would have scoffed at Theodore for stating the obvious had she not been in the grip of panic. Nonetheless, her body continued to act with a mind of its own, forcing Euphemia to enter the limo before Theodore shut the door.

"Hey, just what's going on here?" Euphemia thought, feeling even more panicked than before, as she found that she could not move her body and not only that, but she could not even open her mouth to speak.

She was currently sitting in a strange limousine with no idea how she got there, or even what was going on. However, the sound of a soothing piano tune suddenly caused her to stop and she forced herself to calm down as she took in her surroundings. The thing that she could pinpoint straight away was that mostly everything appeared to be a variety of different shades of velvet blue. She also noticed that she was not alone. Two others also occupied the room, one of which, Euphemia guessed must be this "master" that Theodore was referring to.

Anyway, the floor was a dark shade of blue and a strangely shaped light shone from the ceiling. There were also two rows of circular lights that ran down the ends of the ceiling and the ceiling itself appeared to be decorated in a series of curves. Curtains hung from the windows, at the sides and over the tops, even along the opposite end of the room from where Euphemia was sitting where there was a grey wall above the sofa separating the room from the driving cab.

To Euphemia's left underneath the windows were two rows of shelves, with a small TV placed in the centre of the top row. Those shelves contained a few empty wine glasses with a bottle or two containing an alcoholic beverage. The inside of the shelves was decked in small blue square titles and the shelves themselves were coloured grey. In the small area between the windows and the shelves, the wall was a dark velvet blue colour with line depression forming triangles, though if not for the short space between the windows and the shelves, they probably would have formed diamond shapes.

Opposite Euphemia was a sofa that formed an L shape as it joined up with another sofa to Euphemia's right. The top of the sofa was a dark greyish velvet blue metallic ornament and the cushion had lines forming diamond shapes and a depression outlining a rectangle on each sofa. Also to Euphemia's right was a grey table between the sofa that joined up with the one opposite her and yet another sofa that ran from where the table was to just before the door, and on top of the table was a wine glass and two wine bottles.

Also situated in the room opposite Euphemia was a small circular table with curved leg bottoms and a square table cloth that was positioned so that to Euphemia, it appeared as a diamond.

All in all, it looked like the interior of a regular limousine with a minibar and a TV built into its side.

Looking outside, she saw nothing but the dense grey fog, though looking through the windows seemed to give it a lighter tint.

However, now that she took in her surroundings, Euphemia brought her attention to the two other occupants. Both of them had their eyes closed, seemingly oblivious to her presence. The one sitting on the sofa to Euphemia's right and next to the table that separated the two sofas was a woman with her hands resting on a book that was resting in her lap. She opened her eyes first and from what Euphemia could see, they were completely devoid of any emotion whatsoever, which reminded her of Unit #031, though this woman was clearly human. Nonetheless, the woman continued to pay her no mind as she just stared straight ahead of her.

She had platinum blonde hair, the same colour as Theodore that was wavy at the back and ran to just underneath her shoulders. Her eyes were also the same brownish orange colour as Theodore's and Euphemia could not help but wonder if they were related. Anyway, looking the woman over, Euphemia saw that she wore blue high-heeled shoes, black leggings, which on first glance appeared to be stockings, though Euphemia noticed a black high-rise collar around her neck with three small golden buttons running down the front, leading her to believe that the leggings and the collar were part of a one-piece suit. She also wore a blue headband over the top of her head near the back where her hair started its wavy pattern.

However, what got Euphemia's attention was the ridiculous looking blue trenchcoat that she wore over her body. The front appeared to be separate from the rest of the jacket, held in place by eight oversized blue buttons with grey outlines The front also had a dark grey outline and yet another line forming a corridor along the edges running from the bottom and over the top with the inner line running underneath the centre of the oversized buttons. The buttons themselves were in four rows of two with the top four over her upper torso separated from the bottom four over her lower torso and thighs by a blue belt with a rather oversized grey buckle. She also had black borderlines that separated the torso from the sleeves and blue rectangular appendixes with dark grey outlines buttoned over the tops of her shoulders with similar oversized buttons to the ones displayed on the front. There were also lines forming diamond shapes running from the front that was a part of the main jacket to right down her sleeves with two more oversized buttons pinned two black sleeve flaps in place.

Looking ahead of her, Euphemia saw what appeared to be an old man with pointed ears and an inhumanly long nose with his hands clasped in front of him and his elbows resting on the table. From the angle Euphemia was watching him, his nose appeared to be curved downwards like a toucan's beck and that it looked as if he was resting his nose on the tops of his hands. Whatever he was, Euphemia doubted that he was human. Like the woman before him, his eyes opened and Euphemia was a bit surprised to see that they appeared to be bloodshot and absent of irises with his pupils appearing to be just two small black dots.

Unlike the woman, though, he stared right at Euphemia, regarding her carefully.

In addition to his eyes, the top of his scalp was bald, though he short greyish white hair running from the sides of his head above his ears right around the back, making it clear that he was balding. It was just the top of his head that was devoid of any hair. However, what Euphemia found strange was that his eyebrows were dark grey-almost black. He wore strange black shoes those ends appeared to raise upwards at a forty-five-degree angle.

"Wearing those must be murder on his feet," Euphemia found herself joking to herself in her head, as she found herself biting her lip to prevent herself from speaking aloud for fear of offending this man, since she had no idea what he could possibly do to her.

He also wore dark grey trousers, a white shirt, a dark grey tie those ends arced diagonally in opposite directions from the knot and a dark grey coat with a breast pocket that contained a white napkin on the left side along with a pair of white gloves over his hands.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," the strange old man spoke in an almost-stereotypical Transylvanian accent, just as Euphemia felt the limo start to move.

She guessed that Theodore must have gotten back in the driver's cab and was now driving the limo again. Another thing that struck her was the sound of the soothing music that seemed to echo throughout the room. It started with a soothing piano piece before a woman started singing, though, Euphemia could not make out any words. There was also a violin that periodically played throughout certain parts of the tune. All in all, despite this old man's sinister looking appearance, the music definitely provided a rather soothing atmosphere, and Euphemia could not help but relax and feel perfectly at ease. However, there was no radio, so Euphemia had no idea where the music was coming from. In fact, the music seemed to come out of the very room itself, since Euphemia could not pinpoint an exact source and it seemed to come from all around her.

The old man, despite his sinister looking appearance also set the pink-haired Princess at ease. Sure, he may have looked sinister and to anyone watching him, it was like he had sinister intentions indeed, but Euphemia could not feel any bad vibes from him. In fact, the vibes she was getting from him were as soothing as the music she could not help but listen to. She somehow knew that this man meant her no harm, despite the fact that he looked as if he was ready to reach out and molest or violate her at any given moment.

"Ah… it seems that we have yet another guest with an intriguing destiny," the old man went on, ignorant of the pink-haired Princess's observations, "And just when we welcomed another guest. My, my, it is indeed a rarity for us to be playing host to more than one guest at a time nowadays."

He then let out a rather amused chuckle.

"This is turning out to be even weirder than my last dream," Euphemia thought to herself with a somewhat dumbfounded, as she told herself that she had to be dreaming again.

"My name is Igor," the old man went on, as he finally introduced himself, his tone sounding surprisingly soothing as he continued to study the pink-haired Princess curiously, "And I am delighted to make your acquaintance, my dear."

"Okay," Euphemia said with a somewhat confused and reluctant nod of acceptance, finding that she could finally speak again, and she decided that it was best to play along for now, though she was rather unsure of what was happening.

"Besides, if this is just a dream, I know that I'm eventually going to wake up," she told herself contently in her mind, "Yeah, I'm probably lying unconscious somewhere on Shikine Island after being knocked out due to the battle between the Black Knights and my brother's Avalon."

She had to note that this dream was vastly different from her previous dream. Whereas in her previous dream, she was just an invisible observer for the most part, observing Unit #031 and the scientists that experimented with her… at least until right at the end when Unit #031 somehow managed to see her, this time, she was actually interacting with those within her dream.

"This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter," Igor went on to explain, causing Euphemia's eyes to widen in surprise.

She remembered hearing Unit #031's explanation on the Plume of Dusk, which Euphemia figured that was responsible for her sentience, making her different from an AI. Part of that explanation was how it existed in a state between mind and matter.

"So, does that mean that this place and that Plume of Dusk material or whatever are connected somehow?" she thought to herself, before she realised that Igor also said dream and reality, though, had it not been for that, she would have dismissed mind and matter comment as pure coincidence, since she doubted that this dream and her previous dream were related.

"Wait, does that mean, I'm dreaming?" she asked aloud.

"I guess in a way, yes you are," Igor admitted honestly with a small, curt nod of his head, "It's complicated to explain, but I will say that you are fast asleep in the real world."

"Huh?" Euphemia said in confusion.

"Anyway, moving on, this is a room that only those bound by a contract may enter," Igor went on, ignoring the pink-haired Princess's confusion.

"Contract?" Euphemia said, even more confused than she was before, "But I don't remember signing any contract."

"It may be that such a fate awaits you in the near future," Igor went on, ignoring Euphemia, much to the Princess's growing annoyance, as he gestured his left hand towards Euphemia, "Now then… why don't you introduce yourself…?"

"Um… okay, my name is Euphemia li Britannia, and I want to know just what on Earth is going on here?" Euphemia replied in a polite tone, though she shot the strange old man a look that told him that she clearly demanded answers, "And just what do you mean by contract? I don't remember signing anything."

"Hm… I see," Igor said in interest, once again ignoring the pink-haired Princess's questions, "Most unusual. It's been quite a while since we've hosted a guest from outside the country of Japan, and not only that, but a guest whose origins originate in an entirely different world."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Euphemia asked, feeling more confused than before, and she was also starting to get annoyed, since it seemed that this Igor character was dodging her questions, "And I want you to answer my questions!"

"My, my, such impatience," Igor mused with a light chuckle, sounding more amused than put off, which only served to frustrate the pink-haired Princess even more, "Unfortunately, I am unable to answer your questions… or rather, the answers you seek are difficult to put into words. However, I can assure you that you will come to understand in time, as you will experience those answers for yourself, and when you do, I promise that you will come to understand. However, I can answer that, yes, you are correct in claiming that you have not signed the contract yet. However, at some point in the near future you will have to make the decision on whether or not you'll sign it, and when that time comes, I'm sure that you'll make the right choice."

"Okay…" Euphemia said in an unsure tone, as she reluctantly dropped the subject, knowing just by looking at Igor, that that was as best an answer she was going to get for now and that it was useless trying to force more out of him.

"Now then, let's take a look into your future, shall we, my dear?" The long-nosed old man went on, as he then placed his hand over the table and suddenly, a bright white light shone from underneath his hand.

Almost as quickly as the light appeared, it had vanished, and as Igor withdrew his hand, Euphemia's eyes widened in surprise as she saw that a deck of cards were now sitting on top of the table where they had not been before.

"Nice magic trick," she said, as the words automatically left her mouth before she could stop herself.

The deck certainly had not been there before and Euphemia was at a loss to explain how they got there, though the light that Igor caused to appear seemed to have something to do with it.

"It's got to be some kind of trick," Euphemia thought to herself, unsure how to explain it.

"Do you believe in fortune telling?" Igor asked her, as he gestured his hands towards her, and Euphemia soon came to realise that this must be a habit of his, gesturing his hand towards those he was speaking to, since she witnessed that he did it every so often; it was only now that she was just noticing it.

"Not really," Euphemia replied with an honest shake of her head, "My sister once told me that fortunate tellers are mostly con-artists that talk people into parting with their money so they can brag about nonsense that's not true."

"My, such honesty," Euphemia heard a soft female voice chuckle, causing her to turn and look at the woman that also occupied the room.

She did have a soft and gentle smile on her face, but it almost immediately vanished as soon as the pinked-haired Princess had noticed, and was replaced by the woman's usual emotionless expression. What really piqued Euphemia's curiosity though, was the fact that she had not said a word since she entered the limo and seemed quite content to let Igor do all the talking.

"Ahem," Igor said in a somewhat annoyed and disapproving tone, causing Euphemia to turn his attention back to him.

He then waved his hand over the table, causing the top six cards to separate from the deck and form a hexagon shape around the table with the deck itself in the centre.

"Like I told your fellow guest, each reading is done with the same cards, yet the result is always different," the long-nosed old man in a tone of slight amusement mixed with wonder and curiosity, and let out a small amused chuckle, "Life itself follows the same principles, doesn't it?"

"If you say so," Euphemia said with a hesitant nod, unsure what she should think, but at the same time, deciding that it was best to play along for now.

Reaching out to the card on the upper left, he turned it over, and Euphemia saw the depiction of a tower being struck by lightning with two people falling to the ground, though it was uncertain whether they had jumped or had fallen, and the bottom of the card depicted, XVI, the Roman numeral for sixteen.

"Hm… this is most unusual," Igor said in a curious tone, as he raised an eyebrow, "The Tower in the upright position represents the immediate future."

"And what's unusual about that?" Euphemia asked, suppressing the urge to gulp.

She knew that he was doing a tarot card reading, and despite not knowing much about tarot cards or the arcana, she did know that the Tower was not a card that brought good news.

"In itself, nothing, it's just that I did a reading with your fellow guest, and this was the card that first appeared when he was here," Igor replied simply, "It seems that a terrible catastrophe is imminent. I have to say that it is most unusual for the same card to appear at the beginning for two readings in a row."

"So there was someone else who was put through the same experience as me," Euphemia thought to herself, despite Igor's previous comments about this "fellow guest".

"The card indicating the future beyond that is…" Igor went on, pausing as he flipped the upper right card, which depicted a long-haired woman that appeared to be reading a book with the letter's J and B behind her with the J to her right and the B to her left, and the bottom of the card depicted, II, the Roman numeral for two, "The Priestess in the upright position. This card represents you, my dear, more specifically hidden knowledge, untapped potential and mystery… very interesting indeed."

"So does that mean that I have some hidden power that I'll tap into in future?" Euphemia said jokingly with a small laugh, unable to help herself.

"Possibly," Igor replied, catching Euphemia by surprise, since she had expected him to reprimand her for not taking this seriously, but he seemed to humour her, "In any case, moving on."

He then flipped over the bottom left card, which depicted the drawing of a five pointed star with a face drawn on it and depicted at the bottom was XVII, the Roman numeral for seventeen.

"The Star in the upright position," he went on, either ignorant or uncaring of the pink-haired Princess's surprise, "This card represents faith optimism and trust. This is most interesting."

Before Euphemia could reply, he reached out for the bottom right card, but as he went to flip it over, it seemed to fall from his hand landing in neither the upright nor the reverse positions. From both Euphemia and Igor's perspectives it was at a sideway angle, and it depicted a skull along with a figure wielding a scythe that Euphemia could easily identify as the Grim Reaper and at the bottom of the card was depicted XIII, the Roman numeral for thirteen.

"Death…!" Euphemia gasped as the colour suddenly drained from her face, knowing what the card was, "D-does this mean I'm going to die?"

Igor just chuckled softly, though there was nothing sinister about the way he chuckled. It was more of a gentle reassuring chuckle.

"My dear girl, everyone dies eventually," he said in a gentle, reassuring and somewhat soothing tone, "From the moment we are born, we are already on the journey towards death. However, the road towards the grave is not set in stone. In any case, this card does not necessarily mean that the end of this journey will result in your death."

"Journey?" Euphemia asked, once again feeling confused.

"The Death Card is not necessarily a premonition of death," Igor went on, choosing to ignore Euphemia, "It can also be a premonition of rebirth, of change and a turning point in one's life. However, this is most unusual as it is in neither the upright or reversed positions."

"Well, that's because it fell out of your hand," Euphemia pointed out.

"Yes, but here in this Velvet Room, nothing happens without a reason," Igor explained, giving the pink-haired Princess a look, indicating that he would not tolerate backtalk for the time being, "In other words, there was a reason that the card slipped from my grip."

"Yeah, the lack of friction in those gloves," Euphemia thought, while biting her lip yet again, in order to prevent herself from speaking aloud.

She could see the look that Igor was giving her and knew that it was best not to test her luck with him, since just by looking at him, she easily guessed that he was most certainly not someone who would take too kindly to being offended.

"Anyway, it seems that when you leave here, you will encounter the same misfortune that will befall your fellow guest at your destination and a great mystery will be imposed upon you both, which will lead to you discovering a power that has been lying dormant within you, after which, you will be called upon to assist your fellow guest in some way," the long-nosed old man continued to explain, deciding to move things along, "In the coming days, as I said before, you will enter into a contract of some sort, after which you will return here. The coming year is a turning point in your destiny. Should you choose to ignore the plight of your fellow guest and let the mystery go unsolved, your future may be forever lost."

"Huh, so basically, I don't have much of a choice then?" Euphemia summed up, after thinking what the strange old man just said, "I could ignore it if I choose, but it'll mean my demise, is that it?"

"Pretty much," Igor admitted with a nod, "However, since the last card in the reading was neither upright nor reversed, who knows what could happen. Even if the mystery is solved, the result could still end in your death."

"That's reassuring," Euphemia said sarcastically, feeling a sense of fear enter her mind.

Honestly, she did not know why, but as much as she did not want to believe what she was being told, and that this Igor character was just pulling a massive prank on her, part of her just could not shake off the niggling fear that it was all real. As much as she wanted to laugh it off as one big joke, she found that she just could not shake off those feelings that this was all just a prelude something big. Feelings of doubt and fear plagued her mind, and no matter how much she tried to dismiss them, it only seemed to make them persist in pestering her even more.

"It's not the first time that the end of a guest's journey has resulted in their death," Igor informed her with a somewhat sad sigh, but almost immediately perked up again, "However, death is just one possibility. Nonetheless, even if you survive, as I said before, the coming year marks a turning point in your destiny. Regardless of what happens, you will be forever changed. Remember, the Death Card can also symbolise rebirth."

"Putting it like that makes me feel that perhaps death is the better of the two," Euphemia grumbled unhappily, shooting the long-nosed man a rather unhappy glare.

"Anyway, my duty is to provide assistance to our guests to ensure that ill fates such as that do not happen," Igor went on, completely ignoring the pink-haired Princess's discomfort.

With that said, he once again waved his hand over the table and all the cards on top of the table vanished.

After a brief silence, Igor then gestured his left hand towards the woman sitting to his left, and truth be told, Euphemia had started to forget that she was in the room since she had not uttered a word other than that comment she made to herself, but other than that, she reminded silent.

"Ah, how rude of me, once again I have neglected to introduce my assistant to you," he said, causing Euphemia to give him a confused look.

"You mean you forgot to introduce her to your other guest," she corrected in a dumbfounded tone.

"This is Margaret," Igor went on, ignoring Euphemia's comment, as he not only gestured his hand towards her, but also turned to face her, "She is a resident of this place, like myself."

"My name is Margaret," the woman said, introducing herself in a rather cold emotionless tone, "I am here to accompany you on your journey."

"And I did introduce her to your fellow guest," Igor added, indicating that he had heard Euphemia's previous comment, "It was just after our business had concluded, much like with you."

"Wait, hold on, residents, you mean you actually live here?" Euphemia said, as a realisation hit her after going over what Igor said.

"Yes, though the Velvet Room changes in appearance depending on the situation," Igor explained with a humorous chuckle.

"And in case you're wondering, since my hair and eyes are the same colour as the driver's, Theo is my younger brother," Margaret put in before Euphemia could reply to the long-nosed man's comment, though unlike before, her tone had taken a gentle and soft edge to it as she flashed the pink-haired Princess a brief smile, letting her know that she was capable of displaying emotion.

"Anyway, for now, our business is concluded," Igor said simply with a tone of finality, "We shall attend to the details another time."

"Huh, now just you wait a minute!" Euphemia exclaimed in sudden surprise, as the long-nosed man's comment caught her off guard.

"Until then, farewell, my dear…" Igor concluded before Euphemia could say any more, and the pink-haired Princess suddenly found her vision gradually fading to black, and she also found that she could no longer speak or even think straight.


Author's Notes – Finally, chapter 2. I've been busy familiarising myself with the other Persona Games, since I'm planning on having characters from those games make an appearance at some point.