002 ♛ video

[euphemia]

[ The feed begins with a young girl with pink hair who appears to seated in a room of some sort. Doesn’t seem like any room, but yes. After a moment, she smiles once she realizes the video began. ]

Hello everyone.

I hope that for those of you who just arrived you're settling in and adapting to things comfortably enough. I hope the experience thus far has not been too traumatizing in any way. I know it's a lot to take in, but I assure you that for those of us here before, we're just as baffled as you are about ... well, everything.

[ There is a pause as she looks off, contemplative and worried. After a moment, her attention falls back to the camera. ]

What I've come to learn recently is that we all seem to be in this together. As in—ah. As in literally. [ Pause. How to talk about this? ] I haven't had a lot of time to think about it but, uhm. Does anyone else recall experiencing some kind of fight with an army of creatures that looked like ... [ her voice lowers as she looks off. ] people I recognized.

[ Frowning. Concerned. Deeply. Seeing that person in that memory was jarring. Yet within moments, she lifts her head to continue. ]

I haven't found any answers to explain what happened. Not yet. However, I figured I should ask here and see if anyone had any similar experiences? Maybe talk a bit about it to understand? It was the only thing I vividly remember [ —there was another, but. ] and I feel there was a reason behind seeing it. I'm not even sure if it was even real?

[ Brows furrowed and eyes downward, she takes a moment to collect her thoughts before lifting her head again with a smile renewed. Positive time! ]

Ah! Forgive me! I didn't introduce myself. For those of you new, my name is Euphemia! I'm a White Mage and Nurse at the Yun'Ashia hospital. I'm also going to be starting school very soon there, too. It’s been a goal of mine to go back and finish my studies! Being a student and getting to go to classes again—I’m excited! Is there anyone else going to school? Maybe we can be study friends! Perhaps we can be study buddies? I will admit that I sometimes need a little help here and there, so please, let me know if you're interested!

As for the rest of you, if you need me for any reason, just reach. Or visit the hospital! Or call! I can do either of those things. I'm here to help.

[ Her expression turns a bit soft as she stares intensely at the camera. Solemn. A pause. ]

I hope everyone stays well. And ... take care of yourself, okay? Wherever you are.

[ A smile, albeit lacking the same mirth as her earlier one. With that, the video feed ends. ]

Comments

[arosetowar]

[This question has a simpler answer. The intensity of Lelouch's discomfort and his pain over what had happened together cast such a genuinely vulnerable cast over him that Cornelia knows he hadn't ever wanted to kill Euphy.]

I believe that if it wasn't for that accursed power misfiring as it did, you would still be alive.

[euphemia]

[ All this does is confuse her more than put to rest the mystery behind her death. This power, without actually seeing it, is baffling to think existed in their world. Yet Cornelia is convinced of its existence, so she has no choice but to believe it to be true. What did that mean for Lelouch, however? ]

Lelouch is always so careful about his plans. [ At least a little. He did give himself away when she met him as Zero. Somewhat. ] I'm not sure ... what he could have done.

What do I do?

[arosetowar]

Hindsight can make even the most well-calculated plans seem like petty nonsense.

[Another thing she understands all too well. When it comes to waging war, it's easier to hold faith in devastaing powers than it is to cripple oneself with questions that don't seem immediately relevant. Lelouch believed that he would notice the shift in his Geass, so he didn't think to take preventative measures; Cornelia believed that Schneizel had better intentions for FLEIJA, so she didn't press him for more information on his plans. For this reason, she continues not to lash out against what Lelouch has done. She doesn't hone her words in on his mistake with the brutality of missile fire. She knows how it feels to make such a severe error in judgment; she knows the folly of assumption.]

I understand that I've put you in a difficult position, but I can't tell you what to do, Euphy. It's your decision to make. What do you want to do?

[euphemia]

I don't know what to do. I didn't know what to do when Lelouch admitted it. I didn't know what to do when Suzaku spilled what he did.

[ A frown. ]

I just wanted things to go back to how they used to be. And all that happened was ... this.

[arosetowar]

It's all right if you need more time for yourself to think everything through. What happened to you... no, not just that but what happened to the world as well... it's difficult to take in all at once, yet you are doing an admirable job of moving forward regardless. [A small pause. A supportive yet distant smile.] Please let me know if there's anything I can do to make this easier on you.

[euphemia]

[ If only she knew what she needed at all. Taking it all back wasn't an option. Despondent for a moment, she remembers that she doesn't want to worry the one person who has been here for her through it all. Her head lifts as she offers a small smile in return, then reaches to try and set a hand over the top of hers. ]

All I need is you here with me. Sometimes, it feels like you're all I have left.

[arosetowar]

[Her hands had been clasped together in her lap, but she puts them both on the table, one over the other, for Euphy, whose smile is no less concerning than her despondency had been. Cornelia takes no comfort in what she's saying, either. It's far too lonely a thought for someone so effervescently friendly. But what can she say? That Euphy has her friends here? It's a poor consolation when she's hurting because she wants her brother and her knight. Addressing that is wrong as well, though; she's willing to help Euphy figure out what she wants to do, but she's not going to push her in either direction unprompted.]

[So she moves away from the topic. She dodges.]

I'll strive harder to be honest with you in the future. You should never have learned of your fate and of the fate of the world in the manner that you did.

[euphemia]

[ Her words certainly raised an interesting question. With so much aired, it made her wonder. Could the person she holds closest to her also ... ]

Sister.

You don't have any secrets you're keeping me, too. Do you?

[arosetowar]

There are matters I'd prefer not to discuss, but I'm not deliberately keeping them secret from you.

[euphemia]

[ Not the best answer. ]

Sister. Isn't that the equivalent of keeping secrets from me?

[arosetowar]

It's rather that it hadn't crossed my mind that in keeping them silent, I was being secretive.

[That isn't an argument. Cornelia's used to large-scale secrets, to malicious ones. Unspoken personal matters have always been something different to her, though, more about privacy than secrecy. Euphy is far more open, far more receptive to sharing what's on her mind. Of course she sees this differently as well.]

[euphemia]

Will you discuss it with me when you're ready?

[arosetowar]

[Pulls her hands away to rest them on the arms of her chair.]

We'll discuss it now.

[She isn't really ready -- there's a significant difference between how she's comfortable conducting herself around her knight, who doesn't simply serve her on the battlefield or by the side of her throne, and how she feels about talking with Euphy, whose burdens Cornelia is supposed to bear and not the other way around. But she knows that she's in a unique position to understand both Lelouch's actions and Euphy's grief, and she can't justify maintaining her silence. Not while Lelouch's actions still loom so heavily over Euphy's thoughts.]

Perhaps it will help you reach your decision regarding Lelouch.

[euphemia]

[ Euphemia blinks, surprised to see her come forward so quickly. It makes her somewhat skeptical of how willing she is to truly discuss it, but she doesn't say a word on it. Curiosity was high enough to allow it. That and she wanted to make sure all secrets were out once and for all. ]

What was it then? What is it you were unwilling to talk about that day?

[arosetowar]

Are you familiar with the Damocles, or with FLEIJA?

[She doesn't think that Schneizel had told Euphy, but either of the boys or even Nunnally might have.]

[euphemia]

[ Thankfully, none of that was told to her yet. ]

No, I'm afraid I don't.

[arosetowar]

Damocles was an aerial fortress from which Schneizel had planned to orchestrate a lasting world peace, and FLEIJA was the warhead through which that plan would come into fruition.

[euphemia]

[ Isn't sure how she feels about this knowing Schneizel was not brought up. Polite and kind, she didn't know too much about his work or influence. ]

I see. [ Staring. Not even sure she can picture this at all. ] Is ... dear brother Schneizel okay?

[arosetowar]

I don't know. It's been months since I last spoke with him. [Since she last saw him from more than an impersonal distance away. She suspects that Lelouch had placed a Geass on him but won't raise that point because she doesn't know for certain.]

Earlier, I told you that I'd spent a year researching Geass. What I neglected to mention was that in order to do so, I abandoned my duties to Britannia and departed from Pendragon without a word to anyone. I broke off all contact during that time. Not even Schneizel or Guilford were aware of where I'd gone or what I'd hoped to accomplish.

When I did return, the situation was chaotic. The Tokyo settlement had been destroyed and it wasn't long afterwards when Lelouch assassinated our Father and usurped the throne. Schneizel lead a splinter force of which I became a member – [Passively, she supposes now; a member by default, by lack of anywhere else to belong, of any other cause to support.] – and we relocated to Cambodia while he completed the final preparations for Damocles. I had asked him at the time what his intentions for FLEIJA were and he'd told me that he meant it to be used as a countermeasure against Lelouch. Though I wasn't confident that he was telling me everything, he had always been a moderate thinker and I chose to believe that he wouldn't launch FLEIJA without due cause.

[In hindsight, it was a foolishly sentimental belief to have made. There was nothing moderate about the Damocles, about FLEIJA, about the state of the world and the desperately violent extents to which the war had developed. She had been so out of touch with everything, though, and Schneizel had been so central to it all that his movements beat to the pace of the war's heart. What insight could she offer? So she was silent. Deferential. Everything she never used to be; everything she never should have become while the world's hatred had reached its chaotic climax.]

He used Damocles and FLEIJA to obliterate Pendragon, Euphy. Our own people, massacred as some manner of statement against Lelouch. When I confronted him about it, he revealed the full extent of his plan: Schneizel had intended to rule over the entire world from Damocles as though he were a god, doling out punishment through FLEIJA should one party ever raise arms against another.

[Maybe she should sound angry here. Bitter and resentful and cruel. Instead, she only comes across as being tired and ashamed. She could have stopped this. Should have. But just like with the SAZ, she sat indifferent in the sidelines while tragedy struck.]

However, by his standards, Pendragon was an inadequate sacrifice. The first stage of his plan would have seen him launching FLEIJAs against the entire world. An excess of one billion people would have been killed in that first series of strikes alone.

I couldn't stand by and allow for that to happen so I drew my weapon against him, and in response he activated a hidden turret. That is how I was injured.

[euphemia]

[ Euphemia listened as her sister explained her reasons behind her own hesitation to speak. A reason that soon became clear as she went on to detail the events that happened afterwards. The research of Geass, the destruction of Tokyo, and Schneizel's schemed plans for Damocles and this FLEIJA.

Perhaps it was due to Lelouch's blurting and Suzaku's confession that sort of dulled the shock of hearing most of this. Not significantly, but enough to keep her composed enough to hear everything. Hearing there was further feuding between her family members was starting to feel like a norm now. But between the two of them? The people she assumed to be in the most control of everything?

Her expression shifted between surprise, then worry, and finally fear. That their own brother would think to fire at Sister? How could he? Why? Was this also another circumstance where she had to forgive him?

And then there was Cornelia. She stood to fight against his methods but was ultimately taken down.

Silence. Only silence. How can she believe there is peace now? It didn't sound like it. Not by a long-shot. ]

... How could he? [ It made her eyes well up with tears, but nothing more. She loved Schnezeil as she did Cornelia. Yet to hear this. ] Why? Why is there so much fighting?

[arosetowar]

Nobody truly wanted the fighting to stop. [Not their father. Not Lelouch. Not the heads of enemy states. Not Cornelia herself.] We claimed to rally in the name of peace yet favoured victory, and conquest, and the power to shape the world according to our own beliefs. A war of such nature... it can't end except through desperate measures.

Schneizel realised that before anyone else and took the only course he saw towards lasting peace.

[euphemia]

[ Silence. What can she even say to all of that? It only proved that the world really did go mad after she died. A part of her even wonders if her moves to try SAZ triggered it. That was far too big an assumption to make, but... ]

Did I do all this? Did my idea... spark this?

[arosetowar]

The world had been building towards this point ever since you were a little girl, and it would have continued down the same path regardless of your plan. There was simply too much hatred existing between factions to be expelled through hope. Please don't believe otherwise.

[euphemia]

[ A nod is given slowly. It was better to not put blame on herself, even if a quiet voice said otherwise. ]

The fighting stopped at least, yes? And there is peace?

[arosetowar]

That's a question better suited for Nunnally. She is from a later point in time than I am and has experienced the peace; I, however, know little of what transpires beyond the end of Lelouch's reign.