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End of and Era Chapter 25
🕑 Added 2023-06-23 13:32:21 +0000 UTCYMost of that stuff in the previous chapter was never in the original planning, they came up during the finalization as I wished to show off how Lelouch and C.C. are like sovereigns outside something like a royal court which also doubled as a means to show them as parents as when I sat down to think about it, I realized that he'll try to be that kind of dad, you know the one, super attentive, extremely supportive, overprotective, unironically might chase boys off with threats to their lives and physical health, that kind of dad. Though lucky for any would-be boys, that stage isn't gonna be another for at least a decade, though how he'll deal with them in their rebellious teenage years will be extremely funny to contemplate. Anyway, we're finally here, the two groups in the same room for a long-awaited talk, and fun fact, as I finished up the polish for the chapter, I was listening to Dusk Till Dawn and it set a very weird scene in my head that had a smile on my face the entire time.
Chapter 25: Audience.
After the twins had finally allowed Cornelia some peace, the group finished their meal, little was said but the tension wasn't as bad as it would have been without the balls of energy that were his pride and joys. Of course, that energy fizzled out quickly as, by the time they were served dessert, the two had been physically exhausted after their day, leaving the parents to excuse themselves as they carried them off to get ready for bed. It was an hour later that they returned, their little ones absent, that the talks could truly begin.
‘I was told you wished to speak with me, enough that you hounded Jeremiah?’ Lelouch opened from his place at the end of the table, the man he referred to standing at his side like the dutiful knight he was.
Choosing their words carefully, Cornelia replied. ‘It’s true, we wished to ask you some things.’
C.C. snorted as she leaned her face on her well-manicured hand. ‘And what would that be? I would hope that it was important enough for you to brave the trip.’ Here, the group gave one another a look, a silent conversation being spoken before Tamaki gestured towards Kallen.
The redhead in disguise took a breather, as Lelouch watched her with a face that gave away nothing, gave her no indication of what he felt about them, about her. ‘Before anything else, I…I want the truth from you. Did you ever use geass on us, on any of the Black Knights?’
Lelouch rose an eyebrow at that, but his face remained the same. ‘I seem to recall I already answered this question. If you were unwilling to believe then, why would you believe it now?’
‘Just!’ Kallen stopped herself before she could start yelling, her emotions nearly getting the better of her as she calmed down. ‘Please, Lelouch, we…I need to know.’ She knew that he told her that he hadn't, but he also told her that she was important to him, and then he called her a pawn, a useful pawn but a pawn nevertheless. She didn't know what to think about his words and actions anymore.
C.C. gave her husband a look out of the corner of her eye as the man closed his eyes and took a small breath, opening them once more. '…No, I did not. The only person among you that I did use my geass on was you, Kallen. If I had used my geass on the rest of you, then it would have been impossible for you all to stage a coup against me, as I would have stopped such with a snap of my fingers.’ He answered.
‘You said that you never used it on her.’ Nagisa spotted his contradiction.
'Correction, I told her way back when that I never used it to make her loyal or make her follow me. She and the rest of you all chose to follow Zero.' He brought up his specific wording as Kallen back in the Towe of Babel had asked him if he made her his pawn, not if he had ever used his geass on her period.
‘Then what did you order her to do?’ Gino asked him, he gave a glance to Anya who while smiling back at him, was standing at C.C.'s side, her position in this conversation clear to him.
‘“Don’t mention anything about Shinjuku.”’ Lelouch quoted his words, getting Kallen to gasp.
‘Kallen, what does that mean?’ Tamaki asked her as the woman took a second to collect herself.
‘He said that to be the day we met, I recall…seeing him but not what we talked about, when he said that, I got suspicious of him.’ Kallen tried to recall more about it, but she was drawing a blank. She could recall the start and ending, but none of the middle.
‘It was careless of you.’ C.C. told Lelouch, seeing that his first non-combat use of geass had nearly got him caught.
‘Cut my slack, witch. I didn’t know at the time my power was a one-time use deal.’ Lelouch defended himself from her, to which she scoffed and smirked his way.
‘Are you implying you didn’t test it first before you started using it?’ She asked him, with Lelouch choosing not to answer.
‘No comment.’ C.C. merely smiled at her victory over him as Milly spoke up before the spouses could continue with their little conversation.
‘Lelouch.’ The man looked her way for a moment, almost irritated that she interrupted them but then he recalled that they were doing something else, which was him explaining his use of geass to them.
‘Hmm? Oh, yes, the conversation. I geassed you to answer my questions about what you were doing in Shinjuku and why you, a Britannian noble girl, would join the eleven-resistance movement.’ He explained to them, with Kallen looking his way with a little hope in her eyes, hope that sought to grow.
‘That’s all?’ She asked him, the hope in her heart that she held for so long, that he hadn’t made her his tool, wanted to expand and intensify as she now had proof, she had his word in a setting where he didn’t need to lie.
'That's all. I released it too early without realizing that your memory of the conversation would already be surpassed, so I tried it again to get you to forget it, but with the one-time use…’ He left it open for them to finish.
'I was immune.' Which Kallen as he nodded his head.
‘Correct, same as Guilford and Cornelia, the rest of you are fair game.’ He turned his gaze to his sister and if he was reading their body language right, her husband? Well, what do you know, perhaps he should give them a late wedding present.
‘You made me your puppet.’ Guilford started, not asking with a glare directed towards the ruler who didn't so much as flinch, only reaching for the glass which Jeremiah quickly filled up with some wine, it wasn't the finest or most well aged but he didn't need or wish for such. It was good enough for his people, so it was good enough for him.
Taking a sip of his alcoholic beverage, he let the flavour settle in his mind before he replied. ‘I did, it was a failsafe in case my little meeting with Suzaku went sideways, I won’t apologize for that but if it makes you feel better, I can have Jeremiah expunge the command from you.’ He nodded towards the cyborg in question.
'Of course, with the command removed, you'll be open to a new one.' He flashed his geass towards them, it was only a second but it was enough for a shiver of fear to shoot down their spines as his eyes, looked so much like the owls from the forest. Were they a part of him? Some sort of extension of his power?
‘I’ll take my chances.’ Still, Guilford answered as he wished to never follow him like that again. For his loyalty to his princess and wife to be twisted in such a vile manner.
‘So…did he use it on…?’ Rivalz asked, speaking up for the first time since he had arrived, with Lelouch turning his gaze towards his old friend, his face unreadable for a moment before he gave them man a smile, a friendly smile close to the ones that used to share back in Ashford when the world had made more sense and hadn't gone to hell.
‘I did. My lord wished to leave you both with your minds secure and forever yours. So, he instructed me to cancel Charles geass on your shortly before I left Tokyo with Sayoko.’ Jeremiah explained how it came to be to Rivalz.
‘Sayoko, is she here?’ Milly asked, having not seen the Japanese maid ever since they arrived.
‘She is, she manages the staff for my private quarters and is the main caretaker for the little ones when we’re not available. You could perhaps see her come the morning.’ Lelouch told her, as the woman had been quite busy throughout the day, but had seemed pleased when he informed her of Milly’s presence after he tucked in the twins.
‘Before then, Jeremiah.’ He turned towards the man, who bowed to him before turning to face the assembled group.
‘At once.’ The cover over his left eye opened, revealing the blue, upside down geass symbol before a faint blue sphere grew from his person, engulfing the group. For most, there was no reaction, as there was no command to be broken but for the three of them, they stilled as their repressed memories returned to them with the geass order on them being shattered.
Guilford was the first to speak, now having a clear recollection of that day. ‘That day…you had Jeremiah trick me into the meeting where you gave me a sleeper command.’ Yes, it was that gesture, whenever he saw him do it, he would see Cornelia!
While he stewed in indignation, Cornelia's eyes remained saddened. ‘You asked about your mother.’ Of all the things he could have asked, all the ways he could have used it...No, considering what they knew at the time, that was all he wanted to know.
‘Yes, to both.’ Lelouch replied before he turned to Kallen, who had been silent the entire time. ‘Do you believe me now, Kallen? Or is my word still lacking?’
Brought back into things by his words, she stumbled out an answer. 'N-no…it just…jarring. I recall the words leaving my mouth, but it wasn't "me" speaking. It was as if I was on autopilot.'
C.C. nodded her head. ‘That seems to be a general symptom of others, as he’s demonstrated my powers more than once. Part of the deal we made with our government so that they could be on the lookout for such.’ She informed them as the group, more specifically the Black Knights, turned to her surprise by such an admission.
‘You told them?’ Tamaki asked. He would have thought they would have kept a lid on that, like he had done with them back in the day to which Lelouch snorted, taking another sip of his wine as he turned an unimpressed gaze to the older man.
‘Of course, I did. I wasn’t about to make the same mistakes I made with you all. Paranoia and suspicion are dangerous things to any organization.’ His words were calm, but biting as Tamaki felt like his gaze was digging into his very soul.
‘Mistakes…’ Lucky for him, Nagisa came to his aide as she brought up something else. ‘So, it would be a safe bet that Schneizel was wrong about you?’
‘No clue, as I don’t know what he told you to get you all to betray me.’ He replied to which Nagisa explained what she was talking about.
‘He presented files of people, claimed that their strange behavior was due to your geass.’
'And who was among those names?' Lelouch asked, wondering how Schneizel could have even got his hands on a complete list.
'It was a large stack, but the names that stick out the most would be Lieutenant Colonel Josui, General Tatewaki, the Eunuch in charge of Area 11 Chinese Federation consulate, Jeremiah, General Dalton and Princess Euphemia.’ The last name got some light from Cornelia, a fury that he had known well but it burned out as soon as it lit.
‘He accused you and using it to twist them to act in your interests, including being the root of the SAZ massacre. Was that true?’ She finally asked him the burning question, his silence not meaning well for his case as he moved to take another sip, but paused and placed the glass down.
'Except for General Tatewaki, I did use my geass on those people, yes. But there is more to it than that?’ Nagisa felt like she should jump to her feat, or try and attack him but she kept herself in check as his response wasn't a clear-cut one, they rarely were but it did imply he did have a hand on those events.
‘Why, Lelouch.’ He turned from her to his sister, who looked at him with a mixture of disgust, exhaustion and just straight confusion. ‘Why Euphie?’
An image of Euphemia's smiling face to mind, only to overlap with her falling body after he had just shot her. 'As I said, there is more to it. I'll start with everyone else. For Kusakabe, I used it after he chose to hold up the Lake Kawaguchi hotel.’ He decided it would be best to build up to the big one, so he started small.
‘You made him commit suicide?’ Rivalz asked, recalling that the news reported that he had done that shortly before the hotel was destroyed, getting a nod from their host.
‘Yes, though I hardly see the difference in how it looked.' He shrugged his shoulders, feeling no shame over it as the man was dead from the moment, he decided to hold up the hotel. Even if he hadn’t gotten involved, he would have died either in the firefight along with some of the hostages, or if he somehow survived, would have been shot before he even got whatever show trial that Cornelia could have cooked up in her fury for him endangering Euphie.
'For the general, I never met him in person, nor did I ever geass him. I simply lied about how he died since I was the one who killed him as a means to give the Black Knights an opening against Cornelia.' Here, both Cornelia and Nagisa’s eyes widen but for different reasons.
‘You killed our comrades for that?’ Nagisa snarled at him, at the man that had murdered her commander in cold blood.
‘Correction. He was your comrade, not mine.’ His response didn’t make her feel any less angry over it, but she held her tongue. ‘As for the actual assault, I did have Cornelia pinned, even with the Lancelot present but my attention was broken by Shirley’s presence.’ All three of the Ashford group shot to attention with them, turning to him as if he was mad.
‘Shirley? Why would she have been anywhere near the docks?’ Milly asked him, as the girl couldn’t have been there, she certainly didn’t say anything about it in the days afterwards.
At the question, Lelouch displayed the first real emotion they'd seen from him since the dinner started that wasn't happiness or amusement directed towards his twins. What she saw in him was a deep-rooted anger, one that she had only seen in him once. ‘A social ladder climber told her that I was Zero after the battle at Narita. She followed my part of the way, and waited till the fireworks started to finish the trip.’ He replied, his…disapproval of the actions that led to one of his friends being put into danger palpable.
Cornelia caught on pretty quirk to who he was referring. ‘Viletta? She suspected you and didn’t report it?’
‘As I said, she was eager for that noble title, the same one she shot Ohgi for. Regardless, her presence threw me off and Suzaku disabled my machine, but the Guren kept him back so he couldn’t move in to finish the job, good thing too as I was knocked unconscious by the rough impact.’ He waved off the former Britannian pureblood turned intelligence officer. His attention needed more important things than hers.
‘But if she suspected you, and you were knocked out, how did you make it out of there?’ Rivalz asked the obvious question as even though he never knew her as anything more than a P.E. teacher he might have had a crush on, Lelouch was building a picture of a very career-orientated woman, so the idea that she would have all that, and not cashed in was ludicrous.
And Lelouch agreed with it, but he had come to have a good idea of what happened. ‘Shirley. She shot her and dumped the body in the water, and yes,’ He immediately reacted to Kallen, Milly and Rivalz's protests to such a thing. ‘I know that’s shocking; Shirley didn’t come out of that unscathed, it troubled her deeply and allowed Mao to manipulate her.’ He hated that she was put into that spot as even when you make the choice, it sticks with you. They say you never forget your first, and that very much applies to kills as it does love.
‘Mao?’ Cornelia asked, not knowing anyone by that name while C.C. shrunk on herself a little, the reminder of her shameful past causing some guilt to swim in her heart.
'He was my contractor before Lelouch but things didn't work out between us and I left him. I had never imagined he would track me down to Area 11.' C.C. gave them a summary of the issues involving the dead Chinese man or more accurately man-child.
Hearing this, and knowing how geass works, Cornelia leaned in closer. ‘What was his power then?’
‘He could read the minds of anyone within 500 meters, though he lost control of it years ago and as a result, he couldn’t turn it off.’ Cornelia wasn’t the only one blown back by that, as it was a frightening power, one that would turn its user into the best intelligence officer as there would be no secret they couldn’t uncover, no lie they couldn’t see through. Of course, that also came with the sickening realization of what it must be like to have that, to hear everyone’s thoughts constantly without rest or mercy. It would be a chaotic hell.
‘Jesus.’ Guilford muttered; he didn't want to imagine the life of the poor bastard. He didn't think he would be able to last a week with such a curse and would flee to the woods, as far from others as possible but then he knew humans were social creatures by nature and that the isolation would soon drive him to insanity. All he would be able to do would be how he wished for his mind to fall apart, by noise or silence.
C.C. nodded, fully agreeing with the sentiment as she had seen many geass powers in her centuries, and she could say that 9 out of 10 always ended up as a curse, that was if the user lived long enough to reach that point. 'Yes, what started as a gift turned into a curse, as is the fate of all those given geass. There always comes the day where it goes runaway and the user losses control over it.' She gave her husband a look, a silent apology for what this caused him after Mao.
Not seeing this look from his wife, Lelouch picked things up from there. 'Regardless of that, he approached Shirley in her time of confusion and need and manipulated her into trying to commit a murder homicide, killing me and then herself for being sinners.' His fist tightened as he recalled the affair. How she was so confused, angry and heartbroken about the situation, enough that she nearly put a bullet in him, only being saved by the fact she hadn't aimed when she pulled the trigger.
Milly covered her mouth as she listened to this, to just how much her friend was going through while she had been blissfully unaware, unable to act. ‘Oh my God, she went through that?’
Lelouch nodded, losing some of his strength from his posture, slumping forward just a little. ‘She did…To help her, I used my geass on her to make her forget the entire thing, to forget why she was falling apart but because her grief was tied to knowing that she knew that Zero, the man responsible for her father’s death was Lelouch Lamperouge, she forgot me as well.’ Rivalz and Milly’s eyes widened at that, as they found it strange that she would have acted so off around that time. She had crushed on the boy hard, so to go from that to “pretending” he didn’t exist was a strange thing.
‘So it wasn’t an act.’ Milly asked, recalling how he lied to her about it, stating that they had just gotten into a fight and that she was mad with him but while believable, Lelouch was never that great with the fairer sex, he did ask her to stay out of it. Now she knew it was because if she had, she would have failed. After all, to Shirley, he was just another classmate she barely knew.
‘It wasn’t. up till Jeremiah released her from both my and my father’s geass, she had forgotten the entire thing ever happened.’ Lelouch confirmed, though he couldn't put an exact date on it even with Jeremiah telling him when he arrived, and which areas he used his geass canceller in, he didn't know where Shirley was for most of that time. She could have been in the first, the middle, the last or somewhere else in between.
Rivalz, recalling how that entire situation started, looked towards him with anger for his friend’s suffering. ‘Tell me you made him pay for that?’
Lelouch gave him a smile in response, one of cruel malice as he recalled how he accomplished just that. ‘I fooled Mao into a trap where he got shot to pieces by the police, but like a cockroach, that wasn’t enough but I’ll spare you the details of how and why. All you need to know is that he’s dead. I made sure to have the body incinerated to be sure.’
‘For myself, he used it on me when he debuted as Zero so that I would hand over Suzaku and ensure they got away.’ Jeremiah stated, getting rid of that question which he knew they had.
‘But then what about Orange?’ Cornelia asked.
‘He made it up,’ Jeremiah smirked, being able to see the genius in his lord’s plan. ‘He used “Orange” as a means to both discredit me in the eyes of the law and my allies and spread distrust as most suspected that Orange must have been something big, a top-secret government operation or cover-up and considering that his majesty implied that it was a secret of Clovis, it only gave the lie more credit.’
‘We looked into it,’ Guilford mentioned, his gaze on the man, his eyes apologetic at least for his suspicions and mistreatment in the past now that he knew he was innocent. ‘When we first arrived all I knew was that his Highness Prince Clovis wouldn’t have done what he did without good reason. But Jeremiah couldn’t tell us anything.’
‘What he was hiding was me. Dear Clovis wished to copy my immortality and conducted human experimentation to do it.’ ‘He tried to massacre the entirety of the Shinjuku ghetto because he knew if it got out, he would have been disinherited.’ C.C. didn't take much pleasure in how shocked Cornelia looked to hear that, to know her artist brother had sunken so low. Truly, she had gotten past that a while ago, and it wasn't like the woman seated before she had any part in it.
‘Hold up, Prince Clovis did that? And to cover it up, he orchestrated a massacre?’ Rivalz asked, not believing his ears about the situation.
‘It was a mercy that I killed him with a single shot, and that I never leaked his actions to the press. Though some days I wonder if my brotherly affection for the fool clouded my judgement.’ Lelouch confirmed with a frown. ‘The Eunuch was another case of simply using him. I geassed him into protecting us and buying us time both with the Chinese authorities and the Britannians.’ He waved that one off, not even remembering the name of the man he turned into a puppet, all he knew was that Xingke killed him once his usefulness had run its course.
However, that left him with the two biggest issues as Guilford was quick to remind him. ‘What of Dalton and Princess Euphemia?’
Lelouch was silent for a moment, organizing his emotions on that cursed day, his greatest shame and largest cross. ‘Dalton was after things went to hell. He approached me after Euphemia…gave the order. He knew something was off and that I was the probable reason and demanded answers. He was right, but he was a useful target so I geassed him to track down Cornelia and attack her, though not kill her.’
He looked towards Cornelia, his eyes no longer emotionless but stewing with guilt, rage and sorrow over his actions. 'As for Euphie...Euphemia. That was never meant to happen…none of it was meant to happen.'
‘Then what was supposed to happen, Lelouch?’ Nagisa asked him, leaning forward like the rest, eager to hear from the horse's mouth what had been the cause of the tragedy.
‘Euphemia knew who I was. She has suspected ever since we talked at the hotel jacking and she confirmed it on Kamine Island. We…talked, caught up as siblings again.’ His words caught them off balance with Cornelia felt like her soul leapt into her throat. Her sister had such information, but never told her. Why?
‘She…she never said anything. She knew?’ Cornelia asked, parts of her waging on this as one wished for him to be lying, that her sister hadn’t kept such a thing from her but another wished for it to be true, as it helped to explain some of her actions leading up to the SAZ.
Lelouch nodded, recalling what she had told him when he had asked her about it. ‘She believed that things were depressing as they were and that two you had communication issues.’ Cornelia pursed her lips with that, for as much as she wished to deny it, he was right as at that time, the rift that had been forming between them for a while was at its biggest as they disagreed on many things.
‘She had wanted things to return to the way things had been. Before my mother’s death, before the war…before all of it.’ Lelouch looked towards the pier, his gaze catching the stars and moon as their distorted reflections bounced and danced on the water's surface. ‘I told her that it was impossible, that the past was in the past and that all we could do was work to create a better future, but she dreamed of the idealistic past so much, she wished to recreate it.’ She was nothing if not stubborn.
‘Through the SAZ?’ Cornelia asked him, getting a nod from him.
'Yes. She wished to change things so that the fighting would stop so that our family wouldn't be so fractured…it was a sweet dream but…' He paused, C.C. reaching for his hand and giving it a firm squeeze.
'Most Japanese people knew that as well…but they were sick of the fighting, and would have taken anything else, even if it was a gilded cage that could collapse within a couple of years.' Nagisa added, as for all its lofty ideals, she knew that it was a fantasy, but after 7 years of Britannian rule, most were willing to take even the smallest of concessions.
'We were in between a rock and a hard place because of it. If we went with the SAZ, no doubt we would have been forced to downsize and de-arm, effectively de-fanging us and leaving the Black Knights too weak to fight once the zone did fall.' 'But if we chose to stand against it, then we'll be called proper terrorists and bloodthirsty war-mongers, losing support and face with the people.' Tamaki added the position of the Black Knights at the time, as while this princess sounded sweet, she hadn't realized she caught them in a checkmate with that plan of hers. Either die with the zone or slowly bleed out alone.
'Yes, it was a project doomed to fail as the Japanese and other numbers would grow to see it as a peanut concession, while the hardline Britannians would see it as a mockery of their beliefs, as a settlement that was too merciful to the beaten numbers.' Lelouch explained it, harshly but true in his assessment. ‘But I think she knew that…deep within her heart, she knew it would fail.’
‘So, you accelerated things?’ Cornelia asked him, wondering if he saw his actions as some sort of mercy, pulling the plug as it were only for him to laugh, a broken sound filled with regret.
‘Yes and no. I did intend to end things there, but not through bloodshed.’ He started to explain what he wished to do. 'I planned to geass her into shooting me, a non-fatal wound but it would have been enough to discredit her. Ending things before Zero would have made his miraculous recovery.' He didn't quite react to how they looked at him for his plan which while better, would still mean he would be actively destroying Euphemia's image and credibility on a world stage for his ends
‘Then what changed?’ Kallen asked, as he must have ordered them to lay and wait in the woods around the stadium for when he pulled his plan, but when they were called into action, it was much…much worse than any of them could have imagined.
Lelouch gave her a smile, a smile of regret but also love and respect for the fallen princess. 'She did. She had this…will about it, she knew the odds, she knew the risks and not only was prepared for them but was willing to cast aside even her noble title and name as she had renounced it as payment for her wishes.' The group reacted much the same as he did when he heard the news, how boldly she proclaimed she was no longer a princess, or a li Britannia but just Euphemia.
‘I was stunned, truly. Clovis had tried to wipe out an entire ghetto to keep his, but here she was just throwing it away…because she didn’t see value in it, not in exchange for what she wished for. She wanted a better world, she wanted to create Nunnally’s world…In the face of that, how could I not surrender?’ He asked them.
‘You surrendered?’ Guilford asked him, surprised that a man like him would ever do such a thing, but also not so surprised as he had seen how unpredictable Euphemia could be.
‘Yes, I was fully prepared to throw my weight and the weight of the Black Knights behind it, to ensure that it would last…but fate is a cruel mistress.’ He covered his face with his hands, cursing the Moirae for what came next, wishing he could have foreseen it, done something different but knowing that he could never do such a thing.
‘She asked me how I planned to force her to shoot me, and I explained my geass to her, how it bent the minds of my targets and made them do what I wished. She didn’t believe me and I threw out an example of something she would never do, something that went against her very nature.’ He didn’t need to finish the sentence, as the amassed group could put the pieces to this horrific puzzle together, their hearts falling into their stomachs.
‘Kill the Japanese.’ Cornelia whispered as he shamefully nodded his head.
‘As fate would have it, that was the moment my geass went runaway. She had been looking me in the eye…she had no chance.’ She had fought against it, but like all others, had fallen prey to its absolute power. 'But by the time I got past her guards, she had already taken the first shot.’ He had been around gunfire many times and had seen death in many forms but he could never forget the sound that came from the plastic and bamboo gun in her hands as she pulled the trigger, or the sound of that poor woman’s body falling limp…all followed by the screaming, the yelling, the gunfire. It was a sympathy of horror and death that was never far from his mind, never out of his nightmares.
The truth of the situation felt heavy on them all, none more so than Cornelia as after all these years, all the questions, all the theories she finally got her answer. And it was such a twist of cruel fate. ‘All that death…all that pain…over timing?’ She whispered just loud enough for it to be heard.
‘Yes. When I found her again…she didn’t even know what the issue was, reloading a gun she had just used a crowd while asking how we’ll manage the zone.’ He wanted so much to forget that, to erase it from reality. The image of Euphie smiling as she hoped for things to work out, unaware of the literal blood on her hands. ‘The geass canceller didn’t exist at the time, there was no way to stop her, so I did the only thing I could and ended it.’ He finished, closing his eyes in prayer for her soul, for all the souls that passed that day as he prayed that they found peace in the afterlife, had been seen to and ferried across the river.
For Cornelia, it was proving to be too much as after all these years, all the questions and theories, she finally had her answer. She finally found that the truth wasn’t that Lelouch did what he did out of anger, hate, disinterest or malice but it was all a bloody accident. ‘A fluke…my sister, my sweet sister died for a fluke?’
‘Yes.’ Cornelia burst out in laughter as her sanity started to strain and break, as all that she believed was thrown out the window it wasn't an act of malice from a man, it was an act of malice from God! Who only in that fucking moment took issue with Britannia calling itself the "Holy" Britannian empire and deciding to get back at them not by killing Charles, causing an economic crisis, handing them a series of large defeats in battle or just sending a damn flood their way-no! He chose to kill the one person among them that had even the slightest shot of getting into Heaven.
Her breakdown wasn’t a happy sight to them as Guilford tried to soothe her, but he didn’t know how as she had been bad when they lost the baby but this, this was a whole level. She reached for his shoulder, pulling herself upright to look him in the eye with a big smile on her face, even as the tears continued to pour down her face. ‘Did you hear then Guilford? Euphie's dream was ruined and she was killed over a fluke!' She laughed out, reaching for her hair and nearly pulling some out as the absurdity of the situation bent her even further. ‘No wonder V.V. and Charles wished to slay God, he sure as a twisted sense of justice, punishing our wicked family for its sins by taking the one good one among us! ’
‘Cornelia…’ The man continued to try and calm her down, pulling her into his chest and hugging tight. She tried to fight back, nearly breaking out in a fit of violent anger but that flash appeared and vanished, leaving her crying and broken in her arms as she wailed for it to be a lie, for there to be some other reason, a better reason she could never see her sister again.
Seeing that they'll get nothing more done, and having to deal with his demons regarding the topic, Lelouch is up from his seat. ‘We’ll let you have time to…think about what you learned. Jeremiah and Anya can show you to some sleeping quarters for the night.’
